This function is most common with nouns introduced by prepositions.

They met before the war (adverbial modifier of time); He sat down in the great hall beside a model of Stephenson’s ‘Rocket’ (adverbial modifier of place); I recall it with pleasure (adverbial modifier of manner); It fits him like a glove (adverbial modifier of comparison); He got up and came towards them with his hands out (adverbial modifier of attending circumstances); She was trembling with fear (adverbial modifier of cause); I had lived for social service (adverbial modifier of purpose); In case of your absence I’ll leave you a note (adverbial modifier of condition); With all her faults he still liked her (adverbial modifier of concession).

1.13. Adjectives

Adjectives are the most important class of words that modify nouns. Most adjectives assign some quality to the noun: heavy, useful, bold, narrow, clever. Such qualities may be present in greater or lesser degree, and therefore nouns that possess them can be compared. In describing the process of comparison we speak of the positive degree, the comparative degree, and the superlative degree.

Most adjectives can take comparative and superlative forms. Regular comparison may be expressed by adding the suffixes - er, -est to the adjective (e.g. loud - louder - loudest; happy -happier - happiest) and by placing more and most before the adjective (e.g. timid - more timid - most timid; interesting -more interesting - most interesting).

The forms with suffixes are called synthetical and the forms with more and most, which are auxiliaries, are called analytical.

A few commonly used adjectives have irregular forms of comparison: good - better - best; bad - worse - worst, etc.

The major syntactical functions of adjectives are those of an attribute (1) and a predicative (2).

(1) Do you see the small green boat, which has an odd shape?

(2) I feel awful this morning.

 

1.14. Pronouns

 

The pronoun is a part of speech including words with a very general or relative meaning. Pronouns, as the name implies, can stand for nouns, i.e. function as a whole noun phrase (in being subject or object of a sentence) or as the head of a noun phrase (e.g. we all; everyone in our class). Many of them act as substitutes: representers (1) and replacers for co-referential noun phrases in the context (2).

(1) When the children entered each (child) was given a present; I broke the coffee-pot, so we have to buy another (coffee-pot).

(2) Mr Smith went home because he was tired; Some of the equipment has been damaged, but none has been lost; The fault is mine.

Some pronouns can function as determiners.

I had no time; She saw him every day; Take out your workbooks.

Quite a number of pronouns can act both as determiners (a) and substitutes (b).

(a) Which car	is yours?	(a) This bike is mine.
(b) Which	(b) This is my bike.

Other pronouns can be substitutes only.

John has hurt himself; We don’t actually dislike one another.

In accordance with grammatical tradition, pronouns are treated under the following headings:

personal – I, us, him, them, etc;

possessive – my, yours, hers, their, etc;

reflexive – myself, herself, themselves, etc;

reciprocal – each other, one another;

demonstrative – this, that, these, those, such, same;

interrogative – who, what, whose, which;

conjunctive – who, whom, whose, what, which, that;

indefinite – some, any, every, and their compounds in: -body, -one, -thing; all, each, either, neither, both, other, another, none.

 

1.15. Case

 

Personal pronouns and the pronoun WHO functioning as interrogative, conjunctive or relative have two cases: the nominative and the objective.

Nom.	-	I	we	he	she	it	they	who
Obj.	-	me	us	him	her	it	them	whom

Like nouns, the Indefinite pronouns ending in - one, -body and the pronouns each other, one another distinguish in case between the nominative (e.g. somebody, each other) and the genitive (e.g. somebody’s, each other’s).

 

1.16. Number

 

Number is a feature of personal (e.g. I - we), reflexive (e.g. myself - ourselves), demonstrative this and that ( these, those ), and indefinite other ( others ) pronouns.

 

1.17. Personal pronouns

 

Personal pronouns function as replacers for co-referential noun phrases in preceding clauses:

John waited a while but eventually he went home.

Personal pronouns distinguish between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons. They have two sets of forms: nominative (e.g. he, she) and objective (e.g. him, her) cases; two numbers: singular (e.g. I, it) and plural (e.g. we, they). Gender applies only to the forms of the 3^rd person singular: he - masculine, she - feminine, it - neuter.

 

1.18. Possessive pronouns

 

Possessive pronouns combine the function of determiners with those of substitutes. There are two series of forms of possessive pronouns. The forms which are syntactically attributes are called conjoint: my, your, etc. In the noun phrase they are used as determiners: my table, your answer. To the other series belong such forms as mine, yours, which are used as replacers:

The table is mine (This is my table);

His answer is better than hers (her answer);

Like personal pronouns, possessive pronouns have number (e.g. my - our) and gender (his, her, its) distinctions.

 

1.19. Reflexive pronouns

 

Reflexive pronouns replace a co-referential noun phrase, normally within the same sentence.

John hurt himself; She looked at herself in the mirror.

The reflexive pronouns also have an emphatic use, where they follow a noun phrase or another pronoun, and reinforce their meaning:

I spoke to the manager himself; She herself said it.

Number and gender affect reflexive pronouns in the way they affect possessive pronouns.

The indefinite pronoun one has its own reflexive as in ‘One mustn’t fool oneself.

 

1.20. Reciprocal pronouns

 

Each other and one another are reciprocal pronouns. Their functions are somewhat similar to reflexive pronouns.

They greeted each other;

The four children are fond of one another.

The reciprocal pronouns inflect for the genitive: The students borrowed each other’s notes.

 

1.21. Demonstrative pronouns

 

The demonstrative pronouns can function both as determiners (1) and substitutes (2).

(1) I don’t like this sort of music: We had such fun.

(2) This costs more than that; Give me the same again, please.

The demonstratives this and that have number distinctions. Their plural forms are these and those respectively.

 

 

1.22. Interrogative pronouns

 

Interrogative pronouns are who, what, whose, which. They are used to introduce special questions, the so-called WH -questions.

In the noun phrase, the interrogatives what, which, whose can act as determiners (1) and substitutes (2).

(1) What writers do you like?; Which pen would you like?; Whose car is that outside?

(2) What happened?; Which would you like - fish or meat?; Whose is that?

Who can only be a substitute.

Who is your favourite composer?

Like personal pronouns, who distinguishes in case between the nominative ( who ) and the objective ( whom ).

Who told you that?

Whom did you tell that?

Whom is not often used in informal English; it is usually replaced by who.

Who did they arrest? (informal)

Who are you going with? (informal)

Whom is preferred in a more formal style, and it is necessary after a preposition.

Whom are you going with? (semi-formal)

With whom are you going? (very formal)

Who won - Smith or Fitzgibbon?

Which and what can both be used with nouns to ask questions about people and things. But in meaning, what differs from which with respect to definiteness. What has indefinite reference, i.e. it implies that the choice is made from an indefinite number of objects, not previously specified.

What parents would you like to have?

Which has definite reference, i.e. it implies a choice from a limited number of objects.

Which colour do you like best - green, red or yellow?;

Which parent is more important in the first years of life?

 

1.23. Conjunctive pronouns

 

The pronouns who, whom, what, whose, which, homonymous with interrogative pronouns, are used to introduce the so-called noun clauses, such as subject, predicative and object clauses. They are known as conjunctive pronouns.

Who was to blame is not clear (subject clause); That’s what always happens in a case like that (predicative clause); He couldn’t decide what is best (object clause).

Conjunctive pronouns combine a demonstrative meaning with that of a conjunction. In the clauses they introduce they function as subject (1), predicative (2), object (3) or attribute (4).

(1) The problem is not who will go, but who will stay;

(2) May I ask what the price is?

(3) No one knew on whom that heavy responsibility would fall;

(4) She couldn’t remember which shelf she kept it on.

 

1.24. Relative pronouns

 

The pronouns that, which, who, whom, whose make up a special group of conjunctive, known as relative. They are called so because they serve to introduce relative clauses, which are a variety of attributive clauses. The relative clause is always correlated with some antecedent, i.e. a noun or its substitute which is identified or modified by the clause.

We cut down the tree that blocked the view;

Anyone who bets on horses deserves to lose money;

That’s the girl whom Paul is planning to marry;

They gave me a leaflet, which I dropped in the nearest rubbish bin;

When I looked through the window I saw a girl whose beauty took my breath away.

If relative pronouns function as subject they do not drop. Used in the function other than subject they can drop in certain contexts.

He’s a man (that) people like at first sight (object);

I admired the way (in which) you answered his questions (adverbial modifier).

Who and whom are used only of persons (1); which is used only of things (2); and WHOSE may be used of either (3).

(1) a student who sat near the window; a man whom I had seen before;

(2) a book which costs a lot;

(3a) He is the man whose son called yesterday;

(3b) It was a meeting whose importance I did not realize at the time.

The relative pronoun that may refer either to persons or things, though many writers prefer not to use it for persons:

the man thattold me the address;

the book that I like best.

That can not be preceded by a preposition.

This is the book that I was asking about; but not:

*This is the book about that I was asking.

 

 

1.25. Indefinite pronouns

 

The indefinite pronouns comprise all, each, either, neither, other, another, both, none; some, any, every, no and their compounds in - body, -one, -thing; several, (a) few, (a) little, many, much.

In the noun phrase some indefinite pronouns (like each, some, both, several ) can function as determiners and substitutes. Compare:

Some people learn languages easily.

Some like tea, some like coffee.

This model comes in several colours.

Several were found dead.

The pronouns every and no function only as determiners.

Every player was on top form; He made no reply.

Of the pronouns which are determiners some (like all ) can function as predeterminers (1), others (like many ) can be used as postdeterminers (2), yet others occur in the article position (3).

(1) She’s eaten all the biscuits; You can’t have it for both these reasons; She spends half her time travelling.

(2) His many friends never deserted him; We went our several ways; The little money I’ve saved won't last us long.

(3) Every good teacher must study his subject carefully; It’s no easy matter.

Like nouns, the pronoun one and the compounds in - body, and - one inflect for the genitive: one’s, everyone’s, nobody’s.

When other refers to plural countable nouns, it assumes the plural form others:

Have you got any others? (apples); Two students are ill and where are the others?

 

1.26. Adverbs

 

Adverbs are words that modify qualities (e.g. deeply anxious, very heavily) and processes (e.g. married recently, laughed gaily).

Semantically, adverbs are subdivided into adverbs of time (e.g. still, just, yet), place (e.g. down, outwards), manner (e.g. rather, too), cause (e.g. why, therefore) and concession (e.g. however, nevertheless, yet).

The most common characteristic of the adverb is morphological: most adverbs are formed from adjectives with the suffix - ly: frank - frankly, happy - happily, etc.

Most adverbs of manner and a few adverbs of time and place can take comparative and superlative forms, which are made with more and most (more lovely, most lovely). But such monosyllabic adverbs as soon, late, hard, near, often form degrees of comparison synthetically. (However more often and most often are more common).

She was the one who was being hurt most deeply.

You’ll have to do it sooner or later.

As with adjectives, there is a small group with comparatives and superlatives formed from different stems, i.e. suppletively: e.g. well - better - best; badly - worse - worst.

Syntactically, adverbs function in the sentence as adverbial modifiers.

He has arrived already (adverbial modifier of time);

Upstairs the children were running around (adverbial modifier of place);

He spoke confidentially (adverbial modifier of manner).

 

1.27. Verbs

 

Verbs express actions and states.

Morphologically, verbs are divided into regular (such as call) and irregular (such as drink). According to their function, all verbs may be classified as notional, i.e. verbs which have a full lexical meaning (e.g. ask, write, bark), and auxiliary, i.e. ‘helping verbs’ which are necessary for analytical forms (e.g. be, do, have).

The verbs have person, number, tense, aspect, voice and mood distinctions.

There are three persons (1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd) and two numbers (singular and plural). The only inflection of person and number is - s which is used in the 3^rd person singular of the present tense:

He/she/it (the boy/ the girl/ the cat) likes milk.

Modern English has three primary tenses: present (play, blow, etc), past (e.g. played, blew) and future (e.g. shall play, will blow). Perfect forms (e.g. have played, had blown), distinct from the present, past and future, are called secondary tenses. They are used for an event which is seen in relation to a later event or time:

He has been in prison for ten years (= He is still there).

Aspect concerns the manner in which a verbal action is experienced or regarded: as a fact - the common aspect (e.g. study, drive) or in progress - the continuous aspect (e.g. is studying, were driving).

There are two voices: active (e.g. kill, see) and passive (e.g. is killed, will be seen), and three moods: indicative (e.g. kills, looked), imperative (e.g. kill, look), subjunctive (e.g. should kill, looked).

Verb forms may be finite and non-finite. Finite forms have tense (present, past and future) and mood distinctions. Non-finite forms of the verb are the infinitive (e.g. to call, to leave), the present participle (e.g. calling, leaving), the past participle (e.g. called, left), and the gerund (e.g. calling, leaving). They do not inflect for primary tenses and moods.

Syntactically, finite forms are predicates in the sentence whereas non-finite forms occur only as part of the predicate or function as nominal elements.

1.28. Numerals

 

Numerals or numbers can be cardinal (e.g. one, two) and ordinal (e.g. first, second). Both types can function as substitutes (e.g. There are ten on the list, so you are the eleventh) or as determiners (e.g. They have two children already, so this will be their third child).

 

1.29. Prepositions

 

Prepositions are form words which, as their name implies, are placed before a noun phrase (in the office, to him, before answering, etc).

In the most general terms, a preposition expresses a relation between two notions with at least one denoted by a noun or its equivalent. Of the various types of relational meaning, those of place (e.g. in, on, at), time (e.g. during, before, till), instrument (by, with, without) and cause (e.g. because of) are the most prominent and easy to identify. Other prepositional meanings are difficult to describe systematically in terms of such labels.

Most of the common English prepositions, such as at, in and for, are simple, i.e. consist of one word. Other prepositions, consisting of more than one word are called complex (e.g. along with, away from, owing to, by means of).

 

1.30. Conjunctions

 

Conjunctions are form words that serve to connect words or phrases, as well as clauses or sentences.

Conjunctions may be simple (e.g. and, but, while, because, however), complex (e.g. in order that, in case, as soon as) and correlative, i.e. used in pairs (e.g. both... and, either... or, no sooner... than, as... as).

The connection between words, phrases, and clauses is brought about either by way of coordination or by way of subordination. Accordingly, conjunctions are classified as coordinating conjunctions or coordinators and subordinating conjunctions or subordinators.

Coordinators connect words, phrases, and clauses that are independent of each other. Coordinators may be subdivided into four subgroups:

(i) copulative conjunctions which denote that one statement or fact is simply added to another: and, nor, neither, as well as, both... and, not only... but (also), neither... nor;

(ii) disjunctive conjunctions which offer some choice between one statement or another: or, either... or, or else;

(iii) adversative conjunctions which show that one statement or fact is contrasted with or set against another: but, still, yet, while, whereas;

(iv) causative - consecutive conjunctions which denote consequence, result, or reason: for, hence, so.

The conjunction for is a borderline case between a coordinator and subordinator. There are three common correlative coordinators: either... or, where either anticipates the alternative introduced by or; both... and, where both anticipates the addition introduced by and; and neither... nor, where neither negates the first clause and anticipates the additional negation introduced by nor.

Subordinators introduce subordinate clauses: after, (al)though, as, because, if, since, that, until, when, where, so that, in order that, so far as, as if, as though, in case, etc.

There is a small group of correlative subordinators, i.e. combinations of two markers, one (a conjunction) occurring in the subordinate clause and the other (normally an adverb) occurring in the main clause: as... as, so... as, such... as, no sooner... than, hardly... when, the... the and the like.

We’d hardly left the house when it began to rain;

The more he heard the less he spoke.

There are items which are called borderline subordinators: (a) combinations of a subordinator with a preceding or following particle: just as, if only; (b) participle forms: supposing (=if), seeing, given (=on condition, if), providing/provided (=on condition that):

Supposing he refuses to speak to me?; I’ll do it providing they pay me.

Many of subordinators introduce different kinds of clauses. That may introduce subject clauses (1), predicative clauses (2), object clauses (3), adverbial clauses (4), and attributive clauses (5).

(1) That we need more equipment is obvious;

(2) The point is that we're leaving;

(3) I know that she is pretty;

(4) John visited London that he could see his uncle;

(5) His wife tried to conceal the fact that he was seriously ill.

The conjunction if introduces object clauses (1) and adverbial clauses of condition (2).

(1) Do you know if the shop is open?;

(2) If you treat her kindly, she’ll do anything for you.

The subordinators as if, as though, when, if, etc may be occasionally used in simple sentences which go back to complex sentences with a subordinate clause ellipted:

Although told to stop, he kept on working;

When in difficulty, consult the manual.

 

1.31. Particles

 

Particles are form words which emphasise, restrict or make negative the meaning of separate words, phrases or sentences.

According to the purpose they serve, particles can be subclassified into the following groups:

(1) limiting: only, merely, but, etc;

(2) intensifying: simply, just, even, still, yet, the;

(3) connecting: also, too;

(4) negative: not, never.

They brought their own children too; The robbers stole everything but the typewriter; It will be all the easier to deceive him now; She’s never been heard of since.

 

1.32. Modal words

 

Modal words express the attitude of the speaker to the reality, possibility or probability of the events he is speaking about.

Semantically, modal words may be subdivided into the following groups:

(1) modal words expressing certainty: certainly, surely, of course, no doubt, naturally, really, in fact;

(2) modal words expressing supposition: perhaps, maybe, possibly, evidently, obviously, etc;

(3) modal words expressing (un)desirability: ( un)luckily, (un)fortunately, happily, etc.

Modal words have no syntactical function in the sentence. They are used as independent (parenthetical) elements. Occasionally they are marked off by commas.

I really want to talk to you; Fortunately, the men were genuine patriots and did not betray me.

Some modal words may be used as sentence words.

Is the whole family agreeable? - Certainly. Are you glad? - Yes, indeed.

 

1.33. Interjections

 

Interjections are words whose only function is to express emotion. Some interjections have imperative meaning.

Emotional interjections express the feeling of the speaker: oh [ou] (surprise), ah [R] (satisfaction), aha [q'hR] (recognition), wow [wau] (great surprise), yippee ['jipJ] (excitement, delight), ouch [auC], ow [au] (pain), ugh [Ah] (disgust), ооh [H] (pleasure, pain), well (surprise), Why! (surprise), alas [q'lxs] (sorrow), etc.

Ah, that’s just what I wanted; Ugh, what a mess!

Imperative interjections express the will of the speaker or his order or appeal to the hearer: hey (call for attention); here (protest); hush (call for silence); Eh? [ei] (impolite request for repetition); come now (reproof cf. Russian Полно-те! /Да что Вы! ); now (then) (used at the beginning of a sentence, often as a protest or warning, or simply to call attention); never mind (encouragement), etc.

Here! I’ve had enough of that; Come, come! You don’t expect me to believe it; Now then what’s wrong?

Interjections are used either as sentence words or parenthetically.

 

1.34. Grammatical homonyms

 

There are many homonymous elements in the parts of speech system. Some prepositions are homonymous with adverbs and conjunctions. For instance, the prepositions after, before, since are identical with the adverbs after, before, since, and conjunctions after, before, since.

We met after supper (preposition); What comes after? (adverb); We ate after I arrived (conjunction).

They were married before the war (preposition); It had been fine the day before (adverb); Do it now before you forget (conjunction).

Since last seeing you I have been ill (preposition); He has lived here ever since (adverb); Where have you been since I last saw you? (conjunction).

The conjunction until is homonymous with the preposition until:

I stayed in until he phoned (conjunction); I can’t come until Saturday (preposition).

The subordinator while (which is translated into Russian as в то время как; пока) is homonymous with the coordinator while (which is translated into Russian as тогда как; а):

While they were skating along, they heard the cars coming close behind them (subordinator);

His nerves had become numb, while (= and, but) his mind was filled with visions (coordinator).

Grammatical homonyms may be found among modal words and adverbs since many modal words were derived from adverbs: happily, fortunately, certainly, surely, really, etc.

Soames smiled. Certainly, uncle Jolyon had a way with him (modal word); He said it pompously, and yet quite certainly (adverb).

I am truly happy for you (modal word); Tell me truly (adverb).

A number of particles have homonyms among other parts of speech.

It rained yet harder (particle); Has your brother arrived yet? (adverb); He saw approaching a lanky yet erect young man of his own age (conjunction).

A great number of interjections are homonyms with the notional words they are derived from: well, now, here, there, come, etc.

Part two

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