Prepositions
Prepositions form a closed word class, although there are also certain
phrases that serve as prepositions, such as in front of. A single preposition
may have a variety of meanings, often including temporal, spatial and abstract.
Many words that are prepositions can also serve as adverbs. Examples of common
English prepositions (including phrasal instances) are of, in, on, over, under,
to,from, with, in front of, behind, opposite, by, before, after, during,
through, in spite of or despite, between, among, etc.
A preposition is usually used with a noun phrase as its complement. A
preposition together with its complement is called aprepositional phrase.
Examples are in England, under the table, after six pleasant weeks, between the
land and the sea. A prepositional phrase can be used as a
complement or post-modifier of a noun in a noun phrase, as in the man in
the car, the start of the fight; as a complement of a verb or adjective, as in
deal with the problem, proud of oneself; or generally as an adverb phrase (see
above).
English allows the use of "stranded" prepositions. This can
occur in interrogative and relative clauses, where the interrogative or
relative pronoun that is the preposition's complement is moved to the start (fronted),
leaving the preposition in place. This kind of structure is avoided in some
kinds of formal English. For example:
What are
you talking about? (Possible alternative version: About what are you talking?)
The song that you were listening to ... (more formal: The song to which
you were listening ...)
Notice that in the second example
the relative pronoun that could be omitted.
Stranded prepositions can also arise in passive voice constructions and
other uses of passive past participial phrases, where the complement in a
prepositional phrase can become zero in the same way that a verb's direct
object would: it was looked at; I will be operated on; get your teeth seen to.
The same can happen in certain uses of infinitive phrases: he is nice to talk
to; this is the page to make copies of.
Conjunctions
Conjunctions express a variety of logical relations between items,
phrases, clauses and sentences.[19] The principal coordinating conjunctions in
English are and, or, and but, as well as nor, so, yet and for. These can be
used in many grammatical contexts to link two or more items of equal
grammatical status,[19] for example:
Noun phrases combined into a longer noun phrase, such as John, Eric, and
Jill, the red coat or the blue one. When and is used, the resulting noun phrase
is plural. A determiner does not need to be repeated with the individual
elements: the cat, the dog, and the mouse and the cat, dog, and mouse are both
correct. The same applies to other modifiers. (The word but can be used here in
the sense of "except": nobody but you.)
Adjective or adverb phrases combined into a longer adjective or adverb
phrase: tired but happy, over the fields and far away.
Verbs or verb phrases combined as in he washed, peeled, and diced the
turnips (verbs conjoined, object shared); he washed the turnips, peeled them,
and diced them (full verb phrases, including objects, conjoined).
Other equivalent items linked, such as prefixes linked in pre- and
post-test counselling,[20] numerals as in two or three buildings, etc.
Clauses or sentences linked, as in We came but they wouldn't let us in.
They wouldn't let us in, nor would they explain what we had done wrong.
There are also correlative conjunctions, where as well as the basic
conjunction, an additional element appears before the first of the items being
linked. The common correlatives in English are:
either
... or (either a man or a woman);
neither
... nor (neither clever nor funny);
both ...
and (they both punished and rewarded them);
not ... but, particularly in not only ... but also (not exhausted but
exhilarated, not only football but also many other sports).
Subordinating conjunctions make relations between clauses, making the
clause in which they appear into a subordinate clause. Some common
subordinating conjunctions in English are:
conjunctions
of time, including after, before, since, until, when, while;
conjunctions
of cause and effect, including because, since, now that, as, in order that, so;
conjunctions of opposition or concession, such as although, though, even
though, whereas, while;
conjunctions of condition: such as if, unless, only if, whether or not,
even if, in case (that);
the conjunction that, which produces content clauses, as well as words
that produce interrogative content clauses: whether,where, when, how, etc.
A subordinating conjunction generally comes at the very start of its
clause, although many of them can be preceded by qualifying adverbs, as in
probably because ..., especially if .... The
conjunction that can be omitted after certain verbs, as in she told us
(that) she was ready. (For the use of that in relative clauses, see Relative
pronouns above.)
Negation
As noted above under Verbs, a finite indicative verb (or its clause) is
negated by placing the word not after an auxiliary, modal or other
"special" verb such as do, can or be. For example, the clause I go is
negated with the appearance of the auxiliary do, as I do not go(see
do-support). When the affirmative already uses auxiliary verbs (I am going), no
other auxiliary verbs are
added to negate the clause (I am not going). (Until the period of early
Modern English, negation was effected without additional auxiliary verbs: I go
not.)
Most combinations of auxiliary verbs etc. with not have contracted
forms: don't, can't, isn't, etc. (Also the uncontracted negated form of can is
written as a single word cannot.) On inversion of subject and verb (such as in
questions; see below), the subject may be placed after a contracted negated
form: Should he not pay? or Shouldn't he pay?
Other elements, such as noun phrases, adjectives, adverbs, infinitive
and participial phrases, etc., can be negated by placing the word not before
them: not the right answer, not interesting, not to enter, not noticing the
train, etc.
When other negating words such as never, nobody, etc. appear in a
sentence, the negating not is omitted (unlike its equivalents in many
languages): I saw nothing or I didn't see anything, but not (except in
non-standard speech) *I didn't see nothing (see Double negative). Such negating
words generally have corresponding negative polarity items (ever for never,
anybody for nobody, etc.) which can appear in a negative context, but are not
negative themselves (and can thus be used after a negation without giving rise
to double negatives).
Clause and sentence structure
A typical sentence contains one independent clause and possibly one or
more dependent clauses, although it is also possible to link together sentences
of this form into longer sentences, using coordinating conjunctions (see
above).
A clause typically contains a subject (a noun phrase) and a predicate (a
verb phrase in the terminology used above; that is, a verb together with its
objects and complements). A dependent clause also normally contains a
subordinating conjunction (or in the case of relative clauses, a relative
pronoun or phrase containing one). English syntax is essentially of SVO
(subject–verb– object) type; the verb precedes its object in the verb phrase,
and the subject of the clause precedes the verb.
Questions
Like many other Western European languages, English historically allowed
questions to be formed by inverting the positions of verb and subject. Modern
English permits this only in the case of a small class of verbs ("special
verbs"), consisting of auxiliaries as well as forms of the copula be (see
subject–auxiliary inversion). To form a question from a sentence which does not
have such an auxiliary or copula present, the auxiliary verb do (does, did)
needs to be inserted, along with inversion of the word order, to form a
question (see do-support). For example:
She can
dance. → Can she dance? (inversion of subject she and auxiliary can)
I am
sitting here. → Am I sitting here? (inversion of subject I and copula am)
The milk goes in the fridge. → Does the milk go in the fridge? (no
special verb present; do-support required)
The above concerns yes-no questions, but inversion also takes place in
the same way after other questions, formed with interrogative words such as
where, what, how, etc. An exception applies when the interrogative word is the
subject or part of the subject, in which case there is no inversion. For
example:
I go. → Where do I go? (wh-question formed using inversion, with
do-support required in this case)
He goes.
→ Who goes? (no inversion, because the question word who is the subject)
Note that inversion does not apply in indirect questions: I wonder where
he is (not *... where is he). Indirect yes-no questions can be expressed using
if or whether as the interrogative word: Ask them whether/if they saw him.
Negative questions are formed similarly; however if the verb undergoing
inversion has a contraction with not, then it is possible to invert the subject
with this contraction as a whole. For example:
John is
going. (affirmative)
John is
not going. / John isn't going. (negative, with and without contraction)
Is John
not going? / Isn't John going? (negative question, with and without
contraction)
See also English auxiliaries and
contractions: Contractions and inversion.
Dependent clauses
The syntax of a dependent clause is generally the same as that of an
independent clause, except that the dependent clause usually begins with a
subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun (or phrase containing such). In
some situations (as already described) the conjunction or relative pronoun that
can be omitted. Another type of dependent clause with no subordinating
conjunction is the conditional clause formed by inversion (see below).
Other uses of inversion
The clause structure with inverted subject and verb, used to form
questions as described above, is also used in certain types of declarative
sentence. This occurs mainly when the sentence begins with an adverbial or
other phrase that is essentially negative or contains words such as only,
hardly, etc.: Never have I known someone so stupid; Only in France can such
food be tasted.
In elliptical sentences (see below), inversion takes place after so
(meaning "also") as well as after the negative neither: so do I,
neither does she.
Inversion can also be used to form conditional clauses, beginning with
should, were (subjunctive), or had, in the following ways:
should I
win the race (equivalent to if I win the race);
were he a
soldier (equivalent to if he were a soldier);
were he
to win the race (equivalent to if he were to win the race, i.e. if he won the
race);
had he
won the race (equivalent to if he had won the race).
Other similar forms sometimes appear, but are less common. There is also
a construction with subjunctive be, as in be he alive or dead (meaning "no
matter whether he is alive or dead").
Use of inversion to express a third-person imperative is now mostly
confined to the expression long live X, meaning "let X live long".
Imperatives
In an imperative sentence (one giving an order), there is usually no
subject in the independent clause: Go away until I call you. It is possible,
however, to include you as the subject for emphasis: You stay away from me.
Elliptical constructions
Many types of elliptical construction are possible in English, resulting
in sentences that omit certain redundant elements. Various examples are given
in the article on Ellipsis.
Some notable elliptical forms
found in English include:
Short statements of the form I can, he isn't, we mustn't. Here the verb
phrase (understood from the context) is reduced to a single auxiliary or other
"special" verb, negated if appropriate. If there is no special verb
in the original verb phrase, it is replaced bydo/does/did: he does, they
didn't.
Clauses that omit the verb, in particular those like me too, nor me, me
neither. The latter forms are used after negative statements. (Equivalents
including the verb: I do too or so do I; I don't either or neither do I.)
Tag questions, formed with a special verb and pronoun subject: isn't
it?; were there?; am I not?
