3
GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES IN ENGLISH:
MEANING IN CONTEXT
Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova
CONTENTS
PREFACE .................................................................................................................................. 6
PART ONE – FROM SENTENCE GRAMMAR TO DISCOURSE AWARE GRAMMAR ........................ 7
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 7
2. Varieties of English ............................................................................................................ 8
3. Functions of language ...................................................................................................... 15
4. Choices in the semantic representation of sentences ........................................................ 21
5. Linking and grammatical cohesion ................................................................................... 31
6. Information processing. Topic and focus ......................................................................... 46
7. Formal and informal language .......................................................................................... 54
8. Polite and familiar language ............................................................................................. 61
9. Personal and impersonal language .................................................................................... 65
10. Spoken and written language .......................................................................................... 68
PART TWO – ANALYSING SENTENCE STRUCTURE ................................................................. 78
11. Information, reality and belief......................................................................................... 78
11.1 Giving and requesting information. Representing information .................................... 78
11.2 Expressing attitude and opinion.................................................................................... 82
12. Mood, emotion and attitude ........................................................................................... 86
12.1 Expressing feelings and emotions ................................................................................ 86
12.2 Friendly communications and influencing people ....................................................... 90
13. Meaning in connected discourse .................................................................................... 94
13.1 Linking signals and constructions ................................................................................ 94
13.2 Reference, substitution and omission ........................................................................... 99
14. Information processing ................................................................................................. 103
14.1 Presenting and focusing information .......................................................................... 103
14.2 Word order and emphasis 1 ........................................................................................ 106
14.3 Word order and emphasis 2 ........................................................................................ 109
4
15. Varieties of English ...................................................................................................... 113
15.1 Status of participants .................................................................................................. 113
15.2 Medium and place ...................................................................................................... 117
PART THREE – PRACTICING SENTENCE STRUCTURE ............................................................ 121
16. Clauses with hypothetical meaning .............................................................................. 121
17. Fronting ........................................................................................................................ 124
17.1 Fronting without inversion ......................................................................................... 124
17.2 Fronting with inversion .............................................................................................. 125
17.2.1 Fronting with subject – verb inversion .................................................................... 125
17.2.2 Fronting with subject – operator inversion ............................................................. 126
18. Postponement ............................................................................................................... 128
18.1 Passive voice .............................................................................................................. 128
18.2 Extraposition of clausal subject .................................................................................. 129
18.3 Extraposition of clausal object ................................................................................... 132
18.4 Postponement of the object ........................................................................................ 133
18.5 Other discontinuities .................................................................................................. 133
19. Cleft sentences .............................................................................................................. 135
19.1 Cleft sentences proper ................................................................................................ 135
19.2 Pseudo-cleft sentences ................................................................................................ 136
20. Existential sentences .................................................................................................... 139
GLOSSARY OF LINGUISTIC TERMS ....................................................................................... 141
ENGLISH-CZECH DICTIONARY OF LINGUISTIC TERMS ......................................................... 154
ANSWERS TO PART THREE ...................................................................................................160
BIBLIOGRAPHY .....................................................................................................................166