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The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar SECOND EDITION BAS AARTS SYLVIA CHALKER EDMUND WEINER Bas Aarts is Professor of English Linguistics at University College London. He has published many books and articles on English grammar, most recently the Oxford Modern English Grammar. The late Sylvia Chalker was the author of several grammar books, including Current English Grammar and the Little Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar. She was also a contributor to the Oxford Companion to the English Language. Edmund Weiner is Deputy Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary and co-author (with Andrew Delahunty) of the Oxford Guide to English Usage. A This is a web-linked dictionary. There is a list of recommended web links in the Appendix, on page 454. To access the websites, go to the dictionary’s web page at www.oup.com/uk/reference/ resources/englishgrammar, click on Web links in the Resources section, and click straight through to the relevant websites. www.ebook3000.com 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Original material: # Sylvia Chalker and Edmund Weiner 1994 New and revised material: # Oxford University Press 2014 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First edition published 1994 First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback 1994 Reissued, with corrections, in new covers 1998 Second edition published 2014 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available ISBN: 978–0–19–965823–7 Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. www.ebook3000.com Contents Preface to the First Edition v Preface to the Second Edition vi Organization vii Notational Conventions ix Abbreviations x Dictionary 1 References 448 Useful Web Links 454 www.ebook3000.com www.ebook3000.com Preface to the First Edition Grammar, etymologically speaking, is related to glamour. Though few people might claim that grammar is glamorous in the modern sense, there is considerable interest in English grammar today and no shortage of grammar books, ranging from small basic books aimed at children or elementary-level foreign learners, through more advanced manuals to large scholarly works. The trouble is—they may be about the same language, but they do not always speak the same language. The very range of the grammar books on offer presents problems. There are many ways of describing grammar, and a wealth of terminology. Some of it strikes the layman as jargon (disjunct, matrix, pro-form, stative); other words appear ordinary enough but conceal specialized meanings (comment, focus, specific). Worse, the same terms, old or new—comparison, formal, pronoun, reported speech, root, stress—are used by different grammarians with different meanings. Such difficulties are not entirely avoidable. Any subject of study needs specialist words. Different grammarians are entitled to analyse language in different ways, and fresh viewpoints may call for new terms. But while grammarians sometimes explain what they mean by a new or unusual term, it is rarer for them to point out that they are using an existing term in a different way. This is a cause of real confusion. Another problem is that new terms may in the end turn out simply to be alternatives for an old concept—a synonym in fact (e.g. progressive, continuous). We have tried in this dictionary to indicate the range and variety of meanings that may lie behind a single term. The main emphasis is on the terminology of current mainstream grammar, but we have also included a considerable number of entries on the related areas of speech and meaning—more grandly known as phonetics and semantics. Users will also find some terms from Generative Grammar, which has greatly influenced mainstream grammar in recent years—but some of the more theoretical terminology of linguistics and semantics is excluded. We have also on the whole excluded outdated grammatical terminology, apart from a few traditional terms which may be familiar to the general reader. The authors would like to thank Professor Flor Aarts, of the Katholieke Universiteit, Nijmegen, who read an early draft of the book: his comments, we believe, have led to many improvements, but the authors are alone responsible for any blemishes that remain. We would also like to thank our families for their support, encouragement, and, at times, forbearance. sc escw London, Oxford 1993 www.ebook3000.com Preface to the Second Edition Students of English are faced with an ever-expanding list of terms when studying the grammar of present-day English. The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar offers help by defining current terminology clearly with the help of numerous example sentences and quotations from the scholarly linguistic literature. Where the same terminology is used differently by linguists, these differences are explained, and where different terminology is used in the same way, this is also clearly signalled. This new edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar differs from the first edition in many ways: � All entries have been completely revised and updated. � There are many new entries covering recent terminology, for example from The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. � There are new short entries on the most important grammars of English published since the beginning of the twentieth century. � Usage advice is given where appropriate, though it is never prescriptive. � Advice is sometimes given regarding the use of terminology that most linguists would agree is best avoided. Readers familiar with the first edition will notice that the entries on English phonetics have been removed. The reason for this is that it is very unusual for phonetics to be covered under the heading of ‘grammar’, and this terminology is best dealt with elsewhere. The term ‘grammar’ is conceived of in this dictionary as encompassing syntax and morphology, and the aim is to cover terminology that is used in the current literature on English grammar. The dictionary also has entries on related fields of study, such as corpus linguistics, historical linguistics, lexicology, (lexical) semantics, sociolinguistics, stylistics, and so on, but only when this terminology is broadly relevant to grammar. Terms from theoretical frameworks are also covered to some extent, especially those from Generative Grammar and Systemic Grammar, though for a fuller treatment the reader is referred to Peter Matthews’s Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. I am grateful to the late Sylvia Chalker and to Edmund Weiner for their excellent work on the first edition of this book, and to Rebecca Lane and Jamie Crowther at OUP for their support during the writing process. Finally, thanks are due to Jill Bowie for her meticulous copy-editing and to Donald Watt for proofreading. bas aarts University College London www.ebook3000.com Organization 1. Entries are strictly alphabetical. Thus: agent agentive agentless passive agent noun 2. Cross-references to other entries are signalled by an asterisk when they occur in running text, e.g. Aktionsart The lexical expression of *aspect . . . 3. In formal cross-references, the entry referred to is indicated in small capitals, e.g. focusing subjunct See focusing adverb. A cross-reference to a phrase listed within an entry is given in a mixture of small capitals (for the entry headword) and italics (for the remainder of the phrase), e.g. complex sentence. 4. When a cross-reference relates to a particular numbered sense in another entry, the number of the relevant sense is indicated, e.g. *base (2) or base (2). 5. Where a word is not a grammatical term in itself, but forms part of a phrase which is dealt with elsewhere, this is indicated, e.g. act See speech act. 6. Where a term is dealt with at the entry for some larger term, this is indicated, e.g. formulaic subjunctive See subjunctive. 7. Where two or more terms are synonyms, the definition appears under the preferred term, usually with a reference to the alternative term, e.g. folk etymology . . . Also called popular etymology. and the other term is cross-referenced with an asterisk, e.g. popular etymology The same as *folk etymology. 8. Where two or more terms are in a contrastive relationship, this is stated at the beginning of both entries, e.g. abstract . . . . . . Contrasted with *concrete. concrete . . . . . . Contrasted with *abstract. 9. See (also) at the end of (part of) an entry indicates that further information will be found at the entry indicated. Sometimes the user is referred to a closely related word, e.g. coordinate . . . . . . See also coordination. At other times the reference is to a ‘background’ concept, e.g. discord . . . www.ebook3000.com . . . See agreement. 10. Compare at the end of (part of) an entry indicates that although the entry is complete, it may be useful to read entries for related or overlapping terms, or terms with which this term could be confused, e.g. abbreviated . . . . . . Compare block language; reduced clause. These particular entries show that certain types of language that might reasonably be described as abbreviated are in fact given special labels. 11. Words are marked with word class labels (n. = noun, adj. = adjective, v. = verb, etc.) only when they can belong to more than one class. 12. Where word class labels are conjoined (e.g. n. & adj.), the definition is framed so as to cover both uses, with parentheses surrounding the part of the definition that applies to only one of the two uses, e.g. countable (n. & adj.) (Designating) a noun with singular and plural forms. which is equivalent to: (n.) A noun with singular and plural forms. (adj.) Designating a noun with singular and plural forms. 13. In certain entries, words and phrases quoted as examples are given abbreviated dates indicating their earliest known recorded appearance in English. In these, the number is that of the century and the preceding E, M, L mean ‘early’, ‘mid’, and ‘late’: ‘E19’ means ‘1800–1829’, ‘M19’ means 1830–1869’, and ‘L19’ means ‘1870–1899’. OE means ‘Old English’ (before 1150), ME ‘Middle English’ (1150–1349), and LME ‘late Middle English’ (1350–1469). 14. In many entries, quotations from works on language and linguistics are given in order to illustrate the use of the word being defined. Only the author’s name and the date of the work are cited: fuller details are given in the References section. 15. Meanings are signalled by single inverted commas: e.g. Wherever you go, you’ll be covered by this insurance (‘No matter where you go . . . ’). 16. Derivatives of a headword are listed at the end of the entry and indicated by a single preceding dot. They are undefined if their meaning is plain once that of the parent word is known, and if they are not found in ‘extended terms’ (special phrasal combinations). For example, at the end of the entry for syntax we have: � syntactic, syntactically. 17. Extended terms are listed alphabetically at the end of the entry following any derivatives, and indicated by two preceding dots. They are given brief definitions or fuller discussion as appropriate. For example, in the entry for modifier we have: �� modifier clause: a clause that postmodifies a head, e.g. a *relative clause. �� sentence modifier: a modifier that modifies a complete sentence or clause. Organization viii www.ebook3000.com Notational Conventions * An asterisk used before a citation of a linguistic form indicates an impossible structure, i.e. a structure that does not conform to the grammatical rules of English. Example: *They likes to read. In this example the third person plural subject they is followed by a verb with a third person singular inflectional ending. ? A question mark used before a citation of a linguistic form indicates a structure that is of doubtful acceptability. Example: ?Give it me. Ø This symbol is used to indicate an implicit subject. Example: I want [Ø to read it]. arrows These indicate movement, For example, in What did you see? the pronoun what functions as the direct object of the verb see and has been moved to the beginning of the sentence to form an interrogative structure: What did you see_? The underscore symbol is explained below. brackets [ . . . ] Brackets are used: (1) to indicate words that together form a constituent phrase, clause, etc. A labelled bracketing includes a subscript indicator of the syntactic status of the constituent. Example: [NP Cats][VP eat [NP fish]]; (2) to indicate that a lexical item, usually a verb, is followed by a complement which contains a particular word. Example: have [to] indicates that the verb have is followed by a complement that contains the word to, e.g. I have to leave. co-indexing Items that are co-referential can be co-indexed, i.e. bear the same subscript letter, usually an ‘i’. Example: Hei shaves himselfi twice every day. italics These are used: (1) to cite words, sentences, etc. as linguistic forms; (2) to indicate words, phrases, etc. that require highlighting. For underlined italics, see below. underlined italics Within italicized citations of linguistic forms, underlining is used to highlight particular words (or other elements) for attention. underscore (‘_’) This symbol indicates a ‘gap’ in the clause with which a displaced element is associated. For example, in What did you see _ ? the pronoun what has been moved to the beginning of the sentence from the position indicated by ‘_’ to form an interrogative structure. www.ebook3000.com Abbreviations A/AP (or Adj/AdjP) adjective/adjective phrase Adv/AdvP adverb/adverb phrase AmE American English BrE British English CaGEL The Cambridge grammar of the English language, by Rod- ney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. CGEL A comprehensive grammar of the English language, by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. London: Longman, 1985. D/DP determinative/determinative phrase (or determiner/ determiner phrase) det determinative (or determiner) DO Direct Object IO Indirect Object N/NP noun/noun phrase OMEG Oxford Modern English grammar, by Bas Aarts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. P/PP preposition/prepositional phrase S sentence V/VP verb/verb phrase A A *Adverbial as an *element of *clause structure. The symbol is used in some modern analyses of clause structure (e.g. CGEL). See adverbial (1). Compare c; s; o; v. See also adjunct. A-bar category See x-bar syntax. abbreviated Shortened or contracted so that a part stands for the whole. This term is used to designate language (a clause, phrase, word, etc.) in which words inessential to the message are omitted and the grammar sometimes deviates from standard rules. It is a very general term, since individuals will vary in how severely they abridge, and exactly how they do it when writing diary entries, notes, etc. Abbreviated sentences of a more predictable kind are a frequent feature of informal writing (e.g. text messages, handwritten notices) and conversation. Here the subject and part of the verb are often omitted. Having a wonderful time here See you soon All news then Back at 5 More tea? (= Would you like . . . ?, Do you want . . . ?) Abbreviated language overlaps with *ellipsis, but is less subject to constraints. For example, there is no need for the ‘missing words’ to be ‘recoverable’. Labels and printed instructions, too, often use abbreviated language; and here not only subjects but objects also are typically omitted, e.g. Contains natural herb extracts Avoid getting into the eyes Other forms of abbreviated language appear in titles and newspaper headlines. �� abbreviated clause: the same as *reduced clause. �� abbreviated form: the same as *contraction (2). Compare block language; reduced clause. See also abbreviation. abbreviation A shortened form of a *word or *phrase, standing for the whole. This term is applied in three different ways. 1. A string of letters—often spoken as such—formed from the initial letters of the (main) words of a phrase. Also called *initialism, e.g. BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) CBI (Confederation of British Industry) ERM (Exchange Rate Mechanism) OTT (over the top) PC (personal computer) UK (United Kingdom) Sometimes the letters represent syllables of a word: ID (identity or identification card) TB (tuberculosis) 2. A word (sometimes called a *clipping) standing for the whole, re- taining at least one syllable of the original word. ad (advertisement) (M19) demo (demonstration) (M20) flu (influenza) (M19) pub (public house) (M19) phone (telephone) (L19) sitcom (situation comedy) (M20) Clippings vary in their level of formality; mike (microphone) and wellies (wellington boots) are at the informal end of the scale. Other abbreviations are acceptable in formal contexts, e.g. bus (omnibus), maths (US math) (mathematics); or their origin may even be virtually forgotten, e.g. mob (from Latin mobile vulgus). 3. A written convention which is unpronounceable in its shortened form. This includes abbreviations of personal titles, e.g. Col., Dr, Mrs, Sgt., etc. Also: St. (street) etc. (etcetera) MS (manuscript) Fr. (French) kg (kilogram) Gk (Greek) rpt (repeat) a abbreviation 2 There are a few special written conventions for plurals: pp (pages) MSS or mss (manuscripts) ff. (following pages) Written Latin abbreviations are sometimes read out in their English equivalents, but some are only pronounced as letter strings, e.g. e.g. (exempli gratia) (‘for example’, /ˌiːˈdʒiː/) i.e. (id est) (‘that is’, /ˌaɪ ˈiː/) cf. (confer) (‘compare’, /ˌsiː ˈef/) a.m. and p.m. (ante meridiem and post meridiem: /ˈeɪ ˌem/, /ˈpiː ˌem/). Chemical formulae and other symbols can be regarded as a special type of abbreviation: H2O (water) Fe (iron) & (and) � (minus) þ (plus) Compare acronym; blend; contraction; initialism. ability One of the semantic categories used in the classification of *modal verbs. The term is particularly applied to the *dynamic (2) meaning of can and could. It contrasts with other meanings of these verbs such as *permission and *possibility. See also modal; modality. ablative (n. & adj.) (In older grammar.) (A case) that expresses mean- ings such as ‘by N’, ‘with N’, or ‘from N’ (where N = *noun). This case, occurring and originally named in Latin, is not relevant to English, where such meanings are expressed by *prepositional phrases. The corresponding semantic categories include *agent, *instrument, and *means. The nearest equivalent in English to the ablative absolute of Latin (ablativus absolutus) is the *absolute clause. Compare case. absolute 1. (n. & adj.) (Designating) the *unmarked *degree (1) in the three-way system of comparing *adjectives and *adverbs (e.g. kind, soon), in contrast to the *comparative forms (kinder, sooner) and the *superlative forms (kindest, soonest). Also called plain grade or positive. 2. Non-gradable. See gradable. 3. Used for *possessive *pronouns that can stand on their own (mine, yours, his, ours, theirs), contrasted with my, your, etc. which are placed before nouns (the latter being variously analysed as pronouns or as determinatives (1)). Also called independent possessive pronouns. a 3 absolute 4. (In older usage.) Designating an *adjective or *verb which occurs in certain unusual constructions or syntactic relationships, e.g. (i) an adjective used without a following noun (e.g. the poor); (ii) a normally transitive verb used intransitively (e.g. Have you eaten?); and (iii) a comparative or superlative form of an adjective used without the specific mention of a relationship (e.g. I only want the best). 1931 G. O. CURME The absolute comparative is not as common as the absolute superlative . . . higher education; a better-class cafe. See also absolute clause. � absolutely (in older usage, as 4(i) above.) 1884 New English Dictionary In ‘the public are informed’, ‘the young are invited’, public and young are adjectives used absolutely. absolute clause A *non-finite or *verbless *clause containing its own subject, attached to a sentence from which it is separated by a comma (or commas), and not introduced by a subordinator. Also called absolute construction. A verb, if used, can be an -ing or an -ed/-en form. Examples: The fight to board the train—the women crushed against the doors, the children desperately clutching their mothers—repeated itself at this provincial station The platform empty once more, I settled down for the night Except for a few set phrases (weather permitting, present company ex- cepted) absolute clauses tend to be formal and written. If the subject is a pronoun it must be in the *nominative (i.e. the subjective (1)), not the *accusative (i.e. the objective (1)), case (e.g. I refusing to go, Nicholas went alone), so absolute clauses are sometimes called nominative absolutes. (This contrasts with the *ablative absolute of Latin grammar, where the comparable noun is in the ablative case.) See also small clause. absolutive case See ergative. abstract Used mainly of *nouns that denote an action, idea, quality, or state; contrasted with *concrete. The traditional division of common nouns into abstract and concrete nouns is semantic. It therefore cuts across the more strictly grammatical classification into *uncount and *count nouns. It is unsatisfactory as a way of trying to deal with syntactic differences: the abstract label does fit many uncount nouns (e.g. Everybody needs advice/fun/luck; not *an advice/ a absolute clause 4

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