- •Contents
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 50
- •3 Making a message 111
- •Indicating possibility 168
- •8 Combining messages 245
- •9 Making texts 272
- •Introduction
- •Note on Examples
- •Guide to the Use of the Grammar
- •Introduction
- •Glossary of grammatical terms
- •Cobuild Grammar Chart
- •Contents of Chapter 1
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 115
- •Indicating possibility 172
- •8 Combining messages 250
- •9 Making texts 276
- •Identifying people and things: nouns
- •Things which can be counted: count nouns
- •Things not usually counted: uncount nouns
- •When there is only one of something: singular nouns
- •Referring to more than one thing: plural nouns
- •Referring to groups: collective nouns
- •Referring to people and things by name: proper nouns
- •Nouns which are rarely used alone
- •Sharing the same quality: adjectives as headwords
- •Nouns referring to males or females
- •Referring to activities and processes: '-ing' nouns
- •Specifying more exactly: compound nouns
- •Referring to people and things without naming them: pronouns
- •Referring to people and things: personal pronouns
- •Mentioning possession: possessive pronouns
- •Referring back to the subject: reflexive pronouns
- •Referring to a particular person or thing: demonstrative pronouns
- •Referring to people and things in a general way: indefinite pronouns
- •Showing that two people do the same thing: reciprocal pronouns
- •Joining clauses together: relative pronouns
- •Asking questions: interrogative pronouns
- •Other pronouns
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners
- •The specific way: using 'the'
- •The specific way: using 'this', 'that', 'these', and 'those'
- •The specific way: using possessive determiners
- •The general way
- •The general way: using 'a' and 'an'
- •The general way: other determiners
- •Contents of Chapter 2
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 120
- •Indicating possibility 176
- •8 Combining messages 254
- •9 Making texts 280
- •Describing things: adjectives
- •Information focusing: adjective structures
- •Identifying qualities: qualitative adjectives
- •Identifying the class that something belongs to: classifying adjectives
- •Identifying colours: colour adjectives
- •Showing strong feelings: emphasizing adjectives
- •Making the reference more precise: postdeterminers
- •Special classes of adjectives
- •Position of adjectives in noun groups
- •Special forms: '-ing' adjectives
- •Special forms: '-ed' adjectives
- •Compound adjectives
- •Comparing things: comparatives
- •Comparing things: superlatives
- •Other ways of comparing things: saying that things are similar
- •Indicating different amounts of a quality: submodifiers
- •Indicating the degree of difference: submodifiers in comparison
- •Modifying using nouns: noun modifiers
- •Indicating possession or association: possessive structures
- •Indicating close connection: apostrophe s ('s)
- •Other structures with apostrophe s ('s)
- •Talking about quantities and amounts
- •Talking about amounts of things: quantifiers
- •Talking about amounts of things: partitives
- •Referring to an exact number of things: numbers
- •Referring to the number of things: cardinal numbers
- •Referring to things in a sequence: ordinal numbers
- •Referring to an exact part of something: fractions
- •Talking about measurements
- •Talking about age
- •Approximate amounts and measurements
- •Expanding the noun group: qualifiers
- •Nouns with prepositional phrases
- •Nouns with adjectives
- •Nouns with non-finite clauses
- •Contents of Chapter 3
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 181
- •8 Combining messages 258
- •9 Making texts 284
- •Indicating how many participants are involved: transitivity
- •Talking about events which involve only the subject: intransitive verbs
- •Involving someone or something other than the subject: transitive verbs
- •Verbs where the object refers back to the subject: reflexive verbs
- •Verbs with little meaning: delexical verbs
- •Verbs which can be used in both intransitive and transitive clauses
- •Verbs which can take an object or a prepositional phrase
- •Changing your focus by changing the subject: ergative verbs
- •Verbs which involve people doing the same thing to each other: reciprocal verbs
- •Verbs which can have two objects: ditransitive verbs
- •Extending or changing the meaning of a verb: phrasal verbs
- •Verbs which consist of two words: compound verbs
- •Describing and identifying things: complementation
- •Describing things: adjectives as complements of link verbs
- •Saying that one thing is another thing: noun groups as complements of link verbs
- •Commenting: 'to'-infinitive clauses after complements
- •Describing as well as talking about an action: other verbs with complements
- •Describing the object of a verb: object complements
- •Describing something in other ways: adjuncts instead of complements
- •Indicating what role something has or how it is perceived: the preposition 'as'
- •Talking about closely linked actions: using two verbs together in phase
- •Talking about two actions done by the same person: phase verbs together
- •Talking about two actions done by different people: phase verbs separated by an object
- •Contents of Chapter 4
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 262
- •9 Making texts 289
- •Statements, questions, orders, and suggestions
- •Making statements: the declarative mood
- •Asking questions: the interrogative mood
- •'Yes/no'-questions
- •'Wh'-questions
- •Telling someone to do something: the imperative mood
- •Other uses of moods
- •Negation Forming negative statements
- •Forming negative statements: negative affixes
- •Forming negative statements: broad negatives
- •Emphasizing the negative aspect of a statement
- •Using modals
- •The main uses of modals
- •Special features of modals
- •Referring to time
- •Indicating possibility
- •Indicating ability
- •Indicating likelihood
- •Indicating permission
- •Indicating unacceptability
- •Interacting with other people
- •Giving instructions and making requests
- •Making an offer or an invitation
- •Making suggestions
- •Stating an intention
- •Indicating unwillingness or refusal
- •Expressing a wish
- •Indicating importance
- •Introducing what you are going to say
- •Expressions used instead of modals
- •Semi-modals
- •Contents of Chapter 5
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 266
- •9 Making texts 293
- •The present
- •The present in general: the simple present
- •Accent on the present: the present continuous
- •Emphasizing time in the present: using adjuncts
- •The past
- •Stating a definite time in the past: the simple past
- •Accent on the past: the past continuous
- •The past in relation to the present: the present perfect
- •Events before a particular time in the past: the past perfect
- •Emphasizing time in the past: using adjuncts
- •The future
- •Indicating the future using 'will'
- •Other ways of indicating the future
- •Adjuncts with future tenses
- •Other uses of tenses
- •Vivid narrative
- •Firm plans for the future
- •Forward planning from a time in the past
- •Timing by adjuncts
- •Emphasizing the unexpected: continuing, stopping, or not happening
- •Time expressions and prepositional phrases Specific times
- •Non-specific times
- •Subordinate time clauses
- •Extended uses of time expressions
- •Frequency and duration
- •Adjuncts of frequency
- •Adjuncts of duration
- •Indicating the whole of a period
- •Indicating the start or end of a period
- •Duration expressions as modifiers
- •Contents of Chapter 6
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 271
- •9 Making texts 297
- •Position of adjuncts
- •Giving information about manner: adverbs
- •Adverb forms and meanings related to adjectives
- •Comparative and superlative adverbs
- •Adverbs of manner
- •Adverbs of degree
- •Giving information about place: prepositions
- •Position of prepositional phrases
- •Indicating position
- •Indicating direction
- •Prepositional phrases as qualifiers
- •Other ways of giving information about place
- •Destinations and directions
- •Noun groups referring to place: place names
- •Other uses of prepositional phrases
- •Prepositions used with verbs
- •Prepositional phrases after nouns and adjectives
- •Extended meanings of prepositions
- •Contents of Chapter 7
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 275
- •9 Making texts 302
- •Indicating that you are reporting: reporting verbs
- •Reporting someone's actual words: quote structures
- •Reporting in your own words: report structures
- •Reporting statements and thoughts
- •Reporting questions
- •Reporting orders, requests, advice, and intentions
- •Time reference in report structures
- •Making your reference appropriate
- •Using reporting verbs for politeness
- •Avoiding mention of the person speaking or thinking
- •Referring to the speaker and hearer
- •Other ways of indicating what is said
- •Other ways of using reported clauses
- •Contents of Chapter 8
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 279
- •9 Making texts 306
- •Adverbial clauses
- •Time clauses
- •Conditional clauses
- •Purpose clauses
- •Reason clauses
- •Result clauses
- •Concessive clauses
- •Place clauses
- •Clauses of manner
- •Relative clauses
- •Using relative pronouns in defining clauses
- •Using relative pronouns in non-defining clauses
- •Using relative pronouns with prepositions
- •Using 'whose'
- •Using other relative pronouns
- •Additional points about non-defining relative clauses
- •Nominal relative clauses
- •Non-finite clauses
- •Using non-defining clauses
- •Using defining clauses
- •Other structures used like non-finite clauses
- •Coordination
- •Linking clauses
- •Linking verbs
- •Linking noun groups
- •Linking adjectives and adverbs
- •Linking other word groups
- •Emphasizing coordinating conjunctions
- •Linking more than two clauses or word groups
- •Contents of Chapter 9
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 279
- •9 Making texts 310
- •Referring back
- •Referring back in a specific way
- •Referring back in a general way
- •Substituting for something already mentioned: using 'so' and 'not'
- •Comparing with something already mentioned
- •Referring forward
- •Leaving out words: ellipsis
- •Ellipsis in conversation
- •Contents of Chapter 10
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 279
- •9 Making texts 310
- •Focusing on the thing affected: the passive voice
- •Selecting focus: cleft sentences
- •Taking the focus off the subject: using impersonal 'it'
- •Describing a place or situation
- •Talking about the weather and the time
- •Commenting on an action, activity, or experience
- •Commenting on a fact that you are about to mention
- •Introducing something new: 'there' as subject
- •Focusing on clauses or clause elements using adjuncts Commenting on your statement: sentence adjuncts
- •Indicating your attitude to what you are saying
- •Stating your field of reference
- •Showing connections: linking adjuncts
- •Indicating a change in a conversation
- •Emphasizing
- •Indicating the most relevant thing: focusing adverbs
- •Other information structures Putting something first: fronting
- •Introducing your statement: prefacing structures
- •Doing by saying: performative verbs
- •Exclamations
- •Making a statement into a question: question tags
- •Addressing people: vocatives
- •Contents of the Reference Section
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 279
- •9 Making texts 310
- •Forming plurals of count nouns
- •Forming comparative and superlative adjectives
- •The spelling and pronunciation of possessives
- •Numbers
- •Cardinal numbers
- •Ordinal numbers
- •Fractions and percentages
- •Verb forms and the formation of verb groups
- •Finite verb groups and the formation of tenses
- •Non-finite verb groups: infinitives and participles
- •Forming adverbs
- •Forming comparative and superlative adverbs
- •Indirect object
- •Inversion
- •Verbal nouns
Non-finite clauses
8.117 A non-finite clause is a subordinate clause which contains a participle or an infinitive, but which does not contain a finite verb.
There are two kinds of non-finite clause. One kind begins with a subordinating conjunction.
Quite often while talking to you they'd stand on one foot.
You've got to do something in depth in order to understand it.
This hind of clause is dealt with fn the sections on adverbial clauses (paragraphs 8.8 to 8.82).
The other kind of non-finite clause does not begin with a subordinating conjunction.
He pranced about, feeling very important indeed.
I wanted to talk to her.
This kind of clause sometimes consists of a participle and nothing else.
Ellen shook her head, smiling.
Bet, grumbling, had departed to her harp lesson.
Clauses which contain a participle and do not begin with a subordinate conjunction are explained in the following paragraphs.
8.118 The non-finite clauses discussed in this section function the similar way to relative clauses, and, like relative clauses, they can have a defining or non-defining function.
Non-defining clauses are dealt with in paragraphs 8.120 to 8.131. These clauses are often used in writing, but are not usually used in spoken English.
Defining clauses are dealt with in paragraphs 8.132 and 8.133. These clauses are occasionally used in both written and spoken English.
8.119 Non-defining clauses can go in front of a main clause, after a main clause, or in the middle of one. A non-defining clause is usually separated by a comma from the words in front of it and after it.
Defining clauses always go after a noun group. You never put a comma in front of a defining clause.
Using non-defining clauses
8.120 Non-defining clauses give further information which is not needed to identify the person, thing, or group you are talking about.
The following paragraphs 8.121 to 8.126 explain how these clauses are used when they relate to the subject of the verb in a main clause. The subject is not mentioned in the non-defining clause.
present participle: simultaneous events 8.121 If you want to say that someone is doing or experiencing two things at the same time, you mention one of them in the main clause and the other in a clause containing a present participle.
Laughing and shrieking, the crowd rushed under the nearest trees.
Jane watched, weeping, from the doorway.
Feeling a little foolish, Pluskat hung up.
Walking about, you notice something is different.
People stared at her. Seeing herself in a shop window, she could understand why.
present participle: one action after another 8.122 If you want to say that someone did one thing immediately after another, you mention the first action in a clause containing a present participle and the second one in the main clause.
Leaping out of bed, he dressed so quickly that he put his boots on the wrong feet.
present participle: reasons 8.123 If you want to explain why someone does something or why something happens, you say what happens in the main clause and give the reason in a clause containing a present participle.
At one point I made up my mind to go and talk to Uncle Sam. Then I changed my mind, realising that he could do nothing to help.
The baby would probably not live to grow up, being a scrawny little thing, unlikely to survive the normal ailments of childhood.
8.124 You can also use a present participle directly after a verb in a sentence such as 'I stood shivering at the roadside'. This use is explained in paragraphs 3.190 to 3.203.
'having' and past participle: results 8.125 If you want to say that someone did or experienced one thing before another, you mention the first thing in a clause containing 'having' and a past participle. Often this kind of construction indicates that the second event was a result of the first one.
I did not feel terribly shocked, having expected him to take the easiest way out.
Having married very late, he was only a year short a fifty when I was born.
past participle: earlier events 8.126 If you want to say what happened to someone or something before a situation or event described in the main clause, you say what happened in a clause containing a past participle on its own.
The novels of Mary Webb, praised by Stanley Baldwin and so popular in the 30s, were great favourites of mine.
Angered by the policies of the union, she wrote a letter to the General Secretary.
mentioning the subject 8.127 Sometimes you want to use a non-defining clause which has a different subject from the subject of the main clause. These clauses are explained in the following paragraphs 8.128 to 8.131.
8.128 In this kind of non-defining clause, you usually have to mention the subject.
Ashton being dead, the whole affair must now be laid before Colonel Browne.
However, if the non-defining clause comes after the main clause, and it is clear from the context that it relates to the object of the main clause, you do not need to mention the object again.
They picked the up, kicking and bawling, and carried me up the road.
8.129 You use a non-defining clause containing a subject and a present participle:
• when you want to mention something that is happening at the same time as the event or situation described in the main clause
Her eyes glistening with tears, she stood up and asked the Council: 'What am I to do?'
• when you want to mention a fact that is relevant to the fact stated in the main clause.
Bats are surprisingly long-lived creatures, some having a life-expectancy of around twenty years.
'With' is sometimes added at the beginning of the non-finite clause.
The old man stood up with tears running down his face.
8.130 You use 'having' and a past participle to mention something which happened before the thing described in the main clause.
About twice a month, enough evidence having accumulated, the police would feel obliged to stage a raid.
The Border having become more settled, they had selected a site near the Kalpani River.
George having been carried to his cabin, Ash had gone up to the deserted deck.
The subject having been opened, he had to go on with it.
You use a past participle on its own to say that something was done or completed before the event or situation described in the main clause.
He proceeded to light his pipe. That done, he put on his woollen scarf art went out.
8.131 In a negative non-defining clause, you put 'not' in front of the participle, or in front of 'having'.
He paused, not wishing to boast.
He failed to recognize her at first, not having seen her for fifteen years or so.
He began hitting them with his stick, their reply not having come as quickly as he wanted.