case

Case refers to the different forms a word can take depending on its function in a clause or in a phrase. The pairs I / me, he / him, she / her, we / us and they / them are the different forms the personal pronouns take depending on whether they function as, respectively, Subject or (Direct or Indirect) Object / Object of a Preposition. Different subjective and objective forms are limited to personal pronouns in English. The genitive (or possessive) is an example if a case as well: (the boy's book, his book). (AEG Ch. 3)

cataphor, cataphora

Cataphora refers to any expression whose interpretation depends on what occurs after it. In otherwords, a cataphor (or cataphoric expression) inherits its reference from a referent in the discourse that is yet-to-come. In Though he was sceptical, my client agreed to sign the contract, he is a cataphor. Its referent is interpretable only by anticipating and looking forward to the NP postcedent my client. A cataphor can also be a placeholder for a complete clause: Listen to this: Sarah has been promoted! Cataphors contribute considerably to the overall cohesion of a text. (AEG Ch. 3, Ch. 6)

cataphoric reference, see cataphor

category, see part of speech

causative meaning

In AEG, causative meaning is addressed in the discussion of the meanings of have, make and get. When the Subject referent ‘causes’ another participant in a situation to actualize a situation, the verb is said to have causative meaning: The teacher had the students investigate the use of the passive in a newspaper article: Her dad got her to register for the exam: She made me laugh. (AEG Ch. 2)

central determiner

The articles (a and the), the possessives (his, my, our) and the demonstratives (this / these, that / those) are central determiners: they cannot be used together, which explains why NPs such as *the my books or *his those books are impossible. Central determiners also include some, any, no, either, neither, each and determinative genitives (Bram's birthday). They can be preceded by predeterminers (all the students, half the cake, double the price, what a story) and postdeterminers (the two students, the second student). (AEG Ch. 3)

central modal auxiliaries

There are nine central modal auxiliaries: can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will and would. They are said to be central modal auxiliaries because, apart from communicating modal meaning, they share the formal characteristics typical of auxiliaries (direct not-negation, Subject-auxiliary inversion and ellipsis). The central modal auxiliaries do not have a special inflected third-person singular form (*she cans, *he musts), do not have non-finite forms such as *to can or *musting and are not followed by the infinitive marker to (He should work harder). Not all verbs that express modal meaning are auxiliaries; some of them are lexical verbs (see lexical modal verbs), and others (namely, ought to and need), although they possess the formal characteristics of auxiliaries, have additional constraints on their use (see marginal modal verbs). (AEG Ch. 5)

classifying genitive

In a classifying genitive, the noun marked by the genitive’s does not have the syntactic role of a determiner. Rather, it identifies the class to which the head of the genitive NP belongs: (some) goat’s milk, a women’s college and my favourite children’s book refer to milk from goats, a college for women and a book for children. (AEG Ch. 3)

clause

A clause is composed of a Subject and a Predicate (= verb (+ complement(s)) (+ Adjunct(s))). Note that in an imperative clause, the Subject is usually not expressed. Clauses can be combined by means of a coordinating conjunction: I saw Mary this morning, but John just missed her. Clauses that are introduced by a subordinating conjunction are called subclauses:I saw Mary this morning, although John just missed her. Another term for subclause is subordinate clause. Note too that clauses can be finite (He phoned me...) or non-finite (... after speaking to her). A non-finite clause is necessarily a subclause, but a subclause can be finite or non-finite. (AEG Ch. 1)

clause type

There are four main clause types in English: declarative (the Subject features before the verb: They arrived late), interrogative (characterized by Subject-aux inversion: Why did they arrive late?), exclamative (featuring a wh-word like what or how, but without Subject-aux inversion: What an interesting question that is!) and imperative (where the Subject is not usually expressed: Come here! Don’t do that!). (AEG Ch. 1)

cleft sentence, see it-cleft and wh-cleft

closed class, see auxiliary verb

closed interrogative, see yes-no interrogative clause

cohesion

Effective spoken and written discourse is cohesive. Cohesion refers to the effective means by which discourse is organized. There is a very large range of cohesive devices that contribute to what could be called 'linguistic connectedness' in and across clauses and sentences. The speaker uses them (unconsciously) to make sure that her message will be expressed as clearly as possible and in this way facilitate comprehension by the hearer; the hearer (unconsciously) assumes that these markers will be present and uses them when processing the utterance. Cohesion makes use of both grammatical and lexical markers to ensure that the discourse as a whole sticks together. (AEG Ch. 2, Ch. 6)

collective noun

A collective noun is a noun that is morphologically singular but that has plural reference: family, the BBC, staff, the Senate. Put differently, collective nouns are notionally plural. Although some use the term to refer to nouns representing specific groups of entities, often animals (a gaggle of geese, a school of fish, a herd of cattle), we do not use the term in this way in AEG. Compare to individuating noun (AEG Ch. 3)

common noun, see proper noun

complement, see complementation

complementation

Lexical verbs sometimes require (or ‘select’) constituents other than the obligatory Subject in order to be used grammatically. We refer to this requirement by means of the label complementation. Put differently, certain verbs (namely, transitive and ditransitive verbs) cannot be used in a grammatical way unless they are used with (or complemented by) constituents in addition to the Subject: I like you, I like to travel, but not *I like. Other verbs disallow complements of any kind: He yawned; She died; but *He yawned something; *She died someone. Complementsare also called arguments. The former term captures a formal requirement; the latter is a semantic requirement. (AEG Ch. 2)

composition of a sentence with a modal verb

In the context of modality, the term composition is used to refer to the fact that a sentence with a modal verb (or a modal sentence) consists of two parts, M and P. It expresses the modal meaning of possibility or necessity (we refer to this as the modal situation, M). When the modal meaning (M) is abstracted away, what is left of the sentence is called the proposition (P). (AEG Ch. 5)

compound

A compound is the result of the process called compounding. Informally, a compound is a word created as the result of two (or even more) words combining. Examples include kickstart (verb-verb), blue-green (adjective-adjective), upgrade (adverb-verb) and blackbird (adjective-noun). In AEG we are mainly interested in noun-noun compounds such as classroom or class clown. A compound such as classroom is said to have left stress (or early stress) whereas class clown is said have right stress (or late stress). (AEG Ch. 1)

compounding, see compound

concession

A concessive clause (one expressing concession) is a clause that establishes a contrast between two situations, that is, between what is actually the case and what might otherwise be expected to be the case: Although I ate an hour ago, I’m really hungry (= I am in fact hungry, but since I ate an hour ago, the opposite (not being hungry) is what one would ordinarily expect). As shown in this example, the concessive clause can be a subclause introduced by though or although, but concessive meaning can also be expressed by may when it is coordinated with a but clause: She may be old, but she can still run fast (= She can in fact run fast, but since she is old, the opposite (not running fast) is what one would ordinarily expect). This latter case is an unusual example of epistemic possibility in that the situation is presented not only as being possible, but also as actually being the case. (AEG Ch. 5, Ch. 6)

concessive, see concession

concrete noun

A concrete noun denotes an entity that can be perceived by one of the five senses: rain, dog, food and tomato (which can be seen), but also flavour, noise, odour and shiver. (AEG Ch. 3)

conditional clause, see conditional sentence

conditional sentence

A conditional sentence typically contains an if-clause; the actualization of the embedding clause is represented as dependent on (or conditioned by) the situation in the if-clause. A sentence with an embedded unless clause (I will design a few slides unless you have already taken care of this) is likewise a conditional sentence, as are sentences that use an inverted subclause with a modal past or a modal past perfect: Were she to accept their final bid, the sale might still go through; Had he worked harder, he might have passed the exam. Should in an inverted subclause can be found as well: Should you have any further questions, please contact the retailer directly. The subclause that expresses the condition is called a conditional clause. (AEG Ch. 2, Ch 5)

conjunction, see coordinating conjunction and subordinating conjunction

constant polarity

In AEG constant polarity is used in the context of interrogative tags appended to a clause. If both the clause and the tag are affirmative, we say that there is constant polarity: So, she’s an expert, is she? Reverse polarity (affirmative clause – negative tag or negative clause – affirmative tag) is far more common: He’s Italian, isn’t he?; She doesn’t like him, does she? (AEG Ch. 2)

constituent

Constituents, also called phrases, are the building blocks in a sentence; they are the (potentially larger) units that the combination of words create. In the sentence The black cat was running in the garden, for instance, the words the, black and cat form the constituent the black cat. They can be identified by using constituency tests. Substitution is a kind of constituency test. For example, an NP can often be replaced by a single pronoun: the old man who lives across the street from me > he. Constituents in a clause have both a form and a function. (AEG Ch. 1)

continuative perfect

The continuative perfect refers to the use of a perfect tense that represents a situation as continuing up to, and potentially including, the reference time (R). Take for example the continuative present perfect: the situation is located in the pre-present time-sphere and continues up to the moment of speech (S): Peter has lived in Berlin since 2018. Continuative past perfects (Peter had lived in Berlin for years at that point) or future perfects (Peter will have lived in Berlin for five years by then) are possible as well. In these cases, however, the situations are not located in the pre-present time-sphere. They are anterior to Rs that do not coincide with the moment of speech. (AEG Ch. 4)

continuous, see aspect

coordinated clause

A coordinated clause is part of a complex sentence in which two clauses enter into a relationship of coordination rather than subordination. Whereas subordination involves a hierarchic relationship between an embedding clause (He did it because I told him to) and an embedded clause (. . . because I told him to > He did it because I told him to. . .), two coordinated clauses are on a par: I told him to do it and he did it. (AEG Ch. 1)

coordinating conjunction

The three main coordinating conjunctions in English are and, or and but. Other coordinating conjunctions include for, nor, yet and so. They usually bring together constituents of the same type: black and white; heads or tails; tired but happy. They coordinate clauses as well (I walked in and he stood up), but only clauses of the same hierarchical level: a coordinating conjunction never contains a subclause. In He stood up when I walked in, the when-clause is embedded (or subordinated) rather than coordinated. (AEG Ch. 1)

coordinator, see coordinating conjunction

copula

Copula (copular verb) is a synonym of a linking verb; it is a verb that links the Subject with a Subject Complement, which predicates something of the Subject referent, that is, it qualifies or identifies the Subject referent. Although the main copular verb in English is the verb be, copular verbs or linking verbs can be of different types. With the exception of be, all of them are lexical verbs. These include (i) verbs of being (prove), (ii) verbs of becoming (get, grow, turn), (iii) verbs of remaining (stay, keep) and (iv) verbs of impression (look, feel, seem): The experiment was / proved successful; More and more people stay active as they grow / get older. Note that some of these verbs have uses that are not copular: He kept the book; They turned the corner (where the book and the corner are DOs). (AEG Ch.1)

copular verb, see copula

coreference

Two or more elements are coreferential when they have the same referent. John and he are all coreferential in John works in IT. He lives in Brimingham. Relative pronouns are coreferential with their antecedents: in the house that they bought, the relative pronoun that is coreferential with its antecedent house. Anaphors and cataphors are interpreted as such thanks to coreference.

correlative coordinators

Correlative coordinators consist of two parts, one before each joined constituent. They include either. . .or, neither. . .nor, both. . .and, not only. . .but also, and whether. . .or: Either you take it or you leave it; This is not only important but also necessary. (AEG Ch. 1)

countable noun

A countable noun is a noun that can occur in both the singular and the plural: bottle(s), shirt(s), polar bear(s), flower(s); mouse (mice), sheep (sheep). (AEG Ch. 3)

counterfactual situation

A situation is said to be counterfactual if it is represented as not being the case (I wish you were here = you are not here) or as not having been the case (I wish I had worked harder for the exam = I did not work hard enough for the exam). Conversely, if the counterfactual clause contains a negative marker (I wish you weren’t so fussy; I wish you hadn’t said that), then it means that the situation represented is or was the case: you are fussy; you did say that. Note that He didn’t come also refers to a situation that is not the case: not makes it clear that the situation did not actualize. However, counterfactuality is typically used to refer to verbal forms that bring about this meaning (typically a modal past (were) or a modal past perfect (had worked)). (AEG Ch. 2, Ch. 4, Ch. 5)

counterfactual clause

A counterfactual clause is a subclause that refers to a situation that is not the case or that did not actualize: If you were good at maths, you would be able to help me solve this problem (= you are not good at maths); If she had practised more, she would have passed her driving test (= she didn't practise enough). The embedding clause in which the conditional clause is embedded is likewise represented as contrary to fact. A counterfactual clause can be negative, in which case the situation is represented as being (or as having been) the case: If you weren't my best friend (= you are my best friend), I would never have known.