scope of negation

The term scope of negation is used to refer to the part of the sentence that the negation bears on. For instance, in Unaccompanied children may not enter, the scope of negation is on may (or on M: It is not possible for you to enter) whereas in The teacher may not accept your proposal, the scope of the negation is on ‘accept your proposal’ (or on P: it is possible that she will not accept your proposal). (AEG Ch. 2, Ch. 3, Ch. 5)

semantic roles

Semantic roles capture the ways in which NP referents participate in a situation centred around the main verb in a clause.Clauses refer to situations as they are perceived by speakers. For each proposition expressed through a clause, there are a number of participants involved. Semantic roles capture what this involvement means for the different participants. In I sent it to her, for instance, the three NPs enter into different interconnecting relationships: there is a sender (agent), a receiver (recipient) and an object sent (theme). (AEG Ch. 2)

semantics

Semantics is the branch of linguistics that deals with meaning. Sentence semantics looks at the meaning of clauses and sentences and the relationships between them. It looks at, for example, notions such as presupposition: when a speaker says I no longer smoke, the hearer understands implicitly that the speaker used to smoke. Lexical semantics analyses the meanings of words and relations between, for example, synonyms, antonyms, hypernyms and hyponyms (the latter two referring, respectively, to general terms (‘vegetable’) and to the specific terms they include (‘rutabaga’, ‘cabbage’, ‘spinach’). Some approaches to semantics are informed by the fields of logic and philosophy. (AEG Ch. 1)

semi-modal verbs, see lexical modal verbs

sentence

A sentence is a concept that refers to the strings of words that, in writing, end with a full stop, an exclamation mark or a question mark. A sentence may consist of one clause (a Subject and a Predicate) or several clauses. The latter may be coordinated (I’m taking a train at 6, so I should be home by 7), or one may be subordinate to the other (I hope he’ll come). A clause is not always a sentence (a subclause, for example, is not), and a sentence may consist of more than one clause, but does not necessarily. (AEG Ch. 1)

sentence adverb, see adverb phrase

sentence semantics, see semantics

sentential relative clause

A sentential relative clause is a non-restrictive relative clause that takes a complete clause as its antecedent: Hardly any students accepted the invitation, which is surprising. It is not part of an NP and does not have a post-modifying function. Rather, it serves to comment on the clause it refers back to. (AEG Ch. 3)

short answer

A short answer is a declarative clause consisting of a Subject and an auxiliary in which the VP has been ellipted: I do; They have; He can. A short answer does not necessarily answer a question. It can also be used to express agreement or disagreement: This food is good. – Yes, it is. / No, it isn’t. (AEG Ch. 2)

short interrogative

A short interrogative is an interrogative clause consisting of an inverted Subject and auxiliary in which the VP has been ellipted: Do you really? Have they? Can he? Interrogative tags are a specific kind of short interrogative. (AEG Ch. 2)

short negative

A short negative is special form an auxiliary can take when it is marked for negation. It is marked by -n’t: isn’t, doesn’t, wasn’t, haven’t, hadn’t, shouldn’t, wouldn’t. The written and spoken forms of some short negatives are unpredictable: can’t, shan’t, don’t, won’t. Mayn’t and mightn’t are comparatively uncommon. There is no short negative form for am in standard English. (AEG Ch. 2)

situation type

Situation type is a term that captures the different kinds of ‘states of affairs’ that may be represented by a speaker in a clause. The ‘plus’ and ‘minus’ combinations of the parameters duration, dynamicity and inherent endpoint result in four different situation types: Accomplishment, Achievement, Activity and State. The effect of progressive aspect is intimately linked with the situation type that it interacts with. (AEG Ch. 4)

specific, see non-generic specific

State

A situation is said to be a State if it (i) has duration (it has a temporal contour), (ii) does not require input of energy (it is not dynamic) and (iii) does not include an intended or inherent endpoint beyond which the situation cannot continue: He likes training for marathons. (AEG Ch. 4)

stative situation

A stative situation is any non-State situation that is presented as recurring regularly in an unlimited way. For example, a stative situation can refer to a series of repeated Accomplishments (The tree loses its leaves in autumn every year) or Achievements (The tree’s leaves die in autumn every year). In this way, there is reference to a situation that is represented as characteristic of a period of time without there being any inherent temporal boundaries to it. An Activity can be conceived as stative as well: The beautiful autumn colours dazzle passers-by every year. We do not use the term ‘stative situation’ to refer to States insofar as it would be redundant: any State is, by its essence, already a stative situation. (AEG Ch. 4)

Sub-aux inversion, see Subject-auxiliary inversion

subclause, see embedded clause

Subject

Unless it is an imperative clause (Listen!), every sentence has a Subject: You must listen. The Subject can be identified by turning a declarative clause into an interrogative clause: this results in inversion, meaning that the finite verb will feature before the Subject. The Subject of a sentence is usually an NP, but finite and non-finite clauses can function as Subjects as well: That you think such a thing bothers me; Reading mystery novels gives me great pleasure. Other constituents can function as Subject, though less commonly: Under the bed isn’t a good place to sleep (PrepP). (AEG Ch. 1)

Subject Complement

A Subject Complement (SC) follows a linking verb (or copular verb) such as be, become, seem, appear, look or taste. An SC ascribes a property to the Subject or serves to identify the Subject referent. It can be realized as an NP (My mother is a doctor) or an AdjP (That doctor is highly qualified). SCs are distinct from DOs: a DO represents a participant in the situation in addition to the Subject (My mother married a doctor (mother ≠ doctor)). An SC does not introduce a new participant, since it serves to ascribe a property to the Subject: My mother is a doctor (mother = doctor) or to identify the Subject referent: My brother-in-law is the person sitting next to James. (AEG Ch. 1)

Subject raising

Subject raising occurs when the Subject of a subclause is moved (or ‘raised’) to a syntactically higher main clause in which the subclause is embedded. It thus becomes the Subject of the main clause. In AEG, Subject raising is addressed in the discussion of the passive: My colleagues say James has been promoted > James is said to have been promoted. (AEG Ch. 2)

Subject referent

While the term Subject refers to a function at the clausal level, Subject referent refers to the extralinguistic entity corresponding to the linguistic expression. In My neighbor has given birth to a little boy, the NP My neighbour functions as the grammatical Subject. The Subject referent is the woman the speaker is talking about and can point to.

Subject-auxiliary inversion (Sub-aux inversion)

When Subject and auxiliary exchange positions in the clause, we refer to this process as Subject-auxiliary inversion. As it is only auxiliaries that can invert with a Subject, do-insertion is required when the clause does not contain an auxiliary. As in the case of direct not-negation, periphrastic auxiliary dois used in such a context: Did you go to the movies last night? (cf. *Went you to the movies last night?). (AEG Ch. 2)

subjunctive

The subjunctive is a form of the verb that represents a situation as possible or desirable. The subjunctive is realized as the base form of the verb and is mainly used after verbs, nouns and adjectives that indicate that the speaker wants a situation to be brought about (request, require/requirement, essential, necessary: The president demanded that his secretary work overtime; It is a requirement / It is necessary that the company make an official bid). This use of the subjunctive is called the mandative subjunctive. The subjunctive form is also used in a number of fixed expressions: So be it; Suffice it to say. (AEG Ch. 5)

subordinate clause, see embedded clause

subordinating conjunction

Subordinating conjunctions (or subordinators) always introduce clauses and link them to another clause. More specifically, they serve to subordinate or to embed a subclause in a main clause or an embedding clause. If, whether and that are common subordinators. Others include after, although, as much as, as long as, as soon as, because, before, in order that, since, though, unless, until, when, whenever, and while. (AEG Ch. 1)

subordinator, see subordinating conjunction

syntax

Syntax is the branch of linguistics that deals primarily with the order and combination of elements, either words within constituents or constituents in clauses, and the rules that underlie all possible structures of a language. Many syntacticians are interested in the knowledge that speakers have of what is and is not possible in their native language (called ‘competence’) rather than the actual forms the utterance can take (called ‘performance’). (AEG Ch. 1)