Read A Workbook to Communicative Grammar of English Online
Authors: Dr. Edward Woods,Rudy Coppieters
A Workbook to Communicative Grammar of English (6 page)
Structure
There are five different clause elements:
S–subject; V–verb; O–object; C–complement; A–adverbial.
There are six basic verb patterns: SVC/SVA; SVO; SVOV ………; SVOO; SVOC; SV.
There are three types of clauses: finite; non-finite; verbless
There are two clause functions: main clause; subclause
There are various types of subclauses: nominal; relative; comment; comparative; adverbial
Task one **
Identify the organisation of the clauses below – SVC, SVA, SVO, SVOO, SVOC, SVOV …….., SV. Identify optional adverbials as [A].
1.
I did it without his help.
2.
Manchester United lost!
3.
The earthquake destroyed hundreds of homes.
4.
The government gave the poorest people a tax cut.
5.
His mother told the child a story every night at bedtime.
6.
He became leader of the party after a bitter battle.
7.
The 18th century was an age of reason.
8.
Eleven hundred years ago, the Hungarian tribal alliance arrived in the Carpathian Basin.
9.
The humiliating defeat of the government served the progressive forces.
10.
Foreign Affairs is not all fun and games.
Task two *
State what types of subclauses there are in each of the items below: finite; non-finite; verbless. Identify each subclause by underlining.
1.
Bring me a cup of coffee when you’ve finished.
2.
Ignoring the accident is not an option.
3.
Many children were left orphans in the war, babies among them.
4.
He gave up a very good job to work for the charity.
5.
Covered in mud, the boy proudly showed his father the athletics prize.
6.
Angered by the manager’s attitude, she decided to resign her job.
7.
Happy with the result, the barrister congratulated his client.
8.
Is sending lots of Christmas cards only a British habit?
9.
They didn’t want him to leave.
10.
Opening an art gallery in such a small town was a very brave thing to do.
Task three **
Identify the functions of the clauses underlined as nominal, relative, adverbial, comparative or comment clauses. Also identify the clause patterns (SVC, SVA, SVO, SVOO, SVOC, SVOV …….., SV) and, where these begin with a conjunction, show this by putting ‘
conj
’ in front of the pattern-type.
1.
In the new job, he’s earning twice as much
as he used to
.
2.
To be fair
, I don’t think it was really Joan’s fault alone.
3.
That he’s now having to do so much extra work
shows he’s borrowed too much for the new apartment.
4.
I take the dog with me
wherever I go
.
5.
The ‘Titanic’,
which was the most advanced passenger ship of its day
, was not properly equipped for an emergency.
6.
House prices in the North of England are much lower
than they are in the South
.
7.
To be cruel
, I think Martin deserved to fail.
8.
The couple,
who are both aged 102
, have been married for 77 years.
9.
They moved to Kendal
because they wanted to be near their friends
.
10.
That it’s rained so much this winter
doesn’t mean we’ll have a dry summer.
When a verb phrase consists of more than one verb, there are certain rules about how the verbs can be combined. There are four basic verb combinations:
A | – | modal |
B | – | perfect |
C | – | progressive |
D | – | passive |
Task one *
Put the verbs and adverbials in the correct order in the verb phrases below.
1.
I
do can
nothing for you.
2.
I
have been could
here before, but I don’t remember.
3.
They
never going are
to tell him the truth about the accident. It’s too terrible.
4.
That house
built must been have
at the end of the nineteenth century.
5.
The work
completed is being
as we speak.
6.
He
working been has
on that project for two years now.
7.
She
already seen has
the film.
8.
Surely he
be can’t going
to waste all that money on a car he never uses.
9.
They
have might gone
to the meeting. I just don’t know.
10.
That
made hasn’t
things difficult for you, has it?
Task two **
In the story below, the verb phrases have been omitted. Complete the story, by putting one of the verb phrases here as indicated by the alphabetical order shown where the verbs should be.
couldn’t believe
;
couldn’t do
;
had been intending
;
had been locked away
;
had been losing
;
had been made
;
had lost
;
hadn’t arrived
;
hadn’t done
;
must have got up
;
should have remembered
;
was only just getting
;
were still locked
;
would only be opened
I ………(1 – A+B)……………… very early that morning because the morning newspaper ………(2 – B)………………, and, when I left the house, it ………(3 – C)……………… light. I ………(4 – B+C)……………… to get to
work early for some time as I had a large backlog of work to catch up with. The night security guard ………(5 – A)……………… it when I arrived and the doors ………(6 – D)……………… He let me into my office. I was ready for work. Now came the problem. I ………(7 – A+B)………………! The files I wanted ………(8 – B+D)……………… for security reasons. The room where they were ………(9 – A+D)……………… when the day-time security guard came on duty at 8.30. Arrangements ………(10 – B+D)……………… beforehand. In the past weeks, I ………(11 – B+C)……………… sleep because I ………(12 – B)……………… the work. Now I ………(13 – B)……………… sleep because I wanted to do the work, but ………(14 – A)………………
Determiners
4.1. Count and non-count nouns
Count nouns
are so called because they can be counted individually, e.g.house, pen, etc.
Non-count nouns
refer to things which cannot be counted individually, e.g. water, wood, etc.
Group nouns
refer to a set or collection of count nouns, e.g. a
set
of tools.
Unit nouns
subdivide non-count nouns into separate pieces, e.g. a
piece
of paper.
Task one **
Match the group nouns in column A with the objects in column B, e.g. a gang of thieves
A | B |
set | wolves |
clump | fish |
herd | sheep |
crowd | keys |
pack | chairs |
swarm | cows |
flock | trees |
stack | clothes |
bundle | people |
shoal | bees |
Task two **
Match the unit nouns in column A with the appropriate objects in column B, e.g. a bowl of rice
A | B |
blade | bread |
lump | wine |
cup | hay |
sheet | sugar |
slice | string |
load | grass |
block | cake |
pile | paper |
length | tea |
bottle | dust |
piece | ice |
Task three **
Decide which of the following are count nouns and which are non-count nouns. There are some which can be either. So make three columns.
advice | education | money |
bank | engineer | news |
behaviour | fruit | night |
book | furniture | progress |
butter | group | quarrel |
carrot | homework | scenery |
ceramic | industry | shopping |
cheese | information | variety |
clothing | joke | work |
conduct | language | year |
Task four **
Complete the following texts with an appropriate group or unit noun.
1.
The room was a mess. There was a (1) of paper on the floor, some empty (2) of wine by the desk and (3) of food scattered all over the room.
2.
The picture shows a (4) of sheep sheltering from the storm by a (5) of trees. In the distance the storm is clearing and the sun is shining through a (6) of clouds.
3.
“Tea or coffee?”
“Oh, a (7) of tea, please.”
“And a (8) of cake?
“No, thank you.”
4.
Foot and mouth disease has meant that (9) of cattle and many (10) of sheep have had to be destroyed. This is especially so in the Lake District in the north-west of England. Many farmers have seen years of hard work destroyed overnight.
Task five **
Complete the text by selecting an appropriate noun from those below. Decide whether it should be singular or plural and whether the verb in brackets should be singular or plural.
advice, education, engineer, experience, help, information, language, management, method, situation, skill, transportation, variety, weather, work
The (1) we have at the moment (2. Be) very unclear. We know that the (3) that (4. Need) to be done will require a (5) of (6) which (7. Need) to come from many sources. We require (8) who (9. Have) worked in developing countries, people with (10) skills and people with (11) in (12).
The (13) for recruiting we have received (14. Have) so far been of little (15). It goes without saying that working in developing countries requires people who are able to take on board cultural differences and accept (16) that often (17. Seem) bizarre.
For our part, we must be able to tell people:
What the (18) (19. Be) like. How the seasons are defined.
What (20) (21. Be) like, road, rail and telephone.
What the level of (22) (23. Be), so we can use the appropriate teaching (24).
(adapted from memo on recruiting for World Bank contracts in Indonesia)
Task six **
Read through the following paragraphs and decide whether the nouns are countable or uncountable as they are used. Then make a list of those that can be used as both.
Vienna feeds upon its past, a fond and sustaining diet, varied with chocolate cake or boiled beef with potatoes (Franz Josef’s favourite dish), washed down with the young white wine of the Vienna Woods, digested and re-digested, and ordered once more, over, and over, and over again … If it reminds me sometimes of Beijing, sometimes it suggests to me the sensations of apartheid in South Africa. The city is obsessed and obsessive. Every conversation returns to its lost greatness, every reference somehow finds its way to questions of rank, or status, or historical influence. Viennese romantics still love to wallow in the tragic story of Crown Prince Rudolf and his eighteen-year-old mistress Marie Vetsera, ‘the little Baroness’, who died apparently in a suicide pact in the country house of Mayerling in 1889. The tale precisely fits the popular predilections of the city, being snobbish, nostalgic, maudlin and rather cheap. I went out one Sunday to visit the grave of the little Baroness, who was buried obscurely in a
village churchyard by the command of Franz Josef, and was just in time to hear a Viennese lady of a certain age explaining the affair to her American guests. ‘But in any case,’ I heard her say without a trace of irony, ‘in any case, she was only the daughter of a bourgeois …’
I often saw that same lady waiting for a tram, for she is a familiar of Vienna. She often wears a brown tweed suit, and is rather tightly clamped around the middle, and pearled very likely, and she never seems to be encumbranced, as most of us sometimes are, with shopping bags, umbrellas or toasters she has just picked up from the electrician’s. If you smile at her, she responds with a frosty stare, as though she suspects you might put ketchup on your Tafelspitz, but if you speak to her she lights up with a flowery charm. Inextricably linked with the social absurdity of Vienna is its famous
Gemütlichkeit
, its ordered cosiness, which is enough to make a Welsh anarchist’s flesh creep: the one goes with the other, and just as it made the people of old Vienna one and all the children of their kind father His Imperial, Royal and Apostolic Majesty, still to this day it seems to fix the attitudes of this city as with a scented glue – sweetly if synthetically scented, like flavours you sometimes taste upon licking the adhesives of American envelopes.
(Jan Morris,
Among the Cities
, Penguin Books, 1985, pp. 383–384)
