CHAPTER 2: POSITIONAL

CLASSESI> DEFINITIONII> CLASSIFICATION II.1> NOMINLAS II.2> VERBALS II.3> ADJECTIVALS II.4> ADVERBIALS

I> DEFINITION

Positional classes are based on the positions occupied by the form –classes (Stageberg, 1983:220)

II> CLASSIFICATION II.1>NominalsAn English word (or a word group) is

labeled as a nominal when it takes up one of the following positions (5):

directly after an article (e.g. a, an, the), a quantifier (e.g. some, few, many, much, etc), & an adjective; e.g.:a game; few foods

head of a noun phrase, e.g. Tasks to be done

subject of a verb (SV), e.g. Walking is good for health; To win the match is his greatest ambition

complement including subject complement (SC), object complement (OC), and prepositional complement (PrepC)

Note:

-An SC is the complement linked to a subj. by BE or a Linking verb

-An OC is the complement linked to an obj.

-A PrepC is the complement linked to a preposition

E.g.:One of my favorite exercises is

jogging. SCWe made her the president. OCI’m not very interested in

literature. PrepC

object including direct object (DO), indirect object (IO), and retained object (RO)

-A DO is affected by a verb directly-An IO is affected by a verb

indirectly-An RO continues to be kept as an

object after the verb once the sentence structure is changed, e.g.: from active to passive

E.g.:-I like cooking. DO-He was given nothing. RO-We’ll send you an email

tomorrow. IO

A word group is a nominal if it can be replaced by 1 of these: a noun or noun phrase, this, that, these, those, he/him, she/her, it, they/them, & occupies the usual noun positions. E.g.:

-They heard what we said-We thought of paying cash

II.2> VERBALS

Verbals are the forms that take up the positions of verbs.

are often introduced by the word to, e.g.: to call;

co-occur with the subject, e.g. She will answer, where there are two verbals;

take a subject, an object, a complement (OV, SC, or ADJ) or are modified by an adverbial, regardless of its position, e.g.:

- Keeping silence is the best Odisagreement.SC-She stood still, listening to ADVmusic. o

Verb forms that are capable of full assertion in a sentence & of being inflected for person, number, & tense are called finite verbs & by position they are finite verbals.

E.g.: I choose carefully He chooses carefully

Nonfinite verb forms do not assert fully as the main verbs & are not inflected for person, number, or tense. There are 3 nonfinite verb forms:

-the present participle {-ING vb}-the past participle {-D pp}-the infinitive (to)+verb stem

These frequently appear in sentence portions:

-Picking strawberries was her hobby

-Having been competent in camp activities, Juanita was invited to return as a counselor

-We wanted him to throw the discus

They participate in 1 of the 9 partial sentence patterns, do not have the full assertive power of the main verbs, so they are called nonfinite verbals

Note: when a nonfinite verb form (present part., past part., to+verb stem) appears alone in a noun position, it is called a nominal.

-To live (SV pos.) is to struggle(SC pos.)

-I enjoy fishing (DO pos.)

Likewise, the whole sentence portion containing a verbal & occuring in a noun position is labeled a nominal.

-Playing football (SV pos.) is his hobby

-We like to eat delicious food (DO pos.)

II.3>ADJECTIVALSAn adjectival can be identified by its

characteristic positions in a clause or sentence. It can occur (9):

between a determiner and a noun, e.g. a touching/funny movie;

After BE in the pattern: N+BE+Adj., e.g.:They are nice

directly after linking verbs (intensive verbs or copulas)

E.g.:-That sounds great -They remained wet After a noun: this position accepts

adjs., advs., verbs (participle)& word groups

-The man, old & short, wanted to marry my sister

-The blondes especially, wore blue

* Adjectivals of different structures after nouns

-It is time to leave (infinitive)-I watched my cat, which was

licking her tail (relative clause)

-The second chapter of the novel ended in a conflict (prepositional phrase)

-This is a medicine good for gastritis (modified adjective)

In written English, at the beginning of a sentence before the subject

-Angry & upset, I went home quickly After words composed of any-, every-, no-,

or some- plus –body, -one, -place, or –thing-Would you like something sweet? directly after an object and functions as an

object complement- That drives him mad; right after adverbs of degree (intensifying

adverbs), e.g. extremely hard right after more and most, e.g. more

intelligent, most confusing

II.4> ADVERBIALSAdverbials are words or word groups

that occur in the adverb positions & perform adverb functions. Adverbs are fairly free as to where they can occur in a sentence. Common adverbial positions (6):

directly after more and most, e.g. more casually, most cautiously;

clause/sentence initial position, with

or without juncture e.g.: Without any hesitation, I’ll reply; Unless you stay still, you’ll die

After the subject & before the auxiliary or verb, e.g.: He really wants to move; Mary in her own way is an angel.

After the aux. or first aux. & before the lexical verb, e.g.: He would seldom drive; You may in this way be of great assistance

After the lexical verb & after BE but preceding other obligatory elements of the clause, e.g.: He drives with abandon; She is without doubt a specialist

After the complement of the verb (SC, DO, OC), e.g.: My mother was a teacher(SC) for 20 years; He put the car key(DO) where he could find it the most easily; The detective considered the man innocent(OC) after investigating the case

EXERCISES: Identify each italicized element by N-al (nominal), V-al

(verbal), Adj-al (adjectival), Adv-al (adverbial)

1. The hearings were postponed.2. He hated starving. 3. That car is a gas-gulper. 4. We gave the upstairs a good scrubbing. 5. Below was dangerous.6. Can you tell me what you’ve seen? 7. Picking strawberries was her favorite

occupation. 8. To give generously is a Christian virtue. 9. We urged the guests to remain for dinner. 10. Seeing the photos is not being there. 11. The deer was standing below.

12) Motorcycling always gives Genevieve a thrill.

13) What can he do besides play the drums? 14) Fred earned money by delivering papers. 15) We started our trip homeward. 16) The door ajar worried the janitor. 17) The drugstore on the corner sells the

Times. 18) Disappointed and sad, she laid down on

the bed. 19) Everybody interested is invited to appear.20) Bob should talk loud.21) They stood around for ten minutes.22) They rode Sunday. Adv-al