A comprehensive grammar of current English sixth edition chapter 16 Mood
Answers
Answer:
1. {Ex 1: No model answer called for}
2. Explain carefully why the suffix ⋅ish (as in greenish, sweetish, newish) is not one of the inflectional suffixes of English.
ExConsider instead the suffix ⋅ness (as in stubbornness, wetness, etc.): why is this not an inflectional suffix?Athe role of this suffix is to provide a means of forming new nouns, thus of enlarging the vocabulary. It is not inflectional because nouns in ⋅ness do not differ syntactically from other nouns: there aren't any rules of syntax saying that in such and such a construction a noun must or must not be formed in this way. Take a clause like They criticised his stubbornness: we could replace stubbornness by a simple noun like face or book, or a noun formed by means of some other suffix, such as appearance, and such replacements have no bearing on the syntax. It would merely be a matter of replacing one vocabulary item with another.
3. Explain why there is consonant doubling in the first member of the following pairs, but not in the second:
Exsetting eatingAThe first is formed from the lexical base set, and satisfies the conditions given in [7] on p. 270:
(a) the suffix ⋅ing begins with a vowel sound;
(b) the base ends in a single consonant sound represented by a single letter, t;
(c) the consonant letter follows a single-letter vowel symbol, e
(d) the base is stressed on the only, hence final, syllable
There is no doubling in eating because condition (c) is not satisfied: the consonant represented by t follows a vowel represented by the two-letter complex symbol ea.
4. For each of the following verbs say whether the final e is deleted or retained when the gerund-participle is formed. Relate your answers to the rule of e deletion discussed in �3.2.
ExhateA The e is deleted. This is a mute e: it doesn't itself represent a sound and is preceded by a consonant, t. The gerund-participle is formed by adding the suffix ⋅ing, which begins with a vowel and except in certain specific cases not relevant to this example triggers deletion of mute e.ExseeA The e is retained. The final e here is part of the composite symbol ee which is always retained intact before the suffix ⋅ing.
5. For each of the following lexical bases give the inflectional form specified below, and show how the treatment of the final y follows the rule of final y replacement.
Exsay gerund-participleA saying The final y of the base is not a single-letter vowel symbol, and hence the rule of final y replacement does not apply.Exlady pluralA ladies The y of the base is a single-letter vowel symbol and is replaced by ie before the suffix ⋅s.
6. Rewrite these examples with all noun phrases changed to their plural counterparts and all present-tense verbs changed to the correct preterite form.
ExThat photo is excellent.A Those photos were excellent.
7. The following irregular verbs have shape-sharing between the preterite and the past participle. Assign them to one or other of Types a–h in [16] according to the relation between these forms and the lexical base, and note those which also have regular variants of the preterite and past participle.
Exteach
10. {Book gives model answer for Ex 10}
11. {Model answer not appropriate for Ex 11}
12. Discuss the choice between the ⋅es and ⋅s alternants of the plural suffix with the following nouns, after gathering evidence about how they are actually spelled in real texts:
ExcelloA cellos This (like various others of Italian origin such as piano and soprano) is one of those that obligatorily takes the ⋅s alternant even though the o follows a consonant symbol.
13. Nouns with lexical bases ending in f or fe either have (a) obligatory modification of the base in plural formation; (b) optional modification; or (c) no modification. Give plurals of the following nouns, grouping them into these three types:
ExscarfA (b) optional modification, with regular scarfs alternating with irregular scarves.
14. Give plurals of the following nouns, grouping them into three types: (a) those with only foreign plurals; (b) those that have foreign and regular plurals as variants; or (c) those with only regular plurals.
Exantenna
this was a note