A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse - The Intonation of Increments

24 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse

the indefi nite article does not have a plural form and is represented in
the chain by zero realization and notated by the convention d°.

(27) a little red book little red books

d e e N d° e e N

Little needs to be added to the description presented earlier of verbal elements
as strings of word-like elements. The examples are from Brazil (p. 101).

Simplifi ed expository description Full description

(28) (have searched) have searched

(.... V........ .) V V'

(29) (was waiting) was waiting

(... V..... .) V V'

(30) (had been expecting) had been expecting

(........ V.......... .) V V' V'

Examples (28) to (30) demonstrate that Brazil decomposes V elements into
strings of elements commencing with a V and then followed by one or more
extensive V' elements.
To date, a number of quite disparate elements have been classifi ed as
A elements.

Simplifi ed expository description Full description

(31) carefully carefully

A A

(32) on the pavement on the pavement

A p d N

(33) when when

A W^9

Examples (31) to (33) show that the full description treats A elements in
three ways as:

1. adverbials in (31).


2. prepositions followed by an optional determiner and adjectival elements,
   with an obligatory nominal element in (32).^10