Basic English Grammar with Exercises

Exercise 1

Exercise 1

a- adjective, b-participle; c-participle/continuous aspect; d-participle/continuous

aspect; e-gerund; f-participle; g-gerund; h-gerund; i-gerund; j-gerund; k-looking:

continuous aspect, rising: adjective; l-participle m-talking:participle, having:gerund,

heating: noun; n-noun; o-participle; p-participle; q-participle; r-sitting:participle,

reading: continuous aspect; s-gerund; t-participle

Exercise 2

(1) a Bobby believes [Betsy to be beautiful].  non-finite clause

b Terry tried [to travel to Toronto].  non-finite clause

c Thomas thinks [that Ron runs too fast].  finite clause

d Hetty hopes [for Hugh to hug her].  non-finite clause

e Alan asked [if Sam could stay longer].  finite clause

f Sam answered [that he had to leave].  finite clause

g Bobby believes [that Betsy is beautiful].  finite clause

h Hetty hopes [that Hugh will hug her].  finite clause

On the basis of the examples, it can be concluded that for some verbs (believe,

want and hope, respectively) both finite and non-finite complements are possible. In

other words, their clausal complement may or may not express tense: if tense is

expressed, the clause is finite, if it is not expressed, the clause is non-finite.

Exercise 3

In English, reflexive pronouns must have an antecedent, i.e. a DP that has got the same

reference, within the clause they occur. On the other hand, this is not true for personal

pronouns: there cannot be an antecedent within the same clause (or DP), however,

there is an antecedent outside the clause (or outside the DP). Whenever there are more

than one possible antecedent for a pronoun (either for a reflexive or for a personal

pronoun), the sentence becomes ambiguous: there are at least two ways of

interpretation for the pronoun, thus, for the whole sentence.

a he = John or he = another male

He is a personal pronoun therefore it does not have an antecedent within the clause

[that he would never kiss Jenny]. However, there is a possible antecedent (John) in the

previous clause [John said], since he requires a singular male referent, and John fulfils

these criteria. On the other hand, he can refer to another male, who is not present in

this sentence but has previously been mentioned during the discourse.

b himself = Jonathan

Himself is a reflexive, that is, it must have an antecedent within the same clause [that

Jonathan hates himself]. The antecedent must be male and singular, thus, Jonathan is

the only available DP that functions as its antecedent.