Delahunty and Garvey
indefiniteness: property of some NPs (and the (pro)nouns and articles they
contain), which denote a speaker’s assumption that their referent cannot be
specifically identified. See definiteness.
indicative: See declarative.
information question: a question, introduced by a wh-word, requesting
information rather than a yes-no response. See yes-no question.
intensifier: a function word (typically more, most, very, quite, rather, and
somewhat) used to modify an adjective or an adverb.
intensive pronoun: a pronoun ending in -self or -selves that ordinarily oc-
curs within the noun phrase of its antecedent, following and modifying the
antecedent directly, e.g., I myself did it. See reflexive pronoun.
interactional force: the function of a sentence in a discourse to make as-
sertions, ask questions, issue orders, etc.
interjection: a word, often not grammatically integrated with a sentence,
that expresses the emotions, etc., of the speaker, e.g., Ouch!, Wow!
interrogative: in traditional grammar, the mood of a sentence used to ask a
question.
mood: in traditional grammar, the category indicating whether a sentence
makes an assertion, asks a question, issues an order, etc.
nominal clause (also called noun clause): a subordinate clause that func-
tions as subject, object, or complement. See adverbial clause and relative
clause.
nominative: the case associated with the subject function.
noun phrase: a phrase with a noun as its head word.
noun clause: See nominal clause.
objective case: See accusative case.
particle: a function word, which, with a verb, constitutes a phrasal verb,
e.g., call up my sister/call my sister up.
passive: a voice expressed by the form be + Ven.
perfect: an aspect of a verb phrase, expressed by have + Ven.
person: grammatical category distinguishing the speaker (first person), ad-
dressee (second person), and entity spoken about (third person).
phrasal verb: an idiomatic unit consisting of a verb and particle
possessive case: See genitive case.
postposition: a word analogous to a preposition, but appearing after its ob-
ject NP; appears in Japanese and Old English, but not in modern English.
preposition stranding: ending a clause or sentence with a preposition
whose object has been moved.
preposition: a function word that serves as the head of a prepositional
phrase, e.g., in, on, with, of.