Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, A STUDENT'S INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR (Cambridge University Press, 2005)
1. For each of the main clauses below say whether it is canonical or non-canonical. If it's non-canonical, say which non-canonical construction it belongs to.
| Ex | She has such wonderful taste. |
| A | canonical |
| Ex | What excellent taste she has! |
| A | non-canonical — exclamative |
2. Classify the main clauses of the following examples with respect to voice, saying whether each is active or passive.
| Ex | They were looking rather amused. |
| A | active |
| Ex | They were being interrogated. |
| A | passive |
3. For each of the following active clauses, if it has a passive counterpart, supply it; if not, do your best to give a general statement of why this sort of clause doesn't have a passive. (For example, if given Jim remains chairman you might say that chairman is a predicative complement and as such could never become the subject of a corresponding passive clause, as seen by *Chairman is remained by Jim.)
| Ex | Few of the delegates applauded his speech. |
| A | His speech was applauded by few of the delegates. |
| Ex | This area boasts some of the best beaches in the country. |
| A | No passive: the transitive verb boast is exceptional in that it doesn't occur in passive clauses. |
4. Express each of these examples with all clauses entirely in the active voice.
| Ex | You should complain if you are going to be disadvantaged by the proposed changes. |
| A | You should complain if the proposed changes are going to disadvantage you. |
5. For each of the following, say whether it is (a) a passive clause (a be-passive or a get-passive); (b) a complex-intransitive clause with an adjectival passive as complement; or (c) ambiguous between the two. For the ambiguous cases, describe the difference in meaning.
| Ex | I was very embarrassed. |
| A | (b) complex-intransitive clause (note that very cannot modify verbs, so this can't be a be-passive clause) |
| Ex | We were interrogated by the police for five hours. |
| A | (a) a passive clause (note the impossibility of replacing be by a complex-intransitive verb such as seem, become, etc.) |
| Ex | She was injured. |
| A | (c) ambiguous. As a passive clause this describes an event e.g. She was seriously injured when the platform they were standing on collapsed. As a complex-intransitive clause it describes the state resulting from some prior event — e.g. She couldn't play tennis with us because she was injured |
6. For each underlined clause, give an extraposed counterpart if one is available, or if none is available, explain why.
| Ex | That they were cheating seems very likely. |
| A | It seems very likely that they were cheating. |
| Ex | The suggestion that they were cheating is preposterous. |
| A | There is no extraposed counterpart because the underlined subordinate clause is functioning as complement within NP structure, not as subject or internal complement in clause structure. |
7. Give existential or presentational counterparts of the following clauses if they are available. If none is available explain why.
| Ex | Only one student was on the committee. |
| A | There was only one student on the committee. |
| Ex | One of them was a genius. |
| A | This has no existential counterpart: predicative complements in the existential construction are normally AdjPs (as in There was a nurse present,) not NPs (like a genius). |
8. Give non-existential counterparts of the following clauses if one is available, and where none is available explain why.
| Ex | There are some friends of yours outside. |
| A | Some friends of yours are outside. |
| Ex | There's been a terrible accident. |
| A | This is a bare existential and thus has no non-existential | counterpart.
9. For each of the following, give an it-cleft counterpart with the same truth conditions, with the underlined constituent as the foregrounded element.
| Ex | One of their friends informed the police. |
| A | It was one of their friends that informed the police. |
| Ex | They finally convinced her with great difficulty. |
| A | It was with great difficulty that they finally convinced her. |
10. For each of the following, give a pseudo-cleft with the same truth conditions, with the underlined constituent as the foregrounded element.
| Ex | Why he pleaded guilty puzzled everyone. |
| A | What puzzled everyone was why he pleaded guilty. |
| Ex | We objected to the lack of consultation. |
| A | What we objected to was the lack of consultation. |
11. Classify the following examples as (a) left dislocation; (b) right dislocation; (c) preposing; or (d) postposing. Underline the dislocated or reordered constituent. In cases of dislocation, also underline the personal pronoun in the nucleus that has the dislocated phrase as its antecedent.
| Ex | Most of our complaints he simply refused to investigate. |
| A | Most of our complaints he simply refused to investigate. Preposing — of a complement. |
| Ex | My neighbours, I think their son has been arrested. |
| A | My neighbours, I think their son has been arrested. Left dislocation. |