Grammar

Gr. Members: Trinh Thi Bich
Chung Thi Huyen
Dao Ngoc Quy
Nguyen Thi Tuyen


I. Introduction of concord
II. Types of concord
1. Concord of person
2. Concord of number
a. Grammatical concord
b. Notional concord
c. Proximity concord
d. Coordinated Subject


Outline:
I. Introduction of concord
Concord, also termed “agreement”, can be defined as “the relationship between two grammatical units such that one of them displays a particular feature( e.g. plurality) that accords with a displayed ( or semantically implicit) feature in the other” (Quirk et al, 1985 : 755)
II. Types of concord
1. Concord of person:
To be (is/are/am)
Main verbs (speak/speaks)
Modal verbs (can 1 form)
2. Concord of number

a. Grammatical concord

Subject-verb concord: S and V must agree in person and number

S singular V singular
S plural V plural

EX: Each student has his own schoolbag
Two strange men were standing in the street



Subject- complement concord: of number in clause of type SVC
Eg: She (S singular) is a beautiful girl (C singular)
Those books (S pl) are good friends (Cpl)




Object- complement concord: in clause of type SVOC
Eg: I think these boys singers


Subject-object concord: of gender, number and person is necessary when object reflective pronoun.
Eg: She hurts herself

Collective noun: plural concord
Eg: The police congratulated themselves on the victory



Pronoun concord
Personal pronouns in the 3rd person agree with their antecedents both in number and (with the singular pronouns he, she and it) in gender.
EX: Daisy hurt her foot ≠ Daisy hurt his foot
David and Mary hurt their feet.
The plural pronoun “they” is used informally, as a substitute for the indefinite pronouns: everyone, every body, someone, somebody, anyone, anybody, no one, nobody.
EX: Everybody thinks they are right
Has anyone brought their book?
Relative pronouns agree with their antecedents in number of gender
Eg: This is the girl who needs help


b. Notional concord
Notional concord is agreement of verb with subject according to the idea of number rather than the actual presence of the grammatical marker for that idea.
Eg: The government have asked the country to decide by a vote.
Sixteen miles seems like a long walk to her
This news is bad

Singular nouns express singular idea:
Eg: Butter and chicken is my favourite food

Two or more singular nouns refer to the same person
Eg: Uncle Ho, the writer, the politician and the country lover is still in our heart
c. Proximity concord
Verb form is determined by the nearest word

EX: Either you or she is responsible for the mistake
No one except her own supporters agree with her
d. Coordinated Subject
When a subject consists of two or more noun phrases coordinated by “and”, a distinction has to be made between appositional and non-appostional coordination
these have a verb in the plural.
Eg: Lan and Sinh are now ready
A singular verb is used with conjoinings which represent a single entity.
Eg: The hammer and sickle was flying from a tall flag pole
Conjoinings expressing a mutual relationship take a plural verb.
Eg: Your problem and mine are similar
For the coordinated structures refer to the same thing
take a singular verb.
Eg: This temple of ugliness adn memoial to Victorian bad taste was erected at the Queen’s express wish