00831英语语法简答题.doc

1.Explain the syntactic distinction between the predictive and non-predictive use of modal auxiliary with examples. The syntactic distinction between the predictive and non-predictive use of modal auxiliary is clear in the following two sentences: 1) He can’t have been there yesterday. 2) He couldn’t be there yesterday. The two sentences reveal two quite different uses of the modal auxiliary. The first sentence, where the predictive can’t relates to impossibility and the main verb is marked for past time reference, refers to the speaker’s present denial of possibility of a past event. In the second, the modal auxiliary itself, in non-predictive use, is marked for past tense, referring to lack of ability in the past. 2.What’s the function of relative pronoun? The relative pronoun serves as a “link” between the relative clause and its antecedent. It performs two functions: showing concord with its antecedent and indicating its function within the relative clause. 3.If tense is related to time, what is aspect related to? When tense points to the temporal location of an event or a state of affairs, aspect “reflects the way in which the verb action is regarded or experienced with respect to time”. 4.Apart from querying the truth of a statement, what other potential functions can a No question perform? They may be regarded as the speaker’s invitations or suggestions, made in a tentative way as they often are, rather than his negative assumptions. They are like imperatives. For example: Won’t you come in? Won’t you sit down? They can also be like exclamations: Isn’t it lovely? Aren’t you silly? 5.List the types of antecedents. The antecedent is divided into nominal antecedent and non-nominal antecedent. Nominal antecedents fall into different subclasses: they may be common nouns or proper nouns, personal pronouns or demonstrative pronouns. Non-nominal antecedent can be subdivided into three types: clause, verb phrase