Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

|————————————noun phrase ——————|

|————embedded clause ————|

The man who 

you spoke to on the phone is my uncle.

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Clause; Subordinate clause

Empty it Occurs when it is used as an empty pronoun, a ‘dummy’ subject form in

anticipatory structures. Empty it does not refer to any specific object or entity:

It’s very hot today, isn’t it?

(empty it as reference to weather)

It’s getting late.

(empty it as reference to situation)

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Anticipatory structure

Endophora (adjective = endophoric) A term meaning reference to people,

places, things and ideas within a text. Endophoric references are of two types:

anaphoric (pointing backward to something mentioned earlier in the text) and

cataphoric (pointing forward to something mentioned later in the text). 

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Exophora

Endweight Indicates where the most weight falls in terms of the focus on new

information. In English, endweight is typically at the end of a clause. 

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Focus; Fronting

Epistemic A characteristic of modality concerned with the speaker’s judgement

about the certainty, probability or possibility of something. It involves an

assessment of potential facts:

I 

might see you later.

(it is possible, not certain)

902 | Glossary

Cambridge Grammar of English

---

I

’ll see you tomorrow.

(speaker is certain)

In this book, terms such as probability and possibility are used in preference to

epistemic.

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Deontic; Modality

Exclamation mark A form of punctuation which is used after an exclamative

clause or when a sentence expresses emotive force (How nice! Well done! I

don’t believe it!

).

Exclamative A phrase or a clause type that expresses the speaker’s reaction of

surprise, shock or strong impression. Exclamatives usually consist of phrases

with what and how followed by a subject + verb construction. In writing, they

are punctuated with an exclamation mark (!):

What a nuisance! 

How lovely you are!

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Interjection

Existential there Contains an indefinite subject which does not refer to any object

or entity:

There were a lot of people in the town centre.

There’s something I want to talk to you about. 

Sentence patterns with existential there enable a focus to be placed on the

subject by locating it in the rheme (

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Comment

) of the clause:

We drove past one time and 

there

was a woman standing outside

.

Exophora (adjective = exophoric) A term meaning reference to the situation

outside of the text:

[on a public sign] 

This exit must be kept clear at all times.

Exophora is contrasted with anaphora and cataphora.

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Endophora

Filler Refers to vocalisations (er, erm, um, mm) or words that are used to fill gaps

in conversations. A filler can mark hesitation, a shift in topic (Okay, erm , let’s

move on.

), or can indicate the speaker’s online process of thinking and

planning (Well, of course, erm, I think we should take our time before taking

any action.

).

Finite A finite clause contains a verb which signals a choice of tense (a tensed

verb). It typically has a subject, and can be a main or subordinate clause:

He 

lives on his own. 

(present tense)

Finite is contrasted with non-finite.