162. Writing about Classifications

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Numerous words and structures are associated with classifications, some easily misused

THE NATURE OF CLASSIFICATIONS

A classification is a grouping together of all the things or ideas that seem to possess a particular similarity. Many classifications are expressed by a single word – vehicles, for example, meaning “self-propelled land-based conveyances” – but some need more.

Classifications comprise either further classifications or just individuals. Vehicles, for example, comprise sub-classifications like cars and trucks, but primary colours just comprise the individual colours red, yellow and blue. A sub-classification may again have its own word, like cars, or it may need more. Especially common are two nouns together (e.g. diesel cars: see 38. Nouns Used like Adjectives) and nouns after an adjective (e.g. private cars: see 283. Lesser Known Facts about Adjectives, #4).

Sub-classifications are often called types. They must not be confused with parts, represented by such features as windscreens and wheels (see 196. Saying What is inside Things). Each type within a classification both resembles and differs from the others. The resemblance is the shared features that underlie the classification; the difference is additional features not found in other types, or only found there.

Reference to similarities and differences is thus common in writing about classifications. The wide range of vocabulary and grammar associated with these is considered elsewhere in this blog in 149. Saying how Things are Similar and 216. Indicating Differences. Other posts with relevant information are 23. Noun Countability Clues 3: Subtypes and 170. Logical Errors in Written English.

The following discussion concentrates first on naming types and individuals within an already-established classification, and then on naming a classification based on already-known members.

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NAMING CLASSIFICATION MEMBERS

A key consideration is whether some members are being named or all.

1. Naming Some Classification Members

Verbs can show that only some members are being named:

(a) Countries with a cool temperate climate include New Zealand and Canada.

(b) Animals include vertebrates.

Here, include has the classification as its subject and some of its members as object. The choice of members may be random in order to exemplify (see 1. Simple Example-Giving), or dictated by their status (shown by adding a word like mainly), or as an introduction to their deeper analysis.

Another verb that can introduce fewer than all classification members is BE. Its subject, the classification, cannot have the, but can follow a number word:

(c) (TWO) countries with a cool temperate climate are Canada and New Zealand.

(d) (TWO) (SUB)GROUPS OF vehicles are cars and trucks.

The extra words subgroups of in (d) are needed because the classification members there are themselves classifications. *Two vehicles is not possible. Synonyms of subgroups include branches, (sub)categories, (sub)classes, (sub)divisions, kinds, sorts and (sub)types.

Incompleteness of a member list can also be signalled with wording before it that is not an ordinary verb – expressions like including and such as (to show random choices) or above all, in particular and mainly (to show preferences):

(e) There are various countries with a cool temperate climate, such as Canada.

(f) Some countries have a cool temperate climate, especially Canada.

The wording introducing such expressions should normally be a possible complete sentence and include a number word – vague like various/ some or exact like five – before the classification (see 54. Sentence Lists 1). Moreover, the classification must usually have more than 2 members. To name a member of a two-member classification, use one of which is:

(g) There are two subgroups of animals, one of which is vertebrates.

Classification members after such as and including normally need to be named in the same sentence as their class name. However, there are expressions that facilitate naming in a new sentence, e.g. one is… (see 263. Uses of “One” and “Ones”, #3), for example, above all and in particular (see 122. Signpost Words in Multi-Sentence Lists). The latter three occupy the same sentence as the classification when lacking a following verb, and a new sentence otherwise.

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2. Naming All of the Classification Members

Before a full list of members, COMPRISE is a common substitute for INCLUDE (without of – see 42. Unnecessary Prepositions):

(h) Animals comprise vertebrates and invertebrates.

Another option is are. To distinguish it from the incompleteness-showing use mentioned above, the class name needs the, with or without a number word. It also needs, with classification members that are themselves classifications, subgroups of or similar:

(i) THE (TWO) SUBGROUPS OF animals are vertebrates and invertebrates.

(j) THE (THREE) primary colours are red, yellow and blue.

For more on this use of BE, see 55. Sentence Lists 2 and 117. Restating Generalizations more Specifically. Note that adding a word like main after a number word can guard against untruth (see 96. Making Statements More Uncertain 2).

Another alternative to COMPRISE – but only with members that are themselves classifications – is division verbs after BE: BROKEN, CATEGORISED, CLASSIFIED, DIVIDED, GROUPED, ORGANISED, SEPARATED, SPLIT and SORTED. The next word must be into – not in or to – and there is no need for subgroups of. Here is sentence (h) with one of these verbs:

(k) Animals are divided into (two groups:) vertebrates and invertebrates.

The part in brackets illustrates another feature of sentences like this: the classification members can optionally be separated from the verb by a number expression like two groups, along with a colon or a full stop. Such number expressions must have punctuation after them, since they make a possible complete sentence with the part before them (see 17. Colons versus Semi-Colons). They need a colon before a list without verbs; otherwise a full stop (often followed by a listing word like one or the first: see 122. Signpost Words in Multi-Sentence Lists).

Using a passive classification verb has special benefits. One is that writers can show whether or not they are newly presenting a classification as their own: can be in the verb says they are and are reports it as someone else’s, or their own elsewhere (see 237. Auxiliary Verbs in Professional Communication, #4). Passive classification verbs also enable writers to say how sub-classifications differ from each other:

(l) Words were traditionally classified according to their meanings into eight “parts of speech”.

This says meanings were how parts of speech were distinguished from each other – meanings were the “criterion” for the classification. According to is one of various multi-word prepositions that can signal a criterion, others being depending on, based on, on the basis of and in terms of. For a comparison of based on and on the basis of, see 293. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 4, #3.

Because phrases like according to are prepositions, they must be combined with noun-like wording after them (their meanings above). However, statements with a subject + verb remain usable, as they can become noun-like after these particular prepositions by combining with an indirect question word (whether, what, how etc.: see 285. Complexities of Question Words, #3), e.g.:

(m) Words can be divided into various classes ACCORDING TO how they are used.

A further effect of adding a number expression like various classes here, or two groups in (k), is that certain active verbs can replace the passive ones listed above. Fall into is possible before classes, groups or divisions, and are of before types, sorts or kinds (e.g. animals are of two types).

Another alternative to COMPRISE is to start with there are and a number word:

(n) There are three primary colours: red, yellow and blue.

(o) There are two (sub)groups of animals: vertebrates and invertebrates.

Sentences like this are not informal (see 161. Special Uses of “There” Sentences, #1). Note the use again of a colon before the list – or a full stop if the list contains verbs.

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NAMING A CLASSIFICATION

The simplest way to name a classification is with BE:

(p) Red IS a primary colour.

(q) Mammals ARE vertebrates.

This is a different kind of BE from that in (i) above, meaning “belong to” rather than “equate to”. Indeed, BELONG TO (+ plural) is a possible alternative, along with COME UNDER (see 290. Ways of Using COME, #9).

Quite often after BE in sentences like (p) and (q), extra wording is added. With singular subjects like red in (p), is an example of… is common. The subsequent classification name may be plural (…primary colours) or singular:

(r) Red is an example of a primary colour.

The word example in such sentences is probably not exemplifying. For that, the classification member (red) must be newly-introduced information – the focus of the sentence – not a further mention of a previous idea (see 1. Simple Example-Giving).

On the other hand, with group subjects – mammals in (q) – BE allows a + (sub)group/ type /kind / sort + of between itself and the classification name. After a (sub)group of, this name must be plural (a subgroup of vertebrates), but after the others it is normally singular without a (e.g. a type of vertebrate) – a rare case of a singular countable noun without a preceding article or equivalent (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”). Another option after are is members of the class of… .

Two other alternatives to BE for naming a classification are the passive forms of CATEGORISE and CLASSIFY – again with either are or can be. To separate this use of these verbs from the earlier-described one for naming classification members – as in (l) – the next word is not into but as (beware of using to be – see 281. Words with Unexpected Grammar 4, #b).

Thus, are in (q) could become can be (or are) classified as. CLASSIFY and CATEGORISE are also usable in the active form, e.g. Scientists classify…as… (see 92. Complement-Showing “As”).

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PRACTICE EXERCISE: CLASSIFICATION LANGUAGE

To assist understanding and memorization of points in this post, below are some sentences with blank spaces. Each of the spaces represents one of the words discussed above. The task is to identify the words, using the diagram to help you, and put them into the appropriate grammatical form (singular, plural, etc.). Alternative possibilities may sometimes exist. Suggested answers are given afterwards.

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1. Cold-blooded vertebrates ….. reptiles and fish.

2. Mammals ….. to the ….. of warm-blooded vertebrates.

3. Crocodiles are a …… …… amphibian.

4. Warm-blooded vertebrates …… …… into mammals and birds.

5. Reptiles are …… of the …… of cold-blooded vertebrates.

6. Dolphins …… …… as mammals.

7. …… …… of fish …… sharks and tuna.

8. …… …… …… main …… of ……-……  ……: reptiles, fish and amphibians.

9. Warm-blooded animals …… …… …… …… vertebrates.

10. Vertebrates …… mammals, birds, ……, ……  and …… .

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Possible Answers

1. Cold-blooded vertebrates INCLUDE reptiles and fish.

2. Mammals BELONG to the CLASS/CATEGORY of warm-blooded vertebrates.

3. Crocodiles are a KIND/TYPE/SORT OF amphibian.

4. Warm-blooded vertebrates ARE DIVIDED (etc.) into mammals and birds.

5. Reptiles are MEMBERS of the CLASS/CATEGORY of cold-blooded vertebrates.

6. Dolphins ARE CLASSIFIED/CATEGORISED as mammals.

7. TWO SUBGROUPS of fish ARE sharks and tuna.

8. THERE ARE THREE main GROUPS of COLD-BLOODED VERTEBRATES: reptiles, fish and amphibians.

9. Warm-blooded animals ARE A SUBGROUP OF vertebrates.

10. Vertebrates COMPRISE mammals, birds, REPTILES, FISH and AMPHIBIANS.

161. Special Uses of “There” Sentences

“There” very commonly introduces certain information types in professional writing

“THERE” SENTENCES IN PROFESSIONAL WRITING

There sentences are common in professional writing. A typical example is:

(a) There are several factors that influence demand.

The structure of there sentences is not usually a problem – it features in elementary courses – but when to use one in professional writing is less clear-cut. The uses are, in fact, quite numerous, and perhaps not always obvious. A French-speaking student of mine once told me, for example, that he felt uncomfortable using there in sentences like (a) because it seemed informal.

This post surveys what seem to be the most common and valuable uses of there sentences in English professional writing, including some that also feature in other posts. The hope is that having all the uses together in one place might help them to be better appreciated and remembered. The approach resembles that in other posts with “special” in their title (190. … “it”,  200. … Relative Clauses,  212. … “Do” and 235. …”the”).

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BASICS OF “THERE” SENTENCES

As a preliminary, it is useful to consider the exact nature of there sentences. There itself is usually called “existential”. Unlike there meaning “in that place”, which is normally stressed and pronounced with the strong vowel /eә/, it is unstressed and pronounced mostly like the. In some English varieties, the “r” is silent before a consonant (there may be, there seem), but in all it is clearly pronounced before a vowel (there is = /ծә ‘rɪz/; there are = /’ծә rә/).

Existential there links with BE or another complement-taking verb (APPEAR, EXIST, REMAIN, SEEM), which can be in ordinary, participle or infinitive form (see 88. Exotic Grammar Structures 1, #4). It is usually considered an “empty” subject of its verb, resembling “empty” it (see 103. Representing a Later Statement with “It”). The verb, however, agrees not with there, but with the following noun or pronoun. Sentence (a), for example, needs there are, not there is, because factors is plural. For more on verb agreement, see 204. Grammatical Agreement.

Existential there is usually said to prevent an indefinite noun (without the) from being the subject of BE (or similar). For example, there prevents (a) from starting Several factors are able…, and it prevents the following from starting A list…:

(b) There is a list of references at the end.

What is not always clear is why English speakers avoid indefinite subjects of BE. A possible answer is that indefinite nouns tend to provide “new” information – the focus of the sentence – whereas verb subjects are more associated in English with “given” or familiar information (see 156. Mentioning what the Reader Knows Already). Putting there before the verb solves this problem by enabling the indefinite noun to go in a more natural later position.

The reason why this use of there is called “existential” is that it is felt to express the existence of something. However, this idea hides an important distinction. Compare the meaning of there is before …a possibility of time travel and …a drought. Although both contain the idea of existence, they differ in that the first is absolute and eternal (see 181. Expressing Possibility), the second situational and temporary.

The first meaning is also present in sentence (a) above (and see no such thing in 260. Formal Written Uses of “Thing”, #9); the second is in (b). The difference is perhaps reflected in the fact that the first is more easily paraphrased with the verb EXIST (a possibility exists of…).

One other point about existential there is that it is not always the first word. Quite often it will follow an adverb-like expression like at the end in (b). If this indicates a place, there can be dropped (At the end is…: see 295. Options in Saying Where, #4).

Note finally that in Standard English is there is only a rare alternative to exists or there is. It perhaps needs both the adverbial and existential meanings of there to be involved, so that is present would also be possible. Speakers of some other varieties of English, for example in India and Africa, where is there is more common, need to be aware of this difference when writing Standard English.

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USES OF “THERE” SENTENCES IN PROFESSIONAL WRITING

The question of when to use existential there is not satisfactorily answered by saying merely that it indicates the existence of something. We need to know when there might be preferable to other existence-expressing possibilities.

Outside of professional writing, a well-known use is for introducing a principal story character (there was once…). In professional writing, common special uses are as follows.

1. Introducing a List

This is very common. There are usually precedes a number word without the (see 235. Special Uses of “the”, #3) plus a list generalization, e.g. factors that influence demand in (a) above. If this generalization contains a verb, like influence in (a), it must also include a “joining device” like that or -ing (see 52. Participles Placed Just after their Noun, #1).

The list itself may occupy later sentences, as in (a), or the same sentence (see 55. Sentence Lists 2 and 162. Writing about Classifications). For details of list-writing itself, see 93. Good and Bad Lists and 122. Signpost Words in Multi-Sentence Lists.

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2. Introducing an Idea in a General Way

Like lists, even single ideas can be introduced in a general way. Starting with there is one of various possibilities (see 117. Restating Generalizations More Specifically). One common purpose is to introduce a difference (see 216. Indicating Differences):

(c) There is an important difference between solar and water power…

Sometimes a colon follows, sometimes a full stop. A colon is necessary before words that could not be an independent sentence, like reliability of the source added above (see 17. Colons versus Semi-colons). A colon / full stop choice exists before words resembling a single sentence, whereas a full stop is compulsory before multiple sentences (see the end of 178. How to Write a Heading).

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3. Stating a Number

Numbers cannot normally follow their noun +BE (*The … were five: see 184. Adjectives with Limited Mobility). Instead, use there + BE and then the number, with the following noun explicit or understood (There were five …s).

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4. Hiding or Relocating a HAVE Subject

“Hiding” the subject of a verb means not mentioning it with the verb – for example because it is unknown or inappropriate (see 46. How to Avoid “I”, “We” and “You”). Relocating a subject means mentioning it outside the normal subject position. Each of these needs is often met by making the verb passive: without by for “hiding”, with by for relocation (see 4. Verbs that Don’t Have to be Passive).

The verb HAVE (= “possess”) is problematic because it cannot normally be passive. One possible alternative is using the HAVE synonym POSSESS, which does allow the passive. However, this often feels clumsy. A better alternative is a verb whose active form has a similar meaning to that of passive HAVE (see 27. How to Avoid Passive Verbs). Sometimes, BELONG TO is usable. Very commonly, however, the choice is there + BE. Compare:

(d) The village has a post office.

(e) There is a post office (in the village).

In (e), if the subject of (d) (the village) is mentioned at all, it goes last.

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5. Reporting without Naming a Source

When the originator of reported speech need not or cannot be mentioned, a reporting word is still often necessary (see 22. Multiple Speakers in a Text). If this word is a verb, the passive form after it allows non-mention of the speech originator (see 103. Representing a Later Statement with “it”), e.g.:

(f) It is said that top footballers earn too much.

By contrast, if the reporting word is a noun, a there sentence will allow non-mention of the originator. For example, (f) could begin there is a belief… (see 287. Speech and Thought Nouns). Common there expressions include there is a call for…, there are reports that…, there are suggestions that…, there was an order to… and there is a questioning of… .

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6. Characterising

EXAMPLE

(g) There is benefit in travelling widely.

Here, there precedes BE plus a characterising noun like benefit plus the characterised idea, usually after in but sometimes after of or that:

(h) There is no surprise that winters are warmer.

For more examples, see 78. Infinitive versus Preposition after Nouns.

Such sentences resemble sentences with a forward-referring it (see 103. Representing a Later Statement with “it”). Indeed, paraphrase with it is often possible:

(g1) It is beneficial to travel widely.

(h1) It is not surprising (not a surprise) that winters are warmer.

As these show, after it is an adjective is common instead of a noun, without a preposition (though nouns are often necessary or possible instead: see 318. “It is” + Noun & Another Verb).

It beginnings seem more frequent than there ones. A possible reason for preferring there might be the presence of an earlier noun that a forward-referring it might be incorrectly understood as referring back to. There alternatives are also useful in paraphrasing (see 270. Paraphrasing Adjectives with Words of Other Kinds, #2).

Adjectives very often have a corresponding noun (see 255. Nouns Made from Adjectives), but not all such nouns are usable in a there paraphrase of an it sentence. Others that are include advantage (advantageous), appeal (appealing), attraction (attractive), a challenge (challenging), difficulty (difficult), harm (harmful), a hazard (hazardous), a likelihood (likely), no point (pointless), a possibility (possible), a problem (problematic), profit (profitable), promise (promising), reward (rewarding), risk (risky), satisfaction (satisfying), usefulness, (useful) and value (valuable).

Besides single nouns, some fairly fixed noun phrases can make a there paraphrase, including great potential in…, little/ much to be gained from… and a/no need to… (see the end of 47. How to Avoid “I”, “We” and “You”).

The preposition worth, which follows it is… in the combination …worth it to…, changes after there is… to the noun worth (+ in…) – see 226. Words with Complicated Grammar 2, #1.

Adjectives that cannot become a noun in sentences like (g) include advisable, compulsory, definite, desirable, disappointing, easy, important, obvious, special and surprising. Many, however, can follow There is something, e.g. There is something special / disappointing about…. 

Many adjectives with un- or -less, e.g. undoubted, unsurprising, hopeless, pointless, useless, drop un-/-less after there is… and instead become no or little + noun, e.g. there is no surprise… (see 224. Asserting the Truth of What you Say, #3). For a discussion of no doubt, see 157. Tricky Word Contrasts 5, #1.

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7. Naming a Location

There statements are a common way of saying where something is. The location words may go first or last:

(i) There is a hotel on the main street.

These location words start with a preposition (on), but alternatives include a participle (e.g. standing…) or relative pronoun (which stands…). Common errors are using an ordinary verb without which, e.g. *…there is a hotel stands…, or a participle with it, e.g. *…which standing… (see 52. Participles Placed Just after their Noun).