Chapter 5

Structure Class Words

Find the Articles…

Chapter 5: Grammar Safari

Find a ‘real-life’ error involving one of the structures discussed in the text Identify the problem Show us both the problem & correction

Example: I love deserts, but pie we had was

terrible. P: Definite nouns require articles C: “… but the pie we had was terrible.”

Form-Class vs. Structure-Class

Form Classes Structure Classes

NounsVerbsAdjectivesAdverbs

DeterminersAuxiliariesQualifiersPrepositions ConjunctionsPronounsRelativesInterrogatives

Compare…

Glob ostriches ate larm drank plonk glob baffled lion.

The androokers plurked and urkled beside the broofled lumphet.

Which is easier to make sense of?

What does this tell us about form vs. structure classes?

Determiners

Traditional Definition Usually only talk about articles (a, an,

the)

Linguistic definition signals a NOUN is on it’s way gives grammatical information about the

coming noun Ø, a, an, the, some, few, much, many,

this, that, these, those, my, Dave’s, etc.

Determiners: Function I got ______ sand in my shoe.

Øsomethe * a

c.f. “Count” vs. “Non-count” Shift in meaning: this, Joe’s…

You Tell Me…

? Katie went to ? Greenville. ? dogs are good ? pets. Peter is ? dog.

Try to use: Ø, a, an, the, some, few, much, many, this, that, these, those, my, Dave’s, etc.

? Katie went to ? Greenville…

Determiners tell us about NOUNs Count vs. non-count Possession Quantity Location relative to speaker

Actual or emotional… Specific (known) vs. generic (unknown)

AKA: Definite & Indefinite; Old & New

Cohesion

New and Old Information George was carrying an umbrella. The umbrella was red. It was wet.

Writer/Speaker’s responsibility… A – B, B – C, C – D…. A – B, A – C, A – D….

Adjectives vs. Determiners Determiners

No prefixes/suffixes Fixed positions with the noun Rarely added or deleted from a language

Adjectives Can change form

To be discussed under Morphological Tests (later) Occur in attributive or complement positions Come & go naturally and regularly in

language nerdy, phat, seniorish…

Demonstrative Adjectives

This, That, These, Those…

Our Text: Determiners

Many School Texts: Demonstrative Adjectives Answer “which one”

Exercise 5.1

List all the determiners(you should also be able to tell what information they give about the noun)

The community can’t provide enough water for more houses on this land.

The third time someone’s phone rang in

the middle of the night, Herb lost his

temper.

Diagramming Determiners

pipum

pkin

A

Just like adjectives…

A Pumpkin Pi Tree

NP

Det Adj N

A pumpkin pi

Form vs. Structure… Cont’d

Form Class Structure Class

Lexical MeaningGrammatical Meaning

Often add Morphemes

Rarely add Morphemes

Open-Class (virtually unlimited)

Closed-Class (relatively few)

Relatively free appearance (function)

Linked with certain word categories

ESL Awareness…

Subconscious grammar rules ≠ English Spanglish, Chinglish, etc. may result

Examples: *I bought car from car dealer (≈ Asian) *Me no want none (≈ Hispanic)

Why do we see these types of ‘error’?

5.2 & 5.3

Diagrams & Trees

Enough friends His friends All my friends Their only other friends

Small but Important…

Auxiliaries AKA “helping Verbs”

HAVE BE May be ‘true’ verbs DO

Modals Never ‘true verb’ CAN, WILL, SHALL, MAY, Must, Ought

}

5.4 Identify the AUX & MAIN verbs

Did someone say we should be leaving? I have been wanting to leave since 8:30. This must be the longest party of the year. Our host will not do this again.

NOTE: Each clause has its own verbs…

Qualifiers

AKA: Intensifiers… Often treated as a sub-class

of ADJ or ADV…

Know a Qualifier...

Test frame sentence: The handsome man seems ___

handsome. Modifies (increasing or decreasing)

noun adjective adverb prepositional phrase (only a few

qualifiers)

Find the Qualifier

Qualifier Usage

Dialectal Wicked

Informal Really

Formal Quite Rather

Diagramming Qualifiers

chill

wicked

aJust like adjectives/adverbs…

Whadda YOU Think?

Are “totally” and “all” qualifiers in these contexts?

Christine is totally mad at her boyfriend

… so she was all like “I told you so.”

Exercise 5.6

Identify all the determiners, auxiliary verbs and qualifiers below

Perhaps if you had not killed off the

hero so quickly in the first chapter,

you would have found it easier to

continue with your novel…

Prepositions

Tells location of a noun with, on, after, by, against, etc.

Sets up a phrase with a noun with a friend, on the couch, etc

Prepositions (& prepositional phrases)

It was Mr. Plum After supper In the library With the hammer For the sweet revenge

Think about it… How do prepositions appear in

sentences? What purpose(s) do they serve?

Diagramming Prepositions

Remember: Nouns go on flat lines Words that modify go on slanted lines…

for

thesw

eet

revenge

Tree-ing

PP

Prep NP

Det Adj N

for the sweet revenge

Prepositional Phrases As… Our visitors had a dog with big teeth. A dog with a hungry look in his eyes.

They strolled along the river. They went after sunset. Without fear, they wandered about

listening to music.

The band was out of this world!

More Diagramming

Nouns go on flat lines Words that modify go on slanted lines…

dog

a with

a hungry

look

in eyes

his

Even More Diagramming

The band was out of this world.

_world_

band was \

this

out of___

Use Pedestals for phrases that fill a main slot: Subj, Verb, Obj…

the

Find the Prepositions (Adj or Adv?)

Adv

Adj(of the litter)

Preposition or Adverb?

He walked along the road. They all sang along.

HINT: If there is no object, it can’t be a preposition…

Phrasal Verbs

AKA: Two word verbs Idioms

“combination of words that cannot be predicted from the meaning of their parts”

Look up a word in the dictionary… Sit out this round… Verbal Particles: up, out, etc.

Verb Particles or Prepositions? Oscar looked up the road

before he turned into his driveway. Oscar looked up the spelling of a

word before he turned in his paper.

Tests: Meaning Moveability (particle can often be moved)

Phrasal Verbs: Diagrams & Trees

Oscar looked up spelling…

Phrasal verbs are just verbs…

the_

S

NP V NP

Oscar looked up …

Choosing Verbs

Why should we care about verbs? What about phrasal verbs?

The legislature turned down the proposal

The legislature rejected the proposal What about common verbs?

Be, have, do, say, make, go, take, come, see , get…

Exercise 5.7 What are the purple words: Pronoun,

Preposition, Adverb or Particle?

Jim complained bitterly when he learned that Alice had signed him up for next week’s log-splitting contest.

Seeing a snake slithering slowly over the bank out of sight into the underbrush, I decided to put off going for a walk in the woods after all.

Pronouns

Traditional Definition Substitute for a noun

Linguistic Definition Substitute for any Noun Phrase or

nominal

Pronouns

May I have that in context, please

Subcategories Case (subject // object) Person (singular // plural

1st // 2nd // 3rd // neuter)

Do You Object?

Exercise 5.8 Because both he/him and I/me were late

for class, neither of us heard the news. Our friends in Hickory want Yuan and

I/me to spend the holidays with them.

Strategies for finding the ‘SAE’ choice Rule based: Subject/object Instinctive: Singularize

Time to Reflect

Myself Ourselves Yourself Yourselves Himself Herself Themselves Itself

Antecedent should appear in same sentence

}

Antecedentless Pronouns One Some Any

None Every ???

Not in the text… Here to point out that you don’t ALWAYS have an antecedent.

Indefinite Pronouns

Beware agreement issues: Somebody always forgets to do their

homework.

Get Some Exercise (5.9)

Find the errors:

Sharon’s letter was addressed to both Marie and myself.

Everybody finished his homework.

Sexist Language

Examples: * Everyone finished his homework * A dog is man’s best friend

For a single instance: Everyone finished his/her homework The cake was great. Everyone finished

it! For multiple occurrences: ______

All the students finished their homework

Just read this for now… We’ll analyze some of it later…

Pronoun Safari…

Find all 9 pronouns…

Pronoun Safari (Part II)

“11 pronouns” Label: S, O, or Possessive

Coordinating Conjunctions

And, but, or, nor, so, yet, for * Join two equal elements

Words Over and under the hill

Phrases Over the river and through the woods

Clauses You come down, for I’m going to your

house…

*Typically join sentences…

Find the Conjunctions: What is joined?

Correlative Conjunctions

Also join two equal parts Join with emphasis…

Both… and Either… or Neither… nor Not only… but also

Diagramming Phrasal Verbs

Oscar looked up

Conjunctions branch the diagram

the_

the_

meaning

spelling

an

d

To Comma or Not to Comma?

Joining units w/ a Coordinating Conjunction Two full sentences Comma Two words or phrases NO

comma

Three or more words or phrases Comma follows all but the last item (not a definite rule, but playing it safe)

Conjunctive Adverbs

Yep, we’ve got some.

Furthermore, you may want to take a look at pages 133-135 for more info.

In the meantime, we will proceed to subordinating conjunctions…

Subordinate Clauses Dependent S & V, but can’t stand alone Usually function as Adverbials…

I never eat cookies while I make slidesthough I’d like to…

Subordinating Conjunctions Create complex sentences Join UNEQUAL elements

• If • Since• Though•Although • Before • While…

To Comma or Not to Comma…

Comma If the subordinate clause comes at the

beginning of a sentence Though I’d like to, I never eat cookies

while I make slides. No Comma

If the subordinate clause comes later I never eat cookies while I make slides.

Another Editing Note

Tense of the subordinate clause should (typically) match the tense of the main clause

Subordination in Action…

Get Some Exercise(5.10)

Preposition or Subordinating Conjunction?

Since you insist, I’ll let you do three papers…

Pavarotti drank lemon tea before each concert.

Get Some More Exercise(5.11)

List and identify the conjunctions: Although Joe liked the pizza, he

picked off all the broccoli and olives. We warned Alice against painting her

living room black, but she insisted it would look dramatic. When she couldn’t stand it anymore, we helped her repaint it in a lighter color even though she hadn’t listened to our warnings.

Even More Exercise! (5.12)

Find and Correct errors: Joe’s car had a flat tire, a policeman

stopped and helped him change it. He wondered if police help is under

publicized. Joe typically stayed away from the

police he had heard some horror stories before.

Relatives Connect dependent clauses… Require antecedents… Relative Pronouns:

Who, whom, whose, which, that Usually function as Adjectivals

Relative Adverbials: Where, when, why

The student who scores the highest gets more than 100% on a test or quiz.

Get Some Exercise(5.14)

Underline the relativesCircle the antecedents

There will come a time when you look back on all of this and laugh.

I know someone who has written a book on the Yoruba language.

To Comma or Not to Comma No Comma

If the relative clause is crucial to the main message of the sentence

I know someone who has written a book on the Yoruba language.

Comma If the relative clause adds ‘extra’

information we could live without Desire, whose father is king of his tribe, has

written a book on his native Yoruba language

Interrogatives Who, which, what, where,

why, when, & how Begin questions (direct and indirect) No antecedents May substitute for

Subject Determiner Adverb Adjective (etc.)

Exercise(5.15)

Underline the interrogatives and double underline the relatives & associated phrases. Circle the antecedent of each relative.

Whoever owns that Jaguar, which has been sitting there for weeks, ought to move it!

For whom did you make the pie that is on the table?

Lois is one of those people who can never remember where they put their keys.

Participial Phrases A participle (-ing or -en form of the verb w/o an

auxiliary) and all its modifiers Often looks like a reduced relative clause Often functions as an adjectival Examples

A rolling stone gathers no moss The students studying for the exam are

hungry.

Participial Problems The subject of the sentence should be the subject

of the participial phrase (If it’s not, you have a ‘dangling participle’…)

Bad Examples: *Having worked hard all weekend, the project was

finished. (the project worked hard)

*Eating an apple, a worm stuck its head out. (the worm is eating the apple)

Good Example: Named outstanding grammar student of the year, Jane

Doe accepted the award. (Jane was the outstanding student & accepted the award)

Participial in Action…

The participial here is:

• Adjectival• Adverbial(Choose one…)

To Comma or Not to Comma Like Relatives:

Comma: If the participial comes at the beginning

(prev. slide) If the participial is unnecessary

“My daughter, complaining bitterly, went to bed.”

No comma: If the participial is necessary

“The girl wearing red is my daughter.”

Tree Structures & Diagrams

S

NP VP

Art N V Adv

The students areupstairs

Students are__The

upstairs

You tell me… Why use Trees? Why use diagrams? What are some similarities between them?

Review Exercises

Really good stuff on pages 146 – 148

& don’t ignore the regular exercises even though we brushed through several in these slides…