UNIT 1: Parts of Speech. Form, Function, Meaning
Points
to think of
1. Why do we study grammar? Think and put down at least three reasons why.
2. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
Fluent English speakers often say they don’t know grammar, or that foreigners speak better English that they do.
English is a stupid language – it’s illogical and irregular and it follows no rules.
Learning a language is a question of imitating correct forms.
Grammar is boring to learn.
The grammar of good spoken English and good written English is the same.
3. What is your understanding of the grammatical technical terms:
form v function
time v tense
full v contracted
formal v informal
acceptable v unacceptable
context v cotext
level of grammatical analysis
4. What word classes (parts of speech) in English do you know? Make a list of them using the generally accepted abbreviations.
5. Determine the word classes in the following text:
THE HERD PASSES THROUGH THE VILLAGE
In class today Mrs. Briner played Indian tribal music for us. I especially liked a Pawnee song. It dramatically tells about the sudden appearance of a great herd of buffalo near an Indian camp. The huge, shaggy beasts could easily destroy the camp and kill or maim the inhabitants. Courageously an old man rode toward these enemies. With shots and shouts he successfully turned them from the camp. Unfortunately the herd engulfed him and swept him away across the stream. In the spring during the buffalo dance the Pawnees still sing this song.
6. Why are these utterances wrong?
He got up early because his work.
He gave she a present.
They ate a quickly breakfast before going out.
During they were eating, the doorbell rang.
“There’s something blocking the road”. “OK, we’ll avoid”.
He learns very slow.
They gives her a lot of help.
I want to listen the news at 9 o’clock.
7. Classify these words into nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions or prepositions.
1 window
2 happiness
3 meander
4 blue
5 if
6 under
7 our
8 be
9 strongly
10 grin
11 him
12 iridescent
13 avoid
14 comatose
15 courageously
16 cogitate
17 because
18 gargoyle
19 ennui
20 malinger
21 although
22 by
23 aberration
24 they
8. Why do these nonsense sentences sound acceptable? How can you transform them?
He crattled his splot and scrot out a neelying groal.
They strentered folicly until a magan veened to famble them.
9. What do the utterances in each of these groups have in common? What distinguishes the sentences within each group from each other?
A
1. Willy smokes.
2. Fred’s a slow worker.
3. Aggie used to drink.
4. Joe’s in the habit of talking in his sleep.
5. He’s always making that mistake.
B
1. Pollution is getting worse.
2. It’s raining.
3. I’m going out tonight.
4. He’s always dropping ash on the carpet.
C
1. Simmer for 15 minutes over a low heat.
2. Come again soon.
3. Halt!
4. Give us this day our daily bread.
5. Don’t mention it.
6. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
D
1. See you!
2. The Queen is due to arrive at 4 pm.
3. He’s about to arrive.
4. The train leaves at 3 pm.
5. Willy’s going to be an engine driver.
6. He’s taking his finals in June.
7. I’ll be 64 next birthday.
Helpful tips:
To find what part of speech a word is in a sentence, ask, “What does the word do in this sentence?”
Verb - Skate away from that patch of thin ice. (Skate makes a command).
Noun – My left skate rolled down the front steps. (Skate is a name of a thing).
Adjective – Did you bring a skate key? (Skate modifies key)
Structure clues:
Three helpful clues to part of speech are (1) word endings, (2) location in the sentence, (3) signal words.
(1) Endings
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs have suffixes that provide clues to part of speech.
Common noun suffixes are -ance, -hood, -ity, -ment, -ness (reliance, knighthood, reality, government, likeness).
Common verb suffixes are –en, -fy, -ate, ize (_______________________).
Common adjective suffixes are ______________ ( ___________________).
Common adverb suffixes are _______________ ( _____________________).
(2) Sentence Pattern
Note that in each of the following sentences the missing part of speech is clear from the sentence pattern.
Three … took the … from the … and brought it to the … (Nouns needed)
The … students found a … stone near two … trees. (Adjectives needed)
The lion crouched … and then leaped … . (Adverbs needed)
Rain … the parched earth and … the hearts of the farmers. (Verbs needed)
Sally … Joanne are good swimmers … divers. (Conjunctions needed)
Please hand me that bottle … ink … the desk. (Prepositions needed)
(3) Signal Words
Certain words signal that certain parts of speech will follow. A, an, the tell us a noun will follow. Auxiliaries like may, might, will, should signal verbs. Prepositions like on, at or into signal nouns or pronouns.
A [1]… may [2]… for [3]… .
(In this sentence [1] – noun, [2] – verb, [3] – noun or pronoun are needed).
All these are additional aids for determining part of speech. The most important test of parts of speech is their use in a sentence.
Basic
Notions
Grammar (as a science) plays the central role in the study of a language. Grammar (as a part of any language) can be called a framework or a skeleton of this language - an account of all the possible sentence structures organized to certain general principles. A grammatical analysis brings to light the multifarious kinds of formal patterning in a meaningful speech and abstract relationship between words. The branch of grammar that studies the structure of words is called morphology: inflectional morphology studies the way the words inflect (= vary) in order to express grammatical contrasts in a sentence, derivational morphology studies the principles governing the construction of new words, without reference to the specific grammatical role a word can play in a sentence.
Since early days of grammatical study, words have been grouped into word classes – traditionally labeled the parts of speech. The words of the same word class behave similarly morphologically and syntactically. In most grammar textbooks eight word classes are recognized:
nouns,
pronouns,
adjectives,
verbs,
adverbs,
prepositions,
conjunctions,
interjections.
In some classifications articles, particles and participles are listed separately, in some others linguists use such terms as determiners and numerals, conjuncts (meanwhile, otherwise, namely) and auxiliaries.
Many scholars also differentiate between notional and structural word classes.
Because of irregularities in a language are not as neatly homogeneous as the theory implies: the core words in a class behave identically, but those at the edge might behave as the words from other classes: adjectives can have functions similar to nouns (the rich, the poor), nouns can behave similarly to adjectives (a stone wall). The following words that are labeled adverbs in traditional grammars have very little in common, e.g. tomorrow, however, no, not, very, just, when. Grammatical alterations (the change of a word’s form) of the words within a word class convey the change of meanings, e.g. verbs have the categories of mood, tense, aspect, and voice. There are also the categories of number, person, gender, case.
Within a sentence words are ordered in specific ways. The basic (normal, unmarked) word order pattern in English is: Subject – Predicate – Object. These grammatical elements alongside with attributes and adverbial modifier are called the parts of sentence. The slots of different parts of sentences can be filled in with words belonging to different words classes, moreover, we often determine the word class on the grammatical context, on how the word behaves in a sentence, cf:
Mary bought a round table. - Round is an adjective in the function of an attribute.
The car went round the corner. - Round is a preposition used a s a part of an adverbial modifier of place.
The yacht will round the buoy soon. - Round is a verb, a part of a verbal predicate.
We walked round to the shop. - Round is an adverb
My round was the last, I bought them all whiskey. - Round is a noun used in the function of a subject.
Grammar
in Focus