Thursday, April 26, 2018

Last Bits of Grammar


Last notes:

Expletive constructions: Standard English has a number of what we call expletive constructions. These occur when we use “place-holder” or empty words in order for our grammar to make sense to us.

Nonfinite Phrases: Gerunds and Participles


Participles and Gerunds

Like infinitives, both participles and gerunds are nonfinite phrases. And, like infinitives, they are words that derive from – come from – verbs, and yet do not function as verbs.

Non-finite phrases



Nonfinite Phrases:
Infinitive
Participial
Gerund

Nonfinite phrases are like dependent clauses in that they can act as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. They are unlike dependent clauses in that they contain nonfinite verb forms rather than finite verbs.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Finite Clauses Part II: That-clauses, Interrogative clauses, appositives


That-Clauses
That-clauses are dependent clauses introduced (usually) by the word that which function as nouns.

Finite Clauses Part I: Subordinated Clauses, Relative Clauses, Clauses defined


CLAUSES: FINITE CLAUSES

These are the types of finite clauses we'll be discussing:
Subordinated Clauses
Relative clauses
That-clauses (AKA noun clauses)
Interrogative clauses

Basic Sentence Transformation Part II: Passives, Negatives, Interrogatives


Passive Transformations

Type V sentences – that is, sentences with the construction

        James found a quarter.
 Subject (NP1) + MVP (Transitive verb) + Direct Object (NP2)

 are in the active voice. These sentences can be transformed into the passive voice. Type V sentences are the only sentences that can be made passive.

Sentence Transformations Part I: Indirect objects, object complements


Basic Sentence Transformation:

Indirect objects, Passive constructions, negative constructions, interrogative constructions, imperatives

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

EXTRA CREDIT!!


A number of people have been getting a little worried about final grades, so I thought I would give you an extra credit assignment or two.

Do any or all of these, and earn EXTRA CREDIT!!

Monday, April 2, 2018

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Five Basic Sentence Patterns



These are the Five Basic Sentence Types used in Standard English:

Type I: Subject (NP1) + Main Verb Phrase (Intransitive)
Type II: Subject (NP1) + MVP (Be-verb) + Adverb Phrase (of time/place)
Type III: Subject (NP1)  + MVP (Linking Verb) + Adjective Phrase
Type IV: Subject (NP1) + MVP (Linking Verb) + Nominal Subject Complement (NP1)
Type V: Subject (NP1) + MVP (Transitive verb) + Direct Object (NP2)

Type I: Subject (NP1) + Main Verb Phrase (Intransitive)

                        Polly laughs.
                        The kitten is sleeping.

Type II: Subject (NP1) + MVP (Be-verb) + Adverb Phrase (of time/place)

My turn is next.
                        The bear was in the stream.
                       
Type III: Subject (NP1) + MVP (Linking Verb) + Adjective Phrase as Complement

                        That pie is wonderful.
                        Sarah is sad.

Type IV: Subject (NP1) + MVP (Linking Verb) + Noun Phrase as Complement (NP2)

                        Ivy was a graduate student.
                        Everyone is becoming an expert.

Type V: Subject (NP1) + MVP (Transitive verb) + Direct Object (NP2)

                        Fred shot a zombie.
                        Ivy loves pie.




Monday, March 5, 2018

Verb Phrases and Auxiliary Words


Verb Phrases and Auxiliary Words

As noted on the previous page, a verb phrase consists of the most important verb in the phrase plus any auxiliary words attached to that verb. 

Phrases


Kinds of Phrases:

·        Noun phrase NP
·        Verb phrase VP /   Main Verb phrase MVP
·        Adjective phrase  ADJP
·        Adverb phrase ADVP

Interrogatives


Interrogatives

Interrogatives are sometimes called question words. They introduce both direct and indirect questions. When introducing indirect questions, they function somewhat like relative pronouns/adverbs.

Interrogates are also sometimes called W-words, since they almost all start with W: who, whom, whose, which, what, where, why, when, how.
Direct questions:
                Whose laptop is this?
                What’s for dinner?
                How do I work this scanner?
Indirect questions:
                Elvis knew whose laptop it was.
                I wondered what was for dinner.
                I had no idea how to work the scanner.

Relative words and clauses


Relative Pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs

List of relatives: who, whom, whose, which, that*

Monday, February 26, 2018

Conjuctions: Coordinating, Subordinating, Conjunctive Adverbs

Conjunctions

Conjunctions connect grammatical structures. We have three – or really 2.5 – types of conjunctions. (2.5 because the conjunctive adverb is a kind of half-and-half case: half conjunction, half adverb.)

Verb Particles (verb plus preposition)


Verb Particles (AKA phrasal verbs, verb-adverb combinations)

In modern standard English we also have an interesting construction whereby a preposition combines with a verb to form a new verb.

                Verb + preposition = new verb

Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases


Prepostions and Prepositional Phrases

So far we have discussed noun phrases and verb phrases.

My brother Ben has rebuilt the kitchen.

Here we have two noun phrases – my brother Ben, the kitchen – and one verb phrase, the main verb phrase in the sentence: has rebuilt.

Structure Class Words: Part II



So far in looking at structure class words, we have looked at
·        Determiners
·        Auxiliaries
·        Qualifiers
·        Pronouns

Now we’re going to look at the rest of the structure class words, which include
·        Prepositions
·        Conjunctions
·        Relatives
·        Interrogatives

As a review, unlike form class words, which can change their form – and sometimes their meaning – by accepting morphemes (so that chair becomes chairs or run becomes runner), structure class words do not usually accept morphemes.

Also, unlike form class words, which carry most of the semantic meaning of the sentence, the main purpose of structure class words is to carry the structural meaning of the sentence.

A final difference is that form class words are an open set. There are countless nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, and we add more almost daily. In contrast, the number of prepositions, conjunctions, and pronouns in the language are relatively limited.


(Semantic: the study of meaning; so, here, what a word means literally, as opposed to its structural or grammatical meaning.)

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Pronouns: Personal, reflexive, reciprocal, indefinite


Pronouns

In traditional grammar, pronouns are often classified with nouns. But a little thought shows us that nouns and pronouns have very different forms. Pronouns also function somewhat differently than nouns do.

Qualifiers



A qualifier precedes an adjective or adverb, modifying it by increasing or decreasing its quality. In that respect, a qualifier is a kind of adverb (since it always modifies something other than a noun). However, it is not a true adverb, but a structure class word.

Monday, February 5, 2018

Assignments for January 30 through February 19


Tuesday January 30: Read pages 76-92. Do half of exercises 4.7, 4.9, 4.14

Thursday February 1: Read pages 92-106. Do first two review exercises, and half of exercise 5.1, all of 5.2.

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Structure Class Words: Auxiliaries



Auxiliaries

Auxiliary verbs provide grammatical information about the main verb. Specifically, these verb indicate information about tense, mood, and voice. (We’ll talk about all of this in more depth later on.) You may have heard these verbs called “helping verbs.”

Structure Class Words: Determiners


Determiners (See list on page 101 of your text)

A determiner is a structure class word that precedes and modified a noun. The prototypical examples are a, an, and the.

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Structure-class Words: Overview



So far, we have been looking at Form Class Words – nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. To review, form class words are words that can change their shape by accepting morphemes. So a noun, like dog, can become dogs; and an adjective like happy can become happier, or unhappy.

Form-class Words: Adjective and Adverbs



Adjectives

Adjectives are modifiers. In function, they are words that modify nouns.

Form-class Words: Verbs


Verbs express action, we were told in the third grade (those of us who got taught grammar in the third grade). And it is true that some verbs do express action.

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Notes: Important Terms


Some Important Terms

Prototypical v. Peripheral: In grammar as in life, our categories leak. When, for instance, we are sorting fiction into boxes labeled fantasy and boxes labeled science fiction, we will find some examples that clearly go in one box or the other – Lord of the Rings is fantasy,The Left Hand of Darkness is science fiction – but others will fall in a grey area: Anne McCaffery’s Pern novels, for instance.

Notes: Introduction


First, the good news. If you’re a native speaker of English, you already know English grammar. Every native speaker of English over the age of two or three (at least those without some sort of developmental issue) knows English grammar by the time they reach the age of two or three years old, though they may still be refining certain points well into their fourth year. If you didn’t know English grammar, you would not be able to construct, or understand, an English sentence. Which, obviously, you can – you’re reading this, aren’t you?

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

ENGL 3663 Syllabus

University of ArkansasFort Smith

Course Title ENGLISH GRAMMAR                         

Course Code    ENGL        3663                                                         Credit Hours        3  
                        Prefix        Number                                                      Lecture Hours      3  
                                                                                                            Lab Hours            0  
                                                                                                            Contact Hours      3_    
                                                                                   

Instructor: Kelly Jennings
Office: Vines 139
Phone: 788-7907