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
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Determiners
Auxiliaries
Qualifiers
Prepositions
Conjunctions
Pronouns
Relatives
Interrogatives
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
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Usually only talk about articles (a, an, the)
Linguistic definition

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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.
Ø
some
the
*a
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c.f. “Count” vs. “Non-count”
Shift in meaning: this, Joe’s…
You Tell Me…

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? 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

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Count vs. non-count
Possession
Quantity
Location relative to speaker

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Actual or emotional…
Specific (known) vs. generic (unknown)
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AKA: Definite & Indefinite; Old & New
Cohesion

New and Old Information

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George was carrying an umbrella.
The umbrella was red.
It was wet.
Writer/Speaker’s responsibility…
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A – B, B – C, C – D….
A – B, A – C, A – D….
Adjectives vs. Determiners

Determiners
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No prefixes/suffixes
Fixed positions with the noun
Rarely added or deleted from a language
Adjectives

Can change form

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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…
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Our Text:
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Determiners
Many School Texts:
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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)
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
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
pi
Just like adjectives…
A Pumpkin Pi Tree
NP
Det
Adj
N
A
pumpkin
pi
Form vs. Structure… Cont’d
Form Class
Structure Class
Lexical Meaning
Grammatical Meaning
Often add Morphemes
Rarely add Morphemes
Open-Class
Closed-Class
(virtually unlimited)
Relatively free
appearance (function)
(relatively few)
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

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Enough friends
His friends
All my friends
Their only other friends
Small but Important…
Auxiliaries

AKA “helping Verbs”

HAVE
BE
DO
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Modals

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}
May be ‘true’ verbs
Never ‘true verb’
CAN, WILL, SHALL, MAY, Must, Ought
5.4
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Identify the AUX & MAIN verbs
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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

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AKA: Intensifiers…
Often treated as a sub-class
of ADJ or ADV…
Know a Qualifier...

Test frame sentence:
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
The handsome man seems ___ handsome.
Modifies (increasing or decreasing)


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noun
adjective
adverb
prepositional phrase (only a few qualifiers)
Find the Qualifier
Qualifier Usage

Dialectal

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Informal


Wicked
Really
Formal
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Quite
Rather
Diagramming Qualifiers
chill
Just 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

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with, on, after, by, against, etc.
Sets up a phrase with a noun
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with a friend, on the couch, etc
Prepositions

It was Mr. Plum
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(& prepositional phrases)
After supper
In the library
With the hammer
For the sweet revenge
Think about it…
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How do prepositions appear in sentences?
What purpose(s) do they serve?
Diagramming Prepositions
revenge
Remember:
Nouns go on flat lines
Words that modify go on slanted lines…
Tree-ing
PP
Prep
for
NP
Det
Adj
N
the
sweet
revenge
Prepositional Phrases As…
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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
dog
look
eyes
Nouns go on flat lines
Words that modify go on slanted lines…
Even More Diagramming
The band was out of this world.
_world_
band was \
Use Pedestals for phrases that fill a main slot: Subj, Verb, Obj…
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
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AKA: Two word verbs
Idioms
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“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?
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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:
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Meaning
Moveability (particle can often be moved)
Phrasal Verbs: Diagrams & Trees
Oscar
looked up spelling…
S
NP
Oscar
V
NP
looked up
…
Phrasal verbs are just verbs…
Choosing Verbs
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Why should we care about verbs?
What about phrasal verbs?
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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
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
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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
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
Substitute for a noun
Linguistic Definition

Substitute for any Noun Phrase or nominal
Pronouns

May I have that in context, please

Subcategories
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Case
Person
(subject // object)
(singular // plural
1st // 2nd // 3rd // neuter)
Do You Object?

Exercise 5.8
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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
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Rule based: Subject/object
Instinctive: Singularize
Time to Reflect
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Myself
Yourself
Himself
Herself
Itself
Ourselves
Yourselves
}
Themselves
Antecedent should appear in same sentence
Antecedentless Pronouns
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One
Some
Any
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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:
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
Sharon’s letter was addressed to both
Marie and myself.
Everybody finished his homework.
Sexist Language

Examples:
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For a single instance:
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* Everyone finished his homework
* A dog is man’s best friend
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
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
And, but, or, nor, so, yet, for *
Join two equal elements

Words
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Phrases
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Over and under the hill
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
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Also join two equal parts
Join with emphasis…
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Both… and
Either… or
Neither… nor
Not only… but also
Diagramming Phrasal Verbs
Oscar
looked up
and
spelling
meaning
Conjunctions branch the diagram
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
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Dependent  S & V, but can’t stand alone
Usually function as Adverbials…
• If
 I never eat cookies
• Since
while I make slides
• Though
though I’d like to…
• Although
Subordinating Conjunctions
• Before
 Create complex sentences
• While…

Join UNEQUAL elements
To Comma or Not to Comma…

Comma

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
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

Preposition
or Subordinating Conjunction?


Since you insist,
I’ll let you do three papers…
Pavarotti drank lemon tea
before each concert.
(5.10)
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
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Connect dependent clauses…
Require antecedents…
Relative Pronouns:
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Relative Adverbials:
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Who, whom, whose, which, that
Usually function as Adjectivals
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 relatives
Circle the antecedents
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
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
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Who, which, what, where,
why, when, & how
Begin questions (direct and indirect)
No antecedents
May substitute for

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
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
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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
If the participial is unnecessary


“My daughter, complaining bitterly, went to bed.”
No comma:

If the participial is necessary

(prev. slide)
“The girl wearing red is my daughter.”
Tree Structures & Diagrams
S
NP
Art N
VP
V
Students
Adv
The students are upstairs
You tell me…
 Why use Trees? Why use diagrams?
 What are some similarities between them?
are__
Review Exercises
Really good stuff
on pages 146 – 148
& don’t ignore the regular exercises even though we
brushed through several in these slides…