Chapter 4

Question 1

What are some examples of lexical content and function categories?

Answer 1

Content: nouns, adjs, verbs
Function: determiners, pronouns, prepositions

Question 2

What is lexical ambiguity?

Answer 2

When different words with the same form can be in a phrase (ex. The ducks ducked under the bridge)

Question 3

What are homophones, homographs, and homonyms?

Answer 3

Homophone: words that sound the same but are spelled different (bee, be)
Homograph: words that are spelled the same but sound different (read, read)
Homonyms: words that sound and are spelled the same but are two different words (bat, bat)

Question 4

What do adjectives modify? Adverbs?

Answer 4

Adjectives modify nouns; adverbs modify verbs, adjs, and sentences

Question 5

What’s a sentence adverb?

Answer 5

It modifies the meaning of an entire sentence its attached to (ex. Ideally, this rope will save us before we drown)

Question 6

What is the difference between a predicative and attributive adjective?

Answer 6

Predicative occurs in the verb phrase whereas attributive occurs before the word it modifies (this beer seems flat; wicked smile)

Question 7

What is grading of adjectives in English?

Answer 7

Plain state, competitive state, and then superlative state (ex. Black dog, blacker dog, blackest dog)

Question 8

What is the difference between count nouns and mass nouns?

Answer 8

Count nouns are ones that can be counted (trenches, coats, stars) while mass nouns have meanings that are quantified by the volume of a container rather than by countable objects (water, air, rice)

Question 9

In irregular noun plurals, what is the zero form?

Answer 9

Zero form: deer, sheep

Question 10

What was grammatical gender for nouns?

Answer 10

Each noun was either feminine, masculine, or neutral

Question 11

What are the three categories of transitivity?

Answer 11

Intransitive: subject-verb
transitive: subject-verb-object
Ditransitive: subject-v-o-o

Question 12

What are the kinds of tensed?

Answer 12

Past: walked, ran

Non-past: will, am

Question 13

What are the aspects of verbs?

Answer 13

Progressive: be verb + ing
Perfect: have + past participle
Neutral: neither of the two above

Question 14

What are the moods of verbs?

Answer 14

Declarative: statement
Interrogative: question w/ s-v inversion
Imperative: command
Conditional: wish/desire

Question 15

What is a coordinator? A determiner?

Answer 15

It joins two phrases together (and); the, a/an, this, that, etc.

Question 16

What are pronouns? Personal ones?

Answer 16

They stand in for another item (these, what, etc.); personal ones are (I, He, She, etc.)

Question 17

What are demonstrative pronouns? Interrogative ones?

Answer 17

Demonstrative: this/that, these/those
Interrogative: what, who, to whom, whose (used for questions)