Conventions Of Standard Written English Flashcards
What are the rules that govern sentence structure?
Syntax
In any sentence, a subject and a predicate are referred to as a what?
A clause
A clause that functions as a complete sentence (a complete idea) is a what?
Independent clause
What is a clause that does not function by itself as a complete sentence (a complete idea)?
Dependent clause
What is a sentence that has two or more independent clauses?
Compound sentence
What typically links independent clauses?
Coordinating conjunction
Aside from coordinating conjunctions, what else can link two independent clauses?
Punctuation:
A semi colon (;) without a coordinating conjunction.
A period (.) that separates the two independent clauses.
What sentence consists of one independent clause (subordinate clause) and one or more dependent clauses?
A complex sentence
As well as not being able to stand on their own as a complete idea, dependent clauses provide additional information to the what?
Independent clause
In general, what two kinds of words can link independent and dependent clauses?
Relative pronouns: that, which, who, whoever, …
Subordinate conjunctions: after, although, as, because, …
What will often be used to separate a dependent clause that precedes an independent clause?
Comma (,)
“After eating a large dinner, he always gets drowsy.”
In some complex sentences, what can the dependent clause divide in the independent clause?
The dependent clause can divide the subject and predicate of the independent clause.
“The man who called yesterday is at the door now.”
What is a sentence that consists of at least two independent clauses and one (or more) dependent clause?
A compound-complex sentence.
“The tree that grew near the house fell over yesterday, but the house was unharmed.”
What usually results in a sentence fragment?
The absence of either a subject or a predicate (of which requires a verb).
What occurs when the writer joins two or more sentences (within the same sentence) without separating them appropriately?
A run-on sentence
What is the continued use of the same grammatical structures throughout a sentence?
Parallelism
What pairs of words show the relationship between two or more grammatically equal elements?
Correlative conjunctions
What is it when related parts of a sentence agree in form (number, person, gender, case)?
Agreement
What is agreement of the relationship between nouns, pronouns, verbs (and other parts of speech) in a sentence according to whether the nouns are singular or plural?
Agreement of number
What is agreement of the relationship between nouns and their personal pronouns in a sentence according to whether the relationship is feminine, masculine or nuetral?
Agreement in gender
What is agreement of the relationship between pronouns and verbs that are used to convey first, second, or third person in either singular or plural in a sentence?
Agreement in person
What is agreement that refers to the usage of the correct pronoun or noun form?
Agreement in case
What is the case where the noun or pronoun serves as the subject of a sentence?
The nominative case
“WE flew to Hawaii.”
What is the case where the noun or the pronoun serves as the direct or indirect object of a sentence?
The objective case
“The curator paid ME for the statue.”
“We helped OURSELVES to more mashed potatoes.”
What is the case where a noun or pronoun has the relationship of possession to another noun in a sentence?
The possessive case
“The curator paid for MY statue.”
“The waiter filled OUR plates with mashed potatoes.”
What case is usually created by adding an apostrophe and s (‘s) to the end of a noun?
Possessive case
Lisa’s book
Gage’s bike
How would you use effect as a noun?
…the effect…
How would you use effect as a verb?
To effect…
The president effected change through influencing members of Congress to …
How would you use imply?
Imply (to hint at something)
Are you implying that I may have left the key at your house?
After he reviewed both sides of the story, he promised that he would investigate the incident further, but his actions and tone implied otherwise.
How would you use Insinuate?
Insinuate (negatively imply something)
She noticed that the simpleton was too stupid to know that her partner was insinuating that he started the fire.
How would you use infer?
Infer (draw a conclusion based on evidence)
He was able to infer, through simple observation of all the facts, that William was the culprit.
What do the relative pronouns
-that
-who
-which
..refer to?
Who: to people
That & which: groups, events, things
The relative pronouns that and which are similar, but what are the key differences?
That: used with restrictive clauses
Which: used with non restrictive clauses
The relative pronouns that and which are similar but what is the key distinction between these two?
That is used with restrictive clauses
Which is used with nonrestrictive clauses
What type of clause limits the identity of a subject to which it refers?
(Basically decreasing ambiguity)
A restrictive clause
What is a type of clause that provides further information about the subject to which it refers, but it does not provide essential limiting information about the subject?
Nondestructive clause
What do the relative pronouns who and whom reference?
Who references the subject
Whom references an object
What are the two main types of modifiers (words that describe other words)?
Adjectives (what kind? How many? Which?)
Adverbs (how?)
What type of noun can be counted and thus written in plural?
Count nouns
“house, two houses, three houses…”
What type of noun can only be counted by means of some other noun that identifies a distinct unit?
Mass nouns
“Grass, one field of grass, two fields of grass …”
Although adjectives and adverbs are not interchangeable, what two letter suffix can be added to an adjective to form an adverb?
-ly
Quick - quickly
Large - largely
Generally, where should modifiers be placed?
Modifiers should be close to what they modify.
What is a modifier that has been misplaced in such a way that it could refer to the clause that precedes it or the one that follows it?
Squinting modifier
What punctuation is used to separate independent clauses?
Semi colon (;)
What punctuation is used at the end of an independent clause where either a list, an explanation, a quotations and so on follow?
Colon (:)
What punctuation is used to separate a sequence of two or more modifiers?
Comma (,)
What punctuation is used to separate a nonrestrictive clause from the rest of the sentence?
Comma (,)
What punctuation is used to separate two independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction.
Comma (,)
What punctuation is used to contract words?
Apostrophe (‘)
What punctuation is used to mark possession?
Apostrophe s (‘s) for singular nouns
s apostrophe (s’) for plural nouns
