Grammar Flashcards
What is Grammar?
The study of how we make sentences.
What is a attitude to grammar?
Standard grammar- prestige, expected, correct, highly educated, high/middle class, more intelligent and sophisticated, older.
Non- standard- wrong, uneducated, lower class, less intelligent, younger.
What are the open word classes?
Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Pronouns
What are the closed word classes?
Pronouns Auxiliaries and Modal Auxiliaries Prepositions Connections Determiners
What are nouns?
Words that name.
Common Nouns
Common words for items/things that do not have a capital letter. E.g. River
Proper Nouns
Nouns that name official things like places and names of people and businesses. E.g. Evie
Concrete Nouns
Things that are in the real world and can stimulate the 5 senses. E.g. Chair or Hair Spray
Abstract Nouns
Things/concepts that are not in the real word and do not stimulate the 5 senses, you cannot touch them. E.g. Feelings like love, happiness and purity. (Derived from adjectives and verbs).
Countable Nouns
You can have multiple of the thing and the noun can be made plural E.g. How many…? One tree, five trees.
Uncountable Nouns
You cannot have multiple of them and the noun cannot be made plural. E.g. How much…? You can’t say ‘three furniatures or peoples’
Collective Nouns
Groups of people, animals or things e.g. government, team, flock, pack.
Open Compound Nouns
A modifying adjective is used with its noun to create a new noun, or two nouns. Two words apart which carry a meaning together e.g. full moon or dinner table
Closed Compound Nouns
Two nouns or a modifying adjective and a noun are put together to create a ‘real word’. Usually made up of 2 words e.g. notebook or waistcoat. These words a one point were not used together.
Singular and Plural Nouns
Nouns that are plural like ladies, trees, dwarves (irregular plural) like feet. Or some that do not change like deer, sheep. (Pragmatics heavy). Context bound,
Nouns that are singular like lady, tree, dwarf, foot, sheep, deer.
What are adjectives?
They describe nouns.
What does pre-modification mean?
When adjectives come before the noun they pre-modify them e.g. Amazing curry.
Typical in adverts to make impact and emphasis and to save time. Quick and memorable.
SUPERLATIVE-SHOCK-NEWS BULLITIN
What does post-modification mean?
When adjectives occur immediately after the verb not the noun e.g. Children are happy.
Simpler and when describing.
‘Normal’ Adjective
Yellow, old, happy
Comparative Adjective
Yellower, older, happier
Superlative Adjective
Yellowest, oldest, happiest. Some are intensified by adding more or most to strengthen the description in advertisements and newspaper articles to persuade which links to Maxim of Quality.
What are verbs?
They are doing words that link to physical actions like jump or mental actions or states like think, felt, anticipate, seem.
Main Verbs
The doing word that expresses the main meaning, if you take it out you loose the meaning e.g. I must have been DRIVING too fast.
REGULAR: Jumped, Jump, Jumping
IRREGULAR: Slept, Sleep, Sleeping
Auxiliary Verbs
Are placed in front of main verbs to help clarify the action and tense. I MUST HAVE BEEN driving too fast.