Grammar🍉 Flashcards
Interrogative
Question
Declarative
Statement
Imperative
An order
Exclamative
A sentence using an exclamation
Simple sentence
A sentence with one clause
Compound sentence
Joined by ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘or’
Complex sentence
Subordinate clause attached to a clause that can stand alone
Minor sentence/ellipsis
Where a word is missed out/an incomplete sentence
Syntax
Order and structure with in the larger units of phrases, clauses and sentences
Antecedent noun
The noun that all the pronouns refer back to
Preposition
Location words
A word showing the relationship of two parts of a sentence
Determiner
The, an, a
Premodification
Words that come before a noun to describe it
Postmodification
Words that come after a noun to describe it
Modal auxiliary verb
- Can, could, may, might, must, ought, shall, should, will, would
- Assist main verb of the sentence
- Indicate likelihood, ability, permission or obligation
Standard English
The form of English accepted as the ‘correct’ usage
Morphology
Word formation
Subordination
When a clause cannot stand alone
Definite article
The
Indefinite article
A, an
Clipping
Shortening words
Non-standard English
Not conforming in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary etc
Often used in informal or spontaneous situations with familiar speakers
Contraction
Words contracted together
Non-standard contraction
Contractions which are grammatically inaccurate
Double negative
Two or more negative elements in a sentence
Modifier
Includes an umbrella term for adverbs and adjectives
Intensifier
An adverb used to give emphasis
Relative clauses
Those with ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘that’ and ‘which’
Conditional clauses
Those beginning with ‘if’, ‘unless’
Polysyndeton
Using a series of conjunctions to connect sentences
Function words
Grammatical words that hold little value semantically
Do not create a picture in your mind
Content words
Opposite of function words
You can picture them in your mind
Non-syntactic
Another word for non-standard
Specifically related to sentence constructions
Infinitive
Basic form of a verb
Synthetic personalisation
Using ‘you’ as a plural pronoun to address a mass audience
Copula verb
Linking verbs in sentences
E.g. ‘is’ in ‘she is great’
Tag question
A declarative turned into an interrogative through a small question inflection
Present perfect continuous tense
Unspecified time
‘Before now’, ‘now’
Mitigated imperative
Syntactically disguised imperative
Genitive prounoun
Possessive pronoun
Interrogative pronoun
What, who, how etc
Words forming questions
Dynamic modality
Verbs which reflect ability, e.g. ‘John can play rugby very well’
Parentheticals
Alter the semantic value of a sentence
E.g. I think, I know, I suggest, I mean, I suppose
Parenthesis
Linguistic term for brackets
Quantifiers/ numerical morphological units
Linguistic term for numbers
Abstract noun
Nouns we cannot see, hear, touch or taste.
They are often used in speeches for emotional impact.
Low degree adverb
An adverb that isn’t very strong, e.g. ‘quite’
Overt prestige
Standard form.
Regarded as the correct form of speaking.
Used in formal situations.
Covert prestige
Non-standard form.
Used in informal situations.
Demonstrative pronouns
This, that, these and those replace the noun
E.g. this is very hot
Demonstrative adjectives
This, that, these and those modify nouns - used to point out specific things.
E.g. this plate is very hot
Nominative
The subject of the sentence
E.g. ‘he’ in ‘he went shopping’
Direct speech acts
Questions and orders to tell someone to do something.
E.g. ‘is it ok if you pick up that rubbish?’
Negative interrogatives
Often provide implicatures to suggest what someone should do/know.
E.g. ‘should you not check with her first’
Absolute
A form of an adjective used when a plain statement is being made without any kind of comparison
E.g. the dog is big
Active voice
Noun performs the action and a noun is affected.
E.g. The dog bit him
Active voice is more common in everyday writing.
Attributive adjective
Comes immediately before the noun in the sentence.
Modifies noun.
E.g. the black dog
Predicative adjective
The adjective forms the complement of the sentence and completes the meaning of the sentence subject.
Comes after linking verbs.
E.g. she looks beautiful
Qualitative adjective
Describe the qualities of a person, thing or idea.
E.g. a stupendous achievement
Classifying adjective
Help divide persons, things or ideas into groups or classes.
E.g. the French language
Adjunct
Adverbials that add more info to a sentence.
Provide additional info about: concession, condition, manner, place, purpose, reason, result, time.
Adverbials
Single word or group of words that forms part of a clause.
Used as adjuncts, conjuncts, or disjuncts.
Modifiers
Adverbs used to modify adjectives, forming adjective phrases.
Adjective phrase
A group of words built up on an adjective.
E.g. ‘very remarkable’ or ‘slow enough’
Adverb phrase
A group of words built up found an adverb by adding words before and/or after it.
E.g. very smoothly
Apposition
Placing one noun or noun phrase next to another in a sentence so that it explains it or amplifies it.
E.g. the writer Michael Viney
Dynamic modality (modal auxiliary verb)
Concerning the different degrees of ability or tendency
Deontic modality (modal auxiliary verb)
Concerning the different degrees of obligation and permission
Epistemic modality (modal auxiliary verb)
The different levels of probability or possibilitiy
Boulomaic modality (modal auxiliary verb)
The different degrees of volition(free will), desire and wish
Passive voice
Subject goes in the object position
Creates formal tone - less personalised
Softener tag
Tag question that mitigates the force of a request
Directive
Any sentence with an imperative tone
Empty adjective
Adjectives which have more loaded/emotive content
E.g. adorable, sweet
Hypercorrect grammar
Ensuring a high level of standard English/prestige in discourse
Wh - imperatives
Using questions to formulate a request where there is a hidden imperative
E.g. why don’t you pick up your rubbish
Virtuous errors/overgeneralisation
These are errors children make whilst acquiring the language
Irregular verbs
A verb where the past tense is not formed using the regular ‘ed’ suffix
Epistemic modal tag question (speaker-oriented)
The speaker uses these tags to gain confirmation about something they are uncertain about
E.g. We’re meeting outside the cinema, aren’t we?
Challenging tag question (speaker-oriented)
When the speaker is being confrontational
E.g. I told you not to do that, didn’t I?
Facilitative tag question (addressee-oriented) (affective tag)
When a speaker tries to encourage another speaker to participate in the discourse
E.g. That concert was great, wasn’t it?
Softener tag question (addressee-oriented) (affective tag)
Where a speaker mitigates their request/demand/command/suggestion
E.g. Close the window, could you please?
What does the ability to use negation require? (Child language)
Syntactic awareness.
It is something that children do not grasp immediately.
Synonym of Nominative
Subjective/subject form
Synonym of Accusative
Objective/object form
Dynamic verbs
Verbs which refer to physical actions
Stative verbs
Verbs which refer to states or conditions
Reflexive pronouns
Indicate that the object of a verb is the same as it’s subject
E.g. he congratulated himself
Indefinite pronouns
Do not refer to specific persons or things
E.g. someone, anything, no one
Reactive pronouns
Acts as linking words in sentences
E.g. a city that has many tourist attractions
Noun phrases
Usually have a noun or pronoun as it’s head word
E.g. the beach across the bays
Verb phrases
Usually contains a main verb and any accompanying auxiliary verbs
E.g. I may see him
Collective noun
A singular noun that refers to several individuals
E.g. the police, the choir, parliament
Comparative
Form of adjective used when comparing things
E.g. he is taller than me
Concord
Agreement
Conjunct
A type of adverbial used to show the connection between two sentences.
E.g. Firtstly; secondly; thirdly, also, as well, too
Conversion
When a word from one word class is used in another class. E.g. glue started as a noun but is now also used as a verb
Disjunct
A sentence adverbial that provides some comment by the speaker or writer
E.g. admittedly, fortunately
Future continuous
A tense formed by ‘will be’ or ‘shall be’ followed by the present participle
E.g. I shall be working
Future perfect
A tense formed by ‘will have’ or ‘shall have’ followed by the past participle
E.g. She will have worked
Future perfect continuous
The tense used to describe an action that will have been completed at a particular point in the future.
Formed by shall/will have been followed by present participle
E.g. Some readers will have been growing roses for years
Simple future tense
Formed by using the modal auxiliary verbs will or shall followed by the verb stem
E.g. you will tell me
Indefinite pronoun
Allow speaker to be vague
E.g. someone, anybody, nothing
Morpheme
Lowest unit of language that can convey meaning. It cannot be broken down into anything smaller that has a meaning
E.g. child, shed, walk
Numeral
Can be used as pronouns or determiners •Cardinal numerals - quantity -E.g. five cats •Ordinal numerals - ranking position -E.g. It’s on the fifth floor •Fractions - quantities less than one whole -E.g. he ate one-quarter of the cake
Yes/no interrogative
Introduced with a modal auxiliary verb
Requires a yes or no answer
Transitive verbs
Require an object
Intransitive verbs
Don’t require an object
Change of location verbs
Put, take
E.g. Tina put the chair in the corner
Change of state verbs
Make
E.g. Ella made the room tidy
Change of possession verbs
Give
E.g. Michael gave him the book
Spatial adjectives
- Adjectives relating to position, size and shape
- Children find these challenging
- E.g. big, tiny, small, large, long etc
What term could be applied to change of location/state/possession verbs?
Verbal overgeneralisation
Dummy auxiliary verb
- Also known as the dummy operator
* ’Do’
Emotion verb
Like, love, hate, dislike
Finite terms
They show tense, person and number
E.g. ‘I went’ ‘I go’ ‘he goes’ ‘we went’ etc
Non-finite verbs
- Verb forms which do not show tense, person and number
- Usually there are infinitive forms, e.g. ‘to wake’ in the sentence “she tiptoed round the house as not to wake anyone” or ‘starting’ in “They cleaned the whole house, starting from the messy kitchen“
Nominative
Subjective pronouns
I, we, my, she, he etc
Accusative
Objective pronouns
Me, us, him, her etc
Reflexive pronouns
Pronouns about the self
Myself, himself, themselves
Genitive pronouns
Possessive pronouns
Mine, yours, his, hers
Demonstrative pronouns
Those that refer to specific things
This, those, that
Pronoun substitutions
- Where some dialects use neologised pronouns
* E.g. substituting ‘you’ with ‘tha’
Indefinite pronouns
- Not specifying exactly
* Anything, something, everything, everyone
Dummy subject
It
Fills the slot of the subject but has no meaning
Elicitation
Initiation/questioning
Subjunctive
- Verb form used to express things that could or should happen
- Used to express wishes/hopes, e.g. I wish I WERE able to fly
- Used to express commands/demands, e.g. it is vital that she ATTEND the meeting
- Used to express suggestions, e.g. I suggested that he face up to the bully
Semi-modal verb
- Verbs that sometimes behave like modal auxiliary verbs.
- Like the “proper” modal verbs, they are used with the base form of verbs (the infinitive without to) to create a unique meaning.
- Dare, need, used to, ought to
Complement
- The part of a sentence which makes it complete
* E.g. the dog is HUNGRY
In the sentence “Helen teaches it” what type of word is it?
Final anaphoric pronoun
What is the grammar name for a forward slash?
Oblique strike or virgule
Of-genitive
Increased prestige and adds formality.
E.g. the crumbs of bread
What kind of pronoun is who?
A nominative pronoun or relative pronoun
Uncountable noun
- Do not regularly have a plural form
- Include mud, snow and butter
- Abstract nouns are usually uncountable
