grammar terms Flashcards
what is a phrase?
a group of words that don’t have a verb
what is a clause?
groups of words centred around a verb phrase
what is morphology?
the way the words are formed
what is syntax?
the way the words are sequenced in a phrase or sentence
what is a head word?
the main word in a phrase
what are modifiers?
words that describe the head word or gives more information about it
where does a pre-modifier go?
before the head word
where does the post- modifier go?
after the head word
what is a noun phrase?
a phrase without a verb, where a noun is the headword
what is a material verb process?
‘doing/ happening’
what is a mental verb process?
‘sensing/ feeling/ thinking’
what is a verbal verb process?
‘saying, exclaiming’
what do modal verbs do?
they change the meaning of other words, they express certainty
what is the descriptive approach?
taking an approach to language study that focuses on how language is actually used
what is the prescriptive approach?
taking an approach to language study that focuses on rules and notions of correctness
smallest units -> largest units
morpheme, word, phrase, clause, sentence, text
what is a morpheme?
the smallest unit of grammatical function
what is a noun phrases constituent elements?
•headword
•determiner
•modifier
•qualifier
what is a root?
a morpheme that can stand on its own and can usually form a word in its own right
what is a suffix?
a morpheme that comes after a root word to modify its meaning
what is a prefix?
a morpheme that goes before a root word to modify its meaning
what is an affix?
the overall term for an addition to a root to modify its meaning or create a new word
what is an inflectional function?
the way that an affix shows a grammatical category such as a verb tense or a plural noun
what is a derivational function?
the way that an affix helps form a new word by attaching itself to a root
