Terminology - sentences, phrases, clauses, and word levels Flashcards
What is a noun?
A person, place, thing, or idea
What is a common noun?
Names a general person, place or thing:
city, man, vacuum
What is an abstract noun?
Names an idea, a feeling, a quality, or a characteristic: friendship, sadness, democracy
What is a proper noun?
Names a specific person, place or thing:
John, Wales, Nestle
What is a concrete noun?
Names things you can see and touch: pizza, kitten, diamond
What is a collective noun?
Names a collection of things as a whole: school of fish, murder of crows
What is an adjective?
A word that describes a noun
What is a comparative adjective?
An adjective that makes a comparison, They usually end in -er: hotter, smaller, bigger
What is a superlative adjective?
An adjective indicating the highest degree, usually ending in -est: hottest, best, smallest
What is an attributive adjective?
They precede the noun they are modifying:
The expensive shoes.
What is a predicative adjective?
They follow the noun they are modifying:
The shoes look expensive.
What is a verb?
They are often known as ‘doing words’. They refer to physical actions (dynamic verbs), or to ‘mental actions’, states and conditions (stative verbs)
What is a dynamic verb?
Describes something with a clear beginning and end, which happens during a limited time.
e.g jump / take / give / explode / throw
What is a stative verb?
Describes states that continue over a period of time.
e.g think / anticipate / seems / agree / include
What is a main / lexical verb?
A verb that carries meaning.
What is an auxiliary verb?
A verb that supports the lexical verb. The auxiliary comes before the lexical verb.
What is an example of a primary auxiliary verb?
be / have / do
What is an example of a modal auxiliary verb?
can / may / could / might / would / will / should
What is an example of a semi-auxiliary verb?
have to / had better / be willing to
What is finite verb?
A verb that is marked for tense. Main clauses contain these.
What is a non-finite verb?
A verb which is not marked for tense: -ing (present) participle and -ed (past) participle
What is the active voice?
The subject is doing the action.
e.g “Steve (subject) loves Amy (object)”
What is the passive voice?
The target of the action gets promoted to the subject position.
e.g “Amy (subject) is loved by Steve”
What is a transitive verb?
Verbs that need an object to complete the meaning.
What is an intransitive verb?
Verbs which do not need an object to complete the meaning.
What is a cataphoric reference?
A word or expression that refers forward to another part of the text, not yet disclosed.
What is an anaphoric reference?
A word or expression that refers back to another part of the text.
What are pronouns?
Words that take the place of nouns
What is a possessive pronoun?
Shows possession
e.g This is hers
What is an indefinite pronoun?
Do not refer to specific persons or things
e.g someone
What is a relative pronoun?
Placed after the noun they refer to
e.g the city that has many attractions
What is a demonstrative pronoun?
Have a sense of pointing at something or someone
e.g this / that / those
What is an interrogative pronoun?
Used when asking a question
e.g who / whose / which / what
What is a reflexive pronoun?
Indicate the object is the same as the subject
e.g He congratulated himself
What is a personal pronoun?
Replace subject and/or subject of a sentence
e.g I / he / she / they / him / she / them
What is an interjection?
A part of speech that demonstrates the emotion or feeling of the author. These words or phrases can stand alone, or be placed before or after a sentence.
What is deixis?
Use of demonstrative pronouns and determiners e.g this / that / those / these / them
(reliant on context - make no sense without further information)
What is a determiner?
Precede nouns and refer directly to them.
What is an example of a possesive determiner?
my / our / your / his /her / their
What is an example of a demonstrative determiner?
this / that / those / these
Is “the” a definite or an indefinite article?
definite
Is “a/an” a definite or indefinite article?
indefinite
What is an adverb?
Describes a verb, an adjective or another verb. It tell us how, how often, when and where.
What is an example of an adverb of manner?
easily loudly quickly reluctantly sadly silently
What is an example of an adverb of time?
after already early now soon yesterday
What is an example of an adverb of degree?
really most extremely definitely fairly mostly absolutely
What is an example of an adverb of frequency?
always every day never often twice sometimes
What is an example of an adverb of place?
away everywhere here Southward about towards
What is a preposition?
Indicates the way that one thing is related to another (shows the relationship between the noun that comes after it and something else in the sentence)
What is a conjunction?
Joining words (also known as connectives) - they join different parts of a sentence together
What is a subordinating conjunction?
Used to connect a subordinate clause to a main clause
e.g because / although / unless / until
What is a coordinating conjunction?
Used when parts of a sentence are equal
e.g and / or / but (fanboys)
What is a simple sentence?
Contains only one main clause
What is a compound sentence?
Consists of two main clauses joined together by a coordinating conjunction (fanboys)
What is a complex sentence?
Consists of a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses (aka dependent clauses)
What is a minor sentence?
Lack a subject or a main verb.
e.g no parking
What is a compound-complex sentence?
Has at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause
What is an interrogative?
They ask a question (want information, and they always end with a question mark)
usually: (wh-word +) auxiliary + subject + verb …
What is a declarative?
They make a statement (tell us something and give us information - normally end with a full-stop)
usually: subject + verb …
What is an imperative?
They give a command (tell us to do something, and end with a full-stop or exclamation mark - usually start with a verb)
What is an exclamative?
They express strong emotion/surprise (always end with an exclamation mark)
usually: what (+adjective) + noun + subject + verb
OR how (+ adjective/adverb) + subject + verb
What is a noun phrase?
A group of two or more words that is headed by a noun (a person, place, or thing) that includes modifiers (e.g., ‘the,’ ‘a,’ ‘of them,’ ‘with her’)
What is a verb phrase?
A combination of an auxiliary verb (helping verb) and a main lexical verb
What is the lexical field?
Refers to vocabulary related by topic.
e.g rain, wind, fog, clouds, umbrella, storm (grouped in the lexical field of weather)
What is a semantic field?
Refers to meaning rather than topic and typically involves synonyms and antonyms
e.g big, large, tiny, small (semantic field of size)
What are inflectional affixes?
Added to the end of existing word for grammatical reasons
e.g -ed / -ing
What are derivational affixes?
Added to morphemes to form new words that may or may not be the same part of speech
e.g Girl —> Girly
What is colloquial language?
The linguistic style used for casual communication (the form of language that speakers typically use when they are relaxed and not especially self-conscious)
