Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Faculty of Arts
Compiled By
Lecturer in Linguistics
Faculty of Arts
Benha University
2011-2012
Parts of Speech:
Form-Classes
As the parts of speech are a central and controversial area of
English grammar, a brief historical introduction may prove
apropos and shed light on some sticky problems.
Noun Adverb
Pronoun
Verb
Participle
} declined
Conjunction
Preposition
Interjection
} undeclined
In 1640 Ben Jonson, who had cut his teeth on Lyly, brought
out his little English Grammar. In this he Wrote concerning the
parts of speech:
Our friend
The in group
Ice-cold lemonade
He ran swiftly.
In the first sentence swiftly modifies the verb ran, and in the
second very modifies the adjective sick. But can very modify
verbs, as in "He ran very"?
a red shirt.
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Optional Exercise -2
Reformation.
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B. Verbs
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Exercise -4
table.
the cat.
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Exercise -5
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C. Adjectives
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Exercise -6
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D. Adverbs
The adverb has four suffixes to set it apart from other form
classes-the derivational suffixes -ly, -wise, -ward, and -s-and
the free form like.
Later you will learn that they are adjectivals in position and
modifiers by function.
He works days.
He is busy mealtimes.
Exercise -8
4. Be careful. ───────────
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E. Uninflected Words
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Exercise -9
Parts of Speech:
Structure Classes
A. Qualifiers
Thus it is evident that words like very and rather are qualifiers.
The function of a qualifier is to modify; and the word following
the qualifier, like good and skilfully (that is, the word
modified), is called the head.
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Exercise -1
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Exercise -2
5. He is fighting mad.
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a lot kind of
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You are given below a list of words and phrases that are
qualifiers when in the Qualifier slot. Following the list are
Questions to answer.
Question
Prepositions are words like of, in, and to which are usually
followed by a noun, noun phrase, personal pronoun, or noun-
substitute called the object of the preposition. The unit of
preposition-plus-object of preposition is. called a prepositional
phrase.
Where is he from?
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Exercise -4
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Exercise -5
Generalization: ───────────────────────────
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Exercise -6
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Exercise -7
Underline the -ing prepositions once and the -lng verbs twice.
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Exercise -8
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C. Determiners
a/an my this
his these
her those
its
our
their
I prefer Elizabeth's.
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Exercise -9
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Exercise -10
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D. Auxiliaries
can could
may might
shall should
will would
must
ought (to)
The modal auxiliaries are bound together as a group by two
characteristics of form: (1) The present-tense form does not
take an -s in the third person singular; for example, we say "She
may," not "She mays." (2) They do not have participle forms,
present or past.
Must and ought (to) do not have parallel forms, like the others.
To express the past tense of must, in the sense of necessity, one
says had to, e.g.,
And for the past tense of ought (to), one uses ought (to)/should
plus have plus a past participle, e.g.,
or
but not
or
or
Stem have be
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Exercise -11
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Exercise -12
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Exercise -13
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This {not} may take the form of n't / -Iot/, /ənt/, or / -nt/. A
negatived verb, on the contrary, requires a form of do plus not
preceding the verb stem.
I told him.
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Exercise .-14
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Q. ───────────────
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E. Pronouns: Personal Interrogative. Relative
1. PERSONAL PRONOUNS
Singular
Subject Object Prenominal Substitutional
Possessive Possessive
1st I me my mine
2nd you you your yours
3rdM he him his his
F she her her hers
N it it its its
Plural
1st we us our ours
2nd you you your yours
3rd they Them their theirs
Interr Who Whom whose Whose
Relative
Let us look at them through the framework terms.
Earlier in our history the singular forms were thou. Thee. Thv.
Thine. These were in everyday use by the English who settled
our country in the early 1600s, and you meet them in
Shakespeare's plays and the King James Bible, both of the same
2. Function Terms
Examples: The tree which fell was a large oak. (subject of verb)
That has both human and nonhuman reference. Its uses are the
same as those of which, except that it does not directly follow a
preposition.
But
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Exercise -15
Assume you are writing a term paper in a formal style. Fill in
the blanks with the relative who or whom.
1. The candidate the convention chose had always voted
for civil rights legislation.
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Exercise -16
Fill in the blanks with who or which or both. After the sentence
indicate whether the reference is Hum (human) or Nhum
(nonhuman).
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5. The coffee ───── you bought is stale. ─────
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Exercise. -17
8. ─────bucket is leaking.
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Chapter Three
A. Noun Phrases
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Exercise ·1
1. The fence
7. A worn-out putter
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Exercise -2
Make each list of words into a noun phrase and underline the
headword.
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Exercise -3
3. He makes jewelry.
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B. Verb Phrases
arrived late
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Exercise -4
1. Stepped lightly
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1. Who am I?
2. Who is he?
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Basic Sentence
Patterns
We do not speak English by merely stringing words
together in some random fashion. Instead, we carefully arrange
our words, for the most part unconsciously, into patterns. In
English we use nine basic sentence patterns and a multitude of
subpatterns. It will now be our purpose to examine these basic
sentence patterns of English. Any sentence you speak will
probably be based on one of them.
Pattern 1: N be Aj
Food is good.
In the nine basic patterns the subject always occurs in the first
N position. In Pattern 1 the grammatical meaning of the subject
is "that which is described."
My mother is outside
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Exercise -I
3. My mother is kind.
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4. My mother is out.
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The foregoing test for Pattern 1 does not work in all cases. Nor,
for that matter, does any grammatical rule or test, unless it is
accompanied by exceptions and qualifications. There is a
limited number of adjectives that can occur in, either the first or
the second slot, but not in both, in a Pattern
1 sentence like
for example, some adjectives are used only before a noun, like
main and utter. Some others appear, in this pattern, after be +
very, like afraid and content, but not before the noun. Still
others are restricted in various ways. furthermore, not all
adjectives can be modified by very. We do not say, for instance,
"*"the very main speaker.” But, apart from' such aberrations,
the test for Pattern 1 is useful.
Pattern 2: N be Av
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Exercise ·2
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Pattern 3: N be N
My brother is a doctor.
The superscript after the second N (noun) means that this noun
has the same referent as N; that is, both brother and doctor refer
to the same pert son. The meaning of be in Pattern 3 is "be
identified or classified as." The '-" first N' (subject) has the
grammatical meaning of "that which is identified." The second
NI means grammatically "that which identifies the subject" and
is called the subjective complement. Personal pronouns also
occupy this position. Such pronouns in the subjective
complement position take primary stress, e.g.,
This is she
It was they.
That is mine.
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Exercise -3
6. My cousin is a fool.
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7. My cousin is proud.
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Pattern 4: N LV Aj
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Exercise -4
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For verbs like these one can substitute be, become, or remain
with no substantial change of meaning.
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Exercise -5
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Pattern 5: N LV N
The two superscripts show that both nouns have the same
referent. The verb, which links student and sister, is a linking
verb. The number of linking verbs that may occupy the verbal
position in this pattern is very small. Among them are remain,
become, appear, seem, continue, stay, make.
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Exercise -6
sergeant.
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hall.
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and
They finished it
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Exercise -7
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The other set consists of the reciprocal pronouns each other and
one another, which function as direct objects in such sentences
as
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Exercise -8
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Exercise -9
2. I'll pass.
─── ───
12. The firm sent a form letter to all its customers. ─── ───
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3. The subject of the active verb may be made the object of the
preposition by, or it may be suppressed.
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Exercise -10
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Exercise-11
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This can mean either "Someone closed the gate at ten" or "The
gate was not open at ten." With got only the first meaning is
possible:
He scratched himself.
Pattern 8: N1 TrV N2 N3
Some of the common ones are give, make, find, tell, buy, write,
send, ask, play, build, leach, assign, feed, offer, throw, hand,
pass, sell, pay.
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Exercise -12
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Exercise -13
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Exercise -14
2. In Pattern 9 both objects have the same referent; that is, both
Charlotte and captain refer to the same person.
3. In Pattern 9, only the first object, the direct object can be mad
the subject of a passive verb. We can transform the pattern
sentence into
makes no sense.
DO OC
Subj. SC
DO OC
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Exercise -15
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Exercise: -16
12. The coach designated Jan the new manager of the team. ──
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Exercise, -17
8. He accepted Wednesday.
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Functions
N1 TrV N2
N be Aj
Function, then, is the grammatical job that any word (or word
group) does in its particular position. It is the grammatical
meaning. Here now are tile labels for all the functions you will
meet in this book, together with a condensed, rough-and-ready
note on the job of each. This is a reference list only, so don't try
to master it here and now.
(Patterns 6, 7, 8, 9)
(Pattern 2)
(Patterns 2, 6, 7, 8, 9)
word by a preposition.
or word group.
conjunctions, subordinating
relatives.
of the preposition.
12. Can you see from [where you sit]? (Object of preposition)
Note that you can readily put a noun in each of these positions
because each is the customary abode of a noun.
Parts of Speech:
Positional Classes
A. Noun
B. Verb
C. Adjective
D. Adverb
E. Uninflected word
1. Determiner 8.
Post determiner
3. Auxiliary
conjunction
4. Qualifier 10.
Coordinating
5. Preposition
conjunction
7. Predeterminer 12.
Expletive
1. nominal
2. verbal
4. adverbial
A. Nominals
SV Subject of verb
SC Subjective complement
OC Objective complement
OP Object of preposition
RO Retained object
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Exercise -l
Function
AJ position
4. He hated starving.
─── ───
6. The winners were the men from Homburg Hall. ─── ───
12. Her roommate disliked the chaos in Jo's room. ─── ───
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Whether or not a word group is a nominal can be tested by
substitution. A word group is a nominal If It can be replaced by
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Exercise -3
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Exercise -4
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B. Verbals
Verbals are those forms that occupy verb positions. The kingpin
verbal position is that of the main verb. It comes after the
opening N slot. The verb by form is a verbal by position.
Exercise -5
a. I choose carefully. }
2. Each pair contains one inflected form, except the last pair,
which contains two inflected forms, am and were. Here are the
explanatory details:
3b. To be sensible
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Oral Exercise -A
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You may have observed that each sentence portion above
conforms in part to one of the nine basic sentence patterns. In
la, 2a, and 3a there is a direct object, respectively fist, invaders,
and nonsense. This is a partial Pattern 7. In Ib, 2b, and 3b there
is the verb be + an adjective, angry, uneasy, and sensible. This
is a partial Pattern 1. In lc, 2c, and 3c there is a subject, namely,
willow, guide, and cousin, used with an intransitive verb. This
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Exercise -6
Indicate the number of the sentence pattern that each ·of the
italicized nonfinite verbals participates in.
1. Picking strawberries was her favorite occupation.
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2. Perkins did not approve of assigning students long papers.
3. To give generously is a Christian virtue.
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4. Being a minister, Prentiss spoke gently.
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5. We regretted the warblers leaving for the South.
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6. Remaining a conscientious objector, Harkness did not return
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11. Jim's father did not object to his becoming a Marine. ───
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Exercise -B
SV subject of verb DO
direct object of verb
In this case the main verb enjoys has as its direct object the
nominal playing golf, and within this nominal the verbal
playing has golf as its direct object. Here is another:
In this example, the main verb wanted has as its direct object
the nominal to teach her a lesson. And within this nominal the
verbal to teach has an indirect object her and a direct object
lesson. In the next sentence,
we say that the main verb asked has the direct object her to
drive the car and that, within this nominal, her is the subject of
the verbal to drive and car the direct object. This analysis is
supported by the possibility of substituting a nominal clause
like this:
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DO direct object
1. Sentence-modifier(p;249)
An inside job
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Exercise ·10
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N be Aj
Exercise -11
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or with a modifier, as in
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Exercise. -12
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Exercise -13
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Exercise. -14
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D. Adverbials
Place: Here ── ──
── here
Manner: ── ── ──
── well
1 2
3 4 5
Place: ── ──
── ── outside
Manner: ── ──
skillfully ── skillfully
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Exercise . -15
1 2 3 4
Pattern 4: N LV Aj
Time: recently
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Place: everywhere
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Manner: gradually
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hours, for hours, a week, the whole night, until dawn, since
yesterday.
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Exercise -16
1 2 3 4
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He drove recklessly.
She is outside.
He eats doughnuts.
we can substitute the adverb quickly for fast. Thus fast is called
an adverbial.
He ate Wednesday
He ate sandwiches
we see that the first cannot be made passive, for no one would
say
Come quick.
3. "Here" series:
4. "There" series:
5. "-where" series:
6. "-way(s)" series:
7. "-time(s)" series:
8. Miscellaneous
He ate sandwiches
Exercise -17
4. I certainly will.
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Unless you follow the printed directions, the set will not fit
properly together.
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Exercise -18
blackening sky.
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Exercise -19
19. He raised the hood because the engine was hot. ─────
20. They found the cabin just what they wanted. ─────
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Exercise -20
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*Up he turned.
*Off we took.
He climbed up.
This does not have any of the three characteristics noted above
for the intransitive VAC:
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Exercise -21
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He turned it down.
If one said
He turned down it
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Exercise -22
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Test B-Inseparability. The verb-adverbial in the VAC + O
cannot be separated by a modifier, but a modifier can occur
between a verb and a prepositional phrase. For example,
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Insert a modifier wherever you can after the verb. Then classify
the italicized words as VAC + 0 or V + PP.
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Test C-Relative Transformation. The V + PP sentence can be
transformed into a relative structure in which the preposition is
followed by a which or whom, thus:
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Exercise -24
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3. The teacher stood drinking in the moonlight.
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4. The teacher stood drinking in the moonlight.
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5. Alice pricked up her ears.
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6. Keith looked over her bare shoulder.
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7. We prevailed on the dean.
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8. He knocked over the chair.
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9. He stepped over the chair.
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10. Jake closed down his shop.
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Some sentences similar to those we have been discussing may
seem to have two adverbials, as in
He can't get along with them. (= tolerate)
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Exercise -26
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2. McBride made off with the child. (= stole, kidnapped)
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3. We made up with the girls.
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4. They won't put up with that spoiled child. (= endure)
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5. We should look in on the Smiths. (= visit)
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Modification
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Exercise. -1
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3. McPherson was a dour man who seldom smiled.
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4. The two strolled through the park after they had finished
work.
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5. The constable laughed nastily.
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6. We heard the loud rattling clank of the chain.
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7. The angry squirrel in the pine scolded the blue jays.
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8. The contract that he signed had paragraphs of fine print.
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9. The searchers found the car lying on its side.
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10. Claribel jumped into the deep pool.
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Exercise -2
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Sentence Modifiers
1. Single-word adverbial:
2. Clause adverbial:
3. Prepositional phrase:
4. Absolute structure.
5. Infinitive phrase:
7. Relative in -ever:
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Exercise -3
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5. ──────────────────────────────────
6. ──────────────────────────────────
7. ──────────────────────────────────
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Exercise -4
5. He spends his money, most of the time, on repairs for his car.
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Exercise -5
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NH
D NH
the fence
In case your memory has misted over here are the determiners
again:
D AJ NH
When an adjective and a noun both precede the noun head, the
adjective precedes the modifying noun, thus:
D AJ N
NH
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Exercise -6
Aj N NH.
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may modify either the first noun or the second noun. Consider
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Exercise -7
b. ─────────────────
b. ─────────────────
b. ─────────────────
b. ─────────────────
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PRE/D D AJ
N NH
all my old
school friends
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Exercise -8
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D AJ N
NH
We will use the noun possessive summer's and see where it fits.
D AJ
NH
D AJ
NH
D AJ
N NH
All these sound like normal English. But we would not say
D N
NH
D N
NH
a cotton man's
shirt?
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Exercise -9
b. ────────────────
b. ────────────────
b. ────────────────
b. ────────────────
b. ───────────────
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V IV III
II I NH
A. the to come.)
B. another
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Exercise -10
IVB II I NH
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every most
few
other
less
same
more such
(a)
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Exercise -11
Place the class number-V, IV, III, II, or I-above each modifier.
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Exercise -12
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Exercise -13
Make each list into. two noun phrases, and write above each
modifier the number of the class to which it belongs.
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just girls
even water
especially candy
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Exercise -14
Make a noun phrase of each list and write above each modifier
its class number.
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Exercise -15
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Exercise -16
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Exercise -17
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4. Adverb. AI adverb may modify a noun that precedes it.
My meaning exactly
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Exercise -18
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6. Prepositional Phrase Adjectival
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8. On the river bank sat little Robert, covered with mud. ────
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2. The old carpenter, who had been laying the floor, stood up
and straightened his back.
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Exercise -21
DO = direct object Md =
modifier
6. The old battered boathouse, which had long been our meeting
place, was tom down.
10. The girl whom I met at the play disappeared during the
intermission.
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Further reading
١. Baker, C. l. 1995 English Syntax