module 2: grammatical skills
PARTS OF SPEECH
Words are the basic elements in any language which are formed
out by combining letters to give meaning. Parts of speech are the basic words
combined together to form utterances or speech in a language.
Expressing Nouns
Wren and Martin (2004)[1]
define noun as a word used as the name of a person, place or thing. This
definition does not complete the meaning of the noun, this is because there are
words that are nouns and yet they do not name thing, person or thing. How can
we say about beauty, kindness, judgment, etc.? I agree with Melaku,[2]
that a noun is a word that we use for giving a name to a person, place, things,
quality, idea or action.
There are four characteristics that help to identify nouns:
- They are
preceded by determiners (a, the, an, some, etc.)
- They are
headwords of Noun Phrases e.g. The most dangerous person (HW)
- They can
change into singularity and plurality, i.e. child- children
- They can
have special endings, e.g. child-hood.
Types
of Nouns
·
Proper
vs. Common Nouns
Proper nouns are
nouns that can stand alone, they do not allow plurality, they have no
determiners and normally they start with capital letters. They are nouns of
particular people or things. In example [1] below the word Malegeza is proper noun since it agrees with the three
characteristics of proper noun.
[1] Malegeza is not
a naughty boy.
Common nouns are
nouns given in common to people, things or places. In the sentence [1] above,
the word boy is a common noun since
it is given to a common boy who is not particular but anyone. The major
features of common nouns are that they begin with small letters in the middle
of the sentence, they take articles and determiners and finally they allow
singularity and plurality.
·
Countable
vs. uncountable nouns
Countable Nouns are those nouns that can be counted either by
single object or group of objects. This kind of noun allows one to find the
total number of things or people. Countable nouns can be changed from singular
to plural. The plural of count nouns can be done by adding suffixes –s, -es, -ies, or putting the nouns
into groups so we count them considering these groups. For instance, a chair,
group of people, an army of soldier, and or a swamp
of bees are some of common nouns.
·
Non-Count
or Mass nouns
These are nouns that cannot be counted. They are liquid, water, and floor and wood.
It is difficult to find the total number of these objects because of their
nature. These nouns are always in singular form. Thus, they have no indefinite
articles a, an. Sometimes, these
nouns are preceded by some, any, little,
etc. some uncountable nouns are abstract nouns while others are substances that
are considered uncountable (Thomson & Martinet 1986)[3]
Examples of uncountable nouns are shown in the table 1 below:
Table
1: Uncountable Nouns
|
Water Milk alcohol |
Sugar Floor salt |
Suggestion Information news |
|
furniture firewood wall |
Soap Rice Sand |
Loveness Hatred Loneliness |
|
|
|
|
·
Abstract
vs. Concrete Nouns
Abstract nouns are nouns that cannot be seen, felt, touched
or smelled. Wren and Martin (2004)[4]
assert that an abstract noun is name of a quality, action or state considered
apart from the object to which it belongs. Examples of abstract nouns are kingdom, hatred, blackness, childhood,
strength, theft, judgment, wisdom and gospel.
Concrete nouns are nouns that can be seen, touched or even
felt. These nouns are definite and specific. According to Kajare (2007),[5]
concrete nouns are nouns that refer to tangible or physical objects or
substances which can be counted and uncounted.
For instance; chair, goat, salt, sand etc.
Expressing
Pronouns
A pronoun is a word that is used to replace
or represent the nouns. They are used
instead or in the place of nouns or noun phrase. Examples, he,
she, it, I, we, you, her, that etc.
Characteristics
of Pronouns
·
They have similar function as NP, i.e. they can
be subject or object
He loves her.
·
They do not allow modification
The man with black suit
* He with the black suit.
·
They differentiate human vs non-human
He/she/I/ We - for human and it for non-human.
·
They distinguish singular and plural
·
They indicate persons
|
1 |
I |
We |
|
2 |
You |
You |
|
3 |
He/she/it |
They
|
Types
of pronouns
There are many types of pronouns:
·
Personal
pronouns
These pronouns are used to identify the speaker or a person
E.g. I, we, you, they, she, he
·
Possessive
pronouns
They show
possession (attributive & predicative)
e.g.
my, her, his, our, their for attributive and mine, hers, his, ours, theirs for predicative,
·
Demonstrative
PRO: demonstrate the position of the object and the number in relation to
the speaker. Example; these two pens
are mine. This sentence tells something that pens are in plural and are near to
the speaker.
{This,
this- these,that-those}
·
Reflexive
PRO: add suffixes self/selves and are used to refer back to the speaker or
hearer who is doing certain action. I will go there myself.
[Myself,
ourselves, himself, themselves]
·
Relative
PRO: used to post modify relative clause. This means that they give more
information about the relative clause. They are different from interrogative
pronouns since they do not ask questions but they add qualities to the clause
That book, which is stolen, has been found. A boy whose mother came here passed the exam. [Which, where, when, who,
whose, that]
·
Interrogatives:
are used to ask questions,
They include: which,
what, where, how, which, etc.
Example: When will
you come back? How did it happen?
Expressing Adjectives
Adjective is a word class category that used to modify or
give qualities of nouns or pronouns. Adjectives are used to add something to
the meaning of the nouns. The placements of adjectives differ from language to
language.
(2) English
A + N: A good child
Swahili N + A: Mtoto mzuri
Adjectives are contradicted with adverbs since they have the
same forms of structures. What
differentiate them depends on how they are used in sentence construction. How can we identify adjectives? Sreedharan[6]
asserts that adjectives are the complements qualifying the subjects; thus, they
do not modify verbs but nouns. The verbs such as ‘to be’, to seem’, to become’,
appear, look, feel, turn, etc. have to be followed by the adjectives rather
than adverbs for example: The president felt sad.
(3) He grew big.
Mwanakombo
appears smart
All bold words are adjectives as they add information about
nouns and pronouns.
Characteristics
of Adjectives
- Adjectives pre modify nouns,
e.g. The big fat hen.
- Adjectives can be seen in
comparative and superlative
Small –
smaller, smallest
- Adjectives can occur as
complements alone: the house is beautiful
- Most adjectives allow
additional of -ly to make it
adverb. Happily, kindly, etc.
- Adjectives can be intensified
by very, etc.
Avery notorious girl
Suffixes of adjectives
are as follow;
(4) -able, -al, -ous, -some, -y, -full, -like,
-less, -ive, -ous, -ant, -ish etc.
Functions
of adjectives
·
They can function as complement or the object or
subject:
Mary is beautiful,
I will be sad
·
Adjectives are used as exclamations
Marvelous!
·
Adjectives can post modify nouns
E. g.Anything new? Something important?
·
They (adjectives) can be shortened (verbless
clause)
Call me later if possible
They
may appear as the heads of NP, i.e. the unacceptable,
you are talking the impossible.
Kinds of Adjectives
Wren and Martin (ibid) propose that adjectives are divided
into the following classes or kinds:
- Descriptive adjectives
These adjectives are used to describe or to
show the qualities of the nouns or pronouns. Examples
These
are Chinese phones.
Lushoto
is very mountainous district.
Mateso is a lazy guy.
The italic words in examples 1 to 3 are
descriptive adjectives because they describe the qualities of corresponding
nouns.
·
Adjectives
of Quantity
These adjectives give
or show how much things are involved or how the nouns are meant. These
adjectives answer the question how much.
Examples
I had enough time to think about it.
She spent the whole day reading novel.
Few commodities
were sold.
Again, examples above indicate quantity adjectives. These are
the ones with italic and so they show how much the corresponding nouns are
meant.
- Adjectives of Number
These are sometimes called Numerical adjectives. They are used to
show the number of nouns involved. They always answer the question how many nouns.
Mama Masumbuko has twelve children.
He is
the first born.
They
were neither chosen president of
IJASO.
- Demonstrative Adjectives
These are the adjectives that show
demonstration which person or thing is meant. It points out the particular noun
in relation to the speaker.
Consider examples below:
This boy
is naughty.
Those who came here yesterday.
- Interrogative adjectives
These are the adjectives together with nouns
used to ask questions.
Examples
Which road shall I pass?
Whose
book is this?
Expressing
Adverbs
These words are used to modify other word classes such as
verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. Adverbs
specify the mode of action of verbs.
Example: yesterday,
very, frankly, normally etc.
There are two functions of adverbs. These
functions are as defined below:
- They are
used to modify other words
I am frankly tired
She spoke to every body
The day after tomorrow
- They are
adverbial clause elements E.g. You
are leaving tomorrow
Types
of adverbs
There are three types of adverbs
·
Single adverbs
These are made up of a single adverb i.e. soon, just, alike, etc. Example, I will
be there soon.
·
Compound adverbs
They
are combined with more than one adverb. E.g. please come early in the morning
It is somehow
difficult.
·
Complex adverbs
They normally end with suffixes such as –ly as in; normally, occasionally, happily, sandy rainy, etc.
The
Kinds of Adverbs due to their Meanings
Adverbs are further subdivided depending
on the meaning they convey:
Space They
live in rural (where)
I went
to playing ground
Time I
will visit him on Saturday (when)
I
lived here since 1961
They often go to the dancing hall
Process (manner, instrument, and means) how
She
walks slowly
I
spoke to the phone
She
eats with spoons
Degree You have answered it sufficiently
I ‘mbadly missed you
Modality I certainly
accept your proposal.
Expressing Verbs
A verb is a word that expresses the event, action, the
process or activity done by the subject. Nouns are doing and action words. Verb
refers to the kind of the word that shows the action, state of being or event
done by the subject.
Types of Verbs
According to Thomson and Martinet (1986)[7]
verbs are identified into two classes, which are:
·
Main verbs (V)
·
Auxiliary verbs (Aux)
Main Verb
The main verbs stand on their own and give complete meaning
of the action. Example walk, dance,
play, sing, etc. because they show the action of doing something. The word goes is
the main verb since it shows the action of moving from one place to another.
Types of Main Verbs
Main verbs are also being subdivided into two types:
Regular verbs:
they have special regular ending form used to mark past and past participle
played, danced, jumped, arrived, etc.
Irregular verbs: they
have irregular or no special endings when marking past or past participle come,
see, run, eat, write etc.
Auxiliary Verbs
Auxiliary verbs are the verbs that cannot stand alone and
give complete meaning. The main function of the auxiliary verbs is to help the
main verbs in its completion of their functions. Examples of auxiliary verbs
include verbs such as be, have, do, may,
shall, ought.
Expressing Prepositions
This is a word that shows relationship among words. Prepositions combine with Noun Phrase to form
DP which modifies nouns or verbs.
Examples at, in, on,
under, near, beside, inside, with, on behalf of, accordance to etc.
The man with knife
He ran down the river.
|
PREPOSITION in |
DESCRIPTION
|
|
On |
·
At the surface of something, like table,
floor, etc.
|
|
Into |
·
In a direction to get inside something, e.g.
who is throwing stone into the
room? He is going into the room. |
|
Onto |
·
In the direction to the top of something, e.g.
throw stones into the roof, Don’t jump
onto the table |
|
Under |
·
Below something, he is carrying his book under his arm; put it under the table |
|
Across |
·
From one side to another, e.g. walk across the field |
|
Behind |
At the back of thing or person e.g My mother is behind the house |
|
Of |
Used to show what a part belong to or comes from e.g. part of your body The quality that something has, e.g. the cost of the food, President of Tanzania |
|
Off |
Away from a place
e.g. take it off the road Out of bus, train, plane, etc. get off the bus Not at work, school because of holiday or ill. No longer liking or wanting something, e.g. I am off my drink nowadays |
|
To |
Used to show purpose or intention, e.g. I am going to cook Used after the verb be to show arrangements or give an
order e.g. you are to wait To say the direction where something or someone goes e.g.
they are going to school Used to show who receives something, told or shown
something e.g. who said that to me? |
|
For |
Used to say who is intended to get or use something e.g. he
left a message for Vicky To help someone or something e.g. I carried two buckets for you Used to talk about a distance e.g. they walked for miles |
|
Along |
From one end of something to another e.g. along the road or a straight line. |
|
Alongside |
Used to say that things or people exist together at the
same time Simon spent a year working alongside the refugees |
NB: It is important to know that some prepositions like ‘to’
and ‘for’ may be confusing with other word categories. For example, the
preposition to may be confusing with
infinitive to. You can differentiate them by knowing the meaning of preposition
to as described above; also infinitive to is different from preposition to in
that infinitive to is always followed by a bare verb.
Similarly, preposition for
and conjunction for also confuse.
Preposition for can be understood as
well by knowing its meaning as explained above, another quick way to
differentiate them is that preposition for
is followed by a noun or pronoun where conjunction for is a substitute of
because, e.g. I came here because you called me = I came here for you called
me.
It is advised that one takes time to discuss the meaning of
these words which will make him/her use the language in at ease and striking
way.
[1]Wren and Martin; High School English
Grammar and Composition; 2004: 05.
[2]Melaku, Simplified English Grammar
pg. 2
[3]
Thomson & Martinet, 1986
[4]Wren Martin (ibid) pg 6.
[5]Kajare,
J.S. English language for Advanced level Students; 2007:58-59
[6]Sreedharan,
V. How to Write Correct English, pg 75
[7]
Thomson and Martinet, A Practical English Grammar, 1986:105
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