Grammar

Good day everyone!

              I almost forgot, I have something really important to tell and share to you guys about the very first topic, it was grammar and  that was discussed by our  eminently good professor in ENGL 2053. Let me share what I had learned from the very first topic but before we discuss grammar, let me share some details in my subject linguistics which I took last year , just a few information about it. Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Language is a system of arbitrary sounds and symbols used in human communication. I had learned components of language: phonetics(speech sounds), phonology(phonemes), morphology(words), syntax(phrases and sentences), semantics(literal meaning of phrases and sentences) and pragmatics(meaning in context of discourse).

              Let us have the center of our topic which is grammar. Grammar is the set of structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases and words in any given natural language. Aside in word structure, sentence, meanings(semantic and pragmatic), sounds is included in  components of language. According to Noam Chomsky, all language have common grammar. Universal grammar usually credited to Noam Chomsky proposing that the ability to learn grammar is hard -wired into the brain.

Prescriptive grammar- is a set of rules about language based on how people think. There is right and wrong language.

Descriptive grammar- is a set of rules on how language is actually used. There is no right and wrong language.

Functional grammar- how you used  words in a sentence each words has a functions.

Pedagogical grammar- teaching of grammar, strategy of how you teach grammar.

Grammaticality is a well- formedness of sentences

Acceptability is often reported in a variety of terms including acceptable, marginally acceptable,unacceptable, terrible, good.  There are many sentences that fall in a grey area of partial acceptability. 

Example: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

Verb

Good day everyone!

Let us now have the verb. I know this will be easy for you to comprehend our topic. Aren't you excited?  Let us begin...

VERB

Verb is a word expresses time while showing an action or condition or the fact that something exist. For example: Sasha threw the ball.

Action verb- is a verb that tells what action someone or something is performing.
                     *Some action verb represents mental action.
                      e.g The dancer will attempt a dancing leap.

Classification of Verbs

Linking verb- connects a word at or near the beginning of sentences with a word at or near at the                       end.
 The difference between the two is that action verb doesn't make sense while linking verb, it make sense.
Intransitive verb- it has a subject and a verb. It often describe physical behavior or movement.                              Prepositional and adverbial phrase are often after intransitive verb.
                         (arrive, die, fall, go, sleep, smile, stay, crush)
Transitive verb-  it has a subject, a verb and a direct object. The answer is the direct object.
                         (close, eat, open, play, sit, stand,walk)
                          e.g. Ken is playing volleyball.
She grows a plant in the garden. - Transitive verb
She grows up everyday. - Intransitive verb
She grows tall everyday. - Linking verb

Dynamic verb-expresses a wide range of actions that may be physical (to run), mental (ponder) or  perceptual (to see).
  -The progressive forms occur only with dynamic verbs, that is, with verbs that show                             qualities capable of change.
-It indicates an action, process, or sensation.
e.g. I bought  a new guitar.
       I am owning ten acres.
Stative verb- purely expresses a state in  which there is no obvious action.
-It shows no qualities, not capable of change.
-(such as be,have, know,like, own and seem) describes a state, situation, or condition.
e.g. Now, I own a Gibson Explorer.

Finite verb- is a form of a verb that shows agreement with a subject and is marked for tense.
 - It can stand alone by itself  in a sentence.
e.g. We rob banks.
       I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.
       Get busy living, or get busy dying.

* The reason finite verbs are so important is their unique ability to act as the sentence root. They can be used as the only verb in the sentence, whereas all the others have to depend on some other word, so finite verbs really stand out.

Nonfinite verb- is a form of verb that does not show a distinction in tense and normally cannot stand  alone as the main verb in a sentence.

 - It rarely includes a subject, and the verb cannot be inflected for tense.

e.g. Seeing the ordinary as extraordinary is something we all like to do.
       She forgot to google them.

* A nonfinite clause may serve as a subject or a complement ( to a verb,preposition or noun.)

SUBJECT

To speak in class is difficult for some children. (subject)

VERB COMPLEMENT

He loves to participate. (verb complement)

PREP COMPLEMENT

Charlie smiled after answering the question. (prep complement) Charlie is used to answering questions. Charlie is interested in hearing the answers.

NOUN COMPLEMENT

Prepared students excel in class. (modifier to subject noun) Students encouraged by their teachers do well. (modifier to subject noun)

Regular verbs (also called  weak verbs) form the past tense by adding -ed,-d, or -t to the base form or present tense form of the verb.

e.g. call - called
      walk- walked

Irregular verbs (also called strong verbs) form the past tense or the past participle (or both) in various ways but most often by changing the vowel of the present tense form.

e.g. give-gave

       stick-stuck

Pronoun

Good day everyone!

What a wonderful day! I really miss doing this activity guys, sharing what I have learned in our class discussion. I know this topic will be easy for you. 

 PRONOUN

               We know already what is pronoun, it is a word that replace the noun. The antecedent, they are the nouns that pronouns stand for. Let us talk about personal pronoun. Personal pronoun can be subject, object and it can be shown  possession.The same with nouns,  pronoun has  also three  cases: 

subjective case, objective case and possessive case. Here are some of examples:

"She is beautiful."       (subjective case) 

"He will meet us."       (objective case)

"This book is mine."   (possessive case)

              

 Subject pronouns                          Object pronouns                         Possessive pronouns

           he                                                       him                                                  his

          she                                                       her                                                   hers

           it                                                         it                                                      its

          we                                                       us                                                     ours

           I                                                         me                                               my, mine

        you                                                       you                                              your, yours

       they                                                       them                                            their, theirs

    

Pronoun of gender-  he, she, him, her, etc.

Pronoun of numbers- them, they , their

He     -   singular personal pronoun / pronoun of gender

Them-   plural personal pronoun / gender neutral pronoun

How do you use , "you and I" and "you and me" in a sentence?

You and I are assigned for this project.

This is for you and me.

Let us now discuss the types of pronouns:

* Indefinite pronouns- they are the nouns that are not identified or in some cases uncountable.

                                        (all, everybody, anybody, everyone, everything, few, most)

 Remember: Singular indefinite pronoun must always use singular verbs even it looks plural.

                   e.g Everyone is waiting for his or her grade.

The pronouns, all, anyone, most, most, none, some, many are followed by the linking verb are. 

                   e.g Many are coming to the party.

*Demonstrative pronouns- used to identify nouns and answer the the question "which one?"

                                               (these, those, this, that)

                                                these- plural/ nearby                          this-  singular/ nearby

                                                those- plural/ far                                that- singular, far

* Interrogative pronoun- used to replace nouns in questions.

These refer only to people: who, whom, whose, whoever, whosoever
                                          e.g The woman whom(receiver of the action)  you care is my friend.

These refer to place, people or things: what, which, whatever, whichever, whatsoever, whosoever                                                                     whomsoever.
* Relative pronoun-  used to connect clarifying into nouns or pronouns. It introduces clauses that                                           say something about it.
                                     which -defines                                  that- restricts
                                     e.g. Please give me the pen which uses Sumi ink in writing.
                                            Please give me the pen that I used yesterday.
* Intensive pronoun- used to place emphasis on the subject and are not essential to the meaning                                              of  sentences.
                                     e.g. He, himself, drove my mom to town.
*Reflexive pronoun- used to show that the subject of the sentences is receiving action of the                                                   verb. It  reflects the action back to the subject.
                                    e.g. She gave herself a pat on the back.
                                          The dog bit itself.
                                           Jackson can handle the project himself.
* Reciprocal pronoun- used to refer to a mutual set of people. (each other, one another)
*Possessive pronoun- answer the question "whose."

 Remember: 
Who- the answer is the subject
Whom- the answer is object
Whose- the answer is possessive
Why and How- (adverbs)

Classification of Nouns

Good day everyone! 

Here I am again. Another topic to be discuss. Our topic for today is about classification of nouns. Aren't you excited? So, let's get started.

CLASSIFICATION OF NOUNS

            Are you familiar with proper noun and common noun? How about the count and noncount noun? I know you had learned about abstract and concrete noun. How about  collective, compound, material and gender-specific noun? Do you still remember those classification of nouns? Still, remember the singular and plural forms? Well, I will give you some details about it.

           

           There's a difference between proper  noun and common noun.A proper noun is a name of a specific on-of-a kind item and begins with capital letter while common noun is a name of general item. For example, the mongol 1 is a proper noun of the pencil which it is the common noun. Let us have the count noun and noncount noun.Count noun can be divided up into smaller units which are separate and distinct from one another  while noncount noun  that cannot be counted because they are regarded as wholes which cannot be divided into parts.I'll give you some example, in count noun: buildings, chairs, balloons. In noncount noun examples are floor, oxygen, rice. I know you obviously know the difference between concrete and abstract noun. If we talk about concrete noun, it names something that you can physically see, touch, taste , hear and smell, on the other hand, if we talk about abstract noun, it names something that is non physical that you cannot perceive through any of your senses.Concrete noun examples:  bag, chair, perfume. Abstract noun examples: love, courage, power. Do you still remember other classification of nouns? We have collective noun, it is a word that refers to a group. It can be either singular or plural depending on the sentence. For example, musicians, dancers and teachers. Compound noun is composed of the two or more words acting as single unit. For example in separated are heart attack, movie stars. In hypenated are mother-in-law, ex-girlfriend, light-year. In combined are firefly, butterfly. 

            
           Material noun is the name given to the material, substance or things made up of alloy. It refers to the type of substance instead of individual particles. For example material nouns from nature: water, air. The last one is gender specific noun, it refers specifically to a male or a female. For example: actress (female) , actor (male) and there is also neutral. Moving on, let us talk about singular and plural, singular nouns can indicate number, it name one person. place or thing. Plural nouns name more persons, places or things, most of it are formed by the additional -s and -es. Here are some examples of singular and plural forms:

Singular                                            Plural

a. kiss                      -                         kisses

  boy                      -                         boys

   b. analysis                -                         analyses

  basis                     -                         bases

c. sheep                    -                           sheep

  fish                       -                             fish

 

           

Noun Cases

Good day everyone! 

I learned so much from our topic that was discussed by our reporter. Well, I will not tell who that reporter is and to tell you she  present her topic tremendously.It was fantastic. She has a quality of being a good teacher. The first  topic that we've learned was the cases of a noun.

NOUN CASES

           The case of a noun tells about the position of that noun in a sentence.There are three cases of a noun: a) nominative case or subjective case b) objective case c) possessive case . It is nominative case or subjective case if  it generally marks the subject of the verb. If they are the direct objects of verbs,if they indirect object of the verb and if they are the object of preposition they are called objective case.Answering the question "to whom" or "to what". If it denotes possessive or ownership it is called possessive case.

For us to understand more the cases of  a noun. Here are some examples of each cases:

Nominative case/ subjective case:  Razel bought a bond paper. (Sam is the subject of the verb.)

Objective case: Max broke the mirror. (direct object)

                        The teacher gave the students some activities. (indirect object)

                        The picture is on the table. ( object of the preposition)

Possessive case: This is Mae Ann's car. (Mae Ann owns the car.)