Adjectivals - English Grammar: Key Concepts and Terms | ENGL 201, Study notes of English Language

Download Adjectivals - English Grammar: Key Concepts and Terms | ENGL 201 and more Study notes English Language in PDF only on Docsity! Adjectivals Adjectivals consist of any grammatical structure that can fill the same function as an adjective in a sentence—that is, modify a noun. Adjectivals can occur with any of the following structures: • Determiners, including articles, possessive nouns, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and numbers. • Adjectives, both pre-noun and post-noun. • Nouns • Prepositional Phrases • Participle Phrases • Relative clauses, both restrictive and nonrestrictive The first three types of adjectivals occur before the noun, so they are sometimes called the “prenoun modifiers.” The last three occur after the noun, so they may be called the “postnoun modi- fiers.” The noun that is being modified is sometimes called the “headword.” It is important to determine which word is actually the headword of the subject of the sentence to avoid subject-verb agreement problems: *The pack of dogs were traveling throughout the city. *The new, improved instructions on the immigration form was not as clear as it should have been. These sentences are nonstandard because verb agrees with the object of the preposition modifying the headword, instead of the headword itself. Here are the correct forms: The pack of dogs was traveling throughout the city. The new, improved instructions on the immigration form were not as clear as they should have been. Determiners consist of words before the noun that specify which entity the noun refers to. Here are some examples. 1. A dog can be an excellent friend. 2. The dog most likely evolved from the wolf. 3. My dog is named Bonnie. 4. That dog is not my dog. 5. Two dogs can often keep each other company. The subjects in Sentences 1 and 2 are preceded by articles; Sen- tence 1 uses the indefinite article; Sentence 2 uses the definite article. Sentence 3 uses the first person singular possessive pronoun. You will recognize the others very quickly. Singular Plural First Person my our Second Person your your Third Person her/his/its their Any possessive word is also a kind of determiner. The posses- sive form of any word is formed by adding an apostrophe and an s to the word, unless the word was already plural and ended in s. In the last case, you form the possessive by simply adding an apostrophe: Bonnie’s mother lives in Uniontown. At doggie day care, I could see the dogs’ toys scattered throughout the exercise yard. If adding an apostrophe and s to a singular form results in the sequence “s’s,” it is permissible to drop the final s. Sentence 4 uses one of the demonstrative pronouns. They can be classified as well: Singular Plural Near to the speaker this these (literally or figuratively) Far from the speaker that those Sentence 5 uses a number as the determiner. In addition to number, the determiner could be a word or phrase that indicates quantity: some, a few, lots, a lot of, many, no, and so forth. Prenoun adjectives are the most familiar kind. English has some expressions in which the adjective follows the noun: attorney general court martial These words are unusual. To form the plural of these words, you just put the s (or other plural form) on the headword: attorneys general courts martial Adjectives in the usual position before the noun are usually very easy to recognize. However, it is possible for some of the words before the headword to modify one of the other words before the headword, instead of the headword itself, as in the following sentence: My brother’s dog was a husky. In this case, the possessive pronoun “my” modifies the posses- sive pronoun. You diagram the relationship shown by the arrows above like this: This same principle applies to adverbs, called intensifiers, that modify adjectives. The most common intensifiers include words like the following: very, extremely, really, quite, incredibly, unbelievably We encountered an extremely large, black dog. dog was husky brother’s M y a We encountered dogan extremely large black www.class.uidaho.edu/engl201 Check out the Apostrophe Protection Society at www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk. dog was afraid neighbor’s Our former of one of dogs previous our You often have to pay close attention to how all the words be- fore the noun are related to each other. Our former neighbors’ dog was afraid of another one of our previous dogs. Sometimes, we use a phrase before the noun as if it were a single adjective. In these cases, we use hyphens: two-word verbs well-known woman fast-moving train thirteen-year-old German shepherd 75-pound dog start-of-the-semester party French-speaking country When the same words that make up a hyphenated adjective are used after the noun (later in the sentence), they are not hyphen- ated: We’re having a party at the start of the semester. The country of Cameroon is French speaking. Adverbs that end in -ly are not hypenated: carefully developed plan fully realized opportunity Two-word adjectives are diagrammed as if they are single words: My 13-year-old German shepherd weighed about 65 pounds. Nouns can also function as adjectivals. Here is an example: Bonnie ran through her dog door. The word “dog” is a noun, but in the above sentence, it is being used as an adjective to refer to a special door for dogs. Here’s another example: Charlie’s experience and agility put her in the catbird seat. Nouns used as adjectivals are diagrammed just as if they were ordinary adjectives. From The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms: Catbird seat. A situation of advantage or superiority, as in His promotion put Charles in the catbird seat. This term is thought to allude to that noisy bird’s habitual high perch. It was popularized in the 1940s by sportscaster Red Barber. part-way between a transitive an intransitive verb. It is as if they take an object, but the object functions more like an adverbial than an object. It is best to diagram them as a Type VI sentence as I have done here. In this sentence, I also split apart the phrase “German shepherd,” which is simply an alternative way to think about the noun “German shepherd.” shepherd weighedM y 13-year-old German about pounds65 Note: The verb “weigh,” like the verb “cost,” creates a special sentence pattern that is a kind of exception to the 10-pattern view of sentences. These verbs are dog kept me awake snoring The nightall I discovered puppysoon the ro otingaround in garbagethe www.class.uidaho.edu/engl201 Participle phrases can work as adjectivals. These phrases can be formed around the present or the past participle. The snoring dog kept me awake all night. I soon discovered the puppy rooting around in the garbage. Patrolling the back yard early in the morning, Bonnie was startled by a big gray cat gazing at her with malevolent yellow eyes. Attacked from behind, Bonnie was surprised to discover Charlie leaping on her from above. Exhausted by her evening of intense play, Bonnie fell asleep immediately. In writing participles, it is important to realize that the participle generally modifies the nearest noun phrase. When you write a sentence that starts with a participle, it is important to realize that the doer of the action of that verb—the agent of the verb— should be the subject of the sentence. Consider this sentence, for example: *Running down the street, my nose felt very cold. The odd result (the nose running down the street) is caused by the fact that agent of the verb “running” is missing from the sen- tence. That agent—“I”—should be the subject of the sentence. Adjectivals - Page 2 Bonnie was startled Pat r olling yardthe backin morningthe by cata big gray ga z i ng at her with eyesmalevolent yellow early Bonnie was surprisedAtt a ckedfrom behind to discover Charlieleaping on her from above Bonnie fell asleep Exha u sted by evening her of playintense immediately Note: In this sentence, I have diagrammed “fell asleep” as a two-word verb, rather than with “asleep” being thought of as a sort of adverb. (Ques- tion: How did she fall? Answer: Asleep. Hmm, I don’t think that’s quite right.)