GRAMÁTICA INGLESA – FINAL EXAM: Study questions

Unit 1 WORDS- WORD CLASSES

1. What are the three different senses of the word “word”?

The word has 3 senses. First, ORTHOGRAPHIC WORDS. These are the words that we are familiar with in written
language, where they are separated by spaces.

Sencond, GRAMMATICAL WORDS. A word falls into one gramatical word class or another. This is the basic sense of
word for gramatical purposes.

Third, LEXEMES. This is a set of gramatical words which share the same basic meaning, similar forms, and the same
word class. For example, leave, leaves, left, and leaving are all members of the verb lexeme leave.

2. What are the three major families of words?

There are three major families of words: lexical words, function word, and inserts.

LEXICAL WORDS are the main carriers of information in a text or speech act. They can be subdivided into the
following word classes: nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Of all the word families, lexical are the most
numerous, and their number is growing all the time, they are open classes. They often have a complex internal
structure and can be composed of several parts (morphemes: affixes, suffixes, preffixes, compound words). Lexical
words can be heads of phrases. They are generally the words that are stressed most in speech.

FUNCTION WORDS can be categorized in terms of word classes such as prepositions, coordinators, auxiliar verbs,
and pronouns. They usually indicate meaning relationships, by showing how the units are related to each other.
Function words have a very limited and fixed membership, they are closed classes. Individual fuction words tend to
occur frecuently, and in almost any type of text.

INSERTS are found mainly in spoken language. Inserts do not form parto f a syntactic structure, but tend to be
inserted freely in a text. They are often marked off by a break in intonation in speech, or by a puctuation mark in
writing like a comma. They carry emotional and discoursal meanings, such as oh, ah, wow, used to express a
speaker’s emotional response to a situation, or yeah, no, okay, used to signal a response to what has just been said.
Inserts are generally simple in form and are peripheral to grammar.

3. What is the difference between closed classes and open classes of words?

A CLOSED CLASS contains a limited number of members, and new members cannot be easily added. Fot example, it
is not easy to create a new coordinator or a new pronoun: those words have a a fairly fixed set of members.

The membership of OPEN CLASSES is indefinitely large, and can be extended by users of the language. Lexical classes
are open classes.

4. When dealing with the structure of words, we know that they can take inflections, and undergo derivation
and compounding. Explain each process.

Lexical words can consist of a single morpheme or they can have more complex structure created by a process of
INFLECTION, DERIVATION, or COMPOUNDING.

INFLECTION: Lexical words can take inflectional suffixes to signal meanings and roles. Such as “plural” in the case of
nouns, and ‘past tense’ in the case of verbs.

WORD CLASS BASE FORM EXAMPLE FORMS WITH INFLECTIONAL

SUFFIXES
Noun boy Pl. boys, Genitive boy´s, boys’
Verb live, write Pr.: lives, writes/ Past: lived, wrote/
Pple: lived, written/ -ing
Adjective dark Comp. darker, Superl. darkest
Adverb soon Comp. sooner, Superl. soonest
GRAMÁTICA INGLESA – FINAL EXAM: Study questions
DERIVATION, like inflection, usually involves adding an affix to the beginning of a word (preffix) or to the end of a
word (suffix). However, this process is different from inflection because derivation change the identity of the word.
Derivation creates new nouns, adjectives, verbs or adverbs. Derivation changes the meaning or word class of a word.
Prefixes: un + kind. Suffixes: exact + ly.

COMPOUNDING. Another form of derivation is compounding. Words that are compounds contain more than one
stem.

noun + noun: chair + man, girl + friend

verb + noun: cook + book, guess + work

adjective + noun: blue + bird, flat + fish

noun + adjective: head + long, water + tight

5. What is the difference between a lexical verb and an auxiliary verb?

LEXICAL VERB AUXILIARY VERB

Lexical verbs have different forms signaling tense Auxiliary verbs are added to a main verb to help build
(present and past), aspect (perfect, progressive), and verb phrases. There are two kinds of auxiliary verbs:
voice (active and pasive). primary auxiliaries and modal auxiliaries.
Lexical verbs most frequently occur on their own, as a Primary auxiliaries: be, have, and do. The same verbs
single-word verb phrase acting as the central part of can also act as main verbs.
the clause. They also occur in the final or main verb Modal auxiliaries: as their name suggests, they are
position of verb phrases. largely concerned with expressing ‘modality’, such as
Lexical verbs denote actions, processes, and states of possibility, necessity, prediction, and volition. The
affairs that happen or exist in time. modals are will, can, shall, may, must, would, could,
should, might.

6. Refer to the morphological, syntactic and semantic description of adverbs (page 22-23 Longman)

ADVERBS
Many adverbs are formed from adjectives by adding the
suffix -ly: clearly,eagerly.
Others have no such ending: however, just.
MORPHOLOGICAL
A few adverbs allow comparative and superlative forms
like those for adjectives: soon: sooner, soonest; fast: faster,
fastest.
Adverbs occur as head of adverb phrase.
Adverbs with or without their own modifiers, are often
SYNTACTIC
used as modifiers of an adjective or another adverb.
Otherwise, they can act as adverbials in the clause.
As modifiers, adverbs most often express the degree of a
following adjective or adverb: totally wrong.
As elements of clauses (adverbials), adverbs and adverb
phrases have a wide range of meanings:
- They can modify an action, process, or state, by
expressing such notions as time, place and manner: So I
SEMANTIC
learn German quite quickly.
- They can convey the speaker’s or writer’s attitude
towards the information in the resto f the clause: Surely
that child’s not mine?
- They can express a connection with what was said
earlier: It must be beautiful, though.
GRAMÁTICA INGLESA – FINAL EXAM: Study questions
7. What are determiners? give a few examples. (p 26)

Determiners are function words. Determiners normally precede nouns and are used to help clarify the meaning of
the noun. The most important are:

The DEFINITE ARTICLE the indicates that the referent is assumed to be known by the speaker and the person being
spoken to.

The INDEFINITE ARTICLE a or an makes it clear that the referen is one member of a class.

DEMOSTRATIVE DETERMINERS indicates that the referents are ‘near to’ or ‘away from’ the speaker’s immediate
context. This, that

POSSESIVE DETERMINERS tell us who or what the nouns belongs to. My, your, her.

QUANTIFIERS specify how many or how mucho f the noun there is. Every, some.

Also: determiners-like uses of WH-Words and Numerals.

8. What are prepositions and complex prepositions? Are they the same?

Prepositions are linking words that introduce prepositional phrases. The prepositional complement following a
preposition is generally a noun phrase, so prepositions can also be seen as linking words that connect other
structures with noun phrases. Most preposition are short, invariable forms: about, after, around, as, at, by, down,
for, from, into, like, of, off, on, round, since, than, to, towaards, with, without.

Complex preposition: Another set of prepositions consisto f multi-word units kwown as complex prepositions, which
have a meaning that cannot be derived from the meaning of the parts.

TWO-WORD COMPLEX PREPOSITION ends with a simple preposition: such as, apart from, according to.

THREE-WORD PREPOSITION usually have the structure = simple prep. + noun + simple prep.: in addition to, as well
as.

IN-BETWEEN CASE borderline cases with complex prepositions. (+article) + noun + preposition = at the expense of.

9. What are coordinators? How are they different from subordinators? give examples.

Cordinators are used to indicate a relationship between two units such as phrases or clauses. Coordinator links
elements which have the same syntactic role, and are at the same leve lof the syntactic hierarchy.

The difference with subordinator is that the following element to the subordinator is subordinate, they are not in the
same level. The following structure is subordinate.

COORDINATOR: and, but, or: Mother and I saw it.

SUBORDINATOR: You can hold her if you want.

10. What are subordinators? What are the three major subclasses of subordinators?

Subordinators are linking words that introduce clauses kwown as dependent clauses -clauses which cannot stand
alone without another clause, called the main clause.

Three mayor subclasses that introduce:

ADVERBIAL CLAUSES adding details of time, place, reason, etc. to the main clause: after, as, because, since,
although, while, etc.

DEGREE CLAUSES: as, than, that.

COMPLEMENT CLAUSES (or nominal clauses): if, that, whether.

11. Describe Noun phrases and Verb phrases and give examples.
GRAMÁTICA INGLESA – FINAL EXAM: Study questions
NOUN PHRASES. A phrase with a noun as its head is a noun phrase. The head can be preceded by determiners, such
as, the, a, her, and can be accompanied by modifiers -elements which describe or classify whatever the head refers
to.

For example: a house; the little girl next door

VERB PHRASES have a lexical verbo r primary verb as their head. The main verb can stand alone or be preceded by
one or more auxiliary verbs. The auxiliaries futher define the action, state, or process denoted by the main verb.

For example: The current year has definitely started well.

Finite verb phrases show distinctions of tense (past/present) and can be include modal auxiliaries. Non-finite verb
phrases do not show tense and cannot occur with modal auxiliaries, and so have fewer forms.

12. Describe adjective phrases and adverb phrases and give examples.

ADJECTIVE PHRASES have an adjective as head, and optional modifiers that can precede or follow the adjective. For
example: old; so lucky. Modifiers typically awnser a question about the degree or quality (so lucky = How lucky?).
Adjective heads can also take complements, for example: slow to respond. Complements often answer the question
‘In waht aspect is the adjective quality to be interpreted (slow to respond = slow in what aspect?).

Attributive adjective: a modifier before a noun: a deeply sick man.

Subject predicative: often following the verb be: That is right.

ADVERB PHRASES are like adjective phrases in structure, except that the head is an adverb. Optional modifiers may
precede or follow the adverb head. They typically expres degree. Complements can also follow. For example: there,
pretty soon, so quickly you don’t even enjoy it.

Adverb phrases are structures, while adverbials are clause elements.

Modifiers in adjective or adverb phrases. Adverbial on the clause level.

13. Describe prepositional phrases, and give examples.

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES mostly consist of a preposition followed by a noun phrase, kwown as the prepositional
complement. The preposition can be thought of as a link relating the noun phrase to preceding structures. For
example: to town; in the morning; in a street with no name.

Prepositions also take complement clauses -clauses which have the same role as a noun phrases- as complements,
but normally these are only wh-clauses and ing-clauses. For example: It was hard to in live in Missouri after spending
so much time in California.

Prepositional phrases can be ‘extended’ by an initial adverbial particle, which adds a meaning such as place,
direction, or degree: back to the fifties. Another kind of extensión is an adverb of degree: exactly at noon.

Syntactic role: As an adverbial on the clause level; He retired [after three minor heart attacks] [at the age of 36]. As a
modifier or complement following a noun; He was a poet, [a teacher (of philosophy)], and [a man (with a terrible
recent history)].

Prepositions also occur in prepositional verbs such as look at.

A preposition is said to be stranded if it is not followed by its prepositional complement. The prepositional
complement, in such cases, is generally identified as a previous noun phrase. Stranded prepositions are usually
found in clauses that do not follow normal word order, such as direct questions, interrogative clauses and relative
clauses. For example: [What more] could a child ask for? > For what more can a child ask? (unlikely to occur)

14. What is the subject and the predicate of a sentence? explain and give examples.

The SUBJECT is a noun phrase. It occurs with all type of verbs. Subject pronouns are in the nominative case. For
example, she, he, are the forms of the pronouns used as subject (She likes him). The subject precede the verb phrase
GRAMÁTICA INGLESA – FINAL EXAM: Study questions
(except in causes with inversion, such as questions, where the subject follows the operator). The subject determines
the number of the verb phrase (sing. She works late; pl. They work late). The subject noun phrase of a transitive verb
can be moved after the verb and preceded by by to make the clause with a passive verb (Kate saw it > It was seen by
Kate)

The subject denotes the most importan participan in the action or state denotate by the verb. With transitive verb,
this is the agent of the action. The subject generally represents the topic, the entity that the clause is about. But
sometimes English requires a subject, even if the subject has no actual meaning: It is warm in here (dummy
pronoun).

A PREDICATIVE can be an adjective phrase, a noun phrase, or occasionally a prepositional phrase. It has the semantic
role of characterising a preceding noun phrase. Two major types:

Subject predicative characterize or specify the subject noun phrase. It immediately follows the verb phrase. The
main verb has to be a copular verb, such as be, seem, and become. For example: His skin was very pink.

Object predicative characterize or specify the direct object noun phrase. It generally immediately follows the direc
object. The main verb has to be a complex transitive verb, such as make, find, consider, and name. For example: Oh,
I can’t get this milk open.

15. What is the difference between a DO and an IO? Explain and give examples.

DIRECT OBJECT INDIRECT OBJECT

- Generally follows immediately after the verb, except - An IO occurs after ditransitive verbs such as give and
where an indirect object intervenes. Its most common tell, and comes before the DO, As for they semantic
semantic role is to denotate the identity affected by the role, indirect objects generally denote people receiving
action or process of the verb. something or benefiting from the action of the verb.
We parked the car in the worst place. Well actually he brought us the big menu first.
- However there is a wide range of transitive verbs
where the meaning of direct objects are les typical.
Oh, are you having a lovely time?
- Sometimes English verbs require a direct object even
though it has no meaning.
Take it easy Tina.
- As with subjects. English uses it as the dummy
pronoun for direct objects.

16. What is a predicative, and what are its two major types?

A PREDICATIVE can be an adjective phrase, a noun phrase, or occasionally a prepositional phrase. It has the semantic
role of characterising a preceding noun phrase. Two major types:

Subject predicative characterize or specify the subject noun phrase. It immediately follows the verb phrase. The
main verb has to be a copular verb, such as be, seem, and become. For example: His skin was very pink.

Object predicative characterize or specify the direct object noun phrase. It generally immediately follows the direc
object. The main verb has to be a complex transitive verb, such as make, find, consider, and name. For example: Oh,
I can’t get this milk open.

17. What is the difference between the present simple and continuous? Refer to the form and use of each.
Give examples.

PRESENT SIMPLE PRESENT CONTINUOUS

Habits, routines Now, at the moment
Timetable Temporary situation
Law of nature, thruths Changing /developing situations
State verbs Future arrangment
GRAMÁTICA INGLESA – FINAL EXAM: Study questions
Annoying habits
Affirmative: Affirmative:
I/you/we/they > verb= work/play I > am verb-ing = am working/ playing
He/she/it > verb + s= works/ plays (inflexion) you/we/they > are verb-ing = are working/playing
He/she/it > is verb-ing = is working/ playing (inflexion)
Negative: Negative:
don’t + verb am not + verb-ing
doesn’t + verb aren’t + verb-ing
isn’t + verb-ing
Question: Question:
Do you… play? Am I… playing?
Does he… play? Are you… playing?
Is he… playing?

18. What is the difference between the past simple and continuous? Refer to the form and use of each and
give examples.

PAST SIMPLE PAST CONTINUOUS

An action started and finished in the past An action in progress in the past
Past habits Two simultaneos actions (while) in the past
Secuence An action in progress in the past interrupted by another
action in past simple
Background description
Affirmative: Affirmative:
I/you/he/she/it/we/they > verb-ed or irregular played, I/she/he/it was + verb-ing = was playing
went You/we/they were + verb-ing = were playing
Negative: Negative:
didn’t > verb played, went wasn’t + verb-ing = wasn’t playing
weren’t + verb-ing = weren’t playing
Question: Question:
Did you… played? Was he… playing?
Were you… playing?

19. How is USED TO different from the past simple? Describe the uses of USED TO.

We use used to + infinitive to talk about regular past actions that do not happen now: I used to take the bus to work
every day. (But now I take the train).

We also use used to + infinitive when we talk about past situations that are no longer true: He used to be a soldier.
(But now he’s an explorer).

We use used to, not the past simple, when we want to emphasise a difference between the past and the present:
My sister works in an office now but she used to work on a farm.

UNIT II - ARTICLES PRONOUNS- DETERMINES

1. What is the difference between a definite and indefinite article? give examples.

The DEFINITE ARTICLE (the) goes with both countable and uncountable nouns. It marks the noun as referring to
something or someone assumed to be known to speaker and adressee: The girl from earlier is my friend.

After unknown entities have been introduced, they can be treated as ‘known’ and name by the in later references:
The boy was found unharmed

In general, the is used generalically only with singular countable nouns.: The trompet is a valuable instrument…
GRAMÁTICA INGLESA – FINAL EXAM: Study questions
The INDEFINITE ARTICLE a/an is used only with singular countable nouns. It narrows down the reference of the head
noun to one indefinite member of the class.

The indefinite article is often used to introduce a new specific entity into the discourse: A 12-year-old-boy got mad
at his parents because thay refused to let him go finishing on the Colorado River.

The indefinite article is also used where the noun phrase does not refer to any specific individual: I feel terrible. I
need a friend.

The indefinite article can also serve to classify an entity: My husband is a doctor. A/an is sused generically with
singular countable nouns, and designates ‘any person or thing of the class’: A doctor is not better than his patient.

2. What does the Zero Article signal? (refer to 4 especial uses of the zero article) give examples.

The zero article signals indefiniteness with uncountable nouns: We have wine on the table; and plural countable
nouns: We have telephones. Zero article phrases commonly express non-specific or generic reference.

- Meals as institutions: Are they going out for dinner or something?

- Places as institutions: The ceremony took place in church
- Means of transport and communication. The zero article is found after the preposition by: travel by
air/car/horse
- Times of the day, days months and seasons: Tomorrow at dawn we’ll begin our journey

3. Explain the anaphoric, cataphoric and situational uses of THE.

ANAPHORIC. The phrase with the refers back to a previously mentioned item.

After unknown entities have been introduced, they can be treated as ‘known’ and name by the in later references: A
12-year-old-boy got mad at his parents because thay refused to let him go finishing on the Colorado River. The boy
was found unharmed…

CATAPHORIC. Cataphora can be thought of as the opposite of anaphora. Here definite reference is established by
something following later in the text: Another potential voter starts to tell them about the car [that went through his
garden wall]

SITUATIONAL. The often occurs because an entity is known from the situation: either the immediate situation in
which speech takes place, or the wider situation which includes knowledge of the national situation, the word or
even the universe: I think there´s somebody at the door now. <immediate situation>

4. What do demonstrative determiners make reference to? give examples

The demostrative determiners this/these and that/those are similar to the definite article the in conveying definite
meaning. However, they also specify whether the referent is singular or plural and whether the referent is ‘near’ or
‘distant’ in relation to the speaker:

COUNTABLE UNCOUNTABLE
singular plural singular
near THIS BOOK THESE BOOKS THIS MONEY
distant THAT BOOK THOSE BOOKS THAT MONEY

5. What is the difference between a personal pronoun and an object pronoun? Give examples.

Most of the personal pronouns have distinction between nominative [I, he, she, we, they] and accusative forms [me,
him, her, us, them]. The nominative is used as subject, and the accusative as object or complement of a preoposition.

Personal pronoun: She is a doctor. Object pronoun: I like him.

6. When and how are indefinite pronouns used? give examples of two types (anyone/everyone, etc)
GRAMÁTICA INGLESA – FINAL EXAM: Study questions
Indefinite pronouns are mostly quantifying words, related in form, and meaning to quantifying determiners. There
are three classes of indefinite pronouns: compound pronouns: somebody, everything, anyone; the quantifiers: some,
all, any; and the pronoun: one.

Compound pronouns refer to indefinite persons or things: Everybody enjoyed the concert. Compound pronouns,
beginning with the determiners every, some, any, and no + body, one, thing.

Quantifying pronouns /Quantifiers can act as both as determiners and as pronoun. In general the form is identical
for both. Most quantifying pronouns are followed by of and the definite noun phrase: Bring all of your friends.

Others: some, both, all, either, many, enough, much, several, each, etc.

7. Explain how numerals are used as determiners. give examples.

Cardinal numerals (like two) are similar to quantifiers, while ordinal numerals (like second) are similar to the semi-
determiners. Like most quantifiers, numerals can occur in determiner position or in head position in a noun phrase:
You owe me ten bucks, Mary.

When the two types occur together in one noun phrase, ordinal numerals normally precede cardinal numerals: The
first three pages were stuck together with the young man’s blood.

8. Explain the uses and form of the past perfect tense. Give examples.

Past perfect: an action that happen before another past action. Form: had + participle /hadn’t + participle. Time
reference: before, after, never, when. After Sofie had finished her work, she went to lunch.

UNIT III - NOUNS

1. Refer to the semantic and morfological description of nouns and give examples.

MORPHOLOGICAL. Nouns have inflectional suffixes for plural number, and for genitive case: one book > two books;
Sarah’s book. Many nouns, however, are uncountable, and cannot have a plural form. Nouns quite often contain
more than one morpheme: compound nouns= bomb + shell; nouns with derivational suffixes= sing + er, bright +
ness.

SEMANTIC. Nouns commonly refer to concrete, physical entities (people, objects, substances): book, friend, iron.
They also can denote abstract entities, such as qualities and states: freedom, wish, friendship.

2. What is the syntactic criteria of nouns? explain.

Nouns can occur as the head of a noun phrase [a new book about the cold war], [the ugliest person you’ve ever
seen]. As these examples show, common nouns such as book and person can be modifier by many kinds of words
both before and after them. Proper nouns like Sarah, on the other had rarely have any modifiers.

3. Explain the difference of nouns functioning as object complements and subject complements and give
examples of each.

Subject complement characterize or specify the subject noun phrase. It immediately follows the verb phrase. The
main verb has to be a copular verb, such as be, seem, and become. For example: Samantha is Asian.

Object complement characterize or specify the direct object noun phrase. It generally immediately follows the direc
object. The main verb has to be a complex transitive verb, such as make, find, consider, and name. For example: I
named my dog Tom.

4. Explain nouns functioning as DO and IO, and explain the difference. Give examples.

Direct objects (noun): A direct object shows who or what the action of the verb affects:

That computer hasn’t got a mouse.

Nobody writes letters these days.
GRAMÁTICA INGLESA – FINAL EXAM: Study questions
Does she play tennis?

Indirect objects (can be nouns and pronouns): An indirect object is usually a person or an animal. The indirect
object (underlined) receives or is affected by the direct object (in bold). An indirect object always needs a direct
object with it and always comes before the direct object:

She gave the dog its dinner.

Do I owe you some money?

5. How can nouns be identified in a sentence? explain and give examples.

Locate the main verb in the sentence to identify the connected noun. In the sentence "She lifts weights," "lifts" is the
verb, and "she" is the noun.

Find words that are capitalized as a clue that they might be nouns. Words that are capitalized in a sentence are
almost always proper nouns, since they are usually the names of people, places, or things. In the sentence "Agatha
Christie wrote a lot of books," "Agatha Christie" is the noun since it is a name.

If a word follows an article, it is almost certainly a noun. In the sentence "The dance was held on Saturday," "dance"
is the noun since it follows "the". Sometimes an adjective will precede the noun. Watch out for sentences like "Some
hot peppers were eaten." "Peppers" is the noun in this sentence, not "hot."

Words that describe quantities almost always precede a noun. If the sentence has a quantity word in it, look at the
word that is directly after it to see if it could be a noun. In "Some computers in here are broken," "computers" is the
noun since it follows "some."

Descriptive words, or adjectives, almost always are describing a noun. If you are questioning whether a word is a
noun or not, see if there is an adjective in front of it. For example, in the sentence " The stinky socks were gross,"
"stinky" is the adjective, and "socks" is the noun.

6. Explain the 5 types of plurals nouns have and give examples.

REGULAR PLURALS: by adding –(e)s. cat > cats.

If the word ends in s,z,x,sh, or ch, the spelling is -es: bus > buses

Consonant letter + y, the spelling is -ies: lady > ladies

Vowel letter + y, the spelling is -s: key > keys

If the sing. ends in -o, the plural is -os or -oes: piano > pianos; potato > potatoes.

NATIVE IRREGULAR PLURALS

Changing the vowel: man-men; foot-feet; tooth-teeth; woman-women; goose-geese; mouse-mice.

Adding -(r)en: child-children; ox-oxen.

(some) Voicing the last consonant –/f/ changes to /v/: calf-calves; shelf-shelves; knife-knives; thief-thieves; leaf-
leaves; life-lives; wife-wives; wolf-wolves.

LATIN AND GREEK PLURALS: Some words borrowed from Latin and Greek keep their original plurals.

alumnus-alumni; curricidum-curricula; syllabus-syllabi; formula-fomulae; appendix-appendices; axis-axes; crisis-

crises; diagnosis-diagnoses; criterion-criteria; phenomenon-phenomena

ZERO PLURALS: do not change from singular to plural

Some animal nouns: fish, sheep, deer, salmon

GRAMÁTICA INGLESA – FINAL EXAM: Study questions
Some quantity nouns: dozen, hundred, foot, mile when their are used as part of numerical quantity (two hundred
kids)

A few other zero plural nouns: aircraft, dice, series, species.

PLURAL-ONLY NOUNS AND SINGULAR NOUNS IN -S:

Look like SING. but are PL.: people, pólice, staff, cattle.

Lool like PL. but are SING.: news, measles, mumps, cheakers.

7. What are package nouns? Also refer to two subtypes: collective and species nouns.

Package nouns are countable common nouns. They have a function of ‘packing’ together a range of entities. Package
nouns are often followed by of-phrases [load of books]. There are four different classes: collective nouns, unit nouns,
quantifying nouns, and species nouns.

COLLECTIVE NOUNS refers to group of people, animals, or things: audience, family, committee. All this nouns behave
like ordinary countable nouns, varying for number and definiteness: the team, a team, the teams, teams.

Nouns like group, crowd, and flock are called of-collective because they generally precede of + plural noun= group of
things, bunch of idiots.

SPECIES NOUNS refer to the type rather than the quantity of something. They are another class of nouns often
followed b yan of-phrase. There are two types of bond energy.

Species nouns can be followed by countable or uncountable nouns: certain types of car [pl.+of+sing.]

8. Explain Gender and give examples.

English nouns do not have special inflectional ending for gender; insted, gender is a semantic category in English.

There are four major ways of specifying masculine and femenine contrast in nouns:

- Using totally different nouns: father-mother; son-daughter; ucle-aunt; man-woman; bull,cow

- Using derived nouns with masculine and feminine suffixes -er/or, -ess: actor-actress; waiter-waitress; master-
mistress
- Using a modifier, such as male, female, man woman, women: male nurse; female officer; male dancer
- Using nouns in -man, -woman: chairman; englishman, policewoman

More often used the masculine form when they don’t know the gender.

9. What is the difference between present continuos with future meaning, going to and will? Give examples.

Present continuous to talk about future arrangement: I am leaving tomorrow.

Going to to talk about predictions with evidence, plans or intentions: Look! It’s going to rain. / I’m going to be late.

Will to talk about predictions without evidence, immediate decisions, offers, promises, and warning, and expressions
like I think, I believe, I undestand: The rain will stop in a minute. / He is not here. Can I take the message? I will call
him later. / I promise I will never do that again. / I think I will go to bed now.

UNIT IV- ADJECTIVES

1. Describe adjectives in terms of their semantic and morhological criteria. Give examples.

SEMANTIC. Adjectives describes the qualities of people, things, and abstractions, a heavy box, he is guilty, the
situation is serious. Many adjectives are gradable. That is, they can be compared and modified for the degree or leve
lof the quality: heavier, very heavy, extremely serious.
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MORPHOLOGICAL. Many adjectives can take the inflectional suffixes -er (comparative) and -est (superlative): dark >
darker > darkest. Adjectives can be complex in morphology: derived adjectives: aceptable, forgetful, influential;
compound adjectives: color-blind, home-made, ice-cold.

2. Describe adjectives in terms of their syntactic distribution. Give examples.

Adjectives can occur as the head o fan adjective phrase: [very dark]. Adjectives and adjectives phrases are most
commonly used as modifiers preceding the head of a noun phrase, or as predicatives following the verb in clauses:

Modifier: Tomorrow could be [a sunny day].

Predicative: It’s nice and warm in here. It’s sunny.

3. What is the difference between a gradable and non gradable adjectives? Give examples.

GRADABLE ADJECTIVES: A gradable adjective can be used with "grading adverbs" that vary the adjective's grade or
intensity. Look at these examples: very hot; extremely busy.

A gradable adjective can also have comparative and superlative forms: big, bigger, the biggest /hot, hotter, the
hottest /important, more important, the most important.

Most adjectives are gradable. This means we can have different levels of that quality. For example, you can be a bit
cold, very cold or extremely cold. We can make them weaker or stronger with modifiers.

NON-GRADABLE ADJECTIVES: A non-gradable adjective cannot be used with grading adverbs: *It was rather freezing
outside*. Non-gradable adjectives do not normally have comparative and superlative forms: *freezing, more
freezing, the most freezing*

Often, non-gradable adjectives are used alone: It was freezing outside.

Some adjectives are non-gradable. For example, something can't be a bit finished or very finished. You can't be a bit
dead or very dead. These adjectives describe absolute qualities. To make them stronger we have to use modifiers
like absolutely, totally or completely.

4. How can adjectives be formed? explain and give examples. (pages 190-192)

PARTICIPIAL ADJECTIVES. Both -ing and -ed participial forms can be used as adjectives. Most principial adjectives are
derived from verbs (promising, surprised, determined). Many participial adjectives can also be formed by adding a
negative prefix to an already existing adjective (uninteresting > interesting).

Many -ing abd -ed participial forms can serve both attributive and predicative functions (boring, thrilling, confused,
exited). However, participial adjectives are generally more common with attributive uses.

- Common -ing participial adjectives: amazing, boring, exciting

- Common -ed participial adjectives: advanced, armed, tired, worried

ADJECTIVE WITH DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES. Many adjectives are formed by adding an adjective suffix to a noun or a
verb: effect + ive = effective; continue + ous = continuous.

ADjectives can also be formed from other adjectives, especially by using the negative prefixes un-, in-, and non-
(unhappy, insensitive, nonstandard)

ADJECTIVAL COMPOUNDS are made from a combination of more than one word, resulting in a compact expression
of information. They take many forms:

- Adjective + adjective = greyish-blue

- Adjective + noun = full-time
- Noun + adjective = life-long
- Noun + ed-participle = chuch-owned
- Noun + ing-participle = eye-catching
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5. Explain 3 syntactic roles of adjectives (p 202- 203)

Besides their attributive and predicative uses, adjectives serve several other roles, including postposed modifiers,
noun phrase heads, clause linkers, free modifiers and exclamations.

ADJECTIVES AS LINKING EXPRESSIONS. An adjective sometimes serve to link clauses or sentences to one another.
Adjectives in this role can also be modifiers: Still more important, children who grew up in elite homes enjoyed
advantages that helped them maintain elite status.

ADJECTIVES AS FREE MODIFIERS. Adjectives can also be syntactically free modifiers of a noun phrase. These adjective
phrases modify a noun phrase, bur they are not syntactically parto f the noun phrase; in fact, the adjective phrase
has a peripheral role in the clause. Most common in fiction. Delicate and light bodied, [it] is often confused with
American blended whisky and thus called rye.

ADJECTIVES AS EXCLAMATIONS. Adjectives often serves as exclamations, especially, in conversation and fictional
dialog: Great! I need some of those; Good! I like that. Other examples in conversation: Excellent! Amazing!

6. What does it mean when adjectives are referred to as undergoing “suppletions” and analytical comparison
contrast forms?

You will notice that the forms good-better-best are exceptional. This is becauase there is no resemblance between
the absolute form and the other forms of the adjective.

GOOD BETTER BEST

We speak of SUPPLETION when gramatically related words bear no physical resemblance to each other, while this is
the norm for other words related in the same way.

Not all gradable adjectives are able to form comparative and superlative forms with -er and -est. Some adjectives
form comparatives and superlatives ANALYTICALLY. What this means is that there is no single word-form for the
comparative and superlative. Instead, the words more and most are used. This is the case for quite a few adjectives.
Examples are beautiful, eager, hopeless, interesting, practical, etc.

The general rule is that adjectives with two or more syllables take ANALYTICAL comparative and superlative forms.

7. Can non gradable as well as absolute adjectives be modified? Explain and give examples.

A NON-GRADABLE ADJECTIVE can be used with "NON-GRADING ADVERBS" (which usually just give the adjective
extra impact), for example:

NON-GRADING ADVERBS NON-GRADABLE ADJECTIVES

absolutely awful

utterly excellent extreme

completely terrified

totally dead

nearly impossible absolute

virtually unique

essentially chemical

mainly digital classifying

almost domestic
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Here are an example sentence containing NON-GRADING ADVERB with NON-GRADABLE ADJECTIVE: Her exam
results were absolutely awful. She will have to take the exam again.