Student's guide to writing college papers, Fourth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2010
Appendix B: Glossary of grammatical terms
In this section, we define some of the grammatical and other technical terms used in this book. These are not technical definitions, so don't be surprised if they differ from those in a reference book. We have created them simply to help you understand the discussions here, not to give you a theory of grammar.
acknowledgment and response: That part of argument that raises objections or other questions that you anticipate readers may have.
action: Traditionally, we say that action is expressed by a verb: move, hate, think, discover. But actions also appear in nominalizations: movement, hatred, thought, discovery. Actions are also implied in some adjectives: advisable, resultant, explanatory, etc.
active verb: A verb is in the active voice when its subject is the agent of its action and the direct object is the receiver of that action: The dog chased the cat.
adjectival clause: Adjectival clauses modify nouns. Also called relative clauses, they usually begin with a relative pronoun: which, that, whom, whose, who. There are two kinds: restrictive and nonrestrictive.
restrictive: A restrictive clause modifies a noun whose referent you cannot identify without the added information in the clause. I drove the car that was dirty. Unless there is only one possible car in question, the noun phrase, the car, does not identify which car I drove, but with the added clause it does, the dirty one. We therefore call that clause restrictive, because it “restricts” or uniquely identifies what the noun phrase names.
nonrestrictive: A nonrestrictive clause modifies a noun whose referent you can identify without the added information in the clause. I drove my car, which was dirty. The noun phrase, my car, identifies which car I drove, whether it is dirty or not. We therefore call that clause nonrestrictive, because it does not “restrict” or uniquely identify what the noun phrase names.
adjective: A word you can put very in front of: very old, very interesting. There are exceptions: major, additional, etc. Since this is also a test for adverbs, distinguish adjectives from adverbs by putting them between the and a noun: The occupational hazard, the major reason, etc. Some nouns also appear there—the chemical hazard.
adjective phrase: An adjective and what attaches to it: so full that it burst.
adverb: Adverbs modify all parts of speech except nouns: especially old, walk quickly, very quickly.
adverbial clause: A subordinate clause that modifies a verb or adjective, indicating time, cause, condition, etc. It usually begins with a subordinating conjunction such as because, when, if, since, while, unless.
adverb phrase: An adverb and what attaches to it: as soon as I could.
agent: Traditionally, we say that an agent is the person who performs an action (its “doer”). But for our purposes, an agent is the seeming source of any action, an entity without which the action could not occur: She criticized the program in this report. Often we can make the means by which we do something a seeming agent: This report criticizes the program.
appositive: A noun phrase that is left after deleting which and be: My dog, which is a Dalmatian, ran away.
article: They are easier to list: a, an, the, this, these, that, those.
character: The persons you talk about in your sentences. Also, things or ideas that you tell a story about by making them the subjects of several sentences in a passage.
chart: A graphic that presents quantitative evidences in bars, circles, points, or other shapes.
claim: The assertion that the rest of an argument supports. It must be something that a reader will not accept without support. A practical claim concerns what we do; a conceptual claim concerns what we think.
clause: A clause has at least one subject + verb, where the verb agrees with the subject in number and can be made past or present. These are clauses:
She left that they leave if she left why he is leaving
These next are not, because the verbs cannot be made past tense nor do they agree in number with the putative subject:
for them to go her having gone
comma splice: You create a comma splice when you join two independent clauses with only a comma.
complement: Whatever completes a verb:
I am home. You seem tired. She helped me.
conjunction: Usually defined as a word that links words, phrases, or clauses. They are easier to illustrate than define (the first two are also categorized as subordinating conjunctions):
adverbial conjunctions: because, although, when, since
relative conjunctions: who, whom, whose, which, that
coordinating conjunctions: and, but, yet, for, so, or, nor
correlative conjunctions: both X and Y, not only X but Y, (n)either X (n)or Y, X as well as Y
data: The objects and raw observations from which you draw evidence.
dependent clause: Any clause that cannot stand alone as a sentence. It usually begins with a subordinating conjunction such as because, if, when, which, that.
direct object: The noun that follows a transitive verb and can be made the subject of a passive verb:
I found the money. The money was found by me.
evidence: That part of argument that reports on the objects or observations that you expect readers to accept as hard facts and that support your reasons.
figure: Any graphic except a table.
fragment: A phrase or dependent clause that begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation mark:
Because I left. Though I am here! Which is why I did that.
goal: That toward which the action of a verb is directed. In most cases, goals are direct objects:
I see you. I broke the dish. I built a house.
graph: A graphic that presents quantitative evidences as continuous lines.
graphic: A visual image offered as evidence, including charts and graphs, tables, diagrams, photographs, and so on.
hypothesis: A provisional claim. An assertion that you think might be a good answer to your research question, but that you cannot yet support with reliable evidence.
independent clause: A clause that can stand alone as a sentence.
infinitive: A verb that cannot be made past or present. It often is preceded by the word to: He decided to stay. But sometimes not: We helped him repair the door.
main claim/point: The sentence that asserts the claim that a whole argument supports and that serves as the point around which an entire paper is organized.
main clause: A main clause is a part of a larger sentence that could stand alone as a sentence of its own.
nonrestrictive clause: See adjectival clause.
noun: A word that fits this frame: The [ ] is good. Some are concrete: dog, rock, car; others abstract: ambition, space, speed. The nouns that most concern us are abstractions derived from verbs or adjectives: act/action, wide/width.
noun clause: A noun clause functions like a noun, as the subject or object of a verb: That you are here proves that you love me.
object: There are three kinds:
1. direct object: the noun following a transitive verb
I read the book. We followed the car.
2. prepositional object: the noun following a preposition
in the house by the walk across the street with fervor
3. indirect object: the noun between a verb and its direct object
I gave him a tip.
passive: A verb is in the passive voice when its subject is the receiver of its action and the verb is preceded by a form of be; if the agent is named, it is in a by phrase: The cat was chased by the dog.
personal pronoun: Easier to list than define: I, me, my, mine; we, us, our, ours; you, your, yours; he, him, his; she, her, hers; they, them, their, theirs.
phrase: A group of words constituting a unit but not including a subject and a finite verb: the dog, too old, was leaving, in the house, ready to work.
point: The most important sentence in a document, section, or paragraph. It states the idea that everything else supports and develops.
possessive: my, your, his, her, its, their, or a noun ending with -'s or -s': the dog's tail.
predicate: Whatever follows the whole subject, beginning with the verb phrase, including the complement and what attaches to it:
He left yesterday to buy a hat.predicate
preposition: Easier to list: in, on, up, over, of, at, by, etc.
prepositional phrase: The preposition plus its object: in + the house.
reason: The part of argument that directly supports your claim. Reasons are based on evidence, but they are your judgments—subclaims—that you must support before you can expect readers to accept them.
relative clause: See adjectival clause.
relative pronoun: who, whom, which, whose, that when used in a relative clause.
restrictive clause: See adjectival clause.
run-on sentence: A punctuated sentence consisting of two or more grammatical sentences not separated by either a coordinating conjunction or any mark of punctuation this entry illustrates a run-on sentence.
subject: The subject is what the verb agrees with in number:
Two men are at the door. One man is at the door.
subordinate clause: A clause that usually begins with a subordinating conjunction such as if, when, unless, or which, that, who. There are three kinds of subordinate clauses: noun, adverbial, and adjectival.
subordinating conjunction: because, if, when, since, unless, which, who, that, whose, etc.
table: A grid with columns and rows that present data in numbers or words organized by categories.
theme: A concept that is important to the point of a paper or section and that is repeated through the body. It helps readers to organize their memory of the whole.
transitive verb: A verb with a direct object. The direct object prototypically “receives” an action. The prototypical direct object can be made the subject of a passive verb:
We read the book. The book was read by us.
By this definition, resemble, become, and stand (as in He stands six feet tall) are not transitive.
verb: The word that must agree with the subject in number and that can be inflected for past or present.
The book is ready. The books were returned.
warrant: The part of argument that states the principle of reasoning that connects a reason to its claim. Warrants are most explicitly stated in the form: Whenever this condition applies, we can conclude this.
whole subject: You can identify a whole subject once you identify its verb: Put a who or a what in front of the verb and turn the sentence into a question. The fullest answer to the question is the whole subject.