Grammar in context - Geoff Barton 1999
Glossary
active and passive - two ways of using verbs.
Active: The Government yesterday announced that...
Passive: It was announced yesterday that...
Notice how the passive voice disguises the subject - unless we add, 'by the government', we don't know who does the announcing.
adjective - a word which gives more information about a noun or pronoun - e.g. the white van; we are unhappy.
adverb - a word which gives more information about a verb - such as manner (e.g. quickly], time (e.g. now] and place (e.g. here].
alliteration - the repetition of the same consonant sounds at the start of words in a group, e.g.
Silently the mow settles.
apostrophe - a punctuation mark used to clarify two types of meaning.
1 It shows when two words have been compressed (is + not = isn't]. We use this type of expression more in informal situations.
2 It shows that something belongs to someone (Sam's feet).
auxiliary verb - a verb which is attached to another verb, in order to show tense, e.g. we had arrived early - had is the auxiliary verb.
base form - see root.
clause - a group of words formed around a verb. They are used to make up sentences. For example, this compound sentence contains two clauses linked by but:
The rain was cold but I enjoyed being there.
Complex sentences are made up of two different types of clause: a main clause, and one or more subordinate clauses, e.g.
He swam for half an hour [main clause], although the water was icy [subordinate clause].
compressed verb form - a verb (usually a negative) which has been shortened by the addition of an apostrophe, e.g. is + not = isn't. See Apostrophe.
conjunction - a word used for joining sentences and ideas together. The most commonly-used examples are and, but, or, because.
demonstrative adverb - tells us where an action took place, e.g.
I was happy there.
Also known as adverb of place.
demonstrative pronoun - tells us whether something is nearby or further away, e.g.
Look at this, not that.
determiner - a word which tells us about the noun - for example, the cat, my cat, her cat, this cat.
dialect - a regional variety of English. A word like ginnel might be used around Leeds, whereas in standard English we would use the word passageway.
dialogue - speech between two or more people. (The speech of just one person is known as a monologue.)
direct speech - speech which is written down exactly as it was spoken, using speech marks, e.g.
He said, 'I can guess what Michael is thinking.'
The indirect or reported version of this would be:
He said that he could guess what Michael was thinking.
discourse markers - words which help to make links within texts. They are also called connectives or cohesive devices. They might include pronouns, e.g. it, she, or phrases like after this, on the other hand, or adverbs like therefore, however. All of these help the reader to follow the thread of a story or argument.
discourse structure - the shape of whole texts: the way they are organized into sections and paragraphs, and how these sections are linked together.
elision - dropping one or more letters from a string of words, usually to reflect the way we say them when we are speaking informally. The elided form of I do not is I don't. The missing letter has been replaced by an apostrophe.
figurative language - language which includes literary devices, such as similes, metaphors, and personification. Figurative language often uses adjectives and adverbs heavily, too.
fillers - a feature of everyday spoken English. When we speak we use words and phrases like you know, kind of, er, all right, often without really noticing that we're using them. They are known as fillers.
imperative - the 'commanding' form of a verb, e.g.
Go away! Don't go in there.
Also used in instructions, e.g.
Bake for twenty-five minutes.
An imperative sentence is one which begins with an imperative verb, and which gives a command or an instruction.
inflection - to inflect a noun or verb is to change it slightly in order to give it a slightly different meaning. We inflect nouns when we change them from singular to plural, e.g. cat, cats; child, children.
We inflect verbs when we change their tenses, e.g. we walk, we walked, we will walk.
loan word - a word which has been borrowed from another language. Many loan words in the English language have come from Latin or French, though loan words are also borrowed from other languages, e.g. piano (Italian), pyjamas (Urdu).
metaphor - a phrase which compares one object to another, to show the reader what it is like, but without using the words like or as, e.g.
The sea was a monster that night.
See also Simile.
noun - a word which labels a person, thing or idea. There are four main types of noun:
common: hat, chocolate
proper: Tony, Tiddies, Taiwan
abstract: hatred, unhappiness
collective: pack of cards
Concrete nouns are the same as common nouns: they name physical ('concrete') objects, as opposed to ideas (e.g. goodness) or feelings (e.g. anger).
object - the object is the person who receives the action of the subject in a sentence. (In 'Fran laughed at Tom' Tom is the object - the person who is being laughed at.)
paragraph - a group of sentences linked together by their theme or topic.
participle - this is the part of the verb that is often found in a phrase, e.g. Looking in the window, he saw the signs of a fight.
A participle is not strong enough to stand on its own, so in a grammatical sentence it has to be linked to a main verb - in this example, saw.
passive voice - see Active and passive.
person - this is how we describe the form of the verb used in a sentence: first person (/), second person (you) and third person (he or she).
First person: I will always remember the day I left home ...
Second person: You always remember the day you left home ...
Third person: She would always remember the day she left home ...
personification - a technique used by writers to make an abstract concept or an object seem more real and active by giving it human or animal qualities, e.g.
The wind tapped impatiently at the door.
Death stalked the battlefields.
phatic phrases - some language is used to keep relationships going. Words and phrases like 'Hello', 'Hi', 'Goodbye', 'Morning' show that we are being polite, rather than serving any important function. They are known as phatic expressions.
phrase - a group of words which makes sense within a clause or sentence but cannot stand on its own - e.g. on the bus; jumping quickly; old house. The last example is a noun phrase - one of the most common types of phrase, in which additional words are grouped around the noun to tell us more about the noun.
plural - more than one.
prefix - letters added in front of the root of a word to change its meaning (e.g. dis+hke).
preposition - a word used chiefly to show where something or someone is - for example, in, on, under.
pronoun - a word which can be used in place of a noun - e.g. it, her, him, they, we, us.
relative clauses - clauses that you can add to sentences to give more detail.
They begin with which, who or that- for example:
My mother, who is 42 today...
Relative clauses are also known as wh- clauses.
reported speech - also known as indirect speech. Reported speech does not use speech marks and usually begins, He/She said that..., e.g.
He said that he could guess what Michael was thinking.
The direct version of this would be:
He said, 'I can guess what Michael is thinking.'
root - the main part of a word without prefixes and suffixes. For example, in disgracefully the root is grace. The root is also sometimes called the base form.
sentence - a group of words which can stand on their own. We expect sentences to:
• contain a main verb
• begin with a capital letter
• end with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.
There are three main types of sentence: simple, compound and complex.
A simple sentence is made up of one main clause, e.g. The cat sat down.
A compound sentence is made up of two or more main clauses, linked with conjunctions, e.g.
The cat sat down and scratched itself.
A complex sentence is made up of a main clause plus one or more subordinate clauses, e.g.
The cat scratched itself as if it had flees.
simile - a technique used to make writing more visual and interesting. In using similes we use the prepositions like or as to compare one thing with another, e.g.
The wind moved through the woods like a tiger.
(The wind is being compared to a tiger.)
singular - a word applied to nouns to show that there is only one of them - e.g. desk, computer, telephone. These are all singular. To become plural, each would gain an s. Some words are the same in their singular and plural forms - e.g. one sheep; twenty sheep.
standard English - the most important dialect or variety of English. It is used in most written texts, in education, in law, in the media. It is the form of English defined in dictionaries.
subject - the person or thing in a sentence that is doing the action of the verb. (In 'Fran laughed at Tom' Fran is the subject - she is doing the laughing.)
suffix - letters added after the root of a word to change its meaning - e.g. hope + less.
syllable - a 'beat' in a word, similar to a beat in music. The word dog has just one syllable, while the word elephant has three (el-e-phant).
synonym - a word with a similar meaning to another word, e.g. large and big.
tense - the form of a verb which describes when something happens.
topic sentence - a sentence which summarizes the whole of a newspaper story; usually the first sentence in a news article.
unit of meaning - a part of a word which has its own meaning, e.g.
bi (means 'two') + cycle (means 'wheels') - so the word bicycle is made up of two units of meaning.
verb - a word which tells us what someone or something is doing, e.g.
She saw the car. It slowed to a standstill.
See also Auxiliary verb; Compressed verb forms.
word class - a group of words with a particular function in a sentence - nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and so on. Sometimes called Parts of speech.
