English Language & Grammar

grog
delta
grocer
malapropism
mausoleum

What’s happening with the clause at the end of this sentence?

Joeseph had been president since the day that he had won the election.

I’ve uploaded answers to the Apple Sauce Man practice sheet and to the 3rd Test S2009. Enjoy.

See the sentences below. What do you make of their grammar?

She was sure whom she knew.

She was never certain whom she knew.

Are the sentences above elliptical constructions with missing prepositions?

She was sure (of [whom she knew]).

She was never certain (about [whom she knew]).

What about these sentences?

She was never sure what that was about.

She was never sure about what that was.

She was never certain about what they said.

She was never certain what they talked about.

She was never certain whom they talked about.

How about this beauty?

Never teach a child anything of which you are not yourself sure” (John Ruskin).

* * * *
el·lip·sis (pl. el·lip·ses):
1.
a. The omission of a word or phrase necessary for a complete syntactical construction but not necessary for understanding.
b. An example of such omission.
2. A mark or series of marks ( . . . or * * * , for example) used in writing or printing to indicate an omission, especially of letters or words. (from the American Heritage Dictionary)

How would you describe the grammar of the following sentences?

A woman in a most peculiar hat sat contemplating.

He was erasing the board while she remarked with exaggerated irony that he should stop polishing the wall.

“Zoey ate the Thanksgiving Turkey,” shouted Janey with zany glee.

How had Janey done in the volleyball tournament was the question of the day.

What is the voice of the following sentence? Reverse it.

The elephant scratching its ear with a back foot drank water through its snout.

Do you need both “that”s in the following sentence? How would you identify that final clause?

Thinking about fleeing the cranky dog, the neighborhood cats decided that that seemed a good idea.

Consider the grammatical relationship between “not” and “no.”

Thu Nov 5 2009 2:30-4:30PM
F 223

Fri Nov 6 2009 2:30-5:30PM
J 201

Mon Nov 9 2009 2:30-5:30PM
F 121

Tue Nov 10 2009 2:30-5:30PM
J 201

Wed Nov 11 2009 2:30-5:30PM
J 201

Thu Nov 12 2009 2:30-4:30PM
F 223

Select the link below to find answers to the last test.

2F2009Ans

Folks, I’ll be in J-201 for extra grammar work starting at 2:30.

My boiler issue has been resolved.

Wednesday, Oct 21 2009 2:30-5:30PM
in J 201

Thursday Oct 22 2009 2:30-5:30PM *(if the furnace repairman arrives early enough — keep your eye on this blog)
in J-201

I’ve read your life with language essays and will return them Monday.

I’ve been thinking about Kayla and Gabe’s questions about linking verbs and participles and want to expand, and somewhat deepen, my answer.

As I suggested in class, every verb can be conjugated into several forms, two of which are participial forms.

To eat (infinitive form)
eat (present tense form)
ate (past tense form)
eating (present participial form)
eaten (past participial form)

In order for the present or past participial form to function as main verbs, they need helpers, thus “is eating,” “was eating,” “has eaten,” or “will have eaten,” etc.

But as we have noted, some constructions look a lot like linking constructions. Are they? My best advice is to consider all of these constructions as main verbs with auxiliaries, yet distinctions can and should be made. Consider the following sentences.

Zoey’s manner is engaging.

After dinner, she was tired

The man was running for his life.

Each sentence can be described as having a verb phrase comprised of an auxiliary followed by a participle. Yet in the first two sentences, the participles may reasonably be seen to have modification power over the subjects. In other words you can usefully describe them as predicate adjectives. In the third sentence, this is more difficult to argue because the participle “running” pretty forcefully describes an action in itself, not the subject of the sentence.

Here is a simple guideline to make such distinctions.

Any participle that follows a linking verb and that clearly describes the subject may be identified as a subject complement. A participle that follows a linking verb but denotes action should be described as the main verb following its auxiliary.

All of this is lovely — we can begin to discriminate between the quality of verb phrases that make use of participles, but the subject still remains tricky and open to interpretation. How would you classify the verbs below?

Zoey’s favorite activity is sleeping.

Zoey is sleeping.

(I’ve seen the first described as a linking verb with participle; we wouldn’t say that about the second would we?)

Take a look here to see what the Grammar Girl says about using “good” vs. “well” in the sentences “I am good” or “I am well.”

Monday, Oct 19 2009 2:30-5:30PM
in J 201

Tuesday Oct 20 2009 2:30-5:30PM
in J-201

Okay folks, if you can make it Grammar Practice Class will be on tomorrow and Friday at the following locations:

Thursday Oct 15, 2009 2:30-5:30PM in F 223 (that’s our standard classroom)

Friday Oct 16, 2009 2:30-4:30PM in F 122.

Show up any time for as short or long as you care to do. If you can make it great, if not, keep working.

Here are the answer sheets for the first test.

1st Test Answers