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TIL
TIL Grammar Glossary
N01.htm
Compiled from various sources by U Kyaw Tun (UKT), M.S. (I.P.S.T.,
U.S.A.), and staff of TIL (Tun Institute of Learning.
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everyone. Prepared for students and
staff of TIL Research Station, Yangon, MYANMAR :
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index.htm | Top
GramGloss-indx.htm
Contents of this page
Grammar Glossary - N
• narration
• narrator
• negative
• negative pronoun
• neologism
• netiquette
• newsgroup
• nominal
• nominalization
• nominative case
• non-action verb
• noncount noun
• non-defining relative clause •
non-error
• nonessential element
• nonfinite verb
• nonrestrictive element
• nonstandard
• noun
• noun as adjective
• noun clause
• noun phrase
• number
• numeral
UKT Notes
• non-errors
• Nominalizers in Burmese
• Noun phrase
•
Unnecessary uses of verb "to Be"
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From: LBH
Recounting a sequence of events, usually in the order of their occurrence.
(See pp. 26–27 and 95.)
Literary narration tells a story. (See Chapter 49.)
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From: LBH
The speaker in a poem or the voice who tells a story. (See p. 797.)
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From: UseE
A negative structure can show the absence of a noun or any other
substantive, the non-performance of the action described by
a verb, or the non-existence in the case of a stative verb.
An adverb or adjective can equally be negated so that it expresses
the absence of the quality or characteristic described. Negation can
be used to break the linking function of a preposition so that the
items governed by it are shown to be separate.
Unless it is tied to something quantifiable,
the number zero or nought simply implies an absence of anything numerically
quantifiable. In contrast, negation in language functions in a contradictory way;
it invokes a connection, action, modification, etc., only to then deny it.
However, a negative nearly always creates a ghostly presence of the very thing
it is saying is absent. Something may well not be green, but in learning that
our image and understanding of whatever it is coloured by the green
whose absence is a characteristic.
This ingenious mechanism common to all languages
is one of the driving forces of creativity and generators of meaning.
Through it we have access to one of the primary and most fundamental
of all tools for creating shades of meaning.
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From: UseE
A negative pronoun refers to a negative noun phrase;
no-one, nobody, neither, none and nothing
are the negative pronouns used in English.
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From: LBH
A word coined recently and not in established use. (See p. 562.)
From: UseE
A neologism is a new word that comes into use.
Technology is an area particularly rich in them; CD, Internet,
information superhighway, etc.
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neologism 090103
A neologism (from Greek neo = "new" + logos = "word") is a
word that, devised relatively recently in a specific time period, has not been
accepted into a mainstream language. By definition, neologisms are "new", and as
such are often directly attributable to a specific individual, publication,
period, or event. The term "neologism" was coined in 1803.
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From: LBH
Conventions and courtesies for Internet communication. (See pp. 195–97.)
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From: LBH
An Internet discussion group with a common site where
all postings are recorded. (See p. 661.)
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From LBH
A noun, a pronoun, or a word or word group used as a noun:
Joan and I talked.
The rich owe a debt to the poor
(adjectives acting as subject and object).
Baby-sitting can be exhausting
(gerund acting as subject).
I like to play with children
(infinitive phrase acting as object).
UKT: Compare each pair:
noun –> nominal
verb –> verbal
From AHTD
adj. 1. a. Of, resembling, relating to, or consisting of a name or names.
b. Assigned to or bearing a person's name: nominal shares.
2. Existing in name only. 4. Insignificantly small; trifling: a nominal sum.
6. Grammar Of or relating to a noun or word group that functions as a noun.
n. Grammar 1. A word or group of words functioning as a noun.
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From AHTD
nominal adj. 1. a. Of, resembling, relating to, or
consisting of a name or names. b. Assigned to or bearing a person's name:
nominal shares. 2. Existing in name only. ... 6. Grammar
Of or relating to a noun or word group that functions as a noun.
n. Grammar 1. A word or group of words functioning as a noun. [Middle
English nominalle of nouns from Latin nōminālis
of names from nōmen nōmin-name.]
From The Grammaticalization of Nominalizers in Burmese by Andrew Simpson
Definition: A nominalizer: a morpheme whose primary function
is to convert a non-nominal input form into a nominal category.
See summary of the complete paper in my notes under
Nominalizers in Burmese
. The whole paper with my additions in Burmese-Myanmar and in Romabama is in
Simpson-normalize.htm .
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See nominative case in
my notes.
From: LBH
Another term for subjective case. See • case.
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From: Linn-Benton
- Linn-Benton Community College.
http://www.linnbenton.edu/
(also called helping verbs or linking verbs)
The following verbs are linking verbs when used alone. Many
of the following verbs can act as helping verbs when paired
with an action verb.
• am • appear, appeared • appearing, appears • are • become (ing), became (s) • been (never used alone)
• being (never used alone) • can, could • did, does, do, doing, done • feel, feels
• feeling, felt • has, had • have, having • is, be (rarely alone) • look, looking, looked, looks
• may, might • seem, seemed • seeming, seems • shall, should • was, were • will, willing • would
Linking verbs link the subject of the sentence to words
that describe or rename that subject.
A helping verb is often added to the action verb to show tense.
1. Linking verbs can be used singly.
Mustafa is forty today.
Larry and Sharon are accounts.
2. Linking verbs can be used with other linking verbs.
Ruth should have been here by now.
3. Helping verbs can be used with an action verb. In fact, verbs that end in
-ed or -ing must have a helping verb to be the verb in a clause.
The team captain had noticed the player limping.
The players were running toward the ball.
4. Be, been, being are almost always used with another helping verb.
June will be out of the hospital tomorrow.
Dad has been asleep for an hour.
That driver is being reckless by speeding.
5. The verbs can/could, may/might, must, shall/should, will/would
are always followed by another verb to form the verb in a clause.
I should study tonight.
Will I see you at the Timber Carnival?
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See • noun • mass noun
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From: UseE
This gives extra information about a noun or noun phrase
and has commas at both ends:
My sister, who lives in France, is coming to stay with me next week.
('who lives in France' is not essential, which means that I only have
one sister and she does not need to be defined by the relative clause)
• 'Who' and 'whose' are used for people.
• 'Which' and 'whose' are used for things.
• 'That' cannot be used in a non-defining relative clause.
See also:
{
Defining Relative Clause};
{
Relative Pronoun}
Related Article:
Relative Clauses - Learn about Relative Pronouns in Non-Restrictive Clauses
(Non-Defining clauses) and Restrictive Clauses (Defining clauses).
Contents of this page
See non-errors in my
notes.
Excerpt from Paul Brians Non-Errors
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/nonerrors.html 080718
Those usages people keep telling you are wrong but which are actually standard
in English.
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From: LBH
A word or word group that does not limit the term or construction it refers to
and thus is not essential to the meaning of the sentence. Also called a
nonrestrictive element, a nonessential element is set off by punctuation,
usually commas:
The new apartment building, in shades of tan and gray,
will house fifty people.
(nonessential adjective phrase).
Sleep, which we all need, occupies a third of our lives.
(nonessential adjective clause).
His wife, Patricia, is a chemist
(nonessential appositive).
Contrast • essential element. (See pp. 473–77.)
Contents of this page
See • verbal • verbal phrase
From: UseE
The non-finite forms of a verb have no tense, person or singular / plural.
The infinitive and present- and past-participles are
the non-finite parts of a verb: to do; doing; done
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See • nonessential element.
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From: LBH
Words and grammatical forms not conforming to standard English. (See p. 559.)
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See • substantive
From: LBH
A word that names a person, place, thing, quality, or idea:
[e.g.] • Maggie • Alabama • clarinet
• satisfaction • socialism
Nouns normally form the possessive case by adding
-'s (Maggie's) and the plural by adding -s or -es
(clarinets, messes), although there are exceptions
(men, women, children).
The forms of nouns depend partly on where they fit in certain overlapping groups:
• Common nouns name general classes and are not capitalized:
book / government / music
• Proper nouns name specific people, places, and things and are capitalized:
Susan / Athens / Candlestick Park
• Count nouns name things considered countable in English (they form plurals):
ounce –> ounces
camera –> cameras
person –> people
• Noncount nouns name things not considered countable in English
(they don't form plurals):
chaos / fortitude / silver / earth / information
• Collective nouns are singular in form but name groups:
team / class / family
From: UseE
A noun is a word used to refer to people, animals, objects, substances, states, events
and feelings. Nouns can be a subject (S) or an object (O) of a verb
(V) [in a sentence of form SVO]. [Nouns as S and O], can be
modified by an adjective and can take an article or determiner.
Nouns may be divided into two groups:
Countable Nouns have plural forms and Uncountable Nouns do not.
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From: UseE
We can use a noun as an adjective when it precedes a noun that it modifies:
a mountain bike
is a bike designed for riding up mountains. 'Mountain' functions as an adjective
modifying the noun 'bike'. The second noun takes the plural form,
while the first behaves like an adjective and consequently does not, unless the
word is normally used in the plural (sports hall) or refers to people
(women footballers).
We use these for well-known things,
some can be hyphenated and some are written as one word.
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From: LBH
A word group containing a subject and a verb and
functioning as a subject, object, or complement:
Everyone wondered how the door opened.
Whoever opened it had left.
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See •
Noun phrase in my notes
From: UseE
A noun phrase is either a single noun or pronoun or a group of words
containing a noun or a pronoun that function together as a noun or pronoun,
as the subject (S) or object (O) of a verb (V) [in a sentence].
[UKT: It is best to always look from the point of view of syntax of a sentence.]
John was late.
'John' is the noun phrase [containing only a single word]
functioning as the subject (S) of the verb (V).)
The people that I saw coming in the building at nine o'clock have just left.
('The people ... nine o'clock' is a lengthy noun
phrase, but it functions as the subject (S) of the main verb 'have just left'.)
[UKT: I would analyse the sentence as: S = people, V = left.
The phrase containing people is a noun phrase.]
UKT note: The word "that" in the noun phrase "
The people that I saw coming in the building at nine o'clock"
the word "that" is not necessary.
See
Unnecessary Uses of “To Be” in my notes.
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From: LBH
number grammar
The form of a noun, pronoun, demonstrative adjective, or verb
that indicates whether it is singular or plural:
[e.g.] • woman, women • I, we • this, these • runs, run
From: UseE
In grammar, number is whether a word is singular or plural,
especially nouns and demonstratives.
[UKT: "The use of the word "word" is too general to be misleading. It should
have been "subject" or "verb" in a sentence of form SVO (subject-verb-object). ]
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From: UseE
A numeral is a word or phrase used for numbers; 'one' and 'first', etc.
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From
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/nonerrors.html 090103
UKT: Some of the subheadings in the original article are bookmarked for some
unknown reason. I have increased their font-size.
Split infinitives
For the hyper-critical, “to boldly go where no man has gone before” should
be “to go boldly. . . .” It is good to be aware that inserting one or more words
between “to” and a verb is not strictly speaking an error, and is often more
expressive and graceful than moving the intervening words elsewhere; but so many
people are offended by split infinitives that it is better to avoid them except
when the alternatives sound strained and awkward.
Ending a sentence with a preposition
A fine example of an artificial “rule” which ignores standard usage. The famous
witticism usually attributed to Winston Churchill makes the point well: “This is
the sort of English up with which I will not put.” see
The American Heritage Book of
English Usage.
Jack Lynch
has some sensible comments on this issue. If you think you know the
original version of this saying,
click here.
Beginning a sentence with a conjunction
It offends those who wish to confine English usage in a logical straitjacket
that writers often begin sentences with “and” or “but.” True, one should be
aware that many such sentences would be improved by becoming clauses in compound
sentences; but there are many effective and traditional uses for beginning
sentences thus. One example is the reply to a previous assertion in a dialogue:
“But, my dear Watson, the criminal obviously wore expensive boots or he would
not have taken such pains to scrape them clean.” Make it a rule to consider
whether your conjunction would repose more naturally within the previous
sentence or would lose in useful emphasis by being demoted from its position at
the head of a new sentence.Using “between” for only two, “among” for more
The “-tween” in “between” is clearly linked to the number two; but, as the
Oxford English Dictionary notes, “In all senses, between has, from
its earliest appearance, been extended to more than two.” We’re talking about
Anglo-Saxon here — early. Pedants have labored to enforce “among” when
there are three or more objects under discussion, but largely in vain. Even the
pickiest speaker does not naturally say, “A treaty has been negotiated among
England, France, and Germany.”
Some people claim that “over” cannot be used to signify “more than,” as in “Over
a thousand baton-twirlers marched in the parade.” “Over,” they insist, always
refers to something physically higher: say, the blimp hovering over the parade
route. This absurd distinction ignores the role metaphor plays in language. If I
write 1 on the blackboard and 10 beside it, 10 is still the “higher” number.
“Over” has been used in the sense of “more than” for over a thousand years.
Gender vs. sex
Feminists eager to remove references to sexuality from discussions of females
and males not involving mating or reproduction revived an older meaning of
“gender,” which had come to refer in modern times chiefly to language, as a
synonym for “sex” in phrases such as “Our goal is to achieve gender equality.”
Americans, always nervous about sex, eagerly embraced this usage, which is now
standard. In some scholarly fields, “sex” is now used to label biologically
determined aspects of maleness and femaleness (reproduction, etc.) while
“gender” refers to their socially determined aspects (behavior, attitudes,
etc.); but in ordinary speech this distinction is not always maintained. It is
disingenuous to pretend that people who use “gender” in the new senses are
making an error, just as it is disingenuous to maintain that “Ms.” means
“manuscript” (that’s “MS”). Nevertheless, I must admit I was startled to
discover that the tag on my new trousers describes not only their size and
color, but their “gender.”
Using “who” for people, “that” for animals and inanimate objects
In fact there are many instances in which the most conservative usage is to
refer to a person using “that”: “All the politicians that were at the party
later denied even knowing the host” is actually somewhat more traditional than
the more popular “politicians who.” An aversion to “that” referring to human
beings as somehow diminishing their humanity may be praiseworthily sensitive,
but it cannot claim the authority of tradition. In some sentences, “that” is
clearly preferable to “who”: “She is the only person I know of that prefers
whipped cream on her granola.” In the following example, to exchange “that” for
“who” would be absurd: “Who was it that said, ‘A woman without a man is like a
fish without a bicycle’?”*
*Commonly attributed to Gloria Steinem, but
she attributes it to Irina Dunn.
“Since” need not always refer to time. Since the 14th century, when it was often
spelled “syn,” it has also meant “seeing that” or “because.”
Hopefully
This word has meant “it is to be hoped” for a very long time, and those who
insist it can only mean “in a hopeful fashion” display more hopefulness than
realism.
Momentarily
“The plane will be landing momentarily” says the flight attendant, and the
grumpy grammarian in seat 36B thinks to himself, “So we’re going to touch down
for just a moment?” Everyone else thinks, “Just a moment now before we land.”
Back in the 1920s when this use of “momentarily” was first spreading on both
sides of the Atlantic, one might have been accused of misusing the word; but by
now it’s listed without comment as one of the standard definitions in most
dictionaries.
Lend vs. loan
“Loan me your hat” was just as correct everywhere as “lend me your ears” until
the British made “lend” the preferred verb, relegating “loan” to the thing being
lent. However, as in so many cases, Americans kept the older pattern, which in
its turn has influenced modern British usage so that those insisting that “loan”
can only be a noun are in the minority.
Regime vs. regimen
Some people insist that “regime” should be used only in reference to
governments, and that people who say they are following a dietary regime should
instead use “regimen”; but “regime” has been a synonym of “regimen” for over a
century, and is widely accepted in that sense.
Near miss
It is futile to protest that “near miss” should be “near collision.” This
expression is a condensed version of something like “a miss that came very near
to being a collision” and is similar to “narrow escape.” Everyone knows what is
meant by it and almost everyone uses it. It should be noted that the expression
can also be used in the sense of almost succeeding in striking a desired target:
“His Cointreau soufflé was a near miss.”
“None” singular vs. plural
Some people insist that since “none” is derived from “no one” it should always
be singular: “none of us is having dessert.” However, in standard usage, the
word is most often treated as a plural. “None of us are having dessert” will do
just fine.
Scan vs. skim
Those who insist that “scan” can never be a synonym of “skim” have lost the
battle. It is true that the word originally meant “to scrutinize,” but it has
now evolved into one of those unfortunate words with two opposite meanings: to
examine closely (now rare) and to glance at quickly (much more common). It would
be difficult to say which of these two meanings is more prominent in the
computer-related usage, to “scan a document.”
Off of
For most Americans, the natural thing to say is “Climb down off of [pronounced “offa”]
that horse, Tex, with your hands in the air”; but many UK authorities urge that
the “of” should be omitted as redundant. Where British English reigns you may
want to omit the “of” as superfluous, but common usage in the US has rendered
“off of” so standard as to generally pass unnoticed, though some American
authorities also discourage it in formal writing. But if “onto” makes sense, so
does “off of.” However, “off of” meaning “from” in phrases like “borrow five
dollars off of Clarice” is definitely nonstandard.
Till vs. ’til.
Since it looks like an abbreviation for “until,” some people argue that this
word should always be spelled “’til” (though not all insist on the apostrophe).
However, “till” has regularly occurred as a spelling of this word for over 800
years and it’s actually older than “until.” It is perfectly good English.
Teenage vs. teenaged.
Some people object that the word should be “teenaged,” but unlike the still
nonstandard “ice tea” and “stain glass,” “teenage” is almost universally
accepted now.
Nouns are often turned into verbs in English, and “reference” in the sense “to
provide references or citations” has become so widespread that it’s generally
acceptable, though some teachers and editors still object.
Feeling bad
“I feel bad” is standard English, as in “This t-shirt smells bad” (not “badly”).
“I feel badly” is an incorrect hyper-correction by people who think they know
better than the masses. People who are happy can correctly say they feel good,
but if they say they feel well, we know they mean to say they’re healthy.
Unquote vs. endquote
Some people get upset at the common pattern by which speakers frame a
quotation by saying “quote . . . unquote,” insisting that the latter word should
logically be “endquote”; but illogical as it may be, “unquote” has been used in
this way for about a century, and “endquote” is nonstandard.
Persuade vs. convince
Some people like to distinguish between these two words by insisting that you
persuade people until you have convinced them; but “persuade” as a synonym for
“convince” goes back at least to the 16th century. It can mean both to attempt
to convince and to succeed. It is no longer common to say things like “I am
persuaded that you are an illiterate fool,” but even this usage is not in itself
wrong.
Normalcy vs. normality
The word “normalcy” had been around for more than half a century when President
Warren G. Harding was assailed in the newspapers for having used it in a 1921
speech. Some folks are still upset; but in the US “normalcy” is a perfectly
normal — if uncommon — synonym for “normality.”
Aggravate vs. irritate
Some people claim that “aggravate” can only mean “make worse” and should not be
used to mean “irritate”; but the latter has been a valid use of the word for
four centuries, and “aggravation” means almost exclusively “irritation.”
You shouldn’t pronounce the “e” in “not my forte.”
Some people insist that it’s an error to pronounce the word “forte” in the
expression “not my forte” as if French-derived “forte” were the same as the
Italian musical term for “loud”: “for-tay.” But the original French expression
is pas mon fort, which not only has no “e” on the end to pronounce — it
has a silent “t” as well. It’s too bad that when we imported this phrase we
mangled it so badly, but it’s too late to do anything about it now. If you go
around saying what sounds like ”that’s not my fort,” people won’t understand
what you mean.
However, those who use the phrase to mean “not to my taste”
(“Wagnerian opera is not my forte”) are definitely mistaken. Your forte is what
you’re good at, not just stuff you like.
I must say I like the sound of this distinction, but in fact the two are
interchangeable as both nouns and adjective, though many prefer “preventive” as
being shorter and simpler. “Preventative” used as an adjective dates back to the
17th century, as does “preventive” as a noun.
People should say a book is titled such-and-such rather than entitled.
No less a writer than Chaucer is cited by the Oxford English Dictionary
as having used “entitled” in this sense, the very first meaning of the word
listed by the OED. It may be a touch pretentious, but it’s not wrong.
People are healthy; vegetables are healthful.
Logic and tradition are on the side of those who make this distinction, but
I’m afraid phrases like “part of a healthy breakfast” have become so widespread
that they are rarely perceived as erroneous except by the hyper-correct. On a
related though slightly different subject, it is interesting to note that in
English adjectives connected to sensations in the perceiver of an object or
event are often transferred to the object or event itself. In the 19th century
it was not uncommon to refer, for instance, to a “grateful shower of rain,” and
we still say “a gloomy landscape,” “a cheerful sight” and “a happy coincidence.”
Female vs. woman
Some people argue that since we say — for instance — “male doctor” we should
always say “female doctor” rather than “woman doctor.” It may be inconsistent,
but the pattern of referring to females as women performers, professionals, etc.
is very traditional, dating back at least to the 14th century. People
who do this cannot be accused of committing an error.
Dinner is done; people are finished.
I pronounce this an antiquated distinction rarely observed in modern speech.
Nobody really supposes the speaker is saying he or she has been roasted to a
turn. In older usage people said, “I have done” to indicate they had completed
an action. “I am done” is not really so very different.
Old-fashioned writers insist that you raise crops and rear children; but in
modern American English children are usually “raised.”
“You’ve got mail” should be “you have mail.”
The “have” contracted in phrases like this is merely an auxiliary verb, not an
expression of possession. It is not a redundancy. Compare: “You’ve sent the
mail.”
It’s “cut the muster,” not “cut the mustard.”
This etymology seems plausible at first. Its proponents often trace it to
the American Civil War. We do have the analogous expression “to pass muster,”
which probably first suggested this alternative; but although the origins of
“cut the mustard” are somewhat obscure, the latter is definitely the form used
in all sorts of writing throughout the twentieth century. Common sense would
suggest that a person cutting a muster is not someone being selected as fit, but
someone eliminating the unfit. See
the alt.usage.english
faq explanation of this term.
Authoritative dictionaries agree, the original expression refers to offering to
reward a stubborn mule or donkey with a carrot or threatening to beat it with a
stick and not to a carrot being dangled from a stick.
Further discussion.
This and other popular etymologies fit under the heading aptly called by the
English “too clever by half."
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earlier form was “spitten
image,” which may indeed have evolved from “spit and image.” It’s a crude figure
of speech: someone else is enough like you to have been spat out by you, made of
the very stuff of your body. In the early 20th century the spelling and
pronunciation gradually shifted to the less logical “spitting image,” which is
now standard. It’s too late to go back. There is no historical basis for the
claim sometimes made that the original expression was “spirit and image.”
Even though the original meaning of this phrase reflected the idea that the lion
can take whatever he wants — typically all of the slaughtered game, leaving
nothing for anyone else — in modern usage the meaning has shifted to “the
largest share.” This makes great sense if you consider the way hyenas and
vultures swarm over the leftovers from a typical lion’s kill.
“Connoisseur” should be spelled “connaisseur.”
When we borrowed this word from the French in the 18th century, it was spelled
“connoisseur.” Is it our fault the French later decided to shift the spelling of
many OI words to the more phonetically accurate AI? Of those
Francophone purists who insist we should follow their example I say, let ’em eat
bifteck.
See also Commonly Made
Suggestions
List of errors
Go back non-errors-note-b
Contents of this page
UKT: See The Grammaticalization of Nominalizers in
Burmese by Andrew Simpson, Professor of Linguistics & East Asian Languages
and Cultures,
http://victoria.linguistlist.org/~lapolla/nw/Simpson.doc 080622 ,
http://www.benjamins.nl/cgi-bin/t_articles.cgi?bookid=TSL%2076&artid=186116180 080627
UKT 151101 : The Grammaticalization of Nominalizers in
Burmese in Word & PDF have been removed. My presentation in HTML
format is in preparation stage. It can be navigated to from main
bk-cndl-index:
- index.htm >
BurMyan-indx.htm
>
BO-MLC-indx.htm >
Normalizer.htm (link chk
151031)
This paper is concerned with the grammaticalization of clausal nominalizers in
two different but closely-related forms of Burmese, Colloquial Burmese and
Literary Burmese. A contrastive overview of the morphosyntactic properties
of the nominalizers thii
{thæÑ} and mii
{mæÑ}
of Literary Burmese and their Colloquial Burmese counterparts te
{tèý} and me
{tèý}, together with the application of a number of tests for the identification
of nominalized constructions, reveal that grammaticalization is more advanced in
the colloquial language than in the literary variety: te and me
have lost their nominal specifications and been reanalysed as grammatical
elements of a different categorial type, instantiating verb-related mood and
realis–irrealis distinctions. The comparison of the system of nominalization in
the two complementary varieties of Burmese allows for insights into the evolution,
spread and reinterpretation of nominalization structures within a language.
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From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative 080710
The nominative case is a
grammatical case for a
noun, which
generally marks the
subject of a verb,
as opposed to its
object or other
verb
arguments. (Basically, it is a noun that is doing something, usually joined
(such as in Latin)
with the
accusative case.)
Explanation
The nominative case is the usual, natural form (more technically, the least
marked)
of certain parts of speech, such as nouns, adjectives, pronouns and less
frequently numerals and participles, and sometimes does not indicate any special
relationship with other parts of speech. Therefore, in some languages the
nominative case is unmarked, that is, the form or
stem,
with no
inflection; alternatively, it may said to be marked by a
zero morpheme. Moreover, in most languages with a nominative case, the
nominative form is the
lemma; that is, it is the one used to cite a word, to list it as a
dictionary entry, etc.
Nominative cases are found in
German, Latin,
Icelandic,
Old English,
Polish, and
Russian, among other languages. English still retains some nominative
pronouns, as
opposed to the
accusative case or
oblique
case: I (accusative, me), we (accusative, us),
he (accusative, him), she (accusative, her) and
they (accusative, them). An archaic usage is the singular
second-person pronoun
thou
(accusative thee). A special case is the word you: Originally
ye was its nominative form and you the accusative, but over time
you has come to be used for the nominative as well.
The term "nominative case" is most properly used in the discussion of
nominative-accusative languages, such as Latin,
Greek, and most modern Western European languages.
In
active-stative languages there is a case sometimes called nominative which
is the most marked case, and is used for the subject of a
transitive verb or a voluntary subject of an
intransitive verb, but not for an involuntary subject of an intransitive
verb; since such languages are a relatively new field of study, there is no
standard name for this case.
Subjective Case
Some writers of
English employ the term subjective case instead of nominative, in
order to draw attention to the differences between the "standard" generic
nominative and the way it is used in English.
Generally, when the term subjective case is used, the
accusative and
dative
are collectively labelled as the
objective case. This is possible in English because the two have merged;
there are no surviving examples where the accusative and the dative are distinct
in form, though their functions are still distinct. The
genitive case is then usually called the possessive form and often is
not considered as a noun case per se; English is then said to have two cases,
the subjective and the objective. This view is an oversimplification, but it is
didactically useful.
End of Wiki article.
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From: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noun_phrase 080524
In
grammatical theory, a noun phrase (abbreviated NP)* is a phrase whose
head is a noun or a pronoun, optionally accompanied by a set of modifiers.
* "Noun Phrases - Glossary Definition - UsingEnglish.com" (with examples),
UsingEnglish.com, 21 August 2006, UsingEnglish.com/glossary webpage:
UEng-noun-phrase.
Form
Noun phrases normally consist of a head noun, which is optionally modified ("premodified"
If the modifier is placed before the noun; "postmodified" if the modifier is
placed after the noun). Possible modifiers include:
• determiners:
articles (the, a),
demonstratives (this, that),
numerals (two, five, etc.),
possessives (my, their, etc.), and
quantifiers (some, many, etc.). In English, determiners are
usually placed before the noun.
UKT: Compare "a dog" (English) to {hkwé: tic kaung} (Burmese).
• adjectives (the red ball); or
• complements, in the form of a prepositional phrase
(such as: the student of physics), or a
That-clause (the claim that the earth is round);
• modifiers; premodifiers if placed before the noun and usually either as
nouns (the university student) or adjectives (the
beautiful lady), or postmodifiers if placed after the noun.
A postmodifier may be either a prepositional phrase
(the man with long hair) or a relative clause
(the house where I live). The difference between modifiers
and complements is that complements complete the meaning of the noun;
complements are necessary, whereas modifiers are optional because
they just give additional information about the noun.
That noun phrases can be headed by elements other than nouns — for instance,
pronouns (They came) or determiners (I'll take these)
— has given rise to the postulation of
a Determiner phrase instead of a noun phrase. The English language is not as
permissive as some other languages, with regard to possible heads of noun
phrases. German, for instance, allows adjectives as heads of noun phrases, as in
Gib mir die alten: Give me the olds (= old ones).
Noun phrases can make use of an apposition structure. This means that
the elements in the noun phrase are not in a head-modifier relationship,
but in a relation of equality. An example of this is
I, Caesar, declare ..., where "Caesar"
and "I" do not modify each other.
Noun-phrase as a grammatical unit
In English, for some purposes, noun phrases can be treated as single
grammatical units. This is most noticeable in the syntax of the
English genitive case. In a phrase such as The king of Sparta's wife,
the possessive clitic "-'s" is not added to the king
who actually has the wife, but instead to Sparta, as the end of the whole phrase.
The clitic modifies the entire phrase the king of Sparta.
Grammatical function
Noun phrases are prototypically used for acts of reference
as in "The blonde girl shouts" or "She kissed the man".
Also possible, but found less often, is the use of noun phrases for predication,
as in "Suzy is a blonde girl". Note that in English the use of the copula
is indicates the use of a noun phrase as predicate,
but other languages may not require the use of the copula. Finally, noun phrases are used
for identifications like "The murderer was the butler", where no
ascription is talking place. The possibility for a noun phrase to play
the role of subject and predicate leads to the constructions of
syllogisms.
Cross linguistic observation
Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, but some languages
like Tuscarora and Cayuga have been argued to lack this category.
References used by Wikipedia
• Giorgi, A. - Longobardi, G. (1991) The syntax of noun phrases,
Cambridge University Press, England.
• Moro, A. (1997) The raising of predicates. Predicative noun phrases
and the theory of clause structure, Cambridge University Press, England.
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Excerpt from Verb "to Be" in • Commnet
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/to_be.htm 080615
Unnecessary Uses of “To Be”
Even a casual review of your writing can reveal uses of the verb “To be” that
are unnecessary and that can be removed to good effect. In a way, the “To be”
verb doesn't do much for you — it just sits there — and text that is too heavily
sprinkled with “To be” verbs can feel sodden, static. This is especially true of
“To be” verbs tucked into dependent clauses (particularly dependent clauses
using a passive construction) and expletive constructions (“There is,” “There
were,” “it is,” etc.). Note that the relative pronoun frequently disappears as
well when we revise these sentences.
• He wanted a medication that was prescribed by a physician.
• She recognized the officer who was chasing the crook.
• Anyone who is willing to work hard will succeed in this program.
• It was Alberto who told the principal about the
students' prank. (Notice that the “it was” brought special emphasis to
“Alberto,” an emphasis that is somewhat lost by this change.)
• A customer who is pleased is sure to return. A pleased customer is
sure to return. (When we eliminate the “To be” and the relative pronoun, we
will also have to reposition the predicate adjective to a pre-noun position.)
An expletive construction, along with its attendant “To be” verb, can often
be eliminated to good effect. Simply omit the construction, find the real
subject of the sentence, and allow it to do some real work with a real verb.
• There were some excellent results to this experiment in social work.
(Change to . . . .) This experiment in social work resulted in . . . .
• There is one explanation for this story's ending in Faulkner's diary.
(Change to . . . .) Faulkner's diary gives us one explanation for this story's ending.
On the other hand, expletive constructions do give us an interesting means
of setting out or organizing the work of a subsequent paragraph:
• There were four underlying causes of World War I. First, . . . .
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