Term
| According to what two types of criteria are we able to summarize the four major lexical categories of open-class words, and what are the four major lexical categories? |
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Definition
The two types of criteria are
morphological and syntactic.
The four major lexical categories of
open-class words are:
nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs |
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Term
| What are the three possible syntactic positions for nouns? |
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Definition
1. after determiners (e.g., a/an, the)--DET n.
2. after determiners plus adjectives--DET ADJ n.
3. after adjectives--ADJ n.
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Term
Give a description of each:
countable nouns and uncountable nouns. |
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Definition
Countable nouns can be quantified, and they can take a plural form -s.
Uncountable nouns (or mass nouns) describe ideas (peace), or refer to things that cannot be counted.
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Term
| According to it's syntactic position, describe one fairly reliable test for a noun. |
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Definition
The __________
(The) __________ is/are
I like/want/have (the) __________ |
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Term
| What is an accurate description of an adjective? |
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Definition
Adjectives are words that modify the meaning of nouns. |
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Term
| Most adjectives have comparative and superlative forms. |
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Definition
comparative: form of an adjective indicating that one item possesses a quality to a greater degree than another; grass can be green, greener on the other side of the fence
Created with the addition of the inflectional ending (-er), or the modifier (more)
superlative: form of an adjective indicating that one item possesses a quality to the greatest possible degree; his grass is the greenest in the neighborhood
Created with the addition of the inflectional ending (-est), or the modifier (most)
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Term
What are the two syntactic positions
in which adjectives can appear? Describe each. |
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Definition
1. attributive: adj. appears before the noun (and after the determiner if it is present)
fascinating adjectives, or
the attributive adjective
2. predicative: adj. appears after the verb (the predicate is the verb and other elements it governs in a clause. In the clause "grammar makes me happy," "grammar" is the subject and "makes me happy" is the predicate.)
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Term
When can the adjective modify the
subject or object? Give an example of each. |
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Definition
In predicative position, the adjective can modify the subject or in some cases the object.
After a linking verb such as "be" or "seem," predicative adjectives describe the subject:
Adjectives are fascinating.
Grammar seems cooler than I remember.
After a small set of verbs, a predicative adjective can modify the object:
We called the construction grammatical.
Grammar makes me happy.
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