Building Blocks of Language Study Guide

A collection of vocabulary flashcards based on the 'Building Blocks of Language' lecture notes covering key concepts, definitions, and terminology related to parts of speech, grammar, and language acquisition.

Parts of Speech

The eight categories of words that are the building blocks of communication: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

Noun

A word that names a person, place, thing, or concept.

Verb

A word that shows action or a state of being.

Adjective

A word that describes a noun or pronoun.

Adverb

A word that describes a verb, often answering how, when, where, to what degree, or how much.

Pronoun

A word used in place of a noun to avoid repetition.

Preposition

A word that indicates a relationship between nouns or pronouns and other words in a sentence.

Conjunction

A word that connects words, phrases, or clauses in a sentence.

Interjection

A word or phrase that expresses strong emotion and is often followed by an exclamation point.

Common Noun

A general name for a person, place, or thing that is not capitalized.

Proper Noun

A specific name for a particular person, place, or organization and is always capitalized.

Singular Noun

A noun that refers to one person, place, or thing.

Plural Noun

A noun that refers to more than one person, place, or thing.

Singular Possessive Noun

A noun that indicates ownership by one item, typically formed by adding an apostrophe and 's'.

Plural Possessive Noun

A noun that indicates ownership by more than one item, usually formed by adding an apostrophe after the 's'.

Action Verb

A verb that expresses physical or mental action.

Linking Verb

A verb that connects the subject with a subject complement, often describing a state of being.

Tense

A grammatical category that locates a situation in time, often expressed through different verb forms.

Regular Verb

A verb that forms its past tense by adding -ed or -d.

Irregular Verb

A verb that does not follow the standard rules for verb conjugation.

Phrase

A group of words that act as a single unit in a sentence but do not contain a subject-verb pair.

Independent Clause

A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate and can stand alone as a complete sentence.

Dependent Clause

A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate but cannot stand alone as a complete sentence.

Fragment

An incomplete sentence that lacks a subject, a verb, or both.

Run-on Sentence

A sentence that incorrectly combines two or more independent clauses without proper punctuation or conjunction.

Commas

Punctuation marks used to separate elements in a series, after introductory elements, and in other specific contexts.

Phonology

The study of the sound systems of a language.

Morphology

The study of word structures and how they form and relate to one another.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.

Semantics

The study of meaning in language.