Week I: Nouns, Adjectives, and Pronouns — Comprehensive Study Notes
Parts of Speech: Overview
- Categories words belong to based on syntactic function.
- A word can serve multiple functions (e.g., "run" as verb or noun).
SVO Structure and Analytic vs. Syncretic Languages
- English default: Subject-Verb-Object (SVO).
- Analytic languages (like English): Rely on word order for syntactic info. Example: "Bob ate a dozen lobsters" vs. "A dozen lobsters ate Bob."
- Syncretic languages (like Latin): Rely on word endings, word order is less critical. Example: "alea iacta est" (the die is cast) can have varied word order but same meaning.
How Many Parts of Speech?
- Eight universally agreed-upon: nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, articles, conjunctions, prepositions.
- Two more commonly cited: interjections and determiners.
Nouns: Definition, Types, and Functions
- Definition: Naming words ("people, places, things, and ideas").
- Concrete nouns: firetruck, goat.
- Abstract nouns: hope, motivation.
- Function: Nouns are the subject, complement, or object in a sentence.
- Example: "Dogs (subject) make excellent companions (complement)."
Nouns: Singular, Plural, and Possessives
- Plural: Often formed with endings [s], [z], or [-ɪz] (cats, shoes, coaches).
- Irregular plurals: sheep → sheep, ox → oxen, foot → feet.
- Possessive: Suffix -’s (the teacher’s chalk).
- Exceptions: Proper nouns ending in s (James’ or James’s), plural possessives (nouns’).
its vs. it’s: its is the possessive pronoun ("a leopard never changes its spots").It’s is a contraction of it is ("It’s time to feed the leopard").
Adjectives: Definition, Position, and Postpositive Use
- Definition: Describe a noun (red, common, difficult).
- Position:
- Generally precede the noun: "in the blue sky, a large balloon."
- After the noun (post-nominal) when separated by a linking verb: "The sky is blue."
- Exceptions (Postpositive): Attorney general, days past, everyone present.
- Gradability: Degrees of comparison.
- Absolute: hot
- Comparative: hotter, more recent
- Superlative: hottest, most recent
Pronouns: Overview and Six Major Types
- Overview: Refer to people/things, identified by person and number.
- Six Major Types:
- Personal Pronouns: Replace nouns, defined by person and number.
- Singular: I, you, he, she, it.
- Plural: we, you, they.
- Note: "they" as gender-neutral has historical usage.
- Possessive Pronouns: Indicate ownership.
- Singular: my, your, his, her, its.
- Plural: our, your, their.
- Caution: Refers to ownership by more than one person, not multiple items.
- Indefinite Pronouns: Refer to categories, not specifics.
- All: everyone, everything.
- Part: someone, something.
- Exclude: no one, nothing.
- Demonstrative Pronouns and Adjectives: Point to specific nouns.
- Pronouns: This, That, These, Those (replace nouns: "That looks like a big mess.")
- Adjectives: This, That, These, Those (modify nouns: "Those tools belong here.")
- Relative Pronouns: Introduce relative clauses that modify antecedents.
- Common: Who/whom, whose, that, which.
- Example: "A bus that Michael drove was blue."
- Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns: Look identical but differ in function.
- Reflexive: Subject performs action on itself; essential to meaning.
- Example: "She hurt herself."
- Intensive: Emphasize the subject; can be removed without changing grammar.
- Example: "I made this dinner myself!"
Key Takeaways for Quiz Preparation
- Understand how parts of speech are defined by function and how word form/position influence category.
- Be able to identify and explain subjects (nouns) and their roles, pluralization, and possessive forms (especially
its vs. it's). - Distinguish adjective position (pre-nominal vs. post-nominal) and recognize postpositive adjectives.
- Memorize the six kinds of pronouns and recognize examples