Motivation of the Word
The term motivation is used to denote the relationship existing between the phonemic or morphemic composition and structural pattern of the word on the one hand, and its meaning on the other. There are three main types of motivation: phonetical motivation,morphological motivation, and semantic motivation.
When there is a certain similarity between the sounds that make up the word and those referred to by the sense, the motivation is phonetical. Examples are:
bang, buzz, cuckoo, giggle, gurgle, hiss, purr,whistle,etc. Here the sounds of a word are imitative of sounds in nature because what is referred to is a sound or at least, produces a characteristic sound(cuckoo).
Within the English vocabulary there are different words, all sound imitative, meaning‘quick, foolish, indistinct talk’: babble, chatter, gabble, prattle.In this last group echoic creationscombine phonological and morphological motivation because they contain verbal suffixes -le and -er forming frequentative verbs.
The morphological motivation may be quite regular. Thus, the prefix ex – means ‘former’ when added to human nouns: ex-filmstar, ex-president, ex-wife.Alongside with these cases there is a more general use of ex-: in borrowed words it is unstressed and motivation is faded (expect,export,etc.).The derived word re-think is motivated in as much as its morphological structure suggests the idea of thinking again. Re-is one of the most common prefixes of the English language, it means ‘again’ and ‘back’ and is added to verbal stems or abstract deverbal noun stems, as in rebuild, reclaim, resell,resettlement. Here again these newer formations should be compared with older borrowings from Latin and French where re- is now unstressed, and the motivation faded. Compare re-cover ‘cover again’ and recover ‘get better’. In short: morphological motivation is especially obvious in newly coined words, or at least words created in the present century. Сf. detainee, manoeuvrable, prefabricated, racialist, self- propelling, vitaminise,etc. In older words, root words and morphemes motivation is established etymologically, if at all.
In deciding whether a word of long standing in the language is morphologically motivated according to present-day patterns or not, one should be very careful. Similarity in sound form does not always correspond to similarity in morphological pattern. Agential suffix -er is affixable to any verb, so that
V+-er means ‘one who V-s’ or ‘something that V-s’: writer, receiver, bomber, rocker, knocker. Yet, although the verb numb exists in English, number is not ‘one who numbs’ but is derived from OFr nombre borrowed into English and completely assimilated.
The third type of motivation is called semantic motivation. It is based on the co-existence of direct and figurative meanings of the same word within the same synchronous system. Mouth continues to denote a part of the human face, and at the same time it can metaphorically apply to any opening or outlet: the mouth of a river, of a cave, of a furnace. Jacket is a short coat and also a protective cover for a book, a phonograph record or an electric wire. Thus, eyewash ‘a lotion for the eyes’ or headache‘pain in the head’, or watchdog ‘a dog kept for watching property’ are all morphologically motivated. If, on the other hand, they are usedmetaphorically as ‘something said or done to deceive a person so that he thinks that what he sees is good,though in fact it is not’, ‘anything or anyone very annoying’and ‘a watchful human guardian’,
respectively, then the motivation is semantic.
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Compound Sentence
A compound sentence refers to a sentence that is made of two or more independent clauses connected together by a coordinating conjunction. The coordinating conjunctions can be easily remembered if you think of the word FANBOYS.
For; And; Nor; But; Or; Yet; So
Examples of compound sentences :
Joe waited for the train, but the train was late.
I went out for a walk, and I took my umbrella with me
Bonnie couldn’t find her dress, so she didn’t go to the party.
He didn’t study, yet he was determined to pass the exam.
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Complex sentences
A complex sentence is made of an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses attached to it. The independent clause can stand on its own as a sentence, while the dependent clause cannot. Examples of dependent clauses are:
because he couldn’t catch the bus.
while he waited at the train station.
since they were both short.
Dependent clauses begin with subordinating conjunctions such as: after, although, as, because, before, since, when, while, until, etc.
The dependent clauses can be attached to an independent clause to form a complex sentence:
John was late for the meeting because he couldn’t catch the bus.
He realized the train was late while he waited at the train station.
Tom and Mary couldn’t ride the rollercoaster since they were both short.
Conversely, the dependent clause can come first in the sentence, followed by the independent clause:
Because he couldn’t catch the bus, John was late for the meeting.
While he waited at the train station, he realized the train was late.
Since they were both short, Tom and Mary couldn’t ride the rollercoaster.
It should be noted that if we use the dependent clause first we should always put a comma at the end of it, before the independent clause.
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Subject attributes
The subject may consist of one word or several words, but it must always have a noun in it. This noun, which is the most important word in a sentence, is often qualified by an adjective or other modifiers which are called its attribute. The attribute of a noun may be an adjective, an article, a pronoun, a participle, an infinitive or a phrase.
The girl smiled. – the attribute is the definite article the;
A man with dark hair passed by us not so long ago. – the attribute is the indefinite article a;
Fresh food is the healthiest. – the attribute is the adjective fresh;
His voice was shaking. – the attribute is the possessive pronoun his;
Kennedy, President of America, was assassinated. – the attribute is the noun phrase President of America;
He himself said this. – the attribute is the reflexive pronoun himself;
A rolling stone gathers no moss. – the attribute is the participle rolling;
Birds of the same feather flock together. – the attribute is the prepositional phrase of the same feather;
His will to live pulled him through the difficult times. – the attribute here is the infinitive to live.
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The Object
1.The Object is a part of the predicate denoting a person or thing that is acted upon by the subject. It always follows a transitive verb. Objects can be nouns, pronouns, phrases and clauses. We differentiate between two kinds of objects – direct and indirect.
1.1Direct object – usually the thing affected directly by the subject:
Tony kicked the ball.
Kevin kissed Jessica.
Sometimes direct objects are a single word and sometimes they are phrases and clauses:
Katie hates biting her fingernails. – a gerund phrase
Even more, Katie hates when her mom lectures her about hand care. – a subordinate clause acting as a direct object.
1.2. Indirect object – when someone or something gets the direct object that word is the indirect object.
Jim built his granddaughter a sandcastle.
Jim built what? – a sandcastle(direct object) Who got it? – his granddaughter(indirect object)
Tomas paid the mechanic 200 dollars.
200 dollars – direct object; the mechanic – indirect object
In the above example the indirect object stands before the direct object. Sometimes, however, their places can be swapped. In such cases the indirect object will occur in a prepositional phrase beginning with to or for.
I bought flowers for her. = I bought her flowers.
Tom gave the keys to Michael. = Tom gave Michael the keys.
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The predicative
A predicative expression is part of a clause predicate . The term is used more specifically to denote expressions that typically follow a linking verb , e.g. be, seem, appear, or that appear as a second complement of a certain type of verb, e.g. call, make, name, etc. The most frequently acknowledged types of predicative expressions are predicative adjectives and predicative nominals. The main trait of all predicative expressions is that they serve to express a property that is assigned to a „subject“, whereby this subject is usually the clause subject, but at times it can be the clause object.
The most widely acknowledged predicative expressions are adjectives and nominals:
The idea was ridiculous. – predicative adjective
He seems nice. – predicative adjective
Bob is a postman. – predicative nominal
They are all happy campers. – predicative nominal
They elected him president. – predicative nominal over the object
The ride made me sick. – predicative adjective over the object
Most syntactic categories can be made predicative expressions as well:
The snake is in the bag. – predicative prepositional phrase
That is when it happens. – predicative clause expression
It is soon. – predicative adverb
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The predicate
The predicate is the part of the sentence that tells us what the subject does or is. To put it another way, the predicate is everything that is not the subject.
He stole my bike last week. The bank was robbed last night.
At the heart of the predicate stands a verb or a verb phrase. Along with the verb there may be various direct or indirect objects, adverbials and phrases.
He laughed. – the predicate contains only a verb.
She writes poems. – direct object.
They gave me a gift. – direct and indirect object.
I saw him in the hospital. – adverbial.
When the subject and the predicate are connected with a linking verb, the predicate is either nominal, adjectival or adverbial complement.
Nominal complement:
He is the president.
These are the candidates.
Adjectival complement:
She is beautiful.
They are careless.
Adverbial complement:
He is in the kitchen.
We are in school.
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The Subject
The subject is the most important part in the sentence, it shows what the sentence is about. It denotes an object or a person that does the action. Often there may be different modifiers that go with the subject and make a noun phrase: The dog reached its paw. Some beautiful girls are dancing on the floor.
Usually, but not always the subject stands before the verb, as in:
The speeding bike crashed into a telephone booth.
Sometimes it can stand after the verb:
In a small house along the lake lives a family with ten noisy children.
It should be noted that the subject of a verb can never be a part of a prepositional phrase. Sometimes a prepositional phrase appears to be the subject or a part of it:
Neither of these boys wanted ice cream.
Normally we would assume that the boys are the subject since they are the performers of the action. But since they are a part of a prepositional phrase of these boys , the actual subject is the word Neither. Another example is:
My dog, along with her seven puppies, has chewed all of the stuffing out of the cushions.
Again, since along with her seven puppies is a prepositional phrase the subject is my dog.
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The Simple Sentence
The simple sentence contains the three basic elements that make it a sentence: a subject, a verb and a completed thought. It may also be referred as an independent clause because it can stand on its own. Examples of simple sentences are:
Joe smiled.
I waited for the train at the train station.
The children laugh uncontrollably.
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Basic Grammatical Categories of the Verb
1.Non-finite verb forms – the verb is a part of the predicate and it shows the action that the subject is doing. There are some forms however that look like verbs but they are not. Such forms are the infinitive, the participle and the gerund. Forms like these do not show an action and do not have tense.
*The infinitive is the basic form of the verb and can easily be recognized by the conjunction „to“ before it. The functions of the infinitive include:
-subject: To confess immediately would be best.
-adverbial modifier: We drank wine to relieve the boredom.
-a modifier of nouns: The conference to be attended is of great importance.
*Participles – there are two types of participles: the -ing participle (running, playing, cheating) and the -ed participle(smoked, cooked, wrapped).It can function as:
-adjective: playing children, roasted marshmallows
-a modifier of verbs: The children came running.
*Gerund – the gerund resembles the participle because it too ends in -ing but it is a noun and can serve either as a subject or an object in the sentence. Running is a very healthy habit . My brother hates skiing.
2.The Category of Transitivity/Intransitivity – verbs which require an object are called transitive (My son made a cake; I recommend the fish) and those which do not require an object are called intransitive(Susan smiled. He laughed.) Some verbs can be both transitive and intransitive: John smokes. vs John smokes cigars.
2.1. Types of transitive verbs.
a)monotransitive – The Subject is an agent and the Object an affected entity:
The dog bit the little boy.
b)ditransitive – here the Indirect Object represents the recipient:
He gave her a rose. He gave the door a kick.
c)complex transitive – When the Direct Object is granted a quality or property:
They considered him a fool. They made him a lieutenant.
3.The category of voice – in English there are two categories of voice – active and passive. When the subject is the performer of the action in a sentence the voice is active:
Tom shot the tiger. I broke the vase.
Reversely, if the subject in the sentence is the recipient of the action, or, in other words, the subject is the one acted upon, the voice is passive:
The tiger was shot by Tom. The vase was broken by me.
3.1. Types of Passive – since there are three types of Object (direct, indirect, prepositional), accordingly there are three types of passive voice – primary, secondary, tertiary.
a)primary passive – the function of the subject is performed by the Direct Object in the corresponding active voice structure:
We built our house 3 years ago. –> Our house was built 3 years ago.
b)secondary passive – the subject function is performed by the Indirect Object in the corresponding active voice structure:
My friend showed me some beautiful flowers. –> I was shown some beautiful flowers by my friend.
c)tertiary passive – the subject function is performed by the Prepositional Object in the corresponding active voice structure:
The doctor took good care of my dog. –> My dog was taken good care of.
4. Modality – if a writer wishes to indicate a degree of certainty or to influence the reader in various ways he would use a Modal verb.
Modal verbs that express an absolute certainty are: will, won’t, shall, shan’t, must, can’t. Those that express possibility are may, might, could.
A strong obligation is expressed by must, have to, need to.
A weak obligation is expressed by should and ought to.
No obligation: needn’t, don’t need to, don’t have to.
Permission: can, may, could, might.
No permission: can’t, may not, must not.
Request: will, would, could.
Ability: can, could.
5. The simple tenses – tense relates to the time of the event. There are two tenses in English – present and past.
5.1. Present tense is used when the time of the action is now, at the present moment. Uses of the present tense include:
-situations which occupy a much longer period of time than the present moment:
The Eiffel Tower stands in Paris. The Earth revolves around the sun.
-general facts: Two and three is five.
-instantaneous use as in sports commentary (He shoots the ball straight at the goalkeeper);
-demonstrations (I click „save“ and close the document);
-exclamations (Here they come!)
-recurrent situations: It often snows in January.
-habitual action/event: He goes to work every morning.
-typical feature of the subject: He plays tennis very well.
-futuristic events: I start work next week.
-historic present where past events are portrayed as if they happen in the present time: A guy walks into a bar with a duck on his head…
5.2. The past tense locates the verbal situation reported in a moment prior to the moment of speaking. The past tense is used in cases like:
-the situation takes place before the present moment: I lived in Washington, DC for five years.
-the time of the action is defined by the speaker: She visited us in July.
-when a situation took place over a period of time: He worked for the Government in 1993.
-a single action/event that happened in the past: The snow thawed. She locked the door and went to sleep.
6. Aspect – it refers to how an event or an action is to be viewed with respect to time rather than its actual location in time. We can distinguish two aspects in the English language: perfective and progressive.
David has fallen in love.
David is falling in love.
6.1 Perfective aspect – the term „perfect“ refers to past situations with a relevance in the present: He has broken his arm.
a) Present Perfect – the reference point is identical with the speech moment (the present): John has bought a new car.
b) Past perfect – the reference point is earlier than the speech moment (in the past): John had bought a new car when I met him last week.
6.2. Progressive aspect – when an event is unfolding in time and the action is still in progress and not yet completed we use the progressive aspect.
If the action happens in the present we make the progressive aspect by combining the verb in the present tense + ing:
He is telling a story. – the action is still in progress at the moment of speaking.
If the action happens in the past we use was + ing form of the verb:
He was telling a story. – the action is in progress but it happened in the past.
7. Futurity – English provides several ways of referring to events which are to take place later than the speech moment. Each of them has its own modal meaning, since no one can be sure if that is going to happen.
a) will / shall – they can be used to express:
-prediction: It will start raining soon.
-spontaneous decision: A: There’s no beer left. B: I’ll go get some.
-volition: Will you come to the party tonight?
b) will + progressive form
-expresses on-going temporary activity at a fixed point in the future: This time next week I’ll be strolling along the avenues of Paris.
-indicates that a predicted event will happen: He will be sitting for the exam soon.
c) be going to is used to express:
-future culmination of present intention: What are you going to do with the money?
-future culmination of present cause: The skies are overcast. It’s going to rain.
d) present progressive
-future outcome of present arrangement: We are moving to London next week.
-strong determination: I’m not signing that contract.
e) present tense
The lecture starts at 10:15 tomorrow. We launch the project next week.