Session 2– BASIC ISSUES IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR: PARTS OF SPEECH
Session Overview
In this session you will learn about a very basic but important topic in English Grammar, specifically, about the Parts of Speech. Parts of speech refer to the groups into which words are divided according to their functions in an English sentence.
Goals and Objectives
By the end of this session, you should be able to
•identify the various parts of speech in the English Language
•note the functions of the various parts of speech in an English sentence
•be able to use these parts of speech as building blocks to form correct sentences in English
Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:
•Nouns
•Pronouns
•Verbs
•Adjectives
•Adverbs
•Conjunctions
•Preposition
•Interjections
Reading List
•Read Oxford Practice Grammar by George Yule (2006)
TOPIC ONE
NOUNS
A noun names a person, a place, a thing or an idea. Nouns are further divided into various groups.
•Proper nouns name specific people (John Mensah), places (Accra) or thing (Peugeot). They always begin with a capital letter. For example, in the following sentence, the proper nouns in the sentence are underlined.
Akua drove to Kumasi in a very old Toyota in April.
•Common nouns are names of one or more of a general class, place, thing, or idea and these are not written with capital letters. For example, the underlined words in the following sentence are common nouns.
A festival is a celebration of an event.
•Collective nouns are names of groups (class, team)
•concrete nouns name physical things that we can touch or see (paper, table
•abstract nouns name things we cannot touch or see physically such as qualities, beliefs and conditions. For example, love, faith, and trust.
The nouns in the following sentences are examples of collective, concrete, and abstract nouns respectively:
•The little girl welcomed her with a bouquet of flowers.
•The book was on the table.
•Honesty is a good virtue.
•Most nouns express number that is, they can be singular or plural.
•These are also further divided into countable and uncountable nouns.
•Countable nouns name items that can be counted and they are made plural by adding –s or –es to the noun. For example, one boy or two boys; one class or three classes.
•You should note however that some countable nouns have irregular plural forms as in the case of tooth and teeth, mouse and mice.
•Uncountable nouns are items that cannot be counted, for example, water, sand, knowledge and many others. Most uncountable nouns do not have plural forms.
Activity
There are 25 nouns in the following paragraph. Underline the nouns in the paragraph.
I had first heard of Grace Wiley some years before when Dr. Williams Mann, the director of the National Zoo handed me a picture of a tiny woman with a gigantic king cobra draped over her shoulders like a garden hose. The snake had partly spread his hood and was looking intently into the camera while its mistress stroked its head to quiet it. Dr. Mann told me: “Grace lives in a little house full of poisonous snakes, imported from all over the world. She lets them wander around like cats. There’s been more nonsense written about ‘snake charming’ than nearly any other subject”
TOPIC TWO
PRONOUNS
•Pronouns are words that are used in place of nouns and they come in different forms. The noun or pronoun to which a pronoun refers is called the pronoun’s antecedent. For example;
•After the herbalist developed a new drug for malaria, he became famous.
•The noun herbalist is the antecedent of the pronoun he.
•Pronouns come in three forms that describe the pronoun’s function in a sentence.
•These forms are the subjective case, the objective case, and the possessive case.
• The subjective case (also known as subject pronouns), such as I, you, he, she, it, we, and they indicates that the pronoun is the doer of the action described in the sentence.
Look at the function of the word they in the following sentence.
They asked questions about my family.
The word they is the doer of the action described in the verb asked.
•The objective case (also known as object pronouns) indicates that the pronoun is the object, that is, the receiver of an action. Examples are; me, you, him, her, it, us, and them.
In this example, the underlined word is an object pronoun.
The manager threatened her.
The pronoun her is the recipient of the action threatened’
•The possessive case indicates ownership or belonging. The following are all possessive pronouns: my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs. Example:
Their enthusiasm for the company does not match ours.
•The words ‘their’ and ‘ours’ show a possession of the noun ‘enthusiasm.’
•Pronouns also specify the person, in order to indicate the speaker, the person spoken to and the person or thing spoken about.
•The pronouns (I, we) are normally called first person, that is, the speaker.
•The person spoken to, is known as the second person (you)
•the person or thing spoken about, is known as the third person (he, she, it, they).
•The gender of the person is also specified by personal pronouns. We have examples as (he, him) as masculine and (she, her), as feminine and (it) is neuter.
•Pronouns also specify number, that is, singular (one person or thing: I, you, he, she, it) or plural (more than one person or thing: we, you, they)
•There are also demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, and those which point out a particular person or thing, as indicated in the following example.
These research procedures are questionable
•The word these in the sentence above is a demonstrative pronoun that refers to noun ‘research procedures’ and it also shows that the noun is near to the speaker.
•Another type of pronoun is known as a reflexive pronoun. This indicates that a subject performs actions to, for, or on itself.
•Reflexive pronouns end in –self or –selves as found in myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, themselves. For example;
We gave ourselves two hours to complete the task.
•Reflexive pronouns can also be used to emphasize their antecedents. For example, in the following sentence, the chief priest is the subject of the sentence and the reflexive pronoun himself refers back to the chief priest.
Not even the chief priest himself could pacify the gods.
•Reflexive pronouns cannot be used as the subject of a sentence and must appear in the same sentence as their antecedents. For example;
•Incorrect: Herself could not correct the computer error.
•Correct: The programmer herself could not correct the computer error.
•Interrogative pronouns are used to introduce or ask questions.
•These are: who, whoever, whom, whomever, whose, (which refer to people) and what, which, whose (which refer things). For example:
Who will come with me to the concert?
•relative pronouns introduce dependent clauses that function as adjectives in a sentence.
–a dependent clause is a clause which contains a subject and a verb but does not express a complete thought.
–The function of the relative pronoun is to refer back to a noun or pronoun that the relative clause modifies. They tell us more about the noun we are discussing in the sentence.
• Some examples of relative pronouns are: who, whom, whose (refer to people) and that, what, which (refer to things). In the following sentences, the pronouns who and which refer to man and Nile which have already been introduced in the sentences.
–The man who came here yesterday behaved strangely.
–The Nile, which flows through Egypt, is a very long river.
•Indefinite pronouns do not refer to specific nouns; rather, they refer to people, places, or things in general. Some examples are everyone, everything, nobody, somebody, and something.
Someone must be responsible for the needy in the society.
•In the example above, someone does not refer to any specific person. It refers to any individual in the society.
Activity
Underline the pronouns in the following sentences and identify each one based on our discussion so far.
•The fact that our eyes deceive is difficult for many of us to accept.
•Our brains influence in ways that we ourselves may not realize.
•Events that surprise us are especially hard to remember accurately
•People usually forget about significant details of these events.
•Everything we do have consequences.
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