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    I Type How I Sound: E-Language and Phonetic Spelling

    The English language changed dramatically with the introduction of the printing press into England in 1476 because of the development of a written form made possible by wide-spread printing (Smith “Early”). Not until roughly five hundred years later at the end of the twentieth century with the advent of the computer and the Internet would […] More

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    Viking and Norman Influences on the English Language

    During the eighth and ninth centuries, Vikings from Scandinavia from the North attacked the Germanic tribes living in England (Smith “External”). Around the same time period, Danish Vikings assailed and conquered the northern area of France, which became the dukedom of Normandy (Baugh and Cable 92). Only two hundred and fifty years later in September […] More

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    Greek Loanwords in English

    The English language has borrowed extensively from the Greek language beginning during the Germanic period when many words borrowed from Latin were originally borrowed into Latin from Greek. English continued to borrow from Greek through Latin during the Old English period. However, most of the Greek loanwords in English were borrowed during the Early Modern […] More

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    Latin Loanwords in English

    The English language has borrowed extensively from the Latin language beginning during the Germanic period before English was English through the Old English period and up to the early Modern English period. The earliest Latin loanwords date from the period before the Germanic tribes invaded England under invite from the Britons. Latin borrowings continued throughout […] More

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    Borrow or Develop?: Enriching the English Vocabulary

    When William Caxton introduced the printing press to England in 1476, English developed into a physical entity (Smith “Early”). Language no longer disappeared as the sound waves of speech diminished but rather became a social institution that could be held, used, wielded, and owned (Smith “Early”). Although an interest in classical learning existed in England […] More

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    The Subordinator in English Grammar

    Subordinators in English grammar are words that introduce subordinate or dependent clauses. The three dependent clauses in English are noun clauses, adjective clauses, and adverb clauses. Subordinating conjunctions including relative pronouns perform the grammatical function of subordinator. Noun Clauses Subordinating conjunctions that introduce noun clauses are also referred to as noun clause markers. Some of […] More

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    The Correlator in English Grammar

    Correlators in English grammar are function words that are the first word or words in pairs of conjunctions that also join or link two or more words, phrases, and clauses. Function words perform definite grammatical functions but lack definite lexical meaning. Only one grammatical form can perform the function of correlator in English. The one […] More

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    The Coordinator in English Grammar

    Coordinators in English grammar are function words that join or link two or more words, phrases, and clauses. Function words perform definite grammatical functions but lack definite lexical meaning. Only one grammatical form can perform the function of coordinator in English. The one grammatical form that can function as the coordinator is the coordinating conjunction. […] More

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    English Vowels: Pronunciation of Vowel Sounds in American English

    American English has sixteen vowel sounds—ten monophthongs and six diphthongs—but only six vowel letters. A monophthong is a single vowel sound. A diphthong is a vowel that glides between two other vowel sounds. English Monophthongs [i] high front unrounded {beat} [ɪ] near-high near-front unrounded {bit} [e] high-mid front unrounded* [ɛ] low-mid front unrounded {bet} [æ] […] More

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    Using Nouns and Noun Phrases as Determinatives

    In traditional treatments of grammar, nouns are defined as words that denote a person, place, thing, or idea. A noun phrase is a phrase that consists of a noun functioning as the head of the phrase plus any modifiers, complements, or determiners. A pronoun is a word that stands in for a noun or noun […] More

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    Using Nouns and Noun Phrases as Indirect Objects

    Nouns are traditionally defined as words that refer to a person, place, thing, or idea. A noun phrase is a phrase that consists of a noun plus any modifiers, complements, or determiners. A subcategory of nouns, pronouns are words that take the place of nouns and noun phrases. In grammar, an indirect object is word, […] More

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    Using Nouns and Noun Phrases as Direct Objects

    Nouns have traditionally been defined as words for people, places, things, and ideas. A noun phrase consists of a noun plus any modifiers, complements, and determiners that provide more information about the noun. Pronouns, which are a subcategory of nouns, are words that take the place of nouns and noun phrases. In grammar, a direct […] More

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    English Punctuation

    Learn about the rules for using punctuation marks in written English: apostrophes, braces, brackets, colons, commas, dashes, ellipses, hyphens, italics, parentheses, periods, question marks, exclamation marks, interrobangs, quotation marks, semicolons, and slashes. More

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    Using Nouns and Noun Phrases as Subjects

    A noun is traditionally defined as a word that denotes a person, place, thing, or idea. A noun phrase is a phrase consisting of a noun or pronoun and any modifiers, complements, or determiners. Pronouns are a subcategory of nouns which take the place of nouns and noun phrases. In grammar, a subject is a […] More

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