Traditional grammars categorize determiners with either adjectives or pronouns. But determiners are not adjectives. Repeat after me: Determiners are not adjectives. Notional grammars define adjectives as “words that modify nouns.” (But not all words that modify nouns are adjectives.) Adjectives describe attributes of nouns, pronouns, and noun phrases, functioning as noun phrase modifiers, subject complements, […] More
A few weeks ago, I saw a tweet from a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) who attempted to exclude trans women from the definition of woman by arguing that nouns are “words for concepts that have a series of definitions to narrow categories and exclude other concepts.” My initial reaction was: “Do not try to use […] More
Notional grammars traditionally define the preposition as a word that “links to other words, phrases, and clauses” and that “expresses spatial or temporal relations.” A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition plus another word, phrase, or clause functioning as the prepositional complement. In grammar, the conjunct adverbial is a word or phrase that expresses a […] More
Notional grammars traditionally verbs as “words that denote actions and states of being.” A verb phrase consists of a verb plus any auxiliary verbs, particles, modifiers, complements, and objects. In grammar, a conjunct adverbial is a word or phrase that expresses a textual relationship. Verb phrases in the form of infinitives sometimes function as conjunct […] More
Notional grammars traditionally verbs as “words that denote actions and states of being.” A verb phrase consists of a verb plus any auxiliary verbs, particles, modifiers, complements, and objects. In grammar, a disjunct adverbial is a word or phrase that provides additional information to frame an entire clause. Disjunct adverbials denote the attitude of the […] More
English verbs and verb phrases perform nine primary grammatical functions within sentences in the English language. Traditional grammars define verbs as words that name actions and states. Verb phrases consist of a verb plus any modifiers, complements, particles, and auxiliaries. The nine prototypical functions of English verbs and verbs phrases are: The following sections explain […] More
Whereas sentence structure refers to the form of sentences in a language, sentence purpose refers to the function of sentences. Four types of sentence purposes exist in the English language: declarative sentences, interrogative sentences, imperative sentences, and exclamatory sentences. Declarative Sentences The first type of sentence in the English language is the declarative sentence. Declarative […] More
Noun phrases including nouns and pronouns perform eleven main grammatical functions within sentences in the English language. The eleven functions of nouns and noun phrases are: Nouns are traditionally defined as “persons, places, things, and ideas.” Noun phrases are defined as phrases that consist of a noun or pronoun and any number of constituents including […] More
Language is arbitrary. I recently stated that language is arbitrary on Twitter in response to the erroneous claim that language is a code. Language is not a code because language is arbitrary. When I state that language is arbitrary, I often receive bewildered and sometimes disdainful replies such as (1) English is 80% predictable, (2) […] More
Neither the letter ‘w’ nor the grapheme
Explore the phenomenon of algospeak on social media, the secret language of content creators that helps evade filters. More
The English language has only two verb tenses: past and present. English does not have a future tense. More
Similar to the adverb and adverb phrases in grammatical function, an adverb clause is a dependent or subordinate clause that consists of a subordinating conjunction followed by a clause and that performs an adverbial function. Conjunctions are “words that link words, phrases, and clauses.” A subordinating conjunction is a conjunction that introduces a subordinate or […] More
Auxiliary verbs are a subcategory of English verbs that provide additional semantic or syntactic information about the main verb in the verb phrase such as tense, aspect, modality, and voice. The eighteen auxiliary verbs in English grammar are have, be, do, get, nine modal verbs, and five quasi-modal verbs. Perfect Have The first auxiliary verb […] More
Pronouns are small words that can take the place of other grammatical forms such as nouns and noun phrases. Possessive pronouns express possession of or some other relationship to another word or phrase and can perform five grammatical functions: subject, subject complement, direct object, indirect object, and prepositional complement. Pronouns from three categories of pronouns […] More
Although grammatical relationships among forms of lexemes are expressed through either inflection or periphrasis, English is a highly periphrastic language. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (2008), periphrasis is defined as “a phrase of two or more words used to express a grammatical relationship which would otherwise be expressed by the inflection of a single […] More
As my readers know, I have written and tweeted extensively about indirect objects in English grammar. Some of the biggest lies that many grammar books tell are about indirect objects. For example, many grammars call the prepositional phrase to me in a sentence like She gave the book to me an indirect object. While prepositional […] More
Adpositional complements are defined as the word, phrase, or clause that directly follows the adposition and completes the meaning of the adpositional phrase. Adpositional complements are also called objects of adpositions and complements of adpositions. Both prepositional complements and postpositional complements are subcategories of adpositional complements. Prepositional complements follow the preposition. Postpositional complements precede the […] More
I encountered something the other day in which someone referred to the English spoken by many Black Americans as Ebonics. The controversial term stuck in my mind, so I decided to remind myself of the history of the term. The term Ebonics, which originated in the late 1970s as a portmanteau or blend of the […] More
As I have written repeatedly, the line between grammatical forms is blurry at best, especially among lexical categories like noun, verb, and adjective. Grammatical form and grammatical function distinguish one word class from other. The lines between functional categories are typically much clearer than the lines between lexical categories. As closed classes that do not […] More
