When Resistance Really Is Futile
True story: “its” as a pronoun didn’t come around until Early Modern English. Up until the late sixteenth century, the 3rd-person gender-neutral possessive pronoun… Read More »When Resistance Really Is Futile
language
7 Things Every Writer Should Know about Linguistics
It’s a big, complicated word, “linguistics,” stuffed with technical concepts and broad theories. If writing is your craft, though, this particular study could well be… Read More »7 Things Every Writer Should Know about Linguistics
Literary Influences: Beowulf
Hwæt!
(Did it work? Do I have your attention?)
Beowulf is one of those works of literature that, quite honestly, never interested me. Some beefy warrior kills a monster, and then he kills another one, and there’s a dragon in there somewhere, and at the end (spoiler alert!), he dies. I maintained a scornful disinterest for this epic over the course of a decade, until my conversion in my mid-twenties. Here’s how it went down.
Verbs, Part 6: Conclusion (for now)
Objectives:
- Describe major verb features and their functions.
- Classify specific verbs according to the theta-roles they assign.
Skill level: Advanced
As indicated by the title, this is the final post in my verb series, though not necessarily my final post on verbs. (Who knows what the future holds, yeah?) This is mostly an overview post, so it’s short, quick, and to the point.
Verbs, Part 5: Copulas and Existentials
This post covers two essential constructs most commonly associated with the verb to be.
Objectives:
- Demonstrate understanding of copulas and existentials.
- Eliminate the existential construct in favor of a stronger subject and main verb.
Skill Level: Intermediate
Copulas, AKA Linking Verbs
In English, the term “copula” (or “linking verb”) refers to a verb that links a subject and a subject predicate. (The subject predicate, as indicated by its name, takes a nominative case.) The copula serves as a sort of grammatical placeholder and holds little lexical meaning despite its grammatical and rhetorical purpose.
Verbs, Part 4: Theta-Roles, or How to Eliminate Passive Voice
My favorite syntax resource, Radford’s English Syntax: An Introduction.
The discussion in this post requires a different view of language structure. For a deeper understanding, I refer you to Andrew Radford’s English Syntax: An Introduction (ISBN 0521542758), particularly pp. 190-193 . Much of this post draws from that source.
Objectives:
- Identify the theta-roles assigned to nouns by verbs.
- Revise Passive Voice from sentences by using verbs with alternate theta-role assignments.
Skill level: Advanced
Read More »Verbs, Part 4: Theta-Roles, or How to Eliminate Passive Voice
Verbs, Part 3: Transitivity and Voice
This post covers verb transitivity and its relationship to the fourth verb feature, Voice.
Objectives:
- Compare transitive, intransitive, and ditransitive verbs.
- Rearrange transitive verbs from active to passive voice, and vice versa.
Skill level: Intermediate
Verbs, Part 2: Tense, Mood, and Aspect
This post covers the verb features of Tense, Mood, and Aspect. It’s boring, and I’ve put off writing it forever because it’s boring.
Objectives:
- Define the verb features of Tense, Mood, and Aspect.
- Supply the correct form for a set of given verbs and features.
Skill level: intermediate
“The past and the future walked into a bar. It was tense.”
As grammar jokes go, this one is fairly awful. (But I laugh all the same, of course, because my sense of humor apparently sprouted in one of our local corn fields.) Of the verb features, Tense is probably the easiest to understand. Mood, and Aspect were once these nebulous terms to me, conditions that I understood existed but that I couldn’t pinpoint or keep track of. A fourth verb feature, Voice, merits its own post and will be discussed only minimally here.
Verbs: Part 1 of Many
This post is the first in a series on Verbs. Dry, dry, horrifically essential stuff.
Objectives:
- Discuss the difference between finite and non-finite verbs.
- Extract all the verbs from a passage of prose; categorize them as finite or non-finite.
Skill Level: beginner
If the five lexical categories were Tolkien’s infamous rings, the Verb would be the One Ring to rule them all. For writers, it can make or break a narrative. A wrong verb or a wrong tense on a verb can skew your intended meaning and instantly derail your reader’s focus. It can also summon grammar-wraiths to hammer their shrieking condemnation down upon your head. (Man, how I wish I were only kidding about that.)
Thus, as writers, it behooves us to be well acquainted—and perhaps even intimate—with our friend and sometimes friendly nemesis, the Verb.
Nouns: An Overview
This post provides an overview of the Noun. Skill level: Beginner
Objectives:
- Define the term “noun” semantically, morphologically, and syntactically.
- Discuss features of nouns in English (number, possession).
- Create nouns from other parts of speech using only syntactic placement to indicate the change.
I’d love to say that nouns are a self-explanatory category. I mean, we all know what a noun is, right? Or, we’ve heard the word and have a general idea, or… something. The purpose of this post is to codify that “something” into a more concrete understanding. If you know exactly what a noun is and can accomplish all of the above objectives already, then feel free to move along.
If not, or if you want a refresher, read on.
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