GRAMMAR THEORY QUESTIONS

1. What are grammatical units? Give examples to illustrate.

According to Halliday (1961), a British linguist, in English grammar
there are five grammatical units:

1. Sentences Many people say that he

is a careful man

2. Clauses that he
is a careful man

3. Phrases
careful man

4. Words

5. Morphemes  Free morpheme  Care  Careful

 Bound morpheme  -ful

The sentence is the largest or "highest" unit. Its beginning is marked by

the use of capital letters and its end by a full stop. The morpheme is the
smallest or "lowest" unit. Halliday arranges all five units on a scale of
rank, saying that units of higher rank are composed of or made up of
units of lower rank. The relation between the five units is, therefore, one
of composition or constituency.

2. How many kinds of nouns are there? Give 2 examples for each kind.
On the ground of their meanings, nouns can be classified into 10 sub-classes:
1. The concrete nouns:
Ex: table, chair
2. The abstract nouns:
Ex: freedom, health
3. The common nouns:
Ex: boy, student
4. The proper nouns:
Ex: John, Mary
5. The collective nouns:
Ex: family, army
6. The material nouns:
 Ex: gold, silver
7. The Countable nouns:
Ex: pen, student
8. The Uncountable nouns
Ex: coffee, milk
9. The one-word noun:
Ex: book, pen
10. The compound noun:
Ex: cupboard, raincoat

3. What functions do nouns have? Give an example for each function.

 Subject of a verb
Ex: John teaches English in China.
 Object of a verb
Ex: I kicked the ball.
 Complement of a verb
Ex: Mary is a liar.
 Object of a preposition
Ex: I gave some treats to the cat.
 Apposition to another noun
Ex: My neighbor, Janet, is a nice lady.

4. How many kinds of pronouns are there? What are they? Give examples.
Pronouns are divided into 9 different kinds:
1. Demonstrative pronoun:
- this/ these: something that is close to/ near the speaker
Ex: This is a fine morning.
- that/ those: something that is not close to/ far away from the speaker
Ex: That was difficult for me.
- such:
Ex: Such was my last decision.

2. Interrogative Pronoun
 - Who/ Whose/ Whom/ What/ Which. They can be used as subject or object of a
sentence and always come before the verbs.
Ex: Who was at the door?
Whom did you go with last night?
- Compound interrogative pronouns with –EVER are used for the sake of emphasis;
they express indignations and surprise.
Ex: Whatever are you doing?

3. Relative pronouns
Introduce subordinate attribute clause:
- Who/ Whom/ Whose refers to human beings or personified words.
Ex: The man who told you the story is the head of the class.
- Which refers to things and animals.
Ex: He saw the two houses which she owned.
- That:
+ used to replace who and which in restrictive/ definite relative clauses.
+ used after superlatives and words of superlative force/ ordinal number/ mixed
subject.
Ex: The dog that stole my shoes is wandering outside.

4. Indefinite Pronouns
- All, Many, Others, Few
Ex: Many have tried, but few have succeeded.
- Compound indefinite pronouns:
Any Some No Every
Anyone Someone No one Everyone
Anybody Somebody Nobody Everybody
Ex: Everyone is thrilled about his success.

5. Personal Pronoun
- Subject Pronoun: refers to the person or thing that performs an
action. It normally appears at the start of a sentence, before
the verb.
Ex: She lost weight by cutting out junk food.
- Object Pronoun: refers to the person or thing affected by an
action. It normally comes after a verb or preposition.
Ex: Lots of people admire her.
 - He and she: can be used to call the pets we keep at home
according to their gender.
+ He can be used to denote strong objects, terrible ideas,
rivers, and mountains.
+ She is used to denote beautiful and nice concepts, ships,
towns, cities, and countries.

6. Impersonal Pronoun “IT”

- Used as a vague subject to denote:
+ Weather: It is raining.
+ Time: It is 7 o’clock now.
+ Temperature: It is 33 degrees Celsius.
+ Environment: It is hot here.
+ Distance: It is about 10 kilometers.
+ Impersonal statement:
Ex: It says in today’s paper that there’s a car accident.
+ Introductory or preparatory subject:
Ex: It’s interesting to learn a foreign language.
+ Emphasis (emphatic “it”):  Cleft sentence
Ex: It was him who saved her life.
Mary broke the window  It was Mary who broke the window.

7. Possessive Pronouns
- Used to show possession
- Sometimes, possessive pronouns are used with “of” to
emphasize or to compare:
Ex: A friend of hers, A big house of theirs
- End the letter by possessive pronouns:
Ex: Yours truly, Yours sincerely

8. Reflexive Pronouns or Emphatic Pronouns

- Few Verbs require a reflexive pronoun: absent, avail, pride
Ex: She prides herself on her work
- The combination of “By+ reflexive pronouns” means
“unaided” or “alone”
- Reflexive pronouns can be used after nouns and pronouns for
emphasis, which means “that person/ things and only that
person/ things.”
Ex: She herself told me the news.
- Used after “to be” to describe feelings, emotions, and states.
Ex: I am myself today.

9. Reciprocal Pronouns
- Reciprocal = people do the same thing, feel the same way, or
have the same relationship
- “Each other”: two people or things
 Ex: We love each other.
- “One another”: more than two
Ex: We love one another.
- Each/ either/ neither/ both can also be used as reciprocal
pronouns
Ex: The United States, Russia, and Germany each won two gold
medals.

5. How is a possessive adjective different from a possessive pronoun? Give examples to

support your ideas.
- Possessive adjectives must go before a noun or a noun phrase,
whereas possessive pronouns never go with nouns and are stressed
in speech.
Ex: That is your car. This is mine. (my car)

6. What kinds of pronouns can be used for emphasis? Give examples to illustrate.
- Reflexive pronouns can be used after nouns and pronouns for
emphasis, which means “that person/ things and only that
person/ things.”
Ex: She herself told me the news.
- Used after “to be” to describe feelings, emotions, and states.
Ex: I am myself today

7. What are the uses of impersonal pronouns?

An impersonal pronoun is one that does not refer to a specific person or thing. These
pronouns are usually used to refer to an unspecified person or people in general.
Ex: It is raining.
It is a pen.

8. What are the functions of adjectives? Give examples to illustrate.

- Used as an attribute:
Ex: an old house
- Used as a complement:
Ex: She is beautiful.
They proved me wrong.
- Used as a predicative:
Ex: The child is asleep.
- Used as a noun:
- Wholly substantivized: black, white, red, medical, …
- Partly substantivized: deaf, blind, living dead, unemployed

9. How can a preposition be distinguished from an adverb particle in a phrasal verb? Give
examples.
- Prepositions are followed by verbs and have an object.
 She turned off the lights and went to bed.
 He gave up smoking two years ago.
- The adverb particles are followed by the verbs and have no object.
 We drove around for sightseeing.
 The plane took off fifteen minutes late.

10. What are the uses of prepositions?

The preposition may show the relation.
 Of a noun to a noun
 There’s been a large increase in the price of petrol.
 Of a noun to an adjective
 Our country is rich in minerals.
 Of a noun to a verb
 She thought of her child very much.
 Of a whole clause to a verb
 He thought of how important her advice was.
 Of a whole clause to a noun
 Have you read his account of how he had worked?

11. How many kinds of conjunctions are there? What are they? Give examples.
There are two kinds of conjunctions:
1. The coordinative conjunctions (Coordinators)
- Connect words, groups of words, and clauses that are independent on each other.
- Coordinators examples: for, and, nor, but, for, yet, so (FANBOYS)
(For:
 He is extremely hardworking, for he wants to get a high salary.
And:
 I like listening to music and I often play football in my free time.
Nor:
 She doesn’t like playing football nor does she like cooking.
But:
 It rains heavily, but I go to school.
Or:
 Do you want to drink coffee or tea?
Yet:
 He works hard, yet he fails.
So:
 You don’t do the homework, so you will get bad marks.)
2. The subordinative conjunctions (Subordinators)
- Used to connect subordinate clause(s) with the clause on which it (they) depend(s).
- Subordinators examples: if, since, as, when, although, while, after, before, until, because
(I SAW A WABUB)

12. In what kinds of sentences are coordinators used? Give examples.

Coordinators are words you can use to join simple sentences (aka independent clauses)
and show the logical connections between ideas.
Ex: She wanted to go to the beach, but it started to rain.
We studied hard, so we got good grades.

13. Which conjunctions are used to introduce adverb clauses of place/ time? Give
examples.
The subordinative conjunctions can be used to introduce adverbial clauses of:
+ Place: where, wherever, everywhere
Ex: If I have enough money, I can go wherever I want.
+ Time: when, whenever, as, as soon as, before, once, since, while, until, …
Ex: When I arrived, she had already left.

14. What are the forms of conjunction? Give examples.

- Simple conjunctions: when, where, but, or, and, yet, so…
Ex: The dress was expensive and not that pretty.
- Correlative conjunctions: both… and, either… or, neither …. Nor
Ex: Both you and I know what really happened.
- Participial conjunctions (converted from participles): seeing, supposed, provided…
Ex: The meeting was supposed to start at 10 am, but no one has arrived yet.
- Phrase conjunctions: in case (that), as if, if only, as soon as, as long as, no matter
what…
Ex: As long as you’re with me, everything will be fine.

15. What is the homonym in conjunctions? Give examples.

Homonyms, or multiple-meaning words, are words that share the same spelling and the
same pronunciation but have different meanings. For example, bear.
Ex: A bear (the animal) can bear (tolerate) freezing temperatures.

16. State the positions of adverbs of manner/ frequency. Give examples.

- Adverbs of manner:
+ Position:
 After the object
Ex: We do the exercises easily.
 After the verb
Ex: He sings beautifully.
 Between the subject and the verb
Ex: She patiently explains the problem/issue.
 At the beginning of the sentence  emphasis
Ex: Luckily, he passed the exam.
- Adverbs of frequency:
+ Position:
  At the beginning of the sentence
Ex: Sometimes, I help my mother with her housework/household chores
 At the end of the sentence
Ex: I go to the zoo once a month.
 In the mid-position
+ Before normal verbs
Ex: I often go to school late.
+ After the Verb “To be”
Ex: He is often late for class.

17. What are intensifiers? Give examples.

- Used with gradable adjectives or adverbs and normally strengthens the meaning
Ex: very, really, greatly, extremely, super…
- Position: always used before the words they give meaning to.
Ex: She is very beautiful.

18. What are the functions of noun clauses in the sentence? Give examples.
- Used as a subject
Ex: That he will come is certain
- Used as predicative/ attribute/ complement
Ex: That is why he is so happy
- Used as an object
Ex: Please, show me who your girlfriend is
- Object of a preposition
Ex: I’m thinking about what he’s just said to me.
- Apposition
Ex: The news that the plane had crashed came as a terrible shock.

19. What conjunctions can be used to introduce an adjective clause? Give examples.
Adjective clauses are introduced by:
- Relative pronouns: Who/ Whom/Whose/ Which/ That/When/Where
Ex: The girl who is playing over there is Mary.
He is the man whom/that I met on holiday.

20. The use of “that” is required in which situations? Give examples.

- “That” (Not “which” ) is normally used after words like all, any, anything, everything,
(a few and the only one when they do not refer to people).
Ex: All that remains for me to do is to say goodbye
Everything that can be done has been done
- “That” must be used after superlative:
Ex: This is the fastest car that I have ever seen.
- “That” must be used after the first, the second…
Ex: This is the first time that I have seen such a good movie.
- With mixed nouns (contain both people and things)-> That must be used.
Ex: Yesterday I saw Mary and her dogs that were walking in the park.