Sunday, 27 September 2015

English notes for Mr.Clifford


English notes

Amy arrived

 

My friend Amy arrived early, so we went straight to the local beach.

 

Key:

­­___ = Determiner

­­___ = Noun

___ = verb

___ = Adjective               

___ = Adverb

___ = Conjunction

___ = Pronoun

___ = Preposition

 

Nouns:

“The major thoroughfare were already lit by the new gas, this was not the bright and even glare of the late Victorian period, the light flared and diminished, casting a flickering light across the streets and lending to the houses and pedestrians a faintly unreal or even theatrical quality.”

 

What is a noun?

A word used to identify any class of people, places or things. A noun is a naming word

 

Types of nouns:

Common- preceded by “the” (Concrete + abstract)

Proper- nouns for unique individuals

Concrete noun - something we can see, hear, smell, taste, touch

Abstract noun – A name/idea/concept

Collective noun – Refers to a group of things or people

Noun phrase – a noun and any words that modifies the noun

 

 

Noun phrases ext:

Whenever you modify a noun, it becomes a noun phrase. This changes the meaning of the noun E.G

 

Plane crash- Standard

Horrific plane crash- worse

The most horrific plane crash- The worst outcome

 

Noun importance-

  • Work as lexical cohesion-Word glue
  • Create an emotional response
  • Can paint a picture

 

Adjectives:

“The weary painter took off his blue, green and white overalls and ate a day old Chinese meal because he felt ravenous

Adjectives are words and phrases that modify or describe nouns or pronouns

Functions of adjectives:

  • Descriptive
  • Evaluative
  • Emotive
  • Attributive
  • Predictive
  • Comparative
  • Superlative


 

 

Modal verbs:

Deontic = certainty

Epistemic= some room for freedom/choice



 


You must walk                                            Command intensity

You will walk

You can walk

You might walk

 

 

Verb phrases: Built around the main verb

  • Modal auxiliaries can be placed along any continuum to show the degrees of strength
     

Verbs tell us when something happens:

Present tense – Has the –s inflections (sings, dances)

 

Past tense – Base form +ed inflection (jumped)

 

Future tense – Modal auxiliary will or shall + base form (will sing)

Auxiliary verbs: Primary auxiliary (be, have, was, has)

These distinguish tense E.G: he was running, he has run, he will be running

 

Modal auxiliary: (may, could, might, will, can, should)

Shows possibility/necessity

 

Clauses:

In the same way that words form phrases, phrases form larger structure called clauses. These are groups of words centred on a verb phrase.

 

Subject- The key focus

 

Verb – Includes adverbs and auxiliaries

 

Object – Identifies the object being acted on

 

  1. I awoke ( S, V )
  2. I turned on the TV (S, V, O)
  3. Paul left his friend an Ipod (S, V, O, O)

 

Co-ordinated clauses- Two clauses joined together by using a conjunction

Co-ordinated clauses must make sense on their own if you remove the conjunction

“I opened my window because I was hot”

 

Subordinated clauses:

A clause that means that there will be a main clause followed by a phrase that can only make sense when linked to the main clause.

“I went to Nandos despite the fact it wasn’t cheeky”

 

Active + Passive voice:

Active voice – Ahmed kicked the ball – aggressive connotations

Passive voice – The ball was kicked by Ahmed - softer

Active voice:  Gives prominence to the actor/agency. Focuses on positives or negatives

Prime minister saves deal

Prime minister shags pig

(both active but convey positive and negative views towards the prime minister)

 

Passive voice: Used when we don’t know the subject, don’t want to talk about the subject or when the subject is not the focus

“John Lennon shot dead”

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