Noun: The outside of the church is imposing. Adjective: We have an outside stateroom. Adverb: Let's go outside to talk. Preposition: She left him outside the house. Preposition: All came but me. Conjunction: You came, but he did not. Adjective: That room is mine. Pronoun: That is my room. Conjunction: I told you that I should come. Noun: The well has delicious water. Adjective: I feel well to-day. Adverb: The children play well together. EXERCISE Make sentences using the following words as more than one The different parts of speech change their form to show certain changes of meaning without changing their use in the sentence. Notice the following sentences: The boy is going. The boys are going. Both the noun and the verb in the second sentence above change their form to express the plural idea. The use of boys in the second sentence is the same as the use of boy in the first sentence, but the meaning is not the same. Notice the following sentences: He comes here frequently. He came here frequently last winter. The verb does the same work in both of the above sentences but in the second sentence the form of the verb is changed to express a change in the time of coming. INFLECTION 229 Notice the following sentences: She is small. She is smaller than Ida. Small and smaller in the above sentences are both adjectives, used to describe she, but the form of smaller expresses comparison with something else. A change in the form of a word to indicate a change in meaning is called inflection. The inflection of a noun or a pronoun to show changes in number and case is called declension. The inflection of a verb to show changes of number, person, time, manner, etc. is called conjugation. The inflection of adjectives and adverbs to show changes in degree is called comparison. Conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections have no changes in form, and hence are not inflected. English Is Not a Highly Inflected Language. - English has few inflections. In Latin nouns have from two to five case forms in the singular number and from three to four forms in the plural number; adjectives are inflected for case, number, and gender; verbs have a large number of inflections that vary according to four conjugations. The Anglo-Saxon language, from which the English is largely derived, also had many inflections. Modern German retains many more of these inflections than English does. French has fewer inflections than most languages, but the French adjective usually changes its form to agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies, and the French verb has more changes of form than the English verb. We should be thankful that English has so few inflections to learn and remember. These few, however, are essential, and must be thoroughly mastered if we are to speak and write correctly. SUMMARY OF DEFINITIONS THE SENTENCE A sentence is the expression in words of a complete thought. The subject of a sentence is the part about which a statement is made or a question asked. The complete subject includes the substantive and its modifiers. The principal word of the subject is called the subject substantive. The predicate of the sentence is the part which makes a statement, command, or request, or which asks a question. The complete predicate includes the verb and its modifiers. The principal word of the predicate is called the predicate verb. A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause used to affect the meaning of another word. A phrase is a group of related words used as a single part of speech. It does not contain a subject and a predicate. A clause is a part of a sentence containing a subject and a predicate. A principal or independent clause is one that makes by itself a complete statement. A subordinate or dependent clause is one that must be joined with a principal clause to make a complete statement. A simple sentence contains only a single statement, question, or command. It has but one subject and one predicate, but either subject or predicate or both may be compound. A compound sentence consists of two or more principal clauses connected by coördinating conjunctions. A complex sentence contains a principal clause and one or more subordinate clauses. Unity in a sentence means that a sentence makes a single impression. SUMMARY OF DEFINITIONS PARTS OF SPEECH A noun is the name of a person, a place, or a thing. 231 A substantive is a part of a sentence that stands in place of a person, a place, or a thing. Both nouns and pronouns are substantives. The antecedent of a pronoun is the substantive for which the pronoun stands. An adjective is a word that describes or limits a substantive. A verb is a word that can assert something concerning a substantive. An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. A preposition is a word that relates its object (a substantive) to some other word in the sentence. A conjunction is a word that connects words, phrases, or clauses. An interjection is a word that expresses strong feeling. INFLECTION Inflection is a change in the form of a word to indicate some change in meaning. The inflection of a noun or of a pronoun to show changes of number and case is declension. The inflection of a verb to show changes of number, person, time, manner, etc. is conjugation. The inflection of adjectives and adverbs to show changes in degree is comparison. Conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections are not inflected. |