Form, Meaning, and Use in English

Form, meaning and use - English language

• The English language changes in use
• Informational function: to inform
• Directive function: to direct
• Expressive function: to express
• Aesthetic function: to create an aesthetic
• Phatic function: to establish social contact, as in "Hey how are you!"
• The same function can be performed in many different ways
• "Bus stop" indicates where the bus stops and is meant to be informative
• "Stop" is a directive to stop
• There are three forms of commands including form, meaning and use
• Form refers to how accurately commands are formed, often using the basic form of the verb without a subject
• Meaning refers to the fullness of meaning by telling the listener or reader to carry out an action
• Use refers to appropriateness and depends on the context. Commands can be used to warn, invite, persuade, offer, or threaten
• Communication flows from speaker/writer to message to listener/reader
• "Excuse me, please you help me find central station" takes time to understand, while "I need to get to central station, How do I get there?" is easier to understand
• Meaning can be defined by when to use language
• Form is defined by what the language looks like
• The past simple expresses the past
• The present perfect expresses the past

Introduction to Word Classes

• Adverbs describe or give more information about verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, and indicate how, where, or to what extent something happens
• Adverbs modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, for example: Slowly, Clearly, Here, There, Today, Never, Loudly
• In "The sun shone brightly in the sky," brightly is an adverb
• In "He ran quickly," quickly is an adverb
• Pronouns take the place of nouns to avoid repetition
• Pronouns stand in for a noun, examples being I, you, he, she, we, they, him, her, he, she, us and them
• In "I go to school every day," I is a pronoun
• In "Did you get the letter," you is a pronoun
• Determiners appear before a noun to show which specific thing is being talked about
• Determines can indicate if the noun is general or specific, how many there are, or who it belongs to
• Articles (the [definite], a, an [indefinite]) are determines
• Possessives (ours, yours, hers, his, mine, theirs) are determines
• Demonstratives (that, this, there, these, those) are determines
• Quantifiers (all, many, few) are determines
• Numbers (one, ten, twenty) are determines
• In "That cup is chipped," that is a determiner
• In "The farmer is sleeping," the is a determiner
• In "Can you tell me your name," your is a determiner
• In "I met a person," a is a determiner
• Nouns name people, places, things, or ideas. They refer to objects, people, and concepts
• People (woman, man, child, teacher) are nouns
• Places (home, school, hospital, park) are nouns
• Things (table, chair, car, book, cake) are nouns
• Ideas (love, anger, happiness, passion) are nouns
• In "The dog ran very fast" dog is a noun
• In "My mother works in a school" mother and school are nouns
• In "Do you live in America?" America is a noun
• Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other parts of a sentence
• Prepositions indicate where something is, when something happens, or how things are connected, for example: In, On, Under, Before, Across, As, At, For, Like, Of
• In "He reads in the evening," in is a preposition
• In "I have lived in Minneapolis since 2005" in since preposition
• In "Place the pen inside the drawer" inside is a preposition
• Conjunctions connect words, phrases, or sentences together
• Examples of conjunctions include: And, But, Because, For, Nor, Yet, Or
• In "She usually studies in the library, but when it is too busy she goes to a cafe," but is a conjunction
• In "Because I woke up late this morning, I went to school without eating breakfast," because is a conjunction
• Verbs show actions or state of beings. They describe what someone or something is doing
• Types of verbs include: Be, Have, Do, Say, Go
• In "What do you like to eat" eat is a verb
• In "She says it’s raining" says and is raining are verbs
• Adjectives describe or give more information about nouns (people, places, or things) and indicate what something is like, such as its colour, size, shape, or quality
• Examples of adjectives include: Good, New, Big, Happy, Small, Short
• In "This is a good idea" good is an adjective
• In "She has a small car" small is an adjective
• Language is used to communicate, build up words and agreements, and there are over 1 million words and still expanding
• Word classes are parts of speech that categorize words on the basis of their function
  • Articles include the, a/an
  • Demonstratives include this, that, these, there
  • Distributives include each, every, all, both
  • Interrogatives include whose, what, which
  • Possessives include my, yours, his
  • Quantifiers/numbers include many, few
  • Relatives include what, which

Nouns and Related Words

• Content words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
• Content words are the key parts of a sentence that carry meaning and help describe people, actions, qualities, and details
• Proper nouns always have a capital letter
• Steps for identifying nouns: Identify if noun starts with capital letter, if it's plural or singular, proper or common, count or non-count
• The Beatles” is a proper, plural noun because it has a capital letter and is plural
• "horse” is a common, count, singular noun because it doesn't have a capital letter, is something you can count, and is singular
• “feet” is a common, count, plural noun becuase it doesn't have a capital letter, is something you can count, and is plural
• To determine if a word is an adjective or adverb, add comparative or superlative
• Comparative adjectives are used to compare two things, showing which has more or less of a quality and often end in "-er" or use "more"
• Superlative adjectives are used to compare three or more things, showing which has the most or least of a quality and often end in "-est" or use "most"

Determiners and Pronouns

• Determine if the word is a determiner, modifying a noun, or a pronoun, replacing a noun, then check its specific type
• Determiners can be:
  • Definite/Indefinite: Words that show specificity or generality
  • Demonstrative: Words that point to specific things
  • Possessive: Words that show ownership
  • Quantifying: Words that indicate quantity or amount
• Pronouns can be:
  • Demonstrative: Words that replace specific nouns
  • Possessive: Words that replace nouns to show ownership
  • Personal: Words that refer to people or things
  • Quantifying: Words that replace nouns while expressing quantity
• Pronouns stand on their own

Combining Words

• Idioms are phrases or expressions that have a different meaning than the words used, as in "Break the ice", it's raining cats and dogs
• Collocation is a combination of words that don't make sense in a literal way for non-English speakers, for example "catch a bus, heavy rain"
• Fixed expression is a groups of words that always go together in the same way and don't change much, for example, "once upon a time, by the way"
• Fixed expressions are words that are used together that have a specific meaning, a fixed expression has a specific order of words that you can’t change because it won’t make sense

Introduction to Verbs and Verb Phrases

• Verbs form the core of most sentences
• Verbs determine which elements a sentence contains
• Learners have a lot of difficulty using verbs correctly and accurately
• A verb phrase is a group of verbs operating together, as in "It’s been raining"
• There are three types of verbs: modal, auxiliary, and main verbs - Modal verbs include Could, would, may, must - Auxiliary verbs help the main verb: be, do, have
• In "She must have been running," running is the main verb, must is the modal verb (this verb can’t change), and have been is the auxiliary verb
• Verb phrases come typically in the order of modal → auxiliary → main verb
• In "They ​​must be working late," must = modal, be = auxiliary, working = main verb
• In "The prisoners escaped," escaped = main verb
• In "What are you having for breakfast," are = auxiliary, having = main verb
• In "The dog has had its breakfast," has = auxiliary, had = main verb
• In "Dogs have tails," have = main verb
• In "Have you done your homework?" Have = auxiliary, done = main verb
• In "What did you do?" did = auxiliary, do = main verb
• In "Are you being serious?" are = auxiliary, being = main verb
• In "Are you serious" are = main verb
• There is always a main verb in a sentence
• Examples of regular verbs: Decide is the base form, decided is the past simple, Walk/walked, Climb/climbed, Enjoy/enjoyed, Study/studied, Talk/talked, Live/lived
• Examples of irregular verbs: Think/thought, Choose/chose, Kneel/knelt, Become/became, Do/did
• Regular verbs form the past tense by adding + ed
• Irregular verbs form the past tense by changing the verb
• Regular verbs have four forms
• Irregular verbs have five forms
  • Verb – past simple – past participle – S-form – ing-vorm
    • Person
      • 1st person singular = I, plural = We
      • 2nd person singular = You, plural = You
      • 3rd person singular = He/she/it, plural = They
• Finite and non-finite verbs show tense/person/number
  • Verbs which are in a present or past tense form are finite
    • In "David plays the piano," plays (present tense) = finite
  • The verb which is governed by the subject is finite
• Participles (ending in -ing) are always non-finite Examples:
• In "He gave me a chair to sit on" gave = finite (past), to sit = non-finite
• In "It was a sight to see" was = finite (past), to see = non-finite
• In "I want to buy some clothes" want = finite (present), to buy = non-finite
• In "Barking dogs seldom bite" barking = non-finite (present), bite = finite
• In "He is about to leave" is = finite, to leave = non-finite
• In "It is time to start" is = finite, to start = non-finite
• In "He was wearing a torn shirt" was = finite (past), wearing = non-finite, torn = non-finite
• In "He had his shoes polished" had = finite (past), polished = non-finite
• In "They got the roof repaired" got = finite (past), polished = non-finite
• In "Finding the door open I went inside" finding = non-finite, went = finite (past)

Tense and Aspect in English

• In "I hope to win the first price," hope = main verb (present, finite, regular, 1st person singular)
• Hope is finite because it tells us something about I
• Auxiliary verbs include be, do and have. "Be" helps to make the continuous forms, "Do" helps to make negative and interrogative sentences, "Have" helps to make the perfect forms
• Modal verbs include can, could, may, will, and they convey different meanings, they don’t take -s in the 3rd person, they don’t have infinitive, gerund, or past participle, they are always followed by a bare infinitive, and they don’t take do to make their negative or interrogative sentences.
• Lexical verbs are the rest of them, like go, work, play
• Grammatical categories of the verb include number and person (1st, 2nd , 3rd person, singular or plural), tense (past, present, future), aspect (simple, continuous, perfect), and voice (active or passive)
• In "I am working," am = present, finite, active, 1st person, singular, working = non-finite
• In "I love to work" the to work = to-infinitive

Past and Present Tense

• Tense refers to time, be it past, present or future (using have, has, had)
• Aspect refers to action , be it simple, progressive or perfect
• Past simple is ww+ed = work + ed
• Present progressive (continuous) is "I am working" where am = was (tense) and working = aspect
• Present perfect = "I have worked" where have = tense (perfect) and worked = perfect, past participle (regular verb)
• Irregular verbs are "I have seen" where seen = to see
• Present simple = "I work," where work = aspect (present)
• The third person singular gets an S in the present simple
• The simple tenses are used to show habits or facts
• The continuous tenses are used to show action or process
• The perfect tenses are used to show finished results
• Progressive tense is to be + ww-ing
  • was + ww-ing
  • am/is + ww-ing
  • will be + ww-ing

The Future

• Aspect includes simple, progressive, and perfect forms
• Simple aspect = 1 verb = auxiliary
• Progressive aspect = 2 verbs
• Perfect aspect = 2 verbs
• Past simple refers to a particular point in the distant past
• Present perfect refers to a vague point in the past and is an influence on the present
• Will is used to do something without planning spontaneously
• Going to is used to imply something you are going to do after planning it
• Will be watching is future continuous and still happening
• Will have finished is future perfect when it has already happened
• Will have gone home is future perfect where go = gone, finish = finished and involves tense, watching + finished aspect
• Past simple connects to use a specific point in the past
• Given what we learned in the past weeks refers to a specific point in the past (no have)
• Given what we have learned refers to no time given (+ have)
• Aspect in continuous is still happening
• Aspect in perfect has been completed Going to + infinitive refers to plans A geef je aan dat je in de toekomst iets aan het doen bent = the future continuous Don't call me, I will be travelling then implies it's happening now but wasn't explicitly something that was planned

Modal Verbs

• Modal is always bare infinitive
• Bare infinitive is the base form of a verb without the word “to”
• Pure modal verbs include: Can, Could, May, Might, Shall, Should, Will, Would, Must
• Modal meaning:
  1. Probability / certainty, by making judgements about what the world is like
  2. Obligation / permission, by making judgements about what the world should be like
• Semi-modal verbs:
  • Ought to
  • Used to
  • Have to
  • Dare
  • Need
  • (be) Able to
  • Be allowed to
• Pure modal verbs all share the same characteristics when it comes to form
• Semi-modal verbs are closely related to pure modal verbs in meaning, but they do not necessarily share all the same characteristics of form
• Same form, different meaning It could be poisonous relates to possibility
• We could go to… relates to a suggestion
• Could you pass me the salt relates to a request. The same form, but different meaning

Conditional Sentences

• There are different types of conditional sentences:
  • Type 1: used to persuade someone
  • Type 2: used for an imaginary or unlikely situation in the present or future
  • Type 3: used for a hypothetical past situation and its result
  • Type 0: used to express general truths
• Mixed conditional expresses the hypothetical present result of a hypothetical past action
• A clause is a part of a sentence