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University of Cape Coast Faculty of Educational Foundation Department of Education and Psychology EPS 444: Teacher Professional Enhancement Literacy Credits: 2 Hours  Unit 4: Word Classes and Punctuations Nouns, pronouns and prepositions...

University of Cape Coast Faculty of Educational Foundation Department of Education and Psychology EPS 444: Teacher Professional Enhancement Literacy Credits: 2 Hours  Unit 4: Word Classes and Punctuations Nouns, pronouns and prepositions Verbs, adverbs and adjectives Use of punctuations  Nouns Nouns are naming words. Nouns can be grouped into proper or common noun. Features of Nouns Proper nouns begin with capital letter no matter their position in a sentence, e.g., We count on Seth and Mary for their support. Janet will talk to James. Proper nouns do not usually take determiners, e.g., *a Jones, *the Mary, but may take determiners in certain situations such as the University of Cape Coast. Singular count nouns should be preceded by a determiner, e.g., an apple, a toy, a teacher. E.g., *He is teacher. (Unacceptable) but He is a teacher. (Acceptable) Singular count nouns occur only with the determiners a, an, the, and one to show singularity. For example, a plate, an egg, the player, one chance. Many, few/a few + count nouns, e.g., many people, many problems, few cars, a few men Much, little/a little + noncount nouns, e.g., much love, much sugar, little knowledge, a little salt  Exceptions to the grammatical rules of proper nouns Partitive meaning: during the Easter of that year, in the Denmark of today, the Ghana I like, the Kofi of yesterday. A new Kwame Nkrumah has been born, Shakespeares (authors like S or copies of S) NB: family relations with unique reference behave like proper nouns: Father (Daddy, Dad); Mother (Mummy, Mum), Uncle E.g., I went to see Father. His Father is older than Mother. Also, when proper nouns and common nouns are put together, the common nouns behave like proper nouns. E.g., Teacher Kofi; Uncle Emma, President Atta Mills, etc.  Pronouns Pronouns are words used in place of nouns. ✓ Types Personal pronouns (subjective case and objective case) Subjective case (doer of the action )(I, we, he, she, it, you), e.g., I go there. We painted this office. You and I were not there. Objective case( receiver of the action) (me, us, them, him, her), e.g., They saw them. You lied to me. You came between him and me. The lady did not teach you or him. Possessive pronouns (e.g., mine, yours, ours, hers, etc)e.g., This shop is theirs. Yours ever or Yours faithfully. Reciprocal pronouns (each other( used for two people), one another(used for group of people)) e.g., The couple love each other. The people in the department love one another.  Pronouns cont’d Reflexive pronouns lay emphasis(myself, ourselves, yourself, themselves, herself, etc.), e.g., You should do the homework yourself. The headmistress swept the room herself. Relative pronouns Personal use (who, whom, whose, that) The boy who gave you the gift is travelling abroad. (subjective case) We asked those whose documents were ready to attend the interview. (possessive) She met the man whom you insulted last week. (objective case) Non-personal use (which, that) This is the car which/that took us to France. Many problems which tear you apart are from your recklessness.  Verbs Verbs are words used to indicate action or state of being. Verbs can be used to indicate tense, mood, number and person. Tense (indicates time at which an action takes place, marked by inflection)the verb has been change fom the original state to another state or left in the base form. Simple Present tense( uses the main verb and always in the present form ) , e.g., They work for me. My head hurts. Oil floats on water. Continuous present tense, e.g., We are having a party. I’m driving home.( base form of the verb + the ing.) Past tense, e.g., The child climbed the tree. They hated each other. We made it. Continuous past tense, e.g., We were living in that area. She was serving in the bar. Present perfect tense, e.g., I have looked everywhere for it. She has joined him there. Continuous present perfect tense, e.g., We have been living abroad for many years. Past perfect tense, e.g., We had discussed the matter well. I had expected her message. Future tense, e.g., They will begin the game. I shall take the bus to work today. Continuous future tense, e.g., They will be changing the computer system tomorrow.  Verbs (Uses of Modal Verbs) Modal verbs can be used to express ability, permission, possibility, probability, etc.) Ability (can, could), e.g., I can read French. My grandfather could jump ten feet. Request (can, could), e.g., Can I sleep in your room? Could you pass me the salt please? Permission (can, may, shall), e.g., You can use my car. May I come in? You shall take it if you want to. Possibility (can, may, might), e.g., Smoking can cause cancer. It may rain tomorrow. I might leave. It could rain tomorrow. Probability (will, must), e.g., It will rain tomorrow. We will write the exams at noon. He must be at work; it is 9 o’clock.  Modal Verbs Cont’d Obligation (must, ought to) You must sign the attendance sheet before you leave. You must sweep the office. They ought to take part in the communal labour.  Adjectives Adjectives are words used to modify nouns, adjectives. Functions of adjectives: attributive and predicative functions Attributive function: E.g., (1) Lazy students don’t pass their exams well. (2) The person accused should be given a fair trial. Predicative function: e.g., 1. Those who lynched the pastor are cruel. 2. They were not certain. Some adjectives can perform nominal functions. E.g., (1) The rich (S) are not merciful at all. (2) The fraudulent (S) are always caught and punished. (3) It is appropriate to visit the sick (O) in society.  Adjectives (forms) Adjectives (tall, expensive, green, rectangular, etc.), e.g., This is an expensive car. That was an important assignment. Nouns Akosombo Dam, Nkawkaw bread, etc. Verbs (present participles and past participles) Washing machine, spraying can, accused person, broken home, forgotten child  Ordering of Adjectives Size (S) (except little) + General (G) + Age (A) + Shape (S) + Colour (C) + Material (M) + Origin (O) + Purpose (P) + Noun (SGASCMOP) Size: big, small, large, medium General: beautiful, nice, handsome, expensive Age: old, new, young, youthful, ancient, modern Shape: square, rectangular, circular, round Colour: black, yellow, green, red, white Material: wooden, metal, plastic, golden Origin: Ghanaian, Chinese, Taiwan, American, British Purpose: running shoe, sleeping dress, spraying machine For example, I have a small expensive old square green wooden Chinese box. A new black metal bike.  Adverbs Adverbs give more information about a verb, adjective or modify another adverb. It modifies a verb by limiting the word it describes in some way. Modifying a verbs, e.g., I’ll see you soon. You always snored. We rarely meet. Modifying adjectives, e.g., gravely ill, exceptionally good Modifying another adverb extremely suddenly, pretty shortly, very soon Some adverbs can take the comparative and superlative forms. E.g., soon sooner soonest early earlier earliest quickly more quickly most quickly  Prepositions Prepositions are used to show the relationship, such as time or place, between a noun or pronoun and the rest of a sentence, clause or phrase. Simple prepositions, e.g., at, by, in, of, off, on, to, up, before, during, between The cakes are on the table. They left before dawn. We arrived after dinner. Complex prepositions consist of two or three words, e.g., ahead of, instead of, on account of, by means of, on behalf of, according to, with regards to, in the middle of, as result of, by dint of, in spite of, in addition to, in charge of, etc. She had to retire on account of his age. They are rich in terms of property. Redundant use: Advocate (*advocate for); behoves (*behoves on); comprise (*comprise of); discuss (*discuss about); highlight (*highlight on); voice (*voice on); emphasise (*emphasise on); vacate (*vacate from); seek (*seek for)  Punctuations Punctuations are used to mark pauses in speech or writing. The full stop/period (.) Used at the end of all sentences except questions and exclamations The enemy surrendered. After abbreviations, e.g., B. Lit (Bachelor of Literature), B. Com. (Bachelor of Commerce) The Comma (,) Used to separate a list of items, e.g., I bought pens, books, erasers, paints, and clips. Used after vocative, e.g., Reader, I separate the fight. Father, we know we have sinned. Used in direct speech, e.g., They answered, “Here we are”. “John”, she replied, “I love you”. To enclose connectors/comments which interrupt sentence flow. E.g., Mr. Chairman, as you know, I won the game. We are all, as a matter of urgency, have to provide our details. I, on the other hand,... Used in noun apposition, e.g., Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, was overthrown in 19960.  Punctuation cont’d Colon (:) Used to introduce a list. E.g., These students should see me: Janet, Mary, Alice and John. To introduce a quotation or a piece of direct speech. E.g.,. One of the favourite quotation was: “If music be the food of love, play on”. Semi-colon (;) There is one I cherish: honesty To separate two clauses. E.g., To err is human; to forgive is divine. Apostrophe (’) To indicate possessive case, e.g., boy’s shirt, girl’s hat, children’s park, men’s fellowship With singular names ending in s, e.g., Thomas—Thomas’ idea, Agnes—Agnes’ dress The Question mark (?) Used after direct question, e.g., Do you like this dress? Why is he here? Who invited him?  Unit 5: Concord and Composition Writing Plural and singular subjects Compound and special subjects Finding the true subject (Titles of stories/films) Descriptive, narratives and letters  Concord (Introduction) Concord refers to the agreement that exists between grammatical elements. It can be between Subject and verb, noun and pronoun, determiner and noun. Examples: Subject + Verb, e.g., The earth is spherical in shape. Noun + Pronoun, e.g., I saw Janet, Harrison and Ali. They were jogging. Det. + Noun, e.g., This rule is unacceptable. These rules are unacceptable.  Subject Verb Agreement Plural and Singular Subjects ✓ Singular subjects require singular verbs, e.g., The camera has some fault in it. My back hurts a little bit. This course makes me mad. Journeying in the night never helps us. Man proposes, but God disposes. ✓ Plural subjects take plural verbs, e.g., My results are good this semester. Joseph and Mary make a good couple. The icons on the screen are too many. Your problem and mine are similar.  Existential “there” Existential there takes singular/plural verbs depending on the noun in the predicate. There is a monster on the mountain. There are different colours on the table. There come the people of Mbano to this office. There exists a big problem.  Compound Subjects ✓ A compound subject consists of two or more simple subjects that are joined by a coordinating conjunction and that have the same verb. Books and magazines are available in the library. Marian, Bernice, and Alice are great singers. The Ambassador from Ghana and the British manufacturer agree to sign the contract. Our metal fence and our television antenna were struck by lightning. Timo and Kris play the leading role in the one-act play. What you said last week and what your mother did were unacceptable.  Special Subjects ✓ Some subjects appear to be plural in nature but take singular verbs, e.g., Rice and beans is my favourite food. Sixty seconds makes one hour. Jollof and chicken serves better. Four plus eight is twelve. Forty minus fifteen leaves twenty-five. Forty divided by eight is five. Five thousand Ghana Cedis was the cost of the car. Gari and beans was her best food at high school. He thought that sixty-five dollars was not too much to ask.  Special Subjects ✓ Quasi-coordination: Coordinators that are not pure conjunctions can also function as prepositions (with, along with, rather than, as well as, etc.). It is the first NP that determines the verb, e.g., The captain, as well as the players, was tired. The players, as well as the captain, were tired. ✓ Proximity rule (coordination with or and nor): The subject closer to the verb controls it. Either the Mayor or her deputy is bound to come. Either the strikers or the coach has misunderstood the claim. Neither he nor his wife has arrived. ✓ Nominal clauses take singular verbs. What we discussed was that you don’t need me. How you managed to do that is very strange. To come to class late is unacceptable. Funding the projects in this difficult times is our major concern.  Finding the True Subjects ✓Titles of stories/films The Canterbury Tales is a nice story. The Beautiful Ones are not Yet Born is my favourite literature book. Once bitten twice shy does not make sense to me. Marry Me and My Sister was the movie we watched last night. Crime and Punishment is a good book.  Verb-Verb concord Verb-Verb concord is guided by the principle that when a chain of verbs (two or more) are found in a construction, they should agree in terms of tense (present or past). E.g., Every morning, I try to exercise my body before taking my bath. This is to relieve me of the pains I go through the previous day. The exercise keeps me fit and improves my heart beat. It can also make me grow longer. On that faithful day, Jones slept late but woke up early. He left for work while the wife was also calculating how to execute the plan. This created some sense of fear in her but was bent on doing it. She came and took the gun to shoot herself. She woke up to realise that it was a dream.  Composition Writing (Descriptive Essay) ✓It requires students to describe something (object, person, place, experience, emotion, situation, etc.); can be newspaper articles, reports, accounts of single event, etc. ✓Features Introduction Body paragraphs Conclusion Language use (clear and concise, use of five senses)  Narrative Essay ✓ In narrating an experience or event, trace events in sequence in terms of time, place and logic. ✓ Description: Title/heading Introduction Body Beginning of the story Middle events End of the story Conclusion  Letters (Informal and Formal) Informal Formal Letters to friends and close relatives Letters to people who are not close associates Features Sender’s address Sender’s address Date Date — Recipient’s address Salutation, e.g., Dear Mic, Salutation, e.g., Dear Sir/Madam, — Heading Body (Intro, body, conclusion) Body (Intro, body, conclusion) Subscription, e.g., Yours, Yours ever, Subscription, e.g., Yours faithfully, — Signature Name (usually first name) Name (full name) Language (conversational, contracted forms) Language (formal tone, no contracted forms)  Self reflection questions Select the appropriate verbs in the following sentences Those terrible floods kill/kills many people every year. James, my brother-in-law and dear friend, have/has got admission abroad. A heat wave have/has been forecast. Neither the people nor the teacher come/comes to our place any more. Monitoring the young once from afar make/makes me mad. Dancing to the tune of her music was/were all that we expected. There are/is a mighty and high class monitoring machine in the office. There go/goes the okra mouth again.  References Aarts, B. (2000). English syntax and argumentation. New York. Palgrave. Acheampong, A. P. (2005). A guide to English grammar and usage. Accra: Dutan Publishing. Kirkpatrick, B. (2007). Correct English. Scotland: Geddes and Grosset. Quirk, R. & Greenbaum, S. (1973). A university grammar of English. Essex: Longman. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. & Svartvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London and New York: Longman.