c01Pts-Speech2.htm
A compilation by U Kyaw Tun (UKT) (M.S., I.P.S.T., USA) and staff of Tun Institute of Learning (TIL) . Not for sale. No copyright. Free for everyone. Prepared for students and staff of TIL Computing and Language Center, Yangon, MYANMAR : http://www.tuninst.net , http://www.softguide.net.mm , www.romabama.blogspot.com
In the United States, periods and commas go inside quotation marks regardless of logic.
In the United Kingdom, Canada, and islands under the influence of British education, punctuation around quotation marks is more apt to follow logic. In American style, then, you would write: My favorite poem is Robert Frost's "Design." But in England you would write: My favorite poem is Robert Frost's "Design".
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TIL-Gram-indx.htm
01.03. What is a Noun?
01.03.01. Noun Gender
01.03.02. Noun Plural
Plural tantum
01.03.03. Possessive Noun
Using Possessive Nouns
01.03.04. Types of Nouns
Proper Noun,
Common Noun,
Concrete Noun,
Abstract Noun,
Countable Noun,
Non-Countable Noun,
Collective Noun
01.04. What is a Pronoun?
01.04.01. Personal Pronoun,
Subjective Personal Pronoun,
Objective Personal Pronoun,
Possessive Personal Pronoun
01.04.02. Demonstrative Pronoun
01.04.03. Interrogative Pronoun
01.04.04. Relative Pronoun
01.04.05. Indefinite Pronoun
01.04.06. Reflexive Pronoun
01.04.07. Intensive Pronoun
UKT notes
• proper/common noun in Burmese-Myanmar
• selkie
• silent-e
UKT: Last download of this section: http://www.writingcentre.uottawa.ca/hypergrammar/nouns.html 081211
A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea. Nouns are usually the first words which small children learn. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all nouns:
¤ Late last year our neighbours bought a goat.
¤ Portia White was an opera singer.
¤ The bus inspector looked at all the passengers' passes.
¤ According to Plutarch, the library at Alexandria was destroyed in 48 B.C.
¤ Philosophy is of little comfort to the starving.
A noun can function in a sentence as a subject, a direct object, an indirect object, a subject complement, an object complement, an appositive, an adjective or an adverb.
Many common nouns, like "engineer" or "teacher", can refer to men or women. Once, many English nouns would change form depending on their gender -- for example, a man was called an "author" while a woman was called an "authoress" -- but this use of gender-specific nouns is very rare today. Those that are still used occasionally tend to refer to occupational categories, as in the following sentences.
¤ David Garrick was a very prominent eighteenth-century actor.
¤ Sarah Siddons was at the height of her career as an actress in the 1780s.
¤ The manager was trying to write a want ad, but he couldn't decide whether he was advertising for a "waiter" or a "waitress".
Most nouns change their form [UKT:
inflexion] to indicate
number
by adding "-s" or "-es", as illustrated in the following pairs of sentences:
[UKT: Nouns undergo a change of form to indicate number, gender and case. In Burmese,
however, these distinctions are made without any inflexion. -- Lonsdale,
Burmese Grammar and Grammatical Analysis, 1899, p043.]
¤ When Matthew was small he rarely told the truth if he thought he was going to be punished.
¤ Many people do not believe that truths are self-evident.¤ As they walked through the silent house. they were startled by an unexpected echo.
¤ I like to shout into the quarry and listen to the echoes that returned.¤ He tripped over a box left carelessly in the hallway.
¤ Since we are moving, we will need many boxes.
There are other nouns which form the plural by changing the last letter before adding "s". Some words ending in "f" form the plural by deleting "f" and adding "ves", and words ending in "y" form the plural by deleting the "y" and adding "ies", as in the following pairs of sentences:
¤ The harbour at Marble Mountain has one wharf.
¤ There are several wharves in Halifax Harbour. (Halifax Habour is a proper noun -- H as capital letter.)¤ Warsaw is their favourite city because it reminds them of their courtship.
¤ The vacation my grandparents won includes trips to twelve European cities.¤ One of the computer accessories is called a mouse . -- [UKT: version]
¤ The audience was shocked when all five men admitted that they were afraid of mice.
Other nouns form the plural irregularly. If English is your first language, you probably know most of these already: when in doubt, consult a good dictionary.
From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plurale_tantum 090524
A plurale tantum (Latin for in the plural only; plural form: pluralia tantum) is a noun that appears only in the plural form and does not have a singular variant, though it may still refer to one or many of the objects it names. Many languages have pluralia tantum, such as the English words shears, scissors, pants, and trousers, the Russian word "den'gi" [деньги] ("money"), the Swedish word inälvor ("intestines"), or the Dutch word hersenen ("brains").
The term for a noun which appears only in the singular form is singulare tantum (plural: singularia tantum), for example the English words "dust" and "wealth". Singulare tantum is defined by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as: "Gram. A word having only a singular form; esp. a non-count noun." (Wiki-note01). In the English language, such words are almost always uncountable nouns.
In English, quantifying a plurale tantum noun requires a measure word, for example one pair of scissors instead of *one scissors. In other languages, special numeral forms are used in such cases. In Polish, for example, "one pair of eyeglasses" is expressed as either jedne okulary (one-plur. glasses-plur.) or jedna para okularów (one-sing. pair-sing. glasses-gen. plur.). For larger quantities, "collective numeral" forms are available: troje drzwi (three doors), pięcioro skrzypiec (five violins). Compare these to the ordinary numeral forms found in trzy filmy / pięć filmów (three films / five films). (Wiki-note02).
In the possessive case, a noun or pronoun changes its form to show that it owns or is closely related to something else. Usually, nouns become possessive by adding a combination of an apostrophe and the letter "s".
Exception: Usage Note: Its, the possessive form of the pronoun it, is never written with an apostrophe. The contraction it's (for it is or it has ) is always written with an apostrophe. -- AHTD
You can form the possessive case of a singular noun that does not end in "s" by adding an apostrophe and "s", as in the following sentences:
¤ The red suitcase is Cassandra's.
¤ The only luggage that was lost was the prime minister's.
¤ The exhausted recruits were woken before dawn by the drill sergeant's screams.
¤ The miner's face was covered in coal dust.
You can form the possessive case of a singular noun that ends in "s" by adding an apostrophe alone or by adding an apostrophe and "s", as in the following examples:
¤ The bus's seats are very uncomfortable.
¤ The bus' seats are very uncomfortable.¤ The film crew accidentally crushed the platypus's eggs.
¤ The film crew accidentally crushed the platypus' eggs.¤ Felicia Hemans's poetry was once more popular than Lord Byron's.
¤ Felicia Hemans' poetry was once more popular than Lord Byron's.
You can form the possessive case of a plural noun that does not end in "s" by adding an apostrophe and a "s", as in the following examples:
¤ The children's mittens were scattered on the floor of the porch.
¤ The sheep's pen was mucked out every day.
¤ Since we have a complex appeal process, a jury's verdict is not always final.
¤ The men's hockey team will be playing as soon as the women's team is finished.
¤ The hunter followed the moose's trail all morning but lost it in the afternoon.
You can form the possessive case of a plural noun that does end in "s" by adding an apostrophe:
¤ The concert was interrupted by the dogs' barking, the ducks' quacking, and the babies' squalling.
¤ The janitors' room is downstairs and to the left.
¤ My uncle spent many hours trying to locate the squirrels' nest.
¤ The archivist quickly finished repairing the diaries' bindings.
¤ Religion is usually the subject of the roommates' many late night debates.
When you read the following sentences, you will notice that a noun in the possessive case frequently functions as an adjective modifying another noun:
¤ The miner's face was covered in coal dust.
-- Here the possessive noun "miner's" is used to modify the noun "face" and together with the article "the", they make up the noun phrase that is the sentence's subject.¤ The concert was interrupted by the dogs' barking, the ducks' quacking, and the babies' squalling.
-- In this sentence, each possessive noun modifies a gerund. The possessive noun "dogs' " modifies "barking", "ducks' " modifies "quacking", and "babies' '' modifies "squalling".¤ The film crew accidentally crushed the platypus's eggs.
-- In this example the possessive noun "platypus's " modifies the noun "eggs" and the noun phrase "the platypus's eggs" is the direct object of the verb "crushed".¤ My uncle spent many hours trying to locate the squirrels' nest.
-- In this sentence the possessive noun "squirrels' " is used to modify the noun "nest" and the noun phrase "the squirrels' nest" is the object of the infinitive phrase "to locate".
There are many different types of nouns. You capitalise some nouns, such as "Canada" or "Louise", but do not capitalise others, such as "badger" or "tree" (unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence). In fact, grammarians have developed a whole series of noun types, including the proper noun, the common noun, the concrete noun, the abstract noun, the countable noun (also called the count noun), the non-countable noun (also called the mass noun), and the collective noun. You should note that a noun will belong to more than one type: it will be proper or common, abstract or concrete, and countable or non-countable or collective:
1) Proper Noun and Common Noun (See UKT note on Proper/Common nouns in Burmese-Myanmar)
2) Concrete noun and Abstract noun
3) Countable noun, Non-countable noun and Collective noun
If you are interested in the details of these different types, you can read about them in the following sections.
You always write a proper noun with a capital letter, since the noun represents the name of a specific person, place, or thing. The names of days of the week, months, historical documents, institutions, organisations, religions, their holy texts and their adherents are proper nouns. A proper noun is the opposite of a common noun
In each of the following sentences, the proper nouns are highlighted:
¤ The Marroons (Proper noun - spelling immaterial) were transported from Jamaica and forced to build the fortifications in Halifax.
¤ Many people dread Monday mornings.
¤ Beltane is celebrated on the first of May.
¤ Abraham appears in the Talmud and in the Koran.
¤ Last year, I had a Baptist, a Buddhist, and a Gardnerian Witch as roommates.
A common noun is a noun referring to a person, place, or thing in a general sense -- usually, you should write it with a capital letter only when it begins a sentence. A common noun is the opposite of a proper noun. In each of the following sentences, the common nouns are highlighted:
¤ According to the sign, the nearest town is 60 miles away.
¤ All the gardens in the neighbourhood were invaded by beetles this summer.
¤ I don't understand why some people insist on having six different kinds of mustard in their cupboards.
¤ The road crew was startled by the sight of three large moose crossing the road.
¤ Many child-care workers are underpaid.
Sometimes you will make proper nouns out of common nouns, as in the following examples:
¤ The tenants in the Garnet Apartments are appealing the large and sudden increase in their rent.
¤ The meals in the Bouncing Bean Restaurant are less expensive than meals in ordinary restaurants.
¤ Many witches refer to the Renaissance as the Burning Times.
¤ The Diary of Anne Frank is often a child's first introduction to the history of the Holocaust.
A concrete noun is a noun which names anything (or anyone) that you can perceive through your physical senses: touch, sight, taste, hearing, or smell. A concrete noun is the opposite of an abstract noun. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all concrete nouns:
¤ The judge handed the files to the clerk.
¤ Whenever they take the dog to the beach, it spends hours chasing waves.
¤ The real estate agent urged the couple to buy the second house because it had new shingles.
¤ As the car drove past the park, the thump of a disco tune overwhelmed the string quartet's rendition of a minuet.
¤ The book binder replaced the flimsy paper cover with a sturdy, cloth-covered board.
An abstract noun is a noun which names anything which you can not perceive through your five physical senses, and is the opposite of a concrete noun. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all abstract nouns:
¤ Buying the fire extinguisher was an afterthought.
¤ Tillie is amused by people who are nostalgic about childhood.
¤ Justice often seems to slip out of our grasp.
¤ Some scientists believe that schizophrenia is transmitted genetically.
A countable noun (or count noun) is a noun with both a singular and a plural form, and it names anything (or anyone) that you can count. You can make a countable noun plural and attach it to a plural verb in a sentence. Countable nouns are the opposite of non-countable nouns and collective nouns. In each of the following sentences, the highlighted words are countable nouns:
¤ We painted the table red and the chairs blue.
¤ Since he inherited his aunt's library, Jerome spends every weekend indexing his books.
¤ Miriam found six silver dollars in the toe of a sock.
¤ The oak tree lost three branches in the hurricane.
¤ Over the course of twenty-seven years, Martha Ballad delivered just over eight hundred babies.
A non-countable noun (or mass noun) is a noun which does not have a plural form, and which refers to something that you could (or would) not usually count. A non-countable noun always takes a singular verb in a sentence. Non-countable nouns are similar to collective nouns, and are the opposite of countable nouns. The highlighted words in the following sentences are non-countable nouns:
¤ Joseph Priestly discovered oxygen.
-- The word "oxygen" cannot normally be made plural.¤ Oxygen is essential to human life.
-- Since "oxygen" is a non-countable noun, it takes the singular verb "is" rather than the plural verb "are".¤ We decided to sell the furniture rather than take it with us when we move.
-- You cannot make the noun "furniture" plural.¤ The furniture is heaped in the middle of the room.
-- Since "furniture" is a non-countable noun, it takes a singular verb, "is heaped".¤ The crew spread the gravel over the roadbed.
-- You cannot make the non-countable noun "gravel" plural.¤ Gravel is more expensive than I thought.
-- Since "gravel" is a non-countable noun, it takes the singular verb form "is".
A collective noun is a noun naming a group of things, animals, or persons. You could count the individual members of the group, but you usually think of the group as a whole is generally as one unit. You need to be able to recognise collective nouns in order to maintain subject-verb agreement. A collective noun is similar to a non-countable noun, and is roughly the opposite of a countable noun. In each of the following sentences, the highlighted word is a collective noun:
¤ The flock of geese spends most of its time in the pasture.
-- The collective noun "geese" takes the singular verb "spends".¤ The jury is dining on take-out chicken tonight.
-- In this example the collective noun "jury" is the subject of the singular compound verb "is dining".¤ The steering committee meets every Wednesday afternoon.
-- Here the collective noun "committee" takes a singular verb, "meets".¤ The class was startled by the bursting light bulb.
-- In this sentence the word "class" is a collective noun and takes the singular compound verb "was startled".
A pronoun can replace a noun or another pronoun. You use pronouns like he, which, none, and you to make your sentences less cumbersome and less repetitive.
Grammarians classify pronouns into several types:
1. personal pronouns:
subjective personal pronoun,
objective personal pronoun,
possessive personal pronoun
2. demonstrative pronoun
3. interrogative pronoun
4. indefinite pronoun
5. relative pronoun
6. reflexive pronoun
7. intensive pronoun.
A personal pronoun refers to a specific person or thing and changes its form to indicate person, number, gender, and case. Types of personal pronouns:
1. subjective personal pronoun
2. objective personal pronoun
3. possessive personal pronoun
Trivial meaning of subjective - existing only within the experiencer's mind.
A subjective personal pronoun indicates that the pronoun is acting as the subject of the sentence. The subjective personal pronouns are I, you, she, he, it, we, you, they . In the following sentences, each of the highlighted words is a subjective personal pronoun and acts as the subject of the sentence:
¤ I was glad to find the bus pass in the bottom of the green knapsack.
¤ You are surely the strangest child I have ever met.
¤ He stole the selkie's skin and forced her to live with him.
¤ When she was a young woman, she earned her living as a coal miner.
¤ After many years, they returned to their homeland.
¤ We will meet at the library at 3:30 p.m.
¤ It is on the counter.
¤ Are you the delegates from Malagawatch?
Trivial meaning of objective - having actual existence or reality.
An objective personal pronoun indicates that the pronoun is acting as an object of a verb, compound verb, preposition, or infinitive phrase. The objective personal pronouns are: me, you, her, him, it, us, you, and them . In the following sentences, each of the highlighted words is an objective personal pronoun:
¤ Seamus stole the selkie's skin and forced her to live with him.
-- The objective personal pronoun "her" is the direct object of the verb "forced" and the objective personal pronoun "him" is the object of the preposition "with".¤ After reading the pamphlet, Judy threw it into the garbage can.
-- The pronoun "it" is the direct object of the verb "threw".¤ The agitated assistant stood up and faced the angry delegates and said, "Our leader will address you in five minutes."
-- In this sentence, the pronoun "you" is the direct object of the verb "address".¤ Deborah and Roberta will meet us at the newest café in the market.
-- Here the objective personal pronoun "us" is the direct object of the compound verb "will meet".¤ Give the list to me.
-- Here the objective personal pronoun "me" is the object of the preposition "to".¤ I'm not sure that my contact will talk to you.
-- Similarly in this example, the objective personal pronoun "you" is the object of the preposition "to" .¤ Christopher was surprised to see her at the drag races.
-- Here the objective personal pronoun "her" is the object of the infinitive phrase "to see".
Trivial meaning of possessive - of or relating to ownership or possession.
A possessive pronoun indicates that the pronoun is acting as a marker of possession and defines who owns a particular object or person. The possessive personal pronouns are mine, yours, hers, his, its, ours, and theirs. Note that possessive personal pronouns are very similar to possessive adjectives like my, her, and their . In each of the following sentences, the highlighted word is a possessive personal pronoun:
¤ The smallest gift is mine.
-- Here the possessive pronoun "mine" functions as a subject complement.¤ This is yours.
-- Here too the possessive pronoun "yours" functions as a subject complement.¤ His is on the kitchen counter.
-- In this example, the possessive pronoun "his" acts as the subject of the sentence.¤ Theirs will be delivered tomorrow.
-- In this sentence, the possessive pronoun "theirs" is the subject of the sentence.¤ Ours is the green one on the corner.
-- Here too the possessive pronoun "ours" function as the subject of the sentence.
Trivial meaning of demonstrate - to show.
A demonstrative pronoun points to and identifies a noun or a pronoun. "This" and "these" refer to things that are nearby either in space or in time, while "that" and "those" refer to things that are farther away in space or time.
The demonstrative pronouns are this, that, these, and those. "This" and "that" are used to refer to singular nouns or noun phrases and "these" and "those" are used to refer to plural nouns and noun phrases. Note that the demonstrative pronouns are identical to demonstrative adjectives, though, obviously, you use them differently. It is also important to note that "that'' can also be used as a relative pronoun. In the following sentences, each of the highlighted words is a demonstrative pronoun:
¤ This must not continue.
-- Here "this" is used as the subject of the compound verb "must not continue".¤ This is puny; that is the tree I want.
-- In this example "this" is used as subject and refers to something close to the speaker. The demonstrative pronoun "that" is also a subject but refers to something farther away from the speaker.¤ Three customers wanted these.
-- Here "these" is the direct object of the verb "wanted".
Trivial meaning of interrogate - to question
An interrogative pronoun is used to ask questions. The interrogative pronouns are who , whom , which , what and the compounds formed with the suffix "ever" ( whoever, whomever, whichever, and whatever ). Note that either "which" or "what" can also be used as an interrogative adjective, and that who, whom, or which can also be used as a relative pronoun.
You will find "who", "whom", and occasionally "which" used to refer to people, and "which" and "what" used to refer to things and to animals.
"Who" acts as the subject of a verb, while "whom" acts as the object of a verb, preposition, or a verbal.
The highlighted word in each of the following sentences is an interrogative pronoun:
¤ Which wants to see the dentist first?
-- "Which" is the subject of the sentence.¤ Who wrote the novel Rockbound?
-- Similarly "who" is the subject of the sentence.¤ Whom do you think we should invite?
-- In this sentence, "whom" is the object of the verb "invite".¤ To whom do you wish to speak?
Here the interrogative pronoun "whom" is the object of the preposition "to".¤ Who will meet the delegates at the train station?
-- In this sentence, the interrogative pronoun "who" is the subject of the compound verb "will meet''.¤ To whom did you give the paper?
-- In this example the interrogative pronoun "whom" is the object of the preposition "to."¤ What did she say?
-- Here the interrogative pronoun "what" is the direct object of the verb "say".
You can use a relative pronoun is used to link one phrase or clause to another phrase or clause. The relative pronouns are "who", "whom", "that", and "which". The compounds "whoever", "whomever", and "whichever" are also relative pronouns.
You can use the relative pronouns "who" and "whoever" to refer to the subject of a clause or sentence, and "whom" and "whomever" to refer to the objects of a verb, a verbal or a preposition.
In each of the following sentences, the highlighted word is a relative pronoun.
¤ You may invite whomever you like to the party.
-- The relative pronoun "whomever" is the direct object of the compound verb "may invite".¤ The person who wins the race is not always the best runner.
-- In this sentence, the relative pronoun is the subject of the verb "wins" and introduces the dependent clause "who wins the race".
[UKT: I have replaced the original sentence to make my work more suitable for Myanmar students.]¤ In a time of crisis, the manager asks the workers whom she believes to be the most efficient to arrive an hour earlier than usual.
-- In this sentence "whom" is the direct object of the verb "believes" and introduces the subordinate clause "whom she believes to be the most efficient". This subordinate clause modifies the noun "workers".¤ Whoever broke the window will have to replace it.
-- Here "whoever" functions as the subject of the verb "broke".¤ The crate which was left in the corridor has now been moved into the storage closet.
-- In this example "which" acts as the subject of the compound verb "was left" and introduces the subordinate clause "which was left in the corridor". The subordinate clause acts as an adjective modifying the noun "crate".¤ I will read whichever manuscript arrives first.
-- Here "whichever" modifies the noun "manuscript" and introduces the subordinate clause "whichever manuscript arrives first". The subordinate clause functions as the direct object of the compound verb "will read".
An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun referring to an identifiable but not specified person or thing. An indefinite pronoun conveys the idea of all, any, none, or some.
The most common indefinite pronouns are:
all, another, any, anybody, anyone,
anything, each, everybody, everyone, everything,
few, many, nobody, none, one,
several, some, somebody, and someone.
Note that some indefinite pronouns can also be used as indefinite adjectives. The highlighted words in the following sentences are indefinite pronouns:
¤ Many were invited to the lunch but only twelve showed up.
-- Here "many" acts as the subject of the compound verb "were invited".¤ The office had been searched and everything was thrown onto the floor.
-- In this example , "everything" acts as a subject of the compound verb "was thrown".¤ We donated everything we found in the attic to the woman's shelter garage sale.
-- In this sentence, "everything" is the direct object of the verb "donated".¤ Although they looked everywhere for extra copies of the magazine, they found none.
-- Here too the indefinite pronoun functions as a direct object: "none" is the direct object of "found".¤ Make sure you give everyone a copy of the amended bylaws.
-- In this example, "everyone" is the indirect object of the verb "give" -- the direct object is the noun phrase "a copy of the amended bylaws".¤ Give a registration package to each.
-- Here "each" is the object of the preposition "to".
The trivial meaning of reflexive - directed back on itself.
You can use a reflexive pronoun to refer back to the subject of the clause or sentence.
The reflexive pronouns are myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves . Note each of these can also act as an intensive pronoun.
Each of the highlighted words in the following sentences is a reflexive pronoun:
¤ Diabetics give themselves insulin shots several times a day.
¤ The Dean often does the photocopying herself so that the secretaries can do more important work.
¤ After the party, I asked myself why I had faxed invitations to everyone in my office building.
¤ Richard usually remembered to send a copy of his e-mail to himself.
¤ Although the landlord promised to paint the apartment, we ended up doing it ourselves.
An intensive pronoun is a pronoun used to emphasise its antecedent. Intensive pronouns are identical in form to reflexive pronouns. The highlighted words in the following sentences are intensive pronouns:
¤ I myself believe that aliens should abduct my sister.
¤ The Prime Minister himself said that he would lower taxes.
¤ They themselves promised to come to the party even though they had a final exam at the same time.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-finite_verb 081225
In linguistics, a non-finite verb (or a verbal) is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person. As a result, a non-finite verb cannot generally serve as the main verb in an independent clause; rather, it heads a non-finite clause.
By some accounts, a non-finite verb acts simultaneously as a verb and as another part of speech; it can take adverbs and certain kinds of verb arguments, producing a verbal phrase (i.e., non-finite clause), and this phrase then plays a different role — usually noun, adjective, or adverb — in a greater clause. This is the reason for the term verbal; non-finite verbs have traditionally been classified as verbal nouns, verbal adjectives, or verbal adverbs.
English has three kinds of verbals:
Each of these kinds of verbals is also used in various common constructs; for example, the past participle is used in forming the perfect aspect (to have done).
Other kinds of verbals, such as supines and gerundives, exist in other languages.
A participle is a verbal adjective that describes a noun as being a participant in the action of the verb. English has two kinds of participles: a present participle, also called an imperfect participle, which ends in -ing and which ordinarily describes the agent of an action, and a past participle, also called a perfect participle, which typically ends in -ed (but can also end in -en, -t, or none of these), and which ordinarily describes the patient of an action.
The following sentences contain participles:
¤ The talking children angered the teacher.
-- Here talking modifies children.¤ Annoyed, Rita ate dinner by herself in the bedroom.
-- Here annoyed modifies Rita.
In English, the present participle is used in forming the continuous aspect (to be doing); the past participle is used in forming the passive voice (to be done) and the perfect aspect (to have done).
A participial phrase is a phrase consisting of a participle and any adverbials and/or arguments; the participle is the head of such a phrase:
¤ Gazing at the painting, she recalled the house where she was born.
-- Here gazing at the painting modifies she.
A gerund is a verbal noun that refers to the action of the verb. In English, a gerund has the same form as a present participle (see above), ending in -ing:
¤ Fencing is good exercise.
-- Here fencing is the subject of is.¤ Leroy expanded his skills by studying.
-- Here studying is the object of by.
A gerund phrase is a phrase consisting of a gerund and any adverbials and/or arguments; the gerund is the head of such a phrase:
¤ My evening routine features jogging slowly around the block. (Here jogging slowly around the block is the direct object of features.)
In English, the infinitive verb form is often introduced by the particle to, as in to eat or to run. The resulting phrase can then function as a subject or object, or as a modifier.
¤ To succeed takes courage, foresight, and luck.
-- Here to succeed is the subject of takes.¤ I don't have time to waste.
-- Here to waste modifies time.¤ Carol was invited to speak.
-- Here to speak is the object of invited.¤ Do not stop to chat.
-- Here to chat functions as an adverb modifying stop.
An infinitive phrase consists of an infinitive and any related words.
UKT: End of Wikipedia article.
Go back non-finite-verb-note-b
by UKT
The Burmese-Myanmar (Burmese spoken language written in Myanmar script) language does not recognise the classification of nouns into proper nouns and common nouns. For a Myanmar whose written language does not use upper-case letters (capital letters) and lower-case letters (small letters), the use of capital letters is very strange. We find similar situations in languages of India and South-east Asia which use their own indigenous scripts.
Go back prop-common-note-b
From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_E 081214
Silent e is a writing convention in English spelling. When reading, the silent letter e at the end of a word signals a specific pronunciation of the preceding vowel letter, as in the difference between "rid" /ɹɪd/ and "ride" /ɹaɪd/. This orthographic pattern followed the phonological changes of the Great Vowel Shift in late Middle English. Educators have erroneously described this difference with the terms "short vowel" and "long vowel," both borrowed from studies of the Great Vowel Shift, when vowel length was still a meaningful distinction. Analysis of common spellings and pronunciations shows that the "silent e" most often — but not without exceptions — signals a different phoneme than a word spelled without it.
UKT: Transcription of English into Burmese is not straightforward because English-Latin is not a phonemic script. Therefore, I first transcribe an English word into IPA, and then from IPA to Burmese-Myanmar.
Even then, transliteration of English-Latin into Burmese-Myanmar has never been easy. But, the transcription of words ending in silent-e is worse because Burmese-Myanmar words must not end in a normal consonant with an inherent vowel (which is likened to <a> or <æ>). Thus the consonant has to be "killed" with an {a.thût} making it "vowel-less". I will attempt to transcribe the above words and wait for comments from my peers -- UKT 081215.
• <mad/made> : /mæd/meɪd/ -->{makd} /
{maitd} (killed {k} and {t} are needed because killed {d} is not used in Burmese.)
• <bed/Bede> : /bɛd/biːd/ -->{bakd} /
{bi:d}
• <bit/bite> : /bɪt/baɪt/ -->{bist} or
{bít} (after {hkít})/
{bait}
• <bot/bote> : /bɒt/boʊt/ -->{baut} /
{boat}
• <but/butte> : /bʌt/bjuːt/ -->{bût} /
{byu:t}
UKT: I liken the silent-e or the "magic-e" to "split vowels" of Burmese and Bengali such as
{kau:} and ো in which the consonant (e.g. {ka.}} goes into the middle of the two vowel signs.
When silent e occurs in an English word, it converts a vowel to its "long" equivalent. If English were spelled with the traditional Romance language vowel values of the Latin alphabet, often these vowels would be written with another letter entirely. Moreover, alternatives exist in English for most spellings that use silent e. Depending on dialect, English has anywhere from thirteen to more than twenty separate vowel sounds (both monophthongs and diphthongs). Silent e is one of the ways English spelling is able to use the Latin alphabet's five vowel characters to represent so many vowels.
Traditionally, the vowels /ei iː ai ou juː/ (as in bait beet bite boat
beauty) are said to be the "long" counterparts of the vowels
/æ ɛ ɪ ɒ ʌ/ (as in bat bet bit bot but)
which are said to be "short". This terminology reflects the historical
pronunciation and development of those vowels; as a phonetic description of
their current values, it is no longer accurate. The values of the vowels these
sounds are written with used to be similar to the values those letters had in
French or Italian. The traditional "long vowels" also closely correspond to
the letter names those vowels bear in the English alphabet, and the letter name
is usually an accurate guide to the value of the vowel that is affected by silent e.
UKT: The first sentence of the above paragraph implies that the five vowels <a, e, i, o, u> traditional English alphabet that we learn as children are "short" vowels with the pronunciation /æ ɛ ɪ ɒ ʌ/. However, the English vowels are always changing as shown by the change in formant values as noted by de Jong, Gea; Kirsty McDougall & Toby Hudson et al. (2007), "The speaker discriminating power of sounds undergoing historical change: A formant-based study", the Proceedings of ICPhS Saarbrücken, 1813-1816 .
This variety of vowels is due to the effects of the Great Vowel Shift that marked the end of Middle English and the beginning of Early Modern English. The vowel shift gave current English "long vowels" values that differ markedly from the "short vowels" that they relate to in writing. Since English has a literary tradition that goes back into the Middle English period, written English continues to use Middle English writing conventions to mark distinctions that had been reordered by the chain shift of the long vowels.
When final 'e' is not silent, this generally requires some sort of indication in English spelling. This is usually done via doubling (employee: this word has employe as an obsolete spelling). When the silent e becomes a part of an inflection, its non-silent status can be indicated by a number of diacritical marks, such as a grave accent (learnèd) or a diaeresis (learnëd, Brontë). Other diacritical marks can appear in foreign words (compare résumé with nativized resume).
UKT: Refer to the vowel diagram on the right for comparing Burmese-Myanmar vowels to the IPA vowels.
To me, a bilingual in Burmese and English, and who could understand and speak English very early in life:
•{a.} and
{a} generally sound /a/, /æ/, or /ə/
•{au} and
{au:} generally sound /ɑ/
• /ɔ/ (generally known as "Open O") sounds between{o}
Note: the English vowels given below, <a>, <e>, <i>, <o>, <u>, are the five English vowels of the traditional English alphabet, and should not be taken as IPA vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/.
The sounds of the <a> group are some of the more dialectically complex features of contemporary modern English; the sounds that can be represented in modern English by <a> include /æ/, /ɑː/, and /ɔ/. See broad A and cot-caught merger for some of the cross-dialect complexities of the English 'a' group. The effect of silent e on English <a> moves it towards /eɪ/.
UKT:
/eɪ/ is a diphthong which begins at /e/{é} and ends in
{i}. Burmese-Myanmars cannot pronounce diphthongs in general and so they would pronounce somewhere in between {é} and {i} as a monophthong.
Silent e typically moves <e> to /i ː/
(
{i:}).
This change is generally consistent across all English dialects.
For the "long vowel" represented in written English by 'i', the effect of silent e is to turn it into a diphthong /aɪ/. In some dialects, this diphthong is affected by the voiced or unvoiced quality of the following consonant so that it may be closer to [əɪ]; see Canadian raising.
Short <o>, in contemporary English, tends to fall in with short <a> and to share some of the complexities of that group; depending on dialect, the written short <o> can represent /ɑː/, as well as /ɔ/ and /oː/. The usual effect of silent e on written <o> is to fix it as a long o song. In several dialects of English, this long /oː/ is realized as a diphthong /oʊ/; and in some forms of southern British English, the leading element is centralized further, yielding /ə ʊ/. All of the sounds in the previous sentence are in free variation with one another.
Silent e generally turns the sound written as <u> to its corresponding long vowel /ju ː/, although there are exceptions depending on dialect (see yod-dropping). Initial long <u> as in use in almost always subject to iotacism.
Silent e also functions as a front vowel for purposes of representing the outcome in English of Palatalized sounds. For example;
Mac > mace (/mæk/ > /meɪs/) :
{mak} >
{mé:s}
hug > huge (/hʌg/ > hju ːdʒ/) :{hûpg} >
{hu:gy}
where /s/ is the expected outcome of the ce digraph, and the g in huge is pronounced /dʒ/. Silent e is used in some words with 'dg' in which it does not lengthen a vowel; ridge, sedge, hodge-podge. Spelling such words with 'j', the other letter that indicates that sound, does not occur in native or nativized English words.
In some common words that historically had long vowels, silent e no longer has its usual lengthening effect; come, done. This is especially con n some words that historically had 'f' instead of 'v', such as give and love; in Old English, /f/ became /v/ when it appeared between two vowels (OE giefan, lufu) while a geminated 'ff' lost its doubling to yield /f/ in that position. This also applies to a large class of words with the adjective suffix '-ive', such as captive, that originally had '-if' in French.
Some words loaned to English from French, such as promenade, remain pronounced in an approximation of their French original. In French there is an equivalent of this type of truly silent e, called e muet or e caduc; it has many rules as to when it really is sounded.
Some English words vary their accented syllable based on whether they are used as nouns or as adjectives. In a few words such as minute, this may affect the operation of silent e: as an adjective, minúte has the usual value of 'u' followed by silent e, while as a noun mínute silent e does not operate. See initialstress-derived noun for similar patterns that may give rise to exceptions.
Silent e, like many conventions of written language that no longer reflect current pronunciations, was not always silent. In Chaucer's Balade, the first line does not scan properly unless what appears to current eyes to be a silent e is pronounced:
Hyd, Absolon, thy giltè tresses clerè
Gilte ends in the same sound as modern English Malta, and clere sounds like the contemporary pronunciation of Clara. In Middle English, this final schwa had some grammatical significance, although that was mostly lost by Chaucer's time. It was elided regularly when a word beginning with a vowel came next. The consequences of silent e in contemporary spelling reflect the phonology of Middle English. In Middle English, as a consequence of the lax vowel rule shared by most Germanic languages, vowels were long when they historically occurred in stressed open syllables; they were short when they occurred in "checked," or closed syllables. Thus bide /'biːdə/ had a long vowel, while bid /bid/ had a short one.
The historical sequence went something like this:
In Old English, a phonological distinction was made between long and short vowels.
In Middle English, vowel length was lost as a phonological feature, but was still phonetically present. A word like bide, syllabified bi.de and phonetically [biːdə], had one stressed, open, long syllable. On the other hand, the word bid, although stressed, had a short vowel: [bid].
At some point unknown to us, the phonetically long vowels began to diphthongize. This was the start of the Great Vowel Shift. Possibly at the same time, the short vowels were laxed. So as "bide" [biːdə] became [bɨidə], "bid" [bid] changed to [bɪd].
At a later point, all word-final schwas were lost. The phonetic motivation for lengthening the vowel -- the open syllable -- was lost, but the process of diphthongization had already begun, and the vowels which had once been identical except for length were now phonetically dissimilar and phonologically distinct.
The writing convention of silent e marks the fact that different vowel qualities had become phonemic, and were preserved even when phonemic vowel length was lost.
Long vowels could arise by other mechanisms. One of these is known as "compensatory lengthening"; this occurred when consonants formerly present were lost: maid is the modern descendant of Old English mægde. In this example, the g actually became a glide /j/, so in a sense, the length of the consonant stayed where it always had been, and there was no "compensation." The silent e rule became available to represent long vowels in writing that arose from other sources; Old English brŷd, representing *bruʒd-i-, became Modern English bride.
The rules of current English spelling were first set forth by Richard Mulcaster in his 1582 publication Elementarie. Mulcaster called silent e "qualifying e", and wrote of it:
It altereth the sound of all the vowells, euen quite thorough one or mo consonants as, máde, stéme, éche, kínde, strípe, óre, cúre, tóste sound sharp with the qualifying E in their end: whereas, màd, stèm, èch, frind, strip, or, cut, tost, contract of tossed sound flat without the same E, And therefor the same loud and sharp sound in the word, calleth still for the qualifying e, in the end, as the flat and short nedeth it not. It qualifyeth no ending vowell, bycause it followeth none in the end, sauing i. as in daie, maie, saie, trewlie, safetie, where it maketh i, either not to be heard, or verie gentlie to be heard, which otherwise wold sound loud and sharp, and must be expressed by y. as, deny, aby, ally. Which kinde of writing shalbe noted hereafter. It altereth also the force of, c, g, s, tho it sound not after them, as in hence, for that, which might sound henk, if anie word ended in c. in swinge differing from swing, in vse differing from vs.
Mulcaster also formulated the rule that a double letter, when final, indicated a short vowel in English, while the absence of doubling and the presence of silent e made the vowel long. In modern English, this rule is most prominent in its effects on the written "a" series:
gal, gall, gale (/gæl, /gɔːl/, /geɪl/).
Digraphs are sometimes treated as single letters for purposes of this rule:
bath, bathe (/bæθ/, /beɪð/)
UKT: It is unfortunate that Modern English is using the digraph <th> in place of the Old English 'thorn' character <þ>. If only Modern English had continued to use it, the above two words would be: baþ, baþe (/bæθ/, /beɪð/). It would then be easy to transliterate into Burmese-Myanmar in which <þ> has an equivalent
{tha.}/{þa.} .
Tom Lehrer wrote a song called Silent E for the children's television series The Electric Company in 1971. In it, he asks the musical questions:
Who can turn a can into a cane?
Who can turn a pan into a pane?
It's not too hard to see,
It's Silent E.
The superhero Letterman, also featured on The Electric Company, was described as being "stronger than silent e".
A series of similar songs about Magic E was featured in the British educational series Look and Read between 1974 and 1994, written by Roger Limb and Rosanna Hibbert and performed by Derek Griffiths.
In the children's show Between the Lions, there was an evil character called Silent E, who was featured in a musical animated sketch where he makes the vowel sounds say their names and changes the words without a silent e into words with a silent e. He is carted off to jail, but easily escapes by using either the policeman's pin and turning it into a pine to climb out the window or the policeman's cap and turning it into a cape to fly out the window. Either way, after that, the policeman shouted, "Well, Silent e, you may have slipped out of my grasp this time, but mark my words: I'll get you YET!"
Here Comes Silent E (ISBBN 0375812334), published by Random House Books for Young Readers in 2004, features a character named Silent E who changes words around.
End of Wikipedia article.
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From: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selkie 081215
Selkies (also known as silkies or selchies) are creatures found in Faroese, Icelandic, Irish, and Scottish mythology.
They can transform themselves from seals to humans. The legend apparently originated on the Orkney Islands, where selch or selk(ie) is the Scots word for seal (from Old English seolh ).
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