Ranjith Kumar A.K.: Parts of Speech

Parts of speech

A typical English sentence consists of two parts. One Subject part and other a Predicate part.

The Subject

Look at the subject parts of the sentences in the table below

Subject	Predicate
Mohan	laughed
Birds	fly
Dogs	bark
They	ran
Leela	danced

The subjects in the sentences in the table above are nouns (eg. Dogs,brids) or pronouns (they). The predicate is a verb. Each subject is a single word.But not all English sentences are so short.The subject part often consists of more than one word, and so does the predicate part.

In table 2 below the subject part in each sentence consists f two words.

Table 2

Subject		Predicate
The	lion	roared
My	legs	ached
Those	children	laughed
That	door	creaks

Noun is the most important word in a Subject. But there are other words that go with noun in order to modify it.

The subject part is each of the sentences above consists of two words – noun and another word before it which tells us something more about the noun. For example the word that tells us which door is meant. Similarly the word those tells us that not all the children but only a certain number of them laughed. Any such word that goes with a noun and adds to its meaning is said to qualify the noun. Qualifying words of this kid are known as determiners.

Determiners

Determiners are usually used to modify a noun. Determiners consists of

1. Articles (a,an,the)

2. Possessives ( my,our,your,his,her,its,their)

3. Demonstratives ( this,these,that,those)

Pre determiner

The words like ‘such’ and ‘what’ can precede a deter miner in some contexts. Hence they are called Pre – Determiners when used in such positions

Eg : What a beautiful car !

I haven’t seen such a fine match in my whole life.

Now look at the sentences in Table 3.

Table 3

Subject			Predicate
Determiner	Adjective	Noun	Verb
Their	beloved	leader	died
A	large	house	collapsed
The	full	moon	shone
My	elder	brother	Spoke
The	angry	workers	struck

Note that the subject part in each of the sentences above has in it two qualifying words. We have called the first word a determiner and the second word, a describing word as you may already know is called an adjective, which too qualifies the noun.

Note how the adjective is placed between the determiner and the noun.

Now look at the subject part of each of the sentences in Table 4

Subject				Predicate
Determiner	Adjective	Noun	Adjectival Phrase
The		man	standing in that corner	is a policeman
A	young	boy	With a beautiful voice	Sang the prayer song
His		son	In the States	Is an engineer
A		man	Of learning and good character	Is respected by everyone
The	new	books	In the library	Have been listed

Note that in the sentences above, the subject part includes an adjectival phrase that qualifies the noun. Note also that the adjectival phrase, unlike the single word adjective, is placed after the noun.

Now look at the subject part of each of the sentences in the table below.

Subject					Predicate
Determiner	Adjective	Noun	Adjectival Phrase	Adjectival Clause
The		man		who brought the message	is my brother’s servant.
The	young	boy		who sang the prayer song	is my neighbor’s son
His		son		who is in the States	is an engineer
A		man	of wealth	Who uses his wealth for helping others	will have great happiness of mind
		men	in power	who misuse their power	do a lot of harm to the nation
Those		countries		which have the atom bomb	are called nuclear powers

Note that in each of the sentences above the subject part includes an Adjectival clause that qualifies the noun. The adjectival clause like the adjectival phrase is always put after the noun it qualifies.

We have now seen that the subject part of a sentence has in it a noun or a pronoun as the main or head word and that the noun may be qualified by some or more of the following: determiner, adjective, adjectival phrase, and adjectival clause.

Subject					Predicate
Determiner	Adjective	Noun	Adjectival Phrase	Adjectival Clause	Predicate
		Sitha			danced
The		king			ruled
That	young	boy			is my neighbour
His		son	in the states		is an engineer
His		son		who is in the States	is an engineer
The	black	umbrella	with a broken handle		is mine
The	black	umbrella		which has a broken handle	is mine
The		dog		that bites	does not bark

If a sentence contains all the above elements it will look like as below.

Subject					Predicate
Determiner	Adjective	Noun	Adjective Phrase	Adjective Clause	verb
The	beautiful	flower	in the garden	that swayed in the wind	fell down

Word pyramid

Flower

[ Noun]

The flower

[ Determiner + Noun]

The beautiful flower

[ Determiner + Adjective + Noun]

The beautiful flower in the garden

[ Determiner + Adjective + Noun + adjectival phrase ( or prepositional phrase)]

The beautiful flower in the garden that danced in the breeze

[ Determiner + Adjective + Noun + adjectival phrase ( or prepositional phrase) + adjectival clause (or relative clause)]

Adjectives

Adjectives are used to modify a noun

Beautiful flower

Large house

Adjectives can be single word adjective or adjective phrase or adjective clause

Adjective Phrase

Phrase means a goup of words usually part of a sentence.

Eg : A beautiful flower in the garden.

Here in the garden is a phrase

As it does the function of an adjective it can be called an adjective phrase. (As this phrase’s main element is a preposition it can be called a Prepositional phrase also)

Adjective clause

A clause is a group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate and it is almost like a sentence but may not take a full stop at the end. If a clause takes a full stop at the end it will become a full sentence. A sentence may consist of more than one clause. A sentence that consists of more than one clause can be either a Complex Sentence (One main clause and one or more subordinate clauses) or a Compound Sentence (More than one independent clause). If a clause does the function of an adjective it can be called an Adjective Clause. If it does the function of an Adverb (modify a verb) it can be called an Adverb Clause and if it does the function of a noun it is called a Noun Clause.

Phrase

Definition: A group of words; normally a part of a sentence

Types – Adjectival phrase, Adverb phrase and Noun Phrase

Adjectival Phrase – A phrase that does the function of an adjective

The flower on the table is beautiful.

On the table is a phrase. As it modifies the noun ‘flower’ it is an adjectival phrase.

Please note that as it is beginning with a preposition (on) it is a prepositional phrase also.

Prepositional phrase

A phrase that begins with a preposition

A prepositional phrase can be an adjectival phrase or an adverb phrase depending upon the word it modifies.

The flower on the table is beautiful. (Adjective phrase – modifies a noun - ‘flower’)

He sat on the table (Adverb phrase modifies a verb – ‘sat’)

Adverb Phrase - A phrase that does the function of an adverb

The old man walked on the road (a prepositional phrase functions as an adverb phrase)

Noun Phrase

Definition : A noun accompanied by a modifier is called Noun Phrase

Moon – ( Noun)

The moon ( Noun phrase )

In the second sentence the noun ‘Moon’ is modified by a determiner ‘the’. Hence it is a Noun Phrase.

Predicate

The Most important word in predicate is always a verb.

Verbs are three types

1. Transitive verbs (takes object)

2. Intransitive verbs (does not take object)

3. Incomplete verbs (is followed by Subject Complements)

Incomplete verbs are very few in English language: they are be,become,seem,look,feel,grow,smell etc

Table 1

Subject	Predicate
Subject	Verb	Complement (Adjective)
Mohan	is	tall
Roses	smell	sweet
The children	were	happy

Table 2

Subject	Predicate
Subject	Verb	Complement (Noun)
Dasharatha	was	a king
Mohan’s brother	is	a doctor
This man	is	a farmer
That	is	Mr.Bhagath
His son	became	a judge

Table 3

Subject

Predicate

Verb

Direct Object

The driver

stopped

the car

These boys

play

cricket

Tensing and Hillary

climbed

Mount Everest

Rabindranath Tagore

won

the Nobel Prize

saw

a big tiger

have seen

the Taj Mahal

Table 4

Subject
Subject	Verb	Indirect Object	Direct Object
He	gave	me	some money
The old man	left	his sons	a lot of property
The old lady	told	her grand children	a lot of stories
Mohan’s father	bought	him	a bicycle
Mr.Das	taught	us	English

Table 5

Subject
Subject	Verb	Object	Object Complement
Ashok	called	his dog	Tomy
We	call	Mahatma Gandhi	the father of the nation
The members	elected	Mr.Verma	president
The boys	chose	Raghu	their leader
My reply	made	my father	angry

Table 6

Subject	Predicate
Subject	Verb	Adverb
The old man	walked	slowly
The lecturer	spoke	clearly
My father	lives	in Mumbai
The dictionaries	lay	on the top shelf
The glass	broke	when I dropped it

Table 7

Subject	Predicate
	Verb	Subject Complement	Indirect Object (to whom? for whom?)	Direct Object (What? Whom?)	Object Complement	Adverb Manner (How ?)	Adverb Place (Where)	Adverb Time (when?)
Sitha	is	beautiful
Rama	was	a king
Leela	gave		me	a pen
They	elected			John	captain
Everyone	calls			Mr.Dauddy	A fool
I	saw			Raju				last week
She	sent			a letter
I	saw			a snake		clearly	in the garden	Yesterday