Let the games resume

Well, the "final" is behind us. My students did okay on it, I think. I am wondering if I might be able to post that final on this site as evidence of how rapidly I took my students through syntax. (I, like others of my age, am not that good with computers).

Anyway, what was probably more interesting than the day of the "final" was the day after that test when several students chose to pass up the chance to go to a Christmas dance in order to stay with me to compete at diagramming sentences.

The competition was intense. There were no injuries, but some very frazzled nerves. The funniest moment for me was when, just before a bout was to begin, Santa appeared at the door (a fellow teacher dressed up as Santa). Of course that caused quite a stir, but then I had to tell Santa that he needed to move out of the field of play because he might get hurt. Then I blew the whistle and Santa made an exit, as gracefully as he could.

Congratulations for the good work done Frank Antonson.
We are looking forward to see the final here.

Test on Morphology and Syntax

1) For three points give an example of a noun that is phrasal, concrete, and proper – e.g. Bedford Middle School.
2) For two points write and spell correctly the noun “book” in the singular possessive form.
3) Some action verbs can take a direct object. What are the other action verbs called?
4) “Am, are, is, was, were, be, being, and been” are all forms of what verb? Name it by starting with the word “to”.
5) For six points, give the third person, singular, masculine pronoun with the past tense, progressive form of the verb “to think”.
6) Give an example of a helping verb.
7) Give the comparative degree of the adjective “good”.
8) What is the inflection (or suffix) that can be put on an adjective to produce a derivative adverb?
9) Give four interrogative adverbs.
10) In the sentence “He fell down the hole” is “down” a preposition or an adverb?
11) Give an example of a coordinating conjunction.
12) Give an example of a subordinating conjunction.
13) What do you call the noun or nouns that a pronoun replaces?
14) Give an example of a personal pronoun other than “I” or “them”.
15) Give an example of a reflexive pronoun other than “myself”.
16) In the sentence “I myself did the work” is the pronoun “myself” reflexive or intensive?
17) In the following sentence “I did these things” is the word “these” a demonstrative pronoun or a demonstrative adjective?
18) Give an example of an indefinite pronoun other than “all” or “them”.
19) If a group of words has a subject and a predicate, it is called a what?
20) Simple predicates are always and only what part of speech?
21) What part of a sentence receives the action from a transitive verb?
22) For two points, what two parts of sentences follow linking verbs? (They are both subject complements.)
23) What parts of sentences begin with prepositions and end with the object of a preposition?
24) What parts of sentences begin with the word “to” which is followed by a verb?
25) If a verb ends with an “-ing”, it might be a participle if it is modifying something; but it WILL be a what if it is NAMING an activity, as in “I like diagramming sentences.”
26) If a part of a sentence is DUPLICATING some part, as in “I, Mr. Antonson, am giving this test” where “Mr. Antonson” duplicates the subject, what is it called?
27) Adverb clauses are introduced with what kind of conjunctions?
28) What function word often introduces a noun clause and could be put into this sentence, “I know I am right”, without changing its meaning?
29) What kind of a pronoun connects an adjective clause to its antecedent in a main clause?
The following questions are about this sentence: “Santa Claus will arrive with many presents which are for little children”
30) What is the prepositional phrase in the main clause?
31) What is the relative pronoun in the adjective clause?
32) What sentence part is that relative pronoun within the adjective clause?
33) What is the antecedent of that relative pronoun?

In #18, "them" should read "else".
Many questions, this one included, are intended to lead the students to parts of a chart that I supplied to them.
I allowed the students to use their class notes. During the teaching of this material, I gave no homework and did not require the students to memorize anything. In most cases of the parts of sentences, they only saw one example.
A copy of one class's set of notes can be found in the linguistics and syntax chapters of a set of notes that two of my students put online.
That can be found at
Home - Notes for Humanities/Language

The story of the CSD (Competitive Sentence Diagramming) that occurred the day of the test will require another posting.