Two desperate students need help with grammar

[britt_vanessa]

Hello,

We spend the whole day learning grammar but there are a couple of things and tasks which we were not able to answer and any help would be much much appreciated. Feels a bit strange to post all our questions but maybe you can help us out.

1. What is the principle that is relevant for the following variant of English word order? What is this grammatically correct construction called?
You should read with greatest attention all the instructions which you receive in the course of the day.

2. Classify the "there" in the following sentence:
There is something extra and heroic about him

It is either presentational, existentational or locative. we would tend to say that it is existational.

3.Underline the occurences of the linking be in the following sentences.

The books I read last week were extremely boring. This town has constantly been growing. Will you be in the office tomorrow? But I am wondering about it again and again. Louise was invited for dinner.

4. Which verbs can not be passivised in English.

We said that only intransative verbs can´t be passivised.

5. Which internal property of the object- Noun phrase accounts for the choice of few/little in the following sentences:
A: The president has few supporters in the army
B The president has little support in the army.

6. Which internal proberty of the noun college accounts for the placement of an article and for the zero- article in the following sentences:
A: John has been at college for four years.
B: The college is a rather new building.

7. Examples for unique, abstract and common nouns.

we will stop at this point eventhough we have a couple of questions left, but we guess that these are enough for the time being.

Thanks for your time and patience.

Tessa and Britt

[Tdol]

1. What is the principle that is relevant for the following variant of English word order? What is this grammatically correct construction called?
You should read with greatest attention all the instructions which you receive in the course of the day.
I don't get this question

2. Classify the "there" in the following sentence:
There is something extra and heroic about him

It is either presentational, existentational or locative. we would tend to say that it is existational. Existational, though some people take a different line and view it as an expletive.

3.Underline the occurences of the linking be in the following sentences.

The books I read last week were extremely boring. This town has constantly been growing. Will you be in the office tomorrow? But I am wondering about it again and again. Louise was invited for dinner.

4. Which verbs can not be passivised in English.

We said that only intransative verbs can´t be passivised.
Yes,

5. Which internal property of the object- Noun phrase accounts for the choice of few/little in the following sentences:
A: The president has few supporters in the army
B The president has little support in the army.
Countability- it's plural countable in the first and uncountable in the second.

6. Which internal proberty of the noun college accounts for the placement of an article and for the zero- article in the following sentences:
A: John has been at college for four years.
B: The college is a rather new building.
In the first, we're thinking more of the activity of studying at a cetrtain level than the bricks and mortar of the place. In the second we are thinking about a specific location in physical terms.

7. Examples for unique, abstract and common nouns.
A unique noun is a noun with 'the' that is unique (the only one) in that text. If I say 'I went to pick her up at the station', it's unique because it is the only one in reference. If I say 'the highest mountain in the world', it is unique because it has to be Mount Everest.

Click here for more nouns
.

[britt_vanessa]

Thanks a lot for your help . Your answers are helping us a lot. After reading your answers it all sounds very logical while yesterday I was just compelety lost. Would it be possible for you to answer a couple of other questions as well? Will try to work them out on my own first but just in case I go lost again (which is very likely).

Have a lovely day.

Britt

[Tdol]

Britt, feel free- it's what we're here for. Welcome.

[britt_vanessa]

Hi again a couple of days have passed and I´m bach with some questions.

1. Explain the difference between long and short passive by refering to the following sentence.
The letter to my friend get written by me anyway.
I would say that the long passive has been used because the sentence has an agent and it has a "by phrase". Oh dear my explanation sound really dull... what do you think? is it a long passive and do you have a better explanation?

2. Which of the given nouns are abstract and/or common?
teacher
New Zealand
Time
Advice
Snow

3. Underline the Noun Phrases with generic meaning.
John have some toas!- I don´t like toast.

4. Mark the sentences with non-defining relative clause.
a) The tomatoes that I bought yesterday are all bad.
b) Then he met Polly, who invited him to a party.
c) These are the Simpsons who we met on holiday last year.
d) I haven´t yet met my new boss, which my friends find strange.
e) I´ve just got a postcard from a woman whom I met on holiday last year.
f) The idea that Polly is John Hardley´s daughter surprised all in the room.
g) The people that live downstairs are Irish.

4. Classify the phrasal and clausal adjuncts in the following sentences:I highlighted my suggestions...
Peter was playing with great skill although he was very tired. Unforunately. eating has been her obvious weakness for several years. They were on duty all night long.

5. What is the difference between pronoun it, dummy it and anticipatory it?


Say whether the highlighted word is a pronoun it, dummy it and anticipatory it?

a) It won´t do any good to hide from me.
b) I think you´ve broken it.
c) It´s very kind of you to see me at short notice.
d) It was afer midnight when I left the office.
e) I´ve had it with this place - I´m leaving!

6. Identify all the determiners in each of the following sentences.
a) I´ll just have half a cup.
b) She calls her two children twice a week.
c) Your photograph is in all the papers.
d) Both these books were published last year.
f) Other people get double the amount we get.

Thanks again for all your help.

Britt

[britt_vanessa]

Oh dear, just read my post again. Made some silly spelling mistakes but never mind. Hope you can help me out again tdol.

Take care Britt

[Casiopea]

1. Explain the difference between long and short passive by refering to the following sentence.
The letter to my friend get written by me anyway.
I would say that the long passive has been used because the sentence has an agent and it has a "by phrase". Oh dear my explanation sound really dull... what do you think? is it a long passive and do you have a better explanation?

I'm not sure what "long passive" means. It's a new term for me, but if it means using the semantic subject (i.e., by____) then I would agree with you. That part's out of the way, so now all you have to do is explain what "short passive" means, or rather, put the sentence into the "short passive".

2. Which of the given nouns are abstract and/or common?
teacher
New Zealand
Time
Advice
Snow

What are your choices? Please provide your answers. By the way, you can't touch or sense "abstract nouns". "common" nouns are things we can touch and sense. They also tend to be names of things. Why not use those definitions along with process of elimination to find the answers?

3. Underline the Noun Phrases with generic meaning.
John have some toast!- I don´t like toast.

Please provide your answers. "generic" means, relating to a class, general, not specific. Is "John" generic? What about "toast"?

4. Mark the sentences with non-defining relative clause.
a) The tomatoes that I bought yesterday are all bad.
b) Then he met Polly, who invited him to a party.
c) These are the Simpsons who we met on holiday last year.
d) I haven´t yet met my new boss, which my friends find strange.
e) I´ve just got a postcard from a woman whom I met on holiday last year.
f) The idea that Polly is John Hardley´s daughter surprised all in the room.
g) The people that live downstairs are Irish.

A relative clause (RC) tends to begin with a relative pronoun (e.g., who, whom, that, which). A non-defining relative clause is easy to pick out because it's added information. Information that isn't required. That is, if you delete the RC and the meaning of the sentence doesn't change, then the RC is non-defining RC.

4. Classify the phrasal and clausal adjuncts in the following sentences:I highlighted my suggestions...
Peter was playing with great skill although he was very tired. Unforunately. eating has been her obvious weakness for several years. They were on duty all night long.

Sorry, nothing was highlighted. Try again.

5. What is the difference between pronoun it, dummy it and anticipatory it?

Please provide your answer.

6. Identify all the determiners in each of the following sentences.
a) I´ll just have half a cup.
b) She calls her two children twice a week.
c) Your photograph is in all the papers.
d) Both these books were published last year.
f) Other people get double the amount we get.

Please provide your answers.

[britt_vanessa]

Hi,

thanks for your reply. Sorry for not providing answers in some cases but I really have difficulties to answer them. I have no clue how to answer question five and six. Thanks a lot for your other definitions I would now say that:

2. Which of the given nouns are abstract and/or common?
teacher common
New Zealand (not sure... probably both?
Time abstract
Advice abstract
Snow common


I now highlighted my suggestions for question number 4.

Classify the phrasal and clausal adjuncts in the following sentences:I highlighted my suggestions...
Peter was playing with great skill although he was very tired. Unforunately. eating has been her obvious weakness for several years. They were on duty all night long.

It is rather difficult for me to answer this question I tried to answer it but I´m really not sure wether it is correct.

. Mark the sentences with non-defining relative clause.
a) The tomatoes that I bought yesterday are all bad.
b) Then he met Polly, who invited him to a party.
c) These are the Simpsons who we met on holiday last year.
d) I haven´t yet met my new boss, which my friends find strange.
e) I´ve just got a postcard from a woman whom I met on holiday last year. f) The idea that Polly is John Hardley´s daughter surprised all in the room.
g) The people that live downstairs are Irish.



Britt

[britt_vanessa]

Hi,

I guess I know the answers now. I will post them during the next days.

Britt