[Grammar] Parts of Speech

[SallyAmber]

Good afternoon,

I am currently studying a Linguistics course, and I am attempting some exercises on 'Parts of Speech.'

May I please seek some clarification around my answers to the following:

What are the word classes of the highlighted words in the following sentences:

Q1. "Look carefully to both sides before you cross the road"
- I have answered verb.

Q2. "I could see him across the road trying to flag down a taxi"
- I have answered preposition

Q3. "That is one of the most dangerous crossings in town"
- I have answered noun

Q4. "He admired the dazzling blue of her eyes"
- I have answered adjective

Q5. "His new car is bright green and very fast"
- I answered adjective

The next task is to answer how many of the specified word class are in the following sentences:
Q1. How many propositions are there in the sentence "The kids from the big house on top of the hill ran down the road towards the school at breakneck speed with no regard for safety"
- I answered eight (from, on, of, down, towards, at, with, for)

Q2. How many pronouns are there in the sentence "You said he had been seeing her for months, but she said that they had only met a couple of weeks ago"
- I answered seven (you, he, her, she, me, herself, they)

Q3. How many adjectives are there in the sentence "The unusually tall man in the expensive grey suit was very happy about his new job and whistled cheerfully as he entered the spacious office to discuss his exciting project with his keenly interested manager"
- I answered eight (tall, expensive, grey, happy, new, spacious, exciting, interested)

Q4. How many primary auxiliaries are there in the sentence "I would have done the job if you wanted me to"
I answered none (have is functioning as main verb phrase 'would have' and therefore is not an auxiliary)

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

 

[MikeNewYork]

Good afternoon,

I am currently studying a Linguistics course, and I am attempting some exercises on 'Parts of Speech.'

May I please seek some clarification around my answers to the following:

What are the word classes of the highlighted words in the following sentences:

Q1. "Look carefully to both sides before you cross the road"
- I have answered verb.

Q2. "I could see him across the road trying to flag down a taxi"
- I have answered preposition

Q3. "That is one of the most dangerous crossings in town"
- I have answered noun

Q4. "He admired the dazzling blue of her eyes"
- I have answered adjective
Q5. "His new car is bright green and very fast"
- I answered adjective
The next task is to answer how many of the specified word class are in the following sentences:
Q1. How many propositions are there in the sentence "The kids from the big house on top of the hill ran down the road towards the school at breakneck speed with no regard for safety"
- I answered eight (from, on, of, down, towards, at, with, for)

Q2. How many pronouns are there in the sentence "You said he had been seeing her for months, but she said that they had only met a couple of weeks ago"
- I answered seven (you, he, her, she, me, herself, they) I see no "herself" or "me".

Q3. How many adjectives are there in the sentence "The unusually tall man in the expensive grey suit was very happy about his new job and whistled cheerfully as he entered the spacious office to discuss his exciting project with his keenly interested manager"
- I answered eight (tall, expensive, grey, happy, new, spacious, exciting, interested)

Q4. How many primary auxiliaries are there in the sentence "I would have done the job if you wanted me to"
I answered none (have is functioning as main verb phrase 'would have' and therefore is not an auxiliary) Done is the main verb.

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

MNY

 

[bhaisahab]

Good afternoon,

I am currently studying a Linguistics course, and I am attempting some exercises on 'Parts of Speech.'

May I please seek some clarification around my answers to the following:

What are the word classes of the highlighted words in the following sentences:

Q1. "Look carefully to both sides before you cross the road"
- I have answered verb.

Q2. "I could see him across the road trying to flag down a taxi"
- I have answered preposition

Q3. "That is one of the most dangerous crossings in town"
- I have answered noun

Q4. "He admired the dazzling blue of her eyes"
- I have answered adjective

Q5. "His new car is bright green and very fast"
- I answered adjective

The next task is to answer how many of the specified word class are in the following sentences:
Q1. How many propositions are there in the sentence "The kids from the big house on top of the hill ran down the road towards the school at breakneck speed with no regard for safety"
- I answered eight (from, on, of, down, towards, at, with, for)

Q2. How many pronouns are there in the sentence "You said he had been seeing her for months, but she said that they had only met a couple of weeks ago"
- I answered seven (you, he, her, she, me, herself, they)

Q3. How many adjectives are there in the sentence "The unusually tall man in the expensive grey suit was very happy about his new job and whistled cheerfully as he entered the spacious office to discuss his exciting project with his keenly interested manager"
- I answered eight (tall, expensive, grey, happy, new, spacious, exciting, interested)

Q4. How many primary auxiliaries are there in the sentence "I would have done the job if you wanted me to"
I answered none (have is functioning as main verb phrase 'would have' and therefore is not an auxiliary)

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Have you submitted this to your tutor yet?

 

[SallyAmber]

Thanks for the response. I apologise question two should read: "You said he had been seeing her for months, but she told me herself that they had only met a couple of weeks ago."
- I answered seven (you, he, her, she, me, herself, they). I was questioning whether 'that' is acting as a pronoun or a determiner here though?

Also, may I please clarify would you actually classify 'on top of' as a phrasal preposition? If so, this would then take the count of prepositions down to seven because three-word prepositions are just considered as one preposition, right?

So the answer to question four regarding the primary auxiliaries would be one (have)?

Many thanks.

 

[SallyAmber]

No I have not.

 

[emsr2d2]

Then I politely suggest that you disregard MikeNewYork's answers and submit your own work. It is very important that you do not seek or get assistance with homework assignments. Had MNY realised that you would be submitting this work to your teacher/tutor, I'm sure he would have said (as we do so frequently on this forum), "I'm sorry. We cannot help with homework. Your teacher needs to see what you can do, not what we can do".

Please submit the answers you had come up with before MNY helped you out. When you get your work back from your tutor, if there is anything you don't understand about their corrections, you can come back to us for clarification.

I am closing this thread and I have removed the answers from MNY's post.