Search results for 'tag:Prepositions tag:Literature' matching tags 'Prepositions' and 'Literature'

Re: gerund or verbal noun

CalifJim — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:25:23 GMT

All of your examples are gerunds if we stick to modern terminology.

Forget about the terminology verbal noun. It's total garbage!

It has many different definitions, depending on the author and when the grammar book was written.
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The modern definition is given at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_noun

A verbal noun is a noun formed directly as an inflexion of a verb or a verb stem, sharing at least in part its constructions. This term is applied especially to gerunds, and sometimes also to [bare] infinitives and supines [i.e., full infinitives].

That is, there are three types of verbal noun: gerunds, bare infinitives, and full infinitives.

So anything that is a gerund is also a verbal noun, because a gerund is one of the types of verbal nouns.
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The modern definition is echoed at

http://www.ielanguages.com/english.html

Gerunds: [Like participles,] Gerunds are also formed by adding -ing to the verb, but they function as a verbal noun [as opposed to the participle, which is a verbal adjective] and are normally preceded by articles or demonstratives. The singing was excellent.
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A completely different definition is found here:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-VERBALNOUN.html

VERBAL NOUN. A category of noncountable abstract noun derived from a verb, in English by adding the suffix -ing. Like the verb from which it derives, it refers to an action or state: writing in The writing has taken too long; hearing in His hearing is defective. Verbal nouns are frequently combined with the preposition of and a noun phrase that corresponds to the subject or object in a clause: The grumbling of his neighbours met with no response (compare His neighbours grumbled); His acting of Hamlet won our admiration (compare He acted Hamlet). Verbal nouns contrast with deverbal nouns, that is, other kinds of nouns derived from verbs, such as attempt, destruction, and including nouns ending in -ing that do not have verbal force: building in The building was empty. They also contrast with the gerund, which also ends in -ing, but is syntactically a verb.

Note the last (underlined) sentence. By this definition only usages like The neighbors were acting like fools are considered gerunds -- not all the other examples that preceded -- examples that we would all agree are gerunds in current terminology.
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The next definition is more than 100 years old, and I've seen it quoted on this site. Note that it is classified (see the URL) under "Classic Literature". It is useful only as a historic document -- not as a guide to modern English and modern syntactic analysis.

http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wmbaskervill/bl-wmbaskervill-grammar-parts-nouns.htm

An English Grammar

1896

by W. M. Baskervill & J. W. Sewell

273. It [the gerund] differs from the participle in being always used as a noun: it never belongs to or limits a noun.

It differs from the verbal noun in having the property of governing a noun (which the verbal noun has not) and of expressing action (the verbal noun merely names an action, Sec. II).

[Sec. II. is actually Sec. 11, where nouns are discussed. The discussion of verbal nouns is within a category called Abstract Nouns, so in Section 11 verbal nouns are called by their more specific name: Verbal Abstract Nouns.]

II. The VERBAL ABSTRACT NOUNS Originate in verbs, as their name implies. They may beâ

(1) Of the same form as the simple verb. The verb, by altering its function, is used as a noun; as in the expressions, "a long run" "a bold move," "a brisk walk "
[These are called deverbal nouns in modern terminology -- or 'zero-related nominals' or just 'nouns'.]

(2) Derived from verbs by changing the ending or adding a suffix: motion from move, speech from speak, theft from thieve, action from act, service from serve.
[These,too, are called deverbal nouns nowadays -- or just 'nouns'.]

(3) Derived from verbs by adding -ing to the simple verb. It must be remembered that these words are free from any verbal function They cannot govern a word, and they cannot express action, but are merely names of actions. They are only the husks of verbs, and are to be rigidly distinguished from gerunds (Secs. 272, 273). [These are nouns that end in -ing. They have acquired fixed meanings as nouns, referring to something more concrete than the action of the underlying verb.]

To avoid difficulty, study carefully these examples:

The best thoughts and sayings of the Greeks; the moon caused fearful forebodings; in the beginning of his life; he spread his blessings over the land; the great Puritan awakening; our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; a wedding or a festival; the rude drawings of the book; masterpieces of the Socratic reasoning; the teachings of the High Spirit; those opinions and feelings; there is time for such reasonings; the well-being of her subjects; her longing for their favor; feelings which their original meaning will by no means justify; the main bearings of this matter.
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It is debatable whether anything whatsoever is to be gained in the study of modern English by resurrecting these older definitions.

CJ

Re: Capitilaztion

Philip — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 03:36:17 GMT

Tumbling wrote:

Will someone please check me.

Red the small letters that should be capitalized in the following sentences.

1. The Fairfax hotel operates on the american plan.
2. Sarah Whiting, an astronomer at wellesley, helped plan the Whitin observatory.
3. This spring my aunt Mary saw several elk near Douglas lake.
4. Our high school plans to perform Hansberrys A raisin in the sun.
5. Because I was sick for two weeks, I fell behind in literature, algebra, and world history I.

I, as in AmEng, would add to Feebs:

3) Aunt -- unless you separate 'aunt' from 'Mary' with commas

4) 'In' (perhaps an insignificant preposition) should be capitalized

5) Standard is to capitalize all classes if they are listed as the title of the class. "I really like to study literature, history and algebra" ~ "my favorite classes are Literature, History and Algebra". As far as I know, this is standard here in the colonies.

Help needed!!!

Pradi — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 11:33:39 GMT

Kindly Help me in modifying with the errors in the following sentences

Instructions:

Please complete the exercises given below.
Then rename the file by adding â_your full nameâ.

e.g., Editing Test_TeenaGunt

Use the âTrack changesâ option. This will indicate any insertion or deletion made within the document in a different color.
To put this option on:

Click on âToolsâ on the main toolbar.
Select âTrack Changesâ in the drop down menu.

Â§ Save the document with the âtrack changesâ on.

Please make a note of the time taken to complete each exercise.
The objective of this exercise should be to have an output that
reflects a high standard of English while retaining the original meaning.
You may use a dictionary and/or thesaurus.

Exercise 1:

Instructions

The following is a list of sentences from documents to be published in international academic journals. Edit each sentence by correcting all errors (grammatical, typographical, etc.) and awkward constructions and modifying all informal/colloquial expressions.

1. Another example is that, when Japanese prepositions are compared with other languages, it can help students deepen their knowledge of Japanese grammer.

2. The age-related labor-force rate of women in Philippines demonstrates an M-shaped curve. This is because many married women exit their jobs following marriage and re-enter the workforce when some years are passed.

3. In the end of Fiscal Year 2004, Canadian life insurers held 32 million dollars of domestic stock, while this figure stood at a mere 20 million dollars in the end of fiscal year 2003.

4. This paper comprises of three main parts: first, we provide the findings of our study; second we describe the proposed method and third; we list results achieved though this method.

5. These observations suggest that chemical shift of the atom incorporated into the phosphole skeleton is not due to an inductive effect but a conjugated effect of the phosphole moiety.

6. Doubtlessly, students were noticed to get higher scores after following the learning pattern recommended.

7. We are hard to define the complex relation between modernity in the capitalist society and Modernism in culture only from the view of English literature because of nature of popularization.

8. If Product X was first introduced in 1995, then Product Y is believed to have been manufactured before Product X.

9. The Chinese-Indian projectâthe first of itâs kindâmet moderate success. However, the possibility remains that the interaction between two neighboring countries will have favorable consequences.

10. It reminded me of Brianâs voice, who is my cousin, and also of my fathers voice.

11. The old system, which was developed during the years of high economic growth rate has been discontinued since 2003.

12. In this study we synthesized a wide variety of polymers and their photochemical behavior was investigated.

13. Bearing this theory and the fact that sherds are very rare in the Proto-Hassuna levels of Seker al-Aheimar in mind, such a situation as in the Khabur basin may not have been unlikely to be the case in southern Iran as well.

14. The main question that should be asked is when and why does the choice of creating a new division become advisable.

15. The functions of the new machine are same as the old machine, expect for slight improvement in speed.

16. Among factors that have influence to the strategic decision of companies, researchers have proposed that the two following factors are the most influential of all.

Exercise 2:

Instructions

The following is an excerpt from a book entitled âExotic Birds of Brazil.â Edit this passage by correcting all errors (grammatical, typographical, etc.) and awkward constructions and removing all informal/colloquial expressions. Do not hesitate to rewrite entire sentences or paragraphs.

3.1 Give-and-take relationships among mixed-species flocks of birds

Through the study, we observed the seven species of birds in the flock. For each of these seven species, half of the times that I observed they were in company of other species. Or else they folaged alone. It is different from the situation of birds living in temperate forests, such as Africa, where such behaviour is seen during non-breeding season only, and not during the breeding. The reason is because during this period the birds become busy with building nests. But in Brazil despite of this, seven species were spending half each day in mixed-species flock. I already knew from books and papers that in the tropical forests, mixed-species flocks are present through the year, but to see it at first hand I wondered just why this occurred.

Not only in appearance but also the foraging technique at which each bird was respectively most proficient, was unique to each. However, comparing the technique used when each species was or was not foraging in mixed-species flock revealed the technique used to be different in six of the seven species (Figs 3, 4). The species, which showed the greatest difference, was the Crested Parrot. When foraging together with conspecifics or solitarily, the Crested Parrot sat on branches at a height of >6 ms, and flew and nabbed small insects for example bees and flies. Well, after joining a mixed-species flock the Crested Parrot comes down to a height below 6 m and starts to forage for caterpillars, centipedes, and spiders. Paradise Kingfisher also changed its foraging method from principle method of flying into air to catch insects on the wing, to one where he hovered by fluttering to catch insects residing in the foliage.

I often witnessed the Crested Parrot observing and following Red Tailed Starlings which were picking insects from the ground surface. It seems the Crested Parrot was trying to cacth the food that the Red Tailed Starling failed to capture. But, I was unable to confirm if the Crested Parrot was successful in catching any food in that way. Perhaps because in this relationship the Red Tailed Starling is aggressively dominant, the Crested Parrot could approach the Red Tailed Starling only to within a certain distance, and to have done so any closer might trigger an attack.

Re: Disproven

Mister Micawber — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 14:11:15 GMT

Disproven is OK, and so is assumptions / the assumptions-- but I would use its assumptions. And I think that by is the wrong preposition, since literature itself proves/disproves nothing. Use in (the) feminist literature.

Re: phrasal verbs

CalifJim — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 16:01:38 GMT

Hi, Pieanne,

If you research the literature on this topic you will find that different authors prefer different terminology. I've seen it called "adverb", "preposition", and "particle". "preposition" is popular among the transformational grammarians. They theorize that prepositions do not need objects to be considered prepositions. Personally, I prefer "particle". It seems to be the most neutral description.

Jim

Re: HELP ME .....

davkett — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 15:54:58 GMT

For the rest, Kela, I'm going to give you hints (in blue), so that you can try to improve things yourself. (A repeated problem is your use of indefinite pronouns--for instance, writing 'he' when the reader doesn't know which person 'he' refers to.

Rommel described himself as a boy who doesnât like to participate in any activities, he demonstrated that he was interested in other kind (plural) of hobbies. (Two sentences.)

He was good at drawing Japaneseâs (punctuation) cartoons but it wasnât enough (for what?). It was a dramatically (adverb/adjective?) situation for him (who?) because he (who?) didnât know what he (who?) should be from (preposition) Rommel.

He couldnât believe that it was possible for a boy to be in fourth grade if he couldnât read, and he couldn't believe that noone had done anything about it. He couldnât do anything to change it (what?).

For a long time, he continued teaching at the same school. He was working hard for (preposition) obtain a certificate from a very prestigious university in Michigan where the students was (plural) improving themselves. All of them had done so except Rommel.

He couldnât understand how nobody had paid attention to Rommelâs problem. He (does this teacher have a name?) had a meeting with a fellow teacher, who had reached a stupid (word choice) conclusion about him: "Rommel canât read, thatâs all". While his classmates were reading or writing (comma) Rommel was doing something else.

He (who?) believed that he was a clever guy, because he (who?) didn't have any problem about learn (present participle) math.

Rommel could understand the plots of books that the teacher read for his students to improve their reading abilities. Rommel participated in the speeches and he lived the story that the teacher tells (past tense) them.

After that (what?), he (who?) made an important decision. He tried a new teaching plan. Even though, he didnât receive compensation for it, the teacher spent an extra few minutes each day with Rommel, reading together an interesting and amazing book, Harry Potter.

His method was unusual. The teacher would read a line from the book, then Rommel would be asked to recognize one of the words. If he couldnât do it, he would receive a punishment, a soft pinch. If he could identify the word (comma) the teacher would continue telling him the story.

After many long weeks, in spite of practice (present participle) a lot, Rommel was still not able to to read. He felt disappointed and guilty about it. But the truth was that the whole educational system was at fault because nothing had been done to resolve the problem.

Rommelâs teacher likes (past tense) so much to read. He had a lot of different kinds of books in his small apartment. He gave Rommel a special gift, a VCR tape and a book that might help him to make an extra effort.

This gift created new opportunities for the two of them to spend more hours together, until, finally, Rommel could read. They had worked hard until they obtained a good result. The teacher encouraged Rommel to immerse himself in the amazing world of literature.

He taught ~~since~~ him the elemental things, and how ~~he had~~ to pronounce each letter until he could recognize all of them. Rommel, like (article) good draftsman, --he-- was able to create an ingenious system that helped him to remember his lesson. He created a picture for each ~~one~~ letter (period) If he couldnât remember a letter, he would check its picture on the wall.

After a long time of hard work, Rommel began reading in front of some classmates and also before the woman who had never believed in his ability to do it. Rommel was gradually able to read any kind of literature and he enjoyed doing it. Donât stop him now.

Now he has to learn to write. And he has begun to do so, with a little help from his dear teacher.

postgraduate student

Antonia — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 15:39:43 GMT

Hello!

I'm quite positive that my preposition is wrong. Can you help me out, please?

Postgraduate student of Literature and socio-humanistic context

preposition

Antonia — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 07:31:18 GMT

Hello!

Can you please tell me if my preposition is OK in the pink part of the sentence. Thank you!

Three classes who participated in the study had an opportunity to experience the so called ''Combined reading''or different ways of interpreting literature on the third and forth year of their high-school education.

Re: Prescriptive Grammarians - Who Are They?

paco2004 — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 01:24:32 GMT

Hello Roro

By the way how do you think about MrPedantic's point ?

Do you mean the semantic difference between "with whom ..." and "whom ... with"? Or should I talk about why the Lowth's writing is ironic? I think I have no idea about the first question, though I'm getting inclined to agree to opinions of you and MrP.

As for the second question, I speculate Lowth's desire would be to get written English similar to Latin where a sentence rarely ends with a preposition. He might intentionally write the sentence ending with "inclined to" to illustrate the construction he wanted to reject. I had a look at the entry of "whom" in OED and found that almost all of the sentences written before the time of Lowth didn't end with a preposition, though there was one exception : "This is the man, whom I spake to thee of" (Great Bible : 1539). Most people put the preposition before "whom" as a relative or as an interrogative. It seems that English writers in general were faithful, as far as writings concern, to the Lowth's rule even before he declared it as a rule. Another construct they used was "whom + preposition": "For them, whom with they were in wages, they fight hardly"(1551, Robinson). Speaking about the quoutes after Lowth's time, a sentence that broke the Lowth's rule appeared in literature for the first time in 1905. "Getting a note, she did not tell me whom it was from, or what it was about" (1905, Glyn).

paco

Re: Someones

MrPedantic — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 00:40:05 GMT

Hello MtL

This is the kind of phrase you find in advertising blurb:

1. *NEW!* English Forums Prepositions! Ten-Year Guarantee! For that Special Someone!

i.e. if someone is 'special' to you (e.g. a girlfriend, a husband), buy them a few English Forums prepositions.

You could extend this meaning to say:

2. *NEW!* English Forums Adverbs! Hardly Used! For those 'Special Someones'!

Normally, you would say e.g. 'some special people', instead of 'special someones'. But since 'special someone' is a set phrase, you can (semi-jocularly) treat it as a single word, in contexts such as advertising and informal literature, and simply add an S.

Cf. 'Walkman': we say 'Walkmans', not 'Walkmen'.

MrP