Grammar Key Terms

Question 1

What is a derivational function?

Answer 1

It is the way that an affix helps form a new word by attaching itself to a root.

Question 2

What is a noun phrase?

Answer 2

It is a group of words built around a noun.

Question 3

What is a verb phrase?

Answer 3

It is a group of words built around a head (main) verb.

Question 4

What is a head word?

Answer 4

It is the main noun in the phrase.

Question 5

What is a pre-modifier?

Answer 5

It is a word that goes before the head noun to add detail or clarify some aspect of it.

Question 6

What is a qualifier?

Answer 6

It is an additional word or phrase that adds some further detail to the noun.

Question 7

What is a post modifier?

Answer 7

It is a word that comes after the head noun to add detail or clarify some aspect of it.

Question 8

What is a primary auxiliary verb?

Answer 8

It is an auxiliary verb that joins with a main verb to show tense.

Question 9

What is a modal auxiliary verb?

Answer 9

It is an auxiliary verb that joins with a main verb to show the degree of commitment towards an event or person that a speaker holds.

Question 10

What is a clause?

Answer 10

It is a group of words centred around a verb phrase.

Question 11

What is coordinated clause?

Answer 11

The joining of two main clauses in a sentence.

Question 12

What is a subordinate clause?

Answer 12

The joining of two clauses that gives one clause (the main clause) more weighting than another clause (subordinate clause).

Question 13

What is an adverbial clause?

Answer 13

A subordinate clause that functions as an adverbial.

Question 14

What is a noun clause?

Answer 14

A subordinate clause that functions as a subject, object or complement.

Question 15

What is the active voice?

Answer 15

An agent in subject position for prominence.

The verb phrase is in present or past tense.

Question 16

What is the passive voice?

Answer 16

An agent omitted or placed later in the clause using a proposition phrase.

Question 17

What is an orthographic sentence?

Answer 17

It is a sentence marked by a capital letter and a full stop but contains no verb.

Question 18

What is an inflectional function?

Answer 18

It is the way that an affix shows a grammatical category such as a verb tense or a plural noun.

Question 19

What is an affix?

Answer 19

It is the overall term for an addition to a toot to modify its meaning or create a new word.

Question 20

What is a prefix?

Answer 20

A morpheme that goes before a root word to modify its meaning.

Question 21

What is a suffix?

Answer 21

A morpheme that comes after a root word to modify its meaning.

Question 22

What is a root?

Answer 22

It is a morpheme that can stand on its own and can usually form a word in its own right.

Question 23

What is a word class?

Answer 23

It is a group of words that fulfil the same kind of role and function in speech and writing.

Question 24

What is a noun?

Answer 24

It is a word that names a thing or concept.

Question 25

What is a verb?

Answer 25

It is a word that shows a state of being, action or concept.

Question 26

What is an adjective?

Answer 26

It is a word that modifies a noun.

Question 27

What is an adverb?

Answer 27

It is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb.

Question 28

What is an open word class?

Answer 28

It is a word class that is generally open to new words being introduced.

Question 29

What is a closed word?

Answer 29

It is a word class that has only set words included and cannot add new ones.

Question 30

What is a pronoun?

Answer 30

It is a word that substitutes for a noun.

Question 31

What is a determiner?

Answer 31

It is a word that adds detail or clarity to a noun.

Question 32

What is preposition?

Answer 32

It is a word that shows connections between other words often showing a sense of place or time.

Question 33

What is a conjunction?

Answer 33

A word that connects larger structures such as phrases, clauses and sentences.