Proper Form, Pure and Simple

A Handbook for English Grammar

Robinson

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781630879587
• Topic: Langues et linguistique
• Subtopic: Linguistique

Here's a guide for English grammar that reads as easily as a story. It is a fresh, simple approach to the basic fundamentals of proper English form. The author, an experienced, accomplished thirty-year business executive enjoying a second career as a university instructor, is in sync with the reader early through interesting stories and illustrations. He takes the reader on a personal, one-step-at-a-time journey through proper form. Proper Form, Pure and Simple targets the bright individual who got a slow start in English grammar and has never been able to move ahead. It is designed to communicate in understandable terms with the learner who is unsure of his or her language skills. It reaches out to the hesitant, on-the-job professional whose upward mobility requires using proper form. A careful study of this handbook will allow the bright individual to emerge from the embarrassing shadows of poor grammatical structure. This small primer has the power to pump confidence into the student who dreads writing or speaking because of the fear of making grammatical errors. It can rescue the talented executive who is marooned on a plateau because of the lack of skill with written and spoken language. This guide will enable the learner to gain a competitive advantage in a world that demands and rewards the use of proper form.

Chapter 1

Parts of Speech versus Parts of a Sentence

First, let’s separate the Parts of Speech (eight of them) from the Parts of a Sentence. Right now, in your mind, they probably exist in one, big, meaningless pile. Let’s see how Parts of Speech differ from the Parts of a Sentence.

• The Parts of Speech could be thought of as the raw material from which a Sentence is made. They are the following:

1. NOUN

2. PRONOUN

3. VERB

4. ADJECTIVE

5. ADVERB

6. PREPOSITION

7. CONJUNCTION

8. INTERJECTION

If you were building a house, the lumber company would drop a load of lumber (raw material) at your building site. In the raw material pile would be various sizes of lumber: 2x4’s, 2x6’s, 1x12’s, 2x8’s, and so forth. These are the raw materials from which your house will be constructed. In the same way, the Parts of Speech (Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions and Interjections) are the raw materials from which you will build your Sentences.

• The Parts of a Sentence, on the other hand, could be thought of as the new names given to the raw materials once they are placed in the Sentence and have a given function. Some of these Sentence Parts are the following:

9. SUBJECT

10. PREDICATE

11. DIRECT OBJECT

12. INDIRECT OBJECT

13. OBJECT OF A PREPOSITION

Now, don’t panic or let your mind go blank just because you have seen the debris spread before you and have heard familiar terms which you have never understood. Instead, let’s continue with the building analogy. In building a house, you would go to the woodpile and get lumber. The boards would be called 2x4’s, 2x6’s, 1x12’s, 2x8’s, and so forth. But once these boards are put into the structure of your house and assume a given function, their names change according to what function they serve. The 2x4, when it functions as a wall support is called by its new name, a stud. The 2x6, when it functions as a window support is called a header. The 2x8, when it functions as a flooring support is called by its new name, a joist. In the same way, when you take the Parts of Speech (raw materials) and place them into a structure called a Sentence, they get new names according to how they function in that Sentence. Their new names (Sentence Parts) are, as listed above, Subject, Predicate, Direct Object, Indirect Object, Object of a Preposition, and others which lie beyond the scope of this handbook.

Now we are getting somewhere! You understand the principle. What you need now is a simple, specific example to prove to yourself that you know the difference between the Parts of Speech and the Parts of a Sentence. (In future chapters, I will define each of the Parts of Speech as well as many of the Sentence Parts in simple terms.) For now, please accept the definition in parenthesis as you continue reasoning.

In understanding the difference between a Part of Speech (raw material) and a Part of a Sentence, consider the word “boy” in the following Sentences:

• The boy hit the ball.

As a Part of Speech (raw material), “boy” is a Noun (name of a person, place, or thing).

• The boy hit the ball.

As a Part of a Sentence, “boy” is the Subject (the t...