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- absolute phrase
- A
subject and an adjective phrase (often a participial phrase) used to
modify an entire clause-for example, "Her curiosity satisfied, she left
the meeting." (28c-2)
- abstract noun
- A word that names an idea, emotion, quality, or other intangible concept-for example, beauty, passion, despair. (28a-1, 43a-2)
- acronym
- A pronounceable word formed from the first
letters of a multiword name and usually written in uppercase
letters-for example, UNESCO, ASCII, RAM. (56d)
- active form
- See active voice.
- active voice
- The form a transitive verb takes to
indicate that the subject is performing the action on the direct
object. Also called the active form. (28a-4, 28g)
- adjective
- A word that modifies a noun by
qualifying or describing it-for example, new, interesting. (28a-3,
Chapter 32). See also specific types of adjectives.
- adjective clause
- A dependent clause, usually
introduced by a relative pronoun, that modifies a noun or pronoun. Also
called a relative clause. (28c-3)
- adverb
- A word that modifies a verb, adjective,
clause, sentence, or other adverb-for example, quickly, well. (28a-5,
Chapter 32, 60d). See also specific types of adverbs.
- adverb clause
- A dependent clause that begins with a subordinating conjunction and answers the question when, where, how, or why. (28c-3)
- agreement
- The grammatical requirement that a verb
and its subject have the same number (either plural or singular) and
that a pronoun and its antecedent have the same number and gender.
(Chapter 31)
- analogy
- A simile that extends beyond one sentence. (43f-1)
- analytical writing
- Writing that examines the whole of a work in relationship to its component parts. (17a-3)
- annotating
- Making summary notes in the margin, as well as underlining or highlighting important words and passages. (2b-3)
- antecedent
- The noun that precedes and is replaced
by a pronoun. For example, in the sentence "David is proud of himself,"
David is the antecedent of himself. A pronoun should agree in number
and gender with its antecedent. (28a-2, 35a)
- antonyms
- Two words having opposite meanings-for example, love and hate. (45c-3)
- appositive
- A special type of pronoun-noun pairing
in which a pronoun is conjoined with a noun-for example, we students.
Also, a noun that is placed next to the subject to give it extra
characterization. See also appositive phrase. (29c)
- appositive phrase
- A noun phrase, placed next to
another noun, that describes or defines the other noun and is usually
set off by commas-for example, "Sammy Sosa, my favorite baseball
player, may someday break the home run record." Also called an
appositive. (28c-2)
- argument
- A course of reasoning that puts forth a claim and supports it with evidence. (Chapter 7)
- article
- A word that precedes a noun and indicates
definiteness or indefiniteness. Standard Edited English has three
articles: a, an, the. (28a-3, Chapter 58)
- aspect
- See verbal aspect.
- auxiliary verb
- A verb, such as has, be, or do,
that combines with a main verb to form a simple predicate-for example,
"The guests have left." Also called a helping verb. (28a-4, 28c)
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- base form
- The
main form of a verb, given as the headword in the dictionary-for
example, run, ask, consider. Also called simple form. (28a-4, 28a)
- bibliography
- Any listing of books and articles on a particular subject. (8d)
- Boolean operators
- Specific words (AND, NOT, OR)
that are combined with other words or phrases to allow you to focus
your search terms during a database search. (9c-1)
- brainstorming
- Generating random ideas or fragments of thought about a topic. (3c-1)
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- case
- The
form a pronoun takes to indicate its grammatical relation to other
words in the sentence. (Chapter 29). See also objective case,
possessive case, subjective case.
- clause
- A group of words that has a subject and a predicate. (28c-3). See also specific types of clauses.
- cliché
- An overused expression-for example, sick and tired, climbing the ladder of success. (43g-3)
- clustering
- A prewriting technique that helps a writer see relationships among ideas. (3c-4)
- cognates
- Two words, from different languages, that
are similar in form and meaning-for example, the English disaster and
the Spanish desastre. (61a)
- coherence
- The characteristic of writing that makes it "stick together" from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph. (5a-2)
- collective noun
- A singular word that names a group-for example, team, band, trio. (28a-1)
- collocation
- The relationship between two or more words that frequently occur together-for example, write and check. (45c-1, 61b)
- comma splice
- Two independent clauses joined only by a comma. Comma splices are not acceptable in formal English. (Chapter 34)
- common noun
- A word that names one or more persons,
places, things, concepts, or qualities as a general category-for
example, flowers, telephone, determination. Common nouns are
lowercased. (28a-1)
- complement
- See object complement, subject complement, verb complement.
- complete predicate
- The simple predicate plus any objects, complements, or adverbial modifiers. (28b-2)
- complete subject
- The simple subject of a sentence, plus all modifiers. (28b-1)
- complex compound
- A word made up of three or more words. (57b)
- complex sentence
- A sentence that has a single independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. (28d-2, 42b)
- complex series
- A series in which individual items contain internal commas, necessitating the use of semicolons to separate the items. (50c)
- compound
- A word made up of two smaller words. (57a)
- compound antecedent
- A noun phrase consisting of
two or more terms joined by and-for example, Kim and her brother. It is
usually considered plural; therefore, if it is referred to later by a
pronoun, the pronoun should be plural. (31b)
- compound-complex sentence
- A sentence that has two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses. (28d-2, 42b)
- compound predicate
- A predicate containing two or more verbs with the same subject. (28b-1)
- compound sentence
- A sentence that has two or more independent clauses and no dependent clauses. (28d-2, 42b)
- compound subject
- A sentence subject consisting of two or more simple subjects. (28b-1)
- concrete noun
- A word that names something that can
be touched, seen, heard, smelled, or tasted-for example, automobile,
music, cloud. (28a-1, 43a-2)
- conditional sentence
- A sentence composed of a
subordinate clause (usually beginning with if ) and a main clause-for
example, "If I'm late, please start the meeting without me." (59i-k)
- conjunction
- A word that joins two sentences,
clauses, phrases, or words-for example, and, or, but. (28a-7). See also
specific types of conjunctions.
- conjunctive adverb
- An adverb that modifies an
entire sentence or clause while linking it to the preceding sentence or
clause-for example, however, therefore. (28a-5, 49f)
- connotation
- Extra meaning that a word has, beyond its basic meaning. (43b, 45b)
- contraction
- A reduced form of a word or pair of words-for example, can't for cannot, I'll for I will. (43c-2)
- coordinate adjectives
- A series of adjectives,
separated by commas, that could be arranged in any order-for example, a
rusty, dented, broken-down car. (49d)
- coordinating conjunction
- A conjunction used to
connect sentences, clauses, phrases, or words that are parallel in
meaning-for example, and, but, or, nor, yet. (28a-7)
- coordination
- The pairing of equivalent sentences
or sentence elements by putting them in the same grammatical form and
linking them via a coordinating conjunction, conjunctive adverb, or
semicolon. (39b)
- correlative conjunctions
- Conjunctions that are
used in pairs-for example, both/and, either/or, neither/nor. The two
elements connected by such conjunctions should be in parallel
grammatical form. (28a-7)
- count noun
- A word that names something that can be counted and pluralized-for example, a book, some friends, three dollars. (28a-1, 58a)
- cumulative adjectives
- A series of adjectives, each
one modifying those following it-for example, a small new Italian
luxury car. These adjectives must follow a certain order, and commas
are not used to separate them. (49j)
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