Wednesday, January 17, 2018

English as a Global Language by David Crystal

English as a Global Language by David Crystal gives a history of English as a developing and far-reaching language in the world.
·        He explains the growing dominance of the English language gracefully.
·        In the first chapter, entitled “Why a Global Language?” Crystal observes that when native speakers of English think of their language’s relative significance in the world, they may feel pride but their pride may be tinged with concern, when they realize that people in other countries may not want to use the language in the same way that as the native speakers do, and are changing it themselves.
·        Examples: British English/American English/Indian English/ Sri Lankan English etc.
·        Crystal is thorough in his explanation of how English has spread in its relatively short history. Crystal explains that it is technology – particularly of modern communication and of accessible air transportation – that has enabled and advanced the spread of English across the world.
·        Transmission of the first radio telecommunication signals, which were in English. Because the technology an innovation of English-speaking Britons and Americans
·        Crystal highlights, the implications and eventual outcome of this – that within a quarter of a century public radio broadcasting would be made for the first time, in English, and would eventually lead to the establishment of English as a lingua franca in international politics, could not possibly have been foreseen.
·        English language has been learned and spoken by an unprecedented number of people

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Rajarata University of Sri Lanka Faculty of Technology/Faculty of Applied Sciences English-Grammar D.N. Aloysius

SINGULAR AND PLURAL NOUNS
REGULAR NOUNS

Plural nouns are words used to indicate that there is more than one person, animal, place, thing, or idea. 

Most singular nouns form the plural by adding -s.
EXAMPLES
Singular
Plural
boat
boats
house
houses
cat
cats
river
rivers
A singular noun ending in s, x, z, ch, sh makes the plural by adding-es.
EXAMPLES
Singular
Plural
bus
buses
wish
wishes
pitch
pitches
box
boxes
A singular noun ending in a consonant and then y makes the plural by dropping the y and adding-ies.
EXAMPLES
Singular
Plural
penny
pennies
spy
spies
baby
babies
city
cities
daisy
daisies
IRREGULAR NOUNS
There are some irregular noun plurals. The most common ones are listed below.
EXAMPLES
Singular
Plural
woman
women
man
men
child
children
tooth
teeth
foot
feet
person
people
leaf
leaves
mouse
mice
goose
geese
half
halves
knife
knives
wife
wives
life
lives
elf
elves
loaf
loaves
potato
potatoes
tomato
tomatoes
cactus
cacti
focus
foci
fungus
fungi
nucleus
nuclei
syllabus
syllabi/syllabuses
analysis
analyses
diagnosis
diagnoses
oasis
oases
thesis
theses
crisis
crises
phenomenon
phenomena
criterion
criteria
datum
data
Some nouns have the same form in the singular and the plural.
EXAMPLES
Singular
Plural
sheep
sheep
fish
fish
deer
deer
species
species
aircraft
aircraft
IRREGULAR VERB/NOUN AGREEMENT
Some nouns have a plural form but take a singular verb.
Plural nouns used with a singular verb
Sentence
news
The news is at 6.30 p.m.
athletics
Athletics is good for young people.
linguistics
Linguistics is the study of language.
darts
Darts is a popular game in England.
billiards
Billiards is played all over the world.
Some nouns have a fixed plural form and take a plural verb. They are not used in the singular, or they have a different meaning in the singular. Nouns like this include: trousers, jeans, glasses, savings, thanks, steps, stairs, customs, congratulations, tropics, wages, spectacles, outskirts, goods, wits
Plural noun with plural verb
Sentence
trousers
My trousers are too tight.
jeans
Her jeans are black.
glasses
Those glasses are his.


Definition of a Noun

A noun is a part of speech that identifies a person, animal, place, thing, or idea.

Types of Nouns

There are several ways to classify the types of nouns that exist in the English language. In traditional grammar, nouns are taught to be words that refer to people, places, things, animals or abstract ideas.
Classifications of Nouns
1.  Proper Nouns
Proper nouns are nouns that refer to specific entities. Writers of English capitalize proper nouns like Steve, Harvard, or White House to show their distinction from common nouns.
2.  Common Nouns
Common nouns refer to general, unspecific categories of entities. Whereas Harvard is a proper noun because it signifies a specific state, the word state itself is a common noun because it can refer to any of the 50 states in the United States. Harvard refers to a particular institution of higher learning, while the common noun university can refer to any such institution.
3.  Material Nouns
Material nouns refer to materials or substances from which things are made. While cotton is an adjective when used in cotton dress, cotton is a material noun when used to describe a crop being grown - The farm grew cotton.
4.  Compound Nouns
compound noun contains two or more words which join together to make a single noun. Compound nouns can be words written together (closed form) such as softball and toothpaste, words that are hyphenated (hyphenated form) such as six-pack and son-in-law, or separate words such as post office and upper class that go together by meaning.
5.  Countable Nouns/Count Nouns
To linguists, these count nouns can occur in both single and plural forms, can be modified by numerals, and can co-occur with quantificational determiners like many, most, more, several, etc.
For example, the noun bike is a countable noun. Consider the following sentence:
There is a bike in that garage.
In this example, the word bike is singular as it refers to one bike that is presently residing in a particular garage.
However, bike can also occur in the plural form.
There are six broken bikes in that garage.
In this example, the noun, bikes refers to more than one bike as it is being modified by the numeral six.
In addition, countable nouns can co-occur with quantificational determiners.
In that garage, several bikes are broken.
This sentence is grammatical, as the noun bike can take the modification of the quantificational determiner several.
6.  Uncountable Nouns/Mass Nouns/Non Count Nouns
Conversely, some nouns are not countable and are called uncountable nouns or mass nouns. For example, the word, water is a mass noun.
That lake is full of water.
This sentence makes grammatical sense.
Mass nouns cannot take plural forms, and therefore a sentence containing the word, waters is ungrammatical.
Substances, liquids, and powders are entities that are often signified by mass nouns such as wood, sand, water, and flour. Other examples would be milk, air, furniture, freedom, rice, and intelligence.
7.  Collective Nouns
In general, collective nouns are nouns that refer to a group of something in a specific manner. Often, collective nouns are used to refer to groups of animals. Consider the following sentences.
Look at the gaggle of geese. There used to be herds of wild buffaloes there. A bevy of swans is swimming in the pond. A colony of ants lives in the anthill.
In the above examples, gaggle, herds, bevy, and colony are collective nouns.
8.  Concrete Nouns
Concrete nouns are nouns that can be touched, smelled, seen, felt, or tasted.  Table, dog, salt, and wool are all examples of concrete nouns.
Can I pet your dog? Please pass the salt. Your sweater is made of fine wool.
Concrete nouns can be perceived by at least one of our senses.
9.  Abstract Nouns
More theoretical concepts use abstract nouns to refer to them. Concepts like freedom, love, power, and redemption are all examples of abstract nouns.
They hate us for our freedom. All you need is love. We must fight the power.
In these sentences, the abstract nouns refer to concepts, ideas, philosophies, and other entities that cannot be concretely perceived.
10.              Pronouns
Personal pronouns are types of nouns that take the place of nouns when referring to people, places or things. The personal pronouns in English are I, you, he, she, it, and they.
Ravi works at a flower shop. She works at a flower shop.
The Greeks invented democracy. They invented democracy.
These pronouns take on other forms depending on what type of function they are performing in a sentence. For example, when used to signify possession of another noun, pronouns take on their possessive form such as mine, ours, hers, and theirs.
That bike belongs to Milani. That bike is hers.
When used as the object of a preposition, pronouns take on their objective case. Examples include him, her, me, us, and them.
Hand the money over to Samudi. Hand the money over to her.
The police arrested John and Ray. The police arrested them.
11.              Verbal Nouns/Gerunds
1.  Collecting stamps is my hobby.
2.  I am fond of reading books.

Words, collecting and reading are gerunds.
1.  Singular Nouns: dog/cat/bus
2.  Plural Nouns: dogs/cats/buses

3.  Possessive Nouns: Ravi’s car/Father’s bike/His house