Relational Grammar

The Parts of Speech

• Nouns: a person, place, thing, or idea; can be used as the subject, predicate, object, etc. in the sentence
• Verbs: a word denoting action, state of being, or occurence

Continued

• Adjectives: modify nouns or pronouns, answer the questions: What kind? How many? Which one? How much?
• Adverbs: modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, answer the questions: When? How? Where? Why? To what extent?

Continued

• Prepositions: a word or group of words used with a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase denoting direction, location, or time, or to introduce an object
• Pronouns: a word that takes the place of a noun

Continued

• Conjunctions: a word that synthesizes sentences, clauses, phrases, and/or words
• Interjections: words that express strong feeling

Well, so what??

All of these parts of speech play an important role in the formation of a cohesive sentence

Let's start with the basics... a noun and a verb

A noun embodies a person, place, thing, or idea and takes form of the subject of a sentence and/or the predicate of the sentence

The verb complements this noun by being denoting action, state of being, or occurrence

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• Nouns and Verbs are needed to form the basic sentence
• For example, The CAT RAN.

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• Pronouns rename nouns
• John ate pizza
• HE ate pizza
• Pronouns play the same role as nouns in the sentenc

Adjectives and adverbs "decorate" or modify other parts of speech. They're not essential but add life to the sentence.

Adjectives

• A honeybee flew
• A YELLOW honeybee flew
• Adjectives answer questions about nouns/pronouns and are needed for basic description
• Without adjectives, sentences would be dull

Adverbs

• Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs
• Answer questions based on time, place, cause, and to what extent

Adverb Examples

• How? He types SLOWLY.
• When? He types DAILY.
• Where? He types HERE
• Why? He types FOR CLASS (More about that in a second)
• To What Extent? He types VERY slowly.

Prepositions

• Prepositions never come alone; they bring along their friends: the object of the preposition and adjective if needed
• These are called prepositional phrases

Prepositions Continued

• Prepositional Phrases show the relation between nouns and pronouns to other elements in a sentence
• They can act as adjective or adverb phrases in the sentence

Preposition Examples

• Adverb phrase (where does he write?) He writes IN THE PARK
• Adjective phrase (what kind?) There is a chair WITH A BROKEN ARM.

Conjunctions

• Conjunctions join words, clauses, and phrases
• Words like "and", "but", "or" are conjunctions

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• Fred AND Janet run.
• Fred Runs, AS Janet skips
• Fred runs OR swims

Interjections! These words convey strong feeling; these words are used to express strong feeling!

Interjection Examples

• DANG! You're mean
• WOW, he's smart
• $@&*! That hurts!

So, all parts of speech have a relationship...it starts with the basics, Nouns/Pronouns and Verbs, then it expands to much, much more with modifiers, conjunctions, and interjections

You can have a sentence with a noun (subject) and a verb (predicate), but it expands to much more one you get the hang of it

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