06. Word Classes: Determiners, Prepositions, Conjunctions, Negation

Exam 1 Announcement

  • Exam 1 will be on next Tuesday (February 18). The exam will be closed-book. Please bring a pen, and let me know if you need any accommodation.
  • This Thursday (February 13) will be an optional review session. You are allowed to skip this session if you’re confident!
  • In the review session, we will go over the Exam 1’s from 2024 Spring and Fall semester.

Objectives for this lesson

  • Identify the word classes of determiners, prepositions, and conjunctions
  • Understand the distinction between definite and indefinite articles, numerals, possessives, quantity words, and demonstratives
  • Differentiate between coordinating, subordinating, and correlative conjunctions

Review: Major/Content/Open vs. Minor/Function/Closed word classes

  • Major class words = Content words
    • Noun (castle)
    • Verb (decide)
    • Adjective (happy)
    • Adverb (beautifully)
  • Minor class words = Function words
    • Pronoun (their)
    • Determiner (the)
    • Auxiliary (will)
    • Preposition (across)
    • Conjunction (and)
    • Particle (break up)

Determiners

  • Signalers of nouns
  • Including:
    • Articles: (the = definite, a/an = indefinite)
    • Numerals (one, twelve, first, third, etc.)
    • Quantities (more, all, another, any, no, etc.)
    • Possessives (his, my, etc.)
    • Demonstratives (this, that, these, those)
  • Every determiner has to be followed by a noun phrase.

Exercise: Determiners

Identify all the determiners in each sentence, along with their type.

  1. Our teacher has had enough of this nonsense!
  2. The news has caused some drama.
  3. Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.
  4. I haven’t responded to any message; no apology is necessary.

Prepositions

  • “Pre-position” (before a nominal)
  • Including
    • Simple Prepositions (against the wall, out the door, with my best friend)
    • Complex (according to the textbook, along with empirical evidence, in back of the building)

Exercise: Prepositions

Identify the prepositions in the following sentences:

  1. I have been impressed with his style since I met him.
  2. According to some reports, millennials aren’t saving enough for retirement.
  3. I haven’t played tennis in ten years, thanks to a shoulder injury.
  4. Some don’t want to eat carbs after 8pm.
  5. They are working toward a solution to the problem of icy campus sidewalks.

Particles (vs. preposition)

  • Particles are part of a multi-word verb
  • Usually changes the meaning of the verb (throw vs. throw up).

Negative particle

  • I am going to the store.
  • I am not going to the store.

Exercise: Are they particles?

  1. I woke up early.
  2. She climbed up the stairs.
  3. Throw your hands up!
👆 Click me 1. particle; 2. preposition; 3. adverb

Conjunctions (Coordinating, Subordinating, Correlative)

Conjunctions connect words, phrases and clauses inside a sentence. They also connect sentences.

Coordinating conjunctions

  • “co”
  • a conjunction placed between words, phrases, clauses, or sentences of equal rank

Exercise: Identify the conjunctions and their functions (what do they connect?)

  • Riley and Tim worked out on Saturday.
  • I’ll meet you at the ticket window or in the grandstand.
  • The dessert was simple yet elegant.
  • Kris packed the car and drove away from the familiar house on Maxwell Avenue.
  • I disapproved of his betting on the horses, and I told him so. He claims to have won fifty dollars, but I suspect he’s exaggerating.

Correlative conjunctions

  • conjunctions that are meant to be used in pairs; they correlate in order to make connections and provide equal importance to the points.
    • either … or …
    • neither … nor …
    • not only … but also …
    • both … and …

Subordinating conjunctions

  • sub- = under, subsidiary
  • connects or shows a relationship between “unequal” ideas
  • main clause + dependent/subordinate clause

Time: when, whenever, after, as, before, once, since, till, until, now that, while, as long as, as soon as
Concession: though, although, even though, if, while
Contingency: if, once
Condition: if, in case, as long as, unless, provided that
Reason: because, since, as long as
Result: so that
Comparison: as, just as, as if
Contrast: while, whereas

Exercise: Prepositions or Subordinating Conjunctions?

  1. Before the show, seniors and students line up outside the box office.
  2. Since some orchestra seats remain unsold at most performances, the opera company sells a small number of them to seniors and students for a low price.
  3. Rush tickets have been offered for sale since the beginning of the year, but not everyone knows about them.
  4. Ticket sellers often tell older and younger people about the rush before they sell them tickets at full price.
  5. Rush tickets go on sale 90 minutes before the performance, and sales continue until all the rush tickets have been sold.
  6. Any student or senior who arrives after that has to pay full price.
  7. After they buy their tickets, students and seniors have along wait until curtain time.

Quizzes:

Quiz: Determiners
Quiz: Prepositions
Quiz: Conjunctions