Category: Life

Adjectives Used for Face & Appearance Description

Face, Mouth, Lips, and Nose

To describe the shape of the face we can use the following adjectives: long, round, square, triangular, oval, with regular features, irregular, thin, lean, bony, with hollow cheeks, with a scar, with moles, with smooth skin, lined, ruddy, with freckles, chiseled, wide, thin, heart-shaped.

The expression of the face (usually) can be described by the following adjectives: winning, cheerful, friendly, charming, smiling, radiant, warm, fun, funny, nice, serene, anguished, anxious, sullen, sad, cross, worried, menacing, pensive, lively expression, a tense face, a wild expression, gloomy, frowning, expressive.

Lip shape and size: thin, full, pouting, rosebud (baby’s lips, often), pursed (puckered up, as when concentrating), protuberant lips, red, thin, thick.

Mouth expressions: laugh, smile, beam, grin, frown, grimace, scowl, sneer, curl, pout, half-open, large, sweet

Adjectives describing the mouth or mouth expressions: toothy, toothless, gap-toothed, kind, sweet, dimpled, relaxed, firm, serious, cruel, snarling

Describing the nose: big, little, short, long, large, straight, thin, crooked, pointed, sharp, aquiline, flattened, snub, bulbous, turned-up [11].

Eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, ears

Eye

Shape, size, and appearance: large, small, almond-shaped, round, squinty, crinkly, bulging, heavy-lidded, hooded, deep-set, close-set, hollow, tear-filled

Eye color: black, brown, hazel, green, blue, violet, gray, amber

Eye expressions: piercing, mesmerizing, sad, sorrowful, haunted, gentle, sympathetic, warm, compassionate, expressive, bright, twinkling, lively, dancing, laughing, shifty, sly, distrusting, sleepy

Other: brown-eyed boy, bright-eyed sister, wide-eyed child, gold-flecked eyes, almond-shaped, round, little, thin, bulging, brown, light-brown, dark, blue, light-blue, green, grey, made-up ,shortsighted, amazed, expressive, stunned, shining, sweet, smart, languishing, gentle, woeful, frightened, wide, bright

Eyebrows

Adjectives for eyebrows: thick, thin, emphasized, spaced, near

Eyelashes

Eylashes can be: long, short, spaced, made-up

Ears

Sticking, stick out, big, little, pointed [11].

Hair

Hair color: black, brunette, brown, chestnut-brown, blond, honey-blond, golden-blond, ash-blond, fair, cornsilk, auburn, red, strawberry-blond, gray, silver, white, salt-and-pepper.

Texture or appearance: wispy, fuzzy, wavy, curly, kinky, frizzy, wild, untamed, unmanageable, straight, spiky, stiff, buzzed, shaved, parted, neatly-combed, tamed, cascading, long, short, cropped, dull, shiny.

Hair styles: braids, ponytail, pigtails, bun, messy bun, twist, bob, ringlets, flip, cornrows, extensions, bangs, buzz, layered, feathered, chopped, gelled, spiked, slicked down.

Lots of hair: thick, full, lustrous, bushy, coarse, wiry, stiff

Little hair: thin, scraggly, fine, baby-fine, downy, wispy, limp, flat, balding, bald, bald spot, receding (gradual loss of hair at the front of the head)

Treated hair: permed, dyed, bleached, highlighted, weaved, streaked, colored

Facial Hair: beard, goatee, mustache, soul patch, sideburns. Beard growth: stubble, fuzz, peach fuzz, bristles, five o’clock shadow (describes new beard growth that’s shadowy in appearance. It’s usually more noticeable late in the day on the jaw, chin, or cheek area, but some men purposely grow five o’clock shadows).

Adjectives: bearded, bushy, stubbly, bristly, scratchy, unshaven, shaggy, whiskered, beardless, clean-shaven, smooth, trimmed, neatly-trimmed, pencil-thin [11].

A Sample of Describing Person’s Face

What if you were asked to describe how something looks – a place, a thing, or a person? How should you arrange your ideas and sentences in the paragraph? Obviously, time order would not be logical. When you are describing the way something looks – its physical appearance – it is not time but space that is important. Therefore, you should arrange your sentences and details according to where the objects being described are located. This type of organization is called spatial organization. In a descriptive paragraph, you must make the location of the objects being described very clear.

A person’s appearance can be described in many ways. It is possible to tell about the person’s style of clothing, manner of walking, color and style of hair, facial appearance, body shape, and expression or even the person’s way of talking. Just what a writer selects to describe depends on the writer’s chosen topic and purpose. No matter what the topic, however, the writer is a painter with words, so the description must be vivid but also coherent – logically arranged – so that the reader can clearly envision who is being described. The following paragraph describes a person’s face with a spatial organization. Look at the following description and see if you can get a good image of what Mary looks like:

“Mary is as beautiful as a Hollywood star. Her thick, wavy, long black hair gracefully falls down to her shoulders and encircles her diamond-shaped face. A golden suntan usually brings out her smooth, clear complexion and high cheek bones. Her slightly arched chestnut brown eyebrows highlight her emotions by moving up and down as she reacts to her world around her. Her large deep blue eyes, remind me of a lake on a stormy day. Her curved nose gives her a little girl look that makes me want to smile when she talks. And her mouth is a small mouth outlined by puffy lips that she often accentuates with glossy pink lipstick. When she smiles, which is often, her well formed and even, white teeth brighten up her whole face. I guess you can tell that I am head over heals in love with Mary.” [12]

By this paragraph, the reader can not only tell what Mary looks like but also what the author’s attitude about her outer appearance is.

Analysis of Adjectives usage in Instagram

The adjectives have been analyzed for frequency of appearance to describe the facial characteristics in Instagram. To perform this, the adjective was searched in Instagram, and the cases for facial characteristics description were calculated amount the first 20 search results. The results are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Adjectives and their use for facial description in Instagram [13]

Adjective	Quantity among the first 20 results
	Absolute number	Frequency, %
Beardless	17	85.7
Bony	4	19.0
Wavy	4	19.0
Kinky	12	61.0
Sleepy	7	33.3
Smooth	4	19.0
Bulbous	3	14.3
Sweet	2	9.5
Sad	8	38.1
Shiny	4	19.0
Amazed	5	23.8
Smiling	14	71.4
sorrowful	5	23.8
Friendly	4	19.0
Dull	8	38.1

 

The Instagram usage illustrates the modern usage of these adjectives. The words beardless, kinky and smiling are preliminary used for facial description, the adjectives sad, sorrowful, and dull have also several other meanings. The other adjectives also describe different personal characteristics, and the facial description is just one of them. Hence, they are polyfuncional.

Face Description in Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

The word “face” is mentioned 75 times in the novel, and 60 are related to the noun “face”. Table 2 presents the examples and categorization of the adjectives used.

Table 2. The adjectives used for facial expression in Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf [14]

Citation	Frequency	Function
1	2	3
“a ridiculous little face” “little pink face”	1 2	Size
Total	3 / 5%
“button-faced” “sallow pointed face”	1 1	Form
Total	2 / 3.33%
“pale-face(d)” “little pink face” “delicate pink face” “small pink face” “with large eyes in a sallow pointed face” “round-eyed, pale-faced girl” “sunburnt face” “pink innocent oval to a face lean,” “very red in the face”	3 5   1 1 1 1 1 1	Color
Total	14 / 23.33%
“a ridiculous little face” “delicate pink face” “pink innocent oval to a face lean” “contracted, hostile”	1 1	Opinion
Total	2 / 3.33%
1	2	3
“worn old face”	1	Age
Total	1 / 1.65%
“face, beaked like a bird’s” “dashed in his face like bunches of roses”	1 1	comparison
Total	2 / 3.33%
“pretty face” “fine face” “adorably pretty face”	2 1 1	Assessment
Total	4 / 6.67%

 

 

Relative Adjectives

Relative adjectives express such properties of a substance as are determined by the direct relation of the substance to some other substance. E.g.: wood — a wooden hut; mathematics — mathematical precision; history — a historical event; table — tabular presentation; colour — coloured postcards; surgery — surgical treatment; the Middle Ages — mediaeval rites.

The nature of this “relationship” in adjectives is best revealed by definitional correlations. Cf.: a wooden hut — a hut made of wood; a historical event — an event referring to a certain period of history; surgical treatment — treatment consisting in the implementation of surgery; etc. [10]

In English these adjectives are often constructed by adding a suffix to the noun or noun root. A variety of suffixes may be used in this way: -al or -ial (e.g. behavioural), -ous (famous), -y or -ly (manly), -ic (angelic), -an or -ian (Amazonian), -ary (planetary), -ile (infantile), -ine (elephantine), -ive (instinctive), -ish (boyish), -like (birdlike).

Of these, the suffixes -y (IPA: /i/), -ish and -like are “living” suffixes and may be used to form new words. For example, something that tastes of apples may be described as appley or (less commonly) appleish; something resembling honey may be described as honeylike (or honey-like). Many of these formations are colloquialisms or ad hoc coinages not usually included in dictionaries, but will nevertheless be readily understood.

Relative adjectives do not form adverbs by –ly. Many adjectives considered under the heading of relative can still form degrees of comparison when the property of substance can be graded quantitatively: cf. a mediaeval approach – rather mediaeval approach – a far more mediaeval approach [10].

Qualitative Adjectives

Qualitative adjectives, as different from relative ones, denote various qualities of substances which admit of a quantitative estimation, i.e. of establishing their correlative quantitative measure. The measure of a quality can be estimated as high or low, adequate or inadequate, sufficient or insufficient, optimal or excessive. Cf.: an awkward situation — a very awkward situation; a difficult task — too difficult a task; an enthusiastic reception — rather an enthusiastic reception; a hearty welcome — not a very hearty welcome; etc.

In this connection, the ability of an adjective to form degrees of comparison is usually taken as a formal sign of its qualitative character, in opposition to a relative adjective which is understood as incapable of forming degrees of comparison by definition. Cf.: a pretty girl — a prettier girl; a quick look — a quicker look; a hearty welcome — the heartiest of welcomes; a bombastic speech — the most bombastic speech.

Mow ever, in actual speech the described principle of distinction is not at all strictly observed, which is noted in the very grammar treatises putting it forward. Two typical cases of contradiction should be pointed out here.

In the first place, substances can possess such qualities as are incompatible with the idea of degrees of comparison. Accordingly, adjectives denoting these qualities, while belonging to the qualitative subclass, are in the ordinary use incapable of forming degrees of comparison. Here refer adjectives like extinct, immobile, deaf, final, fixed, etc. [9-10].

Substantive Adjectives

It is common knowledge that adjectives can, under certain circumstances, be substantivized, i.e. become nouns. The phenomenon is also frequent enough in English. The questions which arise in this connection are: (a) what criteria should be applied to find out if an adjective is substantivized or not? (b) is a substantivized adjective a noun, or is it not? [9].

As to the first question, we should recollect the characteristic features of nouns in Modern English and then see if a substantivized adjective has acquired them or not. These features are, (1) ability to form a plural, (2) ability to have a form in -‘s if a living being is denoted, (3) ability to be modified by an adjective, (4) performing the function of subject or object in a sentence. If, from this point of view, we approach, for example, the word native, we shall find that it possesses all those peculiarities, e. g. the natives of Australia, a young native, etc.

The same may be said about the word relative (meaning a person standing in some degree of relationship to another): my relatives, a close relative, etc. A considerable number of other examples might be given. There is therefore every reason to assert that native and relative are nouns when so used, and indeed we need not call them substantivized adjectives. Thus the second of the above questions would also be answered [9-10].

Things are, however, not always as clear as that.

A familiar example of a different kind is the word rich. It certainly is substantivized, as will be seen, for example, in the title of a novel by C. P. Snow, “The Conscience of the Rich”. It is obvious, however, that this word differs from the words native and relative in some important points: (1) it does not form a plural, (2) it cannot be used in the singular and with the indefinite article, (3) it has no possessive form. Since it does not possess all the characteristics of nouns but merely some of them, it will be right to say that it is only partly substantivized. The word rich in such contexts, as those given above, stands somewhere between an adjective and a noun.

The same may be said of the poor, the English, the Chinese, also the wounded, the accused (which were originally participles), and a number of other words. We might even think of establishing a separate part of speech, intermediate between nouns and adjectives, and state its characteristic features as we have done for parts of speech in general. However, there would appear to be no need to do so. We shall therefore confine ourselves to the statement that these words are partly substantivized and occupy an intermediate position [9-10].

Sometimes the result of substantivisation is an abstract noun, as in the following examples: The desire for a more inward light had found expression at last, the unseen had impacted on the seen. (FORSTER) Her mind was focused on the invisible. (Idem) Nouns of this type certainly have no plural form. [10]

Order of Adjectives

When you list several adjectives in a row, there’s a specific order they need to be written or spoken. Native speakers of English tend to put them in the correct order naturally, but if you’re learning English, you’ll have to memorize the order. It goes like this [10]:

• Determiner – This means an article (a, an, the), a number or amount, a possessive adjective (my, his, her, its, your, our, their), or a demonstrative (this, that, these, those).
• Observation/Opinion – beautiful, expensive, gorgeous, broken, delicious, ugly
• Size – Huge, tiny, 4-foot-tall
• Shape – Square, circular, oblong
• Age – 10-year-old, new, antique
• Color – Black, red, blue-green
• Origin – Roman, English, Mongolian
• Material – Silk, silver, plastic, wooden
• Qualifier – A noun or verb acting as adjective

This is the correct order for adjectives that come directly before a noun, and they are separated by commas: “my beautiful, big, circular, antique, brown, English, wooden coffee table was broken in the move”.

If the adjectives come after the verb “be” as the complement, then the qualifier will stick with the noun at the beginning of the sentence. The adjectives in the complement are separated by commas with the final two being separated by “and.” For example, my coffee table is beautiful, big, circular, antique, brown, English and wooden [9].

INTRODUCTION

The whole of the English vocabulary is subdivided into eleven parts of speech. Notional or fully-lexical parts of speech are: nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, numerals, modal words and interjections. Prepositions, conjunctions and particles are parts of speech largely devoid of lexical meaning and used to indicate various functional relationships among the notional words of an utterance. Generally speaking we can say that all nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs are capable of making direct reference and are the main units which carry the burden of referential information, and that all other words provide functional information. Adjectives are the third major class of words in English, after nouns and verbs, that’s why I think that this part of speech is merited detailed consideration.

In every language, adjectives are important elements of sentences. Using adjectives means that we can express the quality of any person or object. Without adjectives we could not say how any object looks like. In addition; when we read a paper which is a descriptive one, adjectives help us to picture the content of what we read about. The readers get a better idea of what we wish them to picture when they read our writings. It appeals to our readers’ senses; therefore, they can hear, see, touch, taste, and even smell what you’re describing. Also, use of adjectives sets the tone for our writing. You need to use them for descriptive papers or in our daily life. Moreover, we use adjectives because we want to express ourselves, things, characters in a good or bad way. It will get our readers’ or listeners’ attention and can make the book a good read or speech a good, an effective speech.

The Ukrainian linguists perform research on functional and morphological aspects of adjectives [1-3]. Bobko [1] found that the most productive suffixes for adjectives formation are -ed, -ing, and -y. The author also noted that the adjectives add emotional and expressive connotation to the text, improving the literature value of the texts and influencing the readers’ behavior. The connotational aspect of adjectives for evaluation of a person or situation is presented in the study [2]. The adjectives are the most significant means for evaluation and presentation of the author’s attitude [3].

The purpose of my coursework is to examine the adjectives as the notional part of speech.

To accomplish the purpose and bring about the intended result a number of tasks have to be solved. These are:

• To study the role of adjective as a part of speech;
• To do a research on how to form adjective from the other parts of the speech;
• To learn about the types of an adjective, including base, derivative and compound adjectives, and their role in a sentence;
• To study the right order of adjectives in a compound adjective;
• Exemplify the adjectives for face description;
• The subject of the study is adjectives that describe facial features as a scientific research.

The object is adjectives as part of the speech.

Materials used in the study are the contemporary research articles, monographs and internet resources dedicated to adjectives usage.

Topicality of the course paper is explained by the importance of adjectives in the descriptions.

An adjective is a word which expresses the attributes of substances (good, young, easy, soft, loud, hard, wooden, flaxen). As a class of lexical words adjectives are identified by their ability to fill the position between noun-determiner and noun and the position after a copula-verb and a qualifier. As the other parts of speech adjective has special meaning (semantic properties), form (morphological properties) and function (syntactic properties). All the adjectives are traditionally divided into subclasses: qualitative adjectives, relative adjectives, substantivized adjectives, statives. This coursework will perform the detailed description of the properties and subclasses of the adjectives, including examples.

Novelty of the research paper is presentation of the novel rules to build a compound adjective. The frequency of the usage of some adjectives by the modern people was analyzed.

Theoretical value. The course paper describes the theory of an adjective as a part of the speech: the formation of an adjective, its types and subclasses, the place in the sentence.

Practical value. The paper presents the main adjectives that describe different parts of the face. It also includes the description of the face and the practical activity of face description.

Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words, making your writing and speaking much more specific, and a whole lot more interesting. Words like small, blue, and sharp are descriptive, and they are all examples of adjectives. Because adjectives are used to identify or quantify individual people and unique things, they are usually positioned before the noun or pronoun that they modify. Some sentences contain multiple adjectives.

Forming Adjective

English can be very tricky, so you have to be careful, but a lot of English adjectives end with these suffixes:

-able/-ible – adorable, invisible, responsible, uncomfortable

-al – educational, gradual, illegal, nocturnal, viral

-an – American, Mexican, urban

-ar – cellular, popular, spectacular, vulgar

-ent – intelligent, potent, silent, violent

-ful – harmful, powerful, tasteful, thoughtful

-ic/-ical – athletic, energetic, magical, scientific

-ine – bovine, canine, equine, feminine, masculine

-ile – agile, docile, fertile, virile

-ive – informative, native, talkative

-less – careless, endless, homeless, timeless

-ous – cautious, dangerous, enormous, malodorous

-some – awesome, handsome, lonesome, wholesome [4].

Types of Adjectives

Base (Simple) Adjectives

Base adjectives exhibit the following formal qualities: they may take inflections -er and -est or have some morphophonemic changes in cases of the suppletion, such as, for instance, in good —better —the best; bad — worse — the worst. Base adjectives are also distinguished formally by the fact that they serve as stems from which nouns and adverbs are formed by the derivational suffixes -ness and -ly.

Base adjectives are mostly of one syllable, and none have more than two syllables except a few that begin with a derivational prefix un-or in-, e. g.: uncommon, inhuman, etc. They have no derivational suffixes and usually form their comparative and superlative degrees by means of the inflectional suffixes -er and -est. Quite a number of based adjectives form verbs by adding the derivational suffix -en, the prefix en- or both: blacken, brighten, cheapen, sweeten, widen, enrich, enlarge, embitter, enlighten, enliven, etc. [5-6]

Derivative Adjectives

Derived adjectives are formed by the addition of derivational suffixes to free or bound stems. They usually form analytical comparatives and superlatives by means of the qualifiers more and most. Some of the more important suffixes which form derived adjectives are:

-able added to verbs and bound stems, denoting quality with implication of capacity, fitness or worthness to be acted upon; -able is often used in the sense of “tending to”, “given to”, “favouring”, “causing”, “able to” or “liable to”. This very common suffix is a live one which can be added to virtually any verb thus giving rise to many new coinages. As it is the descendant of an active derivational suffix in Latin, it also appears as a part of many words borrowed from Latin and French. Examples formed from verbs: remarkable, adaptable, conceivable, drinkable, eatable, regrettable, understandable, etc.; examples formed from bound stems: capable, portable, viable. The unproductive variant of the suffix -able is the suffix -ible (Latin -ibilis, -bilis), which we find in adjectives Latin in origin: visible, forcible, comprehensible, etc.; -ible is no longer used in the formation of new words.

-al, -ial (Lat. -alls, French -al, -el) denoting quality “belonging to”, “pertaining to”, “having the character of”, “appropriate to”, e. g.: elemental, bacterial, automnal, fundamental, etc.

The suffix -al added to nouns and bound stems (fatal, local, natural, national, traditional, etc.) is often found in combination with -ic, e. g.: biological, botanical, juridical, typical, etc. [5].

-ish — Germanic in origin, denoting nationality, quality with the meaning “of the nature of”, “belonging to”, “resembling” also with the sense “somewhat like”, often implying contempt, derogatory in force, e. g.: Turkish, bogish, outlandish, whitish, wolfish [3].

-y — Germanic in origin, denoting quality “pertaining to”, “abounding in”, “tending or inclined to”, e.g.: rocky, watery, bushy, milky, sunny, etc. [4, 7].

Among the other adjectival affixes should also be named the suffixes: -ful (hopeful), -less (flawless), -ous (famous), -ive (decorative), the prefix a-, constitutive for the stative subclass which is to be discussed below [5].

Compound Adjectives

Compound adjectives consist of two or more morphemes of which the left-hand component limits or changes the modification of the right-hand one, as in “the dark-green dress”: dark limits the green that modifies dress [6].

There are some well-established permanent compound adjectives that have become solid over a longer period, especially in American usage: earsplitting, eyecatching, and downtown. However, in British usage, these, apart from downtown, are more likely written with a hyphen: ear-splitting, eye-catching. Other solid compound adjectives are for example:

Numbers that are spelled out and have the suffix -fold added: “fifteenfold”, “sixfold”.

Points of the compass: northwest, northwester, northwesterly, northwestwards, but not North-West Frontier.

A compound adjective is hyphenated if the hyphen helps the reader differentiate a compound adjective from two adjacent adjectives that each independently modifies the noun [5]. Compare the following examples:

• “acetic acid solution”: a bitter solution producing vinegar or acetic acid (acetic + acid + solution)
• “acetic-acid solution”: a solution of acetic acid

The hyphen is unneeded when capitalization or italicization makes grouping clear: “Old English scholar” (an old person who is English and a scholar, or an old scholar who studies English) and “Old English scholar” (a scholar of Old English).

If, however, there is no risk of ambiguities, it may be written without a hyphen: Sunday morning walk. Hyphenated compound adjectives may have been formed originally by an adjective preceding a noun [8]:

“Round table” → “round-table discussion”, “Four wheels” → “four-wheel drive” (the singular, not the plural, is used). Others may have originated with a verb preceding an adjective or adverb: “Feel good” → “feel-good factor”,

“Buy now, pay later” → “buy-now pay-later purchase”. Yet others are created with an original verb preceding a preposition: “Stick on” → “stick-on label”,

“Walk on” → “walk-on part”, “Stand by” → “stand-by fare”, “Roll on, roll off” → “roll-on roll-off ferry”

The following compound adjectives are always hyphenated when they are not written as one word [8]:

An adjective preceding a noun to which –d or –ed has been added as a past-participle construction: “loud-mouthed hooligan”, “middle-aged lady”, “rose-tinted glasses”

A noun, adjective, or adverb preceding a present participle: “an awe-inspiring personality”, “a long-lasting affair”, “a far-reaching decision”

Numbers spelled out or as numerics: “seven-year itch”, “five-sided polygon”, “20th-century poem”, “30-piece band”, “tenth-story window”

A numeric with the affix –fold has a hyphen (15-fold), but when spelled out takes a solid construction (fifteenfold).

Numbers, spelled out or numeric, with added -odd: sixteen-odd, 70-odd.

Compound adjectives with high- or low-: “high-level discussion”, “low-price markup”.

Colours in compounds: “a dark-blue sweater”, “a reddish-orange dress”.

Fractions as modifiers are hyphenated: “five-eighths inches”, but if numerator or denominator are already hyphenated, the fraction itself does not take a hyphen: “a thirty-three thousandth part”. But fractions used as nouns have no hyphens: “I ate only one third of the pie.”

Comparatives and superlatives in compound adjectives also take hyphens: “the highest-placed competitor”, “a shorter-term loan”. However, a construction with most is not hyphenated: “the most respected member”.

Compounds including two geographical modifiers: “Afro-Cuban”, “African-American” (sometimes), “Anglo-Asian” But not “Central American”.

The following compound adjectives are not normally hyphenated:

Where there is no risk of ambiguity: “a Sunday morning walk”

Left-hand components of a compound adjective that end in -ly that modify right-hand components that are past participles (ending in –ed): “a hotly disputed subject”, “a greatly improved scheme”

Compound adjectives that include comparatives and superlatives with more, most, less or least: “a more recent development”, “the most respected member”, “a less opportune moment”.

Ordinarily hyphenated compounds with intensive adverbs in front of adjectives: “very much admired classicist”, “really well accepted proposal” [8].

Composite sentences are poly predicative syntactic constructions, formed by two or more predicative lines, each with a subject and a predicate of its own. Each predicative unit in a composite sentence forms a clause. A clause as a part of a composite sentence corresponds to a separate sentence. There are two principal types of composite sentences: complex and compound [6].

A composite sentence consists of two or more simple sentences joined together. The component parts of a composite sentence are called clauses. The relationship between the clauses may be that of coordination and subordination [2; 215].

In complex sentences, the clauses are united on the basis of subordinative connections. The minimal complex sentence includes two clauses: the principal one and the subordinate one. A complex sentence combines one independent clause and one or more subordinate (dependent) clauses. An independent clause contains the more important idea. E.g. After Mary came home, Bill went to have a haircut. There are three kinds of subordinate clauses – the Noun-clause, the Adjective-clause, the Adverb-clause [6].

The word “composite” is a common term for both the compound and complex sentences [12; 49].

There are three types of composite sentences in Modern English:

1. The compound sentence contains two or more independent clauses with no dependent one.
2. The complex sentence contains one dependent clause and one or more independent clauses. The latter usually tells something about the main clause and is used as a part of speech or as a part of sentence.
3. The compound-complex sentence combines the two previous types. The compound-complex sentences are those which have at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent (subordinate) clause in its structure: Blair found herself smiling at him and she took the letter he held out to her [12; 49]. There was a song in every heart; and if the heart was young the music issued at the lips (Twain).

Structurally and semantically, subordinate clauses are subordinated to principal clauses and may be joined to them by means of conjunctions, conjunctive words, asyndetically and sometimes by means of the sequence of tenses [2; 215].

In a compound sentence a clause is a part of a sentence which has a subject and a predicate of its own [3; 332].

In a compound sentence the clauses may be connected:

1. Sydentically, i.e. by means of coordinating conjunctions (and, or, else, but, etc.) or conjunctive adverbs (otherwise, however, nevertheless, yet, still, therefore, etc.).

He knew there were excuses for his father, yet he felt sick at heart (Cronin).

2. Asydentically, i.e. without a conjunction or a conjunctive adverb.

The rain fell softly, the houses was quiet (Collins) [3; 335].

A complex sentence consists of a principal clause and one or more subordinate clauses. Clauses in a complex sentences also may be linked in two ways: sydentically (More and more, she became convinced that some misfortune had overtaken Paul (Cronin)) and asydentically (I wish you had come earlier (Heym)) [3; 335].

According to their grammatical function subordinate clauses are divided into subject, predicative, attributive, object and adverbial clauses [3; 335].

For practical purposes of learning English, it is necessary and sufficient to distinguish the following kinds of subordinate clauses:

1) subject clauses which perform the function of subject and may be introduced by the conjunctions that, if, whether and such conjunctive words as who, what, which, when, why, how and others: That you may meet him at the party is quite possible. What I need now is someone to do the job.

2) predicative clauses which perform the function of predicative and may be introduced by the same conjunctions and conjunctive words as subject clauses: His only desire was that his family shouldn’t interfere with his plans. The question was why no one had heard the shot.

3) object clauses which modify verbs and adjectives as objects to them and may be introduced by the same conjunctions and conjunctive words as subject clauses: I thought (that) they were joking.

4) adverbial clauses which function as adverbial modifiers to verbs and adjectives within the principal clause and may be of the following kinds:

1. a) adverbial clauses of time which are introduced by the conjunctions when, while, as, until, till, before, after, since, as soon as, as long as and some others: When they reached the village, Jane got out of the taxi and looked about her. I won’t leave until you come.
2. b) adverbial clauses of place and direction which are introduced by the conjunction where: They stopped where the road turned to the river.
3. c) adverbial clauses of cause which are introduced by the conjunctions because, as, since and some others: He was glad to talk to her because it set her at ease.
4. d) adverbial clauses of purpose which are introduced by the conjunctions so that, that, in order that: He spoke loudly and clearly so that all could hear him.
5. e) adverbial clauses of condition which are introduced by the conjunctions if, in case, unless and some others: If we start off now, we’ll arrive there by dinner time.
6. f) adverbial clauses of concession which are introduced by the conjunctions though, although, even if, even though and wh-pronouns, ending in –ever: Although it was very late, she kept the dinner warm on the stove.
7. g) adverbial clauses of consequence which are introduced by the conjunctions that, so … that, such … that: He was so embarrassed that he could hardly understand her.
8. h) adverbial clauses of comparison which are introduced by the conjunctions than, as, as…as, not so (as)…as, as if and as though: He now took better care of his old father than he had ever done it before.

The conjunction is a part of speech which denotes connections between objects and phenomena. It connects parts of the sentence, clauses, and sentences [3; 254].

Sadie brought them in and went back to the door (Mansfield).

… the blinds were down in the dining-room and the lights turned on – and all the lights were red-roses (Mansfield).

The other day I was saying to Fabermacher that Haviland isn’t really cruel, he’s just thoughtless. And Fabermacher said that was the cruellest thing about the human race. And he’s right (Wilson).

According to their morphological structure conjunctions are divided into the following groups:

1. simple conjunctions (and, or, but, till, after, that, so, where, when, etc.).
2. derivative conjunctions (until, unless, etc.).
3. compound conjunctions (however, whereas, wherever, etc.)
4. composite conjunctions (as well as, as long as, in case, for the reason that, etc.)

Some conjunctions are used in pairs (correlatively): both… and, either… or, not only… but (also), neither… nor, whether… or [3; 255].

The 2 main types of connection of clauses in a composite sentence are subordination and coordination. By coordination clauses are arranged as units of syntactically equal rank, i.e. equipotently. The leading clause and a sequential clause (He came and we had coffee. We had coffee and he came).By subordination they are arranged as units of unequal rank, one being categorically dominated by the other [8].

Besides the classical types of coordination and subordination of clauses, we find another case of construction of a composite sentence. When the connection between the clauses combined in a polypredicative unit is extremely loose, placing the sequential clause in a syntactically detached position. In this loosely connected composite sentence the information expressed by the sequential clause is presented as an afterthought, an idea that comes to the speaker’s mind after the completion of the foregoing utterance. This kind of connection is called cumulation. Its formal sign is the tone of completion. In writing it is a semifinal mark, such as a semicolon, a dash, sometimes a series of periods.

– Continuative cumulation: He did his job in the office without any fuss; he answered questions in the House: he made a couple of speeches.

– Parenthetical cumulation: Your story, you know, showed such breadth and depth of thought [8].

There are two classes of conjunctions:

1. Coordinating conjunctions;
2. Subordinating conjunctions.

Coordinating conjunctions join coordinate clauses in a compound sentence, or homogeneous parts in a simple sentence, or homogeneous subordinate clauses in a complex sentence, or independent sentences [3; 255].

He had said he would stay quiet in the hall, but he simply couldn’t anymore; and crossing the gravel of the drive he lay down on the grass beyond (Galsworthy).

He opened his eyes and stared quietly at the pure sky (Wilson).

Hers was that common insularity of mind that makes human creatures believe that their color, creed, and politics are best and right and that other human creatured scattered over the world are less fortunately placed than they (London).

Fabemacher wasted no time on a comedy of errors, and Haviland apologized for his mistake. But he was not as impressed as Erik had wanted him to be (Wilson).

Types of coordination:

1. Copulative coordination, expressed by the conjunctions and, nor, neither… nor, not only… but (also).

Mr. Home did not lift his eyes from his breakfast-plate for about two minutes, nor did he speak (Ch. Bronte).

2. Disjunctive coordination expressed by the conjunctions or, else, either… or, otherwise.

Don’t come near me with that look else I’ll knock you down (Eliot).

3. Adversative coordination expressed by the conjunctions but, while, whereas, nevertheless, still, yet. These conjunctions connect two clauses contrasting in meaning.

He had a glass eye which remained stationary, while the other eye looked at Reinhardt (Heym).

4. Causative-consecutive coordination expressed by the conjunctions for, so, accordingly, consequently, etc.

After all, the two of them belonged to the same trade, so talk was easy and happy between them (Priestly).

The coordinate phrases may be of two types: syndetically connected (free and happy) and asyndetically connected coordinate phrases (hot, dusty, tired out). In the structure of the first type, there’s always a word that connects the constituents of the phrase while in the second type there’s no connector [12; 43].

Subordinating conjunctions generally join a subordinate or dependent clause to a principal clause, or adverbial modifiers to the predicate in a simple sentence, or sometimes they join homogeneous parts [3; 255].

When he was eight, he got work in another mill (London).

He shook his head a bit as if in wonder that he had permitted himself to be caught in such crosscurrents (Wilson).

My look or something else must have struck her as offensive, for she spoke with extreme, though suppressed irritation (Ch. Bronte) [3; 255].

The subordinate phrases are classified according to the head word. Thus there are noun phrases (cold water), verb phrases (saw a house), adjective phrases (extremely red) and so on [12; 43].

The predicative phrases fall under:

Infinitive predicative phrases: I asked him to stay.

Gerundial predicative phrases: I saw him running.

Absolute predicative phrases: Everybody stood up, glass in hand.

As it is seen from the examples the types of predicative phrases depend on what non-finite form of the verb verbal part of them is expressed by [12; 43].

There are some kinds of repetition: lexical and syntactic. Lexical repetition is divided into:

1. anaphora (the repetition of the same elements at the beginning of several sentences):

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

And days of auld langsyne? (Burns)

2. epiphora (the repetition of the same elements at the end of several sentences is called):

I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that. L am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that. I can act with philosophy in such a case as that. (Dickens)

Lexical repetition is often used to increase the degree of emotion:

‘Oh, No, John, No, John, No, John, No!‘ (folk song) And like a rat without a tail, I’ll do, I’ll do, I’ll do. (Shakespeare) [4]

The term Syntactic repetition refers to repetition of syntactic elements or constructions. This may include syntactic tautology, such as, for example, the repetition of the subject of a sentence, which is typical of English folklore:

Little Miss Muffet

She sat on a tuffet. (Nursery rhyme)

and also of later stylisations of the ballad character:

Ellen Adair she loved me well,

Against her father’s and mother’s will. (Tennison)

Syntactic tautology may be used in literary works to represent the speech of a person of little education: Well, Judge Thatcher, he took it. … (M. Twain)

Repetition of the subject may also be combined with giving it some more specific additional information:

She has developed power, this woman – this – wife of his! (Galsworthy)

Oh, it’s a fine life, the life of the gutter. (Shaw)

Syntactic parallelism is a special variant of syntactic repetition, which means repetition of similar syntactic constructions in the text in order to strengthen the emotional impact or expressiveness of the description:

The seeds ye sow – another reaps,

The robes ye weave – another wears,

The arms ye forge – another bears. (Shelley)

Few of them will return to their countries; they will not embrace our holy religion; they will not adopt our manners. (B. Franklin) (Dickens) [4]

Parallelism as a figure of speech is based upon a recurrence of syntactically identical sequences which lexically are completely or partially different [5].

e.g. “She was a good servant, she walked softly, she was a determined woman, she walked precisely.” (G. Greene) “They were all three from Milan, and one of them was to be a lawyer, and one was to be a painter, and one had intended to be a soldier…” (E. Hemingway)

Parallel constructions almost always include some type of lexical repetition too, and such a convergence produces a very strong effect, foregrounding at one go logical, rhythmic, emotive and expressive aspects of the utterance, so it is imminent in oratory art as well as in impassioned poetry:

You’ve hit no traitor on the hip.

You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip,

You’ve never turned the wrong to right,

You’ve been a coward in the fight. (Ch. Mackay)

Like inversion, parallelism may be complete and partial:

Complete parallelism is observed when the syntactical pattern of the sentence that follows is completely similar to the proceeding one.

e.g. His door-bell didn’t ring. His telephone bell didn’t ring (D. Hammett).

Parallelism is considered to be partial when either the beginning or the end of several neighbouring sentences are structurally similar, e.g. I want to see the Gorgensens together at home, I want to see Macawlay, and I want to see Studsy Burke (D.Hammett) [5].

Parallel construction is a device which may be encountered not so much in the sentence as in the macro-structures dealt with earlier, i.e. the paragraph. The necessary condition in parallel construction is identical, or similar, syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of a sentence in close succession:

There were real silver spoons to stir the tea with, and real china cups to drink it out of, and plates of the same to hold the cakes. [1; 208].

Parallel construction is most frequently used in enumeration, antithesis and in a climax, thus consolidating the general effect achieved by these stylistic devices [1; 208].

There are many definitions of the sentence and these definitions differ from each other because the scientists approach from different viewpoints to this question [12; 44].

“The sentence is the immediate integral unit of speech built up of words according to a definite syntactic pattern and distinguished by a contextually relevant communicative purpose”. A sentence is a unit of speech whose grammatical structure conforms to the laws of the language and which serves as the chief means of conveying a thought. A sentence is not only a means of communicating something about reality but also a means of showing the speaker’s attitude to it [12; 44].

The sentence is the base of the English language. We need to know how to build a strong base and what we can and cannot add to it. Grammar is the study of sentence structure and how words relate to one another in a sentence [10].

Each complete thought that we write is a sentence.

A sentence can be a statement: The sun sets in the evening.

A sentence can be a question: When do you go to work in the morning?

A sentence can be a command or an exclamation: Get out of my kitchen!

A sentence always starts with a capital letter and ends with some kind of punctuation mark (period, question mark, exclamation point, etc.) [10]

A simple sentence includes a single subject and verb group. E.g. Mary and John worked and studied together [6].

Simple sentences, both two-member and one-member, can be unextended and extended.

A simple sentence may be unextended if it consists only of the main parts of the sentence – the subject and the predicate. A sentence is extended if it includes some secondary parts (the attribute, the object, the adverbial modifier) [6].

She is a student.

Birds fly.

Winter!

An extended sentence is a sentence consisting of the subject, the predicate and one or more secondary parts (objects, attributes, or adverbial modifiers) [3; 269].

The two native women stole furtive glances at Sarie (Abrahams).

There are many approaches to classify sentences. Below we shall consider only some of them.

There are two principles of sentences classifying:

1) types of communication. Applying this principle there are 3 types of sentences: declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory.

2) according to structure. Applying this principle there are two main types of sentences: simple and composite [12; 45].

From the point of view of the existence of all parts of the sentence we differentiate elliptical and non-elliptical sentences [12; 45].

According to their structure simple sentences are divided into two-member and one-member sentences [3; 267].

A two-member sentence has two members – a subject and a predicate [3; 267].

Fleur had established immediate contact with an architect (Galsworthy).

A two-member sentence may be complete or incomplete. It is complete when it has a subject and a predicate [3; 267].

Young Jolyon could not help smiling (Galsworthy).

It is incomplete when one of the principal parts or both of them are missing, but can be easily understood from the context. Such sentences are called elliptical and are mostly used in colloquial speech and especially in dialogue [3; 267].

Best not to see her again. Best to forget all about her (Abrahams).

What were you doing? Drinking (Shaw).

A one-member sentence is a sentence having only one member which is neither the subject nor the predicate [3; 267].

One-member sentences are generally used in descriptions and in emotional speech.

If the main part of a one-member sentence is expressed by a noun, the sentence is called nominal [3; 267].

Freedom! Bells ringing out, flowers, kisses, wine (Heym).

The main part of a one-member sentence is often expressed by an infinitive.

No! To have his friendship, his admiration, but not at that price (Galsworthy).

English sentence structure is the basic arrangement of a sentence. A sentence is made with a subject and a predicate, and maybe several other parts. The subject tells who or what the sentence is about. Then the verb and the rest of the predicate give information about what the subject does or is [11].

It is possible to have one word sentences in English: a verbal command like “Come!” or “Listen!” In commands, the unexpressed subject of the sentence is “you”. [11]

However, most English sentences begin with an actual subject (one or more nouns or pronouns, possibly with supporting adjectives) followed by a predicate (a verb or verbs and possibly modifiers, phrases, or objects.) [11]

Besides simple sentences, it is possible to have a compound subject or verb, a compound sentence (two subject-predicate clauses combined with a comma and conjunction or with a semicolon), or a complex sentence (two subject-predicate clauses combined in a way that makes one subordinate to the other) [11]

In questions the subject (S) follows the helping verb (HV) but precedes the main verb (MV) and the rest of the sentence, so the predicate is divided: HV- S- MV- rest of sentence [11].

Does Jeff study every night?

Do Bill and Jeff work together?

Can you swim?

Are they swimming right now?

Is Sarah going to the party?

A phrase is a group of words that gives information but is not a complete clause or sentence. (In other words, it does not include both a subject and a verb.) [11]

Prepositional Phrases are groups of words beginning with a preposition and including a noun or pronoun (with supporting adjectives, etc.):

Mary walked rapidly to the store

She wanted to get home before dark

I hope for an ‘A’ on the test tomorrow [11].

Predicates can also include direct or indirect objects. The subject does something to the direct object: The boy hit the ball. Mom bought gifts. Certain verbs can also have an indirect object: The boy gave me the ball. Mom bought us gifts. Indirect objects always precede (go before) direct objects [11].

Instead of using an indirect object, you could express the same idea with a prepositional phrase using ‘to’ or ‘for’ after the direct object: He gave the ball to me. Mom bought gifts for us [11].

Here are two examples:

University students study subjects in great depth. (“Subjects” is the direct object.)

Some teachers give students a lot of homework. (“Homework” is the direct object; “students” is the indirect object.) [11].

Some nouns of Latin and Greek origin have kept their own plural endings. The plural ending “es” as in the word “analyses” is pronounced [i:z], the ending “i” as in the word “alumni” is pronounced [ai], the ending “ae” as in “vertebrae” is pronounced [i:]. Nouns with Latin and Greek plural endings are divided here into groups according to the ending.

The English plural ending s/es is also used with some of these nouns; in such cases, two variants are given, and the variant with the English ending s/es is marked with the letter (E). In a few cases, English and Latin plural forms are not interchangeable, for example: radio antennas, an insect’s antennae; mass media (radio, TV, newspapers), spiritualistic mediums (people regarded as mediums).

 

Group 1

analysis – analyses

axis – axes

basis – bases

crisis – crises

diagnosis – diagnoses

hypothesis – hypotheses

oasis – oases

parenthesis – parentheses

thesis – theses

 

Group 2

abacus – abacuses (E), abaci

alumnus – alumni

apparatus – apparatus, apparatuses (E)

cactus – cactuses (E), cacti

calculus – calculi, calculuses (E)

corpus – corpora

focus – focuses (E), foci

fungus – fungi

genus – genera, genuses (E)

genius – geniuses (men of talent), genii (spirits)

hippopotamus – hippopotamuses (E), hippopotami

nucleus – nuclei, nucleuses (E)

octopus – octopuses (E), octopi

papyrus – papyri

radius – radii, radiuses (E)

rhombus – rhombuses (E), rhombi

stimulus – stimuli

stylus – styli, styluses (E); (

syllabus – syllabuses (E), syllabi

terminus – termini, terminuses (E)

 

Group 3

automaton – automatons (E), automata

criterion – criteria

phenomenon – phenomena

 

Group 4

addendum – addenda

bacterium – bacteria

curriculum – curriculums (E), curricula

datum – data

erratum – errata

forum – forums (E), fora

medium – media, mediums (E)

memorandum – memorandums (E), memoranda

millennium – millenniums (E), millennia

stadium – stadiums (E), stadia

stratum – strata, stratums (E)

 

Group 5

alumna – alumnae

antenna – (radio) antennas; b. antenna – (insects’) antennae

dogma – dogmas (E), dogmata

enigma – enigmas (E), enigmata

formula – formulas (E), formulae

stigma – stigmata, stigmas (E)

vertebra – vertebrae, vertebras (E)

 

Group 6

appendix – appendixes (E), appendices

matrix – matrices, matrixes (E)

apex – apexes (E), apices

index – indexes (E) (books), indices (maths)

vertex – vertexes (E), vertices

 

The tendency to use the foreign plural is still strong in the technical language of science, but in fiction and colloquial English there is an evident inclination to give to certain words the regular English plural in –s.

In compound nouns the plural is formed in different ways.

As a rule a compound noun forms the plural by adding –s to the head-word:

Editor-in-chief – editors-in-chief

Brother-in-law – brothers-in-law

Looker-on – lookers-on

In some compound nouns the final element takes the plural form:

lady-bird – lady-birds boy-friends

Forget-me-not – forget-me-nots travel agents

Merry-go-round – merry-go-rounds

Where man or woman is used in prefixes, both parts are made plural: men drivers, women drivers

Some nouns have only the plural form:

Trousers, spectacles, breeches, scissors, tongs, fetters, pants, slacks, tights, breeches, pyjamas, pliers, pincers, forceps. These are for the most part of names of things which imply plurality or consist of two or more parts. The word pantyhose is used in the singular.

There are nouns with the plural ending which are only in the plural: clothes, arms, goods, groceries, outskirts, troops, remains, savings, belongings.

Some uncountable nouns have the ending “s” in their form but are used only in the singular and with a singular verb, for example: news; names of games – billiards, cards, checkers, dominoes; names of diseases – measles, mumps. Names of scientific subjects are also singular: mathematics, physics, phonetics, linguistics, economics, politics, etc.

Initials can be made plural: MPs (members of Parliament), VIPs, OAPs (old age pensioners), UFOs.

Numerical expressions are usually singular, but can be plural if the individuals within a numerical group are acting individually:

Fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money.

One-half of the faculty is retiring this summer.

One-half of the faculty have doctorates.

Fifty percent of the students have voted already.

When a noun names the title of something or is a word being used as a word, it is singular whether the word takes a singular form or not.

Faces is the name of the new restaurant downtown.

Postcards is my favorite novel.

Plurals and Apostrophes. We use an apostrophe to create plural forms in two limited situations: for pluralized letters of the alphabet and when we are trying to create the plural form of a word that refers to the word itself. Here we also should italicize this “word as word,” but not the ‘s ending that belongs to it. Do not use the apostrophe + s to create the plural of acronyms (pronounceable abbreviations such as laser).

Jeffrey got four A’s on his last report.

You have fifteen and’s in that last paragraph.

Critical Thinking Elements

Critical thinking has six basic elements. Each of the six elements of critical thinking serves a purpose in making it beneficial to the college students. This would, therefore, mean that a student must show all the six elements for him or her to be considered as thinking critically. Information evaluation, interpretation, analysis, synthesis, explanation and idea application are the elements that make up critical thinking among the college students. If there miss any of these elements in the way a student carry on, then he or she is considered not thinking critically.

Information evaluation is the first element of critical thinking that a student should show. A critical thinker can evaluate information from a source. Such a student can systematically determine the weight and worth of information ideas, or she gets from a source. A student should be able to understand that each of the ideas that he or she gets from a source has the advantaging and disadvantaging side. This helps the student to choose the information idea that is more advantaging and can result in more success in academics. More advantaging information should be understood by a student to be fetching higher grades than the others that have more limitations in their context.

A college student should also be able to synthesize the idea information that he or she gets from a source. Synthesis of information is also an important aspect of critical thinking in college students. Students should be capable of using different information sources in bringing up an idea. Using a variety of sources enables him or her to infer the relationships between the information that are contained in the articles, books essays, and the non-written sources.

Moreover, analysis of information, especially research data also makes part of critical thinking in college students. Critical thinking insists that college students should understand the procedure of analyzing the information they get from the various educational sources. Students through critical thinking learn how to analyze the information that they get and come up with the best idea that would result in best grades in their education. Information analysis also helps the college to do well in the research units that they study in the schools. Studying a trend of an event also demands college students to have good analysis skills such that they can address student issue and be able to predict the next event to occur.

Explaining considering an idea is also very important in critical thinking (Stupple, 2017). Critical thinking is also aimed at making everyone understand the information concerning an idea or a topic. It, therefore, trains the college students to develop such that their knowledge concerning an idea such that they can be able to share the same information with others in a more clear way. An explanation may sometimes include the skills of students bringing the information to a real-life context for faster and deeper understanding of the target audience. Having studied deep an idea, a student should be able to make the information in the idea simpler through breaking it down to easily understandable sub-topics.

Application of the learned information and ideas is also very basic in critical thinking among the college students. Successful students apply what they have been taught in theory form into the practical. The college education is much into enabling students to apply the theoretical ideas into the real-life situation through performing practical work. The ability of the student to apply the theory ideas into his or her practical work determines how much they are likely to perform and meet the targets expected of them when they get to the industrial environment. Critical thinking works on the basis that a student learns to be able to apply what they have learned in performing practical works (Niu, 2015). Application of ideas also involves students applying the concepts that they have learned in their previous units of education in developing into the next stage of learning. A college education is based on how much a student can remember and use the information that he or she had learned previously in becoming more superior in the next stage of education. Second-year topics are performed based on the ideas that had been developed in the previous years of study.

Developing on the quantity of knowledge with a student is among the major components of critical thinking among the college students. Critical thinking values students becoming more knowledgeable. Students should be improving the degree of how much they know as they learn. College learning is progressive and therefore makes knowledge increase a great component of critical thinking. Finally, a student needs to understand what they are taught. If a student fails to understand the ideas that they learn from the various sources they use for information, they definitely will have nothing but consider themselves losers in education. Critical thinking tries to save students from becoming academic losers by ensuring that they become very smart upstairs and grasps every detail of information that they learn in class or even from the readings.

The noun denominates names of living things, lifeless things, abstract notions, qualities (kindness), states (strength, sleep, fear), actions (conversation, fight).

The noun has the following morphological characteristics:

Nouns that can be counted have two numbers (singular and plural),

Nouns denoting living beings have two case forms (the common case and the genitive case),

It is doubtful whether the grammatical category of gender exists in Modern English for it is hardly ever expressed by means of grammatical forms. There is practically only one gender-forming suffix in ME, the suffix –ess, expressing feminine gender. It is not widely spread: Heir-heiress, Poet-poetess, Actor-actress, Waiter-waitress, Host-hostess, Lion-lioness, Tiger-tigress.

The noun has certain syntactical characteristics. The chief syntactical functions of the noun in the sentence are those of the subject and the object. But it may also be used as an attribute or a predicative. E.g.:

The sun was rising in all his splendid beauty. (Dickens) (SUBJECT)

Troy and Yates followed the tourists. (Heym) (OBJECT)

He (Bosinney) was an architect… (Galsworthy) (PREDICATIVE)

Mary brought in the fruit on a tray and with it a glass bowl, and a blue dish… (Mansfield)  (ATTRIBUTE; the noun glass is used in the common case)

The hero and heroine, of course, just arrived from his father’s yacht. (Mansfield)  (ATTRIBUTE; the noun father is used in the genitive case)

A noun preceded by a preposition (a prepositional phrase) may be used as attribute, prepositional indirect object, and adverbial modifier. E.g.:

To the left were clean panes of glass. (Ch. Bronte) (ATTRIBUTE)

Bicket did not answer, his throat felt too dry. He had heard of the police. (Galsworthy) (OBJECT)

She went into the drawing-room and lighted the fire. (Mansfield) (ADVERBIAL MODIFIER)

“Stop everything, Laura!” cried Jose in astonishment. (Mansfield)  (ADVERBIAL MODIFIER)

The noun is generally associated with the article. Because of the comparative scarcity of morphological distinctions in English in some cases only articles show that the word is a noun. A noun can be modified by an adjective, a pronoun, by another noun or by verbals.

Morphological composition of nouns

According to their morphological composition we distinguish simple, derivative and compound nouns.

Simple nouns are nouns which have no affixes. They are indecomposable: chair, table, room, map, fish, work.

Derivative nouns are nouns which have affixes: reader, sailor, childhood, misconduct, inexperience. Productive noun-forming suffixes are: -er, -ist-, -ess, -ness, -ism.

Unproductive suffixes are: -hood, dom, -ship (relationship), -ment (development), -ance (importance),- ence (dependence), -ty (cruelty), -ity (generosity).

Compound nouns are those built from two or more roots. They often have one stress. The meaning of a compound often differs from the meaning of its elements (apple-tree, snowball, bluebell). The main types of compound nouns are as follows:

(a) noun-stem + noun-stem: appletree, snowball;

(b) adjective-stem + noun-stem: blackbird, bluebell;

(c) verb-stem + noun-stem: pickpocket; the stem of a gerund or of a participle may be the first component of a compound noun: dining-room, reading-hall, dancing-girl.

Classification of nouns

Nouns fall under two classes: proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns are individual names given to separate individuals of things (personal names, geographical names, names of months, days of the week, names of ships, hotels, clubs, etc). A large number of nouns now proper were originally common nouns (Brown, Smith). Proper nouns may change their meaning and become common nouns (champagne, sandwich, wellies).

Common nouns are names that can be applied to any individual of a class of people or things (man, dog, book), collections of similar individuals or things regarded as a single unit (peasantry, family), materials (snow, iron, cotton) or abstract notions (kindness, development). Thus, there are different groups of common nouns: class nouns, collective nouns, nouns of material and abstract nouns.

Class nouns denote people of things belonging to a class. They are countable and have two numbers: singular and plural (book, tool, giraffe).

Collective nouns denote a number or collection of similar individuals or things as a single unit. Collective nouns fall under the following groups:

Nouns used only in the singular and denoting a number of things collected together and regarded as a single object: foliage, machinery.

Nouns which are singular in form though plural in meaning (police, poultry, cattle, people). They are usually called nouns of multitude.

Nouns that can be both singular and plural (family, crowd, group)

Nouns of material denote material: iron, gold, paper, tea, water. They are uncountable and are generally used without an article. Nouns of material are used in the plural to denote different sorts of a given material (wines, waters).

Abstract nouns denote some quality, state, action or idea: kindness, sadness. They are usually uncountable, though some of them can be countable: idea, hour.

Abstract nouns may change their meaning and become class nouns. Their change is marked by the use of the article and the plural number:

e.g. Beauty – a beauty – beauties

Sight – a sight – sights

The Category of Number

English countable nouns have two numbers – singular and plural. The main types of the plural forms of English nouns are as follows:

The general rule for forming the plural of English nouns is by adding the suffix S to the singular. It is pronounced in different ways:

IZ after sibilants: noses, horses, bridges, pages.

Z after voiced consonants and vowels: flowers, beds, doves, boys.

S after voiceless consonants: caps, books, hats, cliffs.

If the noun ends in –s, -ss, -ch, -tch, -sh, -x the plural is formed by adding –es to the singular.

If the nouns ends into –y preceded by a consonant, -y is changed into –i before –es.

e.g. fly – flies

lady – ladies

In proper nouns, however, the plural is formed by adding the ending –s to the singular: Mary – Marys.

If the noun finishes in –o preceded by a consonant, the plural is generally formed by adding –es. Only a few nouns are exceptions to this rule. They form the plural simply by adding –s:

Hero – heroes but: piano – pianos

Cargo – cargoes solo – solos

Potato – potatoes photo – photos

Echo – echoes

All nouns ending in –o preceded by a vowel form the plural in –s and not in –es:

Cuckoo – cuckoos

Portfolio – portfolios

There a few nouns ending in –o which form the plural both in –s and –es:

Mosquito – mosquitos or mosquitoes, volcanos (es)

With certain nouns the final voiceless consonants are changed into the corresponding voiced consonants when the noun takes the plural form.

The nouns finishing in –f or –fe change it into –v (both in spelling and pronunciation) in the plural: wife – wives (life, knife, wolf, calf, half, loaf, leaf, self, shelf).

There are some nouns ending in –f which have two forms in the plural:

scarf – scarfs or scarves wharf – wharfs or wharves

Exceptions: proof, chief, safe, cliff, gulf, reef, grief, roof, belief, kerchief, handkerchief.

Nouns ending in –th after long vowels change it into in pronunciation:

bath – baths, path – paths, oath – oaths

But is always retained after consonants and short vowels:

smith – smiths, month – months, myth – myths, birth – births

One noun ending in S changes it into Z in pronunciation: house – houses.

The plural forms of some nouns are survivals of earlier formations.

There are 7 nouns which form the plural by changing the root vowel: man-men, woman-women, foot-feet, tooth-teeth, goose-geese, die-dice, mouse-mice, louse-lice .

There are 2 nouns which form the plural in –en: ox-oxen, child-children.

Note. The nouns brother has besides its usual plural form another plural form brethren, which belongs to the elevated style and denotes people of the same creed and not relationship. The noun cow also has two plural forms (cows and kine), the latter sometimes occurs in poetry. The noun penny also has two plurals: pence – British currency (ten pence),

pennies – individual coins. Some nouns have the same singular and plural forms: species, series, means, corp.

In some nouns plural does not differ from the singular: deer, fish, swine, trout, sheep.