Category: Life

Objective Participle Construction

The Objective Participle Construction is a construction in which the participle is in predicate relation to a noun in the common case or a pronoun in the objective case.

In The Objective Participle Construction Participle Indefinite Active or Participle II is used. In the sentence this construction has the function of a complex object.

The Objective Participle Construction may be found:

after verbs denoting sense perception, such as to see, to hear, to feel, to find, etc.

I heard my wife coming… (Conan Doyle)

You will probably find your sister grown, Bella. (Dickens)

after some verbs of mental activity, such as to consider, to understand.

I consider myself engaged to Herr Klesmer. (Eliot)

after verbs denoting wish, such as to want, to wish, to desire. In this case, only Participle II is used.

The governor wants it done quick. (Bennett)

after the verbs to have and to get ;after these verbs only Participle II is used.

In this case The Objective Participle Construction shows that the action expressed by the participle is performed at the request of the person denoted by the subject of the sentence. Thus I had the piano tuned means ‘I made someone tune the piano’.

In interrogative and negative sentences the auxiliary verb to do is used:

Why don’t you have your hair waved? (Du Maurier)

Occasionally the meaning of the construction is different :it may show that the person denoted by the subject of the sentence experiences the action expressed by the participle.

The wounded man had his leg amputated.

The Subjective Participle Construction

The Subjective Participle Construction is a construction in which the participle (mostly Participle I) is in predicate relation to a noun in the common case or a pronoun in the nominative case , which is the subject of the sentence .

The peculiarity of this construction is that it does not serve as one part of the sentence: one of its component parts has the function of the subject ,the other forms part of a compound verbal predicate.

They were heard talking together… ( Collins)

This construction is chiefly used after verbs of sense perception.

The horse was seen descending the hill. (Hardy)

The Nominative Absolute Participle Construction

The Nominative Absolute Participle Construction is a construction in which the participle stands in predicate relations to a noun in the common case or a pronoun in the nominative case; the noun or pronoun is not the subject of the sentence.

The door and the window of the vacant room being open, we looked in. (Dickens)

In the Nominative Absolute Participle Construction Participle I (in all its forms) or Participle II is used. This construction is used in the function of an adverbial modifier:

The lamp having been lit, Mrs. Macallan produced her son’s letter. (Collins)

This duty completed, he had three months’ leave. (Hard)

It being now pretty late, we took our candles and went upstairs. (Dickens)

A knock had come to the door , and there being nobody else to answer it, Clare went out. (Hardy)

In this function the Nominative Absolute Participle Construction is mostly placed at the end of the sentence.

He turned and went, we, as before, following him. (Jerome)

One morning he stood in frond of the tank , his nose almost pressed to the glass. (Dreiser)

In this function the Nominative Absolute Participle Construction occurs but seldom and is almost exclusively used with the participles permitting and failing.

Weather (time, circumstances) permitting, we shall start tomorrow.

Conciliation failing, force remains; but force failing, no further hope of conciliation is left.

The Nominative Absolute Participle Construction very often occurs in fiction and scientific literature; the use of this construction in colloquial English is rare.

The Prepositional Absolute Participle Construction with Participle I

A prepositional absolute construction differs from a non-prepositional participial construction in that it is introduced by the preposition with. Its nominal part is usually a noun in the common case, or very rarely a personal pronoun in the objective case. It is not necessarily set off by a comma:

Andrew went into the house with his heart beating fast.

The main syntactical function of the construction is an adverbial modifier of attendant circumstances, as in:

The officer sat with his long fine hands lying on the table perfectly still.

The meaning of attendant circumstances may be combined with temporal or causal ones:

I won’t speak with him staring at me like that.

Just now, with the harvest coming on, everything looks its richest.

It (St. John’s Wood) is ever so pretty with all the trees coming out.

The prepositional absolute construction with participle II

This construction is introduced by the preposition with and its nominal element is hardly ever presented by a pronoun; it is more closely related to the predicate verb and is seldom set off by a comma.

She went on reading with her eyes fixed on the pages of the book.

It is unhealthy to sleep with the windows shut.

The main syntactical function of the construction is that of an adverbial modifier of manner or attendant circumstances.

An additional idea of time, reason, or condition may be prompted by the context, as in: I can’t walk with my leg broken (reason).

Conclusion

In the present work I attempted to investigate the Participles, such part of speech formed from a verb that does not function as a verb. I chose the Participle Constructions as the theme of my work because I was interested in it. I used different kind of references to investigate the Participles. In other words, I studied the main aspects of English verbals: grammatical characteristics, their syntactical role, their semantics, and the rules of correct use of them.

A verbal is a part of speech formed from a verb that does not function as a verb. Verbals are sometimes referred to as non-finite verbs, meaning they do not, as finite verbs do, agree in person, number, and tense with a subject. Verbals do not take a subject; however, they can take a direct object or indirect object, and can be modified like verbs. There are three types of verbals: gerunds, participles, and infinitives.

A participle is a verbal that is used as an adjective and most often ends in -ing or -ed. The term verbal indicates that a participle, like the other two kinds of verbals, is based on a verb and therefore expresses action or a state of being. However, since they function as adjectives, participles modify nouns or pronouns. There are two types of participles: present participles and past participles. Present participles end in -ing. Past participles end in -ed, -en, -d, -t, or -n, as in the words asked, eaten, saved, dealt, and seen. A participial phrase is a group of words consisting of a participle and the modifier(s) and/or (pro)noun(s) or noun phrase(s) that function as the direct object(s), indirect object(s), or complement(s) of the action or state expressed in the participle.

All the verbals can form predicative constructions. They consist of two elements: a nominal (noun or pronoun) and a verbal (participle, gerund or infinitive). The verbal element stands in predicate relation to the nominal element. That is to say it stands in the subject and the predicate of the sentence. In most cases predicative constructions form syntactic units, serving as one part of the sentence.

Introduction

A participle is a verbal that is used as an adjective and most often ends in -ing or -ed. The term verbal indicates that a participle, like the other two kinds of verbals, is based on a verb and therefore expresses action or a state of being. However, since they function as adjectives, participles modify nouns or pronouns.

Etymology

The word comes from Latin participium, a calque of Greek metochḗ “partaking” or “sharing”, because the Ancient Greek and Latin participles share in the properties of the adjective or noun (gender, number, and case) and of the verb (tense and voice).

Types of participles

There are two types of participles: present participles and past participles. Present participles end in -ing. Past participles end in -ed, -en, -d, -t, or -n, as in the words asked, eaten, saved, dealt, and seen. A participial phrase is a group of words consisting of a participle and the modifier(s) and/or (pro)noun(s) or noun phrase(s) that function as the direct object(s), indirect object(s), or complement(s) of the action or state expressed in the participle.

 

Non-finiteforms of the verbs are formed by special morphemic elements which do not express either grammatical time or mood (the most specific finite verb categories). They can be combined with verbs like non-processual lexemes (performing non-verbal functions in the sentence), and they can be combined with non-processual lexemes like verbs (performing verbal functions in the sentence) .

The present participle is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective and adverb, serving as the qualifying-processual name. In its outer form the present participle is wholly homonymous with the gerund, ending in the suffix -ing and distinguishing the same grammatical categories of retrospective coordination and voice.

The past participle is the non-finite form of the verb -positional functions of the past which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective, serving as the qualifying-processual name. The past participle is a single form, having no paradigm of its own. By way of the paradigmatic correlation with the present participle, it conveys implicitly the categorial meaning of the perfect and the passive. As different from the present participle, it has no distinct combinability features or syntactic function features specially characteristic of the adverb. Thus, the main self-positional functions of the past participle in the sentence are those of the attribute and the predicative.

The functions of the participle in the sentence are more restricted as compared with those of the infinitive and the gerund. Besides, it tends to become adjectivized even in the functions that it can perform in the sentence.

The participle cannot be used either as the subject or as the predicate of the sentence. When it is used as predicative, it is always adjectivized and may be preceded, like a real adjective, by adverb of degree, such as extremely, greatly, so, too, very and the correlative conjunctions as … as and not so … as.

It should be mentioned that if participles were not adjectivized in this case, they would form, with the verb to be, the Passive Voice.

Note. Some adjectivized participles, however, can be modified, like verbs, by (very) much. This may be accounted for by their verbal origin

e.g. If Tony expected her to rush into his arms he was very much mistaken.

In a day or two the answer came back that he was very much opposed to the whole scheme.

It follows from what has been said that the participle proper (i.e. the participle which is not adjectivized) cannot be used as predicative.

The functions of the Participle I in the sentence

Participle I as an attribute. It can be in pre-position or in post-position.

e.g. The gate-keeper surveyed the retreating vehicle.(Hardy)

Through the massive sunlight illuminating the hall at Robin Hill, the July sunlight at 5 o’clock fell just where the broad staircase turned. (Galthworthy)

Participle I as an adverbial modifier:

of time

e.g. Having reached the classroom , she became the object of many questions. (Collins)

b) of cause

e.g. Having been a little in that line myself, I understood it. (Show)

c) of manner and attendant circumstances.

e.g. He has been in three revolutions fighting in the barricades. (Shaw)

e) of comparison

e.g. This was said as if thinking aloud. (Gaskell)

Participle I as a predicative.

Participle I as a part of complex object.

Participle I as a part of compound verbal predicate.

e.g. Presently other footsteps were heard crossing the room below. (Hardy)

Participle I as a parenthesis forms the headword of a participial phrase, the meaning of which is a comment upon the contents of the whole sentence or sometimes part of it. The comment may take the form of a logical restriction or personal attitude. Here we find such participial phrases as generally (properly, roughly, legally, strictly) speaking, putting it mildly, judging by (from), allowing for, taking everything into consideration, etc.

e.g. Generally speaking, I don’t like boys.(Dickens)

The functions of the Participle II in the sentence.

Participle II as an attribute. It can be used ,as well as the Participle I, in pre-position or in post-position.

e.g. He answered through the locked door.(Wells)

They turned into the large conservatory beautifully lit up with Chinese lamps.(Eliot)

Participle II as an adverbial modifier:

1. of time
2. of comparison
3. of condition
   e.g. In was dreadful thing that he now proposed, a breach of the law which, if discovered, would bring them into the police court.(Cronin)
4. of concession

Participle II as a predicative.

Participle II as a part of complex object.
e.g. She has found me unaltered; but I have found her changed. (Collins)

The present participle, can build up semi-predicative complexes of objective and subjective types. The two groups of complexes, i.e. infinitival and present participial, may exist in parallel (e.g. when used with some verbs of physical perceptions), the difference between them lying in the aspective presentation of the process.

Nobody noticed the scouts approach the enemy trench. — Nobody noticed the scouts approaching the enemy trench with slow, cautious, expertly calculated movements. Suddenly a telephone was heard to buzz, breaking the spell. — The telephone was heard vainly buzzing in the study.

A peculiar use of the present participle is seen in the absolute participial constructions of various types, forming complexes of detached semi-predication.

The messenger waiting in the hall, we had only a couple of minutes to make a decision. The dean sat at his desk, with an electric fire glowing warmly behind the fender at the opposite wall.

These complexes of descriptive and narrative stylistic nature seem to be gaining ground in present-day English.

The past participle is included in the structural formation of the present participle (perfect, passive), which, together with the other differential properties, vindicates the treatment of this form as a separate verbid

Like the present participle, the past participle is capable of making up semi-predicative constructions of complex object, complex subject, as well as of absolute complex.

The past participial complex object is specifically characteristic with verbs of wish and oblique causality (have, get).

I want the document prepared for signing by 4 p.m. Will you have my coat brushed up, please?

The complex subject of this type, whose participle is included in the double predicate of the sentence, is used but occasionally. A more common type of the participial complex subject can be seen with notional links of motion and position.

We sank down and for a while lay there stretched out and exhausted.

The absolute past participial complex as a rule expresses priority in the correlation of two events.

The preliminary talks completed, it became possible to concentrate on the central point of the agenda.

The past participles of non-objective verbs are rarely used in independent sentence-part positions; they are mostly included in phraseological or cliché combinations like faded photographs, fallen leaves, a retired officer, a withered flower, dream come true, etc.

Participle may function as part of a predicative construction, entering into a predicative relationship with some nominal element and forming a syntactical unit with it.

In Modern English we find the following predicative construction with the participle:

• the Objective Participle Construction;
• the Subjective Participle Construction;
• the Nominative Absolute Participle Construction;
• the Prepositional Absolute Participle Construction.

English Grammar. Morphology

Grammar is a branch of linguistics that deals with the form and structure of words. Grammar is one of the oldest fields of study, as well as one of the most durable. Even Plato can be labeled as an early grammarian, because he was responsible for dividing the sentence into subject and verb.

Grammar is the system of a language. English grammar is defined as the body of rules describing the properties of the English language.

Grammar is traditionally subdivided into two different but inter-related areas of study: morphology and syntax. The term morphology appeared in 1859. Morphology is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of words. It studies the building blocks of a language. Morphology shows the structure, organization and usage of every constituent. Besides it prescribes the correct organization and combination of language elements. Morphology is particularly important because native speakers of English create new words constantly. By the syntax of a language we mean the body of rules that speakers follow when they combine words into sentences.

Word structure in Modern English

The term morpheme is derived from the Greek morphe “form” and –eme, a Greek suffix that was adopted by linguists to denote the smallest unit with a distinctive feature.

The morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language. Morphemes occur in speech only as constituent parts of words, not independently, although a word may consist of a single morpheme. Words are composed of morphemes of different types: root-morphemes and affixational morphemes. Words that consist of a root and an affix are called derived words or derivatives and are produced by the process of word building known as affixation.

The root-morpheme is the lexical nucleus of the word, it has a very general and abstract lexical meaning common to a set of semantically related words constituting one word-cluster, e.g. teach, teacher, teaching.

Affixational morphemes include inflections and derivational affixes. Inflections carry only a grammatical meaning and are relevant only for the formation of word-forms (-s, -ing, -ed, -er, -est). They indicate tense, form, aspect, number, person. Derivational affixes are relevant for building various types of words. They are lexically always dependent on the root which they modify, e.g. –er work – worker, compare with hot – hotter.

Roots and derivational affixes are generally easily distinguished and the difference between them is clearly felt as e.g. in the words helpless, handy, blackness, Londoner, refill, etc. The root morphemes help-, hand-, black-, London-, -fill are understood as the lexical centers of the words and –less, -y, -ness, -er, re- are felt as morphemes dependent on these roots.

One and the same morphemic segment, depending on various morphemic environments, can in principle be used now as an affix (mostly, a prefix), now as a root:

• out — a root-word (preposition, adverb, );
• throughout — a composite word, in which -out serves as one of the roots
• outing — a two-morpheme word, in which out is a root, and -ing is a suffix;
• outlook, outline, outrage, out-talk, — words, in which out- serves as a prefix;
• look-out, knock-out, shut-out, time-out, — words (nouns), in which -out serves as a suffix

On the basis of the degree of self-dependence, “free” morphemes and “bound” morphemes are distinguished. Bound morphemes cannot form words by themselves; they are identified only as component segmental parts of words. As different from this, free morphemes can build up words by themselves, i.e. can be used “freely”.

For instance, in the word handful the root hand is a free morpheme, while the suffix -ful is a bound morpheme.

Semi-bound morphemes may function both as root morphemes and as derivational elements. E.g. -man in manmade, manservant ; -man in gentleman, -proof -waterproof

Allomorphs are variants of the same morpheme, e.g. –ion, -tion, -sion, -ation (calculate – calculation, move-motion, depress – depression, transform – transformation). They are positional variants of the same suffix, they do not differ in meaning or function but show a slight difference in sound form depending on the final phoneme of the preceding stem. Other ex include –able, -ible (capable, responsible), im-, in- (immoral, inappropriate), ir-, il- (irregular, illegal).

The suffixes – able and –ed are different morphemes, not allomorphs, because adjectives in –able mean “capable of” and –ed is an incflection showing the past tense of a verb.

Inner flections are changes inside the word (usually in vowels, sometimes in consonants) in order to express different grammatical categories: foot – feet, meet – met.

Grammatical structure of the English Language

Languages can be synthetic (inflected) or analytical (isolating) according to their grammatical structure. In synthetic languages, such as, for instance Russian, Romanian, the grammatical relations between words are expressed by means of inflections (the change in the form of a word that indicates distinctions of tense, person, gender, number, mood, voice, and case) or by agglutination (a grammatical process in which words are composed of a sequence of morphemes). Latin is an example of an inflected language; Hungarian and Finnish are examples of agglutinative languages.

Whereas in English you would say, “to my little house”, you could say all that in one word in Hungarian: “házacskámba”.

This is so because you glue the little particles meaning “to”, “my” and “little” at the back of the word stem, “house”. Like this: ház + (a)cska + m + ba.

Directly translated into English, it would look like this: “houselittlemyto”.

Highly synthetic languages, in which a whole sentence may consist of a single word (usually a verb form) containing a large number of affixes are called polysynthetic. Eskimo and many American Indian languages are polysynthetic.

In analytical languages, such as English, the grammatical relations between words are expressed by means of form words and word order. An analytic language is commonly identified with an isolating language. Typical examples are Vietnamese and Classical Chinese, which are analytic and isolating. Analytical forms are mostly proper in verbs. An analytical verb-form consists of one or more form words, which have no lexical meaning and only express one or more of the grammatical categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, mood and one notional word, generally an infinitive or a participle.

e.g. He has come.

I am reading.

The analytical forms are: tense and aspect verb-forms (the Continuous form, the Perfect form, the Perfect Continuous Form, the Future Indefinite form, also the interrogative and negative of the Present Simple and Past Indefinite Tenses), the Passive Voice, the analytical form or the Subjunctive Mood:

I would go there if I had time.

However, the structure of a language is never purely synthetic or purely analytical. Thus, in the English language there are endings: -s, -ed, ‘s, inner flexions: man-men.

One of the marked features of the English language is the extensive use of substitutes. A word substitute saves the repetitions of certain words. Here belong: one (ones), that, do.

e.g. Give me a book and take one for you.

That generally substitutes nouns, especially abstract nouns and nouns of material followed by an attribute. E.g. He believed his work was better than that of the other artist.

Do substitutes verbs. e.g. You know it better than I do.

Synthetic languages are numerous and well-attested, the most commonly cited being Indo-European languages such as Sanskrit, Spanish, Persian, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, German, Italian, French, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and Czech, as well as many languages of the Americas.

General classification of the parts of speech

According to their meaning, morphological characteristics and syntactical function, words, fall under certain classes called parts of speech.

We distinguish between notional and structural parts of speech. The notional parts of speech perform certain functions in the sentence: the function of subject, predicate, attribute, object, or adverbial modifier. The notional parts of speech are:

• The noun,
• The adjective,
• The pronoun,
• The numeral,
• The verb,
• The adverb,
• The words of the category of state,
• The modal words,
• The interjection.

The structural parts of speech either express relations between words or sentences or emphasize the meaning of words or sentences. They never perform any independent function in the sentence. Here belong:

• The preposition,
• The conjunction,
• The particle,
• The article.

The two functions of this section are to report the results (past verb tense) of the procedures described in the methods and to present the evidence, that is the data (in the form of text, tables or figures), that supports the results. Some journals combine the results and discussion into one section.

Before sitting down to write the first draft, it is important to plan which results are important in answering the question and which can be left out. Include only results which are relevant to the question(s) posed in the introduction irrespective of whether or not the results support the hypothesis(es). After deciding which results to present, attention should turn to determining whether data are best presented within the text or as tables or figures. Tables and figures (photographs, drawings, graphs, flow diagrams) are often used to present details whereas the narrative section of the results tends to be used to present the general findings. Clear tables and figures provide a very powerful visual means of presenting data and should be used to complement the text, but at the same time must be able to be understood in isolation. Except on rare occasions when emphasis is required data that are given in a table or figure must not be repeated within the text. Sources of help for the preparation of table and figure are Briscoe (1990), Price (in press) and Zeiger (1991).

Tables and figures must be mentioned within the text and should be placed after the related text. Photographs of subjects are often placed within the methods and should be used only if written, informed consent was obtained prior to the taking of the photograph. To preserve anonymity, facial features should be covered. If a manuscript includes a table or figure that has already been published, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) and the source acknowledged.

Confusion sometimes arises as to the difference between results and data. Results statements provide the message, that is, they interpret the data. Data rarely stand alone, they are facts, often numbers, which may be presented in their raw form, summarized (e.g. means) or transformed (e.g. percentages, ratios) (Zeiger, 1991). For example, in a hypothetical study comparing vital capacity in supine and standing, the results statement and data respectively might be, “vital capacity was decreased in supine compared to standing” and “mean (SD) vital capacity was 2.95 (0.8) litres and 3.40 (0.6) litres (p<0.05) in supine and standing respectively”. The two statements should be presented together with the results statement given first, i.e. “vital capacity was decreased in supine compared to standing, mean (SD) values were 2.95 (0.8) litres and

3.40 (0.6) litres respectively (p<0.05) in the 20 subjects”. When presenting data, the sample size (n) must be given, any missing data identified and the p-values for data that have been analysed using statistical tests must be included. The significance level (critical alpha () probability value) should be reported but in the event that the null hypothesis (H0) is accepted, the beta () probability value or statistical power should be reported. Studies in which H0 is retained are just as important to report as those in which H0 is rejected, providing such studies have an acceptable level of statistical power. The test statistic and the degrees of freedom, for example t(12) = 3.12 should also be included unless only one statistical test has been used. When citing a p value, always give some idea of the magnitude of the difference (e.g. 20 per cent increase) as a p value in isolation gives no indication of the importance of the finding. It is generally accepted when reporting results that “significant” or “significantly” refer to statistical significance (Zeiger, 1991). Thus it is unnecessary to say “the decrease in pain was statistically significant”.

The order of presentation of the results should be either chronological to correspond with the methods or from the most to the least important. The order of most to least important should be followed within each paragraph. For every result there must be a method in the methods. Careful planning of the tables and figures is important to ensure that the sequencing of these tells a story.

The results must not include a discussion of the findings, methods of data analyses and citations of references, except on rare occasions when a comparison is made of the raw data with the findings of a published study. This applies only when this comparison would not fit well within the discussion.

Discussion

The discussion should be considered as the heart of the paper and invariably requires several attempts at writing (Portney and Watkins, 1993). It serves to answer the question(s) posed in the introduction, explain how the results support the answers and how the answers fit in with existing knowledge on the topic (Zeiger, 1991). This is the main section in which the author can express his/her interpretations and opinions, for example how important the author thinks the results are, the author’s suggestions for future research and the clinical implications of the findings (Portney and Watkins, 1993). In order to make the message clear, the discussion should be kept as short as possible whilst still clearly and fully stating, supporting, explaining and defending the answers to the questions as well as discussing other important and directly relevant issues. Side issues and unnecessary issues should not be included, as these tend to obscure the message. Care must be taken to provide a commentary and not a reiteration of the results. The recommended content of the discussion is given in Table 4. (Zeiger, 1991)

Table 4: Discussion

Answers to the question(s) posed in the introduction together with any accompanying support, explanation and defence of the answers (present verb tense) with reference to published literature. Explanations of any results that do not support the answers. Indication of the originality/uniqueness of the work Explanations of: How the findings concur with those of others Any discrepancies of the results with those of others Unexpected findings The limitations of the study which may affect the study validity or generalisability of the study findings. Indication of the importance of the work e.g. clinical significance Recommendations for further research

Answering the questions should be done using the same key terms and the same verbs (present tense) which were used when posing the question(s) in the introduction. The answer must be confined to the population studied, for example if the subjects were randomly selected from a population with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee, generalize to the population with OA knee but not to a population with knee pain from other causes. If more than one question was asked in the introduction, then all questions must be answered in the discussion. All results relating to the question should be addressed, irrespective of whether or not the findings were statistically significant. Answers to the questions that were never asked must not be included.

Support the answer(s) by reference to published work whenever possible. It may be necessary to explain the answer by saying why it is acceptable and how it is consistent or fits in with published ideas on the topic. To defend the answer, explain why it is more satisfactory than other answers and why other answers are unsatisfactory. Where the findings of the study are not in agreement with those of others, this discrepancy should be explained. The sequencing of providing this information is important; discuss the results of the present study before going on to cite the work of others. In the event that unexpected findings occur, decide whether they are of little importance or may be very exciting. Demonstrating a willingness to discuss and evaluate rival explanations for the results highlights a good discussion. To discuss an unexpected finding, begin the sentence by saying it was unexpected and then go on to give the best possible explanation.

Discuss any weakness in study design, for example, extraneous variables that only became apparent during the conduct of the study. Comment on the relative importance of these limitations to the interpretation of the results and how they may affect the validity or the generalisability of the findings. When identifying the limitations, avoid using an apologetic tone and accept the study for what it is. If an author identifies fundamental limitations the reader will question why the study was undertaken (Rudestam and Newton, 1992).

A concise summary of the principal implications of the findings should be provided and regardless of statistical significance, the issue of clinical importance of the findings should be addressed. Where appropriate, make recommendations for clinical practice based on the findings. When discussing the implications, use verbs that suggest some uncertainty such as “suggest”, “imply” or “speculate”. As all research leads to further questions, give recommendations for further research but avoid the temptation to provide a long list and focus instead on one or two major recommendations. When doing so, do not offer suggestions which could have been easily addressed within the study, as this shows there has been inadequate examination and interpretation of the data.

The organisation of the content is important. The discussion should begin by stating answers to the question and supporting the answers with the results. Do not begin with a summary of the results, secondary information (place this after the answer to the question) or indications for further research. At the need, restate the answers to the questions and indicate the importance of the research by stating applications, implications or speculations.

Conclusions

This section should comprise a brief statement of the major findings and implications of the study. It is not the function of this section to summarise the study; this is the purpose of the abstract. New information must not be included in the conclusions.

Acknowledgements

All important contributors should be acknowledged, for example persons who provided statistical or technical advice and assistance; the subjects; those who helped with recruitment’ and personnel who helped with the preparation of the manuscript. If the research was supported by a grant, then the name of the funding body must be included.

The authors thanks Dr Diana Hopper and Dr Leon Straker for their help in reviewing this manuscript.

Reference

The above article was subtracted from:

Jenkins S 1995 How to write a paper for a scientific journal. Australian Journal of Physiotherapy 41(4): 285 – 289

Publication in a reputable, peer reviewed journal should be the goal of every researcher, as this provides the most effective and permanent means of disseminating information to a large audience (Cole, 1994; Portney and Watkins, 1993). When human subjects participate in research, it is on the understanding that they are assisting with the creation and dissemination of knowledge, presenting researchers with the responsibility to communicate the outcome of their research (Cole, 1994). The aim of this paper is to provide guidelines to assist with the preparation of a manuscript for a scientific journal.

Before writing a first draft, it is important to establish that the topic of the manuscript is likely to be consistent with the focus of the journal. This may be clearly stated within the journal or may be determined by examining several recent issues. Having selected a journal, it is essential to carefully read and follow the guidelines for authors published within the journal or obtained directly from the editor or publisher. These guidelines are usually very specific and include rules about word limit, organization of the manuscript, margins, line spacing, preparation of tables and figures and the method used to cite references. Failure to comply with the guidelines may result in rejection or return of the manuscript for correction, thereby delaying the process of review and publication.

The art of writing a manuscript improves with practice and considerable help may be gained by asking others, especially those who have published, to critique and proofread drafts. This also provides a means of a second check of accuracy and internal consistency. Getting started is often the most difficult part and for this reason it is best to begin with the easiest sections. These are usually the methods and results, followed by the discussion, conclusion, introduction, references and title, leaving the abstract until last. If possible, try and set aside some time for writing on consecutive days. Long gaps between periods of writing interrupts the continuity of thought. To avoid frustration, ensure all the necessary information, for example all data, references and any draft of tables or figures, are at hand before starting to write. The task of writing the manuscript may seem easier if each section is viewed as a separate task. Before starting to write, it may help to prepare an outline for each section which includes a number of major headings, sub-headings and paragraphs covering different points. When writing the first draft, the goal is to get something down on paper, so it does not matter if sentences are incomplete and the grammar incorrect, provided that the main points and ideas have been captures on paper. Try to write quickly, to keep the flow going. Use abbreviations and leave space for words that do not come to mind immediately. Having finished the first draft, immediately revise it and be prepared to do this several times until you feel it is not possible to improve it further. Acceptance of a manuscript is invariably conditional on changes being made so be prepared to rewrite and revise the manuscript extensively.

Often a manuscript has more than one author and thus the writing may be shared. However, the style needs to be consistent throughout so even if sections of the early drafts are written by different authors, the first author must go through the entire manuscript before submitting, and make any necessary editorial changes.

Structure and Content of a Manuscript

A manuscript is typically composed of a number of sections:

• abstract;
• key words;
• introduction;
• methods;
• results;
• discussion;
• conclusions; and
• references

In order to maintain continuity between the key sections (introduction, methods, results and discussion) it is helpful to consider the manuscript as telling a story. The strong parts to the story-line are the introduction and the discussion so the link between thee sections must be clear. The research question which is posed as the need of the introduction must be answered at the beginning of the discussion (Zeiger, 1991).

Having invested many hours in undertaking research, the temptation is to try to tell the reader everything you read and learned in the process and to provide all the data gathered. However, in the planning stages, it is essential to remember that a word limit is usually imposed and therefore unimportant or irrelevant information must be left out. In the case of a large study, it may be necessary to write several papers which cover different research questions.

Title

This provides the first impression to the reader, so selecting the most appropriate title requires some thought. The title influences whether a reader is interested in reading the manuscript. It should include all essential words in the right order such that the topic of the manuscript is accurately and fully conveyed (e.g. clearly related to the purpose of the study) (Rudestam and Newton, 1992). Avoid long titles (the recommended length is 10 – 12 words) and those which begin with redundant words such as “A study of…”

Abstract

An abstract is a brief summary (of specified word limit) of the content of the manuscript. It should provide the highlights from the introduction, methods, results, discussion and conclusions (Table 1).

Table 1: Abstract

–   Statement of: –   The question asked (present verb tense) –   What was done to answer the question (past verb tense) – research design, population studies, independent and dependent variables –   Findings that answer the question (past verb tense) – the most important results and evidence (data) presented in a logical order. –   The answer to the question (present verb tense) If useful, and where word limit allows, include: –   One or two sentences of background information (placed at the beginning) –   An implication or a speculation based on the answer (present verb tense, placed at the end)

 

It must make sense when read in isolation for those who read only the abstract. This is especially important given that many computerized searchers only retrieve the abstract. The abstract must also provide a clear and accurate recapitulation of the manuscript for readers who read the entire manuscript (Zeiger, 1991). For example, an abstract must not contain data which are not included in the results.

The abstract is usually written as one or two paragraphs and it is important that the text flows and does not resemble a collection of disjointed sentences. The choice of words should be simple, jargon avoided and abbreviations omitted except for standard units of measurement and statistical terms. Citations are not usually included. Excessive detail such a long lists of variables, large amounts of data or an excessive number of probability (p) values is not acceptable. The trick to producing a clear abstract is to provide just enough detail to demonstrate that the design of the study was good and that the evidence of the answer to the question is strong.

Key Words

Most journals require the author to identify three or four key words which represent the major concept of the paper. These are used for indexing purposes and must be selected from the Index Medicus Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). For example “Physiotherapy” is not included in MeSH; the equivalent term is “Physical Therapy”. In the rare event that an author does not have access to MeSH, the key words selected should be widely-accepted terms. Lack of access to MeSH should be indicated at the time of manuscript submission.

Introduction

The purpose of the introduction is to stimulate the reader’s interest and to provide background information which is pertinent to the study. The statement of the research question is the most important part of the introduction. The review of the literature needs to be short and concise. The content of the introduction is outlined in Table 2.

Table 2: Introduction

Background to the topic (past verb tense) What is known or believed about the topic What is still unknown or problematic Findings of relevant studies (past verb tense) Importance of the topic  Statement of the research question Several ways can be used to signal the research question , e.g., “To determine whether ………” “The purpose of this study was to …….” This study tested the hypothesis that ……” “This study was undertaken to ……”  Approach taken to answer the question (past verb tense)

 

References are almost exclusively used in the introduction and the discussion. The references cited should be those which are the most valid and the most available. Articles in peer-reviewed journals satisfy both these criteria. Books, Master’s and PhD theses and some conference proceedings, those for which papers are rigorously reviewed, are also valid sources, but usually take longer to find. Abstracts do not contain enough information to allow critical evaluation of the work. Journal articles which have been accepted for publication are a valid source but those which have been submitted (but not yet accepted) are not, as they are unavailable. Avoid citing perusal communications and unpublished reports or observations. These are not strong evidence because they are unable to be accessed and evaluated. The number of references should be limited to the fewest number necessary by choosing the most important, the most valid and where appropriate, the most recent (Zeiger, 1991).

Methods

This section is descriptive. The main consideration is to ensure that enough detail is provided to verify the findings and to enable replication of the study by an appropriately trained person. Information should be presented, using the past verb tense, in chronological order. Sub-headings should be used, where appropriate. Reference may be made to a published paper as an alternative to describing a lengthy procedure. Many journals require mention of relevant ethics committee(s) approval for the study and that subjects gave informed consent. Table 3 provides an outline for the content of the methods section.

Table 3: Methods

Outline of the study design Subjects Method of sampling and recruitment; Number of subjects; and Justification of sample size. Inclusion, exclusion and withdrawal criteria; Method of allocation to study groups. Variables Independent, dependent, extraneous, controlled. Pilot Studies Outcome of any pilot studies which led to modifications to the main study. Materials Equipment, instruments or measurement tools (include model number and manufacturer).

Procedures Detailed description, in chronological order, of exactly what was done and by whom. Major ethical considerations Data reduction/statistical analyses Method of calculating derived variables, dealing with outlying values and missing data. Methods used to summarise data (present verb tense). Statistical software (name, version or release number); Statistical tests (cite a reference for less commonly used tests) and what was compared; Critical alpha probability (p) value at which differences/relationships were considered to be statistically significant.

 

Encouraging college students’ critical thinking skills

Abstract

The paper describes the purpose of critical thinking skills in college students. It begins by describing what critical thinking means. The paper goes further to describe reasons why college students should think critically when handling their academic issues. Further, the benefits of thinking critically by college students on issues outside the academic life have been described. The various intellectual errors that inhibit critical thinking among the college are also described in the paper. The paper also describes how the intellectual errors disadvantage students at the college especially when deciding their educational life and the college life. The longtime effects of critical thinking in college students have also been included in the paper.

A lot of how a college student would face issues in the life outside schooling due to the critical thinking inhibitors is also detailed. Concerning the way forward in the bid of making college life good for students, data containing the scholar’s research results on the students’ view of critical thinking has been presented in the paper. The reasons why people, in general, are sometimes deficient n critical thinking has also been described and more specifically among the students at the various colleges of the world. The issues that triggered the research have been discussed. Methods that were used in collecting the critical thinking information from students and the other various educational specialists have also been included in the paper. Following the results that have been established, the information contained in this research essay concludes by giving the recommended solutions that can be used by the college students at the colleges in making up the faults that they do in their lives and renders the college students poor critical thinkers based on the views of that have been collected from the students and the educational professionals in the colleges.

Introduction

The ability of a person to live a successful life is highly dependent on his or her ability to make a good decision of life. The decisions that one makes while in the college determines what he or she would become in future. In the college as well, the decisions of learning strategy that a student makes has the biggest hand in his or her final grade. This means that one makes a wrong and unworthy decision; he or she becomes disadvantaged in school and eventually fails to attain a good grade in school. A right decision in education is, therefore, one that enables one to establish a good grade at the end of college. Scholars have established that students make in school are right. Everyone is prone to making a mistake, and consequently, not all the student’s academic issues get solved successfully. This, therefore, means that what a student does after realizing the mistake he or she has conducted becomes the most important (Desai, 2016). The corrective measure that a student takes to correct a mistake he or she had done in the past decides whether he or she would achieve success in the college or not. Students are encouraged to make set worthy goals by trying to their best, minimizing the mistakes that they make and consider making the decisions that would benefit them in their educational truck. Despite the fact that the decisions are made by students themselves, it should be noted that the educators have a lot in contributing to the successful decisions made by students. Educators have the responsibilities of making training the college students until they can make decisions that can be beneficial to their academic life.

A lot of skills are expected to be built into students by the educators in the bid to make them much success in education. It has been noted that some of the students who are not thinking critically have some features. These students are confirmed to be affected by some very serious intellectual errors that exist in their lives in the colleges where they pursue their courses. These intellectual errors have been confirmed to be the greatest inhibitors to critical thinking of the college students. Despite these many inhibitors, college students can still manage to get themselves up as far as their critical thinking abilities are concerned. They are therefore advised to take seriously some practices that can help them become better critical thinkers.

Thesis

The purpose of this paper to describe how critical thinking skills of the college students can be improved. This paper talks about effects of critical thinking skills among the students on their college grades and even their lives after educational session. This essay further talk about the benefits of developing the critical thinking ability of the college students. The numerous intellectual errors that make students deficient in their critical thinking skills are also discussed in details in this paper. The signs that a critically thinking student displays in their characters are also shown to help distinguish critically thinking students from the others who are deficient in the skills. This paper also describes the intellectual skills that are common among the college students.

The paper further describes how these intellectual errors hinder the critical thinking ability development of a student. The paper discusses a research result to explain how these intellectual errors can be avoided by students and consequently eliminate the critical thinking inhibitors. Critical thinking basic elements have also been explained in the paper. Moreover, the paper has expanded on how students at the college can overcome the critical thinking challenges. The activities that a student should engage in to become better critical thinker have also been explained. Some of the basic roles of educators in establishing college students’ critical thinking abilities have also been explained in the paper.

Literature Review

Critical thinking term has been defined differently depending on the context that is being discussed. The meaning of the term also varies from one person to another based on their trusted ideologies. I the college context, critical thinking can be defined as an intellectual process whereby students skillfully conceptualize synthesize and apply the information ideas that they have collected from their various sources. It is, however, important to note that critical thinking in the school context is more or less defined the same way as in the other fields. This is because the skills that it entails in all the contexts are similar and for serving the same purposes. The critical thinking skills that are learned by students at the college are meant to serve him or her throughout his or her lifetime.

Introduction

Negation is one of the major linguistic areas in theoretical grammar. Many grammarians interested in negative polarity are fully aware that there are still unresolved issues to be explored, such as negative concord. Standard English generally allows only one negative in the same clause. Negative concord, sometimes also called double negation or multiple negation, involves instances where two or more negative morphemes co-occur. This topic explored such scholars as Jespersen, Poldauf, Anderwald, Horn, Tottie and others.

Subject of inquiry in my paper is the notion of double negation.

Analysis of scientific literature is one of the main methods used in the research.

 

Double negation in the History of English

Nowadays Standard English does not permit negative concord today. Historically, however, in all West Germanic languages this construction was the rule.

For English, it has been suggested that negative concord was usual construction until at least Middle English times, and some examples from different periods are given in (1), (2):

Old English

ne nan neat nyste nᴂnne andan ne nᴂnne ege to ethrum

(Alfred, Boethius, 102.7)

not no neat NEG-knew no malice nor no fear of another

‘cattle knew no malice or fear of another’

Middle English

He nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde / In al his lyf unto no maner wight (Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, “General Prologue”, A. 70-71)

‘He never said anything rude / in all his life to any sort of person’

Chaucer made extensive use of double negatives in his poetry, sometimes even using triple negatives. A classic example of a double negative used by a well-educated man in the 1600s was Oliver Cromwell’s letter, dated July 5, 1644, to his brother-in-law, Valentine Walton, informing him of the death of Walton’s son at the battle of Marston Moor, quoting the boy’s last words:

‘A little after, he said one thing lay upon his spirit. I asked him what it was. He told me it was that God had not suffered him to be no more the executioner of His enemies.’

This particular letter of Cromwell’s has often been reprinted, but with the “not … no” double negative amended to read “not … any”.

Dating the decline of negative concord is more difficult. The accepted opinion used to point towards early Modern English as the turning point. Especially with the rise of prescriptive grammars based on Latin, the use of several negatives in a sentence was explicitly frowned upon as illogical and incorrect. By the end of seventeenth century, the emerging Standard English did not permit negative concord any longer, but largely followed the system that is still in place today, namely that only any-quantifiers can occur inside the scope of the negator for an unmarked negative reading. This sentence negation can be effected by not or n’t, but also by an inherently negative quantifier like nobody, nothing etc., and some examples of this new standard negation are given in (3), (4):

I have not left anybody behind.

There’s never anywhere to move forward to.

The interesting question that posed itself was to investigate whether negative concord continues to be used in present-day spoken English, ranging from the standard to a very non-standard end, and to what degree.

Today, the double negative is often considered the mark of an uneducated speaker, but it used to be quite common in English. In more recent times, more publicised examples of double negatives appear in Eastenders, particularly with the character Dot Branning, who sometimes uses triple negatives as well (e.g. ‘I ain’t never ‘eard of no licence). However, this is an obvious example of Estuary English or Mockney, as June Brown (who plays her) speaks with a much more posh accent.

 

The notion of Double negative

A double negative occurs when two forms of negation are used in the same sentence. In some languages (or varieties of a language,) negative forms are consistently used throughout the sentence to express a single negation. In other languages, a double negative is used to negate a negation, and therefore, it resolves to a positive. In the former case, triple and quadruple negation can also be seen, which leads to the terms multiple negation or negative concord.

Non-standard Modern English allows two or more negatives in the same clause:

Double negation They didn’t say nothing.

Corrected They said nothing.

They didn’t say anything.

Triple negation Nobody never believes nothing I say.

Nobody ever believes anything I say.

There exist two types of double negative in English: Double negative resolving to a negative and Double negative resolving to a positive.

 

Double negative resolving to negative

Although they are not used in Standard English, double negatives are used in various American English dialects, including African American Vernacular English, and in the East London Cockney and East Anglian dialects.

Often double negatives are incorrect grammatical usages, switching words like “any” for “no,” “anything” for “nothing,” and “anywhere” for “nowhere.” This may be due to a mis-hearing, a mis-pronunciation, or a simplification of the word “any,” and substituting “no” for it.

In the film Mary Poppins, Dick Van Dyke uses a double negative when he says:

If you don’t want to go nowhere

A double negative is also famously used in the first two lines of the song “Another Brick in the Wall (part II)” included in the album The Wall by Pink Floyd, sung by schoolchildren

We don’t need no education

We don’t need no thought control

Other examples of double negatives include:

I ain’t got nobody

Don’t nobody go to the store

I can’t hardly wait

or in the Faithless song “Insomnia”

I can’t get no sleep

or the “stinking badges” from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Badges? [pause] We ain’t got no badges.

or the two examples in the advice of Walt Disney’s Thumper to Bambi

If you can’t say nuthin’ nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all!

Double negative also refers to even more than two negatives, like:

And don’t nobody buy nothing

This is used in the film Chaos staring Jason Statham.

 

Double negation resolving to a positive

Standard English allows Double negation when the two negatives combine to make a positive.

The double-negatives-make-a-positive rule was first introduced in English when Bishop Robert Lowth wrote A Short Introduction to English Grammar with Critical Notes in 1762.

 

Negative + Negative = Positive Negative + Positive = Negative

 

The following list contains words that are regarded as negative. If you use them in your sentences once, your statements will be negative.

no not none nothing nowhere neither

nobody no one hardly scarcely barely

Using the rule explained above in the box and the list of negative words given, study the following examples:

	Sentence	Meaning
Positive Construction negative + negative	I hardly have none.	I have some.
	I don’t want nothing.	I want something.
Negative Construction negative + positive	I hardly have any.	I have few.
	I don’t want anything.	I want nothing.

 

On some occasions, mostly when speaking, the use of double negatives is accepted.

In literature, denying a negation is known as the trope of litotes. A litotes is a rhetorical device which uses double negation to emphasize a statement. By denying its opposite, the double negation cancels itself out and resolves to a positive. The effect of this can differ depending on context.

For instance, “I don’t disagree” could be said to mean “I certainly agree” if stated in an affirmative manner. However, if stated in a cautious manner, “I don’t disagree” can also be used to mean “You may be right, although I am not sure,” or “There is no mistake in what you say, but there is more to it than that.”

Similarly, the phrase “Mr. Jones was not incompetent” may be used to mean either “Mr. Jones was very competent” or “Mr. Jones was competent, but not brilliantly so.”

This device can also be used to humorous effect; for example, in the TV show The Simpsons, Homer Simpson says in one episode (“Missionary: Impossible”), “I’m not licking toads”, humorously conveying to the audience that he had indeed been licking toads.

 

Conclusion

In the paper we analyzed the notion of Double negation diachronically and synchronically and found out that double negation was frequently used in Old English and Middle English but in Modern English it is a kind of mistake, and it is not used in Standard English. Though, exist two cases when Double Negation can be used in Standard English: 1). Double negation is used as a trope – litotes; 2). Double negation resolves to positive.

Exercises

1) Choose the right word.

1. A _______ of playing cards.
2. a) flock b) pack
3. A shoal of ______
4. a) fish b) birds
5. A _____ of keys.
6. a) bunch b) group
7. A ______ of events.
8. a) group b) series
9. A choir of ______.
10. a) singers b) painters
11. An army of _____
12. a) ants b) birds
13. A pack of ______
14. a) cats b) dogs
15. A swarm of ______.
16. a) bears b) bees
17. A herd of ______
18. a) elephants b)lions
19. A bunch of _____
20. a) apples b) bananas

2) Write down the collective noun and the correct verb choice that will agree with the collective noun.

1. The class (describes, describe) their vacations.
2. The whole class (meet, meets) at 3 PM.
3. The family (takes, take) a trip to Houghton Lake, Michigan.
4. The chess club (compare, compares) their strategies so as to win the tournament.
5. The swarm of reporters (engulfs, engulf) the famous actor all at once.
6. The audience (cheer, cheers) the winner of the million dollars.
7. The orchestra (performs, perform) my favorite music.
8. The baseball team (practice, practices) together every evening.
9. The public (support, supports) the travel baseball league.
10. The crowd (moves, move) to their favorite places along the parade route.

3) Fill in the blank in each sentence with the correct collective noun from the word bank.

band herd stack deck school swarm flock team

1. A ____________ of bees flew out of the bush.
2. My teacher graded a ______________ of papers.
3. The dolphin swam with a ____________ of fish.
4. The horse ______________ ran free on the prairie.
5. We saw a ______________ of birds in the sky.
6. The soccer ______________ won the game.
7. A _____________ of musicians played on the street.
8. There are 52 cards in a ___________________.

4) Underline the collective noun

1. We lost the ring in the orchestra
2. We saw a herd of goats lying over there.
3. The committee will meet again on Sunday.
4. A flock of ducks swam across the lake.
5. The audience applauded with a joy.
6. We bought a bunch of white roses for Ms. Brown.
7. The whole gang was caught yesterday.
8. Our government takes care of us.

5) Choose the right word

1. a _______ of elephants
2. a) pack b) herd c) flock d) swarm
3. a ________ of cattle
4. a) pack b) herd c) flock d) swarm
5. a _______ of sheep
6. a) pack b) herd c) flock d) shoal
7. a _______ of bees
8. a) gang b) cloud c) batch d) swarm
9. a ________ of fish
10. a) swarm b) cloud c) shoal d) wave
11. a ________ of playing cards
12. a) series b) pack c) panel d) crowd
13. a ______ of grapes
14. a) bundle b) bouquet c) bunch d) band
15. a _______ of islands
16. a) bundle b) crowd c) pile d) group
17. a ______ of events
18. a) link b) series c) line d) pile
19. a ______ of wolves
20. a) herd b) swarm c) gang d) pack
21. a ______ of keys
22. a) group b) hand c) bunch d) roll
23. a _______ of thieves
24. a) troupe b) gaggle c) gang d) flock

Conclusions

Collective nouns are words like family, team, committee, government, audience and etc. In British English a collective noun can be used either with singular or plural verbs and pronouns. Plural forms are preferred when the group is considered as a collection of people doing personal things. Singular forms are common when the group is seen as an impersonal unit. I’d like to mention that these collective nouns are not based in scientific thought or fact. Most of them come from the poetry and imagination of early to late Medieval English times e.g. – an eloquence of lawyers – Eloquence itself is defined as fine persuasion in speaking or writing, so this particular collective noun is a comment on the profession of lawyers while being their collective noun as well.

The same goes for the collective nouns we find for animals; the names arose from 15th century French and English hunting traditions, where hunting was common and names and terms were given to all aspects of the sport. These names were called Terms of Venery and it had become a tradition of the court to keep extending the list and by the 1500s the list was up-to 165 items long.

In addition to what has been said it’s also important to note that nouns in the collective class can be used in either the singular or plural form depending on the context of the sentence. For example, family is a collective noun because it refers to more than one person sharing a relationship or camaraderie. However, you can also use this as a plural in referring to groups of families. Using collective nouns in sentences can be confusing because it’s sometimes difficult to discern whether to use plural or singular verbs and pronouns. To use verbs and pronouns correctly, identify whether the collective noun refers to a group or unit working as individuals or in unison. When the unit is acting in unison, it is appropriate to use the singular. When the members of the unit are acting as individuals, it is appropriate to use plural forms of verbs and pronouns.

There is another point to be added that many singular nouns have very unique collective forms that pertain specifically to that term. While most people are familiar with the more commonly used collectives such as a class of students or crowd of people, there are a large number of less common collectives. Many people find it interesting to read and learn what the appropriate collective forms of various nouns are. Many teachers, students, and other lovers of the English language also find it entertaining to list original collectives or come up with new ways to use them in fun or ironic ways.

It’s worth mentioning that Americans and British distinguish collective nouns in different ways. Americans tend to treat collective nouns as single units, so it is more common to use the singular verb unless you are definitely talking about individuals. So in America you would be more likely to hear “The faculty is meeting today” than “The faculty are meeting today.” In British usage, however, is the opposite; it’s more common to use the plural verb. In fact, some sentences that are perfectly correct in Britain would be considered incorrect in America.

Institutions and Animate vs. Inanimate Nouns

Firstly, it is quite obvious, that institution names, such as the United States, the House of Lords, and Congress, tend to use singular verbs. This is probably because we see these institutions as units, as a whole; we do not think of the members as individuals. So you would most likely say, “Congress is meeting today.”, but if you want to emphasize the individuals in Congress, on the other hand, you can say, “The members of Congress are meeting today.”

Metonymic merging of grammatical number

I would like to begin with two good examples of collective nouns such as “team” and “government”, which are both words referring to groups of people. Both “team” and “government” are count nouns. (We can observe it considering the following examples: “one team”, “two teams”, “most teams”; the same situation with the word “government”: “one government”, “two governments”, “many governments”). However, confusion often occurs with the fact that plural verb forms are often used in British English with the singular forms of these count nouns (for example: “The team have finished the project.”). Conversely, in the English language as a whole, singular verb forms can often be used with nouns ending in “-s” that were once considered plural (for example: “Physics is my favorite academic subject”). This evident “number mismatch” is actually a quite natural and logical feature of human language, and its mechanism is a subtle metonymic shift in the thoughts underlying the words.

In British English, as I’ve already mentioned, it is generally accepted that collective nouns can take either singular or plural verb forms depending on the context and the metonymic shift that it implies. For example, “the team is in the dressing room” refers to the team as a group, a coherence, while “the team are fighting among themselves” refers to the team as individuals (separate members). This is also British English practice with names of countries and cities in sports contexts; for example, “Germany have won the competition.”, “Madrid have lost three consecutive matches.”, etc. In American English, collective nouns almost permanently take singular verb forms. In cases where a metonymic shift would be otherwise disclosed, the whole sentence may be remade to avoid the metonymy. (For example, “The team are fighting among themselves” may become “the team members are fighting among themselves” or simply “The team is fighting.”)

Another good example of such a metonymic shift in the singular-to-plural direction is the following sentence: “The team have finished the project.” In that sentence, the underlying thought is of the individual members of the team working together to finish the project. Their implementation is collective, and the emphasis is not on their individual personalities, yet they are at the same time still separated individuals; the word choice “team have” manages to convey both their collective and separate identities simultaneously. A similar example of such a metonymic shift in the plural-to-singular direction is the following sentence: “Statistics is a branch of Mathematics.” The word “statistics”, may be plural in concept, referring to a piece of information, but metonymic shift—that is, the shift in concept from “the information” to “the subject”—produced the usage of “statistics” as a singular entity taking singular verb forms.

Terms of venery (words for groups of animals)

The tradition of using “terms of venery” or “nouns of assembly” — collective nouns that are specific to certain kinds of animals—occurs from an English hunting tradition of the Late Middle Ages. The fashion of a consciously developed hunting language came to England from France. It is marked by an extensive range of specialist vocabulary, applying different names to the same feature in different animals. These elements can be shown to have already been part of French and English hunting terminology by the beginning of the 14th century. In the course of the 14th century, it became a fashion to extend the vocabulary, and by the 15th century, this tendency had reached exaggerated proportions. The Venerie of Twiti (early 14th century) distinguished three types of droppings of animals, and three different terms for herds of animals. Gaston Phoebus (14th century) had five terms for droppings of animals, which were extended to seven later (early 15th century). The focus on collective terms for groups of animals emerges in the later 15th century. Thus, a list of collective nouns in Egerton MS 1995, dated to c. 1452 under the heading of terms of venery extends to 70 items, and the list in the Book of Saint Albans (1486) runs to 165 items.

The Book of Saint Albans became very popular during the 16th century and was reprinted frequently. Gervase Markham edited and commented on the list in his The Gentleman’s Academic in 1595. The book’s popularity had the effect of perpetuating many of these terms as part of the Standard English lexicon, even though they have long ceased to have any practical application. Even in their original context of medieval venery, the terms were of the nature of kennings, intended as a mark of erudition of the gentlemen able to use them correctly rather than for practical communication. The popularity of these terms in the early modern and modern period has resulted in the addition of numerous light-hearted, humorous or “facetious” collective nouns.

The terms of venery range from the beautiful and evocative (an exaltation of larks) – to the amusing (a cartload of monkeys). Here I would like to illustrate some examples: a Bloat of Hippopotamuses, a dazzle of zebras, a haul of fish, an army of ants.

The list of examples of collective nouns

Now, I’d like to draw your attention to the list of examples of collective nouns according to the groups:

These collective nouns are commonly used under the category of people.

• A class of students.
• An army of soldiers.
• A choir of singers.
• A crew of sailors.
• A band of musicians.
• A bunch of crooks.
• A crowd of people/spectators.
• A gang of thieves.
• A group of dancers.
• A team of players.
• A troupe of artists/dancers.
• A pack of thieves.
• A staff of employees.
• A regiment of soldiers.
• A tribe of natives.
• An audience of listeners.
• A panel of experts.
• A gang of labourers.
• A flock of tourists.
• A board of directors.
• The following collective nouns are used for animals.
• A catch of fish.
• An army of ants.
• A flight of birds.
• A flock of birds.
• A haul of fish.
• A flock of sheep.
• A herd of deer/cattle/elephants/goats/buffaloes.
• A hive of bees.
• A litter of cubs.
• A host of sparrows.
• A team of horses.
• A troop of lions.
• A pack of wolves.
• A litter of puppies/kittens.
• A swarm of bees/ants/rats/flies.
• A team of horses/ducks/oxen.
• A kennel of dogs.
• A pack of hounds.
• The following collective nouns are used for things.
• A group of islands.
• A galaxy of stars.
• A wad of notes.
• A fleet of ships.
• A hedge of bushes.
• A pack of cards.
• A pair of shoes.
• A bouquet of flowers
• A bunch of keys.
• A chest of drawers.
• A pack of lies.

Collective nouns are endless and these are just a list of those used more often. As you continue to work on improving your English, you will stumble across many more.

 

By way of introduction it will be natural to stress that the noun is an important part of speech that is used to name a person, place, thing, quality, or action and can function as the subject or object of a verb, the object of a preposition, or an appositive. It is common knowledge that there are many types of nouns that can be used in the English language. (Proper Nouns, common nous, countable nouns, uncountable nouns, collective nouns, abstract nouns, concrete nouns). My work is fully concerned with collective nouns, the most interesting ones from my point of view.

It’s necessary to point out right from the beginning that collective nouns are nouns that refer to groups consisting of more than one individual or entity, even when they are inflected for the singular. Examples include committee, herd, and school (of fish). These nouns have slightly different grammatical properties than other nouns. For example, the noun phrases that they head can serve as the subject of a collective predicate, even when they are inflected for.

Collective noun is the name we give to a group of nouns to refer to them as one entity. The most common method of doing this is by using words like group or bunch that can be applicable to most of the nouns in the language today. But there are some specific names given for certain groups of nouns to make things more interesting and funny.

The theme of my work is up-to-date and relevant nowadays and has a great importance in everyone’s life. It is important mainly for students who study English language. Every day we use nouns in our speech to express thoughts and emotions.

My work aims at studying collective nouns, their usage in the language and grammatical peculiarities.

The structure of this work consists in “Introduction”, “The noun – as a part of speech”, “Collective nouns”, “Metonymic merging of grammatical number”, “Terms of venery (words for groups of animals)”.

The Noun

A noun is a word that functions as the name of some specific thing or set of things, such as living creatures, objects, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas. Linguistically, a noun is a member of a large, open part of speech whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition.

Nouns have a certain classification:

Proper nouns and common nouns A proper noun or proper name is a noun representing unique entities (such as Earth, India, Jupiter, Harry, or BMW), as distinguished from common nouns which describe a class of entities (such as city, animal, planet, person or car).

Countable and uncountable nouns Count nouns or countable nouns are common nouns that can take a plural, can combine with numerals or counting quantifiers (e.g., one, two, several, every, most), and can take an indefinite article such as a or an (in languages which have such articles). uncountable nouns differ from count nouns in precisely that respect: they cannot take plurals or combine with number words or the above type of quantifiers. For example, it is not possible to refer to a furniture or three furnitures. This is true even though the pieces of furniture comprising furniture could be counted.

Collective nouns are nouns that refer to groups consisting of more than one individual or entity, even when they are inflected for the singular. Examples include committee, herd, and school (of fish). These nouns have slightly different grammatical properties than other nouns. For example, the noun phrases that they head can serve as the subject of a collective predicate, even when they are inflected for.

Concrete nouns and abstract nouns

Concrete nouns refer to physical entities that can, in principle at least, be observed by at least one of the senses (for instance, chair, apple, Janet or atom). Abstract nouns, on the other hand, refer to abstract objects; that is, ideas or concepts (such as justice or hatred).

In linguistics, a collective noun is a collection of things taken as a whole. For example, in the phrase “a pride of lions”, pride is a collective noun.

Collective nouns denote a group of people, objects, ideas, or animals as a single concept. Though the collective noun refers to more than one in a group, the noun itself is considered a single thing. However, they can be used as either singular of plural. It all depends on the sentence. Trying to decide which form to use can get confusing because you have to use the correct verb and pronoun forms, too. One way to make it a little easier is to determine if the collective noun is referring to a unit working as individuals or if they are working together in unison.

Most collective nouns in everyday speech for example, such as “group”, are not specific to a kind of object. For example, the terms “group of people”, “group of dogs”, and “group of ideas” are all correct uses. Others, especially words belonging to the large subset of collective nouns known as terms of venery (words for groups of animals), are specific to one kind of constituent object. For example, “pride” as a term of venery refers to lions, but not to dogs or cows.

Collective nouns are used to describe a group or collection of individuals. This includes groups of people, animals and inanimate objects. They have developed throughout the history of the English language, with new collective nouns still being created, although time will tell if these latest additions will survive (“an array of geeks”).

Many of the collective nouns for animals were developed by the British upper classes in the medieval period to serve the dual purposes of helping with hunting and to differentiate themselves from the working classes.

There are around 200 collective nouns in the English language. Sometimes they take a singular verb, but other times they take a plural verb. The most important thing to realize is that there are no hard and fast rules here, only trends. Usually, which verb you use depends on two things: whether you consider the collective noun to be a single unit or to be made up of individuals, and whether you’re American or British.

Singular or Plural Verbs?

I’d like to use the collective noun “couple” to illustrate a good example of the rule. When you are thinking of the couple as two separate people doing separate things, you would probably use a plural verb. For example, you would say, “The couple are vacationing separately this year” because they are two different people doing two different things. On the other hand, if you are thinking of the couple as a single unit, you would probably use a singular verb. For example, you would say, “Each couple is going to Bermuda on a different day.”

Here is another example. I’d like to give consideration to the use of the word “family.” Before turning to the main point it might be useful to exemplify 2 sentences:

1. a) “Jack’s family is rich”
2. b) “Jack’s family are rich”

It’s universally true that both variants are right but many learners of English language wonder whether to use a plural form after the word family or a singular one. In this case, it does not matter what comes after the verb; it just matters what idea you are trying to get across. I suppose in my example, I would prefer “is” because it seems we are talking about one family, one unit. The other situation is when we change an adjective “rich” with a noun “bankers”. In this case, it brings us to the idea that we should use “are” because it seems that we are referring to a bunch of separate individuals.

There are also some interesting facts concerning a prepositional phrase that comes after a collective noun that is the subject of a sentence. For example, if you’re talking about “a large group of students,” “group” is the collective noun and the subject of the sentence; however, it’s easy to get distracted by the prepositional phrase “of students” because it sounds plural. The thing to remember is that the verb agrees with the subject of the sentence – “a large group” and not with the prepositional phrase that modifies the subject. In cases like this, you should ignore the prepositional phrase “of students” and take into consideration the real subject: “a large group.”