A sentence is made up of verbs, nominals, and the adjectivals and adverbials that modify them. A whole group of words (introduced by a function word) can function as a nominal, an adjectival, or an adverbial. For example: "He looked up." (up is an adverbial– looked "where"?); "She ran up the hill" (up is a function word enabling the whole phrase up the hill to be an adverbial– now the whole phrase up the hill answers "where"). The questions on the Grammatical Summary sheet will help you decide how a word or phrase is functioning.

I. Identify the function of that (nominal, determiner, other function word). If that alone answers "what?" it’s a nominal; otherwise it’s a determiner or other function word, part of a whole phrase that answers "what?".

1. You don't believe that!?

2. I believe that he's crazy.

3. That book is funny.

4. That the book is funny is debatable.

5. That is not funny.

II. Identify the function of there (adverbial or function word); if it answers "where," it’s an adverbial.

6. He found your books there, right where you left them.

7. I want the book kept there at all times

8. The quiet you want is there.

9. There is no reason for his hatred.

III. Identify the function of up (verb particle or preposition)

10. He marked up his book with doodles.

11. The insect ran up the clock.

IV. Identify the function of over (verb particle or preposition)

12. She ran over the bridge.

13. She ran over that nail.

V. Identify whether the following verbs are linking, transitive or intransitive. If the verb is intransitive, the sentence pattern must be SV; if the verb is transitive, the sentence pattern must be SVO; and if the verb is linking, the sentence pattern must be SV_LNP/AP. (See the bottom of the Gram. Sum. Sheet.)

14. The detective looked quickly over the evidence. (Does moving quickly in front of  looked change the meaning? )

15. The detective looked smart.

16. His story smells.

17. That cake smells good.

18. I smell poorly when I have a cold.

19. My tank ran dry in the middle of the I430 bridge.

20. He ran well in the longer-distance race.

VI. Identify the function of any (determiner, nominal). If, by itself, it answers "what," it’s a nominal; if it goes with a noun after it, the phrase is a nominal and any is a determiner.

21. He doesn't have any.

22. He doesn't have any guts.

VII. Identify whether the -ing word is a complement or part of verb. If it is part of the verb, it is part of the tense (one choice among many tenses). If it is an adjective complement, it should have properties an adjective has (like taking an intensifier like very).

23. She is sleeping.

24. She is interesting

25. That pile of dirt is growing

26. That pile of dirt is deceiving

VIII. Sometimes verbs and nouns function outside of their "slot." A verb form can answer who/what in a sentence, which means it’s functioning as a nominal or a noun can modify another noun, which means it’s functioning as an adjectival).

27. Verb form (ending in -ing) in a verb position in a sentence:

28. The same verb form (ending in -ing) in a noun position in sentence:

29. Noun in a noun position in the sentence.

30. The same noun functioning as an adjectival (modifying another noun):

31. Use kitchen in an adjectival slot.

32. Use sleeping in an adjectival slot.

33. Use poor in a nominal slot (hint: put the in front of it and a verb after):

34. Can you figure out how home is functioning in "They went home"?

X. Ambiguous headlines and sentences

36. Why is ambiguity more likely to occur in headlines? (Consider these headlines and         identify the two meanings of each.)

            B. FBI plans to handle future assassinations.             

            C. Seal sinks quickly.  

37. Ambiguity resulting from two possible major sentence patterns: Each of the following sentences has 2 possible sentence patterns. Identify the 2 meanings and the sentence pattern that produces each. Example: "Those are eating apples."

                SVC: 1) Those apples are good for eating.

                SVO: 2) Those people are eating apples.

        A. They can fish.

        B. Army demands change.

        C. The detective looked hard.

38. Ambiguity resulting from ambiguous modifiers: In the following sentences, the ambiguity results from not knowing 1) what modifies what or 2) how two modifiers in a row are grouped. Identify the 2 meanings of each, and explain what modifies what (or the grouping of modifiers) for each meaning.

        A. He finished the race last Friday.

        B. She's an oriental art expert.

        C. Use more colorful language.

39. Ambiguity resulting from not knowing the category of the word filling the adjectival slot (is it a noun or an adjective?). Neither of the sample phrases is ambiguous because beauty is marked as a noun and beautiful is marked as an adjective: "a beauty expert" = an expert in beauty; "a beautiful expert" = an expert who is beautiful. An adjective in this slot always has the "who (or which) is" meaning and a noun always has the prepositional meaning: A pink sink means a sink which is pink and a kitchen sink means a sink in the kitchen (not a sink which is kitchen!).

        A. a miniature expert

        B. an orange sandwich

Optional puzzles:

A. John likes entertaining women.

B. I have always been an outdoor lover.