GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS 2 (CLAUSE)

In our previous lesson, we discussed the relationships between phrase and its usage. Now we shall discus extensively how clause relates with sentence.

Def: A clause is a group of words that has a finite verb, when we say finite verb; we meant verbs required to make words meaningful while constructing them to be a sentence.

Examples: if I say ‘there is a fire'

2.' in the bush. Here in the second sentence, it is a phrase but once I joined the two groups of words together; I bet we will have a rational meaning. Now let's try joining them. OK!

'There is a fire in the bush. Now we have formed a clause because its finite verb is IS. Other examples are: I kept my pen under the bed. My mother gave me bouquet of flowers. I hope we can all draw out the finite verbs in the above two examples?

Now let's move to the next session which is to analyze the relationships between a clause and the parts of speech. There are different forms of clause under the parts of speech, but we are going to buttress the main ones which are mostly asked in your SSCE examinations.

ADVERBIAL CLAUSE

Examples:

1. They rested at sunset (rested when)

2. They rested when evening comes. ( rested when)

Sentence 1 is an adverbial phrase (at sunset) while sentence 2 is an adverbial clause.

Def: An adverbial clause is a group of words that forms part of a sentence; it does the work of an adverb and contains a subject and a predicate on its own.

Remember, we have different types of adverb, which means a clause is applicable to each type. Therefore, whenever you see a sentence with either adverbial phrase or clause, you must relate it to its types.

N. B a clause has its own subject and predicate which makes it to stand alone in most cases. If you look at example 2 above, ' they rested when evening comes.

In this term' when evening comes’ when evening is the subject while comes is the predicate. Therefore, its grammatical name is .....  Adverbial clause of time while it functions is...

It modifies the verb.... What verb comes before the underlined clause? Correct! Rested.

More examples can be found in the past questions, you can also check November WAEC, 2007.

ADJECTIVAL CLAUSE

Examples:

1. The umbrella with a broken handle is mine. (Which umbrella)

2. The umbrella which has a broken handle is mine.

Here, sentence 1 is an adjectival phrase while sentence 2 is an adjectival clause.

Def: An adjectival clause is a group of words that forms a part of a sentence; it does the work of an adjective and contains a subject and a predicate on its own.

We know an adjective qualifies a noun or a pronoun or an adjective which means it direct its focus towards these parts of speech, in that case, we can say they are relating. This is where relative clause comes in. We can say a relative clause is also an adjectival clause because its tools are used for the same purpose. The relative tools are: who which, whose, whom and so on. Therefore, sentence 2 in the above example has a relative tool which is "which “because it shows the relationship between the antecedent (noun or pronoun in the first part of the sentence) and what is qualified in the second part of the sentence. Hope you get my message?

Now let's go back to the example again.

The umbrella which has a broken handle is mine.

The grammatical name is adjectival clause while its function is' it qualifies the noun  .... What noun? Correct! Umbrella. You can as well say its grammatical name is relative clause (due to its tools) while its functions are... It qualifies the noun umbrella.

More examples are in the past questions one of which is WAEC JUNE, 2010.

NOUN CLAUSE.

Examples:

1. I expect to get a prize.

2. I expect that I shall get a prize.

Here, sentence 1 is a noun phrase while sentence 2 is a noun clause.

Def: A noun clause is a group of words that forms part of a sentence; it does the work of a noun and contains subject and a predicate on its own.

Noun clause as it implies focus on the noun in the clause and shows the relationship between it and the verb in the first part of a sentence. Most times, it is always in neutral form such that when it occurs in a sentence, you won't see any related tools of other clauses in it.

Example:

I expect that I shall get a prize.

Its grammatical name is a noun clause, while its function is the verb... What verb? Expect, good!

More examples can be found in the past questions.

kindly leave a comment for clarifications and more.  Thanks   

Grammatical functions 1 (phrase)

We can't dive into the ocean of sentence without fishing out the dolphin of phrase. This means, if we need to discuss extensively, what sentences entail; then we have to start with phrase.

Phrase in its simple and common definition is a group of words that does not have a finite verb, or we can say a phrase is a group of words that does not make a complete sense.

For example: in the Bush, on the tree, on a mountain, etcetera. You can't just meet your friend on the way and tell him on a mountain .You knows he/she will find it disgusting or uncomprehending.

There are different kinds of phrase relating to the parts of speech, but we shall discuss few of them here for better understanding. We are also going to pick our references from the past WAEC questions.

Phrases occurred mostly in the comprehension passages and majority of students find this aspect difficult to answer, which is why we are here for you to solve the puzzle together.

ADJECTIVAL PHRASE

Examples:

1a. the vizier was a wealthy man.

b. The vizier was a man of great wealth.

2a. The chief lived in a stone house.

b. The chief lived in a house built of stone.

Example 1a and 2a are in simple sentences form, while example 1b and 2b constitute in them, phrases. "Great wealth and built of stones" these two are adjectival phrases.

Def: An adjectival phrase is a group of words that does the work of an adjective.

We all know that an adjective qualifies a noun or a pronoun, in this case, adjectival phrase will qualifies the noun or the pronoun that exists in the same sentence as it is in it.

For example: A golden crown.

A crown made of gold.

In these two sentences, we will observe that the GOLD qualifies the crown. Which means if MADE OF CROWN in sentence two is to stand alone; it won't give a complete meaning. In that case, the grammatical name for sentence 2 is adjectival phrase while its grammatical function is' it qualifies the noun  ..... Which noun? Crown, correct!

More examples are in the past WAEC questions.

ADVERBIAL PHRASE

Examples:

1a. Adam ran quickly (how).

b. Adam ran a great speed (how).

2a. He is coming now (when).

b. He is coming in this very moment (when).

We can observe that example 1a and 2a constitute of simple sentences which still make sense. But example 1b and 2b constitute of sentences with phrases therein.

Def: An adverbial phrase is a group of words that does the work of an adverb. It modifies a verb,  an adverb and an adjective.

For example: sagbene entered the Den bravely.

Sagbene entered the Den in a brave manner or with brevity.

The rules of adverbial phrase is applicable to any of its types,   I.e. either adverb of manner, time,  place or frequency and so on. Therefore for sentence 2 above:

Its grammatical name is 'adverbial phrase of manner' since the mode of sagbene's entrance is with brevity.

Its grammatical function is ' it modifies the verb.... Which verb comes before the phrase?  Correct! Entered. That's good of you, now let's move on.

NOUN PHRASE

Examples:

1. The boy wants something.

2. The boy wants to go home.

Sentence 1 is a simple sentence while sentence 2 contains a phrasal noun.

Def: A noun phrase is a group of words that does the work of a noun.

For example: 1. I will be given a prize.

2. I expect to get a prize.

The grammatical name of the underlined words is ' a noun phrase'

Its grammatical function is 'object of the verb, expect’.

For better understanding, more examples can be found in the past questions as we have mentioned above.

Our next topic will be grammatical function 2 (clause).

How to overcome the challenges of oral English (TEXT OF ORAL)

The first thing you must know is that some sounds found in s language may not be seen in another language. In that case, the study of speech sounds (phonology) is a language of specific.

More than 500 letters are representing the 44 sounds in English which means, what you see in a language is not what you pronounce, therefore, spellings doesn’t matter.

We should all know that phonology is a wide topic that needs more explanation. In that case we will explain the details of it in our subsequent chapters.

Our focus here is to know what comprises oral in English when it comes to answering it in WAEC OR ANY EXTERNAL EXAMINATION.

Oral English comprises sections, and there are several questions under each section in which you must attempt correctly if you intend to succeed in the subject.

Consonant and vowel sounds

In these sections, there are 24 consonant sounds. Although all this sounds may not be given its section, some will still be presented, it is better we study and understand the whole. Attempting consonant sounds won't give much stress to the students if they study well but an unprepared student will find it difficult to understand the simplest of the questions.\

Vowel sounds

You have seen that A E I O U are vowels while others between A and Z are consonants.

These are just letters not sounds. There are many sounds called monothongs and diphthongs. Monothongs are 12 altogether and diphthongs are 8. 5 vowel letters produce 20 vowel sounds. Monothongs are symbols that represent only one vowel sounds while diphthongs have two sounds which have been joined together as they are pronounced. You will notice that the first of the two sounds will gain more loudness than the other. For example: /ei/ sounds as in DAY, RAY. More examples will be listed in our later topics on sounds.

Stress in English

Stress cannot be described without first discussing the syllable. Therefore, a syllable may be defined as part of a word that can be produced at one heart-beat. A word may have one syllable (monosyllable) or two syllables (bisyllable) or more than two syllables (polysyllable). As for stress, when there is a bisyllable, one syllable will be pronounced louder than the other. This means to determine the stress,  we need the syllables and its division. For example, tailor. First, determine the placement of the syllables, i.e tai-lor. Then check which of the two is louder. In this case, the word ' tai' is louder than the 'lor'. So it can be written as TAI -lor. I hope you get it?

Now, while answering the questions on stress; you can determine the stress through the nature of the word (part of speech) and some defined rules governing the usage of affixation. For example, the position of stress in the word COMPILE is different from the one in COMPILATION.

Rhyming words

In this section, you will be asked to choose the word that rhymes with the given word. An example is this:

Clone (a) crown (b) loan (c)brown (d)lawn.

In this case,   you have to check through the beginning sound, the mid and the last sound of the words. So if we look at the above sample, what do you think the answer will be? Huh... Yes the answer is C =loan, because clone rhyme with loan. I hope you get it?

Word stress questions

You may be asked to identify where the stress falls - in all the syllables that constitute a word. You should which syllable is stressed, for example,  examiNAtion.

Contrastive stress question

You may be given different statements/questions and emphasis will be placed on different aspects of what that statement is about, for example, I SAW the thief yesterday.

Meaning: SAW is stressed, it shows that I did not hear the rumour, but actually saw him.
Follow us up with comments and make clarifications with either questions or suggestions.
Thank you.

WHAT SHOULD I KNOW BEFORE ATTEMPTING ENGLISH QUESTIONS IN THIS COMING EXAMINATION?

It isn't surprising to see and hear people especially saying they couldn't make all their papers. Some may even be advised to repeat the class or with no choice but to write another external exams. Some have become regular customers for WAEC and JAMB, not that they didn't pass any subject,  they did but they are left with only one subject which if they don't pass it, all other subjects are as useless as failing completely. It is no other subject than English language.

I will surely rejoice with you because you will pass this coming examination! However, one cannot pass any English language examination if one's power of grammatical expression is low; your expression must flow. This means that,   of the several ways and language styles, the basic and most important for you to learn is how to write correct sentence hinged on the knowledge of grammar.

This means that you must master the art of constructing sentences because you understanding this art will give you the motivation to tackle other aspect of English questions and sections like lexis and structure, collocation, comprehension passages, letter writing, summary writing, report writing and so on.

In this page we will also learn the solutions to the problems of oral English and how to apply those solutions.

There is this common saying among students that the PARTS OF SPEECH is basically for pre-secondary school pupils. They are simply right; all they just need to understand is that the level of learning the parts of speech is completely different from the levels of understanding and attempting the parts of speech in high school. Which means an advanced knowledge of the speech will be taught and this requires advance students for its learning and I believe you are intelligent.

N. B you may be thinking this news is common so I don't need it or need to be reminded. Trust me; you need it more than I can explain. Especially when it comes to reading of INSTRUCTION for each section. Majority of students even as low as pupils in primary schools overlook this (instruction) part and just rush to answer the questions. I can say this is the main reasons most students fail the subject.

Below are some of the things you need to know generally before starting your English questions:

1. Ensure you make proper preparations like reading and understanding what you read, consuming a light food before entering the hall to avoid sleeping while writing the exams.

2. Follow strictly, the rules given by the invigilators before entering the hall, while in the hall or during the exam and after the exams.

3. Start by praying (advisable). Having read hard, you also need prayer and the guidance of the Supreme Being.

4. For every section, there is an instruction attached to it, read the instructions before attempting the sections as the importance is explained above.

5. Calm yourself while answering the questions; should you have any question you don't understand, it is better you leave the question for others so as to save time. When you have completed all questions; make sure you go back to the question you left.

6. When you get to the theory aspect, make sure you read the comprehension passage at least twice before answering the questions.

7. It is best for students to pick letter writing (informal letter) in the ESSAY section,  as it is quite easier to compose for them unlike other essays like story writing,  formal letter,  debate and so on.

8. While writing your answers in the comprehension passage, make sure your sentences are well constructed.

N. B sentences must start with capital letters and end in full stops.

The rules of concord must be observed while constructing a sentence.

9. If eventually you choose letter writing, make sure your address and salutation are well written, your greetings should also be unique and well constructed, and also, the rules of concord should be observed.

10. Once you get to the section of summary writing, follow the instruction strictly, read the summary passage twice or better three times as this will give you room for comprehending what is being related.

Full information for each section of English Questions will be detailed in our next article. More so, we will release the easiest ways we can attempt ORAL QUESTIONS. Follows us up and comment below for your clarifications or questions.