TCMOS – Grammar: Noun, Pronouns, Adjectives, and Verbs – Chapter 5 – PART 1

Sunday, December 1st, 2019
Blog #4 of my learning from #TheChicagoManualOfStyle.

The trees have shed their leaves in Chicago. More birthdays have passed, and time keeps on ticking, bringing me to another Sunday, testing my will to stick to the Chicago Manual of Style (TCMOS). This blog is only part of this lengthy and deep chapter. My struggle with grammar is ancient. She is an old foe I keep at a distance. The rules that govern how words come together result in a message lost or well-communicated, simply by our ability to understand the eight parts of a sentence: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. Today, we will delve deep into the first four.

Nouns

Every emotion, person, place, or thing has a name. Whether abstract (intangible like fear) or concrete nouns (tangible like the book I’m reading), these nouns can either be count nouns (five chairs, two horses) or mass nouns (salt, information, evidence, liberty).

Types of Nouns

Common nouns: Boy. Girl. River. Apple. These nouns need a determiner in front of them. {The girl I saw at the fair. A girl in a blue dress. Few apples.}

Don’t capitalize common nouns unless using as a proper noun. Queen Anna versus your queen, Anna. In the first example, the queen is part of the title. 

Common nouns can be concrete like the queen, or abstract like knowledge, or collective like joy.

Proper nouns: These are names of specific people, places, or things. Capitalize them unless using as a common noun (the queen example above). Examples: Ramnik Gill. The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel => a compound proper noun.

Mass nouns (noncount noun): Luggage. Music. Cowardice. After all, we can’t measure these. They can stand alone like music {Music is a joy to my ears}, or use a determiner {Some music is loud and unbearable}. Scissors are always plural and never referred to as “three scissors,” but use a pair of scissors, a piece of cutlery, etc. instead.

Properties of Nouns

Case: TCMOS defines “case” as “the relationship between a noun and other words in a sentence.” It can be common or genitive which is a superior word for possessive (coming up).

  1. Common case/nominative function: The noun/subject precedes and controls the verb. Jason Barnes delivered an electric speech.
  2. Common case/objective function: The noun comes after the transitive verb. “The queen consulted the prime minister.” The queen is nominative, and the prime minister is objective, according to TCMOS.
  3. Genitive case: Use the word genitive instead of possessive because the apostrophe indicates qualities besides possession. Examples from TCMOS: 1. Ownership = Anna’s letters. 2. Relationship = Anna’s birth mother. 3. Description = A winter’s night. 4. Subject’s role = Jason’s pleas [Jason pled.] 5. Agency = Chicagogoers’ article. 6. The object’s role = “prisoner’s release [someone released the prisoner.]” 7. Idiomatic shorthand = a day’s fast.
  4. Genitive or “of”: Use “of” for less important cases. So, “Jason’s triumphs” is recommended, but “the tribulations of Anna” works too because of the difference in the status of a triumph versus a tribulation. Where both “of” and genitive apostrophe work, go for the economics of words (less is more).
  5. Finally, joint versus separate genitives: Anna and Jason’s love versus Anna’s and Jason’s ambitions collided with each other.

Number: Singular or plural.

Gender: Male, female. TCMOS states that English words don’t truly have gender and no longer are we referring to items in masculine form. But it’s understood “aunt, sister, hen” are feminine, for instance. 

Person: “I” is the first person, “you” second, and Ramnik is in the third person.

Plurals

Examples of variations in the singular/plural form: 

  1. The singular sense in plural words: No news is better than bad news.
  2. Plural geographical nouns take a singular form. “The United States is a relatively young nation.” “General Motors reports . . .” (TCMOS, 5.15)
  3. The police were prepared. Furniture nowadays is expensive.

Appositives: An additional descriptor. Note the punctuation below: Jason Barnes, the entrepreneur, had to sell his company. The entrepreneur is the appositive and commas surround it above. But if you change the order to make the appositive essential (restrictive), omit the commas: The entrepreneur Jason Barnes had to sell his company.

Variations of Nouns

  1. As adjectives: “A state legislature” “A study group” Lesson: Use a sentence form that doesn’t muddle the meaning. Ex: “Voter awareness versus awareness of voters”.
  2. As verbs: “must husband your land thoroughly.” Use variations of nouns as verbs cautiously and sparingly.
  3. As adverbial functions: When you omit a preposition, for instance: “the team is four members strong” versus “the team consists of four members.” The first example from TCMOS shows the omission of preposition and the noun “four members,” modifying the noun “team.”

Pronouns

We seldom use proper names in every sentence of our conversations. In prose, proper nouns are often used to clarify who is talking or being discussed. But if the person is identified clearly, pronouns add a natural flow to conversations. He. She. They. What. Who. Where. Which. The noun that the pronoun stands for and has been previously identified is called the antecedent. Avoid the following mistakes:

  1. Missing antecedent leads to dangling phrases.
  2. Multiple antecedents muddles which one of the preceding subjects the pronoun refers to.
  3. Multiple pronouns and antecedents.

Sometimes, it helps to break a sentence down to its dumbed-down version. Noun-verb-object… to see where a sentence dangled and why. Chose clarity over the beauty of thought because elegance can be built upon the correct structure.

Some pronouns don’t require antecedents. Ex: I, we, you, who, which, what, there, it. this. “Who cares what I think?”

Adjective as Antecedent: Example: Anna’s skills helped her be efficient in the non-profit.

Properties of Pronouns

Pronouns must agree with their antecedents in all their properties.

Number: Plural noun has a plural pronoun. The letters and their lies. A collective noun takes singular pronoun when they imply one entity (number of the noun here is one). “Audience showed its appreciation.” 

Note the difference between these two sentences:

The mother and hippie opened her door. Vs The mother and a hippie opened their door. The second represents two people; hence plural. The first example is the same person. 

Other rules:

  1. Singular antecedents connected by “and” take singular pronoun. “Every college and university encourages its students to succeed.”
  2. Singular antecedents connected by “or”, “nor”, “either-or”, or “neither-or” take singular pronoun: Neither the drink nor the phone call helped her as it should.
  3. When the antecedents have a different number each in a sentence containing “nor” “or”, the number of the one nearest to the pronoun is preserved. {Neither Anna nor her friends showed their support. Neither her friends nor Anna showed her support.} The second sentence feels awkward. Tip: put the plural antecedent last.
  4. When antecedents of different numbers are connected by “and,” they take a plural pronoun.
  5. When antecedents have different “person” attributes, the first person takes preference over the second, and the third is last. 
    1. You or I can’t imagine, our lives after death. (preference to the first person)
    2. You or she can’t imagine your life after death (preference to the second person.)

Case: TCMOS defines “case” as a “set of word forms by which a language differentiates the functions that a word performs in a sentence” (TCMOS, 5.34). A pronoun functioning as a subject is nominative, else objective. Take care to use the correct form of pronouns based on their position. {Understanding life after death is beyond you or me.}

Similarly, if a pronoun appears in the apposition, it matters if it’s a subject or object. “We—Anna and I—traveled to Chicago” is an example of a pronoun in nominative function. “It took us—Anna and me—fifteen hours to get here” is an example of a pronoun in the objective function.

Classes of Pronouns

  1. Personal (I, you, she. . . .) These pronouns take different forms for nominative, objective, genitive (my, mine, yours, ours), and reflexive (myself, herself, etc.) They must agree with “person,” “gender,” and “case” of the noun it stands for.

    None of the possessive pronouns (like mine, hers, his, theirs, etc.) take an apostrophe. “They’re” isn’t the same as “their”. Same goes for yours and you’re. Whose and who’s.

    Finally, reflexive and intensive pronouns. “I burned the letters” versus “I burned myself” Second is reflexive. Intensive pronouns “repeat the antecedent noun . . . to add emphasis.” (TCMOS. 5.51) She herself fired Sue. Take care to not change the function of the pronoun. She and I met at the restaurant and not she and myself. “Be kind to my friend and myself” is poor; better: “be kind to my friend and me.”
  2. Demonstrative (that, this)–points to its antecedent. That is my home. Keep the number of the noun: this kind of job, or these kinds of jobs.
  3. Reciprocal (each other, one another)–express relationships. A husband and wife must be kind to each other. Use a hyphen like each student check on “him- or herself”. TCMOS recommends using “each other” for two entities, and “one another” for over two.
  4. Interrogative (what, which, and who)–ask a question. Who are you? (“to whom am I speaking?”)–objective form. {“Whom did you see?” versus “for whom is this building named?”} (TCMOS, 5.54)
  5. Relative (that, what, which, who)–introduces a dependent clause. Use “who” for human beings, “which” for animals, “what” for non-living things, and use “that” for everything mentioned above. When relative pronouns introduce a restrictive or an essential clause, no comma precedes or surrounds them. But if the clause is nonrestrictive, keep the commas.
    1. Precede the relative pronoun before its noun or as close as possible. The longer the two are separated, the less clear your meaning.

      Ex: “The letters caused Anna to lose her faith in all her friend, which meant the world to her“ is poor. Improve it by bringing the relative pronoun “which” closer to the noun it stands for: “faith”. The letters caused Anna to lose what meant the world to her: faith in all her friends.
    2. “Whose” versus “of whom”: While the latter is advised for non-human antecedents, the former calls for fewer words
    3. Whomever, whoever, whichever, etc. are compound relative pronouns.
  6. Indefinite (another, any, each, either, none)–As subjects, these are singular.
  7. Adjective (any, each, that. . . .)

Adjectives

A word that modifies a noun or pronoun, a describing word that tells how many, what sort, large or small, whose, etc. is TCMOS account of an adjective. 

A proper adjective is derived from a proper noun and is capitalized. An Indian Rupee. Avoid a comma descriptor like New Delhi, India. A marketplace in New Delhi versus New Delhi, India marketplace. In this example from TCMOS, they are using a prepositional phrase for a proper adjective to make it sound less awkward.

Articles

Use “a” or “an” indefinite nouns, but use “the” for specific nouns. 

TCMOS advises not to repeat the article in coordinate nouns unless for emphasis. The flower and petal (instead of the petal). But note, sometimes repeating an article changes the meaning => A teacher and a mother marched for peace. Vs. A teacher and mother marched for peace. In the first sentence, it’s two people; In second, it’s the same person, who is a mother and teacher.

Another example from TCMOS: “brought us little comfort” versus “brought us a little comfort.” In the second case, they were comforted a little. But there is none in the first sentence.

Position of Adjectives

  1. An attributive adjective precedes the noun it modifies. Breathtaking view. A good friend.
  2. Switch the order of noun and adjective to:
    1. Add emphasis: reasons unknown.
    2. Standard usage: court-martial
    3. It’s a predicate adjective after a linking verb: I am ready.
    4. Inside an appositive, separated by commas: the last president, firm and fearless, took. . . .)
    5. Special noun – anything good. He stood akimbo.
  3. The adjective follows the possessive. Anna’s love letter. 
  4. Modifying pronoun: adjective usually follows a pronoun.
  5. Bottom line: bring the adjective closer to the noun or pronoun it modifies.

Degrees of Adjectives

  1. Positive/absolute (hard)
  2. Comparative (harder)–synthetic like greater, harder or periphrastic like more intelligent.
  3. Superlative (hardest)–Similarly biggest, most intelligent.

Note: certain adjectives can’t be compared like pregnant, entire, unique, etc. Exceptions are “more perfect union” from the United States Constitution.

Special Types of Adjectives

  1. Participial: Walking stick. Barely concealed gun. 
  2. Coordinate: Appears in sequence. They are comma-separated unless one adjective modifies a coordinating adjective. Compare happy, excited toddler with “white brick house” The latter signifies that the brick house is white. 
  3. Phrasal:  
    1. Hyphenated when before a noun: “small-animal house” vs “small animal house” the first one is phrasal. The latter is coordinate but the adjective modifying an adjective.
    2. The phrases end in a common element (note the hyphenation)–“middle- and upper-class” participants.
    3. Rephrase if the sentence itself becomes awkward with too many hyphens.
  4. Adjectives as nouns: Postmortem, French, etc. Use these with caution, Collaborating and collaboration are superior to collaborative. A company where employees collaborate versus collaborative enterprise.
  5. Adjectives as verbs: is “silly to low-key”. 

Verbs

Words that tell of the action, performance, state of being, an emotion are verbs. TCMOS calls them the most important part of prose that sets the mood and tone of your book, the distinguishing factor between bland and boring. So, use your verbs carefully.

Transitive verbs don’t need an object, and Intransitive verbs do. I jumped. I succeeded him.

Ergative verbs are ones that can be both transitive and intransitive. Shattered my peace or my peace shattered. Both forms work. Shipped. Sank. Grew—are other examples.

Regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs follow the usual rules of tense like charge-charged-charged. But “is, are, was, were, been, being, be, and am” are some examples of irregular verbs. Note: American English prefers ed over t. Burned over burnt. Learned over learnt.

Linking verbs. He is the CEO. Get fat. To see his sister… sit still. Was judged. Appear, feel, look, seem, smell, taste. May I say, these verbs are to-be and telling filters. Choose to show for more dynamic writing.

Phrasal verbs: Verb + preposition. Settle down. Phase out. Know the difference between unavoidable phrasal verbs and others. For instance, use sit where you use the phrase “sit down” as its understood sitting is downward. If a verb alone conveys the meaning, drop the phrase. 

Principal and auxiliary verbs. A principal verb can stand alone. I dreamed. He jogged. It can be combined with another verb. But auxiliary can’t be used by itself and needs a principal verb. You must study. Other auxiliary verbs are “be, can, do, have, may, must, was, ought, should, shall, and will.”

Verb Phrases: Combine an auxiliary with principle and you get a verb phrase. An adjective in a verb phrase will go between the verbs. “could certainly happen” 

Contractions:  My takeaway from this section was contractions in prose, especially for negatives, work well. Don’t. Can’t. But where meaning becomes vague–I’d is “I had” or “I would,” chose to be clear without the contraction.

Infinitives – a verb in its principle form may be preceded by “to”. To dance. To open. This is also called a verbal noun because it can function as a verb or a noun. Example of noun form: “To walk away now seems rash” (TCMOS, 5.107).

Dangling Infinitive: When you are missing a clear noun. Easy fix when it’s not clear which noun is acting, is to insert it. Here’s an example from TCMOS: “To repair your car properly, you must take it to a mechanic” In this sentence “you must” was clarified to include the subject to remove the dangling infinitive. (TCMOS, 5.109)

Participles: nonfinite verb, not limited by a person, number, or mood. Watching. Hearing. Singing. Planted. Written. These could be phrases. Nailed to the roof. Generally speaking. Having arrived.

Gerunds: Verb used a noun. Crying about the past is useless. A participle is used as a modifier whereas a gerund is used as a noun. Participle: The engine is running. Gerund: Running is a stress reliever. Gerunds are modified by adjectives too. “Finally parking, we saw that the store was closed” (TCMOS, 5.114).

Don’t dangle:

Participle: “A participle that has no relationship with the nearest subject” is dangling. “Being a thoughtful mother, I believe Meg gives her children good advice” The first part of the sentence is missing a pov, a subject. It seems like the narrator’s opinion. Restructuring as follows: “I believe that because Meg is a thoughtful mother, she gives her children good advice.”

Gerunds: A participle that is an object and functions as a noun rather than a modifier. “After finishing the letters, the research was easy.” Who finished the letters, and who did the research? Dangling. After Anna finished the letters, the research was easy to do.

Here is another example from TCMOS: “While driving to San Antonio, my phone ran out of power.” Driving is the dangling gerund. Easy fix: insert subject. While I was driving to San Antonio, my phone ran out of power. (TCMOS, 5.116).

Properties of Verb

  1. VOICE. I’ll shift gears. Is your protagonist proactive or passive? Do they make things happen, or events happen to them? If you feel one way, and your critique group feels another, check the voice and be more active. Active voice => subject – verb – object. Passive voice words are “by, to, from, etc.”
    1.  There’ll be instances you want to use passive voice when the object is more important than the subject. An object could be your protagonist. Choose to be passive sparsely for the greatest impact. Finally, progressive conjugation refers to an action that is still happening. Is running. Is pulling.
  2. MOOD. “Manner in which the verb expresses an action or state.” 
    1. Indicative mood: expressing facts and opinions. Anna remembers nothing of her past in Hawaii.
    2. Imperative mood: Expressing commands. Go to hell. Drink! Please don’t shout at me.
    3. Subjunctive mood: What if I state something that’s not true? If I were a rich man! Now, the subjunctive statement above doesn’t state that I’m poor, but without saying that, we know it. So, TCMOS says it well that “Subjunctive mood signals a statement contrary to fact.” (5.124) “Was form” is indicative, but “were” is subjunctive. Sub categories:
      1.  Present subjunctive: the base form of “be”. Be ready at a moment’s notice. Might he take down the. . . .
      2.  Past subjunctive: It says past but refers to the present or future. “If I were threatened, I would quit.” But this mood is formed by using the verb’s simple-past tense. Threatened.
      3.  Past-perfect subjunctive: Uses the verb’s past-perfect form to show the present or future. “If it had arrived, it could have changed the course of history.” (5.127)
  3. TENSE. Shows time. The present is happening now. Play. Prowls. Present-perfect needs the words, “has” or “have” to show an act that is just now completing. I have seen this before. Past is done and over, and regular and irregular verbs will follow or defy rules. Past-perfect will need the word “had”. I had seen it before. Backstories are peppered with “had”. Use it cautiously in your plot. Finally, the future is denoted by “will”. And future-perfect by “will have” And progressive tense shows action continues. Is playing. Being dealt.
  4. PERSON. A verb’s person can be first, second, or third. 
  5. NUMBER. Singular or plural. The second person always gets the plural form of a verb. “You are wonderful.” But “I sketch,” “you sketch,” but “she sketches.” (5.137).
    1. When a verb has two or more subjects connected by or or nor, the verb agrees with the last noun.
    2. Collective noun symbolizing one thing is a singular verb.
    3. Indefinite pronouns like anyone, everybody, someone routinely take a singular verb.
    4. When in doubt, change the order of your subjects, and the verb’s number becomes clear.
    5. Instead of “as well as” or “along with” or “together with” that keep the verb singular (but maybe awkward sounding), combine coordinates with “and” that makes the verb plural.

Some verbs:

Can/Could: Could is the past indicative of can just like may and might, or will and would.

Ought: “More emphatic than should but less strong than must.” It does not vary its form with tense.

The dreaded Be-Verbs: Be, is, are, was, were, been, being, and am. They meanly exist. We use them as auxiliaries with another principle verb. 

Perhaps we dread them because they are weak and yet unavoidable to exterminate.

My Takeaway

The voice, mood, tense, person, and number of a verb may feel academia jargon, but it sets your characters apart from others, it keeps fingers flipping through the pages, or alas it forces a yawn and eternal damnation. Pay attention to the right verbs, taking care not to dangle your modifiers and participles, and nothing can stop the meaning of your stories to shine. 

Leave a Reply

Follow

Get the latest posts delivered to your mailbox: