PREPOSITION

Where is it?

The ball is in the box The ball is on the box. The ball is under the box.

John's house Jane's house Bill's house

John's house is next toJane's

house.

Jane's house isbetween Bill's

and John's houses.

Bill's house is next toJane's

house.

The climbers

stood on top of the

mountain.

The man

stoodbetween the

two enemies.

The enemies

stoodoppositeeach

other.

The gardners

stood behindthe

pumpkins.

The man

stood next tothe

gopher and held

the umbrellaover it.

The man

lookedthrough the

telescope inhis

hands.

The man wrote the

address onthe

package.

The man

looked at the

mail in the post

box.

The man

looked at the

clock on the wall.

The manager

sat at his

desk on his chair.

clause

A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate.A clause may be either a sentence (an independent clause) or a sentence-like construction within another sentence (a dependent clause).

Types of Clauses:

Adjective Clause Adverbial Clause Comment Clause Comparative Clause Complement Clause

Conditional Clause Independent Clause Main Clause Matrix Clause Noun Clause

Relative Clause Subordinate Clause Verbless Clause

From the Latin, "the close of a sentence"

Examples:

1.)"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."(Ferris Bueller's Day Off)(Note: "Life moves pretty fast" and "you could miss it" are independent clauses. "If you don't stop and look around once in a while" is an adverb clause.)

2.)"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."(George Orwell, Animal Farm)(Note: Orwell's sentence contains two independent clauses joined by the conjunction"and." This combination is called a compound sentence.)

3.)"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."(Virginia Woolf, "A Room of Her Own")(Note: Woolf's sentence begins with an independent clause--"A woman must have money and a room of her own"--and ends with an adverb clause. This combination is called acomplex sentence.)

4.)"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live."(Martin Luther King, Jr.)(Note: In King's sentence, the independent clause--"A man is not fit to live"--is interrupted by an adjective clause. This is also a complex sentence.)

5.)"I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment."(Henry David Thoreau)(Note: Thoreau's sentence contains two independent clauses joined by the conjunction"for"; the second independent clause is interrupted by an adjective clause--"which is a very crooked one." This combination is called a compound-complex sentence.)

 adjective clauses

"There are two basic types of adjective clauses.

"The first type is the nonrestrictive or nonessential adjective clause. This clause simply gives extra information about the noun. In the sentence, 'My older brother's car, which he bought two years ago, has already needed many repairs,' the adjective clause, 'which he bought two years ago,' is nonrestrictive or nonessential. It provides extra information."The second type is the restrictive or essential adjective clause. It offers essential [information] and is needed to complete the sentence's thought. In the sentence, 'The room that you reserved for the meeting is not ready,' the adjective clause, 'that you reserved for the meeting,' is essential because it restricts which room."(Jack Umstatter, Got Grammar? Wiley, 2007)

Examples: "He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead."(Albert Einstein)

 adverbial clauses 

The name "adverbial" suggests that adverbial clauses modify verbs; but they modify wholeclauses, as shown by the examples [below]. Their other key property is that they areadjuncts, since they are typically optional constituents in sentences. They are traditionally classified according to their meaning, for example adverbial clauses of reason, time, concession, manner or condition, as illustrated below.a. ReasonBecause Marianne loved Willoughby, she refused to believe that he had deserted her.b. TimeWhen Fanny returned, she found Tom Bertram very ill.c. ConcessionAlthough Mr D'Arcy disliked Mrs Bennet he married Elizabeth.d. MannerHenry changed his plans as the mood took him.e. ConditionIf Emma had left Hartfield, Mr Woodhouse would have been unhappy.

(Jim Miller, An Introduction to English Syntax. Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2002)

Examples: "This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."(newspaper editor to Senator Ransom Stoddart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1962)

comment clause A short word group (such as "you see" and "I think") that adds aparenthetical remark to another word group.1.)"As you know, the concept of the suction pump is centuries old. Really that's all this is except that instead of sucking water, I'm sucking life."(Christopher Guest as Count Rugen in The Princess Bride, 1987)

2.)The presentation went quite well, I believe.

comparative clause

A type of subordinate clause that follows the comparative form of an adjective or adverb and begins with as, than, or like.As the name suggests, a comparative clause expresses a comparison: "Shyla is smarter than I am.A comparative clause may contain ellipsis: "Shyla is smarter than I" (formal style) or "Shyla is smarter than me" (informal style). A construction in which the verb has been omitted by ellipsis is called a comparative phrase.

Examples and Observations: 1."The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better thanit was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.”(Marcel Pagnol) 2."No other president ever enjoyed the presidency as I did."(Theodore Roosevelt)

complement clause. A subordinate clause that serves to complete the meaning of anoun or verb in a sentence. Also known as a complement phrase(abbreviated as CP).

Complement clauses are generally introduced by subordinating conjunctions (also known as complementizers) and contain the typical elements of clauses: a verb (always), a subject (usually), and direct and indirect objects (sometimes).

Examples and Observations:

1."In versions of grammar that use the concept of complement clause, it largely or entirely replaces the concept of nominal clause (or noun clause) referring to a clause that can occur in positions where noun phrases occur. For example, in I'd like to carry on, the infinitivecomplement clause is the object of the main clause, filling a position where a noun phrase could occur."(Geoffrey N. Leech, A Glossary of English Grammar. Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2006)

2."Recently, linguists working in the influential theory known as 'generative grammar' have used the term 'complement' to refer to variously closely related kinds of subordinate clause, namely:

1. Subordinate clauses which on their own serve as the direct object of verbs such asbelieve, tell, say, know, and understand; the subordinate clauses are the complements of these verbs.

2. Subordinate clauses which modify various nouns such as story, rumour, and fact, andadjectives such as proud, happy, and sad; the subordinate clauses are the complements of these nouns and adjectives.

3. Subordinate clauses which on their own act as the subject of sentences with suchpredicates as be a pity, be a nuisance, be unfortunate, seem, and happen. These clauses are called 'subject complements' or 'subject complement clauses.'

. . . Sometimes the term 'complement clause' is extended to the adverbial type of subordinate clause as well."(James R. Hurford, Grammar: A Student's Guide. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994)

conditional clause

A type of adverbial clause that states a hypothesis or condition, real or imagined.A conditional clause may be introduced by the subordinating conjunction if or another conjunction, such as unless or in case of.Examples and Observations:1.

"If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog."(Harry Truman)

2."If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."(Anne Bradstreet, "Meditations Divine and Moral")

3."If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith."(Albert Einstein)

--"Conditions deal with imagined situations: some are possible, some are unlikely, some are impossible. The speaker/writer imagines that something can or cannot happen or have happened, and then compares that situation with possible consequences or outcomes, or offers further logical conclusions about the situation."(R. Carter, Cambridge Grammar of English. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006)

--There are six main types of conditional sentence:

1.For example, the equilibrium between liquid and vapor is upset if the temperature is increased.(General rule, or law of nature: it always happens.)2.If you start thinking about this game, it will drive you crazy.(Open future condition: it may or may not happen.)

independent clauseA group of words made up of a subject and a predicate. An independent clause (unlike a dependent clause) can stand alone as a sentence.By itself, an independent clause (also known as a main clause) is asimple sentence.

Examples and Observations:

1.A clause is a group of words that [contains] a subject and a verb. There are two major types: independent clauses and dependent clauses. An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence, beginning with a capital letter and ending with terminal punctuation such as a period. A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence; instead it must be attached to an independent clause."(G. Lutz and D. Stevenson, The Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference, 2005)

2."When liberty is taken away by force, it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by

default, it can never be recovered."(Dorothy Thompson)

3."The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.(H.L. Mencken)

main clauseA group of words made up of a subject and a predicate. A main clause (unlike a dependent orsubordinate clause) can stand alone as a sentence. A main clause is also known as anindependent clause.

Examples and Observations:1."I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible."(Oscar Wilde) 2."When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.(Ernest Hemingway)

--"[A main clause is a] clause which bears no relation, or no relation other than coordinationto any other or larger clause. Thus the sentence I said I wouldn't is as a whole a single main clause; in He came but I had to leave two main clauses are linked in coordination bybut."(P.H. Matthews, "main clause," The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, Oxford University Press, 1997)

1."An intelligence service is, in fact, a stupidity service."(E. B. White)

matrix clauseIn linguistics (and in generative grammar in particular), a clausethat contains a subordinate clause. Plural: matrices.In terms of function, a matrix clause determines the central situation of a sentence.

Examples and Observations:

"In discussing subordination, it is common to find contemporary linguists using the termsmatrix clause and embedded clause. It is important to understand how these terms relate to more familiar ones. A matrix clause is a clause that contains another clause. Thus, themain clause in (37), the professor told the students, is a matrix clause since it contains another clause (that he was going to cancel the next class), which is said to be embeddedinside the matrix clause:(37)The professor told the students that he was going to cancel the next class.

. . . The matrix clause determines the central situation of the construction. It casts its syntactic and semantic 'shadow,' as we might say, over the situation described by the clause that follows. So the situation described in the embedded clause is contained by, and functions as an element of, the situation described by the matrix clause."(Martin J. Endley, Linguistic Perspectives on English Grammar. Information Age, 2010)

"A matrix clause is often a main clause . . ., but it need not be: it can itself be a subordinate clause. In the sentence The victim told police that the man who attacked her had had a beard, the subordinate clause who attacked her is contained within the subordinate clause that the man . . . had had a beard."(R.L. Trask, Dictionary of English Grammar. Penguin, 2000)

"[S]ubordination . . . is where one clause (the subordinate clause) is somehow less important than the other (the matrix clause). There are three types of subordination: complementation, relative clauses, and adverbial subordination.

"Complement clauses are those clauses which substitute for a noun phrase in a sentence. For example, in English we can say I saw the boy, with the boy the object of the verb saw. But we can also say I saw (that) the boy left, I saw the boy leave, and I saw the boy leaving. In each case, where we might expect a noun phrase like the boy, we have a whole clause, with at least a subject and a verb. Which type of complement clause we get depends on the verb in the matrix clause, so that with want rather than see, we can have I wanted the boy to leave, but not *I wanted the boy left or *I wanted the boy leaving. . . .

"Relative clauses add some extra information about a noun phrase in a sentence, and in English often begin with who, which or that--the man who gave me the book left contains the relative clause who gave me the book . . ..

"The third type of subordination, adverbial subordination, covers those subordinate clauses which are similar in use to adverbs . . .."(A. Davies and C. Elder, The Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Wiley-Blackwell, 2005)

Matrix Subjects and Matrix Verbs"(17) a. Mary wondered [whether Bill would leave]. . . .

"The clause of which the subordinate clause is a constituent, such as Mary wondered whether Bill would leave in (17a), is referred to as the higher clause or the matrix clause. The topmost clause in a complex structure is the main clause, or the root clause. The verb of the matrix clause can be referred to as the matrix verb; the subject of the matrix clause can be referred to as the matrix subject. In (17a) wondered is the matrix verb and Mary is the matrix subject. The verb of the embedded clause can be referred to as the embedded verb; the subject of the embedded clause can be referred to as the embedded subject. In (17a) leave is the embedded verb and Bill is the embedded subject."(Liliane Haegeman and Jacqueline Guéron, English Grammar: A Generative Perspective. Blackwell, 1999)

noun clause

A dependent clause that functions as a noun (that is, as a subject,object, or complement) within a sentence. Also known as a nominal clause.Two common types of noun clause in English are that-clauses andwh-clauses:1.that-clause: I believe that everything happens for a reason.

2.wh-clause: How do I know what I think, until I see what I say?

Examples and Observations:1."When Mrs. Frederick C. Little's second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse."(E.B. White, Stuart Little, 1945) 2."I know that there are things that never have been funny, and never will be. And I know that ridicule may be a shield, but it is not a weapon."(Dorothy Parker)

--"All sentences, then, are clauses, but not all clauses are sentences. In the following sentences, for example, the direct object slot contains a clause rather than a noun phrase. These are examples of nominal clauses (sometimes called 'noun clauses'):

1.I know that the students studied their assignment.

2.I wonder what is making Tracy so unhappy.These nominal clauses are examples of dependent clauses--in contrast to independent clauses, those clauses that function as complete sentences."(Martha Kolln and Robert Funk, Understanding English Grammar, 5th ed., Allyn and Bacon, 1998)

---"I have run,I have crawled,I have scaled these city walls,These city wallsOnly to be with you,Only to be with you.But I still haven't found what I'm looking for."(written and performed by U2, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," The Joshua Tree, 1987)

relative clause

A clause that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase and is introduced by a relative pronoun (which, that, who, whom, whose), arelative adverb (where, when, why), or a zero relative. Also known as an adjective clause.A relative clause is a postmodifier--that is, it follows the noun or noun phrase it modifies.Relative clauses are traditionally divided into two types: restrictive and nonrestrictive. Examples:1."It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages."(Henry Ford)

2."Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal."(Charles Darwin)

Observations:

1."Unlike prepositional phrases, restrictive relative clauses . . . always modify noun phrases. However, a relative clause doesn't always immediately follow the noun phrase that it modifies. For example, if two relative clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction (and, or, or but), then the second one doesn't immediately follow the noun phrase that it modifies:

This article describes features that facilitate collaboration but that are not intended to increase security.

(John R. Kohl, The Global English Style Guide: Writing Clear, Translatable Documentation for a Global Market. SAS Institute, 2008)

2."Relative clauses are so called because they are related by their form to an antecedent. They contain within their structure an anaphoric element whose interpretation is determined by the antecedent. This anaphoric element may be overt or covert. In the overt case the relative clause is marked by the presence of one of the relative words who, whom, whose, which, etc., as or within the initial constituent: clauses of this type we call whrelatives. In non-wh relatives the anaphoric element is covert, a gap; this class is then subdivided into that relatives and bare relatives depending on the presence or absence of that."(Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey Pullum, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002)

subordinate clause

A group of words that has both a subject and a verb but (unlike an independent clause) cannot stand alone as a sentence. Also known as a dependent clause.

Examples and Observations:

1."Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."(Mark Twain)

2."When I'm good, I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better."(Mae West, I'm No Angel)

3."Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events."(Albert Einstein)

Finite clauses are introduced by a subordinator, which serves to indicate the dependent status of the clause together with its circumstantial meaning. Formally, subordinating conjunctions can be grouped as follows:

simple conjunctions: when, whenever, where, wherever, because, if, unless, until, while, as, although

conjunctive groups: as if, as though, even if, even though, even when, soon after, no sooner

complex conjunctions:: there are three subclasses:

(i) derived from verbs . . .: provided (that), granted (that), considering (that), seeing (that), suppose (that), supposing (that), so (that)(ii) containing a noun: in case, in the event that, to the extent that, in spite of the fact that, the day, the way(iii) adverbial: so/as long as, as soon as, so/as far as, much as, now (that)

verbless clause

A clause-like construction in which a verb element is implied but not present. Such clauses are usually adverbial, and the omitted verb is a form of be.

Examples and Observations:

1.Generic drugs must be chosen when available or an additional expense will be incurred.

2.Although not unfriendly toward strangers, this dog will protect its family in times of danger.

"Verbless clauses are clauses in which the verb (usually a form of to be) and sometimes other elements have been deleted. Consider, for example:

(36) John believes the prisoner innocent.

In this sentence the italicized sequence is a verbless clause, which we assume is a reduced version of the to-infinitive clause (37):

(37) John believes the prisoner to be innocent.

The following sentences contain further examples of verbless clauses (italicized):

(38) He considered the girl a good student.(39) Whenever in trouble, Bill rang his girl-friend.(40) He married her when a student at Harvard.

(Herman Wekker and Liliane M. V. Haegeman, A Modern Course in English Syntax. Taylor & Francis, 1985)

"A verbless clause . . . is considered a clause because it is dealing with a separate piece of information in relation to the main clause. For example, in the sentence, In the interests of the local children, the council should reconsider its decision, there are two separate pieces of information: the main clause--the council should reconsider its decision; and adependent clause that deals with issues that interest local children. In this clause, however, the verb has been nominalised resulting in a verbless clause. Verbless clauses are different from adverbial phrases. The latter provide some information to do with the time, place, or manner in which something happens within an existing clause. Verbless clauses, on the other hand, provide a separate piece of information outside of an existing clause."(Peter Knapp and Megan Watkins, Genre, Text, Grammar: Technologies for Teaching and Assessing Writing. UNSW Press, 2005)

Who invented capitalization of words?

In: Inventions, Alphabet History [Edit categories]

Answer:

  

By the first century A.D., the Roman alphabet used letterforms that we recognize as uppercase, today. Between the fifth and eighth centuries, Irish monks developed a style called "Half-Uncials" which are fairly close to the letterforms we now call lowercase. In the early Middle Ages, various styles between the two were used at various places, but the majuscule Roman letters and the rounded cursive letters were not mixed. If capitalization can be attributed to any one person, it would have to be an English abbot named Alcuin of York, who worked in the monastery at Tours during the reign of Charlemagne. Following a Church decree issued in 789 A.D., Alcuin developed a style of calligraphy that mixed the majuscule and minuscule letterforms. He systematized punctuation, visibly dividing text into sentences and paragraphs, and placed capital letters at the beginning of each sentence.