Traditional Grammar - Assignment 8 (Graded) James Madison University

Instructions: This assignment will be graded. The first part is worth up to 35 points, the second part is worth up to 38 points, the third part is worth up to 12 points, and the fourth part is worth up to 15 points. Note that the grade for part (1) will be based on the completeness and accuracy of your treatment of nouns, not on the quality of your creativity. Think details, details, details! :-) ]

1. Using Emery's definition of a noun, Greenbaum's discussion of nouns, and everything we've discussed in class, come up with a creative representation of the concept 'noun'. If you are oriented towards writing, this representation might take the form of a poem (perhaps an ode or an extended limerick?), a very short short story ("Adventures with My Buddies, the Nouns"?) or even a humorous short essay ("Why We Should Eliminate Nouns"?). If you are oriented towards teaching, you might put together an assignment (fill-in the blanks?), a lesson plan, or a game (What's My Line for nouns with examples of nouns in contexts containing clues to their features?) (Note that an assignment or game should come with an answer key and/or a description of how you think your representation serves its purpose, and make sure your assignment isn't targeted at so young an age group that you wouldn't put in all the details about nouns.) Artistic types might do a noun collage, highlighting different features of nouns. Feel free to use your imagination. Just make sure your effort focuses on plentiful, accurate details and either very clearly states your detailed knowledge of nouns or comes with a detailed explanatory note. (For example, a picture intended to illustrate a count noun should be labelled as such or should be mentioned in an explanatory note.)
2. For each of these sentences, determine if the capitalized word is a noun. If it is a noun, state at least three of its features or characteristics, which may include aspects of form or of position in a sentence pattern as well as subclass features. If it is not a noun, just write "not a noun."
   1. Luckily, Bob's accountant kept his RECEIPTS.
   2. The billionaire showed his sincere GRATITUDE by buying the nice neighbors who watered his plants a small but lovely island.
   3. The GROUP was unhappy with the Christmas bonuses.
   4. The clown's costume was OUTLANDISH.
   5. The bandit attached his false mustache with GLUE.
   6. Many people left FLORIDA because of the bad storms.
   7. My dopey friend thinks those BUCKS running across the field are horses.
   8. The captain WAVES to the people on the shore.
   9. The SYLLABI for that professor's courses are quite unusual.
3. Underline all the nouns and no other words in the following excerpt (taken from Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett):
   

   It wasn't a dark and stormy night.
   

   It should have been, but that's the weather for you. For every mad scientist who's
   

   had a convenient thunderstorm just on the night his Great Work is finished and lying on
   

   the slab, there have been dozens who've sat around aimlessly under the peaceful stars
   

   while Igor clocks up the overtime.

4. Find five naturally occurring sentences each of which matches a different description below. (Notice that this means you will use only five of the seven descriptions below.) For each sentence, state which description it matches.
   1. An SV sentence that contains three or more words
   2. An interrogative SVO sentence
   3. Any sentence with an adverbial complement
   4. Any multiple sentence
   5. An SVC sentence built around any verb other than the verb "to be" (in any of its forms)
   6. Either an SVOC or an SVOO sentence (say which it is)
   7. Any sentence with a time or space adverbial that is not an adverbial complement