Grammatical Terms Starting with S

Grammatical Terms are difficult to understand but we are giving such usage grammar that will clarify many of your doubts like grammer or grammar because this is a complete grammar list of items.

Glossary of Grammatical Terms

1. Sentence.  A word or group of words based on one or more subject-predicate, or clause, patterns. The written sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with terminal punctuation—a period, question mark, or an exclamation point.

2. Sentence modifier. A word or phrase or clause that modifies the sentence as a See Chapter 8.

3. Sentence patterns. The simple skeletal sentences made up of two or three or four required elements, that underlie our sentences, even the most complex among them. Ten such patterns will account for almost all the possible sentences of English. See Chapter 2.

4. Serial comma. The comma that is used before the conjunction in a series: “On our fishing trip to Alaska, we caught salmon, halibut, and the elusive Arctic grayling.” Some publications, as a matter of policy, omit the serial comma.

5. Simple preposition.  A one-word See also Phrasal preposition.

6. Singular.  A feature of nouns and pronouns denoting one referent.

7. Standard English. See Edited American English.

8. Stand-in auxiliary. The auxiliary does (does, did )which we add to sentences when we transform them into questions, negatives, and emphatic statements when there is no auxiliary in the original.

9. Stative. Words that exhibit features relating to an unchanging state, in contrast to those that change. Stative verbs do not pattern with the progressive aspect: *”I am resembling my mother.” Stative adjectives generally do not follow the progressive form of being: *”He is being tall.” See also Dynamic.

10.Structuralism. An approach to analyzing grammar, associated with mid-twentieth-century linguists, in which the purpose is to describe how the language is actually used in its various dialects, not to prescribe a “correct” version.

11. Structure classes. The small, closed classes of words that explain the gram-. material or structural relationships of the form classes. See Chapter 12.

12. Subject.  The opening slot in the sentence patterns, filled by a noun phrase or other nominal, that functions as the topic of the sentence.

13. Subject complement. The nominal or adjectival in Pattern II, III, IV, and V sentences following the verb, which renames or modifies the subject. The passive version of a Pattern IX or X sentence will also have a subject complement, the nominal or adjectival that in the active voice functions as the object complement.

14. Subjective case. The role in the sentence of a noun phrase or a pronoun when it functions as the subject of the Personal pronouns have distinctive forms for subjective case: I, he, she, they, etc.

15. Subject-verb See Agreement.

16. Subjunctive mood.  An expression of the verb in which the base form, rather than the inflected form, is used (1) in certain that clauses conveying strong suggestions or resolutions or commands (“We suggest that Mary go with us”; “I move that the meeting be adjourned”; “I demand that you let us in”), and (2) in the expression of wishes or conditions contrary to fact (“If I were you, I’d be careful”; “I wish it were summer”). The subjunctive of the verb be is expressed by were or be, even for subjects that normally take is or was.

17. Subordinate clause.  A dependent clause introduced by a subordinating conjunction, such as if, since, because, and although.

18. Subordinating conjunction. See Subordinator.

19. Subordinator.  Subordinating conjunction that turns a complete sentence into a subordinate clause and expresses the connection between the subordinate clause and the main clause.

20. Substantive.  A structure that functions as a noun; a nominal.

21. Suffix. An affix added to the end of a form-class word to change its class (act —> action; laugh laughable) with derivational suffixes or to change its grammatical function (boy boys; walk —> walking) with inflectional suffixes. See also Derivational affix and Inflectional suffix Superlative degree. See Degree.

22. Surface structure. A term used by transformational grammarians to designate the sentences of the language as they are spoken and written. See also Deep structure.

23. Syntax. The structure of sentences; the relationship of the parts of the sentence.

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