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Rhetorical Grammar Ch. 1
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Syntax- the way that words are structured in a sentence.
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Authors make syntactical choices to relay their message.
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Understanding the language associated with syntax will
help you in analyzing texts you read.
What about fight and laugh? Aren’t those verbs?
The fight rattled the crowd.
Her laugh rang, high-pitched, through the cafeteria.
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Plural marker (s)- a word can only be made plural if it’s a
noun. (Cool huh?)
Past tense marker (-ed)- only verbs can be identified by
tense (like using –ed to make something past tense)
Inflections- noun endings: s is one, ‘s is another—or just an
apostrophe. This is called possessive case. Only nouns can
be possessive!
I made a promise to my boss. (noun)
I promised to be on time for work. (verb)
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Use each of the following words in two different sentences,
once as a noun and once as a verb:
o Visit
o Plant
o Point
o Feature
o Audition
o Offer
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Parts of the phrase:
o Headword- the noun (main word)
o Determiner- noun signaler (Watch out! A noun is coming!) most
common is an article
the headword
a unit
the traditional definition
Other determiners: possessive nouns, demonstrative pronouns
o Modifier- these can be adjectives
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