ENGLISH , GRAMMAR 11H A N D B O O K | 1 The Ultimate Desk Reference / Learn how to write clearly and correctly the first time— and every time t y Hone your writing skills and sharpen your verbal expression Enhance your confidence and effectiveness as a communicator V, A GORDON LOBERGER, PH., AND KATE SHOUP WELSH WE DEFINE Y O U R W O R L D i W EBSTER’S NEW W#RLD ENGLISH GRAMMAR HANDBOOK by Gordon Loberger, Ph., and Kate Shoup Welsh Webster’s New World™ English Grammar Handbook Copyright © 2001 Hungry Minds, Inc. All rights reserved including the right of repro duction in whole or in part in any form by any means (electronic, photocopying, record ing, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Hungry Minds, Inc. 909 Third Avenue New York, NY 10022 www.
com A Webster’s New World™ Book WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD is a trademark of Hungry Minds, Inc. Library of Congress Control Number: 2001090687 ISBN 0-7645-6488-9 Printed in the United States of America 1B/RY/QZ/QR/IN ACKNOWLEDGMENTS wish to thank two individuals who have been especially helpful to I me in preparing the first edition of this text. Kristen Minks White was a very dedicated and efficient project m anager for the prepara tion of the original manuscript, while Jennifer Moore displayed sim ilar efficiency and dedication in making the necessary revisions prior to publication. Both were very able students enrolled in the profes sional writing program at Murray State University.
Also, a num ber of my students were helpful in pointing out various trouble spots and elusive errors. I hereby thank them all for their assistance. This edition was subject to many unforeseen obstacles. Trisha Starr and Terri Puckett, both students in Professor Miles Kimball's technical writing class, worked diligently under pressure to prepare the manuscript.
Unfortunately, the semester ended before the project was completed. Puckett graciously consented to continue work ing through the semester break/Christmas vacation, dividing her time between this project and her duties as wife, mother, grandmother, homemaker, and employee elsewhere. Her concern for the quality of the text and her dedication to the project were truly “beyond the call of duty." I know that without her assistance, I would have been nearly helpless at times. I offer her my sincerest thanks for all her help, insights, and for her calm, quiet way of overcoming obstacles.
Thank you, Terri. This latest edition is a result of sharp-eyed students in my classes who detected numerous errors in typing and misplaced answers. The errors and suggestions for necessary corrections were passed on to Terri Puckett, who, once again, worked diligently and efficiently to make corrections. I really cannot thank her enough.
As I stated in ear lier editions, if any errors occur or remain, I m ust assume responsi bility for them. Gordon Loberger Murray State University Murray, Kentucky It never ceases to amaze me how many people contribute to the writing, editing, designing, printing, and binding of a single book. Thanks must first go to Dr. Loberger, whose fine text, A Concise Guide to Standard English Usage, serves as the tem plate for this book.
Thanks also go to Sheny Gomoll, for providing me the opportunity to make my own contributions. Mike Kelly’s help through this process has been invaluable, as have the sharp eyes of Mike Shields, who helped greatly with the technical accuracy of this book. Thanks very much to all of them for helping us avoid the embarrassm ent of publishing a gram m ar book that contains grammatical errors. Finally, I'd like to thank my baby daughter, Heidi, for napping at all the right times so her new and hapless mother could work, and my husband, Ian, for taking such good care of us both.
Kate Shoup Welsh Indianapolis, Indiana TABLE OF CONTENTS P re fa c e. 1 PART I Parts of Speech.7 Recognizing the Various Types o f N o u n s .10 Making Nouns Plural. 12 Making Nouns Possessive. 17 General Observations about N o u n s.
18 Recognizing the Various Types o f Pronouns. 25 The Cases o f Pronouns .27 Pronouns as Nominals .30 Pronouns after As, Than, and B u t.34 Selecting the Correct P ro n o u n .42 General Observations about P ro n o u n s.47 Nouns That Act Like Adjectives. 50 Recognizing the Various Types o f Adjectives. 51 General Observations about A djectives.
63 Recognizing the Various Types o f V erbs. 64 Verb Tenses and A spects.65 Irregular English Verbs. 69 Making Verbs Negative.71 Subject-Verb A greem ent.72 Selecting the Correct Verb F orm. 83 General Observations about Verbs.93 vi / Table o f C ontents WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD ADVERBS.
98 Comparison and Usage. 98 Recognizing the Various Types o f A dverbs. 99 Common Pitfalls with Adverbs and Adjectives .102 General Observations about Adverbs.107 Selecting the Correct Preposition.137 General Observations about Function W o rd s.138 PART II Sentence Elem ents. 141 TYPES OF SENTENCES .145 General Observations about Types o f Sentences.
146 Patterns 1, 2, and 3: Sentences with the Verb To B e. 148 Patterns 8 and 9: Sentences with Linking Verbs .149 Understanding Sentence Patterns .151 General Observations about Sentence P atterns. 154 Subjects and Predicates. 181 Com plem ents.212 General Observations about Sentence Parts .223 ENGLISH GRAMMAR HANDBOOK Table o f Contents / vii PART III Handling Capitalization and Spoiling.
227 General Observations about Capitalization.235 Sounding Out W o rd s.236 Looking Up Words in a Dictionary. 248 Commonly Misspelled W ords. 256 British versus American Spelling.260 General Observations about Spelling. 261 PART IV On Writing.
265 Organizing the Piece .266 Using an Outline .267 General Observations about Prewriting.269 Showing versus Telling. 269 General Observations about W ritin g. 271 Variety in Sentence Structure. 279 General Observations about R e v isin g.
283 What to Look F o r. 284 Proofreader’s Signs and S y m b o ls.286 Marking Changes in Punctuation .288 General Observations about Proofreading.290 Appendix MISUSED WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS .345 Index 361 PREFACE STANDARD ENGLISH USAGE: A RATIONALE t should come as little surprise to anyone who has had to struggle I through months—even years—of the formal study of gram m ar in both middle school and high school that certain segments of society place great emphasis on using "correct grammar" and on "speaking correctly." Because the study of gram m ar was given preeminence in the public-school curriculum (after all, for how many years is one exposed to the basics of English grammar?), nearly every student has been expected to become proficient in such things as diagramming sentences—some of them incorporating uncommon constructions— and in determining the correct use of such forms as who and whom in complex, convoluted sentence patterns. Needless to say, although such instruction was generally ineffec tive, it had a certain degree of merit, for knowledge of the subtleties of one's own language can be a very useful tool. But if any students did learn the proper use of who and whom, the learning did not often translate into a functionally meaningful experience.
In short, it was usually a failure. Students able to recite rules and employ correct forms failed to incorporate proper usage into their everyday speech. Imagine the chagrin of the hapless teacher of English who for hours inveighed against the use of double negatives only to hear students employ that usage time and time again, even while leaving the class room immediately after instruction. For such a person, the task of teaching grammar probably seems hopeless.
Can, then, proper grammar or standard English usage be taught? Of course it can—and it should be—or this text would not be in exis tence. But students of gram m ar m ust understand the nature of the beast with which they are wrestling, as well as the reasons underlying their efforts. Students must realize, for instance, that there is a time and place for all things, whether soap, sex, or standard English gram m ar and usage. Attempts by teachers to instill in students a different standard x / S ta n d a rd E ng lish Usage: A R atio n ale WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD of usage (in effect, a different dialect) to be used at all times and in all places are surely destined for failure.
The person who uses who or whom properly at all times and is constantly on guard not to split an infinitive, even in the most informal situations, is using the language in a m anner that is just as questionable as the person who misuses who and whom out of ignorance or carelessly splits infinitives in the most formal of situations. The level of formality one employs in various situations is, then, a m atter of dialect. Just as people in one area of a country speak in a way slightly different from people in another area of the country, so too do people in one situation speak differently from the way they would speak in another situation—one that would require greater or less formality. In other words, the formality of one's gram m ar and usage is a m atter of dialect and of adapting ones dialect to a given sit uation.
Just as a doctor or mechanic has more than one instrum ent or tool with which to perform different tasks, so too ought an effec tive speaker have different modes of speech for different situations. Custodians of the Language versus Advocates of Usage The debate over which grammar to use involves two different philoso phies. One school would prescribe certain rules of conduct in matters of grammar and usage. People with this view hold that, in one way or another, speakers ought to maintain the highest standards of formal usage at all times and that to do less reflects discredit upon them selves and their general, overall competence in various matters, whether linguistic or otherwise.
This position is the one usually held by teachers of English in many public schools—often encouraged and rewarded by principals and parent groups. The standards to which they would have everyone adhere are, of course, their standards, which reflect their own personal value systems. Another group is of the opinion that the study of gram m ar ought to be descriptive in nature, observing and noting the nature of lan guage as it is used by people in general. If, they would maintain, they discover that 75 percent of the speakers of a particular dialect employ split infinitives in their speech—w hether formal o r informal—that fact should be recorded without any judgm ent being passed on the ENGLISH GRAMMAR HANDBOOK Custodians o f the Language versus Advocates o f Usage / xi appropriateness of the usage.
They rightly observe that language is a living phenomenon, growing, spreading, changing, and dying in much the same m anner that vegetation grows, spreads, changes, and dies. Attempts to restrain change by establishing artificial constraints or rules, they maintain, are hopeless. Valid argum ents in support of both positions are easy to find. Educated people (and more and more people are obtaining college and university degrees) do indeed have a tendency to hold in mild contem pt (at the least) people whose language habits do not meet norms that they or others have established.
They see a dichotomy such as that suggested by the title of an article by Thomas A. Knott, General Editor of Webster’s Dictionaries, in American Speech (Vol. His title is simple and to the point: “Standard Eng lish and Incorrect English.” The title suggests (though Knott is more tolerant than the title would lead one to believe) that if one does not speak standard English, whatever that happens to be, one is using incorrect English. In the Saturday Review o f Literature (14 Nov.