Watch an audiovisual lecture on How to Identify Grammatical Names and Functions in WASSCE English.
What are grammatical names and functions and why is it important to learn them? There are various units of grammar in English, and they have their specific names: morphemes, words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. Your knowledge of English grammar has to do with being able to identify these grammatical units one by one.
English words, for example, are classified into the 8 parts of speech, and they have their specific names: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. English phrases are classified into noun phrases, adverbial phrases, adjectival phrases, prepositional phrases, etc. The clauses are noun clause, adverbial clause, and adjectival/relative clause. The sentence, which is the largest grammatical unit, is also classified into different classes: simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences, compound-complex sentences, multiple sentences, and multiple complex sentences.
Learning these various grammatical names is very important, and learning the functions they perform in English sentences is equally important. But how exactly can we identify these grammatical names and functions?
To identify grammatical names, you have to examine the work it does in an English sentence. Consider the following sentence: Susan sang a song at the assembly this morning. To identify the grammatical names of the various units, we have to consider the work each unit does in the sentence. So, we can analyze the sentence as follows: //Susan/sang/a song/at the assembly/this morning. Their grammatical names are as follows: Susan = Noun (it names or identifies a person we’re talking about); sang = Verb (it reports an action done by a person); a song = Noun Phrase (it’s a group of words and it gives us the name of something); at the assembly= Adverbial Phrase of Place (it’s a group of words and it indicates a place where something happened); this morning = Adverbial Phrase of Time (it indicates the time something happened).
The next question is: how can we identify the grammatical functions of English words and expressions? This is done by examining the position the word or expression occupies within a sentence and also the role it plays in it. There are five elements that help us to identify grammatical functions. They are as follows: Subject (the doer of an action reported in a sentence); Verb (a word that reports an action or state of being); Object (the receiver of an action performed by another); Complement (what describes or completes the meaning of the subject or another word); Adjunct (what gives additional information or ideas in the sentence). Let’s examine the previous example according to grammatical functions: Susan (Subject ) sang (Verb) a song (Object) at the assembly(Adjunct) this morning (Adjunct).
For a more detailed audiovisual explanation of how to identify grammatical names and functions in WASSCE English, watch the following video lecture: https://youtu.be/uCCHv6T_ax4
The following eBooks will give you further insight into other areas of language proficiency, such as grammatical structures, essay writing – letter writing, article writing, speech writing, report writing, story writing – comprehension, summary writing, vowel and consonant sounds, and so forth:
About the Author
Benjamin Abugu is a university graduate with a flair for content writing. He is an English teacher with over twelve years experience, a published author of many books (both paperback and eBook editions), a blogger and Youtuber.
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