English for Research: Usage, Style, and Grammar
Appendix 2: Glosssary of terms used
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| Appendix 2: Glosssary of terms used in this book The definitions below are my definitions of how various terms are used in this book. They should not be considered as official definitions. abbreviation a shortened form of a word e.g. info rather than information acronym e.g. url, www, NATO, IBM active (form) use of a personal pronoun/subject before a verb, e.g. we found that x = y rather than it was found that x = y adjective a word that describes a noun (e.g. signi fi cant, usual ) adverb a word that describes a verb or appears before an adjective (e.g. signi fi cantly, usually ) ambiguity words and phrases that could be interpreted in more than one way comparative e.g. better, happier, more intelligent conditional e.g. If I spoke perfect English, it would be easier to write papers countable noun a noun that can be made plural by adding an -s , e.g. books, students definite article the direct object in the sentence I have a book , the book is the direct object genitive the possessive form of a noun, e.g. Adrian’s book gerund the part of the verb that ends in – ing and that acts like a noun (e.g. learning, analyzing ). The terms gerund and -ing form are used indifferently in this book indefinite article a / an indirect object in the sentence I gave the book to Anna , book is the direct object, and Anna is the indirect object - ing form the part of the verb that ends in – ing and that acts like a noun (e.g. learning, analyzing ). The terms gerund and -ing form are used indifferently in this book infinitive the root part of the verb, e.g. to learn, to analyze ) link word, linker words and expressions that connect phrases and sentences together (e.g. and, moreover, although, despite the fact that ) modal verb verbs such as can, may, might, could, would, should noun words such as a/the paper, a/the result , a/the sample. If the noun can be made plural it is countable, if it only exists in the singular it is uncountable A. Wallwork, English for Research Usage, Style, and Grammar, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-1593-0, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 paragraph a series of one or more sentences, the last of which ends with a paragraph symbol ( ¶ ) passive (form) an impersonal way of using verbs, e.g. it was found that x = y rather than we found that x = y past participle e.g. it was found , we have found , we have seen , they have done phrasal verb e.g. back up, breakdown, look forward to, turnoff, workout i phrase a series of words that makeup part of a sentence preposition e.g. to, at, in, by, from punctuation period) , (comma (semicolon) : (colon) - (hyphen) () (brackets/ parentheses) ? (question mark) blah (single quotes, blah (double quotes) quantifier e.g. some, every, any, all, many relative pronoun who, which, that, whose sentence a series of words ending with a period ( . ) superlative e.g. best, happiest, most intelligent tense future simple ( we will study, he will study etc, present simple ( we study, he studies ), present continuous ( we are studying, he is studying ), present perfect ( we have studied, he has studied ), present perfect continuous ( we have been studying, he has been studying ), past simple ( we studied, he studied ), past perfect ( we had studied, he had studied ), past continuous ( we were studying, he was studying ) uncountable noun a noun that only exists in the singular, e.g. information, feedback, software word order the order in which nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs appear within a sentence zero article no article e.g. Make love not war (as opposed to the war against terrorism ) A. Wallwork, English for Research Usage, Style, and Grammar, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-1593-0, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Download 1.57 Mb. Share with your friends:
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