Module 1 Concepts: Frame Sentences

One of the most important skills that you will develop in this course will be to recognize both the form and function of a word, phrase, or clause in the context of a sentence.

Form refers to the actual form (shape, pronunciation, and spelling) a word takes. The 4 parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) are form classes because they can change their form by taking derivational and/or inflectional morphemes.

Function refers to how parts of speech behave: Where can they occur in a sentence? What words can they appear with?

Words with the form of noun, verb, adjective, and adverb most often perform nominal, verbal, adjectival, and adverbial functions. In English, though, sometimes form and function do not match.

Nouns have 5 potential characteristics. For a word to be a noun, it must fit the frame sentence and have at least 1 of the other characteristics.

Verbs have 8 potential characteristics. For a word to be a verb, it must fit one of the 2 frame sentences and have at least 1 of the other characteristics.

Adjectives can meet 2 formal and 2 functional criteria. Any word with an adjective-making morpheme must be an adjective. For a word to be an adjective, it must fit both slots in the frame sentence.

Adverbs and adjectives share inflectional and derivational morphemes. No single formal  or functional characteristic can identify every adverb. You can only be sure a word is an adverb if it fits the frame sentence.

For example, how do we know fluctuation is a noun?

It can fit in the frame sentence:

(The) _________ seem(s) all right.

It has a noun-making morpheme:

fluctuation

It can occur with the plural morpheme:

many fluctuations

Can occur with the possessive morpheme:

The fluctuation’s regularity

Doesn’t need modifiers to follow an article and create a grammatical unit:

the fluctuation,

a fluctuation

Fluctuation is a noun because it fits the frame sentence and meets all the other criteria for nouns.

For example, how do we know politicize is a verb?

It can fit 1 of the 2 frame sentences:

They must politicize it.

They must politicize good.

It has a verb-making morpheme:

politicize

It can occur with present-tense morpheme:

politicizes

It can occur with past-tense morpheme:

politicized

It can occur with present-participle morpheme:

politicizing

It can occur with past-participle morpheme:

had politicized,

was politicized

It can be made into a command:

Don’t politicize this issue!

It can be made negative:

They did not politicize the issue.

Politicize is a verb because it fits one of the two frame sentences and meets the other criteria for verbs.

A primary test uses the frame sentence for determining the function of a particular word. The frame sentence contains an empty slot, also defined as a function slot, because a word, phrase, or clause that can be placed in that slot can be said to "function" as that particular form class if the sentence still makes sense.

Identify nouns by placing them in the slot in the frame sentence:

(The) ____________ seem(s) all right.

Identify verbs by seeing if they fit the slot in one of the two frame sentences:

They must __________ (it). They must __________ good.

Identify adjectives by placing them in the slot in the frame sentence:

The ___________ man is very ___________.

The frame sentence for identifying adverbs is any complete sentence with a slot in the last position:

The man told his story ___________. The woman walked her dog ___________.