Spider-Baby...

He had already tried to climb on the wagon that holds his wooden blocks and various books and small toys, but today the boy stepped up on this oversized musical block to try and climb on a grown-up chair. He really enjoyed it when I picked him up and sat him in the chair. In fact, he didn't want to come out! What a silly little guy.

I'm going to keep this short today, since I have a few regular sections to keep up on here, as well as a plethora of household chores to complete, preferably before midnight, since the boy was up at 6:30 this morning.

Wednesday Grammar Geek-Out #2

2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw this one; I am hopeful that it will be shorter than last week. The first half, naming the parts of speech, I can (nearly!) do by heart. It is the second half that I will need some research to decipher. 

The parts of speech are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, conjunction, pronoun, preposition, and interjection. In looking around to make sure I remembered them all, I stumbled upon an old poem by David B. Tower and Benjamin F. Tweed that used to be memorized in schools to remember all the parts of speech. I will copy it below for your enjoyment. 

Three little words you often see

are ARTICLES: a, an, and the.

A NOUN's the name of anything,

as: school or garden, toy or swing.

ADJECTIVES tell the kind of noun,

as: great, small, pretty, white or brown.

VERBS tell of something being done:

to read, write, count, sing, jump, or run.

How things are done the ADVERBS tell,

as: slowly, quickly, badly, well.

CONJUNCTIONS join the words together,

as: men and women, wind or weather.

The PREPOSITION stands before

a noun as: in or through a door.

The INTERJECTION shows surprise,

as Oh, how pretty! Ah! How wise!

The whole are called the PARTS OF SPEECH,

which reading, writing, speaking teach.

The same site I found that poem on comments on the fact that the writers left out pronouns, and suggest the following to add to the poem: "A PRONOUN replaces any noun, / he, she, it, and you are found."

OK, WikiAnswers says that the parts of speech that "have no modifications," i.e. don't change form or spelling depending on the amount or types of surrounding words, are prepositions and conjunctions. 

So, I need to define these terms.

A preposition is a word used in front of a noun or pronoun to form phrases that normally express a spatial or temporal relationship, such as in, on, by, to, before, or since.

A conjunction functions as a connector between words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. Examples of these are and, because, but, however. Phrases that function this way are also considered conjunctions, such as in any case. 

Haiku News

Rights activist killed

was openly critical

of Chechnya's prez.

List of people charged

in Billings home invasion

now has swelled to eight.

Unsuspecting folks

hit with an ungodly charge

from programming glitch.

New "Potter" debuts,

sets new record for midnight.

Take that, "Transformers."