By Andrea Wenger, Carolina Chapter Member

As technical communicators, we’re taught to beware of jargon. Sometimes jargon is elitist; sometimes it’s confusing. Jargon can be appropriate, though, when writing for an audience of experts. Many style guides and grammar books use terms that assume the reader is familiar with their specialized terminology. But to the uninitiated, the language can be as baffling as anything encountered in technology fields. Knowing these terms can help you present yourself as an expert communicator.

Anticipatory Reference

An anticipatory reference is a pronoun that precedes its antecedent:

• If they are not packed properly and handled with care, delicate items can break during shipping. (This should read, “If delicate items are not…they can break…”)

An anticipatory reference is acceptable if the noun follows closely:

• I finally found it!—this red cashmere sweater is exactly the gift I was hoping to get my sister.

Elliptical Construction

In an elliptical construction, one or more words have been omitted:

• Connect the white wire to the blue.
• He’s ten inches taller than I.
• The home team scored three goals; the opposing, two.
• When alone, she likes to sing Britney Spears songs.

Below are the sentences including the omitted words:

• Connect the white wire to the blue wire.
• He’s ten inches taller than I am.
• The home team scored three goals; the opposing team scored two goals.
• When she is alone, she likes to sing Britney Spears songs.

Note that a comma is sometimes used to signify that a word has been omitted. If the meaning is clear without the comma, however, then the comma is unnecessary.
When using an elliptical construction, take care to follow the same grammatical rules that you would if the omitted words were present. You wouldn’t write, “He’s ten inches taller than me am,” so you shouldn’t write, “He’s ten inches taller than me”—except in colloquial usage.

Subjunctive Mood

A verb’s subjunctive mood is used in place of the indicative mood whenever the intent is to convey a desire, a future possibility, or something contrary to fact:

• I insist that he be present when the CEO arrives.
• The candidate promised to reduce taxes if she were elected.
• I wouldn’t eat that expired yogurt if I were you.

The subjunctive mood is not used to express past possibility:

• If he was at the movies, then I didn’t see him.

Declining Pronoun

Is whom a declining pronoun? Yes, but not because it’s falling out of usage. To decline means to give the grammatical forms (of a noun, pronoun, or adjective) in the prescribed order, much like conjugating a verb. Declining pronouns, then, change form based on whether they’re in the subjective case, the objective case, or the possessive case.

I declines to me, my, and mine; we declines to us, our, and ours. Most relative pronouns, such as which or that, don’t decline. The declension of who to whom and whose is something of an anomaly.

Predicate Adjective

You might assume that a predicate adjective is an adjective that appears in the predicate. And you’d be right. What can be confusing is that a predicate adjective describes a noun in the subject. In other words, a predicate adjective is a complement that follows a linking verb. (The same is true of a predicate noun, a.k.a. predicate nominative.) So in the sentence, “The flower is yellow,” yellow is a predicate adjective. In the sentence “It is a yellow flower,” yellow is not a predicate adjective—but flower is a predicate noun.

Objective Complement

Predicate adjectives and predicate nouns are subjective complements (they complement the subject of the sentence). Objective complements are adjectives or nouns that complement the direct object:

• House Democrats named Nancy Pelosi Speaker.
• That cheap watch turned my wrist green.

Objective complements are sometimes known as object complements, and subjective complements as subject complements.

Verbal

A verbal is a form of a verb that functions as another part of speech. The three types of verbals are infinitives (to + verb), present participles (verb ending in -ing), and past participles (verb ending in -ed). A present participle that functions as a noun is called a gerund.
Consider these examples:

• He decided to run. (To run is an infinitive functioning as a direct object.)
• The running water gurgled down the drain. (Running is a present participle functioning as an adjective.)
• She went to Spain for the running of the bulls. (Running is a gerund functioning as the object of a preposition.)
• The faded wallpaper is peeling. (Faded is a past participle functioning as an adjective.)

In some cases, the to in an infinitive is omitted:

• We let him sing in the show. (Sing is an infinitive functioning as an objective complement.)

Verb Phrase vs. Phrasal Verb

A verb phrase includes the main verb plus one or more auxiliary verbs:

• He was running at top speed
• She could have danced all night.

A phrasal verb, on the other hand, includes the main verb plus a preposition (or particle). The preposition functions as part of the verb and is often intrinsic to its meaning:

• The demolition team blew up the building.
• Hang on to your receipt.
• We ran in to the store.

Clearly, “We ran in to the store” means something different from “We ran to the store” or “We ran into the store.” When a phrasal verb is followed by a prepositional phrase, avoid combining the two prepositions into one word; they serve different grammatical purposes.
Note that phrasal verbs aren’t hyphenated or combined into a single word, even when the noun or adjective forms are:

• To set up communication, configure the parameters in the Communication Setup window.
• Readjust the settings if the motor does not cut in after the cut-in delay has expired.

If the preposition doesn’t affect the meaning, it should be omitted:

• total up > total
• divide out > divide

Often, the meaning of a phrasal verb can’t be deciphered by combining the meaning of the main verb and of the preposition. When writing documents that might be used by non-native English speakers, avoid phrasal verbs.

Most of the time, you won’t have much use for terms like these in your everyday speech. Technical communicators take pride in an ability to express things simply. But sometimes, it can be helpful to use a term that will characterize you as an expert in your field.

When people are insistent in questioning your usage, you may find it constructive to say, “According to the Chicago Manual of Style, a comma is generally used before a conjunction in a compound sentence but not in a compound predicate.” Chances are, words like conjunction and predicate will generate flashbacks of fourth grade language arts class and send them running for cover.

Andrea can be reached at andrea dot wenger at us dot schneider-electric dot com.