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Diagramming sentences is a skill that was introduced in a text in 1877 by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg, it was widely seen as a way to reform students.

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The English language has strict rules for the composition of words in sentences.

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For example, in the phrase "The women are beatiful" the sequence is: article + adjective + noun (and not *noun + article + adjective, for example).

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One approach to defining the grammar of a language involves analyzing the arrangement of phrases and sentences, taking into account all grammatical patterns while excluding any that are incorrect.

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Traditional grammar has its origins in the description of languages such as Latin and Greek. The description of the grammatical components of these languages was taken as the best model for other grammars.

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Agreement categories

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-Number

-Person

-Time

-Voice

-Gender

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Grammatical Gender

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Grammatical gender is based on the type of noun (masculine and feminine) and is not tied to sex.

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Traditional grammar

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Traditional grammar has often applied analytical categories designed for languages like Latin to the analysis of English verbs. This suggests that grammatical categories in English do not directly characterize verb forms, but rather describe different forms of pronouns.

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The Prescriptive Approach

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This approach emerged in the 18th century in England, where grammarians attempted to establish rules based on Latin structure for English, referring to the idea that grammar sets fixed rules for the "correct" use of the language.

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Captain Kirk's Infinitive

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In "Star Trek," Captain Kirk used the expression "To boldly go" at the beginning of each episode, showcasing a split infinitive. It is suggested that grammatical structures in English may differ from Latin, and it is argued that they should not be considered "bad" just because they do not follow Latin rules.

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The Descriptive Approach

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It is recognized that established grammar rules for one language may not be suitable for others. Instead of imposing predefined rules, examples of the language are analyzed, and their structures are described based on actual usage.

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Structural Analysis

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Constituent Analysis

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The technique employed in this approach is designed to show how small constituents (or components) combine to form larger constituents.

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Subjects and Objects

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The subject is the entity that performs the action of the verb and is generally found before the verb, while the object is the entity that receives the action and is usually located after the verb. The position in the sentence is used to identify these grammatical functions.

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Word Order

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The standard word order in English is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), but it's not universal across languages. Word order varies, influencing sentence structure and grammar differently in each language.

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Language Typology

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Linguistic typology classifies languages into groups based on similar grammatical structures. Word order patterns like SVO or VOS are used to differentiate between these groups, though less common patterns like OSV and OVS are also found in some languages in South America.

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Why Study Grammar?

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The rules of English grammar are stringent regarding word combination, and understanding them benefits second language learners. Additionally, grammatical order is based on underlying abstract and hierarchical structures.

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GRAMMAR

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What is grammar?

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- Identify all the parts of speech used in this sentence (e.g. woman = noun): The woman

kept a large snake in a cage, but it escaped recently.

The (= article), woman (= noun), kept (= verb), a (= article), large (= adjective), snake (= noun), in = preposition), a (= article), cage (= noun), but (= conjunction), it (= pronoun), escaped (= verb), recently (= adverb)

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What is the difference between grammatical gender and natural gender?

Grammatical gender categorizes nouns as masculine, feminine, or neuter, irrespective of biological sex. In contrast, natural gender refers to the biological distinction between male, female, or non-binary identities.

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What prescriptive rules for the “proper” use of English are not obeyed in the following

sentences and how would they be “corrected”?

(a) The old theory consistently failed to fully explain all the data.

(b) I can’t remember the name of the person I gave the book to.

(a)The phrase "to fully explain" splits the infinitive "to explain." To correct this, one might rephrase it as "consistently failed to explain fully all the data."

(b) This sentence breaks the prescriptive rule that prohibits ending sentences with prepositions because it ends with the preposition "to." To follow this rule, one could rephrase the sentence as "I cannot recall the name of the individual to whom I gave the book."

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How many noun phrases are there in the following sentence?

Robert brought a small puppy to the party and we all wanted to keep it.

There are three noun phrases in the sentence:

1. "Robert"

2. "a small puppy"

3. "it"

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What was wrong with the older Latin-influenced definition of English pronouns?

In the previous definition, pronouns were characterized as "words that substitute for nouns."

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What is the grammatical function of the proper noun in the following sentence?

The professor and her students visited Berlin during the summer.

The grammatical function of the proper noun "Berlin" in the sentence is the object of the verb "visited."

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Is Malagasy a VSO language or something else?

Yes, Malagasy is a VOS (Verb-Object-Subject) language.

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Given these other Gaelic words, translate the following sentences into English:

beag (“small”) bhuail (“hit”) dubh (“black”) duine (“man”) gille (“boy”)

(a) Bhuail an gille beag an cu dubh

(b) Chunnaic an cu an duine mor

(a) The small boy hit the black dog.

(b) The dog saw the big man.

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How many adverbs are there in the following sentence?

Really large objects move very slowly.

There are two adverbs in the sentence: "really" and "very."

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What is the tense and voice of the verb in the following sentence?

My parents were married in Rome.

The tense of the verb in the sentence is past tense, and the voice is active.