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In English, word order matters greatly. For example, the phrase "the lucky boys" is correct, but rearranging the words, such as "boys the lucky" or "lucky boys the," makes the phrase incorrect. Understanding how sentences and phrases are structured helps define a language's grammar.

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Grammatical terms like "article," "adjective," and "noun" originate from the study of ancient languages like Latin and Greek. These languages provided a framework for understanding grammar in newer languages like English. In the phrase "a happy cat," "a" is an article, "happy" is an adjective, and "cat" is a noun, all terms from the Latin and Greek grammar model.

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(Introduction To English Grammar | Grammar | SpeakoClub, s. f.)

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The prescriptive approach to English grammar was adopted in the eighteenth century, suggesting that English should follow established rules like those of Latin.

One traditional rule under this approach is not to split an infinitive. An example of this rule is correcting "I want to quickly finish" to "I want to finish quickly." The idea is not to place an adverb, like 'quickly,' between 'to' and the verb.

Another rule is not to end a sentence with a preposition. Instead of saying, "What are you thinking about?" the 'proper' phrasing would be "About what are you thinking?".

The third rule is not to start a sentence with 'and.' This rule is based on the belief that 'and' should only be used to connect two related thoughts within a single sentence.

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In the late 1800s, linguists realized traditional grammar rules didn't always apply to Native North American languages. This led to a "descriptive approach," focusing on how people used language rather than strict rules. It deepened our understanding of languages and revealed unique patterns, showcasing linguistic diversity. For instance, a descriptive approach might note that many people say, "I don't feel good" instead of "I don't feel well."

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Structural analysis in linguistics uses a 'test frame' to understand sentence structure.

In the frame "The _______ makes a lot of noise," words like "car," "child," or "radio" fit, indicating they are "nouns."

Names like 'Cathy' or phrases like 'the dog' require a different frame, such as: "_______ makes a lot of noise." This suggests they are "noun phrases."

Observing that pronouns like "it" don't fit the first frame "The it makes a lot of noise" allows us to improve on the Latin-influenced analysis of English pronouns. Instead of describing pronouns as "words used in place of nouns," it's more accurate to say they replace noun phrases, not just nouns.

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According to Grammarly (2023), every word in English can be classified as one of eight parts of speech. The term "part of the speech" refers to a word's role in a sentence. And like in any workplace or on any TV show with an ensemble cast, these roles were designed to work together. Here is a distribution of the parts of the speech with its corresponding descriptions and examples.

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Grammar consists of several key categories: Number, Person, Tense, Voice, and Gender. These categories describe how language components interact.

Number: refers to whether a noun is singular or plural.

Person: concerns who is involved in the sentence: first person (the speaker), second person (the listener), or third person (others).

Tense: indicates time - past, present, or future.

Voice: describes whether the sentence's subject is doing the action (active Voice) or receiving the action (passive Voice).

Gender: indicates natural gender, mainly male or female.

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In English, "to" is often used with a verb, like "to go." Sometimes, an adverb comes between "to" and the verb, splitting them apart. This is called a split infinitive. An example is in Star Trek, when Captain Kirk says, "To boldly go." Some grammar rules suggest the adverb should come before or after the "to go," like "to go boldly" or "boldly to go." It's OK to use split infinitives in English, showing that English has unique ways of using words, which can differ from other languages.

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Grammatical gender, found in Spanish and German, categorizes nouns as masculine, feminine, or neuter. Unlike natural gender in English, which aligns with biological sex, grammatical gender is unrelated to sex. In Spanish, 'el sol' (the sun) is masculine, while 'la luna' (the moon) is feminine. In German, 'der Mond' (the moon) is masculine, 'die Sonne' (the sun) is feminine, and 'das Feuer' (the fire) is neuter. Grammatical gender affects language structures by assigning gender to nouns.

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Using specific analytical categories suitable for each language wasn't always a priority. Old grammar books used Latin grammar to analyze English verbs. Consider the Latin verb "amare" (to love).

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This table illustrates how each Latin verb form varies depending on the person and number, while in English, except for the third person singular, the verb form "love" remains the same.

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Constituent analysis breaks down sentences into smaller parts called constituents to understand how words form phrases.

In the sentence, "The old woman brought a large snake from Brazil," the words naturally group into phrases like:

"The old woman," "brought," "a large snake," and "from Brazil."

This makes more sense than breaking the sentence into parts like:

"The old," "woman brought," "brought a large," "snake from," and "Brazil."

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In a sentence, phrases are formed by combining smaller parts like nouns or pronouns. Noun phrases can be the subject (main focus) or object (what the action is done to). The subject usually comes before the verb, and the object comes after. An adjunct, another type of phrase, gives extra details about the action and often comes at the end of the sentence.

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There are several ways to differentiate noun phrases used as subjects versus objects:

1. Position - Subjects typically come before the verb, objects after.

2. Meaning - The subject is what the sentence is about and often the doer of the verb's action. The object represents who/what undergoes the action.

3. Subject-Verb Agreement - The subject noun phrase determines if the verb is singular or plural, but the object has no such effect.

4. Pronoun Forms - English has distinct pronoun forms for subjects (I, he) and objects (me, him).

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English sentence structure typically follows a Noun Phrase–verb–Noun Phrase format, known as Subject–verb–object (SVO). It's common but not unique. Japanese uses Subject–object–verb (SOV).

Some languages start with the verb. Scottish Gaelic uses Verb–Subject–Object (VSO), while Malagasy from Madagascar uses Verb–Object–Subject (VOS). In both Gaelic and Malagasy, adjectives come after nouns.

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Language typology finds common features in different languages and groups them. A part of this study examines word order, like 'Subject-Verb-Object' (SVO) or 'Verb-Object-Subject' (VOS), to categorize languages into types. The other two possible orders, 'Object-Subject-Verb' (OSV) and 'Object-Verb-Subject' (OVS), are rare and mainly found in a few South American languages.

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Grammarly. (2023, 28 march). The 8 Parts of Speech: Examples and Rules. The 8 Parts of Speech: Examples and Rules | Grammarly Blog. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/parts-of-speech/

The Study Of Language (Sixth Edition). (1985). GEORGE YULE.

Introduction to English Grammar | Grammar | SpeakoClub. (s. f.-b). https://www.speako.club/grammar/introduction-to-english-grammar

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1. 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.

ANSWER:

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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2. How many adverbs are there in the following sentence?

"Really large objects move very slowly."

ANSWER:

The sentence "Really large objects move very slowly." contains two adverbs: "Really" and "Very"

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3. What is the verb tense and voice in the following sentence? "My parents were married in Rome."

ANSWER:

The verb tense in the sentence: My parents were married in Rome is in the past tense.

The verb voice in the sentence: My parents were married in Rome is passive voice.

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4. What is the difference between grammatical gender and natural gender?

ANSWER:

Natural gender is based on biological sex—male, female, or neither—while grammatical gender is a language rule that classifies nouns as masculine, feminine, or neuter. The main difference is that natural gender is about actual sex, while grammatical gender might not align with natural gender.

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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"?

ANSWERS:

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

In English, you must not split an infinitive. (to fully explain → to explain fully). A better way to phrase it would be: "The old theory consistently failed to explain all the data fully."

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

This sentence ends with "to," which we usually try to avoid in formal English. A better way to write it would be: "I can't remember the name of the person to whom I gave the book." Here, "whom" refers to the person who received the book, and we're using it instead of ending the sentence with "to."

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6. 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.

ANSWER:

There are three noun phrases. The noun phrases are "Robert," "a small puppy," and "the party."

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8. What is the grammatical function of the proper noun in the following sentence? The professor and her students visited Berlin during the summer.

ANSWER:

The proper noun "Berlin" functions as the object of the verb "visited."

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9. Is Malagasy a VSO language or something else?

ANSWER:

Malagasy, the official language of Madagascar, follows the VSO (Verb-Subject-Object) order, with the verb typically leading the sentence, followed by the subject, and finally the object.

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

ANSWER:

Pronouns were described as “words used in place of nouns.” If this were correct, we could rewrite "a woman" as "her" and "a dog" as "it."

However, we usually say, "She (meaning 'the woman') walks it (meaning 'the dog')," suggesting that pronouns replace noun phrases, not just nouns.