Unit 7: Grammar by Tania Yamileth García Lazo

English Grammar

gl17025 — 2024-05-11 21:15:04 UTC

Grammar is the process of describing the structure of phrases or sentences in order to understand and identify the correct way to structure words so that they make logical sense.

We can identify a voiced fricative /ð/, a voiceless stop /k/ and a diphthong /ɔɪ/ as segments in the transcription of a phrase such as /ðəlʌkibɔɪz/.

Traditional Grammar

gl17025 — 2024-05-11 21:33:59 UTC

The terms “article,” “adjective” and “noun” that we use in the grammatical categories of words that are used in sentences come from traditional grammar.

Traditional grammar has its origin in the description of languages such as Latin. Within traditional grammar we can find the parts of speech and how they are connected to each other.

gl17025 — 2024-05-11 22:13:14 UTC

The parts of speech

Agreement

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 02:53:20 UTC

In addition to the terms that have been mentioned in the parts of speech, in the concordance we find the following: “number,” “person,” “tense,” “voice” and “gender.” which are important to take into account for proper grammar usage.

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 03:09:12 UTC

The category of number refers to the noun, whether it is plural or singular. The category of number consists of identifying whether it is spoken in the first, second or third person. There is also the tense category which refers to the tense in which the verb is used, whether it is present or past tense. There is also the category of voice in which the sentence can be in active or passive voice. Finally there is the gender category which helps to identify in terms of natural gender derived from the distinction between masculine and feminine in a sentence, but in many occasions or depending on the language there are specific terms to refer to something without identifying it as feminine or masculine and leaving it in a neutral term.

Traditional Analysis

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 03:32:46 UTC

Each Latin verb form is different, based on the categories of person and number, yet the English verbs are (with one exception) mostly the same. In English, the categories actually describe different forms of pronouns.

The Prescriptive Approach

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 03:47:48 UTC

This approach focuses on the proper use of language, enforcing guidelines for things like sentence structure, punctuation, and word choice. Some old-style prescriptive rules for English are:

You must not split an infinitive
You must not end a sentence with a preposition

In education it is important to take into account the different ''linguistic labels'' to use the appropriate language depending on the context, but it is also important to value the existence of some rules.

The Descriptive Approach

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 19:38:45 UTC

This descriptive approach refers to the fact that language is a phenomenon that can be studied scientifically, taking into account aspects of language use, but tries to focus on particular varieties of a language.

Structural Analysis

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 19:46:54 UTC

Within this approach we can find structural analysis which consists of investigating the distribution of forms in a language, the parts of words provide the essential meanings.

Constituent Analysis

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 20:03:34 UTC

It consists of using techniques to analyze the structure of sentences and phrases, dividing sentences into constituent parts, the purpose of this approach is to understand how the different parts of a sentence relate to each other syntactically.

Example

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 20:06:54 UTC

Subjects and Objects

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 20:24:47 UTC

We use the terms subject and object to describe the different functions of the nominal syntagms in a sentence, in English we can identify the subject as the first nominal syntagm before the verb and the object as the nominal syntagm after the verb and the phrase after the object is called complement, there are many ways to identify the syntagms called object and subject, but regardless of the different positions, the subject is the person or thing that is the subject of the sentence, while the object is the action performed by the person or thing.

Differences between subjects and objects

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 20:34:57 UTC

Example

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 20:36:37 UTC

Word Order

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 20:59:21 UTC

This refers to the sequence of words and how they are organized in a sentence or phrase. It is important to keep in mind that not all languages are the same and that the rules that apply will depend on the language, in English the most common word order is subject-verb-object (SVO).

Example:

Subject (S): The cat

Verb (V): chased

Object (O): the mouse

"The cat chased the mouse."(SVO)

Example

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 21:00:14 UTC

Language Typology

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 21:07:08 UTC

Language typology is the study of the similarities in the grammatical structures of languages that allow them to be classified as members of the same type or group as evidenced by the order of words such as SVO or VOS.

4 main types of languages

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 21:08:46 UTC

Additional Information

gl17025 — 2024-05-12 21:13:30 UTC

It is important to study and know grammar since this allows to have a clearer idea of the different ways to structure a sentence or phrase that is coherent and has logical meaning, knowing the different forms of grammatical structures facilitates the process of acquiring a new language.

Study question

gl17025 — 2024-05-13 00:40:32 UTC

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

How many adverbs are there in the following sentence?

Really large objects move very slowly.

There are 2 adverbs:

Really
Very

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

My parents were married in Rome.

Tense: past tense ‘‘were’’

Voice: passive voice ‘‘My parents’’

gl17025 — 2024-05-13 00:43:58 UTC

What is the difference between grammatical gender and natural gender?

Natural gender is the biologically determined gender of a person, animal or person that is feminine and masculine, while grammatical gender is the classification of nouns and other language elements such as articles, adjectives, and pronouns, which help determine the gender of a thing, person or animal and this does not have to coincide precisely with the biological gender.

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.

The problem in this sentence is the use of the split infinitive ''to fully explain'', since the grammatical rule proposes not to split infinitives.

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

The problem in this sentence is the use of the preposition ''to'' at the end of the sentence, since the prescriptive grammar rules mention that it is not advisable for a sentence to end with a preposition.

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 3 noun phrases

gl17025 — 2024-05-13 00:48:19 UTC

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

The old Latin-influence mentioned pronouns as words used in place of nouns but now pronouns are used in place of noun phrases, not just nouns. The old Latin-influenced definition of pronouns in English attempted to force the grammar into a framework that did not fully correspond to the structure and usage of English.

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'' is as the object of the verb ''visited''.

Is Malagasy a VSO language or something else?

Malagasy has a VOS order but often, depending on the context, VSO can also be used.

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

The small boy hit the black dog.

(b) Chunnaic an cu an duine mor

The dog saw the big man.