Meandmyfamilywillbemovingtothistown.

Grammar

Grammarcanbedefinedastheprocessofdescribingthestructureofphrasesand
sentencesinsuchawaythatweaccountforallthegrammaticalsequencesina
languageandruleoutalltheungrammaticalsequences.
ExamplethephrasetheluckyboysisawellformedphraseinEnglish,butthatthe
followingtwophrasesarenotatallwellformed.

boystheluckyluckyboysthe

Fromtheseexamples,wecanseethatEnglishhasstrictrulesforcombiningwords
intophrases.Thearticle(the)mustgobeforetheadjective(lucky),whichmustgo
beforethenoun(boys).So,inordertobegrammatical,thistypeofphrasemust
havethesequencearticle+adjective+noun(andnotnoun+article+adjective,
forexample).

Traditionalgrammar

Thetermsarticle,adjectiveandnounusedtolabelthegrammatical
categoriesofthewordsinthephrasetheluckyboyscomefromtraditional
grammar,whichhasitsoriginsinthedescriptionoflanguagessuchasLatin
andGreek,thelanguagesofscholarship,religion,philosophyand
knowledge
Sothegrammaroftheselanguageswastakentobethemodelforother
grammars.Thebestknowntermsfromthattraditionarethoseusedin
describingthepartsofspeech.

Thepartsofspeech
Thetechnicaltermsusedtodescribeeachpartofspeechareillustratedinthe
followingsentenceandsimpledefinitionsofeachtermarelistedbelow.

The

lucky

boys saw

Article Adjective noun

the

clowns

at

article

nouns

preposition article noun

verb

and

they

cheered

loudly

conjunction

pronoun

verb

adverb

the

circus

Nouns:wordsusedtorefertopeople(boy),objects(backpack),creatures
(dog),places(school),qualities(roughness),phenomena(earthquake)and
abstractideas(love)asiftheywereallthings.
Articles:words(a,an,the)usedwithnounstoformnounphrases
classifyingthosethings(Youcanhaveabananaoranapple)or
identifyingthemasalreadyknown(Illtaketheapple).
Adjectives:wordsused,typicallywithnouns,toprovidemoreinformation
aboutthethingsreferredto(happypeople,largeobjects,astrange
experience).
Verbs:wordsusedtorefertovariouskindsofactions(go,talk)andstates
(be,have)involvingpeopleandthingsinevents(Jessicaisillandhasa
sorethroatsoshecanttalkorgoanywhere).
Adverbs:wordsused,typicallywithverbs,toprovidemoreinformation
aboutactions,statesandevents(slowly,yesterday).
Someadverbs(really,very)arealsousedwithadjectivestomodify
informationaboutthings(Reallylargeobjectsmoveslowly.Ihadavery
strangeexperienceyesterday).
Prepositions:words(at,in,on,near,with,without)usedwithnounsin
phrasesprovidinginformationabouttime(atfiveoclock,inthemorning),
place(onthetable,nearthewindow)andotherconnections(withaknife,
withoutathought)involvingactionsandthings.
Pronouns:words(she,herself,they,it,you)usedinplaceofnounphrases,
typicallyreferringtopeopleandthingsalreadyknown(Shetalksto
herself.Theysaiditbelongedtoyou).
Conjunctions:words(and,but,because,when)usedtomakeconnections
andindicaterelationshipsbetweenevents(Chantelshusbandwassosweet

andhehelpedheralotbecauseshecouldntdomuchwhenshewas
pregnant).

OtherCategories

number:singularorplural,
person:firstperson(I/we),secondperson(you),thirdperson
(he/she/they)
tense:present,past,future
voice:activeandpassiveHebrokethewindow;thewindowwasbroken
byhim
gender:masculine(he,him,his),feminine(she,her),andneutral(it,its).
Thesecategoriesshouldbeconsideredweconsideredintermsof
agreement.
ExampleKhaledloveshisdog.BothKhaledandSaralovetheirdog.
Thisagreementisbasedonthecategoryofnumber,person,tenseand
gender.

Theprescriptiveapproach

ThereisclaimthatthestructureofEnglishsentencesshouldbelikethe
structureofsentencesinLatin.
Thatwasanapproachtakenbyanumberofinfluentialgrammarians,
mainlyineighteenthcenturyEngland,whosetoutrulesfortheproper
useofEnglish.
Thisviewofgrammarasasetofrulesfortheproperuseofalanguageis
stilltobefoundtodayandmaybebestcharacterizedastheprescriptive
approach.
SomefamiliarexamplesofprescriptiverulesforEnglishsentencesare:
Youmustnotsplitaninfinitive.Youmustnotendasentencewitha
preposition.
Followingthesetypesofrules,sentenceslikeWhodidyougowith?
shouldbecorrectedtoWithwhomdidyougo?(makingsurethatthe
prepositionwithwasnotattheendofthesentence).
InproperEnglishwriting,oneshouldneverbeginasentencewithand!

Itmaybeavaluablepartofoneseducationtobemadeawareofthis
linguisticetiquettefortheproperuseofthelanguage.
Ifitissociallyexpectedthatsomeonewhowriteswellshouldobeythese
prescriptiverules,thensocialjudgmentssuchaspoorlyeducatedmaybe
madeaboutsomeonewhodoesnotfollowtheserules.
Theoriginsofsomeoftheserulesandaskingwhethertheyare
appropriatelyappliedtotheEnglishlanguagecomefromLatin.One
example:Youmustnotsplitaninfinitive.

Thedescriptiveapproach
ThecategoriesandrulesthatwereappropriateforLatingrammarjustdid
notseemtowork.
Asaconsequence,formostofthetwentiethcentury,adifferentapproach
wasadopted.
Analystscollectedsamplesofthelanguagetheywereinterested inand
attemptedtodescribetheregularstructuresofthelanguageasitwasused,
notaccordingtosomeviewofhowitshouldbeused.
Thisiscalledthedescriptiveapproach.

1Structuralanalysis

Onetypeofdescriptiveapproachiscalledstructuralanalysisanditsmain
concernistoinvestigatethedistributionofformsinalanguage.
Themethodinvolvestheuseoftestframesthatcanbesentenceswith
emptyslotsinthem.Forexample:
The________makesalotofnoise.Ihearda_________yesterday.
Therearealotofformsthatcanfitintotheseslotstoproducegood
grammaticalsentencesofEnglish(e.g.car,child,donkey,dog,radio).
Asaresult,wecanproposethatbecausealltheseformsfitinthesametest
frame,theyarelikelytobeexamplesofthesamegrammaticalcategory.
Thelabelwegivetothisgrammaticalcategoryis,ofcourse,noun.
However,therearemanyformsthatdonotfitthosetestframes.
ExampleswouldbeCathy,someone,thedog,acar,andmanyothers.(That
is,wewouldntsayTheCathy.)
Fortheseforms,werequiredifferenttestframes,whichcouldlooklike
this:______makesalotofnoise.Iheard
yesterday.

Amongtheotherformsthatcomfortablyfitthesetestframesareit,thebigdog,
anoldcar,AniDifranco,theprofessorwiththeScottishaccent,andmanymore.

Onceagain,wecansuggestthattheseformsarelikelytobeexamplesofthesame
grammaticalcategory.Thecommonlabelforthiscategoryisnounphrase.

Immediateconstituentanalysis

Anapproachwiththesamedescriptiveaimsiscalledimmediate
constituentanalysis.
Thetechniqueemployedinthisapproachisdesignedtoshowhowsmall
constituents(orcomponents)insentencesgotogethertoformlarger
constituents.
Onebasicstepisdetermininghowwordsgotogethertoformphrases.
Inthefollowingsentence,wecanidentifyeightconstituentsattheword
level:Herfatherbroughtashotguntothewedding.
Howdothoseeightconstituentsgotogethertoformconstituentsatthe
phraselevel?Doesitseemappropriatetoputthewordstogetheras
follows?
broughtafatherbroughtshotguntotothe
WedontnormallythinkofthesecombinationsasphrasesinEnglish.
Wearemorelikelytosaythatthephraselikeconstituentshereare
combinationsofthefollowingtypes:
Herfather,ashotgun,thewedding:nounphrases;tothewedding:a
prepositionalphrase;andbroughtashotgun:averbphrase.
Thisanalysisoftheconstituentstructureofthesentencecanberepresented
indifferenttypesofdiagrams.
Onetypeofdiagramsimplyshowsthedistributionoftheconstituentsat
differentlevels.

Asshownbelow,thiskindofdiagramcanbeusedtoshowthetypesofformsthat
canbesubstitutedforeachotheratdifferentlevelsofconstituentstructure.One

advantageofthistypeofanalysisisthatitshowsratherclearlythatpropernouns
(ornames)suchasJohnnyandpronounssuchasit,thoughsinglewords,canboth
beusedasnounphrases.

Labeledandbracketedsentences

Thefollowingdiagramisdesignedtoshowhowtheconstituentsin
sentencestructurecanbemarkedoffbyusinglabeledbrackets.
Thefirststepistoputbrackets(oneoneachside)roundeachconstituent,
andthenmorebracketsroundeachcombinationofconstituents.For
example:

Withthisprocedure,thedifferentconstituentsofthesentenceareshownat
thewordlevel[the]or[dog],atthephraselevel[thedog],or[lovedthe
girl],andatthesentencelevel[Thedoglovedthegirl].
Wecanthenlabeleachconstituentusingabbreviatedgrammaticalterms:
Art(=article),N(=noun),NP(=nounphrase),V(=verb),VP(=
verbphrase)andS(=sentence).
Inthefollowingdiagram,theselabelsareplacedbesideeachbracketthat
marksthebeginningofaconstituent.Theresultisalabeledandbracketed
analysisoftheconstituentstructureofthesentence.
Inperformingthistypeofanalysis,wehavenotonlylabeledallthe
constituents,wehaverevealedthehierarchicalorganizationofthose
constituents.
Inthishierarchy,thesentence(S)ishigherthanandcontainsthenoun
phrase(NP).Thenounphrase(NP)ishigherthanandcontainsthenoun
(N).Wecanalsoseethatthesentence(S)containsaverbphrase(VP)
whichcontainsaverb(V)andanothernounphrase(NP).
Wewillreturntotheimportantconceptofhierarchicalorganizationin
grammaticalstructure.

6Createalabeledandbracketedanalysisofthissentence:Thethiefstoleawallet.