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INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Grammar is an area of the language arts that teachers often find difficult to
teach and students likewise find difficult to learn. The Form-Function Method for
teaching grammar, however, simplifies the subject by breaking down grammar into
the two most basic linguistic elements: grammatical form and grammatical function.
The Form-Function Method allows for the study of the grammar of any language.
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CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
1. DEFINITION OF SYNTAX
Grammatical Form
After describing the theory behind the Form-Function Method for
teaching grammar, define and explain grammatical form. All languages
contain a finite number of language-specific grammatical forms. Grammatical
form can be described as “what a word, phrase, or clause looks like.”
Traditional grammars refer to grammatical forms as “parts of speech.” For
example, the grammatical form of the word dog is noun, of the word bite is
verb, and of the word tiny is adjective.
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PrepositionConjunction
Interjection
Each grammatical form can be the topic of an individual lesson. For
example, the form of the adjective in English includes taking comparative
(bigger and more beautiful) and superlative (biggest and most beautiful).
Grammatical Function
After studying grammatical form, define and explain the concept of
grammatical function. All languages contain a finite number of language-
specific grammatical functions. Traditional grammars do not have a term for
grammatical function, which can be described as “what a word, phrase, or
clause does.” For example, the noun phrase the kitten in the clause the kitten
is drinking the milk functions as the subject and the noun phrase the milk
functions as the direct object. Again take care not to discuss grammatical form
while introducing grammatical function. Maintain the separation between the
two linguistic concepts because grammatical form does not equal grammatical
function.
After introducing the concept of grammatical function, study the
grammatical functions specific to English. The English language contains
approximately thirty-two grammatical functions, with the caveat that one
count may differ from the count of other grammarians:
Predicate
Subject
Subject Complement
Direct Object
Object Complement
Indirect Object
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Form and function are two extremely important concepts that you need to
know about to fully understand how grammar works. Suprisingly, there is no
overt reference to these terms in the UK National Curriculum.
Form refers to the category labels we use for the buildin blocks of grammar,
i.e. word classes, phrases, and clauses.
Scanning this sentence from left to the right we cam label each individual words
as follows:
My: determiner
Daughter: noun
Bought: verb
A: determiner
Completely: adverb
New: adjective
Smartphone: noun
Over: preposition
The : determiner
Summer: noun
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Understanding the way that form and functionrelate to one another has
important implications for text productionand comphrehension, and enables
students to more accurately discuss how grammatical structure relates to
meaning.
In 1st sentence, the boy is doing the touching, meaning it is the subject; where as
in 2nd sentence the boy being touched, meaning it is the object.
In summary, the function labels of subject, object and adverbial can be ‘filled by
various different forms, as indicates in the example:
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CHAPTER III
CLOSING
CONCLUSION
The terms of Forms, a sentence consist of a noun phrase and a verb phrase.
The terms of Functions, a sentence consist a subject and a predicate. A subject must
contain a predicator which is a verb.