A distinction depending on how the language is learned:

as a native language (or mother tongue) > acquired or

as a nonnative language > learnt/acquired.

as a second language > used principally for internal purposes, for speakers to
communicate with other speakers of the same country

as a foreign language > primarily learnt in the classroom.

*Syntax and inflections
‘Grammar’ > include both SYNTAX and MORPHOLOGY (INFLECTIONS (or
ACCIDENCE).

*Rules and the Native Speaker

> Not feel the rules, have been acquired unconsciously
>Codifications by grammarians

*Codification of Rules
>the lay sense
>according to Linguistic theory embraced by the authors

*Prescriptive Grammar Vs Descriptive Grammar

Prescriptive Grammar > Rules by grammarians
Descriptive Grammar > used by lay public
Types of Variation
*Region > Dialects > User
a. Classic basis: Germanic: Dutch, English,
German, Swedish, etc.,
b. Modern basis: Australian, British, New Zealand,
American, etc.
*social group > User
>Education
>Socioeconomic
>Ethnic group
>Age
>Sex
*National Standards of English:
 British English

 American English

 Other National Standards

 (Pronunciation and Standard English > “RP”)

*field of discourse > Use
Law
Cookery
Engineering
Footbal
Etc.
*medium > Use
Spoken
Written
*attitude > Stylistic > Use
Formal > stiff, cold, polite, impersonal
Informal > relaxed, warm, casual, friendly
“Neutral”
 Standard British English and American English
 Spoken and Written
 Formal and Informal
 Central and Marginal
 “Markedness”
 She is selling her car
 He sounded a bit doubtful
 You should always clean your teeth
 Subject
 That elderly man

 Predicate
 Went off without paying

 The Sentence:
 That elderly man went off without paying
 Who went off without paying?
 That elderly man
 What is she selling?
 Her car
 When should you always clean your teeth?
 After meals
Adverbial elements may be added irrespective of the verb type

My watch has disappeared from this desk (Adv.).

Someone must apparently (Adv.) have taken my watch from this

desk (Adv.).

By chance a policeman witnessed the accident.

He sounded a bit doubtful that night (Adv.)

To everyone’s delight one of my sisters has quite rapidly

become a computer expert
 Did you put the watch in the drawer?
 Subject
 Object
 Adverbial
 Complement
 Verb
 Transitive > There is an object
 Someone must have taken my watch

 Intransitive > There is no object

 My watch has disappeared
The most common copular ‘be’ connecting the subject with
the complement: (NP), (AP), and (Prep. P: time and place)

One of my sister has become a computer expert

He sounded a bit doubtful

They are from the market

 Active
 A policeman witnessed the accident

 Passive
 The accident was witnessed by a policeman
But with some verbs, adverbials are obligatory

Did you put the watch in this drawer?

My sister (S) is (V) normally (Adv.) a cheerful
person (C), but she (S) seemed (V) rather
unhappy (C) that day (Adv.)
 My sister (S) is (V) normally (Adv.) a cheerful
person (C), but she (S) seemed (V) rather
unhappy (C) that day (Adv.)
 She seemed rather unhappy that day.

 She seemed rather unhappy when I was with

her.
 As (S)
 Your failure is most regrettable
 That you failed the exam is most regrettable

 As (O)
 I suddenly remebered something.
 I suddenly remebered that I had an appointment.

 The police questioned every local resident.

 The police questioned every person who lived in
the neighbourhood.
 As (Adv.)

 She seemed rather unhappy when I was

with her.
Two broad categories: closed and open.

 Closed classes:
Pronoun, such as she, they, anybody
Determiner, such as the, a, that, some
Primary verb, such as be
Modal verb such as can, might
Preposition such as in, during, round
Conjunction, such as and, or, while, yet
 Open classes:
Noun, such as hospital, play, orchestra, Millicent
Adjective such as sufficient, happy, changeable,
round
Full verbs, such as grow, befriend, interrogate,
play
Adverb, such as sufficiently, really, afterwards, yet

*Some words may belong to either of the two

classes, e.g. round
 Numerals: five, seven, etc.
 Interjections: oh, aha.
 Marked
Unmarked
 The tiger lives in China, India, and Malaysia
>Stative: particular use of the determiner the
with a singular noun and Simple Present

These tigers are living in a very cramped cage

>Dynamic: Determiner these and present
progressive

A keeper is coming to feed the tiger

>Dynamic: Present progressive and determiner the
 Most verbs in most contexts relate to action,
activity and to temporary or changeable
conditions:

The car struck a lamppost as I was parking it.

 Mrs. Frost knew a great deal about economics
 Did you hear the thunder last night?
Stative:
Jack is an engineer
Bob is very tall

 But

My little boy seems to like being an nuisance

when we have friends to supper

Do you really like my poem or are you just

being kind?
Referring back to an expression without
repeating it >Pro-forms >Anaphora

Their beautiful new car was badly damaged

when it was struck by a falling tree.

Jack was born in a British industrial town and

Gillian grew up in an American one.

My parents live in the north of the country and

my husband’s people live there too.
I raised the proposal in the early months of 1988, but
no one was then particularly interested

She hoped they would play a Mozart quartet and

they will do so.
 Refering forward to what has not been stated > Cataphora
e.g. the wh-items:

What was badly damaged? (Their beautiful new car)

Where do your parents live? (In the north of the country)

What did she hope they would do? (Play a Mozart quartet)

When did you raise the proposal? (In the early months of
1988)

Which is their car? (That beautiful new one)

 My parents live in the north of the country and
my husband’s people too.
 Her daughter is studying physics and her son
history
You should telephone your mother and find
out if she has recovered from her cold

He is either cleaning the car or working in the

garden
 Do support is not always necessary. Just use
operator alone, with total ellipsis of the
predication.

She hoped they would play a Mozart quartet

and they will.
 Or
She hoped they would play a Mozart quartet
and they will not.
Operator: interrogative and negative

They should have bought a new house.

They should not have bought a new house.

Questions are formed by placing the subject of

the sentence after the operator:

They should have bought a new house.

Should they have bought a new house?
 Where the V element in a positive declarative
sentence has no operator, form of do is
introduced as an operator (do-support).
They bought a new house.
They didn’t buy a new house.
Did they buy a new house?

 Where the V element is realized by a form of be,

this functions as itself an operator:
The sea is very rough.
The sea is not very rough.
Is the sea very rough?
 We express the differences in sentences by
saying that the predication in positive statements
is ‘assertive territory’ and that the predication in
negative sentences and questions is ‘nonassertive
territory’.

 She has finished her thesis already.

 She hasn’t finished her thesis yet.
 The priest gave some money to some of the
beggars.
 Did the priest give any money to any of the
beggars?
I saw somebody [assertive pronoun]
I didn’t see anybody [nonassertive
pronoun]
I saw nobody [negative pronoun]
 Most verbs in most contexts relate to action,
activity and to temporary or changeable
conditions:
The car struck a lamppost as I was parking it.

 Verbs whose meaning denotes lack of motion can

be equally dynamic in their grammar:
I was quietly resting after a busy day

Simple present tense indicates the general of the

words whilst present progressive indicates the
specific one.
One fundamental feature of grammar is
providing the means of referring back to an
expression without repeating it. This is
achieved by means of pro-form or usually
called as pronouns.
 Their beautiful new car was badly damaged
when it was struck by a falling tree.
 My parents live in the north of the country
and my husband’s people live there too.
 She hoped they would play a Mozart quartet
and they will do so.
Ellipsis is the disposal of the pro-forms
because it has been understood.
 My parents live in the north of the country
and my husband’s people too.

Some pro-forms can refer forward to what

has not been stated as in the wh-items:
 What was badly damaged? (Their
beautiful new car)
 Where do your parents live? (In the north
of the country)
 What did she hope they would do? (Play a
Operator helps the form of interrogative sentence
and negation sentence.
 Negation is expressed by inserting not
(informally n’t) after the operator:
They should have bought a new house.
They should not have bought a new house.

 Questionsare formed by placing the subject of

the sentence after the operator:

They should have bought a new house.

Should they have bought a new house?
 Where the V element in a positive declarative
sentence has no operator, form of do is
introduced as an operator.
They bought a new house.
They didn’t buy a new house.
Did they buy a new house?

 Where the V element is realized by a form of be,

this functions as itself an operator:
The sea is very rough.
The sea is not very rough.
Is the sea very rough?
 The verb is (1) one of the element in clause
structure; (2) a member of a word class
 A verb phrase consists of one or more verbs:

 They linked hands.

 I can believe you.
 He is making a noise.
 She might be leaving soon.
 1. full verbs (or lexical verbs): believe, follow,
see, etc.

 2. Primary verbs: be, have, do

 3. Model auxiliary: can, may, shall, will, could,

might, etc.

 The main verb > (1) if only one in the verb

phrase; (2) the last one if more than one in the
verb phrase; (3) one or more coming before it are
auxiliaries

 She might be leaving soon

 Multi-word verbs:

 turn on
 look at
 put up with
 take place
 take advantage of
 etc
 V V-ed1 V-ed2
 All three forms alike cut cut cut
 V-ed1=V-ed2 meet met met
 V=V-ed1 beat beat beaten
 V=V-ed2 come came come
 All three forms different speak spoke spoken

 Note: V1 V2 V3
 V1 V2 V-en
 They are operators when:
 (1) First verb in the verb phrase:
 She has been working hard

 (2) the main verb Be:

 They are at home

 (3) the main verb Have (in British English)

 They have a lot of money

 (4) Do support (as operator)

 They eat crocodile
 They made the cake
 (1) negating
 She may do it > She may not do it

 (2) making an interrogative

 He will speak first > Will they speak first

 (3) carrying nuclear stress to mark a clause as

positive rather than negative
 Won’t you try again > Yes, I WILL try again
 You must speak to the teacher > I HAVE spoken to
him
 (4) being used in elliptical clauses
 Won’t you try again? > Yes, I will
 Full Verbs e.g. believe, follow, see, like, …

 Primary Verbs: be, have, do

 Modal Auxiliaries: can, may, shall, will, must,

could, might, should, would …
 (a) Used to occurs in the past only:
 I used to swim in the river
 He usedn’t (or used not) to smoke (BrE)
 He didn’t use(d) to smoke (BrE and informal
AmE)

 (b) Ought to normally has the to infinitive,

but the to is optional following ought in
ellipsis:
 You oughtn’t to smoke so much
 A:Ought I to stop smoking?
 B:Yes, I think you ought (to)
 Dare and need can be used as:

 a.Modal auxiliaries (with bare infinitive and

without the inflected forms)

 b. as main verb (with to-infinitive and with

inflected forms –s; -ing; and past forms)
 c. as modal, they are restricted to non-
assertive contexts, i.e. mainly negative and
interrogative sentences
 You need not spend a lot of money on
presents. or
 You needn’t spend a lot of money on
presents.
 I didn’t need to buy any books. (I didn’t have
to buy any books.)

 Need we write this down?

 d. as main verbs, they are always used, and
more common.
 We need a lot of books
 They need five cars
They do not dare ask for me
Do they dare ask for more?
 a.The Modal Idioms. They are a combination
of auxiliary and infinitive or adverb. The most
common are:
 had better, would rather, have got to, and be
to
 b. The semi-auxiliaries are a set of verb
idioms which are introduced by one of the
primary verbs Have and Be. The most
common ones are:
 be able to, be bound to, be going to, be
supposed to, be about to, be due to, be likely
to, have to
 Catenative verbs can be followed directly by
another verb — the second verb variously in
the to-infinitive, bare infinitive, or present
participle/gerund form. Commonly the
second verb (along with any clause it might
introduce) serves as the direct object of the
first verb.
 Followed by a to-infinitive

 afford
 At last I can afford to buy a new car.

 agree
 He agreed to work on Saturday.

 aim
 We aim to please all our clients.

 Etc.
 In the passive voice followed by a to-infinitive

 allow
 You are allowed to wear jeans here.

 ask
 You are asked to go home and change if you
wore jeans.

 call
 Those who are rescued are called to help rescue
others.

 Etc.
 Followed by a gerund

 admit
 He admitted taking the money.

 advise
 I advise leaving immediately.

 avoid
 Please avoid touching the goods on display.

 Etc.
 Finite verb phrases can be distinguished as
follow:
a.They can occur as the verb phrase of
independent clauses
b.They have tense contrast i.e the distinction
between present and past
He is a journalist now
He worked a travel agent last year
c.There is person and number concord. Concord
is particularly clear with the present tense of Be:
I am here
You are there
She is there
 With modal auxiliaries, there is no overt
concord:
 I/You/She/He/We/They can play the cello

 d. They have mood meaning factual,

nonfactual, or counterfactual status:
Indicative (unmarked)
Imperative (marked)
Subjunctive (marked)
 The non-finite verbs:
 a. The infinitive e.g. ((to) call)
 b. The ing-participle (calling)
 c. the –ed participle (called)

Finite Verb Phrases Nonfinite Verb Phrases

He smokes. To smoke like that
must be dangerous
John is having a smoke The cigars smoked
He must smoke 40 a day here tend to be
expensive
You have been smoking That was the last cigarette
All day to have been smoked by me
 Contrast in:
 a. Tense > Past vs. present
 b. Aspect > Non-perfect vs. perfect,
progressive vs. non-progressive
 c. Mood > Indicative, imperative, subjunctive
 d. Finiteness > Finite vs. non-finite
 e. Voice > Active vs. passive
 f. Questions > subject – operator inversion
 g. Negation > operators needed
 h. Emphasis > carried by the operators
 I insist that we reconsider the decisions >
Indicative and subjunctive

 I insist that she reconsider the decisions >

Subjunctive

 I insist that the decisions be reconsidered >

Subjunctive

I insist that she not reconsider the decisions

I insist that the decisions not be reconsidered

For Be > were for all subjects

 a. The mandative subjunctive > that-clause
 in notion such as demand, recommendation,
proposal, intention: insist, prefer, request,
recommend, demand, necessary, desirable,
imperative
 We demand that she have five children

b. Formulaic Expressions

God save the Queen
Long live the King
Come what may