English grammar

ENGLISH GRAMMAR

JOSEPH P. SANOPAOENGL 501

STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH

“To know grammar”

“To know about grammar”

What is the difference between the two?

Where is you going?

If I was you, I will accept the offer.

“To know grammar”• Unconscious process

“To know about grammar”• Conscious reflective

process.

• The study of grammar goes back to the time of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Indians and from its earliest days has caught the interest of the learned and the wise.

GRAMMATICAL MYTHOLOGY

• The fundamental purpose of the language is to make sense- to communicate intelligibly.

TABLE• A piece of furniture

• An array of figures

• A group of people

• An occasion of eating

• A negotiating session

• The table has a broken leg.

• There are three columns in the table.

• We make up a bridge table each week.

• I’ll tell you all at the table

• They’ve come to the peace table.

• I see a table.

• The table is broken.

• The paint is on the table.

• I’m going to table the motion.

Prescriptivism- the view that one variety of a language has an inherently higher value than others and ought to be the norm for the whole of the speech community.

PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR

• Prescriptive Rules- state usages considered to be acceptable

• Proscriptive Rules-state usages to be avoided.

1. I should be used in between you and I. The pronoun should be me after a preposition, as in Give it to me.

COMPLAINTS

2. Split infinitives should not be used.

3. Only should be next to word to which it relates.People should not say I ONLY SAW JANE when they mean I SAW ONLY JANE.

4. None should never be followed by a plural verb. It should be None was left on the table, not None were left on the table

6. A sentence should not end with a preposition. We should say That was the clerk to whom I gave the money, and not That was the clerk I gave the money to.

7. People should say I shall/you will/he will when they are referring to future time, not I will/you will/he shall.

5. Different(ly) should be followed by from and not by to or than.

8. Hopefully should not be used at the beginning of a sentence as in Hopefully, Mary will win the race.

9. Whom should be used, not who, in such sentences as That is the man whom you saw. The pronoun is the object of the verb saw , and should be in the objective case.

10. Double negatives should be avoided, as in They haven’t done nothing.

Morphology- focuses on the structure of words, dealing with such matters and inflectional endings and the way words can be built up out of smaller units.

THE MAIN BRANCHES OF GRAMMAR

Syntax- focuses on the structure of sentences

• played an important role in traditional grammar teaching.

PARSING

• The procedure involved stating the part of speech to which a word belonged, and giving certain details about it.

I go would be parsed as follows.

EXAMPLE OF PARSING

I Personal pronoun, first person, singular, nominative case, subject of the verb go

go Verb, strong, intransitive, indicative mood, present tense, first person singular, agreeing with its subject I.

The comparison can be to do the same degree, to a higher degree, or to lower degree.

ADJECTIVES

The base form of the adjective is called absolute: big, happy

THE INFLECTIONS IDENTIFY TWO STEPS IN THE EXPRESSION OF A HIGHER DEGREE.

Adding –er produces the comparative form: bigger, happier.

Adding –est produces the superlative form: biggest, happiest.

Using as…..as (for the same degree: X is a big as Y

THERE ARE NO INFLECTIONAL WAYS OF EXPRESSING THE SAME OR

LOWER DEGREES IN ENGLISH

Less or least for lower degrees (X is less interested than Y, Z is the least interested of all.

There is also a syntactic (often called a periphrastic) way of expressing higher degree, through the use of more (for the comparative) and most (for the superlative): A is more beautiful than B and C is the most beautiful of all.

The availability of two ways of expressing higher degrees raises a usage question:

which form should be used with any particular? The answer is largely to do with

how long the adjective is.

Adjectives of one syllable usually take the inflectional form: big, thin, small, long, fat, red

There are exceptions: real, right, wrong and participles

That’s the most burnt piece of toast I’ve ever seen.(not * the burntest)

Adjectives of three syllables or more use only the periphrastic form: we do not say beautifuller or interestingest.

Exceptions: a three syllable adjectives which begin with un- do allow the inflection, as in the case of unhealthier and unhappiest.

The chief problem arises with two-syllable adjectives, many of which permit both forms of comparison:That’s a quieter/more quiet place

A few such as proper and eager, are straightforward: they do not allow the inflection at all.

Better and best are comparison forms of good; worse and worst are the comparison forms of bad.

IRREGULARS

Far has two forms: further/furthest and farther/farthest

Old has regular forms (older/oldest) and also an irregular use (elder/eldest) when talking about family members

Some adverbs also allow inflectional comparison e.g. soonest, but most adverbs are compared periphrastically: more frankly, most willingly.

VARIABLE-expressing a contrast between one and more than one.Most variable nouns change from singular to plural in a wholly predictable way, usually by adding –s.

NOUNS: NUMBERS

By contrast, there are only a few hundred nouns with an irregular form-though it is these which attract the interest of the grammarian, as they lead difficulty in language learning.

Ex. mouse, child, foot

The regular form: dogs, cats, snakes, eggs

If the noun ends in an /s/-like sound-it is followed by an extra syllable,/Iz/e.g. buses, phrases, dishes, beaches, sledges

ADDING AN -S

All other nouns ending in a voiced consonant or a vowel-add /z/ as in cubs, rods, bags, rings, pools, cars, players, bees, foes, zoos

All other nouns ending in a voiceless consonant add /s/, as in cups, pots, sacks, scruffs, growths.

VARIABLE-expressing a contrast between one and more than one.Most variable nouns change from singular to plural in a wholly predictable way, usually by adding –s.

NOUNS: NUMBERS

By contrast, there are only a few hundred nouns with an irregular form-though it is these which attract the interest of the grammarian, as they lead difficulty in language learning.

The regular form: dogs, cats, snakes, eggs

The change does not take place when there is a derived sense, as when you louse refers to a person (You louses) or mouse to a character (we’ved hired three Mickey Mouses this month).

EXCEPTIONAL PLURALS

man menfoot feetgoose geesewoman womentooth teethlouse lice

Seven nouns change their vowel (a process known as mutation).

Four nouns add sound as well –en, in two cases changing the vowel sound:

A few nouns change their final fricative consonant as well as adding /z/. Some change /f/ to /v/ as in wives, loaves, halves.

Ox-oxenChild-childrenBrother=brethren

In some cases, usage is uncertain: dwarf, hoof, scarf, and wharf will be found with both /-fs/ and /-vz/

NOUNS OF FOREIGN ORIGIN

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INVARIABLE NOUNS- do not have a number contrast.

Singular-only nouns

• Proper names ex. Francis• Names of subjects ex. Physics• Nouns in noncount use ex. music

• Names of two-part items ex. scissors• A few dozen noun ending in –s ex. congratulations• A few nouns which look singular but are always plural ex. people

Plural –only Nouns

Double Plural Nouns

• Several animal names have two plurals. There is the regular plural, adding an –es, and there is a zero plural form, with no ending at all.

Ex. I have two rabbits.They’ve been shooting rabbit.

• A few nouns have the same for both singular and plural, even though they are semantically variable, allowing a difference between one and more than one.

Ex. I like your sheep.

Words Without End

Controversial Nouns

• Words found to be plural but now used often as singular.

Ex. Much of this data needs to be questioned.Many of these data need to be questioned.

Two Cases

NOUNS: CASE

1. Common Case- noun has no ending at all.

2. Genitive Case- formed by adding an –s to the singular form of the nouns. In writing, this appears with a preceding apostrophe.The cat’s food.

The chief meaning of the Genitive Case is posession.

The notion of origin.The traveller’s story.

DescriptionA summer’s day.

PeriodThree month’s leave.

Doing or Receiving the actionThe hostage’s application.

There is a close similarity between a noun in the genitive case and the same noun preceded by of (of genitive)

the ship’s name=the name of the ship

THE ABERRANT APOSTROPHE

Apostrophes-are used to form possessive, contractions, and a few special plurals.

• it was introduced into English language from French in the 16th century and became widespread during the 17th;but there was uncertainty about its use, even until the middle of the 19th century .

• not only did it mark the omission of letters (as in can’t), it was often used before a plural ending, especially when the noun was a loan word ending in a vowel (as in the two comma’s)

FORMING POSSESSIVES

Add an apostrophe and an –s to show the possessive case of most singular nouns.

Ex. the woman’s walletthe dog’s collar

• Add an apostrophe to show the possessive case of plural nouns ending in –s or –es.

Ex. the dogs’ barkingthe leaves’ color

Add an apostrophe and an –s to show the possessive case of plural nouns that do not end in –s or –es.

Ex. the women’s booksthe oxen’s grazing lands

Add an apostrophe and an –s (or just an apostrophe if the word is a plural ending in –s) to the last word of a compound noun to form the possessive.

Name of businesses the Salvation Army’s headquartersand OrganizationsTitles of Rulers Catherine the Great’s victoriesand Leaders

Hyphenated Compound Nouns my sister-in-law’s carUsed to describe people

To form possessives involving time, amounts, or the word sake, use an apostrophe and an –s or just an apostrophe if the possessive is plural.

Ex. a month’s vacationone quarter’s worthfor goodness’ sake

To show joint ownership, make the final noun possessive. To show individual ownership, make each noun possessive.

Joint I always enjoyed Bob and Ray’s radio show.Ind. Liz’s and Meg’s coats are hanging here.

Use an apostrophe and an –s with indefinite pronouns to show possession.

Ex. one another’s friendseveryone’s time

Do not use an apostrophe with the possessive forms of personal pronouns.

Ex. Its tires his jazz recordsher blue sweater their party

Use an apostrophe in a contraction to indicate the position of the missing letter or letters.

Ex. can’t aren’t couldn’t won’t

Use an apostrophe and an –s to write the plurals of numbers, symbols, letters and words used to name themselves.

Ex. During the 1860’s m’s and n’sno if’s or maybe

PRONOUNS: CASE

=it’s the form of noun or pronoun that indicates the use in a sentence.

Personal pronouns have a genitive form, as have nouns, but they also have an objective form which nouns don’t have.

Ex. He gave it to me.

Pronouns used as subject and object.

I/me, we/us, he/him, she/her, they/them

Who/whom

VERBS

=it is a word or group of words that expresses time while showing an action, a condition, or the fact that something exists.

Regular lexical verb can be predicted by rules.

Irregular lexical verb is one where some of the forms are unpredictable.

Regular verbs appear in four forms.

• Base form- a form with no endings

Ex. go, see, remember, provide

• s- form- made by adding an –(es)

Ex. looks, chops, jumps, tries, goes, reminds

• The –ing form, or –ing participle- added to the base form of the verb

Ex. running, jumping, going

• The –ed form- made by adding –ed to the base-this ending is found in the past form and the –ed participle form.

Past form- to express the past tense

Ex. I kicked the ball.

• -ed participle has 4 uses

• Express past aspect

Ex. I’ve kicked the ball.

• Express passive voice

Ex. The ball was kicked.

• Used in certain types of subordinate clause and to begin a clause.

Ex. Kicked and battered, I hobbled off the field.

• Used as adjective

Ex. The cooked meal.

• Irregular Verbs- make their –s form and –ing form by adding an ending to the base

• Most irregular verbs change the vowel of the base to make their past –ed participle forms. The process is VOWEL GRADATION.

Ex. meet-met, take-took,

Classes of Irregular Verbs

Class 1-Only irregular feature is the ending used in for both their past and –ed participle forms.

Ex. have, had, send

Class 2-Past tense is regular, but whose –ed participle form has an-n ending, as well as variant form in –ed.

Ex. mow-mown or mowedswell-swollen-swelled

Class 3- The same ending for the past and –ed participle forms.

Ex. keep-kept, sleep-slept, sell-sold

Class 4-Have an –n ending for the –ed participle form, and an irregular past form, they change the vowel of the base form.

Ex. blow-blew-blown take-took-takensee- saw-seen

Class 5-Have the same form throughout

Ex. cut, let, shut,

Class 6-The same form for both past tense and –ed participle

Ex. spin-spun, sit-sat, stand-stood

Class 7- The past and –ed participle forms differ.

Ex. swim- swam-swum go-went-gone

Several verbs have alternative –ed forms, one regular (with –ed) the other irregular (with –t)

burned-burnt learned-learntsmelled-smelt spilled-spilt

-ed-duration of an action is being emphasized-t-something which has happened once, which has taken up little time.

The torturer slowly burned my armI burnt my arm against the stove.