Transcript A Linguistic Toolkit

A Linguistic Toolkit
Grammar
Chapter 7: What is grammar?
Chapter 8: Clause by Clause
Chapter 9: Verb phrases: what’s going on?
What is grammar?
Chapter 7
What is grammar?
Chapter 7
• ‘Lexis alone allows us to label people, things, and
actions but not to show how they relate to each other’
(p.45)
• We ‘internalize’ our grammar, and we use it
spontaneously when we are using vocabulary to label,
such as adding -s for plural, past tense forms,
derivational morphemes (as un-{happy}) or compound
words {wheelbarrow, suitcase} (p.46)
• The relationships we make in our communication , that
is relationships of word order and word formation are
grammatical relations of syntax & morphology.
•
See Chapter 7 for examples on inflections and variation between Old
English and Modern English + examples on word groupings. Check
Activities 7.1, 7.2 & 7.3
Examples on Morphology (1)
Chapter 7
How does Morphology change the meaning? How have inflections changed? What does that
mean to word order in Modern English?
(See Examples on pp.46-7 )–
•
•
•
•
When are you going to open your present?
When are you going to open your presents?
He works as a mechanic.
He worked as a mechanic.
Old English: Thou hierst You (singular) hear
Ye hiere You (plural) hear
Old English even changed the form of ‘the’
the angelse engel [subject]
of the angelthaes engeles / angel’s
the angelstha engelas [object]
the angelse engel [subject]
The possessive affix that still exists in Modern English has lost the vowel
(es/ ass)
Examples on Morphology (2)
Chapter 7
• Pronouns in Modern English have kept case
inflection.
See examples below from:Early Modern English (Milton & Shakespeare’s time)
o Him follow’d Rimmon. / Dragon followed Rimmon.
o him there they found. / Satan there the angels found.
o Men call’d him Mulciber. /Men called Satan Mulciber.
It is clear which is the subject (who did the action) and
which is the object (and to whom) when the
pronouns are used, but it gets confusing when nouns
replace them. The third sentence is clearer because
it follows Modern English word order.
Examples on Syntax(1)
Chapter 7
• Syntax is not only word order but how words are grouped
together.
• Turning the sentences into questions will be helpful in understanding
more about word groupings. (see pp.48-9)
o She can find a copy of the antique book.
o She has worked in this company for six years.
o Painkillers are helpful after an operation.
To form a question, you can replace the first word and move it after the second word.
But that doesn’t always work.
o The new director of the school will develop the teaching methods.
o Everyone we meet will teach us something new.
o At the end of the year, all students were excited about the holidays.
• She wondered how thin Mary was.
• The agent will book out tickets as soon as we decide on the dates we prefer.
‘Syntax is not only a matter of stringing words along like beads. It involves words
that gptogether in groups, and then groups that go together with other groups.’(49)
See Chapter 7 examples on word groupings pp. 49-51. Check Activities 7.1 , 7.2 & 7.3
Clause by Clause
Chapter 8
Clause by Clause
Chapter 8
• Students of English try to identify patterns of usage that they
had been ‘intuitively following . . . (and had) become
accustomed to over time.’
• Almost all sentences are ‘built from only five basic elements.’
(p.52)
• The chapter will introduce ‘basic technical terms that enable
you to talk about sentence structure’ – a meta-language.
• The first key term is the clause: It is the basic building block
of a sentence. The simplest sentence consists of just one
clause, but clauses can be combined in many different ways to
form more complex sentences.
A verb is the most important and “in fact the only compulsory
element in a clause.”
There are 4 other basic elements: subject --object(direct/
indirect ) – complement -- adverbial
Clause by Clause
Chapter 8 – Main Elements of a Clause
• Subject: Who or what is doing something
• Verb: provides information about ‘doing something’ SV
• Complement/ Predicative: (What? What like?) is an
element that doesn’t bring in a new participant but describes
an existing participant. SVC
• Object: Direct Object (Who(m)?What?) = the element which
is affected by the action SVO ; Indirect Object (Who to? Who
for?) =the element which receives benefits by the action.
SVOO
• Adverbial: provides information about when, where, how
and why. Adverbials can occur in any clause pattern (SV, SVC,
SVO,SVOO) and several can occur in one clause. They may also
appear in different positions in the clause.
(pp. 53-6)
See examples of all these sentence patterns in the following slides.
Subject Verb
(+Adverbial)
Subject Verb Object
(+Adverbial)
Subject Verb Complement
Subject Verb Object
(direct + indirect)
Passive – only possible if the original
sentence had an object
Subject = old
direct Object
Verb=
Adverbial
clause
verb to be +
past
participle
by +old subject
Clause by Clause
Chapter 8 – Joining Clauses
• Clauses can be simple, but can also be joined by
coordination – where both sentences are of
equal status, or subordination where one
clause is dependent on the other, that is
cannot stand on its own. (p.57).
• Clauses are joined together by conjunctions –
coordinators [and, but, so, yet] or subordinators
[if, when, even if, although, because, after,
before, so that. . . ]. A subordinator and its
dependent clause can usually occur before or
after the main clause (See pp.57-9 for examples).
Verb phrases: what’s going on
Chapter 9
Verb phrases: what’s going on
Chapter 9
Clause
Determiner
My
Adjective
Noun/
Prepositional
Verb
Phrase
Noun
Phrase
Verb
Noun
neighbors
live
Phrase
Noun
Phrase
Prep.
in
Det
Adj
Noun
Or
are living/ must be living/ can live
/ have been living
Chaos
Verb phrases: what’s going on
Chapter 9
• In English there are two tenses, past & present.
• Tense “is a system of modifying the form of a verb to show
distinctions of time (past and present). It helps to set an
action, event or situation in time” (pp.60,64-5).
• A verb that is marked for tense is called a finite verb, and a
verb that is not marked for tense is called a non-finite
verb(p.61)
because she left early/ he is walking down the road/{finite}
how to get to class/ waiting for the reservation to be confirmed {non
finite} See Activity 9.1 & 9.3 A on DVD.
When forming a clause, you have to have a verb (at least), such as in
commands –Wait!, but usually you also need other elements –
He is waiting. (Subject: He + Verb: is waiting)
She pulled the string in. (Subject: She + Verb: pulled in+ Object: the string).
Verb phrases: what’s going on
Chapter 9
When a verb takes an object it is called transitive
(bring, give, control, share, borrow, take,…)
. When a verb doesn’t take an object it is called
intransitive (wait, stand, fall, struggle…)
Another common clause pattern is when a verb is
followed not by an object but by a complement
which describes the subject.
You look kind of tired/The cake smelled delicious. /
The salesman is an electrical engineer.
Verbs that fit this pattern [such as be, look, keep,
seem…] are called copular.
Verb phrases: what’s going on
Chapter 9
A verb phrase is a group of one or more words which together function as
a verb . (p.63) –
In addition to the finite element and the lexical verb (lived), a verb phrase
may also include modal, perfect, progressive and passive elements must be
living / may have been broken. These elements are not compulsory but if they
occur they must be in this order. See Activity 9.2 on DVD.
While tense shows distinctions in time,
Aspect distinguishes between perfect and progressive… ‘it provides a
particular viewpoint, looking at an event from within (as it is in progress), or
retrospectively (occurring in a previous period of time)… Using perfect and
progressive aspect are choices that a speaker makes in order to present an
idea in a particular way… their use is (not) grammatically compulsory… (and
produces not an error but) a slight change in meaning.” (p.65)