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 Check Activities 7.1, 7.2 & 7.3 on DVD.

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 c laus e Subject = old direct Object Verb= verb to be + past participle by +old subject / optional Adverbial

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 Noun Phrase Determiner MyAdjectiveNoun neighbors Verb Phrase Verb live Or are living/ must be living/ can live / have been living Noun/ Prepositional Phrase Prep. in Noun Phrase DetAdjNounChaos

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 eleme nts – 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)