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English Language is an International Language. So, I will write some of its features, mainly grammar. Grammar is formulated by having rules for syntax and morphology. There are two kinds of grammar, descriptive grammar and prescriptive (or normative) grammar. The book that I made this summary from is on descriptive grammar and follows the modern grammar (uses word-classes) instead of traditional grammar (uses parts of speech). Before I go into the grammar, I would like to give the meaning of some important words.
Descriptive grammar* tries to give the grammar that underlies actual usage of the language speakers.
Prescriptive grammar gives the grammatical rules that should be followed.
Syntax is combinations of words to form a sentence and therefore has two most important units. They are:
1) Word can be in different forms. For example : foot and feet. They are different words because they are spelt differently, have different meaning, pronounced differently and cannot be replaced directly. However, they are of different form of the same word, foot. To differentiate these words, words are used for less abstract meaning and lexeme for the more abstract ones. Here, foot and feet are different words but forms of the same lexeme foot. feet is the inflectional form of the lexeme foot.
Word is the lowest unit and therefore usually cannot contain any smaller words inside it. If a word has some other words inside it like 'blueberry', then it was formed through a morphological process. In this case, 'blueberry' is formed from (or can be analysed into) the words 'blue' and 'berry'. 'blue' and 'berry' are called simple stems as they cannot be analysed into smaller morphological units. 2) Sentence is the highest syntactic construction and therefore cannot occur inside another sentence. Apart from words, constituents are used in describing the structure of a sentence. It is not a constituent because it is a maximal unit in syntac. It is a construction where it can be analysed into or constructed from one or more lower heirarchy elements. There are three types of sentences. They are :
Syntax gives rules on how / when a lexeme may / must use a given inflectional property. So, it is a fact of syntax that fingers must enter construction with these or those so that both are plural inflection and finger must enter construction with this or that so that both are singular inflection.
i) Simple sentence - ii) Compound sentence - has two or more main clauses iii) Complex sentence - has 2 or more clauses, at least one is subordinate Form as mentioned above, is to differentiate different words that have the same lexeme. Below are some examples.
i) Tool and tools are different words but forms of the same lexeme tool. Thus, tool is the singular form of lexeme tool and tools is the plural form of lexeme tool. ii) This and these are different words but forms of the same lexeme this. Thus, this is the singular form of lexeme this and these is the plural form of lexeme this. iii) Go, goes, going, went and gone are different words but forms of the same lexeme go. Thus, went is the past tense form of lexeme go and gone is the past participle form of lexeme go. There are two distinct types of linguistic relations between forms. They are :
1) syntagmatic relations where syntactic functions such as subject, predicator and object are used. For example, 'I ate laksa' where 'I', 'ate' and 'laksa' occur together in the larger structure. 2) paradigmatic relations where one of the words in a set of forms (ate, eat, had eaten, did not eat) is substitutable for the other. For example, 'I did not eat laksa.' and 'Did you eat laksa?'. The difference between the forms are : i) ate is in past tense form and eat is in present tense ii) ate is in non-perfect form but had eaten is in perfect form iii) ate is in positive form but did not eat is in negative form The differences between the forms give rise to grammatical systems, with the values being mutually exclusive terms or grammatical classes in each system. For example above :
i) past and present forms are terms in one system (system of tense) ii) non-perfect and perfect forms are terms in another system (system of aspect) iii) positive and negative forms are terms in other system Constituent structure is used to analyse the syntax of a sentence. It identifies the forms and hierarchy of a sentence. A constituent of a sentence is made of at least one word in a sentence. Here, we look upwards by saying that 'chef' is a part of some elements higher ('the chef') in the constituent struture. For example, 'The chef must have hired an assistant.' has 11 constituents. The constituents are 'the', 'chef', 'must', 'have', 'hired', 'an', 'assistant', 'the chef', 'must have hired', 'an assistant' and 'must have hired an assistant' where the last four constituents are intermediate units.
Constituent structure can be describe in two important forms. 1) Syntactic Classes / Subclasses
From constituent structure, we can assign forms into syntactic classes based on types of properties like nouns, verbs, adjective, articles, auxiliary, etc. or subclasses like proper noun, common noun, transitive verbs, etc. For example : The chef must have hired an assistant. Here, 'The chef' and 'an assistant' are noun phrases where 'the' and 'an' are articles and 'chef' and 'assistant' are nouns. 'must have hired' is a verb phrase where 'must' and 'have' are auxiliaries of the verb phrase and 'hired' is the main verb. See constituent structure. Forms share some properties. The properties are : i) Internal structure of the forms ... ii) Functional potential ... 2) Syntactic Functions
Here, we can assign forms into functions like subject, object, predicate, determiner, head, modifier, etc. For example : The chef must have hired an assistant. Here, 'The chef' is the subject where its 'the' is the determiner and 'chef' is the head. 'an assistant' is the object where 'an' is the determiner and 'assistant' is the head. 'must have hired' is the predicator where 'must' and 'have' is the modifier and 'hired' is the head. In short, 'The' is the subject's determiner, 'chef' is the subject's head, 'an' is the object's determiner, 'assistant' is the object's head, 'must' and 'have' is the predicator's modifier and 'hired' is the predicator's head. Syntactic Functions are inherently relational. This means that ... They are established to handle syntagmatic relations Construction a clause or sentence that can be analysed into one or more elements lower in heirarchy.
Lexical Morphology a process whereby non-simple lexical stems are formed. Example : prefixation of un- to wind to form unwind
Inflectional Morphology is a process whereby the forms of a lexeme are derived from lexical stem. Example : suffixation of -s to unwind to give unwinds
Therefore, unwind and unwinds are forms of the same lexeme but wind and unwind are not. Inflectional Properties and forms are important in syntactic and morphological components of grammar.
Morphology gives rules for getting the various inflectional forms of a lexeme. So, it is a fact of morphology that feet is the plural of foot, those is the plural of that, ate is the past tense of eat, eaten is the past participle of eat, etc.
Morphological Process is a process whereby a word is formed from more than one word. There are three morphological processes :
1a) Compounding where two simple stems are joined together. For example : blueberry consist of simple stems 'blue' and 'berry'
1b) Affixation where an affix is added to a simple stem to get a complex stem. This can be divided into two types.
i) Prefixes like dis-, un-, pre-, sub-, etc. For example : disagree ii) Suffixes like -ing, -ed, -able, etc. For example : studying 1c) Conversion
Terms are the small possible mutually exclusive values that a variable/dimension has in a grammatical system. Some examples of multidimensionality of paradigmatic relations among clause are :
i) Had Tan-tan eaten the small fish? ... interrogative ii) Tan-tan had not eaten the small fish. ... negative iii) The small fish had been eaten by Tan-tan ... passive iv) It was Tan-tan that had eaten the small fish. ... 'it'-cleft Unmarked term is a syntactically more basic term. Marked terms are described by the way they differ from their unmarked term. There are more explanations on how / why we differentiate them but they will not be mentioned here (I would not want to write the whole book!). From the 'terms' example above, Tan-tan had eaten the small fish is unmarked because it is much basic and simplier the others. It is :
i) declarative contrast with the above interrogative ii) positive contrast with the above negative iii) active contrast with the above passive iv) simpler contrast with the above 'it'-cleft There are a few syntactic process to change unmarked item to marked item. They are : 1a) Addition
1b) Omission
1c) Rearrangement
1d) Selection
Process a) to c) are transformation
Clause type
Below is the tree for clause. clause - Imperative i) ii) iii) Kernel form is a form which does not belong to a marked term in any system. All kernel clause are declarative. As forms are usually connected to clauses, I will give examples in kernel clauses :
i) You look happy ii) I ate laksa iii) Tan-tan had eaten the small fish Kernel clause has all these properties.
1) It forms a sentence on its own and not part of larger constituent. It is not subordinate to nor coordinate with other clause.
2) It is structurally complete. One simple example :
i) [qeustion] What have you done? ... non-kernel clause (interrogative) ii) [answer] I have designed a website. ... kernel clause (forms a sentence, structurally complete, declarative, positive and unmarked) iii) [answer] Designed a website. ... non-kernel clause (not structural complete) 3) Its clause type is declarative and not imperative, interrogative nor exclamative
4) Its polarity is positive
5) It is unmarked with respect to all thermatic systems of the clause.
Propositional meaning
Thermatic system is one where corresponding members of contrasting terms normally have the same propositional meaning and same illocutionary potential such as active-passive pair. Example : Jackie bought the fish. The fish was bought by Jackie.
1) Indirect Object transformation
) Extra position
) Thematic reordering
) Subject complement switch
) There construction
Linguistic Analysis is the approach taken to analyse the grammar of a language. There are a few ways :
1) Determined by syntagmatic relations and paradigmatic relations from within the sentence.
2) Determined by syntactic relations between and within sentences from the constituent structure that can be drawn.
There are four components of linguistic description
1) Phonology deals with sound pattern of a language.
2) Graphology deals with the writing system of a language
3) Orthography deals with the way words are spelt
4) Lexicon / dictionary deals with lexical items of the language to make up vocabulary
Syntactic clause has four major categories :
1) Declarative clause used to make a statement : I designed a simple website. It is like a statement. 2) Interrogative clause used to ask a question : Did I design a simple website? It is like a question. 3) Exclamative clause used to make an exclamation : What a simple website I designed! It is like a exclamation. 4) Imperative clause used to issue a directive : Design a simple website. It is like a directive. However, the syntactic clause categories above are different from statement, question, exclamation and directive. This is because statement, question, exclamation and directive are semantic categories. Lexical Semantics are handled in the lexicon. Its importance is description of what lexical items mean
Grammatical Semantics are handled in the grammar. This include information about the meaning of inflections, grammartical stems, construction, etc.
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The eight classes below are called parts of speech in traditional grammars. The explanation or definition beside the classes below are taken from the traditional grammars. There are many syntactic classes in English and are normally taken from the parts of speech. The classes are :
1) Noun and noun phrase - is a word used for thing, animal, name of thing, name of person and name of places. Example : 2) Pronoun - is a word used instead of a noun. Example : 3) Adjective Phrase - is a word that describe the noun or pronoun. Example : 4) Verb Phrase - is an action word that expresses a command and assist in expressing a question. Example : 5) Adverb - word that describe an action. Example : 6) Preposition - shows the relation between moun and pronoun. Example : for, of, from, to, with, by, in, on which are called 'grammatical' use of preposition and before, below, underneath, opposite, beyond, throughout, despite, among, at which are called 'lexical' use of preposition 7) Conjuction - a word that joins together a sentence or part of a sentence. Example : and, or, because, while, although, but 8) Interjection - is word that expresses emotions of people. Example : Oh! Aiya! Eh! The parts of speech in the traditional grammar has many setbacks.
The open word-class nouns have three properties. They are :
1) Their main function is as head in the noun phrase structure 2) They take a dependent like determiners or modifiers in front of them 3) They have singular and plural or inflection of number
It has three subclasses in modern grammar but only the first two in traditional grammar. They are :
1) Common nouns are the unmarked nouns like toy, girl, lion 2) Proper nouns function as head of a noun phrase like Tan-tan, Ali, Simon 3) Pronouns like I, who, nobody Pronoun is a word used to replace a noun. It is a primary class on its own in traditional grammar but a subclass of noun in modern grammar. It has many subclasses like :
1) Personal pronoun. Example : I, me; he, him; it; you; we, us; they, them; 2) Reflexive pronoun. Example : myself, himself, itself, yourself, yourselves, ourselves, themselves 3) Possessive pronoun. Example : my, mine; his; her, hers; its; your, yours; our, ours; their, theirs; 4) Demonstrative pronoun. Example : this, these; that, those; 5) Interrogative and relative pronoun. Example : what, which, who, whom, whose 6) Indefinite pronoun. Example : anything, anyone, something, someone, nothing, no one, everything, everyone. The open word-class adjectives have four properties. They are :
1) They function as predicative complement in clause structure called the predicative use. For example : He was smart. 2) They function as pre-head modifier in noun phrase structure called attributive use. For example : a smart person 3) They function as post-head modifier in noun phrase structure called postpositive use. For example : somebody very smart 4) Modification and inflection as they are gradable and have inflectional comparison such as smart, smarter, smartest or have analytic comparative and superlative constructions such as stupid, more stupid, most stupid. For example : The open word-class verbs have two properties. They are :
1) Inflection such as they are tensed. Most verbs have six inflectional forms. 2) They function as the main head of the clause
Every kernel clause must have at least one noun and one verb. Example : I ran.
1) 2) 3) The open word-class adverb is a modifier of a verb. Example : I ran fast. Adverbs can be classified morphologically according to their lexical stems.
1) Mostly they have complex stems and formed by adding suffix -ly to adjective stems like beutifully, carefully. 2) There are a few compound adverbs like furthermore,inside-out, hereby, downstairs. 3) Some are simple lexical stems like how, just, too, very, so, well, soon, yet, etc. which can be added to a clause to increase the complexity by having another modifier for the first modifier. Example : I ran very fast.
Adverbs can also be classified according to inflectional morphology for comparison like fast, faster, fastest.
Syntactically, adverbs have two main dimensions of classification.
1) The kinds of forms that they can modify 2) Differentiate the types of dependent functions. There are a few classes such as duration adverbs (longer), frequency adverbs (often), reason adverbs (why), modal adverbs (perhaps), connective adverbs (however), etc. There are four other bigger classes like : 1) Degree adverbs are mostly simple lexical stems like very, too, so, quite, much, how, pretty, as 2) Manner adverbs usually have suffix -ly added to adjective like beutifully, carelessly 3) Time adverbs like when, now, soon, late, again, then are simple stems wherelse recently, immediately, initially are added with suffix -ly. Some are compound like today, nowadays, afterwards,tomorrow. 4) Place adverbs like where, here, downwards, upstairs function as a modifier or complement. Prepositions shows a relation between the noun / pronoun and another words which can be a noun, verb or adjective. Prepositions have three properties. They are :
1) They take noun phrase as complements. 2) They function as head in clause structure, complement or adjunct; in adjective phrase structure, complement or modifier; in noun phrase structure, complement or modifier 3) They show no inflectional variation
Normally, prepositions precede their complements.
1) 2) 3) Conjuction have two properties. They are :
1) They function to relate a tensed declarative clause to a larger construction containing it 2) They show no inflectional variation
They have two major subclasses :
1) coordinating conjunctions like and, or, but 2) subordinating conjunctions like after, before, until, while, because, as, although, if, since, unless, that |
| There are many sysntactic functions in English. They are :
1) Subject 2) Predicate 3) Predicator 4) Object 5) Determiner 6) Modifier 7) Head ) ) |
| Important from from author
This is not a page to study language. It is a summary that I made from 'Introduction to the Grammar of English' by Rodney Huddleston published by Cambridge University Press. Kindly inform me if you should find any errors in my summary. |
