Grammar and Usage Synopsis (PDF)

WEEK3 3 - Grammar and Usage Synopsis and Learning Outcomes Introduction "Why do I have to be bothered with intolerable wrestle with words, their shapes and the rules that govern their usage at the structural level?" These and many more are the questions that may be bulging your mind as you go throug...

WEEK3 3 - Grammar and Usage Synopsis and Learning Outcomes Introduction "Why do I have to be bothered with intolerable wrestle with words, their shapes and the rules that govern their usage at the structural level?" These and many more are the questions that may be bulging your mind as you go through the contents of this week\`s lecture. You have been introduced to the rudiments of English grammar in your various secondary schools and perhaps some post-secondary institutions you may have attended. In this week\`s session, you will build more on these rudiments as you are introduced to the fundamentals of English grammar in terms of the rules that guide the shapes of words and their combinatory possibilities in different communicative domains. In this introductory part, you will be introduced to the notion of grammar, the basis of grammar, terms and concepts in English grammar, the importance of grammar in general communication and the structure of the English sentence. Week 1 learning outcomes: Upon the completion of this module, you should be able to: 1. explain the notion of grammar; 2. explain the importance of grammar in general communication; 3. explain the basic concepts in English grammar; and 4. describe the structure of the English sentence. The Notion of Grammar Grammar 1. Introduction Almost everybody knows the role of grammar in the teaching and learning of a language but almost nobody can describe or define it with some degree of exactitude. This is owing to the fact that the concept may mean different things to different people. In this module, you are going to be introduced to the meaning of grammar from two basic approaches: Modern English Approach and Systemic Functional Approach. In simple terms, grammar is the study of the relationship between words in a sentence. Jombadi (2015, p. 17) opines that grammar refers to the "systematic rules about how a language should be written or spoken". Grammar may also be described as the rules and principles that govern the construction of sentences. Grammar is a systematic study of scientific method which provides us information and guidance necessary to learn a language (Murthy 2007, p.2) Murthy observes further that the science of grammar teaches us how a language is spoken and written correctly and effectively. It can, therefore, be said that grammar is primarily concerned with the formation and classification of words and sentences and practical significance in daily life. The rules of grammar are many and complex. They include the concept of plurality and singularity in nouns and verbs, the rules concerning agreement of sentence elements, rules concerning the use of tenses and many more. These rules of grammar are many and complex. For instance, there are those between words that form phrases, those between phrases that form clauses or sentences and those between clauses that form sentences. 2. Scope of Grammar The scope of grammar is very wide. For example, it describes all the factors that affect words in sentence contexts, e.g.: (a) gender, number and case in nouns; (b) voice, mood, tense and aspect in verbs and sentences; (c) those of complementation between verbs and nouns or adjectives; (d) those of modification between adjectives and nouns as well as between adverbs and verbs; (e) those of determination between determiners and nouns as well as government between prepositions and noun phrases; (f) those of sentence embedding and other sentence processes; and, (g) the aspects of usage and the expression of meaning in grammatical structures. (Egbe, 2000, p. 4) 3. Types of Grammar Although the aim of this module is not to bore you with the types of grammars across languages, a brief mention of their typologies is, however, necessary at this point to enable you get greater insight to some grammatical concepts that you will be introduced to later in this module and several other modules in this course. 1. Traditional/ Modern Grammar This grammar is highly prescriptive and notional. It gives names to sentence constituents, sets up parts of speech and describes how the various units relate to one another in the sentence. Modern English grammar (MEG) has, however, improved some of the deficiencies of traditional grammar for pedagogical convenience. 1. Structural Grammar This grammar is different from both traditional and modern grammar in its approach by eliminating meaning from grammatical descriptions. It uses the notion of contrast and minimal pair to establish phonemes, substitution and contrast to identify morphemes and slots in sentence frames to set up the class of every word. 1. Generative Grammar This grammar looks at sentence structure from a different point of view. It seeks to generate all and only the grammatical sentences of a language. It therefore, applies a finite set of phrase-structure rules to generate an infinite set of sentences. This grammar is highly mentalistic (Egbe 2000, pp. 17-18). 1. Systemic Functional Grammar As the name implies, this grammar is functional. It conceives of language of a system of choices which language users could draw to service in different communicative situations. This grammar sees language as behaviour and matching form to function and the incorporation contextual evidence (Melrose, 1995 p. 24). This model of grammar consider language as network of choices. In its functional potential, language is regarded as a social behaviour. Terms and Concepts in English Grammar Terms and Concepts in English Grammar In this section you will be introduced as far as possible to a simple and clear discussion of the major terms and concepts that are frequently deployed to use in English grammar.. For all practical purposes, these terms and concepts refer to grammatical processes and operations in the English language. They signal various relationships that obtain among the units and tools for grammatical analysis. Essentially, they will enhance our understanding of the grammatical organisation of English sentences (Egbe 2000, p.33). Because these grammatical terms and concepts are very complex, you will be provided with only a short but informative description of each term and concept while leaving out the complexities and controversies that may surround them. Technical terms and concepts are significant in grammar but there are quite a number that we may not be able to cover in this section. We shall only focus on the major and significant ones especially those that are crucial for the description and analysis of the grammar required for this level of learning. 1. Terms and Concepts in English Grammar In this section you will be introduced as far as possible to a simple and clear discussion of the major terms and concepts that are frequently deployed to use in English grammar.. For all practical purposes, these terms and concepts refer to grammatical processes and operations in the English language. They signal various relationships that obtain among the units and tools for grammatical analysis. Essentially, they will enhance our understanding of the grammatical organisation of English sentences (Egbe 2000, p.33). Because these grammatical terms and concepts are very complex, you will be provided with only a short but informative description of each term and concept while leaving out the complexities and controversies that may surround them. Technical terms and concepts are significant in grammar but there are quite a number that we may not be able to cover in this section. We shall only focus on the major and significant ones especially those that are crucial for the description and analysis of the grammar required for this level of learning. 1.1. Concepts and terms relating to nouns and pronouns Concepts and terms relating to nouns and pronouns There are quite a number of terms and concepts associated with nouns and pronouns which relates fundamentally to their forms and functions within sentence contexts. These terms and concepts include: 1. 1. Gender This refers to the state of being masculine, feminine or neutral. In English language, it relates to such distinctions as: (i) Personal and Non-personal, and, (ii) Sex When items are marked as 'personal', they are used to refer to human beings only. When they are non personal, they are used for other creatures or objects. For example: Fig. 1 ITEM PERSONAL NON-PERSONAL i Interr.Pro. who, whom, whose, which, what ii Rel.Pro. who, that which, that As for sex distinction, such items as: Fig. 2 Example sentences: (a) The man at times says what he is not sure about. (b) Mary took her children to school last week. ACTIVITY: 1. Pick a prose passage from any text of your choice and make a list of twenty names and indicate their gender. 1. Construct one sentence with each of the names listed. Number MALE FEMALE I He/him/his She/her Ii Himself herself (A) Forms Number refers to the idea of one (singular number) or more than one (plural number). In English, both nouns and verbs, by and large, change their forms to signal number, very much unlike the indigenous languages which change the forms of their nouns only to reflect number. For example: Fig. 3 SINGULAR PLURAL i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii xiii xiv Girl bottle kiss wish knife seraph millennium index complexity locus stadium cargo I Girls bottles kisses wishes knives seraphim millennia indices complexities loci stadia cargoes we He/she/it they They add either the plural morpheme -s(as in (i) and (ii) or -es (as in (iii) and (iv) to form their plurals. Those borrowed from other languages add such plural morphemes as reflect their origins. One pronoun and some nouns however do not change their forms for number (e.g.: you, sheep), some change their forms by adding -en (e.g. ox - oxen), some form their plurals by mutation (e.g.: man - men), some have plural forms (e.g.: mumps, measles) and some have plural meanings only (e.g. people). (B) Count and Non-count Generally, nouns like those in the table above (which have both singular and plural numbers) are count. Others, which have only the singular number (e.g.: cowardice, furniture), are non-count. ACTIVITY: Watch any animal movie or documentary of your choice and write the plural forms of the names of any ten animals you have seen in the movie or documentary. 1. 3. Case This is a change in the form of a word as a result of its relationship with other words in the sentence. In English, nouns, pronouns and possessive adjectives show cases as follows: Fig. 4 Subject Object Genitive i ii iii iv v vi He She I We Ayo Jamal Him her me us Ayo His her my our Ayo's Jamal Example sentences: (a) She brought out her new dresses. 1. GEN. (b) Jamal has taken Miss Ayo's telephone number. SUB. OBJ. (c) I advised him to be patient. SUB. OBJ. (d) He sent his child here yesterday. 1. GEN. OBJ. Jamal's OBJ. GEN. The element in the sentence that makes words adopt some cases are discussed below. 1. 4. Subject and Object cases (A) Subject: This is the noun, noun phrase or pronoun that relates directly to the verb (e.g.: carrying out the action of the verb or being involved in a state portrayed by the verb) in the sentence. Such a noun or pronoun is said to be in the subject or nominative case. (B) Object: This is a noun, pronoun or phrase to which the action of the verb has been done. This is the direct object. For the indirect object, it is the result of the action that is in question. Example sentences: (a) I SUB. didn't touch the table. VERB OBJ. (b) The government gave the school some books. 1. VERB INDIR.OBJ DIR. OBJ. Thus, the books suffers the action giving and the school is the beneficiary of the action. A pronoun, noun or noun phrase can also be the Object or Complement of a preposition in a prepositional phrase. Verbs and prepositions thus enable nouns and pronouns to be in subject and object cases. Fig. 5 PREPOSITION OBJECT/COMPLEMENT i ii iii to with me Tomi in Example sentences: (c) He threw the ball to me. (d) We spoke with Tomi before. (e) I saw her in the bathroom. the bathroom (Egbe, 2000, p.41). These objects of verbs and prepositions are in the objective or accusative case. The complement of a preposition is also in the same case but complement of a linking verb is not always in the objective case as in indicated in the example sentences below. (i)it was she that stole the book. (ii) it they who won the prize. In the examples above, both she and they are in the subjective case as it which is the subject also in the nominative case. ACTIVITY: 1. Construct ten sentences using prepositions and explain how the preposition in each sentence influenced the case of the nouns they govern. 2. Write ten sentences that contain nouns used in both subjective and objective cases. 1. 5. Determination The determiner system is an important concept in grammatical analysis. This is because it borders on the construction of structures such as phrases, clauses, and sentences. Determiners provide more information about nouns, which they often co-occur with. For instance, they could provide information about definiteness, number, possession, etc. They also identify or point to the nouns or entities they refer to. They following are the categories of determiners: 1. Articles: a/an (indefinite articles), the (definite article) 2. Numerals: five, seventh, eighth, etc. 3. Demonstrative adjectives: this, that, these, those 4. Indefinite adjectives: a few, a little, some, etc. 5. Possessive adjectives: her, our, his, my, etc. ACTIVITY: 1. Write six examples of indefinite adjectives or pronouns and construct two sentences with each of them. 2. Pick any news story from any newspaper of your choice and identify and correct the wrong use of determiners identified in the story. 6. Antecedent This is a word or phrase to which another word, often a pronoun, refers to in a sentence. The antecedents come before the words that refer to them. Consider the following example: 1. The boys eat whatever they like. In the above example, the phrase 'the boys' is an antecedent of the pronoun 'they'. 'They', which is a personal pronoun, still points to 'the boys'. You must note that number of an antecedent must agree with that of the word that refers to it. As seen in the above-stated example, 'the boys' and 'they' are plural. Therefore, they agree. If the antecedent were singular, the appropriate pronoun would be a singular one. 7. Person This refers to the perspective of the person speaking (1st person), the person spoken to (2nd person) or the person/thing spoken about (3rd Person). Each of these persons can be in the subjective or object case. Also, they could also be in the singular or plural forms, as indicated in Fig. 6 below. Fig. 6 PERSON ↓ Singular Plural 1st (Subjective) (Objective) I we me 2nd (Subjective) (Objective) you us you you 3rd (Subjective) (Objective) he, she, it you they him, her, it them 1.2. The structure of the English Sentence In this section, you will be introduced to the structure of the English sentence. Your knowledge of the structure of sentences will enable you do in-depth grammatical analysis different sentences no matter how complex. Your knowledge of the various constituents of a sentence from both Modern Grammar and Systemic Functional Grammar perspectives will enable you analyse the units of a sentence more accurately. The structure of a sentence bothers on how grammatical units are arranged in accordance with the grammatical rules of the language to form phrases and sentences. It is related to how language users fuses together the units to form individual sentences and their parts. For you to have a fair mastery of the structure of a sentence, you must come to terms with the constituent parts and the constituents of a sentence. This, from Modern English Grammar perspective, is illustrated as S + V + O + C +A and S + P + C+A from Systemic Functional Grammar perspective. From Modern Grammar perspective, we may have the following examples: 1) Tola came to school yesterday. S V P O C 2) The boy deceived the mum cleverly. S V O A From Systemic Functional Grammar's perspective however, we may have the following structural elements of a sentence. 1) She clutched Wilhelmina. S P C 2) Kunle was brave. S P C 3) I took Joke by the hair. S P C Glossary Printer-friendly version Antecedent: A word or expression to which another word refers in a sentence. Aspect: The forms that a verb can take to either show the continuity or completion of an event in an utterance. Generative grammar: A type of grammar that uses finite type of rules to generate infinite sets of sentences. Grammar: A notion in English that explains the principles and rules that govern the construction of meaningful expressions. Mood: The forms that a verb can take in order to perform different functions in sentences. Operator: The first auxiliary verb in a string of verbs. Systemic Functional Grammar: A type of Grammar that conceives of language not only as a social phenomenon, functional, but also as meaning in choice. Tense: A deitic category that is simultaneous with time of utterance. Traditional grammar: A type of grammar that is highly prescriptive and notional. Voice: The forms that a verb takes to indicate whether the subject of sentence performs an action or an action performed towards it.