1. ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Ma. Martha Manette A. Madrid, Ed.D.
Professor
Institute of Graduate Studies
Panpacific University North Philippines
Urdaneta City, Philippines
September 22, 2012
2. What is Grammar?
Grammar is the structural
It is necessary to foundation of our ability to
express ourselves. The more we
know grammar, and it are aware of how it works, the
is better to write more we can monitor the
grammatically than meaning and effectiveness of the
way we and others use language.
not, but it is well to It can help foster precision,
remember that detect ambiguity, and exploit the
grammar is common richness of expression available
in English. And it can help
speech formulated. everyone--not only teachers of
Usage is the only test. English, but teachers of anything,
(William Somerset for all teaching is ultimately a
matter of getting to grips with
Maugham, The meaning.
Summing Up, 1938) (David Crystal, "In Word and
Deed," TES Teacher, April 30,
2004)
3. What is Grammar?
1. During the Middle
Ages, grammar was
often used to describe 2. In the 19th
learning in general, century, the two
including the magical, versions of the word
occult practices went their separate
popularly associated
ways, so that our
with the scholars of the
day. People in Scotland study of English
pronounced grammar grammar today may
as "glam-our," and not be quite as
extended the glamorous as it used
association to mean to be.
magical beauty or
enchantment.
4. What is Grammar?
Descriptive Prescriptive
grammar grammar
(definition #1) (definition #2)
refers to the refers to the
structure of a structure of a
language as it is language as
actually used by certain people
speakers and think it should
writers. be used.
5. What is Grammar?
Specialists in Prescriptive
descriptive grammarians
grammar (called (such as most
linguists) study editors and
the rules or teachers) lay out
patterns that rules about what
underlie our use they believe to
of words, be the “correct”
phrases, clauses, or “incorrect” use
and sentences. of language.
6. “Interface”
The descriptive
grammarian would The prescriptive
note, among other grammarian,
things, that the however, would
word is made up of be more
a common prefix interested in
(inter-) and a root deciding whether
word (face) and
or not it is
that it’s currently
used as both a
“correct” to use
noun and a verb. interface as a
verb.
7. The Value of Studying Grammar
gaining a clearer understanding of how our
language works
gain greater control over the way you shape
words into sentences and paragraphs
help you become a more effective writer.
8. Descriptive vs Prescriptive
Descriptive grammarians generally advise us
not to be overly concerned with matters of
correctness: language, they say, isn't good or
bad; it simply is. As the history of the
glamorous word grammar demonstrates, the
English language is a living system of
communication, a continually evolving affair.
Prescriptive grammarians prefer giving
practical advice about using language:
straightforward rules to help us avoid making
errors.
9. Grammar and Composition
Attempts to integrate these two
approaches to grammar--or, at the
least, present them side by side.
Lesson on
Correcting
Errors in
Subject-Verb
Agreement is
obviously
prescriptive
10. Ten Types of Grammar
Concerned with "a faculty
of language that provides
an explanatory basis for
how a human being can
acquire a first language.
The theory of grammar is a
theory of human language
and hence establishes the
relationship among all
languages.
11. Ten Types of Grammar
Theory of competence:
A model of the
psychological system of
unconscious knowledge
that underlies a speaker's
ability to produce and
interpret utterances in a
language."
12. Ten Types of Grammar
3. Mental
The generative
grammar stored All humans are born with the
in the brain that capacity for constructing a Mental
allows a Grammar, given linguistic
experience; this capacity for
speaker to language is called the Language
produce Faculty (Chomsky, 1965).
language that
other speakers
can understand.
A grammar formulated by a
linguist is an idealized
description of this Mental
Grammar."
13. Ten Types of Grammar
4. Pedagogical
Grammatical
analysis and
instruction (1) pedagogical process--
designed for the explicit treatment of
elements of the target
second-
language systems as (part of)
language language teaching
students. methodology;
(2) pedagogical content--
reference sources of one kind
or another that present
information about the target
language system; and
(3) combinations of process
and content."
18. Ten Types of Grammar
9. Transformational
A theory of the term 'rule' is used not
grammar that for a precept set down by
accounts for an external authority but
for a principle that is
the
unconsciously yet regularly
constructions followed in the production
of a language and interpretation of
by linguistic sentences.
transformation A rule is a direction for
forming a sentence or a
s and phrase
part of a sentence, which
structures. has been internalized by
the native speaker.
19. Ten Types of Grammar
10. Universal
The system of "Taken together, the
linguistic principles of
categories,
Universal Grammar
operations, and constitute a theory of
languages to be the organization of
innate. the initial state of the
mind/brain of the
language learner--
that is, a theory of the
human faculty for
language.
20. References:
English grammar - Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_grammar
Ten Types of Grammar - Grammar and
Composition - About.com
grammar.about.com/.../basicsentence
21. What is English Grammar?
The body of rules This includes the
that describe the structure of
structure of words, phrases,
expressions in the clauses, and
English language. sentences.
22. What is English Grammar?
Generalized present-
day Standard English,
the form of speech Standard forms
found in types of public of British
discourse including English,
broadcasting,
education, American
entertainment, English, and
government, and news
reporting, including Australian
both formal and English.
informal speech.
23. 1. Word Classes and Phrases
Noun
Open Classes
Determiner
Pronoun
word classes that readily
accept new members
Verb
Adjective
Adverb Closed Classes
Preposition
word classes that readily
Conjunction
rarely admit new language
Phrases
24. 2. Negation
combinations of auxiliary don't, can't,
verbs etc. with not have isn't, etc
contracted forms:
can is written
Also the uncontracted as a single
negated form word cannot
On inversion of subject and Should he not
verb (such as in questions, the pay? or
subject may be placed after a Shouldn't he
contracted negated form: pay?
25. 2. Negation
Other elements, such as not the right
noun phrases, adjectives, answer, not
adverbs, infinitive and interesting, not
participial phrases, etc., can be to enter, not
negated by placing the word noticing the
not before them: train, etc.
I saw nothing or
When other negating words I didn't see
such as never, nobody, etc. anything, but not
appear in a sentence, the (except in non-
negating not is omitted (unlike standard speech)
its equivalents in many *I didn't see
languages): nothing.
26. 3. Clause and Sentence Structure
Contains a subject (a noun
phrase) and a predicate (a
verb phrase in the
terminology used above; that
is, a verb together with its
objects and complements).
27. 3. Clause and Sentence Structure
Contains one independent clause
and possibly one or more
dependent clauses, although it is
also possible to link together
sentences of this form into
longer sentences, using
coordinating conjunctions
28. To learn more about the Eight
Word Classes, please see also
Parts of a Speech
29. History of English Grammar
The first published English grammar was a
Pamphlet for Grammar of 1586, written by
William Bullokar with the stated goal of
demonstrating that English was just as rule-
based as Latin. Bullokar's grammar was
faithfully modeled on William Lily's Latin
grammar, Rudimenta Grammatices (1534), used
in English schools at that time, having been
"prescribed" for them in 1542 by Henry VIII.
Bullokar wrote his grammar in English and used
a "reformed spelling system" of his own
invention; but many English grammars, for
much of the century after Bullokar's effort, were
written in Latin, especially by authors who were
aiming to be scholarly.
30. History of English Grammar
John Wallis's Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae
(1685) was the last English grammar written in
Latin.
Even as late as the early 19th century, Lindley
Murray, the author of one of the most widely
used grammars of the day, was having to cite
"grammatical authorities" to bolster the claim
that grammatical cases in English are
different from those in Ancient Greek or
Latin.
