INTRODUCTION TO GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH

INTRODUCTION TO GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH

WHAT IS GRAMMAR?

Grammar is concerned with how sentences and utterances are formed. In a typical English sentence, we can see the two most basic principles of grammar, the arrangement of items (syntax) and the structure of items (morphology):

I gave my sister a sweater for her birthday.

1a - Arrangement of items (syntax)

The meaning of this sentence is obviously created by words such as gave, sister, sweater and birthday. But there are other words (I, my, a, for, her) which contribute to the meaning, and, additionally, aspects of the individual words and the way they are arranged which enable us to interpret what the sentence means. For example, we know it is I who gave the sweater, not my sister, because I comes before the verb (gave). In English, subjects (the doers of actions) come before verbs in statements. We also know the relationship between the indirect object, my sister, and the direct object, a sweater, (that the sweater was given and my sister was the recipient) because indirect objects come before direct objects. We also expect my to come before sister, not after. These aspects of the arrangement of things in sentences is referred to as syntax. Syntax is one of the two basic principles of grammar.

                                                               

1b - Structure of items (morphology)

The example sentence (i.e. I gave my sister a sweater for her birthday.) also illustrates the other basic principle of grammar. I and my are two different forms, one with a subject meaning, the other with a possessive meaning, even though they both refer to the same person. Gave refers to past time, in contrast to give(s), which refers to present time. Sweater is singular; if there were more than one sweater, the form would be sweaters. These small items of meaning, such as I, my, the past form gave, a plural -s ending, are called grammatical morphemes, and come under the heading of morphology. Morphology is concerned with the structure of words and phrases. It is the second basic principle of grammar.

                               

1c - Acceptable and unacceptable forms

Grammar is concerned with acceptable and unacceptable forms and the distinctions of meaning these forms create. The fact that sweater means ‘knitted outer garment worn on the upper part of the body for warmth’ and that sister means ‘female sibling’ are matters of vocabulary (lexis), but the distinction between present and past, one and more than one, subject and object, possession and non-possession, etc., are matters of grammar. In every language, some forms are acceptable and others are not. So, in English, we can create arrangements of our example sentence which are not acceptable, either syntactically or morphologically:

I my sister gave a sweater for birthday her.

Gave I my sister a sweaters for his birthday.

I gives my sisters sweater a for her birthday.

In Cambridge Grammar book, we indicate unacceptable forms with a line through the text:

I my sister gave a sweater for birthday her.

                                                               

1d - Vocabulary (lexis)

Although some aspects of our example sentence are concerned with lexis, lexis and grammar are not totally independent. A ‘sweater’ is the kind of thing in the world that English treats as countable (we may have one, two or more of them). However, if I gave my sister ‘information’, the fact that information is an abstract entity, which English considers to be uncountable, affects the grammar, and the sentence would have to be I gave my sister some information. ‘I gave my sister an information’ would be an unacceptable form.

                                                               

1e - Phrases

Our initial example sentence may also be seen as composed of units or building blocks of different sizes, not just individual words and their endings. For example, the sentence could be divided up thus:

I | gave | my sister | a sweater | for her birthday.

We have now divided the sentence into its constituent phrases (items which have individual functions in the sentence). It is the phrase a sweater which acts as the object, not just the word sweater, and the whole phrase for her birthday indicates the reason or circumstances of the giving.

1f - Clauses

We could extend the example sentence:

I gave my sister a sweater for her birthday and she bought me a CD for mine.

We can now see two larger building blocks (in green) in the sentence, connected by and. These are clauses (separate units containing their own verbs: gave/bought). Grammar is concerned with how the constituent units of sentences (morphemes, words, phrases and clauses) are put together to form sentences.

1g - Classes of word, phrase and clause

Words are not all of the same type. Some, such as sweater and sister, are nouns (words referring to entities: persons, things, animals, abstract concepts); some, such as gave and bought, are verbs (words referring to actions, events or states); and so on. These words belong to different classes.

Equally, the phrases belong to different classes: for her birthday and for mine are prepositional phrases (phrases introduced by prepositions).

Clauses too belong to classes: some are declarative (they have the subject first and typically make statements), some are interrogative (they have a verb such as do, be or have first, and typically ask questions). Grammar is concerned with how units and classes relate to one another.

1h - Functions

The noun phrases my sister, a sweater are types of object in our example sentence in 1f, and for my birthday and for mine are operating as phrases indicating the circumstances. They are referred to as adjuncts. The terms subject, verb, object, adjunct refer to the functions the different phrase-types carry out in the clause. Grammar describes what the acceptable functions are.

1i - Sounds (phonology)

How sentences are spoken is also relevant. The sentence I do like your car, on the face of it, seems to break the rule that do is not used in statements. However, if the sentence is spoken with appropriate stress, then it becomes acceptable. This is the emphatic do, which may be used in statements:

I do like your car.

Phonology (the sound systems of a language) is therefore also connected in important ways with grammar and lexis, and influences the interpretation of sentences.

1j - Choices

Throughout the construction of a sentence, the speaker/writer makes choices. Choices involve things such as number (singular or plural), tense (present or past), definiteness (a sweater versus the sweater), etc. Every choice carries a different meaning, and grammar is concerned with the implications of such choices.