Grammar and Composition: A Short Introduction

Grammar?

It is necessary to know grammar, and it is better to write grammatically than not, but
it is well to remember that grammar is common speech formulated. Usage is the only test.
(William Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up, 1938).
Grammar is the structural foundation of our ability to express ourselves. The more we are
aware of how it works, the more we can monitor the meaning and effectiveness of the way
we and others use language. It can help foster precision, detect ambiguity, and exploit the
richness of expression available in English. And it can help everyone--not only teachers of
English, but teachers of anything, for all teaching is ultimately a matter of getting to grips
with meaning (David Crystal, "In Word and Deed," TES Teacher, April 30, 2004).

During the Middle Ages, grammar was often used to describe learning in general, including
the magical, occult practices popularly associated with the scholars of the day. People in
Scotland pronounced grammar as "glam-our," and extended the association to mean
magical beauty or enchantment. In the 19th century, the two versions of the word went their
separate ways, so that our study of English grammar today may not be quite as glamorous
as it used to be.

There are two types of grammar: descriptive and prescriptive. Descriptive grammar refers
to the structure of a language as it is actually used by speakers and writers and prescriptive
grammar refers to the structure of a language as certain people think it should be used.
Specialists in descriptive grammar (called linguists) study the rules or patterns that
underlie our use of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences.
Prescriptive grammarians (such as most editors and teachers) lay out rules about what they
believe to be the “correct” or “incorrect” use of language.

The descriptive grammarian would note, among other things, that the word is made up of a
common prefix (inter-) and a root word (face) and that it’s currently used as both a noun
and a verb. Whereas, the prescriptive grammarian, however, would be more interested in
deciding whether or not it is “correct” to use interface as a verb. Moreover, 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. While, prescriptive grammarians prefer giving practical advice
about using language: straightforward rules to help us avoid making errors.

Other Types of grammar are discussed below:

Comparative Grammar
The analysis and comparison of the grammatical structures of related languages.
Contemporary work in comparative grammar is concerned with "a faculty of language that
provides an explanatory basis for how a human being can acquire a first language . . .. In
this way, the theory of grammar is a theory of human language and hence establishes the
relationship among all languages." (R. Freidin, Principles and Parameters in Comparative
Grammar. MIT Press, 1991)

Generative Grammar
The rules determining the structure and interpretation of sentences that speakers accept as
belonging to the language. "Simply put, a generative grammar is a 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." (F. Parker and K.
Riley, Linguistics for Non-Linguists. Allyn and Bacon, 1994)

Mental Grammar
The generative grammar stored in the brain that allows a speaker to produce language that
other speakers can understand. "All humans are born with the capacity for constructing a
Mental Grammar, given linguistic experience; this capacity for language is called the
Language Faculty (Chomsky, 1965). A grammar formulated by a linguist is an idealized
description of this Mental Grammar." (P. W. Culicover and A. Nowak, Dynamical
Grammar: Foundations of Syntax II. Oxford Univ. Press, 2003)

Pedagogical Grammar
Grammatical analysis and instruction designed for second-language students. "Pedaogical
grammar is a slippery concept. The term is commonly used to denote (1) pedagogical
process--the explicit treatment of elements of the target language systems as (part of)
language teaching 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." (D. Little, "Words and Their Properties: Arguments for a Lexical
Approach to Pedagaogical Grammar."Perspectives on Pedagogical Grammar, ed. by T.
Odlin. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994)

Performance Grammar
A description of the syntax of English as it is actually used by speakers in dialogues.
"[P]erformance grammar . . . centers attention on language production; it is my belief that
the problem of production must be dealt with before problems of reception and
comprehension can properly be investigated." (John Carroll, "Promoting Language
Skills." Perspectives on School Learning: Selected Writings of John B. Carroll, ed. by L.
W. Anderson. Erlbaum, 1985)

Reference Grammar
A description of the grammar of a language, with explanations of the principles governing
the construction of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. Examples of contemporary
reference grammars in English include A Comprehensive Grammar of the English
Language, by Randolph Quirk et al. (1985), the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written
English (1999), and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (2002).
Theoretical Grammar
The study of the essential components of any human language. "Theoretical grammar or
syntax is concerned with making completely explicit the formalisms of grammar, and in
providing scientific arguments or explanations in favour of one account of grammar rather
than another, in terms of a general theory of human language." (A. Renouf and A.
Kehoe, The Changing Face of Corpus Linguistics. Rodopi, 2003)

Traditional Grammar
The collection of prescriptive rules and concepts about the structure of the language. "We
say that traditional grammar is prescriptive because it focuses on the distinction between
what some people do with language and what they ought to do with it, according to a pre-
established standard. . . . The chief goal of traditional grammar, therefore, is perpetuating a
historical model of what supposedly constitutes proper language." (J. D. Williams, The
Teacher's Grammar Book. Routledge, 2005)

Transformational Grammar
A theory of grammar that accounts for the constructions of a language by linguistic
transformations and phrase structures. "In transformational grammar, the term 'rule' is used
not for a precept set down by an external authority but for a principle that is unconsciously
yet regularly followed in the production and interpretation of sentences. A rule is a
direction for forming a sentence or a part of a sentence, which has been internalized by the
native speaker." (D. Bornstein, An Introduction to Transformational Grammar. Univ. Press
of America, 1984)

Universal Grammar
The system of categories, operations, and principles shared by all human languages and
considered to be innate. "Taken together, the linguistic principles of Universal Grammar
constitute a theory of the organization of the initial state of the mind/brain of the language
learner--that is, a theory of the human faculty for language." (S. Crain and R.
Thornton, Investigations in Universal Grammar. MIT Press, 2000)
Notional Functional Grammar
Notion is a particular context in which people communicate. Function is a specific purpose
for a speaker in a given context

Grammar and Composition

Attempts to integrate these two approaches to grammar: descriptive and prescriptive--or, at

the least, present them side by side. So discussion of basic parts of speech is primarily
descriptive and lesson on correcting errors in Subject-verb agreement which includes in
prescriptive grammar. Therefore, grammar can be defined as “the body of rules that
describe the structure of expressions in the English language. This includes the structure
of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences”.

Generalized present- day Standard English, the form of speech found in types of public
discourse including broadcasting, education, entertainment, government, and news
reporting, including both formal and informal speech.

1. Word Classes and Phrases

Word classes (also known as parts of speech) are essential for any grammatical description,
even though we can never really be entirely sure what their nature is. The reason for this
uncertainty is that word classes are not tangible three-dimensional entities, but mental
concepts, i.e. they ‘exist’ only in our minds. Word classes can be viewed as abstractions
over sets of words displaying some common property or properties. In this section we will
be looking at a number of approaches to word classes, asking in particular how we can
define them, and whether they have sharp boundaries. For English, most linguists agree on
the need to recognize at least the following word classes: noun, verb, adjective, preposition,
adverb, determinative and conjunction. Each of these word classes is illustrated in the
sentence below:
 (1) [determinative The] [noun chairman] [preposition of] [determinative the] [noun
committee] [conjunction and] [determinative the] [adjective loquacious] [noun
politician] [verb clashed] [conjunction when] [determinative the] [noun meeting]
[verb started]
Each member of the word classes can be the head of an associated phrasal projection, e.g. a
noun can be the head of a noun phrase, an adjective can be the head of an adjective phrase,
verbs head verb phrases, prepositions head prepositional phrases, etc.1 Phrases will be
discussed in greater detail in sections 2 and 3. Sections 4 and 5 consider the way phrases
are combined to form clauses. The question arises how to define word classes. The oldest
way to go about this is by appealing to so-called notional definitions, an approach familiar
from school grammars. In this tradition, a noun is defined as ‘a word that denotes a person
place or thing,’ and a verb is an ‘action word.’ While perhaps useful in certain pedagogical
settings, notional definitions are not adequate. For nouns, the definition clearly fails, for
example, in the case of abstract words like freedom, intelligence and rudeness. As far as
verbs are concerned, there are many words that do not refer to actions, but which we would
nevertheless want to call verbs, e.g. sleep, think, concentrate, seem, please, etc. Moreover,
in spite of their denotation, the words action and activity are nouns and not verbs.

2. Negation

Negation, as maintained by the likes of Merriam Webster refers to

“the action or logical operation of negating or making negative”.

In simpler terms, negation defines the polar opposition of affirmative, denies the existence

or vaguely – a refutation. This is also known as “Not”. Classical logic resembles negation
with truth function which takes truth to falsity and is perfectly capable of running the
opposite operation. It denies the truth of a sentence. It’s just the conversion of the
affirmative sentence which converts the simple affirmative sentence into negative.
Example
o I like to sing = I do not like to sing.

Rules of Negation:
 By changing the auxiliary verb of the sentence into negative, we can apply Negation in a
sentence.
1. Negation in tense

1.        Present Indefinite Tense Do = do not/ don’t, does = does not/doesn’t.

2.        Present Continuous Tense Am = am not, is = is not/isn’t, are = are not, aren’t.

3.        Present Perfect Tense Have = have not/haven’t, has = has not/hasn’t

4.        Present Perfect Continuous tense Has been = has not been, have been = have not been

5.        Past Indefinite tense  Did = did not/didn’t

6.        Past Continuous tense Was = was not/wasn’t, were = were not/ weren’t

7.        Past Perfect Tense Had = had not/hadn’t

8.        Past Perfect Continuous Tense Had been = had not been/hadn’t been

9.        Future Indefinite Tense Shall = shall not, will = will not/won’t

10.    Future Continuous tense Shall be = shall not be, will be = will not/won’t

11.    Future Perfect Tense Shall have = shall not have, will have = will not have/won’t have

12.    Future Perfect Continuous Tense Shall have been = shall not have been,

will have been = will not have been/won’t have been

Examples:
o He drives the car = He does not drive the car
o Alex ate rice = Alex did not eat rice
 3. Negation in Modal-auxiliary

Modal Modal in negative Modal Modal in negative

Can Cannot/ can’t Shall Shall not

Could Could not/ couldn’t Should Should not/shouldn’t

May May not Will Will not/won’t

Might Might not/mightn’t would Would not/wouldn’t

Must Must not/mustn’t Ought to Ought not to

Need Need not/needn’t    

Examples:
o Edward can swim= Edward cannot swim
o We must go there= We must not go there
3. Negation in Words
Some words such as ever, anybody, anyone, anything, anywhere, instead of never, nobody,
no one, nothing, nowhere, etc. represent the Negation.
Examples:
o I do not think he can ever reach within time.
More Examples
Examples of Negation Adding Suffixes
Examples of Negation Using Negative Adjectives & Adverbs
Examples of Negation Using Negative Words
Double Negative
Double negative on the other hand, simply defines the existence of two forms of negation
in the same sentence. Please, notice that a double negative can often result in an affirmation
in the English language (e.g., He hardly stops for small-talks). The rhetorical term for such
a phenomenon is ‘litotes’.
Example:
o I cannot find him nowhere.
Uses of Double Negative

Double Negative can be used in two ways. They are:

1. Using negative words

such as never, nobody, anyone, nothing, nowhere, etc

Example:
o He cannot go nowhere without informing me
2. Using prefix

Such as ir, un, non, pre, anti, il, im, etc.

Example:
o John is not uncontrollable by his family member though he is a special child.
More examples of negation of using prefix

In modern English, Double Negatives are highly avoidable as it is grammatically wrong.

We know we cannot use more than one negative word in a statement. It usually used in
informal conversation or speech and in songs’ lyrics as well. To form a correct sentence,
we must avoid using a double negative in a single sentence formally.

4. Clause and Sentence Structure

Phrases, Clauses and Sentences

A complete understanding of the structural parameters is crucial to the understanding of the

meaning of sentences. Here we will study all of the three components of a sentence structure,
one by one. Let us begin with phrases.

Phrase
Any group of meaningful words that don’t make complete sense is a phrase. If taken alone i.e.
without other words, it will not be meaningful at all.preposition and a  However, a phrase
occurs inside a sentence as its structural part.

Some of the examples of phrases are: in ten steps, the great man, a pink flower, the thick
canopy, expansion term, etc. Phrases are of several types as follows:

 Prepositional Phrase: This group of words begin with a preposition. The

preposition precedes a noun or a pronoun or something which acts as a noun or a
pronoun. Let us see some examples. Eid is a wonderful occasion. She was lost at
sea. I am writing this essay for the entire class. The entire prepositional phrase acts as
an adverb or an adjective most of the times.

 Noun Phrase: This is a phrase that acts as a noun in a sentence. A noun or a

pronoun and its modifiers make up a noun phrase. For example, The man takes a bus
every day to work. Arif has a very beautiful bag with him. 

 Verb Phrase: This phrase will contain a main verb and one or more helping verb.
These two will have a link that connects them together. This phrase will define the
various times of the action in a sentence. For example, The car is moving in a circle.
Will he be eating the entire buffet? How are you doing? These are some of the
common examples and the structure is auxiliary/modal verb + auxiliary verb + auxiliary
verb + main verb (as in the sentence above).
Clause

A clause is also a group of words but this group must contain the subject and a predicate.
Hence, a clause can make complete sense even when present outside the sentence. A clause is
that part of a  sentence that contains the subject and the predicate. For example, I have a dog.
The snow is falling since yesterday. Clauses are of following types:

 Main or Independent Clause: The main clause is that part of a sentence that not
only contains the subject and the predicate but also makes perfect sense if we take it out
of the sentence. in other words we can say that this clause does not need a context to
make sense. For example, China is growing at a very fast rate and this has surprised
many economists. The clauses in bold are independent clauses.

 Subordinate or Dependent Clause: A subordinate or a dependent clause must also

contain the subject and the predicate. The only condition is that these kinds of clauses
won’t make proper sense without another clause. The dependent clause depends on the
main clause for deriving a proper meaning. Let us see some examples: The country is
going from bad to worse. Asif has a dog who can stand on two legs. That is the
umbrella which I bought online. Iran has a very beautiful culture which is also one of
the oldest cultures in the world. The words in bold are the subordinate clauses.

Sentence and Sentence Structure

We define a sentence as a collection of words that make a certain intended sense. The
definition is also sometimes put as a collection or group of words that make sense to a reader.
Grammatically, we say that a sentence must have a predefined structure. A sentence may
contain a subject, a predicate, verbs and auxiliary verbs etc.

A sentence could be a command, a statement, an exclamation, a question. It has a main clause

and sometimes many clauses with at least one main clause. The sentence has to end with a full
stop and must have a finite verb in it. For example: Wait here. Put it on. I am a very strong
person but I also need to know more. The sentence structure has the following basic parts:
  Subject: About which something is being said.

 Predicate: Tells us something about the subject.

 Direct object: A person or thing that is affected by the verb.

 Indirect object: Usually followed by direct objects.

 The object of the preposition: Functions as a noun or pronoun and comes right after
the preposition.

 Verbs: Indicates action, the occurrence of something or state of being.

 Phrases: Makes sense but not complete sense, thus can’t stand alone.

 Complements: It provides complete meaning to a subject, an object or a verb.

Sentence according to Structure and Purpose

Sentences come in a variety of shapes and lengths. Yet whatever their shapes and lengths
(or types), all sentences serve one of only a few very basic purposes.

Sentence Type
Sentence variety is not about mere novelty; it is about meaning. You can avoid boredom
(yours and your readers') and choppiness by varying your sentence types. Longer, more
complex sentences can increase the impact of a shorter, simpler sentence.

Every sentence is one of the following types.

 Simple
 Compound
 Complex
 Compound/Complex
In order to vary your writing, you want to be able to construct sentences of each kind. To
master these four types, though, you really only need to master two things: independent and
dependent clauses. This is because the four types of sentences are really only four different
ways to combine independent and dependent clauses.

(Let's review: independent clauses are essentially simple, complete sentences. They can
stand alone or be combined with other independent clauses. Dependent clauses are
unfinished thoughts that cannot stand alone; they are a type of sentence fragment and must
be joined to independent clauses. For more information, see the TIP Sheet Independent &
Dependent Clauses: Coordination and Subordination.)

The simple sentence

A simple sentence is simple because it contains only one independent clause:

Justin dropped his Agricultural Economics class.

A simple sentence is not necessarily short or simple. It can be long and involved, with
many parts and compound elements. But if there is only one independent clause, it is,
nevertheless, a simple sentence. The following example has a single independent clause
with a single subject (Justin) and a compound verb (gulped, swallowed, groaned,
and decided):

Justin gulped down his fourth cup of coffee, swallowed a Tylenol for his pounding
headache, groaned, and decided he would have to drop his Agricultural Economics class.

The compound sentence

When you join two simple sentences properly, you get a compound sentence. Conversely, a
compound sentence can be broken into two complete sentences, each with its own subject
and its own verb. You can join simple sentences to create compound sentences either of
two ways:

 With a semicolon
 With a comma and coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
 For example, the following pairs of independent clauses can be joined either way:

Homer has Basic Plant Science on Mondays and Wednesdays; Environmental Horticulture
conflicted with his schedule.
Homer has Basic Plant Science on Mondays and Wednesdays, but Environmental
Horticulture conflicted with his schedule.

(Be aware that if you join two simple sentences improperly, you do not get a compound
sentence; you get a run-on, most likely either a comma splice or a fused sentence. For more
information, see the TIP Sheets Comma Splices and Run-on Sentences and Independent &
Dependent Clauses: Coordination & Subordination.)

The complex sentence

A complex sentence is a sentence that contains both a dependent and an independent
clause. In the following example, both clauses contain a subject and a verb, but the
dependent clause has, in addition, the dependent-making words even though. If you start the
sentence with the dependent-making words (or subordinating conjunction), place a comma
between the clauses. On the other hand, if you start with the independent clause and place
the dependent-making words in the middle of the sentence, do not use a comma:

Even though Eva took Turf Management just to fill out her schedule, she found it
unexpectedly interesting.

Eva found Turf Management unexpectedly interesting even though she took it just to fill out
her schedule.

 (For more on subordinating conjunctions, see the TIP Sheet Independent & Dependent
Clauses: Coordination & Subordination.)

The compound-complex sentence

A compound-complex sentence combines at least two independent clauses and at least one
dependent clause. The punctuation rules remain the same: the two simple sentences are
joined by one of the two methods described above, and the dependent clause is punctuated
(or not) depending on whether it precedes or follows an independent clause. In the
following example, the dependent-making word signaling the beginning of the dependent
clause is while:

Homer was already in class, and Eva was in the lab while Justin was sleeping off his
headache.
While Justin was sleeping off his headache, Homer was already in class, and Eva was in
the lab.

Homer was already in class while Justin slept off his headache; Eva was in the lab.

Sentence Purpose
Sentences can do different things. The purpose of some sentences is to make statements.
Declarative sentences make statements and end with periods:

I am planning to drop Agricultural Economics.

 The purpose of another sentence may be to pose a question. These interrogative sentences
ask questions and end with question marks:

Have you taken any Agricultural Engineering classes?

Imperative sentences give commands or make demands or requests. They usually end with
a period. An imperative sentence often has as its subject an unstated "you" (giving to
beginners in English grammar the appearance of lacking a subject altogether). The subject
of each of the following four sentences is "you:"

Hand in your homework assignments, please.

Stop. Drop. Roll.

Exclamatory sentences convey strong emotion and end with exclamation marks; use them
sparingly:

Watch out for the rattlesnake!