Task 3 - The nature of grammar

Diana Carolina Ortiz López

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS - (518017A_1141)

Group 518017_158

Tutor
Mangely Londoño

Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia - UNAD

School of Education Science ECEDE
Bachelor's Degree in Foreign Languages with English Emphasis
April 17 ,2022
The activity consists of:
Step 1: Checking

Step 2: Analysis

- Identify all the parts of speech used in the following sentence, consider page 82

in Yule, G. (2010):

Example: I = first person pronoun

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will

not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Martin

Luther King.
I First person pronouns
 Have: Verb

A: Article
Dream: Noun/verb
That: Demonstrative
My: Possessive Pronoun
Four: Number/Noun
Little: Adjectiv
Children: Noun
Will: Auxiliar for future
One: Noun
Day: Noun
Live: Verb
In: Preposition
A: Article
Nation: Noun
Where: Relative clause
They: Subject Pronoun
Will Auxiliar for future
Not: Negation
Be: Verb
Judged: Verb/adjective
By: Preposition
The: Article
Color: Adject
Of: Preposition
Their: Possessive pronoun
Skin: Noun
But: Conjuction/preposition
By: Preposition
The: Article
Content: Noun
Of: Preposition
Their: Possessive Pronoun
Character: Noun

- Answer the following question:

 What is the difference between grammatical gender and natural gender?

Consider pages 83 – 85 in Yule, G. (2010).

The grammatical gender is based on the type of noun (masculine and feminine) and is not

linked to sex, while the natural gender is based on sex (masculine and feminine).

 Write the reasons each sentence is Grammatically correct or incorrect in the

following sentences:

(1) I have seen the white house. (Grammatically correct)

This sentence is correct because the sentence has a subject, a verb and its complement,

when we write "casa blanca", the subject refers to only one object: house, but in the

position of these two words the adjective goes first (white) and then the noun (house), it

must be like this to be grammatically correct.

(2) I saw the white house. (Grammatically incorrect)

This sentence in English does not comply with the grammatical rules since the word white

is an adjective and therefore must be before the noun house, in this case the subject is

expressing this action in the present tense and refers only to a specific object.

(3) I painted the house white. (Grammatically correct)

This sentence is correct because it is written in another tense "past", besides the subject

expresses that he performed an action on a specific thing, where he expresses that he

painted the house and it also highlights the color that it was white for this reason the

adjective is presented after the noun.

 Why is (3) grammatical while (2) is not, since they both end in the same sequence

of casa blanca?
As mentioned before, the second sentence is not grammatical since in that case the

adjective - color should be first and then the noun - house to fulfill the rules, in the third

sentence the subject performs the action in another past tense and expresses the action he

performed to the house and also determines the color for this reason the complement in the

sentence changes.
 Bibliographic references

Yule, G. (2010). The Study of Language. Cambridge University Press.

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