By the end of the lesson, students should be able to :
1) know some of the related terminologies
2) identify syntactical categories and the functions
3) differentiate patterns of phrases and sentences
ENGLISH GRAMMAR
well-formed phrases and sentences
E.g:
boys the lucky
How this can be grammatical? – sequencing
Grammar : describing the structure of phrase & sentences in such a way that that rules out all the ungrammatical
sequences
TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR
Parts of speech – referring to items such as article, adjective, noun etc. in labelling the grammatical categories.
Originated from the languages of Latin and Greek
Inherited the best models for grammar - describing basic grammatical components; parts of speech and agreement
Parts of speech (refer to video presentation)
Agreement
Grammatical gender
Traditional analysis
PRESCRIPTIVE APPROACH
Captain Kirk’s Initiative
DESCRIPT
Structural analysis IVE
Constituent analysis
APPROAC
H
EXERCISES
1. identify parts of speech used in this sentence
The study of rules of ordering
components in phrases and
sentences
Syntax This system of rules is called syntax.
For example: we know that words
must be organised in a certain order in
the sentences.
For instance:
The girl goes on many long walks N
The girl walks V the dogs
Walks- which is noun? , which is verb?
NOAM CHOMSKY
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously
NONSENSICAL
Lexical Categories
Noun Adjective Verb Adverb
Pronoun Determiner Preposition
Definite article : the
Indefinite articles : a, an
Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
Determiners
are words placed in Quantifiers : a few, a little, much, many, a lot of, most, some, any, enough
front of a noun to
make it clear what Numbers : one, ten, thirty
the noun refers to.
Distributives : all, both, half, either, neither, each, every
Difference words : other, another
Pre-determiners : such, what, rather, quite
What is phrase?
Phrases - contain syntactic categories such as nouns, verbs and etc, that can be combined with other words to form larger
categories
E.g these mangoes (NP)
Has eaten (VP)
These delicious mangoes (AP)
Very happily eating (AdvP)
Phrase structure rules
Phrase structure rules
Tells you the rules on how to combine elements or which orders are acceptable to form sentences in a language (in this
case, English)
Syntactic structure is divided into phrases and that each phrase
must have a head.
For example, a noun phrase (NP) must include at least a noun, and a verb phrase must include at least a verb, and so on.
The head of the phrase is the most important part because it determines the category of the phrase.
S -> NP(Aux)VP
NP -> (Det) (Adj) N (PP) THE (BEAUTIFUL) STARS (ON THE SKY PP)
Six houses, all dogs, few people, these mangoes, that runner
VP -> V (XP) = XP can refers to (NP) (PP) (AdvP) (AdjP)
has eaten, will eat, eat, found
Has eaten (rice) (in the bowl) (graciously)
Pg 219 Denham and Lobeck
Clause
What is clause?
Made up of NP, AUX and VP
The very dirty worm seemed sad
The tapir is eating some leaves
Constituent
What is constituent?
Group of words that forms a larger syntactic unit
All the elements that combine to form a phrase are called constituents.
N is the head of NP- A phrase that can also include D, both D and N are constituents of NP
THESE MANGOES D, N
ALL MANGOES
NP AUX VP
In the clause The wind is rocking the boat
a. What are the constituents of the NP? D, N
b. What are the constituents of the VP (the
predicate)?
Identify the type of phrases stated below:
1. Under the stars: PP
2. Feels happy
3. Four boys
4. Dance gracefully
5. Play now
6. Very depressed
1. Feels happy - VP
2. Four boys -NP
3. Dance gracefully -AdvP
4. Play now - AdvP
5. Very depressed -AP
Diagram the clause ‘The wind is rocking the boat’
