LESSON 1: WHAT IS GRAMMAR?

WHAT IS GRAMMAR?

According to Greenbaum and Nelson (2002), Grammar is the term which refers to the set of
rules that allow us to combine words in our language into larger units. And in this sense, we
can also use the term syntax for grammar.
Some combinations of words are possible in English and others are not. As a speaker of
English, you can judge whether the sentences are possible in English or not.

Let’s have a go!

Read the following sentences

a) Home computers are now much cheaper

b) Home computers now much are cheaper.

Which is the correct one?

If you can tell that a is a possible English sentence but, on the other hand, b is not, you have
clearly shown the ability to recognize the rules even if you have never studied grammar
before. You can operate the rules whenever you speak or write, or when you interpret what
others say.

Now, think about your native language. You acquire a working knowledge of it simply through
being exposed to it from early childhood. However, in order to analyze Spanish, you’ll need
to study the rules of it by learning grammar.

GRAMMAR AND OTHER ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE

Grammar is the central component of language. It mediates between the system of sounds
or of written symbols, on the one hand, and the system of meaning, on the other.

There are other aspects of language that help linguistic communication.

 Phonology is the usual term for the sound system in the language: the distinctive
sound units and the ways which they may be combined.
 Orthography parallels phonology in that it deals with the writing system in the
language: the distinctive written symbols and their possible combinations.
 Semantics is concerned with the system of meanings in the language: the meanings
of words and the combinatory meanings of larger units.

Three other aspects of language description are often distinguished: phonetics, morphology,
and pragmatics.
LESSON 1: WHAT IS GRAMMAR?

 Phonetics deals with the physical characteristics of the sounds in the language and
how the sounds are produced. Sounds and letters combine to form words or parts of
words.
 Morphology refers to the set of rules that describe the structure of words. The
word computer, for example, consists of two parts: the base compute (used
separately as a verb) and the suffix -er (found in other nouns derived from verbs,
e.g. blender).
 Pragmatics is concerned with the use of particular utterances within particular
situations. For example, Will you join our group? is a question that, depending on the
speaker’s intention, is either a request for information or a request for action.

For descriptive purposes, it is convenient to deal with the components of language

separately, but because of the central place of grammar in the language system, it is
sometimes necessary to refer to the other components when we discuss the grammar. You’ll
learn about this all along the teaching training course.

GRAMMARS OF ENGLISH

There are many grammars of English, that is to say books describing English grammar. They
differ in the way they cover the topic and how they set out the rules. There are also some
differences in the categorization and terminology they use. Nevertheless, most categories
and terms derived from a long tradition of grammatical description.

The grammatical analysis in this book follows the approach found in A Comprehensive
Grammar of the English Language by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech,
and Jan Svartvik. First published in 1985, that is a reference work on contemporary English
grammar that contains nearly 1800 pages. But, don't panic! We are going to select the
material!

NATIONAL VARIETIES

English is the first language of over 300 million people. Most of them live in the United States
of America, which has about 230 million native speakers of English, and the United Kingdom,
with about 54 million.

Other countries with large numbers of English native speakers that also constitute the
majority of the population are Canada (about 16 million), Australia (about 19 million), the
Irish Republic (about 3.8 million), and New Zealand (about 3.9 million).

Some countries have concentrations of English native speakers, though they do not
constitute the majority of the population; for example, South Africa has about 1.6 million
LESSON 1: WHAT IS GRAMMAR?

native English speakers apart from about 8.5 million bilingual speakers of English. While
recognizing that these people all speak English, we can distinguish the national varieties they
use as American English, British English, Canadian English, and so on.

English is a second language for over 300 million people who speak another language as their
mother tongue but also use English in communicating with their compatriots. For example,
the first language for about 30 per cent of Canadians is French and for millions of Americans
it is Spanish.

English is also the second language in countries where only a small minority speak it as their
mother tongue but where it is the official language or joint official language for government
business. Among these countries is India, where it is estimated that about 21 million people
speak English fluently as their second language (though these constitute only about 3 per
cent of India’s vast population).

Other countries where English is the official or joint official language include Gambia, Ghana,
Nigeria, the Philippines, Puerto Rico (where about 1.3 million inhabitants are bilingual in
Spanish and English), Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Since the English in each of
these countries has certain distinctive features, it is reasonable to refer to such national
varieties as, for example, Indian English or Nigerian English.

Finally, English is studied as the primary foreign language in most other countries. One
estimate is that over 150 million children are currently studying English as a foreign language
in primary or secondary schools. Its popularity lies in its value as an international language.

A knowledge of English is perceived in most parts of the world as essential for international
communication in commerce and tourism, in economic and military aid, and in scientific and
technological literature.
LESSON 1: WHAT IS GRAMMAR?

Do you think you have intuitions about English?

* Put an asterisk before sentences that you think would NEVER occur in English.

√ Put a check mark before sentences that sound like they COULD occur in English.

? Put a question mark before sentences that sound like they MIGHT occur in English but are
QUESTIONABLE.

You may have to read some sentences several times before understanding them.

1. This one-time offer is available for your family and yourself only until 5:00 pm Friday.
2. Cleaned the house my husband.
3. The children want to quickly eat and go to the game.
4. What did you eat hamburgers and?
5. The sweater is enough warm.
6. Who did the woman say saw what?
7. When you buy books anymore they’re so expensive.
8. I never do nothing on Saturdays.
9. The house in which I live in is perfect for parties.
10. I’m going to the mall, do you want to go with?

If you were able to rate the above sentences for grammaticality without any prior training,
you show some kind of grammatical intuition.

The intuitive knowledge that speakers have about which constructions are possible or
impossible in their language is made possible because of grammatical intuitions.

STANDARD AND NON-STANDARD ENGLISH

In addition to differences between national varieties of English, there are differences within
each national variety. Each has a number of dialects. In countries where the majority speak
English as their first language one dialect is used nationally for official purposes. It is
called Standard English.

Standard English is the national dialect that generally appears in print. It is taught in schools,
and students are expected to use it in their essays. It is the norm for dictionaries and
grammars. We expect to find it in official printed communications, such as letters from
government officials, solicitors, and accountants. We expect to hear it in national news
broadcasts and documentary programs on radio or television.
LESSON 1: WHAT IS GRAMMAR?

Within each national variety the standard dialect is relatively homogeneous in grammar,
vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation. Pronunciation is a different matter, since there is no
equivalent standard accent (type of pronunciation). For each national variety there
are regional accents, related to a geographical area, and
social accents, related to the educational, socio-economic, and ethnic backgrounds of the
speakers.

In British English, Received Pronunciation (RP) is a non-regional social accent associated with
public school education but it is not regarded as a standard accent to be learned in schools
throughout the country. It is spoken by about 3 per cent of the population in Britain.

Standard English has prestige because people connect it with education and with higher-
income groups. It is not intrinsically better than other dialects, though many believe it is. One
of its major advantages is that it has developed a range of styles to suit different kinds of
uses of the language, particularly in writing.

Non-standard dialects tend to be restricted to people from a particular region or from a

particular social group or to social groups within a region. Many people speak more than
one dialect, perhaps using different dialects at home and at work.

VARIATION ACCORDING TO USE

Language also varies according to context and communicative purpose. For example,
newspapers, cookery books, scientific papers, emails, poetry, and fiction all have distinctive
language features. Newspapers have a distinctive layout, headlines are often highly
compressed (Banks warned on student loans), cookery books tend
to use many imperatives (Mix the ingredients), scientific papers use many passive
constructions (A colorless gas is produced).

These varieties are known as registers, that is, varieties of language associated with specific
uses and communicative purposes.

Some variation depends on the medium, that is, the channel of communication. There is a
major distinction between spoken and written language. Conversation, the most common
type of speech, involves immediate interchange between the participants, who convey their
reactions either in words or through facial expressions and bodily movements. There is more
spontaneity in conversation than in writing; self-correction occurs in the flow of
LESSON 1: WHAT IS GRAMMAR?

conversation, whereas it is eliminated through editing in writing. Writing needs to be more

explicit, since obscurities and misunderstandings cannot be removed immediately.

Language also varies according to the attitude of the speaker or writer towards the listener or
reader, towards the topic, and towards the purpose of communication. We can select from
features that range from the most formal to the most informal.

DESCRIPTIVE RULES AND PRESCRIPTIVE RULES

Previously, I said that the rules of grammar state which combinations of words are possible
in the language and which are not.

Sometimes people speaking the same dialect disagree in their evaluation of particular
sentences. For example, some speakers of standard British English find acceptable I demand
that she gives her reasons; others prefer or require a different form of the verb in the that-
clause, either that she give her reasons or that she should
give her reasons.
A number of differences in the use of standard British English have acquired social
importance. Some speakers of the standard dialect consider that certain usages mark their
user as uneducated.

Rules that specify which usages should be adopted or avoided are called prescriptive rules.

Examples of prescriptive rules are:

• Don’t use like as a conjunction, as in He speaks like his father does.
• Don’t use between you and I.
• Don’t split an infinitive, as in to actually feel.
• Don’t end a sentence with a preposition. Speakers of the standard dialect tend to pay
greater attention to prescriptive rules when they are writing in a formal style.

Descriptive rules, on the other hand, focuses on describing the language as it is used, not
saying how it should be used. Descriptive grammar does not deal with what is good or bad
language use; forms and structures that might not be used by speakers of Standard
English would be regarded as valid and included. It is a grammar based on the way a language
actually is and not how some think it should be.

Bibliography:

Greenbaum, S., Nelson, G. (2002) "An Introduction to English Grammar" Second Edition. Longman.