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LINGUISTICS
Linguistic authority to control and guide the use
of language
Queen Anne died in 1714. Swift’s patron the Earl of
Oxford, a well known and influencial Tory leader, was
thrown out of power.
JOHNSON’S DICTIONARY : (1755)
English Language throughout its history, did not
have a linguistic authority to guide and control its usage on the lines of Academies constituted for French
and Italian languages. There was a time when Latin was
looked upon as a model and classical precedent was
often generalised. But towards the close of seventeenth
century the English nation became conscious of the
superiority of their language. Though the necessity of
a standardized form of language was keenly felt, nothing substantial could be done by a generation that remembered the disorder, confusion and changes brought
about by the revolution, Protectorate of Oliver Cormwell and restoration of English throne to Charles II.
It was a supreme achievement in the field of lexicorgraphy. Though it was not free from defects, this
dictionary continued as an authority of the language
for about a century.
During the eighteenth century, earnest efforts were
made to improve the situation by taking specific steps
on the following aspects.
Grammatical contributions
SWIFT’S PROPOSAL
1)
By the beginning of the eighteenth century the
time was apparently ripe, for the Academy and the
ground has been prepared. Swift wrote a letter in 1712
to Earl of Oxford, the Lord Treasurer of England which
was published under the title “ A Proposal for correcting Improving, and Ascertaining the English tongue”.
The letter reads” My Lord, I do here, in the name of all
the learned and polite persons of the nation complain
to your Lordship, as the first minister that our language
is extremely imperfect that its daily improvements are
by no means in proportion to its daily corruptions that
the pretenders to polish and refine it have chiefly multiplied abuses and absurdities and that in many instances it offends against every part of Grammar”. The remedy, he suggested, was an Academy though he does
not call by that name. Swift continued, “In order to reform our language. I conceive my Lord that a free judicious choice should be made of such persons, as are
generally allowed to be best qualified for such a work
without any regard to quality party or profession. Those,
to a certain number should assemble at an appointed
time and place and fix no rules by which they design to
proceed. Swift could not succeed in establishing an
English Academy because of political reasons. When
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The Royal Society founded in
- AD 1662
––– was the moving spirit of the Royal Society
- Dryden
––– was an achievement in lexicography
- Johnson's Dictionary
Johnson's Dictionary was published in
- 1755
The following are the Grammatical works contributed to the language during the eighteenth century.
William Loungton’s “Practical Grammar of the
English (1734)
(It was prepared on the basis of Latin Grammar)
2)
Joseph Priestly’s “The Rudiments of English
Grammar” (1726)
3)
James Buchanan’s The British Grammar (1762)
4)
Thomas Sheridan’s British Education (1756)
5)
Robert Baker’s “Reflection on the English
language” (1770)
6)
Lindley Murray’s English Grammar (1745)
The Grammarians of the eighteenth century
concentrated on the following aspects.
1)
To point out common errors in the usage and
thereby correct and improve the language.
2)
To codify the principles of the language in the
proper way and reduce it to rules.
3)
To settle disputed and controversial issues and
decide cases of divided usage. Those who
advocated the foundation of an Academy hoped
to systemize the facts of English Grammar and draw
up distinct rules by which all questions could be
viewed or decided. In the preface to the Dictionary,
Doctor Johnson declared, “when I first took the
survey of my undertaking, I found our speech
copious without order and energetic without rules,
Whenever I turned my view, there was perplexity
to be disentangled and confusion to be regulated”.
It is a fact that Grammar was utterly neglected. The
principal design of Grammar of any language, according to Lowth is to teach us to express ourselves with
propreity in that language, and enable us to judge of
every phrase and form of construction, whether it be
right or not. The plain way of doing thing is to lay down
rules and illustrate them by examples. But besides showing what is right the matter may be further explained by
pointing out what is wrong.
During the course of nineteenth century, the approach of Grammar was threefold.
- Dialect
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A functional variety of a language is called a
- Register
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The Colloquial speech of London is called
- Cockney Speech
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Otto Jesperson : The Great Danish Philologist and
Anglicist, published his first famous work “ Modern
English Grammar on Historical Principles in 1909. The
second, third, forth and fifth parts were also issued in
succession. Jesperson died in 1943 when he was working at the sixth and seventh parts. However it was completed by his former pupils in the University of Copenhagen. First part of the book was devoted to spelling
and pronunciation, the sixth to morphology while all
the rest were utilised for syntax. The Great work is principally a descriptive Grammar of correct English, with a
historical back ground. He was satisfied with registering and explaining the actual facts of English usage, in
the various stages of its development. The Book had all
the disadvantages and imperfections of a Danish writer
composing the English Grammar.
1.
Descriptive Grammar. It points out what actual
usage of English is
2.
Prescriptive : It prescribes correct usage of
language
3.
Proscriptive : This branch prohibits what people
should not use.
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All the approaches followed the tradition of Latin
Grammar Alexander Bain’s Higher English Grammar of
1862 was a classical work in prescriptive Grammar. But
this appraoch underwent a sudden change, when Henry Sweet published his “A New’ English Grammar Logical and Historical. Sweet was of the view that language
is partly rational and partly irrational and arbitrary. His
work was acclaimed as a masterpiece of its kind.
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A regional variety of a language is called
––– is the force with which a syllable is
pronounced
- Stress
A ––– may be defined as a phoneme or sequence
of phonemes pronounced at a single breath
- Syllable
The consonants produced by using both the lips
are called
- Bilabial
–––– are combinations of two vowels pronounced
as single phonemes
- Diphthongs
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A language is a system of arbitrary ––– symbols
- Vocal
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The speaker's knowledge of language is called
–––– prohibits what people should not use
- Proscriptive Grammer
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–––– prescribes correct usage of language
- Prescriptive Grammar
Educated Indian English is otherwise called
- General Indian English
––– Grammar points out what actual usage of
English is
- Descriptive
Expand the abbreviation R.P.
- Received pronunciation
- Competence
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–––– is the author of 'Modern English Grammar
on Historical Principles'
- Otto Jesperson
Authority for reference
1)
The New English Dictionary on historical
principles popularly known as “The New Oxford
English Dictionary” contains a variety of
illustrative quotations ‘It is the standard dictionary
accepted by the Commonwealth countries. This is
the most authoritative reference work among all
the users of English language. The dictionary gives
the history, significance and semantics of all the
English words used from the twelfth century, which
are now in use. In order to illustrate the semantic
changes, suitable quotations are provided. it is
unparalleld by any other dictionary in any of the
languages of the world. The first supplement to
the dictionary came out in 1933. The Oxford
dictionary is universally accepted as the highest
authority on all aspects of the language including
spelling, pronunciation and correct usage.
Daniel Jones : An English Pronouncing Dictionary” composed by Daniel Jones is a great work containing the pronunciations of all words in the International phonetic scripts. It is accepted as the best authority in matters of pronunciation. Daniel Jones confesses that he has no intension of becoming either, a
reformer of pronunciation or a Judge, but he has recorded the sounds of typical southern English as used
in ordinary conversation.
In addition to the authorities and reference books
mentioned above, there are a few public bodies connected with the usage of language in one way or other
and they are :(1) The British Academy : This was founded in 1909
as a society of learned men and eminent fellows,
meeting at regular intervals. This organisation has
no comparison with French or Italian Academies,
except its name. Although the Academy had
eminent philologists like Henry Bradley and
Professor William Craigie among its. fellows, it
could not make any contribution on matters
relating to the users of language.
(2) Philological Society : It was set up in 1842 with
membership of 200 persons and met regularly at
London, Cambridge and Oxford. The object of the
meeting was the investigating of:” the structure
affinities and history of the language. The society
undertook an ambitious and gigantic project for
the compilation of Good English Dictionary and
the result is the “New English Dictionary” which
stands accepted and recognised as the Greatest
authority in the language.
(3) The English Association : It was organised in 1906
with Head Quarters at London and branches all
over the world. The Association is intended to
uphold the standard of English writing and speech.
It encourages young writers to publish their works
and gives good services to the public enabling
them to hear great poets and writers. Inspite of all
these. the Association is not treated as an authority
in any matter connected with language or literature.
(4) B.B.C Advisory committee on spoken English :
The Committe was constituted for a special
purpose of training the announcers of the British
Broadcasting corporation. It was started in 1926
with Robert Bridges, the then poet laureate of
England, as the first Chairman. In 1934 George
Bernardshaw was elected as chairman Though
useful guidances were made available to the
announcers for the correct pronunciation, no
authority is claimed by this committee.
5)
Society for pure English : This society was
founded by Robert Bridges in 1913, and it
influenced the usage of English for about 34 years.
The founder members included scholars like,
William Craige, L.P. Smith, H.W. Fowler and G.S
Gorden. Robert Bridges entertained the firm
conviction that purity of English could be
preserved by “agreeing upon a modest and
practical scheme for informing popular taste on
sound principles for guiding educational
authorities and for introducing into practice certain
slight modifications and advantageous changes”.
Though the society was organised for noble
causes, it died along with the death of founder
scholars.
6)
H.W. Fowler : He published “A Dictionary of
Modern English usage” in 1926 and republished
in 1937 with necessary corrections. This work is
now accepted as a standard reference book which
was attained the position of authority.
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The New English Dictionary on historical
principles is popularly known as
- The New Oxford English
Dictionary
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––– is considered as the highest authority on all
aspects of English language
- Oxford English Dictionary
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An English pronouncing Dictionary is written by
- Daniel Jones
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Daniel Jones's English pronouncing Dictionary is
the best authority in matters of
- Pronunciation
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Philological society was set up in
- 1842
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The speaker's actual use of language is called
- Performance
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Phonetic study which deals with the production
of speech sounds is called ––– phoneics
- articulatory
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The English used in India is a ––– variety
- Non- native
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Educated South Eastern British English is called
- Standard English
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The most perceptible distinction between British
English is in the matter of
- Pronunciation
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The syllable that ends in a consonant is a –––
Syllable
- Closed
ENGLISH SYNTAX - A GENERAL STUDY
When we conduct a detailed analytical study of
English syntax, we will be able to observe two outstanding facts. The first is that the historical development of
English shows practically all the “errors’ that the Grammar Books warn against. The split infinitive has been in
vogue since the fourteenth century and Burns proudly
remarks “who dared to nobly stem ? Shakespeare offers
triple negatives as “ nor understand none neither”.
Though Dryden criticises the occurence of preposition
at the end of the sentence, he uses it himself. But Bible
translation and Shakespeare use the singular verb with
a compound subject.
Eg:. ‘Hostility and civil tumult reigns”. Group genetives like’ The king of England’s influence,” and someone else’s property have been in existence for a long
time. Fowlers, in King’s English, observes that a Southern Englishman still knows how to use shall and ‘will’
but few others do. “Whom do men say that I am” is a
peculiar usage appearing in the Authorised version of
the Bible.
Secondly, a very common mistake committed by
the Englishmen, as observed by Robertson, is the usage of “It is me” instead of It is I”, and who did you
see”, In so far as there is a distinction between a nominative and an objective, form, whatever proceeds the
verb is automatically assumed to be the subject and
whatever follows the verb to be the object.
Two common errors listed out above have a long
and venerable past history. The higher syntax of English goes back in large measure of French and latin
models. But the ordinary speech of the people seldom
comes out in the form of complex - compound sentences. The popular syntax is dominated by simple clauses
and this in turn by the subject verb - object order, rendered necessary by lack of distinctive case endings. In
the true Germanic tradition the modifier proceeds the
modified, adjective before noun and adverb before verb.
This regular order existed in Anglo - saxon and it is still
considered as such. A greater use of prepositions is
made necessary by the disapperance of case endings,
but the retention of a separate genetive, gives English
language the advantage of variety over some other languages.
Eg : The king’s crown
and
The crown of the King
For the old dative, we can use the preposition ‘to’
but also we can use a word order convention, whereby,
if two objects are expressed without, a preposition, the
first is taken to be the subject
Eg: ‘I gave the boy a book’, These alternative use
of expressing the genetive and dative relations give
English language a foot - hold in the linguistic families
namely Germanic and Romance.
Word formation is usually associated with the field
of vocabulary but at times, it is related to Grammatical
endings. O.E. had the power to form new words by means
of pre-fixes and suffixes to the same extent as its allied
languages namely Latin and Greek. But for the Norman
conquest and adoption of loan words, from French,
Latin and Greek, English language would have approximately the same appearence of German. In O.E. the
prefixes ‘for’ ‘with’ and ‘un’ were particularly productive and compound words such forbid, forbear, forgone,
withsay, withhold, withdraw and unbear were in current
use. During the middle English period, there were usages like unpossible, unpatient and unform, wherein
Germanic ‘un’ was prefixed to Latin roots. Chaucer has
used the compound words foreweped and forwaked.
Even to-day there are survivals of such compounds
namely forgive, forbid, withdraw, withhold etc. A productive native suffix for the formation abstract nouns is
the ‘ness’ Similar suffixes like ‘lock’ of weldlock, the red
of hatred, dom of wisdom, hood of priest - hood and
ship of friend ship were abundantly used. The interchange of suffixes has taken place in many words like
Richdom and falsedom, for instance, were replaced by
richness and falsehood. Adjectives were formed from
the nouns by adding the suffixes ful, less, some and
ish. In O.E. ster was a feminine noun suffix, to denote
the doer of an action. But the feminine connotation was
gradually lost. In Modern English we have not only
spinster, but also youngster and teamster. One extremely productive suffix, in modern English is adopted from
French. Eg. ee of consignee, payee, absentee, devotee,
allotee etc. In the original french ‘ee’ is the feminine
past participle ending, and there is something ludicrous
about its use in forms like draftee, trainee etc. The native counterpart is, of course, ‘ed’, When we compare
hunter with hunted with employer and employee even
such of those who are not linguistically trained feel that
there is something indegenous about the former pair.
There is tendency in modern times to combine a
verb and a preposition to form a noun like line-up, look
- up, show-off, and slow down, but this process has not
received general acceptance. It has not been definitely
established whether a hyphon is to be used or not in
such compound words. Otto Jesperson the famous
Danish Anglicist is of the view that in the case of compounds formed of two nouns, the older one between
them is definitely stressed on the first syllable as in the
words footstep and Grandson, to such an extent that
their pronunciation is often changed by the stress. Most
of these compound words are of pure anglo saxon origin. English is a language that tends to monosyllabism.
At the same time, compound forming tendency restores
the old polysyllabic pattern. The diversified processes
in the long historical development of English language
establishes five theories.
1)
Language is always dynamic and never static
2)
Language processes might be highly irrational and
not at all illogical
3)
There is nothing like completely analytical or
completely synthetic language
4)
The two processes that the breaking up a language
concept into its component elements and that of
putting the compound elements back again into a
single concept alternates in endless succession.
5)
Though English language may proceed further
towards monosyllabism, it is likely to re-trace its
steps astonishingly and become again a language
of long words and inflections.
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Word formation is associated with
- Vocabulary
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While there are eight diphthongs in R.P, there are
only –– in GIE
- Six
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The tip and blades of the tongue are together
known as
- Apex
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–––– articulators are those which move
- Active
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Articulators which do not move are called
- Passive
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The artificial language designed by I.A. Richards
and C.K. Ogden is called
- Basic English
MODERN APPROACH TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR
It has been pointed out by eminent Grammarians
that evolutionary changes have taken place during the
last fifty years in the academic approach to English
grammar. People who belong to the old tradition observed the rules of grammar with Biblical sanctity and
infallibility. But there are clear and distinct rules to distinguish between right and wrong in the usage of languages. Of late, linguists began to examine each aspect
of the language more critically that before with the result they are not prepared to follow the old traditional
rules and conventions blindly. Hither to, it was customary to follow the grammatical rules without questioning
the authority. The grammarians of the eighteenth century have been guided and influenced by the Latin grammar and principles of logic. The scholars of the eighteenth century argued that conceptions like square,
round, perfect etc. cannot have a comparative degree.
They expressed the view that a perfect quality cannot
become more perfect and an object which is square in
shape cannot become more square and something which
is round cannot be more round. But such watertight
considerations are not usually acceptable to a modern
writer. A living language which is dynamic and expressive cannot be shut down within the four walls of logic
and abstract theories. The rules of Latin grammar were
applied to the English language by the grammarians of
the eighteenth century on the assumption that there is
a theoretical structure, common to all languages and
hence there is no impropriety in adopting Latin rules.
Those Scholars spoke about acusative and dative cases, but in Modern English they have no relevance. So
also, the significance of gender in the usage is well
defined.
Modern critics are inclined to question the infallibility of traditional rules of grammar, as some of them
are not readily convincing. The conventional rules regarding the usage of ‘shall’ and ‘will’ largely depend on
the whims and fancies of a particular scholar. Modern
students are not prepared to accept their judgements
unquestioned. The traditional grammar is often condemned as one which existed in the pre-scientific age.
C.C. Fries a modern authority of Linguitics has stated
that modern grammar follows scientific method like other subjects and the result is very spectacular. No doubt,
the modern grammar is based on descriptive approach,
while the traditional grammar is founded on prescriptive methods. To make it more clear, old grammarians
prescribed what sort of language ought to be used and
lays down rules for the some. On the other hand, modern grammarians are more concerned with the language
used by the people and their approaches describes how
it is being actually used. The word ‘will’ expresses determination on the part of the speaker when principle of
traditional grammar is applied. But according to modern
grammar, ‘will’ is only a word of simple futurity and
does not contemplate any determination. Similarly, modern grammar allows the usage of nouns like council and
government in both plural and singular forms. Old grammarians have prescribed strict rules for their usage.
Another difference that is often pointed out is that
old grammarians have concentrated their attention mostly on written language where as the moderns are bestowing their attention on the spoken language also.
There was a tendency to go to the extreme by ignoring
the written form. but later on the mistake was realised and
rectified. It is the fundamental principle that mastery over
a language includes both spoken and written forms.
As a result of the scientific approach on the language studies in the modern age, the very foundation
of the traditional system was shaken. In the present
age, people are not satisfied with the old and time-honoured definitions of various parts of speech in the
language. According to traditional grammar, ‘verb was
doing, being, or having word’. This definition does not
hold good in all cases and especially in verbs like run,
wash, drink, walk, and drain, which are used as nouns
also. Another definition given to the verb by an old
grammarian J.C. Nesfield, ‘as a word used for saying
something about something else’ is also not perfect
and faultess. Another traditional Grammarian expressess
the idea more clearly when he defines that “the verb is
that part of which we make an assertion or ask question”. But there are many sentences in which question
can be asked and statements made, without the help of
a verb. So also there is ambiguity in regard to the defini-
tion of nouns, as sometimes they cannot be distinguished from adjectives. in short the conventional definitions of all parts of speech are defective in one way
or other. Old grammarians have classified the words
adopting two criteria instead of adhering to one. Some
parts of speech are defined, according to their meanings and some others according to functions. It has
been found impossible to attempt a classification of
words adopting conventional methods. Hence the modern grammarians have classified them based on their
place in a sentence ‘structure’. This approach has led
to many experiments and discoveries, which will be of
immense interest to a modern student of grammar.
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The grammarians of the 18th century guided and
influenced by
- Latin grammar and principles
of logic
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–––– is a modern authority on Linguistics
- C.C. Fries
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Modern grammar follows ––– method
- Scientific
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Traditional grammar is founded on ––– methods
- Prescriptive
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The modern approach to English grammar is
- Scientific method, descriptive
approach, emphasis on
spoken language
Modern approach
As already indicated modern grammarians are thoroughly dissatisfied with the traditional approach to the
study of grammar- C.C. Fries, has pointed out that the
traditional principles of grammar. are evolved on the
conditions and circumstances existed in the prescientific age. In his scholary work. “The structure of English” (1952) fries has made an earnest attempt to advance a system of grammar based mainly on the natural
structure of the language with this professed object.
He has analysed quite a good number of sentence from
the spoken language. His approach was peculiar in the
sense that he has ignored traditional grammar and refused to accept even the conventional names of the
various parts of speech. His intention was to discard all
the pre - conceived notions of and evolve a new system
on a clean slate, basing on actual observations. Though
the linguistic scholar Zelling Harries published his useful work “Methods in structural linguistics” in 1951 it
was more of academic interest only. But Paul Roberts
another linguist, whole - heartedly supported Fries’
approach and made valuable contributions, to the students and teachers of Linguistics.
C.C. Fries held the view that spoken language is
more important than the written one, for the purpose of
analysis. He was interested to observe the language
spoken by the people in their day to day life. He went to
the extent of tape-recording several telephonic conversations, caught unawares, and there by collected
records of natural and spontaneous modes of speech.
In the process of analysis, the word classes that he
discovered were labelled according to numbers and letters of the English Alphabet. To begin with, he allotted
the words to the same category, if they could fill up the
same set of positions in the sentence, on the lines already recorded. He adopted a completely different standard for the classification of sentences quite distinct
from the traditional one. which depended on function
and ‘meaning’ In order to decide upon a particular word
that should appear in a given position in a sentence Fries
experimented with a few test sentence, where other words
than the given ones were substituted in each of the positions in those sentences. Then he took a normal sentence like “The entertainment was fine’ he attempted to
find out appropriate words which could be substituted
for entertainment without changing the structure of the
sentences. Each substitution was compared with the language of the native speakers of the language to arrive at
a conclusion, Whether the structure of the sentence is
the same as the original sentence or not. The words in
the first position which retained the structure of the sentence as such were grouped together as class I Following the same technique in different positions, Fries identified four main class of words, which were numbered
1,2,3, and 4. These four classes of words were found
corresponding to the traditional parts of speeches namely noun, verb, adjective and adverb, though they are
very much similar in conception but different in content.
Besides these four classes which were labelled by Fries
as form classes, fifteen other classes of words were also
identified adopting the same procedure. They were designated as function classes and labelled by allotting alphabetical order from A to O. The principal function of
these words was to convery signals of structure in the
sentence. Fries established that these sounds of words
are added to the four form classes and hence he has
classified them as ‘Open class’. On the other hand, the
closed class remains almost constant since very few
words are added to them.
While conventional grammar deals with eight word
order (parts of speech namely, verb, adjective, adverb,
pronoun, preposition, conjunction and inter conjuction)
Fries has identified nineteen
of them. He has worked out
a grammar based on position
of words giving due consideration to the constituent
structure, Modern grammarians following the footsteps
of Fries have realised the fact
that constituents are manifestations of patterning that
ensures order in the sentence structure.
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Noam Chomsky
What is IPA ?
- International
Alphabet
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Phonetic
The author of 'An outline of English Phonetics'
- Daniel Jones
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Received Pronunciation or RP refers to the
pronunciation of the ––– part of England
- Eastern
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English is a –––– language for its rhythm is based
on the occurence of stress at regular intervals
- Stress timed
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Phonetics is the study of the ––––, –––– and of
speech sounds
- Production, transmission and
reception
Noam Chomsky
Chomsky is an American structural linguist, who
first propounded theory of the Transformational Gram-
mar’. He tried several methods to find out a satisfactory
constituent Analysis and finally came out with the conclusion that it is rather impossible to describe any language completely in terms of immediate constituents.
His scholarly work “Syntax structure (1957) has established that immediate constituent was not adequate
enough to account for the entire sentence structure; at
the same time, he had not rejected the theory outright.
In the year 1967, Chomsky published his “Aspects of
the Theory of syntax”. revising the original work “Syntax structure” In this publication, the simplest sentence
in the language were named kernal sentences, and complex sentences are derived either from the kernal sentences or from a sequence of these. It is possible to
analyse Kernal sentences by applying the constituent
structure method. Chomsky introduced a vital change
to the aims of Grammarians describing kernal sentences
in terms of constituent structures and showing how
other structures are brought about by transformation.
Before the innovations were introduced by Chomsky
the Grammarians were interested only in the analysis of
the sentence structure. They attempted to devise scientific procedure for analysing sentences recorded from
the native speakers of English, into the various component parts. Technically this method was termed “Procedure” The grammarians were trying to discover the
structure of English from the spoken language and also
attempted to discover the structure step by step.
Chomsky however did not agree with this procedure and asserted that it was an ineffective exerecise.
He quoted the analogy of Sir Issac Newton who discovered the theories of ‘Gravitation’ and Laws of motion’ He held that people are interested only in the facts
connected with the discovery and they are in the least
bothered to know how Newton arrived at them. Chomsky insisted that people should accept the description
and would agree with facts and they need not worry
about how a description of the language could be arrived at.
Chomsky’s new grammar is not only transformational but also genetive in the sense that it provided a
set of rules for the generative. He further contended
that the rules can be arrived at by any method including
intuition and once the rules are formulated they should
be tested for validity. To be precise, the sentence gen-
erated according to these rules, should be compared
with the actual sentences recorded from the spoken
language. Chomsky created rules which would generate a large number of sentences. But since English being a dynamic language, it is not possible even for the
generative grammar of Chomsky to forecast exactly the
sentence it would contain.
Chomsky was concerned in not merely generating
sentences of the spoken languages, but he wanted to
provide information as to their structure pointing out
how different structures were related to one another.
For achieving this objective a transformational grammar is far better than a grammar consisting of only constituent structure rules. The principle of transformational grammar has influenced the language from 1957 and
now we are able to describe the language adopting the
new methods. The new grammar is certainly more interesting than the traditional one and it provides deeper
insight into the language. The science of linguistics is
still in the stage of infancy and more areas yet remain to
be explored and developed. Instead of considering grammar as a closed chapter there is a new approach to the
study of modern grammar with an open mind. This
change in attitude is certainly due to the recent innovations introduced by Chomsky and his followers.
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––– is an American structural linguist
- Noam Chomsky
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Transformational Grammar theory was propounded
by
- Noam Chomsky
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'Aspects of the Theory of synatx' is written by
- Chomsky
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'The synatx structure' - is authored by
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Chomsky's Grammar is not only transformational
but also ––– in sense
- Noam Chomsky
- Genetive
IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENT ANALYSIS
Introduction
If we analyse the elements of conventional grammar we would find that there is some description of
constituents in it though the classification of words is
not made with reference to other positions. In the traditional grammar, sentences are divided into clauses (principal clauses and subordinate one) clauses into subjects and predicates and each of these into phrases. In
other words, the conventional grammar illustrates how
a single word occuring in a sentence can be replaced by
clause or a phrase performing the same function in the
given sentence. For example, examine the following sentences.
He is having a Japanese pen,
He is having a pen made in Japan
He is having a pen which is made in Japan.
It may be noted that the adjective, adjectival phrase
and adjectival clause italicised in the above sentences
can be equated by the same traditional definition. In the
conventional grammar, the same type of equations are
possible in respect of nouns and adverbs. In a wider
sense, we can describe the conventional Grammar, as a
type of constituent structure Grammar. Structural linguists like. C.C. Fries and Bloomfield, who introduced
the technique of constituent analysis and Wells was
the linguist, who improved upon it. The system of Immediate constituent Analysis breaks up a sentence (utterance) into various component units and provided a
unified systematic theory for determining the constituents of a given sentence. This method analysed each
constituents into maximum number of independent sequences. It is only an analytical procedure for determining the units of the spoken sentence of the language. Structural linguists insisted that meaning being
secondary should naturally follow structure.
Immediate Constituent Analysis
I.C. Analysis is the name given to a system adopted by the structural linguists Bloomfled and wells to
describe English Syntax. Structural Grammatists consider that sentences of a language should not be treated as a sequence of words grouped in a particular way.
According to N.R. Cattel, a well known modern linguistic scholar “ sense is conveyed not only by the dictionary meaning of words, but also by their arrangement
in patterns’. But C.C Fries puts the same idea in a different way. He says. The predictable responses to language that constituent social co-operation come not
from lexical items alone, but from structural frames with
words as content’.
The grouping of words in a sentence are called its
constituents. It is usual to divide each sentence structure into its main parts that are called its “Immediate
Constituents” and then divide each of the main constituents into smaller parts called constituents. A two words
sequence like, “Birds sing” which is a simplest sentence in the language, has its own constituents. Birds
and Sing. In such patterns, we do not have smaller constituents’. But it is possible to supplement the sentence
with additional items constituting two small constituents.
1. Birds
Sing
2. Few Birds
Sing Melodiously
The immediate constituents are shown in the two
boxes of the second diagram namely ‘few birds’ and
‘Sing melodiously’. Each of the four constituents in
the above sentence can be further expanded as follows:“Few of the domesticated birds sing melodiously
both in the morning and evening”. In this sentence few
of the domesticated birds and sing melodiously both in
the morning and evening are the Immediate Constituents, which can be analysed into smaller constituents
till every word in sentence is divided from every other
word. At the same time, it does not mean that each sequence of words is the constituent of something else.
Few of the domesticated and melodiously are not constituents of anything. This indicates that constituent
grouping of words are arranged in a way., which would
reflect our instinctive knowledge of sentence construction. The grouping of words in a sentence is very important for understanding the sense in which they are
used. In the written form, many sentences remain ambiguous because groupings are nor properly indicated
by the sequence of words. For example examine the
sentence. “In case of emergency the English people
who are highly patriotic join the army’ It is capable of
two interpretations.
They are :- (1) In case of emergency the English
people / who are highly patriotic join the army.
2)
In the case of emergency the English people who
are highly patriotic/join the army.
In the first pattern of grouping, it would mean that
English people who are highly patriotic, join the army. It
would also mean that English people who are highly
patriotic alone would join the army. But the second
grouping conveys a different meaning. It contains a
general statement that the English people in general are
highly patriotic, and they join the army in case of emergency.
The structural linguists who introduced and popularised the system of I.C. analysis with the object of
describing English syntax attempted to show how an
ultimate structure could be built up by layers of simple
structure. In order to achieve this object, they analysed each sentence (Utterance) into component parts.
The aim of I.C. analysis is to give a unified and systematic theory for determining the constituents of a sentence and analyse each sentence and each constituent
into maximum number of independent sequences. This
type of analysis does not enable us to generate sentences but simply lays down the procedure for discovering the units of a sentence (utterance) To ascertain
the structure of linguistic units whether they are sentences or words, we have to divide them into two or
three according to the length of the sentence. Usually
short sentences are divided into two. In a like manner, a
single work like a long sentence can also be divided
into their component parts.
In the process of I.C. analysis, groups and units
are analysed on the basis of their privilege of occurence
or frequency of occurence in the language. Groups of
words having the same privilege of occurence can be
substituted each other. While substituting we have to
look into the meanings of sentences since correctness
in the structure alone cannot convey meaningful utterances.
However, there are certain defects in the I.C. analysis. First one is that it cannot analyse the question
patterns like “ Do you go there every week ? The analysis becomes ineffective because the words ‘do’ and
‘go’ which are the auxilliary verb and verb proper respectively would get separated and cannot be put together in a box diagram. Therefore, the immediate constituents become discontinuous and the box diagram
of such a sentence gives rise to confusion regarding
layers of structure. Another defect usually pointed out
against I.C. analysis is that structural division of vague
sentences are capable of being interpreted in different
ways. If we examine the sentence. “flying planes can be
dangerous” there is obviously more than one privilege
of occurence as it can be analysed in two different ways.
1)
Flying planes / can be dangerous.
2)
Flying / planes can be dangerous.
The phrase ‘flying plane’ is ambigous and it is
capable of two interpretations. It can either be planes
that are flying’ or it can mean the act of flying the plane.
(as a pilot). When we analyse the above sentence we
have to point out the ambiguity by drawing two box
diagrams. This kind of ambiguity can be observed in
the sentece “visiting relatives can be a nuisance”.
The phrase ‘visiting relatives’ can convey two layers of meanings. It can denote either the visiting relatives or the act of visiting relatives. In the first case the
word visiting is an adjective whereas in the second the
word visiting is a verb. Similar type of ambiguity can be
traced in the sentence. The Tennis court will be available for school boys only on sundays’. This sentence
can mean either the Tennis court is available for School
boys only on sundays or the court is exclusively made
available to the school boys on sundays similar ambiguity is very apparent in the following sentence.
“ He decided to retire when he reached the age of sixty.
This sentence is capable of interpretation in two
different ways. The first is that he decided to retire when
he would reach sixty and the second is that a decision
to retire was taken when he attained the age of sixty.
It has to be made clear that the essential function
of Grammer is to account for such ambiguites. But the
I.C. analysis does not do so. The I.C. analysis deals
with the structure of sentences that are already in existence. At the same time, it cannot generate all the possible sentence in English, though it describes a few well
known patterns and their structures. But structure alone
cannot express the meaning. On account of these short
comings in the technique of I.C. analysis a, new system
has to be devised to describe all possible utterances
and to generate the sentence of the language. It is with
this objective in view, Chomsky and his followers have
introduced the transformational and generative grammar.
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I. C. Analysis is
- Immediate
Analysis
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Constitutent
I.C. Analysis is propounded by
- C.C.Fries and Bloomfield and
Wells
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I.C.Analysis is done by
- Breaking up a sentence into
various component units and
provided a unified systematic
theory for determining the
constituents of a given
sentence.
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The grouping of words in a sentence are called its
- Constituents
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Chomsky's transformational and generative
Grammar was a better method avoiding the defects
of
- I.C. Analysis
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I.C. Analysis' lack of impression is due to
- Its inefficiency to interpret the
correct meaning
CERTAIN IMPORTANT LINGUISTIC TERMS
ANALYSED
1) Full and Empty words :
Full words are those that have some element of
meaning even without any context. Eg. horse, drive,
weeks. The full words are also called Pleremes.
reminding to Greek origin. The Greek word plerema
means something which is full. In English Grammar,
those words are also called Lexical words.
Empty words : are those which do not convey any
meaning if taken out of context. They are also called
Kenemes in reference to the Greek origin Kenos
The word Kemos in Greek means empty word like
“and, ‘the’ ‘to’ and ‘ah’ are classified under empty
words. These Grammatical words contain
prepositions and conjuctions and modern
Grammarians call them function words.
The basic relation between those two classes of
words is that it is impossible to bring out the
relation between the Lexical (Full) words in
sentences without the help of Grammatical (empty)
words like definite articles, prepositions. In an
affected language like modern English, empty
(function) words do have grammatical and
structural meanings.
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––– words are those that have some element of
meaning even without any context
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Horse, drive, etc are examples of
- Full words
- Full words
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2) Paradigms :
Paradigm indicates a list of possible forms which a
word like noun, pronoun, adjective or verb can
assume in order to express different forms of
inflections. The following examples may be seen.
Noun : dog
- Empty words
eg : and, the , to
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Pronoun - I
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Adjective - rich, richer, richest
(1) Attributive adjuncts are those qualifying nouns.
Eg. Next week., good qualities, Hundred Rupees,
high price.
The first words in the above expressions are
attributive adjuncts. They generally denote a
condition or quality of the person or thing which
is indicated by the noun is qualified.
(2) Predicative adjuncts : It qualifies noun or pronoun
without being subordinated to them.
Eg. It was praised as a noble deed.
Pride makes him almost buoyant
Riches, richer, richest are –––– of the word 'rich'
- Paradigm
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hide, hides, hiding, hid, hidden
(3) Adjunct : The term adjunct is defined as an
amplification of the subject, predicate or object of
a sentence. Modern Grammarians have identified
five kinds of adjuncts namely attribute, predicative,
adverbial, prepositional and free adjunctives.
–––– indicates a list of possible forms which a
word can assume in order to express different forms
of inflection
- Paradigm
I, me, my, and mine
In the examples illustrated above the different
forms of the noun, pronoun adjectve and verb are
called paradigms.
Empty words are also known as
- Kenemes
dog, dogs, dog’s and dogs'
Verb - hide
Words which do not convey any meaning if taken
out of context are called
Attributive adjunct qualifies
- nouns eg : hundred rupees
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––– qualifies noun or pronoun without being
subordinated to them
- Predicative adjunct
(3) Adverbial adjunct : It modifies verbs adjectives
and adverbs.
Eg. The birds sing melodiously
He was almost drowned, He visited the place often.
(4) Prepositional adjunct : If an adverbial adjunct
consists of a single word, which is an adverb or
when it consists of a preposition and a noun or a
pronoun, it is called prepositional adjunct.
Eg : He lives near the school.
(5) Free adjuncts :They are quasi in dependent words,
generally occuring at the beginning of the sentence
and separated from the rest of the sentence by a
clean break. A free adjunct may be used with or
without conjuction.
Eg : Brought up by the disciplined parents, he
cultivated noble manners even from the
childhood.
Though a bright student, he could not secure first
class in the Exam.
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Full words are also called
- Pleremes
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The Greek word plerema means
- Something which is full
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The word kemos in Greek means
- Empty
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Adjunct is defined as –––
- an amplification of the
subject,
predicate
or
object of a sentence
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Adverbal adjuncts modifies
- Verbs, adjectives, adverbs
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Semi- independent words, occuring at the
beginning of the sentence are called
- Free adjuncts
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Full words are known as
- Lexical words
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Empty words are known as
- Function words
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The smallest linguistic unit is called
- Morpheme
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I.C. Analysis is related to
- English Synatx
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Full words are called
- Free Morphemes
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Empty words are also known as
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The simplest types of sentences are called
- Bound morphemes
- Kernel sentences
(4). Intensifiers : The term is used by modern
linguists to indicate what traditional Grammarians
would have called adverbs under certain
conditions. The introduction of this new term
enables us to distinguish this classes including
adverbs of time place and manner. Intensifiers
usually modify adjectives as could be seen from
the expressions like, extremely happy, very weak,
presumably temperate, quite convincing and
exceedingly high.
(5). Concord : It is a term of modern Grammar used
for indicating formal agreement in a person number,
gender of tense, when there is a combination of
two or more of these parts of a sentence. It follows
from the definition that when two forms are in
formal agreement or show concord, the use of one
form necessitates the use of the other. There are
two kinds of concords namely unilateral and
bilateral.
Eg. The usage ‘we are reading’ is correct; but the
usage ‘we is reading’ or ‘we am reading’ are
incorrect because there is a formal agreement ‘we’
and ‘are’ . This is a typical example of unilateral
concord.
Let us now examine the word ‘am’ which is the
present tense of the verb ‘to be’ The word can
combine only with the first person singular. The
pronoun I does no combine with the other word
forms of the present tense singular of the verb
namely ‘is’ It is not correct it so say ‘ I is happy or
‘he am happy’ because, there is bilateral concord
between I and am.
(6). Allomorphs : In the study of modern linguistics
morpheme is a very important concept. Morpheme
can be defined as the smallest linguistic unit or
meaningful unit or meaningful sequence of sounds
which cannot be further divided. Let us examine
the word, ‘Boys’. In that word the first morpheme
namely ‘boy’ conveys the lexical meaning of the
word as given in the dictionary. The second
morpheme ‘s’ carries the structural meaning
indicating plurality. The ‘s’ sound in ‘boys’ occurs
as the last morpheme in most of the English nouns
to indicate plural form. In certain other cases, we
have different forms of morphemes to denote
plurals. The spelling ‘e’ and ‘es’ do express the
idea of plurality ; but they have three different
pronunciations namely s, x, and ∂z, for the plural
morpheme in English. In technical term these s,z,
and ∂z sounds are known as allomorphs of the
same morpheme. In other words, they are alternative
members of the plural morpheme in English
language.
In the science of descriptive linguistics, the theory
of morpheme and allomorphs of the plural
morpheme namely s,z, and g, z, are conditioned
and as each of them occur under certain well defined conditions the conditioning factor, being
the phonetic nature of the proceeding phoneme.
Hence they are said to be phonetically conditioned
and complementary in distribution . If we
understand the facts of distribution, it is easy to
select one of the three allomorphs in a given
context. In the word (‘oxen’ which is the plural of
Ox. the morpheme 'en' is an allomorph which is
applied to very few words in the language. There
is no phonetic theory of demanding such a
selection of ‘en to indicate plurality of the singular
noun ox. In similar words like, box and axe, the
word iz is added to form plurals. The pecularity
about the morheme ‘ox’ and the selection of ‘en’ to
denote plurality is said to be morphologically
conditioned.
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- Modal auxiliaries
(8). Constituent negation : It is a process of limiting
the negation to some constituents instead of
extending it over the whole sentence, when
negative transformation is attempted in the basic
sentence pattern of English. It is possible to apply
negation to a single word or phrase so that the
whole sentence is not negated. Constituent
negation is usually effected by applying prefixes
like ‘un’ ‘dis’ or suffix ‘less’ to the word which is
negated.
(7). Modal auxiliaries : An auxiliary may be defined
as a verb, which is used to form the tenses, moods,
and voices of other verbs and modal auxiliaries are
those used with exclusive modal function.
‘Do’ ‘will’ ‘can’ ‘could’ shall’ may, might and must
are modal auxiliaries. They express the distinction
between reality and desirability and even mere
suppositions.
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––– modify adjectives
- Intensifiers
The formal agreement in person, number, gender
of tense in a sentence is called
- Concord
The minimal meaningful units of utterance are
called
- Morphemes
––– Morphemes can stand independently as a
word and they have a meaning of their own
- Free
The morphemes which do not have a meaning of
their own and do not have an independent
existence are called
- Bound morphemes
The positional or contextnal variants of a morpheme
are called
- Allomorphs
––– is the study of the distribution and
organization of morphemes of a language
- Morphology
Frictionless continuant and semi vowels are
together called
- approximants
Do, will, can, could, etc are
Eg. It is unbecoming for a clergyman to use such
expression, Is it not ?
1)
It is not necessary to argue. Is it ?
(9). Fossil : It often happens in a living language like
English that a word which was one of a whole
class or a form which was widely used at one stage
becomes gradually isolated. Such a word may
become either the centre of a new group or may
remain as a fossil. In English language, such fossils
are very many. Some times a word may become
obsolate, but may survive in a particular phrase or
idiom that has attained current use.
Eg. The word ‘nonce’ belongs to the fossil
category which appears in the phrase “for the
nonce”. In modern English it conveys the meaning
“for the occasion” or “for the time being. The word
has derived from the expression “for them once”.
the transference of letter ‘n’ from the word ‘then’
to the beginning of the word ‘once’ in the phrase
“for then once makes the phrase “for the nonce”.
with the former meaning at one time.
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––– is a process of limiting the negation to some
constituents in a sentence
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Prefixes like 'un', 'dis', or suffix like 'less' are used to
show
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Give an examples to the fossil category of words
(10).
It differs very much from the systematic etymology.
Broadly speaking, the unconscious attempt to
associate together words which resemble in sound
and show a fanciful similarity in meaning though
unrelated in their root origins give rise to folk etymology. The process is associated with popular
misunderstanding and it often affects the spellings
of certain words. One such word is rhyme. The
word is Anglo - saxon origin which meant measure.
The present spelling rhyme is closely associated
with greek word rythmos. It is an instance of folk etymology. Similarly the word sand - blind has
derived from the Anglo - saxon word sam - blind
which meant semi - blind. People began to change
the first element of the word from sam to sand
because of the reason that sand can make an eye
blind.
- Constituent negation
- Constituent negation
- 'nonce'
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Folk - Etymology
Mixing of dialects is a reason for
Shame faced is still another word transformed from
shame fast due to folk- etyrmology. In the Anglo - saxr
Decay of inflectional endings is a feature of
on, the word fast means confirmed and shame fast means
- Middle English period
modest. When the second element of the word is
changed from ‘fast’ to faced the word lost its earlier
In modern usage it means shame in one's face.
One - Words relatedmeaning.
to Literature
Similar changes in spelling as well as in meaning can be
A note to help the memory
- Memorandum Writings
the purely
literary
kind English.
- Belles - letters
traced inofseveral
words
in Modern
Conversation between two characters
- Dialogue Inscription at the end of a book
- Colophon
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The unconscious attempt to associate together
A new word coined by an author
- Neologism High flown artificial diction
- Euphuism
words which resemble in sound and show a
Speech or piece of writing in praise
- Panegyric One who
is hired to write books
- Hack writer
similarity
in meaning
unrelated
to
Statement that seems absurd though well-founded
A bookfanciful
that gives
information
on allthough
branches
of
the
root
origins
is
called
- Paradox knowledge or of one subject
- Encyclopaedia
Word with the same meaning
- Synonym Selected lines from books
- Folk etymology
- Excerpt
Chief person in a work of fiction
- Protagonist To
remove
objectionable
portions
of
a
book-Expurgate
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Sand-blind has derived from the Anglo-Saxon word
Lexicon with a collection of words quotations etc.
Sudden
speech
preparation
- Extempore
sam
-blindwithout
is an example
of
- Thesaurus An illustration facing the title of a book - Frontispiece
Folk terms
etymology - Glossary
An inferior poet
- Poetaster List and explanation of-certain
A writer with inadequate means to live
- Garreteer Long,
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Sentence
stress
indicates
loud, speech
(often
scolding)
- Harangue
A writer doing work for which the employer takes credit
To add misleading materials
to
a
book
Interpolate
- What words in a sentence
are
- Ghost writer A detailed list of articles stressed
- Inventory
One who adopts literature as a profession- Literateur A list of subjects, with references , at the end of a
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Falling intonation is used in
A writer of simple rhymes
- Rhymester book
- Index
Sarcastic squib
- Skit Mode of speech, expression,
- Statements,
wh - questions and
full of unfamiliar
Repetition of one same idea in different words
(technical) terms
- Jargon
commands
- Tautology Brief
speech
Laconic
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Rising into nation is used in
A collection of literary foagments
- Analects A personal satire
- Lampoon
-- Yes / No questions, polite
requests
- Decay of inflections
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What syllable or syllables in a word are stressed
is shown by
- Word stress