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Grammar
Chapter 3 – The grammar of English
Definitions of grammar
• a set of rules which allow the production of wellformed sentences and utterances
• educated native speakers intuitively follow the
rules of grammar
• foreign learners study grammar in an explicit way
in textbooks
• non-native speakers may develop new rules which
deviate from standard rules
examples
• *I never did nothing to upset her.
(rule: multiple negation is not permitted in English).
The correct sentence is:
I never did anything to upset her)
• *She came yesterday, isn’t it?
(rule: the tag question must contain an auxiliary in
accordance with the type of verb used in the main
clause). The correct sentence is:
She came yesterday, didn’t she?
Descriptive vs Theoretical grammar
• Descriptive grammar describes how a language
works, drawing on a long tradition of
grammatical studies, using both traditional and
new terminology (e.g. subject, embedding)
• Theoretical grammars are new analytical models
developed by linguists to describe a language
(e.g. Systemic-functional Grammar).
• ‘metalanguage’
Morphology and Syntax
• Morphology: the area of grammar dealing with
the internal structure of words
• Morphology can be divided into derivational and
inflectional
• Syntax: the area of grammar dealing with the
way in which words combine to form larger units
such as phrases, clauses and sentences.
The Units of Grammar
• A hierarchy of units (rank scale)
Top down
text
sentence
clause
phrase
word
morpheme
Bottom up 
Morpheme: the smallest linguistic unit of meaning
and grammatical function
e.g. un- -less and glad -s
Word: linguistic unit preceded and followed by
spaces in the written language
A golden sun filled the air with light, and the green
sea lapped the sand (15 words)
Phrase: a linguistic unit made up of a word or a
group of words
A golden sun (Noun Phrase= sintagma nominale)
Clause: a linguistic unit made up of one or more
phrases, containing at least a verb phrase
e.g. A golden sun (NP) filled (VP) the air (NP)
Sentence: the largest linguistic unit made up of
one or more clauses
e.g. A golden sun filled the air with light, and the
green sea lapped the sand
John told me that he would like to move to Paris
Text: a sequence of sentences which is coherent
and cohesive
Word
• a word is a linguistic unit which in the
written form has a space on either side
(orthographic criterion)
but: weekend, week-end, week end
brother-in-law (cognato)
identity card
Word: a linguistic unit which, in the spoken form, is
surrounded by pauses and has only one main
stress
identity card []
blackbird, black bird
but:
Mary’s
and, have, from (unstressed in the spoken form)
Other criteria of wordhood
• Internal stability:
Elephant, elephants
but
brother-in-law, brothers-in-law
• A word expresses a single concept:
but
the (function word), dry, get (polysemy)
Lexeme, word-form
• LIST v.
list, lists, listing, listed
(lexeme)
(word-forms)
• LIST n.
list, lists
(lexeme)
(word-forms)
• TEACH
teach, teaches, taught, teaching
(lexeme)
(word-form)
Lexeme: a unit of vocabulary which includes
different variant form, called word-forms
• Lexicography: entry (voce), headword (lemma)
walk n.
walk v.
lexeme1
lexeme2
(passeggiata)
(passeggiare)
bank n.
bank n.
lexeme1
lexeme2
(money)
(river)
HOW MANY ‘WORDS’ ARE THERE IN THIS
SENTENCE?
I asked him to list all his books, but
instead of listing them all, he listed
only the relevant ones and his
favourite book
24 or 16?
Word / word-forms / lexemes
List / listing / listed =
3 word forms of the lexeme TO LIST
Book / books = 2 word forms of the lexeme BOOK
He / him / his = three word forms of the lexeme HE
(24 word-forms, 16 lexemes)
Word classes (parts of speech)
•
9 major word classes:
nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
conjunctions, prepositions, determiners,
pronouns, auxiliary verbs
•
inserts or interjections (Wow, Hey), whwords, numerals
•
some word-forms may belong to more
than one class (e.g. round n. adj. v. prep.
MULTIPLE CLASS MEMBERSHIP
• the same word form may belong to more than one
word class
e.g.
fast (Adj), fast (Adv), fast (N)
park (N), to park (V)
can (N), can (Aux)
• only the co-text, i.e. the surroundings of the word,
allows the reader/listener to understand the
difference
• word stress helps disambiguation
e.g. rebel (n.) [], rebel (v.) []
Divide the following words into 2 groups:
pig, autumn, me, explain, they, which,
sing, suddenly, from, today, biology, and,
truth, could, the, extraordinary, since, hot,
announce, in
• pig, autumn, explain, sing, suddenly,
today, biology, truth, extraordinary, hot,
announce
• me, they, which, from, and, could, the,
since, in
Open and closed classes
• open-class words  lexical words  content
words
4 classes:
nouns, (lexical) verbs, adjectives, adverbs
• closed-class words  grammatical words 
function words
5 classes:
conjunctions, prepositions, determiners,
pronouns, auxiliary verbs
open-class words
• length: (generally) polysyllabic
• origin: (generally) Latin, Greek, French,
Germanic origin
• frequency: less frequent
closed-class words
• length: (generally) monosyllabic or
disyllabic
• origin: (generally) Germanic origin
• frequency: more frequent
Nouns (N)
• Nouns are lexical words which refer to concrete
objects or entities
e.g. house (common, concrete, countable), Mary,
London (proper), love (common, abstract), sugar
(common, concrete, uncountable)
• they may take the ’s genitive case (genitivo
sassone)
Verbs (V)
• open class denoting actions or states
• lexical /main / full verbs
e.g. I like English
He walked to school
• auxiliary verbs (or auxiliaries) are added to lexical
verbs for various purposes
e.g. I could go faster. (modality)
John is going nowhere. (aspect)
Do you go to school? (question)
I do love him! (emphasis)
Lexical Verbs (V)
• dynamic: referring to physical processes= allow
the progressive form
e.g. to play, to walk, to drink
• stative / state : referring to states and conditions
= do not allow the progressive form
e.g. to know, to love, to believe
Adjectives (Adj)
• Adjectives are lexical words which describe qualities and properties
of things, people, etc.
e.g. happy, blue, wonderful
- gradable (very happy) - ungradable (dead, married)
• attributive function, before a noun
e.g. the extraordinary boy
• predicative function, after copular verbs (to be, to seem, to appear)
e.g. John is tall
• some adjectives are only used in either attributive or predicative
function
e.g. the child is afraid (predicative)
*the afraid child
e.g. the main task (attributive)
*the task is main
Adverbs (Adv)
• Adverbs are lexical words which carry out several
functions:
- express degree (very, really, totally)
- circumstance adverbs provide information about the
circumstances of an event or state, i.e., how, when, and
where (yesterday, now)
- disjuncts allow the speaker to comment on the whole
utterance (probably, unfortunately)
- Linking adverbs or conjuncts: connect one sentence or
part of a sentence to another
Fortunately, today the dog has eaten his food very quietly
outside
She wasn’t free to go to New York at Christmas and
besides she couldn’t afford it.
Prepositions (Prep)
• show the relationship between two items
• are typically followed by a noun phrase with
which they form a Prepositional Phrase (PP)
e.g. the dog ran under the table
[the table]=NP [under [the table]]=PP
• simple: single word
e.g. under, over, at, on
• complex: more than one word
according to, on behalf of, with regard to
Determiners (Det)
Function words used before a noun to indicate
definiteness or indefiniteness, quantity, possession, etc.
e.g. all these sugary cookies filled with jam and cream
The main subclasses are :
• articles (indefinite and definite): a, an, the
• demonstrative: this, that, these, those
• possessive: my, your, his, her, their, our, its etc.
• quantifiers: all, few, many, several, some, every, each,
any, etc.
• cardinal numbers: one, two, fifty, etc.
• ordinal numbers: first, second, third, etc.
Pronouns (Pron)
closed class of words which replace words avoiding repetitions
e.g. Michelle was offered an exciting new job and she decided to take it
Main subclasses :
• personal pronouns
e.g. They love football (subject) She loves them (object)
• possessive pronouns
e.g. This book is mine
• Demonstrative pronouns
e.g. This is my friend Tom
• reflexive pronouns
e.g. She hurt herself
• interrogative pronouns
e.g. Whose car is this?
• relative pronouns
e.g. This is the car which/that I want to buy
Auxiliaries (Aux)
A closed class of verbs which accompany lexical verbs
Two subclasses:
• primary auxiliaries
have, be, do
e.g. Liz is looking for a job, Do you speak English? She
has studied a lot
• modal auxiliaries (modality)
can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must,
e.g. I must go now! Would you like a cup of coffee?
Wh-words
A frequently used expression to refer to function
words beginning with wh adverbs (interrogative, relative, exclamative)
e.g. When did you call her?
 pronouns (interrogative, relative, exclamative)
e.g. Whose car is that?
 determiners (interrogative, relative, exclamative)
e.g. Which book did you choose?
Numerals
• cardinal, e.g. one, two, three, etc.
• ordinal, e.g. first, second, third, etc.
• numerals may function as nouns
e.g. The Magnificent Seven