Syntax/ Grammar 1

Syntax/ Grammar 1

1. What do we mean?

   • Meaning
     • Wide
       • All the patterns, rules and regularities within language.
     • Narrow
       • Only concerns the structure between word and text level (syntax)
         • more focused definition
   • Grammar (Crytal)
     • Prescriptive
       • Seeks to tell people how to use language. Discusses mistakes, style, right and wrong.
         • Prescriptive grammars have rules.
           • less vs fewer
     • Pedagogical
       • For language learners. Explains how to produce sentences, targeted to help build grammatical structures.
     • Descriptive
       • Finds out how people use language. Describing what people do when they build sentences, without imparting value judgements.
     • Theoretical
       • Further than description. Trying to derive theories and explain how these patterns appeared. Why and how, not just what.

2. Theoretical grammars

   • Generative grammar
     • Chomsky (1957)
     • Phrase structure Grammar
       • Infinite sentences are generated from a finite number of forms
     • Phrase Structure Rules
     • Grammar generates only well-formed sentences
   • Systemic Functional Grammar
   • Constructionist Grammar
   • Dependency Grammar

3. What is a sentence?

   • A subject and a predicate
   • A complete expression/thought
   • sentence-final punctuation
   • a complete structural unit
   • a unit of communicative exchange
   • consiting of a main clause and sometimes subordinate clauses
   • theory of sentence structure
     • determiner
       • noun
         • verb
     • verb phrase
       • noun phrase
         • sentence
     • verb
       • determiner + noun
         • noun phrase + verb phrase
     • subject
     • predicate

4. The level of linguistic structure between word and text

5. What is speech?

   • Word Class
     • open class
     • closed class
       • degree adverb/ particle
       • complementiser
   • lexical categories
     • meaning-based
     • inflection type
     • distribution