An Overview of English Grammar

An Overview of English Grammar Parts of the sentence, grammatical units, the grammatical hierarchy Units if grammar may be placed in a hierarchy of potential size and extensibility: morphemes—words—phrases, --clauses—sentences Constituency: relation between one unit and another unit of which it is part. It is indicated by bracketing or a tree diagram. The evenings have become very cold just recently.

Immediate consituents: those units which are the parts into which another unit is immediately divisible, e.g. have turned (VP) – have and turned are immediate constituents of the entire VP. At the same time, the VP is an imm. Constit. of a clause. Unitary vs multiple constituency: a. it may be the only part into which another unit can be analysed. B. unit is divided into 2 or more immediate constituents. E.g. Sentences simple or multiple, multiple: complex v compound (include 2 or more clauses) Phrase: a unit consisting of one or more than one word: NP, VP, ADJP, ADVP.

Linguistic constituents are linked via chain (=an AND relationship) and choice (=an OR relationship) relationships. Int he lattewr , X or Y, X and Y can be substituted for each other. Subsitution= commutability: acceptable replacement in terms of the structure of the sentence, not necessarily in terms of meaning. The weather /It has been very cold /cold just recently/ recently. Commutable optional consituents

Linguistic units may function as different kinds. (Fast trains travel fast.) The word is important: it related grammar to the lexicon. Embedding: occurrrence of one unit as a constituent of another unit at the same rank int he grammatical hierarchí. It need NOT be an immediate consitutent of the equivalent unit in which it is embedded. E.g. in their room – in / their rooms Nyí embedding, both the NP and the Prep P can be indefinitely extended. Their position in the grammatical hierarchy is not affected by their length. Subordination: is one kind of embedding. Subord. Clauses are often introduced by subordinating conjunctions (since, because, however, etc.). Coordination: 2 or more units of the same status on the grammatical hierarchy may constitue a single unit of the same kind – signalled by (central) coordinators. and, or, but. Sentence- the highest ranking unit of grammar: issues of meaning,m context, style. Lexical acceptability, etc. BUT: the clause is a more clearly defined unit.

Two ways of classifying constituents: form and function . Form: the internal structure of a unit ( NP? , VP?). Function: a unit’s privilege of ccurrence in terms of position , mobility, optionality int he unit of which it is a consituent. (e.g. subject or object of a clause?) Two units which have the same privilege of occurrence are called functional equivalents -e.g. just recently /this month / during the past week- all three belong to the functional category of adverbial.

Clause structure: S, V, Od, Oi, Cs, Co, A(dv) (follows verb types, intr, mono tr, ditr., complex tr.) „Fixed-order” language. Normal, canonical word order.