CHAPTER 2 GRAMMATICAL METALANGUAGE

With the function words(content word deleted)

Metalanguage- a language to describe a language. The for the in the

SUBSENTENTIAL TERMINOLOGY With the content words ( function words deleted)

SEMANTIC, STRUCTURAL, AND FUNCTIONAL broom sweeping floor belongs closet

Semantic criterion- traditional grammarian’s definition NOUNS

of the part of speech.
- Meaning based definition.  Is a name of person, place or thing. Some
Structural – or formal characteristics: their position in linguist include “or idea” to account for abstract
the sentence, adjacent function words if any, and their nouns.
constituents.  Nouns have endings or derivational morphemes
-For instance, common noun in English typically occupy that formally indicate that a word is a noun
positions such as the following and are preceded by a (sadness)
function words such as the or their.  They also have grammatical morphemes or
inflection or inflections for plural and
The was very amusing. possessive.
Did you notice their ?  In terms of their position, they are frequently
preceded by determiners, such as articles.
Morpheme-the smallest unit of speech.  Nouns serve functionally as subjects of verbs.
Two types of morpheme inflection: They can also, however be:
1. Grammatical morpheme 1. Direct objects of verbs: He watered his lawn.
Book-book/s 2. Subject noun predicates: We are all learners.
Girl-girl/s 3. Object noun predicates: They elected Ann
-it can also show possession president.
Girl vs. girl’s 4. Indirect objects of verbs: Ann gave the people
2. Derivational Morphemes- than mark nouns confidence.
derived from other parts of speech. 5. Appositives: Albany, capital of New York is
Sad+ness = sadness located on the Hudson River.
Kind+ness=kindness 6. Objects of preposition: Troy is located on the
Hudson River.
Functional criterion- it defines a part of speech by the 7. Vocatives: Let me tell you my friend, grammar is
grammatical function it plays in the sentence. just plain fun!
 Another fact worth knowing about nouns is
Example: that there are three types.
- Common nouns – nouns referring to a kind of
The glass is dirty. ( glass is a noun because it is the person, thing or idea.
subject of the verb is) - Common nouns themselves are divisible into
two subcategories: count nouns (which take
The glass ashtray is dirty (glass functions as an plural inflection) and mass nouns or non-count
adjective) nouns (which don’t take plural inflection)
- Proper nouns- or names of unique individuals,
PARTS OF SPEECH or places. Proper nouns can be singular or
plural.
 The parts of speech are usually grouped into - Collective nouns- they differ from other nouns
two categories: the major and minor word because they readily take either singular or
classes. plural form depending on the interpretation
 The major word classes- nouns, verbs, given to the noun that is whether it is seen as
adjectives and adverbs- are termed major a unit (The family is together again)or as a
because they carry most of the content or collection of individual (The family are all
meaning of the sentence. coming for the weekend)
 Such classes are also “open” in that new - Gender is not an important feature of English
words are added as they are coined. grammar. Gender is only marked by certain
 The other category, the minor classes, plays pairs of English nouns (actor/actress,
more structural role in a sentence and each of host/hostess, widow/widower)
its classes is more “closed” in that normally no
new words are added. VERBS
 Classes in this category include but not limited  The notional semantic definition of a verb is
to – auxillary verbs, prepositions, pronouns, that it is a word that denotes action or state
determiners, and conjunctions. of being.
  Verb morphology in English is richer than something.
the noun morphology.
Four inflections can be used with English verbs:
1. –s of third person singular present tense verbs:
Sue jogs every day.
2. –ed of past tense of verbs: She jogged
yesterday.
3. –en of the past participle: He has seen the
movie three times already.
4. –ing of the present participle: I am teaching
three courses this term.
 In terms of their position, verbs follow nouns
and may be followed in turn by adjectives,
adverbs, or other nouns as depicted in the
following sentences:
} cautious
The authorities } carefully
} the plan
 Functionally, adding verb to a noun is enough
to complete the sentence:
Pauline snores.
 According to Chalker (1984) there are six types
of verbs:
Intransitive verbs, which take no following object:
Mavis smoke.
Transitive verbs, which require an object: Dough
raise Llamas.
Distransitive verb, which take two objects (indirect
and direct) : I handed Flo the fax.
Linking verbs: where what follows the verb relates
back to the subject : We are teachers.
Complex transitive verb: where what follows the
object relates to the object: They considered the
project a waste of time.
Prepositional verbs, which require a prepositional
phrase to be complete: Steve glanced at the
headlines.
 Two qualities of verbs are tense and aspect.
 Tense –traditionally refers to the time of an
event’s occurrence
 Aspect- denotes whether or not the event has
occurred earlier (perfect aspect) or is still in
progress (progressive aspect)
 Verb, too are marked for number, but only
with subjects in the third person singular in the
present tense or with the verb be.
 In such instances, subject-verb agreement
occurs, and the verb is marked to agree
with the singular or plural subject.
Present tense, subject in third person singular
Josh loves chocolates.
She mows the lawn on Saturdays.
Be verb agreement with the subject
I am surprised that you said that.
Jack is making the
punch. We are baking
brownies. Lloyd was
absent.
They were frightened by the storm.

ADJECTIVES
 The semantic definition of an adjective is that it
describes or denotes the qualities of
  Adjectives commonly occur between a
determiner and a noun, or after be or other
linking verbs, although, they can also follow
a noun.
 Many adjectives have no typical form, but
certain derivational morphemes are
associated with adjectives such as –able
(likeable), - ish(childish), -ful (thoughtful), - y
(lazy) (Chalker 1984)
 English adjectives do not agree in number
and in gender with nouns as they do in other
languages; however, certain of them have
inflectional morphemes for comparative and
superlative forms such as happy, happier,
happiest.
 The function of the adjectives is to modify
or complement nouns.
 There are two adjective types:
attributive, which precedes the noun,
and predicative, which follows the linking
verbs. Attributive: The old bucket sprang
a leak. Predicative: He became angry at
the very thought
ADVERBS
 Adverbs modify verbs and contribute
meaning of various sorts to sentences.
 Particularly common are adverbs of
direction, location, manner, time and
frequency.
Direction: Jim pointed there.
Location : Isabel shops locally.
Manner: The choir sang joyfully at the ordination.
Time: Soon Rachel will retire.
Frequency : We visit our friends in Detroit occasionally.
 Adverbs are flexible in terms of their location.
They can occur in the sentence finally,
medially and initially.
 The primary function of adverbs is to modify
verbs as in the previous example, however,
they may also modify the whole sentence:
Fortunately, they arrive home before too much
damage has been done.
 Traditional grammars also distinguish
adverbs of degree which modify adjectives
and other adverbs.
It is too early to plant a garden.
Ben was very late to school.
 In our grammar, such modifiers are called
intensifiers because they signal the degree
of intensity of the following word.
 Finally we should note that many phrases
and clauses can occupy the same position in
a sentence as single-word adverbs and can
convey the same meaning as adverbs. Due
to their function in the sentence, they are
called adverbials.

Jim pointed at the constellation

Pisces. Isabel shops at the mall.
The choir sang as if it was especially inspired.
Next year, Rachel will retire.
We visit our friend in Detroit every once in a
while.
Pronouns  There are coordinating conjunctions such as:
 Pronouns refer to or replace nouns and noun and, but, or, for, so, not, yet, which join
phrases within the text or as a direct elements that are grammatically equal. For
reference to an outside situation. example:
 They occupy the same position as a noun or
noun phrase does. Marianne and Dianne wrote this book.
 There are many different kinds of pronouns: Dianne lives in Vermont, but Marianne lives
1. Subject- I, you, he, she, it, they in California.
2. Object- me, you, him, her, it, us, them
3. Reflexive- myself, yourself, himself, herself,  And there are subordinating conjunctions which
itself, ourselves, themselves. we call adverbial subordinators such as because
4. Possessive- mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, and although, which join subordinate clause to
theirs. a main one.
5. Demonstrative- this, that, these, those.
 The forms within each category are It was hard to write a book together because
distinguished by number, person (first, second, they live so far apart.
and third), gender, and in the case of
demonstratives, by number and proximity. Although Marianne and Diane live far apart,
Determiners they are still friends.
 Older grammars make no special reference
to determiners, incorporating them into the Phrase- is a group of words that function
adjective word class. together.
 The term determiner refers to that special class
of words that limit the nouns that follow them. The impatient/customer was acting very/
 Various types of words fit into this category: cranky by the/ time he was served.
a. Articles: the, a, an
b. Demonstratives: this, that, these, those The impatient customer/ was acting very
c. Possessive determiners: my, your, his, her, cranky/ by the time/ he was served.
its, our, their.
 They precede an adjective if one is present; The impatient customer/ was acting/ very
otherwise, they positioned directly in front of a cranky/ by the time/ he was served.
noun.
 In the last two versions of these sentences, the
I put my backpack on the front porch, and now I can’t words between slash marks somehow cluster
find it. together better.
 If we take the last sentence as an example,
PREPOSITIONS we have divided it into four grammatical
 Prepositions connect words to other parts of a phrases and a clause.
sentence and have a close relationship with the  What makes he was served a clause is the
word that follows, which is usually a noun. presence of a subject-verb relationship.
 Together a preposition and a noun comprise a  Any construction containing subject-verb
prepositional phrase. relationship is a clause.
 Prepositions are usually one word (in, to, at)  Clauses that stand independently as sentences
but sometimes can be two or three (out of, on are called independent, or main clauses.
top of)  Clauses that cannot are called dependent
 Prepositions prototypically signal spatial clause, or subordinate clauses.
relationships, but certain prepositions can also
signal grammatical category of case, which is Although they live far apart, they are still friends.
often displayed in other languages through
morphological means.  Although they live apart (subordinate clause)
 Case depicts the role relationship between  They are still friends. (independent clause)
words. For Example:
SENTENTIAL TERMINOLOGY
Dative case: Marge gave a donation to charity. SIMPLE, COMPOUND AND COMPLEX SENTENCE
(The preposition to marks the dative
(“receiver”) function of charity.
 A Simple sentence contains at least one subject
and one verb that can stand alone as an
Ablative case: The charity received a donation
independent clause.
from Marge. (The preposition from marks the
 There are five basic simple sentence patterns in
ablative (“source”) function of Marge) English:
CONJUNCTIONS 1. Subject + verb
 Conjunctions are words that join. The building collapsed.
What 2.
a beautiful
Subject+day it is!object
verb+
Subjunctive (here
They realized
bought a newwithcar.
the were form)
3. Subject + verb + indirect object + direct object I wish I were going with you.
She wrote him a letter.
4. Subject + verb + subject predicate  It has been said that the three main moods in
Janet’s my friend. English correspond to the three main
5. Subject + verb + object + object predicate communicative functions of language:
She makes me happy. a. Telling someone something
b. Asking someone something
 Compound sentence consists of two or more c. Getting someone to do something.
clauses of equal grammatical importance.  We should also bear in mind that sometimes a
sentence type does not always match its
He went to the party, but I stayed home. function. It is possible to ask someone to do
something using any of the following three
 Complex sentence contains a main clause and types.
one or more subordinate clauses. Statement: I am thirsty. I wonder what is in the
refrigerator to drink.
Peggy frequently calls because she wants to stay in
touch. Question: Could you bring something from the
 Another type of complex sentence is when the refrigerator for me to drink?
dependent clause is embedded, or included in
the independent clause. Command: Please bring me something to drink from the
refrigerator.
That he didn’t want to go to the ballet was obvious. (It
was obvious) THEME/RHEME

I argued that it would be a mistake. (I argued my (a.) The Cub Scouts held the carwash despite the
position) rain.
(b.) The carwash was held by the Cub Scouts despite
 When we move beyond the simple or the rain.
monoclausal sentence , three processes are (c.) Despite the rain, the Cub Scouts held the
involved: carwash.
a. Coordination- the joining of two clauses of What is the difference among these three word orders?
equal grammatical stature The sentence appears to have the same propositional
b. Subordination- of one clause to another content, or core meaning, so what purpose does word
c. Embedding- when a dependent clause is order variation serve?
included within a main or independent
clause.  This is where the term theme and rheme will be
SENTENCE MOODS put to use.
 English sentences are said to display three main  According to Halliday (1985:38) the theme
moods- declarative (sometimes called provides the point of departure of the message.
indicative), interrogative, and imperative- and It provides the framework for interpreting what
two minor moods: exclamatory and subjunctive. follows.
 Mood conveys the speaker’s attitude toward  The rheme is the remainder of the message in
the factual content of the sentence the clause.
 Subjunctive mood can indicate the speaker’s  In other words, the Theme is simply the subject,
uncertainty or the hypotheticality of the while the rheme is the predicate.
propositional content, or the meaning of the
clause. SUPRASENTENTIAL TERMINOLOGY
 The subjunctive mood is signaled by the use of Backgrounding and Foregrounding
the base form of the verb be rather than the  It has been observed that in the
inflected form is. discourse narrative, certain sentences
provide background information while
If that be so, I’ll leave now. others function in the foreground to
If I were a bird, I wouldn’t eat a worm. carry the main story line.
 What often distinguishes one from
Declarative (statement sentence type) another are their verb tenses.
Today is Monday.
Interrogative (question sentence type) Yesterday I went to the market. It has lots of fruits that I
What are you going to wear to the party. like. I bought several different kinds of apples. I also
Imperative (command sentence type) found that plums were in season so I bought two pounds
Pass the milk, please. of them…
Exclamatory (exclamation sentence type)
  In this bit of discourse, the forgrounded past GENRE
narrative is interrupted by the second sentence  Genre refers to linguistics variation.
with a present tense verb.  Rather than the variation is due to the level of
 The sentence provides information, here formality, however, the variation is due to the
statement about the market, that is the general communicative purposes to which the language
background of the story. is put.
 For example, the language used in a scientific
COHESION research paper is different from that in a recipe,
or in a recommendation letter.
 Another quality of English grammar at the  They differ in their patterns of words, structures
suprasentential level that we might illustrate in and voice.
the given short discourse is the fact that texts,
units of spoken or written language at the
suprasentential level, have an organization
structure of their own.
 It is not possible to put the second sentence
first in the above narrative for example, and
have it mean anything.
 For the most part, we cannot move
sentences around in a paragraph without
making some other modifications.

Five linguistics mechanisms that Halliday and

Hasan (1976) point to in order for texts to have
cohesion or structure at the level of discourse
are the following:

a. Reference
The boy wanted a new bike. He… (he refers
back to the boy)
b. Ellipsis
A: Who wrote the letter?
B: Marty (The response Marty elliptically
signals that Marty wrote the letter.
c. Substitution
I plan to enter college next year. If I do…
(do substitute for enter college)
d. Conjunction
Peter needed some money. He, therefore,
decided to get a job. (Therefore makes
explicit the causal relationship between the
first and the second sentences)

REGISTER

 Another concept that applies at the

suprasentential level is register.
 Register, means the formality of the language.
 According to the systemic-functional linguistics
Halliday (1994) register actually involves three
variables: field, tenor, and mode.
 Field- refers to the social activity in which the
language is being used and what is being
talked about. Field is reflected in the choices of
content word.
 Tenor- is concerned with the roles and
relationship of the interlocutors.
 The mode- refers to the channel of
communication, whether the language is
written or spoken, and with regard to the latter,
whether it is face to face or more remote.