National University of Modern Languages

Subject: Applied Grammar & Syntax

Research Article: “Applying phrasal structure and grammar rules

on the The Gift of Magi by O. Henry”

Submitted To: Dr. Masroor

Submitted By: Arooj Fatima

Class Semester: M. Phil Linguistics

Semester: 1st

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 Table of Contents
1. Abstract ..................................................... 3
2. Introduction ............................................... 3
3. Grammar Rules ......................................... 4
4. Research Method ......................................... 8
5. Conclusion ............................................... 12
6. Bibliography ............................................... 13

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 Title: Applying phrasal structure and grammar rules on the The Gift of Magi
by O. Henry

1. Abstract:
This research paper focuses on the 1) phrase structure implied in the short story, The Gift of the Magi,
penned by the versatile author named O. Henry. Furthermore, 2) grammar rules are also emphasized
in this article. This unique and heartwarming story has become one of his most beloved works. It
explores the significant theme of love, the importance of gift-giving, and the sacrifices one has to
perform in the relationship. It holds such a notable value in literature because its emotional resonance
and simplicity make it captivating for the reader. The objective of this article is to find out the phrase
structure and apply it in various sentences of this story. Analyzing various grammatical features is the
most significant part of this research. The research methodology implied in this research is descriptive
qualitative research, and the steps we have followed are collecting the data, reading it out, and
analyzing it based on phrase structure analysis and categorizing and identifying the use of various
grammatical elements. The textual analysis approach has been implied in this research. The key
findings are categorizing “noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, infinitive,
and prepositional phrases”. By concluding this research, we have found that the final results of this
research show that the types of constituents that are categorized in these groups are phrases and
clauses, including words (noun, verb, adverb, infinitive, prepositional) and clauses (dependent and
independent) and the distribution of these syntactic structures is done based on sentence and phrase.
Sentence functions as subject, predicate, and complement. On the other hand, in words, there is a
function as head and modifier. This research will find the best of the grammatical structures within
the text.

2. Introduction:
Language plays an essential play in communication. With the use of language, whether it is verbal or
nonverbal, we can express our feelings, opinions, ideas, and thoughts to others. Furthermore, a couple
of modes of language are spoken and written. If we talk about the said, there are printing media such
as magazines, books, articles, journals, newspapers, and novels. Other than this, written language
involves expressing feelings and ideas.

The main interest in this research is The Gift of Magi, first published in 1950. This story occurs in the
Christmas season, following a couple named Jim and Della. It is such a touching tale that reminds us
that the most valuable gifts are not the materialistic ones but the love, affection, and sincerity behind
them. It was written by O. Henry, the most renowned American writer of his time. He is commonly
known because of his fantastic short stories. He possesses a unique and charming way of capturing
the beautiful moments of everyday life and then showcasing them in a fascinating and thought-
provoking manner. His most famous works include

The Gift of the Magi

The Last Leaf

The Ransom of Red Chief

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These are appreciated for its recognized and forever appeal.

All these works are continuously read worldwide and appreciated because of twisted plots and
surprising endings that engage the reader throughout the text.

Besides the interests of the story, the researcher focuses on analyzing the various grammatical
features and phrase structure of the sentences composed in the short story by O. Henry. Phrase
structure refers to how different words and phrases are skillfully organized in any sentence of a
particular text. This also includes arranging and putting the expressions in their places to produce
meaningful and grammatically correct sentences. When we write sentences in English, there is usually
a subject and an object or predicate. Other than these, additional phrases and clauses enhance the
further information and the sentence's beauty. It helps to interpret the syntax of the sentence.

3. Grammar Rules:
Grammar rules are those directions and guidelines that enable us to use the elements of grammar
correctly. These features govern how words are formed and connected to form sentences. Grammar
rules include “proper word usage, sentence structure, punctuation, formation of sentences, and, most
importantly, subject-verb agreement”. Accurately using grammar allows us to convey our message
correctly so that others can understand it.

. The types of the constituents which have been used are significantly categorized in these three
groups. Words (noun, adjective, verb, adverb and infinitive) Phrases (Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases,
Adjective phrases, infinitive phrases and prepositional phrases), clauses (dependent and independent
clauses).

In this sentence,

“Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag.”

If we analyze its phrasal structures, let's break down its phrasal structure.

Phrase structure:

Subject: Della

Verb Phrase: finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag

The verb phrase follows the subject here and are based on the sentence, which is combined through
the coordinating conjunction "and."

In this sentence, the first action is “to finish her cry”, and the second is “attending to her cheeks with
the powder rag”.

Sentence structure: Subject + Verb + Verb phrase

Grammatical structure:

This sentence consists of a subject-verb-object structure with additional prepositional phrases.

Noun: Della, cry, cheeks, powder, rag

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Verb: finished, attended (past tense)

Pronoun: her

Preposition: to, with

Conjunction: and

In the second sentence from The Gift of Magi by O. Henry:

“She stood by the window and looked dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard.”

Phrasal Structure:

Prepositional Phrase: She stood by the window

( preposition + Noun Phrase)

Verb Phrase: and looked out dully

Prepositional Phrase: at a grey cat

(preposition + article + adjective +noun)

Adverbial Phrase: out dully

Participle Phrase: walking a grey fence

(present participle + article + adjective +noun)

Prepositional Phrase: in a grey backyard.

In this sentence, a prepositional Phrase provides the information about where he stood. On the other
hand, the verb phrase tells about the action of looking, and a like participle phrase is used to add
additional information about the subject, the cat.

Grammatical Structure:

Here, the subject follows the main verb, and the conjunction used is to link the verb to the main action.

Subject: She (theme of sentence), performing the action

Verb: stood (main verb, past tense), looked (past tense verb)

Conjunction: and

These all are the grammatical structures of the previous sentence and the use of grammar is also
discussed here. Furthermore, parts of speech is also analyzed in this research article.

“Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present.”

Phrasal Structure:

Adverbial phrase: only $1.87

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Prepositional phrase: with which to buy Jim a present

Verb phrase: would be

Noun Phrase; Christmas Day

Adverbial phrase in this sentence is describing the amount of total money she had. On the other hand,
prepositional phrase is giving more detailed information about the money which has been discussed
earlier.

Grammatical structure:

Adverb: Tomorrow, only

Verb: had, buy

Conjunction: and

Preposition: with, to

Noun: present

Proper Noun: Jim, which

Article: a

“She had been saving every penny she could for months, with his result. Twenty dollars a week does
not go far.”

Phrasal Structure:

Verb Phrase: had been saving

(past perfect continuous verb phrase)

Adverbial phrase: every penny she could

(adverbial phrase modifying the verb)

Prepositional phrase: for months

( Prepositional phrase indicating duration)

noun phrase: this result

(Referring outcome)

Grammatical Structure:

Noun: result, months, penny

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Pronoun: She

Verb: been (participle), saving (gerund), could ( modal)

Adjective: every, this

Preposition: with, for

Prepositional phrase: for months

noun phrase: this result

In this sentence, she is the main theme as subject and after that, verb phrase is telling about the
continuous action which is saving in this sentence. Adverbial phrase indicates the way that how
diligently she saved that money. Prepositional phrase is referring to the time period of her saving.

The conjunction and is linking the information to the noun phrase which is telling about the
consequences of the efforts she made in saving.

“Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present
for Jim. Many a happy hour she had spend planning for something nice for him.”

Phrasal Structure:

The phrasal structure of this mentioned sentence can be broken down like this:

Subject: Expenses (referring to the amount of their expenditures)

Verb phrase: had been greater than she had calculated. (telling that their expenses were quite larger
when she made a budget plan),

had spent (Past perfect Tense)

Adverb phrase: Only $1.87

Prepositional phrase: to buy a present for Jim, for him

Gerund phrase: planning for something nice

Infinitive phrase: to buy

Grammatical structure:

Possessive pronoun: her

Proper noun: Jim

Determiner: Many, a

Adverb: always

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Verb: are

Noun: Expenses, $1.87(Amount of money), present

Preposition: than, for

Pronoun: she

“Something fine and rare and sterling, something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor
of being owned by Jim.”

Phrasal Structure:

Noun Phrase: something (Functioning as subject)

Adjective Phrase: Fine and rare and sterling (describing quality of “something”)

Adverb Phrase: Just a little bit (this is indicating “near”)

Prepositional Phrase: near to being worthy of (modifying “something”), the honor of being owned by
(Indicating “worthy”)

Grammatical Structure:

Pronoun: something (Modifying “something”)

Proper noun: Jim (it is referring as object of the preposition “by”)

Syntactic structure of this sentence is:

[Noun Phrase] [Adjective Phrase] [Pronoun] [Adverb Phrase] [Prepositional Phrase] [Prepositional
Phrase] [ Proper noun]

4. Research Method:
This research analyzes sentences' syntactic, phrasal, and grammatical structures from the short story
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. Data of this research article consists of sentences having the
syntactic structures of coordination taken from the initial text of The Gift of the Magi. The research
methodology which has been used in this proposal is documentation. This kind of this kind of research
refers to descriptive qualitative research. Furthermore, the study the researcher has applied is termed
the structural grammar approach to analyze the data and find out the grammatical features within
the text. For the interpretation of minute details regarding grammar, the researcher implied the rules
related to the various grammatical categories in the syntactic structure of coordination and the
phrasal arrangement suggested in the sentences of the text of The Gift of Magi by O. Henry.

The constituents being combined can be divided into these categories:

Words

Phrases

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Clauses

Words:

The words being combined as constituents in the syntactic structure are verbs, adverbs, nouns, and
adjectives.

Noun: (N)

The constituents are coordinated as nouns and are combined with the syntactic structure of
coordination. The noun is a naming word for anything, person, or object. It can be both subject and
object in the sentence. In these sentences, we have the following nouns:

They represent a person (Jim, Della), a place (window, backyard), a thing( present, penny), or any
idea or thought(cry, result).

Verb: (v)

Verb represents any action, occurrence, happening or state of being. They are considered the central
part because they deliver the main idea and give information about what someone or something is
doing. The verbs in this text are:

Finished, attended, stood, had calculated, spent, planning…..

These are all action words which show what someone or something is doing and what is happening.

Adverb: (Adv.)

Adverb refers to a word which represents or modifies a verb or adjective. They are used to tell how a
particular function has been performed. These type of words usually ends with –ly.

In this paragraph, we have found a single adverb: "dully". This word describes how Della looked out
the window.

Adjectives: (Adj.)

Adjectives are referred to those words which are used to modify the noun further. They give us more
information and details about the things mentioned in the sentence earlier.

For example, in the text which is provided, there are a few adjectives which have been used, like
“grey”. This word has been used as an adjective to describe a cat, fence and backyard, which are
nouns. Other examples are delicate, rare and sterling, which are used to give further information
about the present Della wanted to buy for Jim.

Infinitive: (to + Inf.)

Infinitive refers to the base form of the verb and is often followed by the word" to".

In the sentence, it can play the function of a noun, an adjective or an adverb. In the above paragraph,
"to buy" is the infinitive because it sheds light on the purpose of limited funds. The syntactic structure
of coordination to buy must be infinitive (to +inf.) which links the coordinator.

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Phrases:

The phrases in the English language that can be constituent and coordinated are:

Noun Phrase
Verb Phrase
Adjective Phrase
Infinitive Phrase
Prepositional Phrase

Noun Phrase:

Noun Phrase refers to a group of two or more two words that modify a noun or typically function as a
noun. It can consist of any determiner, modifier or simply a noun, but it always comes before or after.
In the text which we took from the short story of O. Henry, The Gift of the Magi, these are some of
the noun phrases:

The powder rag: It refers to the rag that Della that Della used to attend to her cheeks.
Jim a present: indicating the gift that Della wanted to buy for Jim.

The honor of being owned by Jim: In this noun phrase, high value is significant that Della wants to
give to Jim.
The first constituent is NP powder rag, the second is NP Jim a present, and the third is NP honor of
being owned. These are noun phrases function as nouns and modify the nouns.

Verb Phrase:

A verb phrase refers to a group of words that includes a main verb+ any auxiliary (helping verb), or
any modifier. The function of a verb phrase in any sentence is to express any happening, particular
occurrence or state of being. There are some verb phrases from the above text.

Finished attending: ending at –ing (indicating the action that Della has completed).
Buy for: (it expresses action, purchasing a gift for someone).
Was walking: ending at –ing (describing the ongoing movement of the cat)

Adjective phrase:

An adjective phrase refers to a group of words that work together to describe or modify a noun in the
sentence. Adjective term is commonly used to add more information about nouns or pronouns. In the
text, we have found these adjective phrases.
The first constituent in the coordinated adjective phrase is a grey car, the second constituent is a grey
fence, and the third and last constituent being coordinated as the adjective phrase is a grey backyard.
In all these phrases, there is a description of the cat, fence and backyard by adding more information
through the word “grey”.

Prepositional phrase:

This is called that type of phrase, which often starts with any preposition and ends with a noun or
pronoun. The purpose of using this phrase is to give more information and tell about the connection
between the words in a sentence.

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There are a few examples of prepositional phrases which we have taken from the text we are provided
with:

By the window: In this phrase, there is a preposition “by,” and it ends at the noun “window”
(describing Della” 's location)
In a grey backyard: This phrase begins with the preposition “in” and ends with the noun “backyard.”

For Jim: here, the preposition is “for”, and the noun is “Jim”.

Clauses:

The constituents being coordinated in a syntactic structure can be also in clauses. A clause consists of
subject and predicate. There are two types of clauses which are mentioned her:

Dependent clause

Independent clause

Dependent clause:

In this text, the dependent clause is “with which to buy Jim a present”. This clause begins with a
subordinating conjunction “with” and in this clause there is a subject and verb.

Subject: which

Verb: to buy

This clause is depending on the rest of sentence so it could make a sense.

Independent Clauses:

These are the clauses which have ability to stand alone and give a complete meaning. It is considered
a complete sentence because it is having both a subject and predicate.

For example,

“Della saved every penny she could for months”

This sentence can stand alone and give a sense because it is expressing an entire thought with a subject
and predicate.

Subject: Della

Predicate: saved every penny she could for months.

“She wanted to buy Jim a meaningful gift.”

This clause is complete in itself and do not depend on any other word or clause to make it complete.
In this sentence, both subject and predicate is present.

Subject: She

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Predicate: wanted to buy Jim a meaningful gift.

Highest frequency of category being coordinated:

The highest coordinated category is “grey” because here, the coordinating conjunction “and” has
been used multiple times in this sentence to connect the actions or instances with the adjective
“grey”.

For example, the sentence

A grey cat walking at a grey fence in a grey backyard. Here “and” is connecting three instances in
sentence and describing the cat, fence and the backyard. So we can say that the highest frequent of
category is coordinating conjunction.

5. Conclusion:
The conclusion of any research proposal emerges from the analysis of the problem statement given in
the research. It is based on the complete analysis and research method. The main objective of this
research is to find out the phrasal structure and grammatical features of the particular text. The types
of constituents used are significantly categorized into these three groups. Words (noun, adjective,
verb, adverb, and infinitive), Phrases (Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, Adjective phrases, infinitive
phrases, and prepositional phrases), clauses (dependent and independent clauses).

Furthermore, the most frequent category of coordinated constituent was analyzed from the short
story The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. This is the descriptive qualitative research method. A
grammatical research approach has been implied in this article by researchers. This research article
proposes a complete-fledged analysis of the text regarding the phrasal structure and the grammatical
elements used in the text of The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry.

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6. Bibliography

1. The Gift of the Magi — Study Guide — CliffsNotes

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/the-gift-of-the-magi

2. Syntactic Analysis of Story "The Gift of The Magi".: Assignment No.6 - Scribd
https://www.scribd.com/document/469759752/1243258964-1-pdf

3. Linguistic Analysis Gift of the Magi Essay Example - GraduateWay

https://graduateway.com/linguistic-analysis-gift-of-the-magi/

4. What is the structure used in "The Gift of the Magi"? - Homework.Study.com

https://homework.study.com/explanation/what-is-the-structure-used-in-the-gift-of-the-
magi.html

5. What Is Phrase Structure in English Grammar? - ThoughtCo

https://www.thoughtco.com/phrase-structure-grammar-1691509

6. Grammar Rules: The Ultimate Guide

https://www.grammarly.com/grammar

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