modern english grammar
TRANSCRIPT
MODERN ENGLISH
GRAMMAR AND
USAGE
Dr. Abha Pandey1
WHAT IS GRAMMAR?
Is it boring or interesting?
Etymologically “grammar” related
to “glamour”.
An interesting, exciting subject of
study.
What is Modern English
Grammar?
Why do we study Grammar. 2
WHAT IS GRAMMAR?
Dictionary defines “ grammar as the rules by which words change their forms and are combined in other senses.
English grammar is the body of rules that describe the structure of expressions in the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences.
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GRAMMAR
Can we use the word ‘grammar’ in other senses? It may be used to describe
a subject
a book of grammar
proficiency/ mastery in the language
T G Grammar as a linguistic theory
consciously learned set of rules for learning a foreign language.
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GRAMMAR IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT
Sentences: Unacceptable/Acceptable
Implicit knowledge of grammar:
Ability to make acceptable sentences but
unable to explain why they are
unacceptable.
Explicit knowledge of grammar:
Ability to distinguish between acceptable
and unacceptable and also to explain the
rule that have been violated. 5
TYPES OF GRAMMAR
Grammar A :Ability to use the language
and produce acceptable sentences-
Implicit or internalized knowledge of
rules (native speakers)
Grammar B: Use the metalanguage to
explain the rules and process involved-
explicit knowledge of rules formal or
technical talk (native /foreign language
learners) 6
PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR
Speech of educated native speakers
of English.
Unacceptable or rejected as incorrect
or bad English by some grammars.
Other grammars consider them as
acceptable -found in current usage.
Prescriptive grammar lays down the
rules for use of a language.
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DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR
States the facts of a language as they exist and are spoken by a large number of people.
Contains rules / conventions that actually underlie the usage of native speakers.
Records the violations or deviant features in an objective way as a part of changing or current usage.
Distinctions like the natural laws and the laws of the government.
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TYPES OF GRAMMAR
Linguist’s grammar
Study language as a system of signs.
Linguists interested in how language is
acquired, how it is comprehended and
how it is produced.
Such a grammar uses transformational
process and operations
The goal of linguists is to study human
mind through a study of human
language.9
TYPES OF GRAMMAR
Learner’s grammar
Is meant to help the learner to learn
the language in question.
language learning is a creative
activity.
Current trend is indirect method of
learning grammar through usage.
Presenting a series of meaningful
contextualised text.
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TYPES OF GRAMMAR
Teacher’s grammar
Contains more information than a
learner, higher knowledge.
Level of teacher’s knowlegde should
be higher than that of learner.
Occupies a middle ground between
the linguist and the learner.
Teacher’s grammar need not be
situationalized or contextualised as
learner’s grammar. 11
NEED TO STUDY GRAMMAR
Why should teacher’s/ research scholar’s
study grammar?
There has been a debate
Should formal grammar be taught to the
learner’s (in Indian situation)?
How much of grammar is to be taught?
How is grammar to be taught?
The knowledge of grammar may be useful
in teaching, testing, writing research papers,
locating problem areas in learning designing
a syllabus . 12
RECOMMENDED READING
Quirk, Randolf. “On Conceptions of Good
Grammar”, in The English Language and
Images of Matter. London: Oxford University
Press. 1972.
Quirk, Randolf, et al. A Grammar of
Contemporary English. London: Longman.
1972.(Sections 1.8to 1.14)
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USAGE: GRAMMATICALITY
In Linguistics, conformity to the rules of a
language as formulated by a Grammar
based on a theory of language description.
The concept became prominent with the
rise of Generative Grammar in the 1960s,
whose primary aim has been the
construction of rules that would distinguish
between the grammatical or well-
formed sentences and the
ungrammatical, deviant, or ill-
formed sentences of a language.14
GRAMMATICALITY AND ACCEPTABILITY
Grammaticality should not be confused with
notions of correctness or acceptability as
determined by prescriptive grammarians.
Grammaticality has been differentiated
from ACCEPTABILITY, which is based on the
judgements by native speakers as to whether
they would use a sentence or would consider it
correct .
Judgements about what is acceptable may
reflect views that a sentence is nonsensical,
implausible, illogical, stylistically inappropriate, or
socially objectionable.15
CRITERIA FOR ACCEPTABILITY
We expect a grammar of a language to clearly say what is “acceptable” and “unacceptable” in the language?
“Correct” and “incorrect” suggest absolute norms, deviations in black and white.
“Acceptable” and “unacceptable” suggest relative norms, fluid and variable according to usage, suggests the possibility of many grey areas.
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DIAGRAMMATIC REPRESENTATION
Sentences
Acceptable unacceptable
(grammatical,
meaningful,
appropriate)
ungrammatical inappropriate Semantically odd
linguistic factors non linguistic factors
Dialect register collocation archaism
psychological sociological Aesthetic
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CRITERIA FOR DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN
ACCEPTABLE AND UNACCEPTABLE SENTENCES
Acceptability is decided at different
levels. A sentence may be
unacceptable for following reasons:
Grammar and usage
Grammar and Idioms
Collocations
Dialectal variations
Registral variations18
DIFFERENT LEVELS OF UNACCEPTABILITY.
Sentences: Ungrammatical
not well formed, violating some rule or convention of grammar.
Inappropriate: Linguistic Factors:
Use of non standard English – dialects.
Informal/ inappropriate registral variations.
Collocational devices.
Use of derogatory words
Non linguistic Factors: Psychological, Sociological, Aesthetic- Ambiguous statements.
Semantically odd: not appropriate to the situation.
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CRITERIA FOR ACCEPTABILITY
Grammar books generally give us the idea
of “grammaticality” i.e. What constitutes
acceptable sentences on the basis of
grammatical rules and conventions.
For dialect, register features, and
collocations, standard dictionaries generally
give some help for exhaustive knowledge
we have to depend on our familiarity with
the language.
Social cultural or aesthetic appropriateness
is a relative and variable criteria.20
GRAMMAR AND USAGE
Grammar is, or should be, a description of usage.
Grammar and usage are not different.
Traditional prescriptive school grammar presents
rules which militate against actual usage.
Modern descriptive grammar has another handicap-
usage is various and keeps on changing. Difficult to
furnish all the details of usage.
As teachers/ scholars of English we should be
conversant with the facts of English usage.
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RELEVANCE OF VARIETIES TO GRAMMAR AND
USAGE
Have you got the time?-British
Do you have the time?- American
Whom did you give the book to?- formal
Who did you give the book to?- informal
The above sentences are neither correct nor
incorrect. The usage depends on where they are
used.
Unaware of registral differences we may dismiss
such utterances as wrong, whereas they are
appropriate to a certain register and not so to
others. 22
INDIAN ENGLISH
Indian English is also an international variety.
Unlike American English or Australian English It is
a non native variety.
As students/ researchers/ teachers we should
observe and record the features that distinguish
Indian English form non native varieties of English.
Next step is to evolve remedial procedures for
teaching /writing dissertations and thesis.
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FEATURES OF INDIAN ENGLISH
Pluralization of non count nouns.- informations
Use of nouns alone which appear in partitive
phrases.- Bread, chalk
Extended use of compound formation-staff
members
Deviant article usage-
Ommission, addition and use of different
prepositions
Word order inversion- why you have done this.
Stative verbs used in –ing forms in finite verb
phrases
Use of same tag question for all kinds of sentences-
Isn’t it?
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DIAGRAMMATIC REPRESENTATION
Sentence
Acceptable
ungrammatical inappropriate
unacceptable
Semantically odd 25
DIAGRAMMATIC REPRESENTATION
Inappropriate
sentence
Linguistic factors
Dialect
Register
Collacation
‘archisms
Nonlinguistic factors
Psychological
Sociological
Aesthetic 26
RECOMMENDED READING
Hosali, Priya and Ray Tongue. A Dictionary of Collocations for Indian Users of English. 1989
Leech, Geoffery, et al. English Grammar for Today. London: Macmillan. 1982. (Part A Introduction)
Nihalani, P, et al. Indian and British English: A Handbook of Usage and Pronunciation. New Delhi: OUP. 1979
Trudgill, Peter and Joan Hannah. International English: A guide to Varieties of Standard English. London: Edward Arnold. ( pages 106-111.) 27
THANK YOUDr. Abha Pandey
Professor and Head
Department of UG, PG and Research in English
Govt. Mahakoshal Arts and Commerce Autonomous College , Jabalpur
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