anticipatory constituents C. Illustration of grammar in action 3. Grammar and genre: a short study of imagism
A brief introduction
When we talk of the grammar of a language we are talking of the rules of that language. In the academic study of language, the expression ‘rules of grammar’ does not refer to prescriptive niceties. These so-called ‘rules’ are nothing more than a random collection of special and prejudiced strictures about language use. On the contrary, the genuine grammatical rules of a language are the language that stipulate the very basis of its syntactic construction in the same way that the rules of tennis or the rules of chess constitute the core organizing principles of those games.
A finding
how, when, where and why
placed after the verb
2) by adding a ‘tag’ to the declarative form of a clause
The tag test can usefully differentiate between other types of grammatical structures.
Sentence (clause complex), clause, phrase (or group), word, morpheme
Four basic elements of clause
structure
examples
subject
predicator complement adjunct
E.g. 1) my aunt and my uncle (coordination)
2) the winner, a local business
woman (apposition)
Variations in basic clause structure
1
The woman feeds
those
regularly.
pigeons
2
Our bull
was chasing the postman yesterday.
terrier
3
The
would wear lipstick
every Friday.
professor of
Necromancy
4
The Aussie looked
Test for clause constituents
1) by asking various questions around the verb
S finding
who or what placed in front of
the verb
C finding verb
who or what placed after the
A basic model of grammar
Most theories of grammar accept that grammatical units are ordered hierarchically according to their size.
This hierarchy is known as a rank scale.
Stylistics
Lecture Three Grammar and Style
Topics covered
1. Grammar and style A. A basic model of grammar B. Variations in basic clause structure 2. Sentence styles: development and illustration A. Sentence types B. Trailing constituents, equivalent constituents and
great
in her latest
பைடு நூலகம்
actress
film.
5
The man
was
pretty
throughout
who came to
miserable the evening.
dinner
The examples highlight grammar’s capacity to embed units of different sizes within one another. Indeed it is a distinguishing characteristic of clause structure that its four basic elements are typically realized by certain types of phrases. The rule which stipulates that a verb phrase must fill up the P slot is a hard and fast one, whereas the rules about what sorts of phrases go into the other three slots are less absolute and are more about typical tendencies.