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MODERN ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND USAGE

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WHAT IS GRAMMAR Boring or interesting? Etymologically “grammar” related to

“glamour”. An interesting, exciting subject of study. 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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GRAMMARUse of word grammar in other senses: As a subjectA book of grammarProficiency/ mastery in the languageTransformational generative

grammar as a linguistic theoryConsciously learned explicit set of

rules for learning a foreign language.

In mother tongue rules are subconsciously internalised.

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GRAMMAR IMPLICIT AND EXPLICITUnacceptable sentencesDue to wrong use of plural, article,

preposition, noun etcOne who can make acceptable

sentences but cannot explain why they are unacceptable has implicit knowledge of grammar.

Those who can distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable and also explain the rule that have been violated has explicit knowledge of grammar.

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LINGUISTIC ABILITY

Ability to use the language and produce acceptable sentences- Grammar A Implicit or internalized knowledge of rules (native speakers)

Use the metalanguage to explain the rules and process involved- Grammar B explicit knowledge of rules formal or technical talk -Grammar B (native /foreign language learners)

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PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMARSpeech 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 GRAMMARStates 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 GRAMMARLinguist’s grammar

Study language as a system of signs.

Learner’s grammarIs meant to help the learner to

learn the language.Teacher’s grammar

Contains more information than a learner, higher knowledge.

Occupies a middle ground between the linguist and the learner.

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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 .

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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.

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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.

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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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DIFFERENT LEVELS OF UNACCEPTABILITY.

Sentences: Ungrammaticalnot well formed, violating some rule or convention of grammar.

Inappropriate: Linguistic Factors: Use of non standard English – dialects. Informal/ inappropriate registeral 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.

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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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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.)

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