GRAMMAR: PARTS OF SPEECH

(YULE, CH.7)
Grammar: definition & major components
Grammar: the set of structural rules that govern the composition of words
[Morphology]; and the arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and
sentences [Syntax], in a natural language.
In a restricted sense,

Grammar: - the study of word structure (morphology) &

- sentence formation (syntax), excluding vocabulary pronunciation

However, a more contemporary definition of grammar includes features such as:

 Phonology (the study of sounds), & Semantics (the study of meaning).

Different levels of analysis of language

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Phonology: / ðə nju:əst bʊks /

ð ə n j u: ə s t b ʊ k s
dental vowel alveolar palatal vowel vowel alveolar alveolar bilabial vowel velar alveolar
fricative V+ nasal semi-vowel fricative plosive V— plosive V+ plosive fricative
V— V— V—

Morphology:
 the new est book s
free functional free lexical bound inflectional free lexical bound inflectional
morpheme morpheme morpheme morpheme morpheme

Another level of analysis (within the grammatical level) involves the study of the parts of speech (word classes or
grammatical categories)
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article adjective noun
Word classes: definitions (Yule, G. 2010: 83) /1

Nouns are words used to refer to…

• people ( boy),
• objects ( book),
• creatures ( dog),
• places ( school),
• qualities ( generosity),
• phenomena (earthquake), & • abstract ideas ( love ) as if they were
all “things.”
Word classes: definitions (Yule, G. 2010: 83) /2

Articles(a, an, the) are used with nouns to form noun phrases classifying
or identifying things.

Adjectives are words used, typically with nouns, to provide more

information about the things referred to (happy people, large objects, a
strange experience).

Verbs are words used to refer to various kinds of actions (go, talk) and
states (be, have) involving people and things in events.
Word classes: definitions (Yule, G. 2010: 83) /3

Adverbsare words used to provide more information about…

• actions (She sang beautifully) ,
• states (I entirely agree with you) , • or events (It happened
yesterday).

Adverbs can modify…

• a verb (He runs fast)
Word classes: definitions (Yule, G. 2010: 83) /4

• an adjective that provides information about a thing / things ( a

highly competitive attitude);

• or an adverb that modifies a verb (He ran very fast).

Adverbs vs Adverbials
An adverb is a kind of word (a word class). An adverbial is any word, phrase
or clause which functions as an adverb in the sentence (it is a syntactic
element of the sentence).

He arrived yesterday.
Word class (grammar): adverb // Syntactic function: adverbial
He arrived in the evening.

Grammar form: prepositional phrase // Syntactic function: adverbial

He arrived when I was leaving.
 Grammar form: subordinating clause of time // Syntactic function: adverbial
Word classes: definitions (Yule, G. 2010: 83) /4

Prepositionsare words (at, in, on, near, with, without) used with nouns or noun
phrases to provide information about…
• manner (in a beautiful way)
• time (at five o’clock, in the morning),
• place (on the table, near the window) &
• other notions such as instrument (with a knife), company (with her friend) … etc.
involving actions and things.
Pronouns are words (she, herself, they, it, you) used in place of noun phrases,
typically referring to people and things already known (She talks to herself. They said it
belonged to you).

Conjunctionsare words (and, but, because, when) used to make connections and
indicate relationships between events
The word class NOUN:
Nouns can provide information about…
• Number (singular / plural): book / books
• Gender (masculine / feminine / neuter)
  Inflectional gender: the suffix (bound
inflectional morpheme) indicates gender
hero /heroine waiter / waitress usher /
usherette
 Natural gender (different lexical
morphemes) brother / sister cow / bull

• Case
Case
Case is a special ending (bound inflectional morpheme) that nouns took in classical languages (such
as Greek & Latin) to indicate syntactic function.
In English, nouns can take the following syntactic functions:
SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS:
SUBJECT The boy has come.
NOUN Direct Object I phoned the boy.
OBJECT Indirect Object I told the boy a story.
Object to / of the preposition I went there with the boy.

Disregarding its syntactic function, the noun “boy” remains the same in all these positions.

NOUNS IN ENGLISH DO NOT HAVE CASE for these different syntactic

functions.
Nouns in English can also be used as Vocatives / the noun also keeps its form: e.g. Boy, can you help me?

Apart from the inflections for plurality or for inflectional gender, the only inflection that a noun takes in English
is that of the Genitive, but this does not indicate syntactic function.
The Genitive Case
Among other semantic roles, the Genitive can express:
ownership: Jack’s car relation: Jack’s sister
measurement (time): two years’ progress; today’s
news source or origin: the girl’s story; the Earth’s
satellite

But the Genitive does not indicate syntactic function. It can be used in any syntactic position.
Jack’s son is five years old. ( subject )
I saw Jack’s son. (direct object)
I told Jack’s son a story. (indirect object)
I ran away with Jack’s son. (object to/of a preposition)

Case in classical languages

In Latin, there were 6 cases for the different syntactic functions that a noun took. For each
of these cases, the noun took a special ending.
syntactic function
NOMINATIVE  subject
VOCATIVE  (address to a person)
ACCUSATIVE (direct object)
(possession, relation, time…
GENITIVE etc.)
DATIVE (indirect object)
ABLATIVE ( adverbials )
Case in classical languages
So these classical languages were case-based languages because nouns had a special
ending for case that indicated syntactic function) , and the word order was free.
Let’s consider a grotesque example in English, but useful for the sake of explaining this concept.
If English had case, it might be something like this:
Subject boy / girl (no ending) The boy has come.

Direct object: boya / girla (ending “a”) I phoned the boya.

Object Indirect object: boyo / girlo (ending “o”) I told the boyo a story.
I went out with the
Object of (to) a preposition: boyi / girli (ending “i”) boyi.
Now, let’s analyse these unreal sentences:
Boy hit girla. // Hit boy girla. // Girla boy hit. // Hit girla boy.
It is very easy to distinguish the doer of the action (without a special ending) from the recipient of the action
(with the ending “a”). That is to say, in all the examples, no matter the word order, the boy is the doer of the

action, and the girl is the recipient.

No case in English
Conversely, in the following examples, the ending “a” indicates that now the doer of the action is the girl
( the noun without an ending) and the recipient of the action is the boy (the noun with the ending “a”). As in
the previous sentences, the word order does not change the meaning, because there is a special ending (or
no ending) for each syntactic function.
Girl hit boya. // Hit girl boya. // Boya girl hit. // Hit boya girl.

Now, let’s go back to English, and forget about that absurd example.
1. The boy hit the girl. the doer of the action is the boy (because of its initial position as subject)
2. The girl hit the boy . the doer of the action is the girl (the meaning has changed)
3. Hit the boy the girl. there is no way to distinguish the doer form the recipient of the action The girl the
6.
boy hit. there
4. Hit the girl the boy. there is no way to distinguish the doer form the recipient of the action
is no way to
5. The boy the girl hit. there is no way to distinguish the doer form the recipient of the action distinguish the

doer form the recipient of the action

English is a word-order based language // SVO

The previous examples prove that English is a word-order based language, because
nouns do not have case (except for the Genitive form, but this does not indicate syntactic function [ slide
11]). As a result, the doer of the action is recognised for its initial position in the sentence,
and the recipient of the action is the noun phrase that follows the verb (in the active
voice). If we change the word order of a sentence, we might be either changing its meaning
(as in sentence 2), or we might convey no meaning (as in sentences 3 to 6).
What is the word order in English?

SVO (subject, verb, object)

English is an SVO language. This means that in the active voice the word order is subject,

verb, object. This word order is strict for the reasons discussed above.
Spanish is also an SVO language
Spanish is also an SVO language (subject, verb, object), but this is the normal word order
( it is not strict). The normal word order in Spanish can be altered because (although nouns
do not have case) there is an indicator of syntactic function that allows us to distinguish the
doer of the action from the recipient of the action, no matter their position in the
sentence. This indicator of syntactic function is the preposition “a”, which singles out the
direct object.
El nene golpeó a la nena. (normal word order)

A la nena golpeó el nene.

The word order has changed, but the meaning is the

Golpeóel nene a la nena.
same: boy is still the doer of the action, and the girl is
the receiver.
Golpeóa la nena el nene.

Summary
Summing up: in English, nouns provide information about number, gender and case. As
regards case, the only inflection they take is for the Genitive, and this does not indicate
syntactic function.
As nouns in English do not have case for the different syntactic functions in which they can
occur, English is a word-order based language = the word order is strict (it cannot be
altered).

The word order in English is SVO = Subject – Verb – Object

Spanish is also an SVO language, but this word order can be altered as there is an indicator
of syntactic function (the preposition “a” singles out the Direct Object no matter its
position in the sentence).

The word class verb /1

A verb can indicate:

- Mood (whether or not something is a fact) e.g. the Imperative
- Aspect (Perfective / finished actions; Progressive / unfinished actions)
- Person (in English it is only marked for the 3rd pers. Sing. Simple Present, cf. Spanish 1st, 2nd and 3rd person)
- Number (in English it is only marked for the 3rd pers. Sing. Simple Present, cf. Spanish 1st, 2nd and 3rd
person singular & plural)
- Voice (active and passive voice)
- Tense
Difference between time and tense:
Time our perception of reality (a NOTION). There are three times: past, present and
future. Tense a grammatical category / marked by verb inflection & expresses when an
event or action happens in the flow of time.
Strictly speaking, only two English tenses are marked by the inflection of the verb:

- past ( talked )
- present ( talks )
The word class verb /2

Modern grammarians consider some verb phrases as tenses. For them, these tenses are marked by
auxiliaries (be, have):
• past continuous (was/were talking)
• past perfect (had talked)
• past perfect continuous (had been talking)
• present continuous (am/are/is talking)
• present perfect (have/has talked)

• present perfect continuous (have/has been talking)

As future time is expressed with the modal will + infinitive and not with inflection, the forms with
will (will talk, will be talking, will have talked, will have been talking) are not considered to be
tenses. However, for the sake of convenience (or pedagogical purposes), they are considered as
such in many books.
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The syntactic behaviour of personal pronouns

Personal pronouns can provide information about:
• Participants & non-participants
(in a conversation I & you are the participants; he, she & they are the non-participants)
• Person
1st, 2nd and 3rd person
• Number
Singular: I, he, she
Plural: we, they
• Although they replace a noun, they do not occur with determiners:
e.g. the man cf. the he
• They have a subject and an object form:

I me He him She her etc.