Types of Grammars
1. Prescriptive grammar
2. Descriptive grammar
3. Traditional grammar
4. Immediate constituent grammar (I.C.G.)
5. Transformational grammar
6. Functional grammar
Immediate constituent grammar (I.C.G.)
Structural grammarians’ views:
- Smaller units larger the largest one.
The description of structures help identify the hidden
meaning.
History - 4 devices to convey structural meanings:
+ word forms
+ function words
+ word order
+ intonation & accent patterns (prosodic patterns)
Present-day English depends strongly word order to
convey meanings.
Immediate constituent grammar (I.C.G.)
- I.C.G. is a system of grammatical analysis that divides
sentences into successive layers, or constituents,
Definition until, in the final layer, each constituent consists of
only a word or meaningful part of a word.
- A constituent is any word or construction that enters
into some larger construction.
Immediate Constituent Grammar (I.C.G.)
1. The term immediate constituent
- was first introduced by L. Bloomfield in
1933; and developed further by Rulon Wells
- refers to togetherness
2. The term immediate means adjacent:
E.g.: The girl is very beautiful.
the & girl
very & beautiful
is & very beautiful
the girl & is very beautiful
3. The terms constituent and subconstituent
Immediate Constituent Grammar (I.C.G.)
“The aim of IC analysis is to discover and
demonstrate the interrelationships of the words
in a linguistic structure – the sentence or the
word-combination”.
Features
I.C. G.:
- studies immediate adjacent element(s);
- recognizes different layers of structure;
- identifies different meanings.
Immediate Constituent Grammar (I.C.G.)
- Example 1 -
Q: Use I.C.G. to analyze the ambiguity of the following sentence:
He likes pleasing women.
Immediate Constituent Grammar (I.C.G.)
- Example 2 -
Q: Use I.C.G. to analyze the ambiguity of the following sentence:
She wants more handsome young men.
Transformational Grammar
- The transformational – generative
grammar was first developed by Zellig
Harris in the 1950s; and later was
elaborated by Noam Chomsky as a synthetic
method of ‘generating’ (constructing)
sentences.
- “The aim of a transformational operation
was to reveal similarities and differences in
Zellig Sabbatai Harris
(1909 – 1992) the structure of the units being examined or
An American linguist to reveal the structural potential of the
A mathematical syntactician unit”.
A methodologist of science
Determination of a phrase structure
1. Substitution
2. Movement
3. Conjoining
4. Anaphora
Determination of a phrase structure
1. E.g.
The student is reading books.
John is reading books.
Substitution John and Peter are reading books.
2. Features:
Determination of a phrase structure
1. E.g.
I met him here last night.
Last night I met him here.
Movement
2. Features:
Determination of a phrase structure
1. E.g.
The student loves Mary.
The student and his friend love
Conjoining Mary.
2. Features:
Determination of a phrase structure
1. E.g.
That man has not come yet. He is
my friend.
Anaphora
2. Features:
Transformational Grammar (T.G.)
Features Sentence analysis
Transformational G. (or Sentence = Subject + Predicate
transformational – S = NP + VP
generative G.):
+ not teach us how to S
analyze sentences;
NP VP
+ teaches us how
sentences are generated
in a language. N No V NP
Tree diagram
Transformational Grammar (T.G.) – E.g.
1. Someone stole the car.
2. The car was stolen (by someone).
Transformational Grammar (T.G.) – Sentence analysis
Someone stole the car. The car was stolen by someone.
S S
NP VP NP VP
N No V NP Det. N No VP PP
Det. N No Aux. V P N
Transformational Grammar
- Example 1 -
Q: Draw tree diagram for the following sentence:
I loved that man much.
Eg. 1 - Tree diagram
S
NP VP
N No V NP Adv
(sing.) (T&A) Det. N No
(sing.)
I loved that man much.
Transformational Grammar
- Example 2 -
Q: Draw tree diagram for the following sentence:
The young man has bought a new car recently.
S
NP VP
Det. NP No VP NP AdvP
(sing.)
Adj. N Aux. V Det. NP No Adv.
(T) (A) (sing.)
Adj. N
The young man has bought a new car recently.
Abbreviations in tree diagrams
1 S Sentence 8 T Tense 14 Pro. Pronoun
2 V Verb 9 A Aspect 15 P Preposition
Prepositional
3 VP Verb phrase 10 sing. singular 16 PP
phrase
plu./
4 N Noun 11 plural 17 Adj. Adjective
pl.
5 NP Noun phrase 12 Aux. Auxiliary verb 18 Adv. Adverb
6 Det. Determiner 13 Q. Quantifier 19 Deg. Degree
Num
7 Number 20 Adj.P Adjective phrase OR Adjectival phrase
/ No
21 Adv.P Adverb phrase OR Adverbial phrase
AdjP (Adjective phrase or Adjectival phrase)
She is very beautiful. The girl in red is very beautiful.
very beautiful: Adjective phrase in red: Adjectival phrase
Explanation: Explanation:
= very + beautiful = in + red
= adv. + adj. (HEAD) = P. + N.
AdvP (Adverb phrase or Adverbial phrase)
He writes very quickly. He goes to school by bus.
very quickly: Adverb phrase by bus: Adverbial phrase
Explanation: Explanation:
= very + quickly = by + bus
= adv. + adv. (HEAD) = P. + N.
Examples
He killed the lady with a gun. He killed the lady with a gun.
Functional Grammar (F.G.)
Functional grammar is concerned with
meanings. It looks at language as
consisting of units of meanings rather
than trunks of forms. These units of
meanings are represented in various
oral and written texts. In keeping
with the idea, functional grammar is
interested to analyzed language at the
text level than the sentences.
(Halliday, 1994)
The term text refers to any instance of
language, in any medium, that
Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday
makes sense to someone who knows
(M.A.K. Halliday)
(1925 – 2018) the language.
(Halliday & Hasan, 1976: Chapter 1)
Functional grammar
A Theme
Utterance Rheme
message
Theme & Rheme
1. “The theme is the element which serves as
the point of the departure of the message; it
is that which locates and orients the clause
within its context.”
Definitions
2. “The remainder of the message, the part in
which the theme is developed, is called the
rheme.”
Theme & Rheme
E.g. Explanation
1. The theme is the syntactic
1. My car was stolen last night. function part which is put
at the beginning of the
message.
2. The rheme is the rest part
of the message.
Theme & Rheme
E.g. Explanations
1. The theme is the syntactic
2. Last night my car was stolen. function part which is put
before the beginning of
the message.
2. The rheme is the rest part
of the message.
Classification of themes
I met him last night. Last night I met him.
Unmarked theme Marked theme
Theme & Rheme
E.g. Explanation
The theme is expressed by a
That he loves her made me happy. clause.
Speech-act theory
A speech
Speech Utterance
unit
Start when opening the mouth
End when closing the mouth
Speech-act theory
The term speech act was coined by
J.L.Austin
Speech acts are simply things people
do through language – for
example, apologizing,
instructing, menacing, explaining
something, etc.
John Langshaw Austin (Brinton, L. J. & Brinton, D. M., 2010)
(1911 – 1960)
A British philosopher of language
Speech-act theory – J. L. Austin’s views
Explanations
J.L. Austin’s views:
1. Disagree with the classification
of sentences
2. Suppose the highlighted
sentence is not a Q – but an
utterance
“Are you my father or my son?”,
Mum said to her son.
Effects of the utterance on the behavior of S. & L.
(Brinton, L. J. & Brinton, D. M., 2010)
Austin argued that every utterance can be understood as consisting of 3 parts.
1. Locutionary act
The recognizable grammatical utterance (its form and meaning)
2. Ilocutionary act
The communicative purpose of an utterance (e.g.: stating, promising,
ordering, informing, warning, etc.)
3. Perlocutionary act
The intended or actual effects the utterance has on the L.’s attitudes,
beliefs, behaviors, etc.
They can be verbal or non-verbal.
