An introductory inservice course in linguistics
by Sharon Lee Showers Hoover
A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE in EDUCATION
Montana State University
© Copyright by Sharon Lee Showers Hoover (1969)
Abstract:
no abstract found in this volume In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the require­
ments for an advanced degree at Montana State University, I agree that
the Library shall make it freely available for inspection.
I further
agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly
purposes may be granted.by my.major professor, or, in his absence, by
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It is understood that any copying or publica­
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Date
/ 2 ^ 3e>. /96?
AN INTRODUCTORY INSERVICE- COURSE IN LINGUISTICS.
by
SHARON HOOVER
A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of
MASTER OF SCIENCE
in
EDUCATION
Approved:
H e a d , Major Department
MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY
B o z e m a n , Montana
A u g u s t , 1969
ill
Acknowledgment
The author wishes to acknowledge her cumulative dett
•to many good teachers.
Sustakowski
Special thanks go to Drs . Henry J .
and Elnora Wright
for their encouragement in
the writing of this thesis.
Special acknowledgment is due Henry Allen Gleason,
whose excellent
purposes
sample grammars were used for illustrative
in the sessions on transformational g r a m m a r .
The author also wishes to thank the typist, Kathy
O h s t r o m , for her invaluable assistance in the preparation
of the manuscript.
iv
Table of Contents
I.
II .
Introduction
vr
Outline Of 'Lectures
Session I :
History of Grammar
Session
History of the English Language
Dr. Hans Gottschalk
13
Session 3 :
Fresian Grammar
18
Session U:
Aspectual G r a m m a r :
Segmental Phonemes
Session 5 :
Aspectual Grammar :
Phonemes
Suprasegmental
2:
Session 6 :
Session 7:
Session 8:
Session 9:
I
30
Aspectual G r a m m a r : .Syntax
Henry J . Sustakowski
Transformational G r a m m a r :
Rules
37
Generative
Itl
Transformational G r a m m a r :
Transformation Rules
Transformational G r a m m a r :
to the Classroom
23
1*9
Relevance
62
Session 10 : Linguistics in the Classroom
73
Ill .
Summary-
81
IV.
Appendix
T e a c h e r s ’ Materials
Literature
Consulted
V.
82
ll+l
INTRODUCTION
■if .
I
Linguistics has become a common term in e d u c a t i o n .
Educational journals
abound with articles concerning the
nature of linguistics and its applications to the teaching
of r e a d i n g , writing., literature , p o e t r y , foreign languages,
and English g r a m m a r .
Many textbook companies are proclaim­
ing that their elementary reading materials and English
textbook series are now linguistically o r i e n t e d .
Linguistics
is an accepted part of the agenda at professional English
and elementary c o n v e n t i o n s ; the major portion of the program
is sometimes
devoted to it.
H o w e v e r , many teachers, because
they have no background in linguistics,
find themselves
unable to read the professional articles critically,
evaluate
.the new teaching materials a d e q u a t e l y , and judge the polemics,
both for and against l i n g u i s t i c s , realistically.
The above
factors led this teacher to undertake
a
serious study of linguistics and to organize the results of
that study into an inservice class
for other teachers who
would not have the time or opportunity for such an extensive
project themselves.
This paper will present the course of
study which was developed and taught as an introductory inservice class in linguistics
for twenty-five English teachers
of grades four through twelve in Allegany C o u n t y , New Y o r k .
This class' met one and one-half hours once each week for
vi i
ten w e e k s .
Since the subject matter of linguistics is far
too broad to introduce in one short c o u r s e , it was necessary
to severely limit the topics to be i n c l u d e d .
There were
several factors which controlled the selection of content.
First,
it was assumed that in order for the teacher to
determine in what ways linguistics
his instructional goals he m u s t :
could help him achieve
I. be able to formulate
clearly the objectives he has in the c l a s s r o o m ;
2. have
some awareness of contemporary thought concerning the p r o ­
cesses of education which is influencing current curriculum
study; and,
linguistics.
3. have some knowledge and understanding of
As vital as the first two assumptions are to
any articulate curriculum in English, they lay beyond the
scope of this particular class.
The third assumption led directly to the decision to
focus this course primarily on subject matter in linguistics,
rather than on the arguments which surround it.
It was the
conviction of this instructor that the teacher must realize
that linguistics is an autonomous discipline which interacts
with various other areas,
including the teaching of E n g l i s h . .
The question which the English teacher faces is not whether
linguistics
is "good" or " b a d " , but in what ways the methods
and findings of the linguistic
his instructional goals.
scientists can help him achieve
Only after the teacher has some
vi i i
knowledge of linguistics
can he assess its value
in his te a c h ­
ing.
Another factor which played a role in selection of the
content was the background of the instructor:
the major
portion of his study in linguistics was in the English
grammars.
Making grammar the central concern of the class
can be justified by its status as a controversial issue in
the teaching of English and its role as the primary area in
which linguistic
content is finding its way into the new
English textbook s e r i e s .
The class study was primarily
focused on the three grammars which are providing the basis
for most of the new content in the English textbooks':
Fresian*, aspectual , and transformational-generati ve.
Aspectual grammar was studied in more detail than might seem
justified by the textbooks'
content because teachers in this
particular class were familiar with the Buffalo English
Linguistics Project and were interested in knowing more about,
the grammar which was used in its materials.
The interests of the teachers
influenced two other de­
cisions of content selection, the most notable being that the
final session was entirely devoted to applications
of lin­
guistics to the teaching of poetry and l i t e r a t u r e .
Also,
*Fresian grammar refers to the structural analysis of English
which Fries (U) presented in The Structure o_f Engl i s h .
ix
since m a n y of the teachers were already using the history of
the language
in their classroom work and because an acquain­
tance with the history of English provides an excellent basis
for an understanding of the concept of language as an everchanging p h e n o m e n o n , the second session was devoted to a
sketch of the history of English.
Finally , it was decided- to begin the class with a
lecture on the history of the study of language
so thavt
t e a c h e r s , who are presently teaching traditional grammar and
who have had little or no background in linguistics, might
be able to think of grammars with a clearer perspective than
they had been able to p r e v i o u s l y .
There was no textbook for the c o u r s e .
teachers were encouraged to read selections
Instead, the
from a general
bibliography
(A p p e n d i x ) and from a textbook bibliography
(Appendix).
The selections in the former were determined
both by their suitability for acquainting teachers with some
phase of linguistics,
and by their availability; most of the
books were actually on hand in the classroom for the teachers
to-take home.
The selections
in the latter were also avail­
able in the classroom for teachers to take home and study.
They were chosen because they represented major attempts to
incorporate linguistic materials into English textbook
series.
The most regrettable omission from this bibliography
X
was textbooks
from Ginn and C o m p a n y .
series represents
Their newest textbook
a major adaptation of transformational-
generative grammar for teaching l a n g u a g e ; h o w e v e r , they were
unable to supply us with samples of their series.
Two outside speakers were brought
perspective to the course.
the English Department
in to add a broader
Dr. Hans G o t t s c h a l k , Chairman of
at State University College at
Geneseo and director of an NDEA linguistics institute at
Geneseo during the summer of 1968,
lectured on the history of
English and suggested possible applications of it to the
teaching of English.
The other speaker was Henry J .
S u s t a k o w s k i , professor of linguistics
at State University
College in Buffalo and one of the principal investigators of
the Buffalo English Linguistics P r o j e c t .
Professor
Sustakowski lectured on the syntax of aspectual grammar and
discussed the findings of the Buffalo English Linguistics
Proj e c t .
The body of this thesis will contain detailed outlines
of the material presented during each of the ten class
sessions.
Since each session was of equal length , the
material is not always divided as it might have been if it
had been organized into c h a p t e r s .
Explanatory material has
been inserted at times to give the reader a better under­
standing of how the sessions were c o nducted.
xi
This inservice
teachers
class in linguistics aimed to give
some perspective concerning grammars of English,
some specific knowledge of the syntactic systems which are
being reflected in the "new" grammars in current t e x t b o o k s ,
a familiarity with some new textbooks which incorporate
aspects of various
syntactic
s y s t e m s , and to encourage
thoughtful reading of linguistic
source material.
The in­
structor tried to organize the material in a fashion that
did least damage to the discipline of linguistics
and yet
was, at the same time, comprehensible to the s t u d e n t s .
II
TEACHING OUTLINES FOR TEN SESSIONS
Session
I
History of Grammar
The Greeks speculated on the nature of t h i n g s , includ­
ing the nature of l a n g u a g e . There were two schools of
thought concerning the nature of l a n g u a g e : one held
that language was " n a t u r a l ," the other that language
was "conventional."
A.
B.
Those who thought language was "natural" believed
that language arose out of the nature of man, was
a matter of a priori knowledge, and was "at
bottom regular and logical."
(2 :U ) Several con­
clusions follow naturally from this philosophy.
1.
The rules of grammar must be absolute and u n ­
changing.
2.
Linguistic change must be a matter of corrup­
tion.
3.
Earlier language must be more perfect because
it is nearer the s o u r c e .
4.
The ancient Greek classics must be studied in
order to develop rules to govern the use of
the language to preserve "correct Greek."
Those who believed that language was "conven­
tional" thought that language was comprised of
arbitrary conventions, established by use, and
subject to c h a n g e . This philosophy of language
leads to several conclusions.
1. . Language changes normally as its use changes.
C.
2.
The rules of the grammar of the language
change as the language changes.
3.
One stage of the development of the language
is not better or worse than another.
Each
serves the purposes of its own t i m e .
The speculation and controversy about the nature
of language led the Greeks to examine their
.. language carefully.
I.
Early Greeks began to develop ideas concerning
2
the parts of speech and some grammatical
principles.
2.
a.
Plato is credited as the first to divide
"the Greek sentence into a nominal and a
verbal c o mponent. . .
(9 :2 6 )
b.
Aristotle, followed by the Stoics, began
the development of the "word class
system." (9:28)
Later Greeks consolidated the ideas concerning
the analyzation of the Greek language into
formal g r a m m a r s .
a.
In the second century B .C . (9) Dionysius
T h r a x , a student of the "natural" school,
wrote his Techne grammaticki in which he
delineated eight .word classes:
noun,
particle, v e r b , c o njunction, preposition,
article, pronoun , and' adverb.
(See
Appendix page 92)
b.
In the second century A .D . Apollonius
Dyscolus wrote a comprehensive syntax of
Greek "built on the relations of the noun
and verb to each other and of the remain­
ing classes of words to these two."
. (9:37)
The Romans borrowed extensively from the Greeks in in­
tellectual matters , including the study of language.
A.
In the middle of the fourth century B .C . ( k : k 2 6 )
Donatus wrote Ars Grammatica M i n o r , a short Latin
grammar based on Greek models.
Abelson reports
this to be "the most widely known textbook on
grammar throughout the middle ages."
(1:36)
D o n a t u s ' text is organized around eight parts of
speech : noun , p r o n o u n , verb, adverb, participle,
c o n j u n c t i o n , preposition, and interjection.
(1:37-38)
B.’
In the sixth century A .D .(^:426) Priscian wrote a
more encyclopedic grammar (eighteen volumes) which
was to rank with D o n a t u s ’ g rammar. Robins (9:62)
claims that P r i s c i a n 's grammar was "by far the most
3
widely used grammar . . . and formed the basis of
mediaeval Latin g r a m m a r . . .•."
Like D o n a t u s , he
did not produce an original work, but was a com­
piler of previous g r a m m a r s . His admitted primary
sources were Thrax and Apollonius.
III.
Throughout the middle ages pedagogical grammars con­
tinued to be of great importance a n d , during the later
middle ages, there was much speculation concerning the
nature of l a n g u a g e .
A.
Pedagogical grammars
Greeks.
continued their debt to the
1.
The grammatical works of Donatus and Priscian ,
based directly on Greek sources and written
originally for native speakers of L a t i n , were
widely used as textbooks by those for whom
Latin was a second l a n g u a g e .
2.
In 1199 (8:37) Alexander de Villedieu wrote
his famous Doctrinale which, at first, supple­
mented and, l a t e r , replaced the grammars of
Donatus and Priscian in Western E u r o p e . A l ­
though it was primarily based on previous
g r a m m a r s , especially P r i s c i a n , it improved oh
the earlier writers in several ways.
3.
a.
It was written in the fashionable verse
style of the day.
b.
It replaced the classical authors with
more current Latin u s a g e .
c.
It gave a much fuller account of syntax
than had the earlier g r a m m a r s .
Indicative of the English grammars which would
follow was Aelfric.'s Latin Grammar "composed
around 1000 for English children speaking Old
English (Anglo-Saxon)."
(9 =70-71),
a.
It was based on Priscian and D o n a t u s .
b.
Aelfric stated that his grammar "would be
equally suitable as an introduction to
(Old) English G r a m m a r ."
(9 =71)
B.
Mediaeval scholars wished to develop a philosophi­
cal system which would e n c o m p a s s 'all knowledge and
u n d e r s t a n d i n g , including l a n g u a g e . This led to
renewed interest in theories concerning the nature
. of language.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries more inter­
est was aroused in language , "but attitudes toward
language had changed little from the time of the
Greeks and Romans.
A.
Interest in languages grew with the spread of
various languages through travel, e x p l o r a t i o n , and
the use of the printing press.
B.
Pedagogical European grammars were written, not
for the "benefit of the native tongues , "but as a
basis for Latin which was still central in the
curriculum.
C.
General grammars were written "to demonstrate
that the structure of various l a n g u a g e s , especial­
ly of Latin, embodies universally valid canons of
logic."
(2:6)
The most famous of the general
grammars was the Port-Royal Grammar of 1660, a
work by several c o l laborators. (U :43^)
During the late 1700's grammar began to develop in
three separate traditions.
A.
The 1700's saw the rise of the vernaculars and of
the middle class.
As the middle class found the m ­
selves with more l e i s u r e , education, and culture,
they demanded grammars of rules which they could
master so that they would speak "correctly." 'Many
people yearned to rescue English from its gradual
degeneration and to give it the same stability as
classical Latin.
The time was ripe for diction­
aries, rhetorics , and grammars of the English
language.
I.
In 1762 Robert L o w t h 's A Short Introduction to
English Grammar was p u b l i s h e d . In his intro­
duction he stated the purpose of his g r a m m a r .
t h u s : "The principal design of a Grammar of
any Language is to teach us to express our­
selves with propriety in that Language, and to
5
be able to judge of every phrase and form of
c o n s t r u c t i o n , whether it be right or not."
(6 :x)
a.
b.
2.
His method of expounding his grammar was
authoritarian.
(1)
He set down the rules of g r a m m a r .
(2)
He illustrated the "correct" way with
quotations from such authors as
S h a k e s p e a r e , Milton, Pope, and
Dryden.
(3)
He used the same authors to point
out errors which were made.
Many of
the quotations illustrating errors
were from the King J a m e s ’ B i b l e .
The criteria for the rules of his grammar
were much the same as those of many
grammarians before him.
(1 )
His criteria was sometimes universal
grammar, sometimes Latin grammar.
(2)
"Good authors" were used to estab­
lish rules if they concurred over­
whelmingly.
As English replaced Latin as the central sub­
ject in the schools, a demand arose for an
English grammar written especially to teach
young students "the art o f speaking and w r i t ­
ing the English language with p r o p r i e t y ."
(7 :1 ) In 1795 , Lindley Murray published
English grammar adapted to the different
classes of learners for a g i r l s ’ school in
Y o r k . In 1797 he published companion books
of exercises and keys to the exercises.
a.
Murray's grammar (7) vras written in a
b r i e f , definitive style with students in
mind.
It was organized under five head­
ings.(
)
I
(I )
Orthography, which treated the
letters of our a l p h a b e t .
6
b.
3.
B.
(2)
E t y m o l o g y , based on nine parts of
speech.
(3)
S y n t a x , in which all the parts of
speech were again considered and the
rules for parsing set f o r t h .
(4)
Prosody, which presented the rules of
proper pronunciation and versifica­
tion.
(5)
Appendix, which consisted of such
practical matters as punctuation and •
other conventions of w r i t i n g .
Murray's Grammar was the leading textbook
in the United States for fifty years.
(3:7I ) There were also many "piracies
and thinly disguised imitations."
(3:71»
5)
School grammar underwent only minor changes
from 1797 to 1900.
a.
In 1851 Stephen Clark in his Analysis of
the English Language proposed that ana­
lyzing sentences into major elements,
such as subjects, predicates, and modi­
fiers, replace p a r s i n g .
b.
Different graphic devices to illustrate
Clark's procedures of sentence analysis
appeared until, by 1900, Reed and
Kellogg diagrams were an accepted part of
most school grammars.
About the same time as Robert L o w t h 1s Grammar
a p p e a r e d , another tradition developed in grammar
which Gleason has labeled "scholarly traditional •
g r a m m a r ."
( 3 : 7 6 ) ■ While the general structure of
"scholarly traditional grammar" was much like
Latin grammar, and school g r a m m a r , it became much
deeper and more d i v e r s e . Its scholars asked many
questions and collected tremendous numbers of ci­
tations from literature.
The scholarly grammati­
cal tradition culminated in three great reference
grammars.
U n f o r t u n a t e l y , few teachers ever became
%
Twell-acquainted with these g r a m m a r s .
1.
Henrik P o u t s m a : A Grammar of Late Modern
English (191^-1929) .
2.
Etsko K r u i s i n g a :
English (1925 ) .
3.
Otto J e s p e r s o n : A Modern English Grammar on
Historical Principles (1909-19^9).
Jesperson
was the only scholarly grammarian who gave
much thought to the over-all structure of
language.
'
C.
A Handbook 0 f P resent-day
The third tradition in grammar which began in the
late 1700's leads directly to modern linguistics.
Exposure to the language and linguistic tradition
of India provided a great impetus to the study of
language in Europe.
1.
1786 is often marked as the beginning of,
modern linguistics for in that year "Sir
William Jones of the East India Company read
his famous paper to the Royal Asiatic Society
in Calcutta, wherein he established beyond
doubt the historical kinship of S a n s k r i t , the
classical language of India, with Latin,
Greek, and the Germanic languages."
(9:134)
2.
Indian linguistic tradition was older than
that of Western Europe and had developed com­
pletely independent of Greek infl u e n c e . It
was organized in an entirely different manner
and was, in some aspects, ahead of European
thought.
a.
Indian work in phonetics was superior to
any that had been done in E u r o p e . Their
study of phonetics was organized around
the following topics (9:142):
(I)
The processes
(2)
The segments of speech
and v o w e l s ).
(3)
The synthesis of the segments into
phonological structures.
of articulation.
(consonants
8
b.
Indian scholarship, especially P a n i n i tS
(c . 350-250 B .C .) (2 111), became best
known for its rigorous grammatical analy­
sis of Sanskrit.
(I)
The Indian grammarians carefully and
systematically studied the rules of
word formation.
(2)
The rules of word formation were set
down with extreme e c o n o m y .
Equipped with the methods and content of
Indian grammatical scholarship, the European
scholars began the gradual reconstruction of
Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the common ances­
tor of the Indian and European languages.
a.
b.
The reconstruction began with detailed
examinations and comparisons of languages
such as :
(I)
R.K. R a s k : Investigations concerning
the origin of the Old Norse or
Icelandic language.
(2)
Franz B o p p : Concerning the conjugat ion system of the Sanskrit language
in comparison with those of the
G r e e k , Latin, Persian, and German
languages.
As the history of individual words and
sounds were patiently traced and c o m p a r e d ,
it became apparent that changes in the
languages were systematic and could be
stated in terms of general principles or
1 laws,
(I)
In 1822 Jacob Grimm published the
second edition of the first volume of
his comparative grammar of the
Germanic languages (Gothic ,
Scandinavian, English, Frisian,
D u t c h , and G e r m a n ) in which he "prersented a systematic exposition of the
correspondences of consonants between
9
• Germanic and the other IndoEuropean l a n g u a g e s ."
(2:14)
This
has since been known as G r i m m fs L a w .
(2)
In 1875 Karl Verner published An
exception to the first sound shift
in which he explained most of the ex ­
ceptions to G r i m m 's Law by taking
into account the position of the
accent in the words at the time the
change occurred.
V e r n e r 1s Law led to
the idea that perhaps all apparent
irregularities of the sound laws
could be explained, and, subsequent­
ly , many of them w e r e .
At this point in our outline we are going to shift our
attention to the study of language in the United S t a t e s .
This is not to ignore or belittle the continued advances in
linguistics in England and on" the continent, but s imply to
concentrate on that tradition in modern linguistics which
most immediately affects us.
VI.
Linguistics in the United States was firmly rooted in
European l i n g u i s t i c s ; h o w e v e r , there were two major
reasons why American linguistics developed a rigor­
ous, unique tradition of its own after 1900 : the
presence of the American Indian languages and the
stimulation of several brilliant men.
A.
The three most important linguists in the United
States in the early part of the twentieth century
were Franz B o a z , Edward S a p i r , and Leonard
Bloomfield.
I.
In 1899 Franz Boaz became the first professor
of anthropology at Columbia U n i v e r s i t y .
a.
"He was a very active, m e t i c u l o u s ,• and
productive field w o r k e r " (2 :U l ) who care­
fully trained students in phonetics so
that they might study the language as
well as other aspects of the culture of
the American Indian.
b.
Many of his students concentrated on field
work in l a n g u a g e , using native informants.
10
in order to analyze the unwritten Indian
l a n g u a g e s . With these students American
linguistics began in e a r n e s t .
2.
3.
B.
Edward S a p i r , a student of Boaz and also a
-meticulous field w o r k e r , brought to American
linguists a much broader o u t l o o k .
a.
Of a more theoretical mind than B o a z , he
developed a concept of the p h o n e m e .
b.
In 1921 he published.L a n g u a g e , a very
readable and influential little book,
which displayed profound insights into
the nature of language.
Leonard Bloomfield has been called "the great
synthesizer" (3:^6) in American linguistics.
a.
He was trained in Europe in historical
linguistics.
b.
He produced excellent analyses of several
American Indian languages.
c.
In 1933 he published Language which
summarized the entire field of linguis­
tics and was subsequently the most widely
used textbook for linguists in the United
States.
The presence of the American Indian languages
exerted influence on American linguistics in sev­
eral ways .
1.
There was a sense of urgency in gathering
efficient and accurate records of previously
unrecorded, and often d y i n g , l a n g u a g e s .
2.
The great diversity between the Indian lan­
guages and the Indo-European languages and
among the Indian languages themselves led to
a greater and greater insistence that each
language must be analyzed in terms of its
own stru c t u r e . American linguists moved
further and further away from using meaning
as a criteria in structural analysis of a
language.
Concluding Remarks
'
This outline of the history of the study of grammar in
the Western world has brought us up to the concepts we will
study in this
course.
In any abbreviated history it is n e c ­
essary to pick and choose the particular ideas which one
will present.
This is not an attempt to distort , or to ig ­
nore parts of, the history, but a means of developing a
certain thread of ideas which have a particular pertinence at
the m o m e n t .
Next week Dr. Hans Gottschalk will present a lecture
on the history of.English.
He will be pleased to answer
questions on either the history of English or the teaching
of it in the classroom.
12
LITERATURE CONSULTED
Session I
1.
A b e l s o n , P a u l . The Seven Liberal A r t s . New Y o r k :
Teachers' College, Columbia U n i v e r s i t y ; 1906.
p . 150.
2.
B l o o m f i e l d , Leonard.
Language.
Company ; 19 33.
p . 5£>4 .
3.
Gleason , H .A . Linguist!cs and English G r a m m a r . New
York: Holt, Rinehart and W i n s t o n ; 1965 . p . 518.
4.
G r a y , Louis Hi. Foundations of Langu a g e .
Macmillan Company; 1939•
p . 530.
5.
Kennicott , E .D . The Grammatical E x p o s i t o r .
New York: Gem O f f i c e ; 1835•
p ? 124.
6.
L o w t h , R o b e r t . A Short Introduction to English G r a m m a r .
1762.
Selected and edited for English Linguistics
1500-1800: A Collection of Facsimile Reprints by
R.C. Alston.
M e n s t o n , England: The Scholar Press;
. 1967 . p . 126 v
7.
M u r r a y , L i n d l e y . English Grammar Adapted to the
D i fferent Classes of Le a r n e r s . 9th ed.
Bellows
Falls: B l a k e , Cutler and Company; 1821.
p . 312.
8.
P a e t o w , Louis.
The Arts Course at Medieval Universities
with Special Reference to Grammar and R h e t o r i c . Re ­
printed from the University Studies of the University
of Illinois, V o l . 3, No. 7; January, 1910.
Dubuque,
Iowa: William C . Brown Reprint L i b r a r y . p. 134.
9.
Robins, R .H . A Short History of Lingu i s t i c s .
Indiana University Press; 1967.
p • 248.
New Y o r k : Henry Holt and
New Y o r k : The
Rochester,
Bloomington:
Session
2
The English Language
(Outline of lecture given by
Dr. Hans Gottschalk)
Pre-English tongues in British Isles ? -- k k 9
A.
Celtic
1.
2.
Celts in Europe
a.
In ancient times Celtic groups ranged from
Asia Minor and ancient Sarmatia on the east
to Britain and Portugal oh the west.
b.
Most of ancient Gaul, the British Isles,
Germany, as far east as the Elbe, the great
Po Valley of Northern Italy, a large part
of the valley of the Danube were at one
time solid Celtic-speaking territories.
Groups in the British Isles
a.
b.
Ancient Celtic invasion from Europe
(1 )
Goidels (Gaels) west and north toward
Ireland and Scotland
(2)
Brythons (Britons) to the middle and
southern plains of the Isles
(3 )
Caledonians and Piets to the extreme
north of Scotland
Modern Celtic languages
G o i d e l i c : ' Irish, Scottish, Gaelic, Manx
B r y t h o n i c : Welsh, Breton, Cornish
3.
Celtic contributions to English languages and
literature
a.
To the language, not more than fifty words
b.
To English literature, many romantic
stories such as romances of King Arthur,
■Tristan
B.
and Iseoult
Latin
1.
2.
Roman occupation
a.
Roman invasion under Caesar 55 BC
b.
Withdrawal to defend Rome from barbarian
invaders 440 AD
Roman contributions
a.
To the language -- place names, church
rituals and law terminology (Latin)
b.
To the literature -- practically nothing
of lasting value to the content ■
Old English or Anglo-Saxon Period
A.
B.
1*49-1066
Relationship to Languages of the World
1.
Member
cludes
number
Persia
of the Indo-European family which in­
most of languages of Europe , a large
of l a n g u a g e s .of India, the language of
and of certain adjoining r e g i o n s .
2.
Belongs to the Germanic family of IndoEuropean language
Germanic language:
I.
Northern Germanic (Scandanavian)
Swedish
Danish
Norwegian
Icelandic
II.
East Germanic (Gothic languages now
extinct)
III.
West Germanic
German
Dutch-Flemish
Frisian
English
Anglo-Saxon Conquest of British Isles
I.
Invasions
15
C.
a.
Jutes in from South Jutland in Denmark in
the southeastern part of the Isles.
b.
Saxons from Holstein at Mouth of Weser in
the southwestern part of the Isles , c k h j
AD.
c.
Angles .from Schleswig in eastern and no r t h ­
ern part of the British Isles , fifth
century.
2.
Celts driven to remote parts of Britain -Wales , Scottish Highlands, I r e l a n d , Cornwall,
D a v o n , and into Brittany across c h a n n e l .
3.
Main dialects of Conquerors
a.
Kecitish.
Danish
Spoken by Jutes who were strongly
b.
Northumbrian or Northern.
Spoken by the
Angles and considered standard in the preAlfredian period (500-870)
c.
West Saxon or S o u t h e r n . Spoken by the
S a x o n s , south and west of Thames and was
considered the standard language from King
Alfred's time 870, to coming of William the
Conqueror in 1066.
d.
The Mercian or Midland, east and west.
Spoken by both Angles and Saxons in central
• part of England, especially around London
and developed into a standard dialect in
the latter part of thirteenth century and
the nucleus of the present English language.
Danish Invasions
1.
Danes in control of eastern and northern part
of England, the Land of the Angles , from 7 87 to
their defeat by King Alfred in 878 (Peace of
Wedmore)
2.
Invasion under King Canute of D e n m a r k , Canute,
on throne of Britain 1016-10H2.
' k- .
16
Contributions
■:-x
..
“,
kr-;
,**•„-1.
Language -- a large number of Danish words
into English dialects, dialects s_k words
date from this period (sky, skin), place
names ending in by- and throp and a number
of common words like o d d , a n g e r , e g g . Nearly five percent of our words are
Scandinavian.
Literature -- Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf
of Scandinavian origin
.6'j.;-■
III.
Middle English
A.
B.
C.
1066-1500
Norman French
1.
Conquest of England by the French under William
the Conq u e r o r .
2.
French language dominate in social and govern­
mental a f f a i r s .
Prominence of three languages in this period.
1.
Latin used by the church and by the law c o u r t s .
2.
French spoken by the nobility in the court and
used in governmental and business activities.
3.
Anglo-Saxon (Mercian or midland dialect) used
by m e r c h a n t s , working class, agricultural p opu­
lation, lesser nobility, etc.
The triumph of the Midland dialect
1.
In 1362 , English restored as the official
language in law courts
2.
By 13 6 5 , the Mercian dialect used about L o n d o n ,
declared the standard for both spoken and lit­
erary language (Illustration: works of Chaucer,
C o w e r , W y c l i f , Lydgate, and o t h e r s )
3.
By 1380, a fusion of old English and French
sources (Ill u s t r a t i o n : Chaucer's works)
..V-;
17
h.
By 1^75-1500, crystallization of Middle
English as official language By means of the
printing p r e s s .
19
B.
1.
Researchers (10) w.ho devised tests to measure
the correlation between the teaching of formal
grammar and the production of error-free com­
position concluded that there was little or no
relationship between the two.
2.
Some psychologists (T) proposed that the trans­
fer of learning was much more specific than had
been previously thought.
3.
Surveys were made to determine just which errors
in grammar students most often committed in com­
position.
Lists of these items (5:1*0 were drawn
up and much grammar teaching shifted to an em­
phasis on these e r r o r s .
Surveys of errors were based on th.e certainty that
the surveyor knew (from the rules of g r a m m a r ) what
■was "right" and "wrong."
The "usage movement" de­
veloped in an attempt to decide if the rules of
grammar were justifiable.
1.
J . Leslie Hall's English Usage (6) exemplifies
the type of survey conducted in the beginning of
the m o v e m e n t . He examined controversial usages
by comparing them with the usages of "reputable"
or "eminent" a u t h o r s .
2.
Sterling A. Leonard's Current English Usage (8)
represents a development in the survey of usage.
a.
Leonard Examined 102 controversial usages by
referring them to seven.panels of j u d g e s :
linguistic experts, members of the National
Council of Teachers of English, well-known
authors , editors , b u s i n e s s m e n , members of the
Modern Language Association, and teachers of
speech.
Another 130 items were submitted
only, to linguists and Council members.
b.
The panels were asked to rate the usages as
(1 )
Formally correct English
(2)
Fully acceptable for informal conversa­
tion
20
c.
3.
4.
C.
(3)
Fully acceptable for technical uses
(this category assumed minimal im­
portance )
(4)
Popular or illiterate
Leonard's findings indicated a consensus on
less than half of the items, and a great
disparity between the opinions of the panels
and the edicts of popular grammar t e x t b o o k s .
Albert H . Marckwardt and Fred Walcott (9) tried
to supplement Leonard's study in their Facts
about Current English U s a g e .
a.
Marckwardt and Walcott examined the same
disputable items as Leonard by consulting
the Oxford En g l i sh Diction a r y , W e b s t e r 's New
International Dictio n a r y , second edition,.'
and the fuller scholarly g r a m m a r s .
b.
Their findings indicated that Leonard's
panels were very conservative.
Margaret M . Bryant (2) edited a comprehensive
study of usage in 1962:
Current American U s a g e .
a.
Bryant compiled and summarized hundreds of
usage studies.
b.
The evidence was assimilated into alphabeti­
cal, cross-referenced, entries.
Example:
NOT, ILLOGICALL! PLACED
S u m m a r y : "The all . . . not e x p r e s s i o n ,
as in 'All men are not alike,'
is standard English."
■D a t a :
Summarized in a short dis­
cussion.
Other evidence:
Evidence not summar­
ized above was listed.
The usage movement led to changes
ing of g r a m m a r .
I.
(10) in the teach­
Many grammatical details in textbooks were
dropped or changed.
Session
3
Fresian Grammar ■
'
At the beginning of each session
(except when a guest
speaker was p r e s e n t ) the members of the class discussed the
reading they had done which pertained to the previous lesson.
For instance,
at the beginning of session three there was a
discussion of the material on the history of language in the
various textbooks listed in Bibliography II (Appendix p.
86).
The teachers also contributed information from other sources
and from their own experiences.
They often argued the merits
of the different sets of materials and different manners of
prese n t a t i o n .
In this w a y , the teachers became more familiar
with the various textbooks and with what other teachers were
doing in their classrooms.
The role of the instructor during
these discussions was limited to that of m o d e r a t o r .
Fresian Grammar
I.
The teaching of grammar in the United States in the
twentieth century has varied greatly from one school sys­
tem to another, both in quality and quantity of instruc­
tion.
A great deal might be said about b o t h . H o w e v e r ,
there is one particular sequence of events which can be
traced directly from the formal grammar taught at the b e ­
ginning of the century to the statement of Fresian
grammar in 1952.
A.
The use of statistical evaluation in educational t e s t ­
ing and development of new ideas in psychology con­
cerning the transfer of learning led to a movement
called the "survey of e r r o r s ."
21
II.
2.
Teachers gained respect for the direct obser­
vation of l a n g u a g e .
3.
As more emphasis was placed on those grammati­
cal constructions of students which differed
from "good usage," a piecemeal approach to
grammar was strengthened and the study of
grammar as a system was w e a k e n e d .
, The next stage in the usage movement was the attempt to
survey actual usage of American speakers. In 1926, the
National Council of Teachers of English commissioned
Charles Fries, a member and a college English' t e a c h e r ,
"to conduct a full-scale study to determine what
grammatical matter should be taught in the schools."
(5:17)
This study eventually resulted in the publica­
tion of American E n g l i sh G r a m m a r . (3)
At this point the teaching outline directly follows the
T e a c h e r s ’ Materials:
III.
Appendix p p . 95
- 9'8,
Fries had planned that one, then t w o , chapters of
American English Grammar would be devoted to the sen­
tence.
However,, pressure to publish the materials
which were completed and the growing bulk of the
material on sentence construction persuaded him to
postpone its publication until later.
Pressures of the
war and of teaching English as a foreign language fur­
ther postponed this part of his s t u d y .
-Finally, in 19^6, Fries began to collect a new language
sample and to analyze it in earnest.
The result was
the publication in 1952 of The Structure of E n g l i s h :
An Introduction to the Construction of English
S e n t e n c e s . (4)
This sample consisted of fifty hours
o f r e c o r d e d , Standard Northern United States conversa­
tion.
It amounted to, r o u g h l y , a quarter of a million
words of recorded and transcribed material.
Again , at this point, the teaching outline directly
follows the Teachers'
Materials:
Appendix p p . 98-109.
22
LITERATURE CONSULTED
Session 3
1.
B l o o m f i e l d , Leonard.
and C o m p a n y ; 1933.
2.
Bryant, Margaret M . ' Current American U s a g e .
Funk and Wagnals C o m p a n y ; 19^2%
3.
Fries, Charles C a r p e n t e r . A m e r i c an English G r a m m a r ♦
New York: D . Appleton-Century C o m p a n y ; 19^0.
U.
F r i e s , Charles C a r p e n t e r . The Structure of E n g l i s h . .
New Y o r k : H a r c o u r t , Brace and World; 1952.
5.
Gleason, H .A . , ,Jr . Linguistics and English Grammar ♦
New Y o r k : Holt, Rinehart, and Winston; 1965.
6.
Hall, J . Leslie.
English U s a g e .
Foresman Company; 1917.
7.
H i l g a r d , E r n e s t . Theories of Learning', 2nd edition.
New York: Appleto n - C e n t u r y - C r o f t s ; 1956.
Chapter 2.
8.
Leonard, Sterling A.
Current English U s a g e .
The Inland Press ; 1932.
9.
M a r c k w a r d t , Albert H., and Fred G . W a l c o t t . Facts about
Current E n g lish U s a g e . New Y o r k : D . AppletonCentury F o m p a n y ; 1938.
10.
Language.
New York: Henry Holt
Chicago:
New Y o r k :
Scott,
Chicago:
Meckel, Henry C . "Research on Teaching Composition and
Literature ," Handbook of Res e arch on T e a c h i n g . ed.
Nathaniel Lees Gage.
Chicago: Rand McNally; 1963.
Session
4
Aspectual Grammar
(I )
The first thirty minutes of session four were spent in
discussion,
q u e s t i o n s , and answers
grammar, Paul Roberts'
concerning Fresian
Patterns of E n g l i s h , and other p e r ­
tinent reading which the teachers had been doing.
Segmental Phonemes
Henry Lee Smith, Jr.
(8 ), a descriptive linguist in the
Bloomfieldian t r a d i t i o n , is the central figure in aspectual
grammar.
First of all, it is necessary to recognize several'im­
portant assumptions which underlie all work i n 'descriptive
linguistics,
including a s p e c t u a l 'g r a m m a r .
Assumptions
1.
Speech is the beginning point in any study of
language.
Writing is a secondary system.
2.
Language is’ a r b i t r a r y .
of the group using it.
3.
Language is systematic.
It has a s t r u c t u r e .
system or structure conveys meaning.
I).
Each language has its own system or s t r u c t u r e .
5.
The sum of the structural features and the relation­
ships among the features of a language are its
grammar.
It exists by the agreement
This
Aspectual grammar begins with the analyzation of the
sounds of speech.
2h
Definitions
Phonology:
A term which includes phonetics and
phonemics.
P h o n e t i cs :
The science of all the vocal sounds which
occur in the various language sys t e m s . The
International Phonetic Alphabet (!PA) is a
widely used legend for recording the sounds
used in language systems.
A phonetic
transcription is an objective recording of
the sounds of language without regard for
their significance in the structure of any
particular language.
When all the sounds of a particular language system are
s t u d i e d , it is discovered that any given language
1.
system:
Uses only selected sounds of the total range
possible , or of that range used by speakers of other
language systems.
2.
Groups the sounds it does use into fifteen to sixty
(1 :38 ) selected,
distinctive classes which contrast
in meaning with one a n o t h e r .
Phonemics:
The study of the distinctive classes of
sounds of a given l a n g u a g e .
The principle of contrast is one of the ways of deter­
mining phonemes.
Linguists like to use minimal pairs to
establish c o n t r a s t s .
A minimal pair is two minimal utter­
ances which are alike except for one unit.
constitute a minimal pair in English.
for the initial sound.
"Pill" and "bill"
They are alike except
In English this difference in initial
sound establishes a c o n t r a s t ; or, in other words , to a native
25
speaker -of English they are "different
Ph o n e m e :
A single speech sound or a group of pho­
netically similar sounds which function as
a distinctive unit in a given language.
Phonetically s i m i l a r : 'The sounds share some feature or
features of articulation which results,
naturally, in a characteristic auditory
effect.
The teachers should try the following exercise.
Directions:
Hold a piece of paper before the lips.
Say the
word "pencil" so that the paper bounces and so
that it does n o t .
E x p l a n a t i o n : The paper bounces before an aspirated " p ," but
not before an unaspirated o n e .
This difference
is not significant in English.
If it w e r e ,
English would have two phonemes to represent
the two significant
have one phoneme
Allophone :
sounds.
Since it is not, we
/p/.
Careful examination of the phoneme /p/ in
words such as "pin," "spin," and "tip" will
reveal that /p/ in initial position.is as­
pirated, in medial position is u n a s p i r a t e d ,
and in final position is unreleased.
These
are allophones of /p/.
Allophones usually
fall into such predictable positions.
A
native speaker of English would say that
they were "the same."
In Siamese (10:9),
however, the initial aspirated /p/ and un ­
aspirated /p/ do not "mean the same" to a
native s p e a k e r . . They represent two separate
phonemes.
Classification of Phonemes
of English
Phonemes
are usually classified by point and manner of
26
articulation.
1.
By manner is m e a n t :
Voiced or v o i c e l e s s .
If
the vocal cords are vi ­
brating the phoneme is v o i c e d ; if the vocal cords
are relaxed the phoneme is v o i celess .
2.
Consonants
are made by constricting or stopping the
flow of a i r .
If the air is shut off completely the
consonant is a s t o p ; if the air comes out noisily
the consonant is a spirant or fricative'.
Information concerning the points and manners of articu­
lation of consonant phonemes was summarized in the teachers'
materials
(Appendix p. 111 ).
The chart of classification of consonant phonemes which
is a part of an aspectual analysis of English
found in the teachers'
materials
(8 ) is also
(Appendix p. 1 12 ).
Vowels allow the air to flow freely through the mouth.
H o w e v e r , the shape of the mouth affects the sound.
is primarily changed by the.position of the t o n g u e .
tongue moves in two dimensions:
The shape
The
it may be high, m i d d l e , or
low; and, it may be front , c e n t e r , or back.
Smith
(8 ) uses
the following diagram for the nine simple vowel phonemes in
English.
The chart is based on the position of the tongue.
27
center
front
i•
U
pit
just
e
9
O
pet
putt
gonna
ae
a
J
pat
pot
caught
mid
(a d v .)
put
i .
high
low
key words
back
Rounding also affects the shape of the m o u t h .
In English
the rounding only occurs in the back vowels, mostly in the
/u/ .
The most difficult vowel phonemes to distinguish are the
/i/ and the / o / .
English.
The /o/ does not occur in all dialects of
It does occur in the coastal New England pronuncia­
tion of "home" and "road."
in all dialects.
The
/i/ is not a separate phoneme
It can be illustrated with the following
examples.
The shoes are Rosa's.
The roses are p r e t t y .
/rowz9 s /
/rowziz/
There are three glides in English:
/y/, /w/, /h/.
These function as consonants before vowels and as semi­
vowels after V o w e l s .
plex vowel nuclei.
English.
They join with the vowels to form com­
There are 27 possible complex nuclei
No dialect uses all of them.
in
A list of these, with
the most common ones u n d e r l i n e d , can be found in the
teachers'
materials
(Appendix p . 113 ).
them glides is easily demonstrated.
The reason for calling
Notice the movement of
28
the tongue when the word "say" is said s l o w l y ; then when
"yes" is said slowly.
The phoneme /r/ is sometimes classified as a fourth
s e m i -vowe l .
It is almost impossible to make a general state­
ment about /r/ that is valid for all speakers of English.
It
is formed differently in different dialects and by different
spea k e r s .
The tongue is generally turned upward and tipped
back; therefore , it is referred to as a retroflex semi­
vowel.
It displays very interesting b e h a v i o r , but that lies
beyond the scope of the present d i s c u s s i o n .
Assignment r
The teachers were asked to take home worksheets
on phonemics
(Appendix p p .113-114
), fill in the b l a n k s , and
bring them to class the following week.
29
LITERATURE CONSULTED
Session U
Sessions f o u r , f i v e , and six are all devoted to dis­
cussion of aspectual g r a m m a r .
T h e r e f o r e , the literature
consulted will be found at the end of session six.
S ession
5
Aspectual Grammar
(2)
The first part of the session was spent reviewing the
segmental phonemes.
I.
The teachers
compared their answers to,the exer­
cises assigned the previous week.
It was pointed
out that words in isolation are sometimes p r o ­
nounced differently than the same words in running
J
discourse.
It was decided that the following comparison would
help identify the /i/.
2.
That's the gist of it.
/jist/
It was said in j e s t .
/jest/
The cause is j u s t .
/j9st/
Wait just a minute.
/jist/
The class enjoyed reading phonemic transcriptions
from Gleason's
3.
The teachers
(5) W o r k b o o k .
(See Appendix p . i l 5 )
discussed briefly the phonemic material
■they had found in the textbook series.
Suprasegmental Phonemes
Suprasegmental phonemes are said to' "overlie" or "tie
together" the segmental phonemes.
Discussions
of supra-
segmental phonemes vary slightly; the presentation in this
31
class was based on the Trager-Smith
(9) analysis of E n g l i s h .
There are twelve suprasegmental phonemes in E n g l i s h :
four phonemes each of stress, pitch,
and j u n c t u r e .
Stress phonemes
Stress phonemes
are often referred to as accent or
loudness in English.
There are four stress phonemes in English:
I'I
/ A/
I'l
/v/
primary
secondary
tertiary
weak
Stresses are phonemic in English because native
speakers
identify as different two utterances which are alike
except for the stress.
Examples:
(8:6,11)
Stress is always marked over the v o w e l .
the White House
the white house
lighthouse-keeper
light housekeeper
light housekeeper
or . light]housekeeper
Stress phonemes have grammatical sign i f i c a n c e ; they serve as
structural signals.
I.
Stress phonemes
identify certain constructions.
Examples:
Noun p h r a s e s :
round house
or
round house
goose
or
goose
egg
egg
32
Compound n o u n s :
round house
goose egg
A compound noun and a noun phrase in one
sentence:
<
/"
^
A.
>»
Long Island is a long island.
Two word verbs :
Compound n o u n s :
Verbs:
set up
>
set up
hand out
hand out
permit
Nouns:
permit
conduct
conduct
*survey
survey
2.
Stress phonemes delimit certain units.
All words in isolation have primary stress.
If two or more words are Combined into a phrase one
■
of the primary stresses must be reduced to at least
a secondary stress.
Examples:
(U :I 8 l )■
goose, egg = goose egg
or
goose egg
black, bird, trap
b l a c k b i r d , trap, black, birdtrap
blackbird trap or blackbird trap
black birdtrap or black birdtrap
more beautiful
A
more
A.
(plus)
W
girls = more beautiful girls
A
A
A
Xe
A
(plus) beautiful girls = more beautiful girls
33
The last two examples illustrate how stress can in ­
dicate two different
constructions which otherwise
look identical.
Pitch phonemes
There are four pitch phonemes in E n g l i s h .
pitches are r e l a t i v e .
These
Although pitch /2/ varies from
speaker to s p e a k e r , each speaker contrasts four different
pitches.
/I/
low
/ 2 / :.mid
/3/
high
M/
extra high
An utterance usually begins on /2/.
A primary stress is often uttered on /3/.
An utterance often ends on /I/.
Like stress, pitch is phonemic in English because
native speakers identify as different two utterances which
are alike except for the pitch.
Sally's, going to Paris
2~
w
^ 2^ ^3
Sally's going to Paris
Not all questions end with /3/.
Notice examples which
have a question word at the b e g i n n i n g .
2 a
*■
«•
3
I
What are you doing
'
2
a
*■
•>
3 ^ I
Where are you going
34
Notice that there is only one primary stress in each of
the above examples and that the pitch is marked at the b e ­
ginning of the u t t e r a n c e , at the e n d , and on the syllable
which has primary stress.
one intonation pattern,
Each of these examples presents
or phonological phrase.
Juncture,
the next topic, bounds phonological p h r a s e s .
Juncture
Juncture is more difficult to analyze than are the
other suprasegmental phonemes.
It is not to be thought of as
pause.
j u n c t u r e , b u t pause is not
Pause often accompanies
the major characteristic of juncture.
There are four phonemes of juncture in English.
/+/ - internal, or plus juncture, also called open
transition (4).
This juncture breaks the
phonemic f l o w .
night+rate
1 + s cream,
or
or
nitrate
ice + cream
The other three juncture phonemes are phonological
phrase m a r k e r s .
An intonation pattern or phono­
logical phrase is bounded by one of the following
juncture phonemes and contains only one primary
stress.
/1 / - single b a r . The pitch neither rises or falls ;
it is sustained.
2 <
~
'
2 2
'
vI
The girl on the horse|is Martha ff
35
/I I / -
double bar.
The pitch is apt to rise
slightly and is accompanied by more length­
ening than the /|/.
Z ' "2 2- w2
2 2- - I
Sally) Imy sister) | is coming#
/#/ - double cross.
This juncture phoneme is
accompanied by lengthening, often by p a u s e ,
and often by a drop to pitch /l/.
It
usually occurs at the end of a sentence, but
may occur in the middle of a long sentence,
usually between the subject and v e r b . See
above e x a m p l e s .
The concluding examples of the session are in the
teachers'
materials
(Appendix pp.
117 - 118 ).
36
LITERATURE CONSULTED
Session 5
See the end of session s i x .
Session
6
Aspectual Grammar (3)
(Outline of lecture given
by Henry J . Sustak o v s k i )
I.
Stratificational and Aspectual Grammar
A.
B.
Relationship between the two grammars
1.
Strata
2.
Aspects
Schematic organization of aspectual grammar
1.
2.
3.
Definitions
a.
Metalinguistics
b.
Microlinguistics
Levels of grammar
a.
Phonology
b.
Morphology
c.
Seraology
Relationships of levels
Metalinguistics
T----------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 4
prelinguistics
"
-------------------------------------- r
microlinguistics
socio­
psychoetc.-linguistics
Microlinguistics
phonology
morphology
semology
38
II.
Morphology
A.
Definition of morpheme
B . . Kinds of morphemes
1.
2.
3.
C.
a.
Free
b.
Bound
Prefixes
a.
Kinds
b.
Ordering
Suffixes
a.
Homophonous morphemes
b.
Inflectional
c.
Derivational
Morphemic parts of speech
I.
•2.
III.
Base morphemes
Criteria
Classification
Syntax
A.
B.
C.
Syntactic parts of speech
1.
Criteria
2.
Classification
Syntactic relations
1.
Relations "within phonological phrases
2.
Relations between phonological phrases
Formula of structure
39
IV.
Buffalo English Linguistics Project
A.
Purpose:
to test A..Linguistics Approach to E n g l i s h ,
a one year language program written for high school
students.
B.
Population:
public
C.
about 3000 students in the Buffalo
schools.
Results:
students displayed 3 0 0 - 6 0 0 % growth in
language sensitivity as tested by John Carroll's
Modern Language Aptitude T e s t .
D.
Other r e s u l t s :
ninth and tenth grade students p r o ­
gressed more rapidly than did older students.
Io
LITERATURE CONSULTED
Session 6
1. ' B l o c h , Bernard, and George L . T r a g e r . Outline of
Linguistic A n a l y s i s . B a l t i m o r e : Linguistic Society
of A m e r i c a ; 1942.
2.
Bloomfield, Leonard. ' L a n g u a g e .
Rinehart and Winston; 1933.
3.
Francis ,. W . N e l s o n . The Structure of American E n g l i s h .
New Y o r k : Ronald Press; 1958.
4.
Gleason, Henry A.
An Introduction to Descriptive
L i n g u i st!cs . New Y o r k : Holt, Rinehart and Winston;
1961.
5 . ___________ .
New Y o r k : Holt ,
Workbook in Descriptive L i n g u i s t i c s ; 19 55.
6.
Gleason, H .A . Lingui sties and English G r a m m a r .
York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston; 1 96 5.
New
7.
S a p i r , E d w a r d . L a n g u a g e : An Introduction to the Study
of S p e e c h . New York: H a r c o u r t , Brace and W o r l d ; 1921.
8.
Smith, Henry Lee, Jr.
English Morphop h o n i c s . O n e o n t a ,
New York: New York State English C o u n c i l ; 1968 .
9.
Smith, Henry L e e , Jr., and Henry J . S u s t a k o w s k i . A
L inguistic Approach to E n g l i s h . Revised edition.
B u f f a l o , New Y o r k : Buffalo English Linguistics
Project ; 1965 .
1 0 . ________ ___. The Phonological Structure of E n g l i s h .
A Guide for Teachers: Chapter Seven; 1963.1
11.
T r a g e r , George L ., and Henry Lee Smith, Jr.
An Outline
of English S t r u c t u r e .' Studies in Linguistics,
Occasional Papers 3; 1951.
Reprinted, Washington,
D .C .: American Council Learned Societies; 1957•
Session
7
Transformational Generative Grammar
(I )
A transformational generative grammar is a grammar
which incorporates "both generative and transformational
rules.
Although it is possible to conceive of a grammar
which would be purely transformational or purely g e n e r a t i v e ,
that is, only utilize rules of one t y p e , the usual practice
is to combine a set of generative rules and a set of trans­
formational rules in one g r a m m a r .
The name of such a grammar
is often shortened to "transformational" and its proponents
are called "transformationalists."
The major figure in transformational generative grammar
since the publication of Syntactic Structures
has been Noam Chomsky.
in 1957 (5)
Chomsky has not, however , been p r i ­
marily concerned with constructing a g r a m m a r ; his primary
concern has been with the philosophical and theoretical
postulates of such grammars.
published work
A limited examination of his
( 3> U *,9 >•6 ^7 ;8) reveals the following philo­
sophical assumptions which underlie work in transformational
grammar.
Assumpt ions
I.
All languages have a universal underlying
grammatical structure.
This underlying structure
is called deep structure.
k2
2.
This deep structure reflects fundamental properties
of the mind--the forms of thought.
3.
This structure is i n n a t e ; t h e r e f o r e , language is
an innate p r o p e r t y , waiting to be t r i g g e r e d .
4.
Although the deep structure of all languages is
fundamentally the same, the means of its e x p r e s s i o n ,
or the surface s t r u c t u r e s , may vary widely.
The following statement taken from C a r t e s i a n 'Linguistics
(3:38-39) may serve as Chomsky's definition of transforma­
tional generative grammar.
It also indicates the linguistic
tradition with which he identifies.
[Transformational generative g r a m m a r ] is concerned
precisely with the rules that specify deep struc^tures and relate them to surface structures and with
the rules of semantic and phonological interpreta­
tion that apply to deep and surface structures re­
spectively. . . . In many respects, it seems to me
quite accurate . . . to regard the theory of trans­
formational generative g r a m m a r , as it is developing
in current work, as essentially a modern and more
explicit version of the Port-Royal t h e o r y .
At this point many students asked questions concerning
transformational grammar and its philosophy.
Some of the
questions pertained to the ideas which were presented above
and others were random questions which reflected some contact
with educational journal and popular press articles concern­
ing Chomsky and/or transformational g r a m m a r .
Two Sample Grammars
In order to become
familiar with numerous
features of
transformational syntax and to gain understanding of the
43
manner in which such a syntax is stated-, this class examined
two sample
"grammars," the first generative and the second
transformational g e n e r a t i v e .
Both grammars are primarily
concerned with syntactic rules , although, as the above state­
ment from Chomsky indicates, transformational theory refers
to a theory of language which includes p h o n o l o g y , s y n t a x , and
semantics.
H o w e v e r , up to this time, the transformational­
ists have concentrated their effort primarily in the develop­
ment of syntax,
especially that of English.
Also, in the
current textbook series the application of transformational
grammar is to the study of sentence construction.
The two sample grammars were constructed by Gleason
(9)
for illustrative purposes and represent the clearest expli­
cation of transformational generative syntax on a restricted
scale that this author was able to find.
Since Gleason himself is not a transformationalist it is
not surprising that his grammars differ from accepted trans­
formational practice at several points..
H o w e v e r , these
points are f e w , will not deter this class from gaining an
understanding of the way in which such a grammar o p e r a t e s , and
will be pointed out in session nine.
Definition
"A grammar [syntactic] is a finite set of rules which
enumerates (or generates) an infinite number of
kb
grammatical (or well-formed) sentences of a language
and no ungrammatical ones and assigns to each sen­
tence generated its proper structural description"
(11:10. ■
A Sample Generative Grammar
The' sample grammar presented in this session
P . 121 ) consists of P-rules,
(Appendix
L - r u l e s , and M - r u l e s .
P-rules
Generative rule.s which are often called phrase(1 :3 5 ) are the first
structure or constituent structure rules
rules to be applied in the g r a m m a r .■ S is the starting place.
The s y m b o l , -- > , means
" r e w r i t e ."
symbol is rewritten at a time.
nate rewrite choices.
Notice that only one
The brackets enclose alter­
Any one of alternate choices can be'
selected at any time the rule is applied.
apply some P-rules
It is possible to
(P 9 , P 1 3 , P l 4 , P l 6 ) more than once ; these
rules are called " r e c ursive."
possible to generate
Recursive rules make it
sentences of infinite length.
The rules
must be applied until they can be applied no l o n g e r , or until
the symbols which remain are "terminal"
symbols.
A terminal
symbol is one which never appears to the left of a rewrite
arrow.
The symbols are arbitrary
(any symbols
could be used) ,
but are highly suggestive of terms used in traditional
grammar.
Bach
(1 :51 ) states, in fact, that they "should be
U5
chosen with a view to mnemonic v a l u e . . . . "
L-rule s
When P - rules can no longer be applied L-rules —
lexical rules--replace the symbols with lexical i t e m s .
The
L-rules in this grammar are very limited.
M-rules
After the L-rules have been a p p l i e d , M-r u l e s -usually referred to as "morphophonemic" rules--combine the
lexical items and a f f i x e s .
The M-rules in the sample
grammar are merely suggestive of the way in which M-rules
operat e .
Operation of the Grammar
The best way to become familiar with the way in which
the grammar operates is to work examples with it.
The
following example was worked out step by step on the bl a c k ­
board.
Example
P-rules
S
P1
NP + VP
P2
NP + -ed + V 3
P^
NP + -ed + V 2
U6
NP + -ed + be + -ing +
P^
NP + -ed + be + -ing + V-i
Pp
Det + Ng + -ed + be + -ing + V-i
P l 3 Det + AP
+ Ng + -ed
+ be + -ing + V-i
P ^3 Det + AP
+ N^ + -ed
+ be + -ing + V-i
(In applying this recursive rule the second t i m e , the
alternate AP + Ng could have been chosen again.)
P^It Det + AP + N-c + -ed + be + -ing + V-i
P^g NP + - 1s
+ AP + N-c
+ -ed + be + -ing
+ V-i
Pp
+ AP + N-c
+ -ed _ be + -ing
+ V-i
Pr + - 1s
P^Y Pr + - 1s + Adj + N-c + -ed + be + -ing + V-i
L-rules
he + - 1s + old + dog + -ed + be + -ing + sleeping
M -rules
His old dog was sleeping.
(Rules of punctuation and capitalization would have to
be worked out in a detailed grammar, but are s imply
assumed h e r e .)
The process of developing a sentence by application of
P-rules is usually called a derivation
(l-,ll).
This deriva­
tion provides a structural analysis of the sentence for it
"tells us precisely how a sentence was constructed,
(11:15).
.
One diagrammatic'way of presenting this structure
is a tree diagram,
often called a labeled or branching tree
diagram or simply a derivational tree.
; The derivational tree for the above example
p. 123)
shows that the principal constituents
(Appendix
of the sentence,
S, are an NP and a VP, or in traditional terminology,
noun phrase
and a verb phrase.
The constituents
phrase are a possessive pronoun., an adjective,
noun.
a
of the noun
and a common
It is r e a d i l y •apparent that the possessive pronoun
modifies both "old" and "dog,"
Thomas
(it) believes that
such structural diagrams revealing the grammatical relation­
ships within a.sentence might
serve important pedagogical
purposes.
Assignment
1.
Develop an example using the sample grammar.
2.
Continue examination of textbooks.
Read sections
which draw upon transformational grammar.
48
LITERATURE CONSULTED
Session T
See end of session nine.
Session
8
Transformational Grammar
(2)
A Sample Transformational Generative Grammar
T-rule s
T -rul e s--transformational rules--are the only new type
of rule in the sample grammar presented in this
session
(Appendix p p . 124-128 ) .
These rules are applied between the
L-rules and the M-rules.
They are ordered rules which means
that they must he applied in s e q u e n c e .
The designations OPT
and OBL indicate if the application of the rule is optional
or obligatory.
The designation GEN indicates optional T-
rules in which two individual P-strings are combined into one
sentence.
(A string is simply one or more P-symbols joined
by plus m a r k s .
string.)
Each symbol is said to be an element
in the
The symbols X, Y , and Z designate an element or
elements present in the P-string which do not need to be
specifically identified.
The X, Y , and Z within parens indi­
cates that such an element or elements may or may not be
present.
The numerals below the symbols are used for identi­
fication of elements.
The small f identifies
structural
elements which are a necessary part of the trans f o r m a t i o n .
P - rules
The only new symbol in the P-rules is
§.
This symbol
stands for an empty slot which must be filled during the
50
operation of a T - r u l e .
ments.
In
The parens indicate optional ele­
, for instance,
"not" may or may not be added to
the alternate choices.
L-rules.
The L-rules are incomplete , but are suggestive of the
lexical elements which could be a part of this g r a m m a r .
M-rules
No M-rules were included in this g r a m m a r .
They will be
assumed.
Agreement
The sample grammar presented in session seven eliminated
the problem of agreement by only generating sentences with
singular subjects and v e r b s .
Any attempt to accommodate
agreement in that grammar must be introduced at the very
beginning of the P-rules because the NP and VP develop inde­
pendently.
S -— >
P
X
NP
might be restated as follows:
Sg
+ VP^
Sg
(This, of course , assumes the
complete regularity of number
and a simple two-way system.)
NPpl + vpPi
Such a rule, however, necessitates
almost two parallel
grammars and results in much overlapping.
It is much
simpler to handle agreement in a grammar which utilizes
51
transformational rules
(I ).
In the sample grammar presented in this session agree­
ment is introduced in P-rules
P
3
PreV -- > .
3, 7, and 8.
/"§No + -s +
< §No + -e d +
N P -- Ng + No
NP. -- ^
N
S
Pn
8
No ----- >
»O
Sg
P l
(+ n o t )
§Aux
Mod
I
Py
§Aux
The "No" and the " §No"
are both number markers.
+
§N o
■
Example I on the following page was worked on the b l a c k ­
board to illustrate the. way in which the above rules and
the application of T ^ , an obligatory T - r u l e , result in sub­
ject-verb agreement
52
Example I
P-rulcs
P1
P2
P3
P l;
P5
P6
PT
NP + VP
NP + Pre
+ V3
NP +
SNo + - S
+
SAux +
NP +
SN o + - S
+
SAux + Vg
NP +
SNo + - S
+
SAux +
NP +
SN o + - S
+
SAux + V-t + NP + -m
n6
+
'No] +
I
P8
P9
n6
+
CO
PT
N-prop + IS g ] +
P9
N-prop +
N-prop +
N-prop +
L-rules
Peter
NP + -m
SNo + -s + SAux + V-t +
NP + -m
SNo + -s +
SAux + V-t +
NP + -m
SNo + -s +
SAux + V-t +
Ng + No + -m
SNo + -s +
SAux + V-t +
Ng + pi + -m
SNo + -s +
SAux + V-t +
Pr + pi + -m
SNo + -s +
SAux + visit + he + pi + -m
I
Is g I+
I
I
I
SAux + V-t +
SNo + -s +
I
Is g I+
I
I
Is g I+
I
I
Is g I+
I
I
I
I
I
I
+ Isgl +
(The derivation tree of the above example is found in the
teachers' materials (Appendix p. 129), labeled Derivation
Tree I . )
53
The next rule to be applied is T^.
No + (X+)
I
2
SNo
3
No + (X+) No
I
2
I in 3
It has been stated that the left side of a T-rule
designates the form of the P-string upon which the rule
operates.
However,
replaced by "sg."
the grammar:
in the example above the "No" has been
This problem is solved by a convention of
any symbol in a T-rule stands for itself or for
any symbols which have replaced it.
This means that the
derivation of the P-string must be known in order to apply
T-rules.
Dotted lines enclose that part of the example to
which this convention is presently being applied.
This part
of the string is said to be "dominated by" No.
The numerals below the transformational rule identify
its e l e m e n t s .
The numerals
could be placed below the example
string as follows :
INoT
I: I
I* I
Peter + , S g , +
I
§No + -s +
§Aux + visit + he + pi + -m
3
All elements preceeding and following the elements
rule can be ignored for the m o m e n t .
in the
54
.
.
I *
I
§No . . .
.,S g .+
1
. . . No + No . . .
I
I in 3
3
V
Now identical e l e m e n t s .
The §No has served as an
empty number marker in
the VP which is now
filled with the number
marker in the NP.
identical
elements
After Tg is applied the string r e a d s :
Peter + sg + Sg + -s +
SAux + visit + he + pi + -m
After Tg is applied to delete the
cussed below),
SAux (this will be dis­
application of the M-rules would produce the
sentence :
Peter visits t h e m .
Agreement between subject and predicate nominative is
achieved in the same m a n n e r .
Using the sample grammar it is
possible to generate the following s t r i n g :
(See Appendix
p . 130, Derivation Tree 2.)
E x ample 2
Husband + pi +
SNo + - s +
SAux + be + man +
The application of Tg fills both number slots.
SNo
55
]"o]
I • I
Husband + (pl (+
§No + -s +
N o
§ N o
I
3
No
I
§Aux + be + man +
X
2
Husband + pi + pi + -s +
After Tg deletes the
§No
SNo
3
SAux + be + man +
pi
SAux and the M-rules have been applied,
the final form of the sentence is:
Husbands are men.
The Passive Transformation
The application of T^ , an optional T - r u l e , produces
passive s e n t e n c e .
a
Example I can be developed into a passive
sentence.
Example
Peter + Sg +
NP
I
+
+
he + pi +
NP
k
SNo + -s +
+
SAux + visit + he + pi + -m
+ V-t
3
X
2
SNo + -s +
X
2
3
SAux
+
+•visit
NP
U
+ -m
5
+ Peter+sg + -m
NP +
I
+be+-en +• V-t +by+
f
f
f
3
■«
■ - -
- - ■—
-m
5
-— —
— —
■
56
Application of the obligatory
then produces
he + pi + pi + -s +
§Aux + b e
+ -en + visit + by + Peter + -m
Tg would delete the
§Aux, and the application of M-rules
would produce
They are visited by P e t e r .
Notice that the subject in the original sentence was
sing u l a r ; the subject in the passive sentence is p l u r a l .
Therefore, to be certain that the subject and verb agree, it
is mandatory that the agreement rule follow the passive r u l e .
The passive
sentence is longer than the corresponding
sentence in the active voice.
The optional application of
Tg will delete the passive agent when the operator of the
grammar so desires.
visited."
The sentence would then be:
"They are
Other examples might be
The bank was robbed by the r o b b e r s .
The cookies were eaten by the f a t h e r s .
The bank was r o b b e d .
>
The cookies
were e a t e n .
The condition "by from T ^ " eliminates the possibility that
such sentences
as "The music was by the Awful Screamers"
would be shortened to "The music was."
Deletion transformations are used in transformational
57
grammars to produce various types of short utterances.
Happy b i r t h d a y .
Good thinking.
Hit the ball.
You fool I
The deleted elements in these transformations resemble
the "understood" elements used to explain sentence fragments
in traditional g r a m m a r .
Questions
The split verb in "Will you see John?" poses many
problems when developed in the P-rules.
However, with the
distinction which the P-rules make between PreV and
the
question is easily produced by application of T ^ .
NP + PreV + V^ = = — —
1
2
you will
3
see John
PreV + NP + V^
2
will
1
you
3
see John
Other types of questions are produced by the application
of Tg and T ^ .
Who will see J o h n ?
or
Whom will you see?
58
A uxiliaries
The major purpose of the
§Aux is to facilitate the p r o ­
duction of sentences which do not use the modal "will."
Several examples may serve to illustrate this.
h
Example
If, after applying T ^ , the string should be:
Peter + Sg + sg + -s +
application of
SAux + b e
SAux + be
^
^
+ -ing + visit + he + pi + -m
be
3 in I^ *°uld produce
visiting
If
them.
is applied to the string the corresponding question is
produced.
Is Peter visiting them?
If the
SAux immediately preceeds a
letes it.
in the string, Tg de­
This was done previously in the example which
produced "Peter visits them."
If, h o w e v e r , the
SAux cannot be deleted by Tg it is
filled with "do" by T ^ .
59
Example 5
(T r o m Y x a ^ l e l)
In this example
tween the
"not" has been inserted
(from
) be­
SAux and the V, .
Peter + S g
+ sg + -s +
Pe^ter^+^sg
+ s . g ^ + ^ s ^ ^ d o + not + visit +
Peter
SAux + not + visit
does
not
+ he + pi + -m
h^+pl^J^-m
visit
them.
Ex ample 6
(from Example I )
Peter + S g
+
Sg
+ -s +
SAux
+ visit + he +
pi
+ -m
sg + -s +
SAux + Peter + sg
+ visit + h e
+
pi
+ -m
s^
ao
+ visit + he +
pi
+ -m
; s>
Does
+
Peter + sg
Peter
visit
them?
This use of a slot to accommodate the presence of "do"
before negatives and at the beginning of many questions still
does not account
for the use of "do" for emphasis.
Peter does visit them.
An instructive exercise would be to explore ways in which
this use of "do" might be written into the g r a m m a r .
6o
A s s i gnment
Develop examples using the sample grammar.
of the poorest
Note:
one
features of the grammar is that it does not
provide for agreement between determiners and nouns.
Continue examination of t e x t b o o k s .
6i
LITERATURE CONSULTED
Session 8
See the end of session nine.
Session 9
Transformational Generative Grammar (3)
Generalizing Transformations
Transformational rules are either single-base or
double base
(11:231) t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s .
1.
Single-base transformations are those which
operate on only one P-string at a time.
In the
sample grammar presented in session seven
(Appendix p p . 121-122 ) this includes all T-rules
marked OBL or O P T .
2.
Double-base transformations operate on two Pstrings at once.
They are marked GEN in the
sample g r a m m a r .
The GEN transformation rules will fill the three noun
modifier slots introduced into the P - r u l e s :
an d
§PNM, SPoss,
SAP.
1.
A filler for the string containing the slot is ex­
tracted from another string.
The string containing
the slot is called the "matrix sentence" ; the
string providing the filler is called the "con- .
stituent sentence" (1:75, 11:307).
For conven­
ience the matrix sentence has been reduced to the
noun phrase which will receive the modifier.
2.
The T-rules specify the requirements of the matrix
and constituent sent e n c e s . The most usual require­
ment is that certain elements of the two combining
strings must be identical.
Examples illustrating the operation of the GEN rules are
in the teachers'
materials
(Appendix p p . 132-135).
63
Differences Between the Sample Grammar
and Other Transformational Grammars
The differences between G l e a s o n ’s sample transforma­
tional grammar and those usually written by transformation­
alists are minor when it is remembered that the purpose of
this class was a limited, p e d ogogical o n e .
The most obvious
differences appear to be influenced by tagmemics
I.
(1 2 ; 13).
In the slot-and-filler technique each constituent
of a sentence is thought of as both a function and
a word which fulfills that function.
The syn­
tactic relationship between the "slot" and the
"filler" is called a tagmene (12:63).
The follow­
ing example illustrates this techniques.
English has many noun modifiers which may preceed
or follow the noun h e a d ; h o w e v e r , these modifiers
occur only in ordered positions.
Slots :
N-5
N-U
N-3
N-2
Fillers:
Det
Num
Int
Adj nouns noun
Ex:
The
two
very old weiner buns
N-I'
N
N+l
adv
there
N+2
prep, phrase
in the
breadbox
I t i s easy to follow the choices of the above slots
through the P-rules of the sample g r a m m a r .
Koutsoudas (11: l 6 l ) states that such rewriting of
one non-terminal P-symbol into another is justified
only if the symbol is needed for a T-rule.
2.
The introduction of empty slots in the P-rules was,
at one time (I :11), accepted practice.
However,
it is seldom used t o d a y .
3.
P-rules in a transformational grammar are usually
context-sensitive and ordered.
This eliminates the
recursive element in the P-rules.
The recursive
power of the grammar then lies, in the generalizing
t ran s f o r m s .
k . ■ The lexicon is generally contained in the P-rules ,
not in separate lexical rules (Appendix p . 136 ).
A sample grammar from a transformational grammar text­
book may be found in the teachers'
materials
(Appendix
P- 136)..
Transformational Grammar and the Classroom
At present there are two particular areas in which tr a n s ­
formational grammar holds promise for aiding classroom
teachers.
One lies in the teaching of sentence c o n s t ruction,
the other in research into the language development of
children.
I.
Transformational grammar offers insight into the ways in
which several -simple statements can be woven into one
complex statement.
Pedagogical applications of the
principles of generalizing transformations might help
students develop the capacity to handle ideas more
efficiently.
A.
Students might better develop a critical capacity
for analyzing ideas in written passages.
B.
Students might better learn to manipulate ideas in
their own w r i t i n g . ,
Discussion
The above statements led directly into a lively class
discussion of the transformational grammar in various textbooks
65
II.
Transformationalists have been much concerned with the
acquisition and development of language c o m p etence.
A.
In one study of language acquisition Brown and
Bellugi (2) used transformational grammar to
analyze the progressive differentiation of syn­
tactic classes by two children.
An example of this
analysis follows.
1.
At the beginning of the study the rules
generating a noun phrase w e r e :
for
NP ---» M + N
M -- > a, big , d i r t y , little , more , my,
p o o r , that , t h e , two
N -- > Adam, B e c k y , boot , coat, coffee,
knees , man , M o m m y , sock, toy . . .
2.
16 weeks l a t e r :
NP ■- >
Dem — )
Art — >
M -- ?
N --- >
3.
(Dem) + (Art) (+ M) + N
that
a, the
b i g , dirty, little . . .
Adam, B e c k y , boot . . .
26 weeks l a t e r :
M h a d , by this time, been divided into five
classes:
article, descriptive adjective,
possessive p r o n o u n , demonstrative p r o n o u n ,
and a residual class.
B.
More immediately pertinent to teachers is Kellogg W
Hunt's study concerning Gramm a t ical Structures
W r i t ten jit Three Grade Levels (10) . The discussion
of related research and of the particulars of the
research at hand is excellent throughout this study
I.
Population:
a.
Fifty-four boys and girls, nine of each sex
in grades f o u r , eight, and twelve.
b.
Pupils of the Florida State University
Laboratory School.
c.
I .Q . scores between 90 and 1 0 0 .
66
2..
Sample:
The first thousand words written by each pupil
• in the classroom under normal assignment p r o ­
cedures .
3.
The first problem in the analysis was to develop
.a criteria to determine maturity in writing.
a.
b.
The first proposed criteria was average sen­
tence length.
(1 )
A sentence was defined as each unit
which began with a capital letter and
ended with a period.
(2)
°
Average sentence length did increase
with grade l e v e l , but was a poor indi­
cator of individual maturity.
(3)
Younger children underpunctuate and
use too many "ands."
Fourth graders
used 57 ^ coordinators between main
clauses, eighth graders used 28%, and
twelfth graders used 172.
The second proposed criteria was average
clause l e n g t h .
(1 )
A clause was defined as "a structure
w i t h :a subject and a finite verb."
(2)
Average clause length did i n c r e a s e , but
there was much overlapping of the three
grade l e v e l s .
c.
The third proposed criteria was t'he ratio of
subordinate clauses to main c l a u s e s . Again
there was some increase at progressive
grade levels, but much overlapping.
d.
Hunt then proposed that a unit be devised
which would take into account both growth
in clause length and in the number of sub­
ordinate clauses per.main clause.
This unit
was called the " T - u n i t .11
67
(I )
The T-unit contains one main clause
with all its subordinate clauses.
(a)
(2 T
(3)
'Each unit would be grammatically
capable of being considered a
sentence.
(b)
These units, are, in fact , the
shortest grammatically allowable
sentences into which the material
could be segmented.
(c )
These units destroy main clause
codrdinat ion--already shown to be
a sign of immaturity rather than
of maturity.
T-unit length increased significantly
from one grade level to the n e x t .
(a)
Fourth graders averaged 8.6 words
per T-unit.
(b )
Eighth graders averaged 11.5
words per T-unit.
(c)
Twelfth graders averaged lU.it
words per T-unit.
There was still a slight overlapping of
grade levels , but much more clustering
within each grade level.
The T-unit lengths of each grade level were com­
pared.
a.
b.
Younger students wrote more short T-units
(less than 9 words).
(1 )
Fourth graders wrote 1 ,318.
(2)
Eighth graders wrote 620 .
(3)
Twelfth graders wrote 296 .
The three groups wrote about the same number
of middle length T-units (9-20 words).
68
c.
5.
At the same time that the length of T-units in­
creased , the ratio of T-units per punctuated
sentence decreased.
The question posed was,
"Where does the growth take place?"
a.
b.
6.
Twelfth graders wrote twice as many long Tunits (over 20 w o r d s ) as eighth graders and
three times as many as fourth graders.
Growth takes place in the number of sub­
ordinate clauses within T-units.
All grade
levels produced a d v e r b , noun, and adjective
clauses with e a s e ; h o w e v e r , the number of
each type of clause did not increase at the
same r a t e .
(1 )
Adverb-clauses increased slightly.
(2 )
Woun clauses showed steady, moderate
increases.
(3)
Adjective clauses displayed steady,
dramatic increases.
(a)
Fourth graders produced .0^5 ad- •
jective clauses per T-unit.
(b )
Eighth graders produced .090 ad­
jective clauses per T-unit.
(c )
Twelfth graders produced .l 6 ad­
jective clauses per Tr-unit.
Frequency of non-clause modifiers also in­
creased significantly.
(1 )
Non-clause modifiers would not increase
T-unit length as adjective clauses
would.
(2)
Non-clause modifiers would increase the
conciseness of information--an impor­
tant part of language growth.
Increases at the several grade levels in the use
of various syntactic features can be explained
by increased utilization of T-rules.
69
7.
Studies
a.
The syntactic features- which contribute to
the increased length of T-units are pri­
marily the result of embedding transfor­
mations .
b.
The syntactic features which show the most
significant increments from grade to grade
- can be explained by application of de­
letion rules (rather than by substitutions
or a d d i t i o n s ).
Hunt expanded his study by analyzing the first
thousand words of nine articles each from
Harpers and the A t l a n t i c .
a.
In this sample of "superior" adult writing
clause length, rather than T-unit length,
was the best indicator of m a t u r i t y .
b.
The increase in the number of adjective
clauses remained a valuable index of
mature w r i t i n g .
(1 )
The likelihood that a fourth grader
will embed an adjective clause is
I in 2 0 .
(2)
The likelihood for a. "superior"
adult is I in 4.
such as Hunt's reveal that flexibility and com­
plexity indicate language m a t u r i t y .
It is reasonable to
postulate- that it is not the use of various sentence patterns
but what is done within sentence patterns to achieve com­
plexity and flexibility that is of utmost importance in de­
veloping mature writing.
It is also reasonable to postulate that data concerning
language acquisition and development is relevant to the
writing of reading textbooks, the analysis of language and
70
l i t e r a t u r e , and the development of student writing.
Tl
LITERATURE CONSULTED
Sessions T , 8, 9
1.
Bach, E m m o n . An Introduction to Transformational
Grammars .' New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston ;
19&T7~
2.
Brown , Roger, and Ursula B e l l u g i . "Three Processes in
the Child's Acquisition of S y n t a x ." Harvard
Educational Review 34:133-151 (Spring 1964).
3.
C h o m s k y , Noam.
4.
__________ .
"The Current Scene in Linguistics: Present
D i r e c t i o n s ."
College English 27:587-595 (May 1966 ).
5.
_________ . "Language and the Mind."
1:9 [February 1968 ).
6.
Cartesian Lingu i s t i c s .
'
________ . Syntactic S t r u c t u r e s .
and C o m p a n y ; 1957.
Psychology Today
’s-Gr a v e n h a g e : Mouton
7.
'
__________ j and George A. Miller. . "Introduction to the
Formal Analysis of Natural Languages."
Handbook of
Mathematical P s y c h o l o g y , V o l . I I :269-323.
New Y o r k :
John Wiley and S o n s ; 1963 .
8.
F o d o r , Jerry A., and Jerrold J . Katz (eds . ) . The
Structure of L a n g u a g e : Readings in the Philosophy of
Language.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall;
1964.
9.
Gleason, H .A . Linguistics and E n g l i sh Gram m a r .
Y o r k : Holt, Rinehart and W i n s t o n ; 1963%
New
10.
Hunt, Kellogg W . Grammatical Structures Written at
Three Grade L e v e l s . NCTE Research Report No. 3«.
Champaign, Illinois: National Council of Teachers
of English; 1965 .
11.
K o u t s o u d a s , Andreas.
W r i t i n g Transformational
G r a m m a r s : an introduction.
New York: McGraw-Hill
Book Company; 1966.
12.
L o n g a c r e , Robert E . "String Constituent Analysis."
Language X X X V I :63-88 (i 96 0 ).
72
13.
Postal, P a u l . Constituent S t r u c t u r e : A Study of Con­
temporary Models of Syntactic D e s c r i p t i o n . .The
Hague: Mouton and Co.; 19 6 4.
14.
Thomas, O w e n . Transformational Grammar and the Teacher
of En g l i s h . New Y o r k : Holt, Rinehart and Winston;
1965.
Session
The Role of Linguistics
10
in the Classroom
This course has been focused primarily on the explica­
tion of three grammars--Fres.ian , a s p e c t u a l , and transforma­
tional-generative .
This is not to say that these grammars
comprise all of linguistics
(or even all of t h e ,"linguistic"
gram m a r s ) or that grammar is the most important aspect of
linguistics.
It is not.
The most important aspect of lin­
guistics is the l i n g u i s t s ’ attitude toward language.
They
consider language,
even the native tongue,
systematic
They have not tread fearfully in such
study.
study e i t h e r .
a fit object of
They continually hypothesize, test., - and re ­
vise; they continually dare to dream of new aspects of
language s t u d y .
Linguistics is a large and rapidly growing body of kno w ­
ledge involving both fundamental theory about language in
general and research on individual languages.
It is no more
reasonable to demand that all of linguistics be "covered" in
one course than to demand that all of literature be "covered"
in one course.
Nor is it possible to say all there is to be
said about the role of linguistics
session.
asking,
in the classroom in one
U n f o r t u n a t e l y , the answer cannot be had simply by
"Which grammar should be taught?"
more subtle and complex.
The answer is much
Ib
Linguistics
teaching:
is being applied to two facets of classroom
to the direct study of language and as an inte­
gral part of the study of literature.
I.'
One of the proper concerns of the English classroom is
the study of l a n g u a g e , particularly the English lan­
guage.
Linguistics can contribute much to enrich and
broaden this study, especially when coupled with new
conceptions of the educative process (I ).
The teaching of language should not be of a helterskelter , hit or- miss nature, but should comprise a co­
herent, structured program which would introduce
students to the methods of studying language as well as
to the findings of scholarly language study.
In the teachers'
of objectives
materials
(Appendix p.
139)
is a list
and some of the materials of what F r a n c i s '(6)
would consider an adequate program in the English language
for the average high school student.
The list is supplemen­
ted by a pertinent statement by Gleason (8) concerning the
nature of language
study.
This material was used as a
springboard for class discussion concerning the nature of
language
II.
study in the elementary and secondary school.
Another concern of the English classroom is literary
analysis.
Two examples of ways in which linguistics
may contribute to literary analysis were presented to
the class.
A.
The first example concerned two things already
familiar to t e a c h e r s : dialect and The Catcher in
the Rye (11) .
I.
Costello (H) characterizes Holden's language as
authentic prep school dialect with personal
idio s y n c r a s i e s .
a.
Characteristics of authenticity
75
(1 )
(2 )
Holden's use of swear words is essen­
tially meaningless".
(a)
"Hell" is part of his favorite
simile.
He says "hellava time" to
mean a good time , and yet says
"sad as Hell" or "hot as hell,"
"pretty as hell" or "ugly as
hell."
(b)
"Goddam" (or "damn") is his favor­
ite adjective.
It has no rela­
tionship to its original meaning.
It shows the same lack of meaning
as " h e l l ." A "goddam hunting cap"
is a good o n e , "ya goddam moron"
is bad, and "goddam windows" is an
indifferent r e f e r e n c e .
Costello (U) catalogued over 100 slang
t e r m s . These were also used in an im­
precise m a n n e r . He totaled seven
different meanings for the word "crap."
foolishness -- "all" that David
Copperfield kind of
c r a p ."
mess —
"I spilled some crap all over
my gray f l a n n e l ."
miscellaneous -- "I was putting on my
galoshes and crap."
'animal excreta -- "dog crap"
unfavorable -- "The show was ...
crappy."
untrue -- "a lot of crap"
to chat -- "shoot the crap"
At times this identical
expression means to lie.
(3)
Holden admits to having a "lousy v o cabu­
lary."
(a)
Adjectives and adverbs are constant
repetitions of a few favorite
w o r d s : "lousy," " c r u m b y ," "terrif­
ic," "quite," "old," "stupid."
(b )
(4)
Holden displays the common American char
acteristic of adaptability of parts of
speech.
(a)
Nouns become adjectives:
verty ," "Christmasy"
(b)
Nouns become adverbs:
"She sings
it very Dixieland and whorehouse.. "
. (c )
(5)
He achieves emphasis by piling one
trite adjective upon another.
"per-
Parts of speech are c o m b i n e d :
"blue b utt-twitcher of a dress"
The levels of usage can be identified
in Holden's l a n g u a g e .
school boy conversation: "take a leak"
public usage: "relieve himself"
usage when addressing the reader is
often o v e r - c o r r e c t e d : "with he
and I "
b.
Characteristic idiosyncrasies
(1)
It is common for teenagers to end a
sentence with a dangling cons t r u c t i o n ;
Holden overdoes this c h a r a cteristic,
often ending sentences with "or some­
thing," "or anything," "and all."
(2)
Holden often insists that he is not a
phony.
"It really is." . "It really does."
Students
can verify Costello's o b s e r vations.
a.
They can examine Holden's language objec­
tively.
b.
They can observe the speech behavior of
actual people.
TT
B.
(1 )
Do students and teachers use differ­
ent dialects with different audiences?
(2)
Do students have characteristic idio­
syncrasies?
(3)
Is Holden's overuse of a few impre­
cise adjectives characteristic of
teenage speech?
The second example of ways in which
contribute to literary analysis was
■ Whitehall and Hill's (1 2 ) report of
re-examined "English metrics in the
phonemic theory."
I.
linguistics can
suggested by
a seminar which
light of
The seminar concluded that there are two metri­
cal forms practiced in E n g l i s h .
a.
Isosyllabic verse, first seen in.Chaucer,
a borrowed form which counts s yllables.
is
from "The Complaint of Chaucer
to his Empty PurseV
To y o u , my purse, and to non other wight
Compleyne I , for ye be my lady dere!
I am so sory, now that ye be light;
For certes , but ye make me heavy c h e r e ,
Me were as Ieef be Ieyd up-on my bere ;
For whiche un-to your mercy thus I c r y e :
Beth hevy ageyn , .or elles mot I dye I (U :1ST)
b.
Isochronous verse "which represents the
native English tradition" is composed of
"time units of the same length, marked o f f ,
not into feet, but into juncture units."
(12:49T)
(I)
This type of verse receives its name
from a basic phonetic characteristic
of English discovered by Pike (10:3^) :
in English the time lapses between
primary stresses are "more or less
e q u a l ."
The teacher)is
some books #
interested)in buying)
78
Big) battles) are fotight| dSiIy If
Isochronus verse may be metrically
analyzed by marking its junctures and
primary s t r e s s e s . Excellent interpre­
tive reading depends much on skillful
use of junctures and stress variations.
from "Get Up and Bar the Door"
It felli) about the Martimas time H .
And a gSy time)it was then)|
When our good wife)got puddings to make]
And she's bdild them)in the pSn H (8)
Using Cummings' (6) "anyone lived in a
pretty how town," the students ended
the session by experimenting orally
with juncture and stress variations.
(Appendix p . '
79
LITERATURE' CONSULTED
Session 10
I-
2 o'
Bruner, Jerome S . The Proc e s s of E d u c a t i o n .
Harvard University Press ; 19*5*6.
Cambridge:
C h a t m a n , Seymour B . ' "Linguistics and Teaching Intro­
ductory Literature."
Readings in Applied English
Linguis t i e s . ed. Harold B . Allen.
Nev Y o r k :
A p p l e t o n-Century-Crofts; 1964.
3.
C h a u c e r , G e o f f r e y . . "The Compleint of Chaucer to his
Empty Purse."
From B eovulf to Thomas H a r d y . V o l . I,
ed. Robert S h a f e r . Nev Y o r k : The Odyssey P r e s s ;
1939.
4.
Costello, Donald P . "The Language of The Catcher in the
B y e ." American Speech 34:172-l8l (October 1959).
5•
Cummings, e.e.
"anyone lived in a pretty hov tovn."
Poems 1923-1954.
Nev York: H a r c o u r t , Brace and
. World; 1954.
6.
Francis, Nelson.
"The Study of Language in English
Teaching."
Paper read at the Conference on Research
in English, Carnegie Institute of T e c h n o l o g y ; 1962 .
(mimeographed, pp. 9 )
7.
"Get Up and Bar the Door".
From Beovulf. to Thomas H a r d y .
V o l . I, ed. Robert S h a f e r . Nev York: The Odyssey
Press: 1939•
8.
Gleason, H .A.
"What Grammar?"
Reviev 34:2 (Spring 1964).
9.
M a r c k v a r d t , Albert H . Linguistics and the T e aching of
E n g l i s h . B l o o m i n g t o n : Indiana University P r e s s ; 1968
Harvard Educational
10.
Pike, Kenneth L . .The Intonation of American E n g l i s h .
Ann A r b o r : University of Michigan Press; 1945.
11.
Salinger, J .D . The Catcher in the R y e .
Brovn and C o m p a n y ; 1945.
12.
W h i t e h a l l , H a r o l d , and Archibald A. Hill.
"A Report on
the Language-Literature Seminar."
Readings in
Applied E nglish L i n g u i s t i c s , ed. Harold B . Allen.
Boston:
Little,
8o
Nev York: Applet on-Cent.ury-Crofts ; 1 9 6 k .
Ill
SUMMARY
Ill
New textbook series in English which present
"lin­
guistic" grammar primarily draw their content from aspectual
phonology,
Fresian form classes and sentence p a t t e r n s , and
transformational P-rules and T-rules.
This inservice class
in linguistics was organized so that the major portion of
the lecture
content concerned those areas of linguistics-.
The course did not overlook the fact that there are
other aspects of linguistics which have relevance to the
English classroom;
several which were mentioned are the
history of the language,
of language,
dialects, attitudes toward the study
and methods of studying langu a g e .
The major portion of the students' work outside the
class was devoted to examining textbooks to determine what
linguistic, material they contained and how it was organized.
The students were also encouraged to consider the relevance
of such material to the study of the English l a n g u a g e .
Class
time was then allowed for sharing and discussing the
students'
reading and t h i n k i n g .
The major conclusion of the study was that a knowledge
of linguistics
can deepen and broaden the teachers'
standing' of l a n g u a g e .
under­
IV
APPENDIX
Teachers 1 Materials
BIBLIOGRAPHY I
Allen, Harold B . ' L inguistics and E n g lish L inguist!c s :
Goldentree B i b l i o g r a p h y . New York : AppletonCentury-Crofts , Inc.; 1966 . A bibliography.
Allen, Harold B y r o n . Readings i_n Applied English
Lingui s t i e s . New York: Appleton-Century-Croft s ,
Inc.; 19oU7 An introductory anthology containing
sixty-two articles representing the broad field of
applied English lingu i s t i c s ,
Bruner , Jerome S e y m o u r . The Process of E d u c a t i o n .
C a m b r i d g e : Harvard University Press; 1961 . This
book presents the educational philosophy which joins
with linguistics to form the "linguistic approach"
in the class r o o m .
C a r r o l l , John B . . Language and T h o u g h t . Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall; I 96 H . A very readable
introduction to the field of linguistics and psycho­
linguistics .
D e L a n c e y , Robert W . Linguistics and T e a c h i n g : A Manual
of P r a c t i c e s . O n e o n t a , New Y o r k : The New York State
English Council; 196 5.
Contains bibliography for
the teacher of English.
Francis, N e l s o n . The E n g l i sh L a n g u a g e . New York : W .W .
Norton; 1963.
Chapter Three:
The History of
English" is an e x c e l l e n t , brief history indicating
the most important developments in both the "inner"
and the "outer" history of English.
Francis, Nelson.
The Structure of A m e r i c a n .E n g l i s h .
With a chapter by Raven I . M c D a v i d , Jr. "The Dialects
of American E n g l i s h ." New York: The Ronald Press
Company; 195 ^ * An introductory college-level text­
book.
See particularly the chapter by M c D a v i d .
F r i e n d , Joseph H . An Introduction to English Lingui sties
New York: The World Publishing Company; 1967 . An
introductory b o o k ,
8U
9.
,
10.
Fries, Charles Carpenter.
The Structure of E n g l i s h . New
Y o r k : Harcourt , Brace , & World'; 1952.
The classic
statement of Fresian grammar which is the "basis for
most presentations of syntax in the new series text­
books being published for elementary and high
school classes t o d a y . Even many authors claiming
to present transformational grammar incorporate
Fresian grammar into- their presentation without
giving adequate credit for it.
Gleason, H .A ., Jr.
An Introduction to Descriptive
Lin guisti c s . H e w York: Holt, Rinehart and W i n s t o n ;
•
1 9 § 1 . (also a w o r k b o o k ) A basic introductory
textbook at the- college level.
11.
Gleason, H .A ., J r . Linguistics and E n g l i sh G r a m m a r . New
York: Holt, Rinehart , & Winston; lSm~5. An ambitious
attempt to present the impact of linguistics, and its
various schools, on the teaching of English.
12.
Hall, Edward T . T h e Silent L a n g u a g e . New Y o r k :
Doubleday; 1959 • A thorough discussion of the in­
tersections of language and c u l t u r e .
13.
Jacobs , Roderick A.
jDn Transformational G r a m m a r : An
Introduction for T e a c h e r s . O n e o n t a , New Y o r k : The
New York State English C o u n c i l ; 1968.
14.
J e s p e r s e n , Otto.
Growth and Structure of the English
L a n g u a g e . 9th edition.
Garden City, New Y o r k :
Doubleday and Company; 1938.
A "classical s t a t e - ment" written by one of the "scholarly grammarians."
15.
Laird, Charlton.
The Miracle of L a n g u a g e . New York:
World; 1953.
A very readable and sound book on the
nature and development of language.
16.
M a r c k w a r d t , Albert H . Linguistics and the Teaching of
■ E n g l i s h . Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University .
Press ; 1966.
Best overall presentation by a lin­
guist of the application of linguistics to the
English programs in.elementary and secondary
schools.
17♦
Pyles, Thomas.
The Origin and Development of the
English Language . New Y o r k : H a r c o u r t , Brace and
W o r l d ; 19?fT.
(also w o r k b o o k ) A good recent
history of the English language which primarily
• 85
emphasizes the internal 'history and therefore com­
plements Baugh's A History of the English L a n g u a g e .
18.
S a p i r , Edvard.
L a n g u a g e . Hev York: Harcourt , Brace
and World; 19^9.
A vel l - v r i t t e n , "classical" in­
troduction to linguistics.
19.
Sledd, James, and Wilma R. E b b i t t . Dictionaries and
That D i c t i o n a r y . Chicago: Scott, F o r e s m a n ; 19^2.
Contains articles, pro and con, on the W e b s t e r 1s
Third Hev International D i c t i o n a r y . It thus p r o ­
vides significant documenting of American attitudes
tovard language.
20.
Smith, Henry Lee, Jr.
English Morphophonics : Some
Implications for the Teaching of L i t e r a c y .
Oneonta, Hev York: The Hev York State English
Council; 1967 . Contains an important part of the
basic theory of aspectual grammar.
21.
Whitehall, Harold.
Structural Essentials of E n g l i s h .
Hev York: H a r c o u r t , Brace & World; 1956T A
college level textbook in structural grammar.
Especially valuable for its discussion of punctua­
tion.
22.
W h o r f , Benjamin Lee.
L a n g u a g e , Thought and R e a l i t y .
Cambridge: M.I.T. Press; 1956.
A series of pro­
vocative articles on the relationship of language
and culture.
23.
Wilson, Graham.
A Linguistics R e a d e r . Hev York:
Harper and Rov; I 967I
An excellent collection of
.. articles to accompany Allen's book of readings.
86
BIBLIOGRAPHY II
I.
'2.
A l l e n , Harold, Verna H e w s o m e , and o t h e r s . Hew
■ Dimensions in E n g l i s h . Wichita, Kansas: McCormickMathers Publishing C o m p a n y ; 1966.
An intelligently
eclectic, very readable treatment of linguistics
for the high school l e v e l . It is a highly
recommended t e x t b o o k . H o w e v e r , its teachers'
manual is brief and offers little background for
the teacher.
C o n l i n , David A., and others.
Our Language T o d a y : Grades
I through 8.
Modern Language and C o m p o s i t i o n :
Grades 9 through 12.
Hew Y o r k : American Book
C o m p a n y ; 1967 . This is probably the best compre­
hensive, transition series which has been published.
It is being used successfully in many s c h o o l s .
3.
Lefevre , Helen E . , and Carl A. Lefevre.
W r i t ing by
P a t t e r n s . Hew York: Alfred A. K n o p f ; 1963 . A
paperback, workbook approach to Fresian syntax
which is designed to give the students a great deal
of practice in writing various p a t t e r n s . The ideas
could be used at different levels.
4.
P o s t m a n , H e i l , and o t h e r s . Discovering your L a n g u a g e ,
The Uses of L a n g u a g e , Exploring your L a n g u a g e , The
L anguages of D i s c o v e r y , Language and Systems and
Language and R e a l i t y . Hew York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston ; 1963 - 1967 • The emphasis in these books is
upon teaching the students to observe language and
draw conclusions from these o b s e r vations. This in­
ductive approach slows the pace of the textbooks.
They deserve careful reading and consideration.
5.
Roberts , P a u l . English S e n t e n c e s . New Y o r k : H a r c o u r t ,
Brace and W o r l d ; 1962.
Roberts' own brand of
eclectic g r a m m a r , written to replace Patterns 0 f
E n g l i s h . Hot as successful as the earlier b o o k .
6.
Roberts, Paul.
Patterns of E n g l i s h . New Y o r k : Harcourt ,
Brace and W o r l d ; 1956.
A w e l l - w r i t t e n , Fresian
grammar.
7.
Roberts,
Paul.
The Roberts English S e r i e s .
Hew Y o r k :
87
H a r c o u r t , Brace and World; 1967 . This group of
books represents Roberts' eclectic grammar in series
form plus some carefully chosen li t e r a t u r e . Teachers
seem to react strongly to the literature, either for
or against.
The language sections present a weak
transitional point of v i e w .
8.
T a n n e r , Bernard R., Craig V i t t e t o e , and Robert E .
S h u t e s . E n g l i s h : Grades 7 , 8 , and 9.
Reading,
M a s s a c h u s e t t s : Addis on-We siey Publishing Company;
1968.
This is probably the newest series.
Grades
4, 5, and 6 have also been published.
They present
an eclectic grammar and appear to be written in a
challenging, but clear m a n n e r . There has not yet
been time for them to be evaluated in many class­
rooms .
9.
West, William, "and others.
Secondary S chool English
Language and Composition S e r i e s : Grades 7-12.
New
York: Ginn and Company; 1 9 6 7 . . We have been unable
to obtain this series for your e x a m i n a t i o n ; h o w e v e r ,
you should be aware that it presents a transforma­
tional. g r a m m a r . The approach to composition is
traditional.
It is new and has not yet been
thoroughly evaluated.
10.
Z a h n e r , Louis, and Arthur L . M u l l i n . The English
Language : Senior C o u r s e . New Y o r k : H a r c o u r t , Brace
and World; 1966 . Please e x a m i n e , for your own
benefit as well as for possible enrichment for
your students, the following chapters:
Chapter 17 - Stuart Robertson and Frederic G .
Cassidy.
"The Nature and Origin of
L a n g u a g e ."
Chapter I 8 - Margaret S c h l a u c h . "Growth of the
English L a n g u a g e ."
Chapter I 9 - Simeon P o t t e r . "British and American
English."
Chapter 20 - Bergen Evans.
"America Talking."
88
Session I
I.
The Greeks
A.
B„
C.
The "natural" school
1.
Rules of grammar
2.
Linguistic change
3.
Classical language
4.
Study of classics
The "conventional"
1.
Language change
2.
Rules of grammar
3.
Relative value of language development
Examination of the Greek language
1.
2.
II.
III.
school
Parts of speech and grammatical principles .
a.
Plato
b.
Aristotle
Formal grammars
a.
Dionysius T h r a x : Techne grammaticke
b.
Apollonius Dyscolos
The Romans
A.
Donatus
B.
Priscian
The middle ages
A.
Pedagogical grammars
89
1.
Donatus and Priscian
2.
Alexander de V i l l i e d i e u :
3.
B.
IV.
V.
a.
Written in verse
b.
Current Latin usage
c.
Syntax
Aelfric:
Doctrinale
Latin Grammar
a.
Based on Priscian and Donatus
b.
Applicability to Old English
Speculative grammars
Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
A.
Growing interest in language
B.
Pedagogical European grammars
C.
General grammars
Late seventeen hundreds
A.
Rise of "school" grammar
I.
Robert L o w t h :
Grammar
a.
b.
A Short Introduction to English
Authoritarian
(1 )
Rules
(2)
Correct examples
(3)
Incorrect examples
Criteria
(1 )
Universal and Latin grammar
(2)
Literary authors
(3)
2.
Lindley Murray:
English grammar a dapted to
the different classes of learners
a.
.
h.
3.
Other grammarians
Organization
(1 )
Orthography
(2)
Etymology.
(3)
Syntax
(4)
Appendix
Popularity
Changes in school grammar until 1900
a.
Stephen Clark
b.
Reed and Kellogg
Rise of "scholarly traditional grammar"
I.
.s.**2.
3.
Henrik Poutsma
Etsko Kruisinga
Otto Jesperson
Rise of modern linguistics
1.
Discovery of Sanskrit
2.
Study of Indian grammars
3.
a.
Phonetic s
b.
Grammatical analysis
(I )
Word formation
(2 )
Economy of rules
Reconstruction of PIE
Examinations and comparisons of languages
b.
(1 )
Rask
(2)
Bopp
Sound laws
(1 )
Grimm
(2)
Verner
Twentieth century linguistics in the United States
Linguists
I.
2.
3.
B.
Boaz
a.
Field worker
b.
Teacher
Sapir
a.
Phoneme concept
b.
Language - 1921
Bloomfield
a.
Historical linguistics
b.
American Indian language
c.
Language - 1933
American Indian languages
I.
Recording
2.
Analyzing
92
Word Class System of Dionysius T h r a x ,
Second Century B .C .
Quoted from:. R.H. Robins, A S h o rt Hi story of Linguistic s .
Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1967 . p p . 33-31+.
onoma (noun):
a part of .speech inflected for. case, signify­
ing a person or a thing,
. rhema (verb):
a part of speech without case inflection, but
inflected for tense, p e r s o n , and n u m b e r , signifying an
activity or process performed or undergone,
metoche
(p articiple)<
a part of speech sharing the features
of the verb and the n o u n ,
arthron
(article):
a part of speech inflected for case and
preposed or p o s t p o s e d to nouns ,
antonymia
(pronoun):
a part of speech substitutable for a
noun and marked for person,
prothesis '(prepo s i t i o n ) :
a part of speech placed before
other words in composition and in syntax,
epirrhema (adverb):
a part of speech without inflection,
in
modification of or in addition to a v e r b ,
syn desmos (c o n j u n c t i o n ):
a part of speech binding together
the discourse and filling gaps in its interpretation.
93
Session 2
STAGES OF ENGLISH
700 A.D..
Thu Hre Fader, the eart on heofenum
S I .thin n.oman gehalgod,
To became thin r i k e ,
Si thin Willa on Eorthan tva on h e o f e n u m ;
Syle us todag orne daegwanlican hlaf,
And forgif us ure gylter,
Swa we forgifath tham the with us a g y l t h a t ;
And ne Iaed thu na us on k o s t n u n g e ;
Ac alys us fronn yfele.
Si bit swa.
890 A.D.
Faeder ure thu the eart on h e o f e n u m ,
Si "thin name g e h a l g o d ;
To became thin rice.
Gewurthe thin willa on earthan swa swa on
heofenum,
Urne daeghwamlican hlaf syle us to d a e g ;
And forgyf us ure gyltas , swa swa we for­
gifath arum gyltendum;
And ne gelaedde thu us on c o s t n u n g e ,
Ac alys us of yfele. . S o t h l i c e .
1120 A.D.
Ure Fader in Heven rich,
Thy name be halyed ever I i c h .
Thou bring us thy m i ch e I blisse ,
Als bit in heven y. d o e ;
Evear in yearth been it alsoe.
That holy brede that lasteth ay.
Thou send us this ilke day.
Forgive us all that we have done
As we forgive ech other one.
Ne let us fall into no founding,
Ne sheld us frym the foule thing.
1390 A.D.
Oure Fadir that art in hevens , halwid be thi
name; thi hyngdom cumme to; be thi wille don
as in heven and in e r t h e ; gif to us this day
oure breed ouer other substaunce; and for­
gave to us oure dettis, as we forgeve to oure
dettours ; and leede us nat in to temptacioun ,
but delyvere us fro yvel.
Amen
9k
Modern English:
The King James Bible
l6ll A.D.
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed
be thy n a m e .
Thy,kingdom come.
Thy will be done in
earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts , as we. forgive our
debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but de­
liver us from evil:
For
Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and
the glory, forever.
Amen.
. .Session 3
Fr.om traditional school grammar to Fresian grammar
A.
B.
C.
"Survey of errors"
1.
Statistical evaluation
2.
Theory of transfer
3.
Teaching
"Usage movement"
1.
J . Leslie Hall.
English U s a g e .
1917•
2.
Sterling A. Leonard.
1932.
3.
Albert H . Marckvardt and Fred Walcott.
About Current E n g l i sh U s a g e . 1938.
'4.
Margaret M . B r y a n t .
1962. ’
Current English Usage.
Facts
Current American Usage.
"
Changes in teaching g r a m m a r .
Actual usage of A m e r i c a n s .
Charles Carpenter Fries.
19U0.
American En g l ish G r a m m a r .
It is the assumed obligation of the schools
to attempt to develop in each child the k n o w l e d g e .
of and the ability to use the ’s t a n d a r d 1 English
of the United States - that set of language habits
in which the most important affairs of our country
are carried on, the dialect of the socially
acceptable in most of our communities.
The first step in fulfilling that obligation
is the making of an accurate and realistic survey
and description of the actual language practices
in the various social or class dialects.
Only
after we have such information in hand can we
know what social connotations are likely to attach
to particular usages.
(p. 15)
■96
For h i s corpus Fries used 2000 complete letters and 1000
excerpted letters
Interior.
from the files of the Department of the
These letters were all serious appeals of some
kind, which eliminated all uses of humor.
He used only h a n d ­
written letters which showed some evidence of being written
by the sender.
To eliminate the influence of foreign
languages upon the language of corpus , he specified that each
letter in the corpus must have been written by at least a
third generation native American.
Personal data were collec­
ted on the senders of all the letters in the sample.
The
letters were then divided into three social dialects.
Group I
Graduate of a reputable college after at least
three years of college life.
Employed in a p r o ­
fessional position.
The f o r m a l , non-linguistic
matters in the letter conformed to the accepted
conventions of writing.
Group III
Not more than eight years of schooling.
Em­
ployed in manual, unskilled l a b o r . The f o r m a l ,
non-linguistic conventions of letter writing
indicated semi-illiteracy.
For e x a m p l e : continual caprious spelling,
no capital l e t t e r s .
no punctuation of any sort.
Group II
Those who fit in between Groups I and III.
Fries analysed his sample by tabulating whatever he found.
We were seeking to record . . . the methods used by
the English language to express grammatical ideas
and to discover the precise differences in these
methods as employed by the various social dialects.
The data fell "into a classification made up of three general
97
types
of devices
to express
gr am matical
ideas."
(p.
36)
1.
Forms of words (Chapters V and V I )
i.e.
singular-plural forms of nouns
present-past forms of verts
subject-verb agreement
pronoun-antecedent agreement
2.
Function words (Chapters VII, V I I I , and I X )
i.e.
"of"
"should" and "would"
These words usually have little lexical meaning
and often express grammatical ideas which were
formerly expressed by forms of w o r d s .
3.
Word order (Chapter X )
As forms of words have become less important as
grammatical devices in E n g l i s h , word order has
become a more important grammatical device.
The most striking conclusion which Fries made was as
follows:
. '
The differences between the language of the
educated and that of those with little education
did not lie primarily in the fact that the former
used one set of forms and the latter an entirely
different set.
In fact, in most cases, the actual
deviation of the language of the uneducated from
Standard English grammar seemed much less than is
usually assumed, and in practically all instances
was in the direction of greater conservatism.
Vulgar English uses many forms that were common
in the older stages of the language and that
Standard English has given up.
The most striking difference bet w e en the language
of the two groups lay in the fact that Vulgar English
seems essentially poverty stricken (my italics). It
uses less of the resources of the language , and a
few forms are used very fre q u e n t l y . (p. 288 )
F r i e s ‘ major recommendation for the teaching of English
is cle a r - c u t .
It would seem to "be a sound inference from the
results of our study that perhaps the major em­
phasis in a program of language study that is to
be effective should be in providing a language
experience that is directed toward acquaintance
with and practice in the rich and varied re­
sources of the language.
(p . 288 )
Throughout both the introduction and the conclusion of
his study Fries emphasizes the importance of teaching the
student to observe the uses of the language.
To be really effective a language program
must prepare the pupil for independent growth,
and the only possible means of accomplishing that
end is to lead him to become an intelligent ob­
server of language usage.
(p. 291)
III.
The structure of American sentences
Charles Carpenter Fries.
The Structure of E n g l i s h :
An Introduction to the Construction of English
Sentences.
1952.
Definition of a Sentence
In Chapter II, Fries presents an excellent discussion
of definitions of a sentence.
hundred definitions.
In all, he examined over two
For a "starting point" of his own defi
nition, he quotes Bloomfield.
Each sentence is an independent linguistic
form, not included by virtue of any grammatical
construction in any larger form.
The following quotation will help to make clear the signifi­
cance of B l o o m f i e l d ’s definition.
In any u t t e r a n c e , a linguistic form appears
either as a constituent of some larger form, as
99
does John in the utterance J ohn ran a v a y , or else
as an independent f o r m , not included an any larger
(com p l e x ) linguistic f o r m , as,, for instance, J ohn
in the exclamation J ohnI
When a linguistic form
occurs as part of a larger f o r m , it is said to he
in included p o s i t i o n ; otherwise it is said to be
in absolute position and to constitute a s e n t e n c e . . , .
An utterance may consist of more than one sen­
tence.
This is the case when the utterance con­
tains several linguistic forms which are not by .
any m e a n i n g f u l , conventional grammatical arrange­
ment (that is, by any c o n s t ruction) united into"a
larger form, e .g . , How are y o u ? It's a fine d a y .
Are you going to play tennis ,this afternoon?
Whatever practical connection there may be between
these three forms , there is no grammatical arrange­
ment uniting them into one larger f o r m : the
utterance consists of three sentences.
••
It is evident that the sentences in any
utterance are marked off by the mere fact that
each sentence is an independent linguistic f o r m ,
not included by virtue of any grammatical con- .
struction in any larger linguistic form.
(p p .
20-21.
Quoted from Leonard B l o o m f i e l d . L a n g u a g e .
New York: Henry Holt and Company; 1933.
p . 170.)
The basic problem of the practical investiga­
tion undertaken here is not solved simply by
accepting Bloomfield's definition of a sentence.
As one approaches the body of recorded speech
which constitutes the material to be analyzed
(or any body of recorded s p e e c h ) , just how should
he proceed to discover the portions of an utter­
ance that are not 'parts of any larger cons t r u c t i o n '?
How can he find out the 'grammatical constructions'
by virtue of which certain linguistic forms are
included in larger linguistic forms?
What procedure
will enable him to decide which linguistic forms
can 'stand alone as independent utterances'?
(pp. 21-22)
The recorded conversations provided the sugges­
tion for the first step.
The easiest unit in con­
versation to be marked with certainty was the talk
of one person until he ceased, and another b e g a n .
This unit was given the name 'utterance.' (p. 23)
100
We could not take for granted that these utter
ance units contained only a single free utterance,
nor that they 'were•minimum free u t t e r a n c e s . We
could assume, h o w e v e r , that each utterance unit
if.not interrupted must be one of the following:
1.
A single minimum free u t t e r a n c e .
2.
A single free utterance, but expanded,
hot minimum.
3.
A sequence of two or more free u t t e r a n c e s .
We start then with the assumption that a sen­
tence (the particular unit of language that is
the object of this investigation) is a Single
free utterance , minimum or expanded; i.e. , that
it is 1f r e e ' in the sense that it is not in­
cluded in any larger structure by means of any
grammatical d e v i c e . (p. 25)
From this, point, by a long process of com­
paring each utterance unit with many of the
others seeking recurrent p a r t i a l s , it was
possible to separate those that consisted of
single free utterances from those that con­
sisted of sequences of free u t t e r a n c e s . (p. 39)
With the same process of comparison— seeking
recurrent p a r t ials--applied to the whole body of
single free utterances that had been established,
it was possible to arrive at minimum free utter­
ance forms and to find the forms or arrangements
by which the m i n i m u m .free utterances are e x p a n d e d .
(p . U o )
Sentence Patterns
Basic formulas for the sentence patterns of
present-day English can then be set up as the
following:
Class I <—
Class 2 = statement
Class 2 <-- > Class I = question
Class 2 (Class' I ) = request
(p. l48)
Form Classes
We concluded
. . . that the signals of
101
structural meaning in English consisted p r i ­
marily of patterns of arrangement of classes of
words which we have called form-classes, or
parts of speech.
•The primary steps in determining and analyzing the form
classes were as follows:
1.
'
Lists of items for each form class were compiled
by the process of substitution in the test f r a m e s .
The process of substitution in one
position . . . provided a large list of
items that for English structure are the
same kind of functioning u n i t . . . . (p. 77)
2.
The functions of each form class were determined.
The words of our list[s] also fitted
into other positions in other minimum and
expanded free u t t e r a n c e s . The various
'positions 1 in which a part of speech can
stand in our sentences constitute its
functions or uses.
(p. 78)
3.
The formal characteristics of each form class were
determined.
We want to know what the special charac­
teristics of the words are that make them
recognizably different from the words Used
in Pther positions.
To discover these char­
acteristics we need to explore these other
positions and form comparable lists of words
that can fill these positions.
Significant
formal characteristics of each class will
appear then in the contrasts of one.class
with another.
(p. 79)
Test Frames
(p.
75)
Frame A
(The )
concert
w a s /is good (a l w a y s )
Frame B
The
clerk
remembered the tax (suddenly)
Frame C
The
team
went there
102
Words of Class I
Class
I
(The)
is/was
are/were
good
The
clerk
husband
remembered the
The
t e a m __
husband
went there
tax
food
Words of Class 2 To be consistent ve use the same test
frames ve have already tried for Class I v o r d s , but
seek substitutions in another 'position.'
(p u . 8082)
(Note : test frames provide subgroups of Class
2.
Also notice that F r i e s ' use of blank spaces
appears inconsistent.
In the examples belov, the
blanks underneath Class I imply that any word from
the Class I list may occur in that position.
The
underlined words are members of the substitution
list for form class 2.)
Clas s
2
Clas s
I
good
i s /was
a r e /were
f eels~7f elt
(The)
Clas s
I
Class
I
Class
2
(The)
S
Class
I
(The )
S
remembered
want e d
saw
Class
2
went
came
ran
(the)
there
S
103
Words of Cla ss 3 (p p . 82-83)
(Note:
the double frame is
necessary to prevent this class from overlapping with
Class It. )
Class
3
(The)
Class
I
&P.9A
best
large
lonely
beautiful
Words of Class It (pp.
Class
3
^
Clas s
2
s
is/was
are/were
Class
I
Clas s
2
Class
2
remembered
Class
1
Class
3
is /was
are/were
S
(The)
KP-0A
best
large
lonely
beautiful
83-85 )
(The)
Class
I
Class
3
Class
I
(the)
Class
2
( T h e ) ________went
Class
Jt
there
here
always
Class
Jt
clearly
easily
Class
It
there
out
away
. . . our utterances consist primarily of arrange­
ments of these four parts of speech.
These utterances
contain also, h o w e v e r , a body of other words , com­
paratively few in actual number of items, but used
very f r e q u e n t l y . (p. 86)
Funct ion W o rds
Grouo A
sometimes
called determiners
(pp. 88 - 8 9 )
IOL
Group
A
Class
I
The
A
Our
Clas s
2
Clas s
3
Class
U
Class
2
Class
3
is/was
are/were
Group B (p p . 90-91)
Group
A
Class
I
Group
B
The
concert
may
mi ght
would
should
•
Group
A
Class
I
The
Group
A
Clas s
I
The
Group
A
The
Clas s
I
be
Group
B
Class
2
had
was
moved
Group
B
Class
2
was
kept.
moving
Group
B
Class
2
did
move
good
That there are several distinct subgroups of these words
seems to be proved by their distinctive positions when used
together.
Group
A
The
Class
I
Group
B
students
Class
2
may have had to he
moving
Group C (p . 92)
For Group C we have but one word here , not
This not differs from the not included in Group E .
Group
A
The
Class
I
Clas s
2
Group
C
concert
was
not
Class
3
good
Group D (p p . 9 2 - 9 M
Group
A
The
Class
I
Group
B
Group
C
concert
may
(not)
Class
2
be
Group
D
Class
3
very
good
better
=L1IZ
much
iLouR-I. (PP- 9k-95)
A
The
Class
I
Group
E
concerts
Class
3
interesting
and
Group
E
and
Group
A
the
Class
3
profitable
Class
I
Clas s
2
Group
E
Class
2
lectures
are
and
were
Class
U
Group
E
Class
h
now
an d
earlier
All the words Cf this group stand only between words of
the same part-of-speech class or subgroup, but the two words
between which they stand may be of any one of the four classes.
both the concerts and the lectures
either are or were Cciass 2)
(Class I )
106
neither interesting nor profitable
not now but earlier (Class k )
Group F (pp.
95-96)
Group
A
Class
I
The
concerts
Group
A '
the
(Class 3)
Group
■F
Group
.A
at
Class
I
the
Class
I
school
" : ■■■
'
Class
2
are
Group
F
at
. ’ -
top
The words of Group F are followed by Class I words but
may be preceded by words of Class I , Class 2, or Class
3.
Group G (p p . 96-97)
For Group G we have but one w o r d , but
this word appears in various f o r m s : do. does , did
Group
G
Do
Did
Group Class
A
I
the
boys
Class
2
Group
A
correct
their
Class
I
Clas s
k
work promptly
Group H (pp. 97-98) For Group H we have one w o r d , t h e r e .
It seems to appear in a very limited number of sentence
f r a m e s , and in two positions that are functions of
Class I w o r d s . This word is not a Class I su b s t i t u t e ,
for the Class I word with its usual correlations always
appears in the sentence also.
This word has the same
shape as the Class 4 word there except that it is
always unstressed.
Group I ~ (pp. 98-99)
Group
I
When
Why
Group
G
Group
A
Class
I
di d
the
student
Class
2
call
107
Group J ( p p . 99-101)
Group
•A
Class
I
Class
2
Class
3
Group
J
I
The
band
' was
Class
I ■
Class
2
leader
came-
good
Group
A
Class
3
the
new
.
after
so
• before
G roup K (pp. 101-102)
For Group K there are four words that
occurred very frequently at the beginnings of "re­
sponse" utterance units.
These "response" utterance
units were very frequently but not exclusively answers
to questions.
These words also occurred at the b e ­
ginnings of other sentences that continued rather than
introduced conversations. The are the words w e l l ,
oh ' now , why
Group L (pp. 102-103)
In this same position of introducing
response utterances occur also the two words yes and no
Group M (p . 103) . . . the three words that appeared at the
beginnings of "situation" utterance units as attentiongetting signals:
look, s a y , listen.
Group W (p . 103)
In Group W there appears only the one word
p lease which occurs with request sentences , most fre­
quently at the beginning.
Group 0 (pp. 1 0 3 - 1 0 U )
Like please in that it occurs in a
position with request sentences, but differing from
p lea se in its structural signal is the form l e t s . This
form lets operates as a device which makes a request
sentence into a request or proposal that includes the
speaker.
It differs from the phrase let us in its use-,
and the historical fact that "it is a contraction of
108
l et .us" is not significant.
Compare, for e x a m p l e , the
difference in response to the following sentences:
Let us look up the account and call you b a c k .
Lets do the invitations right a w a y .
Form Classes
Fries does not define his form classes. . H e
characteristics
syntactic uses.
lists
for t h e m , partly in word f o r m s , partly in
The characterizations,
i n v o l v e d , overlapping,
and incomplete.
as a whole, become
H o w e v e r , definitions,
especially for unlimited classes such as the four form
classes, may be impossible. Whereas F r i e s ’ characterizations
might definitely be u s e f u l .
child,
As Gleason
(3:120) points o u t , a
confronted with a new w o r d , decides what kind of a
word it is by comparing it, and the way it is h a n d l e d , to
other words which he already k n o w s .
Formal Characteristics of the Form Classes
(See also:
Nelson F r a n c i s , The Structure of American English
New Y o r k : W ._ W . Norton and C o m p a n y ; 1965 . p . 6 l U . Henry Lee
Smith, J r . , English M o r p h o p h o h i c s : Some implications for the
Teaching o_f L i t e r a c y . Monograph Number 10.
O n e o n t a , New
Y o r k : The New York State English C o u n c i l ; 1967 . p . 119.)
Class I
determiners - function group A
inflection for plural and possessive
derivational suffixes
use with function words of Group F
characteristic position
Class 2
inflection
derivational affixes
7
•
-
J' ‘
•109
-
use with function words of Group B
characteristic position
Class 3
derivational suffixes
formation of comparative and superlative
use with function words of Group D
characteristic position
Class it
derivational suffixes
characteristic position
Practical Application
It is one thing to discover and describe what
the structural signals of English a r e ; it is quite
another to sta?rt from such a descriptive display of
the resources of the language and provide the ex ­
ercises, the actual activities, by "which a native
speaker of English can develop a greater and
greater, control and use of these resources to the
full.
We are assuming here that the discovery and
description of the resources themselves must p r e ­
cede and furnish the basis for an effective
approach to the problems of such a practical
mastery as characterizes those who have the.greatest
competence in communication.
(p p . 292-293 )
. . . the chief value of a systematic analysis
and description of the signals of structural m ean­
ing in English is the insight it can give concern­
ing the way our language works , a n d , through
English, into the nature and functioning of human
languages.
(p. 296)
HO
Session k
Aspectual Grammar
Major figure :
"Henry Lee Smith, Jr.
Assumptions
1.
Speech is primary
2.
Language is arbitrary.
3.
Language is a system.
4.
Each language system is unique.
5..
The system constitutes the grammar of the l a n g u a g e .
Definitions
Phonology:
phonetics and phonemics.
Phonetics:
science of speech sounds.
Phonemic s :
study of the distinctive classes of sounds of
particular l a n g u a g e .
Phoneme:
a single speech sound or a group of phonetically similar sounds which function as a
distinctive unit in a given language
Allophone:
a sound of subphonemic status,
Ill
The
Consonant Phonemes
of English
Point of articulation
Manner of Articulation
Voiceless
Voiced
lips together
teeth on lower lip
stops :
fricatives:
pail
fail
/p/
/f/
bale
vale
/b /
/v /
tongue tip on upper teeth
stops:
fri c a t i v e s :
thi gh
none iii English
Ihy
/9/
5
tongue tip on ridge behind
upper teeth
stops:
fri c a t i v e s :
t_ip
siP
/t/
/s/
dip
pip
/d/
/z/
fore part of tongue on roof
of mouth
stops:
fr i c a t i v e s :
shall
none iri English
/s/
azure
/z/
rear of tongue backed against
roof of mouth at rear
stops:
kill
fricatives:
aff r i c ati v e s : fricative and
stop combination
gill
/k/
/g/
none iri English
V
chump
/c/
lump
/J/
ram
ran
raBJS.
/m/
/n /
l a t e r a l : air diverted around
sides of tongue
lee
/i/
special resonant
rib
/r/
nasal:
air diverted through
the nose
Note:
phonemes are always enclosed in slanted lines - I I .
/g/
112
Cl as si fic at ion
of Consonant
BiLabiolabio Dental
Manner of
Articulation
stops:
vcls
vcd
spirants:
vcls
vcd
Phonemes
of English
Point of Articulation
AlveoInterAlveolar Palatal Velar
Dental
/k/
Zr /
/t/
/d/
/p/
/b/
/f/
/v/
/s/
/2/
/s/
/s/
/Z/
/z/
af f r i c a t e s : vcls
vcd
ZcZ
ZJZ
nasals:
vcd
/m/
laterals:
vcd
/I/
special
r e s o n a n t : vcd
Zr/
/n/
The above chart is based on the Trager-Smith analysis
of the English language and is part of an aspectual analysis
of English.
Vowel Phonemes of English
There are 9 simple vowel phonemes.
front
center
back
______
key words
high
i
i
U
pit
just
mid
e
a
O
pet
putt
gonna
a
3
pat
clock
caught
low
/<&/-"digraph"
/i/-"barred I "
There are 3 "glides":
/3/-"open o"
/<>/-"schwa"
y, w, h (and sometimes r )
these are consonants
semi-vowels
before a vowel
after a vowel
(a d v ) put
113
There are 27 complex n u c l e i :
und e r l i n e d .
.
iJL
£7ay
iy
3y
£3L
uy
°JL
ay
iw
ew
dew
iw
3w
aw
the most common ones are
uw
ow
aw
ih
eh
Jeh
ih
3h
ah
uh
oh
ah
Fill the blanks with key words based on your own pronuncia
tion.
Fill the / / with any other complex nuclei which you
choose.
/i/
/iy/
/e/
/ey /
/J/
/oy/ ____
/i/
/ay/
/3 /
/uw/
/a/
/ow/
/u /
/aw/
/o/
/oh/
/ /
/ah/
/ /
Il
__
lilt
Fill the blanks with key w o r d s . Whenever possible use the
phoneme in initial and final positions.
/b/
/t/
/d/.
/v /
/f/.
/w/
/g/.
/y/.
/h/
/z/
/k/.
/ 6/
/I/.
/ 9/
/m/
/ s/
/n/
/z /
/P/
/ c/
/r/.
/J/
/s/
/3 /
Transcription:
Write the following words phoneraically.
for y o u .
those
The first one is done
/£owz/________ flight________________ l e i s u r e ________________
length________________sludge________________fog__ ___________________
wrings__________ _____ meshed________________clothe________________ _
finger
singer
________ shame_________________ whole___________________
machine
mare
115
Session
5
The following exercises in reading transcription are
from H . A. Gleason's W orkbook in Descriptive Linguistics.
New York : Holt, Rinehart a n d " W i n s t o n ; 1961 .
"
sed 3 greyt kangrigeysinil priyc 3 r
tuw 3 hen "yuHr 3 byiwtif3 1 kriyc3r"
3 n $3 hen , pliyzd 3 t
Sdet
Ieyd 3 n eHg in iz hat,
3n
c?3 s did Sd
hen riywdHrd b i y c3 r .
3 byiwtiy ay Xm nat 3 staHr,
^3 r 3 r 3 ^ 3 r z maHr h«ens3 m bay faHr,
b31 may feys, ay dont maynd it,
f3 r ay 3m bihaynd it;
its 33 piypil in fr3 nt get $3 JaHr.
Suprasegmental Phonemes
Stress Phonemes
I ' I
/V
/V
/*"/
primary
secondary
tertiary
weak
lighthouse-keeper
light housekeeper
or
light housekeeper
I >
< W
light1housekeeper
Il 6
Grammatical significance:
I.
structural signals
Identify certain constructions.
Compound nouns
Long
Island
or
is
Two word verbs
Noun phrases
a
or
long island.
Compound nouns
set up
Verbs:
set up
permit
or
Nouns:
permit
Delimit certain units.
Words in isolation have primary stress
Phrases have only one primary stress.
b l a c k , bird, trap
blackbird, t r a p , black , birdtrap
blackbird trap
or
blackbird trap
black birdtrap
or
black birdtrap
more b e a utiful(p l u s )girIs = more beautiful girls
*
*
W#
>
A.
A
V#
>
m o r e (plus)beautiful girls = more beautiful girls
The last two examples illustrate how stress can
indicate two different constructions which other­
wise look identical.
117
P itch P h on emes
/I/
/ 2/
/3/
/U/
2*
lowest
highest
v
<^
v# 3 ^ w I
Sally's going to Paris
2*
<w
v r 2-*w»3
Sally's going to Paris
2
a
v
3
v
I
What are you doing
J uncture
/+/
internal or plus
Henry+Ward+Beecher
or
hen+reward+Beecher
phonological phrase markers
/I /
/11/
/#/
single bar :
pitch sustained
double b a r :
pitch is apt to rise slightly
more lengthening than /) /
double cross : noticeably lengthened
may be accompanied by pause and
drop in pitch
The following is an interesting way to illustrate juncture
and pitch.
&
2 2,2
2
'2
2 - 2 2 - 2 2-1
one#two#three#four#five#six#
2' I 2 'I 2
"I
2
'
I 2
'
I
one#two#three#four#five#
2' 2,,2,2,, 2
'2 , 2 ' 2 , 2 - I
one) I two| I three) | four) | five#
2' 3
2 »3
2
-3
2
3,2- 2
one I I two) I three) | four) | five#
'
r 2 2
,22
-22-
22-
I
one I two) three) four) five#
2x
**
<
3
I
one+two+three+four+five#
'
118
The following is an example of a long sentence written
phonemically.
It was part of a final examination written by
Henry J . Sustakowski for an advanced grammar class.
ia-L3 ” V
^
'
v V " 2, ,2
'
-
-2
2.
< 2
2
2
' I
9 3 + v e riy+9nuwzuwSl| | disti^ktivliy+fiy?ird| | owld+m%n#
2 •.
2 ,
w9 z+veriy+suwn| 3 t*kig +%3 +prablB m| |&%t + h#d + k 3 nfr 3 ntid +3 s| Ihl+
I'I
dey#
.'V
119
Session 7
Transformational Generative Grammar
Major F i g u r e :
(I )
Noam Chomsky
Assumptions
1.
All languages have a universal, underlying
grammatical s t r u c t u r e . This underlying structure
is called deep s t r u c t u r e .
2.
This deep structure reflects fundamental p r o ­
perties of the m in d — the forms of t h o u g h t .
3.
This structure is i n n a t e ; t h e r e f o r e , language is
an innate property, waiting to he t r i g g e r e d .
4'.
Although the deep structure of all languages is
fundamentally the same, the means of its ex­
pression, or the surface s t r u ctures, may vary
widely.
Definitions
The following statement taken from Cartesian Linguistics
(3:38-39) may serve as Chomsky's definition of transforma­
tional generative g r a m m a r .
It also indicates the linguistic
tradition with which he identifies.
Transformational generative grammar-- "is concerned
precisely with the rules that specify deep ;struc­
tures and relate them to surface structures and
with the rules of semantic and phonological inter­
pretation that apply to deep and surface structures
respectively. . . .
In many respects , it seems to
me quite accurate . . . to regard the theory of
transformational generative grammar, as it is de­
veloping in current work, as essentially a modern
and more explicit version of the Port-Royal theory."
(See Session I )
120
"A grammar [syntactic] is a finite set of rules
which enumerates (or g e n e r a t e s ) an infinite number
of grammatical (or w e l l - f o r m e d ) sentences of a
language and no ungrammatical ones and assigns to
each sentence generated its proper structural
description"
(K :It) .
---
.
,
•' • ' '••'.*V
"vr'-.'-r
r"
121
A Sample Generative Grammar
The following sample grammar is taken from H . A.
G l e a s o n , Jr.
L inguistics and Engl ish Gramma r . New York:
H o l t , Rinehart, and Winston; 19^5.
p p . 22^-226.
P-RULES
These rules are numbered for conve n i e n c e ; the missing
numbers will be inserted in the sample grammar to be used in
the next session.
P1
S -- > NP + VP
Interj
P2
V P -- > -ed + V.
-s + V.
Mod + V.
Pu
V 3 -- > have + -en + V,
P5
V2
P6
be + -ing + V
-- > V-i
V-t + NP
V-b + NP
be + NP +
's
have + NP
be + -en + V-t
Det + N,
N - prop
Pr
122
L-RULES
V-i
V-t
V-b
V-I
N-c
-- »
--—^
-- ^
-- )
---)
N-prop
Pr
D
Int
Adj
-- >
-- >
-- >
)
Mod
Interj
-- 1
-- >
walk, swim, r u n , breathe, sleep
catch, strike, visit, b u y , congratulate
be, b e c o m e , remain, seem
be, seem, l o o k , a p p e a r , feel
man, b o y , wife, h u s b a n d , b r o t h e r , sister,
dealer , car , b r e a d , sports , city,lady, d o g ,
t e m p e r , boxer
James, P e t e r , M a r y , Pauline, Fido , Spot
he , she , i t , someone
the, a, this, that, each, every
very, e x t r e m e l y , quite, t o o , less
good, bad, new, old, lazy, ambitious, b e a u t i
ful , young
will, w o u l d , c a n , c o u l d , might
yes, no, ouch, wow
M-RULES
s
s
s
s
+
+
+
+
have
be
w alk
swim
—— f h a s
-------) i s
------ > w a l k s
------ > s w i m s
ed
ed
ed
ed
+
+
+
+
have
be
w alk
swim
et c.
en
en
en
en
+
+
+
+
have
be
w alk
swim
------> h a d
---) b e e n
--- > w a l k e d
-- > s w u m
e tc .
he
she
som eone
man
-
+
+
+
+
-
i
i
i
i
' S ------ >
1 S --- »
1 S -- >
1 S --- >
n
n
n
n
g
g
g
g
+
+
+
+
------ > h a d
-- ■> was
------ ? w a l k e d
------ > s w a m
etc .
h a v e
be
w alk
swim
h is
her
someone
man ' s
etc .
----->
----->
----- )
----- >
having
being
w alking
sw im m ing
e t c .
123
A Sample Derivational Tree
TNP
— e d.
be
-ing
I
V-i
Det
N,
r~
13
AP
I
lb
N-c
r
NP
- 's
Adj
IT
Pr
+
's
+ Adj
+
N-c + -ed +
be + -ing +V-i
Apply
He
L-rules
+
's
+ old
+
dog + -ed +
be + -ing +sleep
Apply
M-rules
His
old
dog
was
sleeping
12h
Session 8
The following sample grammar is taken from H . A. G l e a s o n ,
Jr.
Linguistics and English Grammar.
New Y o r k : Holt ,
Rinehart, and Winston; 1965 . p p . 251-253.
P -RULES
P1
P2
P3
S
NP + VP
Interj
VP
-- )
PreV +
PreV
-- >
SNo + -s + SAux
SN o + -ed + SAux
Mod
-- >
(have + -en + ) V
2
V3
P5
V2
V1
P 7I
NP
NP 5
CD
P6
*-d
P4
No
P9
n6
P10
N5
P 11
Nh
P12
N3
P1 3
N2
V3
(be + - ing
-- }
+ ) V1
V-i
V-t + NP + -m
V-b + NP §
V-I + AP
be + Loc
be + Poss
have + NP + -rr
-- >
-- »
+ No
+ SNo
Sg
pi
--- )
N
(+ SPNM)
N-prop
Pr
-- )
(Det +) N
(Num +) N^
(Spec +) Ng
SAP + N
2
IN,
(+ n o t )
125
p IU
P 15
Pl6
P 17
P18
N1
-) Ea +Nl1
Loc
-^
Det
->
AP
-)
( Int
Poss
--->
NP + -'
N-c
Adv-I
Prep + NP + -m
D
SPoss
-O Adj
5
T-RULES
T1
OPT
&
NP + X + V-t + NP + - m
I
2
h
3
5
+ by + NP
f
I
T2
T3
TU
OPT
by + NP
SAux +
I
+ -m = >
!not
2
O
O
v.
No + (X +) No
I
2
I in 3
nil
have
3
OPT
NP + PreV +
O
I
33
t6
OPT
NP
>who
Condition:
O
have (+not)
3 in I
2
be " O be (+ n o t )
2
3 3 in I
T 1-
p
+
2
5
No + (X + ) SNo
I
2
3
SAux + (Not
I
2
+X
+ -m
OBL
OBL
NP
U
PreV + NP + V„
I
33
2
126
tT
T8
T9
OBL
X + who
I
2
OBL
SAux + V^
OBL
SAux — > do
T10 GEN
T11 GEN
T12
GEN
SAP + N
I
2
(+
&
up
T
i
T
uc
2
3
SAP + N 0 & (D +) Np + Y + V-I
§AP
I
2
SAP + N
I
2
-r n r
/ Mr f
3 in I
H0
2
-ing + V-i + N,
(f
3 )ini 2 ‘
&
2
3
N-c + - ng + V-t + Np
(4
f 3)in I 2
T1 3
T 14
OPT
GEN
N-c + -ing
I
2
ti6
T 17
OPT
GEN
GEN
-Ir
!+ (I = > n i l )
SAP + N 0 & (D +) N-c + Y + V-t + (Z +) N + No + -m
I
2
3
U
2^
)
T 15
• V-t + Np
N-c + f
(3
4) in I
N-c + -en 4
I
2
Njli & (D +) N,
SPoss + N
I
2*
2
Ns +
V
SPNM +
2
2'
4
+ Y + be + Poss
3
(I
— ? nil)
^ Poss + Ni
3 in I
2^
127
T 1 o GEN
N
V
+
SPNM + No & N
2
3
V
+ Y + have + NP + -m
U
5
^
N c- + No + with + NP + -m
3
(f
h
5) in 2
128
L- R U LES
(G l e a s o n .
V-i
V-t
V-b
V-I
Mod
N-c
N-prop
Pr
Pr-m
Det
Num
Spec
Adj
Int
Adv-I
Prep
Interj
p p . 2 ^ 0 - 25 2 .)
— -> walk, s w i m , run, b r e a t h e , sleep
-- -> catch, strike, visit, b u y , congratulate, own
-- ) be, become, remain, seem
---> be, s e e m , look, appear , feel
— * will, w o u l d , can, could, m a y , might, should
-- > m a n , b o y , wife, husband, brother , sister,
d e a l e r , c a r , city, lady, dog, temper , boxer
-- > James, Peter, M a r y , Pauline, Fido , Spot
-- > he, she, it, s o m e o n e , they , we, your
-- > him, h e r , it, someone, them, y o u , me
-- * the, a, this, that, each , every, some, these,
those
-- > two, t h r e e , f o u r , m a n y , few, umpteen
—
same, different, o t h e r , certain, first , next ,
last
-- > good, bad , n e w , old, lazy, ambitious,
beautiful, y o u n g , mean
---> v e r y , e x t r e m e l y , q u i t e , too, less, exceptionally
—
upstairs, there , h e r e , y o n d e r , outside, ashore
---i in, on, with, at, by, near , away from
-- -> yes, no, oh, well
129
Derivation Tree I
NP
VP
SN o
-s
SAux
V-t
-m
N-prop
N6
No
Pl
SAux + V-t + Pr + Pl +
-m
+
SAux + V-t + Pr + Pl +
-m
+ -S
+
SAux )
SAux + v-t + Pr + Pl +
-m
SNo + - S
Peter + S g + S g
(Tg deletes the
M-rule s
+
SNo
I
Peter +
I
I .
Is g I
I
I
Is g I
+
N-prop+
Peter visits t h e m .
130
Derivation Tree 2
Prev
§No
-s
§Aux
J
1
V-b
Py twice
NP §
Ng
No
SNo
P 10twice
P^^twice
?
P 12 twice
P . .twice
13
P 1 ,twice
I
I1
2
N1
jI
N-c
N-c
N-c +pi +
§No + -s +
§Aux + V-b
+ N-c +
SNo
131
Husband
+
T2 (as shown above)+
Tg deletes
Pl +
+
O
%
L-rules
-S
+
Pl + Pl
SAux + be + man +
(X)
§No
+ Pl
Aux
Husband
+
Pi + Pl
M-rules p r o d u c e : Husbands
+ -S
+
fire
be + man + pi
men .
Session 9
Generalizing Transformations
The following examples
examples
illustrate the operation of the GEN r u l e s .
These
disregard the L-rules of the sample g r a m m a r .
matrix
identical
&
The sugar+sg+sg+-s+be+sweet
sweet sugar
dress
&
The
blue dress
&
(D +)
N
2
dress
SAP
I
+
N
2
SAP
+ ball & The ball
SAP+machine & The machine
is
+
Y
+
blue
V-i
3
-ing + V-i
+
. f
3 in I
132
§AP+sugar
Np
bounces
bouncing ball
s queaks
squeaking machine
& (D + ) N- + Y + V-t + (Z + ) N — c + No + -m
it
2
3
SAP + N
I
2
woman
machine
the
pennies
pinches
woman
clothe s
the machine washes
N-c + -ing + V-t + N ?
It
f
3 in I 2
'X'
penny-pinching woman
clothes-washing machine
133
-ing + V-t + N,
T 1 ^OPT N-c + -ing + V-t +
I
2
3
4
> r
clothes+washing machine
2
x
washing
3
U
(I
nil)
machine
This transformation is optional because it would not always be
desirable to delete the n o u n , for instance in "penny-pinching
woman."
Notice, t o o , that "washing m a c h i n e " is structurally
different from "squeaking machine" produced by T^ 1 .
TlU
§AP + N 0 & (D + ) N-c + Y + V-t + (Z+) N
I
22
3
U
22
stroke the students
leg
the
+ No + -m
inspired the strike
boy
broke
a
leg
N-c + -en + V-t + N 0
(3
f
U)inl 2
student-inspired strike
boy-broken
leg
H
LO
c- OPT
(similar to T^^ )
N-c + -en + V-t + N 0
I
2
3
U
boy-broken
leg
-en + V-t + N 0
2
3
I*
(I =4 nil)
broken leg
fills the SPoss in the same manner as the above rules
Its operation produces such sentences as
SPoss + car & the car is his = r^ his car
filled the
SAP.
T,„ and T ^ q provide
IT
Io
'17
hoy
+
hooks +
'18
for two of the post noun modifiers of English
§PNM & The hoys
are
here
SPNM & The hooks are on the table
= 4 the hoys here.;.'.,.,
the hooks on the table
boy +
SPNM & The boy had a ball = 4 ‘The hoy with the b a l l ,
boy +
SPNM & The boy had a cold
The boy with the cold,
135
136
This grammatical solution is taken from K o u t s o u d a s ,
A n d r e a s . W riting T ransformational G r a m m a r s . New Y o r k :
McGraw Hill.
19 o 6 . p . IU 3 .
In the example below the lexicon is part of the Pr u l e s . However, notice that the determiner is specified in
the T-rules.
This is, in essence, defining the determiner
as a grammatical or structural element rather than a lexical
one .
Grammar
I.
N P ---* Det + N
2.
D e t ---> D
3.
D -- > D , D
k.
N — — ) Ns + Nu
5.
Nu -- -> Sg , pi
6.
Ns -- > b o y , house,
t a b l e , dog
7.
Tob
D —Ns + N u
8.
Tob
D1
9.
Tob
CU
Q
girl
10.
s g __ ^ this
pi
these
Sg __ ^ that
pi
those
Tob
) D+Nu—Ns+Nu
Notes :
Tob corresponds to T-OBL.
<J) is an empty element.
Dash - sets apart groups of elements
Plus + indicates elements which go together.
If the top element in the left bracket is p r e s e n t , the
top element in the right bracket must be chos e n .
137
Derivation
1.
Det + N
2.
D + N
3.
D1
+N
U.
D1
+ Ns +
Nu
5.
D1
+ Ns +
Sg
6.
D1
+ boy
7.
D1
+ Sg -
8.
th is
boy
10.
th is
boy
+
Sg
boy
+
+
Sg
Sg
Derivation Tree
NP
_Dtjt_ _ _ I_ _ _
I
D1
N
____ _____
Ns
Nu
I
Sg
D1
boy
I
Sg
138
Transformational Grammar and the Classroom
I.
Pedagogical applications
■ A.
B.
II.
of generalizing transformations
Analyzing written passages
Manipulating ideas in composition
Research in language acquisition and development
A.
Roger Brown and Ursula B e l l u g i : "Three Processes
in the Child's Acquisition of S y n t a x ."
Harvard
Educational Review 34:133-151 (Spring 19^4.)
B.
Kellogg W . H u n t : Grammatical Structures Written at
Three Grade L e v e l s . WCTE Research Report Wo. 3.
ISGST
I.
T-unit - the shortest grammatically allowable
sentences into which the material could be '
segmented - was the best indicator of maturity.
Growth occurs in the number of subordinate
clauses within T--units.
b.
2,
(I)
Adverb
(2 )
Woun
(3)
Adjective
Growth also occurs in non-clause m o d i f i e r s .
In "superior" adult writing clause length was
the best indicator of maturity.
The number of
adjective clauses remained a valuable index of
mature w r i t i n g .
139
Session 10 .
The Bole of Linguistics in the Classroom
Nelson Francis.
"The Study of Language in English Teaching."
Paper read at the Conference on Research in English,
Carnegie Institute of Technology, May 6 , 1962 (mimeo­
graphed , p p . 9 ).
H.A.
1.
To inform the student about the nature of language ,
its place in human history and c u l t u r e , its rela­
tion to the formulation and communication of ideas
and to the expression of artistic and philosophic
insights and precept i o n s .
2.
To supplytthe student with information about his
own language - its s t r u c t u r e , its v o c a b u l a r y , its
history, its v a r i e t y , and its present important
position in world affairs.
3.
To encourage the student to have a wholesome re ­
spect for his l a n g u a g e , manifesting itself in a
more s e n s i t i v e , c a r e f u l , and accurate use, in
both writing and speech.
'
Gleason.
"What Grammar?"
34:2 (Spring 1964).
Harvard Educational Review
. . . our students must not only be made to be criti­
cal about language, but equally critical about our
understanding of l a n g u a g e . At suitable places they
must see that there is more than one way to describe
a significant point of s t r u c t u r e . They should have at
least a basic understanding of the major approaches to
s y n t a x . They should know something of school g r a m m a r ,
in part because it is assumed in so many places, but
equally because its basic assumptions are worth exam­
ining.
Names like L o w t h , J e s p e r s e n , B l o o m f i e l d , de
Sa u s sure should mean as much to them as do Faraday,
M e n d e l e y e v , or P a s t e u r , and they should know Priestly
from both Chemistry and E n g l i sh--and understand the
significance of his wide-ranging activities.
The
history of linguistics, like the history of other
systems of notable ideas, should be within the pur­
view of an educated man.
I Uo
e.e.
C u m m i n g s . ■ "anyone lived in a pretty how town."
Poems 1923-195U.
New Y o r k : H a r c o u r t , Brace, and World
195H.
.
anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many hells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his d i d .
Women and men (both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon start rain
children guessed (but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring s u m m e r )
that noone loved him more by more
when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her
someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then) they
said their nevers they slept their dream
stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)
one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was
all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes
Women and men (both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain
f
V
LITERATURE CONSULTED
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19&C
Allen, H a r o l d , Verna Newsome, and others.
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"l9%2.
Bloomfield, Leonard.
Language.
C o m p a n y ; 1933. _
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Bryant, Margaret M.
Current American U s a g e .
and Wagnalls Company; 1962 .
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N.J.: Prentice-Hall; 1964 .
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ed. Harold
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From Beowulf to Thomas H a r d y . V o l . I, ed.
&
142
Robert S h a f e r .
Chomsky, Noam.
New Y o r k : The Odyssey Press ; 1939.
Cartesian L i n g u i s t i c s .
___________ • "The Current Scene in Linguistics: Present
Dir e c t i o n s ."
College English 27:587-595 (May 1966 ).
____ ’_____ •
"Language and the Mind."
1:9 [February 1968 ).
______ _____ • Syntactic S t r u c t u r e s .
and C o m p a n y ; 1957.
Psychology Today
's-Gra v e n h a g e : Mouton
___________ , and George A. Miller.
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Formal Analysis of Natural L a n g u a g e s ." Handbook of
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through 8.
Modern Language and Compositio n : Grades 9
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R y e ."
American Speech 34:172-181 (October 1959).
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1923-1954.
"anyone lived in a. pretty how town."
Poems
New Y o r k : Harcourt , Brace and W o r l d ; 1954 -
D e L a n c e y , Robert W . Linguistics and T e a c h i n g : A M anual of
Pract i c e s . O n e o n t a , New York: The New York State
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Francis, Nelson.
The English L a n g u a g e .
Norton ; 1963 .
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___________ . The Structure of. American Eng l is h . With a
chapter by Raven I . McDavid , Jr. "The Dialects of
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'
'’
'
____ . "The Study of Language in English Teaching."
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.
___________ . The Structure of E n g l i s h .
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New
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New Y o r k :
___________ . "What Grammar?" ■ Harvard Educational Review
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1959.
The Silent Language .
Hall, J . Leslie.
English U s a g e .
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H i l g a r d , Ernest.
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- -
I ItIt
Jespersen", Otto.
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j
-V-,.'.
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- -T' V-: •
L e f e v r e , Eelen E ., and Carl A. L e f e v r e . Writing by
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-
Leonard, Sterling A ? Current English U s a g e .
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The
L o n g a c r e , Robert E . "String Constituent Analysis."
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The Arts Course at Medieval Universities
with Special Reference to Grammar and Rhetoric.
Re ­
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English Sentences
Brace and W o r I dj; 1962 .
______. Patterns of E n g l i s h .
Brace and World; 1956.
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New Y o r k : H a r c o u r t ,
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