Syntactic and Grammatical Structures
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Syntactic and Grammatical Structures
Ashley Shaw
Salt Lake Community College
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Abstract
The purpose of this project was to analyze the speech of a person and describe a syntactic rule in
her natural speech. I interviewed Catherine, a 29 year-old student with a diverse history of residences. I
anticipated that, because of her upbringing and education, she would demonstrate a proper grammar
whilst borrowing from her diverse dialectical exposure. I engaged in a conversation with Catherine over
the course of about thirty minutes, and then analyzed several utterances and their structures. I
determined that, though she had a diverse upbringing and a lot of education, she was still very informal
in her speech. She used many informal interjections even when the subject matter was more formal.
However, her grammatical structures were still proper.
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Introduction
Catherine is a 29 year-old student at the University of Utah, double majoring in anthropology and art
history. She has lived in several areas of the country, including New England, Texas, and Utah. I was
interested to investigate her language structures because of her diverse upbringing and academic
background. Because of her background, I anticipated that her grammar and language structure would
reflect different dialects but also very proper grammar.
Our textbook defines a grammar as the mental system of rules and categories that allow us to form
and interpret the words and sentences of our language. (O’Grady, 2010) In relation, the syntax is the
actual system of rules and categories that underlies sentence formation. (O’Grady, 2010) I observed
Catherine’s speech and her observation of grammatical and syntactic rules of the English language.
Methods
I used a Digital Audio Workstation on my computer and set up a microphone between the two of us
to capture our voices. I then engaged Catherine in a casual conversation for about thirty minutes.
Catherine and I have known each other for a couple of years, so it was easy to notice that her responses
to traditional interview questions were unnatural. In response, I allowed Catherine to speak candidly
about several current things happening in her life.
Results
See attached data.
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Implications
The interjection of “like” in Catherine’s sentences makes them appear to mean that something is
similar to something else, though the interjection does not actually change the meaning of the sentence
at all. At other times, the interjection of “like” would be at the beginning of the sentence, with it having
no apparent contribution to the meaning of the rest of the sentence. I was unsure of how to draw such
an interjection into a tree structure, but it was a similar phenomenon to the interjection of “er” or “um”
in natural speech. It should also be noted that when writing, Catherine obviously does not write “like” in
her sentences. It is only in colloquial situations. I found myself using the same interjections when
speaking with her as well.
I find it interesting that, though Catherine is a very educated person with an upbringing in
prestigious dialectical areas like New England, she is still prone to using casual interjections like the
Valley Girl or Southern California dialects, even though she has never lived in that area. I think that many
people of Catherine’s and my generation are prone to that sort of “like” insertion in our daily speech. I
find myself noticing this phenomenon more after this project, as well as the environments in which it
does not occur. I notice that I avoid using “like” when I am at work or speaking to someone in a
professional manner.
Syntactic and Grammatical Structures
References
O'Grady, W., Archibald, J., Aronoff, M., & Rees-Miller, J. (Eds.). (2010). Contemporary linguistics: An
introduction (6th ed.). New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins.
Davis, Catherine. Personal Interview. May 3, 2015.
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Syntactic and Grammatical Structures
Data
Catherine’s natural speech pattern was to insert the word “like” after the verbs “be,” “is,” “was,”
“are,” and “were” when describing something. Included are the sentence structures of the following
utterances:
“The dogs are like pretty big.”
“It’s like slate.”
“It’s like a three bedroom house.”
“It’s like between the freeway and the Trax.”
“”It’s like a huge wall.”
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