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Linguistics and English Grammar
WHAT IS LINGUISTICS?
LINGUISTICS: study of the structure of language: “how speakers create meaning
through combinations of sounds, words, and sentences that ultimately result in texts –
extended stretches of language (e.g. a conversation between friends, a speech, an
article in a newspaper). Like other scientist, linguists examine their subject matter –
language – objectively. They are not interested in evaluating ‘good’ versus ‘bad’
uses of language...” (Meyer 2009: 2)
“Standard languages often have prescriptive rules devised by people who believe
their languages need regulating, tidying up or protecting against change, and which
are frequently codified in ‘usage guides’” (Swann, 2011, p. 563).
 Many English prescriptive rules were written in the 18 th and 19th century by
“grammarians”, who often thought that English grammar should imitate Latin,
the prestige language.

It’s me or John and me saw a good film (both typical of informal standard British
and American English): a nominative (subject) form is said to be ‘logically’
required in both cases, but the choice between I and me depends in complex ways
on syntactic environment and level of formality.
Descriptive linguistics attempts to describe languages without the preconceived
notions of what a language should contain and how it should operate
RULES VS. GRAMMAR: every language has a structure which can be studies by
looking at (Meyer 6-8):
1. rules: govern the pronunciation of sounds (phonetics, phonology), the ways
words are put together (morphology), the manner in which phrases, clauses,
and sentences are structured (syntax), and the ways that meaning is created
(semantics) > GRAMMAR
2. principles: stipulate how the structures that rules create should be used (e.g.
which forms are used in polite contexts, how to address a ‘superior’, etc.) >
PRAGMATICS
DIFFERENT LEVELS OF LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS
SOUNDS: Phonetics and Phonology > “Linguistic rules at this level describe how
sounds are pronounced in various contexts.” E.g. voicing assimilation in past tense
(Meyer).

phonetics is concerned with the physical production and perception of
speech sounds
 phonology is concerned with the sounds of a language are distinctive in
creating meanings (phonemes)
WRITING SYSTEM:

Orthography is both the set of symbols used in any particular writing
system as well as the rules for writing symbols (punctuation, spelling,
capitalization, etc.)

English has 44 phonemes vs. 26 letters
MORPHOLOGY: Rules of morphology focus on how words and parts of words are
structured; morpheme is smallest unit of meaning in language. E.g. subjective I vs.
objective me
 inflection
 derivation
 grammatical vs. lexical words
SYNTAX: linguistic forms combine according to grammatical rules to form
utterances (or phrases and clauses), which is the largest level of structure in the
morphosyntax or grammar. Some key aspects:
 clause functions (subject, predicator, object, complement, adverbial)
 negation
 question formation
 coordination and subordination
 passivization
SEMANTICS: Because meaning is at the core of human communication, the study of
semantics cuts across all the other level of linguistic analysis. However, despite this
semantics usually focuses on meaning of individual words (lexical semantics), or
semantic meanings which are encoded into the lexis and grammar, and the ability of
words to refer to points in time or individual in the external world (deixis), which is
also part of pragmatic meanings which provide the meaning according to certain
situations and contexts.
PRAGMATICS: Concerned less with how grammatical constructions are structured
and more with why they have structure to do that. How language is structured also
depends on context (aspects of a situation which are relevant to communicate the
inferences we make from the situation we are in): social context vs. linguistic
context.
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
the effect of social context on language; age, social class, occupation, relative
positions on the power hierarchy, etc.; politeness
TEXTUAL LINGUISTICS: it is important to study the linguistic context and its
effect on how language is structured, which involves studying language at the level of
text (=anything beyond the sentence that involves language use, and that is a produce
of a broader range of social practice). E.g. “a newspaper article … is not just a
collection of sentences structured and used in a way consistent with the standards of
journalistic English, but the result of social practices inherent with the media in
general” (Meyer 80).
o cohesion, coherence, reference, etc.
GRAMMATICAL VS. PRAGMATIC MEANING: understanding and interpreting
text goes beyond understanding the (semantic) meaning at the level of grammar. We
need to understand the entire social context in what a phrase, text, word is uttered.
DESCRIBING ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN TERMS OF WORD CLASSES
VERBS: express actions or states
 action (dynamic) – physical (jump), mental (think), perceptual (see)
 stative – states of being or processes in which there is no obvious action
o Cf. I’m seeing the doctor at ten o’clock. // I see what you mean.
 lexical – express meaning in the verb phrase and can function only as the main
verb
o auxiliary – used to construct different timescales, questions and
negatives, as well as to add emphasis or give information about the
mood or attitude of a speaker/writer
 MODALS – convey a range of attitudes and moods about the likelihood
and/or necessity of an even taking place.
 Generally divided into two groups: one to do with degrees of
certainty and others to do with obligation or freedom to act.
o ability (He can speak English almost fluently.)
o intention (I think I will go to the movies tonight.)
o necessity/obligation (You have to be here by 9AM.)
o permission (May I go to the toilet?)
o prediction (That could be Tom. He was supposed to call at this time.)
o possibility (He may arrive on time.)
 PRESENT vs. PAST TENSES
 present – used to describe states of affairs and events that occur on a regular
basis; also used in sports commentaries, proverbs and sayings
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
past – actions that took place in the past; sometimes used to record
indirect/reported speech, or something that is supposed to be happening
 FUTURE TIME
 simple present
 modal
 be going to
 to be + present participle (present continuous)
 future perfect
 ASPECT – establishes whether the action or stat of a verb is complete or in
progress
 perfect - dscribes events occurring in the past but linked to a later time,
usually the present
 progressive - describes an event that takes place during a limited time period
 VOICE
 active
 passive
o subject delayed (for suspense)
o when actor is too long
o to exclude person/thing from responsibility
NOUNS: traditionally known as naming words in that they name people, places and
things
 Common
 Proper
 Abstract
 Concrete
 Count
 Non-count (uncountable)
 Plurals
o regular
o irregular
WHAT ARE THE PLURAL OF THE FOLLOWING NOUNS? hoof, ox,
sheep, mouse, criterion, life
 Possessives
ADJECTIVES: provide extra information about nouns by giving details of physical
quantities like colour and shape and of psychological qualities like emotions, and by
providing evaluative judgements
 Attributive (The pure white stallion.)
 Predicative (The stallion is white.)
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HANDOUT#1

Grading
o superlative
o comparative
ADVERBS: give information about time, place and manner. They can modify:
 Verbs
 Adjectives
 Other adverbs
 Sentences (as linking words)
o disjuncts – express speakers’ attitudes (Perhaps I could do the work
myself, but surely you could get someone else.)
o conjuncts – link sentences (Firstly, I intend to talk to the professor;
however, I would like to do it before class.)
 Circumstantial adverbs:
o manner
o time
o frequency
o place
PRONOUNS
 Personal
 Object
 Possessive
 Reflexive
 Demonstrative
 Interrogative
 Relative
 Indefinite
DETERMINERS: function words which are used to specify the reference of a noun
 Articles
 Possessive
 Demonstrative
 Indefinite
 Numbers
o cardinal
o ordinal
FORM, FUNCTION, MEANING: We cannot only rely on meaning in order to
recognize word classes. It is best to see the definition of a word class as a
combination of form, function and meaning.
o
o
o
FORM: we can determine a word class partly by looking at its stem and
affixes:
 derivation suffixes are characteristic of certain word classes,
e.g. electric-ity (noun); electr-ify (verb); electric-al (adjective)
 inflectional suffixes can be added to change the word form
(according to grammatical function): box → box-es (noun PL);
work → work-ed (verb PAST); tall → tall-er (adjective COMP)
 rarely there are inflections that change some part of the word:
man ~ men; sing ~ sang; go ~ went
FUNCTION: we can tell the class of the word by the way it occurs in
certain positions or structural contexts, e.g. The cook does not actually
cook the mean.
MEANING: If you learn to recognize certain semantic types of word
(i.e. word types classified according to meaning), such as action verbs,
stative verbs, abstract nouns, this will help you to check the purely
structural criteria, those of form and function. (Leech, 2008, p. 114)
EXERCISES
A. Read the passage and discuss the use of verbs
Wednesday December 26
Boxing Day
I was woken at dawn by the sound of Granddad Sugden’s rusty Ford Escort refusing to
start. I know I should have gone down into the street and helped to push it but Grandma
Sugden seemed to be doing all right on her own. It must be all those years of flinging sacks
of potatoes about. My parents were wisely pretending to be asleep…
Went back to sleep but the dog licked me awake at 9.30, so I took it for a walk past
Pandor’s house. Her dad’s Volvo wasn’t in the drive, so they must still be staying with
their rich relations. On the way I passed Barry Kent, who was kicking a football up against
the wall of the old people’s home. He seemed full of seasonal goodwill for once and I
stopped to talk with him. He asked what I’d had for Christmas…
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Università Roma Tre
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HANDOUT#1
To me then, at the age of eleven, Santa Claus was a bit like God, all-seeing, all-knowing, but
B. Discuss the differences in the verbs the following sentences in pairs
1a. I’m sorry I didn’t hear what you said.
1b. Can you please repeat what you said, I wasn’t listening.
2a. Johnny is always acting strangely on occasions like this. I don’t think he’ll
ever change.
2b. Every time Johnny sees his cousins, he behaves badly.
3a. I work for a small company.
3b. I’m working for this small company until I find something better.
4a. I’ve already read that book. Can’t we read something else for our project?
4b. I’ve been reading this great book. It’s so good, I almost don’t want to finish
it.
5a. We all hope that building is finished for the grand opening.
5b. I can’t drive you to the airport because my car is being fixed at the
moment.
6a. We’ve already seen that movie. Why don’t we go to another one?
6b. What was the name of the movie you saw last weekend?
7a. She won’t be happy until she has finished her thesis.
7b. She defended her thesis last week. She’s over the moon, as you can
imagine she should be.
8a. The value of their house has decreased quite a lot in the last year.
8b. Last year the value of our house dropped by 20%.
9a. I’ve been doing the gardening, so that’s why I’m so dirty.
9b. Yesterday I did the gardening and it took me a long time.
C. Read the extract and comment on the use of nouns, adjectives, etc. (with
the exception of verbs)
without the lousy things that God allows to happen: earthquakes, famines, motorway
crashes. I would lie in bed under the blankets (how crude the word blankets sounds today
when we are all conversant with the Tog rating of continental quilts), my heart pounding
and palms sweaty in anticipation of the virgin Beano album. — Sue Townsend, True
Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole
D. Read the abstract and comment on the use of pronouns
We enjoyed our days at the beach that summer. It had been glorious weather and
everyone had relished the warmth and light after the harshness of a long winter which
had seemed endless. Some ran the length of the sand to the sea; some lay peacefully on
their towels. I decided to paddle, and covered myself with suntan lotion before walking
lazily to the sea which shimmered before me. Why was it not like this all the time?
Everything seemed perfect. The day was ours to do with as we wished. As I turned back to
the beach, a small boy sat on my towel.
‘Get off,’ I shouted. ‘That is min.’ He stood up suddenly and shouted something. Who could
he be talking to? Then I saw the girl a short distance away. He had clearly thought the
towel was hers.
I lay back down and closed my eyes to think of the girl that I had met earlier in the day.
Monday December 25
CHRISTMAS EVE
What was she doing now, I wondered? I still had her book and I would return it to her.
Something dead strange has happened to Christmas. It’s just not the same as it used to be
when I was a kid. In fact I’ve never really got over the trauma of finding out that my
parents had been lying to me annually about the existence of Santa Claus.
REFERENCES
Thorne, Sara. 2008. Mastering Advanced Language. 2nd Edition. Palgrave. [HW: READ THORNE CHAPTER 1: The Structure of English]
Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad and Edward Finegan. 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Pearson.
Crystal, David. 2008. A Dictionary of Language and Phonetics. 6th Edition. Blackwell.
Downing, Angela and Philip Locke. 2006. English Grammar: A University Course. 2nd Edition. Routledge.
Leech, Geoffrey. 2008. Chapters 6, 7, 8 in English Language: Description, Variation and Context.
Meyer, Charles F. 2009. Introducing English Linguistics. Cambridge Univ. Press.
Swann, Michael. 2011. Grammar, in The Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Routledge