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Prescriptive grammarians tell people how they write should speak and
Descriptive grammarians simply document how people speak and write actually

Language
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Descriptive grammarians see language as an interesting puzzle that can be solved
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As an example, take a look at the following two sentences:

Language
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1) We arrived in Denver after a breathtaking flight that ended in a smooth touchdown.
2) The administration denied all the requests that the students made.
In which of these two sentences can the word “that” be deleted?

Language
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1) We arrived in Denver after a breathtaking flight that ended in a smooth touchdown.
2) The administration denied all the requests (that) the students made.
Why?

Language
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It turns out the answer is fairly simple
Each of the two sentences is actually derived from two other sentences
Thus:

Language
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1) We arrived in Denver after a breathtaking flight that ended in a smooth touchdown.
Is derived from
We arrived in Denver after a breathtaking flight
The flight ended in a smooth touchdown

Language
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In this example, “that” replaces
“The flight,” which serves as the subject of the underlying sentence
“that” is called a “relative pronoun”
Now look at the other example

Language
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2) The administration denied all the requests (that) the students made.
Is derived from
The administration denied all the requests
The students made the requests

Language
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In this example, “that” replaces
“the requests,” which serves as the object of the underlying sentence
The general rule?
Relative pronouns that replace subjects cannot be deleted
Relative pronouns that replace objects can be deleted

Language
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Incidentally, this also helps to explain the “who” versus “whom” distinction (both who and whom can serve as relative pronouns)
“who” replaces subjects
“whom” replaces objects

Language
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Police psychologists calmed the terrorist who had threatened some female hostages.
Police psychologists calmed the terrorists
The terrorists had threatened some female hostages

Language
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The female hostages whom the terrorists had threatened escaped before the shootout.
The female hostages escaped before the shootout
The terrorists had threatened some female hostages

Language
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Why are we in this class?

Why are we studying something that we have had mastery over since roughly the age of five?
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Why do most people cringe when the hear the word
“grammar”?

Language
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A little history of “grammar”
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Language “belongs” to all of us
Therefore, we all seem to have a strong opinion about it
Our ideas about language are usually based on the variety of our place of upbringing, however

Language
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Or on the group of people that raised us
So, very often, those strong opinions differ greatly
Historically, this led to something called

Language
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Prescriptivism is the view that one variety of language has an inherently higher value than others
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That this variety ought to be imposed on the whole of the speech community
This view is especially propounded in relation to grammar and vocabulary

Language
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has a long an varied history
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One of the most influential grammars of the 18 th Century was Bishop Robert Lowth’s
(1762)
(Lowth lived from 1710 to 1787)

Language
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Lowth’s approach was strictly prescriptive
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That is, he meant to improve and correct, not describe
He judged correctness by his
rules (mostly derived from
Latin) which frequently went against established usage

Language
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In America, Lowth’s approach inspired Lindley Murray’s widely used
(1794)

(Murray lived from 1745 to
1826)

Language
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Both Lowth’s and Murray’s grammars went through 20 editions each over several decades
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Murray’s book had an enormous influence on school practice and popular attitudes in the U.S. (that is still there!!!)

Language
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Some examples of his axioms:
‘You should write or say and not
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(The reasoning: in Latin, the verb
is followed by the nominative case, not the accusative)

Language
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‘Two negatives, in English, destroy one another, or are equivalent to an affirmative’

(The reasoning: based on logic and mathematics)

Language
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(Of course, this is not true; two negatives in fact just make a more emphatic negative)

“I ain’t done nothin’”

Language
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There are several reasons why language was studied prescriptively over the centuries

(Crystal, 1997: The Cambridge
Encyclopedia of Language)

Language
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1) Grammarians wanted to point out what they felt to be common “errors” in order to
the language.

2) They wanted a means of settling disputes over usage. In other words, they wanted to provide a
.

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Language
3) They wanted to codify the principles of their languages
(standards), to show that there was a system beneath the apparent chaos of usage.
4) A standard allows a speaker to be understood by the greatest possible number of individuals (and also over time).

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Language
5) A set of standard rules is necessary for students learning
English (or any other language) as a second language.
6) Existence of prescriptive rules allows a speaker of a nonstandard variety to learn the rules of a”standard” variety and employ that variety in appropriate settings.

Language
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In this view, usage was either right or wrong

This attitude is obviously still with us

The alternative viewpoint (which this class espouses) is less concerned with

Language
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More concerned with

In other words, the intent of modern linguistics is to
, not
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But as a future teacher, this view may cause you problems

Language
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We need to find a balance – the more you know about language, the better (more informed) your decisions about usage and teaching will be
IOW, it is
, not rules of a language
, that must determine the descriptive


Language
As my old linguistics teacher,
David Marshall, used to say:

“You don’t have to know how to fix an engine to drive in the Indy 500 .
. .
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But you do have to know how to fix an engine to be in the pit crew.”
You are all, henceforth, grammar mechanics

Language

So what parts of the engine
(aspects of language) do you know?
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One of the aspects of language in which you have competence is phonetics
Phonetics is the part of linguistic competence that has to do with your knowledge of the sounds of a language

Language

Let’s look at the words:
sound in two

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 top vs. stop
Did you know that there is a difference between them?
In spite of the fact that these two sounds are different, you know how to produce them without thinking about them

Language
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Another of the aspects of language in which you have competence is phonology

Not only can you physically produce and perceive the sounds of your language, you know how these sounds work together as a system

Language

Let’s look at the sequence of letters in:
 g-i-s-n-t

In this sequence of letters, there are 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 120 possible combinations

Language

Let’s try another one:
 yutiervins

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10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 =
3,628,800

Language

Another of the aspects of language in which you have competence is morphology

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For the most part, speech consists of a continuous stream of sound with few pauses between words
However, you have little trouble breaking your utterances down into the words that make them up

Language
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How about these words:

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 balloon rearming re+arm+ing
Antidisestablishmentarianism
Anti + dis + establish + ment + ari + an + ism

Language
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Another of the aspects of language in which you have competence is syntax

At the same time that you are doing all of the above, you also recognize well-formed (that is grammatical) sentences:

Language a.
you up pick at o’clock will eight b.
I will picks you up at eight o’clock c.
d.
I will pick you up at eight o’clock
At eight o’clock, I will pick you up

Language
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 a.
b.
Another of the aspects of language in which you have competence is semantics
You can also distinguish between grammatical acceptability and meaning acceptability: contented little cats purr loudly colorless green ideas sleep furiously

Language
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So part of your linguistic competence has to do with your ability to determine the meaning of sentences
For example, you understand the ambiguity in the following sentences:
I saw her duck
Visiting relatives can be dreadful

Language
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The chickens are too hot to eat
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Students hate annoying professors
Drunk gets nine months in violin case
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Kids make nutritious snacks
Grandmother of eight makes hole in one

Language

Another of the aspects of language in which you have competence is what we will call pragmatics

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You understand how the context of utterances influences their meaning:
Its rather cold in here
You make a better door than a window

Language
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Part of your pragmatic competence is understanding discourse


You can understand the contexts or situations in which different styles of language may be used
Discourse can vary in pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax, among other things

Language

Thus, you know that saying:

“How’s trick, your Majesty?”
 when waiting in line to shake
Queen Elizabeth’s hand is probably not a good idea

Language

This class will focus on the first four competencies:

Phonetics
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Phonology
Morphology
Syntax

Language