1. • Not grammar as definitions or as grammatical terms
in the older sense.
– Like defining a noun, a subject, a direct object, or writing N
above the nouns, V above the verbs, and D O above the
direct objects in given sentences
• Not absolute rules of correctness.
– the correctness point of view assumes that grammar
sometimes is a set of absolute rules to which the language
must adjust
– when a speaker of a writer uses language that is not in
accord with these fixed rules, the correctness point of view
assumes that he is guilty of bad grammar
• e.g. the traditional rules of will and shall would be considered a
problem
3. • Not usage as merely usage.
– Grammatical structure deals with the thing people say,
but it means more than the mere recording of examples
of usage.
• e.g. He is capable to go.- incorrect; watch pocket-incorrect
when the speaker wishes to mean a pocket watch
But as grammatical structure as matters of form
that correlate with matters of meaning.
– Systematic formal devices used in a language to convey
certain meanings and relationships.
• e.g. Is he there? If spoken with a falling-high-low
intonation is the signal for one type of question in English
To describe the grammatical structure of English
is not to describe every observable feature of
usage but to describe those features that
systematically convey meanings and
relationships.
4. • Form and Meaning.
– any structure, or pattern, and is often call a unit, is
assumed to consist of form and meaning.
• e.g. book-books, idea-ideas, heart-hearts
• Elements of form used in grammatical structures.
– word order, inflection (bound morphemes), correlation
of forms, function words, intonation, stress, and pauses.
• Word order as a grammatical signal.
– In English, Can he come? Signals a question.
He can come. Signals a statement
– In Spanish, Guantes de lana para ninos means Wool
gloves for children, but the same words in a different
order, Guantes para ninos de lana, would mean Gloves
for wool children.
5. • Inflection as a Grammatical signal.
– In English, the –s ending to signal plural
• e.g. book-books, shirt-shirts
• -the –ed ending to signal preterite in verbs (past tense)
e.g. jump-jumps, call-called
– In Spanish, the –o ending to indicate first person
singular of verbs
• e.g. ( -ar, -er, -ir) of the infinitive as in amo: amar, salto:
saltar: llamo: llamar, veo; ver, subo: subir
• Correlation of form as a grammatical signal.
– In English, the correlation of the inflection “-s‟ in verbs
with a third person singular subject such as he, she, it,
John, etc.
e.g. he knows: she knows: John knows to signal a sentence
nexus ( connection or link ), a subject-verb connection, in
contrast to a modifier-head construction.
• e.g. The list of the books which is good....
The list of the books which are good...
The lists of the men who are good...
6. Function words as grammatical signals.
◦ In English, John came; He came; The boy came; Who came, all
spoken with the same high-low falling intonation pattern.
◦ In Spanish, Juan vino, „John came‟; Quien vino? „Who came?
Intonation as a grammatical signal.
◦ An intonation rise from mid to high signals a special type of
question in English.
e.g. Question: He‟s a student?
Statement: He‟s a student.
Stress as a grammatical signal.
e.g. ConSIDer it.
Consider IT.
The position of primary stress may signal a form class difference:
e.g. present present
subject subject
Pause as a grammatical signal.
◦ Notice the change in the modification structures when the
tentative pause, signalled by a comma, changes position.
e.g. Twenty, THREE-cent stamps
Twenty-THREE, cent stamps
7. System. Each pattern, each structure, contrasts not
just with one other pattern but with many others. It
is a complex net of these contrasts which
constitute a system for each language.
-He showed us the light house.
-He showed us the house light.
-He showed us a house light.
-He showed us the light houses.
-She showed us the light house.
-He has to show us the light house.
-He‟ll show us the light house.
-He shows us the light house.
-Show us the light house.
-Don‟t show us the light house.
-Who showed us the light house?
8. Habit. In practical terms we understand that the use
of a grammatical structure by a speaker depends
heavily on habit.
Problems in Learning a Foreign Grammatical
Structure
Transfer. The student tends to transfer the sentence
forms, modification devices, the number, gender, and
case patterns of his native language.
It is important to add that every structure has distribution,
that is, it occurs in certain situations or environments and
does not occur in others.
Ex. In English, the –s plural occurs in noun heads as in
books, telephones, etc., but it does nor occur in modifiers
of noun heads as good in good books, or telephone in
telephone books.
9. • Similarity and difference as determiners of ease
and difficulty.
-Those structures that are similar will be easy to learn
because they will be transferred and may function
satisfactorily in the foreign language.
-Those structures that are different will be difficult because
when transferred they will not function satisfactorily in the
foreign language and will therefore have to be changed.
• Production versus Recognition
- The effects of native language transfer are not identical when
the learner speaks the foreign language and when he listens to
it.
ex. Can he speak English? He speaks English.
10. • What constitutes “difference” and therefore
difficulty as to meaning.
• The lesser difference remains within the same
“medium”, for example function words, inflection,
word order, to be found between two different items: a
function word, a different inflectional ending, or a
different word ending.
• The greater difference goes from one medium in one
language to different medium in the other language;
for example, function words in the mative language
but inflection in the foreign language, or word order in
one language but a function word in the other, etc.
Same medium, different item: function words.
-Who came? ¿ Quien vino?
Different media: word order in one language versus
intonation in the other.
-Are you a student? ¿Es usted un estudiante?
11. Problems caused by differences in distribution.
A structure that constitutes no particular difficulty as to
meaning and form turns out to be a problem because of
different distribution in the two languages.
In English „the white dove‟ the plural the white doves
In Spanish „la paloma blanca‟ las palomas blancas
Procedures in comparing two grammatical
structures.
-General Procedure
Begin with an analysis of the foreign language and begin
it structure with the native language.
For each structure we need to know if there is a structure in
the native language
• signalled the same way, that is by the same formal device
• having the same meaning
• similarly distributed in the system of that language
12. Both English and German have the kind of sentences called
questions. Both use word order as the signal in many
questions too.
English uses the function word do, does, did before
the subject to achieve the word order signal of that type of
question.
German does not use that device.
e.g. Do you know where the church is? -English
Wissen Sie wo die Kirche ist?
Know you where the church is? – German
speaker
More specific procedures
Locate the best structural description of the languages
involved.
both description should contain the form, the meaning,
or the distribution of the structures.
summarize in compact outline form all the structures
If English is one of the languages involved, describe the
sentence type in it as questions, statements, or requests.
13. Actual comparison of the two language structures, pattern
by pattern.
If English and Spanish are being compared we would find a
question pattern is Spanish illustrated by ¿ Es un compesino?
Literally, is a farmer? but actually uquatable to English Is he
a farmer?
The inventory of formal signals of the Spanish pattern
includes:
-the form of ser „ be‟
- rising intonation sequence from mid to high or
a rise to extra high and a drop to mid or low, or some other
sequence which is also an intonation signal for this type of
question.
