1. CHAPTER 2 GRAMMATICAL METALANGUAGE
With the function words(content word deleted)
Metalanguage- a language to describe a language. The _____ for ____ the ___ in the _________
SUBSENTENTIAL TERMINOLOGY With the content words ( function words deleted)
SEMANTIC, STRUCTURAL, AND FUNCTIONAL ____broom ____sweeping____ floor belongs ___closet
Semantic criterion- traditional grammarian’s definition NOUNS
of the part of speech.
- Meaning based definition.  Is a name of person, place or thing. Some
Structural – or formal characteristics: their position in linguist include “or idea” to account for abstract
the sentence, adjacent function words if any, and their nouns.
constituents.  Nouns have endings or derivational morphemes
-For instance, common noun in English typically occupy that formally indicate that a word is a noun
positions such as the following and are preceded by a (sadness)
function words such as the or their.  They also have grammatical morphemes or
inflection or inflections for plural and
The ________ was very amusing. possessive.
Did you notice their _______?  In terms of their position, they are frequently
preceded by determiners, such as articles.
Morpheme-the smallest unit of speech.  Nouns serve functionally as subjects of verbs.
Two types of morpheme inflection: They can also, however be:
1. Grammatical morpheme 1. Direct objects of verbs: He watered his lawn.
Book-book/s 2. Subject noun predicates: We are all learners.
Girl-girl/s 3. Object noun predicates: They elected Ann
-it can also show possession president.
Girl vs. girl’s 4. Indirect objects of verbs: Ann gave the people
2. Derivational Morphemes- than mark nouns confidence.
derived from other parts of speech. 5. Appositives: Albany, capital of New York is
Sad+ness = sadness located on the Hudson River.
Kind+ness=kindness 6. Objects of preposition: Troy is located on the
Hudson River.
Functional criterion- it defines a part of speech by the 7. Vocatives: Let me tell you my friend, grammar is
grammatical function it plays in the sentence. just plain fun!
 Another fact worth knowing about nouns is
Example: that there are three types.
- Common nouns – nouns referring to a kind of
The glass is dirty. ( glass is a noun because it is the person, thing or idea.
subject of the verb is) - Common nouns themselves are divisible into
two subcategories: count nouns (which take
The glass ashtray is dirty (glass functions as an plural inflection) and mass nouns or non-count
adjective) nouns (which don’t take plural inflection)
- Proper nouns- or names of unique individuals,
PARTS OF SPEECH or places. Proper nouns can be singular or
plural.
 The parts of speech are usually grouped into - Collective nouns- they differ from other nouns
two categories: the major and minor word because they readily take either singular or
classes. plural form depending on the interpretation
 The major word classes- nouns, verbs, given to the noun that is whether it is seen as a
adjectives and adverbs- are termed major unit (The family is together again)or as a
because they carry most of the content or collection of individual (The family are all
meaning of the sentence. coming for the weekend)
 Such classes are also “open” in that new words - Gender is not an important feature of English
are added as they are coined. grammar. Gender is only marked by certain
 The other category, the minor classes, plays pairs of English nouns (actor/actress,
more structural role in a sentence and each of host/hostess, widow/widower)
its classes is more “closed” in that normally no
new words are added. VERBS
 Classes in this category include but not limited  The notional semantic definition of a verb is
to – auxillary verbs, prepositions, pronouns, that it is a word that denotes action or state
determiners, and conjunctions. of being.
Structure of English Lecture # 1
Jesullyna C. Manuel Grammatical Metalanguage

2.  Verb morphology in English is richer than  Adjectives commonly occur between a
the noun morphology. determiner and a noun, or after be or other
Four inflections can be used with English verbs: linking verbs, although, they can also follow a
1. –s of third person singular present tense verbs: noun.
Sue jogs every day.  Many adjectives have no typical form, but
2. –ed of past tense of verbs: She jogged certain derivational morphemes are associated
yesterday. with adjectives such as –able (likeable), -
3. –en of the past participle: He has seen the ish(childish), -ful (thoughtful), - y (lazy) (Chalker
movie three times already. 1984)
4. –ing of the present participle: I am teaching  English adjectives do not agree in number and
three courses this term. in gender with nouns as they do in other
 In terms of their position, verbs follow nouns languages; however, certain of them have
and may be followed in turn by adjectives, inflectional morphemes for comparative and
adverbs, or other nouns as depicted in the superlative forms such as happy, happier,
following sentences: happiest.
}________ cautious  The function of the adjectives is to modify or
The authorities }________ carefully complement nouns.
}________ the plan  There are two adjective types: attributive,
 Functionally, adding verb to a noun is enough to which precedes the noun, and predicative,
complete the sentence: which follows the linking verbs.
Pauline snores. Attributive: The old bucket sprang a leak.
 According to Chalker (1984) there are six types Predicative: He became angry at the very
of verbs: thought
Intransitive verbs, which take no following object: ADVERBS
Mavis smoke.  Adverbs modify verbs and contribute meaning
Transitive verbs, which require an object: Dough of various sorts to sentences.
raise Llamas.  Particularly common are adverbs of direction,
Distransitive verb, which take two objects (indirect location, manner, time and frequency.
and direct) : I handed Flo the fax. Direction: Jim pointed there.
Linking verbs: where what follows the verb relates Location : Isabel shops locally.
back to the subject : We are teachers. Manner: The choir sang joyfully at the ordination.
Complex transitive verb: where what follows the Time: Soon Rachel will retire.
object relates to the object: They considered the Frequency : We visit our friends in Detroit occasionally.
project a waste of time.  Adverbs are flexible in terms of their location.
Prepositional verbs, which require a prepositional They can occur in the sentence finally, medially
phrase to be complete: Steve glanced at the and initially.
headlines.  The primary function of adverbs is to modify
 Two qualities of verbs are tense and aspect. verbs as in the previous example, however, they
 Tense –traditionally refers to the time of an may also modify the whole sentence:
event’s occurrence Fortunately, they arrive home before too much damage
 Aspect- denotes whether or not the event has has been done.
occurred earlier (perfect aspect) or is still in  Traditional grammars also distinguish adverbs
progress (progressive aspect) of degree which modify adjectives and other
 Verb, too are marked for number, but only with adverbs.
subjects in the third person singular in the It is too early to plant a garden.
present tense or with the verb be. Ben was very late to school.
 In such instances, subject-verb agreement  In our grammar, such modifiers are called
occurs, and the verb is marked to agree with intensifiers because they signal the degree of
the singular or plural subject. intensity of the following word.
Present tense, subject in third person singular  Finally we should note that many phrases and
Josh loves chocolates. clauses can occupy the same position in a
She mows the lawn on Saturdays. sentence as single-word adverbs and can
Be verb agreement with the subject convey the same meaning as adverbs. Due to
I am surprised that you said that. their function in the sentence, they are called
Jack is making the punch. adverbials.
We are baking brownies.
Lloyd was absent. Jim pointed at the constellation Pisces.
They were frightened by the storm. Isabel shops at the mall.
The choir sang as if it was especially inspired.
ADJECTIVES Next year, Rachel will retire.
 The semantic definition of an adjective is that it We visit our friend in Detroit every once in a
describes or denotes the qualities of something. while.
Structure of English Lecture # 1
Jesullyna C. Manuel Grammatical Metalanguage

3. Pronouns  There are coordinating conjunctions such as:
 Pronouns refer to or replace nouns and noun and, but, or, for, so, not, yet, which join
phrases within the text or as a direct reference elements that are grammatically equal. For
to an outside situation. example:
 They occupy the same position as a noun or
noun phrase does. Marianne and Dianne wrote this book.
 There are many different kinds of pronouns: Dianne lives in Vermont, but Marianne lives in
1. Subject- I, you, he, she, it, they California.
2. Object- me, you, him, her, it, us, them
3. Reflexive- myself, yourself, himself, herself,  And there are subordinating conjunctions which
itself, ourselves, themselves. we call adverbial subordinators such as because
4. Possessive- mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, and although, which join subordinate clause to
theirs. a main one.
5. Demonstrative- this, that, these, those.
 The forms within each category are It was hard to write a book together because
distinguished by number, person (first, second, they live so far apart.
and third), gender, and in the case of
demonstratives, by number and proximity. Although Marianne and Diane live far apart,
Determiners they are still friends.
 Older grammars make no special reference to
determiners, incorporating them into the Phrase- is a group of words that function
adjective word class. together.
 The term determiner refers to that special class
of words that limit the nouns that follow them. The impatient/customer was acting very/
 Various types of words fit into this category: cranky by the/ time he was served.
a. Articles: the, a, an
b. Demonstratives: this, that, these, those The impatient customer/ was acting very
c. Possessive determiners: my, your, his, her, cranky/ by the time/ he was served.
its, our, their.
 They precede an adjective if one is present; The impatient customer/ was acting/ very
otherwise, they positioned directly in front of a cranky/ by the time/ he was served.
noun.
 In the last two versions of these sentences, the
I put my backpack on the front porch, and now I can’t words between slash marks somehow cluster
find it. together better.
 If we take the last sentence as an example, we
PREPOSITIONS have divided it into four grammatical phrases
 Prepositions connect words to other parts of a and a clause.
sentence and have a close relationship with the  What makes he was served a clause is the
word that follows, which is usually a noun. presence of a subject-verb relationship.
 Together a preposition and a noun comprise a  Any construction containing subject-verb
prepositional phrase. relationship is a clause.
 Prepositions are usually one word (in, to, at)  Clauses that stand independently as sentences
but sometimes can be two or three (out of, on are called independent, or main clauses.
top of)  Clauses that cannot are called dependent
 Prepositions prototypically signal spatial clause, or subordinate clauses.
relationships, but certain prepositions can also
signal grammatical category of case, which is Although they live far apart, they are still friends.
often displayed in other languages through
morphological means.  Although they live apart (subordinate clause)
 Case depicts the role relationship between  They are still friends. (independent clause)
words. For Example:
SENTENTIAL TERMINOLOGY
Dative case: Marge gave a donation to charity. SIMPLE, COMPOUND AND COMPLEX SENTENCE
(The preposition to marks the dative
(“receiver”) function of charity.  A Simple sentence contains at least one subject
and one verb that can stand alone as an
Ablative case: The charity received a donation independent clause.
from Marge. (The preposition from marks the  There are five basic simple sentence patterns in
ablative (“source”) function of Marge) English:
CONJUNCTIONS 1. Subject + verb
 Conjunctions are words that join. The building collapsed.
Structure of English Lecture # 1
Jesullyna C. Manuel Grammatical Metalanguage

4. 2. Subject+ verb+ object What a beautiful day it is!
They bought a new car. Subjunctive (here realized with the were form)
3. Subject + verb + indirect object + direct object I wish I were going with you.
She wrote him a letter.
4. Subject + verb + subject predicate  It has been said that the three main moods in
Janet’s my friend. English correspond to the three main
5. Subject + verb + object + object predicate communicative functions of language:
She makes me happy. a. Telling someone something
b. Asking someone something
 Compound sentence consists of two or more c. Getting someone to do something.
clauses of equal grammatical importance.  We should also bear in mind that sometimes a
sentence type does not always match its
He went to the party, but I stayed home. function. It is possible to ask someone to do
something using any of the following three
 Complex sentence contains a main clause and types.
one or more subordinate clauses. Statement: I am thirsty. I wonder what is in the
refrigerator to drink.
Peggy frequently calls because she wants to stay in
touch. Question: Could you bring something from the
 Another type of complex sentence is when the refrigerator for me to drink?
dependent clause is embedded, or included in
the independent clause. Command: Please bring me something to drink from the
refrigerator.
That he didn’t want to go to the ballet was obvious. (It
was obvious) THEME/RHEME
I argued that it would be a mistake. (I argued my (a.) The Cub Scouts held the carwash despite the
position) rain.
(b.) The carwash was held by the Cub Scouts despite
 When we move beyond the simple or the rain.
monoclausal sentence , three processes are (c.) Despite the rain, the Cub Scouts held the
involved: carwash.
a. Coordination- the joining of two clauses of What is the difference among these three word orders?
equal grammatical stature The sentence appears to have the same propositional
b. Subordination- of one clause to another content, or core meaning, so what purpose does word
c. Embedding- when a dependent clause is order variation serve?
included within a main or independent
clause.  This is where the term theme and rheme will be
SENTENCE MOODS put to use.
 English sentences are said to display three main  According to Halliday (1985:38) the theme
moods- declarative (sometimes called provides the point of departure of the message.
indicative), interrogative, and imperative- and It provides the framework for interpreting what
two minor moods: exclamatory and subjunctive. follows.
 Mood conveys the speaker’s attitude toward  The rheme is the remainder of the message in
the factual content of the sentence the clause.
 Subjunctive mood can indicate the speaker’s  In other words, the Theme is simply the subject,
uncertainty or the hypotheticality of the while the rheme is the predicate.
propositional content, or the meaning of the
clause. SUPRASENTENTIAL TERMINOLOGY
 The subjunctive mood is signaled by the use of Backgrounding and Foregrounding
the base form of the verb be rather than the  It has been observed that in the
inflected form is. discourse narrative, certain sentences
provide background information while
If that be so, I’ll leave now. others function in the foreground to
If I were a bird, I wouldn’t eat a worm. carry the main story line.
 What often distinguishes one from
Declarative (statement sentence type) another are their verb tenses.
Today is Monday.
Interrogative (question sentence type) Yesterday I went to the market. It has lots of fruits that I
What are you going to wear to the party. like. I bought several different kinds of apples. I also
Imperative (command sentence type) found that plums were in season so I bought two pounds
Pass the milk, please. of them…
Exclamatory (exclamation sentence type)
Structure of English Lecture # 1
Jesullyna C. Manuel Grammatical Metalanguage

5.  In this bit of discourse, the forgrounded past GENRE
narrative is interrupted by the second sentence  Genre refers to linguistics variation.
with a present tense verb.  Rather than the variation is due to the level of
 The sentence provides information, here formality, however, the variation is due to the
statement about the market, that is the general communicative purposes to which the language
background of the story. is put.
 For example, the language used in a scientific
COHESION research paper is different from that in a recipe,
or in a recommendation letter.
 Another quality of English grammar at the  They differ in their patterns of words, structures
suprasentential level that we might illustrate in and voice.
the given short discourse is the fact that texts,
units of spoken or written language at the
suprasentential level, have an organization
structure of their own.
 It is not possible to put the second sentence
first in the above narrative for example, and
have it mean anything.
 For the most part, we cannot move sentences
around in a paragraph without making some
other modifications.
Five linguistics mechanisms that Halliday and
Hasan (1976) point to in order for texts to have
cohesion or structure at the level of discourse
are the following:
a. Reference
The boy wanted a new bike. He… (he refers
back to the boy)
b. Ellipsis
A: Who wrote the letter?
B: Marty (The response Marty elliptically
signals that Marty wrote the letter.
c. Substitution
I plan to enter college next year. If I do…
(do substitute for enter college)
d. Conjunction
Peter needed some money. He, therefore,
decided to get a job. (Therefore makes
explicit the causal relationship between the
first and the second sentences)
REGISTER
 Another concept that applies at the
suprasentential level is register.
 Register, means the formality of the language.
 According to the systemic-functional linguistics
Halliday (1994) register actually involves three
variables: field, tenor, and mode.
 Field- refers to the social activity in which the
language is being used and what is being talked
about. Field is reflected in the choices of
content word.
 Tenor- is concerned with the roles and
relationship of the interlocutors.
 The mode- refers to the channel of
communication, whether the language is
written or spoken, and with regard to the latter,
whether it is face to face or more remote.
Structure of English Lecture # 1
Jesullyna C. Manuel Grammatical Metalanguage