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37
CHAPTER 5
English Syntax: The Grammar of Words
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Students often come to introductory courses in the structure of English
without a solid grasp of parts of speech or related terminology. In our
experience, it is critical to establish a working grammatical vocabulary
with students before moving on to the structure of phrases and clauses,
covered in Chapter 6. You cannot effectively discuss a prepositional
phrase or a passive construction if students are not completely sure what a
preposition or a past participle is. Most students know they do not know
the grammatical terminology and at some level want to learn it, especially
if they are planning to become teachers. Rote memorization of terms and
definitions, however, is not particularly effective. And many students
think of “grammar” as a closed subject, rather than as an intellectual
attempt to describe our linguistic knowledge, which may or may not
always succeed. The key to teaching the grammar of words is helping
students engage actively with information about grammatical categories
by applying the information to linguistic questions.
Toward that end, the chapter provides extensive exercises focused on
grammatical categories. The chapter provides the definitions and
explanations that students need to complete these exercises, and we
recommend structuring this unit around the exercises. Use the exercises to
review and summarize material from the chapter rather than going over
material in the chapter and then turning to the exercises. The exercises
present linguistic puzzles that students can discuss and solve with the
terminology and concepts in the chapter.
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:
• Describe the basic parts of speech in both open and closed classes,
employing semantic, morphological, and syntactic descriptions.
• Identify in context all the basic parts of speech in both open and closed
classes.
• Explain the difference between the form and function of a word.
• Explain the difference between countable and uncountable nouns.
• Describe the pattern for inflected and periphrastic (i.e., more/most)
forms of the comparative and superlative for adjectives, and be able to
identify adjectives in predicative and attributive position.
• Describe the grammatical function of different forms of a verb; and
identify how a verb is functioning in a given sentence with respect to
the type of complement it requires (i.e., transitivity, etc.).
• Explain why adverbs are the most difficult open class to define by
syntactic position.
• Explain the difference between the syntactic function of a preposition
and a conjunction.
• Identify the five different types of pronouns (personal, indefinite,
interrogative, demonstrative, relative) and explain why they are all
considered pronouns.
• Identify the difference between that and which when used as pronouns,
as complementizers, and as determiners.
• Explain how auxiliary verbs differ from main verbs, and identify the
grammatical and semantic roles they can play.
• Provide at least one detailed example of how grammatical categories
may fail to effectively capture the behavior of all linguistic items.
• Defend a position on whether or not one of the prescriptive rules
covered in the chapter should be enforced in a classroom.
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NEW VOCABULARY TERMS
adjective (predicative/attributive)
adverb (temporal/manner/discourse)
aspect (perfect/progressive)
auxiliary verb
adjective (comparative/ superlative)
complement
complementizer
conjunction (coordinating/
subordinating/correlative)
conjugate
determiner
finite/nonfinite verb forms
infinitive
lexical category (part of speech)
modal auxiliary
modality (epistemic/deontic)
mood (indicative/imperative/
subjunctive)
noun (countable/uncountable)
object (direct/indirect)
parse
participle (present/past)
periphrastic do
predicative
preposition
pronoun (personal/indefinite/
interrogative/demonstrative/
relative)
split infinitive
suppletion
syntax
verb (transitive/intransitive/
ditransitive/ linking/ object-
predicative)
WHERE STUDENTS ARE
• Almost all students know they should know the grammatical
terminology covered in this chapter and at some level want to know it.
But many of them hear “grammar” and immediately assume that it is
boring or somehow beyond them. If you can show students how
grammar as presented in How English Works is a way to describe their
intuitive knowledge of English grammar, many of them become much
more engaged. It can also be useful for students to see that our
knowledge of grammar is not static and that there remain open
questions about how best to describe aspects of English grammar.
• Students often struggle most with verbs, so plan to spend extended
time here. Many students will have trouble distinguishing objects from
predicatives, direct objects from indirect ones, linking verbs from
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intransitive verbs. Students also often need help with the concepts of
aspect and modality, as well as how auxiliary verbs control the form of
subsequent verbs (both auxiliary and main verbs).
• After verbs, pronouns may be the class of words that requires the most
review. Students can find it confusing that several forms can function
in multiple ways (e.g., that, which, who, whom).
• Most students are interested to learn more about the origins of
prescriptive rules and how they do or do not correspond with actual
usage. You may want to discuss more rules in class. And many
students will probably want to discuss the position they would be put
in as teachers if they recognize the arbitrary nature of some
prescriptive rules and yet feel responsible to teach and enforce them.
IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES
Again, we recommend structuring much of this unit around the exercises,
as they require students to review the relevant material in the chapter and
engage them actively in applying the material to particular problems.
Below we have included a few other effective ways to present the material.
Introduction to the Grammar of Words
Grammar Rock is available on VHS and DVD, and showing some of the
shorts on nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, and interjections
can be a fun way to begin the unit. You can make copies of the lyrics and
discuss the descriptions of these word classes with students. For example,
what kinds of descriptions (semantic, morphological, syntactic) do the
lyrics rely on? Where do the lyrics simplify too much or fall short?
Review of Parts of Speech
As a way to translate the information in the chapter into a different format
and to ask students to present the information in a way that makes sense to
them, you can have groups of students adopt a part of speech and ask them
to write a profile of that part of speech in whatever format you decide: an
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extended personal ad, a set of clues, an FBI profile, etc. They can then
present these profiles to the rest of the class.
Questions of Categorization
Ask students to prepare one or two paragraphs defending a position on the
part of speech of yes. (You can also assign students a particular position to
defend.) You can then hold a full-class debate, or you can put students into
small groups and require that they come to some kind of consensus.
Marginal Auxiliary Verbs
Choose one or more marginal auxiliary verbs that potentially have an
alternate spelling: for example, have to/hafta; going to/gonna. Ask
students to defend a position on whether or not such a spelling reform
should take place for the form used as a marginal auxiliary verb.
Interjections
The chapter does not devote targeted attention to interjections, which can
make interjections an interesting topic for discussion. Either before or
during class, ask students to define interjections and explain whether they
think interjections should be considered open or closed class.
Flat Adverbs
Survey the class about their preferences, in given sentences, for flat vs.
full adverbs (e.g., Drive safe(ly), Walk slow(ly), Ask nice(ly)). Why might
they prefer one to the other? With students, you can also design a short
survey that combines “real flat adverbs” (e.g., fast) with -ly adverbs that
sometimes drop the ending, and ask them to collect data on these forms to
share with the class.
And speaking of adverbs, do any students have a good adverb for friendly?
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Exploring Spoken and Written Usage with Corpora
The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA: http://corpus.
byu.edu/coca) allows students to explore patterns of usage in four registers
of written English as well as spoken English. Here is just a small sample
of the kinds of searches students can pursue:
• The distribution of the following conjunctive adverbs and conjunctions
across spoken and written registers: however, but, additionally, also,
furthermore, thus, therefore, besides, anyway, conversely, indeed.
• How often not only is followed by but also versus by but (this search
will generate a lot of hits, so students may want to examine, for
example, the first fifty in a given register).
• How common is has/have/had proved compared with has/have/ had
proven? Are there register differences?
• Choose a verb that shows variation in the past tense (e.g., leaped/leapt,
dreamed/dreamt) and examine distribution patterns across registers.
• How often does who appear after a preposition? Why must some of the
data you retrieve be “thrown out” if what you are interested in is the
use of who as the object of a preposition?
• In theory English can have long strings of modals such as may have
been being. How often do such strings appear and in what registers?
Descriptive Syntax vs. Prescriptive Rules
Particularly if you have many future teachers in class, ask students to
prepare a lesson plan that effectively covers a prescriptive rule and how it
relates to spoken or descriptive usage. Then ask students to try the lesson
plan in class with their peers.
Who Can Find the Longest?
Throughout this unit or throughout the term, you can hold a contest for
which student can find the longest string, in printed text, for the following:
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• the longest string of noun modifiers
• the longest string of auxiliary verbs
• the longest string of determiners
INTEGRATING THE HOMEWORK
Homework Progression
The exercises can be assigned in any order, depending on the order in
which you want to review material in class.
In-Class Activities Based on Homework
Several homework problems invite follow-up in-class activities. Exercise
5.1, #2 works well with a class activity that allows students to compare
their survey results. Exercise 5.3, #6 and Exercise 5.5 ask students to
compare their answers with their classmates’ to determine where and why
patterns appear. Several other exercises ask students to justify a position
on an open question and can serve as the jumping-off point for full-class
or small-group discussion: Exercise 5.2, #3; Exercise 5.3, #7; Exercise 5.4.,
#1; Exercise 5.6, #1.
EXTRA RESOURCES
See these Web sites for additional descriptive material on parts of speech:
The Internet Grammar of English: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/
home.htm.
Guide to Grammar and Writing: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/
grammar/.
For more information about usage questions and prescriptive rules, consult
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage (1994), The American
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Heritage Book of English Usage (1996), and Bryan Garner’s A Dictionary
of Modern American Usage (1998).
Patricia T. O’Conner and Steward Kellerman’s editorial, “The I’s Have
It,” which discusses President Obama’s use of expressions such as
“between Michelle and I” ran on February 23, 2009 in The New York
Times. Students may also be interested in how the prescriptive rule about
not inserting adverbs between auxiliary verbs and main verbs interfered
with President Obama’s oath of office; they can read more about it in
Steven Pinker’s editorial, “Oaf of Office,” which appeared on February 2,
2009 in The New York Times.
