Basic Concept of Grammar (Locke and Downey, 2006)

1. MENU
BASIC CONCEPT OF GRAMMAR
By : Hamid Darmadi
MODULE 1
MODULE 2
MODULE 3
POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM
OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
FACULTY
TANJUNGPURA UNIVERSITY
KALIMANTAN BARAT

3. 1.1. COMMUNICATIVE ACTS
 The basic concept that language is for communication.
We can distinguish various type of communicative act
(speech act) by which people communicate with each
other: making statements, asking questions, giving
directives in order to get the action from the hearer:
making an offer or promise, thanking or expressing an
exclamation.
 Asking and stating are basic communicative acts. The
thing asked for or stated may be something linguistic
(information or an opinion) or it may be something non-
linguistic (types of goods and services) which may be
verbalised.

4. J : If you like, I’ll come into your shop tomorrow
and get some more model aeroplane kits.
C : O.K. Don’t forget to bring the bill you this time.
J : I won’t.
: Do you enjoy working there?
C : It’s all right, I suppose. Gets a bit boring. It’ll do
for a while.
J : I would have thought you were good at selling things.
C : I don’t know what to do really. I’ve had other jobs.
My Dad keeps on at me to go into his business. He
keeps offering me better wages,
but the last thing to do is to work for him!
SPEECH ACT
OFFER
PROMISE
QUESTION
STATEMENTS
STATEMENT
STATEMENT
REMINDER
EXCLAMATION

5. J : why?
C : why? You don’t know my old man!
I wouldn’t work for him!
He always wanted me to, but we don’t get on…
D’you think it’s possible to get me on a part-time
Youth Leadership Course?
J : I’ll ring up tomorrow, Chris, and find out for you.
C : Thanks a lot.
SPEECH ACT
QUESTIONS
ECHO
QUESTIONS
EXCLAMATION
S
THANKING
STATEMENT
QUESTION
OFFER /
PROMISE

6. 1.2 THE CONTENT OF COMMUNICATION
 Any happening or state in real life, or in an imaginary world
of the mind, can be expressed through language as a
situation or state of affairs. Used in this way, the terms
‘situation’ or ‘state of affairs’ do not refer directly to an
extra-linguistic reality that exists in the real world, but
rather to the speaker’s conceptualisation of it.
 The components of this conceptualisation of reality are
semantic roles or functions and may be described in very
general terms as follows:
1. Processes (actions, events, states, types of behaviour)
2. Participants (entities of all kinds, not only human, but
inanimate, concrete and abstract, that are involved in the
processes
3. Atributes (qualities and characteristics of the participants

7.  The following example from the text shows one possible
configuration of certain semantic roles :
 The kind of meaning expressed by these elements of
semantic structure is representational meaning, or
meaning that has to do with the content of the message.
I ‘ll come into your
shop
tomorrow
participant process circumstance circumstance

8. 1.3 THREE WAYS OF INTERPRETING
CLAUSE STRUCTURE
The clause or simple sentence is the basic unit that
embodies our construal of representational meaning and
interpersonal meaning. It is also the unit whose elements can
be reordered in certain ways to facilitate the creation of
textual meaning. The textual resources of the clause, such
as the active-passive alternative, enable the representational
strand and the interpersonal strand of meaning to cohere as
a message.

9.  CLAUSE
STRUCTURE
Each type of meaning is encoded by its own
structures; the three types of structure combine to
produce one single realisation in words
Interpret
AS REPRESENTATIONAL
AS EXCHANGE
AS MESSAGE

10. 1.3.1 The clause as representation:
transitivity structures
 The elements of structure or functions in the transitivity
structures include :
 Agent, recipient, affected, process, attribute and
circumstance. Some of these make up the semantic
structure of the following example:
Janice will give Chris the bill tomorrow
Agent Process
(action)
recipient Affected Circumsta
nce (time)

11. 1.3.2 The clause as exchange: mood
structures
 When a speaker interacts with others to exchange
information, or to influence their behaviour and get things
done, she adopts for herself a certain role, such as
‘questioner’ and, inn doing so, assigns a complementary
role, such as ‘informant’, to her addressee.
 The exchange of information is typically carried out by the
indicative mood or clause type, as opposed to directives,
which are typically expressed by the imperative mood.
Within the indicative, making a statement is associated
characteristically with the declarative, and asking a
question with the interrogative.

12.  In a declarative clause, the Subject precedes the Finite.
Declarative
Interrogative
 In the interrogative structure, the positions of Finite
operator and Subject are reversed, the Predicator and the
rest of the clause remaining the same.
Janice will give Chris the bill tomorrow
Subject Finite
operator
Predicator Indirect
Object
Direct
Object
Adjunct
Will Janice give Chris the bill tomorrow
?
Finite
operator
Subject Predicator Indirect
Object
Direct
Object
Adjunct

13. 1.3.3 The clause as message: thematic
structures
 The speaker organises the international content of the
clause so as to establish whatever point of departure is
desired for the message. This is called the Theme, which in
English coincides with the initial element or elements of the
clause. The rest of the clause in the Rheme:
Janice will give Chris the bill tomorrow
Theme Rheme

14. Janice will give Chris the bill tomorrow
Experiential Agent Process Recipie
nt
Affected Circumstance
Interperson
al
Subjec
t
Finite +
Predicato
r
Indirect
Object
Direct
Object
Adjunct
Textual Theme Rheme
1.3.4 Combining the three types of structure

15. 1. Chris will be given the bill ( by Janice) tomorrow.
2. The bill will be given to Chris tomorrow (by
Janice).
3. Tomorrow, Chris will be given the bill (by Janice).
 It can be seen that the three types of structural elements
do not coincide (vertically) in the same way as they do in
the typical active declarative clause. So, the configuration
for 1 are illustrated below.Chris Will be
given
the bill By Janice tomorrow
Recipient Process Affected Agent Circumsta
nce
Subject Finite +
Predicator
Direct
Object
Adjunct Adjunct
Theme Rheme

17. 2.1 SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES AND
RELATIONSHIPS
The basic syntactic concepts include the structural
units which can be arranged by rank, the classes into
which these units can be divided, and the elements of
which they are composed.
BACK

18. 2.2 TESTING FOR CONSTITUENTS
 This testing for constituents can be done by applying
certain tests in order to identify whether a particular
sequence of words is functioning as a constituent of a
higher unit or not.
 For instance, the following sequence, which constitutes a
grammatical clause or simple sentence, is ambigous:
Muriel saw the man in the service station.
 Two interpretation are possible, express graphically as
follows:
1. ||Muriel|saw|the man in the service station||
2. ||Muriel|saw|the man||in the service station||

19.  In version 1, the prepositional phrase in the service station
forms part of the constituent whose head-word is man (the
man in the service station) and tells us something about
the man; whereas in version 2 the same prepositional
phrase functions separately as a constituent of the clause
and tells us where Muriel saw the man.
 Evidence for this analysis can be sought by such
operations as (a) coordination (b) wh-questions, (c)
clefting, (d) passivisation and (e) fronting. Tests (b) to (e)
involve moving the stretch of language around and
observing its syntactic behaviour. Testing by coordination
involves adding a conjoin that realises the same function.

20.  Only stretches of language that realize the same function
can be conjoined:
(a) It can be seen that different types of conjoin are required
according to the function of in the service station:
(i) Muriel saw the man in the service station and the
woman in the shop.
(ii) Muriel saw the man in the service station and in the
shop
(b) The wh-question form and the appropriate response will
be different for the two versions:
(i) Who did Muriel see? – the man in the service station.
(ii) Where did Muriel see the man? – in the service
station.

21. (c) Clefting by means of it + that-clause highlights a clause
constituent and thus yields two different results:
(i) It was the man in the service station that Muriel saw.
(ii) It was in the service station that Muriel saw the man.
Wh-clefting gives the same result:
(i) The one Muriel saw was the man in the service
station.
(ii) Where Muriel saw the man was in the service station.
(d) Passivisation. The passive counterpart of an active
clause usually contains a form of be and a past participle:
(i) The man in the service station was seen by Muriel.
(ii) The man was seen by Muriel in the service station.

22. (e) A constituent can sometimes be fronted, that is, brought
to initial position:
(i) The man in the service station Muriel saw.
(ii) In the service station Muriel saw the man.

23. 2.3 UNITS AND RANK OF UNITS
 A unit will be defined as any sequence that constitutes a
semantic whole and which has a recognised pattern that is
repeated regularly in speech and writing.
 In English, it is useful to recognize four structural units
which can be arranged in a relationship of componence on
what is called a rank-scale:
Unit Bounda
ry
marker
Example
Clause : || ||the effect of the accident are very serious||
Group : | |the effects of the accident |are | very serious|
Word : a space The effect of the accident are very serious
Morphe
me :
+ {EFFECT} + {PLURAL}, realised by the morphs effect
and -s

24.  The relationship between the units is, in principles, as
follows. Looking downwards, each unit consist of one or
more units of the rank below it. Thus, a clause consist of
one or more groups, a group consist of one or more words
and a word consist of one or more morphemes.
 More exactly, we shall say that the elements of structure of
each unit are realized by units of the rank below.

25. 2.4 CLASSES OF UNITS
2.4.1 Classes of Clauses
A. Finite and non-finite clauses
the status as finite or non-finite depends on the form
of the verb chosen. Finite verbs, and therefore also
finite clauses, are marked for either tense or modality,
but not both. If the speaker wishes to express tense or
modality, together with person and number, a ‘finite’
form of the verb is chosen, therefore, such as is, eats,
locked, went, will stay and the clause is then called a
FINITE CLAUSE.
The function of the finite is to relate the verb to the
speech event.
BACK

26.  If the verb-form does not signal either tense or modality,
the verb and the clause are classified as NON-FINITE.
 The non-finite verb forms are:
- the infinitive (bare infinitive), e.g. be, eat ,lock , go;
- the to-infinitive;
- the participial –ing form (being, eating, locking,
going); and
- the past participial form -en (been, eaten, locked,
gone).

27. B. Independent and Dependent Clause
The distinction between those are an
independent clause which is complete in itself, that is,
it does not form part of a larger structure, whereas a
dependent clause is typically related to an
independence clause. This is illustrated in the
following sentence:
All grammatically independent clause are finite.
Dependent clauses may be finite or non-finite.
According to the example, the finite dependent clause
‘before they went on holiday’ can be replaced by a
non-finite clause ‘before going on holiday. The
dependent status of non-finite is signaled by the form
They locked up in the house (indep.cl), before they went on holiday
(dep.cl).

28.  Only independent clauses have the variations in clause
structure that make for the different clause types:
declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamative.
 For Examples :
Jack’s flat is in Hammersmith. (declarative)
Is his address 20 Finchley Road? (interrogative)
Give me Jack’s telephone number. (imperative)
What a large apartment he has! (exclamative)
 Dependent clauses, even when finite, do not have these
possibilities.

29. C. Finite dependent clauses
there are seven kinds of finite dependent clause
which are illustrated in this section:
NO Fin.Dep.Claus
es
Examples
1. Circumstantial As soon as she got home, Ann switched on the
television.
2. Relative Paul took one of the red apples that his wife had
bought that morning
3. Nominal :
(that-clause) He saw that the bottles were empty
(wh-nominal
relative clause)
What I don’t understand is why you have come here
(wh-
interrogative
clause)
I’ll ask where the nearest Underground station is.
(dependent She said how comfortable it was.

30. NO Fin.Dep.Claus
es
Examples
4. Comparative The result are much better than we expected
5. Supplementive
(units)
Built of cypress, brick and glass, the house
exhibits many of the significant contributions
that Wright made to contemporary
architecture.
6. Verbless Book your tickets well in advance, whenever
possible (=whenever it is possible)
7. Abbreviated Can you?
I won’t, has she?

31. 2.4.2 Classes of groups
Groups are classified according to the class of the
word operating as the main or ‘head’ element. Headed
by a noun, an adjective, an adverb and a verb
respectively, we can identify the following classes:
* Nominal Groups (NG) films, wonderful films
by Fellini
*Verbal Groups (VG) return, will return
*Adjectival Groups (AG) good, quite good at
languages
*Adverbial Groups (AdvG) fluently, very fluently
indeed

32. 2.4.3 Classes of words
Words are classified grammatically according to the
traditional terminology which are divided into two main
classes;
(1) Open classes : Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb.
These classes are those
that freely admit new members into the
vocabulary.
(2) Closed classes : Preposition, Pronoun, Article,
Conjunction.
2.4.4 Classes of morphemes
Words are made up of morphemes. The consideration
to be an abstract category that has either a lexical or a
grammatical meaning.
For Examples :

33. 2.5 THE CONCEPT OF UNIT STRUCTURE
2.5.1 Syntactic elements of clauses
Here we simply list and exemplify the clause elements
within common clause structures.
BACK
Subject (s) Jupiter is the largest planet SPCs
Predicator (p) The election campaign has ended SP
Direct Object (Od) Ted has bought a new motorbike SPOd
Indirect Object (Oi) They sent their friends postcards SPOiOd
Prepositional Object (Op) You must allow for price increases. SPOp
Subject Complement (Cs) He is powerless to make any changes. SPCs
Object Complement (Co) We consider the situation alarming. SPOdCo
Locative/Goal Complement
(Cloc)
We flew to Moscow. SPCloc
Circumstantial Adjunct (A) The news reached us on Tuesday. SPOdA
Stance Adjunct (A) Unfortunately, we could not reach York
in time
ASPOdA
Connective Adjunct (A) However, other friends were present. ASPCs

34.  2.5.2 Syntactic elements of groups
In Nominal groups, Adjectival groups, and Adverbial Groups.
NG : dmhm: those| beautiful| paintings| by Goya
AdjG : mhc : extremely| difficult| to translate
AdvG : mhm : very| carefully| indeed
In verbal group.
v : plays
ov : has| played [have + -en]
oxv : will| be| playing [will+[be+-ing]]
oxxv : must| have| been| played [must+[have+-
en][be+-en]]

35. 2.5.3 Componence, realization, and function
Clf
S P Od A
NG VG NG AdvG
d m h o v d h h
Def noun noun aux v def noun
adv
The bus strike will affect many people
tomorrow BACK

37. 3.1 NEGATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE
CLAUSE STRUCTURES
 The verb’s corresponding negative forms normally have n’t
added to the positive forms. The following are irregular:
can’t (from cannot), shan’t (from shall not), won’t (from will
not).
 When n’t follows a consonant –as in didn’t, wouldn’t –it is
pronounced as a separate syllable.
 The inflectional n’t forms are used in spoken English and in
informal written styles that imitate speech.
 The full form ‘not’ is used in formal written styles and for
emphasis –as in the play was not success, rather than the
play wasn’t a success.

38. 3.1.1 The finite operator
 The operator is a verb, of one of the following types:
primary, modal or do.
1. primary: positive: am, is, are, was, were, have, has, had
negative: am not (aren’t in negative-interrogative),
isn’t, aren’t, wasn’t, weren’t, haven’t, hasn’t, hadn’t
2. Modal: positive: can, could, will, would, shall, should, may,
might, ought
negative: can’t, couldn’t, won’t, wouldn’t, shan’t,
shouldn’t, may not, mightn’t, oughtn’t
3. The ‘do’ operator: positive: does, do, did
negative: doesn’t, don’t, didn’t.
 And also lexical auxiliaries for primary verbs ‘be’ (be about to,
be sure to, be going to,etc) and have (have to, have got to)
 Less commonly used semi-modals (dare, need) can be used
with with will, should and would. They also behave to require
the do-operator. (e.g.Didn’t dare)

39. 3.2 CLAUSAL NEGATION
 In clauses, negation is usually made with the particle ‘not’,
by negating the finite operator or a non-finite operator.
 If no other auxiliary is present, a form of do (do, does, did,)
is brought as operator.
P : That man is the Secretary
N : That man is not / isn’t the Secretary
P : He took the car
N : He didn’t take the car.

40. P : Ed always does the dishes.
N : Ed doesn’t always do the dishes.
operator lexical verb
 Some operators admit an alternative type of abbreviation
with the subject in negative clauses. This occurs usually
only with a pronoun. Both types are used in spoken
English.
They aren’t ready They’re not ready
He hasn’t finished He’s not finished

41. 3.2.1 Interrogative clauses
 Yes/no interrogative
Positive-interrogative : Is that man the Secretary?
Negative-interrogative: Isn’t that man the secretary?
 Wh-interrogative
When did you see him last?
Who came to see you?
Why don’t you tell her?

42.  Another way of negating a clause is by using a non-verbal
‘nuclear’ negative word (nobody, nothing, no or never).
e.g. Nobody came after all.
 In many cases a similar idea can be expressed by using
either no-negation or not-negation + any.
3.3 NO-NEGATION VS NOT-NEGATION +
ANY
Do you know
anyone called
Stern?
I don’t know anyone called Stern (not-
negation + any)
I know no-one called Stern (no-
negation)

43. 3.4 ANY AND OTHER NON-ASSERTIVE
WORDS
 Standard English does not favor cumulative negation, that
is a ‘not’ negative together with one or more nuclear
negatives in one clause, such as “We’re not going
nowhere”.
1st negation|2nd negation
 Instead the first negative item is followed throughout the
rest of the clause by one or more non-assertive items such
as ‘any’.
“We’re not going anywhere with any of our friends”.
 In order to be used in a negative clause they must be
preceded by ‘not’ or a negative word.
 As opposed to SOME and its compounds (assertive;
factual meaning) occur in positive declarative meaning,
ANY (non-assertive; non-factual meaning).

44.  We have some very good coffee. (declarative, factual)
 This coffee is better than any I have ever tasted.
(comparative, non-factual)
 Here is a summary of assertive and non-assertive
ASSERTIVE NON-ASSERTIVE
Determiners/Pronouns Some Any
someone anyone
Somebody anybody
something Anything
Adverbs somewhere Anywhere
sometimes Ever
already Yet
still Any more/ any longer
A lot much

45. 3.5 THE SCOPE OF NEGATION
 By the scope of negation we mean the semantic influence
that a negative word has on the rest of the clause that
follows it. Typically, all that follows the negative form to the
end of the clause will be non-assertive and within the
scope of negation.
1. He didn’t reply to any of my letter
2. He didn’t reply to some of my letter
The non-assertive form ‘any’ in clause 1 expresses the scope
of negation as extending to the end of the clause. On the
other hand, example 2 implies that some letters received a
reply, while other didn’t. so ‘some’ is outside of the scope of
negation.

46. 3.7 EXPANDING LINGUISTIC UNITS
3.7.1 Coordination
The following are examples of coordination of various
classes of elements:
Morphemes in a word : pro- and anti- abortionists
Heads of nominal groups : books, papers and
magazines
Modifier in a NG : a beautiful and astonishing sight

47. 3.7.2 Subordination
Similarly, the following are examples of subordination
of various classes of elements:
Modifier in a NG: A very lovable, (if rather dirty), small boy.
Cs in a clause: He is quite brilliant (though totally
unreliable).
Adjunct in a clause: We arrived (late(though not too
late)) for the wedding.
Dependent clauses: I’ll let you borrow the CDs (as soon
as I’ve finished) [provided you bring them
back [when I need them]]

48. 3.7.3 Embedding
 A kind of subordination by which a clause functions as a
constituent of another clause or of a group. This is a
pervasive phenomenon in both spoken and written English.
Clause at S [that he left so abruptly] doesn’t surprise
me.
Clause at Od I don’t know [why he left so
abruptly].
Clause at c in PP I’m pleased about [Jane winning a prize].
Clause at m in NGThanks for the card [you sent me].
Clause at A [After they had signed the contract] they
went off to celebrate.
Group in group [[[Tom’s] sister’s] husband’s] mother
the box [on the top of the cupboard [in my

49. REFERENCES
 Locke, P. and Downing, A. 2006. English
Grammar: A University Course, 2nd Edition. New
York. Routledge

50.  THANK YOU
BACK