English 319Section 750 & 751

www.csub.edu/~ecase

Quiz

True or False?

Grammar sucks!!!

QuizTrue - If you look at

grammar prescriptively

False – If you look at grammar

descriptively

Language Prescriptive grammarians tell

people how they should speak and write

Descriptive grammarians simply document how people actually speak and write

Language Descriptive grammarians

see language as an interesting puzzle that can be solved

As an example, take a look at the following two sentences:

Language 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 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 It turns out the answer is fairly

simple Each of the two sentences is

actually derived from two other sentences

Thus:

Language 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 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 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 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 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 Police psychologists calmed

the terrorist who had threatened some female hostages.

Police psychologists calmed the terrorists

The terrorists had threatened some female hostages

Language 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 Why are we in this class? Why are we studying

something that we have had mastery over since roughly the age of five?

Why do most people cringe when the hear the word “grammar”?

Language A little history of “grammar” 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 Or on the group of people that

raised us So, very often, those strong

opinions differ greatly Historically, this led to

something called Prescriptivism

Language Prescriptivism is the view that

one variety of language has an inherently higher value than others

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 Prescriptivism has a long an

varied history One of the most influential

grammars of the 18th Century was Bishop Robert Lowth’s Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762)

(Lowth lived from 1710 to 1787)

Language Lowth’s approach was strictly

prescriptive That is, he meant to improve

and correct, not describe He judged correctness by his own rules (mostly derived from Latin) which frequently went against established usage

Language In America, Lowth’s

approach inspired Lindley Murray’s widely used English Grammar (1794)

(Murray lived from 1745 to 1826)

Language Both Lowth’s and Murray’s

grammars went through 20 editions each over several decades

Murray’s book had an enormous influence on school practice and popular attitudes in the U.S. (that is still there!!!)

Language Some examples of his

axioms: ‘You should write or say It is I

and not It is me’ (The reasoning: in Latin, the

verb be is followed by the nominative case, not the accusative)

Language ‘Two negatives, in English,

destroy one another, or are equivalent to an affirmative’

(The reasoning: based on logic and mathematics)

Language (Of course, this is not true;

two negatives in fact just make a more emphatic negative)

“I ain’t done nothin’”

Language There are several reasons

why language was studied prescriptively over the centuries

(Crystal, 1997: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language)

Language 1) Grammarians wanted to

point out what they felt to be common “errors” in order to improve the language.

2) They wanted a means of settling disputes over usage. In other words, they wanted to provide a standard.

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).

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 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 standards

Language More concerned with facts of linguistic usage

In other words, the intent of modern linguistics is to describe, not prescribe

But as a future teacher, this view may cause you problems

Language 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 usage, not logic, that must determine the descriptive rules of a language

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 . . .

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?

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 t sound in

two words:  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 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 10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 = 3,628,800

Language Another of the aspects of

language in which you have competence is morphology

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 How about these words: balloon rearming re+arm+ing Antidisestablishmentarianism Anti + dis + establish + ment

+ ari + an + ism

Language 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:

Languagea. you up pick at o’clock will

eight b. I will picks you up at eight

o’clock c. I will pick you up at eight

o’clock d. At eight o’clock, I will pick

you up

Language Another of the aspects of language

in which you have competence is semantics

You can also distinguish between grammatical acceptability and meaning acceptability:

a. contented little cats purr loudly b. colorless green ideas sleep

furiously

Language 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 The chickens are too hot to eat Students hate annoying

professors Drunk gets nine months in

violin case 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

You understand how the context of utterances influences their meaning:

Its rather cold in here You make a better door than a

window

Language 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 Phonology Morphology Syntax

Language

www.csub.edu/~ecase

Click on “syllabi”