M ODERN E NGLISH G RAMMAR A ND U SAGE 1

W HAT IS G RAMMAR Boring or interesting? Etymologically “grammar” related to “glamour”. An interesting, exciting subject of study. Dictionary defines “ grammar as the rules by which words change their forms and are combined in other senses. English grammar is the body of rules that describe the structure of expressions in the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences.expressionsEnglish languagewordsphrasesclausessentences 2

G RAMMAR Use of word grammar in other senses: As a subject A book of grammar Proficiency/ mastery in the language Transformational generative grammar as a linguistic theory Consciously learned explicit set of rules for learning a foreign language. In mother tongue rules are subconsciously internalised. 3

G RAMMAR I MPLICIT AND E XPLICIT Unacceptable sentences Due to wrong use of plural, article, preposition, noun etc One who can make acceptable sentences but cannot explain why they are unacceptable has implici t knowledge of grammar. Those who can distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable and also explain the rule that have been violated has explicit knowledge of grammar. 4

L INGUISTIC ABILITY Ability to use the language and produce acceptable sentences- Grammar A Implicit or internalized knowledge of rules (native speakers) Use the metalanguage to explain the rules and process involved- Grammar B explicit knowledge of rules formal or technical talk -Grammar B (native /foreign language learners) 5

P RESCRIPTIVE G RAMMAR Speech of educated native speakers of English. Unacceptable or rejected as incorrect or bad English by some grammars. Other grammars consider them as acceptable -found in current usage. Prescriptive grammar lays down the rules for use of a language. 6

D ESCRIPTIVE G RAMMAR S tates the facts of a language as they exist and are spoken by a large number of people. Contains rules / conventions that actually underlie the usage of native speakers. Records the violations or deviant features in an objective way as a part of changing or current usage. Distinctions like the natural laws and the laws of the government. 7

T YPES OF G RAMMAR Linguist’s grammar Study language as a system of signs. Learner’s grammar Is meant to help the learner to learn the language. Teacher’s grammar Contains more information than a learner, higher knowledge. Occupies a middle ground between the linguist and the learner. 8

N EED TO S TUDY G RAMMAR Why should teacher’s/ research scholar’s study grammar? There has been a debate Should formal grammar be taught to the learner’s (in Indian situation)? How much of grammar is to be taught? How is grammar to be taught? The knowledge of grammar may be useful in teaching, testing, writing research papers, locating problem areas in learning designing a syllabus. 9

R ECOMMENDED R EADING Quirk, Randolf. “On Conceptions of Good Grammar”, in The English Language and Images of Matter. London: Oxford University Press Quirk, Randolf, et al. A Grammar of Contemporary English. London: Longman (Sections 1.8to 1.14) 10

U SAGE : G RAMMATICALITY In Linguistics, conformity to the rules of a language as formulated by a Grammar based on a theory of language description. The concept became prominent with the rise of Generative Grammar in the 1960s, whose primary aim has been the construction of rules that would distinguish between the grammatical or well- formed sentences and the ungrammatical, deviant, or ill- formed sentences of a language. 11

G RAMMATICALITY AND A CCEPTABILITY Grammaticality should not be confused with notions of correctness or acceptability as determined by prescriptive grammarians.correctnessprescriptive grammarians Grammaticality has been differentiated from ACCEPTABILITY, which is based on the judgements by native speakers as to whether they would use a sentence or would consider it correct.ACCEPTABILITY Judgements about what is acceptable may reflect views that a sentence is nonsensical, implausible, illogical, stylistically inappropriate, or socially objectionable. 12

C RITERIA FOR A CCEPTABILITY We expect a grammar of a language to clearly say what is “acceptable” and “unacceptable” in the language? “Correct” and “incorrect” suggest absolute norms, deviations in black and white. “Acceptable” and “unacceptable” suggest relative norms, fluid and variable according to usage, suggests the possibility of many grey areas. 13

D IFFERENT LEVELS OF UNACCEPTABILITY. Sentences: Ungrammatical not well formed, violating some rule or convention of grammar. Inappropriate: Linguistic Factors: Use of non standard English – dialects. Informal/ inappropriate registeral variations. Collocational devices. Use of derogatory words Non linguistic Factors: Psychological, Sociological, Aesthetic- Ambiguous statements. Semantically odd: not appropriate to the situation. 14

C RITERIA FOR A CCEPTABILITY Grammar books generally give us the idea of “grammaticality” i.e. What constitutes acceptable sentences on the basis of grammatical rules and conventions. For dialect, register features, and collocations, standard dictionaries generally give some help for exhaustive knowledge we have to depend on our familiarity with the language. Social cultural or aesthetic appropriateness is a relative and variable criteria. 15

G RAMMAR AND U SAGE Grammar is, or should be, a description of usage. Grammar and usage are not different. Traditional prescriptive school grammar presents rules which militate against actual usage. Modern descriptive grammar has another handicap- usage is various and keeps on changing. Difficult to furnish all the details of usage. As teachers/ scholars of English we should be conversant with the facts of English usage. 16

R ECOMMENDED R EADING Hosali, Priya and Ray Tongue. A Dictionary of Collocations for Indian Users of English Leech, Geoffery, et al. English Grammar for Today. London: Macmillan (Part A Introduction) Nihalani, P, et al. Indian and British English: A Handbook of Usage and Pronunciation. New Delhi: OUP Trudgill, Peter and Joan Hannah. International English: A guide to Varieties of Standard English. London: Edward Arnold. ( pages ) 17

T HANK Y OU