Foundations of grammar

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Foundations of grammar

• Caroline Heycock
• C.Heycock_at_ed.ac.ukhttp//www.ling.ed.ac.uk/heyco
  ck

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(No Transcript)
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Overview

• Wide and narrow meanings of grammar
• Grammar for who(m)? About who(m)
• What kind of knowledge is at issue?

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Overview

• Wide and narrow meanings of grammar
• Grammar for who(m)? About who(m)
• What kind of knowledge is at issue?

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Wide and narrow senses of "grammar"

• Wide sense (a description of) the entire
  linguistic system of a language
• Narrow sense(a description of) one subpart of a
  language essentially, the part dealing with
  relations between words in a sentence

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Wide sense

• Well frankly the problem as I see it
• At this moment in time is whether I
• Should just lie down under all this hassle
• And let them walk all over me.
• Or, whether I should just say OK,
• I get the message, and do myself in.
• Prince Charles

• To be, or not to be that is the question
• Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer
• The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
• Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
• And by opposing end them?
• Shakespeare

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Narrow sense

• I know not him.
• I went to London.
• The government have decided to act.
• He spoke to me.
• He spoke to my sister and me.
• Je ne sais pas.

• I dont know him.
• I London to went.
• The government has decided to act.
• He spoke to I.
• He spoke to my sister and I.
• Je sais pas.

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And maybe (or is this morphology?)

• He isnt here.
• She saw him.
• He dived right in.

• He isnae here.
• She seen him.
• He dove right in.

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Wide and narrow meanings of "grammar"

• When we want to be clear that we are talking
  about grammar in the narrow sense, we can use the
  term syntax.

• When we want to be clear that we are talking
  about grammar in the narrow sense, we can use the
  term

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Overview

• Wide and narrow meanings of grammar
• Grammar for who(m)? About who(m)
• What kind of knowledge is at issue?

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Overview

• Wide and narrow meanings of grammar
• Grammar for who(m)? About who(m)
• What kind of knowledge is at issue?

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Prescription or description?

• A second ambiguity/unclarity
• Is a given grammar meant to provide
  instructions/prescriptions about the syntax of a
  language for someone who wants to speak it?or
• a description of the syntax of a language as
  evidenced by the behaviour of speakers?

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Instructional/prescriptive grammars

• Who might such grammars be for?
• 2nd language learners
• Native speakers
• But why might native speakers need such
  instruction?
• because languages are not monolithic
• because some norms are imposed

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Variation within "a language"

• English speakers may be taught not to say I
  aint, or I amnt, or I cant get nothing
  done
• but
• no one teaches them not to say I not am
• Why? Because the ungrammatical forms aint,
  or amnt, and the use of negative concord are
  part of the syntactic/morphological system of
  some dialect(s) of English. So the issue here is
  whether there are genres/situations where the
  use of those dialects is not sanctioned.

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Morphological and syntactic differences
Shes here.
Shes here.
Shes not here.
Shes no here.
She isnt here.
She isnae here.
Is not she here?
Is no she here?


Isnae she here?
Isnt she here?

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Not part of anyone's syntax?

• It is incorrect to end a sentence with a
  preposition (compare French).
• It is incorrect to split infinitives
• The nominative should be used after the
  copulai.e. It is I, not Its me (compare French
  Cest moi Italian Sono io).
• Restrictive relatives must not be introduced by
  which (i.e. the books that I bought, not the
  books which I bought)

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Overview

• Wide and narrow meanings of grammar
• Grammar for who(m)? About who(m)
• What kind of knowledge is at issue?

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Overview

• Wide and narrow meanings of grammar
• Grammar for who(m)? About who(m)
• What kind of knowledge is at issue?

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What kind of knowledge?

• What kind of knowledge is the knowledge that a
  native speaker has of the syntax of their
  language?
• (Note you can know how to do something without
  being able to describe the principles (compare
  the ability to distinguish between male and
  female human faces))

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What kind of knowledge?

• Clearly, the syntax of any language must be
  learned
• and for the vast majority of the syntax, only
  from examples of the output (children construct
  rules on the basis of sentences that they hear)
• This is a huge task. It is at least plausible
  that not everything has to be learned

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A simple example English questions

• He said Sandy detested Jo.
• He said that Sandy detested Jo.
• Who did he say Sandy detested?
• Who did he say that Sandy detested?
• Who did he say detested Jo?
• Who did he say that detested Jo?

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A recommended read

• Cameron, Deborah. 1995. Verbal Hygiene.
  Routledge London/New York