Sughrua: Traditional Grammar: Discussion Information prepared by Bill Sughrua, Facultad de Idiomas, UABJO 2.

Traditional Grammar

Traditional grammar was the first philosophy or school of grammar. It began with Plato, in Ancient Greece, approximately 500 B.C. Plato introduced the naming of words. He named or identified the verb and the subject. To Plato, the verb and the subject were the essential elements of a sentence, because together they represented a movement, which he classified as either an action, feeling, or condition. Therefore, Plato, using Ancient Greek, began the practice of naming or identifying words. Plato stopped with his identification of the verb and subject. That was all for him. It was enough. Plato was a philosopher, and so, for him this movement created by the connection between the verb and subject had extreme importance. He called it the essence of the thing. He believed it to be the beginning of language, the beginning of thought. After Plato, this practice of naming words continued. Aristotle, for example, discovered and named the adjective. Eventually, during and after the Roman Empire, this process was applied to Latin. The final result were the 8 parts of speech and the 7 grammatical categories (see below). Up until the 16th century, Latin maintained itself as the official language of England and Western Europe. Therefore, traditional grammar became a model heavily based on Latin, although it was applied to English, French, Italian, and other European languages. During the 16th and 17th centuries in England, there began to appear systems of traditional grammar based on the English language, following the same parts of speech and grammatical categories, and including a large range of rules. This continued for a very long time. In the 19th century, traditional grammar, still based on the Latin model, crossed Pgina 1 de 13

Sughrua: Traditional Grammar: Discussion the Atlantic Ocean from England to the United States. At this time, it was introduced in the educational system of the United States as the official grammar. Today, it continues to have a large influence in the schools. In general, traditional grammar is prescriptive and not descriptive. This means that it tells us how we should use the language; it indicates what is supposed to be the correct usage of English. And with this correct usage, we have meaning, which is located only within the limits of the individual word. In other words, we can analyze each individual word as having some significance to us. This significance is a meaning. But what are these meanings. That is, if the word is an isolated meaning, what is it? How do we analyze it? What criteria do we use? We use these: parts of speech (8 in total). grammatical categories (7 in total). And we get this: parts of speech + grammatical categories = rules (correct usage).

What are these? Lets take a look at each element in the formula. Parts of speech. Each and every word in English can be identified according to a particular part of speech as well as sub-type (except for the preposition, which does not have sub-categories). Before we get into examples, we will first summarize the 8 parts of speech.

NOUN : names a person, place, thing, or idea. abstract noun : a quality, characteristic, or idea. example: I believe that friendship is very important to all people. concrete noun: an object that can be perceived by the senses. Pgina 2 de 13

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example: I found the book on the floor of the classroom. common noun: an element that exists within a group or classification. example: One of the most dangerous animals in the world is the lion. proper noun: the name of a particular person, place, or thing. example: The previous president of the United States was Bill Clinton. collective noun: a group (although the word is in the singular form.) example: The football team of the school went to the national tournament. Note: Often, you need to interpret the context of the sentence in order to determine the sub-category of the noun, especially whether it would be concrete or common. Example: At the store I was going to buy tea but then I decided to buy coffee.

PRONOUN: a word used in substitution of one or more nouns. personal pronoun: usually as subject of the sentence. I, he, she, they, we, you, it. objective pronoun: as direct object or indirect object. me, him, her, them, us, you, it. possessive pronoun: indicating to whom or what something belongs. my, mine, his, her, hers, their, theirs, our, ours, your, yours, its reflexive pronouns: referring the action back to the subject of the sentence. myself, himself, herself, themselves, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, itself.

-- demonstrative pronouns: pointing out persons or things (used alone; not before a noun, which would be a demonstrative adjective). this, these, that, those. examples: This is interesting. / I prefer that. interrogative pronouns: used in questions (but, not as the first word of a relative clause, which would be arelative conjunction). Pgina 3 de 13

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who, whom, which, what, why, how, whose. examples: Who is it? / What do you mean? / How much it it?

indefinite pronouns: indicating someone or something, but ambiguous. all, another, any, anybody, anyone, both, each, either, everybody, everyone, few, many, most, neither, nobody, none, no one, one, other, several, some, somebody, someone, such, etc., etc

VERB: a word expressing an action, condition, state, or feeling. action verbs (physical action, psychological action) transitive: an action verb that passes or transfers its action to a direct object. examples: The catcher dropped the ball. / The waiter ignored the customers. intransitive: an action verb that does not pass or transfer its action to a direct object, i.e. no direct object. examples: The people sat in the cafeteria / He contemplates everyday. Note: Many action verbs can be both transitive or intransitive, depending on the context. Example: He walks in the park. (int) / He walks his dog in the park. (t). linking verbs: non-action verbs (i.e. condition, state, or feeling): connects or links to the subject to an adjective, noun, or pronoun that describes the subject. (to be verb used alone): is, are, am, was, were. (verbs of the senses): feel, look, smell, taste, sound, etc (other verbs): seem, appear, become, grow, remain, etc.

Note: Some verbs can be both linking or action (transitive), depending on the context. Examples: (a). The food tastes terrible / (b). Could you please taste the food?

ADJECTIVE: a word used to describe, complement, or modify a noun or pronoun. qualitative: describes quality or characteristics. Pgina 4 de 13

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What are some examples? General discussion in class. quantitative: indicates how many, i.e. number or quantity. What are some examples? General discussion in class. demonstrative: points out which one (same as demonstrative pronouns, but, in this case, the word is placed before the noun). this book, these books, that house, those houses. a, an, the (what later were to be identified as articles).

ADVERB: a word used to modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. an adverb modifying a verb. time place frequency manner condition reason (cause) effect concession

an adverb modifying an adjective. example: the slowly moving train. an adverb modifying another adverb. example: the very slowly moving train.

CONJUNCTION : a word that joins words, phrases, or clauses. coordinate. and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet. subordinate. (some examples): after, although, as, as much as, because, before, if, since, than, though, although, unless, until, when, where, while, etc Pgina 5 de 13

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relative. which, that, who, whom, whose, why, how. correlative. either or or neither nor both and not only but also whether

PREPOSITION: begins a phrase; has an object that refers to it; no sub categories. (some examples): about, above, across, against, along, around, at, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, into, like, of, off, on, over, past, since, through, throughout, to, toward, under, underneath, unto, up upon, with, within, without. INTERJECTION: a word that expresses emotion, with no grammatical relationship to any other words in the sentence; no sub-categories. examples: Oh! Hey! Ouch! (based on Perrin & Corder 1975 and Warriner1973)

The primary way to learn the parts of speech is by doing a textual analysis, word-byword. Our first example is an analysis of the beginning section and chorus of the lyrics to the song Hotel California, by the Eagles.

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Another example is a portion of lyrics to Whats Up, by 4 Non-Blondes. This analysis, however, uses a different format from that above. It is based on a numerical code; and in identifying each word, it constructs the sub-type first and then the part of speech.

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Sughrua: Traditional Grammar: Discussion Those are the parts of speech -- first phase. Now lets go to the second.

Categories. With each category, we are instructed to focus on certain parts of speech; and we are given a list of options to choose from.

category 1. Number

options to Select singular or plural

part of speech analysed noun, pronoun, verb, demonstrative adjective (this, that, these, those) noun, pronoun, verb noun, pronoun

2. Person 3. Gender

1st, 2nd, or 3rd masculine, feminine, or neuter present, past, or future active or passive indicative, imperative or subjunctive (optative) feature of modal, such as suggestion, possibility, and obligation nominative, objective, possessive, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, or ablative functions: how words relate

4. Tense 5. Voice 6. Mood (a)

verb verb verb

Mood (b)

verb (modal)

7. Case (a)

noun, pronoun

Case (b)

various: to create core sentence pattern

The above is self-explanatory, except for the mood and case categories, which do pose difficulty. To give more information, first of all, on mood (a) above, we can say that the Pgina 7 de 13

Sughrua: Traditional Grammar: Discussion indicative mood of the verb is the most common. Here the verb is an action, condition, state, or feeling that was directly performed, or possessed, by someone or something (i.e. the subject). Examples: I went to the store. The weather was very cold last week. My sister bought a new jacket. Secondly, the imperative mood is to make a request or command. Examples: Open the door on your way out. Fill out this application form. Finally, the subjunctive mood is to express a condition contrary to fact and to express a wish (Warriner 1973: 158). It primarily is used with the to be verb, which means be in the present and were in the past, for all the subjects. Examples (expressing a wish): I suggested that he be admitted to membership. Mr. Black insists that they be allowed to enter the room. Examples (contrary to fact): If I were you, Id save the money. (i.e. I am not you.) If he were taller, he would be a basketball player. (i.e. He is not taller.) You talked as though you were my father. (i.e. He is not my father). The second type of mood, known as (b), is an expansion of the subjunctive mood in that it considers the hypothetical nature of the verb when used with a modal. Here, the meaning of the modal characterizes the action, condition, state or feeling of the verb. It all depends on the modal. For example, the verb should go means a suggestion or recommendation to go. Likewise the modals can and could mean potentiality; may and might, possibility; must and ought, obligation; and would, hypothetical. While mood (a) and (b) focus exclusively on the verb, the case (a) category treats only the nouns and pronouns. It offers a classification based on an already established purpose of the noun or pronoun.
Nominative case: noun or pronoun as subject. Example: She left the city. Objective case : noun or pronoun as direct object or indirect object. Example: I bought my sister (indirect object) an apple (direct object). Possessive case : noun or pronoun showing possession. Example: Her house. Jims house. Vocative case : noun or pronoun used in an expression of emotion. Example: Oh boy ! Genitive case : noun or pronoun resulting from something else. Example: of a poem.

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Dative case Ablative case : noun or pronoun as a receptor (indirect object, direct object) within a prepositional phrase. Example: to / for her. : noun or pronoun as a giver or creator. Example: from / by the teacher.

The second form of case (I would propose) is an expanded interpretation of the nominative and objective cases. This is a large and extensive area. It concerns the network of functions in a sentence, which is created by the relationships shared by the words within the context of the sentence. First, we begin with key functions:
S = subject (creates or performs the verb) V = verb (action, condition, state, or feeling performed or possessed by S)

if V is action:

if V is non-action (linking):

DO = direct object (receives V) IO = indirect object (receives DO) OC = object complement (complements DO or IO)

PA = predicate adjective (complements S) AC = adjective complement (complements PA) PN = predicate noun (complements S) NC = noun complement (complements PN)

ADV = adverb (in this case, only those adverbs modifying the V) T = time M = manner E = effect P = place R = reason F = frequency C = condition Cn = concession Etc. Note : The OC, PA, NC, and ADV can be a single word, a phrase, or a entire clause. This is very common. Also, the S, DO, and PN usually is a single word; however, they can also consist of entire clauses.

Then, based on the above key functions, we discover the core sentence pattern, which serves as a representation of the network of functions and relationships existing between the words of the sentence. These are the standard patterns. For all sentences in English, you will discover one of these patterns, or a variation of it, or a combination of more than one of these patterns.
1. 2. 3. 4. S S S S ----V V -- DO V -- V -- DO -- OC V -- DO -- IO

/ ADV (flexible; in various positions in patterns 1 9)

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5. 6. 7. 8. 9. S S S S S -----V V V V V -- IO -- DO -- PA -- PA -- AC -- PN -- PN -- NC

Note: If the sentence has more than one clause, and/or if an entire clause is serving a general function such as S or ADV, then that clause, in particular, will have a separate pattern.

Depending on the number of clauses in the sentences, the core sentence pattern will be one of the following:

i. ii. iii.

one common level (i.e. independent clause). one common level, divided into 2 or more sub-patterns (i.e. 2 or more independent clauses). one of more common levels, with a secondary level (i.e. in the event of dependent clauses).

Here are examples of (i) above, that is, case (b) analyses of sentences consisting of one indpendent clause.

The 1946 Paris exhibition brought her instant recognition. S V IO DO

therefore, core pattern: S -- V -- IO -- DO

Last week, one local dealer gratuitously made six new cars available for use in the parade. ADV / T S ADV / M V DO OC

therefore, core pattern: ADV -- S -- ADV -- V -- DO -- OC / / T M

The two recaptured prisoners were uncomfortable in the truck. S V PA AC

therefore, core pattern: S -- V -- PA -- AC

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In the summer Molly Bloom always looked beautiful in her red dress. ADV / T S ADV / F V PA AC

therefore, core pattern: ADV -- S -- ADV -- V -- PA -- AC

It was a hot afternoon in Wyoming. S V PN NC

therefore, core pattern: S -- V -- PN -- NC

Now, some examples of (ii) above: sentences with two or more independent clauses.
In the fall the war was always there but we did not go to it anymore. ADV / T S V ADV / F ADV / P S V DO ADV / F

therefore, core pattern : ADV -- S -- V -- ADV -- ADV / S -- V DO ADV / / / (but) / T F P F

The mountains were a long way away and you could see snow on their tops. S V PA / S V DO OC

therefore, core pattern: S -- V -- PA

/ S V DO -- OC (and)

And examples of (iii) above:

After he published his fourth novel, Novel Algren became the spokesman of oppressed urban society. Sub. S V DO Conj. ____________________________ ADV / T therefore, core pattern:

PN

NC

Sub. -- S -- V -- DO Conj.______________

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ADV / T -S -- V -- PN -- NC

The sports writer said that the coach of the football team will be replaced by next week. S V PA ADV / T ____________________________________________________________ DO S V PA ADV / T -DO

therefore, core pattern:

-- V

We can analyze isolated sentences (as above) as well as a continuous narrative. Consider the first paragraph from Hemingways famous story In Another Country (1939). It consists of 6 sentences at levels (i) and (ii).

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C HERE

Now that we have finished with the final category, that of case (b), we can practice applying all of the categories. The following example was inspired by the soliquoy to Joyces Ulysses (1933).

Molly Bloom could have dreamed of Gibraltar where she was a flower of the mountains. Number Sing. 3rd Sing. 3rd Sing. 3rd Sing. Sing. Sing. 3rd 3rd 3rd Plural. 3rd

Person

Gender

Tense

Past

Past

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Voice

Active

Active

Mood (a)

Indicative

Indicative

Mood (b)

Potentiality

-------

Case (a) Nominative

Objective/ Nom. Genitive rel.

Nom.

Genitive

Case (b)

S V PN NC conj. ____________________ OC

DO

The next example also includes parts of speech (Lopez Cruz 2007). In particular, note the first two columns on the left, which give an excellent summary of the premise of the categories. It is based on a line from Billy Joels song Piano Man.

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D HERE

Our final example continues Piano Man (Santiago Bautista 2007). It uses a more simplistic format than the previous example; however, as well as above, its case (b) level identifies a dual-level resulting from the inclusion of a dependent clause.

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Rules.

HERE

We are ready for the complete analysis, from parts of speech to categories to rules.

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