Does "english language structure" mean all the grmattical rules of the engliah language ? If someone has booklets on this topic , will he / she provide me with the same. thanks. abu firas
Your welcome, I can say that "sentences" are the basic elements to form "the structure", I mean, you should build the sentences correctly in order to form the structure. Sometime you may write a sentence, and it may be right, but its structure is not right, I mean it is not understood by English culture. So, I can say that English Structure depends on right grammar. Is it clear now?
abu firas, Welcme brother Ranaa, Thank you sister and let me add this important article by Mr. Musallam Kompaz , my brother and friend , and you will enlarge your look about structure and functiom
Introduction The following notes may be of some importance for all those who teach the subject in the high schools of Syria, and that is why they, to the best of my belief, should be taken into consideration. There is a mention of the word “adverbial”, which is translated by most teachers as “zarf” i.e. an adverb. We ,teachers, are sometimes not given any clear-cut distinction between an adverb and the word adverbial while discussing the simple sentence pattern (subject verb adverbial). Most of the students, if not all translate the word in question as “zarf”. Maybe this is due to the wrong translation of this word by most teachers. What I would like to say is that there is a big difference between an adverb and an adverbial. An adverb is a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies another word (esp. an adjective, a verb, or another adverb) or a word-group , expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree,...etc. (e.g. quietly, gently, then, there) so, an adverb is a pre-modifier of another word in phrases whereas an adverbial is a syntactic function that can be realized by so many different structures in sentences. An adverb is a structure or a syntactic category i.e. a grammatical class. In very simple terms, a part of speech. Let’s analyze the following sentences in terms of structure and function: very strongly. can blow 1Some winds
adverbial predicator subject Function: adverb phrase verb phrase Noun phrase Structure: this morning. has come 2 The boy
adverbial predicator subject Function: noun phrase verb phrase Noun phrase Structure: crying came back 3 The children
adverbial predicator subject Function: present participle verb phrase Noun phrase Structure: We deduce that this morning, very strongly, crying are different syntactic structures or different grammatical classes, realizing the same syntactic function that is adverbial. So, an adverbial is a syntactic function that can be realized or achieved by several different structures. We have to bear in mind that we cannot tell our students that this morning is an adverb, simply because it is not so. It is a noun or a noun phrase functioning as an adverbial or it is assuming the function of an adverb. It tells us when the boy has come exactly as an adverb does. Here are some more examples of other different structures functioning as adverbials: in Hama. has been living 4 The black man
adverbial object predicator subject Function: past participle noun phrase verb phrase Noun phrase Structure: Also, in sentences (4) and (5), we can never ever say to our students that in in Hama and broken are adverbs, simply because they are not so. They are a prepositional phrase and a past participle functioning as adverbials respectively. An adverbial is a syntactic function and not a syntactic structure. If you insist on translating the word adverbial, you can translate it as Al halia or Al zarfia or Al hal. Some authors of some textbook give us a good, detailed explanation of the present perfect continuous tense, forgetting intentionally or maybe unintentionally to remind our dear students that such a tense cannot be passivized i.e. it cannot be changed into the passive. That is to say, a sentence like: “He has been eating an apple.” is never used in the passive form. I myself corrected a lot of exam papers containing such intralingual errors. I advise my dear colleagues to draw the attention of their students to this matter in the sense that their students have to be aware of the fact that the present perfect continuous and the past perfect continuous are not to be used in the passive voice. Identifying Adjective Clauses: Textbook writers write titles such as “identifying adjective clause” and give one example of a sentence containing an identifying adjective clause without even underlining the clause in question. Then they ask both teachers and students to combine some pairs of sentences, taking for granted that all teachers realize the concept of identifying adjective clauses. Is that true? The problem is that these authors do not explain, at least, to the teachers what an identifying adjective clause is and how it is introduced. They do the same in the secondary stage textbooks. Throughout my long experience with a large number of teachers, I have found out that a substantial number of them do not have a clear concept of what it is. The questions that can be raised at this point of discussion are the following: “What is a clause?” “What is a phrase?” “What is the basic difference between a clause and a phrase?” and “how many types of clauses and phrases are there in English?” As a teacher, how can I convince my students of my explanation, How can I render my explanation logical to the brilliant ones when presenting adjectives clauses without simplifying and telling them about the nature and some other types of clauses and phrases in English? Our students always read these two concepts (a clause–a phrase) in their textbooks without paying much heed to them. I wish my dear colleagues to be patient with me because I want to give them somewhat a prolonged detail of these two concepts. Their role is to internalize and digest these two concepts, and then they can, in simple terms, convey them to their students. What is a clause? The answer of this question is very simple. To put it in a nutshell, a clause is a unit of speech that must have a verb of any kind. Now, what is a phrase? The answer is also very simple. It is a unit of speech that mustn’t have a verb of any kind, except the verb phrase whose main head is the verb. Then, the basic difference between a clause and phrase is quite clear. The former must contain a verb and the latter must not. Since we have understood the basic difference between these two concepts, we can continue with the types of clauses in English. As most of you know, there are several types of clauses in English: Types of Clauses: 1. adverbial clauses of time 2. adverbial clauses of place 3. adverbial clauses of purpose 4. adverbial clauses of manner 5. relative clauses or adjectival clauses 6. a “that-clause” 7. infinitive clauses 8. If-clauses 9. sentential clauses 10. infinitive clauses 11. participial clauses 12. noun clauses Types of Phrases Also, there are several types of phrases in English. Here are some: 1. A noun phrase (NP) 2. An adjective phrase 3. An adverb phrase 4. A prepositional phrase 5. A Verb phrase (VP) boy is a noun the boy, the tall boy are treated as noun phrases, simply because the word boy is the head in all of these phrases. I want now to analyze these noun phrases in terms of the structure and the function of each element. boy The 1 noun article Structure: head determiner Function:
boy tall The 2 noun adjective article Structure: head pre-modifier determiner Function: street long a 3 noun adjective article Structure: head pre-modifier determiner Function: Here, I have analyzed the elements of some noun phrases. As you can see, the words boy and street are very essential in these phrases. If we delete them, there will be no more NPs (noun phrases), but if we delete the words tall and long, the phrases will remain grammatical, so to speak. The word rich is an adjective. This is its syntactic category. The rich is treated as an adjective phrase whose main element is rich. It is the head of the adjective phrase. rich The adjective article Structure: head determiner Function: We can come to the conclusion that the head of a noun phrase is the noun and the head of an adjective phrase is the adjective. The same argument can be held true of other phrases. That is to say, the head of an adverb phrase is the adverb and the head of a prepositional phrase is the preposition. recently very adverb adverb Structure: head pre-modifier Function: very is an adverb of degree; it is optional, but recently is the main element of this adverb phrase. That is why it cannot be eliminated. It is basic .It is called the head of the adverb phrase. The syntactic Functions of Phrases It is worth mentioning here that these phrases can realize different syntactic functions in sentences. A noun phrase can be the subject or the object of a sentence. e.g.: very late. has arrived The prime Minister
A clause is a speech unit that must contain a verb of any kind and each type of the clauses mentioned earlier is introduced by certain words in English. For example, when introduces adverbial clauses of time. introduces adverbial clauses of place. where introduces adverbial clauses of manner. how introduces adverbial clauses of purpose. so that introduces relative or adjective clauses. which introduces noun clauses. what Phrases as well as clauses can have several syntactic functions in sentences and phrases. Let’s analyze some sentences to find out the syntactic functions of clauses in sentences and phrases: when the supervisor is coming. doesn’t know The headmaster
adverbial clause VP NP Structure: object predicator subject Function: when he won the prize. was His biggest thrill
adverbial clause VP NP Structure: complement predicator subject Function: so terrible. is How he has committed his crime
adjective phrase VP adverbial clause Structure: complement predicator subject Function: divine. is To forgive others
adjective phrase VP infinitive clause Structure: complement predicator subject Function: to be a civil engineer is His ambition
infinitive clause VP NP Structure: complement predicator subject Function: It is to be noted at this stage of discussion that all the clauses in question fall under two main categories: (a) main clauses (b) subordinate clauses A main clause is a clause that can stand on its own and its meaning does not depend on another clause to be clear, whereas a subordinate clause cannot stand on its own and its meaning depends on another clause to be clear and complete. e.g.: which he bought is a clause . It is a subordinate clause, simply because it cannot stand alone and its meaning depends on what comes before which.If I say: “ The car which he bought”, the meaning becomes clearer to any reader. But, which he bought, is now contained in a noun phrase. Things will be clearer when we analyze the following sentences and phrases: Conclusion Last but not least, I hope that these notes on assigned school textbooks in general are of some importance to our dear colleagues and our students who study English literature, especially those who are very much interested in curriculums and who would like to be familiar with clauses and phrases in English and some idiosyncratic properties of the English language. Of course, I cannot go further into the minutest details of all English clauses and phrases. Besides, I do not want teachers to complicate matters to their students, but at least, I have just wanted them to form a good idea about these grammatical notions that may enrich their scope of the course they are teaching. Believe or not, even lazy students have the ability to distinguish the distinguished teachers from the incompetent ones. To be a competent teacher entails that you should be aware of most of the branches of linguistics and applied linguistics (syntax, semantics, phonetics psycho-linguistics, socio-linguistics, applied linguistics… etc.). This will enable you to explain your lessons with much more confidence without getting your students involved into superficial complications they do not need. As a matter of fact, I have written these notes, especially to our students of English, to the caring teachers, to the devoted teachers, to the ones who like to read extensively, to those who like to be good listeners and good readers, to the teachers who want to enjoy a sharp mentality in grammar, to those who do not mock the mentality of their students, whether they are brilliant or lazy ones. I delivered a three-hour lecture in the Teachers’ Training Service Center in Syria on some of these notions and ideas. That was in 1997. Today, I call upon all the teachers and all students of English everywhere to hold symposiums in which constructive discussions can be fruitful for all. We always say that the teacher is the master of the class and I say s/he should be, first and foremost, the master of the language in order to be able to master his class. So, I suggest a seminar be held once or twice a year for the teachers of this country in which topics such as grammar, applied linguistics, methodology can be discussed on a wide scale. In applied linguistics, teachers will be acquainted with concepts like mistakes, errors, the types of errors, the difference between errors and mistakes and their causes. This can be performed empirically when analyzing the errors of our students. There are still so many unanswered questions related to syntax and methodology in the minds of a great number of teachers and a limited number of brilliant students. Some of these questions are the following: Is subject always the subject of the sentence? Why do we omit the s in phrases like a fifteen-day holiday and a three-year course? Since both present participles and gerunds have the same form (v+ing), what are the criteria we can base on to distinguish between them? How do we recognize that “to” is a part of the infinitive and not a preposition? What is a noun clause? And what are its syntactic functions? What is a cognate object? When are commas used or not used between adjectives? And on presenting such new grammatical concepts to our dear students of English, what approaches should the teacher adopt? Should he/she be behaviouristic or communicative? Or should he follow the cognitive approach? Written by ( Msallam Kombaz) References: 1. Quirk, R. A reference grammar for students of English, Longman Group Ltd. 1975. 2. Nestfield J.C & Wood F.T Manual of English Grammar & Composition, Wood and Macmillan & Co.Ltd 1964
Safwat, very interesting article. Though it's a little a bit long, I've read it carefully
If you don't mind, I want to discuss with you some points that are mentioned in that article
اقتباس:
..a clause is a unit of speech that must have a verb of any kind. Now, what is a phrase? The answer is also very simple. It is a unit of speech that mustn’t have a verb of any kind, except the verb phrase whose main head is the verb. Then, the basic difference between a clause and phrase is quite clear. The former must contain a verb and the latter must not.
what makes grammar confusing and complex is that every teacher uses different terms, terminologies and that's why we--students--find grammar a REAL PAIN : )
What I've learnt is the term ''clause'' covers finite , non-finite, and also verbless clause, :For example when in Rome, do as Romans do. Whatever their faults, they are not hypocrites If anything, it seems lighter.
اقتباس:
introduces adverbial clauses of manner. how
اقتباس:
so terrible. is How he has committed his crime
adjective phrase VP adverbial clause Structure: complement predicator subject Function: divine. is To forgive others
adjective phrase VP infinitive clause Structure: complement predicator subject Function: to be a civil engineer is His ambition
لا تستطيع كتابة مواضيع جديدة في هذا المنتدى لا تستطيع كتابة ردود في هذا المنتدى لا تستطيع تعديل مشاركاتك في هذا المنتدى لا تستطيع حذف مشاركاتك في هذا المنتدى لا تستطيع إرفاق ملف في هذا المنتدى