What English is…
refers to a possible sentence in the
- is a continuum of many different language
varieties or dialect
- is the native language of 322 million people
and the second language of 120 more.
Prescriptive Grammar – rules that dictate
how one should speak or write according to
some authority.
- This are what you consciously learn in
school (and outside it)
“Don’t end a sentence with a preposition
“and” use whom when questioning an
object and who when questioning the
subject”
WHO DID YOU TALK TO?
 To whom did you talk?
WHICH FLIGHT ARE YOU LEAVING ON?
 On which flight are you leaving?
ORIGINS
 LATIN was the language of scholarship in
medieval England.
 English was found sorely wanting and
was considered corrupt.
 Between the fifteenth and eighteenth
centuries scholars sought out to “fix” and
“improve” English.
 In the 1800’s the idea arose that using
the correct form of English was essential
for social success.
Descriptive grammar – describes some rules,
actual used.
The set unconscious rules that allow you to
produce and understand a language.
Aims to discover the underlying principles and
rules of natural language by studying it
significantly.
GRAMMATICAL AND UNGRAMMATICAL
- Using descriptive grammar, grammatical
language
- Ungrammatical refer to an impossible
sentence in the language.
- Using prescriptive grammar, grammatical
means conforming to rules of how one
should speak or write
- Ungrammatical means not conforming to
rules of how one should speak or write.
GRAMMAR
- the study of the system underlying the
formal features of a language as the
sounds, morphemes, words, or sentences.
- A theory, that specifies the manner in
which all sentences of a language are
constructed.
COMPONENTS OF GRAMMAR
Syntax - the study to sentences and phrases,
and the rules of grammar that sentence obey
Morphology – the study of words and other
meaningful units of language
FREE MORHEME – a unit of meaning that can
start by itself
BOUND MORPEHEME – a unit of meaning that
can’t stand by itself.
AFFIXES – prefix, suffix, infixes, circumfixes
2 KINDS OF AFFIXATION
1. Derivational affixation – adding them
derives a new word or dictionary entry
with a different part of speech
2. Inflectional affixation – adding them
does not derive a new word or a
dictionary entry
Semantics – the study of sentence meaning;
pragmantics is the study of sentence meaning
in context
Phonetics and Phonology – the study of  many nouns ending in -f or -fe form their
individual units of sound in languages. plural by changing it into -ves, as thief –
thieves, or calf – calves except
Phonetics
o a chief
- Greek word “phone” which menas “sound” o a roof
or to “speak” o a gulf
- The study of making and hearing speech o a grief
sounds o a safe
- phoneticians o a surf
o a brief
o a proof
WORDS FORMATION o a leaf
o a believe
COINING – Inverting words not related to
 there are words in this category which
other words. (bling, quiz)
have both plural forms
COMPOUNDING – two or more words o a wharf
behaving as one word. (backlash, facebook, o a staff
voiceover) o a hoof
o a scarf
BLENDING – telescoping two words together.
 a few nouns form their plural in an
(spork, brunch)
irregular way
CLIPPING – shortening words by omitting o a man
syllables. (demo, lab) o a woman
o a datum
CONVERSION – assigning one word than one
o a goose
syntactic category. (father, tweet)
o a tooth
ACRONYMS – words from abbreviations. o a foot
o a louse
EPONYMS – words from names, often brand o a mouse
names.
o a nucleus
o an ox
o a child
NOUN - naming a place or a thing  some nouns have the similar singular and
PROUNOUN – specific name plural forms
o swine
COMMON NOUN – general term o sheep
ABSTRACT NOUNS – intangible, idea, can’t be o deer
touched o fish (fishes)
 some are used only in plural
COLLECTIVE NOUNS – group of people or a. names of instruments having two parts
animal forming
INDIVIDUAL NOUN – can be made singular or a. a kind of piano
plural since it can be counted. b. bellows
c. scissors
Noun Rules d. tongs
e. spectacles
 b. names of certain articles of dress, Rule #1 – from the possessive of most singular
trousers, breeders. common or proper nouns by adding an
c. Billiards, draughts, cards, dominoes. apostrophic and an -s
d. A compound nouns normally forms its
Rule #2 – use only an apostrophe to form the
plurals by adding -s to the principal worl
possessive of the names Jesus and Moses and
a. A commander-in-chief
other ancient classical names.
b. A coat-of-mail
c. A son-in-law Rule #4 – to show joint ownership; form the
d. A daughter-in-law possessive on the last word.
Grammatical distinction and numbers Rule #5 – to show individual ownership, form
the possessive on both words.
COUNTABLE NOUNS – hair, sand
Rule #6 – with a compound word or phrase,
Normally take a singular verb:
form the possible by adding an apostrophe and
a. Accommodation an -s to the last word.
b. Behavior
c. Bread
d. Chaos FUNCTIONS OF NOUNS
e. Furniture
SUBJECT (Nominative Case)
f. Luggage
g. Scenery DIRECT OBJECT (Objective case) – what was
h. Truffles given, receiver of the action
i. Travel
INDIRECT OBJECT – to whom, receiver of the
An uncountable noun is frequently made a piece direct object
of.
POSSESSIVE
Uncountable noun – plural form but singular
PREDICATE NOUN – renames the subject
meaning
OBJECT OF PREPOSITION – subject of the
a. Mathematics
preposition
b. Economics
c. News PERSONAL NOUNS
d. Physics
1. NOMINATIVE PERSONAL – act as
e. Linguistics
subject in the sentence (I, you, she,
f. Measles
it, we, they)
2. OBJECTIVE PERSONAL PRONOUNS
– (his, him, her, we, us)
Cases of nouns
POSSESIVE PRONOUNS – pronouns that
MARY GAVE ANDREW’S BOOK TO ANN
show ownership (my, mine, your, yours,
NOMINATIVE CASE his, her, hers, its, ours, our, their, thiers)
OBJECTIVE CASE REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS – used to show
that the subject of sentence is receiving
POSSESIVE CASE
the action of the verb (myself, yourself,
etc)
INTENSIVE PRONOUNS – pronouns that CORRELATING CONJUNCTIONS
are used only to place emphasis on the
- Pair
subject and are not essential to the
- Not only, but also
meaning of the sentence. (self, selves)
- Equal standing
DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS – pronouns
CONJUNCTIVE ADVERBS
that are used to identify nouns and
answer the question which one (this, that, - 2 independent clauses
these, those) - Relate once statement to another
- Shows connection
INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS – used to
question PREPOSITIONS – words that shows the
relationship between two things
RELATIVE PRONOUNS – used to connect
clarifying information within a sentence TIME
(who, that, which, whom, whose)
ON – used with days
INDEFINITE PRONOUNS – used in
AT – noon, night, midnight – time of days
referring to a person or thing that does
not specified or known (everybody, IN – years, part of the day, with seasons,
everyone, anybody, anyone, someone, months
somebody, most, all, each, some, few,
PLACE
both, may, several)
IN – describes the point itself, cetain
RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS – used to refer
to a mutual set of people (each other, one
another)
ADJECTIVES
A word or set of words that modifies a noun or
pronoun, may come before the word they
modify.
ADVERB
A word or set of words that modifies a verb,
adjectives, or other adverbs. Answers HOW,
WHEN, WHY, or to what extent, how, often, or
how much.
CONJUNCTIONS
COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS
FANBOYS (for, and, not, but, on, yet, so)
SUBORDINATING CONJUCTION
Linking two clauses together, aside from the
fact they introduce a dependent clause.
GERUND – end with -ing, INFINITE – to dance.