Week 1: Syntax I

Question 1

Define: the WIDE meaning of grammar

Answer 1

Refers to any patterns and rules within a language

Question 2

Define: the NARROW meaning of grammar

Answer 2

Refers to syntactic aspects within a language

Question 3

Name: the FOUR TYPES OF GRAMMAR

Answer 3

• Pedagogical grammar
• Prescriptive grammar
• Descriptive grammar
• Theoretical grammar

Question 4

Define: PEDAGOGICAL GRAMMAR

Answer 4

A description of patterns/rules put together for the purpose of helping one to learn about unfamiliar structures of language, or language varieties e.g. a book of grammar

Question 5

Define: PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR

Answer 5

Refers to the belief that there is a one version of grammar that is of high prestige and superiority

Question 6

Define: DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR

Answer 6

The study of sentence patterns that describes what exists without judgement

Question 7

Define: THEORETICAL GRAMMAR

Answer 7

Refers to the general grammatical properties of language, and used to establish what constructs and principles are needed for grammatical analysis

Question 8

Define: PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR

Answer 8

A type of generative grammar in which constituent structures are represented by ‘phrase structure rules’

Question 9

Define: A PHRASE STRUCTURE / CONSTITUENT

Answer 9

Functions as the base component in the classic form of transformational grammar (Chomsky, 1950s)

Question 10

Detail: PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR

Answer 10

• First, syntactic categories that appear to exist in a language are noted, as well as their different internal structures
• For each structure, a rule is written that displays that structure
  e.g. in English, a typical sentence consists of a noun phrase followed by a verb phrase: ‘My sister bought a dog’
• The phrase structure rule is thus written as follows:
  S —> NP VP