The English Linguistics Project

English Manual (8th Edition)

Jonathan Malicsi

• Publisher: Anvil Publishing, Inc.
• ISBN:
  9786214200887
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

The ELP ENGLISH MANUAL 8th Edition is a comprehensive response to the integration of the ELP's English language workshops for professionals and the English language courses for students, under an English Language Learning System (ELLS) particularly as spurred by the more wide-ranging concerns articulated by universities and multinationals.

This book introduces new concepts that reflect contemporary grammatical theory, with entries on diction, idioms, and pronunciation, based on current data on Filipino English accumulated over the past 18 years. More insights have actually come from a parallel study that focuses on the grammar and rhetoric of Filipino, some of which have affected the chapters on Determiners, Tense, and Embedding.

The English Language Project, instituted by former U.P. President Jose V. Abueva under his office in 1991, has transformed into the English Linguistics Project, part of Dr. Jonathan Malicsi's research and extension service for the Department of Linguistics.

II

The Core Constituents

4	Grammatical Categories

The term grammatical categories refers to the following classes of words in English, traditionally called parts of speech:

nouns:	dog, group, happiness, UNESCO
verbs:	do, be, walk, shall
adjectives:	sad, green, asleep, burnt
adverbs:	well, later, near, however
pronouns:	you, yourself, one, anything
articles:	a, the
prepositions:	on, of, across, like
conjunctions:	and, or, since, if
interjections:	No!, Alas!, Oh!

Traditionally, too, they may be classified into major (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) and minor parts of speech, noting that the major parts of speech have distinct referents while the minor parts of speech do not.

Though useful in many ways, these terms and their traditional definitions have been considered lacking in scientific rigor. For one, the bases for classification are inconsistent since some terms are defined notionally (“a noun is a name of a person, place, or thing”) while others are defined functionally (“an adjective modifies a noun”). Even the definition of an adverb is obviously illogical (“an adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb”) because it is, in part, circular (“an adverb modifies another adverb”).

For another, words classified together under the same term behave differently. For example, that is considered a conjunction, yet does not connect in the same manner as and or if..then. The category of adverbs is the worst defined of all, since it seems that whatever cannot be classified under the others get identified as adverbs.

These traditional definitions of “parts of speech” can be traced to the first grammars of English, in the late 18^th century, which followed the publication of the first monolingual English dictionary. These definitions were mere translations of even older ones as used in Latin and Greek, which were used in the teaching of rhetoric, not in the analysis of other languages.

Modern grammars have used the concept of distribution—the pattern of occurrence and non-occurrence—as the defining criterion. Technically then, “parts of speech” in modern grammars are actually distribution classes. For example, in English, a “noun” is any word which may occur with a determiner before it (the book), or with a plural (books) or possessive (book’s/books’) morpheme. In a sentence, it may occur before the verb phrase, functioning as its subject; after a transitive verb, functioning as its object or complement; after a linking verb, functioning as its complement; or after a preposition, functioning as its object. It may also occur after another noun or noun phrase, functioning as its appositive. [See section on Noun.] Thus, not knowing the meaning of a term, like jerkin, you will know it is a noun if it appears in the following constructions:

The jerkin has become popular in modern houses. (after a determiner)

You can see jerkins in many subdivisions. (plural form)

The jerkin’s shape reminds me of Japanese origami. (possessive form)

That is a jerkin over there. (complement of be)

The scaffolding is for the jerkin up front. (object of preposition)

This distinctive roofing style, the jerkin, adds to the cost of a house. (appositive)

Other modern grammars use the terms form class or word class. This Manual prefers the term distribution class because it emphasizes distribution as its sole basis for classification. The more general term used in various current linguistic theories is grammatical category serving a particular grammatical function.

Some grammatical categories—the “noun,” “verb,” and “adjective”—may be called open sets because speakers of the language keep adding to them. A new technology, for instance, would introduce the noun for ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Preface
• Contents
• Overview
• I Lexicon
• II The Core Constituents
• III Syntactic Rules
• IV Text Graphics
• V Phonetics
• Correction Code
• References