Grammar Theory

 
Министерство науки и высшего образования Российской Федерации  
 
 
Федеральное государственное бюджетное образовательное учреждение 
высшего образования 
«Оренбургский государственный университет» 
 
 
 
 
 
О. А. Хрущева 
 
 
 
GRAMMAR THEORY 
 
Учебное пособие 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Рекомендовано ученым советом федерального государственного бюджетного 
образовательного 
учреждения 
высшего 
образования 
«Оренбургский 
государственный 
университет» 
для 
обучающихся 
по 
образовательным 
программам высшего образования по направлению подготовки 45.03.01 
Филология 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Оренбург  
2021 
 
 
1 
 

УДК 811.111(075.8) 
ББК 81.432.1я73 
        Х95 
Рецензент – доцент кафедры теории и практики перевода, доктор  
филологических наук А.В. Люлина.  
Хрущева, О. А. 
Х 95 Grammar Theory [Электронный ресурс]: учебное пособие ⁄ 
О.А. Хрущева; Оренбургский гос. ун-т. – Оренбург : ОГУ, 2021. – 
104 с. 
ISBN 978-5-7410-2627-4 
В учебном пособии «Grammar Theory» представлены упражнения и 
задания, 
необходимые 
для 
успешного 
и 
продуктивного 
знакомства 
обучающихся с дисциплиной «Основной язык/языки (теоретический курс)» в 
6 семестре. 
Учебное 
пособие 
предназначено 
для 
обеспечения 
аудиторной 
и 
самостоятельной 
работы 
обучающихся 
очной 
формы 
обучения 
по 
направлению 
подготовки 
45.03.01 
Филология, 
профиль 
«Зарубежная 
филология». 
УДК 811.111(075.8) 
ББК 81.432.1я73 
ISBN 978-5-7410-2627-4  
© Хрущева О.А., 2021 
© ОГУ, 2021 

Содержание 
 
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 4 
1 English Grammar Theory 
........................................................................................... 6 
1.1 
Grammar System of the English Language 
...................................................... 6 
1.2 Morphology ........................................................................................................ 17 
1.3 Parts of Speech ................................................................................................... 28 
1.4 Syntax 
................................................................................................................. 47 
1.5 Text Study .......................................................................................................... 52 
2 Grammar Patterns 
..................................................................................................... 62 
2.1 Insight into the issue of Grammar Patterns 
........................................................ 62 
2.2 Practice of Grammar Patterns ............................................................................ 63 
Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 76 
Appendix A ................................................................................................................. 79 
Appendix B 
.................................................................................................................. 85 
Appendix C 
.................................................................................................................. 88 
Appendix D ................................................................................................................. 99 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Introduction 
 
«Grammar Theory» – учебное пособие по дисциплине «Основной 
язык/языки 
(теоретический 
курс)», 
предназначенное 
для 
обеспечения 
аудиторной и самостоятельной работы студентов очной формы обучения по 
направлению подготовки 45.03.01 Филология, профиль Зарубежная филология.  
Пособие в полной мере соотносится с рабочей программой дисциплины и 
включает такие темы как «Грамматический строй английского языка», 
«Морфология», 
«Части 
речи», 
«Синтаксис», 
«Текст, 
его 
единицы: 
высказывание, сверхфразовое единство», которые составляют первую главу 
издания. Вторая глава содержит аутентичный материал, обогащающий 
содержание вышеперечисленных тем и созданный на основе учебнометодических и научно-исследовательских материалов сайта Collins Dictionary. 
Данное пособие, благодаря входящему в его структуру комплексу 
упражнений и заданий, знакомит студентов с положениями теоретической 
грамматики английского языка, лингвистическими понятиями и явлениями, их 
типологиями и обоснованиями. Названный комплекс включает в себя ряд 
обязательных компонентов: список вопросов для обсуждения; глоссарий; 
упражнения практико-ориентированной направленности; тестирование. В 
структуру большинства тем также входит задание на прочтение аутентичных 
статей научного или научно-популярного характера, освещающих актуальные 
тенденции 
языкового 
развития 
и 
сопровождающихся 
заданиями 
дискуссионного характера.     
 Разнообразие 
упражнений, 
их 
содержание 
и 
тематическая 
направленность обеспечивают формирование таких компетенций филолога как 
ОПК-1, подразумевающей «способность использовать в профессиональной 
деятельности, в том числе педагогической, представление об истории, 
современном состоянии и перспективах развития филологии в целом и ее 
конкретной области с учетом направленности (профиля) образовательной 
программы», а также ОПК-2, отвечающей за «способность использовать в 
4 
 

профессиональной деятельности, в том числе педагогической, основные 
положения и концепции в области общего языкознания, теории и истории 
основного изучаемого языка (языков), теории коммуникации». 
Целью данного пособия является расширение кругозора студентов; 
формирование 
навыков 
работы 
с 
лингвистическими 
объектами 
и 
лексикографическими изданиями; создание глоссария, который необходим для 
успешного профессионального общения и развития терминологической 
грамотности обучающихся; развитие навыков и умений чтения на базе 
современных аутентичных научных и научно-популярных материалов, а также 
формирование коммуникативных способностей на основе прочитанного 
материала.  
Необходимость создания данного учебного пособия продиктована 
потребностью познакомить студентов с понятиями, концепциями и терминами 
теоретической грамматики, вызвать интерес к нормам употребления языка, их 
теоретическому обоснованию и сформировать более высокий уровень 
самообразовательных навыков. 
 
 
 
5 
 

English Grammar Theory  
1.1 
Grammar System of the English Language 
Outline 
1. 
Theoretical Grammar: aims and concepts. 
2. 
Insight into history of Theoretical Grammar. 
3. 
Grammar elements. 
4. 
Grammar subdivisions. 
5. 
Grammar units‟ relations. 
Glossary 
Grammar system; a grammar element; an utterance; (pre)normative grammar; a 
plane of content; a plane of expression; morphology; syntax; syntagmatic relations; 
paradigmatic relations; a paradigm; a segmental sequence; a hierarchy of levels; 
predicative\objective\attributive\adverbial 
syntagmas; 
segmental\supra-segmental 
language units. 
Task 1.  
Revise the terms from the Glossary list given above to get ready for the 
dictation. The definitions for the terms under study are provided in Appendix A. 
Task 2.  
Read the entry from Encyclopedia Britannica on the notion of Grammar. Do 
the assignments suggested below afterwards. 
Grammar, rules of a language governing the sounds, words, sentences, and 
other elements, as well as their combination and interpretation. The word grammar 
also denotes the study of these abstract features or a book presenting these rules. In a 
restricted sense, the term refers only to the study of sentence and word structure 
(syntax and morphology), excluding vocabulary and pronunciation. 
Conceptions of grammar 
A common contemporary definition of grammar is the underlying structure of a 
language that any native speaker of that language knows intuitively. The systematic 
description of the features of a language is also a grammar. These features are the 
phonology (sound), morphology (system of word formation), syntax (patterns of 
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word arrangement), and semantics (meaning). Depending on the grammarian‟s 
approach, a grammar can be prescriptive (i.e., provide rules for correct usage), 
descriptive (i.e., describe how a language is actually used), or generative (i.e., provide 
instructions for the production of an infinite number of sentences in a language). The 
traditional focus of inquiry has been on morphology and syntax, and for some 
contemporary linguists (and many traditional grammarians) this is the only proper 
domain of the subject. 
Ancient and medieval grammars 
In Europe the Greeks were the first to write grammars. To them, grammar was 
a tool that could be used in the study of Greek literature; hence their focus on the 
literary language. The Alexandrians of the 1st century BC further developed Greek 
grammar in order to preserve the purity of the language. Dionysus Thrax of 
Alexandria later wrote an influential treatise called The Art of Grammar, in which he 
analyzed literary texts in terms of letters, syllables, and eight parts of speech. 
The Romans adopted the grammatical system of the Greeks and applied it to 
Latin. Except for Varro, of the 1st century BC, who believed that grammarians 
should discover structures, not dictate them, most Latin grammarians did not attempt 
to alter the Greek system and also sought to protect their language from decay. 
Whereas the model for the Greeks and Alexandrians was the language of Homer, the 
works of Cicero and Virgil set the Latin standard. The works of Donatus (4th century 
AD) and Priscian (6th century AD), the most important Latin grammarians, were 
widely used to teach Latin grammar during the European Middle Ages. In medieval 
Europe, education was conducted in Latin, and Latin grammar became the foundation 
of the liberal arts curriculum. Many grammars were composed for students during 
this time. Aelfric, the abbot of Eynsham (11th century), who wrote the first Latin 
grammar in Anglo-Saxon, proposed that this work serve as an introduction to English 
grammar as well. Thus began the tradition of analyzing English grammar according 
to a Latin model. 
The modistae, grammarians of the mid-13th to mid-14th century who viewed 
language as a reflection of reality, looked to philosophy for explanations of 
7 
 

grammatical rules. The modistae sought one “universal” grammar that would serve as 
a means of understanding the nature of being. In 17th-century France a group of 
grammarians from Port-Royal were also interested in the idea of universal grammar. 
They claimed that common elements of thought could be discerned in grammatical 
categories of all languages. Unlike their Greek and Latin counterparts, the Port-Royal 
grammarians did not study literary language but claimed instead that usage should be 
dictated by the actual speech of living languages. Noting their emphasis on linguistic 
universals, the contemporary linguist Noam Chomsky called the Port-Royal group the 
first transformational grammarians. 
Modern and contemporary grammars 
By 1700 grammars of 61 vernacular languages had been printed. These were 
written primarily for purposes of reforming, purifying, or standardizing language and 
were put to pedagogical use. Rules of grammar usually accounted for formal, written, 
literary language only and did not apply to all the varieties of actual, spoken 
language. This prescriptive approach long dominated the schools, where the study of 
grammar came to be associated with “parsing” and sentence diagramming. 
Opposition to teaching solely in terms of prescriptive and proscriptive (i.e., what 
must not be done) rules grew during the middle decades of the 20th century. 
 
Picture 1. Structural description of the sentence “The man will hit the ball,” 
assigned by the rules of a simple phrase-structure grammar. 
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The simplification of grammar for classroom use contrasted sharply with the 
complex studies that scholars of linguistics were conducting about languages. During 
the 19th and early 20th centuries the historical point of view flourished. Scholars who 
realized that every living language was in a constant state of flux studied all types of 
written records of modern European languages to determine the courses of their 
evolution. They did not limit their inquiry to literary languages but included dialects 
and contemporary spoken languages as well. Historical grammarians did not follow 
earlier prescriptive approaches but were interested, instead, in discovering where the 
language under study came from. 
As a result of the work of historical grammarians, scholars came to see that the 
study of language can be either diachronic (its development through time) or 
synchronic (its state at a particular time). The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure 
and other descriptive linguists began studying the spoken language. They collected a 
large sample of sentences produced by native speakers of a language and classified 
their material starting with phonology and working their way to syntax. 
Generative, or transformational, grammarians of the second half of the 20th 
century, such as Noam Chomsky, studied the knowledge that native speakers possess 
which enables them to produce and understand an infinite number of sentences. 
Whereas descriptivists like Saussure examined samples of individual speech to arrive 
at a description of a language, transformationalists first studied the underlying 
structure of a language. They attempted to describe the “rules” that define a native 
speaker‟s “competence” (unconscious knowledge of the language) and account for all 
instances of the speaker‟s “performance” (strategies the individual uses in actual 
sentence production).  
The study of grammatical theory has been of interest to philosophers, 
anthropologists, psychologists, and literary critics over the centuries. Today, grammar 
exists as a field within linguistics but still retains a relationship with these other 
disciplines. For many people, grammar still refers to the body of rules one must know 
in order to speak or write “correctly.” However, from the last quarter of the 20th 
century a more sophisticated awareness of grammatical issues has taken root, 
9 
 

especially in schools. In some countries, such as Australia and the United Kingdom, 
new English curricula have been devised in which grammar is a focus of 
investigation, avoiding the prescriptivism of former times and using techniques that 
promote a lively and thoughtful spirit of inquiry. 
Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/grammar. 
A. 
Make sure you can pronounce the following proper names easily and 
correctly: the Alexandrians;  Dionysus Thrax of Alexandria; Varro; Homer; Cicero; 
Virgil; Donatus; Priscian; Aelfric, the abbot of Eynsham; Port-Royal; Noam 
Chomsky; Ferdinand de Saussure. 
B. 
Answer the questions below. 
1. 
What does the word “grammar” denote? Consider the wide and the 
restricted senses. 
2. 
 What is a common contemporary definition of grammar? 
3. 
What language features does grammar describe? 
4. 
What does grammar traditionally focus upon? 
5. 
Provide a brief outline of grammar evolution. 
6. 
What model was accepted for analyzing English grammar? 
7. 
Who has developed the idea of “universal” grammar? What does it 
imply? 
8. 
Who are referred to as the first transformational grammarians? 
9. 
When did the printed grammar manuals appear? What is meant by 
“vernacular languages”? 
10. 
 What does “parsing” and sentence diagramming imply? 
11. 
 What types of language study have been outlined by historical 
grammarians? 
12. 
 Who has initiated studying of the spoken language? 
13. 
 What other disciplines is grammar connected with? 
Task 3.  
Read the article below and get ready to discuss the difference between 
theoretical grammar and traditional grammar; theoretical grammar and pedagogical 
10