Linguistics 3
The functionalities of grammar
Daddy is sulking because he never came up with a good bernie meme.
is sulking
• Form: present progressive (continuous) to be+verb+ing
• Function (temporary?) action happening at the moment of speaking
• Use: to explain what dad is doing
came up
• Form: past simple verb+ed/ irregular past form
• Function: completed event/action in the past (Swan 44)
• Use: to say what dad didn’t do.
Prescriptive vs descriptive approach
The descriptive approach: describing language (and particularly grammar) as it is
used
The prescriptive approach: describing language (and particularly grammar) as it is
should be used
It’s not correct to say:
1) John and me went to the shop.
It should be:
2) John and I went to the shop.
This is Prescriptive
What would the descriptivist approach be here?
“In informal speech many people say: John and me went to the shop. How come?”
Deep structure and surface structure
Noam Chomsky (in 1957), the idea of two different levels of structure:
Surface structure: the syntactic form (what it looks like or sounds like)
Deep structure: the abstract level of organization; the “image” of the sense or
meaning of the sentence
Two different surface structures can have just one single deep structure
- Charlie washed the Porche 918 Spyder.
- The Porche 918 Spyder was washed by Charlie.
Both convey the same message
A single surface structure can have different deep structures
- The boy saw the man with the telescope.
Structural ambiguity:
did the boy see the man through a telescope?
or did the boy see the man who was looking through a telescope?
- The boy saw the man with the telescope.
, Pragmatics
One way to make sense of the structural ambiguous sentences is by interpreting the
situation using assumptions and expectations based on earlier experiences. This is
called pragmatics
The study of ‘invisible meaning’ and how we recognize what is meant even when it is
not spoken or written.
This recognition depends on
• shared assumptions
• expectations
So, earlier experiences, expectations and assumptions also help us to interpret
messages = pragmatics
Speech act
The sentence or utterance itself (as a whole) also performs a function, this is called
speech act.
Speech act = the action performed by a speaker with an utterance (uiting)
e.g.
Do you have a cat? speech act: asking a question
I’ve got eleven cats speech act: statement
Our (subconscious) knowledge of speech acts help us to grab the message of the
sentence as a whole.
Speech act: function
1. Did you drink the tea? B Question
2. Drink the tea! C Command
3. You drank the tea. D Statement
4. Such a nice tea experience! A Exclamation
Speech act: structure
1. Did you drink the tea? B interrogative
2. Drink the tea! D imperative
3. You drank the tea. A declarative
4. Such a nice tea experience! C exclamative
This is direct speech act
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