Torrano,Jhade-Dy C.

BSE-ENG-1A
Prof. Jennifer Araja

University of Caloocan City

Introduction to Linguistics
Grammatical Units and Processes

I. Introduction

Grammar is the study of words, how they are used in sentences, and how they change in
different situations. People sometimes describe grammar as the rules of a language, but in fact no
language has rules. All languages have their own grammar. When we speak, we use our native
grammar, when we write we try to write with correct grammar. So, speaking and writing a
language each have their own style but no commonly spoken language is fixed. All languages
change over time. People associate grammar with errors and correctness that is why knowing
about grammar also helps us understand what makes sentences and paragraphs clear, interesting
and precise. Basic rules in grammar such as basic structure like sentence, subject, predicate,
object, clause, phrase and parts of speech like noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition
and conjunction are important for learners of English to fully understand the basic grammar rules
that govern the language in order to express themselves clearly. Without rules we cannot
communicate correctly with other people.

Do we need to study grammar? The answer is no. Many people in the world speak their
own, native language without having studied its grammar. Children start to speak before they
even knowing what grammar is. But if you are serious about learning a foreign language, the
answer is yes because grammar can help you to learn a language more quickly and efficiently. It
is important to think of grammar as your friend that can help you.
II. Body

According to Noam Chomsky, generative grammar is a theory of grammar that holds the
human language in shaped by a set of basic principles that are part of the human brain. This
“universal grammar”, according to linguist like Chomsky comes from our innate language
faculty. Languages started by people making sounds which evolved into words, phrases and
sentences. As what I have mention in the introduction, children start to speak without even
knowing the meaning of grammar. Also, David Crystal stated that Grammar is the study of all
the contrast of meaning that is possible to make within the sentence. The ‘rules’ of grammar tell
us how. He also added that by one count, there are some 3,500 such rules in English. If you are
going to check Oxford English Dictionary about the meaning of grammar, it is written there that
Grammar is the department of the study of a language which deals with its flexional forms or
other means of indicating the relations of word in the sentence, and with the rules of employing
these in accordance with established usage; usually including also the department which deals
with the phonetic system of the language and the principles of its representation of writing. Many
authors stated that grammar is a set of rules that is made for us to communicate well and to
understand others. Grammar is not really innate to us but it is a set of formal patterns in which
the words of a language are arranged to covey larger meaning. (Hartwell)

Under Grammatical Units and Processes is Parts of a Sentence. Sentence is a word or

group of words that expressing a thoughts or ideas by giving statement, order, asking question or
exclaiming. There are two parts or elements of a sentence, the subject and predicate. The subject
is a noun or pronoun that answers the question who? or what? It usually found before the verb.

Here are the examples of subject.

1. I ate dinner.
2. We had a three-course meal.
3. Brad came to dinner with us.
4. He loves fish tacos.
5. In the end, we all felt like we ate too much.
6. They all agreed that it was a magnificent evening.
7. The boy fell.
8. In the tub, the girl fell on her bottom.
9. The dog barked.
10. The cat died.
 11. This question is odd.
12. Joe went to the store.
13. Sarah and Jessie are going swimming.
14. The frog jumped and landed in the pond.
15. Can I have some juice to drink?
16. The pizza smells delicious.
17. There is a fly in the car with us.
18. Maria is sick.
19. I am out of paper for the printer.
20. Will you help me with the math homework?

The second part or element is the predicate. The predicate of a sentence consists of the
verb and any words related to it to complete the meaning initiated in the verb.

Examples of Predicates are:

1. I ate dinner.
2. We danced in the club yesterday.
3. Brad came to dinner with us.
4. He loves fish tacos.
5. In the end, we all felt like we ate too much.
6. They all agreed that it was a magnificent evening.
7. The boy fell.
8. In the tub, the girl fell on her bottom.
9. The dog barked.
10. The cat died.
11. This question is odd.
12. Joe went to the store.
13. Sarah and Jessie are going swimming.
14. The frog jumped and landed in the pond.
15. I have to drink juice.
16. The pizza smells delicious.
17. The airplane landed safely.
18. Maria is sick.
19. The printer is not working.
20. Will you help me with the math homework?
 In studying about grammar, it is a must to learn about the parts of speech. Parts of speech
is a category to which a word is assigned in accordance with its syntactic functions. In English
the main parts of speech are noun, pronoun, adjective, determiner, verb, adverb, preposition,
conjunction, and interjection. We will be focusing to noun and verb. Noun is a word that
functions as the name of some specific thing or set of things, such as living creatures, objects,
places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas. But noun can be also consists of group of
words and that is called noun phrase. Noun phrases are groups of words that function like
a noun. Typically, they act as subjects, objects, or prepositional objects in a sentence. Noun
phrases are simply nouns with modifiers. Just as nouns can act as subjects, objects, and
prepositional objects, so can noun phrases. Similarly, noun phrases can also work in a sentence
as adjectives, participles, infinitives, and prepositional or absolute phrases. The modifier can
come before or after the noun. If it comes before the noun it's likely to be an article, possessive
noun, possessive pronoun, adjective, or participle. Modifiers that come after the noun include
prepositional phrases, adjective clauses, participle phrases, and infinitives.

Here are the examples of Noun Phrases:

1. The spotted puppy is up for adoption.

2. The bohemian house was brightly decorated for the holidays.

3. At the zoo, I saw a striped zebra.

4. I want a cute puppy for Christmas.

5. Mary lives in an eclectic household.

6. Jose drives to an awful job every morning.

7. The car wash was out of order.

8. The Delta Airlines flight to New York is ready to board.

9. She kindly offered water to the gardener working in the hot sun.

10. Having been a police officer, he knew how to defend himself.

11. The ability to give to others is an important character trait.

12. Our decision to get married was celebrated by all our friends.

13. She crawled through the dark and musty attic.

 14. He had to sit beside the horribly angry girl.

15. Her face red with embarrassment, she took her seat beside the man she had tripped.

16. They walked into the sunset, their laughter carrying on the breeze.

17. A man with a gun stands near me.

18. The boy in the blue shirt is smiling at me.

19. The house on the corner is big.

20. The man we met yesterday hit by a car.

Verb is a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part
of the predicate of a sentence, such as hear, become, happen. While verb phrase is a syntactic
unit consisting of an auxiliary (helping) verb preceding the main verb. It often contains a
head verb, complements, objects, and modifiers as its dependents. A verb phrase can also be
a phrase that functions as an adverb or adjective that has a verb and its complements, objects, or
modifiers.

Some examples of verb phrase are:

1. She was walking quickly to the mall.

2. He should wait before going swimming.
3. Those girls are not trying very hard.
4. Ted might eat the cake.
5. You must go right now.
6. You can't eat that!
7. My mother is fixing us some dinner.
8. Words were spoken.
9. These cards may be worth hundreds of dollars!
10. The teacher is writing a report.
11. You have woken up everyone in the neighborhood.
12. Texting on his phone, the man swerved into a ditch.
13. As the cat watched, the two puppies fought over a bone.
14. The small dog was reluctant to learn new things.
15. When he arrives, we can try to build a fort.
16. Finally, we can afford to buy a new house.
 17. Walking on the ice, she slipped and fell.
18. Open the door to let the fresh air in.
19. To make lemonade, you first need some lemons.
20. It takes two people to tango.

Next important topic in studying about grammar is the Word Order. Word order refers to
the way words are arranged in a sentence. Word order is important because it’s what makes your
sentences make sense. So, proper word order is an essential part of writing and speaking, when
we put words in the wrong order, the result is a confusing, unclear, and an incorrect sentence.
The sequence of words is critical when communicating in English because it can impact the
meaning of what you’re trying to say. The sentence, “The dog barked at the snake” and “The
snake barked at the dog” take on two different meanings because the subject and object are
inverted. The same would be true if the verb was used out of order, for example: “Barked the dog
at the snake.” Among natural languages with a word order preference, SOV is the most
common type (followed by subject–verb–object; the two types account for more than 75% of
natural languages with a preferred order).

Here are some examples of Word Order:

Subject+Verb+Object

1. Girlie cooks food.

2. He cut the grass.
3. Mark drinks milk.
4. She ate the cookies.
5. My father fixed the table.

Auxiliary+Subject+Verb+Object

6. Can he cook food?

7. Are you burning the paper?
8. Have you eaten your lunch?
9. Can you go to your room?
10. Is Ben washing the dishes?

Subject+Verb+Indirect Object+Direct Object

11. I fed the bird some popcorn.

12. She told Lorrie to get her things.
13. Mark fetched Jinkie in their house.
14. Laura told Ali to go home.
15. The doctor gave my son a prescription.

Subject+Verb+Object Preposition

16. I fed some popcorn to the bird.

17. She ate food at their house.
18. I will go home in the evening.
19. I will wake up in the afternoon.
20. She will buy bread to the bakery.

A determiner, also called determinative, is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together
with a noun or noun phrase and serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in
the context. Determiners are used with nouns to clarify the noun.

Here are some examples of determiners:

Definite article : the

Indefinite articles : a, an

Demonstratives: this, that, these, those

Pronouns and possessive determiners : my, your, his, her, its, our, their

Quantifiers : a few, a little, much, many, a lot of, most, some, any, enough

Numbers : one, ten, thirty

Distributives : all, both, half, either, neither, each, every

Difference words : other, another

Pre-determiners : such, what, rather, quite

Adjective and verb are both part of the speech. Adjective are words that modify nouns
or pronouns. Adjective, Adjective Phrase, and Adjective Clause can function as a modifier.
Adjective appears before or after the word it modifies. When it appears before the word is called
pre-modifier and when appears after the word is called post-modifier.
Here are some examples of Adjective as modifier:

1. Suzan gave an outstanding performance in the program.

2. How beautiful the scenery is!
3. Anna is looking gorgeous.
4. Jack is exhausted.
5. Lisa is intelligent.
6. Robin is a brilliant person.
7. All the flowers in the garden are beautiful.
8. The man with beard entered the room.
9. I like perfumes with a mild fragrance.
10. All were dressed in black at the party.
11. Look at the man in a red shirt.
12. Pass me the book with blue cover.
13. The person who helped me in this assignment is Lisa.
14. Is Jeff the person whom you have recommended for this project?
15. The book which you gave me yesterday was really interesting.
16. Sam is the person whose name is written here.
17. Be careful about the things that are mentioned here.
18. The person whom you were talking to was my friend.
19. A girl wearing pink dress slipped.
20. Can you please hand me the blue ballpen?

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They commonly describe how,
when, or where the action of a verb took place. How refers to the manner in which an action
occurred. When addresses the time of the action. Where investigates the place or location the
action took place. Here are some examples:

1. He swims well.
2. He ran quickly.
3. She spoke softly.
4. James coughed loudly to attract her attention.
5. He plays the flute beautifully.
6. He ate the chocolate cake greedily.
7. He gave us the money generously.
8. The child ran happily towards his mother.
9. The town grew quickly after 1997.
10. He waited patiently for his mother to arrive.
11. He swam well despite being tired.
12. The rain fell hard during the storm.
13. She always arrives early.
14. He drives carefully.
15. They go everywhere together.
16. She eats slowly.
17. It is terribly hot.
18. They walk quickly to catch the train.
19. The dinner party went badly.
20. John answered the question correctly.

In everyday speech, a phrase is any group of words, often carrying a special idiomatic
meaning; in this sense it is synonymous with expression. In linguistic analysis, a phrase is a
group of words (or possibly a single word) that functions as a constituent in the syntax of
a sentence, a single unit within a grammatical hierarchy. A phrase typically appears within
a clause, but it is possible also for a phrase to be a clause or to contain a clause within it. There
are also types of phrases like noun phrase and prepositional phrase.

Prepositional phrases are groups of words containing prepositions. Remember that

prepositions are words that indicate the relationships between various elements within a
sentence, and you’ll never have difficulty identifying prepositional phrases.

The following sentences contain examples of prepositional phrases; the prepositional phrase in
each sentence is italicized for easy identification.

1. The cupcake with sprinkles is yours.

2. The cupcake with colorful sprinkles is yours.

3. We climbed up the hill.

4. We climbed up the very steep hill.

5. The rabbits hopped through the garden.

6. The rabbits hopped through the perfectly manicured garden.

Participial phrases are groups of words that act as adjectives. That is, they provide further
information about the noun or nouns in a sentence. These phrases contain past or present
participles. If they contain past participles, they'll likely end in -ed, -en, or -t. If they contain
present participles, the verb will likely end in -ing.

Participial phrases don't have to appear at the start of the sentence. The point is that
they always modify nouns and like to stick close to the noun. Here are the examples:

7. Brewing a lovely pot of tea, Grace also decided to indulge in two butter cookies.

8. Rocky Balboa, beaten within an inch of his life, stood up and kept fighting.
9. I closed the curtains after I spotted the trees dancing in the shadows.
10. Played by millions, soccer is popular all around the world.

An absolute phrase is a phrase that modifies a noun in a sentence, but it is not connected
to the sentence by a conjunction. It is set off with a comma only, and it could be removed from
the sentence without changing the meaning of the sentence. When a participle and the noun that
comes before it together forms an independent phrase, the structure is often called an absolute
phrase.
While an absolute phrase often does contain a participial, it does not have to.

11. Her voice floating over the crowd, Maria awed everyone with her natural singing ability.
12. Sam could be heard all the way down the hall, his loud laughter carrying across the
school.
13. Her fur matted and her legs shaking, the lost puppy finally found her way home.
14. Weather permitting we shall meet in the evening.
15. The weather being fine, we went out for a picnic.
16. The sun having risen, we set out on our journey.
17. The visitors having left, we went to bed.
18. It being a stormy day, we stayed inside the house.
19. If weather permits, we shall meet in the meeting.
20. If God wills, we shall meet again.
III. Conclusion

Though it is said that there’s no such rules in our language because it is innate in us, it is
still necessary to understand and learn the rules of a language or the grammar for us to
communicate efficiently and to deliver our thoughts and opinion without leading to confusion.
In studying Grammatical Units and Process, there are important topics that need to be learned.
First is the parts of the sentence which is the subject which answers the question what or who
and the predicate that is needed to give thoughts about the subject and to complete the sentence.
Parts of speech is also necessary because it gives us the function of the word to the sentence like
noun that functions as the word that gives a specific name and verb or commonly known as the
action words. And of course, the order of words, after knowing the parts of a sentence and
functions or roles of each words, we should know how to use those properly because knowing
those without knowing the standards of the sentence is nonsense. It is important to know basic
patterns such as SVO, ASVO, SVIODO, and SVOP because it helps to build and understand the
simplest and the most complex sentence in English.

IV. Reflection

While doing this comprehensive analysis, I have realized that although I am already in
the first year of college, there are still a lot of topics that I did not know. This comprehensive
study gives me knowledge or advance understanding to the topics. Also it is really overwhelming
knowing that some of the topics are already tackled in our subject Functional and Conversant
English. Being an English major student is really no joke so we must master this topic so that
when we became an educator, our students will learn from us a lot like how our Professors fed us
with knowledge. Learning about the rules of grammar is really hard but helpful for us to express
our thoughts efficiently. We study grammar because a knowledge of sentence structure is an aid
in the interpretation and understanding others also being a future English educator means
continual dealing with sentences and influences the student to form better sentences in his own
composition. Also grammar is the best weapon in our course of study for the development of
reasoning power. Grammar is the study of how sentences mean. And that is why it helps. If we
want to understand the meaning conveyed by sentences, and to develop our ability to express and
respond to this meaning, then the more we know about grammar, the better we will be able to
carry out these tasks. Aside from that, mastering the English language for me is very necessary
because this language will serve as your weapon to be more competitive all over the world
because I have this dream to become and educator internationally and let us face the reality,
nowadays in this generation poor grammar simply conveys a poor impression of the writer’s
educational attainments, social standing or professionalism. Correct grammar will not just
demonstrate your English skills but it will also show that you’re diligent and have an eye for
detail because of good communicating skills.