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About Grammar by Naves
By   Mª Teresa Naves  naves@fil.ub.es
DGI E-mail: DGI@fil.ub.es
Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya
Universitat de Barcelona 
1. Previous experience learning grammar and on grammar books
 
  • You have been studying English for a long time. In learning English, what sort of grammars have you consulted?
  • Do you remember any grammar books and/ or grammarians?
  • In your past experience learning English you never came across Greenbaum's & Quirk's Student or University Grammars of English. Yet you are an advanced learner of English. Why do you think this is so?
  • What do you think the differences between Greenbaum & Quirk's descriptive grammar of English and the grammar books you consulted may be like?
  • Look at the books below. What do they have in common? What are the differences?
Greenbaum, Sidney & Quirk, Randolph (1990) A Student's
grammar of The English Language. Longman. 

Naves, Mª Teresa & Celaya, Mª Luz (1999) Gramàtica Descriptiva de l'Anglès I. Edicions de la UB
 

 
  • This course is called Descriptive Grammar of English I.  Why descriptive? What do you think descriptive refers to?
  • Fill in the gaps:

    • Descriptive grammar versus ________ grammar.
    Descriptive grammar instead of  ________ grammar
    Stds' answers.

 
  •  Mention the types of grammar you are familiar with besides prescriptive or normative, prescriptive...


2. Initial Evaluation on Descriptive Grammar I objectives and contents.

Read the fifteen items below. Tick them if they ring a bell and draw a cross if you do not know what they are. Then decide whether they will be explored under DG1 or not.
 
 
Items
DG1
1. The simple sentence
2. The subordinate clause
3. Parts of speech
3. Aspect
4. Premodification of the head of the Noun Phrase
5. Determiners
6. The Adjective
7. The Verb Phrase (VP)
8. The Objects  (DO, IO)
9. The Adverbials
10. Compound and complex sentences
A. To analyse the main clauses in English (SVO, SVC, etc.)
B. To analyse the main phrases in English (NP, VP, Adj P, Adv P, etc.)
C. To define, characterise, discuss, compare and contrast different views on the main word classes
D. To explore different approaches to grammar.

 Tch & Std's comments
 


 
 
 

Stds' answers
Meritxell Gómez:  Descriptive grammar vs. Grammar in Use
Miguel Angel Pérez: Descriptive grammar vs. Normative Gramamar.  Back

     
Tch & Std's comments
     
     
    Items
    DG1
    1. The simple sentence  Called 'Oración simple' in Spanish.
    E.g. from spanish. Estoy mirando la tele    		 It is studied in DGII
    2. The subordinate clause It is studied in DGII
    3. Parts of speech Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions are Parts of Speech Also called Word classes They are studied in DG1
    3. Aspect Tense, Aspect and Mood refer to Verb Contrast. Aspect can either be perfective or non-perfective and progressive or non-progressive They are studied in DG1
    4. Premodification of the head of the Noun Phrase Phrases are called 'sintagmas' in Spanish. The Head of a NP is what in Spanish is usually called 'El núcleo del sintagma nominal' They are studied in DG1
    5. Determiners The most well-known and undisputed determiner is the article. There are differences between languages and among grammarians so as to what items should be included under determiners. For some grammarians and in some languages two, three, four could be best described as adjectives They are studied in DG1
    6. The Adjective They are studied in DG1
    7. The Verb Phrase (VP) The way most students studied the VP in former language classes is different from Greenbaum and Quirk's perspective. For the latter, a VP consists just of verbs whereas for most generative grammars a VP is the equivalent of the Predicate. They are studied in DG1
    8. The Objects  (DO, IO) With Subject, Verb, Complements, etc. they are one of the constituents of the English Clause.  They are studied in DG II
    9. The Adverbials Adverbials and Adverbs are two complete different things. Adverbials for the purpose of this introduction could be seen as 'Complementos Circunstanciales'  They are studied in DG II
    10. Compound and complex sentences They are studied in DG III
    A. To analyse the main clauses in English (SVO, SVC, etc.) A simple sentence contains just one clause. Most Spanish and Catalan grammars do not have a word for clause except 'claúsula' They are studied in DG II
    B. To analyse the main phrases in English (NP, VP, Adj P, Adv P, etc.) They are studied in DG1
    C. To define, characterise, discuss, compare and contrast different views on the main word classes They are studied in DG1
    D. To explore different approaches to grammar. To a given extent they are studied in DG1 just as an introduction to the types of grammar explored in DGI, II, and III

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    Last Updated on  18 January 2001 by Teresa Naves