PRACTICAL VS. THEORETICAL GRAMMAR
Practical grammar tells language learners HOW to speak and write correctly. What core question does Theoretical Grammar seek to answer?
Why is the language structured this way?
Linguistic Explanation: Practical grammar provides normative rules for usage, whereas theoretical grammar scientifically analyzes and explains the internal system and regularities of a language
Ferdinand de Saussure distinguished between 'Langue' and 'Parole'. Which of these represents the abstract, social system shared by a speech community?
Answer: Langue
Linguistic Explanation: Langue is the abstract grammatical system and rules shared in the collective consciousness of speakers. Parole is the concrete individual act of speech
Changing the root vowel inside a word—such as 'foot' becoming 'feet' or 'sing' becoming 'sang'—is an example of which grammatical device?
Answer: Internal Inflection
Linguistic Explanation: Internal inflection modifies the internal root structure to express a new grammatical meaning (e.g., plurality or past tense).
Which historical approach to grammar was based on Latin rules, logic, and philosophical universal thought, heavily focusing on prescriptive rules?
Answer: Traditional Grammar
Linguistic Explanation: Traditional grammar inherited Latin models and focused on prescriptive 'correctness' rather than describing actual descriptive usage.
Morphology studies the internal structure of words. What branch of grammar studies how words combine into word-combinations and sentences?
Answer: Syntax
Linguistic Explanation: Syntax analyzes the rules governing how words combine into larger functional units such as phrases and sentences.
: A student asks: 'Why do we say "have done" instead of just using the simple past?' Which branch of grammar equips a teacher to give a scientific explanation rather than saying 'that's just how it is'?
Answer: Theoretical Grammar
Linguistic Explanation: Theoretical grammar provides teachers with linguistic reasoning regarding aspect, tense, and analytical structures rather than simply forcing students to memorize arbitrary rules.
If a speaker tiredly says 'He don't know' during a conversation, this slip or stylistic choice belongs to Parole. What primary level does Theoretical Grammar study?
Answer: Langue (the system)
Linguistic Explanation: Theoretical grammar primarily investigates Langue—the underlying abstract system—rather than isolated slips or individual realizations in Parole.
The grammatical category of Number has two main meanings: Singular and Plural. Why is it a common error to call the suffix '-s' a category?
Answer: Because '-s' is a FORM (outward marker), not a category.
Linguistic Explanation: A category is the overarching unifying notion (Number); a meaning is a value within it (Plurality); and a form (-s, -es, internal inflection) is the outward expression of that meaning.
Noam Chomsky introduced Transformational-Generative Grammar. What is the key difference between 'Deep Structure' and 'Surface Structure'?
Answer: Deep structure is the abstract semantic organization; Surface structure is the actual perceptible spoken/written form.
Linguistic Explanation: A sentence like 'Flying planes can be dangerous' has one surface structure but two underlying deep structures (planes that fly / the act of flying planes).
In the linguistic hierarchy (morpheme -> word -> word-combination -> sentence -> text), what unique defining property separates a SENTENCE from lower-level units?
Answer: Predication (relates content to reality through tense, mood, and modality)
Linguistic Explanation: Unlike words or word-combinations ('a beautiful garden'), a sentence contains predication ('The garden is beautiful'), anchoring the statement to reality.
Theoretical grammar analyzes 'have done' as an analytical form. Name TWO theoretical questions a linguist asks about this structure that practical grammar ignores.
Answer: 1) Is it tense, aspect, or both? 2) Why is it formed analytically (with an auxiliary) rather than synthetically (with an ending)? (Also acceptable: Why English possesses it while other languages manage without it).
Linguistic Explanation: Practical grammar only teaches when to use 'have done' (e.g., recent actions with present results), while theoretical grammar investigates its structural, historical, and categoric status.
Answer: Langue (the system)
Linguistic Explanation: Theoretical grammar primarily investigates Langue—the underlying abstract system—rather than isolated slips or individual realizations in Parole.
Answer: Each move creates a completely new state of the system, which must be analyzed as it now stands (Synchrony) rather than its history (Diachrony).
Linguistic Explanation: This metaphor illustrates synchrony vs. diachrony: the value of any piece/element depends strictly on its immediate structural oppositions to other elements at a given point in time.
: Expressing grammatical meaning using completely different roots (such as 'go' -> 'went' or 'good' -> 'better') is known as what device?
Answer: Suppletion
Linguistic Explanation: Suppletion occurs when phonetically unrelated roots are combined into a single grammatical paradigm to mark distinctions like tense or degree of comparison
M.A.K. Halliday's Functional Grammar views language as a tool for communication. Name all THREE metafunctions performed simultaneously in every utterance.
Answer: 1) Ideational, 2) Interpersonal, and 3) Textual.
Linguistic Explanation: Ideational represents experience/reality; Interpersonal enacts relationships between speaker/hearer; Textual organizes the utterance into a coherent text.
Distinguish between Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic relations. Which one operates 'in absentia' (relations of choice) and which operates 'in praesentia' (relations of combination)?
Answer: Paradigmatic relations operate 'in absentia' (choice); Syntagmatic relations operate 'in praesentia' (combination).
Linguistic Explanation: Paradigmatic relations involve selecting one form out of absent alternatives (e.g., reads/read/will read). Syntagmatic relations link words linearly in sequence (e.g., He + reads + a book).