English Grammar: An Introduction

The difference between these two groupings can be demonstrated by analysing the nonsense sentences below:

These sentences are abnormal in different ways. Sentence (1) is recognisable as a grammatical English structure. You could think of lots of sentences which follow the same pattern:

1a. The BOOKS are in the CANVAS BAG.
1b. The CHILDREN are in the SMALL GARDEN.

Sentence (2), on the other hand, contains meaningful words but lacks grammatical structure. We can expand it by adding the grammar:

2a. THE tall man WHO comeS WITH John talkS loudLY.

Here we have added two things:

1. the grammatical words: the (d), who (pn), with (pr).
2. word-endings which define the meaning of the word more precisely: -s, -ly.

These endings are called SUFFIXES: -s is added to certain verbs in English, and -ly often marks an Adverb. (See further Unit 4.)

However, we cannot be entirely sure that (2a) really represents the meaning that the speaker of (2) meant to convey. He could have been referring to past time, in which case the sentence would be expanded to:

2b. The tall man who CAME with John TALKED loudly.

In (2b) PAST TIME is shown by changing the form of the Verb.

These examples show how grammatical words and endings enable us to communicate meaning precisely.

2.2.1. Open word-classes

In sentence (1) above, the nonsense words belonged to the major parts of speech. Most people would classify "yugs" and "sog" as Nouns and "winful" as an Adjective. (We will return in Units Four and Five to why this is so.) This is why the sentence was meaningless although its structure was acceptable. It also demonstrates that most of the LEXICAL MEANING of a sentence is carried by the major parts of speech.

The alternative term "open word-class" refers to the fact that speakers of English are continually adding words to the major parts of speech by making up new words or borrowing them from other languages. Thus in recent years we have borrowed many Nouns referring to items of clothing: kagoule (French), kaftan (Turkish), anorak (Inuit). In the area of food, British speakers have borrowed the word hamburger from American English. Further words have been made up on the ANALOGY of hamburger: cheeseburger, beefburger, chickenburger etc. (Analogy = imitating an existing pattern.) Such new words often reflect changes in the culture of speakers of a language.

2.2.2. Closed word-classes

The grammar of a language changes more slowly, and, except in extreme circumstances, less radically, than its vocabulary. Additions are therefore rarely made to the closed classes of words, which carry GRAMMATICAL MEANING. Sentence (2) above was AMBIGUOUS because it lacked grammatical meaning.