English for Academic Purposes: Grammar
Grammar in EAP
Introduction: Example
Read the following text.
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. Yet this is quite erroneous. The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
The text can be described according to the different levels (ranks) of organisation within the grammar. The four levels that are identified here are: words, groups, clauses and sentences. The text above consists of 66 words (tokens), which includes 43 different words (types).
These words combine into groups (e.g. different types of coalition government, quite erroneous) – nominal groups, verbal groups, adjectival groups, adverbial groups, which then combine into clauses – dependent & independent, finite and non-finite.
Text | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sentence | Sentence | Sentence | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Clause | Clause | Clause | Clause | Clause | Clause | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Group | Group | Group | Group | Group | Group | Group | Group | Group | Group | Group | Group | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word | Word |
There are seven clauses in this text:
- The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931.
- Distinguish between different types of coalition government.
- This is not easy to do.
- Most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government”.
- The same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940.
- This is quite erroneous.
- The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments.
and these combine into four sentences:
- The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government.
- This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940.
- Yet this is quite erroneous.
- The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments.
which are held together by various cohesive devices.
Words
The text above consists of 66 word tokens:
“1931, 1931, 1940, as, between, between, coalition, coalition, crisis, different, different, distinguish, distinguish, do, easy, erroneous, first, from, government, government, government, government. Governments, historian, historians, if, in, is, is, is, most, national, national, not, of, of, of, of, of, or, persist, quite, ruled, same, should, since, sort, speaking, step, the, the, the, the, the, this, this, three, three, to, to, to, towards, types, types, understanding, yet”.
or 42 different word types:
“1931, 1940, as, between, coalition, crisis, different, distinguish, do, easy, erroneous, first, from, government, governments, historian, historians, if, in, is, most, national, not, of, or, persist, quite, ruled, same, should, since, sort, speaking, step, the, this, three, to, towards, types, understanding, yet”.
According to Compleat Lexical Tutor, ignoring the numbers, 35 (blue & green) of these are from Michael West’s General Service List (Vocabulary: GSL), 2 (yellow) are from Coxhead’s Academic Word List (Vocabulary: AWL) and 2 (red) are not on either list.
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. Yet this is quite erroneous. The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
Some of the words in the text are complex words, that is they are composed of smaller parts – morphemes.
The words: “different, erroneous, governments, historian, historians, national, ruled, speaking, understanding” are composed of smaller morphemes, sometimes with spelling changes:
- differ + ent
- error + neous
- govern + ment + s
- history + an + s
- nation + al
- rule + ed
- speak + ing
- understand + ing
Some of these are grammatical inflections “rule+ed, speak+ing, undestand+ing, government+s, historian+s” and some use affixes to make new words: “differ+ent, error+neous, govern+ment, history+an, nation+al“.
See: Grammar: Morphology
The text includes nouns: Some are highlighted:
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. Yet this is quite erroneous. The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
See: Grammar: Nouns
It also includes verbs: Some are highlighted:
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. Yet this is quite erroneous. The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
Most are finite verbs but “understanding“, “distinguish“, “speaking” and “distinguish” are non-finite and “should” is a modal verb.
See: Grammar: Verbs
There are also adjectives. Some are highlighted:
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. Yet this is quite erroneous. The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
See: Grammar: Adjectives
and prepositions. Some are highlighted:
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. Yet this is quite erroneous. The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
It includes articles, or other determiners. Some are highlighted:
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. Yet this is quite erroneous. The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
See: Grammar: Articles
and conjunctions. Some are highlighted:
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. Yet this is quite erroneous. The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
It also includes some of what are traditionally called adverbs:
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. Yet this is quite erroneous. The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
Groups
These 66 words combine into groups. The nouns are part of nominal groups. Some examples are highlighted, and the head noun is underlined:
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. Yet this is quite erroneous. The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
The nominal groups shown here function as subjects – The “first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931” – or objects of prepositions – “three different types of coalition government”.
Some adjectives are parts of adjectival groups. Some examples are highlighted.
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. Yet this is quite erroneous. The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
“quite erroneous” and “not easy to do” are adjectival groups, “erroneous” being pre-modified by “quite” while “easy” is pre-modified by “not” and post-modified by “to do“,
See: Grammar: Adjectival Groups
Some adjectives are attributive; but others are predicative, parts of complements
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. Yet this is quite erroneous. The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
Clauses
The text consists of four sentences, or clause complexes.
1The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. 2This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. 3Yet this is quite erroneous. 4The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
These four sentences are made up of seven clauses:
- The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931
- Distinguish between different types of coalition government.
- This is not easy to do.
- Most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government”
- The same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940
- This is quite erroneous.
- The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments.
See: Grammar: Clauses
Here are some examples of how they can be described (↓ = realised by):
1The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government.
Clause Complex | |||||||||||
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. | |||||||||||
SUBJECT | PREDICATOR | ||||||||||
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 | is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. | ||||||||||
PREDICATE | COMPLEMENT | ||||||||||
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 | is | to distinguish between different types of coalition government. | |||||||||
↓ | ↓ | ↓ | |||||||||
Verbal Group | |||||||||||
Nominal Group | Verb | Non-Finite Clause | |||||||||
PRE-MOD | HEAD | POST-MODIFIER | HEAD | to | Verb | Prep | Nominal Group | ||||
↓ | ↓ | ↓ | |||||||||
Det | NomG | Non-Finite Clause | |||||||||
The first | step | towards understanding the crisis of 1931 | is | to | distinguish | between | different types of coalition government. | ||||
PRE-MOD | HEAD | ||||||||||
↓ | ↓ | ||||||||||
towards | understanding | the crisis of 1931 | is | NomG | |||||||
the crisis | of 1931 | is | different types of | coalition government | |||||||
The first | step | towards | undertsanding | the crisis | of 1931 | is | to | distinguish | beteen | different types of | coalition government. |
2This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940.
Clause Complex | ||||||||||||||
This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940. | ||||||||||||||
Independent Clause | Coordinating Conjunction | Independent Clause | ||||||||||||
SUBJECT | PREDICATE | since | SUBJECT | PREDICATE | ||||||||||
This | is not easy to do | since | most historians | persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940 | ||||||||||
↓ | PREDICATOR | COMPLEMENT | PREDICATOR | COMPLEMENT | ||||||||||
↓ | ↓ | ↓ | ↓ | ↓ | ||||||||||
NomG | Verbal Group | Adjectival Group | NomG | Verbal Group | Compound Non-Finite Clause | |||||||||
Pronoun | verb | not easy to do | PRE-MOD | HEAD | persist in | speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940 | ||||||||
is | ↓ | ↓ | ||||||||||||
This | PRE-MOD | HEAD | POST-MOD | most | NomG | speaking of “The National Government” | as if | the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940 | ||||||
↓ | ↓ | ↓ | Noun | Non-Finite Clause | Conjunction | Finite Clause | ||||||||
Adjectival Group | Non-Finite Clause |
historians |
SUBJECT | PREDICATE | ||||||||||
Adjective | to+VerbG | PREDICATOR | ADJUNCT | |||||||||||
↓ | ↓ | ↓ | ||||||||||||
to+Verb | Verbal Group | Nominal Group | NomG | Verbal Group | Prep Group | |||||||||
not | easy | to do | speaking of | The National Government | the same sort of government | ruled | from 1931 to 1940 | |||||||
This | is | not | easy | to do | since | most | historians | persist in | speaking of | The National Government | as if | the same sort of government | ruled | from 1931 to 1940. |
3Yet this is quite erroneous.
Clause | ||||
Yet this is quite erroneous. | ||||
ADJUNCT | SUBJECT | PREDICATE | ||
PREDICATOR | COMPLEMENT | |||
↓ | ↓ | ↓ | ↓ | |
Adverbial Group | Nominal Group | Verbal Group | Adjectival Group | |
Adverb | Pronoun | Verb | PRE-MOD | HEAD |
↓ | ↓ | |||
Adverb | Adjective | |||
Yet | this | is | quite | erroneous. |
4The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments.
Clause | |||||||||
The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. | |||||||||
SUBJECT | PREDICATE | ||||||||
The historian | should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. | ||||||||
↓ | PREDICATOR | COMPLEMENT | |||||||
NomG | should distinguish | between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. | |||||||
↓ | ↓ | ||||||||
Det | Noun | ↓ | Preposition | Compound Prepositional Object | |||||
the | historian | verbal group | between | three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. | |||||
Modal | Verb | Nominal Group | Conjunction | Nominal Group | |||||
should | distinguish | PRE-MOD | HEAD | PRE-MOD | HEAD | ||||
↓ | ↓ | ||||||||
Nominal Group | Nominal Group | ||||||||
three different types of | coalition government | or | three | National Governments | |||||
The | historian | should | distinguish | between | three different types of | coalition government | or | three | National Governments. |
Cohesion
Cohesion refers to the grammatical and lexical connections that exist in a text. It is what holds the text together.
The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of “The National Government” as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940.Yetthis is quite erroneous. The historian should distinguish between three different types of coalition government, or three National Governments. |
See: Grammar: Cohesion