Chapter 5

Grammatical CA
Chapter 5: Grammatical CA

The concept of grammar

Chapter 5: Grammatical CA
Grammatical Categories ASPECT

She sang. [action happening once]

She sings. [action happening repeatedly (e.g. as a job)]
She has sung. [action completed]
She is singing. [action continuing]
 Chapter 5: Grammatical CA
Grammatical Categories CASE
(1)The nominative, which marks a noun or noun phrase as the subject of
the verb, and which is known in English as the ‘subjective case’;
(2)The accusative, which marks a noun or noun phrase as the direct
object of the verb; for example, in the German sentence Ursula kaufte
einen neuen Tisch (Ursula bought a new table), the article ein and the
adjective neu in the noun phrase ieinen neuen Tisch have the inflectional
ending –en to show that the noun phrase is in the accusative case
because it is the direct object of the verb;
(3)The dative, which marks a noun or noun phrase as the indirect object
of the verb; for example, in the German sentence Sie gab der Katze eine
Schale Milch ‘She gave the cat a dish (of) milk’, the article in the noun
phrase der Katze has the inflectional ending –er to show that the noun
phrase is in the dative case (nominative case = die Katze) because it is
the indirect object of the verb (in English, the accusative and the dative
are ‘leveled’ under one heading – the objective, which marks pronouns
only);
 Chapter 5: Grammatical CA
Grammatical Categories CASE
(4) The genitive, which marks a noun or a noun phrase as in a
possessive relation with another noun or noun phrase; for example, in
the German sentence Dort drüben ist das Haus des Bürgermeisters (Over
there is the house of the mayor / mayot‘s house), the article and the noun
in the noun phrase des Bürgermeisters (= of the mayor; while the mayor
= der Bürgermeister) has the inflectional ending –es and –s respectively
to show that they are in the genitive case because they refer to the owner
of das Haus (in English, the case is called the possessive);
(5) The vocative, which marks a noun or noun phrase as being
addressed, e.g. “Really dear, do you think so?“, “Mr Gates, listen to me“
(6) The ablative, which marks a noun or noun phrase as being removed
or directed from some place or deprived of something, or indicating
source, cause, agency, etc. It is the form of a noun, pronoun, or adjective
that you use in some languages when you are talking about who
something is done by, what something is done with, or where something
comes from.
 Chapter 5: Grammatical CA
Grammatical Categories GENDER

Gender, in some languages, is a grammatical distionction in

which words such as nouns, articles, adjectives, and
pronouns are marked according to a distinction between
masculine, feminine, and sometimes neuter.
The French sentence Je suis arrivée, for example, tells us
that a woman is speaking apart from the information that she
arrived just now or sometme ago (Cf. Je suis arrivé.)
 Chapter 5: Grammatical CA
Grammatical Categories MOOD

Mood, expresses the speaker‘s or writer‘s attitude to what is

said or written. Typical contrasts are made between the
indicative (indicating factuality), the subjunctive (indicating
possibility or uncertainty, its use now being restricted to
formulaic phrases or very formal situations), and the
imperative (expressing a command or exhortation).
 Chapter 5: Grammatical CA
Grammatical Categories NUMBER

Number distinguishes nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.

according to whether they are singular or plural, and
countable or uncountable.

Examples: ???
 Chapter 5: Grammatical CA
Grammatical Categories PERSON

Person marks pronouns and, in most languages,

corresponding verb forms, according to whether the pronoun
represents or includes the person or persons actually
speaking or writing (first person), whether the pronoun
represents or includes the person or persons being
addressed (second person), and whether the pronoun
represets someone or something other than the speaker /
writer or the listener / reader (third person).
 Chapter 5: Grammatical CA
Grammatical Categories TENSE

Tense indicates the relationship between the form of a verb

and the time of the action or state it describes. Typical
contrasts are made between the present, the past (preterite)
and the future.
One thing that distinguishes Vietnamese verbs from English
ones is that English verbs conjugate (i.e. to vary the form of
a verb, by which are identified the voice, mood, tense,
number, and person to mark different tenses whereas
Vietnamese verbs, having no conjugations whatsoever,
depend upon adverbs and auxiliaries to mark the tense
 Chapter 5: Grammatical CA
Grammatical Categories VOICE

Voice expresses the relationship between a verb and the

noun phrase(s) which are associated with it. Typical contrasts
are made between the active, the passive, the middle
(reflexive) (a form of the verb by which its subject is
represented as both the agent (doer) and the recipient
(object) of the action, that is, as performing some act to or
upon oneself, or for one‘s own advantage, e.g the classical
Greek didaskomai (I get myself taught), and the causative
(e.g. in Malay: Dia menjatuhkan gelas itu, literally, “He cause
to fall glass the“ – “He dropped the glass“).
 Chapter 5: Grammatical CA

EXERCISES
1.How do you understand the concept of ‘grammar’? In the traditional
sense of the term, what branches of study does grammar comprise?
2.What is a ‘grammatical category’? Name as many grammatical
categories in English as you can.
3. What is the difference between inflection and derivation?

Quiz:
world language review
world language introductory