This Is

English

Communicative competence is the ability not just to produce

correct sentences, but to know ‘when’, ‘where’ and with
‘whom’ to use them.
– DELL HYMES

ENGLISH, like any other language, is a conventional system of vocal

sounds developed by its native speakers for communication and
interaction. Here, the three important things to remember are:
1. the vocal sounds, which are used as raw material, function
as symbols;
2. the system, which the native speakers of English have developed,
is based on conventions; and
3. the system is developed for purposes of communication and
interaction between members of the speech community.
Of all the sounds that the organs of speech are capable of
producing, the standard British variety of English uses only forty-
four. These will be discussed later under phonology.
The sounds as such do not have any inherent meanings but
when they get organised into higher units called words, they
function as symbols capable of distinguishing meaning, for example,
pin and bin, pin and pen, pin and pit denote different meanings.
The higher meaningful units — the words — also function as
symbols which stand for objects, actions etc. This attachment of
meaning with words is completely arbitrary and depends on
convention. For instance, the sounds denoted by the letters d, g
and o have no inherent meaning attached to them; when they come
together as dog they denote a particular animal but when they
come together as god they denote an entirely different meaning.
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KNOWING ABOUT ENGLISH

Words by themselves or by coming together form phrases and

phrases come together to form clauses. Though the word (for our
purposes) is the smallest unit of meaning, the clause is the smallest
unit of communication. In the structure of a clause, words function
as members of one or the other form class — parts of speech
according to traditional grammar — carrying with them the
grammatical characteristics of that class. Hence, the structure of a
clause comprises words or phrases as members of grammatical
classes and if we substitute a word or phrase with another one
belonging to the same form class we get another grammatically
correct clause but with a different meaning. For instance, I want to
buy shirts and She wants to buy a saree are grammatically correct
but *They want to buy a happy or *He wants to buy a write are not,
because happy and write cannot function as nouns, the form class
to which shirt and saree belong.
But in English, lots of words have the ability to function as
members of two or more grammatical classes. You might have read
the story, ‘The Cat and the Mice’. Let’s take an example from it.
Look at these two questions:
(i) Who is going to bring the bell?
(ii) Who is going to bell the cat?
In the first question, bell is functioning as a noun and has taken the
definite article the before it while in the second question, bell is
functioning as a verb and has taken the infinitive to before it.
We have said earlier that the clause is the smallest unit of
communication. This is necessary because the meaning of a clause
is always more than the sum of the meanings of the words in it.
When words come together to form the next higher unit they play
a dual role. They function not only as members of grammatical
classes but also as members of functional categories. As members
of grammatical classes they control the structure of the phrase
and as members of functional categories they add new dimensions

Note: An asterisk (*) is used preceding an example to indicate that it represents

a form which would be an unacceptable or ungrammatical utterance, phrase,
clause or sentence.
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THIS IS ENGLISH

of meaning to their own lexical meaning. Let’s take an example:

(i) A : What is it?
B : It is a green leaf.
(ii) A : What colour is it?
B : It is leaf green.
In the first, green adds to the meaning of leaf — describes
what kind of leaf it is; but in the second, leaf adds to the
meaning of green — describes what kind of colour it is. How
does it come about? Clearly, it is the result of change in the
positions of green and leaf in the two phrases. In the first, leaf
is the head and green is the modifier. But in the second, green
is the head and leaf is the modifier. Head and modifier are
functional categories.
Phrases also function as members of one or the other major
grammatical classes — noun, adjective, verb and adverb —
and come together to form the next higher unit. Like words,
phrases also play a dual role. As members of grammatical classes
they control the structure of the clause and as members of
functional categories they control the meaning of the clause.
Look at these two headlines — one has no news value while the
other is great news:
(i) DOG BITES MAN
(ii) MAN BITES DOG
Both of them have the same three words and they function as
members of the same grammatical classes in the two headlines —
both man and dog function as noun phrases and bites functions
as a verb phrase. What is responsible for this dramatic change in
the meaning? Again, the change in meaning is the result of the
change in the position of the two nouns, man and dog. In the first,
dog comes before bites and functions as subject while man, coming
after the verb phrase, functions as object. In the second, the
positions are changed and hence the roles are reversed. Both subject
and object are functional categories.
Now, look at this telegraphic message:
SHIP SAILS TODAY
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KNOWING ABOUT ENGLISH

It is ambiguous because it can be interpreted in any one of the

following ways.
(i) Ship the sails today.
(ii) The ship sails today.
In (i) ship is interpreted as a verb and sails as its object while
in (ii), ship is interpreted as the subject and sails as the verb.
In English, independent clauses function as simple sentences
but when they come together they form compound or complex
sentences. In compound sentences they are joined by coordinative
conjunctions and their behaviour is like that of words or phrases.
(i) For breakfast, you can have bread and butter.
(ii) In the vintage car rally Imran was driving a 1924 model
Buick and Michael was driving a 1928 model Chevrolet.
But when they combine to form complex sentences, they
function as noun clauses, adjective clauses or adverb clauses in
the structure of the main clause.
(i) A draw is certain.
(ii) That the match will end in a draw is certain.
(iii) The lady whom you saw in the morning is a dancer.
(iv) I know that they are not coming to the meeting.
(v) They should have informed you yesterday.
(vi) They should have informed you when they reached there.
Most grammatical discussions stop at the level of the sentence
though there are valid reasons for going beyond it to the level of
the text. Look at these two examples:
(i) A : Look! I have bought a new saree.
B : Oh! It’s gorgeous. How much did you pay for it?
A : Three hundred and twenty-five.
B : A real bargain, isn’t it?
(ii) X : Our team lost by just one run.
Y : What was the target?
X : Three hundred and twenty-five.
Y : Real bad luck, I would say.
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These two dialogues, like any other piece of text (a letter, an

essay etc.), have a closely-knit structure. You cannot shuffle the
sentences around. Moreover, look at the two occurrences of three
hundred and twenty-five. They would be interpreted in two different
ways depending on the context. The first would be understood as
‘I paid three hundred and twenty-five rupees for it’ and the second
as ‘The target was three hundred and twenty-five runs’.
The hierarchy of levels must have become evident by now. The
lowest level in the hierarchy is the word as a member of a
grammatical class and the highest level is the text (a conversation,
a letter, an essay, a book etc.). The following illustrates the
hierarchy.
Text: It is time we changed our way of thinking. So far, we
have been laying emphasis on the rights of the people
but we never bothered to remind them of their duties.
This has landed us in a chaos.
Sentence: So far, we have been laying emphasis on the rights of
the people but we never bothered to remind them of
their duties.
Clause: we never bothered to remind them of their duties
Phrase: their duties
Word: duties
This hierarchy is based on the basic concepts of unit, rank
and construction.
Each higher unit consists of one or more smaller units arranged
in a particular order. For instance, a phrase is made up of one or
more words arranged in a particular order depending on their
function in terms of modifier and head.
An important thing to note here is that it is possible for a unit
of the same or higher unit to operate in the structure of a particular
unit. Look at these examples:
(i) The old man is a renowned teacher.
(ii) The old man in a grey suit is a renowned teacher.
(iii) The old man who is sitting in that corner is a renowned
teacher.
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In (i), the subject is the noun phrase the old man with man
as the head and old and the as modifiers. In (ii), the subject is
the noun phrase the old man in a grey suit, which contains the
prepositional phrase in a grey suit functioning as a modifier of
man — the head in the noun phrase the old man. And in (iii), the
subject is the noun phrase the old man who is sitting in that
corner which contains the clause who is sitting in the corner
functioning as a modifier of man — the head in the noun phrase
the old man.
This recursive ability of structures enables us to produce pretty
long sentences. Look at this example :
This is the essay that won the prize.
This is the girl that wrote the essay that won the prize.
This is the teacher that taught the girl that wrote the essay that
won the prize.
This is the college that produced the teacher that taught the
girl that wrote the essay that won the prize.
This is the society that runs the college that produced the
teacher that taught the girl that wrote the essay that won
the prize.
This is the man that heads the society that runs the college
that produced the teacher that taught the girl that wrote the
essay that won the prize.
Now, for a systematic grammatical description, there could be
two approaches — top-down or bottom-up. It could begin at the
level of text and go down to the level of word or it could begin at the
level of word and go up to the level of text. But practically, it is
more insightful to begin at the level of clause and go down to the
level of word and then come back to the level of clause and go up to
the level of text. We will adopt this approach.