PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR 101
long-standing association between grammar and logic, as well as the pejorative
connotations of the expression, “ungrammatical,” make it hard for many to em-
brace the idea that nonstandard English can be just as grammatical and logical
as Standard. The message inherent in phrase-structure grammar is that it is
quite difficult for native speakers of a language to produce ungrammatical sen-
tences. This message, as we shall see, has significant implications for teaching
grammar and writing.
APPLYING KEY IDEASObserve how you change your language on the basis of context. Chances are
that your language is more formal in the classroom than it is at home or in the
school cafeteria. Using a small recorder, tape your conversations in two con-
trasting settings and then analyze your speech in a couple of paragraphs that ex-
plain how it differs by context. Look at word choice, sentence length and
structure, and degree of repetition. Does your language vary by context? If so,
what does this tell you about appropriateness conditions and acceptability?
PHRASE-STRUCTURE RULESThe emphasis on description in phrase-structure grammar is important in many
ways, but one of the more salient is its effect on the notion of a grammar rule. In
traditional grammar, rules are essentially inviolable, and we are asked to force
language to conform to the rules. In phrase-structure grammar, the situation is
different. The term “rule” is used very loosely to describe the observed gram-
matical patterns that exist in a given language. Consequently, when we use the
term “rule” in phrase-structure grammar, we are not referring to an inviolable
statement about language; instead, we are referring to a pattern of constructions
that are characteristic of and that describe a given language. Another way of ex-
pressing this point is to say that phrase-structure grammar does not have a gen-
erative component. The “rules” we use do notproducesentences; they merely
describethem. As a result, the “rules” change whenever we encounter a
real-world utterance that the “rules” do not describe.
A key to understanding phrase-structure grammar therefore lies in being
able to look at a string of words and determine how to describe the string using
the grammar. That is one of the tasks of this chapter. We have already noted that
grammatical analysis focuses on language at the sentence level; in phrase-
structure grammar, this focus is made highly explicit through the kinds of ques-