Grammar is the broad term for the rules and systems that govern how we use english. Syntax (aspect of grammar) refers more specifically to the ways in which words are put together to form sentences.
A phrase is a group of words grouped together in order to make their meaning clear.
A phrase usually contains a head word and accompanying modifiers
Head Word --> Main word
^ ^
Pre modifiers Post modifiers
Modifiers - describe ( give more info)
Determiner - Determines the modifier 'The'
If the head word is a verb, the phrase is a verb phrase...If the head word is an adjective, the phrase is an adjective phrase, and so on.
Most sentences have one or more noun phrases. A noun phrase usually has a noun or pronoun as its head word. These are all noun phrases, 'The house' 'The old house'.
Phrases can be combined to form clauses. A clause has to contain a verb phrase and one or more type of phrase.
Similar to noun phrases, a verb phrase can be a single word, e.g. 'go'
or a few words if auxiliary verb are added to the main verb, e.g. 'might go' 'will go'.
There are five elements that can be combined in various ways to form clauses, all five are present below:
Stevie / made / me / a lovely cup of tea / yesterday
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Subject verb object compliment object adverbial
Stevie --> The subject of a clause performs the action that is described, so it usually comes before the verb. It is normally a noun phrase.
Made --> The verb is the second element
Me --> The object normally follows the verb, providing an answer to the question. "Who or what has something been done to?"
A lovely cup of tea--> The compliment gives more information about the subject or (in this case) more info about the object.
Yesterday --> The adverbial is as the end to give more information (time as to when the tea was made).
Passive voice - Object at start of sentence
Active voice - Subject comes first
Ellipsis occurs when one or more elements are missing from a clause or sentence:
A: Off out tonight ? ( missing 'Are you' )
B: Not sure (missing 'I'm')
Each of these utterances are elliptical (dropping words in speech)
Sentence types:
simple sentence contains one clause.
compound sentence contains two clauses joined together by a co-ordinating conjunction (and,but,so)
complex sentence contains a main clause and a subordinate clause (which is of less importance but adds on a lot of extra information).
Subordinate clauses cannot stand alone because they don't make sense by themselves.
- A subordinate clause is attached to the main clause by subhordinating conjunctions (because, which, when).
Another way of classifying sentences is to identify their functions or moods:
- Declarative sentences make statements or give information.
'Its going to rain today'
- Interrogative sentences ask questions.
'Miss, can I get something please?'
- Imperative sentences issue commands, advice and instructions.
'Write your H/W in your diary'
- Exclamatory sentences are emphatic sentences which in written texts are indicated by an exclamation mark.
Syndetic and asyndetic listing
Syndetic listing --> When a sentence contains a list, and within the list there are one or more conjunctions.
Asyndetic listing --> When you list things without using conjunctions.
Parallelism occurs when parts of a sentence (or complete
sentences) have a similar grammatical structure.
A phrase is a group of words grouped together in order to make their meaning clear.
A phrase usually contains a head word and accompanying modifiers
Head Word --> Main word
^ ^
Pre modifiers Post modifiers
Modifiers - describe ( give more info)
Determiner - Determines the modifier 'The'
If the head word is a verb, the phrase is a verb phrase...If the head word is an adjective, the phrase is an adjective phrase, and so on.
Most sentences have one or more noun phrases. A noun phrase usually has a noun or pronoun as its head word. These are all noun phrases, 'The house' 'The old house'.
Phrases can be combined to form clauses. A clause has to contain a verb phrase and one or more type of phrase.
Similar to noun phrases, a verb phrase can be a single word, e.g. 'go'
or a few words if auxiliary verb are added to the main verb, e.g. 'might go' 'will go'.
There are five elements that can be combined in various ways to form clauses, all five are present below:
Stevie / made / me / a lovely cup of tea / yesterday
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Subject verb object compliment object adverbial
Stevie --> The subject of a clause performs the action that is described, so it usually comes before the verb. It is normally a noun phrase.
Made --> The verb is the second element
Me --> The object normally follows the verb, providing an answer to the question. "Who or what has something been done to?"
A lovely cup of tea--> The compliment gives more information about the subject or (in this case) more info about the object.
Yesterday --> The adverbial is as the end to give more information (time as to when the tea was made).
Passive voice - Object at start of sentence
Active voice - Subject comes first
Ellipsis occurs when one or more elements are missing from a clause or sentence:
A: Off out tonight ? ( missing 'Are you' )
B: Not sure (missing 'I'm')
Each of these utterances are elliptical (dropping words in speech)
Sentence types:
simple sentence contains one clause.
compound sentence contains two clauses joined together by a co-ordinating conjunction (and,but,so)
complex sentence contains a main clause and a subordinate clause (which is of less importance but adds on a lot of extra information).
Subordinate clauses cannot stand alone because they don't make sense by themselves.
- A subordinate clause is attached to the main clause by subhordinating conjunctions (because, which, when).
Another way of classifying sentences is to identify their functions or moods:
- Declarative sentences make statements or give information.
'Its going to rain today'
- Interrogative sentences ask questions.
'Miss, can I get something please?'
- Imperative sentences issue commands, advice and instructions.
'Write your H/W in your diary'
- Exclamatory sentences are emphatic sentences which in written texts are indicated by an exclamation mark.
Syndetic and asyndetic listing
Syndetic listing --> When a sentence contains a list, and within the list there are one or more conjunctions.
Asyndetic listing --> When you list things without using conjunctions.
Parallelism occurs when parts of a sentence (or complete
sentences) have a similar grammatical structure.
Horror story + commentary concentrating on grammar and syntax
Run, run, run is all that I could think of, faster, faster as fast as my feet could take me through this dark barren forest. My heart colliding vehemently against my broken ribs, my mouth skewed gasping for breath, my feet plummeting down desperately against the wet cutting ground as I run through this death trap. My mind telling me I should keep running, but my slashed soles are begging that I should stop. His voice echoed through the
burnt trees, seeping through my skin and shattering every remaining bone in this helpless corpse of mine as he screamed my name, "JASMINE!" CRACK. The sound of my jaw hitting the icy ground as I collapse forward. I lay there trying to muster up the last ounce of strength I could generate which enabled me to haul my feeble body into a narrow crevice in a tree. Will he catch me? Will he not? As this hole being the only barrier between life and death.
Commentary
I have written the beginning of a horror story and through my choice of grammar and syntax I have tried to create a dark and thrilling atmosphere through writing in an active voice style. At the beginning of my story I used
repetition on the words 'run' and 'faster' to put emphasis on the action that is running because I want the reader to empathise with what the character is feeling and the urgency of the situation.
I have also used a mixture of different sentence styles, from complex to short to create different effects. An example of a short simple sentence is 'As this hole being the only barrier between life and death,' I used this to create a short conclusion at the end of my story to make it dramatic and make the reader want to know what happens next as it doesn’t give away a lot. Another example of a very short to the point sentence is 'CRACK' which I used to describe the noise of the character falling over because I wanted to make it quite sudden and by having a one word sentence, it draws a lot of attention to the word. In contrast I have used quite a lot of complex long sentences such as when I talk about the character lying on the floor as I have used 'which' to connect the subordinate clause to the main clause.
I have also used other types of syntax like asyndetic listing at the beginning to describe how the character is feeling, 'My heart colliding vehemently against my broken ribs, my mouth gasping for air…' this is asyndetic
because I haven't used and conjunctions to join my list together which creates a more dramatic, abrupt atmosphere rather than using conjunctions to make it flow which doesn’t convey the shock factor. I have also used exclamatory sentences such as 'JASMINE!' to show the man shouting for her and I have also used
interrogative sentences such as 'Will he catch me?', 'Will he not?' I used this to make the reader think a bit about the situation and to see what is going through the characters head at the time to make it easier to empathise with. Lastly I have used parallelism when I say 'My mind telling me I should keep running, but my slashed soles are begging that I should stop. 'This is an example of parallelism because I have used 'should' which is a modal auxiliary in both parts of the sentence making them grammatically similar.
burnt trees, seeping through my skin and shattering every remaining bone in this helpless corpse of mine as he screamed my name, "JASMINE!" CRACK. The sound of my jaw hitting the icy ground as I collapse forward. I lay there trying to muster up the last ounce of strength I could generate which enabled me to haul my feeble body into a narrow crevice in a tree. Will he catch me? Will he not? As this hole being the only barrier between life and death.
Commentary
I have written the beginning of a horror story and through my choice of grammar and syntax I have tried to create a dark and thrilling atmosphere through writing in an active voice style. At the beginning of my story I used
repetition on the words 'run' and 'faster' to put emphasis on the action that is running because I want the reader to empathise with what the character is feeling and the urgency of the situation.
I have also used a mixture of different sentence styles, from complex to short to create different effects. An example of a short simple sentence is 'As this hole being the only barrier between life and death,' I used this to create a short conclusion at the end of my story to make it dramatic and make the reader want to know what happens next as it doesn’t give away a lot. Another example of a very short to the point sentence is 'CRACK' which I used to describe the noise of the character falling over because I wanted to make it quite sudden and by having a one word sentence, it draws a lot of attention to the word. In contrast I have used quite a lot of complex long sentences such as when I talk about the character lying on the floor as I have used 'which' to connect the subordinate clause to the main clause.
I have also used other types of syntax like asyndetic listing at the beginning to describe how the character is feeling, 'My heart colliding vehemently against my broken ribs, my mouth gasping for air…' this is asyndetic
because I haven't used and conjunctions to join my list together which creates a more dramatic, abrupt atmosphere rather than using conjunctions to make it flow which doesn’t convey the shock factor. I have also used exclamatory sentences such as 'JASMINE!' to show the man shouting for her and I have also used
interrogative sentences such as 'Will he catch me?', 'Will he not?' I used this to make the reader think a bit about the situation and to see what is going through the characters head at the time to make it easier to empathise with. Lastly I have used parallelism when I say 'My mind telling me I should keep running, but my slashed soles are begging that I should stop. 'This is an example of parallelism because I have used 'should' which is a modal auxiliary in both parts of the sentence making them grammatically similar.