4.4.1 Structural analysis
One type of descriptive approach is called structural analysis. Its main objective is to study the distribution of linguistic forms in a language.
4.2 Word Classes
unacceptable a. Cries fear the the of hunter blackbirds the. b. The hunter fears the cries of the blackbirds. acceptable
What we are here concerned with is the grammatical structure.
The method involves the use of “test-frames”. car, radio, child, etc. (4) The _____ makes a lot of noise. All these linguistic forms fit in the same testframe, they are likely to belong to the same grammatical category, i.e. noun. noun
However, we should note that it does not mean that these prescriptive rules cannot be broken. In spoken English, for example, split infinitives as to boldly go instead of to go boldly or boldly to go are used sometimes.