ENGLISH Chapter 3

• WORD STRUCTURES & CLASSES

• SYNTAX

• GRAMMAR: morphology & Syntax

• MORPHOLOGY: the study of the structure of words in a language

• MORPHEMES: the smallest unit of meaning

Orthographic words

• An orthographic word is a written sequence which has a white space at each end but no white space in the middle

• Orthographic words exist only in written texts, and they have no existence in speech.

WORDS & SENTENCES

• WORD = A sequence of letters bounded by spaces

• SENTENCE = a sequence of words. The first of which begins with a capital letter. And the last of which is completed by a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.

These definitions are based upon our idea of

written language.

Is it the same in spoken language?

Sentences are not primarily about how you write them,

but about the kind of structures that they have.

Word boundaries

Confusion between writing and speaking!

• …….apynamilk

• He said he wanted a pint of milk (orthographic version)

COMPOUND WORDS /Compounds

Words that form a unit made up of 2 or more

single words: e.g. Time lag; time-lag; timelag

Criteria to establish boundaries between words

In order to establish boundaries between words

linguists use a variety of criteria from several

linguistic levels:

• PHONOLOGICAL (sounds & their combination)

• MORPHOLOGICAL (word structure)

• SEMANTIC (meaning)

• SYNTACTIC (sentence structure)

HOMOGRAPHS

• Words spelt the same, but with different pronunciation & meaning?

e.g. bow, sow, refuse

HOMOPHONES • Words pronounced the same, but with different

spellings & meanings? e.g. feet/feat, practice/practise

Each sentence contains two homographs. The definition or a synonym of one of

the homographs follows the sentence. Underline the homograph that matches the

definition or synonym. The first three have been done for you.

1. Tracey didn’t feel well after falling into the well. in good health

2. Jim hunts, but he does not shoot does. female deer

3. There was a big row in the first row of the theater. fight

4. Let’s wind up the kite string before the wind gets too wild. moving air

5. If the judges are fair, our rabbit will win a ribbon at the fair. just

6. That creaking sound makes me wonder if this building is sound. in good

condition

7. The oil well is yours and the gold mine is mine. belonging to me

8. The dove dove to the ground to eat the peanut. dived

9. I found it hard to believe that he planned to found a new church.

establish, or start

10. The rose bushes rose out of the fertile ground. a kind of flower

11. I won’t shed a tear if you tear my old shirt into shreds. rip

12. The dog was happy when you dropped the ground beef onto the

ground. past of grind

HOMONYMS

• Words spelt and pronounced the same (same form), but with clearly different meanings?

e.g. bank, stick, break

POLYSEMOUS • Words spelt and pronounced the same (same form),

but with a number of senses or variants of a single meaning?

e.g. grow

More than one part of speech

• Some words can be more than one part of speech, e.g.

• COOK: A cook is someone who cooks food.

• ORANGE: An orange is an orange fruit.

Use your dictionary to find out what parts of speech

these words can be:

TALK – HEAD – DRINK – FLAT -

START – RENT – SLICE - HEAT

WORD FORMS

• Words may have more than one spelling (medieval, mediaeval);

• There may be variant forms of the same word (Katherine, Kathryn, Catherine);

• There might be pronunciation variants, systematic variations of sounds (accent);

INFLECTIONS :

in NOUNS, VERBS, ADJECTIVES

Spelling and pronunciation

reflect grammatical differences

To sum up: 4 types of ‘WORD’

• ORTHOGRAPHIC WORDS = spelling

• PHONOLOGICAL WORDS = pronunciation

• WORD-FORMS = grammatical variants

• LEXEMES =

items of meaning, headwords of dictionary entries, 1 orthographic word

His father wants to hand on to him his hard-earned wealth, while his mother desires to put something more valuable into his hand.

Count the number of words in the above sentence.

• WORDS as units of meaning, or items of vocabulary (Lexemes)

• WORDS as defined by spelling, orthographic, phonological words.

• WORDS as representatives of family variants: eg costly, costlier, costliest ( Lemma and its word forms)

LEXEMES in dictionaries

• HEADWORDS : base forms of the word, ‘citation forms’.

• VERBS: present tense form or the infinitive without ‘to’/ the form that is not suffixed.

• NOUNS: the singular common case form.

• ADJECTIVES: the absolute form.

• The entry under a particular headword may contain derived lexemes (they belong to a different word class)

MULTI-WORD LEXEMES

• PHRASAL VERB = single lexemes

- a verb followed by an adverb particle that can be positioned after the object.

e.g. Jane has thought up a good excuse

• PREPOSITIONAL VERBS = not always regarded as single lexemes

- a verb followed by a preposition particle (it belongs to the following phrase)

e.g. look after, think about,

LEXICAL & GRAMMATICAL WORDS

• LEXICAL classes are open (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

• GRAMMATICAL or FUNCTION words/classes are stable (pronouns, determiners, prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, auxiliary verbs)

MORPHEMES

• Singing: 2 morphemes = SING + ING

• But, BRIGHT, ICE, RINK are only one morpheme

• Unlike phonemes, morphemes have an identifiable meaning, eg – like, -ing, -ly, etc.

Morphology

• Between the levels of phonology and syntax

• Free morphemes: no addition

• Bound morphemes: affixes

• In English all lexical morphemes and many grammatical ones are free.

TASK 1 - Break the following words into their morphemes

Example: prefix = 2, pre + fix • dogs = • trusted = • replacements = • crying = • governmental = • grandmothers = • milder = • bicycle = • environmentally = • contemplation = • linguistic =

Break the words into their morphemes

• prefix = 2, pre + fix • dogs = 2, dog + s • trusted = 2, trust + ed • replacements = 4, re + place + ment + s • crying = 2, cry + ing • governmental = 3, govern + ment + al • grandmothers = 3, grand + mother + s • milder = 2, mild + er • bicycle = 2, bi + cycle • environmentally = 4, environ + ment + al + ly • contemplation = 2, contemplat(e) + ion • linguistic = 2, linguist + ic

List the morphemes and state whether they are free or bound

1. creating 6. unhealthy

2. seaward 7. waiter

3. wastage 8. reconsider

4. incomplete 9. keys

5. modernize 10. astronomer

ENGLISH WORD DIVISION Analyze the following words into morphs using the

model given below:

PREFIX(ES) ROOTS) SUFFIX(ES)

inequality in- equal -ity

• (a) hospitalization

• (b) invisibly

• (c) uninteresting

• (d) undercooked

• (e) transcontinental

• (f) ungrammatical

• (g) reinforcement

• (h) prototypical

• (i) unforgettable

• (j) impropriety

• (k) disfunctional

• (l) inconsiderate

• (m) postcolonial

• (n) unlikelihood

• (o) relationship

• (p) asymmetrical

• (q) hypersensitivity

• (r) unfriendliness

• (s) interdependence

• (t) monotheism

ALLOMORPHS

• Different forms that a morpheme can take:

• Plural morpheme (PL)

• Past morpheme (Past)

• http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/allomorph

From dictionaries to corpora

• http://corpus.byu.edu/

• Let’s explore differences and similarities

WORD FORMATION

• 3 different processes of word formation:

1) INFLECTION (English is not a highly inflected language)

2) DERIVATION (a morpheme added that changes meaning)

3) COMPOUNDING (2 equally free morphemes)

WORD-FORMATION PROCESSES

• BLENDING

2 words together retaining one of each, e.g. telegenic

• CLIPPING

Abbreviated words, e.g. fridge, exam, ad

• BACK FORMATION

Removal of affixes, e.g. babysitter, double-glaze

• ACRONYMS

Composed of the initial letters of the words of a

phrase, e.g UNESCO, BBC

INFLECTION

• All inflectional morphemes are suffixes (=bound morphemes)

• Regular in form and meaning

• They do not change the class of the word, but alter the grammatical form.

• Ctrl. Pp. 77-80

DERIVATION

• A morpheme added to the base form

• They change the word class

• Corresponding change in meaning

• Less regular and less comprehensive than inflection

• Ctrl. P. 80-82

DERIVATION: adding to an existing word (affixes).

A linguistic process (historic), different word-classes (e.g. –ion),

another kind of word (e.g. -hood), meaning (e.g. dis-, un-).

- ation: derives a noun from a verb,

- ful : derives an adjective from a noun,

- ify : derives a verb from an adjective or from a noun,

- ly : derives an adverb from an adjective,

- ment : derives a noun from a verb,

En- : derives a verb from a noun,

Re- : .means ‘again’,

Be- : derives a verb from an adjective

COMPOUNDING

• The compounding of 2 free morphemes into as single word

• The meaning of the resulting word is not simply the sum of its parts

• Compound can only be understood if the meaning is already known

• The grammatical category of a compound word is always the same as the category of the second morpheme

• Ctrl. P.82

New Words

COMPOUNDING: combining 2 or more existing words in order to form a third word. Most word-classes may contain compounds. E.g. double-glazing, motorway, into, yourself…

CONVERSION: a word is converted from one word-class to another

without change of form.

LEXICAL WORD CLASSES

• Lexical & grammatical words • NOUN: mass or countable, or countable nouns,

propoer nouns. • Function of a noun: to be the head of the noun

phrase and to work as subject, object, complement or adverbial

• VERB: describing doing and being

• NON-finite forms (-ing, -en, i- forms) • FINITE-forms: do not need an auxiliary verb (Table 3.1) • Ctrl p. 86-89

Transitive & intransitive verbs

• Intransitive: I’m dying

• Transitive: she hates you

• Ditransitive: they gave me a beautiful present

• Intensive verbs: She was really tired

ADJECTIVE & ADVERB

• Gradable adjectives: comparative & superlative

• Non-gradable adjectives: semantic groupings

Ctrl. P.89-90

• Adverbs: intensifiers & prepositional phrases

Ctrl. 90-92

Gradable adjectives

They are adjectives that describe qualities that can be measured in

degrees, such as size, beauty, age, etc.

They can be used

1) in comparative and superlative forms

2) with grading adverbs (such as 'very' or 'extremely')

3) to show that a person or thing has more or less of a particular quality.

Examples

• angry, busy, happy, important, big, cold, hot, frightened, kind, nice, expensive, risky, complex, profitable, high, helpful, interesting, difficult.

Non-gradable adjectives

• 1) classifying adjectives: these describe qualities that are completely absent or completely present. They do not occur in comparative or superlative forms

• Examples: chemical, indoor, married, wooden, pregnant, English, useless, green, nuclear, domestic, digital.

Non-gradable adjectives

2) extreme adjectives: these are adjectives that mean "very" + adjective

• Examples:

• ancient (very old )

• amazing ( very surprising )

• boiling ( very hot )

• brilliant ( very intelligent )

• deafening (very loud)

• delighted (very happy /pleased)

• disgusting (very bad /unpleasant)

• excellent (very good)

• exhausted ( very tired )

• fascinating (very interesting)

3) absolute adjectives:

dead, impossible, unique, perfect, supreme, final

GRAMMATICAL WORD CLASSES

• Small number & they rarely change

• Pronouns (table 3.3)

• Determiners: articles, demonstrative adjectives, possessive adjectives

• Prepositions

• Conjunctions

• Auxiliary verbs

There is a gradation between completely lexical (e.g.nouns) and completely grammatical (e.g. articles) word-classes, with many classes falling somewhere between 2 extreme points. (p.16-17)

NOUN PREPOSITION PRONOUN DETERMINER

(e.g. the, this)

VERB CONJUNCTION ADVERBS

like here, now

AUXILIARY

VERB

ADJECTIVE QUANTIFIER POSSESSIVE

Determiner

(e.g.my)

ADVERBS

in - ly

ADVERBS

(like however)

Most lexicalLeast lexical

Least grammaticalMost grammatical

TED TALKS

• https://www.ted.com/playlists/171/the_most_popular_talks_of_all

• Choose 3 TED talks

• Watch them without subtitles

• Ask questions about each of them

• Watch them again with subtitles, what has changed in your understanding?

• Write a summary of each of them and try to say it aloud.

TED TALKS

• https://www.ted.com/playlists/117/words_words_words

• Choose one of the TED TALKS about language, identify main features of spoken language and write a short summary of the main ideas.

English - Chapter 4: PHRASE

Phrase structures.

• Noun phrase

• Verb phrase

• Adjective phrase

• Adverb phrase

• Prepositional phrase

Types of grammatical units

If I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it

1 sentence

If I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it

2 clauses

If I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it

7 phrases

If I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it

12 words

If I wash up all this stuff some body else can dry it

13 morphemes

A unit consists of one or more elements

• A CLAUSE (proposizione) consists of one or more phrases. • A PHRASE (locuzione) consists of one or more words. • A WORD (parola) consists of one or more morphemes • MORPHEMES (morfema) are parts of words, i.e. stems,

prefixes, suffixes e.g. Unfriendly: un+friend+ly = 3 morphemes

• MORPHOLOGY (morfologia): the part of grammar dealing with morphemes

• SYNTAX (sintassi): the part of grammar dealing with other types of grammatical units (words, phrases, clauses and sentences)

The ways in which words are combined to make phrases

Phrase structures

• In English, phrase classes reflect the 4 major lexical word classes.

There are noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases and adverb phrases.

Each is centred on a head word of the relevant class.

What makes a structure a phrase and not a clause?

• Clauses have a conceptual completeness that is missing when a phrase is uttered alone.

• Phrases, like words, form part of larger structures and are not usually complete in themselves

Prepositional phrase:

• On my chest of drawers near the window.

Noun phrase:

• The longest walk I ever did.

Adverbial phrase:

• Absolutely brilliantly!

Noun phrase (NP)

• It is based around a head noun, which is the core of the phrase and the shortest possible version of the noun phrase

Ex. Power made him crazy.

a single head noun

A noun phrase can only have one determiner

There can also be pre-determiners &

enumerators

p.105-106

Noun phrase

• The noun phrase in English is made up of 3 functional elements:

• Pre-modification

• Head

• Post-modification

(p. 113)

Noun phrases

• A noun phrase includes a noun—a person, place, or thing—and the modifiers which distinguish it.

• You can find the noun dog in a sentence, for example, but you don't know which canine the writer means until you consider the entire noun phrase:

ex. that dog, Aunt Audrey's dog, the dog on the sofa, the neighbor's dog that chases our cat, the dog digging in the new flower bed.

• Modifiers can come before or after the noun. Ones that come before might include articles, possessive nouns, possessive pronouns, adjectives, and/or participles.

• Articles: a dog, the dog

• Possessive nouns: Aunt Audrey's dog, the neighbor's dog, the police officer's dog

• Possessive pronouns: our dog, her dog, their dog

• Adjectives: that dog, the big dog, the spotted dog

• Participles: the drooling dog, the barking dog, the well trained dog

VERB PHRASE

• The verb phrase fulfils the role of

predicator in the clause and introduces

a process (action or event).

• The simplest verb phrase will be a main

lexical verb on its own

• The party started about 9 o’clock.

• My brother always sings in the bath.

MODAL AUXILIARIES

• may, might, will, would, shall, should, can, could, ought (to)

• Modality is an important semantic contribution to the interpretation of any text

• Epistemic modality: likelihood • Deontic modality: desirability • She should be here by now (I know that she left in

plenty of time). • She should be here by now (It’s not polite to be so

late for a wedding). • P.121

ADJECTIVE, ADVERB & PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

• Adj.P: an adjective on its own, or premodified by an intensifying adverb:

She is pretty • Adv.P: the simplest of all English phrases, being

made up of only an adverb and any premodifying intensifiers that are also part of the adverb class:

. . . very closely • Pre.P: it is made up of a preposition and a noun

phrase In a moment or two the cortege will emerge from

the Abbey .

Chapter 5: Clause & Sentence

• Clauses, the building block of English sentences and utterances

• Clauses can be combined to make complex and compound sentences.

• A complete clause must contain a predicator (the verbal element) and other clause elements such as: subject, object, complement, adverbial.

Clause functions • Relationship between various phrase classes

(noun/verb/adjective phrases) and their clause functions = the role that a unit plays in the larger structure

5 clause elements in English: • Subject (S) • Predicator (P) • Object (O) • Complement (C) • Adverbial (A) Although clause elements are parts of a clause, at times they are made up of subordinate clauses.

SUBJECT p.126

• The SUBJECT is a syntactic function, mainly fulfilled by noun phrases but also by a subordinate clause.

• When is a predicator not preceded by a subject?

• Go to bed!

• After closing the curtains she turned on the TV

• Subjects usually ‘do’ something, unless the verb phrase is in the passive form

PREDICATOR p.127

• The only place where form and function map onto each other.

• All full clauses contain predicators.

• In main clauses and finite subordibnate clauses the predicator normally follows the subject.

• All my children are tall

• Only verb phrases function as predicators, but at times some parts of the verb take on noun or adjective-like functions, ex.

• My broken heart (will never mend)

• Her playing (was sublime)

• The predicator is the first element in non-finite subordinate clauses with no-subject, ex.

• Having identified the body his wife was very upset

OBJECT p.128

• It may be direct or indirect

• Its function is fulfilled by noun phrases, but a clause may also take its place.

• I crossed the street

• She hopes that he will come back to her

• It usually corresponds to the element affected by the verb, but it may have other semantic relationships with the process, ex.

• My mother knitted a tea cosy

COMPLEMENT p.129

• A syntactic function fulfilled by a nominal or an adjectival element

• They occur after ‘intensive’ verbs, or by verbs of ‘change’.

• SUBJECT Complement: She seems nice

• OBJECT Complement: Paul’s training made him a doctor

ADVERBIAL p.134

• Also called ADJUNCT

• Different forms fulfill the function of an adverbial clause element, and not all of them are based on adverbs.

• Prepositional phrases may have an adverbial function

• They answer implicit questions such as: when, where, how, why.

• Positioning of adverbials

Form-function relationships

CLAUSE ELEMENTS = FUNCTIONS

WORD, PHRASE, CLAUSE CLASS = FORMS

Simple clause structures: p.138

• 5 elements: S P O C A

• 7 basic clause structures:

SP-SPO-SPC-SPA-SPOO-SPOC-SPOA

• P. 140 instructions

Subordinate structures

Coordinated structures p.141

COORDINATION is the simpler process.

SUBORDINATION or EMBEDDING is the

more complex.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep (R.Frost)

• The woods are lovely and dark

• The woods are lovely but dark

• The woods are lovely or dark

COORDINATION p.143

• Coordination with phrases:

See Table 5.2

• Coordination with matching structures:

See Table 5.3

• Coordination with different structures:

See Table 5.4

SUBORDINATE STRUCTURES

• Subordination = Embedding

• A higher level unit is included in one of the lower level units.

• Main form of subordination: where phrases contain other phrases

• The chair in the corner of the room in my house in Tuscany

• She took her dog to the vet on Stainbeck Lane in Meanwood

Subordination of clauses p.146

• 1st level : clause element, the embedded clause takes the place of a complete clause element.

• 2nd level :embedding of clauses in the noun phrase as relative clauses (a way to post-modify a noun phrase)

The bag that I took to the festival

Structure of sentences p.148-149-150

• T. 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9

INFORMATION STRUCTURE P.151

• Cleft sentences

It was… that…

• Fronting: inversion

• Transformations (passive)