CAP.2
Grammatical units are meaningful elements which combine with each other in a structural
pattern. The types of grammatical units can be graded according to size of unit.
Morphemes: are parts of words. For example, un+friend+ly contains three morphemes. The part
of grammar which studies morpheme is morphology, while the part of grammar dealing with
other types of grammatical units is known as syntax.
In general, grammatical units are described in terms of four factors: their structure, their syntatic
role, their meaning and the way they are used in discourse.
What are words? Words are generally considered to be the basic elements of language. There are
different senses of “word”: - orthographic words: these are the words that we are familiar with in
written language, where they are separated by spaces; - grammatical words: a word falls into one
grammatical word class or another. For example, the word “leaves” can be either of two
grammatical words: a verb (the present tense -s form of the verb leave) or a noun (the plural of
leaf); - lexemes: this is a set of grammatical words which share the same basic meaning, similar
forms and same word class. For example, leave, leaves, left and leaving are all members of the
verb lexeme “leave”.
Three major families of words words can be grouped into three families, according to their main
function and their grammatical behaviour: lexical words, function words and inserts.
- lexical words are: nouns, adjectives, lexical verbs and adverbs. - function words are:
prepositions, coordinators, auxiliary verbs and pronouns. - inserts are found in spoken language
and are inserted freely in a text. For example: well, yeah, bye.
Inflection: lexical words can take inflectional suffixes to signal meanings and roles such as plural
Derivation: derivation involves adding affix, but it changes the identity of a word
Compounding: words that are compounds contain more than one stem. Its’ a compound if:
1. The word will be spelt as a single word, without spaces between the two forms (goldfish
not gold fish)
2. It will be pronounced with the main stress on the first element: ‘goldfish
3. It will have a meaning which cannot be determined from the individual parts.
Multi-world unit: sequence of orthographic words witch functions like a single grammatical unit
(ex. On top of)
,Idiom: multi-world with a meaning that cannot be predicted from the meanings of its constituent
words
Collocation: the relationship between two or more independent words which commonly appear
together (ex. Broad agreement)
Lexical bundle: sequence of words which co-occur very frequently, especially when the sequence
consists of more than two words.
2.3.1. Nouns> 1)Morphological: nouns have inflectional suffixes for plural number, and for
genitive, some of them are uncountable. 2)Syntactic: nouns can occur as the head of a noun
phrase 3)Semantic: nouns can refer to concrete or abstract entities.
2.3.2 Lexical verbs> 1)Morphological: they have different forms signaling tense (present and
past), aspect (perfect, progressive) and voice (active and passive ). 2)Syntactic: Lexical verbs most
frequently occur on their own, as a single-word verb phrase acting as the central part of the
clause. 3)Semantic: denote actions, processes, they also define the role of human and non-
human participants.
2.3.3 Adjectives> 1)Morphological: many adjectives can take inflectional suffixes. They can be
divided in: derived adjectives (acceptable); compound adjectives (home-made). 2)Syntactic: they
can occur as the head of an adjective phrase (very dark), used as modifiers preceding the head of
a noun phrase or as predicatives following the verb in clause. 3)Semantic: adjectives describe the
qualities of people, things and abstractions. Some of them are gradable.
2.3.4 Adverbs> 1)Morphological: many are formed from adjectives by adding suffix 2)Syntactic:
they occur as head of adverb phrases (very noisily), are often used as modifiers of an adjective
or another adverb (really old), they can act adverbials (I’ll see you again soon). 3)Semantic: as
modifiers adverbs most often express the degree of a following adjective or adverb.
2.4.1 Determiners:
1. Definite article> “the” indicates that the referent is assumed to be known by the speaker
2. Indefinite article> “a” or “an” makes it clear that the referents is one member of a class
3. Demonstrative determiners> indicate that the referents are ‘near to’ or ‘away from’ the
speaker’s immediate context
4. Possessive determiners> tell us who or what the noun belongs to
5. Quantifiers> specify how many or how much of the noun there is
,2.4.2 Pronouns: 1.Personal pronouns> refer to the speaker
2. Demonstrative pronouns> refer to entities which are ‘near to’
3. Reflexive pronouns> refer back to a previous noun phrase (I taught myself)
4. Reciprocal pronouns> , like reflexive pronouns, refer to a previous noun phrase, but
indicate that there is a mutual relationship (yeah they know each other pretty well)
5. Possessive pronouns> are closely related to possessive determiners
6. Indefinite pronouns> have a broad indefinite meaning. Some of them are compound
words consisting of quantifier + general noun.
7. Relative pronouns> (who, whom, which, that) introduce a relative clause
8. Interrogative pronouns> ask questions about unknown entities. Most of relatives
pronouns belong to the class of wh-words
2.4.3 Auxiliary verbs:
1. primary auxiliaries> be, have and do. They have inflections like lexical verbs, but are
normally unstressed. They can also act as main verbs. The primary auxiliaries show how
the main verbs is to be understood. Have is used to form the perfect aspect; Be is used for
the progressive or continous aspect; Be is also used for the passive voice
2. modal auxiliaries> they express 'modality' and they are: will, can, shall, may, must, would,
could, should, might.
2.4.4 Prepositions> linking words that introduce prepositional phrases. Prepositional complemen
is generally a noun phrase.Most prepositions are short, invariable forms.
Complex preposition> they have a meaning that cannot be derived from the meaning of the
parts.
2.4.5. Adverbial Particles: a small group of words with a core meaning of motion. The most
important are: about, across, along, around, aside, away, back, by, down, forth, home, in, off, on,
out, over, past, round, through, under, up. Adverbial particles are closely linked to verbs. They are
also used to build extended prepositional phrases.
2.4.6 Coordinators: there are two types of words called conjunctions in english coordinators and
subordinators.
Cordinators: are used to indicate a relationship between two units such as phrases or clauses,
, they link elements which have the samr syntactic role, and are at the same level of the syntactic
hierarchy. The main coordinators are and, but, or.
Correlative coordinators: each coordinators can be combined with another word, to make a
correlative coordinator ex. both, and
2.4.7 Subordinators: they link words that introduce clauses known as dependent clauses (they
cannot stand alone without another clause called main clause). Subordinators fall into three
major subclasses:
1. adverbial clauses adding details of time, place, reason to the main clause: after, as,
because, if, since, although, while, etc.
2. degree clauses: as, than, that
3. complement clause: if, that, whether. These are called complementizers because they
introduce clauses following verbs, adjectives or nouns, complementing or completing the
meaning of these key words in the main clause.
Complex subordinators most of them end with with as or that
Wh-words: they introduce clauses, they are member of a word classesalready mentioned. They
at the beginning of an interrogative clause and at the beginning of a relative clause.
They can:
A. Introduce an interrogative clause: What do they want?
B. Introduce a relative clause (relativizers): they can be relative pronouns (who, whom,
which, that); relative determiners (which, whose); relative adverbs (where, when, why)
C. Introduce a complement clause (complementizers) > I don’t know what I would have done
without her.
D. Adverbial clause links: They could not improve upon that, whatever they might say..
Single-word classes : the three words considered in this group are special in that they are each
A. Existential there: an anticipatory subject.
B. The negator not: the negator not in some ways like an adverb , but in other respects it’s
unique. The main use of not is to make a clause negative
C. The infinitive marker to: it’s chief use is as a complementizer preceding the infinitive form of
verbs. In addition, to occurs as a part of two complex subordinators expressing purpose: in
order to, so as to.
2.5.3Numerals
Grammatical units are meaningful elements which combine with each other in a structural
pattern. The types of grammatical units can be graded according to size of unit.
Morphemes: are parts of words. For example, un+friend+ly contains three morphemes. The part
of grammar which studies morpheme is morphology, while the part of grammar dealing with
other types of grammatical units is known as syntax.
In general, grammatical units are described in terms of four factors: their structure, their syntatic
role, their meaning and the way they are used in discourse.
What are words? Words are generally considered to be the basic elements of language. There are
different senses of “word”: - orthographic words: these are the words that we are familiar with in
written language, where they are separated by spaces; - grammatical words: a word falls into one
grammatical word class or another. For example, the word “leaves” can be either of two
grammatical words: a verb (the present tense -s form of the verb leave) or a noun (the plural of
leaf); - lexemes: this is a set of grammatical words which share the same basic meaning, similar
forms and same word class. For example, leave, leaves, left and leaving are all members of the
verb lexeme “leave”.
Three major families of words words can be grouped into three families, according to their main
function and their grammatical behaviour: lexical words, function words and inserts.
- lexical words are: nouns, adjectives, lexical verbs and adverbs. - function words are:
prepositions, coordinators, auxiliary verbs and pronouns. - inserts are found in spoken language
and are inserted freely in a text. For example: well, yeah, bye.
Inflection: lexical words can take inflectional suffixes to signal meanings and roles such as plural
Derivation: derivation involves adding affix, but it changes the identity of a word
Compounding: words that are compounds contain more than one stem. Its’ a compound if:
1. The word will be spelt as a single word, without spaces between the two forms (goldfish
not gold fish)
2. It will be pronounced with the main stress on the first element: ‘goldfish
3. It will have a meaning which cannot be determined from the individual parts.
Multi-world unit: sequence of orthographic words witch functions like a single grammatical unit
(ex. On top of)
,Idiom: multi-world with a meaning that cannot be predicted from the meanings of its constituent
words
Collocation: the relationship between two or more independent words which commonly appear
together (ex. Broad agreement)
Lexical bundle: sequence of words which co-occur very frequently, especially when the sequence
consists of more than two words.
2.3.1. Nouns> 1)Morphological: nouns have inflectional suffixes for plural number, and for
genitive, some of them are uncountable. 2)Syntactic: nouns can occur as the head of a noun
phrase 3)Semantic: nouns can refer to concrete or abstract entities.
2.3.2 Lexical verbs> 1)Morphological: they have different forms signaling tense (present and
past), aspect (perfect, progressive) and voice (active and passive ). 2)Syntactic: Lexical verbs most
frequently occur on their own, as a single-word verb phrase acting as the central part of the
clause. 3)Semantic: denote actions, processes, they also define the role of human and non-
human participants.
2.3.3 Adjectives> 1)Morphological: many adjectives can take inflectional suffixes. They can be
divided in: derived adjectives (acceptable); compound adjectives (home-made). 2)Syntactic: they
can occur as the head of an adjective phrase (very dark), used as modifiers preceding the head of
a noun phrase or as predicatives following the verb in clause. 3)Semantic: adjectives describe the
qualities of people, things and abstractions. Some of them are gradable.
2.3.4 Adverbs> 1)Morphological: many are formed from adjectives by adding suffix 2)Syntactic:
they occur as head of adverb phrases (very noisily), are often used as modifiers of an adjective
or another adverb (really old), they can act adverbials (I’ll see you again soon). 3)Semantic: as
modifiers adverbs most often express the degree of a following adjective or adverb.
2.4.1 Determiners:
1. Definite article> “the” indicates that the referent is assumed to be known by the speaker
2. Indefinite article> “a” or “an” makes it clear that the referents is one member of a class
3. Demonstrative determiners> indicate that the referents are ‘near to’ or ‘away from’ the
speaker’s immediate context
4. Possessive determiners> tell us who or what the noun belongs to
5. Quantifiers> specify how many or how much of the noun there is
,2.4.2 Pronouns: 1.Personal pronouns> refer to the speaker
2. Demonstrative pronouns> refer to entities which are ‘near to’
3. Reflexive pronouns> refer back to a previous noun phrase (I taught myself)
4. Reciprocal pronouns> , like reflexive pronouns, refer to a previous noun phrase, but
indicate that there is a mutual relationship (yeah they know each other pretty well)
5. Possessive pronouns> are closely related to possessive determiners
6. Indefinite pronouns> have a broad indefinite meaning. Some of them are compound
words consisting of quantifier + general noun.
7. Relative pronouns> (who, whom, which, that) introduce a relative clause
8. Interrogative pronouns> ask questions about unknown entities. Most of relatives
pronouns belong to the class of wh-words
2.4.3 Auxiliary verbs:
1. primary auxiliaries> be, have and do. They have inflections like lexical verbs, but are
normally unstressed. They can also act as main verbs. The primary auxiliaries show how
the main verbs is to be understood. Have is used to form the perfect aspect; Be is used for
the progressive or continous aspect; Be is also used for the passive voice
2. modal auxiliaries> they express 'modality' and they are: will, can, shall, may, must, would,
could, should, might.
2.4.4 Prepositions> linking words that introduce prepositional phrases. Prepositional complemen
is generally a noun phrase.Most prepositions are short, invariable forms.
Complex preposition> they have a meaning that cannot be derived from the meaning of the
parts.
2.4.5. Adverbial Particles: a small group of words with a core meaning of motion. The most
important are: about, across, along, around, aside, away, back, by, down, forth, home, in, off, on,
out, over, past, round, through, under, up. Adverbial particles are closely linked to verbs. They are
also used to build extended prepositional phrases.
2.4.6 Coordinators: there are two types of words called conjunctions in english coordinators and
subordinators.
Cordinators: are used to indicate a relationship between two units such as phrases or clauses,
, they link elements which have the samr syntactic role, and are at the same level of the syntactic
hierarchy. The main coordinators are and, but, or.
Correlative coordinators: each coordinators can be combined with another word, to make a
correlative coordinator ex. both, and
2.4.7 Subordinators: they link words that introduce clauses known as dependent clauses (they
cannot stand alone without another clause called main clause). Subordinators fall into three
major subclasses:
1. adverbial clauses adding details of time, place, reason to the main clause: after, as,
because, if, since, although, while, etc.
2. degree clauses: as, than, that
3. complement clause: if, that, whether. These are called complementizers because they
introduce clauses following verbs, adjectives or nouns, complementing or completing the
meaning of these key words in the main clause.
Complex subordinators most of them end with with as or that
Wh-words: they introduce clauses, they are member of a word classesalready mentioned. They
at the beginning of an interrogative clause and at the beginning of a relative clause.
They can:
A. Introduce an interrogative clause: What do they want?
B. Introduce a relative clause (relativizers): they can be relative pronouns (who, whom,
which, that); relative determiners (which, whose); relative adverbs (where, when, why)
C. Introduce a complement clause (complementizers) > I don’t know what I would have done
without her.
D. Adverbial clause links: They could not improve upon that, whatever they might say..
Single-word classes : the three words considered in this group are special in that they are each
A. Existential there: an anticipatory subject.
B. The negator not: the negator not in some ways like an adverb , but in other respects it’s
unique. The main use of not is to make a clause negative
C. The infinitive marker to: it’s chief use is as a complementizer preceding the infinitive form of
verbs. In addition, to occurs as a part of two complex subordinators expressing purpose: in
order to, so as to.
2.5.3Numerals
