3. Grammar Morphology and Syntax
An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
A. Multiple Choice Questions.
1.
The smallest individually meaningful element in the utterances of a language is
called.............
a. morph
b. morpheme
c. word
d. Phrase
2. Which
of the following is the suffix in the word 'unacceptable'?
a) Un
b) Accept
c) Able
d) Unacceptable
3.
The sentence "The chief guest entered the room and sat on the chair."
contains...... words.
a) 5 function
words and 6 content words
b) 6 function
words and 5 content words
c) 7 function
words and 4 content words
d) 4 function
words and 7 content words
4.
The conceptual variations of a phoneme are.............
a. phones
b. morphemes
c. allomorphs
d. allophones
5.
The morphemes in the words 'empower' are.............
a. free and free
b. free and bound
c. bound and free
d. bound and bound
6.
In English, 'concord' is best explained as agreement of.............
a. the verb with
the complement
b. the verb with
the subject
c. the subject
with the object
d. the subject
with the predicate
7.
The level at which the structure of a word is studied is.............
a. phonology
b. syntax
c. morphology
d. semantics
8. Which of the following words is a free
morpheme?
a) Unconsciousness
b) Friendly
c) Ring
d) Happily
9. …………. is a combination of words that makes a complete sense.
a)
phrase
b)
sentence
c)
word
d)
clause
10.
A……………is a group of words which has its own subject and predicate and is a part
of a sentence.
a) phrase
b) sentence
c) word
d) clause
11. Adjective
or adjective phrase that follows a verb and modifies the subject of the verb is
called……………..adjective or predicative adjective phrase.
a) attributive
b) predicative
c) adjective
d) function
12.
……………….adjective or adjective phrase usually precedes the noun.
a) attributive
b) predicative
c) adjective
d) function
13.
A……………is a group of words with a verb as s headword.
a) noun phrase
b) adjective
phrase
c) verb phrase
d) adverb phrase
14.
A……………is a group of words with a noun as its head and functions like a noun.
a) noun phrase
b) adjective
phrase
c) verb phrase
d) adverb phrase
15.
An…………………..is a group of words which functions like an adverb.
a) noun phrase
b) adjective
phrase
c) verb phrase
d) adverb phrase
16……………..,
a linguist defines phrase as ‘a group of words which functions as a unit and, with the exception of the verb phrase itself, does not
contain a finite verb’.
a) Noam
b) Todd
c) Chomsky
d) Sassure
17.
A…………..is the smallest meaningful unit in a language.
a) syntax
b) phoneme
c) morpheme
d) semantics
B. Answer
the following questions.
1.
Define morpheme. Distinguish between free and bound morphemes with examples.
Or,
What
is morpheme? Discuss with examples.
In a general
sense, a morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language. 'Friend',
'dog', 'cat', 'a', 'come', 'es', 'ed', 'ing' etc. are morphemes of English.
'Dog, 'cat' and 'come' have their independent meaning and are meaningful. But,
'es', 'ed', and ing' have meanings when they are added to a word. Therefore,
there are two types of morphemes: free and bound. Free morphemes can form a
word independently. They are the root or the stem or the base form. All the
affixes (prefixes, infixes and suffixes) are bound morphemes. They are also
called grammatical morphemes. The word 'unfriendly' is made up of three
morphemes: friend, is the free morpheme, 'un' and 'ly' are the bound morphemes.
Some more examples
of free and bound morphemes are as follows:
|
Words |
Free Morphemes |
Bound morphemes |
|
|
Prefixes |
Suffixes |
||
|
unconsciousness |
conscious |
un |
ness |
|
unfriendly |
friend |
un |
ly |
|
rang |
ring |
- |
ed |
|
gone |
go |
- |
en |
|
played |
play |
- |
ed |
|
playing |
play |
- |
ing |
|
uncommon |
common |
un |
- |
|
uneasy |
easy |
un |
- |
|
boys |
boy |
- |
s |
|
unqualified |
qualify |
un |
ed |
|
discolour |
colour |
dis |
- |
|
dishonesty |
honest |
dis |
ty |
|
indefinate |
definate |
in |
- |
|
undo |
do |
un |
- |
A morpheme cannot further be divided without altering the meaning. For example,
in the word happy if 'y' is removed, it is changed into 'happ' which has a
different meaning or no meaning as well. Similarly, if 'w' is removed from
'cow', it is converted into 'co' which does not have meaning.
A word can be made
of one or more morphemes and a sentence is made of many morphemes. Some examples
are as follows:
The teacher taught
the student. = 7 morphemes
The tiger jumped
over the wolves. = 8 morphemes
The fighters saved
a child from fire. = 9 morphemes
The land is for
sale. = 5
morphemes
The sheep are for
sale. = 6 morphemes
Grammar = 1
morpheme
Morphology = 2
morphemes
2. How
do you define word? List all the word classes and explain any one of them.
Or,
Describe
different types of words with examples.
Word is a group of
letters which has a complete meaning such as, student, girl, the, pen, in, go
etc. Here, the combination of 'p', 'e' and 'n' makes a word 'pen' which has its
own meaning but the combination of e, p and n does not make a word. Therefore, each
combination of letters or sounds is not a word. On the other hand, the word(s)
like; A, in, the etc. occur in isolation and they do not have the meaning of
their own. They give meaning when they come with other words.
A word is defined as a unit of language (written or spoken) having a single
idea. In this regard, we have many problems. For example, the word 'table' can
have at least two meanings (a piece of furniture and a diagram) and the
combination in spite of or 'an account of or 'will have been arriving' gives a
single meaning. On the other hand, the two linguistic units 'student' and
'pupil' have the same meaning. How can we count; is 'table' a word or two? Is
will have been arriving a single word or many? Are 'student' and 'pupil' a word
or two? Is the contraction like 'can't' (cannot) one word or two?
Word and Word Class
When we have an
oral or a written form of a language, we produce many words. We organize these
words and produce them in order. This orderly presentation of the words is known
as a sentence. The combination of the sentences provides speech or writing a
complete meaning. This is how we connect letter and letters to word and words
and words to sentences. In a language, there can be many words. English, for
example, is said to have two million words. The fact is that all the words can
be grouped in a few groups according to their characteristic features. Thus,
words can be put into a few groups which are traditionally called 'parts of
speech' but modern grammarians prefer to call them word-classes.
Longman Dictionary
of Applied Linguistics defines word class as "a group of words which are
similar in function. Words are grouped into word classes according to how they
combine with other words, how they change their form". Robins, a linguist
says that in the grammatical analysis of languages, words are assigned to word
classes on the formal basis of syntactic behaviour supplemented and reinforced
by differences of morphological paradigms, so that every word in a language is
a member of a word class.
For example:
Noun : Butwal, cow, bug,
wolf, flock, terror
Pronoun : I, you, he, they, which,
she, we, my, your, her, his
Verb : see, teach, admire,
praise, help
Adjective : this,
beautiful, fourth, happy, each, untidy
Adverb : much,
frequently, never, beautifully
Preposition : under, below, beneath, above,
by, next to, in, on, at
Conjunction : and, but, because
Interjection : alas, uh-huh, hey, wow, umm
Modern grammarians prefer the term word-class instead of the 'parts of speech'.
All the modern classifications are based on traditional classification with
different names.
The commonest word
classes are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction,
interjection, determiner, intensifier and classifier.
These word classes
can be divided into two groups:
|
Major word
classes |
Minor word
classes |
|
Nouns,
adjectives, adverbs, and main verbs |
Pronoun,
preposition, conjunction, determiner, intensifier and classifier |
3.
List the word formation processes and explain any one of them with examples.
In the earlier
section, we discussed the words and their major categories. When we form the
word, the concept of affixation is a must. Affixation is one of the main
processes of word formation. Affixes can be added to the beginning of the root
(prefix), they can be inserted in the middle of the root (infix) and they can
be added to the final of the root or stem (suffix).
So, the word affix
can be a word for prefix, infix and suffix. Affixes like -s, -ed, -ing, -er,
-est are called inflectional suffixes which have the following characteristics.
i. They do not
change the word class (i.e. parts of speech).
ii. They occur in
final position.
iii. Only one of
them may occur at a time.
iv. They attach to
the stem.
Inflection
The examples of
inflectional suffixes can be presented below:
|
Root + suffix |
Inflected word |
|
tree + s |
trees |
|
teacher + s |
teachers |
|
play + ed |
played |
|
teach+ ing |
teaching |
|
small + er |
smaller |
|
big + est |
biggest |
|
tooth + s |
teeth |
|
woman + s |
women |
|
go + ed |
went |
|
Stem + suffix |
Inflected word |
|
derivation + s |
derivations |
|
shaving + s |
shavings |
|
carpenter + s |
carpenters |
|
editor+ s |
editors |
|
painter + s |
painters |
On the other hand,
affixes, like -ful, -ly, -less, -ness, -tion, -able, -er (after verb) are
called derivational suffixes. These affixes change the word class of the word to
which they attach. There may be more than one suffix in a word. Derivational
suffixes attach closer to the root morpheme than do inflectional. Let's see
some examples:
Derivations
Stem/root+ suffix Derived
word
slow (adj) + ness slowness (n)
modern (adj) +ise modernise (v)
red (adj.) + ish reddish
(adj)
hope (n) + full hopeful
(adj)
personal (adj) +
ly personally
(adv)
glory (n) + fy glorify
(v)
write (v) + er writer
(n)
4.
What is phrase? Discuss the types of phrases.
Or,
What
is a phrase? What are the different phrases? Explain.
In general sense,
the group of words having a proper meaning can be called a phrase. Todd, a
linguist defines phrase as "a group of words which functions as a unit
and, with the exception of the verb phrase itself, does not contain a finite
verb." For example, 'The little girl sat at the corner. In this sentence
'the little girl' can be replaced by 'She' and 'in the corner' by 'there'. So,
'the little girl' is a phrase which functions as 'she' and 'at the corner' is a
phrase which functions as 'there'.
According to the
definition, a phrase (except the verb phrase) does not contain a finite verb.
What is a finite verb then? A finite verb is a verb that agrees with its
subject tense and other factors. For example,
I write.
She writes.
They wrote.
Here, 'write',
'writes' and 'wrote' are finite verbs. On the other hand, infinitives, present participles,
and past participles are non-finite or infinite verbs which can occur in a
phrase such as: Bending low, he walked awkwardly into the small room.
There are five
types of phrases in English: noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, adverb
phrase and prepositional phrase.
a) Noun phrase
A noun phrase is a
group of words with a noun as its head and functions like a noun. There can be
up to three noun phrases in a simple sentence:
The young man threw the old dog a bone.
b) Verb phrase
A verb phrase is a
group of words with a verb as s headword.
i. He has been
singing.
(c) Adjective phrase
An adjective
phrase modifies a noun as an adjective does. As an adjective, the adjective
phrase can be attributive as well as predicative.
i) Attributive
Attributive
adjective or adjective phrase usually precedes the noun or occasionally it may
follow the noun e.g.
The child, laughing
happily, ran out of the room.
(In the sentence
'laughing happily' is an attributive adjective phrase that occurs after the
noun.)
ii) Predicative
Adjective or
adjective phrase that follows a verb and modifies the subject of the verb is
called predicative adjective or predicative adjective phrase. The letter was
unbelievingly rude. In this sentence the italicized part is an adjective phrase
that modifies the letter, and it is in predicative use.
He seemed extremely
pleasant.
d) Adverb phrase
An adverb phrase
is a group of words which functions like an adverb.
i. We are
expecting him to come next year.
e) Prepositional
phrase
A prepositional
phrase begins with a preposition.
i. He will be in
the room.
5.
What is clause? Discuss the types of clauses.
In
the English language, a simple sentence consists of a subject and
a predicate. In other words, it can be said that a sentence is composed of
clauses. In this article, you will be introduced to what clauses are, their
meaning and definition, the types of clauses and how they can be used in sentences.
A clause is a
combination of words that makes up a sentence. It consists of a subject and a
predicate. It can also be said that a clause should have a subject and
a verb. Now, take a look at the definitions of clauses given by different
dictionaries to understand what a clause is.
According to the
Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, a clause is defined as “a group of words that
includes a subject and a verb and forms a sentence or part of a sentence.” The
Cambridge Dictionary defines a clause as “a group of words, consisting of a
subject and a finite form of a verb.” “A clause is a group of words
containing a verb”, according to the Collins Dictionary. According to the
Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a clause is defined as “a group of words containing
a subject and predicate and functioning as a member of
a complex or compound sentence.”
Types of Clauses
According to how a
clause behaves in a sentence, they can be classified into two types. They are:
Main Clause or
Independent Clause
The main
clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb. It is one that can
stand alone and makes complete sense. That is why it is called an independent
clause.
Subordinate Clause
or Dependent Clause
A subordinate
clause is a group of words that consists of a subject, a verb and
a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun. Unlike main
clauses, subordinate clauses cannot stand alone or convey complete meaning when
taken separately from the sentence it is a part of. Dependent clauses can be
divided into types based on their function. The types of dependent clauses are
noun clauses, adjective clauses, adverb clauses, conditional clauses,
relative clauses, comparative clauses, verbless clauses and complementary
clauses.
A
clause is a group of words which has its own subject and predicate and is a
part of a sentence. A clause must have a finite verb. Structurally, a clause is
exactly like a simple sentence, but it can't occur in isolation. He believed
that the earth was round. In this sentence, he believed' is a clause 'that the
earth was round' is another clause. The former is a main clause, and the latter
is a subordinate clause. The clause that stands alone is a main clause and the
one that depends on another clause is subordinate or dependent clause. A
subordinate clause has the functions of a noun, adjective and adverb.
6. Define
and illustrate simple, compound and complex sentences.
Or,
What
is a sentence? Describe the different types of sentences.
A sentence is an
array of multiple words arranged in a particular order. It has to be complete
in itself and should convey meaning. It can express a general idea, pose a
question or argument, provide a suggestion, make an order or request, and so
much more.
The Oxford
Learner’s Dictionary defines a sentence as “a set of words expressing a
statement, a question or an order, usually containing a subject and a verb”.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a sentence is defined as “a group of
words, usually containing a verb, that expresses a thought in the form of a
statement, question, instruction, or exclamation”. Sentences are also
classified into simple, compound, and complex sentences.
i. Simple sentence
A simple sentence
is one which has only one subject and predicate. In other words, a simple
sentence has only one finite verb.
He went to
college.
She sang a nice
folksong.
He is swimming in
the pool.
Man is a social
creature.
Students do not
often keep discipline, Water boils at 100 degrees centigrade.
He may have been
cheated by them.
The boy ran down
the street.
ii. Compound sentence
A sentence which
contains only co-ordinate clauses is called compound sentence. It may have two
or more co-ordinate clauses. In other words, if the two or more simple
sentences are combined together with coordinating conjunctions like and, but,
so, either, or, neither, nor, or, etc. then, it becomes a compound sentence.
For example,
He ate the food
but he left the drink.
He ate the food
but left the drink. ('he' is common in both, so it is merged).
You may go in and
you may talk to him for five minutes.
You may go in and
talk to him for five minutes.
He is good at
science but he is poor at English.
He is good at
science but poor at English.
iii. Complex sentence
A sentence which
contains a principal clause or main clause (simple sentence) and subordinate
clause (s) is called complex sentence.
When it is hot, we can't work.
He said that
she will come soon.
In each of the above-mentioned
sentences, the italicized parts are subordinate clauses.
The following
complex sentence has one main clause and two subordinate clauses.
She became the
queen when her father died because she was the eldest child.
She became queen = principal cause
When her father
died =
subordinate clause
because she was
the eldest child = subordinate
clauses
7.
What do you mean by grammatical transformation? Discuss negation as one of the
grammatical transformations.
Grammatical
transformation refers to the changes in the form of sentences or questions in
relation to the operations add to, delete substitute for, or transpose
sentences or parts of sentences like negation, passivization, question and
other operations. The common grammatical transformations can be discussed in
the following sections.
Negation is one of
the types of grammatical transformations in which we add 'not' or negative
prefix in the words in a sentence or a question. There are two types of
negations. The first type is used on the whole sentence. For example; He is
happy - He is not happy. This is often called sentence negation. The second
type operates only one part of the sentence. For example, He is happy - He is
unhappy. This sentence is affirmative; it is the adjective "unhappy"
which is negative.
The negation of a simple sentence is accomplished by inserting not (n't) after
the auxiliary (first auxiliary if more than one). For example;
The attempt has
succeeded. The attempt has not (hasn't)
succeeded.
He is coming. He is not (isn't)
coming.
In the sentence
without any auxiliary verb, the auxiliary 'do' is inserted with 'not' and
followed by the bare infinitive.
She sees me every
week. She doesn't see
me every week.
They understand
the problem. They didn't
understand the problem.
Sentence with lexical be behave exactly as when 'be' is auxiliary.
He is a teacher.
He is not (isn't) a teacher.
In the sentence
with lexical have, 'do' is usually inserted with not (though which is not often
required in British English).
ii. He has enough
money He doesn't have enough money.
(esp. AME)
He
hasn't got enough money. (esp. BrE.).
Instead of the verb, another element may be negated.
i. An honest man
would not lie No honesty man
would lie.
ii. I didn't see
any birds I saw no
birds.
8.
What are the two basic subdivisions of grammar? What aspects of grammar are
studied under each subdivision?
Languages and grammar rules are closely connected, naturally
adapt to their circumstances, and often represent their speakers' social
identities. In English, there are two kinds of grammar: prescriptive grammar
& descriptive grammar.
a. Prescriptive Grammar:
It is the traditional approach of grammar that tells people
how to use the English language, what forms they should utilize, and what
functions they should serve. Prescriptive grammar is essential as it helps
people use formal English speech and writing. In addition, "those who
follow it (or those who endorse others to follow it) claim that doing so will
help to streamline one's words and make one's prose more elegant". Schools
aim to teach prescriptive grammar to provide people a common standard of usage.
Examples:
In English, less goes with mass nouns (e.g. “less money”),
and “fewer” goes with count nouns (e.g., “fewer items.”)
In English, speakers should not split infinitives (e.g., “to
boldly go;“) instead, write or say (“to go boldly.”)
In English, speakers should not use passive voice (e.g.,
“The meeting was held by the university”) instead, write or say (“The
university held the meeting.”)
In English, speakers should avoid phrasal verbs (e.g., “come
over to have some tea”) instead, write or say (e.g., “visit me to have some
tea.”)
b. Descriptive Grammar:
This is how native English speakers actually talk and write,
and it has no concrete idea of the way it should be structured. It is not
saying how it should be used; however, it focuses on describing the English
language as it is used. It is also not saying that there is a right or wrong
way to use language.
Examples:
English Adjective order: (opinion, size, physical quality,
shape, age, color, origin, material, type, and purpose (e.g., “This is a
beautiful, small, green, American island.”)
Some native speakers say:
“I am younger than him” instead of “I am younger than he.”
“He graduated American university” instead of “He graduated
from American university."
“I ain't going nowhere.” instead of “I am not going
anywhere.”
Both types of grammar are concerned with rules, but in
different ways. In terms of teaching a language, both kinds of grammar have
advantages and disadvantages.
Prescriptive Grammar Advantages & Disadvantages:
a. Teaching prescriptive grammar creates formal writers and
resources.
b. Teaching prescriptive grammar is beneficial for both
non-native teachers and learners, as it has definite rules of language that
help reduce confusion.
c. Prescriptive grammar might keep non-native speakers
wondering and confused when they talk with a native speaker, as they might
realize that some natives do not write or speak with these rules.
Descriptive Grammar Advantages & Disadvantages:
a. The descriptive grammar approach improves non-native
speakers’ pronunciation and helps them sound like native speakers.
b. The descriptive grammar approach helps language learners
understand the applied usage of language and communicate better with native
speakers.
c. The descriptive grammar approach is
sometimes not used in formal settings, such as exams and speech.
9. Define
morphology and syntax.
Morphology
The term morphology "is
derived from the English language morphology, meaning that the branch of
linguistics that studies on the structure or parts of words
grammatically. In the past, science is better known as morphemics, namely
the study of morpheme. However, along with the development and dynamics of
language, the term is more popular then morphology. Morphology
is the branch of linguistics that identifies the basic units of language as
grammatical units.
Morphology is the study of the structure and form of
words in language or a language, including inflection, derivation, and the
formation of compounds. At the basic level, words are made of
"morphemes." These are the smallest units of meaning: roots and
affixes (prefixes and suffixes). Native speakers recognize the morphemes as
grammatically significant or meaningful. For example, "schoolyard" is
made of "school" + "yard", "makes" is made of
"make" + a grammatical suffix "-s", and "unhappiness"
is made of "happy" with a prefix "un-" and a suffix
"-ness".
Inflection
occurs when a word has different forms but essentially the same meaning, and
there is only a grammatical difference between them: for example,
"make" and "makes". The "-s" is an inflectional
morpheme.
In contrast,
derivation makes a word with a clearly different meaning: such as
"unhappy" or "happiness", both from "happy". The
"un-" and "-ness" are derivational morphemes. Normally a
dictionary would list derived words, but there is no need to list
"makes" in a dictionary as well as "make."
Syntax
Syntax
is the study of the principles and processes by the which sentences are
constructed in particular languages. Syntactic investigation of a given
language has as its goal the construction of a grammar that can be viewed as a
device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis.
Noam Chomsky said that the syntax is the lesson on the principles and processes
in which the sentences are arranged in a specific language.
Research on specific
language syntax has a purpose of its own in which the arrangement of grammar
can be seen as a tool to generate a sentence in a language. The term
'syntax' is from the Ancient Greek syntaxis, a verbal noun the which literally
means "arrangement" or "setting out together".
Traditionally, it refers to
the branch of grammar dealing with the ways in the which words, with or without
appropriate inflections, are arranged to show connections of meaning within the
sentence. The term verbal noun syntax is taken from the ancient Greek language
which means "arrangement". Generally, syntax refers to the
grammar field that explains about the ways words, with or without inflection,
arranged to show the relationship of meaning in a sentence.
Syntax offer section with
how sentences are constructed, and users of human language employ a striking
variety of possible arrangements of the elements in sentences. Syntax that
discusses how sentence was compiled and syntax also discuss how humans as
beings who speak using a variety of arrangements of the element in the
sentence.
10.
What are the types of sentences? Explain briefly.
Sentence is
"a combination of words that makes complete sense." Each sentence is
an independent linguistic form, not included by virtue of any grammatical
construction in any longer linguistic form. For example: Ram died yesterday.
A. Functional Classifications of Sentences
Sentences can be
divided into four types on the basis of their functions.
i. Declarative Sentence
Declarative
sentences are that type of sentences which make a statement or assertion.
We must speak the
truth.
ii. Imperative
Sentence
Imperative
sentences are those type of sentences that give order; make request and advice.
These sentences have no overt subject in the surface level.
Please, help me.
Don't worry if you
fail once.
iii. Interrogative
sentence
Interrogative
sentences are those type of sentences that ask questions. Interrogative
sentences are of two types. Interrogative sentences end with a question mark
(?).
a. Wh-question
that begins with wh-word.
What is your name?
b. Yes/No
questions-that begin with an auxiliary.
Does she love you?
iv. Exclamatory sentence.
Exclamatory
sentences are those types of sentences which are used to express surprise,
alarm, indignation or a strong opinion. These sentences end with an exclamation
mark (!) and often interjections are used in exclamatory sentence.
What a fool I was!
v. Optative sentence
Almost all grammar
books have classified sentences into four types. There is, however, a fifth
type of sentence which is called optative sentence.
An optative
sentence expresses one's desire and wish.
Long live the
democracy!
B) Formal classification of sentences
Sentences are also
classified into simple, compound and complex sentences.
i. Simple sentence
A simple sentence
is one which has only one subject and predicate. In other words, a simple
sentence has only one finite verb.
He went to
college.
ii. Compound sentence
A sentence which
contains only co-ordinate clauses is called compound sentence. It may have two
or more co-ordinate clauses. In other words, if the two or more simple
sentences are combined together with coordinating conjunctions like and, but,
so, either, or, neither, nor, or, etc. then, it becomes a compound sentence.
For example,
He ate the food
but he left the drink.
iii. Complex sentence
A sentence which
contains a principal clause or main clause (simple sentence) and subordinate
clause (s) is called complex sentence.
When it is hot, we can't work.
11. Write
in short about the following:
a.
Content words and function words
Each word in
English belongs to one of the eight parts
of speech.
Each word is also either a content word or a function word. Let's think
about what these two types mean: Content =
information, meaning and Function =
necessary words for grammar. In other words, content words give us the most
important information while function words are used to stitch those words together.
Content
words are
usually nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. A noun tells us which object, a
verb tells us about the action happening, or the state. Adjectives give us
details about objects and people and adverbs tell us how, when or where
something is done. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs give us important
information required for understanding.
Noun = person, place or thing
Verb = action, state
Adjective = describes
an object, person, place or thing
Adverb = tells us how, where or when
something happens
Function words
help us connect important information. Function words are important for
understanding, but they add little meaning beyond defining the relationship
between two words. Function
words include auxiliary
verbs,
prepositions, articles, conjunctions, and pronouns. Auxiliary verbs are used to
establish the tense, prepositions show relationships in time and space,
articles show us something that is specific or one of many, and pronouns refer
to other nouns.
Auxiliary verbs =
do, be, have (help with conjugation of tense)
Prepositions =
show relationships in time and space
Articles = used to
indicate specific or non-specific nouns
Conjunctions =
words that connect
Pronouns = refer
to other nouns
b.
Lexical meaning and grammatical meaning
Lexical meaning is “the most
outstanding individual of the word that makes it different from any other
word”. The lexical meaning of a word may be thought of as the specific value it
has in a particular language system, and the ‘personality’ it acquires through
usage within that system.
The categories of
English words that are lexical include nouns, adjectives, most verbs, and many
adverbs. Lexical meaning is dominant in content words, whereas grammatical
meaning is dominant in function words, but in neither is grammatical
meaning absent. Grammatical words include prepositions, modals and auxiliary
verbs, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, and some adverbs.
The difference
between lexical words and grammatical words is straightforward. It is an
important concept for linguists because the distinction seems to exist in all
languages, not just English. Understanding these differences helps scholars
figure out the relationship between the different languages, as well as the
history of the English language. It may even give some insight into how human
minds work. Understanding these types of words will help increase your
comprehension of English.
Lexical words
supply meaning to a sentence, whereas grammatical words relate the lexical
words to one another. Look at the following sentence that only shows the
lexical words:
" ___ cat
jumped ___ ___ tree ___ ___ dog ran ___."
This looks like
nonsense. All you know is that it is about jumping cats, running dogs, and
trees. It may be possible to guess the complete meaning of the sentence, but
you can't know for certain because cats, dogs, and trees can be related in
different ways.
Now look at the
sentence with the grammatical words re-inserted:
"The cat
jumped into the tree as the dog ran forward."
The sentence makes
sense. Notice, however, that if you put a different set of grammatical words
in, you get a completely different meaning: "The cat jumped from the tree
after the dog ran away." You can see that the grammatical words clarify
the logical relations between the lexical words and define their function in
the sentence.
12.
Write the basic pattern of simple sentences in English.
A sentence is the largest unit of any
language. In English, it begins with a capital letter and ends with
a full-stop, or a question mark, or an exclamation mark. The sentence is generally defined as a word or a
group of words that expresses a thorough idea by giving a statement/order, or
asking a question, or exclaiming.
It is essential to
know about the basic patterns of English in the formation of the sentences. We
find subject (S), predicate (P), object (O), complement (C), and Adjunct (A) in
the internal structure of a sentence. The formula (A) (S) (P) (O) (C) (A)
indicates that predicate is an obligatory element to be a sentence whereas
other elements are optional. There can be a predicate and one more any element
or there can also be all the elements in a sentence. Different types of
structures of simple sentences are given below.
1. P Get up!
2. PA Get up quickly!
3. SP The man escaped.
4. SPA The man escaped yesterday.
5, PO Eat your breakfast.
6. SPOC Rita called her brother a fool.
7. SPC John is a fool.
8. ASPC At times John is a fool.
9. SPOC Rita called her brother a fool.
10. SPO Rita ate her breakfast.
11. SAPOC Rita often called her brother a fool.
Best of
Luck
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