Grammatical Units

Le, H.T., Dang, D.T., & Tran, H.P.
– A Grammar of the English language
4. GRAMMATICAL UNITS
The first step usually taken in the study of grammar is to identify units in
the stream of speech (or writing, or signing) - The following five-rank
hierarchy is a widely used model in the study of grammar:
SENTENCES SENTENCES
are analyzed into are used to build
CLAUSES CLAUSES
PHRASES PHRASES
WORDS WORDS
MORPHEMES MORPHEMES
Morphemes are the ''lower'' limit of grammatical enquiry, for they have
no grammatical structure. Similarly, sentences form the ''upper'' limit of
grammatical study, because they do not usually form a part of any larger
grammatical unit.
Part IV will deal with the definitions of these five grammatical units and
discussion round them.
4.1. MORPHEMES AND WORDS
In traditional grammar, words are the basic units of analysis.

Grammarians classify words according to their parts of speech and identify
and list the forms that words can show up in. As you can easily see, many
words in the English language have no internal grammatical structure. These
words (e.g., yes, boat, car, head, etc.) can be analyzed into constituent sounds
or syllables but none of these has a meaning in isolation.
Le, Dang, & Tran (2015) A Grammar of the English language. ĐH HN Page 1
Le, H.T., Dang, D.T., & Tran, H.P. – A Grammar of the English language
By contrast, many words can be divided into parts, each of which has
some kind of independent meaning. The smallest meaningful elements/units
into which words can be analyzed are known as morphemes; and the way
morphemes operate in language provides the subject matter of morphology.
Although speakers of English probably know more about words than

any other parts of their language, words are extremely difficult entities to
define in either universal or language-specific terms. Like most linguistic
entities, they are Janus-like. They look in two directions - upward toward
phrases and sentences and downward toward their constituent morphemes.
Therefore, a better way to understand words is to study how they are divided
into smaller elements, or, in other words, how they are formed. Word-
building (or word-formation) will be discussed later in this section.
Free and bound morphemes
As mentioned above, words can be analyzed into morphemes, the

smallest grammatical meaningful units. You may observe that some
morphemes can stand alone as independent words since they carry full
semantic weight. These are called free morphemes:
E.g., care in careful, happy in unhappiness, order in disorder, etc.
However, many morphemes cannot stand alone in the language. They

are bound morphemes which only add the meaning or grammatical function
of a free morpheme, and cannot stand alone; e.g.,-ful in careful, un- & -ness
in unhappiness, dis- in disorder, etc.
Allomorphs: Any of two or more alternative forms of a unit of meaning

(eg. The morpheme –es in benches and the –s in hats) that vary with its
environment. Morphemic variants are allomorphs. They are the same
morpheme but they vary in pronunciation and/or spelling, such as the /t/ in the
word worked, the /d/ in the word listened and the /id/ in the word added and
the variants in the following words: reader/visitor/liar.
Roots, Stems, Bases and Affixes
Besides being free or bound, morphemes can also be classified as root,

stem, or affix. A root morpheme (or root) is the basic form to which other
morphemes can be attached. In English most roots are free morphemes, but
not all. For instance, the words chronology, chronic, and chronograph all
contain the root chron- (meaning, basically, ''time''), which is not free, but
bound, because it never occurs alone as a word. Similarly renovate and novice
contain a bound root nov- (meaning, basically, ''new'').
Stems are also forms to which other morphemes can be attached. Stems
differ from roots in that they may be made up of more than one morpheme.
All roots are stems, but many stems are not roots (but contain them). Stems
are sometimes created by the juxtaposition of two roots in a compound. Both
baby and sit are roots (and stems), but baby-sit is a stem (but not a root)
because -er can be attached to it. Stems can also be formed by adding
meaningless elements to certain roots. The -n- in binary and trinity is one
such stem-forming element, attached to the roots bi- ("two") and tri- ("three").
Another is the -o- in chronograph and chronology. These stem-forming
element are not morphemes because by ‘morphemes we mean ''smallest unit
with a meaning''. Stem-formers have no meaning or grammatical function.
They are present only for phonological reasons.
Base or base form:

(1) The basic or uninflected form of a verb. This is also called ‘base
form’. Go, like, sing, eat are all bases or base forms, in contrast to: went, likes,
sung, ate which are not. This is applied to verbs only.
The base form of a verb functions:
a/ non-finitely, as the infinitive (eg.: You must go/ She can speak/ We
should do it carefully)
b/ finitely: + as the imperative (eg.: Listen! / Be quiet. / Have a biscuit. /
Come on. / Hurry up.)
+ as the present indicative tense for all persons other than the third – 3rd
person singular (eg.: I always listen as opposed to He always listens / I teach
English as opposed to She teaches English, (the verb be is an exception to
this).
+ as the so-called present subjunctive (eg.: They insisted that he listen. /

The boss demanded that nobody be absent from the company’s meeting.).
(2) The base or base form is used as an element in word formation

a/ The terminology of word formation is confused. Many words consist
of an irreducible ‘core’ word (a free morpheme) to which one or more affixes
(bound morphemes) are attached, eg.: sing + s = sings, great + er = greater,
great + ly = greatly, infect + ious = infectious, in + discrete = indiscrete.
Such basic core words as elements in larger words may be called base
morphemes, but are more often called roots (or stems).
b/ Another type of word when stripped of an affix is no longer a
complete word, but a ‘bound morpheme’. Eg.: Gratuitous apparently has the
suffix –ous (compare: pompous, montrous, outrageous, famous, dangerous,
……), just as gratuity has a noun suffix –y but there is no word *gratuit. Such
a form may be termed a base (or a base morpheme) in some systems. (But
the term stem and root are also used.)
c/ A different problem arises with a word such as unanswerable. It
clearly consists of the prefix un-, the word answer, and the suffix –able. But
we do not have the word: *unanswer; we can only attach un- to answerable.
Some linguists therefore specifically reverse the term base for a word such as
answerable in the context of unanswerable. In this usage, a base is not as
basic as the ‘core’ element (here: answer). But other linguists use stem as the
label here, possibly also including forms such as: gratuit-
Affix is a general term for prefix and suffix, which are both bound
morphemes. Prefixes are morphemes added before a word to form a new
word. Suffixes are morphemes added after a word in the formation of a new
word.
One complication in morphological structure is the existence of infixes.

An infix is a bound morpheme occurring right inside another morpheme,
unlike the other affix types, prefixes and suffixes. In English, there are no
infixes, but they are not uncommon in the languages of the world. English has
some morphological phenomena which at first glance look like infixation, but
are better described otherwise. Plurals like "geese" for "goose" and "feet" for
"foot" do not contain infix morphemes, despite appearances, because [gs] and
[ft] are not morphemes. Rather, what English has in words like these is the
result of a replacement process, a kind of morphological irregularity (cases
like speedometer, spokeswoman, fisherman, or abso-blooming-lutely in abso-

blooming-lutely awful, etc., are advised to be seen in the same direction.)
''Lexical'' and ''grammatical'' morphemes
Lexical morphemes express meanings that can be relatively easily

specified by using dictionary terms or by pointing out examples of things,
events, or properties which the morphemes can be used to refer to: tree, burp,
above, red, pseudo-, anti, -ism, honest. Grammatical morphemes have one
(or both) of two characteristics. First, they express very common meanings,
meanings which speakers of the language unconsciously consider important
enough to be expressed very often. Verb tense morphemes are an example. In
Max played and Max loves donuts, -ed and -s are grammatical morphemes.
Another example is morphemes expressing noun number (singular vs. plural).
The other characteristic that grammatical morphemes may exhibit is the

expression of relations within a sentence (instead of denoting things,
properties, or events in the world). The verb suffix -s for third person singular
present tense, for example, besides indicating tense, marks 'agreement'
between subject and verb.
The definition of ''grammatical morpheme'' is disjunctive: any morpheme

is ''grammatical'' if it fits either (or both) of the two characteristics: (1) It
expresses a very common meaning or is specifically required in some context;
or (2) it expresses a relation within a sentence rather than denoting things,
activities, etc., in the world.
Some of the most commonly used grammatical morphemes in English

are bound: for example, -s, -ed, -ing, -er, -est. Others are free, that is,
independent words. A few examples of free grammatical morphemes are the,
passive by, as in ...as...as..., to before infinitive verbs. Free grammatical
morphemes are also called function words.
Inflection and derivation
Another useful morphological distinction is between two kinds of bound

morphemes: inflectional and derivational. Roughly speaking, a derivational
morpheme creates - ''derives'' - a new word when attached, while an
inflectional morpheme creates a new form of the old word.
Inflectional morphology and derivational morphology are two main

fields traditionally recognized within morphology. Inflectional morphology
studies the way in which words vary (or inflect) in order to express
grammatical contrasts in sentences, such as singular/plural or past/present
tense. Thus, morphemes like -s in boys, -es in potatoes, -ies in lorries or -es in
'He goes to school every day’, went from go are called inflectional
morphemes.
Altogether, there are only eight inflectional affixes (all suffixes) in

English: plural (-s and its irregular variants, e.g., as in men); -'s (possessive); -
s (verb suffix for third person singular present tense); -ing (verb suffix
meaning ‘in progress’); -er (comparative); -est (superlative suffix); 'perfect'
suffix on verbs (-en, and variants, e.g., as in put and gone); and past tense (-ed
and irregular variants, e.g., as in bought and ate).
Derivational morphology, however, studies the principles governing the

construction of new words, without reference to the specific grammatical role
a word might play in a sentence. In the formation of drinkable from drink, or
taxation from tax, for example, we see the formation of different words, with
their own grammatical properties. Elements that are added to a word to form
new word(s) are called derivational morphemes. A more traditional term for
derivational morphemes is affixes (prefixes and suffixes). Actually, affixation
(or derivation) including prefixation and suffixation is a productive way to
form new words in English.
Other ways of forming new words
Like all other languages in the world, English changes, new words are
created through a variety of creative mechanisms. Besides derivation,
important processes include compounding, conversion or ''zero-derivation''
(eg.: hand(n) – to hand(v)/ water(n) – to water(v)/ dog(n) – to dog(v)/
empty(adj) – to empty(v)……….), the use of acronyms, extending brand
names to the realm of common nouns, ''blends'', ''clippings'', and extending the
domain of derivational morphemes.
(1). Compounding/Composition
There are new words in English which are produced by combining two
or more roots or stems. Compound words, though certainly fewer in quantity
than root words or derived words, still represent one of the most typical and
specific features of English word-structure. There are different kinds of
compound words. Structurally, there are neutral compound words (eg. White-
board, table-tennis, warm-hearted, TV programme, U-bomb,…),
morphological compound words ( eg. Salesgirl, handicraft, speedometer,
agro-forestry,…) and syntactical compound words (eg. Merry-go-round,
good-for-nothing, forget-me-not, know-what, one-know-everything,…).
Semantically, there are idiomatic compound words (eg. Red-tape, lady-bird,
green-fly, blue-bottle,…) and non-idiomatic compound words (eg. School-
boy, man-doctor, toy-train, room-mate, white-board-marker, ceiling- fan,…).
Words like football, handbook, toothpick, White House, and lawn mover
are compounds, which can be defined as words containing at least two roots.
As you can see, compounds are sometimes spelled as single words,
sometimes as word sequences. The meanings of a compound aren't always
predictable from the meanings of its constituents, and therefore, dictionaries
provide individual entries for compounds. For instance, girlfriend means
more than just a friend who is a girl, sweetheart relies on metaphor to relate
its form and its meaning, overlap can denote only a state, never an event (an
overlap exists rather than happens), a firing squad is not just a squad that
fires, but one that executes by firing, sandpaper has a narrower meaning than
just ''paper with sand (on it), and both bag man and bag lady mean more than
'man (woman) with a bag''.
A list of English compounds

1. Compound nouns
a. Noun + Noun: bath towel; boyfriend; death blow
b. Verb + Noun: pickpocket; breakfast
c. Noun + Verb: nosebleed; sunshine
d. Adjective + Noun: deep structure; fast-food
e. Verb + Verb: make-believe
f. Particle + Noun: in-crowd; downtown
g. Adverb + Noun: now generation

h. Verb + Particle: cop-out; dropout
i. Phrase compounds: son-in-law
2. Compound verbs
a. Noun + Verb: skydive
b. Adjective + Verb: fine-tune
c. Particle + Verb: overbook
d. Adjective + Noun: brownbag
3. Compound adjectives
a. Noun + Adjective: card-carrying; childproof
b. Verb + Adjective: fail-safe
c. Adjective + Adjective: open-ended
d. Adverb + Adjective: cross-modal
e. Particle + Adjective: overqualified
f. Noun + Noun: coffee table
g. Verb + Noun: roll-neck
h. Adjective + Noun: red-brick; blue-collar
i. Particle + Noun: in-depth
j. Verb + Verb: go-go; make-believe
k. Adjective/Adverb + Verb: high-rise
l. Verb + Particle: see-through; tow-away
4. Compound adverbs
Up-tightly
cross-modally
5. Neoclassical compounds
astronaut; hydroelectric; mechanophobe
(2). Conversion (Zero-derivation)

A word changes its class without any change of form, e.g., carpet
becomes to carpet; hand becomes to hand, eye – to eye, back – to back, face –
to face, comb – to comb, pen – to pen, brush – to brush, room – to room, table
– to table, lunch – to lunch, cook – to cook, nurse – to nurse, dog – to dog,
monkey – to monkey, fish – to fish, whale – to whale, bottle – to bottle, honey-

moon – to honey-moon, yellow – to yellow, … .
(3). Acronymy
Another word-formation process turns word-initial letter sequences into
ordinary words: laser from light amplification by stimulated emission of
radiation, NATO from North Atlantic Treaty Organization, WTO from World
Tourism Organization, UNICEF from United Nations International
Children’s Educational Fund, FAQ from frequently asked questions, CD-
ROM from Compact Disc read-only memory, radar from radio detecting and
ranging, etc.
(4). Brand names

This word-formation process turns brand names into common nouns,
sometimes verbs: kleenex, xerox (n, v), scotch tape.
(5). Blendings
Two words merge into each other, e.g., brunch (breakfast + lunch),
Chunnel (Channel + tunnel), telex (teleprinter + exchange), and motel (motor
+ hotel), smog (smoke + fog), bit (binary + digit), Eurovision (European +
television), cyborg (cybernetic + organism), … .
(6). Clippings
This process creates an informal shortening of a word, often to a single
syllable, e.g., ad, gents, flu, telly, phone, bus, lab, gas, maths, pants,… .
(7). Extending the domain of derivational morphemes

Another word-formation process is making a derivational morpheme
more productive than it was. One frequently criticized example of this is the
extension of -ize to create forms such as prioritize and containerize. This kind
of word-creation is found frequently in a child's first language acquisition.
4.2. PHRASES
A phrase is a level of structure between a word and a clause. In both

traditional and more modern grammar a phrase often consists of two or more
words that ‘go together’, eg. at the beginning, very young indeed, in the
classroom. However, in traditional grammar (where a clause must contain a
finite verb) phrases include what are now often classified as non-finite clauses
(eg. having said that) or verbless clauses (eg. if possible). In modern grammar
phrases are still defined in terms of form. But a phrase can consist of a single
head-word; it could also contain a finite clause if that is dependent on the
head-word.
A phrase is an element of structure typically containing more than one

word, but lacking the subject-predicate structure usually found in a clause.
Phrases are classified into functional types related to word class, such as noun
phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases and preposition
phrases. In generative grammar, the term has a broader sense as part of a
general characterization of the first stage of sentence analysis – the phrase-
structure part of a grammar.
Traditionally, phrases are an extension of the single word parts of speech

named accordingly: noun phrase, adjectival phrase, and adverbial phrase. The
traditional definition of a phrase calls it ''a group of words that does not
contain a verb and its subject and is used as a single part of speech''.
Phrases are not introduced by conjunctions, nor do they contain a finite

verb (i.e., a verb which is inflected to show tense). In fact the phrase is
traditionally defined as a cohesive group of words containing no finite verb
but making a unit that functions as part of a sentence (Ridout and Christie,
The Fact of English, 1963).
This traditional definition employs three different criteria: semantic (''a

cohesive group of words''); structural (''containing no finite verb but making a
unit''); and functional (''functions as part of a sentence''). A phrase, following
the definition given above, functions as a coherent entity within the sentence.
A look at the phrases in the examples below, and the words with which these
phrases could be replaced, will suggest that this function is in essence the
same as that of various parts of speech (Noun, Adjective, Adverb):
Eating at restaurants gives me indigestion. (as a noun; subject of

the sentence)
The cat ran under the chair. (as an adverb of place)
The jacket with a striped pattern is mine. (as an adjective; part of a
longer noun phrase)
Despite appearances, Mary is not at all a shy person. (as a
sentence adverb)
He ate his sandwiches with great delight. (as an adverb of manner)
Note:
Sometimes the function of the phrase is doubtful:
I like the vase on the table.

a) I like the vase which is on the table. (an adjectival phrase)
b) I like the vase to be on the table. (an adverbial phrase)
Phrases are essentially a means of expanding the vocabulary potential of

English by giving us a far wider range of Nouns, Adverbs, etc. So phrases, as
we have said before, are an extension of the single-word parts of speech.
The phrase as a verb:
A verb phrase (VP) always contains a main verb as its head. It can be a
single word (eg. spoke, told) or it may also contain one or more auxiliary
verbs (eg. must have been leaving). A finite verb phrase always functions as
the verbal element (V) in finite clause structure.
The phrase as a noun:
A noun phrase (NP) contains a noun as head – with or without

modification. A noun phrase may contain a relative clause in some modern
analysis (eg. the woman I love).
The phrase as adjective:
The adjective (or adjectival) phrase (Adj) is usually distinguished from

the other types by virtue of its modifying a noun, i.e., in functional terms. In
practice, this means that an adjectival phrase nearly always occurs as a
modifier of the head noun within a noun phrase:
The man on the bench is drunk.

People in poor countries often suffer from malnutrition.
Because of the strict placing in English of the adjectival phrase after the
noun it modifies, misplacement of the phrase can give rise to amusing or
misleading misinformation, as in the advertisement below:
‘Wanted, zinc bath for adult with strong bottom.’

‘Sports leather coat for lady in perfect condition.’
The phrase as adverb:
Structurally, the adverb (or adverbial) phrase is identical with the

adjectival phrase (both are begun with a preposition), but its position in the
sentence is usually different. The major difference between the two types of
phrase lies in their functions: whereas the adjectival phrase modifies a noun,
the adverbial phrase modifies a verb, and can usually be replaced by a single-
word adverb:
The assailant struck the man behind the ear.
The assailant struck the man behind the railway station.
The lecture begins at one o'clock.
They treated the suggestion with little respect.
She did it for no particular reason.
Phrase as a preposition:
A preposition (or prepositional) phrase (PP) is rather different from the

other four types of phrases. In form, they are non-headed, and must contain at
least two words – a preposition plus its object (or complement), usually a
noun. Preposition phrases have two main functions. They can be the
adv(erbial) in clause structure (eg. please put that in the box) or they can
operate at a lower level as part of a noun phrase (eg. a Jack-in-the box)
Most phrases can be seen as expansions of a central element (the head),

and these are often referred to as "endocentric" phrases (also as basic
phrases). They have the same grammatical function as the central word or the
head:
cars
the cars
the big cars

all the cars
big
all the cars in the garage

big
Phrases which cannot be analyzed in this way are then called

"exocentric":
inside / the cars.
The internal structure of an endocentric phrase is commonly described in

a three-part manner:
all the big cars in the garage

PREMODIFIER HEAD POSTMODIFIER
As mentioned above, the head is the central element of a phrase. It is the

required lexical constituent in the phrase. In modern grammars it is the head
that gives the phrase its identity.
According to contemporary syntax, any phrase may be one or more

words long, e.g., a noun phrase includes either a single noun or a group of
words that functions like a single noun. The key syntactic notion of function
is bought into focus in order to define the phrase in a way that it makes the
study of grammar simpler (although it can confuse those who aren't aware of
this practice in contemporary syntax.) One consequence of this change is that
it appears to any single word into a phrase and thus to destroy the distinction
between words and phrases that the traditional definition maintains clearly. In
fact, this problem doesn't arise, for only five phrase types will be defined in
English, each of which will have only a certain range of parts of speech that
normally function as phrasal heads.
In considering word classes (or parts of speech), contemporary syntax

classifies English phrases into:
(1) Noun Phrase (NP):

Functional formula: (Pre-modifier) + Head + (Post-modifier)
Examples of noun phrases can be:
(a) I love coffee; Pandas live in southwest China [Head alone]
(b) The pandas died; Her nose is straight [Pre-modifier + Head]
(c) arguments about abortion; printers of good quality
[Head+ Post-modifier]
(d) the decision on national security
[Pre-modifier + Head + Post-modifier]
(2) Verb Phrase (VP):

Functional formula:
(Auxiliary) + Head + (Object/Complement) + (Modifier)
Examples of verb phrases are:
(a) Mr. Truong walks; Everybody dies [Head alone]

(b) Mr. Truong is walking; Mr. Truong does not cry [Aux + Head]
(c) Mr. Truong delivered a long speech; Mr. Truong gave me a drink
[Head + Object(s)]
(d) Mr. Truong considers grammar a living thing
[Head + complement]
(e) Mr. Truong works a great deal; He stays up very late
[Head + Modifier]
(f) Mr. Truong has considered grammar a living thing for a long time
[All the above combined]
(3) Adjective Phrase (Adj P):

Functional formula: (Intensifier) + Head + (Complement)
Examples of typical adjective phrases can be seen below:
(a) difficult q u e s t i o n s [Head alone]
(b) very difficult q u e s t i o n s [Intensifier + Head]
(c) aware of the matter [Head + Complement]
(d) aware that humans are destroying the environment
[Head + Compl.]
(e) quite aware of the matter [Intensifier + Head + Complement]
(4) Adverb Phrase (AP):

Functional formula: (Intensifier) + Head
Examples of typical adverb phrases appear below:
(a) carefully [Head alone]
(b) very carefully [Intensifier + Head]
(5) Prepositional Phrase (PP):

Functional formula: Head + Object
Examples of typical prepositional phrases can be:
(a) on the table

(b) of good quality
(c) with malice toward none
(d) beyond the blue horizon
(e) from the center of Bombay
In the formula above the heads are a noun, a verb, an adjective, an

adverb, and a preposition respectively. We will not go on with a detailed
discussion on this classification of phrase because of the limited scope of this
book.
4.3. CLAUSES and SENTENCES
Syntax, we have said, is concerned with the way words combine to form
sentences. The sentence, as well as being a combination of words, is also
often defined by traditional grammarians as the expression of a complete
thought, which it can only do if it contains both a subject and a predicate. In
the most basic subject-predicate sentence, the subject is that which the
sentence is about, and the predicate is what says something about the subject.
For example, in Quang laughed, Quang is the subject and laughed is the
predicate. Dividing sentences into their parts like this is called parsing in
traditional grammar.
A sentence that cannot be subdivided into constituent sentences is

known as a simple sentence. And a complicated sentence contains in it
combined simple sentences. A sentence within a sentence is sometimes called
in modern term an embedded sentence. The traditional term for embedded
sentences is clauses.
A clause looks like a complete sentence appearing as part of something

larger which also looks like a complete sentence. Like a sentence, clause must
have a subject and a finite verb.
The various units that make up the structure of a clause are usually given
functional labels, such as Subject (S), Verb (V), Complement (C), Object (O),
and Adverbial (A). A number of clause types can be identified in this way,
such as:
S+V The girl + is dancing.
S+V+O The girl + kissed + her dog.
S+V+C The girl + is + sick.
S+V+A The girl + lay + on the ground.
S+V+O+O The girl + gave + her dog + a bone.
S+V+O+C The girl + called + her dog + Honey.
S+V+O+A The girl + beat + her dog + yesterday.
S + V + O + C + A The girl + made + him + happy + often.
Clauses are combined in two main ways to form more complex

sentences; they may either be co-ordinated, as when a number of clauses of
equal (grammatical) standing or importance are joined together (e.g., I ate
steamed rice and you ate fried rice.) or one clause may be subordinate to
another, which is known as the main clause. Thus in I ate steamed rice while
you ate fried rice, I ate steamed rice is the main clause to which the rest is
subordinate. In other words, coordination and subordination (also
embedding) are two main ways of making sentence more complex.
Coordination results in sentences known as compound sentences and
subordination results in sentences known as complex sentences.
As mentioned above, the sentence can be defined by traditional

grammarians as a combination of words which expresses a complete thought.
However, modern studies avoid this emphasis because of the difficulties
involved in saying what thoughts are. For example, an egg can be a thought
but not a sentence; I shut the door, as it was cold is one sentence with two
thoughts.
Some traditional grammars give a logical definition to the sentence. The

most common approach proposes that a sentence: has a subject (= the topic of
the sentence) and a predicate (= what is being said about the topic). This
approach works well for a great number of sentences but not all. For example,
what is the topic (or topics) in "It is raining and Michael asked Mary for a
pen"?
Linguistic approaches:
Linguists aim to analyze the linguistic constructions that occur,

recognizing the most independent of them as sentences. Thus a sentence is the
largest unit to which syntactic rules apply - 'an independent linguistic form,
not included by virtue of any grammatical construction in any larger linguistic
form' (L. Bloomfield, 1933, p.170).
Sentences are allowed to omit part of their structure and thus are
dependent on a previous sentence. Sentences of this kind are known as
elliptical sentences.
A: Where are you going?
B: To town.
Further discussion on different types of clauses and sentences will be

found in later parts of the book.

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Le, H.T., Dang, D.T., & Tran, H.P.

– A Grammar of the English language

4.1. MORPHEMES AND WORDS

In traditional grammar, words are the basic units of analysis.

Although speakers of English probably know more about words than

Free and bound morphemes

As mentioned above, words can be analyzed into morphemes, the

However, many morphemes cannot stand alone in the language. They

Allomorphs: Any of two or more alternative forms of a unit of meaning

Roots, Stems, Bases and Affixes

Besides being free or bound, morphemes can also be classified as root,

Base or base form:

+ as the so-called present subjunctive (eg.: They insisted that he listen. /

(2) The base or base form is used as an element in word formation

One complication in morphological structure is the existence of infixes.

like speedometer, spokeswoman, fisherman, or abso-blooming-lutely in abso-

''Lexical'' and ''grammatical'' morphemes

Lexical morphemes express meanings that can be relatively easily

The other characteristic that grammatical morphemes may exhibit is the

The definition of ''grammatical morpheme'' is disjunctive: any morpheme

Some of the most commonly used grammatical morphemes in English

Inflection and derivation

Another useful morphological distinction is between two kinds of bound

Inflectional morphology and derivational morphology are two main

Altogether, there are only eight inflectional affixes (all suffixes) in

Derivational morphology, however, studies the principles governing the

Other ways of forming new words

A list of English compounds

g. Adverb + Noun: now generation

(2). Conversion (Zero-derivation)

monkey – to monkey, fish – to fish, whale – to whale, bottle – to bottle, honey-

(4). Brand names

(7). Extending the domain of derivational morphemes

A phrase is a level of structure between a word and a clause. In both

A phrase is an element of structure typically containing more than one

Traditionally, phrases are an extension of the single word parts of speech

Phrases are not introduced by conjunctions, nor do they contain a finite

This traditional definition employs three different criteria: semantic (''a

Eating at restaurants gives me indigestion. (as a noun; subject of

I like the vase on the table.

Phrases are essentially a means of expanding the vocabulary potential of

The phrase as a verb:

The phrase as a noun:

A noun phrase (NP) contains a noun as head – with or without

The phrase as adjective:

The adjective (or adjectival) phrase (Adj) is usually distinguished from

The man on the bench is drunk.

‘Wanted, zinc bath for adult with strong bottom.’

The phrase as adverb:

Structurally, the adverb (or adverbial) phrase is identical with the

A preposition (or prepositional) phrase (PP) is rather different from the

Most phrases can be seen as expansions of a central element (the head),

the big cars

all the cars in the garage

Phrases which cannot be analyzed in this way are then called

The internal structure of an endocentric phrase is commonly described in

all the big cars in the garage

As mentioned above, the head is the central element of a phrase. It is the

According to contemporary syntax, any phrase may be one or more