Unit N°2:

The Structure of Language

Sounds: The sounds and sound patterns of language. Phonetics and Phonology.
Morphology. Types of morphemes: bound and free (lexical and functional). Word
formation processes. Grammar: types of grammar: traditional, mental and linguistic
etiquette. Learning vs acquisition. First, second and foreign language. Descriptive vs
Prescriptive grammar. Grammar: parts of speech. Grammar in Action. Syntax.

SOUNDS

What are sounds?

Sounds are vibrations that travel through a medium and are detected by our ears
vibrations are converted into electrical signals sent to the brain. The brain processe
signals, allowing us to perceive and interpret different types of sounds.

What is Speech?

➔ Speech and language are separate but related processes that work together when
we produce oral communication.

➔ It is the faculty or power of speaking. Oral communication

➔ Speech is made up of phonemes, the building blocks of speech.

➔ It is the ability to express one's thoughts and emotions through sounds.

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PHONETICS vs PHONOLOGY

➔ Phonetics: the articulatory and acoustic properties of speech sounds, how they
are produced, and how they are perceived. Sounds are represented as symbols
using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). IPA allows us to represent sounds
regardless of spelling.

➔ Phonology: The study of the rules that determine how sounds can be sequenced
into syllables and words across a language.

PHONETICS: the sounds of language

➔ Phonetics is the study of speech sounds and how they are produced and
perceived.

➔ It is the general study of the characteristics of speech sounds.

➔ Voiceless sounds: the vocal folds are spread apart and the air from the lungs
passes between them unimpeded.

➔ Voiced sounds: the vocal folds are drawn together and the air from the lungs
repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect.

Consonants: speech sounds created with some obstruction of the air stream.

Classification of consonant sounds: The most common approach is by using place (where the
articulators articulate), manner (how the air flows through the vocal tract), and voicing
(whether or not the vocal folds are engaged to produce voice).

Place of articulation: the location inside the mouth at which the constriction takes place.

★bilabial dental ★palatals

★labiodental ★alveolar ★velar

★ glottal

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Manner of articulation: the way consonants are pronounced

★stops ffricates ★liquids

★fricatives ★nasal ★glides

★glottal stops and flaps

Vowels: speech sounds created with no obstruction of the airstream, mostly articulated via
closure or obstruction in the vocal tract. They are all typically voiced.

Classification of vowel sounds: Vowels are classified based on where the tongue is positioned
in the mouth concerning height (high, low), location of primary resonance (front, central,
back), and tension of the tongue (tense, lax)

Diphthongs: our vocal organs move from one vocalic position to another as we produce the
sound.

PHONOLOGY: the sound patterns of language

It is the study of speech sounds as a system and speakers’ knowledge of that system.

It is essentially the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language.

➔ PHONEME: meaning-distinguishing sounds in a language. The smallest unit of

contrast. It is the abstract unit or sound type (“in the mind”).

➔ PHONE: different versions of that sound type are regularly produced in actual speech
(“in the mouth”).

➔ ALLOPHONE: versions of one phoneme, a variant of a phoneme that does not change
meaning. Language, dialect, and culturally specific.

➔ MINIMAL PAIRS: when two words are identical in form except for contrast in one
phoneme (eg. pat- bat)

➔ PHONOTACTICS: permitted arrangements of sounds in a language that are part of

every speaker’s phonological knowledge. Language-specific rules for combining
speech sounds.

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➔ COARTICULATION: The process of making one sound almost at the same time as the
next sound.

● assimilation: I have to go [hæftə]

● elision: friendship [frɛnʃɪp].

MORPHOLOGY

➔ It is the study of forms

➔ It is a branch of linguistics that studies how words are formed from smaller
meaningful units called morphemes.

➔ It explores the rules and processes involved in combining morphemes to

create words. It is the study and description of word formation processes in
language.

➔ By analysing structures and patterns, morphology helps us understand how

words are constructed and organised in different languages.

➔ Our morphological knowledge has two components: knowledge of the

individual morphemes, and knowledge of the rules to combine them.

➔ For example

HELP: help, helpful, helpless, helpfulness, helplessness

MORPHEME

➔ It is the smallest unit of form or the smallest unit of meaning.

➔ It is a meaningful linguistic unit consisting of a word such as man or a word

element such as ED in walked, that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful
elements.

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➔ A morpheme is the smallest morphological unit that cannot be divided into
smaller parts.

➔ For example:

re- open-ed (there are 3 morphemes in this word)

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 Free lexical morphemes apple

Free morphemes They have meaning on their own. They sing

are called content or lexical words.
(they stand by beautiful
themselves in
writing) Free functional morphemes the

They do not have meaning on their own. would

They are called form or grammatical
words.

Bound derivational morphemes cleanness (-ness à noun)

- If used as suffixes, they usually famous (-ous à adjective)

indicate the grammatical
quickly (-ly à adverb)
category.
but: useless (less à meaning)

unable (un- à negative)

- If used as prefixes, they change
Bound the meaning of the free lexical co-pilot (co- together with)
morphemes morpheme that follows them.
Compare:
(they are attached
childish (-ish à change of
to a free lexical
word class / from noun to
morpheme, either
adj.)
as prefixes or as
suffixes) greenish (-ish à change of
meaning / not completely
green, but sort of)

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 Bound inflectional morphemes biggest (-est à superlative
form of the adj.)
They are used as suffixes and they
indicate the grammatical category (word started (-ed àpast / past
class) participle)

Examples:

- 2 bound derivational morphemes: e.g. unfortunate

- 1 bound derivational morpheme & 1 bound inflectional morpheme: e.g.

disconnected

FREE MORPHEMES

Free morphemes can stand by themselves as single words in writing i.e. they are those
which can stand alone as words of a language.

They may be classified into two main groups: free lexical morphemes and free grammatical
or functional morphemes.

➔ FREE LEXICAL MORPHEMES:

They are words that have meaning on their own, they convey information and transmit a
message in a text or speech act. They are called lexical or content words. It is a set of
ordinary nouns, adjectives, adverbs and main verbs.

● Nouns (frog, man, freedom, John)

● Adjectives (good, kind, famous)

● Main verbs (be, feel, run, eat)

● Adverbs (very, really, slowly, fast)

They form an OPEN CLASS of words because it is likely to find introductions and loses in
this group. In other words, we can add new lexical morphemes to the language rather

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easily while others disappear as time passes by.

➔ FREE FUNCTIONAL MORPHEMES:

These words accompany the content words by giving the grammatical structure to the
sentence. They are called functional or grammatical words. This group is made up of
words such as:

● Articles: a, an, the

● Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
● Pronouns: he, him, their, we
● Conjunctions: or, but, and, however
● Prepositions: in, on, for, at
● Modal verbs: can – could - should
● Auxiliary verbs: don´t – doesn´t – didn´t – will

They form a CLOSED CLASS of words because it is unlikely to find introductions and loses
in this group. In other words, we rarely add new functional morphemes to the language
and they do not frequently disappear as time passes by.

BOUND MORPHEMES

They are those morphemes that cannot stand normally alone and are typically attached to
another form.

In other words, a bound morpheme only appears as part of a larger word.

All affixes, divided into prefixes and suffixes are bound morphemes.

When free morphemes are used with bound morphemes attached, the basic word forms
are known as STEM or ROOT of the word.

For example:

CARE LESS NESS

(stem-free) bound bound

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➔ BOUND DERIVATIONAL MORPHEMES:

They are used to make new words (with another meaning) or words of a different
grammatical category from the stem.

PREFIXES

They are attached to the beginning of the free lexical morpheme and they usually change
its meaning

● HONEST - DISHONEST
● RELIABLE – UNRELIABLE

SUFFIXES

They are attached to the end of the free lexical morpheme and they usually change its
grammatical category (word class)

● HELP - HELPFUL
● TEACH - TEACHER

➔ BOUND INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES:

They are those morphemes that are used to indicate one aspect of the same
grammatical category. They are also called inflections.

The English language has eight inflectional morphemes:

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 What's the difference between bound derivational and bound inflectional
morphemes?

Bound derivational morphemes create or modify words, while bound inflectional

morphemes provide grammatical information without altering the word's basic
meaning.

Morphological sentence analysis:

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STEM VS ROOT

In the field of morphology, the terms "root" and "stem" are used to describe different
components of a word.

A root is the core element of a word that carries its primary meaning. It is usually a
morpheme that cannot be further divided into smaller meaningful units. Roots are
often considered the building blocks of words and serve as the foundation for forming
new words through the addition of affixes. For example, in the word "unhappiness," the
root "happy" carries the core meaning of the word.

A stem, on the other hand, is a slightly broader concept. It refers to the main part of a
word that carries the core meaning and to which affixes can be added. Stems can
consist of a root alone or a root combined with other morphemes. Stems provide the
basic form of a word that changes affixation or inflection to convey grammatical
information. For example, in the word "happiness," the stem is "happi-," which includes
the root "happy" before the suffix "-ness" is added.

In summary, the root is the fundamental morpheme that carries the core meaning of a
word, while the stem is the main part of a word that includes the root and may also
contain additional morphemes.

Eg. carelessness

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 PRACTICE TIME

Complete the following activities and then check your answers with the ANSWER KEY:

ACTIVITY 1

Decide if the following statements are true or false:

1) Morphology studies word formation and structure. T / F
2) A morpheme can be divided into smaller parts. T / F
3) A morpheme is the minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function. T / F
4) Free morphemes cannot stand as single words in writing. T / F
5) Lexical or content words convey information in a text. T / F
6) Lexical or content words form a closed class. T / F
7) Grammatical or functional words form the grammatical structure of a sentence. T / F
8) Bound morphemes are attached to a free lexical morpheme. T / F
9) Bound morphemes can stand as single words in writing. T / F
10) All prefixes and suffixes are bound to morphemes. T / F
11) Prefixes change the grammatical category of a word. T / F
12) Suffixes change the meaning of a word. T / F
13) Bound inflectional morphemes indicate an aspect of the same grammatical category. T / F
14) Bound derivational morphemes are used to make new words in a language. T / F
15) There are 10 types of bound inflectional morphemes. T / F

ACTIVITY 2

How many morphemes are there in each of the following words?

- Blackboard - unhappy
- Country - hospital
- River - printer

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ACTIVITY 3

Classify the following words into free and bound morphemes.

WORD FREE MORPHEMES BOUND MORPHEMES

unhappy

friendship

teacher

dogs

jumped

singer

preheat

misunderstand

careful

helped

quickly

cats

rebuilt

dislike

ACTIVITY 4

Identify the morphemes. Are they bound derivational or inflectional? Which is the root?

Unfriendly - Unreadable - Longer - Activities - Bananas

Waiter - Slowest - Jumping

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 ANSWER KEY

ACTIVITY 1

Decide if the following statements are true or false:

1) Morphology studies word formation and structure. True
2) A morpheme can be divided into smaller parts. False
3) A morpheme is the minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function. True
4) Free morphemes cannot stand as single words in writing.False
5) Lexical or content words convey information in a text. True
6) Lexical or content words form a closed class. False
7) Grammatical or functional words form the grammatical structure of a sentence. True
8) Bound morphemes are attached to a free lexical morpheme. True
9) Bound morphemes can stand as single words in writing. False
10) All prefixes and suffixes are bound to morphemes. True
11) Prefixes change the grammatical category of a word. False
12) Suffixes change the meaning of a word. True
13) Bound inflectional morphemes indicate an aspect of the same grammatical category. True
14) Bound derivational morphemes are used to make new words in a language. True
15) There are 10 types of bound inflectional morphemes. False

ACTIVITY 2

How many morphemes are there in each of the following words?

● Blackboard - 2 morphemes: "black" (free lexical morpheme) and "board" (free lexical
morpheme)
● Unhappy- 2 morphemes: "un" (bound derivational morpheme), "happy" (free lexical
morpheme)
● Country - 1 morpheme: "country" (a free lexical morpheme).
● Hospital - 1 morpheme: "hospital" (a free lexical morpheme).
● River - 1 morpheme: "river" (a free lexical morpheme).
● Printer - 2 morphemes: "print" (free lexical morpheme) and the bound morpheme "-er"
(bound derivational morpheme).

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ACTIVITY 3

Classify the following words into free and bound morphemes.

WORD FREE MORPHEMES BOUND MORPHEMES

unhappy happy un

friendship friend ship

teacher teach er

dogs dog s

jumped jump ed

singer sing er

preheat heat pre

misunderstand understand mis

careful care ful

helped help ed

quickly quick ly

cats cat s

rebuilt built re

dislike like dis

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ACTIVITY 4

Identify the morphemes. Are they bound derivational or inflectional? Which is the root?

1) Unfriendly:

- Un (bound derivational morpheme): Indicates negation or reversal.

- Friend (free lexical morpheme, root): The base word that carries the main meaning.

-ly (bound derivational morpheme): Forms an adverb from the adjective "friendly."

2) Longer:

- Long (free lexical morpheme, root): The base word that carries the main meaning.

- er (bound inflectional morpheme): Indicates the comparative form of the adjective "long."

3) Bananas:

- Banana (free lexical morpheme, root): The base word that carries the main meaning.

- s (bound inflectional morpheme): Indicates plural form.

4) Slowest:

- Slow (free lexical morpheme, root): The base word that carries the main meaning.

- est (bound inflectional morpheme): Indicates the superlative form of the adjective "slow."

5) Unreadable:

- Un (bound derivational morpheme): Indicates negation or reversal.

- Read (free lexical morpheme, root): The base word that carries the main meaning.

-able (bound derivational morpheme): Forms an adjective indicating capability.

6) Activities:

- Activit(y) (free lexical morpheme, root): The base word that carries the main meaning.

-ies (bound inflectional morpheme): Indicates plural form.

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7) Waiter:

- Wait (free lexical morpheme, root): The base word that carries the main meaning.

-er (bound derivational morpheme): Forms a noun indicating a person who performs the
action of the verb "wait."

8) Jumping:

- Jump (free lexical morpheme, root): The base word that carries the main meaning.

-ing (bound inflectional morpheme): Indicates the present participle form of the verb "farm."

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 WORD FORMATION PROCESSES

Word formation processes refer to the systematic ways in which new words are created or
formed in a language. These processes involve applying rules and patterns to existing words
or word parts to generate new lexical items with specific meanings and functions.

- Every time a new word is introduced into a language, it is known as NEOLOGISM.

- The life span of a neologism is limited because the neologism will either be formally
accepted into mainstream language (at which point, it ceases to be a neologism), or it will
fade into obscurity due to lack of use.

- Introductions usually occur in the group of LEXICAL WORDS (free lexical morphemes)
such as nouns, adjectives, main verbs and adverbs.

- In all languages, there are some regularities concerning the creation of new words.

NEOLOGISM: a new word, meaning, usage, or phrase.

New words are coined for two reasons:

● something is discovered (discoveries)

● something is invented (inventions)

ETYMOLOGY: the study of the origin and history of a word

WORD FORMATION PROCESSES

1) BORROWING: the introduction of words from foreign sources (languages), it is the

adoption of loan-words from another language.

It refers to the process by which words or phrases from one language are adopted and
incorporated into another language. It involves the transfer of vocabulary or even entire
linguistic structures from the source language to the borrowing language.

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When a word is borrowed, it is typically taken from the source language with little or no
alteration in form or meaning. Borrowed words may undergo some adaptation to fit the
phonological, morphological, or orthographic conventions of the borrowing language, but they
often retain recognizable elements of their original form.

Borrowing can occur due to various reasons, such as cultural contact, trade, colonisation, or
technological advancements. Languages often borrow words to fill gaps in their lexicon for
concepts or objects that are introduced from other cultures or domains.

When words from foreign languages are introduced into another, any of these processes can
happen:

➔ the words can keep both the spelling and the pronunciation of the language of origin

e.g. stress, rugby, jeans, shorts (from English to Spanish)

siesta , patio (from Spanish to English)

➔ the words can keep the spelling of the language of origin, but change their
pronunciation (normally they are pronounced as if read in the language of origin)

e.g. diesel / diːzl / pronounced / djesel/ in Argentina

➔ the words can keep a pronunciation similar to that of the language of origin, but
adopt a spelling more similar to that of the language that has adopted them

e.g. fútbol from football

➔ the words can change both the spelling and the pronunciation if compared to the
language of origin

In English from Spanish

alligator el lagarto

In Spanish from English

orsaí off side

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Examples: from …………… into English

Spanish: siesta, patio

French: croissant

Italian: piano, gnocchi

Arabic: alcohol

Hindi: shampoo

Examples: from English into Spanish

jeans, sweater, jumper, scanner, mouse, rugby …etc. (mainly in the fields of technology, sport &
some clothes)

Other words form English origin commonly used in Argentina:

stress, weekend, whisky, brother … etc.

2) LOAN-TRANSLATION OR CALQUE /kælk/: a direct translation of the elements of

a word into the borrowing language.

Loan translation, also known as calque, refers to a type of borrowing in linguistics where the
components of a word or phrase from a source language are translated into the borrowing
language. Rather than directly adopting the word or phrase, the borrowing language creates a
literal translation using its own linguistic resources.

In a loan translation or calque, each element or part of the source word or phrase is analysed
and translated into the equivalent elements in the borrowing language. This process results in
a new word or phrase in the borrowing language that conveys a similar meaning to the original
term in the source language.

Eg. hot dogs - perros calientes

car parts - autopartes (in Spanish the prefix “auto” means by itself; e.g. autocorrección, but
“autopartes” are not car parts that generate by themselves)

honeymoon: luna de miel

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3) COMPOUNDING: the combination of two separate words to produce a single form. It is
the combining process of two free lexical morphemes.

Compounding refers to the process of combining two or more independent words, known as
roots, to create a new word. The resulting compound word can function as a noun, verb,
adjective, or other parts of speech, depending on its usage and context.

Compounding is a productive word formation process that allows languages to create new
words to express new concepts, combine existing ideas, or describe specific objects or
phenomena. It provides flexibility and creativity in language use and contributes to the
expansion of vocabulary.

➔ The new form can be written as a single word (online, webcam), as hyphenated words
(e-mail, ice-cream, hard-working, bitter-sweet) or as separate words (Web page).

➔ Some compounds can take any of the three forms: lifestyle, life–style, or life style.

➔ Sometimes the meaning of the compound can be inferred from the meaning of each of
the elements of a compound:

eg. blackboard, pencil-box, bookcase, washing machine, fingerprint, textbook,

good-looking, full-time, sunburn, teapot, sunshine, wallpaper, blueberry, fireplace,
cupcake, waterproof, snowboard

➔ But there are other compounds whose meaning does not derive from the addition of the
meaning of the two elements:

eg. lipstick, eggplant, breakfast, grapefruit, watermelon, pineapple, peanut

➔ Although this process is not so common in Spanish, there are some examples of
compounding: cazabombardero, socialdemocracia, etc.

4) CLIPPING: it is a reduction process.

Clipping refers to the word formation process in which a word is shortened by removing one
or more syllables. The resulting shortened word is called a clipped word or a clip. Clipping is a
common method used to create new words or abbreviated forms in languages.

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Clipping typically occurs with longer words that may be cumbersome or time-consuming to
pronounce or write in their entirety. By removing one or more syllables, speakers and writers
can create more concise and efficient forms of these words.

It is often used to create informal or colloquial words, abbreviations, or slang terms. Clipped
forms may become widely accepted and integrated into the lexicon of a language over time.

There are different types of clipping:

1. Back-Clipping: This involves removing syllables from the end of a word. For example,

"advertisement" is clipped to "ad”.

2. Fore-Clipping: This involves removing syllables from the beginning of a word. For

example, "telephone" is clipped to "phone," and "influenza" is clipped to "flu."

3. Middle-Clipping: This involves removing syllables from the middle of a word. For

example, "fanatic" is clipped from "fanatical."

There are some fields in which clipping is a common process:

- proper names:

Alfred-Alf; Susan-Sue; Benjamin- Ben; Michael-Mike

- words related to school, university and education

examination- exam; mathematics- maths; gymnasium- gym

- Other examples of clipping:

facsimile-fax; gasoline-gas; advertisement-ad/; fanatic-fan, photograph- photo

Also in Spanish: Isa-Isabel; Facu-Facundo;

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5) BLENDING: clipping + combining process

Blending refers to the word formation process in which two or more words are combined by
merging their sounds and meanings to create a new word. Blending involves taking parts of
multiple words and fusing them together to form a single, hybrid word.

Blending is often used to create new words that convey a combination of concepts or ideas
concisely and creatively. It is particularly common in informal language, neologisms, and
coined terms. The resulting blended words can be nouns, verbs, adjectives, or other parts of
speech, depending on the lexical category of the words being blended.

Blended words are typically formed by taking the initial part of one word and combining it with
the final part of another word. The blended word may retain some phonetic elements or
semantic associations from the original words, but it often acquires a distinct meaning of its
own.

There are two types of blending:

➔ Usually: beginning of one word + end of the other word

smog: smoke + fog

brunch: breakfast + lunch

Spanglish: Spanish + English

Motel: motorway + hotel

Fantabulous: fantastic + fabulous

➔ Sometimes: beginning of one word + beginning of the other word

Wifi: wireless + fidelity

modem: modulator + demodulator

sitcom: situation + comedy

This process is not common in Spanish, but there are some examples:

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- (programa) infomercial (información + comercial)

- Portuñol (portugués + español)

6) HYPOCORISM: This is also a reduction process. The word does not change the
grammatical category but there is a reduction and then the word adds the suffix –y or –ie.

Hypocorism refers to a word formation process in which a longer or more formal word is
modified or shortened to create a shorter, more affectionate, or endearing form.

Hypocorisms are commonly used in personal names, nicknames, or terms of endearment to

express affection, closeness, or a sense of familiarity between individuals. They often involve
altering the original word by adding suffixes, changing vowel sounds, or modifying the word in
some way.

For example, in English, hypocoristic forms of names may include "Johnny" for "John," "Bobby"
for "Robert," or "Susie" for "Susan." These modified versions of the original names create a
more informal or intimate tone and are often used by family members, close friends, or loved
ones.

Hypocorisms are not limited to personal names and can also be used with common nouns to
create familiar or endearing terms. For example, "doggy" for "dog," "kitty" for "cat," or
"mommies" for "mothers."

Eg. movie - moving pictures

telly- television

hankie - handkerchief

Maggie - Margaret

Betty - Betina

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7) BACKFORMATION: reduction process + change of word class (grammatical category)

Backformation is a word formation process where a new word is created by removing or

altering what appears to be a morphological element from an existing word.

A word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form another word of a different type (usually
a verb)

Examples:

• television – to televise
• option – to opt
• babysitter – to babysit
• donation – to donate
• resurrection – to resurrect
• gambler – to gamble
• beggar – to beg
• emotion – to emote
• proliferation – to proliferate

8) CONVERSION: there is a change in the function of a word (grammatical shift). There is

no reduction.

Conversion refers to the word formation process in which a word changes its grammatical
category or part of speech without any changes in form. It involves using an existing word in a
different syntactic role or context, thereby creating a new word with a different grammatical
function.

Conversion is also known as zero derivation or functional shift.

➔ nouns that can be used as verbs

bottle - to bottle butter- to butter can - to can (enlatar)

➔ With two-syllable words sometimes there is a change in the accentual pattern

import (n) / ˈɪmpɔːt / import (v) / ɪmˈpɔːt /

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 ➔ verbs that can be used as nouns

must - It’s a must.

take over (phrasal verb) -takeover e.g. Adverse effects on employment after the company

takeover.

➔ verbs that can be used as adjectives

stand up (phrasal verb) - stand-up artist

➔ conjunctions that can be used as nouns

but - There are too many buts.

➔ adjectives that can be used as verbs

dirty- to dirty

9) COINAGE: It is the invention of a totally new word.

Coinage, in linguistics, refers to the word formation process in which a completely new word is
invented and introduced into a language. It involves creating a word from scratch rather than
deriving it from existing words or using established word formation patterns.

Coinage is a form of neologism, which is the creation or introduction of new words or

expressions into a language. It can be done intentionally by individuals or groups to fill a lexical
gap, describe a new concept or invention, or simply to be creative with language.

Examples of coinage include brand names, company names, product names, and terms
specific to certain fields or communities. These words are often created to be distinctive,
memorable, and associated with a particular brand, product, or concept.

Unlike other word formation processes that involve morphological changes or combinations
of existing elements, coinage involves the invention of entirely new words that do not follow
any established linguistic patterns. The success and adoption of coined words depend on
factors such as their utility, ease of pronunciation, and acceptance by the speakers of the
language.

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Coinage reflects the dynamic nature of language and its ability to adapt and evolve to meet the
needs of its speakers.

In this group, we find:

➔ trade names for commercial products that become general terms. They usually lose
their capital letters.

e.g. aspirin, nylon, zipper, kleenex, to google. In Argentina: Savora (instead of mostaza),
Gillette (instead of a razor blade)

➔ words based on the name of a person or a place are called eponyms

- to boycott (from the name of Captain Charles C. Boycott (1832–97), an Irish land agent
treated in this way in 1880, in an attempt instigated by the Irish Land League to get rents
reduced) [name of a person]

- Lynch (surname) – to lynch (linchar)

- Sandwich (place in England) – sandwich (noun)

10) ACRONYM: Acronyms are new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other
words.

An acronym is a word formation process in which a new word is created by taking the initial
letters or syllables from a group of words and pronouncing them as a single word. It involves
using the first letter or letters of each word in a phrase to form a new word that represents the
original phrase.

Acronyms are commonly used to create short, memorable, and convenient alternatives to
longer phrases or titles. They serve as a way to simplify communication and save time by
condensing a complex or lengthy concept into a single word.

Acronyms can be pronounced as a word themselves (e.g., NASA, AIDS) or as a sequence of

individual letters (e.g., FBI, CEO). In written form, acronyms are usually written in uppercase or
with the initial letters capitalised.

27
We can distinguish different types of acronyms:

➔ acronyms that keep their capital letters, and each letter is read separately

CD (compact disk), VCR (video cassette recorder), CV (curriculum vitae)

➔ acronyms that keep their capital letters, and are pronounced as a single word

NATO / neɪtəʊ / (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

NASA / nɑːsə / (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

UNESCO / juːneskəʊ / (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)

AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome)

➔ acronyms that have lost their capital letters and become everyday words

laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation)

radar (radio detection and ranging)

➔ acronyms that are used as names for organisations. These acronyms are related to the
aims of the organisations they name.

MADD (mothers against drunk driving), WAR (women against rape) [as if they had to fight a
war so that rape was considered a crime]

In Argentina: HIJOS (Hijos e Hijas por la Identidad y la Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio)

➔ misused acronyms. Many people do not know the meaning of some acronyms, and so
they misuse them

e.g. PIN number (the letter N stands for number, so we should only say PIN) [personal
identification number]

ATM machine (the letter M stands for machine, so we should only say ATM) [automated
teller machine]

In Argentina: la clave de CUIL (the letter C stands for clave, so we should only say CUIL)
[Clave única de identificación laboral]

28
11) DERIVATION: it involves the use of affixes (prefixes, infixes and suffixes). It is the most
common process in the production of new English words. It involves the use of affixes (bound
derivational morphemes attached to a free lexical morpheme)

Derivation refers to the creation of new words by adding affixes to existing words. It involves
modifying the base or root word to form a derived word that may have a different meaning,
part of speech, or grammatical function.

- prefixes: un-: unreal; mis-: mispronounce; pre-: pre-war

- suffixes: -ful: useful; -less: useless; -ish: bluish; -ism: socialism
- Infixes are not used in English or in Spanish.

12) MULTIPLE PROCESSES: the combination of different word formation mechanisms

or processes to create a new word or modify an existing one.

deli-meat (fiambre):

borrowing from German: delicatessen

clipping: deli

compounding: deli-meat

to lase:

acronym: laser

backformation: (from noun to verb)

waspish attitude:

acronym: WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant)

derivation: + suffix -ish

29
 PRACTICE TIME

Complete the following activities and then check your answers with the ANSWER KEY:

ACTIVITY 1

Which word formation processes are present in the following words?

1) OPTION – TO OPT: 17) EGGPLANT:

2) FAN: 18) STRESS:
3) SANDWICH: 19) WALLPAPER:
4) FINGERPRINT: 20) TO BEG:
5) MOTEL: 21) BOTTLE - TO BOTTLE:
6) SAVORA: 22) MUST - A MUST:
7) TELLY: 23)PHONE:
8) FBI: 24)CD:
9) HONEY MOON: 25) SIESTA:
10) BRUNCH: 26)AUTOPARTES:
11) SUNBURN: 27) ALF:
12) AD: 28)LASER:
13) MISUNDERSTAND: 29)USEFUL:
14) ASPIRIN: 30) DELI-MEAT:
15) SMOG:
16) MOVIE:

ACTIVITY 2

30
Complete the chart with the correct word formation processes:

WORD WORD FORMATION PROCESS

smartphone

hangry

babysit

wifi

smog

fanatic

bookworm

bromance

careless

maths

NASA

jeans

nylon

to can

blueberry

fútbol

flu

ACTIVITY 3

31
Revise the theory and answer the following questions:

1. Provide an example of calque, blending and compounding

2. What is the difference between backformation and hypocorism? Explain and provide
examples
3. The following two pairs are examples of conversion; however, there is a difference
between them. Explain.
BUTTER – TO BUTTER // BOOK – TO BOOK
4. What is an acronym? Provide three examples of different types of acronyms
5. What is CALQUE? Provide a definition and 1 example
6. What's the difference between blending and compounding? Explain and give examples
7. What is the difference between backformation and conversion? Explain and provide
examples
8. What is the difference between coinage and borrowing? Explain and provide examples.
9. What is the difference between derivation and compounding? Explain and provide
examples.

ANSWER KEY

32
ACTIVITY 1

Which word formation processes are present in the following words?

1) OPTION – TO OPT: backformation 17) EGGPLANT: compounding

2) FAN: clipping 18) STRESS: borrowing
3) SANDWICH: coinage 19) WALLPAPER: compounding
4) FINGERPRINT: compounding 20) TO BEG: backformation (beggar)
5) MOTEL: blending 21) BOTTLE - TO BOTTLE: conversion
6) SAVORA: coinage 22) MUST - A MUST: conversion
7) TELLY: hypocorism 23)PHONE: clipping
8) FBI: acronym 24)CD: acronym
9) HONEY MOON: calque 25) SIESTA: borrowing
10) BRUNCH: blending 26)AUTOPARTES: calque
11) SUNBURN: compounding 27) ALF: clipping
12) AD: clipping 28)LASER: acronym
13) MISUNDERSTAND: derivation 29)USEFUL: derivation
14) ASPIRIN: coinage 30) DELI-MEAT: multiple processes
15) SMOG: blending (borrowing, clipping, compounding)
16) MOVIE: hypocorism

ACTIVITY 2

33
Complete the chart with the correct word formation processes:

WORD WORD FORMATION PROCESS

smartphone compounding

hangry blend

babysit backformation

wifi acronym

smog blending

fanatic clipping

bookworm compounding

bromance blending

careless derivation

Math clipping

NASA acronym

jeans borrowing

nylon coinage

to can conversion

blueberry compounding

fútbol borrowing

flu clipping

ACTIVITY 3

Revise the theory and answer the following questions:

34
1) Provide an example of calque, blending and compounding
Autopartes - smog - sunflower
2) What is the difference between backformation and hypocorism? Explain and provide
examples
The main distinction between backformation and hypocorism lies in their word formation
processes. Backformation involves reduction and a change in the grammatical category of
a word (word class). For example, the noun "option" can be backformed to the verb "opt." On
the other hand, hypocorism does not alter the grammatical category of a word. For
instance, the noun "John" remains a noun when transformed into the hypocorism "Johny,"
and the noun "pup" remains a noun when transformed into "puppy."
3) The following two pairs are examples of conversion; however, there is a difference between
them. Explain.
BUTTER – TO BUTTER // BOOK – TO BOOK
In the first example (butter - to butter) the meaning does not change, conversely in the
second example (book - to book) the meaning of the verb changes. In the original word,
"book" refers to making a reservation, while in the conversion, "to book" means the act of
recording or arranging something.
4) What is an acronym? Provide three examples of different types of acronyms
Acronym: An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of a phrase or a series of
words, with each letter representing a word.
Three examples of acronyms are:
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging)
LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation)
5) What is CALQUE? Provide a definition and 1 example
Calque is a word formation process where a word or phrase from one language is
translated literally into another language. It involves borrowing the word's structure or
components rather than the exact meaning.
Example: Honeymoon - luna de miel
6) What's the difference between blending and compounding? Explain and give examples
Blending is a word formation process where two or more words are combined to create a
new word with a combined meaning. The resulting word retains some characteristics of

35
 the original words. An example of blending is "smog," which is derived from "smoke" and
"fog."
Compounding involves combining two or more words to create a new word with a unified
meaning. The resulting word can also have a different meaning from its constituent parts.
Examples: laptop (combining "lap" and "top" to refer to a portable computer), butterfly (the
meaning is not related to the original words “butter” and “fly”).
7) What is the difference between backformation and conversion? Explain and provide
examples
Backformation is a word formation process where a new word is created by removing an
assumed affix from an existing word, often resulting in a change of grammatical category.
Conversion, on the other hand, is a word formation process where a word shifts to a
different grammatical category without any changes to its form.
Backformation:
Noun: "babysitter" becomes the verb "babysit" by removing the "-er" suffix.
Conversion:
Noun: "email" becomes the verb "email" without any changes in form or spelling.
8) What is the difference between coinage and borrowing? Explain and provide examples.
Coinage is the process of creating completely new words. Examples include "Google" and
"Kleenex," which were coined to name specific entities. Borrowing, on the other hand, is
the process of adopting words from one language and incorporating them into another.
Examples of coinage:
Google - Coined as the name of a popular internet search engine.
Kleenex - Coined as a brand name for facial tissues.
Examples of borrowing:
Café - Borrowed from French, referring to a coffeehouse or a small restaurant.
Pizza - Borrowed from Italian, referring to a type of baked flatbread topped with various
ingredients.

9) What is the difference between derivation and compounding? Explain and provide
examples
Derivation involves adding prefixes or suffixes to a base word to modify its meaning or
grammatical function (eg. happiness, friendly). On the other hand, compounding involves

36
combining two or more free morphemes to create a new word with a unified meaning (eg.
wallpaper, eggplant). Derivation modifies existing words through affixation, while
compounding combines words to create new words with distinct meanings.

GRAMMAR

37
Grammar

➔ It refers to the set of structural rules that govern the composition of words
[Morphology]; and the arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and
sentences [Syntax] / in a natural language.

➔ In a restricted sense, the term refers only to the study of word structure
(morphology) and sentence formation (syntax), excluding vocabulary and
pronunciation.

➔ However, a more contemporary definition of grammar includes features such

as phonology (the study of sounds), morphology (system of word formation),
syntax (patterns of word arrangement), and semantics (the study of meaning).

THREE CONCEPTS OF GRAMMAR INTRODUCED BY YULE

1) THE TRADITIONAL CONCEPT:

- It is the study and analysis of the structures found in a language.
- Each language has its own form and system: i.e. a set of rules that govern the
organisation of words in phrases and sentences
- This grammar is compiled in a grammar book. It can be learned systematically.
- It has its origins in the description of Classical languages like Latin and Greek.
- Rules are external (from books, media, teachers, etc.)
- the person gets to know this grammar through LEARNING.
- If you know the rules of language, and you can correctly apply them, your language is
ACCURATE. Accuracy means the correctness of the language. Accuracy involves mastery
of the language.

2) MENTAL GRAMMAR:
- It is internal linguistic knowledge (internal because it lies in our mind).

38
- It is subconscious (we are not aware of it) and it is acquired while interacting with older
members of the speech community (as is the case when we acquire our mother tongue)
or with native speakers (when we pick up a language, esp. when we live in a foreign
country).
- It is subconscious because we cannot state the rules that govern language but we can
apply them in the production and recognition of it in order to avoid mistakes. It is the
kind of knowledge we resort to when we say “There is something wrong in this sentence,
but we don’t know what it is. (“no me suena”, “no se dice así”, but I cannot say why
because it is subconscious ).
- It operates in the production and recognition of well-structured expressions of
language.
- The knowledge is not in a grammar book.
- The person gets to know this grammar through ACQUISITION

3) LINGUISTIC ETIQUETTE:
- It is the identification and selection of the proper structures (linguistic exponents) to
be used in a certain context.
- e.g. while saying “Would you be so kind as to open the window?” to a partner in class
would sound excessively formal, and therefore, not appropriate; saying “Open the
window” in a loud voice would also be inappropriate. Some proper exponents for that
situation: Can you please open the widow? / Could you open the widow? …etc.
- It is related to register (formal or informal) and pragmatics (the meaning of words in
context)
- the person gets to know this grammar through LEARNING (e.g. teaching of parents) and
also through ACQUISITION (imitating sb else's behavior)
- If you can select the proper exponents for a certain context, your language is
APPROPRIATE. Appropriacy (or appropriateness) refers to whether a word (or structure)
is suitable for the context it is being used. It is an important aspect of language but an
extremely complex one, as decisions about how to say things depend on understanding
exactly what is right for the context and the culture (Multicultural competence)

39
 ACQUISITION VS LEARNING

★ ACQUISITION: it is the process of getting to know a language by interacting with older

members of the speech community (as is the case when we acquire our mother tongue) or with
native speakers (when we pick up a language, esp. when we live in a foreign country) in an
attempt to communicate with them.
You get to know a language naturally (that’s why you build up a mental grammar that is
subconscious, you cannot state the rules, but you “sort of” manage to apply them to get your
message across).

★ LEARNING: it is the conscious process of getting to know a language by studying it

systematically from a book, with a teacher, at a school. You learn the formal rules of language,
and you consciously apply them.

HOW DO WE GET TO KNOW A LANGUAGE?

LEARNING

● conscious analysis
● systematic study
● A person can learn from books, online sources, social networks, teachers or all
of them.
● This process is not spontaneous.

ACQUISITION

● It occurs when a person picks up a language (words, expressions, idioms,

structures, etc.) by interacting with other members of the speech community
and/or by imitating other speakers.
● It is spontaneous.
● It is not conscious, analytical or systematic as learning is.
● e.g. you are on holiday in a foreign country, you can hear some words, acquire
them and then put them into practice.
● e.g. children pick up some words from the TV, radio or computer and start
using them without knowing the exact meaning.

40
 ACCURACY VS APPROPRIACY

★ ACCURACY (in the traditional concept of grammar): the correct use of grammar rules

★ APPROPRIACY (in linguistic etiquette): the correct use of register

Types of Related to … How it is developed Criterion of

grammar … evaluation

Mental Psycholinguistics (it Acquisition -----

grammar studies language and
What lies inside the
the mind)
mind cannot be
tested, it’s only the
use of language that
indicates the level of
knowledge of a
language

Grammar General Linguistics (it Learning Accuracy

studies the system of
language)

Linguistic Sociolinguistics (it Acquisition and/or Appropriateness

etiquette studies language and learning (depending
society) on our awareness of
the norms that
regulate the use of
language in a speech
community)

41
 FIRST, SECOND AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE

FIRST LANGUAGE:
● It is our mother tongue. There is acquisition during 4 or 5 years before going to school
where learning starts (however, there is usually acquisition at the same time, especially at
home)

SECOND LANGUAGE:
● This term is applied when a person can use more than one language in any kind of
context.
● Bilingual people are able to speak 2 languages (or more) equally well every day.
● In this case, acquisition prevails and then, there is some learning too.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE:
● This term is used when the time of exposure to that language is reduced and limited.
● As the time of exposure is reduced, teachers need to explain grammar rules,
vocabulary, collocations, many structures, etc.
● In this case, learning prevails and then, there can be some acquisition.

The key difference between a second language and a foreign language is that while
both second language and foreign language are languages other than the mother tongue of
the speaker, a second language refers to a language that is used for public communication
in that country whereas foreign language refers to a language that is not widely used by the
people of that country
So if an Argentinian student studies English in Argentina, he/she studies English as a
foreign language. If that student goes and studies English in England or The US, he/she
studies English as a second language.

➔ The MOTHER TONGUE is ACQUIRED.

➔ A SECOND LANGUAGE is LEARNED and ACQUIRED (or only acquired if the person only
picks up the language by interacting with native speakers, and doesn’t take lessons)

42
➔ A FOREIGN LANGUAGE is LEARNED. (systematically from a book, with a teacher, at a
school. You learn the formal rules of language, and you apply them in a conscious way)

PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR:
These so-called prescriptive grammars prescribe (hence the word “prescriptive”) the
language norms of a given language. Prescriptive grammars lay down the rules of proper
language use—those that well-educated speakers are expected to follow.

DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR:
Descriptive grammar is a collection of rules that describe (hence the word “descriptive’) the
entire set of sentences that may be produced by native speakers of a given language.

The prescriptive approach

It is an approach to the study of grammar that regards grammar as a set of rules (for
the proper use of a language) that have to be followed. Most of these rules come from Latin,
and though they are usually violated in spoken English, they are still kept by those purists
of language.
Some of these prescriptive rules are:

➔ Do not split an infinitive.

This rule is often violated, for example:

Don't forget to immediately proceed with a thorough examination.

I would now like you to slowly and precisely tell me what happened and how it
happened.

➔ Never end a sentence with a preposition.

This rule is often violated, for example:

That is the book I have been looking for.

43
 (formal written English) This is the book for which I was looking.

I invited my cousin I was talking about.

(formal written English) I invited my cousin about whom I was talking.

➔ Never begin a sentence with “and”.

This rule is often violated, for example:

The rule states that a sentence should never begin with the conjunction “and”.
And it is clear that there are many instances in which this rule is violated.

➔ When the second term of a comparison is a personal pronoun, it should be in the

subject form:

He is taller than I am. This rule is often violated, for example, He’s taller than me.

➔ The word “who” should be used in the subject position, while the word “whom”
should be used as object.

We should say: Whom did you talk to? or The person whom I admire lives on a remote
island. This rule is often violated, for example:

Who did you talk to?

The person I admire lives on a remote island.

The descriptive approach

This is a view of language that attempts to describe how language is used, rather than
how language should be used (prescriptive approach). “Analysts collected samples of the
language they were interested in and attempted to describe the regular structures of that
language as it was used, not according to some view of how it should be used” (Yule, 2010:
85).
Within this approach we can trace different types of study of language:

44
Structural analysis
One type of descriptive approach is called structural analysis and its main concern is
to investigate the distribution of forms in a language. It studies language in syntagmatic
and paradigmatic terms:
A syntagmatic study of language consists of the study of a single unit, and its
immediate environment, i.e., the unit that precedes it and the unit that follows it.
Colloquially, we could describe it as a “horizontal” study of language.
● At the level of phonemes: / fraɪ /

The semi-consonant /r/ is preceded by a dental fricative and is followed by a diphthong

● At the phrase level: the happy boy

the happy boy

happy is preceded by a determiner and is followed by a noun

A paradigmatic study of language consists of the study of a single unit, and all the
other units that can fill in the same slot (blank). In everyday terms, we could describe it as a
“vertical” study of language.
● At the level of phonemes: / fraɪ / / flaɪ /

/r/ and /l/ can fill in the same slot (the same position in the paradigm [vertically])

● At the phrase level: the happy boy; the kind boy

the happy boy

the kind boy
happy and kind can fill in the same slot (the same position in the paradigm [vertically])
A paradigmatic study of all the words that can fill in the same slot leads us to the
discovery of word classes. In the example the words that can fill in that slot are adjectives.
When we do a cloze exercise (fill in the blanks), in a subconscious way we carry out

45
these two analyses. First, a syntagmatic analysis allows us to discover which word class is
missing; then, a paradigmatic analysis allows us to choose the most appropriate option
(among the words of the same class) taking into account the best meaning for the context.
In other words, a syntagmatic analysis operates at a syntactic level (we discover the word
class according to the immediate environment of the blank); while a paradigmatic analysis
works at a semantic level (we choose the best meaning from all the options in the
paradigm).
While I was (1)…………………………….. along the street the other (2)…………………………….., I
happened to (3) …………………………….. a …………………………….. lying on the (4) …………………………….. I
picked it up to see if there was a name in it, or some money.

Syntagmatic analysis Paradigmatic analysis

(1) a present participle (1) … walking … /… running … / … cooking … (you cannot cook
is needed in the street) …etc.

(2) we need a noun (2) … day … / … month … / … year … (the last two do not
collocate with “the other”)

(3) verb in the (3) … find … / … see … (possible) /… open … (it doesn’t make
infinitive sense) …etc.

(4) noun (4) … purse … … book … (possible but when you keep
on reading, you don’t carry money IN a book) … dog … (it
doesn’t make sense) …etc.

Note:
In a cloze exercise, a word every 5, 6 or 7 is deleted, no matter which word class it is
(the fewer words in between, the more difficult the exercise).
In a Fill in the blanks exercise, any word is deleted. It doesn’t matter how many words
there are between each blank.
These exercises are very useful as placement tests, as they are easy to prepare (you
choose a text and delete the words you are interested in checking if it is a Fill in the blanks
exercise, or any word every 5, 6 or 7 if it is a cloze exercise). Furthermore, they are very easy
to grade. So in a few minutes you can evaluate how good the learner’s knowledge is in

46
terms of the grammatical structure of English (esp. if it is a cloze exercise), and his/her
range of vocabulary.

Constituent analysis / Immediate constituent analysis

This analysis shows how small constituents (or components) go together to form
larger constituents.

(Yule, 2010: 85)

47
Labelled and bracketed sentences

48
Art (= article) V (= verb)
Adj (= adjective) VP (= verb phrase)
N (= noun) PP (= prepositional phrase)
NP (= noun phrase) P (= preposition)

These two analyses (the immediate constituent analysis & the

labelled bracketed analysis) show hierarchical arrangement of
the elements of a sentence.

49
 PARTS OF SPEECH

There are nine parts of speech in the English language: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective,
adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection and determiners.

The part of speech indicates how the word functions in meaning as well as grammatically
within the sentence.

Understanding parts of speech is essential for determining the correct definition of a word
when using the dictionary.

NOUN

➔A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea.

man... Butte College... house... happiness

Nouns are words used to refer to...

- people (boy),

- objects (book),

- creatures (dog),

50
 - places (school),

- qualities (generosity),

- phenomena (earthquake), &

- abstract ideas (love)

as if they were all “things.”

➔Nouns are often used with an article (the, a, an), but not always.

➔Proper nouns always start with a capital letter; common nouns do not.

➔Nouns can be singular or plural, concrete or abstract.

➔Nouns show possession by adding 's.

➔Nouns can function in different roles within a sentence; for example, a noun can be a
subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, or object of a preposition.

PRONOUN

➔A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun.

She... we... they... it

➔Pronouns are words (she, herself, they, it, you) used in place of noun phrases, typically
referring to people and things already known (She talks to herself. They said it belonged to
you).

➔A pronoun is usually substituted for a specific noun, which is called its antecedent.

➔Pronouns are further defined by type: personal pronouns refer to specific people or things;
possessive pronouns indicate ownership; reflexive pronouns are used to emphasise another
noun or pronoun; relative pronouns introduce a subordinate clause; and demonstrative
pronouns identify, point to, or refer to nouns.

51
 VERB

➔A verb expresses action or being.

ump... is... write... become

➔Verbs are words used to refer to various kinds of actions (go, talk) and states (be, have)
involving people and things in events.

➔There is a main verb and sometimes one or more helping verbs. ("She can sing." Sing is the
main verb; can is the helping verb.)

➔A verb must agree with its subject in number (both are singular or both are plural). Verbs
also take different forms to express tense.

ADJECTIVE

➔An adjective modifies or describes a noun or pronoun.

Pretty... old... blue... smart

➔ Adjectives are words used, typically with nouns, to provide more information about the
things referred to (happy

people, large objects, a strange experience).

➔It usually answers the question of which one, what kind, or how many.

ADVERB

➔An adverb modifies or describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, but never a noun.

gently... extremely... carefully... well

➔ Adverbs are words used to provide more information about...

● actions (She sang beautifully), states (He was here yesterday), and events (slowly,
yesterday), or

52
 ● events (It happened yesterday). i.e. adverbs can modify a verb;
● an adjective that provides information about a thing / things (a highly competitive
attitude);
● an adverb that modifies a verb (He ran very fast).

➔It usually answers the questions of when, where, how, why, under what conditions, or to
what degree.

➔Adverbs often end in -ly.

Note:
An adverb is a kind of word (a word class). An adverbial is any word, phrase or clause which
functions as an adverb in the sentence (it is a syntactic element of the sentence). Adverbs can be used
as adverbials, but many other types of words and phrases can be used in this way, including
preposition phrases and subordinate clauses.
Eg.
- He arrived yesterday.
Word class: adverb / Syntactic function: adverbial
- He arrived in the evening.
Grammar form: prepositional phrase / / Syntactic function: adverbial
- He arrived when I was leaving.
Grammar form: subordinating clause of time / / Syntactic function: adverbial

PREPOSITION

➔A preposition is a word placed before a noun or pronoun to form a phrase modifying

another word in the sentence.

by... with.... about... until

➔A preposition is always part of a prepositional phrase. The prepositional phrase almost

always functions as an adjective or as an adverb.

➔ Prepositions are words (at, in, on, near, with, without) used with nouns or noun phrases to
provide information about...

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 ● manner (in a beautiful way)
● time (at five o’clock, in the morning),
● place (on the table, near the window) &
● other notions such as instrument (with a knife), company (with her friend) ...
etc.

involving actions and things.

CONJUNCTIONS

➔A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses and indicates the relationship between the
elements joined.

and... but... or... while... because

➔Conjunctions are words (and, but, because, when) used to make connections and indicate
relationships between events.

➔Coordinating conjunctions connect grammatically equal elements: and, but, or, nor, for, so,
yet.

➔Subordinating conjunctions connect clauses that are not equal: because, although, while,
since, etc.

Conjunctions join words, phrases, or clauses. The three different types of conjunctions
indicate different relationships between the elements joined. Coordinating conjunctions link
elements of equal value. Correlative conjunctions are used in pairs to establish a specific
relationship between elements of equal value. Subordinating conjunctions indicate that one
element is of lesser value (subordinate) to another element.

1. Use a coordinating conjunction to connect elements (words, phrases, or clauses) of equal

grammatical value.

● There are seven coordinating conjunctions in English:

and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet

(Note: These are often remembered with the acronym FANBOYS.)

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● Coordinating conjunctions link equal elements.
Swimming and reading are my two favourite summer activities. (Swimming and reading are
both subjects in the sentence.)
Please place the papers on top of the desk or in the drawer. (On top of the desk and in the
drawer are both prepositional phrases.)
She wanted to drive the car, but she had never received her licence. (She wanted to drive the
car and she had never received her licence are both independent clauses.)

2. Use correlative conjunctions in pairs to connect words, phrases, or clauses of equal

grammatical value. Correct use of these conjunctions is critical in achieving parallelism in
sentence structure.

● Correlative conjunctions always come in pairs:

as...as
both...and
not only...but also
either...or
neither...nor
whether...or

● Make sure that the grammatical structure following the second half of the pair is the
same as that following the first half.
You must decide either to fly or to drive. (The elements to fly and to drive are both infinitives.)
Contrary to my plans, I spent much of my vacation both correcting papers and contacting
students. (The elements correcting papers and contacting students are both participial
phrases.)

I hope not only that you will attend the play, but also that you will stay for the cast party
afterwards. (The elements that you will attend the play and that you will stay for the cast party
afterwards are both subordinate clauses.)

3. Use a subordinating conjunction to connect a subordinate (dependent) clause to an

independent clause.

● Common subordinating conjunctions include the following:

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 after even though than whenever
Although If that where
as in order that though whereas
as if rather than unless wherever
Because Since until whether
Before so that
(Note: Some of the words listed can serve as different parts of speech, depending on how
they are used.)

● A subordinating conjunction indicates that the dependent clause is not complete

without an attached independent clause.
If you finish your homework, you will be prepared for the test. (If you finish your homework by
itself is an incomplete thought.)

I lose myself in the music whenever I practise the piano. (Whenever I practise the piano by
itself is an incomplete thought.)

4. Conjunctive adverbs (sometimes called adverbial conjunctions) are used to indicate a

relationship between sentences and independent clauses.

● Common conjunctive adverbs include the following:

however therefore moreover nevertheless

● When a conjunctive adverb appears at the beginning or in the middle of an

independent clause, it is usually set off by commas. When a conjunctive adverb introduces a
second clause within a sentence, a semicolon precedes it and a comma follows it.
Carrot cake is very tasty. Moreover, the carrots make it a "healthy" choice for dessert.

I realise you were busy. It is unfortunate, however, that you missed that phone call.

The hurricane has lessened in intensity; nevertheless, we are evacuating in an hour.

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 INTERJECTION

➔An interjection is a word used to express emotion.

Oh!... Wow!... Oops!

➔ It is often followed by an exclamation point.

ARTICLES AND DETERMINERS

➔They function like adjectives by modifying nouns, but they are different than adjectives in
that they are necessary for a sentence to have proper syntax.

➔Articles (a, an, the) are used with nouns to form noun phrases classifying or identifying
things.

➔Articles and determiners specify and identify nouns, and there are indefinite and definite
articles. Examples: articles: a, an, the; determiners: these, that, those, enough, much, few,
which, what.

➔Some traditional grammars have treated articles as a distinct part of speech. Modern
grammars, however, more often include articles in the category of determiners, which
identify or quantify a noun. Even though they modify nouns like adjectives, articles are
different in that they are essential to the proper syntax of a sentence, just as determiners
are necessary to convey the meaning of a sentence, while adjectives are optional.

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 THE WORD CLASS NOUN

Nouns can provide information about…

● Number (singular / plural): book / books
● Gender (masculine / feminine / neuter)
- Inflectional gender: the suffix (bound inflectional morpheme) indicates gender
hero /heroine
waiter / waitress
usher / usherette
- Natural gender (different lexical morphemes)
brother / sister
cow / bull
● Case: Case is a special ending (bound inflectional morpheme) that nouns took in
classical languages (Greek & Latin) to indicate syntactic function.

There were 6 Syntactic function E.g

cases

NOMINATIVE subject The boy has come.

VOCATIVE (address to a person) Boy, can you help me?

ACCUSATIVE (direct object) I phoned the boy.

GENITIVE (possession, relation, the boy’s shoes / the boy’s sister

time…etc.)

DATIVE (indirect object) I told the boy a story.

ABLATIVE (adverbials) I went there with the boy.

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As you can see the word boy does not take a special ending for the different syntactic
functions (except for the Genitive form, but this does not indicate syntactic function).

Classical languages were case-based languages; i.e. nouns took a special ending for each
different syntactic function. Therefore, the word order was not important. It was always
possible to differentiate the der from the recipient of the action disregarding their position in
the sentence.

English:

The boy helped the girl. the doer of the action is the boy

The girl helped boy hit. the doer of the action is the girl (the meaning
has changed)

Helped the boy the girl. there is no way the doer to distinguish the
doer form the recipient of the action

Helped the girl the boy. there is no way the doer to distinguish the
doer form the recipient of the action

So English is a word-order based language, because nouns do not have case (except
for the Genitive form, but this does not indicate syntactic function). As a result, the doer of
the action is recognised for its initial position in the sentence, and the recipient of the action
is the noun phrase that follows the verb (in the active voice). If we change the word order of a
sentence, we might be either changing its meaning (as in sentence 2 above), or we might
convey no meaning (as in sentences 3 & 4 above).

What is the word order in English?

SVO (subject, verb, objet)

English is an SVO language: This means that in the active voice the word order is subject,
verb, object. This word order is strict for the reasons dealt with above.

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What happens in Spanish?
Spanish is also an SVO language (subject, verb, object), but this is the normal word
order (it is not strict). The normal word order in Spanish can be altered because (although
nouns do not have case) there is an indicator of syntactic function that allows us to
distinguish the doer of the action form the recipient of the action, no matter their position in
the sentence. This indicator of syntactic function is the preposition “a”, which singles out the
direct object.

El niño ayudó a la niña. (normal word order)

A la niña ayudó el niño.

The word order has changed, but the boy is still the doer of the
Ayudó el niño a la niña.
action, and the girl is the receiver.
Ayudó a la niña el niño.

Summing up. In English, nouns provide information about number, gender and case.
As regards case, the only inflection they take is for the Genitive, and this does not indicate
syntactic function.
The Genitive can indicate ownership, relation, measurement, association, or source:
➔ Tom’s shoes
➔ Tom’s sister
➔ a week’s vacation
➔ Saint Peter’s College

THE WORD CLASS VERB

A verb can indicate

● Mood (whether or not something is a fact) e.g. the Imperative
● Aspect (Perfective / finished action; Progressive / unfinished actions)
● Tense

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 The difference between times and tenses:
Time is a concept which is related to our perception of reality (a NOTION). There are
three times: past, present and future.
Tense is a grammatical category which is marked by verb inflection and expresses
when an event or action happens in the flow of time.
Strictly speaking, only two English tenses are marked by the inflection of the verb:
➔ past (talked)
➔ present (talks)

Modern grammarians consider some verb phrases as tenses. For them, these tenses are
marked by auxiliaries (be, have):
➔ past continuous (was/were talking)
➔ past perfect (had talked)
➔ past perfect continuous (had been talking)
➔ present continuous (am/are/is talking)
➔ present perfect (have/has talked)
➔ present perfect continuous (have/has been talking)

As future time is expressed with the modal will + infinitive and not with inflection, the
forms with will (will talk, will be talking, will have talked, will have been talking) are not
considered to be tenses. However, for the sake of convenience (or pedagogical purposes), they
are considered as such in many books.
https://www.grammaring.com/the-difference-between-times-and-tenses

★ Person (in English it is only marked for the 3rd pers. Sing. Simple
Present, cf. Spanish 1st, 2nd and 3rd person)
★ Number (in English it is only marked for the 3rd pers. Sing. Simple
Present, cf. Spanish 1st, 2nd and 3rd person singular & plural)
★ Voice (active and passive voice)

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THE SYNTACTIC BEHAVIOUR OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS

Personal pronouns can provide information about:

● Participants & non-participants

(in a conversation I & you are the participants; he, she & they are the
non-participants)

● Person

1st, 2nd and 3rd person

● Number

Singular: I, he, she

Plural: we, they

● Although they replace a noun, they do not occur with determiners:

e.g. the man cf. the he

They have a subject and an object form:

I ➡️ me He ➡️him She ➡️ her etc.

Grammar in Action

Pronouns in Action
Although the pronoun “she” is used for a female singular person (occasionally an animal,
esp. a pet), it is sometimes used to refer to a ship (sailors love them like they love women),
or a car (similar reason), a nation (they used to be governed by men) or nature.
“It” is sometimes used for an unborn baby whose sex is unknown.
“We” is normally used for:
I + you: We are going to do our best to continue with distance education.
I + he / she / they: We are having our house redecorated. (My husband and I)

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 I + you + he / she / they: We are required to behave in a responsible way and stay at
home.
However, there are instances in which “We” does not include “I”
Let’s finish the soup. (‘s = us) (mother to child, she wants her child to finish the soup,
she will be eating something different).
How are we feeling today? (Doctor to patient; doctor is fine, only the patient is ill)
We are going to have the exam next week. (Teacher to students)

Verbs in Action (the negative in action)

Verbs in the negative form have a lower frequency of occurrence than the affirmative
forms for the following reasons:
● The negative is less informative than the affirmative
John is in the classroom. (we know where to look for John)
John is not in the classroom. (we know where not to look for John, but we
don’t have precise information as regards where John is)
● A sentence in the negative is not exactly the opposite of its counterpart in the
affirmative
My neighbour is not old. (it doesn’t mean he / she is young. He / She can be
young or middle-aged)

● The negative is harder to process, esp. if there are two negative forms in the
vicinity
John is happy. (easy to understand)
John is unhappy. (easy to understand)
John isn’t happy. (He may be simply fine or unhappy)
John is not unhappy. (Two negative forms in the vicinity; harder to process:
Is he happy? / Is he unhappy? Is he simply fine?)
Therefore, we use the negative only when there is a real purpose for doing so, and we stress
the negation, usually through intonation.

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Verbs in Action (the passive voice in action)
The passive voice is used when we want to focus attention on the person or thing affected
by the action. It is normally used when: the agent is unknown, unimportant or obvious. So
we often leave the agent out of these sentences.
e.g. 14 astronauts were killed in space shuttle explosions.
The thief was arrested yesterday.
However, there are two situations in which we choose to use the passive voice, even if there
is an explicit agent.
● Passive voice - End weight
The mummies were found on Mount Llullaillaco by some members of the
National Geographic team that were carrying out geological studies in the
north-west of Argentina.
The noun phrase that describes the doer of the action is too long, so instead of
using it as the subject of the active voice, we normally use it as the agent of the
passive voice (end weight).
So instead of saying: “Some members of the National Geographic team that
were carrying out geological studies in the north-west of Argentina found the
mummies on Mount Llullaillaco”, we prefer “The mummies were found on
Mount Llullaillaco by some members of the National Geographic team that
were carrying out geological studies in the north-west of Argentina.”

● Passive voice - End focus

"To be technically accurate, end focus is given to the last open-class item or
proper noun in a clause (Quirk and Greenbaum 1973).
Therefore, if we want the listener to remember the doer of the action rather
than the thing / person affected by the action, we use the passive voice with an
agent (instead of using the active voice).
So instead of saying: “John Brown received the first prize”, we prefer “The first
prize was received by John Brown”.

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65
 SYNTAX

Syntax is the linguistic discipline concerned with sentence-level grammar. The word
syntax is derived from the Greek word syntaxis, meaning “arrangement.” Syntactic studies
investigate word order and ways of joining words in a sentence.

The three building blocks of a sentence—the subject (S), the verb (V),and the object
(O)—can be arranged in six possible ways: SVO, SOV, VSO, VOS, OSV, and OVS.

The SVO (I like coffee) word order is predominant in English.

While in some languages a particular word order is predominant, other languages are
much more flexible about how they arrange words in a sentence. Linguists describe these
two types of languages as having fixed word order and free word order.

(Yule, Ch. 8)

The word “syntax” is a Greek word that means “putting together” or “arrangement”.

Syntax is the study of the structure and ordering of components within a sentence.

In order to study the rules of syntax in a language, we can make reference to

Chomsky’s term “generative grammar”.

The rules that govern the arrangement of words in a phrase and in a sentence are
finite (i.e. limited). If we know these rules, and we can apply them, we will create an infinite
(i.e. unlimited) number of well-formed structures and fail to generate (or produce
ill-formed) sentence structures.

This is why Chomsky defines grammar as being generative. The meaning of the
term generative includes the notion of “productivity” (the capacity to produce an infinite
number of grammatical phrases and sentences using only finite means [e.g., a finite
number of principles and parameters and an infinite vocabulary].

For example, if we know the frame:

There is + noun phrase + prepositional phrase

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 ➔ we can generate an infinite number of well-formed structures:

There is a book on the table.

There is an apple in the fridge.

There is an elephant in the jungle.

➔ and fail to generate ill-formed structures:

There is on the desk a pencil.

A pencil there is on the desk.

Another feature of language (along with productivity) described by Chomsky is that

of recursion. Recursion is the repeated sequential use of a particular type of linguistic
element or grammatical structure. Recursion has also been described more simply as the
ability to place one component inside another component of the same kind. A linguistic
element or grammatical structure that can be used repeatedly in a sequence is said to be
recursive.
e.g. (at phrase level [prepositional phrase])
The book is in the briefcase. The briefcase is on the table. The table is next to the
window.
With recursion:
The book is in the briefcase on the table next to the window.
e.g. (at sentence level [clause])
The dog chased the cat. The cat ate the bird. The bird caught the worm.
With recursion:
The dog chased the cat that ate the bird that caught the worm.

Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American philosopher, linguist,

cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. He is sometimes called "the
father of modern linguistics". Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one
of the founders of the field of cognitive science.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky)

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 His theory of language, which he called transformational generative grammar
(TGG), entails a system of linguistic analysis consisting of a set of rules that generate basic
syntactic structures.

He described language by using tree diagrams. These diagrams (as well as the
Constituent analysis / Immediate constituent analysis and the Labelled and bracketed
analysis) also show hierarchical organisation of the constituents of a sentence.

S; sentence

NP: noun phrase

VP: verb phrase

Art: article

N: noun

V: verb

Two key terms of his theory are surface structure and deep structure.

The former (surface structure) refers to the specific syntactic form of a structure
along with the phonemes used to produce a certain stretch of language. Surface structure
refers to the words / language we use to represent the deep structure. The deep structure
refers to concepts, thoughts, ideas & feelings that lie in our mind and are manifested
linguistically though the surface structure. In transformational grammar, surface structure
is the formal structure of a sentence as it actually occurs in speech.

On the other hand, the deep structure represents the underlying relations of
meaning among the constituents of a sentence.

Deep structure is what you wish to express and surface structure how you express it
with the help of words and sentences.

For example:

The boy broke the window.

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 The window was broken by the boy.

These two sentences have different surface structure: they are syntactically
different [the arrangement of the elements is different]; and if we listen to them, we can
notice that the sequence of phonemes is different.

Yet, they have the same deep structure: we can clearly understand that the doer of
the action is the boy, and the thing affected by the action is the window.

In traditional grammar, the first is called an active sentence, focusing on what the
boy did, and the second is a passive sentence, focusing on the window and what happened
to it.

The distinction between them is a difference in their surface structure, that is, the
different syntactic forms they have as individual English sentences.

Moreover, this deep structure (the boy being the doer of the action, the window
being the thing affected by the action, and the action being breaking) can have other surface
structures different from the ones above (in purple).

It was the boy who broke the window.

It was the window what the boy broke.

If we carry out a tree diagram analysis, these sentences will result in different
“trees”.

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 or

However, at the “underlying” level of meaning, they have the same deep structure.

Then we can conclude that by transforming (changing) the arrangement of the

branches of a tree, we can generate a sentence with a different surface structure (syntax),
but with the same deep structure (semantics).

That is why in language teaching, paraphrasing exercises are also called

transformational exercises (we transform the surface structure, but we keep the same deep
structure).

Conversely, two sentences can have the same surface structure but different deep
structure. The sentences below have the same surface structure (the tree diagrams are the
same), but different deep structure.

John is eager to please.

John is easy to please.

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 In the first sentence (John is eager to please) John is the doer of the action (he wants
to please someone).

In the second sentence (John is easy to please) John is the receiver of the action of
pleasing (someone pleases John).

Structural ambiguity

The following sentence is an example of a sentence that can generate two deep
structures.

The man hit the woman with a stick. (only one surface structure)

Deep structure one:

Meaning: the man was carrying a stick (the instrument), which he used to hit the
woman.

Deep structure two:

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 Meaning: the woman was carrying a stick, and the man hit her. (probably in
self-defence)

Tree diagrams are a support to visualise the hierarchical organisation of the constituents
in a sentence, and to illustrate the difference between the concepts: surface structure and
deep structure.

Analyse the following sentence put forward by Chomsky as an example of a sentence

with one surface structure, but two deep structures.

Flying planes can be dangerous. (one surface structure)

Deep structure one: Flying is a gerund. The action of flying planes is dangerous.

This sentence may be uttered by a grandmother to a grandson who wants to take

lessons to be a pilot. (Volar [pilotear] aviones es peligroso)

In this case, if we carry out a syntactic analysis, we will find in the subject the same
constituents that normally appear in the predicate (because the head of the predicate is a
gerund). The gerund has a nominal function, but it is still a verb. (see at the end further
examples in English and in Spanish)

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 Deep structure two: Flying is a present participle. It modifies the head of the subject
(the noun planes). So the meaning is planes that are flying / that can fly are dangerous.

This sentence may be uttered by a shop assistant in a toy shop to a customer who
wants to buy a plane with a remote control to a two year-old; or by an adult to a child who is
running around in an exhibition of model planes that are being piloted by a remote control.
(Los aviones que vuelan son peligrosos.)

This ambiguity results from the fact that in English the verbs ending in —ing have
two functions: gerund (with a nominal function) and present participle (with an adjectival
function and used in the progressive aspect).

Moreover, this ambiguity is due to the fact that in English modal verbs have no mark
for person. If the verb had been the verb to be in the present, the sentence wouldn’t be
ambiguous, as the form of the verb helps us to single out the head of the subject.

Deep structure one: Flying planes is dangerous. (the head of the subject is flying)

Deep structure two: Flying planes are dangerous. (the head of the subject is planes)

Visiting professors should not be allowed.

Visiting ➡️ gerund ➡️ the action of visiting ….

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 Visiting ➡️ present participle ➡️ professors that visit us ….
Other examples of ambiguity (in English and in Spanish)

The shooting of the hunters horrified the villagers.

Deep structure one: The hunters shot (many animals / people)

Deep structure two: The hunters were shot (we don’t know who by)

La matanza de los cazadores atemorizó a los lugareños.

Estructura profunda uno: Los cazadores mataron (a muchos animales / a gente)

Estructura profunda dos: Alguien mató a los cazadores =no se sabe quién)

Subjects whose head is a verb

In these sentences, we find the usual constituents of a predicate in the subject

because the head of the subject is a verb. In English we use a gerund with a nominal
function; in Spanish the verb form that has a nominal function is the infinitive.

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