Lesson 1.

An
Introduction to
the course of
Morphology &
Syntax
Lecturer: Anh Ton-Nu, PhD in
Linguistics, Macquarie
University, Australia
 1. Why did you choose to major in English Language Studies?
Initial 2. What aspects of the English language fascinate you the most?
questions: 3. What aspects of the English language is the most difficult for
you to acquire?
 Upon successful completion of the course, students will achieve:

1. Knowledge: Students will be able to:

 fully understand the basic rules of word formation and the functions of
Course words;
Objectives  fully understand the structure of words, clauses, and sentences;

 fully understand the basic rules of making phrases, clauses, and

sentences from words.
 2. Skills: Students will be able to:

 analyze and categorize words;

 apply word forms and word functions correctly;

Course  analyze the structure of words, clauses, and sentences in economic

objectives documents;

(cont’d)  develop teamwork skills;

 present, discuss and protect their own ideas;

improve self-study, reference search and independent research

capabilities.
 3. Attitude: Students should:

 be committed to protecting and enhancing the beauty of language in

everyday conversations as well as in business situations;

Course  develop themselves to become good and effective communicators;

objectives  be passionate about self-study and independent research;

(cont’d)  try their best to improve English as well as other foreign languages
proficiency;

 contribute to the concerned field of study.

 1. Attendance: 10%
2. Group Presentation: 20%
Assessment
3. Mid-term test: 20%
4. Final test: 50%
 Applications of Morphology and Syntax in English Language
Teaching and Learning (or in other related fields to your major).
Topics for E.g. What is Morphology and Why is it Important? • Learning Links

Group Marking Criteria:

 Content: 50 %
Presentation  Presentation skills: 20%
 English language use: 30% (both written and spoken language)
 Glutton ( someone Gluttons ( plural form)
who eats or drinks to
much )
taste Tasted ( past form)

pure purer / purest

Why
morphology? glutton gluttonize gluttonizes

pure impurity impurities

taste tasty tastier/tastiest

 ✓The Druids cooks several large pizzas.
Why Syntax? ╳Cooked several large pizzas the
Druids.
  Within linguistics, morphology and syntax both refer to the study
of structure and form of language.
 Syntax refers to the study of a sentence structure, specifically the
grammatical relations established between words and other units
Morphology that make up a sentence.
 Morphology is the study of word structure, specifically the
and Syntax relations between morphemes (the smallest individual unit) and
meaning.
 While syntax breaks sentences down to their constitutive
components, morphology breaks words down into their
constitutive components or into their morphemes.
 There are three main approaches to studying morphology:
(1) The morpheme-based approach
Approaches to (2) The lexeme-based approach
Studying (3) The word-based approach
Morphology
E.g. the word “dogs” : root “dog” suffix “s” to make it plural
  Words
 Word classes
 Lexemes versus words
 Morphemes versus words: Lexical (content) vs.
grammatical (functional); bound vs. free; roots, stems
& affixes; compounds and bound roots; Derivational vs.
inflectional morphemes
Key notions in
 M is the smallest unit of a word, a word can have many
Morphology different morphimes
 Morphological processes: Affixation; Backformation;
Stem modification; Compounding; Reduplication;
Suppletion; Productive morphemes
 How many morphemes are there in the following words?

Helpfulness Darken Tenth

3 morphemes 2 2

Cheerful Seeker Enlarge

2 2 2
Exercise 1:
(A note on p. Readable
2
Performance
2
Usually
2
31 of the Readability Applicant Bookcase
course book) 2 3 – read able ility 2 ( 2 phonemes=2 noun) ->
compounding process
The suffix is not dependent
of the root ( separation still
bring meaning)
Bookcase is a
2
Catamaran Audience Dogs
1 2 2
Audi- latin root
 Find out the bound and free morphemes in the following
words:

Helpfulness Darken Tenth

F help F dark
B ful, ness B en
cheerful seeker enlarge

Readable performance usually

Exercise 2: B able ( although the word
able can stan alone)
readability applicant bookcase

Catamaran Audience dogs

1 free mor F audi
B ence
Exercise 3: Exercises – p. 36 – the Course Book