Grammatical Units: They Are Meaningful and Combine With Each Other in Systematic Ways
Grammatical Units: They Are Meaningful and Combine With Each Other in Systematic Ways
GRAMMATICAL UNITS
THEY ARE MEANINGFUL AND COMBINE WITH EACH OTHER IN
SYSTEMATIC WAYS.
WE MAY DISTINGUISH A
HIERARCHY OF UNITS:
DISCOURSE
(SENTENCE)
Most typically, a unit CLAUSE
PHRASE
consists of one or more WORD
elements on the level MORPHEME
PHONEME/GRAPHEME
below, i.e. a clause
consists of one or more
phrases, a phrase
consists of one or moe
word, a word consists of CLAUSE, PHRASE AND WORD
SENTENCE LEVEL
Sentences are not just a group of words randomly put together, but an ordered
string of words which follow certain rules of combination.
English sentences are made of some obligatory and some optional elements.
All sentences in English can be reduced to one of the seven basic patterns of
sentences.
Remember that basic sentence patterns are related to the obligatory elements present in the sentence. These
are called basic patterns, becasuse any sentence can by reduced to one of these patterns. Even if you come
across a long sentence you will see that it contains many optional elements, whithout which the sentence can
still be grammatically complete. If you take these optional elements away,, what remains is a basic pattern.
For example:
-After a long chase the hunter ultimately killed the lion with a precise gunshot. (SVO)
-The hunter killed the lion
links
Sentence Patterns - What you need to know! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=745WT5bcFwA
PHRASE LEVEL
CLAUSE PHRASE
A group of words that contains a subject A group of words whithout a subject-verb
and a verb. component.
Determiners (words like... the, a, those, some) introduce noun phrases. Modifiers are units that are
dependent on the main word and can be omiited. Modifiers that come before the noun are pre-
modifiers, and those that come after the noun are post-modifiers. Examples:
noun books
determiner+noun those books
pre-modifier+noun new books
determiner+pre-modifier+noun some long books
noun+post-modifier books on astronomy
determiner+noun+post-modifier some books on astronomy
pre-modifier+noun+post-modifier popular books on astronomy
determiner+pre-determiner+noun+post-modifier some popular books on astronomy
NOELIA GONZÁLEZ
Modifiers: the noun phrase may have more than one pre-modifier or post-modifier.
a long hot summer
acute, life-threatening diseases
a nasty gash on his chin wich needed medical attention
*a modifier may also be discontinuous, one part coming before the noun and the other part after it:
the easiest children to teach
(compare) the childre -who are- easiest to teach
Main verbs
Regular verbs have four forms that are constructed Verbs can be marked by tense,
in this way: aspect, mood, person.
1- base form: Verbs can be finite and non finite.
The base form is what we find in dictionary entries: There are modal auxiliaries.
laugh, mention, play. There are multi-words verbs as:
2- -s form: i) phrasal verbs: give in
The -s form adds to the base form an ending in -s: ii) prepositional verbs: look after
laughs, mentions, plays. iii) phrasal prepositional verb: put up with
3- -ing participle:
The -ing participle adds to the base form an ending
in -ing: laughing, mentioning, playing.
4- -ed form (past or -ed participle)
The -ed form adds to the base form an ending in -
ed: laughed, mentioned, played.
The sequence of auxiliaries
If we choose to use auxiliaries, they must appear in the following sequence:
(1) modal auxiliary, such as can, may, will
(2) perfect auxiliary have
(3) progressive auxiliary be
(4) passive auxiliary be
These four uses of the auxiliaries specify the form of the verb that follows:
(1) modal, followed by base form: may phone
(2) perfect have, followed by -ed participle: have phoned
(3) progressive be, followed by -ing participle: was phoning
(4) passive be, followed by -ed participle: was phoned
There are also phrasal auxiliaries, which are intermediate between auxiliaries and main
verbs. For example: Sandra is going to apply for the job./ I had better eat now./ My parents are
about to leave. / We have got to speak to her./ He may be able to help us.
Only the first word in a phrasal auxiliary is a true auxiliary, since only that word functions as
an operator, for example in forming questions. For example: Is Sandra going to aply for the
job? / Had I better eat now? / Is Jennifer supposed to phone us today?
NOELIA GONZÁLEZ
ADJECTIVE PHRASE
The main word is and adective. . The structure of the typical adjective phrase may be
represented as follows:
ADVERB PHRASE
.The main word is and adverb. The structure of the typical adjective phrase is similar to the
adverbial phrase.
NOELIA GONZÁLEZ
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
The prepositional phrase is a structure with two parts:
preposition complement
The prepositional complement is typically a noun phrase, but it may also be a nominal relative
clause, or an -ing clause.
Functions prepositional phrases
they have three main functions:
1- Post-modifier of a noun
2- Post-modifier of an adjective
3- Adverbial