STRUCTURES OF ENGLISH (reviewer)

Sentence - It is a word or group of words Grammar - It is the mental representation of

that has a complete thought, meaning or a speaker's linguistic competence; what
idea. speaker knows about a language, including
its phonology, morphology, syntax,
Fragment - It is an utterance which is not a
semantics, and lexicon.
complete sentence.
Lexicon - It is the component of the
Phrases - It is a group of two or more words
grammar containing speakers' knowledge
that express a single idea but do not usually
about morphemes and words; a speaker's
form a complete sentence.
mental dictionary.
Clause - It is a part of a sentence that has
Morphology - It is the study of the structure
its own subject and verb.
of words; the component of grammar that
Conjunctions - It is a word which is used to includes the word formation.
join two or more expressions together. Semantics - It is the study of the linguistic
Preposition - It is a syntactic category, also meaning of morphemes, words, phrases,
phrasal category, consisting of a and sentences.
prepositional head and a noun phrase Syntax - It is the rules of sentence
complement.
formation; the component of mental
Verb - It is a word that denotes actions, grammar that represents speakers'
sensations and states. knowledge of the structure of the phrases
and sentences.
Noun - It is a category of word which
typically denotes an entity of some kind. linguistic performance - It implies that
when you woke up one morning and
Complement - It is a term used to denote a decided to stop talking yet you would still
specific grammatical function to complete have knowledge of your language.
the sentence.
linguistic competence - It is knowing the
Adjective - It is a category of words which language and its system.
describes a noun or a pronoun.
Universal Grammar - It is the innate
Adverb - It is a category of words which principles and properties that pertain to the
modifies a verb, and adjective or an adverb. grammars of all human
Phonology - It is the sound system of a
language.

UNDERSTANDING THE BASICS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR ANALYSIS LEVEL, LABEL, AND

FUNCTION

"Grammar," which comes from Latin, means the scientific study of the form and arrangement of
words, phrases, and sentences.
 LEVEL
Language is made of sounds, words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and even more
complex pieces (such as essays, chapters, and books). Each of these levels can be analyzed.

SOUNDS
Letters represent sounds. The English alphabet includes only five vowels (a,e,I,o,u), but the
English language has at least twelve vowels sounds. Consonants (the other letters) also
represent sounds. Linguists (language analyzers) can break these sounds into even smaller
pieces.
Examples of sounds: m, n, t, ou, z

WORDS
When sounds are combined, words are created. Words can be labeled according to their
function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. Once its function is determined, a word can be
labeled.
Examples of words: students, light, run, be, the
PHRASES
Phrases do not contain subjects and verbs. A phrase is incomplete in thought. Phrases (and
parts of phrases) can be labeled, as well.
Examples of phrases:
o writing a letter o broken by the fall
o through the door o around the corner
o to proofread a paper o in a minute

CLAUSES
Clauses contain subjects and verbs. There are two kinds of clauses: independent and
dependent. Independent clauses can stand alone and can be called a "sentence." Dependent
clauses cannot stand alone, are not sentences, and can be labeled according to their function in
sentences.
Examples of independent clauses:
o I'm tired.
o The car is running.
Examples of dependent clauses:
o because I'm tired
o which is my excuse
SENTENCES
Sentences have two essential parts: complete subject and predicate. They have various
patterns.
In English there are five forms of sentences:

 simple: one independent clause

examples: The children are playing outdoors.
 compound: two or more independent clauses
examples: The children are playing outdoors, and their parents are playing Scrabble
indoors.
 complex: one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses
examples: The children are playing outdoors while their parents are playing Scrabble
indoors.
 compound-complex: two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent
clauses
examples: The children are playing outdoors because the weather is nice, but their
parents are playing Scrabble indoors.
 complex-complex: one or more independent clauses and at least one dependent
clause which contains an imbedded dependent clause
examples: The children, who are playing outdoors because the weather is nice, are
happy.
Sentences can also be analyzed according to usage (declarative, interrogative, imperative, and
exclamatory).
Examples of sentences:
o Rain is falling. (declarative)
o Does Henry live here? (interrogative)
o coresher and occupie
o Open the window. (imperative)
o What a noise you made! (exclamatory)

PARAGRAPHS
- Paragraphs are made up of related sentences and are about one topic only.
- Paragraphs have a topic sentence; all the other sentences relate to it.

Example of a paragraph (topic sentences is underlined): My father loves to fish. Every October
he goes to Canada along with several fishing buddies. It doesn't really matter if he catches
anything or not. The whole point is relaxation and companionship with good friends. Of course,
he usually catches enough bluegill to have at least one fish fry with the family when he gets
back. My dad would not miss his annual fishing trip for all the fancy vacations in the world.
Each level can be either built up to create a higher lever (for example, word to phrase to clause
to sentence) or broken down to a lower level (for example, sentence to clause to phrase to
word).

LABEL
Labels are given to the various levels according to their functions in context. As far as
grammatical labeling, we will be concerned with three levels only: word, phrase, and clause.
The terms we will use are commonly known as "parts of speech."
NOUNS

- "Noun" means name.

- This label is given to the name of a person, place, thing, idea, or belief.
- Nouns are often preceded by "the" or "a/an."
- Nouns answer the questions "Who?" and "What?"
They can be found on three levels:

 Word: The class went on a field trip to the zoo. (Who went? On a what? To the what?)
 Phrase: She enjoys playing baseball. (Enjoys what?)
 Clause: Whatever you want to do is fine with me. (What is fine?)

PRONOUNS
- Pronouns take the place of nouns (which are called "antecedents" of pronouns).
- pronouns also answer the questions "Who?" and "What?"
Pronouns can be labeled according to the following:

 number (singular/plural): it/they gender (male/female): he/she

 case (subjective/objective/possessive/reflexive): he/him/his/himself person
(first/second/third): I/you/he, she, it
 personal: I, you, he, she, it, they, we, etc. indefinite: anybody, someone, each, everyone,
etc. interrogative: who? what? which? etc.
 relative: that, which, who, whom, whose demonstrative: this, that, these, those

ADJECTIVES
- Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns.
- Adjectives answer the questions "What kind?" "How many?" "Whose?" "Which one?"
- They function as "modifiers" (change agents) in a sentence and can be labeled on all
three levels.
adjectives generally appear before the noun/pronoun, and phrase or clause level adjectives
appear after it.

 Word level: Tommy pulled the red wagon down the street. (What kind of wagon?)
  Phrase level: A man with a beard came into the room. (Which man?)
 Clause level: All students whose cars are illegally parked will be ticketed. (Which
students?)
 Articles (the, a, an) are a special group of adjectives. It is optional to label the articles
when one is looking for adjectives.

VERBS
- Verbs show physical or mental action of the subject.
- reflect "state of being"; that is, the subject just "is."
- The complete verb, along with its complements and modifiers, functions as the predicate
in a sentence.
- Verbs answer the questions "What is happening/has happened/will happen?"
- Verbs are labeled primarily on the word level although many times verbs have
compound parts (two-word verbs or helpers).
- Any word that functions as action in a sentence is labeled a verb.
- Verbs are the parts that show time change (tense).
Examples of verbs:
o Marge will go with you.
o The baby has been crying for two hours.
o The coach sat and pondered the situation.
o It should have been done by now.

ADVERBS
- Adverbs are modifiers (change agents) of verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.
- They answer the questions: "Where?" "Why?" "When?" "How?" "How much?" or "To
what extent/degree?" Adjectives can often be changed into adverbs if "-ly" is added to
them.
- Adverbs can be found on all three levels.

 Word level: I'm leaving later. (When am I leaving?)

 Phrase level: Put the book on the table. (Where should you put it?)
 Clause level: Because she felt sick. Betty went home. (Why did she go home?)
 Adverbs can modify verbs: Bill felt asleep quickly. (How did he fall asleep?)
 Adverbs also modify adjectives: Our cat has bright green eyes. (What degree of green?)
 They modify other adverbs, as well: I cannot run very quickly. (How quickly
Qualifiers such as very, often, always, not, and never are adverbs.
CONJUNCTIONS

- are words that connect words, phrases, and clauses.

- There are three groups of conjunctions: coordinating, subordinating, and correlative.
 - Although conjunctions are in themselves basically word level (correlatives are made up
of more than one word), they can create phrases, clauses, and different patterns of
sentences.

 Coordination: Bob and Sue went camping.

The squirrel ran up a tree, but I still got a picture of it.

 Subordinating: While they were putting up the Christmas tree, the dog knocked it over.
 Correlative: Neither the coach nor the players knew what had caused the loss.

PREPOSITIONS
- Prepositions show relationships between words.
- This part of speech can be labeled on two levels: word
- and phrase.
- Prepositional phrase - preposition + modifiers + object. - Prepositional phrases function
in a sentence as phrase level adjectives and adverbs.
- If a preposition has no object, it becomes an adverb.
many English verbs are made up of a main verb + preposition- that-has-become-an-adverb (for
example, look up; sit down; turn around).
Examples of prepositional phrases:
o Between you and me, I'm not surprised.
o Put your dirty socks in the laundry basket.
o One of the children is late for the party.

Objects of prepositions are nouns and pronouns, but these never function as the subject of
sentence.

INTERJECTIONS
- Interjections are words or short phrases that are used alone to express strong emotion.
- They are usually followed by an exclamation point.
Examples: Hey! Wow! Oh, Boy! Congratulations!

FUNCTION

Also, consider the word "light":

o Turn on the light. (noun)
o I wish you wouldn't light your cigarette in here. (verb)
 o The cake was light and fluffy. (adjective)
o His eyes were light blue. (adverb)
Functions of a noun:
A word, phrase, or clause is labeled a noun if it functions as one of the following:
Object rest of the action
1. Subject: who or what the sentence is about; who or what is doing the action
Equality under the law is guaranteed for all. (What is guaranteed?)
2. Direct Object: who or what receives the action of the verb
I never saw what was coming. (Never saw what?)
3. Indirect Object: who or what follows an implied "to" or "for"
The teacher gave Bill an A in the course. (Gave to whom?)
4. Object of the Preposition: answers "Who?" or "What?" after the preposition
I hung a picture on the wall, (On the what?)
5. Object of a Verbal (Gerund, Participle, Infinitive): answers "Who?" or "What?" after the
verbal
Playing tennis is a good exercise. (Playing what?)
6. Subject Complement: who or what follows a linking verb and means the same as the
subject
Margaret was the mother of five. (Margaret was who?)
7. Appositive: renames another noun Henry, my cousin, lives on my block. (renames
Henry)
8. Direct Address: who or what is being talked to I told you, Larry, that I'll be there when I
get there! (talks to Larry)
Functions of a verb:
- A word or group of words will be labeled a verb if it shows physical or mental action (or a
state of being).
- Verbs answer the question "What is happening?"
- The verb, its modifiers, and its objects are called the "predicate" of a sentence.

1. Verbs that take a direct object are labeled "transitive."

Mother baked bread.
2. Verbs that are not followed by an object are called "intransitive."
The baby cried frequently.
Both transitive and intransitive verbs are called "action" verbs.
3. Verbs can connect subjects to complements.
Mary looked tired after her test.
This kind of verb is called a "linking" verb.
4. Verbs can be made up of more than one word: helpers and main.
You should have told me before now.
5. Verbs show time changes (tense).
Tommy runs quickly. He ran out of steam.
 He will run in the race again next week.
6. Verbs can show voice (active/passive).
Marie baked the pie.
The pie was baked by Marie.
Nouns and verbs are like the mother and father of the grammar family. All the other parts are
described in relation to these two basic parts.
Functions of a pronoun: the same function as that of a noun
o They are late. (subject)
o The movie didn't make sense to me. (object of prep.)
Function of an adjective:
- modify nouns and pronouns;
- adjectives have a determined place in the sentence according to level (word level
adjectives normally precede the noun, except for complements; phrase and clause
levels follow the noun).
- The show that I really like is on now.
- Little children are adorable.
Function of an adverb: modify verbs, adjectives, and adverbs; these words, phrases, and
clauses are generally much more movable than adjectives.
o I did not take her seriously because she was always joking.
o Because she was always joking, I did not take her seriously.
Function of a conjunction: connect words, phrases, and clauses; create dependent clauses
o I wanted chocolate ice cream, but the store was out.
o Not only did he hit me, but he also kicked me.
o Even though Sam is a good guy, Renee doesn't like him.
Function of a preposition:
- word level function as adverbs; phrase level function as modifiers.
- Words can be labeled "prepositions," but prepositions never function in a sentence on a
word level Prepositions take objects. These objects NEVER function in a sentence as a
subject.
o Sit down and be quiet. (adverb)
o Sue fell down the steps. (prepositional phrase)
Function of an interjection: word or phrase level expressions of emotion
o Bravo! o Good Grief!
o Yes!
 WORD FORMATION PROCESSES
Affixation - attaching an affix to the root or base to form new words.
Borrowing - the process of taking words from one or more languages to fit into the vocabulary
of another.
Blending - creating a new by combining parts of two or more already existing words in the
same language.
Back Formation
- process of creating a shorter word by removing an affix, which was thought to be part of
the old word.
- reduction process that involves change of part of speech.
Conversion - a process where a word undergoes a category change (from verb to noun)
without any reduction.
Reduplication - involves the duplication in part or in whole of a morpheme to form a new word.
Compounding - process of combining two or more independent words to form a single word.
Words formed in this way are known as compounds.
Onomatopaeic - This is a process of forming words from the sounds (insects, animals, etc).
Generic - This is a process of forming words from persons, such as unit of measurement; i.e.
Kelvin, Ohm, Xerox, etc.
Acronym - EXAMPLES: SEA (Southeast Asia); NAT (National Aptitude Test)
Calque - a word-for-word translation from one language to another.
Example: An "Adam's apple," for example, is a calque of the French pomme d'Adam, and "beer
garden" is a calque of the German Biergarten.

WORD LEVEL CATEGORIES

The word level categories are classified into two major classes. the open class and the closed
class.

Open Class
 Nouns
- refer to persons, places, things and terms/conceptsand therefore function as the
subject of a sentence, object of a verb or object of a preposition.
- can be classified into:
o proper nouns - nouns that refer to persons, places, occasions, special
events)
o common nouns - nouns, in which a name is used to refer to the
members of a class; e.g. man, table, etc.
 Common nouns are further divided into:
a. Concrete nouns can be seen and touched (e.g. table, dog, box)
o Count nouns are separable and countable (e.g. book,
plate, man, etc.)
o non-count nouns are conceived as uncountable except
when they are measured in units (e.g. salt, water, etc.).
b. abstract nouns (love, hatred, wisdom, etc.) cannot be seen or
touched.


Verbs
- seen as the most important part of the predicate slot of a sentence (the predicate
is the part of the sentence that says something about the subject of a sentence).
- express actions or state of being.
Morphological Criterion
i. Regular verbs - are those whose past and past participle verb forms can be predicted
(e.g. work ~ worked ~ worked, stop ~ stopped ~ stopped).
ii. the past and past participle forms of an irregular verb cannot be predicted (e.g. break ~
broke ~ broken, cut ~ cut ~ cut).
Thus, regular verbs in English form their past and past participle forms with the –ed morpheme.
Semantic Criterion
i. Dynamic verbs - are those verbs that express action/event that involve an entity.
o action verbs - (e.g. eat, cook, buy, etc,) are used to express the conscious
activity of a participant,
o event verbs - (e.g. die, leave, etc.) do not necessarily express any conscious
activity of a participant.
ii. stative verbs - express states of affairs and do not involve overt action in their meaning.
Examples of stative verbs include be, know, remain, etc.
Syntactic Criterion
iii. lexical verbs - have independent dictionary meaning which are used to express how the
lexical verb is perceived.
iv. Auxiliary verbs - cannot occur alone in a sentence unless they are followed by
lexical/main verbs.
o primary auxiliaries - are HAVE (with its variants- have, has and had), DO (with
its variants- do, does and did), and BE (with its variants-be, am, is, was, are,
were, been and being)It is important to note that a primary auxiliary can also
function as the main verb of a sentence as the following examples show.
o Modal auxiliary verbs - include will, can, shall, etc. and they are normally used
to reflect the mood of the speaker as can be seen in the following expressions.
v. Transitive verbs - verbs that obligatorily co-occur with object complements
o monotransitive verb - requires only one object complement
o ditransitive verb - take two object complements.
vi. intransitive verbs - do not require any object complement.

 Adjectives
 - used to modify, describes or give info about nouns or some property referred to
by the nouns.
o Attributively adjective - follows or precedes the noun it modifies. In
English, attributive adjectives follow the nouns they modify
o predicative adjective - occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence
after a linking verb
- comparative form, some adjectives admit the –er suffix
- superlative form is marked by the –est suffix (e.g. short ~ shorter ~ shortest).
- These adjectives that take the -er and -est suffixes are referred to as variable
adjectives.
- adjectives admit the words more and most to mark their comparative and
superlative degrees respectively are referred to as invariable adjectives.

 Adverbs
- modifies verb, adjectives and other adverbs
- words that provide specific information about place, time, or manner to the
meaning of a verb, an adjective or even a whole sentence.
Some adverbs are also gradable and can be modified by intensifiers (e.g. very quickly). Some
are also gradable and can admit the -er and -est suffixes to indicate comparative and
superlative degrees respectively (e.g. soon ~ sooner ~ soonest) Still, some adverbs are
irregular in marking their comparative and superlative degrees (little ~ less ~ least).

Closed Class
 Determiners
- words that signal the presence of nouns (Noun Phrases).
- occurs at the beginning of a noun phrase
- before a noun or an intervening adjective
- limits or modifies the reference of a noun or Noun Phrase.
- include:
o articles (a, an, the),
o demonstratives (this, that, these, those),
o possessive pronouns (my, your, his, her),
o quantifiers (all, some most) and
o numerals (one, two, first, second, etc.).

 Pronouns
- words, which serve as substitutes to nouns (Noun Phrases).
- refer to persons and things and they are divided into different sub-groups such as
the following:
o personal pronouns (I, you, we, they, he, she, me us, it)
o reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself, ourselves, themselves)
o reciprocal pronouns (each other, one another)
o relative pronouns (who, which, that, whichever, whose, what, whoever)
 o interrogative pronouns (what, which, where, when, who, how),
o indefinite pronouns (everyone, everybody, somebody, someone,
nothing).

 Prepositions
- words that express some kind of relation with respect to time or space between
things and events.
- occur before a noun phrase complement; e.g. on the table, in the house, with
John, across the road, outside the classroom).

 Conjunctions
- words, which function to join expressions such as phrases and sentences.
- A conjunction can be:
o coordinating conjunction - used to join expressions of equal ranks
o subordinating conjunction - used to link expressions of unequal ranks.

 Intensifiers (degree modifiers)

- refer to the class of words that modify adverbs and adjectives,
- expressing the degree to which a particular quality is found in an entity.

Phrases

 a group of words (sometimes just a word) joined together according to rules of the
grammar of a language.

There are different types of phrase:

noun phrase (NP)

 obligatory element within the NP is the noun.

 function as the subject of a sentence, the direct or indirect object of a verb or the object
of a preposition.
In terms of structural composition, the NP can have the following patterns:
1. A noun alone; NP N (Murielle is here.)
2. A determiner and a noun; NP D + N (The key is here.)
3. A determiner, an adjective and a noun; NP D + Adj + N (The new teacher
is here.)
4. A determiner, an adjective, a noun and a clause; NP D + Adj + N + S’
(The new teacher who married Wilma is here.)
5. A pronoun; NP Pro (He is here.)

verb phrase (VP)

 obligatory element in the verb phrase is a verb and

 functions as the predicate in a sentence.
the VP can have then following patterns:
 1. A verb alone; VP V (The dog died.)
2. A verb and a prepositional phrase; VP V +PP (The child played at the
park.)
3. A verb and a noun phrase; VP V +NP (He killed the snake.)
4. A verb, a noun phrase and an optional prepositional phrase; VP V +NP
(PP) (He killed the dog in the garden.)
5. A verb and two noun phrases; VP NP + NP (Andre bought Murielle a
bag.)
6. A copular verb and an adverb/ an adjective/an NP; VP Vcop +Adv/
Adj/NP ( Val is a happy person.)
7. A verb and a full clause; VP V + S (Ziv believes Henry stole the book.)
8.

adjective phrase (AP)

the adjective phrase can have the following structural patterns.
1. An adjective alone; AdjP A (The building is huge.)
2. A degree modifier and an adjective; AdjP Deg Modifier + Adj. (Her bag
is very big.)
3. An adverb and an adjective; AdjP Adv + Adj (My teacher is remarkably
intelligent.)
4. An adjective and a prepositional phrase; AdjP Adj + PP (His teacher is
fond of her.)
5. An adjective and a clause; AdjP Adj + S (The father is afraid that his pet
dog will die.)

adverb phrase (AP)

 functions as the most important word.

 Within the adverb phrase, there may be other elements that function as mere
modifiers and these may occur before or after the head adverb.
Examples of this type phrase in English include:

(1) He ate the food quickly.

(2) He ate the food very quickly.

prepositional phrase (PP)

 obligatorily comprises its head, a preposition and a complement.

In English, it is possible to have the following structural patterns for the PP.
1. A preposition and an NP complement; PP P + NP (He is in the house.)
 2. A preposition and a clause; PP P + S’ (He is not sure of what they will do
today.)
3. A preposition and a gerundive noun; PP P + Gerundive N (He came after
eating.)

SENTENCES AND CLAUSES

sentence

 the largest grammatical unit and it consists of a group of words related to each
other and is used to express a complete thought.
 sentence is complete only when it has a subject and a predicate.
 The subject of a sentence is an NP (a noun, a pronoun or any other nominal
expression) about which something is being said.
 The predicate (VP) on the other hand, is the part of the sentence that gives
information about the subject.
clause

 seen as a group of words that can form part of a larger sentence though it can
stand on its own, having a subject, a predicate and a finite verb.
 There are two types of clause:
o main clause
- not dependent on any other structure but stands on its own as
an independent structure.
- also known as the principal or independent clause.
o subordinate clause.
- does not stand on its own but must be subordinated within a main
clause where it normally functions as the equivalent of a part of a
word class.
types of subordinate clause
o noun clause - typically functions as a noun (can be used
as a subject or object) (e.g. That John came to the party
surprised everybody).
o adjectival clause - functions as an adjective by modifying
a nominal (noun phrase) (e.g. The man who came here is
my uncle).
o adverbial clause - gives information about how, when,
where and to what extent an action is performed (e.g. Mary
saw her when she was coming). 3.4.1. Classification of
Sentences
Structural Classification
Simple Sentence - comprises a subject (NP) and a predicate (VP) that contains a finite verb
(e.g. The man is a teacher).
Compound Sentence - consists of two (or more) independent simple sentences that may be
linked by a coordinating conjunction;( e.g. John swept the house and Mary cooked the food.)
Complex Sentence - consists of a main clause with one or more subordinate clauses; (e.g.
John believed the story that Mary married Peter.)

Functional Classification
Declarative Sentence - states a fact or a proposition. It usually ends with a full stop.
Interrogative Sentence - used in asking questions. It demands a verbal response from the
addressee. It ends with a question mark.
Imperative Sentence - give commands or make requests.