ENGLISH GRAMMAR 1 -2017

UNIT 1 – KEY CONCEPTS

 Language: it is a system of communication by written or spoken words, which

is used by the people of a particular country or area.
 Linguistics: a science that involves the scientific study of language and how it
works. It includes the following branches: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology,
Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics.

GRAMMAR:
- The rules by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences,
or the study or the use of these rules (Longman, Dictionary of Contemporary
English)
- The systematic study and description of language in terms of either syntax or
morphology alone or these together with aspects of phonology, orthography,
semantics, pragmatics and word formation.
Morphology: it studies the internal structure of words, of how words are
formed out of morphemes.
Syntax: it studies how words are combined to form phrases, clauses and
sentences.
Semantics: it studies meanings.

Grammatical units or linguistic units

In the English language there is a grammatical hierarchy made up of five
grammatical units. These units are:
1. THE MORPHEME: it is the minimal unit of language with meaning. It may be
a word or part of it. E.g.: car, unhappy, goes
2. THE WORD: it is a part of speech formed out of morphemes. E.g.: woman,
typical, cars.
As regards words, we may say that they fall into two categories.
 Open class of words: they are constantly changing in the language
and thus admit and incorporate new members. These words are also
called lexical or content words. They include:
 Nouns
 Lexical verbs
 Adjectives
 Adverbs
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  Closed class of words: they are relatively fixed and unchanging in
the language. They are also called “grammatical”, “function” or
“structure words”. They include:
 Articles
 Pronouns
 Prepositions
 Auxiliary verbs
 Numerals
 Interjections
 Conjunctions
 Quantifiers and multipliers

3. THE PHRASE: generally, it is a group of words. The phrase is defined by its

“head word”. We have the following phrases: noun phrase, verb phrase, adverb
phrase, adjective phrase and prepositional phrase. E.g.:
The man (NP), Argentina (NP)
Very good (ADJ P)
Quickly (ADV P)
Are (VP) goes (VP)
At school (PREP P)
4. THE CLAUSE: it is a group of phrases. It has at least one NP and one VP. E.g.
Maria is tall
5. THE SENTENCE: it represents the highest level in the hierarchy. There are
three types of sentences.
 Simple sentence: it consists of only one clause. Eg :
She is very nice
She goes to school at 8 am
 Compound sentence: it consists of two or more independent clauses
linked by a coordinating conjunction. E.g. :
My sister is very clever and she is studying math at university
He likes pasta but he doesn’t like ravioli.
 Complex sentence: It is made up of a main clause and subordinate or
dependent clauses linked to the main one by means of a subordinating
conjunction. E.g.:
Although Jane saved money, she couldn’t buy her a present

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