ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX 1

Some Essential Concepts

1) Notional (Semantic) vs Functional Meaning (Prepositions, Modals, Auxiliaries,

Determiners...).
The notional meaning is the one that appears in dictionaries whereas the functional meaning is
that you cannot defining ‘The’ because it is not a concept, it’s just functional and it is detected.
2) Deixis and Deictic Meaning.
The deixis is a process whereas the deictic meaning depends on special circumstances. Both
must share space and time. For example: This is my diary if a don’t see it I don’t know what is
it talking about. So, it gives you an interpretation when they share the same space and time.
‘This’ can be anything.
3) Notional / Modal / Functional / Discursive Meaning.
Notional is the intrinsic semantic meaning a word has. The modal is the way in which this word
acts, it could be in willingness, tentativeness, etc. Then functional is the meaning in contact or
function with something more for example a conjunct.
4) Proform.
It can be a pronoun, a noun phrase, etc. It can be anything that replace a word. For example: The
girl in the corner who is smoking a big cigar… can be replaced by ‘SHE’, it is a noun phrase.
5) Canonical Structure.
The canonical syntax gives rules to speak as a computer (nobody speaks). Canon is the same as
rule.
6) Part of Speech, Phrase, Syntactic Function. Clause elements. English Syntactic
Patterns.
The parts of speech are: noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, conjunction, preposition.The
noun is used to refer to people and things as well as to abstract ideas and phenomena. E.g. boy,
human, cat, book. Nouns can be common or proper. Common nouns can be countable or
noncount. Other types of nouns are: collective noun, plural-only noun, nominalized adjective.
Then the pronouns are one category of pro-forms associated with noun and phrases. All these
pronouns have one thing in common: their referential meaning is determined by the grammar of
English and the linguistic or situational context. There are five classes: the CENTRAL (personal,
reflexive, possessive), RELATIVE, INTERROGATIVE, DEMONSTRATIVE and
INDEFINITE (positive: universal, assertive, non-assertive; and negative). The verb is one of the
lexical word classes. A ‘doing’ word which refers to an action, a process, an event, or a state.
E.g.: walk, think, discuss… Then, adverb is a very heterogeneous word class. Many are derived
from adjectives and therefore largely descriptive or evaluative, and typically end in -ly. These
can generally be compared for degree, using more/most. Others refer to such things as time,
place and reason. Adverbs function as intensifiers in adjectives phrases or adverb phrases, or as
adverbials. Adjective is typically descriptive of a noun; they denote qualities, characteristics and
properties of people, things and phenomena. Examples: red, dark, small. Most adjectives can be
compared for degree, and the forms are called positive, comparative and superlative,
respectively. Another one is conjunction that is a part of a speech which joins words, phrases, or
clauses together, like: and, yet, but, for, nor, or, and so. Then, prepositions are a closed class of
items connecting two units in a sentence and specifying a relationship between them. Clause
elements and patterns en el numero 14

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7) Internal / External Grammar.
Prescriptive grammar: Tell you what you can do and what you cannot do. It gives rules.
Internalized knowledge: Kind of knowledge that you internalize but you are not aware of it.
The internalized grammar s the grammar that somebody has internalized unconsciously. Any
native speaker has been incorporated inside. It is not capable to explain.
The external grammar is externalizing the internal grammar that is in the speaker’s mind.
8) Complements vs Adjuncts (in the sense of Modifiers).
Both complements and adjuncts are sentence constituents. Complements are sentence’s
constituent which are obligatory present; in the case that the complement is deleted the sentence
becomes ungrammatical or the meaning changes.
9) Linguistic Varieties: Regional, Social, Discourse, Medium, Attitude (Diatopic,
Diastratic, Diaphasic).
Regional variation: IT is presented by the dialect which is a geographical dispersion that is the
basis for linguistic variation and during time, that dispersion results in dialects consider as a
different language.
Social variation: It is recognized according to the education, socioeconomic group, and ethic
group. Some differences correlate with age and sex. Much does not involve categorical
distinction but a matter of frequency with which certain linguistic features are found in groups.
There is a polarity between educated and uneducated speech, the former can be identified with
the nonstandard regional dialect and the educated moves away from regional usage to a form of
English.
Discourse variation (medium, attitude): According to medium the differences between spoken
and written English came from two sources. The first one is situational that ensure that writers
are understood. The second source is that many of the devices we use to transmit language by
speech are impossible to represent. And according to attitude they are called ‘stylistic’ but ‘style’
has different meanings. That depends on the hearer’s attitude to the topic and purpose of
communication. We recognize a gradient in attitude between formal and informal, and we also
know that there is a neutral English.
10) Language, Dialect, Idiolect.
The language is a body of words, sounds, and the systems for their use common to a people of
the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition. There
is three-way distinction between: native language, second language (international purposes) and
foreign language (international communication). The dialect is the geographical dispersion that
is the basis for linguistic variation and during time, that dispersion results in dialects consider as
a different language. There are indefinite English dialects. The idiolect is the variety of a
language that a person speaks.
11) Englishes and the concept of Standard.
Educated English are given the prestige of government agencies,
professions, etc. It is codified in dictionaries, grammars, and guides to usage and taught in
school systems at all levels. It comes to be referred as STANDARD ENGLISH. In contrast with
it, we can find forms that are associated with uneducated, called NONSTANDARD.

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12) Sentence and Clause.
The sentence is the minimal communication unit between full stop whereas in clauses the subject
may be dropped: I want to buy. Clauses are the minimal communicative structure, for example:
It’s raining. They may be inserted in one larger with clauses and it can form a sentence.
13) Paradigm.
It behaves in some way. Which rotate is the subject, for example: The girl in the corner, Mary
or She can be in paradigm with my sister as they can be replaced. So, paradigm is a set off
elements mutually exclusive and reciprocally exchangeable. Paradigm is the set of substitutional
relationships a linguistic unit has with another unit in a specific context.
14) Clause Elements and the Primary Canonical Sentence Patterns.
The elements that we can find in the clause are: the subject, verb, object, Object complement,
Subject complement and you can add optional elements as adverbials. The subject is a noun or
noun phrase, pronoun or subordinate clause, then the verb is one of the lexical word classes. A
‘doing’ word which refers to an action, a process, an event, or a state. E.g.: walk, think,
discuss…The object usually follows the verb and they may be nouns, noun phrases, pronouns or
subordinate clauses. The object complement usually follows the direct object and the subject
complement usually follows the verb. The most common verb for a subject complement is the
verb to be, but some other verb may be substituted where the meaning of be is expressed, and
finally adverbials elements that has a wide range of roles than the other four elements. This is
reflected in its meanings, forms, positions and grammatical functions. It’s also reflected in the
ability to include several adverbials elements in a single sentence. There are seven sentence
patterns: SV (John laughed), SVO (John kissed Jane), SVOO (John gave Jane a present),
SVOCo ((You) keep me happy!), SVCs (I became a lawyer), SVA (I live here), SVOA (I saw
her yesterday).
15) Embedding. Simple vs Complex Sentence. Simple vs. Complex Phrases.
It is the syntactic structure with which we combine a clause with another clause, so it introduces
a clause within another. I want something. Something is to go to London. Simple sentences
have the most basic elements that make it a sentence: a subject, a verb, and a completed thought,
whereas A complex sentence is made up of an independent clause and one or more dependent
clauses connected to it. A dependent clause is like an independent clause, or complete sentence,
but it lacks one of the elements that would make it a complete sentence.
16) Small and Verb Less Clauses.
We don’t describe small clauses in terms of the number of words or phonemes. A small clause is
a clause that has been reduced to the maximum. There is a clause reduction if at least one
argument is deleted and/or the predicate (centre of oration) does not express time (If the verb is
non-finite or it is verbless), and it happens with subjective clauses. When ripe, these apples are
sweet. When these apples are ripe, they are sweet.
17) Predicator (Controller): Verb, Noun, Adjective, Adverb, Prepositional Phrase.
-Predicator: the syntactic function in the clause that is realized by a verb phrase. The head of the
verb phrase; the central syntactic element in a sentence.
-Verb: One of the lexical word classes. A ‘doing’ word which refers to an action, a process, an
event, or a state. E.g: walk, think, discuss…

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-Noun: is used to refer to people and things as well as to abstract ideas and phenomena. E.g. boy,
human, cat, book. Nouns can be common or proper. Common nouns can be countable or
noncount. Other types of nouns are: collective noun, plural-only noun, nominalized adjective.
-Adjective: is typically descriptive of a noun; they denote qualities, characteristics and properties
of people, things and phenomena. Examples: red, dark, small. Most adjectives can be compared
for degree, and the forms are called positive, comparative and superlative, respectively.
-Adverb: is a very heterogeneous word class. Many are derived from adjectives and therefore
largely descriptive or evaluative, and typically end in -ly. These can generally be compared for
degree, using more/most. Others refer to such things as time, place and reason. Adverbs function
as intensifiers in adjectives phrases or adverb phrases, or as adverbials.
-Prepositional phrase: a phrase consisting of a preposition + a noun phrase. Unlike other phrase
types, the prepositional phrase is not described in terms of head and modifiers, because the
preposition does not modify the noun, or vice versa. Both parts are needed to construct a
prepositional phrase. What follows the preposition is called the complement of the complement
of the preposition. Besides noun phrases, the complement of the preposition can be an -ing
clause or an indirect question. Prepositional phrases can function as adverbials at clause level, or
as post modifiers of noun phrases or complements of adjectives/adverbs at phrase level.
18) Preposition vs Conjunction.
Prepositions are a closed class of items connecting two units in a sentence and specifying a
relationship between them, they can be simple or complex. Conjunctions are the part of
speech that connects words, phrases, or clauses that are called the conjuncts of the conjoining
construction.
19) Reference vs Meaning. Co-referentiality.
Co-referentiality refers to some entity in the real word. For example, in the sentence: Mary
became a teacher - I saw my teacher. In the second sentence, you can change the number of
teacher whether in the first you can only have ‘a teacher’. There is co-reference between Mary
and ‘a teacher’ because it refers to the same entity in the real world.
20) Specific / Generic. Definite / Indefinite (cfr. Existential THERE). Mass (Uncountable) /
Unit (Countable). Restrictive /Non-Restrictive.
Specific-Generic: Generic can be presented by the article ‘The’, for example: The tiger lives in
China, India and Malaysia may refer to a particular tiger so it is generic presented by the use of
‘The’, whereas in the phrase: These tigers are living in a cramped cage must refers to
particular tigers and the noun phrase is specific.
Definite-Indefinite: The article ‘the’ refers to something which can be identified uniquely in the
contextual or general knowledge of the speaker and hearer. The indefinite article is used when a
reference is not identified uniquely from the shared knowledge of speaker and addressee. It’s
associated with ‘first mention’ of an item in which the anaphoric the would be used in
subsequent mention.
Countable-Uncountable: Singular relates to the quantity ‘one’ for count nouns, unique referent
for proper nouns and to undifferentiated mass for noncount nouns. Plural relates to quantity ‘two
or more’ for count nouns unique referent for most proper nouns and individual operational units
that are reflecting plural composition.
Restrictive-Nonrestrictive: Restrictive is making a reference as more specific as possible, like a
defining clause, you take it to the maximum degree of specify. Non-restrictive is the opposite,
you don’t specify. An example of Non-restrictive could be: My poor mother as you only have a
mother, and an example of Strictive could be My blue car as you are specifying which of your
cars are you talking about. If you add a relative clause it is even more restrictive. Adjective
clause is restrictive if it narrows down the word it modifies. An adjective clause is nonrestrictive
if we know exactly who is being written about without it. It’s simply adding extra information,
they need commas around them.
21) Action, Action-Process, Process and State Predicates (vs Stative / Dynamic).
Stative verbs are – command and – progressive, we find: belong or tall. Then, dynamics are +
command and + progressive like jump or naughty. Taking as an example the word ‘open’ we can
distinguish: Process which is -command + progressive and State which is – command and
- progressive. The Process example could be when a door is opening because it’s changing to
one state to another, and the State example could be either the door is closed or open. Then we
find Action and Action-Process which are both + command and + progressive. The example in
Action could be ‘walking’ as it causes nothing, only process, and finally the example in Action-
Process could be the action of open the door. Stative verbs are verbs that express a relationship
and dynamic verbs express an action.
22) Mood and Modality (Subjunctive, Modal Auxiliaries, Tense, Adverbials, etc.).
First, we find the zero modality that express something as true, for example: Paris is the capital
of Germany it’s not true but you present it as if it were true. Then we find the mood imperative,
indicative and subjunctive like: I wish Mary were in London. The third one is the modal
adverbials like: Apparently, Frankly, Honestly. Another is the modal auxiliary in subjunctive
which, in English, is almost inexistent. Then the modal past/future: If it rained tomorrow…
Should may express modal past, and modal future, for example: What time is it? you assume
that the person has information about it or What time will it be? The person has no information.
Any message always carries one element given by the message and a modality given by the
speaker.
23) Operator.
The operator is the first or only auxiliary in the verb phrase realizing the sentence element verb.
It permits the coordination between two predications: You should telephone your mother and
find out if she's recovered. Secondly, an operator can be used alone, with total ellipsis of the
predication that is to be understood: She hoped that they would play a Mozart quartet and they
will/but they won't.
24) Subject Orientation vs Speaker/Hearer Orientation.
We have subject oriented when the action has to do with the subject but it’s not involved, for
example: John can type very fast. In the other hand, we have the speaker oriented as it has to do
with the person who speaks, for example: You can go if you want to.
25) Epistemic / Deontic.
Epistemic modals are used to indicate the possibility or necessity of some piece of knowledge. It
is extrinsic, for example: You must be very intelligent (You have answered something
difficult). On the other hand, deontic implies something intrinsic and is concerned with
possibility and necessity in terms of freedom to act (including ability, permission, and duty). For
example: I must go to date.

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26) + Obligation / – Obligation / Ø Obligation.
Obligation implies that the action must be done without excuse for example: You must come.
The modals that imply positive obligation are: ‘Have to’ and ‘must’. These modals suggest that
the speaker is exercising his authority. ‘Must’ cannot be used in interrogative or negative
clauses. Indicate OBLIGATION or COMPULSION, and ‘Have to’ can also be substituted for
‘must’ in the LOGICAL NECESSITY. ‘Have to’ is used in many contexts where must is
impossible.
Then minus obligation implies something that is forbidden or basically that you can’t do. The
modals that imply minus obligation are: ‘Can’t’ and ‘mustn’t’.
Finally, the zero obligation is that in which it’s not necessary to perform an action. The modals
that imply zero obligation are: ‘Haven’t got to’ and ‘needn’t’. Need is used as negative and
question form of must in the sense ‘necessary’. It is possible and more common to replace the
auxiliary ‘need’ by ‘need to’ or ’have to’ accompanied by do-support. Haven’t (got) to can also
be substituted for ‘must’ in the LOGICAL NECESSITY.
27) Performative verbs.
In English grammar and speech-act theory, a performative verb is a verb that explicitly conveys
the kind of speech act being performed—such as promise, invite, apologize, predict, vow,
request, warn, insist, and forbid. Also known as speech-act verb or performative utterance.
28) ACTION (Active / Passive) vs PROCESS (No ACTION).
Action implies that there is an agent involved. If the agent is focused it’s active for example:
Somebody opened the door: You’re sure that it has happened so it involves an agent, but if the
agent is implied it is passive, for example: The door was broken/opened: It means that
somebody has opened the door but I don’t know who. Other examples could be: Raise your
arms! It is + action so it implies an agent which means that it is active. The barn is burning is
- action = process. The process is when the agent doesn’t exist: The door opened.
John died yesterday: - action = process
A policeman was murdered: + action – passive (You know somebody murdered him but you
don’t know who)
A terrorist murdered the policeman: + action + active
29) Primary / Secondary Predication.
A sentence can contain a primary and secondary predication: I saw her dancing. The group her
dancing is the secondary predication, as it resembles the S-P group, or the primary predication,
structurally and semantically: it consists of two main components, nominal and verbal features,
and names an event or situation. But it can’t be correlated with reality directly and cannot
constitute an independent unit of communication, as verbal’s have no category of mood, tense
and person. The secondary predication is related to the situation of speech indirectly, through the
primary predication.
30) Anaphoric / Cataphoric Reference.
Proform could be anaphoric and that means backwards as I like this wine. It’s very good. ‘It’s’
refers to the ‘wine’, or cataphoric that means front, for example: Let me tell you this: I don’t
like you where ‘this’ refers to the phrase after said.

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31) Complementizer.
When the clause is subordinated we can have a complementizer or a modifier. The first one is
compulsory and it is a complement (action). The second one can be seen as an adjunct
(additional) It is represented in Tree Diagram: My old friend sings many beautiful songs
SING
Friend (complement) Songs (complement)
My (det) old (adj) many (quantifier) beautiful (adj)
A complementizer is the element that shows us where the complement is.
32) Formal Indicators of Subordination (Complementation or Modification).
The have visible form. For example: I want/a car (no subordination-no formal indicator) but in I
want/ to see you as soon as possible we see the formal indicator presented in the clause.
Conjunction typically indicate subordination. Here the conjunction is a formal indicator of
subordination clause (to see you as soon as possible). To identify subordination we can find
conjunction, relative pronouns, infinitive, gerund and participle. There are sometimes verbless
clauses as: You to Boston and Me to California.
33) Acceptability and levels of grammaticality.
Native speaker is the one that tells what is correctly said or wrongly said, but they are not able to
explain it. There are two types of knowledges, the ones we learn, like the English language, and
the ones inherited, like Spanish (Internalized grammar). The acceptability can be: grammatical,
phonetical, syntactical, discursive, etc. It deals with the ‘politically correct’.
34) Adjuncts, Disjuncts, Conjuncts, Subjuncts
We talk about adverbials (syntactic function): I’ll see you tomorrow. Tomorrow is an adverbial
because it tells me when I’ll see you and is in paradigm with ‘as soon as I can’
Integrated in -Adjuncts
the clause -Subjuncts
Non-integrated -Disjuncts (They are mobile, deals with intonation, epistemic=speaker oriented)
in the clause -Conjuncts

Adjunct: John never speaks FRANKLY. Frankly has to do with John and his way of talking.
There are sentence adjunct or predication adjunct. The first one affects the whole sentence: He
kissed her on the platform whereas it could be predication adjunct when it affects the
predication He kissed her on the cheek as it only affects to ‘kissed her’.
Disjunct: They are out of the clause and expresses personal position of speaker: Honestly
(adverb), If I may be sincere (clause).
Subjuncts: They are elements that rest outside: [Strictly speaking], she is European! It doesn’t
modify the oration or predication but a constituent of the oration.
Conjunct: Is something that hook what have been said before, for example: Obviously,
Consequently. Tomorrow I’ve an important meeting in Madrid, consequently, I’d not come
tomorrow.

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