ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY-course 3

Aspects of Grammatical Description. General presentation. Noun Phrase.

Morphological Categories.

Old English was characterized by its synthetical structure – the connection

between words is made by endings; whereas Modern (and Contemporary) English
has a marked analytical character, so that the connection between words is mainly
established by the so called Form Words (instrumente gramaticale) – Prepositions,
Conjunctions, Adverbs.

Compare: Old English Aelfred Kuning wses wealth ðisse hoc.

Modern English King Alfred was the translator of this book.

With few exceptions, the English parts of speech have no specific endings in
their basic forms:
 Nouns: book, lamp, exercise, fly, study
 Adjectives: long, rapid, quick
 Verbs: to work, to do, to make, to sing
 Adverbs: now, slowly, often, never, yesterday

A very important consequence of this fact has been the extraordinary

development of Grammatical Homonymy, in the first place of Conversion, in
accordance with which a part of speech may become another part of speech
(schimbarea categoriei gramaticale). Conversion, widely developed in early Modern
English (the 16th century) is a productive device today as well, the most frequent
mutations being: Noun-Verb, Noun-Adjective, Verb-Noun.
a) paper – to paper
iron – to iron
spot – to spot
b) iron – iron ring
silk – silk gown
wall – wall flower
c) to try – to have a try at truth
Other cases: They went home (Noun – Adverb)
To down prices (Adverb - Verb)
There is no one but knows him (Conjunction – Relative Pronoun)
To black smith. (Adjective – Verb)

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 On the other hand, Polyfunctionalism – another aspect of homonymy,
according to which one and the same grammatical form or part of speech discharges
several functions – is also widely developed, for example:
The present indefinite may be used:
 instead of the Future Present Indefinite (Tomorrow is Saturday. We’ll
go to the seaside if the weather is fine),
 instead of the Past as historic present (One day the little boy goes to
the woods and there he finds a treasure) etc.
 The –ing forms represent either the Participle (Indefinite), the Gerund,
the Verbal Noun or the Verbal Adjective

e.g.: I am writing (Participle)

After writing your exercises you may go to the cinema. (Gerund)
Writing and reading (Verbal Nouns)
Writing paper (Verbal Adjective)

Contemporary English words are characterized by wide semantic and

grammatical potentialities.
Thus the word book may be a Noun or a Verb.
As a Noun, it means either a) carte; b) registru; c) caiet or d) carnetel etc.
Grammatically, it is an Individual Noun (it has two numbers, the singular and the
plural). On the other hand, it cannot be used without some special accompanying
element: this book, the book, a book, my book etc.
The words this, the, a, my in the above examples belong to the extremely
important category of Determinatives – morphological elements which
accompanying certain parts of speech, determine them (lend them precision) without
modifying their semantic value (their meaning).

Determinatives may be:

- demonstrative: this boy, that letter, the pen
- quantitative: three desks, a hundred lines
- possessive: John’s hat, my room
- temporal: they returned yesterday
- spatial: he went home

The Lack of Inflections and the Order of Words

In Old English the order of words in a sentence was more or less free, while in
Modern English it is conditioned by a number of rules, every change implying
modifications either in meaning or in style

e.g.: I shall never do it again. (stylistically neutral)

Never shall I do it again (never is strongly stressed)

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 The strict character of the rules concerning the order of words in a sentence
has also been determined by the lack of inflexions in the Modern English. In a
synthetically language the order of words in indifferent or almost indifferent since
the connection between them is established by inflexions whereas in an analytical
language such as English, the order of words may determine essential changes in
meaning.

Morphology in Modern English

Morphology understood as the study of the rules concerning the modification

of word forms, is an extremely small chapter in modern English, as we can easily
imagine if we think of the lack of inflexions.
In spite of this fact, English grammar books generally assign morphology
much more space than to syntax, which becomes possible only by permanently
using syntactical criteria in the presentation of morphological facts.
Such an approach is quite legitimate as far as English Grammar is concerned:
in an analytical language it is very important to insist on the functions and
interrelations of words in the sentence in order to establish their morphological
status.
Syntax distinguishes between principal/main and secondary parts of the
sentence. Syntactical morphology may also distinguish between principal/main and
secondary parts of speech.
The relations between the different parts of speech may be established on the
bases of the following fundamental groups:
1) Principal parts of speech: the noun, the verb; their substitutes
2) Secondary parts of speech:
a) Determinatives; Modifiers (elements that modify the semantic value
of certain parts of speech, e.g.: Qualitative Adjs, Advs, of Manner,
etc)
b) Connectives: Prepositions, Conjunctions.
c) Elements that are non-syntactical: interjections, Words of
affirmations and negation, etc.

Noun Phrase. Morphological Categories

The Noun is the part of speech by means of which we denote objects (objects
in the sense of beings, things, actions, states, qualities, relations, etc) for example:

 Man, teacher, nightingale (beings)

 Table, window, painting, pencil (things)
 Writing, work, explanation (actions)
 Health, happiness, silence (states)
 Kindness, beauty, fluidity (qualities)

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  Similitude (relations)
Except a limited number of Nouns ending in specific suffixes (relationship,
childhood, kindness), very many nouns cannot be identified by their form: table,
room, dog, garden, sun, etc.
All these examples are Nouns as dictionaries give them. In the actual usage of
the language with certain exceptions (e.g.: In certain idiomatic phrases) they are
determined: a man (man is preceded by the Indefinite Article), the man (the is the
Definite Article), men (plural zero determination), this man (this is a demonstrative
adjective) etc.
The Specific Determinative of the noun is the article.

Morphological Categories of the Noun

The morphological categories that characterize any Noun in a given context

are: the categories of Number, Gender and Case.

e.g.: Working people’s (singular number with collective meaning), common

gender, genitive case.
Houses (plural number neuter gender nominative case) may be improved
in England (singular number, neuter gender, accusative case).

The morphological categories of the noun are completed by certain lexical and
lexical grammatical categories: Composition, Derivation and the Idea of Number.