Introduction

Since a course in this subject is part of the compulsory pack for the students of English at the
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, those who decide to study this material may use it for
acquiring some practice for preparing for various examinations. All philology students and
graduates in Romania majoring or minoring in English know that they can opt for a teaching career
and that an English teacher should know about English grammar.
Nevertheless, there are other possible jobs (listed by Börjars 2010) for which the study of grammar
proves useful, of which the first example is the film industry. Thus, professional linguists such as
J. R. Tolkien and Francis Nolan created several artificial languages, such as the Elvish language
family, Taliska, Adûnaic, Soval Pharë, Khuzdul, Entish, Parseltongue, etc., that were used in The
Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, or in the Harry Potter series.
Writing for print and online media, technical writing, publication editing are yet other opportunities
for people with a training in language structure; other options are working in fields like information
technology for natural language processing and speech recognition, advertising and marketing in
creating product names and preparing sales campaigns.
People with a good command of language are needed in areas where faulty communication must
be avoided at all costs (in the airline industry, for example, or in legal cases where for this reason
a separate discipline called forensic linguistics has been developed) as well as in the Plain English
movement, where they are expected to translate technical vocabulary and difficult structures –
especially legal ones – into an accessible form (Börjars & Burridge, 2010, pp. 13-14).
Objectives of the course
- to introduce key concepts in the study of the basic units of grammar
- to explain the structure of the phrase and the clause
- to improve students’ capacity of understanding and using the basic structures of English,
which will allow them to meet the fundamental requisites of teaching English as a foreign language
- to make students aware of the difficulties met in learning English and use this personal
experience with their future students
- to develop students’ knowledge of English through exploration and analysis;
- to enable students to understand the relation of form to meaning and of meaning to
situation;
- to provide students with a basic terminology which will enable them to make these
relationships explicit in the process of teaching English
Specific competences
By the end of the course you will be able to:
- recognize word classes;
- recognize grammatical categories and their functions;
- carry out complex analysis of word classes, phrases and clauses;
- produce correct sentences observing morphological and syntactic rules;
- correlate observations concerning the morphological structure of words with phonetic,
phonological, syntactic and semantic observations.
Plan your study
The Bologna Process encourages and relies on those skills and competences that allow you to work
independently. Responsible and autonomous learning is promoted in Higher education through a
different approach to teaching and content organization1, so that students can learn at their own
pace, in a manner that best suits them. Nevertheless, you should allot about 100 hours to go through
the whole course and accomplish all the assignments required and I advise you to avoid cramming
at the last minute.
Morpho-syntax is an obligatory course, part of the English Language Module you study each
semester and it requires a B2 level together with general knowledge of the native grammar.
Reading and responsibilities
The course will be based primarily on the material sent to you weekly, but other readings and
practice activities may be recommended in class. I suggest that you study the sections assigned for
each session in advance, according to the schedule. Each week you should spend at least two hours
and a half for reading for this course. On average, you will spend approximately 90 minutes on
reading the material, and 60 minutes on the exercises. However, the two activities cannot be
separated and should be done sequentially, because the practice exercises and questions are
designed to sustain your progress and to help you reflect on the issues covered in the course.
Spend time at home writing down the questions or comments you might have concerning the
assignments and the answers you get to them during class discussions. Apart from building up
competence, the immediate results of these tasks will be that your own written notes and
summaries will build your portfolio. Keep all such material, as much of it will be useful in the
exam sessions.
I suggest that you build up a portfolio containing the tasks to be undertaken and any work in
English that you consider relevant to your linguistic training. Together with class attendance and
in-class activity and assignments, it will support your preparation for the progress tests and the

1 Course descriptions contain ‘learning outcomes’ (i.e. what students are expected to know, understand and be able
to do) and workload (i.e. the time students typically need to achieve these outcomes). Each learning outcome is
expressed in terms of credits, with a student workload ranging from 1 500 to 1 800 hours for an academic year,
and one credit generally corresponds to 25-30 hours of work. (ec.europa.eu)
final examination. Write down in your portfolio any questions you might have and the difficulties
you encounter as you progress through the course, because they can become useful discussion
topics for the seminars and this will contribute to your successfully meeting the specific objectives
of the course.
You are expected to attend class regularly (in Microsoft Teams ), participate in discussions, and
upload all home assignments. If for some reason you missed a class, it is your responsibility to do
your makeup work.
Since this course is part of the compulsory pack, the students who take it do not really make a choice
other than having decided to study English, but one can always try to make the best of an inexorable
situation.
Assessment and evaluation
You will be assessed throughout the semester and this continuous assessment concerns the
obligatory individual assignments and in-class activity. You can use extra material if you need (you
may ask the course instructor for suggestions for further reading and practice). The amount of
exercises and tasks you will need to do takes into account the relative importance of the objectives
covering the content of the unit, their degree of difficulty and the number of ECTS credits allotted
to the whole course2. In case you fail to solve any of the tasks, before bringing it to the attention
of your tutor and peers, I suggest you re-read the related content in the course and refer to a glossary
of grammatical terms to revise basic definitions.
In the monthly progress tests and in the written examination at the end of the semester, you will
have to answer questions and do exercises covering the major problems dealt with in the course.
Besides, your grammar competence will be evaluated by means of a variety of testing items such
as multiple choice, paraphrase, true–false, error identification, word changing, word/clause order,
etc. Your grade will be based on your ability to understand, analyse and describe the structure of
English clauses, phrases and words (form and function), your knowledge of analytical and
argumentative vocabulary and your skills in communicating grammatical concepts in a correct
written form.

2 This course has 6 ECTS. “An important tool used for credit transfer and accumulation, ECTS plays now an
important part in curriculum design and in validating a range of learning achievements (academic or not). In this
system, credits reflect the total workload required to achieve the objectives of a programme - objectives which
are specified in terms of the learning outcomes and competences to be acquired - and not just through lecture
hours. It makes study programmes easy to read and compare for all students, local and foreign, and therefore
facilitates mobility and academic recognition.” (www.eua.be)
 Lecture 1
1. Basic concepts
1.1. Language, linguistics and grammar
1.1.1. Language and linguistics
A theory book usually starts from the introduction of the subject – English language, in
this case - and continues with the delimitation of the topic, that is, the area in linguistics covered
by morpho-syntax and the relationship between language – linguistics – grammar – morpho-
syntax. The relationship between linguistics and language can be assimilated to the relation
between any science and its object of study. Thus, the object of the linguistic science is language,
considered both individually – as separate languages analyzed in turns – and in general, in its
universal properties. Each approach and school of linguistics has developed research methods and
proposed assumptions intended to clarify the issues identified as central for the study of natural
language.
Languages across all cultures share a number of underlying properties (all languages can be
defined in terms of syntax, morphology, semantics, phonology, lexicon). Every individual language is
a combination of these universal properties with a number of specific features. Some linguistic
schools study the universal properties of language, while others approach contrastively a large range
of languages, looking for similarities and differences between them. Nevertheless, these are different
means to the same end, since the job of linguistics is to define language as a human faculty (called
langage by Saussure). Linguists differentiate between the abstract mental system of rules, principles
and constraints shared by speakers (called langue by Saussure and competence by Chomsky, although
the terms are not interchangeable) and the actual utterances delivered by individual speakers on
particular occasions (Saussure’s parole, Chomsky’s performance). In other words, language requires
both abstract categorical representations (a finite number of words are associated with concepts and
meanings) and a generative system for their combination (users of a language generate an infinite
number of sentences by combining the words in their head and the syntactic rules in their language in
distinct ways).
Language confers obvious survival benefits. ‘A tiger is coming’ and ‘The tiger is behind the
tree, not behind the rock’ are useful utterances to be able to share with other people. Language cannot
simply be defined as human speech. Many other species have artificial systems of signs and symbols
which can take a myriad of forms (ants communicate among themselves through the use of special
chemical messengers called pheromones, while primates have very complex communication systems
involving visual, olfactory, tactile and vocal calls). In the 1960s, Charles Hockett proposed 16 design
features of language (common to all human languages): vocal auditory channel, broadcast
transmission and directional reception, rapid fading, interchangeability, complete feedback,
specialization, semanticity, arbitrariness, discreetness, displacement, productivity, traditional
transmission, duality of patterning, prevarication, reflexiveness and learnability (Hockett, 1963;
Hockett & Altmann, 1968). This is not an exhaustive list: language is also under voluntary control
(there is a great degree of decision-making involved in the use of language). Some of these features
can also be shared by complex communication systems in the animal kingdom.
Where do we go from here? After all, how do we define language? A plausible corollary of the
previous statements is brought about by the Chomskyan theory that syntax – a generative system for
rules of combination – is the core property defining human language (no other communication system
has it). Highly social creatures such as primates, for example, have been shown to demonstrate
sensitivity to word order and advanced cognitive abilities similar to a 2/3-year-old child when taught
sign language. They have shown, however, no evidence of the acquisition of complex grammars or the
creative use of word ordering rules (recursion), as compared to children (who can acquire the rules for
combining a finite set of grammatical rules with a finite set of lexical items to generate an infinite
number of sentences). There is no end to the number of sentences that human users of language can
generate.

1.1.2. Grammar
Most people associate grammar with a hazy recollection of half-understood rules passed on
in schools and monotonous repetition drills undertaken by pupils with a sense of foreboding. If your
reaction to this idea is along the lines of ‘Yes, I feel this way, too’, consider this: when you make
friends in a café or a study hall, how you express yourself matters, but not as much as it does in a
formal context (when writing an essay, talking to your language arts professors, applying for a job
or compiling a report). Even highly educated people break usage rules when they speak (sometimes
not deliberately); however, when they write academic texts, they use standard forms of the language.
This does not mean that people should completely give up usage standards; if so, one will no longer
prove his/her ability to recognize social contexts and react to them properly. Nevertheless, non-
standard, or ungrammatical forms, when used in the appropriate circumstances, are not necessarily
the mark of poor education or of defective logic, but a sign of socio-linguistic awareness.
Have you ever asked yourself why “Music it can change the world” is faulty, but its revised
version “Music can change the world” is grammatically correct? Or why “two luggages” does not
sit comfortably with English, while “two pieces of luggage” does? Why do people never dare to end
sentences with prepositions or split infinitives? Why do we say “bored with/by something or
somebody” instead of “bored of something/somebody? Linguistic behaviour (standard and non-
standard) shapes the way you express ourself and vice versa. It is another document (official or not)
that contains your identity. Solving the linguistic puzzles mentioned above – and manipulating them
when required by context – will make you a self-conscious, self-assured, creative and efficient writer
and speaker (whether you want to study English grammar to rinse the revolutionary linguistic
changes brought about by emailing and texting off it or you are interested in knowing its unbreakable
rules to pass examinations, apply for a job or write your own book).
Most authors agree on the fact that grammar is primarily concerned with the rules (not
necessarily described or explicitly prescribed) that govern language use. Actually, the term
grammar itself is difficult to define – and the subject matter difficult to swallow, for that matter! –
because it is used sometimes to designate syntax, but also morpho-syntax, or even the study of the
whole system of language, quite like linguistics itself. However, in an oversimplified approach,
English grammar could be described as the whole set of rules identified to form and understand
language. Rules of grammar can be prescriptive and descriptive. Prescriptive grammar is
grounded in rules that can be grasped though the binary opposition between “good” and “bad”
English. A prescriptive grammarian would regard the to of the infinitive as inseparable from its
verb in the first sentence listed below and condemn the split version (traditional grammar
handbooks would not welcome new linguistic developments either) illustrated in (2). Descriptive
grammar is concerned with the language system used by native speakers (after all, there has to be
someone interested in how people actually communicate with each other, not how they should).
Even if (1) is not prescriptively correct, it illustrates a construction which occurs frequently in
Modern English. A scholar falling into the descriptive camp would say that one variety of language
is as good as any other. I ain’t never heard of this in African American English would be considered
nonstandard (it is still a legitimate form of communication in another dialect). I have never heard
of this is prescriptively correct according to the rules of standard English (a dialect spoken by
educated people). Both a descriptive grammarian (interested in how English is used by speakers
at a certain point in time) and a prescriptive one (keen on preventing the decay of the English
language through rule violation) would agree that (3) is unacceptable, as it violates English word-
ordering rules. Knowing which form is permissible in both formal and informal style is a sign of
socio-linguistic awareness.
(1) Many students choose to deliberately split an infinitive in their essays.
(2) Many students deliberately choose to split an infinitive in their essays.
(3) *Who she go to did?
In a narrow sense, grammar studies the rules governing the combination of smaller and larger units
of language which are able to carry more complex messages than the individual morpheme is. The
idea of grammar itself suggests the sequential arrangement of linguistic units, in which the word
is the fundamental building block of language, with special attention paid to the lexicon (which is,
strictly speaking, outside the concerns of grammar, even if it contributes essentially to its
understanding). Grammar is, thus, a system of recursive patterns: you could keep going round a
phrase and continue a sentence for the rest of your life without breathing (linguistically, it is
perfectly possible!). Creativity is not restricted to the word level (new lexical items are coined to
reflect new socio-linguistic realities, while old ones wear out). New sentences can be produced at
will. Novel sentences produced by other users of language can be comprehended. However,
grammar cannot be reduced to stringing thoughts together in a linear fashion. Allow yourself to
hazard a guess at the meaning of the following sentence (legendary among linguists) created by
Chomsky:
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
 The sentence listed above is grammatically accurate (as you may have intuitively realized). It
does not break any grammatical rule of English, but it does contravene the principles of effective
communication. The hidden skeleton of rules and categories is not immediately observable from
the language you hear every day. You could not generate and understand the previous sentence and
refuse *Sleep green colourless furiously ideas as ungrammatical if your knowledge of language
was based on syntactic principles governing how words are put together alone. The adjectives
colourless and green combine with the noun ideas to build up a noun phrase. The verb sleep is
preceded by no other grammatical auxiliary, so it stands alone as a main verb and forms a verb
phrase. The adverb phrase furiously consists of an adverb which is surrounded by no modifier.
These three types of phrases combine to form a clause (invoking formal grammatical properties
rather than meaning). This clause is an independent one and constitutes a simple sentence. The
adequacy of a lexical item (or a sequence of lexical items, for that matter) depends not only on
form and function, but also on meaning. Sometimes, however, changes in meaning are brought
about by sequencing bits and pieces of languages in different ways. It may not be enough to
recognize speech sounds and use your lips, tongue and vocal cords in concert to produce language,
to match words with their referents and discover their meaning. To illustrate this, consider these
examples:
1. The following story was written by a clever young man who has long since been dead for
amusement. (faulty arrangement of words; this sentence should be rewritten as ‘The
following story was written for amusement by …’ to keep qualifying words as close to the
words which they modify as possible)
2. Cats eat mice.
3. Mice eat cats.
English has a default word order: Subject -Verbal - Object. Words can be arranged in systematic
ways to convey different meanings. In a straightforward English sentence, the subject will usually
come first, the verbal second, and the object third (exceptions are allowed for emphasis or stylistic
effects). The second sentence wins its laurels in terms of semantic plausibility, while the third one
should definitely keep English students on their toes. Both consist of exactly the same words. It is
the order of words that establishes the meaning. Knowledge of syntactic categories does not
suffice. There is a problem here that the astute English learner may have spotted. Each sentence
element expresses a semantic (or thematic) role (e.g., agent, patient and recipient of the action).
This is a makeshift definition: semantic roles refer to the tasks that people and objects are assigned
in an action (who did what to whom). There are some sentence elements (e.g., Wisdom is better
than strength), however, that have no obvious semantic role, since no canonical mapping exists
between syntactic and semantic functions. The roles are covert rather than overt. Can the object of
the second sentence be moved to the left edge of the sentence, and the subject to the right one? In
the sentence Cats eat mice, cats = the agent of the action (the ones who eat) and mice = the patient
(the ones eaten). It is fairly easy to identify the thematic roles in a sentence by observing the
situation being described. It is, thus, safe to assume that a structural rearrangement is not possible
in (3), as it significantly affects meaning. It would be a good scenario for Jerry, Tom’s arch-enemy,
but it is not good enough for us. The information supplied in the next chapters will allow you to
amass enough experience to scroll through sentence-internal links and dismiss
ungrammatical/implausible sentences. Grammar and meaning are inseparable. Take a look at the
following sentences:
(1) They found him a dentist. (they went searching for a dentist and eventually discovered the
right one for him)
(2) They found him happy. (they saw him and thought he was happy)
The only formal difference between (1) and (2) is given by the last sentence element. The two
sentences have completely different meanings and distinct sentence-final elements (different
syntactic patterns). (3) and (4) are made up of similar verb phrases, but the meanings expressed
are quite different.
(3) I have read books for years. (I read books in the past and up to the present, but I may take
up a new hobby now)
(4) I have been reading books for years. (I read books in the past and have continued it until
now and probably will go on with it in the future. I have not diminished my love for books
yet)
Understanding instances of language means understanding and using two centrally important
concepts of grammar: categories and constituency. The concept of category allows the linguist to
perceive that certain features shared by groups of words place them in the same word class. These can
consequently be labelled as nouns, verbs, adjectives etc. Categories, in their turn, are either lexical (the
ones that carry meaning and can be defined in semantic, morphological and syntactic terms) or
grammatical 3(the ones that determine the syntax of a sentence and can only be defined, as their name
implies, in terms of their grammatical role). Grammatical categories cannot be assigned a meaning-
based definition, as their primary role is to help lexical categories fit together. Traditional grammarians
and writers of school textbooks usually define lexical categories intuitively, giving priority to meaning
rather than form. Such notional definitions are not completely adequate. In modern linguistics,
grammatical behaviour serves as the basis for labelling word classes. Consider, for example, the lexical
category of noun. According to its meaning-based definition, the noun stands for a person, a place, a
thing. The lexical item book is considered a noun (it refers to an inanimate object). Judging by this
notional definition, other lexical items such as presentation and illustration (derived from verbs) should
not be regarded as nouns (because they reflect action). In order to identify nouns (or other lexical
categories) correctly, you must invoke both meaning-based and syntactic criteria – presentation and
illustration can be preceded by the definite article the, can be pluralized by adding the plural -s, can be
modified by adjectives or preceded by prepositions, they end in -ion and so on and so forth).

3
Lexical versus grammatical categories are further discussed in 2.7.3.
 As discussed earlier, humans are fascinatingly creative with their language and produce infinite
sentences with elements that are syntactically connected with each other. Sentences have a hierarchical
structure, which means smaller units build successively into larger units. Thus, constituency allows
the recognition of the fact that sequences of words may behave like function units, so that subjects,
verbals, objects, complements, adverbials and different types of phrases can be delimited inside a
sentence. In a simple sentence, constituents are realized as words and phrases. In a complex sentence,
constituents are realized as clauses.

1.2. Grammar and its subdivisions

Traditionally, the main subdivisions of the study of grammar are morphology and syntax,
but, due to the numerous “borderline” linguistic issues, the differences between the two are not
clear cut. Such interactions between morphology and syntax show that there must be an interface
between the morphological and the syntactic levels. The term interface is used here to propose the
assumption that different kinds of information about linguistic units (in our case, words, phrases,
and clauses) can ‘see’ each other. Any language can be described in terms of three major areas:
grammar (along with its two subfields, morphology and syntax), phonology and lexicon. There is
a long-standing debate concerning the actual subfields of grammar. According to some linguists,
grammar is believed to address all three areas of study. Some definitions that will be of assistance
are listed below:
Morphology is concerned with the form of words. Syntax deals with the way words
combine to form sentences. Both make up the core of grammar. Phonology has to do with the
sound system of a language (involving speech sounds, stress, intonation). The lexicon supplies
information about vocabulary elements (both individual words and idioms such as under
someone’s wing i.e., under their protection). The aforementioned linguistic areas deal primarily
with the study of forms. In contrast, semantics is concerned with meaning without reference to
situation. The choice of expression affected by attitudes is the concern of another branch of
grammar, namely pragmatics, which can be defined as the study of meaning with reference to
situation.
Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary language-related field of research that includes
language acquisition and teaching, literacy, discourse analysis, media studies, speech therapy,
workplace communication, translation studies, and a few others. Consequently, the academic fields
related to applied linguistics are linguistics, translatology, education, psychology, sociology,
political sciences, computer science, communication research, anthropology etc. Register (also
known as style) is a term linguistics use to describe varieties of language associated with particular
users, uses, and contexts (spoken/written, formal/informal, general/occupational). One of the
primary features of a register is the distinctive words and phrases used in it. Idiolects are defined
as varieties of language that are unique to individual persons (such as mannerisms) and manifested
by the patterns of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation that they use.
 The idea that morphology and syntax take on the same linguistic material is trickier than you
might think. To make this clearer, consider the sentence Mary wants to actress. A sequence of
correct words (taken individually) as the one just listed will actually become an ill-formed sentence,
unacceptable owing to an infringement on syntax (not on morphology). The sentence should accordingly
read: Mary wants to act. The structure of the previous sentence (i.e., which parts go with other parts) is
considered inappropriate by native speakers of English (without having been taught this). With some
trouble, both native and non-native speakers of English can figure out that to act is intended instead of to
actress, since actress can only behave as a noun and cannot belong to a different word class.
To illustrate the importance of individual words in the description of grammar, consider the
following examples:
1. Grandma sneezed.
2. The doll sneezed.
3. Grandma sneezed on demand.
It becomes obvious that the word sneeze is restricted in its usage in quite specific ways, which makes
sentence 2 correct in terms of clause pattern (SV), but incorrect according to the rules of co-occurrence
with agent subjects for the verb to sneeze. The next sections will further explore the relationship between
form and meaning, placing specific emphasis on the hierarchical structure of sentences.

Reflect (you will bring your answers to class).

• The following Q&A sequence resulted from the analysis of questions received from English
teachers in the USA, and concerns the English grammar taught and learned in American schools
(https://ncte.org/).
1. In your opinion, which of the issues addressed in the answer also apply to the study of
English grammar by non-native students?
2. Can the same question be asked about the study of Romanian grammar in Romanian
schools? Are the arguments in the answer convincing?
Q: Why is grammar important?
A: Grammar is important because it is the language that makes it possible for us to talk about
language. Grammar names the types of words and word groups that make up sentences not only
in English but in any language. As human beings, we can put sentences together even as children
— we can all do grammar. But to be able to talk about how sentences are built, about the types of
words and word groups that make up sentences — that is knowing about grammar. And knowing
about grammar offers a window into the human mind and into our amazingly complex mental
capacity.
People associate grammar with errors and correctness. But knowing about grammar also helps us
understand what makes sentences and paragraphs clear and interesting and precise. Grammar can
be part of literature discussions, when we and our students closely read the sentences in poetry and
stories. And knowing about grammar means finding out that all languages and all dialects follow
grammatical patterns. (https://ncte.org/statement/qandaaboutgrammar/)
• What is the most difficult part of English grammar?
• Which is more difficult, English grammar or your own language's grammar?
• What is the best way to learn grammar? Do you have a favorite grammar book?