SET I: GENERAL FRAMEWORK.

GRAMMAR DEFINITION. WORDS AND WORDS CLASSES. LEXICAL AND FUNCTION

WORDS. SYNTAX: DEFINITION.
A Short History of Grammar

I.S.F.D Nº1. GRAMMAR II 1

 ● WILLIAMS, JAMES D.” THE TEACHER´S BOOK”. SOKA UNIVERSITY

Grammar is a conventional system of rules for making and putting together the expressions
(eg. phrases and sentences) that belong to the language.

In grammar we first need to identify the grammatical units, such as words and phrases before
describing the internal structure of these units and how they combine to form larger units.

The types of units can be graded according to size into:

- Morphemes: the smallest unit of meaning which may be a whole word (forget), an
inflection such as “s ” (forget + s) or a word formation affix such as un + forget+ full.
They are part of words.

- Words: consist of one or more morphemes.

- Phrases: consist of one or more words.

- Clauses: consist of one or more phrases.

- Sentences: consist of one or more clauses.

Eg. Unfriendly: it´s a word which has three morphemes.

Complete the following chart.

I.S.F.D Nº1. GRAMMAR II 2

 1. If we wash up all these clothes somebody else could dry them.

2. Some students will be working late in their rooms.

3. A scientist whom I admire is George Washington Carver.

Grammatical units 1 2 3

Morphemes

Words

Phrases

Clauses

Sentences

ACTIVITY

https://es.liveworksheets.com/qe199065yg

Grammar is generally divided into:

- Morphology: deals with the internal form of words

- Syntax: deals with the way in which words are combined to form sentences.

Words are generally considered to be the basic elements of a language. They can be
grouped into two families according to their main function and their grammatical behavior.

1. Content words / lexical words / open class words:

✔ They are the main carriers of information in a text or speech act.

✔ They can be subdivided into word classes or parts of speech: nouns, verbs.
Adjectives, adverbs.

✔ they can be head of phrases

✔ they often have complex internal structure and can be composed of several parts.

2. Structure words/ function words / closed class words.

I.S.F.D Nº1. GRAMMAR II 3

 ✔ They express grammatical relationships

✔ They are short and lack internal structure

✔ They can be categorized in terms of word classes such as:

- Prepositions: of , at , in , without, in spite of, etc

- Pronoun: he, they, anybody, one, which,

- Determiner: the, a , that, those, this, every, some

- Modal verb: can must, will could

- Aux verb: be, have, do

- Conjunctions: and , but, or, so, although, however, because, etc

Parts of speech

The structures realizing sentence elements are composed of units which can be referred to
as parts of speech.

Types of words: Content words versus Structure Words

1. Content or lexical words are those that carry semantic or lexical meaning. These
words include the following large open-class parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives
and adverbs.
2. Structure or function words are those that have grammatical meaning: they perform
different grammatical functions and belong to closed systems corresponding to parts
of speech like pronouns, determiners, prepositions, conjunctions, etc

There are eight word classes in English, sometimes called “parts of speech”

Nouns

If we define a noun semantically, we can say that a noun is the name of a person, place,
thing or idea. We use nouns for the purpose of identification. We may classify nouns into
countable nouns (boy, chair, bird, etc), uncountable nouns (water, oil, bread, etc) proper
nouns (Stella, New York, English, etc) and collective nouns ( army, bunch, forests, etc).

Eg. There is no water in the lake.

Uncoun. N Count. N

Pamela got lost in the forest last weekend.

Proper N. Collect N.

I.S.F.D Nº1. GRAMMAR II 4

Verbs

Semantically, a verb is defined as a word that denotes an action or a state of being. From the
point of view of word order, verbs are classified into lexical verbs (go, come, write, etc) and
auxiliary verbs (do, does, did, can, should, etc)

Eg. Can you help me please?

Aux V Lex. V

You should see a doctor

Aux V Lex V

Adjectives

Semantically, we can define an adjective as the word that describes or denotes the qualities
of something.

Eg. A happy girl a red dress

A new car a strong wind

Adjectives are invariable: they do not change their form whether the noun they qualify is
singular of plural, feminine or masculine. They are usually placed before the noun they
describe (attributive), or after it following a linking verb (predicative).

Eg. She prepared some delicious food.

This food is delicious.

The new teacher is funny and patient.

Adverbs
An adverb can modify a verb, and adjective or another adverb. Adverbs contribute meaning
of various sorts to sentences. They are closely connected with the verb in a sentence. While
the verb describes the state of things or the activity, an adverbial adds information about
such things as the manner, place and time of the state or action.

Eg. She shouted at me angrily.

She is quite intelligent.
She drives very carefully.

Pronouns
Pronouns refer to or replace nouns and noun phrases within a text. They occupy the same
position as a noun or noun phrase does.

Eg. That is mine.

We enjoyed ourselves.

I.S.F.D Nº1. GRAMMAR II 5

 They love each other.

Pronouns in English can be classified as personal (or nominal), object , indefinite,

possessive, relative and reciprocal. Pronouns are words that indicate or replace others that
normally have already been appointed.
Personal Object Possessive Possessive Reflexive
pronouns pronouns adjetives pronouns Pronouns
I me my mine myself
you you your yours yourself
he him his his himself
she her her hers herself
it it its -- itself
we us our ours ourselves
you you your yours yourselves
they them their theirs themselves
Indefinite pronouns
everybody nobody somebody anybody
everyone no one someone anyone
everything nothing something anything
Relative pronouns
Who which that whom whose
Reciprocal pronouns
each other / one another

Determiners

They are words that are used before a noun which acts as head of the noun phrase. A
determiner limits the noun that follows it. They mark nouns.
Ed. There is a little water in the bottle.
I have saved some money to buy a book.
She has just plenty of friends.

Articles: a , an, the

Possessive noun: Joe´s, My mother´s
Possessive pronouns: whose
Possessive adjective: his, her, my, your, our, their
Numbers: one, two
Indefinite pronouns: few, more, each, every, either, all, both, some, any, etc
Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those

I.S.F.D Nº1. GRAMMAR II 6

Prepositions
Prepositions connect words to other parts of a sentence and have a close relationship with
the word that follows, which is usually a noun.
Eg. The children have been playing in the park for two hours.
I´m worried about John´s health.
I will meet Paul at the airport in the evening.
She ran to the shop at the corner of the street.

Conjunctions
Conjunctions are words that join two units. We may classify them into coordinating and
subordinating conjunctions.
Coordinating conjunctions: they are often used to join simple sentences into compound
sentences. They combine two equal elements. The most common ones are

And: it is used to express equal ideas adding information.

Columbus discovered America, and the Spanish soon colonized it.
I arrived home and prepared dinner.
But: it is used to express contrary information, not what is expected.
The cathedras was large, but it seemed small for the crowd.
The flat was small, but we felt comfortable there.

Or: it is used to express alternatives.

You can go on working here, or look for a new job.
You can do it yourself, or have it done.

So: it is used to express a consequence or a result.

I didn´t feel comfortable, so I left.
It was the rush hour, so the streets were crowded.

Subordinating conjunctions: they add a less important idea to the main sentence making
the less important idea dependent on the main sentence.

Eg. Although I was very tired, I went to Mary´s birthday party.

I didn´t go out because it was raining heavily.
He told me that he would visit me on Monday.

ACTIVITY

https://es.liveworksheets.com/tt203364fc

WORD CLASSES ACTIVITY

https://es.liveworksheets.com/rn203458sg

I.S.F.D Nº1. GRAMMAR II 7

WORDS BELONGING TO MORE THAN ONE WORD CLASS

ACTIVITY

https://es.liveworksheets.com/vc203508pu

I.S.F.D Nº1. GRAMMAR II 8