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Morfosintaxis Inglesa I
2º Grado en Estudios Ingleses
Facultad de Filología
Universidad de Sevilla
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MORPHOLOGY
1.- WHAT IS MORPHOLOGY?

Morphology is the part of the grammatical studies dealing with the internal structures of
words.
1.1.- SOME ISSUES IN SYNTAX AND MORPHOLOGY.
SVO structure is the frequent one with transitive verbs. But, due to emphatic reasons, some
elements such as the object can be moved to the front position to give it more importance. For
example: I like Eyes Wide Shut → Eyes Wide Shut, I like. Syntax allows this mobility of
movements, but morphology does not allow it at all. For example: He is foolish → *He is -
ishfool.
Syntactically, phrases can be coordinated. Words are atomic entities (without parts) and
cannot be divided to insert elements in between. In syntax, ellipsis is possible, e.g. - Has he
got two or three cars? + (He has got) THREE (cars), but not in morphology, e.g. - Do you
think is possible or impossible? + *(I think it’s) IM- (possible).
1.2.- SOME ISSUES IN MORPHOLOGY AND SEMANTICS.
• RE-: It means twice, again (write → rewrite), but sometimes they are false friends.
For example, acting and reacting do not mean the same.
• Prefixes cannot be taken for granted since their meaning may change. For example:
He is tall → He is taller // *They are all goods → They are all good?
• Morphology has its own grammatical rules.
1.3.- TYPOLOGY OF LANGUAGES ACCORDING TO THEIR MORPHOLOGY.
• Isolative / Isolating: Mandarin Chinese.
• Agglutinating / Agglutinative: Turkish.
• Labyrinthine / Inflective / Synthetic: (Latin, Old English) they have inflections.
2.- MORPHEME VS. MORPH.

English sentences are made up words, and these words are made up of internal elements.
These internal elements are classified into two sets which two means are a different level:
1. Elements with meaning: -ly, -ful.
2. Elements with grammatical meaning (number): -s, -ed and elements with no
meaning: beauty → b + e + a + u + t + y.
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A morpheme is the minimal unit of grammatical analysis which goes beyond the limits of a
particular lexical form. For example, “er” in “worker”. A morph is the phonetic realization of
that morpheme; that is, they way it is formed. For example, “went” is one morph with two
morphemes (Go + Past), and “watched” are two morphs with two morphemes (Watch + Past).
They have complementary distribution.
An allomorph is a set of different morphs in complementary distribution that make an
exclusive relationship. A portmanteau morph is a morpheme that cannot be segmented. For
example: Went [Go] + [Past].
2.2.- A TAXONOMY OF MORPHS.
1. Free morphs: A morph than can be placed alone and can potentially stand as a
lexical item without any further morphological variation. They can be used and
pronounced on its own. For example: boy, gas, hill, school, stop.
2. Bound morphs: A morph that cannot stand alone as a lexical item on their own
and requires to be attached to one or more morph to be meaningful. They indicate the
meaning of something, but do not have any communicative value. E.g.: -er, -ly, -
doom, -ee // Beautiful → Beauty (free morph) + Ful (bound morph).
3. Base morph: A morph in which any form of any kind can be added, making a sort
of combination of morphs that holds more semantic meaning. For example:
Unhappy → un- (bound morph) + happy (base + free morph).
Neighborhood → neighbor (base + free morph) + -hood (bound morph).
A base has not to be always a morph. Bases can be free or bound.
Affixes, by definition, cannot be free and used on its own, so they are always bound.
Affixes can also be classified into inflectional affixes, those that will never change the parts
of the speech (E.g. She plays the piano), and derivational affixes, those that may change the
parts of speech (E.g. happy → happily, which changes from an adjective from an adverb- In
happy → unhappy it does not change because it is still and adjective.
Inflectional affixes always block the expansion of words. For example: work → worked and
big → bigger. Derivational affixes block up to the limits of the word when you add an
inflectional suffix. For example: Verb → Verb-al-iz(e)-ation-(s).
Inflectional affixes have morphosyntactic features, e.g.: worked (the whole of it is a verb),
and derivational affixes have just morphological features, e.g. Kingdom.
Inflectional affixes are motivated by syntactic environments (e.g. I ____________-ed
(required by) yesterday), and derivational affixes are NOT motivated by syntactic
si lees esto me debes un besito

Morfosintaxis Inglesa I
Banco de apuntes de la US
environment (e.g.: she types ___________________. This does not need to filled).
Suffixal homophones are affixed that are pronounced in the same way, but they have
different grammatical behaviour. For example:
INFLECTIONAL DERIVATIONAL
-er (comparative) -er (deverbal nouns)
-ing (verb) -ing (link to noun domain)
-ed (past participle) -ed (participial adjectives)
3.- THE WORD “WORD”.

In I like dogs, a sentence with the SVO structure, syntactic arrangement does not block
movement of the elements → Dogs, I like. However, you cannot move however components of
the same word → *I like sdog.
In She burnt the books and the letters, groups of the same function can be coordinated within
the same sentence → She burnt (the books and the letters)-s.
In I have written a letter, an element can be added between words → I have just written a letter,
but they cannot break a word → Taller than Peter / *tall [than Peter]-er. Nevertheless, it can be
done in colloquial English. For example:
− Absobloominglutely.
− Fanfuckingstactic.
− Kangabloodyroo.
4.- WORD-FORMATION PROCESSES.

4.1.- ACRONYM
Acronym is a word formation process in which the first letters (and sometimes the first few
letters) of the words in a phrase are extracted and put together to form a word. For
example: UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), BBC
(British Broadcasting Corporation), EU (The European Union), LA (Los Angeles).
4.2.- BACK FORMATION OR BACK DERIVATION.
In the case of back formation, we subtract part of a word to make another one. According
to ADAMS (1973:105), “[backformation] occurs when the formative process from base word
to derived word is seen to be reversed: the more complex word comes first and then some
element is subtracted from it, resulting in a pair of words which forms with a base → derived
pattern already existing”. For example:

− Kingdom
o King + dom = Kingdom (Normal derivation)
− Beggar
o Beggar – ar = Beg (Back derivation)
− Revision
o Revise + ion = Revision (Normal derivation)
− Television
o Television – ion = Televise (Back derivation)
4.3.- BLENDING OR PORTMANTEAU WORDS.
Portmanteau words, also called blend, are words that result from blending (to blend = to fuse,
to mix) two or more words, or parts of words, such that the portmanteau word expresses
some combination of the meaning of its parts. They basically are the fusion of the allomorphs
of two words. For example:
− Smog = smoke + fog.
− Brunch = breakfast + lunch.
− Motel = motor road + hotel.
− Chocaholic = chocolate + alcoholic.
− Swatch = swiss + watch.
− Ligress = lion + tigress.
4.4.- CLIPPING.
Clipping is word formation by removing some segments of an existing word to create a
synonym: that is, make words as short as possible. For example:
− Gas > gasoline.
− Bus > omnibus.
− Photo > photograph.
− Exam > examination.
4.5.- COINAGE OR WORD MANUFACTURE.
Coinage is the process of making-up a new term from a trading name or a product on the
market that has become a general term. For example: Kodak, Exxon, Nylon.
4.6.- COMPOUNDING.
Compounding is a morphological process in which two or more separate words are combines
to form a new compound word. Different lexical categories can be combined to form
compound words.

Syntactic byproducts vs. Morphological byproducts
Big fish Silverfish
Black bird Blackbird
Broken glasses Dark glasses / sunglasses
Quiet life Still life
4.7.- CONVERSION OR ZERO DERIVATION.

In linguistics, conversion, also called zero derivation, is a kind of word formation involving
the creation of a word of a new word class from an existing word of a different word class
without any change in form (which is to say, derivation using only zero). For example:
a) Better VERB  Better ADJECTIVE
b) Bottle VERB  Bottle NOUN
c) Skin VERB  Skin NOUN
d) Attack NOUN  Attack VERB
e) Cough NOUN  Cough VERB

f) Sigh NOUN  Sigh VERB
4.8.- FALSE OR FOLK ETYMOLOGY.
False or folk etymology is defined as a change in the form and/or meaning of a word which
results from the incorrect assumption that it has a certain etymological origin. For
example:
− Hamburger → Hamburg (German city)
o Ham + burger
o Cheese + burger
o Chicken + burger
4.9.- NEOCLASSICAL COMPOUNDING.
Neoclassical compounds are compound words composed from combining forms derived
from a classical Latin or ancient Greek roots. At least one of its elements comes from Latin
or Greek. For example:
a) Agriculture (ager, agr- “field” + cultura “growing, cultivation”).

b) Insecticide (insect + -cide “killing”).
c) Megabyte (mega- “large” + byte).
d) Microchip (micro “small” + chip).
4.10.- REDUPLICATIVE COMPOUNDING.
Reduplicative compounds are compound words in which the first constituent is a partial (or
barely changed) copy of the second. For example: clop-clop, tick-tick, tittle-tattle, zig-zag,
piggie-wiggie, tenny-weeny or teensy-tiny.
4.11.- EPONYMY.
An eponym is a person or a thing, whether real or fictional, after which a specific discovery,
place or era is named. They basically are words made up from proper names of classical
figures. For example: cereal, herculean, titanic, lilliputian, platonic and quixotic.

SYNTAX
1.- SENTENCE. CLAUSE. PHRASE.

1.1.- SENTENCE VS UTTERANCE.
According to Noam Chomsky, the concept of sentence belongs to the field of competence, or
i-language, and performance, or e-language. This i-language is abstract, and it is ideally
based on the rules of grammar of any kind of language; that is, the i-language is the knowledge
of the system of the grammatical rules of language. On the other hand, e-language is the
linguistic expression of our competence, our actual speech production and a reflection or
translation of our competence of speech redaction. And the utterance belongs to this domain
of performance.
1.2.- SENTENCE ELEMENTS.
There are four categories:
1) Form. Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition,
2) Phrasal category: AdjP (phrase), NP (syntagma), VP, etc. A phrase is an intuitive
grouping whose main element is a noun.
3) Clausal category: Infinitival, -ing, that-, wh-
4) Function: Subject, Verb, Object, Complement, Adverbial, etc. Relationships between
elements. Within a sentence, we may find 5 elements: S V O C A
SUBJECT
A) Syntagmatic POSITIONING:
Syntagmatic appears in a preverbal position, and in a post-verbal position for question
(also when have an auxiliary).
a. Jeniffer Lopez is impressive. // Is Jennifer Lopez impressive?
b. The Columbia was lost yesterday. // Was the Columbia lost yesterday?
B) Subject Verb AGREEMENT:
The verb corresponds with the subject.
a. A leopard is a flesh-eating mammal // Leopards are flesh-eating mammals.
b. Britney Spears rushed up to the stage // Britney, Zeta-Jones and Roberts rushed up
to the stage.

C) Capacity of DELETION:
In English, we need subjects, so they cannot be omitted or deleted (except for the imperative).
1) a George Bush has a problem.
b *George Bush has Ø.
c *Ø has a problem.
2) a Bill Clanton was reading The Washington Post.
b *Bill was reading Ø.
c *Ø was reading The Washington Post.
3) a President Bush met President Aznar.
b *Presidents Bush and Aznar met Ø.
c *Ø met.
D) Nominative personal proform REPLACEMENT.
If we want to replace the subject by a personal proform, it has to be the personal or nominative
ones, never by the objective or accusative ones*. For example:
• The Columbia crew knew the risks they took.
o They knew the risks they took.
o *Them knew the risks them took.
E) Formal STRATEGIES.
The formal strategies are the way in which the message is linguistically expressed. The are
simple and complex sentences:
• Simple sentences: the subject is realised by the subject + verb structure.
o Remains of the Columbia can be seen in Texas.
o Earthly remains are observable in several states.
o The blind cannot see.
• Complex sentences: the subject is realised by another clause.
o To back a war against Iraq is not common policy among US allies.
o Flying helicopters can be dangerous in hot Iraqi summer.
o That Sadam Hussein was a dictator is nobody’s doubt.
o What we need is love.
OBJECT
A) Syntagmatic POSITIONING.
Objects can be naturally moved around the sentence’s structure without any problem:
S+V+OO+S+V

− I like A Beautiful Mind. / A Beautiful Mind, I like.
− I don’t like potatoes. / Potatoes, I don’t like.
− I remember September 11th, that very day when the Twin Tower collapsed, very well
/ I remember very well September 11th, that very day when the Twin Towers
collapsed.
B) Likely PASSIVATION.
We can passivize objects:
a) Can Washington change our minds?
b) Can our minds be changed by Washington?
Nevertheless, reflective objects cannot be passivized, because reflective forms are linked to
their antecedent and if you passivize it, there is no antecedent, so it is out of the question. For
example:
a) I can’t see myself on a space ship.
b) *Myself can be seen on a spaceship.
C) No NUMBER AGREEMENT with the Subject:
When they are transitive verbs, they is no agreement between the subject and the object, but
there is when it is a copulative verb. For example:
a) Sadam Hussein was a dictator.
b) *Sadam Hussein was dictactors.
a) Sadam Hussein and Fidel Castro are dictators.

b) Have you ever seen a dictator?
c) Have you ever seen dictators?
D) Neither CO-REFERENCE RELATIONSHIP with the Subject-referent nor
CHARACTERIZATION properties of the Subject-referent.
This happens with copulative verbs:
a) Tony Blair was the former British Prime Minister.
b) *Tony Blair was the former British Prime Minister.
But do not happen with transitive verbs:
a) Aristotle Onassi’s granddaughter, Athina Roussel, inherited 800 million dollars.
b) *Aristotle Onassi’s granddaughter, Athina Roussel, inherited 800 million dollars.
The object can be also a clause.
a) Some people say that President Bush had authorized the use of special force in Irak.
b) Who can describe what we will find in outer space?
COMPLEMENT (Entity that is required by the verb to fulfil the communicative situation)
In statements, the complement occupies post-verbal position, right after copulative verbs,
although they can be moved to the very beginning to give emphasis. For example:
a) She became rich.
b) Rich she became.
B) NUMBER AGREEMENT with the Subject/Object.
With the subject, if is a subject complement, and with the object if it is an object complement.
This agreement differentiates the complement from the object, and also a copulative verb from
a transitive verb.
a) Fame is a fickle product.
b) *Fame is fickle products.
a) We found him a crooked politician.

b) *We found him crooked politicians.
C) Impossible PASSIVATION.
Complements are never passivized:
a) Something went wrong with the Columbia.
b) *Wrong with the Columbia was gone by something.
D) CHARACTERIZATION of the Subject/Object referent and CO-REFERENCE
RELATIONSHIP with the Subject/Object-referent.
The complement characterises the subject/object-referent in co-reference relationship since
they have the same index.
a) In Hollywood movies, become more and more international.
There is no co-reference relationship within transitive verbs.
a) Canada is a world of opportunities.

In a complex sentence, complements can be realized by clauses.
a) The fact is that war is around the corner.
b) What you see is what you get.
c) To explore the outer space is to be on the verge of tragedy.
d) Seeing is believing.
ADVERBIAL
Its normal position is at the end of the sentence, but it can be placed at the very beginning of
the sentence to give emphasis.
a) Unfortunately, there will be no peace in the Middle East.
b) There will be no peace in the Middle East, unfortunately.
B) Formal STRATEGIES:
Not always an adverbial is realized by an adverbial phrase. For example:
a) When you close your eyes, you feel relaxed.
b) While in London, make sure you visit the National Theatre.
1.3.- COMPLEX VS SIMPLE SENTENCES. CLAUSE AND PHRASE.

• Simple sentences are the ones in which none of its elements are realized by a clause.
a) The red table is full of books.
b) The very tall girl is your beloved sister.
• Complex sentences are the ones in which one of its elements is realized by a clause.
a) I know that Clark Kent is Superman.
b) He said that you are a liar.
2.- BASIC SENTENCE PATTERNS.

There are seven patterns:
1. SV → She died (Intransitive verbs)
2. SVO → I got the prize (Transitive verbs)
3. SVC → You look tired (Copulative verbs)
4. SVA → She is in the park (Adjunctive verbs)
5. SVOO → He bought Mary a book (Ditransitive verbs)
6. SVOC → We consider him brilliant (Complex transitive verbs)
7. SVOA → She kept her car in the garage. (Adjunctive transitive verbs)

3.- THE NOUN PHRASE.
3.1.- PRONOUNS
The traditional definition of the pronoun is not completely accurate, but we can say that is an
element that is used instead of a noun.
a) - Did you notice the woman who was walking in the park?
+ No, I did not see her.
b) - Have you ever been to Paris?
+ No, I have never been there.
c) - Do you like this car?
+ No, I like that one. (The real pronoun that replaces a noun)
3.2.- NP CONSTITUENTS.
3.2.1.- NOUN TYPOLOGIES.

Depending on the relationship with the determiners, there are two types of nouns:
• Proper noun: Sean.
• Common nouns: Countable (Book) / Non-countable (Furniture) / Dual (Brick)
PROPER NOUN VS PROPER NAMES.
• Proper name: Proper names are most often used to refer to the person, place,
institution, etc that bears the name. Foe example: Do you like Sean? These names
make persons, places, institutions unique, with unique referent.
• Proper noun: Label that belongs to the level of morphosyntax, in which words share
the same grammatical features. They are realized by a proper noun most of the time,
but not always. They can also be realized by a noun phrase. For example: The
Shakespeare I like is the one who wrote Hamlet.

COMMON NOUN.
A common noun is a noun that refers to entities that share common characteristics.
COUNT NOUN
Counts noun can be counted, and normally have 2 paradigmatic forms: singular and plural.
For example:
a) He was smoking one cigarette.
b) That will generate new ideas.
However, there are syncretic forms: that is, 1 form that share the same lexeme for singular
and plural. For example:
a) He caught three trout / He caught one trout.
b) I saw two Japanese / She was working with a Japanese.
NON-COUNT NOUN
In non-count nouns, distinction of singular and plural is not seen. For example:
a) Peace should be looked for in the Middle East / *A peace is just what they need.
b) His anger is what she felt / *Many angers decide your daily spiritual state.
DUAL NOUN
Traditionally, dual nouns are non-count nouns, but there can be a conversion or derivation from
non-count to count-nouns. It all depends in the communicative intention. For example:
a) The store has a large variety of cheeses.
b) Two (cups of) coffees.
COLLECTIVE NOUN
Depending on the perspective of the British speaker, collective nouns can be seen as:
• As a whole, one entity (singular). For example: A team was trained for the competition.
• As a collection of individuals (plural). For example: The team were trained for the
competition.
3.3.- DETERMINERS.
Determiners would occur in the pre-modifier position (adjective is the typical modifier in
English). They establish the limits in order to determine the referent.
A determiner is a unit that determines the reference of the NP. This set of elements identify
and quantity these NPs to relate it to its referents. For example:
• A/The book.
• My book.
• Three cars.
• All friends.
• No money.
• That side-effect.
• Kim’s lover.
Determiners can be classified into three types:
1) Pre-determiner: The
2) Central: A, one, this, possessives, some, any, every, each, no, either, much, less,
enough…
3) Post-determiners: The ones that occur with the central one,
3.3.1- ARTICLES AND TYPES OF REFERENCE.
INDEFINITE REFERENCE AND THE ARTICLE A:
The indefinite article is the one that introduces a NP. NPs make reference to something, which
is the referent, that can be identified or quantified by means of determiners. These are units that
limit the reference of the NP.
When the reference is not known, we use the indefinite article “a”, and when the reference is
known or has been mentioned before, we use the definite article “the”.
DEFINITE REFERENCE AND THE ARTICLE THE
a) The clients are exceptional.
b) A client is exceptional.
3.4.- DEMONSTRATIVES.
They have some sort of meaning, indicating the distance from the entity and the
speaker.
• This: not very far / these (plural) → This horse is the winner / These horses are the
losers.
• That: a little bit far / those (plural) → That horse is the winner / Those horses are
the losers.

3.5.- THE GENITIVE CONSTRUCTION.
We have two cases:
1) Common case: Nominative / Objective.
2) Genitive: “´s”. The relationship is between the possessor and the possessed; that is,
it indicates possession. For example:
i. A man’s house is his castle.
ii. The dioxin scandal has produced Europe’s words food crisis.
iii. The paramilitary group clasped the man’s head behind his back.
3.5.1.- THE GENITIVE CONSTRUCTION AS A DETERMINER.

As a type of central determiner, although they are realized by NPS, they maintain an
exclusive relationship; that is, a complementary distribution. Foe example:
a) His book / *The his book.
b) My friend’s book / *A my friend’s book.
The use of the alternative structure “of” is the same in function, but it is used depending on
the focus of attention. For example:
3.5.2.- THE GENITIVE CONSTRUCTION AS A MODIFIER.
The genitive construction functions as if it were real adjectives. But we cannot use the “of-
construction” for this type of sentences:
a) Wellesley College is not a coeducational institution, but a women’s institution.
b) My daughter will attend a women’s university.
c) *My daughter will attend a university of women.
3.5.2.- ENCLITIC CONSTRUCTION VS OF-CONSTRUCTION.
When the genitive structure functions as an adjective, you cannot separate the “´s”.
Normally, the head of the subordinate NP is an animate being (living being).
a) The breaking of the table / *The table’s breaking.
b) The syntax of French / *French’s syntax.
If the NP is too complex, it is better to use the “of-construction” (COMPLEXITY).
a) The daughters of the King of Spain.
b) The luggage of the man who missed the train.
It all depends on the focus of information within the communicative situation.
a) The explosion damaged the ship’s funnel.
b) Having looked at all the funnels, she considered that the most handsome was the
funnel of the Orion.

4.- THE VP.
4.1.- TYPOLOGIES OF VERBS
Depending on the point of view, verbs can be classified in different categories:
VERBS ACCORDING TO THEIR GRAMMATICAL IMPORTANCE:
1. Lexical verbs: The verbs that indicates the lexico-semantic meaning of the sentence.
2. Auxiliary verbs: The verbs that help other verbs.
NICE properties of auxiliaries:
− NEGATION: The negation cannot be placed right after lexical verbs, but after the
auxiliary verb.
1) *Some people think not about AIDS.
2) *Some people thinkn’t about AIDS.
3) Some people do not / don’t think about AIDS.
− INVERSION: Lexical verbs cannot exchange the position of the subject when there is
a question.
1) Mohammed VI pardons many prisoners.
2) *Pardons Mohammed VI many prisoners?
− CODE: Auxiliary verbs can have a proform function.
1) *She mixes sex and love and so mixes he.
2) She mixes sex and love and so does he.
− EMPHATIC AFFIRMATION: Lexical verbs cannot exchange the position of the
subject when there is a question.
1) - Teenagers learn little about sex at school.
+ *Oh yes, they ‘learn about sex.
2) - Teenagers learn little about sex at school.
+ Oh yes, they ‘do learn.
These are the exclusive properties of the auxiliary verbs, but there are two exceptions: BE
and HAVE. They do not have these properties even if they function as lexical verbs. They
behave as if they were auxiliary verbs.
OPERATOR:
When there are more than 1 auxiliary verb, the first auxiliary verbs is the operator, which
obeys the NICE properties.
a) He has been talking about his expectations.
b) Al danger could have been averted.

VERBS ACCORDING TO THEIR CAPACITY/QUALITY OF COMPLEMENTATION.
1) INTRANSITIVE VERBS: Verbs that do not require any element to be completed
because they are autonomous.
2) TRANSITIVE VERBS: Verbs that need another element to be completed because they
require an object and do not have co-reference relationship with the subject.
a. Monotransitive: The verb requires just 1 object. E.g.: I couldn’t FIND the key.
b. Ditransitive: The verb requires 2 objects. E.g.: They can REFUSE me nothing
/ She REMINDED me OF the meeting.
c. Complex transitive: Very similar to ditransitive verb, it a verb that also requires
2 elements but requires 1 object and 1 complement referring back to the
object (SVOC). E.g.: I CONSIDER him a fool / They TOOK him FOR a famous
singer.
d. Adjunctive transitive: A verb that also requires 2 completing structures, but
1 object and 1 adverbial (SVOA). E.g.: She PUT Her books on my desk.
3) COPULATIVE VERBS: A verb whose word that completes it is linked to the subject
(SVC). E.g.: He LOOKS tired / That AMOUNTS TO a refusal
4) ADJUNCTIVE VERBS: A verb that the only thing it requires is an adjunct. E.g.: She
LIVES in Paris / He LANDED UP in jail.
CLASSIFICATION OF VERBS ACCORDING TO THEIR PERMISSION OF
PROGRESSIVE AND IMPERATIVE STRUCTURES
1) STATIVE VERBS: A verb that reject progressive and imperative structures.
For example:
a. *She is knowing the lesson.
b. *Know the lesson.
c. *I am guessing that she is interested in you.
d. *Guess that she is interested in you.
2) DYNAMIC VERBS: A verb that admit progressive and imperative structures.
For example:
a. She is learning the lesson.
b. Learn the lesson.
c. I am speaking now.
d. Speak now.
VERBS ACCORDING TO THEIR MORPHOLOGY.
1) REGULAR VERBS: Forms that regularly derived from the base. E.g.: play – played.
2) IRREGULAR VERBS: Forms that irregularly derived from the base. E.g.: break –
broke.
TIME VS TENSE:
Time is a philosophical concept, while tense is a grammatical concept, related with the
category verb. Tense tries to reflect the temporal boundaries or past, present and future by
connecting a series of events with the present moment it relates to (deictic).
a) She raised her hand.
b) I raise my hand.
c) He raises his hand.
English does not have a future tense. Instead, English has modal auxiliary verbs to express
the future (shall, will, periphrasis…).
a) *I lovell.
b) Oil will float on water.
SEMANTIC NUANCES OF TENSES:
Sometimes, tenses may be delusive. For example:
a) Genetic plays an important role in cancer.
b) Columbus discovers America in 1492.
c) If I were you, I would not do it.
d) I wonder if you can lend me 10€.
PRESENT TENSE FORM:
− Habitual present: There are present forms that do not refer to the present, but habits.
E.g.: He smokes after each meal / She goes to Paris every week.
− State present: There are present forms that imply something stable and universal.
E.g.: An apple a day keeps the doctor away / Spain borders on France.
− Performative present: Present form that is used with verbs such as beg, promise and
declare. It is an action that starts once it is uttered.
E.g.: I beg your pardon / I promise to be back at ten / I declare this international
conference closed.
− The present is also used in stage directions in fictions.
E.g.: You will have to speak French if you work for Société Générale.

PAST TENSE FORM:
Normally, we use the past tense form to go back to a past event. However. The past tense form
does not alone indicate past moments. It can indicate as well:
− Conditionals that refer to the future: If the US government restricted access to guns,
there would be less violence in the States.
− Hypothetical past: Form that reflects a hypothetical/impossible situation.
E.g.: I wish you were here / It is time we had a holiday.
− Attitudinal past: Form that implies politeness in the speaker’s attitude.
E.g.: I wondered if you could lend me 10€.
− When we reproduce the exact words with direct speech, the verbal forms are all the
same, but when we use the reported speech, we are forced to change all the forms. For
example:
o “I have no idea what the time is”, his mother said.
o His mother said that she had no idea what the time was.
4.2.- ASPECT.
Aspect is the different ways of viewing the internal temporal constituent of a situation. In
English, there are two aspects:
1) PERFECT ASPECT: Made by the operator have + lexical verb in past participle.
There are two structures:
a. Present perfect structure (have): It indicates that something that happened in
the past has consequences in the present moment. For example:
i. So far sex education at school has failed.
ii. Has Monica Lewinsky appeared on TV before now?
b. Past perfect structure (had): It indicates a situation in the past that is previous
to another situation in the past. For example:
i. Since he had taken a lot of drugs.
ii. After he had had his cup of coffee, he left.
2) PROGRESSIVE ASPECT: It indicates that the situation continues at the time and
during the moment. E.g.: Some people say that, for obvious reasons, Hillary Clinton
is drifting away from her husband. Nevertheless, sometimes it can indicate much more
than that:

− Simultaneity between 2 succeeding actions. E.g.: While NATO was bombing
Belgrade, Milosevic’s son, Marko Milosevic, was cutting the ribbon of an
amusement park he had built.
− Background of another action. E.g.: I was shaving when the phone rang.
− Express arrogance with always between the operator and gerund. E.g.: He was
always spitting.
4.3.- SEMANTIC FEATURES OF MODAL AUXILIARIES.

1) Epistemic: They indicate judgement of what is or it is not likely to happen. For
example:
o That must be my wife.
o That will be my wife.
o That may be my wife.
2) Deontic: They indicate obligation (must), willingness (will) and permission (may)
given by the speaker. Basically, it implicates human control over events. For example:
o You must be more careful.
o Who will type the letter for me?
o You may smoke if you wish.
3) Dynamic: They predicates/says something about the subject of the sentence. The
only auxiliary verb that can be dynamic is can. For example:
o John can run then miles with ease.
5.- THE AdjP.
5.1.- THE CONSTITUENTS OF AN ADJP.
5.2.- SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS OF ADJECTIVES.

1) Attributive functioning: Prenominal position. E.g.: The big boat was sinking.
2) Predicative functioning: The adjective as a sentence element. It occupies the
predicative position. E.g.: She made me happy.
3) Postpositive functioning: An adjective that appears right after the head of the NP and
postmodifies it. E.g.: He is the man answerable for this.

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2º Grado en Estudios Ingleses

Reservados todos los derechos.

1.- WHAT IS MORPHOLOGY?

2.- MORPHEME VS. MORPH.

si lees esto me debes un besito

3.- THE WORD “WORD”.

4.- WORD-FORMATION PROCESSES.

si lees esto me debes un besito

si lees esto me debes un besito

4.7.- CONVERSION OR ZERO DERIVATION.

e) Cough NOUN  Cough VERB

a) Agriculture (ager, agr- “field” + cultura “growing, cultivation”).

si lees esto me debes un besito

1.- SENTENCE. CLAUSE. PHRASE.

si lees esto me debes un besito

si lees esto me debes un besito

a) Sadam Hussein and Fidel Castro are dictators.

a) We found him a crooked politician.

si lees esto me debes un besito

1.3.- COMPLEX VS SIMPLE SENTENCES. CLAUSE AND PHRASE.

2.- BASIC SENTENCE PATTERNS.

si lees esto me debes un besito

3.2.1.- NOUN TYPOLOGIES.

si lees esto me debes un besito

si lees esto me debes un besito

3.5.1.- THE GENITIVE CONSTRUCTION AS A DETERMINER.

si lees esto me debes un besito

VERBS ACCORDING TO THEIR GRAMMATICAL IMPORTANCE:

si lees esto me debes un besito

si lees esto me debes un besito

si lees esto me debes un besito

4.3.- SEMANTIC FEATURES OF MODAL AUXILIARIES.

5.2.- SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS OF ADJECTIVES.

si lees esto me debes un besito

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