Structures of

English
ELT 122
 Learning Objectives:
• Discuss how the words are form;
• It's mechanism and process;
• Reflect on how words and meaning
changes when used varied context
Grammatical
Categories
 Determiners
A word placed before a noun to
provide information such as
specificity, quantity, and ownership;
tell if the reference is specific or
nonspecific.
Types of determiners:
1. Articles
2. Possessive Pronoun
3. Relative Pronoun
4. Demonstratives
5. Indefinite Pronoun
6. Cardinal Numbers
7. Ordinal Numbers
8. Possessive Proper Nouns
1. ARTICLES (a, an, the)
Indefinite Definite
a, an the
nonspecific specific
eg:
An apple The moon
A painter The moon looks beautiful tonight.
Jesse ate an apple.
She is a painter.
 2. POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
(my, our, your, his, her, its, their...)
eg:
Penelope brought her cat to vet.

3. RELATIVE PRONOUNS
(whose, which, whichever, whatever, what)
eg:
What is your name?
Whose turn is to wash the dishes?
I wonder which hand he broke.
 4. DEMONSTRATIVES
(this, that, those, these) Singular: This & That
Plural: These & Those
eg: This is my book.
That is my book.
These are my books.
Those are my books.

5. INDIFINITE PRONOUNS
(any, each, few, other, some...)
example: Some students in the class are refusing to
do their homework.
6. CARDINAL NUMBERS
(one, two, three, four, five...)
eg:
I'm close with my four siblings.

7. ORDINAL NUMBERS
(first, second, third, fourth...)
eg:
Your sixth birthday.

8. POSSESSIVE PROPER NOUNS

(Bob's, Sarah's, America's...)
eg:
Bob's and Sarah's parent.
Auxiliary VERBS / Helping verbs
Used before action or linking verbs to
convey additional information regarding
aspects of: Possibility (can, could, etc.) or;
Time (was, did, has, etc.)
Main verb with its accompanying helping
verb is called: Verb Phrase
 eg:
The ball was thrown swiftly.
was - auxiliary verb
thrown - main verb

The following words called modals, always

function as helping verbs:
can will shall must may

could might ought to should would

In addition, the following forms of the verbs to be,
to do, and to have sometimes serves as helping
verbs:
am be being do had have was

are been did does has is were

examples:
HELPING: Jana is moving to a new house.
LINKING: Jana is ready to go.
HELPING: Dustin did eat his vegetable!
ACTION: Dustin did his homework last night.
 CoordinatorS
&
subordinators
Coordinator/Subordinator
Simple sentences can be joined
together to make longer, more
complex sentences by using
coordinating conjunctions and
subordinating conjunctions.
 A word or a type of punctuation
Conjunctions - that is used to connect
sentences.
A part of sentences that have both a
Clauses -
subject and a verb.

2 types of Clauses:
Independent Clause
Dependent Clause
THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO JOIN INDEPENDENT
CLAUSES:
1. The use of FANBOYS,
which are coordinating conjunctions.
(for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
eg: The dog is exhausted, so he went to sleep
immediately.
2. Use a SEMICOLON.
It functions as a sort of chain link to join two
independent clauses.
eg: The dog is exhausted; he went to sleep
immediately.
3. Conjunctive Adverbs.
They are the words that designates to join
independent clauses. You can use a conjunctive
adverb with a period or semicolon before and a
comma after it.
The dog is exhausted; therefore, it went to sleep
eg: immediately.
The dog is exhausted. Therefore, it went to sleep
immediately.

(also, besides, hence, therefore, etc.)

3 types of Criteria:
Distributional: Where does it occur?
eg: I was happy to _____

Morphological: What form can it have?

eg: Some officials *Our official policies
I escaped. *The escape went badly.
Functional: What work does it perform?
eg: He always comes late.
SOME WAYS TO INDENTIFY WORD
CLASSES:
Notional definitions (insufficient)
- A noun is the name of a person, place of thing.
- A verb expresses an action, process or state
- An adjective is a describing word which modifies a noun.

Compare
- They are fools
- They are foolish
Modifications by Degree Adverb vs Adjective
eg:
They are utter fools
They are very fools
They are utter foolish
They are very foolish
SYNTAX OF THE MAJOR WORD CLASSES
THE VERB PHRASE
Intransitive verb - do not need an object to
make sense they have meaning on their own
eg: Lee sneezed.
The volcano erupted.

Transitive verb - when the action of the verb

passes from the subject to the direct object.
eg: Carl rejected my generous assistance.
Kim avoided the man who'd shouted at her.
(continuation...)

Ditransitive verbs - take an indirect object and

a direct object
eg: Lee handed the letter to Kim.
Lee handed Kim the letter.

THE NOUN PHRASE

Noun and the closed class on determiners
eg: THE paper, A problem, THOSE feelings, WHICH
car, BOTH children
(continuation...)

Determiners only occur with noun:

eg: Her singing bothers me.

Determiners have a different distribution from

adjectives. Crosslinguistically, determiners are
typically either initial or a final in the noun phrase.
Determiners often AGREE with various properties of the
noun they co-occur with:
Noun phrase most typically function as arguments to
predicates.
Subjects controls subject-verb agreement in English.
(continuation...)
Subject pronoun occurs in nominative case in English;
whereas object occur in accusative case.

Nominative pronouns - The naming case; used for

subjects. (I, you, he, she, it, we, they)

Accusative pronouns - The direct object case; used to

indicate direct receivers of an action. (Me, you, him, her, it,
us, them)

Genitive pronouns- The possession case; used to indicate

ownership. (My, your, his, her, its, our, their)
THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE
Adjective in the closed class of degree modifier
Position and function of Adjective phrase.
Predicative adjective function as predicates.
eg: He felt _____
I find it _____
She is/seemed _____

THE PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE

Prepositions can occur transitively and intransitively
eg. under the table, beside the road, for Judy
They can also occur Intransitively
eg: The student was here before
Put your clothes underneath

Prepositions pair up with their own modifiers

eg:
She put the book right on the table
The weight is well inside the limit

Some traditional 'adverbs' occurs with 'right' and

are thus prepositions:
eg:
She lives right the upstairs/downstring
The plain flew right overhead
Traditional verbal 'participles' are also prepositions:
eg: Put the chocolates right back

Adpositions function to mark grammatical relations:

eg: I gave the book to john ( to = indirect object)

Prepositional phrase function as locatives (time and

space)
eg: I walked to the sea
I arrived after 4 o'clock
 Prepositional phrase can function as a manner
eg: He walks with the limp
He talked in a loud voice

ADVERBS
Form = Adjective + ly ending

Adjectives and adverbs are in complementary

distribution
Linguists thus consider as adverbs and adjectives as
subclasses of the same word class: 'adjectives'
Share modifier:
eg:
He is very happy
He worked very happily
He is mesirable as Kim.
He draws as mesirably as Kim.

Comparative suffix (-er) and superlative suffix (-est)

can occur on both:
eg: Nice, nicer, nicest, Soon, sooner, soonest
Phrase
 Phrase
It is two or more related words that
do not contain the subject-verb pair
necessary to form a clause.
- it can be short or quite long
Phrases have specific names based on
the type of word that begins or word
group: (noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase,
infinitive phrase, participle phrase, gerund
phrase, and absolute phrase.)
INFINITIVE PHRASE
It will begin with an infinitive (TO + SIMPLE
FORM OF THE VERB). It will often include
objects and/or modifiers that complete the
thought.
this is the pattern:

Infinitive + Object(s) and/or Modifier(s)

eg:
To slurp spaghetti

INFINITIVE
PARTICIPLE PHRASE
A participle phrase will begin with a present or
past participle. If the participle is present, it
will dependably end in ING.
this is the pattern:
Participle + Object(s) and/or Modifier(s)
eg:
Flexing his muscles in front of the bathroom mirror

PARTICIPLE
 GERUND PHRASE
A gerund phrase will begin with a gerund, an ING
word, and will often include other modifiers
and/or objects.
this is the pattern:

Gerund + Object(s) and/or Modifier(s)

Gerund phrases are formed exactly like present
participle phrases.

To tell the difference, we must determine the

function of the phrase.
 (continuation...)

Gerund phrases always function as nouns, so

they will be subjects, subject complements, or
objects in the sentence.
eg: Washing our dog Gizmo requires strong arms to
keep the squirming, unhappy puppy in the tub.

Washing our dong Gizmo - subject of the verb required.

Absolute PHRASE
An absolute phrase combines a noun and a
participle with any accompanying modifiers
and/or objects.
this is the pattern:
Noun + Participle + Optional Modifier(s)
and/or Object(s)
eg: His brow knitted in frustration
(brow = noun; knitted = participle; his,
in frustration = modifiers)
 Questions?
clarification?
 well done!
Thank you for participating.
Prepared and Presented by:
Becira, Cale, Cayanong