Text as a unit of

Syntax
Morhology and
Syntax
Ma. Mickaela Mirasol M. Dimaano
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 Table of
Contents! 4. Cohesion

1. Suprasegmental
units 5. Coherence

2. Sentence Roles
6. Modality
3. Theme & Rheme
 01
SUPRA
SEGMENTAL
UNITS
Introduction

the supra-segmental
units: stress,
intonation, and rhythm 
–also known as the
prosodic elements of
language, force,
melody, and tempo. 
 The best starting point for these
prosodic units is precisely the fact
that we consider
them phonological units of the
language, thus give them the status
of “phonemes” too in the sense that
they also, as well as the segmental
units or sounds, are distinctive i.e.
they can affect communication.

2
itle. P5
Book T
 ● Stress is the relative emphasis that may be
given to certain syllables in a word (word
stress) or in a sentence (sentence stress). The
term is also used for similar patterns of
phonetic prominence inside syllables. The
word accent is sometimes also used with this
sense; although in ELT we prefer to leave that
term to make reference to a more general use
of prosody involving all supra-segmental
units.
The ways stress manifests itself in the speech
stream are highly language dependent. In
some languages, stressed syllables have a
higher or lower pitch than non-stressed
syllables — so-called pitch accent (or musical
accent) in most oriental languages. In other
languages, they may bear either higher or
lower pitch than surrounding syllables
depending on the sentence type. There are
also dynamic stress languages (loudness),
qualitative accent or stress (full vowels), and
quantitative accent or stress (length) as
English and Spanish.

STRES
 PL
EXAM
STRESS ES
• Two syllable words are usually stressed on the first
syllable. In French for example the tendency is
towards the last syllable. • In English sentences, in normal utterances
where there is no other emotive intention or
E.g., never, Tuesday, dinner, pencil subliminal message, the words that carry
• Compound verbs are usually stressed on the second sentence stress are only content
syllable. words (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs,
pronouns and interjections)
E.g., understand, overlook, outrun, undertake whereas function words (articles and
• Compound nouns are usually stressed on the first determiners in general, prepositions, and
syllable. conjunctions) usually go unstressed forming
an accentual cluster around the stressed
content words.
E.g., drugstore, textbook, weatherman, newspaper E.g. I need to see your parents today.
• For words that have “converted” from nouns to • Finally, for the same above mentioned rule,
verbs or vise versa, nouns are stressed on the first any alteration of the “normal” sentence
syllable and verbs on the second (accentual stress distribution will change the intended
conversion) “meaning” of the message in question.
E.g.  I need to see your parents today. (normal)
E.g., conduct (N), conduct (V)         I need to see your parents today. (not
– contrast (N), contrast (V) the principal, but I)
– progress (N), progress (V)        I need to seeyour parents today. (not
The most important rule, however, is the one that Susan’s)
affects the sentence stress pattern because it is        I need to see your parents today. (not
the one that will influence the rest of the supra- tomorrow)
segmental units in speech.
 INTONATIO
N EXAM
The classic example of intonation is the question-
Intonation is the variation of pitch when speaking.
Intonation and sentence stress are two main
very interrelated prosodic elements in the
phonological system of a language, since the
way to intone is precisely through the
emphasis of stressing.
The two most common patterns of intonation in
English are rising intonation and falling
intonation. Rising Intonation means that
the pitch of the voice increases toward the
end of the utterance; falling intonation
means that the pitch decreases toward the
end of the utterance.
PLE
statement distinction. For example, American
English, as many other languages has a rising
intonation for echo or declarative questions (He
found it on the street?), and a falling
intonation for wh- questions (Where did he find
it?) and statements (He found it on the
street.). Yes or no questions (Did he find it on
the street?) often have a rising end, but not
always.
These patterns, especially the rising intonation
for yes/no questions is generally present in
most languages, since the rising of the
melody indicates an expectation for
corroboration, but even in the case of the
infrequent pattern of rising-falling as in most
English statements, just by drawing a line that
illustrates the “music” of the sentence in
question and the modeling of the teacher would
be enough for students to recognize it.
 RHYTHM
● Rhythm involves patterns of duration that are
present in speech - as well as in music- perceived
by intervals. A rhythmic unit is a durational
pattern which occupies a period of time equivalent
to a pulse or pulses on an underlying metric level;
thus languages are classified according to
the tempo of their rhythmic metric level. Some
languages are intonation languages as French and
English where the pitch is very uneven because it is
based on the fluctuation of stressed and unstressed
syllables (schwa), while others as Spanish have a
more even melody since all vowels are open, tense,
and clearly uttered.
 02
THEME &
RHEME
THEME
DEFINITION
is defined by Halliday (1994: 38) as:
what the message is concerned with:
the point of departure for
what the speaker is going to
say

EXAMPLE
THEME
•   The man told me where to go
The theme is The man because
RHEME that is what the sentence is all
about.
•     My house in London is
valuable but not for sale
The theme is My house in
London.
THEME
We should not, however, confuse theme with subject, which is a grammatical rather than a communicative category, or agent, which
is a different grammatical category present in passive expressions, because, for example:
• in a sentence such as:
    Yesterday afternoon, we went to the park
The theme is Yesterday afternoon, because, in communicative terms, that is what the speaker is talking about.  It is not,
however, the grammatical subject but an adverbial noun phrase.  The subject is we but that does not occur as the theme
because it is actually part of the rheme.
• in a sentence such as:
    Spending time at the zoo is just what the children like best
The theme is Spending time at the zoo which is also the grammatical subject but formed by nominalising a non-finite verb
phrase.
• in a sentence such as:
    Because it was raining, we stayed in and watched TV
The theme is Because it was raining and that is a clause in itself and not the subject of anything.  It is, however, also a
subordinate clause which cannot stand alone and make sense.
• In a sentence such as:
    The grass is kept short by the sheep
The theme is The grass which is a noun subject but not the agent (it is the patient in a passive sentence).
• in a sentence such as:
    
 DEFINITION
RHEME everything else that follows in the
sentence which consists of what
the speaker states about, or in
regard to, the starting point of
the utterance
(Brown and Yule, 1983:
126/127)

EXAMPLE
•   The term rheme is another communicative category, not a
grammatical one.  The grammatical term with which it is
sometimes confused is predicate which is defined as the part of
the sentence which says something about the subject.  So, for
THEME example the underlined parts of these sentences are the
predicates:
    Yesterday, Paul went for a walk
RHEME     Surprisingly, she refused the job
because they tell us about the subject of the sentence.  However,
seen communicatively, the rhemes of these sentences are:
    Paul went for a walk
and
    she refused the job
 03
COHERENCE &
COHESION
 COHEREN
CE
Coherence mainly deals
with logic and appropriate
with logic and appropriate
organization of the
sentences to form
meaningful and
understandable content.
COHESIO
N
Coherence mainly deals
Cohesion is just
Cohesion focuses more on the individual parts that are
organization of the lexical syntax and grammar
collected together and are
sentences to form in sentence formation. stick together for
meaningful and
representation.
understandable content.

Cohesion is the writer’s

Coherence is the attribute
attribute and which is
that is decided by the end-
brought by using different
user or reader, which
techniques like repeated
determines whether the
words/ideas, reference
content seems meaningful,
words, transition signals,
understanding and useful.
substitution, etc.
 COHEREN COHESIO
CE N
Coherence mainly deals
withCoherence
logic and appropriate Cohesion is a measurable
is not a property that can be It is observable as it is dealt
organization of theand
measurable property It is abstract as it deals with
sentences measured by checking the with the actual written
very hard totoachieve.
form the ideas. lexical syntaxes and content.
meaningful and
understandable content. grammar rules.

Coherence is a qualitative Cohesion is a quantitative

property. property.
 CONCLUSION
(COHERENCE &
COHESION)
Cohesion and coherence are the two properties used in discourse analysis and text
linguistics to determine the quality of the article or any content written. Cohesion
means sticking together different sentences, phrases, and paragraphs with each
other. Cohesion is completely in the hands of the writer and can be improved by
using different techniques. Coherence is the property determined by the reader,
which tells the understandability of the article and whether the idea is being
conveyed to the reader appropriately. It determines the quality of the content.
Cohesion is a subset of coherence. Hence, whenever cohesion is achieved, we
can’t say the coherence is achieved or not, but if coherence is achieved, then the
content is cohesive too for sure.
 04
MODALITY
 MODALITY
In grammar and semantics, modality refers to linguistic devices that
indicate the degree to which an observation is possible, probable, likely,
certain, permitted, or prohibited. In English, these notions are
commonly (though not exclusively) expressed by modal auxiliaries, such
as can, might, should, and will. They are sometimes combined with not.

Martin J. Endley suggests that "the simplest way to

explain modality is to say that it has to do with the stance the speaker
adopts toward some situation expressed in an utterance...[M]odality
reflects the speaker's attitude toward the situation being described"
("Linguistic Perspectives on English Grammar," 2010).
 TYPES OF
MODALITY
Epistemic modality
Root modality
"Modality is concerned with the speaker's assessment of, or
attitude towards, the potentiality of a state of affairs.
Modality, therefore, relates to different worlds. Modal attitudes apply to the world of things and social
Assessments of potentiality, as in You must be right, relate interaction. 
to the world of knowledge and reasoning. Root modality comprises three subtypes: deontic
modality, intrinsic modality and disposition
modality. Deontic modality is concerned with the
speaker's directive attitude towards an action to be
carried out, as in the obligation You must go
now. Intrinsic modality is concerned with potentialities
arising from intrinsic qualities of a thing or
circumstances, as in The meeting can be canceled, i.e. 'it
is possible for the meeting to be canceled.' Disposition
modality is concerned with a thing's or a person's
intrinsic potential of being actualised; in particular
abilities. 
THANK
YOU!