Structure of English

phonology focuses on
speech sounds, and

Phonology

Pragmatics
Morphology
involves using Pragmatics Morphology
studies word
language in
structure.
social contexts.

Syntax Semantics

syntax deals with Semantics refers

sentence structure and to the meaning
word order of words.
 Phonology

Phonemes-
smallest unit of
sounds.
 Morpheme – the smallest unit of meaning in a word.
 Free morpheme – a morpheme that can stand alone as a word (e.g. "book").
 Bound morpheme – a morpheme that cannot stand alone as a word, but must be attached to a
free morpheme (e.g. "-s" in "books"). • Lexical morphemes carry the main meaning of a
word (e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs).
• Functional morphemes do not carry the content of a
message, but rather help the grammar of the sentence
function (e.g. conjunctions, prepositions, articles,
pronouns, auxiliary verbs, modals and quantifiers).
• Derivational morphemes transform words into
different grammatical categories from the root word
(e.g. bake (verb), add bound morpheme ‘er’, becomes
baker (noun)).
• Inflectional morphemes do not change the basic
meaning of a word, but instead indicate grammatical
information such as tense, number, gender, or case.

Eight (8) Inflectional Affixes

-s noun plural (flowers)
-'s noun possessive (girl’s, girls’)
-s verb present tense singular (runs)
-ing verb present participle/gerund (dancing)
-ed verb simple past tense (jumped)
-en verb past perfect participle (eaten)
-er adjective comparative (sooner)
-est adjective superlative (soonest)
Syntax
• Two Main Types of Clauses
•
1. Independent clauses: An independent clause is a clause that can stand alone as a
sentence. It expresses a complete thought and contains both a subject and a predicate.
•
 The sun was shining brightly in the sky.
 She went to the store to buy some milk.
1. Dependent clauses: A dependent clause, also known as a subordinate clause, is a clause
that cannot stand alone as a sentence. It depends on an independent clause to complete
its meaning.
 When I finish my work, I'll go for a run.
 Because it was raining, we decided to stay home.
Syntax
• Classifications of Sentences Based on Structure
•
1. Simple Sentence: A simple sentence contains one independent clause and expresses a complete thought. It consists of a subject and a
predicate.
 The flowers bloomed.
 The dog barked.
•
1. Compound Sentence: A compound sentence contains two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction.
•
 I love reading books, and my sister loves watching movies.
 She laughed, but he cried.
•
1. Complex Sentence: A complex sentence contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
 After I finish my work, I will go to the gym.
• dependent clause independent clause
•
 Although it was raining, they decided to go for a walk.
• Dependent clause independent clause
•
1. Compound-Complex Sentence: A compound-complex sentence contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.
 Although she was tired, she stayed up late to finish her project, and she was happy with the result. (dependent clause + independent clause +
independent clause)

 Emily sang a song, and Tom played the guitar, while the audience cheered. (independent clause + independent clause + dependent clause)