JMJ Marist Brothers

Notre Dame of Marbel University

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

COURSEPACK
in:
ENGL 103
INTENSIVE GRAMMAR AND
COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Jireh Clarisse T. Salomsom

JMJ Marists Brothers

Notre Dame of Marbel University
College of Arts and Sciences 1|Engl 103
LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT
 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

Lesson 2: Components of Grammar

Presenting the Matter

Learning grammar is a tough yet enjoyable subject. This time,

let us discover the beauty and wonders of English grammar.

Jotting Down Targets:

After working on this module, you should be able to:

1. define and explain the different components of

grammar and their relevance in written and oral discourse;
and

2. describe how words are arranged in sentences to come up

with acceptable meanings.

3. Recognize the different sounds and symbols .

Kicking it Off

Answer the following questions and explain briefly your answers.

1. Does syntax mean exactly the same as

grammar?
2. How are phonology and phonetics related?
3. In studying and applying grammar, do you think
its components are interactive?

2|Engl 103
 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

Processing the Matter

THE COMPONENTS OF GRAMMAR

1. SYNTAX
Knowledge of grammar includes how one arranges words in
sentences (rules of syntax) in patterns recognized as English. But
there is more to syntax than word order. Syntax also interacts with other
components of the linguistic system.

Ex: The flonkish warziles blorked six yerkons.

(Q1: How do we categorize the words under “parts of speech”?)

(Q2: How do we divide the sentence into its two main parts/phrases?)

Answer to Q1:

Determiner: The

Adjective: flonkish, six

Noun: warziles, yerkons

verb: blorked

Answer to Q2:

The flonkish warziles/ blorked six yerkons.

The 1st phrase is a Noun Phrase (the head or main word “warziles” is a
noun); the 2nd phrase is a Verb Phrase (the head or main word “blorked” is a
verb).

The NP (Noun Phrase) may be labeled as SUBJECT, the VP (Verb

Phrase) as PREDICATE.
The VP could be even be divided into verb (blorked) and
complement (six yerkons).

3|Engl 103
 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

Note: The phrases that follow verbs to complete their meaning are called
complements.

2. MORPHOLOGY
Morphology is the study of words, how they are formed (word
structure), and their relationship to other words in the same language.
Further, it analyzes the structure of words, such as root words, prefixes, and
suffixes. The two branches of morphology are inflectional morphology and
lexical or derivational morphology.

warziles and yerkons end in plural –s and blorked ends in –ed, a

suffix found on verbs but not nouns. The adjective flonkish ends in
-ish, an ending found on other adjectives (pinkish, childish). Suffixation and
prefixation is one way to build words.

Parts of words are called morphemes.

As defined by Webster’s, a morpheme is any of the minimal

grammatical units of a language, each constituting a word meaningful part
of a word, that cannot be divided into smaller independent grammatical
parts.
Q: How many and what are the morphemes of “resealable” and
“resealed”

Answers:
Resealable: 3 morphemes ( re: a prefix; seal: the root or main word;
-able: a suffix)

Resealed: 3 morphemes (re: a prefix; seal: the root or main word; -ed: a
suffix indicating past form

Prefixes and suffixes are affixes; morphemes attach to words or

roots of words (and some languages have infixes, affixes that occur within
words, or circumfixes, affixes that attach to the beginning and end of a
word).

4|Engl 103
 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

There are two types of affixation: derivational and inflectional. The

morphemes re- and –able are derivational affixes because adding them
derives a new word or dictionary entry (reseal, sealable, resealable).
Inflectional affixes don’t create new words, but attach to existing words,
adding grammatical information (e.g., the plural –s, the comparative –er).
It is noted that, for instance, only rat and cold, but not rats and colder,
have dictionary entries.

Some English derivational affixes:

Nouns (-ity, -ment, -ion, ex-)
Verbs (-ize, -ate, -ify, en-, dis-)
Adjectives (-ly, -ish, -ful, non-
Adverbs (-ly, -wise, -like)

English inflectional affixes (exactly 8 of them):

Nouns (possessive –s, plural –s)
Verbs (3rd sing. –s, past tense –ed, pres. participle –ing, past
participle –ed/en)
Adjectives (comparative –er, superlative –est)

Other word formation rules (applicable only to lexical categories ---noun,

verb, adjective, adverb)

• COINING- inventing words not related to other words (bling, quiz)

• COMPOUNDING- two or more words behaving as one word (backlash,

bailout, Facebook, undertake, voiceover)

• BLENDING- telescoping two words together (brunch, spork)

• CONVERSION- assigning one word more than one syntactic category

(father, tweet, email)

• ACRONYMS- words from abbreviations (WAC, ROTC)

• EPONYMS- words from names, often brand names (xerox, kleenex,

google)

5|Engl 103
 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

3. SEMANTICS
Semantics is the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with
meaning. It is the study and analysis of how language is used to produce
meaning.

Grammatical knowledge does not only rely on syntactic and

morphological evidences but also includes rules by which meanings of
words and sentences are constructed and understood.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

This sentence is recognized to be syntactically and morphologically

grammatical (the words are all English words, arranged in English word
order), but it is anomalous or nonsensical.

Thus, (a) grammatical knowledge includes knowledge of how to

construct meaning from words and sentences and (b) the component of
grammar that governs meaning is in certain ways separate from other
components of grammar. So, just as one can study syntax and morphology
as separate (but interacting) components of grammar, one can also study
semantics as a separate component of our knowledge of grammar, one
which overlaps with syntax and morphology.

4. PHONOLOGY and PHONETICS

Phonology is the system of rules used to combine sounds, or

phonemes, together to form syllables, words, and larger units; study of the
sound patterns that occur within the language. Some linguists include
phonetics, the study of the production and description of speech sounds,
within the study of phonology.

Phonetics is the inventory of sounds in a language; the study of

speech sounds and their physiological production and acoustic qualities;
the study of the anatomy, physiology, neurology, and acoustics of speaking.
According to Ladefoged (n.d.), phonetics deals with the configuration of the
vocal tract used to produce speech sounds (articulatory phonetics), the
acoustic properties of speech sounds (acoustic phonetics), and the manner

6|Engl 103
 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

of combining sounds so as to make syllables, words, and sentences

(linguistic phonetics).

Phonetics and phonology interact with other components of grammar

as well. Adding a suffix to a word, for example, can change its pronunciation
(serene/ serenity; school/ scholarly).
Cats, desks (s is sounded as /s/); dogs, cars (s is sounded as /z/ because
of a phonological rule called voicing assimilation.

An example of how phonology interacts with syntax: change in

pronunciation of sequences of words such as I am to I’m, and going to to
gonna (phonological contraction).

I am going to go to the party.

I’m gonna go to the party.

You are going to go to the party and I am too.

*You are going to go to the party and I’m too.

I am going to the store.

*I am gonna the store.

Note: *Syntactically (and semantically) anomalous.

7|Engl 103
 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

REFERENCES:

Tallerman, M. Understanding syntax 3rd Ed. U.K.: Hodder Education.

Odden, D. (2013). Introducing phonology 2nd Ed. U.S.A.: Cambridge University

Press.

Meyer, C.F. Introducing English linguistics. (2009). U.S.A.: Cambridge University

Press.

8|Engl 103
 JMJ Marist Brothers
Notre Dame of Marbel University
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato

9|Engl 103