grammar is included in both Morphology and Syntax

1. what do you think the meaning of the word ‘speaker’ is composed of?
2. can you find other words that have segment ‘er’ with a relatively stable
meaning?
- ‘er’ means one who or that which
- cooker, singer, teacher
3. if the word ‘speaker’ is divided into smaller segments, what will happen
with its meaning?
- the separate meanings of ‘speak’ and ‘er’ will be related to the
initial word ‘speaker’
4. if you are told that the word ‘speaker’ has two morphemes, namely
‘speaker’ and ‘er’, what is a morpheme?
- a meaningful unit that cannot be broken down into smaller
segments on the basis of meaning. If yes, that will violate the
meanings

UNIT 1: MORPHEME

1. Definition of morpheme
- A morpheme is a segment of language that meets three criteria:
+ It is a word or a part of word that has meaning . Eg. tell,teller
+ It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts without
violation of its meaning or without meaningless remainders.
Eg: S pea k
meaningless remainders violation of meaning

Eg. suggest has two morphemes sug (sub)- under and gest -
introduce

+ It recurs in differing verbal environment with a relatively stable

meaning

eg. brighten, lighten ,.. -> ‘en’ means make

 => A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language
=> A morpheme is the smallest unit of language with a relatively
stable meaning, It cannot be divided into smaller segments without
violation of its meaning or without meaningless remainders.

2. Classification:
- Free and bound morphemes (independent and dependent morphemes)
+ Free morpheme: can be uttered alone with meaning (a word).
Eg.work
+ Bound morpheme: cannot be uttered alone with meaning (not a
word) . Eg. er, ing, ly,..

3. Bases and Affixes

- Base: morpheme with the principal meaning

Eg. Denial - Deny is a base; al is a noun forming suffix
- Affixes: a bound morpheme that occurs before or within or after a
base. There are three kinds of affixes:
+ Prefix: a bound morpheme that occurs before a base
+ Infix: a bound morpheme that has been inserted within a
word eg. Goose - geese
+ Suffix: a bound morpheme that occurs after a base. eg.
shrinkage, failure, realise,..
4. Types of affixes
- Inflectional paradigm of a noun
+ Singular - teacher
+ Plural - teachers
+ Singular possessive - teacher’s
+ Plural possessive - teachers’
- Inflectional paradigm of a verb
+ Speak
 + Present third person singular - speaks
+ Present participle - speaking
+ Past tense - spoke
+ Past participle - spoken
- Inflectional paradigm of an adjective/adverb
+ Pretty
+ Prettier (comparative)
+ Prettiest (superlative)

5. Inflectional Affixes (grammatical) - 9 inflectional affixes

- Do not change the part of speech eg. Cold - colder
- Come last in a word (not always the case) eg. Shortened, industrialising
- Go with all stems/ bases in a given part of speech eg. eats, drinks
- Do not pile up, only one ends a word

6. Derivational affixes (lexical) - root

- Arbitrary matter (tuỳ ý) - happy + ness (n), fail +ure (n)
- May change the part of speech of the word to which it is added eg. Act +
ive = active
- Usually do not close of a word
Eg. Fertile + ise => fertilise
- It can have class-changing or class-maintaining

Mouthful

- Derivational paradigm: a string of words with the same root and ALL
derivational affixes
- The base goes with derivational affixes call ROOT
- The base goes with inflectional affixes call STEM

7. Suffixal homophones:

Find the morphemes in the following words:

 Nicer: ER- comparative
Teacher: ER- derivational affix - one who or that which
flicker (lập loè)/Shimmer (lấp lánh)/Jabber (nói lắp bắp) - ER: repeatedly

a. He was attending the meeting

=> Meeting is a derivational affix
b. He was meeting a diplomat
=> Meeting is an inflectional affix

8. Definition of morphology
- Morphology is the study of internal structure of words
- Morphology is the study of the forms of words
- Morphology is the study of word formation

9. Allomorph:
- An allomorph is a variant of a morpheme
- An allomorph is a different realisation of a morpheme
- Conditioning: 2 reasons why a morpheme changes:
+ Phonological:
● Noun plural inflectional affix
● /z/, /s/, / iz/
● /t/, /d/, /id/
● Why? - related to phonological/pronunciation problems -
easier to pronounce
+ Morphological
● Ox, oxen
● Sheep, sheep
● Be, am, is, are, was, were
● Stand, stood (past tense, past participle)
● Why? - related to some morphological conditionings
10. Types of allomorphs
a. Replacive allomorph
Deep /di:p/ => depth /dep/
b. Zero allomorph
Sheep (singular) -> sheep (plural)
c. Suppletive allomorph
Go -> went
Be -> am/is/are/was/were
d. Additive allomorph : thêm vào
Be (v) /bi:/ -> been /bi:n/
e. Subtractive allomorph : lấy ra
View /vju:/ -> vision /vi-/

Exercise: write a original morphemes and the types of the following

italicised allomorphs

1. preparation
Preparation: /ˌprep.ərˈeɪ.ʃən/
Prepare: /prɪˈpeər/
=> /ˌprep.ə/ is a morphologically conditioned replacive allomorph
of /ˌprep.ə/

2. Been /bi:n/
Be /bi:/
=> /n/ is a morphologically conditioned additive allomorph of /bi:/
3. Pressure /ˈpreʃ.ər/
Press /pres/

=> /preʃ / is a morphologically conditioned replacive allomorph of

/pres/

4. Vehicles /ˈvɪə.kəlz/
Vehicle
 /ˈvɪə.kəlz/ is a phonological conditioned additive allomorph of
/ˈvɪə.kəlz/

5. Absorbed /əbˈzɔːbd/
Absorb /əbˈzɔːb/

/əbˈzɔːbd/ is a phonological conditioned additive allomorph of /əb

ˈzɔːb/
6. Best /best/
Good /ɡʊd/

/best/ is a morphological conditioned suppletive allomorph of /ɡʊd/

7. Further /ˈfɜː.ðər/
Far /fɑːr/

/ˈfɜː/ is a morphological conditioned replacive allomorph of /fɑː/

8. Sang /sæŋ/
Sing: /sɪŋ/
=> replacive allomorph
9. Drove /drəʊv/
Drive /draɪv/

/əʊ/ is a morphological conditioned replacive allomorph of ‘/ai/

10.Practical /ˈpræk.tɪ.kəl/
Practice /ˈpræk.tɪs/

/ˈpræk.tɪ.k/ is a morphological conditioned replacive allomorph

of /ˈpræk.tɪs/
11.Read
Read

/red/ is a morphological conditioned replacive allomorph of /ri:d/

11. What are the immediate constituents (ICs)
a. Principles for IC division
- If a word ends with an inflectional suffix, the FIRST cut is between
this suffix and the rest of the word
- One of the ICs should be a free form if possible
- The meaning of the ICs should be related to the meaning of the
whole word.
- Cut the morphemes from the outermost to the innermost
- The IC division should be COMPATIBLE with the word
formation.

UNIT 2: WORD

1. 1. Definition:
The smallest segment of speech that can be used alone with meaning (free
morpheme)

2. 2. Classification:
- Examine the internal structures of the following words carefully,
and then classify them into four categories:
- Stay, supervise, cooker, outdo, intervene, go, telephone, comfort
+ One morpheme: stay, go, comfort => simple words
+ Two bound morphemes: supervise, intervene => complex
words
+ One bound + one free morpheme: cooker, telephone =>
complex words
+ free morphemes: outdo, bull’s eyes (the target)=> compound
words
3. 3. Examination of compound words
- I prefer softball
- I prefer a soft ball
- I prefer a very soft ball
4. 4.Characteristics of compound words
a. Division
- Cannot be divided by the insertion of intervening material
between the two parts without violation of its meaning, as a
whole.
Eg. i am scared of black widows (1 loài nhện độc châu phi)
b. Grammatical participation
A member of a compound word cannot participate in a
grammatical structure

c. Stress pattern
- A grammatical structure ( a modifier + a noun) has stress on
the second part whereas in a compound noun, the first part
receives stress
- Eg. ‘bluebird ( a type of bird)
‘Blue ‘bird

5. Word formation processes:

a. Coinage = invention normally in science and tech
- To coin = to invent
- Eg. Google, Pfizer (a type of vaccine), Kodak, quark, blurb, nylon
b. Borrowing: getting words from other languages
Eg. Tofu, feng sui, vietcong, sofa, bacon,..
c. Compounding: The joining of two or more words into a single word.
Eg. Youtube, mountain climber, water surfing, schoolgirl,

6. Derivation/affixation
- The forming of new words by combining derivational affixes or bound
tases with existing words.
- Eg. retake, ecosystem,..
 7. Clipping
- Cutting off the beginning or the end of a word, or both, leaving a part to
stand for the whole
- Back-clipping = aft-clipping
- Fore-clipping
- Eg. Hippo = hippopotamus
Demo = Demonstrative -> demo teaching
Intro= introductory ; intro literature
Phys Ed (PE) = physical education

8. Acronymy
- Forming a word from the initials or beginning segments of a succession
of words
- Eg. PC, Ed.D, PhD, coed
- ESL = English as a second language
- EFL = English as a foreign language
- Note: Acronyms exist in dictionaries. Abbreviations consist of acronyms.
They may exist in dictionaries.

9. Blending:
- The fusion of two words into one, usually the first part of one word with
the last part of another word.
- Eg. Netizen, motel, covidiot, gasohol,..

10. Backformation
- The reverse process of derivation.
- Eg. Beggar => beg
Editor => edit
Hedgehopper => hedgehop

11. Conversion:
- Shifting a word from one word class to another without adding an affix
 - Eg. Swim (n) đồ bơi / (v) bơi
Ski (n) cây trượt tuyết/ (v) trượt tuyết

Exercises:
1. Badmin - clipping
2. Bra - borrowing
3. Frat - clipping
4. Medicare- blending
5. Eurasian- blending
6. Donate- backformation
7. Advance-register - backformation
8. Match maker - compounding
9. Silkworm- compounding
10.Retype- derivation

UNIT 3: SYNTAX

- Syntax has too approaches

+ Prescriptive
+ Descriptive
1. Word class
+ Classifications of words: by their parts of speech
+ Content words (N, V, Adj, Adv, pronouns)/function words
(argued): pronouns are classified into content words, however
sometimes pronouns are vague and require a clear context to
identify accurately.
+ Open (N, V, adj, adv) /closed classes:
+ Conjunctions
● Coordinate: FANBOYS
 ● Correlative : Either…or, neither..nor, not only.. But also.. ,
both..and
● Subordinate: when, while, as soon as, since, as, although, if,
provided that,..
+ Determiners
● Quantifiers: some, much, a lot of, many,..
● Identifiers
+ Articles
+ Adj possessives
+ Demonstratives

+ Pronouns
● Personal: he,she, it, they, we, you
● Possessive: his, hers, theirs, its, ours, mine,..
● Reflexive: himself, herself, itself, themselves, ourselves,
yourself/yourselves
● Intensive: himself, herself, itself, themselves, ourselves,
yourself/yourselves
=> reflexive pronoun reflects back on the subject of the sentence
while an intensive pronoun adds emphasis or intensity to a noun.
Reflexive: Drew decided to treat himself to a fancy dinner.
Intensive: Jonathan built the shed in the backyard all by himself
● Relative: which, when, who, that,..
● Interrogative: what, which, who, whom, and whose
=> Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions. They include
words such as "who", "what", "where", "when", "why", and "how".
For example, "Who is coming to the party?" or "What time is the
meeting?" Relative pronouns, on the other hand, are used to
connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun that it describes.
● Demonstrative: this, that, these, those
● Indefinite: everyone, no one, some body, another, the other
● Reciprocal: words that are used to indicate a mutual relationship
between two subjects or objects: each other, one another
● Distributive:a type of pronoun that refers to the members of the
group individually instead of together or as a collection: each, any,
either, neither, and others.
2. Nouns and Noun phrases
a. Nouns
- Classification of nouns
+ Proper: danh từ riêng
+ Common: danh từ chung
● Count
● Non-count
- Nouns in English are both count and non-count based on their meanings.
There is only ten nouns that are always non-count
- Countability of nouns depends on:
+ Meaning
+ Flexibility
+ Language change
+ Language variations among countries
+ In relation to article in use
+ Dependence on culture
Eg. Paper, culture, water

b. Noun phrases
- Pre-modification + Head + Post-modification

Mandatory
- Minimal structure: Noun= Noun Phrase

- Head noun: Noun or pronoun

- Pre-modification + pronoun +Post-modification
- Pre-modification + Noun + Post-modification
- Pre-nominal modifiers
- Identifiers/determiners: articles, demonstratives, possessive
adj, numerals, quantifiers, genitive
- Adjectives
- Pre-determiners: all, both, half
Example: Analyse the structures of the following noun phrases
1. A bag
2. A beautiful girl
A: determiner
Beautiful: adj
Girl: head

3. A sleeping child
A: determiner
Sleeping: present participal
Child: head
4. My teacher's lecture- NP
Lecture: Head
My teacher’s- genitive
My: determiner
Teacher’s: head

5. All the suggested answers

All: pre-determiners
The: determiner
Suggested: (past participle)
Answers: head
6. Fifty people
Fifty: numerals
People: head
7. The second cohort
The: determiner
Second:
Cohort: head
8. The second five days
The: determiner (article)
Second: numerals (ordinal number) - determiner
Five: numerals (number)
Days: head
9. Many students’ achievements
Many: quantifiers
Students’: genitive
 Achievements: head
10.A charming small round old brown French desk
A: determiner
Charming: adj
Small: adj
Round: adj
Old: adj
Brown: adj
French: adj
Desk: head

3. Order of adjectives
- Order of adjectives as pre-nominal modifiers
- Two principles
- OSHACOM
- The adjective that describes a permanent/natural attributive of the
head should be closest to the head

4. Post-nominal modifiers
- Adj/relative clause, eg. the girl who is sitting
- Prepositional phrase, eg. the book on my desh
- Adj phrase, eg. the man relatively well-known
- Compounded adj, eg. the girl, little and pretty
- Non-suffixing words. Eg. the party yesterday
- Participate clause. Eg. the man sitting by my sister
- Infinitive clause. Eg. the last passenger to leave
- Oppositive, eg. Dr, Jones, the winner,..
- Noun phrase, eg. the meaning tomorrow morning
Example: analyse the structures of the following noun phrases
1. The bus behind me - determiner-head- Prepositional phrase
2. The crowded party last night- determiner-adj-head-noun phrase
3. The pretty lady standing by the door- determiner-adj-head-participate
clause
4. The sitting guy, who won the scholarship- determiner- present participle-
head- relative clause
 5. The restaurant, fancy and expensive- determiner-head-compounded adj/
adj-conjunction-adj
6. The first two dogs adopted by my family- determiner- numeral-numeral-
head-participle clause
First two dogs - numeral - head
Two dogs - numeral-head
7. All the events today - pre-determiner- determiner- head- non-suffixing
word
8. My professor, a devoted and inspiring teacher- determiner-head-
oppositive/ determiner-adj phrase/ adj-conjuction- adj-head
9. The first passenger to leave- determiner-numeral-head-infinity clause

5. Common problems
- Adj + Noun >< Noun + Noun (adj mô tả thuộc tính của danh từ >< danh
từ phía trước phân loại danh từ)
- Adj + noun >< participle + noun
Eg.Beautiful contest >< beauty contest
Sweet milk >< sweetened milk

6. Verb phrase:
- Classification of verbs
+ Auxiliaries:
● Be, have, do
● (primary)
● Modals
+ Lexical verb
● Transitive (require an object)
● Intransitive (Copula (be/linking verb)

● Note: ‘have’ and ‘do’ can be both auxiliaries and lexical verbs
- Modal verbs:
 + Can, may, shall, will, must
+ Could, might, should, would
- Lexical verbs:
+ Classification
+ Structure: transitive and intransitive
+ Function: action, event, process (eg. become, happen, give)
+ Movement:
● dynamic/active: activity, process, sensation, transitional
event, momentary
● Inert perception (cognitive), relational
- Lexical verbs
+ Verb forms: (inflectional paradigm)
● Infinitive (full,bare)
● Present participle
● Past participle
● Past tense
● Third person singular present
- Phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs
+ Prepositional verbs ALWAYS require a NOUN PHRASE after
them
Eg. I am looking after my aged mother (object)
+ Phrasal verbs can be splitted with a noun phrase
Eg. I am looking up a word in the dictionary (object)

- Finite and non-finite verb

+ I want to go home
+ Running along the road, i bumped into a robber
+ To prepare for the job interview, she bought a new suit
+ Irritated by the new shampoo, her skin got red
=> khi trong câu không phân biệt/phân loại động từ -> non-finite
=> ngược lại - finite

Unit 4: Adjective, adverb, and prepositional phrases

1. Adjectives:
- Amplifies the meaning of a noun
 - Occurs immediately before a noun or is linked to a noun by a
copula verb
- Eg. (1) a deli restaurant (attributive)
(2) The road became empty during the Covid-19 Pandemic
(predicative)
- Adjectives classification 1:
+ Dynamic/active. Eg. Dr. Jones is considerate
+ Stative . Eg. maria is beautiful
- Adjectives classification 2:
+ Gradable. Eg. pretty, friendly
+ Non-gradable. Eg. live, dead
- Adjective classification 3:
+ Inherent eg. a new car, a woollen shirt
+ Non-inherent. Eg. a new friend
2. Adjective phrases
Eg. very enthusiátic about his latest idea
Aj P = pre-modification + head + post-modification

Pre-adjectival modifiers
Pre- modification: adverb (usually intensifying)
Post- modification:

Eg.
1. I was anxious about my mother’s health -> the head ‘anxious’ has
no pre-modifier and is post-modified by a prepositional phrase
2. I was very anxious to please everyone-> the head ‘anxious’ is pre-
modified by an adverb ‘very’ and post-modified by an infinitive
clause
3. I was anxious that no-one should accuse him of laziness -> the
head ‘anxious’ has no pre-modifiers and is post-modified by a that
clause
3. Adverbs
- Diverse in type
- Different structures and functions
- AvP = pre-modification (adv) + Head (adv)
- Functions
+ Adjunct: provides further information, ie. circumstances:
time, place, manner
Eg. Very soon, extremely carefully, quite noisily
+ Conjunct: links or conjoins 2 clauses or sentences
Eg. Therefore, nevertheless, besides, thereupon (Conjunct có
sẵn trong từ điển, là 1 loại từ riêng)
+ Disjunct: expresses the speaker’s stance or attitude
Eg. Frankly, I cannot see George doing the job either

4. Prepositional phrases
Eg. In the garden, after the party
- Structure
Pre P = Preposition + NP
These constituents are both mandatory (exocentric : no head, no
minimal form)
- Function:
+ Prepositions: relational
+ Prepositional phrases: various functions
● Post-nominal modifiers
● Post-adjective modifiers
● Circumstances (adjuncts)- Time (at,in), location
(at,in,on), direction (to) , extent, purpose (To),
accompaniment (by), instrument (with), topic/focus
(on/of/about), manner
- examples:
1. I am afraid of ghosts (post-modified by a noun phrase)
2. The manager is thinking of a solution to the crisis (post-nominal
modified)
3. I left the meeting at 3 pm (adjunct)
4. I cannot decide on the time to introduce the new bus (object)
*Note: Circumstances (adjuncts)- Time (at,in), location (at,in,on), direction
(to) , extent, purpose (To), accompaniment (by), instrument (with), topic/focus
(on/of/about), manner

Examples:

1. The blamed Jim for the mess - Direct Object/Circumstances (purpose)

2. They blamed the mess on Jim - Indirect object
3. I am interested in your offer - Post modifiers of adjective
4. She is proud of her children - Post modifiers of adjective
5. There is great anxiety about his future- Post nominal modifiers
6. We have a lot of sympathy for you - Adjunct (further information)
7. I am looking after my baby - Object
8. I am waiting for the bus - Object

Examples: Identify phrases and their functions

1. Understandably/, Sam/ has declined/ the offer
(Disjunct: adv P/Subject:NP/Verb: VP/ Object: NP)
2. His arrival /looks/ extremely unlikely/ now
(Subject: NP/ Verb:VP /complement: adj P / adv P: adjunct)
3. He /sounds /very interested/ in our proposal
(Subject- NP/Copula: Intransitive Verb- VP/ Adj P/post-modifier of
adjective)
4. Unfortunately, he/ is/ very busy /now (Disjunct: Adv P/ subject- NP/
auxiliary verb/ Complement: adj P/ adjunct: adv P)
5. It/ is/ quite ridiculous / worded statement
Subject-NP/ verb- Verb phrase/ adj P/ post-modifier of adjective
6. I /am /quite sure that he is certain to win
(Subject-NP/auxiliary verb/ complement: adj phrase
7. Astonishingly, he/ can walk /very fast (disjunct: advP/subject-NP/verb:
VP/ adjunct: AdvP)
8. He/ was/ rather concerned that no-one should know immediately
(Subject- NP/auxiliary verb/ complement: adj P)
UNIT 5: SENTENCE PATTERNS

Basic sentence patterns

- SV: It is raining
- SVA: A policeman lives in that house (adjunct)
- SVC: That sounds a good idea (Complement)
- SVO: Everyone kicked the bucket
- SVOA: The government sent the envoy to Africa (adjunct)
- SVOO: they passed Aunty Ann the salt (indirect object) (direct object)
- SVOC: We imagined Uncle Bill much fatter (complement bổ nghĩa cho
Uncle Bill)
She considered him a good friend (complement bổ nghĩa cho
him)

Sentence components: Complement + subject + verb + object + adjunct

1. Verb: obligatory
Eg. Dinner over, they went to bed
2. Object:
Eg. Bill is expecting a big surprise
*Note: confusion:
Eg.
1. He was waiting for the bus
2. She was picking up the umbrella
3. Mary blamed the poor result on adverse weather conditions
4. Jim java his wife yellow flowers
5. Jim gave yellow flowers to his wife
6. Jim sprayed blue paint on the kitchen wall
7. Jim sprayed the kitchen wall with blue paint

SUMMARY
1. Sentences: 4 types
a. Simple: main clause
b. Compound: Main clause + coordinate clause
c. Complex: main clause + dependent clause/subordinate clause
d. Compound complex: main clause + coordinate clause + dependent
clause/subordinate clause

2. Functions of phrases
- Subject
- Verb
- Object
- Complement
- Adjunct
- Conjunct
- disjunct
3. Clauses
- Independent: main clause -> can make a simple sentence
- Dependent: nominal clause, relative clause, adverbial clause
a. Nominal clauses
- Finite clauses: that clause/Wh_clause
+ That clauses:
● Eg. That John won a Nobel Prize amazed
his classmates
-> It (dummy) amazed (V) his
classmates (O) that John won the Nobel
prize (S)
● Eg. Maria believes that Donald Trump
would serve the second term
-> It was believed by Maria that Donald
Trump would serve the second term

● Eg. The offer is that I will work as a

lecturer in USA
● Begin with a conjunction ‘that’

+ Wh_clause:
 ● Eg. Could you tell me if the flight will be
delayed?
● Eg. Who will serve as the President in
the next term has aroused the public
concern
● Eg. She was born in a place where the
living standard was very low
● Introduced by who, what, when, how,
why, whether, and if.
● Direct questions or nominal relative
clause

- Non-finite clauses: Infinitive clause/participle clause

+ Infinitive clause
● Eg. To love is to forgive
● Eg. I wanted to buy a book
● Eg. I wanted him to leave the room ->
noun phrase (bổ nghĩa cho him)
● Eg. I asked him to leave the room ->
direct object
● S,O,C
● I asked my brother to help me with the
repair
● I want my son to buy some groceries
+ Participle clauses
● Eg. Seeing is believing
● Eg. Travelling overseas will provide us
knowledge
● Funtions:
subject/object/complement/adjunct
● Eg. Walking along the street, I met him
by accident

b. Adverbial clauses:
- Comparison clauses : than, as
- Reason clauses: because
- Contrast clauses: while
- Purpose clauses: so that, in order to
- Result clauses: so…that
- Conditional clause: if
- Time clause: as soon as