Morpho-Syntax

• Morphology is branch of linguistics which is concerned of the study of structure

of words.
• Syntax is the study of structure of sentences; it is related to grammar.
I- Word classes: refer to all types & categories of words, we can list them as follows:
1- Articles:
Indefinite definite
a / an the
*They are also called determinants.
A determinant is anything that comes before the noun; it could be: an article /
possessive / demonstrative / adjective.
2- Nouns: It is a name that refers to a thing, a person, or an animal.
Exp: a pen, men, Rabat
* Nouns can be categorized into different categories:
Proper noun / Common noun
- Refers to something specific, places, names, people [Ahmed / London begins
always with capital letter]
Abstract / Concrete
- Abstract: refers to notion can't be touched or felt
- Concrete: you can touch them or feel them
Countable / Uncountable
- Countable: takes "s" in the plural
- Uncountable: don’t take the "s"
3- Pronouns: words that replace nouns.

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Exp: Personal pronoun / Subjective pronoun replace the subject [I, you, he, she, it,
we, you, they]
* Object pronoun: their function is to replace the object.
Exp: [me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them]
* Possessive pronoun: [mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs]
* Possessive Adj: [my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their]
* Demonstrative pronouns: [this, that, these, those]
* Reflexive pronouns: [myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves,
themselves]
* Quantifiers: they’re words that describe, or give information about the quantity
of something. [some, many, much, few, a little, enough, a few, little]
* Adjectives: is a word that describes the noun.
Exp: "A beautiful tree"
=> The order of Adjectives:
OPShACOMP
- Opinion – Shape – Age – Colour – Origin – Material - Purpose
Exp: "A beautiful big new red American iron driving car"
4- Adverbs: are words that modify:
* Adj: "A very big house"
* Adv: "He drives very quickly"
* Verb: "He speaks slowly"
* A whole sentence: "Unfortunately, he didn’t succeed in the exam"
Remarks: The order of the adverbs is very important.
- Adv. of degree: comes before the adv. of manner (very quickly).

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- Adv. of time: comes between adv. of degree & adv. of manner or they can be put
at the end of the sentence.
Exp: "Yesterday he drove very quickly," or "He drove very quickly yesterday."
- Adv. of place: usually comes at the end of the sentence.
Exp: "He drove very carefully yesterday in the city."
5- Prepositions: are words that give info about the position & time of something.
(on, in, at, under...)
Exp:
- "On the table"
- "A pen inside the book"
- "On the book"
- "In the book"
6- Verbs: are words that give info about an action or state.
- Action verbs (drive/speak/play)
- State verbs (to be)
Remarks: To explain other categories of verbs, there are verbs called modal verbs
which give info about the modality of something.
Exp: (can, may, might, must, ...)
There are types of verbs, such as transitive & intransitive.
Transitive verbs: are verbs that need an object & they can be di-transitive or mono-
transitive.
- Mono-transitive: requires 1 object. Exp: "He drives a car"
- Di-transitive: requires 2 objects, direct & indirect.
Exp: "He gave him a book"
Intransitive Verbs: are those categories which don't need an object.
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II- Phrases: are parts of sentences which consist of 1 or more words.
We can list the following phrases:
- Noun Phrase: "A big car"
- Verb: "The cat sat in the house"
- Adj. P: "Very beautiful"
- Adv. P: "Very slowly"
- Prep. P: "On the table"
Morphology :
Come from the Greek word, meaning shape or the form of something. It is used in
linguistics to denote the study of words both with regard to their internal structure
and their combination or formation to form a new or larger unit.
Examples: Happy (1 unit), unhappily (3 words, larger unit).
- Word is a term that can also be referred to as a lexeme or morpheme.
- Morphemes are defined as the smallest meaningful unit in language. These units
are abstract but realized in actual language by a morph.
- If there are various ways of realizing 1 morpheme, they're called "Allomorphs." For
example:
- The "-s" of the 3rd person singular has various realizations.
- The same thing for the plural morpheme "-s," which also has various realizations
called "Allomorphs."
Morphemes can be free or bound.
- Free morphemes : will coincide with what we call a word, as it can stand by itself.
They're generally referred to as lexemes.
- The bound morphemes : are less than a word, although they carry meaning; they
are referred to as affixes.

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- Among the examples of free morphemes, we have content words (they're open
class): nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, or function words (closed class), which
refer to function in language.
Examples : articles, prepositions, conjunctions, demonstratives, comparatives.
- Bound morphemes: We have affixes (prefixes and suffixes).
Examples :
- Prefixes: im-, re-
- Suffixes : -ies, -tion
And contracted forms in addition to affixes:
- Examples :
- will = 'll
- have = 've
- would = 'd
- Bound Morphemes , which carry grammatical or functional meaning, are called
inflectional affixes , and their function is to create new forms of existing lexemes.

Type of Inflection:

Type.of Grammatical Function Word Class Example

Inflection Category
Declension (1) Number Plural Nouns Three + (-s)
Declension (2) Case Possessive or Nouns John's
Genitive

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 Conjugation Number, 3rd Person Verbs Look + (-s)
(1) Person & Singular
Tense
Conjugation Tense In the past Verbs Look + (-ed)
(2)
Conjugation Past participle Verbs Look + (-ed)
(3)
Conjugation Present Verbs Look + (-ing)
(4) participle
Comparison Superlative Adjectives Smart + (-est)
(1)
Comparison Comparative Adjectives Smart + (-er)
(2)

Briefly , inflection involves bound morphemes, also called inflectional affixes. In

English, they are only suffixes; there are no inflectional prefixes. There are only 8
inflectional suffixes in English.
Derivation: Other affixes (which can be prefixes or suffixes) have lexical meaning and
are used to create new lexemes.
Examples:
- "Obey" → add "dis-" → "disobey"
- "Obey" → "obedient"
The process of creating new words is called derivation , and we speak about
derivational affixes to create new words. There are some types of derivation, such
as:
- Compounding :
- Examples: "Keyboard," "Kickoff"
- Conversion :

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 - A word formation technique of forming a word from a formally identical but
categorically different word without adding a morphological exponent.
- Examples : "fish" → "to fish", "advise" → "advice"
- In conversion, we have two types: Partial Conversion and Total Conversion.
- Total Conversion : Involves a process where the word class changes but without
any change to the word form or lexeme.
- Partial Conversion : There is a slight change.
- Example : "house" (noun) to "house" (verb)
Remarks : There are other word formation processes, such as:
- Acronyms :
- Examples: "NATO," "USA"
- Blending :
- A process where at least two morphemes are used.
- Example: "Electrocute" (from "Electronic" + "Execute")
- Clipping:
- A word formation process where a word consisting of more than one syllable is
reduced to a shorter form.
- Examples : "brother" → "bro," "refrigerator" → "fridge"

Structure of the Noun Phrase:

 Types of Nouns:
o Common Nouns: These are ordinary words that refer to places, things,
etc.
o Proper Nouns: Refer to specific person names, places.
o Compound Nouns: The combination of two or more words that
function as a single noun.
o Countable Nouns: Nouns that we can count, like "table" or "apple".

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 o Uncountable Nouns: Nouns that we cannot count, like "time" or
"water".
o Abstract Nouns: Nouns that refer to ideas, qualities, or states, such as
"freedom", "happiness", or "strength".

Gerund Nouns:

 We also call them verbal nouns, which are formed by combining a verb with
a noun. For example, "drawing is difficult." A gerund can be the subject or
object of a sentence.

Noun Phrases:

 A noun phrase is a group of words that serves the same purpose as a noun.
It can be the subject or object of a sentence.
 A noun phrase (or nominal phrase) is a phrase where the main word is a noun
or an indefinite pronoun (e.g., everyone, everything, nobody, nothing,
somebody, something, anywhere, anything).

Identifying the Noun Phrase:

 A noun phrase can be identified by the possibility of pronoun substitution. If

we can replace the noun phrase with a pronoun without making the sentence
grammatically incorrect, it is a noun phrase.
 Noun phrases may optionally contain noun modifiers (e.g., adjectives,
determiners). If these modifiers are placed before the noun, they are called
premodifiers. However, if they are placed after the noun, they are called
postmodifiers.
 Possible noun modifiers include determiners, adjectives, and prepositional
phrases.

Determiners:

 Common articles (e.g., the, a), demonstratives (e.g., this, these), numerals
(e.g., one, three), and other nominal markers.

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Possessive Adjectives:

 Examples: my, your, etc.

Quantifiers:

 Examples: some, many, few, etc.

Adjectives:

1. Descriptive Adjectives:
o Example: happy, calm, green.
2. Central Adjectives (Coming Before the Noun):
o Example: The red door is open.

Pre-determiners:

 These are placed before a central determiner.

o Example: All the students → (NP: Noun Phrase)

Post-determiners:

 These determiners follow the central determiners.

o Example: The last day of work → (NP)
 Can also include ordinal numbers:
o Example: The second part → (NP)
 Other post-determiners include words like next, previous, last, etc.
o Example: This last chance → (NP)

Remark:

 More than one post-determiner can occur in a noun phrase.

o Example: My last two goals will be remembered → (NP)

Functions of the Noun Phrase:

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  A noun phrase can function as:
o Subject (the doer of the action)
o Object (the receiver of the action in the sentence)

Examples:

 "The girl called a woman in the room."

o "The girl" (NP) acts as the subject of the sentence.
 "I like the book that you bought."
o "The book that you bought" (NP) acts as the object.

Remark:

 A noun phrase can be replaced by a pronoun:

o Example: "The people that I saw coming from the building at ten
o'clock have just left."
 This entire phrase can be replaced by "They" (NP).
 A noun phrase can also function as the object of the main verb:
o Example: "My house is over there."
 "My house" (NP)

An Infinitive Phrase Can Function as a Noun Phrase:

 Example: "To participate in the competition is important."

o The infinitive phrase "To participate in the competition" functions as
the subject.
o It can be replaced by "It."

Exercises:

 Identify the noun phrases in the following sentences and provide an

argument:

"I hope to win the first prize."

 Noun Phrase: "the first prize" (acts as the object of the infinitive "to win")
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  Infinitive Phrase: "to win the first prize" (acts as the object of the verb
"hope")

2. "I try to solve the puzzle."

 Noun Phrase: "the puzzle" (acts as the object of the infinitive "to solve")
 Infinitive Phrase: "to solve the puzzle" (acts as the object of the verb "try")

3. "Did you enjoy reading the book?"

 Noun Phrase: "the book" (acts as the object of the verb "reading")

4. "The boy wants to go home."

 Noun Phrase: "The boy" (acts as the subject of the sentence)

5. "Horses prefer living in the dark stables."

 Noun Phrase: "the dark stables" (acts as the object of the preposition "in")
 Gerund Phrase: "living in the dark stables" (acts as the object of the verb
"prefer")

6. "The accused refuse to answer the question."

 Noun Phrase: "The accused" (acts as the subject of the sentence)

 Noun Phrase: "the question" (acts as the object of the verb "answer")

7. "The boy denies stealing the money."

 Noun Phrase: "The boy" (acts as the subject of the sentence)

 Gerund Phrase: "stealing the money" (acts as the object of the verb
"denies")
 Noun Phrase: "the money" (acts as the object within the gerund phrase)

8. "I dislike having to punish my keys."

 Noun Phrase: "my keys" (acts as the object of the verb "punish")
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  Gerund Phrase: "having to punish my keys" (acts as the object of the verb
"dislike")

9. "I will hate to do such a thing."

 Noun Phrase: "such a thing" (acts as the object of the infinitive "to do")

Noun phrase modification

Noun phrase pre-modification:

A modifier can be defined as word or group of words that empirically comes or

follows ahead noun. Adjective phrases ed/ing participle and nouns function as pre
modifiers in English.

A. Adjective phrase as a pre modifier: An adjective phrase is a group of words that

does the function of an adjective. It is a common type of pre modifier. The adjective
phrase preceding the head is called pre modifier, because it attributes a quality
which describes the head.

EX: A very beautiful house. A very expensive car.

B. The participle as a pre modifier: A participle is a form of verb that ends with (ing
or ed) both of them can function as pre modifiers as nouns.

EX: The approaching train. The running girl. A broken chair.

Nouns as Pre-Modifiers: A noun can pre-modify another noun to form a compound

noun.

Examples:

 A computer game
 A train station

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NP Post-Modification: A post-modifier is a word or group of words that follow the
head noun. It can take the following forms:

 Prepositional Phrase
 Adjective Phrase
 Relative Clause
 Appositive

A. NP Post-Modification with a Prepositional Phrase: A prepositional phrase can

modify a head noun.

Examples:

 The way to heaven

 The cat on the chair
 The boy in the garden

B. NP Post-Modification with an Adjective Phrase:

Examples:

 The students present

 The man responsible

Remark: A post-modifying adjective phrase is known as a postposed or postpositive

adjective. It often reflects a reduced relative clause. Example: The students who are
present.

- Post / Posed = is a post modifying the Adj phrase

- Post / Possitive is the post modifying
NP Post modification with relative clauses :
ex:
-> Students who have no previous experience

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NP Post modification with a positives :
A positives are two words, phrases or clauses that stand close together and share
the same part of the sentence, they are in a position. In fact, an a positive is very
much like a subject complement, but without the linking verb.
Ex:
-> My brother, is a doctor
Remarks:
Non-finite clauses [Two - infinitive clause / ing clause / ed clause can also act as
post modifiers of noun phrases]
examples:
-> The next flight to arrive.
-> The girl speaking fluently.
-> The vase broken during the party.
Noun phrase complementation
A complement complete another sentence part noun phrase are words, phrases
and clauses that complete the meaning of a noun or a noun phrase while noun
phrase modifiers modify or describe a noun or a noun phrase complement complete
the meaning of a noun or a noun phrase. The two grammatical forms that can
function as noun phrase complement are the prepositional phrase and the noun
clause.
A - prepositional phrases as noun phrase complement
A prepositional phrase is defined as a preposition directly followed by prepositional
complement in the form a noun phrase or a noun clause.
Ex - The following underline prepositional phrases function as noun phrase
complement.
=> My teacher encourages my action for reading.

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Ex - His fear of falling death prumane him from jumping.
B - The second form can be form the grammatical function of noun phrase
complement is a noun phrase .
a noun clause com is defined as an independent clause that is form by subordinating
conjunction directly follow by a clause. The subordinating conjunction that
introduce noun clauses in English are : "that, if, whether, wh- words, wh-
everwards"
exercise:

Ex: The claim that the earth is flat was one accepted as true.

Ex: The idea that a parent would hurt a child makes me ill.

Ex: He did not discuss the possibility whether to go or not.

Ex: He gets confused as to the weather where ever he goes.

Moving from Adjectives to Adjective Phrases to Adjective Clauses:

Adjectives: Used to describe a noun.

 Example: The red lady.

Adjective Phrase: A group of words headed by an adjective that modifies the

noun.

 Example: She was extremely hostile to her friend.

 Example: The lady has very expensive clothes.

Adjective Clause: A group of words that contains a subject and a verb and
describes or modifies the noun before it. An adjective clause is a dependent clause
that acts just like an adjective in the sentence. It often begins with a relative
pronoun such as "who," "that," "which," or "whom."

 Example: I received a birthday present that I didn’t like.

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  Example: The lady who helped us.

Task: You have to choose sellers whom you have never met.

 Analysis: This is a dependent clause because it provides additional

information about the noun "sellers," and it relies on the main clause to
make sense.

Relative clauses dependently modify the noun, so they are always forming an
adjective clause. It must be remembered that an adjective clause is always a
dependent clause and usually follows the subject or object in the sentence.
Regarding the structure of the adjective clause, you need to know that it begins
with a relative pronoun such as "who," "that," "which," "whom," etc., and it
comes immediately after the noun or noun phrase that it modifies. Sometimes an
adjective clause begins with no marker.

 Example: I received a birthday present I didn’t like.

Sometimes adjective clauses are set apart from the rest of the sentence by
commas.

 Example: John saved the company, which was declining.

An adjective clause can follow the target noun in a sentence.

Types of Adjective Clauses:

There are two types of adjective clauses based on their nature and function in a
sentence. These two types are:

1. Essential Adjective Clauses (Restrictive Relative Clauses):

o Definition: This clause is required to make sense of the sentence. It is
part of the sentence and provides necessary information to make the
sentence meaningful. In other words, it cannot be removed from the
sentence. No special punctuation marks are used to separate the
clause from the rest of the sentence.
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 oExamples:
 Our teacher does not like students who sit for hours playing
with their smartphones. (Restrictive only to students who play
with their phones)
 Remark: Adjective clause = dependent relative clause, no
specific punctuation. It's necessary = essential = restrictive.
2. Non-essential Adjective Clauses (Non-Restrictive Relative Clauses):
o Definition: This clause provides additional information about the
noun. These kinds of clauses, when removed, do not make a
difference because the sentence still remains complete without
them. A clause of this nature is put within a pair of commas to
separate it from the rest of the sentence.
o Example: William Shakespeare, who wrote Hamlet, is a famous
playwright.
o Remark: Sometimes an essential adjective clause, also known as a
non-restrictive relative clause, is needed but can be omitted without
changing the meaning. These punctuation marks (pair of commas) are
used to separate it.
o Example: My elder brother, who lives in Australia, will soon retire.

Adjective Clauses after Indefinite Pronouns:

We can use adjective clauses after indefinite pronouns.

Example: Everyone who says so on the internet has to pay a fee. Example: I know
someone who always shops online.

Remark: The relative pronoun after an indefinite pronoun (e.g., someone,

something, everyone, everything, no one, nothing, anything) can be the subject of
the adjective clause.

 The relative pronoun cannot be omitted.

 Example: No one wanted anything that I posted online.
 Example: No one wanted anything I posted online.

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In this case, we can omit the relative pronoun. The relative pronoun after an
indefinite pronoun can be omitted when it functions as an object (and not as a
subject).

Place and Time in Adjective Clauses:

We can express place in an adjective clause with:

1. Where: to mean "in that place."

o Example: The city where I live has a lot of monuments.
2. Preposition + Which:
o Example: The city in which I live has a lot of monuments.
3. That/Which + Clause + Preposition:
o Example: The city that/which I live in has a lot of monuments.

We can also express time in an adjective clause with when or a preposition +

which.

Example: Please decide on a time period when you can submit your project.

Or Example: Please decide on a time period in which you can submit your project.

Or Example: Please decide on a time period during which you can submit your
project.

Moving from Adjective Clauses to Descriptive Phrases:

An adjective clause can be transformed into a descriptive phrase.

Example: There are millions of items that are listed on the net.

 Transformed: There are millions of items listed.

Example: I saw some articles that were taking up space in my room.

 Transformed: I saw some articles taking up space in my room.

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Descriptive phrases can begin with a past participle, present participle, or a
preposition.

Examples:

1. This player who is from Brazil won the gold medal.

o Transformed: This player from Brazil won the gold medal.

 Adjective Clause: Transformed to a descriptive phrase.

Syntax: Preparing for constituent analysis [adverbial phrases & adverbial clauses]

I. Review on Adverbial:

An adverbial can be:

 One word called an adverb. Example: You should speak slowly.

 A group of words. Example: He doesn’t play extremely well enough.
 Prepositional phrase. Example: The children are playing in the park.
 A noun group (usually time expressions). Example: We’re going to travel
next week.

II. Adverbs Functions:

An adverb (or adverbial) performs a modifying and an adverbial function.

1. Modifying functions: Adverbs pre modify and post modify adjectives and
other adverbs within the same clause. Pre modifying adverbs are
frequently used as intensifiers. Examples: Very, so, pretty, quite, too
Example sentence: Ahmed is a very good doctor.

2) Adverbial Function: An adverb functions as an adverbial when it is part of the

clause structure: SVOCA (Subject, Verb, Object, Complement, Adverbial).

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Adverbials convey various types of information and serve multiple functions such
as indicating time, place, manner, reason, etc. There are three types of adverbials:
adjuncts, disjuncts, and conjuncts.

Adjunct: These are optional elements that provide extra information. If removed,
they do not affect the meaning of the sentence. Adjuncts can take the following
forms:

 Adverb phrases: here, there, soon, yesterday, etc.

 Noun phrases: e.g., last year, the day before yesterday
 Prepositional phrases: e.g., at nine o'clock

Remark: Some adjuncts are obligatory, such as in the sentence "The animals are in
the zoo." In this case, the adverbial is called a predication adverb.

Disjunct (disjunctive adverbial): These adverbials provide an evaluation of the

root sentence, often reflecting the speaker's attitude or comment on the content
of what they are saying.

Example: Suddenly, it started to rain.

 Disjuncts take three forms:

o Adverb Phrases: luckily, clearly, obviously
o Prepositional Phrases: In my opinion, as a matter of fact
o Clauses (Non-finite Clauses): To be honest, to tell the truth

Conjunctive Adverbs: These serve as connectors between ideas and can be used
to express various semantic relationships such as contrast, concession, reason,
addition, consequence, numeration, and transition.

 Contrast: e.g., on the other hand, whereas

 Concession: e.g., however, yet, nevertheless
 Reason: e.g., because, since, as
 Addition: e.g., furthermore, in addition to
 Consequence: e.g., therefore

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  Numeration: e.g., firstly, secondly
 Transition: e.g., by the way, in the meantime

Forms of Conjunctive Adverbs:

 Prepositional Phrases: on the contrary, by contrast, in addition to

 Adverb Phrases: moreover, however, nevertheless
 Non finite clause: to conclude with , to sum up with

III. Review on Adverbial Clauses (cont.)

Adverbial clauses are dependent clauses that answer the questions: How, when,
where, and why. Just like single adverbs, adverbial clauses combine thoughts and
show connections between ideas. They’re introduced by subordinating
conjunctions, meaning they depend on the main clause for clarity.

Types of Adverbial Clauses:

1. Adverb Clauses of Reason:

o Example: He was hired on account of the fact that he had all the
qualifications required.
o Explanation: This dependent clause modifies the verb and gives the
reason; the subordinating clause is "on account of the fact that."
2. Adverb Clauses of Concession:
o Example: Even if he couldn’t speak well, his written exam was quite
good.
3. Adverb Clauses of Condition:
o Example: We can’t go on a picnic if it’s cold tomorrow.
4. Adverb Clauses of Time:
o Example: We saw many players when we were in England.
5. Adverb Clauses of Place:
o Example: We see the same things wherever we go.
6. Adverb Clauses of Comparison:
o Example: There are fewer wild animals than there were in the past.

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 7. Adverb Clauses of Manner:
o Example: He speaks with authority as if he were the boss.
8. Adverb Clauses of Purpose:
o Example: She wakes up so early for fear that she might miss her
exam.

What is the difference between an adverbial phrase and an adverbial clause?

An adverbial phrase never has a subject and a verb, whereas an adverbial clause
contains a subject and a verb.

Exercise: Identify the adverbial clause and the adverbial phrases in the following
sentences:

1. On the way to the hospital, I met my friend. (Adverbial Phrase)

2. Because of the pandemic, many people died. (Noun Phrase)
3. Probably by the end of February, we can expect heavy rains. (Adverbial
Phrase)
4. They studied hard so they could pass the exam. (Adverbial Clause)
5. When I arrive, I'll call you. (Adverbial Clause)

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