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12 views

ES class 2

Uploaded by

fjd9xg5stm
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Applied Linguistics (AL)

BED018
Faculty of Human and Social Sciences
English Department
Translation
A Course in English Syntax
2024-2025
Dr. Waleed Ahmed
[email protected]
English syntax: Form & function

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:


• distinguish between language form and function
• analyze sentences for various language forms and functions
• demonstrate knowledge about the traditional and modern definitions of
some parts of speech.

Dr. Waleed Ahmed


English syntax: Form & function

This lesson will cover:


• Language form and function
• Analysis of sentences for various language
forms and functions
• Traditional and modern definitions of some
parts of speech

Dr. Waleed Ahmed


English syntax: Form & function

Revision:
• Define syntax.

Dr. Waleed Ahmed


English syntax: Form & function

Syntax is the study of form and function.


Form Function
• It is the internal structure of a • It is a relational concept (an item
unit of grammatical analysis such has a relation to another item of a
as the internal structure of a higher grammatical status in a
phrase or a clause. phrase)
• Examples: • Examples:
• Noun phrase (The boy slept.) • Subject (They had breakfast.)
• Verb phrase (They had lunch.) • Object (She cooked food.)
• Adjective phrase (She is tired.) • Subject-complement (Ali is kind.)
• Adverb phrase (They walk • Object-complement (They made
slowly.) the poor happy.)
• The above are called categorical • Adverbial (He slept late.)
labels. • The above are called functional
labels.
Dr. Waleed Ahmed
English syntax: Form & function

Exercise
• Identify the form and function of the underlined phrases.
• 1. They are very happy.
• 2. He wrote a good sentence.
• 3. The story made her excited.
• 4. She is a secretary.
• 5. Sama’a and her sister solved the problem.
• 6. Someone talked quietly.

Dr. Waleed Ahmed


Parts of speech

Parts of speech:
1. Nouns: man, city, freedom, book, etc.
2. Pronouns: I, you, he, someone, anyone, nothing, anything, etc.
3. Adjectives: funny, clever, honest, happy, etc.
4. Verbs: play, eat, sleep, etc.
5. Adverbs: recently, yesterday, here, afterwards, etc.
6. Prepositions: at, in, on, about, by, for, with, etc.
7. Conjunctions: and, but, or, because, although, etc.
8. Articles: a, an & the
9. Interjections: alas, hurray, ah, oh, hi, hello, etc.

Dr. Waleed Ahmed


Parts of speech
Traditional definitions of parts of speech:
1. A noun:
a word used to refer to a person, place or thing
Note: This definition is inaccurate as it is also true with a pronoun.
2. A pronoun:
a word which refers to or used instead of a noun.
Note: This definition is inaccurate as some pronouns (i.e. indefinite
pronouns such as someone, no one, and nothing) do not refer to
nouns, but used in their own right.

Dr. Waleed Ahmed


Parts of speech
Traditional definitions of parts of speech:
Pair-work exercise:
What does the pronoun it in the following sentences refer to?
1. It is difficult to be happy here.
(to be happy here)
The sentence can be rewritten as: To be happy here is difficult.
2. It has been confirmed that she is dead.
(that she is dead)
The sentence can be rewritten as: That she is dead has been confirmed.
Thus, traditional definitions of parts of speech are inaccurate as they are not
sufficiently broad.

Dr. Waleed Ahmed


Parts of speech

Definitions of parts of speech in modern grammar:


In modern English grammar, parts of speech may be defined based
on their syntactic and morphological features:
A noun is a word which can…
1. function as the subject or object of a verb or the object of a
preposition
Example: Mary cooked food for John.
(Mary is the subject.)
(Food is an object of verb.)
(John is an object of preposition.)
Dr. Waleed Ahmed
Parts of speech

2. be modified by an adjective
Example: strong man
3. be used with determiners
Example: a bag, this bag, my bag
4. form plurals by taking –s or its equivalents
Example: parks, children, men, etc
5. take the possessive –’s/-s’
Example: student’s books, students’ books

Dr. Waleed Ahmed


Parts of speech

A pronoun is a word used to replace/ refer to a noun, noun phrase


or a clause.
Examples:
1. Alice did not work as she was old.
(She refers to the noun i.e., Alice);
2. The old lady tried to get help from her friends.
(Her refers to the noun phrase i.e., the old lady);
3. It was disappointing that nobody could help her.
(It refers to the clause i.e., that nobody could help her.)
4. It is easy to please John.
(It refers to the clause i.e., to please John.)
Dr. Waleed Ahmed
Parts of speech

Assignment:
• Define other parts of speech according to modern English grammar.

Dr. Waleed Ahmed


Parts of speech

References:
• Thakur, D. (2002) Syntax Simplified, Lohani Publication, Patna, India

Dr. Waleed Ahmed


Parts of speech

End of the Lesson

Thank you

Dr. Waleed Ahmed

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