IntroductionL1.docVIP

Grammatical Units 1. Morpheme A morpheme is generally defined as the smallest meaningful grammatical unit in a language. Morphemes in English fall into two categories: free morphemes and bound morphemes. Alone—simple words Free morphemes as the “root” Morphemes (a complete meaning) as part of a compound Prefixes (used to form) Derivational~ suffixes (derivatives) Bound morphemes——mostly affixes(added to a word to change its meaning or function) (an incomplete meaning) to N: -s/-es; -’s Inflexional~ to V: -s/-es; -ed; -ed/-ing (as grammatical markers) to Adj./Adv.: -er/-est bound roots A free morpheme has a complete meaning and can stand on its own as a simple word. It can combine with another morpheme to form a new word(either a derivative or a compound). Different from a free morpheme, a bound morpheme is never used alone, and its meaning is not complete unless it is attached to some other morpheme. Most bound morphemes are affixes. 2. Words A word may be defined as the smallest of the linguistic units that can occur on its own in speech or writing. simple words form derivatives (free+ bound/ bound+ free) compounds (free+ free) words function/grammatical/structural words: auxiliary verbs, determiners, pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions—closed class words function content/lexical/notional words: nouns, main verbs, adjectives, and adverbs—open class words 3. Phrases A phrase is generally a group of words organized in a specific way with a key word as its head. The word class of the head determines the class of the phrase and the way in which the words are organized. NP—(det.+) ( pre-modifier +) N (+ post-modifier) Simple ~ —(modifier +) main V complex ~ —aux.(+ modifier) + main V VP finite~ —He works hard. phrases non-finite~ —He wants to go there. Adj.P—(