SYNTAX FIRST EXAM

The 5 grammatical units are morpheme, word, phrase, clause and sentence.

Morphemes are the smallest meaningful unit of written language. For example, the word "unbeatable" contains 3 morphemes: 'un-', 'beat' and '-able'. The word "kind" contains only one morpheme, as removing any letter from the word would change its meaning.

the largest structure, defined as a free-standing clause and can

be categorized into four types: a) Simple Sentences: free-standing clauses. Also known as STRUCTURE OF PREDICATION. b) Compound Sentences: two main clauses, related through a CONJUNCTION, a COMMA or a SEMICOLON (accumulation). Each one has a subject and a predicate, we can say FS+CONJ+FS. Also known as STRUCTURE OF COODINATION. c) Complex Sentences: it’s formed by main clause + a subordinate clause. Also known as STRUCTURE OF SUBORDINATION. d) Compound-Complex Sentences: it is formed by at least 2 main clauses and 1 subordinate clause.

Are defined as STRUCTURES OF PREDICATION because we have a subject and a predicate. Are divided into two: MAIN CLAUSE and SUBORDINATE CLAUSE.

Defined as the HEAD (H) + CONSTITUENT. Once I identify the HEAD we can determine the category of the phrase. e.g.: PP (prepositional phrase) “in a box” the head is IN; NP (noun phrase) “a box” on its own is a NP.  

Types: a) Functional/grammatical categories: lack of semantic content. They are known as CLOSED-CLASS WORDS, there is only a set amount of them. These are: CONJUNCTIONS, PREPOSITIONS PRONOUNS, INTERJECTIONS and DETERMINERS. b) Content/lexical categories: have semantic content. They are known as OPEN-CLASS WORDS, the categories have no end, more words can be added. These are: NOUN, VERBS, ADJECTIVES and ADVERBS.

The word categories are defined by a set of features: -Semantic features. -Formal Features.

*CONCRETE (tangible, perceived by our sense) vs. ABSTRACT (not tangible, like concepts). *COMMON (names of objects that could be tangible or not) vs. PROPER (names of people, countries, rivers, mountains, etc.) *COUNTABLE vs. UNCOUNTABLE (like "freedom", cannot say 'two freedoms').

*GENDER: masculine, feminine, or Neuter (adjectives, objects, and some animals). *NUMBER: singular or plural.

*Simple words: free morphemes (tree, dog, car, house, walk, able). *Complex Words: free morpheme + bound morpheme (nice-r, tree-s, hand-ful) *Compound Words: free morpheme + free morpheme. They can be: a word altogether, separated like a phrasal verb or separated by a hyphen (sunrise, cowboy, country house)

It's the smallest unit. Can be classified into two: *Free morphemes: can stan on their own (e.g.: house, dog, flower, car, walk, etc.). *Bound morphemes: can't stand alone and thus they need to be attached to a free-standing morpheme.

We have three types: 1) Affix: which are suffixes or prefixes depending on the position. 2) Bound Bases: cannot be used on their own, yet it also doesn't fit within the group of affixes. E.g.: Cranberry, 'cran' cannot be used on its own. 3) Contracted forms or clitic: forms of contractions. E.g.: -n't, -'ll, etc.

*Inflectional Morphemes: are always suffixes. They provide grammatical information but never change the category of the word. -Noun Inflectional Suffixes: plural marker and possesive marker, like cat-s, Bob's Shop. -Adjective Inflectional Suffixes: comparative marker -er, superlative -est. -Verb Inflectional Suffixes: third person singular -s, past tense marker-ed, progressive marker -ing, past participle markers -en or -ed. *Derivational Morphemes: can either be suffixes or prefixes. We use them to change the category of the word: -Change the meaning: like 'beauty' (noun) add -ful 'beautiful' (adjective). -Do not change the meaning: like 'complete' 'uncomplete', we add -un but is still an adjective.