I. O.

Macari, Morpho-syntax

Introduction

Since a course in this subject is part of the compulsory pack for the students of English at the
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iai, those who decide to study this material may use it for
acquiring some practice for preparing for various examinations. All philology students and
graduates in Romania majoring or minoring in English know that they can opt for a teaching
career and that an English teacher should know about English grammar.
Nevertheless, there are other possible jobs (listed by Brjars 2010) for which the study of
grammar proves useful, of which the first example is the film industry. Thus, professional
linguists such as J. R. Tolkien and Francis Nolan created several artificial languages, such as the
Elvish language family, Taliska, Adnaic, Soval Phar, Khuzdul, Entish, Parseltongue, etc., that
were used in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, or in the Harry Potter series.
Writing for print and online media, technical writing, publication editing are yet other
opportunities for people with a training in language structure; other options are working in fields
like information technology for natural language processing and speech recognition, advertising
and marketing in creating product names and preparing sales campaigns.
People with a good command of language are needed in areas where faulty communication must
be avoided at all costs (in the airline industry, for example, or in legal cases where for this reason
a separate discipline called forensic linguistics has been developed) as well as in the Plain
English movement, where they are expected to translate technical vocabulary and difficult
structures especially legal ones into an accessible form (Brjars & Burridge, 2010, pp. 13-
14).
Objectives of the course
- to introduce key concepts in the study of the basic units of grammar
- to explain the structure the phrase and the clause
- to improve students capacity of understanding and using the basic structures of English,
which will allow them to meet the fundamental requisites of teaching English as a foreign
language
- to make students aware of the difficulties met in learning English and use this personal
experience with their future students
- to develop students knowledge of English through exploration and analysis;
- to enable students to understand the relation of form to meaning and of meaning to
situation;
- to provide students with a basic terminology which will enable them to make these
relationships explicit in the process of teaching English
Specific competences
By the end of the course you will be able to:
- recognize word classes;
I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax
- recognize grammatical categories and their functions;
- carry out complex analysis of word classes, phrases and clauses;
- produce correct sentences observing morphological and syntactic rules;
- correlate observations concerning the morphological structure of words with phonetic,
phonological, syntactic and semantic observations.
Presentation of content
This course is an introduction to basic knowledge of English morpho -syntax and to the study of
grammar in general. The content is structured in 5 chapters, conceived as recognizable learning
components and meant to be reinforced by practice tasks.
Assessment and evaluation
You will be assessed throughout the semester and the result stands for 20 % of the overall end-
of-semester grade). This continuous assessment concerns the obligatory individual assignments
and your in-class activity. You can use extra material if you need (you will find suggestions for
further reading at the end of the book). The amount of exercises and tasks take into account the
relative importance of the objectives covering the content of the unit, their degree of difficulty
and the number of ECTS credits allotted to the whole course 1 . In case you fail to solve any of the
tasks, before bringing it to the attention of your tutor and peers, I suggest you re -read the related
content in the course and refer to a glossary of grammatical terms to revise basic definitions. In
the written examination (which counts for 80% of the overall mark) at the end of the semester,
you will have to answer questions and do exercises covering the major problems dealt with in the
course. Besides, your grammar competence will be evaluated by means of a variety of testing
items such as multiple choice, paraphrase, true false, error identification, word changing,
word/clause order. Your grade will be based on your ability to understand, analyze and describe
the structure of English clauses, phrases and words (form and function), your knowledge of
analytical and argumentative vocabulary and your skills in communicating grammatical concepts
in a correct written form.
Plan your study
The Bologna Process encourages and relies on those skills and competences that allow you to
work independently. Responsible and autonomous learning is promoted in Higher education
through a different approach to teaching and content organization 2 , so that students can learn at
their own pace, in a manner that best suits them. Nevertheless, you should allot about 100 hours
to go through the whole course and accomplish all the assignments required and I advise you to
avoid cramming at the last minute.

1 This course has 5 ECTS. An important tool used for credit transfer and accumulation, ECTS plays now an
important part in curricu lu m design and in validating a range of learning achievements (academic or not). In th is
system, credits reflect the total workload required to achieve the objectives of a programme - objectives which
are specified in terms of the learning outcomes and competences to be acquired - and not just through lecture
hours. It makes study programmes easy to read and co mpare for all students, local and foreign, and therefore
facilitates mobility and academic recognition. (www.eua.be)
2 Course descriptions contain learning outcomes (i.e. what students are expected to know, understand and be
able to do) and workload (i.e. the time students typically need to achieve these outcomes). Each learning
outcome is expressed in terms of credits, with a student workload ranging fro m 1 500 to 1 800 hours for an
academic year, and one credit generally corresponds to 25-30 hours of work. (ec.europa.eu)
I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax
Morpho-syntax is an obligatory course, part of the English Language Module you study each
semester and it requires a B2 level together with general knowledge of the native grammar.
Reading and responsibilities
The course will be based primarily on this book, but other readings and practice activities may be
recommended in class. I suggest that you study the sections assigned for each session in advance,
according to the schedule. Each week you should spend at least two hours and a half for reading
for this course. On average, you will spend approximately 90 minutes on reading the material,
and 60 minutes on the exercises. However, the two activities cannot be separated and should be
done sequentially, because the practice exercises and questions are designed to sustain your
progress and to help you reflect on the issues covered in the course.
Spend time at home writing down the questions or comments you might have concerning the
assignments and the answers you get to them during class discussions. Apart from building up
competence, the immediate results of these tasks will be that your own written notes and
summaries will build your portfolio. Keep all such material, as much of it will be useful in the
exam sessions.
I suggest that you build up a portfolio containing the tasks to be undertaken and any work in
English that you consider relevant to your linguistic training. Together with class attendance and
in-class activity, it will support your preparation for the progress tests and the final examination.
Write down in your portfolio any questions you might have and the difficulties you encounter as
you progress through the course, because they can become useful discussion topics for the
seminars and this will contribute to your successfully meeting the specific objectives of the
course.
You are expected to attend class regularly, participate in discussions, and turn in with all ho me
assignments solved. If for some reason you missed a class, it is your responsibility to inquire
with your colleagues about what you have to do for the following class and review a colleagues
notes.
Since this course is part of the compulsory pack, the students who take it do not really make a choice
other than having decided to study English, but one can always try to make the best of an inexorable
situation.
Diagnostic test
This diagnostic test is based on your previous linguistic knowledge and experience, and is
designed as an indicator of the approximate level of your knowledge of English grammar, on the
one hand, and on the other, of the way in which this course intends to promote active learning
and critical thinking. You are supposed to solve it individually at home and bring it to the first
seminar to have it checked together with your tutor and peers. Feel free to use any theoretical or
practical sources you might find useful.
I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax
1. Choose the statement that better defines grammar.
a) Grammar systematically describes the structure and use of language.
b) Grammar is a set of rules speakers must observe in order to use language correctly.
2. Imagine that a learner has made the following two mistakes. After being corrected, the learner
has asked you for the rule governing each case. Provide a rule and/or explanation for each. Try
to use a contrastive (English Romanian) approach.
1) She suggested him to find another excuse.
2) He claimed she is his friend.
3. Group the following sentences/utterances in two or more categories.
a) She always speaks on the phone with her parents.
b) The train leaves at 6.15.
c) Will she be here tonight?
d) She is always speaking on the phone.
e) Will you shut up, please?
f) The nurse is dressing his wound.
g) He won't listen to her advice.
h) Bonaparte wins, once again, against all odds.
What were your criteria? Is there only one possible grouping? What conclusions can you draw regarding
the relation between form and concept?
4. Provide the rule for the following grammatical phenomena:
a. some vs. any (include information about the type of nouns & sentences they can be used
with);
b. the first conditional.
5. Place an asterisk next to any of the sentences that look ungrammatical to you. In the adjoining
column give the reason(s) that make(s) these sentences look ungrammatical?
a) I am used to traveling light.
b) I am used to travel light.
a) The customer asked for a cold beer.
b) The customer requested for a cold beer.
a) Jim has known her for ages.
b) Jim knows her for ages.
a) A journalist wrote the article.
b) The article wrote.
a) Jen is bored of her job.
b) Jen is tired of her job.

6. Give examples of inflectional and derivational morphemes for: nice (adj.), act (vb.), brother
(n.). Which category can be found in a dictionary, the products of derivation or the inflectional
forms?
7. Identify the constituent morphemes of the following words. Show the order in which each
word was derived, and justify your analysis.
uneducated, unawareness, incomprehensibility, pedestrianization
I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax
8. In the Romanian sentence Ion o iubete pe Maria it is possible to change the order of the
elements without major consequences on meaning. Write all the possible variants of this sentence
obtained by alterations of word order. Then translate them into English word -for-word. How many
of them become ungrammatical? Can you explain why?
9. The following sentence is ambiguous. Can you identify the source of its ambiguity?
He is an American history teacher.
10. The following film title is ambiguous. Can you identify the source of its ambiguity?
She spies
11. The definite article cannot be used with coffee in Coffee has gone up? Explain by giving the
rule.
12. What is the meaning of the modal auxiliary should in You should eat more fruit?
13. There is used as an anticipatory subject in There seem to be other problems as well. Explain
why its presence is necessary.
14. What kind of word order is the underlined part of the following sentence and why is it used?
Not until yesterday did I realize my mistake.

(Questions 1 to 5 are adapted from Costas Gabrielatos' Grammar: nature and teaching, Materials for use in teacher
preparation courses, www.gabrielatos.com/ Grammar-Materials.pdf. Question 7 is adapted from Ralph W. Fasold
and Jeff Connor-Linton's An Introduction to Language and Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, 2008, and
questions 11 to 14 from Andreas Nordins English Grammar, Theoretical background, exercises and study
questions, http://gul.gu.se).