GRAMMATICAL UNITS

Ximena Hernández
José Marcano
Greit Padilla
Jesús Marcano
 GRAMMATICAL
UNITS

1. Morphemes
2. Words
3. Phrase
4. Clause
5. Sentence
 TYPES OF MORPHEMES
WHAT IS A MORPHEME? • Free Morphemes: can
It’s the smallest function
meaningful unit in a independently as
language words (town, dog)
• May or may not stand • Bound Morphemes:
appear only as parts of
alone. words. Affixes: prefixes
• It cannot be divided and suffixes.
into smaller – Derivational: Change
meaningful segments the semantic meaning or
part of speech of the
without changing its affected word.
meaning or leaving a – Inflectional: Modify a
meaningless verb’s tense, aspect,
mood, person or number
remainder. without affecting the
word meaning or class.
 WORDS

WHAT ARE WORDS? COMPLEX WORDS

Word class Sub-class Examples
Nouns Concrete Rock, table, student.
Abstract Insanity, interpretation.
Pronouns Personal I, You, He…
Relative Who, whom, which,
that, whose.
Possessive Mine, yours, his, hers…
Demonstrative This, that, these, those.
Adjectives Descriptive Blue, nice, quick.
Possessive My book, your book…
Demonstratives These books, those
books…

WORD CLASSES IN ENGLISH

Word class Sub-class Examples

Verbs Main verbs To do, to be, to go, to

write…

Auxiliary and Modals May, should, could,

do,…

Adverbs Often, slowly,

quickly,…
Articles The, a, an

Prepositions To, for, above, on…

Conjunctions With, and, but, so,

for…

WORD CLASSES IN ENGLISH

 PHRASE Subject
Group of words Together
without
Verb

Very short
Can be
Quite long

Can't be used alone Part of the speech

 CATEGORY OF THE PHRASE

HEAD DEPENDANCE
TOO SLOWLY ADVERB PHRASE

VERY HAPPY ADJECTIVE PHRASE

THE GREAT LOUIS NOUN PHRASE

AT LUNCH PREPOSITION PHRASE

VERSUS
 CLAUSES
Clause = Subject + Verb + Complement
(Optional)

Clause ≠ Phrase
- In the afternoon Phrases,
- Drinking from the bowl not clauses
 CLAUSES
There are 2 main
types:
1. Independent or
main clause.
I like chocolate

2. Dependent or
subordinate clause.
When I was 10
years old…
 CLAUSES
2. Dependent Clauses start with a subordinate conjunction
(because, although, where, after, etc.) or a relative
pronoun (who, whom, whose, that and which).

2.1 Relative Clauses (adjective clauses): describe the noun

- When we go to the movies, we always buy popcorn.

- Those are the two children who walked out of the store.
 CLAUSES
2.1.1 Essential Relative
Clauses: when you need
the information it provides.
A dog that eats too much
pizza will soon develop
pepperoni breath.

2.1.2 Nonessential Relative

Clauses: they just add
additional information.
My dog Floyd, who eats
too much pizza, has
developed pepperoni
breath.
2.2 Noun Clauses: act as 2.3 Adverbial Clauses:
nouns, and they can act as adverbs. Usually
work as a subject, an
object or complement. start with a subordinate
conjunction.
You really don’t want to
know the ingredients in After the game has
Aunt Nancy’s stew.
finished, the king and
You really don’t want to the pawn go into the
know what Aunt Nancy same box.
adds to her stew.
 SENTENCES 1.2 Interrogative
Do you agree?
They must contain at
least 1 main clause (Yes/No Interrogatives)
and can be classified What did you eat?
as follows:
(Open Interrogatives)
1. According to their 1.3 Imperative
syntactic properties: Go home!
1.1 Declarative (Command)
- I live here.
Be careful.
- My sister doesn’t like
chocolate. (Polite request)
 SENTENCES
1.4 Exclamatory
What an extraordinary lecturer you are!
What a book he bought!

2. According to their structure:

2.1 Simple
My aunt likes books.
You haven’t closed the door.
 SENTENCES
2.2 Compound
I phoned her but she wasn’t there.
Are you coming or are you staying home?

2.3 Complex
You can call me if you have any problems.
I got up earlier than usual because I had to get
the 6:30 train.
2.4 Compound-Complex
Ex: When a dog bites a
man, that is no news
because it happens so
often, but if a man bites
a dog, that is news.

Adverbial clause (of

time) + main clause
number 1 + adverbial
clause (of reason) +
coordinate conjunction
+ adverbial clause (of
condition) + main clause
number 2.