Discusses the structure of English based on grammar categories and syntactical characteristics

1. Structure
of the
ENGLISH
Grammar

2. BREAKDOWN OF DISCUSSION
I. Prescriptive vs Descriptive Grammar
II. Structure of the English Word
III.Review of the Different Parts of Speech
IV.Structure of English Phrases

3. Session Objectives
At the end of the sessions, the participants are expected to:
A. Have a firmer grasp of the nuances of the English grammar,
structural sequences, morphology, and syntax;
B. Identify various parts of speech through structural signals; and
C. Promote a better attitude in the teaching and learning of the
English language for a more competitive and efficient
communication in the 21st century

4. What is
Grammar?
• A set of rigid prescriptions focusing on error
correction
• A marvelously intricate set of principles and rules
governing what is and what is not “in” a language,
according to judgment of native speakers of that
language (Kaplan, 1995)

5. Transformational Grammar
• Otherwise known as transformational-generative
grammar (Chomsky, 1957)
• A system of language analysis that recognizes the
relationship among the various elements of a sentence
and among the possible sentences of a language and
uses processes or rules (some of which are called
transformations) to express these relationships.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia. "Transformational grammar". Encyclopedia Britannica, No Date,
https://www.britannica.com/topic/transformational-grammar. Accessed 24 August 2021.

6. Some examples…
TG relates the active sentence
with its corresponding passive
TG also relates statements with
its corresponding questions

7. • Active Passive
They prepared the manual for students.
The manual for students was prepared by them.
She writes a memo.
A memo is written by her.
• Statements Questions
Regina saw Luis.
Whom [or who] did Regina see?
Who saw Luis?

8. •TG tries to show
structure
and
structure
words, language used
to represent deep
structure
concepts, thoughts,
ideas, & feelings

9. • Transformational grammar assigns a “deep structure”
and a “surface structure” to show the relationship of
sentences. Thus, “I know a man who flies planes” can be
considered the surface form of a deep structure
approximately like “I know a man. The man flies
airplanes.” The notion of deep structure can be
especially helpful in explaining ambiguous utterances;
• “Flying airplanes can be dangerous” may have a deep
structure, or meaning, like “Airplanes can be dangerous
when they fly” or “To fly airplanes can be dangerous.

10. Let’s consider this…
• Maria bought many useful
books.
How many books?
What kind of books?
Where did she buy them?
How useful were they?
Where will she use them?
Who will use them?
When did she buy?
How much were the books?

11. Some ways of thinking about Grammar
Prescriptive Grammar
Grammar - rules governing how a
language is supposed to be used
 What to follow
x What NOT to follow

12. Prescriptive
Grammar
• Sentence Structure
Do NOT split an infinitive
Do NOT end a sentence with a preposition
• Types of words
Do NOT use a plural pronoun with a singular antecedent
Do NOT use double modals
• Individual words
Do NOT use impact as a verb
Do NOT use hopefully as a sentence adverb

13. • Authorities about the language lay down the law about how language
is to be used.
• Prescriptive rules are normative; they aim to regulate people’s
behavior.
Knock before entering a room.
Send a message together with an attachment.
• These is usually a moral content to normative prescriptions.
Sample context: It is not only illegal, but also immoral, to rob.
Prescriptive
Grammar

14. I was reading an article…where, disbelieving, I found: “Each of Mr.
Fugard’s plays… are themselves acts of contrition and ennoblement.”
The subject, each, is clearly singular, yet (the article’s author) and the
copy editor were content to let it multiply miraculously – a excellent
thing in loaves and fishes, but sinful in syntax. What are we coming to
when our big newspapers and their writers see no difference between
singular and plural?
Simon, J. (1980). Paradigms lost: Reflections on literacy and its decline. Random House Value Publishing.

15. Some prescriptive concerns
about language change…
(under the assumption that change often means for the worse)
 In the late 1700s there were public complaints
about the use of existence for life, novel for new,
capture for take, inimical for hostile, demise for
death, and phenomenal for extraordinary.

17. Try this!
1. Ask whoever you see.
2. He works faster than me.
3. I can’t imagine it being him.
4. Nobody was killed, were they?
5. These kind of men are
dangerous.
6. That’s her at the door now.
7. The data is now in.

18. Descriptive
Grammar
In the modern science of
linguistics, grammar is
“descriptive” rather than
prescriptive.

19. Descriptive Grammar
Aim: to describe the
grammatical system of language,
that is, what speakers of the
language unconsciously know,
which enables them to speak
and understand the language
(Kaplan, 1995).
DG embodies constitutive rules
(in contrast to the normative
rules of TG)

20. Descriptive Grammar
•“Constitutive rules do not regulate how people
should use the language; rather, they define the
language.”
•Example:
 the book fell
x book the fell
In DG, rules are not prescribed. But
rather, descriptions or
generalizations on how a language
system works.

21. Descriptive Grammar
• In DG, the interest is not in what
should be, but in what is: the
language that people use all the
time, the whole range of different
varieties they use in their normal
everyday lives, including their most
casual or intimate moments, as well
as the varieties they use in their
formal, careful speech and writing.

22. To sum…
• Linguistic change does not necessarily mean linguistic
decline.
• On the contrary, like other systems in a culture such as
marriage, law, religion, or economy, a language through being
used, adapts to meet the changing needs of its speakers, as
well as changing simply to embody style, fashion, and fad.
• Change has always been with us; consequently it is
reasonable to conclude that such change is natural.

23. A Global Sense for Grammar
GRAMMAR – term used to refer to ALL the knowledge that a native
speaker has about his or her language.
 facts about the structure of words and sentences
 pronunciation rules
 facts about the meanings of words and the meanings of sentences
 facts about the organization of whole discourses
GRAMMAR – term used to refer to ALL the knowledge that a native
speaker has about his or her language which enables him or her to
speak and understand it.

24. GRAMMAR
• is the linguist’s
description of a
language

25. Competency
vs
Performance

26. A Narrow Sense for Grammar: Morphology and Syntax
• MORPHOLOGY – the study of words
oINFLECTION – plurals, possessives of nouns, and past tenses of verbs
oDERIVATION – refers to rules governing on how added prefixes and suffixes
can create new words typically of a different part of speech
• SYNTAX – is the technical term for sentence structure
oGROUPING – how words fall into chunks or phrases
oFUNCTION – how words are used in the sentence

27. Max’s very impressive solo showed off his expertise

28. The Structure of English Words
*antidisestablishmentarianism
supposedly the longest non-technical word in English
- a 19thC British movement which favored retention of the Anglican Church as the official church of England
The meanings of complex words are directly related
to the meanings of their component morphemes.

29. Morpheme
• a minimal stretch
of language which
has a meaning
• the smallest
grammatical unit of
speech

30. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teacher
s/teachingresources/discipline/english/literacy/re
adingviewing/Pages/litfocuswordmorph.aspx

31. Free and Bound Morphemes
• Morphemes are the smallest units in a language that
have meaning. They can be classified as free
morphemes, which can stand alone as words, or
bound morphemes, which must be combined with
another morpheme to form a complete word. Bound
morphemes typically appear as affixes in the English
language.
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/bound-and-free-morpheme-examples.html

32. Exercises:
Give 10 examples each of
free and bound morphemes

33. Morphemes
• FREE MORPHEMES
• throw
• green
• Kim
• sand
• a, an, the
• To, by, from, on
• He, it, her
• For, and, nor
BOUND MORPHEMES
• Algebraic
• playfully
• dogs
• unhappily
• suspended
• unappreciated
• gardener
Content
Words
Function
Words

34. Roots, Stems, and Affixes
The boy will study and so he will not play.
 Besides being free morphemes, the words above are roots, i.e., basic
single-morpheme forms to which affixes can be attached. In English,
most roots are free morphemes, but not all.
 Ex. Chronology, chronic, chronograph chron (time)
 Ex. Renovate, innovate, novice nov (new)

35. •Stems are also forms to which affixes can be
attached. Stems differ from roots in that they
may be made up of more that one morpheme.
ALL roots are stems, but many stems are NOT
roots (but contain them).
•Stems are sometimes created by the
juxtaposition of two roots in a compound. Ex.
Both baby and sit are roots (and stems) but
babysit is a stem (but not a root) because –er
can be attached to it.

36. STEMS can also be formed by adding meaningless
elements to certain roots
•Binary / Trinity
• Chronograph / Chronology
Are these stem-forming elements morphemes?

37. Lexical and Grammatical Morphemes
Lexical morphemes express meanings that can be easily specified by
using dictionary terms or by pointing out examples of things, events, or
properties which the morphemes can be used to refer to: tree, burp,
above, red, pseudo-, anti-, -ism, honest.
Grammatical morphemes have one (or both) of two characteristics.
First, they express very common meanings, meanings which speakers of
the language consciously consider important enough to be expressed
very often. And second, they express relations within a sentence,
instead of denoting things, properties, or events in the world.

38. Grammatical Morphemes
• Cecilia played.
• Cecilia loves reading.
• He will dance.
English requires essentially
every sentence to have a
tense.
• Cecilia played.
• Cecilia loves reading.
• He will dance.
• classes
• boys
• birds
In English, most nouns can be made
plural, and most nouns when used, are
either singular or plural.
-number (singular or plural)

39. Grammatical Morphemes
• GM may exhibit relations within a sentence instead of denoting
things, properties, or events in the world. For example, the suffix –s
for third person singular present tense besides indicating tense,
marks agreement between subject and verb.
• That hard working farmer deserves a good harvest.
singular subject
singular verb form with third person singular
present tense –s ending

40. Grammatical Morphemes
• Those hard working farmers deserve a good harvest.
plural subject
plural verb form with no ending
• Camille’s driving
nominalized verb
possessive form
subject

41. Some commonly used grammatical
morphemes in English are bound such as…
• The three –s morphemes (plural, possessive, and third
person singular present tense on verbs, e.g. he teaches)
• Past tense –ed
• - ing
• Comparative –er
• Superlative –est
• past participle - en

42. Others are free, i.e., independent words.
Some examples of free grammatical
morphemes are…
• Articles a, an, the
• Passive by (as in he was seen by the
queen)
• As (she is as smart as whip)
• Infinitive marker to (to love, to cry, to go)
• That (we think that we will win)
• Do (what do you like)

43. Inflection and Derivation
Bound
Morphemes
Derivational
Morphemes
Inflectional
Morphemes
- Creates or “derives” a
when attached
- Creates a
of the old word

44. The eight (8) inflectional suffixes

45. Derivational
Affixes

46. Derivational
Affixes

47. Derivational
Affixes

48. Let’s do
this!

49. Ways of Forming New
Words
• As our language changes, new words
are created through a variety of
creative mechanisms. Besides
derivation, important processes
include compounding, the use of
acronyms, extending brand names
to the realm of common nouns,
blending, zero-derivation, and
extending the domain of
derivational morphemes.

50. Compounding
Compounds – words
containing at least two roots
Examples: handbook,
basketball, toothpick, White
House, lawn mower
Structure – sometimes spelled
as single words, sometimes as
word sequences

51. Structural Patterns of Compounds
N V + er = one
who V’s N
Bartender,
babysitter,
window washer,
garbage collector

52. Structural Patterns of Compounds
N1 N2 = N2 to
contain N1
pencil case,
birdcage, cigar
box, trashcan

53. Other word-
formation
processes
Acronyms – a process that turns word-initial
letter sequences into ordinary words
(PAGASA, NASA, DepEd, laser, radar)
Brand Names – turns brand names into
common nouns (Kleenex, xerox, scotch tape,
colgate)
Blends – combines the first part of one word
with the second part of another (brunch,
smog, motel)
Functional Shift (Zero Derivation) – use of a
word as a different part of speech from its
original form (walk, laugh, run – verb or noun)

55. Compounding, Blending, Clipping, Acronym
1. Taglish 9. exam
2. Stirfry 10. flu
3. Breastfeed 11. MELC
4. Gym 12. highlight
5. Math 13. breakup
6. Simulcast 14. AIDS
7. Scuba 15. doc
8. Sitcom

56. Parts of Speech
NOUN VERB ADJECTIVE ADVERB
PRONOUN PREPOSITIONS CONJUNCTIONS

57. Parts of Speech
Classes of words or
Grammatical categories of words

58. Major and Minor Classes
• Major – nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
(have a great many members, tend to have meanings which can
be captured in easy dictionary – type definitions, “referential”, “lexical”)
*referential – reference – they allow reference to actual things,
actions, events, or properties
• Minor – articles, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns
(tend not to have referential meanings, sometimes, its meaning
is in int grammatical function)

59. Classes of Words
Major classes – are OPEN
classes (receptive to new
members)
• Teflon, yuppie, scam,
boot up, gnarly
Minor classes – are CLOSED
classes (not receptive to
new members)
• Can you think of new
prepositions?
Conjunctions? Etc.

60. Problems with
the traditional
definitions of
Nouns and
Verbs

61. • English – I am hungry.
Spanish – tengo
hambre (literally
meaning “I have
hunger”)
*Language should be
universal.
• Honesty, justice,
poverty, beauty, truth
*Plato’s Theory of
Forms
*problem with
abstract nouns

62. Grammatical Characterization
of a Noun
a. The rodeo was fun.
b. At that party we danced till three in the morning.
c. The development of the corona virus vaccine saved
many lives.
d. Horrified, we watched the systematic destruction
of the village by the soldiers.
e. Carla’s arrival was clearly unannounced.

63. Co-occurrence characteristic of
NOUNS
1. The possibility of occurrence after an article or similar word (a, b, c)
or after an article and adjective (d) or after a possessive expression
(e).
the lesson, an editorial column, my mother ✔
the dived, an entered, her grinned ❎
2. The possibility of occurrence with the possessive – ‘s
Jo’s book, virtue’s reward ✔
walk’s, is playing’s, reported’s ❎
3. The possibility of occurrence with the plural –s
trees, birds, chairs, pens

64. Roles of NOUNS as SUBJECT and DIRECT
OBJECT
• Another kind of characteristic of nouns has to do with “functions”
(that is, roles as subject and direct object).
*HEAD WORD is very likely to be a noun.
1. All those scary man-eating MONSTERS left quietly.
2. Some of the STUDENTS who took the test said it was easy.
3. A big, fat, old MECHANIC chased us away.
4. Some lovely old TREES stood atop a lonely hill.
5. My new FRIEND sent bunch of roses to Emily.

65. As DIRECT OBJECT…
the thing that the action happens to
1. With a few hundred pesos, my mother bought some
LOBSTERS.
2. Cesar kicked the polka-dotted SOCCERBALL across the field.
3. Unfortunately we scratched the TABLE with that nice finish.
*HEAD WORD is very likely to be a noun.

66. Grammatical Characterizations
of a Verb
• What is grammatically unique about a verb?
Verb is an “action word” – too limited
1. Only verbs can occur with the morpheme –ed
worked, walked, limited, recited, snored ✔
presidented, doorknobbed, lawned, tabled ❌
2. Only with the verbs is the present tense –s that appears on the end
of the verb whose subject is a third person singular noun
Janna snores. The secretary listens. Her buddy appears busy.

67. • Not only CAN verbs (and only verbs) co – occur with a tense
ending; they TYPICALLY do.
• Every English verb, used as the main or only verb of a
sentence, must have a tense.
• Common semantic characteristics of verbs: they are TIME
WORDS (they make time references)
I will carry on with the project.
Mara needed resources.
The sun shines at its peak.

68. Another form that
occurs only after
verbs is – ing
The –ing verb should
follow am, is, are,
was, were, or be

69. Adjectives
• Can we give a few examples of adjectives we commonly use?
• Traditionally, adjectives are identified either as “words which modify
nouns” or as words which indicate “qualities.”
• Noun-modifying words
pretty remarkable
expensive outstanding
watch
woman
teacher
deed
*attributive position of adjectives

70. Adjectives
• Set – denoting adjectives (red car)
• Inherent notion of relativity in adjectives (large car)
with implicit reference to the average
• Inherent relativity to the modified noun and to the
person whose judgment results in the labeling of the
adjective (good car)

71. Adjectives
•Blind
•Short
•Expensive
•Married
•Transparent
•Round
•Interesting
•Famous

72. Grammatical Characteristics of
Adjectives
• Morphological ending in –ly that occurs for the most part after
adjectives
beautifully, largely, intelligently, mildly (adjectives)
friend(ly), bubble (ly), love(ly) (nouns)
• Can occur before the comparative and superlative suffixes -er and –est
or after more and most
• Syntactically can occur both between articles and nouns
attributive position – the large car
predicative position – the forest is strange

73. • The Traditional Definition: a word that
modifies a verb, an adjective, or another
adverb
Cindy politely answered the question.
Maxine is very tall.
Joel reads extremely quickly.

74. Grammatical Characteristics of
Adverbs
• -ly ending – a simple morphological signal of adverb-hood
obviously, certainly, quickly, immediately, loudly
• Syntactically, adverbs can occur after more or most (like adjectives)
more clearly, most certainly
• Fairly free where to occur in sentences
Eagerly, she opened the door.
She spoke politely.
He probably sent Arthur a card.

75. Tell whether verb- modifying
or adj/adv-modifying Adverb
•Mighty
•Sleepily
•Passionately
•Hungrily
•Awfully
•Somewhat
•Greedily
•Terribly
•Quite
•Rather

76. • Manner adverbs
Marco ran easily. = Marco ran in an easy manner.
• Degree adverbs
Gina was slightly embarrassed. = Gina was embarrassed to a slight degree.
* Intensifiers (Adjective and adverb – modifying adverb)
She was somewhat confident. You were rather red.
• Denominal adverbs (from noun)
(science, logic, mathematics, economics)

77. Classify adverbs into manner adverbs,
intensifiers, or denominal adverbs
1. That operation is medically unnecessary.
2. Senator Matapang’s amendment is constitutionally unsupported.
3. We had a totally awesome time last night.
4. Eskimo verbs are morphologically complex.
5. President Mabait may have been criminally dishonest.
6. Some exam questions were impossibly difficult.
7. Sheila playfully grabbed Joan’s cards.
8. Claiming a tax deduction without a receipt is legally questionable.
9. The judge peered skeptically down at the witness.
10. You’re too cool for me.

78. Mino
r
Class
es
• so called because of their few members and their typically grammatical
rather than referential meaning
• Includes: articles, demonstratives (this, that), quantifiers (all, some,
and many), conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, particles, discourse
connectives (however, therefore, moreover), discourse particles (ok,
well), expletives (hell!), and words of greeting and leave-taking (hello,
goodbye)

79. Articles and Demonstratives: “Determiners”
• Articles (a, an, the) and Demonstratives (this, that, these, those) are
grammatically quite similar: they all occur right before nouns
a banana, an orange, the house
this portfolio, that lesson, these pens, those people
• They can occur before an adjective + noun combination
the tall tree, that steep hill, those juicy melons
• Articles and Demonstratives – occur in the beginning of noun phrases
and they, loosely, modify nouns DETERMINERS

80. ARTICLES
•a, an, the
•Definite article –
the (has a definite
referent in mind)
•Indefinite article –
a, an

81. DEMONSTRATIVE
S
• This, that, these,
those
• From the Latin word
monstrare, “to point
out”, because they
are used to point out
the thing that the
noun refers to.
• Near and far /
singular and plural

82. QUANTIFIERS
Basic English quantifier
words: all, both, most,
much, each, every,
many, some, any, few,
several, little, and no.
Some comparative and
superlative quantifiers:
more, most, fewer, less,
and least
Some quantifiers
indicate a large
amount: all, much,
many, most, a great
deal, lots of
Cardinal numbers
Meaning or function: to
indicate the quantity of
“stuff” referred to by
the following noun
Can occur with
determiners and
consequently, CAN’T be
determiners

83. In the following
paragraph,
identify all
articles, all
demonstratives,
and all
quantifiers
Fourscore and seven years ago, our
forefathers brought forth on this continent a
new nation, conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal. Now we are engaged in a great
civil war, testing whether that nation, or any
nations so conceived and so dedicated, can
long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field, as a final
resting place for those who here gave their
lives that that nation might live. It is
altogether fitting and proper that we should
do this. (Lincoln, Gettysburg Address)

84. AUXILIARIES
• Are words that move to the front of a sentence to for a question
Meann will leave tomorrow. - Will Meann leave tomorrow?
Joel should accept Princess. - Should Joel accept Princess?
Maganda is kissing Malakas. - Is Maganda kissing Malakas?
Sally has gotten Jimmy a job. - Has Sally gotten Jimmy a job?
• These HELPING VERBS are few: will, would, can, could, may, might, must,
shall, should, have, be, and do
• have, be, and do – are cross-classified as verbs; the REST are MODALS.

85. Infinitive, Participles, & Gerunds
• To marks the infinitive form of a verb: to love, to work, to rest
unlimited or “nonfinite” with respect to time
because it has no tense
• Participles and gerunds – are types of words formed from verbs by
suffixing – ing or the past participle – en to root words (e.g. taking
and taken)
• Participles – verbal adjectives (adjectives based on verb roots)
• Gerunds – are verbal nouns (nouns derived from verbs)

86. Participles are adjectives because:
1. They can occur between article and noun
2. It can not occur with a plural
3. They can occur with intensifiers and with comparative and superlative
more and most.

91. Conjunctions
• Coordinating Conjunctions • Subordinating Conjunctions

93. Discourse
Connectives

96. Phrase Structure

97. Phrase Structure
• Phrases – significant groupings of words
• Phrase Structure – the division of a sentence into
parts, or constituents, and the division of those
constituents into subparts

98. The President dealt with the problem.
S
NP VP
PP
NP
The President dealt with the problem

99. How to determine phrase structure
• SUBSTITUTION – whatever you can substitute a single word for,
preserving grammaticality, is a constituent or phrase, that is, a
“chunk”; and whatever cannot be substituted for is not.
• Substituting: The president dealt with the problem
Trisha produces Trisha dealt with the problem
He He dealt with the problem
They They dealt with the problem
Lions Lions dealt with the problem
• Conclusion: The president is a constituent

100. • MOVEMENT – the ability of the constituents to “move”
The president dealt with the problem
With the problem the president dealt

101. • CONJUNCTION – A third test for constituent-hood is whether the
word sequence in question can be conjoined with a similar sequence
The president and his secretary dealt with the problem
The president dealt with the problem and solved it
The president dealt with the problem and the press

102. • ANAPHORA – a final criterion for constituency is whether the
sequence in question can be the antecedent for a pro-word (i.e., a
pronoun or a word with a similar function)
The president dealt with the problem. He was headstrong.
The president dealt with the problem. He did so to prove his
strategic leadership

103. Phrasal Categories
•Noun Phrase (NP)
•Verb Phrase (VP)
•Sentence (S)
•Adjective Phrase (AP)
•Prepositional Phrase (PP)
Phrasal Categories are named according to
the most important word of the phrase.

104. Notation for phrase structure
A tree provides the
following information:
1.The word class of
each word
2.The phrase structure
of the whole sentence
3.The phrasal category
of each phrase

105. Exercises:
•Sleep disorders pose a serious health challenge.
•Abuses were committed in the drug war.
•The cultural Center of the Philippines has viable
programs for regional writing.

106. More practice exercises
1. I am giving a presentation
2. Barking dogs seldom bite
3. My friend ate apples and oranges in the mornings