This document provides an overview of key concepts in English grammar including parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives), word classes (countable vs. uncountable nouns), morphology (morphemes), syntax, spoken vs. written grammar, problems with grammar rules, vocabulary, meaning, and the sounds of language. It discusses topics such as stress, intonation, individual sounds, and paralinguistic features of language including gestures, facial expressions, and proximity. The document is from Uludag University's English Language Teaching Department and focuses on explaining foundational elements of grammar.

1. ULUDAG UNIVERSITY
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING DEPARTMENT
THE PRACTICE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
AYLİN AYDIN
ADNAN ERKUT
COŞKUN ŞEREF ŞEN

2. WHAT IS
GRAMMAR?
GRAMMAR is the description of the ways in which words can change
their forms and can be combined into sentences in that language.
Short definition: The systematic study and description of a language.

3. Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a
language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A
morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the
two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word, by
definition, is a freestanding unit of meaning. Every word comprises one or more
morphemes.
Example: the word cats has two morphemes. Cat is a morpheme, and s is a
morpheme.

4. SYNTAX
Syntax is the order in which you place words, to make a sentence either sound
good or convey a certain meaning.
While morphology looks at how the smallest linguistic unit (called morphemes)
are formed into complete words, syntax looks at how those words are formed into
complete sentences.
"To your house we are going" would be an example of awkward syntax. You
understand it, but it sounds odd. People who are learning a language might have
problems with syntax.
If you mess with syntax, you can change the meaning:
The young man carries the lady.
The lady carries the young man.

5. SPOKEN AND WRITTEN GRAMMAR
• Writers orientate more towards norms, speakers orient towards each other
• Writing is more off-line and not time bound; speech is more online and in real
time
• Spoken language: absence of ‘sentences’
‘incomplete’ utterances
jointly produced utterances
flexible structures.
For example: ‘’Didn’t know you used boiling water’’
- I didn’t know that you used boiling water

6. Ellipsis
Ellipsis means to leave out the words without destroying the meaning.
It simply means ‘’ommission’’.
•Didn’t know that film was on tonight? (I)
•Sounds good to me. (That/It)
•Lots of things to tell you about the trip to Barcelona. (There are)
A: Are you going to Leeds this weekend?
B: Yes, I must. (go this weekend)

7. PROBLEMS WITH GRAMMAR RULES
DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR: Descriptive grammar refers to the structure of a language
as it is actually used by speakers and writers.
PEDAGOGIC GRAMMAR: Pedagogic grammar refers to the structure of a language as
certain people think it should be used.
Both kinds of grammar are concerned with rules--but in different ways.
Specialists in descriptive grammar study the rules or patterns that underlie
our use of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. On the other hand,
pedagogic grammar (such as most editors and teachers) lay out rules about
what they believe to be the “correct” or “incorrect” use of language.

8. VOCABULARY
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to
that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and
fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.
Language Corpora: The term language corpus is used to mean a number of rather
different things. It may refer simply to any collection of linguistic data (written,
spoken, or a mixture of the two), generally to characterize a particular state or
variety of one or more languages.
Computer Corpora: It allows dictionary makers to say how frequently individual
words are used.

9. WORD MEANING
The least problematic issue of vocabulary , it would seem , is meaning.
For instance, the word ‘’table’’ means a thing with legs which we can write on
and eat off.
But table can also have different meanings:
- You can table a motion at a conference
- You can summarize a information in a table
So, the same collecation of sounds and letters can have many different meanings.
It is called POLYSEMY .

10. ANTONYM
Antonym is the opposite meaning of the word.
An antonym is usually an adjective or adverb, but can include verb forms
such as "coming / going", "leading/ following", and "heeding / ignoring".
Example: The antonym of up is down.
Small is an antonym of big
SYNONYM
Synonyms are words that mean the same as another word.
Example: a synonym for lazy is slothful.
Verb "buy" and "purchase
Adjective "sick" and "ill
Adverb "quickly" and "speedily "
Preposition "on" and "upon"

11. HYPONYMY
The term 'hyponymy' means the semantic relation of being subordinate
or belonging to a lower rank or class
For example, boar and piglet are also hyponyms of the subordinate pig,
since the meaning of each of the three words sow, boar, and piglet
'contains' the meaning of the word pig.
SUPERORDINATE
a word the meaning of which includes the meaning of another word or
words ``red'' is a superordinate of ``scarlet'', ``vermilion'', and ``crimson''

12. CONNOTATION
Connotation is the tone or emotional association that a word has. It can be
negative or positive, but is usually something seen by the population in general.
For example, "slim" and "scrawny" both mean that a person is thin. "Slim,"
though, has a positive connotation -- it makes you think of an attractive person,
while "scrawny" has a negative connotation -- it makes you think of a
malnourished or impoverished person.

13. EXTENDING WORD USE
Words do not just have different meanings. They can also be stretced
and twisted to fit different contexts and different uses. We say that
someone is in a black mood or someone is yellow, yet we are not
actually describing a colour. In such contexts black and yellow mean
something else.
METAPHOR
It is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one
thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison
For example: ‘’Time is a thief’’
‘’A lifetime is a day, death is sleep;
A lifetime is a year, death is winter..’’

14. IDIOM
An idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning
Example: A drop in the ocean
Meaning: A very small part of something.
Example: A piece of cake
Meaning: Easy, simple to do, no difficulties.
Example: She kicked the bucket
Meaning: She died.
CLICHE
A cliche is a phrase, expression or idea that has been overworked.
Something that is trite, stereotyped or hackneyed.
" As American as apple pie"
" A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"
" Drunk as a lord"
" Money doesn’t grow on trees "

15. WORD COMBINATIONS
Word combinations are also called ‘’collocation’’ which refers to a group of two
or more words that usually go together.
Example:
make tea - I made a cup of tea for lunch.
do homework - I did all of my homework yesterday.
(not ‘’do tea’’ or ‘’make homework’’)
Some collocations: take a vacation
totally awesome
tired of
I'll give you a call
I'll be in touch.
to burst into laughter
to commit crime
to earn a living

16. LEXICAL PHRASES
It is also called as ‘’language chunks’’. A lexical phrase is a group of words which
forms a grammatical unit of some kind and which exhibits a degree of ‘inflexibility’.
Examples: The problem with that is . . .
On the one hand . . ., one the other hand . . .
What I'm trying to say is . . .
So what you're saying is . . .
That's beside the point.

17. THE GRAMMAR OF WORDS
NOUN: A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea.
ADJECTIVE: Adjectives are used to modify nouns.
VERB: A verb or compound verb asserts something about the subject of the
sentence and express actions, events, or states of being.
DETERMINER: A determiner is a word or affix that belongs to a class of noun
modifiers that expresses the reference, including quantity, of a noun.
PREPOSITIONS: A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a
sentence.
UNCOUNTABLE: Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide
into separate elements. E.g. music, art, love, happiness
COUNTABLE: They are things that we can count. E.g. dog, cat, animal, man, person
TRANSITIVE: A transitive verb is a verb that requires a direct object to complete its
meaning.
INTRANSITIVE: An intransitive verb is a verb that does not require a direct object to
make sense.

18. LANGUAGE IN USE
The words we use and what they actually mean in the context we use
them are not the same thing at all. We choose words and phrases to
have different effects from the surface meanings they appear to
express, and we do this on the basis of a number of variables:
purpose, appropriacy, language in discourse, and genre.

19. 1. PURPOSE
 Performatives: A performatives are verbs--such as promise, invite,
apologize, and forbid--that explicitly conveys the kind of speech
act being performed. If you’ve ever said, “I promise” or “I
apologize,” you have performed those actions by the simple act of
saying them. You’re not talking about doing these things or
stating that you’re doing them; you’re actually doing them. The
same is true when you say, “I bet,” “I invite,” “I request,” or “I
protest,” for example.

20. 2. APPROPRIACY
When we attempt to achieve a communicative purpose, we have to choose
which of the language forms to use.
• Setting: we speak differently in libraries from the way we do in night clubs.
• Participants: The people involved in an exchange clearly affect the language
being chosen
• Gender: Research shows that men and women typically use language
differently when addressing either members of the same or the opposite sex.
• Channel: There are differences between spoken and written grammars. But
spoken language doesn’t stay the same. Every different channel generates
different uses of language.
• Topic: The topic we are addressing affects our lexical and grammatical
choices.

21. 3. LANGUAGE AS DISCOURSE
Turn-taking: It is about how people take turns to speak in a conversation.
Researchers worked on describing conversations in terms, patterns and routes.
It was made to understand how they are used in discourse.
Discourse is the language used in context over an extended period.
We use a variety of devices to structure written discourse. Using such
devices to refer to something earlier in the text is called ‘’anaphoric
reference’’; in the case of reference forwards to something which
will occur later, we call such reference ‘’cataphoric’’; reference
outside the text is ‘’exophoric’’.

22. 4. GENRE
Genre is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art
or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether
written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic
criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time as
new genres are invented and the use of old ones are discontinued.
Often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and
recombining these conventions.

23. The sounds of the language:
In writing we represent words and grammar through orthogaphy. However in
Speaking , we construct words and phrases with individual sounds, and we also use
pitch change, intonation, and stress to convey different meanings.
To sum up the sounds of the language; Sounds are what language comes wrapped
in. But not all sounds made by people are language. For example, a person can't say
a sneeze. Or a burp. Burps and sneezes are sounds he can't usually help. The sounds
of language are those a person wants to make. They are sounds that carry a
message.

24. Pitch:
The pitch of a sound is also known as its frequency. When the frequency is high, the
wavelength of the sound is shorter. Moreover we recognise people by the pitch of
their voice. For instance; one person has a very high voice whereas another one has a
deep voice.
Intonation:
Intonation is about how we say things, rather than what we say. Without
intonation, it's impossible to understand the expressions and thoughts that
go with words. Listen to somebody speaking without paying attention to the
words: the 'melody' you hear is the intonation. Intonation is also used to
convey emotion, involvement, and empathy.

25. Individual sounds:
As words and sentences may not carry meaning on their on, both are made up of
Phonemes. The phonemes are just sounds, but put them together in a certain order
And we get a word that is instantly recognisable.
If we change just one of these sounds we will get a different word.
we make these sounds by using various parts of the mouth such as the lips,
The tongue, the teeth, the ridge, the palate, the velum, and vocal cords.

26. Sounds and spelling:
It's important to note that the spelling of a word is not always an accurate guide
to how it is pronounced. Similarly the pronunciation of a word is not always
helpful when working out how that word should be spelt.
There are 26 letters in the English alphabet but there are many more sounds in
the English language. This means that the number of sounds in a word is not
always the same as the number of letters.
For example, the word 'CAT' has three letters and three sounds but the word
'CATCH' has five letters but still only three sounds.

27. Stress:
Stress is the term we use to describe the point in a word or phrase where pitch
changes,
Vowels lenghten, and volume increases.
In multisyllable words there is often more than one stressed syllable such as
singularity, information, claustrophobia. In such cases we call the strongest force
the primary stress and weaker force the secondary stress.
In short Stress is vitally important in conveying meaning in phrases and
sentences.

28. Paralinguistic features of language:The simplest definition of paralinguistic
features is that they are those features of the spoken language found outside the actual
sounds being made. Some of the common paralinguistic features are facial expressions,
head movements, hand gestures, eye movements, and eye gaze.
Vocal paralinguistic features: In some ways convey attitude or intention as
voluntary or involuntary. There are also a number of ways of alerting our tone of voice,
and that when we do this consciously, we do it to create different effects.

29. Physical paralinguistic features:
It refers to the way in which we use our bodies, and by doing that we can convey a
number of meanings.
For example; we may send powerful messages about how we feel or what we
mean by the expression on our face, gestures we make, and even proximity or the way
we sit.
• Facial expression: A facial expression is one or more motions or
positions of the muscles in the skin. These movements convey the emotional
state of the individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form of
nonverbal communication.They are a primary means of conveying social
information among humans.

30. • Gestures:
A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions
communicate particular messages, either in place of speech or together and in
parallel with spoken words. Gestures include movement of the hands, face or other
parts of the body. Gestures differ from physical non-verbal communication that
does not communicate specific messages, such as purely expressive displays,
proxemics, or displays of joint attention. Gestures allow individuals to
communicate a variety of feelings and thoughts, from contempt and hostility to
approval and affection, often together with body language in addition to words
when they speak.

31. Proximity, posture, and echoing:
•Proximity refers to the physical distance between speakers. This can indicate a
number of things and can also be used to consciously send messages about intent.
Closeness, for example, indicates intimacy or threat to many speakers. But distance
may show formality, or lack of interest.
•Posture means the way in which someone holds his or her body, especially the
back, shoulders and head, when standing, walking or sitting. A few examples.
Hunched shoulders and a hanging head give a powerful indication of whether the
person is happy or not.
•Echoing appears to complement the verbal communication. Of course, when such
imitation is carried out consciously, it often indicates that someone is mocking at
another speaker.