UNEFM Ciencias de la Educación Educación en Lenguas Extranjeras mención Ingles

1. UNIT ONE
1.1 General concepts
Grammar is the study of words and their function. In its wider sense it may include
phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Since grammar is a science, it must describe
and analyze the basic facts of speech, and explain and interpret the laws governing the
behaviour of language.
Phonology studies the pronunciation of words.
Morphology studies the form of the words.
Syntax is the part of the grammar that studies the relation of words in sentences.
Semantics studies the meaning of sentences.
Word is the maximal unit of morphology and the minimal unit in syntax.
Morpheme is a word or part of a word that has meaning. It is the minimal unit with
meaning.
Examples: Dogs (the plural s) comes (s for third person singular) es and s
(plural and third person singular), Past tense (ed).
Sentence is the basic unit of discourse. It is a group of words that makes a complete
statement of some kind.
Clause is a subdivision of a sentence containing a subject and a predicate.
It can be of types, dependent and independent clause.
E.g. Susan will come when the principal says.
Independent dependent

2. Note: The independent clause can stand alone. The dependent clause needs the
independent clause in order to have sense; it depends on the main clause (the independent
cause).
1.2 Sentence
Sentence is a group of words which expresses a complete thought. It contains a
subject and a predicate.
The subject is a word or group of words denoting that of which something is said. The
subject of a sentence must be a noun (sometimes preceded by a word like the, that, his) or
a noun-equivalent (pronoun).
------noun
Subject ------any word
-------group of words
The predicate is the word or group of words denoting that which is said of the subject.
The predicate must be or must contain a finite verb (one that is capable of having limits of
person and number. Person= 1st
, 2nd
person, etc. Number= singular or plural).
Subject predicate
Snakes crawl.
The bird sang.
His mother washed the car.
He preferred to go away.
A noun is a word like birds, snake, building, John, mother, as used in the sentences
above. Other examples of words commonly used are man, child, lawyer, house, fire, Angela,
etc.
Some of the nouns in the sentence above are preceded by the word the or his. This
word belongs to the word class called determiners. Other common determiners are

3. A their no all
An this both most
My these some more
Our those many either
Your every much neither
Her each few
Its any several
Personal pronouns: They are often used as substitutes for nouns. They are: I, you,
he, she, it, we, you and they
Object pronouns: Object pronouns are used instead of object nouns, usually
because we already know what the object is. They are: me, you, him, her, it, us, you, and
them
Possessive forms: - Pronouns: They indicate ownership of something. The
possessive pronouns are: mine, yours, hers, his, its, ours and theirs
- Determiners: They modify a noun by attributing ownership to
someone or something. They are: My, your, his, her, its, our, your and their
Demonstrative Pronouns: Demonstrative pronouns are used when one wants to
show something. They are: This, that, these, those
Indefinite pronouns: They refer to things or people without mentioning what or
who they are. The most common are: neither, either, each, both, all, some, many, few,
something, somebody, anything, anybody, anyone, nothing, nobody, no one, one, none, such,
etc.
- Note: More pronoun types will be studied in unit two
However, the pronouns me, him, her, and them never occur as subject in Standard
English.
You may perhaps have noticed that all of the demonstrative pronouns, many of the
indefinite pronouns, and some of the personal pronouns appear also on the list of the
determiners. These words are determiners when they modify nouns; they are pronouns
when they replace nouns in a sentence. Compare these:
Determiner: That building is crumbling.

4. Pronoun: That is crumbling. (That must refer to something mentioned or otherwise
indicated elsewhere.)
Determiner: His birds sing.
Pronoun: His sing.
Note: Not all words used as pronouns occur as determiners: For example, he, mine and
somebody never do.
Examples of sentences
Charles is in the navy
S P
For a man to speak of himself is a difficult and delicate matter.
S P
That the earth is round has been proved.
S P
He will say nothing concerning his part in the affair.
S P
After the dance we thanked our hosts and returned home.
P S P
Exercises
Identify the elements of the sentences below.
1. My scarf is green.
2. Manuel is a remarkable student.
3. Peter, Teresa and Claude are siblings.

5. 4. Looking down from the top of the pass we saw the barren land spread
magnificently before us.
5. Another month of hot weather gradually wore away.
6. For seven years Anthony clerked in a small grocery store.
7. The brilliant and fascinating studies of Mr. Green have been followed by all kinds
of biographical efforts.
8. The new car slid down into a broad.
9. Your ability to decide depends upon your working knowledge of the metric system
10. The White house and the Pentagon called a new press conference
Decide if the underlined word is working as a pronoun or as a determiner.
1. This car is blue
2. Those are my children.
3. That is the person I talked about.
4. Many students did the activity.
5. Several are in class.
References:
http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/pronounindefinite.htm
http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/pronouns.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronoun