LANG 2: Morphosyntax

Inflectional morphemes

Inflectional morphemes are always suffixes in English

Adding inflectional morphemes never changes the word class (part of speech)

-s, -'s, -er, -est, -ed, -ing, -en

Derivational morphemes

A sentence is made of...

System #1: Subject + Predicate

System #2: Subject + Verb + [Object]

Main verbs and Auxillary Verbs

Main verbs:

- copula verbs

EX: i am hungry, he is the instructor, it feels funny

Auxillary (helping) verbs:

- he is running, you should be running, they have been running

8 parts of speech

Nouns- To name people, things, places, or ideas.

Pronouns - To avoid repetitions by replacing nouns

Adjectives - To modify, describe, or elaborate nouns and pronouns.

Verbs- To express actions, states of being, or occurrences

Adverbs- – To modify, describe, elaborate verbs, other adverbs, or adjectives (How? When? Where? To what extent?)

Prepositions - To show relationships between words in a sentences

Conjunctions - – To connect words, phrases, or clauses

Interjection (E.g., Huh! Ouch! Wow! Oops! Oh! Yay!)

indefinite pronouns

Some pronouns do not refer to a specific person or thing

I doubt if anyone is coming.

Nothing ever happens on Monday.

I gave her everything.

Relative pronouns

a class of words used to refer to a noun in the main clause

I will answer to whoever knocks on the door

he found the book that is missing

boji, who is our instructor, is supposed to be very demanding

*Coordinating vs. subordinating conjunctions (compound vs complex sentences)

Coordinating conjunctions = compound sentences

Subordinating conjunctions = complex sentences

Coordinating conjunctions:

They can be used to join words, phrases, or two main independent clauses

The major structure used to form compound sentences.

has equal importance and weight

FANBOYS

Subordinating conjunctions

The more frequently used conjunctions; a greater set of words

The structure used to join a main (independent) clause to a subordinate (dependent) clause (i.e. a major type of complex sentences) 

Note: Main (independent) clauses are not necessarily clauses that can be grammatical by themselves (some examples later) 

1. After you finish lunch, [I will wash the dishes].

2.Before I wash the dishes, [finish the lunch].

3.Once you have finished your lunch, [I will wash the dishes].

4.Whenever my mom is away, [I turn the TV on].

5.Since you do not believe me anyway, [I won’t say a word].

6.[I won’t say a word] unless you apologize.

9.[He found] that it was ridiculous*.

Five common types of phrases

Noun phrase “[The little girl] needs to see [a doctor]”

Verb phrase “He [should have told] her about the results”

Preposition phrase “[In March], I will go [to San Francisco]”

Adjective Phrase “The test is [very expensive]” 

Adverb phrase “I read [daily]”; “I drink [much too often]”

What is a clause?

Clauses are more complex than phrases

*Clauses often have their own subject and predicate; phrases do not

Types of clauses

Noun clause (i.e., it functions like a noun at subject/object position)

[What I believe] is not important.

I don't believe [that he has told her].

Adverbial clause

I need more coffee [before the day begins].

[If it rains], they would not go .

Relative (adjective) clause

Here's the book [that I told you about].

Comparative clauses

They bought as many Beanie Babies [as they could afford].

John has more experience [than Richard has].