Structure of The English Language

Definition of Language Language is the source of human life and power. Language came from the Latin word  lingua  which means, “...

1. Definition of Language

1. Language is the source of human life and power.
2. Language came from the Latin word lingua which means, “to talk.”
3. Language is inseparable from society.

2. Design Feature of Language by Charles Hocket:

1. Arbitrary – there is no inherent relations between the words of a language and the meaning it conveys.
2. Vocal Auditory Channel – spoken language is produced using vocal tract and transmitted and heard through sound.
3. Displacement – ability to talk about things not physically present.
4. Systematic – all languages have their system of arrangement.
5. Productive or Creative (Open-endedness) – language changes according to the need of society; it can be combined to produce new utterances. 
6. Cultural or Traditional Transmission – learning of language occurs in social groups.
7. Duality of Patterning –meaningless signs (words) are made of and distinguished from one another by meaningless parts (sounds).
8. Learnability – speakers of one language can learn to speak another language.
9. Prevarication – ability to make false statement in order to fool other member of the group.
10. Reflexiveness – language can be used to refer to itself.

1. Metalanguage – words used to describe language itself.

11. Rapid Fading or Transitoriness – the sound made by speech diminishes quickly after its release.
12. Interchangeability – the speaker has the ability to receive and send the same message.
13. Broadcast Transmission and Directional Reception – the audible sound of language is heard in all directions.
14. Specialization – speech is produced for communication.
15. Conventional or Non-instinctive – language is the evolution of convention.

3. Systems of language:

1. Phonological System – sounds of language
2. Morphological System – forms of language
3. Syntactic System – arrangement of words
4. Semantic System – meaning of the words in a particular language

4. Changes in Language:

1. Phonological Change – change in sound

1. Night (modern English) – Nix (Old English)

2. Morphological Change – change in the form of the word; can be a change in its case (Nominative, Vocative, Objective, Dative, Possessive)
3. Syntactical Change – change in the arrangement of words

1. Old English: The man the king slew. (object comes before the verb)
2. Modern English: The man slew the king (verb comes before the object)

4. Lexical Change – addition of new words, or loss of words.

1. Borrowed : Feast (French) Algebra (Spanish)
2. Loss of Words: beseem – suit wherefore – why  mammet – puppet

5. Semantic Change – changes or addition in the meaning of words.

1. Holiday – used to mean religious day but its present use suggests a day where work or class is suspended.
2. Meat – used to mean food in general but narrowed down to flesh.
3. Knight – used to mean youth but shifted to man-at-arms.
4. Lust – used to mean pleasure in general but shifted its meaning to sexual pleasure.
5. Nice – used to mean ignorant but shifted to kind

5. History of the English Language

1. Indo-European Language

1. Celtic – the smallest unit of language
2. Germanic – came the English language
3. Trachian – has the most borrowed words
4. Indian – has the most languages totaling to 16 languages.

2. Four Periods of English language

1. Old English (500-1100 AD)

1. It came from the Romanic tribes: Angles, Saxon and Jutes
2. Runic – old English alphabet

2. Middle English (1100 -1500 AD)

1. French vocabulary is widely used
2. The loss of inflection occurred, but “es” and “ed” remained.

3. Early Modern English (1500 – 1800 AD)

1. Vowel shift
2. The invention of Printing Press eventually helped established spelling.

4. Late Modern English (1800 – Present)

1. The borrowing of words is common and accepted.

6. Human Speech Apparatus

1. Four Speech Mechanism:

1. Motors – used to compress the air such as lungs, diaphragm, trachea, bronchial tubes, cartilages, ovula (throat) and ribs.
2. Vibrators – Larynx (Adam’s Apple or Voice box) and Vocal cords
3. Resonators – group of head chambers in the head and in the throat which includes the pharynx (throat), nasal cavity, oral cavity
4. Articulators – used to produce sounds accurately such as lips (rounded and unrounded), tongue (front, back, tip), jaw, hard palate, soft palate (velum), alveolar ridge, mouth and teeth (upper and lower)

7. Phonetics – a branch of linguistics that study of human speech sounds.

1. Branch of Phonetics:

1. Articulatory – deals with pronunciation of sounds
2. Acoustic – deals with the transmission of sounds
3. Auditory – deals with the perception of sounds

2. Phonology – study of sounds or sound patterning

1. Phonemes – smallest unit of perceivable sounds.

1. English phonemes have 24 consonant sounds.

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Interdental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop Voiceless Voiced	/p/ /b/			/t/ /d/		/k/ /g/
Nasal	/m/			/n/		/ŋ/
Fricative Voiceless Voiced		/f/ /v/	/θ/ /δ/	/s/ /z/	/ς/ /ž/		/h/
Affricative Voiceless Voiced					/č/ /ǰ/
Glide Voiceless Voiced					/j/	/w/	/h/
Liquid				/l/ /r/

2. English phonemes have 12 vowel sounds and 3 diphthongs.

2. Kinds of Phonemes:

1. Segmental Phonemes –vowels and consonants.
2. Suprasegmental Phonemes – stress, juncture, pitch, and intonation.

3. Place of Articulation

1. Bilabial – the upper and lower lips brought together.
2. Labiodental – articulations produced with the lower lip approximating to the underside of the upper front teeth.
3. Interdental – produced by the front of the tongue touching the back of the upper front teeth.
4. Alveolar – produced by the tip of the tongue touching the gum ridge behind the upper teeth.
5. Palatal – produced by the front upper surface of the tongue and the hard palate at the top of the mouth.
6. Velar – produced with the back of the tongue dorsum raised up to the soft palate.
7. Glottal – produced with two pieces of vocal folds pushed towards each other.

4. Manner of Articulation

1. Stop – the articulators are brought close together and the airflow in the oral cavity is blocked.
2. Nasal – formed by a complete closure in the oral cavity as the air passes through the nasal cavity.
3. Fricative – articulators are brought close together but not so close as to block the airflow completely; produced with a little friction
4. Affricative – produced by stopping the airstream from the lungs and then slowly releasing it with friction; starts as plosives, ends as fricatives
5. Glide – pronounced like a vowel but with the tongue closer to the roof of the mouth, so that there is slight turbulence.
6. Liquid – made by putting the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, then letting the airstream flow around the sides of the tongue.

5. Stress is generally defined as syllable prominence.

1. Kinds of Stress:

1. Primary Stress (ʹ) – extreme loud and the sounds are given full value
2. Secondary Stress (^) – less loudness; for long words such as knowledgeable.
3. Tertiary Stress (‘) – lighter than the secondary.
4. Weak Stress (˅) – vowel are obscured.

2. Most words with two syllables are stressed on the first syllable.

1. Ex. Le’sson, a’lways, ho’ly, be’tter

3. Compound nouns have primary stress on the first component and a secondary stress on the second. 

1. Ex. Pe’acock, su’nflower, bla’ckboard, mi’lkfish

4. Compound Verbs have a primary stress on the second component and a secondary stress on the first component.

1. Ex. Understa’nd, outdo’, intera’ct

5. Intensive-reflexive pronouns receive stronger stress on the second syllable.

1. Ex. Yourse’lf, myse’lf, ourse’lves

6. Numbers ending in “teen” show a rhythmic shift in stress from the first syllable to the last to distinguish clearly between: 

1. Ex. Thi’rty – Thirte’en, Fo’rty – Fourte’en

7. Many words show a functional shift in stress to indicate their use either as noun(first syllable) or as a verb(second syllable). (Ex. Pre’sent(n) – Prese’nt(v), re’cord – reco’rd)
8. Generally, when a suffix is added to a word, the new form retains the stress on the same syllable as the word from which it was derived. (Ex. Ha’ppy – ha’ppiness, clo’udy – clo’udiness)
9. Words ending in “tion,” “sion,” “ic,” “ical,” and “ity” always have primary stress on the syllable preceding the ending. (Ex. Lo’gical, examina’tion, histo’ric)

6. Word-shift – refers to the tendency of some words to shift their stress pattern; also called stress-shift. 

1. Neutral Suffixes – do not affect the main word stress and do not cause the stress to shift when they are added.

1. Examples:

-able

-age

-al

-ary

-er/or

-ful

-hood

-ible

-ice

-ile

-ish

-ism

-ist

-ize

-less

-ly

-ment

-most

-oid

-ship

-some

-th

-ward

-wise

-y

-en

-dom

-phile

-phobe

-proof

2. 
   
3. Strong Suffixes – force the stress to shift over.

1. Examples:

-al/ally

-ance/ancy/ant

-ary/ery/ory

-ate

-bility

-cy/cracy

-eous

-graphy/grapher

-id/ide/cide

7. Intonation – the change of level of voice; the rise and fall of pitch in our voice; the most important element of a good accent.

1. Levels:  (1) – low

(2) – medium

(3) – high

(4) – extra/very high

2. Kinds of Intonation:

1. Falling Intonation – for questions answerable by yes or no and tag questions to ask.
2. Rising Intonation – for enumeration.
3. Rising-falling Intonation – for declarative sentences, questions not answerable by yes or no, and tag questions to confirm.
4. Falling-rising Intonation – used when we are not sure.

3. Functions of Intonation:

1. Attitudinal – used to convey attitude, emotion, or feelings.
2. Accentual – used to emphasize what needs to be perceived.
3. Grammatical – used to signal grammatical structures.
4. Discourse – used to communicate…
5. Sociological Function – used to socialize with other people…

8. Morphology

1. Morphology studies morphemes and their different forms and the way they combine in word formation.

1. Morphemes – the smallest linguistic unit that carries grammatical and/or semantic meaning.

1. Free Morpheme – can constitute a word by itself.
2. Bound Morpheme – has meaning only when connected with at least another morpheme.

2. Morph refers to the combination of morphemes.
3. Allomorph – variations of producing morphemes especially bound morphemes.

1. Tense Marker for part tense /ed/ (e.g., walked (/t/) – blended (/ed/) – learned (/d/)). 

4. Stem – a morpheme or combinations of morpheme to which the affix is added.

1. Root – a morpheme to which an affix is added that is not further divisible (e.g., boys – boy)
2. Base – a morpheme to which an affix is added that may further be divisible (e.g., boyishly – boyish)

5. Affix is a morpheme that is always added to a word.

1. Prefix is one that is added to the beginning of the stem.
2. Suffix is one that is added to the end of the stem.
3. Infix is one that is inserted in the middle of the stem.
4. Circumfix is one that is inserted in the initial and final part of the stem.

2. Bound Morpheme

1. Inflectional Morpheme – does not change the syntactic meaning, that is parts of speech, but alter its tense, number, and degree of intensity.

1. VERB: Tense Marking Affixes: -s, -ed, -ing, -en (e.g, work – works).
2. NOUN: Number Marking Affixes: -s, es (e.g., piano – pianos).
3. ADJECTIVE: Degree of Comparison: -er, -est (e.g., pretty – prettier – prettiest).

2. Derivative Morpheme – refers to the one that creates an entirely new word.

1. Negative Marking Affixes: im, in, un, under, -less (e.g., perfect – imperfect).
2. Gender Marking Affixes: -ess (e.g., actor – actress).

3. Word – unit of language consisting one or more spoken sounds or their written representation that functions as principal carrier of meanings.

1. Simple Words –consists of a single free morpheme (e.g., boy, sound).
2. Compound Words – consists of two or more words joined together.

1. Close Compound Word – e.g., grandmother, ballpen, basketball.
2. Open Compound Word – e.g., full moon
3. Hyphenated Compound Word – e.g., one-half

3. Complex Words – contain either two bound forms (e.g., precipitation, lively).

4. Word Classes 

1. Closed Class – termed as the function words or grammatical words since their roles are largely or wholly grammatical and contains small elements; “closed” in the sense that we cannot add new words to these classes.

1. Prepositions are words used before a noun or pronoun to show the relationship between the noun or a pronoun and another word in the sentence.
2. Pronouns are words used in place of a noun. They can be personal pronouns, adjective pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, distributive pronouns, expletive pronouns, indefinite pronouns, intensive pronouns, interrogative pronouns, possessive pronouns, relative pronouns, reciprocal pronouns, and reflexive pronouns.
3. Determiners can be the articles (a, an, the), demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those) , possessive pronouns (my, your, his, her, their, our), and quantifiers (a lot of, many, much, a few, every, each, all, most, both, half, some, any, no, etc.)
4. Conjunctions are words used to connect words, phrases, or clauses. They are divided into: coordinate conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or, nor, for), correlative conjunctions (e.g., either-or, nether-nor, whether-or, not only-but also, both-and), and subordinate conjunctions (e.g., after, although, before, if, provided, etc.).
5. Interjections are words used as a sudden remark usually expressing feelings, such as exclamation, sorrow, surprise, regret, etc.
6. Modal verbs are verbs with special meanings but cannot function independently as predicate verbs in a clause. They are can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must, need and dare.
7. Primary verbs like be, have, do cannot function independently as predicate verbs in a clause.

2. Open Class – termed as the content words or lexical words in the sense that they all carry certain semantic contents and contains many elements; “open” in the sense that we can add new words to these classes.

1. Nouns refer to or name something which may be a person, place, thing, idea, animal, action, quality and a point in time. They are generally classified into proper nouns and common nouns. Common nouns may further be classified into concrete, abstract, countable, uncountable, collective, mass, compound, diminutive, and agent noun.
2. Full verbs tell what someone or something is, does, or experiences. Full verbs can be further divided into transitive and intransitive verbs.
3. Adjectives describe a noun or a pronoun. Adjectives may be proper, common, possessive, numerical, indefinite, demonstrative, and descriptive adjectives.
4. Adverbs modify, describe, or add qualities to verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They can be classified into adverbs of manner, adverbs of place, adverbs of time, adverbs of frequency, adverbs of duration, adverbs of degree, adverbs of negation, adverbs of affirmation, adverbs of quantity, interrogative adverbs, relative adverbs, and conjunctive adverbs.
5. Numerals are words that denote numbers or the order. They fall into two categories: Cardinal Numerals which refer to those denoting the numbers (e.g., one, two, one hundred) and Ordinal Numerals which refer to those denoting the order (e.g., first, second).

9. PHRASES

1. The word ‘phrase’ comes, via Latin, from the Greek phrazein meaning ‘to tell’. A phrase provides additional information to a statement. It is a word or group of words without a finite verb which forms a grammatical unit that can do the work of an adjective, an adverb, a verb or a noun.
2. NOUN PHRASE

1. Noun phrases have the following basic structure:

Determiner	Pre-modifier	Noun	Post-modifier
some	Popular	book	on astronomy

2. Here are examples of possible structures of noun phrases: 

1. noun  books
2. determiner + noun  those books
3. pre-modifier + noun   new books
4. determiner + pre-modifier + noun  some long books
5. noun + post-modifier  books on astronomy
6. determiner + noun + post-modifier some books on astronomy
7. pre-modifier + noun + post-modifier   popular books on astronomy
8. determiner + pre-modifier + noun +post-modifier some popular books on astronomy

3. Determiners introduce noun phrases. These come before the noun (e.g., a bomb,this idea, my bag.)

1. The articles (a, an, the)
2. Demonstrative Pronouns (this, that, these, those) 
3. Possessive Pronouns (my, your, his, her, their, our).
4. Quantifiers (a lot of, many, much, a few, every, each, all, most, both, half, some, any, no, etc.)

4. Pre-modifiers in a noun phrase occur before the noun, and after any determiners which may be present.

1. In a noun phrase, the pre-modifier is typically an adjective (e.g., green eyes, a young child). Furthermore, pre-modifiers can co-occur, that is, more than one adjective can pre-modify the same noun (e.g., lovely green eyes, an innocent young child).
2. Nouns can also function as pre-modifiers (e.g., bank manager, the President’s office).

5. Post-modifiers in a noun phrase occur after the noun.

1. Post-modifiers are most commonly prepositional phrases introduced by of: (e.g., top of the hill
2. The post-modifier may also introduced by other prepositions: (e.g., on, in, between, etc.)
3. The post-modifier can also be an adverb phrase, an adjective phrase or a noun phrase
4. Post-modifiers in a noun phrase can co-occur. The following examples illustrate noun phrases with two post-modifiers each: (e.g., a holiday [for two] [in Rome])
5. As well as prepositional phrases, post-modifiers of noun phrases can be relative clauses (e.g., the boy who lives beside us).

6. The appositive clause, introduced by the conjunction that, can also modify a noun phrase: (e.g., the assumption that people act out of self-interest).
7. To clauses can also be used as post-modifiers (e.g., a valve to regulate the airflow)
8. Apposition is a relationship between two noun phrases which have identical reference:

9. The poet, Andrew Motion, has been awarded for his excellence in the field of literature.

6. The Functions of Noun Phrase:

1. Subject  A large tile fell from the roof.
2. Subject Complement She is a teacher of English.
3. Direct Object  The plane left the runway.
4. Indirect Object  She told the chairman the bad news.
5. Object Complement  He called her an idiot.
6. Object of the Preposition The passengers left in a hurry through fire exits.

3. VERB PHRASE

1. The typical structure of the verb phrase consists of a main verb preceded optionally by a maximum of three auxiliary verbs. 

Auxiliary 1	Auxiliary 2	Auxiliary 3	Main Verb
Modal	Perfect	Progressive	Passive
might	have been	being	played

2. Usually, a maximum of two or three auxiliaries will co-occur, as in the following examples:

1. Modal – Passive:  The seat can be lowered.
2. Progressive – Passive: This lecture is being recorded.
3. Perfective – Progressive: She has been collecting books for years.
4. Perfective – Passive:  The deficit has been reduced.
5. Modal – Perfective – Passive: The concert should have been cancelled.

3. Irregular main verbs have either fewer or more forms than regular main verbs. For example, put has only three forms: put, puts, putting.
4. The irregular verb be has the most forms, eight in all:

1. 
   
2. Base form: be
3. Present: am, is, are
4. Past: was, were
5. -ing participle: being
6. Past participle:  been

4. 
   
5. ADJECTIVE PHRASE

1. Adjective phrases have the following basic structure:

Pre-modifier	Adjective	Post-modifier
very	reluctant	to leave

1. Here are some examples of possible structures of adjective phrases:

Adjective happy

Pre-modifier + adjective  very happy

Adjective + post-modifier  happy to see you

Pre-modifier + adjective + post-modifier  very happy that you could join us

2. The pre-modifier in an adjective phrase is most commonly an intensifier. (very useful, extremely cold)
3. In expressions of measurement and age, a noun phrase may function as a pre-modifier in an adjective phrase: three months old a metre long 10 mm wide  

2. The Major Functions of Adjective Phrases are:

1. Subject Complement Our aunt is quite ill.
2. Pre-modifier of a Noun  Emily was wearing a very old dress.
3. Object Complement The new wallpaper makes the room much brighter.

6. PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE

1. Prepositional phrases have the following basic structure:

Pre-modifier	Adverb	Complement
just	after	the game

1. The prepositional complement is typically a noun phrase, but it may also be a nominal relative clause or an -ing clause 

1. Complement as noun phrase: through the window
2. Complement as nominal relative clause from what I heard (‘from that which I heard’)
3. Complement as -ing clause after speaking to you

2. The Major Functions of Prepositional Phrases are:

1. Adjective  The population of China is growing.
2. Adverb I’ve got to see the doctor on Wednesday.

7. PARTICIPIAL PHRASE

Participle (verb + ing/ed/d/t/en)	Modifier/Complement
believing	that the sun would come out

1. Uses of Participial Phrase:

1. Adjective Believing that the sun would come out, they planned the picnic.

8. GERUND PHRASE

Gerund (verb + ing)	Modifier/Complement
playing	chess

1. Uses of Gerund Phrase:

1. Subject Playing chess has improved his management skill.
2. Direct Object He prefers exercising in the afternoon
3. Object of the Preposition He is determined about finishing the course.
4. Appositive His favorite past time, collecting coins, is making him satisfied.
5. Predicate Nominative Paul’s greatest work is fishing for men. 

9. INFINITIVE PHRASE

Infinitive (to + verb)	Modifier/Complement
to get	some milk

1. Uses of Infinitive Phrase:

1. Noun To pass the examination is his prime purpose.
2. Adverb He went to get some milk.
3. Adjective This is not the time to start quarreling.

10. CLAUSES

1. Clause – a group of related words containing a subject and a verb; a group of words containing its subject and verb used as part of the sentence.
2. Main or Independent Clause – expresses a complete thought (subject + predicate).
3. Subordinate or Dependent Clause – cannot stand as a sentence because it does not express a complete thought (conjunction + subject + predicate).

1. Noun Clause – functions as a noun and uses connecting words such as how, if, that, what, whatever, who, whoever, whom, whomever, whose, why, when, where, whether and which.

1. Subject Whatever you decide is fine with me.
2. Direct Object I will sue whoever stole my wallet.
3. Object of the Preposition Lacey talked about how she had won the contest.
4. Predicate Nominative The problem is that my GPS is lost.

2. Adjective Clause –used to modify or describe a noun or pronoun and uses connecting words such as who, whom, whose, that, when, where and why.
3. Adverb Clause – modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb and uses connecting words such as after, although, as, as far as, as if, as soon as, as though, as long as, because, before, even though, if, in order that, since, so that, than, though, until, when, whenever, where, wherever, and while.

11. SENTENCE

1. Sentence - a word or group of words that expresses complete meaning.
2. Fragments - a word or group of words without complete meaning.
3. Two Main Structures of Sentence:

1. Subject – the topic of the sentence or the one being talked about in the sentence.
2. Predicate – supplies information to the subject or describes or tells something about it.

4. Position of Sentence:

1. Normal – the subject comes before the predicate (e.g., The night is lonely.)
2. Inverted – the predicate comes before the subject (e.g., Lonely is the night.) 

5. Functions of Sentences:

1. To State Idea (Declarative)
2. To Express Strong emotion (Exclamatory)
3. To Give Command or Request (Imperative)
4. To Ask Questions (Interrogative)
5. To Persuade (Rhetorics)
6. To Argue

6. Sentence Patterns

1. S-IV (Subject – Intransitive Verb) 
2. S-IV-ADV (Subject – Intransitive Verb – Adverb) 
3. S-LV-C (Subject – Linking Verb – Complement)

1. S-LV-PN (Subject – Linking Verb – Predicate Nominative )
2. S-LV-PA (Subject – Linking Verb – Predicate Adjective)

4. S-TV-DO (Subject – Transitive Verb – Direct Object )
5. S-TV-DO –OC (Subject – Transitive Verb – Direct Object – Object Complement)
6. S-TV-IO-DO (Subject – Transitive Verb – Indirect Object – Direct Object)

7. Active and Passive Sentences

1. Active – the subject is the doer of the action
2. Passive – the subject is the receiver of the action and usually uses the preposition “by”.

8. Sentence Types as to Structure:

1. Simple – consists of only one independent clause but either or both the subject and predicate can be compound.

1. Example: My son toasts and butters his bagel.

2. Compound – consists of two or more independent clause that can be joined by coordinating conjunction (and, or, but, for, nor, yet, so) or a semicolon.

1. Example: Men are mammals and women are femammals.

3. Complex – contains only one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

1. Example: Parallel lines never meet until you bend one of them.

4. Compound-complex – contains two or more independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

1. Example: I planned to drive but I couldn’t until the mechanic repaired my car.

9. Minor Sentence – one does not necessarily have a main verb in it but can be understood as a complete unit of meaning. (Ex. What time are you leaving? Three.)
10. One Word Sentence or Sentence Word – a single word that forms a full sentence (Ex. Come! John!).
11. Sentence Word Syntax – consists of overt, the visible part of the sentence, and covert, the removed part. (Ex. [that is] Excellent!)