大学英语语法 unit 1 Sentence Structure

Lecture 1 Sentence Structure

1. What is grammar? Any systematic account of the structure of a language; the patterns that it describes; the branch of linguistics concerned with such patterns. Often restricted to relations among units that have meaning. Hence opp. Phonology. Eg. Singing is a grammatical unit, as are sing and – ing, while [s] or the syllable [si] are phonological. Also opposed, though again not always, to a dictionary or the lexicon. Eg. The meaning of sing belong to its entry in lexicon; the role of –ing to grammar, where it is described for verbs in general.

1.Basic Concepts1.1 Morphemes 1.2 Words 1.3 Phrases 1.4 Clauses 1.5 Sentences

2. More terms: Morpheme: a unit smaller than the word which has grammatical as opposed to lexical meaning. Free morphemes have a complete meaning and can stand by itself as a simple word. It can sometimes act as a complete utterance in connected speech. Eg: bed, tree, sing, dance.

Bound morphemes are those that have to be attached to other words. Bound morphemes are most affixes. AllomorphsThe same morpheme in different contexts may take different phonological or orthographical forms. the variants of the same morpheme are called―allomorphs‖. Eg: map--maps, dog--dogs, watch--watches, mouse—mice, ox—oxen, tooth— teeth.

TipsRoot, Stem & morpheme Polymorphemic words other than compounds may divide into roots and affixes. root– is the base form of a word which can not be further analyzed without any loss of identity. That is to say it is that part of word left when all the affixes are removed. affix– is the collective term for the type of formative that can be used only when added to another morpheme (the root or stem ). Naturally affixed belong to the type of bound morphemes.

stem– is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an affix can be added.

Ex: analyze the following words and show how many morphemes each of them contains: specialize, pretentious, unsympathetic, crudity, indisputable, individuality, halfhearted, bird’s-eye, gaslight, backburner, officer-in-charge, a man of letters, downfall, dining-room, power-drunk.

1.2 Words The word is composed of one or more than one morpheme. In terms of word-formation, it falls Into simple, derivative and compound words; Semantically, it can be divided into function and content word. 1.2.1 word-formation a) Affixation—Use the affixes to form new word. Affixes include prefix, suffix and infix. (see P4-5) prefix: para-, mini-, un-

suffix: -ise, -tion infix: foot/feet, goose/geese b) Composition—to form compound by combining two or more free morphemes.(see P 6)Ex: explain the meanings of the prefixes and suffixes in the following words: astir, awhir, deplane, disambiguate, ecocide, megajet, mini-budget, nonnovel, outsmart, supertax, anti-Marketeer cinerama, meritocrat, interviewee, racketeer, topsider, gangsterese, hawkish, narrowish, nuclearism, golfitis, beatnik, protestnik, dopester, huckster, weatherw

ise.

a--to convert a verb into an adjective, astir =stirring, awhir=whirring. anti--against, opposite to (opp. pro-) de--apart, from; dis--apart, away. eco--house, about or of ecology mega– large, million; mini—small non--not out– out, beyond super-above, over; -rama,-ama—panorama, large -crat– supporter, participant; meritocrat(英才， 天才，能人统治者) -ee—one that receives or benefits from a specified action; -eer,-er—one associated with,concerning with, or engage in

eg: face-saver(保全人家面子的一种妥协或措施), marathoner(马拉松运动员), second-guesser (事后诸葛亮),third-placer(第三名), preschooler(学龄前儿童), tryer-outer(试用的 新机器),Long Marcher(参加长征的人), topsider(最高权威者) -ese, -ish—of, relating to, characteristic of -ism—characteristic behavior or quality -itis—inflammation of disease of, indulgence in,excessive preoccupation with eg:bronchitis(支气管炎), arthritis(关节炎), golfitis(高尔夫球癖), jazzitis(爵士音乐癖), adjectivitis(喜欢用形容词成癖), interviewitis (采访癖), presidentitis(当总统癖，总统的派 头),theateritis(戏剧癖)

-nik—one associated with or characterized by -wise– in a specified manner, direction, or position

3. The noun phrase 1) The simplest kinds of clause usually consist of nouns and verbs. Helen saw Bill. N V N Noun phrases consist of one head noun, which must always be present, and a number of further elements, all which are optional. Noun phrases can therefore consist o only one, or very many, words. If only one word is prese it will usually be either a proper noun or a pronoun. 2) The majority of noun phrases consist of a head noun plus one or two of the optional elements. These optional elements fit into four predetermined slots in the noun phrase: NP= ( __ __ __ __) 1 2 3 4

1= determiner and /or enumerator ( eg. the, first, a, his) 2= pre-head modification (eg. red, washed, painting ) 3=head noun 4= post-head modification (eg. In Leeds, which I showed you) Eg. NP ( a Judas Priest T-shirt with vents cut out) NP ( My____friend_____ ) NP ( ___ ___ ___ Bill who lives in Leeds) NP ( ___ ___ Benny ___) NP ( ___ ___ He ___)

3) The optional nature of elements 1, 2 and 4 means that noun phrases have a highly variable appearance --- from single words to very long passage of text. Eg. NP (___ ___ ___ she ___) NP (the old stone cottage at the top of the hill which had been condemned but was now up for renovation and which I had always dreamed of owning was too expensive) Cf. NP (it) was too expensive. 4) Slots 2 and 4 in particular can be almost infinitely expanded --- but note that slot 2 is usually occupied by single words (either adjectives or nouns with an adjective function), while slot 4 usually contains phrases or clauses, In all cases, the word in slot 3 is the most important one --- it can be replaced by a pro

noun, but never deleted.

4.The Verb Phrase Verb phrases consist of an obligatory main verb to which other, auxiliary (aux), verbs may be added, as well as negative particles and adverbs. Eg. He presses the snooze button. She may see me. He does not greatly care for the dark purplish bathroom suite. I’ve always wanted an en suite bathroom.

4.1 Finite verb phrases 1) Finite verb: Traditionally, a verb, inflected fro person and number. Now more generally of any verb whose form is such that it can stand in a simple declarative sentence.

Cf. Non-finite verb:Verb or verb form which is not finite: thus an infinitive, participle, or any other form whose role is nominal or adjective.

5. Syntax 5.1 Introduction to syntax When noun and verb phrases function together, they form clauses. The simplest types of clause consist of a noun phrase, a verb phrase and an optional third element (labelled as X) NP (…) VP(…) X(…) (VP cannot be deleted) subject predicate object/compliment (usually a NP or AdjP, or an Av element, or both O/C and Av) E.g. Bond ate the delicious food. The Turkish coffee was jet black. For ten minutes Bond stood. Bond stood for ten minutes. Bond ate the delicious food on a table.

6.3 Analyzing clause structure: 1) Find the main verb, which should not be deleted. Wives were the ladies at the bottom of the lake, their hair embraced by the seaweed. 2) Locate the subject, most likely to be to the left of the main verb. S (Wives) V (were)… Check for agreement by changing number: S (His wife) V (was)… 3) Locate X either by deletion, substitution, or movement Wives were… X is mobile, but not deletable, and not an adverbial. We could replace the whole of this X element with the word this.

6.4 Coordination Coordination is a process of linkage which does not differentiate between the two elements linked. It is often signalled by the presence of and, but this is not necessary. Where a linking word is present, the coordination is syndetic; when it is absent, it is asyndetic. When it links clauses, coordination contrasts with subordination, where there is some implication that the clauses that are linked are not of equal importance. In most texts, clauses are linked by both coordination and subordination, but the relative ratios can change dramatically depending on the style of the text.