What are the four levels of discourse analysis in English?
Although there is no consensus of opinion on the number of levels to be distinguished, it has been customary to set up at least four levels for English: the sound level, the morphological level, the syntactic level and the semantic level.
Explain morphosyntax
A morphosyntactic analysis of language uses criteria from both morphology and syntax to study language. Syntax is concerned with the way words combine to form sentences, while morphology is concerned with the forms of words.
What are the essential elements of morphosyntax?
The morpheme, the word, the phrase and the sentence.
What is a morpheme?
It is the minimal unit of grammatical description in the sense that it cannot be segmented any further at the grammatical level of analysis.
How can morphemes be classified? Explain the two forms
Morphemes can be classified into free and bound forms. Free morphemes can occur as separate words, e.g.: iron, cab.
Bound morphemes cannot occur on their own, e.g.: -tic, inter-. The word <unfriendly>, for example, is composed of three morphemes, since we can distinguish three irreducible elements: un - friend - ly; <friend> being a free morpheme and <un-> and <-ly> bound morphemes.</un-></friend></unfriendly>
Explain FREE MORPHEMES and the two types
They can stand by themselves as single words. Types:
- Lexical morphemes (nouns, adjectives and verbs) (e.g., boy, man, house, …)
- Functional morphemes (articles, pronouns, conjunctions, and prepositions) (e.g., and, but, when, …)
Explain BOUND MORPHEMES and the two types
They cannot normally stand alone: affixes (suffixes and prefixes). Types:
- Derivational morphemes (used to make new words in the language) (e.g., mis-, -ist, un-, …)
- Inflectional morphemes (used to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word) (e.g., -ed for past forms, -s for plurals, …)
What are the two main fields traditionally recognized within morphology?
Inflectional morphology and derivational morphology
Explain INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY (one of the two main fields traditionally recognized within morphology)
Inflectional morphology studies the way in which words vary (or inflect) in order to express grammatical contrasts in sentences. In older grammar books, this branch of the subject was referred to as “accidence”. These grammatical contrasts are called grammatical categories (Crystal, 1987):
- Aspect (perfective, imperfective, …)
- Case (nominative, vocative, …)
- Gender (masculine, feminine, …)
- Mood (indicative, subjunctive, …)
- Number (singular, dual, …)
- Person (first, second, …)
- Tense (present, past, …)
- Voice (active, passive, …)
Explain DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY (one of the two main fields traditionally recognized within morphology)
Derivational morphology studies the principles governing the construction of new words, without reference to the specific grammatical role a word might play in a sentence. There are some processes in English by which new words are created:
- Compounding (e.g.: sunburn)
- Blending (e.g.: brunch - breakfast and lunch)
- Coinage (e.g.: kleenex)
- Borrowing (e.g.: croissant - French word)
- Clipping (e.g.: lab - laboratory)
- Conversion (e.g.: guess - noun and verb)
- Acronyms (e.g.: laser - light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation)
- Affixation (e.g.: homeless)
What are the two classes (parts of speech) into which words have been grouped?
Closed classes (prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, modal verbs and primary verbs) and open classes (nouns, adjectives, full verbs and adverbs)
Apart from the morpheme and the word, what are the two major units of grammatical description? What’s the difference between them?
The two major units of grammatical description are the phrase and the sentence. The main difference between these two units is that a phrase is a constituent which can be identified on the basis of the word class membership of at least one of its constituent words, whereas a sentence is identifiable on the basis of the relations holding among its immediate constituents.
What types of phrases can be distinguished? What are their central constituent?
- Noun phrase (noun or pronoun)
- Adjective phrase (adjective)
- Adverb phrase (adverb)
- Prepositional phrase (preposition and completive)
- Verb phrase (lexical verb)
According to Downing and Locke (2002), the term “sentence” is widely used to refer to…
…quite different types of unit: grammatically, it is the highest unit and consists of one independent clause or two or more related clauses; orthographically and rhetorically, it is that unit which starts with a capital letter and comes between full tops.
What types of sentences can be distinguished?
- Independent clause or sentence. The simple sentence, consisting of one independent clause, as in “John sold his house”.
- Paratactic relationship or independent clauses. The compound sentence, consisting of two independent clauses, linked in a relationship of coordination, as in “John sold his house and Peter bought it”.
- Hypotactic relationship or dependent clauses. The complex sentence, consisting of one independent clause and one dependent clause, linked in a relationship of subordination, as in “While John bought the tickets, Mary parked the car”.
What are the six types of lexical verbs?
- Monotransitive verbs. Verbs with one extensive complement that is a Direct Object.
- Intransitive verbs. Verbs which do not take objects or complements.
- Ditransitive verbs. They take two Objects, Indirect and Direct, sequenced in that order, each of which can potentially become subject in a passive clause.
- Intensive or Copular verbs. Intensive verbs, sometimes referred to as relational, linking or copular, belong to a small group which include verbs like: be, seem, become, look, appear, etc.
- Complex transitive verbs. They are verbs with one Object and one intensive Complement.The Direct Object generally represents a person or thing, and the Object Complement adds information about this entry from the standpoint of the Subject as in I found the place empty.
- Prepositional verbs. They require a prepositional phrase in order to be complete: glance at, lean on, refer to, etc.
What aspects should a study of elementary communicative structures include?
- Formal classification of sentences. Simple sentences may be divided into four major syntactic types differentiated by their form
- Semantic classification of sentences. There are four classes of discourse function, four general semantic classes at the most general level (associated with the previous sentence types)
- Pragmatic classification of sentences. The four semantic classes of discourse functions distinguish discourse functions at the most general level. These pragmatic categories indicate how the semantic classes of sentences are used in actual utterances or speech acts, that is, when we deal with the hearer’s communication intention.
Explain FORMAL CLASSIFICATION OF SENTENCES (aspects that a study of elementary communicative structures should include)
Simple sentences may be divided into four major syntactic types differentiated by their form:
- Declaratives: sentences in which the subject is present and generally precedes the verb.
- Interrogative: sentences which are formally marked in one of two ways (Yes-No interrogatives, where the operator is placed in front of the subject / Wh- interrogatives, which have wh- element initially)
- Imperatives: sentences which normally have no overt grammatical subject, and whose verb has the base form.
- Exclamatives: sentences which have an initial phrase introduced by what or how, usually with subject-verb order.
Explain SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF SENTENCES (aspects that a study of elementary communicative structures should include)
There are four classes of discourse function, four general semantic classes at the most general level:
- Statements: they are primarily used to convey information
- Questions: they are primarily used to seek information on a specific point
- Directives: they are primarily used to instruct somebody to do something
- Exclamations: they are primarily used to express the extent to which the speaker is impressed by something
Explain PRAGMATIC CLASSIFICATION OF SENTENCES (aspects that a study of elementary communicative structures should include)
These pragmatic categories indicate how the semantic classes of sentences are used in actual utterances or speech acts, that is, when we deal with the hearer’s communication intention.
Utterances are speech acts. A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication. In speech act analysis, the effect of utterances on the behavior of speaker and hearer is studied using a threefold distinction (locutionary acts, illocutionary acts and perlocutionary acts)
According to Seattle (1969) and the speech act theory, what are the five basic, primitive illocutionary points?
- Directives (requesting, ordering and questioning)
- Assertive (asserting, concluding, informing, predicting and reporting)
- Commissives (warning, promising, threatening and guaranteeing)
- Declaratives (declaring war, performing a marriage, and calling a base runner “out”)
- Expressive (thanking, complaining, greeting and apologizing)
What are the two extreme approaches adopted by teachers when teaching grammar?
There are language teachers who focus on grammar as a set of forms and rules and associate “good” grammar with the prestige form of the language. They teach grammar by explaining the forms and rules and then drilling students on them. Other language teachers, influenced by recent theoretical work on the difference between language learning and language acquisition, tend not to teach grammar at all. Believing that children acquire their first language without overt grammar instruction, they expect students to learn their second language the same way.
Explain the COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE MODEL (related to the teaching of grammar)
The model recognizes that overt grammar instruction helps students acquire the language more efficiently, but it incorporates grammar teaching and learning into the larger context of teaching students to use the language. Instructors using this model teach students the grammar they need to know to accomplish defined communication tasks.
What are the three main implications to be considered as regards the goals and techniques for teaching grammar?
- Students need overt instruction that connects grammar points with larger communication contexts.
- Students do not need to master every aspect of each grammar point, only those that are relevant to the immediate communication task.
- Error correction is not always the instructor’s first responsibility.
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