Words
Find two of the following in the sentences below. Give reasons for your answer by explaining the morphological structure:
- A simple word
- A compound word
- A complex word
- birthday: a compound word (two free morphemes: birth, day)
- buy: simple word with one free morpheme
- Pyramids: Complex word
(free morpheme: pyramid+ bound morpheme:S)
Find one example for each of the following phrases in the sentences below.
- A noun phrase
- A verb phrase
- An adjective phrase
- A prepositional phrase (with its complement)
Should we buy Billy a new hat for his birthday?
VP: should buy
Modal auxiliary: should
Main verb: buy
NP: we
NP: Billy
NP: a new hat
Pre-mod: a new
Head: hat
AdjP: new
PrepP: for his birthday
Preposition: for
Complement: his birthday
NP: his birthday
Pre-mod: his
Head: birthday
1- Find the main and the dependent clauses in the following sentence.
2- Label each clause element in the sentences below (S, V, IO, DO, SP, OP, ADV).
Should we buy Billy a new hat for his birthday, a two-way ticket to the Egyptian Pyramids would be great.
Dependent: Should we buy Billy a new hat for his birthday
Independent: a two-way ticket to the Egyptian Pyramids would be great
Should (V) we (S) buy (V) Billy (IO) a new hat (DO) for his birthday (ADV)?
Find two grammatical mistakes in the following sentences. There is one mistake in each. Explain the reason.
1. Emotions are easy affected by stress.
2. People which suffer from stress often feel anxious.
3. When people is under stress, they often overreact to little problems.
1. Emotions are easy affected by stress.
2. People which suffer from stress often feel anxious.
3. When people is under stress, they often overreact to little problems.
How are these sentence pairs different in form (word class or phrase type), function (clause elements) and meaning? You should focus on the elements that differ. It may help to first analyse the sentences syntactically (find the clause elements). Remember to include relevant grammatical terminology.
-a. Matilda bought him a present.
- b. matilda bought a present.
a) Matilda (S) bought (V) him (IO) a present (DO).
b) Matilda (S) bought (V) a present (DO).
Here, there is a difference in the clause elements present in the sentences. Whilst a) has both an indirect object (him) and a direct object (a present), sentence b) has only a direct object (a present). In sentence a), the present was bought for a specific person, whilst in b) it’s not clear who the present is for.
Find two of the following in the sentences below. Give reasons for your answer by explaining the morphological structure:
- A simple word
- A compound word
- A complex word
The cheerful boy watered the sunflower.
A small bird flew away.
Simple word: "bird" — Consists of a single free morpheme that cannot be broken down into smaller meaningful units.
Compound word: "sunflower" — Formed by combining two independent free morphemes ("sun" + "flower") into a single word with a new distinct meaning.
Complex word: "cheerful" — Consists of a free base root morpheme ("cheer") attached to a bound derivational suffix ("-ful").
How are these sentence pairs different in form (word class or phrase type), function (clause elements) and meaning? You should focus on the elements that differ. It may help to first analyse the sentences syntactically (find the clause elements). Remember to include relevant grammatical terminology.
a. He plays the piano every evening.
b. He is playing the piano this evening.
a) He (s) plays (v) the piano (do) every evening (adv).
b) He (s) is playing (v) the piano (do) this evening (adv).
In these two sentences, the key difference is in the verbal. A) uses the simple present tense, which can be used to describe a habit, and this is further supported by the adverbial ‘every evening’, indicating that playing the piano is indeed a habit. B), however, uses the present continuous tense indicating either that he is currently playing the piano (an ongoing action at the moment of speaking) or -perhaps less commonly- that he is planning to play the piano this evening (i.e. present continuous to indicate a future plan). The adverbial ‘this evening’ shows that him playing the piano is happening tonight, we don’t know whether this is a habit or not.