WORDS AND WORD PHRASES

WHAT ARE WORDS? Basic element of language.

They are independent in their role in larger units.

CAN BE CLASSIFIED INTO THREE GROUPS

Lexical Words or Content Words

Function Words or Structural Words

Inserts

LEXICAL WORDS They are the main carriers of information in a text.They can be subdivided into: word class They are open-class.They have a complex internal structure and can be

composed of several parts.They can be head of phrases.They are generally stressed in speech. they remain if a sentence is compressed in a

newspaper headline.

Lexical word classes

Common Nouns Nouns

Proper Nouns

Lexical Verbs

Adjectives

( handsome, talkative, nice)

Adverbs

(slowly, rarely, carefully)

Function Words ClassesThey can be categorized in terms of word classes.

They indicate meaning relationship, they help us to interpret units.

They belong to closed class.

Determiners

Indefinite article Definite articleDemonstrative determiners ( this, that,these,those)

Quantifiers ( specify how many or how much of a noun)

Pronouns Personal ( subjective and objective)DemonstrativesReflexive ( they refer back to the previous

noun phrase, eg, myself, yourself, etc.)Reciprocal ( they refer to a previous noun

phrase but indicate a mutual relationship)Possessive Indefinite ( someone, everything, nobody)

Relatives ( that, who, which)Interrogatives ( Wh- questions)

Auxiliaries verbsPrimary Auxiliaries: be – have – do

Modal Auxiliaries: will- can- shall- may – must- would- could- should might.

Prepositions

Adverbial particlesGroup of words closely linked to verbs. They are used

to build phrasal verbs. ( break down, shut up, find out)

CoordinatorsCoordinating Conjunctions : and – but- or- nor.Correlative coordinators: both / and – either /or – not

only / but also – neither/ nor.Subordinators : introduce clauses known as

dependant clauses. ( if, because, since, while, however)

Grammatical Units : are meaningful elements which combine with each other in a structural pattern.

SENTENCES The window was open and a bird flew into

the room.CLAUSES

I´m studying English.

PHRASESThe teacher. Very expensive.

Rather slowly.

WORDS

See - football – cheap – walked – the

MORPHEMES: minimal unit form. It may be a whole word or a word formation ( eg. suffixes, prefixes)

man ( single word)

Manly ( 2 morphemes)

man + ly (suffix)

Unkind ( 2 morphemes)

un (prefix) + kind