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