期末语法复习资料

Grammar Outline for Final Exam, 2010

Grammar is the structural system of a language. The grammar of the English language is organized into five ranks: the sentence, the clause, the phrase, the word and the morpheme. Each rank is composed of one or more than one grammatical unit of the immediate lower rank. Thus the sentence is a grammatical unit that consists of one or more than one clause; the clause, one or more than one phrase; the phrase, one or more than one word; and the word, one or more than one morpheme. The sentence is the highest rank of grammatical unit while the morpheme is the minimum or the lowest rank. A full sentence can generally be segmented rank by rank down to its smallest constituents—the morphemes.

0.1 Morphemes. The morpheme is the minimum or smallest grammatical unit, also the

smallest meaningful element of speech. Morphemes fall into two categories: free morphemes and bound morphemes.

0.2 Words. The word is composed of one or more than one morpheme. Words can be classified in two ways:

0.3 Phrases. The phrase is composed of one or more than one word. Generally, the phrase

is a group of words organized in a specific way with a key words as its head. The word class of the head determines the class of the phrase and the way in which the words are organized.

0.4 Clauses. The clause is composed of one or more than one phrase. A full-fledged

clause is structurally a sequence of phrases and logically a construction of "subject + predicate".

1) Independent and dependent clauses.

2) Simple and complex clauses.

3) Main and subordinate clauses.

4) Finite and non-finite clauses.

5) Verbless clauses.

0.5 Sentences. The sentence is the highest rank of grammatical unit. Based on one or

more than one clause, the sentence is also the basic linguistic unit of connected discourse; it can stand alone and perform a function in social communication. Thus, a sentence can be defined as a grammatical unit that can stand by itself and perform a communicative function.

1) Full and minor sentences.

2) Simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences

Lecture One Sentence Structure

Owing to the fact that sentences in authentic language differ structurally in thousands of ways, what is described here as sentence structure, sentence elements, or sentence patterns is only concerned with the simple sentence, or rather with the clause.

1.1 Clause elements.

1) Subject and predicate.

2) Two ways of sentence analysis. To facilitate description of how the English

language works, sentences can be analysed in two ways. One way is to divide the predicate into predicate verb, object, complement and adverbial.These elements together with the subject make the five clause elements. The other way of sentence analysis is to divide the predicate into two parts: the operator and the predication. The operator is usually the auxiliary or the first auxiliary in a complex verb phrase, while the predication comprises the main verb with its complementation (object, complement or adverbial).

1. 2 Basic clause types

1) Basic clause types. The seven basic clause types are SVC, SV, SVA, SVO, SVGA,

SVOC, SVoO.

Lecture Two Subject-verb Concord (I) By subject-verb concord is meant agreement between subject and predicate verb in number.

2.1 Guiding principles.

1) Grammatical concord.

2) Notional concord.

3) Proximity.

Lecture Four Noun and Noun Phrase

As has been pointed out, the noun phrase is a phrase with a noun as its head. It is the noun head that determines the way the noun phrase is organized.

4.1 Classification of nouns and function of noun phrases

1) Classification of nouns