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TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CỬU
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NGU

|

BAI GIANG

TU PHAP HOC - CU PHAP HOC

Gidng vién:

ThS. Nguyén Thanh Truc


Table

of contents
Page

Contents
Chapter 1: MORPHOLOGY

1

Unit1: Morphology

Unit 2: Free & Bound morphemes

4

Unit 3: Derivational & Inflectional morphemes

7

Unit4: Suffixal homophones

10

Unit5: Immediate constituents -ICs

12

14

Unit6: Words

20


Practical exercises

Chapter 2: SYNTAX
Unit1: Introduction

26

Unit2: Phrase structures

29

Unit 3: Clause structures

34

Unit 4: Sentence structures

39

Unit5: Structural ambiguity

42

Practical exercises

43

Reviews

Mock tests

REFERENCES

47

50
54


CHAPTER 1: ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY
Unit 1: MORPHOLOGY
A. Morphology
The study of the internal structure of words, and of the rules by which
words
are formed, is morphology.
OR
Morphology

is the study of morphemes

words.

and their arrangement in forming

For example, the word morphology consists of two morphemes, morph+
ology.
The suffix -ology means “science of’ or “branch of knowledge
concerning”.

Therefore, the meaning of morphology is “the science of word forms”
.

B. Morphemes

Morphemes

are the

smallest

units

of language

that have

grammatical meaning.

word.

semantic

or

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language that
helps to form a
The term morpheme is derived from Greek morph (form) and
—-eme (minimal).

A single word may consist of one or more morphemes.
e.g. teach:
1 word, 1 morpheme

teacher:

1 word, 2 morphemes

teachers:

1 word, 3 morphemes

boy:

1 word, 1 morpheme

boyish:

1 word, 2 morphemes

boyishness:

1 word, 3 morphemes

** Three criteria of a morpheme:
= It is a word or part of a word that has meaning. e.g. read, readable

"It cannot be divided into smaller parts without destroying or drastically
altering the meaning of a word.


e.g
- “strange”,


as a whole

it has

meaning.

we

it is divided,

When

obtain

fragments, that have no meaning.
- “mango”, a kind of fruit, if we divide it into “man” and “go”, the meaning
are not related to the word.
= [t recurs in different verbal environment with the relatively stable meaning
broaden, widen, brighten

e.g.

C. Roots (bases)

Roots constitute the cores of all words.
e.g.

“sure” is the root of both “insure” and “reinsurance”

= There may be more than one root in a single word.

e.g.

he-man: 2 roots, merry-go-round: 3 roots
= Some roots may have unique occurrences.

e.g.

“luke” only occurs with “warm” in “lukewarm”.
“Cray” only occurs with “fish” in crayfish”

“Cran,

logan, boysen” occur only with “berry”

in “cranberry,

loganberry,

boysenberry”

very few roots are bound
“ There may be bound roots or free roots. However,
morphemes.

e.g.

conclude, include, exclude (bound roots)
phonetic, phoneme, phonetician (free roots)

D. Allomorphs


So, allomorphs
A morpheme has alternative phonetic forms called allomorphs.
heme.
are variant phonological representations of the same morp
e.g.

im- are the
- In the words incorrect, illegal, irregular, impossible, in-, il-, ir-,

allomorphs of the negation morpheme {in-}.
- {con-},

{col-},

{com-},

{cor-}

are allomorphs

of the

morpheme

meaning “with, together”: convene, collaborate, combine, correlate.

{con-}



s* Guidelines for identifying morphemes:
* | form----1 meaning----1 morpheme
e.g.

preindustrial, prepay (pre- means before)
dancer, worker (-er means doer of an action)

" ] form----different meanings----different morphemes
e.g.

teacher {-er, nm}, taller {-er, cp} => {-er} 2 different morphemes

= different forms-1 meaning-1 morpheme
e.g.

actor, teacher, liar (-or, -er, -ar mean doer of an action)

* Some special forms of morphemes:

mouse
mouse mice: 3 morphemes==

au~ ice: Replaced morpheme
: The absence of plural morpheme

fish (pl): 2 morphemes

=

fish


9: The absence of plural morpheme
E. Types of morphemes

Morphemes

are

commonly

classified

into

the

root

morphemes

and

the

affixational morphemes.
Questions:
1. How many morphemes are there in the word “feet”?

2. Do you think the prefixes in- in “intolerant” and im- in “impossible” are a single


morpheme? Please explain.
3. Are the words “pear”, “pare” and “pair” different morphemes? Why?
4. In which conditions is a morpheme isolated? Give examples.


Unit 2: FREE AND BOUND MORPHEMES
A free morpheme can stand alone. That means it can exist as a word by itself.

1/

e.g. boy, man, beauty
Free morphemes are considered the roots on which new words are formed

e.g. boy---- boyfriend, boyish, boyhood
A bound morpheme cannot stand alone with meaning.

2/

e.g. teacher
Bound

morphemes

are never words.

They are used to form new words. They

perform grammatical function.
An affix is a type of bound morphemes.
“+ According


in English

to the positions,

of affixes:

types

there are two

prefixes and suffixes.

Prefixes are bound morphemes that occur before the root.

=

e.g. dislike, import

* In general, prefixes in English have 3 groups of meaning:

un-,

dis-,

non-,

Examples

Meaning


Prefixes
mis-,

dishonest,

Unlucky,

in- Negation

nonsense,

(il-, im-, ir-)

misunderstand,
illegal,

incorrect,

impolite, irregular
Reversal or repetition

un-, dis-, repre-,
super-

post-,

Unlock,

disconnect,


redo, retell, replay
fore-,

over-, | Space
relationship

and

time | Prewar,

postwar,

foresee,

oversleep,

supernatural


"

Suffixes are bound morphemes that occur after the root.
e.g. teller, dentist

* Common suffixes:

Suffixes
Adverbs


Examples
-ly

Verbs

Adjectives

-ward

Southward

-wise

saleswise

-en

shorten

-ify

classify

-ize

modernize

-ful

People


Nouns
Profession

Action or state
Field of study

quickly

hopeful

-ly

weekly

-en

wooden

-ous

poisonous

-ar

liar

-ant

inhabitant


-ese

Vietnamese

-er (-or)

teacher, actor

-ee

employee

-ist

physicist

-ian

musician

-ance

assistance

-ship

friendship

-tion


devotion

-logy
-ics

Biology
Statistics

NOTE: the forms: ‘Il, ‘re, ‘ve, ‘d, n’t are commonly viewed as bound morphemes

because they can’t occur in isolation when they are used as contractions.


Questions:

1. How many morphemes are there in the following sentence

“I asked

my

boyfriend

if he was

unmarried

and


he

said

he’d

been

unmarried even twice”.
Discuss the meaning of the suffixes in the words “trainer” and “trainee”,

Can you give a few more such pairs of words?

|

Paraphrase the following sentences using affixes:

|

a.

The flowers are rather blue.

b. There are no languages that have no grammar.
c. He is far from being polite while his wife is too polite.
d. Mr. John tried to make his dictionary modern.
Can you solve this riddle:

“What word becomes shorter by adding a suffix?”



Unit 3: DERIVATIONAL & INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES
1) Derivation:

Derivation is the formation of a new word from an existing word, root by the
addition of a prefix or suffix.
e.g. dishonest, assistant
“+

Characteristics:

They change the meaning or part of speech of a word.
e.g. friendly (change part of speech)

-

unfriendly (change the meaning)
They

are not

required

by

syntax.

They

typically


indicate

semantic

relations within a word, but not syntactic relations outside the word.
e.g.
He is dishonest
They are dishonest

Derivational

morphemes

are usually

not very

productive.

They

are

selective about what they will combine with.
e.g.

prediction, movement, practical, drinkable

They typically occur before inflectional morphemes.

e.g. government s

They may be prefixes or suffixes.
e.g. unpredictable
2) Inflection:

Inflection is the addition of certain endings to the root in order to serve purely
grammatical functions.

e.g.

friend => friends
friend => friend’s

There are 8 inflectional morphemes in English.


Inflectional

Functions

Symbols

morphemes

,

-S

vi


-§

3”

-‘s

Examples

person singular present

Possessive

{ -S, pl}

apples

{-s, 3}

Waits

{-es, 3}

| teaches

{-s, ps}

Laura’s hair

-ing


Present participle

{-ing, vb}

working

-en

Past participle

{-en, pp}

eaten

-ed

Past tense

{-D, pt}

Worked

Past participle

{-D, pp}

Has worked

-er


comparative

{-er, cp}

faster

-est

Superlative

{-est, sp}

fastest

fo

** Characteristics:

«

Inflectional morphemes don’t change the meaning or part of speech of the

word.
e.g.

happy => happier

indicate
Inflectional morphemes are required by syntax. They typically


a sentence.
syntactic or semantic relations between different words in
e.g.

He

reads

two

books.

RDO

all roots of a
They are very productive. They typically go with nearly

given part of speech.
e.g.

{-s, pl} occurs with almost all nouns: pens

al morphemes, if
They come last in a word and always follow derivation

any.
e.g.
=»


governs

govern ment s

They are suffixes only (in English)


Questions:
1. Complete the following chart:

MORPHEME

Root

|

.. 7

7”

MEN

Morpheme

KS49050890as^%

n.9 g/eleðw-4/22%2478v

Root


c2

áo

Morpheme

4ie.=.5,/ 1512 +x+3iee6Sie,s.si0S.

Inflectional

Root

Ma

Morpheme

Morpheme

2. Fill in the missing words:
a. Inflectional morphemes are also called............................--- morphemes.
b. Derivational morphemes carry both........................ AN | 2 rescence csiccust
meaning.

c. A complete set of forms of a word in an inflectional pattern is called
pinllectionaliw: sien522 7 ” e.g. open, opens, opening, opened.
Tả.
"`
3. We

word


is one that consists of root and

one

or more

morphemes, e.g. teacher, amusing, interested.

learned about prefixes

and suffixes. Do you know

Please explain and give some examples.

about semi affixes?


Unit 4: SUFFIXAL HOMOPHONES
What is the difference between two pairs: sun (n) /son (n) and tear (v) /tear

(n)? Which pair belongs to homophones? Which is homograph?
Both derivational morphemes (DMs) and Inflectional morphemes (IMs) have
homophonous forms.
I/

___{-er} has two homophones

1/


DM {-er, nm} is added to verbs to form nouns
e.g.

=> It is

teacher, worker, keeper

a highly productive suffix because it can perform hundreds of English

nouns.
2/ IM {-er, cp} is added to adjectives or adverbs to show comparative forms.
e.g.

smaller, faster

II/ {-ing} has three homophones
DM {-ing, nm} is added to verbs to forms nouns: singing, cooking

1/
2/

DM {-ing, aj} is added to verbs to form adjectives: charming, exciting

3/

IM

{-ing, vb}

is often found


in the present continuous

tense: is

waiting

“ Differences:
»

DM {-ing, nm} functions as a noun: subject, object
e.g.

Singing is my dislike.
One of my favorites is cooking.

«

DM {-ing, aj} usually occur before the nouns it modifies.
e.g.

an interesting lesson

=> DM {-ing, aj} usually stands after a qualifier such as “very, rather,
quite, more, most”.

e.g.
«

The girl is very charming


IM {-ing, vb} is also a subject complement in most cases.
e.g.

She is learning Syntax.

10


Note: DM {-ing, aj} can occur after the verb “seem”, but IM {-ing, vb} cannot.
e.g.

RIGHT

WRONG

The baby seems interesting.

Thebabyseemserawking.

III/ {-D} has two homophone: DM {-D, aj} and IM {-D, pt}
e.g.

He devoted his life to the poor pupils in his hometown.
He is a devoted teacher.

IV/ {-ly} has two homophone, i.e. DM {-ly, aj} and DM {-ly, av}.
=

DM


{-ly, av} is added to adjectives to form adverbs of manner, as in

quickly, slowly.
"

DM {-ly, aj} is added to nouns to form adjectives: lovely, friendly.

Questions:

1. What are the homophones of {-en}, {-ful}, {-al}, {-ent}? Give examples.

2. What are some words functioning as adjectives and adverbs? Give examples.
3. Identify the underlined —ER.

a. This is a heavier tennis racket than I want.

b. The fighter weighed in at 180 pounds.
c. He was tougher than he looked.

4. Identify the -ING’s of the underlined words by these symbols: {-ing, vb}, {-ing,

8

It was exciting to watch the flight.
Old sayings are often half true.

=

m1 TAN


8

Jim lost both fillings from his tooth.

x

It was a charming spot.

os

nm},{-ing, aj}

From the bridge we watched the running water.
That barking dog keeps every one awake.
The shinning sun gilded the forest floor.
A moving elephant is a picture of grace.

II


Unit 5: IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENTS - ICS
I. Definition
A word with three or more morphemes is not made up by a string of individual

morphemes, but it is built with a hierarchy of twosomes. Each twosome is a layer of

structure by which a word has been composed. We can make successive division
into two parts, each of which is called immediate constituent. Therefore, immediate
constituent is one of the two constituents of which any given construction is directly

formed.
e.g.

large => enlarge => enlargement

en| large | ment

Il. Principles in determining ICs
1/ Divisions should conform to meaningful relationship.
e.g. condenser (dense => condense => condenser)
units by smaller
2/ Divisions are made on the basis of the substitutability of larger
class.
units belonging to the same or different distribution
e.g.

sing

jer

keep Jer

— the same distribution class

danc |er

3/ Divisions should be as few as possible
e.g. best|men

4/ Divisions should be supported by the total of structure of the language.

un + friendly (correct)

e.g.
unlfriend lly cae

unfriend
+ ly (incorrect)


ILI. Recommendations in determining ICs

1/ If a word ends in an inflectional suffix, then the first cut is between the suffix and
the rest of the word.
e.g

malfunction

|s

2/ One of the ICs should be possibly a free form.
e.g.

mall function
(NOT: malfunct + ion)

3/ The meaning of the ICs should be related to the meaning of the whole word.
rest + rain (unrelated)

e.g.


restrain —

re +strain (correct)

Questions:

1. Give the formation of the word “ungentlemanly”.

2. Diagram these words to show the layer of structure:
a. intentionally
b. unfaithfulness
c. reformations
d. grasshoppers
e. inconsistently
F. philanthropist
3. Give an IC analysis for this English word:
undecipherability


Unit 6: WORDS
I. Definition

In the grammatical approach, words are defined as having the criteria of
“positional mobility” and “internal stability”

- Positional mobility is the various positions of some words in a sentence.
e.g. The word “slowly” in the following sentence can be reordered in various ways
without removing or disrupting anything essential:
The cat slowly stretched her forelegs,
<=> The cat stretched her forelegs slowly.


<=> Slowly the cat stretched her elegant forelegs.
- Words are “internally stable” in the sense that within words, the order of
smaller elements remain consistent and no element can be added. Take unhappily as

an example, it consists of three morphemes un-, happy, and -/y with a rigidly fixed
sequential order, so we cannot find unlyhappy or happyunly or lyunhappy.
II. Types of words
From

the concept of morphemes,

words

can be classified

into three

types:

simple words, derived words, and compound words.

WORD

Simple word

|

|


Derived word

Compound word

1/ Simple words

A simple word is the one that only consists of a root morpheme.
e.g.

sad, boy, small, green, follow, establish

2/ Derived words (Complex words)

A derived word is one that consists of a root (bound or free) and one or more
derivational morphemes.


e.g.

presume (derivational prefix + bound root)
careful (free root + derivational suffix)

unfriendly (derivational prefix + free root + derivational suffix)
3/ Compound words

A compound

word

is the one that has at least two roots with or without


derivational morphemes.
e.g.
Adjective
Noun

- adjective

- noun

- verb

icy-cold

poorhouse

dry-clean

skin-deep

rainbow

spoon-feed

Verb

open-minded

pickpocket


sleepwalk

Preposition

overactive

overcoat

outrun

NOTE:

* When two words are in the same word class, then the compound will be in this
class
e.g. girlfriend (n) , red-hot (aj)
"If two words are in different word classes, then the compound will have the
same class as the second.
e.g.

N + aj = aj (headstrong, lifelong)
V + N=N (daredevil, swearword)

* Compounds made with a preposition are in the word class of non-prepositional
part of the compound.
e.g.

overtake (v), afterbirth (n), overconfident (aj)

"In some cases, the meaning of compounds may not be the combination of
individual words.

e.g.

egghead (a very intelligent person)
greenhouse (a glass house in which plants are grown)


4/ Abbreviations (Clipping/shortening/cutting)
Abbreviations are words formed by shortening or clipping words in different

ways: cutting the initial part, the medial, the ending part or both initial and ending.

e.g.
e

The first part is clipped

|

plane: airplane
phone: telephone
tie: necktie
bus: omnibus
pike: turnpike

sport: disport
tails: coat-tails
burger: hamburger

van: caravan
e The medial part is clipped


maths: mathematics
specs: spectacles

V-day: Valentine day
e The last part is clippe2
evm. gymnasium

lab: laboratory
exam: examination
dorm: dormitory
ad: advertisement

prof: professor
vet: veterinarian
ref: referee

teen: teenager
champ: champion
gas: gasoline
16


=

Both first and last parts are clipped

fridge: refrigerator
flu: influenza
5/ Blends

Blending is a special type of shortening where parts of words merge into one
new word.
e.g. breakfast + lunch > brunch
smoke + fog + smog

motor + hotel > motel
guess + estimate > guesstimate

automobile + omnibus > autobus
science + fiction > Sci-fi
high + fidelity > hi-fi
television + broadcast — telecast
situational + comedy — sitcom

of +a+ clock > o’clock
6/ Acronyms

Acronyms are words formed by the initials of several words. They are often
pronounced as the spelling indicates.
e.g.
BA: Bachelor of Arts

|

BS: Bachelor of Science
CNN: Cable News Network
EMS: Express Mail Service

|


HIV: Human Immune Virus

IELTS /aielts/ International English Language Testing System
MA: Master of Arts

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CUULONG

MS: Master of Science

MIA: Missing In Action

THU

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training
L7

VIEN

ca
z⁄20772


MC: Master of Ceremony
PS: Postscript
RADAR /rei da: (r)/ Radio Detection and Ranging
TOEFL /toufl/ Test of English as a Foreign Language
UNICEF /ju:nisef/ United Nations of International Children Emergency Fund
UNESCO /"ju:neskou/ United Nations of Educational, Scientific and Cultural
organization.


WHO /hu:/ World Health Organization
VIP: Very Important Person
www: World Wide Web
(NOTE: Please see Appendix for more Acronyms)
7/ Back formation (Back derivation)
Back derivation is the building of new words by subtracting an affix from

existing words.

This

is the opposite process

of the regular

method

of word

formation namely derivation. For instance, “to beg” was built from “beggar”, “to
baby-sit” from “baby-sister”. This means that the nouns “beggar, baby-sister”

appeared before the verbs formed from them.
More examples:

editor ~ edit
stoker — stoke
type-writer — type-write

8/ Words from names

Some words are derived from names of people or places.

h,
e.g. “sandwich” is said to derive from the name of the fourth Earl of Sandwic
eat
John Montagu, who put his food between two slices of bread so that he could
while he gambled.
Questions:
1. Can you explain the formation origin of the words “jumbo”,

“jeans”, “Robot”,

“Toyota”, “Shanghai”?
2. What are differences between compound words and free word group?
18


3. What are the original words of the abbreviations in the joke below:
- “Is he OK?”
- “No, he’s got a KO”.
4. Indicate

the

meaning

relation

between


the parts

of the

following

English

compound words:
a. sunlight

b. chessboard

c. flycatcher

5. State the way from which the following words are formed.
a. robot
b. nylon
c.IQ

d. bike
6. Consider the following data from Ewe:
Ewe

English

Uwa ye xa amu

The chief looked at the child


Uwa ye xa ufi

The chief looked at a tree

Uwa xa ina ye

A chief looked at the picture

Amu xa ina

A child looked at a picture

Amu ye vo ele ye

The child wanted the chair

Amu xa ele ye

A child looked at the chair

Ika vo ina ye

A woman wanted the picture

a. Which morpheme means “the”?
b. Which morpheme means “a”? (xa, amu, ye, none ofthese)
c. How would you say “The woman looked at the tree?” in Ewe?
d. If “Oge

de abo” means


“A

man

drank wine”, what would the Ewe

meaning “A man wanted the wine” be?

19

sentence


PRACTICAL EXERCISES
Exercise 1:
Separate morphemes of the following words.

e.g.

replaces ~ re + place +s
1. endearment

2 . befriended
3 . beautiful
4 . weaken
5. antedate
6. dog-eared
7. fertilizer
8. holidays

9. hygiene
10. miniskirt
11. foolishly
12. enlighten
13. unenlivened
14. unlikely
15. falsify
Exercise 2:

(ambiguous). Give
Label the following underlined morphemes as DM, IM or Amb
their functions.
e.g.

worked: IM {-D pt}

1. doer
drier
useful

handful
quickly
friendly
meeting
20


§. happiness
9. shows
10. different

11.arrival
12.practical
13.oxen
14.ridden
15.widen
16. golden
EXETGISE 3:

Are these elements /en/ in the following words the same or different? Group them
into their proper categories.

lengthen, golden, taken, worsen, blacken, ridden, children, open, oxen

Exercise 4: Identify the underlined suffixes. Give their names and symbols.
1/ This is a heavier racket than I want.

2/ He told a convincing tale.
3/ A refreshing shower poured down.
4/ That was a touching scene.
5/ We had a reserved seat.

6/ That lawyer is a reserved man.
7/ A celebrated singer will come to our school.
8/ He tiptoes softly into the room.
9/ What a timely suggestion!
10/ It was a cowardly act.

21



Exercise 5:
Find out the roots of each word.
enlightenment

Uy Ew ot
APN

impoliteness

90

failure

importation

2B

1.

best-looking

prehistorically
house-warming
hot-blooded
inactive

10. inapplicably
Exercise 6:

Form words with negative meaning, using prefixes.

literate
reconcilable

accurate
information
decisive
nutrition

œ@

sense

stop

eC

ND

HF

WW

1.

believe

10. order
Exercise 7:
Diagram these words to show their layer of structure.
1.


reconstruction

2. televisions
3.

incontrovertible
22


4.

revisionism

5.

independently

6.

irrecoverably

7.

unaffordable

8.

disintegration


Exercise 8:

Combine

each group

of morphemes

into words, indicating the steps in their

production.
e.g.

-ness, mean, -less, -ing
— mean > meaning > meaningless > meaninglessness

Ao
ee

11

-ing, -ate, termin
-er, -S, mor, -al, -ize
province, -s, -ism, -al
-ly, -some, grue
-ity, work, -able
marry, -age, ity, -able

-dom, -ster, gang
-ly, -ion, -ate, affect


Exercise 9:

Combine the bases with the suffixes.
Roots
1. happy

2. friend

3. girl
4. shrink
5. active
6. compose
7. pagan
8. true
9. supreme
|10. discover

Suffixes
-hood

-y

-th
-ure
-ship
-acy
-ity
-ness
-age

-ism

23