“Grammar is the business of taking a language to pieces, to see how it works.”   (David Crystal)

 

 

Levels of language description:

 

 

• PHONOLOGY: the sound system

 

•  MORPHOLOGY: the inflection and formation of words

 

singular/plural form of nouns: book – books
singular/plural form of verbs: she reads – they read
present/past tense verb forms: talk – talked, think – thought
adverbs from adjectives: interesting – interestingly
verbs from nouns: computer – computerize
nouns from adjectives: slow – slowness
adjectives from nouns: sand -- sandy, sun – sunny

 

 

• SYNTAX:

(1) the combination of words into phrases and sentences

 

car
a black car
a black car with a powerful engine Peter hit Steven.
Steven hit Peter.
Did Steven hit Peter? We painted the house red.
We painted the red house.
The house was painted red.

 

    (2) the choice of linguistic forms

 

I have been watching that series. I have watched that series.
He read the poem very well.  His reading of the poem was very good.

 

 

•   SEMANTICS: the meaning of words and sentences

 

 woman (definition): human, adult, female
 woman (synonyms): lady, female, girl, mother, wife …

 

•  PRAGMATICS: the meaning of a sentence in context

 

 

They were bothering me.
You are bothering me.
Do you know Fred?
Do you know what time it is?

 

•  DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: the structure of complete texts