Unit I: Sentence Structure: Constituents
“With languages, you are at home everywhere.”
Edmund De Waal
Objectives:
At the end of this unit, the students must have:
1. defined morphology and differentiated its kind;
2. identified inflectional and derivational suffixes and its aid in shaping word meaning;
3. given and followed directions accurately using correct prepositions;
4. enunciated stresses properly in words and syllable;
5. developed the ability to express their preferences; and,
6. extracted important details from reading materials and texts.
In English grammar, a constituent is a linguistic part of a larger sentence, phrase, or
clause. For instance, all the words and phrases that make up a sentence are said to
be constituents of that sentence. A constituent can be a morpheme, word, phrase, or clause.
Lesson 1. Morphology: The Study of Morphemes
Words in Language
Understanding a language of another country should begin at the most basic element and
that is the morpheme. The basic unit that comprises a word which carries meaning is morpheme.
Before we could understand the word, the sentence, the paragraph and the whole discourse, we
need to study morphemes first. Morphology is the study of the internal structure of the words
and of the rules by which words are formed.
Major Division of Words
 Content words are words that denote concepts such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and
adverbs. They are also called open class words because we can regularly add new words
to this word group.
 Function words do not have clear meaning or concepts associated with them. They
specify grammatical relationship and have little semantic meaning. They are also called
closed class words.
Content Words
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverb
Nida, daughter, mall, birthday, cake
visit, celebrating, gave, eaten
beautiful, complacent, smart, sweet
gracefully, almost, tomorrow, really
Function Words
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Module in ELS 105 – English Syntax by OJGA
Articles
Pronouns
Prepositions
Auxiliary verbs
Conjunctions
a, an, the
my, your, she, he, them
inside, through, in, at, beneath
am, is, are, was, were, can, may, has
but, or, nor, because, if, and
Morphemes
Morpheme is a combination of sounds that have a meaning. It could be a complete word
or an affix. A morpheme does not necessarily have to be a word. Every morpheme is either a base
or an affix. A base is a root word which carries its own meaning and could stand alone as one
complete word. An affix is a sound or combination or sounds which also has a meaning of its own
but could not be considered as a complete word. It needs to be attached to a root word to complete
its meaning. An affix can be either a prefix or a suffix. Example: the word cats has two
morphemes. Cat is a morpheme, and s is a morpheme. Cat is the base morpheme, and s is an affix.
Monomorphemic words
Some words are monomorphemic which means that it only consists of a single morpheme words
with no attaching suffixes. Examples are finger, banana, margin, etc.
Activity 1: Count how many morphemes are there in the following words.
1. Desire
4. undesirability
2. Desirable
5. ungentlemanliness
3. Desirability
6. grandmother
Kinds of Morpheme
a) free morpheme: It is a morpheme that can stand alone as a word without another
morpheme. It does not need anything attached to it to make a word. Girl is a free morpheme. It
could be called as base or root word.
b) bound morpheme: It is a sound or a combination of sounds that cannot stand alone as a
word. The s in cats is a bound morpheme, and it does not have any meaning without the free
morpheme cat. Affix is also a bound morpheme.
Activity 2: Count how many morphemes there are in the following words. Identify if it is Free or
Bound.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Retroactive
Befriended
Margin
Unpalatable
5. grandmother
6. airsickness
7. deactivation
8. holiday
Bound Roots
Bound roots is one special kind of a rootword. They do not occur in isolation and they
acquire meaning only in combination with other morphemes. These are prevalent in words with
Latin origin such as ‘ceive’ in deceive, receive, conceive and ‘mit’ in remit, commit, permit,
transmit.
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Affixes
Bound morphemes are mainly affixes. Positional categories of affix are:
1. Prefixes – affixes that comes before the word (untold, impatient)
2. Suffixes – affixes that comes after a word (reddish, gently)
3. Infixes – affixes inserted inside the word (tikas-tumikas, gising – gumising). They are
seldom found in English words. They are used only in Filipino and other languages.
4. Circumfixes – affixes attached at the start and end of a morpheme (beloved, enlighten)
Kinds of Affix
1. Inflectional Affixes - Inflectional affixes make grammatical changes to words. There are
only eight inflectional affixes in the English language.
 -s
3rd person singular present eats
 -ed
past tense
waited
 -ing
progressive
waiting
 -en
past participle
eaten
 -s
plural
foods
 ‘s
possessive
Liza’s
 -er
comparative
smarter
 -est
superlative
smartest
2. Derivational Affixes - Derivational affixes derive new words called derived words. They
serve to alter the meaning of a word by building on a base. As example, the addition of
the prefix un- to kind alters the meaning of kind. The resulting word means "not kind."
There is also a shift in the grammatical function of the word.
Noun to adjective
Boy+-ish
Affection+-ate
Alcohol+-ic
Verb to noun
acquit+-al
sing+-er
predict+-ion
Adjective to adverb
Exact+-ly
Graceful+-ly
Noun to Verb
moral+-ize
vaccin+-ate
Activity 3. A. Affixes. Match Column A to Column B. Afterwards, share your answer with a
group and decide which should be the best match. There are 2 or more possible answers for some
affixes but make sure that all items have their own coherent pair.
A
B
1. misa. likely
2. ilb. active
3. crossc. managed
4. interd. measurable
5. sube. collegiate
6. unf. occupied
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7. macro8. im9. pro10. pre-
g. conscious
h. country
i. legible
j. skills
B. Morphemes. Complete the table by supplying the free and bound morpheme of the given
word.
Words
Free Morpheme
Bound Morpheme
1. indifferent
2. reinforcement
3. misappropriation
4. economy
5. justify
6. begging
7. misbehaving
8. sunlight
9. instability
10. globalization
C. Derivational Affixes. Add appropriate suffixes to the words in each category.
a). Noun to adjective
1. child –
2. voice –
3. hope 4. courage –
5. sun –
b) Adjective to noun
1. intelligent
2. honest
3. lovely
4. heroic
5. fallacious
Lesson 2. Using Preposition
Where do you keep your money? Can you tell me the direction going to the nearest mall?
Where is the library? All of these questions tell us the location of an object.
I keep my money inside my pocket. Ride a jeepney going north and get off at the gas station
near the market. To get to the library, walk along this corridor.
These statements use prepositions to tell the location of an object or direction going to a place.
Try answering these statements:
1. How will I get to school?
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2. Where is your best class buddy seated?
3. Tell me the direction going to your house.
Preposition
A preposition is a word that shows a relationship between a noun or pronoun to some
other words in a sentence. They are also used as locators of time and place.
Ex.
The boy is in the canteen - The ‘in’ connects the nouns boy and canteen. In shows the
location of the boy which is the canteen.
My parents’ anniversary is on October 14, 1981. – The ‘on’ connects anniversary to
August 25, 1998. On shows the time of the anniversary which is August 25, 1998.
Commonly used prepositions
about
below
above
beneath
across
beside(s)
after
between
against
beyond
along
but
among
by
around
down
at
during
before
except
behind
for
from
in
in front of
inside
instead of
since
like
near
of
toward
on
out
outside
over
with
within
through
throughout
to
under
until
up
Prepositions of Time: at, on, and in
 at is used to designate specific times.
The train is due at 12:15 p.m.
We will meet at 1:00 pm.

on is used to designate days and dates.
My brother is coming on Monday.
We're having a party on Christmas.

in is for nonspecific times during a day, a month, a season, or a year.
She likes to jog in the morning. It's too cold in winter.
He started the job in 1971.
He's going to quit in August.
Prepositions of Place: at, on, and in
 at is used for specific addresses.
Jack lives at 19 Sampaguita Street in Lapaz.

on is used to designate names of streets, avenues, etc.
Nicole’s house is on Sampaguita Street.
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
in is used for the names of land-areas (towns, cities, countries, and continents).
She lives in Jaro.
Jaro is in Iloilo City.
Iloilo City is in the Philippines.
Prepositional Phrase
A prepositional phrase starts with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun as its object.
Any modifier that comes in between the preposition and the noun is included.
 The rose inside the box sent through special delivery was for Nomie.
 The vase stood precariously on top of a wobbly old narra cabinet.
 The story of Rizal fascinates readers both young and old alike.
 Gladys ordered to-go meals by phone.
Activity 1. Encircle the preposition and underline the prepositional phrase.
1. Iloilo City has changed a lot since typhoon Yolanda.
2. The letter from Mark announced the good news about his graduation.
3. The leftover pizza on the table looks stale and cold.
4. Look, there’s the boat with the blue and majestic sail.
5. The hills across the steep valley were teeming with small white flowers.
Activity 2. Choose the proper preposition that will be suitable for the sentence.
1. Mira was born (in, on, at) March 8, 1981.
2. Mae and Alex were married (in, on, at) the month of November.
3. Ryan will see me (in, on, at) Saturday.
4. Karen and Christine has a scheduled meeting (in, on, at) 2:00 this afternoon.
5. Ella plans to come home (in, on, at) 2016.
6. Mark is presently residing (in, on, at) Canada.
7. Audrey’s and Racso’s house is (in, on, at) Aguinaldo St.
8. Doreen’s and Lito’s office is located (in, on, at) 143 Rizal Bldg., Gatdula Street.
9. Nap promised to rendezvous with me (in, on, at) SM City but I’m not sure if he’ll come.
10. We plan to spend our summer (in, on, at) Baguio City.
Activity 3. With your partner, create a dialogue using one of the following situations. Use
accurate prepositions and prepositional phrases in giving directions.
A. A foreigner at SM City who wants to go to the plaza.
B. A new student of ISAT U asking for direction to the Library.
C. A friend who wants to go to her friend’s house.
D. A lost tourist asking for direction going to the hospital.
Lesson 3. Conjunctions
Conjunction is a part of speech that connects words, sentences, phrases or clauses.
Kinds of Conjunction
1. Coordinating conjunctions are used to join two parts of a sentence that are grammatically
equal. The equal parts may be single words or clauses. (FANBOYS – for, and, nor, but, or, yet,
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so).
Jack and Jill went up the hill.
The water was warm, but I didn't go swimming.
2. Subordinating conjunctions are conjunctions that join an independent clause and a
dependent clause. (after, although, as, as far as, as if, as long as, as soon as, as though, because,
before, if, in order that, since, so, so that, than, though, unless, until, when, whenever, where,
whereas, wherever, and while.)
 Elias went swimming although it was raining. Unless we act now, all is lost.
 He took to the stage as though he had been preparing for this moment all his life.
3. Correlative conjunctions - always come in pairs joining various equal sentence elements.
both . . . and
not only . . . but also
neither . . . nor
not . . . but
either . . . or
whether . . . or
as . . . as
 She led the team not only in statistics but also by virtue of her enthusiasm.
 Polonius said, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be."
 Whether you win this race or lose it doesn't matter as long as you do your best.
Activity 1. Pen your Memories!
Write a narrative essay about a very special, memorable, humiliating, shocking, intriguing
rewarding or unforgettable moment in your life.
Lesson 4. Interjections
Ouch! Oh my! Wow! Yikes!
If you’ve ever uttered any of the words above, you’ve used an interjection, whether you
knew it at the time or not. The word interjection comes from the Latin words inter (between)
and jacĕre (to throw). So, an interjection is a word that you throw in between sentences or
thoughts to express a sudden feeling.
Standalone interjections
Because interjections usually express sudden feelings, you’ll often see them used to
convey surprise (both good surprises and bad ones) or excitement.
Yikes! There’s a snake in the garage!
You planned this party just for me? Wow!
Ouch! That wasp just stung me!
Yahoo!
Oops.
Terrific! Jordan will send you the contract this afternoon.
There’s no strict rule about where an interjection must go in relation to other sentences.
You can use an interjection before or after a sentence that explains what’s going on. You can
also use an interjection alone, although it may not make sense if you haven’t adequately
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described the situation that caused you to use the interjection. Interjections often use exclamation
points, but they don’t necessarily have to.
Interjections in a sentence
It’s possible to use an interjection within a sentence. When you do, treat the interjection
as a parenthetical element that’s separate from the rest of the sentence. You can put the
interjection inside parentheses or set it off with commas.
I may not succeed, but, hey, at least I tried.
The project was delayed because the logistics team made a few (ahem) miscalculations.
It will take only thirty minutes (Wow!) to reach the city on the new train.
The important thing to remember is that the interjection should be set off somehow.
Don’t just drop it in with nothing to mark it as separate from the rest of the sentence.
I forgot to do the homework assignment oops but my teacher gave me an extra day to
finish it.
I forgot to do the homework assignment (oops), but my teacher gave me an extra day to
finish it.
Gee I hadn’t thought of that.
Gee, I hadn’t thought of that.
When to use interjections
Because interjections are usually separate from other sentences, it’s hard to use them
incorrectly. The bigger concern is whether it’s appropriate to use an interjection in your writing.
Interjections are fine to use in casual and informal writing. It’s okay to use them in speech, too.
But avoid using interjections in formal writing because it may appear that you’re not treating the
topic seriously.
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Module in ELS 105 – English Syntax by OJGA