ELEMENTOS ESENCIALES DE MORFOSINTAXIS DE LA LENGUA INGLESA.

ESTRUCTURAS
COMUNICATIVAS ELEMENTALES. USO PROGRESIVO DE LAS CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES EN LAS
PRODUCCIONES ORALES Y ESCRITAS PARA MEJORAR LA COMUNICACIÓN
12.ESSENTIAL MORPHOSYNTACTIC ELEMENTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
BASIC COMMUNICATIVE STRUCTURES. THE GRADUAL USE OF GRAMMAR
CATEGORIES IN ORAL AND WRITTEN PRODUCTION TO IMPROVE
COMMUNICATION
0.INTRODUCTION
1.ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF MORPHOSYNTAX
1.1. WORD FORMATION
1.2. SYNTAX
2. BASIC COMMUNICATIVE STRUCTURES
3. THE GRADUAL USE OF GRAMMAR CATEGORIES IN ORAL AND WRITTEN
PRODUCTION TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION
3.1. GRAMMAR AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCEC
3.2. THE PLACE OF GRAMMAR IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
3.3. INDUCTION AND DEDUCTION
4. CONCLUSION
-BIBLIOGRAPHY-
 ELEMENTOS ESENCIALES DE MORFOSINTAXIS DE LA LENGUA INGLESA. ESTRUCTURAS
COMUNICATIVAS ELEMENTALES. USO PROGRESIVO DE LAS CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES EN LAS
PRODUCCIONES ORALES Y ESCRITAS PARA MEJORAR LA COMUNICACIÓN

0. INTRODUCTION (BUSCAR OTRA)

The structures of a language, the rules governing the changes of their form and the
combination of elements composing it, constitute the grammar of that language. If our intention
is to learn a language, we cannot just learn its vocabulary, but we will have to learn also the
elements making it up.
Apart from learning a language, if we want to communicate with it productively, we will
have to learn that there are other factors shaping the meaning of a grammatically correct
sentence in a language, such as: situation, speakers and social background, that is, the context.
1. ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF MORPHOSYNTAX
The range of constructions studied by grammar is divided into sub-fields. The oldest and
most-widely-used division is that between morphology and syntax.
The most basic units of syntax are the SENTENCE and the WORD. The sentence is the
largest unit of syntax: as we move upwards beyond the sentence we pass from syntax into
discourse analysis. The word is the lowest unit of syntax: as we move downwards beyond
the word we pass from syntax into morphology. The most elementary words, such as ‘me’,
‘pass’, ‘this’, have only one morpheme, the smallest units of meaning and the units of
morphology. In this theme we will explain briefly word formation and syntax.
1.1. WORD FORMATION
In English there are 8 main kinds of word formation: prefixes, suffixes, conversion,
compounds, abbreviation, back-formation, loan words and new words.
PREFIXES: we add prefixes before the base or stem of a word. The main
purpose of a suffix is to show what class of word it is (a noun, an adjective…)
responsible-responsibility
-ism/dom: to form nouns;
-er/or: nouns to describe people who do things;
-able: adjectives;
-ly: adverbs.
CONVERSION: involves the change of a word from one word class to
another.
‘Can you text her?’ Verb form a noun meaning to send a text-message
We also use conversion when we change a proper noun into a common noun:
‘Has anybody seen my Dickens?’ a copy of a book by Dickens
COMPOUDING: when we use compounding, we link together two or more
bases to create a new word. Normally, the first item identifies a key feature of the
second word (postcard).
ABBREVIATION: involves shortening a word. We do this in three main ways:
clipping, acronyms and blends.
 ELEMENTOS ESENCIALES DE MORFOSINTAXIS DE LA LENGUA INGLESA. ESTRUCTURAS
COMUNICATIVAS ELEMENTALES. USO PROGRESIVO DE LAS CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES EN LAS
PRODUCCIONES ORALES Y ESCRITAS PARA MEJORAR LA COMUNICACIÓN
We use clipping when we shorten or ‘clip’ one or more syllables from a
word. We also commonly clip proper names for people (Matt-Mathew, lab-laboratory);
Acronyms are a type of abbreviation form when the initial letters of two
or more words combined in a way that produces consonant and vowel sequences found
in words (RAM- random access memory);
We form blends when we combine parts of existing words to form a
new word (blog- web and log)
BACK-FORMATION: we form words with back-formation when we remove
part of a word, usually something which we think is a suffix. We do this commonly
when we form verbs from noun (to enthuse- enthusiasm)
LOAN WORDS & NEW WORDS: loan words are words that are borrowed
from other languages (sushi, tapas…) When we use loan words, we sometimes
pronounce the more like English words, instead of using their original pronunciation;
Some prefixes are commonly used to create new words. In modern
English the prefix ‘e-‘ is used to create new words that are connected with the Internet
and the use of it (e-commerce e-learning)
1.2. SYNTAX
Syntax is one of the major components of grammar. It is the concept that enables people
to know how to start a question with a question, or that adjectives generally come before the
nouns they describe, subjects often come before verbs in non-question sentences and so on.
According to Burgess (1968) ‘It is syntax that gives the words the power to relate to
each other in a sequence…to carry meaning-of whatever kind- as well as glow individually in
just the right place’.
English parts of speech often follow ordering patterns in sentences and clauses, such as
compound sentences are joined by conjunctions (and, but, or) or that multiple adjectives
modifying the same noun follow a particular order according to their class (opinion, size, age,
shape, colour, origin, material, shape).
Types of sentences and their syntax modes include simple sentences, compound
sentences, complex sentences and compound-complex sentences:
SIMPLE SENTENCE: subject-verb structure (The woman studied)
COMPUND SENTENCE: subject-verb-object-conjunction-subject-verb
structure (The woman studied the exam and she passed it)
COMPLEX SENTENCE: Dependent clause-subject-verb-object structure
(Although she was tired after the exam, the woman decided to go to a party)
COMPOUND-COMPLEX SENTENCE: Four clauses, dependent and
independent structures (Although she wasn’t experienced at teaching, this was different,
she had decided, because of her goal that had done in her life)
Syntax has changed some over the development of English through the centuries and
not all people speak English in exactly the same way. Social dialects learned by people with
common backgrounds-such as a social class, profession, age group or ethnic group- also may
influence the speakers’ syntax. Think of the differences between teenagers’ slang and more
 ELEMENTOS ESENCIALES DE MORFOSINTAXIS DE LA LENGUA INGLESA. ESTRUCTURAS
COMUNICATIVAS ELEMENTALES. USO PROGRESIVO DE LAS CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES EN LAS
PRODUCCIONES ORALES Y ESCRITAS PARA MEJORAR LA COMUNICACIÓN
fluid word order and grammar vs. research scientists’ technical vocabulary and manner of
speaking to each other.
Following proper syntax doesn’t guarantee that a sentence will have meaning, though.
Linguist Noam Chomsky created the sentence ‘Colorless green ideas sleep furiously’, which is
syntactically and grammatically correct because it has the words in the correct order and verbs
that agree with subjects, but it is still nonsense. With it, Chomsky showed that rules governing
syntax are distinct form meanings that words covey.
2.BASIC COMMUNICATIVE STRUCTURES
What structures can we consider as elementary in order to enhance the sts’ capability to
communicate using English? We might approach this quetion by classifying structures of
sentences according to formal criteria. They can be classified as:
-Declaratives: used for statement (i.e. ‘She comes everyday’)
-Interrogatives: for questions (i.e. ‘What time does she usually come?’)
-Exclamatives: for exclamations (‘How often she comes?’)
-Imperatives: for directive (‘Come everyday at the same time’)
There are others ways of classifying sentence structures. They can be positive or
negative, and they can also be active or passive. But these, or other classifications attending to
linguistic considerations have the very important problem (for our objective) of being useless in
identifying what we have referred to as elementary communicative structures.
Any of the group of sentences identified above can be either elementary or quite
complex, so we cannot use the easily to respond to the question of this point. But, although it
seems complex, it is not so difficult to answer: the sts must know those structures that allow
them to utter (or write) and understand those utterances which are basic in communicative
situations.
Different authors have attempted, specially since the 1970s to identify these elementary
structures, useful to implement communicative functions. Through their work they have
contributed to develop the communicative approach to the learning of language, based on a
conception of language as a means of communication: it focuses the lesson planning on the
preparation of communicative contexts within the classroom, so that most activities have a
communicative aim for sts, as it is explained in the Canarian Law 6/2014 of 25th of July about
non universitary Education.
We are going to see J.A. Van Ek’s work (1977) where he includes a list of syntactic
structures through which the language functions are performed. He organises his Threshold
level around 6 main functions:
1.Imparting & seeking factual information;
2.Expressing & finding out intellectual attitudes;
3.Expressing & finding out emotional attitudes;
4.Expressing and finding out moral attitudes;
5.Getting things done;
6.Socialising.
 ELEMENTOS ESENCIALES DE MORFOSINTAXIS DE LA LENGUA INGLESA. ESTRUCTURAS
COMUNICATIVAS ELEMENTALES. USO PROGRESIVO DE LAS CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES EN LAS
PRODUCCIONES ORALES Y ESCRITAS PARA MEJORAR LA COMUNICACIÓN
Within each of these functions, a list of sub-functions, grammar categories, vocabulary
and structures are provided.
Another author who has proceed in a similar way is Wilkins (1976), the founder of the
Notional-Functional approach. His method includes the novelty of the notions. They constitute
the primary source of meaning. Among them we find: existence, time quantity, quality, space,
etc. Every one of these notions is subdivided into several sections. Wilkins elaborates the EFL
syllabus defining the communicative functions which are associated to each notion, following a
way similar to what we have already seen with Van Ek.
We might summarize all that has been said in this point, that the elementary
communicative structures of the English language are those that contribute to perform the basic
communicative functions. And, as we have seen, different authors have defined these functions
in different ways.
3.THE GRADUAL USE OF GRAMMAR CATEGORIES TO IMPROVE
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE
3.1. GRAMMAR AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
The consideration of grammar and its role in FLT has changed along history. The
conception of grammar as being just a component of the speaker’s communicative competence
is relatively recent.
The concept of communicative competence was first formulated by Dell Hymes in the
mid-sixties, and deeply theorised in ‘On Communicative Competence’ (1972). It refers to the
knowledge and the capacity of language use in a social context. Language competence alone
(grammar, vocabulary, phonetics, etc) as described by Chomsky in his book ‘Syntactic
Structures’ (1957) is not enough to achieve the speaker’s or receiver’s communicative aim.
As it is explained in the Decree 89/2014 of 1st of August from the Canarian
Government, which follows Hymes approach, apart from the grammatical competence, c.c. also
involves:
GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE: which implies the knowledge of
how language is organised as discourse and allows one to adapt the discourse to
the specific situation;
SOCIO-LINGUISTIC C.: makes it possible t adapt linguistic
performance to the situation according to the social rules and habits, in order to
produce suitable statements in any context;
STRATEGIC C.: includes the knowledge of how to access and use
extra linguistic resources to achieve the communicative objective;
SOCIO-CULTURAL C.: allows one to interpret the elements of the
social and cultural reality, transmitted or referred to by language.
In other words, c.c. implies a certain mastery of a language system and, moreover, the
capability to use and interpret non-linguistic communicative resources.
3.2.THE PLACE OF GRAMMAR IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND
LEARNING
Children learning English in P.E. are at the concrete operation stage (Piaget, 1923).
They have not fully developed their capability of abstract thinking yet. Thus, they approach
 ELEMENTOS ESENCIALES DE MORFOSINTAXIS DE LA LENGUA INGLESA. ESTRUCTURAS
COMUNICATIVAS ELEMENTALES. USO PROGRESIVO DE LAS CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES EN LAS
PRODUCCIONES ORALES Y ESCRITAS PARA MEJORAR LA COMUNICACIÓN
language learning, if we allow it, from a communicative & functional point of view: they want
to apply what they to communicate with other people with a concrete purpose.
As it is explain in themes 14 & 25, one of the teacher’s main roles consists in designing
activities that create a communicative need in sts. S/he must encourage them to use non
linguistic resources and to try to use the foreign language, even if the st is not sure of the
grammatical connection of their message.
Historically, there have been ther approaches, which imply a very different
consideration of the role of grammar in FLT-L (seen in theme 6):
-The Grammar-Translation method was based on an explicit teaching of
grammar;
-Structuralist methods did not give so much importance to the explicit teaching
of grammar: the aim was to create habits through practice with the help of drills;
-Influence of the Constructivist theory of learning and of Generativism. It is
important to mention Krashen’s ideas of how what we called ROUGH TUNING must be the
general way to provide language input to foreign language sts. The input should be at a slightly
higher level than the sts are capable of using, but a level that they can understand.
We have already seen in theme 11 how foreign language sts need to learn vocabulary to
accomplish their communicative objectives. But some syntactic knowledge is also necessary to
produce grammatical sentences.

Another aspect that teachers must bear in mind is that the st’s receptive skills are
normally more developed than productive skills. Sts do not have to know everything in a
sentence to understand its global meaning. We all can understand more than we can utter.
It is the teacher’s role to design a series of activities that progressively involve more
difficult linguistic uses. And every time that a new linguistic method is introduced, the
presentation-practice pattern will be similar from controlled practice to free production (seen in
theme 3).
3.3.INDUCTION AND DEDUCTION
There are two main ways that we tend to teach grammar: deductively and inductively.
These two approaches have been applied to grammar teaching and learning. A deductive
approach involves the learners being given a general rule, which is then applied to specific
language examples and honed through practice exercises. An inductive approach involves the
learners detecting, or noticing, patterns and working out a ‘rule’ for themselves before they
practise the language.
Induction must be the rule in FLL, but some explanation may be necessary at some
stages of the process, because learning a rule might save time & effort in some cases. Learning
through explanation requires a certain cognitive development, as well as the previous
knowledge that allows the sts to understand the explanation, which puts a limit to its use.
Anyway, as we mentioned before it is specified in the Canarian Law 6/2014 of 25th of
July about non universitary Education: our main objective is not that the sts learn grammar but
that they gain the competence to communicate. That is why, as far as possible, sts should not be
taught grammar rules but learn grammar through induction.
 ELEMENTOS ESENCIALES DE MORFOSINTAXIS DE LA LENGUA INGLESA. ESTRUCTURAS
COMUNICATIVAS ELEMENTALES. USO PROGRESIVO DE LAS CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES EN LAS
PRODUCCIONES ORALES Y ESCRITAS PARA MEJORAR LA COMUNICACIÓN
4.CONCLUSION
-BIBLIOGRAPHY-