Describing the

English
language
Nga Phan

The elements of language

Whatever the sentence 'It's warm in here.' is
used to mean, the speaker has put together a
number of elements in order to get that meaning
across:

1. Grammar
Our sentence depends, for its success, on putting a
number of elements in the correct order, in this
case subject (it), verb (is), complement ( warm ),
and adverbial ( in here). The elements have to go in
the right order for the sentence to work.
*'It here in warm is'
2

We can't, for example, put an adjective or an

adverb in the subject slot.
*'Stealthily is warm in here.'
Or a verb in the adverbial position
*'It's warm go.'
However, there are some changes we are allowed
to make to our sentence elements, and these will
alter the meaning of the sentence.(subject-verb
---> verb-subject) will make our sentence into a
question.
'Is it warm in here?'
3

2. Vocabulary/Lexis
The sentence 'It is warm in here.' is made
up of the words 'it', 'is', 'warm', 'in' and 'here'.
The speaker has chosen these words on
purpose to express a particular meaning. He
or she could have chosen 'hot' or 'cold'
instead of , warm' and, as a result, the
sentence would mean something different.

3. Pronunciation/phonology
The way the sentence is spoken will also determine
exactly what it means. Pitch describes the level (high or
low) at which we speak. Changing our pitch in an utterance
is absolutely crucial for getting our meaning across.
The word 'Yes', for example, can be said with a falling
voice, a rising voice or a combination of the two. By
changing the direction of the voice we can make 'Yes'
mean 'I agree' or 'Perhaps it's true' or 'You can't be serious'
or 'Wow, you are so right', or any number of other things.

GRAMMAR

ELEMENTS
OF
LANGUAG
E
PHONOLOGY

LEXIS

GRAMMAR

GRAMMAR is the
description of the
ways in which
words can change
their forms and
can be combined
into sentences in
that language.

Eight Parts of Speech

Nouns

Interjections

Adjectives

ss
b
r
b
er
e
v
v
d
AAd

Conjunctions
Conjunctions

Pre
ns posit
io

Noun : Word that

names
A Person

A Place

A Thing

An Idea
9

Kinds of Nouns

Kinds of Nouns

11

The Verb

A word that expresses

action or otherwise helps
to make a statement.

Action

jecct
SSuubbje
t

LLiinnk
kiinngg

be verbs
&
taste
feel
sound
look
appear
become predi
cate
seem predicate
grow
remain
12
stay

Every sentence
sentence must
must have
have
Every

VERB

a
13

Kinds of Verbs
Action verbs

express mental or
physical action.

Linking verbs

make a statement
by connecting the
subject with a word
that describes or
explains it.

He rode the horse

very fast.
He has been sick.
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The Pronoun

e pronoun
he
pronoun is
is aa word
word used
used in
in place
place of
of one
one or
or more
more nou
nou
may
may stand
stand for
for aa person,
person, place,
place, thing,
thing, or
or idea.
idea.
s
un
o
n
Pro

al
n
o
s
r
ine urs
e
m
P e, , yo
r
I, m , you hers,
u
,

yo , her
ur s ,
o
she ts
ur,
eir
i
it, us, o m, th
,
we y, the
the irs
the elf
s
m y r se lf
you
15

PERSONAL
PRONOUN
REFLEXIVE
PRONOUN

POSSESSIVE
PRONOUN
OBJECT/SUBJEC
T
PRONOUN
POSSESSIVE
ADJECTIVE
16

The Adjective
Modifies or describes a noun or pronoun.

Answers these questions:

Did you lose your telephone
book?

Which?
What kind?

Is that a wool sweater?

Just give me five minutes.

How many?
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The Adverb
Modifies
Modifies or
or describes
describes
aa verb,
verb, an
an adjective,
adjective,
or
or another
another adverb
adverb..

He
He ran
ran quickly.
quickly.
She
She left
left yesterday.
yesterday.
We went
went there.
there.
We
was too
too hot!
hot!
ItIt was

Answers the
the questions:
questions:
Answers

w??
Hoow
H
Whheen?
W
n?
?
e
r
?
e
e
h
r
e
W
h
W
To
To what
what degree
degree or
or how
how much?
much?
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Kinds of Adverbs
Interrogative Adverbs
introduce questions

How?

When?

How often?
?
e
r
e
Wh

How did you break your

leg?
When does your plane
leave?
How often do you
run?

Where did you put the

mouse trap?

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The Preposition

A preposition introduces a noun or pronoun

or a phrase or clause functioning in the sentence
as a noun. The word or word group that the
preposition introduces is its object.

They received a postcard from Bobby telling

about his trip to Canada.

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The conjunction

a word that joins words or

groups of words.
A conjunction is

d
n
a

r
o
/
r
e
h
t
i
e

but

or

neith

er/no
r
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GRAMMAR

22

Interjections
Conventions: Hi!,Bye!andGoodbye
Exclamations likeCheers!And Hooray!.
Expressions such as "Excuse me!", "Sorry!",

"No thank you!", "Oh dear!

"Oh!" "Pooh!" "Wow!"

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HOW WORDS ARE

FORMED
TENSE PARTS THE
S
OF
PLURAL
VERB OF
S
NOUNS

POSSESSIV MAKE
ES
NEW
WORDS

GOES
FISHING
WENT

GIRL`S
CHILDREN`S

HAVE
HAS

BOOKS
BOXES
LEAF/LEAVES

CAREFUL
FRIENDLY
DISAPPEAR

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25

LEXIS/VOCABULAR
Y
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within
a language that are familiar to that person. A
vocabulary usually develops with age, and
serves as a useful and fundamental tool for
communication and acquiring knowledge.
Language Corpora: The term language corpus
is used to mean a number of rather different
things. It may refer simply to any collection of
linguistic data (written, spoken, or a mixture of
the two), generally to characterize a particular
state or variety of one or more languages.

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ROOT

NEW
WORD

AFFIX
AMAZE
AMAZED
AMAZING
AMAZINGLY
AMAZEMENT

COOK
COOKER
COOKERY
COOKING
COOKED
UNCOOKED
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HAIRBRUSH
BROTHER IN-LAW
DVD PLAYER

SUPER-RICH

HEAVY RAIN
TALL MAN
DO HOMEWORK

FAST SLOW
RICH POOR
BIG LARGE
COUCH - SOFA

FURNITURE
MAMMALS

ADMIRABLE
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COMPOUND WORDS
ROOT + ROOT

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COMPOUND WORDS
Compound words are written in different

ways:
1.-as one word
armchair

sunflower

sunglasses

2.-with the words separated by a

hyphen or by a space.
Gear-change

Fruit-cake

Desk lamp

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COMPOUND ADJECTIVES

2.- ADVERB

1.- ADJECTIVE + NOUN+ED

VERB

PAST PARTICIPLE

HIGHLY
RESPECTED
LITTLE - KNOWN
WELL - EDUCATED
WELL - KNOWN
WIDELY
RECOGNIZED

HIGH
SPIRITED
KIND
HEARTED
OPEN - MINDED
STRONG.
WILLED

3.- ADJECTIVE
ADVERB
NOUN

VERB
present participle

EASY
GOING
BREATH TAKING
WELL MEANING
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COLLOCATION
refers to the ways words are combined with
each other.
TYPES OF
EXAMPLES
COLLOCATION
ADJECTIVE+NOUN

LONG / LARGE LEGS

HIGH / TALL BOY
BIG / LARGE STOMACH

VERB + NOUN

DO / MAKE HOMEWORK
GO / TAKE A BREAK
GO BY / ON FOOT

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SYNONYMS
ANTONYMS
LEXICAL
SETS

DIRTY
IMPORTANT
CRAZY
FANTASTIC
OBESE
TALL
HAPPY
DIRTY
OLD
HOT

FILTHY
SIGNIFICANT
NUTS
WONDERFUL
OVERWEIGHT
SHORT
SAD
CLEAN
NEW
COLD

FOOD
SPORTS
SCHOOL SUBJECTS
APPLIANCES
MONEY
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34

35

Vowels
bait
father-

bird

bought

wet

about

bat
bite
boy

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Consonants

hot -

shut -

vet win -

think sit sing other tell 37

Rules for third person / plural

/s/
Voiced
consonants &
vowels

/z/
Unvoiced
consonants

/Iz/
With
sibilants

/p/ /t/ /k/ /f/

/s/ /z/

/b/ /d/ /g/ /l/

/m/ /n/ /r/ /v/
Climb
Sing
Read
Play

Plant
Cake
Paint
Cook

Language
Dress
Watch
Close
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STRESS
to pronounce a word or syllable with
greater force than other words in the same
sentence or other syllables in the same
word.
The meaning of a sentence often depends
on stress and intonation.
When 'insert' is a verb, the stress is on the
second syllable,
but when it is a noun, the stress is on the
first syllable insert.
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COMPOUND WORDS

If the first part of the

compound is
adjectival,the stress
goes on the second
element.

Loudspeaker
Bad-tempered
Second-class
Three-wheeler

If the first element is

a noun,Typewriter
the stress
goes on Suitcase
the first
element.Tea-cup

sunrise

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E L I S I ON
describes the disappearence of a sound
(unrealesed consonant)

Could Doug take care of my pet

tarantula?
Can you ask Bob to sit behind Kate?
I wonder if could borrow that book.
Can you take it back to Greg tomorrow?
Would you mind giving Albert some

help moving that big bed?

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LINKING

when two sounds meet,speakers often link them in

various ways.
I need you to help us.
Can you take apples and bananas?
She and her sister like English a lot.
What do you do to solve each problem?
You can get a tv.station to run a story on

it?
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Language in use
The way English speakers use systems of grammar, vocabulary and
pronunciation is dependent upon a number of variables; speaking
and writing, register and language varieties.

1. Speaking and writing:

The way we put words together in

correct sequences is often influenced by whether or not we are
doing it in speech or writing. For example, we find that in
conversation we tend to use more contractions (e.g. 'it is' contracted
to 'it's', 'I have' contracted to 'I've' ) than in writing. In speech we
might well shorten 'It's warm in here' to 'Warm in here' or even
'Warm', though such ellipsis is less likely in writing. However, the
choice of whether something is more or less speaking-like or writinglike may depend on the register the speaker is using. Students of
English need to be able to recognise the difference between more
speaking- like and writing-like language, and to use these
differences creatively.
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2. Register:

Our choice of words is also determined

by the register we are speaking in. Register refers to
both the topic we are speaking about and the tone (for
example formal or informal) that we wish to adopt.
Thus, for example, in a weather forecast we would
expect to hear topic words such as 'depression', 'cold
front', 'moving in from ... ', 'temperatures' and 'hot',
'cool' and 'warm'. Students of English need to be able
to recognise register differences so that they can
choose their words appropriately, depending on who
they are speaking or writing to, and on the topic in
question.
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3. Functions
A FUNCTION IS A REASON WHY WE COMMUNICATE,
WE HAVE A PURPOSE OR FUNCTION.
APOLOGISING
GREETING
AGREEING
INVITING
REFUSING
THANKING
INTERRUPTING
REPORTING
ADVISING

CONTEXT

EXPONENT

FUNCTION

A girl meets poeple

for the first time.

The girls says:

Hello.My name is
Santy

Introducing
yourself.

A customer doesnt
understand.

The customer says:

Sorry,what do you
mean?

Asking for
clarification
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3. Language varieties:

English is not just one language,

of course. There are many different varieties. Even if we take
just British English for example, we will find that whereas a
speaker from southern England might say 'It's really warm in
here', someone from Newcastle in the north of England might
say 'It's right warm in here' (where 'right' is pronounced 'reet').
There are regional variations in Britain in pronunciation, word
choice and grammar. There are differences between varieties
of British English and the English used in other countries too.
An Australian speaker, using an informal tone, might well
change our sentence to 'Bloody warm in here, mate', and many
American speakers of English will say Iwo:rmI rather than
Iwo:mI - i.e. with the Irl sound clearly audible. There are other
marked differences between British and American English, too.
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CONCLUSION

There are several elements and

variables of English language

description such as the nature of
meaning in context, language
functions, the nature of words and
their morphology, the elements of
pronunciation, and so on, which
should be well understood by
language teachers and learners in
order to be able to comprehend
the language precisely, and use it
properly both in speaking and

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