Teaching Notes
Chapter One
The Hierarchical Structure of Grammar

Ⅰ Teaching Aims:
This chapter aims to:
1. help students to know the hierachial structure of English grammar.
2. get students to learn morphemes words, phrases and sentences and their
classification.

Ⅱ Teaching Procedures
1. Introduction
The grammatical structure of English is a hierarchical one, which can be divided
into five levels, i.e. Sentence, Clause, Phrase, Word and Morpheme. A sentence is
the largest unit and highest level in a grammatical structure while a morpheme is
the smallest and lowest one.
2. Morphemes
A morpheme is the smallest unit in English grammar, and also the smallest
meaningful unit of language.
1) Free Morphemes
Free morphemes are morphemes which can constitute words by themselves,
e.g. boy, girl, work, water.
2) Bound Morphemes
Some morphemes like de-, dis-, -ness, -ly are never used independently in
speech and writing. They are always attached to free morphemes to form new
words. These morphemes are called bound morphemes.
Bound morphemes are mostly affixes. Affixes are attached to free morphemes
either to form new words or to indicate grammatical categories. Affixes can be
divided into two types: prefixes and suffixes.
3. Words
1) Simple Word, Derivative, Compound Word
a) simple words (morpheme words):at, far, hand, get
b) derivatives:
prefixes: dislike, unhappy, pronoun, prewar
suffixes: worker, widen, foolish, manly
c) compound words: handbook, outline, moreover, anybody
2) According to grammatical function, English words can be classified into
Closed Class and Open Class.
a) Closed Class
Closed class refers to all the Function words. The number of this type of
words are limited. No new comers will enter into this class. Therefore, this kind
of words are called Closed Class. They include:
Preposition: in, on, without
Pronoun: you, he, one, this
Determiner: a, the, his, that, some
Conjunction: and, or, but, when
Auxiliary: do, can, must, will
b) Open Class
Open class refers to all the Content Words. In this type of words, new words
appear continuously. Therefore, they are called Open Class. They included:
Noun: Smith, Paris, man, book
Adjective: old, big, cheap
Adverb: here, fast, early
Main Verb: work, make, give
4. Phrases
A phrase is a grammatical unit which is formed by one word or more than one
word. A phrase is usually a string of words built up around a head word which
determines both the class that the phrase belongs to and the way the phrase is
structured.
Noun Phrase ( N P ):
all the college students
the tall boy sitting there
Verb Phrase ( V P ):
looks pale
arrived last night
Adjective Phrase ( Adj P ):
very difficult
careful enough
Adverb Phrase ( Adv P ):
very clearly
so slowly
Preposition Phrase ( P.P ):
before the war
in the north
5. Clauses
In logical terms, a clause is a construction of a subject and a predicate. In
view of grammatical relations, clauses are divided into two broad categories, the
main clause and the subordinate clause, the latter of which may function as a
nominal clause, a relative clause, or an adverbial clause.
1) Nominal clauses
He said that he had done his best.
What he said was true.
2) Relative clauses
This is one of the best films I’ve ever seen.
He failed to pass the test, which was a pity.
3) Adverbial clauses
If I were you, I would not quit.
I was having dinner when he came.
6. Sentences
In terms of sentence structure, sentences can be classified into three kinds: (1)
simple sentences, (2) compound sentences and (3) complex sentences.
(1) You throw a stone at the window.
I’ll scream.( two simple sentences)
(2) You throw a stone at the window and I’ll scream. ( two coordinate main
clauses in one sentence).
(3) If you throw a stone at the window, I’ll scream. ( one main clause and one
subordinate clause within one and the same sentence)