LET 2009 Review Domain 1: Linguistics and Structure of English

DOMAIN 1: LINGUISTICS and STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH

LET COMPETENCIES

1. demonstrate familiarity with the theories of language and language learning and their influence
on language teaching
2. revisit the knowledge of linguistic theories and concepts and apply it to the teaching of
communication skills
3. show understanding of how language rules are used in real conversations
4. demonstrate understanding of grammatical concepts by being able to describe and analyze the
form, meaning, and use of various language structure.

CONTENTS

I. Views about Language

II. Acquisition of a Second Language
III. Influences of Theories on Language Teaching
IV. Linguistic Concepts
V. Basic English Structures and Rules

I. Views about Language

A. Structuralists believe that language can be described in terms of observable and verifiable
data as it is being used. They also describe language in terms of its structure. To them,
language is a system of speech sounds, arbitrarily assigned to the objects, states, and
concepts to which they refer, and used for human communication.

• Language is a means for communication- Language is an important means of

communicating between humans of their ideas, beliefs, or feelings. Language gives
shape to people’ thoughts, as well as guides and controls their activitiy.
• Language is primarily vocal- Speech is language; the written record is secondary.
Writing is only a graphic representation of the sounds of the language. While most
languages have writing systems, a number of languages continue to exist, even today,
in the spoken form only. Therefore, it is assumed that speech is a priority in language
teaching.
• Language is a system- Sounds are arranged in a certain systematic order to form
meaningful units of words. For example, no word in English starts with bz-, lr, zl
combination, but there are those that begin with spr- and str- (as in ‘spring’ and ‘string’)
Similarly, words are arranged in a particularly accepted manner (syntactic
arrangement). For example, the group of words, “Mario read a new book” is
acceptable, but the group of words “read Mario new book a” is not acceptable as it
violates the established convention in English grammar, the Subject-Verb-Object or S-
V-O word order.

Language is a system of structurally related elements or ‘building blocks’ for the

encoding of meaning, the elements being phonemes (sounds), morphemes (words),
and tagmemes (phrases and sentences/clauses).
• Language is arbitrary- There is no inherent relation between the words of a language
and their meaning or ideas conveyed by them. There is no reason why an animal that
flies is called “ibon” in Filipino, “pajaro” in Spanish, and “bird” in English. That language
is arbitrary means that the relationship between the words and the “things” they denote
is merely conventional—i.e. the native speakers “want” it to be that way.

B. Transformationalists believe that language is s system of knowledge made manifest in

linguistic forms but innate and, in its most abstracted form, universal.

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• Language is a mental phenomenon. It is not mechanical.

• Language is innate. The presence of the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) in the
human brain predisposes all normal children to acquire their first language in an
amazingly short time, around five years since birth.
• Language is universal. All normal children acquire a mother tongue. Also, all
languages must share key features of human languages such as: all languages have
sounds; all languages have rules that form sounds into words; and all languages have
transformational rules that enable speakers to ask questions, negate, issue orders,
defocus the doer of the action, etc.

C. Functionalists believe that language is a dynamic system through which members of a

community exchange information. It is a vehicle for expressing “functional meaning” such
as expressing one’s emotions, persuading people, asking and giving information, making
people do things for others, etc.

This view emphasizes the meaning and functions rather than the grammatical
characteristics of language, and leads to a language teaching content consisting of
categories of meaning/notions and functions rather than of elements of structure and
grammar.

D. Interactionists believe that language is a vehicle for establishing interpersonal relations

and for performing social transactions between individuals. It is a tool for creating and
maintaining social relations through conversations. Language teaching may be specified
and organized by patterns of exchange and interaction.

II. Acquisition of a Second Language

A. Behaviorist learning theory. Derived from a general theory of learning, the behaviourist
view states that the language behavior of the individual is conditioned by sequences of
differential rewards in his/her environment. It regards language as a behavior like other
forms of human behaviour learned by a process of habit formation. The three crucial
elements of learning in behaviourism are: a stimulus, which serves to elicit behaviour; a
response triggered by the stimulus, and reinforcement, which serves to mark the
response as being appropriate (or inappropriate) and encourages repetition (suppression)
of the response.

B. Cognitive learning theory. Chomsky argues that language is not acquired by children by
sheer imitation and through a form of conditioning on reinforcement and reward. He
believes that all human beings have an inborn biological internal mechanism that makes
language learning possible. Cognitivists/innatists maintain that the language acquisition
device (LAD) is what the child brings to the task of language acquisition, giving him/her an
active role in language learning.

C. Krashen’s Monitor Model. Probably the most cited theory of second language
acquisition; considered the most comprehensive, if not the most ambitious, consisting of
five central hypotheses:
1. The acquisition/learning hypothesis claims that there are two ways of
developing competence in L2:
a. Acquisition – the subconscious process that results from informal,
natural communication between people where language is a means, not
a focus nor an end in itself.
b. Learning – the conscious of knowing about language and being able to
talk about it, it occurs in a more formal situation where the properties of
language are taught. (Grammar and Vocabulary)

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2. The natural order hypothesis suggests that grammatical structures are

acquired in a predictable order for both children and adults, that is, certain
language being learned.
Group 1: Present Progressive –ing (She is running.)
Plural –s (tables)
Copula ‘to be’ (The girl is in school.)

Group 2: Auxiliary ‘to be’ (The girl is playing.)

Articles the and an (That’s a table.)

Group 3: Irregular past forms (She went home.)

Group 4: Regular past –ed (She played yesterday)

3rd person singular –s (She plays everyday.)
Possessive –‘s (The boy’s bag is new.)

3. The monitor hypothesis claims that conscious learning of grammatical rules

has an extremely limited function in language performance: as a monitor or
editor that checks output. The monitor is an editing device that may normally
operate before language performance. Such editing may occur before the
natural output or after the output via a correcting device.
4. The input hypothesis. Krashen proposes that when learners are exposed to
grammatical features a little beyond their current level (i + 1), those features are
acquired. Acquisition results from comprehensible input, which is made
understandable with the help provided by the context.
5. The affective filter hypothesis. Filter consists of attitude to language,
motivation, self-confidence and anxiety. Thus learners with favourable attitude
and self-confidence may have a ‘low filter’ which promotes language learning.
Learners with low affective filter sek and receive more input, interact with
confidence, and are more receptive to the input they are exposed to. On the
other hand, anxious learners have a high affective filter which prevents
acquisition from taking place.

III. Influences of Theories on Langauge Teaching

A. Behaviorism led to the development of the Audio-Lingual Method (ALM), oral

approach/situational language teaching, operant conditioning approach, bottom-up text
processing, controlled-to-free writing, etc. These methods underscore the necessity for
“overlearning”, a principle that leads to endless and mindless mimicry and memorization
(mim-mem). They are also characterized by mechanical habit-formation teaching, done
through unremitting practice—i.e. sentence patterns are repeated and drilled until they
become habitual and automatic to minimize occurrences of mistakes.
B. Cognitivism gave birth to the cognitive approach to learning that puts language analysis
before language use and instruction by the teacher. It is compatible with the view that
learning is a thinking process, a belief that underpins cognitive-based and schema-
enhancing strategies such as Directed Reading Thinking Activity, Story Grammar,
Thinking-Aloud, etc.
C. The Functional view led to the creation of communication-based methods such as
Communicative Language Teaching/ Communicative Approach, Notional-Functional
Approach, and Natural Approach. These methods are learner-centered in order to provide
ample time for interaction, information sharing, and negotiation of meaning.

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D. The view that is both cognitive and affective eventually developed to a holistic approach to
language learning or whole-person learning, which has spawned humanistic techniques in
language learning and Community Language Learning. In these methods, the whole
person including emotions and feelings as well as language knowledge and behaviour
skills become central to teaching.

IV. Linguistic Concepts

Scope of Linguistic Studies:

1. Phonology. It studies the combination of sounds into organized units of speech, the
combination of syllables and larger units. It describes the sound system of a particular
language and distribution of sounds which occur in that language. Classification is made
on the basis of the concept of the phoneme. It is the study of the sound system of
language: the rules that govern pronunciation. It is the component of a grammar made up
of the elements and principles that determine sound patterns in language.
2. Phonetics. It studies language at the level of sounds: how sounds are articulated by the
human speech mechanism and received by the auditory mechanism, how sounds can be
distinguished and characterized by the manner in which they are produced.
3. Morphology. It studies the patterns of formation of words by the combination of sounds
into minimal distinctive units of meaning called morphemes. It deals with the rules of
combining morphemes to form words, e.g. suffixes or prefixes are attached to single
morphemes to form words.
Morphology is the study of word formation; it deals with the internal structure of words. It
also studies the changes that take place in the structure of words, e.g. the morpheme ‘go’
changes to ‘went’ or ‘gone’ to signify changes in tense and aspect.
4. Syntax. It deals with how words combine to form phrases, phrases combine to form
clauses, and clauses join to make sentences. Syntax is the study of the way phrases,
clauses and sentences are constructed. It is the system of rules and categories that
underlies sentence formation. It also involves the description of rules of positioning
elements in the sentence, such as noun phrases, verb phrases, adverbial phrases, etc.
5. Semantics. It deals with the level of meaning in language. It attempts to analyze the
structure of meaning in a language, e.g. how words similar or different are related; it
attempts to show these inter-relationships through forming categories. Semantics accounts
for both word and sentence meaning.
6. Pragmatics. It deals with the contextual aspects of meaning in particular situations. It is
the study of how language is used in real communication. As distinct from the study of
sentences, pragmatics considers utterances – those sentences which are actually uttered
by speakers of a language.
7. Discourse. It is the study of chunks of language which are bigger than a single sentence.
At this level, inter-sentential links that form a connected or cohesive text are analyzed.

Phonology
1. Phoneme- a distinctive, contrasted sound unit, e.g. /m/, /n/, /æ/; it is the smallest unit of a
sound that causes a difference in meaning
2. Allophones- variants or other ways of producing a phoneme. They are phonetically
similar. For example, the systematic variations of /t/ are:
a. Aspirated /t/ as in top
b. Released /t/ as in stop
c. Unreleased /t/ as in pot
3. Consonants- produced with some restriction or closure in the vocal tract as the air from
the lungs is pushed through the glottis out of the mouth. The airflow is either blocked
momentarily or restricted so much that noise is produced as air flows past the constriction.
Consonants are described in terms of physical dimensions such as: place of articulation,
manner of articulation, and voicing

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Labiodental

Interdental

Alveolar
Bilabial

Palatal

Glottal
Velar
voiceless p t k
STOPS voiced b d g
voiceless f ϴ s š h
FRICATIVES voiced v ð z ž
voiceless č
AFFRICATES voiced ǰ
voiceless
NASALS voiced m n ƞ
voiceless
LIQUIDS voiced l r
voiceless
GLIDES voiced w y
Source: Parker, F. & Riley, K. (1994) Lingustics for Non-Linguists

Figure 1: Consonant Phonemes of English

Place of Articulation

a. Bilabial (bi ‘two’ + labial ‘lips’)- Primary constriction is at the lips (/p/, /b/, /m/, /w/)
b. Labiodental (labio ‘lip’ + dental ‘teeth’)- Primary constriction is between lower lip
and the upper teeth (/f/, /v/)
c. Interdental (inter ‘between’ + dental ‘teeth’)- Primary constriction is between the
tongue and the upper teeth (/ϴ/, / ð/)
d. Alveolar (from alveolar ridge)- Primary constriction is between the tongue and the
alveolar ridge (/t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/)
e. Palatal (from palate)- Primary constriction is between the tongue and the palate (/š
/, / ž /, /č/, / ǰ/, /r/, /y/)
f. Velar (from velum)- Primary constriction is between the tongue and the velum (/k/,
/g/, / ƞ/)
g. Glottal (from glottis, which refers to the space between vocal cords)- Primary
constriction is at the glottis (/h/)

Manner of Articulation

a. Stops- Two articulators (lips, tongue, teeth, etc.) are brought together such that the
airflow through the vocal tract is completely blocked
b. Fricatives- Two articulators are brought near each other such that the flow of air is
impeded but not completely blocked. The airflow through the narrow opening
creates friction, hence the term ‘fricative’ (/f/, /v/, /ϴ/, / ð/, /s/, /z/, /š /, / ž /. /h/)
c. Affricates- Articulations that begin like stops (with a complete closure in the vocal
tract) and end like fricatives (with a narrow opening in the vocal tract) (/č/, / ǰ/)
d. Nasals- airflow through the mouth is completely blocked but the velum is lowered,
forcing the air through the nose (/m/, /n/, / ƞ/)
e. Liquids and Glides- these terms describe articulations that are mid-way between
true consonants (i.e. stops, fricatives, affricates, and nasals) and vowels, although
they are both generally classified as consonants. Liquid is a cover terms for all l-
like and r-like articulations

Voicing

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Any articulation may have the vocal cords vibrating or not; if it vibrates, then it is
considered “voiced”; if it does not, then it is “voiceless”.

Consonants may be analyzed in terms of its distinctive features, such as the examples below:

/p/ = +bilabial / ƞ/ = +velar

+ stop +nasal
- voice + voice

4. Vowels- produced with little obstruction in the vocal tract and are generally voiced. They
are described in terms of: tongue height, frontness, lip rounding, and tenseness.

5. Suprasegmentals- prosodic properties that form part of the make-up of sounds no matter
what their place or manner of articulation is. These properties are pitch, intonation, stress,
and juncture.
a. Pitch- the auditory property of sound that enables us to place it on a scale that
ranges from low to high
b. Intonation- the rise and fall of pitch which may contrast meanings of sentences.
The pitch movement in spoken utterances is not only related to differences in the
word meaning, but serves to convey information of a broadly meaningful nature
such as completeness or incompleteness of an utterance. Intonation refers to the
pitch contours as they occur in phrases and sentences.

The statement “Anna is a linguist” ends with a fall in pitch; while “Anna is a
linguist?” has a rising pitch
c. Stress- refers to the relative prominence of syllables; the syllable that receives the
most prominent stress is referred to as primary stress. To produce a stressed
syllable, one may change the pitch (usually by raising it), make the syllable louder,
or make it stronger.

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e.g.
2 1 2 1 1 2
Fundamental introductory secondary

d. Juncture- refers to the pauses or breaks between syllables. The lack of any real
break between syllables of words is referred to as close juncture; plus juncture, or
open juncture is used to describe a break or pause between syllables in the same
word or adjacent word—e.g. nitrate vs. night rate; why try vs. white rye; black bird
vs. blackbird

Morphology
1. Morpheme- a short segment of language that meets three criteria:
a. It is a word or part of a word that has meaning
b. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts without violation of its meaning
or without meaningless remainders
c. It recurs in different words with a relatively stable meaning

The words “unhappily” has 3 morphemes: {un-}, {happy}, and {ly} while the words
“spaghetti” is a single morpheme.

2. Allomorphs- morphs that belong to the same morpheme /s/, /z/, and /ǝz/ in /kæts/ ‘cats’,
/bægz/ ‘bags’, and /b˄sǝz/ ‘buses are allomorphs of the plural morphemes {(e) s}.
Allomorphs are variants of a morpheme that may be phonologically or morphologically
conditioned—e.g. {-en} as in oxen and children are allopmorphs of {plural} morpheme.
3. Free morphemes- those that can stand on their own as independent words—e.g. {happy}
in unhappily and {like} in dislike; they can also occur in isolation.
4. Bound morphemes- those that cannot stand on their own as independent words; they
need to be attached to a free morpheme or a free form—e.g. {un-}, {-ly}, and {dis-} they are
commonly called affixes
5. Inflectional morphemes- those that do not change the form class of the words or
morphemes to which they are attached; they are always attached to complete words; they
cap the word; they are a closed-ended set of morphemes. English has only 8 inflectional
morphemes:

-s 3rd person sing. Pres. She cook-s at home.

-ed past tense She cook-ed at home.
-ing progressive She is cook-ing at home.
-en past participle She has eat-en at home.
-s plural She wrote letter-s
-‘s possessive Ann-‘s book is new.
-er comparative This route is short-er than that.
-est superlative This is the short-est route.

6. Derivational morphemes- those that are added to root morphemes or stems to derive
new words; they usually change the form class of the words to which they are attached;
they are open-ended, i.e. they are potentially infinite.

e.g.
formal + {-ize} = formalize
care + {-ful} = careful
fortunate + {-un} = unfortunate

7. Word-Formation Processes
a. Acronyms: These words are formed by taking the initial sounds or letters of the
words of a phrase and uniting them into a combination that is itself pronounceable
as a separate word. Thus NATO is an acronym for North Atlantic Treaty

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Organization, laser for light amplification through the stimulated emission of

radiation, and radar for radio detection and ranging.
b. Abbreviation- a word formed from the names of the first letters of the prominent
syllables (TV< television) or of words in a phrase (NBI< National Bureau of
Investigation)
c. Backformation: Backformation makes use of a process called analogy to derive
new words, but in a rather backwards manner, that is from an older word that is
mistakenly assumed to be a derivative of it. One very regular source of back-
formed verbs in English is based on the pattern: worker—work. The assumption
seems to have been that if there is a noun ending in –er (or something close in
sound), then we can create a verb for what noun –er does. Hence, an editor must
edit, a sculptor must sculpt, and burglars, peddlers, and swindlers must burgle,
peddle, and swindle.
d. Blending: A blend is a combination of the parts of two words, usually the
beginning of one word and the end of another: smog from smoke and fog, brunch
from breakfast and lunch, and chortle from chuckle and snort. (Lewis Carroll
invented this blend, and his poem “Jabberwocky” contains several other examples
of interesting blends. Carroll called them “portmanteau words.”)
e. Borrowing: Foreign words are always being “borrowed” into other languages,
especially to accompany new ideas, inventions, products, and so on. When
speakers imitate a word from a foreign language and at least partly adapt it in
sound or grammar to their native speech patters, the process is called “borrowing,”
and the word thus borrowed is a “loanword.” A few examples: alcohol (Arabic),
boss (Dutch), croissant (French), lilac (Persian), piano (Italian), pretzel (German),
robot (Czech), tycoon (Japanese), yoghurt (Turkish), zebra (Bantu). A special type
of borrowing is described as “loan-translation” or “calque.” In this process, there is
a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language. For
example: English hot dogs becomes Spanish perros calientes, English skyscraper
becomes French le gratte-ciel.
f. Clipping: Frequently we shorten words without paying attention to the
derivational morphology of the word (or related words). We see here again the
element of reduction, already seen in blending. Exam has been clipped from
examination, dorm from dormitory, and both taxi and cab from taxi cab (itself a
clipping from taximeter cabriolet). Because clipping often ignores lexical and
morphemic boundaries and cuts instead in the middle of a morpheme, we end up
creating new morphemes and enriching the stock of potential building material for
making other words.
g. Coinage or Root Creation: Words may also be created without using any of the
methods described above and without employing any other word or word parts
already in existence; that is, they may be created out of thin air. Such brand
names as Xerox, Kodak, and Exxon were made up without reference to any other
word, as were the common words pooch and snob. Also called “root creation.”
h. Compounding: Two or more existing words are put together to form a new word:
blackboard, expressway, and air conditioner. “Amalgamated compounds” are
those words in which the compounded elements are so closely welded together
that their origins as compounds is obscured. For example, daisy from Old English
dΘgesēage, “day’s eye,” lord from OE hlaf (‘loaf’) plus weard (‘guardian’), and
sheriff from OE scīr (‘shire’) plus rēfa (‘reeve’).
i. Derivation- involves the addition of a derivational affix, changing the syntactic
category of the item to which it is attached (orient (V)
orientation (N); beauty
(N)
beautiful (Adj) )

8. Morphophonemic Processes
a. Assimilation- a process that results form a sound becoming more like another
nearby sound in terms of one or more of or more of its phonetic characteristics
(e.g. possible-impossible; potent- impotent; tolerable-intolerable)

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b. Dissimilation- a process that results in two sounds becoming less alike in

articulatory or acoustic terms; a process in which units which occur in some
contexts are ‘lost’ in others (e.g. ‘libary’ instead of ‘library’ ‘govenor’ for ‘governor’
c. Deletion- a process that removes a segment from certain phonetic contexts;
occurs in everyday rapid speech (e.g. [blain mæn] ‘blind man’
d. Epenthesis- a process that inserts a syllable or nonsyllabic segment within an
existing string of segment (e.g. [maindid] ‘minded’)
e. Metathesis- a process that reorders or reverses a sequence of segments; it
occurs when two segments in a series switch places (e.g. ask
aks; ruler

lurer)

Syntactic Structures
1. Structure of Predication- has two components: a subject and a predicate (e.g. the sun
rises; warriors fought bravely; snow has ceased falling)
2. Structure of Complementation- has two components: a verbal element and a
complement (e.g. weigh the options; serve the masses, be courageous)
3. Structure of Modificaton- has two components: a head word and a modifier—whose
meaning serves to broaden, qualify, select, change, or describe in some wahy affect the
meaning of the head word (e.g. honest officials, canned goods, notoriously famous)
4. Structure of Coordination- has two components: equivalent grammatical units and joined
often but not always by a coordinating conjunction (e.g. pins and needles; peace not war;
neither happy nor sad)

Semantics
1. Lexical Ambiguity- a characteristic of a word that has more than one sense (e.g. the
English word ‘fly” may mean ‘an insect’ or ‘zipper’)
2. Syntactic Ambiguity- a characteristic of a phrase that has more than one meaning (e.g.
‘French literature teacher’ can mean ‘a teacher of French literature’ or ‘a literature teacher
who is French’)
3. Synonymy- words having the same sense; they have the same values for all of their
semantic features (e.g. big and large; conceal and hide; stubborn and obstinate)
4. Hyponymy- a characteristic of a word that contains the meaning of another word; the
contained word is also know as the superordinate (e.g. sampaguita contains the meaning
of flower; therefore, sampaguita is a hyponym of the superordinate flower)
5. Antonymy- the characteristic of two words which are different both in form and meaning
(good and bad; single and married) Some antonyms are gradable (hot and cold—not
everything that can be hot or cold is, in fact, either cold or hot; a liquid, for example, may
be warm or cool)
6. Homonymy- a sense relation in words with the same phonetic form but different in
meaning (bat ‘a nocturnal animal’ or ‘equipment used in baseball’)
7. Anaphora- a linguistic expression that refers to another linguistic expression (e.g. The
tsunami killed thousands of people. It was devastating.) It is used anaphorically to refer to
‘the tsunami’.

V. Basic English Structures and Rules

A. Nouns- name a person, place, thing, event, or idea. In the English language, nouns
commonly function as the subject of the sentence. Nouns seem to be the simplest among
the other parts of speech, yet it sometimes confuses a reader. Let us have a quick review
of the noun classes that you have learned in your elementary and high school.
1. Common and Proper - Nouns that name a particular person, place, thing, event, or
idea are what we refer to as Proper nouns. All the other nouns that present a general
idea are Common nouns. Proper nouns always start with a capital letter.
2. Concrete & Abstract- Concrete nouns are those which name something (or someone)
that can be perceived by our senses: sight, smell, taste, hearing, or sight. Abstract

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nouns are the opposite of concrete nouns. They are the ideas that we understand
even if we haven’t perceived them yet
3. Count & Non-count- Count nouns are nouns that can have a singular or plural form.
Moreover, you can also use an indefinite article (a, an) with them. On the other hand,
Non-count nouns are those nouns that you cannot count. They are never plural nor
singular and you cannot use the indefinite article with them.
4. Collective Nouns- Collective noun is a noun naming a group of things, animals, or
persons. The members of a group are countable, yet you usually regard the group as
one. Hence, “a collective noun takes a singular verb when the group acts as a unit
(see example 1); [while] it takes a plural verb when the members of the group act
individually (see example 2)” (Hogue, 2000).

Example 1:
The ship crew stays in one dormitory.

Example 2:
The ship crew take separate vacations

Functions of nouns

Subject of Verbs Several items have ambiguous stems.

Direct Objects of Verbs
Indirect objects of verbs
Subject noun predicates
Object noun predicates
Objects of prepositions
Appositives
Vocatives
They administered the test.
The lecturer provided the participants handouts.
We are LET reviewers.
The reviewees chose him their representative.
in the DLSU review class
The LET, a professional examination, is conducted every
year.
Anne, how did you find the exam?

B. Pronouns- Pronouns replace a noun or a noun phrase. Pronouns are very crucial in
expressing one’s ideas, because wrong use of pronouns may lead to confusion. Pronouns
are very essential to make your sentences brief and less repetitive. Let us review the
different types of pronouns together with their functions. This would help us in
distinguishing and choosing the appropriate pronoun for a certain context.
1. Personal - I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, they, them
2. Possessive- my, mine, your, yours, her, hers, his, its, our,
3. Demonstrative- Demonstrative pronouns point to and identify a noun. There are only
four demonstrative pronouns namely: this, that, these, and those.
4. Interrogative- Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions, such as: who, whom,
whose, which, and what.
5. Relative- Relative pronouns are used to link one phrase or clause to another. The
relative pronouns are: who, whom, that, and which.
6. Indefinite- pronouns that refer to identifiable but not specified person or thing. (all,
another, any, anyone, anybody, anything, both, each, either, everybody, everyone,
everything, few, many, neither, nobody, none, no one, nothing, one, several, some,
somebody, someone, something)
7. Reflexive- used as object of the verb form or preposition to refer to the subject of the
sentence (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves)
8. Intensive- occurs directly after the word it modifies (myself, yourself, himself, herself,
itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves)

C. Verbs
• denote action (e.g. read, jump, play); show state of being (stative verbs) (e.g. be-
verbs, remain, appear, become, etc.)
• has 4 inflections: {-s} 3rd person singular present tense; {-ed} simple past tense; {-en}
past participle; {-ing} present participle

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LET 2009 Review Domain 1: Linguistics and Structure of English

• intransitive verbs do not take an object (direct) (e.g. Flowers bloom.)

• transitive verbs require an object (direct) (e.g. Flowers need water and sunlight.)
• linking/copula verbs- what follows the verb relates back to the subject (e.g. Roses are
sweet.)
• Tense- “the grammatical marking on verbs that usually indicates time reference”
(Jacobs, 1995)
• Aspect- verb forms used to signify certain ways in which an event is viewed or
experienced. Aspect can view an event as completed whole (simple), whether or not it
has occurred earlier (perfect), or is still in progress (progressive)

Subject-Verb Agreement

1. Non-count noun subjects take a singular verb.

Examples:
The food is good.
Unity builds a nation.

2. In most cases, collective noun subjects take singular verbs, but if the group is viewed as
individual members, use a plural verb (see Unit 1, 1.1.4).

Examples:
The class is going on a field trip.
The class have been arguing about where to go.

3. Subject nouns that are derived from adjectives and describe people take plural verbs.
Examples:
The rich are in favor of a tax cut.
The poor are opposing the proposal to revise the constitution.

4. Some proper noun subjects that end in –s such as names of courses, diseases, places, as well
as book and film titles and the word news, take singular verbs.

Examples:
Wales is a beautiful region.
Measles often has side effects.
Mathematics is an interesting subject.
The news was very good.

Note:
There are some nouns that have the same singular and plural form, in this case, the
subject may take either a singular or a plural verb, depending on the intention or the
meaning that you wish to express.

Examples:
Several species have died over the past centuries.
Every species has its own means for survival.

5. Plural subject nouns of distance, time, and money that signal one unit take a singular verb.

Example:
Nine hundred nautical miles is too far to travel in a day.

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LET 2009 Review Domain 1: Linguistics and Structure of English

6. Basic arithmetical operations (add, subtract, multiply, divide) take singular verbs.

Example:
Four times five equals twenty.

7. For items that have two parts, when you use the word “pair”, the verb is singular but without the
word “pair”, the verb is plural.

Examples:
My pair of scissors is lost.
My scissors are lost.

8. Clausal subjects are singular even if the nouns referred to are plural.

Example:
What we need is more reference books.

9. Gerund and Infinitive subjects take a singular verb.

Examples:
Reading books is my hobby.
To err is human.

10. With fractions, percentages, and the quantifiers all (of), a lot of, verb agreement depends on
the noun coming after these phrases.

√ A singular noun, noun clause, or non-count noun takes a singular verb.

Example:
A lot of the information is about maritime disasters and safety procedures.

√ A plural noun takes a plural verb.

Example:
A lot of seafarers need to have a retraining of SOLAS.

√ A collective noun can take either a singular or plural verb depending on meaning.

Example:
All my batchmates (stay/stays) at the dorm.

11. The indefinite pronouns in Table 18 are always singular:

Table 18: Indefinite Pronouns

-one words -body words -thing words Others

Anyone Anybody Anything Each
Everyone Everybody Everything Every
Someone Somebody Something
No one Nobody Nothing
One

Examples:
Every cadet has a responsibility to study their lessons well.
Nothing satisfies her.

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Note:
Indefinite pronouns such as: all, any, a lot of, none, most, and some can be singular or
plural. They are singular when they refer to a singular or non-count noun or pronoun. They
are plural when they refer to a plural noun or pronoun.]

Examples:
Some of the books are imported.
Some of the snow has melted.

12. With a number of as subject, use a plural verb.

Example:
A number of cadets are taking the exam.

13. With the number of as subject, use a singular verb.

Example:
The number of cadets taking the exam is 75.

14. With none as subject, use a singular verb.

Example:
None of the supplies is here.

15. With either or neither as subject, use a singular verb.

Example:
(Either/Neither) was acceptable to me.

16. With correlative subjects either…or or neither…nor, the verb agrees with the closest subject.

Examples:
Either Bob or my cousins are going to do it.
Neither my cousins nor Bob is going to do it.

17. With there subjects, the verb is singular or plural depending on whether the noun phrase
following the verb is singular or plural.

Examples:
There is one book on the table.
There are (three books) on the table.
(a book and a pen)

18. When the subjects joined by and refer to a single unit or is considered as one, it takes a
singular verb.

Example:
Bread and butter is a common breakfast for Americans.

19. Follow the general rule in pairing subjects and verbs regardless of prepositional phrases or
clauses that are sometimes placed in between the subject and verb.

Example:

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LET 2009 Review Domain 1: Linguistics and Structure of English

The color of his eyes is blue. (The subject is color and not eyes.)

20. The verb after the relative pronouns who, which, and that agrees with its antecedent.

Examples:
Children may not see a film that has an X-rating.
Children may not see films that have an X-rating.

Part I: Sample Test Items

1. Teachers who believe that language is a system of structures consisting sounds, words, and
sentences will predictably follow a teaching syllabus that revolves around ________.

A. Communicative tasks
B. Functions of language
C. The ‘building blocks’ of language
D. Elements and functions of language

The answer is C because the structuralists’ view of language justifies a teaching syllabus that revolves
around the ‘building blocks’ of language.. A. and B. are incorrect because the language theory that
underpins a teaching syllabus that focuses on communicative tasks and functional tasks is the
functional view; D. is incorrect because elements and functions mean a combination of structuralist and
functionalist view.

2. When teaching the difference between auxiliary verb and linking verb, it can be pointed out that
_________.
The answer is D because an auxiliary goes with a main verb to indicate tense and number (She is
studying linguistics. Here is carries tense (present) and number (singular). A. is incorrect because an
AV can’t stand alone; B. is incorrect because a linking verb, in fact, can stand alone (i.e. without another
verb) in a sentence; C. is incorrect because an LV doesn’t need an MV.

A. An auxiliary verb can stand alone

B. A linking verb cannot stand alone
C. A linking verb goes with a main verb
D. An auxiliary verb goes with a main verb

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Part II: Analyzing Test Items

1. Filipino learners of English who experience difficulty in producing the initial sound of the word
thunder are likely to replace it with
A. /d/ C. / ϴ/
B. /t/ D. /s/

2. In the sentence, “The club meeting will be in an hour” the underlined phrase functions as
A. subject complement C. predicate noun
B. prepositional phrase D. adverbial

3. Which of the following sentences does not have a linking verb?

A. The tall building appears haunted.
B. The principal is busy observing classes.
C. The class is working on their science project.
D. The ugly bud becomes a beautiful flower after two days.

4. When second language learners of English pronounce ask as aks, they exhibit a speech
behaviour that exemplifies a morphophonemic change known as

A. assimilation C. dissimilation
B. epenthesis D. metathesis

5. The minimal pair that can be used for teaching the contrast between /e/ and /Ɛ/ is

A. hat-hate C. bet-bit
B. set-sat D. met-mate

6. In the sentence, “My aunt tenderly mothers his youngest son” the word mothers is

A. a noun C. an adjective
B. a verb D. a possessive

7. The amount which she paid for is a student loan. The underlined word group is

A. an independent clause C. a dependent clause

B. a fragment D. a subject complement

8. The transcription / ϴaI / represents the word

A. die C. tie
B. thou D. thigh

9. When pronouncing the word cemetery, the primary stress falls o the ____ syllable

A, fourth C. second
B. third D. first

10.You can sleep on the beach or in the woods. The sentence has conjoined ________.

A. clauses C. Verb Phrases

B. predicates D. Prepositional Phrases

11. The statement that exemplifies hyponymy is

A. I’ll meet you here next Monday.

B. There are over a hundred stores at SM.

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LET 2009 Review Domain 1: Linguistics and Structure of English

C. A mall is a building that houses stores for various forms of entertainment, shopping
needs, banking and personal services.
D. The raffle winner did not win in the raffle draw.

12. The word formation process involved in creating the following words from beauty is

A. derivation C. coinage
B. back formation D. compounding

13. When a learner is able to produce his own utterances, not simply mimicked from a model, we
say that that learner’s ability upholds the ______ view of language learning

A. cognitivist C. behaviorist
B. functionalist D. interactionist

14. To present the notion of gradable antonyms, teachers may use a cline showing the ______
A, binary opposition between ‘deep’ and ‘shallow’
B. range of meaning between ‘hot’ and ‘cold’
C. extreme difference between ‘young’ and ‘old’
D. sense relation between ‘rich’ and ‘poor’

15. As predicted by Krashen, the structure that is likely to be acquired late by a second language
learner is shown in the underlined item in ______
A. the girl is chasing the ducks.
B. He saw many animals on the farm.
C. The son enjoys riding on the carabao.
D. The family went home happy.

Part III: Enhancing Test Taking Skills

1. When teaching the pluralization of regular nouns, the teacher may include a pronunciation
lesson on nouns ending in

A. /s/, /z/, /ǝz/ C. /d/, /t/, ǝd/

B. / š/, / ž/, / č/ D. /t/, /d/, /dǝd/

2. When reading aloud the word Filipinization, one hears the primary stress fakk on the ____
syllable.

A. fourth C. fifth
B. sixth D. first

3. In the sentence, “The supplier calls up on Tuesdays and Fridays” the verb is a ______verb.

A. transitive C. linking
B. intransitive D. auxiliary

4. Which aspect carries the meaning of “prior”?

A. simple C. perfect
B. progressive D. perfect progressive

5. The imperative “Have an enjoyable vacation” is used as ___________.

A. a suggestion C. an advice
B. a wish D. an invitation

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6. The following words: edit from editor, swindle from swindler, peddle from peddler, liaise from
liaison are formed through _______________
A. derivation C. back formation
B. clipping D. abbreviation

7. The word that is formed from a proper noun is ____________

A. motel C. AIDS
B. edit D. hamburger

8. The transcription that represents the word peace is ____________

A. [pis] C. [pez]
B. [piz] D [pIs]

9. The semantic feature that differentiates the following set of words: nephew, son brother vs.
priest, man, boy is _________
A. [ + human ] C. [ + male ]
B. [ + kin ] D. [ + common ]

10. A piece of evidence that could be used to argue tat {hood} in the word childhood is a
derivational morpheme is ___________
A. hooding C. motherhood
B. niecehood D. hooded

11. When teaching the difference between vowels and consonants it is important to point out that
the former is characterized by _________________.
A. absence of vibrations
B. free airflow through the vocal tract
C. presence of friction in the vocal tract
D. little obstruction in the vocal tract

12. The different ways letter t is pronounced in top, stop, and pot demonstrate that the /t/ phoneme
has _______.
A. phones C. phonemes
B. allophones D. phonemics

13. The theory of language learning that emphasizes the child’s creativity in constructing his/her
knowledge of the language is _________
A. cognitivist C. behaviorist
B. functionalist D. interactionist

14. The view of language on which Audiolingualism is based is _______

A. structrural grammar C. functional grammar
B. pedagogical grammar D. transformational grammar

15. In teaching pronunciation, the difference between ice cream and I scream is a function of
_____.
A. pitch C. stress
B. intonation D. juncture

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References:

Bell, R. (1981). An introduction to applied linguistics. London: Batsford Academic and Educational
Ltd.

Brown, H.D. (1994) Principles of language learning and teaching. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

____________ (2001) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy.

New York: Pearson Education

Celce-Murcia, M. ed. (2006). Teaching English as a second or foreign language 3rd ed.: Singapore:

Thomson Learning

Celce-Murcia, M. & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999) The grammar book. Rowley, Mass: Newbury
House Pub.

Ellis, R. (1986) Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Fromkin, V. et al. (2003). An introduction to language. Australia: Heinle & Heinle

Parker, F. & Riley K. (1994). Linguistics for non-linguists:. A primer with exercises. Boston: Allyn &
Bacon

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