Syntax

Parts of speech, or word categories, indicate what words usually do, or may be expected to do. Some of these categories - such as nouns and pronouns - make sense when we consider words in isolation. Others - such as conjunctions or prepositions - only make sense within a longer structure, a phrase, clause or sentence.


Note that these three terms are traditional, and do not easily describe how strings of language work. All are broad categories. The sentence, especially, is much more characteristic of written than of spoken English, and of formal rather than informal usage. Alternatively, we may say that spoken English contains sentence types not usually found in writing.
The internal grammar of phrases, clauses and sentences refers to the principles (sometimes mistakenly called “rules”) of structure and organization. Be aware of the tension between model structures devised for textbooks and guides for learners of the language, and the syntax of real sentences (those you have found in speech or writing), which you are subjecting to analysis.

A phrase is a useful all-purpose name for any short sequence of words (or even a single word, considered as an element in the structure of a clause or sentence), especially a grouping which could be replaced by a single word. A phrase which works like, or equates to, a noun is a noun phrase, one which qualifies a verb is an adverb phrase and so on.
A clause may be short or long, but must contain at least one main, finite verb. A short clause may in fact be identical with a verb phrase: the two terms reflect differences of emphasis or analysis in regard to the language string in question.

• If you are analysing a sentence, you will look first for clauses;
• if you wish to see how words have been combined in simple sequences, you will look for phrases.

Phrases are especially important for analysing spoken data, and some kinds of written text (such as advertisements or information leaflets) where (written) sentence forms are not considered essential.

source:http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/syntax.htm

Prepositions

Prepositions are words or groups of words, that introduce phrases; and these phrases modify some element in a sentence. What follows a preposition is normally a noun, pronoun, or noun clause. A word that follows a preposition is its object, and, in the case of pronouns especially, this affects the form of the word.

• He walked near her (never He walked near she).
• He gave them to her and me (never He gave them to she and I or He gave them to her and I).

One of the problems in spotting prepositions in a sentence is that many of the words that are usually prepositions can also be used as adverbs.

• He never saw them before. (Here before is an adverb).
• They sat before the counter. (Here before is a preposition,and the whole prepositional phrase serves as an adverb, modifying sat). 

source:http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/preposition.htm

Conjunction

Conjunctions are joining words: they connect words, phrases, or entire clauses. There are two general kinds of conjunctive words: coordinate and subordinate.
Coordinate conjunctions join elements that are grammatically the same: two or more words, two equivalent phrases, or two equivalent clauses. The most common coordinate conjunctions are: and, but, or, for, nor, so, yet.

• Red and white (two equal words joined in a phrase).
• Taking walks and looking at nature (two equal phrases in a relative clause).
• She ran to the corner, but she missed the bus (two equal clauses in a complete sentence).

A correlative conjunction is a special kind of coordinate conjunction. It connects equivalent elements, but it works in pairs of words: both, and; either, or; neither, nor; whether, or; not only, but also.

• He wants both money and power.
• Neither money nor power matters.
• Either she will go, or she will stay. 

Subordinate conjunctions. While coordinate conjunctions connect equal grammatical elements, subordinate conjunctions introduce dependent or conditional clauses.

• Although she has money, she buys few luxuries.
• Because he was late, he missed the train.
• After the movie is over, we shall have dinner.

Other word uses. Words that normally operate as conjunctions can often be used in other ways: as adverbs, prepositions, adjectives, or even pronouns.

• We have met before. (Here before is an adverb).
• Before they leave, let us have dinner. (Here before is a conjunction).

There are other words besides conjunctions that serve as connectors (or connectives) in sentences. The relative pronouns who and which are often so used.

• That is the man who was speaking to her.
• The dessert is strawberries, which give him a rash.

Some of the conjunctions work both as adverbs and conjunctions in the same sentence. This is often true of consequently, however, therefore, and nevertheless.

• He was ill; nevertheless he went to work.
• She disliked work; consequently she lost her job.

Note the semi-colon [ ; ]. This is standard here but is non-standard before but or and. (This appears to be changing, as speakers and writers treat words like nevertheless as conjunctions.)
It is possible to make clauses with conjunctions into separate sentences, especially when writing for literary effect.

• He did it. And he was glad.
• Stay away from here. Unless you want trouble.

In the second case the clause is so obviously dependent that it would not stand alone as a sentence and make sense. It can only be written that way for emphasis or some other effect.

source:http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/conjunction.htm

Adverbs and adjectives

Adjectives and adverbs are descriptive words, sometimes called modifiers because they restrict meaning. They add detail to statements. The difference between the two is that

• adjectives modify only nouns, pronouns, and verb forms used as nouns;
• adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

Adjective function: An adjective may be a single word: blue, tall, funny, warm. As a single word, it may come before the noun - the blue sky - or after the verb - the sky is blue. Adjectives may be positive (tall), comparative (taller) or superlative (tallest). Adjective phrases usually follow the noun they describe: the girl with blond hair. The phrase with blond hair describes girl. Adjective clauses also usually follow the noun: The child who finds the most Easter eggs wins. The clause who finds the most Easter eggs modifies child.
Adverb function: The most common use of an adverb, of course, is to describe verbs: He ran quickly. Actually, however, adverbs can modify anything but nouns (or verb forms used as nouns). Typically adverbs express:

• time (now, then)
• manner (happily, easily)
• degree (less, more, very)
• direction and place (there, up, down)
• affirmation or negation (certainly, not)
• cause and result (thus, consequently), and
• qualification or doubt (however, probably).

Although many adverbs are formed by adding -ly to adjectives (quick, quickly; happy, happily), adverbs have no characteristic form. They must be identified by the function they perform in a sentence. In the sentence That is a fast car, fast is an adjective. But in He ran fast, it is an adverb.
Certain adverbs (how, when, where, why, whenever, and wherever) are called relative adverbs because they introduce relative clauses in a sentence: The keys are upstairs where you left them. The clause where you left them modifies the adverb upstairs.
Other adverbs are called conjunctive adverbs because they join one clause with another. Some of these adverbs are: therefore, accordingly, besides, furthermore, instead, meanwhile, and nevertheless. In the sentence He was tired; therefore he stayed home, the word therefore modifies the clause of which it is a part and connects that clause to the previous part of the sentence. Note that therefore is not to be used as a conjunction, hence the semi-colon.

source:http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/qualifier.htm

Verbs

Verbs are the action words in a statement. They tell what is happening - what a noun is doing or what is being done to it, or the state of being, becoming, thinking or feeling. A verb with a subject, which will be in a particular tense is a finite verb. Without a subject it will be the infinitive form (for example, to think, to dream) or a gerund (the present participle, used as a noun: smoking is bad for you).
When a verb denotes what a noun is doing, the noun is said to be the subject of the verb: The man speaks. (Here man is the subject of the verb.) When the verb denotes what is being done to a noun, the noun is the object of the verb: The man eats jelly. Here the noun jelly is the direct object of the verb. Verbs can also take indirect objects: Parents give children toys. In this sentence, toys is the direct object, (what is given) and children is the indirect object. The parents do not give children; they give toys.


Verbs that take objects are called transitive verbs, and those that normally do not take an object are intransitive verbs (but note that an intransitive verb may be used transitively in non-standard speech or writing). Some common transitive verbs are: tell, give, show, eat, buy, take, and see. Some verbs can be both transitive and intransitive: Tell a story (transitive), and Time will tell (intransitive). Verbs like sleep, walk, rest, come, and go are nearly always intransitive. The most common verb of all, to be, is intransitive in all of its forms: am, are, is, was, were, and been.





Tenses (time signals): Verb tenses tell the time when an action takes place. Any action or condition may be in the past, present, or future: he was, he is, he will be. Most common verbs simply add an -ed to show the past time, or form the past tense, as it is normally called. Thus walk becomes walked. Other verbs, sometimes called irregular (or strong) verbs, do not add -ed. Instead they undergo an internal change: sing, sang, sung; fly, flew, flown; go, went, gone.
Auxiliary verbs: In the sentence She will sing even though he cannot stay, the verbs will and cannot are called auxiliary, or helper, verbs. Other auxiliary verbs are the incomplete or modal verbs: can, could, may, might, shall, should, and would.
The various forms of the verb to be can also be used as auxiliaries: I am going. He was singing. They have been shopping. The verb have - and its other forms has and had - are also common auxiliaries to indicate past action.
Participles: The verb form used with auxiliaries is the participle. There is a present participle, talking, and a past participle, talked. Thus, a person can say either I talk (present tense) or I am talking (present continuous) to show present action and I talked (imperfect), I have talked (perfect), or I had talked (pluperfect) to show past action. When a present participle is used with an auxiliary verb, the purpose is to show continuing or ongoing action. She is doing the laundry. He was speaking when someone interrupted him. Note that this uses a present participle with a past tense auxiliary verb (was) to indicate continuous past action.





Verb flexibility: Verbs and verb forms can be used in a number of ways in sentences. A verb can be the subject of a statement (To walk is good exercise) or its object (I like to walk). In each case, the infinitive form to walk is used as a noun. Participles can be used in the same way: He likes swimming. Flying is great sport. In the first sentence, swimming is the object of the verb, and in the second, flying is the subject.
Verb forms can also be used as adjectives, or words that describe nouns. In a wrecked car, the word wrecked is a past participle used as an adjective.
Occasionally a verb form or verb phrase can be used as an adverb: He was pleased to meet her. The phrase to meet her modifies the adjective pleased.

source: http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/verbs.htm

Pronouns

There are several words that are used to replace nouns. They are called pronouns. Pro in Greek means "for" or "in place of". Some are called personal pronouns because they take the place of specific names of persons, places, or thing, as in: Has Fred arrived? Yes, he is here. Here he is the personal pronoun that replaces Fred. As indicated in the table, there are both subject and object personal pronouns as well as those that show possession. In His house is the white and green one, his is a personal possessive pronoun.

Personal pronouns: subjects, objects and possessives
Singular	Subject	Object	Possessive
First person	I	me	my, mine
Second person	you	you	your, yours
Third person	he, she, it (one)	him, her, it (one)	his, her, hers, its (one's)
Plural	Subject	Object	Possessive
First person	we	us	our, ours
Second person	you	you	your, yours
Third person	they	them	their, theirs*

*Some authorities give my, your, his, her, our, your and their as possessive adjectives or pronominal adjectives, as they qualify nouns.
Some personal pronouns are formed by the addition of -self or -selves as a suffix: myself, ourselves, yourself, himself, herself, itself, and themselves.
Demonstrative pronouns - this, that, these, those - refer to particular people or things. This is mine, and that is yours. The demonstrative words can also be used as adjectives: this house, those cars.
Pronouns that refer to people or things in general are called indefinite pronouns. Like the demonstrative pronouns, they can be used as adjectives: another day, both animals, many weeks.
The words who, whose, whom, that, which, and what are called relative pronouns. (The word that can be a demonstrative or a relative pronoun.) They create relative clauses in a sentence: The committee, which met last night, discussed your report. The words which met last night form a relative clause that describes the subject of the main clause, the committee.
When a relative pronoun is used as the subject of a sentence such as Who ate the pizza?, it is classed as an interrogative pronoun. Interrogate means “ask” (questions).

source:http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/pronouns.htm

Nouns and articles

Nouns can be particular or general: the house, a house. The words the and a are articles, or, in more technical terms, determiners. A house can be any house, but the house is a quite definite building. When a noun begins with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u, and, occasionally, y) the indefinite article a becomes an for the sake of easier pronunciation - an apple, an elephant, an orange. Sometimes an is used before words that start with h, especially if the h is silent: an honorary degree. If the h is sounded a is the standard form: an ’otel, a hat.
Nouns can be singular or plural in number: cat, cats. In some cases es is added to make nouns plural: dress, dresses. Some nouns change their forms in the plural, without adding an s: foot, feet; man, men; mouse, mice; goose, geese Some nouns do not change at all in the plural: sheep, fowl.
There are also group nouns, called noun phrases. This means that two or more nouns, or a noun and an adjective, are put together to form what amounts to, or works like, one noun: football stadium, rock concert, orange tree. In each case certain nouns - football, rock, orange - are attached to other nouns, and each modifies or describes the second noun in some way to convey a different kind of object. A football and a football stadium are two entirely different things, though they both have to do with the same game.


Some nouns are one-of-a-kind names: Suez Canal, Elvis Presley, Empire State Building. Also called proper nouns, they are capitalized to set them off from general nouns. Sometimes adjectives (words that describe nouns) are also capitalized. This normally happens when the adjective is made from a proper noun, especially a place or person: American literature, English countryside, Elizabethan theatre.
Nouns are used in different ways: The dog barks. The man bit the dog. In the first case, dog is the actor, or the one that initiates the action of the verb. In the second case, dog is acted upon. In The dog barks, dog is the subject of the verb. In “The man bit the dog”, dog is the object of the verb.
Sometimes a noun is the indirect object of a verb: He gave the dog a bone. Bone is the direct object; it is what was given. Because it was given to the dog, dog is considered the indirect object of the action.

Nouns can also be objects of prepositions - words like to, in, for, and by - so the above sentence could read: He gave a bone to the dog. The words to the dog are called a prepositional phrase.

Some verb forms take nouns as objects: Drinking milk is good for you. In this sentence, milk is the object of the verbal form drinking. Such a combination of verb and noun is called a verbal phrase.
Nouns can show possession: The dog's collar is on the table. The collar is possessed, or owned, by the dog. All possession does not indicate ownership, however. In The building's roof is black, the roof is on, but not owned by, the building. Adding an apostrophe [ ' ] and an s to a noun shows possession: the cat's tongue, the woman's purse. If the noun is plural (stands for more than one thing) or already has an s, then often only an apostrophe need be added: the mothers' union (that is, a union of many mothers). The word of may also be used to show possession: the top of the house, the light of the candle, the Duke of Wellington.

source:http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/noun.htm

Word Classes

We put words into categories or logical groups, according to how they work within phrases, clauses or sentences. These categories, traditionally called parts of speech are now more usually known as word classes. Parts of speech are labels for categories in which we usually place words. But in a given sentence a word from one category may behave as if it were in another. A dictionary will only record established or standard usage.
The traditional parts of speech were of eight kinds, excluding the two articles (a/an, the). These were

• nouns,
• pronouns,
• adjectives,
• verbs,
• prepositions,
• conjunctions,
• adverbs, and
• interjections.

Modern linguists prefer to list words in classes that are coherent - all the words in them should behave in the same way. But if this principle were applied rigidly, we would have hundreds of classes, so we allow irregularities!

Closed and Open Word Classes

Some classes of words are called closed because they contain a relatively small number of items to which no new words can normally be added. These are the structural words, which include:

• words (prepositions and conjunctions) which make connections (connectives or connectors),
• pronouns and
• words (including articles) like the, some, each that co-occur with nouns - these are called determiners.

Other classes of word are constantly being added to. Each contains a vast number of terms already. They are open to new words being introduced. The open classes are

• nouns,
• verbs and
• the words which qualify them, adjectives and adverbs.

These form the bulk of a language's vocabulary or lexis (also lexicon, though this sometimes refers to a published version). These classes may be called lexical whereas the closed-class words are structural or functional. These tables illustrate the two kinds of word class.

Closed Word Classes
Determiner	Pronoun	Preposition	Conjunction
A, the, any, my, those, which	She, them, who, that, himself	In, across, at, by, near, within	And, but, if, or, while, unless

Open Word Classes
Noun	Verb	Adjective	Adverb
Abstract: fear, joy Concrete: chair, mud Common: boy, town Proper: Fred, Hull	Transitive: bite, steal Intransitive: live, cry Modal: can, will, may Auxiliary: be, have, do	Descriptive: lazy, tall Comparative: lazier Superlative: tallest	Manner: reluctantly, keenly, easily, softly Time: soon, often Place: here, there

Problems of classification

Some words are difficult to classify. Not all grammatical descriptions will place them in the same word class. This, these or those are sometimes classified as demonstrative (or distinctive) adjectives or pronouns. Possessives, like my, his, their, are sometimes classified as pronouns (showing the word from which they are formed), sometimes as adjectives, showing their grammatical function of qualifying nouns: usually they are pronouns when alone (I like that) and adjectives when they precede a noun (I like this cupof tea). Traditional lists of adverbs contain words like very which qualify other adverbs or adjectives. This word class is sometimes called a “dustbin class”, because any word for which there is no obvious class will be put in it! Among words which have sometimes been classified as adverbs are the following: however, just, no, not, quickly, tomorrow and when.
This incoherence has long been recognized by grammarians who subdivide adverbs into further categories, such as adverbs of time, place or manner.
In trying to organize words into coherent classes, linguists will consider any or all of the following:

• what they mean (semantics),
• their form (morphology),
• provenance (historical origin or derivation) and
• function in a phrase, clause or sentence (syntax).

Some words, such as numbers, do not fit in any of the word classes given above. They can behave as adjectives (one loaf or two?) or pronouns (I want one now!). And no one description of word classes is regarded as finally authoritative. Some classes (such as verbs or conjunctions) are fairly coherent. You should be able to discuss the problems of how or where to classify words which seem not to “fit”.
Also note that a dictionary does not (or should not) prescribe, but indicates the word class or part of speech where a word is usually placed. But in a given sentence, if the speaker or writer has used it as if it were in a different class, then this is where it should be placed.
For example, toilet is usually classified as a noun. But UK primary school teachers often speak of toileting children (I had to toilet John twice today). In describing such a sentence, you should be guided by the internal grammar of the sentence (syntax) rather than the dictionary. Here toilet is a transitive verb. If this usage becomes standard, lexicographers will record it. This kind of word formation is called conversion, a self-explanatory name.




Every statement is a combination of words, and every statement says something to communicate information. The simplest possible kind of statement - for example, Dogs bark - has two kinds of words in it. It has a what word, dogs, and a what happens word, bark. These kinds of words are the most basic parts of any statement. If a person only says dog, no statement is made, and no information is conveyed. A sound is made that calls to mind a common, four-footed animal, but nothing regarding it is learned.
The what words are called nouns. They tell what is being talked about. They are identifying words, or names. Nouns identify persons, places, or things. They may be particular persons, places, or things: Michael Jackson, Reykjavik, World Trade Center. Or they may be general nouns: singer, town, building. Concrete nouns indicate things that can be seen such as car, teapot, and potato. Abstract nouns denote concepts such as love, honesty,and beauty.




The what happens words are called verbs. They are the action words in a statement. Without them it is impossible to put sentences together. It is the verb that says something about the noun: dogs bark, birds fly, fish swim. Verbs are the important words that create information in statements. Although nouns alone make no statement, verbs can occasionally do so. Help! gives the information that someone is in trouble, and Go away! tells someone or something emphatically to leave.
Besides nouns and verbs there are other kinds of words that have different functions in statements. They are pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, articles, prepositions, and a very few words that can be called function words because they fit into none of the other categories. All of these kinds of words together are called parts of speech. They can just as well be called parts of writing because they apply to written as well as to spoken language.http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/classes.htm

Morphology

This is the study of the structure of words. The name comes from Greek morphos (=shape or form). The smallest units of meaning may be whole simple words (e.g. man, run, big) or parts of complex words (e.g. un-, -faith- and -ful in unfaithful) which are called morphemes.
Some morphemes, such as faith in un-faith-ful or dream in dream-ing can stand alone as words which make sense. These are known as free morphemes. You will see how very many simple words are free morphemes, but can combine with other morphemes, both free and bound (see below) to form complex words.
Where two simple words are joined together to form a new complete word, this is called a compound word. Examples include teapot, starlight and careworn. When these terms are first coined, they are shown in some dictionaries with a hyphen, as light-house or fish-finger.




Other morphemes, such as prefixes and suffixes (collectively called affixes), cannot stand alone - they need to be part of a complex word to make sense. Examples are

• dis- in dis-miss, dis-pute or dis-grace,
• -ing in dream-ing,
• -ness in happi-ness or sad-ness and even
• -s used to form plurals, as in boy-s or horse-s.

These morphemes are said to be bound morphemes.

Inflection and derivation

Bound morphemes are traditionally divided into two further classes. Sometimes a word is changed in its form to show the internal grammar of a sentence (“agreement”). Examples would be plural forms of nouns (dog + s → dog-s) or past (imperfect) tenses of regular verbs (want + ed → want-ed). The study of such changes is inflectional morphology (because the words in question are inflected - altered, in this case by adding a suffix).




Other compound or complex words are made by adding together elements without reference to the internal grammar of a sentence. For example, the verb infect suggests a new verb disinfect (=to undo the action of infecting). New words are often formed by noun + -ize, noun + ism, or verb + able (scandalize, Thatcherism, disposable). The study of such words, “derived” from existing words or morphemes is derivational morphology. The elements of which the word is made may have a grammatical relationship within the word (you may find this idea difficult), but their formation is independent of the syntax of the clause or sentence in which they occur. If you find this puzzling, two things may help:

• Inflectional morphology is much easier to recognize. A relatively small number of types of inflection (showing number or tense, say) covers most cases.
• All compound and most complex words show derivational morphology. If a complex word does not show inflection it will show derivation.

But note: a complex word may show both inflection and derivation! A derived word may be inflected to show, for example, tense or number: deported or disposables (as in nappies).





This table shows how the most common kinds of inflection are found in three word classes:

Inflection of nouns, verbs and qualifiers
Nouns	Verbs	Adjectives and adverbs
Addition of terminal s to show plural (one cat; two cats); addition of 's to show possession (Henry's cat).	Ending shows tense (wanted) or person ([she] wants).	Addition of -er → comparative (hotter; likelier); addition of -est → superlative (coldest; soonest).

This table illustrates how derivation can occur:

Derivational morphology in complex words
Prefix	Base of Word	Suffix	Complex Word
Bi	cycl(e)	ing	Bicycling
Dis	grace	ful	Disgraceful
In	tolera(te)	able	Intolerable
Re	vision	ist	Revisionist
Un, co	operat(e)	ive, ly	Uncooperatively
Un	likely (y becomes i)	hood	Unlikelihood

Remember that morphology is the study of the structure of words. The structure of words can also be studied to show how the meaning of a given morpheme, or its relation to the rest of the word, varies from one complex word to another. Consider how sun works in the following words: sunbeam, sunburnt, sundial, sunflower, sunglasses, sunlight, sunrise, sun-spot (scientific sense), sun-spot (tourist sense), suntan.

Inflection does not really yield “new” words, but alters the form of existing ones for specific reasons of grammar. Derivation, on the other hand, does lead to the creation of new words. There are at least four normal processes of word-formation, of which three are examples of derivation:

Four kinds of word-formation
Prefixation (derivational)	Suffixation (derivational)	Compounding (derivational)	Conversion (not derivational)
Affix placed before base of word, e.g. disobey	Affix placed after base of word, e.g. kindness	Two base forms are added together, e.g. blackbird	Word changes class, without any change of form, e.g. (the) pet (n) becomes (to) pet (vb.)

Words considered as wholes can be categorized according to how they work within phrases, clauses or sentences. These categories, traditionally called parts of speech are now more usually known as word classes. Parts of speech are labels for categories in which words are usually placed. But in a given sentence a word from one category may behave as if it were in another. A dictionary will only record established or standard usage.
The traditional parts of speech were of eight kinds, excluding the two articles (a/an, the). These were nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, and interjections. Modern linguists prefer to list words in classes that are coherent - all the words in them should behave in the same way. But if this principle were applied rigidly, we would have hundreds of classes, so irregularities are tolerated!

source:http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/intro.htm

The Structure of the English language

This is a guide to the structure of the English language. Teachers of English and English as a second language may use it for reference. This text is recommended for advanced users of English.
We can study the structure of language in a variety of ways. For example, we can study

• classes of words (parts of speech),
• meanings of words and longer structures (semantics),
• how words are organised in relation to each other (syntax),
• how words are formed (morphology),
• the sounds of words (phonology) and
• how written forms represent these (lexicography).

There is no universally accepted model for doing this, but some models use the notion of a hierarchy, and this may prove fruitful for you.




The most basic units of meaning are simple words (e.g.: dog, yes and swim) or the elements of complex words (e.g.: un- -happi- and -ness in unhappiness). These basic elements are called morphemes, and the study of how they are combined in words is morphology.
The study of how words are organised into phrases, clauses and sentences is usually referred to as syntax.
A longer stretch of language is known as discourse, the study of its structure as discourse analysis.
This hierarchy is partly explained by the table below. The right hand column should be read upwards, in the direction of the arrow.

Outline structure of English
sentences are analysed into clauses are analysed into phrases are analysed into words are analysed into morphemes	↓ ↑	sentences are used to build clauses are used to build phrases are used to build words are used to build morphemes

The following table shows a three-part model of the structure of English.

Three-part model of English
Morphology	Syntax	Discourse
morphemes ↓ words	phrases ↓ clauses ↓ sentences	relationships between sentences in longer stretches of language

What is English?

English

  We often defined it as an international language or global language. Have we asked about it's origin? According to Wikipedia, English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria. Following the economic, political, military, scientific, cultural, and colonial influence of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from the 18th century, via the British Empire, and of the United States since the mid-20th century it has been widely dispersed around the world, become the leading language of international discourse, and has acquired use as lingua franca in many regions. It is widely learned as a second language and used as an official language of the European Union and many Commonwealth countries, as well as in many world organizations. It is the third most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. <sup>see more

source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language</sup>