English Grammar in FocusWords and Morphemes

Abstract

English grammar in focus. Words and morphemes provides in its first part an overview of linguistics as the scientific study of language, presents grammar as one of several levels of linguistic description and introduces some of its key notions, such as grammatical units and tools for grammatical description and representation. The second part is a detailed description of the two smallest units in the grammatical hierarchy, namely the morpheme and the word. This is the first of four volumes that comprise the series English Grammar in Focus, a collection of handbooks that is aimed to familiarise university students with the essentials of English grammatical description. Although each volume can be used as a self-contained coursebook, the series as a whole is intended to serve as a comprehensive introduction to all levels of grammatical description, from the morpheme, as the smallest unit of grammar, to larger stretches of language. Future volumes in the series will cover the clause, the phrase, and text and discourse.