Morphosyntax

Morphosyntax is the part of grammar that is responsible for studying both the forms of words and the relationships between them to form phrases, sentences and, in general, meaningful and unambiguous messages. Morphosyntax with parts and examples

Morphosyntax is a word made up of morphology and syntax . Morphology comes from the Greek morphé , which means “form” and logos , which means “study” or “treatise”. For its part, syntax, which also comes from the Greek, means “order” or “arrangement”.

Although they are two disciplines that can be studied separately, morphosyntax helps us study both the form and the function of words together to achieve a broader understanding of language.

Parts of morphosyntax

What is morphology?

Morphology tells us how the words of a language are formed, it categorizes them according to the type of words and their function (in Spanish there are several categories of words: nouns, adjectives , verbs , adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, articles, conjunctions and determiners).

• The nouns are words that name people, animals or things, physical and mental realities (emotions, qualities, relationships, etc.). They can be their own and common: Pedro, Asunción, table, dog, cat, peace, nation, fear, courage, old age, Maria … They have gender and number morphemes to agree with other words in a sentence.
• The adjectives are words that describe nouns: fast, short, Mexican, scary, fast, etc., and have morphemes of gender and number must agree with the noun.
• The verbs are words that express actions and have morphemes number, person, time, manner and appearance: walk, run, sang, had, we will think, etc.
• The adverbs are invariable words (they have no morpheme gender or number) that designate different circumstances: of place (here, there …), time (today, yesterday, tomorrow), so (that), quantity (more, less, etc.), of affirmation (yes, surely, etc.), of denial (no, never), of doubt (maybe, maybe, maybe), among others.
• The articles are words without own meaning that determine the presence of a noun and agree with it in gender and number: the, the, the, the, the, one, one, one, one, a.
• The determinants , also called determining or determinative adjectives, agree in number and gender with the noun, and specify or determine it: this, our, your, first, last, several, some, five, that, that …
• The pronouns are the words that occasionally replace the noun, and are recognized by the context: she, it, you, you, us, these, those, me, you, me, etc.
• The prepositions are invariable words linking or related words together: a, to, with, against, from, in, between, under, for, without, over, after, during, but, but, but, etc.
• The conjunctions are also invariable words that connect or join words, phrases or sentences: and, or, not, and that.

What is the syntax?

Syntax takes care of the ordering of words in a sentence, and how together they can form syntagms. Phrases, in turn, have a concrete meaning and a specific function within the sentence. Morphosyntax with parts and examples

The verb is the word that indicates the action within the sentence, and must match the subject. The predicate is the verb phrase, and it is all that is said about the subject. The core is always the verb.

With the syntax you learn to recognize the subject and predicate, verbs and grammatical complements in sentences. Morphosyntax with parts and examples

Examples of morphosyntactic analysis

Example 1: Girls play with their cousins

From this sentence we can say that it is bimembre, that is, it has a subject ( The girls ) and a predicate (they play with their cousins ). The core of the subject is girls  (common noun, feminine, plural) and the core of the predicate is play (intransitive verb, present indicative, third person plural).

We can also notice that in this sentence there are two noun phrases: Girls and with their cousins .

The noun of the first noun phrase, girls , is preceded by a determiner, the article Las , and the second noun phrase is preceded by a possessive adjective, sus . Both determinants agree in number and gender with the respective accompanying nouns ( girls and cousins , feminine nouns, plural).

In addition, the verb phrase (they play with their cousins ), is linked to the first noun phrase by a preposition, with .

This preposition turns their cousins into a prepositional phrase and circumstantial companion complement, which answers the question “with whom?”. It is a simple, predicative, active, intransitive, declarative, affirmative sentence.

Example 2: I ate a hamburger

( I ) is the elliptical or tacit subject, that is, it does not appear expressly. I had a hamburger , verb phrase. Syntagm core: Comí (transitive verb, past simple indicative, first person singular).

The verb phrase also has a noun phrase, a hamburger . The noun hamburger is preceded by a determining article, a (which agrees in number and gender with the noun, feminine, singular, hamburger ).

In turn, a hamburger is a direct complement because it tells what was eaten. The verb to eat is transitive, and needs to be completed by a syntactic constituent that explains what I ate: a hamburger . The action of the verb falls directly on the direct object. Morphosyntax with parts and examples

It is a simple, predicative, transitive, declarative, affirmative sentence.

Example 3: It’s still early

We note that there is no subject, since it is impersonal, which means that the entire sentence is a predicate, that is, a verb phrase. It is made up of two adverbial phrases, Still and early , and both are adverbs of time. Syntactically, they fulfill the function of circumstantial complements of time.

Es is the verb (verb to be, present indicative, third person singular) and is the core of the verb phrase. It is a simple, impersonal, declarative, affirmative sentence.

Example 4: My son looks like his father

It is a two-part sentence, with a subject and a predicate. My son is the subject, and it is the noun phrase of which son is the nucleus. It looks like its father is the predicate or verb phrase; the nucleus is similar (accompanied by the impersonal form se , in the present indicative, third person singular, which agrees with My son ).

His father is another prepositional noun phrase because the preposition A syntactically connects him with My son is similar .

To his father it constitutes a complement of direct regime. His father is a noun phrase, preceded by the possessive determiner adjective su ; the nucleus of this other phrase is father , and notice that it agrees in number with the determinant su : singular.

It is a simple, predicative, intransitive, declarative, affirmative sentence.

Example 5: Barça will play against Real Madrid tomorrow

Sentence bimembre: Subject, El Bar ça ; predicated, he will play against Real Madrid tomorrow . Nucleus of the noun phrase: Bar ça . Core of the verb phrase: will play (intransitive verb, future simple indicative, third personal singular, which agrees with Bar ça ).

Contra is a preposition, which links and converts against Real Madrid into a prepositional phrase of term and circumstantial complement of mode (opposition). Tomorrow is an adverb of time, it indicates a future moment, and that is why the verb is conjugated in the future.

Real Madrid is another noun phrase within the verb phrase, preceded by the determinant El . The nucleus is Real Madrid , and both agree on gender and number. It fulfills the syntactic function of being the term of the prepositional phrase, that is, the objective within the sentence: one team will play against another, which is Real Madrid. Morphosyntax with parts and examples

It is a simple, predicative, intransitive, declarative, affirmative sentence.