3. Relation of grammar to other components of linguistic description

Used in a narrow sense, grammar comprises syntax and morphology.

Morphology studies the grammatical aspects of morphemes and words. It studies the form of words, the intra-word cohesion. Its main units are morphemes and words.

Syntax is concerned with the way words combine to form sentences, or inter-word cohesion. Its units are combinations of words and sentences.

The connection of grammar with other levels of linguistic description is determined by the following factors:

• the units of lower levels make the construction material for the units of higher levels;

• units of different levels can interact in speech;

• units of different levels can have common meanings and complement each other.

Unit of Language		Aspect of Language	Linguistic Discipline
Text		Text organization	Textlinguistics
Sentence		Syntax	Grammar
Word	Inflexion	Morphology
	Derivational morpheme	Word-Building	Lexicology / Grammar
	Stem	Lexical Semantics	Lexicology
Phoneme		Phonetics	Phonology

Fig.2.4. Units of language as the object matter of linguistic disciplines

Grammar and Vocabulary:

1. Morphological indicators serve to differentiate:

• meanings of polysemous words.

advice = counsel; advices = information;

damage = injury; damages = compensation.

• style:

brother - brethren, brothers;

cloth - cloths, clothes;

• figurativeness:

fruit - fruits of labour;

2. Grammar constructions restrict the word meanings:

I remember doing so. - Remember to drop at the post-office.

He treated my words as a joke. - The book treats of poetry.

3. Word-making is grammatically relevant:

• transitive - intransitive:

be- , out- : beweep, belie, besmear; outrun, outshine, outvote;

• causative:

-en: greaten, harden, quicken;

en-: enfeeble, embitter, endear;

• repetitive:

re-: remake, rejoin;

• deverbal nouns - aspective meanings:

a glance, a jump, a run.

4. The use of some grammatical rules is known to be lexically restricted (e.g. certain verbs are not used in Continuous forms; Pluralia / Singularia Tantum nouns, etc.)

Interrelation between grammar and vocabulary will be readily seen in the etymology of some function words which have come from the notional parts of speech: e.g. provided, regarding, etc.

Grammar and Phonetics

Phonetic interpretation is well known to affect both morphology and syntax.

1. The system of reading rules manifests itself in inflexional morphology:

e.g. the rules determining the pronunciation of the possessive forms of nouns, the plural of nouns, the past of the verbs.

The sound interchange is another manifestation of the connection between morphology and phonetics.

The word making through the so-called “morphological”, or “semantic” stress.

2. Changes in the intonation pattern can affect the functional sentence perspective, change the interpretation of the whole utterance:

You have done me a good service.

She spoke with a pretty French accent.

Only old men and women are allowed to sit here.

I have instructions to leave.