Welcome to Grammar and Morphology (OCR AS Level H070)
Welcome to your study guide for Grammar, including morphology! In the Cambridge OCR AS Level English Language (H070) course, grammar is one of the core Language levels. The specification defines this level as "the structural patterns and shapes of English at sentence, clause, phrase and word level."
Don't worry if grammatical terms have felt overwhelming or dry in the past. Think of grammar as the architecture of language: morphology supplies the individual bricks, word classes are the building materials, phrases and clauses are the rooms, and sentences make up the complete building. Let's break this down step-by-step from the smallest units up to whole sentences.
1. Morphology: The Word Level
Morphology is the study of how words are constructed out of smaller meaningful units called morphemes.
A morpheme is the smallest unit of grammatical or lexical meaning in a language. You cannot break a morpheme down any further without losing its meaning.
A. Free vs. Bound Morphemes
Morphemes fall into two main groups:
• Free Morphemes: These can stand completely on their own as independent words with full meaning.
Examples: walk, cat, quick, house.
• Bound Morphemes: These cannot stand alone as independent words. They must attach to a stem or base word (often as prefixes or suffixes).
Examples: un-, -ing, -ed, -s, -ful.
B. Types of Bound Morphemes: Derivational vs. Inflectional
Bound morphemes perform two distinct jobs in English:
1. Derivational Morphemes: These either change the grammatical word class (part of speech) of a word, or create a brand new meaning.
• teach (Verb) + -er \(\rightarrow\) teacher (Noun) [Word class changes]
• happy (Adjective) + un- \(\rightarrow\) unhappy (Adjective with the opposite meaning)
• electric (Adjective) + -ity \(\rightarrow\) electricity (Noun)
2. Inflectional Morphemes: These do not change the word class or basic meaning. Instead, they adapt the word for grammatical accuracy, signaling tense, aspect, number, or degree. In English, there are 8 core regular inflectional morphemes:
• Plural: cat + -s \(\rightarrow\) cats
• Possessive: Sarah + -'s \(\rightarrow\) Sarah's
• Past Tense (Regular): jump + -ed \(\rightarrow\) jumped
• Present Participle / Progressive Aspect: sing + -ing \(\rightarrow\) singing
• Past Participle: break + -en \(\rightarrow\) broken or walk + -ed \(\rightarrow\) walked
• Third-Person Singular Present: she walk + -s \(\rightarrow\) she walks
• Comparative Degree: fast + -er \(\rightarrow\) faster
• Superlative Degree: fast + -est \(\rightarrow\) fastest
Analogy Time: The Wardrobe Analogy
Think of a free morpheme as a person. Inflectional morphemes are like changing the person's coat (they are still the exact same person, just dressed for winter or summer). Derivational morphemes are like giving them a complete magical transformation into someone or something entirely different!
Key Takeaway for Morphology: When analysing texts for AO1 and AO3, never just list prefixes or suffixes. Explain how morphological choices create tone, show creativity, establish formality, or adapt word functions.
2. Word Classes (Parts of Speech)
English words belong to two broad categories: Major (Open) Word Classes and Minor (Closed) Word Classes.
A. Major (Open) Word Classes
Open classes carry the primary semantic content (meaning) of a text. They are called "open" because the English language readily invents and adds new words to these categories all the time (such as selfie or vlog).
• Nouns: Words that name people, places, concepts, or things.
- Proper Nouns: Specific names requiring capital letters (London, Maya).
- Common Concrete Nouns: Physical things you can touch or observe (table, phone).
- Common Abstract Nouns: Ideas, emotions, concepts, or qualities (freedom, anxiety).
- Collective Nouns: Groups treated as single units (flock, team, committee).
- Countable vs. Uncountable: Items that can be counted individually (three apples) versus continuous masses (water, advice).
• Verbs: Words expressing actions, occurrences, or states.
- Dynamic Verbs: Actions and physical processes that have a clear start and finish (sprint, kick, build).
- Stative Verbs: Mental states, conditions, or emotions that do not involve physical motion (believe, love, resemble).
- Main (Lexical) Verbs: The central verb carrying the core meaning in a verb phrase (She wrote an article).
• Adjectives: Words that modify, evaluate, or describe nouns.
- Descriptive: Physical or factual characteristics (blue, wooden).
- Evaluative: Subjective judgements or opinions (terrible, magnificent).
- Comparative & Superlative: Expressing degrees of comparison (taller, tallest).
• Adverbs: Words that modify verbs, adjectives, or entire clauses.
- Adverbs typically give information about manner (quietly), time (yesterday), place (nearby), frequency (always), or degree (extremely, very).
B. Minor (Closed) Word Classes
Closed classes are the structural "glue" of language. They rarely accept new words and serve functional, grammatical roles.
• Pronouns: Replace noun phrases to avoid repetition.
- Personal: Subjective (I, you, she, they), Objective (me, him, them), Possessive (mine, yours, theirs).
- Demonstrative: this, that, these, those.
- Relative: Link dependent clauses (who, which, that, whose).
- Interrogative: Ask questions (who, what, which).
- Reflexive: Refer back to the subject (myself, themselves).
- Indefinite: Non-specific entities (someone, everyone, nothing).
• Determiners: Precede nouns to limit or specify their reference.
- Articles: Definite (the) and Indefinite (a, an).
- Demonstrative Determiners: this book, that car.
- Possessive Determiners: my pen, our house, their idea (Common Trap: Do not confuse possessive determiners like my with possessive pronouns like mine!).
- Quantifiers: all, some, many, few.
• Prepositions: Show spatial, temporal, or logical relationships between elements (in, on, under, through, after, before, during).
• Conjunctions: Connect words, phrases, or clauses.
- Coordinating Conjunctions: Connect elements of equal grammatical weight. Remember the classic mnemonic FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So).
- Subordinating Conjunctions: Connect a dependent subordinate clause to a main clause (because, although, whereas, if, while, since).
• Auxiliary Verbs: "Helping" verbs that accompany a main lexical verb.
- Primary Auxiliaries: be, have, do. They signal tense, aspect (progressive or perfect), voice (passive), or negation.
- Modal Auxiliaries: can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might, must. Modals express the speaker's attitude towards the reality or necessity of an action:
1. Deontic Modality: Obligation, duty, rules, or permission (e.g., "You must submit your work", "You may leave").
2. Epistemic Modality: Possibility, probability, or certainty based on knowledge (e.g., "It might rain later", "That must be the delivery driver").
Key Takeaway for Word Classes: Accurate identification is an essential AO1 requirement. Always distinguish carefully between open classes (content) and closed classes (structure), and specify modal types (deontic vs. epistemic) when discussing authorial stance.
3. Phrases and Clauses
A. Phrase Types
A phrase is a group of words centred around a single key word called the head word. Phrases are named after the class of their head word:
• Noun Phrase (NP): Centred on a head noun. Can include pre-modification (modifiers placed before the head) and post-modification (qualifiers placed after the head).
Example: [ The completely unexpected ] (pre-modification) news (head noun) [ that broke yesterday ] (post-modification).
• Verb Phrase (VP): Centred on a lexical main verb, often preceded by auxiliary verbs.
Example: has been running (auxiliary has + auxiliary been + head verb running).
• Adjective Phrase (AdjP): Centred on an adjective (e.g., extremely bright).
• Adverb Phrase (AdvP): Centred on an adverb (e.g., remarkably fast).
• Prepositional Phrase (PP): Begins with a preposition followed by a noun phrase (e.g., in the morning, under the heavy table).
B. Clause Elements (Syntax)
A clause is a unit of syntactic construction containing a subject and a verb. In English syntax, there are 5 fundamental functional clause elements:
• Subject (S): The entity performing the action or being described (The student wrote an essay).
• Verb (V): The core predicator / verb phrase (The student wrote an essay).
• Object (O):
- Direct Object (Od): The entity directly affected by the action (The student wrote an essay).
- Indirect Object (Oi): The recipient of the direct object (She gave her teacher the essay).
• Complement (C): Provides essential information that completes the subject or object after a copular/linking verb (like be, seem, become).
- Subject Complement (Cs): The exam was difficult.
- Object Complement (Co): They elected Maya president.
• Adverbial (A): Adds extra contextual information about time, place, manner, or circumstance (She revised quietly in the library yesterday).
C. Clause Types
• Main (Independent) Clause: Contains a finite verb and subject; expresses a complete proposition and can stand alone as a sentence (The sun set over the hills).
• Subordinate (Dependent) Clause: Cannot stand alone as a complete sentence; provides supplementary information and is introduced by a subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun (...because it was late).
• Non-finite Clauses: Clauses containing a non-finite verb form (infinitive with to, present participle -ing, or past participle -ed/-en) rather than a tense-marked verb.
Examples: To win the championship, they trained daily. / Having finished the test, he left the room.
Key Takeaway for Phrases & Clauses: Look at how writers expand noun phrases (heavy pre- or post-modification) to pack dense information into texts, or how non-finite clauses create concise, fast-paced descriptions.
4. Sentence Structures and Functions
A. Structural Classifications
How clauses are combined determines the sentence structure:
1. Minor Sentence (Sentence Fragment): Lacks a finite verb or standard S–V grammatical core. Highly common in spontaneous speech, advertising, and modern digital communication.
Example: "No way." / "Delicious."
2. Simple Sentence: Consists of a single independent main clause (one subject–verb core).
Example: "The scientist published the results."
3. Compound Sentence: Contains two or more independent main clauses linked by coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS) or semicolons.
Example: "The scientist published the results, and the media covered the story."
4. Complex Sentence: Contains one independent main clause and at least one dependent subordinate clause.
Example: "Although the experiment was risky, the scientist published the results."
5. Compound-Complex Sentence: Contains two or more independent main clauses and at least one dependent subordinate clause.
Example: "Because the results were clear, the scientist published them, but critics remained sceptical."
B. Functional (Discourse) Classifications
Sentences also perform specific communicative functions in interaction:
• Declarative: Makes a statement or assertion of fact ("The library closes at five.").
• Interrogative: Asks a question or seeks information ("Does the library close at five?"). Includes open questions (wh- words), closed questions (yes/no), rhetorical questions, and tag questions ("..., isn't it?").
• Imperative: Issues an order, directive, instruction, or advice; usually starts with a base verb with the subject implied ("Close the door." / "Please listen carefully.").
• Exclamative: Expresses strong emotion or emphasis, structurally introduced by what or how ("What an incredible achievement!").
Quick Review: Match the form to the function! A declarative sentence can sometimes be uttered with rising intonation in speech to act functionally as an interrogative ("You're leaving already?"). Always comment on how the grammatical form operates in context.
5. Voice and Nominalisation
A. Active Voice vs. Passive Voice
Grammatical voice describes the relationship between the action expressed by the verb and the participants identified by the subject and object.
• Active Voice: The grammatical subject is the agent (the doer of the action).
Example: "The committee (Subject / Agent) rejected (Verb) the proposal (Object / Patient)."
\(\rightarrow\) Direct, clear, and places responsibility squarely on the agent.
• Passive Voice: The direct recipient/patient of the action is moved to the subject position. The original agent is either moved into a prepositional phrase ("by the committee") or omitted entirely (agentless passive).
Example: "The proposal was rejected [by the committee]."
\(\rightarrow\) Formal, objective, or strategically used to obscure blame and agency (e.g., "Mistakes were made").
B. Nominalisation
Nominalisation is the grammatical process of converting verbs or adjectives into nouns.
• react (verb) \(\rightarrow\) reaction (noun)
• isolate (verb) \(\rightarrow\) isolation (noun)
• transparent (adjective) \(\rightarrow\) transparency (noun)
Contextual Effect (AO3): Nominalisation strips out human agency and dynamic action, turning events into abstract concepts. It makes writing sound formal, academic, bureaucratic, and authoritative, but it can also make texts dense and impersonal.
6. Examiner Pitfalls & How to Secure Top Marks
OCR AS Level English Language (H070) examiner reports highlight several recurring errors. Keep these in mind to maximize your AO1 and AO3 marks:
1. Avoid "Feature Spotting" without Purpose:
Never simply write: "The writer uses a compound sentence" or "The writer uses passive voice." Always connect the grammatical feature to its contextual purpose: Why did the writer choose a passive structure? Are they trying to avoid assigning blame in a formal report? (AO1 terminology + AO3 contextual evaluation).
2. Do Not Analyse Language Levels in Rigid, Isolated Blocks:
Examiners caution against writing rigid, isolated paragraphs where you discuss grammar in total separation from lexis or discourse. Stronger responses integrate grammatical analysis naturally into broader thematic and contextual arguments.
3. Use Precise Terminology:
Double-check word class labels. Do not confuse adverbs with adjectives, or possessive determiners (their) with possessive pronouns (theirs). Precision is rewarded under AO1.
4. Ban Generic Claims:
Never write vague phrases like "this makes the reader read on", "it creates an effect", or "this flows well." State precisely what effect is created (e.g., establishes epistemic uncertainty, conveys institutional authority, creates conversational intimacy).
5. Anchor Morphology to Register and Tone:
If you discuss prefixes or suffixes, explain how they construct tone, adjust register (e.g., informal affixation like -ish), or enable lexical creativity.
Summary Checklist: The Grammar Toolkit
When analysing any authentic text or preparing for H070/01 and H070/02, ask yourself:
• Word/Morpheme Level: Are there interesting derivational or inflectional affixes altering register or meaning?
• Word Class Level: Which open classes dominate? Are modal auxiliaries deontic (rules/duty) or epistemic (possibility/belief)?
• Phrase Level: Are noun phrases simple or heavily pre-/post-modified to condense information?
• Clause/Sentence Level: What is the distribution of simple, compound, complex, or minor sentences? Are sentence functions purely declarative, or do imperatives and interrogatives create interactive dialogue?
• Voice & Agency: Does the writer use active voice to show direct accountability, or passive voice and nominalisation to sound detached and objective?