Fundamental Concepts in Linguistics and Language Study

Words are units that speakers intuitively recognize. For example, Impresentable can be analyzed as im-present-able.

Linguistic Concepts: Word Formation

Monemes and Lexemes

Monemes are minimal units with significance and are classified by their meaning into stems and morphemes. Lexemes make up the core or root of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs, providing the basic meaning.

Morphemes

Morphemes are units used to connect lexemes. They are classified as follows:

  • Independent Morphemes: These form words
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Key Concepts in Spanish Literature and Grammar

Spanish and Latin American Literary Movements

The Postwar Novel

  • Camilo José Cela (Nobel Prize in Literature 1989): His works, such as Pascual Duarte’s Family and The Hive (1951), initiated an alarming portrayal of the immediate degradation of postwar Spain.
  • Miguel Delibes (1920): Notable works include Diary of a Hunter, An Immigrant’s Day, and Five Hours with Mario (1966), known for its internal monologue, colloquial language, and repetition.
  • Gonzalo Torrente Ballester: Author of The Joys and Shadows.
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English Grammar: Nouns, Verbs, Mood, and Voice

The English Verb: Grammatical Category of Mood

A verb is one of the main parts of speech that identifies an action or a state of a noun. It has several grammatical categories, and one of them is Mood. Mood expresses the speaker’s attitude toward the verbal activity. There are three types of mood: Indicative, Imperative, and Subjunctive.

Understanding Grammatical Mood

Indicative Mood

The Indicative mood indicates something the speaker considers a fact. For example: She is a doctor; I was ill; She will

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Mastering English Adverbs: Usage and Placement

Understanding Adverbs in English Grammar

The word adverb suggests the idea of adding to the meaning of a verb. It is the word class that usually provides extra information about the action in the sentence by modifying a verb, i.e., by telling us how, when, where, etc., something happens. E.g.: Paganini played the violin beautifully.

What Adverbs Modify

Besides verbs, adverbs can modify:

  • Adjectives: very good, awfully hungry
  • Other Adverbs: very soon, awfully quickly
  • Nouns: The man here is a doctor.
  • Determiners:
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Language Sound Systems: Phonetics, Phonology, and Syntax

Phonetics: The Study of Language Sounds

Phonetics is the linguistic discipline that studies language sounds analyzed by their physical characteristics. There are three main domains within phonetics:

  • Articulatory Phonetics: Addresses how language sounds are produced in the speech apparatus.
  • Acoustic Phonetics: Studies how sounds spread through the air.
  • Auditory Phonetics: Studies how sounds are perceived by hearing.

Phonology, on the other hand, studies the abstract mental aspects of language sounds.

Phonemes

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Mastering ‘Que’ in Spanish Grammar: Functions & Errors

The Spanish word “que” is highly versatile, serving numerous grammatical functions. This document details its various uses, from pronouns and conjunctions to adjectives and adverbs, along with common errors to avoid.

1. Relative & Interrogative Pronouns

Relative Pronoun

A relative pronoun introduces a relative clause and always maintains its corresponding syntactic function within the clause (not merely as a link). For example: “The Indonesian restaurant that I mentioned.” (= which…). You can

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