Structure of the English Language

 Structure of the English Language

1. Punctuation and Capitals

• Punctuation = marks used in writing to clarify meaning and separate ideas.

• Common punctuation marks:

o Full stop (.) – ends a sentence.

o Comma (,) – separates items/clauses.

o Question mark (?) – for questions.

o Exclamation mark (!) – for emotions.

o Colon (:) & Semicolon (;) – for listing/complex separation.

o Quotation marks (“ ”) – for direct speech.

• Capitals are used:

o At the beginning of a sentence.

o For proper nouns (e.g., India, Shakespeare).

o For first-person pronoun “I”.

o For days, months, festivals, titles.

2. Formation of Words

English creates new words mainly by prefixing, suffixing, compounding, and conversion:

(a) Prefixing

• Adding a prefix before a root word to change its meaning.

• Example: happy → unhappy, possible → impossible, rewrite.

• Prefixes usually change meaning but not word class.

(b) Suffixing

• Adding a suffix at the end of a word to form a new word.

• Example: teach → teacher, kind → kindness, nation → national.

• Suffixes often change word class (verb → noun, adj → adv, etc.).

(c) Compounding

• Joining two or more words to form a single new word.

• Example: blackboard, toothpaste, newspaper, classroom.

• Compounds may be open (ice cream), hyphenated (mother-in-law), or closed (blackboard).

(d) Conversion (Zero-derivation)

• Changing a word’s grammatical category without adding anything.

• Example:

o to run (verb) → a run (noun)

o to email (verb) ← email (noun)

o to clean (verb) ← clean (adj)

The structure of the English language depends on proper punctuation and capitalization, which make sentences clear and meaningful. Punctuation marks like the full stop, comma, question mark, colon, and quotation marks help to express sense correctly, while capitals are used at the beginning of sentences, for proper nouns, the pronoun “I,” and for names of days, months, and festivals.

New words in English are formed mainly through prefixing, suffixing, compounding, and conversion. Prefixes (e.g., unhappy, rewrite) add meaning before the base word, while suffixes (e.g., teacher, kindness) usually change the word class. Compounding combines words into one (e.g., toothpaste, blackboard), and conversion changes a word’s class without adding affixes (e.g., run (v) → a run (n), email (n) → to email (v)). These processes show the flexibility and richness of English word formation.