Formal Properties of Language:
Talk is achieved through the
interdependent components of
sounds, words, sentences, and
meanings.
Last class we learned about:
• the importance of language in human
behaviour
• the different meanings transmitted by
language
• cultural contexts and cultural models
• speech community
The components of language:
• the sounds of language,
• the structure of language
• and the meanings of language
What is Language?
• Language is a communicative system
consisting of formal units (of sound,
structure, and meaning) that are
integrated through processes of
combination.
Phonology:
• the study of the distinctive, contrastive
sounds (“phonemes”) of a language.
• Phonetics and phonemics
Phonetics
• it is the study of the articulation of sounds that
occur in a language
• it describes how sounds are produced or
articulated
• it tries to describe how human language becomes
possible through the manipulation of vocal
apparatus.
• Voiced/voiceless oral/nasal
Phonemics
• It analysis how sounds are used to
differentiate meanings of words
• It looks at how phonemes function to
differentiate the meanings of words
• contrasts signal differences in meanings of
words
• For example, in English /b/: pit versus bit
Prosodic features
•
•
•
•
•
Stress
Pitch
Length
Present and object
They came in. They came in?
Grammar
• Morphology
• Syntax
Morphology
• Is concerned with how phonemes are
combined by language into larger units
• Words: one or more morphemes
Morphological Example
• Cow-----Cow- boy
• Affixes: bound morphemes: dis --- dis-like
Syntax
• rules that determine how words should be
combined to make sense to speakers of a
language
• (English) word order critical for meaning
(you, are, and there) There you are, You
are there, Are you there?
In Romance languages
• Order of words not as
• important
Spanish:
Ahi estas tu--Tu estas ahi
• Tu estabas ahi
• You were there
Mandarin, Chinese
•
•
•
•
•
Meaning primarily determined by tone:
Ma
High= Mother
Rising=horse
Falling=scolding
Exceptions to syntax rules
Eat
Ate
eated
Morphological Analysis
• Morphology: the analysis of the structure of
words
• Morphemes=words
• Cat or Cat-S
• /P/ /I/ /N/ = PIN
Roots (stems) and Affixes
Roots: they have meaning in themselves
cat,good, happy
Affixes:Are attached to roots (express grammatical
meanings)
un-, -s, -ing, -ly
Three kinds of affixes: Prefixes: un-happy
suffixes: happy-ness
and infixes: fikas: fumikas (Strong ---He is
becoming strong)
Morphological Typologies
• Classification of languages according to how they
structure words out of morphemes
• Isolating languages: few morphemes, simple
method: prefix and suffix (English)
• Agglutinating languages: words containing many
morphemes, highly regular rules (Turkish)
• Synthetic or polysynthetic: Words containing
many morphemes, very complex rules (Inuktitut)
Qasirrsarrvigssarsingitluinarpug
“someone did not find a completely
suitable resting place”
Grammatical meanings
• Tense (time of the event’s occurrence) I
visited the zoo
• Aspect (manner in which an events occurs)
I am visiting the zoo
• Mode (likelihood of an event’s occurrence)
I could visit the zoo
Syntax
• Is an analytical tool that linguists utilize to
study the structure of sentences, including
construction of phrases, clauses, and the
order of words
• Example
• The dog chased the cat
• The cat chased the dog
Semantics
• The study of meaning in language,
including the analysis of meanings of words
and sentences
• Types of meanings produced by language:
situational, social and cultural
Language rules over
regularalizations
• Past tense of regular verbs (english)by
adding ed as in worked
• I gave
• I took
I gived
I taked
Linguistic interference
• Idiomatic expressions
• En este momento (literal translation) at
this moment (Instead of now)
• Drive down the parkway and park on the
driveway.
• Chop the tree down and cut the pieces up.
• His nose is running and his feet smell.