Structural Levels of
Language
Lecture 1
Ferdinand de Saussure
 "Language
is a system sui generis “ = a
system where everything holds together

The division of language into different
structural levels is made only for the sake
of investigation.
 We
have to separate one linguistic fact
from another in order to analyse it
thoroughly.
Which are the structural levels
of language?
phonological
morphological
syntactical
lexico-semantical
Each linguistic level has its own
specific features
 Phonological
– phoneme
 Morphological
 Syntactical
- morpheme
– word
 Lexico-semantical
– phrase/clause
Benveniste - the hierarchical nature
of language structure
A
phoneme + a phoneme = a
morpheme
 -e
+ -r = -er;
 -f + -u + -l = -ful;
 -m + -e + -n + -t = -ment
A
morpheme + a morpheme = a word
 drive-
+ -er = driver,
 beauty- + -ful = beautiful;
 refine- + -ment = refinement
A
word + a word = a phrase (a clause)
 blue
+ sky = blue sky;
 nice + song = nice song;
 high + mountains = high mountains
A
sentence (clause) + a sentence
(cause) = sentences of a higher order
 the
telephone rang + the boy woke up
= The telephone rang and the boy
woke up.
Phonemes, morphemes, words

It is not possible for an
item of one level to
combine with an item of
another level

an item of one level can
pass over and be
integrated into another
level

while preserving the
qualities of the original
level

it acquires the features of
the level into which it has
been integrated,
abandoning the features
it had in the previous
level
Is it possible to have a morpheme made of
only one phoneme?
 Yes,
in English, there are morphemes
consisting only of one phoneme
 Example – (-s ) marker:
the -s marker for the plural of the nouns;
the -s marker for 3rd p. sg.;
the -s marker for the genitive case
What about morphemes? Are there any
words consisting of only one morpheme?
,, ,,, , ;
It seems that there are many words consisting of only one
morpheme.

a root morpheme + zero morpheme = word
eye
+
0º
= eye
There is structural qualitative difference between a morpheme
and a word
J.Molhova: There are also many points in
language where the respective levels not
only function together but intersect
 no

However, gender exists since some nouns are
substituted by the pronoun ‘he’, others by ‘she',
and still others by ‘it’
 Ex.

morphological markers for gender
, , , , 
Since it is not expressed on the morphological
level then it should be part of the semantic
structure of the noun
there is a similar parallel with the category
of number
person
father
person
mother
person
children
bull
cow
calf
people, family, cattle
 Their
form does not point to plurality
 On the syntactic level they always require
a verb in the plural
 The element of plurality is somewhere in
the noun
 If it is not in the grammatical form then it
must be in its semantic structure
The morpheme is the smallest
meaningful unit

J.Molhova: every form has its content /
meaning; and every content / meaning has its
form
Grammatical category
form
meaning
the difference between a
grammatical and a lexical item
 table
 table,
- tables; cat - cats; girl- girls
cat, girl
the common forms singular of the nouns
 tables, cats, girls
the common plural forms of the nouns.
This description refers both to the
form and its meaning
The form is one and the same for the three items
and the meaning accordingly
 0º - a grammatical form for the singular of the
noun, common case
 -s – a grammatical marker with the meaning of
plurality in English

the morphemes 0 and -s have these meanings
irrespective of the lexical meanings of the
items
Hypothesis:
a grammatical category as a
specific form with a specific meaning
independent of the lexical meaning of the item
 She
is a teacher. (a noun)
 She is a bla.
(a noun, singular)
 The bla blas
(a verb, 3rd p. sg.)
Words consist of strings of sounds,
forming the phonological system of
language
 every

a word of one language cannot consist of
phonemes belonging to the system of sounds of
another language
 Ex.

word is phonologically motivated
borrowings - camping - къмпинг
The former English phoneme is substituted by a
Bulgarian one
a word must have a grammatical form
compatible with the existing
grammatical patterns in the language
 It
is not possible for any word to function
without having a grammatical form
 It is not possible for any word to follow the
grammatical pattern of another language
every word must be grammatically
motivated
The grammatical motivation actually
turns a morpheme or a group of
morphemes into a word
 It
is impossible to add anything more to
the word on the morphological level.
 Ex.
girl – girls
girlgirl- + -0 = girl
girl- + -s = girls
Grammatical motivation can be
considered as grammatical
completeness
For this reason one can discuss problems of
meaning connected with the word with
greater confidence than with the morpheme