A Linguistic Model of
language
Bloom and Lahey (1978) divide language into three separate but overlapping components: form,
content and use.
The overlap of these in the centre of the diagram below represents knowledge of language and a
successful integration of form, content, and use to understand and transmit messages.
Form
Refers to the surface features of language and how these are arranged according to the grammar of
the language. It incorporates morphology, syntax and phonology. .
Content
Refers to the topics and ideas that are encoded in linguistic messages (whether these are transmitted
through sign language, writing or speech).
Use
Refers to the reasons why people communicate – the function of language. In addition it refers to how
people both understand and choose from among alternative linguistic forms in order to reach their
goals – the context of language. Language use is akin to pragmatics.
Receptive language
Auditory Processing
The comprehension of language, listening and understanding what is being communicated.
The brains ability to accurately perceive speech in both quiet and noisy settings.
Expressive Language
Articulation
The production of speech and communicating a message.
The set of motor skill learning where moving the speech articulators in our mouths in rapid, precise and
coordinated sequences becomes automatic. Refers to how a child pronounces words.
The grammar of a language is made up of syntax and morphology
Grammar of language
Syntax
Syntax: rule system governing the order and combination of words to form sentences, and the relationships
among the elements within a sentence.
Children with syntactical problems often lack the length or syntactic complexity of their age peers.
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Morphology
Semantics
Phonology
Phonetics
Morphology: the rule system that governs the structure of words and the construction of word forms from the
basic elements of meaning.
Morphology comes under the heading of Form
A morpheme is the smallest unit or segment of language that conveys meaning.
“s” plural
“ed” past tense
“ing” present progressive tense
The use of a morpheme changes the meaning.
Dogs two morphemes, dog and s
Root morphemes: free morphemes that can stand alone. These are typically considered to be vocabulary words.
Affixes: bound morphemes such as prefixes and suffixes (change meaning of word:
derivational suffixes (change word class, e.g., verb walk becomes noun walker)
Inflectional suffixes (change the meaning of a word, e.g. boys changes the meaning to more than one boy.
Semantics: language meaning; the meaning of individual words as well as the meaning that is produced by a
combination of words.
Categories include objects in general, actions in general, and relations between objects and relations between
events
Students with semantic problems may use or understand a limited number of words.
Dysnomia: difficulty in retrieving or recalling specific words
When referring to the sound components of a language, linguists usually distinguish between phonology and
phonetics.
Phonology comes under the heading of Form
Phonology is the study and use of individual sound units in a language and the rules by which they are combined
and recombined to create larger language units
Phonemes are the unit of sound such as /s/ or /b/ , they do not convey meaning
Phonemes alter meaning of words when combined (e.g., sat to bat)
English language consists of about 40 phonemes, classified as either vowels or consonants.
Phonological or phonemic awareness is the capability of analyzing and manipulating the sound components of
language without respect to meaning.
There is a strong relationship between phonological disorders and reading problems.
In English the alphabet does not correspond to the sounds of the language.
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Prosody
Pragmatics
Sounds of speech do not always correspond to the letters of the alphabet or the way in which a word is spelled.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is used to write down sounds in the language, and has one-to-one
correspondence with the symbol and sound.
E.g. In English the sounds “iss” as in kiss and “ace” as in palace are spelled quite differently but are both written
as /s/
This is the stress, intonation and voice quality used in spoken communication. Intonation and stress can change
the meaning of an utterance without changing the words.
Variations in the rise and fall of a voice can convey very different meanings, e.g. “the shop was closed” can be
spoken to indicate anger, simply as a statement or as a question.
Pragmatics is the study of language use.
Pragmatics involve three major communication skills:
Using language for different purposes, such as
greeting (e.g., hello, goodbye)
informing (e.g., I'm going to get a biscuit)
promising (e.g., I'm going to get you a biscuit)
requesting (e.g., I would like a biscuit, please)
Changing language according to the needs of a listener or situation, such as
talking differently to a baby than to an adult
giving background information to an unfamiliar listener
speaking differently in a classroom than on a playground
Following rules for conversations and storytelling, such as
taking turns in conversation
introducing topics of conversation
staying on topic
rephrasing when misunderstood
how to use verbal and nonverbal signals
how close to stand to someone when speaking
how to use facial expressions and eye contact
An individual with pragmatic problems may:
say inappropriate or unrelated things during conversations
tell stories in a disorganized way
have little variety in language use
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Rhythm
Intonation
The perceived “beat” in an utterance that is determined by the lexical stress. Different languages have different
rhythms of speech
Intonation carries important semantic functions, expressing emotions. It can be linked with the syntactic features
of the utterance. Saying the same sentence using different tones can change the meaning of the sentence.
“The shop was closed”
Terminology
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