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Dr. Mohanad Abu Sabha
Course Title: Linguistics 1
Course Number: Eng 320
Credit Hours:3
Title: The Study of Language
Author: George Yule
And Edition:1985,Gambridge
University Press
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Course Schedule
Topics
The Origins of language
The Development of Writing
The Properties of language
Primate Use of Language
The Sounds of Language
The Sound patterns OF Language
Exam 1, What is phonology
9
10
11-12
13-14
15
Word And Word-formation procsses
Morphology
Phrases and Sentences Grammar
Semantics
Syntax
The Origins of language
The Study of Language:
Language: is primarily a means of communicating thoughts
from one person to another.
The Origins of Language
While it is sure is that - unsurprisingly - spoken language
developed long before written language, no-one knows for
certain how language originated. There are, however, lots of
speculations about the origin of human language.
The Divine Source
The Natural Sounds Source
The Oral-Gesture Source
Physiological Adaptation
Speech and Writing
Links
The Divine Source
According to one view God created Adam and " whatsoever Adam
called every living creature , that was the name thereof ‫ " من ذلك‬.In most
religions there appears to be a divine source that provides humans with
language. In attempts to rediscover this original, However it seems that
children with no access to human speech simply grow up with no language
at all (see Chapter 14). NO SPEECH = NO LANGUAGE.
The Natural Sounds Source
Another speculation on the origin of language is that the first words were
imitations of natural sounds. It is true that there are onomatopoeic words
in every language, i.e. words that echo natural sounds, for example:
CUCKOO, SPLASH, BANG ‫قرع‬, RATTLE ‫خشخشة‬, BUZZ ‫أزيز‬, etc.
Another idea is that the original sounds of language came from cries of
emotion, i.e. pain, anger and joy, for example: OUCH!
One another is the "yo-heave-ho theory" places the development of
human language in a social context and states that language originated in
The Oral-Gesture Source ‫إيماء‬
Many of our physical gestures, using body
hands and face, are means of nonverbal
communication and are used by modern
humans, even with their developed linguistic
skills. The "oral-gesture theory" proposes an
extremely specific connection between
physical and oral gesture involving a
"specialized pantomime ‫ فن التمثيل اإليمائى‬of
the tongue and lips" (Sir Richard Page, 1930).
Physiological Adaptation
Some of the physical aspects of humans that make the production of
speech possible or easier are not shared with other creatures:
Human teeth are upright and roughly even in height. Human lips have an
intricate muscle interlacing. The human mouth is relatively small, can be
opened and closed rapidly and contains a very flexible tongue.
The human larynx ‫( حنجرة‬or 'voice box') is special as well as the pharynx
above the vocal cords can act as a resonator for any sounds produced.
The human brain is lateralized and has specialized functions in each of the
two hemispheres. The functions that are analytic, such as tool-using and
language, are largely confined to the left hemisphere of the brain for most
humans. All languages require the organizing and combining of sounds or
signs in specific constructions.
Speech and Writing
Many of the speculations on the origin of language deal with the
question of how humans started to interact with each other.
However there are two major functions of language use:
The interaction function has to do with how humans use
language to interact with each other socially or emotionally.
The transactional function has to do with communicating
knowledge, skills and information.
This transactional function will have developed, in part, for the
transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next. And
while there are cultures that rely mainly on their oral tradition, in
many cases, as speech by its nature is transient ‫عابر‬, ‫زائل‬, the
desire for a more permanent record must have developed:
The Development of Writing
The Development of Writing
In comparison to spoken language, writing is relatively new - it
was invented for the first time by the Sumerians of Mesopotamia
in about 3200 BCE. Indians of Mexico invented it
independently around 600 BCE, and the rise of Egyptian
and Chinese systems may have been independent as
well. Writing was certainly a great boon ‫هبة‬to memetic
spread, greatly increasing the fidelity‫ الدقة‬and the
fecundity‫ مبدع‬of the memes that took advantage of it.
These issues have already been analyzed in Memetics
and Society. In this section we will examine writing
systems and how they might have developed
The term "meme" (IPA: [miːm], not "mem"), coined in
1976 by Richard Dawkins, refers to a unit of cultural
information that can be transmitted from one mind to
another. Dawkins said, Examples of memes are tunes, catchphrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building
arches.
A meme propagates‫ ينشر‬itself as a unit of cultural
evolution analogous in many ways to the gene (the unit
of genetic information).
Often memes propagate as more-or-less integrated
cooperative sets or groups, referred to as memeplexes
or meme-complexes
Writing and Memetic Selection
The development of language as an adaptation for memes, not
genes, is still a speculative‫ تفكري‬proposal. However, it is certain
that writing is a purely memetic adaptation - there are no genes
"for" writing proficiency (though there are some that impair
‫يتلف‬this ability). Writing, of course, is a vast improvement upon
speech in terms of memetic fecundity and fidelity. Writing a
meme down greatly increases its likelihood of being read by
potential adherents‫التحام‬, and the very fact of being written may
encourage people to adopt certain memes, as in the cases in
which people insist that something is true because they read it in
the paper. Writing also improves on memetic fidelity by
liberating memes from fallible‫ عرضة للخطأ‬human memory;
memes that are written down are much less vulnerable to
confusions or elaborations in retelling, and therefore have a
much lower mutation‫ تغير أساسى‬rate.
Writing probably actually developed through memetic
competition, in which slightly different systems
competed and those that were most successful were
adopted. Writing probably began as an accounting
system of marks on clay‫ طين‬tablets or other media. As
such, it was probably not very standardized; each
merchant or accountant could in theory have his own
slightly different system of marking his tablets. Major
conventions such as direction and orientation of
markings may have been established in most languages
due primarily to historical contingency‫احتمال‬, but the
specifics of structuring the marks probably came about
via memetic selection.
Each person who used the marks
used them in a slightly different way;
some ways were easier to remember,
easier to write, or easier to read than
others, and so these memes got
copied, Eventually, this process
produced better and better writing
systems.
Types of Writing
There are three basic forms of writing systems:
logographic systems, which use symbols to represent
whole words; syllabary systems, which use symbols to
represent syllables; and alphabetic systems, which use
symbols to represent units of sound. Logographic
systems are the most intuitive ‫بديهي‬from the perspective
‫ وجهة نضر‬of a society on the cusp ‫نقطة التقاء‬of
developing writing, and thus they tended to be the first
to arise. They also are most logical next step from the
marking system used by merchants and accountants.
(Incidentally, the fact that Chinese is a logographic
system is one piece of evidence for its independent
invention .
Logographic systems, while being highly intuitive at
first, quickly become extremely cumbersome ‫ متعب‬.
They are difficult to learn and give relatively few
pronunciation cues‫ صبعبة‬-‫شبائكة‬. Moreover, they require
the invention of a new syllable every time a new word
is needed, and they make compound words and
complicated syntax much more difficult to write.
Finally, the complicated pictorial symbols must be
rendered almost perfectly in order to be legible, which
makes writing a time- and energy-consuming process.
The second system, the syllabary, is much rarer,
since it is an intuitive system only for a few
languages.
It is used in one variant of Japanese and was
developed by an extremely intelligent Cherokee,
Sequoyah, for use in writing and recording his
native language. His system, based very loosely on
English (at most he borrowed a few forms),
became so successful that the formerly illiterate
Cherokee tribe began publishing newspapers and
books in their own language.
The third system of writing, the alphabetic system, is the most
difficult to invent and the easiest to use. Many linguists believe it
was invented only once, by the Phoenicians, and then spread or
adapted to other languages. The system seems counterintuitive at
first, since its most basic units do not correspond to anything
meaningful in speech, but rather to an isolated sound. However,
the system uses the power of infinite combination to achieve its
success; whereas Chinese characters might take years to learn,
the standard Roman alphabet often takes only a few months for
children to memorize.
Moreover, when each letter represents a certain sound,
pronunciation is more easily inferred from the structure of a
word (though English pronunciation sometimes leaves speakers
confused). Finally, markers such as umlauts serve to increase the
power of a system by more carefully delineating the
In general, when logographic, syllabary , and
alphabetic systems compete, the alphabetic
system will tend to dominate because it can
express the most thoughts most efficiently.
Languages such as Japanese and Chinese will
probably eventually be outcompeted because
English - or another language based on an
alphabet, most likely the Roman one - is so much
easier to use. (This is not to say that English is
easy, only that the alphabetic system is most
efficient.)
Spelling and Writing
One of the pitfalls of an alphabetic system is
the proper spelling of each word. Regional
variations in pronunciation affect how
different speakers try to render their spoken
words into writing. Consequently, speakers
of the same language may find it impossible
to communicate via writing because of
differences in spelling.
The solution to this problem, of course, is to standardize
spelling whenever possible. This is another example of the
influences of memes: those spellings that are easiest to
remember are most likely to become standard.
Of course, plenty of modern English spelling is due primarily
to now-obsolete historical facts, but these spellings were most
likely quite logical to the English-speakers that originally
standardized spelling.
Moreover, sometimes illogical or difficult-to-remember spellings
(and grammatical rules) are retained for other memetic reasons:
they may confer prestige on those who observe them, serve as a
mark of education, or indicate a formal tone (compare through
and thru).
Early "creative spelling" in English has given way
to standardized spellings for the vast majority of
words, recorded in dictionaries and, more recently,
in computerized spell-checkers. Though some
variation in spelling remains, this primarily reflects
distinct dialects, rather than multiple accepted
spellings in a single dialect. For example,
American and British English vary systematically
in the spellings of certain words (American color
and British colour) and suffixes (American -ize and
British -ise).
The Properties of language
What properties differentiate human language from all
other forms of signaling and what properties make it a
unique type of communication system?
There have been a number of attempts to determine the defining
properties of human language and different lists of features can be
found.
The following is a slightly modified list of features proposed by the
linguist Charles Hockett:
1.Arbitrariness.
It is generally the case that there is no 'natural' connection
between a linguistic form and its meaning. For the majority of
animal signals, however, there appears to be a clear connection
between the conveyed message and the signal used to convey it.
Arbitrariness of the symbols. Any symbol can be mapped
onto any concept (or even onto one of the rules of the
grammar). For instance, there is nothing about the Spanish
word nada itself that forces Spanish speakers to use it to
mean "nothing". That is the meaning all Spanish speakers
have memorized for that sound pattern. But for Croatian
speakers nada means "hope".
2. Productivity.
This is the ability to produce and understand any number of
messages that have never been expressed before and that may
express novel ideas. In all animal communication systems, the
number of signals is fixed. ( closed communication systems).
3. Cultural Transmission.
The process whereby language is passed on
from one generation to the next. While it is
clear that humans are born with an innate
predisposition ‫ الميل‬to acquire language, it is
clear that they are not born with the ability to
produce utterances in a specific language,
such as English. The general pattern of
animal communication is that the signals
used are instinctive and not learned.
4. Discreteness. ‫متميز‬, ‫منفصل‬
This is the property of having complex messages that
are built up out of smaller parts
5. Displacement. ‫تنحية و إزاحة‬
This refers to the ability to communicate about things
that are not present in space or time. Animal
communication is almost exclusively designed for a
particular moment, here and now. It cannot effectively
be used to related events, which are far removed in time
and place. Human language allows the users of language
to talk about things and events not present in the
immediate environment.
5 . Duality . ‫ازدواجية‬
Language organized at two levels . This
property is called duality , or double
articulation .
1. A Mode of Communication (vocalauditory, visual, tactile or even chemical)
2. Semanticity.
The signals in any communication system
have meaning.
Study Questions:
1. What is the property, which relates to the
fact that a language must be acquired or
learned by each new generation? 2. Can you
briefly explain what the term "arbitrariness"
means as it is used to describe a property of
human language?
3. Which term is used to describe the ability
of human language-users to discuss topics,
which are remote in space and time?
3. Pragmatic function. ‫واقعي‬
All systems of communication serve
some useful purpose, from helping the
species to stay alive to influencing others'
behavior.
4. Interchangeability. ‫قابل للتبادل‬
The ability of individuals to both send
and receive messages.
4. What is the term used to describe the fact that,
in a language, we can have different meanings for
the three words "tack", "act" and "cat", yet, in
each case, use the same basic set of sounds?
5. A distinction is made between 'communicative'
and 'informative' signals. No mention is made of
the phenomenon known as 'body language'.
Would 'body language', or other aspects of nonverbal signaling, be considered 'communicative' or
'informative'?
6.
Hockett
(1963)
proposed
that
'prevarication' could be treated as a property
of language. In discussing this property, he
pointed out that "linguistic messages can be
false" and "lying seems extremely rare among
animals". Can you give reasons for or against
including prevarication (either deception or
misinforming) among the properties of
human language?
Primate Use of Language
Primate Use of Language
Created by Lauren Kosseff
Research concerning the ability of primates to
acquire language has profound implications for the
understanding of the evolution of the human
species. The acquisition of language in
primates may shed light on the development
of language in early humans. In this sense,
research of primate language and primate tool use
‫ أسال ِفنا‬offer similar insight into our early ancestors
. ‫األوائِ ِل‬
Many people believe that language is a unique capacity
of humans. Doubters of the ability of primates to use
language include renowned M.I.T. linguist Noam
Chomsky and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker.
Chomsky's Universal Grammar theory clearly defines
language as a skill limited to humans, the sole possessors
of the cognitive hardware which makes language
possible. َ‫علون اللغة‬
َ ‫األصحا الوحيدون لألجهزةِ اإلدراكي ِة الذي يَ ْج‬
َ‫ محتملة‬Chomsky makes an analogy to flying in order to
illustrate his position on primate language: "Humans can
fly about 30 feet-that's what they do in the Olympics. Is
that flying?
The question is totally meaningless." Chomsky
and his followers theorize that the ‫المتطلبات العصبية‬
‫للغة‬neural requirements for language developed in
humans after the evolutionary split between
humans and primates.
They base their argument on the ease with which
children acquire language in comparison to the
difficulty exhibited by primates. To Chomsky and
his followers, this shows the innate propensity for
language in children which is not present in
primates.
Pinker posits the argument that primates can be
trained to do incredible things, however, these trained
behaviors do not signify language ability. He believes
that the primates simply learn to press certain buttons in
order to receive rewards.
.
Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh is a researcher who strongly
believes in the ability of primates to use language. One
of her most impressive observations involved a bonobo
chimpanzee named Kanzi.
Savage-Rumbaugh tried to no avail ‫بال جدوا‬to train
Kanzi's adoptive mother to use a keyboard of symbols.
The researchers were surprised to find that Kanzi had
been eavesdropping‫ يتسنط‬on his mother's lessons and
had acquired a substantial vocabulary. From then on,
Kanzi was not given structured training like his mother,
but was taught while walking through the forest with his
trainers. By the age of 6, Kanzi had acquired a
vocabulary of 200 words and was able to construct
sentences by combining words with gestures or with
other words. Kanzi's most notable accomplishment
was captured on videotape: he was told, "Give the dog a
shot," and he proceeded to inject his stuffed dog with a
syringe.
Savage-Rumbaugh argues that Kanzi's language was
initially dependent upon contextual cues, but that once
he mastered a substantial vocabulary, he could respond
accurately to 70% of novel commands from a concealed
speaker.
Critics say that Kanzi's accomplishments are not proof
of language ability in primates because the crucial
element in language ability is production, not
ّ َ‫يَقُو ُل النقّاد‬
ْ َ‫إنجازات كانزي ل‬
comprehension. . ‫برهان‬
‫يست‬
‫بأن‬
َ
َ
‫ لَيسوا‬،‫الحاسم في قدر ِة اللغ ِة إنتا ُج‬
‫العنصر‬
‫قدر ِة اللغ ِة في قرو ِد ألن‬
َ
َ
‫فهما‬.
Observation of the vervet species of
monkeys in the wild offers support for the
ability of primates to use language.
The vervet monkeys have demonstrated the
most advanced primate system of
communication in their natural environment.
The sounds which the vervets produce as a
means of communication are instinctive and
not learned.
Sign Language
Sign language has been chosen as the
superior medium in which to conduct
language instruction for primates because
they are unable to vocalize language. Some
researchers hold the belief that primates are
simply not intelligent enough to speak. This
theory has lost credence as further research
with apes has demonstrated their tremendous
intellectual capacities in other areas .
Another possible explanation of the
inability of primates to acquire verbal
language, posited by Robert Yerkes, is that
Primates are not inclined ‫ ميبببال‬towards
imitation of sounds and therefore cannot
learn verbal language. A final theory
suggests that the vocal cords of primates
are not capable of supporting the
production of language.
Washoe
Washoe is a chimpanzee who was taught to sign by her
caretakers, Allen and Beatrice Gardner. She was raised
in a friendly environment in which she learned sign
language both through imitation and instrumental
learning. Her language acquisition ‫االستمالك‬was notable
in several respects. Washoe was able to transfer signs to
a new referent without specific instruction. For
example, she learned the word "more" in relation to
tickling but was spontaneously able to apply the term to
another referent. Additionally significant was Washoe's
use of signs in combinations after learning only about 8
or 10 signs.
This spontaneous combination of signs seems
similar to the ability of human children to connect
words in sentences to which they have never
specifically been exposed. Washoe has
demonstrated reliable use of 240 signs.
A sign is deemed reliable when its use has been
recorded by three separate observers on 15
consecutive days. Her trainers have observed that
Washoe mostly uses her signs to discipline her
children and explain her concern about them.
and Loulis
...
Washoe adopted an infant chimp named
Loulis. No human sign language was used in
Loulis' presence during the first 5 years of her
life. Remarkably, Loulis nonetheless acquired
more than 50 signs by watching the other
chimps. Bob Ingersoll, who studied Washoe and
Loulis, observed that there was little active
teaching on the part of the adult chimps. Loulis'
language acquisition thus reflects the manner in
which human children acquire language.
The Gardners concluded from Loulis'
acquisition of language through
observation of the other chimps that:
"once introduced, sign language is robust
and self-reporting, unlike the systems
that depend on special apparatuses such
as the Rumbaugh keyboards or the
Premack plastic tokens."
Nim
Herb Terrace doubted that primate language is any
sort of equivalent of human language. He did not
believe that the findings of language acquisition and
use in Washoe, Loulis, and other primates were truly
symbolic of language acquisition. Instead, he
theorized that there were simpler explanations for the
behaviors which had been interpreted as language use
by primates (Morgan's Canon!). Terrace posited that
the primates were performing rote memorization tasks
similar to pigeons who are taught to peck at colors in
specific orders.
Terrace also thought that primates only signed in order to
please their trainers, not for the personal gratification of using
the signs. Terrace also says that a primate might learn to
connect a sign with food and reproduce the sign through
simple conditioning, just as Pavlov's dogs were conditioned to
salivate at the sound of a bell.
.
Therefore, Terrace decided to conduct his own study of
primate language use. He raised a chimpanzee, Nim, as a
human child and taught him sign language in the manner in
which Washoe had been taught. Nim did in fact demonstrate
some important aspects of language use.
He was observed using the signs for "angry" and
"bite" to express his displeasure, an important
observation in that it demonstrates the use of
arbitrary symbols to represent physical actions.
Despite his acquisition and use of numerous
signs, Terrace decided that Nim was incapable of
combining words to create novel ideas. The only
occasions in which Nim produced combinations
of signs were imitations of signs previously
produced by his trainers.
Central Washington University's
Chimpanzee and Human Communication
Institute
The CHCI at Central Washington University is home to a
family of 5 chimps who, according to their trainers, have
mastered the use of sign language and implement it in
conversations with each other and their trainers. The chimps
at CHCI use the signs alone and in combination with other
signs. One of the longest recorded sentences produced by a
chimp contained 7 signs! Chimps generally utilize( use ) their
signs in discussing aspects of family life. The trainers have
observed that young males frequently sign to talk about
games, such as tickle and chase. َ ‫دغدغة ومطاردة‬
An important finding about primate language use at
the CHCI is that the chimps use signs to refer to
natural language categories. For example, the chimps
use one sign signifying "dog" to refer to all
dogs. This category generalization is similar to that
of children as they first begin learning to
speak. Chimpanzees have also shown that they are
able to create novel signs by combining signs to
convey a metaphorically‫ مجبازي‬different concept. For
example, one chimp at the CHCI was recorded
describing a watermelon as "drink fruit." Seems like a
pretty accurate description!
The CHCI is considering a couple of possible
continuations of their research, provided that
funding is available. One possible area of
exploration is the ability of chimps to use signs to
represent spatial relationships and their capacity
for taking on the position of another person (or
chimp). Additionally, the CHCI is considering
studying the ability of chimps to recognize breakdowns in conversations and to repair them, their
use grammatical markers, and their ability to
understand and use temporal signs
The CHCI also hopes to expand their
research to include the study of how to
apply the teaching of language to chimps
to assisting autistic children, who have
difficulty learning language. They also
hope that their research will be helpful in
studying the teacher-student relationship
in humans.
The Orang Utan Language Project
At the National Zoo, Orang utans are learning to
communicate in a language designed especially for
them. Their training began with flash cards and has
advanced to the use of computers with touch screens. Both
nouns and verbs are being taught with the goal of eventually
testing the Orang utans ability to develop syntactically
accurate sentences. The Orang utan Language Project
operates under the idea that the orang utans will learn the
language if they wish to use it to communicate with their
trainers and to control their environment.
As such, no coercion is used in teaching the language
The Sounds of Language,
The Sounds of Language (ch.5)
The organs of speech can be divided into the following
three groups :
1-The respiratory system :This comprises the lungs ,
the muscles of the chest and the wind pipe
2- The phonatory system : this comprises the larynx
.
3- The articulatory system : this comprises the nose
, teeth , tongue , roof of the mouth and the lips .
Epiglottis
, Vocal cords and , Glottis
The phonatory system :
The Larynx : it is commonly called the Adam's apple , situated at
the top of the wind pip .The air from the lungs has to come out
through the windpipe and the larynx. In the larynx are situated a
pair of lip-like structures. These are called the vocal cords
and these are placed horizontally from _ front to back. They are
attached in front and can be separated at the back. The opening
between the cords is called the glottis
The vocal cords can be opened and closed (because they can be
separated at the back) and when the two cords come very close
to each other, the glottis will be shut completely. In fact when we
swallow food or water, the vocal cords shut the glottis and thus
prevent the food or water from entering the windpipe.
When we breathe in and out, the vocal cords are drawn
wide apart and 'thus the glottis is open. The-air enters the
lungs or gets out of the lungs through the wide open
glottis-:
When we produce some speech sounds, the vocal cords
are wide apart and the glottis is open.
Such sounds produced with a wide – open glottis are
called voiceless sounds or breathed sounds (the latter term is
used because this is the position of the glottis for
breathing). The first sounds in the English words peel,
ten, keen, chin , fine, thin, seen, shine and hat are voiceless sounds
.
( During the production of certain speech sounds, the
vocal cords are loosely held together and the pressure of the
air from the lungs makes them open and close rapidly.
This is called the vibration of the vocal cords and the
sounds produced when the vocal cords vibrate are called
voiced sounds. All the sounds in the English words bead,
deed, girl, judge, vine, then ,zoo, measure, need, wing, red, yard
and well are voiced sounds. )
The vibration of the vocal cords is important for
another factor, too. The rate at which the vocal cords
vibrate is called the frequency
The production of speech sounds (P. 40-41)
Articulators above the larynx
All the sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles
contracting. The muscles in the chest that we use for breathing
produce the flow of air that is needed for almost all speech
sounds; muscles in the larynx produce many different
modifications in the flow of air from the chest to the mouth.
After passing through the larynx, the air goes through what we
call the vocal tract, which ends at the mouth and nostrils. Here
the air from the lungs escapes into the atmosphere. We have a
large and complex set of muscles that can produce changes in
the shape of the vocal tract, and in order to learn how the
sounds of speech are produced it is necessary to become familiar
with the different parts of the vocal tract. These different parts
are called articulators, and the study of them is called
articulatory phonetics.
Fig. 1 is a diagram that is used frequently in the study of phonetics.
It represents the human head, seen from the side, displayed as though it
had been cut in half. You will need to look at it carefully as the
articulators are described, and you will often find it useful to have a
mirror and a good light placed so that you can look at the inside of your
mouth.
Fig. 1 The articulators
i) The pharynx is a tube which begins just above the
larynx. It is about 7 cm long in women and about 8 cm in men,
and at its top end it is divided into two, one part being the back
of the mouth and the other being the beginning of the way
through the nasal cavity. If you look in your mirror with your
mouth open, you can see the back of the pharynx.
ii) The velum or soft palate is seen in the diagram in a
position that allows air to pass through the nose and through the
mouth. Yours is probably in that position now, but often in
speech it is raised so that air cannot escape through the nose.
The other important thing about the velum is that it is one of
the articulators that
can be touched by the tongue. When we make the sounds 
and  the tongue is in contact with the lower side of the
velum, and we call these velar consonants.
iii) The hard palate is often called the "roof of the mouth".
You can feel its smooth curved surface with your tongue.
iv) The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the
hard palate. You can feel its shape with your tongue. Its surface
is really much rougher than it feels, and is covered with little
ridges. You can only see these if you have a mirror small enough
to go inside your mouth (such as those used by dentists). Sounds
made with the tongue touching here (such as  and  ) are
called alveolar
v) The tongue is, of course, a very important articulator and it can
be moved into many different places and different shapes. It is
usual to divide the tongue into different parts, though there are no
clear dividing lines within the tongue. Fig. 2 shows the tongue on a
larger scale with these parts shown: tip, blade, front, back and
root. (This use of the word "front" often seems rather strange at
first.)
vi) The teeth (upper and lower) are usually shown in
diagrams like Fig. 1 only at the front of the mouth,
immediately behind the lips. This is for the sake of a
simple diagram, and you should remember that most
speakers have teeth to the sides of their mouths, back
almost to the soft palate. The tongue is in contact with
the upper side teeth for many speech sounds. Sounds
made with the tongue touching the front teeth are called
dental.
vii) The lips are important in speech. They can be
pressed together (when we produce the sounds  , 
), brought into contact with the teeth (as in  , ), or
rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels like .
Sounds in which the lips are in contact with each other are called bilabial,
while those with lip-to-teeth contact are called labiodental.
The seven articulators described above are the main ones used in speech,
but there are three other things to remember. Firstly, the larynx could also
be described as an articulator - a very complex and independent one
.
Secondly, the jaws are sometimes called articulators; certainly we
move the lower jaw a lot in speaking. But the jaws are not
articulators in the same way as the others, because they cannot
themselves make contact with other articulators. Finally,
although there is practically nothing that we can do with the
nose and the nasal cavity, they are a very important part of our
equipment for making sounds (what is sometimes called our
vocal apparatus), particularly nasal consonants such as  ,  .
Again, we cannot really describe the nose and the nasal cavity as
articulators in the same sense as (i) to (vii) above.
Phonetics:
The general study of the characteristics of
speech sounds is called phonetics. Our basic
interest will be in articulatory phonetics,
which is the study of how speech sounds are
made, or articulated.
Articulation: voiced and voiceless
Place of articulation (P.41-45)
The active articulator usually moves in order to
make the constriction. The passive articulator
usually just sits there and gets approached.
A sound's place of articulation is usually named
by using the Latin ajective for the active articulator
(ending with an "o") followed by the Latin
adjective for the passive articulator. For example, a
sound where the tongue tip (the "apex")
approaches or touches the upper teeth is called an
"apico-dental".
Most of the common combinations of active and
passive articulator have abbreviated names (usually
leaving out the active half).
These are the abbreviated names for the places of
articulation used in English:
bilabial
The articulators are the two lips. (We could say that the lower lip
is the active articulator and the upper lip the passive articulator,
though the upper lip usually moves too, at least a little.) English
bilabial sounds include [p], [b], and [m].
labio-dental
The lower lip is the active articulator and the upper teeth are the
passive articulator. English labio-dental sounds include [f] and
[v].
dental
Dental sounds involve the upper teeth as the passive
articulator. The active articulator may be either the
tongue tip or (usually) the tongue blade -- diacritic
symbols can be used if it matters which. Extreme
lamino-dental sounds are often called interdental.
English interdental sounds include [
] and [
].
This , thank
alveolar
Alveolar sounds involve the alveolar
ridge as the passive articulator. The
active articulator may be either the
tongue blade or (usually) the tongue tip
-- diacritic symbols can be used if it
matters which. English alveolar sounds
include [t], [d], [n], [s], [z], [l].
Post alveolar
Post alveolar sounds involve the area just behind
the alveolar ridge as the passive articulator. The
active articulator may be either the tongue tip or
(usually) the tongue blade -- diacritic symbols can
be used if it matters which. English postalveolars
include [
].
]
and
[
Ch , sh ,
Linguists have traditionally used very inconsistent
terminology in referring to the post alveolar POA.
Some of the terms you may encounter for it
include:
Palato -alveolar, alveo-palatal, alveolo-palatal, and
even (especially among English-speakers) palatal.
Many insist that palato-alveolar and alveo (lo)palatal are two different things -- though they
don't agree which is which. "Post alveolar ", the
official term used by the International Phonetic
Association, is unambiguous, not to mention
easier to spell.
retroflex
In retroflex sounds, the tongue tip is curled up and
back. Retro flexes can be classed as apico-post
alveolar , though not all apico –post alveolars need to
be curled backward enough to count as retroflex.
The closest sound to a retroflex that English has is [
]. For most North Americans,
the tongue tip is curled back
in [
]
, though not as much as it is in languages that have true retro
flexes . Many other North Americans use what is called a
"bunched r" -- instead of curling their tongues back, they bunch
the front up and push it forward to form an approximant behind
the alveolar ridge.
r,
palatal
The active articulator is the tongue
body and the passive articulator is the
hard palate. The English glide [j] is a
palatal.
Velar
The active articulator is the tongue
body and the passive articulator is the
soft palate. English velars include [k],
[g], and [
glottal
This isn't strictly a place of articulation, but they had to
put it in the chart somewhere. Glottal sounds are made
in the larynx. For the glottal stop, the vocal cords close
momentarily and cut off all airflow through the vocal
tract. English uses the glottal stop in the interjection
uh-uh
(meaning 'no'). In [h], the vocal cords are
open, but close enough together that air
passing between them creates friction
noise.
Note:
[w] is often called a "labio-velar". This
doesn't follow the POA naming convention - it does not mean that the active articulator
is the lower lip and you try to touch your soft
palate with it! A [w] is made up of two
different approximants: a bilabial
approximant and a (dorso-)velar approximant
pronounced simultaneously
Consonant parameters (continued)
Manners of articulation (P.45-52)
Constriction degree
Place of articulation refers to where the narrowing occurs -which active articulator gets close to which passive articulator.
Constriction degree refers to how close they get. The main
constriction degrees are:
*Complete closure and sudden release(
plosive ) : the active articulator touches the passive articulator
and completely cuts off the airflow through the mouth.
Simultaneously there is a velic closure , that is the soft palate is
raised , thereby shutting off the nasal passage of air . When the
active articulator is suddenly remove from passive articulator ,
the air escapes with small explosive noise .
Sounds produced with complete closure
and sudden release are called plosive : [p],
[p], [t], [d] ,[k ] , [ g ] .
*Complete closure and slow release : (
affricates )
If after blocking the oral and the nasal passages
of air , the oral closure is removed slowly .
Sounds produced with complete closure
and slow release are called affricates
Chin and jam
*Complete oral closure : ( nasal )
the active articulator touches the passive
articulator and completely cuts off the
airflow through the mouth .But the soft
palate is lowered thereby opening the nasal
passage of air .The lung air will escape
through the nose freely . Sounds produced
with complete oral closure are called
Nasals .
Sum , sun , sung
* Intermittent closure ( trill , rolled)
the soft palate is raised , thereby
shutting off the nasal passage of air .
the active articulator strikes against the
passive articulator several times with the
result that the air escapes between the
active and the passive articulators
Intermittently .
Sounds that are produced with a stricture of
Intermittent closure are called trill or rolled .
red , ran
* Just once and then quickly flaps
forward .
For some consonants the active articulator
strikes against the passive articulator just
once and then quickly flaps forward .Such
consonants are called taps or flaps .
Very
* Close approximation (fricative )
the active articulator is brought so closer to
the passive articulator that there is a very
narrow gap between them . the soft palate is
raised , thereby shutting off the nasal passage
of air . the result that the air escapes through
the narrow space between the active and the
passive articulators .
Five , vine , thin , sip , zip , sheep and hat
•Partial closure : The active and the passive articulators
are in firm contact with each other . the soft palate is
raised , thereby shutting off the nasal passage of air . if
the sides of the tongue are lowered so that there is
plenty of gap between the sides of the tongue and the
upper molar teeth , the air will escape along the sides of
the tongue without friction .
Sounds produced with complete closure in the
center of the vocal tract but with the air escaping
along the sides of the tongue without any frication
are called lateral .
The initial sound in the word love is lateral .
Open approximation : the soft palate is raised ,
thereby shutting off the nasal passage of air . If
the active articulator is brought close to the
passive articulator so that there is a wide gap
between them , the air will escape through this
gap without any frication .
Sounds that are produced with a stricture
of open approximation
Are called frictionless continuants and semi –
vowels
fricative: the active articulator doesn't touch the passive
articulator, but gets close enough that the airflow through the
opening becomes turbulent. English fricatives include [f], [
], [z].
approximant: the active articulator approaches the passive
articulator, but doesn't even get close enough for the airflow to
become turbulent. English approximants include [j], [w],
[
]
]
, and [l].
affricate: Affricates can be seen as a sequence of a stop and a
fricative which have the same or similar places of articulation.
They are transcribed using the symbols for the stop and the
fricative. If one wants to emphasize the affricate as a "single"
sound, a tie symbol can be used to join the stop and the fricative
(sometimes the fricative is written as a superscript).
Notes:
A stop cuts off airflow through the mouth. Airflow through the
nose does not matter -- you can have both oral and nasal stops.
Oral stops are often called plosives, including in the IPA chart.
Nasal stops are usually just call ed nasals.
Approximants that are apical or laminal are often called liquids
(e.g.,
[
], [l]).
Approximants that correspond to vowels are
often called glides (e.g., [j] corresponds to
[i], [w] to [u]).
English has the
affricates
[t
] and [d ].
The stop and the fricative halves of these affricates are
at the same place of articulation: the stop is in fact
postalveolar rather than alveolar. We could be explicit
about this and underline the [t] and [d] (in IPA, a minus
sign under a symbol is a diacritic meaning "pronounced
further back in the mouth"), but most phoneticians
believe this difference in the place of articulation is so
predictable that it doesn't have to be marked.
State of the glottis
For now, we can simply use the terms
"voiced" and "voiceless" to answer the
question of what the vocal cords are doing:
In voiced sounds, the vocal cords are vibrating.
In voiceless sounds, the vocal cords are not
vibrating.
Ultimately, we will see there are different
ways of being voiced or voiceless.
The vocal cords can do a number of things. They can:
be held so wide apart that the air makes no sound
passing through them. (This is nice when you have to
breathe 24 hours a day, but not as useful for speaking.)
be held closer together, so that the air passing through
them becomes turbulent. This quality of sound is called
breathiness. It is what is happening in aspiration and in
the sound [h].
be held together so that the air passing through them
causes them to vibrate. This is called voicing.
be held together so tightly that no air can pass through
at all, as in a glottal stop.
(By varying their tension and position, the vocal cords can also
produce many other effects like breathy voicing, creaky voicing,
and falsetto.)
What the vocal cords are doing is independent of what the
higher parts of the vocal tract are doing. For any place of
articulation and any degree of stricture, you can get two different
sounds: voiced and voiceless.
For example, [t] and [d] are formed identically in the mouth; the difference
is that the vocal cords vibrate during a [d] but not during a [t]. (The obvious
exception is the glottal place of articulation -- you can't vibrate your vocal
cords while making a glottal stop.)
In each cell of the IPA chart, the symbol for the voiceless sound is shown
to the left and that for the voiced sound to the right. Some rows only have
voiced symbols (e.g., nasals and approximants). You can write the
corresponding voiceless sound using the voiceless diacritic (a circle under
Nasality
The soft palate can be lowered, allowing air
to flow out through the nose, or it can be
raised to block nasal airflow. As was the case
with the vocal cords, what the soft palate is
doing is independent the other articulators.
For almost any place of articulation, there
are pairs of stops that differ only in whether
the soft palate is raised, as in the oral stop
[d], or lowered, as in the nasal stop [n].
Laterality
When you form an [l], your tongue tip
touches your alveolar ridge (or maybe your
upper teeth) but it doesn't create a stop
because one or both sides of the tongue are
lowered so that air can flow out along the
side. Sounds like this with airflow along the
sides of the tongue are called lateral, all
others are called central (though we usually
just assume that
The side of the tongue can lower to different
degrees. It can lower so little that the air passing
through becomes turbulent (giving a lateral
fricative like
[
] or [ ])
or it can lower enough for there to be no
turbulence (a lateral approximant). The [l]
of English is a lateral approximant.
Air stream mechanism
Speech sounds need air to move. Most sounds
(including all the sounds of English) are created
by modifying a stream of air that is pushed
outward from the lungs. But it's possible for the
air to be set in motion in other ways.
Sounds which use one of the other three most
common airstream mechanisms are called
ejectives, implosives, and clicks. We'll discuss
these possibilities later in the course.
Describing consonant segments
A consonant sound can be described completely by specifying
each of the parameters for place and manner of articulation. For
example, [k] has the following properties:
active articulator
passive articulator
constriction degree
state of glottis
nasal
lateral
airstream mechanism
tongue body (dorsum)
soft palate (velum)
stop
voiceless
no
no
normal
So [k] is a voiceless oral central dorso-velar stop.
What is phonology? First Exam
What is phonology?
Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and
used in natural languages.
The phonological system of a language includes
* an inventory of sounds and their features, and
* rules which specify how sounds interact with each
other.
Phonology is just one of several aspects of language. It is
related to other aspects such as phonetics, morphology,
syntax, and pragmatics.
Here is an illustration that shows the place of phonology in
an interacting hierarchy of levels in linguistics:
Comparison: Phonology and
phonetics
Phonetics …
Is the basis for
phonological
analysis.
Phonology …
Is the basis for further
work in morphology,
syntax, discourse, and
orthography design.
Analyzes the sound
patterns of a particular
language by
Analyzes the
production of all
human speech
sounds, regardless determining which phonetic
sounds are significant, and
of language.
explaining how these sounds are
interpreted by the native speaker.
Models of phonology
Different models of phonology contribute to our
knowledge of phonological representations and
processes:
* In classical phonemics, phonemes and their possible
combinations are central.
* In standard generative phonology, distinctive
features are central. A stream of speech is portrayed as
linear sequence of discrete sound-segments. Each
segment is composed of simultaneously occurring
features
* In non-linear models of phonology,
a stream of speech is represented as
multidimensional, not simply as a linear
sequence of sound segments. These
non-linear models grew out of
generative phonology:
autosegmental phonology metrical
phonology lexical phonology
What is a phoneme?
A phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the
sound system of a language.
Phonologists have differing views of the
phoneme. Following are the two major views
considered here:
* In the American structuralist tradition, a
phoneme is defined according to its allophones
and environments.
* In the generative tradition, a phoneme is defined
as a set of distinctive features.
Comparison
Here is a chart that compares phones and phonemes:
Represented between brackets by convention.
Represented between slashes by convention.
A phone is …
A phoneme is …
One of many possible sounds in the A contrastive unit in the sound
languages of the world.
system of a particular language.
The smallest identifiable unit found A minimal unit that serves to
distinguish between meanings of
in a stream of speech.
words.
Pronounced in a defined way.
Example:
[b], [j], [o]
Pronounced in one or more ways,
depending on the number of
allophones.
Example:
/b/, /j/, /o/
Examples (English): Minimal pair
Here are examples of the phonemes /r/ and /l/ occurring
in a minimal pair
* rip
lip
The phones [r] and [l] contrast in identical environments
and are considered to be separate phonemes. The
phonemes /r/ and /l/ serve to distinguish the word rip
from the word lip.
Examples (English): Distinctive features
/p/ /i/
-syllabic +consonantal -sonorant +anterior -coronal -voice continuant -nasal+syllabic -consonantal +sonorant +high low -back -round +ATR -nasal
What is an allophone?
An allophone is a phonetic variant of a phoneme in a particular
language.
* [p] and [pH] are allophones of the phoneme /p/.
* [t] and [tH] are allophones of the phoneme /t/.
What is a phone?
A phone is an unanalyzed sound of a language. It is the smallest
identifiable unit found in a stream of speech that is able to be
transcribed with an IPA symbol.
What is a minimal pair?
A minimal pair is two words that differ in only one sound.
Sounds which differ: /p/ and /b/
* [lQp] ‘lap’
* [lQb] ‘lab’
Compare: Morpheme-morphallomorph and phoneme-phoneallophone
The relationship between a
morpheme and its morphs and
allomorphs is parallel to the
relationship between a phoneme and
its phones and allophones.
A morpheme is manifested as
one or more morphs (surface
forms) in different environments.
These morphs are called
allomorphs.
A phoneme is manifested as one
or more phones (phonetic
sounds) in different environments.
These phones are called
Syllables
We have seen how each spoken language has a set of
consonant and vowel categories that are used by its
speakers and hearers to distinguish the words of the
language. The consonants and vowels in turn are
combined into larger units, syllables. Syllables are
distinguished from one another in terms of the
consonants and vowels that they consist of. But
syllables can also be distinguished from one another in
other ways, and some of these ways are very commonly
used contrastively, that is, to distinguish words from
each other.
We will look at some of these
"suprasegmental" features of language in
this section. Languages also differ in
terms of how consonants and vowels
can be combined into syllables, the
"phonotactics" of the language, and we
will also look at this property of
languages in this section.
Phonotactics
As we have seen, each spoken language has
an "alphabet" of form categories —
consonant and vowel phonemes — which
are combined to form the syllables that make
up words. But languages differ not only in
the particular vowel and consonant
phonemes they have. They also differ with
respect to how the vowels and consonants
may be combined to form syllables.
Let's start with simple English syllables consisting of a
consonant followed by a vowel; I'll abbreviate this as
"CV". First, can any consonant appear in the "C"
position? Taking the vowel as the constant /o/, certainly
all of the following are possible syllables in English:
/po/, /bo/, /mo/, /vo/, /to/, /co/, /∫o/, /ko/, /lo/,
/ro/, /wo/, /ho/.
But what about /ηo/? A complete search of the English
lexicon reveals that there are no English words that have
syllables beginning with the phoneme /η/. Although
other nasal consonants (/m/ and /n/) and other velar
consonants (/k/ and /g/) can appear at the beginnings
of syllables, English seems to constrain syllables to not
begin with the phoneme /η/.
What about the vowels in a CV syllable? Let's be more specific and assume
that the syllable is stressed and comes at the end of an English word.
Keeping the consonant as the constant /b/, all of the following seem
possible: /bi/, /be/, /bu/, /bo/, /b⊃/, /bay/, /baw/, /b⊃y/. (For
speakers who do not make the distinction between /⊃/ and /α/, /bα/
would also be possible.) But what about the following: /bI/, /bε/,: /bI/,
/bε/, /bæ/, /bU/, /b^/, /bα/ (for speakers who distinguish /α/ and
/⊃/)? None of these syllables seems possible. Again there is apparently a
sort of prohibition on the kinds of phonemes that can appear in English
syllables. In this case, the most efficient way to state the prohibition is to
say that English forbids lax vowels, other than /⊃/, from appearing at the ends of
syllables (at least stressed syllables at the end of words). Note that /⊃/
presents a problem for the generalization; this is one of the ways in which
this vowel does not quite fit into the lax/tense, short/long distinction.
Thus English has constraints on the structure of
syllables. Such constraints are referred to as
phonotactics. It's beyond our goals to go into
English phonotactics in detail, but let's investigate
a bit further what the bounds are on English
syllables.
What about syllables with more than one
consonant at the beginning? In general, clusters
of consonants not separated by vowels are more
difficult for speakers to produce than consonants
that are separated by vowels.
This is because the articulators must move from
one consonant position to another without
opening up in between (because the opening
would be realized as a vowel). And the difficulty
of particular combinations varies considerably.
Thus we should expect more constraints on what
is possible in clusters than for single consonants.
An examination of the English lexicon reveals
that the following consonant clusters can appear
at the beginnings of General American English
syllables (my accent) if we count the semivowels
/w/ and /y/ as consonants.
/tw/, /dw/, /kw/, /gw/
/by/, /py/, /my/, /fy/, /vy/, /ky/, /hy/
/pl/, /bl/, /fl/, /kl/, /gl/, /sl/, /∫l/
/pr/, /br/, /fr/, /θr/, /tr/, /dr/, /kr/, /gr/
/sp/, /st/, /sk/, /sm/, /sn/, /∫p/
/spl/, /spr/, /str/, /skl/, /skr/
We can see some patterns in what is possible. /s/ seems to be
special. If we leave it out, we see that all of the clusters
end in a sonorant consonant, /w/, /y/, /l/, or /r/.
Clusters of three consonants must consist of /s/
followed by a voiceless stop followed by either /l/ or
/r/. In fact, for this and other reasons, /l/ and /r/ are
often treated as forming a category in their own right.
Co-articulation
Coarticulation in phonetics refers to two
different phenomena:
* the assimilation of the place of articulation
of one speech sound to that of an adjacent
speech sound. For example, while the sound /n/
of English normally has an alveolar place of
articulation, in the word tenth it is pronounced
with a dental place of articulation because the
following sound, /θ/, is dental.
* Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such
as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or
phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker
to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for
euphonic effect.
Assimilation (linguistics)
Assimilation is a regular and frequent sound change
process by which a phoneme changes to match an
adjacent phoneme in a word. A common example of
assimilation is vowels being 'nasalized' before nasal
consonants as it is difficult to change the shape of the
mouth sufficiently quickly.
If the phoneme changes to match the preceding
phoneme, it is progressive assimilation (also left-toright, perseveratory, or preservative assimilation). If the
phoneme changes to match the following phoneme, it is
regressive assimilation (also right-to-left or anticipatory
assimilation). If there is a mutual influence between the
two phonemes, it is reciprocal assimilation. In the
latter case the two phonemes can fuse completely and
give a birth to a different one. This is called a
coalescence.
The notion was identified by Sanskrit Grammarians as
Sandhi or fusion.
The notion was identified by Sanskrit Grammarians
as Sandhi or fusion.
Assimilation may result in the neighbouring segments
becoming identical, yielding a geminate consonant; this
is complete assimilation. In other cases, only some
features of phonemes assimilate, e.g. voicing or place
of articulation; this is partial assimilation.
Tonal languages may exhibit various degrees of tone
assimilation, while sign languages also exhibit
assimilation when the characteristics of neighbouring
phonemes may be mixed
English
Complete assimilation:
The word assimilation itself (from Latin ad + simile)
illegible (in + legible)
suppose (sub + pose)
Partial assimilation:
voicing: the pronunciation of absurd as apsurd or abzurd
devoicing: bats (bat + the plural morpheme s, which is
underlyingly /z/)
place of articulation: impossible (in + possible), incomplete (in
which n represents the velar nasal)
Word And Word-formation processes
Word - Formation Processes
One of the distinctive properties of human language
that we have already discussed in the introductory
chapter is creativity, by which we mean the ability of
native speakers of a language to produce and
understand new forms in their language. Even though
creativity is most apparent when it comes to sentence
formation, where new words are added to our mental.
In this part of Chapter 3 we discuss the processes that
speakers of a language use regularly (and
unconsciously too) to create new words in their
language
(1) Derivation ‫اإلشتقاق‬
The most productive process of word formation in a
language is the use of derivational morphemes to form
new words from already existing forms, as we discussed
in the previous handout. So, for example, from arrange
we can derive rearrange, from which we can still derive
rearrangement. Can you think of other examples?
Derivation is the formation of a new word or
inflectable stem from another word or stem. It typically
occurs by the addition of an affix . An affix is a bound
morpheme that is joined before, after, or within a root
or stem
* A prefix is an affix that is joined before a root or
stem.(un- , pre- , mis- ) e.g ) The prefix un- attaches to
the front of the stem selfish to form the word unselfish
* A suffix is an affix that is attached to the end of a root
or stem
(-ful , -less , -ism) . e.g) The past tense suffix -ed attaches
to the end of the stem walk to form the past tense verb
walked.
* An infix is an affix that is inserted within a root. or
stem .
Philippines (Tagalog) The focus marker -um- is a infix which is
added after the first consonant of the root
· bili: root ‘buy’
· -um-: infix ‘AGT’
(2) Coinage ‫ابتكار‬
Coinage is the invention of totally new
words. The typical process of coinage usually
involves the extension of a product a name
from a specific reference to a more general
one. For example, think of Kleenex, Xerox,
and Kodak. These started as names of
specific products, but now they are used as
the generic names for different brands of
these types of products.
(3) Conversion ‫التحويل‬
Conversion is the extension of the use of one
word from its original grammatical category to
another category as well. For example, the word
must is a verb (e.g.
1 “You must attend classes regularly”), but it can
also be used as a noun as in “Class attendance is a
must”. Conversion from one category to another
is very common in natural language morphology
and it’s one way of enriching the lexicon of a
language.
(4) Borrowing
New words also enter a language through
borrowing from other languages. English, for
example, borrowed a lot of French words as a
result of the Norman invasion in 1066, and that’s
why the English lexicon has a Latinate flavor to it,
even though English did not descend from Latin.
Here are some examples of foreign words that
found their way into English:
(a) leak, yacht (from Dutch)
(b) barbecue, cockroach (from Spanish)
(c) piano, concerto (from Italian)
(5) Compounding
New words are also created through the common
process of compounding, i.e. combining two or
more words together to form a new complex
word. Here are some examples of compounding:
(a) post + card → postcard
(b) post + office → post office
(c) book + case → bookcase
We may also combine more than two words, e.g.
mother-in-law, sergeant-at-arms.
(6) Acronyms‫المختصرات‬
Acronyms are words created
from the initial letters of several
words. Typical examples are
NATO, FBI, CIA, UN,
UNICEF, FAQ, WYSIWYG,
radar, laser
(7) Back-formation ) Back-formation
Back-formation of words results when a word is
formed from another word by taking off what
looks like a typical affix in the language. For
example, one of the very productive derivational
morphemes in English is –er, which may be added
to a verb to create a noun meaning “a person who
performs the action of the verb”, e.g. teacher,
writer. Sometimes, however, the reverse happens.
A noun enters the language first and then a verb is
“back-formed” from it. This is the case with the
verbs edit and televise
for example, which entered English as back-formations from
editor and television.
(8) Clipping ‫القصاصة‬
Another process of word-formation is clipping, which is the
shortening of a longer word. Clipping in English gave rise to
words such as fax from facsimile, gym from gymnasium, and lab
from laboratory.
(9) Blending ‫ال َم ْزج‬
Blending is another way of combining two words to form a new
word. The difference between blending and compounding,
however, is that in blending only parts of the words, not the
whole words, are combined. Here are some examples:
(a) smoke + fog → smog
(b) motor + hotel → motel
Morphology
Morphemes
Introduction
Morphemes are what make up words. Often,
morphemes are thought of as words but that is not
always true. Some single morphemes are words while
other words have two or more morphemes within
them. Morphemes are also thought of as syllables but
this is incorrect. Many words have two or more syllables
but only one morpheme. Banana, apple, papaya, and
nanny are just a few examples. On the other hand,
many words have two morphemes and only one syllable;
examples include cats, runs, and barked.
Definitions
morpheme: a combination of sounds that have a
meaning. A morpheme does not necessarily have to be a
word. Example: the word cats has two morphemes. Cat
is a morpheme, and s is a morpheme. Every morpheme
is either a base or an affix. An affix can be either a
prefix or a suffix. Cat is the base morpheme, and s is a
suffix.
affix: a morpheme that comes at the beginning (prefix)
or the ending (suffix) of a base morpheme. Note: An
affix usually is a morpheme that cannot stand
alone. Examples: -ful, -ly, -ity, -ness. A few exceptions
are able, like, and less.
base: a morpheme that gives a word its meaning.
The base
morpheme cat gives the word cats its meaning: a particular type
of animal.
prefix: an affix that comes before a base morpheme. The in
in the word inspect is a prefix.
suffix: an affix that comes after a base morpheme. The s in
cats is a suffix.
free morpheme: a morpheme that can stand alone as a
word without another morpheme. It does not need anything
attached to it to make a word. Cat is a free morpheme.
bound morpheme: a sound or a combination of
sounds that cannot stand alone as a word. The s in cats is a
bound morpheme, and it does not have any meaning without
the free morpheme cat.
inflectional morpheme: this morpheme can only be a suffix.
The
s in cats is an inflectional morpheme. An inflectional morpheme creates a
change in the function of the word. Example: the d in invited indicates past
tense. English has only seven inflectional morphemes: -s (plural) and -s
(possessive) are noun inflections; -s ( 3rd-person singular), -ed ( past tense), en (past participle), and -ing ( present participle) are verb inflections; -er
(comparative) and -est (superlative) are adjective and adverb inflections.
derivational morpheme: this type of morpheme changes the
meaning of the word or the part of speech or both. Derivational
morphemes often create new words. Example: the prefix and derivational
morpheme un added to invited changes the meaning of the word.
allomorphs: different phonetic forms or variations of a
morpheme. Example: The final morphemes in the following words are
pronounced differently, but they all indicate plurality: dogs, cats, and horses.
homonyms: morphemes that are spelled the same but have different
meanings. Examples: bear (an animal) and bear (to carry), plain (simple)
and plain ( a level area of land).
homophones: morphemes that sound alike
but have different meanings and
spellings. Examples: bear, bare; plain, plane; cite,
sight, site.
Fifteen Common Prefixes and Ten Common
Suffixes
The following tables and tip are adopted from
Grammar and Composition by Mary Beth Bauer,
et al.
Prefix
adcircumcomdedisexinin-
Meaning
to, toward
around, about
with, together
away from, off
away, apart
from, out
not
in, into
Prefix
intermispostresubtransun-
Meaning
between
wrong
after
back, again
beneath, under
across
not
Suffix
Meaning
-ly
-ment
-ness
in a certain way
the result of being
the state of being
the act of or the state
of being
without
-tion (-ion, -sion)
-less
Suffix
Meaning
-able (-ible)
-ance (-ence)
-ate
-ful
-ity
capable of being
the act of
making or applying
full of
the state of being
Tip
Suffixes can also be used to tell the part of
speech of a word. The following examples
show the parts of speech
indicated by the suffixes in the chart.
Nouns: -ance, -ful, -ity, -ment, -ness, -tion
Verb: -ate
Adjectives: -able, -ful, -less, -ly
Adverb: -ly
Morphology
Morphology is the study of word structure. For example in the
sentences The dog runs and The dogs run, the word forms runs and
dogs have an affix -s added, distinguishing them from the bare
forms dog and run. Adding this suffix to a nominal stem gives
plural forms, adding it to verbal stems restricts the subject to
third person singular. Some morphological theories operate with
two distinct suffixes -s, called allomorphs of the morphemes
Plural and Third person singular, respectively. Languages differ
wrt.
. to their morphological structure. Along one axis,
we may distinguish analytic languages, with few
or no suffixes or other morphological processes
from synthetic languages with many suffixes.
Along another axis, we may distinguish
agglutinative languages, where suffixes express
one grammatical property each, and are added
neatly one after another, from fusional languages,
with non-concatenative morphological processes
(infixation, Umlaut, Ablaut, etc.) and/or with less
clear-cut suffix boundaries
Morpheme
In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme
is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic
meaning.
In spoken language, morphemes are composed
of phonemes, the smallest linguistically distinctive
units of sound.
The concept morpheme differs from the
concept word, as many morphemes cannot stand
as words on their own. A morpheme is free if it
can stand alone, or bound if it is used exclusively
along side a free morpheme.
English example: The word
"unbreakable" has three morphemes
"un-", (meaning not x) a bound
morpheme, "-break-" a free morpheme,
and "-able". "un-" is also a prefix, "able" is a suffix. Both are affixes.
Types of morphemes
Free morphemes like town, dog can
appear with other lexemes (as in town
hall or dog house) or they can stand
alone, or "free".
Free morphemes fall into two categories .
First :The set of ordinary nouns , adjectives
and verbs this is called ( lexical morphemes
) eg) boy , man , sad , long , follow , break …
Second :This set consists largely of the
functional words in the language such as
conjunctions , prepositions and pronouns
this is called ( functional morphemes)
eg)and , but , on , near , the , that , it ……
Bound morphemes like "un-" appear only together with
other morphemes to form a lexeme. Bound morphemes
in general tend to be prefixes and suffixes.
Unproductive, non-affix morphemes that exist only in
bound form are known as "cranberry" morphemes,
from the "cran" in that very word. This also falls in two
categories :
First :Inflectional morphemes modify a word's tense,
number, aspect, and so on. (as in the dog morpheme if
written with the plural marker morpheme s becomes
dogs).
Noun +
-'s , -s
Verb +
-s , -ing , -ed , -en
Adjective +
-est , -er
Second: Derivational morphemes
can be added to a word to create (derive)
another word: the addition of "-ness" to
"happy," for example, to give "happiness." (
-less , -ness , pre- , un- , …..)
Allomorphs are variants of a morpheme,
e.g. the plural marker in English is
sometimes realized as /-z/, /-s/ or /- ɪz/.
Free morpheme
In linguistics, free morphemes are
morphemes that can stand alone, unlike
bound morphemes, which occur only as
parts of words. In the English sentence
colorless green ideas sleep furiously, for example,
color, green, idea, and sleep are all free
morphemes, whereas -less, -s and -ly are all
bound morphemes
Bound morpheme
Bound morphemes are morphemes that can occur
only when attached to root morphemes. Affixes are
bound morphemes. Common English bound
morphemes include: -ing, -ed, -er, and pre-.
Morphemes that are not bound morphemes are free
morphemes.
Allomorph
An allomorph is a linguistics term for a variant
form of a morpheme. The concept occurs when a unit
of meaning can vary in sound (phonologically) without
changing meaning. It is used in linguistics to explain
the comprehension of variations in sound for a specific
morpheme.
[
Allomorphy in English
English has several morphemes that vary in sound but
not in meaning. Examples include the past tense and the
plural morphemes.
Example In the English language the past tense
morpheme is -ed. It occurs in several allomorphs
depending on its phonological environment, assimilating
voicing of the previous segment or inserting a schwa
when following an alveolar stop:
as /əd/ in 'hunted' or 'banded',
as /d/ in 'buzzed',
as /t/ in 'fished'
morphological description
The girl's wildness shocked the teachers
The
girl
's
wild
- ness
shock
(Functional) ( lexical ) (inflectional) (lexical)
(derivational ) (lexical )
the
teach
er
s
ed
( inflectional ) (Functional ) (lexical)
(derivational) ( inflectional)
This shows the different categories of
morphemes
Morphemes:
1.Free:
a. Lexical
b. Functional
2. Bound:
a. Derivational
B. Inflectional
problems in morphological description
So far we have only considered examples of English words
in which the different morphemes are easily identifiable .
thus what is the inflectional morpheme which makes sheep
the plural of sheep , or men the plural of man ?
A related question concern the inflection which makes went
the past of go .
And yet another question concern the derivation of an
adjective like legal . If al is the derivational suffix , as it is in
forms like institutional , then what is the stem ? No it is not
leg
A full description of English morphology will have to take
account of both historical influences and the effect of
borrowed elements .
Phrases and Sentences: Grammar
Phrases and sentences: grammar
We have described linguistic expressions as a sequences of
sounds which can be represented phonetically
e.g)
the
lucky
boys
( voiced fricative)
(voiceless stop) (diphthong)
We can take the same linguistic expression and describe it as a
sequence of morphemes .
e.g) the
luck
y
boy
s
( functional)
( lexical) ( derivational) ( lexical)
(inflectional)
With these descriptions, we could characterize all the words of a
language in terms of their phonetic and morphological make-up.
Grammar
However, we have not yet accounted for the fact that these
words can only be combined in a limited number of patterns. We
recognize that the phrase the lucky boys is a well-formed piece of
English, but that the following two 'phrases' are not at all wellformed:
*boys the lucky
*lucky boys the
(Beside each of these ill-formed structures there is an asterisk
(*), which is a conventional way of indicating that a structure is
ill-formed, or ungrammatical.)
So, we need a way of describing the structure of phrases and
sentences which will account for all of the grammatical
sequences and rule out all the ungrammatical sequences.
Providing such an account involves us in the study of grammar.
We should note that this term is frequently used to cover a
number of different phenomena.
Types of grammar
Each adult speaker of a language clearly has some type of
'mental grammar', that is, a form of internal linguistic knowledge
which operates in the production and recognition of
appropriately structured expressions in that language. This
'grammar' is subconscious and is not the result of any teaching .
A second, and quite different, concept of' grammar' involves
what might be considered 'linguistic etiquette', that is, the
identification of the 'proper' or 'best' structures to be used in a
language. A third view of 'grammar' involves the study and
analysis of the structures found a language, usually with the aim
of establishing a description of the grammar of English, for
example, as distinct from the grammar of Russian or French or
any other language.
Given these three concepts, we can say that, in
general, the first may be of most interest to a
psychologist, since it deals with what goes on in
people's minds, and the second may be of interest
to a sociologist, since it has to do with people's
social attitudes and values. The third is what
occupies many linguists, since the concern is with
the nature of language, often independently of
the users of the language. The study of grammar.
in this narrow sense of the stud of the structure
of expressions in a language, has a very long
tradition
The parts of speech
You may already be familiar with many of the terms
used in a grammatical description, particularly the terms
for the parts of speech, as illustrated in this sentence:
The
lucky
boys
saw
the
clowns
at
(Article ) ( adjective) ( noun) ( verb)
( article)
(noun) ( preposition )
The
circus
and
they
cheered
loudly
(Article ) ( noun ) ( conjunction) ( pronoun ) (
verb )
( adverb
Simple definitions of these terms can be presented in the following way:
Nouns are words used to refer to people, objects, creatures, places, qualities,
phenomena and abstract ideas as if they were all 'things'.
Adjectives are words used, typically with nouns, to provide more
information about the 'things' referred to (happy people, large objects, cute
creatures ,stupid ideas).
Verbs are words used to refer to various kinds of actions (run, jump) and
states (be ,seem) involving the 'things' in events.
Adverbs are words used to provide more information about the actions and
events (slowly, suddenly). Some adverbs (really, very) are also used with
adjectives to modify the information about 'things' (really large objects, very
stupid ideas).
Prepositions are words (at, in, on, near, with, without) used with nouns in
phrases providing information about time (at five, in the morning), place (on
the table, near the window) and other connections (with a knife, without a
thought) involving actions and things.
Pronouns are words (me, they, he, himself, this, it) used in place of
noun phrases, typically referring to things already known (he likes
himself ,this~ it!)
Conjunctions are words (and, but, although, if) used to connect,
and indicate relationships between, events and things (we swam
although it was very cold).
Simple definitions of this type are useful for identifying most
forms in a language like English, but they are never completely
accurate. A different approach might focus on some other
properties of the parts of speech. For example, a noun can be
defined as a form that comes after an article ( the ,a ) and can
take inflections for possessive (-:SO) and plural (-s). Of course,
not all nouns (e.g. information, mud) have all these characteristics.
Procedures for the structural analysis of the parts of speech are
presented later.
Traditional grammar
se terms, used to label the grammatical categories of
words in sentences, come from traditional grammar,
which has its origins in the description of languages
like Classical Latin and Greek. Since there were wellestablished grammatical descriptions of these older
languages, it seemed appropriate to adopt the existing
categories from these descriptions and apply them in
the analysis of languages like English. After all, Latin
and Greek were the languages of scholarship, religion,
philosophy and 'knowledge', so the grammar of these
languages was taken to be the best grammar.
Traditional categories
addition to the terms used for the parts of speech,
traditional grammatical analysis also gave us a
number of other categories, including 'number',
person', 'tense', 'voice' and 'gender'. These
categories can be discussed in ,isolation, but their
role in describing language structure becomes
clearer 'hen we consider them in terms of
agreement. For example, we say that the 'verb likes
'agrees with' the noun boy in the sentence The boy
likes his dog. This agreement is partially based on
the category of number, that is, whether le noun
It is also based on the category of person, which
covers the distinctions of first person (involving
the speaker), second person (involving the hearer)
and third person (involving any others). The
different forms of English pronouns are usually
described in terms of person number, in that we
have first person singular (I), second person singular(you), third person singular (he, she, it), first
person plural (we),and so ,So, in the sentence The
boy likes his dog, we have a noun boy, which is . d
person singular, and the verb likes 'agrees with' the
noun.
In addition, the form of the verb must also
be described in terms of another category,
that of tense. In this case, the verb (likes) is in
the present tense, which is distinguished
from the past tense (liked). The sentence is
also in the active voice, with the boy doing the
liking. An alternative is the passive voice, in
which the liking is done to the boy, as in The
boy is liked by his dog, or just The boy is liked.
Our final category is that of gender, which helps
us describe the agreement between boy and his in
our example sentence. In English, we have to
describe this relationship in terms of natural
gender, mainly derived from a biological
distinction between male and female. The
agreement between boy and his is based on a
distinction English makes between reference to
male entities (he, his), female entities (she, her), and
sexless entities, or animals, when the sex of the
animal is irrelevant (it, its).
This type of biological distinction is quite different from the
more common distinction found in languages which use
grammatical gender. In !hi latter sense, nouns are classified
according to their gender class and, typically , articles and
adjectives take different forms to 'agree with' the gender m the
noun. Spanish, for example, has two grammatical genders,
masculine and feminine, illustrated by the expressions el sol ('the
sun') and la Luna ('the moon') respectively. German uses three
genders, masculine der Mon/ ('the moon'), feminine die Sonne ('the
sun') and neuter dos Feuer ('the fire'). Note the different forms of
the articles in both the Spanish and German examples,
corresponding to differences in the gender class of the nouns.
Also note that the gender distinction is not based on a
distinction in sex. young girl is biologically 'female', but the
German noun dos Madchen is grammatically 'neuter'.
. The French word le livre ('the book') is
grammatically masculine, but we would
not consider books to be biologically
malt. So, the grammatical category of
gender is very usefully applied in
describing a number of languages
(including Latin), but may not be as
appropriate in describing English.
Traditional analysis
The notion of 'appropriateness' of analytic
categories has not always been a
consideration. In traditional grammar books,
tables such as the following were often
presented for English, constructed by
analogy with similar table! of forms in Latin
grammars. The forms for the Latin verb
amare ('to love') are listed on the right.
Note that each of the Latin verb forms is
different, according to the categories of
person and number, yet the English forms
are, with one exception, the same. Thus it
makes some sense, in describing a language
like Latin. 10 have all those descriptive
categories to characterize verb forms, yet it
seems a rather extravagant descriptive system
for English. The influence of Latin, however,
goes beyond the descriptive labels.
The prescriptive approach
It is one thing to adopt the grammatical labels (e.g.
'noun', 'verb') to categorize in English sentences; it is
quite another thing to go on to claim the structure of
English sentences should be like the structure of senences in Latin. Yet this was an approach taken by some
grammarians, mainly eighteenth-century England, who
set out rules for the correct or per' use of English. This
view of grammar as a set of rules for the 'proper' of a
language is still to be found today and may be best
characterized the prescriptive approach. Some familiar
examples of prescriptive rules English sentences are as
follows:
(1) You must not split an infinitive.
(2) You must not end a sentence with a preposition.
there are, of course, many such rules which generations of English
teachers have attempted to instill in their pupils via corrections, as when the
sentence Mary runs faster than me is 'corrected' to read Mary runs faster than I.
And Who did you see? is 'corrected' to Whom did you see? And never begin a
sentence with and. It may, in fact, be a valuable part of one's education to
be made aware of Ibis 'linguistic etiquette', or the 'proper' use of the
language. If it is a social expectation that someone who writes well should
obey these prescriptive rules, then social judgments such as "poorly
educated" may be made about someone who does not follow these rules.
However, it is worth considering the probable origins of these rules and
!Sting whether they are appropriately applied to the English language. Let as
take one example: "You must not split an infinitive."
Captain Kirk's infinitive
The infinitive in English has the form to + the verb, as
in to go, and can be used with an adverb such as boldly. So,
at the beginning of each televised 'Star Trek' episode,
Captain Kirk used the expression To boldly go... . This is
an example of a split infinitive. Captain Kirk's English
teacher should have taught him to say To go boldly or
Boldly to go. If Captain Kirk had been a Roman space
traveler, speaking Latin, he would have used the
expressions ire ('to go') and audacter ('boldly'). Now, in
saying Ire audacter ... in Latin, Captain Kirkus would not
even have the opportunity to split his infinitive (ire),
because Latin infinitives are single words and just ~o
not split.
So, it would be very appropriate in Latin grammar to say
that you cannot
split an infinitive. But is it appropriate to carry this idea
over into English where the infinitive does not consist
of a single
word, but of two words, to and go? If it is a typical
feature of the use of English that speakers and writers
do produce forms such as to boldly go or to solemnly swear,
then we may wish to say that there are structures in
English which differ from those found in Latin, rather
than to say that the English forms are 'bad" because they
are breaking a supposed rule of Latin grammar.
The descriptive approach
It may be that using a well-established grammatical description of Latin is
useful guide for studying some languages (e.g. Italian or Spanish), is le~
useful for others (e.g. English), and may be absolutely misleading if you
want to describe some non-European languages. This last point became
clear to those linguists who wanted to describe the structure of North
American Indian languages at the end of the nineteenth century.
The categories and rules which were appropriate for Latin grammar just
did n~ seem to fit the Indian languages encountered. As a consequence,
through. out the present century, a rather different approach has been taken
Analysts collect samples of the language they are interested in and attempt
to describe the regular structures of the language as it is used. not
according to some view of how it should be used. This is called the
descriptive approach and it is the basis of most modern attempts to
characterize the structure of different languages.
Structural analysis
One type of descriptive approach is called
structural analysis and its main concern is to
investigate the distribution of forms (e.g.
morphemes) in a language. The method employed
involves the use of 'test-frames' which can be
sentences with empty slots in them. For example:
The-----------------------------------------------------makes a lot of noise .
I heard a --------------------------------------------yesterday .
There are a lot of forms which can fit into these
slots to produce good grammatical sentences of
English (e.g. donkey, car, dog, radio, child, etc)
Consequently, we can suggest that because all of
these forms fit in the same test-frame, they are
likely to be examples of the same grammatical
category : The label we give to this grammatical
category is, of course, 'noun ' .
However, there are many forms which do not fit
the test-frames above . Examples would be Cathy,
it, the dog, a car, and so on. For these forms ,we
require different test-frames , which could be like
------------------------------------makes a lot of noise .
I heard---------------------------yesterday .
Among the forms which fit these test-frames are Cathy,
Anna Banana, it, the dog, an old car, the professor with the
Scottish accent, and many more. Once again, we can
suggest that these forms are likely to be examples of the
same grammatical category. The common label for this
category is 'noun phrase'. By developing a set of testframes of this type and discovering what forms fit me
slots in the test-frames, you can produce a description
of (at least some) aspects of the sentence structures of a
language.
Traditional categories
addition to the terms used for the parts of speech,
traditional grammatical analysis also gave us a number
of other categories, including 'number', person', 'tense',
'voice' and 'gender'. These categories can be discussed
in ,isolation, but their role in describing language
structure becomes clearer 'hen we consider them in
terms of agreement. For example, we say that the 'verb
likes 'agrees with' the noun boy in the sentence The boy
likes his dog. This agreement is partially based on the
category of number, that is, whether le noun is singular
or plural.
It is also based on the category of person, which
covers the distinctions of first person (involving
the speaker), second person (involving the
hearer) and third person (involving any others).
The different forms of English pronouns are
usually described in terms of person number, in
that we have first person singular (I), second
person singular(you), third person singular (he, she,
it), first person plural (we),and so ,So, in the
sentence The boy likes his dog, we have a noun boy,
which is . d person singular, and the verb likes
'agrees with' the noun.
In addition, the form of the verb must also be described in
terms of another category, that of tense. In this case, the verb
(likes) is in the present tense, which is distinguished from the past
tense (liked). The sentence is also in the active voice, with the boy
doing the liking. An alternative is the passive voice, in which the
liking is done to the boy, as in The boy is liked by his dog, or just The
boy is liked.
Our final category is that of gender, which helps us describe the
agreement between boy and his in our example sentence. In
English, we have to describe this relationship in terms of natural
gender, mainly derived from a biological distinction between
male and female. The agreement between boy and his is based on
a distinction English makes between reference to male entities
(he, his), female entities (she, her), and sexless entities, or animals,
when the sex of the animal is irrelevant (it, its).
This type of biological distinction is quite different from
the more common distinction found in languages which
use grammatical gender. In !hi latter sense, nouns are
classified according to their gender class and, typically ,
articles and adjectives take different forms to 'agree with'
the gender m the noun. Spanish, for example, has two
grammatical genders, masculine and feminine, illustrated
by the expressions el sol ('the sun') and la Luna ('the
moon') respectively. German uses three genders,
masculine der Mon/ ('the moon'), feminine die Sonne ('the
sun') and neuter dos Feuer ('the fire'). Note the different
forms of the articles in both the Spanish and German
examples, corresponding to differences in the
gender class of the nouns. Also note that the
gender distinction is not based on a distinction in
sex. young girl is biologically 'female', but the
German noun dos Madchen is grammatically 'neuter'.
The French word le livre ('the book') is
grammatically masculine, but we would not
consider books to be biologically malt. So, the
grammatical category of gender is very usefully
applied in describing a number of languages
(including Latin), but may not be as appropriate in
describing English.
Traditional analysis
The notion of 'appropriateness' of analytic categories has not
always been a consideration. In traditional grammar books, tables
such as the following were often presented for English,
constructed by analogy with similar table! of forms in Latin
grammars. The forms for the Latin verb amare ('to love') are
listed on the right.
Note that each of the Latin verb forms is different, according to
the categories of person and number, yet the English forms are,
with one exception, the same. Thus it makes some sense, in
describing a language like Latin. 10 have all those descriptive
categories to characterize verb forms, yet it seems a rather
extravagant descriptive system for English. The influence of
Latin, however, goes beyond the descriptive labels.
The prescriptive approach
It is one thing to adopt the grammatical labels (e.g. 'noun', 'verb')
to categorize in English sentences; it is quite another thing to go
on to claim the structure of English sentences should be like
the structure of sentences in Latin. Yet this was an approach
taken by some grammarians, mainly eighteenth-century England,
who set out rules for the correct or per' use of English. This
view of grammar as a set of rules for the 'proper' of a language
is still to be found today and may be best characterized the
prescriptive approach. Some familiar examples of prescriptive
rules English sentences are as follows:
(1) You must not split an infinitive.
(2) You must not end a sentence with a preposition
The elided form of a word or phrase may become a standard
alternative for the full form, if used often enough. In English,
this is called a contraction, such as can't from cannot. Contraction
differs from elision in that contractions are set forms that have
morphologized, but elisions are not.
A synonym for elision is syncope. This term is most often
associated with the elision of vowels between consonants (e.g.,
Latin tabula → Spanish tabla). Another form of elision is aphesis,
which means elision at the beginning of a word (generally of an
unstressed vowel).
The opposite of elision is epenthesis, whereby sounds are
inserted into a word to ease pronunciation
Captain Kirk's infinitive
The infinitive in English has the form to +
the verb, as in to go, and can be used with an
adverb such as boldly. So, at the beginning of
each televised 'Star Trek' episode, Captain
Kirk used the expression To boldly go... . This
is an example of a split infinitive. Captain
Kirk's English teacher should have taught
him to say To go boldly or Boldly to go.
. If Captain Kirk had been a Roman space
traveler, speaking Latin, he would have used the
expressions ire ('to go') and audacter ('boldly'). Now,
in saying Ire audacter ... in Latin, Captain Kirkus
would not even have the opportunity to split his
infinitive (ire), because Latin infinitives are single
words and just ~o not split.
So, it would be very appropriate in Latin grammar
to say that you cannot
split an infinitive.
But is it appropriate to carry this idea over into
English where the infinitive does not consist of a
single
word, but of two words, to and go? If it is a typical
feature of the use of English that speakers and
writers do produce forms such as to boldly go or to
solemnly swear, then we may wish to say that there
are structures in English which differ from those
found in Latin, rather than to say that the English
forms are 'bad" because they are breaking a
supposed rule of Latin grammar.
The descriptive approach
It may be that using a well-established
grammatical description of Latin is
useful guide for studying some
languages (e.g. Italian or Spanish), is le~
useful for others (e.g. English), and may
be absolutely misleading if you want to
describe some non-European
languages.
This last point became clear to those linguists who
wanted to describe the structure of North American
Indian languages at the end of the nineteenth century.
The categories and rules which were appropriate for
Latin grammar just did n~ seem to fit the Indian
languages encountered. As a consequence, through. out
the present century, a rather different approach has been
taken Analysts collect samples of the language they are
interested in and attempt to describe the regular
structures of the language as it is used. not according to
some view of how it should be used. This is called the
descriptive approach and it is the basis of most modern
attempts to characterize the structure of different
languages.
Structural analysis
One type of descriptive approach is
called structural analysis and its main
concern is to investigate the distribution
of forms (e.g. morphemes) in a language.
The method employed involves the use
of 'test-frames' which can be sentences
with empty slots in them. For example:
The-----------------------------------------------------makes a lot of noise .
I heard a --------------------------------------------yesterday .
There are a lot of forms which can fit into
these slots to produce good grammatical
sentences of English (e.g. donkey, car, dog,
radio, child, etc) Consequently, we can suggest
that
because all of these forms fit in the same
test-frame, they are likely to be examples of
the same grammatical category : The label we
give to this grammatical category is, of
course, 'noun ' .
However, there are many forms which do
not fit the test-frames above . Examples
would be Cathy, it, the dog, a car, and so on.
For these forms ,we require different testframes ,
which could be like this :
------------------------------------makes a lot of
noise .
I heard---------------------------yesterday .
Among the forms which fit these test-frames
are Cathy, Anna Banana, it, the dog, an old car,
the professor with the Scottish accent, and many
more. Once again, we can suggest that these
forms are likely to be examples of the same
grammatical category.
The common label for this category
is 'noun phrase'. By developing a set
of test-frames of this type and
discovering what forms fit me slots in
the test-frames, you can produce a
description of (at least some) aspects
of the sentence structures of a
language.
Immediate constituent analysis
An approach with the same descriptive aims
is called immediate constituent analysis. The
technique employed in this approach is
designed to show how small constituents (or
components) in sentences go together to
form larger constituents. In the following
sentence, we can identify eight constituents
(al the word level): Her father brought a shotgun
to the weddIng.
How do those eight constituents go
together to form constituents at the
phrase level? Does it seem appropriate to
put the words together as follows?
Brought a
father brought shotgun to
to the
We don't normally think of these
combinations as phrases in English
We are more likely to say that the phrase-like
constituents here are combinations of the
following types: Her father, a shotgun, the
wedding, which are noun phrases; to the wedding,
which is a prepositional phrase; brought a
shotgun, which is a verb phrase.
This analysis of the constituent structure of
the sentence can be represented in different
types of diagrams. One type of diagram simply
shows the distribution of the constituents at
different levels.
This type of diagram can
be used to show the types
of forms which can substitute for each other at
different
levels
of
constituent structure.
Semantics, Second Exam
Semantics (Greek sēmantikos,
giving signs, significant,
symptomatic meaning, from sēma
(σῆμα), sign) refers to aspects of
meaning, as expressed in language
or other systems of signs.
As discussed in semiotics, the theory of
signs, by the Vienna Circle, particularly in
their International Encyclopedia of
Unified Science, the field breaks out into
three branches:
Semantics: Relation between signs and
the things they refer to, their denotata.
Syntactics: Relation of signs to each other in
formal structures.
Pragmatics: Relation of signs to their
impacts on those who use them.
Semantics contrasts with syntax, which is the
study of the structure of sign systems
(focusing on the form, not meaning).
When analyzing languages, an
analysis can be said to cover
both the "syntax and
semantics" concerning both the
format and meanings of
phrases in a language.
The term semantics can apply not only to natural
languages, such as English, German or Latin, but
also to technical languages, such as a computer
programming language.
Related to semantics is the field of pragmatics,
which studies the practical use of signs by agents
or communities of interpretation within particular
circumstances and contexts.[1] By the usual
convention that calls a study or a theory by the
name of its subject matter, semantics may also
denote the theoretical study of meaning in systems
of signs.
Semanticists generally recognize two sorts of
meaning that an expression (such as the
sentence, "John ate a bagel") may have: (1)
the relation that the expression, broken down
into its constituent parts (signs), has to things
and situations in the real world as well as
possible worlds, and (2) the relation the signs
have to other signs, such as the sorts of
mental signs that are conceived of as concepts.
Most theorists refer to the relation between a
sign and its objects, as always including any
manner of objective reference, as its denotation.
Some theorists refer to the relation between a
sign and the signs that serve in its practical
interpretation as its connotation, but there are
many more differences of opinion and
distinctions of theory that are made in this case.
Many theorists, especially in the formal
semantic, pragmatic, and semiotic traditions,
restrict the application of semantics to the
denotative aspect, using other terms or
completely ignoring the connotative aspect.
Etymology
Semantics is derived from the Greek
"σημαντικός" or semantikos, meaning
"significant". The word semantic appears
in French as sémantique, as used by Michel
Bréal during the 19th century, in his 1897
book published in Paris, Essai de
sémantique, considered the first use of the
term "semantics" in the modern sense
The dynamic turn in semantics
This traditional view of semantics, as a
finite meaning inherent in a lexical unit that
can be composed to generate meanings for
larger chunks of discourse, is being fiercely
debated in the emerging domain of cognitive
linguistics[2] and also in the non-Fodorian
camp in Philosophy of Language[3]. The
challenge is motivated by
factors internal to language, such as the
problem of resolving indexical or anaphora
(e.g. this X, him, last week). In these situations
"context" serves as the input, but the
interpreted utterance also modifies the
context, so it is also the output. Thus, the
interpretation is necessarily dynamic and the
meaning of sentences are viewed as contextchange potentials instead of
propositions.
factors external to language, i.e. Language is not
a set of labels stuck on things, but "a toolbox,
the importance of whose elements lie in the way
they function rather than their attachments to
things."[3] This view reflects the position of the
later Wittgenstein and his famous game example,
and is related to the positions of Quine,
Davidson and others.
A concrete example of the latter phenomenon is
semantic underspecification — meanings are not
complete without some elements of context.
To take an example of a single word, "red", its
meaning in a phrase such as red book is similar to
many other usages, and can be viewed as
compositional[4]. However, the color implied in
phrases such as "red wine" (very dark), and "red
hair" (coppery), or "red soil", or "red skin" - are
very different. Indeed, these colours by
themselves would not be called "red" by native
speakers. These instances are contrastive, so "red
wine" is so called only in comparison with the
other kind of wine (which also is not "white" for
the same reasons). This view goes back to de
Each of a set of synonyms like redouter ('to
dread'), craindre ('to fear'), avoir peur ('to be
afraid') has its particular value only because
they stand in contrast with one another. No
word has a value that can be identified
independently of what else is in its vicinity.[5]
and may go back to earlier Indian views on
language, especially the Nyaya view of words
as indicators and not carriers of meaning[6].
An attempt to defend a system based on
propositional meaning for semantic
underspecification can be found in the
Generative Lexicon model of James
Pustejovsky, who extends contextual
operations (based on type shifting) into
the lexicon. Thus meanings are generated
on the fly based on finite context.
Prototype theory
Another set of concepts related to
fuzziness in semantics is based on
prototypes. The work of Eleanor Rosch and
George Lakoff in the 1970s led to a view
that natural categories are not characterizable
in terms of necessary and sufficient
conditions, but are graded (fuzzy at their
boundaries) and inconsistent as to the status
of their constituent members.
Systems of categories are not objectively "out
there" in the world but are rooted in people's
experience. These categories evolve as learned
concepts of the world —meaning is not an
objective truth, but a subjective construct, learned
from experience, and language arises out of the
"grounding of our conceptual systems in shared
embodiment and bodily experience"[7]. A
corollary of this is that the conceptual categories
(i.e. the lexicon) will not be identical for different
cultures, or indeed, for every individual in the
same culture.
This leads to another debate (see the
Whorf-Sapir hypothesis or Eskimo
words for snow).
] Computer science
In computer science, considered in
part as an application of
mathematical logic, semantics reflects
the meaning of programs or
functions.
In this regard, semantics permits programs
to be separated into their syntatical part
(grammatical structure) and their semantic
part (meaning). For instance, the following
statements use different syntaxes
(languages), but result in the same semantic:
x += y; (C, Java, etc)
Let x = x + y;
or x = x + y (various Basics)
Generally these operations
would all perform an
arithmetical addition of 'y' to
'x'.
Semantics for computer
applications falls into three
categories[8]:
Operational semantics: The meaning of a
construct is specified by the computation it
induces when it is executed on a machine. In
particular, it is of interest how the effect of a
computation is produced.
Denotational semantics: Meanings are modelled
by mathematical objects that represent the
effect of executing the constructs. Thus only the
effect is of interest, not how it is obtained.
Axiomatic semantics: Specific properties
of the effect of executing the constructs as
expressed as assertions. Thus there may be
aspects of the executions that are ignored.
The Semantic Web refers to the extension
of the World Wide Web through the
embedding of additional semantic metadata
Lexical semantics is a subfield of
linguistics.
It is the study of how and what
the words of a language denote
(Pustejovsky, 1995). Words may
either be taken to denote things
in the world, or concepts,
depending on the particular
approach to lexical semantics.
Lexical units are the words so lexical
semantics involves the meaning of each
individual word. Lexical semantics is the
one area of linguistics to which we can
continually add throughout our lives, as we
are always learning new words and their
meanings whereas we can only learn the
rules of our native language during the
critical period when we are young.
It covers theories of the classification
and decomposition of
word
meaning, the differences and
similarities in lexical semantic
structure
between
different
languages, and the relationship of
word meaning to sentence meaning
and syntax.
Syntax
Syntax
In the course of the preceding chapter, we
moved from a consideration of
general grammatical categories and
relations to specific methods of describing
the structure of phrases and sentences. If
we concentrate on the structure and
ordering of components within a sentence,
we are studying what is technically known
as the syntax of a language.
The word 'syntax' came originally from
Greek and literally meant 'a setting out
together' or 'arrangement'. In earlier
approaches to the description of syntax,
as we saw in Chapter 9, there was an
attempt to produce an accurate analysis
of the sequence or the ordering
'arrangement' of elements in the linear
structure of the sentence.
While this remains a major
goal of syntactic description,
more recent work in syntax
has taken a rather different
approach in accounting for
the 'arrangements' we observe
in the structure of sentences.
Generative grammar
Since the 1950s, particularly developing from the
work of the American linguist Noam Chomsky,
there have been attempts to produce a particular
type of grammar which would have a very explicit
system of rules specifying what combinations of
basic elements would result in well-formed
sentences. (Let us emphasize the word "attempts"
here, since no fully worked-out grammar of this
or any other type yet exists.)
This explicit system of rules, it was proposed, would have much in common
with the types of rules found in mathematics. Indeed, a definitive early
statement in Chomsky's first major work
betrays this essentially mathematical view
of language: "I will consider a language
to be a set (finite or infinite) of
sentences" (Chomsky, 1957: 13).
This mathematical point of view
helps to explain the meaning of the
term
generative, which is used to describe
this type of grammar. If you have an
algebraic expression like 3x + 2y, and
you can give x and y the value of any
whole number, then that simple
algebraic
expression can generate an endless set of values, by following
the simple rules of arithmetic.
When x = 5 and y = 10, the
result is 35. When x = 2 and y =
I, the result is 8. These results
will follow directly from applying
the explicit rules.
The endless set of such results is
'generated' by the operation of the
explicitly formalized rules. If the
sentences of a language can be seen
as a comparable set, then there must
be a set of explicit rules which yield
those sentences. Such a set of explicit
rules is a generative grammar.
Some properties of the grammar
A grammar of this type must have a number
of properties, which can be described in the
following terms. The grammar will generate
all the well formed syntactic structures (e.g.
sentences) of the language and fail to generate any ill-formed structures. This is the 'all
and only' criterion (Le. all the grammatical
sentences and only the grammatical
sentences).
The grammar will have a finite (i.e.
limited) number of rules, but will be
capable of generating an infinite
number of well-formed structures. In
this way, the productivity of language
(i.e. the creation of totally novel, yet
grammatical, sentences) would be
captured within the grammar.
The rules of this grammar will
also need the crucial property of
recursion, that is, the capacity to
be applied more than once in
generating a structure. For
example, whatever rule yields the
component that chased the cat in