Linguistic Level
Linguistic analysis entails studying language at many levels to better comprehend its structure, meaning, and application. Here are the main levels of linguistic analysis:
1) Phonetics
2) Phonology
3. morphology
4) Syntax
5) Semantics.
6) Pragmatic
2) Phonology
3. morphology
4) Syntax
5) Semantics.
6) Pragmatic
- Phonetics
Phonetics is a discipline of linguistics that examines the sounds of human speech, including its creation, transmission, and perception. It is concerned with the physical characteristics of speech sounds or signals (in sign languages). Phonetics can be classified into three major branches:
1. Articulatory Phonetics.
Articulatory phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are formed by the movement of articulators (tongue, lips, palate, etc.) in the vocal tract.
The sound [t] in the word "top" is created by the tip of the tongue contacting the alveolar ridge (the bony ridge behind the upper front teeth).
2. Acoustic Phonetics.
Acoustic phonetics is the study of the physical qualities of spoken sounds as sound waves travel through the air. It entails assessing frequency, amplitude, and duration.
For example, the vowel sound [i] in "see" has a high frequency and unique formant frequencies (vocal tract resonant frequencies).
3. Auditory Phonetics
Auditory phonetics studies how speech sounds are perceived by the ear, auditory nerve, and brain. It examines the steps involved in hearing and comprehending spoken sounds.
Auditory perception is required to discriminate between voiceless and voiced sounds, such as [p] and [b].
The sound [t] in the word "top" is created by the tip of the tongue contacting the alveolar ridge (the bony ridge behind the upper front teeth).
2. Acoustic Phonetics.
Acoustic phonetics is the study of the physical qualities of spoken sounds as sound waves travel through the air. It entails assessing frequency, amplitude, and duration.
For example, the vowel sound [i] in "see" has a high frequency and unique formant frequencies (vocal tract resonant frequencies).
3. Auditory Phonetics
Auditory phonetics studies how speech sounds are perceived by the ear, auditory nerve, and brain. It examines the steps involved in hearing and comprehending spoken sounds.
Auditory perception is required to discriminate between voiceless and voiced sounds, such as [p] and [b].
- Phonology
Phonology is a discipline of linguistics that studies the systematic organisation of sounds in languages. It focusses on how sounds work and interact within a certain language or languages, as opposed to phonetics, which is concerned with the actual generation and perception of sounds.
The main differences between phonology and phonetics
Phonetics is the study of how sounds are made physically, while phonology is the study of sounds in general. In phonetics, there are an endless number of realisations. For example, the sound you make when you say the letter "p" is slightly different each time. In phonology, on the other hand, all productions are the same sound within the language's phoneme inventory. This means that even though each "p" is said in a slightly different way, it always sounds the same. One big difference between phonetics and phonology is that even though each "p" is unique, they all make the same sound in speech.
- Morphology
Morphology is the part of languages that studies how words are put together and how they are structured. It looks at morphemes, which are the smallest pieces of meaning, and how they fit together to make words. Morphology helps us understand how words are put together, what they mean, and how they connect to other words.Important Ideas in Morphology Morphemes:
Free Morphemes:
The smallest elements of meaning in a language that can stand by alone as words are free morphemes. Unlike bound morphemes, which need to be coupled to other morphemes to express meaning, free morphemes are independent and can operate as whole words in sentences.
For instance, "book," "run," and "happy."
For instance, "book," "run," and "happy."
There are two types of free morphemes. those are lexical and functional morphemes.
1. Lexical morpheme
You can find lexical morphemes in words like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. They have important meanings and are part of major parts of speech. They are the words that make up a language, as opposed to functional morphemes, which are mostly used for grammar.
2. Functional morpheme
Functional morphemes are a type of morpheme that is mostly used for grammar and doesn't have a lot of sense in words. Things like prepositions, conjunctions, articles, auxiliary verbs, and adjectives are examples of these important parts of speech.
Bound Morphemes:
Bound morphemes are morphemes that can't be used as words on their own; they need to be connected to other morphemes to make sense. Bound morphemes are important parts of word formation and have a big effect on how words are put together grammatically and what they mean.
There are two types of bound morphemes. Those are inflectional and derivational morphemes.
1. Inflectional morphemes
Inflectional morphemes change the shape of a word to show different types of grammar, like tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, and case, without changing the main meaning or part of speech of the word.
Examples of Inflectional Morphemes in English:
-s (plural): Adds to nouns to indicate more than one.
Example: "cat" → "cats"
-s (possessive): Adds to nouns to indicate possession.
Example: "dog" → "dog's"
-s (third person singular present): Adds to verbs to agree with a third person singular subject.
Example: "run" → "runs"
-ed (past tense): Adds to verbs to indicate past tense.
Example: "talk" → "talked"
-ing (present participle): Adds to verbs to indicate ongoing action.
Example: "sing" → "singing"
-en (past participle): Adds to verbs to indicate perfect or passive aspects.
Example: "write" → "written"
-er (comparative): Adds to adjectives to compare two entities.
Example: "small" → "smaller"
-est (superlative): Adds to adjectives to indicate the highest degree of a quality.
Example: "small" → "smallest"
-s (plural): Adds to nouns to indicate more than one.
Example: "cat" → "cats"
-s (possessive): Adds to nouns to indicate possession.
Example: "dog" → "dog's"
-s (third person singular present): Adds to verbs to agree with a third person singular subject.
Example: "run" → "runs"
-ed (past tense): Adds to verbs to indicate past tense.
Example: "talk" → "talked"
-ing (present participle): Adds to verbs to indicate ongoing action.
Example: "sing" → "singing"
-en (past participle): Adds to verbs to indicate perfect or passive aspects.
Example: "write" → "written"
-er (comparative): Adds to adjectives to compare two entities.
Example: "small" → "smaller"
-est (superlative): Adds to adjectives to indicate the highest degree of a quality.
Example: "small" → "smallest"
2. Derivational morphemes
Derivational morphemes produce new words by altering the meaning or grammatical category—part of speech—of a word. They may either be suffixes or prefixes.
Examples of Derivational Morphemes in English:
Prefixes:
Prefixes:
un- (negation): Changes the meaning to its opposite. (Example: "happy" → "unhappy")
re- (again): Indicates repetition. (Example: "write" → "rewrite")
dis- (opposite): Indicates negation or reversal. (Example: "agree" → "disagree")
Suffixes:
-ness (noun-forming):
Turns adjectives into nouns.
(Example: "happy" → "happiness")
-ly (adverb-forming):
Turns adjectives into adverbs.
(Example: "quick" → "quickly")
-ment (noun-forming):
Turns verbs into nouns.
(Example: "develop" → "development")
-er (agent noun):
Turns verbs into nouns indicating a person who performs an action.
(Example: "teach" → "teacher")
-ize (verb-forming):
Turns nouns or adjectives into verbs.
Example: "modern" → "modernize"
- Syntax
Syntax is a field within linguistics that examines the regulations and principles that regulate the arrangement of sentences. The attention lies on the process of word combination to create phrases, clauses, and sentences, as well as the grammatical connections between these pieces. Here’s a detailed look at key concepts in English syntax: predication, complementation, modification, and coordination.1. Structure of Predication
Predication refers to the way sentences convey meaning by combining a subject and a predicate. The predicate provides information about the subject and typically includes a verb and its complements or modifiers.
Example:
"The cat sleeps on the mat.
Subject: "The cat"
Predicate: "sleeps on the mat"
Verb (Main Predicate): "sleeps"
Prepositional Phrase (Modifier): "on the mat"
2. Complementation
Complementation involves elements that are necessary to complete the meaning of a verb or adjective. Complements provide additional information and are integral to the sentence structure.
Types of Complements:
Direct Object Complement:
Example: "She reads a book."
Verb: "reads"
Direct Object: "a book" (completes the action of reading)
Subject Complement (Predicate Nominative/Adjective):
Example: "He is a teacher."
Verb: "is"
Subject Complement: "a teacher" (renames the subject "He")
Example: "The sky looks blue."
Verb: "looks"
Subject Complement: "blue" (describes the subject "The sky")
3. Modification
Modification involves the use of adjectives, adverbs, and other modifiers to provide more detail about other elements in a sentence.
Types of Modification:
Adjective Modification:
Example: "The tall man is here."
Modifier: "tall"
Modified Noun: "man"
Adverb Modification:
Example: "She sings beautifully."
Modifier: "beautifully"
Modified Verb: "sings"
4. Coordination
Coordination involves linking elements of equal syntactic status (words, phrases, or clauses) using coordinating conjunctions such as "and," "but," and "or."
Types of Coordination:
Word-Level Coordination:
Example: "Tom and Jerry are friends."
Conjunction: "and"
Coordinated Words: "Tom" and "Jerry"
Phrase-Level Coordination:
Example: "She bought a book and a pen."
Conjunction: "and"
Coordinated Phrases: "a book" and "a pen"
Clause-Level Coordination:
Example: "He wanted to go home, but he stayed at work."
Conjunction: "but"
Coordinated Clauses: "He wanted to go home" and "he stayed at work"