Class 2

sbado, 24 de mayo de 2014 19:06

Unit 1

Exam question: why do we talk about the substance of language and a form of language?

The form of a language is shaped by the selection of phonemes and graphemes and the linguistic
exponents used to fulfil the different functions and notions.

We talk about the substance of language because substance is common in all languages.

We talk about the form of a language because each language has its own form which is shaped or
determined by ...

Now in performing language , we are going to make some reference to the different studies of
language :

The first level of language: phonetics and phonology

Language is oral.

What's the minimal unit of language? The phoneme

What about theletters? Well, they are just for a privileged group of people.

Phoneme: is the smallest unit of contrast in language.

Smallest because it cannot be devided into smaller units.

Unit of constrast because if I change one phoneme I have a new word in constrast, that is , with a
different meaning. e.g. pet and pat

Allophone: it's a variation of a phoneme that does not bring about (= to cause) a change of meaning. Or
the different realizations.

Realization in phonetics means translations.

e.g. the word "go" is pronounced different but its meaning does not change

In english , sounds are divided into vowels, consonants, and semivowels.

And within vowels , we can identify vowels proper and diphthongs.

TRANSCRIPTIONS pgina 1
In english , sounds are divided into vowels, consonants, and semivowels.

And within vowels , we can identify vowels proper and diphthongs.

The second level is morphology

Morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning or form in language.

Morphemes are made up of combinations of phonemes.

A phoneme is either a unit of meaning or a unit of form.

Free morphemes stand on their own in writing.

Bound morphemes need to be attached to a free lexical morpheme.

Lexical morphemes have meaning on their own. e.g. content words or lexical words, nouns, adj, main
verbs. They form an open class , this means there can be introductions and loses.

There are introductions due to new discoveries or inventions. e.g. if a new plant is discovered ,
scientists give it a new name , and that's an introduction. Now, if a new object is invented, that's need a
word .

Functional free morphemes (or form grammatical words) . They do not have meaning on their own.
But they give form to language. They shape the grammar of the language. e.g. prepositions,
conjunctions, personal pronouns , etc.

Derivational bound morphemes , if they are used as prefixes , they change meaning. If they are used as
suffixes , they usually change the grammatical category of the word.

Lengthen -- > n --> v (it changes the grammatical category and also the meaning) watch out!
Shorten

Bluish --> adj -->adj ( only changing meaning)

Childish --> (changing category but not meaning)

Inflectional bound morphemes: they are used as suffixes and they do not change the grammatical
category of a word. They are inflections of that word. e.g. shortest (superlative)

Waiter --waitress (gender)

Player ---> derivational

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Player ---> derivational

Shorter---> inflectional (an aspect of that adjective)

Taken --> inflectional

Shorten --> derivational

-er and -en --> are the only suffixes that can fulfilled both functions

TRANSCRIPTIONS pgina 3