Senco acon gece take completely for granted. We are so used to speaking and understanding our mother tongue with unselfconscious ease that we do not noti Pe ee rete ett eet ee Peco ee arn ed Peer nmr ten a end encounter the structural compl ORC language as an adult, we are often amazed at the level of diffi erent ty involved. Similarly, when we bility to control the struc- Re cae canons cap. Such instances suggest the central impor- f BES eet ae tance of the field of lingu to such specialists as teachers or therapists, but to PR eR Ree eon Ck phenomenon of languag rer nen ku Pte nnn ee Perry cr of sounds and words must be one of confusion; other. T ee en oe eens will gradually emerge. Some words will stand out, and so erent ce eer on y be recognizable, The pronunciation will become less alien, as we detect the melodies and The structure of language thythmical patterns that convey such info as ‘stating’ and ‘questioning’. W. 8h Preity eee eon Seema of foreign-language publicat ee eat eon Seen e nen Instead of sounds and thythms, we are now h shapes and spaces: but the principle Perna Pen eet eR forms, many of which are expressing similar rt Ren eee nan fren ero In this part of the encyclopedia, we therefore ructure ne the factors involved in carrying outa Peet ee eee one ene cn written, or signed, and illustrate the main compo: orlevels, that linguists have proposed in ae rere ter tee aes er The largest section will be devoted to the field of grammar, which is at the centre of most ling eon test toner cons to semantics, the study of meaning in language, and to the associated themes of diction al review of some general issues that form part of aoe Pree Eee Poe htt oy ern Cnn enc on question of whether all languages have properties in common, Parti concludes with PY oy eek cnc nO CLA as Pen ene ccc C UMMC mera or onan oaSE 3 LINGUISTIC LEVELS a es i; on ina piece of speech, writ- oo pettus co describe its characters: ing Ser rape sarment, Even in a shor Ms centence such as Hello there, several things SPO at once. Each word conveys 2 particular Phere is roo much going © a ere a in which the words rere is a likely order in whi moaning, There id noe say There bell! Each word ayaa apeic sequence of sounds, Thesen- aac ava whole is uttered in a particular tone of voice ieeodyaonled i ing tug te exclamation hark (629). And the choice of this sentence immedi- rans crains the oceasions when it might be sed — oon a frst meeting (and not, for example, upon leave- taking). While we say or hear the sentence, we are not ‘consciously aware ofall chese facets ofits structure, but ‘once our attention is drawn to them, we easily recog- nize their existence. We could even concentrate on the seudy of one of these facers largely to the exclusion of the others — something that takes place routinely in language reaching, for instance, where someone may eee arnacddot one day, and of ‘vocabulary’ or ‘grammar’ the next. Selective focusing of this kind in face takes place in all linguistic studies, as part of the business of discovering hhow language works, and of simplifying the task of description. The different facets are usually referred to as levels oF linguistic organization. Each level is studied using its own terms and techniques, enabling us to ‘obcain information abouone aspect of language struc- ture, while temporarily disregarding the involvement of others. The field of pronunciation, for example, is basically analysed ar the level of phonetics, using proce- that are quite distinct from anything encoun- tered at other linguistic levels. When we do phonetic research, we try to disassociate ourselves from the problems nd practices we would encounter if we were ‘carrying our a study at the level of, Say, grammar. Simi srammatical study takes place using approaches that aze in principle independent of what gocs on in Phonetics. And other levels likewise, provide us with their own independent ‘lant’ on the workings of len. ‘age structure. {fhe noon of eves is widely applicable, expecially me engage inthe analysis ofa fangeoflanguages asitenables us to see and state patterns of organization ima tas any other way thathas ci dine appear to have a certai “empitical ‘ a fe as neta and neatologil seen Ace wes ‘study, weare ined geo 2 level for independent lucing an artificial element into our enquiry, whose consequences mustbeanticipated. The SPace sy & sais of speech that we study via phonetics are, afer UNGUIgST®N Sil the substance through which the paternsof yram- inwygy,o. P ange are conveyed. There will therefore be interrela- tionships between levels that need co be taken into sccoune ifwe wish co understand the way language asa whole is organized. As with any structure, the whole tannotbe broken down into its constituent parts with- ut loss, and we must therefore always recollect the need to place our work on individual levels within a more general structural perspective. HOW MANY LEVELS? Ieis not difficult to sense the complexity of language seructure, but it is not so easy to say how many levels should be set up in order to explain the way this struc- ture is organized. Some simple mocels of language tec- ognize only two basic levels: the set of physical forms (sounds, letters, signs, words) contained in a language, and the range oF abstract meanings conveyed by these forms, More commonly, the notion of forms is subdi- vided, co distinguish different kinds of abstracuness. In speech, for example, the physical facts of pronuncia- tion, as defined by the processes of articulation, acous- tictransmission and audition, are considered to be the subject matter of phoneries (§27). The way different languages organize sounds to convey differences of meaning is the province of phonolygy ($28). And the study of the way meaningful units are brought into sequence to convey wider and more varied patterns of ‘meaning is the province of grammar. The term seman- siesis then used for the study of che patterns of meaning themselves. Four-level models of language (phonetics / phonol- ogy / grammar / semantics) are among the most widely used, but further divisions within and between these levels are often made. For example, within the level of grammar, it is common to recognize a distinction berween the study of word structure (morphology) and the study i ¢ study of word sequence within sentences (sya) sin te Pion om ts, an ental phonol is usu distinguished from the study of Pee cue {ones of voice (suprasegmental phonology) ($29) Within semantics, the suid of vocabulary or lexicon areetimes taken separately from the study of larger ig (under such headings as text or levels ofstruceana 1 ese te tepularly referred co as _We could continue, Sons, and recognizing making divisions within divi- more subdle nN eptesenteg gt the whole wt f complerst eng rose tain otuniteasse) torture Gaulle iporignt auistsmap tea yee wa acestoalonee this tespect tei bearsastriing a? tothesaraiag Clarkes 010 Key L Linguist Morphology Phonetics ! Phonology S Syntax SI Semantic. (© Other levels | ==a vastarray Why should jon is to ofthe world present us wid ae a ad diesen, Why oo ay cof answering this qu‘ this beso? One 2) ives investigating the origins adopea histori Pengo the importance of inguls- Flags 2nd x, ea perspective that is dis a reproach sro make a dealed descrip : f pnaOf the smiarites or differences, regardless on si antecedent, and proceed fom sees0 everalize abou the structure and fanction of human eee two main vays of approaching ths latter task, We might look for the structural features that all ‘or most languages have in common; or we might focus four attention on the features that differentiate them. Inthe former case, we are searching for language uni- rersals in the latter case, we are involving ourselves in language npology In principle, the two approaches are complemencary, but sometimes they are associated swith differen theoretical conceptions of the nature of linguistic enquiry SIMILARITY OR DIFFERENCE? Since theend ofthe 18th century, the chief concern has been to explain the nature of linguistic diversicy. This was the focus of comparative philology and dialectol- ‘ogy, and it led to early attempts to set up genetic and structural typologies oflanguages ($50). The emphasis ‘carried through into the 20th century when the new science of linguistics continually stressed the variety of Janguages in the world, partly in reaction against the iaions of 1h-centry prescrip, where one language, Latin, had been commonly te svadartofccelene(S), ps ince the 1950s, the focus on diversity has been telaced by esearch paradigm, stemming fom the Toes. te American linguist Noam Chomsky HSE, in which the nature of linguistic universae lds a central place. Chomsky’s generative thy HBUage Proposes a sin ha _ ; ile set of rules from which all the grammatical semtencesinalanguage can bederh {P.97)-Inorderto define these rules in an accurate cet ere vay, grammar has to rely on certain soy fenPancpls = absraceconseaints hat goer he pias nd cg se ‘operates. In thi BG sige a ieee pet aa — proper- Fologially necessary and thus innave Important, it is leepensour underst, beeen 1g. TYPOLOGY 4 essential first step in the task of understanding human tellecrual capacity: : Jv Chomsky’s view, therefore, the aim of linguistics is to go beyond the study of individual languages, to decermine what the universal properties of language ste and to establish a ‘universal grammar’ that would fccount for the range of linguistic variation thar is humanly possible. The question issimply: Whatare the limits on human language variability? Languages do hot make use of all possible sounds, sound sequences, be word orders. Can we work out the reasons? It might be possible to draw a line between the patterns that are casential features of language, and those that no lan- guage ever makes use of (p. 97). Or perhaps there is a ‘continuum between these extremes, with some features being found in most (but not all) languages, and some being found in very few. Questions of this kind consti- tute the current focus of many linguists’ attention. ‘THE PORT-ROYAL GRAMMAR Contemporary ideas about the ‘nature of linguistic universals have several antecedents in the work of 17th-century thinkers. The Grammaire générale etraisonnée (1660) is ‘widely recognized as the most | influential treatise ofthis period. ttis often referred to.as ‘the Port Royal grammar’, because it was written by’ scholars who belonged to the community of intellectuals and ND UNIVERSALS CONTENANT = Les fandemens de Partde parlers ex Pe ea EXPRESS) ING. cor me Seuclon nate ima toh 2a of compara and the stands son(h eat is shared by may including Bete thai, Swahili, Th © Zapotec, ms, However, the op overran of comparison iseres. fist, salsocommenns ee protean big’), and this way of, eileen Burmese Co ae Samet at "GRAMMAR GENERALE JET RAISONNEL tegiousetiashedtetwcan Zl raf de ce qui of command {627 and 1650inPor-Royal, eg ernie Although published anony- ‘ously the authorship of the Grammarhasbeen ascribed to ‘laude Lancelot (1615-95) and Antoine Arnauld (1612-94). fs Subtitle, referring to ‘that. . Whichis common toalllan- j ‘guages, and their I & diferences. provides eat ‘ summary ofthe current preoe- Sybation with universals an! A PARIS, logy. However, the ‘eombolnsealoaviis | Che Pex na Tecercmaemmice | Cunaareaa sa Rael ‘tyandmorewntnis a arbitrary properties. MDG LX,oR DEPTH? H va typological and universal erween (yPolOB ise naion Pee cud is doubtless uleimately mah 2 a both have considerable insights I ia me roaches, as currently practised, 7 wo APP 8 the procedures. Typologiss typically weer agesas part of their enquiry, wide oe izations that deal with che sie co me jcrure, such as wor ied © ie pcs of stich a8 word Bre ies anc pes of sound In contrast et WON Cee breadth of such studies, universal- wi se eh aude of single languages, espe- Iv — English, in particul; elon Se amar — English, in particular is sind ae “fF exemplification ~ and tend to Sennen angi Spout the more absteact, under gee jes of anguage prov’ on single languages might at first scem Ts fo grein for universal, chen surely r ady many languages? Chomsky argues, cane. ob 0 see har there sno paradox, Because English isa once i ms herefore incorporate uni ff mero nae aswell as chose individual SPesmake it specifically ‘English. One way of ino aout these propertics, therefore, is the ‘Folesudy ofsingle languages. The more languages edu inco our enquiry, the moredifficul it can [eat osee the cena feacures behind the welter of andl differences. (athe other hand, ir can be argued that the detailed uhofsngle languages is inevitably going to produce ‘sored picture. There are features of English, for ape ha ae notcommonly met with in other lan- tug suchas the use ofonly one inflectional ending Se ptesent sense (third-person, asin she runs), or the ‘benceofasecond-person singular / plural distinction (Frac rout). Without a typological perspec- ‘seamesyitisnot possible co anticipate the extent Dowich ou sense of priorities will be upset. If lan- 2p were relatively homogeneous entities, like sam= tia ion ore, this would not be a problem. But, ‘slog argue, languages are unpredictably irregu- fi2didosyncavc, Under these circumstances, 2 Seay tran depeh, indesirable RELATIVE ee OAS OL UIE a: inagltlitidel isto beable vo make succinct and full Statements that hold, without exception, Salem rate, very few such statements thiwfeg HeStcincc ones often seem to state the gin languages have vowels: and the intet- ledijagia £10 require considerable techni- A te ea the time, in fact, i is clear AS regu or ePtionless) universals donot elnce att lingisslook instead for trends inate given gen aBe8 ~ ‘elative! universals ~ 3 tts expression. For example, guages whose word order has been THREE TYPES OF UNIVERSaLs, Substan is needed in order to anal retract faneeed| to analyse a language, s Shout {Buon ist-person,antonyms aetna eu languages ave nounsand vowlsrine ore ings pepertion, or hen a thee areserlspranglinstonent vewetandconnarena greets Colconsiderationsmustakobebaramnmar nee Stagesnaveworde thesnweriovennfeatl Sunde ple and the range of Formal Formal universalsare ast of abstract conditions hat ern thewayinuhina language snisan seas ‘the factors that have to bevwritten nto agar itis to account successfully forthe way sentences work In language. For example, because alanguiges make state: iments andl ask related questions uch a The cariready Isthecarready?), somemeanshasto be found to snom the relationship between sch pis, Mostorammars drive question structures from statementstructres by some kind of transformation inthe above example, ‘Move the verb tothe beginning ofthe sentence itis aimed that such transformations are qacessary in order tocarry outthe analysisof these (end other kinds of struc ‘tures, as one version of Chomskyan theor does then they would be proposed as formal universas. Other cases include the kinds of ules sed ina grams othedite tent levels recognized by a theory (613. Impictional tat sabayine theo then (Rerintenonbengtotnacancaretone the ne te pope of bg fa at aac ene roped nates te Be ee espn Greenberg 31] a> lows Unies 7 nove mara ives agen demnancore VSO freer ena te ec att te subject or object noun agrees Universal 3. eltes te bie fv ates ‘with the verb in gender. then ‘with the noun in gender F sender categories in he Universal 43 falanguage #5 3 etn eae gender categories te PION nal statements mes HOW any. Uwcuaces? Wie mBOLbiein rin 5 human ‘mower toting out iver orthesgy mgood, ‘of bredcting what lang coat nicarateae mackie, sacniescreree cane, Seer eed saree eure, sonia oom ae oe seule es lat 0 umber of languages within each famiyrastobecare: {uly considered. would nat berighttoselec an abivay five languages remeath fami bearing inn that Indo Paci for era bas ‘over 700 languages whereas ‘Draviion has ony about2s (52), The languages of New Guineacught satay Speaking to constitute aout 20% of any sample Inpractce, sureshaveto beatified ith seathe canget Asfew ofthe Neo {Guin languages hae bee”k ic structure (s13), Within 297 irs that occult, sible co count the different oe that phere ae posible co is eo May ammat 8 ound system, and cae res irae en suid in this was a vig ering pacers ave merged: It has even been possible ro propose statistical properties chat are Peommon co all languages: these are sometimes refersed | oas statistical Jawsor‘ universal. fe gular ase independent of speaker 0° voter oraubject mace While ina sense we ae free 60 By wbacrer we want in practice our linguistic Prhmiour conforms closely co statistical expectations sel of linguist of the letters 0! frequency © different sty ‘sten, 1969, P- wetting, ( average rank ord gories of as (¢). Column Morse (1791-18) His frequency ordering type found ina | rders foun vies of American Engl 21): (a) press (¢) scientific writings cr, based on a dest printers ext totalling ove (0) gives € 72) in compl repo! the alphaber. Here is a selection of ¢ in one comparative study of ish (after A. Zetter- ring, (b) religious (d) general fiction. The ion of 15 cate- ‘+a million words, is given he order used by Samuel ling the Morse Code. was based on the q office (sce column (g))- juantities of Mian oy wi condense hac we wie 2 98 Engh, ic is alos lays going to be followed by Gaps 9 fae hot aiways becuse Ig adobe op FFE ee ~—«(12,000 tons. Lexus buteqlyconfdent)y seers er eet st 9,000 Bch eos 2 e 2 a a 2,000 afconsnans and jut under 40% of vowels, About 8» eis eee or Feige wees pac wil fig ee nat eae ore havethestructuie ofconsonant + vowel s consonant,as = 5 ee gs 8000 Peco emwiiniele hh oh i 4 so Beene rdsinthelan- hh h A e400 we scape (t oferhinge We rot ' ee 6.200) _ lieemaiable ingaboursuchfactsisthar, while © 2 5 | oy oe ‘engaged in communication, we do not con- fp ‘ a v ‘ oon fees Caspar ‘our language to ensure that these sté oe - am é 2 3000 tistical properties obtain. It would be impossibl fae dees tae " 300 seers ibe co oe eee ek ey P2300 ae ci SF part, we . 2,500. ae eee ig regularities in any large wy ey zo oo iri ef i re spec of wing The suly of tse g lucene at 4 ee etn bobo ow bk OB 11700 eee ey 1,600 ee UENCY ae t ‘eoo ne of the simplest demonstrat x ae x oe eettcsinplardemonsiaon oscil mgu- § ek ee ; a a i Rank : : “ Fa Wetten wets cme este 2 ky oa ihe _ Pin fienci German cen. Se Pee os oo 5 les i in . ees sich . yes Met > : 2: 8 & = Meet PEE FE fo ute) ton was ae eee ee ist Re 7 ae: ¢ that i Qui it = ee om OE » sh es = 2. article se - as. P-Pronouny Sh is Dor his have or MONos¥U POLYSYLLANeS The mostregam rmonosplabe tase fo Gearlyseennasspe telephorecoweagy, —&° Therewerefennang CO ormoresilabicnina 3 ‘most frequenyears words. (AfterN.R Fret, = 31,1530) ts li ll |S aw | fe | all \E 00 | & / fg 0p) ez / Numbers | = an se | Kiniew | sie LexicaL Tor TWA “The 20 most freqved™, occurring words of newspaper writ English, French, nde fre shown (after? MM jewet al, 1968). Fore eon the ast columns ison Frequent worsi" Tondon-Lund cosich en conversation 04" The importance speech writing dist evident: note the Sti yes and welts English, and the oc of DDR (‘German Republic) in theLAWS i ions of the existence of ~ fine demonstrat = fit fpulaiies in language was cartied pa 2 an philologist George Kingsley ZipF Fie pest known law’ proposes a constant 50) en the rank ofa word ina frequency penne with which ic is used in a text. If athe validity of the law, you have to veh One ii yo at allowing operations: aie tee instance (‘okens) of diferent words Con vest the 364, 5251, tabled, et np) nae escending rank order of frequency, Pac mach rank a number ~ (1) the 364, (2) i B13) of 166, Be rank numb (by the frequency (9, ithe esuleis approximately constant (C). 1 (ops seresale te ist below gives the 35th, 45th, 55th, ‘Rie and 75th most-frequently occurring words in ee aregory of the London—Lund corpus of spoken eversation (conversations between equals/disparates, Sts, 175,000 words). The values come out at sround 30,000 each time. 7 nd B wy we 4% see 674 55. which 563 65 get 469 out 422 Inother words, the relationship is inversely propor- somal and ie was thought to obtain regardless of sub- jax mater, author, or any other linguistic variable. Howes, it was subsequently shown that the relation- LENGTH / FREQUENCY RELATIONSHIP Terdationship of syllable length and frequency of occur ‘we was chartered in a study of nearly 11 million German wers[ofterE W. Kaeding, 1898). Naser abies Numberofword Percentage ord occurrences of whole 7 2 5,426,326 ‘376 : 3,156,448 28.94 ‘ vatoa9a 1293 5 646,971 593 5 167,738 12 H 54436 050 f 16,993 5 5.038 ” 4,225 y ‘461 2 5 022 a 5 het B 8 2 Se i CAL'STRUGTURE OF Laney TR ANGUAGE ship does not obtain 5.920 times (f= 5,920), and summarized a5 fr jueng iamitied s fr = Ch a iwc at curve has been found in roy engages cuca ina French word-frequency book the 16h ne sed Sr yea ek (51,600), and the 1,000th, 31 times 1,000). OTHER RELATIONSHIPS pt also showed that there is an inverse rl between the length of a word and ie fey English, for example, the majority of the commonly used words are monosyllables. The seme relationship ‘obtains even in a language like German, which has & marked ‘polysyllabic’ vocabulary. This effect seems to account for our tendency to abbreviate words when their frequency of use rises, e.g. che routine reduction of microphone to mikey radio broadcasters. I would also seem to be an efficient communicative principleto have the popular words short and the rare words long, Factors such as efficiency and ease of communica- tion appealed strongly to Zipf, who argued fora princi- pile of ‘least effort’ co explain che apparent equilibrium berween diversity and uniformity in our use of sounds and words. The simpler the sound and the shorter the sword, the more often will human beings want co useit There ate, however, soe dle fing th ‘explanation (e.g. how to quantify the ‘effort involve imarculaing sounds, andthe exceptions the law referred to above), and today a more conventional explanation in terms of probability theory is accepted. TAKE A TEXT, ANY TEXT. Takea text anyan- ‘guage, and count the ‘words, Order the words in terms of decreasing fre- ‘quency. According to.one Statistical prediction, the semples, however, consider- ablevariation from these ‘sso, the ype of text corpuswilaffectthe esis: nthe Lancaster Jo! Bergen corpus fOr fist 15 wordsal acount 080/636 ON for25%ofthetert. The example tie 9 first 100 words will account for 60%; and the first 1,000 for 85%, The frst 4.000 will ‘account for 97.5%. Inshore words (after. Johansson BK. Hofland, 1989, p-415) DICTIONARIES eer rasan creme ae fue sf meanings {m) is have oe saare often 6. K.Zipf (1902-50) SYLLABLES este edog sore spe rei trarstbek Mane Sundar between he lable Youshoue rath {2sjlabesmakeup2sot theseee iv teh. fe, ‘ne Gee apse or ‘eanserpion atthe speech lus ony Pier trtsylabesSuttoacoune {or30%ofteapeeth you vilineed recognize aver ‘2o0eylabiesype Bs tioneroates po Spoken sates ur up ‘on average every 14 syllables (after Beney 1923)_— 16° GRAMMAR eS... tC role played by gram- isdifedcwaperee cen es by using mar in the SITUCTUTe ane or ‘sl n’. But por such 25 framework of ‘skeleton, O° am voor can express satisfactorily d no physical metaphor ee ab aece tnulifarous kinds of formal pavtening and abstiac ai donshp thacare brought Co lghtina grammatical aa eps can sully be distinguished in the study of gaminar. The fis step isto identify units in che sereamof pec (or writing, orsigning) ~ units such as ‘word and sentence’ The second step isto analyse the pavers into which these units fll, and the relation- ships of meaning that these patterns convey. Depend- ing upon which units we recognize at the beginning of the study so the definition of grammar alters. Most approaches begin by recognizing the ‘sentence’, and ‘grammar is thus most widely defined as ‘the study of Sentence structure’, A grammar of a language, from this point of view, isan account of the language’ possi- Sere organized according to certain ‘general principles. For example, in the opening page: of the most influential grammatical Rete of ex times, the American linguist Noam Chomsh UE retettharsgrmincist device for producing the sentences of the language under analysis (1957, p11), to which is added the rider that the sentences produced must be grammatical ones sghubleto the native speaker - ithin this general perspective there is room fe mae pee Positions, In particular, there are wo Ming Nt apPlictions of the term “grammar, general one. The spe SIX TYPES OF GRAMMAR edagogleal grammar _Abook cifically designed Foteusingeforegnianguage, or fr developing an IMaranessel the mather tongue, Such ‘teaching gram mar ate widely used in schools so much sothat many peoplehovecnlyone meaning forthe term ‘grammar'a ‘rammar book Prescriptive grammar A manual that focuses on constructions where usage is divided, and lays down rules {governing the socially correct use of language (§1). These ‘grammars were a formative influence on language atti- tudes in Europe and America during the 18th and 19th «centuries. Their influence lives on in the handbooks of Usage widely found today, such as A Dictionary of ‘Modern English Usage (1826) by Henry Watson Fowler (1858-1933). Reference grammar A grammatical desc Imatical description that ‘ties to be as comprehensive as possible, so that it can act 4382 reference book for those interested in establishing, European gammeranseeoo eck ped handbooks of type inte ar20h century haber roars fe we shai wren ey Werest in the stud f Ne history of linguistic *2 Symbols in mega icalanaiyss aga seein thatitisofdoua ‘aticalty Foren isnodoubt teat ungrammatiain "Who and why in *That book ook iy ut the sts ing sentence Bothareinuse yrs something odin Don't forget ous Books This is the ca ofthe (One of the main ain uistic analysis toi ‘the principles enables decide the granmac sentence, ‘SO MUCH GRAWIME A LANGUAGE Probably the rasta mar produced: uage:A Compre Grantee Language (1985) by Randolph Quits Greenbaum Geof ‘and Jan Svertvik.Te3” (of detail ints 4.77908 comes as asurprst'o™ people who, vests traditional focusongt as a matterof vo have been broushtve™ think of Engliest a guage lacking ng But this book stander shouldersof even™ detailed trestren of the language:fo ‘end the alone Tanted a 2003085 (P. Christophersoneee s CREATING mars taught people to ‘parse’, or ana- nce, BY making ais of divisions wishin anne be cow, for example, would be divide t i met ibe man), and a ‘predicate’ (saw the ine pe predicate would then be divided into its er’ cath To Tre object’ (she cow). Other divisions would (sa) 27 until all the features of the sentence had ot be ma ’d, It is an approach co language that 2 ie call wth distaste. Grammar, for them, .d frustrating subject. Why should ARSE ian Pe iio cy peo rca 0 fy boring 28 -al reasons. All too often, in the tradi- insufficient reasons were given for ona gamma insu ee amarticular sentence analysis. As a conse aking 2 Pvommon to find children learning ana- que etnitions off by heart, without any real tee anding of what was going on. In particular, they had to master the cumbersome, Latin-based tganmatial terminology a8 an end in itself (terms eh at accusative, ‘complement’, apposition’), and tony ito examples oflanguage that were cither arti Gily constructed, or taken from abstruse literature, Ie ‘was all at a considerable remove from the child’s real Janguage world, as found in conversation or the media. Linfearempt was made co demonstrate the practical usfulnes of grammatical analysis in che childs daily life, whether in school or outside. And there was no interest shown in relating this analysis to the broader principles of grammatical pacterning in the language as, awhole Ie is not surprising, then, thar most people ‘who were taught parsing in school ended up unable ro see the point of the exercise, and left remembering gammar only asa dead, irrelevant subject. ‘The reality is quite the opposite. The techniques of grammatical analysis can be used to demonstrate the tnormous creative power of language — how, from a Fite ec of grammatical patterns, even a young child can express an infinite et of sentences. They can help usall to identify the fascinating ‘edges’ of language, where grammaticality shades into ungrammacicality, and where we find the many kinds of humorous and ‘lamatic effets, both in literature and in everyday lan- ‘Sage (p. 72). As we discover more about the way We ‘ich use grammar as part of our daily linguistic sur- ‘al, we inevitably sharpen our individual sense of 20% and thus promote our abilities to handle more sanelex constructions, both in speaking/listeningand ane! rting, ‘We become more likely to spot Tints ad lose constructions, and to do some- ad gt. Moreover, che principles of grammati- any [ease general ones, applicable to che study of Leyatts8s So that we find ourselves developing & neue Of thesimilarties and differences becween ar atl many kinds of specialized problems luminated through the study of grammar ~ culties facing the language-handl guage learner, or the translator 16» GRAMMAR Grammar need not be alive, relevant, fet be dy une, sane: it an be itdepends only on how ie puree ay bes | cram the following way. Ahypothetca prc ana omerin | oa nares aaron beat Te hn olem hema y pentane eres, woyooeearrenanstentoey cag [Apage from Maureen Vidler' Find a Story (1978) The ape sat roncontaly sotharareach pis tured ove, 2 en sentence and pcre reils On the next page fo Meese hep strip reads Meg hess goy bonnet andthe ottom one‘aniong,shorpteth Thereare ony 12p9ge1 orth book ut there are ver 20,000 posible grammatical oeGinotns na simiar approach (Rolla St), the cs okey aserterceby lings sees os on which wars rane ace prnted. Such proaches ean entetaiing nave pengvounsclarasaertonosertene frrctre Grammar can at mes, bef, POODLES WEARING JEANS? isnot difeut to thinkup dramaticor entertaining Sentences that would moti vateachldto cary out ‘rammatial anal because ol ther ambiguity orstysticetiect Here are Some nice cases of smbigu- "taken rom. Mitra, ‘Grammar of Modern English (1962, all of which an be explained throughe single principle The gir as followed bye smal poate wearing jeans Next came. mother mitha very small baby who was pushing a pram. ‘aivays buy my newspapers at theshopnext to the police Station in whieh cards maga. Zines and fancy goods are splayed. Acailorwatdancing with ‘wooden leg Ineach case, the construc: tion at the endof the sen: tence has been separated ‘rom the noun towhichit belongs. fone wished to void the unintentionally humorous effets, tne sentences would need to be reformulated with tis Construction immediately following. or ‘postmodify- ing’ the noun (The i wearing jeans...pART IT rue STRUCT! RE OF LANGUAGE Be LEMS e Orr re ed into mosphere 0 es ori Jot all words can be analy om sie MATICAL NOTIONS | Noval wer example, ti dike ow 2 am ast and verbs: feeris the plural 55 Ae nian eh cl “aie teens studied by grant bur ic is not obvi Ww oe eons pave on cided ic Ak DUT word, analogous 10 the -s ending ae 2d mova ane In & Turkish word evinden ‘from hisee ino spol = fore “Uhere is the opposite problem, as can be seen a ae from the related forms: aE listo ee evi ee: hous Fra bnchofgammarstudiesthestrucureofwords. aden fromthe house ae be soglist all the words except the last can es ore aah oF which has some kind of independent meaning. aunbappines hones walking we sm -happi--nes Yeshas no intemal grammatical structure. We could analyse its constituent sounds, jj, /e/, /s/, but none of these has 2 meaning in isolation. By contrast, horse, talk, and happy plainly have a meaning, as do the ee negative meanings -nes expresses a state or quality; -s ee ants cen eas ot duration, The smallest meaningful clements into which words can be analysed are known as morphemes, ‘and the way morphemes operate in language provides the subject marcer of morphology. Itis an easy matter to analyse the above words into ‘morphemes, because a clear sequence of elements is involved, Even an unlikely word such as antidicertab- lishmentarianim would also be easy to analyse, for the same reason. In many languages (the so-called ‘ageluti- nating’ languages (p. 295)), itis quite normal to have long sequences of morphemes occur within a word, and these would be analysed in the same way. For ample, in Eskimo the word angyaghllangyugrug has aning he wants to acquire a big boat Speakers ef English find such words very complex ats sigh burthingsbecome much clearer when we analyse then, into their constituent morphemes: De “boar” oe nals expressing augmenttive meaning mE mage an alfix expressing desire ‘anaffix expressing third person. singular, nih bas relatively Few word structures of Tolan a oesing th id Latin, wides ‘G8 atiation. Many Afigy iF or Bilin, have verbs ‘over 10,000 vatiant forme this type, such as ‘morpho. such as which can appear in well ems thar the-fending marks ‘his her / h oh ending marks from’ — in which case the ost tion of the two ought to produce evden. But the form foun in Turkish has an extra m, which does noc seem to belong anywhere, Its use is aucomatic in this a (inmuch the same way asan extra rturns up in che pl fe ral of childin English ~ child-r-en). Effects of this kin complicate morphological analysis = and add to its fascination. Explanations can sometimes be found in other domains: ie might be possible to explain the min evindenon phonetic grounds (perhaps anticipating the following nasal sound), and the r in children is cer- tainly a fossil of an older period of usage (Old Engi childru). To those with a linguistic bent, there is noth- ing more intriguing than the scarch for regularities in a mass of apparently irregular morphological data. Another complication is that morphemes sometimes have several phonetic forms, depending on the context in which chey occur. In English, for example, the past- fense morpheme (written as -ed), is pronounced in three different ways, depending on the nature of the sounds that precede it, Ifthe preceding sound is /t/ or /MI, the ending is pronounced /id/, as in spotted: if the Preceding sound is a voiceless consonant (p. 128), the ending is pronounced /t/, as in walked, and if the Preceding sound isa voiced consonant or a vowel, the ending is pronounced /dl, asin rolled. Variant forms of amorphemeare known as allomorphs, ally recognized within morphology ology studies the way in Hi pos lect’) in order to expres vent tense. In older grammar rectus branch of the subject was refereed none cl boys for example, are ewo forms oF am “ween them, singular vs plu isa macer of gtammarand thus the bustoca of nea otDholgy Devivational. morphology ver, studies Principles governing the con. hew words, without Teference tothe spe Ices oreab0 pos affix which isinserted stem the nearest ism Engton emp fons suchas jng-lutely afb Tagua info mal morphological PO" ine Intagal form urnone we 2 infined within thei, ‘tot toprosse wach mean pened NEW WorDso,. OLD PSour There ate four, cesses of wo English forma placed eto as workegon Placed efter the bee word, €.g. kindness tte change of form, eg te” ‘carpet (noun) become aoe cee Pe eg ecto feet a tual woritanianes ae Saeed Senda ee cniysigniyancens enone See cata amen onan ee gents, flu, telly, ae joo rae ie oan eae radio. Neen ae Sabapebonapnann imwhich the dferntlete Se alee TB ec nesne ints Soerep oa Peete twerttocpe* orc ‘/ABSO-BLOOMING LuTELY = phemescan bea Intorre’ and vou Free morphemes ono separate words 63 7 Bound morphemescav, ‘ccuron theirown. 29 2 “tion. The main last bound morphemesett at prefies and suf ca loot tin rat ion 8 for exam Co colarcheboundary beoseen morphol asi Meome languages ~ ‘isolating’ lan- 7 2 arma (p. 299) they ae plainly 4 Veh lede or no internal structure, In etic’ languages, such as Eskimo ~ highly complex forms, equivalent ike units ate es ius? noes. The concept of ‘word’ thus ranges oe ge sounds as Eieliite minal fu Chelshe definitly did not become i esern Desert language of Australia oe ually the easiest unit to identify, in the Wor ngage In moscwetingsystems, they are che i have spaces on ether side. (A few systems ene ders (8. Amari), and some do not ue Me worsatall 4, Sanskrit) Because aliterate Tae poss its members fo these units from early ‘Fidhood,weall know whereto put the spaces—apart inna mambo of problems, many cdo wih Tamron, Should we write washing machine or wet be washing-machine? Well informed or “vl informed? No oneor no-ane? Tris more difficult to decide what words arc in the steam of speech, especially in a language that has oer been written down. But chereare problems, even in languages like English or French. Cerainly, ic is posibieto rada sentence aloud slowly, so thac we can hea’ thespaces between the words; but this is an arti- geal extese. In natural speech, pauses do noc occur Semeen each word, a can be seen from any acoustic words! Teett of the way people clk. Even in very hesitan jamal a eal Deen (p.95) Soif there are mo aude see oy new what the words at? Linguine hve pone soe: deal of time trying to devi Seloimeyingtod vise sasfactory itera none FIVE TESTS OF WORD IDENT! mers IFICATION Say a sentence outloud, and atk someone to "epeatit, ever thiscteonisnotper fectetherinthelgheer, Sich orméaabsblocming Verysoniywftnpnuss Thepowsevilterdtorain eh bewamwords andnot The aneenionist within words, For example, peor Nel the/ thre pis irne ‘heels (1887-1849) thought of ‘words minimal free forms'—thats, the smallest 10] market Butthe cite Fionisnot foo)proot, for | some people will break up words containing more than wast apegh than resisble cemoreth29 meaningfully stand on their silable, eg. mariket. Gyn Thsdetintion does tndivisbtity Fandethe majority of Sey asentence outloud, and wor but eannot cope ask someone to ‘add extra Words toit. The extraitems willbe added between the wordsand not withinthem, For example, the pig went to ‘with severalitems which are ‘veated as wordsin writing, ‘but which never stand on ‘their own innatural speech, suchas Englsh the and of, or ‘market mightbecomethe Frenchje("}and de) big pig once wentstraight © phonetic boundaries themarket,butwewould frees : not have such forms as p- lee tell from thesoundot big gormartheket How ord whereit begins or ‘There arene werdspacesin ‘he sthcentury so Geek Codex Snaiticus Word spaces ‘were creation ofthe Romans, ‘and became widespread only Inthemtidale ges Kenicectinons | Sticectinona a renee sae =e ee cae Sie siete pe tere penn eran bala oe eee ee a cme eo ae alee ease ee mee ae and ee WORD CLASSES Since the easly days of grammatical study, words have been grouped into word clases, traditionally labelled the pars of speech’. In most grammars, cight such clases were recognized, illustrated here from English: ‘nouns bay, machine, beauty ‘pronouns she, it, who adjectives Aappy. shree, bos vs go, frighten, be ee 1n, under, with ictions and, because, atlerbs ———appily aes Imerjections gosh, alas, coo Insome asifications, partic sits classifications, participles (looking, taken) and. “elahweepuaapines ofc a gtoaches dasty words too, bur the use ‘recat ford cas rather than ‘pare of spect ‘lutea at it emphasis. Modern linguists are Sind gets the nosional defnicons found in adi some mat = such as a noun being the ‘name of - The vagueness of these definitions has often been critici is beauty a ‘thing’? is not the adjective redalso a ‘name’ of a colour? in place of defi- nitions based on meaning, there is now a focus on the seructural features chat signal the way in which groups ‘of words behave ina language. In English, for example, the definite or indefinite article is one criterion that can bie used to signal the presence ofa following noun (the car); similarly, in Romanian, the article (ud) signals the presence ofa preceding noun (avionud ‘the plane). "Above all, the modern aim isco establish word classes thar are coherent: all the words within a class should behave in che same way. For instance, jump, walk, and ‘cook form a coherent clas, because all the grammatical “operations that apply to one ofthese words apply the thers also: they alltakea third personsingular form in the present tense (he jumps walks/coks), they all hay apart tense ending in -ed (jumped! walked cooked), 2 so on, Many other words display the same (or losely similar) behaviour, and this would lead 19 tablish the important class of verbs in English, Sins ilar reasoning would lead co an analogous cass BN fee up in other Languages, and timarcly 10 hypothesis that this clas is requi aillanguages (asa‘substancive univers, S14) red for the analysis of CLASSIFYING NOUNS oad ed eo Le oe roe ree ed = eel oe coe earee ed cen sonst aoe Kors ees sn tanguages. In: asses forlhuman beings and generic werds nec and mata frraly totng tothe numa stpart tl erent, But if we do 0° we have 10 Jer some ‘example, for ues house is: ‘the only ish noun Sie she oe {si becomes Joi when the plural ihe Ae a deal in common. ee i ties in a lan homogeneous 25 the the- if words that behave Gaalence ord classes Novos 1 ino each one 3 fort: aa con in pra which it has: Because s asses are chus not lies. Each class has a core o! et on 2 grammatical point of view. Buc a¢ if ge ofa cas are dhe mre irregular words, some oF ich may behave like words from other clases Some adjectives have a function similar to nouns (eg: the rich, some nouns behave similarly to adjectives (eg, nileayisused adjectivally before sation Frye movement from a central core of stable gram- matical behaviour to a more irregular periphery has been called gradience. Adjectives display this phe- nomenon very clearly, Five main criteria arc usually tused to identify the central class of English adjectives: nguage, word (A) they occurafier forms of fo be, e.g. be sack (@) they occurafier articles and before nouns, eg. the bigcar, (©) they occur after very e.g. very nice (D) they occurin the comparative or superlative “ecg eaer ee they occur before-fyto form adverbs, eg. quickly ‘Wecan now use these criteria to test how much like an adjective a word is. In che matrix below, candidate words are listed on the left, and the five criteria are along thetop. Ifaword meets criterion, itis given a+; 42d, for example, is clearly an adjective (het sad, the sad ee ser sar sas, ea Ifa word fails the ‘criterion, itis given a— (asin the case of want, which is Aathng ike an ajc: “hes wan, “Whe on god “very want, “wanter wanes, “wanth). . placed in sequence cual, set dag 8 one moves away from the seemssare more adjectvesike eosin tet ne OF LA’ warner yas eanr ors 1s ROUND? peeieres rotate rouPecas eiceseaee Societe Batrpedite ensc teeters sett Shin the grammatical context Adjective Mary boua! Preposition ‘The car went round the corner. verb The yacht willround the buoy soon, Adverb ‘Wewalked round to the shop Noun Isyour round. lthave a whiskey. TH ta round table. ADUSTBIN CLASS? Several ofthe traditional parts of speech lacked the coherence required ot a well-defined word las notably, the adverb, Some have likened this lass ‘toa dustbin, into which ‘remmarians would place any word whose grammati- ‘alstatuswas unclear, Certainly the following words have very little structurally in common, yet allhave been labelled ‘adverb’ in traditional ‘grammars: tomorrow very however pot quickly when just the The, an adver? in sch contextsas The more merrier a i NGUAGE NOUN TENSES? ean ee rN tea a aia omer mnie eerie Senne natecin thew cp se rater shouts oongneee Bea enecnineh cont ee tor bevseé on nouns “a Inkatates! am happy. jnkegatsopon’ —Iwasonce happy Inos! my father Inosp2n! my dead father | inéimant my canoe intimanpon’ my former canoe (los, stolen) (after. F Hockett, 1958, p. 238) FIVE MOODS | fear reieten oneal cee Be ean aie St ees eee A eat worn eee eons are ioe pe eon a ie maine cain pee een oe fe A rel espace ‘outhe is not) (after C.F Hockett, 1958, p. 237.) DUAL AND TRIAL NUMBER. | Four numbess are found in the language spoken on ‘Aneltyum Island (Melanesia): singular, dual, tra, plural ‘The forms are shown for 1st and 2nd person: fiv/isa pal nasal: isa palatal affricate or stop; excl/incl.= | exclusive/indusive of speaker: foro) {Stal we Gre) ima Wetec) Cocca | Lege iens joka Wwettre inh Iajamtaj/ we three (excl) Las fad tro Rater ecto mein A FOURTH PERSON A fourth-person contrast is mad A n contrasts made in the Algonquian languages, referring to non-identical animate third pero™ inaparticular content. In cree, if we speak of man, atd then Gecondariy) of another man, the formsare diet "apex! e/'naspewal. This fourth person form sus teferred to as the ‘obviative’ ran (after L. Bloomfield, 1933, p. 257.) FIFTEEN Cases Nominative wubjec, ir o genitive (of), accusative (objec. inessve in) eative (out o), ative (nt), deste" tramge tam allatve to) esive (es) parte ea mrdcomma mre nanso)-abessve (without), struct pr oh case sso sears fearsome to those Bo eben the si-term system of Latin, But the es familia sSies ate Feely quite hike prepositions except that Fees are atached to the end of the noun as suifbeS English, 8iNg separate words placed before, asi" | Ce (by)