STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE

• Language a well-developed, syntactical verbal system for representing

the world.
• Language -----A form of communication using sounds and symbols
combined according to specified rules.
• Language enables us to mentally manipulate symbols, thereby
expanding our thinking, and to communicate our thoughts, ideas, and
feelings.
• To produce language, we first build words using phonemes and
morphemes. Then we string words into sentences using rules of
grammar (syntax and semantics)
LANGUAGE
• Language------The communication of information through symbols
arranged according to systematic rules.
• To understand how language develops and relates to thought, we first
need to review some of the formal elements of language.
• The basic structure of language rests on grammar, the system of
rules that determine how our thoughts can be expressed.
• A language consists of symbols that convey meaning, plus rules for
combining those symbols, that can be used to generate an infinite
variety of messages.
Building blocks of language
Builduing blocks of language
3 major components of language.
• Grammar deals with three major components of language:
• Phonology,
• syntax
• semantics.
• 1) Phonology is the study of phonemes, the smallest basic units of
speech that affect meaning, and of the way we use those sounds to
form words and produce meaning.
• For instance, the a sound in fat and the a sound in fate represent two
different phonemes in English (Hardison, 2006).
PHONEMES
• The smallest units of sound in a spoken language—such as b or s in
English—are known as phonemes.
• Three phonemes together form the sound of the word cat: c(which sounds
like k), a, and t.
• Combinations of letters that form particular sounds are also phonemes,
such as the th in the and the ch in child.
• The same phoneme may be represented by different letters in different
words; this occurs with the a in stay and the ei in sleigh.
• And the same letter can serve as different phonemes.
• The letter a, for example, is sounded as four different phonemes in day,
cap, watch, and law.
phonemes
• The symbols we call words are built out of phonemes (FOEneems:
basic speech sounds).
• The smallest units of sound in any language are called phonemes,
and the study of how sounds are put together to form words is
called phonology.
• The word tip has three phonemes—t, i, and p.
PHONEMES
• Phonemes are the basic units of sound in a language.
• The a in the word caris a very different phoneme from the a in the
word day, even though it is the same letter of the alphabet.
• The difference is in how we say the sound of the a in each word.
• Phonemes are more than just the different ways in which we
pronounce single letters, too.
PHONEMES
• Th, sh,and au are also phonemes.
• Phonemes for different languages are also different, and one of the
biggest problems for people who are trying to learn another language
is the inability to both hear and pronounce the phonemes of that
other language.
• Although infants are born with the ability to recognize all phonemes
(Werker & Lalonde, 1988), after about 9 months, that ability has
deteriorated, and the infant recognizes only the phonemes of the
language to which the infant is exposed (Boyson-Bardies et al., 1989
PHONEMES
• At the base of the language hierarchy are phonemes,the smallest speech
units in a language that can be distinguished perceptually.
• Considering that an unabridged English dictionary contains more
than450,000 words, you might imagine that there must be a huge number
of phonemes. In fact, linguists estimate that humans are capable of
recognizing only about 100 such basic sounds.
• Moreover, no one language uses all of these phonemes.
• Different languages use different groups of about 20 to 80 phonemes.
• The English language is composed of about 40 phonemes,corresponding
roughly to the 26 letters of the alpha-
MORPHEMES
• Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language. A few single
phonemes serve as morphemes, such as the article a and the personal
pronoun .
• The ending -s gives a plural meaning to a word and is thus a morpheme in
English.
• Many words in English are single morphemes— book, word, learn, reason,
and soon. In addition to root words, morphemes may be prefixes (such as
re- in relearn) or suffixes (such as -ed to show past tense, as in learned).
• The single morpheme reason becomes a dual morpheme in reasonable.
The morpheme book (singular) becomes two morphemes in books (plural).
morphemes
• While phonemes are sounds,
• morphemes are the smallest units of language that convey meaning
(Miller, 1978).
• For example, the word tips has two morphemes. One is tip and the
other is s, which is used to communicate that the word is plural.
• The study of the meaning of words is referred to as semantics.
• Morphemes ---Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning within a
language.
• For example, the word playing consists of two morphemes, play and
ing.
MORPHEMES
• Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language.
• There are approximately 50,000 English morphemes, which include
• root words as well as prefi xes and suffi xes.
• Many words, such as fi re,guard, and friend, consist of a single
morpheme.Many others represent combinations of morphemes.
• For example, the word unfriendly consists of three morphemes: the root
word friend, the pre-fi x un, and the suffi x ly.
• Each of the morphemes contributes to the meaning of the entire word.
• Semantics is the area of language concerned with understanding the
meaning of words and word combinations. Learning about semantics
entails learning about the infinite variety of objects and actions that words
refer to.
SYNTAX
• Syntax refers to the rules that indicate how words and phrases can
be combined to form sentences.
• Every language has intricate rules that guide the order in which words
may be strung together to communicate meaning.
• English speakers have no difficulty recognizing that “TV down the
turn” is not a meaningful sequence,whereas “Turn down the TV” is.
• To understand the effect of syntax in English,consider the changes in
meaning caused by the different word orders in the following three
utterances: “John kidnapped the boy,” “John, the kidnapped boy,”
and“The boy kidnapped John” (Eberhard, Cutting, & Bock, 2005;
Robert, 2006).
SYNTAX
• Syntax is the aspect of grammar that specifies the rules for arranging
and combining words to form phrases and sentences.
• The rules of word order, or syntax,differ from one language to
another. For example, an important rule of syntax in English is that
adjectives usually come before nouns.
• So English speakers refer to the residence of the U.S. president as
“the White House.” In Spanish, in contrast, the noun usually comes
before the adjective, and Spanish speakers say “ la Casa Blanca,”or
“the House White.”
SYNTAX
• Syntax is a system of rules for combining words and phrases to form
grammatically correct sentences.
• Syntax is quite important, as just a simple mix-up can cause sentences to be
completely misunderstood.
• For example, “John kidnapped the boy” has a different meaning from “John, the
kidnapped boy,” although all four words are the same (Lasnik, 1990).
• Another example of the importance of syntax can be found in the lobby of a
Moscow hotel across from a monastery: “You are welcome to visit the cemetery
where famous composers, artists, and writers are buried daily except Thursday.”
• So if people want to watch famous composers, artists, and writers being buried,
they should not go to this monastery on Thursday.
SYNTAX
• Of course, most utterances consist of more than a single word.
• People don’t combine words randomly.
• Syntax is a system of rules that specify how words can be arranged into
sentences.
• A simple rule of syntax is that a sentence must have both a noun phrase
and a verb phrase. Thus, “The sound of cars is annoying” is a sentence.
• However, “The sound ofcars” is not a sentence because it lacks a verb
phrase.Rules of syntax underlie all language use, even though you may not
be aware of them. Thus, al-though they may not be able to verbalize the
rule,virtually all English speakers know that an article
SEMANTICS
• The third major component of language is semantics, the meanings
of words and sentences.
• Semantic rules allow us to use words to convey the subtle nuances in
meaning.
• For instance, we are able to make the distinction between “The truck
hit Laura” (which we might say if we had just seen a truck crashing
into Laura) versus“Laura was hit by a truck” (which we might say to
explain why Laura didn’t show up for a party) (Richgels, 2004;
Pietarinen, 2006).
SEMANTICS
• The study of meaning in words and language is known as semantics. It is
here that the link between words and thinking becomes most evident.
Suppose, on an intelligence test, you were asked to circle the word that
does not belong
• in this series:
• SKYSCRAPER CATHEDRAL
• TEMPLE PRAYER
• If you circled prayer, you answered as most people do.
• Now try another problem, again circling the odd item:
• CATHEDRAL PRAYER TEMPLE
• SKYSCRAPER
SEMANTICS
• Semantics refers to the meaning derived from morphemes, words, and
sentences.
• Semantics----are rules for determining the meaning of words and
sentences. Sentences, for example, can have the same semantic meaning
while having different syntax: “Johnny hit the ball” and “the ball was hit by
Johnny.”
• The same word can have different meanings depending on how it is used in
sentences:
• “I don’t mind.” “Mind your manners.” “He has lost his mind.”
• Or consider another example: “Loving to read, the young girl read three
books last week.”
• Here, the word read is pronounced two different ways and, in one case, is
the past tense.
Pragmatics
• Phonology, semantics, and syntax bring us to the point where we
have sounds,words, and sentences.
• Communication also requires adhering to social norms, such as speed
of speech, responding at appropriate intervals, making eye contact,
and using acceptable body language.
• These aspects of communication are called Pragmatics,because they
refer to the practical use of language.
PRAGMATICS
• One aspect of pragmatics is our use of body language, or nonverbal
communication.
• The way we move our hands, bodies, and faces can change the connotations of
our speech. Suppose your instructor said,“I would like to meet with you after
class.”
• If this statement was delivered with one raised eyebrow, a sneer, and arms folded
acrossthe chest, you would likely interpret it differently than you would if the
instructor saidthe sentence with a warm smile, while leaning forward with hands
on the desk.
• Some people are not aware of the body language they are using and unwittingly
send the wrong messages when they attempt to communicate.
• An employee may believe, for example, that a boss is making inappropriate
advances, because the boss is unawareof the message he or she sends by
standing close and touching the worker’s arm while talking.