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Language?: A Language Can Be Regarded As A CODE SYSTEM For Conveying A Great Variety of Information
Language?: A Language Can Be Regarded As A CODE SYSTEM For Conveying A Great Variety of Information
Language?: A Language Can Be Regarded As A CODE SYSTEM For Conveying A Great Variety of Information
Language?
A language can be regarded as a CODE SYSTEM for conveying a great variety of information.
The smallest unit in human language? Speech sound. Speech sound? A sound produced by definite movements of the speech organs [ lips, teeth, tongue, vocal cords and lungs, etc.]
If those movements are exactly repeated, the result will always be the same.
A SPEECH SOUND is different from a LETTER Letters are WRITTEN, sounds are SPOKEN Speech sounds are represented between two slashes such as
When we refer to letters, we name them (letters), but the speech sounds they represent may be different
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/@/,
but
/N/
/z/
is the speech sound that stands for the letter b in stands for d in
beer
/e/
An individual speech sound may stand for more than one letters.
The speech sound /M/ stands for the both letters n and g in wrong The speech sound /C/ stands for the three letters t, h and e in bathe
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Written letters may remind us of corresponding speech sounds n corresponds to /n/ in near The same letter corresponds to different speech sounds in different words a corresponds to /N/ in fall, but /e/ in case There may be silent letters as seen in knight
As a rule, sounds themselves are meaningless But within the structure of a language, either alone or in combination with others, sounds can carry meaning.
CERTAIN SOUNDS CAUSE CHANGES IN THE MEANING OF A WORD
Letter
Speech Sound
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The smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words, that is, a sound which is able to make change in the meaning of a word is called phoneme.
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sink /shMk/ and zinc /zhMk/ differ only in their initial sounds /s/ and /z/. ban /bzn/ and bin /bn/ differ only in their middle sounds /z/ and //. cab /kzb/ and cat
final sounds /b/ and /t/ Therefore, sounds that can make words distinctive are PHONEMES of English
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A speech sound in which the airstream from the lungs is not blocked in any way in the mouth or throat, and which is usually pronounced with vibration of the vocal cords is called VOWEL. / @/ as in arm /@m/ /@T/ as in now /n@T/ CONSONANT is the speech sound where the airstream from the lungs is either completely blocked, partially blocked or where the opening is so narrow that the air escapes with audible friction. /p/ as in pen /pen/ /tR/ as in chin /tRn/ Which group of sounds, vowels or consonants, contribute much to the description and understanding of the words?
Vowels?
Consonants?
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Phonemes themselves generally have no meaning, [ I /@/ ] _ou_ _ _ou _e_ _ _e _o_e _o_e_ _ _ea_e Their very function is to combine together to form higher-level meaningful units, that is, words.
C_ _ld
y_ _
l_nd
m_
Could
you
lend
me
some money
please
However, between phonemes and words, we have to recognize an intermediate level of organization related to speech, which is the syllable.
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There is close connection between syllables and the way we produce speech sounds The syllable is often related to the chest pulses that usually result in producing a single vowel or group of speech sounds (that are consonants) accompanying with a vowel.
The smallest structural unit (as a building block of word) that has either a MEANING or a FUNCTION is called MORPHEME.
It is important to avoid confusing MORPHEMES with SYLLABLES. Syllables are groupings of sounds for the purpose of articulation, while morphemes are the smallest units of meaning or grammatical function.
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incorrectness in-correct-ness
Sometimes, the boundaries between morphemes in a word might not be clear. The following are adjectives formed simply by adding the (functional) morpheme -al to nouns. Due to the phonological restrictions, either part of a morpheme might be left out medicinal medicin-al [medicin(e) + al] tribal trib-al [trib(e) + al] either part of a morpheme might be changed sensual sens-(u)-al [sens (e)(u) + al] colonial colon-(i)-al [colon(y) (i) + al] new word-building element might be added factual fact-(u)-al [fact +(u)+ al] agential agent-(i)-al [agent+(i)+al]
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any meaning but has a grammatical negates (gives negative meaning to) the
correct
the constituent is an adjective which has a meaning (proper, accurate, free from error) a grammatical function which is adjective.
ness this constituent does not have any meaning, but has
DerivationalInflectional Morphemes
Functional morphemes that are able to produce new words can be defined as DERIVATIONAL MORPHEMES. New words can be formed by
A) Changing the meaning of the word (either negative meaning ) abilityin-ability sensenon-sense happyun-happy or (opposite meaning) nuclearanti-nuclear, actcounter-act agree dis-agree B) Changing the word class that a base belongs to danger en-danger (n z) sleep a-sleep (v adj) short short-en (adj v) complex complex-ity (adj n) friend friend-ly (n adj) year year-ly (n adv) class class-ify (n v)
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DerivationalInflectional Morphemes
Functional morphemes that are NOT able to produce new words can be defined as INFLECTIONAL
MORPHEME FUNCTION
MORPHEMES
EXAMPLE
morpheme that cannot stand alone as a complete word is called BOUND MORPHEME
unable employee
heavier
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antidisestablishmentarianism
anti-dis-establish-ment-arian-ism
BASE
anti-dis-establish-ment-arian
BASE
anti-dis-establish-ment-arian
BASE ROOT basic part, remaining part when all affixes are removed BASE (or STEM) any unit to which affixes of any kind can be added
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the indefinite article a preposition in modal verb may even the noun
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
pneumonolung, ultraextremely, microsmall, scopicto see, silicoflint, quartz; volcanomineral substances of a volcano, conidust (derivative of the Greek word konis which means dust) osisaffected with, diseased condition.
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Words that do not allow change in their word classes are termed Closed Class Words. In English, pronouns (he, this), articles (a/an, the), prepositions (on, with), conjunctions (and, or), numerals (three, fourth), quantifiers (some, much), interjections (aha, wow) constitute Closed Class Words.
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WITHOUT AFFIXATION
This procedure is called conversion Conversion can be observed both among open class words and between open class and closed class words.
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The jury hadnt reached to a final decision [final (adjective)] They are running in the final [final (noun) ] Scrape your dirty shoes on the doormat Please do not dirty the floor [dirty (adjective)] [dirty (verb)]
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