The Nature of the Language

Aproximación a la Didáctica de la Especialidad.

Mauricio Chandía B.
mchandia@ubiobio.cl
THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

1. Sound System
2. Syntax
3. Morphology and the Lexicon
4. Semantics
5. Pragmatics
Sound System
• Phonetics and Phonology

PHONETICS
the study of speech sounds.

• Articulatory phonetics – how speech sounds are

produced.

• Acoustic phonetics – the transmission and physical

properties of speech sounds.

• Auditory phonetics – perception of speech sound.

Sound System
PHONOLOGY

• The study of how sounds are organized and used in

natural languages.

• It studies PHONEMES AND ALLOPHONES

Sound System
IPA
SYNTAX
GRAMMAR: the order of the elements in a
sentence.

• Prescriptive Grammar.

• Descriptive Grammar.
 Morphology and the Lexicon

• The study of the structure of words & how words are

formed (from morphemes)
Morpheme:
• The smallest unit of language that carries meaning
(maybe a word or not a word)

• A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function

A. Free morpheme: lexical & functional morpheme
B. Bound Morpheme: derivational & inflectional
 Morphology and the Lexicon

FREE
• NounsMORPHEMES
•• Verbs
LEXICAL :
• Adjectives
Content words
• Adverbs

• Conjunctions
•• FUNCTIONAL:
Prepositions
• Articles
Function words
• Pronouns
 Morphology and the Lexicon
Derivational:

It changes the category and/or

the type of meaning of the
word, so it is said to create a
new word.
e.g. suffix –ment in
government
Inflectiona
It does not change either the
grammatical category or the type of
meaning found in the word.
e.g. suffix –s in books
Morphology and the Lexicon
Nouns
–s plural
–’s possessive

Verbs
–s third person singular present
–ed past tense
–en past participle
–ing progressive

Adjectives
–er comparative
–est superlative
Morphology and the Lexicon Activity

• Derivational
Appearance suffix
• Derivational
driver prefix
• Derivational
Thickness Suffix
• Inflectional
Books suffix
• Inflectional
Played suffix
• Derivational
Unusual prefix
• Derivational
Agreement suffix
• Derivational
Existance suffix
• Inflectional
Eaten suffix
SEMANTICS
• The study of meaning.
• Knowledge of the semantics of a language entails knowledge of the reference of words.

Ex. ‘leaf’ of a table

of a plant
‘smart’ stylish
clever
 PRAGMATICS

•The way in which we use language in context.

How the meanings of the parts of a sentence contribute
to the whole. Rather than trying to specify the semantics
of ‘red’ and ‘ball’ they suggest how the meaning of ‘red
ball’ is composed of the meanings of ‘red’ and ‘ball’.
Language users, Context

Constructing meanings (deixis, presupposition)

Speech Acts
Implicated meaning (Conversational Implications)
Conversational Structure
 PRAGMATICS
• Language users,
• Context
• Constructing meanings (deixis, presupposition)
• Speech Acts
• Implicated meaning (Conversational Implications)
• Conversational Structure
 Match the concepts and examples.

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