1.

Phonetics deals with the production of speech sounds by humans, often without
prior knowledge of the language being spoken. Phonology is about patterns of
sounds, especially different patterns of sounds in different languages, or within each
language, different patterns of sounds in different positions in words etc.

Phonetics: In order to produce sound humans use various body parts

including the lips, tongue, teeth, pharynx and lungs. Phonetics is the term
for the description and classification of speech sounds, particularly how
sounds are produced, transmitted and received. A phoneme is the smallest
unit in the sound system of a language; for example, the t sound in the
word top.

Various phonetic alphabets have been developed to represent the speech

sounds in writing through the use of symbols. Some of these symbols are
identical to the Roman letters used in many language alphabets; for
example: p and b. Other symbols are based on the Greek alphabet, such
as θ to represent the th- sound in thin and thought. Still others have been
specially invented; e.g. ð for the th- sound in the and then. The most widely
used phonetic script is the International Phonetic Alphabet

Phonology: Phonology is the term used for the study of the speech sounds
used in a particular language. The distinctive accents that many learners of
English have are due to differences between the phonological system of their
language and that of English. From birth, and possibly before, we learn to
recognize and produce the distinctive sounds of our own language. We do
not need to give any thought to how to have the lips, tongue, teeth, etc.
working together to produce the desired sounds. The physical structures of
parts of the sound system are adapted to produce native-language sounds.

English has some speech sounds (phonemes) that do not exist in other
languages. It is no surprise, therefore, that native speakers of those
languages have difficulties producing or even perceiving such sounds. This is
particularly true for speakers from language families other than the
Germanic one to which English belongs.

Phonology vs. Phonetics – the key differences

Phonology is concerned with the abstract, whereas phonetics is concerned with the physical
properties of sounds. In phonetics we can see infinite realisations, for example every time you
say a ‘p’ it will slightly different than the other times you’ve said it. However, in phonology all
productions are the same sound within the language’s phoneme inventory, therefore even though
every ‘p’ is produced slightly different every time, the actual sound is the same. This highlights a
key difference between phonetic and phonology as even though no two ‘p’s are the same, they
represent the same sound in the language.

2. Morphology – the internal structure of words

Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words

and forms a core part of linguistic study today.

 The term morphology is Greek and is a makeup of morph- meaning ‘shape, form’, and -ology
which means ‘the study of something’.
 Morphology as a sub-discipline of linguistics was named for the first time in 1859 by the
German linguist August Schleicher who used the term for the study of the form of words.[1]

What is a word?
Smallest independent units of language

Independent:
1. do not depend on other words.
2. can be separated from other units
3. can change position.[2]

Morphology is the branch of linguistics which seeks to determine the base units of meaning
within a given language. A morpheme is the smallest unit of language which is individually
meaningful. While sounds may distinguish words through minimal pairs, for example, they
are not expressly responsible for the meaning of the word. Most correspondences between
sounds and meaning are arbitrary (except in cases of onomatopoeia, for example) — a
fundamental property of both spoken and written modalities of language use.

Morphemes may be subdivided into free and bound morphemes. A free morpheme is able to
be used independently, i.e. without being attached to another word. For example:
Q. What do you like?

A. Tea.

In this example, the questioner is able to understand that the respondent enjoys tea. “Tea” is
thus a free morpheme.

Bound morphemes require attachment to free morphemes or other bound morphemes in

order to create meaning. They cannot express meaning independent of a lexeme. For
example:

Q: What do you like?

A: Teas.

In this instance, the respondent’s answer incorporates two morphemes: the free morpheme
“tea” and the bound morpheme “s.” “S” is a plural marker — it is able to meaningfully
distinguish the word teas from tea — but it cannot assume any meaning independent of the
word to which it is bound. For example:

Q: What do you like?

A: *S.

The asterisk signifies that the statement is not grammatically or lexically correct according
to the rules of the language.

Another method of categorizing morphemes is based on their usage as lexical, derivational,

or inflectional morphemes.

Lexical morphemes are morphemes which possess a distinct meaning, such as cow, pig,
philosophy, man, go, eat, play, etc. These morphemes are always free.

Derivational morphemes are used to change the form of a word into another class. For
example, the lexical noun man is modified by the derivational suffix -ly to form the
adjective manly, which consists of those two morphemes. Many affixes (prefixes, suffixes,
and infixes) are derivational morphemes.

Inflectional morphemes are used to create a word in grammatical concordance with the
remainder of the sentence, or to pluralize or inflect a noun. For example, the inflectional
morpheme “s” is used to create the sentence My dogs eat kibble from *My dog eat kibble. In
the former sentence, dogs consists of two morphemes. In a non-isolating language, such as
Spanish, inflectional morphemes are more readily apparent. Inflectional morphemes are
indicated in italicized text, derivational morphemes in lower-case Roman text, and lexical
morphemes in upper-case text.

Yo conduzco mi carro.

“I DRIVE-first-person pres. I-possesive CAR.

“I drive my car.”

Me gustan tus ojos.

I-reflexive-obj. PLEASE-present-plural YOU INFORMAL-plural-possesive- EYE-subj-plural

“I like your eyes” (lit. “To me please your eyes.”).

Not all morphemes are necessarily spelled out in written text or clearly indicated in speech
(In the second sentence, tus, for example, has four morphemes); the sole valid method for
determining the quantity of morphemes contained within a particular word is analysis of
that word’s usage in native speech communities.

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Morphology is the study of morphemes, which are the smallest significant units of
grammar. According to Bloomfield, it is the study of the constructions in which sound
forms appear among the constituents. Dorfman defines morphology as the study of the
ways and methods of grouping sounds into sound-complexes or words.
Morphology is a level of structure between the phonological and the syntactic. It is
complementary to syntax. Morphology is the grammar of words; syntax is the grammar
of sentences. One accounts for the internal structure or form of words; the other
describes how these words are put together in sentences. The English word ‘unkind’ is
made up of two smaller units: ‘un’ and ‘kind’. These are minimal units that cannot be
further sub-divided into meaningful units. Such minimal, meaningful units of
grammatical description are generally referred to as morphemes. A morpheme is an
minimal indivisible unit in morphology. The word ‘unlikely’ has three morphemes while
the word ‘carpet’ is a single morpheme. Thus, a systematic study of morphemes or how
morphemes join to form words is known as morphology. According to Hockett:

“Morphemes are the smallest individually meaningful elements in the

utterance of a language”
The concept of morpheme is central to morphology. There are two types of morphemes:
Bound and Free. Thus a work like ‘unfaithful’ has ‘un’ and ‘ful’ as bound morphemes
because they cannot express their meanings individual while ‘faith’ is a free morpheme
because it can do the otherwise. Morpheme also has The concept of ‘morph’ which
recognises that a morpheme has a phonetic shape. This phonetic representation is called
its morph. The word writer has two morphemes, write and -er. These are realizable in
the phonetic shapes as /rait/ and/-∂:/. These are two morphs of the morpheme (or word
in this case). Closely allied is the concept of Allomorph. We have noted that it sometimes
manifests itself in various phonetic shapes or forms. The plural morpheme can be
realized as /-s/ or /-z/ or /-iz/ and so on. Similarly, the past tense morpheme can
appear as /-d/, /-t/, /-id/, and /-q/. Each of these morphs belongs to the same
morpheme. These are called allomorphs. A confusion arises as to whether a segment is
a word or a morpheme or morph. So Hackett answers the question:
“A word is thus any segment of a sentence bounded by successive points at
which pausing is possible.”
A division is traditionally made of morphology into two branches, viz. (i) Inflectional,
and (ii) Derivational. In the former, we are concerned with the variations or inflections
that occur in words so as to show grammatical contrasts in sentences, such as are found
in singular/ plural numbers or present/past tenses. For example, ‘apple’ and ‘apples’ are
two forms of the same word, but they differ in respect of number. Similarly, ‘live’ and
‘lived’ are two forms of the same word, but they differ in respect of tense. The study of
this difference between the two words in each pair belongs to the field of grammar, and
is thus a concern of’inflectional morphology’. In ‘derivational morphology’, we study the
principles governing the construction of new words, without reference to the specific
grammatical role a word might play in a sentence. Words like ‘enjoyable’ from ‘enjoy’,
‘agreeable’ from ‘agree’ or ‘dislodge, from ‘lodge’ are formed with their own grammatical
properties. The study of the formation of words such as these belongs to the field of
derivational morphology’. In Inflections, class usually remains the same as in: go-goes—
going but in Derivations, class changes as in: play-playful-playfullness. For Hockett:
“Inflection is that part of morphology which involves inflectional affixes.
The remainder of morphology is derivation”
Morphology operates on affixes which are the core of inflectional and derivational
morphology. Affixes can be of three kinds: Prefixes are affixes that are added initially to
a root, or that precede it; Infixes are affixes added within a root; and Suffixes are affixes
that follow the stem or the root. When a suffix so occurs in a word as not to allow any
other suffix to follow it, it is called an inflectional suffix, as when we add the suffix “ness’
to the root ‘kind’, we get the word ‘kindness’ which cannot take on another suffix. But
when a suffix can be followed by some other suffix (s), it is called a derivational suffix.
For example, the suffix My’, added to the root ‘kind’, may be followed by another suffix
“ness’, and we have the word ‘kindliness’ (kind+li+ness) which contains a derivational
suffix Mi’ followed by another suffix ‘ness’. Prefixes may also be both ‘inflectional’ and
‘derivational’. For example, the prefix ‘dis’ in ‘discount’ cannot take on another prefix,
and is thus ‘inflectional’. But the prefix ‘pre’ in ‘pre-meditated’ can take on another
prefix ‘un’ so as to form the word ‘unpremeditated’, and thus it is ‘derivational’. They
help in forming a new word.

3. what does syntax mean? Syntax is the grammatical structure of sentences.

The format in which words and phrases are arranged to create sentences is
called syntax.
Let’s look at an example of how a sentence can be rearranged to create varied
syntax.

Examples of Syntax in a Sentence:

 The boy jumped happily.
 The boy happily jumped.
 Happily, the boy jumped.
By rearranging just one word in the sentence, a varied syntax is formed. Each is
grammatically correct and acceptable English language form.
A writer will vary sentence syntax to make writing more interesting or to
emphasize a particular point.

Words and phrases must follow English rules for correct arrangement and
coherent sentences.

Syntax and diction are different concepts in grammar and in literature.

What is syntax? Syntax is the arrangement of words that make a sentence.

What is diction? Diction is word choice.
The following examples have similar syntax but different diction.

 The boy jumped happily.

 The girl sang beautifully.
 The dog barked loudly.
Each of these sentences has the same syntax. Each sentence follows the
structure of subject-verb-adverb. However, each sentence uses different diction
(word choice).

The following examples have similar diction but different syntax.

 The boy jumped happily.

 The boy happily
 Happily, the boy jumped.
Each of these sentences has the same diction. Each sentence uses the same
four words. However, each sentence has different word order to create different
syntax.

In other words, diction and syntax focus on different things. Diction focuses on
word choice, while syntax focuses on the order and structure of those words.

In linguistics, "syntax" refers to the rules that govern the ways in

which wordscombine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. The term "syntax"
comes from the Greek, meaning "arrange together." The term is also used to
mean the study of the syntactic properties of a language. In computer contexts,
the term refers to the proper ordering of symbols and codes so that the computer
can understand what instructions are telling it to do.
Syntax

 Syntax is the proper order of words in a phrase or sentence.

 Syntax is a tool used in writing proper grammatical sentences.
 Native speakers of a language learn correct syntax without realizing it.
 The complexity of a writer's or speaker's sentences creates a formal or
informal level of diction that is presented to its audience.

Syntactic Rules
English parts of speech often follow ordering patterns in sentences and clauses,
such as compound sentences are joined by conjunctions (and, but, or) or that
multiple adjectives modifying the same noun follow a particular order according
to their class (such as number-size-color, as in "six small green chairs"). The rules
of how to order words help the language parts make sense.

Sentences often start with a subject, followed by a predicate (or just a verb in the
simplest sentences) and contain an object or a complement (or both), which
shows, for example, what's being acted upon. Take the sentence "Beth slowly ran
the race in wild, multicolored flip-flops." The sentence follows a subject-verb-
object pattern ("Beth ran the race"). Adverbs and adjectives take their places in
front of what they're modifying ("slowly ran"; "wild, multicolored flip-flops"). The
object ("the race") follows the verb "ran", and the prepositional phrase ("in wild,
multicolored flip-flops") starts with the preposition "in".

4. What is Semantics
Semantics is simply the branch of linguistics that concerns studying the meanings of words as
well as their meanings within a sentence. Thus, it is the study of linguistic meaning, or more
precisely, the study of the relation between linguistic expressions and their meaning. Therefore,
it considers the meaning of a sentence without paying attention to their context.

To explain further what semantics means in linguistics, it can be denoted that “it is the study of
the interpretation of signs or symbols used in agents or communities within particular
circumstances and contexts”. Hence, according to this, sounds, facial expressions, body
language, and proxemics have semantic (meaningful) content, and each of these comprises
several branches of study. Moreover, in written language, things like paragraph structure and
punctuation bear semantic content; other forms of language bear other semantic content.

Thus, semantics focuses on three basic aspects: “the relations of words to the objects denoted by
them, the relations of words to the interpreters of them, and, in symbolic logic, the formal
relations of signs to one another (syntax)”. Therefore, semantics also looks at the ways in which
the meanings of words can be related to each other.
Furthermore, semantics has two main categories as lexical semantics and phrasal semantics.
Accordingly, lexical semantics concerns the meanings of words and the meaning of relationships
among words, while phrasal semantics concerns the meaning of syntactic units, which are larger
than words. Similarly, semantic properties are the components of meanings of words. Thus,
under lexical semantics, semantics analyze words and see how they can be related to each other
with relations to synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, polysemy, figures of speech, etc. Phrasal
semantics concerns concepts such as paraphrase, contradiction, ambiguity, mutual entailment,
etc.
For example, this sentence – “He is so cool.”

Semantically, this sentence can be interpreted as – He is very nice, a compliment to the person,
which is the literal meaning. But under pragmatics, this sentence suggests the context: the
positive attitude of the speaker towards the person. This is the intended or the inferred meaning
in the sentence.

Semantics looks at these relationships in language and how these meanings are created. This is a
necessity for understanding how language works as a whole.

What is Pragmatics
Pragmatics is another branch of linguistics. Similar to semantics, pragmatics also studies the
meanings of words, but it pays emphasis on their context. In other words, pragmatics is “the
study of the use of linguistic signs, words, and sentences, in actual situations.”

Thus, it looks beyond the literal meaning of an utterance or a sentence, considering how the
context impacts its meaning to be constructed as well the implied meanings.
Therefore, unlike semantics, pragmatics concern the context of that particular words and how
that context impacts their meaning.

For example, think of a situation when you and your friends are planning to give a surprise
birthday party to one of your colleagues, and after everything is ready you see the colleague is on
the way to the classroom and suddenly one of your friends shout “Candles?”. “Candles?” might
indicate that you forgot to put candles on the birthday cake. Therefore, here that single word
‘candles’ convey a lot of meaning to you and your friends except for the colleague who has no
idea that you have planned a surprise birthday party for him/her.
This is what pragmatics is about. Unlike semantics, which only concerns the meaning of the
words, pragmatics goes a step further by looking at the same word in relation to its context.
Thus, pragmatics explains how language users are able to overcome apparent ambiguity since it
explains the meaning relies on the manner, time, place, etc. of an utterance.

What would happen to language if Pragmatics did not

exist?
Pragmatics acts as the basis for all language interactions and contact. It is a key feature to the
understanding of language and the responses that follow this. Therefore, without the fucntion of
Pragmatics, there would be very little understanding of intention and meaning.

We would like to demonstrate this by showing you how life would be WITHOUT Pragmatics:

‘Can you pass the salt?’

Literal Meaning: Are you physically able to do this task?

Literal Response: ‘Yes’

(Pragmatic Meaning: Will you pass me the salt?

Pragmtic Response: pass the salt to the speaker.)

‘What time do you call this?’

Literal Meaning: What time is it?

Literal Response: A time (e.g. ‘twenty to one.’)

(Pragmatic Meaning: a different question entirely, e.g. Why are you so late?
Pragmatic Response: Explain the reason for being so late.)

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Have you ever heard someone say, "That's just semantics?" Basically, they're saying you're picking
apart the meaning of a word to draw a different conclusion but it all means the same thing. It's
possible the person saying, "It's just semantics," is wrong, though.
Semantics is the study of the relationship between words and how we draw meaning from those
words. People can absolutely interpret words differently and draw different meanings from them.
Some examples of semantics will help you see the many meanings of English words.

What Is Semantics?
Semantics involves the deconstruction of words, signals, and sentence structure. It influences our
reading comprehension as well as our comprehension of other people's words in everyday
conversation. Semantics play a large part in our daily communication, understanding, and language
learning without us even realizing it.
For example, in everyday use, a child might make use of semantics to understand a mom's directive
to "do your chores" as, "do your chores whenever you feel like it." However, the mother was
probably saying, "do your chores right now."
Since meaning in language is so complex, there are actually different theories used within semantics,
such as formal semantics, lexical semantics, and conceptual semantics.
 Formal Semantics - Formal semantics uses techniques from math, philosophy, and logic to
analyze the broader relationship between language and reality, truth and possibility. Has your
teacher ever asked you to use an "if… then" question? It breaks apart lines of information to
detect the underlying meaning or consequence of events.
 Lexical Semantics - Lexical semantics deconstruct words and phrases within a line of text to
understand the meaning in terms of context. This can include a study of individual nouns, verbs,
adjectives, prefixes, root words, suffixes, or longer phrases or idioms.
 Conceptual Semantics - Conceptual semantics deals with the most basic concept and form of a
word before our thoughts and feelings added context to it.
For example, at its most basic we know a cougar to be a large wild cat. But, the word cougar has
also come to indicate an older woman who's dating a younger man. This is where context is
important.
Conceptual semantics opens the door to a conversation on connotation and denotation. Denotation is
the standard definition of a word. Meanwhile, connotation deals with the emotion evoked from a
word. Connotation will be derived from the manner in which you interpret a word or sentence's
meaning. As such, semantics and connotation are deeply entwined. For a deeper dive, read these
examples and exercises on connotative words.

Semantics in Everyday Life

One part of studying language is understanding the many meanings of individual words. Once you
have a handle on the words themselves, context comes into play. The same word can be said to two
people and they can interpret them differently.
For example, imagine a man told a woman, "I care for you… a lot." Wouldn't that made the woman's
heart melt? Sure, if he just said that out of the blue, walking down the beach one day. But, what if the
woman told the man, "I love you," and, after a long pause, all he said was, "I care for you… a lot."
She'd be crushed. So, context (the current situation) will always play a role in everyday semantics.
Here are some examples of everyday words that can have more than one meaning:
 A water pill could be a pill with water in it but it is understood to be a diuretic that causes a
person to lose water from his body.
 "Crash" can mean an auto accident, a drop in the Stock Market, to attend a party without being
invited, ocean waves hitting the shore, or the sound of cymbals being struck together.
 Depending on context, a flowering plant could be referred to as a weed or a flower.
 A human can be referred to as a male, female, child, adult, baby, bachelor, father or mother.
 To call someone a lady means more than simply being female. Semantics tell us that, if she's a
lady, she possesses elegance and grace.
 "Young" can allude to a colt, filly, piglet, baby, puppy, or kitten.
 To say something was challenging leads us to believe it was not a good experience. It wasn't just
difficult, it was also unpleasant.
 The verb "move" can mean change place, push, pull or carry, or stir emotion.
 To call someone an angel doesn't mean they inhabit heaven. Semantics leads us to believe they
have a lovely disposition.
 The word "create" can mean build, make, construct, erect, compose or imagine.
 The simple word "on" can have many meanings, such as: on call, on the roof, on cloud nine, on
edge, on fire, on purpose, on demand, on top, or on the phone.