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Major
Major
Linguistics
Scope of Linguistic Studies
1. Phonology – studies the combination of sounds into organized units of speech, the
combination of syllables and larger units.
2. Phoneme is a distinctive, contrasted sound unit, e.g. /b/, /æ/, /g/. It is the smallest unit
of sound of any language that causes a difference in meaning.
3. Allophones are variants or other ways of producing a phoneme.
4. Phonetics – studies language at the level of sounds: how sounds are articulated by the
human speech mechanism.
5. Morphology – studies the patterns of forming words by combining sounds into
minimal distinctive units of meanings called morphemes.
a. Morpheme is a short segment of language which (1) is a word or word part
that has meaning, (2) cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts without
violating its meaning, (3) recurs in different words with a relatively stable
meaning.
b. Allomorphs – are morphs which belong to the same morpheme e.g., /s/, /z/,
and /ez/ of the plural morpheme /s/ or /es/.
c. Free morphemes can stand on their own as independent words, e.g., beauty in
beautifully, like in unlikely. Thus, they can occur in isolation.
d. Bound morphemes cannot stand on their own as independent words. These
morphemes are also called as affixes.
e. Inflectional morphemes never change the form class of the words or
morphemes to which they are attached. They show person, tense, number, case,
and degree.
f. Derivational morphemes are added to root morphemes or stems to derive new
words.
6. Syntax – deals with how words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences, and
studies the way phrases, clauses, and sentences are constructed.
a. Structure of predication –refers to the two components : subject and predicate
b. Structure of complementation – has two basic elements : verbal and
complement
c. Structure of modification – includes two components : head word and
modifier
d. Structure of coordination – covers two components : equivalent grammatical
units
7. Semantics – attempts to analyze the structure of meaning in language and deals with
the level of meaning in language.
a. Lexical ambiguity – refers to the characteristic of a word that has more than
one meaning.
b. Syntactic ambiguity – refers to the characteristic of a phrase that has more
than one meaning e.g. Filipino teacher.
8. Pragmatics – deals with the contextual aspects of meaning in particular situations ;
studies how language is used in real communication.
a. Speech act theory – advances that every utterance consists of three separate
acts (1) locutionary force – an act of saying something and describes what a
speaker says, (2) illocutionary force – the act of doing something and what the
speaker intends to do by uttering a sentence, and (3) perlocutionary act – an act
of affecting someone; the effect on the hearer of what a speaker says.
b. Categories of illocutionary acts – refers to categories proposed by John Searle
to group together closely related intentions for saying something:
Representative – stating, asserting, denying, confessing, admitting,
notifying, concluding, predicting, etc.
Directive – requesting, ordering, forbidding, warning, advising, suggesting,
insisting, recommending, etc.
Question –asking, inquiring, etc.
Commissive – promising, vowing, volunteering, offering, guaranteeing,
pledging, betting, etc.
Expressive – apologizing, thanking, congratulating, condoling, welcoming,
deploring, objecting, etc.
Declaration – appointing, naming, resigning, baptizing, surrendering,
excommunicating, arresting, etc.
1. Discourse – studies chunks of language which are bigger than a single sentence.
2. Language Views / Theories of Language
A. The Structuralists support the idea that language can be described in terms of
observable and verifiable data as it is being used.
1. Language is a means of communication.
2. Language is primarily vocal
3. Language is a system of systems.
4. Language is arbitrary.
B. The Transformationalists believe that language is a system of knowledge
made manifest in linguistic forms but innate and, in its most abstract form
universal.
1. Language is a mental phenomenon. It is not mechanical.
2. Language is innate. Children acquire their first language because they
have a language acquisition device (LAD) in their brain.
3. Language is universal: all normal children learn a mother tongue, all
languages share must share key features like sounds and rules.
4. Language is creative and enables speakers to produce and understand
sentences they have not heard nor used before.
C. The Functionalists advocates that language is a dynamic system through which
members of a community exchange information. It is a vehicle for the
expression of functional meaning such as expressing one’s emotions,
persuading people, asking and giving information, etc.
1. They emphasize the meaning and functions rather than the grammatical
characteristics of language.
D. The Interactionists believe that language is a vehicle for establishing
interpersonal relations and for performing social transactions between
individuals.
1. Language teaching content may be specified and organized by patterns of exchange
and interaction.
Language Acquisition / Theories of Language Learning
1. Behaviorist learning theory – the language behavior of an individual is conditioned
by sequences of differential rewards in his/her environment.
According to Littlewood (1984), the process of habit formation includes the following :
1. Children imitate the sounds and patterns which they hear around them.
2. People recognize the child’s attempts as being similar to the adult models and reinforce
(reward) the sounds by approval or some other desirable reaction.
3. In order to obtain more of these rewards, the child repeats the sounds and patterns so
that these become habits.
4. In this way the child’s verbal behavior is conditioned (‘shaped’) until the habits
coincide with adult models.
Behavioralists see three crucial elements of learning: (1) a stimulus, which serves to
elicit behavior, (2) a response triggered by the stimulus, and (3) reinforcement which
serves to mark the response as being appropriate and encourages the repetition of the
response.
2. Cognitive learning theory. Noam Chomsky believes that all normal human beings
have an inborn biological internal mechanism that makes language learning possible.
Cognitivists / innatists ‘ mentalists account of second language acquisition include
hypothesis testing, a process of formulating rules and testing the same with competent
speakers of the target language.
3. Krashen’s Monitor Model (1981).This is the most comprehensive theory in second
language acquisition. It consists of five central hypotheses.
a. The acquisition / learning hypothesis – claims that there are two ways of
developing competence in L2:
Acquisition – the subconscious process that results from informal, natural
communication between people where language is a means, not a focus nor an end in
itself.
Learning – the conscious process of knowing about language and being able to talk
about it, that occurs in a more formal situation where the properties of a language are
taught
b. The natural order hypothesis suggests that grammatical structures are acquired
in a predictable order for both children and adults _ certain grammatical structures
are acquired before others, irrespective of the language being learned.
c. The monitor hypothesis claims that conscious learning of grammatical rules
has an extremely limited function in language performance: as
a monitor or editor that checks output.
d. The input hypothesis. Krashen proposes that when learners are exposed to
grammatical features a little beyond their current level those features are
acquired.
e. The affective filter hypothesis. Filter consists of attitude to language,
motivation, self-confidence and anxiety. Learners with a low affective filter
seek and receive more input, interact with confidence, and are more receptive
to the input they are exposed to.
Teachers must continuously deliver at a level understandable by learners
Teaching must prepare the learners for real life communication situations
Teachers must ensure that learners do not become anxious or defensive in language
learning.
Formal grammar teaching is of limited value because it contributes to learning rather
than acquisition
II. Literature
1. Goals of Teaching Literature
1. Develop and/or extend literary competence. Jonathan Culler defines literary
competence as the ability to internalize the ‘grammar’ of literature which would
permit a reader to convert linguistic sequences into literary structures and
meaning.
2. Develop and/or enhance learners’ imagination and creativity.
3. Develop students’ character and emotional maturity.
4. Develop creative thinking.
5. Develop literary appreciation and refine one’s reading taste.
1. V. Structure of English
2. Sentences. Every sentence must have both a subject and a verb.
1. Three kinds of sentences
A declarative sentence states a fact, e.g., “Connie loves Rommel.”
An interrogative sentence asks a question, e.g., “Does Connie love Rommel?”
An exclamatory sentence registers an exclamation, e.g., “Like, I mean, you know, like
wow!”
1. Three basic structures
A simple sentence makes one self-standing assertion, i.e., has one main clause, e.g.,
“Connie loves Rommel.”
A compound sentence makes two or more self-standing assertions, i.e., has two main
clauses, e.g., “Connie loves Rommel and Rommel enjoys it.”
A complex sentence makes one self-standing assertion and one or more dependent
assertions, subordinate clauses, dependent on the main clause, e.g., “Connie who has
been desiring Rommel these twelve years, loves him, and Rommel, what’s more, still
enjoys it.”