How to investigate

Language structure

Presented by Iman Yassin Jassim

Supervised by Dr.Abdu –Kareem Lazim

2018/2019
Content
1-Introduction
2-Language structure levels---------------------------
2-1Phonetics----------------------------------------------
2-1-1Acoustic Phonetics----------------------------

2-1-2-Articulatory phonetics ----------------------

2-1-3 Auditory phonetics ---------------------------

2-1-4 Organs of Speech ------------------------------

2-2 Phonology---------------------------------------------
3- Grammar------------------------------------------------
3-1 Morphological structure(The words of language)---
3-2 Syntactic structure----------------------------------
3-2-1 Phrase-Structure Rules----------------------
3-2-2 Deep and surface structure------------------
4 –Semantics------------------------------------------------

4-1 Meaning-------------------------------------------------
4-2 Reference and sense----------------------------------
References--------------------------------------------------
How to investigate Language structure?

1-Introduction

When we use language ,either we speak or hear something,

we are not consciously realized all these aspects of its structure,
but once our attention is drawn to them, we easily recognize their
existence. We could even concentrate on the study of one of these
facets largely to the exclusion of the others - something that takes
place routinely in language teaching, for instance, where we may
learn about aspects of grammar one day, and of vocabulary or
phonology the next.(Cristal.2005 :181)
Given a piece of language, we can describe it in different
ways, at different levels of analysis. A word can be taken as a
combination of letters or sounds, a constituent of a sentence, or an
isolated unit of meaning like a dictionary entry. The analysis of
language, as of anything else, can be adjusted to focus on
different things, and this calls for a degree of detachment. With
language, this is not always easy to achieve since our natural
inclination is to engage with language and interpret it, rather than
treat it as data to be analysed.(widdson .H .1996 :35)

2-Language structure levels

In modern linguistics ,the term 'structure' figures patently
.Based on Saussar's point of view ,we will say not only that a
language system has a structure , but that it is a structure. For
example, in so far as written and spoken ,English are isomorphic
(i.e have the same structure), they are the same language : there
is nothing but their structure that they have in common. The
language system itself is ,in principle, independent of the medium
in which it is manifest. It is in this sense purely abstract structure.
Language system are two level structures : they have the
property of duality . Spoken sentence are not just a combinations
of phonological elements : they are also combinations of syntactic
units. Natural languages ,then ,have two levels of structure and
the levels are independent , in the sense that the phonological
structure of a language is not determined by its syntactic
structure and its syntactic structure is not determined by its
phonological structure. (Lyons ,2009:60)

The physical facts of pronunciation (articulation, acoustic

transmission, and audition) in speech are considered to be the
subject matter of the level of phonetics. The way different
languages organize sounds to convey differences of meaning is
studied at the level of phonology . And the study of the way
meaningful units are brought into sequence to convey wider and
more varied patterns of meaning is the province of grammar . The
term semantics is then used for the study of the patterns of
meaning themselves .
These four levels (phonetics/phonology/grammar/ semantics)
are among the most widely used, in the study of speech, but
further divisions within and between these levels are often made.
For example, within the level of grammar, it is common to
recognize a distinction between the study of word structure
(morphology) and the study of word order within sentences
(syntax) . Within phonology, the study of vowels, consonants, and
syllables (segmental phonology) is usually distinguished from the
study of prosody and other tones of voice (non- segmental
phonology) . Within semantics, the study of vocabulary is
sometimes taken separately from the study of larger patterns of
meaning (under such headings as text or discourse) . All of these
are regularly referred to as levels of structure.(Crystal .2006:183).

2-1Phonetics
Phonetics is the ‘scientific study of speech production,’ is
concerned with (a) the processes that generate an air-stream
which carries linguistic content (articulatory phonetics), (b) the
physical characteristics of the resulting sound waves that pass
between the speaker’s vocal tract and the listener’s ears
(acoustic phonetics), and (c) the processes whereby the
mechanical movements of the ear-drum, created by the action of
the sound waves, are transmitted into the middle and inner ear
and perceived at a cortical level as sound (auditory phonetics)
(Cruttenden, 2014:3-4).

Phonetics is concerned with describing speech. There are

many different reasons for wanting to do this, which means that
there are many kinds of phoneticians. Some are interested in the
different sounds that occur in languages (Katamba, 1989:1).

The branches of phonetics are as follows :

2-1-1 Acoustic Phonetics

This branch of phonetics which studies the physical

properties of speech sound, as transmitted between mouth and
ear, according to the principles of acoustics (the branch of
physics devoted to the study of sound). (Lyhons,1986 101)

2-1-2 Articulatory phonetics

It studies the process by which a human articulates speech

sounds . The organs which are employed for the articulation of
speech sounds are :the tongues ,teeth , lips and so on ,all have
more basic biological functions since they are part of respiratory
and digestive systems of our bodies .Humans are unique in
using these biological organs for purposes of articulating speech
sounds .(Finch ,34-35).

2-1-3 Auditory phonetics

The branch of phonetics which studies the perceptual

response to speech sounds, as mediated by ear, auditory nerve
and brain. It is a less well-studied area of phonetics, mainly
because of the difficulties encountered as soon as one attempts
to identify and measure psychological and neurological
responses to speech sounds (Crystal, 2006:44).

2-1-3 Organs of Speech

The term organs of speech refers to those parts of the human

body which are concerned in various ways with the production
of speech. A lot of them are only secondarily concerned with the
production of speech – their primary functions have to do with
eating, chewing, and swallowing food, and respiration. Those
parts of the body below (not the lungs) belong to the vocal tract.
The vocal tract is divided into the supra glottal and the sub
glottal tract. They are lips, teeth ,nasal cavity, tongue, hard
palate, soft palate, pharynx, larynx, vocal folds/cords, trachea,
lungs, uvula, jaw bone.

2-2 Phonology
Phonology means the study of the sound systems found in
human languages. Some define phonology as the study of the
functions of speech sounds. On that definition, phonology is
functional phonetics. Others have a more mentalistic conception
of what the discipline of phonology is; they see sound systems as
being objects represented in the minds of human beings.(Carr .
2008:130)

phonology studys of the selection and patterns of sounds in

a single language. To get a full idea of the way the sounds of a
language work, we need to study not only the phonetics of the
language concerned but also its phonological system. Both
phonetics and phonology are important components of linguistics,
which is the science that deals with the general study of language.
A specialist in linguistics is technically termed a linguist. Note that
this is different from the general use of linguist to mean someone
who can speak a number of languages. Phonetician and
phonologist are the terms used for linguists who study phonetics
and phonology respectively.( BEVERLEY COLLINS AND INGER M.

MEES ,2013:9)
3 -Grammar
Grammar is traditionally subdivided into two different but inter-
related areas of study – morphology and syntax.

3-1 Morphological structure(The words of language)

The study of the internal structure of words, and of the rules

by which words are formed, is morphology. This word itself
consists of two morphemes, morph + ology. The suffix -ology
means “science of” or “branch of knowledge concerning.”
Thus, the meaning of morphology is “the science of (word) forms.”
Morphology is part of our grammatical knowledge of a language.
Like most linguistic knowledge, this is generally unconscious
knowledge. A single word may be composed of one or more
morphemes:
one morpheme boy
desire
morph (“to change form”)
two morphemes
boy + ish
desire + able
morph + ology
three morphemes
boy + ish + ness
desire + able + ity
A morpheme may be represented by a single sound, such as
the morpheme a meaning “without” as in amoral and asexual, or
by a single syllable, such as child and ish in child + ish. A
morpheme may also consist of more than one syllable: by two
syllables, as in camel, lady, and water; by three syllables, as in
Hackensack and crocodile; or by four or more syllables, as in
hallucinate, apothecary, and onomatopoeia.
A morpheme—the minimal linguistic unit—is thus an arbitrary
union of a sound and a meaning (or grammatical function) that
cannot be further analyzed. It is often called a linguistic sign, not
to be confused with the sign of sign languages. This may be too
simple a definition, but it will serve our purposes for now. Every
word in every language is composed of one or more morphemes.
(Fromkin ,2011 :42)
we can make a broad distinction between two types of
morphemes. There are free morphemes, that is, morphemes that
can stand by themselves as single words, for example, open and
tour. There are also bound morphemes, which are those forms
that cannot normally stand alone and are typically attached to
another form, exemplified as re-, -ist, -ed, -s. as affixes. So, we
can say that all affixes (prefixes and suffixes) in English are bound
morphemes. The free morphemes can generally be identified as
the set of separate English word forms such as basic nouns,
adjectives, verbs, etc. When they are used with bound morphemes
attached, the basic word forms are technically known as stems.
(Yule . : 68)
What we have described as free morphemes fall into two
categories. The first category is that set of ordinary nouns,
adjectives and verbs that we think of as the words that carry the
“content” of the messages we convey. These free morphemes are
called lexical morphemes and some examples are: girl, man,
house, tiger, sad, long, yellow, sincere, open, look, follow, break.
We can add new lexical morphemes to the language rather easily,
so they are treated as an “open” class of words. Other types of
free morphemes are called functional morphemes. Examples are
and, but, when, because, on, near, above, in, the, that, it, them.
This set consists largely of the functional words in the language
such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns.
Because we almost never add new functional morphemes to the
language, they are described as a “closed” class of words.
The set of affixes that make up the category of bound
morphemes can also be divided into two types. These are the
derivational morphemes. We use these bound morphemes to
make new words or to make words of a different grammatical
category from the stem. For example, the addition of the
derivational morpheme -ness changes the adjective good to the
noun goodness. The noun care can become the adjectives careful
or careless by the addition of the derivational morphemes -ful or
-less. A list of derivational morphemes will include suffixes such as
the -ish in foolish, -ly in quickly, and the -ment in payment. The list
will also include prefixes such as re-, pre-, ex-, mis-, co-, unand
many more.
The second set of bound morphemes contains what are
called inflectional morphemes. These are not used to produce
new words in the language, but rather to indicate aspects of the
grammatical function of a word. Inflectional morphemes are used
to show if a word is plural or singular, if it is past tense or not, and
if it is a comparative or possessive form.(Ibid)
The two basic functions of morphological operations are (i)
the creation of new words (i.e. new lexemes), and (ii) spelling out
the appropriate form of a lexeme in a particular syntactic context.
Morphology also serves to get a better understanding of the nature
of linguistic rules and the internal organization of the grammar of
natural languages. (Boojy,2005: 23)

3-2 Syntactic structure

Syntax concerns with how words are combined together to
form phrases and sentences. We shall see that phrases and
sentences are built up by a series of merger operations, each of
which combines a pair of constituents together to form a larger
constituent. So, syntax is a traditional term for the study of the
rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences in
a language. In this use, syntax is opposed to morphology, the
study of word structure. An alternative definition (avoiding the
concept of ‘word’) is the study of the interrelationships between
elements of sentence structure, and of the rules governing the
arrangement of sentences in sequences. (Cristal, 2008 :471)
Speakers of a language recognize the grammatical sentences of
their language and know how the words in a sentence must be
ordered and grouped to convey a certain meaning. All speakers
are capable of producing and understanding an unlimited number
of new sentences that have never before been spoken or heard.
They also recognize ambiguities, know when different sentences
mean the same thing, and correctly interpret the grammatical
relations in a sentence, such as subject and direct object. This
kind of knowledge comes from their knowledge of the rules of
syntax.(Ibid)
3-2-1 Phrase-Structure Rules

The emphasis on description in phrase-structure grammar is

important in many ways, but one of the more salient is its effect on
the notion of a grammar rule. In traditional grammar, rules are
essentially inviolable, and we are asked to force language to
conform to the rules. In phrase-structure grammar, the situation is
different. The term “rule” is used very loosely to describe the
observed grammatical patterns that exist in a given language.
Consequently, when we use the term “rule” in phrase-structure
grammar, we are not referring to an inviolable statement about
language; instead, we are referring to a pattern of constructions
that are characteristic of and that describe a given language.
Another way of ex- pressing this point is to say that phrase-
structure grammar does not have a generative component. The
“rules” we use do not produce sentences; they merely describe
them. The first grammar “rule” in phrase-structure analysis reflects
this basic characteristic:
S ___________NP VP
This expression is read as follows: “S is rewritten as NP VP.” This
rule is the starting point of all grammatical analyses in phrase-
structure grammar. Keep in mind that this statement is not a rule
for generating sentences; it simply describes the fact that English
sentences that we can observe on a daily basis follow this basic
pattern. Notice that phrase-structure grammar focuses on form, not
function. (Robins,1980 :44)
3-2-2 Deep and surface structure
Two superficially different sentences are shown in these
examples:
Charlie broke the window.
The window was broken by Charlie.
In traditional grammar, the first is called an active sentence,
focusing on what Charlie did, and the second is a passive
sentence, focusing on The window and what happened to it. The
distinction between them is a difference in their surface structure,
that is, the different syntactic forms they have as individual English
sentences. However, this superficial difference in form disguises
the fact that the two sentences are very closely related, even
identical, at some less superficial level.
This other “underlying” level, where the basic components (Noun
Phrase+Verb+ Noun Phrase) shared by the two sentences can be
represented, is called their deep structure. The deep structure is
an abstract level of structural organization in which all the
elements determining structural interpretation are represented.
That same deep structure can be the source of many other surface
structures such as:, it was Charlie who broke the window, and Was
the window broken by Charlie?. In short, the grammar must be
capable of showing how a single underlying abstract
representation can become different surface structures.(Yule. 2008
:98)
4 -Semantics

Semantics is the systematic study of meaning, and linguistic.

Semantics is the study of how languages organize and express
meanings. The study of meaning can be undertaken in various
ways. Linguistic semantics is an attempt to explicate the
knowledge of any speaker of a language which allows that speaker
to communicate facts, feelings, intentions and products of the
imagination to other speakers and to understand what they
communicate to him or her. Language differs from the
communication systems of other animals in being stimulus-free
and creative. (Kreidler,1998: 8)

4-1 Meaning
While semantics is the study of meaning in language, there is
more interest in certain aspects of meaning than in others. We
have already ruled out special meanings that one individual might
attach to words. We can go further and make a broad distinction
between conceptual meaning(denotative) and associative
meaning(connotative).
Denotative meaning is the objective (dictionary) relationship
between a word and the reality to which it refers (Crystal,
1987:418). Connotative meaning, on the other hand, is the
communicative power of a word by virtue of what it refers to (Leech,
1974:15). Some of the basic components of a word like needle in
English might include “thin, sharp, steel instrument.” These
components would be part of the conceptual meaning of needle.
However, different people might have different associations or
connotations attached to a word like needle. They might associate it
with “pain,” or “illness,” or “blood,” or “drugs,” or “thread,” or
“knitting,” or “hard to find”. (Yule ,2008 :113)

4-2 Reference and sense

One important point made by the linguist Ferdinand de
Saussure (1974), whose ideas have been so influential in the
development of modern linguistics, is that the meaning of linguistic
expressions derives from two sources: the language they are part
of and the world they describe. Words stand in a relationship to the
world, or our mental classification of it: they allow us to identify
parts of the world, and make statements about them. Thus if a
speaker says He saw Paul or She bought a dog, the underlined
nominals identify, pick out or refer to specific entities in the world.
However words also derive their value from their position within the
language system. The relationship by which language hooks onto
the world is usually called reference. The semantic links between
elements within the vocabulary system is an aspect of their sense,
or meaning.(Saaed, 2009:11)
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