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Structure of Human Language e<)

When we think about the components of human language, we think of it as consisting of

the following:

1. A sound-system (or phonological component).

2. A set of vocabulary items (the "lexicon").
3. A grammatical system ("morphology") which puts meaningfulelements together
into'words'. ,

4. A syntax, or set of rules to state what the order of elements is in larger utterances,
such as'sentences.'
5. A semantic component, where mean¡ngs are interpreted.

We thínk of these components as being in some ways finite and in other ways non-finite.
And the building blocks of one component fqrm the units of the ones higher than it.

1 . The sound-system is capable of infinite minute differences in sound, but no

language uses all, or even a large part of the possible differences. Sound systems
divide things up into finite units (called "phonemes" or classes of sounds) and
therefore the number of sound units is finite i.e. English has a finite number of
vowels and consonants; the number of vowels is around 11 or 12, varying by
dialect.
2. A set of vocabulary items (the "lexicon"). The set of meaningful,units is finite, or
sort of: there are often'old' (archaic, obsolete) words floating around in the
language, especially in print. Some may be used by older speakers; some may be
recognized for their meaning in context, but wouldn't be 'known' in isolation. So old
meanings are going out, and new words are constantly being invented.

The set of meaningful units in the lexicon is therefore.more or less finite, but not exactly
the same for every speaker. Some meaningful units have only grammatical meaning, e.g.
suffixes on words such as -ing, -s, -ed, -th (as in width etc.) and so on. So we distinguish
between

. lexicalmeaning and
t grafiffiaticalmeaningfulunits.

The grammatical morphemes are more finite in number than the former. One example of a
fairly new grammatical marker is the suffix'guys' as in 'you-guys'which marks plurality for
a lot of people. Other dialects have 'y'all' for this. The fact that it is becoming a grammatical
marker is shown by the way some people make it possessive, i.e. 'you-guys's' [yugayzlz],
or in southern dialects'yallz':

o 'You guys needs to give me you-guys's receipts ro y* can get

reimbursements.
o Y'all need to give me y'all's receipts so you can get reimbursements.

3. A grammatical system ("morphology") which puts meaningful elements together

into'words'. The grammar is finite, at any given moment.
 4. A syntax, or set of rules to state what the order of elemenü isoin larger utterances,
such as 'sentences.' But the output of the syntax, i.e. the sentences people know
and recognize, is infinite.
5. A semantic component, where meanings are interpreted. Number of possible
meanings is probably also infinite.

Put these together in a kind of hierarchical structure, using the sound system as the first
building blocks and working upward from there, gives us the following structure.

Level of structure: Possibilities

lnfinite
Semantics: lnfinite
Syntax: sentences Finite
Grammar: rather rigid and fixed. Finite
lnnovation at this level is slow Frnrte
Finite
Vocabulary, meaningful units:
Finite
somewhat open-ended, but essentially
lnfinite
Sound system, units of sound
Phonetic level

We see this kind of structure, built from the ground up, as possessed solely by humans,
and not observed for other animals, even primates such as chimps, gorillas, etc. The
structure of their communication system is much simpler: fewer'vocabulary' items, simple
syntax, very little innovation.