World University of Bangladesh

Introduction to Linguistics
(ENG 421)

Case Study

Submitted by:
Tashfeen Ahmed
Roll # 1425
Batch: 46/A
(Department of English)
 Building a bridge among language components

The components of English language are:

Phonology
Phonology is the study of the patterns of sounds in a language and across languages.
Put more formally, phonology is the study of the categorical organization of speech
sounds in languages; how speech sounds are organized in the mind and used to
convey meaning.

Morphology
Morphology is the study of minimal units of meaning which includes morphemes
and word formation process. It deals with the study of forms and also deals with the
ways in which words possess a relationship with some other words of the same
language.

The relation between the distribution of phonemes and grammatical units such as
morphemes and words is therefore an aspect of the interface between Phonology and
morphology. Both Phonology and Morphology study various patterns in languages
all over the world. Considering the similarities of these fields, both are engaged in
the scientific analysis of languages. Both are sub branches of Linguistics and without
studying Phonology, one cannot move on to Morphology. There is an inter-
relationship between these subjects. For differences, we can identify that Phonology
mainly concentrates on sound systems of a language while Morphology pays
attention to the word and the morphemes of a language.
Morphophonemic is the study of the relationship between morphology and
phonology. Therefore, morphophonemic entails the exploration of variations
associated with phonemes in morphological processes.
The variations, oftentimes, generate different grammatical functions. For instance,
morphophonemic will explain why vowels in “sleep” change to “slept” to denote the
past tense.
Morphology is concerned with the governing of the combination of morphemes in a
language. Morphological processes, for instance, determine that the plural of cat is
cats while the plural of mouse is mice.

Syntax
Syntax refers to the study of the structural aspect of language by dealing with the
phrase and sentence formation. It basically deals with seeing ways through which
words combine to form grammatical sentences. Syntax involves the set of rules,
processes, and principles that govern the sentences of any language.

Semantics
The study of meaning in terms of linguistics is called semantics which begins from
the ending point of syntax and ends from where pragmatics begins. Semantics is a
separate discipline in the study of language and has existed for decades. In natural
languages, words, phrases, and sentences are used to convey messages. Semantics is
the study of meaning systems in language. Language is systematic in nature if the
meaning is a system.

Pragmatics
Pragmatics refers to the study of language by considering the context in which it is
used. It is not concerned with the way language is structured. Speech is looked at as
a social act which is ruled or governed by many social conventions. Pragmatics has
to do with context-dependent features of language. There are at least two rather
different varieties of pragmatic notions.
Syntax is more or less synonymous with 'grammar', though philosophers often use
the term more broadly to refer to any characteristics of a sentence that don't involve
semantics. Thus, while a linguist would distinguish between phonology and syntax,
philosophers may treat phonology (and orthography) as "syntactic".
Semantics deals with meanings of linguistic expressions. Of course, 'meaning' is a
notoriously vague and ambiguous term; many different kinds of meaning are part of
semantics. Among the semantic notions we will make use of are these: reference or
extension the object or set of objects to which an expression applies. Truth and
falsity; sometimes these are regarded as the extensions of declarative sentences, what
a competent user of an expression must know, although this is a very important
concept, there is no term that unambiguously expresses it. The word 'meaning' itself
probably comes closest, but unfortunately 'meaning' can also mean intension,
sometimes is used to mean 'extension', and sometimes is used to mean still other
things.
Pragmatics includes things people can do with words or sentences that go beyond the
literal meaning of the expressions involved. For instance, the sentence "he always
shows up for class on time" means exactly what it says. But consider the following
context of use: someone asks me, "is so-and-so a good student?" and, after a long
pause, I utter the sentence above. In this context, I am very likely using the
sentence to convey the information that the student really is not all that good, even
though I have not literally said this. One way to put the difference is to say that the
literal meaning of the sentence is semantically encoded by the sentence, while the
information that the student is not very good is instead pragmatically imparted.

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