I

The structural approach to Linguistics: It was pioneer by Ferdinand de Saussure

in Europe and Leonard Bloomfield in America. These linguistics tired to
describe language in its own terms.

The grammatical framework of another language was not enforced on other

languages. The superiority of classical languages was also rejected. They also
argued that languages of native people, although did not have a writing system,
they were still highly complex and structured. Also the languages of the
colonies of Europe had a different kind of structure. Field methods were taken
from anthropological researches. The languages were recorded and analysed
because the linguists themselves could not speak it. The pioneers of this mode
were Franz Boaz and Edward Sapir.

Thus the emphasis is on the spoken form of language rather than written form.
Dialects and registers were treated as part of a language variety. Structural
linguistics is hence descriptive in nature. That is, it is the systematic study of
language of what native speakers actually speak and not a prescription on how
language ought to be used.

Structural linguists distinguished the sounds that were common in the languages
of the world and tried to propose rules and principles that could be applied to
any language. Joseph Greenberg is a precursor of this mode. The
structucturalists proposed discovery procedures which were a set of techniques
which when applied to unknown languages, helped in discovering their correct
grammar.

Ferdinand de Saussure in his Couts de Linguistique Generale, introduced the

concept that language was a system of systems. The intuitive knowledge of
language is sidelined, because according to sturcturalists the human mind is a
blank slate (tabula rasa) when it comes to language learning.

This shortcoming of the structuralist , that they could not capture the
psychological aspect of language, is questioned by the Cognitive Linguistcs.
Noam Chomsky in his Syntactic Stuctures, explains the concept of “generative”
grammar. By this he implies that while grammar must be descriptive it should
also be predictive.

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Chomsky looks upon the study of language on a scientific basis by applying
rules he calls transformational rules . Through this one can generate correct
sentences. Also cognitive linguistics are interdisciplinary in this sense as it deals
with other disciplines such as semiotics , acoustics, neurophysiology, genetics,
psychology, sociology and the like. These were areas considered as
extralinguisic by structuralists.

II

a. Duality of structure-as a feature of human language

Human language displays two levels of patterning
(i) Where, meaningless units (phonemes) are combined to form
arbitrary signs (words)
(ii) These signs in turn combine to form meaningful larger units
(sentences)

This implies language is evolved in the mind in these two levels. The
compounding of sounds into words in the first level and the compounding
of words into sentences in the second level.

Example:

Level 1 (Compounding of sounds )

B+I+N=BIN

N+I+B=NIB

Level 2 (Compounding of words)

The + nib+is+in +the +bin

This duality is the primary difference between human language and

animal language

b) Arbitrariness- as a feature of human language

In language there is no intrinsic or inherent connection between a written word

(or sounds) and its reference. In linguistics, one would say, there no one to one
relation between the signifier and the signified with the exception of
onomatopoeic words.

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For example there is no reason for shoe to be called a shoe or a mouse a mouse.
There is no logic as to why a mouse can’t be called a shoe and why a shoe can’t
be called a mouse. This feature is purely arbitrary. It is just a random union of
word with meaning. .

C) Creativity- as a feature of human language

A sentence that was never heard of before can be created in human language
and still make sense. These sentences can be immediately understood by other
speakers. This is why Chomsky has famously said,” The most striking aspect of
linguistic competence is what we may call “creativity of language”.

For example:

One can say, “ I had a race with an ant and he won “.This sentence may not
have ever been uttered on the face of the earth and yet it is absolutely
meaningful to any competent speaker of English.

III

a) APPLIED LINGUISTICS

Takes into account language and language theories to elucidate how

communication is carried out in real life. It also apples these theories to various
other disciplines like law , speech pathology, forensic science and mainly in
studies of second language acquisition

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

Takes into account the psychological processes involved in the comprehension

of language and language production especially in first and second language
acquisation

It investigates the psychological processes involved in the use of language,

including language comprehension, language production, and first and second
language acquisition.

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b.)PHONOLOGY

Study of how a language systematically organize their sounds and how speech
sounds are organized in the mind of the speaker. Phonology is related to many
linguistic disciplines line psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and languae
acquisition. Phonology is concerned with the abstract.

MORPHOLOGY

Studies patterns of word formation like stems, root words, prefixes and suffixes.
Speakers of a language understand regularities in the way words are used.
Morphology attempts to formulate these rules that model that knowledge. It is
better understood as grammar rules that pertains to word structure and
construction.

C Theoretical Linguistics

It is primarily concerned with constructing linguistic theories for a language.

Descriptive Lingusitics

Describes language as it exists in the present time without reference to its past
or comparing it to other languages

IV)

1 True.

2 False. [t] and [d] do not occur in the same environment so we cannot say they
are in free variation in the given examples

3.True

V)

A.{b} occurs before vowels and [p] occurs elsewhere. They are in
complementary distribution

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B. [b] and [p] occur in mutually exclusive environments and are allophones of
the same phoneme.4

When we examine the environment of [b]

m-b-o

u-b-u

#-b-e

a-b-a

#-b-u

We find that [b] occurs always before a vowel

When we examine the environment of [p]

#-p-n

e-p-#

n-p-#

#-p-r

u-p-l

We learn that [p] occurs in the beginning and also in the end. When it occurs
medially it is before a consonant.

VI)

a. Allomorph-
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful morphological unit in a
language. Allomorph is a variant form of a morpheme. It is concerned
with sound. The plural and past tense markers in English are allomorphs.
Eg The three morphs /s/ /z/ and /iz/, which are plural markers, are
conditioned by preceding sound.
Words which end with voiceless phoneme take /s/ eg: cats
Words which end with voiced phoneme take /z/ eg: dogs
Words which end with /s/ /z/ /ʃ / /ʒ / and /dʒ/ take /iz/ as the plural marker
/iz/

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 b. Infectional suffixes
An inflexional suffix is a morpheme that is added to a word to assign a
particular grammatical property to that word, such as number, tense or
possession. An inflectional suffix cannot change the grammatical
category of a word that is the addition of that suffix does not make a verb
a noun or vice versa.
For example
Cats-cats
Clean-cleaned

c. Blends
Blends are consonant clusters. They are made up of 2 or 3 letters. They
occur at the beginning of words or syllables and also at the end of words
or syllables.

For example

“tr” as in trap

“spl” as in splash

“st” as in past

“sh” as in shook

VII

b) Calmly-2 mophemes
Calm+ ly (adjective)

c)women- 2 morphemes

woman+ plural

d)passed-2 morphemes

pass+ed (inflection-past)

e)handmade-2 morphemes

hand+made

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f)indirectly-3 morphemes

(prefix)in+direct+ly (affix-adjective)

g)better- 2 morphemes

good+er (inflection-comparative)

h)hens-2 morphemes

hen+ s (inflection-plural)

i)data-1 morpheme

data (free morpheme)

j)movement-2 morpheme

move+ment (suffix)

VIII

Rumi=read
Pila=I
Pula=you
Ala=he
Ku=we
M=you (pl)
Wa=they
Lahonpa=brush
Latoka=look
Kubri=manages
Ibstu=carry
Kumua=cry
Tina=stay

IX.b)Acronyms
c)sufix
d)ablaut
e)compounding
f)onamatopoeia
g)chunnel

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