LINGUISTICS

The scientific study of language

Key Components

Phonetics
The science of human speech sounds

Main Tasks of Phonetics

1. Notation. The system of transcription symbols whereby we can make an accurate
and unambiguous record of what goes on in speech.
 International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA): a transcription system which
contains symbols for the hundred or so speech sounds that can be
distinguished in human language

2. Description. It is the description (characterization) of speech sounds.

Three Branches of Phonetics

1. Articulatory Phonetics. (production)

 The oldest branch
 Examines the articulatory (vocal) organs and their role in the production of
speech sounds
2. Acoustic Phonetics (transmission)
 Deals with the physical properties of speech sounds as the travel through the
air in the form of sound wave:

3. Auditory Phonetics (perception)

 Examines the wav in which human beings perceive speech sounds through
the medium of the ear.

Three Categories of Sounds

Phones (human sounds) Phonemes (units which Allophones (non-distinctive

distinguish meaning in a units)
language

Phoneme
 An abstract minimal sound unit of a particular language, which, when
realized, is capable of distinguishing different words in that language.
 can be discovered by the minimal pair technique (ex: pat and bat)

Vowel Phonemes

These vowel phonemes are described in terms or the following physical dimensions

1. Tongue Height- the tongue is

relatively high, mid, or low
2. Frontness- the tongue is either
relatively front or back
3. Lid Rounding- the lips are either relatively round or spread
4, Tenseness- the vocal musculature is either relatively tense or lax

Consonant Phonemes
Consonants can be described in terms of place and manner of articulation, and voice
(voiced or voiceless)

Place of Articulation

1.Bilabial- the primary constriction is at the lips.

2.Labiodental- the primary constriction is between the lower lip and upper teeth.
3.Interdental- the primary constriction is between the tongue and the upper teeth.
4. Alveolar- the primary constriction is between the tongue and the alveolar ridge.
5. Palatal- the primary constriction Is between the tongue and the palate
6.Velar- the primary constriction is between the tongue and the velum.
7. Glottal- the primary constriction is at the glottis (the space between the vocal cords)

Manner of Articulation
 Stops- two articulators are brought together such that the flow of air through
the vocal tract is completely blocked.
 Fricatives- two articulators are brought near each other such that the flow of
air is impeded but not completely blocked. The flow of air through the narrow
opening creates friction.
 Affricates- articulations corresponding to affricates are those that begin like
stops (with a complete closure in the vocal tract) and end like fricatives (with a
narrow opening in the vocal tract).
 Nasals- a nasal articulation is one in which the airflow through the mouth is
completely blocked but the velum is lowered, forcing the air through the nose.
 Laterals- sounds produced on the side of the tongue.
 Liquids and Glides- both of these terms describe articulations that are mid-way
between true consonants and vowels; however, they are both generally classified
as consonants. Liquid is a cover term for all -like and r-like articulations. Glide
refers to an articulation in which the vocal tract is constricted, but not enough to
block or impede the airflow.

Phonology

The study of the sound system of language: the rules that govern pronunciation

Phone

 physical realizations of a phoneme

Diphthongs

A complex vowel during the production of which one tongue position is changed into
another but no new syllable is formed.
Ex: height, house

Blend
Two or more consonants, when combined make a certain sound and two sounds are
heard.
Ex. bring, sting

Digraph
Two consonants When combined make a certain sound and one sound is heard
Ex. shop, chair

Onset and Rime

Onset. the initial phonological unit of any word (e.g. d in dog)

Rime: the string of letters that follow, usually a vowel and final consonants (e.g. og in
dog).

Allophones

Systematic variations of a phoneme

Specific properties of a phoneme vary according to its position in a word
Ex: Tim, stem, hit (these English words and phrases contains an instance of the
phoneme /t/

Morphology
The study of word formation; the study of morphemes and words

Morphemes
 The smallest meaningful units of language, which cannot be subdivided
without losing their meaning
 Words are composed of one or more than one morpheme
 Morphs: physical realizations of morphemes

Lexical Morpheme
Have a sense in and of themselves
Ex• nouns. verbs. adjectives

Grammatical Morphemes
Do not really have a sense in and of themselves; instead, they express some sort of
relationship between lexical morphemes
Ex: prepositions, articles, conjunctions

Free Morphemes
Can stand alone as words
They may be lexical (e.g., serve or they may be grammatical (e.g., at, and

Bound Morphemes
Cannot stand alone as words

Inflectional and Derivational Morphemes

Affixes can be subdivided into prefixes and suffixes.

Inflectional Affixes
Inflectional Affixes are all suffixes.
English has eight inflectional affixes:

Inflectional Affix Example

Plural (PLU) Boys
Possessive Boy’s
Comparative (COMP) Older
Superlative (SUP) Oldest
Present (PRES) Walks
Past (PAST) Walked
Past Participle (PAST PART) Driven
Present Participle (PRES PART) Driving

Derivational Affixes
Open-ended
There are a potentially infinite number of then
Ex: carefully, criticize

Derivational Prefixes
Ex• un-. dis-. anti-

Zero/Null Morphemes
Physically not present in the word

Empty Morphemes
Physically in the word but holds no actual meaning

Allomorphs
the positional alternants of a morpheme

 Phonological Conditioning
The phonological differences between the allomorphs of a morpheme are often
due to the phonological environment
Ex: when the last sound of the noun is a sibilant (i.e. /s,z,S,3,tf,dz), the
allomorph will be /iz/ as in boxes and bushes
 Lexical Conditioning
The one responsible for the alteration is the lexeme
Ex: Ox-Oxen

Word-Formation Processes
1. Derivation
This involves the addition of a derivational affix, changing the syntactic category
of the item to which it is attached.
Ex: orient (V) orientation (N
2. Category Extension
This involves the extension of a morpheme from one syntactic category to
another.
Ex: chair (N) chair (V)
3. Compound
This involves creating a new word by combining two tree morphemes
Open Compound Words
ex. Towel Rack
Coffee Cup

Closed Compound Words

ex. Everywhere

Hyphenated Compound Words

ex. Short-term
 4. Root Creation
A brand-new word based on no preexisting morpheme
Ex: Xerox
5. Clipped Form
A shortened form of a preexisting morpheme
Ex: brassiere - bra
6. Blend
A combination of parts of two preexisting forms
Ex: fog + smoke = smog
7. Acronym
A word formed from the first letter(s) of each word in a phrase
Ex: Initialism - FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)
8. Abbreviation
Word formed from the names or the first letters or the prominent syllables or a
word
Ex: Television = TV
9. Proper Name
This process forms a word from a proper name
Ex: Hamburg - hamburger
10. Folk Etymology
This process forms a word by substituting a common native form for an exotic
form with a similar pronunciation
Ex: cucuracha (- Spanish) cockroach
11. Back Formation
A word formed by removing what is mistaken for an affix
Ex: editor edit

Morphophonemic Processes

 Assimilation is a process that results from a sound becoming more like another
nearby sound in terms of one or more of its phonetic characteristics; a process in
which segments take on the characteristics of neighboring sounds; e.g. probable
-improbable; potent-Impotent; separable - inseparable; sensitive - Insensitive
 Dissimilation is a process that results in two sounds becoming less alike in
articulatory or acoustic terms: a process in which units Which occur In some
contexts are lost in others: e.g. libary instead or library, govenor for governor
 Deletion Is a process that removes a segment rom certain phonetic contexts. It
occurs in everyday rapid speech: e.g blind man
 Epenthesis Is a process that inserts a syllable or a nonsyllabic segment within an
existing string or segment: e.g. plaented “planted”
 Metathesis Is a process that reorders or reverses a sequence or segments: It
occurs When two segments In a series switch places, e.g. ask > aks: ruler >
lurer: violet > viloyet

SYNTAX
The study of the structure of phrases and sentences:
The study of sentence structure
The stud of phrases. clauses, and sentences

Sentences
are composed not directly out or words but of constituents which may consist of more
than one word called phrase.

Phrase
is an expression which is a constituent in a sentence and is the expansion of a head
(keyword).
It can happen that a phrase is realized by a single word

Syntactic Structures
 Structure of Predication- subject and predicate ex: the
seagulf flies
 Structure of Complementation- verbal ament and complement. ex:
disturbed the class
 Structure of Modification- head word and modifier ex. Trusted
friend
 Structure of Coordination- equivalent grammatical units ex. Bread
and butter

Grammatical Function

What constituents may perform in the sentence

Subject, predicate, object, adverbial

Syntactic Categories
They name the grammatical category to which the constituent belongs.
Ex: nouns. pronouns. verbs. noun phrase, verb phrase

Left-to-Right Ordering
The left-to-right sequence of items within a phrase is governed by principles that are
codified in phrase structure (PS) rules.

PS Rules
 PS rules specify three types of information
 Which elements are permitted in a particular toe or phrase
 The left-to-right ordering of those elements
 Whether any elements are optional
 Each PS rule consists of two basic parts. The material to the right of the arrow
specifies the phrasal category being described. The material to the right of the
arrow describes the items that comprise the phrasal category

1. Sentence
It consists or a noun phrase followed by a verb phrase
2. Noun Phrase
It must contain a noun. The noun may be preceded by a determiner, an adjective
phrase or both, and it may be followed by a prepositional phrase.
3. Verb Phrase
It must contain a verb. The verb may be followed by a noun phrase, and adjective
phrase, or neither. The verb phrase may end in a prepositional phrase, but need not.
4. Adjective Phrase
It must contain an adjective. The adjective may be preceded by an intensifier
5. Prepositional Phrase
It consists of a preposition followed by a noun phrase

Two Ways of Representation

1. Tree Diagram
PS rules form the basis for tree diagrams, which allow us to visualize how the
components in a phrase are related
Nodes: are the topmost point, the bottom points, and all those intermediate
points at which the tree branches
Labels: the abbreviated names of the categories to which the constituents
belong
Constituent: A word or a string of words is a constituent in a tree if there is a
node which exclusively dominates it.
 2. Labelled Bracketings

Recursion
Refers to the ability to repeat two types of phrases by embedding them in each
other- that is, by allowing each type to directly dominate the other type.

Transformation
An operation that moves a lexical or phrasal category (e.g., N, NP, V, VP) from one
location to another within a structure

Sentence Vs. Utterance

Sentence
 Any string of words produced by the sentence-forming rules of a language, these
rules are stored in native speaker's competence
 Constructs of competence, they are Ideal, abstract entitles
Utterance
 the physical realization of a sentence in a real situation of language use
 they often contain imperfections, such as hesitations, tale starts, lack of concord,
etc.

SEMANTICS
 the study of meaning
 the study of linguistic meaning; that is, the meaning of words, phrases and
sentences
 the study of the meaning of meaningful units

Lexical Decomposition
 This method represents the sense of a word in terms of the semantic features
that comprise it
 This method allows us to characterize the senses of a potentially infinite set of
words with a finite number of semantic features

Three Areas of the Study of Semantics

 Sense
 Reference
 Truth Conditions

Sense
The study of sense (meaning can be divided into two areas: speaker-sense and
linguistic sense
 Speaker-Sense
o The speaker's intention in producing some linguistic expression
o Non-literal meaning
o Situationally-independent meaning
 Linguistic-Sense
o The meaning of a linguistic expression as part of a language
o Literal meaning
o Situationally-dependent meaning

Sense Relation Between Words

Ambiguity
 A word is lexically ambiguous if it has more than one sane
 Ex: the word 'set
Homonymy
 Two or more phonologically and orthographically identical lexemes have
completely different, unrelated meanings
Ex: ball (round object that you can throw or kick) vs. ball (social event at
which you can dance)

Polysemy
 The meaning of one lexeme is metaphorically extended on the basis of some
similarity
Ex: leg (of a man) vs. leg (of a table)

Synonymy
 Two words are synonymous if they have the same sense: that is, if they have
the same values for all of their semantic features
Ex: conceal and hide; big and large; tiny and minute
 Note: in all likelihood, there are no absolute synonyms in any language- that is,
words that mean exactly the same thing in all contexts

Hyponymy

 A word that contains the meaning of a more general word, known as the
superordinate
 A word whose meaning contains all the same feature values of another word,
plus some additional feature values.
 Also referred to as Inclusion
 Ex: oak contains the meaning of tree: therefore, oak is a hvponym of the
superordinate tree

Antonymy
 Two words are antonyms if their meanings differ only in the value for a single
semantic feature
 Antonyms fall into at least three groups:

1. Binary Antonyms
Are pairs that exhaust all linguistic possibilities along some dimension
Ex: dead and alive

2. Gradable Antonyms
Are pairs that describe opposite ends or a continuous dimension
Ex: Hot and cold

3. Converse Antonyms
Are pairs that describe the relationship between two items from opposite perspectives
: above and below

Reference
The study of reference can be divided into two areas: speaker-reference and linguistic-
reference

1. Speaker-Reference
What the speaker is referring to by using some linguistic expression.

2. Linguistic-Reference
Is the systematic denotation of some linguistic expression as part of a language

Referent
The entity identified by the use of a referring expression such as a noun or a noun
phrase is the referent or that expression
Extension
The set of all potential referents for a referring expression

Prototype
A typical member of the extension of a referring expression is a prototype of that
expression

Stereotype
A list of characteristics describing a prototype Is said to be a stereotype
Coreference
Two linguistic expressions that refer to the same real-world entity are said to be
coreferential

Anaphora
A linguistic expression that refers to another linguistic expression is said to be anaphoric
or an anaphor

Deixis
A deictic expression has one meaning but can refer to different entities depending on
the speaker and his or her spatial and temporal orientation

Truth

The study of truth or truth conditions in semantics falls into two basic categories: the
study of different types or truth embodied in individual sentences and the study of
different types of truth relations that hold between sentences.

Analytic Sentences
 Is one that is necessarily true simply by the virtue of the words in It
 We do not need to check on the outside world to verity the truth of the sentence
 True by definition
 Analytic sentence are sometimes referred to as linguistic truths, because they
are true by virtue of the language itself.
Ex: A bachelor is an unmarried.

Contradictory Sentences
 Is one that is necessarily false as a result of the words in them
 Contradictory sentences are sometimes referred to as linguistic falsities, because
they are false by virtue of the language itself.
Ex: A bachelor Is a married man.

Synthetic Sentences
 Synthetic sentences are not true or false because of the words that comprise
them, but rather because they do or do not accurately describe some state of
affairs in the world
 They are sometimes referred to as empirical truths or falsities, because they are
true or false by virtue of the state of the extralinguistic world.
Ex: My next door neighbor, Bud Brown, is married

Entailment
 It Is a proposition expressed in a sentence that follows necessarily from another
sentence.
 The relation of entailment is unidirectional
Ex: Martina aced Chemistry entails Martina passed Chemistry.

Presupposition
 It is a proposition expressed in a sentence that must be assumed to be true in
order to judge the truth or falsity of another sentence
PRAGMATICS
 The study or language use in particular situations
 It deals with the ways in which language-users use and interpret words and
utterances in particular situations (linguistic and physical context
 The study of how language is affected by the context in which it occurs
 The study of intended speaker-meaning

Implicature
 An implied proposition or statement that is not part of the utterance and that
does not follow as a necessary consequence of the utterance.
Ex. John: Uncle Chester is coming over for dinner tonight
Marv: I quess I'd better hide the liquor
Implicature: Uncle Chester has a drinking problem

Three important points to note;

1. The implicature is not part of the utterance.

2. The implicature is not an entailment
3. It is possible for an utterance to raise more than one implicature

Conversational Maxims
 Cooperative Principle: the assumption that participants in a conversation are
cooperating with each other

1. Maxim of Quantity
Each participant's contribution to a conversation should be no more or less informative
than required.
2. Maxim or Quality
Each participant's contribution should be truthful and based on sufficient evidence
3. Maxim of Relation
Each participant’s contribution should he relevant to the subject of the conversation
4. Maxim or Manner
Each participant's contribution should be expressed in a reasonably clear fashion; that
is, it should not be vague, ambiguous, or excessively wordy.

Flouting
 The intentional violation of a maxim for the purpose of conveying an unstated
proposition

Speech Acts
 An utterance can be used to perform an act

Locutionary Act
 The act of simply uttering a sentence from a language
 It is a description of what the speaker says.
 It is the act or using a referring expression and a predicating expression to
express a proposition

Illocutionary Act
 This is what the speaker does in uttering a sentence

Perlocutionary Act
 the reaction of the hearers

Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts

1. Representative
An utterance used to describe some state of affairs
Stating, asserting, denying, confessing, admitting, notifying, concluding, predicting
Ex: Javier plays golf.

2. Directive
An utterance used to try to get the hearer to do something
Requesting, ordering, forbidding, warning, advising, suggesting, Insisting,
recommending
Ex: Shut the door.

3. Question
An utterance used to get the hearer to provide information
Ex: Who won the 2008 presidential election?

4. Commissive

An utterance used to commit the speaker to do something

Promising, vowing, volunteering, offering, guaranteeing, pledging, betting
Ex: /'ll be back by 10:00 pm.

5. Expressive
An utterance used to express the sneaker's emotional state
Thanking, congratulating, condoling, welcoming, deploring, objecting
Ex: I'm sorry for calling you a dweeb.

6. Declaration
An utterance used to change the status of some entity
Appointing, naming, resigning, baptizing, surrendering, excommunicating, arresting
Ex: You're fired.