TAGMEMICS

Kenneth L. Pike (1948)

1. Definition of Tagmemics
2. Types of Tagmemics Construction
2.1 Obligatory or Optional Construction
2.2 Nuclear or Peripheral Construction
2.2.1 Nuclear and Obligatory
2.2.2 Nuclear and Optional
2.2.3 Peripheral (and Optional)
2.3 Movable or Fixed Order Construction
• Dr. Kenneth L. Pike, 1912-2000
• Professor of Linguistics at the
University of Michigan
• President of Linguistic Society of
America and SIL International
• Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
on 15 consecutive years.
• Also known for his entertaining stories,
poetry and songs and his blue cape.
 Where and When

• Pike develop tagmemics while doing research and teaching

linguistics.
• He wanted a theory that was easy to learn and easy to use.
• …but complex enough to explain real language.
• The Swiss-Army knife of linguistic theories.
Tagmemics
• is originally derived from the word “tagmeme.” it comes
from the Greek word tagma meaning “arrangement.”
• It refers to the function or slot of a grammatical unit and the
class or words fills the slot.
• Matthews defines the tagmemics is “the relation between a
syntactic ‘slot’ or function, such as subject or object, and a
class of units, such as noun phrase or pronoun, that can fill it.”
• Robins gives a following definition of the tagmemics by stating that
“A tagmeme is a place in a structure (syntactic or morphological)
together with the formal class of elements occupying that place (often
referred to in the literature as a ‘slot’ with its ‘filler’).
• is a type of arrangement of sentence function named ‘slot’ and the
kind of word class put in it.
Example: He loves Jill.
• This sentence has three tagmemes: subject filled by pronoun he,
predicate filled by transitive verb loves, and object filled by (proper)
noun Jill.
Four Principle
Features
1. Slot - where the unit can
appear
2. Filler Class – what type of
unit it is
3. Role – how the unit functions
4. Cohesion – how the unit
relates to other units
 He loves Jill.

+S:pn+P:tv+O:n

Symbols to represent • for the noun or pronoun in a

the function: subject slot and object slot,
there is a possibility of
writing the tagmemics by
using this model:
+S:pn+P:tv+O:n
Types of Tagmemics Construction
1. Obligatory or Optional Construction – a tagmeme that occurs in every
manifestation of the structure in a given data. It is marked with a plus (+)
sign to indicate that it must occur whenever the construction occurs.

Example: they kiss flowers

• This sentence can be formulated with: +S:pn+P:tv+O:n (a noun subject is
followed by a transitive verb predicate, and this must be followed by a
noun object)
Optional Tagmeme – occurs in some but not all of the manifestations of the
construction.
• It is marked with a plus/minus (±) sign to indicate that it may occur, but
need not necessarily occurs, whenever the construction occurs.

Example: John eats (meat). +S:n+P:tv±O:n

A noun subject is followed by a transitive verb predicate, and this

may not be followed by a noun object.
Types of Tagmemics Construction
2. Nuclear or Peripheral Construction
• Nuclear construction is a tagmeme that is diagnostic of the construction in
which it occurs. It may be either obligatory or optional tagmeme.
• Peripheral or Satellite or Marginal – is a tagmeme that is not diagnostic
for the construction in which it occurs. It is always optional.
Note: All obligatory tagmemes are nuclear, but not all nuclear tagmemes
are not obligatory; all optional tagmemes are not peripheral, but all
peripheral tagmemes are optional.
Tree-way classification of tagmemes (Longacre)

1. Nuclear and obligatory

2. Nuclear and optional
3. Peripheral (and optional)
 1. Nuclear and Obligatory
Example: The monkey eats banana.
• This shows that the word monkey filled the slot as
subject and its class is a noun phrase. The role for
the word monkey is as an actor and it is in an
obligatory position.
2. Nuclear and Optional

Example: The monkey eats banana.

• The function of the word eats is as nucleus
predicate and its class is verb. The role of eat is
as a statement and it is a transitive verb.
3. Peripheral (and Optional)

Example: The monkey eats banana.

• The function of the word banana is as object and
it filled by noun. Its role is as undergoer (object)
and it is optional, can be replaced by other
words in similar class.
Types of Tagmemics Construction

3. Movable or Fixed Order Construction

• Tagmemes are generally assumed to occur in the position in which they are
represented in fixed linear sequence, string.
• Since English has movable word order (Sunida is, after all, a student. Vs.
After all, Sunida is a student.), this feature of English constructions can be
formally indicated
Example
• This tagmemic formulation indicates that the
construction has movable tagmemes and that movable
tagmemes are also optional. It is possible to say the
following in English:
Montira drove the car (on weekdays) (to work) / or
Montira drove the car (to work) (on weekdays) / or (On
weekdays), Montira drove the car (to work).
Conclusion

• Tagmemics is a new breakthrough of learning grammar. It is developed by

Kenneth L. Pike.
• The nature concept of tagmemics is the tagmeme.
• The tagmemics has four principle features: slot, filler class, role, and
cohesion.
• The tagmemics development meets with two periods, the first period marked
by identification of tagmemics component of slot and filler. The latter
development marked by adding the role and cohesion.
References

Longacre, Robert E. 1964. "Some fundamental insights of

tagmemics”.
Matthews, P.H., 1997. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics,
Oxford: Oxford University Press
Randal, Allison, 2002. “Tagmemics: an introduction to linguistics for
Perl Developers or “Wouldn’t know tagmeme if it bit me on the
parse”.
Thank you!
CHRISTY JOY DECREPITO
JC JUN C. GALLERA
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