FIVE COMPONENTS OF

LANGUAGE
FIVE COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE

▰ Phonology
▰ Morphology
▰ Semantics
▰ Syntax
▰ Pragmatics

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 PHONOLOGY

▰ Refers to the basic sounds or phonemes that are used in a language and the
rules for combining these sounds.
▰ English discriminates “b” and “p” / combines “t” and “h” “th”
▰ E.g.) “a” in “mat” / “a” in “mate”

▰ Each language uses its own phonologies

▰ Children must learn how to discriminate, produce and combine the
speechlike sound of their native tongue in order to make sense of the speech
they hear and to be understood.
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 MORPHOLOGY

▰ Refers to the rules governing the formation of meaningful words from

sounds
▰ Theses rules include forming past tense of verb by adding “-ed”
▰ Rules of plurals by adding “-s”

4
 SEMANTICS

▰ Refer to the meaning expressed in words and sentences

▰ As their knowledge of semantics develops, children are able to understand
the subtle distinction.
▰ E.g.) “Ellie was hit by a ball”
(an answer to the question of why Ellie doesn’t want to play catch)
“A ball hit Ellie” (used to announce the current situation)

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 SYNTAX

▰ Refers to the structure of a language

▰ The rules specifying how words and grammatical markers are
to be combined to produce meaningful sentences.
E.g.) The boy jumped happily. (Subject + Verb + Adverb)
The boy happily jumped. (Subject + Adverb + Verb)
Happily, the boy jumped. (Adverb + Subject + Verb)

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 PRAGMATICS

▰ Refers to the knowledge of how language might be used to

communicate effectively

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SOCIOLINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE

▰ Refer to culturally specific rules specifying how language should be

structured and used in particular social context