Aspects of LanguageAspects of Language

According to linguists, there are three key aspects of language:

a.Formb.Meaningc.Use

Evi Uswatun KhasanahEvi Uswatun KhasanahPost Graduate of UNNESPost Graduate of UNNES

Form can be described as the structure of a language, or the “what” of language.

Talking about form requires a metalanguage – a language about language.

FormForm

Meaning is the most difficult aspect of language to talk about. Remember the conversation between Humpty Dumpty and Alice.

MeaningMeaning

““When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”to mean – neither more nor less.”““The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make the words mean so many different things.”the words mean so many different things.”““The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.”be master – that’s all.”

Use entails choosing from among available language forms and being aware of the effect these choices might have on our audience in specific contexts.

UseUse

Linguists use special terms for discussion of each of these aspects.

FORM MEANING USE

MorphologySyntax

PhonologySemantics Pragmatics

Form refers to the way in which a language is given structure and shape in writing or in speech.

There are three interdependent areas:- Morphology- Syntax, and- Phonology

FORMFORM

MorphologyMorphology is the study of

morphemes and the way they combine to form words.

A morpheme can be defined as the smallest meaningful unit in a language.

Example: the word ‘unwillingly’ is formed from four morphemes:

‘un’ + ‘will’ + ‘ing’ + ‘ly’‘un’, ‘ing’, ‘ly’ are called bound

morphemes, whereas ‘will’ is the base word.

Bound morphemes are never used on their own; they must be attached to base words as prefixes (at the front of a word) or suffixes ( at the end of a word).

Morphemes can have grammatical function.

For example, ‘ed’ in the sentence, ‘He walked there’, shows that the action represented by the verb ‘walk’ has been completed.

SyntaxSyntax is the way words combine to

form sentences and the rules which govern those combinations.

Syntactical structures in a language are arrangements of words into larger units called phrases, clauses, and sentences.

PhraseA phrase is a grammatical unit made up of a group of words with one head word that defines the type of phrase.

ClauseA clause is a larger grammatical unit, typically containing at least one noun phrase (as grammatical subject) and a verb phrase.

Example:1. When you go there, you’ll find out for yourself.

When you go there (Dependent Clause)you’ll find out for yourself ( Independent Clause)

2. The girl who worked in that CD shop left two days ago.

The clause in underlined is a relative clause. It relates to or modifies the noun phrase. It often introduced by relative pronouns such as who, which, whose, that.

PhonologyPhonology involves describing the sound patterns of a language.

Some key features:a. Phonemes

A phoneme is a smallest sound segment which can differentiate meanings. The number of phonemes varies from one language to another and indeed even across varieties of the same language.Example, Standard English as it is taught in Singapore has 44 phonemes, of which 24 are consonants and the remaining 20 vowels.

b. Word StressWords which have more than one syllable (polysyllabic words) are given a distinctive shape through the use of word stress.Stress positions in a word can change to indicate different parts of speech.Example, ‘protest’ can be pronounced as ‘PROtest’ (noun) or ‘proTEST’ (verb). There are also differences between British and American English in this respect, for example, presenTAtion (UK) and PREsentation (US).

c. IntonationIntonation can be defined as variations in pitch and loudness in speech. There are several aspects of intonation: Prominence and Tone. (Brazil:1997)Prominence refers to the highlighting of words in context.A: Where are the magazines? You said they were ON the TAble.B: Look UNder the table.

Tone is the rise and fall in pitch that occurs over prominent words. Pitch movements can be indicated by arrows,

(rise) (level)(fall)

Aspects of Language Form

FORM

MorphologyMorphemes

Words

SyntaxPhrasesClauses

Phonology

PhonemesSyllables

ProminenceTone

The study of meaning in language is known as semantics (Crystal, 1987; Leech, 1981; McCarthy, 1990). In semantics, the focus is mostly on meaning which is relatively fixed and does not vary with context.

MeaningMeaning

Conceptual and Connotative MeaningConceptual and Connotative Meaning Conceptual (denotative) meaning is what

a word refers to or denotes, such as a person, a thing or an event. For example, man means an adult who is not a female.

Associative (connotative) meaning is when a word has an additional sense that is beyond its conceptual meaning.

We could call someone an angel because of certain characteristics in that person that are associated with our concept of this celestial being. We are not saying literally that they are an angel!

Sense RelationsSense Relations Words and their meanings do not exist in

isolation, however. The two most important ones are the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships.

The syntagmatic relationship refers to the way words are related to each other in sequence. For example, articles (a,an,the) and most adjectives (e.g. big, bright, smooth) always occur before a noun and not after it.

The paradigmatic relationship refers to the way words belonging to the same set can be substituted for one other at a given point in a sequence of words.

Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic Relations

That – is – a – rather – Problematic – situation.ComplicatedDifficultTroublesome

Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic RelationsParadigmatic relationships are seen in

hyponymy, synonymy, and antonymy.Hyponymy is a relationship between two

words where the meaning of one word is subsumed within the meaning of another.

Synonymy is the relationship of sameness of meaning.

Antonymy is the relationship of oppositeness of meaning.

So far, our discussion of meaning in language has been limited to vocabulary, the focus of traditional semantics.

Contemporary semantics is also concerned with other types of meaning, including grammatical meaning, prosodic meaning (related to intonation) and pragmatic and social meaning (related to speech acts).

The study of the language in society and the myriad factors that influence it is called Pragmatics (Levinson, 1983;Thomas, 1995)

We use language for communicative purposes. These communicative purposes are influenced by socio-cultural conventions of the community we belong to.

UseUse

When we say something to someone, we not only use the form of the language to structure our message, but we also use background knowledge to make assumptions about our relationship with the listener, the context in which the utterance is made, the topic we are engaged in and the type of behavior that is permissible.

Speech ActsCommunication is using words to get things done

and to create an effect on our audience. The different functions that speech performs in interpersonal communication are termed speech acts ( Austin, 1962)

The effects of speech acts can be analyzed by considering the following:

• Locutionary act (the utterance made)• Illocutionary act (the function of the utterance)• Perlocutionary act (the effect on the listener)

Direct and Indirect Speech ActsDirect speech acts, such as commands and

straightforward requests, are often realized through imperative and interrogative statements.

Indirect speech acts often ‘disguise’ themselves in other forms.

Text type and TextA text type is a conventional form for

organizing messages in a structured way that fits the purpose of the participants in the communication. For example, in a recount text.

Coherence and CohesionSuccessful texts require more than formally

correct words, phrases, and sentences at the lowest level and clear generic structure at the highest level. They also need coherence and cohesion.

Coherence refers to a consistency of topic and completeness of information in a paragraph or larger stretch of text, or even the whole text.

Cohesion refers to the grammatical and lexical features in a text which make it ‘hang together’ when you read.

Cohesive Devicesa. Referenceb. Substitution and Ellipsisc. Conjunctiond. Lexical Cohesione. Reiterationf. Collocation

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