form of the message

8/2/2019 Form of the Message

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Formal Properties of Language: Form of

the Message


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The components of language:

1. the sounds of language

2. the structure of language

3. and the meanings of language

Talk is achieved through the

interdependent components

of sounds, words, sentences,

and meanings.


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Phonology

The Sounds of Language

Phonetics

Description of the raw

sounds of language

Phonemics

The comparative analysis of

sounds to differentiate meaning.

"perro" (dog)

"pero" (but)Phone= raw sound


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the study of the articulation ofsounds that occur in a

language describes how sounds are

produced or articulated bymanipulation of vocalapparatus.

Sounds vary according to:

the positions of speech organs

the points of articulation

the control of the air flow

the manner of articulation.

Phonetics

The Vocal Apparatus


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If the vocal chords are close together when air passes through they

vibrate to produce voiced sounds

all vowels in English and some consonants (b, d, andg, forexample) are voiced.

Voiceless sounds (also called unvoicedsounds) are made when the

vocal cords are not vibrating (consonantsp, t, and k, for example, are

voiceless).Voiceless consonant Voiced equivalent

[p] (pin) [b] (bin)

[t] (ten) [d] (den)

[k] (con) [g] (gone)

[t] (chin) [d] (gin)

[f] (fan) [v](van)

[] (thin, thigh) [] (then, thy)

[s] (sip) [z] (zip)

[] (pressure) [] (pleasure)

Voiced and voiceless


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pairs of words whose pronunciation differs at only one segment,

such as sheep and ship or lice and rice.

it is the existence of minimal pairs which enables linguists to build

up the phoneme inventory for a language or dialect

Minimal pairs:

cheerversusjeerwhich differ only in voicing.

You should have heard them ?eering at the end of the game.

you would have to perceive the voicing in order to know exactlywhat was meant.


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Oral or Nasal In oral sounds most air is expelled via the oral cavity (mouth).

Typically the velum (soft palate) is raised at the back of the mouth

to block the passage of air into the nasal cavity. In nasal sounds the velum is lowered, to allow airflow through the

nasal cavity.

M and N and Ng (eng ()) are nasal consonants

All languages have some nasal consonants (except around Pugetsound and on Bougainville Island)


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Place of articulation

Where the sound is formed (articulated) in the mouth


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The degree of interference or modification of the airstream as it

passes through the oral cavity

ConsonantsStops

consonants produced by complete blocking of the airflow through the oral

cavity.

Manner of Articulation

Fricatives

consonants formed by impeding the flow of air somewhere in the vocalapparatus so that a friction-sound is produced.

Because the flow of breath is heard in producing fricatives, fricatives are

also called spirants.

Fricatives may be voiced or voiceless

Liquids

little obstruction of airstream results in modification but no turbulence

(e.g. l and r)

Affricatives

complete closure followed by narrow opening for air to go through e.g.

chin in


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Glides(semivowels) little obstruction,

intermediate between consonants and vowels

Dipthongs (or glide vowels)

involve movement of the sound from one position to another.

Vowels


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(Bi-)Labial consonants are produced by

creating a closure with both lips. Englishlacks bilabial fricatives, but these are

found in Japanese ('Fuji'), and in Spanish

('deber').

Labiodental consonants are

produced by raising the lower lip to

the upper teeth. English has onlyfricative labiodentals, and no stops.


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In English, the interdental consonants

are also all fricatives. th

English alveolar consonants are formed

by raising the tip of the tongue to the

alveolar ridge, lies right behind the teeth.

There are both fricatives and stops.

Very few palatals in English, just twoaffricates and the glide [j].

Spanish has a palatal nasal, as found in the

word for 'year', 'ano'..


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English has few velar consonants. No

fricatives, for example. But these are

sometimes pronounced in words

borrowed into English from languages

which do have velar fricatives, e.g. from

German, 'Bach'.

No uvular consonants in English but they

are found in many languages. E.g. both

French and some varieties of German havea uvular 'r' sound. Uvular stops are also

common in many languages.


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International Phonetic Alphabet

(IPA)

a system of phonetic notationbased on the Latin alphabet

devised by the International

Phonetic Association as a

standardized representation of thesounds of spoken language

The general principle of the IPA

is to provide one symbol for each

distinctive sound

Applicable to all languages

No language uses all the possible

sounds

phonetic notation


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Vowelsounds Vowels are produced by relative openness of the vocal tract

Differences in vowel quality are produced by movement of the

tongue and rounding or unrounding of the lips

This changes the resonance in the oral cavity


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Phonetic vowel sounds

There are three key questions to consider when describing vowel

articulation.

1. How close is the tongue to the roof of the mouth?

2. Where is the narrowest constriction in the oral cavity?

3. What is the position of the lips?

Vowel sounds
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/linguistics/resources/phonetics/vowelmap/index.htmlhttp://www.utexas.edu/courses/linguistics/resources/phonetics/vowelmap/index.html


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Phonemics a phoneme is the smallest structural unit that

distinguishes meaning contrasts signal differences in meanings of words

Phonemics is the analysis of how sounds

(phonemes) differentiate meanings of words An example of a phoneme is the /t/ sound in the

words tip, stand, water, and cat. (In transcription,phonemes are placed between slashes, as here.)

For example, in English /b/:pit versus bit


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French also has a "t" sound that is similar to the English phone,

but is actually produced by placing the tongue on the teeth rather

than the hard palate.

It is represented by a different character in the InternationalPhonetic Alphabet.

The difference between the "t's" in the two languages can be heard

in the production of the words: bait and bete

"bait" (English) "bte" (French: stupid)


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The French dental "t" derives from a wider practice preferring the

teeth to the alveolar ridge as a point of articulation.

Thus the "l" sound, which is articulated on the hard palate inEnglish, is produced in French by placing the tongue on the upper

teeth, is audible in the difference between bell and belle

"belle" (French: beautiful)bell" (English)


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In English the difference between "d" and "th" is phonemic as evident in

the minimal pairs "den" vs. "then."

In Spanish these two sounds are allophones of one phoneme usually

represented as d in the written language

They appear in complementary rather than contrastive positions.

The true "d" always occurs at the beginning of a word as in the word:

"donut" (doughnut)

The "th" fricative form occurs between two vowels as in: bebida (drink)

Observe the two different pronunciations of the d sound in the followingsentence:

"De me una bebida helada y un donut". (Give me a cold drink and a

doughnut)

I C di E li h h h / / h fi diff


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In Canadian English, the phoneme /t/ has five different

pronunciations.

This means that /t/ has 5 allophones.

Each pronunciation depends on the phonetic context in

which /t/ occurs.

the allophones and their contexts appear in the words

top, stop, little, kitten, and hunter.

The differences in the pronunciation of each of these /t/'s

are subtle to native ears; you may not discern them right

away. But they may be substantial for speakers of other

languages.


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The particular sounds which are phonemic in a language can

change over time. At one time, [f] and [v] were allophones in English, but these

later changed into separate phonemes.

This is one of the main factors of historical change of

languages

In English and many other languages, the liquids /l/ and /r/

are two separate phonemes (minimal pair 'life', 'rife')

In Korean these two liquids are allophones of the same

phoneme,

the general rule is that [] comes before a vowel, and [l] does

not (e.g.Seoul,Korea).

A native speaker will tell you that the [l] in Seoul and the []

in Korean are in fact the same sound.


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those aspects of speech which go beyond phonemes and deal with

the auditory qualities of sound.

The collective term used to describe variations in pitch, intonation,

(define) stress, loudness, tempo, rhythm and length

In spoken communication, we use and interpret these features

without really thinking about them.

There are various conventional ways of representing them in

writing, although the nuances are often hard to convey on paper.

Prosodic features


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"Do the dance organizers need people such that those people

decorate the dance location?" -Do they need people to DECORATE?

OR

"Do the dance organizers need people such that the organizers

decorate those people?". -Do they need PEOPLE to decorate?

Stress


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stress or accent refers to the degree of emphasis placed on the

syllables of words in multisyllabic words; stress is not evenly

distributed on all the syllables

can serve to alter the meaning or function In English the difference in stress signals the difference between a

noun and a verb

Nouns are stressed on the first syllable and verbs on the second

present

object

construct

implant

"record" (stressed-unstressed) and "record" (unstressed-stressed).

Tempo


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The pace of speech is called.

Fast speech can convey urgency, whereas slower speech can be

used for emphasis. Varying the tempo is ofetn used for effect in public speaking, often

accompanying changes in loudness.

When reading stories to children, we can vary the tempo and

loudness to reinforce the meaning of the words.

Then carefully,

Tenderly,

Gently he crept

Up the trunk to the nest where the little egg slept. Dr Seuss:

Horton Hatches the Egg

Tempo

Juncture refers to the length of pauses between two syllables and

distinguishes the term "greenhouse," with a short pause, from

"green house," with a long one.


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Pitch Pitch = frequency of sound

The perceived pitch of a sound is just the ear's response to

frequency sounds can be ordered on a scale from low to high.

changes in the relative tension of the vocal chords in the

production of syllables results in variation in pitch

Pitch generally occurs with vowels

Pitch is a feature of all languages on units of clauses and or

sentences

Statement: This is living!"

Question: "This is living?"

The second sentence is distinguished from the first by the

placement of a rising tone on the last syllable.

In English declarative sentences and questions are characterized

by contrastive pitch elementsand are this phonemic

T


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Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish words or

grammatical meaningto inflect words.

To inflect a word (inflection) is to modify or mark it to reflectgrammatical information, such as gender, tense, number, case, or

person.

All languages use pitch to express emotional and other

paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and

intonation

Over the worlds languages use pitch as phonemes, analogously

to consonants and vowels, to distinguish the meaning of words .

Most Asian languages such as Chinese and Thai, African languages

such as Yoruba, Zulu, and Luganda and Native language such asSarcee and Navaho use pitch in this way

Called tonal languages

Most Indo-European languages are not tonal.

Tone


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In the most familiar tonal language, Chinese, most syllables carry

their own tone

words tend to be short, and many are differentiated solely by tone.

Thai tonesChinese tones

Mandarin Chinese

Meaning primarily determined by tone

MaHigh= Mother

Rising=horse

Falling=scolding

Tone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nlw4NJdnNEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7YbjQR9Lzohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7YbjQR9Lzohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nlw4NJdnNE


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Tone

This communication medium is based ontwo drums one of which has a low and the

other a high tone.

Messages are produced by drumming a

sequence of lows and highs that matches the

spoken syllable patterns.The following drum message in Twi is

transmitted by Radio Ghana to introduce its

evening news broadcast:

Ghana mo tie (Ghana listen: high-low-high-

high-high)Drum signals were used to communicate

with people beyond the range of the human

voice in Africa before the electronic age.

The tonal patterns of African languages form the basis for an interesting

non-verbal form of communication known as drum language.


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Grammar

Morphology Syntax

Rules about how

words are to bearranged to make a

meaningful sentence

Rules about how

words are to beconstructed to

create meaning

the rules governing the use of a language

Morphology: The Structure of Words


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Morphology: The Structure of Words

how phonemes are combined by language into larger units

Words are composed of units of sound and meaning called

morphemes

A morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has meaning.

In spoken language, morphemes are composed of phonemes

A morpheme is free if it can stand alone e.g. Cat, sing, good, happy.

(also called roots or stems)

Free morphemes refer to or name objects, events, ideas, etc.

Bound morphemes are attached to a free morpheme and cannot

stand alone.

A word may thus contain more than one morpheme


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Bound morphemes attached to stems are called affixes

Three basic kinds

Prefixes at the beginning - un-happy

Suffixes at the end of a stem - happy-ness

Infixes in the middle - fikas: fumikas (Strong ---He is becoming

strong)

They express grammatical or relational meanings, such as number,

tense, person, gender, or case

Cat-s the animal and the plural

Dis-like

Sing-ing

Qasirrsarrvigssarsingitluinarpugsomeone did not find a completely suitable resting place

i i


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Morphemes can be added to words in cycles producing longer and more

complex sequences

Act

Act-ive

In-act-iveIn-act-iv-ity

Incorrectly

Allomorphs are morphemes that have the same meaning but a different

sound e.g. English plural suffix (-s) has three allomorphs

/iz/ following sibilants (s,z,sh,zh,ch,j) class classes

/-s/ following voiceless consonants cat, cats

/-z/ following voiced consonants and vowels tub, tubs, bee, bees

Irregularities between form and meaning in construction of words do

occur

E.g. plurals formed by vowel changes in the stem

Mouse/mice foot/feet, woman/women

Childrens desire for rule consistency often leads to mistakes sheeps Eat, ate, eated


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Morphological Typologies

Classification of languages according to how they structurewords out of morphemes

Isolating languages: few morphemes, simple method:

prefix and suffix (English, Chinese)

Agglutinating languages: words containing many

morphemes,highly regular rules (Turkish, Blackfoot)

Synthetic or polysynthetic: Words containing many

morphemes, very complex rules (Mohawk, Greek, Russian,Inuktitut)

Grammatical Concepts


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Grammatical Concepts

Morphemes express lexical (word) or grammatical meaning

Grammatical meaning includes concepts applying to nouns, verbs,

modifiers and so on.

Some common concepts of nouns are case, number and gender

Case refers to grammatical relationships between nouns e.g.subject or object

Some languages, called inflecting mark cases with affixes

Latin Cases


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Nominative: used when the noun is the subject of the sentence or

phrase

Vocative: used when the noun is used in a direct addressAccusative: used when the noun is the direct object of the

sentence/phrase,

Genitive: used when the noun is the possessor of an object

Dative: used when the noun is the indirect object of the sentence

Ablative: used when the noun demonstrates separation or movement

from a source, cause, agent, or instrument

Latin Cases

SINGULAR PLURAL

NOM. familia familiae

GEN. familiae familiarum

DAT. familiae familiis

ACC. familiam familias

ABL. familia familiis

English :

household

Grammatical meanings


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Grammatical meanings

Different languages may express different grammatical concepts in

different ways

number some languages do not indicate singular/non-singular differences but

rely on context or separate enumerators.

some languages have one two and plural

Inuktitut igloo (a house), igluk (two houses), iglut (three or more

houses)

definite and indefinite a/the - some languages do not mark

Gender (a separate marked class) (Romance Languages)

shape and texture e.g. Navajo

Tense - time of an events occurrence I visited the zoo

aspectmanner in which an event occursI am visiting the zoo

modelikelihood of an events occurrence or speakers attitude toward an

occurrenceI could visit the zoo


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Syntax: The Structure of

Sentences rules that determine how words should be

combined in sentences and phrases to make sense

to speakers of a language In English (and Chinese) word order is critical

for meaning (you, are, and there)

There you are,You are there,

Are you there?


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Every language has rules of syntax that describe order of words

Most languages organize the three basic units of subject, object

and verb in one of three patterns.

VerbSubject-Object Subject-Verb-Object

Subject-Object-Verb

Syntactic patterns are often used to express case relations between

words. English signals case by word order

The dog chased the cat

The cat chased the dog.

Russian, an inflecting language, uses affixes to mark case so words

can come in any order

Deep Structure and Surface Structure


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Because subjects precede objects in most languages this pattern probably

reflects human cognition

Deep Structure and Surface Structure

Noam Chomsky

Chomsky introduced the distinctionbetween surface structuresthe surface

appearance of sentences as they appear in

actual speech and deep structure, the

underlying order of words as they are

generated by basic phrase structure rules Deep structure is transformed into surface

structure by transformations of the deep

structure to result in actual speech

Transformation grammar provides insights

that enable linguists to decipher he origin ofambiguity in sentences

Flying planes can be dangerous.

S ti Th A l i f M i


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Semantics: The Analysis of Meaning

The role of language is to express the speakers meaning.

Meaning is encoded in morphemes that have meaning (semanticcontent)

The morphemes are then combined with others to produce further

meaning (words)

Words are combined with other words to create even more

meaning (syntax)

But understanding syntax is not enough

colorless green ideas sleep furiously although grammaticallycorrect is meaningless


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Words have referential meaningi.e. They label things- persons,

objects, events

But they also have cultural meanings, reflecting

attitudes, values, or shared symbols (e.g. apple pie)

Semantic Analysis is thus complex because

meaning includes many kinds of input

l h l / i h l


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The words used and their order can vary depending on the context

e.g. Formal or informal.

Or the relationship between the people interacting (e.g. Dr

Jones/sweetheart)

Or on cultural meanings

please pass the salt/gimme the salt.

Can also indicate attitudes of

the speakers (affective

meaning) e.g. John told me

about his accomplishments/

John boasted about hisaccomplishments)


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Nouns may contain several semantic features

Count/mass

Specific/generic

Potent/impotent

Animate/inanimate

Masculine/feminine

Human/nonhuman

COW: count, potent, animate, feminine, nonhuman

What is a cow?


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semantic features may be expressed by various linguistic means

some languages mark features of animate/inanimate mass/count/

definite/indefinite etc.

In English animate and inanimate nouns are distinguished by theirability to occur as subjects of certain verbs

e.g. only animate nouns can be subjects of breathe, eat or sleep

count nouns can be counted things like water cannot

definite and indefinite are signalled by the or a

Verbs can be actions, processes, or states

Only certain nouns can accompany certain verbs

action: Jane ran not the wood ran

process: the wood dried action/process: Jane dried the wood

state: the wood is dry

C i i


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Kinesics: gesture, facial expressions, eye contact and body posture

Proxemics: includes uses of touch and definitions of personal

spaceProxemics and kinesics are important components of participants

messages.

There are universal and culturally specific behaviour patterns

Non-Verbal Communication

Non-verbal actions that look

the same in different systems

may have different meaningsbecause the meanings are

culturally constructed and

assigned


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Some gestures can express a specific

meaning, often substituting for spoken

words. e.g. head nods to signal assent, or

shrugging the shoulders to convey

uncertainty.

Some are culturally specific and can

lead to cultural misunderstandings

nodding in Bulgaria and Sri Lanka

means disagreement

Gestures and words can give opposite

meanings and create confusion

What is he saying?

Patterns of non-verbal behaviour often signal differences in status


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Patterns of non-verbal behaviour often signal differences in status

Gestures, eye movements, smiles and other facial expressions,

touching and defining personal space are used in displays of status

In many cultures, a constellation of non-verbal behaviours appears

to be consistent with high status or power.

Dominant people tend to use broadgestures, look or even stare at others,maintain serious unsmiling faces, and

inhabit wide areas of personal space

Subordinates tend to use restricted small

gestures avert their eyes when looked at,

smile frequently and allow their space to be

encroached on even to the point of being

touched

Gestures can be used as general markers of politeness


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In Japan, people greet each other by

bowing.

When bowing to someone of higher

social status, a deeper, longer bow

indicates respect.

A small head nod is casual and

informal.

It is also common to bow to express

thanks, to apologize, to make arequest or to ask someone a favour.

Shaking hands is uncommon among

the Japanese

Gestures can be used as general markers of politeness


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gender differences

men tend to use dominant acts while women useacts marking subordination

Men touch women more than women touch men

Men initiate eye contact more than women

Women return smiles of

men more than men

return smiles of women

The Meaning of Silence


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The Meaning of Silence

Silence transmits many kinds of culturally dependent meaning

Conveys meaning partly from the situational and interactional;

contexts of its use.

silence does not simply exist bit is actively created by participants

Difference in status reflected in use of silence

People of higher status tend to talk more whereas those of lower

status are expected to be silent or less talkative

Children should be seen and not heard

ceremonial silencee.g. Where

participants have established roles andbehave in predictable wayschurch,

classroom, theatre, courtroom

Participants restricted to brief formulaic

responses

Functions of Silence


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one function of speech is to avoid silencee.g. small talk

In N. Am. Silence is embarrassing.

InArabic countries, word games are played and thoughts

repeated to avoid silence.

silence often given negative interpretationfeelings of hostility,

disdain, disinterest or angerthe silent treatment

other times seen as mark of contemplative thought respect for

others or desire to avoid conflict A Japanese proverb says "Those who know do not speak - those

who speak do not know";

context also determines when silence usedwhen with unknown

peoplesilence can mark the solemnity of funerals

a means of social control -ostracism

because greetings are signals of sociability, silence is a show of

hostilitynot on speaking terms

silent treatment

u c o s o S e ce

Terms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhx5guG2iRghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhx5guG2iRg


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Phonetics

Phone

Phonemicsphoneme

Minimal pairs:

Voiced

Voiceless

Oral soundsNasal sounds

Place of articulation

Manner of Articulation

Allophones

Prosodic features(prosody)

Stress

Tempo

Terms

Juncture

Pitch

ToneInflection

tonal language

Grammar

Morphology

SyntaxMorpheme

Free morpheme

Bound morpheme

Allomorph

Affix

Prefix

Suffix

Infix

Morphological Typologies

Isolating languages

Agglutinating languagesSynthetic or polysynthetic

languages

Case

Deep Structure and Surface

StructureSemantics

Kinesics

Proxemics

form of the message

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