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STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE (Properties that distinguishes human language from…
STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE
Properties that distinguishes human language from other communication systems
The arbitrariness of the linguistic sign: there is no predictable connection between a linguistic sign and its meaning
The duality of the linguistic system: linguistic structures are built by combining elements into larger structures that can be seen as layered e.g. how sounds build words and words build phrases
The discreteness of the elements of language: the elements out of which linguistic signs are constructed are discrete units, e.g. sounds and words, that can be distinguished from each other and rearranged in different patterns
The productivity of the linguistic system: the finite number of linguistic elements can be combined into a theoretically infinite number of combinations
Language as a system of symbolic communication
signs
spoken, signed, or written
composed of sounds, gestures, letters, or symbols
PHONOLOGY: study of the ways in which languages use sounds or signs to construct meaning.
PHONETICS: study of how humans produce and perceive vocal sounds.
Phonemes - sounds as part of a linguistic system; are abstract units of sound, defined as the smallest units in a language that can serve to distinguish bet. the meaning of a pair of minimally different words, a so-called "minimal pair"
Minimal pair example: the words bat and pat form a minimal pair, om which the distinction between /b/ and /p/ differentiates the two words, which have different meanings.
All spoken languages have phonemes of at least two different categories:
Vowels
Consonants
These two can be combined to form syllables.
can be combined into complex signs, such as words and phrases
SYNTAX or GRAMMAR: the rules by which signs can be combined to form words and phrases.
meaning
SEMANTICS: the meaning that is connected to individual signs, morphemes, words, phrases, and texts.
Lexicon - the array of arbitrary signs connected to specific meanings
Lexeme - a single sign connected to a meaning
Often, semantic concepts are embedded in the morphology or syntax of the language in the form of
Grammatical categories
Tense - the placing of a verb in a time frame, which can take values such as present and pase
Number - with values such as singular, plural, and sometimes dual, trial, paucal, uncountable or partitive, inclusive or exclusive
Gender - with values such as masculine, feminine, neuter
Noun classes - more general than just gender, and include additional classes like: animated, humane, plants, animals, things, and immaterial for concepts and verbal nouns/actions, sometimes shapes as well
different from Lexical categories/ Syntactic categories, which largely correspond to the parts of speech of traditional grammar, and refer to nouns, adjectives, etc.
All languages contain the semantic structure of Predication - a structure that predicates a property, state, or action.
PRAGMATICS
code (connects signs with their meanings)
SEMIOTICS: the study of the process of semiosis--how signs and meanings are combined, used, and interpreted