Introduction to

Language

1
Linguistics and Language
Definitions
 Linguistics is conceived as the study of human
language and the linguist is someone who engages
in this study. Concerning language people have
attempt to define it in a number of ways:
 A system of representing things, actions, ideas, and
states.
 A system of meaning shared among people
 A set of grammatically correct utterances (words,
sentences, etc..)
 A set of utterances that a linguistic community
could understand.
2
Definitions of Linguistics

Linguistics is the science of language.

Linguistics is the study of language.
Linguistics is the scientific study of
language.
Linguistics is the systematic study of
language which describes language in
its all aspects.

3
Chapter(1):The origins of
Language
 There are some speculations( not facts) about the
origins of language. We simply don’t know how
language originated. We suspect that some type
of spoken language developed between 100,000
and 500,000 years ago, well before written
language( about 5,000 years ago). Some of these
speculations are:
 The divine source
 The natural sound source
 The physical adaptation source
 The genetic source
4
The divine source:
In most religions, there appears to
be a divine source which provides
humans with language (e.g. biblical
tradition/Hindu tradition). To rediscover
this original divine language, a few
experiments have been carried out.
The basic hypothesis was that if
human infants were allowed to grow
up without hearing any language
around them, then they would
spontaneously being using the
original God-given language. 5
Experiments •
• An Egyptian pharaoh named Psammetichus tried the
experiment with two newborn infants around 600 BC.
After two years in the company of goats and a mute
shepherd, the children were reported to have
spontaneously uttered, not an Egyptian word, but
something reported to be the Phrygian word bekos,
meaning ‘bread’. The pharaoh concluded that Phrygian
must be the original language. That seems unlikely. The
children may not have picked up this 'word' from any
human source, but, as several commentators have pointed
out, they must have heard what the goats were saying
• James IV of Scotland carried out a similar experiment
around the year 1500 and the children were reported to
have started speaking Hebrew
•Conclusion
•It is unfortunate that all other cases of
children who have been discovered living
in isolation, without coming into contact
with human speech, tend not to confirm the
results of either of these 'divine-source'
experiments. Children living without access
to human speech in their early years grow
up with no language at all.

7
 The natural sound source:

There is a suggestion that primitive words could

have been imitations of natural sounds which
early men and women heard around them,
then they associate the natural sound with the
object. The fact that all modern languages have
some words with pronunciations that seem to echo
naturally occurring sounds -onomatopoeic words-
could be used to support this theory, such as the
‘bow-wow’ theory. But if this is true, is a language
only a set of words used as ‘names’ of things?

8
• Other theories are ‘pooh-pooh’ theory which
suggests that the original sounds of a language may
have come from natural cries of emotion such as pain,
anger and joy. The ‘ho-he-ho’ theory suggests that
the sounds of a person involved in physical effort could
be the source of our language.

• The conclusion of these theories is that human

sounds, however they were produced, must have had
some principled use within the social life of early
human groups. This is an important idea that may
relate to the uses of humanly produced sounds . It
does not, however, answer our question regarding the
origins of the sounds produced.

9
The physical adaptation source:
 Humans possess physical features which
are distinct from other creatures. These
features support speech production. It is
observed that, at early stage, our ancestors
made a very significant transition to an upright
posture, with bi-pedal (on two feet) locomotion,
and a revised role for the front limbs( this
change can be seen in physical differences
between the skull of gorilla and that
Neanderthal man from around 60,000 years
ago). In the study of the evolutionary
development, there are certain physical
features, best thought of as partial adaptations
,which appear to be relevant for speech and
they are good clues that a creature possessing
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such features has the capacity for speech.
The physical parts of humans and
primates:
Teeth, lips, mouth, larynx and pharynx

Teeth: human teeth are upright, not slanting

outwards like those of apes, and they are
roughly even in height. They are very helpful
in making sounds such as f or v.
Lips: human lips have much more intricate
muscle interlacing than is found in other
primates and their resulting flexibility
certainly helps in making sounds like p or b.

11
Mouth: human mouth is relatively small
compared to other primates, can be opened
and closed rapidly, and contains a smaller,
thicker and more muscular tongue which can
be used to shape a wide of sounds inside the
oral cavity.

Larynx or ‘voice box’( containing the vocal

cords ) : It differs significantly in position from
the larynx of other primates such as monkey.
The pharynx, above the vocal cords acts as a
resonator for increased range and clarity of
sounds produced via the larynx.

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Human brain:
 It controls all the physical parts available for
sound production. The human brain is
lateralized, that is , it has specialized functions
in each of the two hemispheres. Those functions
that control motor movements involved in
things like speaking and objects
manipulation( making or using tools) are largely
confined to the left hemisphere of the brain for
most humans. All languages, including sign
language, require the organizing and combining
of sound or signs in specific arrangements. We
seem to have developed a part of our brain that
specializes in making these arrangements.

13
 The genetic source:
 It indicates that human offspring are born with a
special capacity for language. It is innate, no other
creature seems to have it, and it isn’t tied to a specific
variety of language. The innateness hypothesis would
seem to point to something in human genetics, possibly
a crucial mutation, as a source. Thus, the investigation
of the origins of language turns into a search for the
special ‘language gene’ that only humans possess.

The end
14
 Chapter(2):Animals and
human language
Language is the principal means by which human
beings communicate thoughts and emotions. It is an
obvious and important window through which human
beings can try to understand themselves and to learn
about brain and the mind. In linguistics we study the
properties of languages and in doing so determine
what distinguishes human language from animal.
When we talk about distinctions between human
language and animal communication, we are
considering both in terms of their potential as means
of communications.
15
Special properties of human
language:
-Displacement
-Arbitrariness
-Productivity
-Cultural transmission
-Duality

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Displacement
: Animal communication seems to be
designed exclusively for this moment,
here and now. It cannot effectively be used
to relate events that are far removed in time
and place. In contrast, human can refer to
past and future time. This property allows
language users to talk about things and
events not present in the immediate
environment .
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Arbitrariness
It is generally the case that there is no
natural connection between a linguistic
form and its meaning. The connection
is quite arbitrary. We can’t just look at the
Arabic word‫ كلب‬and, from its shape, for
example, determine that it has a natural and
obvious meaning any more than we can with
its English translation form dog. This aspect
of the relationship between linguistics signs
and objects in the world is described as
arbitrariness.
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There are some words in language with sounds
that seem to ‘echo’ the sounds of objects or
activities and hence seem to have a less
arbitrary connection. English examples are
cuckoo, CRASH, slurp. However these
onomatopoeic are relatively rare in human
language. For the majority of animal signals,
there does appear to be a clear connection
between the conveyed message and the signal
used to convey it . This impression we have of
non arbitrariness of animal signaling may be
closely connected to the fact that ,for any
animal, the set of signals used in
communication is finite.
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Productivity (‘creativity’ or ‘open-
endedness’) :
Humans are continually creating new
expressions and novel utterances by
manipulating their linguistics resources to
describe new objects and situations (linked to
the fact that the potential number of utterances
in any human language is infinite).
Other creature don’t have this type of flexibility.
In animal communication, each signal is
fixed and relating to a particular object or
occasion (fixed reference).
20
Cultural transmission :(the process
where a language is passed on
from one generation to the next) :

While we may inherit physical

features such as brown eyes and dark
hair from our parents, we do not
inherit our language. We acquire a
language in a culture with other
speakers and not from parental genes.
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Human are born with some kind of
predisposition to acquire language in a
general sense. However, we are not
born with the ability to produce
utterances in a specific language such
as English. We acquire our first
language as children in culture.
In animal communication, the
general pattern is that creatures are
born with a set of specific signals that
are produced instinctively.
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 Duality (or ‘double articulation’) :
 Human language is organized at two levels. At one
level (physical level) we produce individual sounds
(distinct sounds) and at another level we produce
sounds combinations (distinct meaning). This duality
of level is one of the most economical features of
human language because, with a limited set of
discrete sounds, we are capable of producing a very
large number of sound combinations (e.g. words)
which are distinct in meaning. Among other
creatures, each communicative signal appears to be
a single fixed form that cannot be broken down into
separate parts.
23
 Talking to animals

There is a lot of spoken language directed by

humans to animal, apparently under the
impression that the animal follows what is being
said (e.g. circus animals). Should we treat this
as evidence that non humans can understand
human language? Probably not. The standard
explanation is that the animal produces a
particular behavior in response to a particular
sound-stimulus or ‘noise’ but does not actually
‘understand’ what the words in the noise mean.

24
 Chimpanzees and
language
• Some researchers devoted their time to
teach a chimpanzee how to use human
language- not successful
Gua:
In the 1930s two scientist reported in
their experience of raising an infant
chimpanzee (called Gua) together
with their baby son. Gua was reported
to be able to understand about hundred
words, but did not ‘say’ any of them.
25
• Viki:
• In the 1940s, a chimpanzee named Viki was
reared by another scientist couple in their own
home, exactly as if she was a human child.
They spent five years attempting to get Viki to ‘say’
English word by trying to shape her mouth as
she produced sounds. Viki eventually managed
to produce some words, rather poorly
articulated versions of mama, papa, and
cup( the vocal tract of the primates is not suitable
for articulating the sounds used in speech).
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Washoe (a female chimpanzee):
 She was raised in a comfortable domestic
environment. Sign language was always
used when she was around and she was
encouraged to use it. In a period of three and
half years, Washoe came to use signs for
more than a hundred words. Even more
impressive was Washoe’s ability to produce
‘sentences’ and novel signs, which would
seem to indicate that her communication
system had the potential for productivity.
27
Sarah and Lana
- Chimpanzee named Sarah was being
taught to use a set of plastic shapes
for the purpose of communicating
with humans. These shapes
represented ‘words’ that could be
arranged in sequence to build
‘sentences’( she preferred a vertical
order). Sarah was capable of
producing ‘sentences’ and had the
impressive capacity to understand
complex structure. 28

.
- Lana (another chimpanzee) was
trained to use an artificial language
called Yerkish which consisted of a
set of symbols on a large keyboard
linked to a computer. When Lana
wanted some water, she had to press
four symbols, in the correct sequence,
to produce the message please
machine give water .

29
• Both Sarah and Lana demonstrated an
ability to use what look like word symbols
and basic structure in ways that
superficially resemble the use of language.
However, it has been pointed that when Lana
used the symbol for ‘please’ she did not
understand the meaning of the word. Thus,
there are many arguments that have been
presented against the idea that the use of
signs and symbols by these chimpanzees is
similar to the use of language
30
 The controversy
 On the basis of his work with another chimpanzee
called Nim, the psychologist Herbert Terrace has
argued that chimpanzees simply produce signs
in response to the demand of people .In
response, the Gardners argued that in their
complex experiments, their chimpanzee
Washoe could produce correct signs to
identify objects in picture without any
possible provision of cues by humans. They
also emphasize a major difference between the
experiences of Washoe and Nim( one in a domestic
environment and the other in a bare windowless
cell).
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 kanzi
 In a recent study, while Sue Savage was
attempting to train a bonobo(a pygmy chimpanzee)
called Matata how to use the symbols of
Yerkish, Matata’s adopted baby Kanzi,
spontaneously started using the symbol system
with great ease. He had learned not by being
taught, but by being exposed to, and
observing, a kind of language in use at a very
early age. Kanzi developed a large symbol
vocabulary(over250 forms). By the age of eight, he
was reported to be able to demonstrate
understanding of spoken English at a level
comparable to a two-and-a-year-old human child.
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 The barest rudiments of
language
 Questions: Were Washoe and Kanzi capable of taking part
in interaction by using a symbol system chosen by humans
and not chimpanzees? The answer is ‘yes’.
 Did Washoe and Kanzi perform linguistically on a level
comparable to a human child of the same age?The answer
is ‘no’.
 What counts as ‘using language’? We clearly do not have a
totally objective and non-controversial definition of what
counts as ‘using language’. We assume that when young
human children make language-like noises we are
witnessing language development, but when young
chimpanzee produce language-like signs in interactions
with humans, many scientists are very unwilling to classify
these noises as language-use.

33
• The controversy remains among different
psychologists and linguists over the
reported abilities of chimpanzees to use
language. We might suggest that
Ckomsky(1972) should revise his claim
that “acquisition of even the barest
rudiments of language is quite beyond the
capacities of an otherwise intelligent ape”.
We may not have had reports on the
chimpanzee view of linguistic theory, but
on their obvious capacity to cope with “the
34

barest rudiments of language” we

 Conclusion

• Can animal speak human-like languages? NO

• Can animals perform linguistically on a level
comparable to a human child at the
• same age? No
• Animals produce a particular behavior in
response to a particular stimulus or ‘noise’,
but does not actually understand what the
words mean.
The end
35
Chapter(3)The Sounds
Of Language
Introduction
What is phonetics?
What is phonology?
Fields of phonetics?
The production of speech

36
 Introduction
- In English there are `26` letters. However in
received pronunciation, there are `44`
recognizable sounds 24 consonant sounds and
20 vowel sounds. This why sounds of spoken
English don’t match up all the time, with letters
of written English.
Thus, linguists use especially designed ‘Phonetic
Alphabet‘ which tries to classify each variation.
The aim of the system was to create a separate
symbol for each sound which could then be used
37

in any language in which the sound appeared.

 What is Phonetics?

- Is the scientific study of the ways in which

humans make sounds. It can be used to analyze
any language and it attempts to describe, classify
and transcribe all possible sounds.
- It focuses on the way which sounds are
produced, e.g. Cat consists of [k] represented by
the letter C,the vowel[ᴂ] represented by the
letter a, and the final [t].
38
 What is Phonology?

- Is the description of systems and patterns

of speech sounds in a particular language.
Phonology focuses on the ways in which the
sounds are combined to produce meaning, rather
than actual physical articulation of speech
sounds.
e.g. the [t] sound in the word tar, star, writer
are’ the same’ in the phonology of English, they
would be represented in the same way. 39
 Branches Of Phonetics
There are three branches of phonetics:
- Articulatory Phonetics: The study of speech production.
(how sounds are produced)
- Acoustic Phonetics: The study of physical properties of
speech sounds using laboratory instruments (analysis of
speech sounds).
- Auditory Phonetics: The study of speech perception (how
speech sounds are received by hearers) .
- It is the articularory phonetics that we shall
concentrate on here, because it is the branch of phonetics
on which most phonological theories have been based40 on.
 The Production of
Speech
In order to know how speech sounds are
produced, we should know:-
- The organs involved in their
production
-The places where they are produced

-How are they produced

41
• Most sounds are produced by an air
stream from lungs through one or more
speech organs
• Where and how obstructions are in the air
stream
determine the identity of the sound
produced. When the shape of the vocal
tract changes, different sounds are
produced.
Vocal Organs- articulators
42

See the figure below :- The Organs Of

 Speech Production
Mechanism
• Nasal cavity
• Oral cavity
• Pharynx
• Vocal cord
• Glottis
LUNGS : Energy source
LARYNX
VOCAL TRACT (shapes sounds) (voicing) 44
According to the vocal tract we distinguish
between two classes of sounds:-
- Consonant Sound
- Vowel Sounds
In phonetics ‘ These two terms are
referred to type of sounds not to the
letters that represent them. So they must
never be mixed up. Letters are written,
sounds are spoken.
45
 The consonants of
English
Consonants are classified according to
the following characteristics:
- Place of articulation (where they
are articulated)
- Manner of articulation (how they
are articulated)
- Voicing (voiced or voiceless)

46
Voiced and voiceless sounds
- The voiced sounds are made with the vocal
cords brought together -no free passage
for air to pass, so it forces them to draw apart
causing vibration. e.g. zzzzzzzzzzz
- The sounds which are not voiced- voiceless
sounds- are made with the vocal cords
drawn apart so that air can pass out freely
between them and there is no vibration. e.g.
sssssssss
47
 Place of articulation

- Most consonant sounds are produced by

using the tongue and other parts of the
mouth to constrict the shape of the oral
cavity through which the air is passing .
- According to the oral cavity involved in
speech, there are many terms used to
describe many sounds those indicate the
place of articulation.
48
Bilabial:
These are sounds formed using both
(=bi) upper and lower lips(=labia).
The initial sounds in the words pig, big
and milk are all bilabials. They are
represented by the symbols [p] , which
is voiceless, and [b] and [m] which are
voiced. We can also describe [w] sound
as a bilabial, but some linguists class it
as a semi-vowel. 49
Labiodentals:
These are sounds formed with the
upper teeth and the lower lip.
They are represented by the symbols
[f ] as in fat, which is voiceless, and
[v] as in vat, which is voiced.

50
Dentals:
These sounds are formed with the
tongue tip behind the upper front
teeth. They are represented by the
symbol [ɵ] as in the word thin, which is
voiceless, and the symbol [ð] as in the
word then, Which is voiced.

51
Alveolars:
These are sounds form with the front
part of the tongue on the alveolar
ridge just behind the upper teeth.
The symbols of these sounds are: [t],
[d], [s], [z], [n], [l] and [r] as in the
words: top, dip, sit, zoo, nut, lap and
right. Of these [t] and [s] are voiceless,
whereas the others are voiced sounds.
52
Palatals( or alveo-palatals):
These are sounds produced with the
tongue and the palate. The symbols of
these sounds are[ ʃ ], [ tʃ ], [ӡ], [dʒ] and [
j ]. Of these [ ʃ ] and [ tʃ ] (as in shout
and child) are voiceless, whereas [ӡ],
[dʒ] and [ j ] (as in beige, joke, yet )
are voiced sounds

53
Velars:
These sounds are produced with the back
of the tongue against the velum. They
are represented by the voiceless sound [k]
as in cook , the voiced [g] as in bag, and
voiced [ŋ] as in sing.

54
Glottals:
There is one sound that is produced
without the active use of the tongue and
other parts of the mouth. It is the sound
[h] (as in house) which is produced
with the glottis.

55
Manner of Articulation

Having classified sounds as voiced and

voiceless and by the place of articulation.
For example, we can say that [t]&[s] are both
voiceless alveolar sounds. How do they differ?
They differ in their manner of articulation,
that is they way they are pronounced.
Accordingly, there are many terms used to
describe sounds those indicate the manner
of articulation.

56
Stops (Plosives ):- [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g]

- These are sounds produced by stopping the

airstream ( very briefly) then letting it go abruptly
(explosion) and hence they are called ‘ plosives’.
They are called ‘stops’ because the most important
phase of their formation is complete closing of the air.

- A full description of the [t] sound ,for example, is:

a voiceless alveolar stop
(This is the way of describing consonants.)
57
Fricatives: [f ], [v], [ɵ], [ð], [s], [z], [ ʃ ],
[ʒ], [h]
- The manner of articulation used in
producing these sounds involves almost
blocking the air stream and having
the air push through very narrow
opening. As the air is pushed through,
a type of friction is produced and the
resulting sounds are called fricatives.
58
Affricates: [ tʃ ] and [dӡ]
- Affricates are sounds produced by
combining a brief blockage of the air
stream with an obstructed release
which causes some friction.

59
Lateral: [l]
- [l] can be described as a lateral consonant
because the passage of air through the mouth is
along the sides of the tongue rather than along
the centre. This is caused by a blockage created
where the centre or front of the tongue makes
contact with alveolar ridge.

60
Approximants or glides: [w], [r], and
[j]
- These sounds are typically produced
with the tongue in motion (or
“gliding”) to or from the position of a
vowel and are sometimes called semi-
vowels.

61
 Consonant sounds
chart
Bilabial Labio- Dental alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
dental
-v +v -v +v -v -v +v -v +v -v +v -v +v
+v
Stops p b t d k g

Fricatives f v ɵ ð s z ʃ ʒ h

Affricates tʃ dӡ

Nasals m n ŋ

Lateral l

Glides w r j
 Vowels
- Vowels are voiced sounds . I n their production
there is no closure no narrowing. There is a free
passage for the air to pass. In contrast to consonants,
where voicing, manner and place of articulation serve
as descriptive categories, vowels differentiated by
their position of the tongue and lips.
- Thus they can be classified according to :-
1- The height of the tongue.
2- The part of the tongue.
3- The shape of the lips.
63
Because vowel sounds are variables, linguists
used the Cardinal Vowels as reference, they
are artificial vowels ( not real ).
The eight primary vowel sounds can be
classified into:-
1- Pure Vowel Sounds:-
consist of one vowel they They are 12
monothongs, (short /long)

64
2- Diphthongs:-
Movement of the tongue from one position to
another position. ( They are 8 sounds).
3- Trip thongs:-
Combination of a diphthong plus schwa\ ᵊ \ e.g :-
fire \ᶠᵃⁱᵊ\
Below we have a vowel quadrilateral that
includes all English vowels, with examples:

65
Tongue Positions For The
Pure Vowels in English
Tongue Positions For The
Pure Vowels in English
• [i:] eat, key, see [u:] move, two, too
• [i ] hit, myth, women [υ] could, foot, put
• [ɜ:] girl, bird, [ ɒ] god, hot,
• [e] dead, pet, said [ɔ:] ball, caught, raw
• [æ] ban, laugh, sat [a:] , car, father
• [ə] above, sofa, support
• [ʌ ] blood, putt, tough

68
Diphthongs (‘combined’
vowel sounds)
• 8 diphthongs:
• / ei / fail /ai/ file /ɔi / foil

• / iǝ / tier / eǝ/ tear /uǝ/ tour

• /ǝu/ foal /au/ foul

• The end
69
 Chapter(4):The sound
Patterns of Language
-Phonemes
-Phones and allophones
-Minimal Pairs
-Phonotactics
-syllables and clusters
-Co-articulation effects

70
 Phonemes

- Phoneme is defined as the

distinctive sound unit. It is
represented by a single written
symbol.
Note: slash marks are used to
indicate a phoneme\ t \ , where as
the square brackets, as in [t] used
for each phonetic or physically 71

produced segment.
An essential property of a phoneme is
that it functions contrastively . If we
substitute one sound for another in
a word and there is a change of
meaning, then the two sounds
represent different phonemes .
E.g fine & vine

72
Phones and allophones

- When we have different versions of a

phoneme those different versions
are described as Phones. Phones are
Phonetic units and appear in square
brackets [ ]. When we have a group of
several Phones, all of which are versions
of one phoneme, we add the prefix
“allo”
e.g [th],[D], and [ṱ] are referred to as
allophones of the phoneme \t\. 73
• The distinction between phonemes and
allophones is that substituting one
phoneme for another will result in a
word with a different meaning (as well
as a different pronunciation), but
substituting allophones only result in a
different pronunciation of the same
word

74
 Minimal Pairs
- When two words are identical in form
except for a contrast in one phoneme,
occurring in the same position, the two
words are described as a minimal Pairs.
Eg pat- bat & fan– van when a group of
words can be differentiated
Each one from others by changing one
phoneme ( always in the same position in
the word) then we have a minimal set.
e.g feat, fit, fat, fate, fought. foot 75
 Phonotactics

Are the permitted arrangements of

sounds which obey constraints on
the sequence and ordering of
phonemes in a language. (i.e
permitted arrangement of sounds).
Eg:- forms like [Fsig] or [rnig] don’t
exist or are unlikely ever to exist.

76
 Syllables and clusters
A syllable must contain a vowel (or vowel-
like) sound. The most common type of syllable in
language also has a consonant (C) before the
vowel (V) and is typically represented as CV.
Technically, the basic elements of the syllable are
the onset (one or more consonants) and the
rhyme. The rhyme (sometimes
written as ‘rime’) consists of a vowel, which is
treated as the nucleus, plus any following
consonant(s), described as the coda. 77
Syllables like (me-to-no) are called open
syllable because they end with vowel (as
nucleus). Where as syllables like (up, cup, hat)
are called closed syllables because they end
with a consonant (as coda).
Both the onset and coda can consist of more
than one consonant, also known as consonant
cluster
e.g stop (cc) as onset
post (cc) as coda
78
 Co-articulation effects
The process of making one sound
almost at the same time as the next
sound is called co-articulation there
are two well-known co-articulation effects
described as assimilation and elision .
Assimilation:-
When two sounds occur in sequence
and some aspect of one segment is
taken or “copied” by the other the 79

process is known as assimilation

• This type of assimilation process occurs in a
variety of different contexts. By itself, the word
can may be pronounced as [kæn], but, when we
say I can go, the influence of the following velar
[g] will almost certainly make the preceding
nasal sound come out as [ŋ] (the velar nasal)
rather than [n] (the alveolar nasal).
The most commonly observed conversational
version of the phrase is [ajkəŋgo].

80
Elision:-
The process of not pronouncing a
sound segment that might be
present in the pronunciation of a
word in isolation is described as
Elision e.g friendship \
frenʃip \ 81
 Chapter(5): Words and
word-formation processes

• A native speaker of a language can very

quickly understand a new word in his
language and accept the use of different
forms of that new word. This ability must
derive in part from the fact that there is a lot
of regularity in the word-formation processes
in your language.
• A neologism: a new word in a language.
• Etymology: the study of the origin and
history of words.
82
• Despite the disagreements among
scholars in this area, there do seem to be
some regular processes involved in word-
formation. These processes have been at
work in the language for some time and
many words in daily use today were, at
one time, considered barbaric misuses of
the language. For example, in the early
nineteenth century, words like handbook
and aviation were not accepted.
• There are nine common word- 83

formation processes. They are as

 1- Coinage
a) Definition: The invention of
totally new terms
b) Explanation: Coinage is one of the
least common processes of word-formation
in English. The most typical sources are
invented trade names for one company’s
product which become general terms
(without capital letters) for any version of
that product.
84
c) Examples:
 New words based on the name of a person or a
place are called eponyms.
E g:-
hoover sandwich
• Some eponyms are technical terms terms,
based on the names of those who first discovered
or invented things , such as :-
Fahrenheit Volt Watt

85
 2) Borrowing
A) Borrowing

Explanation: Borrowing is one of the most common

sources of new words in English.
Definition: The taking over of words from other
languages
c) Examples:
1- Words borrowed from different
languages into English:
alcohol (Arabic) boss (Dutch) croissant
(French)
lilac (Persian) piano (Italian) pretzel (German)
robot (Czech) tycoon (Japanese) yogurt (Turkish)
86

zebra (Bantu)
2-Words borrowed from English into
different languages: - Japanese
suupaamaaketto (‘supermarket’) and rajio
(‘radio’)
- Hungarian sport (sports), klub(club) futbal
(football)
- French le stress,(stress) le weekend
(seekend)
87
 (B) Loan-translation
(calque)
a) Definition: A direct translation of
the elements of a word into the borrowing
language.
b) Examples:
English (honeymoon) Arabic (‫)شهر عسل‬
English ( football) Arabic (‫)كرة القدم‬
English (hot dogs) Spanish (perros
calientes ) 88

English (a scrape-sky) French (un

 3) Compounding
a) Definition: The joining of two separate words to
produce a single form.
b) Explanation: Compounding is very common in
languages like German and English, but much less
common in languages like French and Spanish.
c)Examples:
book+case = bookcase door+knob = doorknob
finger+print = fingerprint text+book = textbook
sun+burn = sunburn waste+basket = wastebasket
wall+paper = wall­paper water+bed = waterbed
bed+room = bedroom class+room = classroom
89
 4) Blending
a) Definition: Combining two separate forms to produce
a single new term by taking only the beginning of one word
and joining it to the end of the other word.
b)Examples:
gasohol (gasoline/alcohol) smaze (smoke/haze)
smog (smoke/fog) smurk (smoke/murk)
bit (binary/digit) brunch (breakfast/lunch)
motel (motor/hotel) telecast (television/broadcast)
the Chunnel (Channel/ tunnel)
infotainment (information/entertain­ment)
simulcast (simultaneous/broadcast)
telex (teleprinter/exchange)
90
modem (modulator/demodulator)
 5) (A )Clipping
a) Definition: A word of more than one
syllable is reduced to a shorter form, often
in casual speech.
b) Examples:
facsimile fax
gasoline gas
advertise­ment ad cabriolet
cab 91

condominium condo fanatic

 (B) Hypocorisms
a) Definition: A longer word is reduced to a single
syllable, then -y or -ie is added to the end.
b) Explanation: Hypocorism is a particular type of
backformation favored in Australian and British
English.
c)Examples:-
movie (‘moving pic­tures’) telly (‘television’)
Aussie (from ‘Australian’) barbie (from ‘barbecue’),
bookie (from ‘bookmaker’), brekky (from ‘breakfast’)
hankie (from ‘handkerchief’).
92
 6) Backformation

(A) Backformation
a) Definition: a word of one type (usually a
noun) is reduced to form another word of a
different type (usually a verb).
b) Explanation: In backformation, a new word is
created “by removing a real or supposed affix from
another word in the language. A major source of
backformations in English has been words that end
with –er/–or and have meanings involving the notion
of an agent.” So, the verb ‘edit’ is a back formed form
of the noun ‘editor’ by removing the affix -or.
93
c) Examples:
televise (from ‘television’) donate ( from
‘donation’)
opt (from ‘option’) emote (from ‘emotion’)
enthuse ( ‘enthusiasm’) liaise (from ‘liaison’)
babysit (from ‘babysitter’) edit (from editor)
sculpt (from a sculptor) burgle (from ‘burglar’)
peddle (from ‘peddler’) swindle (from
swindler’)
94
 7) Conversion

a) Definition: A change in the function of a

word, as, for example, when a noun comes to
be used as a verb (without any reduction).
b) Explanation: Other labels for this very
common process are ‘category change’ and
‘functional shift’. Some converted forms
shift substantially in meaning when they
change category. The verb ‘to doctor’ often
has a negative sense, not normally
associated with the source noun a doctor.
95
c) Examples
nouns become verbs to paper, to butter, to bottle, to vacation
verbs become nouns guess, must, spy as (a guess, a must, a spy)
phrasal verbs become (to print out, to take over) become (a printout,
nouns a takeover)
verbs become (see through, stand up) as in see-through
adjectives material or a stand-up comedian
adjectives become (dirty, empty, and nasty) become (to dirty, to
verbs empty, to total)
adjectives become (total, crazy) become (a crazy, a nasty)
nouns
compound nouns ball-park
become adjectives and
adverbs
compound nouns carpool, mastermind, microwave, quarterback
become verbs
prepositions become up and down
verbs
 8)Acronyms
a) Definition: Words are formed from the initial
letters of a set of other words.
b) Explanation: These can remain essentially
‘alphabetisms’ such as CD (‘compact disk’) or VCR
(‘video cassette recorder’) where the pronunciation
consists of the set of letters. More typically,
acronyms are pronounced as single words, as in
NATO, NASA or UNESCO. These examples have
kept their capital letters, but many acronyms lose
their capitals to become every­day terms such as
laser (‘light amplification by stimulated emission of
radiation).
97
a)
9) Derivation
Definition: “A process that forms a word with a
meaning and/or category distinct from that of its base
through the addition of an affix.”
b) Explanation: Derivation is by far the most
common word-formation process to be found in the
production of new English words. It is accomplished by
means of a large number of small ‘bits’ of the English
language which are not usually given separate listings in
dictionaries. These small ‘bits’ are called affixes and a
few examples are the elements un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less,
-ish, -ism, -ness. Affixes could be prefixes (forms added
to the beginning of the word), suffixes (forms added to
the end of the word), or infixes (forms incorporated98
inside the word). Infixes are rare in English.
• c) Examples:-
prefixes suffixes
un-happy joy-ful
mis-represent careless
pre-judge terror-ism

99
 Multiple processes
It is possible to trace the operation of more than one
process at work in the creation of a particular word. For
example, the term deli seems to have become a common
American English expression via a process of first
‘borrowing’ delicatessen (from German) and then
‘clipping’ that borrowed form. It is possible to trace the
operation of more than one process at work in the
creation of a particular word. For example, the term deli
seems to have become a common American English
expression via a process of first ‘borrowing’ delicatessen
(from German) and then ‘clipping’ that borrowed form.
100
• An acronym that never seems to have had capital
letters comes from ‘young urban professional’,
plus the -ie suffix, as in hypocorism, to produce
the word yuppie (first recorded in 1984). The
formation of this new word, however, was helped
by a quite different process, known simply as
analogy, whereby words are formed to be similar
in some way to existing words. Yuppie was made
possible as a new word by the earlier existence of
hippie and the other short-lived analogy yippie.
The term yippie also had an acronym basis
(‘youth international party’), but was generally
101
used for students protesting the Vietnam war in
the United States.
 Chapter(6): Morphology

- Some Important terms .

- What is Morphology ?
- What is Morpheme?
- Kinds of Morphemes?
- Morphological description.
- Problems in Morphological
description.
102
Some Important terms
a) a word is a minimal form that can
occur in isolation and/or whose
position with respect to neighboring
elements is not entirely fixed.
-The hunters pursued the bear.
-The bear pursued the hunters.
b) /-er/ and /-s/ are not words. They
cannot occur in isolation and have
relatively fixed position.
103
c) simple words: cannot be
broken down. THE
d) complex words: can be broken
down. HIMSELF HIM+SELF
e) closed class words: function
words: pronouns, conjunction,
determiners.
f) open class words: major
lexical items: nouns, verbs, etc.
104
 What is Morphology?

The area of grammar concerned with

the structure of words and with
relationships between words
involving morphemes that compose
them is technically called morphology,
from the Greek word morphe ‘form,
shape’.

105
 Morphemes
What is morpheme?
“Word forms” may consist of a number of
elements, these elements are described as ‘
A minimal unit of meaning or
grammatical function’.
Units of grammatical function include past
tense “ed” or plural “s”
 g) Allomorphs: variant forms of a
morpheme.
E.g. 3rd person singular in English: like/s/,
teach/ez/, run/z/; a and an. 106
Examples (morphemes):
 Tree-s consists of two morphemes: ‘tree’
(meaning tree) and ‘s’ (~meaning
plural)

 Un-do consists of two morphemes: ‘un’

(meaning not) and ‘do’ (~meaning do)

107
 Types of morphemes

 There are different types of

morphemes, which vary according to:
a) occurrence
b) function/ meaning content
a) Occurrence:
Some morphemes can appear on their
own, others never can (free
morpheme/bound morpheme).
108
Free morpheme: a morpheme which
can stand alone to make a word.
 Example: tree in tree-s.
Bound morpheme: a morpheme which
cannot stand alone to make a word but
can only occur in combination.
Example: plural –s in tree-s.

109
2 types of morpheme: Free &bound

Free Bound
( e.g. tree) ( e.g. ‘s’ in trees)

110
b) Function/ meaning content:
 Some morphemes have as their content a
basic meaning. Other merely modify that
meaning or change the grammatical status of
a word. Free morphemes fall into two
categories. The first category is that set of
content words or ‘open’ class words
(nouns, adjectives, and verbs). These
morpheme are called lexical morphemes and
some examples are: girl, open, sad, long ,etc.
111
 Other types of free morphemes are
called functional morphemes.
Examples are and, but, when, because,
on, that, them. This set consists of the
functional words (‘closed’ class) in the
language such as conjunctions,
prepositions, articles and pronouns.

112
• 2 types of Free morpheme: Lexical &
Functional

Lexical
Functional
(e.g. girl) ( e.g. on )113
Morphemes which modify the meaning
or change the grammatical status of the
words are bound morphemes. The set
of affixes( prefixes, infixes, and
suffixes) that make up the category of
bound morphemes can also be divided
into two types. These are derivational
morphemes and inflectional
morphemes.
114
Derivational morpheme:
We use these bound morphemes to
make new words or to make words
of a different grammatical category
from the stem. For example, the
addition of the derivational morpheme –
ness changes the adjective good to the
noun goodness.
115
Inflectional morphemes:
These are not used to produce new words in
the language, but rather to indicate aspects
of the grammatical function of a word. They
never change the category of the word. Example:
walk, walks, walked.

116
• 2 types of Bound Morpheme:
Derivational & Inflectional

Derivational
Inflectional
(Good
‘ness’ in goodness)
(noun) + -ness =
( ‘ed’
Walks
ingoodness
walked)(noun) walk

117
• A useful way to remember all these different types of
morphemes is in the following chart.
Morpheme

Free Bound

Lexical Functional Derivational

Inflectional

118
 Chapter(7):Phrases and
sentences: grammar
We have already considered two levels of description used
in the study of language. First at the sequence of
sounds . E.g ‘ The lucky boys’
Second at sequence of morphs:
The luck -y boy -s

functional lexical derivational lexical inflectional

With these descriptions, we could characterize all words

and phrases of a language in terms of their morphology
119
and
phonology.
 Grammar

English has strict rules for combing words

into phrases.
e .g The lucky boys is well- formed phrase in
English, because it has the sequence [ Article
+ Adjective + Noun ]
The process of describing the structure
of phrases and sentences that we account
for all the grammatical sequences in a
language and rule out all ungrammatical
sequences is one way of defining grammar.
120
Traditional Grammar

The term ‘Article’, ‘Adjective', and

‘noun’ that we used to label the
grammatical categories of the words in
the phrase:
“ The lucky boys” come from traditional
grammar.
The best-known terms from that
tradition are those used in describing
the parts of speech. 121
 The Parts Of Speech

1- Nouns:-Are words used to refer to people,

objects, creatures, places, qualities,
phenomena and abstract ideas( things).
2- Articles:- Are words ( a.an.the) used with
nouns to form noun phrases classifying those’
things’ (you can have a banana or an
apple) . Or identifying them as already
known: ( I will take the apple )

122
3- Adjectives:- Are words used typically with
nouns, to provide more information about
the things referred to :- happy people

4-Verbs :- Are words used to refer to various

kinds of actions and states (go, be )

5- Adverbs:- Are words used, typically with

verbs, to provide more information about
actions, states and events ( slowly,
yesterday)
123
6- Prepositions :- Are words (at, in ,
on, with) used with nouns in phrases.
7- Pronouns:- Are words used in place
of noun phrases, or referring to people
and things already known (she, it,
herself )
8- Conjunctions:- Are words used to
make connections (and, but).

124
 Agreement

In addition to the parts of speech,

traditional grammatical analysis has
given us a number of categories,
including:
( number, person, tense, voice and
gender ) we will consider in terms
of agreement.

125
E .g : Cathy loves her dog
This agreement is partially based on the
category of number(singular) ,
person (third person singular). Cathy
loves. (not love) to agree with the noun.
Tense ( the verb loves in the present
tense).The sentence is in Active Voice.
Gender( Cathy and her ).
126
 Grammatical Gender

The type of biological distinction used in English is

quite different from the more common distinction
found in languages that use grammatical gender .
Where as natural gender based on sex ( male
and female), grammatical gender is based on
the type of noun ( masculine and feminine )
Female and male are used only to describe the sex
of a creature. To describe the qualities we think of
as typical of female and male, we use feminine
and masculine. 127
 The Prescriptive
Approach
• prescriptive rules: (as they prescribe how
people should speak according to some standard).
Some examples of prescriptive rules include
• “never end a sentence with a preposition”,
• “use whom not who” and
• “don’t split infinitives”.
These rules tell us how we are supposed to use
our language.
Following these types of rules,
traditional teachers would correct
sentences like :- Who did you go with?
To:- With whom did you go?
Mary runs faster than me . To :- Mary
runs faster than I.

129
 The Descriptive
Approach
To describe the regular
structure of the language as it
was used, not according to
some view of how it should be
used. This is called The
Descriptive Approach.
Structural Analysis :-
One type of descriptive approach is
called Structural Analysis , and its
main concern is to investigate the
distribution of forms in a language.
For example:- The_______ makes a lot of
noise.

131
 A lot of forms can fit the space( car, child
etc….) And they are of the grammatical
category ( noun) .
However, there are many forms don’t fit
this space. ( Cathy, the dog, someone)
But we have:- _______ makes a lot of noise.
Forms that can fit such space (e.g. it, the
big dog) and they are of the same
grammatical category ( noun phrase)
• Observing that it fits the second space
not the first one, allow us to improve on
the older, Latin- influenced analysis of
pronouns. They were described as ‘
words used in place of nouns’ . We can
now see that it is more accurate to say
that ‘Pronouns are used in place of
noun phrases’ ( not just nouns).

133
 Immediate Constituents
Analysis

An approach with the same descriptive aims is

called Immediate constituents Analysis
which means “ grammatical analysis of how
small constituents ( or components ) go together
to form larger constituents in sentences.
e.g. Her father bought a shotgun to the
wedding .
We can identify eight constituents at word
level.
 At the phrase level :- Does it appropriate to put words
together as follows? :-
Brought a father brought shotgun to to
the
We don’t normally think of these combinations as
phrases in English
But we can find such combinations:-
- Her father , a shotgun , the weeding, which are
noun phrases
- to the weeding , which is a preposition phrase
- brought a shotgun , which is a verb phrase.
135
 Labeled and bracketed
sentences
- This type of diagram is designed to show the
constituents in sentence structure can be
marked off by using labeled brackets .
- The first step is to put brackets ( one on each
side) round each constituents, and then more
brackets round each combination of constituents
.
Example (see textbook p.81)
we can label each constituents using
abbreviated grammatical terms such as :-
‘Atr’ (= article), ‘N’ (= noun), ‘V’ (= verb),
‘VP’ (= verb phrase) , ‘NP’ (= noun phrase)
and ‘S’ (= sentence).
Example (textbook p.81 )
- In performing this type of analysis, we
haven’t only labeled all the constituents , but
we have revealed “ the hierarchical
organization “ of those constituents (i.e. to
show which constituents are higher than
and contain other constituents.
 Chapter (8) Syntax
• Definition of Syntax
• syntaxis” (Greek) = “arrangement”
• The rules of sentence formation; the study of
the structure of sentences.

Language Structure

Phonology Grammar Semantics

morphology syntax
138
Popularized by Chomsky (the
general sense)

Grammar

Phonology (Morphology) Syntax

Semantics
139
 Generative grammar

• generative grammar: a set of rules defining the

possible sentences in a language.
• A generative grammar defines the syntactic
structures of a language. The grammar will
generate all the well-formed syntactic structures
(e.g. sentences) of the
language and will not generate any ill-formed
structures. This has been called the ‘all and only’
criterion, that is, all the grammatical sentences and
only the grammatical sentences will be produced.
140
• The grammar will have a finite (i.e. limited)
number of rules, but will be capable of generating
an infinite number of well-formed structures. In
this way, the productivity of language (i.e. our ability
to create totally novel yet grammatically accurate
sentences) would be captured within the grammar.
The grammar should also be capable of revealing the
basis of two other phenomena: first, how some
superficially different sentences are closely
related and, second, how some superficially
similar sentences are in fact different.

141
 Deep and Surface Structure
(1)

• On the basis of Generative Grammar we are

able to differentiate between deep and surface
structures.
• Surface Structure: The formal structure of a
sentence as it actually occurs in speech. It is the
apparent structure of a sentence.
• Deep Structure: The deep structure is a direct
representation of the basic semantic relations
underlying a sentence. It is the underlying 142
meaning of the sentence.
• Let’s take an example to understand the
difference between deep and surface
structures.
i)I ate a banana.
ii)A banana was eaten by me.
• In this example
• i) is active voice and ii)is passive voice.
Structures of the sentences are different but
the meanings are same. In the above example
there are two surface structures but one deep
structure or underlying meaning. It means
that a sentence can have two or many surface
143

structure but one deep structure.

 Structural ambiguity

• Now take another example;

• Annie whacked a man with an umbrella.
• This sentence provides an example of
structural ambiguity. What we read is
the surface structure of this sentence,
but when we ponder on its meaning we
feel ambiguity in getting its meaning.
144
 One expresses the idea that ‘Annie
had an umbrella and she whacked a man with
it.’ The other expresses the idea
that ‘Annie whacked a man and the man
happened to be carrying an umbrella.’
This ambiguity leads to two different meanings
of one sentence. It means that a sentence can
have on surface structure but more deep
structures.

145
 Recursiveness
(Recursion)
• Recursion is the capacity to be applied
more than once in generating a
structure. Example :“ He is the man
who caught the thief who stole the
jewelry that I bought yesterday.”
• In this example relative clause is used
more than once to create a long
sentence.

146
• . It means that we can create long
sentences by Recursion rule. The same
rule can be applied again and again to
create more and more sentences.
• NP + VP ____ NP + VP
• Ahmad thought Ali helped
him

147
• Another e.g. of recursiveness
The Rose in My Garden
This is the rose in my garden.
This is the bee that sleeps on the rose
in my garden.
These are the holly hocks high above
ground, that give shade to the bee that
sleeps on the rose in my garden.

148
 Tree Diagram

• It is defined as a way of representing

a sentence with its structure. This
structure is drawn in the shape of tree
having branches. This type of tree-
diagram representation contains all the
grammatical information found in the
other analyses, but also shows more
explicitly the fact that there are
different levels in the analysis.
149
 Tree Diagram

S
NP VP
ART N V NP
(DET)
ART N

the girl chased the

dog
150
 Phrase Structure
Rules

• Phase structure rules are used to

describe a given language’s syntax.
This is accomplished by attempting
to break language down into its
constituent parts namely Phrasal
Categories and Lexical
Categories. 151
• Phrasal Categories: include the noun
phrase (NP), verb phrase (VP)and
prepositional phrase (PP).

• Lexical Categories: include noun (N),

verb (V),adjective (Adj), adverb (Adv)
and many others

152
 Phrase Structure
Rules
• These rules present the information of the tree diagram in
an alternative format
s
S NP + VP or NP VP
VP V + (NP) + (PP) + (ADV)
NP (ART) + (ADJ)* N
PRO
PP P + NP
• Note: see (Yule 105) for symbols and abbreviations
definition.
153
 Transformation
• Literally transformation means “ to
change the form of something.” Here we
write a sentence then we change its form
by moving, adding, deleting some words
but the actual meanings remains the
same. e.g.,
• i)I met my friend yesterday.
• ii) Yesterday I met my friend .
154
• In the first sentence the adverbs
is in the last place and in the
second sentence the adverb is in
the first place but the meanings
of both of the sentences are same
just it has been transformed into
another structure.

155
• Let’s take another example.
• iii)He is ridiculing his friend. To make this
sentence interrogative we transform the position
or shape of the sentence by moving the auxiliary
verb.
• iv)Is he ridiculing his friend? This shows that by
transformation we can produce many sentences
by keeping in view one sentence.

156
Chapter (9): Semantics

• Semantics is the study of the meaning

of words, phrases and sentences.

• In semantic analysis, there is always an

attempt to focus on what the words
conventionally mean, rather than on
what an individual speaker might want
them to mean on a particular occasion.
157
 Conceptual and
associative meaning
• Conceptual meaning covers those
basic,
essential components of meaning that
are conveyed by the literal use of a
word.
• For example: Some of the basic
components of a word like needle in
English might include ‘thin, sharp, steel
instrument’. 158
• In associative meaning you may have
“associations” or “connotations” attached
to a word,
• For example: different people might have
different associations or connotations
attached to a word like needle. They
might associate it with ‘pain’, or ‘illness’,
or ‘blood’, or ‘drugs’, or ‘thread’, or
‘knitting’, or ‘hard
to find’, and these associations may
differ from one person to the next. These
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types of associations are not treated as

 Semantic features

• One obvious way in which the study of basic

conceptual meaning might be helpful in the study
of language would be as a means of accounting for
the ‘oddness’ we experience when we read
sentences such as the following:
• The hamburger ate the boy.
• The table listens to the radio.
• The horse is reading the newspaper.
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• Above sentences are syntactically good, but semantically
odd.
NP V NP
• The hamburger ate the boy
• The kind of noun that can be the subject of the verb ate
must denote an entity that is capable of ‘eating’. The noun
hamburger does not have this property and the noun boy
does.

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• We can make this observation more generally
applicable by trying to determine
the crucial element or feature of meaning that any
noun must have in order to be used as the subject of
the verb ate.
• The feature that the noun boy has is ‘+animate’ (=
denotes an animate being) and the feature that the
noun hamburger has is ‘−animate’ (= does not denote
an animate being).

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• This simple example is an illustration of a
procedure for analyzing meaning in terms of
semantic features. Features such as ‘+animate,
−animate’; ‘+human, −human’, ‘+female,
−female’, for example, can be treated as the basic
elements involved in differentiating the meaning of
each word in a language from every other word.
• (see page: 101)

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 Semantic
roles(‘thematic roles’)
• Instead of thinking of words as ‘containers’ of
meaning, we can look at the ‘roles’ they fulfill
within the situation described by a sentence. If
the situation is a simple event, as in The boy
kicked the ball, then the verb describes an
action
(kick). The noun phrases in the sentence
describe the roles of entities, such as people and
things, involved in the action. We can identify a
small number of semantic roles (also called
‘thematic roles’) for these noun phrases.

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• Agent and theme:
• Agent:
• In our example sentence, one role is taken by
the noun phrase The boy as ‘the entity that
performs the action’, technically known as the
agent.
• Although agents are typically human (The boy),
they can also be non-human entities that cause
actions, as in The wind blew the ball away.

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• Theme (or the ‘patient’):
• Another role is taken by the ball as ‘the
entity that is involved in or affected by the
action’, which is called the theme. The
theme can also be an entity (The ball)
that is simply being described (i.e. not
performing an action), as in The ball was
red.
• The theme is typically non-human, but can
be human (the boy), as in The dog
• chased the boy.
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