A SUMMARY of LINGUISTICS

Third Stage
Chapter 1: WHAT IS LINGUISTICS?
Define linguistics. Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It
encompasses the description of languages, the study of their origin, and the
analysis of how children acquire language. Linguistics is also concerned
with relationships between languages and with the ways languages change
over time.
 Linguistics can be defined as ‘the systematic study of language’ a
discipline which describes language in all its aspects and formulates
theories as to how it works.
(The use of language is an integral part of being human. An inability to use
language adequately can affect someone’s status in society, and may even
alter their personality because of its crucial importance in human life.)

Q: What is a linguist? A person who studies linguistics is usually

referred to as a linguist. Linguists in the sense of linguistics experts need
not be fluent in languages, though they must have a wide experience of
different types of languages. It is more important for them to analyze and
explain linguistic phenomena such as the Turkish vowel system, or German
verbs, than to make themselves understood in Istanbul or Berlin.

Q: How does linguistics differ from traditional grammar?

Or: Point out three ways in which linguistics differs from traditional
school grammar.

 First, linguistics is descriptive; not prescriptive. Linguists are

interested in what is said, not what they think ought to be said. They
describe language in all its aspects, but do not prescribe rules of
‘correctness’. The notion of absolute and unchanging 'correctness' is
quite foreign to linguists. They might recognize that one type of
speech appears, through the whim of fashion, to be more socially

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 acceptable than others. But this does not make the socially acceptable
variety any more interesting for them than the other varieties.
 Second, linguists regard the spoken language as primary, not the
written. In the past, grammarians have over-stressed the importance of
the written word, partly because of its permanence. It was difficult to
cope with

 fleeting “vanishing” utterances before the invention of sound

recording. But linguists look first at the spoken word, which preceded
the written everywhere in the world. Moreover, most writing systems
are derived from the vocal sounds. Although spoken utterances and
written sentences share many common features, they also exhibit
considerable differences. Linguists therefore regard spoken and
written forms as belonging to different, though overlapping systems,
which must be analyzed separately: the spoken first, then the written.
 Third, linguistics does not force languages into a Latin-based
framework. In the past, many traditional textbooks have assumed that
Latin provides a universal framework into which all languages fit. In
addition, judgments on certain constructions often turn out to have a
Latin origin. For example, people frequently argue that 'good English'
avoids 'split infinitives' as in the phrase “to humbly apologize”,
where the infinitive to apologize is 'split' by humbly. To linguists, it is
unthinkable to judge one language by the standards of another. Since
split infinitives occur frequently in English, they are as 'correct' as
unsplit ones.

In brief, linguists are opposed to the notion that any one language can
provide an adequate “sufficient” framework for all the others. They are
trying to set up a universal framework. And there is no reason why this
should resemble the grammar of Latin, or the grammar of any other
language arbitrarily selected from the thousands spoken by humans.

Q: What is the difference between a prescriptive and a descriptive

approach to language?

Linguistics is descriptive; not prescriptive. They are interested in what is

said, not what they think ought to be said. They describe language in all its
aspects, but do not prescribe rules of ‘correctness’.

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Q: Why do linguists regard speech rather than writing as primary?

Linguists regard the spoken language as primary, not the written. In the past,
grammarians have over-stressed the importance of the written word, partly
because of its permanence. It was difficult to cope with fleeting utterances
before the invention of sound recording. But linguists look first at the spoken
word, which preceded the written everywhere in the world. Moreover, most
writing systems are derived from the vocal sounds. Although spoken
utterances and written sentences share many common features, they also
exhibit considerable differences. Linguists therefore regard spoken and
written forms as belonging to

different, though overlapping systems, which must be analyzed separately:

the spoken first, then the written.

Q: Distinguish between synchronic and diachronic.

Synchronic linguistics is the study of a language at a given point in time.

The time studied may be either the present or a particular point in the past.
Synchronic analysis can be made of dead language such as Latin.
Diachronic linguistics is the study of language and its changes throughout
history.

Note: Synchronic is related a particular time, without reference to their

historical context.
Diachronic : relating to the features that change through time.
The scope of linguistics

 Linguistics covers a wide range of topics and its boundaries are

difficult to define.
 Phoneticians are concerned with the actual physical sounds.

Linguists, on the other hand, are more interested in the way in which
language is patterned. They analyze the shape or form of these patterns
rather than the physical substance out of which the units of language are
made. The famous Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure, expressed the
difference well when he compared language with a game of chess. The
linguist is interested in the various moves which the chessmen make and
how they are aligned on the board. It does not matter whether the chessmen
are made of wood or ivory. Their substance does not alter the rules of the
game. 3
Phonology, syntax and semantics constitute grammar.

The following definitions are very important:

 Phonology is the study of sound patterning.

 Syntax: it refers to both the arrangement and the form of words.

 Semantics is the study of meanings.

 Pragmatics deals with how speakers use language in ways which

cannot be predicted from linguistic knowledge alone.

 Psycholinguistics is the study of language and mind.

 Socio-linguistics is the study of language and society.

 Applied linguistics is the application of linguistics to language

teaching.

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  Computational linguistics is the use of computers to simulate
language and its workings.

 Stylistics is the study of language and literature.

 Anthropological linguistics is the study of language in cross-cultural

settings.

 Philosophical linguistics is the link between language and logical

thought.

Chapter 2:
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
Definition of language : it is the specialized sound signaling system which
seems to be genetically programmed to develop in humans. The faculty for
the use of such systems, which is a distinguishing characteristic of man as
compared with other animals
Or : ( It is a system for the expression of thoughts, feelings by the use of
spoken sounds or conventional symbols.)

Use of Sound Signals

 Some animals use a variety of means to communicate with others, e.g.
Crabs communicate by waving their claws.

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  The use of sounds is also used to communicate by humans and
some animals, like birds, dolphins, cows, monkeys.
 Sound signals have several advantages. They can be used in the dark,
and at some distance, they allow a wide variety of messages to be sent
and they leave the body free for other activities.

Q: Explain the concept of arbitrariness.

Or: There is often a strong recognizable link between the actual signal
and the message an animal wishes to convey. Explain.
Or: In human language, there is no intrinsic connection between the
actual signal and the message the humans convey. Explain.

In animal communication, there is often a strong recognizable link between

the actual signal and the message an animal wishes to convey. An animal
who wishes to warn off an opponent may simulate an attacking attitude. A
cat for example, will arch its back, spit and appear ready to pounce. In
human language, there is no link whatsoever between the signal and the
message .There is no intrinsic connection, for example, between the word
‘elephant’ and the animal it symbolizes. The symbols are used arbitrary.

The need for learning

Q: Many animals automatically know how to communicate

without learning. Explain.
Q: Human language involves long learning process. Explain
Or the question can involve both of the above.

The systems of communication of animals are genetically inbuilt. Bee-

dancing , for example, is substantially in bee colonies in different parts of
the world, with only small variations. Even in cases where an element of
learning is involved. This is quite different from the long learning process
needed to acquire human language, which is culturally transmitted. A human

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being brought up in isolation simply does not acquire language. And there is
almost certainly some type of innate predisposition towards language in a
new-born child. This latent potentiality can be activated only by long
exposure to language, which requires careful learning.

Q: Define duality or “double articulation” and explain its concept.

Provide examples.
Q: The organization of language into two layers. Explain
Q: Animals who use vocal signal have a stock of basic sounds while
human use two layers of sounds.

Animals who use vocal signals have a stock of basic sounds which vary
according to species. Most animals can use each basic sound only once. The
number of messages an animal can send is restricted to the number of the
basic sounds. Human language works rather differently. Each language has a
stock of sound units or phonemes. Each phoneme is normally meaningless in
isolation. It becomes meaningful only when it is combined with other
phonemes.
Example: f, g, d, o, means nothing separately. They normally take on
meaning only when they are combined together in various ways, as in fog,
dog, god . This organization of language into rwo layers- a layer of sounds
which combine into a second layer of a larger unit – is known as duality or
double articulation. It was thought that duality was a characteristic uniqe to
human language. But now some people claim that it exists also in bird song,
where each individual note is meaningless . it is the combination of notes
into longer sequences which consititutes a meaningful melody.

Q: What is displacement? Provide examples.

Q: Displacement: is that ability of communicating about things that are
absent as easily as about things that are present. Explain.
Q: Most animals can communicate about things in the immediate
environment only while human can communicate about the past as
easily as present. Explain

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Most animals can communicate about things in the immediate environment
only. A bird, for example, utters its danger cry only when danger is present.
Human language can communicate about things that are absent as easily as
about things that are present. This rare phenomenon is known as
displacement.
For example, in the communication in the honey bees. If a worker bee finds
a new source of nectar, it returns to the hive and performs a complex dance
to inform the other bees of the exact location of the nectar, which may be
several miles away. However, even bees are limited in this ability. While
human language, by contrast, can cope with any subject whatever, and it
does not matter how far away the topic of the conversation is in time and
space

Q: What is meant by creativity (Productivity)?

Or: Most animals have a very limited number of messages they can send
or receive. Explain.
Q: Animals are restricted in sending or recieving their massages while
human language is not.
The male of grasshopper has a choice of six messages that can be sent.
These six messages, however, translate one meaning. Not only is the number
of messages fixed for the grasshopper, but so are the circumstances under
which each can be communicated. All animals are limited in a similar way.
Bees can communicate only about nectar. Dolphins are restricted to
communicating about the same things again and again.
The limitation or restriction of messages is not found in human language,
which is essentially creative (or productive). Humans can produce novel
utterances whenever they want to. A person can utter a sentence which
has never been said before, in the most unlikely circumstance , and still be
understood. If some said “ there is a platypus crawling across the ceiling” ,
friends might think that he was drunk or drugged, but they would understand
the words spoken.

Q: What is patterning?
Or: Many animal communication systems consist of a simple list of
elements. There is no internal organization within this system. On the

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other hand, human language is most definitely not a haphazard heap of
individual items. Explain

Humans do not juxtapose “arrange” sounds and words in a random way.

Instead, they ring the changes on a few well-defined patterns. For
example, the sounds a. b, s, t. There are only four possible ways in which
these sounds could be arranged , bats, tabs, stab, and bast (‫)الليف‬. All other
possibilities are impossible such as *sbat.

Similarly, the words, burglar , sneezed , loudly, the. Only three

combinations are possible.
 The burglar sneezed loudly.
 Loudly sneezed the burglar.
 The burglar loudly sneezed.
All other possibilities are impossible such as *The loudly burglar sneezed .

Every item in language has its own characteristic place in the total
pattern. It can combine with certain specified items and be replaced by
others as in the following sentences.
 The burglar sneezed loudly.
 A robber coughed softly.
 That cat hissed noisily.
Language can therefore be regarded as a complicated network of
interlinked elements in which every item is held in its place and given its
identity by all the other items.

Q: Work out how many ways the words surprisingly, eggs, eat, elephants,
large, will , sometimes can be arranged to produce well-formed English
sentences?

1. Large elephants will surprisingly eat eggs sometimes.

2. Surprisingly, elephants will sometimes eat large eggs.
3. Surprisingly, large elephants will sometimes eat eggs.

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Q: What is structure dependence? Provide example.
Or : Identify the feature of the above sentences and explain it.
 The penguin squawked.
 It squawked.
 The penguin which slipped on the ice squawked.

This feature is known as structure dependence. The number of words in each

sentence is no guide whatsoever to its basic structure. Simple counting
operations are quite irrelevant to language . For example, to express the past
in English, there would have no success if we try out a strategy such as ‘Add
–ed to the end of the third word’. We might , accidently , produce a few
good sentences such as:
Uncle Herbert toasted seventeen crumpets.
But more often, the results would be quite absurd:
*Clarissa hate frogs-ed.
*The girl who-ed hate frogs scream.

It is quite impossible for anybody to from sentences and understand them

unless they realize that each on has inaudible , invisible structure., which
cannot be discovered by mechanical means such as counting.
Language operations are structure dependent. They depend on an
understanding of the internal structure of a sentence, rather than on the
number of elements involved. In other words, language operations are
structure dependent -- they depend on an understanding of the internal
structure of a sentence, rather than on the number of elements involved.

Q: The types of structure dependent operations found in a language are

often quite complicated, and involve considerably more than the mere
addition of items ( as in the case of the past tense). Explain.

Elements of structure can change places, or even be omitted. For example in

one type of question, the first verbal element changes places with the
subject;
[ that dirt child ] [must] wash.
Has the related question
[Must] that dirty child wash?
And the sentence,
Billy swims faster than Herbert.

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It is generally agreed that the sentence means “Billy swims faster than
Herbert swims” and that the second occurrence of swims is understood.

Q: Suggest at least three properties of language which are rare or

absent in animal communication.
To answer this question we can talk about “ duality, displacement, and
structure dependence” or any other three properties we would like to talk
about.
“ duality, : ‫إلجابة هذا السؤال يمكننا التحدث عن ثالث خصائص مثل‬
‫" أو أية ثالث خصائص أخرى‬displacement, and structure dependence
.‫نرغب في التحدث عنها‬

Q: Compare the Human Language VS Animal Communication.

Human language is a signaling system which uses sounds, a characteristic

shared by a large number of animal systems.
In animal communication, there is frequently a connection between the
signal and the message sent and the system is mainly genetically inbuilt.
In human language, the symbols are mostly arbitrary.
Duality and displacement are rare in the animal world. Creativity seems not
to be present in any natural communication system possessed by animals.
Language is a patterned system of arbitrary sound signals, characterized
by structure dependence, creativity, displacement, duality and cultural
transmission.

Q: Human language is innately guided. Explain.

Human infants are not born speaking, but they know to acquire any language
to which they are exposed . They are drawn to the noises coming out of
human mouths, and they instinctively know how to analyze speech
sounds. Bees present a parallel case ; they are not equipped with an inbuilt
encyclopedia of flowers. Instead, they are pre-programmed to pay attention
to important flower characteristics- especially scent. So they quickly learn
how to recognize nectar-filled blooms.

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Q: Identify the three preconditions that must have existed to indicate
the development of language and explain the original language
preferences that possibly reflect ways in which humans view the world.

The three preconditions are :

First, humans had to view the world in certain common ways; they noticed
objects and actions.
Second, they were able to produce a range of sounds - a spin- off of
walking upright , according to one view.
Third, they must have attained the “naming insight’, the realization that
sound sequences can be symbols which ‘stand for, people and objects.

Original language preferences that possibly reflected ways in which humans

view the world. Most languages put words for actions near the objects
which are acted upon . For example, in English, “ the fisherman caught a
fish”. In Turkish, they prefer to say “ The fisherman a fish caught”. So
preferences to habits to rules may be a natural progression. There is
always flexibility which is why all languages are not the same.

Language is a highly developed form of animal sigalling. But there is a

missing link in the chain.

Q: What roles a language can play.

Or: Suggest some reasons why people talk
Language can be used for the following purposes:
1. Social chit-chat, the meaningless small talk of everyday life, plays a
key role.
2. The use of language for persuading and influencing others.
3. Language can be used to communicate feelings and emotions.
4. Human may use language for purely aesthetic reasons . In writing
poetry, the words are used just like colours used in painting.

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 Chapter 3: The Study of Language

Q: Define the following: (very important question)

Sir William Jones, Ferdinand De Saussure, Bloomfield,
structural linguistics, generative grammar, Universal
Grammar, Minimalist Program, optimality theory, Corpus
linguistics.

Sir William Jones pointed out that Sanskrit ,Greek, Latin , Celtic
and Germanic all had striking structural similarities.

Ferdinand De Saussure stated that all language items were

essentially interlinked. He was the first to suggest that language
was like a game of chess, a system in which each item is defined
by its relationship to all the others. His insistence that language
is a carefully built structure of interwoven elements initiated the
era of structural linguistics.

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Structural linguistics: The language is a patterned system
composed of interdependent elements, rather than a collection of
unconnected individual items.
Bloomfield considered that linguistics should deal objectively and
systematically with observable data. So he was more interested in
the way items were arranged than in meaning.

Generative grammar: A grammar which consists of a set of

statements or rules which specify which sequences of a language
are possible, and which impossible. Chomsky, therefore, initiated
the era of generative linguistics. In his words, a grammar will be ‘a
device which generates all the grammatical sequences of a
language and none of the ungrammatical ones’.

Universal Grammar: Chomsky suggested that the constraints on

human language are inherited ones. Human beings may be pre-
programmed with a basic knowledge of what languages are like,
and how they work. Chomsky has given the label Universal
Grammar (UG) to this inherited core. He regards it as a major
task of linguistics to explore its make-up.

Minimalist Program, it is Chomsky’s work which has become

more and more abstract. Increasingly, he has turned to specifying
broad general principles, the bare bones of human language,
taking less interest in the details of individual tongues.

Optimality theory: It is a new major theory which suggests that

there are no fixed bounds on language. Instead, Universal
Grammar contains a set of violable constraints. Each language
varies in its ranking of these constraints. Differences between the
rankings give rise to different patterns, resulting in variation
between languages.

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Corpus Linguistics: the study and use of computerized data bases
for linguistic research.

Nineteenth century: historical linguistics

Plato is said to have been the first person to distinguish between
nouns and verbs. Linguists in the sense of linguistics experts need not be
fluent in languages, though they must have a wide experience of different
types of languages. It is more important for them to analyze and explain
linguistic phenomena such as the Turkish vowel system, or German verbs,
than to make themselves understood in Istanbul or Berlin. They are skilled,
objective observers rather than participants – consumers of languages rather
than producers, as one social scientist flippantly commented

(1786 is regarded as the birthdate of linguistics)

These similarities were so impressive that Sir William Jones

concluded that these languages must have sprung from one
common source.

Question: The ‘Young Grammarians’, claimed that language

change is ‘regular’. Explain.

They argued that if, in any word of a given dialect, one sound
changes into another, the change will also affect all other
occurrences of the same sound in similar phonetic surroundings.
For example, in Old English the word chin was pronounced ‘kin’
(spelt cinn). This change from a k-sound to ch affects all other k-
sounds which occurred at the beginning of a word before e or i. so
we also get chicken, child, chide, chip, chill, cheese, cheek, chest,
chew.

All these words originally had a k-sound at the beginning.

Early- to mid-20th century: descriptive linguistics:

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In the 20th century, the emphasis shifted from language change to
language description.

This state of affairs changed with the publication in 1933 of

Leonard Bloomfield’s comprehensive work entitled simply
Language, which attempted to lay down rigorous procedures for
the description of any language.

Q: What are the differences between the contributions of

Ferdinand De Saussure and Bloomfield?
Ferdinand De Saussure stated that all language items were
essentially interlinked. He suggested that language was like a game
of chess, a system in which each item is defined by its relationship
to all the others. His insistence that language is a carefully built
structure of interwoven elements initiated the era of structural
linguistics.
Bloomfield considered that linguistics should deal objectively and
systematically with observable data. So he was more interested in
the way items were arranged than in meaning.

Ferdinand De Saussure who is sometimes labeled “the father of

Modern Linguistics’.

Ferdinand’s De Saussure students published his lectures under

the title Course in General Linguistics (1915).

Leonard Bloomfield’s comprehensive work entitled Language

was in 1933.

Mid- to late-20th century: generative linguistics and the search

for universals
In 1957, linguistics took a new turning. Noam Chomsky, published
a book called Syntactic structures.

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Chomsky has shifted attention away from detailed description of
actual utterances, and started asking questions about the nature of
the system which produces the output.

Q: How does Chomsky consider Bloomfieldian linguistics?

According to Chomsky, Bloomfieldian linguistics was both far

too ambitious and far too limited in scope. It was too ambitious in
that it was unrealistic to expect to be able to lay down foolproof
“simple” rules for extracting a perfect description of a language
from a mass of data. It was too limited because it concentrated on
describing sets of utterances which happened to have been spoken.
A grammar, he claimed, should be more than a description of old
utterances. It should also take into account possible future
utterances. In short, the

traditional viewpoint that the main task of linguists is simply to

describe a corpus of actual utterances cannot account for the
characteristic of

productivity, or creativity, as Chomsky preferred to call it.

Chomsky pointed out that anyone who knows a language must
have internalized a set of rules which specify the sequences
permitted in their language. In his opinion, a linguist’s task is
to discover these rules, which constitute the grammar of that
language.

[Chomsky not only initiated the era of generative grammars. He

also redirected attention towards language universals.
He pointed out that as all humans are rather similar, their
internalized language mechanisms are likely to have important
common properties. He argued that linguists should concentrate on
finding elements and constructions that are available to all

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languages, whether or not they actually occur. Linguists should
seek to specify the universal bounds or constraints within which
human language operates.]

Q: Explain the word explicit when used in connection with

grammars.
A grammar is perfectly explicit, in that nothing is left to the
imagination. The rules must be precisely formulated in such a way
that anyone would be able to separate the well-formed sentences
from the ill-formed ones. Chomsky called it ‘transformational-
generative grammar’ (TGG).

Discovery Procedures: a set of principles which would

enable a linguist to discover or uncover in a foolproof way of
linguistic units of unwritten language, because of their overriding
interest in the internal patterns or structure of the language, such
linguists are sometimes labeled structuralists.

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 Chapter 4 DECIDING WHERE TO BEGIN
Fill the following blanks
1. The language is an enormous and very complex phenomenon.
2. The central components which make up a grammar are : phonology,
syntax and semantics.
3. To study a language, people fall into two categories: universalists
and particularists.
4. Those interested in studying a particular language will be trying to
write a perfect grammar of that language.
5. Those interested in language as a whole will be trying to lay down a
grammatical framework which will be suitable for all languages.

Language as a game

Q: What are the aims of a language?

1. Conveying information.

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 2. Expressing emotions.
3. Keeping in touch socially.
4. Obtaining information. ( where is the bus station?)
5. Making someone do something ( turn on the light!)
6. Making a promise ( I will buy you a new car)

Q: What are the principles of interaction in language? Provide

an example.
Within language, people take it in turns to speak, and each language tends to
have certain socially prescribed turns.
Example:
Ali: Good morning, Muna.
Muna: Why hello there, Ali.

Q: Explain the permitted moves ‘rules’ in language?

There are rules underlying well-formed sequences of a language. In English,

verbs precede their objects , as in (The cat ate the canary), rather than (The
cat the canary ate) .Is is easier to specify the basic permitted moves than it is
to give an equivalent account of the aims and principles of interaction,
which are closely interwoven with the social structures of the society.

Universal and particular

Q: The particular and universal groups have different views
about linguistics. Define these two terms and explain the
differences between them.

The particular group is those who want to study a language because they
are interested in knowing more about particular language.
The universal group is those who are interested in language as a whole and
try to lay down a grammatical framework which will be suitable for all
languages.

The differences between the particular group and the universal groups
:

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The particular group tries to write a perfect grammar. They argue that
those searching for a universal framework are too theoretical and
irrelevant to everyday life. They comment that modern linguistics does
not help when it comes to teaching Spanish class for example.
The universal group tries to lay down a universal grammatical
framework to be suitable for all languages. They argue that the
particularists are narrow-minded people who simply like collecting facts.
They comment that they wish the teacher would stop making lists of
irregular verbs and get on with something useful.

In fact, the universalists views are complementary not contradictory. No one

can work seriously on a universal framework unless they have a
considerable information about individual language against which to test
their theories. Conversely, the mass of information about diverse languages
reduces the level of linguistics to be a hobby unless some attempt is made to
relate the various facts within a wider framework. Moreover, it is perhaps
wrong to assume that anyone interested in linguistics must fall into either
the particularist or the universalist category. Nowadays, a growing number
of people are carrying out both types of study. In addition, those who start
out with an interest in a particular language ideally move on becoming
interested in language as such.

Chapter 5
SOUND PATTERNS

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Linguistics is concerned primarily with the spoken word. So a priority
task for anyone describing sounds is to decide how to represent the flow of
speech.
Linguists, then, when they are concerned with sounds, abandon conventional
spelling for the purpose of representing spoken utterances. The best known
of these is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Q:What are the types of sound symbols of the International Phonetic

Alphabet (IPA).

1. A number of IPA symbols are borrowed from the conventional written

alphabet:
[b] as in 'bird'
[d] as in 'dog'
(Symbols representing sounds are put into square brackets).
2. Other symbols are variations of alphabet letters:
[ɒ] as in 'hot' is an upside down a.
[ŋ] as in 'bang' is a combination of n and g.
[ɪ] as in 'hit' is a small-size capital I
3. Sometimes obsolete letters are used:
[ʃ] as in dish.
4. Other symbols are from the Greek alphabet:
[θ] as in thin,
5. A few symbols are inventions:
[ɬ] Welsh ll as in Llanelli.
6. Sometimes supplementary marks (known as 'diacritics') are added to
the symbols. For example, two dots indicate Length:
[u:] (long u) as in boot.

By such means, the IPA has built up a store of symbols which can, in theory,
represent any sound in any Language.

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Sorting out the basic sounds
Q: Explain how can a linguist sort out the basic sounds of unknown and
unwritten language?

When a linguist is working on a unknown, unwritten Language until now. A

reliable native speaker from whom the linguist gathers samples of speech.
The sessions will concentrate on the accurate transcription of sounds,
dealing at first with single words. The linguist will do this by asking the
informant to name everyday objects such as nose, mouth, house, tree, sun,
and will then transcribe each of these words in as much detail as possible.
The informant changes relatively small number of basic sounds or
phonemes, each of which may have several variant forms.

The number of phonemes varies from language to language. The

average is around thirty-five. English has forty-four.

Q: Define the phoneme and show how phonemes differ.

Provide examples.
A phoneme is the smallest segment of sound which can distinguish
two words. Take the words pit and bit. The phonemes differ only in their
initial sound, pit begins with /p/ and bit begins with /b/. This is the smallest
amount by which these two words could differ and still remain distinct
forms. Any smaller subdivision would be impossible, because English does
not subdivide /p/ or /b/. Similarly, take the words pet and pit. These differ
only in the vowel. Once again, this is the smallest amount by which these
two words could differ. There is no English sound halfway between / e/ and /
ɪ /.
The Phonemes of English
There are forty-four phonemes, they can be divided into two types:
consonants and vowels. The vowel can be subdivided into relatively
pure or unchanging vowels, as in bit, bet, bat, but, and diphthongs or
gliding vowels, in which the voice glides from one vowel to another, as in
boat, buy, bay.

Allophones

23
An allophone is a conditioned realisation of the same phoneme.

Q: The amount of variation differs from phoneme to phoneme.

Explain with examples.
Q : Sometimes the variation of allophone is random and at
other times is predictable. Explain.
Q: Compare between free variation and complementary distribution.
Sometimes the variation is random: no two sounds can ever be exactly the
same. These slight differences normally pass unnoticed. When sounds vary
randomly in this way, they are said to be in free variation. For example,
the very slight alterations in the pronunciation of English /s/ are mostly
imperceptible and unimportant.
The way a phoneme is pronounced can be conditioned by the sounds around
it or by its position in the word. The sounds are in complementary
distribution. For example, the English phoneme /p/. When it occurs at the
beginning of a word, it is pronounced with aspiration. After /s/, this
aspiration disappears.
[The English phoneme / l/ has one form at the beginning of a word and
another form at the end. In a word such' as lip, the first consonant is a 'clear'
l, pronounced by placing the tip of the tongue just behind the teeth and
keeping the back of the tongue fairly low. In pill, the tongue tip is in the
same place, but the back of the tongue is raised, resulting in a 'dark' I. So the
'clear' variant [l] and the 'dark' variant [ɬ] are both allophones of the
phoneme [1].

Sound Combination

Q: Every language has certain permitted sequences of sounds, and

others which are not allowed. Explain.
In English, for example, a word which begins with three consonant-type
phonemes always obeys three strict rules:

24
1 The first phoneme must be /s/.
2 The second phoneme must be /p/ or /t/ or /k/.
3 The third phoneme must be /1/ or /r/ or /w/or /j/.
The result is that all words beginning with three consonants are words such
as spring, string, squeal, splendid or stew. We never find words such as *
bdling, *sgteal or *wbtendid.

Shared properties of phonemes

Q: There are views state that phonemes have been regarded as separate,
independent units, each one having its own allophones. Explain

Q: It would, however, be a mistake to regard the phonemes of English

as being totally separate form one another. Many phonemes share
common features. Explain.

Q: How do we distinguish between phonemes?

The English phonemes, /p/, /t/, /b/, /d/, /m/, /n/. First these all share the
property of being consonants. Second, /b/, /d/, /m/,/n/.are all voiced. Third,
/p/, /b/, /m/, are pronounced with the lips, and so share the property of being
labials. Fourth, when /m/ and /n/ are spoken, air is expel1ed through the
nose. They are therefore both nasals.

/p / /t/ /b/ /d/ /m/ /n/.

Consonantal + + + + + +
Voiced _ _ + + + +
Labial + _ + _ + _
Nasal _ _ _ _ + +
This type of feature analysis makes the rules of any language much simpler
to express.

25
[The more usual linguistic term for 'property" or 'component' of a phoneme
is the word feature. So we might describe the phoneme /n/ by saying that it
has the features consonantal, voiced, nasal. Compared with /m/, the
phoneme /n/ lacks the feature labial. Otherwise, the two are the same. It is
therefore the presence or absence of the feature labial which separates /m/
from /n/. Any feature which distinguishes one phoneme from another is
called a distinctive feature. Since languages will, in general, have a
different range of phonemes, the set of distinctive features wil1 also tend to
differ from language to language.]

Q: What is natural class of sounds? Provide an example.

A group of sounds which share important features in common, such as the
group of nasals. Let’s suppose we have a language which drops the
phonemes /m/,/n/ and /ŋ /at the end of a word under certain circumstances. It
is simpler and clearer to write a rule which states that nasals are dropped at
the end of a word than it
is to name each phoneme separately.

Non-segmental phonemes
 Segmental phonemes: are chunks or segments of sound, such as
/b/or /t/ or /e/.
In Chinese language, there are numerous words which are distinguished by
differences in the rise and fal1 of tone as in the following minimal pairs:

ma (level tone) mother

ma (rising tone) hemp
ma (dipping tone) horse

ma (falling tone) scold

Tone languages a language where its words are distinguished by
difference in the rise and fall of tone.

26
Tone languages have one advantageous by-product: the tones and rhythms
of speech can be imitated by instruments other than the human voice. This is
the basis of African talking drums (or more accurately, talking gongs), in
which the drum beats reproduce the tones and rhythms of the language.
However, because the drums are unable to reproduce the segmental
phonemes, their messages work in a slightly different way from normal
language. A single message may take several minutes to convey, even
though it would have taken only a few seconds to
give the information verbal1y.This is because whole phrases are utilized
where ordinary language uses single words. Such a procedure is necessary in
order to avoid confusion. For example, among the Lokele of the Upper
Congo, the word for dog is ‘ngwa’, a single syl1able spoken with a low tone.
But because there are dozens of other single syl1ablewords spoken with a
low tone, the drum equivalent for 'dog' uses a whole phrase, meaning
literal1y 'giant dog, little one that barks kpei kpei'. The 'tune' of this phrase is
unlike that of any other drum phrase, and serves to distinguish the meaning
'dog' in the message.

Q: A single message may take several minutes to convey, even

though it would have taken only a few seconds to give the
information verbal1y.
Answer: This is because whole phrases are utilized where ordinary language
uses single words. such a procedure is necessary in order to avoid confusion.

Metrical phonology

Metrical phonology, each word and group of words has its own rhythm,
an interplay of stressed and unstressed syllables. The most stressed syllables
have the most stars, and the least stressed, the smallest number of stars. The
actual quantity of stress given to a syllable does not matter very much. The
important point is the relative amount given to each.

[Note: See pages 47 -49 for more clarification and try to focus on the
example

27
In happiness, for example, it is essential to give the greatest amount of stress
to hap-, and the least to -pi-.]

Foot: it shows how strong and weak syllable alternate, and indicates that
each syllable can be regarded as sub-portion of a larger unit.

Q: State the difference between strong portion and weak portion for the
words central and heating.
The words central and heating each sound rather similar when pronounced
alone. But when spoken together as the phrase central heating, the rhythm
alters, so that the strongest stress goes onto heating.

Chapter 6 :WORDS AND PIECES OF WORDS

Define the word according to Bloomfield: It is a minimum free, that is, the
smallest form that can occur by itself .

Bloomfield’s definition of the word is fairly unsatisfactory because words

do not normally occur by themselves in spoken speech.

28
For example if you ask question, a normal-sounding reply often requires
more than one word.

Who did that? John did.

What’s that? An oak tree

Furthermore, some separate words, such as did, the, and, are found alone
only in exceptional circumstances, such as in answer to the question: what
does a-n-d spell?

Bloomfield’s definition of the word works best for written English.

Why?

When a word is written, it is conventionally to leave a space on either

side of a word, but linguists are concerned primarily with spoken word, not
with written. For example, the name of certain type of snake, a boa
constrictor, is written as two words rather than one, or that seaside appears
as one word, but sea shore as two.

Why have linguists found it so hard to find a satisfactory definition of

the notion ‘word’?

There are different types of words. If we take words such as “fly, flew” the
questions are; should fly (noun) and fly (verb) be counted the same , since
they sound the same , or different since they have different meanings?
Should fly and flew be regarded as the same , because they belong to the
same verb, or different because they have different forms. So it is
important to distinguish between lexical items, syntactic words and
phonological words.

29
Q: Should fly (noun) and fly (verb) be counted the same , since they
sound the same , or different since they have different meanings?

Q. Should fly and flew be regarded as the same , because they belong to
the same verb, or different because they have different forms?

If by ‘word’ we mean lexical items ( the technical term for dictionary entry)
the sound sequence /flai/ ‘fly’ represents two words, since most dictionaries
have separate entries for fly (noun) fly (verb) :.If we consider lexical items,
the form such as fly represents at least two words:
fly N: an insect with two wings.
fly V: move through the air in a controlled manner.

The two lexical items have different syntactic forms associated with them.
The insect could either be singular (fly) or plural (flies). The verb on the
other hand could occur as fly, flying, flies, flew, flown.

Phonological words: the lexical item flaw has two syntactic forms flaw
(singular) and flaws (plural). But the singular from flaw then has two
different sound sequences associated with it, flaw before a consonant, and a
flaw before3 a vowel.

Q: What are the two main stages in the analysis that we follow
to identify the various types of words?
The first stage, finding chunks such as fly, flew , which recur as
self-contained units. We look for sequences which are
uninterruptible and mobile. For example, chickens cannot be
interrupted , it is impossible to say *chik-little-ens, or *chiken-
little-s . In addition, the sequence chickens can move about. It can
occur next to different words, and in different parts of the
sentence, as in : Chickens lay eggs, foxes eat chickens, the
chickens clucked loudly.

The second stage: we need to consider the syntactic behavior of

these possible words, that is their role in the overall sentence
pattern. For example, fly N would show up as behaving differently

30
from fly V, since each would fit into different ‘slot’ or ‘place’ in
the sentence.
( Flies buzzed), (The fly buzzed), (The dirty fly buzzed). ( Fly) as
noun, it fits into different slots. In the first sentence it fits into the
first slot, in the

second sentence it fits into the second slot, and the third slot in the
third sentence )
(Birds fly), They fly home on Sunday), (They flew home on
Sunday) . (Fly , flew verb, it always fits into the same general slot)

Q:Define morpheme and analyze the following sentence.

The sleep walking albatross chanted a dreamy lullaby.

Morpheme is the smallest syntactic unit that cannot be cut up into smaller
syntactic segments. Morphemes vary in size. Neither syllables nor length are
any guide to their identification.

The sleep walking albatross chanted a dreamy lullaby.

(The sleep walk ing albatross chant ed a dream y lullaby)

(There are 11 morphemes in the sentence)

Q: Define morpheme and state how many types of morphemes are

there?
Morpheme is the smallest syntactic unit that cannot be cut up into smaller
syntactic segments. Morphemes vary in size. Neither syllables nor length are
any guide to their identification.

There are two types of morphemes. The free morphemes can occur by
themselves as a whole words such as albatross, chant, lullaby. The bound
morphemes must be attached to another morpheme to have a meaning.
Bound morphemes are of two main types, the inflectional morpheme and
the derivational morpheme.

31
The inflectional morphemes are very few ‘ English has nine morphemes
such a -s plural, -ed past tense, -ing present progressive . They do not alter
the syntactic behavior of an item. They can be added on to derivational ones.
The Derivational morphemes create entirely new words as in cloud and
cloudy which behave quite differently and fit into different slots in the
sentence. The derivational morphemes cannot be added on to inflectional
ones.

Allomorph: is any actual representation of a morpheme such as the

plural endings /s/, as in cats /s/, bags /z/ , buses /iz/.

Define morphonology : It is the study of the different phonemic

shapes of allomorphs.

An allomorph is said to be phonologically conditioned when its

form is dependent on the adjacent phonemes. An allomorphis said
to be lexically conditioned when its form seems

to be a purely accidental one, linked to a particular vocabulary

item. The English plural morpheme provides excellent examples of
both phonologically and lexically conditioned allomorphs.

/-z/, /-s/,/-iz/ are all phonologically conditioned allomorphs of the

English plural morpheme. That is, each allomorph occurs in a
predictable set of environments.

Words such as oxen, sheep, geese are lexieal1y conditioned

plurals that do not follow any specific rule. Each one has to be
learnt separately. They can be identified as syntaetical1y
equivalent to the cats and dogs type of plural because they fit into
the same 'slot' in a sentence.

Oxen, sheep and geese each contain two morphemes:

ox + plural

32
sheep + plural

goose + plural

But only oxen is easily divisible into two: ox + (en)

Sheep can be divided into two if a zero suffix is assumed.

: sheep+ / Φ /

(goose) should be regarded as a special type of a1lomorph called a

replacive. It is analyzed as:

/gu:s/+ /i:/ ---/u:/ where /i:/ replaces /u:/

This is one of the important questions about the allomorphs and how
they are phonologically and lexically conditioned.

Question: (Sheep, dogs) explain the plural endings of the two words?

The plural ending of (dogs) is phonologically conditioned. The plural ending

/s/ is pronounced /z/ because it occurs after a voiced phoneme.
The plural ending of (sheep) is lexically conditioned. Sheep can be divided
into two morphemes if a zero suffix is assumed.
Sheep + /Ø/
Sheep can be identified as syntactically equivalent to dogs type of plural
because they fit into the same ‘slot’ in a sentence.

 Sheep eat grass.

 Dogs eat meat.

Note , the question may come up with other words like (cats,
oxen), (horses, geese) , so try to answer the question in a similar
way but pay attention to the details of each word mentioned in
pages (57,58)

33
Question:
1. Ali detested snails.
2. Ahmed smiled.
According to the above two sentences, explain how are words
classified?

In the above two sentences, the word class known as “verb” as in

(detested, smiled) can be recognized as a verb because words are classified
into word classes according to:-
1. Their syntactic behavior ( fitting into the same slot).
2. Their morphological form (to be inflected in similar ways
.(-ed inflection. )
Question:
1. Ali ate caviare.
2. Ali ate well.
Do (caviar and well) belong to the same word class? Prove it.
They do not belong to the same word class because they behave somewhat
differently overall. If we try altering the sentences around, we can say.
1. Caviare was eaten by Ali.
2. What Ali ate was caviar.
But we cannot form the equivalent with well.
1. *Well was eaten by Ali.
2. *What Ali ate was well.

These dissimilarities indicate that caviar and well are syntactically

different and belong to different word class.

Question: The four major classes, nouns, verbs, and prepositions behave
fairly differently from one another. Why are adjectives somewhat
strange?

The adjectives are strange because they have some noun-like qualities and
some verb-like qualities ones.
In the sentence (Blessed are the brave) brave seems to have become a noun
with the existence of the definite article “the”.

34
In the sentence ( Ali is asleep) , asleep seems fairly verb-like , since it fits
into the same slot as “sleeping” in a sentence such as ( Ali is sleeping).

NOTE: [The major word classes are known as (lexical categories)

because they contain (content words) with essential meanings.
They contrast with (functional words )which include “little
words” whose meaning is often difficult to specify, as the , a,
which are the determiners (D), or the complementizer that. The
function words are important for gluing pieces of sentences
together into longer syntactic patterns. ]

Chapter 7: SENTENCE PATTERNS

"linking words together" word order, inflections

35
Question: Different languages use different devices for showing the
relationship of one word to another. Explain. ‫مهم‬

1. Word order
The device used most frequently in English is word order:
Example: The large spider frightened Aunt Matilda.
Aunt Matilda frightened the large spider.
The words themselves in these two sentences are identical. It is the
word order which indicates who frightened whom, and that it is the
spider which is large, not Aunt Matilda. Languages which rely heavily
on word order are known as configurational languages.
2. Inflections
In a language such as Latin, word endings or inflections, indicate the
relationship between words. In the Latin sentence (Large spider
frightened Matilda aunt) which means (The large spider frightened
Aunt Matilda). the word order is irrelevant. In Linguistic
terminology, Latin is a non-configurational language. Word order
is not critical.
3. Function words
This device is used in both English and Latin. These are words such
as “of, by, that” which indicate relationships between parts of the
sentence:
Aunt Matilda was terrified by a spider.
The Queen of Sheba.
I know that Penelope will come.
Matilda amita ab aranea perterrita est.(Matilda-aunt-by-spider-
frightened-is[was]

Q: Try to indicate the differences between the underlined words

concerning the term word only.

1. Paul wants (to )go home.

2. Paul went (to )the river.

Answer: English words, such as (to) , can be used both as function word and
as a content word with intrinsic meaning. In Sentence number 1 , (to) is a

36
function word. In sentence number 2, (to) is a content word with the
meaning of ‘towards’ or ‘as far as’.

In sentences such as:

1. Andrew’s suit was made (to) order.
2. It seems (to) me a good idea.
(to) does not fit well into either type of usage, that is, (to) is neither function
word nor content word

Constituent analysis
The linguistic procedure, which divides sentence into their component parts
or constituents that reduces a sentence with five parts into three or two parts,
is known as constituent analysis.

Tree diagrams

The successive layers of constituents which make up a sentence can be

shown most clearly on a tree diagram . The advantage of a tree diagram is
that each join or node on the tree can be labeled, so that the whole
construction becomes clearer.

Rewrite rules : An alternative way of expressing the information

found on a tree diagram is by means of rewrite rules. A rewrite rule is a
replacement rule, in which the symbol

37
to the left of an arrow is replaced by an expanded form written to the right of
the arrow:

S –> NP VP means “Replace the symbol S by NP VP”.

VP –> V NP means “Replace the symbol VP by V NP”.

NP –> D N means 'Replace the symbol NP by D N .

The great advantage of rewrite rules is that they are

perfectly explicit. They do not leave anything to the imagination.

Consider the sentence: The mouse ran up the clock.

How should this be analysed? Should we bracket [ran up) together, on the
assumption that these words could be replaced by a word such
as climbed? Or should we bracket [up the clock] together, noting that the
whole phrase could be replaced by a single word such as upwards? Problems
of this type are solved by seeing whether the groups of words in question
belong together as a constituent elsewhere, since words that are grouped
together in one sentence are likely to recur as a single constituent in other
sentences. One way of checking this is to construct sentences in which the
original words occur in a different order: Up the clock ran the mouse. The
mouse ran the clock up.

These sentences suggest that the words up the clock should be bracketed
together, since they can be moved as a chunk to the front of the sentence.
We may therefore analyse the sentence as

[The mouse] [ran] [up the clock.) and draw the tree diagram as in Figure 32.

38
The mouse ate up the cheese. We can show the difference by switching the
sentence around:* Up the cheese ate the mouse. (Compare: Up the clock ran
the mouse)

The mouse ate the cheese up. (Compare: *The mouse ran the clock up.)

We may therefore analyse the secord sentence as:

[The mouse] [ate up] [the cheese.]

VB means “phrasal verb”

PRT means particle.

Noun Phrase (NP) tests

English NPs (noun phrases) recur in certain specifiable positions. Some of

the main places in which they occur are:

1. At the beginning of a sentence before the verb:

The cat ate the canary.

(b) At the end of a sentence after the verb:

The canary feared the cat

3. After by in a passive sentence: The canary was eaten by the cat.

4. After an auxiliary verb in questions:
Did the cat eat the canary?

39
Of course, other types of phrase can occur in some of these positions. But an
NP such as the cat can occur in all of them. Consequently, if we find a
phrase which

we suspect might be an NP, we can apply these (and other) tests. For
example, consider the sentences below: Uncle Harry kicked the cat.
Suddenly Harry kicked the cat.

In order to find out whether the first two words in each sentence are an NP,
we can apply the NP tests listed above:

The Noun Phrase test

1. At the beginning of a sentence before a verb:

Uncle Harry kicked the cat.
Suddenly Harry kicked the cat.

2. At the end of a sentence after a verb:

The cat scratched Uncle Harry.
*The cat scratched suddenly Harry.
3. After by in a passive sentence:
The cat was kicked by Uncle Harry.

* The cat was kicked by suddenly Harry.

4. After an auxiliary verb in questions:

Did Uncle Harry kick the cat?
*Did suddenly Harry kick the cat?

The failure of suddenly Harry to pass most of these NP tests shows that it
cannot be an NP, whereas the success of Uncle Harry indicates that it
probably is an NP.

Adding in extra patterns

In The duck slept in the bath, the verb is followed by a preposition phrase

40
The extra rewrite rules required for this are:

S-----NP VP

NP----D N

VP->V PP

PP->P NP

However, the PP is not an essential part of the structure. It is an optional

extra, since The duck slept is a well-formed sentence by itself. This can be
shown by putting brackets round the PP in the rewrite rule, indicating that
it is optional:

VP->V (PP)

The duck slept in the bath, and The duck slept. In the first, the optional PP
has been selected. In the second, it has been omitted.

The burglar put the duck in a sack. (Figure 7.11, page 73).

41
The rewrite rule in this case is:

VP->V NP PP

So far, then, we have three different rewrite rules for English VPs:

VP -> V NP (The duck bit the burglar).

VP ->V (PP) (The duck slept, The duck slept in the bath).

VP->V NP PP (The burglar put the duck in a sack).

It would be useful to combine these three separate rules. (VI for a verb such
as bit, V2 for slept, V3 for put), and enclose them in another type of bracket
{ } which is used to denote alternative possibilities:

This means: 'Rewrite the VP as either VI NP, or V2 (PP), or V3 NP PP'.

The rewrite rules of the sentence “The burglar put the duck in a sack”.

S NP VP
NP ND
VP V NP PP
PP P NP

Layers of branches

42
Maurice took a photograph of a flower .
The sequence (a photograph of a flower )is clearly a noun phrase (NP) and
the words photograph and flower are nouns (N). But what of the intervening
node, comprising photograph of a flower ! It seems to be something between
an N and a full NP, so what is it? A useful solution is to give the label N
(pronounced N-bar, since it has a bar along the top) to something that is
neither a simple N, nor a whole NP. Some people also give the label N (N-
double bar) to a whole NP. (In 7.13, a triangle has been drawn in place of the
details of the PP. This is a standard procedure which avoids wasting time
and space when the details are irrelevant to the point under discussion.

Complex sentences
When we have two sub-sentences of equal importance attached
together to form a single one. This process is known
as conjoining.

More often subsidiary sentences are inserted into one main

sentence. This is known as embedding.

Recursion is the possibility of repeatedly re-using the same con-

struction, so that there is no fixed limit to the length of

43
sentences. It means that we can never make a complete list of all
the possible sentences of any language. Instead, we must work
out the system of rules which underlie the sentences.

This rule allows one to generate a sentence such as:

Example: Mavis believes the burglar took the duck.

Chapter 8 : MEANING

Q: The studying of meaning is normally referred to as semantics.

What do linguists need to know about meaning?
1. Linguist who is studying meaning tries to understand why certain
words and constructions can be combined together in a semantically
acceptable way, while other cannot.
For example: It is quite alright to say:

44
 My brother is a bachelor.
But not:
My brother is a spinster.

and there are other examples in your book can show why we use
certain verbs in some constructions.

2. A linguist would also like to know why anyone who knows a

language can recognize certain phrases and sentences as having
similar meanings, and would ask how it is that people can recognize:

Example: Indicate to me the route to my habitual abode.

As roughly equivalent to:
Show me the way to go home.

3. The hearers not only recognize ambiguous sentences, but they can
also use the surrounding context to choose the most possible
interpretations.
For example (Visiting the great-aunts can be a nuisance) is
ambiguous. Are the great- aunts coming to see us, or are we going to
see them. But the sentence (Visiting the great-aunts can be a
nuisance; I wish we did not have to go) shows that we are visiting
the great-aunts, rather than vice versa.

Word meaning

Q: What are the preliminary points that need to be clarified

in connection with word meaning?
1. We shall be concerned with content words, such as zoo, apple, jump,
rather than with function words such as of, that, whose role is mainly
to show the relationship between syntactic units.

2. We shall be dealing only with descriptive meaning and ignoring the

emotive meaning. The word adolescent means someone who is
between childhood and adult. We shall be ignoring the meaning to
imply that someone who is immature or moody.

45
 3. The meaning is double-faced. Tree must be considered in two ways,
first as an element of a language system, second its meaning is linked
with the external world.

Semantic Fields

Q: T.S. Eliot said “every word is at home, taking its place to

support the others. Explain.
It is useful to look at groups of lexical items which seem to belong together .
Each item in a group or set can be defined by its place in relation to the other
members of the set. Adolescent denotes to one who is no longer a child, but
not yet an adult. Cool is the temperature between cold and warm.

Q: In English, a gap is sometimes claimed to exist in the field of

dead objects. Explain.
The word corpse means ‘ body of dead human being’ and carcase means
“body of dead animal’ but no comparable word for dead plant.

Coping with overlaps

Q: Lexical units can split up into their components . Explain.

Word meanings , like phonemes, are made up of basic components. The
word bull might consist of the components male/bovine/adult, as opposed to
cow which would be female/ bovine/ adult, and calf which would be
bovine/non-adult. The attempt to divide lexical items into component
parts is known as componential analysis.

Q: Define synonym and explain why perfect synonymy is rare .

Lexical items can be regarded as synonymous if they can be interchanged
without altering the meaning of an utterance. Lexical items are synonymous
only in certain contexts as in:
He snapped the twig in half.
He broke the twig in half.
It is very unusual for two lexical items to have exactly the same
meanings in all contexts. This synonymy may be found between formal and
informal vocabulary items. Usually, lexical items overlaps each other as in:
(He snapped his fingers) does not mean the same as (He broke his fingers)

46
(He broke the record for the 100 metre sprint) is an acceptable sentence.

(He snapped the record for the 100 metre sprint) would be unusual sentence
for English speakers.

Q: The study of opposites is more complex, as there are several

different types of opposite. What are these different types?
Provide examples for each type.
1. A pair of words in which the negative of one implies the other:
He is not married: he is single.
He is not single: he is married.
2. One which is not absolute but relative to some standard. Small and
large imply some comparison
What a large mouse1
What a small elephant!
3. One word is converse of the other .
(I give you the book; you take the book. I send the letter; you
receive the letter…..and so on)

Classification (inclusion)
Q: The vocabulary of a language is partially hierarchically
structured . Explain.
(Note: hierarchically means a structure consisting of multiple
levels)

Answer
General items come at the top, and more specific items are sub-divisions of
these:
drinks

beverages wines

tea coffee claret hock

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Q: What is the main drawback “disadvantage” and what are the
advantages of looking at the different relationships in the
hierarchical structure?
Its main drawback is that it does not distinguish between the stylistic or
social variables which control the choice of synonyms.
The advantages are:
1. They enable us to understand the multiple links between different
words.

2. They can all be expressed by means of logical notation, so allowing us

to be explicit in our description.

Fuzziness and family resemblances

Q: It seems to be impossible to agree upon a proper meaning .

with some words such as ‘bachelor’ , there is an agreement as to
which properties constitute an essential part of their meaning ,
but with the word ‘tiger’ , no such agreement is found. Explain.
If we discuss the words bachelor and tiger, we notice that unmarriedness and
maleness are essential properties of the word bachelor. If someone says “I
met a bachelor and he was married” . The response will be “then he is not a
bachelor”. If someone says “I know a girl who is bachelor” the response will
be “that is impossible unless the girl possesses a Bachelor of Art degree.
Bachelor contains the properties male and unmarried. As for the word tiger,
it has essential characteristics such as “large Asian yellow-brown black
stripped carnivorous feline”. If some say “ Harry’s tiger is not carnivorous”,
the response will be “ that is impossible, it cannot be a tiger”. If some says “
Harry’s tiger is not stripped” the response may be “ You may talk about
albino tigers which are unstrapped tigers”. Stripiness is not an essential
property of tigerhood.

Q: Words often have fuzzy edges. Fuzziness is another problem

to agree upon a proper meaning. Explain.

There is no absolute divide between a cup and a mug, a glass and a vase, or a
plate and a saucer. They all merge into one another. People use them

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inconsistently “contradictory” calling something a vase one day, and a glass
the next day. They might call a vase if it held flowers, and a glass if it held
orange-juice.

Q: Family resemblances create further difficulties to agree upon

a proper meaning. Explain.
Sometimes a word such as furniture covers a whole range of things, which
share characteristics with one another, as do members of a family. Yet it
may be impossible to think up a set of characteristics which describe them
all.

Q: Explain the term ‘prototype’ or the typical example .

A prototypical bird is likely to be something like robin, with abeak, wings,
stick-like legs, and an ability to fly. A penguin or an emu is still sufficiently
like a bird to be regarded as a bird even it is not a “normal” or prototypical
bird. This

flexibility allows a great number of things to be classified as birds , even a

one-legged, one-winged parrot without a beak.

Q: Explain the term ‘mental models’ .

Humans build themselves mental models in order to make sense of the world
around them. They also form ideas about more abstract concepts, often
based on their own culture. English speakers regard a week as having seven
days, divided into five working days followed by a weekend, though nothing
in the external world forces this viewpoint.

Q: What are the advantages of the amalgamation of word

meaning and syntax?
1. It enables us to reject anomalous (abnormal) utterances.
2. It allows us to make to deductions about normal sentences.
The sentence ( The cobra killed a rat). Our knowledge that kill has the
properties (CAUSE DIE) allows us to draw conclusion that ‘ The rat
died’.

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Q: Many linguists assume that semantic representations should
be expressed in some type of formal logic. In theory, what can
formal logic systems provide?

1. They can provide formulae for the representation of the sentences of

any language.
2. They can show the logical relationships which exist between
sentences.
3. They can show certain ambiguities quiet clearly.
Example : All the nice girls love a sailor.

Chapter 9
USING LANGUAGE
Q: Define pragmatics.
Pragmatics is the branch of linguistics which studies those aspects of
meaning which cannot be captured by semantic theory. It deals with how
speakers use language in ways which cannot be predicted from linguistic
knowledge alone.

Q: Show the difference between the semantic and pragmatic meaning.

Provide an example.

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Semantics is the literal meaning of an idea whereas pragmatics is the
intended meaning of the given idea.

(Definition of discourse analysis)

Discourse analysis deals with the various devices used by speakers and
writers when they knit single sentences together into a coherent and cohesive
whole, and therefore pragmatics overlaps with discourse analysis.

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