Lesson 1: WHAT IS LINGUISTICS?

Lesson 2: Linguistics vs Traditional Grammar: An Overview on The Similarities and Key

Differences
2.1 Classical Grammar
2.2 Medieval Grammar
2.3 Pedagogical Grammar
2.4 Comparative Philology
3 Characteristics of traditional grammar
4 Disadvantages of CLASSICAL GRAMMAR
5 Main Contributions of CLASSICAL GRAMMAR
6 What is Modern Linguistics
7 The Difference Between Modern Linguistics and Traditional Grammar
8 An Overview on the Similarities between Prescriptive Linguistics and Traditional Grammar
9 Linguistics and other approaches to language
9.1 Micro-linguistics
9.1.1 Phonetics
9.1.2 Phonology
9.1.3 Morphology
9.1.4 Syntax
9.1.5 Semantics
9.1.6 Pragmatics
9.2 Macrolinguistics
9.2.1 Psycholinguistics
9.2.2 Sociolinguistics
9.2.3 Applied linguistics
9.2.4 Computational linguistics:
9.2.5 Anthropological linguistics
9.2.6 Neurolinguistics
Lesson 3: WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
3 Dictionary Definitions of Language
4 Linguistic Definition of Language
5 Function of Language
6 Features Common to All Languages
7 Universal Properties of Language
7.1 Displacement
7.2 Arbitrariness
7.3 productivity
7.4 Cultural transmission
7.5 discreteness
7.6 duality
Lesson 4: DE SAUSSURE’S THEORETICAL CONCEPTS
2 Synchronic and Diachronic Relations
3 Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic Relations
4 The linguistic Sign
Lesson 5: Chomsky: Competence and Performance
1 Chomsky's linguistic competence
2 Chomsky’s language acquisition device (LAD) and universal grammar(UG)
2.1.1 language acquisition device (LAD)
2.1.2 universal grammar (UG)
Lesson 6: Language as a Means of Communication
Communication Defined: Meaning and Concept
3 The Process of Communication Behaviour
3.1 A source or sender
3.2 An addressee or receiver
3.3 Channel
3.4 Message
3.5 Code
3.6 Topic
3.7 Feedback
4 Examples of communication situations
Lesson 7: Levels of Analysis: The Inner Nature of Language
1 Taxonomic Hierarchy
Lesson 8: Language as Available and Organized Sound: Phonetics &Phonology
2 Phonetics & Phonology
2.1 Phonetics
2.2 Phonology
2.3 Phonetics vs. Phonology
3 Practical Activities
Lesson 9: Language as Form: Morphology
2 What is a Word?
3 Morphology
3.1 Morpheme
4 Types of morphemes
4.1.1 Free morpheme
4.1.2 Bound morpheme
5 Morphemes and Other Morphological Building Blocks
5.1 Inflectional Morphology
5.2 Derivational Morphology
6 Studying Word Formation: a Method to Get New Words
6.1 Clipping
6.2 Borrowing
6.3 Compounding
6.4 Blending
6.5 Backformation
6.6 Conversion
6.7 Coinage
6.8 Acronyms
6.9 Derivation
8 practical Exercises
Lesson 10: Language as Form and Patterns: Syntax
2 Syntactic Construction- Sentences, Clauses, and Phrases
2.1 The Sentence
2.1.1 Types of Sentence Based on Structure
3 A Phrase
3.1 Types of Phrases
3.1.1 Noun phrase
3.1.2 verb phrase
3.1.3 Prepositional Phrase
3.1.4 gerund phrase
3.1.5 Participle phrase
3.1.6 Appositive Phrase
3.1.7 Absolute Phrase
 What is Linguistics?

1. Introduction
As a scientific- based discipline, the term Linguistics is one of those subjects that
not many people have heard of, so you might well be wondering exactly what it is. The
simplest definition of Linguistics is that it’s the science of language. In spite of its
simplicity, this definition contains some significant terms that should necessarily be
clarified. Initially, the term science does not necessarily mean you need a lab coat and
safety goggles to do linguistics. Instead, what it means is that the way we ask
questions to learn about language uses a scientific approach.

2. Linguistics Defined
The word linguistics has been derived from Latin word lingua (tongue) and istics
(knowledge and science). It is study not only of one particular language but of human
languages in general.
This term can be defined as the scientific analysis of any human language. It is
based on a systematic investigation of a body of data “human speech” within general
theory of language structure. In other terms, it is seen as a science in the sense that it
scientifically studies the rules, systems and principles of human languages. According
to Lyons (1981:16)

‘Linguistics is commonly defined as a science of language. The

word ‘science’ is crucial here....we may say that the scientific
description is one that is carried out systematically on the basis of
objectively verifiable observations and within the framework of some
general theory appropriate to the data’.

The major tenet of linguistics work on specific languages, yet, its primary goal is to
understand the nature of language in general. Likewise any other disciplines, it strives
to help people increase their knowledge and understanding of the world. Since
language is universal and fundamental to all human interactions, the knowledge
 attained in linguistics has many practical applications. Linguists, with some training in
other appropriate disciplines, are thus prepared to seek answers to questions such as

- What distinguishes human language from other animal communication

systems?
- What features are common to all human languages?
- How are the modes of linguistic communication (speech, writing, sign
language) related to each other?

3. The Scientific Characteristics of a Linguistic Approach

Since the term science is a key concept, it is indeed of paramount importance to

provide at least a definition- based before clarifying its significance in the present
course. Thus, the concept science implies

“The systematic study of humans and their environment based on the

deductions and inferences which can be made, and the general laws which
can be formulated, from reproducible observations and measurements of
events and parameters within the universe”
(Commonwealth, 2010)
Indisputably, it seems to be generally agreed outside linguistics that for any enterprise
to qualify as a scientific, in the usual sense, it should display at least three major
characteristics which are: empiricism, exactness and objectivity.
 Empiricism

Simply put, as an important and essential criterion, empiricism can be explained

by the fact that any linguistic research should rely on experiment and observation i.e. ,
the view that all concepts originate in experience, that all concepts are about or
applicable to things that can be experienced, or that all rationally acceptable beliefs or
propositions are justifiable or knowable only through experience.
  Exactness Any linguistic theory should be correct in every detail and valid
in terms of time and place.
 Objectivity

The rule states and not thinks; that is objectivity means judgement based on
observable phenomena and uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices. In other
words, objectivity is a cardinal feature of scientificness. The questions they ask, the
conclusion they reach and the evidence they cite must be capable of being publically
observed and tested.

Lecture Summary

All in all, linguistics as a science strives to study human language, namely its spoken
form obeying the requirements o a scientific method which involves empiricism,
exactness and objectivity. Its main purpose is to define language and provide a
description of its characteristics and functions. Moreover, this discipline attempts to
give information about the history of language and explain the differences between
languages.

Therefore, the role of the linguist is to provide theories and ideas about
language in order to help people to understand this human phenomenon and try to
draw some conclusions about the nature of language.To better understand the
linguistic research as well as its required criteria for any investigation, one may
consider the following figure:
 Figure 1. Empirical research methodology cycle
(Retrieved from https://www.questionpro.com/blog/empirical-research)

This empirical cycle captures the process of coming up with hypothesis about how
certain subjects work or behave and then testing these hypothesis against empirical
data in a systematic and rigorous approach following the deductive approach

The initial phase called, Observation in which the investigator proposes a hypothesis
and strives in the coming step to gather the required empirical data using observation..

Induction: Inductive reasoning is then carried out to form a general conclusion from
the data gathered through discrete observation.

Deduction: This phase helps the researcher to deduce a conclusion out of his
experiment. This has to be based on logic and rationality to come up with specific
unbiased results.

Testing: This phase involves the researcher to return to empirical methods to put his
hypothesis to the test.

Evaluation: This phase is generally forgotten by most but is an important one to keep
gaining knowledge. During this phase the researcher puts forth the data he has
collected, the support argument and his conclusion.
 FURTHER READING

Linguistics refers to the study of language in its different aspects including

phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. It is often defined as the study of
human speech because the spoken form was given more importance. However, the
exact definition of linguistics is the scientific study of language in its spoken and
written forms.

Before the 19 th century, this discipline was called philology because it was
based on philosophical assumptions concerning the grammar of language. By the
beginning of the 19th century, researchers started thinking about the use of a scientific
approach for the study of language. Thus the term linguistics was used to refer to any
form of investigation about the different elements of language including grammar.

There are many branches of linguistics

- Sociolinguistics, this subfield studies the relationship between language

and society. It is a form of combination of linguistics and sociology.
- Psycholinguistics is a branch of linguistics that makes a research about
the psychological processes involved in language production. It is a
combination of the study of language, behaviour and cognition.
- Applied linguistics refers to the study of language teaching and learning.
- Ethno linguistics studies the relationship between language and culture.
The main purpose of linguistics is to define language and provide a description
of its characteristics and functions. Moreover, this discipline attempts to give
information about the history of language and explain the differences between
languages.

Therefore, the role of the linguist is to provide theories and ideas about
language in order to help people to understand this human phenomenon and try to
draw some conclusions about the nature of language.
 Modern Linguistics vs Traditional Grammar

1. Introduction

Language changes from generation to generation, at all levels of sound and meaning.
Thus, grammar as a method of analysing these changes altered accordingly. Now we have two
branches: the traditional Grammar and modern linguistics. It should be noted that before the
19th century, linguistics as a scientific discipline was called philology because it was based on
philosophical assumptions concerning the grammar of language. By the beginning of the 19 th
century, researchers started thinking about the use of a scientific approach for the study of
language. Thus, the term linguistics was used to refer to any form of investigation about the
different elements of language including grammar. Yet, before clarifying and analysing the
sameness and dissimilarities between traditional grammar and modern linguistics in terms of
their principles and assumptions, it might seem compulsory to provide at first a thorough
explanation about each branch.

2. The Conception of Traditional Language Studies ( Traditional Grammar)

Traditional Grammatical Studies refer back to all the scholarly works that studied the
nature of language study before the emergence of modern linguistics (1916). The history of
such studies is divided into several periods: classical grammar (Latin and Greek), medieval
grammar (the Middle Ages), pedagogical grammar (early English grammar), and comparative
historical philology. Each of these periods is characterized by widely held assumptions about
language and its analysis.

 Classical Grammar

Classical Grammar started with the investigations in the nature of language carried out
by the Greek grammarians in the fifth century B.C. Platon (429- 347) distinguished between
nouns and verbs and established the problematic of etymology. Aristotle (322- 384) classified
conjunctions and defined verbs in term of tense. However, the main grammarians were
Alexandrian and included Dionysius Thrax (170- 190) B.C. Thrax was the first to elaborate a
full handbook of grammar defining it as “the technical knowledge of the language generally
employed by poets and writers.” He classified the Greek words into eight parts of speech
(nouns, verbs, articles, adverbs, conjunctions, propositions, participles and pronouns). The
other Alexandrian grammarians established case, gender, number, tense, voice and mood.
Likewise, the Latin grammarians, notably, Aelius Donatius (4 th century A.D) and Priscian (5th
century A.D) elaborated grammar books for beginners and learners.

Basically, all these grammarians considered language as writing. Speech, for them, was
an imperfect copy of writing. The reason behind this view is the prevalence of sacred texts
Greek and Latin. Such languages were considered as logical and richer than the other so-
called primitive languages. That is why they were the only written languages worthy of study
at that time. As a result, grammar was completely prescriptive. That is to say, grammarians
prescribed the rules and norms of correct usage. Prescriptive rules dictated precisely how the
writers and speakers ought to write and speak. Any kind of deviation was dismissed as a
corruption of the pure, prestigious texts.

 Medieval Grammar
The middle ages perpetuated the dominance of Latin as the languages of all theological
and scholarly works. The most important contribution was made by the 17 th century
grammarians of Port-Royal in France. They developed what is called GrammaireGenéral et
Raisonée (1660), establishing the foundation for a philosophical grammar. The main thinkers
were Claude Lancelet (1615- 95) and Antoine Arnauld (1612- 94). These thinkers tried to
study the common principles between languages.

Medieval grammar also includes the contributions of the Arab and Muslim
grammarians. Their main works consisted in lexicography i.e. reference books and
translations. In effect, the first types of dictionary were produced in Arabic. The aim was to
teach the classical language and preserve it from deviations.

1- Pedagogical Grammar
The eighteenth century British grammarians were essentially pedagogical in nature.
They attempted to teach a great number of people how to read and write in the newly
standardized language, English, that would be intelligible throughout the new industrialized
nation, Britain. In this respect, they established rules and norms based on the Latin model.
The most famous grammar book of the 18th century was Joseph Priestley’s Rudiments of
English Grammar (1761). Subsequently, other influential grammars appeared, namely, Robert
Lowth’sShort Introduction to English Grammar (1762) and Murray’s English Grammar
(1794). Many contemporary school grammars are still based on such works, perpetuating the
classical perspective legacy (purity, propriety and order).
 2- Comparative Philology
Study of the relationships or correspondences between two or more languages and the
techniques used to discover whether the languages have a common ancestor. The fundamental
technique of comparative linguistics is the comparative method, which aims to compare
phonological systems, morphological systems, syntax and the lexicon using this comparative
method, linguists have been able to establish the connections among a group of languages.
Comparative grammar was the most important branch of linguistics in the 19th century in
Europe. Also called comparative philology, the study was originally stimulated by the
discovery by Sir William Jones in 1786 that Sanskrit was related to Latin, Greek, and German
(i.e., in which he found many similarities between Latin, Greek, and German and suggested
the existence of a common original language). Accordingly, he believed thatthe Sanskrit
language:

“The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity is of a

wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious
than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet
bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of
verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been
produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could
examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung
from some common source.”

This observation gave rise to two main fields of study: comparative and historical.
Indeed, the investigation into the similarities, also called cognate forms, between Sanskrit,
Greek, Latin and other European languages gave birth to the Indo-European family of
languages and the establishment of a general theory of language change and relationships
known as comparative philology.

The term family of languages or linguistic group was coined to show the genetic and
philological relationships existing between a group of related languages. Thus, the Indo-
European family of languages may be called sister languages. English, German and Dutch are
said to be descendant or daughter languages of Germanic. Similarly, French, Spanish and
Italian are daughter languages of Latin. Classical Greek and Modern Greek are daughter
languages of Greek.
 All What You Need to Know About TLS

1.Characteristics of Traditional Grammar

 Language is prescriptive not descriptive

Since the classical languages are more correct than every daily speech, it is essential to
prescribe the rules and the norms of correct usage rather than describe what people
actually say. In other words, traditional grammars told people how to use a language
and henceforth strongly believed that there is not an absolute standard of correctness
concerning language use which modern linguists or school teachers should view as
their duty to maintain. However, modern linguists insist that value judgments about
language should be recognized as such, and should be examined in the light of the
facts. Besides, they would prefer to be observers and recorders of facts, but not judges.
they therefore believe that whatever occurs in natural speech( hesitation, incomplete
utterances, misunderstanding, etc.) should be descriptive in their analysis. ‘Jian &
Ming, 2015:289).
  Writing is seen as the primary medium of human expression

In the past, grammarians have overstressed the significance of the written word,
partly because of its permanence. It was difficult to cope with fleeting utterances
before the invention of sound recording. Conversely, speech was regarded as an
imperfect copy of writing. Though it is widely agreed among linguists that speech
is a primary medium of expression for several reasons as it existed long before
written system came into being. This belief stems from the previous sacred writing
in Latin and Greek

 Language study is selective

Grammar considers Latin and Greek as the most logical, more advanced and richer
than the so called primitive languages. As a result, they are the only written languages
worthy to be studied.

2. Disadvantages of Classical Grammar

It should be noted that Traditional grammar is inadequate and full of shortcomings that
paved the way for so many models of modern grammar. Since it is mainly based on
Indo-European classical languages like Latin, Sanskrit, and Greek, etc., it provides a
poor model for the grammars of languages that differ from them. These shortcomings
can be summarized as follows:
1. It does not, adequately distinguish between all the linguistic levels: phonetic,
morphological, syntactic

2. It is normative and prescriptive rather than explicit and descriptive. i.e. its rules
are illogical, it is inconsistent and inadequate as a description of actual language in
use. It neglects not only the contemporary uses but also the functional and social
varieties of language.

3. Its approach is diachronic (historical) rather than synchronic (contemporary).

Fries in his book "The structure of English" (1952) challenges the traditional
grammars by calling them "not insightful", "pre-scientific", "prescriptive" and having a
"literary bias'". There may be about 200 definitions of the sentence, yet they are not
able to differentiate between the dog is barking / the barking dog.

4. Traditional grammar uses meaning as the primary tool of linguistic analysis.

Total meaning of a language cannot be analyzed in the present stage of our knowledge.
Meaning is a complex entity for the understanding of which a formal description of a
language should form the base. Furthermore, it fails to indicate clearly which meaning
it is going to treat

5. It gives priority to the written form of language and ignores the priority of spoken
form. It does not even cover the whole range of written form and is restricted to
specific kinds of writing form, especially the formal styles.

6. It cannot resolve the ambiguity existing in the grammatical forms. Its methods are
inaccurate, incomplete and inconsistent, and the descriptions are inexplicit and
intuitive.

3. Main Contributions of Classical Grammar

Despite its numerous misconceptions and false assumptions about the patterns
underlying language, and the lack of a theoretical systematic analysis, classical
grammar has as its record a rich technical vocabulary and sound rules governing
correct usage of language. Here are its main highlights:

- The classification of patterns of inflection and the distinction between active and
passive voice as well as transitive and intransitive verbs.
- The classification of all Greek words in terms of case, gender, number, tense, voice
and mood.
- The classification of words according to gender.
- The classification of words into eight parts of speech: noun, verb, article, pronoun,
adverb, preposition, conjunction and participle
Exercise N°1: Say “True” or “False” and correct the wrong statement
 Linguistics is concerned only with the historical development of language.
 A linguist is a person who makes research about language.
 Linguistics existed in ancient times.
Exercise N°2 Are the following statements true or false? Correct when necessary.

1-The scientific study is empirical which means that is based on observations.

2-Traditional grammar is descriptive.
3-Linguistics existed in ancient times.
4- The role of the modern linguist is to prescribe the rules and norms of the language
system to be used by all the members of a speech community.
 LANGUAGE
1. Dictionary Definitions of Language

The dictionary definition of language differs from the linguistic one. For example, the
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines language as: “a system of
communication consisting of sounds, words, and grammar, or the system communication used
by people in a particular country or type of work”.

In Oxford dictionary, it may refer to “the method of human communication, either

spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way” or it
may mean “a system of communication used by particular country or community”.

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines language as “the system of

communication in speech and writing that is used by people of a particular country or area.” ,
“the use by humans of a system of sounds and words to communicate.”, or “a way of
expressing ideas and feelings using movements, symbols and sound”.

2. Linguistic Definition of Language

Language is a means of communication. It is specific to the human being. In fact, linguists do

not agree on one definition of language as they view it from different perspectives. According
to Edward Sapir, ( 1921:8): “Language is a purely human activity and non-instinctive
method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily
produced symbols”.

Therefore, Sapir focuses on the idea that language is human. He adds that it is acquired.
Moreover, Sapir mentions the fact that language is a system relying on the use of symbols
which refer to sounds.

On the other hand, Ferdinand De Saussure (1959:19) asserts that “Language exists in the form
of a sum of impressions deposited in the brain of each member of a community”. This means
that language is related to cognitive processes. Also, there is a close relationship between
language and thought since the former is a means of expressing ideas. Language is a social
phenomenon as it is a method of communication used by a group of individuals living in a
society.

Noam Chomsky says: “I will consider a language to be a set (finite or infinite) of

sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements. All natural
languages in their spoken or written form are languages in this sense.”

Thus, language is considered as a group of sentences composed of a set of elements.

Moreover, language has two forms: speech and writing. As a result, some linguists focus on
spoken form while others give importance to the spoken and written form as both of them are
used as a means of communication.

To conclude, one can say that:

- Language is a system used for expressing ideas via the association of symbols (sounds
or letters) in the form of words and sentences. It may be defined as a set of
grammatically correct utterances having meaning.
- Language is acquired from society.
- The mother tongue which is also called the native language or the first language is
acquired from the family members and society.
- The second language is not the native language; it is learnt at school but it is used in
society. However, the foreign language is learnt at school but it is not used outside it.

3. Language varieties

Language varieties refer to those aspects of language that differ from a person to the other or
from a social group to the other. They include the dialect, idiolect, accent, register and style.

1- Dialect: it is a variety of language used by a specific group of people.

2- Idiolect: it is the speech of the individual.
3- Accent refers to a manner of pronunciation specific to a person or a group.
4- Register is a variety of language employed in a specific situation for a particular
purpose.
5- Style refers to the degree of formality of the language used by the individual.
Exercise N°1: Complete the following sentences

 Language is .................................................................................................
 Symbols refer to ..........................................................................................
 Thoughts mean .............................................................................................
 Language varieties include.............................................................................
 Acquisition means ........................................................................................

Exercise N°2: Define the following linguistic concepts

Communication, system, sentence, mother tongue, community

Exercise N°3: find out if these statements are True or False, then correct the false ones.

 Language is a system representing meaning through symbols.

 All languages have grammar.
 Phonology refers to word formation.
 Language is not a mental faculty and it is used for oral communication.
 Linguistics focuses on one aspect of language.

References
- Chomsky, Noam. Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton, 1957.
- De Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics, New York: the
Philosophical Library, 1959.
- Sapir, Edward. Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech, New York:
Harcourt Brace, 1921.
 DE SAUSSURE’S THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

De Saussure’s Theoretical Concepts

Who is Ferdinand De Saussure?

Ferdinand de Saussure, 1857-1913. Ferdinand de Saussure was born in Geneva into a

family of well-known scientists. He studied Sanskrit and comparative linguistics in
Geneva, Paris, and Leipzig, where he fell in with the circle of young scholars known as
the Neogrammarians. Brugmann, in particular, was his mentor, but he was also close to
Karl Verner and others of the circle.

In 1878, at the age of 21, Saussure published a long and precocious paper called "Note
on the Primitive System of the Indo-European Vowels". He explained in greater and
clearer detail than others who were coming to similar conclusions how the PIE ablaut
system worked. (Ablaut is the ancient system of vowel alternations in the parent
language, visible in surviving irregular alternations among cognates like Latin ped vs.
Greek pod, 'foot'; and also in the Germanic strong verb system in exemplified by vowel
alternates like sing, sang, sung).

One of the most inspired parts of his analysis is the positing of 'sonorant co-efficients',
consonantal elements that do not appear in any daughter language but can be
hypothesized due to the systematic way the vowels are affected in the descendent
languages, and due to position and distribution of such elements in the rest of the PIE
system. The great 20th century Indo-Europeanist Jerzy Kurylowicz later pointed out
that Hittite, the last-discovered ancient Indo-European language, had consonants in just
the positions predicted by Saussure's analysis. These consonants are now called
laryngeals, and the study of laryngeals, bringing to bear more recent evidence than
Saussure had access to, is still an important area of Indo-European studies.

This brilliant start was not followed by any tremendous output of published work, but it
contained the seeds of his essential insight into the importance of the linguistic system
and how central it is for understanding human knowledge and behavior. De Saussure
was only eight years younger than Karl Brugmann, and he died some years earlier than
Brugmann; yet because of his re-focussing of attention onto aspects of language that had
not been part of the older field, he seems to belong to a later generation. His ideas fit into
a recognizably modern era in which human phenomena are no longer viewed primarily
from the point of view of their construed trajectory through time, but as structural
wholes that are self-contained and whose parts fill interrelated functions.

Saussure's influence on linguists was far-reaching, first through his direct influence on
his students at the University of Geneva, who practically worshipped him, and then
through his ideas as collected and disseminated after his death by two of his students,
Charles Bally and Albert Sechaye These students, who became well-known linguistic
researchers in their own right, put together course notes from their and another
student's notebooks to produce the Cours de Linguistique Generale, based on several of
Saussure's courses of lectures at Geneva, using the notebooks of various students
attending. This composite work, shaped and interpreted by Bally and Sechaye, was
prepared in the years immediately following Saussure's death as a tribute and as a way
making his brilliant ideas accessible beyond Geneva and for posterity. It worked: the
Cours was widely read in French by scholars all over Europe, and in 1959 was
translated into English by Wade Baskin mainly for American students, who were less
likely to have learned to read French than their European counterparts. A new
translation of the Cours by Roy Harris appeared in 1986.

Saussure's fresh ideas were consonant with those of his influental compatriot Claude
Levi-Strauss, and also those of Emile Durkheim, pioneer of the new field of sociology.
Saussure's influence spread all through the new social sciences in the early and mid-
twentieth century, and ultimately, for better or worse, to literary theory and modern
cultural studies. They still exert a very strong intellectual force in all these disciplines
(probably most in Linguistics and the disciplines most influenced by literary theory; less
so now in traditional Anthropology, Sociology, and Psychology).

In Linguistics, Saussure's focus on the synchronic dimension and on language as an

interrelated system of elements was maintained through the American Structuralist
period (Bloomfield, Hockett), and also in the Generative period (Chomsky, Bresnan).
His view of the essential nature of the form-meaning pairing, without the intermediate
and essentiallly meaningless syntactic layer posited by Chomsky, Perlmutter, and other
generative theory-builders, has re-emerged in theories like Head-Driven Phrase
Structure Grammar (Sag and Pollard) and Construction Grammar.

Modern Functionalist theories have integrated diachrony much more than generative
theories (cf. the Functional Typology of Greenberg, Givón, Comrie, Heine, and Bybee),
but the focus on the synchronic has nevertheless been essentially maintained in modern
Cognitive theories of language, in keeping with the synchronic view of the human mind
in the Cognitive Sciences, notably Psychology and Neuroscience.
Sources

Harris, Roy. 1987. Reading Saussure. London: Duckworth.

Harris, Roy. Saussure and his interpreters. 2003. 2nd ed. Call number for 2nd ed:
P85 .S18 H37 2003

Harris, Roy, and Talbot J. Taylor. 1989. [Second ed. 1997] Landmarks in Linguistic
Thought: The Western Tradition from Socrates to Saussure. London: Routledge. Call
number for 2nd ed: P61 .H37 1997

Koerner, Konrad. 1962.

Pedersen, Holger. 1931. [1962]. The Discovery of Language: Linguistic Science in the
19th Century. Translated by John Webster Spargo. Midland Book edition.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Ferdinand De Saussure provided a set of theories that turned around distinct

concepts that influenced research in the field of linguistics.

1- Langue vs. Parole

De Saussure identifies –two aspects of language called Langue and Parole. The
former according to De Saussure is a social product that must exist within a collectivity.
It is stored in the minds of all individuals. The latter on the other hand is heterogeneous
and requires the interaction of at least two individuals. It involves concepts or mental
facts that are connected to sound images or linguistic sounds. It results from
psychological and physiological productions; speech is individual and it is the function of
the speaker that employs grammatical system stored in the brain. Langue is a system
including an associated and coordinating faculty that enables the speaker to express his
thoughts.

2- Synchronic and Diachronic Relations

For De Saussure, language can be studied synchronically and diachronically. As
far as the first way is concerned, it refers to the study of language at a particular point
in time. It focuses on the speakers who constitute the group of informant who supply the
linguist with data about how this language functions. Whereas, diachrony implies the
study of language through time relying on prospective and retrospective perspectives.

Synchrony attempts to reveal the psychological relations linked to the system of

language that exists in the brain of the speakers; it depicts a language state. Dichrony
studies the evolutionary phase of language from a historical point of view in order to
know the linguistic changes that existed throughout the history of the speech
community.

3- Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic Relations

According to De Saussure, linguistic terms are grouped into two categories:
syntagms and paradigms. A syntagm includes two or more units; it is a group of words,
a phrase or a sentence. Thus, syntagmatic relations refer to the succession of words and
their contribution to the structure and meaning of the sentence (i.e, the combination of
elements to form a longer unit). They reflect a sort of interdependence of the terms that
constitute a sentence. On the other hand, a paradigm refers to different forms of the
same word (Lexeme). Simply put, paradigmatic relations involve associative relations
that involve groups of words that have a common feature in terms of the similarity of
meaning of form. Unlike syntagmatic relations, it refers to the replacement/
substitutability of elements to give a novel construction it may include the synonym of
words or their derivatives. As a result, a paradigm is linked to the aspect of word
formation while a syntagm refers to the arrangements of various units within a sentence
or fragments of a sentence.

4- The linguistic Sign

De Saussure refers to the word as a linguistic sign which links a concept and the
sound image. The sign is a two-sided psychological entity. The concept is also called the
signified while the sound image is referred to as the signifier. There an arbitrary
relationship between the signified and the signified. Therefore, the sign relates a mental
image to a particular sound in an arbitrary relationship. It the combination of signs that
helps in producing a language. (see the image below)
Lyons (1981) summarizes the diachronic-synchronic distinction of linguistics as follows: A diachronic
description of a language traces the historical development of the language and records the changes
that have taken place in it between successive points in time: ‘diachronic’ is equivalent, therefore, to
‘historical’. A synchronic description of a language is non-historical: it presents an account of the
language as it is at some particular point in time. (p. 35)

Activities
Exercise N°1: Complete the following sentences

 Language
is............................................................................................................................
 Symbols refer
to.....................................................................................................................
 Thoughts
means.....................................................................................................................
 Language varieties
include....................................................................................................
 Acquisition
means..................................................................................................................

Exercise N°2: Define the following linguistic concepts

Communication, system, sentence, mother tongue, community

Exercise N°3: find out if these statements are True or False, then correct the false ones.

 Language is a system representing meaning through symbols.

 All languages have grammar.
 Phonology refers to word formation.
 Language is not a mental faculty and it is used for oral communication.
 Linguistics focuses on one aspect of language
References
- Chomsky, Noam. Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton, 1957.
- De Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics, New York: the
Philosophical Library, 1959.
- Sapir, Edward. Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech, New York:
Harcourt Brace, 1921.
 Dichotomies of Ferdinand De Saussure

Ferdinand De Saussure provided a set of theories that turned around distinct concepts that
influenced research in the field of linguistics.

1. Langue vs. Parole

De Saussure identifies –two aspects of language called Langue and Parole. The former
according to De Saussure is a social product that must exist within a collectivity. It is stored in
the minds of all individuals. The latter on the other hand is heterogeneous and requires the
interaction of at least two individuals. It involves concepts or mental facts that are connected
to sound images or linguistic sounds. It results from psychological and physiological
productions; speech is individual and it is the function of the speaker that employs
grammatical system stored in the brain.

2. SYNCHRONIC AND DIACHRONIC RELATIONS

For De Saussure, language can be studied synchronically and diachronically. As far as the
first way is concerned, it refers to the study of language at a particular point in time. Whereas,
diachrony implies the study of language through time relying on prospective and retrospective
perspectives.
Synchrony attempts to reveal the psychological relations linked to the system of language that
exists in the brain of the speakers; it depicts a language state. Diachrony studies the
evolutionary phase of language from a historical point of view in order to know the linguistic
changes that existed throughout the history of the speech community.

3. SYNTAGMATIC AND PARADIGMATIC RELATIONS

According to De Saussure, linguistic terms are grouped into two categories: syntagms and
paradigms. A syntagm includes two or more units; it is a group of words, a phrase or a
sentence. Thus, syntagmatic relations refer to the succession of words and their contribution
to the structure and meaning of the sentence (i.e, the combination of elements to form a longer
unit). They reflect a sort of interdependence of the terms that constitute a sentence. On the
other hand, a paradigm refers to different forms of the same word (Lexeme). Simply put,
paradigmatic relations involve associative relations that involve groups of words that have a
common feature in terms of the similarity of meaning of form. Unlike syntagmatic relations, it
refers to the replacement/ substitutability of elements to give a novel construction it may
include the synonym of words or their derivatives. As a result, a paradigm is linked to the
aspect of word formation while a syntagm refers to the arrangements of various units within a
sentence or fragments of a sentence.
 4. THE LINGUISTIC SIGN

De Saussure refers to the word as a linguistic sign which links a concept and the sound image.
The sign is a two-sided psychological entity. The concept is also called the signified while the
sound image is referred to as the signifier. There an arbitrary relationship between the
signified and the signified. Therefore, the sign relates a mental image to a particular sound in
an arbitrary relationship. It the combination of signs that helps in producing a language. (see
the image below)
Lyons (1981) summarizes the diachronic-synchronic distinction of linguistics as follows: A
diachronic description of a language traces the historical development of the language and
records the changes that have taken place in it between successive points in time: ‘diachronic’
is equivalent, therefore, to ‘historical’. A synchronic description of a language is non-
historical: it presents an account of the language as it is at some particular point in time. (p.
35)

CHOMSKY’S SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES

1. Competence / Performance

Linguistic competence is the system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers

of a language (a person’s knowledge of the rules of a language). It is in contrast to the concept
of Linguistic performance, the way the language system is used in communication (the
actual use of that language in real situations). According to Chomsky, competence is the
'ideal' language system that makes it possible for speakers to produce and understand an
infinite number of sentences in their language and to distinguish grammatical from
ungrammatical sentences. In other words, the abstract or the internal grammar, which enables
a speaker to utter and understand sentences and utterances in potential use, is a speaker's
competence. Performance is the actual use of these utterances in routine life. Chomsky
(1965) states:

"Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-listener, in a completely

homogeneous speech-communication, who know its (the speech community's) language
perfectly and that it is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory
limitations, distractions, shifts of attention and interest, and errors (random or characteristic)
in applying his knowledge of this language in actual performance."(1965: 3)

2. Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Chomsky theorized that children were born with a hard-wired language acquisition device
(LAD) in their brains. LAD is a set of language learning tool, intuitive at birth in all children.
It explains human acquisition of the syntactic structure of language. It encodes the major
principles of a language and its grammatical structures into the child’s brain. It enables the
children to analyze language and extract the basic rules. The child exploits his/her LAD to
make sense of the utterances heard around it, deriving from this “primary linguistic data‟ –the
grammar of the language. Chomsky later expanded this idea into that of Universal
Grammar, a set of innate principles and adjustable parameters that are common to all human
languages.

How does LAD work?

Chomsky proposed that every child was born with a LAD that holds the fundamental
rules for language. In other words, children are born with an understanding of the rules of
language; they simply need to acquire the vocabulary. He offered a number of pieces of
evidence to support his theory. He posed that language is fundamentally similar across all of
humanity. For instance, every language has something that is like a noun and a verb, and
every language has the ability to make things positive or negative. He also discovered that
when children are learning to speak, they don't make the errors you would expect. For
instance, children seem to understand that all sentences should have the structure 'subject-
verb-object', even before they are able to speak in full sentences.
From his experiments, Chomsky also noted that young children, well before reaching
language fluency, would notice if adults around them spoke in a grammatically incorrect
manner. He also found that children attempt to apply grammatical rules to words for which
their language makes an exception. For example, in following the English rules of grammar, a
child might pluralize the word 'fish' as 'fishes' and 'deer' as 'deers', even though our language
makes exceptions for those words.

3. Universal Grammar (U G)

 Noam Chomsky developed the "universal grammar" theory of language development.

Chomsky's theory proposes that the human brain contains a predefined mechanism
(universal grammar) that is the basis for the acquisition of all language.

 Universal Grammar (UG) is a theoretical concept that the human brain contains an
innate mental grammar that helps humans acquire language.

 Chomsky says that UG does not have the actual rules of each language but it has
PRINCIPLES and PARAMETERS.

Principles (Universal basic features of Grammar) these features are common across all
languages. In other words, principles account for the similarities between languages e.g.
nouns, verbs and structure dependency (all languages have NP / VP sentences.

Parameters (Account for variation between languages) In other words, theses parameters tell
us how languages are different. E.g. English has SVO pattern, Japanese has SOV pattern,
while Arabic has VSO.
Language as a Means of Communication

Language is essentially a means of communication among the members of a society. A

common language is one of the most important features of a community and the ceaseless use
of the same language is the most certain proof of the historical continuity of a community of
people. The need to communicate triggers both the occurrence and the development of a
language and this need arises and becomes stronger and stronger when one has someone else
to communicate with, i.e. where there is a society. In terms of linguistics, the study of
language is a multidisciplinary endeavour. Communication takes place not only orally, but
also in writing. It is this plurality of aspects in studying the same object that makes language a
perpetual phenomenon. According to Crane, et. al. (1981:3-4 ), « communication is a process
in which information is transmitted from a source—the sender—to a goal—the receiver. »

Comprehensive Model of Communication : The communication process requires:

1-a source or sender (encoding process),

2- an addressee or receiver (decoding process),

3- a channel which acts as the medium and carrier of,

4- a message which is usually in a recognizable form of text or utterance made up from the
inventory of,

5- a code shared by both sender (encoder) and receiver (decoder).

6-communication is usually about a particular topic,

7- within a physical and social context common to the participants in the communication
situation.

 Encoding is the process of turning thoughts into communication. The encoder uses a
‘medium’ to send the message — a phone call, email, text message, face-to-face
meeting, or other communication tool. The level of conscious thought that goes into
encoding messages may vary. The encoder should also take into account any ‘noise’
that might interfere with their message, such as other messages, distractions, or
influences.
 The audience then ‘decodes’, or interprets, the message for themselves. Decoding is
the process of turning communication into thoughts. For example, you may realize
you’re hungry and encode the following message to send to your roommate: “I’m
hungry. Do you want to get pizza tonight?” As your roommate receives the message,
they decode your communication and turn it back into thoughts to make meaning.

1
The communication Process Model

2
Examples of communication situations

Situation1 Situation 2
1-sender: doctor 1-sender: teacher
2-receiver: patient 2-receiver: students
3-channel: face to face 3-channel: face to face
4-message: spoken when the doctor explains the 4-message: spoken when the teacher explains the
pathology to the patient/ and written when he lesson and written for the dictation
prescribes the medical drugs relevant to the patient's
disease
5-code: Arabic, French, English 5-code: Arabic, French, English
6-topic: topic discussion 6-topic: topic discussion
7- Social/physical context: private cabinet or 7- Social/physical context: school or university
hospital

In another way, O‘Grady et. al. (1993: 496) state that communication is a matter of passing or
exchange of information—distinguishes what is living and what is non-living in nature.
Communication is found even in the apparently passive world of plants; trees, for example, have been
found to pass on information about advancing predators by means of chemical signals.

Summary
In gross, communication is a matter of passing or exchange of information distinguishes what is
living and what is non-living in nature. It is found even in the apparently passive world of plants; trees,
for example, which evidently have been found to pass on information about advancing predators by
means of chemical signals. Related to the human communication system, we should note that there are
three systems of human communication. The three systems are in the form of speech, writing, and
gesture. For most people, speech is the basic system of communication. Writing, however, allows the
preservation of communications over space and through time, and its great importance in human
history and in complex societies would be hard to overestimate. The role of gesture is less obvious.
Among the deaf, of course, it may replace speech as the principle form of communication; but for
most people it is an important supplement to speech. Together these systems allow us to communicate
in a variety of situations with subtle shades of meaning (Crane et. al., 1981:14).

References

Jufrizal, M.Hum. Language and Linguistics.

https://www.wisdomjobs.com/
Adler, R, & Towne, N. (1978). Looking out/ looking in (2ne edition). New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston.
Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and Personality. New York : Harper & Ro
MORPHOLOGY

 In linguistics, morphology refers to the way words are constructed with stems, prefixes,
and suffixes.

 Morphology is the form and structure of words in a language, especially the consistent
patterns of inflection, combination , derivation and change.

 The branch of linguistics that deals with word structure and with functional changes in the
forms of words, such as inflection and compounding as well as the study of the
structure, classification, and relationships of morphemes is called morphology.
 MORPHOLOGY
1. What is a word ?
A search for a concise definition needs to go no farther than this famous quotation from David
Crystal (2003) : "A word is the smallest unit of grammar that can stand alone as a
complete utterance, separated by spaces in written language and potentially by pauses in speech."
In plain English, the word is a speech sound, a combination of sounds, or its representation
in writing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or a
combination of morphemes. Types of words can be described as the eight parts of speech in the
English language: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and
interjection.
The branch of linguistics that studies word structures is called morphology.

2. What is morphology ?
Morphology is the field of linguistics that studies the internal structures of words. In other words,
it is the study of the way words are built from smaller meaningful units called morphemes.
A morpheme is the minimal unit of language that carries meaning or grammatical function. We
can divide morphemes into two broad classes : (a) stems are the core meaningful units, the root of the
word e.g. talk (b) affixes add additional meanings and grammatical functions to words e.g. talks /
talker / talked / talking (All these elements are described as morphemes). Affixes are further divided
into (1) prefixes precede the stem e.g. undo (2) suffixes follow the stem e.g. helpful (3) infixes are
inserted inside the stem e.g. mothers-in-law / passersby (4) Circumfixes consist of a prefix and a
suffix that together produce a derived or inflected form, as in the English words unacceptable /
unquestionable
 There are two types of morphemes (a) free morphemes can stand by themselves as single words
e.g. teach, girl, book, class, teach, tour, the, of (b) bound morphemes cannot normally stand alone
and are typically attached to another morpheme e.g. re- / -ist / -s

N.B.

 All affixes in English are bound morphemes.

 Separate English word forms (basic nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.) are free morphemes.
 When free morphemes are used with bound morphemes, the basic word forms are known as
stems.
un dress ed care less ness
prefix stem suffix stem suffix suffix
(bound) (free) (bound) (free) (bound) (bound)

(a) Free morphemes are divided into lexical morphemes and grammatical (functional)
morphemes.

1) Lexical morphemes are ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs. They carry the content of
the messages we convey e.g. man, house, tiger, sad, long , yellow, open, look, break. They
represent open class of words ; new lexical morphemes can easily be added to the
language.

2) Functional morphemes are functional words (conjunctions, prepositions, articles,

pronouns) e.g. and, but, when, because, on, near, above, in, the, it, them. They represent
closed class of words ; we almost never add new functional morphemes.

(b) Bound morphemes are divided into derivational morphemes and inflectional morphemes.

1) Derivational morphemes help us to create new words or words of a different

grammatical category from base words(stems). We can include prefixes and suffixes.
e.g. good(adj.) ------- goodness (noun)
 care (noun) ------- careful /careless (adj.)
act (verb) ------- actor (noun)

High frequency prefixes (un- re- dis- in- mis- a- fore- de- pre- en- sub- inter- trans-
super- semi- anti- mid- )
Common derivational suffixes (-er -y -ly -ful -ness -less -ment -hood -able/-ible -en )

2) Inflectional morphemes change what a word does in terms of grammar, but does not
create a new word.They are used to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a
word (plural, possessive, comparative, superlative, third person singular –present
tense-,past tense, progressive, past participle). English has only 8 inflectional morphemes.
All of them are suffixes.
 Noun + ( s ) cats Noun + (‘s ) brother’s
 Verb + ( s ) walks ( ing ) giving ( ed) walked ( en ) eaten
 Adjective + (er) taller ( est ) tallest
3. What do we mean by MORPHS and ALLOMORPHS ?

A MORPH is a phonological string (of phonemes) that cannot be broken down into smaller
constituents that have a lexicogrammatical function. In some sense it corresponds to a word-form.

E.g. big (adj.), walk (v.), home (n.) are free morphs.

E.g. the root in the word construction is struct (meaning to build). The word also contains the prefix
con- and -ion (the latter of which shows that the word is a noun).

E.g. in the word editors, there are three morphemes: one minimal unit of meaning, edit, another
minimal unit of meaning -or, meaning “person who does something”, and a minimal unit of
grammatical function -s, indicating plural form of noun.

AN ALLOMORPH is a variant phonetic form of a morpheme, or, a unit of meaning that varies in
sound and spelling without changing the meaning. The term allomorph describes the realization of
phonological variations for a specific morpheme.

E.g. the ending -s, indicating plural in “cats,” “dogs,” the -es in “dishes,” and the -en of
“oxen” are all allomorphs of the plural morpheme. The word “talked” is represented by two
morphemes, “talk” and the past-tense morpheme, here indicated by -ed.

4. WORD FORMATION PROCESS is a way of forming and creating new words from the use
of old words. There many types of word formation process.

a) Clipping is the process of reducing the elements of word. This process occurs when a word of
more than one syllable is reduced into a shorter form. A part of free morpheme is cut off. E.g.
advertisement becomes ad / brother becomes bro. / prof. / auto / Kathy / doc / lab
b) Borrowing is the way of creating new word with taking over of words from other languages
and using continually in society. The word that is borrowed is called a borrowing, a borrowed
 word, or a loanword. E.g. umbrella from the Italian language in 1609 / yoghurt from Turkish
/ mayonnaise from French / algebra from Arabic / sherry from Spanish
c) Compounding is the way of creating new word with joining of two or more free morphemes
to describe something new. E.g. the two words wall and paper have different meanings. The
single form of both words is wallpaper / fire engine / greenhouse / bookcase / textbook /
world-wide / outstanding / spoon-feed / underestimate / stone age / cave man / dog food box
d) Blending is the way of creating new word with combining two separate forms of words to
produce a single new term. Typically blending process is accomplished by taking only the
first part of the first word and joining it to the end of the second word. E.g. brunch
(breakfast and lunch) / smog (smoke and fog) /motel (motor and hotel)
e) Backformation is specialized type of reduction process. Typically a word of one type (noun)
is reduced to form a word of another type (verb). E.g. babysitter becomes babysit / donation
becomes donate / burglar becomes burgle / zipper becomes zip
f) Conversion is the process of changing the function of words. For example the words in the
form of a noun changes to become a verb. It sounds similar with backformation process but
actually it is different. In conversion process, it is without the occurrences of reduction
process. E.g. the noun chair becomes a verb in the statement “we have to chair this meeting”
and the verb to stand up changes to become a noun “stand-up comedy”.
Verb to Noun a guess, a must, a spy, a printout
Noun to Verb process, contact, notice touch
g) Coinage is the way of creating new words with referring to the most topical sources which are
invented to the trade names for certain commercial products. Then, it becomes the general
terms used in society. E.g. commercial products such as “Indomie”, “Soklin”, “Honda” /
mineral water’s product “Aqua” / googol / pooch
h) Acronym is the process of creating new word with forming from the initial letters of a set of
other words. (a) Follow the pronunciation patterns of English NATO (North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), AIDS (Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome), NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) (b)
If unpronounceable, each letter is sounded out separately I.Q. (Intelligent Quotient), MRT
(Mass Rapid Transit), TVBS (television broadcasting service) VCR (music cassette recorder)
(c) Customary to sound out each letter even if the combined initials can be pronounced
AIT (American Institute in Taiwan UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles)
i) Derivation is the way of creating a new word that accomplished by means of a large number
of small bits (affixes) of the English language which are not usually given separate listings in
dictionaries. E.g. word elements un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less which appear in words unhappy,
misinformation, prejudge, meaningful, and careless are called affixes (V+affix----N /
N+affix-----V / Adj+affix-----V / N+affix-----ADJ)
j) Onomatopoeia refers to words that imitate sounds in nature or in technology. E.g.: a dog:
bow wow or woof-woof / a clock: tick-tock / a camera: click / a cat: meow / ring of a bell:
ding-dong / a cow: moo / a bee: buzz / a snake: hiss
k) Reduplication is the full or partial repetition of a free morpheme; sometimes with variation.
E.g. : Full: so so / bye-bye / With variation: zigzag / dilly – dally
l) Extension of word formation rules means that a part of a word is treated as a morpheme
though it’s not. E.g.: hamburger, cheeseburger, fish burger / marathon, telethon,
danceathon, walkathon / alcoholic, workaholic

SYNTAX

 Definition: In linguistics, the term syntax is used to mean the study of the syntactic
properties of a language. In other words, syntax refers to the rules that govern the
ways in which words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. In plain
English, syntax can be defined as the arrangement of words in a sentence.

 Syntactic Theory is about the rules and principles that determine how people
combine words to make meaningful sentences. Sentences are not just strings of
words in the same way that words are not just strings of morphemes. There are strict
syntactic rules about the structure of sentences – how to combine words in specific
way (structure at a phrasal and sentence level) to reach a certain meaning.

• Syntactic constructions : A sentence has generally two main constituents: a subject

and a predicate: the subject is the topic of the sentence and the predicate is the
comment or the assertion made about the topic.

 Constituents are structural units, which refer to any linguistic form, such as words or
word groups. Although the term string is often used technically to refer to sequences
of words, sentences are not merely strings of words in a permissible order and making
sense. They are structured into successive components, consisting of single words or
groups of words called constituents (structural units), and when they are considered as
part of the successive unraveling of a sentence, they are known as its immediate
constituents. In the sentence “The old man ran away,” the first division into
immediate constituents would be between “the old man” and “ran away” The
immediate constituents of “the old man” are “the” and “old man” At the next level
“old man” is divided into “old” and “man” The term was introduced by the
linguist Leonard Bloomfield in 1933.

 Syntactic Function: According to its relation to other constituents, a constituent may

serve certain syntactic function in a clause. There are five functional categories of
clause constituents: subject, verb, object (Object can be subdivided into direct
 object and indirect object), complement (Complement can be subdivided into
subject complement and object complement), and adverbial (Adverbial can be
subdivided into subject-related adverbial and object-related adverbial).

 Syntactic Categories
1. Lexical categories: Noun (N) moisture, policy / Verb (V) melt, remain /
Adjective (A) good, intelligent / Preposition (P) to, near / Adverb (Adv)
slowly, now
2. Non-lexical categories Determiner (Det) the, this / Degree word (Deg) very,
more / Qualifier (Qual.) always, perhaps / Auxiliary (Aux) will, can /
Conjunction (Con) and, or
 PHRASES are any constituents of a clause. The phrase may be a string of words or
just one word. The head of the phrase is the word that determines the syntactic or
phrasal category of the phrase - whether the phrase functions as NP, VP, or PP. We
have rules in syntax about what word classes can pattern together in phrases. This
means that Noun Phrases (NP) can be made up of Determiners (DET) and Nouns (N).

Types of Phrases

1. Noun phrase (NP): the car, a clever student

2. Verb phrase (VP): study hard, play the guitar
3. Prepositional phrase (PP): in class, above the earth
4. Gerund phrases (GP): emotionally draining
5. Infinitive phrases (IP): to spite his face
6. Adjectival Phrases (AP): (a blue and green) sweater, very tall, quite certain

7. Adverbial Phrases (Adv. P): very quickly, quite happily

Types of sentences / clauses (syntactic constructions)

• A simple sentence: a subject + a predicate

• A compound sentence at least 2 simple sentences joined by a coordinating

conjunction (FANBOYS); in writing punctuation (the semicolon) can substitute for
the conjunction.

• A complex sentence a simple sentence and one or more dependent clause

 • A compound complex sentence one or more independent clause and at least
one dependent clause

An independent clause has a subject and a verb, and can stand alone because it has a
complete thought.

A dependent clause has a subject and a predicate but cannot stand alone. It depends on an
independent clause to make it complete.

(1) Tense and Aspect

 The term aspect was first used to refer to the distinction of 'perfective' and
'imperfective' in the inflexion of verbs in Russian and other Slavonic languages.

 English has two aspects which combine fairly freely with tense and mood:

 The 'perfect' (e.g. I have/had read the book. I will/would have read the book)

 The 'progressive' (e.g. I am/was reading the book, I will/would be reading the book).

They also combine freely with one another (e.g. I have/had been reading the book).

(2) Category

 Number is a grammatical category for the analysis of such contrasts as singular and
plural of certain word classes. In English, number is a feature of nouns and verbs.

 Gender demonstrates such contrasts as "masculine, feminine, and neuter", and

"animate: inanimate", etc. for the analysis of certain word classes. In most languages,
grammatical gender has little to do with the biological sex. For instance, in French, the
moon, which has nothing to do with the biological sex, is grammatically feminine.

(3) Concord and Government

The forms of words can be restricted by grammatical categories through concord /
agreement and government. A verb is to agree with the subject in person and number. In
English this rule only affects the verb according the number of the subject.

The word concord is derived from the Latin for agreement. When applied to English
grammar, the term is defined as the grammatical agreement between two words in a sentence.
Some linguists use the terms concord and agreement interchangeably, although traditionally,
concord is used in reference to the proper relationship between adjectives and the nouns they
modify, while agreement refers to the proper relationship between verbs and their subjects or
objects.

How to Build Tree Structures

1. S→ NP + VP
This means that the sentence is to be rewritten as NP (noun phrase)
2. NP→ Det + N
(‘Det’ is Determiner and N is noun.)
3. VP→ Aux + V + NP
(‘Aux’ is Auxiliary,’V’ is main verb, ‘NP’ is noun phrase)
Applying rule 2 to the output of rule 1, we get
S→Det +N+VP
Applying rule 3, we get
S→ Det +N +V +NP
Applying rule 2 once again (to accommodate the 2nd NP), we get
S→Det + N + V +NP
Applying rule 2 once again (to accommodate the 2nd NP), we get
S→Det + N +V+ Det + N

Example: The student lost the debate.

NP VP
DET N V NP

DET N

The student lost the debate