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SYNTAX

Syntax is the study of lexemes which are grouped in different ways to form a sentence.

Phrases: are groups of words that function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence

Clauses: a clause must have a verb, it also usually has a subject and sometimes other clause elements

Main Clause (Independent): a complete sentence which contains a subject, verb and it can stand alone

Subordinate Clause (Dependent): this clause normally relies on a main clause or other clauses for meaning, and it cannot stand alone.

CLAUSE ELEMENTS

Verb: ‘Lisa speaks’ ‘ she has always been kind to me’

Subject: who or what is doing the verb ‘Lisa speaks’ ‘she has always been kind to me’

Object: Direct: what does the subject and verb, e.g. ’he bought apples’

Indirect: to who did the subject and verb apply to. E.g. ‘I gave flowers to mum’

Adverbial: where/when/how did it happen? ‘Before you leave come see me’

#syntax

DISCOURSE ANAYLYSIS

Discourse analysis is the study of extended verbal expression in spoken and written language.

Nowadays everything that is sent electronically is often abbreviated.

Example: “Bro, where u @?” or “Gtg, cu l8r?”

Translation: ‘Where are you?’ or ‘I have to go now, I will see you later’

This shows that over time the English Language has evolved from very formal English to slang.

#discourseanalysis

SEMANTICS

Semantics is the study of meaning behind language.

DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION

Denotative meaning is literally the meaning of the word.

Connotative meaning is the implied meaning of a word

ETYMOLOGY

Etymology is the study of the origins of a word and its history. It studies the changes in form and meaning a word can evolve through. The two types of classifications for a word is narrowing and broadening.

Narrowing

Narrowing is the process of the meaning of a word changing to become more specific.

For example: ‘meat’ it used to be referred to as being 'food’, but now food has now narrowed down to the meaning ‘food in the form of animal flesh’

Broadening

Broadening is when the meaning of a word becomes more general.

For example: ‘baindaid’ is actually a brand name for a line of ‘bandages’, however overtime everyone began calling It ‘bandaid’ instead of ‘bandage’.

#semantics

LEXICOLOGY

Lexicology is the study of words themselves. Words, (more technically called lexemes) are divided into groups or categories such as nouns, proper nouns , verbs, adjectives, adverbs and so on.

OPEN CLASS WORDS: parts of speech/word class

Noun: name of objects- raindrop, rose, politeness, children’s

Verb: action words- present tense: ‘she works

past tense: ‘she worked’

present perfect: ‘she has worked’

present participle: ‘she is working’

past participle: ‘she was working’

Adjectives: describes a noun- smart, smarter, smartest

Adverb: describes adjectives ‘very tired’

verbs ‘drove quickly’

adverbs ‘he spoke extremely quickly’

clauses ‘finally, he arrived’

CLOSED CLASS WORDS: parts of speech/word classes that can take new additions

Prepositions: words that show the position of a noun- ‘in a week’ ‘behind you’

Determiners: pinpoint the noun

definite: the

indefinite: a, an

Conjunctions: join together words, phrases, clauses- and, but, neither, nor, either, or, since, because, as, it

Pronouns: words that ‘stand for’ nouns. Eg. Instead of ‘the car’, ‘it’

I, you, he, she , it, we , them, they, my , your, who, what, that, which, who, those, themselves, himself, all, everyone, nobody

Auxiliaries: short ‘supportive’ words that explain the main verbs- be, am , is, was ,are ,were, have , has , had , do, did, done

#lexicology

MORPHOLOGY

Morphology, in linguistics, is the identification and study of morphemes and how they combine to make words

MORPHEMES

Morphemes are the smallest unit of meaning in a word. This means that we cannot actually divide the unit any further without changing the actual meaning of the word.

e.g.: ‘cat’ one morpheme

‘cat/s’ two morphemes

Cats is made up of two morphemes. ‘Cat’ is the free morpheme in this example because cat would make sense on its own. Whereas ‘s’ is a bound morpheme because it will not make sense on its own.

TYPES OF BOUND MORPHEMES

Derivational Morphemes: are affixes with which we derive a new word

e.g. derivational prefix: ‘unable’

derivational suffix: ‘quickly’

Inflectional morphemes: change the grammatical information of a word

e.g. 1. plural ‘s’ ‘dogs’

2. possessive ‘s’ ‘dog’s bark’

3. 3rd person ‘s’ ‘dog barks’

4. past tense ’ed’ ‘worked’

5. present participle ‘ing’ ‘working’

6. past principle ‘en’ ‘frozen’

7. comparative adjective ‘er’ ‘smarter’

8. superlative adjective ‘est’ ‘smartest’

WORDBANK

AFFIXES: are morphemes that are attached to a stem

Prefix: a morpheme attached before the stem eg. ‘dis/em/powered’

Suffix: a morpheme attached at the end of a stem e.g. ‘government’

Stem/root: the ‘core’ morpheme of a word e.g. ‘unconvincingly’

#morphology

PHONOLOGY

Phonology is the study of how sounds form together in the English Language.

As we read the word ‘phonology’ they way we pronounce it may be different to the way someone from a foreign country may speak it. Each language has their own distinctive sounds and this is why we all pronounce words differently. While Australians may pronounce ‘hommes’ as ‘homes’ French people pronounce it as ‘omme’.

PHONETICS

Phonology branches out to phonetics, phonetics is the study of the sounds themselves. It is the study of how humans pronounce words from their earlier knowledge on how to articulate.

Through the use of vowels (an uninterrupted flow of air) and consonants (interrupted flow of air) we are able to pronounce sounds. The IPA is the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is a standardized way to spell sounds.

#phonology

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A Guide to the Language Subsytem