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Linguistics Theories (Continued) 1. Many of us usually think to get to know what the schools of linguistics (aliran-aliran dalam ilmu bahasa) are and how they will be realized in a language study. 2. A problem might arise is about the limited time spent to read and comprehend a lot of references (dealing with linguistics)_ which of course mostly include many technical terms, or also our reluctance to open a proper dictionary, i.e. linguistics dictionary. 3. What is the solution?

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Linguistics Theories(Continued)

1. Many of us usually think to get to know what the schools of linguistics (aliran-aliran dalam ilmu bahasa) are and how they will be realized in a language study.

2. A problem might arise is about the limited time spent to read and comprehend a lot of references (dealing with linguistics)_ which of course mostly include many technical terms, or also our reluctance to open a proper dictionary, i.e. linguistics dictionary.

3. What is the solution?

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1. Few linguistics theories are not established yet as the product of grammar, while some others have been established as grammars of language and their application can be clearly seen as in language teaching.

2. The linguistics theory that is much supported by great linguists, anthropologists, sociologists, or philosophers such as Saussure, Boas, Sapir, Emily Durkheim, Bloomfield, Hjelmslev, etc. is called Structural linguistics.

3. Dealing with the theory (Structural Linguistics) discussed previously, in which sides you still get the problem, especially in analysis?

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• How far is your comprehension in the three major theories of language analysis: Traditional, Structural, and Transformational grammar?

• However, are we already satisfied (during the course of time learning English) only get to know the three different applications in a language (here, English) analysis?.

• For the level of graduate students of English Education, at least to get “the red links” from one linguistics theory to the others and its application in an English study is a must interest. Why?

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Eg. The woman was in front of the car

1. By referring to Traditional approach of sentence analysis, the sentence can be analyzed into:

The woman was in front of the car S P C

Traditional grammar defines classes and assign rules for language based on meaning. So, it proceeds subjectively, explaining how important features of language can be related to me; while Structural linguistics, in defining classes and assigning rules in language based on a structural analysis of the phonology, morphology, and syntax of a language, it proceeds objectively, showing how important features of language in relation to each other.

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Formerly, the manifestation of language is in the form of sound. The basic unit of grammatical study was found by defining and classifying the sounds or sounds sequence that are meaningful in language.

-The minimal meaningful unit of language is called morpheme.

- Morpheme (in free or bound forms) can be classified based on its characteristic meaning: (1) morphologically, according to the composition of complex or compound form; (2) syntactically, according to the distribution of simple, complex, or compound forms; and (3) according to the function of the forms.

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2. By referring to Structural approach, which was established to focus on language structures i.e. constituents of the predications in a sentence expresses Arguments (logical participants) and Predicate (relational element of arguments), the sentence can be analyzed into the following:

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Eg. The woman was in front of the car can be broken down into two arguments: the woman and the car; the predicate, was in front of.

analysed into analyzed into

PREDICATION

Arguments Predicates Arguments

‘The woman’ ‘was in front of’ ‘the car’

-functions: S, P, O, Ca. Syntactic dimension:

3. Structural Linguistic -categories: N,V,A,Adv, P Analysis of Sentence:

b. Semantic dimension: roles (A, I, O, B, L, T, etc)

PREDICATIONCLUSTERS (Arguments, Predicates)

FEATURES

+DEFINITE+HUMAN+ADULT-MALE-PLURAL

DIRECTION+PRIMARY+PAST

+DEFINITE-HUMAN+VEHICLE-PLURAL

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• Structural linguistics analyzes how words form and how those words are used together to form larger structures. This discipline was able to draw a line between form and meaning in language.

The difference between structural linguistics and traditional:

• Traditional grammar focuses mainly on the meaning of the collection of words portrayed. Structural linguistics is primarily concerned with the form of the language. For example, structural linguistics would emphasize that a sentence have a noun and verb in agreement, while traditionally, a sentence needs to be a "complete thought".

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3. By referring to Transformational linguistics; in which it relies on an individual’s intuitions of language. Through deductive reasoning, it formulates a set of rules which will generate the sentences of a language.

T/G grammar does not only generate grammatical sentences, but it will also exclude non-grammatical ones. That is, T/G grammar will generate all and only grammatical sentences.

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• In order to capture the grammatical relations, a grammar has to begin at a more abstract level than can be given if one only looks at the actual spoken language (i.e. the surface structure)

• T/G grammarians therefore commence their deductions by postulating a more abstract structure containing the meaning of a sentence (i.e. deep structure).

• Then they will formulate a set of rules which will transform the abstract structure into the one which is actually spoken.

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• The woman was in front of the car

S NP + VP

NP Det + N

VP be + PP

PP Prep + NP

NP Det + N

N= woman, car

Det= the

Prep= in front of

• Represented in the P-Marker as the following:

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Represented in the P-Marker:

S

NPVP

Det N be PP

Prep NP

Det N

the woman was in front of the car l

:

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Eight basic concerns of T/G grammar:

1.Non-grammaticality should be distinguished from semantic anomaly.

*(i) Been her Majesty has to see me already.

*(ii) The thoughtful horizontal glory placed gosamer darkness ethereally.

*(iii) Colorful green ideas sleep furiously.

2. A second basic consideration of T/G concerns the fact that some sentences undergo a reduction in form but remain grammatical.

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3. Ambiguity is two of types, lexical ambiguity and grammatical ambiguity; grammatical ambiguity is the result of a sentence being derived from more than one underlying sentence structure.

e.g. He likes serving women‘He likes women who are servants’ or ‘he likes to

serve women’.

4. T/g concerns the opinion that an explanation should be given why some sentences which are superficially alike have significant differences in their underlying structures.

5. T/G grammarians are also interested in establishing formal relationships between sentences which are different in form but have the same meaning. Some formal differences are due to the use of different lexical items in the sentences but others are due to differences in the grammatical structure of the sentence.

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6. T/G grammarians claim that the constituents of a language arranged according to the rules of syntax will in themselves be sufficient indicators of the function they have within a sentence. It therefore becomes redundant, and may be confusing if a constituent’s function is indicated in formal grammar.

7. Another claim of T/G grammarians is that constituents are identified by their mutual interchangeability, not by the function they may, or may not perform. One consequence of this is seen in the differences in the composition of the vervb phrase in a T/G grammar compared to that found in a tagmemic

grammar.

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8. The last basic concern of T/G is fundamental to the whole concept of this type of grammar. This is the claim that sentences which differ in form because of structural factors but have the same meaning are of necessity derived from the same underlying or ‘deep’ structure.

Questions:

1. Comprehend the T/G concerns above and explain them by examples.

2. Make an inference of historical development of standard T/G.

3. Identify some main points within Tagmemic grammar.

4. Find any data for language analysis and the supposed approach you will use to apply.

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Several different disciplines within

linguistics as the core fields of study:

1) phonetics,

2) phonology,

3) morphology,

4) syntax,

5) semantics and language

acquisition

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1) PhoneticsPhonetics is the study of the production and perception of speech sounds. It is concerned with the sounds of languge, how these sounds are articulated and how the hearer percieves them.

Phonetics is related to the science of acoustics in that it uses much the same techniques in the analysis of sound that acoustics does. There are three subdisciplines of phonetics:Articulatory Phonetics: the production of speech sounds. Acousitc Phonetics: the study of the physical production and transmission of speech sounds. Auditory Phonetics: the study of the perception of speech sounds.

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2) Phonology

Phonology is the study of the sound patterns/ systems of language. It is concerned with how sounds are organized in a language. Phonolgy examines what occurs to speech sounds when they are combined to form a word and how these speech sounds interact with each other. It endeavors to explain what these phonological processes are in terms of formal rules.

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3) Morphology

Morphology is the study of word formation and structure. It studies how words are put together from their smaller parts and the rules governing this process. The elements that are combining to form words are called morphemes.

A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning you can have in a language. The word cats, for example, contains the morphemes cat and the plural -s.

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4) SyntaxSyntax is the study of how words

combine to form sentences and the rules which govern the formation of sentences.

Syntax is the study of sentence structure. It attempts to describe what is grammatical in a particular language in term of rules. These rules detail an underlying structure and a transformational process. The underlying structure of English for example would have a subject-verb-object sentence order (John hit the ball). The transformational process would allow an alteration of the word order which could give you something like The ball was hit by John.

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5) SemanticsSemantics is the study of meaning. It is concerned with describing how we represent the meaning of a word in our mind and how we use this representation in constructing sentences. Semantics is based largely on the study of logic in philosophy.

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6) Language AcquisitionLanguage acquistion examines how children learn to speak and how adults learn a second language. Language acquistion is very important because it gives us insight in the underlying processes of language.

There are two components which contribute to language acqusition. The innate knowledge of the learner (called Universal Grammer or UG) and the environment.

The notion of UG has broad implications. It suggests that all languages operate within the same framework and the understanding of this framework would contribute greatly to the understanding of what language is.

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Other fields of linguistics, distinguished by the kinds of non-linguistic factors:

• Sociolinguistics: Sociolinguistics is the study of interrelationships of language and social structure, linguistic variation, and attitudes toward language.

• Neurolinguistics: Neurolinguistics is the study of the brain and how it functions in the production, preception and acquistion of language.

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• Historical Linguistics: Historical linguistics is the study of

language change and the relationships of languages to each other.

Historical linguistics is the study of the origin and development of language by examining the changes taken place through time, and the evolution of language in relation to adaption of other words in other languages, as well as the change in sound and form.

Historical linguists also investigate two main questions about language, which are 'What are its origin?' and 'Why are there so many languages rather than one?' (Lehmann 1973: 18)

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According to Theordora Bynon, historical linguistics examines the way languages maintain their structure over time, and examines the diachronic features of language.

Descriptive linguistics eliminates the factor of time and studies the synchronic aspect of language (Bynon 1977: 1).

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• The change in sound is called a phonological change. Changes in form called morphological changes. There are three main explanations for the source of change in language. According to Winfred Lehman they are: 1) influence of language on another, resulting in borrowed terms, 2) the imperfect learning of language by children, and 3) the effects of the system or systems of individual languages. (Lehman 17)

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• Anthropological Linguistics: Anthropological linguistics is the study of language and culture and how they interact.

• Pragmatics: Pragmatics studies meaning in

context.

• Psycholinguistics: the study of the cognitive processes and representations underlying language use.

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• Applied linguistics, the study of language-related issues applied in everyday life, notably language policies, planning, and education. (Constructed language fits under Applied linguistics.)

• Biolinguistics, the study of natural as well as human-taught communication systems in animals, compared to human language.

• Clinical linguistics, the application of linguistic theory to the field of SpeechLanguage Pathology.

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• Computational linguistics, the study of computational implementations of linguistic structures.

• Developmental linguistics, the study of the development of linguistic ability in individuals, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood.

• Evolutionary linguistics, the study of the origin and subsequent development of language by the human species.

• Language geography, the study of the geographical distribution of languages and linguistic features.

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• Linguistic typology, the study of the common properties of diverse unrelated languages, properties that may, given sufficient attestation, be assumed to be innate to human language capacity.

• Neurolinguistics, the study of the structures in the human brain that underlie grammar and communication.

• Sociolinguistics, the study of variation in language and its relationship with social factors.

• Stylistics, the study of linguistic factors that place a discourse in context.

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• Semiotics is the study of sign processes (semiosis), or signification and communication, signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems, including the study of how meaning is constructed and understood.

• Semioticians often do not restrict themselves to linguistic communication when studying the use of signs but extend the meaning of "sign" to cover all kinds of cultural symbols.

• Semiotic disciplines closely related to linguistics are literary studies, discourse analysis, text linguistics, and philosophy of language.

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• Questions:

1.How was the influence of Roman Jacobson’s ideas on Chomsky’s theory of linguistics?

2.How was the linguistics theory viewed from Hjelmslev?

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Structural Linguistics

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SEMANTICS by Geoffrey Leech

7 types of meaning:

1) Conceptual meaning: logical, cognitive, or denotative content(the central factor in linguistic communication). two structural principls that seem to lie at the basis of all linguistic patterning: the principles of contrastiveness and of constituent structure. The first underlie the classification of sounds in phonology, the second is that which larger linguistic units are built up out of smaller units. Eg. [b] has features +BILABIAL, +VOICE, +STOP, -NASAL. Woman is specified as +HUMAN, -MALE, +ADULT.

______

Associative meaning includes:

2)Connotative meaning: what is communicated by virtue of what language refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content. Eg. Woman, not only physical characteristics (‘biped’, having a womb’) but also psychological and social properties (‘gregarious’, subject to maternal instinct’), and may extend to features which are merely typical rather than invariable concomitants of womanhood (‘capable of speech’, experienced in cookery’, skirt-or-dress-wearing’).

3) Stylistic meaning: what is communicated of the social circumstances of language use. A recent amount of English style has recognized the following main dimensions of stylistic variation:

-Relatively permanent features of style: INDIVIDUALITY, DIALECT, TIME

-Discourse: MEDIUM (speech, writing), PARTICIPATION (monologue, dialogue)

-Relatively temporary features of style: PROVINCE (language of law, of science, of ads), STATUS (polite, colloquial, slang), MODALITY (language of memoranda, lectures, jokes), SINGULARITY (the style of Dickens, of Hemingway, etc.).

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Types of meaning (continued)

4) Affective meaning: what is communicated of feelings and attitudes of the speaker/writer to the listener or to something he is talking about. Eg. I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your voices a little (this is a politeness with the object of getting people to be quite).

5) Reflected meaning: The meaning which arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning; or, what is communicated through association with another sense of the same expression. Eg. Are limbe, so dear-achieved, are sides, Full-nerved – still warm – too hard to stir?In these lines from Futility, a poem on dead soldier, Wilfred Owen overtly uses the word dear to the sense ‘expensively’, but also alludes, one feels in the context of the poem, to the sense ‘beloved’.

6) Collocative meaning: what is communicated through association with words which tend to occur in the environment of another word. Eg. Pretty and handsome share common ground in the meaning ‘good-looking’.

Reflected and collocative meaning, affective and stylistic meaning all have more in common with connotative meaning than with conceptual meaning: they all have the same open-ended, indeterminate character, and lend themselves to analysis in terms of scales or ranges, rather than in discrete either this-or-that terms. They can all be brought together under the heading of ASSOCIATIVE MEANING.

7) Thematic meaning: what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis.Eg. It is ofteen felt that an active sentence such (1) has a different meaning from its passive equivalevt (2), although in conceptual content they seem to be the same:

(1) Mrs Bessie Smith donated the first prize.(2) The first prize was donated by Mrs Bessie Smith.

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CASE GRAMMAR

The Fillmore 1968 Model: Case System

1. Agentive (A): the case of the (typically animate) perceived instigator of the action identified by the verb. The agentive must always be chosen as subject in simple active sentences. Eg. John / broke / the window. A=S The window / was broken / by John A=PP A V O O V A

2. Instrumental (I): the case of the inanimate force or object casually involved in the state or action identified by the verb. The instrumental case may occur as the subject of the verb, as the direct object of the verb use, and also in prepositional phrases.Eg. The hammer / broke / the window . I=S John / used / a hammer. I=DO I V O A V I The window / was broken / with a hammer. I=PP O V I

3. Dative (D): the case of the (animate) being affected by the state or action identified by the verb. The dative case may occur as the subject, direct object, or indirect object of nonaction verbs; it may also occur as the indirect object of state or action verbs but is not simply an indirect object. The dative is typically marked with the preposition to.Eg. John / believed / the story. D=S The book / was boring / to John. D=IO

D V O O V D

4. Objective (O): the semantically most neutral case, the case of anything representable by a noun whose role in the action or state identified by the verb is identified by semantic interpretation of the verb itself. The objective case may occur as either subject or object with nonaction verbs and as the direct object of action verbs.

Eg. The story / is true. O=S John / liked / the the movie. O=DO O V D V O We / persuaded / John / he could win. O=Sent A V D O=S

5. Factitive (F): the case of the object or being resulting from the state or action identified by the verb, or understood as part of the meaning of the verb. The factitive case is used to distinguish the effected object, which does not exist prior to the verbal action, from the affected object, which preexists and is acted upon.

Eg. John / built / a table. F=effected O Mary / dreamed / a dream. F=cognate O A V F D V F

6. Locative (L): the case which identifies the location or spatial orientation of the state or action identified by the verb.

Eg. The toys / are / in the box. L=PP The box / contains / the toys. L=S O V L L V O

7. Comitative ©: this case is not defined. It is mentioned under coordinate conjunction and listed as a propositional case in the revised version.

Eg. The children / are / with Mary. C=PP Mary / has / the children / with her. C=S

O V C C V O C

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CASE GRAMMAR

The Fillmore 1971 model: case system•Agent (A)•Experiencer (E): the experiencer of a psychological event; the case required by genuine psychological event or mental state verb.

•Instrument (I)•Object (O)•Source (S): the origin or the starting point of motion. It refers primarily to the place-from-which the motion begins, (earlier location).

•Goal (G): the end point of motion; it refers to the place-towards-which the motion tends (final location)

•Location (L): the place where an object or event is located.

•Time (T): the time at which an object or event is located.•Benefactive (B): the one who benefits from an event or activity.

The Chafe 1970 model: case system•agent, (2) patient, (3) experiencer, (4) beneficiary, (5) instrument, (6) complement, (7) location

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The Semantic Structure of Sentences

1. a. Semantics (as the study of meaning0 is central to the study of communication. Semantics is also at the centre of the study of the human mind.

b. Semantics as one branch of linguistics parallels to and interact with syntax and phonology.

c. If syntax and phonology study the structure of expressive possibilities in language, semantics studies the meanings that can be expressed.

So, semantics is a fruitful and exciting point of departure of the current discussion.

2. Words as components of sentence a. Semantic structure of words can not only be identified from the way to

define words, such as words are names for ‘things’, or refers to ‘material objects’. In this case, we consider the quality of ‘reference’. This naming function of at least a major part of the vocabulary was very early emphasized in grammatical terminology. Eg. The proper names (Sally, John, Mickey, etc) present the simplest case of words having meaning, and this way of invoking meaning is a model of semantic processes in general. The account of meaning, under which words are said to be the names of things, is very familiar as referential theory of meaning.

b. Problems: semantics must be able to account for the meanings of words like: abstraction, process, imagination, good, true, happy, etc. So, we must not try to force all meanings into the referential mould.

c. Words in natural languages also have associated with them certain conventional semantic properties which constitute their meanings. Eg. Book, although is a referential word, its meaning is not determined by ita referents but by the position which it occupies in the vocabulary of English, in relation to other words in the same semantic field: magazine, newspaper, pamphlet, paperback, etc.

d. Investigating the relations between words and words, as well those between words and things is claimed by Stephen Ullman, a proponent of referential theory, that each word would be regarded as an isolated and self-contained unit.

3. How to describe meanings of whole sentences.a. Traditional analysis of sentenceb. Terms: roles, argument, predicate, predicationc. Fillmore 68 and 71 case system

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1. Constituents of sentences: Subject, verb, object, adverb, etc.2. Constituents of the predications that sentences express:

Arguments (logical participants) and predicate (relational element of arguments)

So, the term predicate, here, should be differentiated from Traditional predicate (verb).

Eg. The woman was in front of the car can be broken down into two arguments: the woman and the car; the predicate, was in front of.

The woman has features: +DEFINITE + HUMAN + ADULT –MALE – PLURAL

analysed into analyzed into

PREDICATION

Arguments Predicates Arguments

‘The man’ ‘was in front of’ ‘the woman’

-functions: S, P, O, Ca. Syntactic dimension:

3. Structural Linguistic -categories: N,V,A,Adv, P Analysis of Sentence:

b. Semantic dimension: roles (A, I, O, B, L, T, etc)

Semantic Structure of Sentences (contunued)

PREDICATIONCLUSTERS (Arguments, Predicates)

FEATURES

+DEFINITE+HUMAN+ADULT+MALE-PLURAL

DIRECTION+PRIMARY+PAST

+DEFINITE+HUMAN+ADULT-MALE-PLURAL

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WORDS AND THEIR COMPONENTS

1) There are structural relationships between words in sentences which are indispensable to making up the meaning of the whole. The meaning of words concerned is not given by their individual referential ties with denoted objects, but by their relationship to each other. The analysis of meaning cannot be achieved by simple linear segmentation, the structure of words is more abstract than linear structure; not at all observable. Thus, a particular word-meaning may be said to be the sum of a number of semantic components, and the semantic structure of a whole language may be said to be a patterned network of semantic features.

2) Saussure’s idea of system in language:

3) He divides semantic distinction into two: signification ( a property of individual signs) and value (corresponds with ‘sense’).

4) A sign is an indivisible union of a significant ( acoustic image) and a signifie (concept). Signifiant is an abstract psychological representation of the phonetic level of a word. Signifie is an abstract psychological representation of some part of the subjects of human discourse.

5) Method of ostensive definition= saying the word and indicating its referent by gesture or other non-linguistic means.

6) A proponent of referential theory is Stephen Ullman.

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WORDS WITHIN SENTENCES

1) A limites range of inter-word relationships are found in two axes: paradigmatic (vertical) and syntagmatic (horizontal) relationships.

2) The semantic properties of sentences or logical properties of ill-formed proposition are: contradictory (e.g. the nun was a grandfather), tautologous (e.g. the grandfather was a man), and analiticy.

3) Although words or ‘lexical items’ are of major importance in determining the semantic content of sentences, they are not the sole determinats of the meaning of sentences.

4) Based on Geoffrey Leech and John Lyons, logical considerations are relevant to determining certain types of sense-relationships between lexical items. For example: slice, crush, shred, flatten, splinter, fragment, crumple, bend, fold, twist, warp, atomize, solidify, crack, all have general semantic characterization ‘change of state’ verbs.

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LEARNING LANGUAGE

• This section (1) looks at the incipient and formative stages of language acquisition in the infant, and (2) presents some characteristics of children’s language which seem to testify to an innate endowment independent of parental influence and others which are best explained as reflections of the linguistic models to which the children are exposed.

• The early stages in children’s linguistic development are: babbling, comprehension, single words, and short sentences. Babbling is usually prolific in the middle and the second half of the first year (6-9 months). The sounds in this phase are linguistically random. At about 11-12 months babbling stop abruptly.

• The child’s phonological system is poorly realized phonetically and for quite a long time, incomplete. Much of the nature of child language is mysterious; children mean more than they say. Children’s understanding of language is commonly in advance of their linguistic production.

• Lexical words: open class (O), refer to nouns

• Function words: pivots (P), refer to artc, partc, prep, aux, etc.

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Research topic

Data: utterance “Mommy sock”

Context: 1). As Kathryn picked up her mother’s sock.

2). As mother put the child’s sock on her.

This suggests or means:

1) a semantic structure beneficiary – patient. (i.e. what I

called the ‘possessive’ relationship above).

2) Agent – patient (with the predicate unexpressed in

both cases).

Therefore, these two structures seem to underlie a large number of the two-words utterances of the child concerned.

The sentences of young children lack noun and verb

inflexions, auxiliaries, articles, and prepositions.

E.g: there go one; put truck window; Adam make tower;

Eve lunch; where ball go; hear tractor. All of these are

called telegra[hic.

Children do not produce complex sentences until after they have mastered simple sentences.

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Children’s exposure

• If a child is not exposed to a natural language in infancy, he will not develop language; and furthermore, if for this reason he has no language, it is well-nigh impossible to tech it to him later in life.

• Exposure to language is essential to ‘trigger’ the innate language learning faculty, and apparently there is a critical time for this exposure in optimally, early in infancy, and certainly before puberty.

• A very characteristic form of mother-child interaction involves the child taking the lead in conversation. Usually ‘commentary’ on whatever, is going on at the time, and the mother is repeating the child’s utterances, correcting or expanding them by supplying words or morphemes which the child omits.

• Eg: Mummy make lunch (child)• Yes, Mummy’s making lunch (mother)

This mother’s response (in Psycholinguistics) is called reinforcement

English verbs are classified into two: strong/ irregular verbs (change the root vowel; eg. ride-rode) and weak/ regular verbs (preserve the vowel; eg. call-called).