![]() ![]() Other changes happen because of contact with speakers of other languages. Some changes happen because of slow (maybe incremental) changes within the language, such as in pronunciation or in the meaning of a word. Historical Linguistics is the study of how languages have changed over time. A classic example is where someone is asked "Do you want some coffee?" Does the reply "Coffee will keep me awake" mean yes or no? It depends whether the person wants to stay awake - and the questioner will only understand the intended meaning if they know whether the person wants to stay awake.Ĩ. Pragmatics looks more at the relationship between speaker and listener which allows assumptions to be made about the intended message, considering, for example, the way context contributes to meaning. Pragmatics is similar, but it involves the study of how speakers of a language use the language to communicate and accomplish what they want. It focuses on the relation between words, phrases and other bits of language and on how these words and phrase connect to the world. Discourse features can also show important principles of organization such as which players in a story have key roles and which just have bit parts.ħ. For example, "Once upon a time" is an appropriate start to a fairy tale, but not to a news story on the evening news. Different types of these use language differently, and there can even be differences in how a language is used based on the genre. A word is the smallest meaningful unit of a language that can stand on its own, and is made up of small components called morphemes and even smaller elements known as phonemes, or distinguishing sounds.Ħ.ĝiscourse analysis looks at bigger chunks of language - texts, conversations, stories, speeches, etc. Lexicology is the branch of linguistics that analyzes the lexicon of a specific language. For example, languages where the direct object generally follows the verb have a lot of things in common, in contrast to the things in common held by languages in which the direct object generally precedes the verb.ĥ. There are common patterns among even unrelated languages, and many linguists believe this is the result of general principles which apply to most, if not all, languages. ![]() Such rules involve both the order of words, and the form of words in their various possible positions. ![]() ![]() Writing a grammar requires defining the rules that govern the structure of the sentences of the language. Syntax is the study of how phrases, clauses and sentences are constructed and combined in particular languages. Morphology interacts in important ways with both phonology (bringing sounds together can cause them to change) and syntax, which needs to pay attention to the form of a word when it combines it with other words.Ĥ. Many languages have a much more complex way of putting words together. For example, the English word 'untied' is really made up of three parts, one referring to the process of reversing an action (un-), one indicating the action of twisting string like things together so they stay (tie), and the last indicating that the action happened in the past (-d). Morphology looks at how individual words are formed from smaller chunks of meaningful units called morphemes. They are also interested in syllables, phrases, rhythm, tone, and intonation.ģ. Phonologists describe the contrastive consonants and vowels in a language, and how pronunciation is affected by the position of the sound in the word and the sounds that are nearby. They could never make a meaning difference in words that differ by only that sound. But in some languages, and are variations of the same sound. For example in English, and are two different sounds - and the words "road" and "load" differ according to which of these sounds is used. In phonology, it matters whether sounds are contrastive or not, that is, whether substituting one sound for another gives a different, or "contrastive," meaning. Phonology makes use of the phonetics in order to see how sounds or signs are arranged in a system for each language. The wave form of each sound can be analysed with the help of computer programs.Ģ. A study of phonetics involves practicing producing sounds, and figuring out which sound you heard. It includes understanding how sounds are made using the mouth, nose, teeth and tongue, and also understanding how the ear hears those sounds and can tell them apart. Phonetics is the study of the sounds of speech. ![]()
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