STEOP: Introduction to English Linguistics

WS25

semiotics

study of signs

phonetics

study of speech sounds

phonology

study of speech sounds/sounde systems in a language

morphology

study of word structure & formation

syntax

study of structural units larger than words / sentence formation

semantics

study of word and sentence meaning

pragmatics

study of meaning in context

descriptive

• neutrally

• describe how a language is used

• no value judgement

  • includes formal/informal, appropriate/inappropriate etc.

prescriptive

• normatively tell how a language is used

• right or wrong

diachronic

study of language over time

synchronic

study of language at one point of time

langue

language as an abstract system, theoretical language competence

parole

language in actual speech event (used in a concrete situation by an individual), actual langauge competence

2 sides of a sign

form & meaning

icon

• resamblance

index

• causal link (form → meaning)

symbol

• completely arbitrary

• no link

signifier

form

signified

meaning

Ferdinand de Saussure

language is a system of signs, signifier & signified

features of human language

• reflexivity

• displacement

• arbitrariness

• productivity

• cultural transmission

• duality/double articulation

• recursion/embedding

onomatopoeia

word resembles the sound

signs in language are …

arbitrary but conventialised

reflxivity

being able to talk about the language itself

displacement

being able to adress things not here and now

arbitrariness

symbolic relationship between signifier and signiefied (no form-meaning relation of words)

productivity

being able to create infinite phrases from finite set of elements

cultural transmission

being able to pass on language skills between each other → language is learned

duality

meaningless building blocks can form a meaningful structure

recursion/embedding

being able to endlessly embed statements into each other 

morpheme

samllest meaningful unit in a language

3 criteria for morphemes

• autonomy

• function/meaning

• position

autonomy

• free → can appear without a base

• bound → can only appear with a base (with other morphemes)

function

• lexical

• grammatical

lexical morphemes

• talk about the world (relation between word and world)

• open class → new words can be created easily

• free: content words

• bound: derivational morphemes

grammatical morphemes

• tell how lexical morphemes are related

  • establish relations in a sentence

• closed class → can’t add new items

• free: function words

• bound: inflectional morphemes

open classes

Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs

closed classes

Prepositions, conjunctions,pronouns, determiners, numerals

position

• only for bound morphemes

• start of word/in front of base: prefix

  • must be lexical

• end of word/after base: suffix

  • lexical or grammatical

circumfix

affix before and after base

infix

inserted in the base

inflection

• gramamtical information expresed by affixes

• only suffixes

• stable-form meaning relationship

  • more information about current lexeme

• never change word class

derivation

• can change word class

• variable form-meaning relationship

  • creates new lexeme (new dictionary entry) #

unique morphemes

can only be found in one word (e.g. cranberry) → no meaning or grammatical function

semiotic triangle

• symbol (linguistic form)

• mental concept (thought)

• referent (real object)

→ meaning is the relation between form and concept

language internal

• sense

• denotation

• intension

language external

• reference

• connotation

• extension

sense

conditions a thing needs to meet to be appropriate for a word/meaning as relation to other linguistic expressions

reference

the actual object picked out in particular phrase or word in use/meaning as (direct) relation to real world objects (between lingusitic sign and referent)

intention 

equivalent to sense, used within linguistic theories (langue)

denotation

conceptual general meaning

connotation

meaning as associations with a word

semantic feature analysis

• requirements sth. has to meet to be a certain thing → features of a category are listed

• harsh line of definition

• works good to compare things

family resamblance

• Pairs of the same family share resemblance - different pairs have different features

• category is not organized as a definition - more like a concept

• allows gradiness

prototype theory

• members of a category are graded according their typicality → central members share many features

• agreement among speakers that there is a prototypical "thing

• allow gradiness

extension

the actual entity that satisfy the intension in theory

syntagmatic

words that occur together

paradigmatic

words that occur instead of each other

synonym

different form, same meaning

synonymy

• words have the same meaning

• not always interchangeable

polysemy

• multi meaning word

• one form has related meaning

Homonymy

• acidental form resamblance

• one form has multiple unrelated meanings

Antonomy

opposite meaning

different types of opposites

• gradable antonyms (denying one /=/ the other one)

• complementaries (true or false, non gradable)

• reversives (meanings undo each other)

• converses (2 sides of the same situation)

Hyponomy

• structure of concepts

• a kind of - relationship

• Hyponym = lover level

• Hyperonym = higher level

Meronomy

• part-whole relations

• about physical relations

collocations

• word partnership

• words frequently occuring together

• subtype colligation: lexical item + grammatical item (looking forward to + ing)

compositionality

The meaning of a whole (=phrase, sentence) is determined by the meanings of its component parts (=words, morphemes) and the way they are combined

semantic roles

• relations between verbs and arguments

agent

entity performing an action voluntarily

patient/theme

undergoing an action, is affected by action

beneficiary/recipient

element that “receives” the consequences of the action

force/natural cause

non-animate which performs action mindlessly

experiencer

goes through an experience, receives sensory or emotional input

predicate

• word that indicates the action

• usually verb

• determines number of argument sand their semantic role

subject

• words that indicate the independent entities

• usually nouns

predication

linking of arguments to their predicate

semantic meaning

what is directly meant (meaning of words)

pragmatic meaning

what is implied by the speaker

proposition

description of a state of affairs

truth value

wether proposition is true or false

meaning relations among sentences

• paraphrase

• entailment

• contradiction

paraphrase

• like synonymy

• 2 sentences have exactly the same meaning

entailment

• likehyponomy

• one sentence is logical consequence of another

• a entails b

contradiction

• like antonomy

• 2 sentences cannot be true simulataneously

• contradict each other

• a entailing the negation of b

idioms

meaning cannot be  deduced from meaning of the parts (= non compositionality)

ambiguity

• lexical: caused by different menaing of a word

• structural: caused by the way the words are combined

closed word classes

• no new members

• Determinatives, coordinators & subordinators, prepositions

open word classes

• new members

• nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs

criteria for classification of word classes

• semantic classification

• morphological calssification

• syntactic calssification

semantic classification

• classifying words by what they usually mean

• e.g. verbs → actions

morphological classification

• classifying words by their morphological apperance

• e.g. through affixes

syntactic classification

• classifiying words by the structures they appear in

• e.g wheree they appear in sentences, adjectives before nouns etc.

phrases

syntactic unit above the word level (chunks of words)

types of phrases

• determined by the head

• Noun phrases (NP)

• Verb Phrase (VP)

• Adjectival Phrases (AdjP)

• Prepositional Phrases (PP)

• Adverbial Phrases (AdvP)

constituents 

• units that make up a sentence

• show us hierarchy of words in a sentence

constituency tests

• substitution

• movement

• coordination

• gapping

• sentence fragmentation

substitution

• let a pro-form stnad in for the constituent

movement

• move the cunk of words around in the sentence

coordination

• use coordinators (and) to add another constituent