Linguistics (Meaning and Structure) - Week One

Chapters 1-2 Vocab, 11 Types of Words (Minor and Major parts of speech), Phrases

Linguistics

Systematically studying the form, meaning, and use of language

Finite Verbs

Verbs that display a passage of time.

Descriptivism

Describe language as it is not how to use it.

What should you ask when classifying a constituent?

Form, Function, Meaning ?

Form of a Constituent

What does it look like, does it have a particular ending?

Words can have one (up,the), two (kitten,kittens), or multiple (was, is, are, were) forms.

Function of a Constituent

What other constituents does it go with or not go with? Modifier or headword?

Meaning of a Constituent

Things in the word, things to do, direction, addition, comparison, identification.

Context is important: “Baby your baby with Johnson’s baby powder.”

Modifiers

Words that modify others and can be taken out without changing much meaning, typically adjective, adverbs, and their associated phrases.

Headwords

Words that cannot be taken out, without creating confusion, and are being modified

Open/Major Parts of Speech

Can be added to, Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs (NAAV)

Closed/Minor Parts of Speech

Very difficult to add to

Determiners, auxiliary verbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, negatives, interjections

Noun (N) Notable Properties (3)

1. Can be made plural

2. Noun making suffixes which include: -ness, -ity, -(at)ion, -ment

3. Can have the same tense when a determiner is added before

Noun Frame Test

(The) X seem(s) okay

ex: the activities seem okay, globalisation seems okay.

Verb (V) Notable Properties (6)

1. Can be in the 3rd person singular present tense (Ex: he dances)

2. Can be in the present tense with the present participle (usual suffix –ING). (Ex: We are dancing)

3. Can be in the past participle (usual suffix ‐ED or ‐EN). (Ex: She has danced.)

4. Can be the first (or only) word of a command.(Ex: Dance!)

5. Can be made negative.(Ex: He did not speak.)

6. Every sentence must contain a verb

Verb Frame Test

They must X (it)

Ex: They must dance, they must murder it

Adjective (Aj) Notable Properties (4)

1. Can be comparative (Ex: softer, older)

2. Can be superlative (ex: softest, oldest)

3. Adjective making suffixes: -y, -able, -ish, -ous, -less

4. Can be preceeded by very or so (ex: very soft, so old)

Adjective Frame Test

Can fit both slots of the frame: The X thing seems very X

Ex: The readable thing seems very readable.

Adverb (Av) Notable Properties (3)

1. Can be comparative (usual suffix –ER. or after more). (Ex: Faster, more cynically.)

2.  Can be superlative (usual suffix –EST, or after most). (Ex: Fastest, most cynically.)

3. Adverb‐making suffixes include ‐LY, ‐WISE, ‐WARD. (Ex: Quickly, cynically, lengthwise, backward, homeward)

Adverb Frame Test

The car drove X

Ex: The car drove quickly, The car drove away

The car drove X quickly

Ex: The car drove very quickly

Substitution Strategy

if you do not know what kind of part of speech is being used, or are stuck between multiple, substitute the word with another word in that category to see if it makes grammatical sense.

Phrases

A group of one or more words acting as a grammatical unit

A phrase must have a headword , and are named after their headword

Noun Phrases (NP) Properties (2)

1. Noun or Pronoun as a headword

2. Can have determiners, adjectives, or other nouns as modifiers. (ex:Subway ticket machine.  Although there’s three nouns, the first two modify the last)

Verb Phrase (VP) Properties (2)

1. Verb as a headword

2. Can have auxiliary verbs as modifiers

Adverb Phrase (AvP) Properties (2)

1. adverb as headword

2. can have adverbs as modifiers ( ex: very quickly)

Adjective Phrase (AjP) Properties (3)

1. Adjective as headword

2. Can have adverbs as modifiers (ex: really great)

3. Can sit within noun phrases

Prepositional Phrase (PP) Properties (3)

1. Noun is a headword because a preposition changes a noun phrase to a prepositional phrase since it becomes about the time or space (ex: near the happy bunny [PP] vs the happy bunny [NP])

2. The preposition typically precedes the noun phrase

3. Preposition is not the modifier or a headword

Genitive Phrase (GP) Properties (3)

1. Alters a noun phrase, noun is the headword

2. Used when using “‘s”, implying ownership

3. Can be replaced as a whole (ex: Glasgow’s parks vs the parks of Glasgow, I grabbed the policeman’s gun vs I grabbed his gun)

Notation

• Write the word class underneath the word 

• If a word is a head (H), modifier(M), or neither (x) above it 

• Put brackets around each phrase, to make it clear it’s a single unit, and put the phrase label underneath and to the left of the bracket.

FOREGROUNDING

 a strategy of making specific language features stand out to shift a reader's focus from what is said to how it is said. (literary syntactical techniques like parallelism, repetition, anaphora, etc)

GRAMMATICAL WORDS

the small words (a, an, the, to) which are used to uphold the structure of sentences, another way of describing closed parts of speech

ANALOGY

repeating an existing pattern (hamburger, cheeseburger, chickenburger), this can be used when adding new words to open classes

SEMANTICS

the study of meaning

PARALINGUISTIC FEATURES

gestures used to enhance meaning in spoken language (a nod, finger point, eyebrow raise)

REFERENT

The item which a word is referring to (ex: a picture of a horse is the referent to the word “horse”)

The photo is funny because the referent to “he” is not who you would think

CONCRETE NOUN

words that have obvious referents or ones that can clearly be pointed to (ex: girl, desk, book, paper, OR HORSE)

ABSTRACT NOUN

nouns that have more philosophical/ abstract referents that can hardly be pointed to (ex: tuesday, philosophy, happiness)

PROPER NOUN

 Refers to particular individuals, it is unlikely to be plural (Glasgow, James)

COMMON NOUN

 Refers to classes of items with similar characteristics (men, village), opposite of proper noun because it is general by nature rather than specific

COUNT NOUNS

Individual items which can be counted (one bottle, two bottle, three bottles)

MASS NOUNS

refers to wholes, something that is difficult to individually count (you can’t really say one milk, two milk, three milk, unless you’re really referring to one bottle of milk)

NON-GRADABLE ADJECTIVES

Adjectives that have an either/or quality, absolutes, usually come in pairs,  such as alive or dead, male or female

GRADABLE ADJECTIVES

adjectives which measure qualities on a scale of size, value, etc (young/old, good/bad)

can be modified by degree adverbs (very)

and can be made into superlatives (tallest) or comparatives (taller)

CIRCUMSTANCE ADVERBS

give more information about the action of the verb (manner, time, place, degree, etc)

ATTITUDE ADVERBS

 inform about the speaker’s opinion of the information, typically found at the beginning of sentences (fortunately, surely)

CONNECTIVE ADVERBS

form a link between pieces of discourse (so, therefore, yet, too, also, or sequence adverbs such as firstly, secondly, finally)

Determiner (d) Properties (4)

1. Works similarly to an adjective, as in they make nouns more specific.

2.  Must sit before a noun, cannot stand on their own.

3. Unlike adjectives, they CANNOT be comparative (big, biggest vs. some, somest) and cannot be stacked (the big beautiful cat vs. those his cat)

4. If a phrase has both a determiner and an adjective, the determiner goes first. (d > Aj > N [his old bicycle])

types of determiners: definite and indefinite articles, demonstratives, possessive adjectives, enumerators

Definite Article (d)

Type of determiner that shows you are speaking about something specific (note the difference between demonstratives)

ex: the cat, the person

Indefinite Article (d)

a type of determiner that comes before a singular noun to show that it is general or not specific

ex: a book, an insect

Demonstratives (d)

A type of determiner that relates to a specific thing while ALSO giving acknowledging spacial or contextual properties

ex: this, that, those, these

Possessive Adjectives (d)

Although it says adjectives, these are functionally considered determiners and they display a noun’s ownership

ex: my, your, his

Enumerators (d)

indicate definite quantities, but note that some enumerators are considered nouns (such as he took the first vs he took the first seat)

ex:  fifth, twentieth, fourth, first

Indicate indefinite quantities:

ex: some, any, no, all

Auxiliary Verb (a) Properties (2)

1. Used to make complex verb forms

2. can be made negative

ex: he could have been hiding

types: primary and modal auxiliaries

Primary Auxiliaries (a)

a type of auxiliary verb that shows grammar function and tense, and they change form (conjugate) for person and past/present. They can also function as main verbs

ex: be, have, do, is

Modal Auxiliaries (a)

a type of auxiliary verb that expresses speaker attitude or modality—such as ability, permission, possibility, or obligation

ex: can, may, must, shall, would

Pronouns (pn) Property (1)

1. Pronouns are used to replace nouns, typically to avoid repetition

types of pronouns: Personal, Possessive, Reflexive, Indefinite, Relative, Interrogative

Personal Pronouns (pn)

a pronoun used to avoid repeating names

ex: me, you, he, him, she, her, it

Possessive Pronoun (pn)

a pronoun used to show ownership or belonging

ex: his, hers, mine, theirs

Reflexive Pronoun (pn):

a pronoun ending in "-self" or "-selves" used when the subject and the object of a sentence are the same person or thing

ex: myself, yourself

Indefinite Pronoun (pn)

a pronoun that refers to a person, place, or thing in a general or non-specific way

ex: someone, anyone, one, all

Relative Pronoun (pn)

a word used to connect a dependent clause to a main clause, giving more information about a noun

ex: who, whom, whose, which (“the teacher who failed me”)

Interrogative Pronoun (pn)

a pronoun used to ask a question by replacing an unknown noun

ex: why?, where?, what?, who? (“Who was the teacher that failed you?”, “Which class was it?”)

Preposition (pr) Properties (2)

1. Give orientation in space and time

2. Typically combined with determiners and nouns

ex: in, on, at, to, by, for, of, from, round, below, above

Conjunction (c) Property (1)

1. A link between grammatical units

ex: and, but, or, if, that, where, when, although, because

Interjection (i) Properties (2)

1. Used to attract attention, emphasis, or emotion.

2. Proper names that are used like interjections are often called vocatives. (Be quiet, Susan.)

(Bonus - Used to be called ejaculations because they burst forth)

ex: hello, yes, oh, och aye, oh dear, ugh, tut tut

Negative (n) Property (1)

1. Used to turn a verb negative

ex: not (“She is not passing her linguistics exam)