U1 AOS 1 - Nature and Functions of Language

List the mnemonic for the subsystems (in ascending order)

Please Make Linguistics Students Do proper Study

List the subsystems in ascending order

Phonetics and phonology, morphology, lexicology, syntax, discourse and pragmatics, semantics

What is the subsystem of Morphology?

• The study of words and their parts. Each word consists of one or more morphemes, Morphemes are the smallest unit of linguistic meaning or function.

• Etymology is included in this subsystem (pre-fixes, suffixes etc)

What is the subsystem of Lexicology?

• The study of words - their form, their meaning and how they behave within language

• lexeme is a unit of meaning in a language, typically one word.

• ‘the study of vocabulary’

What are auxiliary verbs?

• Supports the main verb of a sentence

• The three primary auxiliary verbs: ‘be’, ‘have’ and ‘do’

• Primary auxiliary show aspects of tense, time or voice (was/were, had, did, am/are/is, have/has, do/does, will be, will have, will do')

What are modal verbs?

• Used to express the possibility, ability, intent, obligation or necessity of an action occurring.

• Modal auxiliary verbs express the possibility, ability, intent, obligation or necessity of an action occurring. They modifity verbs to change their mode (the state in which they exist)

• can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might, must, ought

What are adverbs?

• Helps to describe, modify, or quality a verb, adjective, other adverb or whole phrase or clause. Expresses elements such a as time, place, manner, circumstance, cause and degree.

What is a determiner?

Is placed in front of a noun and helps to describe the noun. It can specify definiteness, quantity and possession.

What is the subsystem of syntax?

• The study of how words are combined into structure that communicate meaning - phrases, clauses and sentences

• Includes grammar and punctuation

What is a phrase?

• A group of one or more words that, together, from a single structural unit that convesy meaning. It does not contain both a subject and a verb. The type of phrase (noun phrase, very phrase etc.) is named after the word class category of the word that is the most important within the phrase

What is a clause?

• A set of words that must contain both a main noun phrase (the subject) and a main verb (part of the predicate). The predicate describes the action of the subject.

What are the 5 sentence structures?

• Simple, compound, complex, compound-complex, fragment

What is the semantics subsystem?

• The study of meaning - both logical meaning and lexical (dictionary) meaning; the study of understanding and meaning-making when we consider words, phrases, sentences and texts as a whole

• Includes all subsystems preceding it

What is the subsystem of Phonetics and Phonology?

• Phonetics: Phonetics is the study and classifications of the speech sounds occurring in language.

• Phonology studies the way in which the speakers of a particular language systematically use a selection of these speech sounds to express meaning.

What is the subsystem of Discourse and Pragmatics?

• Discouse: Written or spoken texts that are longer than a sentence. DISCOURSE analysis is the study of how speakers use language to structure and communicate meaning.

• Pragmatics: The study of how language is used within a given context, and how context contributes to meaning

• It involves studying speaker/writer intention as well as listener/reader interpretation based on situational and cultural contexts, the other speech or writing it is situated with, and any background knowledge that it relies upon.

What are inflectional affixes?

• Bound morphemes that attach grammatical properties to a word, such as tense (in verbs) number (in nouns), or possession (in nouns and pronouns). Inflectional affixes don’t affect the fundamental meaning or form of the root word

• Can show grammar tense, possession, comparison, plural number

What are derivational affixes?

• Creates or derives a new word from the root or stem that it is attached to.

• Change the meaning of the word class (e.g. noun to adjective, or from base to comparative to superlative)

What are interrogative pronouns?

• Used to introduce a quesiton

• Include ‘what’, ‘which’, ‘who’, ‘whom’ and ‘whose

• (e.g. WHO are you?, WHICH would you like?)

What are relative pronouns?

• Helps to introduce a relative clause within a larger sentence by relating that clause to the noun that it modifies.

• Include the terms ‘which’, ‘what’, ‘who’, ‘whom’, ‘whose’ and ‘that’ (e.g. the man WHO stole the bicycle was arrested. She’ll wait for the train THAT stops her at her station)

What are demonstrative pronouns?

• Refers to a particular place, person or thing. Replaces the entire noun or noun phrase it represents

• E.g. Do you see the potato cake he’s holding? I gave him THAT. I need to do THIS

What are the 4 forms that verbs can take?

simple, progressive, perfect progressive, and perfect

What are infinitives?

• The infinitive form of a verb allows the verb to be used as a noun, an adjective or an adverb.

• Generally formed by adding the word ‘to’ before the base form of the verb.

• Often used to discuss actions that haven’t actually occurred yet.

• E.g. I want TO GO and eat potato cakes. TO boldly GO where no man has gone before.

What are determiners?

• A word that’s placed in front of a noun that helps to clarify the noun, specify quantity or indicate possession

• can be defined as belonging to one of four categories: articles (the, a, an), quantifiers (all, a lot, many, most, much, some, several, few, a couple, one, none), demonstratives (this, that, these, those) and possessives (my, your, her, his, its, our, their)

What are clauses (more in depth)

• A clause is a set of phrases that must, as a minimum, contain both a subject and a predicate (there needs to be a main verb, the predicator and an noun phrase, the subject that acts up on that verb)

• Clauses can also contain objects, complements, and adverbials

• Can form complete sentences (independent clauses) or part of a sentence (dependent clauses) → subordinators link these two togheter

What is a simple sentence?

One independent clause (consisting of a subject and predicate)

What is a compound sentence?

Two or more independent clauses joined by coordinators.

What are complex sentences?

One independent clause and one or more dependent clauses joined by subordinators.

What are compound-complex sentences?

At least three clauses, where there are at least two independent and at least one dependent clause.

Fragment

No complete clauses (missing either the subject or the predicate)

What is ‘3-Sentence Cap Rule’ structure for analytical commentary introductions (instead of the formulaic MRSCATFA)?

Sentence 1: Context:

• The [mode + text type] between [participants] targets [audience].

Sentence 2: Register/Tenor:

• The predominantly [formal/informal/hybrid] register constructs a [relationship dynamic].

Sentence 3: Purpose:

• This supports the text’s primary purpose of [entertaining/persuading/informing] by positioning the audience as [effect].

What are examples of the AC introduction that follow the ‘3-Sentence Cap’ rule?

1) The spoken interaction between the hosts on the Alpha Blokes podcast targets a young Australian male audience. The highly informal register constructs a mateship dynamic between speakers and listeners. This supports the program’s entertaining purpose by positioning the audience as insiders within the discussion.

2) The spoken interaction between the hosts on the Alpha Blokes podcast targets a young Australian male audience. The highly informal register constructs a mateship dynamic between speakers and listeners. This supports the program’s entertaining purpose by positioning the audience as insiders within the discussion.

3) Constructing a mateship dynamic between hosts and listeners, the Alpha Blokes podcast relies on a highly informal spoken register. This colloquial interaction targets a young Australian male audience and supports the program’s primarily entertaining purpose.

What is the acronym for syntactic patterning?

PAL

Features of syntactic patterning?

• Parallelism

• Antithesis

• Listing

What is syntactic patterning?

• Often employed by authors to support a function or purpose, allowing them to create rhythmic and memorable pieces of texts.

• Syntactic patterns serve to draw readers’ or listeners’ attention to a component of a text in a way that reinforces meaning and understanding.

• Syntactic patterning consists of parallelism, antithesis and listing. (PAL)

Diagram for syntactic patterning

What is parallelism?

• The repetition of grammatical structures two or more times in succession.

• Examples:

  More taxes, more debt, more dishonesty

  = adjective + noun repeated structure

  work hard, stay focused

  = verb + adjective repeated structure

• Example Analysis:

  The parallelism serves an emotive function as it allows the negatively connoted nouns ‘taxes’, ‘debt’ and ‘dishonesty’ to gain prominence. This in turn aids the text’s purpose of dissuading voters for the opposition party in the upcoming federal election.

What is antithesis?

• A rhetorical (persuasive) device that presents two contrasting ideas near one another, often in parallel structures. Antithesis is used to create a balance between opposing ideas and to emphasis the contrast.

• Antithetical phrases can use antonymy (use of opposites), irony, contrast in scale or other means to juxtapose ideas.

What is listing?

• Used to present a series of related ideas, items or elements, usually in a similar grammatical form. Words, phrases or clauses in a list are often introduced by a colon.

• Can provide clarity by separating elements into a simple format, to create a rhythm in language and to emphasise a point or build an argument.

• Three types: Tripartite, Extensive, Parallelism

  • Tripartite listing: (or power-of-three lists) are the strongest type of list. It is said to originate from the latin ‘Veni, Vidi, Vici’, or ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’.

    • EXAMPLE: I’m the better candidate for this job because I am clean, organised and have excellent customer service.

      The tripartite list was used to form strength of argument in persuading the audience of the positive qualities deemed important for candidates for the job position.

  • Extensive listing: is where more than three components are included in a list. As there are many components, it draws the audience’s attention to the number of components, rather than the components themselves.

    • Before exam week, I need to make sure I’ve finished all my homework, catch up on re-scheduled tasks, take care of my little brother this weekend when he goes to soccer practice, cook for my entire family as I’m the best cook in the house, and adequately revise for all of my exams.

      • The extensive list draws attention to the abundance of tasks required to be completed by the participant leading up to exam week, conveying they are stressed and time poor. This may have been used to express their doubt in completing all tasks, or could have been used to persuade the audience to assist with the tasks as there are numerous.

• Examples:

  I need to buy pies, cakes, hot dogs and sausage rolls. ( = enhance clarity)

  There are three reasons why this policy should be implemented: reducing costs, increasing efficiency and improving morale. (= places emphasis on each reason to support an argument or explanation.

  The room was filled with objects of all sorts: old books with torn covers, vintage furniture coated in dust, faded photographs and a clock that had stopped ticking long ago. ( = creates rhythm in a narrative or descriptive text).

What are phrases?

• A phrase is a single word or group of words that are related to each other and form a single unit of meaning

• A phrase does NOT contain both a subject and a verb

What is a noun phrase?

• A noun phrase is a group of one or more words that contains a noun as the head of the phrase as well as modifiers to the noun.

• The modifiers can come before or after the noun

Modifiers = articles (a/the), adjectives (blue, silly, etc.)

• E.g: a goat

  the laughing goat

  Bob’s short spotted fainting goat

  the goat who was free and happy

What is a verb phrase?

• A verb phrase consists of a main verb and any modifiers

• Modifiers = auxiliaries, infinitives, adverbs, adverb phrases, etc.

• E.g: prance

  was prancing

  pranced happily

  might have pranced clumsily

What is an adjective phrase?

• An adjective phrase consists of an adjective at its head and may include modifiers to that adjective

• Modifiers = other adjectives or adverbs

• E.g.: The very very happy goat

  I want a crazy spotted miniature goat

  That fluffy goat is my favourite.

An old grandpa goat

What is an adverb phrase?

• An adverb phrase consists of an adverb as its head and may include modifiers.

• Adverb phrases describe elements such as time, place, manner, frequency and degree (the same as adverbs do); may modify verbs.

• E.g: The goat frolicked very quickly.

  He frequently eats the washing.

  Mr Goat slept soundly, .

What is a prepositional phrase?

• A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition and a noun phrase that is considered to be its object.

• The preposition MUST come before the noun phrase in a prepositional phrase.

• E.g: The goat dashed through the barn, leaping over the roof, scattering feed across the floor, and grabbing pyjamas off the line, while the farmer chased it around the yard.

• Common prepositions:

What are the types of phrases?

• Noun

• Verb

• Adjective

• Adverb

• Prepositional

Sentences vs Phrases?

Sentences can convey thoughts, ideas and statements of fact, etc.

A sentence must contain at least one independent clause.

A sentence can include multiple clauses.

VS

A phrase is a single word or group of words that are related to each other.

A phrase does not contain both a subject and a predicate (= the main verb of a clause and all of its modifiers)

A clause must have both a ___ and a ___

subject, predicate

What are the elements of a clause?

• Subject

• Object

• Predicate

• Complement

• Adverbial

What is the subject?

• Is the main actor of the clause; subjects are typically noun phrases.

• e.g. The cheeky goat jumped joyfully over the giant boulder.

What is the predicate?

• Consists of the main verb of a clause and all of its modifiers and because of this…

  a predicate may include other dependent clauses.

  • e.g. I will share my delicious birthday cake with the class, unless anyone is allergic to eggs.

  • Dorothea, Daisy and Drake should study very hard before the exam on Tuesday.

    I am confident about the test if it was like the practice one!

    Because it was a warm night, my husband and I walked the dog after dinner.

• The cheeky goat will jump.

  The cheeky goat has jumped.

  The cheeky goat is going to jump.

• To analyse a predicate, it is helpful to split it into:

  The predicator

  The rest of the predicate

  The predicator is the verb and its modifiers.

  e.g. The cheeky goat will jump joyfully over the giant boulder.

  The rest of the predicate contains any objects, complements or adverbials.

  e.g. The cheeky goat will jump joyfully over the giant boulder.

What is the object?

Like subjects, objects are also most often composed of noun phrases. However, where subjects come before verbs and are the doer of the action of a verb, objects usually come after the predicate and are the receiver of that action. Such differing distribution can be seen in the underlined aspects of our previous examples:

What is an adverbial?

• An adverbial clause is a group of words that work together in order to function as an adverb. Adverbials are optional clause elements

• Types include

  - place - probability

  - time - comparative

  - manner - superlative

  - degree

• Notice how adverbials can be prepositional phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases. Notice how the adverbial can be removed and it is still a complete sentence.

What is the complement?

• A complement is a word or set of words that is necessary to complete the meaning of a subject or predicate.

• They must appear directly after any verbs or phrase that describes.

• Examples of describing verbs: to be, feel, appear, seem, grow, find, become

• Note: only a subject + predicate is required BUT where there is a describing verb, a complement is also necessary to complete the clause.

• Can be subject or object complement

• easily recognised provided we understand their function and their form. While adverbials most commonly provide

  additional (optional) information about a verb using adverbs, complements instead most commonly use adjectives to

  modify the subject or object of a given expression.

Adverbial vs Complement

An adverbial can be removed and the clause will still make sense!

What are purposes and intents?

• Purposes and intents are what the author aims to do or achieve with a text.

• The P&I may be closely linked with the function

What are some common purposes and intents?

• Building rapport

  • To form positive and harmonious relationships; create mutual understanding, trust and connection; show respect.

  • if analysing rapport, must state WHO they aim to build rapport with

• POSITIVE POLITENESS

  • Relates to self-image and need to be liked, admired, respected and appreciated by others; linked with intimacy, in-group, equality, solidarity, and rapport.

  • supporting aims to build rapport is often politeness. Politeness strategies can be an author’s intent in order to achieve a greater aim of the text

  • Metalanguage: politeness markers (e.g. thank you), compliments, formal vocatives/honorifics (e.g. madam, doctor)

• NEGATIVE POLITENESS

  • Strategies that aim to communicate in a manner that does not directly challenge or impose upon the audience, while showing respect for their autonomy.

  • Metalanguage: discourse particles, hedging modal verbs (hedges → discourse’ particle), politeness markers (e.g. please)

• REDUCING SOCIAL DISTANCE

  • If you are aiming to increase intimacy, reduce social distance, you are more likely to use informal language

• Reinforcing social distance

  • If you are socially distant, you are more likely to use formal language; opposite of intimacy.

• Establishing expertise:

  • Demonstrating knowledge, credibility, and authority on a subject or in a particular field; builds trust via demonstrated knowledge.

  • Jargon, Declaratives (to provide info)

  • if analysing expertise, must state WHAT they are building expertise in (e.g. medical, educational, interior design)

• Authority:

  • Process of strengthening position of power, control or influence; reinforces hierarchy.

  • Modal verbs

• CLARIFYING

  • Ensuring clear communication; to be specific, precise and accurate; removes ambiguity.

  • declaratives, simple syntax

• SUPPORTING IN-GROUP

  • Language that promotes membership to a particular group; fosters belonging and togetherness.

  • slang, colloquialisms, hypocoristic, suffixation, jargon

  • One way to know if the aim is to create an ‘in group’ is to consider – who would be the outgroup? is an outgroup created. Slang is an example of a feature that aids this.

• Solidarity:

  • A sense of unity or shared purpose within a group of people.

  • inclusive pronouns e.g. first-person plural ‘we’ or ‘us’

• NEGOTIATING SOCIAL TABOOS

  • Navigating topics that are sensitive, controversial or offensive.

  • euphemisms, politeness markers

How to analyse P&I?

1) As you read the text, identify some purposes & intents:

• Do you see any of the common ones we’ve just listed? AND/OR

• Ask yourself: why does this text even exist? what is the author aiming to achieve?)

2) What language feature helps to achieve that identified P&I? (WHAT)

• This MUST be from the Eng Lang study design. If you can’t describe it with metalanguage from our list, don’t analyse it!

3) Describe how your chosen language works; its effect! (HOW)

4)Explain why the author would use that feature; link to the P&I you identified (WHY)