FIVE LEVELS OF LANGUAGE

FIVE LEVELS OF LANGUAGE STUDY

BASED ON

Fromkin and Rodman's

An Introduction to Language

I.

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

The music of language is contained in the system of sounds which the human mouth is able to sing or say. Spoken language has a body and a breath to it. The set of possible human sounds (as used in the 3-5,000 languages) can be represented in print by the forty-six units of the international phonetic alphabet (IPA). However, each language has peculiar dialects (subsystems of sounds) and each individual voice can be recognized as a unique expression of the possible phonemes.

PHONEME: the units of sound recognized by speakers of a particular language as distinctive (English uses 44 of the 46 units of the IPA)

NATURAL CLASSES OF PHONEMES:

consonants: nasal, voiced, labial, sibilant, etc.

vowels: high, low, back, rounded, tense, etc.

PROSODIC PHONOLOGY: intonation, word stress, phrase and sentence stress (see Prosody under Techniques of Literary Analysis)

PHONOLOGICAL RULES:

II.

MORPHOLOGY

Word building is done in each language from an assortment of syllables (groups of one or more phonemes). For the most part, the roots of words carry the basic denotation and the affixes (pre-, in-, and suf- fixes) express variations, both semantic and syntactic.

MORPHEME: the basic unit of word construction, lexical or grammatical

COMPOUND: a word with two or more roots

PREFIX:

ROOT: a lexical morpheme

INFIX: (not a feature of English)

SUFFIX:

MORPHOLOGICAL RULES:

III.

SYNTAX

We put words together into sentences according to the rules of syntax, what most people mean by the word grammar. This small number of rules is learned in early childhood and results in a small array of possible sentence patterns (see The Patterns of the Sentence). Syntax is the primary level of creativity in speaking and writing because from those few patterns of phrase and sentence an infinite number of sentences can be generated.

NOUN PHRASE:

VERB PHRASE:

SENTENCE:

RULES OF SYNTAX

IV.

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Each unit of language generally has a form that governs the whole. This piece of writing is a web page, a piece of instruction in expository prose. Just a minute ago, I was interrupted by a telephone conversation, a special form of speaking dependent on the technology and governed by certain expectations of form and content. All the literary genres are kinds of discourse units in the literary sphere of culture (see Genre in Techniques of Literary Analysis).

GENRE

FORM

STRUCTURE

V.

SEMANTICS

All of the above levels of language are capable of conveying feelings and ideas. The study of the meaning of language is the province of semantics. The individual phoneme in a given language can have a broad or narrow array of feelings or tones associated with it. Morphemes are the most elementary units of language with lexical potential. Words obviously fill the dictionary with denotations and connotations. The discourse unit spreads an array of expectations and experiences which accumulate to a dynamic force.

SEME: the unit of meaning, however small or large

WORD MEANING: connotation and denotation, ambiguity, homonyms and antonyms, synonymy

PHRASE AND SENTENCE MEANING:

PRAGMATICS:

I. PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY	The music of language is contained in the system of sounds which the human mouth is able to sing or say. Spoken language has a body and a breath to it. The set of possible human sounds (as used in the 3-5,000 languages) can be represented in print by the forty-six units of the international phonetic alphabet (IPA). However, each language has peculiar dialects (subsystems of sounds) and each individual voice can be recognized as a unique expression of the possible phonemes.
	PHONEME: the units of sound recognized by speakers of a particular language as distinctive (English uses 44 of the 46 units of the IPA)
	NATURAL CLASSES OF PHONEMES: consonants: nasal, voiced, labial, sibilant, etc. vowels: high, low, back, rounded, tense, etc.
	PROSODIC PHONOLOGY: intonation, word stress, phrase and sentence stress (see Prosody under Techniques of Literary Analysis)
	PHONOLOGICAL RULES:

II. MORPHOLOGY	Word building is done in each language from an assortment of syllables (groups of one or more phonemes). For the most part, the roots of words carry the basic denotation and the affixes (pre-, in-, and suf- fixes) express variations, both semantic and syntactic.
	MORPHEME: the basic unit of word construction, lexical or grammatical
	COMPOUND: a word with two or more roots
	PREFIX:
	ROOT: a lexical morpheme
	INFIX: (not a feature of English)
	SUFFIX:
	MORPHOLOGICAL RULES:

III. SYNTAX	We put words together into sentences according to the rules of syntax, what most people mean by the word grammar. This small number of rules is learned in early childhood and results in a small array of possible sentence patterns (see The Patterns of the Sentence). Syntax is the primary level of creativity in speaking and writing because from those few patterns of phrase and sentence an infinite number of sentences can be generated.
	NOUN PHRASE:
	VERB PHRASE:
	SENTENCE:
	RULES OF SYNTAX

IV. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS	Each unit of language generally has a form that governs the whole. This piece of writing is a web page, a piece of instruction in expository prose. Just a minute ago, I was interrupted by a telephone conversation, a special form of speaking dependent on the technology and governed by certain expectations of form and content. All the literary genres are kinds of discourse units in the literary sphere of culture (see Genre in Techniques of Literary Analysis).
	GENRE
	FORM
	STRUCTURE

V. SEMANTICS	All of the above levels of language are capable of conveying feelings and ideas. The study of the meaning of language is the province of semantics. The individual phoneme in a given language can have a broad or narrow array of feelings or tones associated with it. Morphemes are the most elementary units of language with lexical potential. Words obviously fill the dictionary with denotations and connotations. The discourse unit spreads an array of expectations and experiences which accumulate to a dynamic force.
	SEME: the unit of meaning, however small or large
	WORD MEANING: connotation and denotation, ambiguity, homonyms and antonyms, synonymy
	PHRASE AND SENTENCE MEANING:
	PRAGMATICS: