Introduction
Human language is diverse, and each has a complexity regarding knowledge and abilities that enable speakers to communicate with one another in a viable manner. It helps to the express ideas, emotions, anger and many other things that get expressed through this medium. Researchers have aimed to study this possibility, and have conducted studies through a discipline called linguistics. Linguistics is the scientific study of the knowledge systems of language regarding their structure and their ability to change over time. It does not stop there, though; it goes ahead to study the whole nature of language. It is curious to know the properties that all languages have in common, how they differ, and to what degree these differences are systematic. For example, trying to find patterns in the differences of certain languages. Linguistics wants to know how children can understand a particular type of language in such a short time and on a broader look, the cognitive processes involved in trying to understand and produce language.
In everyday life, people encounter linguistics in everything, whether they are singing, operating a voice recognition software, helping an older adult to cross the road or many other things that humans can do. This is so because linguistics has intellectual networks that overlap to other disciplines like philosophy, physics, i.e., in acoustics, biology in the human anatomy and many others. One would be forgiven to think that linguists are just polyglots or grammarians. If in fact, the science of linguistics does not depend on this but on pure research. Linguists apply the viable scientific methods through observations, testing the hypotheses available and coming up with theories that could help in the study. To achieve that, there has to be a subdivision of the studies which involves the features of linguistics. They include phonetics and phonology which deal with sounds, morphology, and syntax which comprise the structure of words and sentences and finally semantics and pragmatics; a study that involves meaning and language in context. This paper is set to analyze four of the features with in-depth examples and explanations.
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Morpho-Syntactic Analysis
Morphology
Morphology could be said to be concerned with the arrangement and relationship of the smallest meaningful units of language. It is a branch of linguistics that deals with the study of words. Since it deals with words, it is important to note that it defines them as the smallest units of a language. In this regard, words classify into two; independent/content and dependent/function words.
Content and function words
Content words are those that can make meaning on their own unlike functional which depend on content words to be meaningful i.e. ‘The bosses are here.’ (‘Boss’-content and ‘es’-function). Content words can also change position in a sentence and still make sense Unlike function words i.e. ‘The bosses are here’ and ‘Here are the bosses.’ Words are called the smallest units of language since they are the only structures that can move around in a sentence. Nouns, adjectives and verbs fall under content words since they carry meaning and are devoid of the grammatical function while prepositions, articles pronouns, conjunctions fall under function words for they serve to tie words together in a grammatical sense i.e. ‘Susan and Mom.’
Roots, Derivational and Inflectional morphemes
Words have an internal structure that is made up of even smaller units. These are called morphemes and are the fundamentals of morphology. In a word structure, morphemes are represented by two types of words; simple and complex words. Simple words lack an internal structure and so have only one morpheme e.g. run, squat, etc. while complex words have an internal structure which means they contain more than one morpheme e.g. buildings. In this case, affix ‘–ing’ is added to the root word build to create a noun. Morphemes are of different types:
Roots
A root is a word that can no longer be analyzable any further using the affixation form of word creation. Meaning that after removing all affixes, the remaining part of the word becomes the root. For example in the word ‘electricity,' the root is ‘elect.' The word ‘untouchables’ will leave the root as ‘touch’ after removing all affixes.
Derivational morphemes
Derivational morphemes play the role of creating new words. If a morpheme is added to a word and can change the meaning or part of speech of that word, then that morpheme can be referred to as derivational. For example, ‘Knight’ is a verb but when ‘hood’ is added to it, the resulting word ‘knighthood’ becomes a noun containing a different meaning. The word ‘wind’ is a verb, but when the prefix ‘un’ is added to it, it forms the word ‘untie’ which remains a verb but with a different meaning.
Inflectional morphemes
These morphemes create various forms of the same word. Meaning that they make up new words but do not necessarily change the meaning of those words i.e. the word ‘run’ can be modified into many new words at the hands of inflectional morphemes. For example, run, runs, runner, running and so forth.
Bound and free morphemes
Morphemes are two types, and this classification is because of their freedom of occurrence. These two kinds are bound and free morphemes. Bound morphemes cannot make meaning or appear in a sentence on their own. If this happens, then they would not make any sense for example, ‘s’ has to appear alongside ‘cat’ for it to give meaning. Free morphemes have the luxury of making sense on their own for example cat, horse, elect, etc.
Morphemes in English and other languages
Morphemes in English are quite straightforward, and the structural uniqueness they have is different from other languages. There are more than 7000 languages on earth, with English as one of them. An indication that structural distinctions vary across all the languages except for a few comparisons in their different structures. The process of affixation and also varies, for example, in English, affixes come at the beginning and end of words, but this is different in some languages like Italian which have infixation, e.g. ‘fin-i-ste’ meaning ‘You finished.' Case indicates the role of a noun in a sentence, and this varies across the languages too. In English, a noun remains the same across all cases, but in languages like Russian, the noun takes a different vowel at the end in every case. Representation of gender is different too.
Syntax
Syntax is a part of language study that involves the arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences that make logic. It covers a wide area that includes clauses and their type, the types of sentences and the creation of phrases. Production of clauses and sentences requires the arrangement of words in a particular order for the structural arrangement to make sense. For example, English has a basic order of subject(S), object (O), verb (V) from which other complex orders are generated. Some languages have different and restrictive order of components though, such as SVO depending on how they want to relay a message
Word and grammatical relationships
Word relationships can be classified as paradigmatic and syntagmatic. The paradigmatic relationship is one between words of the same parts of speech that can be substituted with one another in the same position in a sentence. This connection is further subdivided into three more categories; Hyponymy-motorcycle, car, bus, Synonymy-purchase and buy’ and Antonymy where we have new and old. The syntagmatic relationship is between words of different parts of speech. This relationship can help to determine collocation i.e. ‘flashy new car’ and colligation i.e. ‘He was swept away by their presentation.’ These relations tend to be similar across all languages. Grammatical relationships focus on the relationship between constituents in a clause. Examples of grammatical functions/relations depend on the subject, the direct and indirect object, compliments and predicates. For example, Mom (S) gave (predicate) him (DO) the (specifier) book (ID).
Hierarchy in Syntax
Syntactic Hierarchy is spread along the structural well-being of a sentence, and it begins from the lowest which is a word (inflections and lexemes), phrases and sentences. If one wishes the hierarchical perspective to account for reading and writing, then paragraphs can be added on the hierarchies.
The Relationship between Syntax and Grammar
Syntax as a discipline is different from grammar even though both have an integrated function. Grammar deals with rules that govern the components in a sentence. Every language has a set of standards that determine how sentence structure in those languages apply and that is courtesy of grammar. Syntax also deals with structure but is more concerned with how sentences are worded and structured and so it gets to distinguish sentences by names.
Phonetics and Phonology Analysis
Phonetics
Phonetics is a systematic study of speech and human sounds in their respective languages. Observation is used in this instance, and phoneticians derive their conclusions basing on the speech sounds and the auditory impression they make. It classifies sounds particularly regarding their production, their way of transmission and how they are received. Such framework is equivalent of the International Phonetic Association. Many experiments have been done to help the hearer tell the difference between speech signals and which are more important in distinguishing speech sounds. These knowledge has provided a better scientific understanding of speech than before.
The Relationship between Speech Sounds and Orthography
Phonology, as seen, involves the study of speech sounds which includes their overall production. Speech sound, in this case, is devoid of any errors as what is heard is the more important. Phoneticians in this respect are not concerned with the production of sounds or if the speaker is making mistakes while speaking. Another discipline related with sounds called orthography, however, concerns with the study of correct spelling depending on its established in a particular language. In as much as these two disciplines are related, they contain a degree of difference in the sense that speech sounds deals with the production of speech devoid of any rules while orthography follows a strict line of rules about the expression of sounds.
The International Phonetic Alphabet
This is a system of the alphabet of the phonetic system and primarily leans towards the Latin alphabet. The IPA charts were developed by the International Phonetic Association in a bid to create a standard representation of spoken speech. Its design is meant to support qualities of speech that are part of the spoken language and the separation of syllables from words. In the form of letters and diacritics, the IPA chart has 107 letters and 52 diacritics. The representation is done with the use of vowels and consonants. The consonants however as divided into two where we have the pulmonic and non-pulmonic consonants.
Phonemes
Speech sounds like any other course of study in language have units called phonemes. These units are the smallest in the system of sounds in a language and represented by simple letters and diacritics, for example, the /t/ sound in the word stop would be represented as a small /t/. The articulation of phonemes depends on both the place and the manner. Places of articulation include the different parts of the mouth which include bilabials, dentals, palatals and many others. For example, bilabial consonants occur when one constricts airflow through the mouth by bringing the lips closer to each other /p/ and /b/ are bilabial consonants. The manner of articulation involves the airstream and how it is affected as it flows from the lungs and through the mouth and nose. Some consonants that make meaning depending on their manner of articulation. For example, nasals are consonants that are created when air from the lungs passes through the nose and not the mouth, i.e. /m/ and /n/.
Phonology
It is said to be the study of the different patterns of sounds within languages or if different languages. It also studies to a further extent the various patterns of sounds in different positions within a language. Each and everyone has a mother tongue they relate to and from the time they start acquiring language, are accustomed to distinctive sounds that define their language. They develop an accent that brings up differences when learning English and has to keep note of sound patterns they have never heard before. It is concerned with relations within consonants, vowels, etc. Patterns always lead to expectation and in the case of phonology. For example, fricatives and stops vary regarding voicing and aspiration during production i.e. ‘b’ is a voiced unaspirated consonant while ‘f’ is a voiceless aspirated consonant.
Syllables and Allomorphs
A syllable is a unit of pronunciation where a vowel sound with or without the inclusion of nearby consonants can form a part of the whole word. For example, in the word ‘warmer,' there are two syllables- ‘wo’ and ‘ma.' Syllables can also be regarded as the least amount of speech a person can make. Allomorphs, on the other hand, are any versions of a morpheme. For example, the plural allomorph of an English word can be ‘s’ for a word like dogs, ‘z’ for a word like bugs and ‘iz’ for a word like dresses.
Stress, Pitch, and Juncture
Stress is a very vital part of speech in that it can be used to tell what the speaker is trying to insinuate. Stress varies across the languages in that the place of stress is not the same for all. In English for example, there are two types of stress; lexical and prosodic. Lexical stress is applied on words and is usually on the first or second syllable i.e. ‘ pro duce’-noun and ‘pro du ce’-verb. It can also be prosodic which means it is applied to words in sentences to alter meaning i.e. ‘ I didn’t go to the zoo’ (somebody else did) and ‘I didn’t go to the zoo ’ (I went somewhere else).
In linguistics, juncture is the point where a listener can tell between two subsequent sounds that have a different meaning. It is also known as a suprasegmental phonemic cue. There are two main types; open and close junctures. Open juncture involves a transition between word boundaries i.e. /a/ and /name/ in ‘a name’ while close juncture involves a transition within a word i.e. /t/ and /r/ in ‘nitrate’.
Pitch also has a significance in language as it is used to show the attitude of the speaker. Pitch is initiated by the vibration of the vocal cords, and the more it increases, the more the pitch rises. Pitch can either be high, medium or low. A medium tone is used to make statements while high pitch shows informational disparity i.e. “I am going to Sch ool, not Ho me.” Low pitch can be employed when a speaker wants to ascertain a point i.e. “He came already.”
Conclusion
In conclusion, the study of language as seen in the essay is a broad subject that has gone through a lot of studies that cannot be exhausted. Linguistics deals with studying the variations of language and how they vary or share similarity with those of other languages. It is of note that the study of language covers the whole structure of the discipline starting from morphemes to significant structures like sentences. It is also of note that when studying language, sound variations are put to consideration as language is listening, speaking, writing and reading. Study of language can only begin from the lowest structure since this part helps with the formulation of bigger structures. Meaning that the learning of a language is a process that needs to be taken by each particular step. In a professional perspective, linguistics helps to bring to view the issue of language uniqueness where every language is unique and needs to be treated as such.
It is not possible to apply the features of a language in the study of another. What this means to linguists is that the mode of study and techniques involved in learning a language if maintained across the board can alter the expected results. The teaching professionals, with my inclusion, have a lot to gain from such diverse studies in language as it creates a big pool of knowledge that is resourceful. Learning the different features of foreign languages can help teachers to integrate the expertise they have with new insights. Teachers now have the know-how of approaching learners with different language backgrounds. And in this regard, are better placed to teach and assist them to articulate sounds without a lot of hassle. The same can be applied to other disciplines that are not necessarily language related since language is diverse and functional in daily life.
