Linguistics: Phonology and Morphology

Study Notes

Study of the sound system of languages
Concerned with the distribution and pattern of speech sounds in a language
Key concepts:
- Phoneme: smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another
- Allophone: variant of a phoneme
- Phonological rules: describe the distribution of phonemes in a language
- Phonological universals: characteristics of sound systems common across languages

Study of the structure of words and how they are formed
Examines the internal structure of words and how they are composed of smaller units (morphemes)
Key concepts:
- Morpheme: smallest unit of meaning in a language
- Free morpheme: can stand alone as a word
- Bound morpheme: cannot stand alone as a word
- Inflectional morphology: study of how morphemes are used to indicate grammatical function
- Derivational morphology: study of how morphemes are used to create new words

Study of how words are combined to form sentences
Examines the rules governing the arrangement of words to convey meaning
Key concepts:
- Phrase structure: study of how words are grouped together to form phrases
- Clause structure: study of how phrases are combined to form clauses
- Sentence structure: study of how clauses are combined to form sentences
- Syntactic categories: categories of words based on their function in a sentence (e.g. noun, verb, adjective)

System of writing down spoken language using unique symbols for each phoneme
Used to represent the sounds of spoken language in a consistent and standardized way
Key concepts:
- IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet): standardized system for transcribing spoken language
- Transcription symbols: unique symbols for each phoneme
- Diacritical marks: symbols used to indicate variations in pronunciation

Study of meaning in language
Examines how words and sentences convey meaning
Key concepts:
- Lexical semantics: study of the meaning of individual words
- Compositional semantics: study of how the meaning of words combines to form sentence meaning
- Inference: process of drawing conclusions based on language input
- Implicature: inference that goes beyond the literal meaning of words

Study of sound system in languages, focusing on distribution and pattern of speech sounds
Phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another
Allophone is a variant of a phoneme
Phonological rules describe the distribution of phonemes in a language
Phonological universals are characteristics of sound systems common across languages

Study of word structure and formation, examining internal structure of words and composition of morphemes
Morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language
Free morpheme can stand alone as a word, while bound morpheme cannot
Inflectional morphology studies how morphemes indicate grammatical function
Derivational morphology studies how morphemes create new words

Study of how words are combined to form sentences, examining rules governing word arrangement
Phrase structure involves grouping words to form phrases
Clause structure involves combining phrases to form clauses
Sentence structure involves combining clauses to form sentences
Syntactic categories are categories of words based on their function in a sentence (e.g. noun, verb, adjective)

System for writing down spoken language using unique symbols for each phoneme
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standardized system for transcribing spoken language
Transcription symbols represent unique phonemes, while diacritical marks indicate variations in pronunciation

Study of meaning in language, examining how words and sentences convey meaning
Lexical semantics studies the meaning of individual words
Compositional semantics studies how word meanings combine to form sentence meaning
Inference involves drawing conclusions based on language input
Implicature is an inference that goes beyond the literal meaning of words