Linguistics: Phonology and Morphology

Phonology

• 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

Morphology

• 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

Syntax

• 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)

Phonemic Transcription

• 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

Semantics

• 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

Phonology

• 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

Morphology

• 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

Syntax

• 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)

Phonemic Transcription

• 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

Semantics

• 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