The Subfields of Linguistics

1. The Subfields of Linguistics(Human Language Study)

Linguistics is the scientific study of language- its form and function. Units of different types and sizes are put together to form language. Sounds and syllables are combined to form words. Words are combined in a certain order to form sentences. Then, the meaning of these sentences may be affected by the arrangement of words. The goal of linguistics is to provide valid analyses of these different language structures. It aims to describe the rules, which native speakers seem to have internalized. A linguist is the person who studies linguistics. There are various branches of linguistics, which are: Phonetics/Phonology, Morphology/Lexicology, syntacs and semantics.

1.1. Phonetics & Phonology

Phonetics: is the study of the production, transmission and reception of speech sounds, which are the smallest units of speech ("phonemes").
Phonology: is the study of sounds and sound patterns of a specific language. It studies the function of speech sounds in language in general or within a given language in particular. It involves the study phonetics.

The Difference between Phonetics and Phonology
        Phonetics studies the nature of speech sounds (their description, comparison and classification); whereas phonology studies the function of speech sounds of language in general or within a given language in particular. This means that phonetics deals with the physical production while phonology deals with sound patterns and meanings.

The Organs of Speech
        The main organs of speech are: the lips, the teeth, the alveolar ridge, the tongue, the hard palate, the velum (soft palate), the uvula, the pharynx, the larynx, and the vocal cords. The active organs are: the lips, the tongue, the velum, the uvula, the pharynx, and the vocal cords. The tongue is so important in the production of speech sounds and it is divided into four areas: the tip, the blade, the front, and the back.

        Most sounds are made with an air stream expelled from the lungs. The air goes up from the lungs to the trachea and into the larynx. Inside the larynx are the vocal cords which consist of two bands of muscle and elastic tissue lying opposite to each other. They can be drawn together or parted. Sounds produced when the vocal cords are brought together and vibrating are called "voiced": /b/,/d/,/g/,/z/,/m/,/i/ . When the vocal cords are apart, sounds produced are called "voiceless": /p/,/s/,/t/,/k/.
Vowels and Consonants

         Sounds can be divided into two main types: vowels and consonants
a/ Vowel: is a speech sound in which the air stream from the lungs is not blocked in the mouth or throat (needs an open air passage in the mouth ), and which is usually pronounced with vibration of vocal cords .
b/ Consonant: is a speech sound with or without vibration of vocal cords where the airstream from the lungs is completely blocked, partially blocked, or where the opening is so narrow that the air escapes with audible friction.
c/ Consonant Clusters: are combinations of two or more consonants one after the other in a word. Most consonant clusters are only three or four letters long. The combination of consonants can occur in initial position at the beginning of the word eg : sprain(cccvvc), or in final position at the end of the word such as : depth (cvccc).

Suprasegmentals
      There are many phenomena that interest the linguist. The most significant of these are: pitch, stress, tone, intonation, and tempo. They are called suprasegmental features, which are concerned with speech sounds and features of the complete speech rather than individual sound.

Pitch: is the melodic height of an individual’s speech.
Stress: refers to the syllable that receives most emphasis.
Languages are divided into two types “syllable-timed” languages like French or Arabic and “stress-timed” Language like English.
Intonation: has relation with pitch and it involves the speech melody over an utterance. The simple statement in English involves fall but a question involves a rise in pitch.
Tempo: is also called speed of an utterance. It is associated with the speaker’s frame of mind. Speed may increase or decrease suggesting excitement or boredom.

1.2. Morphology

Definition: morphology is the study of morphemes, which are the smallest significant units of grammar. It is the branch of linguistics concerned with word formation. Example: in English, to indicate plurality, we add “s”: mother= mothers / to form the past, we add “ed”: stay=stayed.

Types of Morphemes
Free morpheme: is the morpheme that can stand alone in isolation: stay, mother. Free morphemes can be either:
Lexical Morphemes: carry the content of the message (nouns, verbs, adjectives).
Functional Morphemes: consists of functional words (articles, pronouns, prepositions).
Bound morpheme: is the morpheme that cannot usually stand alone and is typically attached to another free morpheme: plural ”s” and past “ed”. Bound morphemes (affixes) are divided into prefixes which precede the free morpheme: dis+honest and suffixes which follow the free morpheme: appear+ed.

Types of Morphology
We have two types of morphology: derivational and inflectional:

Derivational Morphology: is used to form new words:
Prefixation: bound morphemes (prefixes) are used to form new words keeping the same grammatical class of the word.
Example: from adjective to adjective: regular= irregular.
Suffixation: bound morphemes (suffixes) are used to change the grammatical class of a word.
Example from a noun to adjective: beauty= beautiful
Affixation: involves both prefixation and suffixation.
Example: un+mistake+able
For more examples of derivational morphemes, check Todd (1987); p. 43-44

Inflectional Morphology: bound morphemes (only suffixes) are used to create a new word but never change the grammatical category of that word. Inflectional morphology occurs with nouns, pronouns and verbs by forming the plural or possessive case of a noun or changing the tense of the verb or forming comparative or superlative: house=houses/ child=child’s book/ clean=cleaned/ wide=wider-widest.
In English, we have 8 inflectional morphemes: ”s” of plural/ “s” of 3rd person singular/ possessive ”s”/ “ed” of past tense/ ”ed” of past participle/ “ing” of present continuous/ “er” of comparative/ “est” of superlative,

1.3. Lexicology

Definition: it is a branch of linguistics that studies the stock of words (lexicon) and word formation in a given language.

Meaning of “word”: there is no common definition of the word “word”, but there are four frequently implied meanings for it, which are:
An Orthographic Word: is the one which has a space on both sides of it. This definition applies only to the written medium (exception of spoken medium).
Example: I am happy= 3 orthographic words.
A Morphological Word: it deals with form only (structure).
Example: table=one morphological word though it can refer to different meanings: an object or a diagram. “table” and “tables” are two morphological words since they are different in form.
A Lexical Word: unlike the morphological word, it deals with meaning.
Example: “teach, teaches, teaching, taught, teacher”= 5 morphological words BUT 1 lexical word.
“TELL” is a lexical word which comprehends all the various forms: tell, tells, told, telling…..etc.
A Semantic Word: involves distinguishing between words which maybe morphologically the same but differ in meaning
Example: “miss”= a girl or female, “miss”= to have feeling of missing towards someone. They are 1 morphological word BUT 2 semantic words.

Word Formation Processes
In English, there are many methods of word-formation, which can be summarized in the following sub-titles:

1/ - Suffixation: fortunate + ly =fortunately
- prefixation: un + lucky= unlucky
- affixation: un + fortunate +ly =unfortunately
2/ - Compounding: compounding helps forming a word out of two or more root morphemes. These words are called 'compounds'. They can be formed with two or more morphemes from different grammatical classes as follows:
- Noun + noun: house + wife =housewife
- Adjective + noun: black bird, hard drive, green house
- Verb + noun: pick pocket, cut-purse, lick-spittle, salesman
- Adjective + verb: wide+ spreed = widespreed
- Verb + adverb: look + down =lookdown
- Adverb + verb: under + go = undergo, overlook
- Noun + verb: hair +do =hairdo, sunrise, sunshine
- Possessive noun + noun: bull's + eye =bulleye
N.B: When the compound word is new, a hyphen is used between the parts. When it becomes familiar, the hyphen is dropped.
Example: switch-off.
In case of combining two vowels, the hyphen is involved: co-ordinate.

3/ Coinage, Backformations, Blends and Acronyms

- Coinage: words can be coined from existing material to represent a new invention or development.
Example: greenhouse, Facebook.

- Backformations: involves the use of analogy to create forms that are similar to the ones already existing in the language.
Example: pop from popular.

- Blends: involves combining two words by taking parts of both words and recombining them to form new word e.g. mock+ cocktail (mock tail), splog (spam and blog)
- Acronyms: are formed by taking the initial letters of a phrase and making a word out of it.
Example: secret national police (SNP)

Word Classes
       In English, words are classed into classes according to their function which are: noun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, determiners, pronouns, conjunctions and exclamations / interjections.
1/ noun: is the name of a person, animal, place, concept or thing
2/determiner: a word which precedes both adjectives and nouns.
3/ verb: is an action done by the subject and are divided into main verbs and auxiliaries.
4/ adverb: is used to modify a verb, an adjective, a sentence or another adverb
5/ preposition: is a function word followed by noun, noun phrase or pronoun.

6/ conjunction: it is a linking word. There are two types of conjunctions: co-ordinate conjunctions which relate units of equal significance in a sentence such as: and, yet, but; and subordinating conjunctions which join subordinate clauses to main one such as: that
7/ exclamation: is an expression of fear, pain or surprise e.g. Oh darling! Both exclamation and interjection are marked by exclamation marks.

       In order to test an item to figure out its class, TEST FRAMES can be used. Check Todd (1987) page 53-54.

1.4. Syntax

Definition: syntax is the study of words’ combination in order to make phrases, clauses or sentences It studies how words are combined into larger units.

A/ The Phrase
         A phrase is a group of words which acts as a unit and it functions as a subject or predicate. Except for the verb phrase, the other phrases do not contain a finite verb. A phrase can be replaced by a single word. There are five types of phrase in English:

1/Noun Phrase: is a group of words in which the noun is the head word.
Example:
dogs and cats make excellent pets
I consider my friends as my lovely brothers and sisters.

2/Adjective Phrase: is a group of words which modifies a noun.
Example:
- That is an extremely interesting book.
- The girl feeling sad and empty had lost her friend.

3/Verb Phrase: is a group of words with the verb as the head word. Verb phrases can be either finite or non-finite. A simple sentence can have only one finite verb phrase but a complex one may have several finite verb phrases.
Example:
- I have learned to drive.
- He was scrabbling for his pen which had got lost somewhere under the sheets of paper

4/Adverb Phrase: is a group of words which functions as an adverb modifying a verb, adjective or another adverb. An adverb phrase answers the question: When? Where? Why? or How?
Example:
- I did not do anything last holiday since I was sick.
- My sister wakes up very early every morning.

5/ Prepositional Phrase: is a group of words that begins always with a preposition.
Example:
- My parents wished me a happy birthday from the bottom of their hearts
- None is happy in the modern life.

B/ The Clause
        A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and predicate, and it functions as part of the sentence. The clause cannot occur in isolation. Each complex sentence contains main clauses and the subordinate clauses.
Example:
I know that life is full of surprise.

       Subordinate clauses are divided into three types:
1/ Noun Clause: is a group of words containing a finite verb and functioning like a noun. Noun phrases can begin with : to , whom, what, which, whoever ,whomever ,whatever , when ,where, how, why, that .
Example:
- They are argued about how they should pay the bill
- why you did that was a mystery to me .

2/ Adjective Clause: is called' relative clause' it starts with relative pronoun
Example:
- The house where i live , is very simple but beautiful .
- Spring is the season that most of people prefer.

3/ Adverbial Clause: functions as an adverbs which mean that it modifies verb, adverb or adjective, and it answers the question: When? Why? How? To what condition?
Example:
- When there is a will, there is a way.
- She learns sewing because she enjoys it.

C/ The Sentence
         A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought or meaning. It is a linguistic unit which begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (written medium).
Example:
A friend in need is the friend indeed.

       In terms of function, sentences can be divided into four sub-types:
1/ Declarative Sentence: is used to make statements or assertions.
Example:
- I think that it is better to not judge someone before you listen to him.
- We must obey our parents to get their satisfaction.
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2/ Imperative Sentence: is used to give orders, make requests, and usually has no subject.
Example:
- Listen to me! Don’t run!
- Stop talking! Sit down!
3/ Interrogative Sentence: is used to ask questions or request information. In English, we have questions which expect yes/no as an answer and 'wh' questions.
Example:
- Do you like music?
- Where does she live?
4/ Exclamatory Sentence: is used to express surprise, alarm, indignation or a strong opinion. It takes an exclamation mark at the end.
Example:
- What a beautiful rose!
- You are serious!

      Concerning the structure, a sentence has four types:
1/ Simple Sentence: consists of one main clause (one finite verb)
I wrote my first novel last year.
2/ Compound Sentence: consists of one main clause (simple sentences) linked by a coordinating conjunction: and, but, so, either ....or, neither ... nor, or, then and yet .
He wrote good jokes and (he) became a good comedian.
3/ Complex Sentence: consists of one main clause and one or more subordinate (dependent) clauses. Each clause in a complex sentence contains a finite verb; and the subordinate clause begins with a subordinating conjunction.
Although you are very rich, you cannot buy everything with your money.
4/ Compound-Complex Sentence: consists of two or more main clauses and one or more subordinate clauses.
I waited for him until he came, and I talked to him but he did not listen to me when I was talking.

1.5. Semantics

Definition: It is a branch of linguistics that deals with the meaning of words and sentences. Usually, it deals with five subjects which are:

1/ Polysemy: means that the same morphological word has different meanings. As the word "polysemy" suggests, it expresses “many meanings".

Example:

“bear" is a verb that expresses different meanings which are:

• if you bear sth somewhere , you carry it there or take it there .
• if you bear sth such as a weapon , you told it or carry it with you .
• if one thing bears the weight of sth else , it supports the weight of that mark or characteristic .
• if sth bears a particular mark or characteristic , it has that mark or characteristic
• if you bear unpleasant experience , you accept it because you 're unable to do anything about it .
• if you can't bear sth someone , you dislike him very much .

2/ Synonymy: it is the relationship in which two or more words have similar meaning, and are very closely associated with each other.

Example:

inside = within, many = lot, clever = intelligent.
Synonymy is always partial, never complete. Absolute synonymy is when the synonyms belong to different languages: God= dieu= الله

3/ Antonymy: it is the relationship in which two or more words have opposite meanings.

Example:
behind/in front of, noisy/calm, forget/remember, always/never .
In English, there exist three types of antonymy:
a/ Implicitly Graded Antonyms: refer to pairs of words such as " big " and "small" old" and "young”= ‘bigger, smaller, younger, older”. There is a sense of grading according to a norm of comparison.
b/ Complementarity: refers to the existence of such pairs in which the existence of one involves certainly the denial of the other. For example: man/woman, paradise/hell, earth/sky, single/married.
c/ Converseness: is the relationship that holds between related pairs of sentences such as:
- The teacher teaches the pupil and the pupil learn from the teacher (teach and learn are in a converse relationship).
- The doctor treats the patient = the patient consults the doctor.
- The young boy got married to the beautiful girl = the beautiful girl got married to the young boy.

4/ Hyponymy: means that the meaning of some words is included in the meaning of others.

Example

- Animals: dogs, cats, birds, donkeys.
- Fruits: Orange, banana, strawberry, watermelon.
The including term is known as the "super-ordinate term" and the included items are known as "co-hyponyms”

5/ Idioms: it is a group of words which have a different meaning when used together from the one they would have if the meaning of each word is considered separately (non- literal use of language)

Example:
- kick the bucket = die
- add fuel to the fire = sth is done to make a bad situation ever worse than it is.
- hold your horses = means be patient
- lend me your ear = to politely ask for someone's full attention.
- spill the beans = reveal a secret
- at sixes and sevens = unwilling to agree