MorphologyThe study of word-structure and word-formation, especially in terms of morphemes and morphological processes. |
Paradigmatic/Syntagmatic RelationshipsParadigmaticand Syntagmatic are contrasting terms in (structural) Linguistics. Every item of language has a paradigmatic relationship with every other item which can be substituted for it (such as cat with dog), and a syntagmatic relationship with items which occur within the same construction (for example, in The cat sat on the mat, cat with the and sat on the mat). |
ParoleParole refers to the real speech of the individual, an instance of the use of system. It is the concrete side of language. |
PerformancePerformance refers to the realisation of the abstract code (competence) in actual situations. It is the person's concrete use of language in producing and understanding sentences. |
Phonetics"The science which studies the characteristics of human sound-making, especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription" ( Crystal 1997b: 289) |
PhonologyA general term that includes phonemics and phonetics. The " establishment and description of the distinctive sound units of a langauges (phonemes) by means of distinctive features" (Richards and Schmidt 2010: 435) |
Prescriptive GrammarA prescriptive grammar is a set of rules about language based on how people think language should be used. In a prescriptive grammar there is right and wrong language.
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Signified/SignifierThe signifié (signified) refers to an idea or a concept, and the signifiant (signifier) refers to a form or an acoustic image. |
StructuralismStructuralism is a mode of inquiry that consists in interpreting the phenomena it looks at as made up of relations among the various entities rather than as those entities per se. |
Surface StructureThe surface structure (SS) is the syntactic structure of the sentence which a person speaks or hears: it is theobservable form of the sentence. |