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An Introduction to
Issues in General
Linguistics
An Introduction to
Issues in General
Linguistics
By

Georgios P. Georgiou
An Introduction to Issues in General Linguistics

By Georgios P. Georgiou

This book first published 2020

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2020 by Georgios P. Georgiou

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-5275-5950-5

ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-5950-9
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................... vii

PREFACE ............................................................................................ ix

CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Linguistics

1.1 What is language? ...................................................................... 1
1.2 Language as a communication code ........................................... 2
1.3 The Sign ..................................................................................... 4
1.4 Features of Language ................................................................. 6
1.5 The science of Linguistics ........................................................ 10
1.6 Levels of Linguistic Analysis ................................................... 11
1.7 Principles of Linguistics ........................................................... 32

CHAPTER 2: Debugging the Myths about Language

2.1 Myths about languages and language learning ......................... 35
2.2 Myths about Linguistics and linguists ...................................... 38

CHAPTER 3: Speech Perception and Production

3.1 Brief historical overview of L2 speech perception
and production .......................................................................... 41
3.2 Speech Perception .................................................................... 42
3.3 Speech Production .................................................................... 42
3.4 Is speech only a human privilege?............................................ 51
3.5 Phonological and phonetic differences between the sounds
of different languages may impede communication ................. 53
3.6 Lack of pronunciation may lead to tragedies............................ 54
3.7 Factors affecting the acquisition of L2 sounds ......................... 56

CHAPTER 4: Language Learning and Education

4.1 Why learn a second language? ................................................. 67
4.2 Is it possible to learn how to pronounce a second language? ... 68
4.3 The definition of language mistakes and errors from the
perspective of linguistics .......................................................... 69
4.4 Should educators correct or not the language “errors”? ........... 71
4.5 Should a language’s grammar be taught? ................................. 73
4.6 Language Transfer, Error Analysis, and Inter-language ......... 75
vi Table of Contents

CHAPTER 5: Language and Society

5.1 Even languages die ................................................................... 79
5.2 Languages that have been revived: The case of Hebrew ......... 81
5.3 The phenomenon of linguistic reborrowing ............................. 83
5.4 Not All Languages are Natural: The Case of Esperanto.......... 84
5.5 Do young people suffer from a lack of vocabulary? ................ 86
5.6 The role of abbreviations in the written communication .......... 87
5.7 Perceptions Regarding the Use of the Roman Alphabet for
Writing Languages with a Non-Roman Alphabet: The Case of
Greeklish .................................................................................. 89

CHAPTER 6: Speech Perception and Production Models

6.1 Speech Learning Model (SLM) ................................................ 91
6.2 Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) .................................... 96
6.3 Perceptual Assimilation Model-L2 (PAM-L2)......................... 99
6.4 A Comparison of SLM and PAM/PAM-L2 ........................... 100

REFERENCES .................................................................................. 103

 1 TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1-1: Communication cycle model by Claude Elwood Shannon and

Warren Weaver ................................................................................................ 3
Fig. 1-2: The signified and the signifier of the word “tree”............................ 5
Fig. 1-3: The four features of language ........................................................... 9
Fig. 1-4: Waveform and Spectrogram in a PRAAT script for the analysis
of acoustic characteristics of sounds (e.g., formant frequencies and
duration). ....................................................................................................... 12
Fig. 1-5: Example of the International Phonetic Alphabet (Omniglot) ......... 13
Fig. 1-6: Main subdivisions of morphemes ................................................... 16
Fig. 1-7: The lexical categories of English .................................................... 20
Fig. 1-8: A brief definition of phrase, utterance, and sentence ...................... 24
Fig. 1-9: The six functions of language proposed by Jakobson ..................... 31
Fig. 1-10: Levels of linguistic analysis .......................................................... 32
Fig. 1-11: The principles of Linguistics ........................................................ 34
Fig. 3-1: Human speech organs ..................................................................... 44
Fig. 3-2: The state of the vocal folds ............................................................. 45
Fig. 3-3: An overview of the vocal tract ........................................................ 46
Fig. 3-4: Manner, place, and voicing of English consonants ......................... 48
Fig. 3-5: The official IPA Vowel Chart ......................................................... 50
Fig. 3-6: English vowels (Received Pronunciation) (Roach, 2004)............... 50
Fig. 3-7: The four processes of speech production ........................................ 51
Fig. 5-1: The world’s language hierarchy (Graddol, 1997) ........................... 81
Fig. 5-2: The letters and sounds of the Hebrew alphabet .............................. 83
Fig. 5-3: The letters and sounds of Esperanto ............................................... 86
Fig. 5-4: Greeklish to Greek converter .......................................................... 90
 2 PREFACE

An introduction to Issues in General Linguistics aims to show how the

language system works, to cultivate a correct attitude towards language,
and to familiarize readers with the science of linguistics and issues related
to it. Specifically, the first chapter is a must-read by people who have little
contact with linguistics in order to gain a better understanding of the way
that the language system operates, as well as to familiarize them with
language features. Furthermore, readers will be able to observe the main
objectives and principles of linguistics, and differentiate the different
levels of linguistic analysis. Chapter 2 aims to debunk myths about
language by dissolving misperceptions about the language system and the
science of linguistics. Chapter 3 deals with the way that humans perceive
and produce language. This chapter also includes brief sections about
issues surrounding pronunciation and language production. Chapter 4
discusses issues surrounding language learning, and it connects linguistics
with education. Chapter 5 contains sections that discuss social phenomena
related to linguistics, such as linguistic reborrowing, the language of
young people, and revived or artificial languages. Chapter 6 presents two
main speech models.
I tried to avoid excessive wordiness since it often creates feelings
of boredom in readers. Instead, the book only focuses on essential linguistic
issues, trying to explain them as briefly as possible without losing its
scientific character. The first two chapters are significant as they develop an
understanding of the language system mechanism and eliminate
misconceptions. The other chapters contain brief sections that discuss
intertemporal and timely issues in linguistics. All linguistic phenomena are
accompanied by examples so that the reader can understand how they are
embedded in real linguistic contexts.
The book discusses linguistic issues scientifically; that is, it neither
adopts personal convictions nor uses unsubstantial arguments; instead, it
employs findings that have emerged from research. The language of the
book is simple so that it can be understood by a wide range of readers,
even if they do not have any previous knowledge in linguistics. Therefore,
Issues in Linguistics is aimed at linguists, philologists, language scholars,
x Preface

tutors, and anyone who loves linguistics or even general readers who are
curious to explore the science of linguistics.

The Author of the book

Dr George Georgiou
 1 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

1.1. What is language?

In general terms, language is a system that describes the ability of humans
to develop, acquire, maintain, and use complex communication codes.
Several definitions of language have been proposed with each one linked
to a different school of thought. However, a complete definition might
never be expressed since language is a complex system, whereas the
science that studies language, linguistics, is linked with other sciences,
such as psychology and the cognitive sciences. The notable American
linguist, Noam Chomsky (1957: 13), defines language as follows:

“Language is a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length,

and constructed out of a finite set of elements”.

Hadumod Bussmann gives a relatively complete and comprehensive

definition of language in the Routledge Dictionary of Language and
Linguistics (Bussmann, 1999: 627):

“Vehicle for the expression or exchanging of thoughts, concepts,

knowledge, and information as well as the fixing and transmission of
experience and knowledge. It is based on cognitive processes, subject to
societal factors and subject to historical change and development. In this
definition, language refers to a specific form of expression that is restricted
to humans, and differs from all other possible languages, such as animal
communication and artificial languages through creativity, the ability to
make conceptional abstractions, and the possibility of metalinguistic
reflection”.

As expressed above, language is used for human communication.

Communication is the procedure in which messages of any kind are
transferred. Members of a community are people who communicate with
each other using one or more languages, which are based on specific rules.
2 Chapter 1

1.1.1. Speech, Language, and Speaking

A distinction between Speech, Language, and Speaking can provide a
better understanding of the human communication code.
Speech (langage) is the ability of humans to communicate orally
with other humans. Speech is a universal feature that characterizes all
humans in the same way.
Language (langue) is a specific system of signs that allows
humans to communicate with each other. Languages (e.g., English,
Chinese, and Zulu) differ with each other in terms of their grammatical
rules.
The differences between speech and language are the following:
(a) speech is the inherent ability for communication, while language is the
result of that ability; (b) speech is created in the brain, while language is
developed through social coexistence; and (c) speech is a natural ability,
while language is acquired through teaching.
Speaking (parole) is the information that emerges from the use of
language; e.g., words we produce, read, or listen to. This information
differs from speaker to speaker. The relationship between the three terms
is depicted in the equations below:

speaking = language + speech

speech = language – speaking

1.2. Language as a communication code

Some essential elements are necessary to achieve communication. These
elements constitute the communication model that is illustrated in the
figure below:
 Introduction to Linguistics 3

Fig. 1-1: Communication cycle model by Claude Elwood Shannon and Warren
Weaver

According to the model, there is a sender (or a speaker in the case

of language) who provides a message to a recipient (or a listener) through
a channel. Nevertheless, successful communication does not only involve
sending a message. The message should be in a recognizable form and
have a specific meaning to be understood. Therefore, a code is needed for
the speaker to encode the signal and the listener to decode it. The choice
for the combination of form and meaning is called encoding, while the
recognition of this combination is called decoding. So, we could say that
code is a finite (or limited) system, which allows us to combine forms and
meanings in order for the message to be understood by someone who
knows the same code. Such a system consists of a sum of units and a sum
of rules. In particular, the language code consists of linguistic signs (or just
words) and rules for the use of linguistic signs in order for the listeners to
be able to decode the signals.
Due to differences in each person’s experiences and the
knowledge, both speakers and listeners do not know precisely the same
code. For example, the word “car” might recall a beautiful thought for a
racing car driver who loves cars or a terrible thought for someone who has
experienced a serious car crash. Therefore, as a consequence, the message
of the speaker and that of the listener will be different. However, there is a
constant meaning core, which is the same for all speakers; due to this core,
excellent communication can be still achieved.
During communication, a channel is a medium for the transfer of
a message. In the case of language, it can be mainly transferred through
4 Chapter 1

oral or written form. Finally, as we can see from the figure above, noise
might interfere with the reception of the signal (e.g., noise from traffic).

1.3. The Sign

To examine how signs work, we have to consider the general theory of
signs, which is called semiotics. Semiotics is based on the theory of the
famous Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913). A sign,
which might be an object, a sound, or a word, etc., does not have a specific
meaning unless we attribute one to it. For instance, in traffic lights, the
green color does not mean in itself that “vehicles have to proceed”, but it
is a meaning that was predetermined by humans to follow a common
highway code. So, a sign has two components: (a) a material form:
something that we can see, hear, touch, smell, or taste; and (b) a concept: a
comprehensible construction which is linked with experience. The
material form is called the signifier, while the concept is called the
signified.

1.3.1. Types of Signs

There are three types of signs: (a) icons, (b) indices (or indexes), and (c)
symbols. In icons, the signifier is similar to the signified; they
recognizably look, sound, feel, taste, or smell the same as the signified (the
signifier resembles whatever it depicts). For instance, a picture of one’s
face is an icon of them. In indices, the signifier is directly linked in some
way with the signified. For example, dark clouds are an index of
impending rain. In symbols, the signifier is not similar to the signified. For
example, the connection of a red traffic light with the instruction to stop is
just arbitrary (there is not any logical relationship between the signifier
and the signified; someone has decided this relationship).

1.3.2. The Linguistic Sign

As we have seen in a previous section, words are also called linguistic
signs. Linguistic signs connect a sound-image (since words can be only
seen or heard) with a concept. The sound-image is the signifier, while the
concept is the signified. Let us take the example of the word “tree”. The
word’s signified refers to the concept of “a plant that consists of a stem
and branches” (this is how we define “tree” in general terms). The
signifier of the word is a row of segments that gives the sound-image /t/ /r/
/iː/. These two components are illustrated in the figure below:
 Introduction to Linguistics 5

Fig. 1-2: The signified and the signifier of the word “tree”

1.3.3. Characteristics of the linguistic sign

One of the most important characteristics of the linguistic sign is its double
entity. According to Saussure, both signified and signifier cannot be
separated; that is, a sign cannot exist with the absence of one of these
components. Usually, they are described as the content and the form of the
sign, respectively. Another characteristic of the linguistic sign is its
conventionality. The relationship between signified and signifier is
arbitrary since there is no logical connection between a specific concept
and a sound-image and, thus, this relationship cannot be explained. Such a
connection exists because someone has agreed or decided to connect the
two components. Furthermore, linearity is another feature of the linguistic
sign. That is, the signified consists of segments that are pronounced
consecutively and, therefore, are understood as a sequence of elements that
form a speech “chain”. Finally, the combination of the linguistic sign
components is unique as there are no words that have the same signified
and signifier. However, some words share the same signifier but not the
same signified. Namely, they are heard in the same way but have a
different meaning: these words are called homophones or homographs
[e.g., “ate-eight” or “bar (a business that sells alcoholic drinks)-bar” (a
cuboid piece of any solid commodity)]. However, some words share the
same signified but have a different signifier: e.g., “autumn-fall” semester
6 Chapter 1

(different sound-image but identical meaning: they both mean the academic
semester that usually starts in September/October).

1.4. Features of Language

People often use many communication codes, such as traffic signs,
mathematical symbols, and music notes, etc. However, language code is a
unique and a more sophisticated communication system compared to other
ones. It consists of particular features that are common in all languages
and are essential to understand how the language system works.

1.4.1. Arbitrariness
Arbitrariness is one of the most important characteristics of languages.
Words and rules are not a result of a general principle or a “natural”
process but, instead, someone agreed with someone else (these people are
still unknown to us) to match of a particular word with a certain concept.
For example, there is no explanation for why a “house” is called /haʊs/
rather than something else. Arbitrariness is also related to the rules of a
language: there is not a sensible justification for why we say “how are
you” instead of “how is you”. Furthermore, by looking at words in several
languages, we can see that each one has a different combination of form
and meaning (e.g., eye: English: /aɪ/, Spanish: /ʹoxo/ Greek: /ʹmati/) as
well as different grammatical rules:

Mia ómorfi méra

Article Adjective Noun

Um dia bonito
Article Noun Adjective

The sentences above come from Greek and Portuguese, respectively.

Both of them mean “a beautiful day”; however, the position of the
adjective that describes the noun differs in each case. So, the rules of each
language are not determined in the same manner, and there is no logical
explanation for this. Another important fact is that arbitrariness is common
among speakers. An individual speaker cannot change the signifier or the
signified of a word because making such a change would lead to
difficulties when communicating with other speakers. Moreover, even if a
speaker links, for example, the word “child” with a prudent child, while
 Introduction to Linguistics 7

another speaker links it with an imprudent child, they will still be able to
communicate with each other since the general idea of “young being”
remains common between them.

Ferdinand de Saussure divided arbitrariness into two subcategories:

the absolute and the relative. For example, the number “twenty” is
absolutely arbitrary, whereas “twenty-one” is relatively arbitrary; the
former cannot be analyzed and, hence, cannot be associated with other
words, whereas the latter is derived from the word “twenty”.
Moreover, some people assume that the paradigms of onomatopoeic
words (words that supposed to imitate sounds) and interjections prove that
Saussure’s theory about the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign is incorrect.
However, if we look at different languages, the same dog barks using
different sound continua:

English ‘woof’
Japanese ‘wan’
Greek ‘γav’
Icelandic ‘voff’
Persian ‘haap’

Of course, the dog does not bark differently. It is the way that this
barking is perceived by the speakers of each language and the historical
context in which the words have been developed that form these
differences. So, we cannot talk about words that were created due to the
imitation of a sound. If that were true, we would have identical or similar
words for the sound of barking in all languages; indeed, the English
“woof” and the Persian “haap” differ significantly acoustically.

1.4.2. Variability
A linguistic sign does not remain constant over time as linguistic
conventions change. If we refer to older forms of language, we can find
examples in which a linguistic sign has altered its signifier. In Ancient
Greek, the word water was “ύδωρ” /ʹiðor/ and, during the Μiddle Ages,
the word became “νερό” /neʹro/. Furthermore, some words may acquire
additional meaning due, for instance, to technological advances: e.g.,
“run” = 1. to move rapidly, 2. to start a computer program; or “window” =
1. an opening in the wall, 2. a display rectangle in a computer program.
New words may emerge from the processes of derivation and
composition (or compounding). In derivation, a new word is created with
8 Chapter 1

the addition of an affix in an existing word: “dis-infect”, “taxabil-ity”. In

composition, two words are linked to create a new word: “inter-net”, “ear-
phones”. Also, the phenomenon of word borrowing can add more words to
a language’s vocabulary. For example, in the 20th century, English
borrowed “paparazzi” from Italian, “Tamagotchi” from Japanese, “pogrom”
from Russian, and “Taoiseach” from Irish-Gaelic.

Linguistic variability is not only related to synchronies found in different

periods but also to the same synchronies in different geographical
locations. For instance, the Greek language spoken in Cyprus (Cypriot
Greek) differs in terms of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics
from the Greek language spoken on the mainland. The same applies to
different varieties of Arabic (e.g., Levantine Arabic, and Moroccan
Arabic). Even in a single country, there are other varieties (dialects or
idioms) that differ from the standard language.
In sum, linguistic variability is a natural phenomenon in languages,
which signifies their evolution. Linguistic signs are used in everyday
communication by billions of speakers and, consequently, they do change.

1.4.3. Double articulation, language economy, and productivity

Another essential feature of language is its double articulation. Two
central units contribute to the creation of a linguistic message. The first
unit is the first articulation that contains meaningful units with lexical
(e.g., “door”, “play”) or grammatical (e.g., “door-s”, “play-ed”) values.
The second unit is the second articulation that contains meaningless
individual units, phonemes, which, upon combination, form the first
articulation units (e.g., /d/-/ɔː/-/r/).
One of the advantages of the double articulation is that it allows us
to create an infinite number of first articulation units (e.g., lexemes,
morphemes) by only using a finite number of units (e.g., phonemes) that
are found in the second articulation. Therefore, even though phonemes can
rarely exceed the number of 50 in a language, we can create infinite words
and sentences, if we combine them. This feature is called the economy of
language. Economy of language is related to arbitrariness in which a
linguistic sign has two independent and arbitrarily related components: the
signifier and the signified.
A consequence of language economy is language productivity: the
ability of humans to create and understand sentences. According to Noam
Chomsky, humans can create an infinite number of sentences. Even
 Introduction to Linguistics 9

children, who do not receive much linguistic input in their native language,
can create a great number of sentences that they have never heard before.

1.4.4. Language Universals

Every child has the ability to produce language forms from a very young
age. These forms might be ungrammatical or incomplete at the early stages
of language development while they are being refined as the child learns
the distinct lexicon and structure of their native language. According to
Chomsky, despite the external differences between the world’s languages,
there are more profound similarities for native speakers on a cognito-
psychological basis that begin to take shape when children listen to the
input provided by their parents. Parents’ speech does not help children
learn the language, but it does help the biological process of language
learning to begin. Thus, there are language universals or a universal
grammar that allows children to acquire a particular language.

Arbitrariness

Universals
Language Variability
features

Double
articulation-
Economy-
productivity

Fig. 1-3: The four features of language

There are three main categories of language universals: (a) the

substantive, which contains categories that are necessary for the analysis
of a human language (e.g., noun, verb, and number); (b) the formal, which
includes abstract orders for linguistic analysis (e.g., the type of rules that
have to be specified for linguistic analysis); and (c) the implicational,
10 Chapter 1

which contains features that can be formulated as relationships (e.g., if

there is subject-noun agreement with respect to gender, there will be also
an adjective-noun agreement).

1.5. The science of Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific investigation of language as a universal
phenomenon as well as the investigation of individual languages. It aims
to answer questions about the nature of language, its structure, and its
relationship with the human mind and society. Also, through the
examination of linguistic structures (i.e., the ways in which expression is
organized and meaning is formed for communication), it aims to examine
the possibility of the formulation of standard rules for all languages. In
order to achieve the latter, it employs empirical data, establishes linguistic
principles, and uses appropriate methodological tools. It is important to
add that linguists focus on the description and interpretation of linguistic
phenomena without intervening, evaluating, or having a prescriptive view;
linguistics is a descriptive rather than a prescriptive science.
Today, the scientific study of language might take place in an
interdisciplinary manner; namely, linguistics borrows theories and
methodological tools from other sciences, such as psychology
(psycholinguistics), philosophy (philosophy of language), anthropology
(linguistic anthropology), philology (orthography), law (forensic linguistics),
medicine (clinical linguistics), biology (cognitive linguistics), sociology
(sociolinguistics), informatics (computational linguistics), and mathematics
(quantitative linguistics). Also, the science of linguistics is often divided
into general/theoretical linguistics, which studies the structure and the
functions of language to formulate theories, and applied linguistics, which
applies general/theoretical linguistic theories to provide solutions to real-
life problems.

1.5.1. Linguistics and Philology

Many sciences, such as linguistics and philology, deal with language
issues; nevertheless, this does not imply that they all follow the same
approach. Linguistics is interested in the examination of grammatical
system functions using a descriptive approach. In contrast, philology
mostly follows a prescriptive approach, indicating “correct” or “wrong”
forms of either an oral or written language.
Students come into contact with traditional grammar textbooks
from a very young age during school courses. These grammar books
 Introduction to Linguistics 11

indicate which forms are “correct” or “incorrect”; “incorrect” forms are

those which do not obey the rules of formal grammar. However, this
approach is problematic since it only gives a minimal overview of the
language system and fails to consider the evolution of language and the
mechanisms that create several linguistic forms. So, misinterpretations
about how the language system works are rational since all language forms
spin around the “correct”/“incorrect” relationship. In conclusion, there is a
clear difference between linguistics and traditional school grammar: the
latter refers to what should be said, whereas the former analyses and
records what actually was said.

1.6. Levels of Linguistic Analysis

Every language in the world consists of rules; meanings are formed when
words are linked to each other in a predetermined way. Therefore,
language does not work randomly. In the pictures below, we can see an
insect called a “santle”:

Picture 1 Picture 2

-Picture 1 presents a santle.

-Picture 2 presents _________.

Ten English native speakers were asked what Picture 2 represented.

All speakers said that “Picture 2 represents ‘santles’”. This response
indicates that speakers know the rules of their native language. Of course,
there is no insect called “santle” and this word does not even exist in the
English vocabulary; however, the speakers employed a well-known rule in
English: plural nouns are formed by the addition of an –s ending. This rule
has never been taught to the native English speakers. In general, native
speakers are often not aware of the grammatical rules in their mother
tongue. For instance, it does not take any time for them to think about how
to form a verb in the past tense when they want to talk about something
that happened in the past.
In linguistics, grammar is a sum of rules that native speakers
acquire subconsciously, which leads to the formation of particular
12 Chapter 1

sentences. Also, grammar is the description and presentation of language

rules by researchers. It should not be confused with traditional grammar
taught at schools, which has a prescriptive character. It is important to
remember that linguistics does not criticize any linguistic form; instead, it
explains why one linguistic form is preferred instead of another. Language
can be divided into five––or six for some researchers––main levels:
phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

1.6.1. Phonetics
Phonetics [from Greek “foní” (=voice)] deals with the scientific
investigation of all sounds of human speech and communication. In
particular, it investigates the functions of phones (i.e., any speech
sound/gesture regardless of whether it can change the meaning of words;
see “phonemes” in Section 1.6.2. for comparison) and non-language
sounds. Phonetics has three main subfields which study the following: (a)
speech sound production (articulatory phonetics), (b) speech sound
perception (auditory phonetics), and (c) acoustic aspects of speech sounds
(acoustic phonetics).
Pronunciation is the ability of humans to produce sounds.
However, humans can produce more sounds than those found in a specific
language or languages. It is important to say that each human pronounces
these sounds instinctively; nevertheless, most of the time, there is mutual
intelligibility among native speakers of a particular language.

Fig. 1-4: Waveform and Spectrogram in a Praat script for the analysis of acoustic
characteristics of sounds (e.g., formant frequencies and duration)
 Introduction to Linguistics 13

1.6.1.1. Pronunciation and Orthography

There is a complicated relationship between pronunciation and

orthography. The latter rarely depicts the real pronunciation of sounds
because the written word does not evolve as rapidly as the spoken word.
Furthermore, the designers of the various writing systems did not consider
the representation of pronunciation in the written word to a great extent. In
the case of English, a grapheme (the written representation of a sound: i.e.,
a letter) might depict the actual pronunciation of a sound (e.g., “m” as
/m/), or it might correspond to two or more different sounds [e.g., “a” as
/æ/ (cat) or /ɑː/ (star)]. To solve problems surrounding the written
representation of sounds, linguists have created phonetic writing in which
each sound is represented by a single phonetic symbol. The International
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was created in 1888, and it consists of 107 letters
mostly deriving from Latin (e.g., [p], [t]) and Greek (e.g., [θ], [ε]), or
modifications thereof. Also, there are 52 diacritics and 4 prosodic marks.
IPA is a vital tool for scientists since it helps depict the exact
pronunciation of a word, and it simplifies the spelling of words which are
written in alphabets that are “difficult” for many people, such as Chinese
and Arabic: e.g., Chinese 树 (=tree)  /ʃu/ (shù).
.

Fig. 1-5: Example of the International Phonetic Alphabet (Omniglot)

14 Chapter 1

1.6.2. Phonology
Phonology [from Greek “foní” (=voice) and “lóγos” (=speech)] deals with
the study of the phonemes of a particular language at levels beneath a
word (e.g., syllable, onset, articulatory gestures, articulatory features, and
mora) or at any level in which the structure of a sound transmits linguistic
meaning. Phonemes (opposed to phones) are sounds that, if swapped with
other sounds, change the meaning of the word: e.g., /θʌm/ (thumb) vs.
/dʌm/ (dumb). Words that are differentiated in only one element (here,
phonemes) are called minimal pairs. In general, phonology examines how
sounds function in a particular language.
There is a big difference between phonetics and phonology. Let us
take some examples from English words to understand this difference.
Two speakers can pronounce the English word “pin” as [phɪn] and [pɪn]; in
the first case, the /p/ is aspirated, whereas in the second it is plain.
However, in this example, we do not have two different linguistic signs
(words) but the same sign. In fact, [ph] and [p] are two different sounds of
an abstract unit called phoneme (here, /p/). Phonemes cannot be heard;
they are units created for linguistic analysis. The sounds [ph] and [p],
which could be roughly described as “subcategories” of the phoneme /p/,
are called allophones. Allophones cannot form minimal pairs since they
depict different representations of the same phoneme. In contrast, two
phonemes might form minimal pairs. For example, the phonemes /p/ and
/d/ create the minimal pair /pɪn/ - /dɪn/, which consists of two different
words.
In sum, phonetics takes all the characteristics of sounds (even
smaller ones that are not perceivable through hearing) into account in
order to understand how they are articulated, while phonology only
considers characteristics that have a clear importance. The phonological
transliteration of a word is included in slashes (/word/), while the phonetic
transliteration is included in brackets ([word]).

1.6.3. Morphology
Morphology [from Greek “morfí” (=shape, form) + “lóγos” (= speech)]
studies the different forms of words during speech. In particular, it studies
conjugations and the ways that words are created, such as derivation and
composition.
So, what forms are studied in morphology? As we saw before,
words might have more than one meaning. Also, they might have different
forms: for instance, the word “day” also has the form “days”, and the verb
 Introduction to Linguistics 15

“visit” also has the form “visited”. If we look for words in the dictionary,
there is always a particular form for them, which is called a lexical form;
in languages that mark grammatical cases, the lexical forms of adjectives
and nouns are in the singular number and the nominative case.
Words can be analyzed in smaller units: “un-like”, “dog-s”,
“receiv-ed”, and “do-ing”. These units are the smallest meaningful
components of language, which are called morphemes. A morpheme can
stand by itself and function independently as a word: e.g., “town”, “girl”,
and “happy”. In this case, the morpheme is considered to be a root; it is a
word without an embedded morpheme: e.g., “town-s” (“town”: root),
“girl-ish” (“girl”: root), and “un-happy” (“happy”: root). A root might be a
lexical unit (e.g., “love” as in “love-ly”) or not (e.g., “rupt” as in “cor-
rupt”). The word “unbreakable” consists of three morphemes: “un-”,
“break” (root) and “-able”. In the last example, the morphemes “un-” and
“-able” cannot stand alone (they do not have a meaning by themselves)
and, therefore, they have to be combined with roots in order to shape the
meaning of a word. Morphemes that can stand alone are called free
morphemes, whereas those that cannot stand alone are called bound
morphemes.
Free morphemes can be divided into lexical and functional
morphemes. Lexical morphemes are ordinary words (nouns, verbs, and
adverbs) that carry information about the content of the message (e.g.,
“dog”, “house”, “work”, “invite”, “drink”, and “today”); these words can be
easily used during communication. Functional morphemes are a language’s
functional words, such as prepositions (e.g., “to”, “in”), conjunctions (e.g.,
“and”, “because”), articles (e.g., “the”, “a/an”), and pronouns (e.g., “it”,
“theirs”) that modify the meaning of a word.
Subcategories of bound morphemes are derivational and
inflectional morphemes. Derivational morphemes can change the semantic
meaning of a word or the part of speech: e.g., “like”  “dis-like” (“like” ≠
“dislike”), “happy”  “happ-iness” (the adjective “happy” can become a
noun, “happiness”). Inflectional morphemes modify a noun’s number,
gender, and case or a verb’s number, person, mood, aspect, and tense: e.g.,
“boy”  “boy-s” (SING.  PLUR.); “wait”  “wait-ed” (present simple
 past simple).
Root should not be confused with stem. As we saw before, a root is
a morpheme by itself and cannot be separated into smaller meaningful
parts. A stem consists minimally of a root, but it might take the form of a
root plus derivational morphemes; inflectional morphemes may be added
to a stem. For instance, in the word, “dislike”, “like” is a root and a stem
16 Chapter 1

together, while “dislike” is a stem, which might take the forms “dislike-s”
or “dislike-d”, etc.
The morphemes that can be attached to a word stem to create new
words or word forms are named affixes. The three most common affixes
are prefixes, suffixes, and infixes. Prefixes are placed before the stem of the
word: e.g., “dis-appear”, “inter-language”, and “down-town”. Suffixes are
placed after the word stem: e.g., “mov-able”, “like-ly”, and “help-ful”.
Infixes are rare in several languages, including English, and they are
placed inside the word stem: e.g., “cup-s-ful”, “narc-o-lepsy”, and “passer-
s-by”.

Lexical
Free
Functional
Morphemes
Derivational
Bound
Inflectional

Fig. 1-6: Main subdivisions of morphemes

1.6.3.1. Allomorph

Allomorph is one of the main terms that someone might come across when
studying morphology. It refers to the different forms of a morpheme that
do not differentiate meaning, and they are used as supplements (i.e., the
presence of one of them excludes the presence of another). Often, it is easy
to predict which allomorph to use because there are particular rules. What
are the plural allomorphs of the following English words: “bus” (/bʌs/),
“cat” (/kæt/), and “pen” (/pen/)? The answer is “bus-es” (/bʌs-əz/) because
“bus” ends in /s/, “cat-s” (/kæt-s/) because “cat” ends in a voiceless sound,
and “pen-s” (/pen-z/) because “pen” ends in a voiced sound. Therefore, the
plural in English has three allomorphs. In the above examples, the
allomorphs depend on phonological processes that have particular rules.
However, some allomorphs are predetermined and, therefore, do not
depend on any rule. For instance, “child” becomes “children” in the plural
 Introduction to Linguistics 17

as a remnant of an older form of language, or the plural of some words––

mostly loan-words from Latin and Greek––have kept their conjugation
from their “original” language: e.g., “vertebra”  “vertebrae” and
“criterion”  “criteria”.

1.6.3.2. Free variation, zero, and discontinued morpheme

It is important to note that some morphemes are found in free variation:

that is, two or more morphemes can be used freely according to the
speaker’s choice. For example, the plural of the word “curriculum” is
either “curriculums” or “curricula”. Free variation exists because language
systems evolve. Two variations might co-exist in a particular period, but
one of them might displace the other and become dominant.
Changes in zero morphemes are not visible. For example, both the
singular and the plural forms of the noun “sheep” are the same (“sheep”
and “sheep”). Similarly, both the present simple and the past simple tenses
of the verb “hit” are the same (“hit” and “hit”).

Plural Past Tense

sheep + ᴓ hit + ᴓ
tiger + s visit + ed

A discontinued morpheme is a rare type in which a morpheme occupies

two positions in a sentence. In the sentence, “turn the light on”, we can see
that the preposition “on”, which is an essential constituent of the phrasal
verb “turn on”, is located in another position, and not next to the form
“turn”.

1.6.4. Syntax
While morphology deals with the structure of words, syntax [from Greek
“sin” (= together) + “táksi” (= arrangement)] is interested in the relationship
between words and the way they are combined to create larger meaningful
units, such as phrases and sentences. In some theories, e.g., transformational
grammar (Noam Chomsky), syntax is related to grammar. However, in
other theories, it is seen as equal to other levels of linguistic analysis.
Syntaxeme refers to the minimal semantico-syntactical element of a
language. We can detect syntaxemes according to their (a) categorical
semantics in the world, (b) morphological form, and (c) function in a
sentence.
18 Chapter 1

The lecturer delivers a lecture

In the above sentence, we can replace “lecturer” with “student” or

“professor” and still keep the meaning of the sentence. However, if we
replace “lecturer” with “house” or “window”, the sentence becomes
ungrammatical. This is because, in the second case, we have used words
from different categorical semantic classes (specifically, we have used
inanimate words). Categorical semantic class refers to words that share a
semantic feature: e.g., inanimate nouns (including humans and animals,
etc.) vs. animate nouns (including objects), static verbs (e.g., “know” and
“like”) vs. dynamic verbs (e.g., “run” and “move”).

The mother brings her son to school.

Laziness leads the researcher to trouble.

In the above sentences, the two syntaxemes “to school” and “to
trouble” have the same morphological form, but they differ in meaning.
Thus, categorical semantic class is a non-morphological category because
syntaxemes may have similar morphological forms but different meanings.
According to their function, syntaxemes can be (a) free: not
depend on the context as in the case of news titles; (b) conventional:
constitute a component of a sentence, e.g., as a grammatical subject (“Life
is beautiful”), a predicate (“Life is beautiful”), or a modifier (“Life is
beautiful for everyone”); and (c) bound: constitute components of a phrase
(verb, noun, and adverb, etc.)

1.6.4.1. Lexical (syntactic) categories

In order to investigate the syntax of a sentence/phrase, we need to

formulate rules for a sum of words that have similar syntactical behavior
rather than for every single word.

The driver gave me a cigarette

In the above sentence, we can identify two words that have the
same syntactical behavior, “the” and “a”. Specifically, they both belong to
the same part of speech: they are articles. In linguistics, lexical (or
syntactic) categories is preferred instead of the term, part of speech; these
words do not just correspond to lexemes, but they also add grammatical
value: e.g., they may indicate the number, the gender, or the case of a
noun.
 Introduction to Linguistics 19

Therefore, the identification of lexical categories is important in

syntax. It has to be added that lexical categories differ from language to
language; for example, Russian and Sanskrit lack articles. Also, some
languages do not make distinctions between lexical categories. For
example, in Greek, nouns differ from verbs since the former have the
characteristics of number, gender, and case, whereas the latter have the
characteristics of number, mood, voice, aspect, and tense: e.g., “(i) aγápi”
(= the love); singular, feminine, and nominative vs. “aγapó” (= I love);
singular, indicative, active voice, continuous aspect, and present simple.
Nevertheless, in English, the word “love” might refer to two different
lexical categories (noun and verb).
The elements of lexical categories might have a lexical or a
grammatical meaning. Lexical categories theoretically include infinite
words that could be nouns, verbs, or adjectives, etc. Thus, these categories
are called open classes. Lexical categories also include a number of words
such as conjunctions and prepositions, etc., which accept new “members”
infrequently; therefore, these categories are called closed classes. The
words included in closed classes are not necessarily independent
morphemes (e.g., “to” and “of”), especially for inflectional languages. For
instance, in Spanish, gender is divided into masculine and feminine, and it
appears only as a morpheme at the end of words: e.g., “un-a person-a
hermos-a” (=a beautiful person). These grammatical features can also help
us understand the relationship between the noun and the verb:

Student wita nauczyciela

Nauczyciel wita studenta

The examples above come from Polish, a highly inflectional

language. The first sentence means “the student greets the teacher”. The
nominative case of the subject “student” shows the subject (here, student)
who acts (here, greets), while the accusative case of the word
“nauczyciela” shows the object that the action goes to (here, the teacher).
The second sentence means “the teacher greets the student”. So, here, the
subject is the teacher who greets the student (object). To that end,
grammatical cases are essential to understand “who” acts, and to “whom”
or “what”.
Moreover, these categories have an impact on the semantics of
words. For instance, in Greek, the category of aspect is crucial for the
meaning of a word and, consequently, the meaning of a sentence. For
instance, “épe-z-a” (έπαιζα) means “I was playing”, while “épe-ks-a”
(έπαιξα) means “I played”. In this case, the differentiation in aspect
 20 Chapter 1

changes the tense of the verb; in the first case, it is past continuous, while
in the second case, it is past simple.

Verbs
Interje-
Nouns
ctions

Conjun- Lexical Adjecti-

ctions categories ves

Preposi-
Adverbs
tions
Pro-
nouns

Fig. 1-7: The lexical categories of English

1.6.4.2. Phrase

A phrase is a group of words that works as a constituent in a sentence’s

syntax. A phrase is not a sentence because it is not a complete idea with a
subject, a verb, and a predicate (e.g., “best friend” and “for twenty years”).
Its function is to add additional meaning to the sentence. The majority of
the phrases contain a keyword, which is the central constituent of the
phrase. This keyword is the head of the phrase, and it might stand alone or
accompanied by other elements: the dependents. In the phrase, “boiling
hot water”, the head is the noun “water”. According to the distribution and
their syntactical function, we can place a phrase in one of the following
categories:

 Noun phrases (NF): their head is a noun, and they function as

nouns, e.g., “This house is located in a small village.”

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