Formal Properties of Language

Grammar

• Morphology

• Syntax

• Semantics

Morphology

• Is concerned with how phonemes are combined by language into larger units

• Words: one or more morphemes

Morphological Example

• Cow

• Cow- boy

• Affixes: bound morphemes:

• dis --- dis-like

Syntax

• rules that determine how words should be combined to make sense to speakers of a language

• (English) word order critical for meaning (you, are, and there)

• There you are• You are there• Are you there?

In Romance languages

• Order of words not important

• Spanish:

• Tu estabas ahi

• You were there

Mandarin, Chinese

• Meaning primarily determined by tone:

• Ma

• High= Mother

• Rising=horse

• Falling=scolding

Exceptions to syntax rules

Eat

Ate

eated

Morphological Analysis

• Morphology: the analysis of the structure of words

• Morphemes=words• Cat or Cat-S

• /P/ /I/ /N/ = PIN

Roots (stems) and Affixes

Roots: they have meaning in themselves cat,good, happy Affixes:Are attached to roots (express grammatical

meanings) un-, -s, -ing, -lyThree kinds of affixes: Prefixes: un-happy suffixes: happy-ness and infixes

Morphological Typologies

• Classification of languages according to how they structure words out of morphemes

• Isolating languages: few morphemes, simple method: prefix and suffix (English)

• Agglutinating languages: words containing many morphemes, highly regular rules (Turkish)

• Synthetic or polysynthetic: Words containing many morphemes, very complex rules (Inuktitut)

Qasirrsarrvigssarsingitluinarpug

“someone did not find a completely suitable resting place”

Grammatical meanings

• Tense (time of the event’s occurrence)

• I visited the zoo

• Aspect (manner in which an events occurs)

• I am visiting the zoo

• Mode (likelihood of an event’s occurrence)

• I could visit the zoo

Syntax

• Is an analytical tool that linguists utilize to study the structure of sentences, including construction of phrases, clauses, and the order of words

• Example

• The dog chased the cat

• The cat chased the dog

Semantics

• The study of meaning in language, including the analysis of meanings of words and sentences

• Types of meanings produced by language: situational, social and cultural

Language rules over regularalizations

• Past tense of regular verbs (english)by adding ed as in worked

• I gave I gived

• I took I taked

Linguistic interference

• Idiomatic expressions

• En este momento (literal translation) at this moment (Instead of now)

• Drive down the parkway and park on the driveway.

• Chop the tree down and cut the pieces up.

• His nose is running and his feet smell.

Grammatical meanings

Tense: I visited the zoo

aspect