Understanding Linguistics: Phonology, Morphology, Syntax & Semantics

Linguistic Definitions: Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics

Phonology: The study of the sound system of a particular language.

Morphology: The study of the form and formation of words in a particular language, including the arrangement of sounds into minimal meaningful units (morphemes) and the classification of words into parts of speech.

Syntax: The study of how words are arranged into higher units, such as phrases, clauses, and sentences, focusing on word order.

Semantics: The study of meaning.

Pragmatics: The study of language in use, including the function of language in its social context, covering a wide range of topics.

Implicature and Grammaticalization

Implicature: What the speaker means or implies rather than what he literally says.

Grammaticalization: Part of the study of language change that is concerned with how lexical items and constructions evolve in certain linguistic contexts.

Semantic Processes: Divergence, Generalization, and Bleaching

Semantics: Source meaning transforms into target meaning. Both can coexist, which is divergence. For example, go as a lexical verb and as part of be going to.

Semantic generalization refers to the early stages of a process of grammaticalization. Semantic bleaching is the loss of semantic content during grammaticalization.

Metaphor and Metonymy

Metonymy: Using words for the near neighbors of the things you mean, such as part-whole or cause-effect relationships.

Metaphor: Using words for the look-alikes of what you mean, based on similarity or analogy.

Syntactic Reanalysis

Syntax: Reanalysis: Change in the structure of an expression or class of expressions. For example, hamburger: hamburg-er becoming ham-burger.

‘A norange’ becomes ‘an orange.’ This reanalysis involves the use of 'an' as an article, evolving it into two words.

Phonological Processes: Erosion and Fusion

Phonology: Erosion: A process in which a word or part of it disappears. This change goes from a morphologically heavier form to a lighter one and is related to pronunciation. Example: nama becoming nam.

Fusion: Words that become one. Examples: Going to, hellova becoming hell of a.

Gonna = fusion + erosion (be + verb + ing + to). The idea is that, over time, what used to be considered a normal construction created through syntactic rules is now considered a single word or morpheme.

Grammaticalization Stages

Grammaticalization, phases:

• Stage I: Initial stage. The item shows its original source meaning.
• Stage II: Bridging context. Semantic change takes place at this point: source meaning is still there, but new interpretations emerge.
• Stage III: Switch context. The original meaning is no longer possible. Source and target are incompatible.