STRUCTURE OF

L ANGUAGE
 STUCTURE OF
L A N G UAG E

“Language is a symbol system

based on pure or arbitrary
conventions; infinitely extendable
and modifiable according to the
changing needs and conditions of
the speakers” – Robins

“Language is a purely human and

non-instinctive method of
communicating ideas, emotions
Speaking involves transforming deep structure and desires by means of a system
(meaning) into surface structure (grammatical sentences) of voluntarily produced symbols” -
Sapir
WORD CL ASSES
R E F E R S TO A G O U P O F WO R D S W H I C H H AV E
SIMILAR FUNCTIONS.

Word classes Example

Verb drive, grow, sing, think
Noun brother, car, David, house, London
Determiner a, an, my, some, the
Adjetive big, foolish, happy, talented, tidy
Adverb happily, recently, soon, then, there
Preposition at, in, of, over, with
Conjunction and, because, but, if, or
 Morphological criterion
The singular form criterion is used in the heading because
what is at stake is simply whether a given word allow
grammatical suffixes or not.

Examples.
- Dog barked “The dog barked”
The suffix – signals the animal doing the barking
- Cat scratched dog “The cat scratched the dog”
It works as direct object suffix – which marks the animal
being scratched
- Peter gave dog bone “Peter gave the dog a bone”
It has its oblique object suffix – which mark the recipient of
the bone
 I N VA R I A B L E
WO R D S .
Based on the previous
examples, there are English nouns typically
take a plural ending –
grammatical suffixes which fish-fishes, cat-cats and
means the suffixes in the dog-dogs.
ending of the word (head), Some nouns in English
have the relationship do not take a plural
between the noun and the suffix – for example
verb in a clause. sheep, deer - and are
said to be invariable.
M O R P H O - S Y N TA C T I C
CRITERION
T H E S E C R I T E R I A H AV E TO D O W I T H
INFLECTIONAL SUFFIXES.
THE SUFFIXES IN…
● Nouns are inflected for information about number and
case
● Verbs are inflected for information about tense, person
and number
● Adverbs and prepositions are not inflected
● English adjectives are not associated with number or
case, but many of them take suffixes signaling a greater
quantity of some property (for example bigger, biggest)

* inflectional suffixes express grammatical information, such

‘plural’ or -ing forms.
** Case is the relationship between the noun and the verb
in a clause which is signaled by different suffixes.
• a. Dogs bark “The dogs are barking”
Dogs is the subject but also plural,
and it has a different suffix, -s
• b. Peter gave bone dogs “Peter gave a
bone to the dogs” Dogs refers to
EXAMPLES
the recipient and is plural and it too
has a different suffix, -s

So, the suffixes signal information

about case and about number.
S Y N TA C T I C C R I T E R I O N
T H E S Y N TA C T I C C R I T E R I A F O R W O R D C L A S S E S
A R E B A S E D O N W H AT W O R D S A G I V E N W O R D
OCCURS WITH AND THE TYPES OF PHRASE IN
W H I C H A G I V E N WO R D O C C U R S .

A . T H E D O G S T O L E T H E T U R K E Y.
B. THE CHILDREN CHASED THE DOG.
C . T H E C O O K S AV E D N O S C R A P S F O R T H E D O G .
DOG occurs to the left of stole in (a), to the right of
chased in (b), and to the right of saved in (c) but separated
from it by the intervening word for.

DOG also occurs in a noun phrase and can be modified by

a word such as the – the dog stole the turkey – or by an
adjective – hungry dogs stole the turkey – or by the and
an adjective together –the hungry dogs stole the turkey.

Based on the example above, the given word in the noun

phrase can be occur anywhere by adding the article (for
some noun) or change the article with adjective (hungry
dogs).
❑A noun can occur in different positions (left and
right) in relation to the verb.
❑Noun allow an article to their left; but adjective
do not.
❑Some nouns can be pluralized, but adjective
cannot.
SEMANTIC CRITERION
W H AT W O R D S M E A N I T D E A L S W I T H
M E A N I N G ( D I C T I O N A RY A N D S P E A K E R ’ S
MEANING).

EXAMPLE :

• N O U N S A S W O R D S D E N OT I N G P E O P L E ,
P L AC E O R TH I NG S
• V E R B S A S W O R D S D E N OT I N G A N A C T I O N .

What speakers do with words it
refers to the principle that ‘when
speakers perform speech acts, they
also perform actions E.G:
Speakers ask, assert, issue
commands, describe, narrate, etc.
Speakers and writers pick what are
called:
• Verbs when predicating,
• Adjectives when adding to the
information carried by a noun (that is,
when they perform the speech act of
modifying), and
• Adverbs when they add to the
information carried by a verb or an
adjective.
* Speech acts is any word or string of
words that express meaning.
Speakers use speech acts : to assert,
to refer to entities, to predicate ( is
expressed in the formula of
“someone saying something about a
person or thing”) and to issue a
command.
 SUMARY

The different classes of words – for example

nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions
– were traditionally defined by what they
denoted – people, places and things (nouns),
action (verbs) and properties (adjectives). This
definition is inadequate although meaning still
has an important part to play.
 SUMARY
Reliable definitions are based on formal criteria –
morphological (does a given word take inflectional suffixes
or is it invariable?), morpho-syntactic (does given word
take suffixes having to do with person and number, or with
case?) and syntactic (where in a phrase or clause does a
given word occur?). Once formal criteria have been set up,
the connection between word classes and meaning can be
studied. This bear not just on what a given word or class
of words refers to but on what speakers and writers do.
SEMANTICS: THE
MEANINGS OF LANGUAGE
I S T H E S T U DY O F T H E M E A N I N G S
O F I N D I V I D UA L WO R D S A N D O F
LARGER UNITS SUCH AS PHRASES
AND SENTENCES. SEMANTICS IS
T H E S T U DY O F S E N T E N C E
M E A N I N G ; P R AG M AT I C S I S T H E
S T U DY O F S E N T E N C E M E A N I N G I N
CONTEXT
SEMANTIC CHALLENGES IN
SECOND-LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
First is the process of translating—finding
words (lexical items) in the second language
that correspond to those already known in the
first.
- The second challenge is learning words
for ideas and concepts that are new in the
second language.
- The third challenge involves similar
words that are in both languages whose
meanings differ in small or large ways.
THANK YOU!!