LINGUISTIC AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Linguistics is the study of languages, and as such, is of great importance to language teachers.
Linguistics helps teachers convey the origins of words and languages, their historical
applications, and their modern day relevance. Combined, this approach to teaching language
helps students gain a better, more in-depth understanding of their assignments and work product
expectations.
Uses of Linguistics in Teaching

The use of linguistics in education is continuing to grow, and is often cross-disciplinary in

nature. Not only is it utilized by language instructors, it is also used in early childhood
development, psychology and anthropology education, as well. Linguistics is not only the study
of language, but also includes the evolution and historical context of language, speech and
memory development. It includes the structure and meaning of speech, and of written languages
as well as an understanding of the context in which certain words are used.
Foreign Languages

When teaching a foreign language, linguistics is important to a language teacher in that

providing historical context to word origins can help students better comprehend the language.
This is especially important when it comes to comprehending the differences among
conversational speech, formal speech, and abstract rules about word usage in different cultures.
This can actually overlap into regional dialects within the same country.
English Language

Linguistics is equally important to language teachers who provide instruction on the English
language. Linguistics helps students understand regional dialects and colloquialisms. It also
helps students identify the origins of sayings and phrases that have evolved over time, but
sayings that may not have the same relevance or meaning in contemporary society. Linguistics
can also help guard against self-embarrassment, using words that are common, but have
historical context that may make them inappropriate or insulting in polite society.
Linguistics in Writing
When a language teacher provides instruction on writing and composition, understanding
linguistics is important in helping students compose material that has its intended effect. For
example, linguistics plays a role in making an argumentative essay compelling, if the writer can
harness their knowledge of word use to better solidify and present a position. Likewise, an
understanding of linguistics can help a creative writing student develop prose that speaks to the
reader's senses and transports them to a different state of reality.

In a society in which people communicate more than ever before via electronic means,
composition, meaning and even true exchange of ideas through the written word can be lacking.
Teaching and studying linguistics provides the tools necessary to preserve and advance the art of
reading, writing and communication. This is essential in the educational arena, the workplace
and in society.
 VIEWS ABOUT LANGUAGE

Language, a system of conventional spoken, manual, or written symbols by means of

which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express
themselves. The functions of language include communication, the expression of identity, play,
imaginative expression, and emotional release.

Definitions of language

Many definitions of language have been proposed. Henry Sweet, an English phonetician and
language scholar, stated: “Language is the expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds
combined into words. Words are combined into sentences, this combination answering to that of
ideas into thoughts.” The American linguists Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager formulated
the following definition: “A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a
social group cooperates.” Any succinct definition of language makes a number of
presuppositions and begs a number of questions. The first, for example, puts excessive weight on
“thought,” and the second uses “arbitrary” in a specialized, though legitimate, way.A number of
considerations (marked in italics below) enter into a proper understanding of language as a
subject:Every physiologically and mentally typical person acquires in childhood the ability to
make use, as both sender and receiver, of a system of communication that comprises a
circumscribed set of symbols (e.g., sounds, gestures, or written or typed characters). In spoken
language, this symbol set consists of noises resulting from movements of certain organs within
the throat and mouth. In signed languages, these symbols may be hand or body movements,
gestures, or facial expressions. By means of these symbols, people are able to impart
information, to express feelings and emotions, to influence the activities of others, and to
comport themselves with varying degrees of friendliness or hostility toward persons who make
use of substantially the same set of symbols.

Different systems of communication constitute different languages; the degree of difference

needed to establish a different language cannot be stated exactly. No two people speak exactly
alike; hence, one is able to recognize the voices of friends over the telephone and to keep distinct
a number of unseen speakers in a radio broadcast. Yet, clearly, no one would say that they speak
different languages. Generally, systems of communication are recognized as different languages
if they cannot be understood without specific learning by both parties, though the precise limits
of mutual intelligibility are hard to draw and belong on a scale rather than on either side of a
definite dividing line. Substantially different systems of communication that may impede but do
not prevent mutual comprehension are called dialects of a language. In order to describe in detail
the actual different language patterns of individuals, the term idiolect, meaning the habits of
expression of a single person, has been coined.
Typically, people acquire a single language initially—their first language, or native tongue, the
language used by those with whom, or by whom, they are brought up from infancy. Subsequent
“second” languages are learned to different degrees of competence under various conditions.
Complete mastery of two languages is designated as bilingualism; in many cases—such as
upbringing by parents using different languages at home or being raised within a multilingual
community—children grow up as bilinguals. In traditionally monolingual cultures, the learning,
to any extent, of a second or other language is an activity superimposed on the prior mastery of
one’s first language and is a different process intellectually.
Language, as described above, is species-specific to human beings. Other members of the animal
kingdom have the ability to communicate, through vocal noises or by other means, but the most
important single feature characterizing human language (that is, every individual language),
against every known mode of animal communication, is its infinite productivity and creativity.
Human beings are unrestricted in what they can communicate; no area of experience is accepted
as necessarily incommunicable, though it may be necessary to adapt one’s language in order to
cope with new discoveries or new modes of thought. Animal communication systems are by
contrast very tightly circumscribed in what may be communicated. Indeed, displaced reference,
the ability to communicate about things outside immediate temporal and spatial contiguity,
which is fundamental to speech, is found elsewhere only in the so-called language of bees. Bees
are able, by carrying out various conventionalized movements (referred to as bee dances) in or
near the hive, to indicate to others the locations and strengths of food sources. But food sources
are the only known theme of this communication system. Surprisingly, however, this system,
nearest to human language in function, belongs to a species remote from humanity in the animal
kingdom. On the other hand, the animal performance superficially most like human speech, the
mimicry of parrots and of some other birds that have been kept in the company of humans, is
wholly derivative and serves no independent communicative function. Humankind’s nearest
relatives among the primates, though possessing a vocal physiology similar to that of humans,
have not developed anything like a spoken language. Attempts to teach sign language to
chimpanzees and other apes through imitation have achieved limited success, though the
interpretation of the significance of ape signing ability remains controversial.
In most accounts, the primary purpose of language is to facilitate communication, in the sense of
transmission of information from one person to
another. However, sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic studies have drawn attention to a range of
other functions for language. Among these is the use of language to express a national or local
identity (a common source of conflict in situations of multiethnicity around the world, such as in
Belgium, India, and Quebec). Also important are the “ludic” (playful) function of language—
encountered in such phenomena as puns, riddles, and crossword puzzles—and the range of
functions seen in imaginative or symbolic contexts, such as poetry, drama, and religious
expression.
Language interacts with every aspect of human life in society, and it can be understood only if it
is considered in relation to society. This article attempts to survey language in this light and to
consider its various functions and the purposes it can and has been made to serve. Because each
language is both a working system of communication in the period and in
the community wherein it is used and also the product of its history and the source of its future
development, any account of language must consider it from both these points of view.
The science of language is known as linguistics. It includes what are generally distinguished as
descriptive linguistics and historical linguistics. Linguistics is now a highly technical subject; it
embraces, both descriptively and historically, such major divisions
as phonetics, grammar (including syntax and morphology), semantics, and pragmatics, dealing in
detail with these various aspects of language.
 ACQUISITION OF LANGUAGE 
First language acquisition refers to the way children learn their native language. Second
language acquisition refers to the learning of another language or languages besides the native
language.

For children learning their native language, linguistic competence develops in stages, from
babbling to one word to two word, then telegraphic speech. Babbling is now considered the
earliest form of language acquisition because infants will produce sounds based on what
language input they receive. One word sentences (holophrastic speech) are generally
monosyllabic in consonant-vowel clusters. During two word stage, there are no syntactic or
morphological markers, no inflections for plural or past tense, and pronouns are rare, but the
intonation contour extends over the whole utterance. Telegraphic speech lacks function words
and only carries the open class content words, so that the sentences sound like a telegram.

Three theories
The three theories of language acquisition: imitation, reinforcement and analogy, do not
explain very well how children acquire language. Imitation does not work because children
produce sentences never heard before, such as "cat stand up table." Even when they try to
imitate adult speech, children cannot generate the same sentences because of their limited
grammar. And children who are unable to speak still learn and understand the language, so that
when they overcome their speech impairment they immediately begin speaking the language.
Reinforcement also does not work because it actually seldomly occurs and when it does, the
reinforcement is correcting pronunciation or truthfulness, and not grammar. A sentence such as
"apples are purple" would be corrected more often because it is not true, as compared to a
sentence such as "apples is red" regardless of the grammar. Analogy also cannot explain
language acquisition. Analogy involves the formation of sentences or phrases by using other
sentences as samples. If a child hears the sentence, "I painted a red barn," he can say, by
analogy, "I painted a blue barn." Yet if he hears the sentence, "I painted a barn red," he cannot
say "I saw a barn red." The analogy did not work this time, and this is not a sentence of
English.

Acquisitions
Phonology: A child's error in pronunciation is not random, but rule-governed. Typical
phonological rules include: consonant cluster simplification (spoon becomes poon), devoicing
of final consonants (dog becomes dok), voicing of initial consonants (truck becomes druck),
and consonant harmony (doggy becomes goggy, or big becomes gig.)

Morphology: An overgeneralization of constructed rules is shown when children treat irregular

verbs and nouns as regular. Instead of went as the past tense of go, children use goed because
the regular verbs add an -ed ending to form the past tense. Similarly, children use gooses as the
plural of goose instead of geese, because regular nouns add an -s in the plural.

The "Innateness Hypothesis" of child language acquisition, proposed by Noam Chomsky,

states that the human species is pre-wired to acquire language, and that the kind of language is
also determined. Many factors have led to this hypothesis such as the ease and rapidity of
language acquisition despite impoverished input as well as the uniformity of languages. All
children will learn a language, and children will also learn more than one language if they are
exposed to it. Children follow the same general stages when learning a language, although the
linguistic input is widely varied.

The poverty of the stimulus states that children seem to learn or know the aspects of grammar
for which they receive no information. In addition, children do not produce sentences that
could not be sentences in some human language. The principles of Universal Grammar
underlie the specific grammars of all languages and determine the class of languages that can
be acquired unconsciously without instruction. It is the genetically determined faculty of the
left hemisphere, and there is little doubt that the brain is specially equipped for acquisition of
human language.

The "Critical Age Hypothesis" suggests that there is a critical age for language acquisition
without the need for special teaching or learning. During this critical period, language learning
proceeds quickly and easily. After this period, the acquisition of grammar is difficult, and for
some people, never fully achieved. Cases of children reared in social isolation have been used
for testing the critical age hypothesis. None of the children who had little human contact were
able to speak any language once reintroduced into society. Even the children who received
linguistic input after being reintroduced to society were unable to fully develop language skills.
These cases of isolated children, and of deaf children, show that humans cannot fully acquire
any language to which they are exposed unless they are within the critical age. Beyond this
age, humans are unable to acquire much of syntax and inflectional morphology. At least for
humans, this critical age does not pertain to all of language, but to specific parts of the
grammar.

Second Language Acquisition Teaching Methods

Grammar-translation: the student memorizes words, inflected words, and syntactic rules and
uses them to translate from native to target language and vice versa; most commonly used
method in schools because it does not require teacher to be fluent; however, least effective
method of teaching
Direct method: the native language is not used at all in the classroom, and the student must
learn the new language without formal instruction; based on theories of first language
acquisition
Audio-lingual: heavy use of dialogs and audio, based on the assumption that language learning
is acquired mainly through imitation, repetition, and reinforcement; influenced by psychology
Natural Approach: emphasis on vocabulary and not grammar; focus on meaning, not form; use
of authentic materials instead of textbook
Silent Way: teachers remain passive observers while students learn, which is a process of
personal growth; no grammatical explanation or modeling by the teacher
Total Physical Response: students play active role as listener and performer, must respond to
imperative drills with physical action
Suggestopedia: students always remain comfortable and relaxed and learn through
memorization of meaningful texts, although the goal is understanding
Community Language Learning: materials are developed as course progresses and teacher
understands what students need and want to learn; learning involves the whole person and
language is seen as more than just communication
Community Language Teaching: incorporates all components of language and helps students
with various learning styles; use of communication-based activities with authentic materials,
needs of learner are taken into consideration when planning topics and objectives

Four skill areas

The four skill areas of learning a foreign language need to be addressed consistently and
continually. Good lesson plans incorporate all four: Listening, Speaking, Reading (and
Vocabulary), and Writing (and Grammar). Native speakers do not learn the skill areas
separately, nor do they use them separately, so they shouldn’t be taught separately. However, it
is easy to fall into the trap of teaching about the language, instead of actually teaching the
language.
 KRASHEN’S MONITOR MODEL
The monitor model is an interesting set of hypotheses that were developed by Stephen Krashen
in the late 1970s. The monitor model is interesting because some of its premises have been
disproved, but during the 80s and 90s the monitor model was adopted by some educational
systems much to their chagrin. However, this is not to say that this theory is unusable for the
language educator, but what is taken from the theory and applied to the classroom must be
weighted accordingly.

Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis

The origin of this hypothesis is completely flawed and science has disproved the basis, but if
examined from a different aspect, can be beneficial to instruction.

Krashen saw acquisition as subconscious learning that was facilitated by something Chomsky

had proposed in universal grammar (UG Theory) called the  language acquisition device (LAD).
The LAD was a feature in the brain that helped people learn languages, but Chomsky would
have to later admit that there was no such thing.

If acquisition was subconscious, then the learning part of the hypothesis was what actually
happens in the classroom. Since the educator is making the students consciously aware of the
information, this was considered learning which is not as affective as acquisition.

Although there is no LAD as Krashen had considered when penning this hypothesis, many
researchers do note there can be a difference between subconscious learning (acquisition) and
conscious learning (learning).

How Not To Use

 Explicit Teaching Needed: The educational systems that adopted the monitor model
were damaged by acquisition-learning hypothesis because grammar was not explicitly
taught. As a result, writing suffered immensely because direct instruction of grammar is
essential for academic/school writing.

Find out more information on how to not to use Monitor Model in our online SLA course. Get
information and discounts on our course HERE.

How To Use

 Learning: Teenagers, young adults, and adults can really benefit from actually learning
strategies and explicit grammar instruction. Writing is one of the four skills that benefits
most from grammar instruction in older students, so make it part of the curriculum.

Find out more information on how to use Monitor Model in our online SLA course. Get
information and discounts on our course HERE.
Monitor Hypothesis

The monitor hypothesis involves the acquisition center being monitored by the learning system.
So the acquisition center would produce language and what the student is/has been learning will
allow the student to monitor output. If the output matches, then no problem, but if the language
produced is not correct, then the monitoring of the learning system will help correct the
acquisition center.

However, Krashen warns that over-monitoring can cause language production to be more geared
towards accuracy than fluency.

How To Use

 Accuracy/Fluency: Krashen is correct in stating too much monitoring will impede

fluency at the benefit of being accurate. A balance should always be central as being too
far on either end of the spectrum is not good for communication.

Natural Order Hypothesis

Krashen states that there is a natural order to acquiring language rules.

Morpheme order studies covers this in more detail along with strategies for use.

Input Hypothesis

The input hypothesis revolves around students receiving an appropriate amount of input.
However the hypothesis believes it is not just input, but comprehensible input that is easily
understood by the learner that will deliver the grammar needed.

How Not To Use

 Adults: Input and grammar acquisition works for young learners as they have the ability
pick up language with proper interaction, but adults do not possess the ability to learn
naturally like children. Instead, adults use cognitive strategies to learn complex systems
like grammar and benefit from well structure taught input.

How To Use

 Proper Input: This can be utilized across all instruction and not just grammar. Students
not only need input, but they need input that is easy to understand. Teaching language or
teaching materials that are too high for the students do little to progress their language
ability or understanding. This is a major key to instruction. Every educator needs to put
this near the top of his list of teaching beliefs.

Affective Filter Hypothesis

This hypothesis suggests affective filter is a mental screen that filters input from reaching the
language acquisition center in the brain. There are many things that can trigger the mental filter
such as conscious learning, motivation, stress, classroom environment, confidence, etc…

How Not To Use

 Broken Record:  As stated before, conscious learning of grammatical features is not bad.
Conscious learning is beneficial for older learners with the ability to use cognitive
reasoning. For young learners, conscious learning will not be as beneficial.

How To Use

 Factors Decrease Learning: Although there is no actual filter in the brain, it is well

documented that issues such as motivation, stress, classroom temperature, confidence,
etc… do contribute to a decrease in learning. Any educator who has taught in a
sweltering classroom will understand this point. The educator should try to address as
many of these issues as possible as environment has a big influence on learning.
 IMPLICATIONS OF THE THEORIES FOR TEACHING

 Introduction

In this paper the concept of teacher development is well examined, and theories pertaining to it
are also linked to. There are some important terms that need clarification and defining before the
concept is explored in deep. The reasons why some terms are worth clarifying is the need for
shared understanding. The absence of shared (common) understanding threatens construct
validity, and difficulty in identifying teacher development process.

Development is a process that involves change from a primitive state to a more advanced one.
The United Nations Development Programme uses a more detailed definition and according to
them development is to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to the
resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to participate in the life of the
community. Human development can be viewed as freeing people from obstacles that affect their
ability to develop their own lives and communities. Development is about empowerment, it is
about people taking control of their own lives, expressing their own demands and finding their
own solutions to their problems Teacher development is a process whereby teachers’
professionality and/or professionalism may be considered to be enhanced (Evans, 2002). This is
to say that the process of teacher development is about both the status and attitude towards the
profession. Professionalism is about the status of the profession and in this regard it is about
developing teachers’ status professionally. Professionality is about the attitude towards the
profession and in this regard it is about developing positive attitude towards it. Evans (2002)
asserts that teacher development process may enhance the status of the profession as a whole and
improve teachers’ knowledge, skills, and practice.

A profession refers to an occupation that requires specialised education, knowledge, training and
ethics whose members earn their living from what they do and are expected to meet and maintain
common standards (WiseGeek, 2012). Generally a profession is an occupation, vocation and/or
high status career usually involving prolonged academic training, formal qualification and/or
membership of a profession or regulatory body.

The teaching profession not only ought to have the qualities but also strive to maintain them.
Teacher professional development is the acquisition of different perspectives and ideas, and the
incorporation of a wider vision of what teaching involves (Evans, 2002). Koda (2006) defined
teachers’ professional development as one component of school improvement involving teachers
seeking guidance through strategies such as clinical supervision. Generally professional
development for teachers is the process whereby teachers upgrade and improve their practices
whose end is not pre-determined.

A theory as defined by Chunck (2012) is a scientifically acceptable set of principles offered to

explain a phenomenon. A theory provides frameworks foe interpreting environmental
observation and serves as a bridge between research and education. Ary, Jacobs, and Sorensen
(2010) give characteristics of a theory which among others include:
- A theory should be able to explain observable factors relating to a particular problem.

- A theory should be consistent with observable facts and with the already established body of
knowledge.

- A theory should provide means for its verification.

- A theory should stimulate new discoveries and indicate further areas in need of investigation.

In teacher development, theories of learning are of concern. This is because in the teaching
profession much of the practice and development in the field borrow ideas from learning
theories.

2 Learning theories

Learning is an enduring change in behaviour, or the capacity to behave in a given fashion which
results from practice or other forms of experience (Chunk, 2012). Learning can also be looked at
as a relative permanent change of behaviour as a result of experience.

Learning theories are theories whose main concern is to link research with education. In other
words learning theories explain how learning and teaching processes should be and/or should
take place. As teachers deal with teaching and of equal importance learning of students, the
contribution of various learning theories to teacher development is with some detail given
hereunder.

Although theories differ in many ways, including their general assumptions and guiding
principles, many rest on a common foundation. These theories differ in how they predict that
learning occurs—in the processes of learning—and in what aspects of learning they stress. Thus,
some theories are oriented more toward basic learning and others toward applied learning and,
within that, in different content areas; some stress the role of development, others are strongly
linked with instruction; and some emphasize motivation.

2.1 Behavioural learning theories

Behavioural learning theories view learning as change in rate/frequency of occurrence, or form

of behaviour or response which occurs primarily as a function of environmental factors (Chunk,
2012). They also contend that learning involves the formation of associations between stimuli
and responses. Behaviourists explain learning in terms of observable phenomena, and reinforcing
consequences make the response more likely to occur whereas punishing consequences make it
less likely. The role of environment specifically how stimuli are arranged and presented and how
responses are reinforced are of most important. Motivation is the process whereby goal-directed
activities are instigated and sustained.
2.1.1 IMPLICATION OF THE BEHAVIOURAL LEARNING THEORIES

As environment properly arranged help learning to occur, teachers should prepare the
environment that will help learners to learn such as arranging activities that suit environment.
Teachers also need to help learners make practice of what they have learned. This is important as
learning is subject to the rate of occurrence of behaviour. The practicing is important for
strengthening the responses.

Learning should be reinforced. Students should therefore be given rewards. Teachers are to
reward any desired behaviour in learning. However to weaken the undesired behaviour learned,
teachers should apply punishment. In developing the profession of teaching, teachers have to
note that developing professionally has some benefits such as being able to help learners learn.
Increasing the knowledge base, being rewarded economically and developing/improving their
personal lives. This is to say teachers plan to develop professionally due to these observable
benefits as well.

2.2 Cognitive learning theories

Cognitive learning theorists stress the acquisition of knowledge and skills, formation of mental
structures and processing of information and beliefs (Chunk, 2012). To cognitivists, learning is
an internal mental phenomenon inferred from what people say and do. They contend that
learning best takes place by doing it (Aggarwal, 1994).

Cognitivists acknowledge the role of environmental conditions as influences on learning, but

teachers’ explanations and demonstrations of concepts serve as environmental inputs for
students. Practice of skills and correct feedback as needed promote learning. What students do
with information, how they attend to, rehearse, transform, code, store, and retrieve is critically
important. In general cognitivists suggest that learning takes place in the mind as is a result of
mental processes on the information received.

2.2.1 IMPLICATION OF THE COGNITIVE THEORIES OF LEARNING TO THE

DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHING

Teachers should organise the teaching materials in a way that the concept in them can easily be
acquired and processed by learners’ mind. Teachers need to use variety of teaching techniques.
This helps teachers lead students to explore the concepts from different angels. Observational
learning by Albert Bandura suggests that students learn by observing. Teachers therefore need to
be role models to their students.

Current learning builds upon the previous one. Teachers therefore should seek for students’ prior
knowledge before they launch new concepts. Teachers need to provide exercises and practices to
the learners. This is because students learn best in the course of doing exercises. Exercises help
to accommodate the information into the mind. Courses and topics should be divided into
subparts which can easily be understood by students. The small parts should be taught in such a
way that they reinforce each other.
2.3 Developmental theory of learning

This theory was put forward by Jean Piaget whose study focused on the development of children
understanding. He did this through observing them while talking and performing different
activities. His view was on how children`s minds work and develop has contributed a lot in
education. His particular insight was on the role of maturation in increasing capacity of children
to understand their world. It was recognized that, children cannot undertake certain tasks until
they are psychologically mature enough to do so (Atherton, 2011).

Piaget put forward some ideas relating on his study;

- Assimilation: The process by which a person takes material into their mind from the
environment, which may mean changing the evidence of their senses to make it fit

- Accomodation: The difference made to one's mind or concepts by the process of assimilation.

Note that assimilation and accommodation go together: you can't have one without the other

- Conservation: The realization that objects or sets of objects stay the same even when they are
changed about or made to look different.

- Egocentrism: the belief that you are the centre of the universe and everything revolves around.

- Schema (or scheme): The representation in the mind of a set of perceptions, ideas, And /or
actions, which go together (Atherton, 2011).

2.3.1 STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Jean Piaget believed that humans learn through the construction of one logical structure after
another. He also concluded that the logic of children and their modes of thinking are initially
entirely different from those of adults.

2.3.2 CONTRIBUTION OF DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES IN TEACHING AND

LEARNING;

- A teacher's planning should provide opportunities for both learner and teacher to obtain and use
information about progress towards learning goals. It also has to be flexible to respond to initial
and emerging ideas and skills. Planning should include strategies like; how learners will receive
feedback, how they will take part in assessing their learning and how they will be helped to make
further progress to ensure that learners understand the goals they are pursuing and the criteria
that will be applied in assessing their work (alternative assessment).

- Learner involvement: the learner is engaged as a partner and encouraged to take the driving
seat in learning so that they develop their own skills and awareness through self-assessment and
peer review as well as through constructive feedback from teacher
- In teaching and learning teachers should treat students according to their level of maturity .This
will enable learners to impart knowledge and skills compatible to their understanding ability. For
example our education system in Tanzania is 2-7-4-2-3+ .where 2 stands for preschool
education, 7 stands for primary education, 4 stands for ordinary level secondary education, 2
stands for advanced level secondary education and 3+ stands for tertiary education respectively
(MoEVT, 1995).This structure also reflects also the age of learners for example preschool
children can start at the age of 5-6 years the time where their is rapid language development.
Teachers of this level do so to meet this objective.

- Teaching should commence from simple to complex or from abstract to concrete as far as
development and maturity are concerned

2.4 Constructivism theories of learning

Constructivism is a theory of knowledge with roots in philosophy, and psychology. The founders
of this theory are : Vygotsky, Brunner and John Dewey, they believe that (1) knowledge is not
passively received but actively built up by the cognizing subject; (2) the function of cognition is
adaptive and serves the organization of the experiential world . In other words, "learning
involves constructing one's own knowledge from one's own experiences." Constructivist
learning, therefore, is a very personal endeavor, where by internalized concepts, rules, and
general principles may consequently be applied in a practical real-world context. Meaning that
humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and
their ideas i.e. students will learn best by trying to make sense of something on their own with
the teacher as a guide to help them along the way.

Hawkins (1994) said that knowledge is actively constructed by learners through interaction with
physical phenomenon and interpersonal exchanges. Mathew (1994) said that constructivist
teaching and constructivist learning are Oxymoronic terms meaning that they are two terms
which goes together but they are controversial to each other. In constructivist teaching the
teacher is required to enact agendas from outside the classroom that is it has to be of societal
imperative but intended to enrich the curriculum at classroom level. Bell (1993) describes four
forms of constructivist relationship between teacher and student these are;

Power on: This is a traditional approach of instruction where the teacher teaches and he/ then
allows students to construct new knowledge post teaching process.

Power of: This is also a traditional approach of instruction where the teacher ignores learning
opportunities in the course of teaching but students are told to take note of them to be explored
post learning process.

Power for: This is a democratic approach of teaching where the learner is freer to explore
physical environment so as to solve some problems and create new knowledge.

Power with: This is a democratic approach of teaching where learners have high opportunity in
the course of learning. It was contended that, constructivist teaching scheme has five phases
which are:
(i) Orientation: Focusing learners interest on a particular area for learning

(ii) Elicitation: Helping children become aware of their prior knowledge so that teacher can
know student range of ideas.

(iii) Restructuring ideas: Helping children become aware of an alternative point of view these

goes together with modifying, replacing or extending views.

(iv) Application of new idea: Reinforcing the newly constructed idea

(v). Review: Reflection on how learner`s ideas have changed (Methew,1994)

2.4.1 CONTRIBUTION OF CONSTRUCTIVISM THEORIES TO TEACHING AND

LEARNING

The theory has far-reaching consequences for cognitive development and learning as well as for
the practice of teaching in schools.

- Constructivism views each learner as a unique individual with unique needs and complex
backgrounds, teacher must help these students to attain their goals.

- Uniqueness and complexity of the learner encourages the teacher to utilize it as an integral part
of the learning process. Professional development should consider the important of using
learners experience in teaching and learning process

- Learners are challenged within close proximity to their current level of development. By
experiencing the successful completion of challenging tasks, learners gain confidence and
motivation to embark on more complex challenges Vygotsky call it as zone of proximal
development(ZPD) (Vygotsky, 1978). Teachers should encourage and accept student autonomy
and initiative. They should try to use raw data and primary sources, in addition to manipulative,
interactive, and physical materials. So that students are put in situations that might challenge
their previous conceptions and that will create contradictions that will encourage discussion
among them. In our teaching therefore we need to use some activities which originate from our
environment so that learning can be meaningful to students.

- Constructivist approach insists that instructors/ facilitator must help the learner to get to his or
her own understanding of the content i.e. teacher should encourage student critical thinking and
inquiry by asking them thoughtful, open-ended questions, and encourage them to ask questions
to each other. So that students can construct their own meaning when learning (Hawkins1994).

2.5 Information processing theory of learning

Ashcraft,(1994) contends that, information processing is a cognitive process which attempts to

explain how the mind functions in the learning process. With this theory more emphasis is on
how the information is processed than, how learning happens. The theory has three basic
components which are;
- Sensory register(SR)

- Short term memory (STM) or working memory

- Long term memory (LTM)

Sensory register

This is a stage, where the learner receives the information through senses and stores it in a short
tem memory. At this point the information stays for only a fraction of a second; this is because
this region is continuously bombarded by information which tends to replace the first
information (Shunk,1994).

Short term memory

The information registered at (SR) is then shunted to the short term memory, where its storage at
this region is facilitated by process called chunking and rehearsal. Information here stays for not
more than twenty seconds. If chunking and rehearsing does not occur within 20 seconds then the
information will lapse. This region has an ability of storing seven plus or minus two units of
information.

Long term memory

In order for the information to be available in a long term memory it must be transferred from
short term memory to long term memory by a process called encoding. At this point the new
knowledge is related to the prior knowledge stored in long term memory resulting into
persistence and meaningful learning by a process called spreading activation. Mental structures
called schema are involved in storage, organization and aiding of retrieval of information. Met
cognition is an awareness of structures and the process involved (Bigus, 2011).
 INFLUENCES OF THEORIES ON LANGUAGE TEACHING

Language. It’s all around us. It’s vital for our everyday existence.

And yet many of us find it challenging to pick up a new one.
The problem, we tell ourselves, is that we’re thinking too hard.
The solution, we say, is to be more like those kids that we once were when we learned our first
language. Simply absorbing things the way kids do without really thinking about the
language must surely be our best bet, we convince ourselves.
But here’s the thing. We’re not kids anymore and we never will be again.
We’re not going to have the same opportunities as we did in our native language where we were
in constant contact with mothers, fathers and siblings who corrected our every mistake (though a
girlfriend or boyfriend might compensate). Nor do most of us want to spend 18 years of our lives
studying a language just to achieve high school level fluency.
We don’t need to abandon the lessons we’ve taken from childhood language learning, but we
must surely temper them with something else. And that thing is theory.
Theory, that most highly condensed form of thought based on principles and evidence, can help
us as adults to excel in language learning in ways that would otherwise not be possible.
Of course, learning about language learning theory in no way needs to occupy the bulk of your
time. By devoting just a fraction of your time to theory right now, you’ll reap benefits far beyond
getting in an extra 10 minutes of studying. So without further ado, let’s start at the beginning.
 
 
7 Great Theories About Language Learning by Brilliant Thinkers
Theories of language learning have been bandied about since about as far back as one would care
to look. It may be surprising to know that the problems that philosophers in Ancient Greece
and 16th century France were concerned about are largely still relevant today.
To get a quick rundown of early language learning theory, let’s take a quick look at the ideas of
three brilliant philosophers who you’ve probably already heard of.

1. Plato’s Problem
The writings of Plato stretch all the way back to the beginnings of Western philosophical
thought, but Plato was already posing problems critical to modern linguistic discourse.
In the nature versus nurture debate, Plato tended to side with nature, believing that knowledge
was innate.
This was his answer to what has become known as Plato’s Problem, or as Bertrand Russell
summarizes it: “How comes it that human beings, whose contacts with the world are brief and
personal and limited, are nevertheless able to know as much as they do know?” Being born with
this knowledge from the get-go would naturally solve this little quandary and consequently he
viewed language as innate.
2. Cartesian Linguistics, by Descartes
Centuries later, the French philosopher Descartes took a crack at linguistic philosophy. In his
opinion, language acquisition was a simple and easy process, barely worthy of his attention. Like
Plato he believed in the innateness of language because he thought it reflected the general
rationality of human beings.
But rather than Descartes himself, it was the rationalist movement that he symbolized and that
was thriving in the time period when he lived that was most important for linguistics.
This “Cartesian” movement, according to Chomsky (who we’ll get to later), noted the creativity
involved in everyday language and presented the idea that there were universal principles behind
every language.
3. Locke’s Tabula Rasa
Most people familiar with Locke’s philosophy have heard of his concept of tabula rasa, or
the blank slate.
To state it briefly and in a simplified manner, this is the idea that all knowledge comes from
outside ourselves through sensory experience rather than through innate knowledge that we have
at birth. This naturally carried over to language theory with Locke rejecting the idea that there
was an innate logic behind language.
Obviously these theories don’t touch too much on the practical, everyday level of language
learning. They’re far less detailed and more philosophical than the modern scientific theories
we’re used to. But they have important implications. If Plato and the Cartesians are right, then
the emphasis in language learning must lie on what we already know, using our innate
abilities to come to an understanding of the particularities of a specific language. If Locke is
right, then we must focus our attention on sensory input, gaining as much external input as
possible.
In the practical, everyday world, all of this can easily be done with FluentU. FluentU takes real-
world videos with familiar formats—like movie trailers, music videos, news and inspiring talks
—and turns them into personalized language lessons.
4. Skinner’s Theory of Behaviorism
In the middle of the 20th century, B.F. Skinner took Locke’s ideas of sensory input and ran with
them.
According to behaviorism, a radical variant of which was put forward by Skinner, all behavior
is no more than a response to external stimuli and there’s no innate programming within a
human being to learn a language at birth.
What differentiates Skinner from those who came before him is the level of detail he went into
when connecting behaviorism and language learning. In his concept of what he called “operant
conditioning,” language learning grew out of a process of reinforcement and
punishment whereby individuals are conditioned into saying the right thing. For instance, if
you’re hungry and you’re able to say “Mommy, I’m hungry,” you may be rewarded with food
and your behavior will thereby be reinforced since you got what you wanted.
To put it another way, Skinner described a mechanism for language learning that hadn’t existed
before on the tabula rasa side of the language acquisition debate. What this means for us as
language learners, should his theory be even partially true, is that a process of conditioning must
be achieved for us to succeed. When we say the right thing, we must be rewarded. When we say
something incorrectly, that too must be made clear. In other words, we need feedback to succeed
as language learners.
5. Chomsky’s Universal Grammar
Around the same time as Skinner there came another linguistic powerhouse who would leave a
lasting impression on the field of linguistics. Namely, Noam Chomsky.
The theory that Chomsky proposed would be called Universal Grammar and it would
assert nearly the exact opposite of what Skinner had offered in his theory
. Where Skinner saw all learning coming from external stimuli, Chomsky saw an innate device
for language acquisition. What Skinner understood to be conditioning according to particular
events Chomsky, understood to be the result of the universal elements that structure all
languages.
In fact, one of Chomsky’s major bones to pick with Skinner’s theory had to do with Plato’s
problem, as described above. After all, if Skinner is right, how is it that children can learn a
language so quickly, creating and understanding sentences they have never heard before?
Universal Grammar has been around for roughly a half a century by now, so it’s hardly the last
word on the subject. It has also received plenty of criticism. One critique that particularly
concerns us is that it may have little to do with learning a second language, even if it’s how we
learn a first language. There are certainly theories about applying this concept to organize
syllabi for language learning, but this seems unnecessarily complex for the average, independent
learner.
In short, while Chomsky’s theory may be still be important in the linguistics field as part of an
ongoing discussion, it offers little help for learning a second language other than to provide you
with the confidence that the grammar for all languages is already inside your head. You just need
to fill in the particulars.
Over the past half century or so, a slew of other language learning theories have cropped up to
try to deal with the perceived flaws in Chomsky’s theory and to fill in the cracks for more
specific areas of language learning (i.e. areas of particular interest to us).
Next up are two theories that, while not the philosophical bombshells like the ones listed above,
arguably have more of a practical edge.
6. Schumann’s Acculturation Model
John Schumann’s Acculturation Model describes the process by which immigrants pick up a
new language while being completely immersed in that language.
This theory doesn’t deal with the process of language learning as we normally think of it (such as
how we acquire grammar or listening skills), but rather focuses on social and psychological
aspects that influence our success.
For instance, an immigrant is more likely to acquire their new target language if their language
and the target language are socially equal, if the group of immigrants is small and not cohesive
and if there is a higher degree of similarity between the immigrant’s culture and that of their new
area of residence.
 The obvious takeaway is that language learning is not an abstract subject like physics that can be
learned out of a book regardless of the world around you. There are sociological factors at play,
and the more we do to connect with the culture on the other end of our second language, the
faster and easier it will be for us to learn that language.
7. Krashen’s Monitor Model
Stephen Krashen’s Monitor Model in fact consists of several distinct hypotheses which make up
what is probably the most cited theory in second language acquisition. There’s so much to
take away from Krashen’s theory that I’ll just let you peruse the link given for details and give a
rundown of the highlights here.
 Language acquisition is subconscious and results from informal, natural communication.
 Language learning is conscious and driven by error correction (more formal).
 Grammar structures are acquired in a predictable order.
 Language acquisition occurs with comprehensible input (i.e. hearing or reading things
that are just slightly above our current language level).
 A monitor is anything that corrects your language performance and pressures one to
“communicate correctly and not just convey meaning” (such as a language teacher who corrects
you when you make a grammatical mistake).
 LINGUISTIC CONCEPTS
Subfields of linguistics

 Theoretical linguistics - the study of language in abstract and model form

o Cognitive linguistics - the study of language and cognition (thinking)
o Generative linguistics - the theory of grammar as a mental system that generates
complete sentences
o Functional theories of grammar - language as used and coming from use
o Quantitative linguistics - the study of mathematical language laws and
corresponding general theories
o Phonology - the usage of vocalized sounds and systems of sounds to form
language
 Graphemics - the study of language writing systems
o Morphology - the property of sound and meaning change in language
o Syntax - the property of grammar that governs sentence structure
o Lexis - the complete set of words in a language
o Semantics - the study of meaning as encoded in language
o Pragmatics - the study of how context contributes to meaning
 Descriptive linguistics - describing how a particular language is used
o Anthropological linguistics - the place of language in its wider social and
cultural context, and its role in making and maintaining cultural practices and societal
structures
o Historical linguistics - study of historical language change over time
 Comparative linguistics - comparing languages to find similarities and
historical connections
o Phonetics - the study of the speech faculty
 Graphetics - the study of writing shapes as assigned to sounds or ideas
o Etymology - the study of word histories and origins
o Sociolinguistics - the study of society's effects on language
 Applied linguistics - finding solutions to real-life problems related to language
o Computational linguistics - the use of computation applied to language
databasing, analysis, translation, and synthesis
o Forensic linguistics - language science applied to the processes of law and justice
o Internet linguistics - the study of language usage on the Internet
o Language assessment - assessing first or second language faculty in individuals
o Language documentation - comprehensive description of the grammar and use
practices of languages of a particular group
o Language revitalization - is an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a
language or to revive an extinct one
o Language education - teaching specific language and language science
o Linguistic anthropology - study of how language influences social life
 Psycholinguistics - is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that
enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language
o Language acquisition - the study of how children and adults acquire language
knowledge and ability
o Language development - the study of early language formation
o Second-language acquisition - the study of how a second language is learned
o Neurolinguistics - study of language from a neuroscience perspective
o Evolutionary linguistics - is a subfield of psycholinguistics that studies the
psychosocial and cultural factors involved in the origin of language and the
development of linguistic universals
Subfields, by linguistic structures studied
Sub-fields of structure-focused linguistics include:

 Phonetics – study of the physical properties of speech (or signed) production and
perception
 Phonology – study of sounds (or signs) as discrete, abstract elements in the speaker's
mind that distinguish meaning
 Morphology – study of internal structures of words and how they can be modified
 Syntax – study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences
 Semantics – study of the meaning of words (lexical semantics) and fixed word
combinations (phraseology), and how these combine to form the meanings of sentences
 Pragmatics – study of how utterances are used in communicative acts – and the role
played by context and nonlinguistic knowledge in the transmission of meaning
 Discourse analysis – analysis of language use in texts (spoken, written, or signed)
 Linguistic typology – comparative study of the similarities and differences between
language structures in the world's languages.
Subfields, by nonlinguistic factors studied

 Applied linguistics – study of language-related issues applied in everyday life, notably

language policies, planning, and education. (Constructed language fits under Applied
linguistics.)
 Biolinguistics – study of natural as well as human-taught communication systems in
animals, compared to human language.
 Clinical linguistics – application of linguistic theory to the field of Speech-Language
Pathology.
 Computational linguistics – study of linguistic issues in a way that is 'computationally
responsible', i.e., taking careful note of computational consideration of algorithmic
specification and computational complexity, so that the linguistic theories devised can be
shown to exhibit certain desirable computational properties implementations.
 Developmental linguistics – study of the development of linguistic ability in individuals,
particularly the acquisition of language in childhood.
 Evolutionary linguistics – study of the origin and subsequent development of language by
the human species.
 Historical linguistics – study of language change over time. Also called diachronic
linguistics.
 Language geography – study of the geographical distribution of languages and linguistic
features.
 Neurolinguistics – study of the structures in the human brain that underlie grammar and
communication.
 Psycholinguistics – study of the cognitive processes and representations underlying
language use.
 Sociolinguistics – study of variation in language and its relationship with social factors.
 Stylistics – study of linguistic factors that place a discourse in context.
Other subfields of linguistics

 Contrastive linguistics
 Corpus linguistics
 Dialectology
 Discourse analysis
 Grammar
 Interlinguistics
 Language didactics
 Language learning
 Language teaching
 Language for specific purposes
 Lexicology
 Linguistic statistics
 Orthography
 Rhetoric
 Text linguistics
Schools, movements, and approaches of linguistics

 Cognitive linguistics
 Danish School
 Functionalism
 Generative linguistics
 Geneva School
 Neo-Grammarians
 Prague School
 Prescription and description
 Soviet linguistics
 Stratificational linguistics
 Structuralism
 Systemic linguistics
 SIL International
 Tagmemics

Related fields

 Semiotics – investigates the relationship between signs and what they signify more
broadly. From the perspective of semiotics, language can be seen as a sign or symbol, with
the world as its representation.

 Terminology - is the study of terms and their use.

History of linguistics
History of linguistics

 Unsolved problems in linguistics

Timeline of discovery of basic linguistics concepts
When were the basic concepts first described and by whom?

 Ancient Sanskrit grammarians

 Ancient Greek study of language
 Roman elaborations of Greek study
 Medieval philosophical work in Latin
 Beginnings of modern linguistics in the 19th century
 Behaviorism and mental tabula rasa hypothesis
 Chomsky and functionalism
 Generative grammar leads to generative phonology and semantics
 Alternate syntactic systems develop in 80s
 Computational linguistics becomes feasible the late 80s
 Neurolinguistics and the biological basis of cognition

Questions in linguistics

1. What is language?
2. How did it/does it evolve?
3. How does language serve as a medium of communication?
4. How does language serve as a medium of thinking?
5. What is common to all languages?
6. How do languages differ?

Basic concepts
What basic concepts / terms do I have to know to talk about linguistics?

 Morphology
o morpheme, inflection, paradigm, declension, derivation, compound
 Phonology
o phoneme, allophone, segment, mora, syllable, foot, stress, tone
 Grammar
o tense, aspect, mood and modality, grammatical number, grammatical gender, case
 Syntax
o phrase, clause, grammatical function, grammatical voice
 Lexicology
o word, lexeme, lemma, lexicon, vocabulary, terminology
 Semantics
o meaning, sense, entailment, truth condition, compositionality
 Pragmatics
o presupposition, implicature, deixis
 PHONOLOGY

What is Phonology?
Phonology is the study of the patterns of sounds in a language and across
languages. Put more formally, phonology is the study of the categorical
organisation of speech sounds in languages; how speech sounds are organised in
the mind and used to convey meaning. In this section of the website, we will
describe the most common phonological processes and introduce the concepts of
underlying representations for sounds versus what is actually produced, the surface
form.
Phonology can be related to many linguistic disciplines, including
psycholinguistics, cognitive science, sociolinguistics and language acquisition.
Principles of phonology can also be applied to treatments of speech pathologies
and innovations in technology. In terms of speech recognition, systems can be
designed to translate spoken data into text. In this way, computers process the
language like our brains do. The same processes that occur in the mind of a human
when producing and receiving language occur in machines. One example of
machines decoding language is the popular intelligence system, Siri.
Phonology vs. Phonetics – the key differences
Phonology is concerned with the abstract, whereas phonetics is concerned with the
physical properties of sounds. In phonetics we can see infinite realisations, for
example every time you say a ‘p’ it will slightly different than the other times
you’ve said it. However, in phonology all productions are the same sound within
the language’s phoneme inventory, therefore even though every ‘p’ is produced
slightly different every time, the actual sound is the same. This highlights a key
difference between phonetic and phonology as even though no two ‘p’s are the
same, they represent the same sound in the language.

CONSONANT SOUND

English Consonant Sounds

Consonant letters and their sounds

A consonant letter usually represents one consonant sound. Some consonant letters, for example,
c, g, s, can represent two different consonant sounds.
 
Letter
Sounds Examples
s

b [b] baby, best, buy, bring, blind, absent, about, number, labor, robber, tub

c [s] center, cellar, cigarette, cinema, agency, notice;

[k] cake, come, cucumber, clean, cry, scratch, act, panic
d [d] day, dear, die, door, duty, admire, hidden, lady, kind, ride, ended

f [f] fast, female, five, forest, fund, fry, flight, often, deaf, cuff

[g] game, gap, get, go, gun, great, global, giggle, ago, begin, dog, egg;
g [j] general, gin, giant, agent, suggest, Egypt, energy, huge, manage;
[zh] mirage, garage, beige, rouge
h [h] hair, help, history, home, hotel, hunt, behind, inherit;
[-] hour, honor, honest, heir, vehicle, Sarah
j [j] jam, Jane, jet, jelly, Jim, jingle, joke, John, June, just

k [k] Kate, kind, kill, kilogram, sky, blanket, break, take, look
 l [l] late, let, live, alone, close, slim, please, old, nicely, table, file, all

make, men, mind, mother, must, my, common, summer, name, form,
m [m]
team

n [n] napkin, never, night, no, nuclear, funny, student, kindness, ton, sun

p [p] paper, person, pick, pour, public, repair, apple, keep, top, crisp

q (qu) [kw] quality, question, quite, quote, equal, require;

[k] unique, technique, antique, grotesque
r [r] rain, red, rise, brief, grow, scream, truck, arrive, hurry, turn, more, car

s [s] send, simple, song, system, street, lost, kiss, release;

[z] cause, present, reason, realism, advise, always, is, was
t [t] task, tell, time, tone, tune, hotel, attentive, student, boat, rest

v [v] vast, vein, vivid, voice, even, review, invest, give, move, active

w [w] wall, war, way, west, wind, word, would, swear, swim, twenty, twist

[ks] exercise, exchange, expect, ex-wife, axis, fix, relax;

x [gz] exam, exact, executive, exert, exist, exit, exult;
[z] Xenon, Xerox, xenophobia, xylophone
z [z] zero, zoo, horizon, puzzle, crazy, organize, quiz, jazz;
[ts] pizza, Mozart, Nazi, waltz
 
Note 1: The letter Y
The letter Y can function as a vowel or as a consonant. As a vowel, Y has the vowel sounds [i],
[ai]. As a consonant, Y has the consonant sound [y] (i.e., a semivowel sound), usually at the
beginning of the word and only in the syllable before a vowel.
[i]: baby, hurry, lyrics, mystery;
[ai]: by, try, rely, nylon, type;
[y]: yacht, yard, year, yes, yet, yield, you, young, Yukon.
 
Note 2: The letter W
The letter W represents the vowel sound [u:] in the diphthongs [au] and [ou]: now, how, owl,
brown; low, own, bowl.

The -s/es ending of nouns and verbs

After a voiceless consonant: [s] After a voiced consonant or vowel: [z]

After the letters s, z, x, ch, tch, ge, dge, sh: [iz]
 [s] [z] [iz]

tapes [teips], streets ribs [ribz], kids [kidz], legs [legz], pieces ['pi:siz], roses ['rouziz],
[stri:ts], parks leaves [li:vz], clothes [klouðz], prizes ['praiziz], boxes ['boksiz],
[pa:rks], chiefs girls, games, cars, boys, pies coaches ['kouchiz], bridges
[chi:fs], myths [miθs] [paiz], cows [kauz], cities ['sitiz] ['brijiz], dishes ['dishiz]

(he) robs [robz], reads [ri:dz], digs (he) kisses ['kisiz], loses
(he) grips [grips],
[digz], saves [seivz], falls, plans, ['lu:ziz], relaxes, catches, judges,
writes [raits], takes
swims, offers, plays, cries, goes manages, flashes, washes,
[teiks], sniffs [snifs]
[gouz], copies ['kopiz] rouges

Pip's [pips], Kate's

Abe's [eibz], Fred's [fredz], Meg's Chris's ['krisiz], Tess's ['tesiz],
[keits], Mike's
[megz], Olive's ['olivz], Ben's Rose's ['rouziz], Liz's ['liziz],
[maiks], Jeff's [jefs],
[benz], Molly's ['moliz], Anna's Rex's ['reksiz], George's ['jo:rjiz]
Seth's [seθs]

The -ed ending of verbs

After a voiceless consonant: [t] (

After a voiced consonant or vowel: [d ]
After the letters t, d: [id]
 
[t] [d] [id]

stopped [stopt], liked [laikt], robbed [robd], saved [seivd], wanted ['wontid], hated
coughed [ko:ft], crossed seized [si:zd], called [ko:ld], ['heitid], counted ['kauntid],
[cro:st], released [ri'li:st], planned, occurred, bathed started, needed [ni:did],
reached [ri:cht], washed [beiðd], managed, played, tried, loaded ['loudid], folded,
[wosht] studied added

 Consonant combinations
Letters Sounds Examples

cc [ks] accent, accept, access, eccentric, accident;

[k] accommodate, account, accuse, occur, acclaim
ch [ch] chain, check, chief, choose, teacher, much, church;
tch kitchen, catch, match, watch, pitch, stretch
character, chemical, Chris, archive, mechanic, technical,
ch (Latin, Greek) [k]
ache;
ch (French) [sh]
champagne, charlatan, chef, chic, machine, cache
ck [k] black, pack, deck, kick, pick, cracker, pocket, rocket

dge [j] bridge, edge, judge, knowledge, budget, badger

[g] ghost, ghastly, Ghana, ghetto;

gh [f] cough, enough, rough, tough, laugh;
[-] though, through, weigh, neighbor, bought, daughter
gu [g] guard, guess, guest, guide, guitar, dialogue;
[gw] language, linguistics, Guatemala, Nicaragua
ng [ŋ] king, sing, singer, singing, bang, long, wrong, tongue;
[ŋ]+[g] finger, anger, angry, longer, longest, single
ph [f] phone, photograph, phrase, phenomenon, biography

qu [kw] quality, question, quite, quote, equal, require;

[k] unique, technique, antique, grotesque
sc [s] science, scissors, scene, scent, scythe;
[sk] scan, scandal, scare, score, Scotch, scuba
sch [sk] school, scholar, scheme, schedule;
[sh] schnauzer, schedule
sh [sh] share, she, shine, shoe, fish, cash, push, punish

th [θ] thank, thick, think, thought, thunder, author, breath, bath;

[ð] this, that, then, though, father, brother, breathe, bathe
wh [w] what, when, where, which, while, why, whale, wheel, white;
[h] who, whom, whose, whole
[ks] exhibition;
xh [ks]+[h] exhumation, exhume, exhale;
[g]+[z] exhaust, exhibit, exhilarate, exhort, exhume, exhale
With silent letters Sounds Examples

bt, pt [t] doubt, debt, subtle; receipt, pterodactyl

knee, knife, know; gnome, sign, foreign; pneumonia,

kn, gn, pn [n]
pneumatic

mb, lm [m] lamb, climb, bomb, comb, tomb; calm, palm, salmon

ps [s] psalm, pseudonym, psychologist, psychiatrist

rh [r] rhapsody, rhetoric, rheumatism, rhythm, rhyme

wr [r] wrap, wreck, wrestle, wrinkle, wrist, write, wrong

Letters in the
Sounds Examples
suffix

nation, patient, special, vicious, pension, Asia, sensual,

ti, ci, si, su [sh]
pressure

si, su [zh] vision, fusion, Asia, usual, visual, measure, pleasure

PLACE AND MANNER OF ARTICULATION

It's often challenging to know how sounds of language are articulated just by listening to
them.

As it so happens, the Manners and Places of articulation give you a lot of information

about the articulation of a sound which would otherwise go unnoticed.

Well, you’re in for a treat, because I'm going to give you an up-to-date and
comprehensive list of all the manners of articulation. I've also added examples in
English and in other languages when none were present in English.

Nasals

First, there are the nasal consonants.

The distinctive feature of nasal consonants is that you let air out of your nose as you
pronounce them.

For example, the nasal consonants [m] and [n] are

quite common in languages and are certainly found
in English.

Let's take a word that starts with M in English such

as man.
Pronounce only the M in man and put your finger right in front of your nostrils. You
should feel some air coming out.

This tells you that there is an element of nasality to this consonant sound.

For nonnasal consonant sounds, there may be a bit of air coming out of the nose, but the
flow of air is more pronounced with nasal consonants (and nasal vowels, for that matter).

Let's move on to the plosives.

Plosives or Stops

There are quite a few plosives in English.

Basically, these are consonants where air is blocked at

the place of articulation to accumulate pressure and it is
then released in one instant.

Just pronounce words with D's, B's and K's and you'll

notice the single pulse of air being ejected as you
pronounce these letters.

Here are a few words so that you can check for

yourself: bag, gap, lack.

Sibilance

Sibilance is not a manner of articulation by itself on the chart.

So, why are we talking about it here?

Because it's something that characterizes certain affricates and certain fricatives, which
we'll see next. Sibilant consonants are distinctive as they are louder and at a higher
frequency.

The high frequency sound is very similar to TV or radio static. Just pronounce a very
long S and you'll get what I mean.
In case you still don't, watch the full 10 hours of this YouTube video and I'm sure you'll
understand:

(I was kidding about the 10 hours! A few seconds should be fine.)

Sibilant Affricates

Affricates can be viewed as a combination of two sounds which are pronounced pretty

much simultaneously. Often, in phonetic transcriptions, the two sounds will be joined by
a tie bar like this: [ ͡   ].

In sibilant affricates, it's usually the sound on the right that is sibilant. Two examples of
sibilant affricates in English are [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ].

The ch in the word change represents the sound [t͡ʃ] while the g in the same word is
pronounced [d͡ʒ].

Non-sibilant Affricates

Unlike in sibilant affricates, the sound on the right in non-sibilant affricates lacks
sibilance.

In other words, it doesn't have the radio static-like aspect to it.

The best example I can come up with is in New York English. If you ever get the chance,
notice how they pronounce the word tooth. The th sound at the end is pronounced [t̪͡ θ].

If you want to hear what a non-sibilant affricate is right now, listen to this guy for a bit.
Some of his th sounds in words like that and this sound like [d͡ ̪ ð]:

Sibilant Fricatives

Next up are the fricatives.

The distinctive feature of fricatives is that, when

producing them, you use your vocal apparatus
to partially block the airflow at the place of
articulation in such a way that only some air passes
through.
By restraining the airflow, it creates some friction between the air and your vocal
apparatus which is what produces the distinctive kind of sound of the fricatives.

Sibilant fricatives are characterized by louder and higher frequency sounds than non-
sibilant fricatives. These are the sounds found in a words like show and season.

Non-sibilant Fricatives

Non-sibilant fricatives are essentially the same except that the sound is not as intense.

To hear that difference, compare the sibilant fricative sounds of show and season with

the th in this and the f in fine.

Approximants

Approximants can be considered half

way between vowels and fricatives.

When pronouncing an approximant,

the air flows smoothly through the
vocal apparatus so that very little
friction is created.

Here are two approximants in

Standard American English: [ɹ],
represented by the letter R and [j],
represented by the letter Y, usually.

Notice how there's not quite contact at the place of articulation?

This is what results in the smoothness of the airflow.

Some examples of words with approximants in Standard American English

are yet and rat.

Taps or Flaps
Taps are similar to plosives, but a tap is a single brief burst with little accumulation of
pressure at the place of articulation which results in a contact time that is usually much
less.

Compared to taps, more pressure is accumulated to produce plosives, which results in a

tendency for them to have longer contact time, especially before the sound is actually
produced.

That is not possible for taps; the contact lasts about only as long as the sound itself.

Standard American English does have a tap consonant: [ɾ].

It can be heard in words like bedding and pity.

Trills

Trills are, in turn, similar to taps, but instead of a single brief burst at the place of
articulation, it is a series of repeated bursts.

There are no trills in Standard American English, but if you've ever heard some Spanish,
you might have noticed that some of their R's are trills.

The classic example of the trill in Spanish is found in the word carro. It is sometimes
called the rolled R and it is represented by [r]:

There are also other types of trills. Below is an example of a trill using both lips
(fictitious). The video is meant as a comedy, but you should get a sense of what a trill is:

The air flows continuously when producing trills, unlike with taps.

Laterals

The key feature of laterals is that the airflow passes to the sides (of the tongue, usually)
when pronouncing them.

If your native language uses the Latin alphabet, chances are that the L in it is a lateral.

The only sound in Standard American English which is a lateral, to my knowledge, is [ɫ]
(also known as the "dark" L) and sometimes [l] (depending on who is pronouncing and of
the position of the L in the syllable).
 Here are a few examples in Standard American English: lake and bell.

VOWEL SOUNDS

English Vowel Sounds

A vowel letter can represent different vowel sounds: hat [hæt], hate [heit], all [o:l], art [a:rt], any
['eni].
 
The same vowel sound is often represented by different vowel letters in writing: [ei] they, weigh,
may, cake, steak, rain.

Open and closed syllables

 
Open syllable: Kate [keit], Pete [pi:t], note [nout], site [sait], cute [kyu:t].
Closed syllable: cat [kæt], pet [pet], not [not], sit [sit], cut (the neutral sound [ə]).
 

Vowels and vowel combinations

The vowels A, E, I, O, U, Y alone, in combination with one another or with R, W represent

different vowel sounds. The chart below lists the vowel sounds according to the American
variant of pronunciation.
 
Sounds Letters Examples Notes

been [i];
e, ee be, eve, see, meet, sleep,
[i:] bread, deaf [e];
ea meal, read, leave, sea, team,
great, break [ei];
ie, ei field, believe, receive
friend [e]
[i] i it, kiss, tip, pick, dinner, machine, ski,
y system, busy, pity, sunny liter, pizza [i:]
[e] e let, tell, press, send, end, meter [i:]
ea bread, dead, weather, leather sea, mean [i:]
 a late, make, race, able, stable,
 
[ei] ai, ay aim, wait, play, say, day,
said, says [e];
ei, ey eight, weight, they, hey,
height, eye [ai]
ea break, great, steak
[æ] a cat, apple, land, travel, mad;  
AmE: last, class, dance, castle, half
army, car, party, garden, park, war, warm [o:]
[a:] ar
father, calm, palm, drama;  
a
BrE: last, class, dance, castle, half  
[ai] i, ie ice, find, smile, tie, lie, die,  
y, uy my, style, apply, buy, guy
[au] ou out, about, house, mouse, group, soup [u:]
ow now, brown, cow, owl, powder know, own [ou]
[o] o not, rock, model, bottle, copy  

or more, order, cord, port,

work, word [ər]
o long, gone, cost, coffee,
[o:]  
aw, au law, saw, pause, because,
 
ought bought, thought, caught,
 
al, wa- hall, always, water, war, want
[oi] oi, oy oil, voice, noise, boy, toy  

o go, note, open, old, most, do, move [u:]

[ou]
oa, ow road, boat, low, own, bowl how, owl [au]
u use, duty, music, cute, huge, tune,
[yu:] ew few, dew, mew, new,  
eu euphemism, feud, neutral,
ue, ui hue, cue, due, sue, suit
u rude, Lucy, June,
o, oo do, move, room, tool,  
[u:] ew crew, chew, flew, jewel,  
ue, ui blue, true, fruit, juice, guide, quite [ai];
ou group, through, route; build [i]
  AmE: duty, new, sue, student
oo look, book, foot, good,
[u] u put, push, pull, full, sugar,  
ou would, could, should
u, o gun, cut, son, money, love,
neutral sound Also:
ou tough, enough, rough,
[ə] stressed, [ʌ];
a, e about, brutal, taken, violent,
unstressed, [ə].
o, i memory, reason, family
 er, ur,
serve, herb, burn, hurt, girl, sir,
[ər] ir  
work, word, doctor, dollar,
or, ar heart, hearth [a:]
heard, earn, earnest, earth
ear
 
Note 1: The letter Y
The letter Y can function as a vowel or as a consonant. As a vowel, Y has the vowel sounds [i],
[ai]. As a consonant, Y has the consonant sound [y] (i.e., a semivowel sound), usually at the
beginning of the word and only in the syllable before a vowel.
[i]: any, city, carry, funny, mystery, synonym;
[ai]: my, cry, rely, signify, nylon, type;
[y]: yard, year, yes, yet, yield, you.
Note 2: Diphthongs
A diphthong is one indivisible vowel sound that consists of two parts. The first part is the main
strong component (the nucleus); the second part is short and weak (the glide). A diphthong is
always stressed on its first component: [au], [ou]. A diphthong forms one syllable. American
linguists usually list five diphthongs: [ei], [ai], [au], [oi], [ou].
 
Note 3: The sound [o]
The sound [o] is short in British English. In the same words in American English, the sound [o]
is a long sound colored as [a:]. This sound is often listed as [a:] in American materials for ESL
students. In some words, there are two variants of pronunciation in AmE: [o:] or [o].
[o]: lot, rock, rob, bother, bottle, college, comment, document, modern, popular, respond, John,
Tom;
[o:] or [o]: gone, coffee, office, borrow, orange, sorry, loss, lost, want, wash, water.
 
Note 4: The neutral sound
Transcription symbols for the neutral sound are [ʌ] (caret) in stressed syllables (fun, son) and [ə]
(schwa) in unstressed syllables (about, lesson). In American ESL materials, the neutral sound is
often shown as [ə] (schwa) in both stressed and unstressed syllables.
 SUPRASEGMENTALS

In speech, suprasegmental refers to a phonological property of more than

one sound segment. Also called nonsegmental.

As discussed in the examples and observations below, suprasegmental information

applies to several different linguistic phenomena (such as pitch, duration, and loudness).
Suprasegmentals are often regarded as the "musical" aspects of speech.

The term suprasegmental (referring to functions that are "over" vowels and consonants)

was coined by American structuralists in the 1940s.
Examples and Observations
"The effect of suprasegmentals is easy to illustrate. In talking to a cat, a dog or a baby,
you may adopt a particular set of suprasegmentals. Often, when doing this, people adopt
a different voice quality, with high pitch register, and protrude their lips and adopt a
tongue posture where the tongue body is high and front in the mouth, making the speech
sound 'softer.'"
"Suprasegmentals are important for marking all kinds of meanings, in particular speakers'
attitudes or stances to what they are saying (or the person they are saying it to), and in
marking out how one utterance relates to another (e.g. a continuation or a disjunction).
Both the forms and functions of suprasegmentals are less tangible than those of
consonants and vowels, and they often do not form discrete categories."
(Richard Ogden, An Introduction to English Phonetics. Edinburgh University Press,
2009)
Common Suprasegmental Features

"Vowels and consonants are considered as small segments of the speech, which together
form a syllable and make the utterance. Specific features that are superimposed on the
utterance of the speech are known as supra-segmental features. Common supra-segmental
features are the stress, tone, and duration in the syllable or word for a continuous speech
sequence. Sometimes even harmony and nasalization are also included under this
category. Supra-segmental or prosodic features are often used in the context of speech to
make it more meaningful and effective. Without supra-segmental features superimposed
on the segmental features, a continuous speech can also convey meaning but often loses
the effectiveness of the message being conveyed."

(Manisha Kulshreshtha at al., "Speaker Profiling." Forensic Speaker Recognition: Law

Enforcement and Counter-Terrorism, ed. by Amy Neustein and Hemant A. Patil.
Springer, 2012)
Varieties
"A very obvious suprasegmental is intonation since an intonation pattern by definition
extends over a whole utterance or a sizable piece of an utterance...Less obvious is stress,
but not only is stress a property of a whole syllable but the stress level of a syllable can
only be determined by comparing it with neighboring syllables which have greater or
lesser degrees of stress...

"The American structuralists also treated juncture phenomena as suprasegmental.

Differences in juncture are the reason that night rate does not sound like nitrate, or why
choose like white shoes, and why the consonants in the middle of pen-knife and lamp-
post are the way they are. Since these items contain essentially the same sequences of
segments, the junctural differences have to be described in terms of different juncture
placement within sequences of segments.
"In most of these cases, the phonetic realization of the suprasegmental actually extends
over more than one segment, but the key point is that, in all of them, the description of
the suprasegmental must involve reference to more than one segment." 
(R.L. Trask, Language and Linguistics: The Key Concepts, 2nd ed., edited by Peter
Stockwell. Routledge, 2007)
Suprasegmental Information
"Suprasegmental information is signaled in speech with variations in duration, pitch, and
amplitude (loudness). Information like this helps the hearer segment the signal into
words, and can even affect lexical searches directly.

"In English, lexical stress serves to distinguish words from each other...for example,
compare trusty and trustee. Not surprisingly, English speakers are attentive to stress
patterns during lexical access...
"Suprasegmental information can be used to identify the location of word boundaries
also. In languages like English or Dutch, monosyllabic words are durationally very
different than polysyllabic words. For example, the [hæm] in ham has longer duration
than it does in hamster. An investigation by Salverda, Dahan, and McQueen (2003)
demonstrates that this durational information is actively used by the hearer."
(Eva M. Fernández and Helen Smith Cairns, Fundamentals of Psycholinguistics. Wiley-
Blackwell, 2011)
Suprasegmental and Prosodic
"Although the terms 'suprasegmental' and 'prosodic' to a large extent coincide in their
scope and reference, it is nevertheless sometimes useful, and desirable, to distinguish
them. To begin with, a simple dichotomy 'segmental' vs. 'suprasegmental' does not do
justice to the richness of phonological structure 'above' the segment;...this structure is
complex, involving a variety of different dimensions, and prosodic features cannot
simply be seen as features which are superimposed on segments. More importantly, a
distinction can be made between 'suprasegmental' as a mode of description on the one
hand and 'prosodic' as a kind of feature on the other. In other words, we may use the term
'suprasegmental' to refer to a particular formalization in which a phonological feature can
be analyzed in this way, whether it is prosodic or not.

"The term 'prosodic,' on the other hand, can be applied to certain features of utterances
regardless of how they are formalized; prosodic features can, in principle, be analyzed
segmentally as well as suprasegmentally. To give a more concrete example, in some
theoretical frameworks features such as nasality or voice may be treated
suprasegmentally, as having extended beyond the limits of a single segment. In the usage
adopted here, however, such features are not prosodic, even though they may be
amenable to suprasegmental analysis." 

MORPHOLOGY
 Morphology – the internal structure of words
Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words and forms a core part of linguistic
study today.

 The term morphology is Greek and is a makeup of morph- meaning ‘shape, form’, and -ology
which means ‘the study of something’.
 Morphology as a sub-discipline of linguistics was named for the first time in 1859 by the German
linguist August Schleicher who used the term for the study of the form of words.[1]

What is a word?
Smallest independent units of language

Independent:
1. do not depend on other words.
2. can be separated from other units
3. can change position.[2]
Example:

The man looked at the horses.

 s is the plural marker, dependent on the noun horse to receive meaning
 Horses is a word: can occur in other positions or stand on its own
EG:
The horses looked at the man.
– What is the man looking at? – Horses.

Words are thus both independent since they can be separated from other words and move around
in sentences, and the smallest units of language since they are the only units of language for
which this is possible.

Morphemes – the building blocks of morphology

Words have internal structure: built of even smaller pieces

1. SIMPLE WORDS: Don’t have internal structure (only consist of one morpheme) eg work, build,
run. They can’t be split into smaller parts which carry meaning or function.
2. COMPLEX WORDS: Have internal structure (consist of two or more morphemes) eg worker:
affix -er added to the root work to form a noun.
Morphemes are the smallest meaning-bearing units of language.[3]

FREE VS BOUND MORPHEMES

Free morpheme: a simple word, consisting of one morpheme eg house, work, high, chair, wrap.
They are words in themselves.
Bound morpheme: morphemes that must be attached to another morpheme to receive meaning.

EG: UNKINDNESS
 UN- and -NESS are the bound morphemes, requiring the root KIND to form the word.
These are also called affixes as they are attached to the stem. There are two types as outlined
below:

1. Prefix (front of the base)= Un-

2. Suffix (end of the base)= -ness

Drawing Morphology Trees

Below is a step-by-step guide to drawing a morphology tree:

Morphology trees show the internal structure of a word. The

following video demonstrates how to draw a complex
morphology tree:

Below are the completed morphology trees from the video:

MORPHEMES
What are Morphemes?
Definition
A "morpheme" is a short segment of language that meets three basic criteria:
1. It is a word or a part of a word that has meaning.
2. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful segments without changing its meaning or
leaving a meaningless remainder.
3. It has relatively the same stable meaning in different verbal environments.
Free and Bound Morphemes
There are two types of morphemes-free morphemes and bound morphemes. "Free
morphemes" can stand alone with a specific meaning, for example,  eat, date, weak.
"Bound morphemes" cannot stand alone with meaning. Morphemes are comprised of two
separate classes called (a) bases (or roots) and (b) affixes.
A "base," or "root" is a morpheme in a word that gives the word its principle meaning. An
example of a "free base" morpheme is woman in the word womanly. An example of a
"bound base" morpheme is -sent in the word dissent.
Affixes
An "affix" is a bound morpheme that occurs before  or after a base. An affix that comes
before a base is called a "prefix." Some examples of prefixes are ante-, pre-, un-,
and dis-, as in the following words:
antedate
prehistoric
unhealthy
disregard
An affix that comes after a base is called a "suffix." Some examples of suffixes are  -ly, -
er, -ism, and -ness, as in the following words:
happily
gardener
capitalism
kindness
Derivational Affixes
An affix can be either derivational or inflectional. "Derivational affixes" serve to alter the
meaning of a word by building on a base. In the examples of words with prefixes and
suffixes above, the addition of the prefix un- to healthy alters the meaning of healthy.
The resulting word means "not healthy." The addition of the suffix  -er to garden changes
the meaning of garden, which is a place where plants, flowers, etc., grow, to a word that
refers to 'a person who tends a garden.' It should be noted that  all prefixes in English are
derivational. However, suffixes may be either derivational or inflectional.
Inflectional Affixes
There are a large number of derivational affixes in English. In contrast, there are only
eight "inflectional affixes" in English, and these are all suffixes. English has the following
inflectional suffixes, which serve a variety of grammatical functions when added to
specific types of words. These grammatical functions are shown to the right of each suffix.
-s     noun plural
-'s     noun possessive
-s     verb present tense third person singular
-ing     verb present participle/gerund
-ed     verb simple past tense
-en     verb past perfect participle
-er     adjective comparative
-est     adjective superlative

WORD FORMATION PROCESS

 Compounding
Compounding forms a word out of two or more root morphemes. The words are called
compounds or compound words.

In Linguistics, compounds can be either native or borrowed.

Native English roots are typically free morphemes, so that means native compounds are made
out of independent words that can occur by themselves. Examples:

mailman (composed of free root mail and free root man)

mail carrier
dog house
fireplace
fireplug (a regional word for 'fire hydrant')
fire hydrant
dry run
cupcake
cup holder
email
e-ticket
pick-up truck
talking-to

Some compounds have a preposition as one of the component words as in the last 2 examples.

In Greek and Latin, in contrast to English, roots do not typically stand alone. So compounds are
composed of bound roots. Compounds formed in English from borrowed Latin and Greek
morphemes preserve this characteristic. Examples include photograph, iatrogenic, and many
thousands of other classical words.

Note that compounds are written in various ways in English: with a space between the elements;
with a hyphen between the elements; or simply with the two roots run together with no
separation. The way the word is written does not affect its status as a compound. Over time, the
convention for writing compounds can change, usually in the direction from separate words (e.g.
email used to be written with a hyphen. In the 19th century, today and tomorrow were sometimes
still written to-day and to-morrow. The to originally was the preposition to with an older
meaning 'at [a particular period of time]'. Clock work changed to clock-work and finally to one
word with no break (clockwork). If you read older literature you might see some compound
words that are now written as one word appearing with unfamiliar spaces or hyphens between
the components.

Another thing to note about compounds is that they can combine words of different parts of
speech. The list above shows mostly noun-noun compounds, which is probably the most
common part of speech combination, but there are others, such as adjective-noun (dry
run, blackbird, hard drive), verb-noun (pick-pocket, cut-purse, lick-spittle) and even verb-
particle (where 'particle' means a word basically designating spatial expression that functions to
complete a literal or metaphorical path), as in run-through, hold-over. Sometimes these
compounds are different in the part of speech of the whole compound vs. the part of speech of its
components. Note that the last two are actually nouns, despite their components.

Some compounds have more than two component words. These are formed by successively
combining words into compounds, e.g. pick-up truck, formed from pick-up and truck , where the
first component, pick-up is itself a compound formed from pick and up. Other examples are ice-
cream cone, no-fault insurance and even more complex compounds like top-rack dishwasher
safe.

There are a number of subtypes of compounds that do not have to do with part of speech, but
rather the sound characteristics of the words. These subtypes are not mutually exclusive.

Rhyming compounds (subtype of compounds)

These words are compounded from two rhyming words. Examples:

lovey-dovey
chiller-killer

There are words that are formally very similar to rhyming compounds, but are not quite
compounds in English because the second element is not really a word--it is just a nonsense item
added to a root word to form a rhyme. Examples:

higgledy-piggledy
tootsie-wootsie

This formation process is associated in English with child talk (and talk addressed to children),
technically called hypocoristic language. Examples:

bunnie-wunnie
Henny Penny
snuggly-wuggly
Georgie Porgie
Piggie-Wiggie

Another word type that looks a bit like rhyming compounds comprises words that are formed of
two elements that almost match, but differ in their vowels. Again, the second element is typically
a nonsense form:

pitter-patter
zigzag
tick-tock
riffraff
flipflop
Derivation Derivation is the creation of words by modification of a root without the addition of
other roots. Often the effect is a change in part of speech.

Affixation (Subtype of Derivation)
The most common type of derivation is the addition of one or more affixes to a root, as in the
word derivation itself. This process is called affixation, a term which covers both prefixation and
suffixation.

Blending
Blending is one of the most beloved of word formation processes in English. It is especially
creative in that speakers take two words and merge them based not on morpheme structure but
on sound structure. The resulting words are called blends.

Usually in word formation we combine roots or affixes along their edges: one morpheme comes
to an end before the next one starts. For example, we form derivation out of the sequence of
morphemes de+riv+at(e)+ion. One morpheme follows the next and each one has identifiable
boundaries. The morphemes do not overlap.

But in blending, part of one word is stitched onto another word, without any regard for where
one morpheme ends and another begins. For example, the word swooshtika 'Nike swoosh as a
logo symbolizing corporate power and hegemony' was formed from swoosh and swastika.
The swoosh part remains whole and recognizable in the blend, but the tika part is not a
morpheme, either in the word swastika or in the blend. The blend is a perfect merger of form,
and also of content. The meaning contains an implicit analogy between the swastika and
the swoosh, and thus conceptually blends them into one new kind of thing having properties of
both, but also combined properties of neither source. Other examples
include glitterati (blending glitter and literati) 'Hollywood social
set', mockumentary (mock and documentary) 'spoof documentary'.

The earliest blends in English only go back to the 19th century, with wordplay coinages by
Lewis Carroll in Jabberwocky. For example, he introduced to the language slithy, formed
from lithe and slimy, and galumph, (from gallop and triumph. Interestingly galumph has
survived as a word in English, but it now seems to mean 'walk in a stomping, ungainly way'.

Some blends that have been around for quite a while include brunch (breakfast and
lunch), motel (motor hotel), electrocute (electric and execute), smog (smoke and fog) and
cheeseburger (cheese and hamburger). These go back to the first half of the twentieth century.
Others, such as stagflation (stagnation and inflation), spork (spoon and fork), and carjacking (car
and hijacking) arose since the 1970s.

Here are some more recent blends I have run across:

mocktail (mock and cocktail) 'cocktail with no alcohol'

splog (spam and blog) 'fake blog designed to attract hits and raise Google-ranking'
Britpoperati (Britpop and literati) 'those knowledgable about current British pop music'
Clipping
Clipping is a type of abbreviation of a word in which one part is 'clipped' off the rest, and the
remaining word now means essentially the same thing as what the whole word means or meant.
For example, the word rifle is a fairly modern clipping of an earlier compound rifle gun, meaning
a gun with a rifled barrel. (Rifled means having a spiral groove causing the bullet to spin, and
thus making it more accurate.) Another clipping is burger, formed by clipping off the beginning
of the word hamburger. (This clipping could only come about once hamburg+er was reanalyzed
as ham+burger.)

Acronyms
Acronyms are formed by taking the initial letters of a phrase and making a word out of it.
Acronyms provide a way of turning a phrase into a word. The classical acronym is also
pronounced as a word. Scuba was formed from self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.
The word snafu was originally WW2 army slang for Situation Normal All Fucked Up. Acronyms
were being used more and more by military bureaucrats, and soldiers coined snafu in an apparent
parody of this overused device. Sometimes an acronym uses not just the first letter, but the first
syllable of a component word, for example radar, RAdio Detection And Ranging and sonar,
SOund Navigation and Ranging. Radar forms an analogical model for both sonar and lidar, a
technology that measures distance to a target and and maps its surface by bouncing a laser off it.
There is some evidence that lidar was not coined as an acronym, but instead as a blend
of light and radar. Based on the word itself, either etymology appears to work, so many speakers
assume that lidar is an acronym rather than a blend.

A German example that strings together the initial syllables of the words in the phrase,
is Gestapo , from GEheime STAats POlizei 'Sectret State Police'. Another is Stasi, from STAats
SIcherheit 'State Security'. Acronyms are a subtype of initialism. Initialisms also include words
made from the initial letters of a Phrase but NOT pronounced as a normal word - it is instead
pronounced as a string of letters. Organzation names aroften initialisms of his type. Examples:

NOW (National Organization of Women)

US or U.S., USA or U.S.A. (United States)
UN or U.N. (United Nations)
IMF (International Monetary Fund)

Some organizations ARE pronounced as a word:

UNICEF
MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)

The last example incorporates a meaning into the word that fits the nature of the organization.
Sometimes this type is called a Reverse Acronym or a Backronym.

These can be thought of as a special case of acronyms.

Memos, email, and text messaging (text-speak) are modes of communication that give rise to
both clippings and acronyms, since these word formation methods are designed to abbreviate.
Some acronyms:
NB - Nota bene, literally 'note well'. Used by scholars making notes on texts. (A large number of
other scholarly acronyms from Latin are used, probably most invented in the medieval period or
Renaissance, not originally in Latin)
BRB - be right back (from 1980s, 90s)
FYI - for your information (from mid 20th century)
LOL - laughing out loud (early 21st century) - now pronounced either /lol/ or /el o el/; has
spawned compounds like Lolcats).
ROFL - rolling on the floor laughing
ROFLMAO - rolling on the floor laughing my ass off

Reanalysis
Sometimes speakers unconsciously change the morphological boundaries of a word, creating a
new morph or making an old one unrecognizable. This happened in hamburger, which was
originally Hamburger steak 'chopped and formed steak in the Hamburg style, then hamburger
(hamburg + er), then ham + burger

Folk etymology
A popular idea of a word's origin that is not in accordance with its real origin.

Many folk etymologies are cases of reanalysis in which the word is not only reanalysis but it
changes under the influence of the new understanding of its morphemes. The result is that
speakers think it has a different origin than it does.

Analogy
Sometimes speakers take an existing word as a model and form other words using some of its
morphemes as a fixed part, and changing one of them to something new, with an analogically
similar meaning. Cheeseburger was formed on the analogy of hamburger, replacing a perceived
morpheme ham with cheese. carjack and skyjack were also formed by analogy.

Novel creation
In novel creation, a speaker or writer forms a word without starting from other morphemes. It is
as if the word if formed out of 'whole cloth', without reusing any parts.

Some examples of now-conventionalized words that were novel creations

include blimp, googol (the mathematical term), bling, and possibly slang, which emerged in the
last 200 years with no obvious etymology. Some novel creations seem to display 'sound
symbolism', in which a word's phonological form suggests its meaning in some way. For
example, the sound of the word bling seems to evoke heavy jewelry making noise. Another
novel creation whose sound seems to relate to its meaning is badonkadonk, 'female rear end', a
reduplicated word which can remind English speakers of the repetitive movement of the rear end
while walking.

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE
 In linguistics, "syntax" refers to the rules that govern the ways in which words combine to
form phrases, clauses, and sentences. The term "syntax" comes from the Greek, meaning "arrange
together." The term is also used to mean the study of the syntactic properties of a language. In
computer contexts, the term refers to the proper ordering of symbols and codes so that the computer
can understand what instructions are telling it to do.
Syntax
Syntax is the proper order of words in a phrase or sentence.
Syntax is a tool used in writing proper grammatical sentences.
Native speakers of a language learn correct syntax without realizing it.
The complexity of a writer's or speaker's sentences creates a formal or informal level of diction
that is presented to its audience. 
Hearing and Speaking Syntax
Syntax is one of the major components of grammar. It's the concept that enables people to know
how to start a question with a question word ("What is that?"), or that adjectives generally come
before the nouns they describe ("green chair"), subjects often come before verbs in non-question
sentences ("She jogged"), prepositional phrases start with prepositions ("to the store"), helping
verbs come before main verbs ("can go" or "will do"), and so on.

For native speakers, using correct syntax is something that comes naturally, as word order is
learned as soon as an infant starts absorbing the language. Native speakers can tell something
isn't said quite right because it "sounds weird," even if they can't detail the exact grammar rule
that makes something sound "off" to the ear. 

"It is syntax that gives the words the power to relate to each other in a sequence...to carry
meaning—of whatever kind—as well as glow individually in just the right place"
(Burgess 1968)
Syntactic Rules 

English parts of speech often follow ordering patterns in sentences and clauses, such as
compound sentences are joined by conjunctions (and, but, or) or that multiple adjectives
modifying the same noun follow a particular order according to their class (such as number-size-
color, as in "six small green chairs"). The rules of how to order words help the language parts
make sense.

Sentences often start with a subject, followed by a predicate (or just a verb in the simplest
sentences) and contain an object or a complement (or both), which shows, for example, what's
being acted upon. Take the sentence "Beth slowly ran the race in wild, multicolored flip-
flops." The sentence follows a subject-verb-object pattern ("Beth ran the race"). Adverbs and
adjectives take their places in front of what they're modifying ("slowly ran"; "wild, multicolored
flip-flops"). The object ("the race") follows the verb "ran", and the prepositional phrase ("in wild,
multicolored flip-flops") starts with the preposition "in".
Syntax vs. Diction and Formal vs. Informal 
Diction refers to the style of writing or speaking that someone uses, brought about by their
choice of words, whereas syntax is the order in which they're arranged in the spoken or written
sentence. Something written using a very high level of diction, like a paper published in an
academic journal or a lecture given in a college classroom, is written very formally. Speaking to
friends or texting are informal, meaning they have a low level of diction.
"It is essential to understand that the differences exist not because spoken language is a
degradation of written language but because any written language, whether English or Chinese,
results from centuries of development and elaboration by a small number of users."Jim Miller
(Miller, 2008)

Formal written works or presentations would likely also have more complex sentences or
industry-specific jargon. They are directed to a more narrow audience than something meant to
be read or heard by the general public, where the audience members' backgrounds will be more
diverse.

Precision in word choice is less exacting in informal contexts than formal ones, and grammar
rules are more flexible in spoken language than in formal written language. Understandable
English syntax is more flexible than most. 

"...the odd thing about English is that no matter how much you screw sequences word up, you
understood, still, like Yoda, will be. Other languages don't work that way.
French? Dieu! Misplace a single le or la and an idea vaporizes into a sonic puff. English is
flexible: you can jam it into a Cuisinart for an hour, remove it, and meaning will still emerge.”
(Copeland, 2009)
Types of Sentence Structures

Types of sentences and their syntax modes include simple sentences, compound sentences,
complex sentences, and compound-complex sentences. Compound sentences are two simple
sentences joined by a conjunction. Complex sentences have dependent clauses, and compound-
complex sentences have both types included.

 Simple sentence: Subject-verb structure ("The girl ran.")

 Compound sentence: Subject-verb-object-conjunction-subject-verb structure ("The girl
ran the marathon, and her cousin did, too.")
 Complex sentence: Dependent clause-subject-verb-object structure ("Although they
were tired after the marathon, the cousins decided to go to a celebration at the park.")
 Compound-complex sentence: Four clauses, dependent and independent structures
("Although they weren't fond of crowds, this was different, they decided, because of the
common goal that had brought everyone together.")

Syntax Variations and Distinctions

Syntax has changed some over the development of English through the centuries. "The
proverb Whoever loved that loved not at first sight? indicates that English negatives could once
be placed after main verbs" (Aitchison, 2001). And not all people speak English in exactly the
same way. Social dialects learned by people with common backgrounds—such as a social class,
profession, age group, or ethnic group—also may influence the speakers' syntax. Think of the
differences between teenagers' slang and more fluid word order and grammar vs. research
scientists' technical vocabulary and manner of speaking to each other. Social dialects are also
called "social varieties." 
Beyond Syntax

Following proper syntax doesn't guarantee that a sentence will have meaning, though. Linguist
Noam Chomsky created the sentence "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously," which is
syntactically and grammatically correct because it has the words in the correct order and verbs
that agree with subjects, but it's still nonsense. With it, Chomsky showed that rules governing
syntax are distinct from meanings that words convey.

The distinction between grammar and syntax has been somewhat disrupted by recent research
in lexicogrammar, which takes the words into account in grammar rules: For example, some
verbs (transitive ones, that perform an action on something) always take direct objects. A
transitive (action) verb example:

 "She removed the index card from the old recipe box."

The verb is "removed" and the object is "index card." Another example includes a transitive
phrasal verb:

 "Please look over my report before I turn it in."

"Look over" is the phrasal verb and "report" is the direct object. To be a complete thought, you
need to include what's being looked over. Thus, it has to have a direct object.

SEMANTICS

Have you ever heard someone say, "That's just semantics?" Basically, they're saying you're
picking apart the meaning of a word to draw a different conclusion but it all means the same
thing. It's possible the person saying, "It's just semantics," is wrong, though.
Semantics is the study of the relationship between words and how we draw meaning from those
words. People can absolutely interpret words differently and draw different meanings from them.
Some examples of semantics will help you see the many meanings of English words.
What Is Semantics?
Semantics involves the deconstruction of words, signals, and sentence structure. It influences our
reading comprehension as well as our comprehension of other people's words in everyday
conversation. Semantics play a large part in our daily communication, understanding, and
language learning without us even realizing it.
For example, in everyday use, a child might make use of semantics to understand a mom's
directive to "do your chores" as, "do your chores whenever you feel like it." However, the
mother was probably saying, "do your chores right now."
Since meaning in language is so complex, there are actually different theories used within
semantics, such as formal semantics, lexical semantics, and conceptual semantics.
 Formal Semantics - Formal semantics uses techniques from math, philosophy,
and logic to analyze the broader relationship between language and reality, truth and
possibility. Has your teacher ever asked you to use an "if… then" question? It breaks apart
lines of information to detect the underlying meaning or consequence of events.
 Lexical Semantics - Lexical semantics deconstruct words and phrases within a line of
text to understand the meaning in terms of context. This can include a study of individual
nouns, verbs, adjectives, prefixes, root words, suffixes, or longer phrases or idioms.
 Conceptual Semantics - Conceptual semantics deals with the most basic concept and
form of a word before our thoughts and feelings added context to it.
For example, at its most basic we know a cougar to be a large wild cat. But, the word cougar
has also come to indicate an older woman who's dating a younger man. This is where
context is important.
Conceptual semantics opens the door to a conversation on connotation and denotation.
Denotation is the standard definition of a word. Meanwhile, connotation deals with the emotion
evoked from a word. Connotation will be derived from the manner in which you interpret a word
or sentence's meaning. As such, semantics and connotation are deeply entwined. For a deeper
dive, read these examples and exercises on connotative words.
Semantics in Everyday Life
One part of studying language is understanding the many meanings of individual words. Once
you have a handle on the words themselves, context comes into play. The same word can be said
to two people and they can interpret them differently.
For example, imagine a man told a woman, "I care for you… a lot." Wouldn't that made the
woman's heart melt? Sure, if he just said that out of the blue, walking down the beach one day.
But, what if the woman told the man, "I love you," and, after a long pause, all he said was, "I
care for you… a lot." She'd be crushed. So, context (the current situation) will always play a role
in everyday semantics.
Here are some examples of everyday words that can have more than one meaning:
 A water pill could be a pill with water in it but it is understood to be a diuretic that causes
a person to lose water from his body.
 "Crash" can mean an auto accident, a drop in the Stock Market, to attend a party without
being invited, ocean waves hitting the shore, or the sound of cymbals being struck together.
 Depending on context, a flowering plant could be referred to as a weed or a flower.
 A human can be referred to as a male, female, child, adult, baby, bachelor, father or
mother.
 To call someone a lady means more than simply being female. Semantics tell us that, if
she's a lady, she possesses elegance and grace.
 "Young" can allude to a colt, filly, piglet, baby, puppy, or kitten.
 To say something was challenging leads us to believe it was not a good experience. It
wasn't just difficult, it was also unpleasant.
 The verb "move" can mean change place, push, pull or carry, or stir emotion.
 To call someone an angel doesn't mean they inhabit heaven. Semantics leads us to believe
they have a lovely disposition.
 The word "create" can mean build, make, construct, erect, compose or imagine.
 The simple word "on" can have many meanings, such as: on call, on the roof, on cloud
nine, on edge, on fire, on purpose, on demand, on top, or on the phone.
Situational Semantics
Remember the different connotations of the phrase, "I care for you?" Let's revisit the idea that a
single line of text can be interpreted in different ways. Suppose a college grad was just hired to a
new job. She was excited to start this new chapter; everything seemed glossy and bright.
On the first day, her boss mentions she'll have to travel to the new Miami office to help the office
hit the ground running. In reality, she'll be going there to do very mundane chores like order
office supplies and clean the cubicles (something that nobody else wants to do).
So, as the new employee exclaims, "You chose me? Thank you!" and the supervisor says, "Yup,
I chose you all right," we'll know that, given the context of the situation, the supervisor isn't
saying this in a positive light. However, the new employee will interpret it to mean something
very positive.
Or, what if a husband comes home with what he labels a "brand new" coffee table. He might tell
his wife it was a steal and a gorgeous new piece for their home. The wife might take one look at
it and say, "This isn't new. I saw this at the local consignment shop the other day." The husband
might retort, "Semantics. It's new to us!" Indeed, two people can take one word or expression
and take it to mean entirely different things.
Semantics in Puns
In your reading, you may come across a pun or two. Puns like to play on words. They
deliberately use multiple meanings to reshape the meaning of a sentence. So, what we understand
a word to mean can be twisted to mean something else.
We'll see this in the examples below. In the first one, we know littering to mean something like
tossing garbage out the window as we drive. But, the play on words is being made by the fact
that dogs have "litters" of puppies. They're fun! Let's take a look:
 A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
 "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never
know."- Groucho Marx
 Let's talk about rights and lefts. You're right, so I left.
 Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
 Diet slogan: Are you going the wrong weigh?
 I fired my masseuse today. She just rubbed me the wrong way.
 The best way to communicate with a fish is to drop them a line.
 Two silkworms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

PRAGMATICS

Pragmatics deals with utterances, by which we will mean specific events, the intentional
acts of speakers at times and places, typically involving language. Logic and semantics
traditionally deal with properties of types of expressions, and not with properties that differ from
token to token, or use to use, or, as we shall say, from utterance to utterance, and vary with the
particular properties that differentiate them. Pragmatics is sometimes characterized as dealing
with the effects of context. This is equivalent to saying it deals with utterances, if one
collectively refers to all the facts that can vary from utterance to utterance as ‘context.’ One must
be careful, however, for the term is often used with more limited meanings.
Different theorists have focused on different properties of utterances. To discuss them it will be
helpful to make a distinction between ‘near-side pragmatics’ and ‘far-side pragmatics.’ The
picture is this. The utterances philosophers usually take as paradigmatic are assertive uses of
declarative sentences, where the speaker says something. Near-side pragmatics is concerned
with the nature of certain facts that are relevant to determining what is said. Far-side
pragmatics is focused on what happens beyond saying: what speech acts are
performed in or by saying what is said, or what implicatures (see below for an explanation of
these terms) are generated by saying what is said.
Near-side pragmatics includes, but is not limited to resolution of ambiguity and vagueness, the
reference of proper names, indexicals and demonstratives, and anaphors, and at least some issues
involving presupposition. In all of these cases facts about the utterance, beyond the expressions
used and their meanings, are needed.
We can divide these facts into several categories. For indexicals such as ‘I,’ ‘now,’ and ‘here,’
basic facts about the utterance are required: the agent, and when and where it occurred. For other
indexicals and demonstratives, speaker intentions are also relevant. While it seems the referent of
‘you’ must be a person addressed by the speaker, which of several possible addressees is referred
to seems up to the speaker’s intentions. Within syntactic and semantic constraints, anaphoric
relations seem largely a matter of speaker’s intent. Speaker’s intentions and the way the speaker
is connected to the wider world by causal/historical ‘chains of reference’ are relevant to the
reference of proper names.
Far-side pragmatics deals with what we do with language, beyond what we (literally) say. This is
the conception according to which Voltaire’s remarks belong to pragmatics. It’s up to semantics
to tell us what someone literally says when they use expressions of a given type; it’s up to
pragmatics to explain the information one conveys, and the actions one performs, in or by saying
something.
Pragmatics is usually thought to involve a different sort of reasoning than semantics. Semantics
consists of conventional rules of meaning for expressions and their modes of combination. Locke
supposed that communication was basically a matter of a speaker encoding thoughts into words
and the listener decoding words back into thoughts. The same basic picture is found fairly
explicitly in Saussure and other influential theorists. This picture seems to fit reasonably well
with the picture that emerged from the logicians and philosophers of language in the tradition of
logical analysis, of language as a system of phonological, syntactic and semantic rules, of which
competent speakers and interpreters have implicit mastery. Paradigmatically, the sincere speaker
plans to produce an utterance with the truth-conditions of a belief she wishes to express; she
chooses her words so that her utterance has those truth-conditions; the credulous interpreter
needs to perceive the utterance, and recognize which phones, morphemes, words and phrases are
involved, and then using knowledge of the meanings, deduce the truth-conditions of the
utterance and of the belief it expresses.
In contrast, pragmatics involves perception augmented by some species of ‘ampliative’ inference
— induction, inference to the best explanation, Bayesian reasoning, or perhaps some special
application of general principles special to communication, as conceived by Grice (see below) —
but in any case a sort of reasoning that goes beyond the application of rules, and makes
inferences beyond what is established by the basic facts about what expressions are used and
their meanings.
The facts with which pragmatics deals are of various sorts, including:

 Facts about the objective facts of the utterance, including: who the speaker is, when the
utterance occurred, and where;
 Facts about the speaker’s intentions. On the near side, what language the speaker intends
to be using, what meaning she intends to be using, whom she intends to refer to with
 various shared names, whether a pronoun is used demonstratively or anaphorically, and
the like. On the far side, what she intends to achieve by saying what she does.
 Facts about beliefs of the speaker and those to whom she speaks, and the conversation
they are engaged in; what beliefs do they share; what is the focus of the conversation,
what are they talking about, etc.
 Facts about relevant social institutions, such as promising, marriage ceremonies,
courtroom procedures, and the like, which affect what a person accomplishes in or by
saying what she does.
We will divide our discussion, somewhat arbitrarily, into the ‘Classic Pragmatics’ and
‘Contemporary pragmatics.’ The Classic Period, by our reckoning, stretches from the mid-sixties
until the mid-eighties.