St.

Michael’s College
Quezon Ave., Iligan City

Summary of Topics
in English 3A
(Introduction to Language Study)

Submitted by:
Krisha T. Edera
BAEL-2

Submitted to:
Prof. Edgar R. Eslit

October 16, 2016

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE
I. Table of Contents - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - i
II. Semantic Relationships - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1
III. Sentence Interpretation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2
IV. Pragmatics - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 3
V. Presuppositions - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 4
VI. Speech Act - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 5
VII. Syntax Categories - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6
VIII. Phrasal Categories - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7
IX. References - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8
X. Curriculum Vitae - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

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 I. Semantic Relationships

Semantic relationships are the associations that there exists between the meaning of
words, between the meaning of phrases, or between the meanings of sentences.
There are six semantic relationships between words. And these are synonymy,
antonymy, homonymy, hyponymy, polysemy and metonymy. Synonymy is a semantic
relationship which occurs between two or more words which has nearly the same
meaning and belong to the same part of speech but of different spelling. For example,
hide and conceal, when these are used in a sentence they give off the same meaning.
These pair of words are called synonyms Antonymy is a semantic relationship which
occurs between two or more words that have opposite meaning. For example, light is the
opposite of dark, happiness is the opposite of sadness and hard is the opposite of soft.
Homonymy exists between words that belong to the same grammatical category, have the
same spelling but have different meaning. Example of this are the words blue (adj.
having the color of the clear sky) and blue (adj. sad or unhappy). The pair of words that
possess this kind of relationship are called homonyms. Hyponymy exists between the
lexical representation or the more general term and the more specific term of it. For
example, the lexical representation of red, blue, green and yellow is color. Thus, we can
say that “red” is the hyponym of color and so on. Polysemy exists between a word and its
multiple conceptuality and historically related meanings. Firm had meanings like a
business organization, not weak and to make (something) stronger. However, these
meanings are not interchangeable. Metonymy exists between two words in which one of
the words is used metaphorically in place of the other to convey the same meaning.
Example, using the term cops instead of policemen.

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 II. Sentence Interpretation

There are two ways on how to interpret a sentence, using descriptive

interpretation and prescriptive interpretation. In this summary we will focus on the
prescriptive interpretation of sentences.
Descriptive grammar is what speakers say, and when, why and how they say it (and
not whether they should or shouldn't say it.) 
 Prescriptive rules tell you how to speak or write, according to someone's idea of what
is "good" or "bad." Of course, there is nothing inherently good or bad about any use of
language; prescriptive rules serve only to mold your spoken and written language to some
norm.

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III. Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of meaning that a sentence has in particular context in

which it is uttered.
The difference between semantics and pragmatics is that semantic only deal with
the meaning independent of its context while pragmatics is dependent of context.
Pragmatics attempts to relate meanings to context of utterance; it views language as
action which is performed by speakers.
In pragmatics, four types of context can be differentiated: physical context,
linguistic context, social context and epistemic context.
Physical Context – objects surrounding the communication, place and time of the
communication
Example: I want that book. (accompanied by pointing0
Linguistic Context – what has been said before the conversation
Example: Linda came home late yesterday. She thought no one would
notice.
Social Context – the social relationship of the people involved in the
communication
Example: To your friend: Thank you for the treat today, I really appreciate
it. Hoping to see you soon.
Epistemic Context – what is known both hearer and the speaker
Example: the background knowledge that is shared by the speaker is your
epistemic knowledge

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IV. Presuppositions

Presuppositions are implications that are often felt to be in the background —

to be assumed by the speaker to be already known to the addressee.

For example,
A. “The gangster beat up the homeless man.”
- There exist a homeless man.
B. “She is pregnant with her second child.”
- She had a first child.
C. “Even Bill could solve that problem.”
- Bill is the last person who could solve that problem.

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 V. Speech Acts

Speech acts are communicative acts performed through spoken or written use of
language.
There are three components of speech act; illocution, locution and perlocution.
Illocution is what the speakers mean to convey. Locution is the actual word of the
message. And perlocution is the hearer’s action to the speaker’s message.
Speech act is also defined as the usage of language to accomplish something. There
are five classification of speech acts: assertive or representative, directive, commissive,
expressive and declarative.
In assertive or representative, the speaker becomes committed to the truth of the
propositional content, for example, the speaker asserts that “it is raining”.
In directive, the statements attempt to make other person’s actions fit to the
propositional content, for example, the librarian commands the students to “keep quiet”.
In commissive, statement which commit the speaker to a course of action as described
by the propositional content, for example, a thief threatened a victim that he will kill him
if the victim won’t do what the thief had told him to do.
Expressive is when the statement expresses the sincerity condition of the speech act,
for example, an old woman saying thank you to the person who helped her cross the
streets.
And lastly, declarative is when the speaker performs an action just representing
himself as performing that action, for example, “I hereby award this medal to you.”
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VI. Syntax Categories

Syntax categories are divided into two, the content words (major lexical category)
and the functional words (minor lexical categories).
Content words include noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. Noun is a part of speech
which specify the things that we talk about. Verbs are action words. Adjective expresses
attributes of nouns. Adverb modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb.
Function words include pronouns, preposition, determiners, conjunctions, auxiliary,
and demonstrative. Pronouns substitute for nouns. Prepositions link pronouns, nouns and
phrases to other words within a sentence. Determiners specify whether a noun is
indefinite or definite, or the proximity of the person or object to the context. Examples of
determiners are words “a”, “the”, and “an”. Conjunctions are words that join together
sentences, clauses, phrases or words. Conjunctions include words “but”, “unless”, and
“because”. Auxiliary provide the verb the time frame, whether ongoing, completed in the
past or occurring in the future. Auxiliary may also express notions such as possibility,
ability and so on. Examples for auxiliaries are have, had, might and can. Demonstrative
are words used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those
entities from others. Examples of demonstratives are words “this”, “that” and “those”.

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 VII. Phrasal Categories

Phrasal categories are group of words that have a canonical structure and form a
constituent.
Noun Phrase has this structure: (Det) (Adj) N
Example: The (Det) great (Adj) book (N)
Verb Phrase has this structure: (Qual) V NP
Example: Quickly (Qual) grab (V) the bag (NP)
Adjective Phrase has this structure: (Deg) Adj (PP)
Example: extremely (Deg) proud (Adj) of their children (PP)
Prepositional Phrase has this structure: (Deg) P (NP)
Example: in (P) the park (NP)

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 VIII. References

Online References:
http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/speechactterm.htm
http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/Speech-act-Theory.htm
http://www.ello.uos.de/field.php/Syntax/TGAP
https://msu.edu/course/lin/437/entpresu.htm
http://www.slideshare.net/mehwishnazar77/pragmatics-presentation-36657885
http://www2.leeward.hawaii.edu/hurley/Ling102web/mod1_popideas/
mod1.8_descvsprescrip.htm

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 KRISHA T. EDERA

Prk. 20-A, Tomas Cabili, Iligan City

E-mail address: [email protected]
Cell: 0906-933-7037

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

Tomas Cabili Central School (With Honors and Distinction) 2007

Tomas Cabili National High School (With Honors and Distinction) 2011
National Certification II (Electrical Installation and Maintenance) 2015
St. Michael’s College (Bachelor of Arts in English Language) -

SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS ATTENDED

1. Iligan Young Leaders Conference Aug. 30, 2014
2. Bridging Leadership- Youth Leadership Program Dec. 19-20, 2015
3. SK Candidate’s Basic Leadership Training Sept. 18, 2016
& Capability Building Seminar

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 REFERENCES

Book Reference

Donellan, K.S. (1978) Descriptions and Anaphora, in P. Cole (ed.), Syntax and
Semantics: Pragmatics, Academic Press, New York, pp. 47-69.

Gazdar, G. 1979, Presupposition and Logical Form, Academic Press, New York.

Robert Borsley (1999) The Nature and Function of Syntactic Categories.

Kathryn Riley (1975) English Grammar: Prescriptive, Descriptive and Generative (1st
Edition)

Stephen C. Levinson, Pragmatics (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)

Brown, P. and Levinson. S. (1978) Universals in Language Usage.

Blum-Kulka, S. House, I. and Kasper, G. (1989). Cross-cultural Pragmatics.

Online Reference

http:/www.youtube.com/watch
http:/enotes.com/topics/language-linguistics