OVERVIEW OF MICRO- AND

MACROLINGUISTICS

WEEK 4 -5
 WHAT IS
LINGUISTICS?
 LINGUISTICS

Linguistics is the scientific study of language.

 BACKGROUND
ABOUT LANGUAGE
SOUND FORM MEANING
Phonetics Word -Morphology Semantics
Phonology Phrases Pragmatics
-Syntax
Clauses
 LINGUISTICS IS DIVIDED
INTO TWO MAIN BRANCHES

MICRO LINGUISTICS
MACRO LINGUISTICS
 MICRO-LINGUISTICS AND
ITS DIFFERENT BRANCHES

-Microlinguistics focuses on the study of language

itself, including its sound (phonetics and phonology)
grammatical structures (morphology), syntax, and
meanings (semantics) in context (pragmatics).
 MACRO-LINGUISTICS
-Macro-linguistics takes a broad view of linguistic
phenomena, studying language in different contexts and
its development over time. Macro-linguistics includes the
study of other disciplines that are connected with
language study in any perspective e.g. the study of the
relation between society and linguistics is sociolinguistics.

-Macro-linguistics is further divided into intra-disciplinary

branches of linguistics and intra-disciplinary branches of
linguistics.
 MACRO-LINGUISTICS

-Macro-linguistics is further divided into intra-disciplinary

branches of linguistics and intra-disciplinary branches of
linguistics.
 MACRO-LINGUISTICS
AND ITS DIFFERENT BRANCHES
Inter-Disciplinary Branches Intra Disciplinary Branches
of Macro Linguistics of Linguistics

Sociolinguistics Theoretical Linguistics

Psycholinguistics Historical Linguistics
Neurolinguistics Descriptive Linguistics
Computational Linguistics Applied Linguistics
Stylistics Comparative Linguistics
Geographical Linguistics
Cognitive Linguistics
 MICRO LINGUISTICS
DIFFERENT BRANCHES
PHONETICS

PHONOLOGY

MORPHOLOGY

SEMANTICS

PRAGMATICS

SYNTAX
MACRO-LINGUISTICS MICRO-LINGUISTICS
is the study of linguistics in is the study of language at its
relation to other fields. inner level.

Psychology Phonology
Mathematics Phonetics
History Morphology
Sociology Syntax
Theory, etc. Semantics
Pragmatics
 PRAGMATICS
Pragmatics is an important branch of linguistics in the
English language. It helps us look beyond the literal meaning
of words and utterances and allows us to focus on how
meaning is constructed in specific contexts. When we
communicate with other people, there is a constant
negotiation of meaning between the listener and the
speaker. Pragmatics looks at this negotiation and aims to
understand what people mean when they communicate with
each other.
 The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (1995) defines
pragmatics as:

The study of language which focuses attention on the users

and the context of language use rather than on reference,
truth, or grammar"
 Example 1
Picture this: You and your friend are sitting in your bedroom
studying, and she says, 'It's hot in here. Can you crack open
a window? '
 Example 2
Picture this: You're talking to a neighbor and they look bored.
Your neighbor keeps looking at their watch, and they don't
appear to be paying much attention to what you're saying.
Suddenly, they say, 'Gosh, would you look at the time! '
 Example 3
Picture this: You are walking through college, and you bump
into a friend of a friend, who says, "Hey, how're you doing? "
 PRAGMATICS IMPORTANT
Pragmatics is key to understanding language use in
context and is a useful basis for understanding
language interactions.
 CONTEXT

-You're on fire!

-What time is it?

etc.
 SEMANTICS
SEMANTICS IS THE STUDY OF MEANING IN A LANGUAGE.
IT FOCUSES ON STUDYING THE STRUCTURE OF MEANING
OF WORDS AND MAKING A SENTENCE THAT IS
MEANINGFUL.
 SEMANTICS
SEMANTICS IS THE STUDY OF REFERENCE, MEANING, OR
TRUTH. THE TERM CAN BE USED TO REFER TO SUBFIELDS
OF SEVERAL DISTINCT DISCIPLINES, INCLUDING
PHILOSOPHY, LINGUISTICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE.
(WIKIPEDIA)
 SEMANTICS
THE STUDY OF LINGUISTIC MEANING: THAT IS, THE
MEANING OF WORDS, PHRASES, AND SENTENCES.
 SEMANTICS
IS THE STUDY OF MEANING IN HUMAN LANGUAGE
 Three Areas of
Semantics:
–Sense
–Reference
–Truth
 SENSE
-Sense in semantics includes lexical ambiguity, hyponymy,
synonymy, and antonymy

-Is the ascribed meaning of linguistic expression in a

language.
 The study of sense (meaning) can be divided into two
areas: speaker-sense and linguistic-sense.

Speaker sense is the speaker’s intention in producing some

linguistic expression. This is outside the domains of semantics.
Ex. Fred is a real genius. (sarcastically)

Linguistic sense is the meaning of a linguistic expression as a part

of language.
Ex. Fred is a real genius. (literally)
 Lexical Ambiguity
A word is lexically ambiguous if it has more than one
sense.
Fly – a noun (an insect, a zipper on a pair of pants, or a
baseball hit into the air with a bat) and a verb.

There are also ambiguities at the syntactic level.

Ex. American history teacher.

NOTE: - A teacher of American history

- A history teacher who is American.
 Hyponymy and Hypernymy
Hyponymy shows the relationship between a generic term or hypernym
and a specific instance of it or the hyponym.

A hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantic field is more specific than

its hypernym.

The semantic field of a hypernym, also known as a superordinate, is

broader than that of a hyponym.

Ex. Narra contains the meaning of a tree. Not all trees are Narra.
NOTE: Narra is a hyponym of the hypernym tree.
 Synonymy
Two words are synonymous if they have the same sense; that is if they
have the same values for all of their semantic features.

-No words mean the same thing in all contexts.

Ex. big and large are synonyms
big sister has a different sense than large sister.

- Synonymity does not capture differences in connotations, or the

associations the speaker has with the word (speaker-sense).
Ex. sanitation engineer and garbage collector.

- Synonymous words may also differ in register or level of formality.

Ex. guy and man in a guy walks into the office and a man walks into the office.
 Antonymy
There are three groups of antonyms: binary antonym, gradable antonym,
and converse antonym.

Binary Antonyms- are pairs that exhaust all possibilities along some
dimension of meaning, there is no middle ground.
Ex. dead or alive
-on or off
-legal or illegal
-true or false
-entrance or exit

NOTE: Anything that can be dead or alive is in fact either dead or alive.
Anything that is illegal or legal is either only illegal or legal.
-dead alive
- legal illegal
 Gradable Antonyms- are pairs that describe opposite ends of a
continuous dimension. They may also be relative terms.

Ex. -hot or cold

-young or elderly
-wet or dry
-fast or slow
-light or dark
-small or large
NOTE: Not everything that can be hot or cold is only either hot or cold. Not
everything that can be light and dark is only light and dark.

-hot… …warm… …cold

-light… …dim… …dark

 Converse Antonyms- pairs that describe a single relationship between two
items from opposite perspectives (relational). Both must exist for them to
be antonyms of each other.
Ex. -above or below
-buy or sell
-husband or wife
-servant or master
-doctor or patient
-predator or prey
NOTE: A husband is a husband because of the wife, and the wife is the wife
because of the husband. A doctor is to the patient as the patient is to the
doctor.
 Converse Antonyms- pairs that describe a single relationship between two
items from opposite perspectives (relational). Both must exist for them to
be antonyms of each other.
Ex. -above or below
-buy or sell
-husband or wife
-servant or master
-doctor or patient
-predator or prey
NOTE: A husband is a husband because of the wife, and the wife is the wife
because of the husband. A doctor is to the patient as the patient is to the
doctor.
 Reference
reference in semantics includes the referent, extension,
prototype, stereotype, coreference, and deixis.

Reference- is the study of what objects are referred to by linguistic

expressions.

Ex. Manila is the capital of the Philippines.

NOTE: Manila and the expression the capital of the Philippines refer to
the same external, real entity in the world (outside the sentence)
 The study of reference can be divided into two areas:
speaker reference and linguistic reference.

Speaker reference – what the speaker is referring to by using some

linguistic expression.
Ex. Here comes Queen Elizabeth (a classmate of theirs)

Linguistic reference – is the systematic denotation of some linguistic

expression as part of a language.
Ex. Here comes Queen Elizabeth (real Queen Elizabeth)
Referent
The entity identified by the use of a referring expression such as a
noun or noun phrase.

Ex. That bird looks sick. (referent: the bird you are pointing at)
Jack is the president. (referent: Jack, the actual person)
The singer has just died. (referent: singer who actually died)
Referent
The entity identified by the use of a referring expression such as a
noun or noun phrase.

Ex. That bird looks sick. (referent: the bird you are pointing at)
Jack is the president. (referent: Jack, the actual person)
The singer has just died. (referent: singer who actually died)

Extension
Refers to the set of all potential referents for a referring expression.

Ex. Birds can fly. (extension: all possible kinds of birds that could fly)
I think iPhones are great. (extension: all iPhone models)
Prototype
-A prototype is a typical member of the extension of a referring expression.

Ex. Birds can fly. Fruits are delicious.

NOTE: When you refer to birds, you will most likely think of an eagle or a dove, not ducks
nor ostriches. A dove, hence, is a prototypical bird. So as with fruits, you will most likely
think of mangos and berries, not tomatoes nor a pumpkin.

Stereotype
-A list of characteristics describing a prototype.
The stereotypes of a bird might be something like it has two legs, it has wings, has
feathers, is about six to eight inches from head to tail, makes a chirping noise, lays
eggs, builds nests.
The stereotypes of a teacher might be that s/he is proper, is well-dressed and
groomed, wears a pair of eyeglasses, etc.
Coreference
-Two linguistic expressions that have the same extralinguistic referent.

Ex. Duterte is the president of the Philippines.

NOTE: “Duterte” and “president of the Philippines” are coreferential because they refer
to the exact same entity in the world, the person.

Deixis (dike-sis)
-A deictic expression has one meaning but can refer to different entities depending on
the speaker and his or her spatial and temporal orientation.

Ex. you and I, here and there, and right and left (spatial position) Members of the
Congress believe they deserve a raise.
NOTE: here and there depends on the position of the speaker; they may refer to the
member of the congress or other entities.
 Truth Conditions

Truth conditions in semantics include the study of different

types of truth embodied in individual sentences.
This may also involve the truth relations between sentences.
Truth Conditions in Sentences
-Analytic Sentence- one that is necessarily true simply by virtue of the words in the
sentence.
Ex. A bachelor is an unmarried man. Cats are animals.
Cardiologists are doctors

Contradictory Sentence
- one that is necessarily false simply by the virtue of the words in the sentence.
Ex. A bachelor is a married man. Cats are fishes. Cardiologists are engineers by
profession.

Synthetic Sentence
- may be true or false depending on how the world is.
Ex. My next-door neighbor is married. Jenna is a teacher. The president is a man.
MORPHOLOGY
 MORPHOLOGY
A branch of linguistics that deals with word formation or structure.

The study of word formation.

A branch of linguistics that involves the study of the grammatical structure of words and
how words are formed and varied within the lexicon of any given language.

Studies the relationship between morphemes, referring to the smallest meaningful unit in a
word, and how these units can be arranged to create new words or new forms of the same
word.
 A lexicon is a collection of words
used in a certain language,
profession, hobby, or specific group.
LEXICON
A lexicon is different from a
dictionary, as it does not contain
definitions or word usage/origin.
 Lexicons can be individual languages, such as:
EXAMPLE Spanish
French
OF Greek
LEXICON
 Lexicons can be the vocabulary of certain professions, such as:
EXAMPLE Lawyers
Construction Workers
OF Doctors and Nurses

LEXICON
 Lexicons can be the vocabulary of different areas of interest or
hobbies, such as:
Stamp Collectors

EXAMPLE Bird Watchers

Athletes (basketball players have a different lexicon than

OF football players or cross country skiers)

Lexicons can be the vocabulary of certain groups of people,
such as:
LEXICON Different Age Groups (toddlers have a different lexicon than
high schoolers)
Different Generations (generation X has a different lexicon
than millennials or baby boomers)
 MORPHEMES

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of a word.

These are the minimal units of words that have meaning and cannot be subdivided further.

NOTE: that the number of syllables in a word is not equivalent to the

number of morphemes that a word contains.
MORPHEMES
 IN PHONOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS, A PHONEME IS A
SET OF PHONES THAT CAN DISTINGUISH ONE WORD
PHONEME FROM ANOTHER IN A PARTICULAR LANGUAGE.
(WIKIPEDIA).
 EXAMPLE

The word "jumps" has one syllable, but has two morphemes, "jump" (verb morpheme) and "-s"
(inflectional bound suffix morpheme).

The word "points" also has one syllable, but has two morphemes. The word "America" has
four syllables but is a lexical morpheme on its own.

This means one cannot break the lexeme "America" down further into meaningful units.

The word "polluted" has three syllables but only has two morphemes. "Pollute" is the stem verb
morpheme, while "-ed" is the bound morpheme in the form of an inflectional suffix that indicates
the past tense of the word.
www.reallygreatsite.com
 “BUYERS” is made up of three morphemes.
{buy} + {er} + {s}
EXAMPLE
-verb
OF
-one who performs the action
MORPHEMES
-more than one

buyers- more than one person who buys things

{buy} = buy, buying, buys, buyers
{er} =www.reallygreatsite.com
farmer, driver, swimmer, buyers
{s} = girls, boys, buyers
 EXAMPLE
OF
MORPHEMES
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF
MORPHEMES:

FREE MOORPHEMES BOUND MORPHEMES

 FREE MOORPHEMES
Free morphemes are those which can stand alone as words of a language.

Most roots in English are free morphemes (for example, dog, syntax, and to),
FREE MORPHEMES
Stand-alone words are free morphemes. The two categories of free morphemes are
lexical morphemes and grammatical/functional morphemes. Lexical morphemes
are independently meaningful. Many of these morphemes exist, such as the word
cat. This word is a lexical morpheme because it can stand alone and contains its
meaning.

The words "and," "but," "or," "after," "that," "the," and "she" are examples of
grammatical/functional morphemes.
These morphemes contain functional words like pronouns, prepositions,
conjunctions, and determiners. The word "catfish" is an example of combining two
free morphemes, "cat" and "fish," together to create a new compound word.
FREE MORPHEMES

Some examples of lexical morphemes include:

Night - The word "night" can stand by itself and hold its meaning.
Dog - The meaning of the word "dog" is clear.
Girl - The word "girl" stands by itself and cannot be cut into smaller morphemes.
Ball - The word "ball" clearly contains its meaning.
Play - No smaller morphemes can be made by cutting up the word "play."
Joke - "Joke" cannot be cut into smaller words and retain its meaning.
 BOUND MOORPHEMES

Bound morphemes must be attached to other morphemes.

There are a few cases of roots (like -gruntle as in disgruntle) that must be combined
with another bound morpheme in order to surface as an acceptable lexical item...
BOUND MORPHEMES
Bound morphemes
are morphemes that cannot stand alone and only occur as parts of words.

Unlike free morphemes, bound morphemes must be connected to another morpheme

to create a word. Both derivational and inflectional morphemes are bound
morphemes.

The -s suffix in "pictures" is an example of a bound morpheme. Another example of a

bound morpheme is -ish, as in "childish." Some common bound morpheme suffixes
are -ly, -ic, -ness, -ian and -less. Bound morpheme prefixes examples dis-, uni-, di, pre-,
and poly-.
 MORPHOLOGY

INFLECTIONAL DERIVATIONAL
 INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES

Inflectional morphemes change what a word does in terms of grammar, but does not create a
new word.

For example, the word <skip> has many forms: skip (base form), skipping (present progressive),
skipped (past tense).

The inflectional morphemes -ing and -ed are added to the base word skip, to indicate the tense of
the word.

If a word has an inflectional morpheme, it is still the same word, with a few suffixes added. So if
you looked up <skip> in the dictionary, then only the base word <skip> would get its own entry
into the dictionary. Skipping and skipped are listed under skip, as they are inflections of the base
word. Skipping and skipped do not get their own dictionary entry.
 Inflectional Morphemes

They are all suffixes

They neither change the category of a word
nor do they produce a new lexeme
 PLU
INFLECTIONAL
-all plural nouns in English can be represented morphologically as root + {PLU}

girls= {girl} + {PLU}

sheep= {sheep} + {PLU}

POSS
-all possessive nouns in English can be represented morphologically as root +
{POSS}

men’s= {man} + {PLU} + {POSS}

University’s = {university} + {POSS}
 COMP
-all comparative adjectives in English can be represented morphologically as
INFLECTIONAL
root + {COMP}

happier= {happy} + {COMP}

better = {good} + {COMP}

SUP
-all superlative adjectives in English can be represented morphologically as
root + {SUP}

best= {good} + {SUP}

loveliest = {love} + {ly} + {SUP}
 PRES
INFLECTIONAL
-all present tense verbs in English can be represented
morphologically as root + {PRES}

John loves Mary: loves = {love} + {PRES}

They love each other: love= {love} + {PRES}

She lives alone: lives = {live} + {PRES}

Mary and John live together: ____________
 PAST
INFLECTIONAL
-all past tense verbs in English can be represented
morphologically as root + {PAST}

John loved Mary: loved = {love} + {PAST}

She drove him: drove= {drive} + {PAST}
She already ate: ate = {eat} + {PAST}
I was late: was = {be} + {PAST}
 PAST PART
-all past participles in English can be represented
INFLECTIONAL
morphologically as root + {PAST PART}

I have seen the movie.

seen = {see} + {PAST PART}
She has worked here for years.
worked= {work} + {PAST PART}
They have been here since morning.
been= {be} + {PAST PART}
 PRES PART
-all present participles in English can be
INFLECTIONAL
represented morphologically as
root + {PRES PART}

I am singing.
singing = {sing} + {PRES PART}
She was working when I arrived.
working= {work} + {PRES PART}
They have been playing far too long.
playing= {play} + {PRES PART}
BOUND MORPHEMES

Derivational Morphemes
Derivational morphemes are the prefixes or suffixes added to a word to give the word a new
meaning. In the word "unhappy," the un- prefix changes the meaning of the word "happy."
Another example is "lovely." The suffix -ly changes the meaning of the word "love." Here are
some examples of derivational morphemes:
BOUND MORPHEMES
Derivational Morphemes
There are an indefinite number of derivational morphemes.
{ize} - noun to verb: rubberize
{ize} - adjective to verb: normalize, specialize
{ful} - noun to adjective: playful, helpful, beautiful
{ly} - adjective to adverb: grandly, proudly
{ly} - noun to adjective: manly, friendly
English also has derivational prefixes, such as:
- {un}, {dis}, {a}, {anti}, all of which indicate some kind of negation:
unhappy, dislike, atypical, anti-aircraft.