Lecture 1.

Language Levels

Language (Speech) is divided to certain strata or levels. The linguists

distinguish basic and nonbasic (sometimes they term them differently: primary and
secondary) levels. This distinction depends on whether a level has got its own unit or
not. If a level has its own unit then this level is qualified as basic or primary. If a level
doesn't have a unit of its own then it is a non-basic or secondary level. Thus, the
number of levels entirely depend on how many language (or speech) units in
language. There's a number of conceptions on this issue: some scientists say that
there are four units (phoneme/phone; morpheme/morph; lexeme/lex and sentence),
others think that there are five units like phonemes, morphemes, lexemes, word-
combinations (phrases) and sentences and still others maintain that besides the
mentioned ones there are paragraphs, utterances and texts. As one can see there's no
unity in the number of language and speech units. The most wide-spread opinion is
that there are five language (speech) units and respectively there are five language
(speech) levels, they are: phonetic/phonological; morphological; lexicological, syntax
- minor and syntax - major.
The levels and their units are as follows:
1. phonological/phonetical level: phoneme/phone
2. morphological level: morpheme/morph
3. lexicological level: lexeme/lex
4. Syntax - minor: sentence
5. Syntax - major: text
Thus, non-basic or secondary level is one that has no unit of its own. Stylistics
can be said to be non-basic (secondary) because this level has no its own unit. In
order to achieve its aim it makes wide use of the units of the primary (basic) levels.
The stylistics studies the expressive means and stylistic devices of languages.
When talking about the levels one has to mention about the distinction between
language and speech because the linguistics differentiates language units and speech
units.
The main distinction between language and speech is in the following:
1) language is abstract and speech is concrete;
2) language is common, general for all the bearers while speech is individual;
3) language is stable, less changeable while speech tends to changes;
4) language is a closed system, its units are limited while speech tend to be openness
and endless.
It is very important to take into account these distinctions when considering the
language and speech units. There are some conceptions according to which the terms
of "language levels" are substituted by the term of "emic level" while the "speech
levels" are substituted by "ethic levels". Very often these terms are used
interchangeably. The lowest level in the hierarchy of levels has two special terms:
phonology and phonetics.
Phonology is the level that deals with language units and phonetics is the
level that deals with speech units. The lowest level deals with language and
speech units which are the smallest and meaningless. So, the smallest
meaningless unit of language is called phoneme; the smallest meaningless unit of
speech is called phone. As it's been said above the language units are abstract and
limited in number which means that phonemes are abstract and that they are of
definite number in languages. The speech units are concrete, changeable and actually
endless. This means that language units (phonemes) are represented in speech
differently which depends on the person that pronounces them and on the
combinability of the phoneme. Phonemes when pronounced in concrete speech vary
from person to person, according to how he has got used to pronounce this or that
sound. In linguistic theory it is explained by the term "idiolect" that is, individual
dialect. Besides, there may be positional changes (combinability): depending on the
sounds that precede and follow the sound that we are interested in the pronunciation
of it may be different, compare: low and battle. The sound "l" will be pronounced
differently in these two words because the letter “l" in the first word is placed in the
initial position and in the second word it stands after the letter "t". So we face "light"
(in the first word) and "dark" version (in the second case). These alternants are said to
be in the complimentary distribution and they are called allophones (variants, options
or alternants) of one phoneme. Thus allophone is a variant of a phoneme.
The second level in the hierarchy of strata is called morphological. There's only
one term for both language and speech but the units have different terms: morpheme
for language and morph for speech. This level deals with units that are also smallest
but in this case they are meaningful. So the smallest meaningful unit of language is
called a morpheme and the smallest meaningful unit of speech is called a morph. The
morphs that have different forms, but identical (similar) meanings are united into one
morpheme and called "allomorphs". The morpheme of the past tense has at least three
allomorphs, they are /t/, /d/, /id/. Examples: worked, phoned and wanted. The variant
of the morpheme depends on the preceding sound in the word.
The third level is lexicological which deals with words. Word may be a
common term for language and speech units. Some linguists offer specific terms for
language and speech: "lexeme" for language and “lex” for speech. The correlation
between "lexeme" and "lex" is the same as it is between “phoneme” and “phone” and
“morpheme” and “morph”. “Lexeme” is a language unit of the lexicological level
which has a nominative function. "Lex" is a speech unit of the lexicological level
which has a nominative function. Thus, both lexeme and lex nominate something or
name things, actions phenomena, quality, quantity and so on. Examples: tree, pen,
sky, red, worker, friendship, ungentlemanly and so on. An abstract lexeme "table" of
language is used in speech as lex with concrete meaning of "writing table", "dinner
table", "round table", "square table", and so on. There may be "allolexes" like
allophones and allomorphs. Allolexes are lexes that have identical or similar
meanings but different forms, compare: start, commence, begin.
To avoid confusion between "morpheme" and "lexemes" it is very important to
remember that morphemes are structural units while lexemes are communicative
units: morpheme are built of phonemes and they are used to build words - lexemes.
Lexemes take an immediate part in shaping the thoughts, that is, in building
sentences. Besides, lexemes may consist of one or more morphemes. The lexeme
"tree" consists of one morpheme while the lexeme "ungentlemanly" consists of four
morphemes: un - gentle - man - ly.
The next level is syntax - minor which deals with sentences. The term "Syntax
- minor" is common one for both language and speech levels and their unit "sentence"
is also one common term for language and speech units. The linguistics hasn't yet
worked out separate terms for those purposes.
The abstract notion "sentence" of language can have concrete its representation
in speech which is also called "Sentence" due to the absence of the special term.
Example: "An idea of writing a letter” on the abstract language level can have its
concrete representation in speech: John writes a letter. A letter is written by John.
Since one and the same idea is expressed in two different forms they are called
"allo - sentences". Some authors call them grammatical synonyms. Thus, sentence is
language and speech units on the syntax - minor level, which has a communicative
function.
In the same way the level syntax - major can be explained. The unit of this
level is text – the highest level of language and speech. "Syntax- major" represents
both language and speech levels due to the absence of separate term as well as "text"
is used homogeneously for both language and speech units.
The language and speech units are interconnected and interdependent.
This can easily be proved by the fact that the units of lower level are used to
make up or to build the units of the next higher level: phones are used as building
material for morphs, and morphs are used to build lexes and the latter are used to
construct sentences. Besides, the homonyms that appear in the phonetical level can be
explained on the following higher level, compare: - "er" is a homonymous morph. In
order to find out in which meaning it is used we’ll have to use it on the lexicological
level; if it is added to verbs like "teacher", "worker" then it will have one meaning but
if we use it with adjectives like “higher”, “lower” it will have another meaning.