Theme 2. Units of linguistic analysis
Plan
1. The determining features of a system.
2. The problem of the language-speech dichotomy.
3. Linguistic levels and linguistic units.
4. The functions of the linguistic units.
5. The word as a central linguistic unit.
Let us take an extract from a text: “The Soviet Union has leapt from plough to spaceship. She has become a mighty power in the course of years”. This text may be divided into units of various length on four different levels: sentence level, word level, morpheme level, and phoneme level.
1) Sentence level. The extract contains 2 sentences.
2) Word level. In the first sentence there are words (“The Soviet Union” is a composite name consisting of 3 different words; “has leapt” is one word in an analytical form);
3) Morpheme level. “might/y” and “year/s” consist each of 2 morphemes; “year-“ /j/ə:/ comprises 2 phonemes, “-s” /z/, one phoneme, Soviet /s/ou/v/j/ə/t/, 6 phonemes.
Sentences, words and morphemes have both form and content: they are signs. Phonemes have only form, they cannot be connected immediately with any definite content.
4) On the lowest phonemic level the unit of analysis is the phoneme. The phoneme is the smallest distinctive unit. With its help we can distinguish morphemes, words and in the long run sentences. The Russian words орёл - осёл differ from each other through the position of /p`/ and /c`/. The English words tale – table with the help of /b/, cat – rat through the contrast of /k/-/r/. In any language there is a comparatively limited number of phonemes (42 in Russian, 45 in English, 40 in German). The quantitative margin is from 10 to 100. In each language the system of phonemes is specific and does not coincide with that of another language. For instance, in Russian there are palatalized and non-palatalized phonemes, which can differentiate words /н/ - /н`/ кон-конь, but the English con (study by heart) if palatalized, would sound unnatural, but would remain the same word.
In English long and short vowels of similar quality are different phonemes, e.g. /i/ - /i:/ - ship-sheep. In Russian the word шип may be pronounced long, because the phonemic system In Russian does not differentiate iong and short /u/.
On the second level the morpheme is defined as the smallest meaningful unit. The word workers may be divided into parts, each or them carrying some meaning work-er-s. The root work- is the carrier of the lexical meaning, the stem-building suffix -er, of the lexico-grammatical meaning of the agent, and the inflexion -s, of the grammatical meaning of the plural. Here are examples of English and Russian words divided incorrectly: *u-nl-aw-fu-lly, по-дст-а-вк-а.
These parts do not express any meaning, they are not morphemes. Here is a division into morphemes, which is acceptable to the English and to the Russians, even though they might not know anything about the theory of grammar: u-nl-aw-fu-lly, по-дст-а-вк-а. The word nowhere is divided no-where, but not now-here, because its meaning is not in any place. The word Frenchman consists of two morphemes french - man, each of them having its own meaning, but the word German has only one morpheme.
Languages have many lexical, root morphemes, but the number of affixes and inflexions (lexico-grammatical and grammatical morphemes) is not very numerous. There is no language in the world with more than 1000 lexico-grammatica1 and grammatical morphemes, which makes it possible to study exhaustively the lexicology and grammar of the most complicated languages.
The third, lexical level, has the word as its unit. The word is the smallest naming unit. Each of the following units gives a name to some object, quality, process or phenomenon of the reality surrounding us: work, worker, working-class, workable.
The word is the central unit in morphology and is very important in syntax since parts of the sentence are usually expressed by words and their combinations. It is not an easy matter to state the most essential features of the word that can distinguish it from higher and lower units, even if we restrict ourselves to such languages as Russian, English, Latin and German. According to the American scholar Kenneth Pike, the word has three principle features:
1) isolatability, i.e. it can be used in an isolated manner making up a sentence by itself, e.g. Boys! Where? Green. In some contexts even semi-structural words such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles and particles can be isolated as independent utterances (which certainly is unusual and may have a comical effect).
e.g. When Spartans, who were reputedly short-spoken, were threatened by their enemies that their town would be razed to the ground if it were captured, they answered: “If”.
e.g. “Your book is not on the table. Where is it?” - “Under.”
Contrary to the word, a morpheme or phoneme cannot be used independently. Compare two dialogues:
1.“Shall we put on our hats or leave without them?” - “Without!”
2.“Shall we put on our hats or leave hatless?” - *“-less!”
The morpheme –less cannot be used in an isolated way.
Note: There are English and Russian examples of morphemes used independently. F. Boas admits the possibility of a dialogue:
“He plays well.”
“-ed.”
Ch. Hockett recorded a dialogue he overheard:
“Out where?.” - “-side.”
Compare Russian jokes:
1.«Вас обсудили.» - «И об- и о-.»
2.«Это для какой газеты?» - «Для стен-.»
These are jokes or language tricks but not normal speech in accordance with language laws. A morpheme cannot be isolated in speech.
Isolatability allows the word to be replaced by its synonym. A morpheme, which is a bound part of the word, cannot be substituted for by a synonymic morpheme.
e.g. without doubt – no doubt
doubtless – *undoubt
Isolatability distinguishes the word from the lower units.
2) uninterruptability, i.e. neither a word nor a morpheme, nor any other unit can be introduced inside a word. If any segment can be placed inside a sound sequence, it is sure to be between two different words. This criterion sets out a word against a higher unit (the sentence) or against a combination of words.
If we compare compound nouns (left-hand column) to their homonymous word combinations (right-hand column), we shall be convinced that only the latter can be interrupted by other words:
blackbird ‘a kind of thrushes’ – a black bird (a black and yellow bird)
blackboard ‘a chalkboard’ – a black board (a black narrow board)
e.g. His face was lean, the deep cheekbones, great furrows down his face so that his cheek bones and chin stood out sharply. (J. Steinbeck)
3) relative looseness of the word position in the sentence, i.e. a word may change its position, even in English with its relatively fixed word order:
e.g. The boy ran away.
Away ran the boy.
Away the boy ran.
Away did the boy run.
The morphemes inside the word cannot change places: un-interrupt-ed-ly cannot be changed into *ed-un-ly-interrupt.
If we follow K. Pike’s three criteria, such Russian units as кто-то (ср. кого-то, кому-то), что-либо (ср. чему-либо, чем-либо) or English broad-shouldered (compare broader-shouldered), passer-by (compare passers-by), sister-in-law (compare sisters-in-law) will not be words because they do not satisfy the demand for uninterruptability.
A highly developed language may include very many words. Oxford Dictionary is said to record 500.000 words, and The Webster Dictionary even more – 600.000. One of specialists in Russian linguistics (B.H.Перетрухин) estimates the quantity of words in modern Russian as 1.000.000. Of course, no man, however educated and talented he may be, can know all the words of such languages as Russian or English.
The sentence, the unit of the highest syntactical level, is the smallest communicative unit. Communication, exchange of thoughts and information, is the leading function of Language. But neither phonemes, nor morphemes, nor even words can ensure the exchange of thoughts. Only a sentence corresponds to complete thought and may express it. All other units are just building blocks, bricks and other component parts to construct a sentence. They serve the purpose of building the sentence. Sentences are created at the moment of speech. They are not kept ready-made in our memory and reproduced when needed, as it is with lower units. Sentences are not reproduced but produced by the speaker (and understood by the listener) who know words with their morphemes and phonemes as well as the rules for combining those words.
The number of sentences in the language cannot be counted. G.A. Miller found out that in English one can compose 100.000.000.000.000.000.000 (10²º, a hundred sextillion) sentences of 20 words each. To pronounce them all, one is to speak incessantly during a period 1000 times longer than the age of the Earth.
As a rule, the sentence is composed of one or more words (a word of one or more morphemes; a morpheme of one or more phonemes). But it would be a mistake to suppose that any combination of lower units will make a higher one. The three phonemes /t/k/œ/ will build the root cat, only when placed in a definite order /k/œ/t/. In this order they acquire a meaning.
The morpheme combinations *-ing-ly, -er-s are not words because they do not name anything as apposed to surprisingly, workers. A combination of words will not make a sentence, unless it communicates something. Thus The book is placed on the table is a sentence, whereas on the table is not, unless it is used in a definite context ("Where is the book?" "On the table.") or in a certain situation (A dutiful son looks inquiringly at his mother, not knowing where to put the bread he has brought, Mother may say: "On the table!"). It may happen that a phoneme on the first level may be a morpheme on the second one, a word on the third and a sentence on the fourth, e.g. the phoneme /ai/, the root-morpheme "eye-" in the words eyeless, eye-classes, the word eye, and the sentence “Eye.” as an answer to the question: "What is more important, the eye or the ear?"
Any of the four units may be regarded syntagmatically i. e. in its combinations with other units of the same level (usually in speech), and paradigmatically (usually in language), i. e. in comparison with other units of the same level which can be placed instead of it with corresponding changes. If we take as an example the word boy, its syntagmatic properties will be disclosed in the combinations: a boy, a young boy, a boy reads; and the paradigmatic properties in these pairs: a boy reads - boys read, a boy reads - a girl reads, etc.
References:
1. Александрова, О.В. Современный английский язык: Морфология и синтаксис = Modern English Grammar: Morphology and Syntax: учебное пособие / О.В. Александрова, Т.А. Комова. – М.: ИЦ Академия, 2007. – С. 9-14.
2. Блох, М.Я. Практикум по теоретической грамматике английского языка : учебное пособие / М.Я. Блох, Т.Н. Семенова, С.В. Тимофеева. – M.: Высш. шк., 2004. – P. 10-11.
3. Мороховская, Э.Я. Основы теоретической грамматики английского языка : учеб. пособие / Э.Я. Мороховская. – Киев: Вища школа, 1984. – С. 16-17.