After Reading This Chapter Students Should Be Able To

Chapter 2

The Elements of Language

Chapter Goals After reading this chapter students should be able to: 1. Describe the basic elements of language. 2. Understand the terms “phoneme” and “morpheme” and how they differ from each other. 3. Understand the rules that underlie syntax. 4. Understand some of the challenges in developing rules for semantics. 5. Understand the concept of pragmatics and its application in communication.

Chapter Outline I. Introduction A. Traditional model of language elements B. Bloom and Lahey model of language elements II. Phonology A. Phonemes 1. Definition 2. Identifying phonemes of a language B. Phonological rules C. Definition D. Phonotactic constraints III. Morphology A. Definition B. Morphemes 1. Free 2. Bound IV. Syntax A. Definition B. Phrase structure rules C. Transformational rules D. Government and binding theory V. Semantics A. Definition B. Semantic component theory 1. Fundamental features 2. Selection restrictions VI. Pragmatics A. Definition B. Speech acts C. Conversational rules Key Terms allomorphs morpheme morphology optimality theory phoneme phonology phonotactic constraints phrase structure rules pragmatics selection restrictions semantics syntax

Classroom Activities 1. Have students develop examples of “possible” words in English- that is, words that conform to the rules of English phonology and morphology but are not (or at least not yet) words. Students might also try to assign meanings to these words.

2. Assign a student or a group of students to look up the etymology of words that may be either one or two morphemes (such as huckleberry and strawberry). What do the origins of the word indicate about the number of morphemes contained in the word?

3. Using the evidence from the following samples of Xuan (a pseudo language), answer the questions below: Xuan English tra di ma umma di The girl hit the ball tra di ma tinna The girl hit a dog tra di bu tinna The girl walked a dog tinna di gad umma di The dog ate the ball

a. What are the phrase structure rules of this “language?” b. What is the lexicon (dictionary) of this “language?” c. What other sentences could be made using the words and rules of this “language?”

Answers to Review Questions 1. glix/smedder/slirt/flim/blumpt

2. lods (z) gacked lotches nopped flimming nugs

3. The teacher was using an indirect request. Mike responded as if she were actually asking a question. 4. Many answers are possible. Answers should show what is alike among the pairs and what differentiates the pairs. For example: Dog= animal, non-human, barks, domesticated Wolf= animal, non-human, barks, wild

5. A. Requesting the salt/indirect B. Asking if individual is able to raise hand/direct C. Requesting that student raise hand before talking/indirect