linguistics

writen by : M. Wakhid Qomari

PREFACE

Language, whatever its shape, is constantly one of some unique things for life being, especially human. It, as Prof. Abbas, is an instrument to express one’s feeling, emotion, or ideas. In addition, according to Mr. Jauharotul Anwar, a teacher of MTs N Model Babad, is an instrument used to create communication (understanding each other) between the speaker and the listener, or the writer and the reader. From these definitions, we can take a sense that it is really important creature, such human having so great various complex activities, master language. Without language, one will be left by his civilization.

There are two forms of human language, verbal and non-verbal language, but there is no linguist who denies that the two are attractive to be observed. Verbal language is a kind of language which is in the form of speaking and signing through gesturing. And non-verbal language is a kind of language which is in the form of writing.

Studying language, we will find out the answers of any questions, based on our skepticism, but then we will have some next questions. For example, today we have skepticism on the problem such why we had to go, there was no another choice, when our father made us go to bed. We may have thought hard to answer the problem. Then next, we found out the answer on properties of language, that is, discreteness. After then, some new questions appeared to ask you, such about the construction of words, phrases, sentences, and so on.

Bewaring about that, the writers hope to be able to record some answers of the questions through some aspects of it. The aspects which will be observed are: the meaning of linguistics, kinds of pure and applied linguistics, properties of language, morphology, phonology, semantics, grammar, and pragmatics.

However, the writers are extremely conscious that it, this essay, is still so far from perfect. Therefore, the writers really need your critics, suggestion, and corrections for the perfection.

Contents

Preface.

Content.

1. Linguistics (Pure and Applied Linguistics).

2. Properties of Language.

3. The Difference between Phonetics and Phonology.

4. Morphology.

5. Grammar.

6. Syntax.

7. Semantics.

8. Pragmatics.

1. Linguistics (Pure and Applied Linguistics).

Linguistics, according to wikipedia, is the scientific study of natural language. Then from this definition, linguistics is divided into two areas, pure linguistics and applied linguistics, where each area covers some others areas. Pure linguistics, covers phonetics (the study of physical properties of speech production and perception), phonology (the study of sounds as discrete, abstract elements in the speaker’s mind that distinguish meaning), morphology (the study of internal structures of words and how they can be modified), syntax (the study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences), semantics (the study of meaning of words and fixed words combination, and hw these combine to form the meanings of sentences), pragmatics (the study of how utterances are used in communicative acts, and the role played by context and non-linguistics knowledge in the transmission of meaning). Applied linguistics, on the other hand, includes biolinguistics (the study of natural as well as human-taught communication systems in animals, compared to human language), sociolinguistics (the study variation in language and its relation with social factors), psycholinguistics (the study of cognitive processes and representation underlying language use), neurolinguistics (the study of structures in the human brain that underlie grammar and communication), clinical linguistics (the application of linguistics theory to the field of speech-language pathology), historical linguistics (the study of language change over time), and so on.

2. Properties of Language.

Property is what characteristics have been owned by someone or something. Human has kindness, rudeness, loveliness, friendliness, beautiful, ugly, wicked, as his/her properties. Therefore, properties of language mean that some characteristics, which appear, have been owned by language to perform its existence.

George Yule wrote in his book “the study of language” that, although there are a great number of properties of language, human has six unique properties, which specially differ from those other creature’s. Those properties are: displacement, arbitrariness, cultural transmission, productivity, discreteness, and duality.

a. Displacement

When your dog is barking, you will have some interpretations about the action. However, you, as the owner of the dog, may have been aware about what the actin means. When you consider that it (the dog) must be hungry, for example, it must tell you that its hunger happens simultaneously with its barking. Or it can be said that the dog’s barking actually conveys what its feeling at the same time it barks.

However, human’s language is a bit different from the dog’s. Human language can indicate the different, specific time of the event that has happened and told. When one says, “I’m studying right now”, for example, it is quite different from “I was studying when you went”. The difference of the two is on its time, when the event happened. Human language can tell any events differently in the case of time. It can tell present, future, past, continuous event. It is actually the meaning of displacement.

b. Arbitrariness

One may not be able to take the relation between a word “go” and its meaning that is, moving away. When one orders you to go, why can you take interpretation of the word that makes you move away? It is actually a big question that can be answered easily. When you feel that there is no relation between a linguistics form and its meaning, it is in fact a kind of properties of language named arbitrariness.

c. Cultural transmitted

One may have ever questioned to himself about why all cats on the world say meow and why all people on the world can’t say the same language. A new infant of cat was born in Indonesia then it was brought and grown up in Japan, yet it still say meow. It really proves that all cats on the world have the same language, meow. However, human has difference in this case. A new born child of human was born in Indonesia then he was brought and grown up in England, he then spoke English, but not Indonesia. The reason of this phenomenon is that animal’s language is instinctively transmitted, but human language is cultural transmitted, transmitted from a generation to the next generation through the culture of its environment.

d. Productivity

It is a fact that there are only 26 units of alphabet, but human can create unlimited words by using the alphabetical units. Even more each word has its own meaning. When we have a letter “p”, for example, we certainly can make words such pin, pink, push, splash, split, stop, shop, and so on. It is only a “p” letter, however, how about the others?

And it is also a fact that there are only limited kinds of human phone (speech sound), containing consonant, vowel, and diphthong, yet human can create unlimited connected phoneme, as word. When we have a phoneme /d/ , for example, we than can create /da:k/, /d3:t/, /wud/, and so on. It is only a /d/ phoneme, however, how about the other phonemes? As the conclusion, productivity is the ability of human to create unlimited, meaningful words.

e. Discreteness

A word “book” really has different meaning with a word “look” although they are almost similar, having only one different phoneme initially. When one says “book”, it must refer to a noun named book. However, it is not interpreted as a noun named book when one says look because it has meaning as verb. From this short description, it can be said that each part (phoneme) in a word is really important in showing the intended meaning of the word. It is actually what is named as discreteness.

f. Duality

After discussing about discreteness, we know that a phone is really important in language. Different in only a phoneme, two words become different in meaning each other. The reason why it happens is duality, language is organized at two levels (physical and meaning) simultaneously. When we say “book”, for instance, it in fact conveys the first level of language, that is, physical level. However, on the other hand, we also have another level at the same time, that is, the entity that relates to the word “book”.

3. The Difference between Phonetics and Phonology.

Wikipedia said that phonetics is related branch of linguistics concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds (phones), non speech sounds, and how they are produced. The areas of phonetics are articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, auditory phonetics, and forensic phonetics. Phonology, on the other hand, is the study of sounds as discrete, abstract elements in the speaker’s mind that distinguish meaning. Because of this definition, the areas of it are phoneme, allophone, syllable, and co-articulation effect.

From the two explanations above, we can take a sense of the difference of phonetics and phonology. That is their area of study. George Yule, further more, said in his book, “phonology is concerned with the abstract or mental aspect of the sounds rather than with the actual physical articulation of speech sounds.”

4. Morphology.

a. The Definition of Morpheme.

You must have ever met words such question, questions, and questioned in a situation. From the words, we may know that all the words are basically from a word “question”, which is interpreted as a noun or a verb. Then a word “questions” can be interpreted as plural noun or verb (used in the simple present) standing from “question + s” and a word “questioned” can be interpreted as V2 or V3 standing from question +ed. From this explanation, we know that additional letter “s” and “ed” can change a bit or totally the interpretation of the word. When we study about the form of a word in language, such explained above, we in fact are studying morphology.

In studying morphology, we will also study about morphemes, the smallest, meaningful unit of language. For example, we can say that a letter “b” is a smallest unit of written language, but we cannot say that it is a meaningful unit for there is not any meaning in it. In another hand, we can say that a letter “a” is a smallest, meaningful unit of written language since it has its function and meaning in language, that is, an article performing singular, infinite noun. We also can say that “walk”, “-s”, “-ed” as the smallest, meaningful unit of language since each of them has certain function and meaning.

b. Kinds of Morpheme.

Morphemes are divided into two forms: free and bound morphemes. Free morphemes are morphemes which can stand alone as single word. They are also divided into two types: lexical and functional morphemes. Lexical morpheme is a kind of free morpheme commonly in the form of noun, adjective, and verb which are called as content words in language. Some examples are Wahid, car, small, stop, and so on. Functional morpheme, on the other hand, is a kind of free morpheme which is commonly n the form f functional words such article, conjunction, preposition, and pronoun. Some examples are above, near, he, she, the, so, etc. Bound morpheme is morpheme that cannot stand alone and it is always attached to another morpheme, as affixes. Some examples are re-, im-, -ist, -s, -es, -ed, etc. Bound morpheme is grouped into two categories: derivational and inflectional morphemes. Derivational morpheme is a kind of bound morpheme which is used to make word of a different grammatical category from the stem. For instance, a word “cloud” is the stem, which has grammatical category as the noun, but it will really differ if it becomes a word “cloudy”, which has grammatical category as adjective. Inflectional morpheme is a kind of bound morpheme which is not used to produce new word in language, but rather to indicate aspect of grammatical function of a word. It is used to convey if a word is plural or singular, or possessive or comparative form. Some examples are –s, -es, -ed, -er, est, -ing, -‘s, etc.

5. Grammar.

1. Definition of Grammar

In her book titled “semantic: a course book”, Mrs. Christina wrote grammar is the study of internal structure of language. However George Yule said that grammar is a way of describing the structure of phrases and sentences which will account for all of the grammatical sequences and rule out all the ungrammatical sequences. From the two we know that grammar is the study of internal structure of language including phrases and sentences. For instance, a phrase “girl beautiful the” is actually grammatically wrong because it should have been “the beautiful girl”. And also a sentence “brought Wahid the case” is incorrect for itb should have been “Wahid brought the case”. It is actually the study of grammar.

2. Types of Grammar

There are three types of grammar, mental grammar, linguistics etiquette, and grammar involving the study and analysis of the structures found in language. Mental grammar is the form of internal linguistic knowledge which operate in the production and recognition of appropriately expressions in the language. Then, linguistic etiquette is the identification of the “proper” or “best” structures to be used in a language. It is what sociolinguists do on their works because it has to do with people’s social attitudes and values. Finally, grammar involving the study and analysis of the structures (grammatical constructions) is the study of grammar which is aimed to establish a description of the grammar of English as distinct from other language. It is what occupies many linguists since the concern is with the nature of language.

3. Traditional Grammar

Traditional grammar, which has its origins in the description of language, is used to label the grammatical categories of words in sentences traditionally, early moment as it was used. And the categories, which can be analyzed through the traditional grammar, are number, person, tense, voice, and gender. George Yule said that these categories can be discussed in isolation, but their role in describing language structure becomes clearer when they were considered in term of agreement. In a sentence “Idom washes his clothes”, for example, we know that there is an agreement between “Idom” (the third person singular), as the subject, and “washes”, as the verb; “Idom”, as male creature, and “his”, as possessive adjective of the third person singular male. From this short explanation, we can take a sense of the grammatical categories that Idom is just one, showing the category of number. And Idom is the third person singular conveying person category. However, there are some other person categories in English such “I” (the first person singular), “you” (the second person singular and plural), “we” (the first person plural), and “they” (the third person plural). Then, “washes” indeed indicates the tense category (simple present) for it can differentiate whether the tense is present, past, future, continuous, perfect, or else. Another category is voice, in which there are two kinds of voice category: active and passive voice. And the sentence exampled above is grouped into active voice. Finally, the word “Idom” is indeed the name of a man or boy, the pronoun of which is he, his, him, or him self, but not they, you, we, or else. In describing this category, we will know that English noun is grouped into three genderizations: feminine, masculine, and neutral. It is really the name of gander category.

4. Seven Parts of Speech

According to George Yule, there are seven parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, conjunction, and preposition. Nouns are words used to name all things such human, animal, thing, and idea. Some examples are Rofichoh, chair, tiger, importance, etc. Pronouns are words used in place of noun phrases, typically referring to things already known. I, you, yours, mine are its examples. Verbs are words used to refer to various kinds of actions (walk, pull) and states (be, appear) involving the “things” in events. Adverbs are words used to provide more information about verb, adjective, and even adverb itself. Some examples are fast, quickly, very, precise, and so on. Adjectives are words used to provide more information about noun, such big, small, tall, short, cloudy, etc. conjunctions are words used to connect, indicate relationship between, events and things, such and, so, but, or, etc. Prepositions are words used with nouns in phrases providing information about time, place, and other locations involving actions and things.

5. Prescriptive and Descriptive Approach

Discussing prescriptive approach, we will imagine that a phrase “buku ini” is really odd for English speakers. “Buku” means book and “ini” means this, therefore, they become “book this” if we translate the phrase by using Indonesia grammatical construction. However, English grammatical construction requires its own rules, where demonstrative adjective “this” always precedes the noun to which it describes. As describing about how a phrase or sentence should be used in a language, we are actually talking about prescriptive approach.

However, descriptive approach is more interested in describing the regular structures of a language rather than how language should be. There are two ways in analyzing descriptive approach: structural and immediate constituent analysis. Structural analysis mainly concerns to investigate the distribution of forms in a language. And immediate constituent analysis is the technique which is designed to show how constituents in sentences go together to form larger constituents.

6. Syntax.

a. Definition of Syntax

Syntax, coming originally from Greek which means setting out together, is the study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences. Therefore, studying syntax means that we are trying to describe the structure of phrases and sentences grammatically. A sentence “worked I seriously yesterday”, for instance, is syntactically wrong because it breaks the rules, about ordering words, of sentence, which confuses the readers or listeners. It, actually, should have been “I worked seriously yesterday”, if we want to make it correct syntactically.

b. Deep and Surface Structure

Deep structure, as Prof. Abbas Achmad Badib, is what related words constructed in grammatical order in speaker or writer’s mind. When one want to say something, there is, in fact, grammatical construction underlying in his mind based on what really goal he means. Therefore, we cannot understand how deep structure works since its work is constantly unknown, that is, in the speaker or writer’s mind.

Surface structure, on the other hand, is the grammatical construction of language that has been performed through speaking or writing and can be known by others, not just speaker or writer himself. Therefore, we can say that surface structure is the actualization of the deep structure.

c. Transformational Rules

Transformational rules are rules made to enable any constituents move from one place to another place in the sentence grammatical construction. However, not all constituent can be moved. George Yule wrote in his book that we would specify which constituent can be moved, from where and to where. For example, “I will visit my grand parent tomorrow” can be changed to “Tomorrow I will visit my grand parent”; “I will pick up you” can be changed to “I will pick you up”.

7. Semantics.

a. Definition of Semantics

George Yule wrote in his book semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences. More detail, Wikipedia said that semantics is the study of the meaning of words (lexical semantics) and fixed word combinations (phraseology), and how these combine to form the meanings of sentences. From the two definitions above, we can take an interpretation that semantics is the study of linguistically meaning, other than intended speaker meaning. One thing semantics can do is value the oddness of a sentence, caused by using inappropriate words. “The chair ate the food”, for example, is syntactically correct but semantically wrong because there is oddness from its constituent, that is, “chair”. The oddness is that, as an agent which should be able to eat the food, chair does not have any feature which is like it.

b. Lexical and Linguistic Semantics

Lexical semantics is a kind of semantics which works on the way of characterizing the meaning of a word in the term of its relationship to other words. When discussing lexical semantics, we will come to study synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, prototypes, homophony, homonymy, polysemy, metonymy, and collocation. Linguistic semantics, on the other hand, is a kind of semantics which works on the way of characterizing the meaning of a word in the term of its component features. The areas of linguistic semantics are the oddness of a word, when it is used in a sentence, known by characterizing its feature and naming it as an agent, a theme, an instrument, an experiencer, a location, a source, or a goal of the sentence.

c. Lexical Relations

Lexical relations are some analyses treated to describe semantics of language dealing with the relations of a word with other words. Lexical relations consist of synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, homophony, homonymy, polysemy, metonymy, and collocation.

v Synonymy

Synonym is two or more forms with very closely related meanings, which are often but not always, intersubtitable in sentences. Examples of synonyms are the pairs of hide-conceal, liberty-freedom, big-great-huge, etc.

v Antonymy

Antonym is two forms of words with opposite meanings. Some examples are, such in pairs of, quick-slow, rich-poor, hot-could, etc. there are three kinds of antonym: gradable antnym, non-gradable antonym, and reversive.

v Hyponymy

Hyponym is one form of word including the meaning of another word. Some typical example pairs are cat-animal, chair-furniture, garbage-vegetable, and so on.

v Homophony

Homophone is two or more (different, written) form of words having the same pronunciation. Some examples are: bare-bear, meet-meat, flour-flower, etc.

v Homonymy

Homonym is one form of word, written and spoken, having two or more unrelated meanings. Some examples are like in the pairs of: bank (of a river) – bank (financial institution), bat (flying creature) – bat (used in sports), so on.

v Polysemy

Polysemy is one form of word, written or spoken, having multiple meanings which are all related by extension. Some examples are the word “head”, used to refer to the object on top of one’s body, on top of a company, on top of department; “foot”, of person, of bed, of mountain, so on.

v Metonymy

Metonymy is relationship between words, based simply on a close connection, such a container-content (bottle-coke, can-juice), a whole-part relation (car-wheel, house-window), a representative-symbol relationship (king-crown, Gus Dur-NU).

v Collocation

Collocation is a way that we use to organize our knowledge of words. To make it clear, there is a way that can be delivered. When you say “chair”, for example, another word that will pass by your mind is “table”; when you say “pencil”, you will suddenly imagine “eraser”, and so on.

8. pragmatics

a. Definition of Pragmatics

You may have ever experienced hearing your friend said beside you “I left my pencil at home, so I can’t write anything now.” Then, you, as the closest listener, suddenly interpreted that your friend was requiring any helps from you. Knowing that, you then said, “You can use one of mine.” From this illustration, we are actually studying pragmatics, that is, the study of intended speaker meaning. In addition, pragmatics also can be defined the study of intended writer meaning. It may have been common, happening in our environment, when we see a plank containing written form of language “NO SMOKING”. Knowing it we must say that syntactically, it is wrong, but we know that it has any meanings, which then normally we name it as pragmatics.

b. Speech Act

Speech act in general, is the actions which are done by the speaker as speaking something to others. Speech act, as George Yule said, can be in the form of requesting, commanding, questioning, and informing. There are two kinds of speech act: direct and indirect speech act. Direct speech act is performing the speaker’s goal directly as requesting, commanding, or else. Then, indirect speech act is saving the main goal of the speaker as requesting, commanding, or else. Therefore, speaker, in this way, has his listener interpret what he said because he places aside what his main goal is as speaking.

c. Deixis

Deixis, which means “pointing” via language, is words which cannot be interpreted without physical context, the meaning of words on the basis of another type of context. There are three kinds of deixis: person, time, and place deixis. Person deixis means any expression used to point to person, such me, you, they, etc. time deixis is words used to point to time, like now, then, next week, tomorrow, so on. Place deixis is word used to point to location, as here, there, over there, etc.

d. Pre supposition

Presupposition is what a speaker assumes is known by the listener. When studying presupposition, we know that there is something in the speaker’s mind which he assumes that the listener must know what his assumption is. If the speaker asked you, “are you hungry?”, he must presuppose that you are hungry, showed by your actions, attitudes, speaking, or else.