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SummaryThe words Fire Department make it sound like they're the ones who are starting fires, doesn't it? It should be called the “Extinguishing Department”. We don't call the police the “Crime Department”. Also, the “Bomb Squad” sounds like a terrorist gang. The same is true of wrinkle cream. Doesn't it sound like it causes wrinkles? And why would a doctor prescribe pain pills? I already have pain! I need relief pills! Carlin (1997) Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. In semantic analysis, there is always an attempt to focus on what the words conventionally mean, rather than on what an individual speaker (like George Carlin) might want them to mean on a particular occasion. This technical approach is concerned with objective or general meaning and avoids trying to account for subjective or local meaning. Linguistic semantics deals with the conventional meaning conveyed by the use of words, phrases and sentences of a language. Conceptual and associative meaning When we investigate the meaning of words in a language, we are normally interested in characterizing the conceptual meaning and less concerned with the associative meaning of the words. Conceptual meaning covers those basic, essential components of meaning that are conveyed by the literal use of a word. Some of the basic components of a word like needle in English might include ‘thin, sharp, steel instrument’. These components would be part of the conceptual meaning of needle. Type ChapterInformation Publisher: Cambridge University Press Print publication year: 2005 Access optionsGet access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.) Linguistics is the study of language, its structure, and the rules that govern its structure. Linguists, specialists in linguistics, have traditionally analyzed language in terms of several subfields of study. Speech-language pathologists study these subfields of language and are specially trained to assess and treat language and its subfields. These include morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics and phonology. Morphology is the study of word structure. It describes how words are formed out of more basic elements of language called morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of a language. Morphemes are considered minimal because if they were subdivided any further, they would become meaningless. Each morpheme is different from the others because each singles a distinct meaning. Morphemes are used to form words. Base, root or free morphemes are word that have meaning, cannot be broken-down into smaller parts, and can have other morphemes added to them. Examples of free morphemes are ocean, establish, book, color, connect, and hinge. These words mean something, can stand by themselves, and cannot be broken down into smaller units. These words can also have other morphemes added to the. Bound or grammatical morphemes, which cannot convey meaning by themselves, must be joined with free morphemes in order to have meaning. In the following examples, the free morphemes are underlined; the bound morphemes are in capital letters: oceanS, establishMENT, bookED, colorFUL, DISconnect. Common bound or grammatical morphemes include the following: -ing (the present progressive), -s (the regular plural; e.g., cats), -s (the possessive inflection; e.g., man’s), and –ed (the regular past tense; e.g., washed). Morphemes are a means of modifying word structures to change meaning. The morphology of a given language describes the rules of such modifications. Syntax and morphology are concerned with two major categories of language structure. Morphology is the study of word structure syntax is the study of sentence structure. The basic meaning of the word syntax is “to join,” “to put together.” In the study of language, syntax involves the following:
A collection of rules that specify the ways and order in which words may be combined to form sentences in a particular language. As they mature in syntactic development, children begin to use compound and complex sentences, which can be defined as follows:
Syntax rules differ by language. Speakers of a language do not produce structures with random and meaningless word order. If they do, speech and language therapy may be warranted. For example, an English speaker could say, “He said he was going to come but didn’t.” Due to syntactic rules, a speaker could not say, “He’s going to was said he didn’t but come.” Languages have different syntactic structures. In English, the basic syntactic structure is subject + verb + object. This structure, usually called the “kernel sentence”, can also be called the phrase structure or base structure. Semantics is the study of meaning in language. The semantic component is the meaning conveyed by words, phrases and sentences. Semantics includes a person’s vocabulary or lexicon. Vocabulary development depends heavily upon environmental exposure, as well as the individual capacity each child brings to the learning situation. Important aspects of vocabulary development include knowledge of the following: antonyms, or opposites, synonyms, multiple meanings of words, humor/riddles, figurative language (including metaphors, idioms, proverbs), deictic words, or words whose referents change depending on who is speaking (e.g., this here, that, come, go).
Pragmatics is the study of rules that govern the use of language in social situations. In pragmatics, one focuses on use of language in social context. Pragmatics places greater emphasis on functions, or uses of language, than on structure. Functions of language include:
by Suffolk Center for Speech | with 0 Comments What is the study of the meaning of the words phrases and sentences in a language?Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. In semantic analysis, there is always an attempt to focus on what the words conventionally mean, rather than on what an individual speaker (like George Carlin) might want them to mean on a particular occasion.
What do you call the study of phrases?In linguistics, phraseology is the study of set or fixed expressions, such as idioms, phrasal verbs, and other types of multi-word lexical units (often collectively referred to as phrasemes), in which the component parts of the expression take on a meaning more specific than, or otherwise not predictable from, the sum ...
What is the study of linguistics?Linguistics is a major that provides insight into one of the most intriguing aspects of human knowledge and behavior. Majoring in linguistics means learning about many aspects of human language, including sounds (phonetics, phonology), words (morphology), sentences (syntax), and meaning (semantics).
What is the study of morphology?morphology, in biology, the study of the size, shape, and structure of animals, plants, and microorganisms and of the relationships of their constituent parts.
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