Chapter 2: Linguistic Organization Mafuyu Kitahara 2006-10-19

Paragraph 1-3 Review of Chapter 1: speech chain This book: describe each link of the chain This chapter: linguistic level, units, function Units of language: symbols person on a wheelchair Language: symbols and rules to assemble them The first paragraph is just a review of the previous chapter, that is, the speech chain (hope you guys remember the big picture with brains and ears and such…) This book will show how the speech chain is constructed, that is to describe each link of the chain. Each link of course corresponds to the chain of events in various levels. In this chapter in particular, we will describe the linguistic level. The units in that level and the function of those units are focused. The units of language are symbols. As briefly introduced in the book, words are symbols. The word “table” stands for this, the word chair stands for that, and so on. But a splendid example of the usage of symbols come from those signs on the street. This sign of course stands for a person on a wheelchair. This is by no means a detailed picture of anything. Very simplified, and from some point of view, even unrealistic. But, this symbolizes the idea. Language is not just those symbols. When we speak, we need to put words in the right order, and there must be a system of rules to combine the symbols into words and sentences.

Paragraph 4-6 Words consist of smaller units: phonemes heed, hid, head, had: difference in the middle Phoneme = such distinguishing sounds in a language Table 2.1: Phonemes of GA English 14 vowels and 24 consonants Syllable: a vowel surrounded by one or more consonants Words can be thought of as a sequence of smaller units, that is, phonemes. For example, heed, hid, head, and had all share the same initial sound [h] and final sound [d]. The crucial difference is only in the middle sound, vowels. Phoneme itself has no meaning of its own. When they are combined, they distinguish words in a language. Phonemes can be divided into two groups: Vowels and Consonants. In English there are 14 vowels and 24 consonants as shown in Table 2.1. Syllable in English is, intuitively, a vowel surrounded by one or more consonants.

Paragraph7 In English: Word frequency: Impossible syllable = “ngees”, “ngoot” Possible syllable … up to 2000 Words typically 1 or 2 syllables, 2-5phonemes Word frequency: Use only 5000-10000 words most of the time The total number of English syllables that exist is between 1 and 2000. The reason is because some syllables are impossible. For example, syllables that start with and “ng” are impossible. The linguistic unit that is larger than a syllable is called a word. Words like “awe” only has one phoneme, but most words consist of sequences of several phonemes that combine into one or more syllables.