Components of Language

 

There are a number of components that are universal and there are some features that maybe unique to some languages.

1. Phonology: The first component of language is phonology. It is the study of sound. In modern English, we have 26 letters in our alphabet. We do not have 26 sounds that correspond with these letters.  We have 44 different sounds that can be created by these 26 letters.

ʌ	cup, luck	ɜ:ʳ	turn, learn
ɑ:	arm, father	ɪ	hit, sitting
æ	cat, black	i:	see, heat
e	met, bed	ɒ	hot, rock
ə	away, cinema	ɔ:	call, four
ʊ	put, could	oʊ	go, home
u:	blue, food	ɔɪ	boy, join
aɪ	five, eye	eəʳ	where, air
aʊ	now, out	ɪəʳ	near, here
eɪ	say, eight	ʊəʳ	pure, tourist
b	bad, lab	j	yes, yellow
d	did, lady	k	cat, back
f	find, if	l	leg, little
g	give, flag	m	man, lemon
h	how, hello	n	no, ten
ŋ	sing, finger	t	tea, getting
p	pet, map	tʃ	check, church
r	red, try	θ	think, both
s	sun, miss	ð	this, mother
ʃ	she, crash	v	voice, five
w	wet, window
z	zoo, lazy
ʒ	pleasure, vision
dʒ	just, large

 

Here is a list of key terms you will come across in phonology

Intonation: The ability to vary the pitch and tune of speech; the way our voice goes up and down when we speak.

Syllables: the units, into which a word is divided, containing a vowel and one or more consonants.

Sentence stress: Emphasizing words to give particular meaning to a sentence.

Vowels: Sounds pronounced with an open mouth and the tongue not touching the teeth, top of the mouth, etc., for example a, o, u.

Consonants Sounds formed when your tongue, lips, etc. partly or completely stop the air current, for example m, t, r.

2. Morphology: Morphology is the study of word formation. This component of language focuses on the internal structure of words. 

 

3. Semantics: Semantics is the study of meaning of a language it includes how the meaning is constructed, interpreted, clarified, obscured, illustrated, simplified, negotiated, contracted and paraphrased. An understanding of semantics is essential to study the study of language acquisition and of language change (how meanings alter over a time). A word has two meanings 1.Lexical meaning and 2.Cultural meaning. The study of the same is called as Semantics.

4. Syntax: It is the study of how words are combined together to form sentences. In linguistic syntax is the set of rules, principles, and process that govern the structure of sentences in a given language specifically the word order. The term syntax is also used refer to the study of such principles and processes. It is the study of how words are combined together to form sentences.

5. Graphics: Basically language is in spoken form, but it is also expressed in the written form. Therefore Graphics is the study of written symbols. It also deals with punctuations, letters and written composition.