The Basic Notions of the Lecture

Segmental language units are units which can be singled out within a larger line. Segmental units comprise phonemes, syllables, morphemes, words, phrases and sentences.

Supra-segmental units are units which do not exist by themselves. They are actualized together with segmental units which they modify introducing some modifications into their meaning. Supra-segmental units include accent, intonation, pauses, word-order patterns.

The phonemic level is the level the basic unit of which is the phoneme.

The phoneme is the smallest distinguishing unit of the language.

The morphemic level is the level of segmental language units the basic unit of which is the morpheme.

The morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of the language.

The lexemic level is the level of segmental language units the basic unit of which is the word.

Words is the smallest naming unit of the language.

The phrasemic level is the level of segmental language units the basic unit of which is the phrase.

The phrase is two or more syntactically connected words which name complicated phenomena of the world.

The proposemic level is the level of segmental language units the basic unit of which is the sentence.

The sentence is the smallest unit of communication, having predicativeness and naming a situation.

The supra-proposemic level is the level of segmental language units the basic unit of which is the a supra-phrasal unity

A supra-phrasal unity includes two or more syntactically and thematically connected sentences.

Language is a system of units which can be subdivided into segmental and supra-segmental. Segmental units comprise phonemes, syllables, morphemes, words, phrases and sentences. These units are segmental because they can be singled out within a larger line.

Supra-segmental units do not exist by themselves. They are actualized together with segmental units which they modify introducing some modifications into their meaning. Supra-segmental units include accent, intonation, pauses, word-order patterns.

Taking into consideration segmental units, language can be represented as a hierarchy of levels. This hierarchy is of such character that units of a higher level are analyzable into units of the immediately lower level, it means that a unit of a higher level contains one or more units of immediately lower level.

However, this correlation does not imply that a unit of a higher level can be treated as a mere sum of immediately lower units. The matter is that a higher unit has a quality which is not inherent in any of lower units making it up.

For ex., the naming power of the word “upbringing” is not inherent in the morphemes it contains or the meaning of the phrase “to beat about the bush” is not the sum of the meanings of the words it consists of.

On the other hand a combination of units of a certain level doesn’t produce a unit of a higher level.

For ex., the combination of phonemes < l >, < r >, < e > doesn’t make up a morpheme, because it is meaningless and the morpheme should be meaningful, or the combination of the morphemes < ing > and < ly > doesn’t make up a word, because it lacks naming power. But a single unit of a given level may become a unit of a higher level if it acquires the properties of the unit of that level.

For ex., the phoneme < o > may become a morpheme without combining with other phonemes if it gets a significative meaning like in the word “ aw ful” or it may become even a word if it gets naming power like “or”, “ore”, “oar”.

So we can say that though we can distinguish language units of different levels the borders between them are not rigid.

The hierarchy of segmental language units makes it possible to identify the following language levels:

· Phonemic;

· Morphemic;

· Lexemic;

· Phrasemic;

· Proposemic (sentence level);

· Supra-proposemic (text level).

1) The basic unit of the phonemic level is the phoneme. The phoneme is the smallest distinguishing unit of the language having no meaning of its own, the phoneme only differentiates morphemes and words.

2) The basic unit of the morphemic level is the morpheme. The morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of the language. Morphemes are analyzable into phonemes. The shortest morpheme includes only one phoneme. For ex., ros - y, work – er. Morphemes express significative (понятийные) meanings which form the basis for the nominative meaning of the word.

3) The basic unit of the lexemic level is the word. The word is the smallest naming unit of the language. Words name things, actions, properties etc. They are built up by morphemes. The shortest word contains only one morpheme: “eye”, “can”, “man” etc.

4) The basic unit of the Phrasemic level is the phrase or word-group, which consists of two or more syntactically connected words. Like words, phrases have naming power, but they name more complicated phenomena: an object and its property (a red dress), an action and its property (run quickly), property of property (very difficult).

Unlike sentences, phrases lack predicativeness, that is they do not express a complete thought and hence, they are not units of communication.

5) The basic unit of the proposemic level is the sentence. The sentence is

the smallest unit of communication. The sentence names a situation. Its most essential feature is predicativeness, which means that sentence is a syntactically organized structure which expresses a complete thought.

6) The basic unit of the supra-proposemic level is a supra-phrasal unity which includes two or more syntactically and thematically connected sentences. Occasionally the text may be equal to one sentence, for. ex., in slogans, inscriptions.

The Basic Units of Morphology. The Theory of Oppositions.

Part 2

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