Analysis of Language

Analysis of Language
Linguists divide the study of spoken language into two categories--phonology

and grammar. Phonology is the study of sounds. Grammar is how
the sounds are used to make sense.
Phonology
The smallest unit of sound that can be altered to change the meaning of a
word is called a phoneme . In English, for example, the
words gin, kin, pin, sin, tin, and win all have different meaning due to the fact
that the initial sound, or phoneme, is different. Phonemes do not have
meaning by themselves. The sounds represented by the g, k, p, s, t, and w in
the words above are meaningless alone but they can change the meaning of
words.
Different languages may use somewhat different sets of

phonemes. For instance, Polynesian languages usually use
about 15 phonemes and generally favor vowel clusters
rather than consonant clusters in words. This pattern can
be observed in the Polynesian words Kauai , Maui ,
and Samoa . In contrast, English speakers use 40-
46 phonemes and often combine consonants into
clusters. This can be heard in the American English
words schedule , months , and shrill . The San
languages of southwest Africa (spoken by the Ju/'hoansi and others) use
some sounds that are not found in English or most other languages
elsewhere. These are click sounds that serve as consonants. The
Ju/'hoansi language has four distinct kinds of clicks that are produced by
sharply pulling the tongue away from different locations in the mouth.
If your language does not have some of the sounds of another language, it is
usually difficult for you to hear the differences and to pronounce them
correctly. For this reason, the R and L sounds in English are difficult to
distinguish for native Japanese speakers. Try making these two sounds and
think about the shape of your mouth and of the placement of your
tongue. They are quite similar for both sounds. Native English speakers
rarely have difficulty in distinguishing the R and L sounds because they have
been familiar with them from early childhood. They are experts at hearing the
difference. However, English speakers have difficulty with unfamiliar sounds
in other languages, such as the San language clicks mentioned above and
the V and B sounds in some Spanish dialects.
Learning and using the sounds of a language can be significantly complicated
by the writing system. English has more than 1100 combinations of letters
that are used to produce the 40 commonly used sounds of the spoken
language. It becomes a problem when words share the same phoneme but
spell it differently. This occurs with the "e" sound
in me, tea, tree, key, country, piece, and reprise. In addition, many English
words have the same letter combination but are not pronounced the
same. This is the case with mint and pint, clove and love, as well
as cough and bough. By comparison, the 33 sounds used in Italian are
spelled with only 25 letter combinations. Italian words are spelled just as they
are pronounced. Consequentially, Italians rarely have to ask each other "how
do you spell your name." It is not surprising that English is a far more difficult
language to learn. It is also much more difficult for people who are dyslexics.
Perhaps, the most complicated writing system is used in Japan today. It

combines symbol elements from several different writing systems, sometimes
in the same sentence--kanji, katakana, hiragana, and the Latin script that is
used in the written form of most European languages. Kanji is a variant of the
Chinese writing system. Katakana is a derivative of Kanji that is used for
words borrowed from other languages and for special purposes, such as
telegrams. Hiragana originated as a cursive form of katakana. Use of the
Latin script is complicated by the fact that there usually are several different
ways of spelling the same word. These various symbol elements may be
written from left to right, right to left, or top to bottom. Adding further confusion
is the fact that the kanji symbols sometimes have several different
meanings. Educated Japanese are expected to know about 2000 kanji
character symbols. Complicating the matter is the fact that Japanese writing
is rapidly changing as it adapts to the massive influx of new words and
concepts from the Western World. As a result, older people in Japan, who
were educated several decades ago, usually have difficulty reading popular
newspapers and magazines targeted at teenagers and young adults.
Grammar
Grammar is divided into two categories for analysis--morphology and
syntax . Morphology is concerned with how the sounds (phonemes) are
combined by language into larger units called morphemes
. Morphemes are the smallest combination of sounds that have meaning and
cannot be broken into smaller meaningful units. Words can be one or more
morphemes. For example, the English word cow is one morpheme
while cowboy is composed of two (cow and boy). Some morphemes have
meaning but can not stand alone in standard English like cow. The
prefix dis in the word dislike is an example of such a bound morpheme.
Morphemes in the form of words are combined into larger utterances in
normal speech. These larger groupings are phrases and
sentences. Syntax refers to the standardized set of rules that determine how
words should be combined to make sense to speakers of a language. All
native speakers of a language learn the basic rules of syntax as they grow
up. Even before entering school, people acquire these rules from their family
and friends. In school, they are taught to modify and augment them to
coincide with patterns more acceptable to the society.
Different languages are unintelligible not only because the vocabulary is alien
but also because the syntax rules are different. In English, word order is
particularly critical to changing meaning. For example the words you, are,
and there can be combined in three different ways to alter meaning:
There you are. You are there. Are you there?
In Latin derived languages, such as Spanish, French, and Italian, the word
order is not usually as important. Meaning is primarily determined by the
endings of words (suffixes). In a very different kind of language, Mandarin
Chinese, meaning is primarily changed by tone. The same word can mean
radically different things depending on how it is pronounced. For instance, the
word ma can have four distinct tones:
falling
tone: high rising falling
then rising
Mandarin:
linen, scolding,
English: mother horse
hemp to scold
Mandarin Chinese is not the only tonal language in the world. There are
others in Asia and Africa.
Native speakers do not have to memorize all possible sentences that can be
created. Instead, they learn the rules (syntax) for creating and understanding
all possible sentences. This is much easier. All languages have logical
rules. Also, there frequently are exceptions to rules such as the English past
tense of eat being ate rather than eated. However, such irregularities are
generally few in number.

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Analysis of Language

Linguists divide the study of spoken language into two categories--phonology

Different languages may use somewhat different sets of

Perhaps, the most complicated writing system is used in Japan today. It

There you are. You are there. Are you there?

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