Linguistic Features of Language

In the field of Modern Languages and Linguistics, words are of great importance. A language’s phonology (study of how sounds are organized and used), morphology (study of the form and structure of words), syntax (study of the rules that govern sentence structure), semantics (study of meaning of words, sentences, and expressions), pragmatics (study of aspects of meaning and language use and context), and phonetics (study of human speech sounds) all play an important part in everyday life. These have a major impact in understanding the intent of what is spoken or heard. Due to the importance of communication, literary elements such as metaphors (which are defined as a figure of speech in which a word or phrase

Secondly, range of similarities and differences are perceived in the sets of rules constraining the language structure of Auslan and English. In comparison to English, sign languages are visual languages, hence it is distinct in modality and word-ordering structure (Damian, 2011). To illustrate, the words of spoken languages are delivered in a fairly linear pattern, both in time and on paper (Bejan, 2001). This linear sentence structure is observed in English, but the same is not demonstrated in Auslan. However, despite this distinction, the order of signs remains of importance to produce meaningful sentences. This is because Auslan conveys many grammatical features found in the English language at phonological, morphological and syntactic levels (Johnston & Schembri, 2007). An individual’s poor English grammar is attributed for sentence fragments. These poorly formed English sentences occur when a sentence lacks a subject, a verb or do not express a complete thought (Schuster, 2006). In the same manner, the wrong ordering of signs will affect the fluency of the language. For instance, the linear English sentence ‘many black cars have disappeared’ will be signed as MANY-BLACK-CAR-DISAPPEAR (Johnston & Schembri, 2007). In this example, it is important that the determiner (MANY) and adjective (BLACK) are situated before the noun (CAR) (Johnston & Schembri, 2007). This is done for the purpose of identifying the noun within the sentence, which subsequently lead to the formation

Language corresponds to countless appellations, as the expresser of thought and ultimate origin of philosophy, influencing the world of knowledge with its astonishing qualities. The very essence of cooperation and communication relies eternally on the inspired art of language, without which any possible human development could occur. Furthermore, the perception of verbal communication splits between two realms, reality and literature, constituting two linguistic variations, figurative and literal. Throughout the world of literature, figurative language adds depth and dimension to

Since creativity allows language to differentiate from place to place, the differences in language have somehow gradually aligned in a hierarchy due to social influence. In “Nine Ideas about Language”, Daniels not only addresses that

The second level grammatical-rhetorical analysis aims to investigate the relationship between grammatical choice and rhetorical function in written English for science and technology. Discourse analysis as interaction represents the third level of language description. Most importantly, interactional analysis outlines the concept of interpretation of discourse by the reader or listener. Discourse analysis appears to have steadily moved from surface-level analysis to a deeper description of language use. However, in the context of language teaching for specific purposes, applied discourse analysis seems to represent a rather narrow description of language in use and is inadequate in its explanation. In order to introduce a thick description of language in use, it is necessary to combine socio-cultural and psycholinguistic aspects of text-construction and interpretation with linguistic insights to answer the question: why are specific discourse-genres written and used by the specialist communities the way they are? Genre analysis as an insightful description of English for specific purpose texts has become a useful and powerful tool to arrive at significant form-function correlations which can be utilized for a number of applied linguistic purposes.

Haynes (1989: 3) refers to style as the manner of expression which is different in various contexts. It is defined depending on one's field of study.Style as deviation from the norm, Language is a behavior governed by rules and norms. When something is done in a quite different way from how it is usually done, then that is said to be a deviation from the norm. This is achieved by reconstruction from the structural resource of language to extend the frontiers of current usages.This concept is most common at both the lexical and the syntactic level and used mostly for effective

Following Eckert (1989, 2000), I define linguistic style as a combination of a particular set of linguistic features distinguishing social groups. In explaining how styles are created, I draw on Kallmeyer and Keim (2003:30) who suggest “the construction of a communicative social style is connected with the formation of specific linguistic and communicative patterns and rules on different linguistic levels. Elements from all expressive levels are combined to form a unique expression

Within verbal and nonverbal communications lies paralanguage which means the way we speak with tone, pitch, rhythm, and timing (Pavord and Donnelly, 44). Paralanguage is important because the way I may say something in a

Darali (2007) concerns pragmatic perspective of Spectrum textbooks. For this purpose Searle’s (1976) model of speech acts, Halliday’s (1985) model of child language functions and Leech’s (1983) taxonomy of rogative (quering) adopted for analysis. Results of the study reveal that selected series provided a variety of language functions but some unintended and less frequent daily conversations like: vowing, promising, and threatening used more frequently than others. Moreover, Spectrum textbooks afford valuable metalinguistic information, but the series need explanation in the use of different forms in a particular situation.

Genre analysis is an attempt to explain why members of specific discourse communities employ different and special ways of using language. Sociocultural aspects of language and existing differences among the contexts in which a language is used may, to some extent, answer this question. In addition, cognitive strategies applied by the speakers or writers may also play a role since the members of each language community use different strategies to achieve their desired goals (Bhatia, 1996). According to a definition given by Martin (1985), "genres are how things get done, when language is used to accomplish them". As implicitly found in this definition, any genre analysis must be a detailed description of linguistic elementsof a specific

From a theoretical standpoint, communication accommodation theory is an important lens to examine to further understand why people feel compelled to change their speaking style. According to communication accommodation theory, individuals accommodate, or adapt, their speaking style because “people tend to mirror each other’s communication styles to display liking and respect” (du Pre, 2017, p. 148). Under communication accommodation theory there are five levels: full convergence, partial convergence, hyperconvergence, speech maintenance, and divergence (Street, 1982). The first, full convergence, occurs when individuals completely mirror another’s speaking style. For example, in intergenerational communication, if a young caregiver modified his or her communication to adopt a slower communication style, they would be exhibiting full convergence. In partial convergence, an individual modifies his or her speaking style, but does not completely mirror their partner’s communication style. When an individual exhibits hyperconvergence, also known as overaccomodation, they display an exaggerated response to their partner’s communication speaking style. An example of this in intergenerational communication would be if a caregiver used “baby talk” when speaking to a patient who was an older adult. As implied, if someone did not adjust their communication style and maintained their own, they would be exhibiting speech maintenance. Finally,

What’s is the term of the word accents? The term accents according to the dictionary is “a distinctive mode of pronunciation of a language, especially one associated with a particular nation, locality, or social class”. In just the United States there are many different accents that you can hear when visit different states throughout the country. In fact there are up to 12 accents in the U.S. that are listed. Some accents don’t have a different tone of voice but it is mostly the different way the people from the region say pronounce words. For example Eastern New England English known more as “Boston accent” drops the “r” at the end of syllables (Smith, Ben Trawick, The

The English language is no different than it was a century ago; however, it has been culturally changing over the past few decades. It is common knowledge to humans that each ethnicity has their own formal language they speak and that they perceive various styles of language in different manners. Language style is the choice of words used by a specific group of people when they speak. Although we have the ability to speak to everyone in the same proper way, naturally we, including myself, tend to change our speech depending on where we are, who we are associated with, and the situation we are encountered in.

Talking about “dialects”, a term often mentioned along is “standard language”. When being brought into comparison with “dialect”, “standard language” usually serves as a legitimate variant with the highest level of excellence (Bex & Watts, 1999). Though positive in nature, standardization - the procedure of standardizing a language – often raises heated controversy because of its consequences on not only linguistics field but also the society. In the second part of the essay, I will focus on the disadvantages of language standardization.

Specialists in descriptive grammar (linguists) examine the principles and patterns that underlie the use of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. In contrast, prescriptive