This module comprises two Units. The first Unit has got two chapters that are subdivided into eight sections. The eight sections correspond to various word classes also referred to as parts of speech. These classes include nouns, adjectives, adverbs, articles, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns and interjections. The second chapter discusses the verb and tenses.
In the second Unit of this module, we discuss the concepts of ‘language’ and of ‘linguistics’. Furthermore, we were concerned with some aspects of speech sounds. Some of these aspects include how the sounds are produced. These aspects fall within the domain of ‘phonetics’ which is the study of the characteristics of speech sounds. We saw that phonetics has three areas of study namely:
Articulatory Phonetics is the study of the production of speech sounds by the articulatory and vocal tract by the speaker whereas Acoustic Phonetics studies the physical transmission of speech sounds from the speaker to the listener. As for the Auditory Phonetics, it is the study of the reception and perception of speech sounds by the listener.
On the other hand, phonology is concerned with the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds. Phonology is based on the theory that what a speaker of a language unconsciously knows about the sound patters. Phonology is concerned with the abstract set of sounds in a language, which allows us to distinguish meaning in the actual physical sounds that we say and hear.
The third Chapter deals with ‘Morphology’. The word ‘morphology’ means the study of the form of the word. The part ‘morph’ refers to ‘form’ and ‘logy’ means the study. Thus morphology is the study of the internal structure of words. Morphology helps us to analyse the internal structure of words by using units of meaning called morphemes which have arbitrary meaning. Some parts of words appear to be morphemes but cannot be separated from the rest of the word. Simple words have only one morpheme while complex words have more than one morpheme. Morphemes can be classified into lexical morphemes and functional morphemes. This chapter discusses various word formation processes that are namely derivation, compounding, conversion to name but a few.
- Teacher: THEONESTE DUSABEMUNGU