The phrase in the hierarchy of language units Contents Introduction

1.2 A hierarchy of linguistic units
There is a hierarchy of linguistic units: sentences are the top - coherent sequences of words which express the intended meaning. Morphemes - the smallest language unit that carry meaning, some standalone other give meaning such as the past-tense morpheme 'ed'. Phonemes: conveyed by sounds and are the smallest unit of sound that helps distinguish words in language.The larynx consists of two flaps of muscular tissue, known as the vocal folds (or vocal cords, despite them not being like chords at all), which open and close rapidly to produce a buzzing vibration known as voicing.Different sounds are produced in different ways, the first distinction can be made according to how the airflow is restricted, which is known as manner of production. Another distinction is where the airflow is restricted, which is known as the place of articulation.The first step to identifying the different phonemes is through speech segmentation, which means to split the stream of speech into appropriate segments.Another element of speech production is coarticulation which refers to the overlap of phonemes. For example, we say the letter [s] in ‘soup’, our mouth is already preparing for the specific vowel following it. This would be different for the word ‘salad’ as there is a different vowel following the letter [s].it has been estimated that the 50 most commonly used words in English make up more than half of the words we actually hear. The perception of speech, like many other perceptions, is supplemented with our own knowledge. This is demonstrated in the phonemic restoration effect, which occurs when the context of a word is used in order to deduce the words itself.Speech perception benefits from categorical perception, which means that we are easier able to detect differences between [g] and [k] as opposed to [d] and [t]. Language has a high generatively, meaning it has a capacity to create an endless series of new combinations, all built from the same set of fundamental units.!There are millions of possible sentences that can be made in the English language and all fit a certain set of standards. These are the rules of syntax, meaning the rules governing the sequence of words in a phrase or sentence. We can still create sentences that don't make sense but are grammatically correct.The phrase structure rules. These suggest the elements that must appear in a sentence and the designated order. They can be depicted, in a tree structure, with two different phrases:
(1) the noun phrase (NP), and (2) the verb phrase (VP).
Occasionally a sentence can be interpreted in two ways due to its phrase structure ambiguity. For example: “He wants to discuss sex with Jay Leno.” Or “I saw the gorilla in my pyjamas.”We must be able to parse a sentence, meaning to figure out each word’s syntactic role. Instead of waiting until the full sentence has been formed, we already start parsing the words as we hear them, figuring out their role the moment they arrive. When participants’ eye movements are examined whilst reading ambiguous sentences their eyes backtrack when they incorrectly interpret a word and then they go back to check where they went wrong.Another important aspect in the parsing of sentences is the extralinguistic context, which is the physical and social setting in which we encounter the specific sentences.FUNCTIONAL grammar relates grammatical categories to the communicative functions which they serve. These functions are seen to operate at different levels of organisation in the language, and may be identified in terms of the CONSTITUENT PARTS which go to form larger UNITS. This implies a segmental principle of organisation, in which larger units may be seen as being formed from smaller units, and smaller units being combined to form the larger units. For example, consider the unit WORD. e.g. books. This word is constituted from two MORPHEMES, "book" + "s". Together these two units make one word. Similarly, the word "eating" consists of two morphemes, "eat" and "ing".
Distinguish morphemes from phonemes. The latter identify units of sound as part of a pronunciation system, and which in themselves do not convey meaning, whereas a morpheme refers to a phoneme or combination of phonemes which has a particular meaning. Thus the word "cat" is a morpheme which consists of three phonemes, "ing" is a morpheme consisting of two phonemes, and "s" is a morpheme consisting of a single phoneme. (Remember also that a morpheme is not the same as a syllable). Words combine to form a GROUP. There are various types of group, each with their own characteristics and form which will be discussed later. The main groups are NOMINAL groups, VERBAL groups, ADJECTIVAL groups, ADVERBIAL groups and PREPOSITIONAL groups. The following examples will show what we mean by this, in which the separate groups are identified by obliques ( / ).
(a) The sky / became / quite overcast.
(b) The day / began / rather quietly.
(c) The little children / are playing / happily / in the garden.
In (a) we have a nominal group, a verbal group, and an adjectival group.
In (b) a nominal group, verbal group, and an adverbial group.
In (c) a nominal group, verbal group, adverbial group, and a prepositional group.
The particular features of these groups will be discussed later, but we can make a few preliminary observations here.
(i) In (a) and (b) the nominal groups consist of a noun HEADWORD (sky, day) and a pre-modifier (the), while in (c) there are two pre-modifiers in the nominal group - a determiner and an adjective (the and little).
(ii) In (a) the adjectival group consists of an adjective HEADWORD (overcast) and a pre-modifier (quite).
(iii) The adverbial group in (b) consists of an adverb HEADWORD (quietly) and a pre-modifier (rather).
(iv) The verbal group in (c) consists of a lexical verb HEADWORD (playing) and an OPERATOR (are).
(v) The prepositional group in (c) consists of a preposition (in) and a COMPLETIVE (prepositional object), which is itself a nominal group (the garden).
Note that the term "GROUP" is technical in the sense that it consists minimally of only one element.
Groups then form the constituent parts of a CLAUSE, and clauses in turn form the constituent parts of a SENTENCE. Before going on to say more about these larger units, we should consider again how these units are related in terms of rank, as the following examples will make clear.
(1)Dhea can't lift the boxes(1 clause)
Dhea/ can't lift / the boxes(3 groups)
Dhea / can't / lift / the / boxes(5 words)
Dhea / can / 't / lift / the / box / es(7 morphemes)(2)The children played with their toys(1 clause)
The children / played / with their toys(3 groups)
The / children / played / with / their / toys(6 words)
The / child / ren / play / ed / with / their /toy / s /(9 morphemes)(3)Go!(1 clause)
go /(1 group)
go /(1 word)
go /(1 morpheme)
We referred above to the unit SENTENCE, and noted that the units which form the immediate constituents of a sentence are clauses. The above examples 1 - 3 each consists of a sentence which consists of a single clause.For the first part of this introductory series of units we shall treat the sentence as the largest unit, but this is to some extent an arbitrary choice since sentences do not exist in isolation as complete and self contained units, but do themselves form connections with other parts of larger texts. But consideration of the nature of these connections will be left for a later component of this course. For the present, then, we shall treat the sentence as the largest essential grammatical unit with which we shall be concerned.Thus, to sum up this very basic description of the rank scale, we may represent the simplest form of this in a hierarchy which may be viewed in two directions: from the top downwards i.e. from the larger units to their segmental parts (this is a CONSISTS OF relationship); or from the bottom upwards, i.e. from the smallest segments to the larger wholes (this is a CONSTITUENT OF relationship).