Discussion 1

Assignment: 50 word response to:

The new word that I invented is "crunchification", which follows the rules of English morphology and word formation yet is not found in the dictionary. It is constructed of three morphemes, which the text describes as the "arbitrary union of a sound and a meaning" (Fromkin, Rodman, Hyams, 2014 p. 17). The morphemes are the adjective "crunchy" combined with the suffix -ify and the suffix -cation, which are derivational morphemes because they combine with other sounds to create new words (Fromkin, et al, 2014) and they bind together to make a unique word, "crunchification" (the process of making something crunchy). An example sentence would be, "The crunchification of the spicy tuna roll will not be complete until the tempura flakes have been gingerly sprinkled atop".

All languages have infinite sentence possibilities, and the ability to combine morphemes into new words and concepts is what gives humans their linguistic creativity (Fromkin, et al, 2014). But there are more ways to create new words than just affixation, such as back-formation and constructing compounds, which contribute inadvertently to language change through misuse. Certain verbs, as described in the text, become verbs due to speakers' misconceptions about their morphology and we get words such as "resurrect, preempt and televise" which came from "resurrection, preemption and television" (Fromkin, et al, 2014 p. 56). Language is not fixed, and is constantly changing and adapting as new words are formed using morphological rules imbedded in our universal grammars. Variances may be due to the fact that speakers of a similar language use different morphemes to represent different parts of speech, or that pronunciation differs when the language spreads across territories that have contact with other languages.

Reference:

• Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., &Hyams, N. (2014). An Introduction to Language (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Publishing.

50 word response to:

Gazable consists of two morphemes. The word means something that can be gazed.

My word follows the morphological rules of English because it has a stem/root which is gaze (verb) with a suffix -able, making it an adjective. Please see attachment to see tree diagram which shows the hierarchical organization of the word.

The role of morphology is very important whether it is spoken or in sign language, it is the only way any human can communicate with one another. As stated in our text book Morphology is "the study of the internal structure of words, and of the rules by which words are formed" (Fromkin 37-38) Fromkin, Victoria. An Introduction to Language, 10th Edition. Cengage Learning, 20130101. VitalBook file. Every formed word that we know are morphemes, each morpheme has a stem/root word in which another word can be attached to it, to make a new word. Morphemes as defined in the book are "the smallest unit of linguistic meaning or function" (Fromkin 572) Fromkin, Victoria. An Introduction to Language, 10th Edition. Cengage Learning, 20130101. VitalBook file. Any given words in our finite language knowledge can consist of one or more morphemes. Morphology consists of two morphemes morph + ology. Morph means a word segment that represents one morpheme in sound or writing; suffix -ology means branch of knowledge;

The creative aspect of a language means being able to combine sounds (phonology), to form words (morphology), words to form phrases and phrases to form sentences (syntax) which leads a person to generate and comprehend new sentences that have never been spoken before. The human creative ability is not only in what we can say but also in how we understand what others are saying. "The creativity of human language depends on discreteness" (Fromkin 16-17) Fromkin, Victoria. An Introduction to Language, 10th Edition. Cengage Learning, 20130101. VitalBook file. Language depends on discrete units of sounds, words, and phrases. Knowing how a word sounds, means knowing which sounds may start a word, end a word, or follow each other. By moving words around in a sentence, we can change the meaning we are trying to make. The main asset of human language is our creativity and the skills that we possess to join descriptive grammar to form sentences that make sense. Grammar rules are unconsciously known rules that we acquire as children, as we advance our language knowledge these rules are responsible for our linguistic creativity. Language and meanings of words change throughout time; language change is a natural course. The changes that take place in language is what I believe to be from generation to generation. Although, changes take place, languages and dialects are rule-governed (grammatically) no matter who you are in the world and what position you make take in it.

Discussion 2
50 word response:
Semantics means "The study of the linguistic meanings of morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences" (Fromkin 578-579) Fromkin, Victoria. An Introduction to Language, 10th Edition. Cengage Learning, 20130101." Or Relating to meaning in language logic "

" Pragmatics means "the study of how context and situation affect meaning; the study of extra-truth-conditional meaning" (Fromkin 576) Fromkin, Victoria. An Introduction to Language, 10th Edition." Or dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations"

"That is a Sick Ring Tone" When you break this phrase down Semantically VS Pragmatically Semantically to someone who may not know what is being said may think to themselves" is the ring tone sick, and if it is sick how did it become sick. What type of illness does it have? Is it contagious can I catch it. This person may think this way until someone explain to them that "Sick" in this phrase means nice or cool.

"This is a sick ring tone" When you break this phrase down Pragmatically. You will think Practically " Can a ring tone actually be sick " This is where you would use Logic and reasoning to realize that an animate object cannot be sick.

"That party was lit" or "That Bike is Fire". In other word that party was fun or that's a nice bike. But was the party actually Lit, No did you see fire at the party. No and was that bike actually on fire, No it was just a nice looking bike. Culturally I am African American I my Cultural we are always coming up with words and phrases that take flight into other cultural. Why? I'm not sure, I think things are said and depending on who is around may think" Hey I like the way that sounds and they may one day use it in the same content and it take flight from there. This is where 7 degree of separation takes place in my opinion. We are all only seperated by 7 people we all know somebody, who know somebody, who know somebody, who knows us, and that is how new words are spread . Just my opinion.
50 words responseto :

Discuss the semantic versus pragmatic meaning of the phrase, "That's a sick ring tome" in the cultural context.

Semantic meaning is understanding of the verb of a word in a sentence. One must follow two semantic rules decides what word is a verb and what is a noun. Our text says that "fundamental difference between word meaning or lexical semantic and sentence meaning" (Fromkin, Rodman &Hayms, 2014). Semantics are called the meaning of sentences, phrases, morphemes and words.

Pragmatic meaning is that it looks at the same word but in context. Words in pragmatic usage focuses on the meaning of the speakers and the listeners. Pragmatic is the use of functions when it comes to language. Pragmatic is the deployment and reception of language users. Pragmatic is like the branch of language linguistics which concerning with the meaning of people use linguistic action.
Provide at least one other example of a phrase that illustrates a semantic versus pragmatic meaning distinction. Discuss the possible roles of culture in producing these distinctions.

When it comes to the phrase "that is a sick ring tone" can mean many things to someone. One person would say that ring tone is sick or why is the ring tone sick. A child might think that the ringtone is sick and would ask why it is sick. They don't understand the meaning of the phrase than an adult. Here is an example of a phrase "that's rad" so in other words it means something is cool. Here is another phrase that teens say a lot is "that's basic" which means something or someone is just basic. It can mean many different things to different people depending on how the phrase is used. My daughter said she was called a basic white girl because she drinks pumpkin spice latte which she does not.