Linguistics: Signs, Text Types, and Sentence Structures
Features of the Linguistic Sign
- Arbitrariness: The linguistic sign is arbitrary, meaning the connection between its form and meaning is conventional, a result of an agreed-upon practice.
- Linearity: Being acoustic, the linguistic sign unfolds over time. Its elements appear sequentially, not simultaneously like some other signs.
- Immutability and Mutability: While a speaker cannot change a linguistic sign at will (due to its communal nature), languages evolve over time as signs change through usage.
- Double Articulation: The linguistic sign is composed of smaller units. This means it can be broken down into meaningful units, which are further composed of meaningless units.
Semantic Change
- Linguistic Causes: When two words frequently appear together, one might adopt the meaning of the omitted word.
- Historical Causes: Objects change in use or form over time, but their names often remain.
- Social and Psychological Causes: Words from restricted contexts can enter general vocabulary (or vice versa) due to social interactions.
Textual Properties
- Adequacy: Selecting the most appropriate linguistic elements for a given communication situation.
- Coherence: Ensuring the text is interpreted as a unified whole, with all elements contributing to a global meaning.
- Information Selection: Using existing knowledge to choose and supplement information effectively during communication.
- Theme and Structure: A coherent text revolves around a central theme, revealed through its development.
- Cohesion: The property that connects the units of a text.
Grammatical Procedures
- Deixis: The mechanism by which a text refers to elements outside the language itself.
- Anaphora: The relationship between an antecedent and a subsequent element that replaces it.
- Cataphora: The relationship between an element and a later element in the text.
- Ellipsis: The omission of a known element that can be easily retrieved from the context.
Text Types
- Conversation: Everyday conversation/chat. Purpose: Inform/ask.
- Description: Scientific literature/catalogs. Purpose: Report characteristics, landscapes, etc.
- Narrative: Oral narrative/comic. Purpose: Report facts, actions, processes.
- Exposition: Political speeches/religious leaflets. Purpose: Explain an idea or concept.
- Argumentation: Judicial/political discourse/advertising/debates. Purpose: Express opinions, counter them, persuade, convince.
- Instruction: Instructions, recipes, laws. Purpose: Direct, order, advise.
- Prediction: Budgets, prospective texts. Purpose: Inform about future events.
- Rhetorical Texts: Poetry, songs, jokes. Purpose: Aesthetic appeal through beauty, humor, wit, surprise.
Lexicography
Lexicography is the science of dictionary-making. Dictionaries offer the following:
- Entry: The word being explained.
- Pronunciation: Using phonetic alphabets and in bilingual dictionaries.
- Etymology: The word’s origin.
- Part of Speech: Grammatical information.
- Definition: Nominal or logical.
- Meanings: Different senses of the word.
- Examples of Use: Phrases and sentences illustrating usage.
- Idioms and Phrases: Common expressions using the word.
Kinds of Dictionaries
- Prescriptive: Words must meet specific criteria for inclusion.
- Descriptive: Words are included based on usage, including recent additions and excluding archaic terms.
- Ideological: Words are organized by meaning relationships, sometimes with an alphabetical index.
The Sentence
The sentence is the minimal unit of communication. It is independent, delimited by pauses, and has its own intonation.
Impersonal Sentences
- Temporal: Use transitive or intransitive verbs in the third person plural when the subject is unknown or unimportant.
- Unipersonal: Refer to natural phenomena.
- Grammaticalized: Constructed with verbs like “be,” “do,” and “have” in the third person singular.
- Reflexive: Consist of an active verb in the third person singular + “se.”
Sentence Classes by Type
- Declarative: Objective report of a fact (affirmative or negative).
- Interrogative: Direct or indirect questions.
- Exclamatory: Express the sender’s emotions.
- Imperative/Hortatory: Express requests, commands, or prohibitions.
- Desiderative/Optative: Express desires.
- Dubitative/Potential: Express doubt or possibility.