Republic of the Philippines

State Universities and Colleges

GUIMARAS STATE COLLEGE
Buenavista, Guimaras
GRADUATE SCHOOL

ENGLISH 311 –
Structure of English Lea D. Soberon
Course Reporter

Descriptive Linguistics JUNIEL G. DAPAT

Subject Reporter

The Understanding of Language

I. Introduction

Language Communication by voice in the distinctively human manner, using arbitrary sounds in
conventional ways with conventional meanings. It is also the system of linguistic signs or symbols
considered in the abstract ( as opposed to speech). It is any set or system of such symbols as used in a
more or less uniform fashion by a number of people, who are thus enabled to communicate intelligibly
with one another. Also any system of formalized symbols, signs, sounds, gestures conceived as a
meaning of communicating thought, emotion,

II. Body

Concept Of Language- Transformational Genetive Grammara theory developed by Noam

Chomsky contains the idea that a sentence has two meanings within it. The two include a deep structure
and a surface structure. He believed that language did not have the same deep structure in all languages
but rather languages had similarities of structure. In the 1990s, Chomsky suggested that sentence
structure included Logical Form and Phonetic Form. This help children understand that speech can come
in the form of writing.

THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS - Communication is a process of exchanging verbal and non-

verbal messages.  It is a continuous process.  Communication is a two way process and is incomplete
without a feedback from the recipient to the sender on how well the message is understood by him.

COMPONENTS OF COMMUNICATION PROCESS

1. Context - Every communication proceeds with context - This context may be physical, social,
chronological or cultural. - The sender chooses the message to communicate within a context.
2. Sender / Encoder - The Sender / Encoder is a person who sends the message. - A sender makes use of
symbols (words or graphic or visual aids) to convey the message and produce the required response.
Sender may be an individual or a group or an organization.

3. Message - Message is a key idea that the sender wants to communicate. - Communication process
begins with deciding about the message to be conveyed. - It must be ensured that the main objective of
the message is clear.

4. Medium - Medium is used to exchange / transmit the message. - The sender must choose an
appropriate medium for transmitting the message else the message might not be conveyed to the
desired recipients. The choice of appropriate medium of communication is essential for making the
message effective and correctly interpreted by the recipient.

5. Recipient / Decoder - Recipient / Decoder is a person for whom the message is intended / aimed /
targeted. - The degree which message the decoder can understands is dependent upon various factors
such as knowledge of recipient, their responsiveness to the message, and the reliance of encoder on
decoder.

6. Feedback - Feedback is the main component of communication process as it permits the sender to
analyze the efficacy of the message. - It helps the sender in confirming the correct interpretation of
message by the decoder

Components of Language - Human language involves both receptive and productive use
Receptive language use occurs during the comprehension or understanding of words and sentences.
Productive language use involves idea generation and the articulation of words in speech.

Semantics - The system of meanings that are expressed by words and phrases. Semantics refers
to the ways in which a language conveys meaning. Each new word is a major learning task for children

Phonology  The system of the sound segments that humans use to build up words. 
Each language has a different set of these segments or phonemes, and children quickly come to
recognize and then produce the speech segments that are characteristic of their native language

Moving to the next level of language, we find the study of the smallest units of meaning,
morphemes. Morphemes include base words, such as “hat,” “dog,” or “love,” as well as affixes, such as
“un-,” “re-,” the plural “s” or “es,” and the past tense “ed.”  Knowledge of the morphology of our
language is critical to vocabulary development and reflects the smallest building blocks for
comprehension.
 The study of how individual words and their most basic meaningful units are combined to create
sentences is known as syntax. As words are grouped together when we communicate, we must follow
the rules of grammar for our language, in other words, its syntax. It is the knowledge of syntax that
allows us to recognize that the following two sentences, while containing different word order and
levels of complexity, have the same meaning. The boy hit the ball. The ball was hit by the boy. Syntax
also allows us to accept “I went to the store” as a meaningful (grammatical) sentence while “To store
went I” would not be acceptable English.

The system of patterns that determine how humans can use language in particular social
settings for particular conversational purposes. Children learn that conversations customarily begin with
a greeting, require turn taking, and concern a shared topic. They come to adjust the content of their
communications to match their listener's interests, knowledge, and language ability. “‘Pragmatics’
refers to the ways the members of the speech community achieve their goals using language.” The way
we speak to our parents is not the same as the way we interact.

Factors affecting language learning / acquisition

1. Internal factors

Age, Personality, Motivation, Experiences, Cognition, and Native language

2. External factors

External factors includes curriculum, instruction, culture and status, motivation, and access to native
speakers

III. Conclusions

Considering the role of language in learning and started out from the assumption that language,
and more particularly, linguistic interaction with other people, is a key aspect of learning. You also began
to develop more critical skills, asking questions about what we actually mean by language and whether it
is possible and necessary to separate out one language from another. In relation to English in particular,
you began to question the extent to which new forms of English or ‘Englishes’ must begin to be
recognised alongside more established ones. The growing discomfort with established notions of
language in general and English in particular has been prompted by well-documented and intensified
global interconnectedness in recent years, leading to increased language contact and a growing number
of English-language users. Such real-world phenomena bring into question what we mean by English and
what we mean by language. For educational practitioners, it raises important practical questions about the
norms according to which students should be taught.

IV. References

https://www.slideshare.net/kalaivaanirajandran/understanding-language
V. Quiz

IDENTIFICATION.

Instruction: Identify the information being asked by the following questions below:

1. It is a person for whom the message is intended / aimed / targeted. - Recipient / Decoder

2. One of the components of communication process which may be in the form of physical, social,
chronological or cultural. Context

3. One of the factors of language acquisition which includes Age, Personality, Motivation, Experiences,
Cognition, and Native language.

4. One of the components of language which occurs during the comprehension or understanding of
words and sentences. Receptive language use

5. It is the study of how individual words and their most basic meaningful units are combined to create
sentences. Syntax

6. It is the main component of communication process as it permits the sender to analyze the efficacy of
the message. Feedback

7. It is a key idea that the sender wants to communicate. Message

8. The system of the sound segments that humans use to build up words. Phonology

9. The system of meanings that are expressed by words and phrases. Semantics

10. Is used to exchange / transmit the message. Medium