Phonology:

When language is involved we verbal behavior (whether written or spoken)

Halliday labbeled it as text= discourse

When language is used systemic grammar holds that there is a CONTEXT

Context of situation is the relation between language use and social interaction

We have 3 elements

Field of discourse Tenor of discourse Mode of discourse

On what the participant the participants involved in the role of language

are engaged on the conversation and the (how it is used)

relationship between them

and we have long term and

short term relation

examples:

 a discussion in a coffee shop between friends (long term)

 a meeting with the boss (short term)

Factors affecting context of situation:

1. Setting (time and place where interaction takes place) and scene (the event which is
taking place eg: wedding, funeral…)
2. Participants: language users involved in the conversation (speaker, hearer, audience)
3. Ends: the purpose of the discussion (argument, apologies…)
4. Act sequence: managing the conversation (opening, closing, turn taking)
5. Key: behavior or strategies used to transmit the message (tone, intonation, word
choice…)
6. Instrumentalities: instrument and tools used in a conversation
Form and style (the language used: dialects, accents, body language) and channel (the
system used in which we communicate through: skype, face to face, telephone…)
7. Norms: recognizing what is said the way it is said(eg: A: that’s the telephone, B: I’m
in the bath, A: OK)
8. Genre: the type of communication which takes place (interview, speech, joke telling..)

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 Language is used to fulfill a number of different functions

According to Halliday:

(1) Ideational: refers to the language we use to express ourselves (experiences, feelings,
ideas, etc.)
(2) Interpersonal: has to do with social relationships, that is, the way we communicate
with others (forms of address [Ms, Mr., you, etc.]; modality [may, must, should, etc.];
levels of intimacy [friends, colleagues, etc.]; communicative functions [to make a
complaint; to praise; to ask for information, etc.])
(3) Textual: refers to the way we organize our thoughts or discourse: for example, when
we speak or write, we use discourse markers ("conjunctions"), such as the following:
in social interactions: "and then", "after that", "but", etc. in writing: "in addition",
"afterwards", "much to the contrary"

They enable people to express different types of meaning

Using different structure and this combination is called LEXICOGRAMMAR

Lexicogrammar is a stratum which is concerned with the wording of a text

It enables people to create an infinite number of well-formed sentences and meaning
with a finite number of rule’s structures
De Saussure claimed that language is a system of signs so this system is

Sound system grammatical system meaning system

Phonetic phonology morphology syntax semantic pragmatic

The study of the study of the study the the study of the study of the study of
How sounds how sounds structure of the structure meaning of the invisible
Are produced, combine and words (morph- of the sentence words, sente- meaning,
Transmit and influence one emes) nces, phrases
Received, 2 branches another bound free
Articulatory Acoustic

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Articulatory: study the physiological mechanism of speech production (place and manner of
articulation)

Acoustic phonology: deals with speech sound in terms of how we hear them (perception and
speech sounds)

Free: we have lexical morphemes (open class: content word) and functional (close class:
function word)

Bound: we have inflectional (does not change the grammatical category or class of the word
ex: happy= unhappy) and derivational (change of word class = form a new word with new
grammatical category, ex: happy= happiness)

When dealing with the English language

We have the English phonology

Segmental suprasegmental

The study of phonemes vowels, the study of the construct

consonants etc… and differences between phonemes

such as: stress, intonation..

Types of phonological rules :

1. Assimilation ex : phone book = fombook

2. Dissimilation ex : fifth = fift
3. Insertion ex :warmth = wampth (adding a phoneme)
4. Metathesis ex : prescrbe = perscribe (change the ordering)

Features which extend more than a segment

Ex: Pro’gram (English has a phonemic stress

Because it change the meaning).

Also intonation to emphasize the meaning

English phonology has three circles:

1. Inner circle: traditional English

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 2. Outer circle: English as lingua franca
3. Expanding circle: has no official role but is important in tourism and business

EX: Manufactories’ products are in English.

Advantages: is an additional language to people’s vocabulary and to ease communication.

Disadvantages: death of other languages, translation is always needed and difficulties to

find job opportunities for those who do not speak English.

Problems with this language:

Unfamiliar sounds: it contains some sounds which are not available or produced in
other languages.

Laonwords: it borrows some time from other languages and which are not pronounced
in English ex: RDV.

Spelling in consistence: difficulties to choose which combination we will use ex:

mission, station, fashion= all are pronounced /sh/

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