Language and Communication
LANGUAGE
Language
Language is a specific power of human beings common to all. Language is the particular realization that a particular community makes of the universal ability to speak. Speaking is an individual act whereby each person externalizes language.
Descriptive Grammar
It aims to show how the language system works.
Law
Sanctions as good one possible variety of the language.
Morphology
Study of word parts.
Syntax
Discusses how to combine words and the meanings of the combinations they produce.
Pragmatics
Discipline that studies the use of language in specific communicative situations.
Linguistic Text
Discipline that studies the actual statements, more or less complex, with a meaning unit.
Communication
The intentional transmission of information:
- Information transmission.
- This is intentional transmission.
Elements of Information Transmission
The transmission is a complex process that involves several elements:
- Information to be transmitted.
- Signal representing what we want to convey.
- Physical channel.
- Signal transmitter produces.
- Recipient receives and interprets.
Types of Signals, Signs, or Symptoms
Natural Rate
Icons
Conventional in that there is some resemblance.
Conventional Symbols or Signs
There is no relation of similarity.
Morpheme Classes
Also called lexical tokens, they do not need another element to have a full meaning.
Grammatical Tokens
They are added to modify the meaning.
Grammatical Inflections
Add grammatical information to lexemes.
Grammatical Derivatives
The tokens are added to create new words.
Allomorphs
The same morpheme may have different forms depending on the context.
Referral
Create a word from another by adding derivational morphemes.
Composition
Procedimento of forming new words by joining two or more lexemes.
Parasintesis
A simultaneous combination of a lexeme with a prefix and suffix.
LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION
Cultural Acquisition and Predisposition
The knowledge of language and usage are not instinctive.
Use: Free and Voluntary
We speak spontaneously and we feel that we do it almost automatically.
Variety of Instruments
We are not limited to language use.
Systematic Communication
Many of the codes are systems, and have two features:
Compositionality
A property that lets you break complex messages.
Recursion
The ability to use elements of the system.
Characters
Main action characters are those on which the narrative depends.
Protagonist
Events revolve around this character.
Antagonist
The character’s importance is that they are on the opposite side of the main character.
Secondary Characters
Those revolving around the main characters.
Story
The story is a short and invented narrative that may be popular or created by an author.
Introduction
Placing the story in a distant time and space.
Plot
Conflict arises and develops.
Outcome
Resolves the conflict.
Verb
The verb is a word that expresses action or state in time. It is located in the predicate and formed by the root and desinence, the nucleus of the predicate. The conjugation of a verb constitutes the set of all its forms.
- First Conjugation: -ar
- Second Conjugation: -er
- Third Conjugation: -ir
Number
- Singular: The verbal action is performed by a single person or object.
- Plural: Indicates the verb to be expressed or performed by several people or objects.
Person
- 1st: Indicates intervention of the speaker.
- 2nd: Reflects the participation of the listener.
- 3rd: Indicates that the action does not involve neither the speaker nor the listener.
Non-Finite Verb Forms
- Infinitive: To water
- Participle: Beloved
- Gerund: Jumping
Dialogue
Dialogue is an exchange of communication between two or more interlocutors.
Types of Dialogue
- Real Dialogue: Great richness of expression, less elaborate sentences.
- Written Dialogue: Usually pre-planned structure, precise language and style.
Comic
The comic is a sequence or series of vignettes that tell a story.
Combination of Text and Images
The comic mixes graphics and text, though dominated by images.
Use of Speech Bubbles
Speech bubbles enclose what a character says or thinks.
Image Resources
The characters are often caricatured.
Text Resources
The texts are presented highly condensed for reasons of space and speed of reading.
Verb Mood
The way it reflects the attitude of the speaker:
- Indicative: The speaker presents the action, state, or verbal process as something real.
- Subjunctive: The speaker presents it as something possible.
- Imperative: The speaker presents the action as a command.
Verbal Tense
Signals the time when the action takes place:
- Past: The state, action, or process introduced by the verb is placed before the time of speech.
- Present: The state, action, or process introduced by the verb is placed at the time of speaking.
- Future: The action or process introduced by the verb is placed after the time of speaking.
Verb Forms
- Simple Forms: Constituted by one word.
- Compound Forms: Constituted by the verb “have” conjugated and the participle.
Indicative Mood
- Simple: Present, Preterite Imperfect, Future Simple, Conditional Simple
- Compound: Present Perfect, Preterite Perfect, Pluperfect, Future Perfect, Conditional Perfect
Subjunctive Mood
- Simple: Present, Preterite Imperfect
- Compound: Present Perfect, Pluperfect, Future Perfect
Imperative Mood
- Simple: Present only
Theater: General Features
Elements of the Play
It is created to be represented.
Theatrical Text
The story develops through dialogue.
Focus on the Scene
The characters, represented by actors, recreate the action.
Structure of the Theatrical Text
The play is organized into acts, often separated by great time jumps and accompanied by changes of scenery.
Scenes are brief sections set in the same place.
Syllable
It is a phoneme or group of phonemes which are conjoined in a single voice emission.
Argumentative Text
Macrostructure as text updates or use the structure or elements of the argument.
Example
Argumentative text whose structure is intended to convince or persuade the recipient.
Expository Text
Text macrostructure which has the superstructure of the briefing.
Example
Text in which information is provided to be transmitted to the recipient, does not seek to convince, but to inform and explain a topic.
Literary Genre
Literary works are grouped into classes (plays, narrative works) that receive the name of genres.
The literary genre is a model for the author.
Genres and Subgenres
- In the lyric, the message is put into the mouth of the author.
- In the theatrical drama, the characters themselves are speakers.
- In the epic or narrative, the narrator’s voice tells a story, and the characters star in this story.
Within each genre, a set of classes may be distinguished, which are termed subgenres. Hence, in the epic or narrative prose, we distinguish sub-genres like the novel and the story, or sub-genres in verse, as the epic or fable.
The Lyric Genre
Works in verse belong to the lyric genre, in which emotions and feelings about love, friendship, religion, landscape, life, etc. are conveyed. Subjective emotions are thus constitutive features of the lyric.
Verbs
Indicative
- Present: I jump.
- Preterite: You jumped.
- Preterite Perfect Simple: I jumped.
- Future: I’ll jump.
- Conditional: I would jump.
- Preterite Perfect Compound: I have jumped.
- Pluperfect: I had jumped.
- Preterite Anterior: I had jumped.
- Future Perfect: I will have jumped.
- Conditional Perfect: I would have jumped.
Subjunctive
- Present: I jump.
- Preterite Imperfect: I jumped or were jumping.
- Future: I shall jump.
- Preterite Perfect: I have jumped.
- Pluperfect: I had jumped.
- Future Perfect: I shall have jumped.
Imperative
- Present: Jump (you), jump (you), let’s jump, jump (you all), jump (you all).