Introduction to Linguistics Essays

Introduction to Linguistics Essays Introduction to Linguistics Essay Introduction to Linguistics Essay What is meant by the field of linguistics? This introductory chapter concerns some dimensions of linguistics. which give us a general thought of what linguistics is. including the history of lingual. grammar. and other subjects of linguistics survey. What does grammar consist of and what are the relationship between one and another? How many linguistic communications do human existences have the capacity to get? What other surveies are made in recent centuries? Each of these facets are clearly described. and other chapters will travel into farther inside informations. While in this chapter we will supply some less elaborate information on the assorted facets of linguistics mentioned so far. 1. 1 Specifying Linguisticss There is nil that can be said by mathematical symbols and dealingss which can non besides be said by words. The converse. nevertheless. is false. Much that can be and is said by words can non successfully be put into equations. because it is nonsensical. C. Truesdell Linguistics is a survey to depict and explicate the human module of linguistic communication. There is no uncertainty that linguistics has changed through human development. 1. 1. 1 History of linguistics. The history of linguistics can be divided into three periods: antiquity. in-between ages and modern linguistics. 1. 1. 1. 1 Antiquity Dating back to earlier period of linguistics. linguistics is frequently associated with a demand to disambiguate discourse. particularly for ritual texts or in statements. Ancient Indians made a large part to linguistics development. Similarly. ancient Chinese played a cardinal function in bettering linguistics development. Around the same clip as the Indian developed. ancient Grecian philosophers were besides debating the nature and beginnings of linguistic communication. During this period. sentence structure and the usage of atoms developed fast. In add-on. bookmans proposed that word significances are derived from sentential use. 1. 1. 1. 2 In-between Ages In Middle East. in footings of spread outing Islam in 8th century. a big figure of people learn Arabic. Because of this. the earliest grammar came to being bit by bit. At the same clip. Sibawayh. a celebrated bookman. wrote a book to separate phonetics from phonemics. In the thirteenth century. Europeans introduced the impression of cosmopolitan grammar. 1. 1. 1. 3 Modern Linguistics Modern linguistics’ get downing can day of the month back to the late eighteenth century. With clip passing by. the survey of linguistics contains increasing contents. Meanwhile. it is used in other Fieldss. computing machine. e. g. . has come to be called computational linguistics. The survey of applications ( as the recovery of address ability ) is by and large known as applied linguistics. But in a narrower sense. applied linguistics refers to the application of lingual rules and theories of linguistic communication instruction and acquisition. particularly the instruction of foreign and 2nd linguistic communication. Other related subdivisions include anthropological linguistics. neurological linguistics. mathematical linguistics. and computational linguistics. However. linguistics is merely a portion of a much larger academic subject. semiologies. It is the scientific survey of linguistic communication. It surveies non merely one individual linguistic communication of any one society. merely like Chinese or Gallic. but the linguistic communication of all human existences. A linguist. though. does non hold to cognize and utilize a big figure of linguistic communications. but to look into how each linguistic communication is constructed. In short. linguistics surveies the general rules whereupon all human linguistic communications are constructed and operated as systems of communicating in their societies or communities. 1. 1. 2 An Interesting Comparison Linguisticss is a wide field to analyze. hence. a linguist sometimes is merely able to cover with one facet of linguistic communication at a clip. and therefore assorted subdivisions arise: phonetics. phonemics. morphology. sentence structure. semantics. applied linguistics. pragmatics. psycholinguistics. lexicology. lexicography. etymology and so on. Suppose that the survey of linguistics can be considered to be a computing machine. so linguistics is equal to the CPU. which supports all the other parts. Furthermore. sound card would stand for phonetics and phonemics. and so morphology and semantics are like the memory of the computing machine. What’s more. sentence structure plays as an of import function to interpret individual words to a whole sentence which is full of intending. merely like a artworks card. which uses image to do sense of the thought of memory stick. Finally. everything is ready. it’ s clip to utilize computing machine and the same goes for linguistic communication acquisition. Very interestingly. the belongingss of computing machine are surprisingly similar to human linguistic communication. from World Wide Web. iflytek. com/english/Research-Introduction % 20to % 20TTS. htm Above all. linguistics is concerned with the survey of verbal language– peculiarly address and written linguistic communication. What’s more. linguistic communication is a system and there is a set of options of which 1 must be chosen depending on the intent and context. ( Marie E. A ; John P. . 1991. p. 64 ) . 1. 2 The wide survey of linguistic communication Language is a extremely complex system of communicating. so it sometimes will be called a system of systems’ . It is used to build. exchange. express. and record information and thoughts. It performs these maps efficaciously because it is based upon systems that are understood by those utilizing the linguistic communication. In this chapter. four subjects will be concerned. They are phonology. morphology. sentence structure. and semantics. In this subdivision. some overall definitions and interactions among the four parts will be talked about. 1. 2. 1 Phonology In order to help scholars at the early phases of literacy. it is really of import to understand the relationship between sounds and letters. The sounds of address are studied in phonetics and phonemics. ( Marie E. A ; John P. 1991 ) 1. 2. 1. 1 Definitions of phonemics and phonetics Phonology is the survey of sound systems- the innovation of typical address sounds that occurs in a linguistic communication and the forms wherein they fall. In other words. we study the abstract side of the sounds of linguistic communication. a related but different topic that we call phonemics ( Peter. 2000 ) . In short. it is about forms and roots. On the other manus. it is more rigorous linguistics. Phonetics is the scientific discipline which surveies the features of human sound-making. particularly sounds used in address. and provides methods for their description. categorization and written text. In common. address sound is used everyplace. and it can be divided into three parts: articulatory phonetics. audile phonetics. and acoustic phonetics. 1. 2. 1. 2 The difference between phonemics and phonetics It seems that phonemics and phonetics are similar. That is why both of them make scholars confused. In fact. they have great difference. Phonology pays attending to how speech sounds of a linguistic communication form are put together harmonizing to regular regulations. On the contrary. phonetics focuses chiefly on description of how speech sounds are made. For case. if person says we should acquire our two lips near together and so force them open with a strong air . that means he or she is relevant to phonetics field. Another illustration is no words should get down with the ng’/N/ sound. the sound merely occurs at the terminal of words . and this concerns phonology country. Plenty of footings are used to depict different forms of letters and sounds. Some of the common used footings are blend. digram. shwa. syllable and phonics. which are widely and often applied. 1. 2. 2 Morphology Morphology has been regarded as a needfully synchronic discipline . That means the regulations concentrating on the survey of word construction alternatively of the development of words ( Katamba. 1993. P. 3 ) . It is the basic component used in a linguistic communication. and the construct of morphemes’ is one of the chief facets in the survey of morphology’ ( Yule. 2006. p. 66 ) . Basically. it is the subdivision of linguistics that surveies the internal construction of words. In morphology. morphemes are the minimum units that have semantic significance. It is the lingual term for the most elemental units of grammatical form ( Fromkin. Rodman. A ; Hyams. 2006. p. 77 ) . 1. 2. 2. 1 The categorization of morphemes Morphemes are composed of free and bound morphemes. Free morphemes are the morphemes that can stand by themselves as individual words . while edge morphemes are those that can non usually stand alone . but that can be attached to affixes ( Yule. 2000. p. 75 ) . Free morphemes contain lexical and functional morphemes. The first class. free morphemes. is the set of ordinary nouns. adjectives. adverbs and verbs which carry the content of the conveyed messages ( Yule. 2000. p. 76 ) . and most English words refer to this class. The functional morphemes consist mostly of the functional words. including concurrences. prepositions. articles and pronouns ( Yule. 2000 ) . Bound morphemes can besides be divided into two classs. They are derivational and inflectional morphemes. Derivational morphemes are those which make new words in the linguistic communication and do words of a different grammatical class from the stem ( Yule. 2000. p. 76 ) . which means that it can alter the significance or the word category. whereas the inflectional morphemes are used to indicate facets of the grammatical map of a word ( Yule. 2000. p. 77 ) . 1. 2. 2. 2 The interaction with other facets Morphology has interactions with phonemics. The choice of the signifier that manifests given morpheme may be affected by the sounds that realize neighbouring morphemes ( Katamba. 1993 ) . For illustration. prefixes and postfixs will usually impact the emphasis. Meanwhile. there is interaction between morphology and sentence structure. The signifier of words may be influenced by the syntactic building in which the word is used ( Katamba. 1993. p. 13 ) . 1. 2. 3 Syntax So far in our survey of linguistic communication. we have made surveies of phonetics. phonemics and morphology. We have analyzed the construction of sounds and words. Therefore. we have been concentrated on the degree of little units of linguistic communication. After our analysis of words. we move to the consideration of larger structural units of linguistic communication: phrases and sentences. If we concentrate on the construction and ordination of constituents within a sentence. we are analyzing what is technically known as the sentence structure of a language ( Yule. 2000. p. 100 ) . Syntax can be merely defined as the scientific survey of sentence construction. Harmonizing to Geoffrey ( 2005 ) . sentence structure is a term used for the survey of the regulations regulating the manner words are combined to organize sentences. The beginning of this word is from Grecian and it means a puting out together’ or agreement ( Yule. 2000 ) . In the sentence The male child hits the door. we can detect that the words are related to each other in this order that it merely has one significance. If we change the order of the words The door hits the male child. the sentence’s significance has wholly changed and it is nonsensical. The ground is that the parts of the sentence are structurally related to each other. and this construction is reflected in the word order. In English. the word order is really necessary and of import for the significance of the sentence harmonizing to lingual regulations. In some linguistic communications. word order plays a less of import function. The significance of the sentence depends more on the signifier of the words themselves. In such instances. it is possible for sentences with wholly different word order to hold the same significance. English used to be one of these linguistic communications. The undermentioned illustrations are taken from Old English: Se cyning metech thone biscop- - -The male monarch meets the bishop Thone biscop meteth se cyning- - -The male monarch meets the bishop Although the words are arranged otherwise. they still mean the same. However. presents. the word order is really important for intending. As a effect. there is a great demand for us to research sentence structure. Some of import constructs are included in the survey of sentence structure. 1. 2. 3. 1Complex and compound sentence Three sentence types are basic in the sentence structure. There are simple sentence. compound sentence and complex sentence. A simple sentence includes one word. However. in some state of affairs. the simple sentence contains two words. A compound sentence contains at least two simple sentences. The sentences are linked with a concurrence. A Complex sentence composes of at least one chief clause and one subsidiary clause. 1. 2. 3. 2 Syntax Analysis The undermentioned illustration is provided for syntax analysis. The football squad won the lucifer last twelvemonth. S NP VP NP Det N Vt Det N Adv Ext ( clip ) The football squad won the lucifer last twelvemonth. The chart above is called tree diagram. The letters above each indicate: S = sentence. NP = noun phrase. VP = verb phrase. N = noun. V = verb. and so on. The grammarians use this method to analyse the sentences. 1. 2. 3. 3 Basic Syntactic Structure In English. the construction of sentence depends to a great extent on word order. The four basic constructions are listed as follows: S gt ; NP + Vc + NP ( NP gt ; N. NP gt ; Det + N ) S gt ; NP + VP ( NP gt ; N. VP gt ; Vc + Adj ) S gt ; NP + VP ( NP gt ; N. VP gt ; V ) S gt ; NP + VP ( NP gt ; N. VP gt ; Vt + NP. NP gt ; Det + N ) 1. 2. 3. 4 Basic Syntactic Generative Process There are four basic syntactic productive procedures: permutation. enlargement. extension. transmutation. Take the undermentioned sentence as an illustration to clear up these three constructs. Ken is a police officer. Substitution: Ken is a police officer. gt ; Tom is a police officer. Expansion: Ken is a police officer. gt ; Ken is a bad police officer. Extension: Ken is a police officer. gt ; Ken is a police officer at that clip. Transformation: Ken is a police officer. gt ; Is Ken a police officer? 1. 2. 4 Semantics Semantics. a subfield of linguistics. is the survey of actual significance. It is the recent add-on to the English linguistic communication. ( Palmer. 1976. p. 1 ) . Harmonizing to Matthews ( 2007 ) . during the early old ages the survey of intending focused on the vocabulary entirely. The range of the survey has expended since 1960s to include both semantics and pragmatics ( analyzed in 1. 3 ) . which come to the chief Fieldss of the survey of lingual significance ( Katamba. 2000 A ; Matthews. 1997 ) . Semantic significance is fixed and abstract. It can be understood by surface. However. it is de-contextualized. In another word. it is easy subverted by different gestures or modulations. Semnatics interacts with other facets of linguistics. For illustration. when equivalent word are used. they can be understood. so it fits the regulation of sentence structure. However. equivalent word are used to depict something similar. In a sentence. a equivalent word can be substituted by another equivalent word. However. the significance of synonyms talker or author determines or predicates have different grades. which indicates the significance is really different ( Alan. 2004 ) . Therefore. it is the interaction between sentence structure and semantics. As for the interaction with phonemics. the term tonic syllable in phonemics has three sorts of maps. The first 1 is the accentual map. which is to bespeak the focal point of the information. The 2nd 1 is the attitudinal map that is to bespeak the speaker’s attitude. And the last 1 is grammatical map. If talkers use these maps. the same sentence will turn out to hold assorted significances. To reason. in this subdivision. linguistics is analyzed from the facets of sounds. word construction. grammatical regulations and significance. Each of them is in charge of a certain system. Therefore linguistics can assist people to pass on. to show. and to be understood. 1. 3 Other subjects Apart from the nucleus subparts of linguistics. which we have demonstrated before. for farther reading. we introduce some other exciting facets in the field of linguistics. There are a batch more to detect than those countries. 1. 3. 1 Sociolinguistics People may cognize something about you through the manner you speak. for illustration. where you come from. where you spend most of your life clip. your societal individuality and so on. Two people turning up in the same geographical country. at the same clip. may talk otherwise owing to a figure of societal factors ( Yule. 2000 ) . Consequently. it’s really of import to see the societal facets of linguistic communication. It’s because address is a signifier of societal individuality and is used. consciously or unconsciously ( Yule. 2000 ) . The survey of the societal facet of linguistic communication is known as sociolinguistic. Sociolinguistic is concerned with probe of the relationship between linguistic communication and society ( Ronald. 2006. p. 13 ) . It consists of cultural norms. outlooks. and context on the manner linguistic communication is used. The first linguists who studied the societal facet of linguistic communication are Indian and Nipponese in the 1930s. Another individual called Gauchat who came from Switzerland had a analysis of this in 1900s every bit good. However. these three people didn’t receive much attending in the West. Until the late nineteenth century. the survey of societal facets of linguistic communication laid its foundation. Sociolinguisticss bit by bit appeared in the sixtiess in the West. Linguisticss such as William Labov in the US and Basil Bernstein in the UK foremost brought out this construct and explored it. ( Wikipedia. 2007. parity. 1 ) 1. 3. 2 Neurolinguistics Though the nervous constructions of most carnal species are really distant from adult male. there are still resemblances between homo and animate being linguistic communications ( Marler. 1981 ; Nottebohm. 1970 ) . since nerve cells work in both. Human encephalon contains one million millions of nervous cells. and so far. the exact figure of those alleged nerve cells is still to be defined ( Fabbro. 1999. p. 21 ) . These bitty bantam nerve cells have close nexus with the production of linguistic communication. There can be unconditioned or learnt vocal vocalizations. Oral linguistic communication can be the unconditioned belongings of the human encephalon. written linguistic communication. nevertheless. is an innovation of world. Dogs can bark. cats can miaou. and adult male can shout even after the remotion of the mesencephalon. whereas parrots can non copy human sounds. and we can non bring forth human linguistic communication ( Fabbro. 1999. p. 21 ) . Therefore. the nervous centre of our encephalon is playing an unreplaceable function in the production of linguistic communication. How does the chief intellectual construction serve the production of human voices? The survey of neurolinguistic rely on the survey of neurology and neurophysiology. and in these Fieldss. all parts of the nervous system. each holding different maps in bring forthing linguistic communication. are discovered. Theories are found based on tonss of experiments refering the remotions of different subdivisions of the encephalon. The devastation of different linguistic communication countries destroys linguistic communication distinguishingly. 1. 3. 3 Historical linguistics Historical linguistics decidedly is non concerned with the history of linguistics. though historical linguistics has played an of import function in the development of linguistics. It is the chief sort of linguistics practiced in the nineteenth century ( Campbell. 1998. p. 5 ) . Historical linguistics concerns the probe and description of how languages alteration or keep their construction in the class of clip. Language alteration can be easy proved by paperss written in the same linguistic communication but at different periods of history. The differences of give voicing and construction of sentences can reflect the historical development of linguistic communication. From series of dateable paperss. Lord’s Prayer widely recorded the history of world. and different versions help us analyse the linguistic communication of each period ( Bynon. 1978. p. 7 ) . Meanwhile we can besides detect that certain construction regulations are still used in current linguistic communication. There are some concepts and regulation that link the grammars of two different but related linguistic communications. which descend from a individual original linguistic communication. sharing a common ascendant. More accurately. historical linguistics trades with the sorts of alterations. and the techniques and methods we have use to detect history. instead than the beginning of words themselves ( Campbell. 1998. p. 5 ) . 1. 3. 4 Anthropological linguistics Anthropological lingual is the survey of dealingss between linguistic communication and civilization. It is related to human biological science. knowledge and linguistic communication. It belongs to the field of lingual anthropology. which is a subdivision of anthropology that surveies human-beings through the linguistic communication they use ( Wikipedia. 2007. parity. 1 ) . Some Linguists who explore theanthropological linguistics consider these subjects such as chimpanzee communicating. pidgins and Creoles. structural linguistics. entire linguistic communications. whorf hypothesis. etc. 1. 3. 5 Pragmatics Harmonizing to Kate ( 2000 ) . pragmatics is one of the two chief Fieldss in the survey of lingual significance. Pragmaticss trades with natural linguistic communication. while linguistic communication is ever used in context for an intended intent. The hearers must seek to hold on the significance implied. enrich the thoughts. and eventually do out the sentiment that what the talkers meant when speaking about a peculiar look ( Kate. 2000 ) . Harmonizing to Yule ( 1996 ) . pragmatics surveies the context in which the vocalization is produced every bit good as the purpose of linguistic communication user. ’ That means matter-of-fact intending depends on context or state of affairs. Without context. significances can be obscure and may be misunderstood by people. Two of the subdivisions are: speech Acts of the Apostless that cover requesting’ . commanding’ . questioning’ and informing’ . and niceness that shows the consciousness of another person’s face. In short. sociolinguistics is the analysis of interrelatedness of linguistic communication and society. Neurolinguistics is the survey of the encephalon and how it functions in linguistic communication. Historical linguistics is the consideration of linguistic communication alteration and how different linguistic communications are related to each other. Anthropological linguistics is the survey of linguistic communication and civilization. There are some other subjects in linguistics. Pragmaticss trades with the speakers’ significance. The five mentioned above are some chief subjects in linguistics. Different subjects of linguistics enrich the content of lingual. The survey of linguistics tends to be more and more elaborate and completed. 1. 4 Language Acquisition This chapter began with a general debut to linguistic communication survey. It ends with a consideration of the acquisition of linguistic communication. incorporating first. 2nd and foreign linguistic communication. which is affected by the relationship between instructor and scholar. Some experient pedagogues advise that it is merely through larning to talk a linguistic communication that you can to the full analyse it ( Everett 2001 ) . Acquisition’ is described as happening in self-generated linguistic communication contexts ( Krashen. 1982 ) . is subconscious. and leads to colloquial eloquence. 1. 4. 1 First linguistic communication acquisition For a kid. larning first linguistic communication is automatic. non after get downing school. non in specific circumstance and non by great attempts ( Yule. 2006 ) . It requires merely basic physical capableness of directing and having sounds straight or indirectly. and interaction with others utilizing this linguistic communication. Children are brought up in peculiar environments. being affected by different milieus. particularly by those people whom they spend most of their clip interacting with. Babies start express themselves through some simple vocalization. such as some vowel-like sounds. Children addition increasing abilities at different development phases. from bring forthing single-unit vocalization to bring forthing address by pass oning through looks ( Yule. 2006 ) . since they are able to understand what others said. This a large measure frontward. like discontinuing toddling and being capable of walking steadily. forwards. or backwards. As kids are being progressively exposed to communicating and interaction. their linguistic communication accomplishments are developing quickly because of the enlargement of vocabulary. They are neer forced to talk first linguistic communication and rarely be corrected by others. but they correct themselves through interactions every twenty-four hours. Then kids learn to utilize verbs in different sentences. and how to utilize different words to organize a sentence ( Yule. 2006 ) . They bit by bit learn to inquire inquiries right and how to utilize the word no in their addresss to show negative significances. The last phase of first linguistic communication acquisition is the ability of doing meaningful sentence ( Yule. 2006 ) . There is monolithic fluctuation in the rate at which characteristics of one’s first linguistic communication are acquired. 1. 4. 2 Second linguistic communication acquisition. Bing able to talk first linguistic communication is one of the basic accomplishments of 2nd linguistic communication acquisition. Except for the minority of people who are bilingual talkers. most of the scholars have no entree to a 2nd linguistic communication until our late childhood. Actually most of the Chinese scholars are now larning English as a foreign linguistic communication. because it is instantly back to Chinese speech production clip out of the schoolroom. But subsequently on they may hold the opportunity of larning it as a foreign linguistic communication in a native speech production environment. during submergence semesters. when they will get this 2nd linguistic communication in fortunes similar to those of Chinese acquisition. There are evidently differences in foreign linguistic communication accomplishment. sometimes related to differences in aptitude ( Carroll. 1982 ) . sometimes to affectional factors ( Gardner A ; Lambert. 1972 ) . sometimes to learner schemes ( Naiman. Frohlicn. Stern A ; Tedesco. 1978 ) . sometimes to environmental factors such as chances for linguistic communication usage or instructional conditions ( Long. 1982 ) . and sometimes merely to clip ( Carroll. 1975 ) . Human existences have the ability to larn more than one linguistic communication all through one’s live. Farwell ( 1963 ) ( cited in Taylor. 1976 ) studies that a British adventurer in the nineteenth century claimed to hold spoken more than 40 linguistic communications and idioms. Normally. nevertheless. after the age of 10. the acquisition of 2nd linguistic communication is really different from the manner one acquired his first linguistic communication. which is comparatively slower and can non accomplish native-like proficiency. 1. 4. 3 Educational factors Most of us begin larning 2nd linguistic communication in teenage old ages. disbursement merely few hours on it every twenty-four hours and for most of the day-to-day activities we use our female parent lingua. Consequently. we will meet tonss of troubles in larning 2nd linguistic communication without adequate exposure to it. Therefore. the mostly distinguished portion of geting first and 2nd linguistic communication should be linguistic communication instructors. In order to larn a 2nd linguistic communication. we must larn from a instructor. or at least follow their counsel. The schoolroom is a really powerful instrument of direction and it can command linguistic communication larning in a really direct manner ( Richard. T. A ; Roger. H. ) . As linguistic communication instructors. we should concentrate on students’ demands and follow learner-centered attacks. We should leave cognition in a more practical manner so the pupils can have easy. Keep the category disciplined and orderly so that pupils can larn most efficaciously from the lessons. There are frequently the state of affairss that the pupils seldom voluntary replies. and the instructor sometimes has to name on person and delay for a long clip before a response is forthcoming. Why non seek interrupting off from typical Hong Kong schoolroom patterns in category? Like. pupils do non hold to stand up to recognize instructors. and they do non hold to raise their custodies or stand up when they answer inquiries. In a relaxed schoolroom atmosphere. pupils will experience free to interact. They will non fall silent when the instructor enters the room. so stand up and intone a choral salutation. If the students are put in this place in the schoolroom. they can be more efficaciously kept in their topographic point in societal life. During the category. we instructors should neer state like this: I am your instructor. By the authorization vested in me I have the right to inquire you to act in a certain manner. whether you like it or non. And you. in your function have the duty to obey ( Widdowson. H. G. ) . Whereas. we should state that in another manner: Make this because I am the instructor and I know what’s best for you. but non Do this because I am stating you and I am the instructor. This difference has the advantage of mostly increasing engagement in the usage and pattern of linguistic communication. 1. 4. 4 Drumhead Approachs to the acquisition of linguistic communication history for different backgrounds of learns’ first linguistic communication. and different conditions of exposure. In geting linguistic communication. scholars frequently go through transitional phases of development. which is at distinguished rates. Mentions Cruse. A. ( 2004 ) . Meaning in linguistic communication: an debut to semantics and pragmatics. Oxford. New York. Oxford University Press. Bynon. T. ( 1983 ) . Historical Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Campbell. L. ( 1998 ) . Historical Linguistics-An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Dechert. H. W. ( 1990 ) . Current tendencies in European 2nd linguistic communication. Great Britain: WBC Print. Bristol. Fabbro. F. ( 1999 ) . The Neurolinguistics of Bilingualism. Psychology Press Ltd. Fromkin. V. . Rodman. R. . A ; Hyams. N. ( 2006 ) . An debut to linguistic communication ( 8th ed. ) . Boston. MA: Heinle A ; Heinle. Palmer. F. R. ( 1976 ) . Semanticss: a new lineation. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press. Geoffrey. F. ( 2005 ) . Cardinal Concepts In Language And Linguistics. USA: Palgrave Macmillan. Kate. K. ( 2000 ) . Semantics. Basingstoke. England. Macmillan. Katamba. F. ( 2006 ) . Morphology. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press. Marie E. A ; John P. ( 1991 ) . Language and Learning. Melbourne: Oxford University Press O’ Mally. J. M. . A ; Chamot. A. U. ( 1990 ) . Learning schemes in 2nd linguistic communication acquisition. Cambridge University Press. Matthews. P. H. ( 1997 ) . Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford. University Press. USA. Peter. R. ( 2000 ) . English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge University Press. Ronald. W. ( 2006 ) . An Introduct

Law of Multiple Proportions Problem

Law of Multiple Proportions Problem This is a worked example of a chemistry problem using the law of multiple proportions. Two different compounds are formed by the elements carbon and oxygen. The first compound contains 42.9% by mass carbon and 57.1% by mass oxygen. The second compound contains 27.3% by mass carbon and 72.7% by mass oxygen. Show that the data are consistent with the law of multiple proportions. Solution The law of multiple proportions is the third postulate of Daltons atomic theory. It states that the masses of one element which combine with a fixed mass of the second element are in a ratio of whole numbers. Therefore, the masses of oxygen in the two compounds that combine with a fixed mass of carbon should be in a whole number ratio. In 100 grams of the first compound (100 is chosen to make calculations easier), there are 57.1 grams oxygen and 42.9 grams carbon. The mass of oxygen (O) per gram of carbon (C) is: 57.1 g O / 42.9 g C 1.33 g O per g C In the 100 grams of the second compound, there are 72.7 grams oxygen (O) and 27.3 grams carbon (C). The mass of oxygen per gram of carbon is: 72.7 g O / 27.3 g C 2.66 g O per g C Dividing the mass O per g C of the second (larger value) compound: 2.66 / 1.33 2 Which means that the masses of oxygen that combine with carbon are in a 2:1 ratio. The whole-number ratio is consistent with the law of multiple proportions. Solving Law of Multiple Proportions Problems While the ratio in this example problem worked out to be exactly 2:1, its more likely chemistry problems and real data will give you ratios that are close, but not whole numbers. If your ratio came out like 2.1:0.9, then youd know to round to the nearest whole number and work from there. If you got a ratio more like 2.5:0.5, then you could be pretty certain you had the ratio wrong (or your experimental data was spectacularly bad, which happens too). While 2:1 or 3:2 ratios are most common, you could get 7:5, for example, or other unusual combinations. The law works the same way when you work with compounds containing more than two elements. To make the calculation simple, choose a 100-gram sample (so youre dealing with percentages), and then divide the largest mass by the smallest mass. This isnt critically important- you can work with any of the numbers- but it helps to establish a pattern for solving this type of problem. The ratio wont always be obvious. It takes practice to recognize ratios. In the real world, the law of multiple proportions doesnt always hold. The bonds formed between atoms are more complex than what you learn about in a 101 chemistry class. Sometimes whole number ratios dont apply. In a classroom setting, you need to get whole numbers, but remember there may come a time when youll get a pesky 0.5 in there (and it will be correct).