Microsoft Word Theoretical Course of English Grammar

 
 
 
 

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Theoretical Course of English Grammar 
Script by prof. 
Nino Kirvalidze
11
Hierarchical structuring of language system. 
In modern linguistics language is regarded as a system of signs which is organized (i.e. 
structured) by the principle of hierarchy of levels of lingual units. 
The peculiarity of this 
hierarchy lies in the fact that units of any higher level are analyzable into (i.e. are formed of) 
units of the immediately lower ones. Thus morphemes are formed of phonemes, words of 
morphemes, sentences of phrases and words and so on.
But this hierarchical relation does not imply that it might be reduced to the mechanical 
composition of larger units from the smaller ones. Units of each level are characterized by their 
own, specific functional features according to which they differ from each other.
The lowest level of lingual units is a phonemic level which is formed by phonemes. Pho-
nemes are not signs yet as they have no meaning. They serve as material elements to build the 
higher level segments – morphemes and words. Their function is purely differential, as they 
differentiate morphemes and words as material bodies. For instance: 
bad
[b
æ
d] and 
bed 
[bed]; 
pork
and 
fork 
, etc. Phonemes are represented by letters in writing.
Units of the higher levels are meaningful, therefore they represent signs.
The level located above the phonemic is a morphemic or morphological level. The mor-
pheme is an elementary meaningful part of the word. It is built up by a sequence of phonemes 
or even by one phoneme. E.g.: ros-y; come-s, etc. 
The third level in the lingual hierarchy is the lexemic level represented by words as lexi-
cal items or lexemes. 
The word is built up by a sequence of morphemes or one morpheme and
it 
is the smallest naming (nominative) unit of language 
: it names things, their qualities or their 
relations.
The fourth level in the hierarchy of language system is the syntactic level the main unit of 
which is a sentence. 
The sentence is an elementary full sign as it not only names a certain 
extralinguistic situation or event but performs communicative function as well, transmitting a 
piece of information.
The sentence is not the highest unit of language in the hierarchy of levels. The highest 
level of lingual units is the textual level represented by a text. 
From the structural viewpoint, 
text can be defined as a sequence of thematically interrelated well-formed sentences. 
Unlike a 

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Theoretical Course of English Grammar 
Script by prof. 
Nino Kirvalidze
12
sentence, text nominates a set of extralinguistic events or situations which constitutes its target 
(referential) space.
From the functionalist viewpoint, a lingual unit of any length, be it a sequence of themat-
ically interrelated well-formed sentences, one simple sentence or even a word, can be defined 
as a text if it performs a communicative function. This definition explains the existence of such 
one-word texts as: “Fire!”; “Help!” and many others, which are restricted by the setting of the 
given speech act.