Studying English Language - Essay Sample

This week I studied various aspects of the English language. I learned about four main areas of the English language: syntax rules, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse analysis. I came to understand some major concepts in linguistics, starting with how children learn a language to how adults speak differently. I increased my critical thinking skills by studying the key elements of the English language. Moreover, I can now easily understand different sentence structures and constructions. This knowledge can enable me to analyze a text easily to extract the intended meaning. I will provide a summary of what I learned throughout the week, give my views and responses about the topics, outline how the new concepts have changed my prior assumptions, and state the implications of such knowledge for future teaching practice.

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In chapter 8, I learned about language syntax. The syntax of a language refers to the arrangement of structure or order of phrases in a sentence. I learned that prepositions are put before nouns to form prepositional phrases. Also, I realized that the small and finite set of rules is known as generative grammar, and it can be used to produce sentence structures. In the English language, sentence construction can take the basic structure involving the beginning noun phrase, a verb, and an ending noun phrase. I learned that some sentence constructions could exhibit structural ambiguity in the sense that a sentence can have two distinct underlying interpretations. I realized that the use of phrase structure rules could enable people to construct sentences that look like they have very minimal restrictions.

In chapter 9, I learned about semantics. Semantics refers to the study of the meaning of words and phrases in sentences. I realized that in semantics, there is interest in some meaning than others. A sentence can have two meanings: conceptual and associative meaning. Conceptual meaning revolves around the essential components of meanings conveyed by the literal application of a word. Associative meanings refer to meanings that people attach to a word. I learned that words could not only be viewed as fulfilling roles in events or containers of meanings; they can also have relationships with each other. Also, I learned that other lexical relations exist between words-for instance, hyponymy, prototypes, polysemy, wordplay, and metonymy. People tend to organize their knowledge of words based on their frequency to occur together.

In chapter 10, I learned about pragmatics, which refers to the study of the speakers meaning in a word. I learned that communicating clearly not only depends on recognizing the meaning of the uttered words but also involves identifying the speaker's intended meaning by their words. In order to under the meaning of a word, one needs to look at its linguistic context, physical context, expressions, inferences, references, anaphora, presupposition, and speech acts.

In chapter 11, I learned about discourse analysis whereby, I understood that in the study of language, some of the most interesting observations are made in terms of the way the language is used, for example, by observing an individual pause. Discourse analysis involves studying the language in texts and conversations.

I was surprised when I read the topics and realized that I did not know how to interpret a speaker's words meaning correctly. I realized that proper interpretation of a speaker's words depended on my ability to know the meaning and relationships between words, context, and the speaker's intention during communication. I was surprised to find out that in semantics, there are some interests in some words more than others. I was amazed to affirm my prior knowledge that a sentence can have more than one meaning. I was happy to find out that when reading about language, some of the unique observations are made by looking at how a speaker uses the language.

Initially, I thought that the study of language comprised of reading books and other scholarly materials without observing its usage. Also, I perceived that clear communication depended on the ability to hear the words of the speaker without trying to understand the intended meaning of the speaker's word usage. Moreover, I believed that all words' meanings aroused the same interest. However, after reading the chapters, I have realized that some words' meanings raise more interest than others. I think that my assumptions about the study of the English language were based on my prior school experiences, where I was not able to get a broad understanding of effective language studies.

The readings from the topic affirm some of my prior thoughts and disapprove of others. For example, my thoughts that language study involves book reading was disapproved when I read that it additionally consists of observing the speaker's use of words. Also, my assumption that clear communication relied on hearing the speaker's words was disapproved when I read and noticed that it involves an effort to understand the speaker's intended meaning of words used. Moreover, I was disproved to find out that words do not arouse the same meaning.

I have gotten an exclusive exposure from the language study topics. I have learned many concepts that are important in understanding how to study the English language. I have learned better ways of constructing English words. Also, I have known how to identify a poorly constructed sentence. I have changed my perceptions towards language study in the sense that now I understand that learning a language not only involves reading books but also observing how people use words. I will use the knowledge I have gained from the readings to teach students better ways of learning English. I think such studies should be introduced in schools early to enable students to learn better ways to study the English language. I can say that I have had a good exploration of the topics.