Structural layers
Translations
Livelli strutturali | - | -
Article
In general linguistics, a structural layer is an endolinguistic subsystem that possesses minimal structural elements and combinatory mechanisms. The structural layers are:
- phonology - as opposed to the non-endolinguistic field of phonetics. The minimal element is the presemiotic phoneme, which is the abstract psychic image of a sound and carries emic oppositive value within a language;
- morphology. The minimal element is the morpheme, which is the minimal linguistic sign and carries a meaning aribitrarily associated to a form;
- syntax. The minimal element is a phrase (but phrases can also consist of smaller phrases combined with each other based on the rules of Universal and language-specific grammars).
Other layers that are frequently mentioned are the layer of the lexicon (that, however, lacks some formal features such as the existence of minimal elements and a close set of combinatory rules) and semantics (which, however, if defined as the general realm of meaning, exists before language encoding and is, therefore, not properly endolinguistic).
Example
Consider the following Hittite phrase:
parkuin išnan
The bolded element is a phonological unit (phoneme); the italicized element is a phoneme when examined from the phonological perspective, but it is also a morpheme (carrying the meaning "accusative singular common gender"). The whole phrase is a structural unit of syntax, and specifically a Noun Phrase.
