The segmental units are pauses accent word order

Units
of language are divided into segmental
and
supra-segmental.
Segmental
units consist of phonemes, they form phonemic strings of various
status (syllables, morphemes, words, etc.). Supra-segmental units do
not exist by themselves, but are realized together with segmental
units and express different modificational meanings (functions) which
are re­flected on the strings of segmental units. To the
supra-segmental units belong intonations (intonation contours),
accents, pauses, patterns of word order.

The
segmental units of language form a hierarchy of levels. This
hi­erarchy is of a kind that units of any higher level are
analysable into (i.e. are formed of) units of the immediately lower
level. Thus, morphemes are decomposed into phonemes, words are
decomposed into morphemes, phrases are decomposed into words, etc.

But
this hierarchical relation is by no means reduced to the mechan­ical
composition of larger units from smaller ones; units of each level
are characterized by their own, specific functional features which
provide for the very recognition of the corresponding levels of
language.

The
lowest level of lingual segments is phonemic:
it
is formed by pho­nemes as the material elements of the
higher-level segments. The pho­neme has no meaning, its function
is purely differential: it differentiates morphemes and words as
material bodies. Since the phoneme has no meaning, it is not a sign.

Phonemes
are combined into syllables. The syllable, a rhythmic seg­mental
group of phonemes, is not a sign, either; it has a purely formal
significance. Due to this fact, it could hardly stand to reason to
recognize in language a separate syllabic level; rather, the
syllables should be consid­ered in the light of the intra-level
combinability properties of phonemes.

Phonemes
are represented by letters in writing. Since the letter has a
representative status, it is a sign, though different in principle
from the level-forming signs of language.

Units
of all the higher levels of language are meaningful; they may be
called «signemes» as opposed to «cortemes» (from
Lat.
cortex «bark,
crust, shell»), i.e. non-meaningful units of different status,
such as phonemes (and letters as phoneme representatives), syllables,
and some others.

The
level located above the phonemic one is the morphemic
level.
The morpheme is the elementary meaningful part of the word. It is
built up by phonemes, so that the shortest morphemes include only one
pho­neme. E.g.:
ros-y [-1];
a-fire
[a-];
comes
[-z].

The
morpheme expresses abstract, «significative» meanings which
are used as constituents for the formation of more concrete,
«nomina­tive» meanings of words.

The
third level in the segmental lingual hierarchy is the level of words,
or lexemic
level.

The
word (lexeme), as different from the morpheme, is a directly naming
(nominative) unit of language: it names things and their rela­tions.
Since words are built up by morphemes, the shortest words consist of
one explicit morpheme only. Cf.:
man, will, but, I, etc.

The
next higher unit is the phrase (word-group), it is located at the
phrasemic
level.
To level-forming phrase types belong combinations of two or more
notional words. These combinations, like separate words,

have
a nominative function, but they represent the referent of nomina­tion
as a complicated phenomenon, be it a concrete thing, an action, a
quality, or a whole situation. Cf,
respectively:
a picturesque village; to start with a jerk; extremely difficult; the
unexpected arrival of the chief. This kind of nomination can be
called «polynomination», as differ­ent from
«mononomination» effected by separate words.

Notional
phrases may be of a stable type and of a free type. The stable
phrases (phraseological units) form the phraseological part of the
lexicon, and are studied by the phraseological division of
lexicology. Free phrases are built up in the process of speech on the
existing productive models, and are studied in the lower division of
syntax. The grammatical description of phrases is sometimes called
«minor syntax», in distinction to «major syntax»
studying the sentence and its textual connections.

In
order to better understand the nature of phrases as level-forming
units we must take into consideration their status in the larger
lingual units built up by them. These larger units are sentences. It
is within the sentence that any phrase performs its level-determined
function (being used as a notional part of the sentence). On the
other hand, any notional word, not only a phrase, can be used in the
role of a separate part of the sentence, such as subject, object,
predicate, etc. We infer from this that in more exact terms the units
located above the words in the segmental lingual hierarchy are
notional parts of the sentence. These can be formed by phrases
(word-groups), or by separate notional words. Since the func­tion
of these parts is denotative
(they
not only name, but also indicate, or denote,
objects
and phenomena involved in the situation expressed by the sentence),
they may be called «denotemes»
(in
the previous editions of the book they were referred to as
«nomemes»). The level at which denotemes are identified is
then the denotemic
level
of language. In this connection, the phrasemic level should be
presented as the upper sublev-el of the denotemic level. The
demonstrated approach marks the neces­sary development of the
theory of levels of language emphasizing the strictly hierarchical
principle of inter-level derivational relations of lin­gual units
(see above).

Above
the denotemic level, the level of sentences is located, or the
proposemic
level.

The
peculiar character of the sentence («proposeme») as a
signemic unit of language consists in the fact that, naming a certain
situation, or situational event, it expresses predication, i.e. shows
the relation of the denoted event to reality. Namely, it shows
whether this event is real or unreal, desirable or obligatory, stated
as a truth or asked about, etc. In this sense, as different from the
word and the phrase, the sentence is a predicative unit. Cf.
to receive — to receive a letter —
Early
in June I re­ceived a letter from Peter Melrose.

The
sentence is produced by the speaker in the process of speech as a
concrete, situationally bound utterance. At the same time it enters
the system of language by its syntactic pattern, which, as all the
other lingual unit-types, has both syntagmatic and paradigmatic
characteristics.

But
the sentence is not the highest unit of language in the hierarchy of
levels. Above the proposemic level there is still another one whose
units are formed by separate sentences united into topical groupings.
These sentence-groups, each distinguished by its micro-topic as part
of a continual text, are tentatively called «super-sentential
constructions». For the sake of unified terminology, the level
at which they are identified can be called «supra-proposemic».

In
the printed text, the supra-sentential construction very often
coin­cides with the paragraph (as in the example above).

The
supra-sentential construction is a combination of separate sen­tences
forming a textual unity. Such combinations are subject to regular
lingual patterning making them into syntactic elements. The syntactic
process by which sentences are connected into textual unities is
analysed under the heading of «cumulation». Cumulation, the
same as formation of composite sentences, can be both syndetic and
asyndetic. Cf:

He
went on with his interrupted breakfast. Lisette did not speak and
there was silence between them. But
his
appetite satisfied, his mood changed; he began to feel sorry for
himself rather than angry with her, and with a strange ignorance of
woman’s heart he thought to arouse Lisette’s remorse by exhibiting
himself as an object of pity (S. Maugham).

In
the printed text, the supra-sentential construction very often
coin­cides with the paragraph (as in the example above). However,
the consti­tutive unit of the level in question, obeying the
universal derivational regularity of segmental lingual hierarchy,
should be reducible to one sen­tence only, the same as the
sentence is reducible to one denoteme (sen­tence-part) and the
denoteme is reducible to one lexeme (word), etc. This regularity
considered, we come to the conclusion that the generalized unit that
is located above the sentence and is distinguished by its topical
(micro-topical) function is not necessarily represented by a group of
sen­tences, i.e. by a super-sentential construction; in general
terms, this unit is formed either by a group of sentences (a
super-sentential construction shown above), or by one separate
sentence which is placed in a semanti-cally (topically) significant
position in speech. In oral speech it is delimit­ed by a long
pause combined with the corresponding «concluding» tone of
voice. We have called this generalized unit the «dicteme»
(from Lat.
dico «I
speak») [Блох,
1986,48]. In written (printed) text it is often repre­sented by a
sentence-paragraph, i.e. by a paragraph formed by a single

independent
sentence.

Thus,
from the point of view of its constitutive units, the
supra-sen­tential level may be called the dictemic
level, the
dicteme
being
defined as an elementary topical segmental unit of the continual
text.

We
have surveyed six levels of language, each identified by its own
functional type of segmental units. If now we carefully observe the
func­tional status of the level-forming segments, we can
distinguish between them more self-sufficient and less
self-sufficient types, the latter being defined only in relation to
the functions of other level units. Indeed, the phonemic, lexemic and
proposemic levels are most strictly and exhaus­tively identified
from the functional point of view: the function of the phoneme is
differential, the function of the word is nominative, the func­tion
of the sentence is predicative. As different from these, morphemes
are identified only as significative components of words, denotemes
present notional parts of sentences, and dictemes mark the transition
from the sentence to the text.

Furthermore,
bearing in mind that the phonemic level forms the sub-foundation of
language, i.e. the non-meaningful matter of meaningful expressive
means, the two notions of grammatical description shall be pointed
out as central even within the framework of the structural hier­archy
of language: these are, first, the notion of the word and, second,
the notion of the sentence. The first is analysed by morphology,
which is the grammatical teaching of the word; the second is analysed
by syntax, which is the grammatical teaching of the sentence.

ЛИТЕРАТУРА:

1. Блох,
   М.Я. Теоретическая грамматика английского
   языка : Учеб. / М.Я. Блох. – 5–е изд.,
   стер. – М. : Высш. шк., 2006. – 423 с.

2. Блох,
   М.Я. Теоретические основы грамматики :
   учеб. / М.Я. Блох. – 3–е изд., испр. –
   М. : Высш. шк., 2002. – 160 с.

3. Blokh,
   M.Y. A course in theoretical English grammar / M.Y. Blokh. –
   M., 1983.

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