8. Linguistic units and their peculiarities.

linguistic unit - one of the natural units into which linguistic messages can be analyzed; elements that are uniform and indivisible from the standpoint of a certain level of segmentation of a text (phonological, morphological, etc.) and that are opposed to one another in the system corresponding to this level.

The indivisibility of a linguistic unit must be understood as its inability to be broken down into smaller units of the same type, although this does not exclude the fact that on a different level a combination of units of “lower rank” may correspond to this unit. Thus, a word (“lexeme” in the terminology of some linguists) viewed as a “unit of appellation” (for example, mka, “hand”) cannot be divided into smaller units possessing an independent nominative function, although the specific word forms by which it is represented in a sentence (ritka, “hand”; ruki, “of the hand”; rukoi, “with the hand”) may be regarded from another standpoint as a combination of smaller meaningful units (ruk-a, ruk-i, ruk-oi, etc.). The number and types (and consequently the names) of linguistic units distinguished by the various linguistic concepts vary. Many of them include the linguistic units of the basic plane of expression unit (the phoneme) and the simplest sign unit (the morpheme or moneme). The terminology pertaining to the units of the plane of content is more diverse (compare the sememe, the plereme, the morpheme, the grammeme, the noeme, the seme, etc.).

discourse - extended verbal expression in speech or writing

word - a unit of language that native speakers can identify

syllable - a unit of spoken language larger than a phoneme; "the word `pocket' has two syllables"

lexeme - a minimal unit (as a word or stem) in the lexicon of a language; `go' and `went' and `gone' and `going' are all members of the English lexeme `go'

morpheme - minimal meaningful language unit; it cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units

formative - minimal language unit that has a syntactic (or morphological) function

name - a language unit by which a person or thing is known; "his name really is George Washington"; "those are two names for the same thing"

string - a linear sequence of symbols (characters or words or phrases)

collocation - a grouping of words in a sentence

speech sound, phone, sound - (phonetics) an individual sound unit of speech without concern as to whether or not it is a phoneme of some language

sign - a fundamental linguistic unit linking a signifier to that which is signified; "The bond between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary"--de Saussure

component part, part, portion, component, constituent - something determined in relation to something that includes it; "he wanted to feel a part of something bigger than himself"; "I read a portion of the manuscript"; "the smaller component is hard to reach"; "the animal constituent of plankton"

In fact, the word is considered to be the central (but not the only) linguistic unit of language' Linguistic units (or in other words - signs) can go into three types of relations:

a)The relation between a unit and an object in the world around us (objective reality). - refers to a definite piece of furniture. It may be not only an object but a process, state, quality, etc. .

This type of meaning is called referential meaning of a unit. It is semantics that studies the referential meaning of units. b) The relation between a unit and other units (inner relations between units). No unit can be used independently; it serves as an element in the system of other units. This kind of meaning is called syntactic. Formal relation of units to one another is studied by syntactics (or syntax). c) The relation between a unit and a person who uses it. As we know too well, when we are saying something, we usually have some purpose in mind. We use the language as an instrument for our purpose (e.g.). One and the same word or sentence may acquire different meanings in communication. This type of meaning is called pragmatic. The study of the relationship between linguistic units and the users of those units is done by pragmatics.