Hierarchy of Language Levels

Level of topicalisation

Proposemic level

Denotemic level

Lexemic level

Morphemic level

Phonemic level

Fig. 4

The levels are represented by the corresponding level units.

The phonological level is the lowest level. The phonological level unit is the phoneme. It is a distinctive unit (bag – back).

The morphological level unit is the morpheme – the lowest meaningful unit (teach – teacher).

The third level is lexemic. Its differential unit is the word, the main naming unit of language (I, here, nothing).

The fourth level is denotemic, its constituent unit is denoteme, the word-group – the dependent syntactic unit (you and me).

The fifth level is proposemic. It is built up by sentences, main communicative units. As a sign, the sentence fulfils two functions – nominative and predicative .

The sixth level is the level of topicalization, or the supersyntactical level, its constituent element is the “dicteme” (“utterance”). It fulfils four main functions: the functions of nomination, predication, topicalization, and stylization.

Language is opposed to speech and accordingly language units are opposed to speech units (Table 2).

Table 2

Language Units and Speech Units

Level	Unit of language	Unit of speech
Phonemic	phoneme	sound
Morphemic	morpheme	morph
Lexemic	lexeme (word)	wordform
Syntactic	sentence text	utterance discourse

A linguistic unit can enter into relations of two different kinds: paradigmatic relations and syntagmatic relations (Fig. 5). It enters into paradigmatic relations with all the units that can also occur in the same environment. Paradigmatic relations are relations based on the principles of similarity. They exist between the units that can substitute one another. According to different principles of similarity paradigmatic relations can be of three types: semantic, formal and functional.

Semantic paradigmatic relations are based on the similarity of meaning.
Formal paradigmatic relations are based on the similarity of forms. Such relations exist between the members of a paradigm.
Functional paradigmatic relations are based on the similarity of function. They are established between the elements that can occur in the same position.

Paradigmatic relations are associated with the sphere of ‘language’.

A linguistic unit enters into syntagmatic relations with other units of the same level it occurs with. Syntagmatic relations exist at every language level. They can be of three different types: coordinate, subordinate and predicative.

Coordinate syntagmatic relations exist between the homogeneous linguistic units that are equal in rank, that is, they are the relations of independence.
Subordinate syntagmatic relations exist are the relations of dependence when one linguistic unit depends on the other.
Predicative syntagmatic relations are the relations of interdependence.

Syntagmatic relations are observed in utterances.