Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space. Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality. The communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the message of the sender. The term 'Communication' has been derived from the Latin word 'communis' that means 'common'. Thus 'to communicate' means 'to make common' or 'to make known'. This act of making common and known is carried out through exchange of thoughts, ideas or the like. The exchange of thoughts and ideas can be had by gestures, signs, signals, speech or writing. People are said to be in communication when they discuss some matter, or when they talk on telephone, or when they exchange information through letters. Basically, communication is sharing information, whether in writing or orally.

Reality and Truth of communication in Professional Life

The success of an endeavour hinges on the ability to communicate effectively in today's fast paced life, everyone is asked to do more with less. In such a scenario effective communication holds the key. Effectively communication centers round the usage of words, speed of delivery of words, pitch modulation and body language. Using the right tools to communicate the right messages at the right time can salvage a crises and motivate people to work towards success.

People in organisations usually spends 75 percent of their daily time on communication through writing, reading, listening, speaking, inter-debate etc. Effective communication is an essential component for organisation success, whether it is the interpersonal intra group organisation or external levels. A recent newspaper report said that our of very hundred interviews, only five qualified for the employability. It is not that were technically not sound but they lacked in communication skills. Communication skills are as important as technical qualifications for youngsters aiming at a bright career. Communications hold the key. Poor communication skills, low confidence levels and improper body language have resulted out in the job race. The person recruited will have to deal with the global clients directly. The command over the language and accent neutralization also plays a vital role in the recruitment process.

Importance of Communication
In the present day information revolution and formation of knowledge societies, centers etc, the importance of communication has increased manifold. The importance of communication management and in day to day life of people can be judge from the following points.
Communication Raises aspirations:

Project the future in the present Raise awareness. Meet information needs. Motivates the people for a purpose. Communication is for development of the individual organization, society, nation, country. Communications helps the administration in arriving quick decision and implementation. Good communication is essential for proper planning and coordination. Effective communication has a special role play, particularly in an under developed country like India where most of the workers are illiterate. A Manager's/ Executive's success is conditioned by his ability to understand the needs and requirements of both employees and customers. Better communication helps better job performance. Effective and timely communication promotes cordial relations and work culture among the employees for increasing production and creates healthy and happy environment within and outside the organization. 'Communication' is a key instrument to create relations, to strengthen relations between the two people or a group of people. Without communication methods, there is no human relations and human relations rehires effective communication methods, tools, positive words, skills etc.

Types of Communication
Human Communication Human spoken and picture languages can be described as a system of symbols (sometimes known as lexemes) and the grammars (rules) by which the symbols are manipulated. The word "language" also refers to common properties of languages. Language learning normally occurs most intensively during human childhood. Most of the thousands of human languages use patterns of sound or gesture for symbols which enable communication with others around them. Languages seem to share certain properties, although many of these include exceptions. There is no defined line between a language and a dialect. Constructed languages such as Esperanto, programming languages, and various mathematical formalisms are not necessarily restricted to the properties shared by human languages.

A variety of verbal and non-verbal means of communicating exists such as body language, eye contact, sign language, paralanguage, haptic communication, chronemics, and media such as pictures, graphics, sound, and writing. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also defines the communication to include the display of text, Braille, tactile communication, large print, accessible multimedia, as well as written and plain language, human reader, and accessible information and communication technology. Nonverbal communication

Nonverbal communication describes the process of conveying meaning in the form of non-word messages. Research shows that the majority of our communication is non verbal, also known as body language. Some of non verbal communication includes chronemics, haptics,proxemics, gesture, body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact, object communication such as clothing, hairstyles,architecture, symbols infographics, and tone of voice as well as through an aggregate of the above. Speech also contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage. These include voice lesson quality, emotion and speaking style as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation and stress. Likewise, written texts include nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words and the use of emoticons to convey emotional expressions in pictorial form.

Characteristics of Non Verbal Communication Non-verbal messages primarily communicate emotions, attitudes. Non-verbal cues substitute for, contradict, emphasize or regulate verbal message. Non-verbal cues are often ambiguous. Non-verbal cues are continuous. Non-verbal cues are more reliable. Non-verbal cues are culture bound. Non-verbal behavior always has communicative value. Non-verbal communication is powerful.

Verbal Communication

The basis of communication is the interaction between people. Verbal communication is one way for people to communicate face-to-face. Some of the key components of verbal communication are sound, words, speaking, and language. At birth, most people have vocal cords, which produce sounds. As a child grows it learns how to form these sounds into words. Some words may be imitative of natural sounds, but others may come from expressions of emotion, such as laughter or crying. Words alone have no meaning. Only people can put meaning into words. As meaning is assigned to words, language develops, which leads to the development of speaking. The actual origin of language is subject to considerable speculation. Some theorists believe it is an outgrowth of group activities such as working together or dancing. Others believe that language developed from basic sounds and gestures. Through speaking we try to eliminate misunderstanding, but sometimes this is a very hard thing to do. Just as we assume that our messages are clearly received, so we assume that because something is important to us, it is important to others. As time has proven this is not at all true. Many problems can arise is speaking and the only way to solve these problems is through experience. Speaking can be looked at in two major areas: interpersonal and public speaking. Since the majority of speaking is an interpersonal process, to communicate effectively we must not simply clean up our language, but learn to relate to people. In interpersonal speaking, etiquette is very important. To be an effective communicator one must speak in a manner that is not offending to the receiver. Etiquette also plays an important

role in an area that has developed in most all business settings: hierarchical communication. In business today, hierarchical communication is of utmost importance to all members involved. The other major area of speaking is public speaking. From the origin of time, it has been obvious that some people are just better public speakers than others. Because of this, today a good speaker can earn a living by speaking to people in a public setting. Some of the major areas of public speaking are speaking to persuade, speaking to inform, and speaking to inspire or motivate.

Oral communication

Oral communication, while primarily referring to spoken verbal communication, typically relies on both words, visual aids and non-verbal elements to support the conveyance of the meaning. Oral communication includes discussion, speeches, presentations, interpersonal communication and many other varieties. In face to face communication the body language and voice tonality plays a significant role and may have a greater impact on the listener than the intended content of the spoken words. A great presenter must capture the attention of the audience and connect with them. For example, out of two persons telling the same joke one may greatly amuse the audience due to his body language and tone of voice while the second person, using exactly the same words, bores and irritates the audience. Visual aid can help to facilitate effective communication and is almost always used in presentation for an audience. A widely cited and widely misinterpreted figure used to emphasize the importance of delivery states that "communication comprise 55% body language, 38% tone of voice, 7% content of words", the so-called "7%-38%-55% rule". This is not however what the cited research shows rather, when conveying emotion, if body language, tone of voice, and words disagree, then

body language and tone of voice will be believed more than words. For example, a person saying "I'm delighted to meet you" while mumbling, hunched over, and looking away will be interpreted as insincere. Oral Communication in Workplace We can see that employees still need written communication skills. Yet interpersonal oral communication skills are the ones most prized by employers in the new informal workplace atmosphere. Some employers, like Raychem, even test technicians in their ability to follow oral directions. Employees who work with the public or closely with teams need skills in empathy and feedback techniques, especially in fields such as customer service, criminal justice, medical, and legal. Critical thinking and the ability to function as part of a problem-solving group are also skills that employers look for. At IBM, for instance, the team members have to sell their ideas to management to receive funding. At Buehler Products, engineers, technicians, and even hourly employees make formal presentations to high-level executives. Today's worker must remain cool under pressure, adaptable to new technology and to a fast pace. If a team must deliver solutions, the members must be able to function effectively, relying on interpersonal communication skills to get the job done. Some companies even test employees to see if they will fit in and work within policies. Many companies use personality tests with managers and supervisors. Simple conversational skills are also important in the workplace. Some employers mention telephone etiquette as an important skill. The same annoyances we suffer from poor voice mail messages are cited by employers, who hate to waste time tracking down a telephone number to return a message. The ability to interview to get important information is also a necessary skill. Service people must interview clients to write a work order. Legal secretaries who work for small firms often must interview witnesses. Police officers gather details of crime, medical office personnel collect information on insurance, and incorrect information may lead to trouble or even litigation later on. Entry-level employees are likely to deliver at least some formal presentations. The most typical is leading tours. Often this task of leading around groups of Cub Scouts or teachers falls to those lower on the roster, although executives will lead tours for visiting dignitaries. Even large group presentations are required of some entry-level people. An administrative assistant is likely to serve as a greeter and introduce speakers at formal functions. We also must remember that workers join civic and professional organizations, like CEI, where they are asked more often to participate in formal presentations. And once again, we must remember that we are not just preparing our students for their first job. We need to give them the oral presentation skills they need to rise to management, where they will make formal

presentations on finance, for instance, or regularly conduct meetings. (The average executive spends 500 hours a year in meetings.) Oral presentation skills lead to promotions. At Buehler Products, those willing to present proposals or recommend strategies are those who are positioned for advancement. The HR there tells of a junior engineer he hired. In five years, that worker had risen to production engineering manager. How? He floated to the top because he demonstrated effective communication skills, he stayed cool under pressure, and he delivered strong presentations. He earned an extra $25,000 a year because of his communication skills.

Written communication and its historical development

Over time the forms of and ideas about communication have evolved through progression of technology. Advances include communications psychology and media psychology; an emerging field of study. Researchers divide the progression of written communication into three revolutionary stages called "Information Communication Revolutions". During the first stage, written communication first emerged through the use of pictographs. The pictograms were made in stone, hence written communication was not yet mobile. During the second stage, writing began to appear on paper, papyrus, clay, wax, etc. Common alphabets were introduced and allowed for the uniformity of language across large distances. A leap in technology occurred when the Gutenberg printing-press was invented in the 15th century. The third stage is characterised by the transfer of information through controlled waves and electronic signals. Communication is thus a process by which meaning is assigned and conveyed in an attempt to create shared understanding. This process, which requires a vast repertoire of skills in interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, gestures, and evaluating enables collaboration and cooperation. Misunderstandings can be anticipated and solved through formulations, questions and answers, paraphrasing, examples, and stories of strategic talk. Written communication can be clear by planning follow-up talk on critical written communication as part of the normal way of doing business. Minutes spent talking now will save time later having to clear up misunderstandings later on. Then, take what was heard and reiterate in your own words, and ask them if thats what they meant.

Effective Communication:
If the receiver(listener) succeeds to understand the message which you were trying to convey in exactly the same sense(meaning) then communicator has communicated effectively. If some one achieves the desired level of objective through communication , it is effective communication e.g if your message gets the proper response from the receivers then you have effectively communicated. How to achieve Effective Communication:

Take into account Audiences information needs Take into account the Cultural Background and Gender of the audience Consider Audience's Knowledge of the Subject

Barriers to effective human communication

Communication is the key factor in the success of any organization. When it comes to effective communication, there are certain barriers that every organization faces. People often feel that communication is as easy and simple as it sounds. No doubt, but what makes it complex, difficult and frustrating are the barriers that come in its way. some of these barriers are mentioned below. Barriers to successful communication include message overload (when a person receives too many messages at the same time), andmessage complexity. Physical barriers: Physical Barriers are often due to the nature of the environment.Thus, for example, the natural barrier which exists, if staff are located in different buildings or on different sites.Likewise, poor or outdated equipment, particularly the failure of management to introduce new technology, may also cause problems.Staff shortages are another factor which frequently causes communication difficulties for an organization. Whilst distractions like background noise, poor lighting or an environment which is too hot or cold can all affect people's morale and concentration, which in turn interfere with effective communication. System design: System Design faults refer to problems with the structures or systems in place in an organization. Examples might include an organizational structure which is unclear and therefore makes it confusing to know who to communicate with. Other examples could be inefficient or inappropriate information systems, a lack of supervision or training, and a lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities which can lead to staff being uncertain about what is expected of them. Attitudinal barriers: Attitudinal Barriers come about as a result of problems with staff in an organisation. These may be brought about, for example, by such factors as poor management, lack of consultation with employees, personality conflicts which can result in people delaying or refusing to communicate, the personal attitudes of individual employees which may be due to lack of motivation or dissatisfaction at work, brought about by insufficient training to enable them to carry out particular tasks, or just resistance to change due to entrenched attitudes and ideas. Ambiguity of Words/Phrases: Words sounding same but having different meaning can convey a different meaning altogether. Hence the communicator must ensure that the receiver receives the same meaning. It would be better if such words can be avoided by using alternatives. Individual linguistic ability; is also important. The use of difficult or inappropriate words in communication can prevent people from understanding the message.Poorly explained or misunderstood messages can also result in confusion. We can all think of situations where we have listened to something explained which we just could not grasp.

Physiological barriers: may result from individuals' personal discomfort, caused, for example, by ill health, poor eye sight or hearing difficulties. Presentation of information: is also important to aid understanding. Simply put, the communicator must consider the audience before making the presentation itself and in cases where it is not possible the presenter can at least try to simplify his/her vocabulary so that majority can understand. Professional Communication Professional communication encompasses written, oral, visual and digital communication within a workplace context. This discipline blends together pedagogical principles of rhetoric, technology, and software to improve communication in a variety of settings ranging from technical writing to usability and digital media design. It is a new discipline that focuses on the study of information and the ways it is created, managed, distributed, and consumed. Since communication in modern society is a rapidly changing area, the progress of technologies seems to often outpace the number of available expert practitioners. This creates a demand for skilled communicators which continues to exceed the supply of trained professionals. The field of professional communication is closely related to that of technical communication, though professional communication encompasses a wider variety of skills. Professional communicators use strategies, theories, and technologies to more effectively communicate in the business world. Successful communication skills are critical to a business because all businesses, though to varying degrees, involve the following: writing, reading, editing, speaking, listening, software applications, computer graphics, and internet research. Job candidates with professional communication backgrounds are more likely to bring to the organization sophisticated perspectives on society, culture, science, and technology. Group Discussion

Group Discussion, as the name itself indicates, is a group activity carried out by participating individuals. It is an exchange of ideas among the individuals of a group on a specific topic. It is used as reliable, testing device - mainly as a tool to assess all the candidates in a group at one go -in order to select the best in comparative perspective. Group Discussion is an informal discussion in which participants of the same educational standard discuss a topic of current interest and assess their communication skills. It is also known as leaderless discussion. It means its aim is to find out the natural leadership level of the candidates. Strictly speaking, no one from the group or outside will be officially designated as leader or president or chairman or anything of the sort. Even the examiner or

supervisor who launches the discussion will retire to the background. No one will participate or intervene in the deliberations of the group. Characteristics of good Group Discussion Here are some of the most important personality traits that a candidate should possess to do well at a Group Discussion: Most Important Thing in a Group discussion is Communication Skills. The first aspect is one's power of expression. In a group discussion, a candidate has to talk effectively so that he is able to convince others. For convincing, one has to speak forcefully and at the same time create an impact by his knowledge of the subject. A candidate who is successful in holding the attention of the audience creates a positive impact.It is necessary that you should be precise and clear. As a rule evaluators do not look for the wordage produced. Your knowledge on a given subject, your precision and clarity of thought are the things that are evaluated. Irrelevant talks lead you nowhere. You should speak as much as necessary, neither more nor less.Group discussions are not debating stages. Ability to listen is also what evaluators judge. They look for your ability to react on what other participants say. Hence, it is necessary that you listen carefully to others and then react or proceed to add some more points. Your behavior in the group is also put to test to judge whether you are a loner or can work in a group. 1. Team Player Company/B-Schools lay great emphasis on this parameter because it is essential for employee/managers to be team players. The reason: Employee/Managers always work in eams.At the beginning of his career, a Employee/manager works as a team member. And, later, as a team leader.Employee/Management aspirants who lack team skills cannot be good Employee/managers. 2. Reasoning Ability Reasoning ability plays an important role while expressing your opinions or ideas at a Group Discussion. For example, an opinion like 'Reduction in IIMs' fees will affect quality' can be better stated by demonstrating your reasoning ability and completing the missing links between fees and quality as:

'Reduction in IIMs' fees will result in ess funds being invested on study material, student exchange programmes, research, student development activities, etc. 'Moreover, it costs money to attract good faculty, create good infrastructure and upgrade technology.'With reduction in fees, less money will be available to perform these ,activities which will lead to deterioration in the quality of IIMs.'

3. Leadership There are three types of situations that can arise in a Group Discussion: A Group Discussion where participants are unable to establish a proper rapport and do not speak much. B Group Discussion where participants get emotionally charged and the Group Discussion gets chaotic. C Group Discussion where participants discuss the topic assertively by touching on all its nuances and try to reach the objective.

Here, a leader would be someone who facilitates the third situation at a Group Discussion. A leader would have the following qualities: She/he shows direction to the group whenever group moves away from the topic. S/he coordinates the effort of the different team members in the Group Discussion. S/he contributes to the Group Discussion at regular intervals with valuable insights. S/he also inspires and motivates team members to express their views. Caution: Being a mere coordinator in a Group Discussion does not help, because it is a secondary role.Contribute to the Group Discussion with your ideas and opinions, but also try and steer the conversation towards a goal. 4. Flexibility You must be open to other ideas as well as to the evaluation of your ideas: That

is what flexibility is all about.But first,remember: Never ever start your Group Discussion with a stand or a conclusion.Say the topic of a Group Discussion is, 'Should India go to war with Pakistan?'Some participants tend to get emotionally attached to the topic and take a stand either in favour or against the topic, ie 'Yes, India should', or, 'No, India should not'. By taking a stand, you have already given your decision without discussing the topic at hand or listening to the views of your team members.Also, if you encounter an opposition with a very strong point at the 11th hour, you end up in a typical catch-22 situation:~If you change your stand, you are seen as a fickle-minded or a whimsical person.If you do not change your stand, you are seen as an inflexible, stubborn and obstinate person. 5. Assertiveness

You must put forth your point to the group in a very emphatic, positive and confident manner. Participants often confuse assertiveness with aggressiveness.Aggressiveness is all about forcing your point on the other person, and can be a threat to the group. An aggressive person can also demonstrate negative body language, whereas an assertive person displays positive body language. 6. Initiative A general trend amongst students is to start a Group Discussion and get the initial kitty of points earmarked for the initiator.But that is a high risk-high return strategy. Initiate a Group Discussion only if you are well versed with the topic. If you start and fail to contribute at regular intervals, it gives the impression that you started the Group Discussion just for the sake of the initial points.Also, if you fumble, stammer or misquote facts, it may work against you.Remember: You never ever get a second chance to create a first impression. 7. Creativity/ Out of the box thinking An idea or a perspective which opens new horizons for discussion on the Group Discussion topic is always highly appreciated. When you put across a new idea convincingly, such that it is discussed at length by the group, it can only be positive.You will find yourself in the good books of the examiner. 8. Inspiring ability A good group discussion should incorporate views of all the team members. If some team members want to express their ideas but are not getting the opportunity to do so, giving them an opportunity to express their ideas or opinions will be seen as a positive trait.Caution: If a participant is not willing

to speak, you need not necessarily go out of the way to ask him to express his views. This may insult him and hamper the flow of the Group Discussion. 9. Listening Always try and strike a proper balance between expressing your ideas and imbibing ideas. 10. Awareness You must be well versed with both the micro and macro environment.Your awareness about your environment helps a lot in your Group Discussion content, which carries maximum weightage. Interview An interview is a conversation between two people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.

The interview is the last step of the hiring process and the most important. It offers you and the employer the opportunity to meet one another, exchange information and come to tentative conclusions about hiring one another. The interview is the opportunity where you can describe your experiences and skills and can get an idea of what is happening with the company. During an interview, an employers goal is to gather additional information about you that is not provided in your resume and cover letter. They will attempt to find out what motivates you, how well you communicate and if you are a leader or a follower. The interview is a two-way process. You evaluate the employer while he/she evaluates you. Speech Speech is the vocalized form of human communication. It is based upon the syntacticcombination of lexicals and names that are drawn from very large (usually to about 10,000 differentwords) vocabularies. Each spoken word is created out of the phonetic combination of a limited set of vowel and consonant speech sound units. These vocabularies, the syntax which structures them, and their set of speech sound units differ, creating the existence of many thousands of different types of mutually unintelligible human languages. Human speakers (polyglots) are often able to communicate in two or more of them. The vocal abilities that enable humans to produce speech also provide humans with the ability to sing. A gestural form of human communication exists for the deaf in the form of sign language. Speech in some cultures has become the basis of a written language, often one that differs in its vocabulary, syntax and phonetics from its associated spoken one, a situation called diglossia.

Speech in addition to its use in communication, it is suggested by some psychologists such asVygotsky is internally used by mental processes to enhance and organize cognition in the form of an interior monologue. Speech is researched in terms of the speech production and speech perception of the soundsused in spoken language. Other research topics concern speech repetition, the ability to map heard spoken words into the vocalizations needed to recreated that plays a key role in thevocabulary expansion in children and speech errors. Several academic disciplines study these including acoustics, psychology, speech pathology, linguistics, cognitive science,communication studies, otolaryngology and computer science. Another area of research is how the human brain in its different areas such as the Broca's area and Wernicke's areaunderlies speech. It is controversial how far human speech is unique in that other animals also communicatewith vocalizations. While none in the wild have compatibly large vocabularies, research upon the nonverbal abilities of language trained apes such as Washoe and Kanzi raises the possibility that they might have these capabilities. Consonant A consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of thevocal tract. Examples are [p], pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s], pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose (nasals). Contrasting with consonants are vowels. Since the number of possible sounds in all of the world's languages is much greater than the number of letters in any one alphabet, linguists have devised systems such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to assign a unique and unambiguous symbol to each attested consonant. In fact, the Latin alphabet, which is used to write English, has fewer consonant letters than English has consonant sounds, so digraphs like "ch", "sh", "th", and "zh" are used to extend the alphabet, and some letters and digraphs represent more than one consonant. For example, the sound spelled "th" in "this" is a different consonant than the "th" sound in "thin". (In the IPA they are transcribed [] and [], respectively.) Vowel A vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! [] or oh! [o], pronounced with an openvocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! [], where there is a constriction or closure at some point along the vocal tract. A vowel is also understood to be syllabic: an equivalent open but non-syllabic sound is called a semivowel. In all verbal languages, vowels form the nucleus or peak of syllables, whereas consonants form the onset and (in languages that have them) coda. However, some languages also allow other sounds to form the nucleus of a syllable, such as the syllabic l in the English

word table [te.bl] (the stroke under the l indicates that it is syllabic; the dot separates syllables), or the r in Serbo-Croatian vrt [vrt] "garden". There is a conflict between the phonetic definition of "vowel" (a sound produced with no constriction in the vocal tract) and the phonological definition (a sound that forms the peak of a syllable).[1] The approximants [j] and [w] illustrate this conflict: both are produced without much of a constriction in the vocal tract (so phonetically they seem to be vowel-like), but they occur on the edge of syllables, such as at the beginning of the English words "yet" and "wet" (which suggests that phonologically they are consonants). The American linguist Kenneth Pike suggested the terms 'vocoid' for a phonetic vowel and "vowel" for a phonological vowel,[2] so using this terminology, [j] and [w] are classified as vocoids but not vowels. The word vowel comes from the Latin word vocalis, meaning "speaking", because in most languages words and thus speech are not possible without vowels. In English, the word vowel is commonly used to mean both vowel sounds and the written symbols that represent them. Diphthongs A diphthong ( /df/ or /dp/;[1] Greek: , diphthongos, literally "two sounds" or "two tones"), also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. In most dialects of English, the wordseye, hay, boy, low, and cow contain diphthongs. Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where the tongue doesn't move and only one vowel sound is heard in a syllable. Where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllablesfor example, in the English word re-electthe result is described as hiatus, not as a diphthong. Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech during a conversation. However, there are also unitary diphthongs, as in the English examples above, which are heard by listeners as single-vowel sounds (phonemes). IPA The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)[note 1] is an alphabetic system of phonetic notationbased primarily on the Latin alphabet. It was devised by the International Phonetic Associationas a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language. The IPA is used byforeign language students and teachers, linguists, speech pathologists and therapists, singers,actors, lexicographers, constructed language creators (conlangers), and translators. The IPA is designed to represent only those qualities of speech that are distinctive in spoken language: phonemes, intonation, and the separation of words and syllables. To represent additional qualities of speech such as tooth gnashing, lisping, and sounds made with a cleft palate, an extended set of symbols called the Extensions to the IPA may be used.

IPA symbols are composed of one or more elements of two basic types, letters and diacritics. For example, the sound of the English letter t may be transcribed in IPA with a single letter,[t], or with a letter plus diacritics, [t], depending on how precise one wishes to be.[4] Often, slashes are used to signal broad or phonemic transcription; thus, /t/ is less specific than, and could refer to, either [t] or [t] depending on the context and language. Occasionally letters or diacritics are added, removed, or modified by the International Phonetic Association. As of 2008, there are 107 letters, 52 diacritics, and four prosodic marks in the IPA. Description of IPA The general principle of the IPA is to provide one letter for each distinctive sound (speech segment).[11] This means that it does not use combinations of letters to represent single sounds, the way English does with sh and ng, or single letters to represent multiple sounds the way x represents /ks/ or /z/ in English. There are no letters that have context-dependent sound values, as c does in English and other European languages, and finally, the IPA does not usually have separate letters for two sounds if no known language makes a distinction between them, a property known as "selectiveness". Among the symbols of the IPA, 107 letters represent consonants and vowels, 31diacritics are used to modify these, and 19 additional signs indicate suprasegmentalqualities such as length, tone, stress, and intonation.

Phonene Phonene is the way a word would be spelled as it would sound, using phonetic symbols as opposed to a graphine, which is a regular spelling of the word.

Grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses,phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented byphonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. Linguists do not normally use the term to refer toorthographical rules, although usage books and style guides that call themselves grammars may also refer to spelling and punctuation. Parts of Grammar Nouns A noun is often defined as a word which names a person, place or thing. Here are some examples of nouns: boy, river, friend, Mexico, triangle, day, school, truth, university, idea, John F. Kennedy, movie, aunt, vacation, eye, dream, flag, teacher, class, grammar. John F. Kennedy is a noun because it is the name of a person; Mexico is a noun because it is the name of a place; and boy is a noun because it is the name of a thing. Some grammar books divide nouns into 2 groups - proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns are nouns which begin with a capital letter because it is the name of a specific or particular person place or thing. Some examples of proper nouns are: Mexico, John F. Kennedy, Atlantic Ocean, February, Monday, New York City, Susan, Maple Street, Burger King. If you see a word beginning with a capital letter in in the middle of a sentence, it is probably a proper noun. Most nouns are common nouns and do not begin with a capital letter. Many nouns have a special plural form if there is more than one. For example, we say one book but two books. Plurals are usually formed by adding an -s (books) or -es (boxes) but some plurals are formed in different ways (child - children, person - people, mouse - mice, sheep - sheep).

Verbs A verb is often defined as a word which shows action or state of being. The verb is the heart of a sentence - every sentence must have a verb. Recognizing the verb is often the most important step in understanding the meaning of a sentence. In the sentence The dog bit the man, bit is the verb and the word which shows the action of the sentence. In the sentence The man is sitting on a chair, even though the action doesn't show much activity, sitting is the verb of the sentence. In the sentence She is a smart girl, there is no action but a state of being expressed by the verb is. The word be is different from other verbs in many ways but can still be thought of as a verb.

Unlike most of the other parts of speech, verbs change their form. Sometimes endings are added (learn - learned) and sometimes the word itself becomes different (teach-taught). The different forms of verbs show different meanings related to such things as tense (past, present, future), person (first person, second person, third person), number (singular, plural) and voice (active, passive). Verbs are also often accompanied by verb-like words called modals (may, could, should, etc.) and auxiliaries(do, have, will, etc.) to give them different meanings. One of the most important things about verbs is their relationship to time. Verbs tell if something has already happened, if it will happen later, or if it is happening now. For things happening now, we use the present tense of a verb; for something that has already happened, we use the past tense; and for something that will happen later, we use the future tense. Adjectives An adjective is often defined as a word which describes or gives more information about a noun or pronoun. Adjectives describe nouns in terms of such qualities as size, color, number, and kind. In the sentence The lazy dog sat on the rug, the word lazy is an adjective which gives more information about the noun dog. We can add more adjectives to describe the dog as well as in the sentence The lazy, old, brown dog sat on the rug. We can also add adjectives to describe the rug as in the sentence The lazy, old, brown dog sat on the beautiful, expensive, new rug. The adjectives do not change the basic meaning or structure of the sentence, but they do give a lot more information about the dog and the rug. As you can see in the example above, when more than one adjective is used, a comma (,) is used between the adjectives. Usually an adjective comes before the noun that it describes, as in tall man. It can also come after a form of the word beas in The man is tall. More than one adjective can be used in this position in the sentence The man is tall, dark and handsome. In later lessons, you will learn how to make comparisons with adjectives. Most adjectivesdo not change form whether the noun it describes is singular or plural. For example we say big tree and big trees, old house and old houses, good time and good times. There are, however, some adjectives that do have different singular andplural forms. The common words this and that have the plural forms these and those. These words are called demonstrative adjectives because demonstrate or point out what is being referred to. Another common type of adjective is the possessive adjective which shows possession or ownership. The words my dog or my dogs indicate that the dog or dogs belong to me. I would use the plural form our if the dog or dogs belonged to me and other people.

Adverbs We have seen that an adjective is a word that gives more information about a noun or pronoun. An adverb is usually defined as a word that gives more information about a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and adverbs in terms of such qualities as time, frequency and manner. In the sentence Sue runs fast, fast describes how or the manner in which Sue runs. In the sentence Sue runs very fast, very describes the adverb fast and gives information about how fast Sue runs. Most, but not all adverbs end in -ly as in But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs (ugly is an adjective, supply and reply can both be nouns or verbs). Many times an adjective can be made into an adverb by adding -ly as in nicely, quickly, completely, sincerely. Adverbs of time tell when something happens and adverbs of frequency tell how often something happens. Pronouns A pronoun is often defined as a word which can be used instead of a noun. For example, instead of saying John is a student, the pronoun he can be used in place of the noun John and the sentence becomes He is a student. We use pronouns very often, especially so that we do not have to keep on repeating a noun. This chapter is about the kind of pronoun called a personal pronoun because it often refers to a person. Like nouns, personal pronouns sometimes have singular and plural forms (I-we, he-they). Unlike nouns, personal pronouns sometimes have different forms for masculine/male, feminine/female and neuter (he-she-it). Also unlike nouns, personal pronouns have different forms depending on if they act as subjects or objects (he-him, she-her). A subject is a word which does an action and usually comes before the verb, and an object is a word that receives an action and usually comes after the verb. For example, in the sentence Yesterday Susan called her mother, Susan is the subject and mother is the object. The pronoun she can be used instead of Susan and the pronoun her can be used instead of mother. The form of a personal pronoun also changes according to what person is referred to. Person is used here as a grammar word and means: 1st person or the self (I, me, we), 2nd person or the person spoken to (you), 3rd person or the person spoken about (he, she, him, her, they, them).

There is also a possessive form of the pronoun. Just as we can make a noun possessive as in the sentence That is my father's book to mean That is the book of my father, we can make the pronoun possessive and say That book is his. There are possessive adjective forms (such as my, your, his, her etc.) that are discussed with other adjectives in chapter 4. Possessive pronouns can stand by themselves without nouns, but possessive adjectives, like other adjectives, are used together with nouns. There is also an intensive form of the pronoun which intensifies or emphasizes the noun that it comes after as in the sentence I myself saw him. The reflexive form of the pronoun looks exactly like the intensive form but is used when the subject and object of a verb refers to the same person as in the sentence I saw myself in the mirror. Preposition A preposition is a word which shows relationships among other words in the sentence. The relationships include direction, place, time, cause, manner and amount. In the sentence She went to the store, to is a preposition which shows direction. In the sentence He came by bus, by is a preposition which shows manner. In the sentence They will be here at three o'clock, at is a preposition which shows time and in the sentence It is under the table, under is a preposition which shows place. A preposition always goes with a noun or pronoun which is called the object of the preposition. The preposition is almost always before the noun or pronoun and that is why it is called a preposition. The preposition and the object of the preposition together are called a prepositional phrase. Conjunctions A conjunction is a word that connects other words or groups of words. In the sentence Bob and Dan are friends the conjunction and connects two nouns and in the sentence He will drive or fly, the conjunction or connects two verbs. In the sentence It is early but we can go, the conjunction but connects two groups of words. Coordinating conjunctions are conjunctions which connect two equal parts of a sentence. The most common ones are and, or, but, and so which are used in the following ways: and is used to join or add words together in the sentence They ate and drank. or is used to show choice or possibilities as in the sentence He will be here on Monday or Tuesday. but is used to show opposite or conflicting ideas as in the sentence She is small but strong. so is used to show result as in the sentence I was tired so I went to sleep.

Subordinating conjunctions connect two parts of a sentence that are not equal and will be discussed more in another class. Semantics Semantics (from Greek smantik, neuter plural of smantiks) is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata. Linguistic semantics is the study of meaning that is used by humans to express themselves through language. Other forms of semantics include the semantics of programming languages, formal logics, and semiotics. The word "semantics" itself denotes a range of ideas, from the popular to the highly technical. It is often used in ordinary language to denote a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation. This problem of understanding has been the subject of many formal inquiries, over a long period of time, most notably in the field of formal semantics. Inlinguistics, it is the study of interpretation of signs or symbols as used by agents orcommunities within particular circumstances and contexts. Within this view, sounds, facial expressions, body language, and proxemics have semantic (meaningful) content, and each has several branches of study. In written language, such things as paragraph structure and punctuation have semantic content; in other forms of language, there is other semantic content. The formal study of semantics intersects with many other fields of inquiry, including lexicology,syntax, pragmatics, etymology and others, although semantics is a welldefined field in its own right, often with synthetic properties. In philosophy of language, semantics and reference are closely connected. Further related fields include philology, communication, and semiotics. The formal study of semantics is therefore complex. Semantics contrasts with syntax, the study of the combinatorics of units of a language (without reference to their meaning), and pragmatics, the study of the relationships between the symbols of a language, their meaning, and the users of the language. Syntax In linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek "arrangement" from syn, "together", and txis, "an ordering") is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases andsentences in natural languages. In addition to referring to the overarching discipline, the term syntax is also used to refer directly to the rules and principles that govern the sentence structure of any individual language, as in "the syntax of Modern Irish." Modern research in syntax attempts to describe languages in terms of such rules. Many professionals in this discipline attempt to find general rules that apply to all natural languages.

The term syntax is also used to refer to the rules governing the behavior of mathematical systems, such as formal languages used in logic. See Syntax (logic); Computerprogramminglanguages; Syntax (programming languages). Intonation In linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch while speaking which is not used to distinguish words. It contrasts with tone, in which pitch variation does distinguish words. Intonation, rhythm, and stress are the three main elements of linguistic prosody. Intonation patterns in some languages, such as Swedish andSwiss German, can lead to conspicuous fluctuations in pitch, giving speech a sing-song quality.[1]Fluctuations in pitch either involve a rising pitch or a falling pitch. Intonation is found in every language and even in tonal languages, but the realisation and function are seemingly different. It is used in non-tonal languages to add attitudes to words (attitudinal function) and to differentiate between wh-questions, yes-no questions, declarative statements, commands, requests, etc. Intonation can also be used for discourse analysis where new information is realised by means of intonation. It can also be used for emphatic/contrastive purposes. All languages use pitch pragmatically as intonation for instance for emphasis, to convey surprise or irony, or to pose a question. Tonal languages such as Chinese and Hausa use pitch for distinguishing words in addition to providing intonation. Generally speaking, the following intonations are distinguished:

Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice increases over time []; Falling Intonation means that the pitch decreases with time []; Dipping Intonation falls and then rises []; Peaking Intonation rises and then falls [].

Those with congenital amusia show impaired ability to discriminate, identify and imitate the intonation of the final words in sentences. Tones Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaningthat is, to distinguish orinflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called intonation, but not all languages use tones to distinguish words or their inflections, analogously to consonants and vowels. Such tonal phonemesare sometimes called tonemes. In the most widely-spoken tonal language, Mandarin Chinese, tones are distinguished by their shape (contour) and pitch range (or register). Most syllables carry their own tone and many words are differentiated solely by tone. Moreover, tone plays little role in modern Chinese grammar, though the tones descend from features in Old Chinese that did have morphological significance. In many tonal African languages, such as most Bantu languages, however, tones are distinguished by their relative level, words are longer, there are fewer minimal tone pairs, and a single tone may be carried by the entire word, rather than a

different tone on each syllable. Often grammatical information, such as past versus present, "I" versus "you", or positive versus negative, is conveyed solely by tone. Many languages use tone in a more limited way. Somali, for example, may only have one high tone per word. In Japanese, fewer than half of the words have drop in pitch; words contrast according to which syllable this drop follows. Such minimal systems are sometimes called pitch accent, since they are reminiscent of stress accent languages which typically allow one principal stressed syllable per word. However, there is debate over the definition of pitch accent, and whether a coherent definition is even possible. Accent In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.[1] An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside (a geographical or regional accent), the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language (when the language in which the accent is heard is not their native language), and so on.[2] Accents typically differ in quality of voice, pronunciation of vowels and consonants, stress, andprosody. Although grammar, semantics, vocabulary, and other language characteristics often vary concurrently with accent, the word 'accent' refers specifically to the differences in pronunciation, whereas the word 'dialect' encompasses the broader set of linguistic differences. Often 'accent' is a subset of 'dialect'. Stress In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense. The stress placed on syllables within words is called word stress or lexical stress. The stress placed on words within sentences is called sentence stress or prosodic stress. The latter is one of the three components of prosody, along with rhythm and intonation. Difference between British and American Accent This is one of a series of articles about the differences between British English and American English, which, for the purposes of these articles, are defined as follows:

British English (BrE) is the form of English used in the United Kingdom. It includes all English dialects used within the United Kingdom. American English (AmE) is the form of English used in the United States. It includes all English dialects used within the United States.

Written forms of British and American English as found in newspapers and textbooks vary little in their essential features, with only occasional noticeable differences in comparable media[1](comparing American newspapers with British newspapers, for example). This kind of formal English, particularly written English, is often called "standard English".[2][3] The spoken forms of British English vary considerably, reflecting a long history of dialect development amid isolated populations. Dialects and accents vary not only among the countries of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but also within these individual countries. There are also differences in the English spoken by different groups of people in any particular region. Received Pronunciation (RP) has traditionally been regarded as proper English; this is also referred to as "BBC English" or "the Queen's English". The BBC and other broadcastersnow intentionally use a mix of presenters with a variety of British accents and dialects, and the concept of "proper English" is now far less prevalent.[4] An unofficial standard for spoken American English has also developed, as a result of mass media and geographic and social mobility, and broadly describes the English typically heard from network newscasters, commonly referred to as non-regional diction, although local newscasters tend toward more parochial forms of speech.[5] Despite this unofficial standard, regional variations of American English have not only persisted but have actually intensified, according to linguist William Labov.[citation needed] Regional dialects in the United States typically reflect the elements of the language of the main immigrant groups in any particular region of the country, especially in terms of pronunciation and vernacular vocabulary. Scholars have mapped at least four major regional variations of spoken American English: Northern, Southern, Midland, and Western.[6] After the American Civil War, the settlement of the western territories by migrants from the east led to dialect mixing and levelling, so that regional dialects are most strongly differentiated in the eastern parts of the country that were settled earlier. Localized dialects also exist with quite distinct variations, such as in Southern Appalachia and New York. British and American English are the reference norms for English as spoken, written, and taught in the rest of the world. For instance the English-speaking members of the Commonwealth often closely follow British English forms while many new American English forms quickly become familiar outside of the United States. Although most dialects of English used in the former British Empire outside of North America are, to various extents, based on British English, most of the countries concerned have developed their own unique dialects, particularly with respect to pronunciation, idioms and vocabulary. Chief among other English dialects are Canadian English, based on the English of United Empire Loyalists who left the 13 Colonies,[7] and Australian English, which rank third and fourth in number of native speakers. Vocabulary A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool

for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language. Vocabulary is commonly defined as "all the words known and used by a particular person".[1] Unfortunately, this definition does not take into account a range of issues involved in knowing a word. The first major distinction that must be made when evaluating word knowledge is whether the knowledge is productive (also called active) or receptive (also called passive) and even within those opposing categories, there is oftentimes no clear distinction. Words that are generally understood when heard or read or seen constitute a person's receptive vocabulary. These words may range from well-known to barely known (see degree of knowledge below). In most cases, a person's receptive vocabulary is the larger of the two. For example, although a young child may not yet be able to speak, write, or sign, he or she may be able to follow simple commands and appear to understand a good portion of the language to which he or she is exposed. In this case, the child's receptive vocabulary is likely tens, if not hundreds of words but his or her active vocabulary is zero. When that child learns to speak or sign, however, the child's active vocabulary begins to increase. It is possible for the productive vocabulary to be larger than the receptive vocabulary, for example in a second-language learner who has learned words through study rather than exposure, and can produce them, but has difficulty recognizing them in conversation. Productive vocabulary, therefore, generally refers to words which can be produced within an appropriate context and match the intended meaning of the speaker or signer. As with receptive vocabulary, however, there are many degrees at which a particular word may be considered part of an active vocabulary. Knowing how to pronounce, sign, or write a word does not necessarily mean that the word has been used to correctly or accurately reflect the intended message of the utterance, but it does reflect a minimal amount of productive knowledge. Idiom Idiom (Latin: idioma, "special property", f. Greek: idima, "special feature, special phrasing", f. Greek: idios, "ones own") is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made.[1] There are estimated to be at least 25,000 idiomatic expressions in the English language.[2] In linguistics, idioms are usually presumed to be figures of speech contradicting the principle of compositionality; yet the matter remains debated.[citation needed] In phraseology, they are defined in a similar way as a sub-type of phraseme whose meaning is not the regular sum of the meanings of its components.[3] John Saeed defines an "idiom" as words collocated that became affixed to each other until metamorphosing into a fossilised term.[4] This collocationwords commonly used in a groupredefines each component word in the word-group and becomes

an idiomatic expression. The words develop a specialized meaning as an entity, as an idiom. Moreover, an idiom is an expression, word, or phrase whose sense means something different from what the words literally imply. The idiom "beating around the bush" means to hint or discuss obliquely; nobody is literally beating any person or thing, and the bush is a metaphor. When a speaker uses an idiom, the listener might mistake its actual meaning, if he or she has not heard this figure of speech before.[5] Idioms usually do not translate well; in some cases, when an idiom is translated into another language, either its meaning is changed or it is meaningless. Phrases In everyday speech, a phrase may refer to any group of words. In linguistics, a phrase is a group of words which form a constituent and so function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. A phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than a clause.[1] For example, the house at the end of the street is a phrase. It acts like a noun. It can further be broken down into two shorter phrases functioning as adjectives: at the end and of the street, a shorter prepositional phrase within the longer prepositional phrase. At the end of the street could be replaced by an adjective such as nearby: the nearby house or even the house nearby. The end of the street could also be replaced by another noun, such as the crossroads to produce the house at the crossroads. Most phrases have an important word defining the type and linguistic features of the phrase. This word is the head of the phrase and gives its name to the phrase category.[2] For example the phrase the massive dinosaur is a noun phrase because its head word (dinosaur) is a noun. The head can be distinguished from its dependents (the rest of the phrase other than the head) because the head of the phrase determines many of the grammatical features of the phrase as a whole. Categories of Phrases Phrases may be classified by the type of head taken by them:

Prepositional phrase (PP) with a preposition as head (e.g. in love, over the rainbow). Languages using postpositions instead havepostpositional phrases. The two types are sometimes commonly referred to as appositional phrases. Noun phrase (NP) with a noun as head (e.g. the black cat, a cat on the mat) Verb phrase (VP) with a verb as head (e.g. eat cheese, jump up and down) Appositive It renames noun as a pronoun and is always placed between commas (e.g. "Bob, my annoying neighbor, is short") Absolute Modifies the entire sentence and is linked with commas (e.g. "Mike threw the book, his eyes red.")

Syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "building blocks" of words. They can influence the rhythm of a language, its prosody, itspoetic meter and its stress patterns. Syllabic writing began several hundred years before the first letters. The earliest recorded syllables are on tablets written around 2800 BC in the Sumerian city of Ur. This shift from pictograms to syllables has been called "the most important advance in the history of writing".[1] A word that consists of a single syllable (like English dog) is called a monosyllable (and is said to be monosyllabic). Similar terms includedisyllable (and disyllabic) for a word of two syllables; trisyllable (and trisyllabic) for a word of three syllables; and polysyllable (andpolysyllabic), which may refer either to a word of more than three syllables or to any word of more than one syllable. Spelling Spelling is the writing of one or more words with letters and diacritics. In addition, the term often, but not always, means an accepted standard spelling or the process of naming the letters.[1][2][3] In the sense of a standard, spelling is one of the elements of orthography and aprescriptive element of alphabetic languages. Spellings attempt to transcribe the sounds of the language into alphabetic letters, but phoneticspellings are exceptions in many languages for several reasons. Pronunciation changes over time in all languages, and spelling reforms are irregular in most languages and rare in some. In addition, words from other languages may be adopted without being adapted to the spelling system, non-standard spellings are often adopted after extensive common usage, and different meanings of a word or homophones may be deliberately spelled in different ways to differentiate them visually. Spelling Standards and Conventions Whereas uniformity in the spelling of words is one of the features of a standard language in modern times, and official languages usually prescribe standard spelling, minority languages andregional languages often lack this trait. Furthermore, it is a relatively recent development in various major languages in national contexts, linked to the compiling of dictionaries, the founding of national academies and other institutions of language maintenance, including compulsory mass education.[citation needed]

In countries such as the US and UK without official spelling policies, many vestigial and foreign spelling conventions work simultaneously. In countries where there is a national language maintenance policy, such as France, the Netherlands, and Germany, reforms were driven to make spelling a better index of pronunciation.[citation needed] Spelling often evolves for simple reasons of alphabetic thrift, as when British English "catalogue" becomes American English "catalog". Furthermore, English (in particular) has absorbed into common usage and dictionary acceptance huge numbers of words from foreign languages, particularly French. These may now have a spelling as in the original form or may be somewhat altered in the transition into English. In many respects, a general principle could be stated that retaining the original spelling is important since it reflects the origin of a word and hence adds an extra nuance to its meaning. Morphology Morphology is the study of word structure. For example, in the sentences The dog runs and The dogs run, the word forms runs and dogshave an affix -s added, distinguishing them from the base forms dog and run. Adding this suffix to a nominal stem gives plural forms, adding it to verbal stems restricts the subject to third person singular. Some morphological theories operate with two distinct suffixes -s, calledallomorphs of the morphemes Plural and Third person singular, respectively. Languages differ with respect to their morphological structure. Along one axis, we may distinguish analytic languages, with few or no affixes or other morphological processes from synthetic languageswith many affixes. Along another axis, we may distinguish agglutinative languages, where affixes express one grammatical property each, and are added neatly one after another, from fusional languages, with non-concatenative morphological processes (infixation, umlaut, ablaut, etc.) and/or with less clear-cut affix boundaries.