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8
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 [-I]; a-fire [?-]; come-s [-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 sublevel 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 station, 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 obligator 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 hier archy 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