Answer to Question #298855 in English for Moses

Question

What are the examples to illustrate the arbitrariness in spelling and pronunciation in the English language

Answer 1

Arbitrariness is the absence of any natural or necessary connection between a word's meaning and its sound or form. The concepts that are used to explain the arbitrariness in spelling and pronunciation in the English language include;

a] Phonology - is the study of sound patterns and their meanings, both within and across languages. An example of phonology is the study of different sounds and the way they come together to form speech and words - such as the comparison of the sounds of the two "p" sounds in "pop-up.

b] Morphology - is the study of words, how they are formed, and their relationship to other words in the same language. It analyses the structure of words and parts of words such as stems, root words, prefixes, and suffixes.

c] Syntax - is the study of sentences and phrases, and the rules of grammar that sentences obey.

d] semantics - is the study of sentence meaning; pragmatics is the study of sentence meaning in context.

e] pragmatics - It studies how the context of a sentence contributes to meaning, for example, someone shouting “Fire!” has a very different meaning if they are in charge of a seven-gun salute than it does if they are sitting in a crowded movie theatre.