Natural Language Processing · TEE · papers
Q1c · Linguistic foundations
2024-02-12 · re-exam · recovered AI paper
Previous examination · complete worked answers
Answer
A phoneme is a sound unit that can distinguish meanings in a language, such as the /p/ and /b/ contrast in “pat” and “bat”. A phoneme is a sound, not necessarily one alphabet letter. A morpheme is the smallest meaning-bearing grammatical unit: cats = cat + plural -s; unhappy = un- + happy.
A lexeme is an abstract vocabulary item grouping its inflected forms: write, writes, wrote and writing belong to WRITE. A phrase is a group of words functioning together; a clause normally contains a predicate and its associated participants; a sentence expresses a complete grammatical unit.
| Level | What it analyses | Concrete example |
|---|---|---|
| Phonetics / phonology | Physical sounds / sound patterns in a language | Distinguish bat from pat |
| Morphology / lexical analysis | Word structure and lexical items | un + help + ful → unhelpful |
| Syntax | Grammatical arrangement and relationships | The dog chased the cat: subject, verb, object |
| Semantics | Meaning of words and composed expressions | The dog is the chaser; the cat is chased |
| Discourse | Connections across sentences | “Riya arrived. She smiled.” → She refers to Riya |
| Pragmatics | Intended meaning in the situation | “It is cold here” may request closing the window |
Three worked interpretations
“The cats are sleeping.” Morphology identifies cat + s as plural. Syntax connects “cats” to “are sleeping”. Semantics represents animals engaged in sleeping.
“Aman bought a laptop. It was expensive.” Sentence-level syntax alone does not identify “it”. Discourse connects “it” to the laptop across the sentence boundary.
“Wonderful, another power cut!” The word wonderful is positive literally, but situational context can indicate sarcasm and frustration. This is a pragmatic interpretation.
The analysis levels are conceptual descriptions. Modern systems may learn several jointly rather than executing a compulsory separate module for every level.
Morphology = word ke andar; syntax = sentence ka structure; semantics = meaning; discourse = sentences ka link; pragmatics = intention.