Characteristics of Language

These links will take you to pages in which you'll find info about the charateristics or properties of language stated by Yule. 

The study of language by George Yule

Companion to English linguistics

After you have read on this topic provide one example for each of the characteristics of how it is possible to notice those characteristics in our everyday communication. 

The Different Classification of Sentences
Adated from https://freelance-writing-articles.knoji.com/the-different-classification-of-sentences/

There are different classifications of sentences. They are classified according to purpose, according to syntax or structure, according to form and according to completeness.

Sentences are classified according to purpose. They are further classified into declarative sentence, interrogative sentence, imperative sentence and exclamatory sentence.

Sentences are classified according to syntax or structure. These classifications are in the form of simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence and compound-complex sentence.

The sentence is considered as a simple sentence if it contains only a single independent thought or clause. In this kind of sentence, the subject, the verb and the complement maybe compounded or either modified by a single word or phrase.

The sentence is considered a compound sentence when it consists of two or more Co-ordinate clauses; Sometimes the subject is omitted in the second coordinate clause.

The sentence is considered as a complex sentence when it contains two or more independent clause. The compound sentence shows two distinct ideas. Each of these sentences is important and they are bought to be stated in an independent predication.

The sentence is considered as a compound-complex sentence if the sentence contains two or more independent clauses and contains at least one dependent clause. This kind of sentence combines the effects of the compound sentence. It equates and links two distinct ideas with the complex sentence, thus, subordinating loose one predication to another.

Sentences are classified according to their form. With this they are further classified into periodic sentence, loose or cumulative sentence and balance sentence.

The periodic sentence is a form of sentence where the core idea or the main thought is not completed until the final word.

The loose or cumulative sentence is a form of sentence wherein the subject and the verb are stated early and whatever additional modifier qualifications or exemptions are just added.

In the balance sentence, the structure and the phrasing of the second clause is considered as repetition of the first clause. This sentence is just one sentence possessing two balance elements.

Look at the following examples of different sentence types: 

She went to market.

I shall attend the function.

The students have done their homework.

The sun sets in the west.

Man is a social animal. 

Brevity is the soul of wit.

 I was tired and I rested.

 I went to market and purchased a television.

You tried hard but could not succeed.

We went to Lahore and visited Badshahi Mosque.

I don’t know where he lives.

She went abroad after she had completed her graduation.

If you work hard you will pass.

He rested when he was tired.

State the type of these senteces:

The training rooms of these college athletes smell of grease and gasoline.

Their practice field is a stretch of asphalt, and their heroes make a living driving cars.

Their tools are screwdrivers and spanners rather than basketballs and footballs.

This new brand of college athlete is involved in the sport of auto racing.

Most of the students are engineering majors, and they devote every minute of their spare time to their sport.

Although the sport is new, it has already attracted six collegiate teams in the Southeast.

The students work on special cars designed for their sport.

The cars are called Legends cars, models of Fords and Chevys from 1932 to 1934, and they are refitted by the students with 1200 cc motorcycle engines.

Although their usual speed ranges from 50 to 90 miles an hour, Legends cars can move up to 100 miles an hour on a straightaway.

The Saturday morning races of the competing teams have attracted as many as 3,500 fans, but the students concede they are no threat to the nation's fastest growing sport of stock car racing.

Check these websites for more practice on this topic:

Sentence types quiz

Types of sentences

Phoneme chart: English vowel and consonant sounds

Teaching (Theoretical) Linguistics in the Second Language Classroom: Beyond Language Improvement

Tree diagrams
or
  phrase markers

Before you start diagraming a sentence it's recommended (not to say necessary) to analyze it using a syntactic viewpoint, which is simply to identify the different phrases and/or clauses found in any given sentence and how they can be represented. This is an important aspect of Parsing that is another way to call this kind of analysis. 

Taking into account the different types of phrases (noun, verb, prepositional, adjectival, adverbial), look at these sentences, perform a syntactic analysis and diagram them. 

1. The students in class are not paying attention. 
2. A new has come to class with harder activities. 
3. We could've decided faster.
4. My brand new tv was really expensive in this store.

TREE DIAGRAMS 

Take a look at this brief definition of what a tree diagram is and why it is used. Also, pay attention to the examples you have there so they help you do the exercises you have below the image.

Diagram the following sentences:

1. My teachers at school are strict.
2. My sister bought a beautiful blouse.
3. Some intelligent students were a part of the activity.
4. We appreciate your offer.
5. The new assistant didn't tell us her age. 

 

CONVERSACIÓN II

Record yourself reading the story and send the audio file:

 Last week, Beth baked a cake for Lilly's birthday party. Lilly wanted a strawberry cake with pink frosting. Beth was happy to bake the cake.

First, Beth mixed the ingredients in a big bowl. Next, she poured the cake batter into four round baking pans. She put the pans in the oven. Finally, she baked the cakes for 20 minutes.

Then, Beth prepared the pink frosting. After the cakes cooled, Beth stacked them and covered them with frosting. Beth wrote Lilly's name on top with white frosting. She put seven candles in the cake.

On Sunday, Beth surprised Lilly with the strawberry cake. Lilly loved her cake! Lilly had many gifts for her birthday. But Lilly said her cake was the best gift of them all!