2. Construction or constituent (句子结构）： the overall process of internal (内部）organization of

a grammatical unit .

3. Syntactic function(句法功能）： the relationship between a linguistic form and other parts of the linguistic pattern in which it is used. The names of functions are expressed in terms of subjects, objects, predicates, modifiers,(修饰语） complements（补语）, etc.

4. Category(范畴）：It refers to classes and functions in its narrow sense, e.g. noun, verb, subject, predicate, noun phrase, verb phrase, etc. The categories of the noun include number, gender, case and countability.

5. Phrase: a single element of structure containing more than one word, and lacking the subject-predicate structure typical of clause.

6. Clause: a group of words with its own subject and predicate, if it is included in a larger sentence.

7. Sentence: It is the minimum part of language that expresses a complete thought.

VI. Semantics

1. Conceptualism or mentalism (概念主义）：Following F. De Saussure(索学尔）'s "sign" theory, the linguistic sign is said to consist of a signifier

（所指）and signified（被指）, i.e., a sound image and a concept, liked by a psychological（心理的） "associative" bond.（相关联系）

2. Mechanism(机械主义）：Some linguists, Bloomfield,(布鲁费尔德） for example, turned to science to counter（反）-act the precious theories and this leads to what call the mechanistic approach（方法）. The nature of this theory has nothing to do with the scientific study of mental phenomena.（智力现象）

3. Contextualism （语境主义）：It is based on the presumption(假定）that one can derive meaning from or reduce it to observable context.

4. Behaviorism (行为主义）：Behaviorists attempt to define (定义）the meaning of a language form as "the situation(情景） in which the speaker utters（说话） it and the response（反应） it calls forth in the hearer."

5. functionalism (功能主义）：functionalists as represented (代表）by the Prague school（布拉格学派） linguists and neo-Firthian （新弗斯）linguists, approach the problem from an entirely new orientation（方法）. They argue（争辩） that meaning could only be interpreted（解释） from its use or function in social life.

6. Sense relationships: While reference deals with the relationship between the linguistic elements, words, sentences, etc., and the non-linguistic world of experience, sense relates to the complex system of relationships that hold between the linguistic elements themselves. They include synonymy(同义词）, antonym(反义词）,hyponymy(下层次）Polysemy(一词多义）and Homonymy (同音异义词）

7. Semantic analysis: It includes 1) componential（成分） analysis which defines the meaning of a lexical element in terms of semantic components.(意义成分）2) predication (表述）analysis in which the meaning of a sentence is not merely the sum of the meanings of the words which compose it. 3) relational components in which the semantic analysis of some words presents a complicated picture, because they show relations between two and perhaps more terms.

VII. Language variation (语言变化）

1. Lexical change(词汇的变化）：changes in lexis.

2. Invention: (新造词）new entities. 3. Compounding合成词）New words are sometimes constructed by combining two old words.

4. Blending: (混合词）：It is a relatively complex form of compounding, in which two roots are blended by joining the initial part of the first root and the final part of the second root, or by joining the initial parts of the two roots.

5. Abbreviation or clipping:(缩写）A new word is created by cutting the final part or cutting the initial part.

6. acronym:(取首字母的缩写词）It is made up from the first letters of the name of an organization, which has a heavily modified (修饰） headword.

7. metanalysis:(再分化）It refers to a process through which a division is made where there were note before.

8. Back-formation:(逆构词） It refers to an abnormal(非正常） type of word-formation where a shorter word is derived by deleting(去掉） an imagined affix from a longer form already present in the language.

9. Analogical creation:(类比造词）It can account for（说明） the co-existence of two forms, regular and irregular, in the conjugation(结合） of some English verbs.

10. Borrowing（借用）：English in its development has managed to widen her vocabulary by borrowing words from other languages.

11. Phonological change(音变）：It is related to language variation in the phonological system of language. It includes loss,(省音） addition,（加音） assimilation,（ 同化）dissimilation.（异化）

12. Grammatical change: Changes in both morphology（词法） and syntax（句法）are listed under this heading.