1 Psychology and human development1.7 Language and communication
1.7.1 Units of language
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Written by Resident Doctor Committee · Published
New in the 2027 syllabus
The College added this topic for exams from January 2027.
From sound to sentences
Unit or system | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
Phoneme | A sound contrast that tells one word apart from another in a language | The first sounds in pat and bat |
Morpheme | The smallest unit that carries meaning or does a grammatical job | Cat, and the plural s in cats |
Word | A unit made of one or more morphemes | Unhelpful contains three morphemes |
Phrase | A group of words that works as one grammatical unit | The very tired doctor |
Sentence | A grammatical structure that expresses a proposition or a related message | The doctor rested |
The systems of language
Phonology looks at sound patterns.
Morphology looks at how words are built.
Syntax looks at how words are organised into phrases and sentences.
Semantics looks at meaning.
Pragmatics looks at meaning and use in context, including what a speaker implies beyond the literal words.
Common traps
Speech sounds and letters are not the same units. Spelling does not map consistently onto phonemes.
Language does not have to be heard or spoken. Signed languages have their own structured linguistic units and grammar.