level (n.)

A general term in LINGUISTICS to refer to a major dimension of STRUCTURAL organization held to be susceptible of independent study. The most widely recognized levels of analysis are PHONOLOGY, GRAMMAR and SEMANTICS, but often PHONETICS is distinguished from phonology, LEXIS from semantics, and MORPHOLOGY and SYNTAX are seen as separate levels within grammar. PRAGMATICS is also sometimes described as a level. Some linguistic MODELS make even more specific divisions, identifying MORPHOPHONOLOGY, for example, as a separate level. An analogous notion is found in all theories, e.g. the COMPONENTS of a GENERATIVE grammar, or the STRATA of STRATIFICATIONAL grammar. There is considerable difference of opinion concerning not only the number but also the way these levels should be interrelated in a linguistic theory. BLOOMFIELDIAN linguistics, for example, saw analysis as a matter proceeding unidirectionally from the ‘lower’ levels of phonetics through the progressively ‘higher’ levels of phonology, morphology and syntax towards semantics. In this approach, the ‘mixing of levels’ was disallowed: phonology, for example, was to be analyzed without reference to higher levels of description. In HALLIDAYAN linguistics, phonology is seen as an inter-level, linking the level of phonic/graphic SUBSTANCE with that of grammatical/lexical FORMS. ‘Double ARTICULATION’ theories recognize the main levels only. When criteria of analysis from different levels coincide in establishing a linguistic UNIT (as when phonological and grammatical criteria are found to agree in identifying the WORDS in a language), the term ‘CONGRUENCE of levels’ is sometimes used.

In GENERATIVE linguistics, level is used to refer to the different types of REPRESENTATION encountered within the DERIVATION of a SENTENCE. For example, DEEP- and SURFACE-STRUCTURE levels of representation are commonly recognized, as are SYSTEMATIC PHONEMIC and PHONETIC levels. Linguistic operations, such as TRANSFORMATIONS, can be described as taking place at certain levels of depth. In X-BAR theory, categories are analyzed at ZERO- or word level and at PHRASE level.

The different STRUCTURAL layers within a linguistic HIERARCHY are often referred to as levels; e.g. within grammar one might talk of the levels (or RANKS) of SENTENCE, CLAUSE, phrase, WORD and MORPHEME. This view is a central feature of TAGMEMIC analysis. In METRICAL PHONOLOGY, metrical trees display different levels of structure (prosodic levels).

The various degrees of progress which it is anticipated linguistics can achieve are referred to as levels (or ‘criteria’) of ADEQUACY.

Within PHONETICS and PHONOLOGY, ‘level’ may be used to characterize (a) the degree of PITCH height of an UTTERANCE, or SYLLABLE, e.g. ‘average pitch level’, ‘four pitch levels’, or (b) the degree of loudness of a sound, e.g. ‘three levels of STRESS’. Level tone is used by some INTONATION analysts to refer to a NUCLEAR tone which has neither a FALLING nor a RISING component (as in the tone of boredom or sarcasm in English, e.g. ). Level stress is sometimes used to refer to COMPOUNDS where the two items have a major stress feature, e.g. washing machine.

In STYLISTICS and SOCIOLINGUISTICS, level is often used to refer to a mode of expression felt to be appropriate to a type of social SITUATION, e.g. ‘FORMAL level’, ‘intimate level’. Sometimes, several such stylistic levels are distinguished within the range of formality (e.g. ‘frozen’, ‘casual’, ‘deliberative’).