Ling 201 Basic Concepts of Linguistics

Jirka Hana March 25, 2006

Overview of topics
Language and Languages
Speech vs. Writing
Approaches to language: Descriptive vs. Prescriptive
Grammar and its parts
Arbitrariness (conventionality)
What to remember:
Language, linguistics, grammar (language system), mental grammar, descriptive approach, prescriptive approach, phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, arbitrary (conventional), iconic, onomatopoeia.
e.g. You should be able to explain what the descriptive approach is.
Concepts: The priviledged role of speech.
You should be able to explain why is speech primary and writing is secondary.

Language

Language is a system that associates sounds (or gestures) with meanings in a way that uses
words and sentences.
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It tries:
first, to observe languages and to describe them accurately,
then, to find generalizations within what has been described,
finally, to draw conclusions about the general nature of human language.
Applied linguistics attempts to make practical use of the knowledge derived from general
linguistic research in order, for example, to:
improve the ways in which a students native language is taught
help people learn foreign language more efficiently
write better dictionaries
improve therapy for people with language problems
search the Internet more efficiently and successfully
Linguistics overlaps and (ideally) cooperates with: psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, logic, mathematics, computer science, speech pathology, acoustics, music, cryptanalysis, etc.
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Speech vs. Writing

2.1

Why it is sometimes claimed that writing is primary

Written texts tend to be more carefully worded and better organized than spoken texts,
they contain fewer errors, hesitations, and incomplete sentences, because writing is
usually planned in advance, is subject to fewer time constraints, is proofread, etc.
However: How about instant messaging, quick e-mails?
Spelling is more uniform across different individuals and places using the same language
than is pronunciation.
However: UK: tyre, draught, colour, dialogue, penalise, centre, defence, . . .
USA: tire, draft,
color, dialog, penalize, center, defense, . . .
Moreover: Is uniformity the same as primacy?
Written texts last and can be preserved for a long time.
However: CDs, tapes, . . . can preserve speech
Writing styles change much more slowly than speech styles, and so writing seems more
permanent and authoritative.
However: This can be is also disadvantage writing lags behind the times.

2.2

Linguists reasons for claiming that speech is primary

Historically, spoken language existed much earlier than writing.

Writing was invented in Sumer (Mesopotamia, current Iraq) about 6000 years ago.
There are many societies which only speak their language and do not write it. And no
society uses only a written language (with no spoken form).
We learn to speak before we learn to write.
Most people say more during one month than they write during their entire lives.
Writing must be taught, whereas spoken language is acquired automatically.
Psycholinguistic evidence suggest that the processing and production of written language is overlaid on the spoken language centers in the brain (plus certain other centers).
Speech contains information that writing lacks intonation, stress, voice quality . . .

Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Approach to Language

3.1

Descriptive Approach

Linguists attempt to describe the grammar of the language that exists in the minds of
its speakers, i.e. to create a model of speakers mental grammar.
The resulting descriptive grammar describes persons basic linguistic knowledge. It
explains how it is possible to speak and understand and it summarize what speakers
know about the sounds, words, phrases and sentences of their language.
Creating a descriptive grammar involves observing the language and trying to discover
the principles or rules that govern it.
Descriptive rules accept as given the patterns speakers actually use and try to account
for them. Descriptive rules allow for different dialects of a language and even variation
within one dialect.

3.2

Prescriptive Approach

Prescriptivists tell you someones idea of what is good or bad.

Prescriptive rules make a value judgment about the correctness of certain utterances
and generally try to enforce a single standard. For example:
Dont split infinitives; dont say: to easily understand
Dont end a sentence with a preposition; dont say Where are you from?
Dont use me in a subject of a sentence; dont say You and me went to the store.
Dont use aint; dont say Aint it the truth?
The people who prescriptive grammar make up the rules of the grammar.
They attempt to impose the rules for speaking and writing on people without much
regard for what the majority of educated speakers of a language actually say and write.
So-called prescriptive grammar usually focuses only on a few issues and leaves the rest
of a language undescribed (unprescribed?). In fact, from the linguistic point of view,
this is not grammar at all.

3.3

Prescriptivism vs. Descriptivism

In summary: Linguists describe language, they do not prescribe it.

As a science, linguistics:
is not in the business of making value judgments about language use.
studies how language really is used and then attempts to describe the facts, in order
to analyze and, eventually, explain them.
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An Analogy:
Physicists:
dont complain that objects fall to earth
simply observe and describe the fact of falling, then try to discover the laws that
are behind it.
Linguists:
dont say that people shouldnt use aint
simply observe that some people in certain situations do use aint (without judging, although they do note any systematic correlations of such use with particular
groups, regions, situations, styles, etc.)

The parts of Grammar

Grammar is a language system, a set of principles (rules) that underlie a language.

Mental Grammar the knowledge of language that allows a person to produce and understand utterances
Grammar can be described as having different parts:
phonetics
phonology
morphology
syntax
semantics
pragmatics
Since linguists study all of these, the terms are also used to refer to subfields of linguistics.

4.1

Phonetics & Phonology

Phonetics the production and perception of speech sounds as physical entities.

E.g., [v] is pronounced by bringing the lower lip into contact with upper teeth and forcing
air out of the mouth while the vocal folds vibrate and nasal cavity is closed off.
Phonology the sound patterns (the sound system of a particular language) and of sounds
as abstract entities.
In English, a word never starts with [kn] (note that knife starts with [n] not [k]), while in
German it is possible (e.g., Knabe boy)
In Setswana (a language of southern Africa), a consonant is always followed by a vowel
when the speakers adopted the word Christmas from English, they pronounce as kirisimasi.
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4.2

Morphology

Morphology the word structure and of systematic relations between words.

Morpheme the building-blocks of words, the smallest linguistic unit which has a meaning
or grammatical function.
Words are composed of morphemes (one or more).
Sing-er-s answer-ed un-kind-ly
In comparison with many other languages, English has rather simple morphology.

4.3

Syntax

Syntax phrase and sentence structure

Syntacticians try to discover rules that govern:
word order:
The book is on the table.
agreement:
I am here.
subject/object forms (cases): I like her.
etc.

*Table book on is the the.

*I are here.
*I like she.

Note: In linguistics, placing an asterisk (*) before a sentence marks that sentence as ungrammatical,
i.e., not of the kind normally used by most speakers of a particular language.

4.4

Semantics

Semantics is the literal meaning of sentences, phrases, words and morphemes.

E.g., What is the meaning of the word vegetable?
E.g., How does the word order influence meaning of sentence in English? How about Russian?

4.5

Pragmatics

Pragmatics studies language usage, especially how context influences the interpretation of
utterances the same sentence can be used to do different things in different situations.
E.g., Gee, its hot in here! can be used either to state a fact or to get someone open a
window.
Simply put: semantics is the literal meaning and pragmatics is the intended meaning.

Arbitrarness

The relation between form and meaning in language can be either:

arbitrary (conventional), in which case:
the meaning is not deducible from the form
the form is not deducible from the meaning
the connection between the form and meaning must be learned via memorization
nonarbitrary
the meaning is (at least partly) derivable from the form, and vice versa
E.g., buzz sound made by (the wings of) bees
iconicity the most extreme example of nonarbitrary form/meaning connection: the
form shows a physical correspondence to the meaning and vice versa
Non-language examples:
arbitrary: traffic lights, tornado warning siren
nonarbitrary: a no-smoking sign (with a crossed-out cigarette), a deer-crossing sign
(with a silhouette of a deer)
Language is overwhelmingly arbitrary.
If language were not arbitrary, then:
different languages would not use different words for the same thing (in fact, there
would be just one language), as they obviously do:
English tree, French arbre, German Baum, Russian derevo, Japanese ki, Korean namu.
word forms would not change over time.
Old English (before 1100) h
us Modern English house
word meanings would not change over time
Middle English (before 1500) girle child Modern English girl girl
Middle English nice ignorant Modern English nice pleasant

5.1

Limited Exceptions: Onomatopoeia and Sound Symbolism

There are two very limited and partial exceptions to the arbitrariness of language:
Onomatopoeia = words whose sound imitates either the sound they denote or a
sound associated with something they denote. These words are not entirely arbitrary.
However, different languages represent the same natural sounds in slightly different
ways (e.g. English cock-a-doodle-doo 6= German kikeriki ), which shows that they are
not completely nonarbitrary, either.
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 Sound symbolism refers to the very vague, elusive way in which certain sounds feel
more appropriate for describing certain objects or meanings than do other sounds.
the vowels [i] or [I] seem to suggest smallness
teensy-weensy, wee, little, Tommy (vs. Tom), squeak ; but: big
the vowels [a, o, u] suggest largeness
large, humongous; but: small
to English speakers, gl- suggest brightness:
glint glitter, gleam, glow ; but: glove, glue, glum, glop
to English speakers, -ash suggest sudden action:
bash, brash, crash, clash, flash, dash, flash, mash, slash, smash, splash

5.2

Why is arbitrariness an advantage?

It allows user of a communication system to adopt the most convenient means available
for communicating, since it obviates any need for the forms of signs to bear an inherent
relationship to their meanings.
It also makes it much easier for users of a communication system to refer to abstract
entities, since it is hard to find a combination that involves an inherent link between a
form and an abstract meaning.