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Intro to the Language Study

Phonetics
● Language is a system of -study of the production and
arbitrary symbols used for perception of speech sounds.
human communication. -science of acoustics
(Fasold and linton, 2006). -concerned with the sounds of
language, how these sounds are
Language articulated and how the hearer
● A precise definition of perceives them.
language is not easy to
provide, because the language The sub-disciplines of phonetics:
phenomenon is complex. Articulatory Phonetics
Slightly modifying a definition -The production of speech sounds
provided by Finegan and
Besnier cited in Fasold and Acoustic Phonetics
linton (2006). -study of the physical production and
● Language may be defined by a transmission of speech sounds
finite system of elements and
principles that make it possible Auditory Phonetic
for speakers to construct -study of the perception of speech
sentences to do particular sounds
communicative jobs.
Phonology
Grammatical Competence -Study of sound patterns of language
-produce and interpret grammatically
-part of the system that allows Morphology
speakers to produce and interpret -study of word formation and
grammatical sentences. structure
-contributes similarly to Morphemes - elements that are
comprehension in all human combining to form words.
languages. Morpheme - the smallest
unit/meaning you can have in
Linguistics language.
-scientific study of language
-It seeks to answer the question- Syntax
“what is language and now is it -study of sentence structure
represented in the mind.” -it attempts to describe what is
grammatical in a particular language
in terms of rules.

SUB-DISCIPLINES OF LINGUISTICS Semantic

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-study of meaning
-based largely on the study of logic in
philosophy.

History of English Language

English Language
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-belong to the West Germanic Branch brought his nobles, who spoke
of the Indo-European family French to be the New Government.
languages. -the old french took over as the
-Closely related to Scots and Frisian language of the court,
administration,, and culture.
Divided to three main periods: -latin was mostly used for written
● Old English (450-1100 AD) language. English language, the
● Middle English (1100 - circa language of lower class, now
1500 AD) considered a vulgar tongue.
● Modern English (since 1500) -1200, England and France split. The
use of old english came back, but
Old English with french words. Now called,
-during the 5th Century AD 3 Middle English.
germanic tribes (saxons, jutes, and
angles). Great Vowel Shift
-came to the british isles from -A massive sound change affecting
various parts of Northwest Germany the long vowels shifted upwards; that
as well as Denmark. is; a vowel that used to pronounced
-The word “English” was in Old in one place in the mouth would be
English “English” that comes from pronounced in a different place,
the name of Angles. The Angles were higher up in the mouth.
named after Engle, their land of -occurred during the 15th and 18th
Origin. centuries.
-The arrival of St. Augustine in 597
and the introduction of Christianlity The Canterbury Tales
into Saxon England brought more -Geoffrey Chaucer
Latin words into the English - a collection of stories about a group
language. of 30 people who travel as pilgrims to
Canterbury, England.
Beowulf -The portraits he paints in his tales
-an epic poem. Oldest known English gives us an idea of what life was like
poem. Notable length 3,183 lines. in 14th century england.
Experts say it was written in Britain
more than 1,000 years ago. Author Modern English
remains unknown. -developed after William Caxton
established his printing press at
Middle English Westminster Abbey in 1476.
-After William the Conqueror, the
Duke of Normandy, invaded and Three big developments in the world
conquered England in 1066 AD with at the beginning of Modern English
his Armies and became king, he period:
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say that there is little sense in

The Renaissance speaking of the English
-most of the words from Greek and language as a separate entity
Latin entered English. before the Anglo-Saxons came
-period in English cultural history to Britain.
-”the age of shakespeare” or “the ● Germanic invaders came and
elizabethan era” settled in Britain from the
-During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I north-western coastline of
there was an explosion of culture in continental Europe in the fifth
the form of support of the arts, and sixth centuries. The
popularization of the printing press, invaders all spoke a language
and massive amounts of sea travel. that was Germanic (related to
what emerged as Dutch,
Industrial Revolution Frisian, German and the
-new technical words were added to Scandinavian languages, and
the vocabulary as inventors designed to Gothic)
various products and machinery. ● ll probably never know how
-Britain was an empire for 200 years different their speech was from
between the 15th and 20th centuries. that of their continental
-words were named after the neighbors. However it is fairly
inventor/ given the name of their certain that many of the
choice. settlers would have spoken in
-they sent people to settle and live in exactly the same way as some
their conquered places and as of their north European
settlers interacted with natives, new neighbors, and that not all of
words were added to the English the settlers would have spoken
vocabulary. in the same way.
● The reason that we know so
Philip Durkin, Principal Etymologist little about the linguistic
at the Oxford English Dictionary, situation in this period is
chooses five events that shaped the because we do not have much
English Language. in the way of written records
from any of the Germanic
Five Events that Shaped the History languages of north-western
of English Europe until several centuries
later.
The Anglo-Saxon Settlement ● This was the language that
● It's never easy to pinpoint Alfred the Great referred to as
exactly when a specific ‘English’ in the ninth century.
language began, but in the ● The Celts were already
case of English we can at least resident in Britain when the
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Anglo-Saxons arrived, but English and the language of

there are few obvious traces of the invaders. Some words, for
their language in English example give, perhaps show a
today. Some scholars have kind of hybridization with some
suggested that the Celtic spellings going back to Old
tongue might have had an English and others being
underlying influence on the Norse in origin.
grammatical development of ● resemblances between the two
English, particularly in some languages are so great that in
parts of the country, but this is many cases it is impossible to
highly speculative. The number be sure of the exact ancestry
of loanwords known for certain of a particular word or spelling.
to have entered Old English ● the influence of Norse,
from this source is very small. including the vast majority of
Those that survive in modern the loanwords, does not
English include brock (badger), appear in written English until
and coomb a type of valley, after the next great historical
alongside many place names. and cultural upheaval, the
The Scandinavian Settlements Norman Conquest.
● The next invaders were the 1066 and after
Norsemen. From the middle of ● centuries after the Norman
the ninth century large Conquest witnessed enormous
numbers of Norse invaders changes in the English
settled in Britain, particularly in language.
northern and eastern areas, ● the Middle English period, the
and in the eleventh century the fairly rich inflectional system
whole of England had a Danish of Old English broke down.
king, Canute. ● the same system English has
● North Germanic speech of the today, which unlike Old
Norsemen had great influence English makes very little use of
on English, most obviously distinctive word endings in the
seen in the words that English grammar of the language.
has borrowed from this source. ● vocabulary of English also
These include some very basic changed enormously, with
words such as take and even tremendous numbers of
grammatical words such as borrowings from French and
they. Latin,
● common Germanic base of the ● in addition to the Scandinavian
two languages meant that loanwords already mentioned,
there were still many which were slowly starting to
similarities between Old appear in the written language.
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Old English, like German other regional varieties of the

today, showed a tendency to language began to be seen as
find native equivalents for different in kind. As the
foreign words and phrases London standard became used
(although both Old English and more widely, especially in
modern German show plenty more formal contexts and
of loan particularly amongst the more
● whereas Middle English elevated members of society,
acquired the habit that modern the other regional varieties
English retains today of readily came to be stigmatized, as
accommodating foreign words. lacking social prestige and in
Trilingualism in English, the same period a series of
French, and Latin was common changes also occurred in
in the worlds of business and English pronunciation (though
the professions, with words not uniformly in all dialects),
crossing over from one which go under the collective
language to another with ease. name of the Great Vowel Shift.
You only have to flick through These were purely linguistic
the etymologies of any English ‘sound changes’ which occur
dictionary to get an impression in every language in every
of the huge number of words period of history.indicating a
entering English from French lack of education.
and Latin during the later Colonization and Globalization
medieval period.nwords), ● English spread throughout the
Standardization British Isles, and from the early
● The late medieval and early seventeenth century onwards
modern periods saw a fairly its influence began to be felt
steady process of throughout the world. The
standardization in English complex processes of
south of the Scottish border. exploration, colonization and
● Middle English period a dialect overseas trade that
was simply what was spoken characterized Britain’s external
in a particular area, which relations for several centuries
would normally be more or led to significant change in
less represented in writing - English. Words were absorbed
although where and from from all over the world, often
whom the writer had learnt via the languages of other
how to write were also trading and imperial nations
important. such as Spain, Portugal and the
● especially through the new Netherlands. At the same time,
technology of printing, that the new varieties of English
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emerged, each with their own

nuances of vocabulary and
grammar and their own distinct
pronunciations. More recently
still, English has become a
lingua franca, a global
language, regularly used and
understood by many nations for
whom English is not their first
language.

Phonology and Phonetics

Delahunty & Garvey (2010) define

phonetics “a system for describing and
recording the sounds of language
objectively and phonology that
concerns itself with the ways in which
languages make use of sounds to
distinguish words from each other….
(p. 90). In studying phonetics and
phonology, two levels of analysis can
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be done, namely, segmental features (the tongue touches the top of

involving vowels and consonants and the mouth but the air is allowed
suprasegmental features such as to pass along one or both
pitch, intonation, rhythm, stress, etc. sides, as in [l]); central (the
sides of the tongue are raised
so that the air flows along the
International Phonetic Alphabet
center of the mouth, as in [r]);
In this lesson, the focus is on as well as the labiovelar [w]
the segmental features when you will and palatal [j].
be articulating the International ● Aspirated is a consonant
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and the sound released with a puff of
Vowel Triangle. Please click to this air.
link on the videos of the International ● Back vowel refers to the vowel
Phonetic Alphabet: produced with the back of the
tongue raised toward the soft
Link:https://youtu.be/o8KppNXfx2k palate.
(Andrew, 2014). ● Bilabial is a sound produced
Note that the IPA consists of symbols with constriction or closure of
used in transcribing the specific the lips.
sound which are different from the ● Central Vowel is a vowel
Roman Alphabet (RA) that is merely produced with the tongue
used for spelling. raised at the center. of the
mouth rather than at the front
Appendix or back.
● Glossary of Terms ● Consonant is a sound
produced with complete or
(Delahunty & Garvey, 2010:117- partial obstruction of the air
119 with omitted terms) flow through the mouth.
● Diphthong is a vowel unit that
● Affricate is a sound produced
begins with one oral
with full stoppage of the
configuration and ends with
airstream followed immediately
another.
by constriction.
● Fricative is a sound produced
● Allophone is a non-distinctive
with constriction of the
phonetic variant of a phoneme.
airstream, producing friction.
● Alveo-palatal is a sound
● Front vowel is a vowel
produced at the hard palate
produced with the front of the
just behind the alveolar ridge.
tongue raised toward the hard
● Alveolar is a sound produced
palate.
at the alveolar ridge, the bony
● Glides are sounds, e.g., [j] and
ridge behind the teeth.
[w], that are intermediate in
● Approximants refer to the
openness and sonority
sounds produced when the
between consonants and
articulators approach each
vowels. Also called
other but not so closely as to
semivowels.
cause turbulence in the
airstream; they include laterals
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● Glottal is a sound produced by and bit (used to demonstrate

constricting or stopping the that [p] and [b] contrast with
airstream at the vocal folds. each other).
● high vowel: vowel pronounced ● Monophthong is a vowel unit
with the mouth in the least consisting of a single segment
degree of openness. See mid held constant narrow
vowel and low vowel. transcription: attempt to record
● Interdental is a sound non-contrastive details of
produced with the tongue pronunciation. See broad
protruding between the teeth. transcription.
● Labiodental is a sound ● Nasal, Nasalized are sounds
produced with constriction articulated with air flowing
between the bottom lip and top through the nasal cavity.
teeth. ● Nucleus is the central part of a
● Labiovelar is a sound syllable, i.e., the segment with
produced by raising the back the highest sonority.
of the tongue to or toward the ● Onset refers to the initial part
velum and rounding the lips, of a syllable; precedes the
e.g., [w]. nucleus.
● Lateral is a sound produced ● Phoneme is a contrastive or
with the tongue touching the distinctive sound category;
top of the mouth with air distinguishes words from each
allowed to pass along one or other.
both sides, as in [l]. ● Phonetics (articulatory) is the
● Lax is a sound produced with study of how speech sounds
musculature of the mouth are produced.
relatively relaxed. See tense. ● Phonology is the study of the
● Low Vowel is a vowel ways in which a given
pronounced with the mouth in language shapes sounds into
the greatest degree of distinctive categories of
openness. See high vowel and perception and of its rules of
mid vowel. pronunciation.
● ● Place of Articulation is the area
● Manner of Articulation is the in the mouth at which the
kind of closure or constriction consonantal closure or
used in making a consonant constriction occurs.
sound. ● Rhyme is the nucleus and coda
● Mid Vowel is a vowel of a syllable.
pronounced with the mouth in ● Rounded Vowel is a sound
an intermediate degree of produced with the lips pursed.
openness. See high vowel and See unrounded.
low vowel. ● Schwa is a mid central
● Minimal Pair includes two unrounded vowel
words of different meaning that ● Stop is a sound produced with
are phonetically the same full stoppage of the airstream
except for one sound, e.g., pit
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anywhere in the oral cavity

from the vocal folds to the lips.
● Tense is a sound produced
with musculature of the mouth
relatively tight. Seelax.
● Unrounded is a vowel
produced without lip rounding.
See rounded.
● Velar is a sound produced with
constriction at the soft palate.
● Voiced refers to the sound
produced with the vocal folds
vibrating.
● Voiceless is a sound produced
with the vocal folds not
vibrating.
● Vowel is a sound produced
with smooth, unobstruction air
stream through the

Morphology

-greek word “morphe” which means

form/shape
-”ology” meaning the science of
-the study of the internal structures
of words, and the rules by the words
are formed
Content and Function Words
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Content Bound Morphemes

● brunt of the meaning ● -ish, -ness, -ful, -ly, -pre, -trans,
● letters, specific meanings -un and so on are never words
● Include Nouns, by themselves but are always
verbs,adjectives, and adverbs, part of words.
● Called open class because we ● Affixes are bound morphemes
can and regularly do add new
words to this class Prefixes- before the
morphemes
Function
Suffixes- after the morphemes
● connect the content words to
the larger grammatical context. Infix- into other morphemes
● No little meaning on their own Circumfix- before and after
● Conjunctions, prepositions, morphemes
articles, and pronouns which
do not have clear lexical ● Attach to words to
meanings/obvious concepts keep/change lexical categories
associated with them. ● Can’t stand alone
● Called as closed class because WORD FORMATIONS
they are unreceptive to new
membership Free morphemes are usually added
to the bound morphemes to form
another word or lexical unit. There
We can add another unit called are actually different ways of word
morpheme to create another unit or formation. The two most productive
word. way of word formations are
inflectional and derivational.
Morpheme - smallest unit of meaning
● The minimal units of meaning.
A word may be composed of 1
or 2 morphemes.
Type of Morphemes Derivational Morphology
Free morphemes Bound morphemes like –ify and –
● Free morphemes are usually cation are called derivational
added to the bound morphemes.
morphemes to form another The addition of –ify to the word pure=
lexical unit purify – means “to make pure” and
● Eg. boy, desire, gentle, man, the addition of –cation – purification
constitute means “the process of making it
● Words by themselves- can pure”.
stand alone
The form that results from the
addition of a derivational morpheme
is called derived word.
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She was subjected to degrading

treatment
Inflectional morphology
Blending
Inflectional morphemes are bound
morphemes that have grammatical In blending, at least two free
functions such as tense, number, morphemes are ‘fused’ or ‘melted’
person and so forth. together whereby typically the front
of one and the end of the other
● s third-person singular present remain to create a new lexeme.
She wait –s at
home. Example:
● ed past tense
She wait – ed at electrocute = electronic + execute
home. brash = bold + rash
● - ing progressive
● -en past participle snazzy = snappy + jazzy
● -s plural Clipping
● ‘s possessive
● -er comparative is the word formation process in
● -est superlative which a word is reduced or
shortened without changing the
OTHER WORD FORMATIONS meaning of the word.
Compounding advertisement – ad
In compounding, free morphemes alligator – gator
(lexemes) are combined to form new,
longer ones. examination – exam
Example: gasoline – gas
Keyboard kick-off leap year gymnasium – gym
Total Conversion influenza – flu
laboratory – lab
(also sometimes referred to as zero mathematics – math
derivation) is a process involving
memorandum – memo
word class change but without any
changes to the form of the lexeme. In photograph – photo
partial conversion the spoken form
may change. public house – pub

Example: raccoon – coon

1. My elbow hurts. reputation – rep

He elbowed me out of the way. situation comedy – sitcom

2. Linguistics is my favorite subject. telephone – phone

he four types of clipping
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Back clipping is removing the end of The tree diagram for unsystematic
a word as in gas from gasoline. is as follows:
Fore-clipping is removing the
beginning of a word as in gator from Adj.
alligator.
Middle clipping is retaining only the un Adj.
middle of a word as in flu from Noun atic
influenza.
System
Complex clipping is removing
multiple parts from multiple words as
in sitcom from situation comedy. Not possible:

Acronyms and Initialisms Are both

Adj.
formed in the same way but then
pronounced differently.the initialism Adj. atic
continues to pronounce these as un Noun
separate letters (e.g. USA and DNA), System
the acronym (e.g. scuba and NATO)
pronounces them as if they were a
‘normal’ word. The first structure
represents the acceptable internal
structure of the word
unsystematic. It shows that the
free morpheme “system” is
combined with the bound
morpheme “atic” making a new
adjective word “systematic” and
combined with the bound
The Hierarchical Structure of morpheme “un” making another
Words new word “unsystematic”.

Morphemes are added in a fixed The second structure is not

order which reflects the possible since the free morpheme
hierarchical structure of the “system” when combined to the
word. A word is not a simple bound morpheme “un” making a
sequence of morphemes. It has an new word “unsystem” is not found
internal structure. in the English Language.

Ex. The word ‘unsystematic’ has 3 This proves that a word is

morphemes: un-system-atic not a simple sequence of
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morphemes. It has an internal

structure.

Syntax
Syntax just like inflectional
morphology is another
grammatical aspect of language

part of grammar that represents a

speaker’s knowledge of sentences
and their structure.

This focuses on the sentence

patterns and structures of the
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language and the rules that

govern it. The verb sleep patterns differently
than find in that it may be followed
What Syntax Rules do? solely by a word like soundly
but not other kinds of phrases
1. The rule specifies the correct such as the baby. This also
word order for a language. For answers item number 4. It is
example, English is a assumed that you’ll find that the
Subject-Verb-Object language sentences A,D,E, F are
(SVO). grammatical and B,C are not.

This answers item number 1. The examples show that verbs

Sentence A is grammatical such as believe, try, and want
because the words follow the behave differently with respect to
right word order, and sentence B the patterns of words that may
is ungrammatical follow them.
because the word order is
incorrect for English. 3. Syntax illustrates that
sentences are not simply a string
2. Syntax specifies other of words with no further
constraints that sentences must organization. If they were, there
adhere to. would be no reason to expect ran
up the hill to pattern differently
This answers item number 2. from run up the bill. For the
Sentence D is grammatical since it expression, ran up the hill, the
is the only sentence that adheres rules of syntax allow the word
to constraints of the verb “found”. orders in A and C, but not in B. In
This is because the syntax rules run up the bill, the rules allow the
specify that a verb like found must word order in D and E but not F.
be followed by something, and These phrases act differently
that something cannot be an because they have different
expression like quickly or in the structures associated with them.
house but must be like the ball.
In ran up the hill, the words up the
This also answers item number 3. hill form a unit.
It is expected that you will find “b”
grammatical while “a” is not. He ran [up the hill]
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sentence, such as subject and

S V PP direct object. In other words, they
provide the information about who
The whole unit can be moved to is doing
the beginning of the sentence as
in C but we cannot rearrange what to whom. This information is
its subparts as shown in B. crucial to understanding the
meaning of a sentence.
In ran up the bill, the words up the
bill do not form a unit, so they Your dog chased my cat.
cannot be moved as shown in F.
My cat chased your dog.
He ran up the bill.
NOTE:
SVO
The fact that all native
4. Rules of syntax is to describe speakers have the same
the relationship between the judgments about the sentences
meaning of a particular group of given, it tells us that grammatical
words and the arrangement of judgments are neither
those words. The word order idiosyncratic nor capricious, but
are determined by rules that are
shows us that the word order of a shared by all speakers of a
sentence contributes crucially to language.
its meaning.
Our syntactic knowledge crucially
I mean what I say includes rules that tell us how
words form groups in a sentence,
I say what I mean or how they are hierarchically
arranged with respect to one
The word order shows another.
us that the word order of a
sentence contributes crucially to Consider the following
its meaning. sentence:

5. Syntax specifies the

grammatical relations of a
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The captain ordered all old

men and women off the sinking It was shown earlier that the
ship. structure of a sentence
contributes to its meaning.
The highlighted phrase is
ambiguous, referring either to old However, grammaticality and
men and women of any age or to meaningfulness are not the same
old men and old women. thing.

Colorless green ideas sleep

furiously.

A verb crumpled the milk.

old men and women
These sentences do not make
sense, but they are syntactically
old men well formed.
and women
Grammaticality is not only based
on how we understand sentences
even if they are not well-formed
What Grammaticality is not Based according to the rules of syntax.
on?
Disa slept the baby.
A person’s ability to make
grammatical judgments does not This sentence may follow
depend on having heard the the S-V-O pattern of the English
sentence before. Language and may be understood
as someone is putting the baby to
Enormous crickets in pink socks sleep, but to be a sentence, words
danced at the prom. must conform to specific patterns
determined by the syntactic rules
The sentence above may sound of the language.
new to you for you have not heard
it before, but your syntactic Grammaticality is not based on the
knowledge tells you that it is nonsense words included in
grammatical. sentences even though they are
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difficult to interpret because these of words; that is, the words are
words have no agreed-on grouped into natural units.
meaning.
Example: The child found a puppy.
Twas brillig, and the slithy
toves the child found a puppy

Did gyre and gimble in the Tree diagram is used to see the
wabe parts and subparts of the
sentence.
5. Grammaticality also does not
depend on the truth of sentences. Constituents and Constituency
Tests
Sentence Structure
Constituents are the natural
Det – N – V – Det – N groupings or parts of a sentence.

This template says that a In the sentence, “The child found a

determiner (an article) is followed puppy”, there are 3 parts/natural
by a noun, which is followed by a groupings or constituents.
verb, and so on.
These are the child, found, and a
The child found a puppy. puppy.

The professor wrote a book. How do we group the words to

form a constituent?
That runner won the race.
Constituency Test – linguistic
This implies that sentences are a tests that reveal the constituents
string of words belonging to of a sentence.
particular grammatical categories
(parts of speech) with no internal Stand-alone test
organization. Such flat/linear
structures are incorrect. If a group of words can stand
alone, they form a constituent.
Sentences have hierarchical
organization and not just a string
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The set of words that can be used

to answer a question is a The child found a puppy.
constituent. So, in answer A puppy was found by the child.
of the question “what did you
find?” Syntactic Categories
One may answer “a puppy” but
not “found a” Each grouping in the tree
diagram of “The child found a
Who found the puppy? puppy” is a member of a large
family of similar expressions.
One may answer “the child” but
not “child found” For example:

Substitution The child belongs to a family that

In answer to the question “where includes the police officer, your
did you find a puppy?” neighbor, this yellow cat,
One may say “I found him in the he, John, and countless others.
park.”
The police officer found a puppy.
Words such as do can also take
place of the entire predicate found Your neighbor found a puppy.
a puppy.
This yellow cat found a puppy.
Ex. John found a
puppy and Bill did too. A family of expressions that
can substitute for one another
If a group of words can be without loss of grammaticality is
replaced by a pronoun or a word called a syntactic category.
like do, it forms a
constituent. NP – Noun Phrase
The child, a police officer, John
Movement and so on belong to the syntactic
category noun phrase.
If a group of words can be moved,
they form a constituent. NPs may function as
the subject or as an object.
Example:
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NPs contain a VP – Verb Phrase is another

determiner and a noun. syntactic category which always
contains a verb, and it may
It may also consist of a contain other categories such as
proper name, a pronoun, a noun np or pp.
without a determiner,or even a
clause or a sentence. John found the puppy
John found the puppy He found the puppy
Boys love puppies
He found the puppy The puppy loved him
Boys love puppies The puppy loved John
The puppy loved him
The puppy loved John
NPs can be more complex as
illustrated by the sentence:

The girl that Professor Snape

loved married the man of her
dreams.

NP Subject
NP Object

You can test NPs by

inserting into three contexts

Who found _____________?

__________ was seen by

everyone.
Semantics
the study of linguistic meaning of
What/who I heard was morphemes, words, phrases and
____________. sentences.

Phrases that are possible on these Subfields are lexical semantics,

are NPs. which is concerned with the
meanings of words, and the meaning
 21

relationships among words; and

phrasal/sentential semantics which is ● Sofa – couch
concerned with the meaning of ● Enrolment is on-going –
syntactic units larger than words. Enrolment is going on.
4. You know when words or
The study on how context affects sentences have opposite meanings.
meaning is pragmatics.
● Alive – dead
People use Language to: ● Jack swims – Jack doesn’t
swim
Convey information to others 5. You generally know the real-world
(My new bike is pink) object that words refer to
Ask questions
(who left the party early?) The chair in the corner.
Give commands
(Stop lying) 6. and even the words do not refer to
Express wishes an actual object. You still have the
(May there be peace on earth) sense of what they mean.

What do you know about meaning Santa Claus is coming.

when you know a language?
7. You know when sentences are true
1. You know when a word is or false. If you know the meaning of
meaningful or meaningless. the sentence, you know its truth
conditions. In some cases, it’s
Which is meaningful? And obvious or redundant.
meaningless?
All kings are male. (T)
● Flick blick All bachelors are married. (F)
● Jack swims. Often, if you know that a sentence is
● Colorless green ideas sleep true, you can infer that other
furiously. sentence is also true.
2. You know when a word and a
sentence has two meanings. If the statement “Nina bathed her
dogs” is true, the second statement
● Bear “Nina’s dog is wet” is also true. The
● Jack saw a man with a first entails the second.
telescope.
3. You know when two All of this knowledge about meaning
words/sentences have the same extends to an unlimited set of
meaning.
 22

sentences, just like our syntactic greeting and saying goodbye (Hi,
knowledge. Cheers, Regards, Wassup) and many
other parts of language which are
● Linguistic meaning? essential in our everyday interactions
● is “literal” with others.
● is conventional / lexically
determined Semantics, however, is concerned
● is not context-dependent purely with the conventional meaning
● decides between truth and of words and sentences.
falsity Conventional (or sometimes
● can be looked up in a conceptual) meaning can be
dictionary described in almost mathematical
terms and it can be applied to
Conventional meaning vs. social and sentences that we can often evaluate
affective meaning in terms of their truth value.

● Beagles are a breed of dogs Semantics is interested in: 1. How

● Hey Stan, how are you? meaning works in language, 2. The
● Linguistics is really cool! relationships between words and
sentences.
The first sentence differs from the
second and third in that it makes a 1. The study of semantics looks at
statement about the world that can how meaning works in language, and
be verified or falsified. (Conventional because of this it often uses native
Meaning) speaker intuitions about the meaning
of

words and phrases to base research

By contrast, if someone states that on. We all understand semantics
he/she likes or dislikes something already on a subconscious level, it's
(the third example) this is a how we all understand each other
subjective and unverifiable when we speak.
statement. Such an expression still
contains important information, but it One of the things that semantics
has what we call affective meaning. looks at, and is based on, is how the
meaning of speech is not just derived
Similarly, a question such as the one from the meanings of the individual
provided in the second example has words all put together.
social meaning, as do words we use
to address people (Mister, Misses, The Principle of Compositionality
Sir, Your Honor, Dude). Ways of says that the meaning of speech is
 23

the sum of the meanings of the Ex. Bank - it could mean the
individual words plus the way in institution or the building the
which they are arranged into a institution resides.
structure.
2. Semantics also looks at the ways Homonyms is similar to polysemy in
in which the meanings of words and that it refers to a single form of word
sentences can be related to each with two meanings.
other.
Bat- flying mammal and bat-
Here are a few of the ways in which equipment used in cricket.
words can be semantically related. Pen- writing instrument and pen-
small cage
Synonymy - Words are synonymous/
synonyms when they can be used to Homophones are terms that have a
mean the same thing (at least in similar sound pattern, but are
some contexts - words are rarely fully otherwise unrelated.
identical in all contexts).
Examples for this are see - sea, buy -
● Begin and start, bye, might - mite, night – knight
● Big and large,
● Youth and adolescent Homographs - When two terms are
spelled similarly but the sound
Antonyms - Words are antonyms of patterns differ.
one another when they have opposite
meanings (again, at least in some An example for a pair of homographs
contexts). is wind, as in we wind up in the same
● Big and small, club every weekend vs. the
● Come and go, wind is very cold in December.
● Boy and girl
Here are a few of the ways in which
Polysemy - A word is polysemous sentences can be semantically
when it has two or more related related.
meanings. In this case the word takes Paraphrase. One relationship that
one form but can be used to mean two sentences can have with each
two different things. In the case of other is being paraphrases of each
polysemy, these two meanings must other. This is a good example of how
be related in some way, and not be we all understand semantics already
two completely unrelated meanings on some level because people can
of the word. easily tell when a sentence is a
paraphrase, because when two
sentences are paraphrases of each
 24

other, even though the form is does not entail Rachel being his
different you will understand the wife),
same meaning from them. 'Rachel has two brothers'
Paraphrases have the same truth entails 'Rachel is not an only child'
conditions; if one is true, the other (but Rachel not being an
must also be true. only child does not entail Rachel
having two brothers).
'The boys like the girls' and
'the girls are liked by the boys', Contradiction. Sentences can also be
semantically related when they
'John gave the book to Chris' contradict each other. Sentences
and 'John gave Chris the book'. contradict each other when for one to
be true the other must not be.
Entailment. is a little trickier than
paraphrase in that the two sentences 'Rachel is an only child' and
don't mean exactly the same thing, 'Rachel's brother is called Phil',
instead, when one sentence entails
another, for the second sentence to 'Alex is alive' and 'Alex died
be true, the first one must be true. last week'.

There are two different types of Ambiguity. A sentence is ambiguous

entailment. when it has two or more possible
meanings. A sentence can be
ambiguous for either (or both!) of the
following reasons
Mutual entailment. When each Lexical Ambiguity. A sentence is
sentence entails the other, i.e. each lexically ambiguous when it can have
sentence must be true for the other two or more possible meanings due
to be true. to polysemous (words that have two
'John is married to Rachel' and or more related meanings) or
'Rachel is John's wife', homophonous (a single word which
has two or more different meanings)
Asymmetrical entailment, only one of words.
the sentences must be true for the
other to be true, but that sentence Example of lexically
may be true without the other ambiguous sentence: 'Prostitutes
sentence necessarily having to be appeal to the Pope’.
true.
'Rachel is John's wife' entails This sentence is ambiguous
'John is married' (but John is married because the word 'appeal' is
 25

polysemous and can mean 'ask for

help' or 'are attractive to'.

Structural Ambiguity. A sentence is

structurally ambiguous if it can have
two or more possible meanings due
to the words it contains being able to
be combined in different ways which
create different meanings.

Example of structurally ambiguous

sentence: 'Enraged cow injures
farmer with axe’.

In this sentence the ambiguity arises

from the fact that the 'with axe' can
either refer to the farmer, or to the act
of injuring being carried out (by the
cow) 'with axe’

Pragmatics
the study of words in context
The study of the use of context to
make inferences about meaning
(Christie, 2000 in O’Keeffe, Clancy &
Adolphs, 2011)

One of the topics of pragmatics is

speech acts. This was first
introduced by Austin and modified by
Searle. In this lesson, the types of
Searle will be used in the discussion.
Speech acts are also called
discourse acts or illocutionary acts.
John Searle’s categories of speech
acts are discussed in Coga-Cotea
 26

(2013 in Apalla, San Juan & Maxilom,

2017)

First, declarations refer to the acts

that change the world as manifested
in their utterances, sentence,
pronounce, curse, name etc. The
second type refers to the
representatives. These are acts used
to describe what the speaker believes
true or not as in describing, insisting,
predicting, and claiming. The third
type is commissives. These are acts
that commit the speaker to a future
action such as promise, offer, refuse,
and threat. Fourth, expressives are
acts that state the speaker’s feelings
or emotions or psychological state in
their experiences of pleasure, joy,
sorrow, like and dislikes. Finally,
directives are acts that make the
hearer or listener do something like
in ordering, commanding, inviting
and suggesting. Consequently,
Searle modified the classifications of Semantics
-anchors with philosophy
speech acts into declaration,
representatives, commissives,
● There is literal meaning and
expressives, and directives. (Source:
contextual meaning
Apalla, San Juan & Maxilom, 2017).
Lexical - meaning of word
Phrasal - meaning of the entire sentence

Psycholinguistics

-subfield of linguistics
-deals with mental processes of
language acquisition whether it would be
first or second language (Purba 2018)

Parts of the Brain

 27

1. Broca’s area - associated with speech Aphasia is the term used to describe an
production and articulation acquired loss of language that causes
problems with any or all of the following:
2. Primary motor cortex – provides the speaking, listening, reading and writing.
most important signal for the production
of skilled movements (Sira and Mateer, Aphasia is common in people who have left
2014) sided brain injuries. The severity of the
aphasia depends on the amount and
3. Arcuate fasciculus (Latin: curved location of the damage to the brain.
bundle)
-plays a major role in speech processing 1. Expressive aphasia –the trouble in
using words and sentences; otherwise
-is a bundle of axons that connects known as Broca’s aphasia (“Broca’s
Broca's area and Wernicke's area in the expressive aphasia”, 2020)
brain.
-*Individuals with Broca’s aphasia have
4. Primary visual cortex- is highly trouble speaking fluently but their
specialized for processing information comprehension can be relatively preserved.
about static and moving objects and is Words may be uttered very slowly and
excellent in pattern recognition poorly articulated.

5. The angular gyrus -allows us to Speech may be labored and consist

associate a perceived word with different primarily of nouns, verbs or important
images, sensations and ideas adjectives.

Speech takes on a telegraphic character.

6. Wernicke’s area- primarily involved in People suffering from Broca’s aphasia have
comprehension great difficulty with repetition and a severe
-connects to Broca’s area via a neural impairment in writing.
pathway
*This area has been associated with 2. Receptive aphasia- the problem in
language processing, whether it is understanding others; otherwise known as
written or spoken. Wernicke’s aphasia
7. Auditory cortex - processes auditory -The ability to grasp the meaning of spoken
information words and sentences is impaired, while the
-It is a part of the auditory system, ease of producing connected speech is not
performing basic and higher functions in very affected.
hearing, such as possible relations to Therefore, Wernicke’s aphasia is also
language switching referred to as ‘fluent aphasia’ or ‘receptive
aphasia’.
Disorders of Speech & Language
 28

In contrast to Broca’s aphasia, the person

with Wernicke’s aphasia talks volubly and ● A woman who acquired French as a
gestures freely. child and learned English as an
adult.
Speech is produced without effort, and
sentences are of normal length. However, ● Similarly, a man who acquired
the person’s speech is devoid of meaning. Japanese as a child and learned
English and Spanish.
3.Global aphasia - the struggle with both
using words and understanding Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second
- occurs when there is a damage that Language Acquisition (Schutz, 2019)
encompasses in the Wernicke’s and
Broca’s areas Krashen's theory of second language
- Patients can say a few words at most and acquisition consists of five main
understand only a few words and phrases. hypotheses:
-They usually cannot carry out commands 1.The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis
or name objects.
-They cannot read or write or repeat words 2. The Monitor hypothesis
said to them. (“Global Aphasia,”, 2020)
3. The Input hypothesis
First Language Acquisition
-the process whereby a child acquires 4. The Affective Filter hypothesis
his/her first language.
5. The Natural Order hypothesis
Example:

1. A Filipino Child who grows up in an

English speaking environment will The Acquisition-Learning distinction is
acquire only English as his/her first the most fundamental of the five hypotheses
language. in Krashen's theory and the most widely
2. A child who is born and raised in the known among linguists and language
Visayan region can acquire Visayan teachers.
language as his first language.
According to Krashen there are two
Second language acquisition is the independent systems of foreign language
process whereby humans pass the critical performance: 'the acquired system' and 'the
period and they learn the second language. learned system'.

All humans have the ability to learn ● The 'acquired system' or

additional languages. Older children and 'acquisition' is the product of a
adults may learn one or more second subconscious process very similar to
languages. the process children undergo when
they acquire their first language.
Examples of second language acquisition:
 29

It requires meaningful interaction in the

target language - natural communication - in They know the rules.
which speakers are concentrated not in the
form of their utterances, but in the It appears that the role of conscious
communicative act. learning is somewhat limited in second
language performance.
● The "learned system" or "learning"
is the product of formal instruction According to Krashen, the role of the
and it comprises a conscious monitor is minor, being used only to correct
process which results in conscious deviations from "normal" speech and to give
knowledge 'about' the language, for speech a more 'polished' appearance.
example knowledge of grammar
rules. A deductive approach in a Krashen also suggests that there is
teacher-centered setting produces individual variation among language
"learning", while an inductive learners with regard to 'monitor' use.
approach in a student-centered
setting leads to "acquisition". Krashen grouped learners that use the
monitor as:
According to Krashen 'learning' is less
important than 'acquisition'. 1.Over-users – are those who use the
monitor all the time
The Monitor hypothesis explains the - are usually the perfectionists and the
relationship between acquisition and introverts who consciously check on their
learning and defines the influence of the language usage
latter on the former. -Lack of self-confidence is frequently related
to the over-use of the "monitor
The monitoring function is the practical
result of the learned grammar.

According to Krashen (cited in 2. Under-users- those who have not

Schutz, 2019), the acquisition system is the learned the second language or those who
utterance initiator, while the learning system prefer not to use their conscious knowledge
performs the role of the 'monitor' or the - are usually the extroverts who confidently
'editor'. use the second language and monitor
themselves less
The 'monitor' acts in a planning, editing and
correcting function when three specific 3.Optimal users -those learners who use
conditions are met: the 'monitor' appropriately

The second language learner has sufficient The Input hypothesis is Krashen's attempt
time at their disposal. to explain how the learner acquires a
second language and how second language
They focus on form or think about acquisition takes place.
correctness.
 30

According to this hypothesis, the learner

improves and progresses along the 'natural
order' when he/she receives second
language 'input' that is one step beyond
his/her current stage of linguistic
competence.

The Input hypothesis is only concerned with

'acquisition', not 'learning'.

The Affective Filter hypothesis embodies

Krashen's view that a number of 'affective
variables' play a facilitative, but non-causal,
role in second language acquisition. These
variables include: motivation, self-
confidence, anxiety and personality traits.

Krashen claims that learners with high

motivation, self-confidence, a good self-
image, a low level of anxiety and
extroversion are better equipped for
success in second language acquisition

Low motivation, low self-esteem, anxiety,

introversion and inhibition can raise the
affective filter and form a 'mental block' that
prevents comprehensible input from being
used for acquisition.
In other words, when the filter is 'up' it
impedes language acquisition. On the other
hand, a positive effect is necessary, but not
sufficient on its own, for acquisition to take
place.

Finally, the Natural Order hypothesis which

seemed to be independent of the learners'
age.

For a given language, some grammatical

structures tend to be acquired early while
others late.