ENG 018: INTRODUCTION TO b. Be here at 9:00 tonight.

(Place/time reference)
LINGUISTICS 2. Linguistic context
MODULE 18: PRAGMATICS ● What has been said before in the
conversation.
PRAGMATICS ● The “ history” of things said so far.
a. I can’ t believe you said that!
● Deals with the study of the practical
b. If my mom heard you talk like that,
aspects of human action and thought,
she’ d wash your mouth out
and of the use of linguistic signs,
with soap!
words, and sentences in actual
3. Social context
situations.
● The social relationship of the people
● Outlines the study of meaning in the
involved in communication.
interactional context.
a. # Mr. President, stop bugging me
● Looks beyond the literal meaning of
and go home. (You can’ t talk
an utterance and considers how
like this to the President)
meaning is constructed as well as
b. # I do hereby humbly request that
focusing on implied meanings.
you might endeavor to telephone
● It considers language as an
me with news of your arrival at
instrument of interaction, what people
your domicile when such arrival
mean when they use language and
occurs. (A bizarre sentence if said
how we communicate and understand
to a friend instead of “ call me
each other.
when you get home” )
▶ The branch of linguistics dealing with
language in use and the contexts in ● # is commonly used to mark a
which it is used, including such matters sentence that is inappropriate.
as deixis, the taking of turns in 4. Epistemic
conversation, text organization, ● Knowledge and beliefs of the
presupposition, and implicature. speaker/hearer.

How deixis affects the meaning of utterances?

Jenny Thomas says that pragmatics considers:
DEIXIS
✓ The negotiation of meaning between
● Deixis (pointing) is an important field
speaker and listener.
studied in pragmatics, semantics, and
✓ The context of an utterance.
linguistics.
✓ The meaning potential of an utterance.
● Deixis refers to the phenomenon
You distinguish several types of contextual where understanding the meaning of
information: certain words and phrases in an
utterance requires contextual
1. Physical context
information.
● Encompasses what is physically
● Deixis does not only have the function
present around the speakers/hearers
of a grammatical constituent, but it
at the time of communication.
has the duty to point out the different
● What objects are visible, where the
meaning the words have even in
communication is taking place, what
cases they are used in the same way
is going on around, etc.
in different situations.
a. I want that book. (Accompanied
by pointing)
 ● Deixis is the use of general words and 3. Temporal Deixis
phrases to refer to a specific time, ● An event of an utterance, which takes
place, or person in context. place any time relative to the speaking
● Words are deictic if their semantic time.
meaning is fixed but their denoted ● Referring to time element.
meaning varies on time and/or place.
SPEECH ACTS
Deictic Expressions
● Are characteristically performed in an
● Like English ‘ this, that, there, and utterance of sounds or the making or
here’ occur in all known human marks.
languages.
What is the difference between just uttering
● Typically used to individuate objects
sounds or making marks and performing a
in the immediate context in which they
speech act?
are uttered.
● This is done by pointing at them to ● One difference is that the sounds or
direct attention to them. marks one makes in the performance
of a speech act characteristically said
to have meaning.
● Second related difference is that one
is characteristically said to mean
something by those sounds or marks.
● Characteristically when one speaks
one means something by what one
says, and what one says, the string of
morphemes that one emits, is
characteristically said to have a
meaning.

TYPES OF SPEECH ACTS

1. Locutionary
THREE TYPES OF DEICTIC EXPRESSIONS ● Locutionary speech act is roughly
equivalent to meaning in traditional
1. Person deixis
sense.
▶ Concerns itself with the grammatical
● Cutting (16) states that locutionary
persons involved in an utterance:
said, also proposed by Yules who
a. Those directly involved (the
states that locutionary act is the act of
speaker, the addressee)
b. Those not directly involved (those producing meaningful utterances.
who hear an utterance but who EXAMPLES:
are not being directly addressed)
c. Those mention in an utterance. a.It’ s so dark in this room.
● Referring to the subject in the b. The box is heavy.
sentence. ▶ The above two sentences represent the
2. Spatial Deixis actual condition (lighting and weight).
▶ Involves specification of locations
relative to points of reference in the 2. Illocutionary
speech event. ● Illocutionary act is performed via the
● Referring to the location. communicative force of an utterance,
 such as promising, apologizing,
offering.
● Also called as the act of doing
something and saying something.
● The most significant level of action in
a speech is the illocutionary act
because the force, which has been
desired by the speakers, determines
the act.

EXAMPLES:

a. It’ s so dark in this room.

b. The box is heavy
▶ First sentence shows a request to see a
light.
▶ Second sentence shows a request to lift
out the box.

3. Perlocutionary
● Perlocutionary act is the act that is
carried out by a speaker when making
an utterance that causes a certain
effect on the hearer and others.
● Perlocutionary act refers to the effect
the utterance has on the thoughts or
actions of the other person.
● Perlocutionary act is specific to the
circumstances of issuance, and is
therefore not conventionally
indeterminate, that some utterance in
a particular utterance in a particular
situation.
EXAMPLES:
a.It is so dark in this room.
b. The box is heavy.
▶ First sentence can be inferred that the
first sentence is uttered by someone
while switching the light on.
▶ Second sentence is done by someone
while lifting the box.
 ENG 018: INTRODUCTION TO
LINGUISTICS
MODULE 19-20: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Discourse

● Refers to a unit of language longer

than a single sentence.
● Derived from the Latin prefix dis-
meaning “ away” and the root word
meaning “ to run” .
● Refers to the way the conversations
flow.
● Analyzing the use of spoken or written
language in a social context.
● Also called discourse studies.
● Study larger chunks of language as
they flow together.

INTERPRETING DISCOURSE

Reframing

● Is a way to talk about going back and

re-interpreting the meaning of the first
sentence.

Frame Analysis

● Type of discourse analysis that’ s

asks, what activity are speakers
engaged in when they say this? What
do they think they are doing by talking
in this way at this time?
● Analyze how people understand
situations and activities.

COHERENCE AND COHESION

1. Coherence
● Defined as the quality of being logical,
consistent, and able to be understood.
● Achieved through cohesive ties,
formatting techniques, inference,
 logical ordering of information, OVERLAPS
semantic patterning, and consistency.
Competitive Overlap
● Achieved when ideas are connected.
2. Cohesion ● Caused by interruptions, it is a
● Refers to the act of forming a whole competition in which speakers fight
unit. for dominance during a conversation.
● Subset of coherence. ● Hinders conversation by disrupting
● Achieved when sentences are turn-taking.
connected at the sentence level.
Cooperative Overlap
Cohesive Devices
● A listener becomes a speaker to show
● Helps discourse flow. interest or agreement in what the
● Words or expressions that show current talker is talking about.
relationships between parts of text ● Helps to move conversation forward.
and ideas, such as:
GRICE’ S PAPER, “ LOGIC AND
1. Collocations
CONVERSATION (1975)
2. Lexical repetition
3. Linking adverbials ● Argued that for a person to interpret
4. Substitution what someone else says, some kind
5. Ellipsis of cooperative principle is assumed to
6. Conjunctions be in operation.
7. Synonymy
8. Antonymy THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE
9. Hypernyms
● Make your contribution such as
10. Hyponyms
required, at the stage at which it
11. Referencing (anaphoric,
occurs by the accepted purpose or
cataphoric, deictic)
direction of the talk exchange in which
you are engaged (Grice 1975:45).

CONVERSATION ANALYSIS THE MAXIMS

● An approach within the social 1. Maxim of QUANTITY

sciences that aims to describe, ● Make your contribution as informative
analyze, and understand talk as basic as is required.
and constitutive feature of human ● Do not make your contribution more
social life. informative than is required.
● Where one tries to be as informative
TURN-TAKING as one possibly can, and gives as
● The manner in which orderly much information as is needed, and
conversation normally takes place. no more.
● Notion that people in a conversation 2. Maxim of QUALITY

take turns in speaking. ● Do not say what you believe to be

false.
● Do not say that for which you lack
adequate evidence.
● Where one tries to be truthful and
does not give information that is false
or that is not supported by evidence.
 3. Maxim of RELATION brains store our knowledge of the
● Be relevant. language (or languages) that we
● Where one tries to be relevant and speak, understand, read, and write,
says things that are pertinent to the what happens in our brains as we
discussion. acquire that knowledge, and what
4. Maxim of MANNER happens as we use it in our everyday
● Avoid obscurity of information. lives.
● Avoid ambiguity.
● Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity.)
● Be orderly
● When one tries to be clear, as brief,
and as orderly as one can in what one
says, and where one avoids obscurity
and ambiguity.
Neurons
HEDGES
● Tiny nerve cells
● Allow speakers and writers to signal ● Considered to be the building blocks
caution, or probability, versus full of the nervous system and make up
certainty. the major nerve pathways that are
● Used to show that the speaker is not responsible for communicating
sure or certain of his/her utterances information throughout the body.
● Can allow speakers and writers to
introduce or eliminate ambiguity in
meaning and typically as a category
member.

IMPLICATURES

● Denotes either:
1. The act of meaning or implying Glial Cells
one thing by saying something ● Surround neurons and provide
else support for and insulation between
2. The object and the act. them.
● Can be determined by sentence ● Are the most abundant cell types in
meaning by conversational context the central nervous system.
and can be conventional or
unconventional.

ENG 018: INTRODUCTION TO

LINGUISTICS
MODULE 22: NEUROLINGUISTICS

Neurolinguistics

● Study of how language is represented Cerebral Cortex

in the brain: that is, how and where our

 ● Thin layer of the brain that covers the
outer portion (1.5 mm to 5 mm) of the
cerebrum.
● It is covered by the meninges and
often referred to as gray matter.
● Outermost layer of gray matter
making up the superficial aspect of
the cerebrum.

Broca’ s Area

● Located in the frontal lobe of the brain.

● Linked to speech production, and
recent studies have shown it also
plays a role in language
comprehension.
● Works in conjunction with working
memory to allow a person to use
Corpus Callosum
verbal expression and spoken words.
● Part of the mind that allows ● Damage to Broca’ s area can result
communication between the two in productive aphasia (Broca’ s
hemispheres of the brain. Aphasia), or inability to speak.
● Responsible for transmitting neural ● Patients with Broca’ s can often still
messages between both the right and understand language, but they cannot
left hemispheres. speak fluently.

Wernicke’ s Area

● Located in the cerebral cortex.

● Involved in understanding written &
spoken language.
● Damage to this area results in
receptive aphasia (Wernicke’ s
Aphasia).
● This type of aphasia manifests itself
as a loss of comprehension, so
sometimes while the patient can
AREAS OF BRAIN NECESSARRY FOR
PROCESSING LANGUAGE:
apparently still speak, their language
is nonsensical and incomprehensible.
1. Broca’ s Area
Tip of the tongue
2. Wernicke’ s Area
3. Primary Motor Cortex ● Also known as TOT or lethologica
4. Posterior middle temporal gyrus ● Phenomenon of failing to retrieve a
5. Middle and posterior superior word or term from memory, combined
temporal gyrus with a partial recall and the feeling
that retrieval is imminent.
 ● TOT states should be separated from
FOK (feeling of knowing)

Slip of the tongue

● Speech error/misspeaking
● Deviation from the apparently
intended form of an utterance.
● Can be subdivided into spontaneously
and inadvertently produced speech
errors and intentionally produced ● Captures the relation of the brain and
wordplays or puns. language functions.
● Everything we do is dictated by the
Slip of the ear brain.

● Is a misperception of speech results

from a weak representation of the
difference between what we expect to
hear and what is said, according to
JNeurosci.

Auditory Cortex and Angular Gyrus

● Primary auditory cortex, located in the

temporal lobe and connected to the
auditory system, is organized so that it
responds to neighboring frequencies 1. The Brain’ s Plasticity
in the other cells of the cortex. ● Activity of the brain to change, to
● Responsible for identifying pitch and adapt to specific stimuli either
loudness of sounds. external or internal.
● The angular gyrus, located in the ● The plasticity of the brain does not
parietal lobe of the brains, is change; countering the claims that
responsible for several language says that our brain decreases its
processes, including: plasticity as we age.
1. Number processing ● Our brain needs to be exercised
2. Spatial recognition regularly.
3. Attention 2. Lateralization Areas
● Talks about the hemispheres of the
brain.
ENG 018: INTRODUCTION TO 3. Aphasia
● Communication disorder caused by
LINGUISTICS
injury to the parts of the brain where
VIDEO LECTURE (NEUROLINGUISTICS) language is focused.

Neurolinguistics

● Branch of linguistics that explains

how the structure or the neural
structure affects language structures
and processes.
 Occipital Lobe

● Sight (visual cortex)

● Visual reception and visual
interpretation

Parietal Lobe

● Touch perception (somatosensory

cortex)
● Body orientation and sensory
● Handedness implies what brain
discrimination
hemisphere is dominant.
● Righthanded people are left-brain LAD (Language Acquisition Device)
dominant
● Inborn with every human.
● Lefthanded people are right-brain
● Says that we are biologically
dominant (ambidextrous).
predisposed to acquire and learn
Cross-Dominance languages.
● Everyone is born with language
● People tend to have characteristics
acquisition device.
mixed with both hemispheres.
● Situated in the left hemisphere
● Lefthanded but have right eye
dominance.

Frontal Lobe

● Motor Control (premotor cortex)

● Problem solving (prefrontal area)
● Speech Production (Broca’ s Area)

Temporal Lobe

● Auditory processing (hearing)

● Language comprehension
(Wernicke’ s Area)
● Memory/information retrieval Motor Cortex

Brainstem ● Controls the movement of muscles

● Involuntary responses Arcuate fasciculus

Cerebellum ● Connects Wernicke’ s area to

Brocka’ s area.
● Balance and coordination
 ENG 018: INTRODUCTION TO
LINGUISTICS
MODULE 23: APHASIA

Aphasia

● Communication disorder that results

from damage or injury to language
parts of the brain.
● More common in older adults,
particularly those who have had
stroke.
● Does not impair the person’ s
intelligence.

What causes Aphasia?

Broca’ s Area ● Caused by stroke or brain injury with

damage to one or more parts of the
● Involves in production of speech brain that deal with language.
sound. ● According to the National Aphasia
● Helps in producing coherent speech. Association, about 25% to 40% of
Functions: people who survive a stroke get
aphasia.
1. Speech Production ● Aphasia may also be caused by a
2. Facial Neuron Control brain tumor, brain infection, or
3. Language Processing dementia such as Alzheimer’ s
disease.
● In some cases, aphasia is a symptom
Wernicke’ s Area of epilepsy or other neurological
disorders.
● Involves in understanding of speech.
● Location: Left temporal lobe
● Important for the comprehension of
speech sounds and is the language
comprehension center. TYPES OF APHASIA
● Helps in speech processing and
understanding language. 1. Expressive Aphasia (non-fluent)
 ● The person knows what he wants to
say yet has difficulty communicating
it to others.
● It doesn’ t matter whether the person
is trying to say or write what he or she
is trying to communicate. ENG 018: INTRODUCTION TO
2. Receptive Aphasia (fluent) LINGUISTICS
● The person can hear a voice or read
the print but may not understand the VIDEO LECTURE (APHASIA)
meaning of the message.
Aphasia
● Oftentimes, someone with receptive
aphasia takes language literally. ● Communication disorder caused by
● Their own speech may be disturbed several situations (injuries).
because they do not understand their ● Producing incoherent and
own language. unintelligible speech.
3. Anomic Aphasia ● Difficulty in retrieving language
● The person has word-finding information.
difficulties. This is called anomia.
What causes it?
● The person struggles to find the right
words for speaking and writing. ● Stroke
4. Global Aphasia ● Head Injury
● Most severe type of aphasia. ● Brain tumor (depends on size and
● Often seen with someone who has location)
attacked by stroke. ● Infections
● The person has difficulty speaking ● Dementia
and understanding words and may be ● Alzheimer's Disease (shrinking size of
unable to speak and write. the brain)
5. Primary Progressive Aphasia ● We are not born with it, but when
● Rare disorder where people slowly there’ s a congenital effect where
lose their ability to talk, write, read, brain is not fully developed, it might
and comprehend what they hear in occur.
conversation.
● With a stroke, aphasia may improve TYPES OF APHASIA
with proper therapy. 1. Expressive Aphasia
● There is no treatment to reverse ● Speech production is affected
primary progressive aphasia. ● Damaged Broca’ s Area
● People with this type of aphasia are ● Difficulty in producing cohesive
able to communicate in ways other speech
than speech (they might use 2. Receptive Aphasia
gestures).
● Difficulty in understanding written or
Aphasia may be mild or severe. With mild spoken speech
aphasia, the person may be able to converse, ● Damaged Wernicke’ s Area
yet have trouble finding the right word or 3. Anomic Aphasia
understanding complex conversations. Severe ● Difficulty (failure) in retrieving words
aphasia limits the person’ s ability to we want to say, and we cannot
communicate. The person may say little and express them.
may not participate in or understand any ● Dysnomia
conversation.
 ● Nominal Aphasia- difficulty in that there is no spontaneous
recalling names, nouns, verbs… language.
4. Global Aphasia 2. The Natural Sound Source
● Both areas are damaged ● Based on the concept of natural
● Mixed types of aphasia sounds.
5. Primary Progressive Aphasia ● The human auditory system is already
● Aphasia manifests gradually functioning before birth (at around 7
● Mostly happens with dementia months).
patients. ● That early processing capacity
develops into an ability to identify
sounds in the environment, allowing
humans to make a connection
between a sound and the thing
ENG 018: INTRODUCTION TO producing that sound.
LINGUISTICS ● This leads to the idea that primitive
words derive from imitations of the
MODULE 24: THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OF natural sounds that early humans
LANGUAGE heard around them.
● Jespersen (1922) called this idea the
1. The Divine Source
bow-wow theory.
● In the book of Genesis, God created
3. The Bow-Wow Theory
Adam and gave him a mission to
● Early humans tried to imitate the
name everything he sees.
sounds then used them to refer to
● In Hindu Tradition, language came
those objects even when not present.
from Sarasvati, wife of Brahma,
● Closely related to onomatopoeia.
creator of universe.
● Skeptical about a view that seems to
● Some said that if a human is not
assume that language is only a set of
exposed of any human language, they
words used as names for things
would then instinctively use the
(soundless things and abstract
God-given language.
concepts are disregarded).
● Greek writer Herodotus reported the
4. The Pooh-Pooh Theory
story of an Egyptian pharaoh named
● Another concept that revolves in
Psammetichus (or Psamtik) who tried
natural sounds
to experiment with two newborn
● Believes that language came from
babies who was left with goats and a
humans who are under physical effort
deaf shepherd, they started to talk
where they’ re making sounds of
with a Phrygian word “ bekos”
grunts, hums, chants, and curses as
meaning bread. The pharaoh
they carry something heavy.
concluded that Phrygian, an older
5. The Physical Adaptation Source
language spoken in modern Turkey,
● Revolves around the process at how
must be the original language.
humans (Neanderthals) evolved to
● King James the Fourth of Scotland did
being bi-pedal, and the reconstruction
the similar experiment in 1500 and
of vocal tract (35, 000 years) to
confirmed the King’ s belief that
produce consonant-like sounds.
Hebrew had been the language of
● 60,000 years ago when gorillas and
Garden of Eden.
Neanderthals have the same body
● However, according to Victor (wild
structure.
boy of Aveyron in France) and Genie
(American child in the 1970s) proved
 make it a scientific question. It may
be important for us to know where we
came from, but if we can’ t answer
that question scientifically, we can’ t
answer it. If you want to tell stories,
well then, tell stories.
● Language is prolific and powerful.

THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRST LANGUAGE

1. Belief in divine creation (Divine

Source)
● Many societies throughout history
believed that language is the gift of
the Gods to humans.
● The most familiar is found in Genesis
2:20, which tells us that Adam gave
names to all living creatures. This
belief predicates that humans were
created from the start with an innate
capacity to use language.
● Biblical origin of language.
● Language made the world like a
“ world. “ Cohesive and organized.
● Creation of tower of Babel – forcing
God to make varieties of language for
humans to separate them.
2. Natural Evolution Hypothesis
ENG 018: INTRODUCTION TO ● At some point in their evolutionary
LINGUISTICS development, humans acquired a
more sophisticated brain which made
VIDEO LECTURE (ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE)
language invention and learning
Theories attempt to explain the phenomenon possible. In other words, at some
why language exists. point in time, humans evolved a
language acquisition device (LAD),
Steven Pinker whatever this may be in real physical
terms.
● The first steps toward language are a
● We started without knowing language
mystery.
because of our ancestor’ s
● The origin of language is a mystery.
(hominids) physical capacities.
Richard Lewontin 3. Invention Hypotheses
● There are several hypotheses as to
● The question of where language
how language might have been
comes from may simply be
consciously invented by humans
unanswerable.
based on a more primitive system of
Noam Chomsky hominid communication.

● This task intrigues people because THE VOCAL THEORIES

it’ s about us. But that doesn’ t
● About 100,000 years ago, certain moon, for example. This is often
changes in the mouth and the pharynx referred to as sound symbolism.
combined with an increased brain 6. The yo-he-ho Theory (Social
volume to give human beings Interaction Theory)
voluntary control over vocal outputs ● Language began as rhythmic chants,
that up to then had been more like perhaps ultimately from the grunts of
instinctive cries. heavy work (heave-ho!). The linguist
1. The Mama Theory A.S. Diamond suggests that these
● Language began with the easiest were perhaps calls for assistance or
syllables attached to the most cooperation accompanied by
significant objects. appropriate gestures.
● The earliest languages started from 7. The sing-song theory
monosyllabic utterances. ● Danish linguist Jesperson suggested
2. The ta-ta Theory that language comes out of play,
● Sir Richard Paget, influenced by laughter, cooing, courtship, emotional
Darwin, believed that body movement mutterings, and the like.
preceded language. ● He even suggests that, in contrary to
● Language began as an unconscious other theories, perhaps some of our
vocal imitation of these movements first words were actually long and
– like the way a child’ s mouth will musical, rather than the short grunts
move when they use scissors, or our many assume we started with.
tongue sticks out when we try to play 8. The Hocus Pocus Theory
the guitar. ● Language may have had some roots
● Language may have started with in a sort of magical or religious aspect
simple gestures. of our ancestor’ s lives. Perhaps we
3. The bow-wow Theory began by calling out to game animals
● Language began as imitations of with magical sounds, which became
natural sounds – moo, choo-choo, their names.
crash, clang, buzz, bang, meow… This 9. The Gestural Theory
is more technically referred to as ● Language originated from gestures.
onomatopoeia and echoism. 10. The Complexity of the Social World
4. The pooh-pooh Theory ● Gossips (relates to the number of
● Language began with interjections interacting individuals, the different
(random utterances that came from types (social roles) of those
our strong emotions), instinctive individuals and the nature and
emotive cries such as oh! For surprise diversity of interactions among those
and ouch! For pain. individuals.)
5. The Ding-dong Theory
● Some people, including the famous
linguist Max Muller, have pointed out
that there is a rather mysterious
correspondence between sounds and
meanings.
● Small, sharp, high things tend to have
words with high front vowels in many
languages, while big, round, low things
tend to have round back vowels.
Compare itsy bitsy teeny weeny with