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Intro To Lingustics - Lec #1

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29 views3 pages

Intro To Lingustics - Lec #1

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sadiamemon640
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Basic intro to structure of language

- Story of language
- How language changes over time (not much)

I speak urdu, so i have knowledge of urdu→ known as competence


- Only use it
- Cannot touch it
non-native speakers can also acquire competence in another language through practice? Yes

In LINA01 when we say “grammar”, we mean…


- MENTAL GRAMMAR
- THE system of rules that exist in the head if native speakers

Chapter 1 -tophat notes


Characteristics of language
Discreteness: set of unites to make up phrases
Grammar: set of rules and how to combine those units
Productivity: use language to create infinite number of messages
Displacement: ability to talk about things that aren't right in front of you (past and future)
Semanticity: meaning
Crabs and cuttlefish only communicate current conditions

GRAMMAR:

1. the study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed; morphology and
syntax.
2. an account of these features; a set of rules accounting for these constructions.
3. Generative Grammar. a device, as a body of rules, whose output is all of the sentences
that are permissible in a given language, while excluding all those that are not
permissible.
4. prescriptive grammar.
5. knowledge or usage of the preferred or prescribed forms in speaking or writing.

MENTAL GRAMMAR:

1. Phonetics - deals with the perception and articulation of speech sounds


2. Phonology - deals with sound combinations, particularly which sound combinations are
possible
3. Morphology - deals with the structure of words
4. Syntax - deals with sentence structure
5. Semantics - deals with meaning and the interpretation of sente

Prescriptive rules
1. Don’t end a sentence with a preposition!
2. Don’t split an infinitive (to + base form)!
3. Don’t use double negatives. Two negatives make a positive!

Descriptive linguists counter the prescriptivist claims with the following:

1. All varieties of a language are valid systems with their own logic and conventions.
2. There is no scientific reason to expect one language to match the mold of another.
3. Languages are continually changing in subtle ways without reducing their
usefulness, preciseness, or aesthetic value.
4. All languages have adopted words from other sources.

Here are a few descriptive rules (of the English language):

(a) Articles like the and a precede nouns in English.


(b) In English, adjectives come before nouns to modify them.
(c) The word order in English is Subject + Verb + Object (SVO)

- Descriptive rules or statements aim to describe how people speak a language in its
entirety and, generally speaking, linguists consider themselves descriptive
grammarians
- is an approach that studies and characterizes the actual language use of specific
groups of people in a range of situations.
five simple characteristics of grammar
1. Generality
2. Parity
3. Mutability
4. Inaccessibility
5. Universality

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