Linguistics Lecture 01

Syntax: The study of sentence structure

Morphology: The study of how words are put together
●​ (*) in front of a sentence means ungrammatical

What does it mean to know a language?

●​ Being able to communicate with people who know the same language
●​ Understood by others
●​ Ability to articulate the sound of the language
●​ Knowing what is possible and what is not possible and possible without a clear
explanation ex. Dog, ogd

Competence: knowledge of the language you speak

●​ Only exists in the head of native speakers
Performance: Using your competence into a performance (speaking, writing)

+​ ed = past tense marker e.x. Walk+ ed

What is grammar?
●​ A complex system of rules that enables how speakers organize sounds in words and
words into sentences
Mental grammar
●​ metal system of rules stored in the mind of a native speaker which allows you to speak
and be understood
●​ Components of MG
○​ Phonetics
■​ The study of sounds
○​ Phonology
■​ The rules of sound combinations
○​ Morphology
■​ The internal structure of words
○​ Syntax
■​ How we put words together to create sentences
○​ Semantics
■​ Deals with meaning

Approaches to grammar
●​ Prescriptive is the should and shouldn’ts of language
●​ Descriptive is studying language as it is (no correctness)
○​ All varieties of the language are valid systems (british english, american english)
○​ Languages are continually changing

Characteristics of grammar
 ●​ Generality
○​ All languages and dialects have a grammar
●​ Parity
○​ All grammars are equal
●​ Mutability
○​ Grammars change all the time
●​ Inaccessibility
○​ Grammar knowledge is unconscious
●​ Universality
○​ All grammars are the same in basic ways ( ex. All languages have sounds and
constants, nouns)

Language Lecture 02

●​ The mental lexicon is where we store sounds from which we create words
●​ The relationship between form and meaning is based on random choice

Desk + s = desk
Desk means desk S means plural
2 separate morphemes that each have meaning.

●​ Bound element: a form unable to stand on its own ex. S (prefixes, suffixes)
●​ Free element: a word able to stand on its own
●​ Words are the smallest free form, but they are not the smallest unit of meaning ex. (s)
●​ Morpheme: smallest unit of meaning in language ( cannot be broken down into smaller
units)
●​ Morphemes can be free (words) or bound (affixes)
●​ Allomorphs are the different variants of a morpheme ex. A, an
●​ Complex words contain a root and one or more affixes
●​ Root: Words that carry the most meaning, and cannot be broken down in a complex
word ex. Happy from un- + happy
●​ Lexical categories (content words): Noun, adjectives, verbs and can often be looked up
in the dictionary
●​ Affixes have no lexical categories
●​ Affixation: process of attaching a affix onto a word

Organization
●​ Based on whether morphemes can stand alone
●​ Based on their grammatical function
○​ Inflictions
○​ Derivational

Linguistics Lecture 03
How do we dissect a word?
●​ Words are free forms with meaning
Walked = WALK ​ +​ ED
​ Free form ​ +​ bound form (past marker)
●​ Therefore the word walk has 2 morphemes
●​ Morphemes are the smallest unit of meaning
○​ Can be free (words) or bound (affixes)
●​ (-) Means bound morpheme

Morphemes & Allomorphs

●​ Allomorphs are different realizations or pronunciations of the same morpheme
Ex. ​ ed= past tense marker
Allomorphs of the morpheme ed
​ Beg + ed [d]​ ​ walk + ed [t]​ ​ State + ed [id]​

●​ Every word only has 1 ROOT and 1 or more AFFIXES

●​ Receive can be broken into re + ceive
○​ Ceive is classified as a bound root
●​ There are two types of morphemes
●​ Inflection
○​ Do not change the meaning but add grammatical information ex. tree>tress =
plural
●​ Derivational
○​ Change the meaning of the word class ex. Write (verb) + -er = writer (noun)

Bases
●​ A base is what a affix attaches to
1.​ Ex. 1)​ re- + construct =​ Reconstruct
​ (Base)
2) ​ Reconstruct + -ion = Reconstruction
​ ​ (Base)
Therefore, when a word has 2 affixes, there will be 2 bases!

Affixes
●​ Infixes and circumfixes are not present in english
○​ Infixes are inserted into the root
○​ Circumfixes are affixes where part of it attaches before the root and the rest after
the root

Linguistics Lecture 04
*CHECK NOTEBOOK*

Linguistics Lecture 05

Syntax
Syntax: the study of sentence structure
●​ A sentence can either be grammatical or ungrammatical - meaning it follows the rules of
sentence formation in the language ex. English subject > verb > object
Being grammatical doesn’t mean meaningful!

Principals to construct a sentence

1.​ Word order
a.​ subject > verb > object
b.​ Ex. the hyena ate the dog
2.​ Grammatical relations: subject, direct object

Syntactic Knowledge
1.​ Being able to identify grammatical and ungrammatical sentences in your native
language, without being able to say why
2.​ Benign able to disambiguate sentences with several meanings
○​ Ex. he saw the man with binoculars
○​ He saw a man carrying binoculars
○​ He saw a man using binocular
3.​ Being able to tell some structures are related
○​ Having a question based on a statement Ex. he ate a pie
○​ What did he eat?

Syntactic categories
Lexical (content) words
●​ Nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and prepositions
●​ Words that add to the main meaning of the sentence
●​ Open class: new words that are easily created
●​ Ex. the children are playing happily in the park

Nouns
○​ Person, place or thing
○​ Nouns are preceded by determiners
○​ Nouns come after adjectives
○​ Can be singular or plural
○​ Usually the subject or object of the sentence

Test for nouns

●​ morphological tests
 ○​ ex affixation or no evidence
●​ syntactic tests
○​ Determiners

Verbs
○​ Come after auxiliary words
○​ Action words
○​ Ex. she should see a doctor
○​ He can sing
○​ It might rain
○​ She wants to be a doctor
○​ She is a nurse

Tests for verbs

●​ Morphological tests
○​ ex. Look for affixation ending in ify, Ate, re, ed, ing
●​ Syntactic test
○​ sometimes come after auxiliary words
○​ Word order test
S>V>O
Adjectives
●​ Come before nouns
●​ Come after degree and intensifier words
●​ Can come after be words

Tests for Adjectives

●​ Morphological tests
○​ Derivational affixes: –ish, -ous, -ed, -ing, etc.
○​ Inflectional suffixes: -er, -est
●​ Syntactic tests
○​ Come before nouns
○​ Come between determiners and nouns det + adj + noun
○​ Ex. the smart women
●​ The component young women
●​ The shocking news surprised the entire family
●​ The peanut butter was expired

Adverbs
●​ Modify verbs
●​ Typically adverbs show intensity or frequency of the action
●​ Typical have the suffix -ly attached to an adjective
●​ Cannot be the head of the phrase

Tests for Adverbs

 ●​ Morphically tests
●​ Look at the type of adverb
Types of Adverbs
●​ Manner
○​ Answer the question how ex. He drives Slow -ly
○​ Fast & hard is an acception
●​ Time
○​ Answer the question as to when ex. Now, then, yesterday, tomorrow
●​ Place
○​ Answers the question to where ex. Here, there
●​ Frequency
○​ Answer to the question of how often ex. Always rarely, never, usually, sometimes
●​ Sentence
○​ Show your attitude ex. Honest -ly, I’m not happy with the results
○​ Unfortunate -ly
Adjective + -ly = Adverb
Noun + -ly = Adjective
Prepositions
●​ Indicates space, location and direction
○​ in , on, from, at, with, during, between, of, about, by, for
●​ Can come after adjectives
○​ Afraid of
○​ Interested in
●​ Must have a noun after
○​ Eg. His pencil was on the desk
○​ She went with me to the mall

Functional words
●​ Closed case
1.​ Auxiliaries (change in time)
○​ Modal auxiliaries carry more meaning
○​ Regular
■​ Be( am, is, are, were, was), do (does, did), have (has, had)
○​ Modal
■​ Should, could, may, might, would, will, shall, can
2.​ Determiners: elements that come before and identify nouns
○​ Articles
■​ Definite articles ex. The
■​ Indefinite articles ex. A or an
○​ Numbers
■​ ex. 16 flowers
○​ Quantifiers
■​ ex. Much, some, few, little, many + NOUN
 ○​ Demonstratives: shows distance
■​ ex. That this, those, these + NOUN
○​ possessives
■​ ex. Mine, your, his, her, our + NOUN
○​ Indefinites
■​ ex. Any, each, every
3.​ Degree words
●​ Shows the intensity or quality of an adjective
●​ So, really, very, extra, extremely
●​ Ex. she's so pretty

●​ Is + noun = verb
○​ Eg she is a nurse
●​ Is + verb = auxiliary
○​ She is working

Linguistics Lecture 06

Phrases and phrases structure

●​ Phrase: a group of words that work together and form a meaningful unit (sentences)
●​ Adjectives can form their own phrases
●​ A sentence can be broken up into two major phrases:
○​ A subject
■​ Answers who or what?
■​ Can be replaced by pronouns
○​ A predicate
■​ The information about your subject
■​ Usually start with a verb
Examples
●​ The tired students shuffled into the classroom
●​ During the summers, the students take linguistics courses

Lexical phrases:
Head words are mandatory and degree/determiners/adjectives are optional
Adjective and adverbs are phrases by themselves

noun phrase
●​ Det + noun = noun phrase
●​ Ex. the students
●​ The head of the phrase is noun (students)
●​ [three [old] books]​ ​ =​ Det + Adjp + Noun
●​ Those cute cats with hats ​ = ​ Det + Adjp + Np + PP
verb phrase
●​ Single verb
●​ Will sing​ =​ Aux + V
●​ Will often sing =​ Aux + AdvP + V
●​ Sings songs = ​ V + NP
●​ would often sing songs for me =​ Aux + AdvP + V + NP + PP
●​ She quickly runs = verb phrase
●​ The head of the VP is mandatory
●​ The object of a verb is called a complement
○​ Compliments complete a verb phrase
●​ Without compliments sentences are ungrammatical
●​

adjective phrase
●​ very amusing = Det+ Adj
●​ Amusing ​ = Adj
●​ so scared of dogs = DEG + Adj + PP
●​ Degree + adjective = adjective phrase
●​ Head of the phrase is an adjective
●​ Can be by itself
●​ Ex. so tired
●​ Incredible tidy

Adverb Phrases
●​ Slowly = AdvP
●​ So/incredibly cheerfully = Det + AdvP
●​ The head is the adverb

Preposition phrase
●​ Preposition + noun = preposition phrase
○​ With confidence
●​ Degree + adverb = adverb phrase
○​

Linguistics Lecture 07 (Syntax 3)

Phrase Structure Rules

●​ rules that organize words into larger units
●​ Heads are words whose syntactic category determines the category of the phrase (N in
NPs, V in VPs)
○​ Heads are mandatory

PRSs in LINA01:
Check Previous lecture notes and note book

Linguistics Lecture 08

Phonetics: The study of sounds

Phonetics
●​ The smallest building blocks in language are sounds
○​ Sentences > phrases > words > Morphemes > sounds
●​ Articulatory
○​ Looking at speech production and how sounds are articulated
●​ Artistics
○​ measuring and analyzing the physical properties of the sound waves produced in
speech

Is there a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and spelling in English?

NO

How to represent sounds

●​ Writing systems can be ambiguous
Ex. rough: 3 sounds r-ough
Through: 3 sounds tr -ough
Though: 2 sounds th -ough

International Phonetic alphabet: IPA

●​ Its purpose is to represent one sound with one symbol
●​ Used for all languages

The basic classification

Sounds are classified into 3 major classes:
●​ Vowels
●​ Constants
●​ Glides
There are 3 ways to describe a constant:
●​ Place of articulation
○​ The tongue and the lips produce sound modification at specific places or points
of articulation
○​ The tongue and lips, pharynx and the glottis produce sound
●​ Manner of articulation
●​ Voicing ​

Place of articulation
●​ The tongue and the lips produce sound modification at specific places or points of
articulation
 ●​ The tongue and lips, pharynx and the glottis produce sound

Labials sounds
●​ Sounds for which we use our lips ex. Pa, ba, fa
●​ Bilabials sounds
○​ Sounds using both lips ex. Ba, ma, pa
●​ Labial dental sounds
○​ Lower lip + upper teeth sounds ex. Fa, va
Interdental sounds
●​ 2 sounds corresponding to th
○​ Tha and the
Alveolars
●​ Your tongue touches the place behind your upper teeth (alveolar ridge)
○​ S, z, t, d, n, r, l
Alveo Palatals
●​ Your tongue touches a little bit behind the alveolar ridge
○​ Sha, je, jue and cha
Palatals
●​ The tongue touches the roof of your mouth
○​ J (ye)
Velars
●​ Tongue touches the soft part in the top of your mouth
○​ ng, k, g, w
Glottals
●​ Air flows freely through the glottis to produce a sound
○​ H, ?

Linguistics Lecture 09

Voicing
●​ Voiced sounds are produced when air pushes on closed vocal folds resulting in a
vibration (+)
●​ Voiceless sounds are produced when air flows freely through the larynx (-)

Manner of articulation
●​ Refers to how the air flows
○​ What kind of air obstruction occurs?
●​ Oral constants
○​ Air flows through the oral cavity (mouth)
●​ Nasal
○​ Air mainly flows through the nasal cavity (nose)
○​ The soft part (velum) is lowered
○​ All nasal sounds are voiced
 ○​ M, n, ng
●​ Stops
○​ During articulation the air is blocked completely
○​ P, b, t, d, k, g, ?
○​ Nasal stops
■​ M, n, ng
●​ Fricatives
○​ The tiny airway causes the air passing through to make noise
○​ S, z, f, sh, h, tha, the, v, je(snake sound)
○​ Louder fricatives are called stridents/ sibilants
■​ S, z, sh, cha, je, ja
○​ Non stridents
■​ Tha, the, v, h, f
●​ Affricates
○​ Starts with the air locked, followed by a slow release
○​ Cha, ja
●​ Approximants (Liquids)
○​ The air flows freely with no friction
○​ L, r
■​ When are flows through the side it is called a lateral approximant [L]
■​ The curled tongue is called retroflex, making [r] a retroflex approximant.
●​ Glides
○​ are made with very little obstruction of the airflow in the mouth
○​ Sounds that are between constants and vowels
○​ J, w
■​ Also known as semi vowels
Vowels
Broken into 4 groups:
●​ Height
○​ Refers to the height of your tongue
●​ Backness
○​ Whether you use the front or back of the tongue
●​ Roundness
○​ Whether your lips are rounded or not
●​ Tenseness
○​ Whether the vowel occurs at the end of the syllable

Linguistics lecture 10

Assimilation
When the morpheme before another affects the way it is pronounced ex. Washed and read
Progression assimilation
●​ When a effects b
Recessive assimilation
●​ When B effects a
○​ Ex. have to, sounds like the V is an F