Introduction to Linguistics

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Maryam Almuhanna
 Chapter 1: What is Language?
• Linguistics is the scientific study of the nature, structure and
variation of language.

• Linguistics asks the question:

"What do we KNOW when we know/speak a language?"

• Some of the things we KNOW include:

• Sounds: [b] is a sound of Arabic. [g] and [p] are not.

[t] is a sound of English. ‫ ق‬and ‫ ط‬are not.
• Words: The noun of Arabic verb ‫ قتل‬is ‫قاتل‬. The plural of cat is
cats.
• Word Patterns: I saw the bank is an English sentence;
*bank I the saw is not.
• Meaning: We know what is meaningful and what is meaningless.
You know how to interpret the scope of negation.
• What we know about the language we speak forms our
linguistic knowledge of that language.

• Our linguistic knowledge consists of:

Morphological Knowledge

Syntactic knowledge

Phonetic and Phonological knowledge

Semantic knowledge

Pragmatic knowledge

Knowledge of language varieties

 Knowledge of Words
• Language has the property/feature/characteristic of
arbitrariness: the link between the meaning of a word
and its form (i.e. sound/orthographical shape) is
arbitrarily (randomly) established.

• OR: There is no logical connection between the word

form and its meaning.

• Onomatopoeia breaks the rule of arbitrariness.

• Onomatopoeic words are words whose pronunciation

suggests/echoes the meaning as in:
–Buzz: Listen to the insects buzz by.
–Flush: Don't forget to flush the toilet
–Click: Click the button and take a picture.
–Splash: Don’t splash my dress.
 Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an
American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and
political activist.
 Knowledge of Sentences
• The linguist Noam Chomsky points out that speaking a
language means that there is an element of creativity in
our linguistic knowledge.

• This means that it is possible to:

- list all letters in an alphabet.

- it is maybe possible to list all the words in that language.

- but it is impossible to list all the sentences in that language.

• Linguistic creativity means the ability to form new

sentences never spoken before and to understand
sentences never heard before.
 Linguistic Competence and Linguistic
Performance
• Much of our linguistic knowledge is implicit. Language users
are not conscious of what they know about language.

• Linguistic competence is what we know about our language

and the way it is structured and its behavior. It is an internalized
ability that allows us to accept or reject certain utterances as
grammatical or ungrammatical.

• Linguistic performance is how we use this linguistics

knowledge in actual speech production and comprehension.

• Performance MAY reflect competence, but also MAY include

speech errors, slips of the tongue, memory problems, fatigue,
boredom, distraction, etc.

• According to Chomsky, actual speech performance is only the

tip of an iceberg of linguistic competence.
Tip of the iceberg.
 Tip of the iceberg.

Performance

Competence

A small evident part of something largely hidden

 What is Grammar?
• The grammar of a language consists of the sounds and
sound patterns, the basic units of meaning such as words,
the rules to combine all of these to form sentences, etc.

• Grammar in this case represents what we know about

language; it is part of our linguistic competence.

• Grammarians in the past believed that language change is a

form of linguistic corruption.

• According to those (Purists), the standard of language must

be preserved by what is generally known in linguistics as
prescriptive grammar.

• Prescriptive Grammar is the type which tells people how to

speak.
 Examples of Prescriptive Grammar
• Do not split the infinitive with an adverb:
– I want to explain this concept.
– I want to carefully explain this concept.

• Do not use double negation:

- I didn’t do anything.
- I didn’t do nothing.

• Do not end a sentence with a preposition:

- A preposition is not a good word with which to end a sentence.

- A preposition is not a good word to end a sentence with.

• Unfortunately, one of the facts about language is that
language changes over time.

• The meaning of some words changes and some

grammatical usages become obsolete.

Examples
• Horn (animal horn) vs. musical instrument + car horn

• Mouse (an animal) vs. part of a computer.

• Awful (a blend of the words awe and full) originally meant

inspiring wonder or fear. Now it means bad, terrible,
unpleasant, etc.

• Goodbye (short form of God be with ye) means farewell.

• Prescriptive grammar may be useful in learning a form of
the language which will gain respect or acceptance as
etiquette in social matters.

• One of the roles of modern linguistics is to describe

language rather than prescribe it.

• Linguists must describe the grammar of that language. To

describe a grammar of a language a linguist must describe
the linguistic competence of people.

• This descriptive task is called descriptive grammar.

• Descriptive grammar attempts to describe rules of

phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax and the lexicon
of a language.
• Physicists do not tell objects how to move, they
describe their movement.

• Chemists do not tell atoms how to combine,

they describe their ways of combination.

• Anthropologist do not tell people how to live,

they just describe the way people live.

• Linguists should not tell people how to speak,

they just study how people use the language
and describe what people know about it.
• The grammar that we learn when we try to learn a new
language is called teaching grammar.

• How is it different from descriptive and prescriptive

grammars?

• Teaching grammars might be perceived as

prescriptive grammars in that they try to tell people how
to speak.

• But they do that with people who do not know the

language.

• Prescriptive grammars, on the other hand, try to modify

what people have already learnt about their language.
 Language Universals

• Children have an innate (natural/instinctive) ability to

acquire language.

• They do not start from scratch. Children are instinctively

equipped with an innate framework for language which
helps them construct grammar correctly.

• We are not born knowing Arabic, English, or French.

Rather, we are born with innate knowledge of certain
universal structures.

• The human being is genetically equipped with a Universal

Grammar (UG) which provides the basic design for all
human languages.
• Universal Grammar consists of a set of innate linguistic
principles which govern what is possible in human
language.

• We have an innate ability to apply this universal grammar

to whatever language we are faced with at birth.

• Universal Grammar relates to the core features common to

all languages such as:
• A grammar.
• Basic word order (in terms of SOV, etc.).
• Nouns and verbs.
• Subjects and objects.
• Positives and negatives.
• Consonants and vowels.
 Chapter 3
Morphology: The Words of Language.

• Morphology is the study of word formation and structure.

• Words in language can be divided into two broad types:

content words vs. function words.

• Content words: denoting/indicating concepts such as

objects, actions, ideas, descriptions, etc. as in:
– Nouns
– Verbs
– Adjectives
– Adverbs

• They are also called the open class vocabulary, because

language users can add new content words to the
language as in: download, email, internet, etc.
• Function words: They indicate a grammatical function
and add proper structure and flow to the sentence.

• For example, the article ‘the’ indicates definiteness, the

preposition ‘of’ indicates possession.

• Function words are also called closed class because it

is difficult to think of new prepositions, pronouns,
conjunctions, etc., which may enter the language.

• It is estimated that there are around 300 function words in

English which include:

– Pronouns: he, they, it, etc.

– Prepositions: of, at, in, without, etc.
– Determiners: the, a, an, that, etc.
– Conjunctions: and, or, while, etc.
– Auxiliaries: be (am, is, are), do, have, etc.
 Morphemes
• Some words have complex internal structures.
• Examples: act action reaction
like likely unlikely
connect connection disconnection
• The prefix un- (meaning ‘not’) occurs in the front of words
to negate them. The suffix -ant forms adjectives. The suffix
-ly is a suffix means in a certain manner.

• Morpheme: is the smallest unit of linguistic form and

meaning.
• A single word may be composed of one or more
morphemes as in:
- One: boy, read, organ, etc.
- Two: Boyish = boy + -ish. Readable = read + -able.
- Three: Unreadable = un- + read + -able.
- Four: Microorganisms = micro- + organ + -ism + -s.
 Types of Morphemes
• Morphemes can be free or bound.

• Free morphemes: a unit of meaning which can stand

alone or alongside another free or bound morpheme as in:
boy, table, car, button, head, food, etc.

• Boys tables unbutton heading

• Bound morphemes: a unit of meaning which can only

exist alongside a free morpheme.

• Bound morphemes are prefixes, suffixes, infixes and

circumfixes (affixes):

unbreakable insufficient childish

goodness useless painful
 Roots and Stems
• Morphologically complex words (polymorphemic words)
consist of a root (a monomorphemic word) and one or
more affixes.

• A root is a morpheme that cannot be analyzed/broken into

smaller parts without total loss of identity. It is that part of
the word left when the affixes are removed.

• Examples: teach in teacher and friend in friendship.

• Stems (polymorphemic words): when a root morpheme is

combined with an affix, it forms a stem.

• Examples: painters, relocated, and computerize are all

stems.
 Oral exercise:
Decide on the root in the words below
• Brotherhood • Hunters
• Brotherhood • Hunters
• Unfriendliness • Unfortunately
• Unfriendliness • Unfortunately
• Comfortable • Untrained
• Comfortable • Untrained
• Failure • Journalists
• Failure • Journalists
• Effectively • International
• Effectively • International
• Preference • Imprisoned
• Preference • Imprisoned
• Industrial • Warnings
• Industrial • Warnings
 Affixation
• Affix: is a bound morpheme attached to a root or a stem. It
can be a prefix, a suffix, an infix or a circumfix.

• A prefix is a bound morpheme that is attached to the

beginning of a root or a stem.
Examples:
• Prefixes meaning not:
– ‘un-’: unhurt
– ‘im-’: impolite
– ‘il-’: illegal
– ‘in-’: informal
– ‘ir-’: irregular
– ‘dis-’: disagree
• Other prefixes inculde:
– ‘mis-’: means wrong or badly as in misfortune.
– ‘anti-’: means against or in opposition to as in
anticlockwise.
– ‘trans-’: means across or through as in transatlantic

• A suffix is a bound morpheme that is added to the end of a

root or a stem.
Examples:
• Suffix Meaning Example

• ‘-er’ doer teacher

• ‘-able’ able to unbelievable
• ‘-ous’ full of dangerous
• ‘-ness’ state of being happiness
• ‘-ful’ full of wonderful
• ‘-ly’ or ‘-y’ like gently
• Infix: is a bound morpheme inserted inside a stem. Infixes
are common in Bontoc and Tagalog spoken in the
Philippines.
.)‫ اكتشف (ك ش ف‬،)‫ اقترب (ق ر ب‬،)‫ اجتهد (ج ه د‬:‫• التاء في‬

• Circumfix: is a bound morpheme attached both before and

after a root or a stem. It is placed around another
morpheme (AKA a discontinuous morpheme). Circumfixes
are common in Malay and German.
)‫وش‬-‫تبيعه‬-‫ (تبيعه ← م‬:‫اللهجة المصرية‬ •
 Word Formation Rules:
Inflectional and derivational morphology.
Inflectional Morphology:
• A number of bound morphemes have a pure
grammatical function. They mark properties such as
tense, number, possession and so on.

• Such morphemes do not change the meaning or the

word class. They are called inflectional morphemes.

• Examples: walk, walks, walked, walking.

 Inflectional Morphemes
• English has eight bound inflectional affixes/morphemes:
1 -s: 3rd-person singular present morpheme.
She waits at home
2 -s: plural morpheme.
She ate the apples
3 -'s: possessive morpheme.
Ahmad’s sleeve is short.
4 -ed: past tense morpheme.
He waited at home
5 -en and -ed past participle morpheme.
He has eaten his meal
He has finished
 Inflectional Morphemes
6 -ing: progressive/continuous morpheme.
Salim is reading his book
7 -er: comparative morpheme.
Ahmad is shorter than his brother
8 -est: superlative morpheme.
Ahmad has the shortest legs

- 2 (-er & -est) are used with adjectives to mark

comparison.
- 2 (-s & -’s) are used with nouns to mark number and
possession.
- 4 (-s 3rd person sg ,-ed past tence ,-en/-ed past participle
& -ing present progressive) are used with verbs to mark
tense.
 Regulars and Irregulars
• The terms regular and irregular are used to refer to words
that follow the rules and those that don’t.

Examples of irregular words:

Nouns: Mouse/mice, goose/geese, ox/oxen

Verbs: Go/went, fly/flew

• Irregular verbs have different endings: -d (said)

-t (slept)
-n (broken)
 Past Participles
• Sarah has broken her leg.

• I haven’t chosen my computer yet.

• Salim has brought his brother with him.

• The boy has drunk five cans of juice.

• The price of oil has fallen rapidly.

• I have slept of twelve hours.

 Derivational Morphology
• Derivational Morpheme: a bound morpheme that is
added to a root morpheme or stem creating a new word
with a new meaning (and possibly changing the
grammatical category).
Examples:
- Noun to Adjective: self + -ish = selfish
humor + -ous = humorous
help + -ful = helpful

- Verb to Noun: teach + -er = teacher

dismiss + -al = dismissal

confirm + -ation = confirmation

 Derivational Morphology
• Not all derivational morphemes change the grammatical
category of the word:
Examples
– Noun to Noun:
champion + -ship = championship
sub- + committee = subcommittee

– Verb to Verb:
un- + do = undo
re- + cover = recover
dis- + obey = disobey

• Inflectional and derivational morphology can exist in one

morphological structure.
• Inflectional and derivational morphology can exist in one
morphological structure where inflectional morphemes
typically come after the derivational morpheme as in:

Examples

Teachers = Teach + ‘-er’ + ‘-s’.

Transformations = ‘Trans-’ + form + ‘-ation’ + ‘-s’.

Commentaries = Comment + ‘-ary’ + ‘-s’.

 Word Coinage
• We saw how Affixation via derivational morphology
contributes to forming new words to the vocabulary.

• There are other ways in which new vocabulary is

introduced to language.

• Compounding: Two or more words joined together to

form a compound. This form of word coinage is
limitless (productive).
 Adjective Noun Verb

Adjective Bittersweet Greenhouse Widespread

Noun Headstrong
Frostbite Spoon-feed
(Determined)
Verb Pickpocket Sleepwalk
(Theif)

Preposition
Underdog Underestimate
 Compounds
• Noun + Noun = Noun Bedroom Football Bus-stop

• Adjective + Noun = Noun High school Bluebird Goldfish

• Noun + Adjective = Adjective Headstrong Nationwide

• Preposition + Noun = Noun Overdose Underdog Uptown

• Preposition + Verb = Verb Outlive Overdo Uproot

• Eponyms: words derived from proper names such as:

– Richter Scale: Measures the strength of

earthquakes. (Charles F. Richter of the California
Institute of Technology).
– Halley’s Comet: it is visible from Earth every 75 to 76 years.
(Edmond Halley 1656 – 1742 was an English astronomer).
– Caesar Salad (Caesar Cardini, Mexican restaurateur )
- Braille writing system: Louis Braille (1809–1852)
– Down’s Syndrome (It is named after John Langdon
Down, the British doctor).
– Caesarean Section (Julius Caesar).

– Eustachian Tube (Anatomist Bartolomeo Eustachius).

Walt Disney: The founder of Disneyland
 Blends
• The beginning of one word is added to the end of the other
as in:
• breakfast + lunch → brunch
• motor + hotel → motel
• simultaneous + broadcast → simulcast
• smoke + fog → smog
• situation + comedy → sitcom
• spoon + fork → spork
(an eating utensil combining features of a spoon and a fork)
• stagnation + inflation → stagflation
• Information + commercial → infomercial
(a long commercial that informs or instructs )
 Reduced Words

• Clipping: longer words abbreviated such as:

Fax for facsimile
Prof for professor
Ad for advertisement
Gym for gymnasium
Math for mathematics
Van for caravan, etc.
• Acronyms: words derived from the initials of several
words/phrases such as:
– AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
– UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and Cultural Organization.
– NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Agency.
– Ram: Random Access Memory.
– DNA: Deoxyribonucleic Acid.