Basic Concepts in The Study of Language

BASI C CONCE PT S IN T HE
STUDY O F LANGUAGE
CONTENT
In today’s class we will go over some of the basic concepts in the study of
language.
• Languages vs. Dialects
• Morphemes and morphemic structure of words
• Phonemes
• IPA symbols
• Syntactic structure of sentences
LANGUAGES VS. DIALECTS
• According to Wardaugh (2010, p. 30), “ a language ..[is] some
unitary system of linguistic communication which subsumes a
number of mutually intelligible varieties.”
• These “mutually intelligible varieties” are what we refer to as

dialects.
• What does mutually intelligible mean?

• Sometimes languages are associated with nations, such as for example:
Chinese, Japanese, Korean.
• Some languages, however, are not associated with a particular nation. For
example we now refer to English as not just one language belonging to a single
nation, but one that is spoken by many peoples around the world. Today we
refer to World Englishes, not just English.
• What different kinds of world Englishes can you think of? That is, what
Englishes can you think of that are tainted with a flavor of the non-native
English people who speak it?
• Indian English is one distinct English, and so is Singaporean English for
example.
• What differentiates one English from the other? Is it the sound system, or
vocabulary and structure or both?
• How about Australian English, for example, what distinguishes it from British
English?
• Not all languages have varieties.
• Some languages have very few speakers who live close to one
another in one community, so no varieties of their language exists.
• Some languages are very similar and only have minor differences between
them, yet for political reasons they are regarded as distinct languages. Such is
the case of Serbo-Croatian which linguistically is described as a South Slav
language.
• Due to religious and cultural differences between the Serbs and the Croats, their
languages split apart and went in different directions. (The Croats are Catholic
and the Serbs are Orthodox Christian.)
• Today the Serbs speak Serbian, and the Croats speak Croatian. “Serbo-Croatian
no longer exist as a language in the Balkans” (Wardaugh, 2010, p. 28).
• Another ethnic group in former Yougoslavia is the Bosnians, who
differed from the Serbs and Croats in their religion, culture and
historical background.
• They are predominantly Muslim, and the variety they speak is Bosnian.
• Yet another group is the Montenegrins. Their variety is called
Crnogorski, and was adopted as the official Montenegrin language after
the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s (Carmicheal, 2002, p. 236).
• Conversely some dialects differ in phonology, syntax and vocabulary yet they
are seen as varieties of a single language. For example, some linguists argue
that the varieties of Arabic are really different languages. However, the shared
variety that is common to speakers of all Arabic varieties, namely classical
Arabic, is a binding force, and so is the shared phonology and syntax. Most
importantly, the varieties are mutually intelligible (to a large extent).
• (For further reading, refer to Wardaugh (2010, pp. 23-30), shared on

Blackboard.
LINGUA FRANCA
• UNESCO defines a lingua franca as “a language which is used
habitually by people whose mother tongues are different in order to
facilitate communication between them” (Wardaugh, 2010, p. 55).
• Other terms used to describe such a language are
– Trade language
– Contact language
– International language
MORPHEMES AND MORPHEMIC STRUCTURE OF WORDS
• A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language.

• Words may consist of a single morpheme:
– Cup
– Sit
– Book
Or they may consist of a number of morphemes:
– Sitting, courageous, manageable, dutiful
• How many morphemes can you identify in the following words?
1. childish
2. activity
3. befriended
4. gathering
5. televise
6. margin
7. mistreatment
8. lively
9. boiler
10.about
• Answer Key
• How many morphemes can you identify in the following words?
1. Child-ish
2. Act-iv-ity
3. Be-friend-ed
4. Gather-ing
5. Tele-vise
6. margin
7. Mis-treat-ment
8. Live-ly
9. Boil-er
10.About
PHONEMES
• A phoneme is the smallest meaningful unit of sound in a language.
• Every language has a discrete number of phonemes which constitute its sound
system.
• In linguistic analysis, we look at the sounds that constitute a word, not the
alphabet.
• Why do you think this is so?
• Consider the following words in English. What do you notice about the
underlined part? How is pronounced? What does it tell about English spelling?
fish, philosophy, futile, cough, rough, though,
IPA SYMBOLS
• Because the pronunciation of words is not necessarily reflected by
the way they are spelt, an international phonetic alphabet (IPA) was
created to reflect the actual sounds of words.
• The symbols of the IPA reflect the sounds of most known languages.
• They are used in dictionaries to help people know the pronunciation
of words they are not familiar with and to show dialectal differences
in pronouncing them.
• They are especially useful in the study of less familiar languages.
THE VOCAL ORGANS
IPA SYMBOLS FOR ENGLISH CONSONANTS
https://allthingslinguistic.com/post/143133795554/how-to-remember-the-ipa-consonant-chart
IPA SYMBOLS FOR ENGLISH CONSONANTS WITH EXAMPLES
https://allthingslinguistic.com/post/143133795554/how-to-remember-the-ipa-consonant-chart
SPECIAL SYMBOLS
Voiceless consonants Voiced consonants

1. [θ] thin, Beth [ð] then, this, weather
2. [ʃ] ship, wish, [ʒ] measure, treasure
3. [ʧ] chair, witch [ʤ] job, grudge
4. [ŋ] sing, along, bringing
5. [J] yellow
• Which IPA symbol is used to represent the initial sound in each of the following words?
1. Chance
2. Jury
3. Thoughtful
4. Them
5. Drain
6. Coffee
7. Yesterday
8. Ship
9. Journey
10.Chauffeur
Answer Key
• Which IPA symbol is used to represent the initial sound in each of the following words?
1. Chance /ʧ/
2. Jury /ʤ/
3. Thoughtful /θ/
4. Them /ð/
5. Drain /d/
6. Coffee /k/
7. Yesterday /J/
8. Ship /ʃ/
9. Journey /ʤ/
10.Chauffeur /ʃ/
CHART FOR VOWELS
Front central back
High
Mid
ə
Low
VOWEL SYMBOLS WITH EXAMPLES
DIPTHONGS IN ENGLISH
SYMBOLS OF DIPTHONGS AND VOWELS WITH
EXAMPLES (INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET IPA)
• Which IPA symbol is used to represent the vowel sound in each of the following words?
(Note that not all written vowels are pronounced.)
1. child
2. make
3. brown
4. game
5. drive
6. hate
7. pure
8. loaf
9. boil
10.about
Answer Key
Which IPA symbol is used to represent the vowel sound in each of the following words?
(Note that not all written vowels are pronounced.)
1. Child aɪ
2. Makeeɪ
3. Brown aʊ
4. Game eɪ
5. Drive aɪ
6. Hate eɪ
7. Pure Ju
8. Loaf oʊ
9. Boil ɔɪ
10.About aʊ
IPA SYMBOLS OF ARABIC
http://englizia.blogspot.com/2011/11/arabic-ipa-chart.html
• Follow this link for introduction to Arabic sounds
• https://sites.middlebury.edu/arabiclingusitics2014/files/2014/02/class6_phonetics_1.pdf
IPA SYMBOLS OF ARABIC
https://sites.middlebury.edu/arabiclingusitics2014/files/2014/02/class6_phonetics_1.pdf
SYNTAX
• Syntax is the study of sentence structure.
• In studying world languages we will be looking at the word order of the
constituents of a sentence.
• What is the word order typically used in English?
• What is the word order typically used in Arabic?
• Is it the same for Classical and Colloquial Arabic?
• Provide examples of simple sentences in Classical Arabic and Colloquial
Arabic. Is the syntactic structure the same?
• We will be discussing more about syntax as we discuss each language we
investigate.
Thank you for attending 

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BASI C CONCE PT S IN T HE

• These “mutually intelligible varieties” are what we refer to as

• What does mutually intelligible mean?

• (For further reading, refer to Wardaugh (2010, pp. 23-30), shared on

• A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language.

Voiceless consonants Voiced consonants

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