Linguistics and Language

Lingüística I
● Prof. Lilian Von Specht

● Prof. Ivanna Quinton Piegas
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguists (experts in linguistics) work on
specific languages, but their primary goal is to understand the nature of language in general
by asking questions such as:
● What distinguishes human language from other animal communication

systems?
● What features are common to all human languages?
● How are the modes of linguistic communication (speech, writing, sign

language) related to each other?
● How is language related to other types of human behavior?
Linguistics
https://linguistics.ucla.edu/undergraduate/what-is-linguistics/
Goals of Linguistics
The main goal of linguistics, like all other intellectual disciplines, is to increase our
knowledge and understanding of the world. Since language is universal and fundamental
to all human interactions, the knowledge attained in linguistics has many practical
applications. Linguists, with some training in other appropriate disciplines, are thus
prepared to seek answers to questions such as:
● How can a previously unstudied language be analyzed and written?
● How can foreign languages best be taught and learned?
● How can speech be synthesized on a computer or how can a computer be programmed to understand human
speech?
● How can the language problems of people with speech abnormalities be analyzed and rectified?
● How are linguistic issues in legal matters to be handled?

LANGUAGE, LEARNING and TEACHING
“Language is a system of arbitrary
conventionalized vocal, written, or gestural “a systematic communication by vocal
symbols that enable members of a given symbols”
community to communicate intelligibly with Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (1994)
one another.”
Standard definition in textbooks
“Language is a complex, specialized skill,

What is… LANGUAGE which develops in the child spontaneously,
without conscious effort or formal
instruction, is deployed without awareness
"a systematic means of communicating
of its underlying logic, is qualitatively the
ideas or feelings by the use of
same in every individual, and is distinct
conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures,
from more general abilities to process
or marks having understood meanings."
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary information or behave intelligently.”
(2003, p. 699) Pinker. The Language Instinct (1994, p. 18)
Composite definition of language
1. Language is systematic
2. Language is a set of arbitrary symbols
3. Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be visual
4. The symbols have conventionalised meanings to which they refer
5. Language is used for communication
6. Language operates in a speech community
7. Language is essentially human, although possibly not limited to humans
8. Language is acquired by all people in much the same way; language and language
learning both have universal characteristics
The sub-fields of Linguistics
Language is a phenomenon with many layers, from the sounds that speakers produce to
the meanings that those sounds express. The field of Linguistics is comprised of several
sub-fields. Most professional linguists become specialists in one or more of these sub-
fields. The major ones are:
Phonetics
The study of speech sounds. Phoneticians study both:
the production of speech sounds by the human speech organs (articulatory phonetics)
and the properties of the sounds themselves (acoustic phonetics).
Phoneticians are concerned with such questions as:
● What are the sounds, from among all those that humans could make, that
actually exist in the world’s languages?
● What specially defines different “accents”?
● Can speakers be identified by “voiceprints”?
● What are the properties of sounds that would apply in computerized speech
synthesis?
Phonology
The study of language sound systems.
Phonologists are concerned with questions such as:
● What sounds contrast in one language but not another (answers to such questions
explain why Spanish speakers have trouble with the difference between English sh
and ch, or why English speakers have trouble with the different “u” sounds in
French words like rue ‘street’ and roue ‘wheel’.)?
● What sounds of a language can or cannot occur one after the other (for example,
why can words begin in st– in English but not in Spanish)?
● How do poets or writers or song lyrics intuitively know how to match the rhythm of
speech to the abstract rhythmic pattern of a poetic or musical meter?
Morphology
The study of word structure.
Morphologists examine such questions as:
● To what extent are ways of forming words “productive” or not (e.g. why do
English speakers say arrival and amusement but not *arrivement and
*amusal)?
● What determines when words change form (for example, why does English
have to add –er to adjectives when making comparisons, but Hebrew does not
add any equivalent)?
● How can humans program computers to recognize the “root” of a word
separated from its “affixes” (e.g. how could a computer recognize walk, walks,
walking, and walked as the “same” word)?
Syntax
The study of how linguistic units larger than the word are constructed.
Syntacticians address such questions as:
● How can the number of sentences that speakers can create be infinite in number even though the
number of words in any language is finite?
● What makes a sentence like visiting relatives can be boring ambiguous?
● Why would English speakers judge a sentence like colorless green ideas sleep furiously to be
“grammatical” even though it is nonsensical?
● How can languages express the same thoughts even though they construct their sentences in
different ways (e.g. Why does English I saw them there mean the same thing as Spanish yo allí
los ví even though the order of elements in French is I there them saw)?
● How can humans program a computer to analyze the structure of sentences?
Semantics
The study of meaning.
Semanticists answer such questions as:
● How do speakers know what words mean (e.g. How does one know where red stops
and orange starts)?
● What is the basis of metaphors (e.g. Why is my car is a lemon a “good” metaphor but
my car is a cabbage is not)?
● How many meanings can be found in a sentence like three students read three books
and why do just those meanings exist?
● What makes sentences like I’m looking for a tall student or the student I am looking
for must be tall have more than one meaning?
● In a sentence like I regret that he lied, how do we know that, in fact, he did lie?
Other sub-fields
● Historical Linguistics
● Sociolinguistics
● Psycholinguistics
● Neurolinguistics
● Computational Linguistics
References
● Brown. "Principles of Language Learning and Teaching". (2000, Chapter 1)
● “What is Linguistics?” https://linguistics.ucla.edu/undergraduate/what-is-linguistics/

For Thursday
● 1 poster board and markers

/ crayons
or
● a computer to prepare a
slide presentation
Some fields and sub-fields
1. Language is systematic
Explicit and formal accounts of the system of language on several possible levels
(e.g.,phonological, syntactic, lexical, and semantic analysis)
2. Language is a set of arbitrary symbols

The symbolic nature of language;
the relationship between language and reality;
the philosophy of language;
the history of language
3. Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be visual

Phonetics;
phonology;
writing systems;
the role of gesture, distance, eye contact,and other "paralinguistic" features of language
4. The symbols have conventionalised meanings to which they refer

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Lingüística I

● Prof. Lilian Von Specht

● What distinguishes human language from other animal communication

● How are the modes of linguistic communication (speech, writing, sign

● How can foreign languages best be taught and learned?

● How are linguistic issues in legal matters to be handled?

“Language is a complex, specialized skill,

The study of speech sounds. Phoneticians study both:

and the properties of the sounds themselves (acoustic phonetics).

Phoneticians are concerned with such questions as:

The study of language sound systems.

Phonologists are concerned with questions such as:

Morphologists examine such questions as:

Syntacticians address such questions as:

● Brown. "Principles of Language Learning and Teaching". (2000, Chapter 1)

● “What is Linguistics?” https://linguistics.ucla.edu/undergraduate/what-is-linguistics/

● 1 poster board and markers

2. Language is a set of arbitrary symbols

3. Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be visual

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