LANE 321 - Introduction to Linguistics

Lecture 1: Introduction

Lecturer: Haifa Alroqi

What is a Language?

Language = A system that uses some physical sign

(sound, gesture, mark) to express meaning.

We are Uniquely Language-Users

Other Animals Communicate

Cats arch their back to scare the neighbor cat

Bees tell each other when they have found food

Chimpanzees can be taught to use primitive sign

language to communicate desires.

We are Uniquely Language-Users

We Use Language

We can separate our vocalization from a given

situation (cats only arch their back in the

appropriate situation).

We can lie (animals only report)

4 Parts to Language/Grammar

Grammar

Phonology – Rules concerning sound system

Morphology – Rules governing word structure.

Syntax – Rules governing the structure of sentences

Semantics – Rules concerning meaning.

Phonological Rules

Language consists of a fairly small set of sounds

(phonemes).

There are about 40 in English.

Most have no meaning in themselves; rather we

string them together to form meaningful bits and

pieces.

Example:

Rules - E.g., an English word can end, but not begin, with

an -ng sound

Morphology

The study of the form of words:

how groups of words share related meanings through

regular patterning: what links "like", "likes", "liked",

"likeness", "likely", "likelihood"?

Language is made up of morphemes. Many are words

Example:

“Papers” has 2 morphemes (paper & s)

Do sentences grow on trees?

Yes

sentences grow on trees

sentences grow trees on

trees on grow sentences

The string of words „Sentences grow on trees‟ is

recognisable as a well-formed sentence of English.

By contrast „sentences grow trees on‟ or „trees on grow

sentences‟ are simply ungrammatical.

One way to show that sentences have structure is

to identify which words go together to form units.

„on trees‟ is a unit (Where do sentences grow?)

„grow on trees‟ (What do sentences do?)

„sentences‟ (what grow on trees?).

However, the strings „sentences grow‟ or „grow on‟

do not relate to sensible questions and are not

units in this sentence.

Syntax

Sentences grow on trees

S

NP VP

N V PP

NPP

N

Sentences also grow on trees like this…

Syntax

The relations of words in sentences is from a branch of Linguistics called ‘Syntax’

S

NPN

V VP

PPP

Sentence

Noun PhraseNoun

Verb

Preposition Preposition Phrase

Verb Phrase

Key

Semantic

Arbitrariness of the Sign - Sounds of words bear no

relationship to meaning (except for onomatopoeia).

the use of words that sound like the thing that

they are describing, for example click' or 'boom'

-بيصوصو –بيهوهو

In Philosophy we often distinguish between

denotation and connotation.

Can you answer this question?

Q. Can colourless green ideas sleep

furiously?

A. Yes and no!

Why yes?

because this sentence is grammatically correct –

that is the nouns, verbs, adjectives are in the right

place for an English sentence.

Q. Can colourless green ideas sleep furiously?

A. Yes and no

Why no?

No…because you can’t make sense of it in the ‘real

world’. This demonstrates that it is not grammar alone

that makes a sentence sensible, but the context in

which it is created. In the ‘real world’ a colour can’t be

colourless and an idea can’t be green.

The world of the imagination is another matter, however!

Can you answer this question?

Semantics

The branch of linguistics dealing with meaning is

called Semantics.

Can you answer this question?

Q. Who taught you to speak?

A. You did

Why?

You might think that it is your parents who taught

you how to speak, but you have really taught

yourself. Certainly your parents offer you the ‘model’

of the language or languages you are going to learn

but you came into the world equipped with a kind of

ready-made language processor that helped you to

sort out how the language you were hearing actually

worked.

Working out the rules

Have you ever heard a child say ‘I dided it’ or‘I bringed it’?

What do you think is going on here?

They won’t have heard their parents saying these words, so where did they come from?

Language Acquisition

This is the branch of Linguistics that studies the

ways in which children learn language.

When Linguistics looks at how we learn a

second or foreign language this is called Second

Language Acquisition.

Language?

Linguistics- Internal Knowledge of Language.

Knowledge of sound system

Knowledge of words

Knowledge of sentence

Main branches

Phonetic

Phonology

Morphology

Syntax

Semantics

Pragmatics

Other Branches

Sociolinguistics

Applied Linguistics

Psycholinguistics

Computational Linguistics

Definitions

Applied linguistics: practical applications of language studies

communicative functions of language: lexicography, terminology, general or technical translation

language teaching

first and second language acquisition and bilingualism.

Psycholinguistics

The study of the mental processes by which sentences are constructed and decoded by human beings.

Sociolinguistics

The study of how language variation is related to its use in society to form groups of geographical region, economic class or ethnicity.

Computational linguistics

The study of how computers can be used to analyze and generate sentences

Thank you

NEXT CLASS

plz read pp. 8-16