Chapter 1 Language and Linguistics

Outline 1. Language and grammar1.1 Language

1.1.1 Language and writing systems1.1.2 Language and symbol

1.2 Grammar1.2.1 Prescriptive grammar1.2.2 Descriptive grammar

2. Grammar and linguistic knowledge2.1 Lexical knowledge2.2 Phonological knowledge2.3 Syntactic knowledge

3. Universal Grammar4. Language and society

4.1 Language and cultures4.2 Social factors

5. Summary

•To what extent can it be meant to know a language? (In linguistics)

To get the linguistic knowledge of that

language, including phonological, syntactic, morphological, and semantic knowledge.

the linguistic intuition or competence (a) produce all the grammatical and acceptable

sentences (b) prevent any ungrammatical sentences from being produced

1

•To what extent can it be meant to know a language? (In linguistics)

To get communicative competence which involved with language used from social and cultural (psychological) perspectives.

2

•Historical linguistics: the findings of 1. theoretical linguistics (competence) 2. applied linguistics (performance)

1. Language and Grammar

1.1 Language1.1.1 Language and writing systems1.1.2 Language and symbol

1.2 Grammar1.2.1 Prescriptive grammar1.2.2 Descriptive grammar

Language and Grammar•Contemporary linguistics

▫Noam Chomsky (1957)- Aspects of Syntactic Structure

▫Two issues to be addressed: (a) to what extent is it meant to know a

language (b) why can children acquire a language in

such a short time?

Language and Writing Systems•All the languages can be spoken, but not

all languages can be written. Ex:

▫A lot of Indian languages without being written

▫Languages used to be spoken by Pingpu here in Taiwan are now fading away

•IPA: Used to transcribe languages without a

writing system by way of field work.

Language and Writing Systems

•Some writing system stops being used although the language is still spoken.▫Ex: the writing system of Naxi language

languages are natural

writing systems are artificial (invented)

languages precede writing systems

Language and Writing Systems•Natural languages can be spoken out in a

speech community, and acquired naturally for native speakers.

•Artificial languages are not acquired in natural environments.

Ex:▫1. Without sounds:

Sign language for the blind or the deaf.▫2. Only expressed in written forms but not

spoken out: Most languages used for computer

programmers

Language and Symbol•Symbols used to transcribed language

without writing systems:

▫Oracle Bone Script (Jiaguwen)▫IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet):

•3 types of symbols: icon, index, and symbol.▫Icon (something substantial)

▫Index (signs used for information)

▫Symbol (associated some specific reference)

, there is a restaurant ahead

Language and Symbol

@, it occurs to us that it is an e-mail address , we know that ahead is a curve

‘book’ (book is a symbol) for the reference of

‘ 書’ for the same reference in Chinese

The association is

entirely arbitrary

Scholars founded an

association for the invention of

symbols for phonetic

transcription

Language and Symbol•IPA:

1. The association (1897) called International Phonetics Association

2. The phonetic system called International Phonetics Alphabet

•K. K. Phonetic symbols:▫The system used for the transcription of

English sounds in Taiwan ▫J. S. Kenyon and T. A. Knott▫A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English

Grammar•Pedagogical or prescriptive grammar:

concerned with pedagogy

•Theoretical grammar: used in this chapter

Prescriptive Grammar• Usually adopted in schools• Requiring the students to memorize a lot of

grammatical rules, even if some rules are out of date.

• Also pedagogical grammar• Still prevailing for grammar schools or in the

schools teaching English as a foreign languagee.g. Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.

Ex: the past tense of dream → dreamt too strict to be followed

Descriptive grammar begins to attract attentions

Descriptive Grammar•Aims to describe what has been spoken or

what has been written in English.

•All the possible sentences are collected and analyzed.

2. Grammar and Linguistic Knowledge

2.1 Lexical knowledge2.2 Phonological knowledge2.3 Syntactic knowledge

Grammar and linguistic knowledge

•What is language knowledge?•It is composed of lexical, phonological,

syntactic, and semantic knowledge.

Grammar in

modern linguistic

descriptive

prescriptivelinguistic knowledge language

faculty

linguistic intuition

Lexical knowledge•The basic unit of a language Ex: Baby : What is this? (babbling) Parents : Milk, mi-l-k. / Table, ta-ble. (reply by a baby directive language)

mental lexicon insert to the terminal nodes of an X-bar structure

Lexical knowledge•From the lexical input, children would

generate some morphological rules:

a. That book interested me.

b. That book was interesting.

c. I was interested in that book.

d. I had great interest in that book.

interest

interest + ed (past tense)

interest + ing (adj.) be interested in

(experience)interest (noun)

Phonological knowledge•Phonological knowledge is composed of

phone/segment, phonemes, syllables, and stress.

•The basic unit of phonetic sounds Ex: [bk]→[b], [], [k]

Phonological knowledge•Phonological knowledge is composed of

phone/segment, phonemes, syllables, and stress.

•Some phones are phonemic, while others are not.

•24 English phonemes constitute English phonetic inventories.

Phonological knowledge•Phonological knowledge is composed of

phone/segment, phonemes, syllables, and stress.

•All the phonemes can be syllabified into a syllable according to the phonotactic rules or constraints.

Ex:

C0-3VC0-3

0-3 consonants at the onset0-3 consonants at the coda

ten, please, spring, hand, attempt

Phonological knowledge•Why are the syllables

in ungrammatical in English?syllables impossible in

English: a. nkelt b. pkrotec. sdockd. spomte.sputr

violate the sonority sequencing principle

1st consonant < 2nd consonant

an accidental gap

Language intuition:We may not be able to say why they are ungrammatical in English. However, we are sure that they do not occur in English.

Syntactic knowledge•How to build a sentence on the basis of

available lexica?Ex: John, likes, the, dog

Logically, there are 24 possible order (4!=4x3x2x1=24)

a. John likes the dog. b. The dog likes John. c. *John the dog likes. d. *Likes the dog John. e. *The like John dog.

Acceptable (SVO order)

Unacceptable

3. Universal Grammar

Universal Grammar•Why can a child acquire a language in so

short a time?

LAD (language acquisition device)

Innateness Hypothesis

in English environments

acquire English grammar

in Japan speak Japanese

Universal grammar

Universal Grammar•Chomsky-

• There are different languages in the world. However, all the languages share a common core grammar, which is universal, although there are different parameter settings.

What we need is a language exposure or a key to the parameter settings.

Universal grammar

Some parts shared with a certain languages

Specific language

Universal Grammar

different similarLanguages

Japanese (SOV)Chinese (SVO)English (SVO)

Japanese (head-final)Chinese (head-initial)English (head-initial

VP (verb phrase) PP (preposition phrase)

Races blackwhite yellow

bloodorgans

Chinese 買書 at TaipeiEnglish buy a book at Taipei Japanese 本を買う Taipei at

Universal Grammar•When a child is put in whatever language

environments, he is able to acquire that language in a short time.

Language is acquired, not learned

Mandarin Chinese

Southern Min

4. Language and Society

4.1 Language and cultures4.2 Social factors

Language and cultures•What language conveys for communication

is subject to society and cultures.▫In Eskimo, there are different types of

vocabulary related to snow.▫In Taiwanese, there are different types of

vocabulary related to rice.

Language is cultural based

Language and cultures•The language reflects its cultures.

Mandarin (Taiwan)

(Mainland)

1939identical now

differentvocabulary phonology

syntax

Colonized by Japanleft a lot of Japanese

vocabularyDemocratic country:

yielding various slogans for election

Governed by the Communist Party: does not allow any

competition

Social factors• Language identity would motivate sound change as

revealed in William Labov’s studies on the vowel reduction of Martha’s Vineyard.

• Gender plays a key role of language use.

Female expressions (uncertainly):

I am wondering..I am not sure…

May I…

Male expressions (certainly):

I am pretty sure..I guarantee…Of course…graceful or gentle strong or ambitious

What makes female differ from male in the use of language?