Linguistics Midterm

Phoenetics

speech as a physical process

the study of the articulation and physical properties of speech

what is the minimal unit in phoenetics?

sound or phone

phonology

the study of sound patterns in a language system

phonotactics

deals with rules governing how sounds can be arranged and combined in a particular language

ex: English forbids [tl] and [dl] onsets, but many languages do not

minimal pair

pairs of words in a language that differ by only one sound (phoneme) and have different meanings

ex: rope vs robe

for English consonants

bit and pit —> /b/ and /p/ are phonemes

for English vowels

goat and get —> /o/ and /ɛ/ are phonemes

morphology

the study of the structure of words and how words are formed

examines how roots, prefixes and suffixes combine to make new words

what is the minimal unit in morphology?

morpheme

morpheme

the smallest unit of meaning in a language

cannot be broken down into smaller parts without losing or changing meaning

ex: unhappiness —> un + happy + ness

types of morphemes

1. roots: the core meaning (i.e. happy)

2. derivational affixes: change the word’s meaning or part of speech (i.e. act —> active —> activity

3. inflectional affixes: mark grammatical changes (tense, number, case) without changing word’s class —> dog to dogs or walk to walked

the combinatory system

how morphemes combine in different language

isolating (i.e. Chinese): few or no affixes, each word is usually one morpheme

agglutinating (i.e. Turkish): words are built together by stringing together many morphemes

synthetic: combines morphemes within words but less transparently

analytic: relies more on word order than morphology

syntax 

the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences

ex: the man saw the dog with the telescope

semantics

the study of meaning of words and phrases

studies the literal, not figurative, meaning of words and phrases

compositionality

the meaning of a bigger structure is composed of the meaning of its parts

meaning of a sentence depends on the meaning of the individual words and how they are combined according to grammar

ex: the dog bit the man vs the man bit the dog

reference

what words refer to in the real world

ex: the president refers to an actual person

truth value

whether a sentence is true or false in a given situation

ex: the sky is blue (true) vs cats are reptiles (false)

symbolic logic

used to represent meaning formally, using symbols

pragmatics

the study of how context contributes to meaning

nonliteral meaning that interacts with context and nonverbal communication

ex: I’m cold can mean:

• my body temp is lower than normal

• can I borrow your jacket?

• can we go home?

descriptivism

objectively observe and analyze how language is actually used without any judgment

seeks to describe reality without the bias of preconceived ideas of how it ought to be

prescriptivism

the establishment of rules defining proper usage (proper form) of language

must be learned

can address spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax and semantics

linguistic competence

the system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of a language

involving subconscious knowledge of language, intuitive understanding of language rules

linguistic performance

the actual use of language in concrete situations

involves slips of the tongue, memory, distraction, attention etc

mental grammar

a speaker’s implicit knowledge of their language

allows us to recognize which sound patterns, words and sentences are possible in our language

can understand and produce the different forms of a word they’ve never heard before

ex: npum and kpum sound wrong in English, but pum could be an English word

ex: the past tense of blick (new word) should be blicked and the plural form should be blicks

theoretical linguistics

basic principles that make up human language

understand universal properties of language

historical linguistics

language change and the reconstruction of linguistic history

how languages change over time

identifying relationships between older forms of language

psycholinguistics

psychology of language

how humans acquire, process and produce language

ex: language learning and language processing

computational linguistics

algorithms for computer analysis of text and speech

ex: speech recognition, machine translation, and natural language processing

sociolinguistics

how social factors (class, gender, region, age, identity) affect language

ex: dialects, language change in society, variation in speech communities

dialectology

the study of dialects

typology

studying and classifying languages according to their structural features

ex: whether a language puts a verb before or after the object

discourse analysis

studying and modeling how conversations play out

ex: looks at convos, storytelling and written language to see how people organize ideas, take turns, or express stance

4 qualities of language

1. discreteness: possesses set of combinable individual units

2. grammar: system of rules for combining individual units

3. productivity: ability to use langauge to create infinite set of messages

4. displacement: ability to talk about things that aren’t right in front of you

language as a discrete combinatorial system

language is made up of a finite amount of discrete elements (phonemes, morphemes, phrases) that are combined to make larger structures with properties distinct from their elements

although the elements are finite, the combinations are endless

discrete infinity

language has no upper limit on how long or complex an expression can be or become

can always extend a sentence or keep adding descriptions

demonstrates recursion

recursion

the ability to embed one linguistic structure insider another of the same type over and over again 

ex: I think [that she said [that he left]].

mental grammar might allow infinite recursion, but in real life (performance) we cannot process endless embedding due to memory or lung capacity

honey bee case study

• bees can communicate —> quantity, distance and direction of food

• instinctual ability, not learned

• compared to language, it is potentially productive, has a discrete combinatorial system, but is limited in expressiveness and largely iconic

vervet monkey case study

• have three alarm calls: for leopards, snakes or eagles

• innate calls

• learn through observation which species of every predator class is dangerous

• infant vervets might send off false alarms

• communication?

  • can be used to affect behavior of others, but not used when alone 

  • no evidence call system is used to affect knowledge state of other vervets, keep calling even when others have seen danger

Nim Chimsky case

Herbert Terrence tried to teach chimp language to find out how chimps think and have him become interpreter for wild chimps

Nim was able to produce repetitions of the same signs and repetitions of signs made by trainer immediately prior

His mean length utterance did not rise, had no morphology, no syntax, just imitations and calls for eating, drinking or playing

Had knowledge of many words but no grammer —> discrete but not combinatorial system

phoneme

smallest disctinctive sound unit in a language; a sound that can change meaning

ex: p and b are different phonemes as they distinguish pat from bat

phonemes are written between slashes / /

contrastive distribution

to identify, look for a minimal pair

ex: sin vs seen

because changing the vowel changes the meaning, these vowels represent different phonemes

complementary distribution

if two similar sounds never occur in the same environment, they are allophones of the same phoneme

ex: the p in pin vs spin

• in pin, the ph is aspirated but in spin, it is not

they are allophones (different realizations of the same phoneme, not different phonemes)

BUT

• sometimes a sound that is an allophone in one context can be a distinct phoneme in another (i.e sue, zoo)

• the /s/ and /z/ sounds can behave as allophones (i.e. cats —> s, dogs —> z)

• allophones are usually phoentically related to one another —> if they’re too different, they can’t be allophones even if they never overlap

International Phonetic Alphabet Chart

one symbol = one sound 

ex: sea, see, scene —> si, si, sin

consonants

involve obstructing the airflow in one way or another

can be called obstruents

ex: p t k

vowels

result when airflow passes through vocal tract with little obstruction

ex: a

how to classify consonants

voicing: voiced vs voiceless

place of articulation: where is the airflow obstructed?

manner of articulation: how much obstruction?

voicing

voiceless is left on IPA chart and voiced on right

active articulators

for place of articulation

lips, tongue

passive articulators

for place of articulation

teeth, alveolar ridge, palate (roof of mouth), pharynx (back of throat)

bilabial

articulators: lips

[b] bat, [p], pat, [m] mat

labiodental

articulators: lower lips + upper teeth

[f] fan, [v] van

(Inter)dental

articulators: tongue tip + teeth

[θ] teeth, [ð] this

alveolar

articulators: tongue tip + alveolar ridge

[t] tea, [s] see, [d] dough, [z] zoo

postalveolar

articulators: front part of tongue + back part of alveolar ridge

[ʒ] treasure, [ ʃ ] ship, [ ʧ ] church, [ʤ] judge

retroflex

articulator: tip of tongue curled up towards the area between alveolar ridge and hard palate

more common in South Asian languages

Hindi: ʈal (postpone) vs ɖal (branch)

velar

articulators: back of tongue + velum (soft palate)

[k] back, [g] bag, [ŋ] bang

uvular

articulators: back of tongue + uvula (fleshy extension dangling in back of mouth)

French: roue [ʁu] (wheel)

German: rasse [ʁasə] (race)

pharyngeal

articulators: back of tongue and pharynx (back of throat)

Arabic: wars [ħuruwb] 

glottal

articulators: vocal folds

glottis: space between vocal folds

[h] hip —> relaxed vocal folds

[ʔ] uh-oh! —> closure of vocal folds

stop (or plosive)

degree of obstruction: complete obstruction in mouth or glottis

creates build-up of pressure before release

[p] pat [t] tip [k] back

flap (or tap)

degree of obstruction: brief complete obstruction

no build up of pressure

[t] city (careful speech) —> alveolar stop

[ɾ] city (casual) —> alveolar flap/tap

nasal

velum controls whether a speech sound is nasal or not

oral sounds: velum raises and blocks airflow through nose —> [b]

nasal sounds: velum lowers and allows airflow through nose —> [m]

[d] pad vs [n] pan

fricative

degree of obstruction: continuous airflow, but obstructed enough to cause turbulence

[f] fan [θ] bath [s] sap [ ʃ ] shine

affricate

degree of obstruction: a stop + a fricative

[ ʧ ] watch [ʤ] judge

trill

degree of obstruction: continuous airflow but sufficient obstruction to create vibration of one articulator against another

Spanish: perro [pero] (dog)

approximant

degree of obstruction: relatively slight obstruction and continuous airflow

liquid (slightly more restricted):

[l] lip [r] rip

glide (slightly less restricted):

[j] yes [w] weather

characteristics of vowels

1. tongue height

2. tongue advancement

3. lip rounding 

rounded: [u o ɔ]

unrounded: all others

how to name vowels

height + advancement + rounding

[i] high front unrounded vowel

why do certain traditional definitions of words fail?

they rely on what words mean, but part of speech isn’t about meaning

noun: a person, place, thing or an idea

what about moment (time), sweetness (taste) or happiness (emotion)? —> either have to extend list of semantic classes or extend what idea means

syntactic categories

need to look at distribution in larger units: phrases and sentences as well as their morphology

nouns, verbs, adjectives and other parts of speech are this

how do we know if a word is a noun?

put it in this frame:

the _

ex: explosion, not explode or moment, not momentous

can attach plural morpheme to countable nouns

ex: moments, not momentouses

how do we know if a word is a verb?

some verbs only take a subject

ex: the cat yawned, NOT the cat yawned a hairball

some verbs require an object

ex: I will bring the cat, NOT I will bring

Use the frame:

• She will _

ex: run, allow (me to…), begin (to…)

NOT: good, bad, laptop, sheep

Can apply verbal morphology —> she allows, allowed, is allowing, NOT she goods, she gooded, she is gooding

adjective

modifies a noun

can also modify phrases

ex: [the [big [green dragon] ] ]

adverb

modifies a verb, adjective or another adverb

What does “sentence structure isn’t linear” mean?

Word order in sentences matter

• The boy ate the cookie vs the cookie ate the boy.

Ex: The cookie the boy ate was delicious

• “Was” belongs with “the cookie” even though it is closer to boy in linear order

Sentence structure is not about linear order

noun phrases (NPs)

Sequences of words behave as a unit that are based around a single word which is the head of the phrase

[The cat] is making a mess

[The cat that came back] is making a mess

since both NP, anywhere you use short phrase, you can also use the long phrase

verb phrases (VPs)

headed by the verb

The students [walked]

The students [walked three miles towards the lake]

how do we combine units of meaning?

• in syntax, speakers do not memorize every possible grammatical sentence

  • we know rules for how to combine sentences

• speakers don’t memorize all sentence meanings

  • we know rules to combine word meanings into larger units of meaning

linguistics main concerns in semantics

• What knowledge do speakers have about meanings of morphemes and words?

  • How do semantic units work?

• How do meanings of complex expressions relate to meanings of their parts?

  • How do semantic units combine?

What is the relationship between a word’s form and its meaning?

Mostly arbitrary (dog, perro, canis)

But a word whose form resembles its referent is iconic —> ribbit! meow! —> form is motivated by its meaning

iconicity is never obligatory and iconic forms are usually conventional

ex: English dogs say woof and Japanese dogs say wan wan

• even iconic forms vary by language, showing they’re agreed upon, not purely natural

set theory

• the meaning of cookie: the set of things that we identify as a cookie

  • we classify things as cookies and non-cookies

• sets are abstract collections of things

synonyms

certain pairs of words have the same meaning

ex: sofa & couch

they pick out same set of objects

to figure out if something is synonym, replace a word with its synonym —> get a sentence that is semantically equivalent

ex: John frightened the children vs John scared the children

antonyms

words that are opposites of one another

complementary antonyms: married vs unmarried

gradable antonyms: long vs short

all involve non-overlapping sets

hyponyms & hypernyms

for a pair of words, a hyponym is a subtype of the hypernym

ex: chocolate chip cookie is the hyponym of the hypernym cookie

set theory captures relation through notion of subsets

ex: cat is subset of animal

TRUE/FALSE: if the sentence with the hyponym is true, the sentence with the hypernym must be true

TRUE

ex: Fido is a dog. Fido is an animal.

sense

the dictionary definition of the word

denotation/reference

changes depending on the state of the world

ex: the president of the US

• the individual depends on the year and the election results

notation: [[ ]]

ex: [[red]]: the set of all things that are red

different phrases can have same denotation

[[mother-in-law]] and [[mother of my spouse] are the same person

compositionality

the combination of word meanings is rule-based

• meaning of multi-word expressions are predictable from the meanings of words it contains and the way they’re combined

ex: [[King Henry VII]] [[snores]]

[[King Henry VII]]: the King of England (1509 - 1547)

[[snores]]: the set of individuals snore

the expression is true if King Henry VII is among set of individuals who snore

semantics

sentence meanings in terms of truth conditions

literal meaning

derived compositionally from meaning of parts

pragmatics

speaker meanings: what is meant to come across

non-literal meaning

supplemented by context and assumptions

ex: conversational implicatures

conversational implicatures

inferences that arise from our shared default expectations about how convos work

inferences about what the speakers intends to communicate

ex: It’s getting a bit hot in here

• There’s a window in the room —> open the window to let in cold air

sentence meaning

the literal meaning of an utterance

semantics

utterance/speaker meaning

what someone uses an utterance to mean

pragmatics

the cooperative principle

important aspects of non-literal meaning can be calculated based on the assumption that discourse participants act as rational agents

they deviate from rules of conversation intentionally to convey or withhold information

Gricean maxims

a set of maxims that people generally adhere to in conversation

4 maxims:

1. Quality

2. Quantity

3. Relevance

4. Manner

maxim of quality

1. Do not say what you believe to be false

2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence

Idea: Normal conversation would be meaningless if we didn’t generally expect each other to say things we actually think are true

flouting quality

A: Where are the rest of the cookies?

B: (Having eaten all the cookies) The guests took them home

By saying something false, B does not get in trouble with A for eating all the cookies

maxim of quantity

1. Make contribution as informative as possible

2. Do not make contribution more informative than required

Idea: if you have info that serves the purpose of the convo, don’t withhold it and don’t include unnecessary info

flouting quantity

Parent: How are your grades doing?

Child: Algebra is alright (Implication: the grades for other classes are bad)

Reminder: quantity refers to amount of info, not length of sentence

maxim of relevance

1. make your idea relevant

2. address the topic that’s key to the purpose of the conversation

idea: relate what you say to other things in the conversation

flouting revelance

A: So how did the meeting go?

B: The weather is really nice today.

B does not want to talk about the meeting