LINA01 Final Terms

competence

Unconscious linguistic knowledge

- knowing what is a sentence and what is not

Style or register

linguistic concept that denotes formality.

- You may use the phrase 'Got a pen?' with your friends or family (i.e. an informal situation).

Grammar

A mental system of rules that exists in the head of native speakers.

- This system of rules allows native speakers of a language to produce and understand sentences that have never been produced or heard before.

5 main components of mental grammar

1. Phonetics - deals with the perception and articulation of speech sounds

2. Phonology - deals with sound combinations, particularly which sound combinations are possible

3. Morphology - deals with the structure of words

4. Syntax - deals with sentence structure

5. Semantics - deals with meaning and the interpretation of sentences

Prescriptive Grammar (also known as the traditional grammar)

believe in absolute standard of correctness.

a. One form is more logical than another.

b. There is an appeal to classical forms.

c. There is a preference for older forms of the language.

d. There is an injunction against the use of foreign words (words borrowed from other languages)

Here, we are dealing with should(s) and shouldn't(s) - how you should speak and how you shouldn't speak.

Descriptive Grammar

studies and characterizes the actual language of specific groups of people in a range of situations. It does not bring any preconceived notions of "correctness" to the task nor does it favour the language of one social group over others. It describes how grammatical systems operate.

Linguists are descriptive grammarians.

a. All varieties of a language are valid systems with their own logic and conventions.

b. There is no scientific reason to expect one language to match the mold of another.

c. Languages are continually changing in subtle ways without reducing their usefulness, preciseness or aesthetic value.

d. All languages have adopted words from other sources.

3 Prescriptive Rules

1. Don't end a sentence with a preposition!

2. Don't split an infinitive (to+base form)!

3. Don't use double negatives. Two negatives make a positive!

3 Descriptive Rules

1. Articles like the and a precede nouns in English.

2. In English, adjectives come before nouns to modify them.

3. The word order in English is Subject + Verb + Object (SVO).

5 Characteristics of Grammar

1. Generality

2. Parity

3. Mutability

4. Inaccessibility

5. Universality

Generality

all languages/dialects (and speakers/signers) have a grammar

Parity

all grammars are equal. There is no such thing as a "primitive" language

Mutability

grammars change over time.

Inaccessibility

grammatical knowledge is unconscious

Universality

all grammars are alike in basic ways in spite of apparent distinctions

standard language

variety of any given language spoken by the most powerful group in a community.

usually based on the speech of the rich, powerful, and highly educated members of a society (political elite or upper-class)

Morphology

division of linguistics that looks at words and their formation

word

smallest free form.

A free form that can stand on its own without having to be attached to any other element.

morphemes

the smallest unit of meaning in a language, carrying some information about either function or the meaning.

simple word

contains one morpheme

complex word

composed of two or more morphemes (e.g. delet-ion, job-less-ness, in-suffer-able).

allomorphs

morphemes vary in pronunciation, producing allomorphs

Free morphemes

morphemes that constitute words and can stand on their own.

They do not have to attach to other words in a sentence.

bound morphemes

A morpheme that must attach to another element in an utterance

Roots

usually belong to a lexical category such as noun (N), verb (V), adjective (Adj), preposition (P), or adverb (Adv). They cannot be analyzed into smaller parts.

the core meaning of the word.

Affixes

do not belong to lexical categories and are always bound morphemes. Attaches to roots

Base

Any form to which an affix attaches.

Base can also be a root

infix

inserted inside another morpheme.

Abso-freaking-lutely

circumfixes

opposite of infixes, surrounding the base to which they attach.

Derivational affixes

affixes that create a word with a change in meaning and/or lexical category.

Inflectional affixes

Inflection does not change either the meaning or the lexical category of the words.

8 Inflectional affixes

Plural -s

Possessive -'s

3rd Person Singular -s

Progressive/Continuous -ing

Past tense -ed

Past participle -en/ed

Comparative -er

Superlative -est

Process in drawing a morphological tree

first identify the root of the complex words you are dealing with.

Once you identify the root, you should find all the affixes attaching to it. In the case of words that have multiple suffixes (or prefixes) attaching to the root, remember that the element closest to the root attaches first.

Additionally, keep in mind that derivational affixes attach first. This means that inflectional affixes always attach after all of the derivational affixes have been attached to their bases.

structurally ambiguous words

These words have multiple meanings (typically two) which reflect the possibility of drawing more than one morphological tree.

Compounding

Word formation process by which we create new words in English. Compounding involves joining together two existing words into a new unit.

head of a compound

The element that determines the lexical category of a compound.

the head of a compound is usually on the right. That is why we call English a right-headed language.

Stress on a compound

falls on the first element of the compound whereas in non-compound word combinations the stress usually falls on the second element.

greenhouse, meaning a glass-enclosed garden, receives the stress on the adjective green. Meanwhile, the expression green house, meaning a house that is green in colour, stresses the noun house.

Endocentric compounds

tend to relay meaning that is related to the head of the compound

earthworm is a type of worm and self-care is a type of care.

exocentric compounds

a compound whose meaning does not follow from the meaning of its parts

Internal change

is one of the word formation processes related to inflection. During internal change, one non-morphemic element is substituted for another to mark grammatical changes.

Ablaut

is a form of internal change that deals with vowel alternations that mark grammatical contrasts

swim (present) - swam (past)

Suppletion

is the process by which one morpheme is replaced by another completely unrelated morpheme.

For example, the English verb go is replaced by went in the past tense.

reduplication

word formation process that can denote grammatical as well as semantic contrast.

Two Types:

Partial reduplication

full reduplication

Zero derivation or conversion

is a word formation process that allows a language to assign a new lexical category to an already existing word.

Ex:

Google (N) - to Google (V), inbox (N) - to inbox (V), and Skype (N) - to Skype (V)

clipping.

A word formation process which shortens a multisyllabic word by deleting of one or more syllables

Ex:

bio from biology

Blending

word formation process where it creates new words from parts of already existing words, typically from the first part of the first element and the final part of the other element.

Some of the most common blends include brunch from breakfast and lunch, motel from motor and hotel, and smog from smoke and fog.

Backformation

is a word formation process that creates new lexical entries by removing an affix (real or supposed) from an already existing word.

editor become misanalysed to form verb forms like edit.

Acronyms

are created by taking the first letters of the words in a phrase and pronouncing them as a word.

Examples of acronyms include NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

Initialisms, also known as abbreviations

, contrast acronyms as they are pronounced as a string of letters rather than a complete word.

Initialisms include USA (United States of America),

Coinage

is another word formation process which produces new words from scratch.

Coinage is responsible for product names, company names, and so on. Words like Kleenex

Eponyms

are new words created from names of people. Ferris wheel was named after George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.

All Lexical Category (Open Class)

Nouns (N)

Verbs (V)

Adjectives (A/Adj)

Adverbs (Adv)

Prepositions (Prep)

express content and allow new additions

All Functional Category (Closed Class)

Determiners (Det)

Negation (Neg)

Degree words (Deg)

Auxiliary verbs (Aux)

express function or grammatical information

Inventory:

this refers to the number of items in each category

- Lexical: Unlimited - Functional: Limited; Countable

Productivity:

this refers to the possibility of creating new items

- Lexical: Yes - Functional: No

Semantics:

this is about the meaning behind the words/items

- Lexical: There is an association of meanings - Functional: Contentless; often needing help from those with meaning

Nouns Morphological Evidence

suffixes include -ment, -tion, -ity, -ness

prefixed: -s and -'s

Morphological distribution or morphological evidence

determine the category of word by looking at its morphological shape

irregular form

The plural form of this word is children, not *childs. In this case, we call children an irregular form that does not follow the regular rule

Main Verbs

express actions or states of being and may occur independently.

Helping Verbs

Helping verbs support main verbs and cannot occur independently.

a. Regular Auxiliaries (BE, DO, HAVE)

b. Modal Auxiliaries (can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might, must, etc.)

constituents

a word or group of words that form a meaningful unit and can only function as a syntactic unit

Replacement/Pro-form Test

If you can replace one word or group with a single word, then the selected text is probably a constituent.

[The quick brown fox] jumps over the lazy dog.

[It] jumps over the lazy dog.

Stand-Alone Test

The stand-alone test is also called the Q/A (question/answer) test. In this test, you essentially remove the constituent-in-question and see whether or not the selection can be used as a response to a question. If so, then it is probably a constituent.

The quick brown fox jumped over [the lazy dog].

Q: What did the quick brown fox jump over?

A: The lazy dog

Movement

If you can move a group of words around in the sentence, and the sentence that is formed is grammatical (and the meaning is still retained), then they form a constituent.

I like [big bowls of green beans].

Big bowls of green beans, I like!

Clefting

Clefting involves putting a string of words between It was (or It is) and a that at the

beginning of the sentence.

She received [a beautiful bouquet of flowers].

It was [a beautiful bouquet of flowers] that she received.

Noun Phrases

NP → (Det) (AdjP) N (PP)

Verb Phrase

VP → (Aux) (AdvP) V (NP) (AdvP) (PP) (AdvP)

Adjective Phrases (AdjP)

AdjP → (Deg) Adj (PP)

Adverb Phrases (AdvP)

AdvP → (Deg) Adv

Prepositional Phrases (PP)

PP → P NP

Sentence or Clause (TP)

TP→ NP VP

must contain a subject (NP) and a predicate (VP)

Structural Ambiguity

a sentence can be interpreted in more than one way

[Susan saw a man with binoculars.]

phonetics

the branch of linguistics which studies the relationship between speech and language by examining the sounds of speech and their structures.

Branches of Phonetics

Articulatory phonetics: studies how the body produces speech

Acoustic phonetics: measures the physical properties of the resulting speech sound waves (or what we hear when speech is produced).

Phones (or speech sounds)

are the building blocks of spoken human languages (just as signs are building blocks of sign languages)

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

was created as an effort to represent each individual speech sound from any language with a single symbol.

Phonetic sounds

Use square brackets

Segments

are individual speech sounds. We know that speech can be segmented for various reasons.

3 Main mechanisms to produce and modify sounds

1. An air supply: our lungs.

2. A sound source: air is set into motion in the larynx which houses our vocal folds (also known as (vocal chords).

3. A set of 3 filters: the vocal tract lies above the larynx and consists of the pharynx, oral cavity, and nasal cavity. These "filters" work together to modify the sounds produced.

intercostals

muscles between the ribs that raise the rib cage to allow the lungs to expand during inhalation.

diaphragm

a sheet of muscle below the lungs that helps control air release during exhalation so that we can speak in between breaths

How does the Larynx (voice box) produce sound?

The vocal folds in the larynx can be pulled apart or together. Their position produces different glottal states as air moves through the glottis (space between the vocal folds).

4 Glottal States

Voiceless

Voiced

Whisper

Murmur

Voiceless sounds

are produced with the vocal folds pulled apart, allowing air to pass through the glottis without interference

Voiced Sounds

are produced when the vocal folds are pulled close together (but not tightly) so that the air passing through causes them to vibrate against each other.

Whisper Sounds

is voiceless, but different in that the front (anterior) of the vocal folds are pulled together while they are pulled apart at the back (posterior)

Murmur sounds

is used to describe voiced sounds that have a "breathy" quality, due to the vocal folds being slightly more relaxed which allows more air to escape.

Consonantal sounds

can be voiced or voiceless, and are produced when airflow is restricted or blocked by narrowing (as in the production of the sound [v]), or fully closing (as in the production of the sound [m]) the vocal tract

Vowels

are usually voiced, and are made with little obstruction of the vocal tract

Acoustic difference between vowels and consonants

vowels sound more powerful (more sonorous or resonant) than consonants, and seem to sound longer in duration

Glides

w, j

Labial

Produced with near or complete closure of the lips.

[m, p, f, v]

Bilabials

sounds that use both upper and lower

Interdental

produced with the tongue between the teeth

[ð, θ]

Alveolar

Produced with the tongue touching or almost touching the alveolar ridge (found right behind the front upper teeth).

[t, d, s, z, l, n]

Alveopalatal and Palatal

Produced with the tongue touching or almost touching the alveopalatal area or the hard palate respectively.

The alveopalatal area is found right behind the alveolar ridge.

Palatal sounds include [j] in 'yes'.

[ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ, j]

Velar

Produced with the tongue touching the velum (also called the soft palate) which is found behind the hard palate.

[k, g, ŋ]

Glottal

Produced with vocal cords as the primary articulators.

[ʔ] in 'uh-oh'

[h, ʔ]

Oral sounds:

raised velum restricts airflow from entering the nasal cavity

Nasal sounds:

lowered velum allows airflow through the nasal cavity (ex. [m, n, ŋ])