Linguistics Midterm

linguistics

the scientific study of language, languages, and the mental machinery that supports linguistic connection

empiricism

linguistics is empirical, the data is linguistic patterns, experimental evidence

goals of linguistics

• describe the linguistic patterns of the world's languages and how they are used

• understand the mental machinery that supports linguistic communication

mentalist approach

linguistic theories are ultimately theories about the mind

linguistic knowledge

english speakers know something about the sound patterns of english - this knowledge affects our behavior (ex: prevents us from creating words that start with rb and dl)

mental grammar

linguistic theories are ultimately theories about the mind

cross-linguistic patterns

ex: all languages have wh- questions

no languages allow wh- questions made from coordinate elements

why are certain patterns common across languages and certain ones uncommon?

language families, articulatory/perceptual universals, cognitive constraints, communication efficiency, innate learning biases

shitgibbons

morphological structure (compounds), pragmatics (discourse function), sociolinguistic variation, phonological well-formedness (sound)

english speakers have systematic preferences about the phonological form of shitgibbons which are untaught

perspectives of language

linguistic and social

mutual intelligibility

can 2 users communicate with a relatively precise level of comprehension

structural similarity

how similar are the linguistic structures

idiolect

the version of a language spoken by an individual - unique

dialect

a relatively uniform set of idiolects

people who speak the same dialect communicate fluently with little misunderstanding

language

a collection of mutually-intelligible/sufficiently similar dialects

variety

essentially the same as a dialect; neutral term used by linguists

what makes 2 varieties dialects of the same language vs two different languages?

linguistic: mutual intelligibility, linguistic similarity

social: do people consider them to be the same language

ethnologue

annual publication listing statistics about all of the recognized languages of the world

how many living languages are there?

~7159

language families

a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestral language

living languages

languages that are currently used by native speakers

extinct languages

languages with no proficient native speakers

how many extinct languages are there?

~454

dormant languages

no proficient native speakers but a community exists that 1) associates themselves with the language 2) views it as a symbol of the community's identity 3) possibly retains social uses

EGDIS

expanded graded intergenerational disruption scale

1-5 - developing

6a - neither declining nor developing

6b-9 - declining

10 - extinct

language endangerment

an endangered language is one in which the child-bearing generation is no longer transmitting it to their children

what percent of all living languages are endangered?

40%

it is estimated that half of the world's languages may become extinct in the next century

subjugation

taking over land, removing them from culture, force to stop their language learning

cultural drift

with migration, people tend to want to acclimate to that society, stop traditional practices, learn dominant language to stay ahead

factors that promote vitality

legal status, social status, attitudes, identity, range of environments of use, use in literature, are children learning it as native language

competence

knowledge of a language

building blocks (lexicon) - sounds, affixes, words

procedures (mental grammar) - rules to combine sounds, rules to combine word parts, rules to combine words

performance

what you have to do to use linguistic knowledge: Speech recognition, speech production, Transforming acoustic signals, Retrieving words from long-term memory, Putting elements in the right order

acceptability

how natural or easy it feels for speakers to process

approaches to language

descriptive and normative

descriptive approach (descriptivism)

describes language use/linguistic structures

normative approach (prescriptivism)

assigns value to language use/lingusitic structures

grammaticality (descriptivism)

a linguistic construction is considered grammatical if native-like speakers of a language/variety regularly produce, understand, and accept the construction

not grammatical if speakers do not produce a construction, have difficulty comprehending it, and/or judge the construction to not be part of their language

ex: "10 items or less" (should be "fewer")

meaning (descriptivism)

a word has a particular meaning if people regularly intend and use the word to have that meaning and regularly understand it as having that meaning

ex: "I literally died last night"

dictionary

a summary of current and past usage, not a dictation of how you should use language. dictionaries are descriptive

record how people use words, not how they should

normative views (prescriptivism)

judgments about the value of languages/linguistic structures

often couched in terms of correctness/grammaticality

the basis of the judgment can be aesthetic, a sense of correctness, or an opinion about a class of people

what does it meam to be grammatical acc to descriptive vs normative

D: defined by usage

P: defined by the judgment of the prescriber(s)

prestige variety

a variety that is considered prestigious by members of the speech community

spoken by people considered to be prestigious (ethnicity, social status, education, wealth)

low prestige variety

considered to be undesirable or of low social standing

spoken by people of low social class/caste, ethnic/racial minorities, and rural people

standard variety

a variety of language that is commonly based in part or whole on the prestige variety

may be official or unofficial, typically used for public communications, has been codified, used in gov, education, journalism, and literature, always has a written form, sometimes required in schools, often required in print by editors

vernacular varieties

varieties of a language spoken by people in their communities and homes

may not have a written form, frequently endangered, frequently considered low prestige

codification

selection of linguistic structures and rules

development of a written system

creation of normative rules for pronunciation, spelling, vocab, and syntax

publication of dictionaries and grammar books

where do normative views come from

• desire to achieve a goal (protect a language, improve communication, promote values)

• mapping social attitudes onto language

• linguistic conservatism

• misunderstanding of what language is and how it works

linguistic conservatism

language users tend to believe that older forms of a language are more correct/preferable to newer forms

Hockett's design features

how the system is structured: semanticity, arbitrariness, discreteness, and productivity

semanticity

all signals in a communication system have a meaning or function

language is for communication

not all transfer of info is communication

arbitrariness

linguistic sign = form + meaning

the relationship between form and meaning tends to be arbitrary (non-systematic)

exceptions: onomatopoeias

discreteness

languages make use of discrete units (words, morphemes, phonemes)

productivity

capacity to form and understand new utterances

making new words out of existing sounds, making new words out of existing roots and affixes, making new sentences out of existing words

animal communication

mostly not arbitrary, not discrete, not productive

generally semantic, thought to be innate

exception: bee waggle dance

morphology

linguistic mechanisms pertaining to word formation

words

entities that can function on their own in a sentence

morphemes

a pairing of form and meaning/function

smallest meaning-bearing unit of language

root

the portion of a word that bears its central meaning

affixes

material/word parts added to a root or other affix

prefix: added before

suffix: added after

monomorphemic

when a word contains just 1 morpheme

ex: deny, cake