Final Exam: Introduction to Linguistics

Chapter 5-10, 13, 14, 17

Referential Meaning

Basic components of literal meaning of words.

Ex: Sarcastic sentences.

Semantics

The study of the meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences.  

Thematic Roles

The relationships between the arguments of the verb and the situation the verb describes. Focus on the noun phrase (NP).

7 different ones:

1) Agent (Doer)

2) Theme (Undergoer of the action)

3) Goal (Endpoint of a change in location or possession)

4) Source (Where the action originates)

5) Instrument (The means used to accomplish an action)

6) Experiencer (Receiving sensor input passively, verbs that impact one’s mental state)

7) Location (Where an entity is — in the room.)

Morpheme

The smallest unit of meaning or grammatical function (Split it up)

Examples - Called (Two Morphemes) and Book (One Morpheme), Books (Two), or Rebooking (Three)

A morpheme may consist of one or more syllables.

1) Lexical/Content Morpheme

2) Functional Morpheme

3) Inflectional Morpheme

4) Derivational Morpheme

5) Free Morpheme ‘

6) Bound Morpheme

Lexicial/Content Morpheme

Open Class.

Clear meaning like book.

Ordinary nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Simple (clear content).

Constantly changing — increasing dictionary.

Functional Morpheme

Closed Class.

Free Morphemes.

Articles, Conjunction, Prepositions, and pronouns.

Er, ed, ing, s, z.

Stay the same, were not changing grammar.

Bound

Needs something accompanying.

Prett-ier, -er, -ing, etc.

“Grammar”

Free

Ex: Girl, New, Tour

“Stand Alone”

Inflectional

If not derivational, it is this. Doesn’t change class.

EX: -ing, -s, -ed, -ly, -er, -est

Derivational

Changes class of speech — noun to verb. Changes meaning.

Edit (verb) to Editable (adjective)

Unpredictable - changed meaning.

Examples of True and False

-Er Morpheme:

• Singer (Noun) and Taller (Comparative) — not the same.

• Prettier and Smaller (Comparative)

Morpheme -able can be a root morpheme or a suffix — ateable, able (can be free)

Blending

Brunch — breakfast/lunch

The first sounds of one word are combined with the ending sounds of another word.

Backformation

“Edit” from Editor

“Babysit” from Babysitter

A word of one part of speech (often a noun) is reduced to another part of speech (often a verb).

Clipping

Ad - advertisement.

Exam - Examination.

Menty B - Mental Breakdown

Removing some sounds, letters, morphemes from a word.

Compounding

Tooth-paste

Book-worm

Heart-broken

Putting two words together to create a new word.

Coinage

Aurafarming

404 Coded

Company names like Kodak and Google

Coming up with your own word out of nowhere.

Borrowing

Carmel from French

Adopting a word from a different language.

Functional Shift/Conversion

Verb → Noun

Noun → Adjective

Friend, Email, Bottle, Swim

When a word belonging to one lexical category (or part of speech) is changed to a different category/POS without any change in the word form.

Semantic Shift

Mouse - animal and computer mouse

Cooked

Using an existing word, but with creating a completely new meaning.

Syntax

Knowledge of sentences and their structures 

Diagram — split Noun Phrase and Verb Phrase.

• Then make sub categories for the article, noun, verb, so on so on. Proper Nouns (Names), Pronouns (it, you), and Adjectives are also included.

Word Order

Every Language has verbs and objects. Subjects are common but not required.

Subject, Object, Verb (SOV) is the most common.

Anything that starts with O, OSV and OVS (object) is the least common.

IN ENGLISH: Subject, Verb, Object (SVO) — very common.

We start with subject because we like to know the point. We think about subjects first and objects last.

Synonyms

Words or expressions that have the same meaning in some or all contexts.

According to Linguistics, we don’t have a word that means that exact same things as ___, it wouldn’t exist.

Motherese

Caregiver speech.

• Speaking to babies

• Simple sentences 

• Repetition 

• Paraphrasing 

• Here and now

Innateness Theory

A gene mutation occurred that made it possible for humans to learn language. Children are prewired to learn languages.

• Must be exposed to languages to learn language 

  • Genie a girl exposed to almost no language until age 13

    • Developed language to a small degree 

    • Never developed range of grammar

Language Acquisition Device — Noam Chomsky

Grammar-translation

Origin: Learn to translate Latin (to understand the bible)

• Focus on grammar and accuracy 

• Memorize vocabulary and grammar rules 

• Rarely speak the second language 

• Mostly using the first language to learn (about) the second 

Audiolingual

Origin: Behaviorism 

• Learn by practice 

• Drills, repeat sentences 

• Use of only the second language

• Correct all mistakes; otherwise results in fossilization: engrained incorrect habits

Natural Approach

Pushback against ALM (1980s) 

• Learn second language in the same way as learned the first 

• A lot of listening to the first language

• No mention of grammar rules, vocabulary, etc.

Communicative Language Teaching

Task-based learning, Project-based learning, etc. 

• Create opportunities to use the language for real-world purposes 

• Mistakes are a part of learning – rarely correct them 

• Somewhat of an eclectic approach

Linguistics recommend this one the most.

Language Teaching Methods

1) Grammar Translation

2) Audiolingual

3) Natural Approach

4) Communicative Language Teaching

Verb Aspect

Simple - Something you do habitually. I play tennis every single day.

Progressive - Action taking place right now — -ing ending in sentence. I was playing tennis yesterday when my sister called.

Perfect - Focused on the experience, but doesn’t tell you when. Contains will have (future) and had (past) before the verb in a sentence.

Morphology

Study of words and their form (spelling).

Phonology

Systems and patterns of sounds of language.

Affix

Prefix - before

Suffix - after

Common in English

Affixation change:

Book (root morpheme) → Books

Happiness (word) → Unhappiness

Play → Playful (adjective)

Homophone

Two or more words that sound the same.

EX: Two, to, too.

Homonym

One word that has two different meanings.

EX: Bat, Pen, Race

Descriptive Grammar

Casual English.

Rules based on a description of the language as a person actually speaks it. 

Prescriptive Grammar

Professional English.

The socially determined “correct” way to speak a language. Using grammatical rules.

Idiom

Phrases cannot be predicted based on the meanings of individual words. Semantic rules for combining meanings don’t apply.

To understand or teach idioms:

1) Know the individual words

2) Know the meaning of the expression

3) Have cultural background

EX: Piece of cake, hit it off, drop the ball, put his foot in his mouth

Implicature

Implied meanings. Inferences that can be based on context.

Philology

The study of language history and change

Etymology

How forms and meaning have changed throughout history, it tracks the word all throughout history.

Grice’s Maxims of Conversation

1) Maxim of Quality — Truth

2) Maxim of Quantity — Information (do not give more information than is needed)

3) Maxim of Relation — Only say what is relevant

4) Maxim of Manner — Clarity - clear, brief, and orderly

Parts of Speech

Noun — Person, place, or thing

Verb — Action/Helper words (Is, am)

Adjective — Describes the noun

Adverb — Describes the verb (-ly, poorly, well, too, rarely, sometimes, often, fast, slowly)

Preposition — Location and movement (On, over, with, between, at, to, from)

Pronoun — Him, She, Her, It, you

Conjunction — Connects two sentences FANBOYS: for, an, nor, but, or, yet, so, though, while

Determiner (all articles are determiners) — Words come before a noun and provides info about the noun. Ex: a, my, her, the, etc.

Deixis

Refers to words and expression whose reference depend on the context of the situation.

Person, Time, and Place Deixis.

Person Deixis

Meaning depends on who is being discussed or present.

EX: I, you, she, that man, those girls

Time Deixis

Meaning depends on when something was said or what period of time it’s being discussed.

EX: Now, then, tomorrow, yesterday

Place Deixis

Meaning depends on where it was said or what place was being discussed.

EX: Here, there, yonder mountains

Cognate

Words in different languages that share a similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation.

Stages of Language Acquisition

1) Cooing

2) Babbling

3) One-word Stage

4) Two-word Stage

5) Telegraphic Speech

Cooing

The perceptions and production of speech sounds

Infants (2-6 months) display an ability to discriminate and recognize speech sounds 

• They can perceive differences in voicing, place of articulation, manner of articulation

• Front vowels (i,u) 

• K and g consonants 

Babbling

Babbling which is saying ba, ba, or ga ga, etc. 

• Begins about 6 months 

• 95% of babble is composed of the 12 most common consonants around the world 

• By 1 year babbles are composed only of the phonemes used in the languages they hear

One-Word

After the age of one, children figure out that sounds are related to meanings and start to produce their first sounds.

Two-Word

• 18-20 months 

  • Big boat 

  • More milk

  • My dog

  • Shoe off 

• 5X comprehension to production 

  • Understand way more than they can produce

Telegraphic Speech

2-4 years old 

• After they build vocabulary. 

Variation in word forms appear 

• Syntax development 

• Inflection Development

Pragmatics

Is concerned with our understanding of language in context.

Critical Period for Language

By age 7 starts to go down rapidly. Very low by age 17. This is the best time to learn.

McGurk Effect

What we see overrides what we hear, we hear with our eyes. Sight is more important than sound.

AI, Radio, TV Language Learning

Generative AI (the role of AI — use as A TOOL)

• Many uses in language learning and assessment 

• Serve as a speaking partner for practice and assessment.  

• Provide feedback on students’ errors. 

• Help students study for exams by creating practice items. 

• Automate simple tasks such as creating the nouns, verbs, etc of a language, so learners can focus on concepts and higher order thinking. 

Problems with AI:

• Use them inappropriately to do the thinking that is critical for learning. 

• Become addicted to them which could lead to reduced cognitive development and mental effort. (Frog in boiling water)

• Ask yourself: Will it limit the development of my critical thinking, creativity, coordination, communication, and/or collaboration? 

Children need socialization to learn english - language is built on HUMAN CONNECTION.

What sounds do children learn first and last?

First: Front vowels - i, u. K and g consonants

Last: IPA hard th, sss - 3 (measure), hard voiced sounds.

Three period of English

Old English — Before 1150 — latin words came from Rome

Middle English — 1150-1500 — Impact of Norman Conquest

• French words adapted into English

Modern English — after 1500 — Great vowel shift and pronunciation changed dramatically

Correcting errors in children

Say it back correctly using appropriate grammar and pronunciation. Children need human guidance to help language development - language is all about connection.

Effects on English of the Norman Conquest

French/Norman invaded and gained control of England (1066).

French upper class, English lower class, soon all would use! English was now spoken but impacted by French.

Inflection on adjectives was lost, they all have one form: tall, short, fat, etc. (Use to have a singular male, singular female, and plural versions).

Lots of borrowing from French: Government, National, Price, Croissant.

English is a mutt language.

Kept both English and French: Cow - beef, Pig - pork

Using English more than French: Dog - Canine

Why do languages change?

Historical Events like the Norman Conquest — Globalization

• Lots of borrowing from this

Languages changed when past down from generation to generation (people don’t want to sound like their parents)

Assimilation: Easier to say

Dissemination: To be clear

Changes to society — technology

Analogic Change

Group Project

Learned more deeply about all structural components of language including phonology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and morphology. They all coincide to form a functioning language where people will be able to effectively communicate with one another.