ling 1 final ucla

language as a TOOL

Speakers encode meanings into sounds,

Listeners decode speech sounds (or hand shapes) into meaning

language as a type of KNOWLEDGE

You have a finite set of building blocks and rules.

You know how to use them.

This is unconscious knowledge.

You understand the inventory of sounds in your language: Phonetics.

You understand the sound patterns in your language, what sequences are possible: Phonology.

lexicon

your mental dictionary,

you know words that are not in any written dictionary, and may never be

morphology

the "rules" that allow you construct words

syntax

How to build good PHRASES and SENTENCES

semantics

Meanings of words and how to use them

Education?

Being a fully competent native speaker of a language is independent of educational level.

Being more (or less) educated does not make a person a "better" (or "worse") native speaker.

linguistic competence

What you know in your mind

What you can do

Systematic

linguistic performance

What actually comes out of your mouth

What you do do

Subject to physical limitations such as breath, fatigue, nerves, etc.

Slips of the Tongue are performance errors.

Features of Language

1. Arbitrariness: The relationship between a word and its meaning is arbitrary. (This is why the sounds used to name the same object vary across languages.)

2. Creativity: Speakers use a finite set of building blocks and rules to create and understand an infinite set of novel sentences. (Sentences cannot simply be memorized or learned by imitation.)

Creativity is a universal property of human language.

Language Universals

-All languages have ways of forming questions.

-All languages have means for negating an utterance.

-All languages have means for indicating when an action takes place.

-All languages possess a set of discrete sounds (or gestures).

-All languages permit displacement—the ability the talk about things other than the here and now.

-All languages exhibit stimulus-freedom, the ability to say anything at all—including nothing—in any circumstances.

descriptive grammar

linguist's description or model of the mental grammar

What speaker's rules actually are

speaker's grammar

linguist's grammar

prescriptive grammar

rules of grammar (often based on Latin) used by teachers

What speaker's rules should be

lateralization

language is "lateralized" to the left hemisphere

Without access to the left cerebral hemisphere, normal language processing cannot occur.

Dichotic Listening Tests

Different sounds are played in both ears

Subject reports hearing only one

Sound from right ear is almost always reported

Conclusion: at least auditory processing of language seems to be in the left hemisphere

Split Brain Patients

In severe cases of epilepsy, the corpus callosum is sometimes severed

As a result, the two hemispheres can not share information

Linguistic responses are not possible if stimulus was presented to the right hemisphere (left visual field).

Wada Tests

One hemisphere of a patient's brain is temporarily put to sleep.

Patient then asked to read words &/or numbers, identify objects, & respond to questions.

Result? An inability to produce language when left side is anesthetized.

aphasia

a disruption in language abilities (production and/or comprehension) due to brain injury

Tan's Brain

Patient named Louis Victor Lebourgne, but nicknamed 'Tan'.

His utterances were limited to a single syllable, "tan", usually twice.

Couldn't produce language.

1861: Paul Broca examined Tan's Brain (post-mortem).

Came to the conclusion that the loss of language ability was linked to the local damage in "Broca's area".

Broca's aphasia

Speech is broken and halted (telegraphic speech)

Words make some sense, but the structure is incorrect

a.k.a. agrammatic aphasia

Comprehension in Broca's aphasics is mostly in tact, but there are problems with complex sentences

Lesions found in particular part of the LH

(frontal lobe)

Semantics (meaning): Okay

Syntax (structure): Not okay

Comprehension: Mostly OK

Writing: Few words, but they do make sense.

wernicke's aphasia

speech is fluent, but doesn't make much sense

•grammar usually not affected

•problem w/ word choice and meaning •Neologisms-newly created words •comprehension severely impaired

•a.k.a. semantic aphasia

Semantics (meaning): NOT okay

• Syntax (structure): okay

• Comprehension: NOT okay

Writing: Many words, but they do not make sense.

Anomia

Another kind of aphasia

Patients have difficulty finding words during speech and when asked to name things, but can describe exactly what an object is for

No problem with comprehension or repetition of words

Can be very specific (plants/animals, food words, peoples names, etc)

Anomia is difficult to localize.

Often associated with damage to the angular gyrus

What can we learn from aphasiology?

Language function isn't housed in a simple 'box' in the brain

Discreet areas control different aspects of language: one area of language use may be compromised while another is fine.

Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

• affects about 7-8% of kindergarten age children.

• Very specific types of difficulty with language: children with SLI often omit "function" or grammatical words like 'of, the, is,' etc. (Meowmeow chase mice. Show me knife.)

• Children have normal IQ and normal ability in all other areas, including speech comprehension and hearing.

• It is only linguistic ability and often only specific aspects of their grammar that are impaired.

Areas of difficulty: Function words (he like me? vs does he like me?), tense/person marking on verbs, plural marking on nouns

Good IQ but not good lang ability

Williams Syndrome

Overall IQ: 40-90, Average IQ: 55

• Limited spatial and motor skills (may not be able to tie shoes or cut with a knife)

• Extremely social and friendly

• High level of vocabulary and grammar; sometimes slightly "off" semantics

• Better-than-average in facial recognition

• Often love music

• Pixie or "elfin" appearance

• STRONG language ability along with low general IQ

spacial relationships/recognition very poor (drawings)

linguistic savants

one extremely developed ability, all others lack

(languages, math, etc. but can't take care of self)

lang ability?

not tied to general intelligence (develops separately from other aspects of intelligence)

global aphasia

left hemisphere damage resulting in complete or near complete loss of language. Accompanied often by auditory deficits too

Counting, days of the week, months of the year, nursery rhymes, familiar phrases ("good morning")

asymmetry?

There is an asymmetry:

Automatic speech is retained.

Intentional speech is impaired.

Right hemisphere stroke: unable to Count1-20, Sing familiar songs, Unable to curse, unable to provide correct expletive for a situation described to him, unable to complete a curse

phonetics

deals with how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived.

articulatory phonetics- how speakers produce

sounds

acoustic phonetics- physical properties of sounds

auditory phonetics- how listeners perceive sounds

Phonology

deals with the way those sounds are organized in individual languages.

Two languages may include the same sounds in their sound inventories, but employ different rules about how the sounds can be used.

phonetic inventory

phonetic inventory of English includes consonants and vowels

orthography

phonetics does not equal sound

Same symbol, different sound:

Same sound(s), different symbols

Symbols not pronounced

consonants

produced with some closure in the vocal tract that impedes the flow of air from the lungs.

Consonants are distinguished using 3 features

1.Place of Articulation

Where is the consonant produced?

7 Places of Articulation

2.Manner of Articulation

how is the consonant produced?

6 different Manners of Articulation

3.Voicing

Are the vocal folds vibrating (voiced) or not (voiceless- open glottis)?

Voiced (+) or Voiceless (-)

place of articulation

1. Bilabials

IPA: [p] [b] [m]

Sounds produced by bringing both lips together.

2.Labiodentals:

[f], [v]

Sounds produced by touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth.

3.Interdentals

thigh [ɵ], thus [đ]

Sounds produced by inserting the tip of the tongue between the upper teeth and the lower teeth.

4.Alveolars:

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

Sounds produced by raising the tip of the tongue to the alveolar ridge (part of the hard palate directly behind the upper front teeth).

5.Palatals:

mission [ʃ], measure [ʒ], cheap [tʃ], judge [dʒ], you [j]

Sounds produced by raising the front part of the tongue to the hard palate (bony section of the roof of the mouth behind the alveolar ridge).

6. Velars:

[k], [g],[ŋ]

Sounds produced by raising the back of the to the soft palate or velum.

7.Glottals:

high, uh-oh, button [Ɂ]

[h] produced with the flow of air through the open

glottis.

[Ɂ] produced if the air is stopped completely at the glottis by tightly closed vocal chords: glottal stop.

(8.) Labio-velar (i.e., bilabial AND velar):

witch [w]

voicing

Voiceless (vocal cords apart, air flows freely through glottis): (s)u(p)er [supǝr]

Voiced (vocal cords together, airstream forces way through, causing vibration): (b)u(zz) [bʌz]

manner of articulation

1. stops: There is a complete obstruction of airflow somewhere in the vocal tract.

Oral stops [p, b, t, d, k, g, Ɂ ]

Nasal stops [m] [n] [ŋ]

2.Fricatives (f, v, ɵ as in thick, ð as in thy, s, z, ʃ as in issue, ʒ as in leisure, h as in house)

There is a major, but not complete, obstruction in the vocal tract.

The opening through which the air escapes is small, and so a turbulent noise is produced as a result (think of air escaping though a punctured tire.

3.Affricates: [tʃ] as in cheap, [dʒ] as in Joe

Affricates are made by briefly stopping the airflow completely, then slightly releasing the closure so that a fricative-like noise is produced.

4.Liquids [l, r] : Some minor obstruction of the vocal tract w/ tongue, but air still passes through

We can further distinguish the two English liquids [l] and [r] using an additional feature:

[l] is a lateral liquid

[r] is a retroflex liquid

5. Glides [j, w] you- [ju]

[j] is palatal, [w] is labio-velar

very small obstruction of airflow: articulators move closer together, but not by very much

very vowel-like

vowels

We can distinguish vowels using four features:

1. tongue position (frontness/backness)

How far back in your mouth is your tongue articulating?

2. tongue height (high/mid/low)

What is the height of the tongue?

3. liprounding

Are your lips rounded (who) or unrounded (cheese)?

4. tenseness

Is your tongue more tense or lax?

Tongue Position

Front - [i] beet, [ɪ] bit, [e] bait, [ɛ] bet, [æ] bat Central - [ə] about, [ʌ] but, [a] cot

Back - [u] boot, [ʊ] book, [o] boat, [ɔ] caught,

Tongue Height

High - [i] beet, [ɪ] bit, [u] boot, [ʊ] book

Mid - [e] bait, [ɛ] bet, [ə] about, [ʌ] but, [o] boat, [ɔ] bought

Low-[æ]bat,[a]cot

Tenseness

Tense: muscles tensed/tighter [i] [e] [u] [o] [a]

Lax: muscles a bit more relaxed [ɪ] [ɛ] [æ] [ʌ] [ə] [ʊ] [ɔ]

Hints to remember the Tense / Lax distinction:

Tense vowels are slightly higher than lax vowels

Tense vowels are slightly shorter than lax vowels

The IPA symbols (not sounds!) we use to represent the tense vowels are the standard "vowel letters" that we were taught in grade school!

diphthongs

vowel sounds are different than the sounds in beet or bet; they combine two vowels (or a vowel and a glide)

[aɪ] as in the word 'eye'

[ɔɪ] as in the word 'boy'

[aʊ] as in the word 'house'

natural classes

groups of sounds can be identified by sharing particular features

example: [h] and [Ɂ] share two features

They are both glottal and voiceless.

Syllabic consonants

marked with diacritics [ˌ]

English allows syllabic [l], [r], [m], and [n]

These sounds can also be represented with a schwa [ə] + [l/r/m/n]

(If you have a strong intuition that there is a vowel between [z] and [l] when you say dazzle, transcribe it with a schwa)

suprasegmentals

Superimposed on top of the syllables are other features:

stress

PERvert vs perVERT

CONflict vs conFLICT

length

beat vs. bead

cat vs. cad

coat vs. code

(Length alone cannot change the meaning of a word)

pitch

an auditory property that allows listeners to place sound on a scale going from low to high, higher the frequency (number of times the vocal folds open and close during 1 second), the higher the pitch

intonation

achieved by raising & lowering the pitch of your

voice, That's a pig. That's a pig? That's a pig!

tone

phonology

how speech sounds are organized in different languages

Phonology is the linguistic knowledge a speaker has of the sound patterns that are possible in a language

wug testing

You know how to pluralize novel words—although the plural -s can be realized in three different ways, you have clear intuitions about when to use each realization

plurals

[-z] : [b], [g], [n], [d] (voiced)

[-s]: [t], [k], [f], [p] (voiceless)

[-ɪz]: [ʃ], [z], [ʧ][ʤ] (sibilants)

sibilants

sounds [z], [ʃ], [ʧ], and [ʤ] belong to a special class of sounds called sibilants (also includes [s] and [ʒ]). Sibilants are sounds that have a buzzing, hissy quality. Alveolar and palatal fricatives and affricates together are sibilants

minimal pair

When two words differ by only one sound

If we find a minimal pair, we know that the sounds in question are allophones of different phonemes

allophones

the sounds in a given language that are considered to be "the same" by native speakers

ex: Plain [i] vs. Nasalized [ĩ]

the sounds that actually get pronounced

Each allophone must differ from all other allophones with respect to at least one feature: [i] is different from [ĩ] because [ĩ] is nasalized and [i] is not.

Allophones are different realizations (pronunciations) of the same phoneme

phoneme

-Allophones are different realizations (pronunciations) of the same phoneme

-When there are multiple allophones for one phoneme, we can often predict which sound will be produced based on the environment

-the mental representations of a sound that every speaker of a language creates

/p/

-Substituting an aspirated [p] for the unaspirated [p] doesn't cause a change in meaning

This tells us that we are dealing with allophones of the same phoneme

[p] is an allophone of the phoneme /p/

[ph] is an allophone of the phoneme /p/

contrastive distribution

A PROPERTY OF ALLOPHONES OF DISTINCT PHONEMES

One basic property of phonemes is that they are contrastive.

We know that there are two phonemes /f/ and /v/ in English, because they

are the only basis for contrast in the pairs fat and vat, or fine and vine.

If we substitute /f/ for /v/, or vice versa, we create a contrast in meaning.

Hence: /f/ and /v/ are in contrastive distribution in English

They can form minimal pairs.

We cannot predict the appearance of their allophones; they will not have a predictable sound environment.

Interchanging allophones from the two phonemes triggers a change (or contrast) in meaning.

complementary distribution

A PROPERTY OF ALLOPHONES OF THE SAME PHONEME

Minimal pairs can help us to determine whether two sounds are allophones of the same phonemes or allophones of distinct phonemes, but the lack of a minimal pair does not necessarily indicate that two sounds belong to the same phoneme. For that, we need more proof.

The second way to determine whether two sounds are allophones of the same phoneme or belong to separate phonemes is to look for complementary distribution.

If two allophones belong to the same phoneme, each allophone in the set will have a predictable environment.

Allophones of a single phoneme are typically in complementary distribution, meaning that the allophones occur in distinct, non-overlapping environments.

Given the sound environment, we can predict which of the two allophones will appear.

These sounds will never form minimal pairs.

If we swap one for another, the word will end up sounding weird but no change in meaning will result.

Each allophone will appear in a predictable phonetic environment.

how to write a rule

/s/ becomes [ʃ] when it precedes [i]. [s] occurs elsewhere.

Determine the base form (the phoneme):

The main question: Is one of the allophones more common? Does it occur in more (and varied) environments? If so, this is your base form, a.k.a. the elsewhere allophone.

Example:Weknowthat[ĩ]appearsONLYbeforenasal consonants in English, while [i] appears elsewhere.

When a rule does target a group of sounds, we will want to incorporate the idea of natural class into our rule-writing.

When multiple sounds undergo the same change in the same environment, we will always be able to pinpoint the phonetic features shared by all the sounds involved.

What we are really looking at: a change in one natural class (vowels) is being triggered by another natural class (nasals).

non-distinctive feature

Aspiration only distinguishes allophones of a single phoneme, not allophones distinct phonemes. So, aspiration is a non-distinctive feature in English.

Nondistinctive features do not distinguish one

phoneme from another.

Instead, they distinguish the various allophones of a single phoneme from one another.

Nondistinctive features are the ones that are predictable.

distinctive feature

Voicing distinguishes allophones of distinct phonemes. So, voicing is a distinctive feature in English.

distinguishes allophones of distinct phonemes

morphology

the study of words: their structure, function, and distribution

syntactic categories

noun, verb, preposition, article, adjective, adverb, etc.

What do we know when we know a word?

We may or may not know a word's orthography.

We may or may not know a word's etymology- as in

the case of tsunami.

morpheme

The smallest linguistic unit that has meaning.

Morpheme ≠ Word

But all words consist of at least one morpheme.

discreteness of language

each morpheme is a discrete unit of meaning, which we can manipulate.

we know how to combine morphemes to build new words member + ship = membership

lock + able = lockable

we know how to decompose words into their morphemes sooner = soon+er

morphology = morph + ology

free vs bound morphemes

Free morphemes can stand alone as a complete word.

(fast, to, the, chimney, blue, see, sell, he)

In contrast, bound morphemes MUST be attached to a free

morpheme:

-ed (walk-ed)

-ing (walk-ing)

-s (walk-s)

pre- (pre-test)

re- (re-read)

un-(un-do)

content/lexical morphemes

have a lexical meaning

Most nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are all content

words.

boyish (adjective) bleakly (adverb) beautiful (adjective)

email (noun and verb) car (noun)

run (verb)

are an open class: we can and do create new content words all the time.

functional morphemes

serve some grammatical purpose.

include things like pronouns, articles, and conjunctions:

the for our to

as but mine if

These are closed classes: we can't (usually) create new words or morphemes in them.

types of bound morphemes

inflectional and derivational

inflectional morphemes

aregrammatical,inthattheyaffectthe grammar of the word they attach to.

Inflectional Morphemes do not typically change a word's category.

Theyattachtoaparticularcategoryofword.

You can (usually) add them to almost every word of the particular category they affix to:

-ing attaches to regula rverbs--eating,watching,running,texting, being, laughing

Possessive -s attaches to nouns-dog's,cat's,John's,house's...

They"refine"meaning—add a tiny bit of information, but they don't change the core meaning.

walk to walked (adds info about when, but doesn't change action)

8 inflectional morphemes to memorize in English

-s 3rd person singular present plural

-s. plural

-s. possessive

-ed. past tense

-ing progressive

-en/ed past participle

-er comparative

-est. superlative

derivational morphemes

are not purely grammatical; somehow change the usage of the word often involves changing both the meaning and the 'part of speech'.

In English there are many. Just a few:

-ly -ish post- inter- -tion re-

pre- trans- de-

morphemes: creative yet structured?

attach in a specific order because words have structure

affixes

Prefixing: attaching something before the root pre-history, im-possible

Suffixing: attachingsomethingaftertheroot (e.g.) fix-able, finish-ed

Infixing: attaching something inside the root

"Expletive" Infixation: in-****in'-credible

Circumfixing: surrounds the root both initially and finally

writing morphological rules

Rule: /in-/ + adjective = 'not ADJECTIVE'

/in/ becomes [ɪm] before bilabials and [ɪŋ] before velars. [ɪn] occurs elsewhere.

Reduplication

Forming new words by duplicating part or all of an existing word

Partial reduplication(Tagalog):

bili 'buy'

bibili 'will buy'

English does use reduplication:

Contrastive Focus Reduplication (CF reduplication) :

I'll make the tuna salad and you make the SALAD-salad

syntax

the study of how phrases and sentences are constructed

basic word order

varies greatly across languages:

English basic word order: SVO (Subject-Verb-Object)

John threw the ball

S V O

syntactic categories

N - Noun:

V - Verb:

P - Preposition:

Adj - Adjective: funny, orange, impossible

Adv - Adverb: quickly, fast, unfortunately,

sheepishly, yesterday, very

uxiliary: have, had, be, was, were

Modal: can, may, will, might, could

Det/Determiner/Article: a, an, the, those

What happens when multiple auxiliaries are present?

The first auxiliary inverts with the subject.

Ex:

The little rabbit has been eating a rutabaga

Has the little rabbit___ been eating a rutabaga?

*Been the little rabbit has ___ eating a rutabaga?

*Eating the little rabbit has been ___ a rutabaga?

replacement tests (2 types)

Pronoun Replacement (targets noun phrases)

Many constituents can be replaced by pronouns such as I, he, she, you, we, there, etc.

(1. And the resulting sentence is a grammatical,

2. And resulting sentence has the same meaning,

Then the group of words which has been replaced is a constituent.)

do so/do too replacemnt

if a string can be replaced by do so/did so or do

too/did too, then that string forms a constituent.

This constituency test targets verb phrases.

stand alone test

We often use a chunk of words from a sentence—rather thanacompletesentence—toanswerquestions. Achunk that can stand on its own to answer a question is a constituent.

Successful Stand Alone tests: The girl ran in the rain.

Who ran in the rain? The girl

Where did the girl run? in the rain

What did the girl do? ran in the rain

movement test (2 types)

Fronting -- One way to use movement to test for constituency is to move a group of words to the beginning (or front) of the sentence.

If the sentence is grammatical and has the same basic meaning, then the moved chunk is a constituent. (Note: Adding some form of the verb do to the end of the sentence is okay, and is sometimes helpful.)

Clefting involves breaking up a sentence and feeding it into the following formula. (Again, adding do is okay.)

It is/was (insert group of words you wish to test) that (rest of sentence).

It is/was_____________ that_______________

phrase structure rule

S : NP VP

This rule simply states that sentences are composed of two distinct elements—something nouny (an NP) and something verby (a VP).

noun phrase

NP (DET) (Adj) N ( PP ) the cute dog on the couch

every sentence must have an NP

all phrase structure rules

NP : Det N

NP : N

VP : V NP

VP : V

VP : V PP

PP : Prep (NP)

more general:

NP : (DET) (Adj) N (PP):(the) (cute) dog (on the couch)

VP : V (NP) (PP) (ADVP): read (the book) (quickly)

PP : Prep (NP)

structure tree terminology

Domination: Every higher node dominates all the categories beneath it.

Sisters: Two categories that are directly under the same node are called sisters.

The head of a phrase is the lexical item which determines its syntactic category (and name).

(The head of an NP is always an N. The head of a VP is always a V.)

Complement: gives some added information about the head. (Complements will be sisters to the head.)

structural ambiguity

at the syntactic level example:

Sherlock saw the man with binoculars

-different meanings correspond to different structures

Sherlock saw [the man with binoculars]

vs

Sherlock saw [the man] with binoculars

recursive rule

one in which identical symbols appear on both sides of the arrow

VP : VP PP

auxiliaries

"helping verbs"; never appear by themselves, only in conjunction with "main" verbs

do, have, be, will, can, should, would, may, must, will

main verb always comes last

VP : Aux VP

if there are multiple auxiliaries, there are multiple verb phrases (add one at a time)

subject auxiliary inversion

the boy has eaten

to

has the boy eaten?

most basic version of the sentence is the 'deep structure' or the d-structure (phrase structure rules)

after the transformation, we call the transformed sentence the 'surface structure' or the s-structure (transformation rules)

first language acquisition 4 facts

1. Instructive teaching does not seem to play a primary role in first language acquisition (Children acquire their first language effortlessly, without any systematic instruction.)

2. Input that is systematically available to children only includes positive evidence (No negative evidence is available to children) (Ambient linguistic data available to children, i.e.,

input, does not include:

- ungrammatical sentences

- the information regarding why ungrammatical sentences are ungrammatical)

3.Children are exposed to only a finite number of sentences. Yet, children come to acquire the ability to generate and understand an infinite number of sentences

4. Children, as learners of a language, make "errors" in the sense that they sometimes utter sentences adults, as matured speakers of a language, would not utter

But the pattern of their "errors" seems to be selective or limited They would not make certain errors that would be overgeneralized from what they hear in adult speech

(children are known to overgeneralized -ed attachment to the wrong verbs but do not overgeneralize the -ed attachment to do and have when they function as auxiliary verbs)

hypotheses in 1st lang acquisition

imitation (but children make errors that adults do not make so...?)

correction/reinforcement (positive reinforcement for correct speech and negative reinforcement for incorrect... but not systematic/parents aren't successful)

(parents who give no input??)

innateness- lang knowledge is innately specified, universal among human beings, richly structured

universal grammar (UG)

innate knowledge of human language (a 'blueprint' for language)

universal properties:

-there are categories in linguistic expressions

(nouns, verbs, subjects, objects ....)

- sentences/phrases are structured

o Properties specific to the language they are acquiring:

- how nouns, verbs, subjects, objects ... are represented in their language

- how sentences are structured in their language

using these parts

critical period

There is a limited developmental time period during which it is possible to acquire a language to native-like levels.

These cases suggest that after the critical period, the language centers in the left hemispheres do not develop normally (victor and genie and chelsea)