Week01-LectureSlides

Course Introduction

• Course Title: LIN102: Sentence Structure and Meaning

• Instructor: Ivan Bondoc

• Week: 01

Creativity in Language

• Language allows for creative and generative use of words and sentences.

  • Examples include:

    • Post on Instagram: "She’s instagramming cherry blossoms."

    • Texting: "Do not text in class!"

• New terminologies: tweep, unfriend, PM, TL;DR.

Systematic Nature of Language

• Language follows systematic rules, which can be observed.

  • Example sentences:

    • "Keanu has probably won."

    • "He apparently never cared."

• Assessing grammaticality with examples of acceptable vs. unacceptable forms (e.g. asterisk indicates unlikely forms).

Linguistic Approach

• Descriptive vs. Prescriptive:

  • Descriptive: Observing how language is used in practice, focusing on native speaker usage.

    • Example: Ending sentences with prepositions is common in speech.

  • Prescriptive: Normative attitudes about language use.

    • Example: The rule "Do not end a sentence with a preposition."

Linguistic Competence

• Definition: Knowledge of language and ability to produce utterances.

• Grammar as a mental system that structures language, encompassing:

  • Word and sentence formation.

  • Meanings of words and sentences.

  • Sound patterning and speech articulation.

Subfields of Linguistics

• Linguistic subfields are classified by studies and questions.

  • Theoretical Linguistics:

    • Focus on structural properties and mental grammar.

    • Methods:

      • Qualitative data collection, formal models.

      • Increasing use of experimental methods.

  • Psycholinguistics:

    • Investigates cognitive processes in language comprehension and production.

    • Developmental Linguistics: Examines language acquisition processes.

Theoretical Concepts Covered

Morphology

• Study of word formation patterns.

  • Morpheme: Smallest units of meaning.

  • Types: Free morphemes (e.g., "book") and bound morphemes (e.g., "-s").

  • Examples: eating, books, active

Syntax

• Study of phrase and sentence structure.

  • Exploring grammaticality and acceptability in sentences.

    • Example:

      • Grammatical Sentence: "The cat chased the dog."

      • Ungrammatical Sentence: "*The chased cat dog the."

Grammaticality Judgments

• Speakers provide judgments based on intuitions about language.

• Distinction between grammaticality and acceptability.

  • Grammatical but Unacceptable: "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously."

    • Not all grammatical forms are acceptable in conventional use.

Interlinear Glossing

• Method used by linguists to analyze syntactic patterns in different languages.

  • Format:

    1. Language data

    2. Word-for-word/morpheme gloss

    3. Translation

Syntactic Categories

• Definition: Categories discerned by the types of words and their arrangements.

  • Types of grammatical categories: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

  • Identification can be problematic due to semantic ambiguities.

Criteria for Syntactic Categories

Morphology

• Certain morphemes attach only to certain grammatical categories.

  • Examples:

    • Nouns: Suffix "-s" for plurals.

    • Verbs: Suffixes "-ed", "-ing" for different forms.

Syntactic Distribution

• Distribution: Where specific categories can appear within a sentence.

  • Example: Nouns appear after determiners.

• Distinct positions indicate the grammatical category.

Additional Categories

• Determiners (e.g., a, an, the) and Prepositions (e.g., in, on, under).

• Degree words/intensifiers (e.g., very, really) add context to adverbs or adjectives.

Conclusion on Syntactic Categories

• Language demonstrates diverse syntactic structures across different languages.

  • In some languages, certain categories (like adjectives) may be omitted.

• Cautions against relying solely on one criteria to define syntactic categories.

Announcements

• Reminder for course registrations and tutorial schedules.

• No tutorials in the first week; tutorials commence from January 16.