Linguistics Lecture 1.1 Notes

Definition of Language

  • Language is a massive and inclusive art, shaped by generations (Edward Sapir).

    • Massive: vast, spans cultures.

    • Inclusive: encompasses all expression.

    • Mountainous: built up over time.

    • Anonymous: collective product.

    • Unconscious generations: evolves organically through everyday use.

Linguistics

  • Scientific and systematic study of human language.

  • Analyzes language as a system for relating form, meaning, and context.

  • Expands our insight into human communication.

  • Studies how language operates, is employed, changes, and is preserved.

  • Uses the scientific method; intersects with various disciplines.

Scope of Linguistics

  • Includes areas such as:

    • Sociolinguistics (Sociology)

    • Psycholinguistics (Psychology)

    • Neurolinguistics (Neurology)

    • Applied Linguistics (Languages)

    • Computational Linguistics (Artificial Intelligence)

    • Philosophical Linguistics (Philosophy)

Levels of Linguistic Analysis/Description

  • Phonetics: Sounds

  • Phonology: Sounds

  • Morphology: Grammar

  • Syntax: Grammar

  • Semantics: Meaning

  • Lexicon : Meaning

  • Pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, pedagogical, linguistics : Reality

Knowing A Language

  • Knowing the sounds & signs that are in and are not in a language (phonetic).

  • Knowing certain sounds sequences signify certain concepts & meanings (phonology & morphology).

  • Enable us to combine words to form phrases & phrases to form sentences.

  • Produce new sentences never spoken before & understand sentences never heard before.

  • Enable us to produce new words.

Prominent Linguists

  • Noam Chomsky (1928–present): generative grammar, Universal Grammar theory.

  • Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913): structuralism, langue and parole.

  • Edward Sapir (1884–1939): Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

  • Leonard Bloomfield (1887–1949): behaviorist approaches, structural linguistics.

  • William Labov (1927–2022): sociolinguistics, language variation.

  • Dell Hymes (1927–2009): ethnography of communication, communicative competence.

  • George Lakoff (1941–present): cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphors.