Nature of Language

Week One: Introduction to the Nature of Language

What is Linguistics?  

Linguistics is the scientific study of language as a system. It is actually made up of multiple systems: sound, words, sentences, even the whole systems of how it operates within society as well and how it is represented cognitively in the brain as well.  

So is linguistics a science, a social science, or a humanities subject?

• Linguistics is at the crossroads of many disciplines. Different universities classify it in different ways.

• Students who are drawn to linguistics are usually interested in both science and the arts.

  • science parts involve, for example, looking at spectrograms and synthesising soundwaves which requires a little bit more physics

Knowledge of Language

When we say that we know a language, what exactly do we mean that we know?

Two common types of answers

• Function: Knowing how to communicate/express yourself.

• Form: Knowing the words of that language and the rules for putting them together

What do we study in linguistics?

• Linguists study various aspects of the structure of language, from sound patterns to narratives.

• Phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, language acquisition, sociolinguistics, etc.

  • One theory of language acquisition is that multilingual children take a bit longer to learn a second language

  • Sociolinguistics is the idea that you don’t speak to your grandmother the same way that you speak to your friends

    • When speaking to friends, you use certain types of words that your friends understand but that your grandmother might not know

Sounds

• What is the difference between “ba” and “da”?

• The study of speech sounds is called phonetics.

  • Sound patterns/structure of the sound

Sound Patterns

• Our knowledge of English tells us which is most likely to be an English word.

• The study of patterns in speech sounds is called phonology.

  • Got to do with the rules of how sound is put together/sound rules

  • The knowledge of patterns that we use is inherent to us as language speakers because we don’t actually think about these things, but we have the ability to root these things

Word Structure

• We know what the plural of wug most likely is, even though we might not have heard this word before.

  • This is because we are used to the structure of words themselves and the different parts of speech/ these words

• The study of the structure of words and their parts is called morphology.

  • Word rules/how different parts of the word put together

Phrases and Sentences

• Which of these sentences is ungrammatical?

  • I yesterday two frinks vargled.

  • Yesterday I vargeled two frinks.

  • Vargeled I yesterday two frinks.

• None of these sentences are actually “correct” English, since they contain non-words.

• Still we can identify the one that has English sentence structure.

• The study of the structure of phrases and sentences is called syntax.

  • How the sentence is put together

Meaning

• For each of these sentences, is Joy a doctor? Or is she definitely not a doctor?

  • Joy is pretending to be a doctor.

  • I realized that Joy was a doctor.

  • I didn’t realize that Joy was a doctor.

  • I think Joy is a doctor.

  • If Joy were a doctor, she’d be a good one.

• Some verbs, like “realize”, are known as factives, meaning that they presuppose that something is true.

• Competent speakers of a language understand that certain propositions must be true or false, given the assertion.

• The study of language and meaning is called semantics.

  • Got to do with word or sentence meaning

Meaning In Context

• Is reality changed when these sentences are uttered?

  • I now pronounce you man and wife.

    • If you are a minister then these words change reality

  • A curse on both your houses.

    • If you are not a witch then these words don’t change reality

  • I bet you twenty cents that class will be good.

• These are a special type of statement called a “performative utterance”.

• They can perform certain actions, but only when they are produced in the right context by the right people.

• The study of how context contributes to linguistic meaning is called pragmatics.

  • Meaning that goes beyond words and the textual words themselves so you have to infer a bit more

Summary: Knowledge of Language

Key Features of Language

Although languages vary in some respects, they all share a few key features.

Feature 1: Arbitrariness

• Is there any inherent connection between the word “dog” and a picture of a dog

  • There actually is not inherent connection between the shape of a word and what they actually mean

  • If a person grew up calling a picture of a dog a cat, then the word dog being associated with a picture of a dog would be weird for them

  • Some words may sound like what they mean though

Feature 2: Discreteness

• All languages are made up of discrete units:

  • phones               [slaidz]

  • morphemes       slide-s

  • words                  slides

  • phrases               these slides

  • sentences           these slides are confusing

    • all languages are made of discrete units that are put together like building blocks to make the language

Feature 3: Compositionality

• Larger units are composed of smaller units

  • Sentence= Noun Phrase + Verb Phrase

    • I                                          like dogs

    • The dog                            jumped

    • The dog I saw was           smaller

Feature 4: Creativity

• We can use the finite grammar of a language to compose an infinite number of utterances.

  • “Dr Nala wowed the class by producing a sentence that had never before existed in the history of the universe”

Feature 5: Rule-governedness

• All languages follow a set of conventional rules (their grammar).

• These rules govern how linguistic units are constructed and how they fit together. 

  • Non-standard dialects also follow rules:

  • *“lah he is liddat”