Week 1 Lecture

Lecture Part 1

  • Overview of what we’re looking at in class

    • Current Ling Theory

      • Phonetic, Morphology, syntax

    • First Language Acquisition

    • Sociolinguistics

      • How we actually use language

    • Data from Multiple Languages

    • Understanding Human Language

      • How we learn language in our daily lives

  • Objectives

    • think critically about language

    • know about areas of linguistics

    • develop methods to study language

  • Little Quiz

    • English DOESNT have five vowels (more)

    • There are about 6000 languages spoken today

    • Languages contain grammar!

    • Aint is a word

    • In sentence like i didnt see nobody two negatives cancel each other out

What is Linguistics → Scientific study of Language

  • Making observations

  • Forming hypotheses

  • Testing hypotheses

  • Revising Hypotheses

  • Develop Theory matching results

    • Here we are applying the scientific method

What is Language?

  • A lot of properties of language are subconscious

  • The language system runs on its own and you cant just stop understanding something

    • you can’t just stop yourself from understanding something

Two Approaches to Language Usage

  • Language is a Tool

    • A Tool for Communication

      • Meanings are made into sounds where the listener is able to make sense of the sounds into a meaning

      • Speakers can also encode meanings into hand shapes

  • Language is a Knowledge

    • You had a finite set of building blocks and rules

      • Can do this to create complex structures

    • You know how to use the knowledge of language and use it in the world (tell a story, make a person laugh)

    • We want to focus on characterizing the knowledge that we have

    • Unconscious Knowledge

Unconscious Knowledge in Language→ Expletive Infixation

  • Expletive Infixation: where an expletive is inserted in the middle of another word

    • Expletive: Think of it as a filler

  • We have intuition about the proper way to do expletive infixation such as where certain insertions could be

    • We were never taught how to do expletive infixation but we know how to!

  • We have a rule system that is unconscious and at play

Building Blocks and Rules

  • Phonetic: inventory of sounds in your language

    • we know what belongs and doesn’t belong

      • B is an English sound while H is a Spanish sound

    • McGurk Effect: We intuitively know the mouth shape of a particular sound

      • Video: perception of sound changes depending on the way the sound looks, an illusion, such as seeing the f movement on the mouth but bah is playing and interpreting FAH

  • Phonology: Understanding the sound patterns that are possible in your language

    • Ex. English words start with ‘tr’ but none with ‘rt’ → this is part of our English language

    • When know which sound patterns are not possible in our language

    • We know how the plural S is pronounced

      • Eels has the z sound and Caps has the ss sound why tho?

      • Part of our english knowledge is that we know when theres a difference between the sound

      • When we encounter a new word the knowledge system is at play despite never having encountered the word and never having actually memorized the word

  • Jean Berk Video → The Wug Test

    • People can make plural forms of novel words and sounds

      • Children could apply language rules to words they have never heard

      • he was about to make the plural forms and past tenses to words he never heard before

      • The same thing applies to a young child

      • The rule system of phonology applied to where the child knew how to apply it even to foreign words

Morphology (word structure)

  • Knowledge of the variety of words in your language

  • knowing the potential words

  • how to form complex and less complex words

  • Lexicon: mental dictionary of the words you know

    • it allows us to build more complex words such us getting talk and forming talked, talks, talking

    • We know that there are constraints on how a word can be built and when a form is ungrammatical

    • We know words that are not even in the dictionary

How do speakers create new words?

  • Speaker subconsciously analyze words and build phrases and sentences

  • We divided alcoholic in some way to form words like shopaholic and workaholic we did this subconsciously

  • We can use already existing words and combine them to form new ones

Syntax:

  • We know how to build good phrases and sentences

    • We know where to place certain adjectives in a sentence, this is subconscious

      • ex. all of the new stars are really solar systems but we cant say that all of the stars new are really solar systems

    • We know how to place the adjectives where the nouns are

    • We know where adjectives are places according to certain nouns

    • For specific we know the fixed order for specific sentences and we know that if they were placed in another order then it would be ungrammatical

Why do we share similar judgements about the grammaticality of these sentences? ( a similiar rule system)

Sematics:

  • You know how to assign meaning to words in a given sentence

    • The bear promised the monkeys to dance

    • The bear persuaded the monkey to dance

  • We know the individual meanings of words

* everything we just discussed is what knowledge of language is

What is not knowledge of language?

  • Reading and writing abilities don’t change the knowledge of language from a linguistic standpoint

    • historically a lot of languages are unable to be written and those individuals were unable to read it

  • Word History: this is because native speaker of the language may know nothing of the history of their language

    • Individuals still know how to use words without knowing the history of the word

      • No knowledge of the history of individual words

      • knowing history of language depends on external factors and is not associated with knowledge of language

  • Education: being a fully competent native speaks of a language is independent of your level of education

    • having more education doesn’t influence your knowledge of english

Two Types of Linguistic Knowledge

  • Linguistic Competence:

    • What you know in your mind

    • What you can do

    • Our systematic Knowledge of the building blocks

  • Linguistic Performance

    • What you actually do

    • what comes out of your mouth → limited to physical limitations such as slips of the tongue or being out of breath

    • Some limitations of what’s actually spoken but doesn’t directly affect one’s actual knowledge

    • Performance doesn’t effect our knowledge

Summary:

  • What you know about language is mostly subconscious

    • Phonetics (sounds)

    • Phonology( how sounds interact)

    • Morphology (word structure)

    • Syntax (sentence structure)

    • Semantics (how to interpret words and sentences)

    • Different kinds of linguistic knowledge

      • competence → our linguistic system

      • performance → what we actually do in the world

Lecture Part 2:

  • Features of language (set of properties that all human languages share)

Arbitariness

The relationship between a word and its meaning is arbitrary, the relationship between form and meaning is arbitrary → applies to sign language as well

  • Different sounds are used to name the same object across language

  • Certain objects have different sounds

  • It is impossible to guess the meaning of the word just from hearing the sound of the word across different languages

  • there is no relationship between word meaning and word pronunciation

  • There are some cases where it is not arbitrary such as through onomatopoeic words even then its not arbitrary cause sounds are different in different languages

  • ASL Example

    • You wouldn’t be able to guess the words just from the signs

  • Example of non-arbitrariness (kinda)

    • Onomatopoeic Words

      • woof woof, however they’re still arbitrary since you wouldn’t be able to guess the meaning of the sound across different languages

Language Creativity → Fundamental

  • The usage of language building blocks (sounds, words) to create an infinite set of novel sentences

  • Sentences can’t be memorized or learned by imitation

  • We can create and understand novel sentences without effort

  • Children also show this property by creating sentences that were not exposed to them in their environment

    • ex. they create ungrammatical sentneces that are not shown to them in their environment

  • There is no limit to how long a sentence can be

Universal Language → the set of universal properties possessed by all languages (laws)

  • The principles of structure that determine human language

  • All languages have a lexicon, phonetic system, phonological system, morphological system, syntax, semantics

    • All language have ways of…

      • forming questions

      • Negating an utterance

      • indicating when an action takes place

      • possessing a set of discrete sounds or gestures

  • We can find differences but they don’t go very deep, they’re more the same than they are different

    • We consider dogs different but they are still considered dogs

Development of Grammar (Language Acquisition)

  • Common Traits

    • All Children

      • Acquire the language of their language from their environment

      • Will acquire their language spontaneously

      • Show linguistic creativity

      • will pass through similar stages when building their grammar

        • babbling

        • babbling with specific sounds

        • single word utterances

        • two word utterances

        • Overgeneralization

        • Mostly acquire the language by age 5 (native speakers)

      • Shows that there is a strong biological component to language development/learning since this development in children usually occurs at the same time

        • Children development supports universal grammar

      • Language acquisition is also constrained due to this development

Small Summary of the Feature of Language

  • Properties

    • Arbitrariness

      • form and meaning

    • Linguistic Creativity

      • create and understand an infinite number of sentences

    • Universal Grammar

      • Languages are built from the same set of principles

Types of Grammar

  • Descriptive Grammar: Linguists description of model of mental grammar

    • The speakers grammar or the linguist grammar

    • the focus on what people actually say

    • describes how people actually talk

    • Doesn’t mean that all sentences are acceptable either

    • we will be focusing on this since we are making observations of language, how english speakers use their language

  • Prescriptive Grammar: Rules of grammar used by teachers

    • What the speaker’s rules should be!

    • Can you understand people when they break these rules?

      • You can but why are there correct forms

    • Prescriptive rules aren’t usually universal if you take into consideration the double negatives

      • in english double negatives are frowned up

      • in french/spanish it is accepted and is the norm

    • Kinda wrong because the rules don’t remain true for all languages

  • Prescriptive Rules: Double Negatives

    • Two negatives don’t make a positive because they were not intended to be interpreted that way in the first place    

      • They don’t cancel each other out

    • You’re not supposed to use double negatives in english

    • Spanish and some nonstandard varieties of English exhibit negative concord where you have to make the entire sentence negative

    • Double negatives aren’t really a problem and are used all the time

    • Double negatives are acceptable in other languages

  • Small Quiz

    • Acceptable sentences in Descriptive Grammar:

      • He dont like it

      • he doesnt like nothing

      • she is taller than me

      • you and me have been inivited to a wedding

        • these sentences are acceptable becasue they’re sentences that are actually used by native english speakers

    • Not acceptable

      • he it like dont

      • woman the ground on fell

        • these aren’t sentences that would be produced by native english speakers

  • Prescriptive Rules : Stranded prepositions

    • preposition is left at the end of the sentence, a rule

    • Examples

      • wheres the party at

      • thats the mechanic that i talked to

      • what did you buy this for

    • Under descriptive grammar we can end off sentences this way since it is the way we speak

    • There are some instances where is more grammatically correct to end off sentences this way

Summary (again)

  • We had universal properties of human language

    • Arbitrariness

    • creativity

      • they are structured by universal grammar

  • We looked at the differences between prescriptive and descriptive grammar

    • Prescriptive → what we should say

    • Descriptive → what we actually say

      • course focus, we make observations of language not on how it should be

Discovering the Human Language : Colorless Green Ideas

  • Beginning Questions:

    • How do you know so much from so little?

    • Common core of languages?

    • Questions are made about how we use language and how language fills the human mind

    • How there’s rules why we say things a certain way

Interactions with Language?

  • people don’t think a lot about language

  • There are rules about language that we have learned unconsciously

  • Language Portion of the Brain

    • Invariant to the rest of the species

3 Language Revolutions

  • Discovery that sound changes are regular → language reconstruction

    • the way we talk about language and the language itself

  • Languages are systematic and there are language rules

  • Chomsky, used the question what is a possible human language? and moved linguistics into looking at human potential of making sentence

    • You cant understand things that were never said before

    • shift the way we thought about language

Creativity in Language is Infinite

  • Words are like atoms

    • building blocks where you can take them together to form sentences

    • you can take them to form new words and theres no limit to the length of sentences

    • You can create an infinite number of sentences

Language System

  • starts with words

    • what is a word? → People struggle to define it

      • Possible Definitions

        • the smallest separate piece of language that can convey a meaning itself

        • can also be thought of being made of small units

        • a sequence of letters between two blanks

  • Words are made up of smaller portions

    • like kicked

  • There are words that don’t have meanings in other languages

  • A single word can be used instead of a sentence

How do we know word breaks between sentences?

  • A child is able to understand speech and break it apart into words

  • There are machines that aren’t able to do this, its hard for even the mind to do so

What is a concept?

  • The word Tree stands for a the concept of a tree

  • There are concepts that we are born with without knowing them

    • The box example, where children know that the marble inside the box is not near the box

      • Abstract concept since the child doesn’t know that the box itself is a surface

  • a concept is fixed by the mind

    • we know that the box has an interior regardless of whats inside of it

Unique Sentences:

  • Likely that a heard sentence is usually a unique one

    • Language is about putting words together to make a sentence

    • You have a large amount of possibilities of words to use to create a sentence which increase the likelihood of creating a new sentence

  • There is no longest sentence cause there is no limit in how long a sentence can be

  • The property that allows for creativity is the one that allows for a sentence to be put into a larger sentence

  • Short Sentences:

    • can be use over and over

    • can also be improbable

Syntax:

  • Rules used to create sentence but allow freedom when constructing them as long as you follow the rules

Sound and Meaning Getting Linked Together:

  • Grammar linked the two together

    • 1st Task: Links words in a line one after another

  • Puzzles of Syntax: the form of the sentence is independent of its meaning regardless of what came first

    • We have to arrange it in a certain way to speak about it

    • We arrange a sentence in a way to make different points not in the order to why they came first

Arbitrariness:

  • The form of the sentence can be separated from meaning

    • “Colorless Green Ideas” is used as an example for this

      • Shows that syntax can be separated from semantics, shows that there more to a sentence than whether is makes sense or not

  • A sensible sentence makes sense if it follows the rules of syntax rather than if the words that are used make sense

Universal Grammar:

  • We inherit principle and processes of our language

  • Languages are very similar, we are actually more similar than we are different

  • Difference are trivial

Language Building

  • 1. Relaying in the order of words to convey general words (english)

  • 2. Changing the ending of words and shuffling them around (latin) (inflections)

    • Some language use a bit of both

  • Warlpiri (type 2)

    • All languages are sophisticated

    • Some languages, it doesn’t matter what the order the words are in the sentence will convey the same meaning

  • Language

    • Are examples of the same system , but are not the same same

    • Think of it like a human face that is created of the same features but are each unique, they are cut from the same fabric

How well is Language at completing its job?

  • There are limitations to language at conveying messages

    • Explaining what a spiral is

    • explaining what leafy is when mentioning that a tree is leafy

    • giving out direction verbally, it is better to write them out

  • Some thoughts are not expressible due to its structure and design

    • Gives capacities and limitations

      • Like a tool (a hammer) that is used for a purpose and prevents it from being used for another purpose

  • There are still useful things that we can do using language

    • Language is useful for thinking abstractly and conveying messages

    • We can express complete thought using language

    • System used to express our thoughts without any effort

Language is Arbitrary

  • Can be anything you want

  • the word itself doesn’t control the meaning

  • Allows us to give words to our thinking

    • using words might in some cases be better than gestures or images to express a certain thought

  • the thing and what you call the thing have nothing to do with each other

  • gives us the ability to think abstractly

    • make art

    • create

Concluding Thoughts

  • Language is simple for those who are evolved enough to use it

  • human brain is evolved to use the complex system in a simple way

  • A child will develop language from their environment as they do with the growth of their limbs

  • Language provides a gateway into the human mind

  • Language can be studied from many points of view

    • structure of words

    • structure of sentence

    • structure of connected discourse

Homework Article: Are Philly court reporters accurate with black dialect?

  • A defense attorney: Qawi Abdul-Rahman thinks that people don’t interpret sentence in their intended way

    • Such as “I don’t fool with them” being misinterpreted by someone who isn’t in the black community

    • There are also noted biases in the way african americans speak

  • The DA was right about there being misinterpretation as..

    • 40% of sentences transcribed by court reporters have something wrong

    • 67% has wrong paraphrasing

    • 11% has gibberish translations

Phrases from the Test

  • The inaccuracy of translations and being misunderstood has implications for the justice system

  • African American English is associated with poor grammar

    • Still follows its own grammatical rules

    • Words in the dialect will act differently in comparison to mainstream English

    • Individuals believe/think they are being understood properly and don’t know that they’re not

  • There is a struggle to be understood since word distinctions of mood and tense are different than American English

    • ex. Tenses can be misinterpreted as the present tense instead of their intended past tense

  • Black Lawyers and court reports were able to more accurately understand/paraphrase what was being said

Court Impacts

  • Court reporters feel discouraged to ask for clarity when misunderstanding what was said

  • Misinterpretations could lead to pivotal changes in the justice system

    • such as correctly assigning an individual the proper counsel

  • Accurate transcriptions are dire

    • can change meaning → someone’s alibi

  • Societal differences can impact ability for comprehension

    • language variations is different amongst their communities

    • there is also the possibility of stigma discouraging individuals from adapting that language

  • Translations

    • There is a need for more educated court reporters

  • It is the attorneys job to properly translate those misconceptions by repeating their question to get more mainstream responses