Linguistics Notes: Language, Dialect, Sign Languages, and Morphology

The nature of language and its scope

• Language is defined as a system of symbols used for human communication, not just speech or writing.
• It includes both spoken and signed forms and is a complete system for human communication, capable of conveying any human meaning within its allowed scope.
• Language is a system of mental knowledge stored in the mind of a speaker; an L1 (first language) adult typically has near-full knowledge of their language in their head, regardless of literacy level.
• This definition emphasizes that language is not merely the polished, written, or elite form often imagined in everyday use.
• Nonhuman or non-complete systems (e.g., computer language, mathematical language, musical language, etc.) are named as languages in common usage, but they are not human languages in the linguistic sense because they are not complete for all human communication purposes.
• Sign languages are full human languages with distinct symbol systems, not merely gestures.
  • In ASL, meanings map to hand signs rather than sounds, illustrating symbol-to-meaning mappings in a nonspoken modality.
• Complete for human communication means the language can be used to talk about any topic a human might want to discuss with another speaker of the same language.
• We distinguish two broad kinds of communication systems: linguistic (human) vs nonlinguistic (nonhuman or specialized-purpose) systems.

Language vs dialect; prestige and sociopolitics

• The notion of prestige: some languages have higher social status, which affects how speakers and places are perceived; prestige is not a fixed linguistic property but a sociopolitical factor.
• Because prestige varies, there is no stable, purely linguistic criterion that designates one variety as a language and another as a dialect:
  • If x is mutually intelligible with y, that only shows similarity, not linguistic validity or status.
  • Arguments based on mutual intelligibility typically assume other sociopolitical factors that determine which variety is treated as a language versus a dialect.
• The example of Taiwanese language status shows that naming a variety a distinct language can be a political decision rather than a purely linguistic one.
• The question of what counts as a language vs a dialect lies outside purely linguistic parameters and involves external, non-linguistic factors.

Varieties of English and the scope of “English” in study

• English is not a single monolithic system; there are many distinct languages (systems of symbols) under the broad label English (e.g., Standard North American English, South Asian English, Standard UK English, African American Vernacular English, L2 English for Mandarin speakers).
• When teaching or analyzing, we specify the variety with modifiers to avoid ambiguity (e.g., Standard North American English, South Asian English, etc.).
• The course frames English as a family of related languages (varieties) with different systematic features, all worth linguistic study.

The subsystems of language: focus on morphology

• Language comprises multiple subsystems; morphology is the first one to be studied for Standard North American English in this course.
• The plan is to study morphology for a couple of weeks as the initial subsystem focus.

What counts as a linguistic symbol and its meanings

• In spoken language, linguistic symbols map meanings to sounds; in sign languages, mappings are to hand signs.
• The system of symbols is what enables communication; different languages use distinct symbol systems for the same or different meanings.

Morphology: introduction to morphemes

• The smallest meaningful units in a language are morphemes.
  • Example: lime (root) is a morpheme meaning a small green citrus fruit.
  • Adding a suffix -s creates limes, which adds meaning (plural) and yields a second morpheme: lime + s.
  • The suffix -s (often realized as /s/ or /z/ in speech) is a morpheme with a consistent meaning (plural) across words like dogs, tables, pens, etc.
• Key ideas about morphemes:
  • A morpheme can be a root (free morpheme) or an affix (bound morpheme).
  • Bound morphemes cannot stand alone as words (e.g., prefixes and suffixes; some infixes in other languages).
  • The boundary between morphemes can be nontrivial when spelling changes or pronunciation changes occur.
  • The hyphen is used in teaching to indicate morpheme boundaries and the role (prefix vs suffix):
  • Prefix: suffix follows the hyphen (e.g., re-). The hyphen signals that more material can follow after the affix.
  • Suffix: hyphen precedes the morpheme when indicating a suffix (e.g., -ness).
• Morphology also includes more complex affixes like infixes (affixes inside a root) and circumfixes (affixes surrounding a root) found in some languages.

Diagrammatic view of morphemes within words

• Word formation often involves attaching multiple morphemes in sequence:
  • Root + Derivational affix(es) + Inflectional affix(es).
  • Example segments (illustrative; the transcript uses several examples):
  • lime → limes = lime + s (2 morphemes: root + suffix)
  • unkind = un + kind (2 morphemes: prefix + root)
  • sadness = sad + ness (2 morphemes: root + suffix)
  • restlessness = rest + less + ness (3 morphemes: root + suffix + suffix)
  • quickly = quick + ly (2 morphemes: root + suffix)
  • Some words may seem to contain a potential affix but do not decompose meaningfully (e.g., early appears to end with -ly, but it is not a morpheme boundary here; early is one morpheme in this analysis).
  • Category is a single morpheme even though its ending -y might tempt a breakdown; breaking it into y + category would produce an undefined unit, so category remains a single morpheme.
  • Nationality is analyzed as nation + al + ity (3 morphemes). The endings -al and -ity are suffixes, but -ality is not taken as a single morpheme here because nation + al + ity yields meaningful, valid subparts; the sequence does not house a stand-alone morpheme “ality” in this word.
  • The exam-like exercise shows that morpheme boundaries can be affected by spelling or pronunciation changes; always check meaning, not just surface letters.

Practical aspects of identifying morphemes

• To determine morphemes in a word:
  • Identify the root (the core meaning word).
  • Check for affixes (prefixes, suffixes, infixes) and determine if they are bound morphemes.
  • Verify that each proposed affix appears in other words with the same meaning (e.g., -s for plural, -ness for state/quality).
  • Consider pronunciation and spelling changes when affixes attach (e.g., morphophonemic adjustments like -ed having different pronunciations: /t/, /d/, /ɪd/).
  • Ensure that removing an affix leaves a valid word (the remaining form should still be a word in English) to confirm the boundary.
• Some quick rules from the discussion:
  • If removing a suspected affix leaves a non-word, the affix may not actually be a morpheme in that context (e.g., in nationality, -ity is not simply t-i-o-n as a single morpheme here because removing -ity would not yield a word).
  • Spelling changes and phonology changes can obscure morpheme boundaries; always rely on meaning and usability in English rather than surface spelling alone.
  • A single large chunk can function as a single morpheme if it carries a stable meaning and cannot be further decomposed (e.g., category as a whole morpheme).

Common morpheme types and examples (from the transcript)

• Prefixes (morphemes that occur before the root):
  • re- (e.g., rewrite, redo, retype)
  • un- (e.g., unkind, unusual, unfinished)
• Suffixes (morphemes that occur after the root):
  • -s (plural marker; appears in dogs, tables, pens; also in limes)
  • -ness (state or quality; sadness, kindness, realness, happiness, brightness)
  • -less (without; restlessness is rest + less + ness; less often attaches after a noun or adjective)
  • -ly (forms adverbs from adjectives; quickly, happily, brightly)
  • -ed (past tense/participle; pronunciation varies with final sound of the verb; examples: landed, helped, saved)
  • -er (agent noun suffix, e.g., teacher; note: not every -er form yields a valid base for breakdown; be cautious with words like beer that look like they contain -er but do not form a meaningful root+agent structure)
  • -al, -ity (derivational suffixes; nationality is nation + al + ity; al and ity are suffixes that modify meaning)
• Infixes (affixes inside a root; discussed as a possibility in some languages; not commonly found in English examples in this transcript, but mentioned as a concept and illustrated with a general description)
• Hyphen usage in morphology education:
  • Hyphens indicate morpheme boundaries and help denote prefix vs suffix positions.
  • Prefixes use a trailing hyphen after the morpheme (e.g., re-), while suffixes use a leading hyphen before the morpheme (e.g., -ness).
• Special word formation notes:
  • When forming words, you often build up from a free morpheme (a root) and add bound morphemes (affixes) in sequence.
  • Some words have multiple possible affix orders or multiple affixes that attach at different stages, producing longer words (e.g., re- + free root + suffixes).

Illustrative exercises and examples (from the transcript)

• Example word analyses and results (morheme counts):
  • limes → 2 morphemes: lime (root) + s (plural suffix)
  • unkind → 2 morphemes: un (prefix) + kind (root)
  • sadness → 2 morphemes: sad (root) + ness (suffix)
  • restlessness → 3 morphemes: rest (root) + less (suffix) + ness (suffix)
  • quickly → 2 morphemes: quick (root) + ly (suffix)
  • early → 1 morpheme (cannot be cleanly split into ly + er without losing meaning)
  • category → 1 morpheme (category cannot be segmented into meaningful subparts that form valid words in English)
  • nationality → 3 morphemes: nation (root) + al (suffix) + ity (suffix)
• Special cautions raised in the exercises:
  • Spelling and letter changes can mask true morpheme boundaries; pronounce words aloud to reveal morpheme structure.
  • The meaning should drive morpheme identification more than surface spelling; e.g., try + -s vs tries; handle phonetic changes in affixes (try → tries vs try + s).
  • See that some apparent affixes (like -y in category) may not function as stand-alone morphemes if the remainder of the word is not a valid stem.
• Worked example (Febreze case): a multi-morpheme word formed as a compound of affixes
  • Target word: refreshener (singular) to discuss morpheme segmentation
  • Segmentation in the example: re- (prefix), fresh (root), en- (suffix), er (suffix), z (suffix)
  • The instructor clarifies that er is not an infix in this example; infix would insert inside a root, which is not the case here.
  • The exercise illustrates that multiple affixes can attach serially to a root, and not all apparent internal morphemes are infixes.

Practical takeaways for studying morphology

• Always start from meaning before deciding morpheme boundaries.
• Distinguish between free morphemes (roots) and bound morphemes (affixes, including prefixes, suffixes, and, in some languages, infixes).
• Use pronunciation as a guide when the spelling is deceptive; some affixes alter the pronunciation of the base.
• Check cross-word evidence for affixes by looking for the same affix in other words with the same meaning.
• Recognize that a single word can be built up from multiple morphemes, and longer words often reflect layered morphology (root + several affixes).

Key mathematical-friendly note on symmetry in language concepts

• Mutual intelligibility is symmetric: if x is mutually intelligible with y, then y is mutually intelligible with x.
• This can be expressed as a simple symmetry statement: MI(x,y) \Longleftrightarrow MI(y,x)
• This emphasizes that intelligibility is a property of the pair, not a unilateral attribute of one member.

Summary takeaways

• Language, in linguistic terms, is a complete system of symbols for human communication, including spoken and signed forms.
• Dialect vs language is not determined by linguistic structure alone but by external prestige and sociopolitical factors.
• There are many varieties of English, each with its own systematic features; the course focuses on Standard North American English but acknowledges broader English varieties.
• Morphology studies the smallest meaningful units (morphemes) and how they combine to form words; affixes (prefixes, suffixes, infixes) modify meaning or grammatical category; roots carry core meaning.
• Morpheme analysis requires attention to meaning, spelling, pronunciation, and validity of the resulting forms in the language; morphology is an art of balancing form and function across languages.
• Sign languages constitute full, natural human languages with their own symbol systems and grammar, demonstrating that language is not limited to speech.
• The study of language is the study of the system of symbols, not just of the surface forms we see in everyday usage.