LIN 1310

TOPIC 2: Some Basic Concepts

LIN 1310

Some Basic Concepts-Part 1

linguist

• polyglot

• multilingual

Linguistic Approach

• Descriptivist

• NOT prescriptivist

Origins of prescriptive rules

• Overt prestige

• Upward mobility

• Overt versus covert prestige

• Flight of the elite

WRITTEN VS SPOKEN LANGUAGE

Written language:

• Tends to be more resistant to change

• Supports prescriptivists’ arguments against language change

• Prescriptivists often cite written forms in support of their pronouncements

WRITTEN VS SPOKEN LANGUAGE

• Prescriptivists view written language as the basis for spoken language

• Example – persistent archaisms in written English include few contractions, preserved subjunctives and “whom” ‘If I were King’ ‘Whom shall I say was calling’

WRITTEN VS SPOKEN LANGUAGE

Spoken language:• 1) The basis for written language• 2) Children learn to speak first • 3) Very few children fail at speaking• 4)Many languages have never been written• 5) Oral culture pre-dates the written tradition• 6) Usually the object of descriptive linguistics

IMPORTANCE OF STANDARD LANGUAGE

• The standard is generally the most widely accepted and broadly understood form of a language

• In some cases, it is officially sanctioned by a government

• The standard is most often used for second language teaching

SYNCHRONY VS DIACHRONY

Synchronic approach to language:• Study of a language at a single point in time

• Usually, but not necessarily, the present

• Most linguists today focus on language as it is spoken at one point in time

SYNCHRONY VS DIACHRONY

Diachronic approach to language:• Historical Linguistics• Study of the process of language change• Comparison of a language at 2 or more points in

time• Compare related languages and look at how they

diverge from earlier form• Reconstruct earlier or proto forms

GRAMMAR

• Describing a language in a systematic way

• A grammar includes: Sounds – phonetics and phonology Words – morphology Sentences – syntax Meaning – semantics

GRAMMAR

• Linguistic description is based on empirical data – what people really say

• Informants or Consultants are native speakers of a language who provide this empirical data

• Sometimes people violate grammatical rules that they unconsciously acquired as a child –they make mistakes

• These mistakes are not systematic, they are usually noticeable and are like short circuits

GRAMMAR

Examples of these mistakes

1. Slips of the tongue ‘Getting your mords wixed’

2. Stuttering or False Starts ‘Let’s…let’s go shopping’ ‘I went…I saw the birds’

3. Freudian slip – substituting a word you didn’t mean to say

GRAMMAR

Linguistic Competence • people’s sub- or unconsciously-acquired

knowledge of the grammar • allows one to produce and understand a theoretically infinite number of grammatical utterances

Linguistic Performance •may contain errors that do not reflect competence • not always an accurate representation of the competence that underlies it

GRAMMAR

INTUITION

Since linguistic performance may contain errors, some linguists use their own intuition to avoid this issue

• Example of problems with linguistic intuition Garden Path Sentences

• The horse ran past the barn fell.

• The horse ran past the barn fell.

• The horse (that/which) ran past the barn fell

METALINGUISTIC AWARENESS

Difference between competence and metalinguistic knowledge of a language

Competence: speaker’s unconsciously acquired knowledge of the grammar of a language

Metalinguistic awareness/knowledge: conscious knowledge about one’s own unconscious competence

METALINGUISTIC AWARENESS

• Linguists possess more metalinguistic awareness than the average person

• Children’s metalinguistic awareness increases as they mature

• One does not need to have metalinguistic awareness to have competence

GRAMMATICALITY JUDGMENTS

• Competence allows people to judge what is grammatical in a language and what is not

• Grammaticality judgments are independent of metalinguistic knowledge

• Speakers can only make accurate grammaticality judgments for utterances from their native dialects

GRAMMATICALITY JUDGMENTS

EXAMPLES*Cat chasing dog up tree the is the the.The dog is chasing the cat up the tree.*He wash the dishes last night.He washed the dishes last night. *I have three record.I have three records.? He ain’t got no money.For some dialects: He doesn’t have any money.

Examples from page 9 of O&A• (16) a. Mary ate a cookie, and the Johnnie ate

a cookie too.

• b. Mary ate a cookie, and she ate some cake too.

• (17) *Mary at a cookie, and then Johnnie ate some cake too.

• (18) Mary ate a cookie, and then Johnnie had a snack too.

GRAMMATICALITY JUDGMENTS

It needs washed.

Grammatical or ungrammatical?

Grammatical in Pennsylvania dialects

Ungrammatical for most of us

It needs to be washed

or

It needs washing

LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS

• Common principles of organization in the human brain

• Underlie the structure of all human languages

UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR

• The sum total of all language universals• All languages have structures from among those

permitted by UG• One goal of linguistic theory is to learn about

language universals• Another goal is to identify all the properties of UG• To accomplish these goals, we use the same

descriptive tools to describe all languages

ARGUMENTS FOR LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS

• Any child can learn any language

• First language acquisition is similar across languages

• Children acquire language despite relative cognitive immaturity

• Points 1, 2, & 3 suggest limits on language structure related to neural pre-wiring

BASIC TENETS OF THEORY

• All languages are rule governed• All languages have a grammar, even so-

called non standard ones• A grammar cannot be a list of all possible

words and sentences• A grammar is capable of infinite output

from an organism that has finite storage capacity