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Review of the course. Preparation for final. What is language?. Communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols. Linguistic Knowledge vs. Linguistic Performance (competence). There’s a distinction between
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Review of the course Preparation for final
What is language? • Communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.
Linguistic Knowledge vs. Linguistic Performance (competence) • There’s a distinction between • What you know about “correct” and “incorrect” language • Your ability to always produce “correct” sentences.
Animal Languages(?) A linguistic analysis
Design features of language • Design feature 1: Semanticity: In human language the elements of the message have specific and fixed relation to real-world situations. A message must be understood in the same way by different receivers.
Design features of language • Design feature 2: Displacement/freedom from stimulus: In human language it is possible to talk about events remote in time and place. • Design feature 3: Productivity: In human language, new messages can be produced from the elements of familiar messages; there is no fixed set of possible messages
Design features of language • Design feature 4: Dual articulation/duality of patterning: In human language, sounds can go together to make up words, words can go together to make up sentences. (In sign language, there is something similar.) • Design feature 5: Discreteness: Human language uses a small set of discrete contrastive elements.
Language and the brain Insights from Neurolinguistics
Anatomy of the brain • What is a hemisphere, and what is modularity/localization? • Who are Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke, and what did they find out? • What is Aphasia? • What is the relationship between brain development and language development? • Who is Noam Chomsky, and what is his theory? • What is the critical age hypothesis? • Who is Genie and what does her case prove?
What is Aphasia? • Neurological term for disorders that follow brain lesions caused by, for example, strokes. • Only on left side • Broca’s Aphasia • labored speech, word-finding pauses, disturbed word order, difficulties with function word ‘to’, ‘if’ • Wernicke’s Aphasia • fluently with good intonation & pronunciation but lexical errors: “Jargon aphasia”
Morphology The study of the structure of words
What are the building blocks in the formation of complex words? • Morphemes • The most elemental unit of a word • Morphology • Study of the internal structure; rules of word formation
Prefixes & Suffixes • Prefixes are added to the beginning • Suffixes are added to the end • One morpheme act • Two morphemes act + ive • Three morphemes act + ive+ate • Four morphemes de + act+ ive+ate • More than four: Anti+dis+establish+ment+ari+an+ism
Root morphemes vs. Affix morphemes • What’s a root morpheme? Note: -roots tend to be free and lexical -affixes tend to be bound and grammatical
practice • Identify the roots in the following words. • kingdom _________________________ • interplanetary _________________________ • dimensional _________________________ • margins _________________________
Overview of all discussed distinctions Morphemes bound free lexical -bound roots grammatical lexical (root) inflectional -eight suffixes derivational prefixes ex:-un suffixes ex: -ness
practice For each of the following bound morphemes, determine whether it is derivational or inflectional and give two words in which it appears: example: -able: derivational bound morpheme eat-able; cod(e)-able • –ish • _____________ • _____________ _____________ • –en • _____________ • _____________ _____________ • ab– • _____________ • _____________ _____________ • –ed
Word creation in English (Neologism) • Affixing • Adding affixes • Reducing Affixes (Backformation) • A new word created by removing an affix from an already existing word, as vacuum clean from vacuum cleaner, • Functional shift • Coined words • Acronyms • Borrowing • Blending
Syntax An overview
Phrases NP VP NP det adj N V det N The friendly person asked a question
Diagramming a Sentence S NP VP NP det adj N V det N The friendly person asked a question
Linear vs. Hierarchical structure • Meaning • (1)A big sale of stereos (2) a sale of big stereos Big stereo sale Big stereo sale
Semantics The meaning of language
Lexical Relationships (cohesive links) • Synonyms • Antonyms • Homonyms (homophones) • Hyponymy • scarlet, vermilion, carmine, and crimson are all hyponyms of red (their hypernym), which is, in turn, a hyponym of color.
practice • Give two semantic properties for each of the following words. Use correct notation. (10) • a) prostitute ______________________________________ • b) sailor ______________________________________ • c) mountain ______________________________________
connotation and denotation • Denotation and ConnotationDenotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the "dictionary definition."¨ For example, if you look up the word snake in a dictionary, you will discover that one of its denotative meanings is "any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles¡Khaving a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions." • Connotation, on the other hand, refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to that word. The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings. The connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger.
Consonants and their phonetic description • How are phonemes produced? • Consonants are produced by obstructing the flow of air as it passes from the lungs through the vocal tract. • When we describe a consonant, one of the features we use is its place of articulation. • The other feature is the manner of articulation.
Manner of Articulation • Voiced and voiceless sounds • When the vocal cords are apart when speaking, air flows freely through the glottis. Sounds produced in this way are voiceless. • If the vocal cords are together, the airstream forces its way through and causes them to vibrate • Try it out: put your hand to your throat and produce a [z] sound as in “buzz”. Now do the same with [s] as in “bus”.
Affricates,Liquids, and Glides • Affricates are produced by a stop which is followed immediately by gradual release of air. Stop + fricative = affricate • There are only two: [tʃ] and [dʒ] • Liquids • During the production of the sounds [l] and [r], there is no real obstruction of the airflow that causes friction. Hence, these sounds are not stops, fricatives or affricates. They are called liquids • Glides • Are not causing significant obstruction and are always followed by vowels. • [j] and [w]
Vowels • Vowel Qualities • The placement of the body of the tongue: • Vertical: high – mid – low • Horizontal: front – central – back • The shape of the lips: • Rounded – Unrounded • The degree of the vocal tract contraction: • Tense – Lax
practice Write the phonetic symbol for the final sound opposite __ knee __ Phetkasem__ chips __ welcome __ ugly __