Chapter 1

1. Chapter 1 Introduction

2. I. Definition: A. Language ◆ Human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, feelings, and desires by means of a system of sounds and sound symbols. (Oxford Dictionary) ◆The possession of language, perhaps more than any other attribute, distinguishes humans from other animals.

3. B. Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of languages. It is an empirical science that can be studied and examined. In contrast to the previous social studies that was conducted in a subjective way, linguistics takes an objective way to analyze languages. So, it has the following features: ◆ observable ◆ analyzable and be generalized ◆ can be verified and falsified

4. C. Grammar: The sounds and sound patterns, the basic units of meaning, such as words, and the rules to combine them to form new sentences constitute the grammar of a language. The grammar is an internalized, unconscious set of rules.

5. Is it prescriptive or descriptive? When we study a language, we aim to find the ‘grammar’ of that language. The grammar here refers to those linguistic abilities of the native speakers of a language which enable him to speak and understand his language fluently. It is not the rules contained in a grammar book, which we refer to as ‘prescriptive grammar.’

6. Descriptive grammar: It does not tell you how you should speak; it describes your basic linguistic knowledge. It explains how it is possible for you to speak and understand, and it tells what you know about the sounds, words, phrases, and sentences of your language. Descriptive grammar has two meanings: one is the mental grammar speakers have in their brains; the other is the model or description of this internalized grammar.

7. Linguists view: Language is vigorous and dynamic and constantly changing. All languages and dialects are expressive, complete, and logical, as much so as they were 200 or 2000 years.

8. Prescriptive grammar: It is the “correct’ forms or rules set by the purists or scholars for people to obey so as to prevent the language from corruption. It set, instead of describe, the rules of the language. For instance, the double negative sentence in the following is considered a “bad” sentence. “John ain’t got no money.”

9. competence vs. performance: And the grammar here means the competence instead of performance. ◆ competence: the speaker-hearer’s knowledge of his language. It is what you know about the language. ◆ performance: the actual use of language in concrete situations. It is how you use the knowledge in actual speech production and comprehension.

10. II. Linguistic ability: Linguistic ability is the capacity to produce sounds that signify certain meanings and to understand or interpret the sounds produced by others. (Fromkin & Rodman) A native speakers of a particular language knows his/her own language in several ways:

11. ◆phonological ability: the knowledge of sound system 1. inventory of sounds 2. phonotactic rules 3. syllable structure e.g. English: “spray” is a possible word “ksmatrn” is not a possible word Chinese: “ti” (低；笛) is possible “tit” (閩：直) is not possible in Mandarin Chinese

12. ◆semantic ability: the knowledge of words and their references When you know a language you know words in that language, that is, the sound units that are related to specific meanings. You also know the semantic features contained in the words and the relations between the graph, the sound, and the meaning. e.g. 叔,伯,舅  uncle 稻,米,穀,飯,粥  rice 小美上個月嫁給了小傑 小美上個月娶了小傑

13. ◆syntactic ability: the knowledge of relations between words and phrases in a sentence, the internal structure of a sentence, and the correct judgment of grammaticality of sentences. e.g. English: 1.Jack likes extremely beautiful girls. (extremely modifies beautiful; extremely beautiful modifies girls.) Chinese: 她是誰{嗎/呢}? (know which one is grammatical.)

14. III. Objective of linguistics Why study language? • By detailed study of language, we might hope to reach a better understanding of how the human mind produces and process language. (Chomsky 1972) ◆To set a base for “Theory of Language Acquisition.” Only when we know what language is can we develop theories about how it is acquired.

15. Mission of linguists • Linguists should be concerned with discovering the nature of language in general. • The aim of linguists is to find out explicitly the finite set of rules in human brain that govern the production and comprehension of infinite number of sentences in human languages.

16. IV. Subfields of Linguistics Phonetics:The science of speech sounds is called phonetics. It aims to provide the set of features or properties that can be used to describe and distinguish all the sounds used in human language. Term: articulatory phonetics (places and manners of articulation);acoustic phonetics

17. Phonology:The study of the sound system of a language is called phonology. It includes the inventory of phones, the phonetic segments that occur in the language, and the ways in which they pattern. It is this patterning that determines the inventory of phonemes, the segments that differentiate words. Term: phonemes; allophones; complementary distribution; distinctive; minimal pairs; assimilation rules; dissimilation rules; etc.

18. Morphology: The study of word formation and the internal structure of words is called morphology. Terms: morpheme; affixes (prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and circumfixes); bound vs. free; root vs. stem vs. derivational.

19. Syntax: The study of how the words in a grammatical sentence must be ordered and grouped is called syntax. Terms: phrase structure, deep structure, transformational rules, etc.

20. Semantics: The study of how to produce and understand sentences with particular meanings is called semantics. It is a study of linguistic meaning. Terms: lexical semantics; phrasal semantics; homonyms; heteronyms;homographs; synonyms; antonyms polysemous; hyponyms; acronyms; etc.

21. Pragmatics:The study of how context affects meaning is called pragmatics. Terms: principle of politeness.