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LING 200

LING 200. Introduction to Linguistics Prof. Sharon Hargus Winter 2009 Jan. 5, 2009. Welcome to LING 200. Plan for today Syllabus, administrative matters What is linguistics? What is grammar?. Please turn off your cell phone. Administrative matters.

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LING 200

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  1. LING 200 Introduction to Linguistics Prof. Sharon Hargus Winter 2009 Jan. 5, 2009

  2. Welcome to LING 200 • Plan for today • Syllabus, administrative matters • What is linguistics? • What is grammar? Please turn off your cell phone.

  3. Administrative matters • Syllabus is on class website: http://courses.washington.edu/lingclas/200/200.html

  4. Goals for student learning in this class • Learn about some general properties of human language • Learn some facts about particular languages • Develop competence in linguistic analysis • Learn about some tools for analyzing language

  5. Summary of student responsibilities • Do the assigned work on time • Read the textbook; quiz on reading opens Fridays, closes Tuesdays before section • Homework posted Fridays, due Thursdays in section • No make-up exams • Be respectful of others

  6. What is linguistics and what is a linguist? • Popular/military definitions of linguistics/linguist • Military ‘linguist’ = translator • Popular culture, ‘linguist’ = someone who knows more than one language • Polyglot: someone who speaks more than one language • To linguists, linguistics is the study of human language as a rule-governed system of knowledge

  7. Systems of knowledge in language Two types of knowledge • 1. List-type knowledge • The meaningful elements you know • horse • Spanish caballo • Sahaptin k’úsi • Linguists, lexicographers make this information explicit in a dictionary

  8. 2nd type of knowledge • 2. Rule-type knowledge • The system of rules with which the structure of a language can be described • I.e. ‘grammar’ • e.g. rules for plural formation • horses • Spanish caballos • Sahaptin k’úsima

  9. Grammar • Different meanings of ‘grammar’ • What “grammar” might mean to you • the right way to write • the right way to speak • Linguists: “prescriptive grammar” • = rules handed down by a supposed “authority” on the right way to write/speak

  10. A prescriptive rule of English • Pronouns referring to animals are not marked for gender: use it instead of he/she etc. • Instead of • “My cat’s name is Peach. He is a bad animal.” • I should say • “My cat’s name is Peach. It is a bad animal.” • But who talks like that???

  11. Linguists’ view • Linguists are interested in what people actually say/sign, not what they are told to say • Any native speaker is an expert on their language • But variation: different varieties (just not "right" vs. "wrong“) • So what do linguists study then?

  12. Descriptive grammar • What speakers/signers actually produce • What speakers/signers judge to be a possible word or sentence • Linguists describe what speakers do/know as a system of rules, a descriptive grammar

  13. Working with Mike Abou in Ft. Ware, B.C. July 2005

  14. Linguists work with data • Previously collected data (corpus studies, philology) • Newly collected data • from self (intuitions) • from others (fieldwork, experiments)

  15. Summary • Linguistics is about • describing languages • documenting lexicon, texts • rules by which language is structured (grammar) • understanding other properties of human language • how do we manage to learn a language? • what makes human language so unique on this planet?

  16. Some topics we’ll discuss later on in this course Some languages seem to be more related to each other than other languages. Is American Sign Language a language? What are its properties? Lots of languages seem to be going extinct. Why is that happening? What is computational linguistics? Preview

  17. This week • Sections Tues and Thurs • Wed lecture: Design features of human language • Fri film: Discovering the Human Language • Beginning Wed, bring paper and pencil to lecture to answer a two-minute question at the end of lecture, including Friday film.

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