Chapter 1 Language and Linguistics

1. Chapter 1 Language and Linguistics

2. Outline 1. Language and grammar 1.1 Language 1.1.1 Language and writing systems 1.1.2 Language and symbol 1.2 Grammar 1.2.1 Prescriptive grammar 1.2.2 Descriptive grammar 2. Grammar and linguistic knowledge 2.1 Lexical knowledge 2.2 Phonological knowledge 2.3 Syntactic knowledge 3. Universal Grammar 4. Language and society 4.1 Language and cultures 4.2 Social factors 5. Summary

3. To what extent can it be meant to know a language? (In linguistics) To get the linguistic knowledge of that language, including phonological, syntactic, morphological, and semantic knowledge. 1 the linguistic intuition or competence (a) produce all the grammatical and acceptable sentences (b) prevent any ungrammatical sentences from being produced

4. To what extent can it be meant to know a language? (In linguistics) To get communicative competence which involved with language used from social and cultural (psychological) perspectives. 2

5. Historical linguistics: the findings of 1. theoretical linguistics (competence) 2. applied linguistics (performance)

6. 1. Language and Grammar 1.1 Language 1.1.1 Language and writing systems 1.1.2 Language and symbol 1.2 Grammar 1.2.1 Prescriptive grammar 1.2.2 Descriptive grammar

7. Language and Grammar • Contemporary linguistics • Noam Chomsky (1957)- Aspects of Syntactic Structure • Two issues to be addressed: • (a) to what extent is it meant to know a language • (b) why can children acquire a language in such a short time?

8. Language and Writing Systems • All the languages can be spoken, but not all languages can be written. Ex: • A lot of Indian languages without being written • Languages used to be spoken by Pingpu here in Taiwan are now fading away • IPA: Used to transcribe languages without a writing system by way of field work.

9. Language and Writing Systems • Some writing system stops being used although the language is still spoken. • Ex: the writing system of Naxi language languages are natural writing systems are artificial (invented) languages precede writing systems

10. Language and Writing Systems • Natural languages can be spoken out in a speech community, and acquired naturally for native speakers. • Artificial languages are not acquired in natural environments. Ex: • 1. Without sounds: Sign language for the blind or the deaf. • 2. Only expressed in written forms but not spoken out: Most languages used for computer programmers

11. Language and Symbol • Symbols used to transcribed language without writing systems: • Oracle Bone Script (Jiaguwen) • IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet):

12. Language and Symbol • 3 types of symbols: icon, index, and symbol. • Icon (something substantial) • Index(signs used for information) • Symbol(associated some specific reference) Scholars founded an association for the invention of symbols for phonetic transcription @, it occurs to us that it is an e-mail address , we know that ahead is a curve The association is entirely arbitrary ,there is a restaurant ahead ‘book’ (book is a symbol) for the reference of ‘書’for the same reference in Chinese

13. Language and Symbol • IPA: 1.The association (1897) called International Phonetics Association 2. The phonetic system called International Phonetics Alphabet • K. K. Phonetic symbols: • The system used for the transcription of English sounds in Taiwan • J. S. Kenyon and T. A. Knott • A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English

14. Grammar • Pedagogical or prescriptive grammar: concerned with pedagogy • Theoretical grammar: used in this chapter

15. Prescriptive Grammar • Usually adopted in schools • Requiring the students to memorize a lot of grammatical rules, even if some rules are out of date. • Also pedagogical grammar • Still prevailing for grammar schools or in the schools teaching English as a foreign language e.g. Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. Ex: the past tense of dream→dreamt too strict to be followed Descriptive grammar begins to attract attentions

16. Descriptive Grammar • Aims to describe what has been spoken or what has been written in English. • All the possible sentences are collected and analyzed.

17. 2. Grammar and Linguistic Knowledge 2.1 Lexical knowledge 2.2 Phonological knowledge 2.3 Syntactic knowledge

18. Grammar and linguistic knowledge • What is language knowledge? • It is composed of lexical, phonological, syntactic, and semantic knowledge. Grammar in modern linguistic descriptive prescriptive linguistic intuition linguistic knowledge language faculty

19. Lexical knowledge • The basic unit of a language Ex: Baby : What is this? (babbling) Parents : Milk, mi-l-k. / Table, ta-ble. (reply by a baby directive language) insert to the terminal nodes of an X-bar structure mental lexicon

20. Lexical knowledge • From the lexical input, children would generate some morphological rules: a. That book interested me. b. That book was interesting. c. I was interested in that book. d. I had great interest in that book. interest interest + ed (past tense) interest + ing (adj.) be interested in (experience) interest (noun)

21. Phonological knowledge • Phonological knowledge is composed of phone/segment, phonemes, syllables, and stress. • The basic unit of phonetic sounds Ex:[bk]→[b], [], [k]

22. Phonological knowledge • Phonological knowledge is composed of phone/segment, phonemes, syllables, and stress. • Some phones are phonemic, while others are not. • 24 English phonemes constitute English phonetic inventories.

23. Phonological knowledge • Phonological knowledge is composed of phone/segment, phonemes, syllables, and stress. • All the phonemes can be syllabified into a syllable according to the phonotactic rules or constraints. Ex: C0-3VC0-3 0-3 consonants at the onset 0-3 consonants at the coda ten, please, spring, hand, attempt

24. Phonological knowledge • Why are the syllables in ungrammatical in English? syllables impossible in English: a. nkelt b. pkrote c. sdock d. spomt e.sputr violate the sonority sequencing principle 1st consonant < 2nd consonant an accidental gap Language intuition: We may not be able to say why they are ungrammatical in English. However, we are sure that they do not occur in English.

25. Syntactic knowledge • How to build a sentence on the basis of available lexica? Ex: • John, likes, the, dog • Logically, there are 24 possible order • (4!=4x3x2x1=24) • a. John likes the dog. • b. The dog likes John. • c. *John the dog likes. • d. *Likes the dog John. • e. *The like John dog. Acceptable (SVO order) Unacceptable

26. 3. Universal Grammar

27. Universal Grammar • Why can a child acquire a language in so short a time? LAD (language acquisition device) Innateness Hypothesis Universal grammar in English environments acquire English grammar in Japan speak Japanese

28. Universal Grammar • Chomsky- • There are different languages in the world. However, all the languages share a common core grammar, which is universal, although there are different parameter settings. What we need is a language exposure or a key to the parameter settings. Universal grammar Some parts shared with a certain languages Specific language

29. Universal Grammar Chinese 買書 at Taipei English buy a book at Taipei Japanese 本を買うTaipei at

30. Universal Grammar • When a child is put in whatever language environments, he is able to acquire that language in a short time. Language is acquired, not learned Mandarin Chinese Southern Min

31. 4. Language and Society 4.1 Language and cultures 4.2 Social factors

32. Language and cultures • What language conveys for communication is subject to society and cultures. • In Eskimo, there are different types of vocabulary related to snow. • In Taiwanese, there are different types of vocabulary related to rice. Language is cultural based

33. Language and cultures • The language reflects its cultures. Mandarin (Taiwan) (Mainland) different vocabulary phonology syntax identical 1939 now Colonized by Japan left a lot of Japanese vocabulary Governed by the Communist Party: does not allow any competition Democratic country: yielding various slogans for election

34. Social factors • Language identity would motivate sound change as revealed in William Labov’s studies on the vowel reduction of Martha’s Vineyard. • Gender plays a key role of language use. Female expressions (uncertainly): I am wondering.. I am not sure… May I… Male expressions (certainly): I am pretty sure.. I guarantee… Of course… graceful or gentle strong or ambitious What makes female differ from male in the use of language?