(Chapter 6: Syntax ‘The phrase The clause The sentence Above the sentence Grammatical, acceptable, interpretable Summary Chapter 7; Semantics Polysemy Synonymy Antonymy ‘Hyponymy Idioms Summary Chapter 8: Linguistic schools in the twentieth century Traditional Latin-influenced models Structuralism Scale and category ‘Transformational generative grammar Case grammar Summary Chapter 9: Branches of linguistics The study of language Sociolinguistics Psycholinguistics Applied linguistics Stylistics Summary Answers to exercises Glossary of useful terms Bibliography Index ‘The author of this Handbook ss "4 7 p 9 81 2 85 88 95 98 101 104 106 106 107 108 109 ul 112 113 121 131 132 136 Chapter 1 What is linguistics? Linguistics 15 USUALLY DEFINED as ‘the scientific study of language’. Such a statement, however, raises two further questions: what do we ‘mean by ‘scientific”” and what do we mean by “language”? The first one can be answered relatively easily but the second needs to be examined more fully. When we say that a linguist aims to be scientific, we mean that he attempts to study language in much the same way as a scientist Physics or chemistry, that is systematically, and as far as possible without prejudice. It means observing language use, forming hhypotheses about it, testing these hypotheses and then refining them (on the basis of the evidence collected. To get a simplified idea of what is meant, consider the following example. With regard to English, we might make a hypothesis that adjectives always precede nouns, In support of this hypothesis, we could produce the following acceptable good man adead tree But against our hypothesis, we would find the following acceptable sentences: ‘The mans good. The tree is dead. where our adjectives do not precede the nouns they modify. In addition, a careful study of the language would produce further samples such as: life everlasting mission impossible where, once again, the position of the adjective contradicts our original hypothesis. When we have carried out a detailed examination of adjectives in English, we are in a position to say that adjectives in English are used in two main ways: (a) they can be used attributively, that is before @ noun, asin: 2 good man6 » Whats linguistics? and: (b) they can be used predicatively, that is following a verb, as in: ‘The man is good. ‘Such rules would cover the uses of most adjectives in English. It would be necessary, however, to add a further rule. In English a finite number of adjectives, borrowed from other languages of used in fixed phrases, follow the nouns they modify. Such a finite list would include: astronomer royal attorney general court martial heir apparent prince imperial princess royal What is language? Put at its simplest, a language is a set of signals by which we communicate. Human beings are not the only species to have an elaborate communication system. Bees communicate about honey and about the siting of a new hive; chimpanzees can use vocalisations to ‘warn of danger, to signal the finding of food or to indicate attitudes to mating; and dolphins can communicate information on food and danger by means of whistles and clicks. It is not possible in a short book to illustrate all the similarities and differences between human and animal communication. Nor would it prove fruitful to discuss Whether human languages developed from earlier, simpler signalling systems. The evidence is just not available. Language seems to be as old as our species. It is not so much that we have missing links in a chain from simple communication system to complex human language. It is the chain that is missing and all we have are a few intriguing links What we can say with confidence is that even if human languages do not differ in essence from animal communication, they certainly differ in degree. Nothing in the animal kingdom even approximates to human language for flexibility, complexity, precision, productivity and sheer quantity. Humans have learnt to make infinite use of finite means. ‘There are a number of other general points that are worth making about language. First, human language is not only a vocal system of communication. It can be expressed in writing, with the result that it is 1not limited in time or space. Secondly, each language is both arbitrary and systematic. By this we mean that no two languages behave in exactly the same way yet each language has its own set of rules. Again, esnenenamnensi What is linguistics? - 7 ‘2 number of examples will clarify this point. The word for ‘water’ is ‘eau’ in French, ‘uisce’ in Gaelic. There is no intrinsic relationship between any of these words and the chemical compound HO which we know as water. The choice of word is arbitrary, that is non- predictable, but speakers of French and Gaelic regularly and habitually use the word from their language to refer to H;O. The same is true with regard to sentences. In English, we say: Tam hungry. in French: Pai faim. (literally, Thave hunger) and in Gaelic: ‘Té ocras orm. (literally, Be hunger on me) There is no way in which we could say that one is more ‘natural’ or ‘more ‘appropriate’ than either of the others. Languages are arbitrary in their selection and combination of items but systematic in that similar ideas are expressed in similar ways, thus: English: Tam thirsty. French: S'aisoif. (iterally, Thave thirst) Gaclic: Té tart orm. (literally, Be thirst on me) ‘And finally, there are no primitive or inferior languages. People may live in the most primitive conditions but all languages appear to be ually complex and all are absolutely adequate to the needs of their sie Ke fo be ved that somewhere in he word wuld be found a simple language, 2 sort of linguistic missing link ‘animal communication and the language of technologically advanced societies. People have been found in remote parts of Papua New Guinea and in the Amazon Basin whose way of life has not changed for thousands of years and yet their languages are as subtle, as highly organised, as flexible and as useful as those found in any other part of ‘the world. Language and medium ‘A language is an abstraction based on the linguistic behaviour of its users. It is not to be equated precisely with speech because no speaker has total mastery of the entire system and every speaker is capable of using the Ianguage inadequately through tiredness, illness or inattention. All normal children of all races learn to speak the language of their community, so speech has often been seen as the8 + Whats linguistics? primary medium of language. The abstract system which isla Gan aso be reals a wong, and although spsrch and wing have much in common, they are not tobe esate or hierarchically ogee Many books will claim that speech is ‘primary’ and this is true ina umber of ways: (a) writing is a relatively recent development in human socie (2) thousands of speech communities rely solely on speech (c) all of us speak a great deal more than we write (@) although we acquire speech without conscious effort, learning to read and write is usually less spontaneous and less automatic It is not, however, ‘primary’ if we interpret ‘primary’ to mean ‘more important’. Speech and writing are not in competition. They are complementary and both are necessary in a technologically advanced society. We can sum up the relationship between language and its ‘mediums in a diagram as shown in Fig. 1: language (abstraction) u ‘mediums (concrete) 2 y speech => writing 1G, 1: The relationship between language and its mediums ‘The diagram indicates that, although speech and writing ae i rhe t writ in th ics iny Cant do ntnou set nd wing ae in hcry this is that pronunciation is often affected by speling. A word. ike ‘often’, for example, is now frequently pronounced with at” of influence from the written medium. y wath © because Consider briefly the main differences between specch and writi the two main mediums in which languages realised = “8S Speech Writing Composed of sounds Composed of tes/sgns Makes use of intonation, pitch, Makes use of punctuation and rhythm, tempo. other graphological devices mene tke ita ucedeffortessly no Produced with fort ~ tools required ‘cated ot too : : : . i : | ‘What is linguistics? - 9 Speech Writing Transitory Relatively permanent Perceived by the ear Perceived by the eye ‘Addressee present ‘Addressee absent Immediate feedback Feedback delayed Meaning helped by context, Meaning must be made clear ‘body movement, gestures _within the context Spontaneous ‘Not spontaneous Associative Logical Such a list is sufficient to indicate that speech and writing are very different mediums, Furthermore, they can function independently of teach other. We do not have to speak a language in order to read and ‘rite it. Nor does an ability to speak a language give @ person automatic access to writing. Yet there are links between the mediums. Most writing systems are based on speech. As far as English is concerned, there is a rough equivalence between sounds and letters. Thus, most people can distinguish three sounds in the composition of the word that is written ‘bat’ and a different three in the word that is written ‘pen’. The equivalence between sounds and letters is not, however, very close in English. We find, for example, only three sounds in the following words of five letters: knead rough In addition, the sounds of these words can be represented in more than one way, so that ‘need’ is pronounced in exactly the same way as “knead” and ‘ruff’ sounds exactly the same as ‘rough’. Nor are these the only mismatches that occur between English sounds and letters. ‘The ‘ee sound can be represented in at least six different ways: beef chief deceive even ‘machine meat and the 's" sound of ‘sand’ can be represented by both ‘s’ and ‘c’: ceiling sealing10 + What is linguistics? ‘Most European languages are ‘alphabetic’, that is, there is a link between sounds and letters, but other links are possible. In Chinese the link is between a unit of meaning and a character: F down k ow A man Sword “Man’ and ‘word’, however, can be combined to make ‘honest’: & Chinese speakers from different parts of China may pronounce these characters differently but the written character always has the same meaning. A comparison with European languages may be helpful here. Although English, French and Gaelic are all alphabetic languages, they have all borrowed the numerical symbols 1,2,3 ... from Arabie, The English write them ‘one, two, three’, the French “un, deux, trois’ and the Irish ‘aon, dé, ti’ and each group pronounces’ them differently. Yer all users interpret the symbols 1,2,3 ... in the same way. The components of language When a parrot utters words or phrases in our language, we understand them although itis reasonably safe to assume that the parrot does not, The parrot may be able to reproduce intelligible units from the spoken medium but has no awareness of the abstract system behind the medium. Similarly, if we hear a stream of sounds in a language we de not know, we may recognise by the tone of voice whether the person ir angry or annoyed but the exact meaning eludes us. To have mastery of & language, therefore, means being able to produce an infinite number oof language patterns which are comprehensible to other users of the language, and in addition, being able 10 decipher the infinity of language patterns produced by other users of the language. It is thus a ‘two-way process involving both production and reception. AS far as speech is concerned, the process involves associating ‘What is linguistics? « 11 sounds with meaning and meaning with sound, With writing, onthe other hand, language competence involves the association of a tmering (and sont sods wih aig, a vial spb, The, our study of language will involve us in an appraisal of all of the following levels of language: language 1 Phonology - sounds 1 morphology — meaningful combinations of sounds 1 lexis = words u je syntax ~ meaningful combinations of words 1 semantics ~ meaning i i will have examined these levels and the way they interact, we age rete te ere (inguisis), the varity in language and the ws o which people put languages (Sociolinguistics) the ways in which people teach and learn ees eres rms ates ree in understanding the human mind (psycholinguistics).