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2n1 = ME
[email protected]
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CREDITS: This presentation template was created

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TEEng101
ELS102
Introduction
to LINGUISTICS
Dr. Evelyn Laxamana Pacquing
 “ LINGUISTICS is the the
scientific study of language and
its structure.”

—
https://www.linguisticsociety.org/
01

The University
and the Course
 SPUP VISION
ST. PAUL UNIVERSITY PHILIPPINES
is an internationally recognized
institution dedicated to the formation
of competent leaders and responsible
citizens of their communities, country
and the world.
SPUP MISSION
Animated by the gospel and guided by the
teachings of the Church, it helps to uplift
the quality of life and to effect social
transformation through:

Quality, Catholic, Paulinian formation,

01 academic excellence, research and
community service;

Optimum access to Paulinian education

02 and service and service in an atmosphere of
compassionate caring; and

Responsive and innovative management

03 processes.
 PAULINIAN CORE VALUES

CHARISM CHRIST COMMISSION

CARITAS COMMUNITY
GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES

CHRISTIAN LEADER
Paulinian, Filipino,
Good Person,
Competent and Committed
Graduate

RESPONSIBLE CITIZEN,
Efficient and Effective
Communicator, Critical Thinker and
Problem Solver, Lifelong Learner
 LANGUAGE STUDY
TEEng101 ELS102
Introduction to Introduction to English
Linguistics Language System
• provides an overview of • explains the nature and
linguistics as a discipline, essential features of language;
its development, levels of provides an overview of the
structure, and its phonological, morphological,
significance to English syntactic system, and semantic
system of the English
Language Teaching. language; gives an
introduction to discourse as
well as language acquisition
and language change.
 I. OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE
A. Linguistics as the Science of
Language
TEEng101 B. Definitions of Language
ELS102 according to Famous
Linguists/Theorists
COURSE C. Views and Overview on
OUTLINE D. Macro Skills of Language
E. Theories in Language Study
F. Communicative Competence by D.
Hymes
G. Components of Grammar-An
Introduction
H. Kachru’s Concentric Circles
 II. PHONETICS and
PHONOLOGY
A. Introduction
TEEng101 B. Segmentals (vowels, consonants,
ELS102 diphthongs)
C. Suprasegmentals
COURSE
❖ Pitch and Tone
OUTLINE
❖ Rate and Resonance
❖ Intonation and Emphasis
❖ Juncture
❖ Enunciation
❖ Effective Voice and Paralanguage
Elements)
 III. MORPHOLOGY
A. Morphemes and Inflections
B. Word Formation Processes
TEEng101 ❖ Prefixes, Suffixes, and Root
ELS102 Words
❖ Decodable and Sight Words
COURSE ❖ Context Clues and
OUTLINE ❖ Vocabulary Building
❖ Definitions and Supporting
Details
❖ Lexicography – The Dictionary
 IV. SYNTAX
TEEng101
ELS102 A. Eight Parts of Speech
B. Phrases and Clauses
COURSE C. Sentences
OUTLINE D. Some Grammar Rules and Common
Usage Problems
 V. SEMANTICS AND
TEEng101
ELS102 PRAGMATICS
A. Word and Sentence Meaning
COURSE B. Connotative vs. Denotative Meaning
OUTLINE C. Figurative Language
D. Idiomatic Expressions
E. Pragmatics and Language Registers
MODULE 1
Evelyn L. Pacquing
 Introduction
to LINGUISTICS
Scope:

• Origin of Language
• Knowledge of Language
• Language and Linguistics
• Features of Language
• Core Branches of Linguistics
• Descriptive-Prescriptive Atttitude
• School of Linguistics
• Types of Grammar
• The need of communication.
• ‘Language’ is superior to other tools (non-verbal
human communication)
• WHAT IS LANGUAGE THEN?
• A complex phenomenon
• A number of theories about “language”
THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE

• MONOGENESIS:18th C. Gottfried Wilhelm

Leibniz: all ancient and modern languages branched
off from a single proto-language. But it cannot explain
that human language arose simultaneously at many different
places.
• POLYGENESIS: Present language families derive
from many original languages.
 THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE
5 theories from The Danish Linguist Otto Jespersen
(1860-1943)
• 1. speech arose through Onomatopoeic words but
few of these exist in language
• 2. speech arose through people making instinctive
sounds caused by pain, anger or emotions. For
ex. İnterjections
• 3.universal use of sounds for words of a certain
menaing-sound symbolism- For example –mam
is supposed to reflect the movement of the lips
as the mouth approaches to the food. And bye-
bye or ta-ta show the lips and tongue
respecitively “waving” good-bye.
THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE
5 theories from The Danish Linguist Otto Jespersen
(1860-1943)

• 4. speech arose as people worked together, their

physical efforts produced communal,
rhythmical grunts which in due course
developed into chants, and thus language.

• 5.If any single factor was going to initiate human

language , it would arise from the romantic
side of life-sounds associated with love, play,
poetic feeling, perhaps even song.
(Crystal, 1987)
 The Origins of
Human Language
Yule, George (2010). The Study of Language. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 1)
 Theories about the Origin of
Language

• Otto Jespersen (1921):

• Human language originated

while human beings were
enjoying themselves
 The Divine Source Theory

• In most religions: divine source

provides humans with language

• Genesis (2:19): God created Adam and

‘whatsoever Adam called every living
creature that was the name thereof‘
 The Divine Source Theory

• Hindu:
• Language comes from goddess
Sarasvati, wife of Brahma,
creator of the universe
 Experiments

• Egyptian pharaoh Psammetichus

(600 B.C)
• two new-born infants
• two years in the company of a mute
shepherd
• Phrygian word: bekos (meaning
bread)
 Experiments

• James IV of Scotland:
• similar experiment
• children were reported to have
started speaking Hebrew
The Natural Sounds Source Theory

• Hypothesis: primitive words are

imitations of the natural sounds
which early man and women
heard around them
• E.g.: object flew by → cuckoo
sound→name cuckoo
The Natural Sounds Source Theory

• Explanation for onomatopoeic

words:
• splash, bang, boom, rattle, buzz, hiss
• Also called bow-wow (Wauwau)
theory of language
The Natural Sounds Source Theory

• Natural cries of emotion: pain, anger,

joy:→
e.g. ouch
• Yo-heave-ho theory: sounds of a person
involved in physical effort e.g. when
lifting trees or mammoths
The Oral Gesture Source Theory

• hypothesis: link between physical

gesture and orally produced sounds
• developed by Sir Richard Paget
(1930)
• movement of the tongue when
saying goodbye resembles movement
of waving of the hand
Physiological Adaptation Theory

• physical features of human beings:

good clues for their capacity for
speech
• human teeth: upright, even in height
• human lips: flexibility, needed for
sounds like p,b and w
Physiological Adaptation Theory

• human larynx : position lower

than with monkeys
• → longer cavity called pharynx
: acts as resonator
Physiological Adaptation Theory

• human brain: lateralized

• has special functions in each of the
two hemispheres
• left hemisphere: analytic, tool using,
language
• right hemisphere: holistic, music,
visuo-spatial skills
Why Study Linguistics?
 Can you answer
these questions?
1. What is the difference between a ‘knight’ and
‘knave’?
2. What do you eat with your ghoti?
3. How many words are there in the sentence
‘The cats talked and the dogs walked’ 7, 6 or
2?
4. Do sentences grow on trees?
5. Can ‘Colourless green ideas sleep furiously’ ?
6. Who taught you to speak?
Linguistics can help us to find the answers.
http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/index.html - linguistttp://
www.lang.ltsn.ac.uk/whylinguistics.aspx
 Can you answer
this question?
Q. What is the difference between a
knight and a knave?
A. Time

Why?
‘Knave’ and ‘knight’ both meant ‘boy’ once. They
now mean opposing things. Meanings of words
and pronunciation change over time.
 Historical Linguistics

Etymology is the study of the historical

development of words, which is part of Historical
Linguistics.
 Can you answer
this question?
Q. What do you eat with ghoti?
A. It depends on the culture.
Why?
If we take the [gh] from ‘laugh’, the [o] from "women"
and the [ti] from ‘nation’ the word ghoti can be
pronounced fish. We spell some words in English in
ways which bear no resemblance to the way they are
pronounced.

Ghoti was invented by the playwright George

Bernard Shaw to show the illogicality of English
spelling.
 Phonetics and Phonology

These are the areas of Linguistics that deal with

the study of the sound system of a language
(Phonology) and the scientific study of speech
processes (Phonetics).
 Can you answer
this question?
Q. How many words are there in the
sentence ‘The cats talked and the dogs
walked’ 7 or 6?
A. Both
Why 7?
It all depends what you mean by word
because the word ‘word’ is ambiguous.
If the question means ‘How many word
forms’ then the answer is 7
(sometimes this is referred to as
7 word tokens).
 Can you answer
this question?
Q. How many words are there in the
sentence ‘The cats talked and the
dogs walked’ 7 or 6?
A. Both
Why 6?
If we mean ‘how many different word
forms’, then the answer is 6 since
there are two ‘the’s (sometimes
referred to as word types).
 Can you answer
this question?
Q. How many of the words in the sentence
would you expect to find in the dictionary?
A. 6 or 2
Why 6?
The dictionary is not a list of actual word
forms but of ‘dictionary words’. We will find
‘cat’ and ‘dog’ but not ‘cats’ and ‘dogs’; we
will find ‘walk’ and ‘talk’ but not ‘walked’ and
‘talked’. ‘-s’ and ‘-ed’ are not in the dictionary
at all, thus 6: CAT, DOG WALK, TALK, the,
and
 Can you answer
this question?
Q. How many of the words in the sentence
would you expect to find in the dictionary?
A. 6 or 2

Why 2?
But if we mean how many actual
word forms the answer will be 2
(the, and). Look it up and see!
 Can you answer
this question?
Q. Do sentences grow on trees?
A. Yes
Why?
Sentences are structured strings of words.
The string of words ‘Sentences grow on trees’ is
recognizable as a well-formed sentence of English. By
contrast ‘sentences grow trees on’ or ‘trees on grow
sentences’ are simply word salad.
One way to show that sentences have structure is to
identify which words go together to form units. So ‘on trees’
is a unit (Where do sentences grow?); so is ‘grow on trees’
(What do sentences do?) and so is ‘sentences’ (what grow
on trees?). However, the strings ‘sentences grow’ or ‘grow
on’ do not relate to sensible questions and are not units in
this sentence.
 Syntax
Sentences also grow on trees like this…
S

NP VP

N V PP

P NP

Sentences grow on trees

 Syntax
Key

S Sentence

N Noun NP Noun Phrase

V Verb VP Verb Phrase

P Preposition PP Preposition Phrase

The relations of words in sentences is from a

branch of Linguistics called ‘Syntax’
zzz Can you answer
this question?
Q. Can colourless green ideas sleep
furiously?
A. Yes and no!
Why yes?
Yes… because this sentence is grammatically
correct – that is the nouns, verbs, adjectives are
in the right place for an English sentence.
zzz Can you answer
this question?
Q. Can colourless green ideas sleep
furiously?
A. Yes and no!
Why no?
No…because you can’t make sense of it in the ‘real world’.
This demonstrates that it is not grammar alone that makes a
sentence sensible, but the context in which it is created. In
the ‘real world’ a colour can’t be colourless and an idea can’t
be green.
The world of the imagination is another matter, however!
zzz Semantics

The branch of linguistics dealing with meaning is

called Semantics.
 Can you answer
this question?
Q. Who taught you to speak?
A. You did

Why?
You might think that it is your parents who taught you how
to speak, but you have really taught yourself. Certainly
your parents offer you the ‘model’ of the language or
languages you are going to learn but you came into the
world equipped with a kind of ready-made language
processor that helped you to sort out how the language
you were hearing actually worked.
 Working out the rules

Have you ever heard a child say ‘I dided it’ or ‘I

bringed it’? What do you think is going on here?
They won’t have heard their parents saying these
words, so where did they come from?
 Language Acquisition

This is the branch of Linguistics that studies the

ways in which children learn language. When
Linguistics looks at how we learn a second or
foreign language this is called Second Language
Acquisition.
 Want to find out more?

These examples are based on the "The

collected works of the phantom linguist" which
can be visited at:
http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/index.html - linguist
 So what precisely is
Linguistics?
"Linguistics is the science of language. It is the
subject whose practitioners devote their energy to
understanding why human language is the way it is.
They study the history, acquisition, structure, and
use of as many languages as possible - It would be
nice to study them all, but life's too short."

(Crystal: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/ling/whatis.htm)
 So what precisely is
Linguistics?
Since language enters into almost every area of
human activity, the application of linguistic
analysis can be extremely broad, encompassing
almost any area where language is a practical
concern.
For example:
language learning and teaching • language in new technologies •
writing systems • dictionaries • translation • language issues •
multilingual societies • linguistic difficulties • communication
between different social, cultural, ethnic groups • endangered
languages • linguistic input to computer systems •
 But will Linguistics
make me ‘special’?

There are some particular skills that are

associated with Linguistics that makes it ‘special’:
• respect for accuracy
• confidence in learning new systems
• attention to form
• understanding of human behavior good grasp of
the language needed to describe language
 But will Linguistics
make me ‘special’?
Linguistics also requires a certain amount of hard
thinking which might involve:
• recognition and use of evidence
• speculation
• critical and logical thinking
• building complex systems
 But will Linguistics
make me ‘special’?
Finally Linguistics might help you to become a
more self-aware person by posing a number of
questions such as:
• How do I understand language?
• How does language operate in my and other
societies?
• How might the language I use shape me as a
person?
Linguistics
 Linguistics, simply, is the study of language.
Then,
 What is language?
 Is language human specific ?
 Do animals have language?
 The definition of Language
❖ Language is purely human and non-instinctive
method of communicating ideas, emotions and
desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols
(Sapir, 1921).

❖ Language is a system of arbitrary, vocal symbols

which permit all people in a given culture, or
other people who have learned the system of that
culture to communicate or to interact (Finocchiaro,
1965).
The definition of Language
❖ Language is a system of communication
by sound, operating through the organs of
speech, among members of a given
community, and using vocal symbols
possessing arbitrary conventional
meaning (Pei, 1966)
The definition of Language

❖ The generally accepted definition:

Language is a system of arbitrary vocal
symbols used for human communication
(Wardhaugh, 1972).
 Definitions formulated by some
linguists/linguisticians
◼ Bloch and Trager (1942): “A language
is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by
means of which a social group
cooperates”.
◼ Noam Chomsky(1957): “Language is a
set of finite number sentences, each finite
in length and constructed out of a finite
set of elements”
◼ Michael Halliday (2003): “A language
is a system of meaning- a semiotic
system”
– Reconsider the following quotations
▪ “speech breaks silence to say something;
however, silence can say more than speech”.
▪ “Word is spoken to that who does not
understand”.
◼ Muharrem Ergin(1990): “Language is a
natural means to enable communication
among people, a living entity that it has its
own peculiar laws, by means of which
alone can it develop, a system of contracts
whose foundation was laid in times
unknown, and a social institution
interwoven with sounds”.
 Explanations

1. Language is a system, i.e., elements of

language are combined according to rules.
“iblk”, “Been he wounded has” are
unacceptable.

2. Language is arbitrary in the sense that there

is no intrinsic connection between the word
‘pen’ and the thing we use to write with.
❖ Explanations
The fact that different language have
different words for the same object is a good
illustration of the arbitrary nature of
language.

This also explains the symbolic nature of

language: words are just symbols; they are
associated with objects, actions, ideas, etc,
by convention. “A rose by any other name
would smell as sweet” .(Romeo and Juliet)
 ❖Explanations

3. Language is vocal because the primary

medium is sound for all languages, no
matter how well developed their writing
systems are. All evidence points to the fact
that writing systems came into being much
later than the spoken forms and that they
are only attempts to capture sounds and
meaning on paper. “children – spoken
language – read and write”
Design Features of Language
Design Features of Language refer to the
quintessential characteristics of human language,
which can distinguish any human language
system from any non-human language system.
They cover: Arbitrariness, Duality, Creativity,
Displacement, and Cultural transmission.
Design Features of Language
Arbitrariness
 This feature was first proposed by Saussure.
 The forms of linguistic signs bear no natural
(logical, intrinsic) relationship to their meaning.
 “Different sounds are used to refer to the same
object in different languages.”
Baum

tree

树
 Arbitrariness

◼ At lexical level:
◼A rose by any other name would
smell as sweet (Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet, 1594 )
 Arbitrariness
◼ at the syntactic level
◼ language is not arbitrary at the
syntactic level.
◼ (a) He came in and sat down.
◼ (b) He sat down and came in.
◼ (c) He sat down after he came in.
How to understand
Arbitrariness and convention?
Design Features of Language
Duality
Language possess the property of having two levels
of structures:

Sounds (lower or basic level)

Meaning (higher level)
Sounds are combined with one another to form
meaningful units such as words. The secondary
units sounds are meaningless and the primary units
have distinct and identifiable meaning.
Design Features of Language
Creativity
◼ Language can be used to send messages we have
never said or heard before.
◼ Creativity is unique to human language.

◼ Language is creative in that it makes possible the

construction and interpretation of new signals by
its users.
 Cool
Creativity
petmalu
lodi
◼ Words can be used
in new ways to
mean new things,
and can be instantly
understood by
people who have
never come across
that usage before.
Creativity
◼ Language is resourceful because of
its duality and its recursiveness.
◼ The recursive nature of language
provides a potential to create an
infinite number of endless sentences.
◼ “Limited rules can produce unlimited
sentences.” (Chomsky,1958).
Creativity
◼ For instance:
◼ This is the cat that killed the rat that ate
the malt that lay in the house that Jack
built.
◼ He bought a book which was written by a
teacher who taught in a school which was
known for its graduates who ...
Design Features of Language
Creativity
 Users can understand and produce words or
sentences they have never heard before.
Every day we send messages that have
never been sent before and understand
novel messages.
 Much of what we say and hear for the first
time; yet there seems no problem of
understanding.
 Design Features of Language
Displacement
◼ Human languages enable their
users to symbolize objects, events
and concepts which are not
present (in time and space) at the
moment of communication.

◼Thus, we can refer to Confucius, or

the North Pole, even though the first
has been dead for over 2550 years
and the second is situated far away
from us.
Displacement
◼ Animal communication is
normally under “immediate
stimulus control”.
◼ For instance, a warning cry of a
bird instantly announces danger.

My master will
be home
in a few days.
The honeybee's dance
exhibits displacement
a little bit: he can
refer to a source of
food, which is remote
in time and space

×
when he reports on it.
 Displacement
◼ Human language is stimulus-free.
What we are talking about need not
be triggered by any external stimulus
in the world or any internal state.
◼ Our language enables us to
communicate about things that do
not exist.
Displacement

◼Displacement benefits
human beings by giving
us the power to handle
generalizations and
abstractions.
Design Features of Language

Cultural transmission
 Animal call systems are genetically
transmitted.
 Language is culturally transmitted. It is
passed on from one generation to the
next by teaching and learning, rather
than by instinct.
 Topics for discussion
◼ No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot
tell you that his parents were poor but honest.
- Bertrand Russell

◼ A rose by other name would smell as sweet.

– Shakespeare

◼ He bought a book which was written by a teacher

who taught in a school which was known for its
graduates who …
◼ /tr/, /a/, /n/, /s/, /l/, /ei/, /t/- translate –
translate a story- by Lu Xun
Do we have
language?
 Questions
◼ What if there were no language?

◼ What function does language play in

daily life?
language functions
Metafunctions of Language
proposed by Halliday

◼ Ideational function ( a model of

experience as well as logical relations)；
◼ Interpersonal function (to establish
and maintain social relationships )；
◼ Textual function (to create relevance
to context).
language functions
◼ Informative
◼ Interpersonal
◼ Performative
◼ Emotive
◼ Phatic communion
◼ Recreational
◼ Metalingual
Functions of Language

◼ Informative
◼ Language is used to convey messages, that is to
inform somebody of some information.
◼ Declarative sentences are employed to realize
the function.
◼ One of the features of this function is the
proposition has the true or false value,
◼ e.g. Water boils at 90ºC. Water boils at 100ºC.
Functions of Language
◼ Interpersonal
◼ By far the most important sociological use of
language, and by which people establish and
maintain their status in a society, “polite
expressions, humble words”, expression of identity.

◼ For example, the ways in which people address

others (Dear Sir, Dear Professor, Johnny), and
refer to themselves (yours, your obedient servant )
indicate the various grades of interpersonal
relations.
Functions of Language
◼ Interpersonal
◼ In the framework of functional
grammar, it is concerned with
interaction between the addresser
and addressee in the discourse
situation and the addresser's
attitude toward what he speaks or
writes about.
Functions of Language
Performative function
◼ This concept originates from the
philosophical study of language
represented by Austin and Searle,
whose theory now forms the back-bone
of pragmatics. For example,
– I now declare the meeting open.
– I bet you two pounds it will rain
tomorrow.
Functions of Language

◼ Performative function
It is to change the social status of
persons, as in marriage ceremonies, the
sentencing of criminals, the blessing of
children, the naming of a ship at a
launching ceremony, and the cursing of
enemies. (formal and ritualized)
◼ The performative function can extend to
the control of reality as on some magical
or religious occasions.

– For example, in Chinese when

someone breaks a bowl or a
plate the host or the people
present are likely to say a
“magic word” as a means of
controlling the invisible forces
which the believers feel might
affect their lives adversely.
Functions of Language
◼ Emotive function
to change the emotional status of an
audience for or against someone or
something: swear words, obscenities,
involuntary verbal reactions to beautiful art
or scenery; conventional words/phrases,
（e.g., My God, Damn it, What a sight, Wow,
Ugh, Ow…）
Functions of Language

◼ Phatic communion

It refers to the social interaction of language.

Small, seemingly meaningless topic to maintain a
comfortable relationship between people without
involving any factual content, “health, weather”

Expressions that help define and maintain interpersonal

relations, such as slangs, jokes, jargons, ritualistic
exchanges, switches to social and regional dialects.
 Phatic communion
◼ We all use such small, seemingly
meaningless expressions to maintain a
comfortable relationship between people
without involving any factual content.

◼ Good morning, God bless you, Nice day,

hello

◼ Greetings, farewells, and comments on

the weather in English and on clothing in
Chinese
Functions of Language

Recreational function
◼ To use language for the sheer joy of using it,
such as a baby’s babbling, a chanter’s chanting,
verbal dueling, poetry writing.

◼ To take one example, the well-known movie

features a scene of Belle & the Beast (song
dueling) mostly for the sheer joy of playing on
language.
Functions of Language
Metalingual function
◼ Language can be used to talk about itself.
◼ metalanguage ：certain kinds of linguistic signs or
terms for the analysis and description of particular
studies, e.g. approving, formal, non technical, old-
fashioned; [u] , [c], etc.
◼ Functions of Language
Informative Hello, do you know …? With language people can express
I heard that … themselves and communicate with
others.

Inter- Dear sir, Dear professor, John, yours, By language people establish and
personal your obedient servant maintain their social status in a
society.

Performative Marriage ceremonies, the sentence People use language to change social
of a criminal, sui sui ping an (to status or control the reality on some
break a bowl on Spring Festival) special occasions

Emotive Oh, my God! What a sight. Language can be used to get rid of the
And hurrah! nervous energy when we are under
stress
Phatic Good morning! Thank you. language is used to maintain a
God bless you. comfortable relationship between
people without involving any factual
content
Recreational Tip tongue, poetry writing gives People use language for the sheer of
people the pleasure of using joy.
language.
Meta-lingual book---- number of printed or People use language to talk about
written sheets of paper bound language itself.
together in a cover.
Linguistics
 Linguistics can be defined as the
scientific or systematic study of
language. It is a science in the sense
that it scientifically studies the rules,
systems and principles of human
languages.
Linguistics has two main purposes
◼ It studies the nature of language and tries
to establish a theory of language and
describes languages in the light of the
theory established.

◼ It examines all the forms of language in

general and seeks a scientific understanding
of the ways in which it is organized to fulfill
the needs it serves and the functions it
performs in human life.
About LINGUISTICS
◼ Main branches of linguistics Phonetics
Phonology
Morphology
Syntax
Semantics
Pragmatics

Macrolinguistics
Psycholinguistics
Sociolinguistics
Anthropological
Computational
Scope of linguistics
◼ Microlinguistics includes phonetics,
phonology, morphology, syntax,
semantics and pragmatics.

◼ Macrolinguistics includes sociolinguistics,

Psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics,
stylistics, discourse analysis,
computational linguistics, cognitive
linguistics, applied linguistics,etc.
 Core branches of Linguistics
◼ Linguistics

◼ Language

◼ Sounds words sentences meaning

Phonetics/phonology morphology syntax semantics/pragmatics

 Macrolinguistics
（Peripheral branches ）
◼ Psycholinguistics:
Language + psychology
◼ Sociolinguistics:
Language + society
◼ Anthropological linguistics:
Language + anthropology
◼ Computational linguistics:
Language + computer
Microlinguistics
◼ Phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds.
It studies how speech sounds are articulated,
transmitted, and received.

◼ Phonology is the study of how speech sounds

function in a language, it studies the ways speech
sounds are organized. It can be seen as the
functional phonetics of a particular language.

◼ Morphology is the study of the formation of words.

It is a branch of linguistics which breaks words
into morphemes. It can be considered as the
grammar of words as syntax is the grammar of
sentences.
Microlinguistics
◼ Syntax deals with the combination of words into
phrases, clauses and sentences. It is the grammar
of sentence construction.

◼ Semantics is a branch of linguistics which is

concerned with the study of meaning in all its
formal aspects. Words have several types of
meaning.

◼ Pragmatics can be defined as the study of language

in use. It deals with how speakers use language in
ways which cannot be predicted from linguistic
knowledge alone, and how hearers arrive at the
intended meaning of speakers. PRAGMATICS
=MEANING-SEMANTICS.
Macrolinguistics
◼ Socilinguistics studies the relations between
language and society: how social factors influence
the structure and use of language.

◼ Psycholinguistics is the study of language and

mind: the mental structures and processes which
are involved in the acquisition, comprehension
and production of language.

◼ Neurolingistics is the study of language

processing and language representation in the
brain. It typically studies the disturbances of
language comprehension and production caused
by the damage of certain areas of the brain.
Macrolinguistics
◼ Stylistics is the study of how literary effects can be
related to linguistic features. It usually refers to the
study of written language, including literary text, but
it also investigates spoken language sometimes.

◼ Discourse analysis, or text linguistics, is the study of

the relationship between language and the contexts
in which language is used. It deals with how
sentences in spoken and written language form
larger meaningful units.

◼ Computational linguistics is an approach to linguistics

which employs mathematical techniques, often with
the help of a computer.
Macrolinguistics
◼ Cognitive linguistics is an approach to the
analysis of natural language that focuses on
language as an instrument for organizing,
processing, and conveying information.

◼ Applied linguistics is primarily concerned

with the application of linguistic theories,
methods and findings to the elucidation of
language problems which have arisen in
other areas of experience.
Important distinctions in linguistics

◼ Descriptive vs. prescriptive

◼ If a linguistic study describes and analyzes
the language people actually use, it is said to
be descriptive; if it aims to lay down rules for
“correct” behavior, i. e., to tell people what
they should say and what they should not say,
it is said to be prescriptive.
 Descriptive vs. prescriptive

◼ Don't say X.
People don't say X.
◼ The first is a prescriptive command,
while the second is a descriptive
statement.
◼ The distinction lies in prescribing
how things ought to be and
describing how things are.
 Descriptive vs. prescriptive
◼ Most modern linguistics is descriptive. It attempts to
describe what people actually say. Traditional grammars
told people how to use a language.

– As traditional grammars tried to lay down rules, they are often

called prescriptive.

◼ Descriptive grammars attempt to tell what is in the

language, while prescriptive grammars tell people what
should be in the language.

– Language changes and develops. The changes should be

observed and described. This does not deny that languages
have rules.
Important distinctions in linguistics
Synchronic vs. Diachronic
◼ Language can be studied at a given point in time or
over time.
– When we study language at one particular time /at some point of time
in history, it is called synchronic linguistics.

– When we study language developments through time, it is called

diachronic or historical linguistics.

◼ Synchronic linguistics focuses on the state of

language at any point in history while diachronic
linguistics focuses on the differences in two or more
than two states of language over decades or centuries.
Diachronic／ Historical
Linguistics

Synchronic Linguistics
Important distinctions in linguistics
◼ Langue vs. Parole

❑ The distinction made by Swiss linguist F. de Saussure in the

early 20th century.

❑ Langue and parole are French words.

❑ Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all

the members of a speech community, and parole refers to
the realization of langue in actual use.

❑ Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have
to abide by, and parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the
application of the rules.

❑ Langue is abstract; it is not the language people actually use. Parole is

concrete; it refers to the naturally occurring language events.
Important distinctions in linguistics
Competence vs. Performance
◼ Proposed by American linguist N. Chomsky in the late 1950’s.
◼
◼ Competence: the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his
language.

◼ Performance: the actual realization of this knowledge in

linguistic communication.

– According to Chomsky, a speaker has internalized a set of rules

about his language, this enables him to produce and understand
an infinitely large number of sentences and recognize sentences
that are ungrammatical and ambiguous.
Then, what’s the

distinction between
Chomsky’s and
Saussure’s
Important distinctions in linguistics
◼ Langue is a social product, and a set of
conventions for a community, while
competence is deemed as a property of the
mind of each individual.

◼ Saussure looks at language more from a

sociological or sociolinguistic point of
view than Chomsky since the latter deals
with his issues psychologically or
psycholinguistically.
Important distinctions in linguistics
Etic vs. Emic
◼ The two terms originate from the American linguist
Pike’s distinction of phonetics and phonemics.

◼ Etic is related to an approach to the study of a

particular language or culture that is general, non-
structural and objective in its perspective.

◼ Being etic means making far too many, as well as

behaviorally inconsequential, differentiations, just as was
often the case with phonetic vs. phonemic analysis in
linguistics proper.
Important distinctions in linguistics
◼ Emic is related to an approach to the study of a
particular language or culture in terms of its
internal elements and their functioning rather
than in terms of any existing external scheme.

◼ An emic set of speech acts and events must be one that

is validated as meaningful via final resource to the native
members of a speech community rather than via appeal
to the investigator’s ingenuity or intuition alone.
 TOPIC PRESENTATION
❑ Choose a topic from the list given in the
outline.
❑ Prepare a 15-slide Ppt Presentation of
your topic. Slides should contain:
o Topic Title with the Presenter’s Name
o Key Points of the Topic (with corresponding
examples, if necessary)
o Research Issues and Findings (about the topic;
limited to 2 published articles)
o References
❑ Present your topic in a maximum of 20
minutes.