Unit Five: Part 1
– Dr. S. Vasu
Professor Academy College TRB
Chennai English
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Today’s Class
Language and Linguistics:
An Introduction
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Language:
Definition and division
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Defining Language
The expression of ideas by means
of speech-sounds combined into
words. Words are combined into
sentences, this combination
answering to that of ideas into
thoughts.
– Henry Sweet
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Aside: Prof. Henry Higgins
Ovid’s
Metamorphoses
Pygmalion
of Cyprus
Galatea
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The languages of the world
The 19th-c. scholar Wilhelm von Humboldt:
Three types
1. Inflectional — Latin
2. Agglutinative — Swahili, Turkish, [Tamil]
3. Isolating — Chinese
(any language with no
morphology)
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Language:
Characteristic Features
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Acquisition (Cultural transmission)
First language (L1):
a person’s ‘mother tongue’
or ‘native language’
Second language (L2):
any language learned after
one has learnt one’s
mother tongue
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Arbitrariness
No logical connection between
the sound and the meaning
Symbols or sounds: arbitrary
D-O-G?
An established system:
Follow the conventions
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Aside: The Father of Modern Linguistics
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Duality (double articulation)
Organized at two levels simultaneously
Distinct sounds: individual sounds
n, i , p
(no intrinsic meaning)
Distinct meanings: combination of sounds
nip / pin
(difference of meaning)
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Displacement
To talk about things other than the here and now
Open-endedness:
to use language to say anything at all,
(things we’ve never said or heard before)
Last night’s cricket match
The launch of a satellite next week
The spread of Covid-19 in Europe
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Reflexivity
The use of language
to think and
talk about
language itself
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Creativity (productivity)
Coming up with novel utterances
The potential number of utterances:
infinite . . .
A day of ‘dating’!
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Language:
The Origins
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1. The Divine Source
God presents humans with language.
Experiments:
the original divine language?
If human babies were allowed
to grow up without hearing
any language around them . . .
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An Egyptian pharaoh’s experiment
2,500 years ago: Psammetichus
Two newborn babies
in isolation for two years
goats and a mute shepherd
Phrygian (in Turkey) word:
bekos (bread)
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The year 1500
King James
the Fourth of Scotland:
The children: Hebrew
(the Garden of Eden)
But, in similar experiments:
the children: dumb
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The 16th Century
The Mogul emperor
Akbar the Great:
a similar experiment!
The children:
nothing at all.
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2. The Natural Sound Source
Primitive words: imitations of natural sounds
CAW-CAW, COO-COO . . .
a) The “bow-wow theory”:
Onomatopoeia —
splash, bang, boom,
rattle, buzz, hiss,
screech . . .
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b) The Pooh-pooh theory:
Natural interjections —
disgust (Pooh! Yuck!)
surprise (Oh! Wow!)
pain (Ouch!) . . .
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c) The Ding-dong theory: Max Müller
Sound symbolism: responding to
rhymical movements in
the immediate environment
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3. The Social Interaction Source
The “yo-he-ho” theory: the sounds (grunts, hums)
physical tasks communally
Rhythmical grunts Chants
Chants Speech
Apes (in social groups)!
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4. The Physical Adaptation Source
Physical features: speech production
Upright teeth —
/ f / or / v /
Flexible lips —
/ p / or / b /
Vocal cords —
/h/
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5. The Tool-Making Source
Left hemisphere of the brain:
tool-making (stone and wood tools)
manual gestures —
a precursor of language
Complex vocalization (speaking)
Object manipulation (tool-making)
— close to each other
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6. The Genetic Source
Innateness hypothesis:
Noam Chomsky
special capacity for language
(LAD)
Children born deaf:
fluent sign language users
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Other theories
The la-la theory:
(the sing-song theory)
Otto Jespersen
Need to express affection:
emotion-inspired music
and poetry
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The ta-ta theory:
Sounds that naturally
accompany physical
gestures
‘the Gesture theory’:
Advanced by: Wilhelm Wundt
Re-stated by: Richard Paget
(in Human Speech)
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Linguistics:
An Introduction
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1. Pronunciation of these words
Tyrant
Tyranny
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1. Pronunciation
of these words
Tyrant
/ˈtaɪərənt /
Tyranny
/ˈtɪrəni /
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English: a non-phonetic language
Suit — / suːt /
Suite — / swiːt /
Steal — / stiːl /
Stealth — / stelθ /
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Foot — / fʊt /
Food — / fuːd /
Grieve — / ɡriːv /
Sieve — / sɪv /
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2. A few words with this base
-wright
(a worker)
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2. A few words with this base
-wright
playwright
cheesewright
wheelwright
shipwright
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(to speak)
-loqui
a) soliloquy [n]
b) colloquial [adj.]
c) loquacious [adj.]
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Foreign roots
ventriloquist [n.]
venter
+ loqui
+ ist
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3. Grammatical error in this sentence
Hardly I go to college.
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3. Grammatical error in
this sentence
Hardly I go to college.
I hardly go to college.
Hardly do I go to college.
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I am having a car.
I have a car.
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State verbs
Temporary state: stative
I feel happy.
I think I will postpone it.
Temporary situation: dynamic
I’m not feeling well.
I’m thinking about it.
I’m having lunch / a party / a great time.
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4. The meaning of this word
Automated Teller Machine
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4. The meaning of this word
Automated
Teller Machine
Tell = count
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Fossil
மயிர்
மயிரிழையில்
by a hair’s breadth
மயிர்க்கூச்செறி
to get goosebumps
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5. The part of speech of ‘slow’
Traffic sign:
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5. The part of speech of ‘slow’
Traffic sign:
Adverb
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Everyday contexts
Temporary situation: dynamic
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Linguistics:
Definitions
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‘the scientific study
of language’
Objective approach:
Its investigation by means of
controlled and empirically
verifiable observations and with
reference to some general theory
of language-structure
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‘the systematic study
of language’
Basic questions:
What is language?
How does language work?
Linguistics is descriptive,
not prescriptive.
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Core Branches of Linguistics
1. Tyrant — Phonology
2. -wright — Morphology
3. Hardly . . . — Syntax
4. Teller — Semantics
5. Go slow — Pragmatics
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Core Branches of Linguistics
1. Speech sounds — Phonology
2. Word formation — Morphology
3. Sentence structures — Syntax
4. Meaning — Semantics
5. Language in use — Pragmatics
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The Scope
of
Linguistics
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Macro Branches
of Linguistics
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1. Applied linguistics
The practical use of linguistics:
translation, lexicography, ELT . . .
graphology
The study of handwriting.
GRAPHEMICS, GRAPHETICS.
Encyclopedia of the Written Word. A Lexicon
for Graphology and Other Aspects of Writing
([Link]/[Link] & [Link]),
New York NY, 1968.
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2. Language Acquisition
The process whereby children become
speakers of their native language
Cooing: an infant’s initial use of sounds
1st months: high vowels [iː], [uː]
4th month: velar consonants [k], [ɡ]
Babbling: consonant-vowel combinations
6th & 8th months: ba-ba-ba, ga-ga-ga
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3. Sociolinguistics
The study of the relationship between
language and society
Register:
choosing your language
to suit your audience
1. Formal register
2. Informal register
3. Jargon
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4. Neurolinguistics
The study of the relationship between language
and the human brain
The left hemisphere:
language abilities;
any damage –
language disabilities
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5. Historical Linguistics
The study of language change and language families
Philology:
The study of the changes in
a single language across time
Old English to
Middle English to
Modern English
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6. Corpus Linguistics
The compilation and analysis of corpora
Corpus: a large body of texts stored
in an electronic database
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7. Computational Linguistics
The use of computers to elucidate
linguistic problems
Speech recognition:
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8. Forensic Linguistics
The examination of
linguistic data that
forms the evidence
in the court
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9. Philosophical Linguistics
(Philosophy of Language)
The study of the relationship between language
and logical thought
The German logician Gottlob Frege: Presupposition
— an extra and assumed meaning attached to the
basic meaning of utterances
Proposition A: ‘He has stopped stealing.’
Proposition B: ‘He has been stealing.’
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10. Stylistics
The study of language and literature
Prolepsis:
So the two brothers with their murdered man
Rode past fair Florence
– Keats’s Isabella, or the Pot of Basil
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