Download Introducing English Linguistics

Introduction to English Linguistics
Chapter 1
A Language Like English
Objectives
1) to engage students in the study of the English
language and show them how material in the
book may challenge some of their asumptions
about the English language;
2) to provide foundational material on the nature
of language; and
3) to highlight how all living languages change
over time
Language is everywhere
• a primary means of communication.
• What do we do with language?
social link, literature, work, …..
• A comparison of language to machines
like a computer, a phone,
a. we do not understand how they
work, but we use them
b. rule-governed
Language is changing
“The Story of Aks” (p.2)
• aks --> ask
‘aks’ is bad or wrong?
linguistically same (same meaning)
• It’s I --> It’s me.
• 여름  과일
The Power of Language
• name calling: Mr. Peterson vs. Mark,
• taboo words, spells, curses, c-word, fword, n-word
• judging a person by his/her language
(cf. by appearance, demeanor ....)
• 바른말 고운말 : language influences
mind
wrong beliefs about language
1) Language is the same thing as the writing system
used to represent it.
2) necessary, inevitable connections between words
and their meanings
3) a vehicle for thought, or informative function
==> many more functions: 'phatic' (How are you?..),
performative (I promise you to marry her...),
4) Language is a finite set of sentences.
5) Language is a set of learned responses.
6) Grammar is a set of rules that we must be taught.
7) Language is a perfect instrument for
communication.
The System of Language
• “Human language is a conventional
system of signs that allows for the
creative communication of meaning.”
(p.8)
1. Conventional
2. System
3. Creativity
Conventional Sign
• arbitrary relations between signs and
meanings
iconic signs (사진, 그림...)
indexical signs
symbolic signs (언어, 교통표지...
Conventional Sign
• Ferdinand de Saussure(p.9):
a. signifier vs. signified
b. langue vs. parole
= Noam Chomsky:
linguistic competence vs.
linguistic performance
Creativity
• an infinite number of sentences from a
finite set of sounds, words, and rules
a. How long is the longest sentence in
English?
b. recursion
-The experts said that the teacher said that .......
- the house by the lake near the stream in the
woods outside the village beyond the mountain…
definitions of ‘grammar’
• grammatical: Tom loves Sue.
• ungrammatical:
*Tom loves. *Loves Sue. *Tom Sue.
• prescriptive grammar:
right vs. wrong, correct vs. incorrect
• descriptive grammar;
• Generative grammar
• broad sense vs. narrow sense
Linguistics
• a scientific study of language as a system
• formal approaches:
phonology 음운론
morphology 형태론
semantics 의미론
phonetics 음성학
syntax 문장론, 구문
• functional approaches:
pragmatics 화용론
conversational analysis
sociolinguistics 사회언어학
discourse analysis 담화분석
stylistics 문체론
psycholinguistics
applied linguistics 응용언어학 historical linguistics
Human Language vs. Animal
Communication
1. What makes human language
distinctive/unique?
a. Is language faculty unique only to
humans?
Yes. (Chomsky, Pinker ...
No. Some animals share some of it.
b. bees, chimps, dogs(border collie
Can animals ‘speak’?
• a. different speech organs: the position
of the larynx (lowered at 3 months)
b. animal communication:
simple/holistic --> no combinations
of messages for new sentences
c. Brain capacity: man 1400cc
apes 400-450cc
조음기관비교
How are human languages/animal
communications different?
• humans acquire language in speech
communities.
• -human words are unique in number;
about 50,000,
-language change: concrete meanings -->
abstract ones --> grammatical ones
-beyond ‘here and now’: displacement(the
ability to project forward & backward in
time)
• human language can be ambiguous.
tall boys and girls, She is a child.
• human language is infinitely creative.