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Survey of Linguistic Method and Theory Ling 400 Instructor • Instructor: Prof. Toshiyuki Ogihara Today’s Plan • The course – Objectives and format • Sub-disciplines of Linguistics – Each sub-discipline and some examples • Competence vs. Performance – Linguistics aims to characterize the competence of native speakers (of a particular language) • Prescriptive / descriptive grammar – Linguists are interested in description, not prescription Word of the day Course Objectives • Methods for describing human languages at various levels • Examples of the diversity of world languages • Core areas: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics • Interdisciplinary areas: language acquisition, language variation Resources • Language Files 11th Edition, The Ohio State University Press (available from the University Bookstore). Evaluation • Grading: • quizzes (only six of the seven quizzes will count) 20% • homework assignments (only six of the seven assignments will count) 20% • midterm 25% • final exam 35% Linguistics Knowledge • • • • • • Phonetics Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics Phonetics • The study of speech sounds – How various sounds are made (articulatory phonetics) – How to describe them using IPA (The International Phonetic Alphabet) Examples (Phonetics) • sign • cider • the same sound — should be transcribed (i.e. represented in writing) in the same way Phonology • • • • The sound system of a language Includes the inventory of sounds The features of those sounds The rules for combining the sounds Examples (Phonology) • pin • spin – The two “p sounds” are not really the same sounds. – [p] with an extra puff of air occurs at the beginning of a word (roughly) – [p] without a puff of air occurs elsewhere – So their occurrences in English are rulegoverned. Morphology • • • • The study of the structure of words morph = ‘form’ (Greek) The smallest units of meaning Many words consist of smaller meaningful units Examples (Morphology) • Word formation quick+ly • Grammatical markers dog+s, turn+ed Syntax • The study of how words form sentences • Grammatical categories • Rules for sentence and phrase formation • Directionality of combination • Constraints on combinations Examples (Syntax) • John loves Mary. (grammatical) • Loves John Mary. (ungrammatical) • John Mary loves. (ungrammatical) – (A very rough first approximation) A string of words consisting of a name a verb and another name(in this order) is grammatical. Semantics • The study of meaning • Meaning of individual words and of their relations with one another. • The relation between syntax and semantics – How to talk about sentence meanings – Truth conditions, logical consequences Examples (Semantics) • John must smoke and John has to smoke mean the same thing (for all practical purposes). • John must not smoke means “John is obligated NOT to smoke.” • John does not have to smoke means “John is NOT obligated to smoke.” Pragmatics • The study of language use – Non-literal meanings – How to do things with words Examples (Pragmatics) • Can you teach phonology classes? – Yes, I can even teach graduate seminars. – Go ahead and give a lecture on phonology. • Can you pass the salt? – Yes, I can. In fact, I can even pass the pepper. (and do nothing) – …. (say nothing and just pass the salt) Word of the day Competence • (Unconscious) knowledge of language – Linguists are interested in describing this “internalized grammar” that any native speaker of a particular language has • • • • Mental grammar Accounts for creativity Not always equal to performance Performance behavior may be flawed Performance • You have hissed my mystery lecture — you have tasted the whole worm. – Slips of the tongue (Spoonerism) • You have missed my history lecture — you have wasted the whole term. Creativity of language • Part of speaker’s competence • Use of finite linguistic means (words, rules) • Enables us to create/understand an infinite number novel phrases or sentences Descriptive grammar • Linguistics aims for description and not prescription • There are no good or bad languages • There are no “advanced” or “primitive” languages • No correct or incorrect dialects • Linguistics is non-judgmental about linguistic differences Prescription • “The widespread acceptance of informal dialogue on the Internet is creating a generation of Americans fluent in unrefined, inexpressive and immature English. Much as certain dialects of English have helped create sub-classes of second class citizens, frequent Internet users are becoming easier to pick out every day.”