Download Ling200 Jan. 3, 2001

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
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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
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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
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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
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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.”