Introduction to Linguistics

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Introduction to Linguistics

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What is a Language?

• Language df. A system that uses some physical
  sign (sound, gesture, mark) to express meaning.

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We are Uniquely Language-Users

• Other Animals Communicate
• Cats arch their back to scare the neighbor cat
• Bees tell each other when they have found food
• Chimpanzees can be taught to use primitive sign
  language to communicate desires.

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We are Uniquely Language-Users

• We Use Language
• We can separate our vocalization from a given
  situation (cats only arch their back in the
  appropriate situation).
• We can lie (animals only report)
• We can speculate (animals are bad at
  counterfactuals)

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4 Parts to Language/Grammar

• Grammar
• Phonology Rule pertaining to the sound system
• Morphology Rules governing word structure.
• Syntax Rules governing the structure of
  sentences
• Semantics Rules concerning meaning.

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Phonological Rules

• Language consists of a fairly small set of
  sounds (phonemes). There are about 40 in English.
  Most have no meaning in themselves rather we
  string them together to form meaningful bits and
  pieces.
• Rules - E.g., an English word can end, but not
  begin, with an -ng sound

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Morphology

• Language is Made up of Morphemes. Many are words
  (Lexicon is the dictionary of).
• Papers has 2 morphemes (paper s)
• 3 million words in English (about 200,000 words
  in common use today).

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Syntactic Rules

• Rules that enable us to combine morphemes into
  sentences (bridge between sound and meaning).
• When children put words together they are
  following syntactic rules about how morphemes are
  put together.

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Semantic

• Arbitrariness of the Sign - Sounds of words bear
  no relationship to meaning (except for
  onomatopoeia).
• In Philosophy we often distinguish between
  denotation and connotation.

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Semantics Follows Syntax

• The people talked over the noise
• Two Syntaxtical Interpretations
• 1. The people talked overthe noise -
  Over is a preposition
• 2. The people talked overthe noise
  Over is a particle

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Semantics Follows Syntax

• A single sentence can correspond to two
  propositions, each of which has a distinctive
  syntactic (and logical) structure, hence, a
  different cognitive representation.
• Evidence that meaning is assigned to syntactic
  structure, rather than to words and sentences.

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Grammar

• How do we know that one sentence is grammatical
  and the other is not?
• Amy likes Stan
• Think likes I Stan that Amy
• Cannot be that we have learned each instance
  individually. Sentences are infinite brain is
  not.

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Enter Rules

• But what are rules, and how are they represented
  in the brain?

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Questions About Rules

• How do we come to have such knowledge?
• In what form is such knowledge represented in the
  mind?
• How can children learn grammar?

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Interesting Facts About Language

• The number of sentences is infinite.
• We are able to distinguish grammatical from
  ungrammatical sentences.
• We are able to recognize truncated sentences
  (Stop it) that are missing nouns.
• We are able to recognize ambiguous sentences
  (Andrew saw the girl with binoculars)
• We can create sentences that paraphrase each
  other.

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Noam Chomsky

• Focused on the vast and unconscious set of rules
  he hypothesized must exist in the minds of
  speakers and hearers in order for them to produce
  and understand their native language.  
• 1957 Syntactic Structures
• 1965 Aspects of the Theory of Syntax

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Chomskys Views

• He abandons the idea that children produce
  languages only by imitation (abandon behaviorism)
• He rejects the idea that direct teaching and
  correcting of grammar could account for
  childrens utterances because the rules children
  were unconsciously acquiring are buried in the
  unconscious of the adults.
• He claims that there are generative rules
  (explicit algorithms that characterize the
  structures of a particular language).

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Chomskys Views

• Hypothesis The inborn linguistic capacity of
  humans is sensitive to just those rules that
  occur in human languages. Language development
  occurs if the environment provides exposure to
  language. Similar to the capacity to walk.
•  
• Universal Grammar - Despite superficial
  differences all human languages share a
  fundamental structure. This structure is a
  universal grammar. We have an innate ability to
  apply this universal grammar to whatever language
  we are faced with at birth.

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Chomskys Recent Views (1980s)

• Principles and Parameters Formulation
• Principles Govern application of the rules of
  language.  
• ParametersThere are a finite number of ways
  that the principles may apply.
• Likens grammar to a set of switches, each having
  a fixed range of potential settings. Learning the
  syntax of ones own language is a matter of
  setting those switches. Acquiring a language is a
  matter of fixing the parameters in one of the
  permissible ways.

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Support for Chomsky (1)

• That the number of grammatical sentences is
  infinite supports the idea that we have to appeal
  to grammatical rules.

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Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Rules

• Prescriptive Rules E.g., Dont split the
  infinitives. A pronoun must agree in gender and
  number with the noun to which it refers.
• Descriptive Linguistics Implicit knowledge of
  rules that are inherent in the language.
• Grammar is descriptive

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Support for Chomsky (2)

• Claim that children cant be taught grammatical
  rules because they are not explicitly known.
  Rather, they absorb these rules unconsciously, as
  their language is spoken around them.

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Example of a Phonological Rule The Plural Marker

• Ship
• Nap
• Cat
• Nut
• Park
• Wick

• Tub
• Lab
• Bud
• Lid
• Rag
• Wig

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Plural Marker

• Final consonant in first list is articulated
  without the voice, those in the second list are
  articulated with the voice.
• To make the word plural you add z (the voiced
  version) to the second-list and s (the voiceless
  version) to the first list.

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Can Apply the Rule to Fictional Cases

• Talp
• Torb
• Blorch

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Support for Innate Rules

• Competent speakers of a language dont know the
  principles that form grammatical judgments. They
  never learned these rules in school, nor were
  they taught them by their parents. Linguistic
  knowledge is unconscious or tacit.
• Data available to children underdetermine
  linguistic rules
• General learning mechanisms cannot account for
  the acquisition and form of grammars.
•  

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Language Processing in Babies

• Different Languages have different Phonological
  Distinctions.
• Japanese speakers cant distinguish R and L
• Spanish and French speakers divide B and P
  differently from English. What sounds like a b to
  a Spanish speaker will sound like a p to an
  English speaker.
• Scientists thought that babies wouldnt be able
  to hear the subtle difference between speech
  sounds.

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Language Processing in Babies

• Instead found that they did the reverse. Babies
  of one month distinguished every English sound
  contrast as well as adults. American babies could
  also distinguish sounds found in Spanish. By six
  months they were starting to lose this ability.
  By one year it was pretty much gone.

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Feral Children

• Victor (early 1800s) The wild boy of Aveyron.
  Found in the woods at about 11 or 12. He was
  probably partially mentally retarded. He never
  learned to use language.
• Genie (1970) 13 year old girl had lived whole
  life in total isolation in her home. She may or
  may not have been of normal intelligence but
  never able to acquire language.
• Isabell Found at 6 (1947). In two months she
  was combining words. Within a year she had
  similar language to other 7 year olds.