A Course on Linguistics for Students of English

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A Course on Linguistics for Students of English
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The Goals for this Course

• To get a scientific view on language
• To understand some basic theories on linguistics
• To understand the applications of the linguistic
  theories, especially in the fields of language
  teaching learning (SLA or TEFL), cross-cultural
  communication
• To prepare for the future research work.

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The Requirements for this course

• Class attendance
• Classroom discussion
• Fulfillment of the assignment
• Examination

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Chapter 1. Introduction
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1. What is language?
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Language can mean

• what a person says (e.g. bad language,
  expressions)
• the way of speaking or writing (e.g.
  Shakespeares language, Luxuns language)
• a particular variety or level of speech or
  writing (e.g. language for special purpose,
  colloquial language)
• the abstract system underlying the totality of
  the speech/writing behavior of a community (e.g.
  Chinese language, first language)
• the common features of all human languages (e.g.
  He studies language)
• a tool for human communication. (social function)
  
• a set of rules. (rule-governed)

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Sapirs definition (1921)

• Language is a purely human and non-instinctive
  method of communicating ideas, emotions and
  desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.

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Halls definition (1968)

• Language is the institution whereby humans
  communicate and interact with each other by means
  of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary
  symbols.

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Chomskys definition (1957)

• From now on I will consider language to be a set
  of (finite or infinite) sentences, each finite in
  length and constructed out of a finite set of
  elements.

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Language can be generally defined as

• a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for
  human communication.

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Language is a system

• Systematic---- rule-governed, elements in it are
  arranged according to certain rules cant be
  combined at will. e.g. bkli, I apple eat.

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Language is arbitrary

• Arbitrary---- no intrinsic connection between the
  word and the thing it denotes, e.g. pen by any
  other name is the thing we use to write with.

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Language is symbolic in nature

• Symbolic---- words are associated with objects,
  actions ideas by convention. A rose by any other
  name would smell as sweet----Shakespeare

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Language is primarily vocal

• Vocal---- the primary medium is sound for all
  languages writing system came much later than
  spoken form.

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Language is human-specific

• Human-specific---- different from the
  communication systems other forms of life
  possess, e.g. bird songs, bee dance, animal cries.

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The design/defining features of human language
(Charles Hockett)

• Arbitrariness
• Productivity/Creativity
• Duality
• Displacement
• Cultural transmission

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Arbitrariness

• ----No logical (motivated or intrinsic)
  connection between sounds and meanings.
• Onomatopoeic words (which imitate natural sounds)
  are somewhat motivated ( English rumble,
  crackle, bang, . Chinese putong, shasha,
  dingdang )
• Some compound words are not entirely arbitrary,
  e.g. type-writer, shoe-maker, air-conditioner,
  photocopy

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Productivity/creativity

• ----Peculiar to human languages,users of
  language can understand and produce sentences
  they have never heard before, e.g. we can
  understand sentence like A red-eyed elephant is
  dancing on the hotel bed, though it does not
  describe a common happening in the world.
• A gibbon call system is not productive for gibbon
  draw all their calls from a fixed repertoire
  which is rapidly exhausted, making any novelty
  impossible.
• The bee dance does have a limited productivity,
  as it is used to communicate about food sources
  in any direction. But food sources are the only
  kind of messages that can be sent through the bee
  dance bees do not talk about themselves, the
  hives, or wind, let alone about people, animals,
  hopes or desires

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Duality (double articulation)

• Lower level----sounds (meaningless)
• Higher level----meaning (larger units of meaning)
• A communication system with duality is considered
  more flexible than one without it, for a far
  greater number of messages can be sent. A small
  number of sounds can be grouped and regrouped
  into a large number of units of meaning (words),
  and the units of meaning can be arranged and
  rearranged into an infinite number of sentences.
  (we make dictionary of a language, but we cannot
  make a dictionary of sentences of that language.

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Displacement

• ----Language can be used to refer to things,
  which are not present real or imagined matters
  in the past, present or future, or in far-away
  places.
• A gibbon never utters a call about something he
  ate last year
• There is something special about the bee dance
  though. Bees communicate with other bees about
  the food sources they have found when they are no
  longer in the presence of the food. In this
  sense, the bee dance has a component of
  displacement. But this component is very
  insignificant. For the bees must communicate
  about the food immediately on returning to the
  hive. They do not dance about the food they
  discovered last month nor do they speculate about
  future discoveries.

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Cultural transmission

• ----Language is culturally transmitted (through
  teaching and learning rather than by instinct).
• Animal call systems are genetically transmitted.
  All cats, gibbons and bees have systems which are
  almost identical to those of all other cats,
  gibbons and bees.
• A Chinese speaker and an English speaker are not
  mutually intelligible. This shows that language
  is culturally transmitted. That is, it is pass on
  from one generation to the next by teaching and
  learning, rather than by instinct.
• The story of a wolf child, a pig child shows that
  a human being brought up in isolation simply does
  not acquire human language.

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Functions of language

• Phatic establishing an atmosphere or maintaining
  social contact.
• Directive get the hearer to do something.
• Informative give information about facts.
• Interrogative get information from others.
• Expressive express feelings and attitudes of the
  speaker.
• Evocative create certain feelings in the hearer
  (amuse, startle, soothe, worry or please)
• Performative language is used to do things, to
  perform actions.

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The origin of language

• The divine-origin theory---- Language is a gift
  of God to mankind.
• The invention theory---- imitative, cries of
  nature, the grunts of men working together.
• The evolutionary theory---- the result of
  physical and psychological development.

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??.

• ????????????????,???????????
• ?????????????????,?????????
• ??????????,???????.

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2. What is linguistics?

• ----Linguistics is the scientific study of
  language.
• ----A person who studies linguistics is known as
  a linguist.

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Four principles of linguistic studies

• Exhaustiveness/adequacy
• Consistency
• Economy
• Objectivity

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The scope or major branches of linguistics

• Theoretical linguistics
• Phonetics
• Phonology
• Morphology
• Syntax
• Semantics
• Use of linguistics
• Applied linguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Psycholinguistics

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Theoretical linguistics

• Phonetics----speech sound (description,
  classification, transcription) articulatory
  phonetics, acoustic phonetics, auditory
  phonetics.
• Phonology----sound patterns of languages
• Morphology----the form of words
• Syntax----the rules governing the combination of
  words into sentence.
• Semantics----the meaning of language (when the
  meaning of language is conducted in the context
  of language use----Pragmatics)

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Use of linguistics

• Applied linguistics----linguistics and language
  teaching
• Sociolinguistics---- social factors (e.g. class,
  education) affect language use
• Psycholinguistics----linguistic behavior and
  psychological process
• Stylistics----linguistic and literature

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Some other applications

• Anthropological linguistics
• Neurolinguistics
• Computational linguistics (e.g. machine
  translation)

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Some important distinctions in linguistics
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Descriptive vs prescriptive

• Descriptive ---- describe/analyze linguistic
  facts observed or language people actually use
  (modern linguistic)
• Prescriptive ----lay down rules for correct
  linguistic behavior in using language
  (traditional grammar)

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Synchronic vs diachronic

• Synchronic study---- description of a language at
  some point of time (modern linguistics)
• Diachronic study---- description of a language
  through time (historical development of language
  over a period of time)

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Speech vs writing

• Speech ---- primary medium of language
• Writing ---- later developed

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Langue vs parole (F. de Saussure)

• Langue ---- the abstract linguistic system shared
  by all members of the speech community.
• Parole ---- the realization of langue in actual
  use.
• Saussure takes a sociological view of language
  and his notion of langue is a matter of social
  conventions.

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Competence and performance (Chomsky)

• Competence ---- the ideal users knowledge of the
  rules of his language
• Performance ---- the actual realization of this
  knowledge in linguistic communication
• Chomsky looks at language from a psychological
  point of view and to him competence is a property
  of the mind of each individual.

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Traditional grammar vs modern linguistics

• Traditional grammar ---- prescriptive, written,
  Latin-based framework
• Modern linguistics ----- descriptive, spoken, not
  necessarily Latin-based framework

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Chapter 2 Phonology

• Language is primarily vocal. The primary medium
  of human language is sound. Linguists are not
  interested in all sounds, but in speech
  sounds----sounds that convey meaning in human
  communication.

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Phonetics

• ----A branch of linguistics which studies the
  characteristics of speech sounds and provides
  methods for their description, classification and
  transcription, e.g. p bilabial, stop.

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Three branches of phonetics

• Articulatory phonetics----from the speakers
  point of view, how speakers produce speech
  sounds
• Auditory phonetics----from the hearers point of
  view, how sounds are perceived
• Acoustic phonetics----from the physical way or
  means by which sounds are transmitted from one to
  another.

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Articulatory phonetics
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Speech organs three important areas

• Pharyngeal cavity ---- the throat
• The oral cavity ---- the mouth
• Nasal cavity ---- the nose.

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The diagram of speech organs

1. Lips
2. Teeth
3. Teeth ridge (alveolar)
4. Hard palate
5. Soft palate (velum)
6. Uvula
7. Tip of tongue
8. Blade of tongue
9. Back of tongue
10. Vocal cords
11. Pharyngeal cavity
12. Nasal cavity

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Orthographic representation of speech sounds

• ---- A standardized and internationally accepted
  system of phonetic transcription is the
  International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The basic
  principle of the IPA is using one letter to
  represent one speech sound.
• Broad transcription ---- used in dictionary and
  textbook for general purpose, without diacritics,
  e.g. clear l , pit
• Narrow transcription ---- used by phonetician
  for careful study, with diacritics, e.g. dark l
  , aspirated p

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Some major articulatory variables

• ---- dimensions on which speech sounds may
  vary
• Voicing---- voiced voiceless
• Nasality ---- nasal non-nasal
• Aspiration ----- aspirated unaspirated

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Classification of English speech sounds

• ---- English speech sounds are generally
  classified into two large categories
• Vowels
• Consonants
• Note The essential difference between these
  two classes is that in the production of the
  former the airstream meets with no obstruction of
  any kind in the throat, the nose or the mouth,
  while in that of the latter it is somehow
  obstructed.

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Classification of consonants

• ---- English consonants may be classified
  according to two dimensions
• The manner of articulation
• The place of articulation

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The manner of articulation

• stops/plosives p, b, t, d, k, g
• fricatives f, v, s, z, W, T, F,
  V, h
• affricates tF, dV
• liquids l(lateral), r
• nasals m, n, N
• glides/semivowels w, j.

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The place of articulation

• bilabial p, b, m, w
• labiodental f , v
• dental W, T
• alveolar t, d, s, z, n, l, r
• palatal F, V, tF, dV, j
• velar k, g, N
• glottal h.

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The place of articulation

1. Bilabial
2. Labiodental
3. Dental or interdental
4. Alveolar
5. Palatoalveolar
6. Palatal
7. Velar
8. Uvular
9. Glottal.

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The description of English consonants
Place manner Voic-ing Bila- bial Labio- dental Dental Alveo-lar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stops or plosives VL p t k
Stops or plosives VD b d g
Frica-tives VL f W s F h
Frica-tives VD v T z V
Affri- cates VL (tF ) tF
Affri- cates VD (dV) dV
Nasals VD m n N
Liquids VD l, r
Glides VD w j
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Classification of vowels

• ---- English vowels can be divided into two
  large categories
• Monophthongs or pure/single vowels
• Diphthongs or gliding vowels

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Monophthongs or pure/single vowels

• ----According to which part of the tongue is held
  highest in the process of production, the vowels
  can be distinguished as
• front vowels I, I, e, Z, A, B
• central vowels E, E, Q
• back vowels u, u, C, C, B.

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According to the openness of the mouth

• Close I, I, u, u.
• Semi-close e, E
• Semi-open E, C
• Open A, B, C, B, Q

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The diagram of single vowel classification by
applying the two criteria so far mentioned
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According to the shape of the lips orthe degree
of lip rounding

• rounded u, u, C, C
• unrounded I, I, e, Z, A, B, E,
  E, Q, B.

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According to the length of the vowels

• long I, E, u, C, B
• short I, e, Z, A, E, Q, B, u,
  C.

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Diphthongs/gliding vowels

• ei, ai, aU, EU, Ri, iE, ZE, UE.

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Exercises underline the words that begin with a
sound as required.

• A bilabial consonant mad sad bad cad pad had lad
• A velar consonant nod god cod pod rod
• Labiodental consonant rat fat sat mat chat vat
  pat
• An alveolar consonant nick lick sick tick kick
  quick
• A palato-alveolar consonant sip ship tip chip
  lip zip
• A dental consonant lie buy thigh thy tie rye
• A glide one war yolk rush

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Underline the words that end with a sound as
required

• A fricative
• pay horse tough rice breath push sing wreathe
  hang cave message
• A nasal
• train bang leaf limb
• A stop
• drill pipe fit crab fog ride laugh rack
  through
• tip
• An affricate rack such ridge booze

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Underline the words that contain the sound as
required

• A central vowel
• mad lot but boot word
• A front vowel
• reed pad load fate bit bed cook
• A rounded vowel
• who he bus her hit true boss bar walk
• A back vowel
• paid reap fool top good father

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Describe the underlined consonants according to
three dimensions

• vd/vl
  place manner
• Letter
• Brother
• Sunny
• Hopper
• Itching
• Lodger
• Calling
• Singing
• Robber
• either

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Phonology

• Phonology studies the patterning of speech
  sounds, that is, the ways in which speech sounds
  form systems and patterns in human languages.

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Phonetics phonology

• Both are concerned with the same aspect of
  language----the speech sounds. But they differ in
  their approach and focus.
• Phonetics is of general nature it is interested
  in all the speech sounds used in all human
  languages it aims to answer questions like how
  they are produced, how they differ from each
  other, what phonetic features they have, how they
  can be classified, etc.
• Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a
  language form patterns and how these sounds are
  used to convey meaning in linguistic
  communication.

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Phone, phoneme, allophone
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Phone

• A phone---- a phonetic unit or segment. The
  speech sounds we hear and produce during
  linguistic communication are all phones. Phones
  do not necessarily distinguish meaning, some do,
  some dont, e.g. bIt bIt , spIt
  spIt.

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Phoneme

• A phoneme---- is a phonological unit it is a
  unit of distinctive value an abstract unit, not
  a particular sound, but it is represented by a
  certain phone in certain phonetic context, e.g.
  the phoneme /p/ can be represented differently in
  pIt, tIp and spIt.

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Allophone

• Allophones ---- the phones that can represent a
  phoneme in different phonetic environments.

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Phonemic contrast, complementary distribution and
minimal pair.
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Phonemic contrast

• Phonemic contrast----different or distinctive
  phonemes are in phonemic contrast, e.g.
• /b/ and /p/ in bIt and pIt.

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Complementary distribution

• Complementary distribution----allophones of the
  same phoneme are in complementary distribution.
  They do not distinguish meaning. They occur in
  different phonetic contexts, e.g.
• dark l clear l, aspirated p
  unaspirated p.

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Minimal pair

• Minimal pair----when two different forms are
  identical (the same) in every way except for one
  sound segment which occurs in the same place in
  the strings, the two sound combinations are said
  to form a minimal pair, e.g.
• beat, bit, bet, bat, boot, but, bait, bite,
  boat.

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Some rules of phonology

• Sequential rules
• Assimilation rule
• Deletion rule

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Sequential rules

• Sequential rules ---- the rules that govern the
  combination of sounds in a particular language,
  e.g. in English, k b i I might possibly
  form blik, klib, bilk, kilb.
• If a word begins with a l or a r, then the
  next sound must be a vowel.

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Sequential rules

• If three consonants should cluster together at
  the beginning of a word, the combination should
  obey the following three rules, e.g. spring,
  strict, square, splendid, scream.
• a)  the first phoneme must be /s/,
• b)  the second phoneme must be /p/ or /t/ or
  /k/,
• c)  the third phoneme must be /l/ or /r/ or
  /w/.
• N never occurs in initial position in
  English and standard Chinese,but it does occur in
  some dialects, e.g. in Cantonese ??,?, ??

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Assimilation rule

• Assimilation rule----assimilates one sound to
  another by copying a feature of a sequential
  phoneme, thus making the two phones similar, e.g.
  the prefix in is pronounced differently when in
  different phonetic contexts
• indiscreet alveolar In
• inconceivable velar IN
• input bilabial Im

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Assimilation in Mandarin

• ?? hao wa
• ?? hai ya
• ?? kan na
• ?? chang Na
• ?? tiao wa

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Deletion rule

• Deletion rule---- it tells us when a sound is to
  be deleted although it is orthographically
  represented, e.g. design, paradigm, there is no
  g sound but the g sound is pronounced in
  their corresponding forms signature, designation,
  paradigmatic.

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Suprasegmental features

• Suprasegmental features----the phonemic features
  that occur above the level of the segments (
  larger than phoneme)
• stress
• tone
• intonation

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Syllable (what is syllable?)

• Ancient Greek a unit of speech sound consisting
  of a vowel or a vowel with one or more than one
  consonant.
• Dictionary word or part of a word which contains
  a vowel sound or consonant acting as a vowel.
• The syllable consists of three parts the ONSET,
  the PEAK, the CODA, e.g. mAn.
• The peak is the essential part. It is usually
  formed by a vowel. But l, n and m might
  also function as peaks as in apple, hidden,
  communism.

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Stress

• Word stress
• Sentence stress

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Word stress

• The location of stress in English distinguishes
  meaning, e.g. a shift in stress in English may
  change the part of speech of a word
• verb im5port in5crease re5bel
  re5cord
• noun 5import 5increase 5rebel
  5record

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Word stress

• Similar alteration of stress also occurs between
  a compound noun and a phrase consisting of the
  same elements
• compound 5blackbird 5greenhouse
  5hotdog
• noun phrase black 5bird green 5house
  hot 5dog

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Word stress

• The meaning-distinctive role played by word
  stress is also manifested in the combinations of
  -ing forms and nouns
• modifier 5dining-room 5readingroom
  5sleepingbag
• doer sleeping 5baby swimming 5fish flying
  5plane

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Sentence stress

• Sentence stress----the relative force given to
  the components of a sentence. Generally, nouns,
  main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numerals and
  demonstrative pronouns are stressed. Other
  categories like articles, person pronouns,
  auxiliary verbs prepositions and conjunctions are
  usually not stressed.
• Note for pragmatic reason, this rule is not
  always right, e.g. we may stress any part in the
  following sentences.
• He is driving my car.
• My mother bought me a new skirt yesterday.

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Tone

• Tones are pitch variations,which are caused by
  the differing rates of vibration of the vocal
  cords.
• English is not a tone language, but Chinese is.
• ma ? (level)
• ma ? (the second rise)
• ma ? (the third rise)
• ma ? (the fourth fall)

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Intonation

• When pitch, stress and length variations are tied
  to the sentence rather than to the word, they are
  collectively known as intonation.
• English has three types of intonation that are
  most frequently used
• falling tone (matter of fact statement)
• rising tone (doubts or question)
• the fall-rise tone (implied message)
• For instance, Thats not the book he wants.

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Grammatical functions of intonations

• ----Intonation plays an important role in the
  conveyance of meaning in almost every language,
  esp. in English.
• a) It may indicate different sentence types by
  pitch direction.

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Grammatical functions of intonations

• b) It may impose different structures on the
  sentence by dividing it into different intonation
  units, e.g. John didnt come because of Marry
• Within one intonation unit, it means John
  came, but it had nothing to do with Marry.
• With two intonation units, it means Marry
  was the reason why John didnt come.
• Exercises Think of the utterance in
  different intonations
• Those who bought quickly made a profit.

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Grammatical functions of intonations

• c) It can make a certain part of a sentence
  especially prominent by placing nucleus on it,
  e.g.
• Jack came yesterday by train.

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Grammatical functions of intonations

• d) Its attitudinal functions.
• Falling tone ---- matter-of-fact statement,
• downright
  assertion, commands.
• Rising tone ----politeness, encouragement,
• pleading.
  
• Note these can only be very general
  indications. The specific attitudinal meaning of
  an intonation pattern must be interpreted within
  a context.

92
Chapter 3 Morphology

• Morphology refers to the study of the internal
  structure of words and the rules by which words
  are formed.

93
Open class word and closed class word

• Open class words----content words of a language
  to which we can regularly add new words, such as
  nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs, e.g.
  beatnik(a member of the Beat Generation), hacker,
  email, internet, ??,??? in Chinese.
• Closed class words----grammatical or functional
  words, such as conjunction, articles, preposition
  and pronouns.

94
Morpheme--the minimal unit of meaning

• ---Words are composed of morphemes. Words may
  consist of one morpheme or more morphemes, e.g.
• 1-morpheme boy, desire
• 2-morpheme boyish, desir(e)ble
• 3-morpheme boyishness, desir(e)bl(e)ity
• 4-morpheme gentlemanliness,
• undesir(e)abl(e)
  ity
• 5-morpheme ungentlemanliness
• 6-morpheme antidisestablishmentarianism

95
Affix

• Prefix ---- morphemes that occur only before
  others, e.g.
• un-, dis, anti-, ir-, etc.
• Suffix ---- morphemes that occur only after
  others, e.g.
• -ful, -er, -ish, -ness, -able, -tive, tion,
  etc.

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Free morpheme bound morpheme

• Free morpheme----is one that may constitute a
  word (free form) by itself, such as bed, tree,
  sing, dance, etc.
• Bound morpheme----is one that may appear with at
  least one other morpheme. They can not stand by
  themselves, such as -s in dogs, al in
  national, dis- in disclose, ed in
  recorded, etc.

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Allomorph

• Some morphemes have a single form in all
  contexts, such as dog, bark, cat,etc. In other
  instances, there may be some variation, that is,
  a morpheme may have alternate shapes or phonetic
  forms. They are said to be the allomorphs of the
  morpheme, the plural morpheme may be represented
  by
• map----maps s
• dog----dogs z
• watch----watches iz
• mouse----mice ai
• ox----oxen n
• tooth----teeth
• sheep----sheep
• Each of the underlined part is called an
  allomorph of plural morpheme.

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Derivational morpheme inflectional morpheme

• Derivational morphemes---- the morphemes which
  change the category, or grammatical class of
  words, e.g. modern---modernize,
  length---lengthen, fool---foolish, etc.
• Inflectional morphemes---- the morphemes which
  are for the most part purely grammatical markers,
  signifying such concepts as tense, number, case
  and so on they never change their syntactic
  category, never add any lexical meaning, e.g.
• a) number tables apples cars
• b) person, finiteness and aspect
  talk/talks/talking/talked
  
• c) case John/Johns

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Some other terms

• Root
• Stem
• Base

100
Root

• A root is that part of the word left when all the
  affixes (inflectional derivational) are
  removed, e.g. desire in desirable, care in
  carefully, nation in internationalism,
  believe in unbeliev(e)able

101
Stem

• A stem is part of a word-form which remains when
  all inflectional affixes have been removed, e.g.
  undesiralbe in undesirables

102
Base

• A base is any form to which affixes of any kind
  can be added. This means any stem and root can be
  termed as a base.

103
The difference between root, stem base

• A base can be added by both inflectional
  derivational affixes while a stem can be added
  only by inflectional affixes
• A base is derivationally analyzable (e.g.
  undesire in undesirable) while a root cannot be
  further analyzed, e.g. desire in undesirable
• Root, stem and base can be the same form, e.g.
  desire in desired
• Undesirable in undesirables is either a stem or a
  base
• Desirable in undesirable is only a base.

104
Morphological rules

• The rules that govern the formation of words,
  e.g. the un- ---- rule.
• unfair unthinkable unacceptable
• Compounding is another way to form new words,
  e.g.
• landlady rainbow undertake

105
Compounds

• Noun compounds
• daybreak (NV) playboy (VN) haircut (NV)
• callgirl (VN) windmill (NN)
• Verb compounds
• brainwash (NV) lipread (NV) babysit(NV)
• Adjective compounds
• maneating (NVing) heartfelt (NVed)
• dutyfree (Nadj.)
• Preposition compounds
• into (PP)
• throughout (PP)

106
Some points about compounds

• When the two words are in the same grammatical
  category, the compound will be in this category,
  e.g. postbox, landlady, icy-cold, blue-black
• When the two words fall into different
  categories, the class of the second or final word
  will be the grammatical category of the compound,
  e.g. head-strong, pickpocket
• Compounds have different stress patterns from the
  non-compounded word sequence, e.g. red coat,
  green house
• The meaning of a compound is not always the sum
  of the meanings of its parts.

107
Chapter 4 Syntax
108
What is syntax?

• ----a branch of linguistics that studies how
  words are combined to form sentences and the
  rules that govern the formation of sentences.

109
Transformational Generative Grammar (TG)

• Norm. Chomsky, the most influential linguist in
  20th century, some important works
• (1957) Syntactic Structure
• (1965) Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
• (1981) Lectures on Government and Binding
• (1986) Barriers
• (1993) A Minimalist Program for Linguistic
  Theory
• (1995) The Minimalist Program
• (1998) The Minimalist Inquiry

110
Criteria on good grammar

• Observational adequacy
• Descriptive adequacy
• Explanatory adequacy
• The ultimate goal for any theory is to explain.
• TG differs from traditional grammar in that it
  not only aims at language description, but also
  its explanation.

111
Chomsky is much more interested in the
similarities (language universals) between
languages rather than their differences.

• Linguists should attempt to find a grammatical
  framework which will be suitable for all
  languages
• Linguists should concentrate on the elements and
  constructions that are available to all languages
  rather than on elements that actually occur in
  all languages.
• There are likely to be universal constraints on
  the ways linguistic elements are combined
• Chomsky proposed that the grammars of all human
  languages share a common framework (Universal
  Grammar).

112
Categories

• Category refers to a group of linguistic items
  which fulfill the same or similar functions in a
  particular language such as a sentence, a noun
  phrase or a verb. The most central categories to
  the syntactic study are the word-level categories
  (traditionally, parts of speech)

113
Word-level categories

• Major lexical categories N, V, Adj, Prep.
• Minor Lexical categories Det, Deg, Qual, Auxi,
  Conj.

114
The criteria on which categories are determined

• Meaning
• Inflection
• Distribution
• Note The most reliable criterion of determining
  a words category is its distribution.

115
Phrase categories and their structures

• Phrase categories----the syntactic units that are
  built around a certain word category are called
  phrase categories, such as NP(N), VP(V), AP(A),
  PP(P).
• The structure specifier head complement
• Head---- the word around which a phrase is formed
• Specifier---- the words on the left side of the
  heads
• Complement---- the words on the right side of the
  heads

116
Phrase structure rules

• The grammatical mechanism that regulates the
  arrangement of elements that make up a phrase is
  called a phrase structure rule, such as
• NP ? (Det) N (PP)e.g. those people, the fish
  on the plate, pretty girls.
• VP ? (Qual) V (NP)e.g. always play games,
  finish assignments.
• AP ? (Deg) A (PP)very handsome, very
  pessimistic, familiar with, very close to
• PP ? (Deg) P (NP)on the shelf, in the boat,
  quite near the station.

117
The XP rule
XP
Specifier X Complement
Head

• Note The phrase structure rules can be summed
  up as XP rule shown in the diagram, in which X
  stands for N, V, A or P.

118
X Theory

• XP ? (Specifier)X
• X ? X(complement)

XP(Phrase level)
X
specifier
X(head) complement
119
Coordination rule

• Coordination structures-----the structures that
  are formed by joining two or more elements of the
  same type with the help of a conjunction such as
  and, or, etc.
• ----Coordination has four important properties
• no limit on the number of coordinated categories
  before the conjunction
• a category at any level can be coordinated
• the categories must be of the same type
• the category type of the coordinate phrase is
  identical to the category type of the elements
  being conjoined.

120
Phrase elements

• Specifier
• Head
• complement

121
Specifiers

• ---- Semantically, specifiers make more precise
  the meaning of the head syntactically, they
  typically mark a phrase boundary. Specifiers can
  be determiners as in NP, qulifiers as in VP and
  degree words as in AP.

122
Complements

• ---- Complements themselves can be a phrase, they
  provide information abut entities and locations
  whose existence is implied by the meaning of the
  head, e.g. a story about a sentimental girl
  There can be no complement, one complement, or
  more than one complement in a phrase, e.g.
  appear, break, put a sentence-like construction
  may also function as a complement such as in I
  believed that she was innocent. I doubt if she
  will come. They are keen for you to show up.
  That/if /for are complementizers, the clauses
  introduced by complementizers are complement
  clause.

123
Modifiers

• ---- Modifiers specify optionally expressible
  properties of heads.

124
Sentences (the S rule)

• S ? NP VP

S
VP
NP
NP
Det N V Det
N A boy found the
evidence
125

Sentences (the S rule)

• S ? NP infl VP
• Many linguists believe that sentences, like other
  phrases, also have their own heads. Infl is an
  abstract category inflection (dubbed Infl) as
  their heads, which indicates the sentences tense
  and agreement.

InflP(S)
NP
VP
Infl
126
Infl realized by a tense label
InflP(S)
VP
NP
NP
Det N Infl V Det
N A boy Pst found
the evidence
127
Infl realized by an auxiliary
InflP(S)
VP
NP
NP
Det N Infl V Det
N A boy will find
the evidence
128
Transformations

• Auxiliary movement (inversion)
• Do insertion
• Deep structure surface structure
• Wh-movement
• Move a and constraints on transformations

129
Auxiliary movement (inversion)

• Inversion? Move Infl to the left of the subject
  NP.
• Inversion (revised)? Move Infl to C.

CP
S
NP
C
Det N Infl V the
train will arrive
130
Auxiliary movement (inversion)
CP
S
NP
C
Infl Det N Infl
V Will the train e
arrive
131
Do insertion

• Do insertion---- Insert interrogative do into an
  empty Infl position.

CP
S
C
NP Infl VP
Birds fly
Figure-1
CP
CP
S
S
C
C
Infl NP Infl VP
NP Infl VP
Do birds e fly
Birds do fly
Figure-2
Figure-3
132
Deep structure surface structure

• Consider the following pair of sentences
• John is easy to please.
• John is eager to please.
• Structurally similar sentences might be very
  different in their meanings, for they have quite
  different deep structures.

133
Deep structure surface structure

• Consider one more sentence
  Flying planes can be dangerous.
• It can mean either that if you fly planes you are
  engaged in a dangerous activity or Planes that
  are flying are dangerous.

134
Deep structure surface structure

• Deep structure----formed by the XP rule in
  accordance with the heads sub-categorization
  properties it contains all the units and
  relationships that are necessary for interpreting
  the meaning of the sentence.
• Surface structure----corresponding to the final
  syntactic form of the sentence which results from
  appropriate transformations it is that of the
  sentence as it is pronounced or written.

135
The organization of the syntactic component
The XP rule
Subcategorization restricts choice of complements
Deep structure
transformations
Surface structure
136
Wh-movement

• Consider the derivation of the following
  sentences
• What languages can you speak?
• What can you talk about?
• These sentences may originate as
• You can speak what languages.
• You can talk about what.

137
Wh-movement

• Wh-movement---- Move a wh phrase to the beginning
  of the sentence.
• What language can you speak ?
• What can you talk about ?

138
Wh-movement

• Wh-movement---- Move a wh phrase to the specifier
  position under CP. (Revised)

CP
S
NP C Who
VP
NP Infl e Pst
V NP won the game
139
Move a and constraints on transformations

• Inversion can move an auxiliary from the Infl to
  the nearest C position, but not to a more distant
  C position.
• No element may be removed from a coordinate
  structure.

140
Chapter 5 Semantics

• Semantics----the study of language meaning.
• Meaning is central to the study of communication.
• What is meaning?---- Scholars under different
  scientific backgrounds have different
  understandings of language meaning.

141
Some views concerning the study of meaning

• Naming theory (Plato)
• The conceptualist view
• Contextualism (Bloomfield)
• Behaviorism

142
Naming theory (Plato)

• Words are names or labels for things.
• Limitations
• 1) Applicable to nouns only.
• 2) There are nouns which denote things that do
  not exist in the real world, e.g. ghost, dragon,
  unicorn, phenix
• 3) There are nouns that do not refer to
  physical objects but abstract notions, e.g. joy,
  impulse, hatred

143
The conceptualist view

• The conceptualist view holds that there is no
  direct link between a linguistic form and what it
  refers to (i.e. between language and the real
  world) rather, in the interpretation of meaning
  they are linked through the mediation of concepts
  in the mind.

144
Ogden and Richards semantic triangle
Thought/reference/concept
Symbol/form word/phrase/sentence
Referent/object in the world of experience
145
Ogden and Richards semantic triangle

• The symbol or form refers to the linguistic
  elements (words and phrases)
• The referent refers to the object in the world of
  experience
• Thought or reference refers to concept.
• The symbol or a word signifies things by virtue
  of the concept associated with the form of the
  word in the minds of the speaker and the
  concept looked at from this point of view is the
  meaning of the word.

146
The contextualism

• Meaning should be studied in terms of situation,
  use, contextelements closely linked with
  language behavior. Two types of contexts are
  recognized
• Situational context spatiotemporal situation
• Linguistic context the probability of a words
  co-occurrence or collocation.
• For example, black in black hair black
  coffee, or black sheep differs in meaning The
  president of the United States can mean either
  the president or presidency in different
  situation.

147
Behaviorism

• Behaviorists attempted to define meaning as the
  situation in which the speaker utters it and the
  response it calls forth in the hearer.
• The story of Jack and Jill
• Jill Jack
• S_________r--------s_________R

148
Lexical meaning

• Sense and reference are both concerned with the
  study of word meaning. They are two related but
  different aspects of meaning.
• Sense---- is concerned with the inherent meaning
  of the linguistic form. It is the collection of
  all the features of the linguistic form it is
  abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect
  of meaning dictionary compilers are interested
  in.
• Reference----what a linguistic form refers to in
  the real, physical world it deals with the
  relationship between the linguistic element and
  the non-linguistic world of experience.

149
Note

• Linguistic forms having the same sense may have
  different references in different situations on
  the other hand, there are also occasions, when
  linguistic forms with the same reference might
  differ in sense, e.g. the morning star and the
  evening star, rising sun in the morning and the
  sunset at dusk.

150
Major sense relations

• Synonymy
•  Antonymy
• Polysemy
• Homonymy
• Hyponymy

151
Synonymy

• Synonymy refers to the sameness or close
  similarity of meaning. Words that are close in
  meaning are called synonyms.
• 1) Dialectal synonyms---- synonyms used in
  different regional dialects, e.g. autumn - fall,
  biscuit - cracker, petrol gasoline
• 2) Stylistic synonyms----synonyms differing in
  style, e.g. kid, child, offspring start, begin,
  commence

152
Synonymy

• 3) Synonyms that differ in their emotive or
  evaluative meaning, e.g.collaborator-
  accomplice,
• 4) Collocational synonyms, e.g. accuseof,
  chargewith, rebukefor
• 5) Semantically different synonyms, e.g. amaze,
  astound,

153
Antonymy

• Gradable antonyms----there are often intermediate
  forms between the two members of a pair, e.g.
  old-young, hot-cold, tall-short,
• Complementary antonyms----the denial of one
  member of the pair implies the assertion of the
  other, e.g. alive-dead, male-female,
• Relational opposites----exhibits the reversal of
  the relationship between the two items, e.g.
  husband-wife, father-son, doctor-patient,
  buy-sell, let-rent, employer-employee,
  give-receive, above-below,

154
Gradable antonyms

• Gradable antonyms ----there are often
  intermediate forms between the two members of a
  pair, e.g. old-young, hot-cold, tall-short,

155
Complementary antonyms

• Complementary antonyms ----the denial of one
  member of the pair implies the assertion of the
  other, e.g. alive-dead, male-female,

156
Polysemy

• Polysemy----the same one word may have more than
  one meaning, e.g. table may mean
• A piece of furniture
• All the people seated at a table
• The food that is put on a table
• A thin flat piece of stone, metal wood, etc.
• Orderly arrangement of facts, figures, etc.

157
Homonymy

• Homonymy---- the phenomenon that words having
  different meanings have the same form, e.g.
  different words are identical in sound or
  spelling, or in both.
• Homophone ---- when two words are identical in
  sound, e.g. rain-reign, night/knight,
• Homogragh ---- when two words are identical in
  spelling, e.g. tear(n.)-tear(v.),
  lead(n.)-lead(v.),
• Complete homonym---- when two words are identical
  in both sound and spelling, e.g. ball, bank,
  watch, scale, fast,

158
Note

• A polysemic word is the result of the evolution
  of the primary meaning of the word (the etymology
  of the word) while complete homonyms are often
  brought into being by coincidence.

159
Hyponymy

• Hyponymy----the sense relation between a more
  general, more inclusive word and a more specific
  word.
• Superordinate the word which is more general in
  meaning.
• Hyponyms the word which is more specific in
  meaning.
• Co-hyponyms hyponyms of the same superordinate.

160
Hyponymy

• Superordinate flower
• Hyponyms rose, tulip, lily, chrysanthemum,
  peony, narcissus,
• Superordinate furniture
• Hyponyms bed, table, desk, dresser, wardrobe,
  sofa,

161
Sense relations between sentences

• (1)   X is synonymous with Y
• (2)   X is inconsistent with Y
• (3)   X entails Y
• (4)   X presupposes Y
• (5)   X is a contradiction
• (6)   X is semantically anomalous

162
X is synonymous with Y

• X He was a bachelor all his life.
• Y He never got married all his life.
• X The boy killed the cat.
• Y The cat was killed by the boy.
• If X is true, Y is true if X is false, Y is
  false.

163
X is inconsistent with Y

• X He is single.
• Y He has a wife.
• X This is my first visit to Beijing.
• Y I have been to Beijing twice.
• If X is true, Y is false if X is false, Y is
  true.

164
X entails Y

• X John married a blond heiress.
• Y John married a blond.
• X Marry has been to Beijing.
• Y Marry has been to China.
• Entailment is a relation of inclusion. If X
  entails Y, then the meaning of X is included in
  Y.
• If X is true, Y is necessarily true if X is
  false, Y may be true or false.

165
X presupposes Y

• X His bike needs repairing.
• Y He has a bike.
• Paul has given up smoking.
• Paul once smoked.
• If X is true, Y must be true If X is false, Y is
  still true.

166
X is a contradiction

• My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.
• The orphans parents are pretty well-off.

167
X is semantically anomalous

• The man is pregnant.
• The table has bad intentions.
• Sincerity shakes hands with the black apple.

168
Analysis of meaning

• Componential analysis
• Predication analysis

169
Componential analysis

• Componential analysis---- a way to analyze
  lexical meaning. The approach is based on the
  belief that the meaning of a word can be
  dissected into meaning components, called
  semantic features. For example,
• Man HUMAN, ADULT, ANIMATE, MALE
• Boy HUMAN, -ADULT, ANIMATE, MALE
• Woman HUMAN, ADULT, ANIMATE, -MALE
• Girl HUMAN, -ADULT, ANIMATE, -MALE

170
Predication analysis

• 1) The meaning of a sentence is not to be worked
  out by adding up all the meanings of its
  component words, e.g The dog bites the man is
  semantically different from The man bites the
  dog though their components are exactly the
  same.
• 2) There are two aspects to sentence meaning
  grammatical meaning and semantic meaning, e.g.
• Green clouds are sleeping furiously.
• Sincerity shook hands with the black apple.
• Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is
  governed by rules called selectional
  restrictions.

171
Predication analysis

• Predication analysis---- a way to analyze
  sentence meaning (British G. Leech).
• Predication----the abstraction of the meaning of
  a sentence. A predication consists of argument(s)
  and predicate.
• An argument is a logical participant in a
  predication, largely identical with the nominal
  elements in a sentence.
• A predicate is something said about an argument
  or it states the logical relation linking the
  arguments in a sentence.

172
Predication analysis

• According to the number of arguments contained in
  a predication, we may classify the predications
  into the following types
• One-place predication smoke, grow, rise, run,
• Two-place predication like, love, save, bite,
  beat,
• Three-place predication give, sent, promise,
  call,
• No-place predication It is hot.

173
Predication analysis

• Tom smokes. ? TOM (SMOKE)
• The tree grows well. ? TREE (GROW)
• The kids like apples. ? KIDS (LIKE) APPLE
• I sent him a letter. ? I (SEND) HIM LETTER

174
Chapter 6 Pragmatics

• ---- the study of language in use or language
  communication the study of the use of context to
  make inference about meaning.
• ---- the study of how speakers of a language use
  sentences to effect successful communication.

175
Some basic notions in Pragmatics

• Context
• Pragmatics vs. semantics
• Sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning
• Correctness vs. appropriateness

176
Context

• Context---- a basic concept in the study of
  pragmatics. It is generally considered as
  constituted knowledge shared by the speaker and
  the hearer, such as cultural background,
  situation(time, place, manner, etc.), the
  relationship between the speaker and the hearer,
  etc..

177
Pragmatics vs. semantics

• Semantics---- is the study of the literal meaning
  of a sentence (without taking context into
  consideration).
• Pragmatics---- the study of the intended meaning
  of a speaker (taking context into consideration),
  e.g.
• Today is Sunday, semantically, it means that
  today is the first day of the week
  pragmatically, you can mean a lot by saying this,
  all depending on the context and the intention of
  the speaker, say, making a suggestion or giving
  an invitation

178
Sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning

• ---- Sentence meaning
• Abstract and context-independent meaning
• literal meaning of a sentence
• having a dyadic relation as in What does X mean?
• ----utterance meaning
• concrete and context-dependent meaning
• intended meaning of a speaker
• having a triadic relation as in What did you
  mean by X?

179
For example, The bag is heavy can mean

• a bag being heavy (sentence meaning)
• an indirect, polite request, asking the hearer to
  help him carry the bag
• the speaker is declining someones request for
  help.
• Note The meaning of an utterance is based on the
  sentence meaning it is the realization of the
  abstract meaning of a sentence in a real
  situation of communication, or simply in a
  context utterance meaning is richer than
  sentence meaning it is identical with the
  purpose for which the speaker utters the sentence.

180
Correctness vs. appropriateness

• John play golf---- grammatically incorrect
• ?Golf played John ---- logically incorrect but
  it might be appropriate pragmatically in certain
  context.

• Note Pragmatics can make sense out of nonsense,
  given a suitable context. Appropriateness is very
  important in linguistic communication, especially
  in cross-cultural communication. If you say
  something grammatically incorrect, you are at
  worse condemned as speaking badly, but, if you
  say something inappropriately, you will be judged
  as behaving badly, such as insincere,
  untruthful, or deceitful. (Thomas, 1983)

181
Speech act theory

• Speech acts is a term derived from the work of
  the philosopher J. L. Austin (1962) and now used
  to refer to a theory which analyzes the role of
  utterances in relation to the behavior of the
  speaker and the hearer in interpersonal
  communication. It aims to answer the question
  What do we do when using language?

182
Two types of utterances

• Constatives (???) ---- statements that either
  state or describe, and are thus verifiable
• Performatives (???) ---- sentences that do not
  state a fact or describe a state, and are not
  verifiable.
• Note Sometimes they are easy to get confused,
  e.g.It is raining outside can be a constative,
  and also a performative, for by uttering such a
  sentence, we may not only state a fact, but
  involve in the act of informing someone about the
  rain.

183
Some Examples of Performatives

• I do
• I name this ship Elizabeth.
• I give and bequeath my watch to my brother.
• I bet you sixpence it will rain tomorrow.
• I declare the meeting open.

184
Austins new model of speech acts

• ----According to Austins new model, a speaker
  might be performing three acts simultaneously
  when speaking locutionary act, illocutionary act
  and perlocutionary act.
• The locutionary act----an act of saying
  something, i.e. an act of making a meaningful
  utterance (literal meaning of an utterance)
• The illocutionary act----an act performed in
  saying something in saying X, I was doing Y (the
  intention of the speaker while speaking).
• The perlocutionary act----an act performed as a
  result of saying something by saying X and doing
  Y, I did Z.

185
For example,It is cold in here.

• Its locutionary act is the saying of it with its
  literal meaning the weather is clod in here
• Its illocutionary act can be a request of the
  hear to shut the window
• Its perlocutionary act can be the hearers
  shutting the window or his refusal to comply with
  the request.
• ----Analyze one more example You have left the
  door wide open.
• Note Of the three acts, what speech act theory
  is most concerned with is the illocutionary act.
  It attempts to account for the ways by which
  speakers can mean more than what they say.

186

• Analyze the illocutionary acts of the following
  conversation between a couple
• ----(the telephone rings)
• ----H That the phone. (1)
• ----W Im in the bathroom. (2)
• ----H Okay. (3)
• This seemingly incoherent conversation goes on
  successfully because the speakers understand each
  others illocutionary acts
• (1)   Making a request of his wife to go and
  answer the phone.
• (2)   A refusal to comply with the request
  issuing a request of her husband to answer the
  phone instead.
• (3) Accepting the wifes refusal and accepting
  her request, meaning all right, Ill answer it.

187
Searles classification of speech acts (1969)

• Assertives/representatives(??)
• Directives(??)
• Commissives(??)
• Expressives(??)
• Declarations(??)

188
Assertives/representatives

• ---- Stating or describing, saying what the
  speaker believes to be true, e.g.
• I think the film is moving.
• Im certain I have never seen t