English Linguistics: Intro

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English Linguistics Intro

• Chapter One
• Jungtae Kim, Ph.D.
• 2008.3.13

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The book covers -

• Speech-language pathology
• Experimental phonetics
• Communication
• Education
• English as a second language (ESL)
• Composition
• Reading
• Anthropology
• Folklore
• Foreign language
• literature

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Linguistic theory

• A set of categories and principles devised by
  linguists in order to explain observation about
  language

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Noam Chomsky

• Generative grammar (??????)
• A theory of the psychological system of
  unconscious knowledge that underlies a speakers
  ability to produce and interpret utterances in a
  language
• Language universals Universal Grammar
• Properties that all human languages have in
  common
• LAD Language Acquisition Device
• A language acquisition device that all human
  beings have in their brains in learning languages

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Three domains in language learning

• The psychological system of language software
• The means of implementing this system (the vocal
  tract) hardware
• The product (speech) output
• See Figure 1.1 in p. 4

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Linguists methods

• Observing language change
• Observing language pathology
• Observing language universals

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Building a theory

• Observable data
• Speakers judgments of acceptability, sameness of
  meaning, reference.
• Linguist
• Makes hypotheses about internal structures of
  speakers psychological linguistic system
• Theory
• English grammar rules ? test and confirm it.

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Quiz 1

• What does the linguistics cover?
• What is the Generative Grammar and who coined
  it?
• What is UG?
• What are the three linguistic domains in language
  learning? What is the analogy between computer
  system and linguistic system?
• What are the linguists three methods?