Intro.pps/pdf

1
Intro.pps/pdf
2
Language properties

• Parity
• Universality
• Mutability
• Tacitness
• Displacement
• Duality
• Productivity (creativity)

3
Parity
All languages are equal.
4
Universality

• All grammars share some basic properties.
• Words
• Nouns
• Verbs
• Sentences
• Assertions
• Questions
• Semantic roles
• Agents
• Patients
• Locations

5
Mutability
Languages change. ? cool ? neat ? groovy ?
far-out ? radical ? cool ?
6
Tacitness
A great deal of grammatical knowledge is tacit
knowledge. p vs ph vs p
7
Charles Hocketts Design Features

• There is...a sense in which productivity,
  displacement, and duality...can be regarded as
  the crucial, or nuclear, or central properties of
  human language.

8
Displacement

• Messages can refer to things remote in time and
  space, or both, from the site of the
  communication.

9
Duality of patterning

• At every level elements and combinatorics
• Sounds combine into syllables and morphemes
• Morphemes combine into words
• Words combine into phrases and sentences
• Sentences combine into turns or paragraphs
• Turns combine into conversations
• Paragraphs combine into texts

10
Elements combinatorics
Language
11
Language properties

• Parity
• Universality
• Mutability
• Tacitness
• Displacement
• Duality
• Productivity (creativity)

12
Signs

• Meaning conveyances
• Symbolic
• Iconic
• Indexical

13
Signs

• Meaning conveyances
• Symbolic
• Iconic
• Indexical

14
Signs

• Meaning conveyances
• Symbolic
• Iconic
• Indexical

15
Signs

• Meaning conveyances
• Symbolic
• Iconic
• Indexical

16
MutabilityHistorical linguistics

• Changes
• Linguistic study
• Reconstruction
• Language families
• Origins

17
History of English

• greaser far out
• dude outasite
• keen rilly

You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
18
History of English
Aetalects!

• greaser far out
• dude outasite
• keen rilly

You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
19
History of English

• night cough
• knight name
• knee mayhaps

20
Early modern English

• I am no orator, as Brutus is
• But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,
• That love my friend and that they know full well
• That gave me public leave to speak of him
• For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
• Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
• To stir men's blood
• Julius Caesar, c1599

You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
21
Middle English (London)

• Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
• The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
• And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
• Of which vertu engendred is the flour
• ...
• Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
• The Canterbury Tales, c1380

You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
22
Middle English (Northumberland)

• Sien e sege and e assaut watz sesed at Troye,
• e bor brittened and brent to bronde and askez,
• e tulk at e trammes of tresoun er wrot
• Watz tried for his tricherie, e trewest on erthe
• The Green Knight, c1380

You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
23
Middle English (Northumberland)
Regiolects!

• Sien e sege and e assaut watz sesed at Troye,
• e bor brittened and brent to bronde and askez,
• e tulk at e trammes of tresoun er wrot
• Watz tried for his tricherie, e trewest on erthe
• The Green Knight, c1380

You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
24
Middle English (Northumberland)
Regiolects!

• Sien e sege and e assaut watz sesed at Troye,
• e bor brittened and brent to bronde and askez,
• e tulk at e trammes of tresoun er wrot
• Watz tried for his tricherie, e trewest on erthe
• The Green Knight, c1380

Sociolects!
You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
25
Middle English (Northumberland)
Regiolects!

• Sien e sege and e assaut watz sesed at Troye,
• e bor brittened and brent to bronde and askez,
• e tulk at e trammes of tresoun er wrot
• Watz tried for his tricherie, e trewest on erthe
• The Green Knight, c1380

Sociolects!
Ethnolects!
You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
26
Language variation
Idiolects!
27
Language variation
Hey, who you callin an idiolect, dorkosaurus?
28
Language variation
Different persons growing up in the same language
are like different bushes trimmed and trained to
take the shape of identical elephants. The
anatomical details of twigs and branches will
fulfill the elephantine form differently from
bush to bush, but the overall outward results are
alike.
29
Language variation
Different persons growing up in the same language
are like different bushes trimmed and trained to
take the shape of identical elephants. The
anatomical details of twigs and branches will
fulfill the elephantine form differently from
bush to bush, but the overall outward results are
alike.
W.V.O. Quine
30
Old English (aka Anglo-Saxon)

• Nu sculon herigean heofonrices weard,
• meotodes meahte, and his modgeanc,
• weorc wuldorfæder, swa he wundra gehwæs,
• ece drihten, or onstealde.
• Caedmons hymn, c670

You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
31
1066
32
1066

• Substratum (under-level)
• Germanic (Angles, Saxons etc.)king, law, deer,
  cow, cock, piss,
• Superstratum (over-level)
• Latinate (Norman French)monarch, justice,
  venison, beef, penis, urinate,

33
1066

• Substratum (under-level)
• Germanic (Angles, Saxons etc.)king, law, deer,
  cow, cock, piss,
• Superstratum (over-level)
• Latinate (Norman French)monarch, justice,
  venison, beef, penis, urinate,

34
MutabilityLanguage change

• Internal
• (isolation, fashion, prestige, )
• External
• (trade, war, imperialism, )

35
MutabilityLanguage change

• Internal
• (isolation, fashion, prestige, )
• External
• (trade, war, imperialism, )

Phonological Morphological Lexical Syntactic Seman
tic
36
What changes

• Modern English
• dog

Middle English hound
37
What changes radial networks
38
Radial networks

• A network with a defining centre (usually called
  the prototype of the network)

39
Changes in a semantic radial networkhyponym /
hypernym shifts

• Modern English
• dog
• poodle hound spaniel
• Toy, French, Grey, Blood, Springer,
  Cocker,

Middle English hound dog poodle
spaniel Mastiff, Basset, Toy,
French, Springer, Cocker,
40
hyponym and hypernym
Middle English hound dog poodle
spaniel Mastiff, Basset, Toy,
French, Springer, Cocker,
hypernym
hypernym
hyponym
hyponym
41
hyponym and hypernym

• Modern English
• dog
• poodle hound spaniel
• Toy, French, Grey, Blood, Springer,
  Cocker,

hypernym
hypernym
hyponym
hyponym
42
Changes in a semantic radial networkhyponym /
hypernym shifts

• Modern English
• dog
• poodle hound spaniel
• Toy, French, Grey, Blood, Springer,
  Cocker,

Middle English hound dog poodle
spaniel Mastiff, Basset, Toy,
French, Springer, Cocker,
43
Changes in a semantic radial networkhyponym /
hypernym shifts

• Modern English
• dog
• poodle hound spaniel
• Toy, French, Grey, Blood, Springer,
  Cocker,

Middle English hound dog poodle
spaniel Mastiff, Basset, Toy,
French, Springer, Cocker,
44
Changes in a semantic radial networkhyponym /
hypernym shifts

• Modern English
• dog
• poodle hound spaniel
  
• Toy, French, Grey, Blood, Springer,
  Cocker,

Middle English hound dog poodle
spaniel Mastiff, Basset, Toy,
French, Springer, Cocker,
45
Shrinkage of a semantic radial networkpolysemy
gt monosemy

• Mete
• 1. a. Any comestible.
• b. Solid comestibles.
• 2. Edible portions of fruits, nuts, eggs, .
• 3. Animal flesh for food.
• 4. A meal.

Meat
46
Shrinkage of a semantic radial networkpolysemy
gt monosemy
many-meaning gt single-meaning

• Mete
• 1. a. Any comestible.
• b. Solid comestibles.
• 2. Edible portions of fruits, nuts, eggs, .
• 3. Animal flesh for food.
• 4. A meal.

Meat
47
MutabilitySubtotal

• History of English
• Periods
• Events
• Pressures to change
• Internal/external
• Aeta-, regio-, socio-, ethno-lects
• Objects of change
• Individual elements
• Radial networks

48
Origins and varieties of languages

• Objects of change
• Individual elements
• Radial networks
• Language families
• Indo-European
• Pre-Indo-European
• Origins
• Lexical theories
• Language theories
• Writing systems
• Concept-to-sound migration

49
Philology

• Looking at texts for noteworthy
  signifier/signified linkages
• Contrast and compare

50
PhilologyLanguage families

• English
• father
• mother
• brother
• sister
• king
• milk
• meat

• German
• Vater
• Mutter
• Bruder
• Schwester
• König
• Milch
• Fleisch

51
Language families
You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
52
Grimms law
Proto-Germanic
You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
53
Grimms law
hypothetical, reconstructed language
Proto-Germanic
You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
54
Grimms law
Germanic family
You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
55
Language families
Germanic
Indic
Italic
Families
Philo-logical evidence
You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
56
Proto-Indo-European (PIE)
Germanic
Indic
Italic
Families
Philo-logical evidence
You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
57
Indo-European
Families
Germanic
Indic
Italic
Philo-logical evidence
You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
58
Indo-European family
59
Indo-European family
60
Bow-wow theory

• Language arose from onomatopoeia
• Making noises to represent elements in the
  environment animals, rain, expulsive gas,

You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
61
Pooh-pooh theory(AKA the ouch theory)

• Language arose from spontaneous emotional noises
• Sighs, moans, cries, ejections of surprise, fear,
  delight,

You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
62
Yo-he-ho theory

• Language arose in muscular and rhythmic efforts
  accompanying group work
• Gathering, distributing, distance-pursuit of
  prey,

You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
63
Bow-wow-pooh-pooh-yo-he-ho theories

• Lexical theories
• Index-to-icon-to-symbol theories
• Not mutually exclusive
• (Only Yo-he-ho includes rhythm, sequence,
  structure)

64
Bow-wow-pooh-pooh-yo-he-ho theories

• Onomasiological migration theories
• Index-to-icon-to-symbol

65
Neuron-packing theory

• Neural-density, big-bang theory
• Non-lexical
• Non-social

66
Throwing madonna theory

• Nursing (left-side)
• Motor/linguistic sequencing
• Structural
• Non-lexical
• Piggy-backing theory

You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
67
Yadda-yadda-yadda theory

• Language is verbal grooming
• human tribes too big, social bonds too intricate,
  to manage them physically
• Social theory, non-lexical

You are here
Homo Heidelbergensis 1
68
Historical linguistics

• Languages change over time
• external (war, imperialism, trade, )
• internal (fashion, prestige, isolation, )
• Categorical changes
• radial networks (phonological, lexical, )
• Genealogical relationships
• language families
• reconstructed proto-languages
• Language origins
• lots of guesses, no clear solutions
• Lexical and non-lexical variants