Qassim University University

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Qassim University University
Uklat Al-Sokoor College of Sciences and Arts
Dr Hany Ibrahim Mussa
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Course Information
Course Title Introduction to linguistics
Course Number Eng 320 Credit Hours3 Title
The Study of Language Author George Yule
Textbook
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Course Schedule Course Schedule
Topics
1 The Origins of language
2 The Development of Writing
3 The Properties of language
4 Primate Use of Language
5 The Sounds of Language
6 The Sound patterns OF Language
7-8 Exam 1, What is phonology
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9 Word And Word-formation procsses
10 Morphology
11-12 Phrases and Sentences Grammar
13-14 Semantics
15 Syntax
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Topic one
The Origins of language
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The Study of Language Language is primarily a
means of communicating thoughts from one person
to another. The Origins of Language While it
is sure is that - unsurprisingly - spoken
language developed long before written language,
no-one knows for certain how language originated.
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• There are, however, lots of speculations about
  the origin of human language.
• The Divine Source
• The Natural Sounds Source
• The Oral-Gesture Source
• Physiological Adaptation
• Speech and Writing

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The Divine Source According to one view,
God created Adam and " whatsoever Adam called
every living creature .In most religions there
appears to be a divine source that provides
humans with language. In attempts to rediscover
this origin, However it seems that children with
no access to human speech simply grow up with no
language at all ,NO SPEECH NO LANGUAGE.
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The Natural Sounds Source Another speculation
on the origin of language is that the first words
were imitations of natural sounds. It is true
that there are onomatopoeic words in every
language, i.e. words that echo natural sounds,
for example CUCKOO, SPLASH, BANG ???, RATTLE
?????, BUZZ ????, etc. Another idea is that the
original sounds of language came from cries of
emotion, i.e. pain, anger and joy, for example
OUCH! One more idea is that the "yo-heave-ho
theory" places the development of human language
in a social context and states that language
originated in the need to coordinate physical
effort.
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The Oral-Gesture Source Many of our physical
gestures, using body hands and face, are means of
nonverbal communication and are used by humans
nowadays, even with their developed linguistic
skills. The "oral-gesture theory" proposes an
extremely specific connection between physical
and oral gesture involving a "specialized
pantomime of the tongue and lips" (Sir Richard
Page, 1930).
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Physiological Adaptation Some of the physical
aspects of humans that make the production of
speech possible or easier are not shared with
other creatures Human teeth are upright and
roughly even in height. Human lips have an
intricate muscle interlacing. The human mouth is
relatively small, can be opened and closed
rapidly and contains a very flexible tongue. The
human larynx ????? (or 'voice box') is special as
well as the pharynx above the vocal cords can act
as a resonator for any sounds produced. The human
brain is lateralized and has specialized
functions in each of the two hemispheres. The
functions that are analytic, such as tool-using
and language, are largely confined to the left
hemisphere of the brain for most humans. All
languages require the organizing and combining of
sounds or signs in specific constructions.
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Speech and Writing Many of the speculations on
the origin of language deal with the question of
how humans started to interact with each other.
However there are two major functions of language
use The interaction function has to do with how
humans use language to interact with each other
socially or emotionally. The transactional
function has to do with communicating knowledge,
skills and information. This transactional
function will have developed, in part, for the
transfer of knowledge from one generation to the
next. And while there are cultures that rely
mainly on their oral tradition, in many cases, as
speech by its nature is transient ????, ????, the
desire for a more permanent record must have
developed
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Topic two
The Development of Writing
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The Development of Writing In comparison to
spoken language, writing is relatively new - it
was invented for the first time by the Sumerians
of Mesopotamia in about 3200 BCE. Indians of
Mexico invented it independently around 600 BCE,
and the rise of Egyptian and Chinese systems may
have been independent s well. Writing was
certainly a great boon ???to memetic spread,
greatly increasing the fidelity????? and the
fecundity???? of the memes that took advantage of
it. These issues have already been analyzed in
Memetics and Society. In this section we will
examine writing systems and how they might have
developed
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Memetics and Society The term "meme" (IPA
mi?m, not "mem"), coined in 1976 by Richard
Dawkins, refers to a unit of cultural information
that can be transmitted from one mind to another.
Dawkins said, Examples of memes are tunes,
catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making
pots or of building arches. A meme
propagates ???? itself as a unit of cultural
evolution analogous in many ways to the gene (the
unit of genetic information). Often memes
propagate as more-or-less integrated cooperative
sets or groups, referred to as memeplexes or
meme-complexes
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Writing and Memetic Selection It is certain that
writing is a purely memetic adaptation - there
are no genes "for" writing proficiency (though
there are some that impair ????this ability).
Writing, of course, is a vast improvement upon
speech in terms of memetic fecundity and
fidelity. Writing a meme down greatly increases
its likelihood of being read by potential
adherents??????, and the very fact of being
written may encourage people to adopt certain
memes, as in the cases in which people insist
that something is true because they read it in
the paper. Writing also improves on memetic
fidelity by liberating memes from fallible????
????? human memory memes that are written down
are much less vulnerable to confusions or
elaborations in retelling, and therefore have a
much lower mutation???? ????? rate.
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Writing probably actually developed through
memetic competition, in which slightly different
systems competed and those that were most
successful were adopted. Writing probably began
as an accounting system of marks on clay???
tablets or other media. As such, it was probably
not very standardized each merchant or
accountant could in theory have his own slightly
different system of marking his tablets. Major
conventions such as direction and orientation of
markings may have been established in most
languages due primarily to historical
contingency??????, but the specifics of
structuring the marks probably came about via
memetic selection.
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Each person who used the marks used them in a
slightly different way some ways were easier to
remember, easier to write, or easier to read than
others, and so these memes got copied,
Eventually, this process produced better and
better writing systems.
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Types of Writing There are three basic forms of
writing systems logographic systems, which use
symbols to represent whole words syllabary
systems, which use symbols to represent
syllables and alphabetic systems, which use
symbols to represent units of sound. Logographic
systems are the most intuitive from the
perspective of a society on the cusp ????
??????of developing writing, and thus they tended
to be the first to arise. They also are most
logical next step from the marking system used by
merchants and accountants. (Incidentally, the
fact that Chinese is a logographic system is one
piece of evidence for its independent invention .
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Logographic systems, while being highly intuitive
at first, quickly become extremely cumbersome????
. They are difficult to learn and give relatively
few pronunciation cues?????- ????. Moreover, they
require the invention of a new syllable every
time a new word is needed, and they make compound
words and complicated syntax much more difficult
to write. Finally, the complicated pictorial
symbols must be rendered almost perfectly in
order to be legible, which makes writing a time-
and energy-consuming process.
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The second system, the syllabary, is much rarer,
since it is an intuitive system only for a few
languages. It is used in one variant of Japanese
and was developed by an extremely intelligent
Cherokee, Sequoyah, for use in writing and
recording his native language. His system, based
very loosely on English (at most he borrowed a
few forms), became so successful that the
formerly illiterate Cherokee tribe began
publishing newspapers and books in their own
language.
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The third system of writing, the alphabetic
system, is the most difficult to invent and the
easiest to use. Many linguists believe it was
invented only once, by the Phoenicians, and then
spread or adapted to other languages. The system
seems counterintuitive at first, since its most
basic units do not correspond to anything
meaningful in speech, but rather to an isolated
sound. However, the system uses the power of
infinite combination to achieve its success
whereas Chinese characters might take years to
learn, the standard Roman alphabet often takes
only a few months for children to memorize.
Moreover, when each letter represents a certain
sound, pronunciation is more easily inferred from
the structure of a word (though English
pronunciation sometimes leaves speakers
confused). Finally, markers such as umlauts serve
to increase the power of a system by more
carefully delineating the pronunciation of
certain letters.
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In general, when logographic, syllabary , and
alphabetic systems compete, the alphabetic system
will tend to dominate because it can express the
most thoughts most efficiently. Languages such as
Japanese and Chinese will probably eventually be
outcompeted because English - or another language
based on an alphabet, most likely the Roman one -
is so much easier to use. (This is not to say
that English is easy, only that the alphabetic
system is most efficient.)
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Spelling and Writing One of the pitfalls of an
alphabetic system is the proper spelling of each
word. Regional variations in pronunciation affect
how different speakers try to render their spoken
words into writing. Consequently, speakers of the
same language may find it impossible to
communicate via writing because of differences in
spelling.
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The solution to this problem, of course, is to
standardize spelling whenever possible. This is
another example of the influences of memes those
spellings that are easiest to remember are most
likely to become standard. Of course, plenty of
modern English spelling is due primarily to
now-obsolete historical facts, but these
spellings were most likely quite logical to the
English-speakers that originally standardized
spelling. Moreover, sometimes illogical or
difficult-to-remember spellings (and grammatical
rules) are retained for other memetic reasons
they may confer prestige on those who observe
them, serve as a mark of education, or indicate a
formal tone (compare through and thru).
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Early "creative spelling" in English has given
way to standardized spellings for the vast
majority of words, recorded in dictionaries and,
more recently, in computerized spell-checkers.
Though some variation in spelling remains, this
primarily reflects distinct dialects, rather than
multiple accepted spellings in a single dialect.
For example, American and British English vary
systematically in the spellings of certain words
(American color and British colour) and suffixes
(American -ize and British -ise).