Introduction to English Linguistics Winter Semester 2017/18
Definitions of LG •
Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols. (Sapir, 1921. An Introduction to the Study of Speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.)
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Defects: • Language communicates much more than just 'ideas, emotions, desires‘. • ‘Body language' is at times also made of voluntarily produced symbols, but it is neither verbal nor purely human.
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A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group co-operates. (Bloch & Trager, 1942, Outline of Linguistic Analysis. Baltimore: Waverly Press)
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Defects: • No appeal to the communicative function of language. • It takes a rather narrow view of the role that language plays in a society. • Restricts language to 'spoken language' thus making the phrase 'written language' contradictory.
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"From now on I will consider a language to be a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements." (Chomsky, 1957. Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton.)
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• Unlike other definitions, it is intended to cover much else besides natural language • Each natural language has a finite number of sounds and a finite number of letters in its alphabet • Although there may be indefinitely many distinct sentences in one language, each sentence can be represented as a finite sequence of these sounds (or letters)
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• Chomsky’s definition provides a contrast with the others, both in style and in content; it says nothing about the communicative function of either natural or non-natural languages; • Its purpose is to focus attention upon the purely structural properties of language and to suggest that these properties can be investigated from a mathematically precise point of view.
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LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE When you know a language, you can speak and be understood by others who know that language 1. knowledge of the SOUND SYSTEM includes more than knowing the inventory of sounds in a certain language; it includes knowing which sounds may start or end a word, and follow each other 2. knowledge of the WORD MEANINGS - knowing a language means knowing that certain sound sequences signify certain concepts of meaning, therefore knowing a language means relating sounds and meanings 3. knowledge of SENTENCES and NONSENTENCES - when you learn a language, you must learn something finite - your vocabulary is finite (however large it may be) - and that can be stored; you learn the rules for combining those words; in some languages (e.g. English) word order is of crucial importance, and so on A language then consists of all its sounds, words, phrases and possible sentences 9
Definition revisited • Human language is a complex system of mostly arbitrary (oral, but also written) signs used for communication, i.e. for expressing thoughts, emotions, impressions, instructions etc. • It is productive and economical, because an infinite number of messages can be created on the basis of the finite number of units. 10
• Unlike other animal communication systems, it is also highly creative and allows dislocation from «now» and «here». • Most language signs are arbitrary, which means that they are conventional and do not imply any natural relation with their referents – the entities they denote. • The only non-arbitrary signs are onomatopoeic words. 11
ARBITRARY SIGNS - an important characteristic of human language ONOMATOPOEIC WORDS represent an exception
• Explain the following noises THINGS make: • • • • • • • • • •
rustle bang screech sizzle jingle whistle plop splash rattle hiss
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• Explain the following noises ANIMALS make: • • • • • • • • • • •
neigh bray bark roar squeak bleat croak chirp hiss grunt hoot
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• Explain the sounds PEOPLE make: • • • • • • • • • •
moan sob mutter suck hiccup burp hum yawn snore sigh
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