Introduction to English
Linguistics I.
LECTURE I
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
”Human kind cannot bear
very much reality”
T. S. Eliot
(1888 - 1965)
American-born British
playwright and poet
Kinship terminology
English
Hungarian
Swedish
son/daughter
fiú/lány
son/dotter
brother/sister
öcs-báty/húg-nővér
bror/syster
children/grandchildren
gyerek/unoka
barn/barnbarn
sibling (*)
testvér
syskon
father/mother
apa/anya
far/mor
parents
szülők
föräldrar
grandfather/grandmother
nagyapa/nagyanya
farfar-morfar/mormor-farmor
grandparents
nagyszülők
<far- och morföräldrar>
Kinship terminology
◦Organization of reality is (slightly) different in each
language
◦Lexicalized conceptual distinctions
Categorize the world through language
expressed by
one givenLanguage
word
(not a phrase)
in the mind
is culturally transmitted
sister – brother
dédanya – dédapa
morbror – farbror
Kinship terminology
◦Organization of reality is (slightly) different in each
language
◦Lexicalized conceptual distinctions
◦Categorize the world through language
◦Language is culturally transmitted
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
◦ Language determines the way you see the world
→ LINGUISTIC DETERMINISM (strong version)
Edward
Sapir
Benjamin
L. Whorf
(1884 - 1939)
(1897 - 1941)
American
linguist &
anthropologist
American linguist,
Sapir’s student
◦ Language influences the way you see the world
→ LINGUISTIC RELATIVISM (weak version)
◦ We can manipulate our language to express
anything (cf. meaning change, neologisms,
borrowing)
◦ Language would always remain the same
Where does language come from?
◦Divine origin?
◦ ”whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
name thereof”
◦ Most religions attribute language to a divine source
◦ Original, god-given language
Where does language come from?
◦Natural sounds?
◦ Early humans imitated the natural sounds around them
◦ Imitate sound → use it to refer to the source of the sound
◦ Onomatopoeic words
◦ How to refer to things that don’t make a sound?
Where does language come from?
◦Social interaction?
◦ Sounds (grunts, yells, etc.) used for coordinating work
◦ Interact with others to work
◦ Early humans lived in communities
◦ Other primates also live in social groups (but no language!)
Where does language come from?
◦ Tool-making?
◦ Organs involved in speaking have been ”recycled” for speech
◦ Opposable thumbs, right-handedness, ability to make stone tools
◦ Motor movements involved in speaking and manipulation are close
◦ Organization and combinability of movements is key
Where does language come from?
◦Physical adaptation?
Where does language come from?
◦Genes?
◦ Babies are born with a higher larynx – descends later
◦ Automatic development → special capacity to use language?
◦ Is language a genetic endowment? → Innateness hypothesis
◦ Is there a language gene?
Where does language come from?
DIVINE ORIGIN
NATURAL SOUNDS
SOCIAL INTERACTION
TOOL-MAKING
PHYSICAL ADAPTATION
GENES
Universal features of human language
I saw her yesterday.
I’m going to Spain next year.
Neil Armstrong was the first man on the Moon.
Universal features of human language
I saw her yesterday.
I’m going to Spain next year.
Neil Armstrong was the first man on the Moon.
DISPLACEMENT
ability to refer to entities distant in space and/or in time
Universal features of human language
I saw her yesterday.
I saw her yesterday in the park.
I saw her yesterday in the park with some friends .
INFINITY / PRODUCTIVITY / OPEN-ENDEDNESS
speakers can create an infinite number of expressions
Universal features of human language
SOUND INVENTORY: /p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, /g /, /i/…
Closed set (universally and for each language)
Meaningless in isolation
LEXICON: pit, pig, big, bit, tip, dig, bid, kit, gig, pity, pitted…
Infinite* (universally and for each language)
Meaningful
DUALITY OF PATTERNING
speakers can create an infinite* number of words
(*theoretically)
Universal features of human language
’tree’ /tri:/
ARBITRARINESS
relation between form and meaning is based on convention
Universal features of human language
’tree’ /tri:/
SEMANTICITY
ability to attribute meaning to signs
Course in General Linguistics (1916)
SIGN
arbitrary
relation
Ferdinand de
Saussure
signified
signifier
(1857 - 1913)
Swiss linguist, father of
structuralist linguistics and
semiotics
Structure of the linguistic sign
Course in General Linguistics (1916)
SIGN
arbitrary
relation
Ferdinand de
Saussure
/tri:/
(1857 - 1913)
Swiss linguist, father of
structuralist linguistics and
semiotics
Structure of the linguistic sign
Language as a sign system
’tree’
index
contiguity
icon
similarity
symbol
convention
Language as a sign system
◦The linguistic sign is arbitrary (i.e. based on convention)
◦Exception: onomatopoeia (iconic words)
◦Language is symbol manipulation
Charles F.
Hockett
(1916 – 2000)
American linguist and
anthropologist
13 (later 16) design feautres of
language (1960/1968)
What is language?
CULTURE
IDENTITY
A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
A SIGN SYSTEM
UNIQUELY HUMAN