Video Lecture Language: “a finite system of elements and principles that make it possible for speakers to construct sentences to do particular communicative jobs” Reading Grammatical Competence: “the part of the [language] system that allows speakers to produce and interpret grammatical sentences” - includes the knowledge of which speech sounds are part of a given language and how they may or may not be strung together - knowing the meanings signified by different sound sequences in a language and how to combine those units of meaning into words, phrases, and sentences - Communicative Competence: “the knowledge included in grammatical competence plus the ability to use that knowledge to accomplish a wide range of communicative jobs” Lexicon: “the respiratory of linguistic elements with their meanings and structural properties” Discourse: organization of a language adobe and beyond the sentence - another important subsystem of language recognized by most linguists - each module of language deals with the characterization, distribution, and coordination of some discrete linguistic unit (phonemes, morphemes, words, phrases, sentences, utterances) Discreteness: “divides the continuous space of sound or meaning into discrete units” Constituents: “groups of linguistic units which allow more complex units to enter structures where simpler ones are also possible” Recursion: “a property of systems which allows a process to be applied repeatedly” - the recursive property of language means that by learning a language we are capable of producing and understanding an infinite number of sentences (this is called productivity) - productivity is also demonstrated by neologisms (newly coined words) which occur all throughout history and society” - productivity derives from the fact they are organized around a finite set of principles which systematically constrain the ways in which sounds, morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences may be combined Slang: “spontaneously coined words that aren’t used often enough to make it into the dictionary” - these words are still used and some end up in newer dictionaries - coining new words is one productive process by which languages change to meet the changing communicative needs of their speakers - the english language has 36 different sounds, 26 letters - not every sound is the same as those needed to speak different languages - adjectives go before nouns in english (vice versa for french) Arbitrariness: “the sounds that one language uses and the principles by which they are combined are inherently no better or worse than those of any other language” - “a property of sign languages as well as spoken languages” - the principles of one language variety (or dialect) for arranging words are inherently no better or worse than those of another Negative Concord: “two words that express negation” (ex: I didn’t see nobody) - used in the standard variety in other languages such as Italian (“Giulia non ha visto nessuno” translates to “Giulia not has seen no one.”) Duality: “association between sound sequences and meanings or in the order of words in phrases” - ex: figuring out which word is being used when two different words are used (one vs. won) - reliance on context is a crucial property of languages Homework Ideas 1. taking the time to review the grammar rules with the entire class – might seem dumb, but it allows the student learning english or needing a reminder of some of the rules will help the student feel less singled out. this also allows the student to practice these new skills with their classmates and get a better idea of it.
