Linguistics
Language Department
By Nasrin Abdi
2012
“ study of the language by George Yule”
Animals and human language:
Animals
communicate with their own species.
Is it possible that they could communicate with humans using language?
For answering this
we study properties of human language.
Properties of human language:
study of language
Chimpanzees and Languages :
Gua:
- in 1930s : Two scientists raise an infant chimpanzee with their son.
-
They reported : Gua could understand about 100 words
Viki:
- in 1940s : Another couple tried to raise a chimpanzee for 5 years to get Viki to produce some
words like : mama - papa - cup
Washoe:
- Her trainer brought her like a human child.
-
She got trained for three and a half years
-
Wahsoe used sign language . she could combine these signs and make them into sentences
-
At the same time of Washoe’s learning sign language another chimpanzee was trained
-
She was taught to use a set of plastic shapes : rearrange them and make sentences
-
She could understand complex structures and got rewards
-
A similar training techniques : another artificial language : Yerkish language
-
Yerkish was a set of symbols on a large keyboard liked to a computer
-
Lana had to press the keys and communicate
English
Sarah and Lana:
Sarah:
Lana:
A psychologist ( Herbert Terrace) worked with another chimpanzee (Nim) .
-
Terrace argued “ chimpanzees simply produce signs in response to the demands of people and repeat signs
without understanding them.”
-
He said” it is a type of conditional response to get rewards”
Washoe’s trainers ( Gardners) argued that:
Kanzi:
-
They raised washoe like their own child and prepared her any kinds of facilities available.
-
They also reported that the other group of younger chimpanzees not only learned sign language but used it
with each other
-
Another chimpanzee called Kanzi which worked with Yerkish symbols
-
Kanzi could develop a large symbol vocabulary : 250 forms
-
By the age of 8 :
he was able to understand English language at a level comparable to
a two-and-a-half-year-old child
Although Washoe and kanzi used a symbol of system chosen by humans but it is not comparable to a
human child of the same age.
The development of writing system:
study of language
1- Writing is very important but many languages today are used in spoken form( no written form is used)
2- The first phenomenon of writing
dates back to cave drawings ( at least 20,000 years ago) and clay tokens
( about 10,000 years ago)
3- The earliest writing
cuneiforms ( on clay tablets
In Egyptian hieroglyphics:
House:
In Chinese:
River:
water:
about 5,000 years ago)
Rebus writing:
-using symbols : to show the sounds of language
- the symbol for one entity : as the symbol for the sound form of that entity
- e.g.: four/4
for
This house is 4 sale.
Cross-eyed:
Syllabic writing:
 Syllable: one vowel sound with one or more consonants : /ba/
 If a writing system uses a set of symbols, each symbol represents a syllable (syllabic writing)
 No pure syllabic writing exists: but Japanese language (partially is syllabic)
 Phoenicians (lived in modern Lebanon, 3000 and 4000 years ago) : fully used a syllabic writing
Alphabetic writing:
-
You use a set of written symbols : each represents a sound (in Semitic Language)
1- Arabic , Indian, Hebrew and Persian languages ( a consonantal alphabet language writing)
2-
Western language system : English and French
3- Cyrillic writing: Russian or Hungarian
The reason of mismatching between the forms of written English ( You know) and the sounds of spoken English
(yu no):
Spelling of written English: fixed and was used by inventing printing in 15 century : Early printers were French,
Latin and Dutch speakers

Since 15 century: the English spoken form has been changed : knight : night(pronunciation changed but
spelling did not change)

Noah Webster's suggestion was not generally accepted :

honor:onor - give:giv -
laugh:laf
Phrases and sentences: grammar
study of language
Grammar: the process of describing the structure of phrases and sentences in language, paying attention to the
sequences of elements in a structure. If this order is not correct the structure is ungrammatical.
English language has strict rules to make words into phrases. We can not accept any kinds of combination in a
phrase:
e.g.:
incorrect/ ungrammatical form:
* boys the lucky
* lucky boys the
Correct/ grammatical form:
the lucky boy
Studying grammar has a very long tradition:
1- Traditional grammar:
 This grammar was based on the grammar of Latin and Greek languages
 These languages were called model languages: grammarians tried to adopt the rules of these two
languages for new languages like English.
 Only well-formed sentences and structures and rules in these two languages were studied.
 It was prescriptive ( you must do this – you must not do that):
-
The structures like : "Who did you go with? "
should be changed to
" Mary runs faster than me."
" me and my family….."
: "With who did you go with?"
should be changed to
should be changed to
:
:"Mary runs faster than I."
" my family and I…"
 These two languages were the languages of scholarship, religion, philosophy and knowledge.
 Traditional grammar tried to focus on the parts of speech of the words: nouns, adjectives, adverbs,
articles, verbs, prepositions, pronouns , conjunctions
 This type of grammar used a series of categories:
 Agreement:
- number (singular & plural):
- person (first person & third person),
- tense( past& present& future),
- voice( passive & active),
- gender
 Gender:
-
( natural/ biological gender : it is based on sex: [male &female])
&
-
( grammatical gender : it is not based on sex: [ masculine & feminine: in some languages
like Spanish: el sol( the sun) & la luna (the moon)
2- The structural approach/ Structuralism:
 In this view instead of adopting Latin and Greek languages , the grammarians tried to describe the wellformed structures of these two languages. Description of Latin is a useful guide for some languages like
Spanish or Italian
 Forms are described not meanings
 Immediate constituent analysis:
o this approach shows how small constituents/elements in a sentence are combined together to form
larger constituents ( how words go together to form phrases)
My father brought me to the party.
The woman kept a large snake in a cage.
They opened the cage carefully.
Based on this approach : In the above sentences some constituents belong to the same category:
My
father
brought
The
woman
kept
They
me
a
opened
large
the
snake
cage
to
the
party
in
a
cage
carefully
 labeled and bracketed sentences:
o this type of diagram is used to show the constituents in a sentence by labeled brackets :
e.g.:
[[ [
][dog]]
the
[[
followed
]
][ [the][man]]]
syntax
study of language
We move from the general categories and concepts of traditional grammar to more specific methods of
describing the structure of phrases and sentences.
Syntax:
When we concentrate on the structure and ordering of components within a sentence, we are studying the
syntax. The word "syntax" comes from Greek and means: 'arrangement'
In earlier approaches to syntax, there was an attempt to produce an accurate description of the sequence or
ordering of elements in a sentence.
Following the Traditional and Structural approaches in linguistics, the third approaches toward grammar was
taken by Noam Chomsky:
3. the Generative Grammar/ approach:
-
The rules in this grammar has a lot in common with the types of rules found in mathematics.
Based on this grammar: a grammar has a set of finite /limited rules and structures by which we can make
infinite /unlimited sentences and structures.
A generative grammar defines the syntactic structures of a language
well-formed structures
A suitable grammar should be capable of showing the reasons of :
How some superficially different sentences are closely related?
How some superficially similar sentences are in fact different?
What is the reason of some structural ambiguities in language?
For explaining these questions, first we should explain two terms in generative grammar:
Surface structure and deep structure:
The superficial structures or forms of a sentence are called surface structures of
sentence, the structures which are very closely related and have the same meaning or
concept but with different forms.
We believe that there is an underlying level , where the basic components are made .
this level is deep structure, which is abstract level and in which all the possible elements
or structural interpretation are presented .
Look at the following sentences:
e.g.:
Charlie broke the window.
The same deep structure with different
The window was broken by Charlie.
surface structures
So as you can see the reason of superficially different sentences with very close relation with each other is :
having the same deep structure and different surface structures.
For answering the second and third questions, let's look at the following examples:
 Small boys and girls
 The parents of the bride and groom were waiting outside.
 We met an English history teacher.
 The students complained to everyone that they couldn’t understand.
As you can see the structural ambiguity of the above sentences with the same forms refers to different
deep structures, they have been taken from.
We have some important rules in Generative Grammar as follow:
Recursion/ Recursive Rules:
Based on this rule a structure can be generated or repeated more than once in a sentence.
There is no end to the recursion ( repetition) in a sentence. Base on this rule a sentence can have
another sentence inside it or that a phrase can be repeated as often as required.
e.g.:
[s [NP the gun] [vpwas [ppon the table][ppnear the window][ppin the bedroom]]]
[s[proJohn][vpbelieved [cpthat[s1 Cathy knew[cpthat[s2 Mary helped George]]]]]]
Phrase structure rules:
Base on this rule the structure of a phrase which consists of one or more constituents in a particular
order is studied.
S
NP VP
NP
{ Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN}
VP
V NP (PP) (Adv)
PP
Prep NP
S=sentence
N=noun
V=Verb
{ } =one constituent must be selected
NP=Noun Phrase
Pro=Pronoun
PP=Prepositional Phrase
( )= optional constituents
Art=Article
PN=Proper Noun
Adv=Adverb
CP=complement Phrase(that, which..)
Adj=Adjective
VP=Verb Phrase
Prep=preposition
Aux=Auxiliary
Lexical rules:
Phrase structural rules generate structures. These rules are made in your deep structure. But when you
use words instead of the above constituent, you are turning phrase structural rules into Lexical Rules.
PN={ Mary, George}
N={girl , dog, boy}
Art={a, an, the}
Pro={it, you}
Adv={ recently, yesterday}
v={ helped, saw}
Adj={small}
prep={near, with}
e.g.:
S
NP VP
NP
{ Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN}
NP= the girl
VP
V NP (PP) (Adv)
V= was
PP
Prep NP
s= The girl was in the class
PP= in the class
For showing the structures of the sentences, sometimes we use tree diagrams:
[ [NP The small boy] [VP [V saw] [N George] [PP with a crazy dog] [Adv recently]]
S
NP
Art
VP
Adj
N
V
NP
PN
PP
Prep
NP
Art
The
small
boy
saw George with
Adv
a
Adj N
crazy dog
recently
Transformational rules:
The phrase structural rules (without the lexical rules) represent the 'underlying ' or 'deep structures' of
sentences in English. But deep structure generates fixed word orders.
So another rules in Generative Grammar tries to describe some movements( transformations) in
sentences which are not explained by normal word orders in English, movements of some elements like
adverbs to initial position of the sentences , or insertion of auxiliaries in making question forms. These
rules are called transformation rules: so for making question form we can have the following deep
structure:
S=NP Aux VP
Aux NP VP
and this surface structure:
S=You will help Mary.
Will you help Mary
Semantics



study of language
Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences.
In semantics we focus on what the words conventionally mean on a particular situation.
Semantics deals with general meaning /objective meaning not local meaning/subjective meaning.
Conceptual and associative meaning:
Conceptual meaning covers basic or essential components of meaning conveyed by the literal
use of a word.
e.g.: "needle": thin, sharp, steel instrument
associative meaning is the concept or associations or connotations attached to a word.
e.g.: " People might associate the word "needle" with " pain, illness, blood, drugs, thread ,
knitting or …."
As you can see these associations may differ from one person to the next.
Semantic features:
Semantic features can explain the correctness or oddness the meanings of the following sentences:
-
The hamburger ate the boy. ( NP V NP)
-
The table listens to the radio.( NP V PP)
-
The horse is reading the newspaper. (NP V NP)
These sentences are correct based on syntax but odd and strange based on semantics.
But if you look closer , you can see that the above verbs have some semantic features:
"ate" needs a subject with this semantic feature: + animate (but the hamburger:-animate)
"listen" needs a subject with this semantic feature: + animate(but the table: -animate)
"read" needs a subject with these semantic features: +animate, +human(but the horse: +animate, human)
Semantic roles:/ thematic roles
Instead of looking at the words as containers of meaning, we consider the roles of words in a sentence. it
means the verb shows the action and the NPs in the sentence show the roles of entities such as people
and things in the action. We can see some of the semantic roles as follow: agent,
theme,instrument,experience, location,source and goal
Agent and theme:
e.g. :
The boy kicked the ball.
"the boy" : as an entity which does an action : agent
"the ball": as an entity which is affected by the action: theme
e.g.: The ball was red.
"The ball": as an entity which is being described (not performing an action) :theme
-
Agents and themes are the most common semantic roles
e.g.: The boy cut himself.
The boy: agent
himself: theme
Instrument and Experiencer:
e.g. :
The boy cut the rope with an old razor.
Instrument: if an agent uses another entity in order to do an action, that entity fills the role of instrument.(
an old razer)
e.g.:
The boy feels sad.
Experiencer: If an NP is used to show the feelings, perception or state, it feels the semantic role of
experience.( if we see, enjoy or know something, we do not perform and action( we are not agent here) but
we are in the role of experience.
"The boy ": it's not agent but it's experiencer
Location, source and goal:
There are other semantic roles to show where an entity is in the description of an event.
e.g. :
Mary saw a fly on the wall.(location)
She borrowed a magazine from George.(source)
She handed the magazine back to George.(Goal)
Lexical relations:
Words can fulfill roles and can also have relationships with each other. for example the word "conceal" is
the same as "hide", or "shallow" is as "the opposite of deep", or "daffodil " is as "a kind of flower". lexical
relations are as follow:
Synonymy: if two or more words have a very closely related meanings with each other, they are called
synonyms. e.g.: Almost/nearly- big/large-broad/wide-buy/purchase-cab/taxi-car/automobile-couch/sofafreedom/liberty
Antonymy :If two forms have opposite meanings , they are called antonyms. e.g.: alive/dead- big/smallfast/slow- happy/sad- hot/cold- long/short- male/female- married/single-old/new- rich/poor-true/false
Some of the antonyms are Gradable (such as: big/small
they can be used as :bigger/smaller)
Some of the antonyms are Non-gradable (such as dead/alive
more dead than another!)
we can not say someone is deader or
Hyponymy: When the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another. e.g.animal/dogdog/poodle- vegetable/carrot- flower/rose
Homophony : When two or more different(written )forms have the same pronunciation. e.g.: bare/bearmeat/meet-right/write –two/too/to
Homonymy: When one form(written or spoken) has two or more unrelated meanings and histories but
have accidentally come to have exactly the same form .e.g.: Bank( of a river)/ bank(financial institution)race(contest of speed)/race(ethnic group)- date(a thing we can eat)/date(a point in time)
Polysemy: when two or more words have the same form and related meanings.e.g.:
Head(one part of your body)/head(on top of something)/head(on top of a company)
Foot(of person)/foot( of bed)/foot(of mountains)