TPO 19 Lecture 1 Linguistics(Proto-Indo-European)
Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture in a linguistics class.
Professor
All right, so far we have been looking at some of the core areas of linguistics, like syntax,
phonology, semantics,
and these are things that we can study by looking at one language at a time, how sounds,
and words, and
sentences work in a given language. But the branch of historical linguistics, involves the
comparison of several
different languages, or the comparison of different stages of a single language.
Now, if you are comparing different languages, and you notice that they have a lot in
common. Maybe they have
similar sounds and words that correspond to one another that have the same meaning and that
sound similar.
Let’s use a real-world example. In the 18th century, scholars who have studied the ancient
languages, Sanskrit, Latin and Greek, noticed that these three languages had many similarities.
And there might be several reasons why languages such as these had so much in common. Maybe
it happened by chance, maybe one language was heavily influenced by borrowed words from the
other. Or maybe, maybe the languages developed from the same source language long ago, that
is, maybe they are genetically related, that was what happened with Sanskrit, Latin and Greek.
These languages had so many similarities that it was concluded that they must have all come from
the same source. And talk about important discoveries in linguistics, this was certainly one of
them.
The scholars
referred to that source language as Proto-Indo-European,
Proto-Indo-European is a reconstructed language. Meaning, it is what linguists concluded a
parent language of Sanskrit, Latin and Greek would have to be like. And Proto-Indo-European
branched out into other languages, which evolved into others, so in the end, many languages
spoken all over the world today can trace their ancestry back to one language,
Proto-Indo-European, which was spoken several thousand years ago.
Now, one way of representing the evolution of languages, showing the way languages are
related to each other, is with the family tree model. Like a family tree that you might use to
trace back through generations of ancestors, only it’s showing a family of geneticall related
languages instead of people. A tree model for a language family starts with one language,
which we call a mother language, for example, Proto-Indo-European. The mother language, is the
line on the top of this diagram, over time, it branches off into new daughter languages, which
branch into daughter languages of their own, and languages that have the same source, the same
mother, are called sisters, they share a lot of characteristics, and this went on until we are looking
at a big upside down tree languages like this. It is incomplete of course, just to give you an idea.
So that’s the family tree model, basically.
Now, the tree model is a convenient way of representing the development of a language
family and of showing how closely related two of more languages are. But it is obviously very
simplified, having a whole language represented by just one branch on a tree doesn’t really do
justice to all the variations within that language. You know, Spanish that spoken in Spain isn’t
exactly the same as Spanish that is spoken in Mexico, for example.
Another issue is that languages evolve very gradually, but the tree model makes it look like
they evolve over night,like there was a distinct moment in time when a mother language clearly
broke off into daughter languages. But it seems to me it probably wasn’t quite like that.
TPO 19 Lecture 1 Linguistics(Proto-Indo-European)
Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture in a linguistics class.
Professor
All right, so far we have been looking at some of the core areas of linguistics, like syntax,
phonology, semantics,
and these are things that we can study by looking at one language at a time, how sounds,
and words, and
sentences work in a given language. But the branch of historical linguistics, involves the
comparison of several
different languages, or the comparison of different stages of a single language.
Now, if you are comparing different languages, and you notice that they have a lot in
common. Maybe they have
similar sounds and words that correspond to one another that have the same meaning and that
sound similar.
Let’s use a real-world example. In the 18th century, scholars who have studied the ancient
languages, Sanskrit, Latin and Greek, noticed that these three languages had many similarities.
And there might be several reasons why languages such as these had so much in common. Maybe
it happened by chance, maybe one language was heavily influenced by borrowed words from the
other. Or maybe, maybe the languages developed from the same source language long ago, that
is, maybe they are genetically related, that was what happened with Sanskrit, Latin and Greek.
These languages had so many similarities that it was concluded that they must have all come from
the same source. And talk about important discoveries in linguistics, this was certainly one of
them.
The scholars
referred to that source language as Proto-Indo-European,
Proto-Indo-European is a reconstructed language. Meaning, it is what linguists concluded a
parent language of Sanskrit, Latin and Greek would have to be like. And Proto-Indo-European
branched out into other languages, which evolved into others, so in the end, many languages
spoken all over the world today can trace their ancestry back to one language,
Proto-Indo-European, which was spoken several thousand years ago.
Now, one way of representing the evolution of languages, showing the way languages are
related to each other, is with the family tree model. Like a family tree that you might use to
trace back through generations of ancestors, only it’s showing a family of geneticall related
languages instead of people. A tree model for a language family starts with one language,
which we call a mother language, for example, Proto-Indo-European. The mother language, is the
line on the top of this diagram, over time, it branches off into new daughter languages, which
branch into daughter languages of their own, and languages that have the same source, the same
mother, are called sisters, they share a lot of characteristics, and this went on until we are looking
at a big upside down tree languages like this. It is incomplete of course, just to give you an idea.
So that’s the family tree model, basically.
Now, the tree model is a convenient way of representing the development of a language
family and of showing how closely related two of more languages are. But it is obviously very
simplified, having a whole language represented by just one branch on a tree doesn’t really do
justice to all the variations within that language. You know, Spanish that spoken in Spain isn’t
exactly the same as Spanish that is spoken in Mexico, for example.
Another issue is that languages evolve very gradually, but the tree model makes it look like
they evolve over night,like there was a distinct moment in time when a mother language clearly
broke off into daughter languages. But it seems to me it probably wasn’t quite like that.
TPO20
Lecture1-Linguistics(Gricean Maxims)
Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture in a linguistics class.
Professor
Ok, the conventions or assumptions that govern conversation, these may vary from one
culture
to another , but basically, for people to communicate, there is a ... they have to follow certain
rules. Like if I am talking with you and I start saying things that are not true, if you can’t tell
when I
am lying and when I am telling the truth, well, we are not going to have a very satisfactory
conversation, are we? Why? Because it violates one of the Gricean Maxims, that’s a set of
rules
or maxims a philosopher name H.P .Grice came up with in 1970s. One of these Gricean
Maxims is...
well, I’ve already given you a hint.
Student
Oh, you just can’t go around telling lies.
Professor
Right, or as Grice put it, “Do not say what you believe to be false.” That’s one of Grice’s
Maxims of
Quality as he called it. So that’s pretty obvious. But there are others just as important. Like,
eh...
suppose you would ask me what time it was and I replied ‘my sister just got married’ , what
would
you think?
Student
You are not really answering my question.
Professor
No, I am not, am I? There is no connection at all, which feels wrong because you generally
expect
to find one. So one important maxim is simply: be relevant. And using the so-called Maxim
of
Relevance we can infer things as well, or rather the speaker can imply things and the listener
can
make inferences. For instance, suppose you say you would really love to have a cup of coffee
right
now, and I say ‘there’s a shop around the corner’ . Now, what can you infer from what I said?
Student
Well, the shop sells coffee for one thing. 7
Professor
Right, and that I believe it is open now. Because if I won’t implying those things, my
response
would not be relevant. It’d have no connection with what you said before. But according to
the
maxim, my response should be relevant to your statement, meaning, we should assume some
connection between the statement and the response. And this maxim of relevance is quite
efficient to use. Even if I don’t spell out all the details, you can still make some useful logical
inferences, namely, the shop is open and it sells coffee. If we actually have to explain all
these
details, conversations would move along pretty slowly, wouldn’t they?
OK, then there’s the maxims of manner, including things like be clear , and avoid ambiguity.
And another more interesting maxims is one of the so-called maxims of quantity, quantities
of
information, that is. It says, to give as much as is required in the situation. So suppose you
asked
me what I did yesterday and I say ‘I went to the Art Museum.’ You would likely infer that I
saw
some works of art. Suppose, though, that I did not go inside the museum, I just walked up to
it
then left. Then I violated the quantity maxim by not giving enough information. So you can
see
how important implications are to our ability to carry on a conversation.
But there are times when people will violate these maxims on purpose. Let’s say a boss is
asked
to write a letter of recommendation for a former employee seeking an engineering job. The
letter
he writes is quite brief. Something like, uh, Mr . X is polite and always dresses quite neatly.
So
what does this really mean?
Student
Oh, I see. By not mentioning any important qualities related to the job, the boss is ... like,
implying that this is best that can be said about Mr . X that he is really not qualified.
Professor
Exactly. It’s a written letter not a conversation, but the principle is the same. The boss is
conveying a negative impression of Mr . X without actually saying negative about him. So,
by
violating the maxims, we ...eh... but ... it can be a way to be subtle or polite, or to convey
humor
through sarcasm or irony.
Sometimes though people will violate maxims for another purpose: to deceive. Now, can you
imagine who might do such a thing?
Student
Some politicians.
Student
Or advertisers.
Professor
Right. Anyone who may see an advantage in implying certain things that are untrue without
explicitly saying something untrue. They think, hey, don’t blame us if our audience happens
to
draw inferences that are simply not true. So next time you see an advertisement saying some
product could be up to 20% more effective, think of these maxims of quantity and relevance,
and
ask yourself what inferences you are being led to draw. Think, more effective than what
exactly?
And why do they use those little phrases ‘could be’ and ‘up to’? These claims give us a lot
less
information than they seem to.