GENERAL LINGUISTICS FOR
BEGINNERS
SPLASH OXFORD 2016
WHAT IS LINGUISTICS?
• “The scientific study of language”/ “the science of language”
• Linguistics being a science is key to how we approach its study
• What does it mean to study language “scientifically”?
• Employment of the scientific method
• Lesson goal: to start to think about phenomena that occur when
we speak in a more scientific way
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
• “The human ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication,
and a language is any specific example of such a system.”
• Human ability – language is often viewed as the quintessential human
characteristic
• ‘Language’ is a different object of study to ‘a language’
• ‘Language’ is the general capacity that every human being with a
typically functioning brain has to learn any mode of communication –
this ability is not restricted to any specific language, but is universal
• Language (rather than any specific language) is the object of study for
General Linguistics; the specifics of any particular language are not our
concern
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
Hello
Bonjour
こんいちわ
• ‘Language’ is
something most
humans have in their
brain, and languages
are just different
systems of
communication that
make use of this
phenomenon
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ‘KNOW’ A LANGUAGE?
• When you know a language, you can speak to and
be understood by others who speak that language
• This is not as simple as it sounds, and requires
much more knowledge than most speakers are
aware of
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ‘KNOW’ A LANGUAGE?
• Sound system
• What can be possible words and what can’t be
• box  squox  ngox 
• Sequences of sounds represent ideas or objects
• ‘cat’ = domestic feline
• This link between idea and sound is arbitrary – ‘cat’ only means ‘cat’ because
speakers of English all use it to represent the same animal, but they could just as
easily use any other sequence of sounds
• Therefore we can and do not assume that ideas/objects are related just because
they sound similar – Language does not work like that
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ‘KNOW’ A LANGUAGE?
• Combining words into sentences
• Speakers of a language know how to put words in the
right order so that other speakers can understand them
• ‘I like carrots.’ 
• ‘Like I carrots.’ 
• ‘I carrots like.’ 
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ‘KNOW’ LANGUAGE?
• When you know a language, you know all its sounds and words
and how to put them together to produce meaningful speech that
other speakers of the same language can understand.
• This is not something that is consciously taught or learned –
babies learn these rules when they learn to speak, thanks to
the Language ability in their brain that allows them to make
sense of adults’ speech
IS LANGUAGE UNIQUE TO HUMANS?
IS LANGUAGE UNIQUE TO HUMANS?
• Arbitrariness of signs
• There is no real connection between a string of sounds and the meaning it
represents
• ‘Cat’ is meaningful in English, but it is made up of meaningless chunks
of sound
• Animal sounds cannot be separated from their meanings – a monkey’s
‘predator warning’ screech cannot be split up into different component
sounds and rearranged to make a different ‘word’ with a different
meaning
IS LANGUAGE UNIQUE TO HUMANS?
• Structure
• All human languages have rules that dictate how words and
sentences can be structured
• Sound system rules
• Sentence formation rules
• Animal ‘speech’ doesn’t have these rules – sounds can be
combined in any order and still convey the same message
IS LANGUAGE UNIQUE TO HUMANS?
• Infinite production and creativity
• We can talk about anything we can imagine
• Not restricted to repeating phrases we have consciously learnt, unlike parrots and apes
• We can use smaller units as building blocks and combine them to create larger
phrases that have never been heard before
• We can even produce and understand utterances that do not strictly make sense
• Twas bryllyg, and the slythy toves
Did gyre and gymble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves;
And the mome raths outgrabe.
• Animal communication is more restricted in the complexity and type of messages it can
express
• Animals have a set number of sounds they can use, but cannot combine them to create new
meanings
IS LANGUAGE UNIQUE TO HUMANS?
• Displacement
• Humans can talk about events in the past and future, as well as
hypothetical events and abstract concepts
• We can choose to withhold information, or present false information
• Animals are more restricted in what they can convey
• Their messages usually relate to the here and now, or things that
threaten their immediate survival
• They are compelled to relay their message when it is needed
• Possible exception – waggle dance of bees
IS LANGUAGE UNIQUE TO HUMANS?
IS LANGUAGE UNIQUE TO HUMANS?
• Language clearly displays several characteristics that separate it
from animal communication
• Arbitrariness of speech sounds
• Structure-based combination
• Infinite capacity for production of new utterances
• Displacement of speech
CONCLUSIONS
• Linguistics is the study of Language in a scientific way
• Language is the ability (most) humans have to learn to use
systems of communication, such as different languages
• A language is a complex system of communication, and
being able to use it involves knowing many rules
• Language is, as far as we know, only found in one species
– human beings