Slide 1
Intro: Who am I? Who are you?
The nature of this course and various courselike business
Syllabus – website: http://web.pdx.edu/~connjc/
Please come to class
Do the homework and problem sets (even if late)
There will be TAs for this course with special study sessions
– info will be available at my website
Language Mini-Research Project and HW1
Slide 2
What is linguistics?
 The study of how language works
But what is language?
Slide 3
Human language different from animal communication
 Speech organs designed for eating breathing AND speech
 Humans also geared for speech perception
But what is language?
 Native speakers
 Creativity of language
Creativity within systematic constraints
Slide 4
Systematic Creativity
Nouns used as verbs
The boat is on the beach
Keep the airplane on the ground
Put the wine in the bottle
I watched a tv show on my TiVO
The captain will beach the boat
The pilot will ground the airplane
You will bottle the wine
I will Tivo Heroes on Monday night
Can say ”jail the robber” but not “prison the robber” because we already
have the word imprison
Why limitations to creativity?
If new words constantly being made, then we wouldn’t
understand each other - loss of systematicity
Slide 5
Systematic Creativity
Patterns of sounds
a. Prasp
b. clib
c. trav
d. *psapr
e. *bfli
f. *tlick
Word formation, pronunciation and meaning
Traveme - a small trip
Travemic = ?
Travemicize = ?
Travemicization = ?
Slide 6
Linguistic competence - what you know about language as a
native speaker
a subconscious set of rules, units, and mental constructs
that enables the native speakers of a language to produce and
understand an unlimited number of both familiar and novel
utterances.
Slide 7
Grammar = the mental system that allows human beings to
form and interpret the sounds, words and sentences of their
language. (all elements of linguistic competence)
Components of a grammar:
• Phonetics - the articulation and perception of speech sounds
• Phonology - the patterning of speech sounds
• Morphology - word formation
• Syntax - sentence formation
• Semantics - the interpretation of words and sentences
Slide 8
Myths about language
Some languages are ungrammatical
Some languages are better than others
All languages have grammar (generality)
If no grammar, no system and if no system, no
communication and no language
All grammars are equal (parity)
No such thing as a primitive grammar or language
No such thing as good grammar or bad grammar
Slide 9
Linguistics is descriptive
Goal is to describe and explain the facts of languages and varieties
Not prescriptive
To prescribe the correct way to say something
The English words Mary, merry and marry should be pronounced
differently because they are spelled differently
Some dialects of English do not make vocalic distinctions in certain
words before /r/ when /r/ is followed by another syllable.
Slide 10
Linguistics is descriptive vs. prescriptive
Coffee shop with a sign:
“We’re sorry - no blended drinks today.
The blender is broke.”
The past participle of the verb to break should be “broken”
Variation is found in the past participle of the verb to break and we
hear “broken” and sometimes “broke”
Slide 11
All grammars have things in common (Universality)
Universal traits that exists in all varieties of language
All languages can have subjects, objects and verbs, but what order
they can occur in in a sentence is language specific
Slide 12
Grammars change over time (mutability)
Language is changing all the time
English Changes
Before 1200 --
1400 -About 1700 --
Ic ne sey not (‘I don’t say’)
He ne speketh nawt (‘He doesn’t speak’)
I seye not the wordes
We saw nawt the knyghtes.
I will not say the words. (*I will say not the words.)
He did not see the knights. (*He saw not the knights.)
Slide 13
Grammatical knowledge is subconscious (inaccessibility)
hunted, slipped, buzzed
Something is grammatical in linguistics if a native speaker can say
it in a natural way - this grammatical knowledge is what you feel
like you can and can’t say (possible/impossible not
should/shouldn’t)
The blender is broke
Something is ungrammatical in linguistics if a native speaker of a
language would never say it in that way
*broke the is blender
Slide 14
Prescriptive attitudes about language…
The Oregonian Regarding Jeff Conn's opinions about whether or not Portlanders are developing their own unique dialect Piffle!
I've lived in Portland - and other western locations - and here's my take: Intelligently spoken "western speech" that is free of
recently introduced speech influences from other regions (i.e. southern, Bostonian, ethnic, etc.) is the purest and most accent
free English in the whole world. If you doubt me, go to England and converse with normal, everyday folks. Most have
terrible pronunciation. Many of them are borderline unintelligible. London east-ender "Cockney" is totally indecipherable!
Then go north to Scotland. Delightful people, but what they speak sounds nothing like what the dictionary pronunciation
guide says it should sound like. Same thing in Ireland, and Australia. Lovely people. Terrible speech habits.
But back to the U.S. There are too many people moving from other regions into our western stronghold to justify calling any
bad speech habits as being anything but temporary.
By far the biggest influence on Pacific Northwest speech is the same as with other western regions - and probably other parts
of the country; namely, teenagers develop their own subnormal vocabulary and way of speaking. Although much more
extreme than with previous generations, subnormal has always been associated with teenagers. The big difference now is that
when young people eventually mature, they don't drop their language in favor of adult speech. Our adult language has
become the prisoner of "teenspeak," and that is an utter abomination.
True, languages evolve; but adults copying the speech of rebellious anti-social youth is not the hallmark of a great society.
And this decline of the American language will probably continue indefinitely; when was the last time you heard a teenager
say "It's time for me to speak good, correct English?"
Like, man, it'll never happen.
"'S'up?"
"He goes," "She goes."
Our language is dying, but it had a pretty good run. Luckily for me, most of my life has been during the good part.
Slide 15
Ch 1 Review
• Linguistic competence
• Prescriptive grammar/attitudes
• Descriptive grammar/attitudes
• Universality
Video: American Tongues
Slide 16
REVIEW
Components of a grammar (fields of linguistics):
• Phonetics - the articulation and perception of speech sounds
• Phonology - the patterning of speech sounds
• Morphology - word formation
• Syntax - sentence formation
• Semantics - the interpretation of words and sentences
Slide 17
REVIEW
All languages have grammar
If no grammar, no system …
and if no system, no communication and no language
All grammars are equal
No such thing as a primitive grammar or language
No such thing as good grammar or bad grammar
Slide 18
REVIEW
Linguistics is descriptive
Goal is to describe and explain the facts of languages and varieties
(What we really do and don’t do)
Not prescriptive
To prescribe the correct way to say something
(What we “should” or “ought” to do and not do)
Slide 19
For next time:
Read chapter 1 to go over what we talked about today
Start chapter 2 and we will start on phonetics.