Chapter 1

Organ
Lungs
Vocal Cords
Tongue
Teeth
Lips
Nose
Survival Speech
Exchange CO
2 for O
2
Air flow
Cover tube to lungs Vibration
Move food in mouth Articulation (C & V)
Chew food Articulation (C)
Seal oral cavity
Breathing
Articulation (C & V)
Nasal resonance

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Divine Gift
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Monogenetic theory
Human Invention
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Echoic (imitative)
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Cries of nature
Rhythmical grunts
Love songs
Evolution of Linguistic Capacity
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Anatomical
Neurological

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Infinity of language
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Grammar
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Pull the boat onto the beach
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______ the boat
Word formation
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New word: “Soleme”
Having the properties of Soleme = “_______”
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Created in the process of “_____________”

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Human language makes infinite use of finite means.
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The pink dog wanted a red balloon.
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?
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

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This is the house that Jack built.
This is the cheese that sat in the house…
This is the rat that ate the cheese that…
This is that cat that killed the rat that…
This is the dog that chased the cat…

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Speakers of any language can understand and produce sentences they’ve never heard before.
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You tell me… a sentence you’ve never heard before

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The man saw the fish with binoculars.
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You tell me…
John yelled “Duck”…

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The fish is swimming.
*Fish the swimming is.
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Swimming is the fish.
*The fishing is swim.
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He saw two dogs.
*He saw twos dog.

 watashi-wa inu-ga mimashita
I (subject) dog (object) saw
(I saw a dog)
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*mimashita inu-ga watashi-wa
(saw) dog (object) I (subject)
 watashi-ga inu-wa mimashita
I (object)
(A dog saw me) dog (subject) saw

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John kissed the little old lady who owned the shaggy dog.
Who owned the shaggy dog John kissed the little old lady.

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John is difficult to love.
It is difficult to love John.

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John is anxious to go.
It is anxious to go John.

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Grammatical/ungrammatical pairs

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Internal/Innate grammar
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Phonetics
Phonology
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Morphology
Syntax
Lexicography
Semantics
Pragmatics
…more details coming at the end of the chapter…

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Sound System
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Phonetics
Phonology
Words
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Form + meaning ≈ Arbitrary relationship
Sound Symbolism  onomatopoeia

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Linguistic Competence
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Knowing
Mental grammar
Linguistic Performance
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Doing

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Generality
Parity
Universality
Mutability
Inaccessibility

He ain’t got none.
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For Descriptive Linguistics:
“Ungrammatical” means a native speaker would not have a reasonable expectation that the intended message will be understood

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It is a rule up with which we should not put.
- Winston Churchill

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Language is systematic and rule-governed.
Language is generative (has creative potential).
Language is a set of arbitrary symbols.
The symbols have conventionalized meanings
The symbols are primarily vocal.
Language is essentially human.
Language is used for communication.
Language operates in a speech community or culture.
Language is acquired by all people in much the same way; language acquisition and language learning both have universal characteristics.
Language changes.

“the system of operations for creating an indefinite number of sentences out of a finite number of elements”

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 phonetic system
 the sounds of the language phonological system
 the sound patterns of the language lexical system
 the words or vocabulary of the language morphological system
 the patterns of word formation of language syntactic system
 the structure of sentences of the language semantic system
 the meanings of words and sentences of the language pragmatic system
 how the language is used in the context of spoken discourse

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Noam Chomsky
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Focus on ideal situation
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Homogeneous speech community
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Competence = performance
Dell Hymes
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Focus on real people
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Speech community is critical
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Competence ≠ Performance

“Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-listener, in a completely homogeneous speech-community, who knows its language perfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory limitation, distractions, shifts of attention and interest, and errors in applying his [/her] knowledge of the language in actual performance.”

“A child from whom any and all of the grammatical sequences of a language might come with equal likelihood would be, of course, a social monster. Within the social matrix in which it acquires a system of grammar, a child acquires also a system of its use regarding persons, places, purposes, other modes of communication, etc.--all the components of the communicative events, together with attitudes and beliefs regarding them. There also develop patterns of the sequential use of language in conversation, address, standard routines, and the like. In such acquisition resides the child’s sociolinguistic competence (or more broadly, communicative competence), its ability to participate in its society as not only a speaking but also a communicating member.”

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If you had to choose between Chomsky
& Hymes’ approaches, who would you support?
Is there a value in combining &/or balancing the two approaches?

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Prestige dialect…
Second language instruction…

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Exercises
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1-6 – All
(they’re easy)
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Read Chapter 2
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Bring a small hand mirror to class