Basic Concepts of Linguistics

Basic Concepts of Linguistics
1 Language is a system that associates sounds (or gestures) with meanings in a way that uses
words and sentences. – that is a medium of communication in the community.
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It tries: • first, to observe languages and to
describe them accurately, • then, to find generalizations within what has been described, •
finally, to draw conclusions about the general nature of human language. – only humans have
language; animals only communicate but don’t have language as language is a unique human
characteristic. Linguist- a scholar who studies language.
How Linguist Study Language? - Observe the behaviour and describe. Subject/verb/object.
Behavior of English Language – Subject followed by verb then by object..
Communication - is the process of interaction between the speaker and the listener/receiver.
Language - Medium used for communication. It is communication used by a particular group of
people.
Vernacular – primary language acquired by an individual or known as the mother tongue or
native language. (E.g. sugbuanong binisaya.) more than in numbers than dialect.
Dialect – variety of a particular language or a branch of a specific language. ( E.g. Cebuano ).
What affects a dialect - geography, politics, sociology (culture, domination, religion, etc.),
politics, and so on.
Applied linguistics attempts to make practical use of the knowledge derived from general
linguistic research.
PURPOSE:
• improve the ways in which a student’s native language is taught
• help people learn foreign language more efficiently
• write better dictionaries
• improve therapy for people with language problems
• search the Internet more efficiently and successfully.
TWO APPROACHES IN THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE.
Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Approach to Language
Descriptive Approach – linguist attempts to describe the grammar of the language that exists in
the minds of its speakers., i.e. to create a model of speakers’ mental grammar.
- It explains how it is possible to speak and it summarizes what speakers know about the
sounds, words, phrases and sentences of their language.
- It observes the language and discovers the principles or rules that govern it.
• Linguists attempt to describe the grammar of the language that exists in the minds of its
speakers, i.e. to create a model of speakers’ mental grammar.
• The resulting descriptive grammar describes person’s basic linguistic knowledge. It explains
how it is possible to speak and understand and it summarize what speakers know about the
sounds, words, phrases and sentences of their language.
• Creating a descriptive grammar involves observing the language and trying to discover the
principles or rules that govern it.
• Descriptive rules accept as given the patterns speakers actually use and try to account for
them. Descriptive rules allow for different dialects of a language and even variation within one
dialect. 3.2 Prescriptive Approach
• Prescriptive tells you someone’s idea of what is “good” or “bad”.
- You are told what should you do and how it is to be done.
• Prescriptive rules make a value judgment about the correctness of certain utterances and
generally try to enforce a single standard. For example: English: – Don’t split infinitives; don’t
say: to easily understand – Don’t end a sentence with a preposition; don’t say Where are you
from?
• They attempt to impose the rules for speaking and writing on people without much regard for
what the majority of educated speakers of a language actually say and write.
• So-called prescriptive grammar usually focuses only on a few issues and leaves the rest of a
language undescribed (unprescribed?). In fact, from the linguistic point of view, this is not
grammar at all. 3 3.3 Prescriptivism vs. Descriptivism In summary:
Linguists describe language, they do not prescribe it. As a science, linguistics: • is not in the
business of making value judgments about language use.
• studies how language really is used and then attempts to describe the facts, in order to
analyze and, eventually, explain them. • Linguists: – don’t say that people shouldn’t use ain’t
‘colloq. It simply observes that some people in certain situations do use ain’t (without judging,
although they do note any systematic correlations of such use with particular groups, regions,
situations, styles, etc.)
Grammar is a language system, a set of principles (rules) that underlie a language. Mental
Grammar – the knowledge of language that allows a person to produce and understand
utterances Grammar can be described as having different parts: • phonetics • phonology •
morphology • syntax • semantics • pragmatics Since linguists study all of these, the terms are
also used to refer to subfields of linguistics.
Grammar can be described as having different parts:
Phonetics & Phonology Phonetics – the production and perception of speech sounds as
physical entities. E.g., [v] is pronounced by bringing the lower lip into contact with upper teeth
and forcing air out of the mouth while the vocal folds vibrate and nasal cavity is closed off.
Phonology – the sound patterns (the sound system of a particular language) and of sounds as
abstract entities. In English, a word never starts with [kn] (note that knife starts with [n] not [k
Morphology – the word structure and of systematic relations between words. Morpheme – the
building-blocks of words, the smallest linguistic unit which has a meaning or grammatical
function. Words are composed of morphemes (one or more). Sing-er-s answer-ed un-kind-
lyuˇc-i-tel-k-u ‘she-teacheracc’ In comparison with many other languages, English has rather
simple morphology.
Syntax – phrase and sentence structure. Syntacticians try to discover rules that govern: word
order: The book is on the table. *Table book on is the the. agreement: I am here. *I are here.
subject/object forms (cases): I like her. *I like she. etc. Note: In linguistics, placing an asterisk (*)
before a sentence marks that sentence as ungrammatical, i.e., not of the kind normally used by
most speakers of that language.
Semantics is the literal meaning of sentences, phrases, words and morphemes. E.g., What is the
meaning of the word vegetable? E.g., How does the word order influence meaning of sentence
in English? How about Czech? 5
Pragmatics studies language usage, especially how context influences the interpretation of
utterances – the same sentence can be used to do different things in different situations. E.g.,
Gee, it’s hot in here! can be used either to state a fact or to get someone open a window.
Simply put: semantics is the literal meaning and pragmatics is the intended meaning.
Arbitrariness The relation between form and meaning in language can be either: • arbitrary
(conventional), in which case: – the meaning is not deducible from the form – the form is not
deducible from the meaning – the connection between the form and meaning must be learned
via memorization •

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