Introduction to Linguistics Linguistic Competence and Linguistic

Performance
The Nature of Communication
 Linguistic Competence - is the
 Communication – behavior that affects (mostly) subconscious knowledge of
the behavior of others by transmission of language that allows the speaker to
information. create a potentially infinite number of
 Code – a complex pattern of association messages.
of the units of a communication system.  Productivity - is the ability to produce
o Sound units messages that one has never
o Meaningful units: words, phrases, produced before and to understand
clauses, sentences messages that one has never heard or
 Decode - to react in a way that reflects seen before.
the reason the message was encoded.  Linguistic Performance - is the
Communication and Language application of linguistic competence
to actually producing and utterance.
 Communication is a very broad
concept. Delivery Systems of Language
 Language is much narrower in  Delivery systems in language is the
concept. way in which knowledge of language
o It is seen as specifically human is used to send a message.
capacity by most linguists.
3 Basic way of delivering language
Language is rule governed.
linguistically:
 Grammar- is the system (pattern) of o Speech
elements (such as words) and of the o Writing
rules of phonology, morphology, syntax, o Sign Language
and semantics inherent in a language.  Verbal means language: speech,
The term grammar also refers to the writing or sign language
study of those elements and rules.  Nonverbal means not language.
 Phonological System- is the grammar Nonverbal communication is any
(pattern) of sounds of that language. communication that is not conveyed
 Lexicon - is a mental dictionary. The through speech, writing or sign
vocabulary that one has stored in the language.
brain.  Synchrony is the connection and
 Morphological rules- are the rules relationship between two or more things
used to construct words from their that occur at the same time.
component parts.  “Elaborate dance”- a synchrony
 Syntax- is a set of rules a person uses (simultaneousness) of language. As
in learning how sentences are people talk, their bodies move to
constructed and how sentences are punctuate what they are saying and
related to each other. sometimes to contradict what they are
 Semantics - is the study of the rules of saying.
meaning, the systems by which we
derive meaning from a message. Non-human and Human Communications
Compared
 Washoe
- 11 month old African-born Chimpanzee.
- Arrived in Reno, Nevada, June 1966  Looks into the speech sounds of a
- University of Nevada psychologist Allen language in a generalized manner
and Beatrice Gardner hypothesized that
the linguistic competence of the Phonology
chimpanzee could be displayed by a  Focuses on the organization of sounds
system of gestures. by studying speech patterns.
- American Sign Language (ASL od  Phonologist may like into questions like
AMESLAN for short) as the channel to the difference in the plurals of cat and
discover Washoe’s abilities. dog; the former ends with an s sound,
- Washoe had learned 160 signs. whereas the later ends with z-sound.
 Koko  Looks into the functional aspect of
- Had an active vocabulary of 375 signs speech sounds
by the age of seven.  Branches:
- According to psychologist Francine o Segmental Phonology - based on
Patterson, the Koko was thirty-eighty in segmentation of language into
2010, she could use about 1000 ASL individual speech sounds derived
signs and also understand about 2000 from phonetics.
words of spoken English. o Suprasegmental Phonology -
- In April 1998, Koko became the first deals with attribute like rhythm,
nonhuman to chat on the internet. stress.
 Humans only have the capacity to
learn language. Pronunciation vs. Articulation
 Pronunciation
Phonetics vs. Phonology
- It refers to the way in which a word is
 Phonetics - the study of sound in
spoken.
speech in human language as they are
- It encompasses the sounds, stress, and
produced, transmitted and how they
intonation used to articulate a word.
are received.
- It is the act of producing the sounds that
 Phonology - the study of these sounds,
make up a word in a specific language.
forms, patterns and these sounds are - Correct pronunciation is crucial in
used to convey meaning effective communication and can greatly
impact how a message is received.
Phonetics
 Articulation
 Came from the Greek word “phone”
- It is the physical act of producing speech
meaning sound/voice. sounds and shaping them into
 It covers the domain of speech recognizable words.
production and its transmission. - It involves the movement and
 overs the reception aspect of speech. coordination of the tongue, lips, jaw, and
The sound made by us when we talk are vocal cords to create distinct sounds.
studied through different branches of - Articulation is essential for clear speech
Phonetics: and effective communication.
o Acoustics - It is also important for language
o Auditory Phonetics development in children, as it helps
o Articulatory Phonetics them to learn and produce new words.
 Deals with physical description of
sounds.
 Vowels vs. Consonant Sounds in which the tongue is positioned
 Vowels are produced by letting the air towards the back of the mouth.
flow through the vocal tract without any
(or with little) obstruction. Front Vowels
o Vowel sounds are always voiced.  Long e - [i] – eat, dream, sleep, each
 Consonants production involves  Short I [l]- big, pig, itch, slip
closure or some sort of obstruction in  Long a- [eI] eight, straight, made
the vocal tract.  Short a -[æ] stamp, bad, sad, trap
o Consonant can be either voiced  / i: / as in beat (High Front Unrounded)
or voiceless.  / e / as in bet (Mid-Low Front
Unrounded)
Voiced vs. Voiceless Sound
 / ɪ / as in fist (Mid-High Front
 Voiceless - vocal cords spread apart air Unrounded)
passes unimpeded.  / æ / as in bat (Low Front Unrounded)
o Example: /k/ /f/ /t/
Back Vowels
 Voiced - vocal cords are draw together
air pushes them apart to pass through,  These are shaped with the back of the
creating a vibration. tongue raised towards the soft palate
o Example: /g/ /v/ /d/ (velum). There are six back vowels,
 Vowels compared to the four front vowels and
- Front Vowels two central vowels.
- Back Vowels o e.g., the u in “rule” and the o in
- Central/mid vowels “pole”—is produced with the back
 Consideration in Vowel Sounds: part of the tongue raised toward
1. Tongue Position – (high, middle, low) the soft palate (velum).
2. Part of the Tongue – (front, back, center) o [ʊ] in "book", [o] in "boat", [ɔ] in
3. Duration – (short or long) "bought", [ʌ] in "but", and [ɤ] in
"put"
Central Vowel
 The defining characteristic of a central
vowel is that the tongue is positioned
halfway between a front vowel and
a back vowel.
 Tongue is relatively flat while producing
the sound

Front Vowels, Mid Vowels, Back Vowels Dipthongs

 In terms of which part of the tongue is  Came from the Latin word “diphthongus”
raised, distinguishing front vowels (as and Greek word “diphthongos” meaning
in eat), in which tongue is positioned having two sounds.
forward in the mouth, central vowel (as
in cup), and back vowels as (in coop),
 is a vowel in which there is a change in
quality during a single syllable as in the
English words; boy, buy, bow.
 Diphthongs can be analyzed as a
sequence of two vowels or as vowel
glides. Meaning it begins with a vowel
sound and ends with another vowels
sound in the same syllable. Mouth’s
position changes slightly through the
vowel sound.