WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
An Introduction to Language
CHAP 6
Nature of Language
Arbitrariness btw the form and meaning
System (rule-governed) => Creativeness
Competence vs. Performance
Prescriptive, Descriptive vs. Pedagogic grammar
Language Universals
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Language vs. Thought
NATURE OF HUMAN LANGUAGE
LINGUISTIC
KNOWLEDGE
Linguistic knowledge
Knowledge of the Sound system
◦ Phonetics: general description of sounds
◦ Phonology: combining sounds into words
Knowledge of Words
◦ Morphology: combination within a word
◦ Syntax: how to combine words
◦ Semantics: assigned meaning to words
Knowing a language means
What sounds are in that language and
what sounds are not
◦ How do we know?
◦ By the way we pronounce foreign words
◦ English speakers pronouncing French
ménage à trois
◦ French speakers pronouncing English
this vs. zis / that vs. zat
French people speaking English..
"Zis is nothing," she said dismissively, looking
around at the sparkling walls of the Great
Hall.“ At ze Palace of Beauxtons, we 'ave ice
sculptures all around ze dining chamber at
chreestmas. Zey do not melt, of course..
Knowledge of the Sound system
Hermione was now teaching Krum to
say her name properly; he kept calling
her "Hermy-one"
"Her-my-oh-nee,“
She said slowly and clearly.
"Herm-own-ninny,"
"Close enough,”
Pronouncing HERMIONE
HERMIONE [hə:rmáiənì:]
◦ Daughter of Menelaus and Helen
HERMES [hə:́ rmi:z]
◦ A Greek god; Mercury the messenger
J.K Rowling
◦ HER + MY +OH +KNEE
Korean translation [hἒrmIən]
Knowledge of the Sound system
Nkrumah
◦ A former president of Ghana
◦ Initial sounds pronounced as the ending of
sink
Nekrumah or Enkrumah
(native speakers of English)
NATURE OF HUMAN LANGUAGE
ARBITRARY
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
FORM AND MEANING
Arbitrary relationship
Twi ɔdaŋ nsa
Russian dom ruka
Spanish casa mano
French maison main
English house hand
The arbitrary relationship
between
form (sounds )
and
meaning (concepts)
Arbitrariness between form and meaning
- CARTOON: Herman p. 6
- Pterodactyl vs. Ron
- Romeo & Juliet
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet
Arbitrariness vs. conventionality
- The arbitrary relationship becomes
conventional with time.
- We regard the use of a particular
word with its sound as just natural
with its repeated use.
EXCEPTIONS to arbitrariness
1) Sound symbolism
- buzz, murmur,
- cock-a-doodle-doo vs. kukkokiekuu
2) Sounds having concepts
- glare, glaze, glance, glimpse
NATURE OF HUMAN LANGUAGE
THE CREATIVITY
The CREATIVITY of Linguistic Knowledge
Noam Chomsky
Knowing a language means being able
to produce new sentences never
spoken before and to understand
sentences never heard before.
Creativity
This is the house.
This is the house that Jack built.
This is the malt that lay in the house
that Jack built.
This is the dog that worried the cat
that killed the rat that ate the malt
that lay in the house that Jack built.
Infinite set of sentences
This is the farmer sowing the corn, that kept
the cock that crowed in the morn, that waked
the priest all shaven and shorn, that married the
man all tattered and torn, that kissed the maiden
all forlorn, that milked the cow with the
crumpled horn, that tossed the dog,
that worried the cat,
that killed the rat,
that ate the malt,
that lay in the house that jack built.
Chomsky’s view
All persons who know a language do
create new sentences when you speak and
understand new sentences created by
others.
Can you find any dictionary that list all the
possible sentences?
=> We use a fewer number of rules!
Evidence of the lg system
The wug test ->
◦ a wug – two ____
Overgeneralization
◦ eat-eated (x)
Knowledge of (Non)Sentences
Our knowledge of a language
determines which strings of words are
which are not sentences.
Grammaticality judgment (p. 291)
The asterisk* is used before examples
that speakers find ungrammatical.
Grammaticality Judgment Task (p. 291)
a. John kissed the little old lay who
owned the shaggy dog.
b.*Who owned the shaggy dog John
kissed the little old lady.
c. John is difficult to love.
d. It is difficult to love John
Grammaticality Judgment Task (p. 291)
e. John is anxious to go.
f. *It is anxious to go John.
g. John, who was a student, flunked
his exams.
h.*Exams his flunked student a was
who John.
Knowledge of (Non)Sentences
Our knowledge of a language determines
which strings of words are well-formed
sentences, and which are not.
In addition to knowing the sounds and
words of the language, our linguistic
knowledge includes rules for forming
sentences and making judgments about
the grammaticality of sentences.
Knowledge of (Non)Sentences
These rules must be finite in length and
number for us to store in our brains.
By using the finite number of rules, we
can produce and understand an infinite
set of new sentences.
They are unconscious rules acquired as
we develop language in the childhood.
