Introduction to Linguistics

• Linguistics scientifically studies languages.
• Linguistics does not determine particular language structures to deter understanding.

Linguistics Sub-Fields and Definitions

• Syntax: study of sentence structure.
• Pragmatics: study of language use and communication.
• Morphology: study of the structure of words.
• Phonology: study of sound structure.
• Semantics: study of meaning and denotation.
• Phonetics: physical study of speech sounds.
• L1 is the first language.
• L2 is the second language.

Applied Linguistics

• Applied Linguistics is linguistics in action.
• Applied Linguistics does not create unchanging solutions and practices for language-related problems.

Applied Linguistics Areas

• Discourse analysis is an area.
• Multiculturalism is an area.
• Second language acquisition is an area.
• Lexicography is an area.
• Translation is an area.
• Language is not created by the use of tongues, lips, ears, or hands.
• Language is a matter of the mind.
• Language functions are centralized in the left hemisphere in a certain percentage of right-handed people.
• Among some left-handed and ambidextrous people, about 30%, language is centralized in one hemisphere of the brain.
• Broca's area helps with speech.
• Wernicke's area helps in understanding language.

Aphasia

• Broca's aphasia occurs when there is damage to Broca's area, which is related to trouble producing speech.
• Wernicke's aphasia causes trouble understanding other speech and incoherent speech.
• A person with both Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia has global aphasia.
• Arcuate fasciculus connects Broca's and Wernicke's areas in the brain.
• Damage to the arcuate fasciculus results in difficulty conducting information between listening and speaking.
• Agraphia affects writing.
• Anomia is the aphasia where people have an inability to name things.
• Because the brain breaks up small tasks into larger tasks to be handled in different parts, it is unlikely that someone will keep their ability to communicate when there is localized brain damage.
• Synaptic plasticity is not the brain's inability to reassign functions.
• If the corpus callosum is severed, communication will be disrupted between the two hemispheres of the brain.
• Because your brain is contralaterally organized, a person with a severed corpus callosum could look at something with their right eye and name it correctly if their left hemisphere is where their language is processed.
• Most scholars group languages into a number of relative families.
• It is thought that written language is not as old as the spoken language itself.
• In language theories, (Proto) Indo-European is viewed as the source of all languages.
• Comparative linguistics is the study of relationships among languages.

Language Families

• North Germanic language is Swedish
• Celtic language is Welsh
• Slavic language is Russian
• Italic language is French
• West Germanic Language is English
• Hellenic language is Greek

Historical Linguistics Timeline

• 5th Century A.D.: Old English becomes the official language of Britain, Vikings invaded Britain from Scandinavia
• 9th Century A.D.: written standardization of word spelling becomes necessary.
• 10th Century A.D.: Norman French becomes the language of the nobility and the business in England.
• 11th Century A.D.: English, the language of the Angles, displaced the Celtic language.
• 13th Century A.D.: Middle English
• 15th Century: first English dictionary was published
• A sub-form variant of a language that is still generally comprehensible is called a dialect.
• Pronunciation of a language is accent.
• The speech pattern of the language for one individual at a particular time in their life is idiolect.
• Evolving from a pidgin, it serves as the native language of a speech community, that is creole.
• A simplified vocabulary and grammar of a language or dialect, which is used for communication between people of different speech, is pidgin.