Origin and Evolution of Language

• Languages are the result of a "natural history" derived from a single first language spoken in Africa, known as proto-language.

Divine Origin Theory

• This theory suggests that language originated from a divine source, given by God.
• Over time, this single language became corrupted into diverse languages.

Evolutionary Theory

• Language evolved as an addition to early communication methods, such as pointing, gesturing, grunting, and cursing.
• "Yo he ho" theory proposes language began with rhythmic, onomatopoeic sounds.
  • Natural sounds like "splash" or "bang" formed the core of basic vocabulary.
• "Posh-pooh" theory suggests natural sounds are related to emotions.
  • People constructed language from cries and emotional expressions of pain, anger, and joy.

Typological Classification

• This is a classification of languages into structural types.
• Classifications are based on phonology, vocabulary, and grammar.
• Language isolates have no known relatives and do not descend from any other language.
  • Basque is an example with 129 isolates.

Goal of Linguistics

• Linguistics studies the nature of languages.
• Establishes a theory of languages and describing them.

Synchronic Linguistics

• The study of a language at a specific point in time, either present or past.

Diachronic Linguistics

• Also known as historical linguistics.
• Studies how language changes over time.

Language Characteristics

• Language is arbitrary, with no inherent connection between a word's form and its meaning.
• Language is productive.
  • It has creativity or open endedness
  • It has infinite potential to create new signals, words, or utterances.
• Language is culturally transmitted from on generation to the next.
  • It is not biologically inherited.

Entailment and Contradictory Sentences

• Entailment describes the relationship between two sentences where the truth of one necessitates the truth of the other.
  • For example, because Sam eats fast, Sam must eat.
• Sentence are contradictory if it is impossible for both sentences to be true at the same time and in the same circumstances.

Style Shifting

• A change from one way of speech to the one of another individual.
• Involves modifying speech style towards or away from the perceived style of the person being addressed, adapting to accommodate the listener.
• Convergence adapts speech to reduce social distance, using forms similar to the interlocutor.
• Divergence adapts a speech style using forms that are distinctly different to mark a difference.

Jargon

• Jargon uses special technical terminology that is specific to a science, profession, trade, or occupation.
• It is often defined by professional status.
• Idiolects are an individual way of speaking and a personal dialect.

Speech Act

• An action performed by a speaker with an utterance, performing the act they describe.
• Declarative sentences state
• Imperative sentences command
• Interrogative sentences question

Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

• Direct speech acts use structures in accordance with their basic functions.
• Indirect speech acts use structures with one function to accomplish something else, such as a request.

Types of Speech Acts

• Locutionary acts involve saying something with a certain meaning, such as "Uhm."
• Illocutionary acts cause a certain effect on the hearer, such as "There's a spider in your ear."
• Perlocutionary acts reflect the speaker’s intention, such as saying "Hello."

Acts Defined by Social Conventions

• An example, "How could you have done it?" shows this

Felicity Conditions

• Conditions that must be fulfilled for an act to be carried out properly.

Source and Target Domain

• Source domains are the expressions used for understanding.
• Target domains are what is being described to understand something.

Orientational Metaphors

• Linearly structure a concept.
  • Example: "Happy is up" - used in the phrase "You are in high spirits."

Ontological Metaphors

• They project an entity or substance onto something that does not originally have that status.
  • Example: "Activities are containers" as in "I put a lot of energy into doing the task."

Structural Metaphors

• They structure one kind of experience or activity in terms of another.
  • Example: "Time is money" as in "You are wasting my time."

FACE

• Public self image the speaker have and atend too
• This can be, maintained, enhanced or lost

Faces

• Positive face is the desire to be desirable to others.
• Negative face is the desire to not be imposed upon by others.
• Positive politeness addresses positive face concerns, showing prosocial concern.
• Negative politeness addresses negative face concerns, acknowledging potential threats to the other person’s face.

Face Saving Acts

• Positive face fulfillment involves the need to be connected, to belong, and to be a member of a group.
  • Actions show solidarity and highlight a common goal.
• Negative face fulfillment involves the need to be independent and free from imposition.
• Actions show concern and minimize imposition.

Face Threatening Acts (FTA)

• Represent a threat to another person's self-image and can be done in a number of ways.
• On-record strategies are the most threatening, using direct speech with clear communicative intention.
• Off-record strategies are the least threatening, using indirect speech without clear communicative intention.

Contrasting Perspectives of Mother Tongue Learning

• Behaviourist perspectives (Skinner) state that children learn their mother tongue through simple imitation
  • This involves listening to and repeating what the speaker is saying.
• Universal Grammar (Chomsky) states language is innate.
  • It is a predisposition that combines a finite number of words to compose an infinite number of sentences.
  • Exclusively focusing on grammatical sentence structure rather than meaningful content.

Generative Grammar

• Represents a set of rules that enables language comprehension.
• Individuals are usually unaware of them.
• Language universals mean all human languages share certain properties and converge on the same grammar despite different inputs.

Grammar Components

• Principles are highly abstract properties of grammar.
  • They underlie the rules of specific languages, forming a part of a child's innate linguistic knowledge.
• Parameters set limits on the options available to a specific language.
  • These parameter settings cause language to exhibit variations in grammar.

Language Competence and Performance

• Competence is the knowledge we possess about how to speak a language.
• Performance is the real-life linguistic output.

Language Distribution

• Describes where different languages are spoken globally.
• Some are spoken in many countries, while others are confined to small areas due to historical, travel, and cultural factors.

Explore theories on the origin of language, including divine and evolutionary perspectives. Understand how languages may have evolved from early communication methods. Also learn about classifying languages based on their structural types.