Introducing Linguistics (HBET1103 T1) PDF

Topic  Introducing Linguistics 1 LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this topic, you should be able to: 1. Describe what is studied in linguistics; 2. Define fundamental concepts in linguistics; 3. Explain the d...

Topic  Introducing Linguistics 1 LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this topic, you should be able to: 1. Describe what is studied in linguistics; 2. Define fundamental concepts in linguistics; 3. Explain the design features of language; and 4. Discuss the concerns of different subfields of modern linguistics.  INTRODUCTION Linguistics is the scientific study of language. People who study languages are called linguists and we will understand what linguistics is by looking at what linguists do when they study language. This topic will introduce you to the different aspects of language that is important for a linguist to pay attention to. ACTIVITY 1.1 Try to recall an encounter when you are trying to learn a new foreign language. What do you pay attention to in the new language? In some way, we may be like novice linguists when we are learning a new language. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 2  TOPIC 1 INTRODUCING LINGUISTICS 1.1 WHAT IS LINGUISTICS? Linguistics is the study of language. It describes the basic components of language. All of you know English. English is a language. However, what is language? What does it mean to say you know English? What do you know when you know a language? These are the components of linguistic knowledge and you probably have listed some ideas related to these when you attempted Activity 1.1. Let us have a look at some of these components: (a) Phonetics and Phonology When you know a language, you know the speech sounds of the language. For example you will know that „cat‰ and „kick‰ begin with the same initial sound. You will also know the speech patterns of the language; how speech sounds are combined in that language. For example, you will know that „zug‰ is a possible word in English while „zkik‰ is not, even though you have never heard of either word because they do not exist in English. (b) Morphology You will know some words in the language and what they mean. For example, you probably know the word „tie‰ in English and what it means. You will probably also know that „untie‰ has the meaning of reversing what „tie‰ means. You will know that there are two parts in the word „untie‰ because you know of other words such as „undo‰ and „unzip‰ which also have two components in the word: „un‰ + „do‰ and „un‰ + „zip‰. (c) Syntax You will also know how to combine words to form a sentence when you know a language. For example, you will know that „Maniam loves his son‰ is a grammatical sentence in English; however „Loves Maniam his son‰ is not. You will also know that some sentences are related. For example, you will know that „Joe is sleeping‰ is a statement, while „Is Joe sleeping?‰ is a question. (d) Semantics and Pragmatics You may also know the difference between what is said and what is meant if you know the language well. For example, when someone says „ItÊs really hot‰, he may not be simply describing the condition of the room which is hot but may be indirectly requesting for you to switch on the fan or the air conditioning, or to even open the windows. The literal meaning is covered in semantics while the contextual meaning is covered in pragmatics. These are the core components of linguistic knowledge. We have this knowledge when we know a language. We may not realise that we have this knowledge because sometimes we may not have conscious knowledge of these facts. In the following topics, we will look at each components of linguistics and examine what Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 1 INTRODUCING LINGUISTICS  3 it tells us about language. You may read ahead if you are interested to know more about these components. Topic 2 till Topic 5 introduce these components in more detail. SELF-CHECK 1.1 Match the following definitions with the core areas of linguistics. Phonetics and Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics (a) Study of speech sounds and sound patterns (b) Study of word structure (c) Study of sentence structure (d) Study of literal meaning of words or utterances (e) Study of contextual meaning of utterances 1.2 FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS Before we proceed with the description of what is involved in linguistics, it is important to understand some fundamental concepts that are often assumed in the study of language to avoid misunderstanding as we cover the rest of the topics in this course. To begin, let us first understand how linguistic knowledge is discovered and used. Some linguists are interested in describing a language by observing how native speakers of that particular language use the language. What we mean by native speakers of the language are speakers who grew up acquiring or learning the language from the natural environment. It could either be from: (a) Everyone around him or her speaking that language; or (b) His family members and caretakers speak it and the native speaker grows up speaking that language without necessarily being taught. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 4  TOPIC 1 INTRODUCING LINGUISTICS We may also document the language that is used by a particular group of speakers. This was often done with a pen and writing pad. Now with technology, linguists have become more sophisticated. We may record naturally occurring conversations, discussions and create collections of speech and written texts for analysis. 1.2.1 Mother Tongue Some linguists use the term mother tongue instead of native language to refer to the language that is acquired when you are a child from your mother. In Malaysia, the concept of mother tongue or native language is often not a simple matter as some Malaysians grow up speaking more than one language and they may learn other languages when they start schooling and may be more comfortable using the new language learnt compared to their mother tongue. For example, studies have shown that most Malaysians from the Chinese ethnic background speak at least three to five languages. The other communities in Malaysia are also becoming increasingly bilingual. Some speak two or more languages from birth. We will examine this interesting phenomenon again in Topic 6 when we discuss languages used in bilingual communities. ACTIVITY 1.2 1. What language is your native language? This may be a language that you grew up speaking. You may or may not be able to read and write in this language, but you should be able to understand and speak this language. 2. Are you most proficient in your mother tongue? Do you know anyone who can speak more than one language at the competence level of a native speaker or near-native like? Discuss further. 1.2.2 Language and Literacy Every child will acquire at least one language and will acquire it almost effortlessly by the time he reaches the age of four. He will be able to speak and understand the language without being formally taught the language. This is the nature of language and this is the reason why language is considered as a special endowment of the human species. Literacy skills however, need to be taught. Nobody grows up learning how to read and write without being taught. In fact, not every language has a writing system. Many languages of the world are only spoken languages without a writing system. Therefore, you will need to remember Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 1 INTRODUCING LINGUISTICS  5 the difference between language and literacy. When we talk about language, we usually refer to speaking and comprehension. It would be rare that we refer to reading and writing as these are literacy skills which require effortful learning. 1.2.3 Descriptive and Prescriptive Grammars We started off this topic by drawing upon similarities observed from your experience in learning a new foreign language. However, the way a linguist describes the grammar of a language may be different from the way a language teacher would approach it. Teachers are concerned with you learning what is considered as „grammatical‰ by referring to rules in a grammar book about how to construct sentences and form words in a language. We say teachers are prescriptive in their approach to the grammar of the language. Therefore, the rules that the language teachers refer to are prescriptive grammars. Prescriptive grammars have to be followed. However, most linguists describe a language in order to come up with a descriptive grammar of the language. They depend on the judgement made by the native speakers of the language on how the language is used by the community. For example, if we are to describe Malaysian English, we will find that Malaysians like to use the particle „-lah‰ in their speech. Imagine this situation when you are trying to persuade your friend to help you babysit while you rush to finish your assignment. Your friend may say she does not know how to change the diapers among other excuses. You may end up persuading her by saying „Can-lah, DonÊt worry. I will be here also what? Just need someone to keep an eye on Ah boy while I write my assignment‰. English teachers may label such utterances as ungrammatical or broken English but to a linguist who is trying to understand what is acceptable as a Malaysian variety of English, they will not label these utterances as ungrammatical. They will depend on what is considered as acceptable or used by Malaysian speakers of English. As a Malaysian speaker of English myself, of course we do not use this in writing and formal situations, but this may be the preferred form with close friends as compared to the more formal alternative which may sound distant: „IÊm sure you can do it. DonÊt worry. I will also be here to help. I just need someone to keep an eye on my son while I complete my assignment‰. We will discuss more about varieties of English in Topic 6. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 6  TOPIC 1 INTRODUCING LINGUISTICS Among other speakers of English, there are other examples of prescriptive rules that are found in grammar books about good use of English. However, if we observe native speakers of the language, they do use these constructions or utterances and they are not grammatically incorrect. Let us look at the following examples where prescriptive grammar will say it is „bad‰ grammar to use double negatives, split infinitives and ending a sentence with a preposition (refer to Table 1.1). Table 1.1: Examples of Good and Bad Grammar Prescriptive Grammar Bad Grammar Good Grammar Use of double negative You donÊt know nothing. You donÊt know anything. Split infinitives to badly want something to want badly something to be done to be done Ending a sentence with a Who do you wish to To whom do you wish to preposition donate the money to? donate the money? However, the use of double negative is common in Old English and in African American Vernacular English. It is also common in Middle English to end sentences with prepositions. You will probably feel more comfortable using what is considered as bad grammar as the alternative sounds very formal. The point is, it is important that some rules are prescribed but they are not meant for all situations. Certainly not all grammatical rules of a language is necessarily prescriptive as there could be varieties of the same language that observe different grammar rules. Malaysian English is a good example. What is considered bad in standard formal English is actually good or acceptable in Malaysian English. Linguists try not to impose their own standards of what is considered good or bad but rely on the judgment of the speakers of the language which are usually based on what they would normally say or use. Hence, linguists work with descriptive grammars to describe grammatical rules in the language, while teachers tend to follow a prescriptive grammar as they are concerned with students getting good marks when they are tested for their proficiency of the language. In conclusion, both prescriptive and descriptive grammars are there for rather different purposes. We just need to be aware that there is such a difference when we work with language. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 1 INTRODUCING LINGUISTICS  7 ACTIVITY 1.3 1. Discuss some descriptive rules for the use of Malaysian English. 2. Provide specific examples of utterances which may be acceptable in Malaysian English but not in standard varieties of English. 1.2.4 Linguistic Competence and Performance Another important basic concept in linguistics is the difference between linguistic competence and performance. Linguistic competence refers to the linguistic knowledge that we have of a language. Linguistic performance, on the other hand, refers to how you use the language. We often make judgement about linguistic competence by examining linguistic performance of the person. This is done because we do not have direct access to what we know about a language. Most of our linguistic knowledge operates at the subconscious level. As I mentioned earlier, this knowledge may not operate at the conscious level; however it is there if we know how to elicit it. We may not be able to describe what we know, but we know it. To illustrate how this knowledge may work at the subconscious knowledge, think about how we recognise the faces and voices of our family members, friends and acquaintances. We just know a familiar face or a voice; however we may not be able to describe the features of the face or the voices that help us identify the voice or the face. If you need to describe these features for someone to draw the face, you would need to pay very close attention to specific features of the eyebrows, the shape of the eyes, nose, mouth, jaw and chin, and this may prove to be difficult even though we do recognise the face of the person. Having linguistic knowledge is somewhat similar. You can do things in the language you know, but you may not be able to explain how you know it. Have you had the experience where you know a sentence is grammatically correct or incorrect because it sounds right or wrong but you cannot say what is right or wrong about it? This is an analogy to describe how you use your subconscious knowledge. Most times, we would like to think that there is a match between the observed linguistic performance and what we consider as your linguistic competence. However, we all know that this may not necessarily be the case all the time. Our use of the language is often affected by many different factors. At times, our performance may lag behind our competence. This may happen when there are other factors affecting our performance. For example, you may know English well and would normally speak it flawlessly. However, if you have been working the whole night trying to finish an assignment and have not had any sleep for 48 hours, Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 8  TOPIC 1 INTRODUCING LINGUISTICS you may not be able to speak fluently as you may be extremely tired and your mind is just not quite working right. To give you another example, if you try to speak after visiting the dentist who had just given you an injection to numb your gum and tongue, you would have difficulty speaking accurately. These are examples of poorer performance but these performances do not reflect your linguistic competence. At times your linguistic performance is temporarily compromised because of these other factors; however your linguistic competence remains intact. ACTIVITY 1.4 Examine the following situation and discuss them in terms of linguistic competence and performance. Situation 1: Student A makes an error because he was careless. Situation 2: Student B makes the same error again and again not knowing that it is an error. 1.3 DESIGN FEATURES OF LANGUAGE Is language just a system of communication? Most linguists believe that language is more than just a system of communication. The linguist Charless Hockett developed a list of features to describe what it means to be a language. We will discuss these features by grouping them according to those that are universally shared by all systems of communication, those that are shared by only some systems of communication and those that are unique to the human language. 1.3.1 Features Shared by All Systems of Communication Let us have a look at some features shared by all systems of communication. (a) Mode of Communication Language shares this feature with other systems of communication because language can be used for communication. In a system of communication, messages are sent and received. In the case of sign language, speakers transmit messages in the form of speech or gestures and these messages are decoded by the listener. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 1 INTRODUCING LINGUISTICS  9 (b) Semanticity and Pragmatic Function All signals used in a system of communication must have meaning and function. In other words, communication must be shared by the people using this system of communication or there is a risk of a breakdown. 1.3.2 Features Shared by Some Systems of Communication Now let us have a look at some features shared by some systems of communication. You will find that there are more features here as follows: (a) Interchangeability Some systems of communication can only transmit while others can only receive. A radio station can only transmit messages. You will need to have a call-in programme to allow messages to be received. However, humans can do both transmitting and receiving. We can speak or use sign language, as well as comprehend speech and interpret sign gestures. (b) Cultural Transmission This feature explains why language is not genetically coded. We learn the language of the environment. We speak the language that has been transmitted to us through cultural transmission. Just because our parents speak a particular language, it does not guarantee that we will also acquire the same language unless that language is also used with us. This is something Malaysians will probably experience readily. For example, my mother speaks the Hokkien language as her father speaks only Hokkien, however she never uses this language with us. Instead she uses Cantonese with her children and my father. In addition, she speaks Hakka with my grandmother who only knows Hakka. So, I grew up speaking Cantonese and Hakka because those are the two languages that were transmitted to me in my cultural home environment. As a result, my siblings and I do not speak Hokkien as my mother did not speak it to us. (c) Arbitrariness Signs and signals in a system of communication and the meaning that is assigned to it are arbitrary. In the same way, words in a language and the meaning that are assigned to them are also arbitrary. There is no specific reason as to why a cat is called a „cat‰ in English and „kucing‰ in Bahasa Malaysia, „gato‰ in Spanish, „goyang-i" in Korean and „mao‰ in Mandarin. When you learn a system of communication or language, you have to learn the signs and the meaning. When you learn a new language, you need to learn the words in that language and the meanings of those words too. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 10  TOPIC 1 INTRODUCING LINGUISTICS (d) Discreteness This feature refers to the fact that all signals are units that can be combined to form larger units. For example, every language uses a limited set of speech sounds to encode words in the language. There are restrictions to how you can combine speech sounds to form syllables and there are many possible ways to combine different syllables to form different words. Once we have words, we have ways to combine words into phrases and sentences. Although units in the language may be limited, there are limitless ways to combine these units. 1.3.3 Features Shared by Only Human Languages Other than features shared by all and some systems of communication, there are also features that are shared only by human languages such as: (a) Displacement We can use language to talk about things and events that are happening now. We can also use language to talk about things and events that happened long ago or those that have yet to take place. We can talk about our imagination and create ideas that nobody has seen or experienced or thought about before. This is a unique feature of the human language, but not with other systems of communication which are often much more restricted. (b) Productivity Human language is productive. We may have a limited set of speech sounds or gestures, a limited number of words, but there is no limit to the number of ways we can combine these basic units to form new words and new sentences. However, this does not mean that language has no rules and regulations. All languages are governed by specific rules, however even these rules allow for productivity. ACTIVITY 1.5 1. Can you think of an example of a rule in the English language which describes productivity of the language? 2. Do you think displacement is a good test of whether animals have a system of communication or a language like humans have? Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 1 INTRODUCING LINGUISTICS  11 1.4 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN LINGUISTICS In previous subtopics, we have discussed the study of languages which focuses on describing the grammars of a language. This includes descriptions of the: (a) Sound patterns of the language (phonology); (b) Word structure (morphology) and word meaning (lexical semantics); (c) Sentence structure (syntax); and (d) Meaning of expressions in context (pragmatics). Notice the term „grammar‰ is used here in a very broad sense. The grammar of a language includes more than just rules on how to combine sentences into phrases and sentences. Some linguists focus their attention on doing descriptions of grammar for a specific language. There are many languages in the world that have yet to be described and some of these languages have been classified as endangered languages as the speakers are mostly elders in the communities who are already very old and the number of speakers are very small. The younger members of their communities may not speak the language as a result of language contact or language and education policies. In Malaysia, many of the orang asli languages and the indigenous languages of Sabah and Sarawak fall into this category. There are sporadic efforts made to document these languages before they go extinct as such efforts fulfil two main goals: (a) It helps preserve the cultural identity of indigenous communities in Malaysia; and (b) It presents an opportunity to other linguists who are interested to examine universal patterns in language to test their theories with a newly described language. Some linguists, however, focus their work on documenting variations within a particular language. For example, various dialects of Bahasa Malaysia exist in Malaysia. Similarly, it is probably evident that most of us can speak and understand a variety of English that is different from the standard variety spoken in the UK and US. While some may hold a negative attitude towards the Malaysian variety of English, by referring to it with derogative reference such as Manglish or rojak English, others may embrace it as a form of our cultural identity. Whichever side of the fence we may belong to, there is still merit in trying to describe what is unique in this variety and to examine the universal patterns that a particular Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 12  TOPIC 1 INTRODUCING LINGUISTICS language variety possesses. This focus falls within the scope of sociolinguistics, the focus of Topic 6, where we will discuss and examine language and its social context. However, the development of modern linguistics is not limited to just descriptions of a particular language or its variety. Modern linguistics has also been influenced by developments in other fields of study which examine the interaction of language and other fields such as education, sociology and psychology. For example, language teachers and applied linguists who are interested in the applications of linguistic knowledge to possible enhancements in the teaching and learning of a specific language now contribute to developments in a subfield called second language acquisition. It is now widely acknowledged that the way we learn a first language is different from the way we approach our first language or mother tongue. Researchers in psychology, particularly human development psychologists, focus on understanding the processes involved in the acquisition of the mother tongue. These researchers continue to study first language acquisition and the challenges that are presented in understanding language delay or language impairments in the development process. Work is also focused on identifying good diagnostic tools in bilingual and multilingual contexts. These topics will be examined further in Topic 7 (Psycholinguistics) and Topic 8 (Language Acquisition). Developments in modern linguistics are also influenced by studies comparing human linguistic capacities with natural communication systems of animals. Language in its biological context will be discussed further in Topic 9, while unity and diversity in languages and differences that makes each language unique will be discussed in Topic 10. ACTIVITY 1.6 Watch the following online video by cognitive psychologist, Steven Pinker. He describes the study of language and the developments in linguistics as a means to understand how the human brain works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-B_ONJIEcE Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 1 INTRODUCING LINGUISTICS  13  Linguistics is the study of language.  The core components of linguistics include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics.  Phonetics and phonology deal with the study of speech sounds and the organisation of sound patterns in a language.  Morphology refers to the study of word structure, while syntax looks at how words are strung together to form sentences.  Semantics deals with literal meaning, while pragmatics focuses on the meaning in context.  Linguistic knowledge is elicited from the knowledge that native speakers have of their language. Linguistic knowledge is often unconscious knowledge.  Language is not writing. Many languages in the world do not have a writing system.  The ability to speak and understand language is available to every child. Most children acquire language rather effortlessly.  Reading and writing are considered literacy skills that must be taught and learnt.  Language is not just a system of communication. Two design features of language; displacement and productivity are unique to human language.  The development of modern linguistics has resulted in the development of new subfields such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and second language acquisition. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 14  TOPIC 1 INTRODUCING LINGUISTICS Arbitrariness Native speakers Cultural transmission Phonetics Descriptive grammar Phonology Discreteness Pragmatics Displacement Prescriptive grammar Language acquisition Productivity Linguistic competence Psycholinguistics Linguistic performance Semantics Linguistics Sociolinguistics Morphology Syntax Mother tongue Bergmann, A., Hall, K. C., & Ross, S. M. (2004). Language files: Materials for an introduction to language and linguistics. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press. McGregor, B. W. (2015). Linguistics: An introduction (2nd ed.). London, England: Bloomsbury. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)