What is Language? PDF

What is Language? 1 1 Linguistic Knowledge The capacity to produce sounds that signify certain meanings and to understand or interpret the sounds produced by others....

What is Language? 1 1 Linguistic Knowledge The capacity to produce sounds that signify certain meanings and to understand or interpret the sounds produced by others. 2 2 1  Linguistic Knowledge Knowledge of the Sound System: 1) The Inventory of Sounds: What sounds (or signs) are in that language and what sounds are not. 2) Example of speakers of English: Knowing the sound system of a language includes knowing which sounds may start a word, end a word, and follow each other.  The name of the former president of Ghana was Nkrumah. Speakers of English may mispronounce it like Nekrumah or Enkrumah. 3 3 Linguistic Knowledge Knowledge of Words: 1) Certain sound sequences signify certain concepts or meanings. 2) The relationship between speech form (sounds) and the meaning (concepts) is an arbitrary one in spoken and sign language. 4 4 2  Linguistic Knowledge Knowledge of Words: 3) These signs become conventional , the shape or movement of the hands does not reveal the meaning of the gestures in sign languages. 4) There is some sound symbolism in language- that is, words whose pronunciation suggests the meaning.  Most languages contain onomatopoeic words like buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. 5 5 The Creativity of Linguistic Knowledge Knowledge of a language enables us to: 1. Combine words to form phrases and phrases to form sentences. 2. To understand and produce new sentences.  Noam Chomsky refers to this ability as part of the creative aspect of language use. 6 6 3  Knowledge of the Sentences and Non- sentences Rules For Forming Sentences:  Must be finite in length and number so that they can be stored in our finite brains.  Must permit us to form and understand an infinite set of new sentences.  Are unconscious constraints on sentence formation that are learned when language is acquired in childhood. 7 7 Linguistic Knowledge and Performance  linguistic competence : It is what you know.  linguistic performance: How you use this knowledge in actual speech production and comprehension.  Performance Error: We may stammer, or pause, or produce slips of the tongue. 8 8 4  What is Grammar?  The grammar of a language consists of the sounds and sound patterns, the basic units of meaning such as words, and the rules to combine all of these to form sentences with the desired meaning.  It represents our linguistic competence. 9 9 What is Grammar? Descriptive Grammars:  It describes your basic linguistics knowledge. It explains how it is possible for you to speak and understand, and it tells what you know about the sounds, words, phrases, and sentences of your language.  When we say that a sentence is grammatical, we mean that it conforms to the rules of both grammars; conversely, an ungrammatical sentence deviates in some way from these rules. 10 10 5  What is Grammar? Prescriptive Grammars:  There are certain “correct” forms that all educated people should use in speaking and writing.  They wish of prescribe rather that describe the rules of grammar, which gave rise to the writing of prescriptive grammar. 11 11 Prescriptive Grammars  The rise of a new middle class, who want their children to speak the language of upper class, led to the publication of Prescriptive Grammars.  Prestige dialect: the dialect usually spoken by people in position of power, and the one deemed correct by prescriptive grammarians. 12 12 6  Teaching Grammars 1. Teaching grammars are used in school to fulfill language requirements. 2. Teaching grammars states explicitly the rules of the language, list the words and their pronunciations, and aid in learning a new language or dialect. 13 13 Teaching Grammars 1. Teaching grammars assume that the student already knows one language and compares the grammar of the target language with the grammar of the native language. 2. The meaning of a word is given by providing a gloss- the parallel word in the student’s native language, such as maison, “house” in French assuming that the students knows the meaning of the gloss “house”. 14 14 7  Language Universals The grammar includes everything speakers know about their language. 1. This sound system is called Phonology. 2. The rules of word formation Morphology. 3. The rules of sentence formation, Syntax. 4. It also includes the vocabulary of words- the dictionary or Lexicon. 15 15 Language Universals “laws” of a language, and the laws that pertain to all languages representing the universal properties of all languages constitute a universal grammar. 16 16 8  Animal Languages Is language the exclusive property of the human species? 17 17 Animal “Languages” 1. Language is a system that relates sounds or gestures to meanings. 2. When animals vocally imitate human utterances, it does not mean they possess language. 3. Most animals possess some kind of “signaling” communication system. 4. These gestures are invariant. One never finds a creative spider changing or adding to the courtship ritual of his species. 5. The kinds of messages that can be conveyed are limited, and messages are stimulus controlled. 18 18 9