Intro to Language PDF
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This document is an introduction to language that delves into the properties of language including arbitariness, productivity, displacement, discreteness, duality, and cultural transmission. It further goes on to discuss how people understand, produce, and learn language. The document also includes a brief reflection.
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Intro to Language Is this language? If this isn’t language, what is??? Language…or Communication? Communication Language c What is Language? • Language is a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enable us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences • Six Propert...
Intro to Language Is this language? If this isn’t language, what is??? Language…or Communication? Communication Language c What is Language? • Language is a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enable us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences • Six Properties • • • • • • Arbitrariness Productivity Displacement Discreteness Duality Cultural Transmission Arbitrariness Maison Dom Casa Haus House Productivity (aka Creativity) Word-Level • The capacity for elements of the communication system to be combined to form new meaning which the speaker and listener may never have before, yet understands perfectly Sentence-Level Displacement • Ability to speak about things and events other than those occurring here and now • • • • Past Future Other Locations Things that do not exist in real life Discreteness & Duality • Discreteness: Speech is comprised of a small set of acoustically distinct units or elements • /b/ vs. /p/ • Duality: Particular sound elements have no intrinsic meaning, but combine to form structures (e.g., words, phrases) that do have meaning • Big • Pig Bit Pit Cultural Transmission • Language is culturally transmitted, not inherited • The first language a baby speaks is determined by the culture they are born into Introduction to Psycholinguistics Four Main Goals 1. Comprehension: How do people understand spoken and written language? 2. Representation: How is language represented in the mind? 3. Speech Production: How do people produce language? 4. Acquisition: How do people learn language? Reflection! • So-called language mavens have tasked themselves with preserving the integrity of a language and balk at any changes to the way language is used • One question that gets a lot of traction is whether texting is “killing” language? • Linguist John McWhorter argues against this notion in his TedTalk: https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk?language =en • Summarize McWhorter’s argument. How is texting “writing how we speak?” • Do you know any language mavens in your life (perhaps you are one)? What is the motivation behind policing grammar and language use? What is it preserving really?
