Intro to Linguistics Reviewer PDF

INTRO TO LINGUISTICS REVIEWER Written by: Justin Isabel D. Ocsan Mark Cj R. Alvarado 1. VIEWS OF LANGUAGE 1.1 Structuralists - They see language by its structure. They believe that if one sees how the systems of language work, one can learn it. They s...

INTRO TO LINGUISTICS REVIEWER Written by: Justin Isabel D. Ocsan Mark Cj R. Alvarado 1. VIEWS OF LANGUAGE 1.1 Structuralists - They see language by its structure. They believe that if one sees how the systems of language work, one can learn it. They see language as a self-contained system where elements are defined by their relationships within the system. - Some of the remarkable beliefs of structuralists are: Language is a means of communication Language is primarily vocal - Speech is a primary concern of language and the written form is just a graphic representation of language. Language is a system - It is made up of different elements for the encoding of meaning, namely: phonemes (sounds), morphemes (words), tagmemes (phrases/sentences/clauses). Language is arbitrary 1.2 Transformationalist - They believe that language is innate to humans and universal. They believe that the language rules are universal and every being would eventually find ways to transform input into intelligible language. It emphasizes the transformation of linguistic structures, particularly how sentences can transform from one form to another while retaining the meaning. - Some of the remarkable beliefs of transformationalists are: Language is a mental phenomenon. It is not mechanical. Language is innate to human beings. Language is universal. 1.3 Functionalist - Functionalists highlight how language serves a purpose in conveying meaning and facilitating social interaction. For them, language is a way for expressing emotion, persuading people, giving information, and interaction with one another. - This view is far from the other views as this focuses more on meaning than the structure of language. 1.4 Interactionist - They believe that language is a vital tool for establishing and maintaining interpersonal relations and performing social transactions between individuals. - Interactionist principles are basically derived from the socio-cultural theory of Levinsky Vygotsky and the Experiential theory of Jean Piaget and John Dewey. 2. THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE Language is symbolic. Our use of symbolic language has three distinct qualities; arbitrary, ambiguous, and abstract. (Clancy, et. al., 2010) Arbitrary - Communication is only possible because speakers of the same language agreed that a certain word (symbol) corresponds to that meaning. Communication is successful when the meaning of the symbol is shared. Ambiguous - Language is also considered ambiguous because of the many potential meanings. For this, we rely on the context of the subject to know what the symbols mean. Abstract Language is rule-governed. In order for communication to succeed, we have to have shared meaning. To do this, we agreed upon a shared rule to help make sense of the symbols we use to communicate. For this, we have three general rules that we follow; semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic. Semantic - Is used to help us identify the meaning of a word. These are the context clues that help us determine the different meanings of the same word. For example, the word run has multiple meanings. “I have to run some errands,” “I’m going for a run tomorrow morning” but we are able to find the meaning of it using the context surrounding the word. Syntactic - These are rules that help us with language structure and arrangement. In the English language, the most common rule of syntax is subject-verb-direct formulas. For example, “Justin ate an apple.” There’s another aspect of syntax that influences us which is grammar. This includes using punctuation marks to make your sentences more inherent. For example, “Let’s eat grandma.” and “Let’s eat, grandma.” The first sentence implies that what we are going to eat is grandma, while the second sentence implies that we are inviting grandma to eat. Pragmatic - These rules help us choose a more appropriate way of using the language depending on situations. For example, you are conversing with your boss or professors. Using a formal language is advisable than using casual language that we usually use to address other people. 3. CHARACTERISTICS OF LANGUAGE Conventional and Non-instinctive  - Language is brought about by evolution and strengthened with convention. Every language is a convention in the community, a product of a cooperative mind. People communicate spontaneously and patterns of communication are not planned. - Language is non-instinctive since none is born with the spontaneity to speak any language. It is learned through interaction and socialization. Language is not biologically automated but culturally determined. Productivity and Creativity - “A rose by another name would smell as sweet” - William Shakespeare - Notice how Shakespeare associates the object “rose” to its distinguishing characteristics “sweet” scent as if these two words are interchangeable yet the description of the smell of the object is a specific attribute of a rose. The images that he created do not only limit the two words “rose” and “sweet”, but to multifarious metaphors, which generate other words. - This means that every reader or listener is allowed to link words as to the limits of his imagination. Without specific rules set. Duality - Human language comprises two sub-system: the sound system and the meaning system. Predetermined sound combinations create units of meaning. - Different combinations of sounds produce syntactic categories, units, and constituents that create more sophisticated and meaningful utterances. - Language duality is what gives language expressive power since meaningless sounds are combined according to rules to form meaningful words. Displacement - Unlike animal communication that is context-bound, human language is context-free. Human beings are capable of narrating events and situations without actually living them at the moment. - Only humans are capable of recounting events that occurred before or the vision of what happens next. - The property of displacement explains why humans are capable of recalling stories that happened or even creating stories that may not be realistically possible, such as fiction. Humanness - Language is innate to human beings. No species other than humans are gifted with language. Humans are endowed with physical attributes for them to acquire language. Language has complex structures of sounds and meanings, which animals could not comprehend. - Humans could clearly distinguish concrete identifiable symbols through the use of language, however, animal communication is often non-discrete. 4. Language Functions General Functions a. Interpersonal - Language is used to interact, establish and maintain a relationship, influence behavior, express a point of view or elicit others’ point of view. b. Performative - When language is used to do things or perform or report an action, the language function is performative. c. Expressive - Verbal communication is always used to meet the needs to express oneself. When one uses language to express feelings, the language function is expressive. This reports attitudes and emotions. Jakobson’s Function of Language - Roman Jakobson was influenced by Karl Buhler’s organon model. Adding poetic, phatic and metalingual functions. - Jakobson’s Function includes: a. Referential - The use of language to convey facts, information, or knowledge about the world. b. Emotive - The expression of emotions, feelings and attitudes through language. c. Conative - Employing language to influence or persuade others, often used in commands or requests. d. Phatic - Maintaining social relationships by using language for small talk and everyday functions. e. Metalingual - Using language to explain the use of language itself. f. Poetic - The use of language for artistic or creative purposes, such as poetry, storytelling or wordplay. Halliday’s Function of Language - Michael Halliday categorized two functions of language, Meta-function and Micro-function. - Halliday’s Meta-function: a. Ideational - involves the natural world and human consciousness. This is concerned with creating and maintaining a notion of experience, which is both experiential and logical. b. Experiential - denotes the speaker’s choice of linguistic elements that will make him to make meaning. This is mostly illustrated when you interact with your surroundings and use the language to construct an abstract prototype of your experience. c. Logical - denotes logical-semantic associations, where the relationship between one clausal unit and another is established. d. Interpersonal - about the world of people working together. This seeks to create and uphold social relationships. This includes sentences and grammatical choices that allow a person to enact interpersonal relations.  e. Textual function - comprises all the grammatical systems needed to create relevance to context, through which language creates a semiotic world of its own. - Halliday’s Micro-functions: He looked further at the language as constructed by interaction, rather than acquired. He believes that “what the child hears is functionally related to the observable situations around him.” a. Instrumental - used when a child expresses what they want. The use of language to communicate needs, express desire, choices and preferences. Using language as an instrument, one can get things done. b. Regulatory - done by the use of verbal language.This refers to the use of language to control and regulate behavior. It is concerned with influencing people to do things for one another. c. Interactional - often used to develop a relationship and smoothen interaction. d. Personal - used to convey information based on a personal level such as emotions and attitudes and the identity of the speaker. 5. BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS Macro - deals with broader aspects of language. This is divided into two parts, Inter-disciplinary and Intra-disciplinary. Inter-disciplinary linguistics studies linguistics in relation to other disciplines such as geography, sociology, psychology, neurology and so on. a. Sociolinguistics - How the study of language serves and is shaped by the social nature of human beings. In its broadest conception, sociolinguistics analyzes the many and diverse ways in which social and language intertwine. b. Psycholinguistics - A field that talks about the combination of psychology and linguistics to gain a deeper understanding of human language. It includes perception, memory, attention, learning, and problem-solving. c. Neurolinguistics - A study about how language is represented in the brain, as well as how and where the brain stores language knowledge. It emphasizes what occurs in our brains during language acquisition and when we apply this knowledge to use. d. Computational linguistics - looks at the modeling natural language based on rules from a computer point of view. It is the part of linguistics that looks at how computer science techniques can be used to look at language and speech and change it. e. Stylistics - Is a branch of linguistics that looks at and tries to figure out style and tone in both spoken and written languages. f. Geography Linguistics - also called dialect geography, is the study of how a language changes from one place to another language.  g. Cognitive linguistics - first appeared in the 1970s. This studies language, the mind, and sociocultural experience. Intra-Disciplinary is a deal made with the study of linguistics in its own field. a. Theoretical linguistics - also called as general linguistics, is the study of concrete theories that scholars of language have put forward about different parts of linguistics. b. Descriptive linguistics - about describing and analyzing how a language works and is used by a certain group of speakers at a certain time. c. Applied linguistics - looks at the structure of language and how it affects communication. It also looks at how language is learned, how to learn a second language, and how the social or cultural environment affects language. d. Historical linguistics - Also termed diachronic linguistics, is indeed the scientific study of how language changes over time. e. Comparative linguistics - is a branch of linguistics that looks at how different languages are. It is a part of historical linguistics that focuses on comparing to find out the changes over time. Micro - is the study of language, including how it sounds (phonetics and phonology), how it is put together (morphology and syntax), how it means (semantics), and in context (pragmatics). a. Phonetics - is the study of how language sounds. It looks at how sounds are made, how they travel, and how people hear them. Phonetics is broken down to: - Articulatory: deals with the study of how speech sounds are made. - Acoustic: examines the physical qualities of sounds as they are transferred from the lips, to the air and received by the eardrum. - Auditory: deals with the study of how the ear, auditory nerve, and brain always respond to speech sound. b. Phonology - is the study of how sounds are put together as units of speech in each language. It also looks at the rules for how sounds are divided into small sounds in each language. c. Morphology - deals with how words are made, how they are used, and how small letters are used to make words. It looks at how words are broken up into small parts that mean something (morphemes). d. Semantics - is the study of what words mean. It’s about learning how words are put together and how to make sentences that create meaning. e. Pragmatics - it is concerned with the meaning of language as well, but it concentrates on actual meaning in context rather than individual word meaning. 6. LINGUISTICS THEORIES AND MODELS LINGUISTIC THEORIES Natural Order Hypothesis - Krashen claimed that there is a natural or predictable order by which all learners acquire language. This order, however, has nothing to do with the simplicity or complexity of grammatical features and the way these features are taught. This is similar to how children acquire their first language or how foreigners learn new language. The Monitor Hypothesis - While our acquired competence is responsible for our language production such as our utterance, the result of leaning (learned competence) functions as a monitor, editing or self-correcting our language output. The Input Hypothesis - It explains that language skills cannot be taught directly, because they should be acquired through an emergent process, naturally occurring on their own. The best way and perhaps the only way to acquire language, according to Krashen. Affective-filter Hypothesis - This acts like a screen or an opening that either facilities or blocks meaningful inputs from reaching the language acquisition part of the brain. According to Krashen, affective variables including anxiety, self-confidence, motivation, and stress play crucial roles in taking in the “inputs”. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE MODEL Grammatical competence - Grammatical competence, also known as linguistic competence, includes the ability to create grammatically correct utterances, incorporating the linguistic knowledge of morphology, phonology, syntax and semantics. Sociolinguistic competence - Sociolinguistic competence is concerned with the appropriateness of the utterances. This includes the learner’s ability to apply linguistic knowledge in different communicative functions in various sociolinguistic contexts. Discourse competence - Is concerned with the learner’s mastery of producing coherent and cohesive language outputs in the modes of listening, reading and writing. Strategic competence - Refers to the learner’s ability to solve problems during communication. This includes their compensatory strategies in case of communication difficulties.  7. DISTINCTIONS OF LINGUISTIC APPROACHES DESCRIPTIVE vs PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR - Descriptive grammar describes how language is used naturally, while prescriptive grammar dictates how it should be used according to norms. SYNCHRONIC vs DIACHRONIC LINGUISTICS - Synchronic linguistics studies language at a specific point in time, while diachronic linguistics examines language changes over time. LANGUE vs PAROLE - Langue refers to the underlying system of language, while parole refers to actual language use in context. LANGUAGE COMPETENCE vs LANGUAGE PERFORMANCE - Language competence refers to the knowledge of language rules, while language performance relates to the practical use of language in communication. ETIC vs EMIC - Etic perspective involves an external view of language, while emic perspective considers internal viewpoints and meanings within a specific culture or community. SYNTAGMATIC vs PARADIGMATIC - Syntagmatic relationships involve the sequential order of linguistic elements in a sentence, while paradigmatic relationships involve associative connections between elements. References: Christian Matthew Enriquez., Introduction to Linguistics Reviewer (Summary)., Pg. 9-15 and 19-30. https://www.britannica.com/science/structuralism-linguistics https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/micro-and-macro-linguistics/266139606 https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english/english-grammar/functions-of-language/ https://www.studocu.com/ph/document/university-of-perpetual-help-system-jonelta/principles-an d-theories-of-language-acquisition-and-learning/theories-of-language-and-its-influences-on-lang uage-teaching/30982837 https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Communication/Interpersonal_Communication/Interp ersonal_Communication%3A_Context_and_Connection_(ASCCC_OERI)/04%3A_Verbal_Elem ents_of_Communication/4.02%3A_The_Nature_of_Language