Intro to Linguistic

The origin of language

The divine source

Divine source is an opinion that language come from God. In most religion, there appears to be a divine source that provides human with language. However, according to some experiments such as, Psammetichus, an Egyptian pharaoh in 600 B.C, and James IV of Scotland in around A.D 1500 show that children who living without access to human speech in their early years grow up with no language at all.

The natural sound source

 It is an opinion that the beginning of human speech is based on the concept of “natural sound”. For examples, some modern language have some words with pronunciations which seem to “echo” naturally occurring sound such as, bang, boom, etc.

It also been suggested that the original sounds of language came from natural cries of emotion, such as pain, anger, and joy. For example, OUCH came to have its painful connotations.

Another theory also suggest that the sound of a person involved in physical effort could be the source of our language, especially when that physical effort involved several people and had to be coordinated. For example, a group of early human might develop a set of grunts and groans and swear words that they used when lifting and carrying bits of trees or lifeless mammoths.

The oral gesture source

It is an opinion that the origin of the sounds of language involves a link between physical gesture and orally produced sounds. For example, the movement of tongue (oral gesture) in a “goodbye” message as representative of the waving of the hand or arm (physical gesture) for similar message.

Physiological adaptation

It is an opinion that the origin of human speech concentrates on some of physical aspect of humans, which are not shared with other creatures. For example, human teeth are upright, not slanting outwards like those of apes, and they are roughly even in height. Such characteristics are not needed for eating, but they are extremely helpful in making sounds such as, f, v, and th.

Speech and writing

Language has two major functions. Despite language has interactional function (language that is used to interact with each other), language also has transactional function whereby humans use their linguistic abilities to communicate knowledge, skill, and information. The desire for a more permanent record of what was known must have been the primary motivation for the development of marking and encryptions and eventually of written language.

Development of writing

Pictograms and ideograms

Pictograms are some of the pictures come to represent particular images in consistent way. For example, * might come to be used for the sun.

Ideogram or idea writing is picture that use as symbol that is used by everyone to represent a meaning.

The distinction between pictograms and ideograms is essentially a difference in  the relationship between the symbol and the entity it represents.

Logograms

Logogram is a symbol that represents a word. For example is in Chinese written symbols.

Rebus writing

A symbol represents a sound. For example is the word eye.

Syllabic writing

A symbol represents a syllabic. For example is the Japanese writing symbol.

Alphabetic writing

It is essentially a set of written symbols which each represent a single type of sound.

Written English

The form of written English is influenced by other language such as Latin, French, and Dutch.

The properties of language

Communicative versus informative

Communicative signal is something that is conveyed with a language speech.

Informative signal is something that is conveyed with body movement or sound that has no meaning but it is able to be understood as a meaning of something.

For example, when someone sneezing people know that he or she have a cold.

Unique properties

Displacement

It is properties that allows the users of language to talk about things and events not present in the immediate environment. For example, someone said, “I will come tomorrow.”

Arbitrariness

It is the forms of human language demonstrate a property. For example the word look, fall, tall, kick etc

Productivity

Properties produce or create new utterances or words. For example, new situation arise or new objects have to be described, so the language users manipulate their linguistic resources to produce new expressions and new sentences.

Cultural transmission

It is properties that language is inherited by culture or environment of someone. Language is not only inherited by parental genes. For example, an infant born to Chinese parents, but he or she lives since he or she’s early life in America, he or she will speak in English.

Discreteness

It is properties that the sounds in language are meaningfully distinct. Each sound in the language is treated as discrete. For example, the pronunciation of the forms pack and back leads to a distinction in meaning can only be due to the difference between the P and B sound in English.

Duality

It is properties that language is organized at two levels or layers simultaneously. In one level we have distinct sound, and at another level, we have distinct meaning. For example, dog and god.

Other properties

Reciprocity (any speaker / sender of a linguistic signal can also be a listener / receiver)

Specialization (linguistic signal do not normally search any other type of purpose such as breathing or feeding)

Non directionality (linguistic signals can be picked up by anyone within hearing, even unseen)

Rapid fade (linguistic signals are produced and disappear quickly)

The sounds of language

Phonetic

It is the general study of the characteristics of speech sounds.

Articulatory phonetic is the study of how speech sounds are made.

Acoustic phonetics is deals with the physical properties of speech as sound waves “in the air”

Auditory phonetic is deals with the perception, via the ear of speech sounds.

Voiced and voiceless sound

Voiced is a sound with vibration. It because of vocal cords are drawn together and the air from the lung repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through.

Voiceless is a sound without vibration. It because of vocal cords are spread apart and the air from the lung passed between them unimpeded.

Place of articulation

Bilabials

Bilabials are sound that produced by opening or closing both of lips. For example p, b, m.

Voiced : bat, mat

Voiceless : pat.

Labiodentals

Labiodentals are sound that produced by the upper teeth and the lower lip. For example f, v

Voiced: laugh, cough, save

Voiceless: safe.

Dentals

Dentals are sounds that produced by the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth. For example θ and ð

Voiced: thus, the

Voiceless: thin, bath

Alveolar

Alveolar are sounds that produced by the front part of the tongue on the alveolar ridge, which is the rough bony ridge immediately behind the upper teeth. For example, t, d, s, z, n.

Voiced: d, z, n, buzz

Voiceless: t, s, take

Alveo-palatals

Alveo-palatals are sounds that produced with the tongue at the very front of the palate, near the alveolar ridge.

Voiced: treasure, pleasure, joke, gem

Voiceless: shoot, child

Velars

Velars are sound that produced with the back of the tongue against the velum. For example, k, g

Voiced: go, give

Voiceless: kid, kill.

Glottal

Glottal are sound that produced without the active use of tongue and other part of mouth. For example, h. This sound is usually voiceless, for example have, house.

The Sound patterns of language

Phonology

Phonology is the description of the systems and patterns of speech sound in a language which allow us to distinguish meaning in the actual physical sounds we say and hear.

For example, see ( si: ) and she ( ∫I )

Phonemes

Phoneme is meaning distinguishing sounds in a language.

For example, /f/ and /v/ in fat and vat or fine and vine.

Minimal pairs and sets

Minimal pairs are when two words are identical in form except for a contrast in  one phoneme

For example, fan – van, bet – bat, site – side.

Minimal sets are when a group of words are differentiated each one from others, by changing one phoneme (always in the same position).

For example, feat, fit, fat, fate, fought, foot or big, pig, rig, fig, dig, wig.

Phones and allophones

Phones are phonetic realizations difference of any phonemes.

For example, the difference of pronunciation /i/ sounds in words like seed and seen.

Allophones are phonetic variant to realize a single phoneme.

For example, [i] and [i:]

Assimilation

Assimilation is a process when two phonemes occur in sequence and some aspect of one phoneme is taken or copied by other.

For example, the sentence “I can go” is usually pronounced [aykǝŋgo]

Elision

Elision is omission of a sound segment which would be present in the deliberate pronunciation of a word in isolation.

For example, [d] sound in the word “friendship” is omitted [frɛnʃip]

Words and word – formation processes

Coinage

Coinage is one of the least common processes of word – formation in English.

For example, words like aspirin and nylon, originally invented trade names.

Borrowing

One of the most common sources of new words is the process simply labeled borrowing.

For example, alcohol (Arabic); boss (Dutch)

Compounding

Compounding is combining process of two separate words to produce a single form.

For example, fingerprint; textbook; wallpaper.

Blending

Blending is combining process of two separate form to produce a single new term which is typically accomplished by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word.

For example, motor & hotel : motel ; gasoline & alcohol : gasohol.

Clipping

The element of reduction which is noticeable in blending is even more apparent in the process described as clipping.

For example, fan (fanatic) ; ad (advertisement)

Backformation

A very specialized type of reduction process is known as backformation.

For example, edit (from editor) ; donate (from donation)

Conversion

A change in the function of word as for example when a noun comes to be used as a verb (without any reduction) is generally known as conversion.

For example, paper – papering, bottle – bottling, dirty – to dirty.

Acronyms

Some new words are formed from the initial letters of a set of other words.

For example, NATO, NASA, UNESCO

Derivation

The formation of a word from another word or from the root in the same or another language.

Affixes (imbuhan)

un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, -ish, -ism, -ness

for example, unhappy, joyful, careless.

Prefixes (awalan)

For example, un- , mis-

Suffixes (akhiran)

For example, -ish, -less.

Infixes (sisipan)

For example, -rn-, see – srnee (a drill)

Morphology

Morphology

Type of investigation which analyzes all those basic elements which are used in a language.

Morpheme

A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function.

Free and bound morpheme

Free morphemes are morphemes which can stand by themselves as single words. E.g: open and tour.

Free morphemes are divided into 2 categories, which are lexical and functional morphemes.

Lexical is set of ordinary nouns, adjectives, and verbs. E.g: boy, sad, open, follow.

Functional is the set of largely of the functional words in the language such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns. E.g: and, but, when, because, on, near, above, in, the, that, it.

Bound morphemes are morphemes which cannot normally stand alone, but which are typically attached to another form. E.g: re-, -ist, -ed, -s.

All affixes in English are bound morphemes.

Bound morphemes are divided into 2 categories, which are derivational and inflectional morphemes.

Derivational are affixes that used to make new words in the language and are often used to make words of a different grammatical category from the stem. E.g: -ness changes the adjective ‘good’ to the noun ‘goodness’; -ish in foolish; -ly in badly; -ment in payment; re-, pre-, ex-, dis-, un-, etc.

Inflectional are affixes that are not used to produce new words in the English language, but rather to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word. E.g: -ing, -ed, -s, -er, -est, -‘s.

Morphological description


The boy’s wildness shocked the teachers.

The        boy      -‘s      wild     -ness    shock   -ed       the       teach      -er             -s

(funct)    (lex)    (infl)     (lex)     (derv)  (lex)     (infl)    (func)     (lex)       (derv)       (infl)

Morphs and allomorphs

Morph is the actual forms used to realize morphemes.

Allomorphs. Eg: irregular verb of past tense.

Phrases and sentences: grammar

Type of grammar

The part of speech

The lucky boys saw the clowns at the circus and they cheered loudly.

The       lucky      boys    saw    the       clowns  at

Article  adjective  noun    verb   article   noun      preposition

the       circus   and                they          cheered    laudly

article   noun     conjunction     pronoun    verb          adverb

Labeled and bracketed sentences

Example:

The dog followed the boy.

Syntax

Symbol are used in syntactic description

S : sentences                Art : art                       N : noun                      V : verb

Adj : adjective              Adv : adverb               Pro : pronoun              Prep : preposition

NP : noun phrase         VP : verb phrase          PN : proper noun         PP : prepositional phrase

* : ungrammatical sequence

→ : consist of
( ) : optional constituent
{ } : one and only one of those constituents must be selected
Phrase structural rules

S          → NP  VP

NP       →    Art  (adj)  N

                    PN

                    Pro

VP       → V  NP  (PP)  (Adv)

PP        → Prep  NP

N         → { boy, girl, horse }

PN       → { George, joko }

Art       → { a, the }

Adj      → { small, crazy }

V         → { saw, followed, helped }

Prep     → { with, near }

Adv     → { yesterday, recently }

Pro       → { he, she, it, you, I }

Labeled tree diagrams

Example:

The monkey ate a banana.