introduction to linguistic

INTRODUCTION  TO LINGUISTICS

What is linguistics?

 A.The Definition of Linguistics.

    Linguistics is study of language.

Linguistics is concerned with human language as a universal and recognizable part of human behavior and of the human abilities. Raja T. Nasr (1984).

Linguistics is competence as being a persons potential to speak a language, and his or her linguistics performance as the realization of that potential. Monica Crabtree & Joyce Powers (1994).

The Branches of linguistics

1. General linguistic generally describes the concepts and categories of a particular language or among all language. It also provides analyzed theory of the language.

Descriptive linguistic describes or gives the data to confirm or refute the theory of particular language explained generally.

2. Micro linguistic is narrower view. It is concerned internal view of language itself (structure of language systems) without related to other sciences and without related how to apply it in daily life. Some fields of micro linguistic:

a. Phonetics, the study of the physical properties of sounds of human language

b. Phonology, the study of sounds as discrete, abstract elements in the speaker's mind that distinguish meaning

c. Morphology, the study of internal structures of words and how they can be modified

d. Syntax, the study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences

e. Semantics, the study of the meaning of words (lexical semantics) and fixed word combinations (phraseology), and how these combine to form the meanings of sentences

f. Pragmatics, the study of how utterances are used (literally, figuratively, or otherwise) in communicative acts

g. Discourse analysis, the analysis of language use in texts (spoken, written, or signed)

h. Applied linguistic is the branch of linguistic that is most concerned with application of the concepts in everyday life, including language-teaching.

 3. Macro linguistic is broadest view of language. It is concerned external view of language itself with related to other sciences and how to apply it in daily life. Some fields of micro linguistic:

a. Stylistics, the study of linguistic factors that place a discourse in context.

b. Developmental linguistics, the study of the development of linguistic ability in an individual, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood.

c. Historical linguistics or Diachronic linguistics, the study of language change.

d. Language geography, the study of the spatial patterns of languages.

e. Evolutionary linguistics, the study of the origin and subsequent development of language.

f. Psycholinguistics, the study of the cognitive processes and representations underlying language use.

g. Sociolinguistics, the study of social patterns and norms of linguistic variability.

h. Clinical linguistics, the application of linguistic theory to the area of Speech-Language Pathology.

i. Neurolinguistics, the study of the brain networks that underlie grammar and communication.

j. Biolinguistics, the study of natural as well as human-taught communication systems in animals compared to human language.

Computational linguistics, the study of computational implementations of linguistic structures.

Source : the essencial of linguistics scince raja t nasr. (1984)

Intro to Linguistics – Syntax 1

1.What is syntax,...???

Syntax – the part of linguistics that studies sentence structure:

• word order:

 I want these books.

 *want these I books.

• agreement – subject and verb, determiner and noun, . . . often must agree:

He wants this book.

 *He want this book.

 I want these books.

*I want this books.

• How many complements, which prepositions and forms (cases):

 I give Mary a book.

*I see Mary a book.

I see her. *I see she.

• hierarchical structure – what modifies what

We need more (intelligent leaders).   (more of intelligent leaders)

We need (more intelligent) leaders.   (leaders that are more intelligent)

• etc

Syntax is not about meaning! Sentences can have no sense and still be grammatically correct: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. – nonsense, but grammatically correct

 *Sleep ideas colorless furiously green. – grammatically incorrect

Syntax: From Greek syntaxis from syn (together) + taxis (arrangement). Cf. symphony, synonym, synthesis; taxonomy, tactics

2 Parts of Speech

• Words in a language behave differently from each other.

• But not each word is entirely different from all other words in that language.

⇒ Words can be categorized into parts of speech (lexical categories, word classes) based on their morphological, syntactic and semantic properties.

Note that there is a certain amount of arbitrariness in any such classification. For example, should my be classified as a pronoun or as a determiner, should numerals/participles/auxiliary verbs be a separate category. If he is a pronoun, should do be a pro-verb?

Open versus closed classes:

• Open class – new and new items are added to the class over the time – nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

• Closed class – contains small number of words, new items are added very rarely – determiners, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions

2.1 Open Classes

2.1.1 Nouns (N)

• morphology – most nouns form plural cat-s, house-s, kiss-es, men, sheep

• syntax – usually has a determiner (except proper names like John) and can be modified by an adjective: Determiner (Adjective) a cat, many kisses, few men, several sheep a small cat, many exciting kisses, few clever men, several bored sheep

 • semantics – name of a person, thing or place. But: problem with abstract nouns (beauty, anger, aspect) and actions (a thump).

2.1.2 Verbs (V)

• morphology – form third person, past tense, past participle, present participle: walk walks walked walked walking go goes went gone going buy buys bought bought buying run runs ran run running

 • syntax: 1. can combine with an auxiliary: Aux will go, have seen, should run, must leave, is swimming 2. can be modified by an adverb: Adverb or Adverb usually sleep, read carefully

• semantics – usually describes an action, a process or a state of being But: problem with some verbs (know, remember ) But: hard to distinguish from nouns describing actions (a thump)

2.1.3 Adjectives (A, Adj)

• morphology: 1. form comparative and superlative forms: cool – cooler – coolest, successful – more successful – most successful, good – better – best 2. many can be changed into adverbs by the -ly suffix: sad – sadly, funny – funnily, nice – nicely, beautiful – beautifully

• syntax: 1. Can modify a noun: Determiner N a tall man, a cool day, a wonderful trip 2. Can be modified by an adverb: Adverb very clever, extremely clever, unusually hot

2.1.4 Adverbs (Adv)

• semantics – usually describes a quality or attribute

1. V or V stop abruptly, usually eat

2. Adj amazingly cheap, very bad (very cannot modify a verb), quite nice

3. Adv very quickly, quite soon

	Typical Morphology	Typical Syntax	Typical Semantics
Noun	Plural house – houses	D (Adj)- the big house	thing, person, place
Verb	tenses, . . . walk – walked	combines with an Aux would walk	action
Adj	comparative, superlative big – bigger – biggest	D –N the big house	quality, property
Adverb	often has -ly suffix really, but: well	modifies V, Adj, Adv a really big house	manner, degree, . . .

2.2 Closed Classes

2.2.1 Determiners (D, Det)

articles (a, the), quantifiers (many, any, all, several), possesives(my, your, his, her )

 Syntax – come before nouns: (Adj) N

2.2.2 Auxiliary verbs (Aux)

will, may, must, shall, would, can, have

Syntax:

1.Is followed by a verb:- V

 It will rain. You must be quiet.

2. Is negated directly: -not

 He cannot swim. She would not come.

 *He doesn’t can swim. *She doesn’t would come.:

Normal verbs vs. Auxiliary verbs:

	Verbs	Auxiliary verbs
negation	needs aux do I don’t want it. *I want not it.	Directly *I don’t will come. I will not come.
question	needs aux do inversion  Do you know it? Know you it?	Inversion *Do you will come? Will you come?
agreement	yes no He knows it. *He know it.	No *He wills come He will come

Be, have and do are sometimes normal verbs and sometimes auxiliary verbs. (I don’t have it. vs. I have not seen it.)

2.2.3 Pronouns (Pron)

Words that stand for a noun or a whole noun phrase.

I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, us, them

Note: It makes sense to classify possessives (traditionally called possessive pronouns) as determiners. Syntactically, pronouns and possessives behave differently – pronouns act as nouns, but possessives modify nouns:

                          pronoun: I run. – *My run.

                          possessive: John likes my house. – *John likes I house.

pronoun: Based on Latin pro (for) + noun