Structural and Historical Linguistics

1. Structural and Historical Linguistics In case you’ve ever wondered what sorts of things linguists might analyze

2. Structural Linguistics • Examination of rules of speaking • Look for conscious and unconscious rules of speaking • “I” before “e” except after “c” or when sounding like “a” as in “neighbor” and “weigh” [Conscious rule] • If you show a youngster an object and tell them its name, when you show them two, most youngsters automatically pluralize with “s” [Unconscious] • Looking for any discoverable pattern unreasonable or foolhardy contempt of danger. Temerity:

3. Examining Rules of . . . • Phonology • patterning of sounds • Morphology • Patterning of sound sequences and words • Syntax • Patterning of phrasing and sentences Pandiculation: yawning and stretching

4. Why study language? • Window into culture • Exemplify values of a culture • How so? • Easy to convey the knowledge of a group • Preserve indigenous knowledge as well as past cultures • Connect groups, allow for interaction holding obstinately to a belief, purpose or design;also, stubbornly persistent Pertinacious:

5. Phonology • Phones – smallest units of sound in a language • In theory, we are all born with the capacity to make any sound from any human language • Why is it that we struggle with certain conventions in foreign languages? • Phoneme (or Phoneme Set) – set of phones that can be used interchangeably without altering meaning • “budder” and “butter”; “mitt’n” and “mitten” • Discovering/Discerning meaningful phone changes appears to begin development as early as 6 months Caterwaul: to make a harsh cry or screech.

6. Morphology • Morph – smallest units of sound with meaning • Morpheme (or Morpheme Set) – set of morphs with the same meaning • Prefixes “in” and “un” generally can mean the same thing • Other examples? Legerdemain: sleight of hand.

7. Morphology 2: Electric Boogaloo • Lexicon – like a dictionary • Lexicon consists of words and morphs in a language • Some words are morphs by themselves, many are composed of multiple morphs • Witness children grasping morphological trends • Pluralize with “s” • Past-tensify with “ed” • By age 7, grasping many of the irregularities Plenipotentiary: invested with full power.

8. Syntax • The way words are put together into meaningful phrases and sentences • Linguists attempting to discern the unwritten/unconscious rules of a language into concrete rules of syntax Somniferous: causing or inducing sleep.

9. Historical Linguistics • Focus on language changing over time • Written records can greatly aid this • Comparing Middle English to modern English • If not, comparative studies of related languages and reconstructions are used • Look for patterns in expansion of language • Why do so many European nations speak languages derived from Latin? Why does English start to incorporate more French vocab after 1066? Tarradiddle: a fib; also, pretentious nonsense.

10. Language Families • Groups of related languages • If parent language is unknown, linguists do reconstructions of these so-called protolanguages [languages from the same protolanguage are called a “language family” • Most languages in the world can be lumped into less than 30 language families • English part of the Indo-European family; derived from the proto-Indo-European protolanguage (PIE) • Arose approximately 5000-6000 years ago Perambulate: to stroll; to walk through or over.

11. Language Families 2: Electric Boogaloo • Language families are broken down into branches • English is on the Germanic branch • By comparing cognates, derive origin point of a language • Among all cognates for trees, 18 of them trace back to Ukraine approximately 3000 BCE • Potential origin of PIE • Also examine dialectic variation • Area of origin presumably has more potential for dialectical variation • http://popvssoda.com:2998/ Trencherman: a hearty eater.

12. If there’s time. . . • www.freerice.com