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What is language?

Lec . 1. What is language?. We need to distinguish between . Human language. Individual languages . Individual languages, such as English, Swahili, Arabic, etc. . Human Language in general which is the focus of study in linguistics. What does our linguistic knowledge involve?.

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What is language?

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  1. Lec. 1 What is language?

  2. We need to distinguish between Human language Individual languages Individual languages, such as English, Swahili, Arabic, etc. • Human Language in general which is the focus of study in linguistics.

  3. What does our linguistic knowledge involve? • Knowledge of the sound system (British English 24 C + 20 V) • Knowledge of words • Knowledge of sentence and non-sentence • Competence and performance

  4. What is grammar? 1 2 It refers to the model or description of this internalized grammar • It refers to the mental grammar that speakers have in their brains • This knowledge includes the sound system (phonology), the system of meanings (semantics), the rules of word formation (morphology), the rules of sentence formation (syntax), and the vocabulary (dictionary/ lexicon)

  5. Language universal (Chomsky): • Linguists are preoccupied with the laws and rules of a language as well as the laws and rules that pertain to all languages. • Every individual language is a combination of these universal properties with a number of accidental and often idiosyncratic/ distinctive features. • Every individual language is a combination of these universal properties.

  6. Universal grammar (Chomsky): • The grammatical properties shared by all languages. • These properties are built into our brains at birth.

  7. Basic linguistic Concepts Competence Performance A person’s actual use of language Real utterances produced by real people • A person’s internalized grammar of language. • Our abstract ability to use language

  8. Descriptivists vs. prescriptivists DESCRIPTIVE grammar Prescriptive grammar The linguists provide a linguistic prescription of the rules of grammar. language change is corruption. There are certain correct forms that all educated people should use in speaking and writing. • The linguists provide a linguistic description of the rules of grammar and the language system itself. • They describe the basic linguistic knowledge that exists in the minds of the speakers.

  9. Some Facts about Language • Language is human, wherever humans exist, language exists • There are no “primitive “ languages • The relationship between words & what they refer to is arbitrary • All languages change through time • All human languages use finite sets of features to express an infinite sets of sentences

  10. Some Facts about Language • similar grammatical categories (V, N, etc.) are found in all languages • Universal semantic properties (male, female) are found in all languages • Every language has a way of negating, forming questions, issuing commands, etc. • Normal children are capable of learning any language they are exposed to.

  11. References • Fromkin et al. (2003).An Introduction to Language. (7th ed.). Mass.: Wadsworth. • Chapter (1) pp. 3-32

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