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Survey of Linguistic Method and Theory

Survey of Linguistic Method and Theory. Ling 400. Instructor. Instructor: Prof. Toshiyuki Ogihara. Today’s Plan. The course Objectives and format Sub-disciplines of Linguistics Each sub-discipline and some examples Competence vs. Performance

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Survey of Linguistic Method and Theory

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  1. Survey of Linguistic Method and Theory Ling 400

  2. Instructor • Instructor: Prof. Toshiyuki Ogihara

  3. Today’s Plan • The course • Objectives and format • Sub-disciplines of Linguistics • Each sub-discipline and some examples • Competence vs. Performance • Linguistics aims to characterize the competence of native speakers (of a particular language) • Prescriptive / descriptive grammar • Linguists are interested in description, not prescription

  4. Word of the day competence

  5. Course Objectives • Methods for describing human languages at various levels • Examples of the diversity of world languages • Core areas: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics • Interdisciplinary areas: language acquisition, language variation

  6. Resources • Language Files 11th Edition, The Ohio State University Press (available from the University Bookstore).

  7. Evaluation • Grading: • quizzes (only six of the seven quizzes will count) 20% • homework assignments (only six of the seven assignments will count) 20% • midterm 25% • final exam 35%

  8. Linguistics Knowledge • Phonetics • Phonology • Morphology • Syntax • Semantics • Pragmatics

  9. Phonetics • The study of speech sounds • How various sounds are made (articulatory phonetics) • How to describe them using IPA (The International Phonetic Alphabet)

  10. Examples (Phonetics) • sign • cider • the same sound — should be transcribed (i.e. represented in writing) in the same way

  11. Phonology • The sound system of a language • Includes the inventory of sounds • The features of those sounds • The rules for combining the sounds

  12. Examples (Phonology) • pin • spin • The two “p sounds” are not really the same sounds. • [p] with an extra puff of air occurs at the beginning of a word (roughly) • [p] without a puff of air occurs elsewhere • So their occurrences in English are rule-governed.

  13. Morphology • The study of the structure of words • morph = ‘form’ (Greek) • The smallest units of meaning • Many words consist of smaller meaningful units

  14. Examples (Morphology) • Word formation quick+ly • Grammatical markers dog+s, turn+ed

  15. Syntax • The study of how words form sentences • Grammatical categories • Rules for sentence and phrase formation • Directionality of combination • Constraints on combinations

  16. Examples (Syntax) • John loves Mary. (grammatical) • Loves John Mary. (ungrammatical) • John Mary loves. (ungrammatical) • (A very rough first approximation) A string of words consisting of a name a verb and another name(in this order) is grammatical.

  17. Semantics • The study of meaning • Meaning of individual words and of their relations with one another. • The relation between syntax and semantics • How to talk about sentence meanings • Truth conditions, logical consequences

  18. Examples (Semantics) • John must smoke and John has to smoke mean the same thing (for all practical purposes). • John must not smoke means “John is obligated NOT to smoke.” • John does not have to smoke means “John is NOT obligated to smoke.”

  19. Pragmatics • The study of language use • Non-literal meanings • How to do things with words

  20. Examples (Pragmatics) • Can you teach phonology classes? • Yes, I can even teach graduate seminars. • Go ahead and give a lecture on phonology. • Can you pass the salt? • Yes, I can. In fact, I can even pass the pepper. (and do nothing) • …. (say nothing and just pass the salt)

  21. Word of the day competence

  22. Competence • (Unconscious) knowledge of language • Linguists are interested in describing this “internalized grammar” that any native speaker of a particular language has • Mental grammar • Accounts for creativity • Not always equal to performance • Performance behavior may be flawed

  23. You have hissed my mystery lecture — you have tasted the whole worm. Slips of the tongue (Spoonerism) You have missed my history lecture — you have wasted the whole term. Performance

  24. Creativity of language • Part of speaker’s competence • Use of finite linguistic means (words, rules) • Enables us to create/understand an infinite number novel phrases or sentences

  25. Descriptive grammar • Linguistics aims for description and not prescription • There are no good or bad languages • There are no “advanced” or “primitive” languages • No correct or incorrect dialects • Linguistics is non-judgmental about linguistic differences

  26. Prescription • “The widespread acceptance of informal dialogue on the Internet is creating a generation of Americans fluent in unrefined, inexpressive and immature English. Much as certain dialects of English have helped create sub-classes of second class citizens, frequent Internet users are becoming easier to pick out every day.”

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