Introduction to Contemporary Linguistics September 30, 1998 What is language? OVERVIEW: 1. Human languages 2. Human language 3. Knowledge of language ============================================================= 1. Human languages >How many languages are there in the world? "At present the languages of the world number in the thousands. To establish an exact or even an approximate number is out of the question, for many are scarcely known and it is impossible to draw a clear-cut distinction between language and dialect." Katzner (1986) The Languages of the World. Routledge. >What is the difference between a language and a dialect (¤è¨¥)? >"A language is a dialect with an army." -- ?? > English and German split from their common ancestor less than two thousand years ago, and are called "languages": English: The dog has bit the man. German: Der Hund hat den Mann gebissen. >Mandarin and Taiwanese split from their common ancestor less than two thousand years ago, and are called "dialects": Mandarin: Zhe-zhi gou yao zhe-ge ren. Taiwanese: Tsit-tsja kau ka tsit-e lang. >Some examples of languages in the world: [TAPES] >Some languages in Taiwan: (data from http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/countries/taiw.html) >Taiwanese [Southern Min, Amoy, Fujianese] (14,345,000 in Taiwan; Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan) >Mandarin (4,323,000 in Taiwan; Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan) >Hakka (2,366,000 in Taiwan; Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan) >Amis (130,000; Formosan, Austronesian) >Paiwan (81,000; Formosan, Austronesian) >Tsou (5000; Formosan, Austronesian) >Kavalan (<100; Formosan, Austronesian) [OVERHEAD TAIWAN MAP] >By the way, where does the name "Taiwan" come from? >Clue 1: It's not a Chinese word. [OVERHEAD: from the introduction to a Taiwanese dictionary] >Clue 2: It was the old name of a little island (which no longer exists) on which the Dutch built Fort Zeelandia in the early 1600's -- now in the Anping area of Tainan: spelled "Tayouan" or "Taiwan" [OVERHEAD: Campbell (1903) Formosa under the Dutch. Reprinted by SMC Publishing Inc: Taipei.] [OVERHEADS: a 19th century American map] That area became the center of the Chinese colony after the Ming dynasty fell, and at least by the Japanese era the entire island was called "Taiwan". >Clue 3: "-an" is a common ending for place names in Formosan languages (±i¥Ã§Q ): >See place names on map; also "Kavalan", etc >Some words in Seediq (14,000; Atayalic, Formosan, Austronesian): puray-an "the place where one cooks" = "kitchen" tuqi-an "the place where one sleeps" = "bedroom" >Some of the many sign languages of the world: [OVERHEADS] >American Sign Language (ASL): related to French Sign Language, NOT to British Sign Language. >Examples: THANK-YOU, APPLE, SAD >Taiwan Sign Language [TSL, ¦ÛµM¤â»y] (30,000; based on naturally invented signs in Taiwan before 1895; 50% lexical similarity with Japanese Sign Language). Unrelated to spoken Taiwanese or Mandarin, or to Chinese Sign Language. >Examples: THANK-YOU, APPLE, SAD 2. Human language >All languages have a grammar >Grammar: The mental "machine" that automatically allows people to remember, produce and understand the morphology, syntax, semantics, phonology, and phonetics of their language. >Note: "grammar" (»yªk) doesn't mean just "syntax" (¥yªk), though these words are often mixed up (in both English and Chinese!) >Sentences or words that seem to violate one's mental grammar (because they just "sound bad") are called ungrammatical and are marked with a "*": *Man the bit dog the. *algrammaticun *psklfmugnpfsh >Descriptive grammar: the linguist's attempt to describe people's actual mental grammar. >Generative grammar: an approach to grammar (started by the American linguistic Noam Chomsky in the late 1950's) that attempts to create a descriptive grammar that is so detailed that everything can be "generated" by the description alone, without leaving any hidden assumptions. >Prescriptive grammar: a set of rules written to force people to use language a certain way, rather than describing what they actually do. >Here are some violations of prescriptive rules of English: What people What they actually say "should" say "Reason" It's me. It's I. Nominative case after "be" Someone someone Nom. case like me. like I. after "like". What's it for? For what is it? Prepositions must precede object. >A "prescriptive" story [HANDOUT] >The real reasons for prescriptive grammar are social, so we'll talk more about it under "sociolinguistics" >More about grammars: all grammars have arbitrary aspects >Grammars are conventionalized: >Chinese speakers have "agreed" on the convention (ºD¨Ò) that (1) is grammatical, but (2) is not, even though both are equally logical: (1) §A¬O½Ö¡H (2) *½Ö¬O§A¡H >The most conventionalized part of grammar is the lexicon: the mental dictionary. English: dog German: Hund Mandarin: ª¯ ASL: DOG TSL: DOG >Grammars are not entirely arbitrary, though: >Sound symbolism: the use of inherent physical properties of sound to convey meaning >Many "sn" words in English involve the nose: sneeze, snore, sniff, snot, sneer >In many languages, words with the vowels /i/ or /ö/ refer to small things: >English: little, bit, itty-bitty, inch >Mandarin: »´¡]­«¡^¡B²Ó¡]² ¡^¡B·Ë¡]¦¿¡^¡B¦À¡]®ü¡^ >Iconicity: the use of forms in language that "look like" the things they represent. >Many signs in sign languages do look like what they represent (sometimes only after you know what they mean, though) >Some have claimed (e.g. À¹¯E¤@) that syntax is often iconic: (1) §Ú±q¾Ç®Õ¨«¨ì®Ñ©±¨Ó¤F¡C (2) *§Ú¨«¨ì®Ñ©±±q¾Ç®Õ¨Ó¤F¡C >All grammars are "creative" (productive) >Creating new sentences: The cat sat. The cat sat on the mat. The black cat sat on the yellow mat. Why did the black cat sit on the yellow mat? Where did the black cat sit? etc.... >Creating new words >Creating new metaphors >All grammars are "equal" >There are no "primitive" languages: all have complex, intricate grammars. >Examples in Kavalan (¾¿º¿Äõ): (±i¥Ã§Q 1997) (1) RubataN razat m-Rasa tu qulus beautiful person ACTOR-buy ACC clothes 'The person who is buying clothes is beautiful.' (2) RubataN qulus ni-Rasa-an na razat beautiful clothes PERF-buy-PATIENT GEN person 'The clothes that the person bought are beautiful.' >Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL): PRO3 FEMALE 3p-SEE-1p FAMILIAR, BUT PRO1 NAME PRO3 NO-IDEA >Any language can express any concept! >Is there a "Universal Grammar"? >Universal Grammar (Chomsky, etc): the "grammar of human grammars", that is, the unlearned, innate (¤Ñ¥Íªº) rules that describe what are possible rules in human languages. >95% of the world's languages use one of the orders in (1)-(3); the orders in (4)-(5) are very rare: (1) Students love linguistics. (2) Students linguistics love. (3) Love students linguistics. (4) Love linguistics students. (5) Linguistics love students. (6) Linguistics students love. 3. Knowledge of language >What you know about your grammar (competence) is sometimes different from your actual use of language (performance). >Linguistic knowledge (competence) is usually unconscious: you don't know that you know it. >Fill in the blank with the correct fake word: "Mary really loves to sping. She spings every day. Today she will sping three times. Yesterday she _____ four times." >Which of these sentences sounds worse? (1) Mary looked up the strange word she didn't know. (2) Mary looked the strange word she didn't know up. >Which of the following English words are fake? (1) blin (5) slake (2) sklent (6) bnep (3) srish (7) trone (4) hist (8) spipe >Where does the stress go in these real English words? phorate (a kind of insect poison) pemmican (food eaten by some American Indians) >Which classifier (¤ÀÃþµü) goes with which noun, and why? classifiers nouns ±ø ³½ Àn¼LÃ~ ­Ó ¤p½¼ ª¯ °¦ ³¹³½ ÆxÄM ... ³D µU¤l Æs³½ ¦Ñ®v ®£Às ° ª«... >Which of the following words sound OK? Why do some words sound bad (ungrammatical)? (1) ¦Ñ®v­Ì (9) ®Ñ­Ì (2) ¾Ç¥Í­Ì (10) ®a­Ì (3) ªB¤Í­Ì (11) ¬ì¾Ç®a­Ì (4) ©j©f­Ì (12) ¥ÛÀY­Ì (5) ¦Ñªê­Ì (13) µVµV­Ì (6) §L­Ì (14) ª¯­Ì (7) ¸é­Ì (15) Å]°­­Ì (8) ¤p°½­Ì (16) ¬v°­¤l­Ì >Which sentence sounds better, and why? (1) §Ú¤w¸g§â§Úªº¨T¨®½æµ¹§Úªºªí­ô¡C (2) §Ú¤w¸g½æ§Úªº¨T¨®µ¹§Úªºªí­ô¡C >Where does the tone change in this sentence, and why? ¦Ñ§õ·Q¶R¦n°sµ¹§Ú©j©j¡C