LING 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Speech Community, Universal Grammar, Onomatopoeia
12 Sep 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Tacit knowledge: the unconscious rules we have about what is grammatical. Prescriptive vs descriptive rules: linguists figure out how language is constructed, they do not instruct how language is to be constructed. I-language: set of rules are internalized by speakers=linguistic competence/mental grammar. Morphology: structure of words and their parts ex. Meaning of words: arbitrary link between form and meaning. However, there are onomatopoeic words (buzz, murmur) - sound symbolism. Montreal french (universal grammar) i-language of montreal french. Universal grammar: sys of rules and principles that characterize all grammars. Blueprint that all languages follow; the particular properties of individual languages are relevant to discovery of language universals. The baby chattered to us vs. we were chattered to by the baby. Colloquial phrases: go screw yourself vs screw yourself, screw you vs go screw you. Prescriptive rules: are told/taught; speakers may disobey them; not what linguists make. Descriptive rules: describe some aspect of a person"s fundamental knowledge of their lang.
