LING 15 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Morpheme, Grammatical Gender, Color Wheel
Aspects of language study
Empirical study of language
➔Detection of patterns/structures
➔Organization of symbols
➔Finding phonemes, measuring segments, finding categories, counting words
Cultural study of language
➔Variance in convention
Form of the message
➔Structure: organization of the form
◆Convention and cultural norms
◆Empiricism and hypothesis testing
Overview of language axioms
“9 ideas about language” reading
➔Highlights rules, levels, language change, culture
◆Languages always follow rules
◆Different levels of structure
◆Language is constantly changing
◆Language is a reflection of culture
Language change is normal
➔All languages change over time
◆Property of arbitrariness of the symbol
● The link between meaning and form is very flexible
➔Change can happen in many ways
◆Phonemes and glyphs
◆Meanings of expressions
◆Ordering of elements (organization)
● Sounds, words
➔Change cannot be forced
Language operates by rules
➔Symbolism and ordering is conventionalized
◆Convention: a cultural practice that people adhere to
● People who speak one language follow the same norms
●[d] is the first sound in duck
●Verb reflect tense
●Subjects precede verbs
3 components of language form
➔Sound system → phonemes
➔Vocabulary → words and meaningful expressions
◆Exists as a different layer of form from the sounds that are the building blocks
➔Grammar → system for combining expressions
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Document Summary
Finding phonemes, measuring segments, finding categories, counting words. The link between meaning and form is very flexible. Convention: a cultural practice that people adhere to. People who speak one language follow the same norms. [d] is the first sound in duck. Exists as a different layer of form from the sounds that are the building blocks. Phonemes: sounds used as building blocks in language. Every language has a set of phonemes. Inventory: the phonemes that a language uses. The sounds that have become relevant as building blocks. Do not contain semantic meaning, but they are symbols. The number of all possible sounds > any individual"s language inventory. More convention in arrangement of phonological symbols. All languages have a set of vocabulary items. Form-meaning relationship differs across languages and cultures. Language that cultures use is a reflection of the culture. Domesticated animals in english: biological gender and age are lexically encoded within the word (different layers of semantics associated with them)
