LINGUIST 1A03 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Universal Property, Auditory System, Phonetics
12 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
It"s a science: the way we ask questions to learn about language uses a scientific approach: making systematic and empirical observations. Empirical: observe data to find the evidence for theories. Observations we make are not value judgements: linguists don"t" make judgements, they take a descriptive approach not perspective, don"t prescribe how they should and shouldn"t do it. Linguists observe how and what people say, and why they do it versus others. The articulatory system: lungs, larynx, and shapes of tongue, and everything enables us to produce speech, no other species can do this. Auditory system: ears are sensitive to exactly the frequencies that are most common in human speech, human newborns pay attention to human speech, then synthetic ones. Neural system: no other species has a brain that"s so complex and densely connected with producing and understanding language. Part of cognitive sciences: interested in the mind. As linguists, interested in how our language knowledge is represented and organized.
