LING 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Mind Map, English Plurals, Linguistic Prescription
23 Jun 2018
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-Language is not defined by its uses
-What is the nature of language itself
-Language not a well defined concept in terms of its terminology (vague term)
-Grammar is also not a well defined term
-What is the relationship of grammar and language? (easy confusion)
-Good way to start thinking about language is to differentiate knowledge of language from use of
language
-Noam Chomsky: father of modern linguistics launched a novel on language. He made rational
approaches to language and revolutionized the field of linguistics. He termed these: linguistic
competence (what do you know when you know a language, what does it mean, what exactly
do you know) versus linguistic performance (how to put the system to use, how does it interact
with other cognitive approaches)
-Linguistic knowledge: competence, use of language: performance
-Each individual has a unique system of language (individual phenomenon but has important
social functions)
-Social dimensions include: not born knowing language, we acquire it and in order for language
to emerge in infants they need to be exposed to social input and interact with others
—> Language is used for social interactions on a number of levels
—> Interfaces with society in various/important ways (language policies/laws, education, etc)
-Language is by itself a system of knowledge as speakers we have intuitive knowledge
-Linguistic knowledge: a puzzle
—> The children want to play with them (has a pronoun: them which refers to more than one
person). When you use pronouns it is because you already set up a reference before hand.
Hard to interpret this sentence as we do not know who the children are playing with (how do we
interpret the pronoun?) Them cannot be the children
—> Mila and Niko want to play with them. Them does not mean Mila and Niko
**-Who do Mila and Niko want to play with them? Them can now be Mila and Niko
-Our judgement of how them can be interpreted in the two previous sentences is based on a
rule
-We all share this rule, but we are not aware of what that rule says precisely
-We are not taught that rule
-We know this rule intuitively, it is not part of out explicit (conscious) knowledge
-Linguists are interested in uncovering and explaining these types of rules/processes
-Every human being known at least one language
—> A universal property of the human species
-Children learn the language that is spoken (or signed) in the environment they grow up in
-Children acquire language at roughly the same time (and age) across languages + culture
-Language acquisition occurs automatically!! i.e. children do not need to be taught! (exposure
causes them to pick it up by themselves)
-All languages (dialects) are based on a GRAMMAR
-A grammar is a system of rules
-A speaker knows these rules subconsciously;
-A grammar in this sense is a mental entity
-We will call this mental entity “I-language” (following Chomsky): I = individual phenomenon
-I-language permits speakers to generate infinitely many novel utterances from a finite number
of elements - an aspect often referred to as the creative aspect of language
-N.B “Generate” means comprehend and produce
-We will call “GRAMMAR” the model that we, as linguists, construct the model linguistic
knowledge (i.e. I-language)
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-Perspective Grammar
—> Set of tules that prescribe how people should speak and write “proper English etc”
-Descriptive grammar
—> Set of rules that describe how people actually do speak
-Linguistics are interested in the latter:
—> Descriptive Grammar!
-Goal of modern linguistics: a description, and explanation, of human
-Example from domain outside of language
1) If the light is red, do not cross the street
-A prescriptive rule —> it prescribes something
-People need to consciously know/must be told the rule to obey it
-Explicit knowledge
-People may choose not to obey it
2) If retinal molecules are exposed to light, they change configuration and as a result a nerve
impulse is generated
-A descriptive rule —> it describes something that occurs
-A process we can observe, describe and explain
-Applies indiscriminately
-Humans are not aware of this process, it happens automatically
-It’s generally out of the range of control of humans to “disobey” this rule/process
-Prescriptive grammar rules are akin to (1) - they prescribe language
-Descriptive grammar rules are akin to (2) - they describe language
-Prescriptive grammar: a set of rules that prescribe how one should peal/write “proper
English” (as opposed to
-Prescriptivism from the 18th century
-Dont split Infinitives e.g.
—> Don’t say: to boldly go where no man…
—> Say: to go boldly where no man…
-Use nominative pronouns after be and after than
e.g say its I not its me
say Sally is taller than I, not … than me
-Don’t end a sentence with a preposition e.g
Say: to whom did you talk?
Not: who did you talk to?
-Don’t use double negatives, and don’t use ain’t e.g
Say: I am not going anywhere
Not: I ain’t goin' nowhere
Say: I haven’t got any
Not: I ain’t got none
-Prescriptive grammar rules:
—> Consciously learned
—> Taught
—> Speakers may choose to disobey them- and do!
—> Obeying the rules can be inappropriate in certain social contexts:
—> Ex. looking at an old photograph and exclaiming: Gee! is that really I?
—> Ex. this is the sort of English up with which I will not put
A closer look:
Mary is taller than I am = Mary is taller than I
Mary is taller than Bill is = Mary is taller than Bill
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Language not a well de ned concept in terms of its terminology (vague term) Grammar is also not a well de ned term. What is the relationship of grammar and language? (easy confusion) Good way to start thinking about language is to differentiate knowledge of language from use of language. Noam chomsky: father of modern linguistics launched a novel on language. He made rational approaches to language and revolutionized the eld of linguistics. Each individual has a unique system of language (individual phenomenon but has important social functions) Social dimensions include: not born knowing language, we acquire it and in order for language to emerge in infants they need to be exposed to social input and interact with others. > language is used for social interactions on a number of levels. > interfaces with society in various/important ways (language policies/laws, education, etc) Language is by itself a system of knowledge as speakers we have intuitive knowledge.
