LINA01H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Vocal Tract, Record Producer, Velar Nasal
Document Summary
If a linguist says that a sentence is grammatical, that means that it conforms to the rules of mental grammar: mental grammar=descriptive grammar. Variation and grammaticality: there is no single grammar of a language, any dialect/grammar is relevant for study, every dialect/grammar has a set of systematic patterns and rules, no dialect is more logical or systematic than another. How do linguists gather the data to study mental grammar: the goal is to build a model of mental grammar, linguists rely on the utterances (what they say) of the speakers, and use this observable behaviour as data. Judgment vs. natural speech: data=speakers" judgment about grammatical and ungrammatical forms (sentences) Mental grammar: mental grammar=competence, the set of rules which allows speakers to form sentences, the ability to speak, is called competence, what a person says, is their performance. When might performance not perfectly mirror competence: when people make mistakes speaking (performance errors, performance is limited, due to breath, memory, and attention.
