LINA01H3 Lecture 1: Intro
Document Summary
When people use human language, they follow certain principles (rules) The task of linguistic research is to understand what these principles are and how they are instantiated in language or individual languages: linguistic = related to language. Knowing a language is being able to speak and be understood by others who know that language. The capacity to produce some sounds (or signs for deaf and mute people) that have a certain meaning and to understand and interpret the signs produced by others. The capacity to understand what linguistic constructions (sounds or signs, words, sentences) are possible in a specific language and what constructions are not. The linguistic knowledge is unconscious knowledge: people speaking a specific language are able to explain what constructions are correct or incorrect in that language, but they are not able to explain why. Language is a linguistic rule system with the following characteristics: 3. displacement: table 1. 2 in the textbook (page 3)
