LIN200H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Linguistic Description, Linguistic Prescription, Pragmatics
Document Summary
Lec 1 introductions: language and languages. Dialects on opposite ends are not mutually intelligible. Mututally intelligible dialects = when one speaker of dialect can under the other dialect, vice versa. Scandinavian langauges (norway, denmark, sweden) are similar: language-dialect distinction = fuzzy, 1. Language is used to communicate transmit intentions/concepts: human languages have semanticity ability to convy a meaning, uses systems of signs associated w/ meanings. Conventional sign a sign all members of language community agree to use with a certain meaning: 2. Language is arbitrary: sign-meaning w. r. t human language is arbitrary. Language is hierarchically organized language"s grammer: units: Can have 2 or more syllables ex. "the fat cat", "ate up", "all the food" "the fat cat ate up all the food" Discourse: phrases and sentences etc. combine into discourse. "the cat chased the squirrel, but she didn"t catch it. " "the cat chased the squirrel, and she didn"t catch it. : organization changes meanings.
