LIN100Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Longman, Linguistic Competence, Grammar
Document Summary
Required readings: william o"grady and john archibald"s contemporary linguistic analysis: Its goal is: to observe verifiable facts about human languages, to figure out important regularities, to describe human languages, to explain the facts about them and regularities in their structure. Linguistics is thus like any other scientific study. Value judgments are not verifiable, while the objects of linguistic study are verifiable facts about: language structure, language acquisition, language change, language usage, etc. Kids need to study for years in school to learn to speak their language. Language is a method of communication through speech, writing and signing (as in sign language). Homo sapiens have evolved a part of their organs to use for speech. The organs used in human speech (speech organs) are primarily concerned with breathing and eating, but are used for speech as well. Unique to our species in their structure and shape in that the neural network has the control over them.
