ANTH 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: William Labov, Phoneme, Linguistic System
27 Feb 2017
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Descriptive linguistics: study grammar and syntax of languages. Ex. cats contain two morphemes, the word cat and s indicating plurality: lexicon: is a dictionary containing all its morphemes and their meaning, syntax: refers to the arrangement and order of words in phrases and sentences. Phonemes are the basic units of speech perception, the smallest bits of sound that we recognize as a meaningful element of language. English speakers hear the difference between l and r sounds while swahili and japanese speakers lump them together in a single phoneme. In linguistics we say that the difference between r and l is phonemic in english and french, but not in japanese. A phoneme is a sound contrast that makes a difference, that differentiates meaning. We find phonemes in a language by comparing minimal pairs, words that resemble each other in all but one sound. These words have totally different meanings but they differ in just one sound.
