HESP 120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Linguistic Competence, List Of Fables Characters, Cultural Learning
31 Jan 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Linguistics
1/25
What is Linguistics?
● Linguistics is the study of human language
○ All human societies have languages
○ All languages have a systematic and complex structure
○ Humans learn and use language with very little apparent effort
“Scientific Study”
● Look at language as an independent object to study
● Make hypotheses and test them
● Gather data
○ It's not enough that we all speak a language ... we all obey gravity but that
doesn't mean we all know how it works
○ (Not just our intuitions about language)
● Revise our hypotheses
● Test them again
● Build a theory consistent with our observations
“Language”
● Studying language is a way of understanding human nature
○ Language is part of human cognition
○ How does the mind work?
● Language is critical to human social interaction
If we want to understand human language, we’ll need to…
● Identify fundamental properties
● Look for some universals
● Study different languages
○ They may be different but still have things in common
What does a native speaker know about a language?
How is that knowledge acquired?
● Any native speaker of any language has complex knowledge which we seek to
understand
● Linguists don’t judge or evaluate what is “good” vs. “bad” use of a language or “good” vs.
“bad” grammar
Goal of linguistics
● To study the underlying “rules” that govern language
○ Form, function, usage
Form
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
● What are the basic parts of a language?
○ Sounds (or signs)
○ Words
○ Sentences
○ Larger units
■ Paragraphs
■ Utterances
■ Conversations
■ Speeches
Function
● What is the purpose of language?
○ Words and sentences convey meaning
○ Languages causes change (in people’s minds)
○ Language causes change in the physical world (gets people to do things)
○ We can also use language to express our identity
Usage
● How are we able to and how do we use language?
○ Acquiring, understanding, and producing language are all processes that take
place in our minds
○ What does language tell us about society and relationships?
○ Why do we use language in the way that we do?
Competence vs. performance
● Competence: what we know when we know a language
○ hidden/unconscious knowledge
○ Reflects the rules of mental grammar
● Performance: how we make use of these rules
○ Observable use of language
Linguistic competence
● This hidden/unconscious knowledge can broadly be divided into two parts
○ Lexicon: the collection of all the words a language user knows
○ Mental grammar: all the rules you know about your language; the knowledge
that allows a speaker to produce grammatical utterances
Two types of rules related to language
● Prescriptive grammar: tells people how the should speak (judges as good or bad)
○ Seventh grade English grammar class
● Descriptive grammar: rules and generalizations about languages as it’s actually
produced (grammar rules, order of words)
Prescriptive vs. descriptive
● Prescriptive
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Linguistics is the study of human language. All languages have a systematic and complex structure. Humans learn and use language with very little apparent effort. Look at language as an independent object to study. It"s not enough that we all speak a language we all obey gravity but that doesn"t mean we all know how it works (not just our intuitions about language) Build a theory consistent with our observations. Studying language is a way of understanding human nature. Language is critical to human social interaction. If we want to understand human language, we"ll need to . They may be different but still have things in common. Any native speaker of any language has complex knowledge which we seek to understand. Linguists don"t judge or evaluate what is good vs. bad use of a language or good vs. To study the underlying rules that govern language. Language causes change in the physical world (gets people to do things)
