Re ee ed PLinguistics for Beginners Basic Concepts TARIQ RAHMAN Iumt Boox Howse Chowk Urdu Bazar Lahore Ph: 37324718, 37234009. 37357915 Publicity Stamp Not for Official Use AkBAR MpHmod MA TEL. UNIVERSITY PRESSOXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 0x2 6p? Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford, Ie furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York ‘Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Oxford University Press 2010 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. Enquiries concerning reproduction should be sent to ‘Oxford University Press at the address below. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than ‘that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on theisubsequent purchaser. ISBN 978-0-19-547925-6 For sale in Pakistan and not for export therefrom. ‘Typeset in Adobe Garamond Pro Printed in Pakistan by Pixel Graphix, Karachi. Published by Ameena Saiyid, Oxford University Press No. 38, Sector 15, Korangi Industrial Area, RO, Box 8214, Karachi-74900, Pakistan.Contents Preface Introduction A Brief History of Linguistics . The Study of Sounds Phercties . The Study of Sound Patterns Phowetoyy lL 2. 3. 4, 5. How Words are Made morphology 6. The Study of Meaning £-nanties 7. Introduction to Chomsky’s Theories 8. Transformational Generative Grammar 9, More about Grammar 10. Government and Binding Theory 11. Universal Grammar 12, Anthropological Linguistics 13, Sociolinguistics 14, Language Politics 15, Language Death 16, Educational Linguistics 17. Writing in South Asia 18. Notes for the Reader 19, Bibliography and Further Reading page vii 24 44 53 62 72 80 101 M1 17 127 140 162 171 176 182 198 199Preface = book is written to introduce South Asian students to linguistics.c is-written in simple‘English, and the explanation is so clear and detailed that no previous knowledge of the subject is necessary to undetstand the basic concepts of linguistics. Indeed, the aim of this book is to teach linguistics to beginners who have never studied it and who do not have a teacher. Thus thé book explains concepts in the kind of language which a teacher would use when explaining concepts to undergraduates or high school students. It is meant for the bachelors’ level but maybe used in the ordinary two-year masters’ level in some South Asian universities'Which comes after a two-year BA and which does not have specialized courses to begin with. As this is not a specialized book on linguistics, there is a little of most of the concepts which South Asian universities require. OF course, in order to make the beginners familiar WithlEhelmost important aspects of a course in linguistics, there is much more of such core subjects as sounds, the production of sounds in the mouth, the description of sounds, the way words and sentences are constructed, and how there are rules governing these constructions. All these are areas of what may be called microlinguistics. But there are also important aspects of how language is used in society, how we create meaning, and how we express reality through language. This is called macrolinguistics and is often more interesting for people studying sociology, anthropology, computer sciences, politics, and history etc. The book does introduce some of these areas but, due to their importance, it gives more space to concepts without knowing which nobody will call you a linguist. Linguistics—the scientific study of language—is taught in most of the major universities of the world. It helps us understand what human languages are and how they produce meaning. As languages are used in societies there is much that knowledge of languages andPREFACE viii . People who work in artificial intelligence and robotics also use linguistics to provide them insights into how language is processed in the brain. There are excellent departments of linguistics in India and a number of linguists of world stature. There are also departments of linguistics in Nepal as well as Sri Lanka. In Pakistan, courses of linguistics were introduced from 1987 onwards by the author and now there are degree courses in linguistics in several universities, though most of the courses they offer owe their origin to English Language ‘Teaching (ELT). However, even s n. Xx for them in Pakistan. The book which I used when I was teaching myself linguistics in 1987 (incidentally I had a PhD in English literature and was full professor then, but I had lost interest in literature for both research and teaching) was An Introduction to Language (Fromkin and Rodman 1974). In 1990, while doing a short course on language and the mind in the University of Cambridge, I met a really gifted lecturer, id few months later in 1991, at the University of Sana’a, I met a colleague from India whom our family called Deedi but part of whose name Dr Chanda stays in my memory. She was trying to write a simple introductory book for students of English Language Teaching (ELT). I do not know if that book ever got written but the idea of a book which could teach beginners linguistics even without the mediation of teachers stayed in my mind. A few years later, while writing Language and Politics in Pakistan (OUP 1996; available in India in the Orient Blackswan edition of 2007), Lahore: Vanguard, 1987) however, i are » is a new book as almost everything has been changed inPREFACE ix ie ough it does overlap with the earlier work in some places. I i an an Sethi, an old friend and publisher, who published An ntroduction to Linguistics. | also thank Ms Ketaki Bose who eee fo rewrite it so as to produce a new edition for Pe aa Since I wanted the book to be available to a se South Asian students as well as others, I wanted it ae Published in Pakistan in addition to India. I thank Oxford nets Press for making this wish come true. I am especially pats to Ms Ameena Sayid, Managing Director of Oxford niversity Press in Pakistan, for encouraging me to submit the manuscript. T also thank Mr Samuel Ray, Senior Editor, Oxford University Press for having taken pains to make the book see the light of the day. But for the work he and his colleagues put in the book would not have been before the readers today. { realize there are many such introductory books, including some recent additions (Matthew 2003). ‘However)"l' flatter myselfithat none of them:cover'as many aspects of linguistics and in as simple language as this one. T have kept South Asian names and cultural references with a view tolengaging the attention OF sttidéhits (Of valleSAARG» countries. However, being familiar more with the culture and publications of Pakistan and India, I apologize for there being more references to these two countries. I hope students in Pakistan and India, as well as other South Asian countries, will)find) this\ book Usefull AS the book is written in clear English and the jargon of linguistics is introduced to the reader with adequate explanation, it can also be read by the lay person. In fact, one of the reasons for writing it is to.introduce. the ordinary reader to linguistics. This book has been divided into the following chapters. Chapter 1 defines what linguistics is, and Chapter 2 traces out the history of its development. Chapter 3 and 4 are about the sounds which combine together to make up a language (phonetics). Chapter 5 explains the way words are constructed (morphology). Chapter 6 is about the meaning of words or semantics. This is followed by three major chapters—7, 8, 9, 10, and 11—on the theories of Noam Chomsky, i.e. transformational generative grammar and the