LESSON 1:

LANGUAGE IN
FOCUS
WMSU
KHARYLLE SCHYANEID T. KENOH, MAED-ELT
Course Instructor

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Our objectives:
• Review concepts in linguistics in reference
to culture and society;

• Differentiate linguistic terms in general

language study (L1 vs L2, Mother Tongue
vs. Native Tongue, Pidgin vs. Creole, etc.)

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Let’s begin!

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LANGUAGE: defined by Chomsky
• Refers to “a set (finite or infinite) of
sentences, each finite in length and
constructed out of a finite set of elements”
• Hence, once a particular string of words or
a sentence causes a feeling of wrongness
in a native speaker, then it can be
classified as ungrammatical.

(Chomsky 1957:13)

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DEFINING
LINGUISTICS
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LINGUISTICS
• It is the scientific study of language
• Involves the systematic and analytical
study of: speech sounds, words,
sentences, meaning and discourse and
how they evolve over time.
• Involves the mental, social, cultural and
education aspects of language.

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 NOAM
CHOMSKY
FATHER OF
LINGUISTICS

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 MACRO SKILLS

LISTENING READING

SPEAKING WRITING

VIEWING
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Prescriptive
Descriptive
Grammar
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 PRESCRIPTIVE DESCRIPTIVE
GRAMMAR GRAMMAR
• refers to a set of norms • grammar refers to an
or rules governing how objective, nonjudgmental
description of
a language should or the grammatical
should not be used rather constructions in a language.
than describing the ways in • It is an examination of how a
which a language is language is actually being
actually used. used, in writing and in
speech.

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 GRAMMAR
COMPONENTS PRAGMATICS

Levels of Linguistic Analysis

SEMANTICS

SYNTAX

MORPHOLOGY

PHONOLOGY

PHONETICS 11
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Linguistic
Terms
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 First Native
Language Language
Second Mother
Language Tounge
Prescriptive-
Descriptive Creole vs
Grammars Pidgin
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First Language
• Also termed as L1
• L1 refers to the language
the child first spoke since
childhood.
• This is an acquired
language since it was
learned since birth.

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Second Language
• L2 refers to the language
learned by the child after
having full mastery of his
first language.
• Any language learned
AFTER L1 is L2.
 Native Language
• This refers to the language a
person or child acquired in early
childhood because it is
spoken in the family and/or it is
the language of the region
where the child lives.
• According to Bloomfield (1993),
the first language a human
being learns to speak is his
native language; he is a native
speaker of this language.
• Authors often refer this as L1.
 Mother Tounge
• the language a child learned
from birth.
• This refers to a person's native
language — that is, a language
learned from birth. Also called
a first language, dominant
language, home language, and
native tongue (although these
terms are
not necessarily synonymous).
Foreign Language
• Is any language that
is not spoken or
learned in a
community.
Creole
and
Pidgin 20
Pidgin
• a type of language which arises for the
purposes of communication between
two different social groups of which
one is in a more dominant position than
the other.
• Todd (1974) defined pidgin as a marginal
language which arises to fulfill certain
restricted communication needs among
people who have no common language.
Pidgin

➢ Historically, pidgins arose in colonial situations

where the representatives of the particular colonial
power, officials, tradesmen, sailors, etc., came in
contact with natives.
Creole
• natural or stable language that came to
existence through mixed parent
languages.
• That is, it is a language developed or
derived from pidgin. This came to
existence in the post-colonial era.
• integrates characteristics from all the
parent languages to establish the mother
tongue of a community. It has its native
speakers, unlike pidgin
Macroand
Micro
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Microlinguistics
• Micro-linguistics is a specific area of study
in linguistics where it focuses on the
various aspects of a particular language.
Macrolinguistics
• Macro-linguistics looks at language from a
broader perspective.
• That is, it relates language to society and
connects it to different fields of sciences.
Diacrhonic
and
Synchronic
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Diachronic
Approach
• the study of a language through
different periods in history.
• Diachronic linguistics is one of the
two main temporal dimensions of
language study identified by
Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure
in his Course in
General Linguistics (1916).
Synchronic
Approach
• the study of language at a given point in
time (past or at present).
• It is descriptive linguistics, such as the study
of how parts of a language
(morphs or morphemes) combine to form
words and phrases and how proper syntax
gives a sentence meaning.
• Synchronic linguistics aims at describing a
language at a specific point of time, usually
the present.
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