• What is linguistics?

• LINGUISTICS is the the scientific study of language.

• It deals with the internal structure of language (FORM) and the varied uses of language in
human life (FUNCTION).

• Synchronic linguistics – study of language at a given point of time

• Diachronic linguistics – study of language change

• Branches and research areas of LINGUISTICS

• General (theoretical) linguistics – general features of language; theoretical linguistic issues

• Contrastive linguistics – similarities and differences between languages

• Comparative linguistics – language change over time; historical connection(s) between two
or more different languages

• Sociolinguistics – interrelation between language and society

• Psycholinguistics – language processing in the brain (language acquisition, language learning)

• Applied linguistics – practical application of linguistic studies to other areas (teaching of

foreign languages)

• Cognitive linguistics – interrelation between language and thought

• Corpus linguistics – study of language by means of corpora

• Anthroplogical linguistics – language variation and usage in relation to culture

• Phonetics – physical production and perception of speech sounds

• Phonology – study of sound systems

• Morphology – word formation and structure

• Syntax – sentence structure

• Semantics – meaning of words, phrases and sentences

• Metalanguage

• form of lanugage used to discuss language; ˈlanguage about languageˈ

• consits of linguistic terms (e.g. phoneme, tense, determiner, syntax etc.)

 • highly specialised and technical: linguistic jargon

• What is LANGUAGE?

• Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas,

emotions, and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols. These symbols are, in
the first instance, auditory and they are produced by the so-called organs of speech.

• (Edward Sapir, ‘’Language’’, 1921)

• Language is primarily spoken: speech is the primary manifestation of language and it

precedes writing.

• SPOKEN LANGUAGE developed between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago.

• WRITTEN LANGUAGE did not emerge until about 5,000 years ago.

Theories, or rather speculations, about the origins of spoken language:

• THE DIVINE SOURCE

• THE NATURAL SOUND SOURCE

• THE MUSICAL SOURCE

• THE SOCIAL INTERACTION SOURCE

• THE PHYSICAL ADAPTATION SOURCE

• THE TOOL-MAKING SOURCE

• THE GENETIC SOURCE

THE DIVINE SOURCE

According to this belief, which exists in many religions and is shared by most cultures, there is a
divine source who provided humans with language – the original God-given language which was
unique and universal.

• Unsuccessful attempts to reconstruct, by means of experiments, the original language (the

Egyptian pharaoh Psammethicus 2,500 years ago, King James the Fourth of Scotland around
1500, the Mogul emperor Akbar the Great).

• Very young children living in isolation, without access to human language in their early
years, grow up with no language at all.

THE NATURAL SOUND SOURCE

• based on the concept of echoing or imitating the natural sounds, referred to as

ONOMATOPOEIC THEORY, sometimes also called the ‘bow-wow’ theory of language origin.

• Language is not merely a set of words used as ‘names’ for things- human language is also
used to refer to the soundless objects and creatures, as well as abstract things, concepts
and ideas.

• The ˈPooh-Poohˈtheory – speech developed from the instinctive sounds people make in
emotional circumstances.
THE MUSICAL SOURCE

• the idea that musical ability developed before the ability to create words

• Our first musical instrument was the human voice, control of the vibration of the vocal
cords.

• Need to cooperate – motivation that prompted humans to go beyond melody and develop a
more elaborated means of interacting with eachother.

THE SOCIAL INTERACTION SOURCE

• It places the developement of human language in a social context.

• Involves the utterance of sounds in physical effort (grunts, curses), not just melodies.

• Does not reveal the origins of the sounds produced.

THE PHYSICAL ADAPTATION SOURCE

• Based on a hypothesis or assumption that humans possess some physical features, distinct
from those of other creatures, which support speech production, i.e. enable humans to
develop speech (language).

• During evolutionary development some physical features relevant for speech were
partially adapted (the so-called organs of speech: teeth, lips, tongue, mouth, larynx,
pharynx).

THE TOOL - MAKING SOURCE

The Human Brain

• Unlike that of other primates, it is unusually large relative to human body size.

• It is lateralised, i.e. has specialised functions in each of the two hemispheres.

• There is an evolutionry connection between tool-using and language-using abilities of

humans – both have contributed to the development of the SPEAKING BRAIN.

• This means that humans have developed a part of the brain that specialises in organising
and combining of sounds and signs and using them to build complex messages.

THE GENETIC SOURCE

• This theory assumes that human offspring are born with a special capacity for language, i.e.
that language is INNATE - the language capacity is genetically hard-wired in the newborn
human. This is called the INNATENESS HYPOTHESIS.

• Language capacity is the result of a crucial mutation in human genetics, producing the
special ‘language-gene’ that only humans possess.

• Thus humans are, like computers, pre-programmed or hard-wired, and are the only living
creatures possessing the capacity for speech.
 • Properties of Human Language

We should distinguish between:

• COMMUNICATIVE SIGNALS – the ones that we wish to communicate and that we send
intentionally (=on purpose), also known as verbal expression)

• INFORMATIVE SIGNALS – the ones sent unintentionally (sneezing, gesticulation, body

language, accent, etc.), which sometimes reveal what we do not want to communicate, i.e.
nervousness, anxiety, fear, etc.) known as non-verbal expression

• Properties of Human Language

• In discussing the basic differences between human language and animal communication,
we should consider both aspects (communicative and informative signals) in terms of their
potential as a means of intentional communication.

• An animal is considered to be sending a communicative signal when it wants to draw

attention to imminent danger (e.g. a bird squawking loudly when there is a cat nearby).

• Properties of Human Language

• Humans are able to reflect on language and its uses, i.e. the property of reflexivity accounts
for the fact that we can use language to think and talk about language itself.

• Without this general ability we wouldnˈt be able to reflect on any of the other distinct
properties of human language.

• Properties of Human Language

• The major features distinguishing human language from animal communication:

• DISPLACEMENT

• ARBITRARINESS

• CULTURAL TRANSMISSION

• PRODUCTIVITY

• DUALITY

• DISPLACEMENT

• Animal communication seems to be designed exclusively for this moment, HERE and NOW. It
cannot be used to relate events that are far removed in time and place.

• Humans can refer to past and future time, to imaginary and hypothetical situations,
creatures, events, etc.

• This property of human language is called DISPLACEMENT. It allows language users to talk
about things and events not present in the immediate environment (here and now).

• DISPLACEMENT
• ARBITRARINESS

• ARBITRARY, adj.- (of actions, rules, decisions) not based on any principle, plan, or system

• Human language can be generally described as arbitrary. It means that there is no ‘natural’
or ‘logical’ connection between a linguistic form and its meaning. The connection is quite
arbitrary.

• The linguistic form has no natural or ‘iconic’ relationship with the object it refers to.

• ARBITRARINESS

• This aspect of the relationship between linguistic signs and objects they denote is described
as ARBITRARINESS.

• It explains the fact that words used to denote the same thing (e.g. a dog, a cat, a house, or a
tree) differ so much in different languages.You cannot guess the meaning from the form of
the word.

• Onomatopoeic words might be an exception, but such words are relatively rare in human
language.

• ARBITRARINESS

• Animal communication is characterised by the non-arbitrariness of its signalling.

• Animal communication consists of a fixed and limited set of vocal or gestural forms.

• The set of signals used in animal communication is therefore finite (=limited).

• The one used in human language in infinite (=unlimited).

• CULTURAL TRANSMISSION

• Humans inherit physical and other features genetically, from their ancestors, but language is
not inherited from parental genes. It is acquired (=learnt) in a culture with other speakers.

• Language is culturally transmitted, i.e. passed on from one generation to the next.

• CULTURAL TRANSMISSION

• Humans are born with some kind of predisposition to acquire language in a general sense,
but not a particular language.

• Animals are born with a set of specific signals that are produced instinctively.

• Humans acquire their first language as children in a culture. Language is produced non-
instictively.

• CULTURAL TRANSMISSION

• Human language is socially conditioned – language cannot be acquired without exposure to

other speakers. We can say that language is, among other things, a social and cultural
phenomenon.

• Human infants, growing up in isolation, produce no ‘instinctive’ language. They grow up with
no language at all.
• CULTURAL TRANSMISSION is a process whereby a language is passed on from one
generation to the next.

• PRODUCTIVITY

• Humans are continually creating new expressions and novel utterances by manipulating and
combining their linguistic resources to describe new objects and situations.

• This property is referred to as PRODUCTIVITY (or ‘creativity’ or ‘open-endedness’).

• It is due to the fact that the potential number of utterances in any human language is
infinite (=unlimited).

• PRODUCTIVITY

• Animal communication has a fixed set of signals used in communication.

• This limiting feature of animal communication is described in terms of fixed reference.The

signals used in communication are fixed in terms of their reference (the things they refer to)
and cannot be manipulated (i.e. changed or increased).

• Unlike animal communication, human language is flexible and productive, and its resources
are infinite (=unlimited).

• DUALITY

• Human language is organised at two levels or layers simultaneously. This property is called
DUALITY (or ‘double articulation’).

• 1. PHYSICAL LEVEL at which individual sounds are produced, e.g. b, p, t, or g. As individual

sounds they have no meaning. They only have meanings when combined with each other or
with other distinct sounds.

• DUALITY

• 2. Individual sounds acquire a meaning in particular combinations with other sounds or

groups of sounds, i.e. at the second level, which may be referred to as the SEMANTIC LEVEL.

• At one level – DISTINCT SOUNDS

• At another level – DISTINCT MEANINGS.

• DUALITY

• This property of human language, known as DUALITY of LEVELS, is one of its most
economical features.

• It enables us, by using a limited set of discrete (=distinct) sounds, to produce a very large,
practically unlimited number of sound combinations (or words) which are distinct in
meaning.
Words & Word Formation

• What is a word?

• A WORD may be defined as a MINIMUM FREE FORM (Bloomfield), i.e. a linguistic unit which
exists separately and independently, perceived by language users as having and conveying
a meaning of its own.

• ORTHOGRAPHIC WORDS

• = linguistic units separated by spaces in written text and the corresponding forms in speech
(e.g. pauses)

• A NEOLOGISM – a new word in a language.

• What is a word?

• watch, watches, watched, watching

= WATCH

• speak. speaks, spoke, speaking, spoken

= SPEAK

• LEXEME

= a group of word forms that share the same basic meaning, similar forms, and the same word
class

• ETYMOLOGY

• The study of the ORIGIN and HISTORY of a word.

• The term originally comes from Greek (étymon – ‘original form’ + logia – ‘study of’) and has
reached the English language (as well as many other languages) through Latin.

• The constant evolution of new words and new uses of old words should be regarded as a
reassuring sign of vitality, productivity, and creativeness in the way language is shaped by
the needs of its users.

• WORD FORMATION PROCESSES

• BORROWING

• COMPOUNDING

• Blending

• CLIPPING

• Backformation

• CONVERSION

• COINAGE

• Acronyms
• DERIVATION

• BORROWING

• It is the process of taking over (and sometimes adapting) words from other languages. It is
one of the most common sources of new words in English.

• Typical examples:

• croissant (French) yoghurt (Turkish)

• lilac (Persian) piano (Italian)

• pretzel (German) sofa (Arabic)

• tattoo (Tahitian) tycoon (Japanese)

• BORROWING

• Words borrowed from other languages are called LOAN WORDS.

• LOAN TRANSLATION or CALQUE is a special type of borrowing where the elements of a

word (a compound) are directly or literally translated into the borrowing language:

• skyscraper (English) – gratte-ciel (French) - grattacielo (Italian) – neboder (Croatian)-

Wolkenkratzer ( German)

• COMPOUNDING

• It is the process of combining or joining of two separate words to create a single form
(word), expressing a single notion.

• Typical examples:

• Compound nouns: bookcase, fingerprint, sunburn, waterbed

textbook, wallpaper, dustbin, wastebasket

• Compound adjectives: good-looking, low-paid, well-paid

• Adjective + noun: fast-food restaurant, part-time job, etc.

• COMPOUNDS may be written as two separate words, hyphenated, or as a single word.

• BLENDING

• It is a combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term, similar to

compounding. Unlike compounding, which uses complete words, BLENDING is accomplished
by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word, the
two words being reduced and ‘blended’ into one as a result.

• BLENDING

• The product of blending is referred to as a BLEND.

• Typical examples:

• smoke / fog = smog

• breakfast / lunch = brunch

• motor / hotel = motel

• Channel / tunnel = chunnel

• Oxford / Cambridge = Oxbridge

• information / entertainment = infotainment

• teleprinter / exchange = telex

• modulator / demodulator = modem

• NOTE: In the last two examples the beginnings of the two words are combined.

• CLIPPING

• It is a word formation process based on reduction: a word of more than one syllable is
reduced to a shorter form (or ‘clipped’). Clipping typically occurs in colloquial or casual
speech.

• Typical examples:

• facsimile = fax

• gasoline = gas (A.E.)

• advertisement = ad

• fanatic = fan

• influenza = flu

• permanent wave = perm

• CLIPPING

• Some more examples:

• information = info

• chemistry = chem

• laboratory = lab

• mathematics = math(s)

• Personal names are frequently clipped:

• Edward = Ed; Elizabeth = Liz; Michael = Mike; Samuel, Samantha = Sam

• CLIPPING

• HYPOCORISM, n. (HYPOCORISTIC, n.& adj.) – similar to DIMINUTIVE or PET-NAME

• It is a particular type of reduction by clipping, especially favoured by British and Australian

speakers of English. In this process a longer word is reduced to a single syllable with the
suffix –y or –ie added to the end.
 • CLIPPING

Examples:

• television = telly

• moving pictures = movie(s)

• breakfast = brekky

• handkerchief = hankie

• Christmas presents = Chrissy pressies

• NOTE: Hypocorisms are only used in informal speech.

• BACKFORMATION

• It is a specialised type of reduction: a word of one type or word class (usually a noun) is
reduced to form a word of another type or word class (usually a verb), e.g.:

• television (noun) = televise (verb)

• donation (n.) = donate (v.)

• mixture (n.) = mix (v.)

• orientation (n.) = orientate / orient (v.)

• babysitter (n.) = babysit (v.)

• backformation (n.) = backform (v.)

• BACKFORMATION

• The process is often based on the pattern worker – work common in English, usually
denoting actions assumed to be performed by persons referred to by nouns, e.g.:

• editor (n.) = edit (v.)

• sculptor (n.) = sculpt (v.)

• burglar (n.) = burgle (v.)

• beggar (n.) = beg (v.)

• NOTE: Forming new words according to the existing patterns is referred to as ANALOGY.

• CONVERSION

• It is a change in the function (word class or part of speech) of a word, e.g. when a noun
comes to be used as a verb, without any reduction or change in form.

• CONVERSION is also called ‘CATEGORY CHANGE’ and ‘FUNCTIONAL SHIFT’ because it

involves a change in the grammatical category (word class / part of speech), i.e. a shift from
one word class to another.

• CONVERSION
• Typical examples of conversion:

• 1. NOUNS becoming VERBS:

• bottle, butter, chair, vacation (A.E.)

• 2. VERBS becoming NOUNS:

• guess, must, spy = a guess, a must, a spy

• CONVERSION

• The conversion process is particularly productive in modern English.

• 3. PHRASAL VERBS becoming NOUNS:

• to print out = a printout

• to take over = a takeover

• 4. VERBS converted into ADJECTIVES:

• to see through = see-through material

• to stand up = a stand-up comedian

• CONVERSION

• 5. ADJECTIVES becoming VERBS or NOUNS:

• dirty (adj) = to dirty (v.)

• empty (adj.) = to empty (v.)

• crazy (ad.) = a crazy (n.)

• 6. COMPOUND NOUNS may be used as ADJECTIVES and VERBS:

• ball park (n.) = a ball-park figure (adj) – an approximate figure; to ball-park an estimate of the
cost(v.)

• carpool (n.) = to carpool (v.)

• mastermind (n.) = to mastermind (v.)

• CONVERSION

• Other forms, such as ADVERBS, may be converted into VERBS:

• up = They have upped the prices of oil.

• down = He downed a couple of drinks.

• Some words substantially shift in meaning when they change category through conversion,
i.e. may assume negative meanings (connotations):

• doctor (n.) = to doctor (v.) – to tamper with; to change something in order to deceive
• total (n.& adj.) = to total (v.) – (e.g. a car) to destroy completely

• COINAGE

• The invention (=‘coining’) of totally new terms.

• Coinage is one of the least common processes of word formation in English.

• The most typical sources are invented trade names for commercial products that become
general terms and tend to be used as everyday words in the language (usually without capital
letters), e.g. aspirin, nylon, teflon, kleenex, xerox.

• COINAGE

• EPONYMS are new words based on the name of a person or a place.

• Some eponyms are technical terms, based on the names of those who first discovered or
invented things.

• Typical examples:

• hoover (a vacuum cleaner, named after its inventor), sandwich (Earl of Sandwich), jeans (the
Italian city of Genoa), fahrenheit (Gabriel Fahrenheit), volt (Alessandro Volta), watt (James
Watt)

• ACRONYMS

• ACRONYMS are new words formed from the initial letters or syllables of a set of other
words. They are actually abbreviations which come to be used as ordinary words. Some
acronyms are written in capital letters, but many are not – they have become everyday
words.

• CD – ‘compact disk’

• NASA – ʼthe National Aeronautics and Space

Administrationʼ

• radar – ‘radio detecting and ranging’

• laser – ‘light amplification by stimulated emission of

radiation’

• ACRONYMS

• Acronyms are sometimes pronounced by saying each separate letter, e.g.:

• CD, VIP, USA, UK, UN, PhD

• Sometimes they are pronounced as new single words:

• NATO, NASA, UNICEF, UNESCO

• ACRONYMS

• Some more examples:

• MADD = ‘mothers against drunk driving’

• WAR = ‘women against rape’

 • PIN = ‘personal identification number’

• scuba = ‘self-contained underwater breathing apparatus’

• DERIVATION

• It is a word-formation process in which new words (=lexical items) are created by

AFFIXATION, i.e. adding AFFIXES (prefixes and suffixes) to a word, changing its meaning or
its category (=word class).

• New forms obtained in this way are referred to as DERIVATIONAL FORMS.

• DERIVATION

• It is by far the most common and productive word-formation process in the English
language.

• It is accomplished by a large number of small ‘bits’ (=morphemes), not given separate listings
in dictionaries, and generally described as AFFIXES (e.g. un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, -ish, -ism, -
ness) which appear in words like unhappy, misunderstand, useful, careless, childish,
classicism happiness.

• DERIVATION

• AFFIXES are generally classified as:

• 1. PREFIXES – added to the beginning of the word (un-, dis-, mis-, in-, re-)

• *2. INFIXES – incorporated or ‘inserted’ inside the word, e.g.: Absoballylutely!

• 3. SUFFIXES – added to the end of the word (-ly, -ness, -ful, -less, -ism, -ish, -al)

• *N.B. Infixation is extremely rare in English: it is only used in emotionally charged situations,
usually as expletives (swear words).

• DERIVATION

• A word may have:

• 1. both a prefix and a suffix, eg.:

disrespectful, unintetionally, unfortunately, indescribable

• 2. two suffixes:

carelessness, foolishness, knowledgeable,

• MULTIPLE PROCESSES

• deli → delicatessen (borrowing from German) →

clipping to deli

The problems with the project have snowballed.

Snow + ball ≈ snowball (compounding)

Snowball (n.) → snownball (v.) (conversion)