Introduction to Linguistics

and
Basic Terms
Linguistics and Linguists:
• Linguistics:
– Definition: The scientific study of language
– gives a better understanding of the nature of
human language
– Contributes to our understanding of human mind

• Linguists:
– are scientists who study the general properties of
grammars - the universal properties found in all
languages - and the specific properties of the
grammars of individual languages
Definitions:
• Speech: is the oral expression of language

• Language: is a shared system of symbols and

rules that allow us to represent concepts and
experiences and to communicate with others.
Language is arbitrary, creative and learned.

• Communication: is the process of sharing

thoughts, ideas, attitudes, feelings and desires
with others.
 What is LANGUGE?
• Introduction:
– Whatever people may do when they come
together -they talk
– Talk to friends, family members, strangers..,
to ourselves
– The possession of language, distinguishes
humans from other animals.
– Philosophy (myth): it is the language which
is the source of human life and power
What is LANGUGE? (Cont’d)
• Introduction:
– To understand our humanity one must
understand the language that makes us
human

– When we study human language, we are

approaching what some might call “human
essence,” the distinctive qualities of mind
that are, so far as we know, unique to man
Noam Chomsky
What does it mean to know a
language?
• It means to be able to speak and to be
understood by others who know that
language
–Which means to be able to produce
sounds which signify certain meanings
and to understand or interpret the
sounds produced by others
–Deaf persons produce and understand
signs
• How is it possible for you
to do this?

• Is there anything more

that you know when you
have acquired knowledge
of a language?
• If you know language, you know
1. which sounds are part of the language and
which are not
– Knowledge àThe way speakers of one language
pronounce words from another language
– E.g. French people speaking English pronounce
words like (This, That) as Zis and Zat
– this is because the English sound which begins
these words is not part of the French sound
systemà mispronunciation reveals the
knowledge
• If you know language, you know
2. which sounds may start a word, end a word,
and follow each other
– name Nkrumah; Ghanaian (Nàng)
– English (N à en)

3. that certain sounds or sound sequences

signify or represent different concepts or
“meanings”à
– i.e. you know the system which relates sounds
and meanings
– e.g. foreign language--> sounds spoken mean
nothing
– E.g.Sounds (House) signify the concept
– French maison; Russian dom
◊ sounds of words are only given meaning
by the language in which they occur

◊ particular sound sequences which seem

to relate to particular concept
– Ex. gl (sight) in English, and not have to do with
sight in another language
– glitter, glossy, glance, glimpse….
• When you know language, you
4. would be able to combine words to form
phrases, and phrases to form sentences.

This is because, knowing a language means

being able to produce new sentences never
spoken before and to understand sentences
never heard before

– E.g. different responses and say different things

when someone steps on our toes

• This ability is referred to it as the “creative

aspect” of language use
Noam Chomsky
• When you know language, you
5. Know what sentences are appropriate in
various situations
– E.g. inappropriate to say “Hamburger costs 98
cents a pound” after someone has just stepped
on your toe during a discussion on the weather
in Britain

6. can recognize and understand and produce

new sentences
– E.g. writing an essay, exam, letter
• When you know language, you
7. you must know some “rules” to form the
sentences
– These rules must
• be (a) finite in length and (b) finite in number
so they can be stored in our finite brains
• Permit us to form and understand an infinite set of
new sentences

• Language consists of all the sounds, words,

and possible sentences. Knowledge of a
language is knowledge of the sounds, the
words, and the rules for their combination.
What you know and what you do
• Our linguistic ability permits us to form longer and longer
sentences which is illustrated by piling up adjectives
• limit No. of adjectives to 3,5,18 in speaking
Vs
can not limit the No. of adjectives which one could add if
one wanted to
• i.e. there is a difference between having the necessary
knowledge to produce such sentences
and the way we use this knowledge when we are
performing linguistically
• what one knowsà linguistic competence
• how one uses this knowledge in actual behaviorà linguistic
performance
Linguistic Competence and Performance
• You have the competence to understand or
produce an infinitely long sentence.

• But when you attempt to use that knowledge-

when you perform linguistically- there are
physiological and psychological reasons why you
cut off the number of adjectives, adverbs,
clauses, and so on.

– Run out of breath

– Audience may leave
– You may lose track of what has been said if the
sentence is too long
Linguistic Competence and Performance
(Cont’d)
• In using our knowledge of language in
speaking we also make mistakes –slips of the
tongue, false starts, and so on. But this does
not mean that we can’t recognize errors – we
have the knowledge to do so.
 What is Grammar?
• The elements and rules of a language constitute
the grammar

• The grammar is what we knowà it represents

our linguistic competence

• There may be differences between the

knowledge that one speaker has and that of
another. But there must be shared knowledge
because it is this grammar which makes it
possible for speakers to talk to and understand
one another.
 What is Grammar? (Cont’d)
• Although the rules of your grammar may differ
from the rules of someone else’s grammar, there
can’t possibly be a mistake in your grammar à

– because no language or variety of a language (dialect)

is superior to any other in a linguistic sense

– Every grammar is equally complex and logical and

capable of producing an infinite set of sentences to
express any thought one might wish to express

◊ If something can be expressed in one language or one

dialect, it can be expressed in any other language or
dialect
What is Grammar? (Cont’d)
• The grammar includes everything speakers
know about their language
– the sound system (PHONOLOGY)
– the system of meanings (SEMANTICS)
– the rules of sentence formulation (SYNTAX)

• Many think of the grammar of a language as

referring solely to the syntactic rules
What is Grammar? (Cont’d)
• Laws which pertain to all languages:
• Represent the universal properties of
language
• Constitute what may be called a “universal
grammar”
• Language Universals:
1. Linguistic universals: is concerned with the
sound systems of language.
– Every grammar, for ex., includes discrete sound
segments, like p, n, or a, which can all be defined
by a finite set of “sound properties”
Language Universals (Cont’d)
2. Phonological universals: reveal that every
language has both “vowels” and
“consonants” and rules which determine the
pronunciation of sentences
3. Semantic universals: pertain to common
semantic properties such as “male,”
“female,” “animate,” “human,” and
“concrete,” which are found in all languages
4. Syntax universals: reveal the ways in which
sentences are formed.
• Language components:
• Form (Phonology – Morphology – Syntax)
• Content (Semantics)
• Use (pragmatics)

• Phonology: Aspect of language concerned with the rules governing the

structure, distribution and sequencing of speech sound patterns

• Morphology: Aspect of language concerned with the rules governing

change in meaning at the intraword level

• Syntax: Organizational rules specifying word order, sentence organization

and word relationships

• Semantics: Aspect of language concerned with the rules governing the

meaning or content of words

• Pragmatics: Aspect of language concerned with language use within a

communication context