Class Notes

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Maria Levy
AL 2000
Plan and Goals for today’s class:
1. Announcements
2. Get to know instructor and classmates
3. Understand course requirements and content
4. Know how to succeed in this course
5. Find out why this class is important
6. Learn about “language”
7. Discuss ideas and examples
8. Homework
1. Announcements
● Office Hours: 5:00 - 5:50 pm
● Class: 6:00 - 8:40 pm
● Break: 10 minutes, around 7:30 - 7:40 pm
1. Announcements & Housekeeping
In-Person Class Guidelines
1. Do online health survey
2. Do temperature scan
3. Wear mask inside
4. No eating or drinking in classroom
5. Keep 6 feet of distance
6. Fill seats from BACK, exit from front
2. Get to Know Your Classmates
Please introduce yourself:
● Name, preferred name
● Any of the following (pick one or more):
- Major
- Languages you are interested in/have studied
- Where you are from
- Other information?
2. Get to Know Your Instructor
● BA, MA, PhD in Linguistics
● Taught Linguistics at UHM
● 10+ years AD at ELS
● Currently: curriculum consulting, assessment
creation, translation, ...
● Languages: German, English, Russian, ...
● Interests: Language documentation, morphology,
comparative linguistics, and many other areas
3. Course Requirements and Contents
● Introduction to Linguistics
● Fulfills General Ed requirement
● Required for TESOL majors
● Book: Linguistics for Everyone: An
Introduction, Denham & Lobeck
● Content: overview of most important/basic
areas of linguistics, some additional areas
3. Course Requirements and Contents
Syllabus

● Discuss overview
● Assignments, assessments, and grading
3. Course Requirements and Contents
Important Links:
● Check Blackboard for new content & watch
for announcements
● Semester Calendar
● Study Guide
● Class Slides
● Student Materials Folder
3. Course Requirements and Contents
Semester Calendar
● Most important document
● Check it twice a week:
1. Thursday evenings
2. Tuesday evenings
- Assignments
- Deadlines
- Materials
3. Course Requirements and Contents
Study Guide
● List of concepts and skills to study, review,
and practice
● Check every Thursday evening
● Download/copy and add your own notes
3. Course Requirements and Contents
Class Slides
● Will be posted by Thursday night
● Feel free to check for review
3. Course Requirements and Contents
Student Materials Folder
● Contains all documents and materials posted
for the class
4. How to Succeed in this Course
● Come to class every day:
→ only meet once a week
→ cover a lot of material
→ missing even one class can have major
consequences
4. How to Succeed in this Course
● Participate actively in class:
→ Attendance: only part of 10% of the grade
→ but makes a difference
→ engage with material ⇒ better performance
on assessments
4. How to Succeed in this Course
● Do the homework:
→ only part of 10%
→ but will help you understand the material
better
→ be prepared to answer questions about the
homework
→ usually one exercise required in blackboard
4. How to Succeed in this Course
● If something is not clear, ask:
→ better understanding and participation
points
→ there is ALWAYS time for questions
4. How to Succeed in this Course
Assignments
● always given at least 5 days in advance
● deadlines clearly stated
● late assignments will not receive credit; I may
provide feedback
● Online Discussions: late = max score 40%
4. How to Succeed in this Course
● Keep side conversations to a minimum
while I or a classmate is speaking
● Check the online materials: Thursdays,
Tuesdays, every time you are notified about
an update.
● Study groups: maybe same groups as for
project; maybe different
5. Why this Class Is Important
A. General education
B. Human language
C. Critical thinking skills
D. Help for language learning
E. TESOL students: required knowledge for
language teaching
5. Why this Class Is Important
A. General education
→ Language is related to many different areas:
Politics Psychology Philosophy
Neurology Computer science
Criminology
Teaching & Education Culture & Identity
History Genetics Religion
5. Why this Class Is Important
B. Human language
● Accents
● Language learning
● Pidgins and creoles
● Language relationship
● Language change
● Language and power
5. Why this Class Is Important
C. Critical Thinking
● Analyze data
● Generalize rules from data and apply rules to
other data
● Critically examine preconceptions
5. Why this Class Is Important
D. Help for Language Learning
● What structures are possible?
● Which structures are common?
● How does English differ from other
languages?
● Which concepts are expressed in language
and how?
5. Why this Class Is Important
E. TESOL students: required knowledge for
language teaching
● Difference between English and other
language
● How to teach: pronunciation, other areas
● Common errors
6. Language: What do native speakers know?
● Unacceptable sentences/impossible utterances
→ page 3
● How to change them to acceptable sentences
● This means we:
→ know about word order (at least
subconsciously)
→ acquired these rules as very small children
6. Language: Acquisition vs. Learning
Language Acquisition
● Unconscious
● Usually as child
● Without explicit instruction
● Usually at least one language perfectly if
exposed at certain age
6. Language: Acquisition vs. Learning
Language Learning
● In school, other explicit instruction
● Often very difficult for learning
● Also includes rules about native language
→ e.g. who vs. whom
6. Language: Human Language vs. Animal
Communication
● Several significant differences
● Charles Hockett → Design Features

Semanticity Displacement
Arbitrariness Productivity
Discreteness Duality of Patterning
6. Language: Hocket, Semanticity
Humans:
● Words have meaning

Animals:
● Signals have meaning
● E.g. different sounds for different warnings
→ vervet monkey, warnings for leopard, eagle,
snake
6. Language: Hocket, Arbitrariness
Humans:
● No connection between sound and meaning
● (exception: onomatopoeia and sound
symbolism):
Animals:
● No reason why vervet monkeys use coughing
sound to warn about eagles
6. Language: Hocket, Discreteness
Humans:
● message can be broken up into smaller units
sentences > phrases > words > morphemes >
sounds

Animals:
→ maybe some birds
6. Language: Hocket, Displacement
Humans:
● Can talk about things not present: space and
time

Animals:
→ bees; can talk about food sources in other
places
6. Language: Hocket, Productivity
Humans:
● Can create completely new utterances out of
existing elements
● Small number of discrete parts → infinite
number of utterances

Animals:
→ not present
6. Language: Hocket, Duality of Patterning
Humans:
● Parts can be recombined

Animals:
→ some bird songs
6. Language: Hocket, Design Features
Humans:
● Have all design features

Animals:
→ all lack some or all design features
6. Language: Can Animals Learn It?
● Several attempts to teach apes
● Vocal apparatus different
→ different modality needed, e.g. sign
language
6. Language: Can Animals Learn It?
Washoe:
● Raised by Gardners like human child with sign
language
● Produced 200 signs; understood more
● Some creative recombinations
6. Language: Grammar
= A complex system of rules governing how
speakers recombine discrete smaller units into
larger units
● All human languages, including
→ sign languages
→ all dialects
→ creoles (e.g. Hawaii Creole English)
6. Language: Components of Grammar
● Phonetics:
→ sound inventory
● Phonology:
→ rules for combining sounds
● Morphology:
→ rules for forming words
6. Language: Components of Grammar
● Syntax:
→ rules for forming sentences
● Semantics:
→ rules for expressing meaning in words and
sentences
6. Language: Components of Grammar
● In this class: in-depth discussion of all areas
● Now: quick survey
6. Language: Components of Grammar
Phonetics: Vowels in English vs. Hawaiian
● English:
→ ~ 15 vowels (depending on dialect)
● Hawaiian:
→ 5 (+ long versions)
6. Language: Components of Grammar
Phonology: how many consonants in sequence?
● English:
→ up to 4 ([tɛksts])
● Hawaiian:
→ only 1
6. Language: Components of Grammar
Morphology: formation of past tense
● English:
→ add -ed at end of verbs (mostly)
● Hawaiian:
→ add ua before verb
6. Language: Components of Grammar
Syntax: overall sentence structure
● English:
→ SVO
● Hawaiian:
→ VSO
6. Language: Components of Grammar
Semantics: kinship terms, examples
● Mother’s or father’s side relevant?
● Gender relevant?
● Older or younger relevant?

● English:
● Hawaiian:
6. Language: What Is Grammatical?
grammatical sentence
→ a possible sentence in a language, as
determined by a native speaker.
ungrammatical sentence
→ an impossible sentence, one that a native
speaker would not create naturally
→ marked with *
6. Language: What Is Grammatical?
* The teacher the students not sees.
= ungrammatical

What about:
She didn’t see no students in the room.
???
6. Language: What Is Grammatical?
She didn’t see no students in the room.
● Often taught: double negatives are “bad” or
incorrect
● In fact: correct in many varieties of English,
many other languages, correct negation in
Middle English and before
6. Language: What Is Grammatical?
She didn’t see no students in the room.
● England, 1762, Bishop Robert Lowth, A Short
Introduction to English Grammar with Critical
Notes → no double negative; does not match
math
6. Language: Prescriptive vs. Descriptive
Descriptive:
→ in this class
→ describe how people actually use language
Prescriptive:
→ How we are supposed to speak/write
according to some authority.
Connected with positive and negative social value.
6. Language: Prescriptive vs. Descriptive
Examples:
● I don’t know whom to ask.
● I don’t know who to ask.

● If I were a bird, I would fly to Maui.

● If I was a bird, I would fly to Maui.
6. Language: Prescriptive vs. Descriptive
Prescriptive Rules
● Often unnatural and contrived:
→ Bishop Lowth on split infinitives
Latin: praecedere
English: to go
To go boldly or to boldly go?
6. Language: Prescriptive vs. Descriptive
Prescriptive Rules
● Sometimes, rules of variety with higher social
value:
→ Double negatives
7 . Homework
Reading:
● Read chapter 1. If possible, complete this reading before the Jan 13 class.
All other readings must be completed before class.
● Read chapter 3 (skip section on dialects for now).

Assignments:
● Introductory Survey; due Monday, Jan 18, 7 am.
● First discussion post; due Wednesday, Jan 20, 7 am.
● Pp. 28-29, RPE 1.13, choose three and explain why they are
misperceptions, submit via Blackboard; due Wednesday, Jan 20, 7 am.
● Student Q & A Forum: post one question or one answer; due Wednesday,
Jan 20, 7 am.