What, Why, How Linguistics?

Chea Sim University of Kamchaymear

MA in TESOL

Course: Phonetic and Phonology

 Can you answer
these questions?
1. What is the difference between a ‘knight’ and
‘knave’?
2. What do you eat with your ghoti?
3. How many words are there in the sentence
‘The cats talked and the dogs walked’ 7, 6?
4. Do sentences grow on trees?
5. Can ‘Colourless green ideas sleep furiously’ ?
6. Who taught you to speak?

Linguistics can help us to find the answers…

 Can you answer
this question?
Q. What is the difference between a
knight and a knave?
A. Time

Why?
‘Knave’ and ‘knight’ both meant ‘boy’ once.
They now mean opposing things.
Meanings of words and pronunciation
change over time.
 Historical Linguistics

Etymology is the study of the historical

development of words, which is part of
Historical Linguistics.
 Can you answer
this question?
Q. What do you eat with ghoti?
A. Chips
Why?
If we take the [gh] from ‘laugh’, the [o] from "women"
and the [ti] from ‘nation’ the word ghoti can be
pronounced fish. We spell some words in English in
ways which bear no resemblance to the way they are
pronounced.

Ghoti was invented by the playwright George

Bernard Shaw to show the illogicality of English
spelling.
 Phonetics and Phonology

These are the areas of Linguistics that

deal with the study of the sound system of
a language (Phonology) and the scientific
study of speech processes (Phonetics).
 Can you answer
this question?
Q. How many words are there in the
sentence ‘The cats talked and the dogs
walked’ 7, 6, or both?
A. Both
Why 7?
It all depends what you mean by word
because the word ‘word’ is ambiguous.
If the question means ‘How many word
forms’ then the answer is 7
(sometimes this is referred to as
7 word tokens).
 Can you answer
this question?
Q. How many words are there in the
sentence ‘The cats talked and the dogs
walked’ 7 or 6?
A. Both
Why 6?
If we mean ‘how many different
word forms’, then the answer is 6
since there are two ‘the’s
(sometimes referred to as word
types).
 Can you answer
this question?
Q. Do sentences grow on trees?
A. Yes
Why?
Sentences are structured strings of words.
The string of words ‘Sentences grow on trees’ is
recognisable as a well-formed sentence of English. By
contrast ‘sentences grow trees on’ or ‘trees on grow
sentences’ are simply word salad.
One way to show that sentences have structure is to
identify which words go together to form units. So ‘on
trees’ is a unit (Where do sentences grow?); so is ‘grow
on trees’ (What do sentences do?) and so is ‘sentences’
(what grow on trees?).
However, the strings ‘sentences grow’ or ‘grow on’ do
not relate to sensible questions and are not units in this
sentence.
 Syntax
Sentences also grow on trees like this…
S

NP VP

N V PP

P NP

Sentences grow on trees

 Syntax
Key

S Sentence

N Noun NP Noun Phrase

V Verb VP Verb Phrase

P Preposition PP Preposition Phrase

The relations of words in sentences is from a

branch of Linguistics called ‘Syntax’
 Can you answer
zzz this question?
Q. Can colourless green ideas sleep
furiously?
A. Yes and no!
Why yes?
Yes… because this sentence is grammatically
correct – that is the nouns, verbs, adjectives are
in the right place for an English sentence.
 Can you answer
zzz this question?
Q. Can colourless green ideas sleep
furiously?
A. Yes and no!
Why no?
No…because you can’t make sense of it in the ‘real
world’. This demonstrates that it is not grammar alone
that makes a sentence sensible, but the context in
which it is created. In the ‘real world’ a colour can’t be
colourless and an idea can’t be green.
The world of the imagination is another matter,
however!
 Semantics
zzz

The branch of linguistics dealing with

meaning is called Semantics.
 Can you answer
this question?
Q. Who taught you to speak?
A. You did
Why?
You might think that it is your parents who taught
you how to speak, but you have really taught
yourself. Certainly your parents offer you the ‘model’
of the language or languages you are going to learn
but you came into the world equipped with a kind of
ready-made language processor that helped you to
sort out how the language you were hearing actually
worked.
 Working out the rules

Have you ever heard a child say ‘I dided

it’ or ‘I bringed it’? What do you think is
going on here? They won’t have heard
their parents saying these words, so
where did they come from?
 Language Acquisition

This is the branch of Linguistics that

studies the ways in which children learn
language. When Linguistics looks at how
we learn a second or foreign language
this is called Second Language
Acquisition.
 So what precisely is
Linguistics?

"Linguistics is the science of language. It is

the subject whose practitioners devote their
energy to understanding why human
language is the way it is. They study the
history, acquisition, structure, and use of as
many languages as possible - It would be
nice to study them all, but life's too short."
(Crystal: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/ling/whatis.htm)
 So what precisely is
Linguistics?
Since language enters into almost every area of
human activity, the application of linguistic analysis
can be extremely broad, encompassing almost any
area where language is a practical concern.
For example:
language learning and teaching • language in
new technologies • writing systems • dictionaries
• translation • language issues • multilingual
societies • linguistic difficulties • communication
between different social, cultural, ethnic groups •
endangered languages • linguistic input to
computer systems • …and many more!
 Sounds interesting but
what career will it lead to?

Careers that would relate directly to

Linguistics include the following:
• information technology
• translation and interpreting
• education
• speech and language therapy
• publishing
• research
• dictionary writing
 What might a
Linguistics Course look like?

A typical BA in Linguistics might include:

• Morphology and Syntax (Structure)
• Phonetics and Phonology (Sound)
• Semantics and Pragmatics (Meaning)
• Language Acquisition
• Sociolinguistics (Language and society)
• Psycholinguistics (Language and the mind)
• Historical Linguistics
• Discourse (Language in use)
 Tell me more,more, more…!

More ‘Why Study Linguistics’ links:

http://www.lang.ltsn.ac.uk/whylinguistics.aspx

‘The collected works of the phantom linguist’:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/index.html#linguist

Linguistics courses:
http://www.ucas.ac.uk