PowerPoint presentation on the famous Docs and don'ts of Linguistics

1. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
1. go about objectively describing and explaining how language works.
They try to describe and possibly explain particular languages, language in
general, and how people use languages.
Science Subject matter
chemistry how substances combine to form other substances
psychology how individuals behave
sociology how people behave in groups
cultural anthropology how human cultures resemble and differ from each
other
linguistics how language works

2. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
2. only gather data through linguistic fieldwork
• Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure, including
the study of phonetics, phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax,
semantics, and pragmatics (Google Dictionary).
• Specific branches of linguistics include sociolinguistics, dialectology,
psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, forensic linguistics, speech-
language pathology, historical-comparative linguistics, discourse analysis,
and applied linguistics (Google Dictionary).

3. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
3. go beyond simply listing the data. They proposed a theory that is
supposed to offer an explanation of the phenomena, not just a
description.
Linguistic Theories:
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1913): Linguistic signs
Roman Jakobson: Distinctive features
Edward Sapir (1884 - 1939): Linguistic relativity
Paul Grice (1913 - 1988): Cooperative principle
Noam Chomsky (1928 - ): Universal grammar
Eve Clark (1942 - ): First language acquisition
Steven Pinker (1954 - ): Language Instinct

4. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
4. prescribe and evaluate language standards. The process of defining the
is called standardization. Once a standard has been agreed on, it can be
used in the media and taught in the schools.
Standardization
English Varieties: American, British, Canadian, Scottish, Irish, Indian,
Philippine
Philippine Varieties: Tagalog, Bisaya, Hiligaynon, Waray, Bikol, Ilokano,
Kakana-ey
Bikol Varieties: Bikol-Legazpi, Bikol-Naga, Miraya, Rinconada, Sorsoganon

5. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
5. show interest in what people do, not what somebody thinks they should
do.
6. try to convince people to behave or believe in a particular way
Prescriptivism vs. Descriptivism

6. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
7. put own feelings and beliefs aside in
their work.
Example:
A linguist studying local taboo and
swearwords may be put off by what
he/she uncovers.

7. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
7. put own feelings and beliefs aside in their work.
Example:
A linguist prefers to study English or Spanish instead of his/her local
language because the former has more prestige than the latter.
A linguist only selects educated persons as research participants for a
language survey.

8. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
8. usually study spoken (or singed) language because it is more basic than
written language. They elicit and use language data by asking people
particular questions or by doing experiments that call for language.
• Most of the human languages that have existed have not been written at
all, and among those that are written, many people do not read or write
them. In addition, though language learning continues throughout life,
most of the basic patterns of a language are probably mastered by the
time a child is six years old. So the written form of the language has little
or nothing to do with this fundamental early learning of language.

9. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
9. do not want their descriptions of language to include speech errors such as
slips of the tongue, although speech errors are interesting since they can give us
lots of insights about the underlying mechanisms.
Example:
Well, I think you ... I mean, the ... the ... um, this isn't coming out right at all.
• People produce such "sentences" all the time, but they clearly also know that
there is something wrong with them. That is, linguists probably do not want
their descriptions of a language to include such sequences. So grammatical
sentences are possible sentences that do not contain speech errors.
• This is not to say that there is nothing interesting about speech errors. In fact,
like human errors more generally, they can give us lots of insights about the
underlying mechanisms. There is a whole community of researchers that take
speech errors of one kind or another as the data they try to explain.

10. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
10. judge people’s practices that are correct and wrong and attempt to see
how they fit in with other practices in the society.
• If they are to make any value judgments about the behaviors, they
should be based on whether the behaviors contribute to the stability of
the society, not on their own feelings about them. Their job is to describe
and explain the society, not to judge it.

11. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
11. also show interest in describing a fourth sort of aspect of the language,
a sort of "correctness" that is different from grammaticality.
• A sentence can be grammatical and meaningful — that is, the words and
grammatical patterns in the sentence can sound right and correctly
describe some possible situation in the world.
Example
She left her husband for the garbageman.
Linguistic ambiguity
Disambiguation

12. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
12. can be of help by studying what appropriateness is, what makes an
expression interpretable by a hearer or reader, and how the parts of a text
relate to one another.
Example:
There is no life on the moon.
• This sentence makes perfect sense and describes a true state of affairs.
But if you walked up to a stranger on the street and said it, they'd think
you were crazy. It would not be an appropriate way to begin (or end, for
that matter) a conversation with a stranger. Just as speakers of a
language have knowledge about what is grammatical in their language,
they also have knowledge about what is appropriate.

13. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
13. think, consciously or unconsciously, that there is something deficient
about other languages or even about the speakers of the other language.
14. think all languages are equally expressive, equally logical. There is
nothing inherently inferior or superior about any dialect or any language.
Example:
• A: Did you hear those two girls talking? "He don't mean nothin'." "I seen
it." "Me and him fought." Can't they learn to speak English?
• B: I know what you mean. They're just lazy, if you ask me.
(The two girls didn’t actually find anything wrong with their grammar.)

14. Do’s and Don’ts of Linguists
Linguists and other language scientists…
15. may become advocates for the people whose languages and/or well-
being are threatened because of the language policies of governments.
Standard languages and politics
• Clearly language standardization is a political issue, and as such it is not
really the business of linguists (though it is studied by sociologists
interested in the social and political aspects of language). However, as
linguists often become closely involved with the people whose languages
they study, they may become advocates for these groups when their
languages or their well-being are threatened because of the language
policies of governments.

15. In a nutshell…
What is the main purpose of linguists?