This document provides an introduction to linguistics and language. It defines language as the study of how language is used, acquired, changes over time, and is represented in the brain. Key components of grammar are identified as phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Characteristics of grammar discussed include generality, parity, universality, mutability, and inaccessibility. Linguistic competence is investigated by focusing on the mental system of grammar.

1. Intro to course:
Language
O’Grady, 2011
Chapter 1

2. What is language?

3. When do we use
language?
• Talking
• Thinking
• Reading
• Writing
• Listening

4. What is linguistics?
• The study of language
WHAT DO WE STUDY ABOUT
LANGUAGE?
o How it is used
o How it is acquired
o How it changes over time
o How it is represented in the brain

5. Language is creative
• What does this mean?
o For example: use nouns as verbs
• Pull the boat on to a beach – beach the boat
• Clean the floor with a mop – mop the floor
• Put the wine in bottles – bottle the wine
HOWEVER,
o There are systematic constraints that determine the boundaries of
innovation.
For example: a verb is rarely coined if a word with its intended meaning
already exists
to put the milk in the fridge – to fridge the milk (refrigerate already exists
to express this meaning)

6. So what about creativity
in language?
• It is systematic and rule - governed

7. All native speakers can:
• Produce and understand an unlimited number of
utterances (including novel ones)
• Recognize utterances and patterns that are not
acceptable in their language.
LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

8. How do we investigate
linguistic competence?
• Focus on the mental system –
GRAMMAR
WHAT IS GRAMMAR?
• Intricate system of knowledge that
encompasses sound and meaning,
form and structure

9. Components of Grammar
• Phonetics
• Phonology
• Morphology
• Syntax
• Semantics

10. Characteristics of
Grammar
• Generality
• Parity
• Universality
• Mutability
• Inaccessibility

11. GENERALITY
• All languages have grammar:
o If a language is spoken it must have
a phonetic and phonological system
o If it has words and sentences, it has
morphology and syntax
o If it has meaning, it also has semantic
principles

12. PRITY
• All grammars are equal
• “Primitive language”?
• Good grammar vs. bad grammar?
FOR LINGUISTS:
• The analysis of language reflects the way it is
actually used and not an idealized vision of how it
should be used.

13. UNIVERSALITY
• Grammars are alike in fundamental ways
For example:
o All languages have a set of contrastive sounds that
help distinguish words from each other (minimal
pairs). In English “t” and “d” help us recognize “to”
and “do” as two different words.
o All languages have more consonant sounds than
vowels.
o All languages have a “b” and a “p” sound.
o All languages have a vowel that sounds like “ah” in
thather.

14. UNIVERSALITY
• There are universal constraints on how words can
be put together in a sentence.
1. Ned lost his wallet.
2. He lost Ned’s wallet.
(in no language could “he” in 2 be referring to Ned)
• There are also constraints on how much variation is
possible in each language.
o Some languages move their question words at the beginning of a
sentence (English, Spanish etc.) and some don’t make this move
(Mandarin)
o No language however, places question words at the end of a sentence in
its basic word order.

15. MUTABILITY
• The features of language that are not universal and
fixed are subject to change over time.
For example:
• Minor changes can occur very quickly (lexicon)
• A more drastic change such as the placement of the negation in English
for example could take a long time:
Before 1200: Ic ne seye not. (I don’t say) / He ne speketh nawt. (He does not
speak).
By 1400: “ne” was used infrequently and “not” typically occurred by itself. (I
seye not the wordes. / We saw nawt the knyghtes.

16. INACCESSIBILITY
• Grammatical knowledge is subconscious.
For example:
• Speakers of a language know what sounds right and
what doesn’t in their language, but they are not sure
how they know it.
• Beyond the most obvious grammatical concepts
(articles go before nouns), native speakers can’t really
explain how their language works.
Try to explain:
I went to school. / *I went to supermarket.
The use of “or”: Mary drank tea or coffee. / Mary didn’t
drink tea or coffee.