I What is lg
1.What does mean to „know” a lg ??
a. being able to produce sound which signify meanings and be understood & interpret the sounds produce by others
b. much of linguistic knowledge in unconscious knowledge; we know without being aware of it, which sounds and part of our lg ad which are not.
c. Knowledge of lg also includes knowing the environment which particular sounds can appear in.
The most important aspect of unknowing a lg: knowing that certain sounds or sound sequences signify or represent different concepts or „meanings”.
d. The relationship between speech sounds and the meanings which they represent (for the most part) are arbitrary.
e. Sound symbolism – onomatopoeic e.g. cockle-a – doodle – doo, plop, hiss
Knowledge of a lg enables sb to combine word to form phrases, and phrases to form sentences (Impossible to memorize all the possible sentences in a lg). There is finite numbers but infinite number of sentences.
Creative aspect of lg i.e. lg creativity
No enough to key words to knwe words to be able to communicate (we need rules)
II Linguistic competence and performance
1. Linguistic competence – what one knows (the knowledge about lg rules etc.). Competence is our conscious knowledge; we lear the rules without being taught.
2. Linguistic performance – how oe uses the knowledge i actual behavior. Using the lg we make mistakes e.g. slips of the togue, false startsm etc. However we ca recognise errors.
3. Spoonerism – we change the meaning of seteces by combining the soud i different way.
Examples: ”you have hissed my mistery lecture – You have missed my history lecture” ”you have tasted the whole worm- you have wasted the whole term ” ”queer old dean – dear old queen”
III What is the grammar
Grammar – what we know, our linguistic competence, internalised, ucoscious set of rules. Grammar can be understood in two ways: the grammar which speakers have i their brains and the model of description of this internalised grammar. No lg or variety of lg is superior to any other, i linguistic sense.
Descriptive grammar – describe the lg how it use
Prescriptive grammar – says which rule is correct and what is correct or ot, how to use the lg.
The grammar includes everything what speakers know about their lg:
a. phonetics – the articulation ad perception of speach sounds
b. morphology – word formatio
c. syntax – sentence formatio
d. semantics – the iterpretation of word and senteces
Linguistic main attempt – to fid out the laws of a lg and use laws that pertain to all lgs
Universal grammar – law represeting the universal properties of all lgsm eg:
a. sound systems of lgs – every grammar includes discrete soud segmets like p n or a
b. sematics universal – male, female, concrete
c. uiversal syntax
I The origins of lg
1. The divine source - lg given by God
2. The natural source of soud - (sound source) primitive words could have been ‘bow - wow’ theory of lg origin onomatopoeic- echoing natural sounds.
3. Original souds of lg - may have come from natural cries of emotion such as pain, anger, joy eg.och! ah! Ooh! Yuck! – produced with sudden intakes of breath or exhalied breath; contain souds which are not otherwise used in speech.
4. Yo-he-ho theory – souds of a perso involved in physical effort could be the source of lg.
5. The phisacal adeptation source:
a. teeth - upright, not slantig outwards, roughly even i height – helpful in makig f or v
b. lips – flexible – helpful i makig p or b
c. mouth – rather small, can be opened and closed
d. tongue – thick and muscular, can be used to shape a variety of sounds inside the oral cavity
e. larynx – voice box (contains the vocal cords/ folds differs – significantly in position from other primates, upright posture moved the head more directly above the spiral column and the larynx dropped to lower position, this created a longer cavity called the pharynx, above the vocal cords, which acts as a resonator for increased range and clarity of the sounds produced via the larynx).
f. the human brain – unusually large to human body size
g. lateralized - specialize function movements involved in things like speaking & object manipulation (making or using) are largely copied to the left hemisphere.
6. The genetic source - babies are born with a special capacity for lgm it’s aviate ad is’t tide to a specific variety of lg – lateness hypothesis.
I Animal and human lg
1. Properties of human lg
a. communicative signals – intentional message send to other people
b. informative signals – intentionally, when we don’t want to communicate anything but our behavior tells it
c. displacement – reference to past and future time
d. arbitrariness – not natural connection between a linguistic form and its meaning
e. productivity – (creativity, open - endedness) creating new expressions and novel utterances
f. Fixed reference – limiting feature of animal communication (they can convey only simple things anger, hungry etc.)
g. cultural transmission – lg passed from one generation to the next
h. duality – lg organized at two levels/ layers. Combine the same sounds to communicate different messages
2. Properties not unique to human lg
a. Vocal – auditory channel – lg signals are sent using the vocal organs and received by the ears.
b. Specialization – lg signals do not serve any other type of purpose such as breathing or feeding
c. Non- directionality – lg signals have no inherit direction and can be picked up by anyone within hearing even unseen
d. Rapid fade – lg signals are produced and disappear quickly
e. Reciprocity – ay sender of a lg signal can also be a receiver
f. Prevarication – lg signals can be false or used to lie or deceive
3. Talking to animals
a. Washoe
b. ...
Ylayda