ENGL2108

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

Dr. Evan Li
Office: B211
Email: lxli@[Link]
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
 Language
Questions for discussion:
and
linguistics
1. What is your understanding/definition of language?
2. How did languages come into being?
3. What are features of language in contrast with animal
“languages”?
4. What functions can language perform?
5. What topics do you think linguistics address?
6. How many languages do you think there are in the
 1. LANGUAGE
 Language can mean:
 what a person says (e.g. bad language, expressions)
 the way of speaking or writing (e.g. Shakespeare’s language,
Luxun’s language)
 a particular variety or level of speech or writing (e.g. language for
special purpose, colloquial language)
 the abstract system underlying the totality of the speech/writing
behavior of a community (e.g. Chinese language, first language)
 the common features of all human languages (e.g. He studies
language)
 a tool for human communication. (social function)
 a set of rules. (rule-governed)
 Linguists’ definitions
 “Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of
communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of
voluntarily produced symbols.” (Sapir, 1921)
 “From now on I will consider language to be a set of (finite
or infinite) sentences, each finite in length and constructed
out of a finite set of elements.” (Chomsky, 1957)
 Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate
and interact with each other by means of habitually used
oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.” (Hall, 1968)
 Language can be generally
defined as
 a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used
for human communication.
 a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used
for human communication.
 Language is a system
 Systematic---- rule-governed, elements in it
are arranged according to certain rules; can’t
be combined at will. e.g. *bkli, *I apple eat.
 Language is arbitrary and
symbolic
 Arbitrary---- no intrinsic connection between
the word and the thing it denotes, e.g. “pen”
by any other name is the thing we use to
write with.
 Symbolic---- words are associated with
objects, actions ideas by convention. “A rose
by any other name would smell as sweet”----
Shakespeare
 Language is vocal
 Vocal---- the primary medium is sound for all
languages; writing system came much later
than spoken form.
 Language is human-specific
 Human-specific---- different from the
communication systems other forms of life
possess, e.g. bird songs, bee dance, animal
cries.
The design/defining features of human
language (Charles Hockett)
• Arbitrariness
• Productivity/Creativity
• Duality
• Displacement
• Cultural transmission
 Arbitrariness
----No logical (motivated or intrinsic) connection
between sounds and meanings.

 Onomatopoeic words (which imitate natural sounds)

are somewhat motivated ( English: rumble, crackle,
bang, …. Chinese: putong, shasha, dingdang… )

 Some compound words are not entirely arbitrary, e.g.

type-writer, shoe-maker, air-conditioner, photocopy…
 Productivity/creativity
----Peculiar to human languages, users of language can
understand and produce sentences they have never heard
before. e.g. we can understand sentence like “ A red-eyed
elephant is dancing on the hotel bed”, though it does not
describe a common happening in the world.

 A gibbon call system is not productive for gibbon draw all their
calls from a fixed repertoire which is rapidly exhausted, making
any novelty impossible.

 The bee dance does have a limited productivity, as it is used to
communicate about food sources in any direction. But food
sources are the only kind of messages that can be sent through
the bee dance; bees do not “talk” about themselves, the hives,
 Duality (double
articulation)
 Lower level----sounds (meaningless)
 Higher level----meaning (larger units of meaning)
 A communication system with duality is considered
more flexible than one without it, for a far greater
number of messages can be sent. A small number of
sounds can be grouped and regrouped into a large
number of units of meaning (words), and the units of
meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an
infinite number of sentences. (we make dictionary of a
language, but we cannot make a dictionary of sentences
of that language.
 Displacement
----Language can be used to refer to things, which are not
present: real or imagined matters in the past, present or
future, or in far-away places.
 A gibbon never utters a call about something he ate last year

 There is something special about the bee dance though. Bees

communicate with other bees about the food sources they

have found when they are no longer in the presence of the
food. In this sense, the bee dance has a component of
displacement. But this component is very insignificant. For
the bees must communicate about the food immediately on
returning to the hive. They do not dance about the food they
discovered last month nor do they speculate about future
 Cultural transmission
----Language is culturally transmitted (through teaching and learning;
rather than by instinct).

 Animal call systems are genetically transmitted. All cats, gibbons and
bees have systems which are almost identical to those of all other
cats, gibbons and bees.

 A Chinese speaker and an English speaker are not mutually

intelligible. This shows that language is culturally transmitted. That
is, it is pass on from one generation to the next by teaching and
learning, rather than by instinct.

 The story of a wolf child, a pig child shows that a human being
 The origin of language
 The divine-origin theory---- Language is a gift of God to
mankind.

 The invention theory---- imitative, cries of nature, the

grunts of men working together.

 The evolutionary theory---- the result of physical and

psychological development.
 Functions of language
 Phatic: establishing an atmosphere or maintaining social
contact.
 Directive: get the hearer to do something.
 Informative: give information about facts.
 Interrogative: get information from others.
 Expressive: express feelings and attitudes of the
speaker.
 Evocative: create certain feelings in the hearer (amuse,
startle, soothe, worry or please)

 2. WHAT IS LINGUISTICS?

 ----Linguistics is the scientific study of language.

 ----A person who studies linguistics is known as a

linguist.

 Reading 1: Seven Linguists Who Changed the Game

 For a longer list, visit:
[Link]
 FOUR PRINCIPLES OF LINGUISTIC
STUDIES
 Exhaustiveness/adequacy

 Consistency

 Economy

 Objectivity
THE SCOPE OR MAJOR BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS
 Theoretical linguistics
1. Phonetics
2. Phonology
3. Morphology
4. Syntax
5. Semantics
 Use of linguistics
1. Applied linguistics
2. Sociolinguistics
3. Psycholinguistics
……
 THEORETICAL LINGUISTICS

 Phonetics----speech sound (description,

classification, transcription): articulatory phonetics,
acoustic phonetics, auditory phonetics.
 Phonology----sound patterns of languages
 Morphology----the form of words
 Syntax----the rules governing the combination of
words into sentence.
 Semantics----the meaning of language (when the
meaning of language is conducted in the context
of language use----Pragmatics)
 USE OF LINGUISTICS
 Applied linguistics----linguistics and language teaching

 Sociolinguistics---- social factors (e.g. class, education)

affect language use

 Psycholinguistics----linguistic behavior and psychological

process

 Stylistics----linguistic and literature

SOME OTHER APPLICATIONS

 Anthropological linguistics

 Neurolinguistics

 Computational linguistics (e.g. machine

translation)
 SOME IMPORTANT DISTINCTIONS IN
LINGUISTICS

 Descriptive vs. prescriptive: be/should be

 Synchronic vs. diachronic: usually current/historical
 Speech vs. writing: Speech is primary over writing.
 Langue vs. parole: abstract/social rules and concrete
use (Saussure)
 Competence vs. performance: ideal knowledge and
actual use (Chomsky)
 Traditional grammar vs. modern linguistics:
 DESCRIPTIVE VS PRESCRIPTIVE
 Descriptive ---- describe/analyze linguistic
facts observed or language people actually
use (modern linguistic)

 Prescriptive ---- lay down rules for “correct”

linguistic behavior in using language
(traditional grammar)
 SYNCHRONIC VS DIACHRONIC

 Synchronic study----
description of a language at
some point of time (modern
linguistics)
 Diachronic study----
description of a language
through time (historical
development of language
over a period of time)
 SPEECH VS WRITING

 Speech ---- primary medium of language

 Writing ---- later developed

LANGUE VS PAROLE (F. DE SAUSSURE)
 Langue ---- the abstract linguistic system shared by
all members of the speech community.

 Parole ---- the realization of langue in actual use.

 Saussure takes a sociological view of language and

his notion of langue is a matter of social
conventions.
 COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE
(CHOMSKY)

 Competence ---- the ideal user’s knowledge of the

rules of his language

 Performance ---- the actual realization of this

knowledge in linguistic communication

 Chomsky looks at language from a psychological

point of view and to him competence is a
 TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR VS MODERN
LINGUISTICS
 Traditional grammar ---- prescriptive, written,
Latin-based framework

 Modern linguistics ----- descriptive, spoken, not

necessarily Latin-based framework
 Questions for discussion:
 1. What is the difference between Saussure’s distinction
and Chomsky’s?
 2. Try to cite your own examples to explain the six
important distinctions.