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Full detailed summary of Baker E.A, Hengeveld. K - Linguistics 2012, including additional lecture notes. Useable for any linguistics course.
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Introduction to Linguistics SUMMARYCHAPTER 1: FROM LANGUAGE TO LINGUISTICS
The knowledge one has of language is not conscious; it is rather abstract and often couched in
general rules. Knowing a language for most users means that they can understand and produce
it, but not necessarily that they can explain how the system works. For this reason one can say
that this knowledge is abstract and unconscious.
‘Language’ is here taken to mean natural language, that is, languages that are spoken by
humans, and have developed in a natural way in the course of history, probably from some
primitive communication system used by our ancestors.
What is a natural human language?
- Compositional: sentences and their meanings derive from combinations of their parts
- Acquired by children, transmitted across generations
- Creative (new and unique sentences)
interactive and spontaneous
- Not bound to the here and now
- Arbitrary relation between the form of the language symbol and the meaning of that
symbol (mostly)
- Many utterances are ambiguous, but context helps to establish what the intended
meaning is.
Linguists study:
- Sounds = phonetics and phonology
- Word structure = morphology
- Sentence structure = syntax
- Language meaning = semantics
- Language use = pragmatics
1.1 -1.3 In schrift
1.4 DIFFERENCES
A first distinction to be made is between spoken languages and sign languages.
Spoken language: is produced by using the tongue, the lips and the vocal chords, and is heard
through the ear.
Sign language: uses a different modality, which is visual. Sign languages are seen, and signers
use above all their hands.
If there’s a relationship between the form of the signing and the meaning, you can call it
iconicity of signs. The number of iconic signs is rather limited, someone signing in Italian
sign language could not understand someone signing in British sign language. Sign language
is similar to natural language since it also has structure or grammar, and anything can be said
about anything.
Written form of a language is based on a spoken form, and therefore a secondary form of
language. Writing turns a language into a visual and more permanent phenomenon and it
makes it possible to store information without burdening our memory. However, there are
,languages that have no written form. This is often seen in communities that are less developed
technologically or economically, for this reason we call them ‘primitive’ languages.
Having a less extensive vocabulary does not mean that a language is primitive or simple. New
concepts can always be expressed by circumscribing them with existing words. Another
option is to ‘borrow’ words from a different language.
Is there such a thing as simple or complex languages? Not really. Every language has its
complexities.
1.5 LINGUISTICS
In linguistics, we usually begin by describing a language. This can be done by asking the
question of how is a language organized and what are the rules?
It’s an important principle in linguistics to aim for maximum generalization.
1.6 DIFFERENT KINDS OF GRAMMAR
Descriptive grammar: describes the rules for all varieties of the language. – the knowledge
all native speakers have of the rules of their language.
- A descriptive grammar may repot whether a certain form is part of the standard
language or whether it only occurs in certain well-defined regions.
- Most linguists restrict their description to their standard language and or the variety
that is in general use, and ignore the different dialect forms that may occur
Prescriptive grammar: Grammar that does not describe, but prescribes which forms of a
language are good and which not.
- Describes grammar with traditional terms (tense, gender etc)
- Dictates what one should say and write according to the linguistic norms prevalent at
the time.
- Diachronic description: when we describe a language from a prescriptive of change
we give an diachronic description.
A. It’s also known as historical grammar
- Synchronic description: offers a representation of a language at a particular moment
in time.
Pedagogical grammar: also known as learner’s grammar, explains the rules of a language
for the purpose of learning and teaching
- May include a number of examples to illustrate a rule of grammar
Differences between scientific grammar and pedagogical grammar:
- Scientific grammar contains more information and is more explicit in stating rules and
exceptions
- Learner grammar may present the grammatical information in a number of different
sections since the learner has to work their way through these step by step
The different linguistic levels a language contains:
Syntax: construction of sentences
Semantics: meaning
Phonetics and phonology: sounds
,Morphology: word formation.
CHAPTER 2: The Language user
Which cognitive processes underlie the production and comprehension of language?
2.2 KNOWLEDGE AND ABILITY: THE COGNITIVE SYSTEM
Linguistic competence: The knowledge of the language system -- the abstract and largely
unconscious knowledge of the language system.
Performance: the actual use that is made of it. A sentence can always be extended further
and further, simply by following the rules of the language. However, there are limitations on
performance since, for example, human memory is not capable of processing sentences that
are too long.
However, knowledge of the language system is not enough for a full understanding of a
sentence, language users also need knowledge of the world.
The third type of knowledge is communicative competence, which is the knowledge of how
you use your language in different situations.
Thus, there are three domains of knowledge that a language user draws upon while speaking
and understanding language.
1. Knowledge of the language system (linguistic competence) – in which we talk about
the rules of language but also about vocabulary.
2. Knowledge of the world
3. Knowledge of how to use language in different situations (communicative
competence)
Mental lexicon: our knowledge of the world and knowledge of words – when we use our
mental lexicon, we say that this knowledge is activated.
This activation will fan out to surrounding word forms that are closely connected. This is
known as activation spreading or spreading activation. When, for example, ‘tree’ is
activated, connected words will also be reactivated or primed. Due to this activation, these
latter words will be easily recognized if presented in the following sentence. This gain in
recognition is known as the semantic priming effect.
All this various types of knowledge and ability we shall from now on refer to as the cognitive
system.
2.3 LANGUAGE AND THE BRAIN
Damage to the front part of his brain, Broca’s area, will mostly affect someone’s speaking,
whereas his comprehension remains intact. Patients with this condition will speak slowly,
, with difficulty and will leave out articles and prepositions. By avoiding words with
grammatical function, this kind of language use is known as ‘telegraphic’ speech.
Damage to more posterior areas of the brain will have different consequences. Damage to
Wernicke’s area, will lead to problems in language comprehension. Language dysfunctions
that are caused by damage to the brain, as the result of a stroke or an accident, is known as
aphasia.
Differences:
Broca’s area:
- Affects speaking, comprehension remains intact
- Will speak slowly, leave out articles and prepositions
- Known as telegraphic speech
- Mostly processing and understanding of syntactic information that is affected (the lion
was bitten by the tiger, patients don’t understand who is doing the action and who is
receiving it)
Wernicke’s area:
- Language production is normal in speed and sentence length
- However when they speak they may replace one speech sound with another
(putter/butter) or they may exchange words with similar meanings (boy/girl
fork/knife)
- In serious cases such speech errors – in which the patient usually is not aware – may
lead to meaningless jargon.
- Is important in processing phonological and semantic information (speech sound and
word meanings).
However, Aphasia only occurs if certain specific areas in the brain have been damaged (in the
left hemisphere).
Supramarginal gyrus:
- When affected may cause serious word-finding difficulties, both in spontaneous
language and when objects have to be named, as well as difficulties in reading and
writing.
Users of sign language who also are affected in one of the areas show similar symptoms in
their signing.
New scanning techniques have been developed for investigating and measuring brain activity
(in healthy subjects too). Using techniques as fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
we are now able to see which areas are active when certain language tasks are carried out.
A different technique, based on electrical activity in the brain (Event Related Potentials or
ERP) is used to indicate how, and especially how fast, language users respond to features of
language input.
The ability to use language depends on the way certain areas in the brain function. These
areas each contribute to the use of language, the timing of reactions in the brain also reflects
the different status of grammatical and semantic information.
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