Chapter 1. Origins
Linguistics The scientific study of language (the phenomena, historical changes, and
functions).
General Without restriction to a particular language or to a particular aspect (as
phonetics, grammar, stylistics).
The Divine Source In most religions: divine source provides humans with language.
E.g.: The tale of the Tower of Babel, from Genesis 11: 1-9, is an
"explanation" of why there are so many different languages.
The Natural Sound Language developed from primitive words which imitated sounds in nature
Source E.g.: object flew by cuckoo sound name cuckoo
Otto Jespersen (1921): Human language originated while human beings were
enjoying themselves
The “Bow-Wow” The idea that early human speech developed from imitations of natural sounds
Theory in the environment.
Onomtepeia Words containing sounds similar to the noises they describe .
E.g.: bang, splash, boom
The “Pooh-Pooh” The idea that early human speech developed from the instinctive sounds
Theory people make in emotional circumstances.
E.g.: Natural cries of emotion: pain, anger, joy ouch! Wow! Yuck!
Ah!
The Social Language started with the sounds of a person involved in physical effort –
Interaction Source especially when the effort involved several people and had to be coordinated.
Yo-he-ho theory Sounds of a person involved in physical effort e.g. when lifting trees or
mammoths
The Physical Human physical features have adapted to support speech production (mouth,
Adaptation Source lips, tongue, teeth, larynx, pharynx) as well as development of the lateralized
brain
Teeth and Lips - Teeth: upright, even in height
Mouth and Tongue - Lips: flexibility, needed for sounds like p,b and w
Larynx and - Mouth : small, rapid movement. Extended vocal tract
Pharynx - Tongue: muscular, short, thick
- human larynx : position lower than with monkeys (only babies, like
chimpanzees, can breathe and drink at the same time)
- Only once the human larynx descends does the baby start talking
longer cavity called pharynx acts as resonator
The Tool-Making Tool-making (manipulating objects and changing them using both hands) is
Source similar to speech production using anatomical features previously used for
other purposes; some researchers believe that manual gestures may have
been a precursor of language.
The Genetic Source Human offspring are born with a special hard-wired capacity for language, a
‘language gene’ (this is also called the innateness hypothesis)
The Innateness The idea that humans are genetically equipped to acquire language.
Hypothesis
Chapter 2. Animals
Informative signals Signals which you have not intentionally sent .
E.g.: body language
Communicative Signals you use intentionally to communicate something.
signals
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,Glossolalia Also known as “speaking in tongues,” the production of sounds and syllables in
a stream of speech that seems to have no communicative purpose.
E.g.: the religious practices of Pentecostal churches.
Reflexivity A special property of human language that allows language to be used to think
and talk about language itself.
“Her grammar is atrocious!”
Displacement The property of human language which allows humans to talk about things and
events not present in the immediate environment (place and time).
E.g.: As far as we know, dogs can’t bark about what happened last
week.
Arbitrariness The arbitrary relationship between words and objects in human language: the
sound of a word usually has no natural relationship with the meaning of the
word.
E.g.: The word ‘truck’ doesn’t look or sound anything like what it
means.
Cultural A specific language is passed from one generation to the next: L1 is acquired as
Transmission children in a culture.
E.g.: A Chinese baby brought up by French parents will learn to speak
French, not Chinese.
Productivity The potential number of utterances in human language is infinite, because
humans can continually invent new words and new combinations.
E.g.: The word ‘crowdfunding’ was added to the dictionary in 2014.
Fixed reference A property of a communication system whereby each signal is fixed as relating
to one particular object or occasion.
Duality There are two levels of language operating simultaneously: for speech, a
physical level of producing individual sounds, and a second level of a
combination of sounds making a meaning.
Combination of discrete sounds + distinct meanings = enormous potential
vocabulary.
E.g.: PAL means friend, but we can reverse the letters and get an
entirely new word, LAP.
Animals Reflexivity: As far as we know, animals don’t communicate messages
about their communication.
Displacement: exception Bee dance: The bee dance conveys the
location of food/pollen, so the bee can actually communicate about a
place that is not in the immediate environment – but only if the place
is horizontally on the same plane!
- Productivity: In contrast, animals don’t change/manipulate sounds to
produce new utterances: fixed reference
- Duality: Animals don’t rearrange individual sounds to create new
meanings (m-ee-ow ow-m-ee?)
Talking to Animals If animals respond to human commands, do they understand human language?
Can animals produce human language?
Chimpanzees and 1. Washoe seemed to show some productive ability in putting words
Language together to make new ‘sentences’ and compounds
Washoe 2. Sarah and Lana used keys on a keyboard to produce messages; some
Sarah and Lana researchers claim that they didn’t need to understand what the words in
the message meant, but only needed to know what the result would be
(like pushing buttons on a vending machine).
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, 3. Nim repeated signs that he saw humans using, so rather than actually using
language, it seemed that he was just imitating gestures.
4. Kanzi started learning to communicate using symbols by observing his
mother (Matata), and by the age of eight he had the vocabulary of a
human 2 ½-year-old.
5. A group of young chimpanzees started using signs to communicate with
each other and to Washoe, even when there were no humans present.
Test Non-human primates do not have a vocal tract which is physically structured to
Experiments in articulate the sounds of human speech, even though they communicate with a
general wide range of vocal sounds.
The Controversy Chimps using human language - Controversy
- Washoe and Kanzi: interaction with humans using symbol system
chosen by humans
- Not comparable with linguistic development of a human child
- What is ‘using language’?
Uniquely human: the capability to develop:
- A highly complex system of sounds
- A highly complex system of structures
- A set of computational (involving the calculation of answers, amounts,
results etc.)
- The potential to produce extended discourse
- A potentially infinite number of novel utterances
Chapter 5. Word Formation
Neologisms New words in our language.
E.g.: SPYK
Etymology The study of the origin and history of words.
E.g.: The Union Jack
Borrowing The process of taking words from other languages.
E.g.: croissant (French), apartheid (Afrikaans)
Loan-translation or A type of borrowing in which each element of a word is translated into the
calque borrowing language.
E.g.: skyscraper: translated literally into many languages
Compounding The process of combining two (or more) words to form a new word.
E.g.: (nouns): fingerprint, textbook, sunburn, waterbed, doorknob
E.g.: (adjectives): good-looking, low-paid, well-known
E.g.: (adjective + noun): fast-food, full-time, hard-core
Blending The process of combining the beginning of one word and the end of another
word to form a new word.
E.g.: gasoline + alcohol gasohol
E.g.: smoke + fog smog
E.g.: breakfast + lunch brunch
E.g.: information + entertainment infotainment
E.g.: Dutch + English Dunglish
Eponym When is an eponym a neologism? When the eponym, namely a word
derived from a place or person, has been fully accepted into a language.
Clipping The process of reducing a word of more than one syllable to a shorter form.
E.g.: gasoline gas
E.g.: influenza flu
E.g.: permanent wave perm
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, E.g.: condominium condo
E.g.: advertisement advert ad
Lots of education-related clippings: gym, maths, typo, exam
Hypocorisms A word-formation process in which a longer word is reduced to a shorter form
with –y or –ie at the end.
E.g.: moving pictures movie
E.g.: television telly
E.g.: barbeque barbie
E.g.: Jennifer Jenny
Backformation A word of one type is reduced to form a word of another type
(often a noun which is shortened to become a verb).
E.g.: television to televise
E.g.: donation to donate
E.g.: babysitter to babysit
E.g.: enthusiasm to enthuse
E.g.: backformation to backform
Common in English: backformations from a word describing a person’s
work or job:
E.g.: editor edit
E.g.: burglar burgle
Conversion A change in the part of speech, without reduction, also known as “category
change” or “functional shift”.
E.g.: Nouns to verbs: to butter, to chair, to vacation
E.g.: Verbs to nouns: a spy, a guess, a must, a printout
E.g.: Complex patterns: ‘want to be’ wannabe
E.g.: Verbs to adjectives: see-through, stand-up
E.g.: Adjectives to verbs: to empty, to dirty
E.g.: Adjectives to nouns: the nasty, a crazy
Coinage The invention of completely new terms: to coin a word.
E.g.: Most common source: trade names (brand names) for
commercial products, which become general terms
E.g.: (N) aspirin, zipper, kleenex, xerox; (V) to zip, to google
Eponyms: new words based on the name of a person or place
E.g.: sandwich (Earl of Sandwich), fahrenheit (Gabriel Fahrenheit),
jeans (Genoa), denim (serge de Nîmes), hamburger (Hamburg)
Acronyms A new word formed from the initial letters of other words.
can be ‘words’ where each letter is pronounced separately
CD, DVD, FAQ
More commonly, the letters are pronounced as a new word
NATO, NASA, UNESCO
Sometimes the acronym represents another word or a relevant idea
MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)
WAR (Women Against Rape)
Derivation The process of forming new words by adding affixes.
Affixes A bound morpheme such as un- or –ed added to a word (e.g. undressed).
3 types:
prefixes suffixes infixes
un- -ful -bloody-
mis- -ness -damn- -fuckin-
pre- -ation (not very common in
in- - ish English)
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,Prefixes A bound morpheme added to the beginning of a word (e.g. unhappy).
Suffixes A bound morpheme added to the end of a word (e.g. fainted, illness).
Infixes A morpheme that is inserted in the middle of a word (e.g. –rn in srnal).
Multiple processes Several word formation processes combined.
E.g.: to snowball is a product of compounding (snow + ball), and
conversion (the noun becomes a verb)
E.g.: waspish is a product of an acronym (WASP), and derivation (+ ish)
E.g.: Internet is a product of clipping (international + network), and
blending (inter + net)
E.g.: netiquette is a product of further clipping (internet net) and
blending (net + etiquette)
Analogy A new word formed to be similar to an existing word.
E.g.: chocoholic?
E.g.: walkathon?
E.g.: yuppies (Young Urban Professionals)
yappies (from yap: yuppies who make a lot of shrill noises)
BUT…
E.g.: yummies (young upwardly mobile marxists)
E.g.: dunkies (double income, no kids)
E.g.: nilkies (no income, lots of kids)
Chapter 6. Morphology (pp.72 - 77)
Morphology The study of forms and the analysis of the basic ‘elements’ in language.
Morphemes A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function.
Free morphemes A morpheme that can stand by itself as a single word.
E.g.: carrot, tour, open
Bound morphemes Morphemes cannot usually stand alone and generally have to be attached to
another form.
un- -ist -s re- -ed
undressed carelessness
un- dress -ed care -less -ness
prefix stem suffix stem suffix suffix
(bound) (free) (bound (free) (bound) (bound)
Stem The base form to which affixes are attached in the formation of words.
Bound stems Cannot stand by themselves.
E.g.: reduce, repeat, receive: - duce, -peat and –ceive
-struct consist deceive introduce
Free stems Can stand by themselves.
E.g.: dress and care
Lexical morphemes Content words that carry the message; ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs.
open class of New lexical morphemes can be added to the language easily.
words
Functional Function words: conjunctions (and), prepositions (in), articles, pronouns.
morphemes
closed class of Hardly any new functional morphemes added to the language.
words
Derivational Bound morphemes used to make new words or to make a new grammatical
morphemes category from the stem.
E.g.: goodness good + ness (-ness changes the adjective good into
the noun goodness)
E.g.: foolish fool + ish (-ish changes the noun fool into the adjective
foolish)
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, Inflectional Bound morphemes which indicate the grammatical function of a word (singular
morphemes or plural, past tense or not, comparative form, possessive form).
English has only eight inflectional morphemes (‘inflections’), all suffixes:
1. -s (plural)
2. -’s (possessive)
3. -s (third person singular)
4. -ing (present participle)
5. -ed (past tense)
6. -en (past participle) (beaten, eaten)
7. er (comparative)
8. -est (superlative)
NOTE: if a regular plural noun is also possessive, such as parents’
or peacocks’, then it has TWO Inflectional morphemes: one for the plural and
one for the possessive!
Difference An inflectional morpheme never changes the grammatical category (part of
between speech/word class).
derivational and E.g.: old old + er both are adjectives!
inflectional stem stem bound morpheme, inflectional
morphemes
teach teach + er changes the category (verb to noun)
stem stem bound morpheme, derivational
- Whenever there is a derivational suffix and an inflectional suffix
attached to the same word, they always appear in that order: first the
derivational, then the inflectional.
teach er s
stem bound morpheme, bound morpheme,
derivational inflectional
Zero allomorph No change in plural form.
E.g.: deer / fish / aircraft
Morphs Are the actual forms used to realize morphemes.
Allomorph Is one of a closely-related set of morphs.
Chapter 7. Grammar pp. 89-95 (1st paragraph p.95)
Phonology Sequences of sounds that can be represented by symbols (phonetic alphabet)
and described in terms of their features (sound production).
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