Grammatical Aspects of Language Phonetics: The Sounds of Language

Phonetics Phonetics is the study of speech sounds.

Phonetics Phoneme: a single sound in speech that combines with other sounds to make a morpheme the smallest unit of speech Not all languages have the same phonemes Phoneme: a single sound in speech that combines with other sounds to make a morpheme the smallest unit of speech Bus is made up of three phonemes: B + UH + S You can divide this word into phonemes because you know the language A cough, clearing your throat, etc. is not a phoneme because it isn’t combined with other phonemes to make a morpheme Tsk is a phoneme in Zulu (a language that includes clicking sounds), but not in English The ch sound in Chanukah spoken by a Hebrew speaker (or Dutch, German, etc.) is not a phoneme in English. Most speakers of American English don’t roll their rs, but many other languages do. The th sound in the is a phoneme in English, but not in French

The Alphabet Our alphabet doesn’t consistently reflect how letters are pronounced. Did he believe that Caesar could see the people seize the seas? My father wanted many a village dame badly. resign, autumn, ghost, pterodactyl, write, knot The vs. bath (voiced / unvoiced) Cute, side (diphthongs: one or two letters) George Bernard Shaw liked to spell fish as ghoti: gh as in tough o as in women ti as in nation

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Symbols that represent fundamental sounds in all languages There are many more symbols for words in different languages. This is just a basic list.

Places of articulation

Voiced and voiceless consonants Tip vs. dip Teeth vs. there Rope vs. robe Rack vs. rag Breathe vs. breath Fine vs. vine

Grammatical Aspects of Language Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Language

Syntax “Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on. “I do,” Alice hastily replied, “at least—I mean what I say—that’s the same thing, you know.” “Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter. You might just as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as, ‘I eat what I see’!” “You might just as well say,” added the March Hare, “that ‘I like what I get’ is the same thing as ‘I get what I like’!” You might just as well say, added the Dormouse . . . that ‘I breathe when I sleep’ is the same thing as ‘I sleep when I breathe’!” “It is the same thing with you,” said the Hatter. --Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865

Syntax Syntax / rules of syntax Recursion How our brains make sentences English is a subject-verb-object language The President appointed a new cabinet member. The President a new cabinet member nominated. Syntax is the knowledge of sentences and their structures. The rules of syntax combine words into phrases and phrases into sentences. They specify the correct order of words. You can continue creating a new sentence by adding more phrases, adjectives, etc. This is called recursion. There is no limit to how long a sentence can be. Sentences can’t be stored in our heads like morphemes can. Instead, our brains store Pieces of sentences Rules for how those pieces can be combined English is a subject-verb-object language The President appointed a new cabinet member. The President a new cabinet member nominated. You know which sentence is correct because you already know the rules for how sentences should come together.

Syntax Syntax also tells us how the meaning of a sentence depends on its arrangement. I mean what I say. I say what I mean. Your dog chased my cat. My cat chased your dog.

Syntax Syntax gives us rules for how words have to be arranged. The boy found. The boy found quickly. The boy found in the house the ball. The boy found the ball in the house. Your knowledge of syntax told you that something needs to follow found, and that it needs to be whatever the boy found.

Syntax Structural ambiguity: For sale: an antique desk suitable for a lady with thick legs and large drawers. We will oil your sewing machine and adjust tension in your home for $100. Structural Ambiguity: Sentences can be arranged correctly but still have two different meanings:

Grammar Grammar: the shared knowledge that people have about their language, and the rules about that knowledge. Grammatical sentence Remember that grammar is the shared knowledge that people have about their language, and the rules about that knowledge. An ungrammatical sentence is one that breaks the shared rules about how language is used.

Which sentences are grammatical? Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. Enormous green crickets in pink socks danced at the prom. Suzy slept the baby. A verb crumpled the milk. Jim with a fork ate the green beans. Grammatically correct sentences with no meaning. Syntax contributes to meaning, but it’s not the whole story. Grammaticality doesn’t depend on words making sense. Grammaticality doesn’t depend on truth (otherwise, it would be impossible to lie) Grammar rules are unconscious rules that we’re never taught and don’t even know we know.

Universal Grammar Universal Grammar (UG) Languages conform to a basic design, but there are variations. Universal Grammar (UG) the rules that all languages share Biologically programmed into every speaker of a human language Think of it like a new housing development: Every house has the same layout Individual owners can make choices about flooring, curtains, cabinets, furniture, etc. Languages conform to a basic design, but there are variations

Features of Universal Grammar All languages have heads and complements All languages have rules about moving words around (structure dependency) All languages are discrete All languages enable recursion For example, all languages have heads and complements Head: the central word of a phrase the man who came to dinner wrote a letter to his mother very bright red Complement: the parts of a phrase that aren’t the central word All languages have movement rules: how words move around to change the meaning of a sentence: Suzy rode that bike. Which bike did Suzy ride? Dutch: Femke veel boeken leest. (Femke reads many books.) Leest Femke veel boeken? (Does Femke read many books?)