Key Attributes of Human Language This PP presentation uses several graphics and examples from similar material created by Dr. Alicia Wassink, University of Washington, for her introductory linguistics course. I have edited and adapted it for English 301. (August 2007)

Points of Focus  Seeing language as a set of rules  Distinguishing linguistic competence vs. linguistic performance  Naming attributes of language  Separating animal communication from human language  Identifying fields of linguistic study

Linguistic competence  What we know when we “know” a language.  This knowledge is largely unconscious.

How do we study linguistic competence? By observing a speaker’s linguistic performance.

How Grammar Works  Prescriptive grammar  Prescribes rules governing what people should/shouldn’t say  Descriptive grammar  Describes the rules that govern what people do or can say (their “mental grammar”)

Prescriptive Rules “Don’t end a sentence with a preposition!” “Don’t split infinitives!” “Don’t use double negatives!”

Descriptive Rules In English sentences, words follow a predictable order. The boat sailed away. *Sailed boat away the.

Summing up this point  Descriptive rules are linguists’ attempt to represent your mental grammar. They are  natural  followed intuitively  need not be taught  Prescriptive rules are  not natural  must be learned by rote (in school)

Naming Language Features  Goal: Characterize language, distinguish it from other communication systems  Caveat: If a system lacks even one feature, it is communication, not language

Language Attributes  Discreteness  Arbitrariness  Cultural transmission  Displacement  Productivity (AKA Creativity)

Discreteness  Larger, complex messages can be broken down into smaller, discrete parts e.g., [pat] [tap] [apt] p a t

Arbitrariness  There is no (necessary) connection between the form of signal and its meaning e.g., whale is a small word for big animal, microorganism is just the reverse

Cultural transmission  At least some aspect of communication system is learned from other users e.g., child of Italian-speaking parents will first speak Italian

Displacement  Ability to talk about things not present in space or time e.g., “The Dutch bought Manhattan from the Native Americans for $24.”

Productivity  Speakers can create an infinite number of novel utterances that others can understand e.g., “Little purple gnomes living in my sock drawer said, ‘Elvis lives’.” Elvis lives!! /

Animal Communication  Does not include displacement, arbitrariness or most of the other features of HUMAN language.

Aspects of Language  Human language consists of several levels or dimensions of knowledge  These dimensions are used by linguists to separate language into separate areas of study

Core Subfields  Phonetics  Phonology  Morphology  Syntax  Semantics  Pragmatics

Phonetics and Phonology  Phonetics: the study of individual units of sound e.g., “ee” is a single sound in “seek”  Phonology: the study of how speech sounds pattern and how they are organized (i.e., the sound system) e.g., art, *rta (where ‘*’ = ungrammatical)

Morphology  Morphology: The study of the origin and structure of words. e.g., algebra is “borrowed” from Arabic e.g., unrealistic  un-real-ist-ic

Syntax  Syntax: the study of the structure of sentences e.g., Fido brought in the paper. BUT NOT *Fido in paper brought the.

Semantics and Pragmatics  Semantics: the study of meaning in language.  Pragmatics: the study of how linguistic meaning depends on context.