Formal Properties of Language: Talk is achieved through the interdependent components of sounds, words, sentences, and meanings.

Last class we learned about: the importance of language in human behaviour the different meanings transmitted by language cultural contexts and cultural models speech community

The components of language: the sounds of language, the structure of language and the meanings of language

What is Language? Language is a communicative system consisting of formal units (of sound, structure, and meaning) that are integrated through processes of combination.

Phonology: the study of the distinctive, contrastive sounds (“phonemes”) of a language. Phonetics and phonemics

Phonetics it is the study of the articulation of sounds that occur in a language it describes how sounds are produced or articulated it tries to describe how human language becomes possible through the manipulation of vocal apparatus. Voiced/voiceless oral/nasal

Phonemics It analysis how sounds are used to differentiate meanings of words It looks at how phonemes function to differentiate the meanings of words contrasts signal differences in meanings of words For example, in English /b/: pit versus bit

Prosodic features Stress Pitch Length Present and object They came in. They came in?

Grammar Morphology Syntax

Morphology Is concerned with how phonemes are combined by language into larger units Words: one or more morphemes

Morphological Example Cow-----Cow- boy Affixes: bound morphemes: dis --- dis-like

Syntax rules that determine how words should be combined to make sense to speakers of a language (English) word order critical for meaning (you, are, and there) There you are, You are there, Are you there?

In Romance languages Order of words not as important Spanish: Ahi estas tu--Tu estas ahi Tu estabas ahi You were there

Mandarin, Chinese Meaning primarily determined by tone: Ma High= Mother Rising=horse Falling=scolding

Exceptions to syntax rules Eat Ate eated

Morphological Analysis Morphology: the analysis of the structure of words Morphemes=words Cat or Cat-S /P/ /I/ /N/ = PIN

Roots (stems) and Affixes Roots: they have meaning in themselves cat,good, happy Affixes:Are attached to roots (express grammatical meanings) un-, -s, -ing, -ly Three kinds of affixes: Prefixes: un-happy suffixes: happy-ness and infixes: fikas: fumikas (Strong ---He is becoming strong)

Morphological Typologies Classification of languages according to how they structure words out of morphemes Isolating languages: few morphemes, simple method: prefix and suffix (English) Agglutinating languages: words containing many morphemes, highly regular rules (Turkish) Synthetic or polysynthetic: Words containing many morphemes, very complex rules (Inuktitut)

Qasirrsarrvigssarsingitluinarpug “someone did not find a completely suitable resting place”

Grammatical meanings Tense (time of the event’s occurrence) I visited the zoo Aspect (manner in which an events occurs) I am visiting the zoo Mode (likelihood of an event’s occurrence) I could visit the zoo

Syntax Is an analytical tool that linguists utilize to study the structure of sentences, including construction of phrases, clauses, and the order of words Example The dog chased the cat The cat chased the dog

Semantics The study of meaning in language, including the analysis of meanings of words and sentences Types of meanings produced by language: situational, social and cultural

Language rules over regularalizations Past tense of regular verbs (english)by adding ed as in worked I gave I gived I took I taked

Linguistic interference Idiomatic expressions En este momento (literal translation) at this moment (Instead of now) Drive down the parkway and park on the driveway. Chop the tree down and cut the pieces up. His nose is running and his feet smell.