Table of Contents 3. WHY SHOULD ONE STUDY LINGUISTICS? 2. WHAT IS LINGUISTICS 1. THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

Language is the institution whereby ① human ② communicate and interact with each other by means of ③ habitually-used ④ oral auditory ⑤ arbitrary symbols. (R.A.Hall An Essay on Language. New York.)

Understanding language by keywords Language is confined to human The communication system human use is more complex than that of animal’s Language is used habitually Language is used oral auditorily Language makes use of arbitrary symbols

1&2. Animal vs Human Animal can communicate about something here and now(just ideal) Animal do not allow the noble message The communication system human use is more complex than that of animal’s

3. Do you normally think about each word after you say? We use language everywhere, everyday, usually with little cognitive effort The word just flow out of the mouth automatically

4. Language uses oral-auditory channel Via the mouth and the ear

5. Language is arbitrary table つくえ 桌子 tisch There is no direct relationship between the linguistic symbol the word and in real life object.

What is linguistics? Scientific study of LANGUAGE

Major branches of linguistics 1. SOUND 2. STRUCTURE 3. MEANING

1. SOUND production of speech sounds by humans without prior knowledge of the language being sp oken, which means IN GENERAL How produced/transmitted/received Ex) [ ll ] vs [ k’ ] PHONETIC S  human speech sounds i n general from va rious angles Systematic/grammatical organization in lang uages different patterns of sounds in different languag es, which means IN SPECIFIC Ex) English  /nblk/ vs /frl ʃ / PHONOLOGY  the principles governing th e sound systems of parti cular languages

2. STRUCTURE study of the internal structure of WORDS (smaller units)  (larger units)  word Morphemes! Ex) nation-al-ize-ation (adj) (v) (n) MORPHOLOGY Study of SENTENCE structure Fundamental insights about natural language Ex) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously  Grammatically (O) v.s. Semantically (X) SYNTAX

3. MEANING 1. Word semantics  Relation between signifiers (words, phrases, signs, sy mbols) & what signifiers stand for (denotation)  Ex) wide-narrow vs tulip-flower 2. Sentence semantics Ex) Mary failed her exam, even though she did not work at all SEMANTIC S Study of the ways in which context contributes to meaning Ex) I’ll come to your party!  Warning vs promise PRAGMATICS

Why study linguistic?

Language awareness *Cheese in German: ke:ze or kε ː zә ? *ain’t : colloquial, regional, standard ? -Linguistic will tell you

Speech therapy * What happens when the use of language is impaired? Linguist is the speech therapist

Computers & linguistics * Why can’t computer use language as we do? -They do not really understand what does it being said. Linguistic research may help out!

Language acquisition * How do child manage to learn a language so easily? Linguistic can find out principle of language acquisition

Language & literature * Do you know these words? -thou, thee, thine Shakespeare used a type of English which is completely different from ours today. Linguistic is important when it comes to the analysis of literature.

FURTHER RESEARCH Thou: `you' when you are talking to only one person Thee: `you' when you are talking to only one person Thine: `yours' when you are talking to only one person Hither: place where you are I know not: I don’t know LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE  SHAKESPEARE

Language teaching * Medicals must have a precise idea about the structure of the human body just like teachers should know structure of the language they teach Linguistic will tell teachers the structure of he language

How do we pronounce cheese in German, ke:ze or k ε ː z ә ? What is difference between thee and thine? There is no direct relationship between the linguistic symbol the word and in real life object. ↔ Linguistic is_________