1. Language is very difficult to put into words. -- Voltaire What do we mean by “language”? A system used to convey meaning made up of arbitrary elements that are organized using a set of rules. -- Rader Three basic aspects: Phonology (phonemes) Morphology (morphemes) Syntax (structuring rules) deep structure surface structure

2. Phoneme – smallest unit of sound distinctions important for determining word meaning English has 40 phonemes Morpheme – smallest unit of meaning free – can stand by itself as a word content words – convey the main semantic meaning of the sentence grammatical function words– about 360 in english determiners (e.g., “a”) prepositions (e.g., “in”) conjunctions (e.g., “but”) relative pronouns (e.g., “which”) bound – needs to be attached to a word these are called “inflections” prefixes and suffixes

3. Deep vs. Surface Structure Deep Structure Processes Select roles of the elements of the sentence and the meaning for each e.g., agent, action, object Surface Structure Processes Create an utterance with a particular structure & lexemes e.g., The boy kicked the ball The ball was kicked by the boy The lad kicked the football

5. Contrasts: Things that do not meet the definition of language communication mimicry (echolalia) language-like behavior protolanguage

6. Film: The Human Language, Part I What are the two basic ground plans for languages???? 1.___________________________________________ 2.___________________________________________

7. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.– Noam Chomsky used as an example of syntax without meaning In English both word order and word inflections are used Word Order For example, saying “The dog bit the boy” vs. “The boy bit the dog”. Word Inflection For example, adding “ed” to the root form of a verb for the past tense for what we call “regular verbs”