1. Introduction I. Some interesting facts about language
II. What is linguistics?
III. Why study linguistics?
IV. Emphasis on spoken language
V. Basic attributes of language (1) (2)
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2. Some Interesting Facts About Language
Number of languages: about 6,809 languages in the world (or about 4,000 ~ 8000 languages because it’s hard to define what counts as a language), about 50% of theses are dying out
Ten most widely spoken languages: (based on info. from in Sept )
1. Mandarin Chinese 2. Spanish 3. English 4. Bengali 5. Hindi/Urdu 6. Portuguese Russian 8. Japanese 9. German Chinese-Wu
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3. Ten Most Widely Spoken Languages
According to David Crystal The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (1987, p. 287)—mother tongue speakers
1. Chinese (Mandarin) 2. English 3. Spanish 4. Hindi 5. Arabic 6. Bengali 7. Russian 8. Portuguese 9. Japanese 10. German
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4. Reasons for the Uncertainty over Numbers of language (1)
New discoveries: new people (and therefore languages) continue to be discovered in the unexplored regions of the world (esp. in the Amazon basin, Central Africa, and New Guinea).
Alive or dead language?
Political decisions
Economic reason
Diseases
others
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5. Reasons for the Uncertainty over Numbers of language (2)
Language or dialect?
Five types of relationship between dialect and language
Type 1
community A community B
e.g. British Eng same language American Eng.
Mutually intelligible common cultural history
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6. Reasons for the Uncertainty over Numbers of language (3)
Type 2
community A community B
e.g. English different languages Hindi
Type 3
community A community B
e.g. Norwegian ? Danish
Mutually unintelligible different cultural history
Mutually intelligible different cultural history
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7. Reasons for the Uncertainty over Numbers of language (4)
Type 4
community A community B
e.g. Cantonese Hakka
(Chinese) ? (Chinese)
Type 5
Community A community B
e.g. Turkish ? Uzbek
Mutually unintelligible same cultural history
Partially (un)intelligible overlapping cultural history
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8. Reasons for the Uncertainty over Numbers of language (5)
Language names
Many communities have no specific name for their language (especially in Africa and South America). e.g. Bantu, refers to a whole family of languages, and means simply “people.”
Or a community whose language has too many names
Or same name is applied to two different languages (e.g., Mexicano used in Mexico to refer to “Spanish” and to the main Indian language “Nahuatl”).
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9. What Is Linguistics? Definition
the systematic & scientific study of language
Purpose: to learn the different aspects of language
How it is structured; how we produce & understand it in ongoing time; how we learn it; how it developed in humans; how we use it every day & what we use it for; how it works in our minds and in society.
Study range of linguistics
1. Phonology (Phonetics & Phonemics)
2. Syntax (Morphology & Grammar)
3. Semantics (Meaning)
4. Pragmatics (the interpretation in context)
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10. Why Study Linguistics? (1)
To improve your English through study of subject in English
Exploiting a language’s total resources to create literature
To learn something about psychology
Lang. is very important to everything you do.
To examine your own belief about lang. in general, lang. in particular, and especially, speakers.
To learn to observe & analyze
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11. Why Study Linguistics? (2)
More reasons . . .
Might keep you out of prison
To improve language teaching & learning
Language rights
Technology
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12. Emphasis on Spoken Language
Speech primary
History
individual
Writing is not always present.
Change reflected slowly in writing
Similar writing system can be used for very different languages, or more than one system for one language.
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13. Basic Attributes of Language (1)
Unique properties:
Language is random (and not so random). (Nash 4~5)
*Arbitrariness (Yule 21~22)
Displacement (Yule 20~21)
Language is a body of (very productive and creative) knowledge. (Nash 3)
*Productivity (creativity or open-endedness) (Yule 22~23)
Language is social and cultural. (Nash 5~6)
*Cultural transmission (Yule 24)
Language has a series of levels, & governed by rules. (Nash 3~4)
* Duality (or double articulation) (Yule 25)
Discreteness (Yule 24)
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14. Duality (or Double Articulation)
A series of levels:
Sounds, no meaning
Sound + meaning
Sentence structure
Discourse
Duality:
Sound
Meaning
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15. Basic Attributes of Language (2)
Language uses sounds (Nash) * Vocal-auditory channel (Yule)
Reciprocity (Yule)
Specialization (Yule)
Non-directionality (Yule)
Rapid fade (Yule)
Language is communication (Nash)
Language is human (Nash)
Language is a system (Nash)
Languages are more similar than they are different (Nash)
Language changes (Nash)
Language is accompanied by gestures (Nash)
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