Transcript Some Fundamental Points of Language

Some Fundamental Points
of Language
Some General Concepts About
Language
Wherever humans exist, L exists
Language is systematic & very complex
Different languages are very diverse but also
share universal properties
Speech is primary, writing is secondary
Children ACQUIRE and are not TAUGHT their
L1
Every language changes as time passes
Some Myths About Language
Some L are primitive
Writing is more perfect than speech
French is romantic, German harsh, English
hard to learn
Swearing degrades a language
Sloppy speech should be avoided
Speech versus Writing
Why does ling consider speech primary?
Writing is a later development
Writing does not exist everywhere, spoken L does
Writing must be taught, one can still communicate
using language without being literate
Different Definitions of
“Grammar”
Mental Grammar
Unconscious rules of L that allow us to construct
grammatical utterances (plural /-s/ in English)
Descriptive Grammar
Linguists’ descriptions of the rules of L
Prescriptive Grammar
The “proper” or “correct” way to use language
Prescriptive v. Descriptive
Grammar
Prescriptive
“Right” v. “wrong”
Casts value judgments
Tries to force specific L variety
Descriptive
Accounts for observed rules/patterns
Unbiased
Allows for different varieties
Is a prescriptive variety
necessary?
 Helps establish a ‘standard’ for crossdialectal communication
Second language learning
Marking social distinctions
Everyone uses several registers:
What is a register?
Professional
Peer group
Motherese
Language Statistics
How many languages are there?
Which languages have the most
speakers and which are more official?
What some people think about English
Animal Communication
Observations from File 2.3 “Primate
Studies”
We share 99% of genetic material with the
great apes, yet that 1% difference is
responsible for human’s ability to “speak”
Gua versus Donald
Animal Communication cont.
Viki: female chimp taught to “vocalize”
Washoe and Koko: From human speech
sounds to ASL
Sarah: language board ‘sentences’
Lana: lexigrams
Animal Communication cont.
Still the main questions is Did these chimps
acquire human language?
The chimp “Nim Chimpsky”
Use of language: use of grammar
Mental referents, symbols we conjure when
we think of a word