IntroductionBasic linguistic concepts
What is linguistics?
Goal of Linguistics
Performance
CompetencePhonologyMorphology
Syntaxetc...
Hypothesis
ObservationData Collection
Prescriptive Grammar vs.
Descriptive Grammar
Different Kinds of Ungrammaticality
1. I aksed you that before!
2. That is a great idear!
3. It ain’t true at all!
4. *I walks to the park everyday!
Features shared by all communication systems
A mode of communication:
All communication system has the means (organs) to transmit the messages.
Semanticity:
The signals/communications have a meaning or function.
Pragmatic function:
All system of communication serves some useful purpose.
Properties of Human Language Displacement:
You can refer to past/present/future and other location
Arbitrariness:
No connection between a linguistic form (signal) and its meaning
Productivity:
You can understand/say any number of sentences that you may not have heard before.
Properties of Human Language Cultural transmission:
Children’s ability to learn language is innate but they must learn it through communicative interaction with other users of the system.
Discreteness:We can combine discreet units in order to create larger communicative units (such as speech sounds, words, sentences).
Human Language is uniqueCommunication System
Animal Human Language
Mode of communication Yes Yes
Smell, touch, facial expression
Yes Yes
Semanticity Yes Yes
Pragmatic function Yes Yes
Displacement No Yes
Arbitrariness No Yes
Discreteness No Yes
Cultural transmission No Yes
Productivity No Yes
Language=speech language≠writing
Speech Writing
NO specific instruction or learning required
Must be taught
Does not exist everywhere
Can be edited
Physically stable
More rules
Association with education
Pictographic writing system Spoken human language 50,000 - 30,000 BC
Pictures on the walls 25,000-30,000 years BC
Pictographic writing system 4100-3800 BCE
Cuneiform in Mesopotamia
4000 BC
Hieroglyphics in Egypt
Early Chinese Characters 4500 years ago
Writing (orthographic) systems
Writing system:
a. Idiographic/logographic b. syllabic c. alphabetic
Ideo(logo)graphic writing system
4500 years ago in China
Light:
Forest:
Foot of mountain:
Walk:
Syllabic and Alphabetic writing system
Syllabic (cf. syllable) 1 syllable = 1 character
Banana: ba.na.na バナナ Sushi: su.shi. すし
Alphabetic 1 sound (ideally) = 1 character
Banana: b.a.n.a.n.a 6 characters
Hiragana
Vowels, consonants [+/-voi]• Any inconsistencies or problems?
Kanji and KatakanaKatakana derived from abbreviated Chinese characters used by Buddhist monks to indicate pronunciations of Chinese text in the 9th century. What are the usages of Katakana in Modern Japanese?
Japanese Writing System: Mixture of innovation and tradition
What made Japanese to use ideographic and syllabic writing system?
I go to school.I went to school.I went to school yesterday.
keywords: isolating language, morpheme, syllable, inflections
Biology of Speech Sounds
The articulators
Vowel Sounds
Components of vowels
Height of the tongue (high, mid, low)
Advancement of the tongue (front, mid, back)
Roundness of lips (rounded or unrounded)
Tense or lax (long or short)
English Vowel Chart
Two Kinds of Speech Sounds
1. Consonants
2. Vowels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcNMCB-Gsn8&feature=related
Consonant Sounds
3 components of consonant articulation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-10664039847000669
Voiced or Voiceless [+/- voi]
Where the air stream gets constricted? place of articulation
How the air stream gets constricted?
manner of articulation
English consonants
English Consonants
Bilabial Labio-dental
Inter-dental
Alveolar Alveolar-palatal
Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Stop p b
t d
k g
ʔ
Fricative f v
θ ð
s z
ʃ ( ) ʒ ( )
h
Affricate tʃ ( ) dʒ ( )
Nasal m n ŋ
Lateral Approximant (lateral liquids)
l
Retroflex Approximant ɹ
Glides ʍ ( ) w
j (y)
Japanese Consonants
Japanese Consonants
Bilabial Labio-dental
Inter-dental
Alveolar Alveolar-palatal
Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Stop p b
t d
k g
Fricative ɸ
s z
ɕ (=ʃ ) ç h
Affricate ts dz
tɕ (=tʃ ) dʑ (=dʒ )
Nasal m n ŋ N
Lateral Approximant (lateral liquids)
ɾ
Retroflex Approximant Glides j(y) w
English Vowels
English
Front Central Back
High
i u
ɪ ʊ
Mid e ə, ʌ o
ɛ ɔ
æ ɑ
Low
Japanese Vowels
Japanese____________________________________
Front Central Back
High
i ɯ
Mid e o
Low a