Intro to linguistics

What is linguistics?

The scientific study of language.
Scientific because it involves:

• Systematic investigation
• Predictive, testable, and falsifiable experiments

Design Features of Language

Listed by linguistic anthropologist Charles F. Hockett in 1960.

• Vocal-auditory channel: we do language by speaking and hearing.
• Broadcast transmission & directional reception: wide broadcast, and can be spatially located.
• Rapid fading: signal fades instantly
• Interchangeability: anyone can send & receive messages in the system. not limited by bio.
• Total feedback: you hear yourself, and you can control yourself. intentional.
• Specialization: purpose of the signal is communication.
• Semanticity: signals have certain meanings.
• Arbitrariness: opposite of iconic (meow), the sounds/words are arbitrary.
• Discreteness: signals are broken up into units that combine in a rule-governed way. different hierarchical level.
• Displacement: signals can be used to talk about concepts that are distant in space and time.
• Productivity: language users can create and understand new utterances. You don’t have to memorize sentences in order to use them, subject to rules.
• Traditional transmission: the system is not innately known. learn in a cultural setting.
• Duality of patterning: meaningless units, when combined, make meaningful units.
• Prevarication: language users can intentionally lie or deceive.
• Reflexiveness: language users can talk about language.
• Learnability: languages can be taught and learned. any language user can learn a language.

Grammar

A grammar is a set of rules governing what structures are licit, as determined by native speakers.

Characteristics of grammar

• Generality: all languages have a grammar.
• Parity: all grammars are equally well suited to the cultural function of language
• Universality: all grammars share certain features.
• Mutability: grammars change over time.
• Inaccessibility: grammatical knowledge is implicit, and often not consciously accessible.

Phonetics

The study of the sounds of language: articulation, acoustics, and audition.

The consonants of American English

The IPA recognizes ~110 basic sounds. How many consonants are there in english? 25 basic ones and two marginal ones.

• /p/: voiceless bilabial stop.
• /b/: voiced bilabial stop.
• /m/: voiced bilabial nasal stop.
• /f/: voiceless labiodental fricative.
• /v/: voiced labiodental fricative.
• /O-/: voiceless interdental fricative
• /d-/: voiced interdental fricative.
• /t/: voiceless alveolar stop.
• /d/: voiced alveolar stop.
• /n/: voiced alveolar nasal stop.
• /z/: voiced alveolar fricative.
• /s/: voiceless alveolar fricative.
• /l/: voiced lateral alveolar approximant.
• /3/: voiced postalveolar fricative

Terminology

• Voiced: using voice
• Bilabial: made by closing lips together
• Stop: constriction the vocal tract followed by release
• Nasal: with a raised velum, which allows air to escape through the nose.
• Fricative: passing air through a near-total constriction.
• Interdental: made with the tip of the tounge between the teeth.
• Alveolar: made with the tounge close to the alveolar ridge (bony bit behind teeth).
• Approximant: a consonant produced with minimal closure.
• Lateral: the airstream goes down the sides of the vocal tract, not the middle.
• Postalveolar: constriction farther back than the alveolar ridge.