Introduction

What is linguistics?

The scientific study of language.
Scientific because it involves:

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.

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

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.