Transcript THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF ZANZIBAR

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
DIPLOMA COURSE CODE 101: English
COURSE PARTS:
1. Language Its nature and use; (Mr. A.M. Nahoda)
2. English Phonology; (Mr. S.P.Mkude.)
3. Theory of Literature; (Mr. Kassim Dadi)
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COURSE OBJECTIVES
• Define language and its basic concepts
• Describe characteristics of human language with specific
reference to English
• Describe factors that lead to development, expansion, and
death of language.
• Explain the relationship between language and culture
• Use linguistic terms appropriately
• Explain the status role of English in Tanzania and in the around
the world.
• Give the historical sketch of the changing role and status of E
• Discuss issues pertaining to language policy in Tanzania.
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INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE
• What is linguistics?
I. Linguistics is the scientific study of language.
II. Linguistics is the scientific inquiry into the
human language with all its aspects.
III. Linguistics is Scientific discipline with the
goal of describing language and speech in all
relevant theoretical and practical aspects
and their relation to adjoining disciplines.
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VARIOUS LINGUISTICS DISCIPLINES
• Historical linguistics :This discipline is
occupied with the examination of the
historical development of languages.
• Phonetics : The subjects of phonetics are the
articulation, transport, and receival of speech
sounds.
• Phonology: Phonology is the study of the
distinctive sounds of a language, the so-called
phonemes.
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VARIOUS LINGUISTIC DISCIPLINES
• Morphology: Morphemes are the smallest
meaningful elements of a language.
Morphology is the study of these meaning
units.
• Syntax : Syntax is the study of sentence
structure; it is a part of grammar in the broad
sense.
• Semantics: Semantics examines the meaning
of linguistic signs and strings of signs.
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INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE
• What is a language?
a system of vocal sounds and combinations of such
sounds to which meaning is attributed, used for the
expression or communication of thoughts and
feelings
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used
for human communication.
An instrument where by humans communicates and
interact with one another by means of habitual use
of auditory, arbitrary symbols.
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Key words in definition of language
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
System
Arbitrary
Symbols
Vocal
Human
Conventional
What is the meaning of these
words in the definition of
language?
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Unique Property of Human language
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Arbitrariness
Duality
Displacement
Productivity
Cultural Transmission
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Arbitrariness
Is absence of any necessary connection between the form
of a word and its meaning. Every language typically
has a distinct word to denote every object, activity
and concept its speakers want to talk about. Each such
word must be formed in a valid manner according to the
phonology of the language. But, in most cases, there is
absolutely no reason why a given meaning should be denoted
by one sequence of sounds rather than another. In practice,
the particular sequence of sounds selected in a given
language is completely arbitrary: anything will do, so long as
speakers agree about it.
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Duality
• A type of structure in which a small
number of meaningless units are combined to
produce a large number of meaningful units.
Duality allows a language to form many tens of
thousands of different words, all of which can be
produced by a vocal tract which can produce no
more than a few dozens of distinguishable
speech sounds.
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Duality
• English has around forty phonemes. And
even just four phonemes from the word cat
can be combined to produce a large number
of words with very different meanings:
• /æt/at, /ækt/ act, /kæt/ cat,
• Duality allows human languages the ability to
produce an infinite number of utterances, all
with different meanings, and hence makes
open-endedness possible.
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Displacement
• In contrast to other animals, humans have a
sense of the past and the future. A gorilla, for
example, cannot tell his fellows about his parents,
his adventures in the jungle, or his experience of
the past. The use of language to talk about things
other than "the here and now", is a characteristic of
humans. Displacement is thus our ability to convey
a meaning that transcends the immediately
perceptible sphere of space and time.
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Productivity
• Ability of word-forming elements to be used to form
new linguistic expressions.
• It is the degree of freedom with which a particular
grammatical pattern can be extended to new cases.
We most often speak of productivity in connection with
patterns of word-formation. The noun-forming suffix
-ness is highly productive: happiness, preparedness,
salaciousness, user-friendliness. The same is true of
the verbal prefix re-: rewrite, reconsider, reappoint,
renegotiate, reboot (a computer).
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Cultural Transmission
• Culture is transmitted from on individual to
another not by physical inheritance, but by
learning. It is through language that
knowledge of the society is transmitted from
one generation to another.
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References:
• Trask, R.L (2005) Key Concept in Language
and Linguistics. Routledge: London
• Malmkjær, Kirsten. (2006) The Linguistics
Encyclopaedia. Routledge: London
• Ipsen, Guido. (1999) Linguistics for Beginners.
• Trauth, Gregory and Kazzazi, Kerstin. (1996)
Routledge Dictionary of Language and
Linguistics.Routledge: London
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