Transcript Introduction

Introduction
I. Some interesting facts about language
II. What is linguistics?
III. Why study linguistics?
IV. Emphasis on spoken language
V. Basic attributes of language (1) (2)
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Some Interesting Facts About Language
 Number of languages: about 6,809 languages in
the world (or about 4,000 ~ 8000 languages
because it’s hard to define what counts as a language), about
50% of theses are dying out
 Ten most widely spoken languages: (based on info.
from www.sil.org in Sept. 2000.)
 1. Mandarin Chinese 2. Spanish 3. English
4. Bengali 5. Hindi/Urdu 6. Portuguese
7. Russian 8. Japanese 9. German
10. Chinese-Wu
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Ten Most Widely Spoken Languages
 According to David Crystal The
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
(1987, p. 287)—mother tongue
speakers
 1. Chinese (Mandarin) 2. English 3.
Spanish 4. Hindi 5. Arabic 6.
Bengali 7. Russian 8. Portuguese 9.
Japanese 10. German
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Reasons for the Uncertainty over
Numbers of language (1)
 New discoveries: new people (and therefore
languages) continue to be discovered in the
unexplored regions of the world (esp. in the
Amazon basin, Central Africa, and New
Guinea).
 Alive or dead language?
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Political decisions
Economic reason
Diseases
others
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Reasons for the Uncertainty over
Numbers of language (2)
 Language or dialect?
 Five types of relationship between dialect
and language
 Type 1
community A
e.g. British Eng.
Mutually intelligible
common cultural
history
same language
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community B
American Eng.
Reasons for the Uncertainty over
Numbers of language (3)
 Type 2
community A
Mutually unintelligible
community B
different cultural
history
e.g. English
different languages
 Type 3
community A
e.g. Norwegian
Mutually intelligible
different cultural
history
?
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Hindi
community B
Danish
Reasons for the Uncertainty over
Numbers of language (4)
 Type 4
community A
e.g. Cantonese
(Chinese)
 Type 5
Community A
e.g. Turkish
Mutually unintelligible
same cultural history
?
Partially (un)intelligible
overlapping cultural
history
?
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community B
Hakka
(Chinese)
community B
Uzbek
Reasons for the Uncertainty over
Numbers of language (5)
 Language names
 Many communities have no specific name for
their language (especially in Africa and South
America). e.g. Bantu, refers to a whole family of
languages, and means simply “people.”
 Or a community whose language has too many
names
 Or same name is applied to two different
languages (e.g., Mexicano used in Mexico to
refer to “Spanish” and to the main Indian
language “Nahuatl”).
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What Is Linguistics?
 Definition
 the systematic & scientific study of language
 Purpose: to learn the different aspects of language
 How it is structured; how we produce & understand it in
ongoing time; how we learn it; how it developed in
humans; how we use it every day & what we use it for;
how it works in our minds and in society.
 Study range of linguistics
1. Phonology (Phonetics & Phonemics)
2. Syntax (Morphology & Grammar)
3. Semantics (Meaning)
4. Pragmatics (the interpretation in context)
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Why Study Linguistics? (1)
 To improve your English through study of
subject in English
 Exploiting a language’s total resources to create
literature
 To learn something about psychology
 Lang. is very important to everything you do.
 To examine your own belief about lang. in
general, lang. in particular, and especially,
speakers.
 To learn to observe & analyze
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Why Study Linguistics? (2)
More reasons . . .
 Might keep you out of prison
 To improve language teaching &
learning
 Language rights
 Technology
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Emphasis on Spoken Language
 Speech primary
 History
 individual
 Writing is not always present.
 Change reflected slowly in writing
 Similar writing system can be used for very
different languages, or more than one system
for one language.
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Basic Attributes of Language (1)
Unique properties:
 Language is random (and not so random). (Nash 4~5)
*Arbitrariness (Yule 21~22)
 Displacement (Yule 20~21)
 Language is a body of (very productive and creative) knowledge.
(Nash 3)
*Productivity (creativity or open-endedness) (Yule 22~23)
 Language is social and cultural. (Nash 5~6)
*Cultural transmission (Yule 24)
 Language has a series of levels, & governed by rules. (Nash 3~4)
* Duality (or double articulation) (Yule 25)
 Discreteness (Yule 24)
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Duality (or Double Articulation)
A series of levels:
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Sounds, no meaning
Sound + meaning
Sentence structure
Discourse
Duality:
 Sound
 Meaning
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Basic Attributes of Language (2)
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Language uses sounds (Nash) * Vocal-auditory channel (Yule)
Reciprocity (Yule)
Specialization (Yule)
Non-directionality (Yule)
Rapid fade (Yule)
Language is communication (Nash)
Language is human (Nash)
Language is a system (Nash)
Languages are more similar than they are different (Nash)
Language changes (Nash)
Language is accompanied by gestures (Nash)
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