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