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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? 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 community B

e.g. British Eng. same language American Eng.

Mutually intelligible common cultural history

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Reasons for the Uncertainty over Numbers

of language (3) Type 2

community A community B

e.g. English different languages Hindi Type 3

community A community B

e.g. Norwegian ? Danish

Mutually unintelligible different cultural history

Mutually intelligible different cultural history

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Reasons for the Uncertainty over Numbers

of language (4) Type 4community A community B

e.g. Cantonese Hakka (Chinese) ? (Chinese)

Type 5 Community A community B

e.g. Turkish ? Uzbek

Mutually unintelligible same cultural history

Partially (un)intelligible overlapping cultural history

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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: Sounds, no meaning Sound + meaning Sentence structure Discourse

Duality: Sound Meaning

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Basic Attributes of Language (2)

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)