LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

philology?

Features of Language
Knowledge of Language
Language and Linguistics
Branches of Linguistics
Descriptive-Prescriptive Atttitude
School of Linguistics
Types of Grammar
 THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE
• The need of communication.
• ‘Language’ is superior than other tools (non-verbal
human communication)
–WHAT IS LANGUAGE THEN?
• A complex phenomenon
• A number of theories about “language”
 THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE

• MONOGENESIS:18th C. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz:

all ancient and modern languages branched off
from a single proto-language. But it cannot explain
that human language arose simultaneously at many
different places.

• POLYGENESIS: Present language families derive

from many original languages.
 5 theories from The Danish Linguist Otto Jespersen(1860-
1943)
• 1. speech arose through Onomatopoeic words but few of
these exist in language
• 2. speech arose through people making instictive sounds
caused by pain, anger or emotions. For ex. İnterjections
• 3.universal use of sounds for words of a certain meaning-
sound symbolism- For example –mam is supposed to reflect
the movement of the lips as the mouth approaches to the
food. And bye-bye or ta-ta show the lips and tongue
respectively “waving” good-bye.
• 4. speech arose as peole worked together, their physical
efforts produced communal, rhythmical grunts which in
due course developed into chants, and thus language.
• 5.If any single factor was going to initiate human language ,
it would arise from the romantic side of life-sounds
associated with love, play, poetic feeling, perhaps even
song.( Crystal, 1987)
Definitions formulated by some linguists

• Bloch and Trager (1942): “A language is a

system of arbitrary vocal symbols by
means of which a social group co-
operates”.
• Noam Chomsky(1957): “Language is a
set of finite number sentences, each finite
in length and constructed out of a finite
set of elements”
• Michael Halliday (2003): “A
language is a system of meaning- a
semiotic system”
–Reconsider the following quotations
• “speech breaks silence to say
something; however, silence can say
more than speech”.
•“Word is spoken to that who
does not understand”.
• Muharrem Ergin(1990):

“communication among people, a living entity

that it has its own peculiar laws, by means of
which alone can it develop, a system of
Language is a natural means to enable
contracts whose foundation was laid in times
unknown, and a social institution interwoven
with sounds”.
 Features of Language
• The important features that all human languages have in
common (not solely English).
• Design features of language by American linguists Charles
Hockett:
–1.Use of sound signals
–2.Arbitrarines
–3.The need for learning
–4.Duality of patterns
–5.Displacement
–6.Creativity (productivity)
–7.Patterning
–8.Structure dependence
 • 1.Use of sound signals
• Non-verbal communication is not
as widespread as the use of
sounds: bees-dance
• The use of sounds by: dolphins,
birds, cows, monkeys,
humans….
• Sound signals have advantages:
 2.Arbitrarines
• Animal communication: a strong link
between the signal and message: an
animal wishes to warn off an
opponent may simulate an attacking
attitude-cats
• In human language: the reverse is
true. Mostly no link between the
signal and the message. The symbols
used are arbitrary.
• No intrinsic connection: elephant, fil,
elefant. Nor is the phrase: “these
bananas are bad”.
 3.The need for learning
• Most animals automatically know
how to communicate without
learning= Genetically inbuilt.
(Genetically inbuilt to develop in
human). Bee-dancing is the
same in colonies in diffrent part
of the world.
• Human language is culturally
transmitted. A human being
brought up in isolation doesn’t
acquire language. Also there is
innate predisposition towards
 4.Duality (double articulation)
• A cow has under ten vocal signs
• A chicken has around twenty,
dolphins have between twenty and
thirty.
• Most animals can use each basic
sound only once. That is, the
number of messages an animal can
send is restricted to the number of
basic sounds.
• Human language has a stock of
sound units(phonemes) btween 30-
40.
• Each phoneme is meaningless in
isolation and become meaningful
 5.Displacement

• Animals: communicate in the

immediate environment only.
e.g. A bird utters its danger cry
when danger is present like
baby’ emotional cries of pain,
hunger…
• Human language can cope with any
subject whatever, and it does not
 6.Creativity (productivity)

• Animals: have a very limited

messages they can send and
receive.
• Humans: can produce novel utterences.
• A person can utter a sentence
which has never been said
before.
 7.Patterning

• Animal communication system: no internal

organization within the system.
• language: humans do not juxtapose sounds
and words in a random way. Instead ring the
changes on a few well-defined patterns.
• Four possible arrangement of a, b, s, t=
bats, tabs, stab, bast but not: sbat, abts,
stba (unpronounceable)
• Three combinations of burglar, loudly, sneezed, the= *the
burglar sneezed loudly, * loudly sneezed the burglar, * the
burglar loudly sneezed but not * the loudly burglar sneezed, *
sneezed burglar loudly the. Also * a burglars or burglars
sneezes aren’t permitted.
 8.Structure dependence

• The grammar is structure-dependent in

that the rules must refer to
the structure of the language in order to
adequately perform some operation.
A structure-independent grammar has
been ruled out as a possible
characterisation of natural language
through examples such as as (1), (2) and
(3):[2]
–(1) Fred has seen Bill. Has Fred seen Bill?
–(2) The man who was sleeping is here. *Was the
man who sleeping is here?
• Although it appears that English question formation
is merely a matter of moving the first verb one finds
from the left of the sentence to the beginning,
examples such as (2) disprove the notion. The rule
exemplified in (1) is structure-independent, in that
its description must refer to the sentence structure:
move the initial auxiliaryverb of the
main clause ahead of the subject noun phrase.
• structure-dependency: Structure-dependency is
a restriction on movement in human languages
that makes it depend on the structureof
the sentence, rather than on its linear order.
A principle of Universal Grammar.
• (www.wikipedia.org)
Continues..

• Bats= a could be repalced by e or i but not h or z.

*bhts *bzts
• Burglar= replaced by cat, butcher, robber, … but
not into, amazingly, they. *the into sneezed they
*the amazingly sneezed loudly
• the - burglar - sneezed - loudly
• A - robber - coughed - softly
• That - cat - hissed - noisily.
• (like game of soccer=goal keeper, striker…)
 Minor features of Language
• Language reveals patterns of
how mind works.
• Language is a means for
mental and social development.
• Language is a property of the
individual as well as of the
society.
• Language is a predictor of
social identity.
• Language is a predictor of
social identity
• Language is used for cultural
preservation and transmission
• The direction of changes in
language is not predictable.
• Language is not monolithic but
varied. It exhibits variatiosn
(e.g.Dialects)
• Self-talk can be regarded as a
form of language
• We talk in our minds: inner speech.
Using language for thinking
• We cannot help but to process
and understand what we hear
 3Ds of Language
• Dimensions of language as used in oral
communication
• 1. FORM: sound, word,
sentence(accurate?)
• 2. MEANING: what does it mean?
• 3. USE: where, when with who to
use it?(appropriate?)
 Form of Language
-components of language as a form-

• 1. PRONUNCIATON: sounds
• 2. WORDS: combinations of
sounds; morphemes
• 3. GRAMMAR: combination of
words
• Similarities & Differences
between
• oral and written
language
-put tick to the following columns expressing
suitable quality-
 RESOURCES ORAL WRITTEN

1 Sounds

2 Intonation

3 Vocabulary&syntax

4 Body language

5 Gesture&posture

6 Short&broken expressions

7 Planning

8 Interaction with addressee

Should a linguistician focus on oral language or written language?Why?

9 recordability
 Knowledge of a language
• “I know English?”
–identifying individual sounds correctly.
–Knowing the combinations of sounds. For
example: beg is permitted but bge is not
permitted.
–Knowing the formation and division of
words. Clear-ly.
–Combination of words at sentence level.
–Decoding all above system: understanding
the meanings of words, phrases, sentences.
Label each of the above explanations with one of the
terms: syntax, morphology, pragmatics,
semantics, phonetics and phonology
• Using language in communicative context.
Knowing a language means having moderate
level of speaking and listenings skills. And
also expressing ideas in written mode.
• You are illiterate if you cannot convert your
speech into writing.

• syntax, morphology, pragmatics,

semantics, phonetics and phonology
 What is Linguistics?
• Normal conversation uses 4,000 or 5,000
words an hour.
• A radio talk, where there are fewer pauses
uses as many as 8,000-9,000 words per hour.
• A person reading at a normal speed covers
14,000 or 15,000 words per hour.
• Per day, the total could be as high as 100,000.
• Therefore, the use of language is an integral part of
human being.
• Children all over the world start putting words together
at approximately the same age, and follow remarkably
similar paths in their speech development.
• All languages are similar in their basic structure, whether
they are in Africa, Austria, Turkey…
 Linguistics tries to answer the basic questions

• What is language?
• How does language work?
• What do all languages have in common?
• What range of variation is found among languages?
• How does human language differ from animal communication?
• How does a child learn to speak?
• How does one write down and analyse an unwritten language?
• Why do languages change?
• To what extent are social class differences reflected in languge? So on..
• The scientific or logical examination of any
aspect and property of language.
• Lyons(1968): “Linguistics is the scientific study
of language by means of controlled and
emprically verifiable observations with
reference to some general theory of language
structure”.
- how does linguistics work?- what steps does it follow to be scientific? How does it reach
its findings and conclusions?

• 1. Introspection: intuition
• 2. Observation
• 3. Discretion
• 4. Hypothesizing
• 5. Experimentation
• 6. Modeling
• 7. Theorizing
 Important distinctions in linguistics

1 Speech and writing

2 Descriptive vs. prescriptive
3 Synchronic vs. diachronic
4 langue vs. parole
5 Competence and performance
6 Functionalism and formalism
 1.Oral Language Vs Written Language

• Language was first in spoken mode

• Speech is not the same as writing or vice
versa.
• Carefully organising ideas in mind while
writing.
• Ideas bore in mind instantly and
spontaneously in speech
• Hovewer oral language is richer than written
language..
 2 Descriptive vs. prescriptive
They represent two different types of linguistic study.
Descriptive---to describe the fact of linguistic usage as
they are, and not how they ought to be, with reference
to some real or imagined ideal state.

Prescriptive---a term used to characterize any approach

which attempt to lay down rules of correctness as to how
language should be used.
 3 Synchronic vs. diachronic
Synchronic (linguistics)---languages are studied at a
theoretic point in time: one describes a ‘state’ of
language, disregarding whatever changes might be taking
place.
Diachronic----languages are studied from point of view of
their historical development – for example, the changes
which have taken place between Old and Modern English
could be described in phonological, grammatical and
semantic terms.
 4 langue vs. parole

Langue--- the language system shared by a community of speakers

Parole--- the concrete act of speaking in actual situations by an individual
speaker.
• Langue (French, meaning "language") and parole (meaning "speech")
are linguistic terms used by Ferdinand de Saussure. Langue describes
the social, impersonal phenomenon of language as a system of signs,
while parole describes the individual, personal phenomenon of
language as a series of speech acts* made by a linguistic subject.[1]
(wikipedia.com)
• *The extension of speech acts is commonly taken to include such acts as promising, ordering,
greeting, warning, inviting someone and congratulating.
 5 Competence and performance

Competence---- a person’s knowledge of his language, the system of rules

which he has mastered so that he is able to produce and understand
an indefinite number of sentences, and to recognize grammatical
mistakes and ambiguities.
Performance---the actual realization of language knowledge, language
seen as a set of specific utterances produced by language speakers, as
encountered in a corpus.
D. H. Hymes: communicative competence
M. A. K. Halliday: Linguistic potential and actual linguistic behavior
 6 Functionalism and formalism

• Functionalism or functional linguistics refers to the study

of the form of language in reference to their social
function in communication. It considers the individual as
a social being and investigates the way in which she/he
acquires language and uses it in order to communicate
with others in her or his social environment.
• Representative: M. A. K. Halliday, Systemic functional
grammar
• Formalism or formal linguistics is the study of the
abstract forms of language and their internal relations. It
fixes on the forms of languages as evidence of the
universals without considering how these forms function
in communication and the ways of social life in different
communities.
• Representative: Noam Chomsky, Transformational-
generative grammar
 How does linguistics differ from traditional
grammar?
• Linguistics is descriptive not prescriptive: do
not prescribe rules of “correctness”.
– Language changes all the time: linguist do not
judge but observe this:
different to -----different from
• Linguists regard the spoken language as
primary not the written.
– Writing systems are derived from the vocal sounds
 How does linguistics differ from traditional
grammar?
• Linguistics does not force languages into a Latin-based
framework.
– in the past, text books assumed that Latin provides a universal
framework into which all languages fit. For example: ‘for John’ is
in dative case. But it is not true as English does not have a Latin-
type case system.
– Latin tense division is natural for all language: threefold
distinction: 1present, 2past, 3future= simple, progressive,
perfect, perfect progressive. However, in some languages
expressing the duration of an action is more important.
 Who is a linguist(linguistician)?
• Anyone who studies a language with a purpose to
describe and explain any topic related to language.
• Not always need to form a theory. But it will be sufficient
to produce a body of observations that are systematic, or
even to systematically state what is already known for
description or pedagogical purposes.
• Observers rather than participants
 Continues..
• Misconceptions about linguists:
– Capable of speaking many languages
– Confused with translators and interpreters
– But they can write a grammar of a language she
cannot speak.
– A linguist is interested in all languages of the
world.
 CORE FIELDS OF LINGUISTICS
-THE COMPONENTS OF MICROLINGUISTICS-

• MICROLINGUISTIC INVESTIGATION
–an analytic approach to the language-
– Phonetics: production and perception of sounds
– Phonology: use of sounds in language
– Morphology: word formation
– Syntax: sentense structure
– Semantics: meaning of words and how they combine into sentences.
• Phonology, syntax and semantics are ‘bread and butter’ of linguistics.
Together they constitute the grammar of a language.
• Phonology+syntax+semantics=grammar or sometimes
morphology+syntax=grammar
MACROLINGUISTIC INVESTIGATION
-a holistic approach to the language-

– Pragmatics: which link language with external world

– Sociolinguistics: the study of language and society
– Historical linguistics: the study of language change:2Ds: diachronic and synchronic change. Till
F.De Sausser, diachronic approach
– Psychological linguistics: the study of language and mind
– First language acquisition
– SLA
– Applied linguistics (Educational linguistics, speech pathology, application of linguistics to
language teaching)
– Anthropological linguistics: the study of language in cross-cultural setting.
– Compuatational Linguistics: the use of computers to simulate language and its workings=fuzzy
logic, artificial intelligence
– Stylistics: the study of language and literature= text linguistics
– Philosophical linguistics: the link between language and logical thought.
– Linguistics typology: the study of different language types. For ex: isolating(analytic) chinese:
one morpheme one word, no affixes, agglutinating, inflecting: Latin, Greek, English.
Deep/depth change according to the function in a sentence.
 APPROACHES TO LINGUISTIC STUDIES
• 1.Prescriptive Linguistics: how the recent use of language should be like. what
should Turkish or English be like? What forms should people use?
• She is fatter than ‘me’ = replacing with “I”=prescrition
• 2. Descriptive Linguistics: just describing how languages are currently used,
written or spoken. Without judging language use as correct/incorrect,
right/wrong, good/bad. What is Turkish/English? What are their forms? How do they function in
various situations?
• Use of written or spoken corpus.
• Depends on the objective observations of the linguists.
• Shortly,
– prescriptivists=how should a language be used?
– Descriptivists: what are languages?, How are they used by
speakers?
 3. Diachronic and synchronic Linguistics

• Synchronic study: exploring contemporary use

• Diachronic study: examining of a linguistic phenomena or
describing the language change over time (Historical
Linguistics)

Synchronic-
horizontal

Diachronic-
vertical
 4. Reference Grammar
• Includes almost all rules in a language.
• Used for getting specific details of a language
and learning how particular features function.
–sound patterns, morphological, syntactical
rules, etc.
• Randolph Quirk, et al(1985). A comprehensive
Grammar of the English.
• Muharrem Ergin . Türk Dilbilgisi
 5. Pedagogical Grammar/Linguistics

• Designed for language teaching purposes

• For sylabus designers and language teachers
• Based on usefulnes and ease of learning
• Exercises, explanations, descriptions.
• The contents and the priorities changes from one context
to the next as different as needs arise.
• It prescribes the teaching of the most learnable aspects
of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary.
 6. Theoretical Grammar/Linguistics

• Primary concern: explaning the quest ‘what is language?’

not just English but all languages.
• İdentifying and determining the basic constructs
common to all human languages.
• Developing models of language to present a compact and
efficient explanations.
• Linguistic universals* are sought in phonology, grammar
and semantics.
• Examples for universals: all languages have vowel as /a/.
Or every language has a subject I, you, he…
• Bu sunu aşağıdaki kaynaklardan yaralanılarak
hazırlanmıştır.
• Tercanlıoğlu, L. (2000). Linguistics for TEFL students.
Multilingual: İstanbul
• Aitchison, J. (1993) Linguistics. Hodder&Stoughton:
London
• Çelik, M. (Tarihsiz). Linguistics-Lecture Notes.
• www.wikipedia.org
–TEŞEKKÜRLER
• TURGAY HAN