Overview
This lecture provides an introduction to the core areas of linguistics, including language properties, phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, with practical methods for analyzing and describing language structure and meaning.
Properties of Language
- Linguistics studies the structure and function of language, not just learning to speak languages.
- Key properties of language: creativity (produce and understand novel sentences), generality (rules for sounds, words, sentences), parity (all grammars are equal), universality (languages share features like vowels, nouns, verbs), and mutability (languages change over time).
- Linguists use a descriptive approach to analyze what speakers actually say, avoiding prescriptive judgments.
Phonetics and Phonology
- Phonetics studies speech sounds: their articulation (how sounds are made), acoustics (physical properties), and perception (auditory interpretation).
- International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) provides symbols for each sound, independent of spelling.
- Consonants are described by voicing, place, and manner of articulation; vowels by tongue position (height, frontness/backness), lip rounding, and tenseness.
- Phonology examines how sounds pattern in languages, including constraints (phonotactics), syllable structure, and sound alternations (allophones).
- Minimal pairs determine whether two sounds are distinct (contrastive); allophones are predictable variations of the same underlying sound.
Morphology
- Morphology studies word structure and formation from morphemes (smallest units of meaning).
- Words can be simple (one morpheme) or complex (multiple morphemes).
- Morphemes are free (stand-alone) or bound (must attach to another morpheme as affixes).
- Affixes include prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and circumfixes.
- Inflectional morphemes add grammatical info (tense, number); derivational morphemes create new words or change categories.
- Word formation includes compounding, blending, clipping, acronyms, backformation, and conversion.
- Allomorphs are variant pronunciations of a morpheme, determined by phonological context.
Syntax
- Syntax analyzes how words combine into phrases and sentences.
- Sentences have subjects (who/what the sentence is about) and predicates (what is said about it).
- Words grouped into lexical categories: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition.
- Phrases (constituents) are built around heads (e.g., noun phrases, verb phrases).
- Constituency is tested by substitution, movement, coordination, clefting, and Q&A.
- Tree diagrams represent hierarchical sentence structure; modifiers (adjuncts) are optional, complements are required.
- Auxiliaries and modals combine in a fixed order in verb phrases.
- Complex sentences use complementizer phrases (e.g., "that", "whether") for subordinate clauses.
Semantics
- Semantics studies literal meanings and relationships between words and sentences.
- Thematic roles classify participants in actions (e.g., agent, theme, goal, experiencer).
- Lexical relations include synonymy, antonymy, homonymy, hyponymy, meronymy.
- Ambiguity arises from multiple meanings (lexical), structures (structural), or quantifier scope.
- Sentence relationships: paraphrase (same meaning), contradiction (mutually exclusive), entailment (one sentence guarantees another), tautology, anomaly (semantic oddity).
Pragmatics
- Pragmatics examines non-literal meaning and language use in context.
- Implicature refers to implied meanings not explicitly stated.
- Grice's maxims: quantity (be informative), quality (be truthful), manner (be clear), relation (be relevant).
- Flouting maxims creates humor, politeness, or indirectness in conversation.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Phoneme — smallest contrastive unit of sound in a language.
- Allophone — non-contrastive variant of a phoneme.
- Morpheme — smallest unit of meaning in a language.
- Affix — bound morpheme attached to a root (prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix).
- Constituent — a word/group of words forming a unit within a sentence.
- Complementizer (C) — word introducing a clause (e.g., "that", "if").
- Adjunct — optional modifier, not required by the head.
- Thematic role — semantic relationship between a verb and its arguments (agent, theme, etc.).
- Implicature — meaning implied, not explicitly stated.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Practice transcribing words into IPA.
- Analyze sentences for constituents using tests.
- Diagram phrase structure trees for sample sentences.
- Identify morphemes and classify word-formation processes in new words.
- Review properties of language and key terms for exams.