Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF RIZAL SYSTEM

Province of Rizal

GRADUATE SCHOOL
Pililla Campus

Course Title: Introduction to Linguistics

Course Code: English 201
Contact Hours: 54 hrs
Pre-requisite/Co-Requisite: None

I. Vision: University of Rizal System is the leading University in Human

Resource Development, Knowledge and Technology Generation, and
Environmental Stewardship.

II. Mission: University of Rizal System is committed to nurture and produce

upright and competent graduates and empowered community
through relevant and sustainable higher professional and
technical instruction, research, extension and production services.
III. Goals: National : To train the nation’s manpower in the skills required for
national development for the improvement of quality human
life
Regional to train the nation’s manpower in the skills required for
regional development
University: To develop the full potential of an individual in academic
and technical education to an empowered
IV. Core Values: Responsiveness, Integrity, Service, Excellence, Social
Responsibility
V. Graduate Attributes G-lobally competitive, I-nnovative, A-daptive,
Nationalistic, T-rustworthy, S-ervice Oriented
VI Graduate School Goals
1. Develop leaders and high professionals in education, business, social
sciences and agriculture
2. Produce students committed to community development and services in
and of instruction, research, and extension in the service of God, the country and
the University and people
3. Develop the scientific, creative and critical capabilities of the individual
 VII Program Outcomes

An individual who completes a master’s degree is education is able to

demonstrate:
a. An in depth understanding of a complex and coherent body of knowledge and
skills in area of study in education, which may be applied in many types of school
b. A higher order of levels of skill in the analysis and critical assessment and
application and communication of knowledge in the field.
c. An ability to apply new knowledge and skills in the field to new situations in more
creative and flexible ways, and to solve complex problems in the field in the ways that
involve rigorous thinking and independent work
In particular, the individual who completes a master’s degree in education should be
able to demonstrate the following specific indicators of competency (Based on CMO 53
s.2007)
1 Understand, develop and sustain arguments about and critically evaluate the
current problems, principles, and concepts of the field of study. Most of which should be
able to be at the forefront of development in the discipline
2 Apply this current knowledge in original ways to specific problems or contexts by
undertaking research, a complex project or some other forms of advanced scholarships
3 Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the methods of inquiry in their
own research or advanced scholarship and how free these methods are used to create
and interpret knowledge in the field
4 Critically evaluate current research, advanced scholarship and how these
methods of inquiry are used to create and interpret knowledge in the field.
5 Creatively and systematically deal with complex issues within a field, make
judgments or decisions in the absences of complete data, and clearly communicate
one’s justification for such action to specialists and non-specialist audiences
6 Demonstrate initiatives, self-direction and originally in dealing with problems in
the field (e.g develop innovative teacher approaches and resources, establish new
teacher supervisory systems, etc particularly in the planning and execution of tasks in
the field
7 Continue to advance their knowledge and skills in the field using the established
sources of advanced information in the field
8 Undertake more advanced and specialized training for developing existing skills,
acquiring higher level and more specialized competencies in the formal higher
education context.
Course Description
This course Introduction to Linguistics, the systematic study of human language,
focuses on the relationship between language and education and how it is accessible to
everyone. Graduate students will survey how language can be scientifically studied,
starting with the introduction to the core subfields of linguistics that are organized by the
different levels of language: the study of sounds and their production (phonetics), the
mental representation and pattern of sounds (phonology), the structure of words
(morphology), the structure of sentences (syntax), the meaning of sentences and words
(semantics), and the use of language (pragmatics). In the second half of the course,
they will apply their knowledge of linguistic analysis to understand how language varies,
changes, and gets acquired. Graduate students will learn about the diversity of
language as well as the generalizations that must be universal to all human language.
Through this course, Graduate students are expected to:
1. challenge and question preconceived beliefs about what a language is, and how
it connects to other aspects of being human, both from a social and from a
personal perspective.
2. consider languages as structured systems of form and meaning, with attention
also to the aspects of language and language use. This section of Study of
Language
3. introduce students to the methodology of modern linguistics
4. enrich analytic reasoning via examination of linguistic data
5. gain basic introduction to some of the main results and ideas of modern
linguistics, find scientific reasoning behind them and apply that reasoning to
novel cases, both in language and in other spheres of life.

Week 1 Course Orientation

Week 2-3: Conceptual Foundations

Languages and Linguistics

What is a language?
Overview of language,
animal communication & human language,
the human brain & language development,

Weeks 4-5: Phonology (Sound Patterns) The Sounds of Languages:

Phonetics Phonemic transcription

IPA practice, acoustic phonetics and phonetic processes
Phonology I: How are sounds classified in the mind?
Phonetic Features, phonemes, allophones, syllable structure
Sound Systems of Language: Phonology

Weeks 6-7: Morphology (Word Structure) The Dictionary in your head

Words and Their Parts: Lexicon and Morphology

 morphological organization and analysis
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), transcription, articulatory features, and
natural classes: consonants, vowels
Morphophonology and Visual Phonology: Sign Language
Weeks 8-9: Syntax (Sentence Structure)

Syntax: How is language structured?

The Structure and Function of Phrases and Sentences: Syntax
Syntactic Theory

Week 10-11 Semantics : Study of Linguistic Meaning

Semantics & Pragmatics
The Study of Meaning: Semantics & Information Structure and Pragmatics
Semantics, Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis
How does sound translate to meaning? Speech acts, Narrative structure
Pidgins & Creoles

Week 12-13: Typology (Language Variation)

The regenerative nature of language structure

Transformations and language variation
Language Variation and Change: Language Reconstruction
Language Variation Across Situations of Use: Register and Styles
Language Variation Among Social Groups: Dialects
Language Contact - Interaction of social and acquisition
Language and its Social Correlates

Week 14-15: Child Language Acquisition

Linguistic Change, Language Development, and Language Acquisition

Acquiring First and Second Languages
How children acquire language
Learning a second language

Week 16-17: Psycholinguistics (Language and the Brain)

Speech errors
Aphasias and injuries
Linguistic Action Plan

1 Aguilar , Regine R.
 2 Ancheta , Cherry Mae C.

3 Asilo , Girlie H.

4 Baylon , Jhoan Caryl R.

5 Benedicto , Kenneth B.

6 Broncano , Lerica C.

7 Clete , Richelle G.

8 Dela Rama , Karen G.

9 Dungo , Allen Dennis C.

10 Gutierrez , Dianne D.

11 Mendoza , Kimberly T.

12 Valdez , Gellie Rose P.

13 Vargas , Michelle M.

Sefl-Introduction
Class Approach

Google Classroom

Google Meet

Group Chat

Reading Assignments

Participation

Grading System
Calendar

Weeks 2-3

Eng 201_Introduction to Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of language, and its focus is the systematic

investigation of the properties of particular languages as well as the characteristics of

language in general

The word ‘linguistics’ is derived from the Latin words ‘lingua’ meaning ‘tongue’ and

‘istics’ meaning ‘knowledge’.

Linguistics in simple words

Linguistics is the study of language - how it is put together and how it functions. Various

building blocks of different types and sizes are combined to make up a language.

Sounds are brought together and sometimes when this happens, they change their form

and do interesting things.

The study of linguistics comes from the natural curiosity of man about the particulars

of the language he speaks, evaluated through different perspectives.

Father of Linguistics

Ferdinand de Saussure (b. 1857–d. 1913) is acknowledged as the founder of modern

linguistics and semiology, and as having laid the groundwork for structuralism and post-

structuralism

Importance of Studying Linguistics

What do you learn in linguistics?

Linguistics provides insight into one of the most intriguing aspects of human knowledge

and behavior. learning about many aspects of human language, including sounds

(phonetics, phonology), words (morphology), sentences (syntax), and meaning

(semantics)

What are the five parts of linguistics?

Five basic components (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics)

• Phonetics - the study of speech sounds in their physical aspects.

• Phonology - the study of speech sounds in their cognitive aspects.

• Morphology - the study of the formation of words.

• Syntax - the study of the formation of sentences.

• Semantics - the study of meaning.

• Pragmatics - the study of language use

It is also intertwined with various other disciplines and contains fields like

sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics etc.

The application of linguistics extends from anthropology to speech therapy in modern

medicine. Extensive researches and studies are conducted on the linguistic

perspectives of every language, aimed at tracing the characteristics of the language as

well as in employing the scope of linguistics into understanding the specific

characteristics of literature, including prose and poems in different languages.

Types of Linguistics

Theoretical linguistics: studies the nature of language as it is and analyses the

properties it possesses. It is aimed at learning behaviour and features of language.

Descriptive linguistics: a study of particular languages and language families, from

both historical and synchronic points of view.

Historical Linguistics: a study of the pattern of change of languages over time.

Sociolinguistics: the branch of linguistics that studies the relation between society and

language.

Dialectology: study of the division of one language into many.

Applied linguistics: a study of practical applications of language studies, such as

translation and speech therapy.

Fields of linguistics

Computational Linguistics: studies natural language from a computational aspect

Neurolinguistics: studies the biological basis of language and its development.

Mathematical linguistics: studies the mathematical aspects of language

Psycholinguistics: a study of biological and psychological factors that enable humans to

acquire, use and understand language.

Ontogeny linguistics: studies child language acquisition

The Four Areas of the Study of Language

1. Phonology

Phonology, the system of sounds that a particular language uses, includes not only the

language’s basic unit of sounds, phonemes, but rules about how we put phonemes

together to form words and rules about the proper intonation patterns for phrases and

sentences. Phonemes are considered basic units of sounds because they are the

smallest sound units that affect meaning. Changing a phoneme changes the meaning of

a word.

2. Semantics

Semantics is the study of word meanings and word combinations. Comprehension of

written as well as spoken language requires not only a knowledge of specific words and

their definitions but an understanding of how we use words and how we combine them

in phrases, clauses, and sentences. Thus, as children continue to mature intellectually

throughout their school years, their semantic knowledge continues to grow. Even adults

continue to expand their vocabularies to encompass new knowledge.

3. Grammar or Syntax

Grammar describes the structure of a language which consists of two major parts:

morphology and syntax Morphology is the study of the language’s smallest units of
meaning, called morphemes – prefixes, suffixes, and root words – and of how these

units are properly combined rules for altering root words to produce such things as

plurals, past tenses, and inflections are parts of a language’s morphological system.

Syntax specifies how words are combined into sentences.

4. Pragmatics

Pragmatics, the fourth component of language, consists of rules for the use of

appropriate language in particular contexts. Thus pragmatics is concerned not only with

speaking and writing but with social interaction, and if directly addresses the issue of

effective communication.

OVERVIEW of Language

The total number of spoken and signed languages in the world is between 6000 and

7000.

• The United States does not have an official language and has never had one.

• Human language is an enormously complex system that is easily mastered by children

in a remarkably short time.

• Grammar is a system of elements and patterns that organizes linguistic expression.

• Five hallmarks of human language systems are arbitrariness, discreteness, duality,

displacement, and productivity.

• Rather than being a two-sided coin, a language system is better viewed as a triangle

whose faces are meaning and expression and whose base is context.

• Linguistic communication can operate in three modes: speaking, writing, and signing.

• Everyone speaks a dialect, and a language encompasses all its dialects.

• Chimpanzees do not have a suitable vocal apparatus for speaking, but in limited ways

they are capable of putting together several signs to form a meaningful string.

• The degree to which the language of chimps and that of very young children are alike

remains under investigation, but the consensus suggests they are fundamentally

different at least in displacement and productivity.

• Computers can be used to test models of language as it is hypothesized to exist in the

brain.

Human Brain and Language Development

About 3 months before birth, while still in their mother’s womb, babies start to

hear. At that time, their ears are developed enough and start working. Usually,

it will mostly be the mother’s voice that reaches the baby’s ears inside the

womb, but other loud sounds or voices as well. Consequently, every day of

the last few months before birth, the baby can hear people speaking – this is

the first step in language learning! This first step, in other words, is to learn the

melody of the language. Later, during the next few months and years after

birth, other features of language are added, like the meaning of words or the

formation of full sentences.

The development of the baby and the baby’s organs provides important

preconditions for speech and language. This can be the development of the

hearing system, which allows the baby to hear the sound of language from the
womb. But the simultaneous development of the brain is just as important,

because it is our brain that provides us with the ability to learn and to develop

new skills. And it is from our brain that speech and language originate. Certain

parts of the brain are responsible for understanding words and sentences.

These brain areas are mainly located in two regions, in the left side of the

brain, and are connected by nerves. Together, these brain regions and their

connections form a network that provides the hardware for language in the

brain. Without this brain network, we would not be able to talk or to

understand what’s being said

Development of the hearing system and the development of the brain

language network provide crucial preconditions for infants to be able to

develop and improve their language abilities. Although infants already

possess an important groundwork for language acquisition, more advanced

language learning becomes possible as the brain continues to develop during

childhood. Different stages of the language network, demonstrate that the

language network develops over time. The nerve fiber connections in the

brain change throughout our lives. During infancy and childhood, they become

more and more powerful in their ability to transmit information, and it is only

when we reach our teenage years that many of these nerve fibers stop

developing. When we get old, they slowly start to decline. For each age for

which the networks are illustrated (for example for newborn babies and for
children, we only get a snapshot of a continuously changing matter. And it is

not only maturation and aging that influence these networks. For instance, a

therapy that is supposed to cure a disease might also alter the brain.

Everything we experience and learn can potentially impact the brain and the

brain networks. In other words, with each lesson we learn at school, we

change our brains!

References
[1] ↑ Brauer, J., Anwander, A., Perani, D., and Friederici, A. D. 2013. Dorsal and ventral
pathways in language development. Brain Lang. 127:289–95. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2013.03.001

Modularity of the brain

The highest level of the brain is the cerebral cortex (found only in mammals, and human

has the greatest proportion of cortex). • Language representation and processing

resides in the cortex.

The brain is divided into distinct anatomical faculties that are directly responsible for

specific cognitive functions. The cerebral hemispheres: (♣ Right hemisphere: ♣ Left

hemisphere) • Corpus callosum joins the hemispheres ♣ Network of two million fibers

that allows the two hemispheres to communicate

Left hemisphere supervises right side of body (Contralateral brain function.) is superior

for language, rhythmic perception, temporal-order judgments, and mathematical

thinking skills

Right hemisphere supervises left side of body does better in pattern-matching tasks,

recognizing faces, and spatial orientation.

Localization/Lateralization

• Localization: different human cognitive abilities and behaviors are localized in specific

parts of the brain

• Lateralization: any cognitive function that is localized primarily in one side of the brain

– Language is lateralized to the left hemisphere.

Plasticity

• To some extent, the brain may reassign functions to different areas of the brain. This is

due to the plasticity of the brain. ♣ Left hemisphere is predisposed to learn language. ♣

During language development, the right hemisphere can take over many language

functions if necessary.

• Child hemispherectomy patients are able to reacquire a linguistic system, albeit

delayed. • In adults, the right hemisphere cannot take over linguistic functions anymore.

• Plasticity of the brain decreases with age

Language autonomy

Language autonomy Evidence from aphasia, SLI, and the asymmetry of abilities in

linguistic savants strongly supports the view that language faculty is autonomous,

genetically determined, and consists of multiple brain modules... It is not derived from

more general intelligence.

TRY:

That’s all for today…thanks

Linguistics
Linguistic Autobiography.

1.1 Reflect on them and jot down your answers

(1) When did you first become aware that people judge certain linguistic expressions to

be naughty or nice, and what do you think the basis for those judgments must have

been? (2) When did you first become aware that some people judge certain linguistic

expressions to be grammatically right or wrong, and what do you think the basis for their

judgments must have been?

(3) For how long have you thought of speech as being more fund mental than writing?

(4) Was there ever a time when you judged writing to be the basis for speech, and, if so,

what gave you that impression

(5) Which aspects of your current views about language place writing in a superior

position to speaking?

1-2. Over the course of a single day, write down every instance you hear (on radio or

tele vision programs, in class lectures, or in talk among your acquaintances) of various

kinds of representational expression (representing length, loudness, speed, repetition,

emphasis, ordering, etc.).

(You may find it easier to gather examples from sitcoms orprograms for children.)

Exercises

1-3. Below is a list of characteristics that describe linguistic communication through

speaking, writing, and signing. Decide which modes of linguistic communication the

characteristic applies to, and provide an example to illustrate your claim. Pay particular
attention to the different types of spoken, written, and signed communication because

certain of these characteristics might apply to some but not other types of

communication.

Also note the impact of modern communication technology on these characteristics.

a. A linguistic message is ephemeral—that is, it cannot be made to endure.

b. A linguistic message can be revised once it has been produced.

c. A linguistic message has the potential of reaching large audiences.

d. A linguistic message can be transmitted over great distances.

e. A linguistic message can rely on the context in which it is produced; the producer can

refer to the time and place in which the message is produced without fearing

misunderstanding.

f. A linguistic message relies on the senses of hearing, touching, and seeing.

g. The ability to produce linguistic messages is innate; it does not have to be learned

consciously.

h. A linguistic message must be planned carefully before it is produced.

i. The production of a linguistic message can be accomplished simultaneously with

another activity.

1-4. Consider the following quotation from a mid-twentieth-century dictionary (A Pro

nouncing Dictionary of American English by John S. Kenyon and Thomas A. Knott,

Springfield, MA: Merriam, 1953, p. vi).

 As in all trustworthy dictionaries, the editors have endeavored to base the

pronunciations on actual cultivated usage. No other standard has, in point of fact, ever

finally settled pronunciation. This book can be taken as a safe guide to pronunciation

only insofar as we have succeeded in doing this.

According to this standard, no words are, as often said, “almost universally

mispronounced,” for that is self-contradictory. For an editor the temptation is often

strong to prefer what he thinks “ought to be” the right pronunciation; but it has to be

resisted.

a. Make an argument supporting the view that editors should resist the temptation to

record their own personal pronunciation preferences in a dictionary. Explain whether

your argument also applies to an editor’s expressing his or her personal preferences

for other aspects of language, such as spelling or usage.

b. Make an argument claiming that the phrase “almost universally mispronounced” is

self-contradictory.

c. What do you understand by the phrase “cultivated usage”? How would you determine

whose usage is “cultivated”? How do you imagine a dictionary editor would determine

whose usage is “cultivated”? Whose usage do you think a dictionary should describe?

Explain your view.

1-5. In papers and exams comparing natural conversation with written varieties of

English,
students sometimes claim that conversation is filled with errors such as those given

below. Offer an alternative explanation to the claim that they are errors.

I was, like, “Hi,” and she goes, “Hi.”

I said, “Hi Pat,” I went, she goes, “Hi Chris.”

1-6. Consider the following, said by John Simon (Paradigms Lost, New York: Penguin,

1980, pp. 58–59) concerning Edwin Newman’s book, A Civil Tongue:

With demonic acumen, Newman adduces 196 pages’ worth of grammatical

errors. Clichés, jargon, malapropisms, mixed metaphors, monstrous neolo gisms,

unholy ambiguities, and parasitic redundancies, interspersed with his

own mocking comments... and exhortations to do better. The examples are

mostly true horrors, very funny and even more distressing....Worse than a

nation of shop-keepers, we have become a nation of wordmongers or word butchers,

and abuse of language whether from ignorance or obfuscation,

leads, as Newman persuasively argues, to a deterioration of moral values and

standards of living.

a. Simon seems to equate “grammatical errors” with clichés, jargon, malapropisms, and

so on. Which of these can legitimately be called errors of grammar in the linguistic

sense? What would be a more appropriate way to characterize the others?

b. Cite two ungrammatical structures that you have heard from nonnative speakers of

English. Have you heard similar errors of grammar from native speakers? What do

you judge to be the reason for your findings about native-speaker errors and

nonnative-speaker errors?
c. The point that Newman and Simon make about “abuse of language” leading to a

deterioration of moral values and standards of living is a common claim of language

guardians. What kinds of abuse does Simon seem to have in mind when he makes

that claim? Are he and Newman correct in claiming that such abuses lead to a

deterioration of moral values? Could it be the other way around? What stake could

anyone have in advancing the Newman/Simon claim? (Who are the winners and who

are the losers if that view prevails?)

d. Do you think that genuine grammatical errors (such as those made by nonnative

speakers) could lead to a deterioration of moral values? Explain your position.

1-7. Writing and gesture are visual modes of linguistic communication. What is the rela

tionship between writing and Braille (the writing system used for blind readers)? Is

Braille a mode of linguistic communication? How many modes of linguistic communi

cation are there?

1-8. When there is a choice between linguistic modes, as in telephoning a distant friend

or

sending a letter, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each mode? List some

of the circumstances in which each mode of linguistic communication would be pre

ferred over the others.

1-9. List the two strongest reasons you have heard for maintaining bilingual education

pro grams in the schools in your community and the two strongest arguments you have

heard for having monolingual programs in English. What’s your assessment of these

arguments?

Other Resources • 2 9
Especially for Educators and Future Teachers

1-10. For students whose home language matches the language of instruction in

school, do you regard the primary focus of teaching language arts to be reading and

writing or

speaking and listening? Explain your position.

1-11. For the same group of students, do you think the actual emphasis of the

curriculum is on reading and writing or on speaking and listening? Explain the basis for

your view.

1-12. For students whose home language differs from that of school instruction (for

example, for students who speak Spanish at home but attend an English-language

school),would your answers to the previous two questions be different? If so, how?

1-13. For students whose home language is a different dialect from that of school

instruction, would your answers to questions 1–10 and 1–11 be different (focus on your

local situation or the situation in a district you are likely to work in). If so, how?

1-14. In your early years in school, did your teachers speak the same language you

spoke? The same dialect? If they didn’t, did they convey different attitudes toward their

speech and yours? Was there any discussion of other language varieties, and can you

reconstruct what attitudes your teachers fostered toward the language varieties of other

students?

Can you remember anything that a particular teacher said about other languages or

other dialects? Did you feel comfortable speaking up in class? Do you think everyone in

your class felt the same as you?

Can you recall an occasion in which a teacher discussed the importance of language in

every child’s life and about how central an aspect of one’s personal identity one’s

speech is?

At any point in your school and college years, did anyone convey to you an impression

of

what they thought of your speech? If so, who were they, and what were their attitudes

The hierarchy of language can be represented as:

• Phonemes

• Syllables

• Morphemes

• Words

• Phrases

• Clauses

• Sentences/Utterances

• Texts/discourses
Phonetics: Phonetics refers to the study of the sounds of speech. It deals with

the way sounds are produced, transmitted and perceived.

The three main branches of phonetics are

1.Articulatory phonetics: studies the articulation of speech sounds

2. Acoustic phonetics: studies the physical properties of speech sounds as

transmitted between mouth and ear

3.Auditory phonetics: studies the perpetual response to speech sounds as

mediated by ear, auditory nerve and brain.

• Phonology: a study of how sounds/sound patterns/signs are arranged in

each language, as organized units of speech. It also looks into the specifications

in the distribution of sounds in each language.

September 15: Phonetics II

IPA practice, acoustic phonetics and phonetic processes

Assignment 2: Phonetics Homework due Friday September 18, at 8 AM

September 17: Phonology I: How are sounds classified in the mind?

Phonetic Features, phonemes, allophones, syllable structure

Reading: Finegan Chapter 4: Sound Systems of Language: Phonology

September 22: Phonology II

Phonological patterns & structures

**WEDNESDAY September 23- William Labov Lecture at UVA lecturing on

PHONOLOGY! I couldn’t have planned it better!(Lectures also on Sept 22 & 24; we’ll

make a class decision on attendance)**

September 24: Phonology III: Morphophonology and Visual Phonology: Sign Language

A morpheme is a minimal linguistic unit that has a meaning or grammatical function

associated with it.

• Words can contain a single morpheme (camel, swim) or several (bookshops,

premeditation).

• In the mental lexicon, each morpheme contains information about sounds, related

words,

phrasal co-occurrence patterns, and meaning.

• Free morphemes are those that can occur as independent words: CAR, HOUSE,

FOR.

• Bound morphemes cannot occur as independent words but must be attached to

another

morpheme: CAR -S, LOOK -ED, ESTABLISH -MENT.

• Bound morphemes can mark nouns for information like number (e.g., ‘PLURAL’) and

case

(e.g., ‘POSSESSIVE’) or verbs for information like tense (e.g., ‘PAST’) and person (e.g.,

‘THIRD

PERSON’).

• Bound morphemes can derive different words from existing morphemes; for example,

UN-

(untrue), DIS- (displease), and -MENT (commitment).

• Bound morphemes can be affixes (prefixes or suffixes), infixes, or circumfixes.

• In words, morphemes have significant linear and hierarchical structures.

• The array of morphological processes for increasing a language’s word stock may

include
compounding, reduplication, affixation, and shortening.

• Languages borrow words from other languages and sooner or later submit the

borrowed

words to their own pronunciation patterns and morphological processes.

Using Computers to Study Words

context (in actual use) a word form typically

belongs to only one category. Consequently, tag ging can be helped by identifying the

category of

the words immediately surrounding a form whose

category is ambiguous.

Take deal as an example: it could be a noun or

a verb. Suppose the corpus contained the phrase a

good deal of trouble, and suppose that the auto matic matching to the tagged dictionary

had already assigned the adjective tag to good. Given Am//Choice between an adjective

preceding a noun or a

verb, it is a safer bet to assign the tag noun

because English adjectives typically precede nouns

and not verbs; thus, deal in a good deal of trouble

could reasonably be judged a noun. If you begin by

tagging the words that belong uniquely to a single

category, you can then use that information to help

clarify ambiguous cases.

From a tagged corpus, more useful information can be extracted, including how often a

particular

form occurs as a noun or a verb (if it could be

either). In fact, to know anything about the noun

list, you would need to group all its possible forms

together (list, lists, list’s, lists’); likewise for the

verb you’d need to know its forms (list, lists, listed,

listing). Information about which genres (press

reportage or scientific writing or financial news, for

example) have frequent adjectives or nouns or

verbs or prepositions or pronouns as compared

with other genres can be helpful in designing

teaching materials and in creating automatic speech

recognition systems. ■

• Among the types of morphological systems are inflectional, isolating, and agglutinating

systems.

• Isolating systems (e.g., Vietnamese) tend to have one morpheme per word.

• Agglutinating systems (e.g., Turkish) tend to have distinct affixes.

• Corpus study is useful in showing the distribution of categories of words and

morphemes as well as particular words and morphemes in different genres of text,

information that can be helpful in designing automatic speech recognition systems.

• Collocation is the term used to refer to co-occurrences of a word with other words.
• Words in a corpus can be automatically tagged for lexical category, although several

rounds of tagging may be needed to tag all words.

• Sounds must be distinguished from letters and other visual representations of

language.

• Phonetic alphabets represent sounds in a way that is consistent and comparable

across

different languages; each sound is assigned a distinct representation, independently of

thecustomary writing system used to represent a particular language.

• This chapter uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

• All languages contain consonants and vowels.

• Consonants can be produced by obstructing the flow of air as it passes from the lungs

through the vocal tract and out through the mouth or nose.

• For fricative consonants, air forced through a narrow opening forms a continuous

noise, as

in the initial and final sounds of says [sεz] and fish [fʃ].

• For stop consonants, the air passage is completely blocked and then released, as in

the

initial and final sounds of the words tap and cat.

• Affricates are produced by combining a stop and a fricative, as in the final sound of the

word peach or the initial and final sounds of judge.

• As a group, fricatives, stops, and affricates are called obstruents.

• An approximant is produced when one articulator approaches another but the vocal

tract is

not sufficiently narrowed to create the audible friction of a consonant. Examples are the

initial sounds of west [wεst], yes [jεs], rest [rεst], lest [lεst].

• “Liquid” is a cover term for [r] and [l] sounds.

• Consonant sounds can be described as a combination of articulatory features: voicing,

place

of articulation, and manner of articulation. For example: [t] is a voiceless alveolar stop;

[v]

is a voiced labio-dental fricative.

• Vowels are produced by positioning the tongue and mouth to form differently shaped

passages.

• The airstream for oral vowels passes through the mouth; for nasal vowels, the

airstream

passes through the nose and mouth.

• Vowels are described by relative height and frontness. For example: is a low front

vowel; [u] is a high back vowel.

• Secondary features of vowel production—such as tenseness, nasality, lengthening, or

rounding—are sometimes specified, as in “long vowel” or “nasal vowel.”

• In many languages vowels (and nasals) can be pronounced on different pitches, or

tones.

• Languages differ from one another in the number of speech sounds they have.

• Although linguists find it useful to conceptualize the sounds of speech as separate and
discrete from one another, the sounds of real speech are actually connected and

overlapping.

September 3: Morphology: The Dictionary in your head

What does it mean to know a word?

Parts of speech, parts of meaning, & vocabulary; morphological systems

Reading: Finegan Chapter 2: Words and Their Parts: Lexicon and Morphology

September 4 Last day to Add/Drop (and change to audit or pass/fail)

September 8: Morphology II: Bordering on the unpossible

morphological organization and analysis

September 10: Phonetics I: How do you spell that again?

**Bring computers to class to install fonts and other sound software**

 International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), transcription, articulatory features, and natural

classes: consonants, vowels

Installation of software:

http://www.sil.org/computing/catalog/index.asp

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=DoulosSILfont

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/

Reading: Finegan Chapter 3: The Sounds of Languages: Phonetics

Look over and try sounds on:

http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguistics/VowelsandConsonants/

Reading:

O’Grady Chapter 10: Natural Sign Languages &

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/Sites/aslweb/browser.htm

Assignment 3: Phonology assignment due Friday September 25 at 10 AM

September 29: Syntax: How is language structured?

Constituent structure, structural rules and relations, phrase structure rules, &

grammatical relations
Reading: Finegan Chapter 5: Syntax

October 1: Syntax II: The regenerative nature of language structure

Transformations and language variation

Assignment 4: Syntax assignment due Friday October 2 at 10 AM

October 6: Syntax III and Semantics: Sounds to Meaning

Reading: Finegan Chapters 6 &8: The Study of Meaning: Semantics & Information

Structure and Pragmatics

October 8: Semantics, Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis; Midterm Review

How does sound translate to meaning?

Speech acts, Narrative structure

Reading: Finegan Chapter 9: Speech Acts and Conversation

Assignment 5: Semantics/Pragmatics assignment due Friday October 9 at 10 AM

October 13: FALL BREAK!

October 15: –IN CLASS closed book midterm

**Semantics/Pragmatics will NOT be on the midterm but will be tested on the final**

October 20: Language Variation and Change: Historical and Sociolinguistics

Language classification & language groupings

Reading: Finegan Chapter 13: Linguistic Change, Language Development, and

Language Acquisition

October 23: Language Variation and Change: Language Reconstruction; Return and

go over Midterm

Reading: Finegan Chapter 14: Historical Development in English

Wherefore art thou English?

Comparative method and types of linguistic change

Assignment 6: Historical Linguistics assignment due Friday October 23 at 10 AM

October 27: Language Variation and Change: Language and its Social Correlates

What do YOU call bubbly drinks?

Dialectology, Regional variation

Reading:

Finegan Chapter 10 Language Variation Across Situations of Use: Register and Styles

Finegan Chapter 11: Language Variation Among Social Groups: Dialects

October 29: PROF CHARITY HUDLEY OUT @ U-Texas Arlington- MOVIE: Do You

Speak American?

Reading: http://www.pbs.org/speak/

October 30 Last Day to Withdraw

Assignment 7: Language Variation Assignment due Friday Oct 30 at 10 AM

November 3: Language Contact

Interaction of social and acquisition

Reading: Winford, Donald. 2001. Introduction to Contact Languages. Blackwell.

November 5: Pidgins and Creoles: The Language You Cry in

Reading: http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0053

Hypotheses of Creole formation; Gullah language

Assignment 8: Language Contact Research Assignment due Friday November 6

at 10 AM

November 10: Language and Our Social Worlds

Analyze results of our surveys & present findings from the language contact assignment

November 12: Acquiring First and Second Languages

How children acquire language

Learning a second language

Reading: Finegan Chapter 15: Acquiring First and Second Languages

November 17: Reading and Writing

Types of writing systems

Relationships between speech, reading, and writing

Reading: Finegan Chapter 12: Reading & Writing

Rayner, K., Foorman, B.R., Perfetti, C.A., Pesetsky, D. & Seidenberg, M.S. (2001). How

psychological science informs the teaching of reading. Psychological science in the

public interest, 2(2), 31-74. A supplement to Psychological Science.

http://www.pitt.edu/~perfetti/PDF/How%20psych%20sci%20informs%20teaching%20of

%20reading-%20Rayner%20et%20al..pdf

November 19: Language and the Brain

Speech errors

Aphasias and injuries

Reading: O’Grady 13: Brain and Language (on the class wiki)

Assignment 9: Psycholinguistics Assignment Due Friday November 20 at 10 AM

November 24: TUESDAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING—NO CLASS

November 28: THANKSGIVING—NO CLASS

Assignment 10: Linguistic Action Plan Assignment Due Tuesday Dec 1 at 10 AM

December 1: Applied Linguistics: What do we do with all of this? Bring action plans with

you? & Fill out class evaluations

Reading: familiarize yourself with the following

websites:

http://lsadc.org/info/student-resources.cfm
http://linguistlist.org/

http://www.aaanet.org/

www.cal.org

http://www.americandialect.org/

http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/index.asp

http://www.aaal.org/

http://www.asha.org/default.htm

So many sites:

http://www.omniglot.com/links/language.htm

Weeks 4-5: Phonology (Sound Patterns) The Sounds of Languages:

Phonetics Phonemic transcription

IPA practice, acoustic phonetics and phonetic processes
Phonology I: How are sounds classified in the mind?
Phonetic Features, phonemes, allophones, syllable structure
Sound Systems of Language: Phonology