general linguistics Flashcards
(31 cards)
bottom up processing
looking at individual meanings or grammatical characteristics of the most basic units of the text, and moving from these to trying to understand the whole text
Aim of E-language linguistics
Elucidate properties of existing collected language samples
Aim of I-language
Elucidate systematic nature of language as a property of the human mind
Performance Chomsky definition
‘The actual use of language in concrete situations’
Competence Chomsky definition
‘The speaker-hearer’s knowledge of language’
Ideal speaker-listener quote
‘Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with the ideal speaker-listener, in a completely homogenous speech-community, who knows its language perfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory limitations, distractions, shifts of attention and interest, and errors (random or characteristic) in applying his knowledge in actual performance’
Bloomfield definition of E language
The totality of utterances that can be made in a speech community
E grammar definition
A system that generates all and only:
- the totality of utterances of a speech community (Bloomfield)
- the set of pairs of sentences and meanings (Lewis)
What’s The I in I language for?
Individual, internal, intensional
I language definition
A system of the mind/brain that generates the structures associated with language
Sound system
Series of rules which dictate what sounds letters can make
(For example in the English sound system is the rule that the sound ‘velar n’ can only occur at the end of words but not at the beginning)
Lecturer-given definition of word
One or more sounds that in combination have a specific meaning assigned by language
Cultural evidence for language being considered essential for personhood
Bantu languages in Africa distinguish between kintu (human nonperson) and muntu(person)
Kintu->muntu when acquire language
Difference between a language and the concept Language
Language = human ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication
language = specific example of such a system (eg Spanish)
Hockett’s 7 features of language
Duality Productivity Arbitrariness Interchangeability Specialisation Displacement Cultural transmission
Noam Chomsky language and humanity quote
‘When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the ‘human essence’, the distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to man.’
Only communication system apart from human language that has feature of displacement
Bees waggle dance (talks about things far away whereas otherwise animal communication systems can only deal with the here and now)
saussure’s concept of the nature of language
The nature of languages is a structured system of linguistic signs or units that organise the mass of confused thoughts that fill our minds
what did aristotle think about language
Language is a symbolic system that represents the world of our experience as it is contained within the mind
simple answer what does it mean to know a language
have a command of a systematic connection between sound and meaning
Saussure’s big contribution
‘Course in General Linguistics’ - published 1915 (way before Chomsky) posthumously from collation of student notes. The Course manifests a shift towards the establishment of systems
2 parts of a linguistic sign or unit
- > signified //concept/meaning// the ‘idea’ of a chair, the actual chairs existent in the world
- > signifier //sound-image// the word ‘chair’, ‘chaise’, ‘silla’, ‘sedia’
why would saussure say language isn’t just an arbitrary naming system
There is a strong relationship between the signified and signifier; you cannot divide thought from sound, nor sound from thought, “… an idea becomes fixed in a sound and a sound becomes the sign of an idea”
saussure 2 ways to accrue linguistic value
conceptual and material
