Lecture 1 + Harley Chapter 1 Flashcards
What are semantics??
SEMANTICS are the study of Meaning
What is syntax??
Syntax:
This is the rules of word ORDER of a language
What is morphology??
Morphology:
the study of how words are bulit from morphemes
Psycholinguistics is …??
the study of the psychological processes involved in language
Psycholinguists study - understanding/ producing/ remembering language, + thus are concerned with listening, speaking, reading, writing, memory for language and acquisition of language.
Term introducted in 1950s, interdisciplinary, part of cognitive science
What are pragmatics??
Aspects of meaning that do not affect the literal truth of what is being said; involved things such as choice from words with same meaning, implications in conversation.
What are phonetics?
the acoustic detail of speech sounds and how they are articulated
What is phonology??
The study of sounds and how they relate to languages; phonology describes the sound categories each language uses to divide up the space of possible sounds
Morphemes are … (Hint: bare)
the smallest unit of meaning (e.g., “dogs” contains two, dog + plural s).
They are the smallest meaningful element into which words can be analysed
What is Inflectional morphology? (Clue: the more things change the more they …)
Inflectional Morphology
this is concerned with changes to a word that does not alter its meaning or syntactic category (e.g., pluralisation, such as ‘house’ becoming ‘houses’, mouse - mice, + verb tense changes, kiss - kissed, run - ran.
what is derivational morphology concerned with…? (Key: alterations)
Derivational morphology
Is concerned with changes that alter its underlying meaning or syntactic category, e.g., ‘develop’ = redevelop; development; developmental.
can you define something as simple as a word?
A word is the smallest unit of grammar which is able to stand alone
How does Harley define language??
“It’s a system of symbols and rules that enable us to communicate”
- symbols - stand for other things
- Rules - specify how words are ordered to form sentences
Modern psycholinguistics is …
closely related to other areas of cognitive psychology & uses mainly the same experimental methods
Why is accurately defining language unclear and problematic??
- There are other SYSTEMS of communication which people think are similar to human communication (signing; ‘waggle dance’).
- Because of these complications many think providing a formal definition is a waste of time
According to Crystal (1997) what are the 8 functions of Language?
- Communication 2. Expressing emotion
- Social interaction 4. Make use of sounds
- Trying to control environment
- Recording facts 7. To think
- expression identity
Linguistics is … ??
The scientific study of language (Lyons, 1970)
Language is said to be a form of joint … where people … to achieve a common aim.
action; collaborate
What else might language have played a role in?
It may have played a role in other non-linguistic cognitive processes
- Extreme view of this, language comes to shape our perception & cognition, is termed the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
- A hypothesis holding that the structure of a language affects the perceptions of reality of its speakers and thus influences their thought patterns and worldviews.
Linguists main concern is with the … of language??
Structure (rules);
*linguistics attempt to develop models to explain language use
Linguistics is not about what??
Correcting grammar (i.e. it is not prescriptive)
What is descriptive grammar??
what is prescriptive grammar??
Descriptive grammar: the systematic study and description of a language. Descriptive grammar refers to the structure of a language as it is actually used by speakers and writers.
Prescriptive grammar: a set of rules and examples dealing with the syntax and word structures of a language, usually intended as an aid to the learning of that language. Prescriptive grammar refers to the structure of a language as certain people think it should be used.(tends to impose rules of language e.g. never ending with preposition)
What is meant by the term lexicon?
Lexicon: our mental dictionary. This incredible reserve contains all we know about a word, including its sounds, meanings, written appearance, and the syntactic roles the word can adopt.
**
A lexicon is the knowledge that a native speaker has about a language. This includes information about
* the form and meanings of words and phrases
*lexical categorization
*the appropriate usage of words and phrases
*relationships between words and phrases,
*categories of words and phrases.
Phonological and grammatical rules are not considered part of the lexicon.
a morpheme is the smallest … element into which words can be …
meaningful; analysed (‘2 words, im-possible!’ is actually two morphemes.
Definition: a morpheme is the smallest distinctive unit of language having a definite grammatical function
How many morphemes are in the words(s)
(1) Unhappiness
(2) Tina’s sister is crying?
(1) : Three: un (morphine for negation); happi (happy) + ness (a state)
(2) : Six: Tina + ‘s (possessive) + Brother + is + cry + ing
