INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

COURSE DESCRIPTION Three Faces of Language System Meaning (higher level)

This course develops the ability of the Expression encompasses words, phrases, Sounds are combined with one another to
prospective English teachers to use the and sentences, including intonation and form meaningful units such as words.
phonological, lexical, syntactic, and stress. Meaning refers to the senses and
semantic structures of English with ease referents of these elements of expression. Example C-a-t = Cat
and explain the forms, meaning, and use Context refers to the social situation in CREATIVITY
of their elements. which expression is uttered and includes
whatever has been expressed earlier in Language can be used to send messages
FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS that situation and on shared knowledge we have never said or heard before
Over the years, theorists, rhetoricians, between speaker and hearer.
Creativity is unique to hurman language.
philosophers, and grammarians have
analyzed the uses to which persons Language is creative in that it makes
situate language as vital in their everyday possible the construction and
lives supportive of its linguistic and social interpretation of new signals by its users.
structures Language geniuses and experts Three Faces of Language System
Example. This is the cat that killed the rat
have also generated a burst of insight What links expression and meaning is that are the malt that lay in the house that
hooked on the representation of language grammar. What links grammar and Jack built.
in the brain and the interfaces between interpretation is context. Without
linguistic use and social structures. attention to both grammar and context, DISPLACEMENT
Lesson 1 DEFINE LINGUISTICS language utterances cannot be
Human languages enable their users to
understood (Finegan, 2012)
symbolize objects, events and concepts
What is Linguistics?
Lesson 2 DESIGN FEATURES OF which are not present (in time and space)
David Crystal's Dictionary of Linguistics LANGUAGE at the communication moment of
and Phonetics begins the entry for
ARBITRARINESS Example: I'll be in Manila tomorrow
linguistics with the words ‘the scientific
morning! Superheroes, magic etc.
study of language’. He noted also that it This feature was first proposed by
is linguistic science, and refers to it as an Saussure. CULTURAL TRANSMISSION
academic discipline.
The forms of linguistic signs bear no Animal call systems are genetically
Language Defined natural (logical, intrinsic) relationship to transmitted while language is culturally
their meaning. transmitted It is passed on from one
The generally accepted definition
generation to the next by teaching and
✓ Language is a system of arbitrary vocal "Different sounds are used to refer to the learning, rather than by instinct
symbols used for human communication same object in different languages".
Example: A Filipino child raised in America
(Wardhaugh. 1972) DUALITY
Lesson 3 THE BRANCHES OF
✓ Language is a rule-based system of Language possess the property of having LINGUISTICS
signs two levels of structures.
LINGUISTICS
✓ Language rules are conventions Sounds (lower or basic level)
 INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
Linguistics can be defined as the scientific Semantics is a branch of linguistics which sentences in spoken and written language
or systematic study of language. It is a is concerned with the study of meaning in form larger meaningful units.
science in the sense that it scientifically all its formal aspects. Words have several
studies the rules, systems and principles types of meaning. Applied linguistics is primarily
of human languages. concerned with the application of linguistic
Pragmatics can be defined as the study theories, methods and findings to the
Lesson 3 THE BRANCHES OF of language in use. It deals with how elucidation of language problems which
LINGUISTICS speakers use language in ways which have arisen in other areas of experience.
cannot be predicted from linguistic
Microlinguistics knowledge alone, and how hearers arrive Lesson 4 SOUND AND SOUND
at the intended meaning of speakers. SYSTEMS OF LANGUAGE
- includes phonetics, phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics and Macrolinguistics This lesson deals with spoken language,
pragmatics. and sets up the basic framework for
Sociolinguistics studies the relations describing speech sounds. The bulk of this
Macrolinguistics between language and society how social lesson deals with the ways speech sounds
- includes sociolinguistics factors influence the structure and use of are produced. It also explores the ways
Psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, language speech sounds pattern in the sound-
stylistics, discourse analysis, systems of language, which leads us to
Psycholinguistics is the study of the notion of distinctive sounds or
applied linguistics, etc. language and mind: the mental structures phonemes.
Microlinguistics and processes which are involved in the
acquisition, comprehension and What do you think?
Phonetics is the scientific study of production of language.
speech sounds. It studies how speech Roommate Ron wants to know whether
sounds are articulated, transmitted and Neurolinguistics is the study of language English has 26 sounds to match the 26
received. processing and language representation in letters of the alphabet. You know English
the brain it typically studies the nas more than 26 sounds and point out
Phonology is the study of how speech disturbances of language comprehension there's no single letter to represent the
sounds function in a language, it studies and production caused by the damage of initial sound in thus so English uses to
the ways speech sounds are organized. It certain areas of the brain letters. Ron then asks for examples where
can be seen as the functional phonetics of to letters represent a single sound. What
a particular language. Stylistics is the study of how literary examples can you provide?
effects can be related to linguistic
Morphology is the study of the formation features. It usually refers to the study of SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE: PHONETICS
of words. It is a branch of linguistics which written language, including literary text,
breaks words into morphernes It can be but it also investigates spoken language Sounds & Spellings: Not the Same
considered as the grammar of words as sometimes. Thing
syntax is the grammar of sentences. Everyone is accustomed to seeing
Discourse analysis or text linguistics is
Syntax deals with the combination of the study of the relationship between language written down as a series of
words into phrases, clauses and language and the contexts in which words set off by spaces, with each word
sentences. It is the grammar of sentence language is used. It deals with how consisting of a sequence of separate
construction. letters that are also separated by spaces.
 INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
You readily recognize that words exist as Bough = 'bow'
separate entities made up of a relatively
small number of discrete sounds. Same Spelling: Different Pronunciations

Sounds & Spellings: Not the Same Thing Through the precise sounds in these words Lesson 4 SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE:
may vary among English speakers, still the PHONETICS
Example: lesson of the distant relationship between
sounds and letters is clear The <ough> Phonetics: The Study of Sounds
✓the words spot and post are readily spelling represents at least 5
judged by English speakers to have four Phonetics is the study of the sounds made
pronunciations in the given 5 examples in in the production of human languages. It
sounds, while upset has five and sot has English as indicated in the figure below:
three has two principal parts:
off >Articulatory phonetics focuses on the
✓ Cough has three sounds but is spelled
with five letters, freight uses seven letters uff human vocal apparatus and describes
to represent only four sounds. sounds in terms of their articulation in the
ough vocal tract, it has been central to the
Sounds & Spellings: Not the Same Thing discipline of linguistics.
OW
Because of the close association between >Acoustic phonetics uses the tools of
writing and speaking in the minds of the thru physics to study the nature of sound
literate people, it is important to really O waves produced in human language
stress in this lesson that we are so
interested in the sounds of spoken Same Pronunciation: Different Spellings Lesson 4 SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE:
language, not in the letters of the PHONETICS
Other sets of English words are
alphabet that represent those sounds in The Vocal Tract
pronounced alike but spelled differently,
writing.
as schoolchildren learn when they are In scientific discussion, the requisite
Same Spelling: Different Pronunciations taught sets of homophones (or characteristics of symbols for representing
homonyms) like there/their bear/bare, sounds are clarity and consistency. The
Observe the variety of pronunciations led/lead, and to/two/too.
represented by the same letter or series of best tool is a phonetic alphabet, and the
letters in different words. Consider the sexy most widely used one is the International
following words, all of which are Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA provides
glossy a unique written representation of every
represented in part by the letters cough:
sound in every language
'see'
The Vocal Tract
sea
Examples:
The organs involved in producing the
ceiling
Cough = 'koff' sounds of speech are referred to
juicy collectively as the vocal tract. These are
Tough = 'tuff' the lungs, the larynx, the oral cavity and
Through = 'thru the nasal cavity.

though = 'tho The Vocal Tract

 INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
The Lungs. Most speech sounds are A Consonant is a speech sound produced
produced on a stream of air forced out by a partial or complete closure of part of
from the lungs through the trachea or the vocal tract, thus obstructing the
wind-pipe, and then through the upper airflow and creating audible friction.
vocal tract, where the airstream is Speech sounds can be characterized in
modified in various ways to produce terms of their articulatory properties-by
different sounds, where in the mouth and how they are
produced, and consonants can be
The Vocal Tract described in terms of three properties
The Oral Cavity. After travelling through voicing, place of articulation and manner
the larynx, the airstream passes through of articulation.
the oral cavity (mouth) and/or nasal cavity Types of Phones
(nose), and then to the outside air in the
oral cavity the airstream can be modified Vowel sounds are articulated without
in many different ways to produce complete closure in the oral cavity and
different sounds. without sufficient narrowing to create the
friction characteristic of consonants.
Vowels are characterized by the position
The Vocal Tract. of the tongue and the relative rounding of
the lips. Partly on the basis of auditory
The Nasal Cavity. At the book of the roof perception, we refer to vowels as high or
of the mouth is the velum or soft plate, low and front or back. We also consider
which can be raised or lowered. When whether the lips are rounded (as for boot)
lowered, the airstream can enter the nasal or non-rounded (as for bit).
cavity, when fully raised, the airstream is
channeled into the oral cavity.

Types of Phones

Speech sounds are divided into two main

types, consonants and vowels. Consonants
involve a constriction in the vocal tract,
obstructing the flow of air, the airstream is
impelled or interrupted somewhere along
the way from the lungs to the outside
Vowels are produced with no significant
obstruction to the passage of air through
the oral cavity, and the air exits
unimpeded through the oral cavity and
perhaps the nasal cavity as well.

Types of Phones