Introduction to General Linguistics

Deny A. KwaryDeny A. Kwary

www.kwary.netwww.kwary.net

The Textbooks

Contemporary LinguisticsBy. O’Grady, Dobrovolsky, and Katamba

Introduction to LanguageBy. Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams

The Course Materials

Open: www.kwary.net Click: Linguistics Click: General Linguistics Download the lecture materials

The Evaluation

1. 40% Midterm Test

2. 10% Assignment

3. 50% Final Test

What is Language?

Language is the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way.

The Creativity Aspect of Language

Human language must be creative: allowing novelty and innovation is response to new thoughts, experiences, and situations

Linguistic Knowledge

Knowledge of Words: Knowing the sound units that are related to specific meanings.

Knowledge of Sentences: Knowing how to form sentences.

Knowledge of the Sound System: Knowing what sounds are in that language and what sounds are not.

Linguistic Performance:

How you use this knowledge in actual speech production and comprehension.

Linguistic Competence:

What you know about a language.

Prescriptive Grammar 1762; Bishop Robert Lowth; A Short Introduction

to English Grammar with Critical Notes. I don’t have none You was wrong Mathilda is fatter than me

Many of those rules were based on Latin grammar. Latin was assumed as the respected scientific language in the 15th – 17th Centuries.

I don’t have anyYou were wrong

Mathilda is fatter than I

Descriptive Grammar 1985; Randolph Quirk, Sidney

Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and

Jan Svartvik; A Comprehensive

Grammar of the English Language. Based on a corpus of actual

spoken and written English.

The Components of a Grammar

Phonetics: the articulation and perception of speech sounds.

Phonology: the patterning of speech sounds Morphology: word formation Syntax: sentence formation Semantics: the interpretation of words and

sentences

That’s all for today

See you next week…