LIN 1310BIntroduction to Linguistics

Prof: Nikolay Slavkov

TA: Quinghua Tang

Acknowledgements: Many of the slides for this course are based on Eta Schneiderman’s slides.

Today

• Introduction

• Go over syllabus and course outline

• What is linguistics? Major subfields of linguistics.

• Announcement: please start reading Chapter One of the text.

Course Websitewww.courseweb.uottawa.ca/LIN1310BH2007/Index.htm

www.courseweb.uottawa.ca/LIN1310BH2007/Index.htm

Major Sub-fields of Linguistics• Phonetics: study of speech sounds

– Articularory phonetics (how sounds are produced/articulated)

– Acoustic phonetics (the physical properties of sounds)– Auditory phonetics (how sounds are perceived)

• Phonology: study of sound systems– How the particular sounds of a language interact with

each other and form an integrated system and how such systems differ from one language to another

Phonetics

• Vocal Tract

Sou

rce:

Dep

artm

ent

of L

ingu

isti

cs, U

niv

ersi

ty o

f P

enn

sylv

ania

Phonetics

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

Examples from Peter Ladefoged’s websitehttp://phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/chapter1.html

http://phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/chapter1.html

Phonology

• How sounds pattern together and interact with each other to form a particular sound system. What processes apply in the particular sound system.

Example: Hungarian Vowel Harmony

• Hungarian dative suffix alternates between the two forms -nak and -nek depending on the vowels in the word to which it attaches

ablak ‘window’ + nak = ablanak ‘window-dat’

kert ‘garden’ + nek = kertnek ‘garden-dat’

Example: Hungarian Vowel Harmony

cim ‘address’ + nak or nek???

=> i is a front vowel and so is e

=> therefore cim takes the -nek suffix:

cimnek ‘address-dat’

bíró ‘judge’ + nak or nek???

=> ó is a back vowel and so is a

=> therefore bíró takes the –nak suffix:

bírónak ‘judge-dat’

Major Sub-fields of Linguistics• Morphology: study of structure of words

– How words are made up of smaller meaningful units (morphemes), how new words are coined, how words combine into compounds, etc.

Example: pleaseprefix suffix prefix+suffixdisplease pleasant unpleasant

pleasure displeasurepleasing

Major Sub-fields of Linguistics

• Syntax: structure of sentences– The way in which sentences are constructed and how

sentences are related to each otherExamples of grammatical and ungrammatical (*) sentences:1. Blue kites fly angrily at the bottom of the sea in the sky.2. Blue piranhas swim angrily at the bottom of the sea.3. *Kites blue of fly angrily the bottom at sea. 4. *John like apple that I gives him.

Major Sub-fields of Linguistics

• Semantics: study of meaning– How words and sentences are related to the (real or

imaginary) objects they refer to and the situations they describe

• Pragmatics:– How the meaning conveyed by a word or sentence

depends on aspects of the context in which it is used (such as time, place, social relationship between speaker and hearer, and speaker’s assumptions about the hearer’s beliefs)

Major Sub-fields of Linguistics

• Psycholinguistics:– The study of the interrelationship of language

and cognitive structures– The acquisition of language

• Neurolinguistics:– The study of the brain and how it functions in

the production, perception and acquisition of language

Major Sub-fields of Linguistics:

• Applied Linguistics:– The application of the methods and results of linguistics

to such areas as language teaching; national language policies; lexicography; translation; and language in politics, advertising, classrooms, courts, and the like; language pathology (speech therapy and audiology)

• Anthropological Linguistics: – The study of the interrelationship between language and

culture (particularly in the context of non-Western cultures and societies)

Major Sub-fields of Linguistics

Historical Linguistics:– The study of how languages change through

time– The relationships of languages to each other

Sociolinguistics:– The study of the interrelationships of language

and social structure, linguistic variation, and attitudes toward language

Reminder:

• Please start reading Chapter One of the text!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many of the slides for this course are based on Eta Schneiderman’s slides.