Introduction to Linguistics

Lecture II

Functions of language, language

typology, language families.

October, 18th, 2008

Structure of the talk

•

Functions of language

•

Language typology

•

Language families

•

Branches of phonetics

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Vocal tract anatomy

•

Articulatory description of vowels

•

Acoustic phonetics

•

Physical properties of sound waves

Characteristics of language

•

Characteristics of language

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language is sound (it is linear)

•

language is systematic (restrictions)

•

language is a system of systems

(phonology, syntax)

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language is arbitrary

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language is creative (productive)

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languages are unique

•

languages are similar

Functions of language

1. Communicative function is used to describe the world or to

reason about it

2.

Expressive function reports feelings or attitudes of the writer (or

speaker), or of the subject, or evokes feelings in the reader (or

listener).

3.

Directive function: is used for the purpose of causing or preventing

something, usually found in commands and requests.

4.

Phatic function is used to establish and maintain a comfortable

relationship between speakers.

5.

Emotive function is used to change the emotional status of an

audience for or against someone.

6.

Performative function is used to change the social status as in

marriage ceremonies, the sentencing of a criminal, the naming of a

ship, etc.

7.

Recreational function – speaking for the pleasure of doing it.

8.

Metalingual function – refers to the fact that language is used to

talk about itself.

Classification of languages

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Language vs. dialect

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Accent vs. dialect

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Types of classification:

-

genetic classification – common ancestor

-

linguistic typology – structural
characteristics

-

areal classification – characteristics shared
by languages which are in geographical
contact

Genetic classification

•

The categorisation of languages
according to the ancestor languages
from which they developed

•

Genetically related languages have
descended from a common parent

•

Language isolates (Basque)

Language typology

•

Language typology is concerned with the investigation
of the structural similarities among languages
regardless of whether they are genetically related.

- Qualitative typology – deals with comparing languages

and within-language variance

-

Quantitative typology - deals with the distribution of
structural patterns in the world’s languages

- Theoretical typology – explains these distributional

patterns

•

Typological studies play an important role in the search
for linguistic universals

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Every human language has got the sound //, it’s

also the first sound produced by children

•

70% of the world’s languages don’t have consonant

clusters; CV is the unmarked syllable type

•

The basic word order in human languages is S V O

•

Speech sounds fall into two categories: vowels and

consonants

•

If the vowel system of a language is made up of 3

segments, they are /, , /

•

Children acquire speech sounds in more or less the

same order regardless of their nationality

Language universals

Language typology

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Morphology:

-

isolating languages – only single roots that refer to different categories

Ta chi le fan ‘He ate the meal’ (Mandarin Chinese)

-

polysynthetic languages – long strings of roots and affixes that often
express meanings associated with entire sentences in other languages
(Inuktitut)

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agglutinating – words can contain several morphems, e.g. køj, køj-ler,
køj-ler-in ‘village, villages, of the villages’ (Turkish)

-

fussional languages– unlike in agglutinating languages an affix can
mark several grammatical categories: tense, gender, number, e.g.
pozbierały (Polish, Russian)

-

mixed types (English)

•

Syntax: SVO (English), SOV (Turkish), VSO (Welsh). 95% of the world’s
languages use one of these patterns as their basic word order.

Language families

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Indo-European

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Uralic

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Altaic

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Sino-Tibetan

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Malayo-Polynesian

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Afro-Asiatic

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Caucasian

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Dravidian

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Austroasiatic

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Niger-Congo

Indo-European language family

Indo-European languages

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The single largest language family, Indo-European has

about 150 languages and about three billion speakers. 

Languages include Hindi and Urdu (400 million),

Bengali (200 million), Spanish (350 million),

Portuguese (200 million), French (100 million),

German (100 million), Russian (300 million), and

English (400 million) in Europe and the Americas. 

With English, one can reach approximately one billion

people in the world.

•

There are three language isolates represented on this

map, unrelated to any of the language families: 

Basque thrives between France and Spain. Burushaski

and Nahali are found in the Indian subcontinent.

Branches of the Indo-European language

family

•

Celtic

:

Welsh : Irish Gaelic : Scottish Gaelic : Breton

•

Germanic

:

English : Dutch : Flemish : Frisian : Afrikaans

German : Yiddish : Danish : Swedish : Norwegian: Faroes : Icelandic

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Romance (Latin)

:

Italian : Sardinian : French : Provencal :

Catalonian: Spanish : Ladino : Galician

Romanian : Moldavian

: Portuguese :

Romansh

•

Slavic

:

Russian : Belorussian : Ukrainian : Polish : Sorbian : Czech :

Slovak : Slovene : Croatian : Serbian : Kashubian : Bulgarian :

Macedonian : Bosnian

•

Baltic

:

Lithuanian : Latvian

•

Hellenic

:

Modern Greek

•

Illyric

:

Albanian

•

Thracian

:

Armenian

•

Iranian

:

Farsi : Kurdish : Pashto : Baluchi : Ossetian : Tadzhik

•

Indic

:

Hindi : Urdu : Nepali : Bengali : Assamese : Oriya : Kashmiri :

Punjabi : Sindhi : Marathi : Gujarati : Bhili : Lahnda : Maithili :

Magahi : Konkani : Sinhalese : Maldivian : Romany