A course in descriptive

grammar, term II, 2014

NKJO in Rybnik

The

description of the course.

During the classes we are

going to deal with:

Morphology;



Syntax;



Semantics;



Pragmatics;



Language and culture within the

development of the linguistic theories;

Prerequisites



To get a credit your active attendence is

necessary, passing the midterm test

on the 4th of April; you are allowed to be

absent once during the classes, the next

absence requires a medical certificate;



In the case of students with individual

studying program, ¼ of attendence is

necessary (active attendence), passing the

midterm test;

EXAM



A written test including multiple

choice questions, questions with open

answers

or True/False;



It is going to be the material from the

first lecture until the last meeting;



The exam is going to be on

the 16th

of May;



At 3 p.m., on the 25th of April there

are going to be extra classes for

students

who may need to retake the midterm

test;

Grades



93%-100%- 5



85%-92%- 4.5



77%-84%- 4



66%-76%- 3.5



55%-65%- 3

E-mail address



Written exercises will be sent on

Thursday before classes;



The theoretical part concerning our

lectures will be sent to you after

the lecture.

No photos are permitted during

the classes or exams!

The syllabus includes the study

of morphology, syntax

and semantics;



Morphology- the study of the internal structures of

word forms;



Syntax-the study of the rules that govern the ways

words combine to form phrases, clauses and

sentences;



Semantics- the study of meaning

of the words;



Phonetics and phonology were examined one year

ago during practical phonetics classes,

so we are not going to concentrate on this field this

year.



Pragmatics- the study of the intended speaker’s

meaning in context.

The nature of language

According to Widdowson (2010)

linguistics

is the discipline which

studies human language.

It is also important to think what

the human language is and what its

study involves.

The origins of language



The divine source: according to the

Bible: „In the beginning was the Word”.

God created Adam and Adam called

every living creature, as mentioned by

Lyons (1998). However, in Hindu or in

every religion there seems to be some

divine source who provides humans with

a language, cf. Yule (1996).

Hypothesis



There used to be such a hypothesis that if infants

were left without an access to human speech,

they started speaking the original God-given

language.



As an example the experiment of the Egyptian

pharoah Psammetichus who experimented

with two new born babies who were to use

Phrygian after two years in the company of goats

and a mute shepherd because they said ‘bekos’

(bread), however, they must have heard what the

goats were saying, cf. Yule (1996).

The natural sound source



Primitive words could have been

imitations of natural sounds, e.g.

when an object flew and made

cuckoo sound, that natural sound

was adopted to refer to that object,

cf. Yule (1996).

Can you give any examples of such

words?

Onomatopoeic words: Splash, bang, rattle,

buzz, hiss.

This type of view was termed „bow-wow”

theory.

Some sound came from natural cries of

emotions.

Others from a person involved in a natural

physical effort, termed as ‘yo-heave-ho’

theory, cf. Yule (1996).

Oral-gesture source

This is a connection between a

physical

and oral gesture, in which mouth

or tongue were involved, especially

examined by Sir Richard Paget. Today

it seems a bit outlandish, cf. (1996).

Glossogenetics



This is a biological basis of the formation

and development of human language,

cf. Lyons (1996). Some of the physical

aspects of humans are not shared

with any other creatures.



It starts with the observation that there

was a transition to an upright posture

and the revised role of the front limbs.



The results of this change can be seen

in physical differences between the

skull of the gorilla and that of

Neanderthal man. In the evolutionary

development there are certain features

that appear to be relevant for speech.

However, such features would not lead

to speech production, cf. (1996).

Physiological adaptation



Human teeth are upright, not slanting outwards,

the apes, even in height. Such characteristic are

not necessary for eating, but for speaking, such

sounds as: th, f, v;



Lips have much more intricate muscle interlacing

in comparison to primates;



Tongue can be used to shape a variety of sounds



Larynx which differs in a position;



Pharynx which can act as a resonator for any

sounds produced via larynx; cf. Yule (1996).



The human brain is lateralized: it has

special functions in two hemispheres;



Humans use a language to interact

with each other- an interactional

function;



Humans communicate knowledge,

skills and information- transactional

function; cf. Yule (1996).

Species- specific



Language is species specific, unique to

humans.

Human beings are genetically coded to

learn a language. Children can use a

language that is around them and

induicively develop grammar rules which

comes from something innate that is LAD

(language aquisition device), cf. Chomsky

(1996).

Universal Grammar

This is a closed set of common

principles of grammatical

organisation, realized in different

languages, depending on which one

child is exposed to in its

environment, cf. Widdowson (19.

Competence and

performance

Competence

is the knowledge that

native speakers have of their

language

as a system of abstract formal

relations.

Performance

is their actual

behaviour.

Competence is essential and primary.

Performance, however, is of

secondary phenomena.

For Chomsky competence is a genetic

endowment of each individual.

Language and competence.

Language is conceived of as knowledge

that is determined by membership of a

social community and the focus will be on

what makes each language different.

Competence is, in turn, the knowledge

which is determined by membership of

human species and the interest will be on

what makes individual competences

alike?

Chomsky’s attitude to

language

According to Widdowson (2006), what Chomsky

represents as central in a language is

an abstract set of organizing principles which

both define an area of human cognition

and determine the parametres of Universal

Grammar. Subsequently linguistics is not

really about language, but grammar,

particularly,

the grammar which deals with the structural

relations, that is syntax.

1. Describe the divine and the natural source of language.

..........................................................

2. What is a basic idea of 'yo-heave-ho' theory?

.............................................

3. It is a theory in which oral gestures and connected to physical movement.......

4. Develop the acronyms and provide the explanation:

LAD

5. Explain the following notions:

1) competence

2) Performance

6. What is glossogenetics?

7. What are the physical adaptation features that differ us from the primates?

Descriptive grammar, meeting I, the origins of

language- exercises.

Properties of language



These are features which distinguish

the human language from other

forms of communication, making it

unique,

cf. Lyons (1996).

Displacement

Displacement: allows language users to

communicate about events or things

that are absent from the current

environment (what you did last week,

your friend who is not with you, what

you will do on vacation, etc.). This

allows humans to make up stories and

to think about the future, Yule (1996).

Arbitrariness



The words and symbols used to denote

objects are not inherently related to the

objects they symbolize, e.g. animals use

the vocal forms to establish the territory.

There is no natural connection between

the linguistic form and its meaning,

e.g. a word ‘dog’ has no iconic connection

with the four-legged barking object.

Productivity

Creativity or open-endness, to use

the source to produce unlimited

number of sentences or expressions

Discreteness



The sounds within the language are

considered their own, discrete

sounds

with their own distinct meanings,

e.g. the words pack and back,

the mispronunciation may lead to

misunderstanding as the sounds are

distinct, cf. Yule (1996).

Duality



At one level of language there are

discrete sounds, and at another, there

are discrete meanings. You can combine

the letters g, o and d in two different

ways:

god

and

dog

, and those two words mean

different things/sound differently even

though they are comprised of the same

three sounds.

Cultural transmission

Language is acquired through culture.

Language is passed from one

generation to the next.

What are the six unique

properties of a language?

The development of writing



Today a lot of languages are used in the

spoken way;



Attempts to represent information found in

cave drawings, which were made at least

20000 years ago.



Writing can be traced to inscriptions dated

around 3000 years ago.



A lot of evidence can be found on stone or

tablets in ruined cities; Yule (1996).

Pictograms and ideograms.



Cave drawings may serve to record some

events, but they are not any type

of the linguistic message. This is the part of

the pictorial art., cf. Lons (1996).



When some of the pictures came to represent

a particular image in a consistent way, we

can begin to describe the product as a form of

picture-writing or pictogram, cf. Yule (1996).

Ideograms



In time a picture might take on more

symbolic form, such as and came to

be used as ‘heat’ or ‘daytime’ or ‘sun’.

This type of symbol is considered as

‘idea writing’, termed as ‘ideograms’.

The more picture like is the writing it is

pictogram. The more abstract is the

writing it is ideogram, Yule (1996).

Logograms



When symbols are used to represent

words in a language, they are

examples of word-writing or

logograms.



Logograms date back Sumerian times

when wedge-shaped implements

were pressed into soft clay tablets;

Yule (1996).



A modern writing system, that is based on

logograms to a certain extent, can be found

in China. Chinese written symbols or

characters are used as representations of

the meaning of the words. They are not the

sounds of the spoken language. The

advantage of it is that two Chinese speakers

of different dialects can communicate,

reading the text if they don’t understand

themselves in communication, Yule (1996).

Rebus writing.



The symbol for one entity is taken

over as the symbol for the sound of

the spoken word used to refer to that

entity, e.g. ‘eye’ (I)

Syllabic writing.



A set of symbols which represent

the pronunciation of the syllables;



In the 19th century the American Indian

invented a syllabic writing system,

which was then used by American

Cherokee Indians to produce written

messages from the spoken ones, Yule

(1996).

Alphabetic writing



A set of written symbols which each

represents a single type of sound. The

origin of the writing system is in Semitic

languages such as Arabic and Hebew.

Later it was developwed by early

Greeks. From the Greek it passed to

Europe. Its modified version was used in

Russia as the Cyrillic, cf. Yule (1996).

Questions



Where will you find the writing system with

the longest history of continuous use?



What is the name given to the writing

system used for Russians?



Which modern language uses a partially

syllabic writing system?



What are the disadvantages of the

logographic writing system?



What is the process known as Rebus writing?

Work in groups on the subject

of animal language

On the basis of the information, try to

summerize what kind of language

was developed, what was the

teaching method, how did they aim

to reach

the goal?

Group A



Washoe

(c. September 1965 – October 30, 2007) was a

female

common chimpanzee

who was the first non-human

to learn to communicate using

American Sign Language

, as

part of a

research experiment

animal language acquisition

[1]



Washoe learned approximately 350 words of ASL.

[2]

She

also taught her adopted son

Loulis

some American Sign

Language.

[3]

[4]

[5]

Using similar teaching methods, several

other chimpanzees were later taught 150 or more signs,

which they were able to combine to form complex

messages.

Washoe was born in West Africa in 1965. She was captured

for use by the US Air Force for research for the space

program.

[6]

Washoe was named for

Washoe County, Nevada

, where she was raised and taught

to use ASL.

[7]

Group 2, Sarah and Lana



The researchers stated Lana showed that she could discriminate

between lexigrams, sequence words grammatically and make novel

utterances, demonstrating language learning.



The first LANA project (1971) officially had two Principal

Investigators, Rumbaugh and

Ernst

von

Glasersfeld

(cf. NIH grants

HD-06016 and RR-00165). Ernst von Glasersfeld developed the

language that Lana learned to use: he coined the term "

lexigram

created the first 120 of them and designed the grammar that

regulated their combination. This artificial language was called

Yerkish

, in honor of

Robert M.

Yerkes

, the founder of the laboratory

within which the LANA project was conceived and conducted.



The early project also had several graduate student researchers. The

prime researcher, and the prime worker with Lana was Dr. Timothy V.

Gill. Included in the project were graduate students Gwen Bell

Dooley, Beverly Wilkenson, and Michael D. Haberman, among others.

Gwen Bell Dooley demonstrated Lana's cognitive capability to

distinguish between two numerical sets of objects which she then

labelled with either "more" or "less", whichever was requested.

Group 3, Nim Chimpsky



Nim Chimpsky

(November 19, 1973 – March 10, 2000) was a

chimpanzee

who was the subject of an extended study of

(codenamed 6.001) at

, led by Herbert S. Terrace.

Chimpsky was given his name as a

pun

Noam

Chomsky

, the foremost

theorist of human language structure and

generative

grammar

at the time,

who held that humans were "wired" to develop language.

[1]

Though usually

called Nim Chimpsky, his full name was Neam Chimpsky, or Nim for short.

[2]



The validity of the study is disputed, as Terrace argued that all

ape-language

studies, including Project Nim, were based on misinformation from the chimps.

R. Allen

[3]

and Beatrix Gardner made a similar earlier study, called

Project

Washoe

, in which another chimpanzee was raised like a human child. Washoe

was given affection

and participated in everyday social activity with her adoptive family. Her ability

to communicate was far more developed than Nim's. Washoe lived 24 hours a

day with her human family from birth. Nim at 2 weeks old was raised by a

family in a home environment by human surrogate parents,

[2]

as part of a

study "conceived in the early 1970s as a challenge to Chomsky's thesis that

only humans have language",

[4]

but whose "data, along with data from other

studies, yielded no evidence of an ape's ability to use a grammar."

[2]

Both

chimps could use fragments of

American

Sign

Language

to make themselves

understood.

Gr. 4, Kanzi



Kanzi

(born October 28, 1980), also known by the

lexigram

(from the

character

太

), is a male bonobo who has been featured in several studies on

great ape language. According to Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a primatologist

who has studied the bonobo throughout her life, Kanzi has exhibited

advanced linguistic aptitude.



Although Kanzi learned to communicate using a keyboard with lexigrams,

Kanzi also picked up some American Sign Language from watching videos of

Koko the gorilla, who communicates using sign language to her keeper

Penny Patterson; Savage-Rumbaugh did not realize Kanzi could sign until he

signed "You, Gorilla, Question" to anthropologist Dawn Prince-Hughes, who

had previously worked closely with gorillas.[12]



Kanzi cannot speak vocally in a manner that is comprehensible to most

humans as Bonobo chimps have different vocal tracts from humans, which

makes them incapable of reproducing most of the vocal sounds humans

make. At the same time, it was noticed that every time Kanzi communicated

with humans with specially designed graphic symbols, he also produced

some vocalization. It was later found out that Kanzi was actually producing

the articulate equivalent of the symbols he was indicating, or, in other

words, he was "saying" (articulating) these words, although in a very high

pitch and with distortions.

[13]

Animal communication



This might have been called "animal

language," but purposely it was not.

In fact, the difference between the

nature of language and communication

in man and animals is the basis of an

ongoing theoretical discussion among

researchers in behavioral and

biological sciences

, Yule (1996).

Morphology

Let’s move to morpholgy.

References



Lyons, J. (1977).

Introduction to

theoretical linguistics.

Cambridge: CUP.



Widdowson, H.G. (ed.). (2010).

Linguistics.

Oxford: University Press.



Yule, G. (1996).

Introduction to

linguistics

. Cambridge: University Press;



http://en.wikipedia.org; access: 09.02.14;

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A course in descriptive grammar, presentation 1

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