Lecture I.

04.10.2012

Introduction to Linguistics with Elements of History of English

Language- a linguistic sound.

• Language- general reference to the system of communication.

• A language- one of the natural language spoken by people.

• The language- particular language being discussed at the moment.

What does it mean to know a language? (linguistic knowledge)

• Knowledge of sounds.

• Knowledge of sounds' sequence (words).

• Knowledge of how to put words in sequences to convey meaning.

• Knowledge of situational appropriateness of sentences.

• Knowledge of sentences and nonsentences.

• Nonsentences- give message, but not in appropriate way.

Meaning of linguistic sign is ARBITRARY → no direct relationship between the shape (form) of the sign and the meaning.

Linguistic knowledge is CREATIVE → knowledge of limited number of words and grammar rules can create unlimited number of sentences.

GRAMMAR of the language → consists of rules, sounds and sound patterns, sound sequences and rules to combine those elements into meaningful sentences or sentences with the desired meaning.

LANGUAGE → is a SYSTEM (relation between or among its elements) of ARBITRARY and CONVENTIONAL signs used in human communication, consists of ELEMENTS which are HIERARCHICALLY related to each other.

SYSTEM OF LANGUAGE:

• PHONOLOGY- subsystem of sounds

• SEMANTICS- subsystem of meanings

• MORPHOLOGY- subsystem of meaningful elements of words

• SYNTAX- subsystem of rules which govern the order of words in a sentence

• LEXICON- subsystem of words, vocabulary

1

LINGUISTIC

KNOWLEDGE

linguistic competence → what we know about language

prescriptive → tells us how the language should be used according to some rules

descriptive → tells us how the language is used by its speakers/ users

linguistic performance → how we use our language knowledge

GRAMMAR

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