The study of language

1.

THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE
DR WERONIKA KAŹMIERCZAK
[email protected]

2.

What is language? What is linguistics?
Language
communication system
system of signs
form-meaning
Linguistics
rules and principles of human
language
language
behaviour
exchange of information
thinking

3.

Fields of linguistics

4.

Other disciplines of linguistics
Antropological linguistics
Neurolinguitics
Sociolinguistics
Historical linguistics

5.

Towards defining language

6.

Design features of language
Arbitrariness
Semanticity
Discreteness
Duality of pattering
Displacement
Reflexivity
Productivity
Cultural transmission

7.

Origins of language
The divine source
The natural sound source
The physical adaptation source
The genetic source

8.

Cerebral hemispheres

9.

Speech organs

10.

Introduction to
linguistics
Part 2
ETYMOLOGY
VS
MORPHOLOGY

11.

Types of writing systems
Pictograms
picture-writing
Ideograms
idea and writing

12.

Logograms
Cuneiform

13.

Syllabic writing
Alphabetic writing

14.

Rebus writing
Written English

15.

Etymology
The etymology of etymology
Gr. etumos ՙtrue’, logia ՙstudy of, speaking of’, logos ՙspeech, statement,
discourse’
Eng. –logy ՙdiscourse, treatise, theory, science’, e.g. philology ՙlove of
learning’
etymon
ransack (< ON rannasaka)
candid (< Lat. candidus)
cappuchino (< It. cappucino, Ger. Kapuziner)

16.

Word-formation processes
1) Acronymy
2) Affixation: prefixation, infixation, suffixation, circumfixation
3) Back-formation
4) Blending
5) Borrowing
6) Coinage
7) Clipping
8) Compounding
9) Conversion

17.

Acronymy vs affixation
Affixation
Acronymy
EFTA
NATO
1) prefixation
2) infixation
QUANTAS
Hallebloodylujah, Singabloodypore
3) suffixation
SCUBA
disagree, unkind
painful, amazement

18.

Borrowing vs coinage
Borrowing
Coinage
alcohol
aspirine
croissant
black hole
piano
Google
yoghurt
Internet

19.

Back-formation vs blending
Back-formation
Blending
editor vs edit
brunch
burglar vs burgle
motel
baby-sitter vs baby-sit
sitcom
gloomy vs gloom
smog

20.

Clipping vs compounding
Clipping
Compounding
influenza vs flu
babysit
gasoline vs gas
brother-in-law
Elizabeth vs Liz
dark-blue
telephone vs phone
handbag
pickpocket
snow-white
professor vs prof.

21.

Conversion
hope > (to) hope
(to) attack > attack
green > (to) green
up, down > the ups and downs (of something)
if, and, but > no ifs, ands or buts
ho, ho, ho! > I love the ho ho hos of Christmastime.

22.

Conversion
cannon ball, oak table, stone bridge, Oxford student, Warsaw street
the five, the hundred, the fourth, to go on all fours, by trees, be in the
early forties
above > The above sentence.
after > In after years.
off > The off street.
down > to down
out > to out

23.

Morphology
1) Morphology as a discipline of linguistics
2) What is a morpheme?
3) Types of morphemes
4) Morphological description
5) Basic word-formation processes:

24.

Rudiments of morphology
What is morphology?
What is a morpheme?
e.g. talks, reopened, loneliness, yes
Principal types of morphemes:
1) Free:
lexical vs functional morphemes
2) Bound:
derivational vs inflectional morphemes

25.

Morphemes
Free
Bound
free morphemes
serve, press, boy, happy, pizza,
rain, run, sky
above, below, inside, at, on,
often, none, there, that
bound morphemes
un-, -er, -less, -ed, -ing
unhappy, player, careless, walked,
sleeping
prefixes and suffixes are bound
morphemes
carelessness: care-less-ness
undressed: un-dress-ed

26.

Free morphemes
Lexical
Functional
children
and
love
but
beauty
in
play
it
sing
of
dress
since

27.

Bound morphemes
Derivational
re- (renew)
un- (unpack)
Inflectional
-’s (cat’s)
-s (cats)
-ed (worked)
-er (faster)
-ly (slowly)
-ful (skillful)
-est (fastest)
-ness (homelessness)
-ing (walking)
-ize/ise (incentivize/ise)
-en (spoken)

28.

Word, morpheme, syllable
Morphemes
Syllables
girls
2
1
photocopy
2
4
unladylike
3
4
crocodile
1
3
salamander
1
4

29.

What about
morphemes
below?
THE GIRL’S
WILDNESS
SHOCKED THE
TEACHERS.

30.

Introduction to
linguistics
Part 3
SEMANTICS
AND
PRAGMATICS

31.

Semantics

32.

What are we going to talk about?
The concept and nature of meaning
Types of meaning
Semantic features
Semantic roles
Semantic relations

33.

Types of meaning
Meaning
Conceptua
l
Associative

34.

Look at the pictures …

35.

Semantic features
Animate
Table
―
Horse
+
Boy
+
Girl
+
Man
+
Woman
+
Human
―
―
+
+
+
+
Female
―
+
―
+
―
+
Adult
―
―
―
―
+
+

36.

Semantic roles
(1) Agent
(2) Theme
(3) Instrument
(4) Experiencer
(5) Location
(6) Source
(7) Goal

37.

Agent and theme/patient
The boy kicked the ball.
The ball was red.

38.

Instrument and experiencer
The boy cut the rope with an old razor.
He drew the picture with a crayon.
The boy feels sad.
Did you hear the noise?

39.

Location, source and goal
Mary saw a fly on the wall.
She borrowed a magazine from George.
She squashed the bug with the magazine.
She handed the magazine back to George.
˝Gee thanks̏, said George.

40.

Lexical relations
Antonymy
Collocation
Synonymy
Metaphor
Hyponymy
Metonymy
Homophony
Polysemy
Homonymy
Prototypicality

41.

Antonymy
Types of antonyms
1) Gradable antonyms (contraries)
big or small
good or bad
2) Non-gradable antonyms (complementaries)
true or false
dead or alive

42.

Antonymy
3) Converses
a) relational opposites
husband vs wife
parent vs child
b) reverse terms
night vs day
ask vs answer

43.

Synonymy
cab vs taxi
liberty vs freedom
answer vs reply
hide vs conceal
buy vs purchase

44.

Hyponymy

45.

To, too or two?
Homophony
sea vs see
hour vs our
Homonymy
bank
bat
mole
pupil
knight vs night
steal vs steel
weather vs whether

46.

Polysemy
head
foot
earth/the Earth
wing

47.

Collocation
deliver/give a lecture
actively involved
give advice
bitterly cold
make a bad
conveniently located
heavy rain
entirely satisfactory
strong wind
do (one’s) best
serious about
have a drink
talented in
save time
hopeless at
rise steadily

48.

Metaphor and metonymy
Metaphor
My heart is a bottomless ocean of love.
The world is a stage.
Metonymy
Buckingham Palace denied the rumours.
The suits of Wall Street walked off with most of our
savings.

49.

Protypicality

50.

Pragmatics

51.

Key concepts of pragmatics
1) invisible meaning
7) speech acts:
2) context
3) deixis
8) politeness (face)
4) reference vs inference
face-saving vs face-threatening act
5) anaphora vs antecedent
negative vs positive face
6) presupposition
direct vs indirect speech acts

52.

Invisible meaning and context
1) invisible meaning
2) context
linguistic context (co-text)
I withdrew some money from the bank.
Mary walked along the river bank.

53.

Physical context
The physical context is the
location of a given word, the
point in time and situation in
which it is used, all of which aid
proper understanding of the
word.

54.

Deixis
Kinds of deictic expressions
1) Person deixis (e.g. it, this, him, tchem, their)
2) Spatial deixis (e.g. here, there, nearby, far from)
3) Temporal deixis (e.g. now, then, before, soon, previously)
You should have been here last week.
It is two hundred yards away.
There she goes. vs Here she comes.

55.

Deixis
I want to see you. Your Majesty.
This programme was recorded last Wednesday to be relayed today.
Good morning, the former president.
Bring it here and take this there.
He is coming.

56.

Reference vs inference
Reference
A reference is an act in which a
Inference
by the speaker to create a link between what
speaker or writer uses linguistic
forms to enable a listener to
is said and what must be meant.
identify something.
Jennifer, my mother, she
words are referring expressions
An inference is additional information used
Can I look at your Chomsky? Sure, it is on
the shelf over there.
We saw Shakespeare in London.

57.

Anaphora vs Antecedent
An anaphora 'referring back’ is the use of a linguistic unit to refer back to
another unit.
An antecedent is a linguistic expression which provides interpretation for an
anaphor.
Anna asked Edward to pass her the salt.
In the film, a man and a woman were trying to wash a cat. The man was holding
the cat while the woman poured water on it. He said something to her and they
started laughing.

58.

Presupposition
A presupposition is an implicit assumption about the world or our
background belief relating to an utterrance whose thruth is
considered obvious.
Your brother is waiting outside.
Why did you arrive late?
When did you stop smoking?
Jane no longer writes fiction.
Are you still such a bad driver?

59.

Speech acts
Direct
Close the door!
Indirect
Do you think you could close
the door?
Did Paul get the job?
Please take out the garbage.
I was wandering if paul got the
job?
The garbage is not out yet.

60.

Politeness
Politeness is a method of showing awareness of another person’s face.
Face
Face-saving act
Could you pass that paper?
Let’s do it together. You and I have the same problems.
Face-threatening act
Give me that paper!
You have such beautiful teeth. I wish I did not see tchem when you eat.

61.

Face
Positive face
Negative face