Course Summary (9 pages) on Linguistics 101. Covers everything from; Language Basics
Language Origin
Narrative Structure
Language Vitality and Death
Animal Communication
Language Acquisition
Sign Language
Non-verbal Communication
Social Organisation
Multilingual Variation
Code Switching
Language Basics
Linguistics: the study of how people use language currently and across time. Linguists have a descriptive
view of language.
There are 2 views of language: descriptivism and prescriptivist.
Descriptivism: how a language is used, all dialects are linguistically equal
Prescriptivist: how a language should be used, reflects social reality.
Language in Society
Sociolinguistics: how language plays a part in maintaining social roles in a community
Becomes an identifier in complex societies based on socioeconomic factors (wealth, income, education,
nationally, occupation, gender, social status; upper, middle, lower (h-dropping = hyper correct to be
associated with high-prestige varieties))
Received Pronunciation (RP) of English: Regionally neutral middle-class accent, used with standard English,
avoiding slang + dialect. Olden time: indicated wealth + power, news reported used to have R.P accent.
Modern: more accepting of different variety and dialect diversity.
Language Origins
Unclear when or how language began. However, spoken form proceeded written form. Different theories.
Biological Cultural: mythical/song/rituals
HUMANS Divine origin, w/ lesser beings responsible for diversity.
Mouth: small oral cavity, stretched throat, lower Biblical: God had Adam name animals and builders of Tower of Babel given
epiglottis, vocal folds, hyoid bone in correct position for different language.
speech production, finer muscular control for distinct Greek: Language of Zeus. Hermes responsible for diversity.
sounds production Aztec: Dove brought two diff language to two survivors of flood.
Experiment Examples
Brain: Broca; speech production (lower frontal lobe; Herodotus said that Pharoah Psmatik wanted to know origin of language.
damage = fragmented and hesitant speech) Wernicke’s; 2 newborns = total language deprivation. First word = original language of
spoken/written comprehensions (left temporal lobe, men. It was Phrygian
damage = fluent speech but little meaning) Genie: kid confined to room for 13 years. Undernourished,
underdeveloped, cognitively 11 months old. Small vocab, non-verbal
Genesis Theories of Origin
Monogenesis/Declining Complexity Polygenesis
Language derived from single place/person who emigrated Language derived from many places, evolve simultaneously and
from Africa 2,000 years ago (OoA) independent of each other.
Evidence: genetic relationship between languages and Evidence: Difficult to organise in super families of language.
reconstructed proto languages suggests phonological and Achievements like agriculture and writing happened in >1 place
morphological contrasts which descendant languages simplify simultaneously. Diverse societies = diverse pre-language.
or lose over time. Humans have cognitive capacity for symbolic behaviour,
Origin: Khoisan language. Have more clicks (phoneme complex knowledge from the beginning
inventories) which reduce further from them
Continuity Habilis 600cm3 rock flakes, sharp edge Broca + Wernicke’s
evidence
Language is complex, evolved from earlier pre- Erectus 950cm3 hand axe, spears, fires, Sea travel
linguistic systems in prehuman. migration =communication)
Evidence: Sapiens 1400cm3 General, sophisticated Sophisticated
(fishhooks, bows, settlement, animal
Animal traits analogous to pre-humans; gestures arrows, etc) domestication,
Fossil show traces of gradual physical adaptation agriculture, religion
Discontinuity
Language is unique + appeared suddenly in pre-hominid -> early man transition.
Nature: born with innate ability; Noam Chomsky= sudden mutation
, Nurture: learned like our other intellectual abilities
Animal Communication
Why do animals need communication? Distinctions between human and animal
Parental care/recognition Cultural
Social interaction, food location, wider Animals have limited social group membership
community involvement, hierarchy, courtship Linguistically
Environmental warnings Humans – structural, symbolic, creative, displacement (talk about past, future)
Emotional communication Animals – fixed structure, limited symbolism, no creativity or displacement
Non vocal communication; gesture (learn by imitation), touch, physical appearance; posture, body language,
eye gaze, emotion (tighten eyes/mouth/ear position), colour, displace, auditory, chemical signalling
Productivity: use of repeatable parts in different communications to create new meaning or alter old ones
Example of not productive language
Bees do a waggle dance to express direction and distance of good food sources. When bee feeder = raised above ground, bees signal
shorter distance -> report incorrect distances = other bees lost
Language Acquisition
Language learnt in a critical period (most ready development of language) for all animals (signed and spoken)
In humans, this period is -3 months to 6 years old.
Evidence of C.P in humans (up until age 6) Stages of spoken and signs
Socially isolated kids lose ability to acquire language in 3 months before birth
later life 6 – 8 weeks: cooing
Second language difficult in adulthood 16 weeks: laughing
Language recovery better post brain damage if damage 6 months: babbling 12 months: language specific babble
occurred early in life 10-15 months: first words 18 months: vocab explosion
Deaf children introduced to language later in life 24 months: two-word utterances
Before 6 years old: acquire most grammar without learning grammar
rules from parents
How do children learn?
Interaction with other language users, but children do not learn most through imitation.
Have Physical Capability like hearing, speech (verbal), arms, hands, facial features, sight (sign)
Input
Special Input: unlikely to affect acquisition because it’s not applied to everyone, but everyone still
goes through same stages of language acquisition and make certain errors and are creative with speech.
Motherese (high pitched, child-directed)
Environmental Input from adult speech. Not good evidence from adults because they don’t often
use proper syntax
Positive Evidence Negative Evidence
About which sentences exist About which sentences are impossible
Poverty of Stimulus: children not exposed to rich Children given info about what is impossible ⇒
data within their environments to acquire every settle on all and only sentences which are possible
feature of their language. Undirected language = in target language
poor quality, slang. Directed = simplified Parents rarely provide negative feedback on
syntax/vocab, but when they do, child ignores or
misinterprets
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