An Introduction Course to Language - CTU.

CAN THO UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Department of Linguistics & Culture

AN
INTRODUCTION COURSE
TO LANGUAGE

Bài Giảng
Dẫn Luận Ngôn Ngữ Tiếng Anh
(Lớp Anh Văn Bằng 2 ĐHCT)

Compiled and adapted by Nguyễn Hồng Quí, M.E.

Revised Edition-2022
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 1

PREFACE

This course is compiled from different sources of

materials including readings and exercises used in teaching the
introductory undergraduate course “An Introduction to
Language”.
The aim of this course is to help students majoring in
English have an overview about what language is, and then it
will help them be easier in studying all sub-fields of linguistics in
the final two years of their studying.
This course, which is mainly extracted from the book
An Introduction to Language by Victoria Fromkin, et al., (2003),
consists of two parts which are about The Nature of Human
Language and The Grammatical Aspects of Language. There are
six chapters in this course focusing on what language is, and the
major subfields of linguistics, namely Phonetics, Phonology,
Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics.
We hope that this will be a useful and comprehensible
course to CTU students majoring in English so that they will be
successful in learning English linguistics.

Can Tho University, January 2022.

Compiler,

Nguyễn Hồng Quí

 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 2

Chapter 6
SEMANTICS & PRAGMATICS
The Meaning of Language

It is easy to understand what others say from their words or string of words. When we
acquire the words in a language, we easily know whether those words and sentences are
meaningful of meaningless, and whether they are ambiguous in meaning or not.
Usually the meaning that we get relates to the real-word object that the word refers to.
Thanks to our syntactic knowledge, we know the meaning of larger units like phrases,
sentences, and texts. All of these belong the the branch of linguistics called Semantics.

6.1 Lexical Semantics

6.1.1 Word Meanings
A word is the smallest meaningful linguistic units which can occur on its own in speech
and writing. For virtually every word we know, we have learnt one or several meanings.
Normally, we know thousand of words and our knowledge of their meanings permit us to
use them appropriately in sentences. The meaning of words is part of linguistic knowledge
and therefore is a part of grammar and it is from our mental storehouse of information
(lexicon) about words and morphemes.
6.1.2 Semantic Properties
When we know the meaning of a word, we know its semantic property, which is the
semantic feature that can be used to define what it means. In the sentence, The assassin
was stopped before he got to Mr. Jones. Our knowledge of meaning of assassin tells you
that an animal did not do the killing and that Mr. Jones was not a little old man who owned
a tobacco shop. Knowledge of assassin includes knowing that the word refers to human
who is a murderer, and that he is a killer of important people. These pieces of information
are some of the semantic properties of the word on which speakers of a language agree.
The same semantic property may be part of the meaning of many words. [+female] is a
semantic property that helps to define tigress, hen, aunt, girl, woman….
Other semantic properties of verbs are shown in the following table:
Semantic property Verbs having it
+motion bring, fall, walk, run
+contact hit, kiss, touch
+creation build, imagine, make
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 3

6.1.3 Semantic Features

One way of representing semantic properties is by the use of semantic features.
Semantic features are the basic units of meaning in a word. In other words, the meaning of
words may be described as a combination of semantic features. Semantic features are a
formal or notational device that indicates the present or absence of semantic properties by
pluses (+) or minuses (-) or can be expressed through redundancy rules.
woman father girl
+female +male +female
+human +human +human
-young +parent +young
6.1.4. Denotative Meaning
Denotative meaning is the part of meaning of a word or phrase that relates to phenomena
in the real word or in fiction or possible world. This kind of meaning may be regarded as
the central meaning or core meaning of a lexical item.
For example, the denotation of the English word bird = two legged, winged, egg-laying,
worm-blooded creature with a beak.
She is a woman. (Woman = [+human, +female, - young])
6.1.5. Connotative Meaning
Connotative meaning is the additional meaning that a word or a phrase has beyond its
central meaning. This kind of meaning shows people‟s emotions and attitudes towards
what the word or phrase refers to. Some connotations may be shared by a group of people
of the same culture or social background, sex or age; others may be restricted to one or
several individuals depending on their personal experiences. This is also called affective
meaning or emotive meaning because a word may convey certain affective or evaluative
associations.
A: Why does she cry all day?
B: She is woman.
There are many characteristics that people associate with the word woman. They may be
not good and not bad, soft and a little passive.

Woman: 3 2 1 0 1 2 3
good -------------------------X------------------------- bad
hard ------------------------------------------X-------- soft
passive --------X------------------------------------------ active
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 4

This kind of meaning may be used in different cases:

-It is used to replace distasteful subjects such as WC, toilet.
-It plays a major role in the language of advertising: inexpensive products…
-It can be used in political propaganda: democracy, freedom…
-It can be used in literature: You are my heart…
In the following set of examples, the denotation of the words is the same but their
connotation is different.
I‟m thrifty. (careful, economic use of money)
You are tight. (not easy to spend money)
He is stingy. (giving money unwillingly)
6.1.6. Semantic Relations among Words
There is a number of semantic relationships that hold between either words or sentences in
the language.
Entailment, or implication: one statement entails another when the second is a logically
necessary consequence of the first, as Alan lives in Toronto entails Alan lives in Canada.
Note that the relationship of entailment, unlike that of paraphrase. It is not the case that
Alan lives in Canada entails Alan lives in Toronto.
Lexical Ambiguity
A sentence is lexically ambiguous if it can be understood or interpreted in more than one
way. Lexical ambiguity may be in written and spoken forms because of homonyms,
homographs, homophones, etc.
Homonyms are two or more distinct words with the same pronunciation and spelling but
different meanings.
It‟s ground. (past participle of the verb to grind)
How many acres of ground? (earth)
She couldn‟t bear children. (to give birth, to put up with)
She is standing by the bank. (land sloping up along each side of a river,
establishment for keeping money)
Homographs are words which are written in the same way but are pronounced differently
and have different meanings. lead (n), lead (v)
Homophones are words which sound alike but are written differently and have different
meanings. two- too- to, know-no
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 5

How can we disambiguate sentences?

There are many things that we can do:
In cases of structural ambiguous sentences, we have to draw the constituent structural
trees. However, when there are lexical ambiguous sentences, we need to paraphrase, use
synonyms or antonyms.
Paraphrase
One statement is a paraphrase of another when it has the same meaning as another, as
Philip purchased an automobile. is a paraphrase of Philip bought a car.
Antonyms
They are words or phrases that are opposites in their meaning. There are three main kinds
of antonyms in languages:
a. Complementary (contradictory) pairs of antonym:

A B
A
Complementary pairs of antonyms are pairs of words that are opposites such that when one
is applicable, the other is not. Thus, we can recognize that kind by using the formula: not A
= B; not B = A
not+ alive = dead; not + dead = alive.
b. Gradable pairs of antonym:

A B

Two words in a pair which stand for opposite ends of a scale of temperature, size,
height,…belong to gradable antonyms. Usually, they represent extremes on some physical
scales.
hot # cold; tall # short.
Unlike complementary pairs such as dead # alive, it is possible to be neither hot nor cold,
tall nor short. These antonyms do not constitute contradictions but contrary relationships.
In gradable antonyms, one is unmarked and the other is marked. The unmarked member is
the one used in questions of degree. For example, we ask How tall is he? (not How short is
he?). In addition, tall is the unmarked member of tall # short. Remember that words
themselves do not provide absolute information about size.
A small elephant is much bigger than a big mouse.
c. Relational opposites: They are pairs of words that belong to relational opposites because
they represent a symmetrical relationship. They are contrary to each other like hot # cold,
but they do not represent extremes on physical scales.
doctor # patient.
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 6

6.2 Phrase and Sentence Meaning

The meaning of phrases or sentences depends on both the meaning of their words and how
these words are structurally combined. They may have some further meanings.
Sense – reference
Sense is the meaning of an expression. Reference is something the word or expression
refers to. They can be the real things, fiction, fantasy…
In some cases, the referent is the same but there are different senses in the sentences:
The man who is my father is Mr. Jones.
The man who married my mother is Mr. Jones.
In some other cases, there is sense but no reference:
The present king of France is bald.
The reference may also be the same but the meanings may be different:
Bill Clinton is married to Hillary Clinton.
The winner of the 1992 US presidential election is married to Hillary Clinton.
Robin wanted to know if Bill Clinton was the winner of the 1992 US presidential election.
Robin wanted to know if Bill Clinton was Bill Clinton.
6.2.1 Combining Words into Sentences
We comprehend sentences because we know the meanings of individual words, and
because we know rules for combining their meanings. Thus, we have to learn the meanings
of individual words. But we have to learn meanings in contexts and guess meaning from its
formation. It is not very necessary to learn by heart thanks to our faithful memory.
It is not enough to get meaning of sentences or phrases from the combination of individual
words because of different reasons:
- The meaning of phrases may be not the combination of the meanings of individual words.
They may be the fixed phrase or idioms and we have to learn by heart the meaning as a
whole.
- The syntactic structure of phrases is also important to meaning: the box on the chair is
different from the chair on the box.
- The meaning of proverbs is usually not from the meaning of individual words.
Love me, love my dog.
When there is a will, there is a way.
- Sentences may be used in different contexts of speaking, and the meaning may be very
different from one another.
The door is open.
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 7

Thus, when we want to really know a language, we need to know a lot of different things
relating to their meanings.
6.2.2 Meaning Postulates
A meaning postulate is a formula expressing some aspect of the sense of a predicate. It can
be read as a proposition necessarily true by virtue of the meaning of the particular
predicate involved.
X man = X human being
This example expresses the fact that man is a synonym of human being.
If something is metal, it is a concrete object.
This statement is true by virtue of the meaning of the word metal and concrete. This lexical
knowledge can be revealed through meaning postulates:
X metal  X concrete.
Meaning postulates and redundancy rules are a part of the lexicon. Those formal devices
reveal knowledge about the meanings of words that all speakers have. Meaning postulates
also play a central part in the semantic dictionary. It can be used to deduce information
about sense relations, including hyponymy and some forms of antonymy, and about
selectional restrictions.
6.2.3 The Truth of Sentences
Sentences
True False
Analytic circumstantial contradictory circumstantial
(base on language) (base on environment) (base on language) (base on environment)

Certain sentences have reference or extensions which can be true or false. Their extension
is true if the sentence is true and false if the sentence is false. Those circumstances are
called the truth condition of the sentence. Sentences which describe the facts must be true.
Ho Chi Minh died in 1969.
The moon is made of green cheese.
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 8

6.3 Rule Violation in Semantics

The rules of language are not laws of nature. They can be broken everyday by everybody.
This is the way in which language is put to use. I reality, the meaning of an expression is
not always obvious. There are many ways in which meaning may be veiled or even absent.
They are anomaly-the expressions that appear to follow the rules of syntax, but go awry
semantically; metaphor –nonliteral, indirect, but often creative meaning; and idioms in
which the meaning of an expression is different from the meanings of its parts. In those
cases, the meaning is not compositional.
Anomaly: no sense and nonsense
Anomalous sentences are those which conform to all the grammatical rules of the language
but they are strange because they represent a contradiction in meaning.
My older sister is an only child in my family.
That bachelor is pregnant.
Sentences can also be anomalous when there is a no-sense word in the sentence.
That is a slethy cooker.
Metaphor: non-literal interpretation of sentences.
In languages, a word or phrase may be used for special effect. They do not have their
usual or literal meaning. The meaning is described by stating another thing with which it
can be compared.
Dr. Jekyll is a butcher.
John is a snake in the grass.
Idiom: an expression which functions as a single unit and whose meaning cannot be
worked out from its separate parts.
She washes her hands of the matter.
(She refuses to have anything more to do with the matter.)
Steal the show.
Hit the road.
Bite the dust.
Let the cat out of the bag.
Add fuel to the fire.
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 9

6.4 Pragmatics
Meaning

Semantics* Pragmatics*
(literal meaning, outside context) (non-literal meaning, within context)

Words Sentences Linguistic contexts Situational contexts

*Semantics is a branch of linguistics which studies what language signs mean or signify;
*Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics which studies the relationship between language
signs and users.
The above diagram is from a linguistic view of meaning. It lays out the various aspects of
meaning and the disciplines that study them. Semantics is a branch of linguistics which
deals with the literal meaning of words and sentences. In contrast, pragmatics deals with
non-literal meanings that arise in contexts. There are two main kinds of contexts. The first
one is linguistic context – the discourse that precedes the phrase or sentence to be
interpreted. The second one is situational context or knowledge of the word. To interpret
the meaning, the listeners must know the real world referent to what is dealing with.
Pragmatics includes the speaker‟s and addressee‟s background attitudes and beliefs, their
understanding of the context in which a sentence is uttered, and their knowledge of how
language can be used to inform, to persuade, to mislead, and so on. In this part, we focus
on the role of pragmatics in the interpretation of utterances.
6.4.1 Linguistic Contexts
Linguistic knowledge permits speakers to combine phonemes into morphemes, morphemes
into words, words into sentences, and finally into discourse. However, in some situations,
the meaning of certain words is not clear, and its meaning cannot be interpreted unless we
look at the pro-forms in the sentence. This is called linguistic contexts because the
meaning of an utterance depends on the other linguistic factors in the same sentence or in
other sentences.
- A: He is rich.
B: I‟m, too.
- I want to see you tonight.
Yours,
John.
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 10

6.4.2 Situational Contexts

Situational context is the knowledge of who is speaking, who is listening, what objects are
being discussed, and general facts about the world we live in.
What time is it? (an utterance from a teacher when his student is late)
6.4.2.1 Maxims of Conversations
Speakers can recognize when a series of sentences hangs together or when it is disjointed
in certain speaking situations. This is the meaning of the largest unit of language which
involves questions of style, appropriateness…
a. Cooperative principles: the principle formulated by the philosopher H. P. Grice that says
that underlying a conversation is the understanding that what one says is intended to
contribute to the purposes of the conversation. Certain rules of maxims of conversation are
said to enforce compliance with this principle.
b. Maxims of conversations: the unwritten rules about conversation which people know
and which influences the form of conversational change.
Maxim of quality:
Do not say what you believe to be false.
Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
Do not lie; do not make unsupported claims.
Maxim of quantity:
Make your contribution as informative as is required.
Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
Maxim of relation:
Be relevant and related.
Maxim of manner:
Avoid obscurity of expression.
Avoid ambiguity.
Be brief.
Be orderly.
We can commonly draw inference from what people say based on the assumption that they
are obeying the cooperative principle. (implicature)
We can use these maxims to communicate indirectly when we sometimes need to avoid
telling the truth because our frankness may hurt someone.
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 11

6.4.2.2 Speech Acts

Can people do things with speech? In daily activities, people can perform physical acts
such as hitting a baseball, riding a bicycle…, They can perform mental acts such as
imagining hitting a baseball or riding a bicycle. People can also perform another kind of
act simply by the use of language- These are called speech acts. A speech act is an
utterance considered as an action, particularly with regard to its intention, purpose, or
effect. Speech act is a term describing the use of speech with a focus upon the speakers‟
intentions and the possible or intended effects upon the hearers.
We use language (in the form of speech act) to do extraordinarily wide range of activities.
We use it to convey information, request information, give orders, make requests, make
threats, give warnings, make bets, give advice, etc,.
The speech act performed by producing an utterance, consists of three related acts:
There are three kinds of acts which occur with everything we say. These are the
locutionary act, the illocutionary act and the perlocutionary act.
The locutionary act refers to the literal meaning of the actual words (such as „It is hot in
here.‟ referring to the temperature).
The illocutionary act refers to the speaker‟s intention in uttering the words (such as request
for someone to turn on the air conditioning).
The perlocutionary act refers to the effect this utterance has on the thoughts or actions of
the other person (such as someone getting up and turning the air conditioning). It should be
noted that the term speech act is often interpreted to mean only the illocutionary force of
an utterance.
Characteristics of speech acts

A speech act has two kinds of meaning:

(a) locutionary meaning (also known as propositional meaning), which is its basic literal
meaning conveyed by its particular words and structure(s);

(b) illocutionary meaning (also known as illocutionary force), which is the effect the
utterance might have on the hearer.

Consider the two following sample dialogues:

(1) Sam: „I am thirsty.‟ (= „Give me something to drink, please.‟)

Annie: „I‟ll bring you a glass of water.‟

The locutionary meaning of „I am thirsty‟ is I am suffering from my thirst.

The illocutionary meaning of „I am thirsty‟ is Sam indirectly requests Annie to give

him something to drink.
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 12

(2) Jane: „Can you shut the window?‟ (= „Shut the window, please.‟)

Jane‟s husband: „Certainly.‟

The locutionary meaning of „Can you shut the window?‟ is I wonder whether you
are able to shut the window.

The illocutionary meaning of „Can you shut the window?‟ is Jane indirectly requests
her husband to shut the window.

It is the speech situation that helps to identify the illocutionary act of the speaker (what the
speaker wants).

Ex: “There‟s a piece of fish on the table.”

Situation 1:

At noon, a girl comes home from school late. All the family have had lunch. Entering the
house, she addressed her mother:

“- Mom, I am very hungry. Is there something to eat?

- There‟s a piece of fish on the table.”

=> The mother wants to reassure the daughter that her lunch has not been forgotten
and suggests her having fish for lunch.

Situation 2:

At 10:00, the mother comes home from the market. She puts her bag on the table in the
kitchen and tells her daughter, “Mary, there‟s a piece of fish on the table.”

=> The mother wants her daughter to prepare the lunch.

Situation 3:

A couple enter a restaurant. They come to a table in a corner to take a seat, but on the table,
there‟s some fish left. They tell a waiter, “There‟s a piece of fish on the table!”

=> They complain to the waiter that the table has not been cleaned properly and
want him to clean it.
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 13

Felicity Conditions

Speech acts can go wrong by being situationally inappropriate. In those cases, speech acts
are infelicitous. They have gone awry. For examples,

(1) A bartender says, “I hereby pronounce you husband and wife.” In this context, it would
not affect a marrying of those two people because it is situationally inappropriate.

(2) In a hospital room, a visitor says to the patient with an arm in plaster, „Peel the orange,
please.‟ Is the request appropriate? Why (not)?

Obviously there are certain conditions for a speech act to be appropriately and successfully
performed. These are called felicity conditions. Thus, associating with speech acts is a set
of felicity conditions that must be satisfied if that speech act is to be correctly performed.

6.4.2.3 Presuppositions
A. Definition
Presupposition is what a speaker or writer assumes that the receiver of the message
already knows. Presupposition is the background knowledge or belief shared by the
participants in discourse which makes them to understand the appropriate context of
discourse.

‘John doesn‟t write poems anymore‟ presupposes that John once wrote poetry.

„Would you like another beer?‟ presupposes that the person called you here has already
had at least one beer.

Presuppositions can be used to communicate information indirectly.

“My brother is rich.” presupposes that the person has a brother, even though that fact is
not explicitly stated.

B. Characteristics of presuppositions

1. The presupposition of an utterance remains the same under its NEGATION:

a. „John stopped smoking.

b. „John didn‟t stop smoking.‟

=> Both presuppose that John once smoked cigarettes.

 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 14

a. „The dog‟s tail was cut.‟

b. „The dog‟s tail wasn‟t cut.‟

=> Both presuppose that the dog had a tail.

Because of this characteristic, sentences with presuppositions are not accepted in the
courts as in the sentence: Have you stopped beating your wife?

2. The presupposition of an utterance remains the same under its INTERROGATION:

a. „John stopped smoking.‟

b. „Did John stop smoking?‟

c. „Why did John stop smoking?‟

=> All presuppose that John once smoked cigarettes.

3. The presupposition of an utterance may be cancelled under its EXTENSION:

a. „She didn‟t feel regret at the over-cooked meat.‟

b. „She didn‟t feel regret at the over-cooked meat because it was in fact well-done.

=> Sentence (a) presupposes that the meat was overcooked while sentence

(b) presupposes that the meat was well-done.

6.4.2.4 Implicatures
A. Definition

Implicature is a technical term, which refers to what is suggested in an utterance even

though neither expressed nor strictly implied. The notion implicature, which is the
shortened form of the notion conversational implicature, provides some explicit account of
how it is possible to mean more than what is really „said‟. Implicature is meaning or
something implied in conversational context which is distinct from what is said.

A:„I hope you brought the bread and the cheese.‟

B: „Uh, I brought the bread.‟

=> B‟s utterance may implicate that B did not bring the cheese, since what is not
mentioned was not brought.

Conversational implicatures promise to bridge "the gap between what is literally said
and what is conveyed."

A: „Coffee?‟
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 15

B: „It would keep me awake all night.‟

=> B‟s utterance may implicate that B would rather not drink coffee.

A: „Have you finished the student‟s evaluation form and reading list?‟

B: „I‟ve done the reading list.‟

=> B‟s utterance may implicate that B has not done the evaluation form, since what
is not mentioned has not been done yet.

Phil: „Are you going to Mark‟s barbecue?‟

Jean: „Well, Mark‟s got those dogs now.‟

=> Jean‟s utterance may implicate that she is not going to Mark‟s barbecue.

A: I am out of petrol.

B: There is a garage round the corner.

=>…………………………………………………………………………………………..

B. Characteristics of implicatures

People may draw somewhat different in a conversational implicature from a certain

utterance.

1. Conversational implicatures can be suspended or denied.

2. Conversational implicatures are conclusions drawn from utterances on particular

occasions and not from isolated sentences.

6.4.2.5 Deixis
Deixis is the term for a word or phrase which directly relates an utterance to time, place or
person. The meaning of deixis is usually not clear. It depends on different speaking
situation.
I love you.
Tomorrow, the food will be free.
He is standing there.
Person deixis: I, you he, she, yours, our,….
Time deixis: now, this time, the, tomorrow, next April,…
Place deixis: here, there, this place, that place, the tower over there,…
Demonstrative deixis: this, that, these, those.
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 16

QUESTIONS
1. What is semantics? What do we study in semantics?
2. What is pragmatics? What do we study in pragmatics?
Describe the differences between linguistic contexts and situational contexts.
3. Explain the lexical ambiguity of the following sentences:
a. He waited by the bank.
b. The proprietor of the fish shop was the sole owner.
c. The long drill was boring.
d. It takes a good ruler to make a straight line.
4. Indicate the kinds of antonym of the following pairs:
a. good – bad e. beautiful – ugly i. pass – fail
b. expensive – cheap f. false – true j. hot – cold
c. parent – offspring g. lessor – lessee k. legal – illegal
d. larger – smaller h. poor – rich l. asleep - awake
5. Find the antonym of the word: grand mother (Bà ngoại)
6. Explain the differences between connotative and denotative meanings.
7. Comment on the following:
A: „Mine is a long and sad tale?‟ said the Mouse turning to Alice and sighing.
B: „It is a long tail, certainly.‟ said Alice, looking with wonder at the Mouse‟s tail,
„but why do you call it sad?‟
8. Decide whether the followings are circumstantially true (T) or analytic (A).
a. Queens are monarchs.
b. Cats are felines.
c. Queens are mothers.
d. Cats are stupid.
e. Queens are female
f. Donald Bradman is Donald Bradman.
g. Dogs are four-legged.
h. Donald Bradman is our most famous cricketer.
i. Dogs are animals.
j. Uncles are male.
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 17

9. Decide whether the following are contradictory (C) or false due to

circumstance (F).
a. My aunt is a man.
b. Witches are wicked.
c. My bachelor friends are all married.
d. My bachelor friends are all lonely.
10. Decide whether the following are performative sentences or not.
a. I testify that she met the agent.
b. I know that she met the agent.
c. I suppose De Castella will win.
d. He bet her $2500 that Hawke would win.
e. We promise to leave early.
f. I swore I didn‟t do it.
g. I swear I didn‟t do it.
11. What are the presuppositions of the followings:
a. The police ordered the teenagers to stop drinking.
b. Please take me out to the football again.
c. Jane regretted not receiving a new fur coat for Christmas.
d. The administration forgot that the academic staff supported the students.
e. David wants more popcorn.
f. Why don‟t pigs have wings?

12. Comment on the following dialogue between a stranger who wants to make
acquaintance with a lady sitting on a bench beside a dog in the park.
(The man approached her and asked)

A: Does your dog bite?

B: No, it doesn‟t.
(The man sat by her side touching the dog, and the dog bit him)

A: Why did you say your dog didn‟t bite?

13. Comment the opinion:
“Language is rule-governed, but the rules of language can be broken by the users.”
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 18

14. Comment the opinion:

I placed all my words with their interpretations in alphabetical order. And thus in a
few days, by the help of a very faithful memory, I got some insight into their
language.”
15. Comment on the opinion:
“Language is rule-governed, but the rules of language can be broken by the users.”
16. Give a possible implicature of B’s utterance in each of the following situations.
1. A: “Did you buy salt?”

B: “I tried to.”

Implicature:………………………………………………………………………

2. A: “Do any of John‟s daughter speak a foreign language?”

B: “Mary speaks French.”

Implicature: ………………………………………………………………………

4. A: “Are you coming to the party tonight?”

B: “I‟ve got an exam tomorrow.”

Implicature: ………………………………………………………………………

5. A: “You and Jim must come to my house some evening.”

B: “Yes, we‟d like to.”

Implicature: ………………………………………………………………………

6. A: “Do you love me?”

B: “I‟m quite fond of you.”

Implicature: ………………………………………………………………………

7. A. What time is it?

B. The mailman has just arrived.

Implicature: ………………………………………………………………………

17. Give a possible presupposition for the following utterances.

1. I wish I were rich.

2. How was your wedding?

3. I remember posting your letter.

 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 19

4. I won‟t do it again.

5. Where did you see that film?

6. Try to give up smoking.

7. What subjects are you taking?

8. John‟s cat is missing.

9. The garage on the corner is still open.

10. He pretends to be ill.

18. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following opinion?
“The knowledge that we get from the course General Linguistics helps us a lot in
learning English as a foreign language.”
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 20

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Brain Partridge, (2008) Discourse Analysis - An Introduction. Continuum, London.

 Crystal, David. (1997) A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. 4th edition.
Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
 Delahunty, Gerald P. Language, Grammar, and Communication. McGraw-Hill, Inc.
 Francis, W. Nelson, The structure of American English. New York: Ronald Press,
1958.
 Fromkin, V. et al (2003) An Introduction to Language. Fourth edition, Habourt
Brace, Australia.
 Fromkin, V. et al (2011) An Introduction to Language. International edition,
Cengage Learning.
 Fromkin, V. et al (2002) Linguistics - An Introduction to Linguistic Theory.
Blackwell Publishing. U.K.
 Huynh, Trung Tin, (2001) An Introduction Course To Language. Can Tho
University, VN.
 Jacobs, R. A. (1995) English Syntax. Oxford University Press.
 Jackson, H. Analyzing English. Second Edition, Pergamon Institute of English.
 Jannedy, S. et al (1994) Language Files. Ohio State University Press.
 Yule, George. (2010) The Study of Language. Cambridge University Press.
 Laurel J. Brinton, (200) The Structure of Modern English A Linguistic.
 Nguyen, Thu Huong (2000) English Syntax. Can Tho University, Can Tho City.
 Nguyen, Van Huy. An Introduction to English Syntax. University of Hue.
 Nguyen, Van Huy. An Introduction to English Morphology. University of Hue.
 Richards, J. C. (1992) Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. Longman, UK.
 Trask, R. L. (1999) Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics. Routledge, London
and New York.
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 21

CONTENTS
Preface
Part one: The Nature of Human Language
Chapter 1 – GENERAL INTRODUCTION: What is Language?
1.1 Language
1.2 Linguistic Knowledge
1.3 Linguistic Performance
1.4 Types of Grammar in Language
1.5 Language Universals
1.6 Animal Language
1.7 Language and Linguistics
Part two: The Grammatical Aspects of Language
Chapter 2 - PHONETICS: The Sounds of Language
2.1 What is Phonetics?
2.2 The Sounds of Speech
2.3 Components of Human Speech Production
2.4 Articulation and Description of Consonants
2.5 Articulation and Description of Vowels
2.6 The Phonetic Alphabets
Chapter 3 - PHONOLOGY: The Sound Patterns of Language
3.1 Phonemes
3.2 How to Solve Phonological Problems
3.3 Sequences of Phonemes
3.4 Natural Classes
3.5 Phonological Rules
3.6 Prosodic Phonology
Chapter 4 - MORPHOLOGY: The Words of Language
4.1 Words in the Language
4.2 Morphemes
4.3 Basic Concepts in Morphology
4.4 Word Formation Processes
 An Introduction Course to Language - CTU. 22

Chapter 5 - SYNTAX: The Sentence Patterns of Language

5.1 Grammatical Sentences
5.2 Sentence Properties
5.3 Syntactic Analysis
5.4 Phrase Internal Structures
5.5 English Phrases
5.6 English Clauses
5.7 Constituent Structure Trees of Phrases in Generative Grammar
Chapter 6 – SEMANTICS & PRAGMATICS: The Meaning of Language
6.1 Semantics
6.2 Phrase and Sentence Meaning
6.3 Pragmatics
Bibliography
Contents