INTRODUCTION

TO
LINGUISTICS
 WHAT IS LINGUISTICS
• The scientific study of human language.
-What is language?
-How does it work?
-How can we better use it for our purpose?
 LINGUISTIC
DESCRIPTIVISM
• Linguists are only concerned with describing the
way language is ACTUALLY used by speech
communities (and their underlying language
systems).
• This contrasts with prescriptivism, which claims
that there is a right and wrong way to speak.
 LINGUISTIC
DESCRIPTIVISM
1. “I ain’t never done that.”
2. “Do you want a bater wottle?
 WHAT IS LANGUAGE
• Language is separate from literacy.
• All mentally healthy people develop language as
long as they are exposed to it.
• Children develop language before they can read.
• Tribes without writing have language.
 WHAT IS
LANGUAGE IN
LINGUISTICS?
 Language…
•arbitrary systems of symbolism
1.Languages are symbolic.
2.Languages are systems.
3.Languages are arbitrary
.

-Edward Sapir
ENGLISH HAS CERTAIN WORDS:
ex: dog, snowman, optimize, empirical, etc.

AREN'T PART OF ENGLISH:

plâge, faoi, 你們.

when we put the sounds /d/ + /ɑ/ + /g/ = (dog)

 Language is a set of associations between
sounds and meanings.
PROBLEMS:
-it leaves out written forms of language.
-it leaves out sign languages.
 Language is a set of associations between
forms and meanings.
Dogs chase cats.
Cats chase dogs
-made up of the same words by differ in meaning.
-difference between the two is the order the words come in.
 Language is a system for associating
form and meaning.
language is open-ended.
Example: I used to live in a hot-air balloon but, since
the incident, I've contented myself with staying in a
small cave deep underground, for reasons which I hope
are obvious.
 GRAMMAR
-rules that describe how a
language works as a system.
 PRESCRIPTIVE
GRAMMAR
-is a philosophy or approach to grammar that
concerns itself with the establishment of
grammatical norms that can be used to define
spoken or written language as either grammatically
correct or grammatically incorrect.
 Drill #1:
Can they ride home with you? I
won't drive them because my car
is in the shop.
 Drill # 2:
When the girls on the team got
to the hotel, they dropped off
her luggage.
 Drill # 3
1.Matt like fish.
2. We enjoys horror movies..
DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR
“Do not give advice: They detail the ways in which
native speakers use their language. A descriptive grammar is
a survey of a language. For any living language, a
descriptive grammar from one century will differ from a
descriptive grammar of the next century because the
language will have changed.”
—From In "An Introduction to Language" by Kirk Hazen
DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR
"Descriptive grammar is the basis for dictionaries,
which record changes in vocabulary and usage, and
for the field of linguistics, which aims at describing
languages and investigating the nature of language.“
—From "Bad Language" by Edwin L. Battistella
"All languages adhere to syntactical rules of
one sort or another, but the rigidity of these
rules is greater in some languages. It is very
important to distinguish between the
syntactical rules that govern a language and
the rules that a culture imposes on its
language.“
- Donald G. Ellis
"I ain't going nowhere."
-is a tool that helps expressing
and carrying the thoughts, - is a process of exchanging
feelings of two individuals. messages and information,
either verbally or nonverbally.
Grammatical Sentence- everything is fine
and we can complete the association
between form and meaning.

Ungrammatical Sentence, we cannot

complete the association of form and
meaning.
 To wrap up:
• A language is a creative, productive system for associating form
and meaning.
• A descriptive grammar of a language is the set of rules
governing how sentences in the language are constructed.
• A prescriptive grammar of a language is a set of rules
governing how some people wish sentences in the language
were constructed. Linguists don't deal much with this.