Internal structure of language (its form), varied uses of language in human life (its function)

The origins of language

 Ch.Darwin – first musical ability prior to language to charm others
 Some type of spoken l. developer 100.000-50.000 years ago, written 5.000
 Bible, Hindu tradition
 King James IV of Scotland 1.500 – childer spontaneously spoke Hebrew
 Children in isolation – no language at all  no device source

The natural sound source

 Primitive words – imitations of natural sounds heard around
 Languages have some words echoing nature: splach, bang, boom, buzz, hiss = bow-wow
theory
 ONOMATOPEIA = sounds similar to the noise they describe
 X language is not set of names for things
 Some words originated from cries of emptions: pan nager joy (Ouch! Ooh! Wow!) – but
noises ppl do as emotial reactions are not oterwise used in speech

The social interaction source

 “yo-he-ho” theory – natural sounds produced during physical effort
 Group of early ppl developer a set of hums, grunts, groans and cures used while lifting,
carrying
 Places development of human l. in a social context
 Large groups  social organization  communication
 Overall that is not speech (animals)

The physical adaptation source

 Physical features humans possess (distinct from other creatures) supporting speech
production
 Transition to upright posture, with bipedal
 Vocal tract of Neanderthal suggests some consonant-like sound were produced (-60.000)
 Partial adaptations – has the capacity for speech

Teeth, lips, mouth, larynx and pharynx

 Human teeth upright  making sounds f/v
 Lips – more intricate muscle interlacing  flexibility p/b
 Mouth – small, opened and closed rapidly, smaller, thicker muscular tongue  spape variety
of sounds in oral cavity
 Close off airway through nose  asir pressure
 Larynx (voice box) – contains vocal folds or cords – dropped to lower position  longer
cavity Pharynx (above the vocal cords) = resonator  much more choking

The tool-making source

 Manual gestures percieve language
 -2mil y.a. ppl developer righthandness  crafting tools  brain at woek
 Brain – large and lateralited (different functions in both hemispheres  functions of motor
movements in complex vocalization (speaking) and object manipulation (making tools) are
close together
 Sign l. – requires organization and combining (any l.)
  Tool making is not enough

The genetic source

 Child development -larynx descends, the brain develops, the child assumes an upright
posture and starts walking and talking.
 Language is not connected primarily with the development – children who are born deaf
(and do not develop speech) become fluent sign language users
 Indicates that human offspring are born with a special capacity for language
 IInnateness hypothesis – point to human genetics, crucial mutation, happpened quickly
 Analogy with work of PC – being pre-programmed

Animals and human language

 T.Deacon – talking seal (head position)
 Animals communicate with the same species
 Can creaters learn language to communicate with us or is it too complex?

Communication
 Communicative signals x Informative signals (smn listening may be informed through number
of unintentionall signals) – You sneeze  you r cold
 The same with animals

Properties of human language

 Communication as primary function of humas language  not distinguishing feature – all
creatures sommunicate
 Creatures are not reflecting the way they created message or review how it works (dogs are
not barking about barking)
 REFLEXIVITY – feedback on language, reflection – we can use l. to think and talk about it

Displacement
 Animal language tied to time and place = here and now
 Cannot relate to events far related in time
 Human refer to future and past time = DISPLACEMENT (also talking about fairies, unicorns)
 Bees can perform dance of position of the good  displacement, but very limited compared
to humans

Arbitrariness
 Aspect of relationship between linguistic sign and object is the world
 No connection between a linguistic form and its meaning = connection is arbitrary
 Arabic word  cannot say according to the shape the obvious meaning  no icon

  For the majority of animal signals is clear connection between conveyed message and signal
used
 Used only in specific situatuons – finite (establishing teritory)

Productivitiy
 Human – creating new expression, manipulating linguistic resources to describe new objects
= PRODUCTIVITY (creactivity)  infinite potential number of utterances in l.
 Cicadas – 4signals, monkeys 36vocal calls  cannot create new expressions
 Bee experiment – bees down radio tower – some of them up to try the food, then taken back
 conveyed the message by dance to other bees but the other could not find the food,
because they were not able to express vertical location (bees have no word for up and cant
invent one) – Karl von Frisch
 FIXED REFERENCE – limited feature of animal communication – each signal in the systém is
fixed relating to object or occasion
 Monkeys: CHutter = snake around, RRaup = eagle around – but could not create a new
expression for flying creature looking like snake Chutterrraup (ppl can, look aout for that
flying snake)

Cultural transmission
 We do not inherit language – we acquire it (in culture with other speakers)
 Adopted child to another country speaks l. of the environment it is in
 CULTURAL TRANSMISSION – language is passed on from one generation to the next
 Predisposition to acquire l, but not born with the ability
 Animals are born with a set of specific signals produced instinctively (birds singing – instinct +
learning) – without contact to other birds first weeks they sing but abnormally
 Children in isolation develop no language – cultural transmission is vital

Duality
 human language organized at two levels simultaneously (double articulation)
1. Physical level – Distinction sound - produce individual sounds n, b, i (dont have any
intrinsic meaning)
2. Distionction meaning – bin has different meaning than nib (combination of the
sounds)
3. With limited number of sound we are able to produce large number of sound
combinations with distinct meaning
4. Dogs – can mean Woof – I am happy to see you! But it doesnt consist of separate
melements such as w + oo + f
Talking to animals
 1930s attempt to teach schimpanzee human language – raising chimpanzee together with
child (L and W.Kellog)
 Chimpanzee was reporter to understand 100words but was not able to say any of them
 1940s (C and K. Hayes) raising chimpanzee as their own child to teach him talk  managed
to produce some words poorly mama, papa, cup
 Non-human primates does not have a physicall structure od vocal tract suitable to articulate
the sounds used in speech

Washoe
 Female chimpanzee (B and A.Gardner – teach female chimpanzee use sign language – all of
the properties of human language (deaf children)
 Learnt over 100words (banana, women, you) – was able to také these forms and combine
them to produce sentences gimme tickle, more fruit, open food drink – some of them
inventions of her: water bird = swan
 Understood larger number of sings than she produced  conversation (question/answer)
 F.Patterson similira with gorila KOKO

Sarah and Lana

 Chimpanzee (A. and D.Premack) – use of plastic shapes for purpose of communication with
humans
 Respresented words which can be styled to sentences
 Was trained to associate shapes with objects or actions – food rewards in cage
 Shapes were not of the shape of the objects they represented

 Was able to produce sentences, was able to understand complex structures (If Sarah put red
on green, Mary give Sarah chocolate
 D.Rumbaugh – chimpanzee Lana  learnt Yerkish language – consisted of symbols on
keyboard linked to pc
 Both can use symbols and basic structures resembling l. – lack of understanding just knows
the consequence

The controversy
 Psychologist H.Terrace – chimpanzee just produce sogns in response to demands of peaple –
produce certain learnt type of behaviour in order to get rewards
 Gardeners – difference being raise as a child and in a cage, was able to produce correct signs
even when the ppl was not there
Kanzi
 Not being taught but exposed and observed (250words) – was able to understand the English
l. thourgh symbols 2and half year old human – also used noises

Using language
 Chimpanzee were able to interact by using symbol systém chosed from humans (but not a
pre-school level child)
 Language serve as a type of communication systém observed in different situations
 However, there is a difference. Underlying the two-year-old’s communicative activity is the
capacity to develop a highly complex system of sounds and structures, plus a set of
computational procedures, that will allow the child to produce extended discourse
containing a potentially infinite number of novel utterances. No other creature has been
observed “using language” in this sense. It is in this more fundamental or abstract sense that
we say that language is uniquely human.


The sounds of language

 Sounds of spoken language do not match up with letters of written English
 If we cannot use the aplhabhet for sounds of English how can we desribe it?
 PHONETIC ALPHABET – separate aplhabet with symbols that present sounds (sonsonant and
vovel sounds)

Phonetics
 The general study of the characteristics of speech sounds
 ARTICULATORY PHONETICS – how speech sounds are made/articulated
 ACOUSTIC PHONETICS – deals with physical properties of speech as sound waves in the air
 AUDITORY PHONETICS – deals with perception, via the ear, of speech sounds

Voiced and voiceless sounds

 Articulatory phonetics – investigate how speech sounds are produced using oral equipment
 Start – asir pushed out by lungs up through the trachea (windpipe to larynx  inside of the
larynx are VOCAL FOLDS(cords) which také 2positions
1. SPREAD APART – air passes between them unimpeded – sounds produces =
VOICELESS
2. DRAWN TOGETHER – air pushes them apart as passing through creating vibrations =
VOICED
 Voice can be felt at Adams apple (ZZZZ VVV – voiced sounds, SSS FFF – voiceless)

Place of articulation
 Air passes through larynx out through mouth or nose
 Most consonants created by tongue and other parts of mouth to shape oral cavity
 Terms used to describe sounds denote the place of articulation (location inside of mouth)


Bilabials
 Sounds formed using both =bi upper and =labia lover lips (inital of pat, bat, mat) – symbol p-
voiceless, b,m- voiced, w

Labiodentals
 Upper teeth and lowe lip (in. fat, vat, fi. Safe, save) f- voiceless, v- voiced (cough, photo)

Dentals
 Toungue tip behind upper front teeth (in. Thin, fi. Bath – voiceless dentals,
(three teeth)
 - voiced (the, there, then, thus) interdentals – tongue tup between
the upper and lower teeth

Alveolars
 Front part of the toungue on the alveolar ridge (in. Top, dip, sit, zoo, nut) – t, d, s, z, n
 T, s – voiceless, d, z, n – voiced (tady se znám)
 Fi.buzz, bus  final sounds z and s, but what about raise  final sound is voiced therefore
there must be z
 L – at the beginning (lap, lit), R at the beginning (right, write)

Palatals
 Behind alveolar ridge is hard part roof of mouth = HARD PALATE
 Tongue and palate (alveo-palatals) (in. Shout, chils – voiceless

 (shoebrush, church in + fi)

 (treasure) – voiced
 (joke, gem) – voiced, George, judeg in.+fi.
 J (you, yet) – voiced
Velars
 Back in the roof of mouth, beyond hard palate is soft areapalate/velum – back oof the
tongue agains velum (k, g,ng)
 K – voiceless (kid, kill, car, cold in.), (in.+fi. Cook, kick, coke)
 G – voiced (in. Go, gun, give, fi. Bag, mug, plague)

 - allow air flow throug nasal cavity = angma (fi. Sing, sang, spelling, tongue, ringing,
bang)

Glottals
 Without active use of tongue and mouth (h) – voicelles glottal (in. Have, house, who, whose)
 Glottis = place between the vocal folds in the larynx

Charting consonant sounds

 Beginning of the chart - different labels for places of articulation and -V = voiceless, +V=
voiced, at the lest manner of articulation
 IPA (International Phonetic Association) – more detailed chart in range of sounds covered,
consists all of the languaged (German Achtung), R-sounds

Manner of articulation
 How are the sounds articulated – way of pronunciation
 How through description of physical aspects of speech production will allow us characterize
sounds of spoken English, independently of vagaries of spelling found in written En.

Stops
 P, b, t, d, k, g – produced by formo f stopping (brief air and sudden stopping)
 This types of consonants created by the apbrupt stop is called plosives
 T (ten) – voiceless alveolar stop

Fricatives
 - blocking air stream air push through narrow opening – as
the air is pushed throug a friction is produced

 Fish – begins and ends with voiceless fricatives

 Those – voiced fricatives

 Hello – voiceless
Affricates
 Combination of brief stop of air stream with obstruction which cause friction
 (in. Cheap – voiceless affricate, Jeep – voived affricate)

Nasals
 Lowered velum – air allowed through nose - all voiced

Liquids
 In. Of led and red – voiced

 lateral liquid – stream flows around sides of tongue

 tongue tip raised and curled back near the alveolar ridge

Glides
 - voiced (we, wet, you, yes) – tongue gliding from position of vowel – semi-
vowels

 Approximants – combined with

Glottal stops and flaps

 Pronouncing consonants not included in the chart
 GLOTTAL STOP - space between the vocal folds (the glottis) is closed completely (very
briefly), then released (Oh oh! Uh-uh, words butter or bottle without pronouncing the “-tt-”)
 FLAP – changing sound D to T  no distinction between rider x writer

Vowels
 Consonants mostly articulated by colosure or obstruction
 Vowels produced with relatively free flow of air
 All voiced
 The way in which tongue influences the shape though which air must pass
 Place of articulation – fron vs back and high vs low space inside mouth
 Heat, hit – high and front vowels – created in the front part up
 Hat – low and back
 

Dipthongs
 Sreate sounds that consist of a combination of 2vowel sounds
 Vocal organs move from one vocal position to another - in this case
 Movement from low to towards high back
(How)
 May consist of glide
 [e], [a] and [o] – used as single sounds

Subtle individual variation

 Vowel sounds vary between one variety of English and the next – being key element in
different accents
 central vowels [ə], called “schwa,” and [ʌ], called “wedge.” If you’re trying to transcribe, just
use schwa [ə] – unstressed vowel (afford, collapse, photograph
)
The sound patterns of language
 every individual have different vocal tract  pronounces sounds differently
 also change beucase of the environment (is shouting, is cold…) – vast range of potentional
differences

Phonology
 description of systems and patterns of speech sounds in l.
 effect based on theory what speaker of l. uncounsciously knows about sounds paaterns of l.
 concernede with abstract or mental aspect of sounds rather that with physical articulation of
speech sounds
 concerned with abstract set of sounds in l. that distinguish meaning in actual osysical sounds
we say/hear
 Story – using phonological knowledge of likely combinations of sounds to overcome unusual
spelling
 Underlline desing/blueprint of each sound  basis of all variations in different physical
articulations of sound in different contexts
 T sound in words tar, star, writes – the same in phonology represented in the same way, but
in speeach very different
 Meaningful consequences in using different sounds

Phonemes
 Each one of meaning – distinguishing sounds
 Alphabetic writing = concept of phoneme sound type represented by single written symbol
 /t/, an abstract segment, as opposed to the square brackets, as in [t], used for each phonetic
or physically produced segment
 /f/ and /v/ in English because they are the only basis of the contrast in meaning between the
words fat and vat, or fine and vine
 If substitue one word for another  change of meaning – 2sounds represent different
phonemes
 basic phonemes of English are listed with the consonant, vowel and diphthong diagrams
 prediction would be that sounds which have features in common would behave
phonologically in some similar ways
 /v/ has the features [+voice,+labiodental,+fricative] and so cannot be in the same “natural”
class of sounds as /p/ and /k/

Phones and allophones

 PHONES = Sound types produced in actual speech (x phoneme) – phonetic units in square
brackets
 When set of phones, all version of one phoneme we add prefix -allo (one of a closely related
set)  allphones of that phoneme
 Eg.: e [t] sound (star), tar – aspiration [tʰ] = phone, (writer with flap) [D] – 2.phone, (eighth)
[θ] – 3.phone
 these variations are all part of one set of phones, they are referred to as allophones of the
phoneme /t/
 distinction between phonemes and allophones is that substituting one phoneme for another
will result in a word with a different meaning (as well as a different pronunciation), but
 substituting allophones only results in a different (and perhaps unusual) pronunciation of the
same word
 /i/ in the words seed and seen - consonant [n] makes the [i] sound nasalized mark (˜) =
“tilde,”  2phones, [i] and [ı̃], used to realize the single phoneme, both allophones of /i/

Minimal pairs and sets

 MINIMAL PAIR = 2words (pat and bat, fan–van, site–side) identical in form except for contrast
in one phoneme in same position
 Teach contrast in meaning of minimal sounds
 MINIMAL SET = group of words differentiated from each other by chenging one phoneme in
same position (feat, fit, fat, fate, fought, foot), (big, pig, rig, fig, dig, wig)

Phonotactics
 Excercise involving minimal sets allows to se ethere are definite patterns in sound
combinations permitted
 words non-existing at the time that could represent minimal set, but could be valid in the
future (lig, vig)
 Could be created by abbreviation (I think Bubba is one very ignorant guy. ~ Yeah, he’s a big
vig!)
 These words were formed without obeying some constraints on the sequence or position of
English phonemes = constraints = PHONOTACTICS (permitted arrangements of sounds)

Syllables
 Large phonological units
 Contain voerl sounds including diphthongs, usually have ©consonant before the (v)vowel –
CV
 ONSET = basic basic elements of syllable (1or more C) followed by rhyme


 RHYME = consists of V which is treated as NUCLEUS + any C = CODA
 (ME, to, no) = onset, nukleus = OPEN SYLLABLES
 (UP, cup, at, hat = CODA = CLOSED SYLLABLES
 basic structure of the kind of syllable found in English words like green (CCVC), eggs (VCC),
and (VCC), ham (CVC), I (V), do (CV), not (CVC), like (CVC), them (CVC), Sam (CVC), I (V), am
(VC)

Consonant clusters
 onset and coda may consist of more C = CONSONANT CLUSTER (/st/ = consonant cluster (CC)
– used as onset in
 s stress and splat, consisting of three initial consonants (CCC)
 first consonant must always be /s/, followed by one of the voiceless stops (/p/, /t/, /k/) and a
liquid or glide (/l/, /r/, /w/) (spring, strong, scream and square)
Coarticulation effects
= making one sound almost at the same time as the next sound is called

 coarticulation effects, described as assimilation and elision

Assimilation
= two sound segments occur in sequence and some aspect of one segment is taken

or “copied” by the other

 eg. I have to go  I haf t go. (T – voiceless  V changes to F)

 also vowels (pin) - Any vowel becomes nasal whenever it immediately precedes a nasal
 I can go, the influence of the following velar [ɡ] will almost certainly make the preceding
nasal sound come out as [ŋ] (the velar nasal)

Elision
= isn’t usually pronounced in this phrase (you and me, the [d] sound - preceding nasal [n] and a
following nasal [m], we simply don’t devote speech energy to including the stop sound [d)

 not pronouncing a sound segment that might be present in the deliberately careful
pronunciation of a word in isolation

Normal speech
 avoiding the regular patterns of assimilation and elision used in a language would result in
extremely artificial-sounding talk

Word formation
 Ohio, a department-store worker Mr.Spangler(1900) invented electric suction sweeper =
spangler  extended to the type of person suction  spanglerish – never happened  sold
invention to Mr.Hoover  hoover (vacuum cleaner)
 NEOLOGISM – new word
 regularity in the word-formation processes in a language

Etymology
 study of the origin and history of a word (Latin)

Coinage
 common processes of word formation in English – invension of totally new word
 invented trade names for commercial products that become general terms (older: aspirin,
nylon, vaseline and zipper, recent: granola, kleenex, teflon and xerox) – previously technical
origin - (e.g. te(tra)-fl(uor)-on)
 google – use internet to find information
 EPONYMS – new words based on the name of person (sandwich (from the eighteenth-
century Earl of Sandwic)

Borrowing
= Common sources of new words in English

 adopted a vast number of words from other languages, including croissant (French), dope
(Dutch), lilac (Persian), piano (Italian), pretzel (German), sofa (Arabic), tattoo (Tahitian),
tycoon (Japanese), yogurt (Turkish)
  LOAN TRANSLATION/CALQUE = direct translation of the elements of a word into the
borrowing language (the German Wolkenkratzer (“cloud scraper”) = English skyscraper,
Spanish speakers eat perros calientes (literally “dogs hot”))

Compounding
= joining of two separate words to produce a single form

 E.g. bookcase, doorknob, fingerprint, sunburn, textbook = nouns

 E.g. (good-looking, low-paid) – adjectives
 Noun + adjective – fastfood

Blending
= combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term - accomplished by taking only

the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word

 E.g. product that is used like gasoline, but is made from alcohol, so the “blended” word for
referring to this product is gasohol
 E.g. smoke + fog  smog, brunch (breakfast/lunch), motel (motor/hotel), modem
(modulator/demodulator)

Clipping
= a word of more than one syllable (facsimile) is reduced to a shorter form (fax) - casual speech

 E.g. gasoline  gas, ad advertisement), bra  brassiere, cab  cabriolet

 HYPOCORISMS = longer word is reduced to a single syllable, then -y or -ie is added to the end
e.g. moving pictures movie, television --> telly, Australian  Aussie, handkerchief – hankie

Backformation
= reduction proces - word of one type (us. noun) is reduced to form a word of another type (us. a
verb)

 noun television first came into use and then the verb televise was created from it
 e.g. donate (from “donation”), emote (from “emotion”), enthuse (from “enthusiasm”),
babysit (from “babysitter”)
 e.g. editor will edit, a sculptor will sculpt

Conversion
= change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun comes to be used as a verb (without
any reduction)

 e.g. bottle, butter, chair and vacation have come to be used, through conversion, as verbs:
We bottled the home-brew last night; Have you buttered the toast?; Someone has to chair
the meeting; They’re vacationing in Florida.)
 Modenr English
 verbs becoming nouns (guess, spy)
 phrasal verbs (to print out, to take over) also become nouns (a printout, a takeover)
 complex verb combination (want to be)  noun = a wannabe
 verbs  adjectives (see through  see-thourgh materiál)
 up, down  verbs (up the price, downed a few beers)
  some words may change the meaning after conversion (noun: total  verb: total your car,
verb: run around  noun: insurance company gives you the runaround  from
positive or neutral meaning to negative meaning)
Acronyms
= new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words

 CD (“compact disk”) or VCR (“video cassette recorder” – pronounce each searate letter
 NATO, NASA or UNESCO – pronounce as whole word
 E.g. radar (“radio detecting and ranging”), scuba (“self-contained underwater breathing
apparatus”)
 Us. Names of organizations
 Innovations (ATM (“automatic teller machine”) and the required PIN (“personal identification
number”)

Derivation
 Most common
 accomplished by means of a large number of small “bits” of the English language which are
not usually given separate listings in dictionaries
 bits = AFFIXES
 e.g. elements un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, -ish, -ism and -ness appear in words like unhappy,
misrepresent, prejudge, joyful, careless, boyish

Prefixes and suffixes

 PREFIXES – at the beginning of the word (e.g. un-, mis-)
 SUFFIXES – at the end of the word (e.g. -less, -ish)
 mislead - prefix
 disrespectful - prefix + sufix
 foolishness - two suffixes

Infixes
 in other languages
 affix that is incorporated inside another word
 aggravating circumstances by emotionally aroused English speakers: Hallebloodylujah!,
Absogoddamlutely!

Kamhu (l. of South East Asia)

 version of infixing in English


 infix –rn is added to verbs to form corresponding nouns