Lecture 1

INTRODUCTION TO
LINGUISTICS
CONTENT
What is Linguistics?
What is Language?
Origins Of Language?
Bow-wow Theory
Yo-he-ho Theory
Divine Source
Natural Source
Oral-gesture Source
Genetic
Physical Adoption Source
Conclusion
WHAT IS LINGUISTICS?
the scientific study of language and its
structure, including the study of grammar,
syntax, and phonetics. Specific branches of
linguistics include sociolinguistics,
dialectology, psycholinguistics,
computational linguistics, comparative
linguistics, and structural linguistics.
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
the method of human communication, either
spoken or written, consisting of the use of
words in a structured and conventional way.
ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE?

 No one knows exactly when or how human

beings came up with spoken language.  One
hypothesis is that language began between
100,000 and 50,000 years ago, with the
advent of modern man, i.e. homo sapiens. 
This is well before the invention of the
written language, about 5,000 years ago. We
have direct evidence and artifacts about
writing.
he divine source:  Genesis 2/19: God created
Adam and “whatsoever Adam called every
living creature, was the name thereof.” 
The Qur’an: He said, “O Adam, inform them
of their names.” And when he had informed
them of their names… (Al Baqarah, 2/31-33)
 A Hindu belief: language came from
Saraswati, wife of Brahma, creator of the
universe.
The natural sound source:  Language emerged
from natural sounds.  Primitive words are
considered to be imitations of natural sounds
that people hear around them.  The natural
sound a bird makes is argued to have been
used to describe that particular animal. 
The fact that in many languages there are
words such as drip, click, meow and honk
that sound like what they mean supports this
claim.  Not every sound is onomatopoeic in
languages!!
Some theories of origins of language invented
by Max Müller
The Bow-wow theory: According to this theory,
language began when our ancestors started
imitating the natural sounds around them.
The first speech was onomatopoeic--marked
by echoic words such as moo, meow, splash,
cuckoo, and bang
The Yo-he-ho theory: based on the notion that
speech arose from physical environmental
needs which produced communal, rhythmical
grunts which later on developed into chants
The oral-gesture source  Originally a set of
physical gestures was developed as a means
of communication, Then a set of oral
gestures, specifically involving the mouth,
developed for expressing ideas. Physical
gesture (except mouth) Physical gesture
(including mouth) Speech sounds
The physical adaption Source  Human beings
are genetically with some physical features
that are responsible of producing speech
sounds.
The genetic (innateness) source  According to
Chomsky, language is partly innate and
partly acquired.
Conclusion  All presented theories do not
precisely demonstrate what is the origin
language, but that is clear-cut in the past
people were only able do some gestures and
produce a few sounds.