Language and Linguistics

Language and Linguistics
• Linguistics: The scientific study of human
language, broadly construed
– How is language structured?
– How do people use language?
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
– How does language change over time
• Historical linguistics
Plan for this unit
•What makes human language unique?
•What are the basic components of language?
•Language acquisition (the central issue in all of
cognitive science)
•Language in other species?
•Language in machines? (Bridge to AI)
•Anything else I feel like talking about
The Waggle Dance
• Von Frisch (1967)
• Worker honeybee
communicates to
others location of food
source
• Straight run indicates
direction
• Waggle and buzzing
indicates distance
Unique Properties of Human
Language
• Displacement
– Ability to communicate about stuff displaced in time,
space, reality, etc…
• Semanticity
– Language can be used to convey virtually any meaning,
not simply those necessary for survival
• Generativity
– Infinite number of sentences from finite set of words
and set of rules used to combine those words
Components of Human Language
• Phonology: The sounds of the language,
phonemes
• Morphology: Smallest units of meaning in
language, morphemes
• Semantics: Meanings of words and sentences
• Syntax: Rules that govern the ways in which
phonemes, morphemes, and words can be
combined
• Pragmatics: The social uses of language
Phonology
• Study of how speech sounds are produced
and perceived
• Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound in
a language that can affect meaning, e.g,
/kæt/ vs. /bæt/. English has about 40
• Speech sounds are produced by forcing air
pass the larynx and through the oral cavity
– In vowels, the flow of air is continuous
– In consonants, the flow of air is fully or
partially blocked
•Consonants differ in terms of the
following three dimensions
•Place of articulation: where the flow of air is
interrupted
•Manner of articulation: how the flow of air is
interrupted (e.g. completely or partially)
•Voicing: whether the vocal cords are vibrating
when the consonant is produced

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