EPHUMA311 The Study of Language Intensive

Introduction

Introduction

EPHUMA311 The Study of Language Intensive

Introduction

Contents
Key terms .............................................................................................. 3
What is language? ................................................................................ 4
Dialect................................................................................................ 4
Universal properties of language.......................................................... 5
Purpose ............................................................................................. 5
Learnability ........................................................................................ 6
Complexity ......................................................................................... 7
Sound level .................................................................................... 7
Structural level ............................................................................... 7
The rules that govern language ............................................................ 9
Descriptive grammar ......................................................................... 9
Prescriptive grammar ...................................................................... 10
Summary questions ............................................................................ 10
References .......................................................................................... 10

EPHUMA311 The Study of Language Intensive

Introduction

Key terms
language
dialect
intelligibility
universal properties
objective
communicative
conscious
rule-governed
prescriptive
descriptive

These words will help your understanding of each topic. If you dont
know what they mean, find a definition. Look first in the Glossary of
the Fromkin et al. text, Introduction to Language.

EPHUMA311 The Study of Language Intensive

Introduction

What is language?
This is one definition:
Simply by making noises with our mouths, we can reliably
cause precise new combinations of ideas to arise in each
others minds. (Pinker, 1994, p. 15)

What does it mean to say we know a language?

The most complex ability and set of facts that any human being
ever acquires is the (implicit) knowledge of a native language.
(Pinker, 1994)

Language/languages:
Determining how many
languages there are
involves determining the
dividing line between a
dialect and a language

First of all, note that this is a course about language as opposed to

languages; however, having said that, there are some important
things to note about languages. There are probably between three
and eight thousand languages in the world. The problem of
determining just how many languages there are involves making
decisions about such things as the dividing line between a dialect and
a language.

Dialect
Dialect:
Form of a language which
is only spoken in one area
Slightly different from
other forms of same

Here is a simple definition. Dialect is:

a form of a language which is spoken only in one area, with
words or grammar that are slightly different from other forms of
the same language.

language

Also see Fromkin et al.s Glossary for a definition of a dialect.

Languages vary by region,

class and education

Languages vary by geographical region, social class, educational

level, and even individual speaker.
Theoretically, speakers of different dialects of the same language can
understand each other, while speakers of different languages cannot.
However, in reality, there is a great range of intelligibility, and the
difference between a language and a dialect cannot be defined with
objective, scientific precision.
Some examples: Australian and American English are both dialects
of English; or, if you have been to America or Britain, you will have
noticed that your speech is not always understood and that you have
not always understood everyone.

EPHUMA311 The Study of Language Intensive

There are many languages

Introduction

Figure 1.1: Some English dialects

Great variety exists

between them

AusEng
Texas
US Eng

English

New England

Geordie
Br Eng
Estuary

Associated with this great number of languages we must also note

the great variety that exists among them, as shown in Figure 1.1.
English

German

French

dog

Hund

chien

What is not so obvious is that languages do share common

characteristics. Therefore, this means that we can study an individual
language to reveal some of the things that all languages have in
common. We can refer to these as universal properties of language.

Universal properties of language

The common
characteristics of language
are called the universal
properties of language
Some properties are
Purpose, Learnability,
Complexity
Purpose: purpose of
language is to
communicate

Some of these properties are such things as:

all languages have the same purpose

all languages are learnable
all are of approximately equal complexity for native speakers.

Lets look at each a little more closely.

Purpose
When we say all languages have the same purpose we mean they
have a communicative function. Some linguists argue that this is the
function that is the basis and origin of language. (Think about why
and when you talk. What is the motivation?)

EPHUMA311 The Study of Language Intensive

We can expect similarities

in structure between
languages

All languages use same

material i.e. human voice

Introduction

As a result, we should expect to find some similarities in their

structure. (Here we could make an analogy with cars and other
similar vehicles such as trucks. They all have the same purpose, that
is, they are designed to carry things such as people or goods and
therefore they show a similarity of structure despite some
differences.)
We could say that all languages use the same materials. For
example, almost all languages begin as spoken languages and so
use a variety of sounds produced by the human voice. The way the
materials are combined gives us different languages. (Again, all
cars/trucks are made from similar materials in different sizes and
combinations.)
English and Frenchin fact all languagesare structured in the way
shown in the next figure.
Figure 1.2: The structure of language
sounds
phonemes

words
vocabulary

syntax
grammar

Learnability:
All languages are learnable

Happen naturally

Use a very
complicated system

Learnability
Another of these universal properties is that all languages are
learnable. Therefore, all children (except those who have problems,
physical or intellectual) learn to talk; that is, they learn the language
they are exposed to and they learn it very quickly. Perhaps we could
make an analogy here between talking and walking. Both happen
naturally without conscious thought and both do not depend on the
level of intelligence of the child.
When we talk, we use a very complicated system. We use not only
our muscular system (as in walking) but we organise our ideas into

EPHUMA311 The Study of Language Intensive

What influences language

learnability?

Motivation

Person teaching the

language

Environment

Complexity:
All languages are of
approximate equal
complexity for native
speakers
Complexity exists at
different levels for
different languages

Introduction

logical order and relate these to the structure of sentences and the
sounds available to our particular language. We dont know all the
answers as to how these things work and this means we still have a
lot to learn about language. However, knowing about the process will
not necessarily make us better writers or talkers.
I have just said that all languages are learnable. However, it is not
necessarily just the similarities between languages that influence their
learnability. Such things as motivation, the person teaching the
language, and the environment in which you learn all play a part. For
example, as an adult, if you are a native English speaker it will be
these extra things that will determine how successful you are at
learning German, or Japanese, or perhaps Swahili.

Complexity
Another universal property shared by all languages is that they are all
of approximately equal complexity for native speakers. However, this
complexity exists at different levels for different languages. For
instance, we can think about:

sound level, and

structural level.

Sound level
Sound level:
The way sounds are
combined to produce a
different language

English is in the mid-range of complexity with approximately 4050

sounds. Samoan has approximately 12, and !kung, with 5000
speakers in Namibia and Angola, has 141 sounds. Would it be easier
to speak Samoan or !kung than English?
For example, almost all languages begin as spoken languages and
therefore use the variety of sounds produced by the human voice.
It is the way the sounds are combined that gives us different
languages.

Structural level: how

words fit together
e.g. word order

Structural level
Structural level concerns how the sounds and the words fit together.
English, for instance, can be very complex at this level. Word order,
for example, can be determined by very strict rules. But some

EPHUMA311 The Study of Language Intensive

Introduction

languages, such as the Aboriginal language Walbiri, and the ancient

language Latin, do not have such strict word order rules.
For example:
Latin:

Agricola vidit lupum

Lupum vidit agricola
Agricola lupum vidit

All the above sentences mean The farmer saw the wolf .
Latin:

Agricolam vidit lupus

Lupus vidit agricolam
Agricolam lupus vidit

These sentences all mean The wolf saw the farmer .

(Note that in Latin, a and us indicate the subject, am and um indicate
the direct object.)
Whereas in English, we find:
a
b

Mrs Smith brought her children up very strictly.

Mrs Smith brought up her children very strictly.

In sentence (a) we can replace the noun phrase her children with a
pronoun such as them, so we can have a sentence such as:
c

Mrs Smith brought them up very strictly.

Notice, however, that making the same change in sentence (b)

results in a sentence that would be unacceptable for most speakers
of English (in Linguistics, the use of the symbol * indicates an
unacceptable sentence):
*Mrs Smith brought up them very strictly.
Adult speakers dont make mistakes of this type, but children up to
about the age of five years might. However, it is not something that is
taught in schoolyou just know it. Just as you know it with sentences
such as:

EPHUMA311 The Study of Language Intensive

Introduction

He saw a little fluffy ginger kitten.

He saw a fluffy little ginger kitten.
He saw a ginger fluffy little kitten.
He saw a ginger little fluffy kitten.
He saw a fluffy ginger little kitten.
He saw a little ginger fluffy kitten.
Which one would you choose as the most acceptable?
(You might like to try these sentences on your family and friends to
see how much agreement there is on the correct order of words such
as those in bold type, or if there is some kind of hierarchy of
acceptance.)
Question:
Why do we know these
patterns?

The question we need to ask here is Why do we know these things?

We tend to get the pattern right, but we cant tell anyone why.
(Put your hands behind your back and try to explain to another
person how to tie shoelacesyou know how to do it, but it is very
difficult to explain that knowledge to someone else.)

The rules that govern language

Rules:
There is a set of rules in
any given language

Descriptive:

Describe how things

are

Not how things ought

to be

Those who study languagefor example, linguistsusually refer to

language as being rule-governed. This simply means that there exists
a set of rules (or you might think of them as a series of patterns or
regularities) in any given language. There must be such a system;
otherwise, the language wouldnt be learnable (and as we have
discovered, learnability is one of the universal properties of
language). However, those rules are not necessarily the kinds of
rules that must be obeyed (i.e. they are not prescriptive rules). They
are in fact descriptive rules, that is, rules that describe how things are
(in this case, how we use language) and not how things ought to be
(or how we should use language).

Descriptive grammar
Descriptive grammar:

A description of basic
linguistic knowledge

Descriptive grammar could be described as:

a linguists description of the rules of a language

a description of your basic linguistic knowledge

EPHUMA311 The Study of Language Intensive

Prescriptive grammar

Socially constructed set

of rules

based on historic view

often using rules of one

language for another

How to take notes from

Course Notes, texts, journals
etc.
1. Read through the text once
without highlighting or writing
anything down.
2. Read again, highlighting key
words and phrases in the text.
3. Jot down important
information on the side of the
page.

Introduction

an explanation of how it is possible for you to speak, understand,

and make judgements about whether a sentence is correct or
incorrect.

Prescriptive grammar
Prescriptive grammar (school grammar) could be described as:

a socially constructed set of rules of what is correct

based on historic views of some versions of language being better
than others
often trying to use the rules of one language for another; for
example, Latin rules for English.

Summary questions
The following questions may help you write a summary of the weeks
work. They relate to or contain the key concepts of this topic.

Are there rules underlying each language?

Is language more of a pattern?
How can languages be learnable?
Do you only learn the words?
How do you know what to say?
How do you organise your thoughts into the physical action of
speaking?
What is the primary use of language?
Why did language evolve?

4. Write a summary using the

highlighted information in the

References

text and from your side notes.

5. Refer to relevant
readings/tutorial notes and add

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., Hyams, N., Collins, P., Amberber, M. &
Cox, F. (2012). An introduction to language (7th ed.). South
Melbourne, Australia: Cengage Learning Australia P/L.

to this summary any other

information you have learned
about this topic.

Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. London, England: Penguin

Books.

6. Prepare a summary for each

week to help your mind take in
new information and to use
when revising for exams.

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