WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.

Kuster

What is the „study of language”?

• focus on various forms language can take and various ways in which language is used
• also called 'linguistics'
• how do languages or a particular language work? what is meaning? when, how, what kind
people use language?
• In the 60s linguists started to realise that spoken grammar is very different to written
grammar
• Semester topics: semantics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics & discourse, language acquisition

1. UNIVERSAL PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE

What makes language language? → comparison language vs. animal communication

A « meta-property » of language:
Reflexivity (humans are able to reflect on language and its uses) → distinguishing feature of human
language

The universal properties of language:

• Displacement: communicating about things & events not present in the immediate
environment (in terms of space, time – past, future; and even things and places whose
existence we can’t even be sure of)
• Arbitrariness: relation between a word and the object its referring to is arbitrary → no
“natural” connection between a linguistic form and its meaning
• Cultural transmission: languages are carried (on) within cultural groups → we acquire a
language in a culture with other speakers, not from parental genes → language is passed on
from one generation to the next (CT is crucial in the human acquisition process)
• Productivity, Creativity: potential number of utterances in any human language is infinite →
we continually create new expressions and utterances (Äußerungen) to describe new objects
and situations → these lead to “Variability” (language use varies according to users and uses
e.g in different situations, in relation to cultural concerns => British vs. American English,
different levels of formality)
• Duality (Modularity, Constituency): At one level we have distinct sounds (n, b, i etc.) and a
another level we have distinct meanings → with a limited set of discrete sounds we are
capable of producing a very large number of sound combinations which are distinct in
meaning → one of the most economical features of human language
• Discreteness: When we speak it’s a flow of sounds, but as speakers we can cut this flow and
identify its units → ability to perceive flow of sounds as consisting of discrete units
Linguistics as a science:
“Modern linguistics” emerged at the beginning of the 20th century
>Ferdinand de Saussure: father of modern linguistics
>”cours de linguistique générale”
>His contribution is seen as a milestone in linguistics

• TIME
Synchronic (study of language): studies language at a certain point of time => abstraction,
because language is always in transition
Diachronic: studies language over time, i.e the changes that can be observed in the course of
the history of a language
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

• STRUCTURE
Syntagmatic: what other signs can be connected to a sign in order to
form sentence? => Axis of combination (horizontal)
Paradigmatic: what other signs can replace a sign within a sentence?
=> Axis of selection or substitution (vertical)
• SYTEM VS. USE
Langue: Language System (all those who speak English share a particular langue)
Parole: Language Use (the set of utterances they produce speaking English constitute
instances of parole)
• LINGUISTIC SIGN
Signifier vs. Signified

Language as a system of signs:

Semiotics → The study of signs

Sign = combination of form and meaning/function

• Icon: Form-meaning relation is one of similarity (Achtung Wild Verkehrsschild)

• Symbol: Form-meaning relation is arbitrary (Vorangtafel)
• Index: Form-meaning relation is one of cause-effect; symptom (we see smoke and we
know/assume it must me linked to fire; so smoke indexes fire)
Saussures linguistic sign consists of two parts:
• Signifiant (the signifier) → sound sequence, sound-image → the word “tree”
• Signifié (the signified) → concept → the actual tree
• With most linguistic signs the relation between these two is arbitrary
• Linguistic signs are generally classified as symbols
Onomatopoeia (p.e wau wau for the sound of a dogs barking, so word is not quite arbitrary, its
mimicking the sound the dog produces; so this is a slight exception)

2. SEMANTICS

= Linguists working in the field of semantics are interested in meaning in human language. Semantics
is the study of the structure of meaning.

Lexical semantics: concerned with the meaning of words

Sentential semantics (phrasal semantics): concerned with the meaning
of syntactic units larger than words (e.g. phrases, clauses, sentences)
Discourse semantics: meaning that is created in context (very close to
pragmatics)

“Semantics is the study of meaning.” (Lyons 1977)

“Semantics is the study of meaning in language.” (Hurford & Heasley 1983)
“Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through language.” (Saeed 1997)
“Semantics is the study of literal, decontextualized, grammatical meaning.” (Frawley 1992)
“Semantics is the study of how languages organize and express meanings.” (Kreidler 1998)
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Some questions that are being asked in Semantics:

• How can the meaning of a given word or expression be defined or measured?
• How is the meaning of words and its relationship to other words organized in the mind?
• What is the relationship between language and thought?
• How do children learn the meaning of words?
• How are the meanings of words affected when put into phrases and sentences?
• Do different languages structure and express meaning in significantly different ways?
• What are the laws that govern the changes in meaning that words undergo over time?

What is meaning?

= the relation (need not be direct) between a linguistic expression and the entity for which it can be
used
Word meaning is conventional and also arbitrary.
Relation between meaning and spoken/written form ! (dog, Hund, perro)

Woman
• Conceptual (denotational) meaning: human, female, adult
• Associative (connotational) meaning: dress, long hair, emotional, gentle
→culturally determined
→includes stylistic/genre differences
→e.g. domicile (official), residence (formal), abode (poetic), home (general), place (informal),
digs (colloquial)

Where does meaning come from?

• People use language to organise (make sense of) the world around them
• The structuring process is culture dependent (e.g. Spanish has two words for “leg” → pata (animal),
pierna (human))
Two views on the relation between language and the world:
• Words refer directly to things (words are only names for things)
>London, chalk, Anne => direct link
>difficult, ask, tradition => no direct link
>unicorn, dragon, Dracula => things don’t exist but there’s still words for them
• Words refer to concepts which are related to things

• SEMIOTIC TRIANGLE
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Dimensions of WORD meaning:

Chair
1. Reference to outside world (e.g pointing at sth)
2. Without reference to outside world (explaining sense of the word: seat + four legs + back, its use:
to sit in, or by presenting related words: armchair, stool…)

Meaning is a relation (or rather two relations), and these relations are established through a word’s
use in language (Ludwig Wittgenstein) => relation between words & discourse context (intention)

• Meaning is the relation between a linguistic expression (e.g. a word) and a mental category that is
used to classify objects, i.e. a category (Plag et al 2007, p. 145)
→ (indirect) relation between word and the world (denotation)
• Meaning is the relation(s) between a word and other words in the language.
→ Words are part of a semantic network (sense)

→denotation: the set of entities a word can refer to; its

potential referents

→connotation: the qualities associated with these

referents

→sense: how we present/describe these referents

(definition)

Word meaning theories:

What does denotation look like? How do we categorize things in the world?
Two basic approaches:

• Atoms of meaning (minimal units of meaning): Semantic features theory*

• Fuzzy concepts (not clearly identifiable units): Prototype theory

*Example:
→woman: + human, - male, +adult
→girl: + human, - male, - adult
→man: + human, + male, + adult
→boy: + human, + male, - adult
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Very scientific approach: We can identify semantic features and with them differentiate between
words or well characterize words

Advantages:
• offer a convenient explanation for meaning overlap: mother, aunt, mare, sow → FEMALE
• are useful for representing similarities and differences among semantically related words
• attempt to find basic (universal?) components for defining word meaning (=primitives)
• allow parallelism between: > sound structure - meaning structure
> phonetic components – semantic components

Problem:

Bachelor → + human, + adult, + male, - married

Spinster → + human, + adult, - male, - married
Difference in one feature only? Does this really capture the meaning? NO !
e.g. so the pope is a bachelor? Would we really describe it like that?

• some features are not atomic [+ CANINE], [+HUMAN], [+MARRIED]

• componential analysis does not grasp all there is to word meaning (spinster/bachelor).
• which features should be listed (which are essential / necessary?)
• sometimes impossible to find core attributes at all (advice, threat)
• recursivity/recursion (some words define each other e.g. prisoner & convict), circularity (dead &
alive)
• gradience (only there or not there, no gradience, you can’t be a little or a lot of a feature)

2. Prototype theory:
Elena Rosch, psychologist
• Categories are not defined by features, but are organized around a prototype
• A prototype is a 'best example' of a category (e.g. Rosch 1978)
• Members graded according to their typicality
• Central members share many features with the prototype

Example for gradation of typicality:

→robin = the most typical bird

→penguin & ostrich = A-typical birds

• Allows for non-typical / peripheral members

• Allows for gradience (more or less of sth.)
• Includes associative meaning (e.g. bachelor)
• Explains linguistic expressions such as:
>typically
>strictly speaking, loosely speaking, technically speaking
>as such
>sort of, kind-of, -ish
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Homonymy, Polysemy, Synonymy:

These capture multiple meanings

1. The rock hit him on the head. She hit the nail on the head. → Polysemy (related meanings)
2. I saw a bat flying around. He hit the ball with his bat. → Homonymy (unrelated meanings)

Words can also be both:

Relevance of homonymy-polysemy debate?

• For linguists – YES
• For native speakers – NO(?)
• For language learners – YES?
• For dictionary users/makers – YES →

Special cases of (partial) homonymy:

• homophony: two or more forms with the same pronunciation but different spellings
e.g. bear – bare, die – dye
• homography: two or more forms with the same spelling but different pronunciations
e.g. tear (to tear sth apart, the tear we cry)

3. words of different form that have the same meaning → Synonymy

e.g. And her job/occupation is what? She’s an engineer.

BUT: There are no true synonyms !

→She is more beautiful than ever. She is more lovely than ever.?
→Richard is a beautiful person. Richard is a lovely person. ?
→I did a good job. I did a good occupation.?
→I tried sushi today. I attempted sushi today. ?

In the case of a polysemous word, synonymy involves one sense/meaning of that word.
Different contextual limitations indicate different semantic properties.
→On close inspection there are no true synonyms, only “near-synonyms”

Summary Meaning:
• Linguistic meaning is conventional
• Linguistic (conceptual, denotational) meaning vs. encyclopaedic (associative, connotational)
meaning
• Meaning is not the same as reference
• Meaning is linked to ‘things’ via concepts (semiotic triangle)
• Denotation vs. sense
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Paradigmatic vs. Syntagmatic relations

(1) a. Is this an expensive book?

b. No, it's a cheap book.
 Paradigmatic relation: 'vertical' relationship of linguistic forms which can replace
each other in a structure.

(2) a. I met a very handsome _______ → we expect words like man, guy, boy
b. Mick scored a beautiful _______ → we expect words like goal, try (rugby)
 Syntagmatic relation: 'horizontal' relationship holding between linguistic forms
which co-occur in the same structure.

1. Paradigmatic lexical/sense relations:

Paradigmatic semantic relations: • Synonymy → same set of semantic features

• Antonymy → contrast in one feature
• Hyponymy → contain all features of superordinate + 1 extra

• Synonymy: see N°3 above for examples

Euphemism: the substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression for one that may
offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener; typically used to avoid
taboo words or politically sensitive expressions (political correctness), but also
used for fun. => often Euphemism becomes conventional way of saying things
• dustman – refuse collector, sanitation engineer; die – pass away; accidental
deaths – collateral damage; toilet – bathroom, rest room (U.S.); a lie –
disinformation; illegal alien – undocumented immigrant
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

• Antonymy = oppositeness of meaning

e.g. big - small, clean - dirty → Gradable → bigger than, very clean etc.
dead - alive, true – false → Non-gradable → one or the other; not dead
= alive
tie - untie, enter – exit → Reversives → reversed action; exit ≠ not
enter
borrow - lend, buy – sell → Converses → mutual implication;
John is Mary’s husband.
Mary is John’s wife.

Words my have different opposites in different contexts/senses:

Light bag (heavy), light wind (strong), light colours (dark), light fingers (clumsy), light
conversation (serious)

• Hyponymy = inclusion of meaning:

e.g. an X is a kind of Y => a rose is a kind of flower, a dog is a kind of animal

• hyperonym (superordinate; hypernym)

• Hyponyms
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

2. Syntagmatic relations:

“You shall know a word by the company it keeps.” J.R. Firth

 You need to know what comes before & after (context) to understand a word
• lexemes combine in predictable ways
• there are patterns of co-occurrence

Collocation: co-occurrence of lexical items in text

the idiom principle (Sinclair 1987) (vs. open-choice principle)

She has a beige dress. *She has beige hair.

*She has a blond dress. She has blond hair.

beige collocates with dress, sofa, car, but not with hair.
blond collocates with hair (only)
difference to other colours e.g. brown

→ Collocation forms an important organizing principle in the vocabulary of any language.

• Totally predictable collocations: addled eggs, rancid butter, blond hair

• Less predictable collocations: candle … burn, blow out, birthday, Christmas
brown … hair, eyes, car, bread, shirt
• No predictable collocates: have, be, the

Highly fixed collocations (differences between languages):

• Kartoffeln kochen → cook potatoes
• Wasser kochen → boil water
• Kaffee kochen → make / brew coffee
• Schwarzbrot → brown bread

→knowledge of the collocational range and limitations of words forms a substantial part of language
knowledge
→formulaic phrases, “chunks”
→patterns learned and used as wholes
→meaning is more than the sum of the component parts
→cannot (or hardly) be modified

• to see the light (#to see the lamp)

• sick and tired (#sick and exhausted)
• to kick the bucket => to die
• to be in hot water => to be in trouble
• to shoot you mouth off => talk carelessly

→IDIOM: Expression whose meaning cannot be derived from the meaning of its component parts

Collocational bonds
• hold between words that are not necessarily immediately next to each other
• bridge word classes and syntactic structure

argument - strong:
• a strong argument, his argument was strengthened, the strength of his argument,
he argued strongly for…
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Complications in meaning representation:

1. Idioms:

Some idioms are syntactically constrained:

Uncle Tony finally kicked the bucket.

*The bucket was finally kicked by uncle Tony.
*Uncle Tony’s kicking of the bucket was really sad.

Such opaque* idioms • have their own lexical entry

• represented as a whole
*meaning of the whole, can not be reduced to its parts (see example)

2. Metonymy & Metaphor:

Waitress: Which of you is the tuna salad?

Nurse: The appendix in room 9 is driving me mad. → no sense on semantic level

Metonymy
New use of a word based on a close connection between two concepts in everyday experience
• content-container relation (crisps - bag): – He ate the whole bag (of crisps); the kettle is boiling
• function-symbol relation (President - White House) – The White House announced...
• whole-part relation (body - head) – The group counted 63 heads….

Conventionalized metonyms:
• farmhand, skinhead, glasses, wheels …

Inventing new words: • Please do a Napoleon for the camera.

• Britain is more Thatcherite now than in the 1980s
• He houdinied his way out of the cage.
• He beckhamed the ball into the goal.
• He toothached all our proposals.

! Metonymy stays in one domain, whereas Metaphors change domains !

WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Metaphor
seeing one thing in terms of something else (belonging to a different domain)
metaphorical extension is an everyday process, used to make sense of the world

• head: topmost part of human body

• becomes: topmost part of a nail, or of a company/institution

→Result: polysemy

Conceptual metaphors:
• I'm crazy about you.
• He's gone all ga-ga since he met her.
• She constantly raves about him.
• I'm just wild about Harry. → LOVE IS MADNESS

• I was magnetically drawn to her.

• They gravitated to each other immediately.
• His whole life revolves around her. → LOVE IS A NATURAL FORCE

• He bombarded me with objections.

• He made a vicious attack on my position.
• She fought for her view of things.
• Your claims are indefensible.
• I´ve never won an argument with him.
• His criticisms were right on target.
• He shot down all of my arguments. → ARGUMENT IS WAR

Metaphor is … seeing one thing in terms of another (belonging to a different cognitive domain)
a cognitive strategy to make sense of the world
not only a literary phenomenon
all-pervasive in language

Lexical ambiguity

Mismatches of meaning

The man is reading the newspaper.

*The dog is reading the newspaper.
*The table is reading the newspaper.
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

→ syntagmatic relation (semantic feature theory)

Colourless green ideas sleep furiously. – Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures

→grammatically correct, but ill-formed from a semantic (meaning) perspective
→Violation of selectional restrictions: • meaning clashes
• semantically ill-formed/anomalous (but syntactically ok)

Semantic roles

Semantic role (thematic role, Theta role): role that a participant plays in an event

>Event → Predication (≈ Clause)

>Participant → Argument (e.g. Noun Phrase)

Central element = verb → helps to identify the other roles

Predicate = basically the verb

Predication = relationship between
predicate + arguments
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Advantages of Semantic Roles:

They help us identify the type of event that’s going on (and with that group verbs and see the
relationship to the arguments.)

William stole the bicycle. → steal Agent Theme

William gave the bicycle to Harry. → give Agent Theme Goal

Meaning of the verb determines:

1. Number of arguments (obligatory participants)
2. Semantic roles of the arguments

• Three place verbs/predicates: give, donate, hand, put

• Two place verbs/predicates: steal, carry, open, see (What about: I see you to the door?)
• One-place verbs/predicates: laugh, sleep, sit, fall (What about live?)
• Zero-place verbs/predicates: rain, snow, hail (need subject => but “it” doesn’t have meaning, its
just a syntactic requirement)

We only look at meaning, not at syntax:

One-place verb: The safe opened. (Theme)

The key opened the safe. (Instrument + Theme)
Peter opened the safe with a key. (Agent + Theme + Instrument)

Jane lost the ball.

The ball was lost by Janet.

→Doesn’t matter what construction looks like, we have the same event.
→Same predication (semantics), different form (syntax)

Problems of Semantic Roles:

1.How many roles are there?

• First argument: −Agent, Theme, Experiencer, Instrument, Location, Force ...

• Second argument: −Theme, Patient, Location, Instrument ...
• Third argument: −Goal, Location, Instrument, Recipient, Beneficiary ...
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

2. One role or several roles?

• The chimney smoked. => Agent/Source ?

• The bath filled. => Theme/Goal ?
• This machine has saved many lives. => Agent/Instrument ?
• The wind closed the door. => Agent/Force ?
• I like Vienna. => Theme/Location ?

Solution 1: semantic features (=type of theoretical approach)

→Different Modes of Action (“Aktionsarts”)

→Goal: Identify the meaning elements of these actions?

→control: is there control in the event?

→dynamic: does sth change in the event being described?
→telic: is there a direction involved (e.g. carry: +telic)
→agency or experience?

Solution 2: prototypes (=other type of theoretical approach)

→uses typical examples

→semantic roles as abstract functions: proto-roles (proto-agent & proto-patient)

− Proto-agent:
• volitional (control)
• causing a state of change in another participant
• experience (perception) etc.

− Proto-patient:
• undergoes change of state
• causally affected by other participant
• direction/endpoint etc.
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Corpora

→very different, more empirical way of dealing with words in context

→looking at examples: what is a word accompanied with? how do they combine with other words?
→instead of theorising

Corpus:
• a large, balanced collection of natural texts (written and/or spoken)
• typically based on a specific type of text, from a particular period
• aimed at being representative of the type under examination (what does this collection stand for?
what is its aim?)

Corpus linguistics (Analysing the Corpus):

• linguistic description based on the extensive accumulation of actually occurring language data and
its analysis by computer
• empirical discipline, using statistical methods
• never answers all questions

Advantage: there’s lots of already established Corpora

• COBUILD corpus (Collins Birmingham University International Language Database)

• BNC – British National Corpus (BYU: https://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/)
• COCA – Corpus of Contemporary American English (BYU: https://corpus.byu.edu/coca/)
• COHA – Corpus of Historical American English (BYU: https://corpus.byu.edu/coha/)
• ICE corpus (International Corpus of English)
• HELSINKI Corpus of English Texts (Old – Middle - Early Modern English)
• VOICE (Vienna Oxford International Corpus of English), http://www.univie.ac.at/voice/

Corpus analysis software:

• programmes for building one’s own corpus (e.g. concordancing, tagging)

• e.g. WordSmith, AntConc

Sophisticated search software:

• e.g. ICE-CUP (fuzzy trees)

Insights into semantics:

• frequency of a word (how often can we find a word in a particular collection?)

• frequency of different meanings for a given word (polysemy, synonymy)
• systematic collocations with other words
• systematic association with particular registers / genres / dialects / social, ethnic, age groups
• etc.
→ how does language change?

Annotation in text corpora:

• Most corpora are tagged:

− word classes: noun, verb, adjective, preposition
− noun: proper name, pronouns, count/mass nouns
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

• Occasionally corpora are parsed (ICE-GB):

− syntactic categories: NP, clause, active / passive etc.
• Most (bigger) corpora allow you contain different types of text:
− spoken - written
− public – private
− academic, business, newspaper, literature etc
− interviews, telephone conversations, lectures etc.
• Some corpora are specialized:
− variety (British, American, Australian, Scottish, etc.; ELF)
− period: OE, ME, ModE, PDE
• Some corpora also provide information about the speakers:
− gender
− age
− education
− geographical background

Words in text corpora:

What do we look for in a text? A Word (meaning, how often can I find it etc.) => FORM

How many meanings of right can you identify?

Any other meanings (not in this sample)?

We automatically get the collocations → what other words it appears with

WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

• Depending on the type of text words are used more or less frequently, have more or less
collocations

SENTENCE meaning

• Lexicon:
− large but finite; (core) meanings can be listed
• Sentences
− infinite number; meanings cannot be listed; meanings are compositional
• When know the meaning of individual words and the (semantic and syntactic) rules for combining
them, we can make in infinite number of sentences (infinite number of meanings).
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

• sentence meaning (semantics) vs. speaker meaning / intention (pragmatics)

or:
• what is coded in language (semantics) vs. what is implied / intended (pragmatics)

We’re closing. => sentence meaning is clear. But intended meaning could be different: please leave

Ambiguous sentences

Representing sentence meaning:

• Proposition:
What is stated/asserted in a sentence.

Proposition or not?
A: B:
John was late That’s not true. (He wasn’t.)
Was John late? *That’s not true.
Don’t be late. *That’s not true.

• Truth value:
Is the propositional content true or false?

− Max loves Anne. True | False

− The table is reading the newspaper. True | False ???
− The King of Austria is very rich. True | False ???

Semantic relations between sentences:

• Paraphrase (≈ synonymy)
• Contradiction (≈ antonymy)
• Entailment (≈ hyponymy)
• Presupposition
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

(1a) Mary sold a car to Tom.

(1b) Tom bought a car from Mary.

(2a) The police chased the burglar.

(2b) The burglar was chased by the police.

Paraphrase => A and B express the same proposition (same truth value)

(1a) Chris is Jane’s brother.

(1b) Jane is an only child.

(2a) Charles is a bachelor.

(2b) Charles is married.

Contradiction => If A is true, B must be false (opposite truth values)

(1a) Mr. Sellers killed his wife.

(1b) Mrs. Sellers is dead.

(2a) Jane ate oatmeal for breakfast this morning.

(2b) Jane ate breakfast this morning.

Entailment => If A is true, B must also be true.

(1) I regret leaving London. → I left London

(2) She cried before she finished her thesis. → She finished her thesis
(3) I have stopped smoking → I used to smoke

Presupposition => If A is true, then B is implied to be true

Entailment vs. Presupposition:

• Entailment can only occur in declarative sentences (statement); presupposition can be found in
different kinds of sentences
− Do you regret leaving London? (presupposition remains)
− Did Mr. Sellers kill his wife? (entailment disappears)

• Presuppositions remain under negation

− I do not regret leaving London (presupposition remains)
− Mr. Sellers did not kill his wife (entailment disappears)

• Presuppositions can be cancelled

− She died before she finished her thesis. (presupposition cancelled)

SUMMARY: SEMANTICS IMPORTANT TERMS

• conceptual vs. associative meaning, denotation vs. sense, semantic features (+ applications: sense
relations, meaning mismatch in sentences), prototype theory
• paradigmatic vs. syntagmatic relations, synonymy, antonymy (+ types), hyponymy, collocation,
idioms, metaphor & metonymy, polysemy vs. homonymy
• ambiguity (lexical, structural), semantic roles, corpora, proposition, truth value, sentence meaning
vs. speaker meaning, paraphrase, entailment, contradiction, presupposition
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

3. SOCIOLINGUISTICS

"Sociolinguistics is the field that studies the relation between language* and society, between the
uses of language and the social structures in which the users of language live."

*General (meta) functions of language:

→Ideational Function: We use language to come to terms with the world around us (i.e. 3rd
person reality) => classifying, organizing, referring, influencing, ...
→Interpersonal Function: We use language to interact with others (i.e. 2nd person)
=> establishing social relations, cooperation, belonging to a group, ...

Basic concepts: variety, accent, language, dialect, standard

Variety

• Schneider (2011): A set of language habits that is shared by a certain group of speakers for use in
certain contexts
• Crystal (2003): A term used in sociolinguistics and stylistics to refer to any system of linguistic
expression whose use is governed by situational variables.
• Spolsky (1998): Term used to denote any identifiable kind of language
• Ferguson (1972): Anybody of human speech patterns which is sufficiently homogeneous to be
analysed by available techniques of synchronic description […]
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Accent

refers to the phonological and prosodic (= pronunciation) aspects of a linguistic variety

Language, Dialect, Standard

Commonly used criteria for distinguishing between 'dialect' and 'language':

→Mutual intelligibility / linguistic distance

Fasold (2006:388): "In spite of more than a

century of effort, linguists have never found a
definition of mutual intelligibility or separation
that can unambiguously tell us if we are looking
at a language or a dialect".

Max Weinreich (1945): "A language is a dialect

with an army and a navy.“

+ socio-political considerations!

Linguistic + socio-political dimensions:

dialect
1. One of several distinguishable varieties, generally (but not always) mutually intelligible, of a
language. A dialect has features on all levels of language, including lexical,
phonological, morphosyntactic, and pragmatic. Linguists use this term to refer to any language
variety, regardless of its social status.
2. A linguistic variety without standardization or published literature.

language
A language variety acknowledged to have social and political importance, generally (but not always)
not mutually intelligible with other languages.

Standard language:
“an idealized variety […] associated with administrative, commercial and educational centers,
regardless of region” (Yule 2017)
“A socially favored variety of a language” (Fasold & Connor-Linton 2006)
→implications for its speakers
→language as “symbolic capital” in a “social marketplace” (Pierre Bourdieu)
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Standard:
• means of unification • difference written & spoken modes
• general education • supports / increases social hierarchies
• standardisation of English • socio-political & linguistic aspects: often
• medium of wider communication mixed up!

Standardisation: from dialect to standard

Socio-political aspects: selection, implementation, acceptance

Linguistic aspects: elaboration, codification
→language norms

Standard and non-standard varieties:

"[A]ll human language systems - spoken, signed and written - are fundamentally regular"

> characterizations of socially disfavoured varieties as "slang, mutant, defective, ungrammatical or

broken English are [linguistically] incorrect and demeaning.“ → WRONG !
Linguistic Society of America – resolution (1997)

Non-standard varieties/dialects have their own grammars that are inherently systematic:

*Das hat ihm überrascht. *Er hat einen Spieler die rote Karte gezeigt.
Des hot eam überroscht. Er hot an Spüla die rote Koatn zagt.
*Des hot ean übarroscht. *Er hot am Spüla die rote Koatn zagt.

Dell Hymes (1927 – 2009)

o US linguistic → father of linguistic anthropology
o CONTEXT of a speech situation (social situation that includes the use of speech/language)
o “The SPEAKING heuristic” → provides a set of criteria for description of
communication/speech situations
o Settings (physical, mental), Participants (speaker, addressee), Ends (purpose of
interaction), Act sequences (activities carries out: linguistic & non-linguistic), Keys
(mood, emotional feel), Instrumentalities (mode/medium of communication), Norms
(social), Genres (type of interaction: e.g. lecture => always comes with expectations)
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Focus on the participants – what do they ‘bring to the table’:

“Variationist Sociolinguistics”

Variation between groups of speakers:

→ varieties, dialects (regional/social),
accents (pronunciation)

Variation within one speaker:

→ styles (e.g. formal vs. informal)
=> style-shifting

3.1. FROM ENGLISH TO ENGLISHES – THE SPREAD OF ENGLISH

Third dispersal → it’s not native speakers that move to new places and “bring” language there, its
about globalisation, internet etc.
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

How many people speak English?

English as an official language:

Today, there are approximately 75 territories / countries where English is spoken…

• either as a first language (L1):
Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States of America
• or as an official (i.e. institutionalized) second language (L2), alongside other official languages in
fields such as government, law, education:
e.g. Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Zimbabwe

World Atlas of Varieties of English:

→based on a lot of descriptive data

WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Models: The spread of English

Strevens’ Language Tree

Kachru’s circle model of World Englishes

→EC: English as a lingua franca,

accommodation theory (EFL =
Engl. as a foreign language)
→OC: Bilingualism
(individual/societal), pidgins &
creoles, code choice – language
attitudes & policy (ESL = Engl. As
a second language)
→IC: Regional variation & Social
variation (ENL =Engl. as native
language: which forms?)
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

• most useful and influential model of how we can categorize existing Englishes
• a reference point for many scholars and practitioners o based on history and geography 
limitations

Limitations:

• term Inner Circle implies that speakers in ENL countries are central
o but: they should not be seen as superior!
• based on geography and history, not on speakers’ use of English
• hence: difficulty of using model to define speakers in terms of their proficiency [~ mastery,
competence]
• does not account for the linguistic diversity within and between countries of a particular
circle
• grey areas between Inner & Outer Circle and between Outer & Expanding Circle
• does not fully account for bi/multilingual speakers

Alternative models:

→these models also have

their limitations !

Regional variation (Englishes in the inner circle):

Regional dialects:
‘Modern Dialects’ in England from Peter Trudgill – important sociolinguistic (1999):
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Dialectology:

NORMs: Non-mobile, old, rural, males

→so basically, typical locals, that hadn’t moved
a lot => they should represent/help to
identify the language of a region
→isoglosses: line on the map marking the area
having a distinct linguistic feature/lexical
item
→dialect boundaries: boundaries between
different dialects (not focus on just on lexical
item) = bundle of isoglosses

Dialect Atlas US/American English:

Since 1960s: ‘Modern/Urban (=> see earlier: NORM => rural; focus on villages) dialectology’
• more complex: demands more knowledge of
social variations/groups/stratification
• focus on social (& regional) variation
• study of diverse social groups
• elicitation of info & use of stats
• creation of ling atlases & corpora
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Social variation (also included in modern dialectology):

Variationist sociolinguistics:
o variation between groups of speakers: dialects and sociolects
o variation within one speaker ('styles‘) > 'style-shifting‘
⇒investigate language use acc. to range of factors (socio-cultural, age, gender; speaking styles),
focussing on specific linguistic features or (socio)linguistic variables

Vernacular (W. Labov – linguist):

“a general expression for a kind of social dialect, typically spoken by a lower-status group, which is
treated as ‘non-standard’ because of marked difference from the ‘standard’ language”
e.g. African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

or more generally: vernacular = the kind of speech a person produces (with an in-group) when s/he is
not paying attention to speech (~ordinary speech, informal, relaxed) => cf. ‘casual style’ (cf. Yule)

Recap: Key terms in sociolinguistics | Social variation

o sociolect
o social variables, (socio)linguistic variables
o social marker (mark speaker as belonging to certain group)
o style-shifting
• careful style vs. casual style →pronunciation of “r”
o overt prestige (you speak up to standard, are aware of it) vs. covert prestige

Read details in Yule !

The Outer Circle:

More than one language/variety…

• bilingual: a term used to describe a native speaker of two languages or a country with two
official languages, in contrast to monolingual (very restrictive definition => lots of linguists
wouldn’t see this as the most fitting way of describing bilingualism)
• bidialectal: being capable of speaking two dialects
• style-shifting (within 1 language), code-switching (between languages) => people can move
within their repertoire
Societal bilingualism/bidialectalism:

regional – national, e.g. Canada

diglossia: includes a very clear functional distinction (not every bilingual region is automatically
diglossic) e.g. german speaking Switzerland
→ “A relatively stable language situation in which two clearly separate varieties ('H' = high
and 'L' = low) are used for clearly different functions” – Ferguson, 1959
→ "A social organization of dialects of the same language so that one is seen as more pure
and is used for formal purposes (including writing), while others are used for everyday
purposes. Diglossic communities take pride in both." – Fasold & Connor-Linton, 2006
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Englishes in the Outer Circle countries:

• Wide-spread bilingualism
• Result of long-term intensive & extensive language contact between English and local
language(s)
• Sociolinguistic consequences Englishes in Outer Circle countries
o Wide-spread code-switching
o In some regions: pidgins & creoles developed (newly developed varieties)
o Complex situation of e.g.
 Code choice: when, why, how do we choose one language?
 Language attitudes: social psychology; how we perceive languages, dialects…
 Language policy (e.g. education, official status)
Language contact situations:

“A pidgin is a language with no native speakers: it is no one’s first language but is a contact
language. That is, it is the product of a multilingual situation in which those who wish to
communicate must find or improvise a simple language system that will enable them to do so … In
contrast to a pidgin, a creole is often defined as a pidgin that has become the first language of a new
generation of speakers.”

Pidgins
- fulfill restricted communicative (local) needs between people who do not share a common language
- are usually contact languages between speakers of ‘dominant’ European languages and speakers of
indigenous African or American languages

*E.g. Jamaican creole (Jamaican patois)

WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Code (variety) choice:

“A man wishing to see a government officer about renewing a license may state his request to the
girl typist in Swahili as a suitably neutral language if he does not know her. To start off in English
would be unfortunate if she did not know it, and on her goodwill depends his gaining access to
authority reasonably quickly. She may reply in Swahili, if she knows it as well as he does and wishes
to be co-operative; or in English, if she is busy and not anxious to be disturbed; or in the local
language, if she recognises him and wishes to reduce the level of formality. If he, in return, knows
little English, he may be put off at her use of it and decide to come back later; or, if he knows it well,
he may demonstrate his importance by insisting on an early interview and gain his objective at the
expense of the typist's good will. The interview with the officer may well follow a similar pattern,
being shaped, on the one hand, by the total repertoire mutually available, and on the other by their
respective positions in relation to the issue involved.”

Remember: The social value of varieties

Language as "symbolic capital" in a "social marketplace" (Pierre Bourdieu)

‚standard language‘:
"A socially favoured variety of a language“ (Fasold & Connor-Linton 2006)

Language subordination processes:

how common stereotypes and ideologies about varieties are constructed/reconfirmed (Lippi-Green
1997)

Language attitudes:

‘Attitude’:
"A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of
favour or disfavour" (Eagly & Chaiken 2005: 745)

“Disposition to react favourably or unfavourably to a class of objects” (e.g. Sarnoff 1970; Bradac et al.
2001)

‘Language attitude’:
"any affective, cognitive or behavioural index of evaluative reactions towards different language
varieties or their speakers" (Ryan, Giles & Sebastian 1982: 7)

Language policy (planning)

= “the primary mechanism for organizing, managing and manipulating language behaviours as it
consists of decisions made about languages and their uses in society” (Shohamy 2006)
 Also goes beyond linguistics
Becomes apparent in (e.g.) → corpus planning, status planning, acquisition planning
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Status planning: Social status

Acquisition planning: Education

o Medium of instruction
o Language as a subject

English in the Expanding Circle:

How many people speak English?

Acquisition planning:
o medium of instruction:
→German / English / Hungarian / Slovenian
→Mono / Bi / Trilingual
→Role of non-standard varieties? => different teachers often pursue different policies
o language as subject:
→L1
→foreign languages
→language across the curriculum

This has had a huge impact on why English has so many speakers.

But other reasons are also…↓

WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Learning English: The snowball effect

“The more people learn a language, the more useful it becomes, and the more useful it is, the more
people want to learn it.” (Coulmas 1992: 80)

→rise of number of speakers of English in the last decades is due to an increase in English language
learning
→English as a foreign language (EFL)
→but of course this has also led to an increased use of English as a lingua franca (ELF)

Language in contact situations:

English as a lingua franca (ELF):

“English users from, for example, Europe, China and Brazil, use […] English more frequently as a
contact language among themselves rather than with native English speakers” (Jenkins 2014)

“any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the
communicative medium of choice, and often the only option” (Seidlhofer 2011)
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

‘Communication accommodation theory’:

Convergence: speakers become closer/more

similar in how they speak

Divergence: speakers become more different

in how they speak

Symmetrical: both people converge e.g.

Asymmetrical: 1 person converges while

other tries to diverge

4. PRAGMATICS & DISCOURSE

What is pragmatics?
"Sub-discipline of linguistics that deals with how speakers use language to accomplish certain
communicative intentions"
o language in use
o the study of speaker meaning
o the study of contextual meaning
o the study of how more gets communicated than is said
o the study of the expression of relative distance
“The speaker’s meaning is dependent on assumptions of knowledge that are shared by both speaker
and hearer: the speaker constructs the linguistic message and intends or implies a meaning, and the
hearer interprets the message and infers the meaning”

→Speaker implies, listener infers

Inferencing: ability of us as competent language users to infer what somebody might mean, by
drawing on context => contextualization

Schema:
Important notion used in pragmatics a lot, which describes "a conventional knowledge structure that
exists in memory".
" A mental construct of reality as culturally ordered and socially sanctioned: what people in a
particular community regard as normal and practicable ways of organizing the world and
communicating with others"
“people's expectations about people, objects, events, settings, and ways to interact in the world”

→schematic knowledge, schema of expectations

Script:
Actions; ‘a dynamic schema’ => e.g. writing an exam, withdrawing money….

→both concepts are influenced by culture, which is why we have to adapt them when travelling
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Context:
Context and assumptions of shared knowledge always
influence how we say what we want to communicate (and
also how much we say)
→Situational context: physical (also auditory, movement...)
→Background knowledge context (cultural, interpersonal)
→Co-text (inside the text)

Speech Act Theory:

= Theory developed by John Austin (1962) that deals with how humans use language to perform
different actions

→indirect speech
acts (all but last)

→direct speech act

‘Preparatory’/’felicity’ conditions
….are conditions that need to be met for a speech act to achieve its purpose (to be successful)
…may pertain to all aspects of the context associated with the action.

John Searle’s classification of speech acts:

WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Direct & indirect speech acts:

Direct:
The illocutionary act is reflected in the locution (for example by a speech act verb or a formula, such
as I thank you). Locution and illocution match.

Indirect:
The illocutionary act has to be inferred by the hearer from the context, on the basis of Cooperative
Principle etc. e.g. It is cold in here… (can I have your jacket?)

Politeness:
can be seen as a principle of interaction

= showing awareness of and consideration for another person's 'face‘

o face: the public self-image people claim for themselves and expect others to recognize
o positive face: positive self-image, group membership
o negative face: freedom of action and from imposition
o appropriate linguistic behaviour attends to face-wants of self and other
o face-threatening act (FTA) (vs. face-saving act)

Positive & Negative face:

Choosing a politeness strategy:

WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Conversation:

Features of spoken conversation

o pauses & filled pauses, overlaps
o hesitation markers, false starts (e.g. ’uhm’,…)
o backchannelling (e.g. ‘yeah’ , ‘mmh’ => showing that you’re listening)
o adjacency pairs (contributions trigger other contributions: e.g. question => yes/no)
o insertion sequences (
o turn-taking
Modelling spoken conversation
underlying metaphor = market economy

interlocutors bid for the floor (= right to speak) and control it for some time (= take their turns) then
the floor passes on to someone else (turn-taking)
→turn-taking: at transition places
e.g. A: I don't know/ whether he went / or not, / do you?
B: No, / … / I don't know either / whether he went / or not.

Participation framework

Speaker roles: principal (responsible for message, control over what is said) – author (reporting on
sth animator said, also one who composed language e.g. speechwriter) – animator (‘sounding box’
e.g. actor)

Listener roles:

Summary so far:
Speech act theory • Locution, illocution, perlocution
• Speech act classification
• Direct vs. indirect speech acts
• Felicity conditions
Politeness: • Face (positive and negative face), FTAs
• Positive and negative politeness
• Politeness strategies
Conversation: • Pauses, overlaps, hesitation markers
• Floor, turn, turn-taking, turn-transition
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

What is discourse?
”language beyond* the sentence […] in texts and conversation” *meaning different than, not larger than
“the process by which we use language to create and negotiate meaning”
→Focus: meaning making (joint construction of meaning)

Discourse analysis

Text: the product of the process of discourse

"Text is not an encoded arrangement of language above, or below the sentence, but a different
phenomenon altogether: the overt linguistic trace of a process of negotiating […] meaning, the
pragmatic process of discourse realization, whereby the resources of the language code are used to
engage with the context of beliefs, values, assumptions that constitute the user's social and
individual reality. In this sense, text is an epiphenomenon. It exists as a symptom of pragmatic [or:
communicative] intent."

Reference: the act of using language to refer to entities in the context

→listener or reader can identify the ting referred to:

o the thing referred to = referent
o the linguistic form used = referring expression
Deixis – ‘pointing with language’

deictic expression: a linguistic expression which refers directly to the personal, temporal, or
locational characteristics of the situation it occurs in, in order to identify a referent.
→person deixis (e.g. pronouns - 'I', 'you', 'she')
→spatial deixis (place, e.g. ‘here’)
→temporal deixis (time, e.g. ‘yesterday’)

Phorics – pronouns

= lexical items that get their meaning from other noun phrases in the sentence or wider discourse
(co-text)
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Cohesion & Coherence

Coherence = connectedness’ within the text regarding pragmatic meaning/the connections that
readers and listeners create in their minds to arrive at a meaningful interpretation of
texts → underlying / level of meaning

This box contains, on average, 100 Large Plain Paper Clips. 'Applied Linguistics' is therefore not the
same as 'Linguistics'. The tea's as hot as it could be. This is Willie Worm. Just send 12 Guinness 'cool
token' bottle tops.
→This is not a text, because there is no coherence (=necessary feature, cohesion isn’t)

Cohesion = verbalized links between clauses and sentences/the formal ties and connections that
exist within texts → cohesive devices or ties → surface/textual level

(My father) once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by saving every penny he could. That car
would be worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my college education.
Sometimes I think I'd rather have the convertible.
 Deixis
 Phorics (referring expressions within the text)
 Lexical relation (‘convertible’ = also a repetition)
 Semantic (meaning) relations
 Connector

The ‘conduit metaphor’ of communication:

= how we conceptualize communication: language functions like a conduit (Leitung/Kanal),

transferring thoughts bodily from one person to another. In writing and speaking, people insert their
thoughts or feelings in the words; words accomplish the transfer by containing the thoughts or
feelings and conveying them to others; and in listening or reading, people extract the thoughts and
feelings once again from the words.

joint construction
of meaning

Grice’s cooperative principle:

“make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the
accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged” → underlying
assumption of conversation (=when entering a conversation we assume that the other person wants
to cooperate, to understand each other)

4 maxims: quality, quantity, relation, manner

WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Maxim of Quantity:
Make your contribution as informative as is required, but not more, or less, than required.

Maxim of Quality:
Do not say that which you believe to be false, or for which you lack adequate evidence.

Maxim of Relation/Relevance:
Be relevant.

Maxim of Manner:
Be clear, brief and orderly.

Not adhering to the cooperative principle:

o violating a maxim: speakers don’t apply maxims to mislead listener
o flouting a maxim: speakers don’t apply maxims to persuade listeners to infer a ‘hidden
meaning’; leads to ‘implicatures’
Implicatures:
→an additional meaning conveyed by the speaker adhering to the cooperative principle
→not only based on what is said, but also on world, background knowledge
→culture specific
→possible consequences of utterances in their context
→e.g. Are you coming to the party tonight? I’ve got an exam tomorrow.
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

5. FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

People have always been interested in the origins of language. → linguists, psychologists,
neuroscientists, medical professionals, biologists, anthropologists, …

A species equipped for language

“The capacity to learn language is deeply ingrained in us as a species, just as the capacity to walk, to
grasp objects, to recognize faces. We don‘t find any serious differences in children growing up in
congested urban slums, in isolated mountain villages, or in privileged suburban villas.” (Dan Slobin,
1994)

Ontogenetic Approach→ referring to the development of one organism / one human being

Phylogenetic Approach→ referring to the development of the human species as a whole

→Larynx (Kehlkopf) moved

down and that widened the
pharynx (Rachen), the tongue
is looser and more flexible,
teeth are more upright,
rounded upper palate => which
enables us humans to speak
(and apes not)

Human vocal tract

• teeth, tongue, larynx adapted for articulation
• costs: not enough space in jaws (e.g. wisdom teeth, losing teeth) lower larynx means we can
choke (can’t breathe and swallow at the same time)
• Benefits: humans can produce sounds & speak => we are equipped for language
Milestones in FLA (4 stages)

1. Prelinguistic stage 2. Single-word utterances 3. First word combinations 4. Simple sentences

1. Prelinguistic stage:
• Receptive pre-natal experience → prosody, rhythm, maternal voice
• Receptive ability (= hearing) → receptive ability well developed at birth
→ experience with a specific language is needed for less salient
discriminations => INPUT
• Productive ability (OUTPUT) → Cooing (0 -4 m): sounds closer to vowels (same irrespective of
language)
→ Babbling (from 5 m: experimenting with speech sounds,
reduplication da-da-da, CV-syllables (start to recognise a
language)
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

2. Single-word utterances:
• ‘1st word’ (around 12m) → 80-100 words understood when first word is produced
• context-bound → names for people, food, body parts, toys, clothes, household items,
animals; possibility of overextension (meaning for child is larger than for adult e.g. dad
meaning all men)
• Holophrastic stage → 1 word conveys the meaning of a whole sentence/speech act:
"food" => "Give me food", "up" => "Pick me up"
vocabulary size → first 50 words (slow growth rate)
→ vocabulary spurt in year 2
→ age 24m: 50-550 age 6: 15,000
influencing factors: amount/quality of input, birth order, caretaker responsiveness, phonological
memory….

3. Two-word stage:

Frequent combinations…
• agent + action → Daddy sit (=> is sitting, should sit down)
• action + object → drive car
• agent + object → Mummy sock
• entity + location → toy floor
• entity + attribute → crayon big
No morphology/overt grammar, but word order is important
beginning of telegraphic speech

4. Simple (sentences) utterances:

From telegraphic speech (see Yule) to gradual emergence of grammatical forms

grammar well developed by 4ys

English grammatical forms in order of acquisition:

1. present progressive: –ing (doing, playing,..)
2. plural –s
3. irregular past (broke, went, brought,..) => because they are quite frequent verbs,
necessary for child to express what it wants to say
4. possessive ´s (Mummy’s clothes,…)
5. copula is / verb forms of be (Teddy is in bed,..)
6. articles
7. regular past (-ed) (runned, breaked, bringed,...)
=> overgeneralization
WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Conditions of FLA

On the nature of the input the child gets:

o Positive evidence: what does occur in a language (parents, siblings,…produce language)
o Negative evidence: what is not possible in a language
Ch: There‘s a fiss in there.
F: You mean there‘s a fish in there.
Ch: Yes, there‘s a fiss.
F: There‘s a fiss in there?
Ch: No, there‘s a fiss in there.

→ Child often rejects direct evidence (at least in production)

Conditions of FLA at preschool age

• intensive interaction with the language every day

• social circle widens
• first metalinguistic awareness (being able to think about language)
cake the eat vs. drink the chair → word play (but not grammatically ill formed sentences)
• quantity of input: 6x365x12 → ca. 20,000 hours by school-entry (it takes a lot of time & a lot
of input until we’re finally able to properly speak a language)

The role of structured input:

simplified language adults speak to children: “child-directed speech” (CDS), “caregiver-speech”

• more slowly
• more clearly
• in a higher pitch
• exaggerated intonation
• generally grammatical sentences

Explaining language acquisition

WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

Three central questions/problems in FLA and development:

• How do children crack the code? (manage to learn speaking a language)
• Is it nature or nurture?
• Is there a critical period? (age)

Three main theoretical positions on language acquisition:

The central debate: NATURE or NURTURE?

1. Behaviorism (psychology)

→ influential theory of learning (USA, 1940’s/50’s onwards, psychologist Burrhus Fredrik Skinner)

Basic assumption: Learning language is like learning any other skill

Process: Imitation => practice => reinforcement => habit formation

Environment is crucial (NURTURE):

• source of linguistic stimuli
• encouragement to imitate say what I say
• environment provides feedback on learner’s performance
• positive reinforcement praise (or successful communication)
• formation of habits of correct language use

Do children learn through correction and reinforcement? → “fiss” example

Correction mostly occurs for mispronunciations or incorrect reporting of facts (but usually not for
grammar) → Recasts (repeating in correct grammar, invitation to repeat

Imitation fails to account for: differing meanings

production of forms not used by adults
ability of children unable to speak to learn a language

Bevaviorist theory of language acquisition is often criticised !

2. Innatist perspective/Generativism (linguistics)

originated with Noam Chomsky's (1968) view on FLA

central question: Why do children learn something as complex as language at such an early stage?
• children are surrounded by imperfect language (false starts, incomplete sentences, slips of
the tongue, …)
• there is no systematic feedback
• but still, children acquire full language competence
Chomsky’s main assumption: humans are equipped with an innate ability for language (NATURE)
 WiSe 2020/21 Introduction to the Study of Language 1 J.Kuster

3. Interactionist & developmental perspectives (cognitive & developmental psychology,

psycholinguistics)

Cognitive and developmental psychologists argue that

• innatists place too much emphasis on the final stage, i.e. the competence of (adult
monolingual) native speakers
• and place too little emphasis on the developmental aspects of language acquisition
• language acquisition is just one kind of learning (=>not different from other kinds of learning)
• Focus is on interplay of innate learning ability and environment
→NATURE and NURTURE

4. Bilingual FLA:
• most research on FLA: monolingual children, up to age 5
• many children grow up with 2 (or more) languages from birth
• > simultaneous bilingualism
> bilingualism as 1st language (0-3)
• different parental first languages
• home language – language of the environment
• Language mixing – code switching (= a normal part of bilingual
development)
How are the two languages represented mentally? → 2 hypotheses

*should be L1-1 and L1-2

Different theories of FLA:

Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)