What is language?

Edward Sapir defines language as follows

“Language is a purely human and non-instinctive
method of communicating ideas, emotions, and
desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced
symbols. These symbols are, in the first instance,
auditory and they are produced by the so-called
“organs of speech.”
 What is language?

• Henry Sweet, an English phonetician and

language scholar, stated: “Language is the
expression of ideas by means of speech-
sounds combined into words. Words are
combined into sentences, this combination
answering to that of ideas into thoughts.”
 What is language?

• The American linguists Bernard Bloch and

George L. Trager formulated the following
definition: “A language is a system of arbitrary
vocal symbols by means of which a social
group cooperates.”
 Types of languages
• Spoken language → noises (speech sounds) →
movements of organs of speech (throat and
mouth).
• Sign language → hand or body movements,
gestures, or facial expressions.
• Dead / living languages → evolution / history
• Artificial languages (Esperanto (1887) by
Zamenhof) / Programming languages (Java,
Python)
 Role of language

• Impart (transmit) information

• Express feelings and emotions
• Influence the activities of others
• Behave in different ways (friendly / hostile,
happy / sad)
 Linguistics as a Science

• Linguistics is the scientific study of language.

• Merriam Webster dictionary defines linguistics
as “the study of human speech including the
units, nature, structure, and modification of
language”.
• This scientific study follows three criteria:
 Linguistics as a Science
• 1- Empiricism: the linguistic investigations
should rely on observation and experiment and
be concluded with findings and results.
• 2- Exactness: any linguistic theory should be
correct in every detail, and valid in terms of time
and place, in addition to the data collected by the
researchers.
• 3- Objectivity: the linguist’s judgment and
research should be impartial and totally neutral.
 Historical Overview
• Before the late 18th century, language was
studied mainly as a field of philosophy
• German philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt
considered language as an activity arising
spontaneously from the human spirit
• Languages are different → the characteristics
of individuals are different
 What does linguistics cover?
• Modern Linguistics covers:
• The structure (morphology and syntax),
• The sounds (phonetics and phonology),
• The meaning (semantics),
• The history of the relations of languages to
each other
• The cultural place of language in human
behavior
 What does linguistics cover?
• 1- Phonetics: the study of how speech sounds
are produced and perceived
• The production of speech sounds by the
human speech organs (articulatory phonetics)
• The properties (characteristics) of the sounds
themselves (acoustic phonetics).
• The exact sounds that can make a language
• The exact organs that produce a speech
 What does linguistics cover?

• 2- Phonology: the study of sound patterns and

changes
• Different from phonetics, which studies isolated
speech sounds, phonology looks at speech sounds in
relation to other words and syllables to determine
meaning.
• A- What seems contrast in one language but not in
the other
• Example: Spanish speakers do not pronounce /tʃ/
sound in English: (chair like share)
 What does linguistics cover?

• English speakers have trouble with the

different “u” sounds in French: (rue ‘street’
and roue ‘wheel’)
• B- What sounds of a language can or cannot
occur one after the other
• Example: why can words begin in st– in
English but not in Spanish)? (street, stream . . )
 What does linguistics cover?

• 3- Morphology: the study of word structure

• A- To what extent are ways of forming words
“productive” or not
• Example: why do we say arrival and amusement
but not *arrivement and *amusal?
• B- What determines when words change form
• Example: In English, we add –er to adjectives
(harder than), but the Hebrew language does not
have that.
 What does linguistics cover?

• 4- Syntax: the study of how linguistic units

larger than the word are constructed
(the arrangement of words and phrases).
• Example: Only the police fight crime → The
police are only ones who fight crime.
• The police only fight crime → Fighting crime
is the only thing the police do.
• The police fight only crime → The police do
not fight anything except crime.
 What does linguistics cover?

• 5- Semantics: the study of linguistic meaning

• How do speakers know what words mean?
• Example: The word “dog” → our brain
automatically categorizes it as an animal → it
connects this meaning to other dog-related
concepts, such as barking, or man’s best friend
 What does linguistics cover?
• How can one word have more than one
meaning?
• Example:
• Mine → This car is mine (possession)
• Mine → The place where minerals (iron and
copper) are dug out of the earth
• Mine → The bomb that is buried underground
 What does linguistics cover?
• 6- Pragmatics: the study of how language is used in
context
• The relationship between meaning and context
• Sometimes, the literal meaning of what is said is not
the implied meaning (e.g. What a great day ! → when
it is raining / sunny)
• Culturally-relevant meanings (e.g. Keep your tooth
under your pillow ! → the Tooth Fairy will give you
money in exchange of it)
• Other subfields: Historical Linguistics,
Sociolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, Computational