LINA01H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: English Plurals, Linguistic Competence, Nim Chimpsky
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What is linguistics: how many languages we speak -> misguided question, about studying how languages work or how human languages work, studying different languages to find out what human languages are like and their fundamental. Linguists study different languages, not about learning foreign languages properties: scientific study of human language, what kind of rules do you know to speak the native language. Study languages vs speak languages: no need to speak the language as long as you have access to data and native speakers in order to study it. Why study linguistics: to understand nature of the human mind. Native speaker questions: study your speech, speak english correctly, speak dialect of english (everyone does), everyone speaks with a accent, then you are a native speaker. Language is systematic (follows a system of rules: every language has patterns and rules -> what linguistics study. Prescriptive rules: how the people should speak.