LING 200 Study Guide - Winter 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Phonology, Vowel, Turkish Language
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
LING 200
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
-Different conceptions of language
-Relation of language to communication, thought
-Language as a system of knowledge (cognitive approach/biolinguistics). Language is internal to
humans - part of our cognitive (mental capacities and faculties) system. So ultimately,
something that is encoded in our brain. Our brain is configured in a particular way that underlies
this knowledge.
-Language and the study of language has subfields (core subfields):
-Phonetics and phonology (properties of speech, sound, and speakers’ knowledge of how words
and sentences are pronounced). Speech sounds are not the same across languages.
Phonetics-the study of human speech sounds how are articulatory apparatus (properties)
creates them.
-Morphology (knowledge of how to form words). Cognitive perspective: what does a speaker
know of how words are formed in their language.
-Syntax (speakers’ knowledge of how to form sentences) What does a speaker of english know
about how sentences are formed in his/her language.
-Semantics (speakers’ knowledge of how to interpret words and sentences)
-The comparison of this course with linguistics 201: overlap between the two courses. Both
courses cover phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics but the other course
covers it in more detail.
-We need to have a sense of what language is
-How do human language resemble each other (what aspects are universal)? on the surface,
languages seem very different from one another but when you study language you realize on an
underlying/abstract level there are a lot of similarities between languages.
-How do languages differ?
-How is language represented and processed in the brain? (field of neurolinguistics). Which
parts of the brain are involved in the processing and storing of language. Language breakdown
and how linguistic theory can help us understand it and what it can tell linguistic theory about it.
-Linguistic theory and aphasia (language breakdown)
-Child language acquisition (not a conscious process) what are the mechanisms responsible for
how children acquire language.
—> Child language acquisition is an automatic and unconscious process
-Implications
-Language change - why does it occur, and how? universal fact about language that languages
are virtually different from the past (classical languages don't change because they aren't
spoken anymore - no more native speakers of these languages). Dead languages such as latin
but latin never died, it changed. All of the romance languages (french, Portuguese) are dialects
that develop out of Latin (spoken during the roman period)
-Langauge in social contexts
—> Social implications
—> Implications for education
-What is language?
-A system for communication, a combination of words that make sentences, part of culture, a
system of thought, a way to express yourself.
-Sign language: not sounds but gestures (still call it language)
-Body language: something that we use to communicate (the way we posture ourselves)
—> Language vs communication (we communicate through body language)
-Language is so fundamental to human. We use it all the time (to think, write, communicate). It
defines us)
-Is language a social phenomenon or an individual phenomenon?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
-Language is an individual phenomenon because language is a part of each individual
-Language as a system of knowledge (individual- part of the individual’s mind). Every human
has a heart, veins, arteries just like we each have a brain and mind that deals with language.
-People think its a social phenomenon because we use it for social interaction
-What is language is not the same as what do we use language for!
-What are the uses of language? it has a very important social dimension (expressing thoughts,
our culture)
-We can think of language as part of the human mind (can study that part of the human mind
which tells us what language is). Language as an organ (Noam Chomsky the father of language
calls language an organ quite separately from what its uses are)
-How can we characterize language per se?
-Uses of language:
—> Communication (not equal to language). We use things to communicate that are nonverbal
(street signs - visual).
—> Thought
—> A social tool for making an impression, judging, discriminating,…
-Noteworthy!:
-A phenomenon is not explained through its uses or its functions
-Use of X is not the same as the nature of X
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Language as a system of knowledge (cognitive approach/biolinguistics). Language is internal to humans - part of our cognitive (mental capacities and faculties) system. So ultimately, something that is encoded in our brain. Our brain is con gured in a particular way that underlies this knowledge. Language and the study of language has sub elds (core sub elds): Phonetics and phonology (properties of speech, sound, and speakers" knowledge of how words and sentences are pronounced). Speech sounds are not the same across languages. Phonetics-the study of human speech sounds how are articulatory apparatus (properties) creates them. Cognitive perspective: what does a speaker know of how words are formed in their language. Syntax (speakers" knowledge of how to form sentences) what does a speaker of english know about how sentences are formed in his/her language. Semantics (speakers" knowledge of how to interpret words and sentences) The comparison of this course with linguistics 201: overlap between the two courses.
