Language is very difficult to put into words. -- Voltaire

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Language is very difficult to put into words. --
Voltaire
What do we mean by language? A system used to
convey meaning made up of arbitrary elements that
are organized using a set of rules. -- Rader
Three basic aspects Phonology
(phonemes) Morphology (morphemes) Syntax
(structuring rules) deep structure surface
structure
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Phoneme smallest unit of sound distinctions
important for determining word meaning English
has 40 phonemes
Morpheme smallest unit of meaning free can
stand by itself as a word content words convey
the main semantic meaning of the
sentence grammatical function words about 360
in english determiners (e.g.,
a) prepositions (e.g., in) conjunctions
(e.g., but) relative pronouns (e.g.,
which) bound needs to be attached to a
word these are called inflections prefixes
and suffixes
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Deep vs. Surface Structure
Deep Structure Processes Select roles of the
elements of the sentence and the meaning for
each e.g., agent, action, object Surface
Structure Processes Create an utterance with a
particular structure lexemes e.g., The boy
kicked the ball The ball was kicked
by the boy The lad kicked the
football
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Contrasts Things that do not meet the
definition of language communication mimicry
(echolalia) language-like behavior protolanguage
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• Film The Human Language, Part I
• What are the two basic ground plans for
  languages????
• ___________________________________________
• ___________________________________________

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Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. Noam
Chomsky used as an example of syntax without
meaning
In English both word order and word inflections
are used Word Order For example, saying The
dog bit the boy vs. The boy bit the dog. Word
Inflection For example, adding ed to the root
form of a verb for the past tense for what we
call regular verbs
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