Review of chapters 1, 2, part of chapter 3, 15, and 16

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Mid-term exam

• Review of chapters 1, 2, part of chapter 3, 15,
  and 16

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Anatomy of a mid-term exam

• Two parts

• Section 1 Short answers.

• 40 questions worth 0.5 points each (total of 20
  points).

• Section 2 Practicum.

• 20 questions worth 0.5 points each (total 10
  points).

• The mid-term is worth 25 of the final grade.

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Chapter 1

• Language A preview

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Why study language?

• communicate

• tool for thought

• self-expression

• social/cultural/ethnic institution etc.

• Language is everywhere in our lives

• Because its everywhere, and because its so
  important, we (at least some of us) feel
  compelled to know how it works

• The discipline that studies language is called

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Different kinds of linguistics

• Descriptive linguistics
• Studies the structure of specific languages
  (Finnish, French, Chinese, etc.)

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Different kinds of linguistics

• Neurolinguistics
• Explores the location and organization of
  language in the brain tissue

• Historical linguistics
• Studies how language changes through time

• Anthropological lingusitics
• Studies the role of language in cultural
  behaviours and practices

• Computational linguistics
• works on the interface between language and
  machine

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Study language for what purpose?

• What can we do with what we find about language?

• make grammars to help us teach and learn
  languages

• help us help people with language disorders

• design text-to-speech software

Natural Reader

• design automatic speech recognition software

• design automatic text summarization programs

• help in artificial intelligence research

• know ourselves better

• satisfy our curiosity ( pure science)

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Summing up chpater 1

• Parts of our body, including our brain, have
  specialized for language

• We have a system that allows us to produce and
  understand language ( grammar)

• The grammar of a language is both idiomatic
  (fixed) and creative

• All languages have a grammar

• All grammars are equal (no good or bad ones)

• All grammars are similar in some basic way

• All grammars change over time

• Knowledge of grammar is subconscious.

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Chapter 16

• Animal communication

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Communication structure The study of signs
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Types of signs

• Iconic signs
• Bear some resemblance to their referent.

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Types of signs

• Indexal signs

• Fulfills its function by pointing out its
  referent

• There is a causal link between an indexal sign
  and its referent

• Are not deliberately selected for purposes of
  communication.

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Types of signs

• Symbolic signs

• Bear an arbitrary relationship to their referents

Human language is highly symbolic.
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Summing up chapter 16

• Human language is one communication system among
  the many that life forms on this planet employ

• Communication can be described with reference the
  sign

• A sign has a signifier and a signified

• Signs can be iconic, indexal, or symbolic

• Experiments with non-human primates have created
  controversy over whether they have shown symbolic
  behaviour and a capacity for linguistic behaviour

• Many researchers have dismissed the work as an
  example of dressage or the Clever Hans phenomenon.

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Summing up chapter 16

• Human language and systems of animal
  communication share certain design features

• Humans lack many communicative skills that
  animals possess
• we cannot follow scent trails
• we cannot change colour for communication
  purposes
• we are not as gifted as horses for example at
  assessing and interpreting subtle body gestures

• Humans, however, possess an ability to symbolize
  which far exceeds that of animals and insects

• Humans language also is more flexible and
  productive in manipulating these symbols.

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Chapter 15

• Writing and language

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Types of writing

• Logographic writing
• A type of writing in which symbols represent part
  of words or even the entire word ( logograms)
• For example

• Ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform inscriptions

• Egyptian hieroglyphics

• Primordial Chinese characters

• Conventional abbreviations such as , , , and _at_

• Arabic numerals such as 1, 2, 10, 159, etc.

• They can, in principle, be read independently of
  its language of origin.

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Types of writing

• Phonographic writing
• A type of writing in which symbols represent
  syllables or segments

• There are 2 types

• Syllabic

• Alphabetic.

• Syllabic writing systems

• Employ signs to represent syllables

• A set of syllabic signs is called a syllabary.

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Types of writing
record

• Alphabetic writing systems

• Employ signs to represent segments such as
  consonants (e.g., p, t, k) and vowels (e.g., a,
  e, u)

• A set of phonetic signs is called a alphabet

• Graphemes (i.e., symbols) can correspond to one
  or many sounds

f
One of the earliest (if not the very first)
phonemic scripts
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Rebuses and the emergence of writing

• Phonographic writing made its appearance around
  3000 BC

• Now, concepts that could not be directly depicted
  by a picture could be represented in writing

• Symbols represented sound rather than meaning

• This was made possible by the use of the rebus
  principle

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A quick review of the evolution of the alphabet
From Phoenicians to todays alphabet
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English orthography Irregularity

• The relationship between symbol and sound was not
  always so irregular

i
hid
hide
Symbol
Sound
Sound
i
hid
Symbol
hide
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Summing up chapter 15
Pictographic

• Writing has first developed from pictographic to
  logographic writing

Logographic

• Then, from logograms, writing has developed into
  syllabic writing

Syllabic

• And finally syllabic writing has developed to
  aphabetic writing

alphabetic

• Many of the writing systems found throughout the
  modern world directly or indirectly come from
  Semitic writing systems such as Cuneiform

• In any case, a later writing system has never
  developed into an earlier one

alphabetic
Syllabic

• Last but not least, no forms of writing are
  inferior to alphabetic writing or any other.

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Chapter 2

• Phonetics and phonology Understanding the sounds
  of speech

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Summing up chapter 2

• Phonetics deals with the measurable physical
  characteristics of sounds

• Phonology deals with the mental representation of
  these sounds

• The auditory cortex deals with sounds The faster
  left hemisphere mainly deals with sound used
  linguistically while the slower right hemisphere
  mainly deals with sound used non-linguistically

• Different sounds are categorized according to
  place of articulation ( where in the mouth and
  throat) and manner of articulation ( complete
  obstruction to complete openess)

• The IPA comprises of graphemes that have a
  one-to-one correspondance with the sound they
  represent.

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Summing up chapter 2

• When doing phonetic and phonological analysis, we
  use the phonetic transcription, which is enclosed
  in

• We deal with variation in production of sounds
  (and of pretty much anything else as well) by
  making categories

• Sound ( phones) are categorized into phonemes,
  which are enclosed in / /

• The syllable is a unit of organization of a sound
  sequence

• There are three types of allophonic variations
  phonemic variation, free variation, and
  complementary distribution

• A phonological system is composed of a set of
  vocalic and consonantic sounds, allophonic
  variations, and a set of sound combination rules
  (also called phonotactics)

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Chapter 3

• Morphology The analysis of word structure

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Summing up chapter 3

• Morphology deals with the formation of words

• Words and parts of words are stored in our mental
  lexicon

• Morphology stipulates rules that define how words
  and parts of words combine together

• It is probable that the meaning inhibitor
  component of language is nested in cerebral
  tissue in Wernickes area

• A word is the smallest free form found in
  language

• A free form is an element that can occur on its
  own and is not fixed relative to its neighbours

• Morphemes are the smallest unit of language
  carrying information about meaning or function
  (they are signs)

• Morphemes are also mental categories, similarly
  to phonemes

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Summing up chapter 3

• There are two types of morphemes

• Bound morphemes morphemes that CANNOT occur on
  their own

• Free morphemes morphemes that CAN occur on
  their own

• Allomorphs variants of a morpheme

• Nouns refer to concrete and abstract things

• Verbs denote actions and states

• Adjectives name properties

• Prepositions encode spatial relations

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Summing up chapter 3

• There are three types of affixes ( bound
  derivational morpheme)

• Prefixes attaches before the base

• Infixes is inserted within the base

• Suffixes attaches after the base

• Base the form to which an affix added

• Root the core of the word, which carries the
  major component of its meaning

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Some sample questions
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Section 1 Short answers

• How are pictographic and phonographic writing
  different?

Pictographic writing represents meaning whereas
phonographic writing represents sound.

• Aside from the Great Vowel Shift, name one reason
  why modern Engish orthography is so irregular.

The norman invasion the introduction of French
and Latin conventions spelling words according
to their ethymological origins.
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Section 1 Short answers

• Phonographic writing encompases two sub-types of
  writing. What are they?

Syllabic and alphabetic.

• What is stress?

Relative emphasis that may be given to certain
syllables in a word.
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Section 1 Short answers

• Name the two types of morphemes.

Bound and free morphemes.

• Why is cuneiform writing called cuneiform?

Because it was produced with a wedge-shaped
instrument.
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Section 1 Short answers

• Name 4 of the 6 universals of language.

Idiomaticity creativity, grammar, equality,
similarity, change, and subconscious.

• What is linguistic competence?

It is the ability to understand and produce an
infinite number of sentences and to know that
some sentences are unacceptable.
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Section 1 Short answers

• What is an indexal sign?

It is a sign that is unwillingly produced that
"points to" its referent (it is symptomatic).

• Give an example of a discrete sign.

The words "start" and "go"  the digital display
of whatches traffic lights etc.
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Section 1 Short answers

• Which animal/insect communication system most
  resembles our own?

Non-human primates.

• What does the term phonation refer to?

Voiced and unvoiced.
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Section 1 Short answers

• What are the possible types of syllables?

N, NC, ON, ONC (simple complex)

• What things in a language's grammar change
  quickly?

Words.
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Section 1 Short answers

• What is an iconic sign?

It is a sign that bears resemblance to its
referent.

• What is an indexal sign?

It is a sign that is unwillingly produced, that
"points to" its referent (it is symptomatic).
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Section 1 Short answers

• Give an example of an iconic sign.

The picture of a chimp a recycle symbol
onomatopeia etc.

• Name three different sub-disciplines (kinds of)
  of linguistics.

Theoretical linguistics sociolinguistics
descriptive linguistics psycholinguistics
neurolinguistics historical linguistics
anthropological linguistics computational
linguistics.
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Section 1 Short answers

• Who were the first to devise an alphabet?

The Phoenicians

• Name two things that all languages have in common.

More consonants than vowels phonetics
phonology morphology syntax semantics most
languages have the SVO word order.
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Section 2 Practicum

• Given the following syllabic inventory N (simple
  complex), ON (simple O, simple complex N),
  and ONC (simple O, simple complex N, simple
  complex C), how would you syllabify the following
  sequence?

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Section 2 Practicum

• 2) Given the following vocalic and consonantic
  inventory, and the following two (2) phonological
  rules, what is the phonetic output of the words
  in (i)-(v)

Vocalic consonantic inventory /p/ p, /ph/
ph, /t/ t /th/ th, /k/ k g, /kh/
kh, /i/ i y, /e/ \
Phonological rules /i/ ? i / un-aspirated
plosive ___ (C) /i/ ? y / elsewhere /k/ ? k /
___NC /k/ ? g / elsewhere
(i)      /pi/ (ii)     /thi/ (iii)   
/kin/ (iv)    /phek/ (v)     /ke/
pi thy kin pheg ge
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Thats it

• See you Monday and good luck on your mid-term!