Gen Linguistics
Prescriptivist view Descriptive view
Grammar is a set of rules/law to Why do people do what they do?
follow Grammar rules = patterns native
Rules based on Latin and “proper” speakers agree on
ways of speaking. Correct is context dependent
Social milieu of 18th C England Language change is inevitable
Rules = law, and grammar = etiquette
Language change is BAD
What do we do with language
Writing
A writing system is called an orthography
Semantic (meaning-based)
One graph = one unit of meaning
Syllabic (sound-based)
Phonetic (sound-based)
also known as syllabaries
One graph = a whole syllable
Alphabetic (sound-based): one graph represents one sound.
Each character represents one and only one sound
spoken languages change faster than speaking one.
Gen Linguistics 1
, Phonetics
What makes sound: air, space, and the ways we change that space.
Airstream!
Space to travel!
ways to shape the space!
Prescriptivist vs Descriptivist
The prescriptivist view largely came from a want from upper class to
linguistically distinguish themselves from the lower class
Grammar is a pattern of speech that is agreed upon by speakers
Not everything is grammatical; it has to be considered possible by first-language
speakers
Languages fall out of use due to
Speaker’s shift to a majority language
Can't be voluntary or involuntary
Death of first language speakers
Vitality: the rate at which a language is transmitted intergenerationally
Language is a way to express one’s culture
Language is a form of identity
Language documentation
“Nothing about us without us”
Writing system is necessarily reductionist
A writing system is an “orthography.”
Gen Linguistics 2
, Most languages have no writing tradition
Requirements for speech
Airstream
Channel
Ways to articulate (teeth, tongue, etc.)
A way to describe sound
Voicing, placing, and manner
The alveolar ridge is behind the teeth
Ambiguity: same writing, different sounds
Indeterminacy: Same sound, different writing
Difference between consonants and vowels
Restriction of airflow
A vowel tends to be the nucleus of a syllable
A diphthong is a vowel that starts in one place and ends in another
Allophone: same phoneme, different sound (Pin vs Spin)
Goals of phonology
Contrastive sounds (phonemes)
Complementary distribution (Allophones)
If you can not find a minimal pair for two sounds in a language, they are
considered allophones rather than phonemes
Metathesis: changing the order of two segments
(ask vs aks)
Epenthesis: the separation of vowels (Drawing vs “Drawring”)
Morphology - study of word building
Type of Morpheme
Gen Linguistics 3
Prescriptivist view Descriptive view
Grammar is a set of rules/law to Why do people do what they do?
follow Grammar rules = patterns native
Rules based on Latin and “proper” speakers agree on
ways of speaking. Correct is context dependent
Social milieu of 18th C England Language change is inevitable
Rules = law, and grammar = etiquette
Language change is BAD
What do we do with language
Writing
A writing system is called an orthography
Semantic (meaning-based)
One graph = one unit of meaning
Syllabic (sound-based)
Phonetic (sound-based)
also known as syllabaries
One graph = a whole syllable
Alphabetic (sound-based): one graph represents one sound.
Each character represents one and only one sound
spoken languages change faster than speaking one.
Gen Linguistics 1
, Phonetics
What makes sound: air, space, and the ways we change that space.
Airstream!
Space to travel!
ways to shape the space!
Prescriptivist vs Descriptivist
The prescriptivist view largely came from a want from upper class to
linguistically distinguish themselves from the lower class
Grammar is a pattern of speech that is agreed upon by speakers
Not everything is grammatical; it has to be considered possible by first-language
speakers
Languages fall out of use due to
Speaker’s shift to a majority language
Can't be voluntary or involuntary
Death of first language speakers
Vitality: the rate at which a language is transmitted intergenerationally
Language is a way to express one’s culture
Language is a form of identity
Language documentation
“Nothing about us without us”
Writing system is necessarily reductionist
A writing system is an “orthography.”
Gen Linguistics 2
, Most languages have no writing tradition
Requirements for speech
Airstream
Channel
Ways to articulate (teeth, tongue, etc.)
A way to describe sound
Voicing, placing, and manner
The alveolar ridge is behind the teeth
Ambiguity: same writing, different sounds
Indeterminacy: Same sound, different writing
Difference between consonants and vowels
Restriction of airflow
A vowel tends to be the nucleus of a syllable
A diphthong is a vowel that starts in one place and ends in another
Allophone: same phoneme, different sound (Pin vs Spin)
Goals of phonology
Contrastive sounds (phonemes)
Complementary distribution (Allophones)
If you can not find a minimal pair for two sounds in a language, they are
considered allophones rather than phonemes
Metathesis: changing the order of two segments
(ask vs aks)
Epenthesis: the separation of vowels (Drawing vs “Drawring”)
Morphology - study of word building
Type of Morpheme
Gen Linguistics 3
