Linguistic Terms

Some Linguistic Terms

Dialects 

Dialect is a specific form of a given language, spoken in a certain locality or geographic area, showing sufficient differences from the standard literary form of that language, in pronunciation, grammatical construction and idiomatic use of words ,yet not sufficiently distinct from the other dialects of the language to be regarded as a different language 

Difference between language and dialect

A language is spoken in a large area .It has its own phonology, syntax and morphology. But a dialect is one of the varieties under the language community. It does not have its own syntax and formal form. It does not have the prestige the language enjoys. A language contains more items than that of a dialect .the English spoken in England is different from Scotland.

Dialects may be classified into two varieties: Regional and Social

Regional dialect is a variety of a language community which is spoken with in a large geographical area. Regional dialect is based on the geographical isogloss. An isogloss is a boundary line where one dialect area ends and another begins.

Social dialect is based on geographical mobility and social class. The geographical mobility means people moving from one place to another, taking their dialects with them .On the other hand people of area use varieties of the same dialect based on the class they belong.

Idiolect

Idiolect is the way that a particular person uses language. In other words, in a speech community different individuals have variations in the way they pronounce words, construct sentences etc. Each individual has his own characteristic speech habits that distinguish his/her speech from that of others. This individual difference is called Idiolect. A number of idiolects become a dialect.

Register.

Variations in language are found based on the specific area of human activity in which a language is used. For example take  English, the vocabulary and manner of use  etc., of  this language  is different  when  is used  in different fields  such as law, religion, science , sports etc.,. We call it as legal language; scientific language etc., thus the variety of language according to its use can be called as register. The main difference between dialect and register is that the former is user oriented while the latter is use oriented.

Bilingualism

The term bilingualism refers to the use of more than one language in a society.   The   individuals  in that society  have a tendency to    use  one or more languages. A bilingual may  or may not have good command over the languages but he/she may be capable of communicating in a number of tongues. Most societies in the world  are either bilingual or multilingual(using a number of languages).

  

Proto-language

A language from which other languages have developed is called a proto-language .For example , an earlier language called Proto-Indo-European was the parent language,from which languages such as Latin,Greek,Sanskrit,German etc developed .

Cognates

A proto-language can never be reconstructed completely. However, historical and comparative linguists search for cognates by making lists of words from different languages and compare the sound similarities and the occurrence of sounds in particular position in these words.A cognate is a word which is related genetically to other words which together form a set of cognates descended from a proto-language.For example,there is a set of words;

Frater(Latin)

Brother(English)

Bhrata(Sanskrit)

These are cognates belonging to a set relating to a word which may have existed in Proto-Indo-European.

Polyglot

A polyglot is a person who can use  a number of languages.

Pidgin

It is a special language with a very limited vocabulary and limited structures, used for purposes like trade and commerce, by those people  who do not have a common language between themselves. When speakers of two different languages meet for specific purposes pidgin language is used. Pidgin language is also called as trade language or contact vernacular. For example, a trade language, Tukano, is used by twenty odd tribes in the north-west Amazon area.

Pidgin is not used for communicating within the community. It is very simple that learners acquire it easily. For example, the migrant workers speak the language of the place they reach and began to communicate with the native people using a pidgin evolved with their tongue and the tongue of the new place. Its vocabulary is based on that of the dominant group. A pidgin cannot be treated as a language as it has heavy borrowings from one type of language. A pidgin does not have native speakers.

Creole

When a pidgin language comes to be used for a long period by a community as a whole it develops its own vocabulary and structures, it becomes a Creole. It is a product of two different languages originally used by the speakers. A Creole may develop when a pidgin becomes the first language of the community. Jamaican Creole, Haitian creole etc, are examples of this sort.

Esperanto

Esperanto is a theoretical language to be used by all people all over the world. Though some people continue to make an attempt to evolve such a world language, based on the vocabulary and codes of important languages in the world, it has not been successful so far.

Umlaut

Vowels are often assimilated to vowels that precede or follow in the next syllable.During the early Middle Ages, changes of this kind occurred in several Germanic dialects. These changes in the Germanic languages are known by the name of umlaut. It is a type of sound change in Old English, especially in vowels.

Ablaut

Ablaut is a linguistic term which means ‘of sound’. It was first used by Jacob Grimm. The use of vowels and their variations has got the nuclear position in the formation of words. Ablaut variations in the vowels are more significant in the case of verbs which are known as strong verb ablaut. The vowel gradation has become the chief means of expressing the distinctions of time (Tense) Eg. Sing – sang -sung

Notes on Language and Linguistics

Module -I - Language

Definitions of language.

Though all of us know what language is, it is very difficult to make a standard definition that fully explains the term language. The term language can be understood better  in terms of its properties and characteristics. However, there have been some definitions given by some linguists though they have been far from satisfactory.

1). According to Robins  ‘language is a symbol system based on pure  or arbitrary conventions… infinitely extendable and modifiable according to  the changing needs and conditions of the speakers’.  According to this definition, language is a symbol system. The symbols form together to make the alphabet of the language. The language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no one to one correspondence between the structure of a word and the thing  it stands for.

2). “Language  is a  purely human and non-instinctive  method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols”-Sapir

For Sapir language is species –specific and species-uniform. Only human beings possess language .Animals do have a communication system but it is not a developed system.

3)  “Language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means o  habitually used oral –auditory arbitrary symbols”-Hall

This definition stresses on speech produced by oral-auditory symbols.

4). “A language is a set of (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set o elements”-Noam Chomsky

He opines that each  sentence has a structure. The human brain is competent enough to construct different sentences out of the limited set of sounds/symbols in a language.

5). “ A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication”-Wardaugh

6). “ A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group operates”- Bloch and Ttrager.

Both the definitions point out that language is a system. Words/ sounds  are joined according to this system. If only words are put in the right order they make proper sense or else they will be senseless.They say that language is system of systems.

7). “Language is undoubtedly a kind of means of communication amon human beings. It consists primarily o vocal sounds. It is systematic, articulatory , symbolic and arbitrary” –Derbyshire.

Derbyshire emphasis the point that only human beings use language to communicate. A  society without language would be impossible to think of.

8). “languages are the principal system of communication used by particular groups of human beings within the particular society (linguistic community) of which they are members”- John Lyons

From the above definitions it is clear that they speak of various characteristics of languages.

Characteristics of Language.

a). Language is a means of communication.

Language is a very important means of communication between humans.Though there are many other means of communication like gestures, nods, winks, short-hand, Braile alphabet, horns etc. we cannot think of a human society without language. It is species specific and species uniform. It is because o language that human beings are called talking animals. Animals too have a system of communication but it is very limited with a few sounds expressing hunger, anger or fear.

b). Language is arbitrary.

The language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no one to one correspondence between the structure of a word and the thing or the idea it stands for. There are a few words (onomatopoeia) indicating the very sound they produce. But for the same sound different languages have different words. Though the arbitrary nature of language permits change, its conventionality gives it stability.

c). Language is a system of systems

Language is not an amorphous, a disorganised or a chaotic combination of sounds. The graphic and phonic substance of the language is systematically arranged in order to form meaningful words and sounds. Again words are arranged in a particular way to frame meaningful sentences.

Language operates at two levels – Phonological and syntactical.At the phonological level, there are some fixed combinations in which consonant clusters are formed at the beginning and end of a sentence. At the syntactical level  there well laid rules of grammar with regard to the formation of sentences. This phonological and syntactic property of language is termed as the duality of language.

d).Language is primarily vocal

Language is primarily made up of vocal sounds   produced by a physiological articulatory mechanism in the human body. A human child learns to speak first as he/she begins to imitate the sounds produced by other human beings in his/her vicinity. He/she learns to write much later. It is because of this reason that some linguists  say that speech is primary and writing is secondary.

e). Language differs from animal communication in several ways.

Language is species specific and species uniform. Only human beings possess language. Animal communication differs from human language in a number of ways.

i)                    Human language can convey a large number, or an infinite set of messages whereas the number of message in animal communication is very limited. Animals communicate their fear, anger or huger through their natural sounds peculiar to each species.

ii)                  Language makes use of clearly distinguishable discrete, separately identifiable symbols while animal communication systems are often continuous and non discrete.

iii)                 Animal communication systems are closed systems that permit of no change, modification or addition. Language on the other hand, is changing and growing every day and new words are added to the language. Moreover, human language I non-instinctive in the sense that every human child has to learn language from his/her elders or peers in society.

iv)                Another important property possessed by human language is called Displacement. A human being can talk in present tense, past tense or future tense whereas animals cannot communicate what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow. They communicate only in the present context. It is thi property of displacement that enables human beings to create fiction and describe the past as well as the possible future events.

f). Language is a form of social behaviour.

Every language has to be learned. A human child learns to speak the language of the community or the group in which   he/she is placed .If a Chinese infant is brought up in an Indian family he/she would pick up that Indian language to which he/she is exposed. Language is thus a form of the social behaviour.

g). Language is a symbol system.

A symbol is a concrete event, object or mark that stands for something relatively abstract. Words in a language are also symbols that stand for objects. A speaker or writer wants to communicate with another fellow being, puts his message across in the form of symbols (in speech or writing). The receiver of the message, who shares those symbols (words/sounds), understands the message by interpreting the symbols. Thus language is a symbol system though different languages use different symbols.

                                            Module II     

     

                                           Linguistics

Linguistics is a term derived from the Latin terms lingua meaning tongue and istics meaning knowledge or science. Linguistics is thus the scientific and systematic study of language.

Is Linguistics a Science?

Linguistics is a science that describes and classifies language. The substance of a language may include phonic and graphic. The study of phonic substance is called phonetics which includes the description of vocal organs, the articulation of sound, its transmission and audition etc. All these topics are included in pure science s like biology and physics. These activities may be observed through experiments. The graphic substance of language is purely about the material aspects of the written language. A linguist uses many a sophisticated instruments like endoscope,sonograph,kymograph,pitch meter,oscillograph,mingograph etc to study about different aspects phonetics.

Again, like a scientist the linguist develops hypothesis, makes generalized statements, and tests them against the established facts about language. Like a scientist the phonetician observes the features of words, their similarities or differences and then classifies or defines them.

In the study of phonetics the linguist is very close to pure sciences like biology, physics, physiology etc. Linguistics shares some aspects of social science as it studies language which is a form of social behaviour.

Linguistics is thus both an empirical and a social science. According to Robins-“It is an empirical science and within it, it is one of the social sciences, because its subject matter is human, and is very much different from that of natural sciences”.

From the above points it can be concluded that linguistics is the scientific study of language.Liguistic analyses are objective, tentative and systematic.

Scope of Linguistics

Linguistics is a specific modern discipline which describes the nature,scope,structure,production and transmission of language independently. The modern linguistics is chiefly descriptive but there are also other aspects.

(A) Descriptive Linguistics

Descriptive linguistics deals with the description and analysis of the ways in which a language operates and is used by a given set of speakers at a given time. Descriptive linguistics is the fundamental aspect of the study of languages. It describes how a language works rather than how a language should be and what is its relation with other languages. It describes language systematically at all levels such as phonology, morphology, syntax and syntactic analysis.

 Linguistics is descriptive not prescriptive

Linguistics is a descriptive (non-normative) science because the linguist tries to discover and record the rules to which the members of a language community actually conform and does not seek to impose upon them other rules or norms of correctness.

Prescriptive linguistics prescribes how things ought to be. In other words prescriptive linguistics is rather normative. The most important distinction between prescriptive and descriptive linguistics is that- prescriptive dos and don’ts are commands while descriptive dos and don’ts are statements. Traditional grammar was very much prescriptive or normative in character.

(B) Historical Linguistics

It is the study of the developments in languages in the course of time, the ways in which languages change from period to period and the causes and results of such changes…it must be based on description of two or more stages in the development of the language being studied. Historical linguistics thus describes changes in language systems over a period of time and considers their relationship with families. The study of the changes that have taken place in English from Old English to Middle English and then Modern English comes under the head historical and comparative linguistics.

(C) Comparative Linguistics

It deals with the distinction among languages. If Hindi is contrasted with Urdu, or Tamil with Telgu, such type of distinction comes under the head comparative linguistics.

Modern linguistics

Modern linguistics is associated with Ferdinand de Saussure, the Swiss linguist who introduced a totally new concept of language study called the structuralistic notion of language. Saussure’s lecture notes were later  published by his students after his death,in the year 1915 titled  ‘Course in General Linguistics’.

Basic Assumptions

According to Saussure language is a system of systems. The system contains a number of sub-systems as its components. It can be observed in the English language- that there runs a system in the way phonemes are arranged and combined to form morphemes, words and sentences. Human language is divisible in to systems which are interconnected at each level. At the initial level the basic  sound units or the phonemes come.  The phonemes are the building blocks of any language and their selection and arrangement varies from language to language.

Saussure held the view that language is a social fact and a semiotic system- system of signs. According to him each linguistic sign is composed of a signifier and a signified i.e., signifier + signified > sign. By signified he meant the phonic or graphic part of the sign. The signified is what is referred to or the referent or the concept behind the signifier. The relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary i.e., there is no natural relationship between the signifier and the signified.

 The study of signs constitutes the field of semiotics or semiology. Every language being a system of signs, semiotics has greater application in cinema, myth, advertising and painting.

The modernist linguists value all varieties and styles in a language whether spoken or written, formal or informal etc. The modern linguist studies language in terms of observable and verifiable data. This is what Saussure meant by saying that linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive.  The prescriptive grammarians tell the speakers what forms they should use and what they should not. Both the prescriptive and descriptive linguists make use of rules. The descriptive linguists work under the assumption that change is natural for languages.Saussure’s language study is built on the assumption that each language is a self sufficient system  capable of handling the communicative needs of the society that makes use of it.

Synchronic and Diachronic description of language.

The terms synchronic (descriptive) and diachronic (historical) have been given by Saussure to describe a stage of a language at a given time and the changes that take place during the passage of time. A synchronic description is non-historical where as diachronic description traces the historical development of a language. The study of how a language works at a given time, regardless of its past history or future destiny is called synchronic or descriptive linguistics. Synchronic linguistics studies a language at one period in the sequence of time .It involves the way people speak in a speech community in a given period of time.

Diachronic linguistics study how speech habits change as time goes by or in other words it deals with the development of languages through time. While synchronic linguistics deals with systems the diachronic linguistics deals with the units. But they cannot be regarded as separate compartments because linguistics is studied at both levels.

Synchronic and Diachronic description of language.

The terms synchronic (descriptive) and diachronic (historical) have been given by Saussure to describe a stage of a language at a given time and the changes that take place during the passage of time. A synchronic description is non-historical where as diachronic description traces the historical development of a language. The study of how a language works at a given time, regardless of its past history or future destiny is called synchronic or descriptive linguistics. Synchronic linguistics studies a language at one period in the sequence of time .It involves the way people speak in a speech community in a given period of time.

Diachronic linguistics study how speech habits change as time goes by or in other words it deals with the development of languages through time. While synchronic linguistics deals with systems the diachronic linguistics deals with the units. But they cannot be regarded as separate compartments because linguistics is studied at both levels.

Other Branches of Linguistics

Psycholinguistics

Language is a mental phenomenon and whatever we think is expressed in language behaviour. Psycholinguistics studies these mental processes such as thought and concept formation. It also studies the influence of psychological factors such as intelligence, motivation and anxiety on the kind of language that is understood and produced. Our perception of sounds and graphic symbols (writing) is influenced by the state of our mind.

Sociolinguistics 

It is a branch of linguistics that studies the relation between language and society. Language changes its form and structure on the basis of social class, gender, religion and cultural groups. A particular social group may speak a different variety of a language from the rest of the community. Such a group of speakers comes under the head Speech Community. The educate people in England speak English RP (Received Pronunciation) which is different from the English spoken in other areas like Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Anthropological Linguistics

It is a part of the sociolinguistics that studies a specific area of the evolution of language in human society and its role in the formation of culture. Language is very much related to the cultural infrastructure of society .Anthropological linguistics tries to study the variation among languages on the basis of cultural difference.

Ethnolinguistics

Ethnolingustics, a part of the sociolinguistics studies the variation in languages on the basis of social interaction among a few human races and cultures.

Phonology

Phonology is the study of speech sounds and their function within the sound system of a particular language. It covers both phonemics and phonetics. Phonology is the organization of sounds into patterns. The difference between phonetics and phonology is that, the former studies the sounds of all world languages, whereas the latter describes the sounds of a particular language. Phonetics is one and the same for all the language of the world but the phonology of one language may differ from the phonology of others. Every language has  its own selection of sounds an organizes them into characteristic patterns. Such  selection and organization  of the sounds constitute  the phonology of the language. Phonology is also known as functional phonetics.

Morphology

The term morphology has been derived from the Greek word morph meaning form and logy meaning study. Morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies patterns of word formation within and across languages. Coined in 1859 by august Schleicher, the term morphology means the science of word formation.

Morphology describes the patterns of formation of words by the combination of sounds into minimal distinctive units of meaning called morphemes. A morpheme is the minimal or smallest individually meaningful grammatical unit of a language. For example, unhappy has two morphemes-{un},{happy}.A morpheme is different from a word as many morphemes cannot stand as words.

Free Morpheme and Bound Morpheme

A morpheme is free if it can stand alone or if it has meaning in itself. The bound morpheme are those which have meaning if only they are attached to free morphemes. In teacher, longer, and preacher, the ‘er’ is meaningless if they are removed from the root words .They are examples of bound morphemes. But teach, long and preach have meaning though 'er’ is removed from them. So they can be called free morphemes. The free morphemes are called roots or bases and the bound morphemes are called affixes.

Syntax

Syntax is a branch of grammar which studies the arrangement of words in sentences and the means by which the relations such as inflexion and word order etc. The word syntax consists of two word elements ‘syn’ the Latinized form of the Greek preposition sun which means together and ‘tax’ derived from a Greek root which means to put in order. Syntax is therefore, the way that words and phrases are put together to form sentences in a language.

The sentence ‘A strong bull reads a thick book seriously’ is grammatically correct but not meaningful. The rules of syntax should explain how sentences are constructed so that they are both grammatically correct and meaningful. Syntax two cardinal points: Form and Function. Form is the internal structure of a unit of grammatical analysis of a phrase or a clause. Form in the context of syntax refers to terms of categorical labels such as noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase and adverbial phrase. Function is essentially a relational concept. Terms like subject, object, subject complement and object complement come under Functional labels.

Syntax is divided into two distinct areas. One is related to morphology and the other to the units higher than that of morphology. The notable difference in morphology and syntax is that in morphology the minimal syntactic level is analyzed into morphological units called morphemes and words and into syntactic units called phrases and clauses.

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning of words and phrases in a language .The origin of the word semantics is from French word semantique which is related to the connotation of the words semaino meaning signify, and sema meaning sign.Thus semantics is related to significant or meaning. In other words, it is that aspect of linguistics which deals with the relations between referents (names) and referends (things)-that is, the linguistic levels (words,expressions,and phrases)and the objects,concepts:or the ideas to which they refer. This field of study occurs in two aspects: diachronic and synchronic. Diachronic or historical semantics studies the semantic changes down the ages. Synchronic or descriptive semantic deals with semantic relationship, simple or multiple. The application of the appropriate words selecting from synonyms in order to make the expression right and forceful is included in the field of synchronic semantics.

Langue and Parole

The Swiss linguist Ferdinand De Saussure made a distinction between two aspects of language: Langue and Parole. Langue means language, that is, all the rules and conventions regarding the combination of sounds, formation of words and sentences, pronunciation and meaning. Langue is the product of a social agreement. In short, Langue is social, a set of conventions shares by all the members of a language. Langue is abstract, as these particular conventions exist in the minds of the speakers who belong to that society that has created the language.

Parole on the other hand belongs to the individual. When those conventions that exist in the mind as langue are used in a concrete form in actual speech or writing they become instances of parole. Parole is the actual sounds and sentences produced by an individual speaker or writer. When we hear a person speak a language that we do not understand, that is the parole. It is because we are not a part of that langue out of which the particular parole came. Thus parole is: Individual performance of language in speech or writing. Parole is concrete and physical. It makes use of the physiological mechanism such as speech organs in uttering words and sentences.

Therefore, it can be concluded that langue exists in the mind of each individual in the form of word-images and knowledge o conventions, that is, as an abstract form of the grammar and dictionary of the language.

Saussure considered langue as the legislative side of language or the law of language. Parole is the executive side of the language because it uses the law or code of the language (langue) for its individual ends. According to Saussure, we can study only langue and not parole because langue is a well-defined homogenous object distinct from the heterogeneous, unpredictable mass of speech acts.

In recent years there have been some arguments about these distinctions. Some sociolinguists regard these dichotomies as unreal. Langue and parole are interrelated and not separate. Just as parole is not possible or effective without langue, langue also changes  gradually under the effect of parole.

Competence and Performance

It is another concept of language developed by the American linguist named Noam Chomsky. According to Chomsky, Competence is the native speaker’s knowledge of his language, the mastery of the system of rules, while Performance is the production of actual sentences in use in real life situations. So a speaker’s knowledge of the structure of the language is the speaker’s linguistic competence and the way in which he uses it is linguistic performance. While competence is a set of principles which a speaker masters, performance is what a speaker does.

This understanding of competence vs. performance as given by Chomsky closely resembles the langue/parole dichotomy of Saussure But it differs in that while langue is the same with every language user, competence may differ from person to person. Saussure’s understanding of langue emphasises its predominantly social aspect, while Chomsky’s term competence is based on psychology and presumes individual differences between human beings.

Substance and Form

Sounds and symbols such as letters of the alphabet that represent sounds in writing are the raw materials of a language. They are the phonic (sound) and graphic (written) substance of the language. All distinct sounds produced by human speech organs and written scripts are the substance of human language. They have meaning only when they are given a particular shape or order, that means, it is only when they have some form that they have meaning.

In short, we can conclude that substance is the elements or raw materials of language such as phonemes, morphemes or graphemes, and form is the associative order in which these are brought together in a meaningful way.

Saji Joseph, Head ,Department of English 

LISSAH college Kaithapoyil.