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What is Expletive infixation?

∙ Expletive infixation

o Ex: “hallo-fucking-ween” for “Halloween; NOT “hal-fucking-loween” o No one taught us how to do expletive insertion correctly, yet as English speakers we have some kind of rule that tells us which.

o You, as a native speaker, can add a word to another word/phrase in a  way that’s comprehendible, and native speakers will still be able to  understand you, for some reason.

∙ Building blocks

o Phonetics: word sounds

o Phonology: patterns of word sounds (ex: cats, like, to, eat. Each are a  pattern of word sounds in English.) (ex: rtun, tbatl, opsp. None are  word sound patterns in English)

o Semantics: word meaning

o Syntax: building sentences

o Morphology: Knowledge of lang and how sentences should be built o Lexicon: mental dictionary Don't forget about the age old question of texas state university anthropology

∙ Noam Chomsky

o Father of linguistics  

∙ Linguistic Knowledge:

What is Phonetics?

o Ling competence: what you know of the language mentally

o Ling performance: what you actually say/do.  

 Subject to physical limitations, such as taking a breath b/w  

words, and performance errors, such as slips of tongue.

∙ Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Grammar

o Descriptive: Actual speaker’s grammar

 Linguist’s grammar

 Sentences not necessarily following the taught “rules” of  

grammar, but are still understood by native speakers. Don't forget about the age old question of segmentation of porifera

 Ex: I don’t want to talk to nobody --- considered a grammatical  sentence bc some native speaker do talk like this.

o Prescriptive: rules of grammar used by teachers, and thus are rules  that are a matter of opinion.

 What speaker’s rules should be. Ex: don’t use double negatives.  Speakers are still understood when prescriptive grammar isn’t  used.

∙ Some rules don’t seem to matter in other langs.

What is Phonology?

Don't forget about the age old question of ecostudy

“Brain and Language”

∙ Brain – most complex organ. It has:

o Cortex – surface of the brain (“gray matter”).  

 Holds the grammar representing our knowledge of language. o Right and left cerebral hemispheres, the right hemis controls the left  side of the body, and visa versa. This function is called a contralateral brain function.

 Stimulus processed by other side of brain first before activating  response.

 Both are connected by the corpus callosum (allows the two  hemispheres to communicate with the other) aka “white matter” ∙ Linguistic abilities

o Joseph Gall proposed localization in early 19th cent.

 his thought that linguistic capacities are functions of localized  brains areas has been supported

∙ Aphasia: neurological term for any lang disorder resulting from brain disease  or trauma.  

o 1860s, Paul Broca claimed lang is localized on the left hemisphere  frontal lobe, or “Broca’s Area”.

o 1870s, Carl Wernicke claimed lang localized also on the left hemis  temporal lobe, or “Wernicke’s Area”.  Don't forget about the age old question of esci 101 wwu

o Thus, lang is lateralized (localized to one hemis only) on the left  hemisphere.

o Broca’s Aphasia: affects lang production. Inefficient ability to form  sentences (telegraphic speech). Lang produced is agrammatic (lacking  grammatical elements). Have problems with syntax.

o Wernicke’s Aphasia: affects lang comprehension. Person can speak  fluently (grammar isn’t affected), but inefficient ability to name  objects, choose words when speaking. Often produce nonsense words.  Have probs with semantics.

 Severe Wern Aphasia aka jargon aphasia.

 Reading/writing severely impaired

∙ Anomia

o Kind of Aphasia – severe trouble coming up with words. If you want to learn more check out the smallest neuroglia of the cns that act as phagocytes are the

o Can be very specific:

 May affect only certain part of semantics (plants, animals, etc) o Aphasic deaf signers show similar lang deficits to hearing aphasics.  o Often associated with damage to angular gyrus.

o Aphasiology shows that lang function isn’t in just one part of the brain,  and that diff areas control diff aspects of the brain.

∙ Brain Plasticity and Lateralization in Early Life

o Lateralization of lang happens very early in life.

o Kids may acquire the lang of the enviro, but they often say things they  have never heard before (ex: I breaked my nose)

∙ Thus kids have ling creativity.

o In youth, phonological and syntactic processing are automatic reflexes. o Even if the left hemis (lang hemis) is removed, the right hemis quickly  fills in for the missing hemis in young children. 

∙ Split Brain

o Those with severe epilepsy have their corpus callosum cut, ending  communication b/w the hemispheres.

∙ Wada test: remove small piece of brain in epilepsy patients o One hemis is temporarily put to sleep

o Give the patient something in one hand (depending on which hemis is  tested) and asked them what you’ve given them.

o Left hemis awake, patient can ID pic of object verbally. Right hemis,  can only draw it/point to it.

∙ Other Experimental Evidence of Brain Organization We also discuss several other topics like uo human physiology

o Dichotic listening: experimental technique using auditory signals to  observe brain behavior.

 Subjects frequently correct in naming words, syllables, and other linguistic stimuli heard through right ear.

 Subjects freq. correct in hearing musical chords, sounds, and  other nonverbal stimuli heard through left ear. 

∙ The Autonomy of Language

o Some children suffer from specific language impairment (SLI) – affects  certain aspects of grammar.  

 Affects 7-8% of kindergarten age kids.

 Kids may start speaking late, may be hard to understand

∙ May have normal IQ and normal ability in general,  

including speech comprehension and visual-spatial skills,  

but just certain parts of ling ability are impaired.

 Struggle with verbal inflection, syntactic stuctures. Resembles  aphasic problems.

∙ Ex: “meowmeow chase mice”; “show me knife”; “it not  

long one”

 Basically, we learn that lang is NOT connected w general  

intelligence in kids.

∙ Other Dissociations of Language and Cognition

o Savants: those who are gifted with talent, but lack ability to care for  themselves.

∙ Genetic Basis of Language

o Turner syndrome: normal lang and advanced reading skills, but major  nonlinguistic cognitive deficits.

o Williams syndrome: certain ling functions relatively preserved despite  visual and spatial cognitive deficits and moderate retardation.

 Extremely social/friendly; may not be able to tie their shoes or  draw pictures.

 General intelligence not affected/correlated with ling ability.

Language and Development  

∙ The Critical Period: lang is acquired easily at young age

o Lang acquisition is innate, and requires external input for further  devlpmnt.  

o Late lang exposure affects the fundamental organization of brain for  lang.

o Critical age hypothesis: lang is biologically based, ability to learn lang  develops in fixed period, usually birth to mid childhood.

o Kids who missed their critical period show uncommon patterns of brain lateralization.  

 Usually never acquire the grammatical rules of English.

 Lang lateralizes to the right hemis for them b/c of inadequate  ling stimulation, and lang areas in left hemis are no longer  

accessible.

∙ Ex: Genie, didn’t learn lang until age 15.

∙ Critical Period for Bird Song

o A chaffinch can’t learn new song elements after 10 months of age. o Must not be isolated from other birds in order to develop song correctly o Shows us that basic nature of human lang is innate, but the details of it are acquired.

“Phonetics”: how speech sounds produced, transmitted, and perceived.

o There are no breaks in our speech; only those who speak the lang  know where the stops b/w words are.

∙ Segment: to break up a sound into parts

o Ex: “bus” has three sounds

∙ Acoustic phonetics: physical properties of sounds

∙ Auditory phonetics: comprehension of sounds heard

∙ Articulatory phonetics: study of how vocal tract produces lang sounds  (primary focus of chapter)

Phonetic Alphabet – aka the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) ∙ IPA symbols are in []’s

∙ Orthography: alphabetic spelling

∙ Articulatory Phonetics

o Shaping parts of the vocal tract (structures that work together to  produce sounds) cause different lang sounds.

 Air pushed through Vocal cords (pair of membranes) and out  mouth (aka oral cavity) and nose (aka nasal cavity).

∙ Glottis: opening b/w vocal cords, located in the Larynx,  

which is below the tubular pharynx in the throat.

∙

Alveolar ridge

∙ Hard palate

∙ Soft palate/velum

∙ Uvula: back of the throat

∙ Pharynx

∙ Glottis

o Consonants: refers to a type of sound, not particular letters  Three Feautures

∙ 1) Where this air restriction occurs in vocal tract is called  place of articulation

o 7 Places of articulation:

 Bilabials: [p], [b], [m] – produced by putting  

lips together

 Labiodentals: [f], [v] – bottom lips meets  

upper teeth

 Interdentals: th [θ][ð] – tip of tongue touches

b/w teeth

∙ Dental: also th – but tongue merely  

touches behind teeth

 Alveolars: [t], [d], [n], [s], [z], [l], [r] – tongue

touches alveolar ridge in various ways.

 Palatals: [ʃ], [ʒ], [tʃ], [dʒ], [j] – air constriction

where the front of tongue touches hard  

palate.

 Velars: [k], [g], [ŋ]

 Uvulars: [R], [q], [G] – trill sounds, produced  

by raising back of tongue to uvula

 Glottals: [h] – air flows through open glottis

∙ Some vowel sound always follows [h]

∙ Glottal stop: air is completely stopped,

then released (ex: uh- oh)

 Labio-velar: [w], [wh]

 (2) Voicing

∙ Voiceless: vocal cords apart; air flows freely through  

glottis

o Voiceless sounds either aspirated or not

o Aspiration: puff of air released before glottis closes.

Cords open for very short time.

 Transcribed as consonant with little h [p^h].  

 Ex: spit, spin, stick, skin.

o Unaspirated: cords vibrate as soon as lips open

 Ex: pit, pin, tick, kin.

o English speaker consider aspirated/unasp sounds to

be same

∙ Voiced: vocal cords together; forced air comes through  and makes vibration

 (3) Manner of Articulation: manipulation/degree of air usage  through vocal tract.  

∙ Oral: air only escapes through oral cavity.

o Most sounds are oral, except for nasal sounds.

 Ex: [b] [d] [g]

∙ Nasal: velum is lowered, allowing air to escape through  nose.

∙ Stops: complete obstruction of airflow in vocal tract

∙ Liquids: [r] [l]

∙ Glides: [w] [y]

∙ Vowels

o Four distinguishing features

 Backness: how far back/forward is tongue in mouth

∙ Front – [i] beet, [ɪ] bit, [e] bait, [ɛ] bet, [æ] bat

∙ Central – [ə] about, [ʊ] but, [a] cot

∙ Back – [ɔ] bought, [ʊ] book, [o] boat

 Height of tongue

∙ high - [i] beet, [ɪ] bit, [u] boot, [ʊ] book

∙ mid - [e] bait, [ə] about, [ʌ] but, [o] boat, [ɔ] bought

∙ low - [æ] bat, [a] cot

∙ treat [ɔ] (bought, lost, moss, etc) as a MID VOWEL, not a  

LOW VOWEL (like it is in the book)

 tenseness

∙ tense: muscles tensed/tighter [i][e][o][u][a]

o slightly higher than lax vowels

∙ lax: muscles relaxed more

 lip rounding  

∙ lips in [i] vs. [u]

o Diphthongs

 A combination of two symbols/sounds (ex: [aɪ] in “fine”

o Natural classes: group of sounds sharing a particular feature  Ex: [t], [d],and [n] are all alveolar stops

 Ex: [b] [d] [g] all voiced, oral stops

 Should know quite a few natural classes and how to group them o Transcription: rendering a word in IPA

 Ex: help – [hɛlp]; dig [ɪ]; keys [kiz]; schedule [skɛdʒul]; rad [ræd]  Know how to transcribe and reverse transcribe. Will be given  words in English orthography and asked to transcribe

Phonology (p. 267): study of sound patterns in language

∙ Pronunciation of Morphemes– morphemes pronounced differently depending  on context.

o Pronunciation of Plurals  

 Some plurals nouns end with [z] (ex: cab => cabs)

 Some end with [s] (ex: cap => caps)

 Some end with [əz] (ex: bus => buses, badge => badges)

 Some don’t conform to one form group, and are individually  memorized (ex: child => children; ox =>oxen; sheep => sheep)  Plural words with [əz] have sibilant segments.

 Plural words with [z] or [s] have nonsibilant segments.

o Morphophonemic rules: phonological rules that shape a plural  morpheme and other certain morpheme’s phonetics.  

o Additional Allomorphs

 Past tense forms parallel plural forms

∙ Regular past tense morphemes use the allomorphs [d]  

(ex: grabbed), [t] (ex: kissed), [əd] (ex: gloated).

∙ Phonemes: [the abstract mental representations of] Phonological Units of  Lang (p.273)

o Ex: /p/ /b/ /t/

 Sensed in the mind, but aren’t heard/spoken

 Associated with allophones: corresponding sounds to the  phoneme

∙ ALLOPHONES are what are pronounced, not phoneme.

∙ Allophones must differ bc of at least one feature.

 Use // to enclose phonemes, and [] to enclose allophones and  phones.

 Diff bw allophones and minimal pairs

∙ Ex: [p] and [p^h] are NOT minimal pairs bc no change in  meaning when you switch one out for the other. But they  

are allophones of /p/ bc relatively same sound.

o If find minimal pair, that means SPEAKERS DON’T  

CONSIDER THE TWO SOUNDS TO BE SAME.

o Vowel Nasalization in English as Illustration of Allophones

 Phone: certain pronunciation of a phoneme.

∙ A group with same phoneme are the allophones of that  

phoneme.

o Contrastive distribution  

 Minimal pairs are in contrastive distribution: two words with  different meanings, but identical sounds except for one sound  segment.

 If English speakers were asked if for ex. [b] and [p] were the  same sounds, they’d say no. (batch and patch)

o Complementary distribution  

 If English speakers were asked if for ex. [t] and [t^h], or [i] and  [ii] were the same sounds, they’d say yes (tick and stick, preet  and peed)

 They never occur in same environment, thus, will NEVER form  MINIMAL PAIR

 English oral/nasal vowels are complimentary b/c non-distinctive  in English

 Ex: lowercase and capital letters are in complementary distrib. o How to figure out if contrastive or complimentary

∙ First check for min pairs

∙ Then write down enviros where you find the allophones  

(ex: [u] => n_s, d_d, l_s; [ũ] => n_n, d_m, l_n, s_n)

o Can you discover the rules about when each  

allophone appears?

 Ex: [ũ] appears in nasal stops. [u] appears  

elsewhere.

o Just so you know

 # indicates word boundary

 #_t (or any letter) = sound “_” occurs at beginning of sentence  t(or any letter) _# = sound “_” occurs at end of sentence. o Phonology Problem

 When complementary distrib is found, can explain the by saying: /_ / becomes [_] when it occurs before/after [_]. [_] occurs  everywhere else.

 When comntrastive distrib is found b/c of a minimal pair, can  explain by saying: [_] and [_] are minimal pairs, and thus in  contrastive contribution.

o Distinctive/phonemic feature: feature that distinguishes between two  or more phonemes.

 If a sound has a certain feature, for ex, it’s nasalized, then it  would have a +, as in [+nasal]. If the sound doesn’t have the  feature, then it’s -, as in [-nasal]

∙ Ex: [s] is [-voiced]

o Non-distinctive feature 

 These are features that aren’t enough to make certain sounds  make words sound different for native speakers.

 Aspiration: is this type of feature b/c only changes one allophone in a word, and isn’t enough to change a word or its meaning in  ENGLISH.

 Length: non distinguishing feat. Linguists know it makes  vowels/consonants different, but regular native speakers  wouldn’t hear the diff.

o Formal notation OPTIONAL

 Basic format: x => y/z ( x becomes y in enviro z)

 Ex: /p/ => p^h/s_i (as in spirit)