LT2201

Introduction to Lingui
stics
Welcome to the course!
Lecture 1
Course preliminaries & Introduction
Prof. Pan Haihua
cthpan@cityu.edu.hk
2015/1/16
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Lecturer contact information

Prof. Pan Haihua
Office: B7610
Tel.: 3442-8795
Email: cthpan@cityu.edu.hk

When you send email

Include LT2201 in the subject
e.g. LT2201_question on lecture 1
Indicate your full name and student ID in the text
Especially when you write to me the first mail

What is linguistics?
Have you heard of this term?
Have you taken any course in linguistics?
Linguistics is _________________________________
Do we need know many languages in order to st

udy linguistics?

Course preliminaries
Aim of the course
Textbook
Other useful reference books
Topics (see weekly schedule)
Mode of teaching
Course assessment
The ABC rule

Aim of the course

Aims listed on the Dept website
Enable students to acquire the forms, functions and

meanings of language in general

Enable them to discover and analyze language data in
real life situation.

A more general aim of being a university studen

Learn to cultivate an analytical mind through the cour

ses you take

Learn to discover for yourself the essence of the subj
ects being studied

Textbook
Yule, G. (2006) The Study of Language. 3rd editio

n, Cambridge University Press.

Readings
Lectures
Tutorials

Giving references
Yule, G. (2006) The Study of Language. 3rd editio

n, Cambridge University Press.

Information to be included in the reference sect
ion at the end of an essay
Name of Author(s)
Year of publication
Title
Edition (if applicable)
Publisher
Check APA style at http://www.apastyle.org/
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Acknowledge source is important!

An example
In this essay I discuss the notions of linguistic competence and ling
uistic performance. Linguistic competence means the speakers kno
wledge about words and grammar as explained by Fromkin et al (2
013:8), and

--- end of essay --References:

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R. & Hyams, N. (2013) An Introduction to
Language. 10th edition, Wadsworth.
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Other useful and interesting read

ings

David Crystal
. Warren
P
&
s
e
, J. Holm
r
e
u
a
B
.
L

Laurie

Bauer
&

Peter

Trudg
ill
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Topics
Three broad areas of human language
Structure
Meaning
Discourse

See weekly schedule for details

10

Mode of teaching
2-hour lecture and 1-hour tutorial every week
You are expected to attend all lectures and tuto

rials

For lectures: do assigned readings and questions; tak

e necessary notes (not all information will be found in

lecture notes)
For tutorials: check understanding of the lectures; foll
ow the instruction in doing exercises; be prepared to j
oin group discussion, answer questions and give shor
t presentations

Most importantly: take the initiative to ask questions!

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Course assessment
60% Course work
2 journal articles (30%)
2 quizzes (30%)
Tutorial participation
1% deducted for absence without good reasons (e.g. doctors
certificate for sick leave)

40% Exam
A pre-exam consultation session will be arranged tow

ards the end of the semester

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Keep a linguistics journal

A record of your observation and thinking about

language-related issues

The journal is for you to sharpen your sensitivity to li

nguistic phenomena in everyday life and to track your

progress in linguistics studies
You should report the number of entries at the end of
the semester

Submit 2 entries for assessment

700-800 words

You may be asked to present an entry in class

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The ABC rule

Expectation of you
Attend lectures and tutorials
Committed attendance
Active participation

Be critical and curious

Reading, thinking, initiating questions

Classroom courtesy

Be on time
Turn off electronic devices
Keep quiet
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Introduction
How do linguists study language?
Where does language come from?
Properties of human language

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Language is central to human life

We are surrounded by language
Even before birth

We use language everyday

university, farm, shop, factory, office, street
thinking, dreaming

Then how
do linguists
study
language?

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Example

Listen to the following and see if they make sen

se to you

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Speech sounds & sound pattern

s
Each language contain a set of sounds which are combin

ed to make meaningful words

English
Chinese
The p sound
peep
po
The m sound
mum
ma
The th sound
thank
?
Possible combination and position of sounds in English
splash slpash?
sing
ngot? (Compare: hang sang ngan hong
)
black tick
blick? ngipl?

Phonetics and Phonology

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Words and word structures

Some words have internal parts
happiness, healthy, prosperity, enjoyable

New words can be formed in a similar way

enjoy + able enjoyable
move + able moveable
google + able ?

How many parts in this word?

Antidisestablishmentarianism
Anti+dis+establish+ment+ari+an+ism

Morphology ( )
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Sentences & sentence structures

How are words put together to make phrases a

nd sentences
A

university great
He gave ten dollars Peter
John laughed.
John laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed a
nd ...
This is the house that Jack built.
This is the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat t
hat ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.

Syntax

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Linguistic meaning
What do words conventionally mean?
My

watch stopped functioning

They watched an exciting movie

Meaning relation between words and sentences

long,

short
sofa, couch
The meeting was postponed; the meeting was put off
.
Mary loves Peter; Mary hates Peter

Semantics
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Speakers meaning
Please give this to him tomorrow
Dr Zhang, do you know the way to Monkok from

here?
--- Yes, I know. Have a nice day!

Pragmatics
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Meaning in discourse
How are sentences put together into meaningful text?
Rebecca

took the medication. She had an allergic reaction

Rebecca had an allergic reaction. She took the medication

How do speakers make sense of what they say to each

other?
A:
B:
A:
B:

I have a fourteen year old son

Thats alright
I also have a dog
Oh Im sorry

Discourse Analysis /
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Carry-home message
Do your own summary of the lecture
Language is complex
We still know little about how language works

Linguistics is fun and challenging

Linguistics is cute

Mandarin:
Cantonese?

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Reading, tutorial & next lecture

Reading: Ch. 1-2
No tutorial next week
But think about the questions given on the next slide
Practice writing out a reference item

Lecture 2 on Jan. 23
Reading for Lecture 3
Ch. 3-4 on sounds and sound patterns

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Questions to think about

Are these statements true or misconceptions?
There is nothing inherent about words that give them their

meaning: any group of speech sounds could have any mea

ning.
It is easier to learn Chinese if your ancestry is Chinese.
People who say Nobody aint done nothin are not thinkin
g logically.
Some languages organize sentences by putting the object f
irst and the subject last.
Swearing degrades a language.
Every language has a way to mark verbs for the past tense.
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