Lingustics 201

Professor Edward Vajda

Introductory Lecture:  Language and Mind

LINGUISTICS - the scientific study of all aspects of human language

LINGUIST - a scholar who studies language

PHILOLOGIST - an old-fashioned word for linguist

PHONOLOGY - the study of the system of speech sounds in human language

MORPHOLOGY - the study of how words are built in human language

SYNTAX - the study of how phrases and sentences are built in human lang.

DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTS (late 19th to mid-20th century) - attempted to describe each language in its own terms rather than according to a general theory of structure

FRANZ BOAS                      EDWARD SAPIR               BENJAMIN LEE WHORF

TWO INNOVATIONS IN LINGUISTIC THINKING:

1. There are no primitive human languages

2. The relationship between language and mind was re-examined

Language structure <------??------> mind, thought processes

linguistic relativity - the idea that each language has its own unique structure which does interact with the world view of its speakers

linguistic determinism - the structure of language determines and limits the patterns of habitual thought in a society; language determines culture more than culture shapes language. 

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (Whorfian Hypothesis) - language imprisons the mind;  the strongest form of linguistic determinism

Most linguists reject the Whorfian hypothesis today

Linguistic relativity is valid, but Whorfian linguistic determinism is too strongly stated:

Evidence - language structure and culture often not parallel

    1) Other languages that lack grammatical tense:  Chinese, Malay.

      2) Grammatical categories lacking in English:  aspect, evidential.

      3) Gender in English, Georgian, and Ket

Conclusion:  parallels between language structure and thought patterns seem to be random, not the result of a strict cause and effect relationship.

language structure <----thought <---culture, environment

Why should this be so?  The answer:

 LANGUAGE IS DRIVEN BY HUMAN CREATIVITY

1) Concepts that become extremely important to a society will acquire more elaborate means of expression

   a) Yupik Eskimo has dozens of words for specific varieties of snow and ice, 16 words for seal.

   b) Maasai (East Africa) has an elaborate vocabulary for cattle, as do the Arabs for camels.

   c) The English of Beowulf used 36 epithets to describe the ocean and over two dozen to express the concept "hero."

2) On the other hand, concepts rarely or never experienced naturally have few or no ready made terms of expression.

    a) Many languages of the tropics have a single word for snow and ice.

    b) Hopi  masa'taka means bird, plane or insect.

    c) Tribes in the Amazon rain forest have no word for ocean, sea.

How does creativity lead to linguistic change?

   1) borrowing from other languages:  zebra, glasnost, 75% of Engl. words are borrowed, mostly from Norman French.

   2) coining new terms--bubble, nerd

   3) new combinations of old words, called collocations

         a) spring snow, powder snow

         b) ring around the collar, heartburn

   4) new meaning of existing word

         a) in Shakespeare: roses stink; torpedo (used to mean "mine")

         b) Apache pit, ynda, etc.

Because humans are creative, any human language is capable of expressing any thought the mind can devise. 

Rather than stifle creativity, language is the most versatile vehicle for expressing our creativity. 

Formal differences between languages are superficial

But language form is still important to linguists for several reasons.

1) Studying the difference and commonalities is important to understanding the balance between human unity and diversity

       Swahili mumagamagama "someone who habitually loses things"

       Russian opoxmelitsya "to eat the hair of the dog that bit you."

Language typology - comparing languages according to their form

2) Studying the past:  ursus/bear/ medved.  time/tide/vremya. 

3) Languages are inherently interesting in their own right