1. LIN 1310B Introduction to Linguistics
Prof: Nikolay Slavkov
TA: Quinghua Tang
Acknowledgements: Many of the slides for this course are based on Eta Schneiderman’s slides.

2. Today Introduction Go over syllabus and course outline
What is linguistics? Major subfields of linguistics.
Announcement: please start reading Chapter One of the text.

3. Course Website

4. Major Sub-fields of Linguistics
Phonetics: study of speech sounds
Articularory phonetics (how sounds are produced/articulated)
Acoustic phonetics (the physical properties of sounds)
Auditory phonetics (how sounds are perceived)
Phonology: study of sound systems
How the particular sounds of a language interact with each other and form an integrated system and how such systems differ from one language to another
-Phonetics and phonology are very similar
Simply put:
-Phonetics deals more with sounds
-Phonology with sound systems, interaction between sounds and rules that apply between sounds
-Articulatory phonetics is dominant, most studied.
Picture of vocal aparatus
IPA
Usefulness: description of speech sounds of languages. Languages around the world use different speech sounds. E.g.

5. Phonetics
Vocal Tract

6. Source: Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania

7. Phonetics IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)
Examples from Peter Ladefoged’s website

8. Phonology
How sounds pattern together and interact with each other to form a particular sound system. What processes apply in the particular sound system.

9. Example: Hungarian Vowel Harmony
Hungarian dative suffix alternates between the two forms -nak and -nek depending on the vowels in the word to which it attaches
ablak ‘window’ + nak = ablanak ‘window-dat’
kert ‘garden’ + nek = kertnek ‘garden-dat’

10. Example: Hungarian Vowel Harmony
cim ‘address’ + nak or nek???
=> i is a front vowel and so is e
=> therefore cim takes the -nek suffix:
cimnek ‘address-dat’
bíró ‘judge’ + nak or nek???
=> ó is a back vowel and so is a
=> therefore bíró takes the –nak suffix:
bírónak ‘judge-dat’

11. Major Sub-fields of Linguistics
Morphology: study of structure of words
How words are made up of smaller meaningful units (morphemes), how new words are coined, how words combine into compounds, etc.
Example: please
prefix suffix prefix+suffix
displease pleasant unpleasant
pleasure displeasure
pleasing
-Phonetics and phonology are very similar
Simply put:
-Phonetics deals more with sounds
-Phonology with sound systems, interaction between sounds and rules/processes that apply to them
-Articulatory phonetics is dominant, most studied.
Picture of vocal aparatus
IPA
Usefulness: description of speech sounds of languages. Languages around the world use different speech sounds. E.g.

12. Major Sub-fields of Linguistics
Syntax: structure of sentences
The way in which sentences are constructed and how sentences are related to each other
Examples of grammatical and ungrammatical (*) sentences:
Blue kites fly angrily at the bottom of the sea in the sky.
Blue piranhas swim angrily at the bottom of the sea.
*Kites blue of fly angrily the bottom at sea.
*John like apple that I gives him.

13. Major Sub-fields of Linguistics
Semantics: study of meaning
How words and sentences are related to the (real or imaginary) objects they refer to and the situations they describe
Pragmatics:
How the meaning conveyed by a word or sentence depends on aspects of the context in which it is used (such as time, place, social relationship between speaker and hearer, and speaker’s assumptions about the hearer’s beliefs)

14. Major Sub-fields of Linguistics
Psycholinguistics:
The study of the interrelationship of language and cognitive structures
The acquisition of language
Neurolinguistics:
The study of the brain and how it functions in the production, perception and acquisition of language

15. Major Sub-fields of Linguistics:
Applied Linguistics:
The application of the methods and results of linguistics to such areas as language teaching; national language policies; lexicography; translation; and language in politics, advertising, classrooms, courts, and the like; language pathology (speech therapy and audiology)
Anthropological Linguistics:
The study of the interrelationship between language and culture (particularly in the context of non-Western cultures and societies)

16. Major Sub-fields of Linguistics
Historical Linguistics:
The study of how languages change through time
The relationships of languages to each other
Sociolinguistics:
The study of the interrelationships of language and social structure, linguistic variation, and attitudes toward language

17. Reminder:
Please start reading Chapter One of the text!

18. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many of the slides for this course are based on Eta Schneiderman’s slides.