Creativity of Linguistic Knowledge People do not speak

Creativity of Linguistic Knowledge • People do not speak using isolated words • Knowledge of how to combine words to form phrases and sentences – phrase = syntagme, groupe – sentence = phrase – clause = proposition

Creativity of Linguistic Knowledge • Ability to produce and understand sentences you have never heard before “Daniel Boone decided to become a pioneer because he dreamed of pigeon-toed giraffes and cross-eyed elephants dancing in pink skirts and green berets on the wind-swept plains of the Mid-west. ”

Creativity of Linguistic Knowledge • No upper bound on the size of sentences – This is the house that Jack built. – This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. – This is the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. – Etc.

Creativity of Linguistic Knowledge • No upper bound on the size of sentences – The old man came. – The old, old, old man came

Knowledge of Sentences and Nonsentences • John kissed the little old lady who owned the shaggy dog. • *Who owned the shaggy dog John kissed the little old lady. • John is difficult to love. • It is difficult to love John. • John is anxious to go. • *It is anxious to go John.

Creativity of Linguistic Knowledge • No upper bound on the size of sentences – The old man came. – The old, old, old man came.

Creativity of Linguistic Knowledge Once there was this little boy who asked his father To tell him that old, old, old story. Yoko Ono, A Little Story

Knowledge of Sentences and Nonsentences • • • Je le connais bien. *Moi connaître bien lui. *Je connais le bien. (vs. I know him well. ) Hier Marie a rencontré Paul. *Hier a Marie Paul rencontré. Gisteren heeft Marie Paul ontmoet.

Linguistic Knowledge and Performance • Linguistic competence • Linguistic performance • “What’s one and one and one and one? ” “I don’t know, ” said Alice. “I lost count. ” “She can’t do Addition, ” the Red Queen interrupted. Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass

Competence and Performance • Distinction between knowledge and one’s ability to put that knowledge to use. • Ferdinand de Saussure : – Langue vs. Parole • The ice melted in the sun was ruined. • The ice melted in the sun. • The ice [which had] melted in the sun was ruined.

Purpose of linguistics • Describe and explain the unconscious knowledge (competence) that speakers have, which allows them to produce and understand sentences. • This knowledge is extremely complex

Morphology: The Words of Language

Knowledge of words • Speakers know tens of thousands of words • Average 6 year old : 13. 000 words • Average high school graduate: 60. 000 words • Speakers continue to learn words throughout their lives • Knowledge of a language is not just knowledge of the words

What do you know when you know a word? • Knowledge of the form (string of sounds, ‘signifiant’) [l^v] – (Knowledge of the spelling : love) • Knowledge of the meaning (‘signifié’)

What do you know when you know a word? • Knowledge of the grammatical category (syntactic class, part of speech)

Knowledge of grammatical categories – Love is a verb: Mary loves books. – Love is a noun: Love is the most beautiful emotion. – Like is a verb: Mary likes books. – Like is not a noun: *Like is the most beautiful emotion.

Mental lexicon vs. dictionary • Speaker’s linguistic knowledge of words • Books produced by lexicographers – Spelling – ‘Standard’ pronunciation – Definitions representing the word’s meanings – Part of speech – (Etymology) – (Register: non standard, slang, vulgar, obsolete, archaic)

Dictionaries • • • General dictionaries Technical dictionaries Dictionaries of slang Etymological dictionaries Bilingual dictionaries Etc.