This document discusses several theories about the origins and development of human language. It addresses divine, natural, and gesture-based theories on how language began. It also examines the functions of language for communication and social interaction. Additionally, it explores topics in linguistics like phonology, morphology, language acquisition, and universals. The document provides an overview of many important concepts relating to the study of language.

1. THE DIVINE SOURCE:
THE NATURAL SOUND SOURCE:
THE ORAL-GESTURE SOURCE:
LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS:
When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the “human
essence,” the distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to Man.
- NOAM CHOMSKY
THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE:
There are a lot of theories about the origins of language:
According to one view God created Adam and “whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
name thereof“as it is said in bible. If we follow a Hindu tradition, language came from wife of Brahma who
was the creator of the universe. It is similar in most Religions, because they appear to be a divine source,
which provides humans with language.
The beginning of human speech is based on the concept of natural sounds that means that early men and
women imitated the natural sounds heard around them.
In all modern languages there occur some words pronunciation of which seem to “echo“ natural sounds e. g.
bang, hiss, buzz, splash... This theory is called BOW-WOW THEORY and the words echoing natural sounds
are called onomatopoeic.
One other “natural sound“ proposal is known as YO-HEAVE-HO THEORY. These are sounds of a person
involved in physical effort when that effort had to be coordinated (to pull a rope, lift a log, push a big
stone...)
Physical gesture involving the whole body could have been a means of indicating a wide range of emotional
states and intuitions. Many of our physical gestures, body using hand and face are a means of nonverbal
communication. Some gestures can be very clear but there are a lot of words and messages that cannot be
visualized using only gestures.
TRANSACTIONAL FUNCTION: means that we use our linguistic abilities to communicate knowledge, skills,
and information.
INTERACTIONAL FUNCTION: means how we use language to interact with each other socially or
emotionally, how we indicate friendliness, cooperation, pain or pleasure.
LINGUISTICS:
Linguistics is the study of language as a system of human communication. It tries to answer the basic
questions: What is language? How does language work? What do all languages have in common? Why do
languages change?
Linguistics cover a wide range of topics and its boundaries are difficult to define:
PHONETICS – the study of human speech sounds.
PHONOLOGY – the study or description of the distinctive sound units of a language and their relationship to
one another.
SYNTAX – rules of sentence formation.
SEMANTICS – the study of meaning.
MORPHOLOGY – the rules of word formation.
LEXICOLOGY – study of the vocabulary items of a language, including their meaning and relations.
STYLISTICS – study of variation in the use of language.
WHY STUDY LANGUAGE? Studying language allows us to develop better teaching tools for : language
instructions, design computers that can interact with humans using language.. it also reflects one’s
self-identity and is indispensable for social interactions.
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE: The capacity to use language appropriately is called competence. It
enables us to weave utterances together narratives, apologies, semons, scoldings, prayers… Being a fluent
speaker presumes both communicative competence and grammatical competence.
GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE:

2. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: The process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce and use
words to understand and communicate.
CRITICAL PERIOD: period of time during which an activity must be acquired.
Imitation Theory: children learn language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what
they hear.
Reinforcement Theory: children speak like adults because they are praised.
Underextension: occurs when a child acquires a word for a particular thing and fails to extend it to other
objects in the same category.
Overextension: dog - all animals / uses a single word to mean many different things
Overgeneralization: come / comed
Reduction:
The Behaviourist Approach: concerned with learners responding to some form of stimulus.
The Cognitive Approach: based on knowledge and knowledge retention/assumes that our thought
processes affect the way inwhich we behave.
The Humanist Approach: based on explanations of individual experience.
MOTHERESE OR CAREGIVER SPEECH: simplified language or baby-talk.
INNATENESS HYPOTHESIS:The fact that children all over the world go through the same stages in
acquiring language indicates that we are born with an innate blueprint for language, which we refer to as
universal grammar, it’s the blueprint that helps children to build grammar for their language.
Linguistic relativity/Sapir–Whorf hypothesis: a principle claiming that the structure of a language affects
its speakers' world view or cognition, and thus people's perceptions are relative to their spoken language.
WHAT IS GRAMMAR?
- Descriptive Grammars: Represents the unconscious linguistic knowledge or capacity of its
speakers (mental grammar).
- Prescriptive Grammars: attempts to legislate what your grammar should be.
- Teaching Grammars: to help people learn a foreign language or dialect of their own language.
LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS:
- The Development of Grammar: Universal grammar
- Sign Languages: Evidence for the Innateness of Language
CAN ANIMALS LEARN HUMAN LANGUAGE?
PHONETICS: THE SOUND OF LANGUAGE
PHONETICS: the general study of the characteristics of speech sounds.
- Articulatory phonetics: the study of how speech sounds are made, or articulated.
- Acoustic phonetics: the study of the physical properties of sounds.
- Auditory phonetics (or perceptual phonetics): the study of the way listeners perceive sounds.
VOICED AND VOICELESS SOUNDS: Inside the larynx are your vocal folds (or vocal cords), which take two
basic positions:
1. When the vocal folds are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded.
Sounds produced in this way are described as voiceless.
2. When the vocal folds are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart as it
passes through, creating a vibration effect. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiced.
PLACE OF ARTICULATION:
Bilabials: These are sounds formed using both (= bi) upper and (= labia) lower lips. [p, b, m, w]
Labiodentals: These are sounds formed with the upper teeth and the lower lip. [f, v]
Dentals: These sounds are formed with the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth. [θ, ð]
Alveolar: These are sounds formed with the front part of the tongue on the alveolar ridge. [t], [d], [s], [z], [l]
Postalveolar: tongue towards soft palate. [ʃ], [ʒ]
Palatal: Sounds produced with the tongue and the palate. [j]

3. CONSONANTS:
SOUND S:
Major Phonetic Classes:
Palatal-Alveolar: [ʒ], [ʃ], [ʧ], [ʤ]
Velars: Sounds produced with the back of the tongue against the velum. [k], [ɡ], [ŋ]
Labiovelar: [w]
Uvulars: Produced by raising the back of the tongue to the uvula. [R], [q], [G]
Glottal: [h], [Ɂ]
MANNER OF ARTICULATION:
Stops/Plosives: the set [p], [t], [k], [ɡ], [b], [d], [Ɂ] are all produced by some form of “stopping” of the air
stream (very briefly) then letting it go abruptly.
Fricatives: the set of sounds [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s], [z], [ʃ], [ʒ], [h], [x], [ɣ], involves almost blocking the air
stream and having the air push through the very narrow opening.
Affricates: If you combine a brief stopping of the air stream with an obstructed release which causes some
friction, you will be able to produce the sounds [ʧ] and [ʤ].
Nasals: when the velum is lowered and the air stream is allowed to flow out through the nose to produce
[m], [n] and [ŋ].
Liquids: the sounds in led and red, [l] and [r].
Glides: The sounds [w] and [j].
Approximants: [w], [j], [r] – Sometimes liquids and glides are put together into one category because the
articulators approximate a frictional closeness but do not actually cause friction.
Lateral: [l].
Glottal stops and flaps:
- The glottal stop, represented by the symbol [ʔ], occurs when the space between the vocal folds
(the glottis) is closed completely (very briefly), then released.
- Flap refers to a way of pronouncing a consonant that involves the tongue lightly touching, the roof
of the mouth.
vowel sounds are produced with a relatively free flow of air. They are all typically voiced.
Diphthongs: combination of two vowel sounds.
[aɪ] buy, eye, I, my, pie, sigh
[oʊ] boat, home, throw, toe
[aʊ] bough, doubt, cow
[ɔɪ] boy, noise
[eɪ] bait, eight, great, late, say
Subtle individual variation:
a basic speech sound in which the breath is at least partly obstructed and which can be
combined with a vowel to form a syllable. Consonants are produced as air from the lungs is pushed through
the glottis and out the mouth.
Pulmonic: Sounds produced by using air from the lungs.
Egressive: the air is pushed out.
Ingressive: the air is sucked in (ejectives, implosives, and clicks).
Voice Features:
[+ Voice] voiced … [- Voice] voiceless
[+ Spread Glottis] aspirated [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] … [- Spread Glottis] unaspirated
[+ Constricted Glottis] ejectives, implosives … [- Constricted Glottis] everything else
Manner Features:
[+ Continuant] fricatives [f, v, s, z, š, ž, θ, ð] … [- Continuant] stops [p, b, t, d, k, g, ʔ] and affricates
[+ Nasal] nasal consonants [m, n, ŋ] … [+ Lateral] [l] … [- Lateral] [r]
[+ Delayed Release] affricates [č, ǰ] … [- Delayed Release] stops [p, b, t, d, k, g, ʔ]
[+ Strident] “noisy” fricatives [f, v, s, z, š, ž] … [- Strident] [?, ð, h] … [Dorsal] from velum back [k, g, ŋ]
Continuants: the airstream flows continuously out of the mouth – All other consonants and vowels.
VOWELS:

4. COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION:
CONTRASTIVE DISTRIBUTION:
FREE VARIATION:
SYLLABLES:
Obstruents: the airstream has partial or full obstruction – Non-nasal stops, fricatives, and affricates.
Sonorants: air resonates in the nasal or oral cavities – Vowels, nasal stops, liquids, and glides
Consonantal: there is some restriction of the airflow during articulation – All consonants except glides.
- Labials: [p] [b] [m] [f] [v] [w] [ʍ] Articulated with the lips
- Coronals: [θ] [ð] [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʧ][ʤ] [l] [r] Articulated by raising the tongue blade
- Anteriors: [p] [b] [m] [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] Produced in the front part of the mouth (from
the alveolar area forward)
- Sibilants: [s] [z] ] [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʧ] [ʤ] Produced with a lot of friction that causes a hissing sound, which is a
mixture of high-frequency sounds
PHONOLOGY: CONTRAST AND PATTERN
PHONOLOGY: the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language.
PHONEMES: the abstract unit or sound-type (“in the mind”).
SEGMENTS: any discrete unit that can be identified, either physically or auditorily, in the stream of speech.
PHONES AND ALLOPHONES:
Phones are phonetic units and appear in square brackets.
Allophones are phonetic variants of a phoneme in a particular language.
[p] and [pH] are allophones of the phoneme /p/
- The crucial distinction between phonemes and allophones is that substituting one phoneme for
another will result in a word with a different meaning and pronunciation, but substituting
allophones only results in a different pronunciation of the same word.
words differ in one sound and meaning.
Cat – bat (the meaning and [k] and [b] are different)
when two phones are mutually exclusive (appear in different
environments).
[p] and [pʰ] are allophones of the phoneme /p/
the relationship between two different elements in which both elements
are found in the same environment with a change in meaning.
Although there are different sounds in the pair, the meaning does not change.
restricts the possible sound sequences and syllable structures in a language.
A unit of spoken language consisting of a single uninterrupted sound. A syllable must contain a
vowel or vowel-like sound, including diphthongs.
Diagram:
MINIMALPAIRS AND SETS:
PHONOTACTICS:

5. PHONOLOGICAL RULES:
Assimilation: When two
- Open syllables: no coda.
- Closed syllables: coda is present.
Consonant clusters: a group of consonants with no vowels between them.
COARTICULATION EFFECTS: The process of making one sound almost at the same time as the next sound.
DUALITY OF PATTERNING: Duality of patterning refers to the ability of human language, both signed and
spoken, to form discrete meaningful units (morphem es) from discrete non-meaningful segments
(phonemes).
sound segments occur in sequence and some aspect of one segment is taken or
“copied” by the other. handbag -> hambag
- Harmony: non-adjacent vowels become more similar by sharing a feature or set of features (common in
Finnish)
- Gemination: sound becomes identical to an adjacent sound
- Regressive Assimilation: sound on left is the target, and sound on right is the trigger
Dissimilation: the opposite of assimilation. Refers to the process by which one sound becomes different
from a neighbouring sound.
Insertion/Epenthesis: insertion of a sound.
- Prosthesis: vowel .. at beginning of word
- Anaptyxis: vowel .. word-internally
- Paragoge: at end of word
- Excrescence: consonant .. between other consonants (also called stop-intrusion)
Deletion: a phoneme is not pronounced in certain environments.
- Aphaeresis: vowel .. at beginning of word
- Syncope: ..deleted word-internally
- Apocope: ..deleted at end of word
Metathesis: 2 sounds switch their place. ask becomes aks
Lenition: consonant changes to a weaker manner of articulation; voiced stop becomes a fricative, etc.
Palatalization: sound becomes palatal when adjacent to a front vowel Compensatory Lengthening: sound
becomes long as a result of sound loss, e.g. Latin "octo" became Italian "otto"
PHONOLOGICAL CONDITION:
DERIVA TIONS AND RULES:
Prefixes and suffixes: beginning of a word – end of a word.
Infixes: incorporated inside another word. (Unfuckinbelievable!)
WRITING RULES:
A general phonological rule is: A → B / D E
(Said: A becomes B when it occurs between D and E)
MORPHOLOGY: THE STUDY OF FORMS
The study of internal structure of words.
MORPHOLOGY:

6. MORPHS AND ALLOMORPHS:
MORPHOLOGICAL TYPES OF LANGUAGES:
MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESS:
MORPHEMES: a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function.
TYPES OF MORPHEMES:
Free morphemes: they can stand by themselves.
- Lexical: ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs that we think of as the words that carry the “content”
of the messages we convey.
- Functional: consists largely of the functional words in the language such as conjunctions,
prepositions, articles and pronouns.
Bound morphemes: cannot stand alone.
- Derivational: to make words of a different grammatical category from the stem.
- Inflectional: used to show if a word is plural or singular, if it is past tense or not, and if it is a
comparative or possessive form.
Morph is a phonological string (of phonemes) that cannot be broken down into smaller constituents that
have a lexicogrammatical function.
Allomorph is a variant form of a morpheme, that is, when a unit of meaning varies in sound without
changing the meaning.
AFFIXES: are often the bound morpheme.
Prefix: re- added to do produces redo
Suffix: -or added to edit produces editor
Infix: -um- added to fikas (strong) produces fumikas (to be strong) in Bontoc
Circumfix: ge- and -t to lieb (love) produces geliebt (loved) in German
Analytic: is a language that conveys grammatical relationships without using inflectional morphemes.
Synthetic: is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio.
Concatenation: two morphemes are ordered one after.
Reduplication: a morphological process in which a root or stem or part of it is repeated (other languages).
Subtraction: a morphological process of modification that removes one or more segments from a root or
stem.
Suppletion: the use of one word as the inflected form of another word when the two words are not
cognate. e.i. good → better.
Alternation:
Affixation: an affix is attached to a root or stem.
WORD FORMATION:
Etymology: The study of the origin and history of a word.
Coinage: the invention of totally new terms.
Eponyms: new words based on the name of a person or a place.
Borrowing: the process by which a word from one language is adapted for use in another.
Compounding: where there is a joining of two separate words to produce a single form.
Blending: the combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term.
Clipping: the word formation process which consists in the reduction of a word to one of its parts
Backformation: is the process of forming a new word (a neologism) by removing actual or supposed affixes
from another word.
Conversion: A change in the function of a word.
Acronym: new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words.
WORD FORMATION RULES: Inflectional morphemes are productive , meaning they apply freely t almost
any appropriate base.
WHAT IS A WORD (LEXEME)? The smallest meaningful unit in a language. We all have a mental dictionary
of all the words we know, which includes the following information: Pronunciation, meaning, orthography
(spelling), grammatical category.

7. AMBIGUITY:
SENSE:
SYNTAX: THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCE STRUCTURE
the part of linguistics that studies sentence structure.
Generative Grammar: a set of rules defining the possible sentences in a language.
Deep and Surface structure:
- Deep structure is an abstract level of structural organization in which all the elements determining
structural interpretation are represented.
- Surface structure is the structure of individual sentences after the application of movement rules
to deep structure.
Active sentence: the subject of the sentence performs the action in the sentence.
→ The girl was washing the dog.
Passive sentence: the subject of the sentence has an action done to it by someone or something else.
→ The dog was being washed by the girl.
Recursion: the repeated application of a rule in generating structures.
Syntactical: more than one possible structure for the same string of words.
Morphological: a form has more than one morphological interpretations.
Lexical (homonymity): a word has more than one meaning.
SEMANTICS: THE STUDY OF MEANING
There are two kinds of semantics:
• one that relates to non-linguistic entities meaning in terms of our experience outside language: Reference
(Denotation vs Connotation)
• one that is intra-linguistic: one that deals with semantic structure and relationships that hold between the
linguistic elements themselves: aka Sense.
Elements of meaning separate from reference and more enduring; the manner in which an
expression presents the reference.
The study of sense can be divided into 2 areas: SPEAKER-SENSE is the speaker’s intention in producing
some linguistic expression (non-literal meaning). LINGUISTIC-SENSE is the meaning of a linguistic
expression as part of a language (literal meaning).
SYNONYMS: Two words that have the same sense and the same values for all their sense
HYPONYMS: Words that contain the meaning of a more general words.
HYPERNYMS: Words whose meaning includes the enaings of other words.
RETRONYMS:
OVERLAP: 2 words overlap in meaning if they share the same values for some semantic features that
constitutes their meaning
ANTONYMS: 2 words are antonyms if their meanings differ for a single semantic feature. Three types of
Antonyms: Binary (Dead vs alive), Gradable (hot vs cold), Converse (Above vs below)
HOMOPHONES: Words that have different meanings but are pronounced the same. e.g. bear and bare.
HOMOGRAPHS: Words that are spelled the same, but differ in meaning and pronunciation. e.g. dove and
dove.
POLYSEMY: Words are words with multiple, conceptually or historically related meanings. It occurs when a
word has two or more different meanings.
METONYMY: White house declared instead of the president declared.
COLLOCATION: refers to a natural combination of words that are closely affiliated with each other. e.i. "pay
attention", "fast food"...
IDIOMS: a phrase or an expression that has a figurative, or sometim es literal, meaning.
SYNTAX:
LEXICAL AMBIGUITY:

8. REFERENCE:
PRAGMATICS:
PRESUPPOSITION:
TRUTH:
Act by which a speaker uses language to enable a listener to identify something. the words we
use to identify a person or things are not always in direct relationship to those things. we can use name
associated with things to refer to a person and vice versa. It Can be divided into 2 areas:
SPEAKER-REFERENCE is what the speaker is referring to by using some linguistic expression.
LINGUISTIC-REFERENCE is the systematic denotation of some linguistic expression as part of a language.
Types of linguistic reference:
- REFERENT: The entity identified by the use of a referring expression.
- EXTENSION:
- PROTOTYPE: A typical member of the extension.
- STEREOTYPE: A list of characteristics describing a prototype.
- COREFERENCE: 2 linguistic expressions that refer to the same real word.
- ANAPHORA: A linguistic expression that refers to another linguistic expression.
- DEIXIS: An expression that has one meaning but can refer to different entities depending on the
speaker and his spatial and temporal orientation.
Truth conditions fall into 2 categories:
• The study of different types of truth within individual sentences:
ANALYTIC SENTENCE: A sentence that is true because of words that are used.
CONTRADICTORY SENTENCE: The opposite of analytical sentences.
SYNTHETIC SENTENCE: sentences that may be true or false depending on how the world is at the time.
ANOMALOUS SENTENCES: Sentences that are grammatical, but seem weird.
META PHORS: Sentences that seem to be anomalous but are understood in terms of a meaningful concept.
To understand a metaphor we must understand the individual words, the literal meaning of the expression,
and facts about the world.
• The study of different types of truth relations between sentences:
ENTAILMENT: One sentence entails the other, if the meaning of the first includes the meaning of the
second. When the truth of a sentence guarantees the truth of another sentence.
CONTRADICTION: When two sentences cannot both be true. e.g. Charles is a bachelor. charles is married.
PRAGMATICS: THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE
deals with people’s use of language in contexts. It also looks at how a context can influence
the interpretation of meaning.
- Linguistic context: the discourse that precedes the phrase or sentence to be interpreted.
- Situational context: everything nonlinguistic in the environment of the discourse.
Inferences that may be drawn from an utterance based on context.
MAXIM OF QUANTITY: just as informative as is required
MAXIM OF QUALITY: truthful and based on sufficient evidence
MAXIM OF RELATION: relevant to the subject
MAXIM OF MANNER: direct, not vague or ambiguous or excessively wordy. Clarity.
Linguistic expressions are designed on the basis of assumption about what the hearer is expected to know.
What the speaker assumes is true or is known.
A good diagnostic: presuppositions are shared by members of ‘the S family’ — that is, they remain
constant under:
1. Negation (denial): I’m sorry you failed the test. / i’m not sorry you failed the test → he failed the test
2. Questioning
3. Embedding under modals (e.g. might, it is possible that)
IMPLICATURE:
MAXIMS OF CONVERSATION:

9. SPEECH ACTS:
PERFORMATIVE VERBS:
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS:
4. Embedding as the antecedent of a conditional (i.e. in an if-clause).
The theory of speech acts tells us that people use language to do things such as lay bets, issue warnings, or
nominate candidates...
LOCUTIONARY ACT: the act of using a referring expression and a predicating expression.
-> UTTERING:
ILLOCUTIONARY ACT: A true speech act. Stating, promising, apologizing, ordering, predicting...
PERLOCUTIONARY ACT: it seeks to change behavior.
DIRECT SPEECH ACT: The literal meaning is the intended meaning.
INDIRECT SPEECH ACT: The literal meaning is NOT the intended meaning.
LITERAL AND DIRECT: stick your tongue
NONLITERAL AND DIRECT:
LITERAL AND INDIRECT: i'd like some butter
NONLITERAL AND INDIRECT: why don't you yell a little louder?
Verbs that constitute the performance of an act of promising, apologizing, naming, giving, betting,
marrying.. They must be PRESENT TENSE, FIRST PERSON SUBJECT. ( add hereby and sounds good).
DEIXIS: “pointing via language” To accomplish this pointing we use deictic expressions or indexicals. Deictic
expressions depend on the speaker and hearer sharing the same spatial context, in face-to face spoken
interaction. Sometimes the connection between the deictic elements and its referent is not direct.
TYPES OF INDEXICALS:
- PERSON DEIXIS: used to point people (I, me, you).
There are 3 categories: • SPEAKER (I) • ADDRESSEE (YOU) • OTHERS (HE- SHE-IT)
- PLACE DEIXIS: Used to point to LOCATION i.e: “Here, There, Come and Go”
- TIME DEIXIS: used to point location in time (now, then)
REFERENCE: an act in which a speaker or writer uses linguistic forms to enable a listener or reader, to
identify something. Words in themselves do not refer anything. People refer.
REFERRING EXPRESSIONS: linguistic forms like proper nouns, definite or indefinite noun phrases, and
pronouns. The choice of one type of these expressions rather than another is based on what the speaker
assumes the listener already knows. FOR EXAMPLE: “Look at him” (use of pronoun) “The woman in red”
(definite article) “A woman was looking at you” (indefinite article and pronoun) So, reference is tied to the
speaker’s goals and beliefs about the listener knowledge in the use of language.
PRAGMATIC CONNECTION: A conventional association between a person’s name and a kind of object
within a socioculturally defined community. i.e: “Can I borrow your Shakespeare?” “Picasso’s on the far wall”
Given the context, the intended and inferred referent is not a person but probably a book.
THE ROLE OF CO-TEXT:
- Co- text: The co-text clearly limits our range of possible interpretations we might have for a word.
i.e: “Brazil wins World Cup” Brazil would be the referring expression, and the rest of the sentence
the co-text.
- CO- TEXT CONTEXT: The physical environment in which a word is used.
- ANAPHORIC REFERENCE: The expressions used to maintain reference to something or someone
already mentioned. i.e: “A man was looking at us. He then disappeared.” The initial reference is
often indefinite (A man…) and is called the ANTECEDENT. The subsequent reference is definite or
a pronoun (He…) and is called ANAPHORA.
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS: LANGUAGE AND THE BRAIN
A multidisciplinary field. The study of mental representations and processes involved
in language use, including the production, comprehension and storage of spoken and written language.
REFERENCE AND INFERENCE:

10. NEUROLINGUISTICS:
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM:
NEUROIMAGING
AREAS OF PSYCHOLINGUISTICS:
- Language processing is the study of how humans comprehend and produce language i real time. It
can be divided into language comprehension and language production
- Language acquisition
The study of how language is represented and processed in the brain. Where the
language centers of the brain are and how information flows between these areas.
- MODERN NEUROPSYCHOLOGY: psychological functions are localized in particular regions of the
brain. Mental functions are supported by specific regions of the brain.
Comprised of the brain and spinal cord. The CNS receives sensory
information from the nervous system and controls the body's responses.
or brain imaging is the use of various techniques to either directly or indirectly image the
structure, function, or pharmacology of the nervous system. MRI → Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
LANGUAGE REPRESENTATION:
CAUSES OF BRAIN DAMAGE:
COGNITIVE/LANGUAGE DISORDERS:
APHASIA:
DEMENTIA:
RIGHT HEMISPHERE DAMAGE:
TRAUMA:
CLASSIFICATION OF APHASIA:
TYPES OF APHASIAS:
FLUENT APHASIAS: The inability to understand the language of others and the production of less
meaningful speech than normal.
NON-FLUENT APHASIAS: Difficulty producing fluent, articulated, or self-initiated speech.
LOCALISATION OF LANGUAGE:
Language is located in the frontal lobes of the brain.
- GALL: Different human cognitive abilities and behaviors are localized in specific parts of the brain.
- PHRENOLOGY: To examine the “bumps” on the skull in order to determine personality traits and
intellectual capacity.
WERNICKE’S AREA:
- WERNICKE’S APHASIA:
BROCA’S AREA:
- Function: organizes the articulatory patterns of language and directing the motor cortex when
talking; control the use of inflectional and functional morphemes .
- BROCA’S APHASIA:
Characterized by A disorder that affects a person’s ability to form sentences with the rules of syntax. The
language produced is often agrammatic (dysfluent), meaning that it frequently lacks articles, prepositions,
pronouns, auxiliary verbs, and other grammatical elements. It Is characterized by labored speech and
certain kinds of word-finding difficulties. Difficulty repeating, good auditory comprehension.
CORTEX: Outer surface of the brain responsible for many of the cognitive abilities or functions of the brain,
often called “grey matter”. Is the decision-making organ of the body. It receives messages from the sensory
organs: initiates actions, stores our memories and our knowledge of grammar.
- Auditory cortex
- visual cortex
- motor cortex
THE HUMAN BRAIN: the brain is composed of cerebral hemispheres, joined by the corpus callosum; which
allows the two hemispheres of the brain to communicate with each other.

11. SOCIOLINGUISTICS:
- About 1.4 kg
- 40% grey matter, 60% white matter.
- 100 billion nerve cells (neurons) and billions of fibers that interconnect them.
SOCIOLINGUISTICS: Is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of, including cultural,
expectations, and context, on the way is used, and the effects of language use on society.
The difference between Pidgin and Creole:
A Creole is a fully-developed language. A Pidgin is not.
A pidgin arises when speakers of two different languages encounter one another and have a need for
limited communications.
VARIETY: A neutral term to refer to any form of language.
SPEECH COMMUNITY: A community of people who share a linguistic variety as their own and share social
norms.
DIALECT: A language variety, spoken by a speech community, that s characterized by systematic feature
that distinguish it from other varieties of that same language )associated with a particular geographical
area, social class, status group).
IDIOLECT: the speech habits peculiar to a particular person.
SOCIOLECT: A social class dialect.
ARCOLECT: A variety or lect which is the most prestigious in a social dialect continuum.
PRESTIGE: Associated with the language or sociolect of the upper classes.
VARIATION: By group (sociolect), by situation (register)
CLASS AND STYLE:
DIGLOSSIA: Relatively stable language situation, in which, in addition to the primary dialects of the
language, there is a very divergent, highly codified superposed variety… which is learned by formal
education and is used for most written and formal spoken purposes.
- CHARACTERISTICS: Function, prestige, literary heritage, acquisition, standardization, stability.
SOCIAL VARIABLE: class, gender, ethnicity, age grouping, group identity.
LANGUA GE STA NDARDIZATION: the process b y which conventional forms of a language are established
and maintained.
- The processes: selection, codification, elaboration of function, and acceptance.
COMPOSITIONALITY: the meaning of a complex expression is determined by the meanings of its
constituent expressions and the rules used to combine them.
COMMUNICA TIVE COMPETENCE: Involves knowing not only the language code but also what to say to
whom, and how to say it appropriately in any given situation. It deals with he social/cultural knowledge.
SPEECH COMMUNITIES: Are a group of people of any social class, students, workers or even friend and
families
Do we know only what we see, or do we see what we somehow already know?
- CYNTHIA OZICK