(Exercise) Introduction To Language

INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE
EXERCISE CHAPTER 1, 2, AND 3
Lecturers:
Dr. Hanip Pujiati, S. Pd,

Tara Mustikaning Palupi, M. Hum
Arranged by:
Tria Mulya Utami Faiziah (1202619045)
Class: 19 DA
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAMME

STATE UNIVERSITY OF JAKARTA
2020
EXERCISE CHAPTER 1
1. How would you define linguistics?
Linguistics can be defined as the systematic study of a language a discipline

which describes languages in all its aspects and formulates theories as to how it
works.
2. Point out three ways in which linguistics differs from traditional school
grammar.
 The first and most important way, linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive.
Linguists are interested in what is said, not what they think ought to be said.
They describe language in all its aspects, but do not prescribe rules of
‘correctness’.
 The second important way is that linguists regard the spoken language as
primary, not the written.
 The third way is that it does not force languages into a Latin-based framework.
3. What is the difference between a prescriptive and a descriptive approach to

language?
The main difference between descriptive and prescriptive grammar is that the
descriptive grammar describes how the language is used whereas the prescriptive
grammar explains how the language should be used by the speakers.
Descriptive grammar focuses on describing the manner how either native or

non-native speakers use the language on a daily basis. Therefore, it includes a set of
rules about language based on how it is actually used, not how it should be used.
Linguists often follow this approach to grammar, where they can study the rules or
patterns that underlie the speaker’s use of words and sentences.
Prescriptive grammar consists of a set of rules that teach the speaker the most
accurate and the correct manner to use the language, highlighting what should be used
and what should be avoided so that he can achieve that certain grammar and the
language standard.
4. Why do linguists regard speech rather than writing as primary?
Because spoken language came and comes first. Humans developed spoken
language a very long time before the first writing systems. Also, ever individual
normally learns to speak and comprehend spoken language before he or she learns to
read and write. And some people (and even a few cultures) never learn to read and
write. Also, speech is natural and (usually) develops spontaneously. Writing needs to
be learned. It doesn’t develop spontaneously.
5. Briefly explain the terms phonology, syntax, and semantics.
 Phonology is the study of how sounds are used in languages. In particular,

phonology is used to show how patterns of sounds are used to build a
language.
 While Phonology looks at individual sounds, syntax analyzes the way that
words are strung together in a language to form parts, like phrases and clauses,
and then even sentences.
 The study of semantics analyzes how users derive meaning from language,
especially with respect to language change, which is the development of
language over time.
6. Distinguish between synchronic and diachronic linguistics.
 Synchronic linguistics is the study of the linguistic elements and usage of a

language at a particular moment, while diachronic linguistics or historical
linguistics is the study of the changes in language over time.
 Diachronic linguistics is concerned with language evolution while synchronic
linguistics is not.
EXERCISE CHAPTER 2
1. Suggest at least three properties of language which are rare or absent in animal
communication.
Duality and displacement – the organization of language into two layers, and the
ability to talk about absent objects and events – are extremely rare in the animal
world. No animal communication system has both these features. Creativity, the
ability to produce novel utterances, seems not to be present in any natural
communication system possessed by animals.
2. What is meant by creativity?
Creativity or productivity means that the capability of humans to continually create

new expressions and utterances to describe new objects and situations. The number of
utterances in any human language is infinite. Whether in animal language, the
communication systems are not flexible as human language. They cannot produce any
new signals to describe novel experiences.
3. What is meant by structure dependence?
There is a phenomenon called structure dependence. Language operations depend on

an understanding of the internal structure of a sentence. The number of elements
involved is not important. The elements of structure can change places, or even be
omitted.
4. Work out how many ways the words surprisingly, eggs, eat, elephants, large, will,
sometimes can be arranged to produced well-formed English sentence.
 Surprisingly, an elephant will sometimes eat large eggs.
 An elephant surprisingly will eat large eggs sometimes.
 Large elephants surprisingly will eat eggs sometimes.
 Large elephants will surprisingly eat eggs sometimes.
5. Suggest some reasons why people talk.
 To communicate feeling and emotion

 To persuading and influencing others
 To give and to get information,
 Etc.
EXERCISE CHAPTER 3
1. Why were 19th-century linguists so interested in historical linguistics?
This interest started when Sir William Jones delivered a lecture in 1786 about the
striking structural similarities between Sanskrit and many European languages
were so impressive, he conclude that these languages must have sprung from one
common source, a hypothetical ancestor known as Proto-Indo-European. Sir
William Jones’ discovery fired the imagination of scholars.
2. Why is de Saussure an important figure in linguistics?
He was contributed in the change of emphasis, from language change to language

description. His crucial contribution was his explicit and reiterated statement that all
language items are essentially interlinked. His insistence that language is a carefully
built structure of interwoven elements initiated the era of structural linguistics.
3. What are discovery procedures?
Discovery procedure is a set of principles which would enable a linguist to ‘discover’

(or perhaps more accurately, ‘uncover’) in a foolproof way the linguistics units of an
unwritten language.
4. What is a generative grammar, and how does it differ from a descriptive

grammar?
 Generative grammar is a grammar which consists of a set of statements or
rules which specify which sequences of a language are possible, and which
impossible.
 The differences between generative grammar and descriptive grammar is a
generative grammar of a language attempts to give a set of rules that will
correctly predict which combination if words will form grammatical sentence.
While a descriptive grammar looks at the way language is actually used by its
speakers and then attempts to analyses it and formulated rules about the
structure.
5. Explain the word explicit when used in connection grammars.
The word explicit means that nothing is left to the imagination. The rules must be
precisely formulated in such a way that anyone would be able to separate the well-
formed sentences from the ill-formed ones, even if they did not know a word of the
language concerned.

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INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE

EXERCISE CHAPTER 1, 2, AND 3

Dr. Hanip Pujiati, S. Pd,

Tria Mulya Utami Faiziah (1202619045)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAMME

1. How would you define linguistics?

Linguistics can be defined as the systematic study of a language a discipline

3. What is the difference between a prescriptive and a descriptive approach to

Descriptive grammar focuses on describing the manner how either native or

4. Why do linguists regard speech rather than writing as primary?

 Phonology is the study of how sounds are used in languages. In particular,

6. Distinguish between synchronic and diachronic linguistics.

 Synchronic linguistics is the study of the linguistic elements and usage of a

2. What is meant by creativity?

Creativity or productivity means that the capability of humans to continually create

3. What is meant by structure dependence?

There is a phenomenon called structure dependence. Language operations depend on

 Surprisingly, an elephant will sometimes eat large eggs.

 An elephant surprisingly will eat large eggs sometimes.

 Large elephants surprisingly will eat eggs sometimes.

 Large elephants will surprisingly eat eggs sometimes.

5. Suggest some reasons why people talk.

 To communicate feeling and emotion

1. Why were 19th-century linguists so interested in historical linguistics?

2. Why is de Saussure an important figure in linguistics?

He was contributed in the change of emphasis, from language change to language

3. What are discovery procedures?

Discovery procedure is a set of principles which would enable a linguist to ‘discover’

4. What is a generative grammar, and how does it differ from a descriptive

5. Explain the word explicit when used in connection grammars.

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