An Introduction To Linguistics: Bibhuti Bhusan Mahapatra

An Introduction to Linguistics
Bibhuti Bhusan Mahapatra
Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 1

Some Approaches to the Study of Language
 Ancient Indian thinkers paid a good deal of attention

to the nature of language; Panini’s Ashta:dhya:yi: is
a significant work in the tradition.
 Saussure’s concept of language (Early 20th Century)
 Austin’s use-theory of language (1962)
 Chomsky’s biolinguistic assumptions (1957
onwards)

Saussure’s Concepts about Language
 Diachrony vs. Synchrony

 Langue vs. Parole
 Signifier vs. Signified
 Associative vs. Syntagmatic Relation

Diachrony vs. Synchrony
 Diachrony
Studying a language at two different points of time;
relating two different stages of a language
 Synchrony
Studying a language as a complete system at a
particular point of time

Langue vs. Parole
 Langue
The ‘system’ of a language exists in a speech
community, in the collectivity; it is shared by all
the speakers of that speech community
 Parole
An individual’s use of the system of ‘langue’

Signifier vs. Signified

Signifier-Signified Relationship
 Signifier
The sound/utterance which is related to a
‘concept’
 Signified
The ‘concept’ which is related to the
sound/utterance
 The signifier and the signified are not separable;
together, they form a sign.
 The relation between the signifier and the
signified is not natural, but arbitrary. Thus,
languages are different from one another

Language as a Form
 Language is a form shaping both thought and
utterance simultaneously.

Associative vs. Syntagmatic Relation
 Associative Relation
A sign is associated with other signs of a
language by similarity and difference. The
associated signs are in a set of choices.
 Syntagmatic Relation
A sign occurs with other signs in a chain (e.g. in a
phrase or in a sentence).
Language is organised by selecting from a set of
choices of signs to a chain of signs.

Some examples of the relations
1) The old man
2) The young man
3) The tall man
 In (1), the sign old is in syntagmatic relation with the and
man
 As (2) and (3) show, the sign old in (1), is associated with
young and tall, and is substitutable by them.
 The associative relations are not visible in a construction;
they are related in absentia; the syntagmatic relations are
in presentia.
 Concept of sign applies to every unit of a language, such
as a phoneme, a morpheme, etc.

Austin’s Use-theory of Language
(How to Do Things with Words)
 Language does not merely refer to things; it is

used in the society to perform certain
communicative functions.
 The use theory of language attempts to arrive at a
restricted set of conditions for the language use.
 Using language means doing things

Utterance types
 Constative vs. Performative
 Constative
Constative utterances are statements; their function is to
describe some event, process or state-of-affairs; and they (or the
propositions expressed by them) have the property of being
either true or false.
 Performative
Performative utterances, by contrast, have no truth value; they
are used to do something, rather than to say something is or is
not the case. They refer to the fact of their own successful
performance.

Speech Acts
Locutionary,Illocutionary and Perlocutionary Acts
 Locutionary act
Uttering noise you know have meaning
 Illocutionary act
Utterance invokes a conventional force. Doing something in saying something.
Some examples :
 Asking a question
 Making a promise
 Making an appeal
 Perlocutionary act
Utterance brings about an effect on the hearer. Doing something by saying
something. Some examples:
Warn someone
Persuade someone
Generative Grammar
and
Chomsky’s Biolinguistic Assumptions
Language is a biological endowment
 It is innate
 It interacts with other cognitive
systems

Innateness
 As a part of our brain, there is a Faculty of Language

(FL).
 A human child is born with innate biological abilities
to learn any human language.
 A child does not “learn” language but it matures by
being exposed to the linguistic environment, in the
same way as the vision matures. In both the cases the
innate biological abilities mature.

Some Speculations about FL
 FL is relatively a recent biological development.

 The basic nature of the FL is symbolic; it has no
direct correspondence to physical objects.
 Its development may not be strictly for
communication. (Chomsky, 2004)

FL: Its Initial State and Modifications
 FL has an Initial State: L0

 The L0 can be modified. But, the possible
modifications are highly regulated.
 L0 is modified with the exposure to the target
Language.
 L1, L2, L3…. are modifiable states; they correspond to
different natural languages.
 A natural language is an instantiation of one such
modifiable states of L0

Principles and Parameters
The set of initial properties available to the L 0
is called the set of principles.
 The set of variations possible within the
principles are called parameters, which allow
the languages to be different from one another.
 This approach in generative grammar is called
the ‘Principles and Parameters’ (PP) approach.

Adequacies
 To account for a particular language the grammar

has to meet ‘Descriptive Adequacy’.
To account for the L0, the Universal Grammar

(UG), the grammar has to meet ‘Explanatory
Adequacy’.

The Architecture
 The Faculty of Language (FL) interfaces with two other
systems; they are:
 Sensory Motor (Articulatory-Perceptual) system
it is expressed by the Phonetic Form (PF)
 Systems of thought (Conceptual-Intentional system)
It is expressed by the Logical Form (LF)
FL

PF LF

FL should be Legible to Other Systems
 For FL to be usable by the PF and LF interface

systems, it should be legible to them
 Language is an optimal solution to legibility

conditions. (Chomsky, 2002)

What principles are available to
the Faculty of Language?
 A possible Principle:
The Structure Dependency
Language shows a hierarchical structural
organisation.
So an underlying structures has to be assumed
behind the linear sequence of elements.

Thank you

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An Introduction to Linguistics

Bibhuti Bhusan Mahapatra

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 1

 Ancient Indian thinkers paid a good deal of attention

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 2

 Diachrony vs. Synchrony

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 3

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 4

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 5

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 6

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 7

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 8

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 9

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 10

 Language does not merely refer to things; it is

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 11

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 12

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 14

 As a part of our brain, there is a Faculty of Language

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 15

 FL is relatively a recent biological development.

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 16

 FL has an Initial State: L0

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 17

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 18

 To account for a particular language the grammar

To account for the L0, the Universal Grammar

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 19

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 20

 For FL to be usable by the PF and LF interface

 Language is an optimal solution to legibility

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 21

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 22

Dr. Bibhuti Mahapatra, KReSIT, IIT Bombay Introduction to Linguistics 23

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