4.1 Linguistic theory and language structure

Language structure is the foundation of human communication. From the smallest sound units to complex sentences, it's a hierarchical system that allows us to express infinite ideas. Understanding these components helps us grasp how we process and produce language.

Linguistic theories attempt to explain how language works in our minds. Whether you believe in innate grammar or see language as part of general cognition, these theories shed light on the universal patterns across languages and how we acquire them.

Language Structure and Linguistic Theory

Components of language structure

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• Phonology studies the sound system of a language
  • Phonemes are the smallest units of sound that distinguish meaning (p, b)
  • Phonological rules govern the combination and pronunciation of phonemes
• Morphology examines the internal structure of words
  • Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units of language
    • Free morphemes can stand alone as words (cat, dog)
    • Bound morphemes must be attached to other morphemes (-s, -ed)
  • Inflectional morphology modifies word forms to express grammatical categories (tense, number)
  • Derivational morphology creates new words by adding affixes to a base (un-, -ness)
• Syntax investigates the rules governing the combination of words into phrases and sentences
  • Phrase structure refers to the hierarchical organization of words into constituents
  • Grammatical categories are parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives)
  • Syntactic rules determine the well-formedness of sentences
• Semantics explores meaning in language
  • Lexical semantics focuses on the meaning of individual words
  • Compositional semantics examines how meaning is derived from the combination of words
  • Pragmatics considers how context influences meaning interpretation

Hierarchical organization of language

• Language is organized hierarchically
  • Phonemes combine to form morphemes
  • Morphemes combine to form words
  • Words combine to form phrases
  • Phrases combine to form sentences
• Hierarchical structure allows for:
  • Recursion enables the embedding of phrases within phrases, generating an infinite number of sentences
  • Productivity is the ability to create and understand novel utterances
• Implications for cognitive processing
  • Chunking groups linguistic elements into larger units for efficient processing
  • Parsing involves the incremental analysis of linguistic input to derive meaning
  • Ambiguity resolution uses context and knowledge to resolve multiple possible interpretations

Theories in linguistics

• Generative grammar (Chomsky)
  • Proposes language is an innate, domain-specific faculty
  • Universal Grammar is a set of principles and parameters that constrain all human languages
  • Focuses on the formal properties of language structure
  • Considers syntax autonomous from meaning and context
• Cognitive linguistics
  • Views language as an integral part of general cognitive processes
  • Emphasizes the role of meaning, context, and experience in shaping language structure
  • Argues grammatical structures are motivated by conceptual factors (metaphor, embodiment)
  • Rejects the notion of an autonomous syntax

Role of linguistic universals

• Linguistic universals are properties shared by all human languages
  • Substantive universals are specific linguistic elements (all languages have vowels)
  • Formal universals are abstract principles (all languages distinguish subjects and objects)
• Role in shaping language structure
  • Constrain the possible forms that languages can take
  • Reflect underlying cognitive and communicative pressures that shape language evolution
• Role in language acquisition
  • Innate knowledge of linguistic universals may facilitate the acquisition process
  • Poverty of the stimulus argument suggests children acquire language rapidly and uniformly despite limited input, indicating innate linguistic knowledge
• Challenges to the notion of linguistic universals
  • Linguistic diversity shows languages exhibit significant variation in structure and organization
  • Language change demonstrates languages evolve over time, potentially violating proposed universals