IAH Linguistics Midterm Final Study Guide Unit 1 chapter 1 o Thoughts How is language related to such components of human experience We are used in thinking in terms of events We think about causation relations between events In the same way words combine in language elements of language of thought combine to form complex Conceptual Semantics the discipline that studies the thoughts language of thought words have a fixed meaning words can be analyzed words are related to the language of thought The same situation can be thought of in different ways We can think of different ways of seeking a given situation Shown in verb constructions language IDEA We think of situations differently thought and express them in different perspectives through words language o Reality Words are linked to reality when we speak the truth We can talk truthfully about false things Factive verb requires what is known to be true States the sentence given as a fact Clear case where words are linked to reality names One to one relationship between a name and a person Theft try to use your same identity o Community Parents name language their children their pick Baby names follow a cyclic fashion and frequently become a thing of the past and acquire certain connotations Somebody must come up with a name but the whole community must agree on it Some words are accepted by the community and become part of a shared vocab others are rejected and disappear IDEA studying the rise and fall of names will be a window into how community adopts and rejects new tendencies human nature o Emotions Many words are emotionally loaded Some words have Denotation what they refer to is the same Connotation different emotions associated with Swear words words with lots of emotions and little Religion we find many emotionally charged words them meaning here Sex and excretion are to technical for normal convo or taboo improper o Social Relations IDEA Language offers a window into social relations Direct requests based on literal meaning of the words Indirect requests rely on interlocutor guessing Note There is no difference between language and language of thought Unit 2 first part of chapter 2 There are multiple construals of the same situation o Container vs content locative constructions Language Acquisition Newborns cant speak a language A few yrs later they become adult native speakers At some point in their development children How children learn a language acquire a language o The common sense approach to language acquisition Children learn a language by imitating their parents Problems with this approach Quantitatively even though children only hear limited finite number of sentences they can produce an unlimited infinite number of Qualitatively Children say things they have never Children generalize however they do not tend to sentences heard before over generalize Mystery miracle problem with language acquisition children imitate and generalize but their generalizations are somehow constrained Chomsky s Universal Grammar Children are born with some type of genetically coded grammar a universal grammar that helps them come up with the right generalizations Note Part of the part of language acquisition is generalizations Note Noam Chomsky proposed the idea of universal grammar as a mechanism that helps children come up with the right generalizations about the language they are trying to learn Verbs o Sentences are built around them o Verb constructions the verbs and elements that they require to form a complete sentence o Intransitive verbs only require a subject Ex Max snored o Transitive verbs require a subject and a direct object o Oblique object an object introduced by a preposition o Verbs establish what the relationship between the different elements of the sentence is o Verbs assign role agent experiencer or recipient o It is the verb itself that determined the elements that it o Ungrammatical sentences sentences that sound odd to a requires native speaker Note ungrammatical sentences you can say to your friends but do not say them in a formal situation You can change the organization of a sentence using passive active voice Locative verbs verbs related to location o Content locative construction The direct object of the sentence is the content that is The content undergoes the movement The subject is causing the content to be moved to the Gestalt shift interpretation A causes B to move to C being moved container A subject B content C container Ex Hal loaded Hay into the wagon Ex Jared sprayed water on the roses Ex Betsey splashed the paint on the wall Ex Jeremy rubbed oil on the wood o Container locative construction The direct object of the sentence is the container where something is being placed Gestalt shift interpretation A causes C to change state by moving B to it Ex Hal loaded the wagon with hay Ex Jared sprayed the roses with water Ex Betsey splashed the wall with paint Ex Jeremy rubbed the wood with oil o Locative rule Locative verbs can appear in two constructions Subject verb content preposition container Subject verb container preposition content CAN ALTERNATE Locative Alternation Problem with the rule it over generalizes o It seems that we cannot apply the locative rule to some verbs o Gestalt shift A different construal of the same event Semantic reconstrual We have exactly the same elements in the sentence but we view them from a different perspective A causes B to move to C content locative construction A causes C to change state by moving B to it container locative construction A causes C to change cause to change A causes B to move cause to move Parallelism same shift that happens when we look at pictures we can view an old woman or a young lady o Holism effect Significant state change In container locative constructions A causes C to change state by moving B to it Container changes state it becomes full or empty Ex Hal loaded the wagon with hay The wagon became full with hay Ex Hal loaded hay into the wagon The wagon was filled with some hay There has to be a change of state of the direct object for The direct object position is reserved for those entities that are substantially changed in the manner specified a holism effect by the verb Ex Moondog drank from the glass of beer The glass of beer did not undergo a holism effect change of state because it was not emptied Ex Moondog drank the glass of beer The glass of beer underwent a holism effect change of state because it was emptied IDEA