LINGUIS 101 1nd Edition Lecture 1 Outline of Current Lecture I What is this course about II What is Linguistics III Five subfields of Linguistics IV Descriptive vs Prescriptive Grammar Current Lecture I II III IV What is this course about a The study of language and its grammatical properties What is linguistics a Linguistics is the scientific study of the structure of human language b Object of Study mental grammar the system of rules that underlies humans ability to communicate and understand i People are not consciously aware of many rules of mental grammar which they apply systematically in speech ii English past tense pronunciation rule we say pronounce wanted like wantid 1 We do not really notice we are doing this it is automatic Five Subfields of Language a Phonetics study of speech sounds b Phonology how sounds pattern in language and are organized in the mind c Morphology structure of words d Syntax structure of sentences e Semantics meaning of words and sentences Descriptive vs Prescriptive Grammar a Descriptive grammar the goal is to discover what rules people actually know and describe them i Example observe that in English wh questions the wh word appears at the beginning of sentences These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute 1 What do you want to eat b Prescriptive grammar the goal is to tell people what rules they should know It is attempting to change people s linguistic behavior i Example You should use whom in object position 1 Instead of this Who did you see Say this Whom did you see