Tom kho saki made in louisiana

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 4 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Part of the Tongue Involved

Tongue Height

FRONT CENTRAL BACK

HIGH u boot

ROUNDED ʊ put

MID o boat

ǝ about ᴧ butt

LOW

i beet

ɪ bit

e bait

ɛ bet

æ bat a balm ɔ bawd

Classification of American English Vowels

Consonants Vowels

p pill t till k kill i beet ɪ bit b bill d dill g gill e bait ɛ bet m mill n nil ŋ ring u boot ʊ foot f feel s seal h heal o boat ɔ bore v veal z zeal l leaf æ bat a pot/bar θ thigh ʧ chill r reef ʌ butt ə sofa ð thy ʤ gin j you aɪ bite aʊ bout ʃ shill ʍ which w witch ɔɪ boy ʒ measure

A Phonetic Alphabet for English Pronunciation

10686_IFC_ptg01_p001_001.indd 2 02/11/12 10:19 AM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

V i c t o r i a F r o m k i n

Late, University of California, Los Angeles

r o b e r t r o d m a n

North Carolina State University, Raleigh

n i n a h ya m s

University of California, Los Angeles

An Introduction to Language 10e

Australia • Brazil • Japan • Korea • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 1 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

© 2014, 2011, 2007 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, in- formation networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012952968

ISBN-13: 978-1-133-31068-6

ISBN-10: 1-133-31068-0

Wadsworth 20 Channel Center Street Boston, MA 02210 USA

Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning solutions with office locations around the globe, including Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan. Locate your local office at: international.cengage.com/region

Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by Nelson Education, Ltd.

For your course and learning solutions, visit www.cengage.com

Purchase any of our products at your local college store or at our preferred online store www.cengagebrain.com

Instructors: Please visit login.cengage.com and log in to access instructor- specific resources.

An Introduction to Language, Tenth Edition Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams

Publisher: Michael Rosenberg

Development Editor: Joan M. Flaherty

Assistant Editor: Erin Bosco

Editorial Assistant: Rebecca Donahue

Media Editor: Janine Tangney

Market Development Manager: Jason LaChapelle

Content Project Manager: Dan Saabye

Art Director: Marissa Falco

Manufacturing Planner: Betsy Donaghey

Rights Acquisitions Specialist: Jessica Elias

Production Management and Composition: PreMediaGlobal

Cover Designer: Sarah Bishins Design

Cover Image: © 2009 Calder Foundation, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Calder, Alexander (1898-1976) © ARS, NY. Crinkly, 1970. Sheet metal, wire, and paint. 71.1 x 166.4 x 30.5 cm.

Location: Calder Foundation, New York, NY, U.S.A.

Photo Credit: Calder Foundation, New York/ Art Resource, NY

Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 16 15 14 13 12

For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706

For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at cengage.com/permissions

Further permissions questions can be emailed to permissionrequest@cengage.com

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 2 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

http://www.cengage.com
http://www.cengagebrain.com
mailto:permissionrequest@cengage.com
10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 4 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

This is an electronic version of the print textbook. Due to electronic rights restrictions, some third party content may be suppressed. Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. The publisher reserves the right to remove content from this title at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. For valuable information on pricing, previous editions, changes to current editions, and alternate formats, please visit www.cengage.com/highered to search by ISBN#, author, title, or keyword for materials in your areas of interest.

http://www.cengage.com/highered
In memory of Simon Katz and Lauren Erickson

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 3 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 4 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

v

ChApter 1

What Is Language? 1

Linguistic Knowledge 1 Knowledge of the Sound System 2 Knowledge of Words 3

Arbitrary Relation of Form and Meaning 3

The Creativity of Linguistic Knowledge 5

Knowledge of Sentences and Nonsentences 7

Linguistic Knowledge and Performance 8

What Is Grammar? 9 Descriptive Grammars 9 Prescriptive Grammars 10 Teaching Grammars 12 Universal Grammar 13 The Development of Grammar 14 Sign Languages: Evidence for

Language Universals 15

What Is Not (Human) Language 16 The Birds and the Bees 16 Can Animals Learn Human

Language? 19

Language and Thought 21

Summary 25 References for Further Reading 27 Exercises 28

Preface xi

About the Authors ix

Contents

ChApter 2

Morphology: the Words of Language 33

Content Words and Function Words 35

Morphemes: The Minimal Units of Meaning 36

The Discreteness of Morphemes  38 Bound and Free Morphemes  39

Prefixes and Suffixes  40 Infixes  41 Circumfixes  41

Roots and Stems 42 Bound Roots 43

Rules of Word Formation 43 Derivational Morphology 44 Inflectional Morphology 46 The Hierarchical Structure of Words 49 Rule Productivity 52

Exceptions and Suppletions 54 Lexical Gaps 55

Other Morphological Processes 56 Back-Formations 56 Compounds 57 “Pullet Surprises” 60

Sign Language Morphology 60

Morphological Analysis: Identifying Morphemes 61

Summary 65 References for Further Reading 66 Exercises 66

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 5 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

vi Contents

Lexical Semantics (Word Meanings) 152 Theories of Word Meaning 153

Reference 154 Sense 155

Lexical Relations 155 Semantic Features 158

Evidence for Semantic Features 159 Semantic Features and Grammar 159

Argument Structure 162 Thematic Roles 163

Pragmatics 165 Pronouns and Other Deictic Words 166

Pronouns and Situational Context 167

Pronouns and Linguistic Context 168 Implicature 170

Maxims of Conversation 171 Presupposition 174 Speech Acts 174

Summary 175 References for Further Reading 177 Exercises 178

ChApter 5

phonetics: the sounds of Language 189

Sound Segments 190 Identity of Speech Sounds 191 The Phonetic Alphabet 192

Articulatory Phonetics 194 Consonants 195

Place of Articulation 195 Manner of Articulation 197 Phonetic Symbols for American

English Consonants 203 Vowels 205

Tongue Position 205 Lip Rounding 207 Diphthongs 207 Nasalization of Vowels 208 Tense and Lax Vowels 208

Major Phonetic Classes 208 Noncontinuants and Continuants 209

ChApter 3

syntax: the sentence patterns of Language 76

What the Syntax Rules Do 77 What Grammaticality Is Not Based On 80

Sentence Structure 81 Constituents and Constituency Tests 82

Syntactic Categories 84 Phrase Structure Trees 87 Building Phrase Structure Trees 95 The Infinity of Language: Recursive

Rules 100 What Heads the Sentence 104 Structural Ambiguities 105 More Structures 107

Transformational Analysis 109 The Structure Dependency of Rules 111

UG Principles and Parameters 114

Sign Language Syntax 117

Appendix A 119

Appendix B 121

Appendix C 127

Summary 128 References for Further Reading 129 Exercises 129

ChApter 4

the Meaning of Language 139

What Speakers Know about Sentence Meaning 140

Truth 140 Entailment and Related Notions 141 Ambiguity 142

Compositional Semantics 143 Semantic Rules 144

Semantic Rule I 145 Semantic Rule II 146

When Compositionality Goes Awry 147 Anomaly 147 Metaphor 149 Idioms 150

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 6 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Contents vii

Slips of the Tongue: Evidence for Phonological Rules 251

Prosodic Phonology 252 Syllable Structure 252 Word Stress 253 Sentence and Phrase Stress 254 Intonation 255

Sequential Constraints of Phonemes 256 Lexical Gaps 257

Why Do Phonological Rules Exist? 258 Optimality Theory 259

Phonological Analysis 260

Summary 264 References for Further Reading 265 Exercises 266

ChApter 7

Language in society 279

Dialects 279 Regional Dialects 281

Phonological Differences 283 Lexical Differences 284 Syntactic Differences 284 Dialect Atlases 285

Social Dialects 287 The “Standard” 288 African American English 291 Latino (Hispanic) English 295 Genderlects 297 Sociolinguistic Analysis 300

Languages in Contact 301 Lingua Francas 301 Contact Languages: Pidgins and

Creoles 302 Creoles and Creolization 306 Bilingualism 309

Codeswitching 310

Language and Education 312 Second-Language Teaching Methods 312 Teaching Reading 313

Literacy in the Deaf Community 315 Bilingual Education 316 Minority Dialects 318

Obstruents and Sonorants 209 Consonantal Sounds 209 Syllabic Sounds 210

Prosodic Features 210 Tone and Intonation 211

Phonetic Symbols and Spelling Correspondences 213

The “Phonetics” of Signed Languages 215

Summary 216 References for Further Reading 218 Exercises 218

ChApter 6

phonology: the sound patterns of Language 224

The Pronunciation of Morphemes 225 The Pronunciation of Plurals 225 Additional Examples

of Allomorphs 228

Phonemes: The Phonological Units of Language 230

Illustration of Allophones 230 Phonemes and How to Find Them 232 Complementary Distribution 233

The Need for Similarity 235

Distinctive Features of Phonemes 235 Feature Values 236 Nondistinctive Features 237 Phonemic Patterns May Vary across

Languages 238 Natural Classes of Speech Sounds 239 Feature Specifications for American

English Consonants and Vowels 241

The Rules of Phonology 241 Feature-Changing Rules 243

Assimilation Rules 243 Dissimilation Rules 245

Segment Insertion and Deletion Rules 247

From One to Many and from Many to One 249

The Function of Phonological Rules 250

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 7 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

viii Contents

Comparative Reconstruction 365 Historical Evidence 369

Extinct and Endangered Languages 371

The Genetic Classification of Languages 374 Languages of the World 375

Types of Languages 378

Why Do Languages Change? 381

Summary 384 References for Further Reading 385 Exercises 386

ChApter 9

Language Acquisition 394

The Linguistic Capacity of Children 394 What’s Learned, What’s Not? 395 Stages in Language Acquisition 398 The Perception and Production of Speech

Sounds 398 Babbling 400 First Words 401 Segmenting the Speech Stream 402

The Acquisition of Phonology 404 The Acquisition of Word Meaning 406 The Acquisition of Morphology 408 The Acquisition of Syntax 411 The Acquisition of Pragmatics 415 The Development of Auxiliaries:

A Case Study 416 Setting Parameters 419 The Acquisition of Signed Languages 420

The Role of the Linguistic Environment: Adult Input 422

The Role of Imitation, Reinforcement, and Analogy 422

The Role of Structured Input 424

Knowing More Than One Language 425 Childhood Bilingualism 426

Theories of Bilingual Development 427 Two Monolinguals in One Head 428 The Role of Input 429 Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism 429

Second Language Acquisition 430

Language in Use 318 Styles 319 Slang 319 Jargon and Argot 320 Taboo or Not Taboo? 320

Euphemisms 322 Racial and National Epithets 323 Language and Sexism 323

Marked and Unmarked Forms 324 Secret Languages and Language

Games 325

Summary 326 References for Further Reading 328 Exercises 329

ChApter 8

Language Change: the syllables of time 337

The Regularity of Sound Change 338 Sound Correspondences 339 Ancestral Protolanguages 339

Phonological Change 340 Phonological Rules 341 The Great Vowel Shift 342

Morphological Change 344

Syntactic Change 345

Lexical Change 350 Change in Category 350 Addition of New Words 351

Word Coinage 351 Words from Names 353 Blends 354 Reduced Words 355

Borrowings or Loan Words 356 Loss of Words 359 Semantic Change 360 Broadening 361

Narrowing 361 Meaning Shifts 361

Reconstructing “Dead” Languages 361 The Nineteenth-Century

Comparativists 362 Cognates 363

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 8 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Contents ix

Neurolinguistic Studies of Sentence Structure 473

Language and Brain Development 474 Left Hemisphere Lateralization for

Language in Young Children 475 Brain Plasticity 476 The Critical Period 476

The Modular Mind: Dissociations of Language and Cognition 479

Linguistic Savants 479 Specific Language Impairment 481 Genetic Basis of Language 482

Summary 482 References for Further Reading 486 Exercises 487

ChApter 11

Computer processing of human Language 495

Computers That Talk and Listen 495 Computational Phonetics and Phonology 496

Speech Recognition 496 Speech Synthesis 498

Computational Morphology 502 Computational Syntax 503 Computational Semantics 505 Computational Pragmatics 507 Computational Sign Language 508

Applications of Computational Linguistics 509 Computer Models of Grammar 509 Frequency Analysis, Concordances,

and Collocations 510 Computational Lexicography 511 The Culturomic Revolution 512

Twitterology 513 Information Retrieval and

Summarization 514 Spell Checkers 515 Machine Translation 516 Computational Forensic Linguistics 518

Trademarks 518 Interpreting Legal Terms 519 Speaker Identification 519

Is L2 Acquisition the Same as L1 Acquisition? 430

Native Language Influence in L2 Acquisition 432

The Creative Component of L2 Acquisition 433

Heritage Language Learners 434 Is There a Critical Period for L2

Acquisition? 434

Summary 436 References for Further Reading 438 Exercises 438

ChApter 10

Language processing and the human Brain 444

The Human Mind at Work 444 Comprehension 445

The Speech Signal 446 Speech Perception 447 Bottom-up and Top-down

Models 449 Lexical Access and Word

Recognition 451 Syntactic Processing 453

Speech Production 456 Lexical Selection 456 Application and Misapplication

of Rules 458 Planning Units 458

Brain and Language 461 The Human Brain 461 The Localization of Language

in the Brain 462 Aphasia 463 Split Brains 470 Dichotic Listening 471 Event-Related Potentials 471

Neural Evidence of Grammatical Phenomena 472 Neurolinguistic Studies of Speech

Sounds 472

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 9 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

x Contents

Consonantal Alphabet Writing 536 Alphabetic Writing 537

Writing and Speech 539 Spelling 542

Texting 544 The Current English Spelling

System 544 Spelling Pronunciations 546

Pseudo-writing 547

Summary 548 References for Further Reading 549 Exercises 550

Glossary 555

Index 587

Summary 521 References for Further Reading 523 Exercises 523

ChApter 12

Writing: the ABCs of Language 527

The History of Writing 528 Pictograms and Ideograms 528 Cuneiform Writing 529 The Rebus Principle 531 From Hieroglyphics to the Alphabet 532

Modern Writing Systems 533 Word Writing 534 Syllabic Writing 535

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 10 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

xi

The tenth edition of An Introduction to Language continues in the spirit of our friend, colleague, mentor, and coauthor, Victoria Fromkin. Vicki loved lan- guage, and she loved to tell people about it. She found linguistics fun and fascinating, and she wanted every student and every teacher to think so, too. Though this edition has been completely rewritten for improved clarity and currency, we have nevertheless preserved Vicki’s lighthearted, personal ap- proach to a complex topic, including witty quotations from noted authors (A. A. Milne was one of Vicki’s favorites). We hope we have kept the spirit of Vicki’s love for teaching about language alive in the pages of this book.

The first nine editions of An Introduction to Language succeeded, with the help of dedicated teachers, in introducing the nature of human language to tens of thousands of students. This is a book that students enjoy and under- stand and that professors find effective and thorough. Not only have majors in linguistics benefited from the book’s easy-to-read yet comprehensive pre- sentation, but also majors in fields as diverse as teaching English as a sec- ond language, foreign language studies, general education, the cognitive and neurosciences, psychology, sociology, and anthropology have enjoyed learning about language from this book.

highlights of this edition This edition includes new developments in linguistics and related fields that will strengthen its appeal to a wider audience. Much of this information will enable students to gain insight and understanding about linguistic issues

preface

Well, this bit which I am writing, called Introduction, is really the er-h’r’m of the book, and I have put it in, partly so as not to take you by surprise, and partly because I can’t do without it now. There are some very clever writers who say that it is quite easy not to have an er-h’r’m, but I don’t agree with them. I think it is much easier not to have all the rest of the book.

a. a. milne, Now We Are Six, 1927

The last thing we find in making a book is to know what we must put first.

blaise Pascal (1623–1662)

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 11 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

xii prefACe

and debates appearing in the national media and will help professors and stu- dents stay current with important linguistic research. We hope that it may also dispel certain common misconceptions that people have about language and language use.

Exercises (250) continue to be abundant in this edition, and more research- oriented exercises have been added for those instructors who wish their students to pursue certain topics more deeply. Many of the exercises are mul- tipart, amounting to more than 300 opportunities for “homework” so that in- structors can gauge their students’ progress. Some exercises are marked as “challenge” questions: they go beyond the scope of what is ordinarily expected in a first course in language study. An answer key is available to instructors to assist them in areas outside of their expertise.

Chapter 1, “What Is Language?” continues to be a concise introduction to the general study of language. It contains many “hooks” for engaging stu- dents in language study, including “Language and Thought,” which takes up the Sapir-Whorf hypotheses; the universal properties of languages including signed languages of the deaf; a consideration of animal “languages”; and the occasional silliness of self-appointed mavens of “good” grammar who beg us not to carelessly split infinitives and who find sentence-ending prepositions an abomination not to be put up with.

Chapter 2, “Morphology: The Words of Language,” launches the book into the study of grammar with morphology, the study of word formation, as that is the most familiar aspect of grammar to most students. The subject is treated with clarity and an abundance of simple illustrations from non- English languages to emphasize the universality of word structure including the essentials of derivational versus inflectional morphology, free and bound morphemes, and the hierarchical structure of words.

Chapter 3, “Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Language,” is the most heavily revised chapter of former editions. Once it has introduced the univer- sal and easily understood notions of constituency, syntactic categories (parts of speech), phrase structure trees, structural ambiguity and the infinite scope of language, the chapter delves into the now nearly universally accepted X-bar grammatical patterns for describing the deeper and more subtle syntactic structures of English and other languages. The topic is approached slowly and developed painstakingly so as to inform and not overwhelm. In particular, the current views on binary branching, heads and complements, selection (both C- and S-), and transformational analysis within the X-bar framework are carefully explained and illustrated. Formalisms are held to the bare minimum required to enhance clarity. Non-English examples abound in this chapter as throughout the entire book, and the weighty elements of the- ory are lightened by the inclusion of insightful examples and explanations, supplemented as always by quotations, poetry, cartoons, and humor.

Chapter 4, “The Meaning of Language,” on semantics, has been more finely structured so that the challenging topics of this complex subject can be digested in smaller pieces. Still based on the theme of “What do you know about meaning when you know a language?” the chapter first introduces stu- dents to truth-conditional semantics and the principle of compositionality.

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 12 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

prefACe xiii

Following that are discussions of what happens when compositionality fails, as with idioms, metaphors, and anomalous sentences. Lexical semantics takes up various approaches to word meaning, including the concepts of reference and sense, semantic features, argument structure, and thematic roles. The most dramatic upgrade of this chapter is a newly expanded and modernized section on pragmatics. Here we discuss and illustrate in depth the influence of situational versus linguistic context on the communicative content of ut- terances, the significance of implicature in comprehension, Grice’s Maxims of Conversation, presuppositions, and J. L. Austin’s speech acts.

Chapter 5, “Phonetics: The Sounds of Language,” retains its former or- ganization and continues to embrace IPA (International Phonetics Association) notation for English in keeping with current practices, with the sole exception of using /r/ in place of the technically correct /ɹ/ when illustrating English. We continue to mention alternative notations that students may encounter in other publications.

Chapter 6, “Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language,” has been streamlined by relegating several complex examples (e.g., metathesis in Hebrew) to the exercises, where instructors can opt to include them if it is thought that students can handle advanced material. The chapter continues to be presented with a greater emphasis on insights through linguistic data accompanied by small amounts of well-explicated formalisms, so that the student can appreciate the need for formal theories without experiencing the burdensome details.

Chapter 7, “Language in Society,” has been moved forward in the book from previous editions to emphasize its growing importance as a major sub- field of linguistics. Growth in this area of study, even in the few years since the ninth edition, has been astronomical. We have strived heartily to present the established facts and principles of sociolinguistics while bringing up to date subjects such as banned languages (it’s still happening); dead and dying languages (also still happening); gender differences; minority dialects such as Hispanic English (“Spanglish”); languages in contact such as pidgins, creoles, and lingua francas that may be found in linguistically heterogeneous areas; the use of computers in sociolinguistic analysis; second language teaching; and bilingual education, among others.

Chapter 8, “Language Change: The Syllables of Time,” has been updated with the latest research on language families, language relatedness, and lan- guage typology. Also, in response to reviewers’ requests, a detailed and more complex illustration of the application of the comparative method to two contemporary dialects to reconstruct their ancestor—often called “internal reconstruction”—is now part of this chapter.

Chapter 9, “Language Acquisition,” has been thoroughly restructured and rewritten to enhance clarity since the ninth edition. In addition, much of what has been learned about second language acquisition (adult learning of a for- eign language) has been folded into this chapter along with an entirely new section on “heritage languages,” the learning of an intrafamily language after immigration to a country where that language is not spoken (e.g., Yiddish by Jews who emigrated from Russia).

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 13 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

xiv prefACe

Chapter 10, “Language Processing and the Human Brain,” could well have been entitled “psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics” but that may have made the subject seem overly daunting. This chapter combines a straight- forward discussion of many of the issues that regard the psychology of language—what the mind does—with the neurology of language—what the brain does—during language usage. Dramatic changes in the understanding of the brain’s role in language processing are occurring virtually every day owing to the rapid enhancement of the ability of neurolinguists to measure brain activity to tiny degrees of sensitivity at extremely precise locations. This chapter reports on those techniques and some of the results regarding lan- guage and the brain that ensue. The psycholinguistic portion of this chapter appeared as the first half of chapter 9 in the ninth edition; the second and greater portion of this chapter is an enlargement and updating of chapter 2 from the ninth and previous editions.

Chapter 11, “Computer Processing of Human Language,” is an expan- sion into a full chapter of what was the second half of chapter 9 in the ninth edition. The fundamentals of computational linguistics are still covered and have been clarified and expanded, but the force driving the promotion of the subject into a chapter of its own is the astonishing progress in the application of computers to human languages, which has burgeoned to a degree hardly imaginable even as we wrote previous editions. Anchoring the extensive new material in this chapter is the introduction of the Culturomic Revolution in the computer processing of language, in which computers have analyzed bil- lions (with a b) of lines of text with results that will astonish even the most blasé readers. Culturomics, which is concerned with published, written texts, is soon to be augmented by “twitterology,” a study of “on-the-fly” language usage by billions of people (i.e., “twitterers”) in thousands of languages, only beginning to be linguistically analyzed as the this edition goes to press. But those who wish to keep abreast of the power of computers applied to language will find this chapter indispensable.

Chapter 12, “Writing: The ABCs of Language,” has undergone a mild re- writing to further improve clarity. Texting and twittering, while largely un- studied by linguists, are included in a new section adding a further dimension to what it means to write a language.

Terms that appear bold in the text are defined in the revised glossary at the end of the book. The glossary has been expanded and improved so that the tenth edition provides students with a linguistic lexicon of nearly 700 terms, making the book a worthy reference volume.

The order of presentation of chapters 2 through 6 was once thought to be nontraditional. Our experience, backed by previous editions of the book and the recommendations of colleagues throughout the world, has convinced us that it is easier for the novice to approach the structural aspects of lan- guage by first looking at morphology (the structure of the most familiar lin- guistic unit, the word). This is followed by syntax (the structure of sentences), which is also familiar to many students, as are numerous semantic concepts. We then proceed to the more novel (to students) phonetics and phonology, which students often find daunting. However, the book is written so that in- dividual instructors can present material in the traditional order of phonetics,

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 14 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

prefACe xv

phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics (chapters 5, 6, 2, 3, and 4) without confusion, if they wish.

As in previous editions, the primary concern has been basic ideas rather than detailed expositions. This book assumes no previous knowledge on the part of the reader. An updated list of references at the end of each chapter is included to accommodate any reader who wishes to pursue a subject in more depth. Each chapter concludes with a summary and exercises to enhance the students’ interest in and comprehension of the textual material.

Additional resources Linguistics CourseMate. An Introduction to Language includes Linguistics CourseMate, which helps students gain a deeper and more comprehensive un- derstanding of the textual material.

Linguistics CourseMate includes:

• an interactive eBook, with highlighting, note taking and search capabilities • interactive learning tools including:

• Quizzes • Flashcards • Audio files • Web Links • and more!

Go to www.cengagebrain.com to access these resources, and look for this icon   to find resources related to your text in Linguistics CourseMate.

Answer Key. The Answer Key for An Introduction to Language contains an- swers to all of the exercises in the core text, and is available to instructors through the publisher.

Instructor Companion Web Site. This password-protected companion site contains useful resources for instructors—including chapter-level PowerPoint lecture slides, and a downloadable version of the Answer Key. Go to www. cengagebrain.com to access the site.

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 15 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

http://www.cengagebrain.com
http://www.�cengagebrain.com
http://www.�cengagebrain.com
http://www.�cengagebrain.com
xvi prefACe

Acknowledgments Our endeavor to maintain the currency of linguistic concepts in times of rapid progress has been invaluably enhanced by the following colleagues, to whom we owe an enormous debt of gratitude:

Natasha Abner University of California, American Sign  Los Angeles  Language Byron Ahn University of California, Syntax  Los Angeles Susia Curtiss University of California, Neurolinguistics  Los Angeles Kyle Johnson University of Massachusetts, Syntax  Amherst Craig Melchert University of California, Historical linguistics  Los Angeles Robyn Orfitelli University of California, Language acquisition  Los Angeles Maria “Masha” Polinsky Harvard University Heritage languages Jessica Rett University of California, Semantics  Los Angeles Erik Thomas North Carolina Sociolinguistics  State University Kie Zuraw University of California, Phonology  Los Angeles

Brook Danielle Lillehaugen undertook the daunting task of writing the Answer Key to the ninth and tenth editions. Her thoroughness, accuracy, and insightfulness in construing solutions to problems and discussions of issues are appreciated by all who avail themselves of this useful document, including us, the authors.

We also express deep appreciation for the incisive comments of six review- ers of the ninth edition, known to us as R2 through R7, whose frank assess- ment of the work, both critical and laudatory, heavily influenced this new edition:

Anna Szabolcsi, Department of Linguistics, New York University Kathryn Wolfe-Quintero, Department of World Languages, University of South Florida Nicholas Sobin, Department of Languages and Linguistics, University of Texas, El Paso Virginia Lewis, Department of Languages, Literature, and Speech Communication, Northern State University Ulrike Christofori, Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Educa- tion, San Joaquin Delta College Omer Silva-Villena, Departamento de Lenguas, Literatura, y Comuni- cación, Universidad de la Frontera, Chile

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 16 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

prefACe xvii

We continue to be deeply grateful to the individuals who have sent us suggestions, corrections, criticisms, cartoons, language data, and exercises over the course of many editions. Their influence is still strongly felt in this tenth edition. The list is long and reflects the global, communal collabora- tion that a book about language—the most global of topics—merits. To each of you, our heartfelt thanks and appreciation. Know that in this tenth edition lives your contribution:1

Adam Albright, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Otto Santa Ana, Uni- versity of California, Los Angeles; Rebecca Barghorn, University of Oldenburg; Seyed Reza Basiroo, Islamic Azad University; Karol Boguszewski, Poland; Melanie Borchers, Universität Duisburg-Essen; Donna Brinton, Emeritus, University of California, Los Angeles; Daniel Bruhn, University of California, Berkeley; Lynn A. Burley, University of Central Arkansas; Ivano Caponigro, University of California, San Diego; Ralph S. Carlson, Azusa Pacific Univer- sity; Robert Channon, Purdue University; Judy Cheatham, Greensboro Col- lege; Leonie Cornips, Meertens Institute; Antonio Damásio, University of Southern California; Hanna Damásio, University of Southern California; Julie Damron, Brigham Young University; Rosalia Dutra, University of North Texas; Christina Esposito, Macalester College; Fred Field, California State University, Northridge; Susan Fiksdal, Evergreen State College; Beverly Olson Flanigan and her teaching assistants, Ohio University; Jackson Gandour, Purdue Uni- versity, West Lafayette; Jule Gomez de Garcia, California State University, San Marcos; Deborah Grant, Independent consultant; Loretta Gray, Central Washington University; Xiangdong Gu, Chongqing University; Helena Halmari, University of London; Karin Hedberg, Sam Houston State University; Sharon Hargus, University of Washington; Benjamin H. Hary, Emory University; Tometro Hopkins, Florida International University; Eric Hyman, University of North Carolina, Fayetteville; Dawn Ellen Jacobs, California Baptist Univer- sity; Seyed Yasser Jebraily, University of Tehran; Kyle Johnson, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Paul Justice, San Diego State University; Simin Karimi, University of Arizona; Edward Keenan, University of California, Los Angeles; Robert D. King, University of Texas; Sharon M. Klein, California State University, Northridge; Nathan Klinedinst, Institut Jean Nicod/CNRS, Paris; Otto Krauss, Jr., late, unaffiliated; Elisabeth Kuhn, Virginia Commonwealth University; Peter Ladefoged, late, University of California, Los Angeles; Mary Ann Larsen-Pusey, Fresno Pacific University; Rabbi Robert Layman, Philadelphia; Byungmin Lee, Korea; Virginia “Ginny” Lewis, Northern State University; David Lightfoot, Georgetown University; Ingvar Lofstedt, Univer- sity of California, Los Angeles; Giuseppe Longobardi, Università di Venezia; Harriet Luria, Hunter College, City University of New York; Jeff MacSwan, Arizona State University; Tracey McHenry, Eastern Washington University; Pamela Munro, University of California, Los Angeles; Tom Nash, Southern Oregon University; Carol Neidle, Boston University; Don Nilsen, Arizona State University; Reiko Okabe, Nihon University, Tokyo; John Olsson, Forensic

1Some affiliations may have changed or are unknown to us at this time.

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 17 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

xviii prefACe

Linguistic Institute, Wales, U.K.; Anjali Pandey, Salisbury University; Barbara Hall Partee, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Fernanda Pratas, Uni- versidade Nova de Lisboa; Vincent D. Puma, Flagler College; Mousa Qasem, Kuwait University; Ian Roberts, Cambridge University; Tugba Rona, Istanbul International Community School; Natalie Schilling-Estes, Georgetown Univer- sity; Philippe Schlenker, Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris and New York University; Carson Schütze, University of California, Los Angeles; Bruce Sherwood, North Carolina State University; Koh Shimizu, Beijing; Dwan L. Shipley, Washington University; Muffy Siegel, Temple University; Andrew Simpson, University of Southern California; Neil Smith, University College London; Nancy Stenson, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Donca Steriade, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Mel Storm, Emporia State University; Nawaf Sulami, Univer- sity of Northern Iowa; Megha Sundara, University of California, Los Angeles; Robert (Bob) Trammell, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton; Dalys Vargas, College of Notre Dame; Willis Warren, Saint Edwards University; Donald K. Watkins, University of Kansas; Walt Wolfram, North Carolina State University; Maria Luisa Zubizarreta, University of Southern California.

Please forgive us if we have inadvertently omitted any names, and if we have spelled every name correctly, then we shall believe in miracles.

Finally, we wish to thank the editorial and production team at Cengage Learning. They have been superb and supportive in every way: Michael Rosenberg, publisher; Joan M. Flaherty, development editor; Daniel Saabye, content project manager; Erin Bosco, Assistant Editor; Janine Tangney, Media Editor.

Last but certainly not least, we acknowledge our debt to those we love and who love us and who inspire our work when nothing else will: Nina’s son, Michael; Robert’s children Zack and Emily together with a trio—soon to be a quartet—of grandchildren: Cedar, Luke, Juniper, and ?; our parents and siblings; and our dearly beloved and still deeply missed colleagues, Vicki Fromkin and Peter Ladefoged.

The responsibility for errors in fact or judgment is, of course, ours alone. We continue to be indebted to the instructors who have used the earlier editions and to their students, without whom there would be no tenth edition.

Robert Rodman Nina Hyams

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 18 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

xix

VICTorIa FromkIn received her bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1944 and her M.A. and Ph.D. in linguis- tics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1963 and 1965, respec- tively. She was a member of the faculty of the UCLA Department of Linguistics from 1966 until her death in 2000, and served as its chair from 1972 to 1976. From 1979 to 1989 she served as the UCLA Graduate Dean and Vice Chancel- lor of Graduate Programs. She was a visiting professor at the Universities of Stockholm, Cambridge, and Oxford. Professor Fromkin served as president of the Linguistics Society of America in 1985, president of the Association of Graduate Schools in 1988, and chair of the Board of Governors of the Acad- emy of Aphasia. She received the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award and the Professional Achievement Award, and served as the U.S. Delegate and a mem- ber of the Executive Committee of the International Permanent Committee of Linguistics (CIPL). She was an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the New York Academy of Science, the American Psychological Society, and the Acoustical Society of America, and in 1996 was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. She published more than one hundred books, monographs, and papers on topics concerned with phonetics, phonology, tone languages, African languages, speech errors, processing models, aphasia, and the brain/mind/language interface—all research areas in which she worked. Professor Fromkin passed away on January 19, 2000, at the age of 76.

robErT rodman received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1961, a master’s degree in mathemat- ics in 1965, a master’s degree in linguistics in 1971, and his Ph.D. in linguis- tics in 1973. He has been on the faculties of the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kyoto Industrial College in Japan, and North Carolina State University, where he is currently a professor of computer science. His research areas are forensic linguistics and computer speech processing. Robert resides in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his two rescued greyhounds Gracie and Shelby-Sue.

nIna HyamS received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston Uni- versity in 1973 and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in linguistics from the Gradu- ate Center of the City University of New York in 1981 and 1983, respectively. She joined the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1983, where she is currently a professor of linguistics. Her main areas of research are childhood language development and syntax. She is author of the book

About the Authors

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 19 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

xx ABout the Authors

Language Acquisition and the Theory of Parameters (D. Reidel Publishers, 1986), a milestone in language acquisition research. She has also published numerous articles on the development of syntax, morphology, and semantics in children. She has been a visiting scholar at the University of Utrecht and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and has given numerous lectures throughout Europe and Japan. Nina lives in Los Angeles with her pal Spot, a rescued border collie mutt and his olde English bulldogge companion, the ever soulful Nellie.

10686_fm_ptg01_pi-xx.indd 20 12/11/12 2:28 PM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

1

When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the “human essence,” the distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to man.

Whatever else people do when they come together—whether they play, fight, make love, or make automobiles—they talk. We live in a world of language. We talk to our friends, our associates, our wives and husbands, our lovers, our teach- ers, our parents, our rivals, and even our enemies. We talk face-to-face and over all manner of electronic media, and everyone responds with more talk. Hardly a moment of our waking lives is free from words, and even in our dreams we talk and are talked to. We also talk when there is no one to answer. Some of us talk aloud in our sleep. We talk to our pets and sometimes to ourselves.

The possession of language, perhaps more than any other attribute, distin- guishes humans from other animals. According to the philosophy expressed in the myths and religions of many peoples, language is the source of human life and power. To some people of Africa, a newborn child is a kintu, a “thing,” not yet a muntu, a “person.” It is only by the act of learning language that the child becomes a human being. To understand our humanity, we must understand the nature of language that makes us human. That is the goal of this book. We be- gin with a simple question: what does it mean to “know” a language?

Linguistic Knowledge Do we know only what we see, or do we see what we somehow already know?

CYNTHIA OZICK, “What Helen Keller Saw,” New Yorker, June 16 & 23, 2003

1 What Is Language?

NOAM CHOMSKY, Language and Mind, 1968

10686_ch01_ptg01_p001-032.indd 1 08/11/12 10:51 AM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

2 CHAPTER 1 What Is Language?

When you know a language, you can speak and be understood by others who know that language. This means you are able to produce strings of sounds that signify certain meanings and to understand or interpret the sounds pro- duced by others. But language is much more than speech. Deaf people produce and understand sign languages just as hearing persons produce and under- stand spoken languages. The languages of the deaf communities throughout the world are equivalent to spoken languages, differing only in their modality of expression.

Most everyone knows at least one language. Five-year-old children are nearly as proficient at speaking and understanding as their parents. Yet the ability to carry out the simplest conversation requires profound knowledge that most speakers are unaware of. This is true for speakers of all languages, from Albanian to Zulu. A speaker of English can produce a sentence having two relative clauses without knowing what a relative clause is. For example:

My goddaughter who was born in Sweden and who now lives in Iowa is named Disa, after a Viking queen.

In a parallel fashion, a child can walk without understanding or being able to explain the principles of balance and support or the neurophysiological con- trol mechanisms that permit one to do so. The fact that we may know some- thing unconsciously is not unique to language.

Knowledge of the Sound System When I speak it is in order to be heard.

ROMAN JAKOBSON

Part of knowing a language means knowing what sounds (or signs1) are in that language and what sounds are not. One way this unconscious knowledge is revealed is by the way speakers of one language pronounce words from another language. If you speak only English, for example, you may substitute an English sound for a non-English sound when pronouncing “foreign” words like French ménage à trois. If you pronounce it as the French do, you are using sounds outside the English sound system.

French people speaking English often pronounce words like this and that as if they were spelled zis and zat. The English sound represented by the initial letters th in these words is not part of the French sound system, and the mispronunciation reveals the French speaker’s unconscious knowledge of this fact.

Knowing the sound system of a language includes more than knowing the inventory of sounds. It means also knowing which sounds may start a word,

1The sign languages of the deaf will be discussed throughout the book. A reference to “language,” then, unless speech sounds or spoken languages are specifically mentioned, includes both spoken and signed languages.

10686_ch01_ptg01_p001-032.indd 2 08/11/12 10:51 AM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Linguistic Knowledge 3

end a word, and follow each other. The name of a former president of Ghana was Nkrumah, pronounced with an initial sound like the sound ending the English word sink. While this is an English sound, no word in English be- gins with the nk sound. Speakers of English who have occasion to pronounce this name often mispronounce it (by Ghanaian standards) by inserting a short vowel sound, like Nekrumah or Enkrumah, making the word correspond to the English system. Children develop the sound patterns of their language very rapidly. A one-year-old learning English knows that nk cannot begin a word, just as a Ghanaian child of the same age knows that it can in his language.

We will learn more about sounds and sound systems in chapters 5 and 6.

Knowledge of Words Sounds and sound patterns of our language constitute only one part of our lin- guistic knowledge. Beyond that we know that certain sequences of sounds sig- nify certain concepts or meanings. Speakers of English understand what boy means, and that it means something different from toy or girl or pterodactyl. We also know that toy and boy are words, but moy is not. When you know a lan- guage, you know words in that language; that is, you know which sequences of sounds relate to specific meanings and which do not.

Arbitrary Relation of Form and Meaning The minute I set eyes on an animal I know what it is. I don’t have to reflect a moment; the right name comes out instantly. I seem to know just by the shape of the creature and the way it acts what animal it is. When the dodo came along he [Adam] thought it was a wildcat. But I saved him. I just spoke up in a quite natural way and said, “Well, I do declare if there isn’t the dodo!”

MARK TWAIN, Eve’s Diary, 1906

If you do not know a language, the words (and sentences) of that language will be mainly incomprehensible, because the relationship between speech sounds and the meanings they represent is, for the most part, an arbitrary one. When you are acquiring a language you have to learn that the sounds represented by the letters house signify the concept ; if you know French, this same meaning is represented by maison; if you know Russian, by dom; if you know Spanish, by casa. Similarly, is represented by hand in English, main in French, nsa in Twi, and ruka in Russian. The same sequence of sounds can represent different meanings in different languages. The word bolna means ‘speak’ in Hindu-Urdu and ‘aching’ in Russian; bis means ‘devil’ in Ukrainian and ‘twice’ in Latin; a pet is a domestic animal in English and a fart in Catalan; and the sequence of sounds taka means ‘hawk’ in Japanese, ‘fist’ in Quechua, ‘a small bird’ in Zulu, and ‘money’ in Bengali.

These examples show that the words of a particular language have the meanings they do only by convention. Despite what Eve would have us believe in Mark Twain’s satire Eve’s Diary, a pterodactyl could have been called ron, blick, or kerplunkity.

10686_ch01_ptg01_p001-032.indd 3 08/11/12 10:51 AM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

4 CHAPTER 1 What Is Language?

HERMAN®/LaughingStock Licensing Inc., Ottawa, Canada

As Juliet says in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet:

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet;

This conventional and arbitrary relationship between the form (sounds) and meaning (concept) of a word is also true in sign languages. If you see someone using a sign language you do not know, it is doubtful that you will understand the message from the signs alone. A person who knows Chinese Sign Language (CSL) would find it difficult to understand American Sign Language (ASL), and vice versa.

Many signs were originally like miming, where the relationship between form and meaning is not arbitrary. Bringing the hand to the mouth to mean “eating,” as in miming, would be nonarbitrary as a sign. Over time these signs may change, just as the pronunciation of words changes, and the miming effect is lost. These signs become conventional, so that the shape or movement of the hands alone does not reveal the meaning of the signs.

There is some sound symbolism in language—that is, words whose pro- nunciation suggests their meanings. Most languages contain onomatopoeic words like buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. But even here, the sounds differ from language to language and reflect the particular sound system of the language. In English cock-a-doodle-doo is an onomatopoeic word whose meaning is the crow of a rooster, whereas in Finnish the rooster’s crow is kukkokiekuu. Forget gobble gobble when you’re in Istanbul; a turkey in Turkey goes glu-glu.

10686_ch01_ptg01_p001-032.indd 4 08/11/12 10:51 AM

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

Linguistic Knowledge 5

Sometimes particular sound combinations seem to relate to a particular concept. Many English words beginning with gl relate to sight, such as glare, glint, gleam, glitter, glossy, glaze, glance, glimmer, glimpse, and glisten. However, gl words and their like are a very small part of any language, and gl may have nothing to do with “sight” in another language, or even in other words in English, such as gladiator, glucose, glory, glutton, globe, and so on.

To know a language we must know words of that language. But no speaker knows all the entries in an unabridged dictionary and even if someone did he would still not know that language. Imagine trying to learn a foreign language by buying a dictionary and memorizing words. No matter how many words you learned, you would not be able to form the simplest phrases or sentences in the language, or understand a native speaker. No one speaks in isolated words. And even if you could manage to get your message across using a few words from a traveler’s dictionary, like “car—gas—where?” the best you could hope for is to be pointed in the direction of a gas station. If you were answered with a sentence it is doubtful that you would understand what was said or be able to look it up, because you would not know where one word ended and another began. Chapter 3 will discuss how words are put together to form phrases and sentences, and chapter 4 will explore word and sentence meanings.