SLANGSession 1a

Roland MuhlenberndSeminar fur Sprachwissenschaft

University of Tubingen

Session I: Linguisic Phenomena in Societies - Data

What is Sociolinguistics?Labov: Division in the Foundations of Linguistics

Classical Linguistics Sociolinguistics

Phil. Opposition Idealism MaterialismExemplary - Generative Grammar - Phonetics

Fields - Generalized PSG - Historical Linguistics- Lexical-Funct. Grammar - Dialectology

View Language is property Language is propertyof an individual of the speech community

Competence get underlying C; C can only be understoodPerformance P is outside ling. proper through the study of PCommunity ...is inconsistent mixture structured heterogeneity

of consistent individuals is fundamental featureProduction neutral to both, but if prod. is methodologicallyPerception precedence: perception & epistemologically prior

Mathematic qualitative, algebraic quantitative, probabilisticModels based on introspection observation/experiments

Session I: Linguisic Phenomena in Societies - Data

”How far can we go with unsupported qualitative analysis based onintrospection, before the proposal must be confirmed byquantitative studies based on observation and experiment?”(William Labov, 1987)

”A language is not just a body of vocabulary or a set ofgrammatical rules. . . .Every language is an old-growth forest of themind.” (Wade Davis)

”Linguists who do field work on languages find it hard to ignore therich cultural matrix or to examine things like sentence structure inisolation from the rest of the language.” (K. David Harrison)

I both views especially differ in methods how to explainlanguage phenomena → different theories

I both views working on the same object and therefore have incommon how to describe language (variables) → sameterminology about data

Session I: Phonology

Phoneme (Wikipedia, 04.06.2012)A phoneme is a basic element of a spoken language or dialect,from which words in that language or dialect are analyzed as beingbuilt up. The phoneme is defined by the International PhoneticAssociation as ”the smallest segmental unit of sound employed toform meaningful contrasts between utterances”.

Session I: Phonology

Session I: Phonology

http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm

Session I: Phonology

Session I: Morhology

Morpheme (Wikipedia, 04.06.2012)In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningfulunit in a language.

1. Free Morphemes can function independently as words (e.g.town, dog) and can appear with other lexemes (e.g. town hall,doghouse).

2. Bound Morphemes appear only as parts of words, always inconjunction with a root and sometimes with other boundmorphemes (affixes, particularly prefixes and suffixes: un-, -ly,but also cranberry morphemes).

Session I: Syntax, Semantics & Pragmatics

Wikipedia, 04.06.2012:

I Syntax is ”the study of the principles and processes by whichsentences are constructed in particular languages.”

I Semantics is the study of meaning.

I Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the waysin which context contributes to meaning.

Session I: Pragmatics & Politeness

What did Grice(1975) say?

Cooperative Principle

I Be Truthful

I Be Relevant

I Be Informative

I Be Clear

I We adhere to and violate these maxims strategically

I Are these the only pragmatic universals?

I What other principles guide communication and cooperation?

Session I: Pragmatics & Politeness

Experiment: Try these out on the street:

I You! Tell me what time it is!

I Tell me how beautiful I am.

Why won’t they work?

I Language is not solely propositional content.

I Language is not purely logical.

Session I: Pragmatics & Politeness

Why Study Politeness?

I Language Universals

I Why aren’t we direct?

I Politeness is selfish, strategic (Brown and Levinson, 1978)

I Reciprocity Instinct/ Tit-for-Tat/ Social Exchange

I Reputation is Valuable

I Humans have a Theory of Mind (Homo Empathicus)

Session I: Pragmatics & Politeness

Theory of Brown and Levinson(1978)

I Two Basic NeedsI Acceptance → Positive FaceI Autonomy → Negative Face

I Interactions Potentially Face-Threatening

I Speakers Weigh Potential Face Threat vs. Utility of Interaction

Session I: Pragmatics & Politeness

Brown and Levinson’s Strategic Speech Theory

Intention

Don’t do FTA

Do FTA

OffRecord/Indirect

OnRecord/Direct

Redress

NegativePoli-

teness

PositivePoli-

teness

Don’tRedress