Status Updates From An Introduction to Language

A dialect is not an inferior or degraded form of a language, and logically could not be so because a language is a collection of dialects.

In 1888 members of the International Phonetic Association developed a phonetic alphabet to symbolize the sounds of all languages.

Maxims

An implicature is a great example of extra-truth-conditional meaning.

The best-known lexical relations are synonyms.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. This is a very interesting sentence, because it shows that syntax can be separated from semantics - that form can be separated from meaning.

Back-formations
"Some word creation comes from deliberately miscast back-formations. The word bikini comes from the Bikini atoll of the Marshall Islands. Because the first syllable bi- is a morpheme meaning ‘two’ in words like bicycle, some clever person called a topless bathing suit a monokini and a tank top with a bikini bottom a tankini."

Birds cannot tell us their story, however beautifully they sing.

Displacement and discreteness are two fundamental properties that distinguish human language from the communication systems of birds and other animals.

In 1762 Bishop Robert Lowth wrote A Short Introduction to English Grammar with Critical Notes. Lowth prescribed a number of new rules for English, many of them influenced by his personal taste. Lowth, decided that “two negatives make a positive” and therefore one should say I don’t have any; and that even when you is singular it should be followed by the plural were.

Creativity is a universal property of human language.

just finished the core parts of grammar: morphology, syntax, semantics and phonetics and phonology, and going into PART 3.

Peoples’ thoughts and perceptions are not determined by the words and structures of their language. We are not prisoners of our linguistic systems. If speakers were unable to think about something for which their language had no specific word, translations would be impossible, as would learning a second language.

In a society where “linguistic profiling” is used to discriminate against speakers of a minority dialect, it may behoove those speakers to learn the prestige dialect rather than wait for social change. But linguistically, prestige and standard dialects do not have superior grammars.

To understand our humanity, one must understand the nature of language that makes us human.

i love linguistics and documenting that i’m doing my ling101 readings regularly. sue me. it’s the single thing that brings me joy!!! and makes me consider changing my major so what.big deal.