Linguistics Theory, Foundations, and Modern Development

An Overview of Linguistics and Linguistic Applications

Linguistic Assumptions and Principles

Fundamentals

Linguistic Assumptions and Principles

Language as Knowledge

Fundamentals

The most fundamental assumption of linguistics is that all languages have universal features. This concept does not mean that all languages have the same structure, nor does it state that the sound systems of the languages are the same. Simply by observation, one can hear that languages are different in how they are structured and most especially in how they sound. Instead, each language has a natural structure and a limited set of acceptable sounds in the language. English, for example, does not have the harsh gutturals that Dutch has; Japanese has five basic vowel sounds (a i u e o) whereas English has ten basic vowel sounds (a _a e _e i _i o _o u _u) with numerous variations depending on the surrounding vowels. (In Japanese, the length of the vowel itself may vary, and the total sound may appear to be different by rapid pronunciation of words, but each vowel is pronounced independently. So, the pronunciation of Japanese words can always be determined with precision; with English, one must be much more careful in knowing hte origin of the word to determine the proper pronunciation.) English sentences are constructed in Subject-Verb-Object order, whereas Japanese is Subject-Object-Verb order.

Dictionary Phonemic Representation of Basic English Vowels

But there are universals in every language, nonetheless. One of these universals is that every language has a grammar. All users of a language know this grammar; if they are native, it is usually an unconscious knowledge; if they are non-native, it is usually a conscious knowledge. A language's grammar includes its sound system, its lexicon, and its structure. The language's sound system are those sounds that can be found in the language, including their proper positions in words. The lexicon are sounds combined to formed meaningful units, or words. The structure is when words are strung together to form meaningful statements, or phrases and sentences. Every language has a specific sound system, a lexicon, and a structure. Some languages share portions of their sound system, their lexicon, or their structure with other languages; but each language is unique.

All languages are human. Some animals may seem to have languages (in particular, the cries of birds, dolphins, and monkeys) but studies have shown that the sounds and patterns used are, beyond a certain vocabulary, invariate. Through the study of language, twelve facts have become part of the operational knowledge of linguistics.

1. Where ever humans exist, language exists.
2. There are no "primitive" languages: all languages are equally complex and equally capable of expressing any idea in the universe. The vocabulary of any language can be expanded to include new words for new concepts.
3. All languages change through time.
4. The relationships between the sounds and meanings of spoken languages and between the gestures (signs) and meanings of sign languages are for the most part arbitrary.
5. All human languages utilize a finite set of discrete sounds (or gestures) that are combined to form meaningful elements or words, which themselves form an infinite set of possible sentences.
6. All grammars contain rules for the formation of words and sentences of a similar kind.
7. Every spoken language includes discrete sound segments like p, n, or a, which can be defined by a finite set of sound properties or features. Every spoken language has a class of vowels and a class of consonants.
8. Similar grammatical categories (for example, noun, verb) are found in all languages.
9. There are semantic universals, such as "male" or "female," "animate" or "human," found in every language in the world.
10. Every language has a way of referring to past time, negating, forming questions, issuing commands, and so on.
11. Speakers of all languages are capable of producing and comprehending an infinite set of sentences.
12. Any normal child, born anywhere in the world, of any racial, geographical, social, or economic heritage, is capable of learning any language to which he or she is exposed. The differences we find among languages cannot be due to biological reasons.

[Fromkin and Rodman, 25]

To properly study linguistics, we must appropriately define certain concepts. Following the pattern of An Introduction to Language, 5th Edition (Fromkin and Rodman, 1993), I will cover the nature of human language and grammatical aspects of language. This comprises parts one and two of An Introduction to Language, over 250 pages of text, diagrams, and charts. As this exceeds the scope of this document, I will be summarizing the main points. Because Introduction builds its discussion of language both thematically and logically, I will follow the same format for the remainder of this chapter.

Linguistic Assumptions and Principles

Language as Knowledge

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