Introduction to Linguistics: First Lecture

00:42:06
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQx_jZxdCbs

摘要

TLDRThis lecture is an introduction to the undergraduate course "Introduction to Linguistics" at UCI, led by host Richard Futrell. The course guides students through the scientific study of human language, emphasizing objective analysis rather than subjective interpretation. Key areas of focus include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. The course aims to equip students with a deep understanding of language structure, preparing them for careers in fields like interpretation, translation, natural language processing, and speech pathology. Problem sets and multiple-choice exams determine the students' grades, with lectures and discussions held online. The course also explores the relationship between language, thought, and culture, highlighting language's complexity and ubiquity in human life.

心得

  • 📘 Introduction to linguistics course by Richard Futrell at UCI.
  • 🌐 Course focuses on the scientific study of human language.
  • 📚 Textbook is optional but broadens understanding.
  • 📝 Grading involves problem sets and three exams.
  • 🔍 Linguistics doesn't require learning multiple languages.
  • 🤖 Career applications include translation, NLP, and more.
  • 🧠 The course dissects language into phonetics, syntax, etc.
  • 🌊 Language is compared to a complex system like water to fish.
  • 📈 Linguistics is a frontier science with much to discover.
  • 🔄 The course progresses from basic levels to applied linguistics.

时间轴

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    Richard Futrell introduces the undergraduate course 'Introduction to Linguistics' at UCI, detailing course materials, evaluations, and logistics. Open-book, non-cumulative exams will contribute half of the grade, alongside problem sets and mandatory discussion sections over Zoom. The optional textbook 'Language Files 12th edition' is available to deepen understanding.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Futrell outlines linguistics as the scientific study of language, emphasizing that terms underlined in materials are crucial for exams. The course aims to move beyond subjective language analysis, seen in literature, towards a systematic, scientific approach—to examine language structures, processing, and its universal aspects across various languages.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    The course will explore questions about language structure and processing, such as why some language is easier to understand and if language impacts thoughts. Contrary to popular belief, linguistics is about scientifically studying language principles rather than learning multiple languages. Scientific understanding can ease learning additional languages.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    Understanding universal language principles aids in learning new languages, akin to knowing card game rules facilitates learning new games. Linguistics involves symbolic systems analysis and has practical applications in careers like translation, natural language processing, and speech pathology, helping scientifically analyze language complexity.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    Despite language's complexity and its intrinsic nature akin to water for fish, the course will teach how to analyze this complex symbolic system. Linguistics applies to careers like translation and speech pathology and understanding underlying principles aids in rapid language learning. It involves rigorous symbolic systems analysis.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    Futrell challenges the idea that languages contain untranslatable words and concepts, arguing that any language can express any thought, albeit using different syntactic structures. The course will explore languages' commonalities and their capability to convey universal meanings through linguistics' scientific methods.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    Linguistics examines language form and meaning, breaking down language into sentences, phrases, words, morphemes, phonemes, and features. This hierarchical analysis, detailing each part's linguistic role, is the scientific study focus, which corresponds to subfields like syntax, morphology, phonology, and phonetics.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:42:06

    The course's initial focus is phonetics and phonology—considered challenging but foundational—will lead to understanding more intuitive language aspects like syntax and semantics. Ultimately, students will learn how to scientifically analyze language mechanics before exploring its societal, psychological, and technological applications.

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思维导图

视频问答

  • What is the main focus of the course?

    The course focuses on the scientific study of human language, analyzing its structure and function.

  • What materials are required for the course?

    Lectures and problem sets are mandatory; a textbook is optional but recommended.

  • How are grades determined?

    Grades are based on problem sets and multiple-choice exams, with the lowest problem set grade being dropped.

  • What are the components of linguistic analysis?

    Linguistic analysis consists of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics.

  • What is the significance of studying linguistics?

    Studying linguistics helps in understanding language structure, aiding in various careers like translation, language teaching, and technology.

  • Does linguistics involve learning multiple languages?

    No, linguistics is about scientifically studying the structure of language, not learning multiple languages.

  • How is language characterized scientifically?

    Language is seen as a complex system of symbolic communication that can be broken down into smaller units for analysis.

  • What kinds of careers can benefit from studying linguistics?

    Careers like interpretation, translation, speech pathology, NLP, and clinical psychology can benefit from linguistics.

  • Can linguistic concepts be applied practically?

    Yes, linguistic concepts can be applied in language technology, therapy, education, and more.

  • How is the course structured?

    The course progresses through phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, and then examines language's relationship with culture, thought, and technology.

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  • 00:00:00
    hello and welcome to introduction to
  • 00:00:02
    linguistics
  • 00:00:04
    i'm your host richard futrell and i hope
  • 00:00:07
    you'll enjoy this journey with me
  • 00:00:08
    through the science of human language
  • 00:00:11
    so let's get right to it this is
  • 00:00:14
    uci language science 3 an undergraduate
  • 00:00:17
    class
  • 00:00:18
    introduction to linguistics part of the
  • 00:00:20
    language science major
  • 00:00:22
    here at uci so for those of you who are
  • 00:00:25
    taking the class for credit at uci
  • 00:00:27
    i'm going to go into some course
  • 00:00:29
    logistics for those watching at home you
  • 00:00:31
    can skip this stuff
  • 00:00:34
    here we go the important information
  • 00:00:36
    you're going to need to know about the
  • 00:00:38
    class
  • 00:00:38
    is online on canvas and also at this
  • 00:00:41
    url here we have an authoritative online
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    syllabus
  • 00:00:46
    we're going to have lectures posted
  • 00:00:48
    online you're watching the first one
  • 00:00:50
    right now
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    we're going to have problem sets we're
  • 00:00:52
    going to have seven problem sets which
  • 00:00:54
    are going to be graded based on
  • 00:00:55
    correctness
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    the lowest problem set grade will be
  • 00:00:58
    dropped you're going to have three
  • 00:01:00
    multiple choice exams comprising half of
  • 00:01:03
    your grade
  • 00:01:04
    these exams are going to be open book
  • 00:01:06
    that means you can look in any book you
  • 00:01:08
    want you can also look online
  • 00:01:09
    at any materials you want you just can't
  • 00:01:11
    talk to other people
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    during the test that would be cheating
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    these are non-cumulative exams they only
  • 00:01:17
    cover the units that
  • 00:01:18
    precede them and we're also going to
  • 00:01:21
    have weekly
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    discussion sections you're going to be
  • 00:01:24
    attending synchronously
  • 00:01:25
    over zoom and participation is mandatory
  • 00:01:28
    in these to get a full participation
  • 00:01:30
    grade
  • 00:01:31
    you need to attend these sections
  • 00:01:34
    cool all right so let's get to it
  • 00:01:37
    we're gonna have a textbook
  • 00:01:40
    the textbook is optional it is language
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    files 12th edition
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    now this textbook being optional you
  • 00:01:48
    don't have to get it
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    but if you do get it you will find that
  • 00:01:53
    it vastly improves your understanding of
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    the material it's going to both deepen
  • 00:01:56
    and broaden your understanding of the
  • 00:01:58
    stuff that we're going to be teaching
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    it's available online and on the
  • 00:02:04
    syllabus
  • 00:02:05
    at that url you can see that each
  • 00:02:07
    lecture comes with a
  • 00:02:08
    recommended reading going along with it
  • 00:02:10
    from this book
  • 00:02:13
    again this is optional you don't need to
  • 00:02:15
    buy this book but if you do
  • 00:02:17
    it will greatly enhance your
  • 00:02:18
    understanding of the material
  • 00:02:22
    so what is linguistics what are we about
  • 00:02:25
    to learn
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    what are you here for linguistics
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    which we also call language science is
  • 00:02:32
    the scientific study of
  • 00:02:34
    language now let's stop take a look at
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    the slide for a moment here
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    i've underlined the terms linguistics
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    and language science
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    i'm going to underline in my slides any
  • 00:02:46
    term
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    whose definition you need to know in the
  • 00:02:50
    exams
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    and in the problem sets the underlying
  • 00:02:54
    terms
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    are scientific terms they're technical
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    jargon from the field of linguistics
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    you need to both know the definitions of
  • 00:03:01
    these terms and how to undo
  • 00:03:04
    and you need to understand them and you
  • 00:03:06
    need to know how to apply them
  • 00:03:08
    so linguistics is the scientific study
  • 00:03:10
    of language and it's also called
  • 00:03:12
    language science
  • 00:03:13
    what do we mean by scientific study of
  • 00:03:14
    language that's what we're about to get
  • 00:03:16
    into
  • 00:03:18
    this course in teaching you linguistics
  • 00:03:21
    is going to teach you how to analyze
  • 00:03:23
    language scientifically
  • 00:03:25
    and objectively this is going to be
  • 00:03:27
    maybe different than how you've thought
  • 00:03:28
    about
  • 00:03:29
    language before so you've all had a lot
  • 00:03:32
    of experience
  • 00:03:32
    in analyzing language in a way which is
  • 00:03:35
    kind of intuitive
  • 00:03:36
    maybe kind of subjective this could
  • 00:03:38
    happen in like a literature class when
  • 00:03:40
    you read a story
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    and you think about how the different
  • 00:03:42
    words evoke feelings in you
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    or when you're doing something like
  • 00:03:46
    analyzing a text message to help your
  • 00:03:48
    friend decipher what someone else meant
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    these are sort of intuitive subjective
  • 00:03:53
    analyses of language
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    what we're going to be doing in this
  • 00:03:55
    class is adding a big dose of science
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    and objectivity to that
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    kind of stuff we're going to be doing a
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    rigorous scientific analysis
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    of language we're going to be asking
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    questions like
  • 00:04:08
    how do words and sentences break into
  • 00:04:10
    parts
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    language consists of units things like
  • 00:04:13
    sentences or words or sounds
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    and we're going to be asking how those
  • 00:04:17
    things break into parts how the parts
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    fit together to form the whole
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    we're going to be looking at different
  • 00:04:24
    languages we're going to be seeing how
  • 00:04:26
    the languages of the world
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    differ from one another and how they're
  • 00:04:29
    the same languages of the world things
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    like english
  • 00:04:32
    french spanish mandarin chinese japanese
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    mosa these are languages that differ
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    from each other
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    very widely there's lots and lots of
  • 00:04:43
    differences lots of diversity
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    among languages but there's also a core
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    of things that are the same there are
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    many things that are the same across
  • 00:04:51
    languages
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    and that's the really interesting thing
  • 00:04:54
    languages have a lot of commonalities
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    they
  • 00:04:56
    have a lot of variance but not without
  • 00:04:59
    bound and we're going to be talking
  • 00:05:00
    about that kind of stuff at great
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    detail we're going to be looking at
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    how it is that words combine together
  • 00:05:08
    in something like a sentence to evoke a
  • 00:05:10
    meaning how is it that
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    a sentence which consists of a string of
  • 00:05:14
    words somehow those words
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    combine together in a way that evokes a
  • 00:05:19
    structured kind of a meaning
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    in your mind when you hear the sentence
  • 00:05:25
    what is it that makes language easy or
  • 00:05:27
    hard to understand
  • 00:05:28
    you've almost surely noticed that
  • 00:05:31
    when you read certain authors or when
  • 00:05:34
    you listen to certain people
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    some people are easy to understand other
  • 00:05:37
    people are hard to understand
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    some sentences are easy to understand
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    they're just straightforward some are
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    hard to understand they have a really
  • 00:05:46
    sort of complex structure and you have
  • 00:05:47
    to really think to understand that
  • 00:05:49
    sentence what is it that makes something
  • 00:05:52
    like a sentence
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    easy or hard to understand this touches
  • 00:05:56
    on the question of language processing
  • 00:05:58
    language is a system that maps form and
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    meaning as we're going to see
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    and your brain has to actually implement
  • 00:06:07
    that mapping it your brain has to take
  • 00:06:09
    in the sounds that i'm producing
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    or maybe the words on a page that you're
  • 00:06:13
    reading and it has to
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    somehow compute the meaning that you get
  • 00:06:17
    out of those words that's language
  • 00:06:19
    processing
  • 00:06:20
    and that computation might be difficult
  • 00:06:22
    sometimes that's what makes something
  • 00:06:24
    easier hard to understand we're going to
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    be looking at
  • 00:06:27
    language processing as it relates to the
  • 00:06:29
    structure of language
  • 00:06:33
    we can ask questions like does the
  • 00:06:35
    language you speak
  • 00:06:37
    affect the thoughts you think this is a
  • 00:06:40
    deep question
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    you might think about this as a question
  • 00:06:43
    which is maybe so deep and philosophical
  • 00:06:45
    that it would be silly to try to answer
  • 00:06:46
    it
  • 00:06:47
    scientifically with an experiment but in
  • 00:06:50
    fact you can
  • 00:06:51
    in fact we do have a pretty good
  • 00:06:53
    scientific literature
  • 00:06:54
    on the relationship between language and
  • 00:06:56
    thought it's not just a philosophical
  • 00:06:59
    question
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    we do have reasonable answers to this
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    and we're going to be covering that
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    towards the end of the course this is
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    just a sampler of the kinds of questions
  • 00:07:08
    that you can ask and partially answer
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    using linguistics and that we'll be
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    covering in this course
  • 00:07:16
    so why why would you study linguistics
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    why would you be here well the first
  • 00:07:22
    thing you might think is
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    well linguistics means learning a lot of
  • 00:07:25
    languages i'm going to come here and
  • 00:07:26
    learn a lot of languages and be a
  • 00:07:28
    linguist and speak like 20 languages
  • 00:07:30
    unfortunately linguistics does not
  • 00:07:34
    mean learning lots of languages remember
  • 00:07:37
    linguistics
  • 00:07:37
    is the science of language linguistics
  • 00:07:40
    is not just
  • 00:07:41
    learning a lot of languages you could
  • 00:07:43
    learn a lot of languages without getting
  • 00:07:44
    any scientific insight
  • 00:07:46
    and you can also get a lot of scientific
  • 00:07:48
    insight into language by only looking at
  • 00:07:50
    one
  • 00:07:50
    language so linguistics doesn't mean
  • 00:07:53
    learning a lot of languages it means
  • 00:07:54
    scientifically studying
  • 00:07:56
    language if you want to learn a lot of
  • 00:07:58
    languages though linguistics will help
  • 00:08:00
    you
  • 00:08:01
    because when you understand the
  • 00:08:03
    underlying principles and structures
  • 00:08:05
    that are common
  • 00:08:06
    across all languages and when you
  • 00:08:08
    understand the limits of the variation
  • 00:08:10
    across different languages
  • 00:08:12
    then you're going to pick things up a
  • 00:08:14
    lot more rapidly
  • 00:08:15
    because language to you is not just
  • 00:08:17
    going to be some arbitrary system
  • 00:08:19
    it's going to be something whose
  • 00:08:21
    structure you can really understand
  • 00:08:25
    you can think about this as something
  • 00:08:27
    like
  • 00:08:28
    learning card games learning a language
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    is kind of like learning a card game
  • 00:08:32
    now if you understand the principles
  • 00:08:35
    that underlie
  • 00:08:36
    all the different card games like the
  • 00:08:38
    fact that usually a king is worth more
  • 00:08:40
    than a three
  • 00:08:42
    and you know that there are the
  • 00:08:43
    different suits and the different colors
  • 00:08:45
    once you understand these underlying
  • 00:08:46
    principles of all card games
  • 00:08:48
    it becomes a lot easier to learn any new
  • 00:08:51
    card game
  • 00:08:52
    similarly once you understand the
  • 00:08:54
    underlying principles
  • 00:08:55
    of all languages through the science of
  • 00:08:57
    linguistics
  • 00:08:59
    then you're going to find that learning
  • 00:09:01
    new languages
  • 00:09:02
    is going to be easier because you're
  • 00:09:04
    going to see
  • 00:09:05
    how the language works and you're going
  • 00:09:06
    to say oh yeah i remember that i know
  • 00:09:08
    what's going on here
  • 00:09:09
    and everyone else in the class who
  • 00:09:10
    hasn't taken linguistics is going to be
  • 00:09:12
    confused but you're going to get it
  • 00:09:16
    linguistics is also going to train you
  • 00:09:19
    in the rigorous analysis of symbolic
  • 00:09:22
    systems and we're going to cover later
  • 00:09:23
    on what exactly is meant by
  • 00:09:25
    symbolic symbolic systems but the key
  • 00:09:28
    thing here is that
  • 00:09:30
    language is enormously complex you
  • 00:09:33
    probably don't realize this
  • 00:09:35
    because we you let use language so
  • 00:09:38
    intuitively
  • 00:09:39
    so fluently and so automatically we
  • 00:09:42
    don't realize how complex it is
  • 00:09:45
    uh we're like fish and water so
  • 00:09:48
    fish swim in water the water is the
  • 00:09:50
    environment they're in
  • 00:09:51
    to some extent we think they don't even
  • 00:09:53
    notice the water
  • 00:09:54
    similarly language is an enormously
  • 00:09:57
    complex formal symbolic system
  • 00:09:59
    that we all use and deploy every day but
  • 00:10:02
    it is so easy to us we're so immersed in
  • 00:10:05
    it that we don't even notice
  • 00:10:06
    its complexity so language is an
  • 00:10:09
    enormously complex system and what we're
  • 00:10:10
    going to be learning
  • 00:10:11
    in this class is how to analyze
  • 00:10:15
    that enormously complex system how to
  • 00:10:18
    take this complex system that you
  • 00:10:19
    currently know how to use
  • 00:10:21
    intuitively and unconsciously how to
  • 00:10:23
    sort of use science to
  • 00:10:25
    drag that up to the level of something
  • 00:10:27
    you can consciously analyze
  • 00:10:29
    in the same way that you would analyze
  • 00:10:30
    something like a geometry problem
  • 00:10:33
    so linguistics is going to train you in
  • 00:10:36
    a sort of
  • 00:10:37
    symbolic analysis that is going to be
  • 00:10:39
    applicable in just about anything you do
  • 00:10:43
    it's also going to be directly
  • 00:10:44
    applicable in a number of different
  • 00:10:46
    careers you might have in mind so one of
  • 00:10:49
    them is interpretation
  • 00:10:51
    and translation remember linguistics
  • 00:10:53
    doesn't mean
  • 00:10:54
    learning a lot of languages but if you
  • 00:10:57
    know linguistics and you know how
  • 00:10:58
    languages work it's going to help you a
  • 00:11:00
    lot
  • 00:11:01
    if you want to do something like learn a
  • 00:11:03
    language to be an interpreter
  • 00:11:04
    or a translator it's going to be
  • 00:11:06
    enormously helpful
  • 00:11:08
    speech pathology is a career
  • 00:11:11
    an excellent career where you would
  • 00:11:13
    directly apply
  • 00:11:15
    all the stuff that we're going to be
  • 00:11:16
    learning in this class speech pathology
  • 00:11:18
    is when you apply the principles of
  • 00:11:20
    linguistics
  • 00:11:21
    to help people primarily young people
  • 00:11:24
    who are experiencing speech
  • 00:11:25
    deficits to train them in various ways
  • 00:11:28
    to overcome those deficits
  • 00:11:30
    it's really an amazing field because it
  • 00:11:32
    works very well you really can help
  • 00:11:34
    people
  • 00:11:35
    applying the kinds of things we're about
  • 00:11:36
    to learn in this class
  • 00:11:39
    natural language processing this is the
  • 00:11:42
    field
  • 00:11:42
    of software engineering and computer
  • 00:11:44
    science that has to do with building
  • 00:11:47
    systems that can use human language
  • 00:11:49
    in the same way that we do think about
  • 00:11:51
    things like siri
  • 00:11:52
    and alexa these are systems that you can
  • 00:11:55
    kind of have a conversation with you can
  • 00:11:57
    kind of
  • 00:11:58
    communicate with them in human language
  • 00:12:01
    but i think if any of you have really
  • 00:12:03
    used these systems you've noticed
  • 00:12:05
    there's a lot of room for improvement
  • 00:12:06
    right there so there's a lot of work to
  • 00:12:08
    be done so the idea here is that
  • 00:12:11
    once you have a complete scientific
  • 00:12:13
    understanding of how language works
  • 00:12:15
    then that enables you to sort of change
  • 00:12:17
    hats from being a scientist to being an
  • 00:12:20
    engineer
  • 00:12:20
    to now design a system that implements
  • 00:12:23
    those principles of how language works
  • 00:12:25
    in order to build something that can use
  • 00:12:27
    language just like humans do something
  • 00:12:29
    like a better version of siri or alexa
  • 00:12:32
    these kinds of systems that you can
  • 00:12:34
    communicate with in a human language
  • 00:12:36
    like english
  • 00:12:37
    instead of some computer language that's
  • 00:12:39
    natural language processing
  • 00:12:41
    clinical psychology is another area
  • 00:12:43
    where linguistics is applied a lot
  • 00:12:45
    analyzing the language that people use
  • 00:12:47
    in order to diagnose and treat various
  • 00:12:49
    issues
  • 00:12:51
    language teaching if you want to teach a
  • 00:12:52
    language it would help to understand the
  • 00:12:54
    structure of how the language works
  • 00:12:59
    so that's enough about linguistics i've
  • 00:13:01
    talked about
  • 00:13:03
    linguistics the scientific field what i
  • 00:13:06
    want to do now is to talk about
  • 00:13:08
    language i want to actually talk about
  • 00:13:10
    this thing that we're going to study
  • 00:13:12
    and what i want to talk about is an
  • 00:13:14
    objection that some people have
  • 00:13:17
    some people hear this idea that you
  • 00:13:19
    could have a
  • 00:13:21
    science of language and they think no
  • 00:13:23
    that's not possible
  • 00:13:25
    language is not the kind of thing that
  • 00:13:28
    you could analyze
  • 00:13:29
    objectively or scientifically or
  • 00:13:32
    rigorously because language is so
  • 00:13:34
    maybe so intricate or so subtle think
  • 00:13:37
    about something like the
  • 00:13:40
    hugely impactful and subtle emotional
  • 00:13:43
    and social consequences of a phrase like
  • 00:13:45
    i love you
  • 00:13:47
    think about how what a
  • 00:13:50
    interesting and fascinating effect
  • 00:13:54
    that has and how difficult it would be
  • 00:13:56
    to reduce
  • 00:13:58
    something as multi-faceted as that
  • 00:14:00
    effect to something that you would study
  • 00:14:02
    scientifically
  • 00:14:03
    in the same way that you study something
  • 00:14:04
    like chemistry
  • 00:14:06
    so it does seem that there's there's
  • 00:14:08
    this enormous complexity in language and
  • 00:14:10
    that would make it hard to analyze it
  • 00:14:12
    scientifically
  • 00:14:14
    a big example of this idea this idea
  • 00:14:16
    that language is somehow mysterious
  • 00:14:17
    somehow ineffable somehow beyond
  • 00:14:19
    scientific
  • 00:14:20
    analysis is this idea that
  • 00:14:24
    there are words that are untranslatable
  • 00:14:28
    that there might be a word
  • 00:14:29
    say in check which has no equivalent in
  • 00:14:31
    another language
  • 00:14:33
    which would mean that there's a thought
  • 00:14:34
    or a concept
  • 00:14:36
    that say czech speakers can have that
  • 00:14:39
    maybe english speakers just cannot have
  • 00:14:42
    so is this true let's look at some
  • 00:14:44
    examples so in spanish
  • 00:14:47
    it's been claimed that this word duende
  • 00:14:50
    cannot be translated it means
  • 00:14:52
    the mysterious power of an artwork to
  • 00:14:55
    move someone this is like
  • 00:14:57
    you go to a art museum and you see
  • 00:15:01
    some painting and you're transfixed by
  • 00:15:03
    it there's something about it which is
  • 00:15:04
    mysterious
  • 00:15:05
    and powerful and you run out of the
  • 00:15:08
    museum and you devote your life to
  • 00:15:09
    becoming a painter or something like
  • 00:15:10
    that that's
  • 00:15:11
    duente in spanish this is an example of
  • 00:15:14
    a word which allegedly
  • 00:15:16
    has a meaning which somehow cannot be
  • 00:15:18
    translated there's something about this
  • 00:15:19
    word that
  • 00:15:20
    is ineffable if so how could we have a
  • 00:15:23
    science of language right
  • 00:15:24
    if there really are these untranslatable
  • 00:15:26
    words that seems like a problem
  • 00:15:28
    because a science of language would mean
  • 00:15:31
    an objective analysis of language an
  • 00:15:33
    objective analysis means something that
  • 00:15:35
    everyone can agree on
  • 00:15:36
    well if there are words that a spanish
  • 00:15:40
    speaker can understand
  • 00:15:41
    that an english speaker cannot ever
  • 00:15:43
    understand
  • 00:15:44
    then how could they ever reach an
  • 00:15:45
    objective agreement so
  • 00:15:47
    if there are these untranslatable words
  • 00:15:50
    then that that
  • 00:15:51
    does seem like an example of a way in
  • 00:15:53
    which language is
  • 00:15:54
    mysterious another example is this czech
  • 00:15:57
    word
  • 00:15:58
    litost which is the agony and torment
  • 00:16:01
    sparked by the sudden apperception
  • 00:16:04
    of one's own misery that seems like a
  • 00:16:06
    very unfortunate state
  • 00:16:08
    of mind which apparently text speakers
  • 00:16:10
    understand very well
  • 00:16:11
    and maybe other speakers of other
  • 00:16:13
    languages don't or so it's claimed
  • 00:16:15
    and here's a cool link which has an
  • 00:16:17
    example of 20 awesomely untranslatable
  • 00:16:19
    words examples and you can think about
  • 00:16:21
    them
  • 00:16:22
    but i'd like to just maybe throw a
  • 00:16:24
    wrench into this
  • 00:16:25
    machine and ask you to consider are
  • 00:16:27
    these words really untranslatable
  • 00:16:31
    notice that i translated them i said
  • 00:16:33
    duende in spanish it corresponds to in
  • 00:16:36
    english the mysterious power of an
  • 00:16:37
    artwork to move someone
  • 00:16:39
    so it's true that that single word in
  • 00:16:41
    spanish turned into a whole phrase
  • 00:16:43
    in english but i still translated it
  • 00:16:46
    i can still have the thought in english
  • 00:16:49
    the same thought
  • 00:16:50
    as in spanish it's just i have to use it
  • 00:16:52
    make it i have to sort of cobble it
  • 00:16:53
    together
  • 00:16:54
    using different words instead of using a
  • 00:16:57
    single word
  • 00:16:58
    so is this really untranslatable is this
  • 00:17:00
    really a problem i'd like you to think
  • 00:17:02
    critically about that
  • 00:17:04
    you should think about if this really is
  • 00:17:05
    a translation and if you are fortunate
  • 00:17:07
    enough to be bilingual or multilingual
  • 00:17:09
    even
  • 00:17:10
    you can think about this subjectively
  • 00:17:12
    there might be a certain flavor that
  • 00:17:14
    comes along with a word in one language
  • 00:17:15
    that doesn't seem to carry over
  • 00:17:17
    into some other word very interesting
  • 00:17:20
    question are there untranslatable words
  • 00:17:22
    but this is not an entirely subjective
  • 00:17:25
    question this is the kind of question we
  • 00:17:27
    can ask
  • 00:17:28
    in linguistics are there really
  • 00:17:29
    untranslatable words and concepts
  • 00:17:34
    are there really thoughts that some
  • 00:17:37
    speaker of some language can think
  • 00:17:38
    that speakers of another language cannot
  • 00:17:40
    think or are all languages equally
  • 00:17:43
    capable
  • 00:17:44
    of expressing all the meanings we're
  • 00:17:45
    going to get to this kind of thing later
  • 00:17:47
    when we get to the section on language
  • 00:17:49
    and thought
  • 00:17:53
    so what does the science of language
  • 00:17:56
    look like
  • 00:17:57
    something to keep in mind here is
  • 00:17:59
    something like the history of the
  • 00:18:01
    development of science
  • 00:18:03
    often sciences start off
  • 00:18:06
    in a sort of more subjective sort of
  • 00:18:09
    quasi-systematic state and then they
  • 00:18:11
    develop
  • 00:18:12
    over centuries into a more rigorous form
  • 00:18:14
    of analysis
  • 00:18:16
    in the case of linguistics we're taking
  • 00:18:19
    the sort of subjective analysis of
  • 00:18:21
    language
  • 00:18:21
    the kind of thing you do informally the
  • 00:18:23
    kind of thing you do in a literature
  • 00:18:25
    class
  • 00:18:26
    and we want to run it through some kind
  • 00:18:28
    of process that will enable us to
  • 00:18:30
    develop a real scientific
  • 00:18:32
    analysis of language a rigorous
  • 00:18:34
    objective
  • 00:18:35
    science rather than a more subjective
  • 00:18:37
    kind of system
  • 00:18:39
    you can think about this as analogous to
  • 00:18:41
    the way in which alchemy
  • 00:18:44
    which was a sort of mystical system for
  • 00:18:46
    understanding
  • 00:18:47
    the substances and elements that make up
  • 00:18:49
    the world
  • 00:18:50
    alchemy over centuries developed into
  • 00:18:53
    the scientific field of chemistry
  • 00:18:56
    and when that happened it changed a lot
  • 00:18:58
    it went from having
  • 00:19:00
    from being a more sort of opaque hard to
  • 00:19:03
    understand system
  • 00:19:05
    kind of like how language might be to
  • 00:19:06
    you now to
  • 00:19:08
    something which is very systematic
  • 00:19:09
    involves a lot of diagrams and involves
  • 00:19:11
    a lot of problems that look a lot like
  • 00:19:13
    math problems and enables you to make
  • 00:19:15
    specific quantitative predictions
  • 00:19:17
    so once you have chemistry
  • 00:19:21
    then you can do a lot more than you
  • 00:19:22
    could do when you only had alchemy
  • 00:19:25
    similarly we're going to be sort of
  • 00:19:26
    transmuting your subjective
  • 00:19:28
    understanding of language in this class
  • 00:19:30
    into a scientific understanding that
  • 00:19:31
    looks a lot more like chemistry
  • 00:19:33
    than like alchemy
  • 00:19:37
    so what does linguistic analysis
  • 00:19:38
    actually look like we know what that
  • 00:19:40
    sort of chemical analysis looks like
  • 00:19:41
    what does the analogous thing
  • 00:19:43
    for language look like the first thing
  • 00:19:46
    we need to note is that human language
  • 00:19:48
    can be analyzed
  • 00:19:49
    on multiple levels what do i mean by
  • 00:19:52
    that
  • 00:19:54
    by analyze i mean we break something
  • 00:19:57
    into parts
  • 00:19:58
    we analyze language by breaking it into
  • 00:20:00
    parts the word analyze
  • 00:20:02
    is a greek word that means simply break
  • 00:20:05
    apart
  • 00:20:06
    so we're going to take language we're
  • 00:20:09
    going to break it into parts we're going
  • 00:20:10
    to see what those parts are and how they
  • 00:20:12
    fit together to form the whole
  • 00:20:16
    at its most basic level language
  • 00:20:20
    is a pairing or a set of pairings
  • 00:20:23
    of what's called form and what's called
  • 00:20:25
    meaning
  • 00:20:26
    so what are these two things form and
  • 00:20:29
    meaning
  • 00:20:30
    form is the
  • 00:20:33
    actual language it's the
  • 00:20:36
    um it's the utterance it's the letters
  • 00:20:39
    on the page it's the sound
  • 00:20:41
    going through the air going from my
  • 00:20:43
    mouth into your ear
  • 00:20:44
    it's the bumps that you feel on a
  • 00:20:47
    braille paper form
  • 00:20:48
    is the signal the linguistic signal the
  • 00:20:52
    physically observable
  • 00:20:53
    linguistic signal produced by a person
  • 00:20:55
    and received by another person
  • 00:20:57
    the meaning is the particular
  • 00:21:00
    maybe the mental image or the intent
  • 00:21:04
    which is evoked once you hear or
  • 00:21:07
    read the form so here
  • 00:21:10
    the form is the cat sits on the mat and
  • 00:21:14
    you can consider that to be letters on a
  • 00:21:16
    page you could consider it to be a wave
  • 00:21:18
    form of sound the cat sits on the mat
  • 00:21:20
    those are both
  • 00:21:21
    examples of linguistic form and the
  • 00:21:24
    meaning
  • 00:21:24
    which is evoked once you hear that
  • 00:21:26
    sentence is maybe something like this
  • 00:21:27
    it's maybe something like this picture
  • 00:21:28
    of a cat
  • 00:21:30
    on a mat maybe you don't visualize it
  • 00:21:33
    but you receive a meaning which looks
  • 00:21:35
    something like this
  • 00:21:36
    and in some other language other than
  • 00:21:38
    english this meaning might be expressed
  • 00:21:41
    by a different
  • 00:21:42
    form so a language is a pairing of form
  • 00:21:45
    and meaning something like english
  • 00:21:47
    is a particular way of pairing forms
  • 00:21:49
    with meanings
  • 00:21:50
    other languages like french and chinese
  • 00:21:53
    are
  • 00:21:54
    different pairings of form and meaning
  • 00:21:56
    the forms are different
  • 00:21:58
    and so that's what language is at the
  • 00:22:01
    most basic level the first
  • 00:22:02
    step in our breaking apart of language
  • 00:22:05
    is that we've separated these concepts
  • 00:22:07
    of
  • 00:22:07
    form and meaning
  • 00:22:11
    now let's just look at the form and
  • 00:22:13
    let's see if we can break it into parts
  • 00:22:15
    let's see if we can analyze it
  • 00:22:16
    well this thing is something we call a
  • 00:22:19
    sentence
  • 00:22:20
    and we're going to see that the word
  • 00:22:22
    sentence has a technical meaning in
  • 00:22:23
    linguistics which is different from what
  • 00:22:25
    you might have learned previously
  • 00:22:27
    in language classes but for now you can
  • 00:22:30
    just think about it as the
  • 00:22:31
    sentence in it's a sentence in the sense
  • 00:22:33
    you're already familiar with
  • 00:22:35
    so the cat sits on the mat is a sentence
  • 00:22:37
    can we break it into parts
  • 00:22:40
    well the first thing we note is that
  • 00:22:44
    we have two sort of parts in the
  • 00:22:47
    sentence that
  • 00:22:47
    are similar to each other the cat and
  • 00:22:50
    the mat
  • 00:22:51
    these are two phrases that have a
  • 00:22:54
    similar structure they're what we call
  • 00:22:55
    noun phrases and this sequence of words
  • 00:22:59
    on the mat
  • 00:23:00
    is what we call a prepositional phrase
  • 00:23:02
    on as a preposition
  • 00:23:04
    on the mat is a prepositional phrase
  • 00:23:07
    we can identify even further the
  • 00:23:09
    sequence of words sits on the mat
  • 00:23:11
    as a verb phrase it's a sequence of
  • 00:23:13
    words headed
  • 00:23:14
    by a verb we're going to talk about this
  • 00:23:16
    in great detail once we get to the
  • 00:23:18
    syntax part of the class
  • 00:23:21
    so we have a sentence which contains
  • 00:23:24
    inside of it a noun phrase and a verb
  • 00:23:26
    phrase
  • 00:23:27
    and that verb phrase contains inside of
  • 00:23:28
    it a prepositional phrase
  • 00:23:30
    and that prepositional phrase contains
  • 00:23:32
    inside of it another noun phrase
  • 00:23:35
    so we see that the structure of a
  • 00:23:37
    sentence has this sort of
  • 00:23:38
    nested recursive structure it's like
  • 00:23:41
    russian dolls you have phrases inside
  • 00:23:44
    phrases you have
  • 00:23:45
    a verb phrase that has inside of it a
  • 00:23:47
    prepositional phrase
  • 00:23:48
    it has inside of it a noun phrase nested
  • 00:23:50
    recursively like these russian dolls
  • 00:23:53
    and the very smallest level at the
  • 00:23:54
    center of the russian dolls
  • 00:23:56
    the very smallest level of analysis you
  • 00:23:58
    get to here is the individual words
  • 00:24:00
    the and cat and sits and on and mad
  • 00:24:04
    so a sentence is composed of phrases
  • 00:24:07
    that are nested recursively in this way
  • 00:24:09
    and those phrases are composed
  • 00:24:11
    ultimately of words
  • 00:24:14
    okay so we've analyzed a sentence
  • 00:24:17
    let's think about if we can go further
  • 00:24:19
    can we keep breaking this
  • 00:24:20
    into ever smaller and smaller parts
  • 00:24:23
    let's look at the word sit
  • 00:24:25
    can we break that into parts
  • 00:24:29
    or is this just an indivisible unit
  • 00:24:32
    well it's not an indivisible unit you
  • 00:24:34
    can split it into two parts
  • 00:24:36
    there's the root sit the which indicates
  • 00:24:39
    the sitting action and there's the
  • 00:24:40
    s at the end which is attached to the
  • 00:24:43
    end
  • 00:24:44
    which indicates the tense and the number
  • 00:24:46
    of the verb
  • 00:24:48
    so we have here one morpheme sit
  • 00:24:52
    attached to another morpheme the word
  • 00:24:54
    sits
  • 00:24:55
    consists of two morphemes sit and s
  • 00:24:59
    where sit indicates the type of action
  • 00:25:02
    indicates the
  • 00:25:03
    present tense singular so words are
  • 00:25:06
    composed of these things called
  • 00:25:08
    morphemes
  • 00:25:12
    and now we'll ask can it go further can
  • 00:25:15
    we break the morpheme into parts
  • 00:25:17
    ever smaller parts let's take a look
  • 00:25:20
    so we have here sit well that consists
  • 00:25:24
    of three sounds
  • 00:25:26
    in a row s
  • 00:25:29
    these are units of sound called phonemes
  • 00:25:33
    this doesn't refer to the letters of the
  • 00:25:35
    word as written this refers to the
  • 00:25:36
    individual units of
  • 00:25:38
    sound which may or may not correspond to
  • 00:25:40
    letters in the english writing
  • 00:25:42
    system how about those units of sound
  • 00:25:46
    which are called
  • 00:25:47
    phonemes can you analyze a phoneme into
  • 00:25:50
    parts
  • 00:25:50
    you might think i sound like well that's
  • 00:25:53
    just so
  • 00:25:54
    such a small thing how could that
  • 00:25:56
    possibly be analyzed into parts and
  • 00:25:59
    you can a phoneme consists
  • 00:26:02
    of a set of what are called phonetic
  • 00:26:05
    features
  • 00:26:07
    features are these little bits these
  • 00:26:09
    little descriptions
  • 00:26:11
    that determine how the sound is
  • 00:26:13
    pronounced
  • 00:26:15
    so this is our hierarchy of linguistic
  • 00:26:17
    analysis we see that we can go from a
  • 00:26:19
    big unit like a sentence
  • 00:26:21
    and chop it up piece by piece into
  • 00:26:23
    smaller and smaller and smaller units
  • 00:26:24
    until we're down to the phonetic
  • 00:26:26
    features
  • 00:26:27
    and the actual sounds the actual
  • 00:26:29
    waveform
  • 00:26:30
    that corresponds to these words
  • 00:26:35
    so the hierarchy of linguistic analysis
  • 00:26:37
    goes like that
  • 00:26:38
    you have sentences which are composed of
  • 00:26:40
    phrases
  • 00:26:41
    which are composed of words which are
  • 00:26:44
    composed of morphemes
  • 00:26:46
    now that's more theme that's probably
  • 00:26:47
    the first word you might not have been
  • 00:26:48
    aware of before you took this class but
  • 00:26:51
    don't worry when we get to the section
  • 00:26:52
    on morphology you'll learn all about
  • 00:26:54
    morphemes
  • 00:26:55
    morphemes are composed of phonemes which
  • 00:26:58
    are units of sound
  • 00:27:00
    and phonemes are composed of features
  • 00:27:02
    which determine pronunciation
  • 00:27:05
    this is the hierarchy of linguistic
  • 00:27:06
    analysis this is how you break something
  • 00:27:08
    like a sentence
  • 00:27:09
    into ever more fine-grained parts
  • 00:27:13
    it's also the structure of the
  • 00:27:15
    scientific field of linguistics
  • 00:27:17
    so each level of analysis here
  • 00:27:19
    corresponds to a subfield
  • 00:27:21
    for each level of analysis here there
  • 00:27:23
    are teams
  • 00:27:25
    of researchers who are studying how
  • 00:27:27
    exactly these things work
  • 00:27:31
    so when you're studying pronunciation
  • 00:27:33
    then you're studying
  • 00:27:34
    what's called phonetics how sounds are
  • 00:27:36
    articulated
  • 00:27:38
    and how they are their acoustic
  • 00:27:40
    properties
  • 00:27:42
    when you are studying phonemes and their
  • 00:27:44
    features then you're studying phonology
  • 00:27:46
    which is the structure of sounds and
  • 00:27:47
    languages
  • 00:27:49
    when you're studying words and morphemes
  • 00:27:51
    you're studying morphology
  • 00:27:53
    when you're studying sentences and
  • 00:27:54
    phrases you're studying syntax
  • 00:27:58
    so these are the levels of linguistic
  • 00:27:59
    analysis
  • 00:28:01
    and they are the sub fields of
  • 00:28:04
    linguistics
  • 00:28:05
    and this also provides us with the
  • 00:28:07
    structure for the first
  • 00:28:08
    part of this class the first maybe two
  • 00:28:11
    thirds of this class
  • 00:28:12
    are going to be spent going up these
  • 00:28:15
    levels of analysis we'll start with the
  • 00:28:17
    smallest level of analysis
  • 00:28:19
    with phonetics and we'll work our way up
  • 00:28:21
    to syntax and then to semantics
  • 00:28:24
    you can think about this as climbing a
  • 00:28:26
    ladder each rung of the ladder that
  • 00:28:28
    we're climbing
  • 00:28:29
    is some level of linguistic analysis the
  • 00:28:32
    first one
  • 00:28:34
    would here be phonetics and we'll work
  • 00:28:36
    our way up until we understand the
  • 00:28:38
    largest levels when we get to syntax and
  • 00:28:42
    semantics
  • 00:28:48
    so here's the organization of the course
  • 00:28:51
    our goals are one we want to learn how
  • 00:28:53
    to analyze language scientifically
  • 00:28:55
    we want to think about language as if it
  • 00:28:58
    is a machine
  • 00:28:59
    that somehow links form and meaning it's
  • 00:29:02
    a machine
  • 00:29:03
    that enables you to take a form and
  • 00:29:05
    figure out a meaning
  • 00:29:06
    for that form and which enables you to
  • 00:29:09
    take a meaning
  • 00:29:10
    and express that meaning in a linguistic
  • 00:29:12
    form
  • 00:29:13
    when we view language as a machine we
  • 00:29:15
    want to ask how does that machine work
  • 00:29:16
    what are the nuts and bolts of that
  • 00:29:18
    machine
  • 00:29:19
    this is the technical content of the
  • 00:29:20
    class we're going to look at the sort of
  • 00:29:22
    nuts and bolts
  • 00:29:24
    of how language works that's analyzing
  • 00:29:26
    language scientifically
  • 00:29:28
    that's linguistic analysis so
  • 00:29:31
    you can think about this as if you're
  • 00:29:34
    starting off in a pit
  • 00:29:35
    you're starting off in a pit of
  • 00:29:37
    ignorance about linguistics
  • 00:29:39
    and you're going to climb your way out
  • 00:29:40
    of that pit run by rung
  • 00:29:43
    by studying phonetics phonology
  • 00:29:45
    morphology syntax
  • 00:29:46
    semantics all the levels of linguistic
  • 00:29:48
    analysis
  • 00:29:50
    once we're done with that once we've
  • 00:29:51
    learned how to analyze language
  • 00:29:53
    scientifically
  • 00:29:55
    then we can learn how language relates
  • 00:29:58
    to things like culture
  • 00:29:59
    things like thought things like language
  • 00:30:01
    technologies
  • 00:30:02
    so once we understand how language works
  • 00:30:05
    at a scientific level
  • 00:30:06
    we'll be able to coherently
  • 00:30:10
    think about how language relates to
  • 00:30:11
    these other things
  • 00:30:13
    so once we're done with core linguistics
  • 00:30:15
    and linguistic analysis
  • 00:30:17
    then we'll look at these sort of more
  • 00:30:18
    applied areas we'll be applying
  • 00:30:20
    what we learned in core linguistics to
  • 00:30:23
    things like the psychology of language
  • 00:30:25
    how language works in your mind and
  • 00:30:26
    brain the sociology of language how the
  • 00:30:29
    structure of language
  • 00:30:30
    relates to society language technology
  • 00:30:33
    pragmatics which is how we use language
  • 00:30:39
    so we're going to start off not actually
  • 00:30:43
    with phonetics our next lecture is going
  • 00:30:44
    to be some more basics we're going to
  • 00:30:46
    talk about some of the more
  • 00:30:48
    basic questions involved in defining
  • 00:30:50
    what a language is
  • 00:30:51
    how it relates to other kinds of
  • 00:30:54
    communication systems that you see in
  • 00:30:56
    nature
  • 00:30:56
    and so on that'll be the basics
  • 00:31:00
    then we'll proceed into phonetics and
  • 00:31:02
    then we'll proceed into
  • 00:31:04
    phonology now just a bit of warning
  • 00:31:07
    these two sections
  • 00:31:08
    phonetics and phonology these are going
  • 00:31:10
    to be the most challenging parts of the
  • 00:31:11
    class
  • 00:31:13
    and you might ask why why are these
  • 00:31:15
    going to be the most challenging parts
  • 00:31:16
    it's because phonology and phonetics
  • 00:31:20
    operate at a level which is below your
  • 00:31:22
    conscious awareness
  • 00:31:23
    so when we're looking at phonology and
  • 00:31:25
    phonetics we're going to be thinking
  • 00:31:26
    about the very
  • 00:31:27
    fine-grained details of what's going on
  • 00:31:29
    like in your mouth
  • 00:31:31
    when you are talking this is something
  • 00:31:34
    that you
  • 00:31:34
    you do every day you talk every day but
  • 00:31:37
    you're not consciously aware of
  • 00:31:38
    everything that's going on
  • 00:31:39
    as you're talking you're not consciously
  • 00:31:41
    aware of every little tongue movement
  • 00:31:43
    for example
  • 00:31:44
    so in phonetics and phonology we are
  • 00:31:46
    going to be studying that stuff
  • 00:31:47
    and it's going to be a lot of new
  • 00:31:49
    material for you
  • 00:31:51
    and this is just to prepare you it's
  • 00:31:52
    going to be a bit challenging because
  • 00:31:54
    this is going to
  • 00:31:55
    this is going to be really where you are
  • 00:31:57
    taking things that operate below your
  • 00:31:59
    level of conscious awareness
  • 00:32:00
    and dragging them up to the level of
  • 00:32:02
    consciousness
  • 00:32:03
    and analyzing them it's pretty fun
  • 00:32:05
    actually it's going to really change the
  • 00:32:07
    way you think
  • 00:32:07
    about how you talk once we have
  • 00:32:11
    finished with phonetics and phonology
  • 00:32:13
    when we get to morphology and syntax and
  • 00:32:15
    semantics
  • 00:32:16
    things are going to be a bit more
  • 00:32:17
    intuitive
  • 00:32:21
    because morphology and the levels above
  • 00:32:23
    morphology are more like
  • 00:32:24
    things that you're consciously aware of
  • 00:32:27
    but we're going to be
  • 00:32:28
    applying the analytical tools that we
  • 00:32:31
    developed when we were down studying the
  • 00:32:33
    tiny unconscious
  • 00:32:35
    details in phonetics and phonology the
  • 00:32:37
    analytical techniques we developed there
  • 00:32:39
    where we're going to apply them as we go
  • 00:32:41
    up the ladder into the stuff
  • 00:32:43
    which you are more consciously aware of
  • 00:32:47
    all right
  • 00:32:50
    so i've talked about why you would want
  • 00:32:53
    to take this course i've talked about
  • 00:32:54
    what the course is about
  • 00:32:56
    what i want to talk about now to wrap
  • 00:32:59
    up this first lecture is
  • 00:33:03
    why why do we as scientists want to
  • 00:33:06
    analyze language
  • 00:33:07
    not why do you as a uci undergraduate
  • 00:33:09
    want to
  • 00:33:10
    take this course i mean why as
  • 00:33:12
    scientists is it a worthwhile
  • 00:33:14
    endeavor to scientifically analyze human
  • 00:33:17
    language
  • 00:33:20
    so the first thing to note is that
  • 00:33:23
    language surrounds us
  • 00:33:24
    language is everywhere i said that we
  • 00:33:27
    are like fish in water
  • 00:33:29
    where the water is language and we're
  • 00:33:31
    not really aware of the water
  • 00:33:33
    language is an enormously complex system
  • 00:33:35
    that influences us
  • 00:33:37
    in ways that we don't always understand
  • 00:33:42
    and its impact
  • 00:33:45
    really cannot be understated so think
  • 00:33:48
    about how much
  • 00:33:49
    of your life has been affected and
  • 00:33:53
    influenced and even determined by
  • 00:33:56
    language by things that you have
  • 00:33:59
    expressed to other people
  • 00:34:00
    or which other people have expressed to
  • 00:34:02
    you in language
  • 00:34:04
    how did you end up here you read about
  • 00:34:06
    this university or you heard about it
  • 00:34:08
    through language think about how much of
  • 00:34:10
    your relationships with your friends and
  • 00:34:12
    your family
  • 00:34:13
    and your partners is mediated by
  • 00:34:16
    language where would you be without
  • 00:34:18
    language what would we as humans be like
  • 00:34:21
    if we didn't have language so
  • 00:34:24
    in a very real sense language is like
  • 00:34:27
    the water that we swim in when we live
  • 00:34:29
    as social creatures in a society
  • 00:34:32
    language is
  • 00:34:32
    integral to us as humans it's everywhere
  • 00:34:35
    it's extraordinarily important
  • 00:34:37
    and yet our scientific understanding of
  • 00:34:39
    language
  • 00:34:41
    is vastly incomplete
  • 00:34:46
    we currently understand some of how
  • 00:34:48
    language works
  • 00:34:49
    linguistics is a new science linguistics
  • 00:34:52
    didn't really get started as a science
  • 00:34:54
    until the 19th century
  • 00:34:56
    there were attempts before that by
  • 00:34:58
    philosophers and philologers
  • 00:35:00
    and writers and so on to start to
  • 00:35:03
    develop a science of language
  • 00:35:05
    but it didn't really get going as a
  • 00:35:07
    full-blown academic discipline
  • 00:35:09
    until something like the 19th century
  • 00:35:11
    it's a new science and that means that
  • 00:35:13
    there's still a lot of stuff that hasn't
  • 00:35:15
    been discovered yet
  • 00:35:17
    we've understood a lot we're going to be
  • 00:35:18
    covering a lot in this class we've made
  • 00:35:20
    a lot of real progress but there's a lot
  • 00:35:21
    of stuff
  • 00:35:22
    that we still don't understand about
  • 00:35:24
    this enormously complex object
  • 00:35:27
    called language
  • 00:35:30
    so we can say language is a frontier
  • 00:35:32
    science that means there's a lot of
  • 00:35:33
    stuff that still has yet to be
  • 00:35:35
    explored there's a lot of territory that
  • 00:35:38
    a lot of parts of the map
  • 00:35:40
    that haven't been filled in yet if you
  • 00:35:42
    want to sort of
  • 00:35:44
    be close to the ground floor of a new
  • 00:35:46
    science a science where there are still
  • 00:35:48
    lots of things to be discovered still
  • 00:35:49
    lots of new theories
  • 00:35:51
    to be developed linguistics is where you
  • 00:35:54
    want to be
  • 00:35:57
    we need a science of language because
  • 00:36:00
    language is a lot more complicated than
  • 00:36:02
    it seems
  • 00:36:03
    you might say think you know i uh you
  • 00:36:05
    know i speak my language
  • 00:36:07
    or my languages i i don't have any
  • 00:36:09
    trouble understanding anyone why do i
  • 00:36:11
    need to go
  • 00:36:12
    through the trouble of analyzing this
  • 00:36:13
    thing scientifically
  • 00:36:15
    well language is a lot more complicated
  • 00:36:17
    than you think
  • 00:36:19
    and here's an example of how language is
  • 00:36:20
    a lot more complicated than you think
  • 00:36:23
    here's a book the cambridge grammar of
  • 00:36:25
    the english
  • 00:36:26
    language i'd like you to guess how long
  • 00:36:30
    this book is this book contains a
  • 00:36:33
    complete
  • 00:36:33
    description of the english language
  • 00:36:37
    it um so this book has everything you
  • 00:36:39
    would need to know about the english
  • 00:36:40
    language if you were say
  • 00:36:42
    learning it as a second language this
  • 00:36:44
    book has everything in it it's a
  • 00:36:45
    complete description of the language
  • 00:36:48
    not of even the history of the language
  • 00:36:49
    or the literature of the language just
  • 00:36:51
    the language as it exists now i'd like
  • 00:36:53
    you to think about how
  • 00:36:54
    long you think this book is how complex
  • 00:36:57
    is the english language is this book
  • 00:36:58
    like maybe 100 pages
  • 00:37:01
    maybe 200 pages maybe even 500 pages
  • 00:37:05
    well this book's almost 2000 pages long
  • 00:37:08
    it's almost two thousand pages long and
  • 00:37:09
    it's still
  • 00:37:10
    incomplete the book is filled with
  • 00:37:12
    references to papers
  • 00:37:14
    and to other books even if you added
  • 00:37:16
    this book
  • 00:37:17
    and all those papers together you would
  • 00:37:19
    still have only an
  • 00:37:20
    incomplete description of the english
  • 00:37:22
    language and
  • 00:37:24
    english is not an unusually complex
  • 00:37:27
    language
  • 00:37:28
    as languages go english is sort of in
  • 00:37:30
    the middle of the road as far as
  • 00:37:31
    complexity
  • 00:37:33
    so each human language and there are
  • 00:37:35
    about 6 000 different human languages
  • 00:37:37
    currently
  • 00:37:38
    spoken by anyone each of those human
  • 00:37:40
    languages is one of these enormously
  • 00:37:42
    complex objects
  • 00:37:43
    if you think you understand it just
  • 00:37:45
    because you speak it well
  • 00:37:46
    what this means is that there's a lot of
  • 00:37:49
    sort of mental dark matter here
  • 00:37:51
    stuff that is inherent in the system of
  • 00:37:55
    language that we use every day but that
  • 00:37:56
    we don't really understand
  • 00:37:58
    rigorously yet so there's a lot
  • 00:38:01
    that still has to be understood a lot
  • 00:38:03
    that we don't know about language yet
  • 00:38:07
    so that's just one aspect of the
  • 00:38:09
    complexity of language
  • 00:38:11
    the grammatical complexity of a language
  • 00:38:13
    means like how
  • 00:38:14
    hard it is to write down the rules that
  • 00:38:16
    define a language like english
  • 00:38:19
    there are other ways in which language
  • 00:38:20
    is complex other ways
  • 00:38:22
    in which the sort of feats that we
  • 00:38:25
    accomplish
  • 00:38:26
    when we use language are impressive in a
  • 00:38:28
    way that we don't understand because
  • 00:38:29
    it's also easy and automatic to us
  • 00:38:32
    one of these is the fact that human
  • 00:38:34
    language is extraordinarily ambiguous
  • 00:38:37
    there's a great deal of ambiguity in
  • 00:38:39
    language so to give you an example of
  • 00:38:41
    this
  • 00:38:42
    here's a sentence i made her duck and
  • 00:38:45
    i'd like for you
  • 00:38:46
    to pause the video now and get out some
  • 00:38:48
    paper
  • 00:38:49
    or whatever and write down just how many
  • 00:38:52
    different meanings you can come up with
  • 00:38:54
    for this sentence i made her duck so
  • 00:38:57
    pause the video now
  • 00:39:05
    good so how many did you come up with
  • 00:39:10
    uh it's possible to come up with
  • 00:39:11
    something like 15 to 20 if you really
  • 00:39:13
    try
  • 00:39:14
    but here's what i got so i made her duck
  • 00:39:16
    that could mean
  • 00:39:18
    i cooked duck meat for her
  • 00:39:21
    it could mean i carved a wooden duck
  • 00:39:24
    and i gave it to her it could mean that
  • 00:39:27
    she owns a duck
  • 00:39:29
    which i made somehow it could mean
  • 00:39:33
    i cooked the duck that she's currently
  • 00:39:35
    eating
  • 00:39:36
    it could mean i transformed her into
  • 00:39:40
    duck meat
  • 00:39:41
    i made her duck could mean i made her
  • 00:39:44
    crouch down
  • 00:39:45
    like this so we see that there are very
  • 00:39:48
    very many
  • 00:39:49
    possible meanings of this simple english
  • 00:39:51
    sentence and again
  • 00:39:53
    this is not a typical a typical sentence
  • 00:39:56
    in any language
  • 00:39:57
    has many many many many different
  • 00:39:59
    possible meanings
  • 00:40:00
    and yet when you're using language to
  • 00:40:02
    communicate you don't notice that
  • 00:40:04
    somehow our brains are able to
  • 00:40:06
    immediately hone in
  • 00:40:08
    on the intended meaning and to throw
  • 00:40:10
    away the dozens or maybe even hundreds
  • 00:40:13
    of other possible meanings to all the
  • 00:40:15
    sentences
  • 00:40:16
    that we hear in our lives this is by the
  • 00:40:18
    way the number one reason
  • 00:40:20
    that language processing for computers
  • 00:40:22
    is difficult
  • 00:40:24
    because computers don't have this
  • 00:40:25
    ability to throw away all the
  • 00:40:27
    possible meanings of the sentence which
  • 00:40:30
    were not really intended by the speaker
  • 00:40:33
    so that's ambiguity it's one of the ways
  • 00:40:34
    in which language is
  • 00:40:36
    enormously complex we need to understand
  • 00:40:38
    how this works if we want to build
  • 00:40:40
    technologies that use language if we
  • 00:40:42
    want to have a real understanding of how
  • 00:40:45
    language
  • 00:40:46
    really affects us in our lives
  • 00:40:51
    other questions which
  • 00:40:54
    sort of form very areas in which
  • 00:40:56
    language is enormously complex is how do
  • 00:40:57
    we learn language
  • 00:40:59
    so children are able to
  • 00:41:02
    acquire the languages they're exposed to
  • 00:41:06
    and basically in nearly all cases
  • 00:41:10
    nearly perfectly without apparent effort
  • 00:41:13
    so how is that possible how is it that
  • 00:41:15
    we all are able to
  • 00:41:16
    learn language how is it that our brains
  • 00:41:20
    process language and so on how does
  • 00:41:23
    language fit in with the rest of nature
  • 00:41:25
    there really isn't anything else in
  • 00:41:26
    nature that has the structure
  • 00:41:29
    of human language as we're going to see
  • 00:41:32
    and how can we build machines to use
  • 00:41:34
    language
  • 00:41:37
    and so on
  • 00:41:40
    so i'll just leave you with this
  • 00:41:41
    linguistics is a frontier science in the
  • 00:41:44
    sense
  • 00:41:45
    that there are lots of parts of the map
  • 00:41:46
    that haven't been filled in yet
  • 00:41:48
    it's a new science i invite you
  • 00:41:51
    through this class to join us in the
  • 00:41:54
    scientific enterprise
  • 00:41:56
    of understanding how human language
  • 00:41:58
    works filling in the blanks on the map
  • 00:42:01
    and advancing the progress of science
  • 00:42:04
    thanks
标签
  • linguistics
  • UCI
  • language science
  • phonetics
  • syntax
  • language structure
  • language processing
  • scientific study
  • interpretation
  • translation