Review

Review
Holger Diessel
[email protected]
Language as a tool
Karl Bühler (1934)
The organon model
of language
Language as a tool
The three basic functions of communication:

Representation: Language is used to inform other people

Appeal: Language is used to direct other people

Expression: Language is used to express mental states
Language as a tool
Karl Bühler (1934)
The organon model
of language
Language is a system of signs
/maUs/
/mεUs/
[AE, BE]
[Canadian E]
/maUs/
Motivations for linguistic form
All languages have particular sentence types for:



Statements
Questions
Requests/orders
(1) Er hat in Jena studiert.
(2) Gehst du dorthin?
(3) Schließen Sie bitte die Tür.
(1) He studied in Jena.
(2) Will you go there?
(3) Please close the door.
The structure of sentence types is arbitrary i.e. language-specific), but the
existence of sentence types is motivated by general communicative
functions of language.
Motivations for linguistic form
All languages have to indicate grammatical relations.
(1)
(2)
The man saw the boy.
The boy saw the man.
(3)
(4)
Der Mann sah den Jungen.
Der Junge sah den Mann.
(5)
(4)
Den Mann sah der Junge.
Den Jungen sah der Mann.
The linguistic device that is used to indicate grammatical relations is arbitrary,
but the distinction between different grammatical relations is motivated by
general functional considerations.
Sounds and sound systems
Holger Diessel
[email protected]
Sounds and letters
knee
knife
knight
meet
cheap
heat
boot
who
duty
IPA-Symbols – International Phonetic Association
Vowel
Examples
Vowel
Examples
i:
beat, see, people, believe
ɔ:
taught, all, saw, door, brought
ı
bit, women, symbol, busy
ʊ
book, put, woman, would
e
bed, said, friend, Geoffrey
u:
soon, do, few, wound, suit
æ
bad, fat, lack
ʌ
cut, son, blood, country
ɑ:
bath, last, aunt, clerk, heart
ɜ:
bird, her, burn, word, journey
ɒ
stop, what, knowledge
ə
about, the, perhaps, figure
Oral tract
Oral tract
[t/d]
[m]
manner
place
[s/z]
[ŋ]
Consonants
Vowels
[p]
pop, stop
Post, Galopp
[b]
bed, bomb
Bank, Abend
[t]
tense, cut
tot, stolpern
[d]
disk, did
du, Hunde
[k]
cold, kick
kalt, Block
[g]
go, gig
gehen, Wege
[f]
finger, tough
Vogel, tief
[v]
vase, have
Wein, Vase
[s]
swim, kiss
sex, Muße, dass
[z] zoo, desire, has
[tS] cheap, match
sicher, Muse
[dZ] jump, garage
Jalousie, Jeans, Garage
Tscheche, Matsch
[S]
shy, bush
schön, Busch
[Z]
vision, garage
Jalousie, Jeans, Garage
[l]
lamp, bill
laut, Ball
[r]
[T]
rat, far
through, tooth
reif, Peter
[D]
that teeth
[w]
window, what
[C]
Ich, Milch
[x]
Krach, Bach
[pf]
Pferd, Apfel, Napf
[ts]
Zeit, Klotz
Phonology
/k/
Phonemes
Allophones
Minimal pairs
[k]
heat
heat
fan
tip
/t/
[c]
[t]
beat
hit
van
dip
/l/
[th]
[l]
[Ë]
Phonology
Are [x] and [ç] allophones of the same or of different phonemes?
[axt]
‘eight’
[IC]
‘I’
[bux]
‘book’
[ECt]
‘real’
[lOx]
‘hole’
[sprIC]
‘speak’
[ho:x]
‘high’
[lEC@ln]
‘to smile’
[fluxt]
‘flight’
[riC@n]
‘to smell’
[lax@n]
‘to laugh’
[fECt@n]
‘to fence’