Language 1

Some Background

Phonetics and phonology: the study of the sound systems of languages
Segmental phonetics and phonology: the study of the minimal segments (phones, phonemes) which make up speech
Prosody: everything else
- Timing: duration, relative duration
- Pitch
- Stress (prominence): duration, pitch, and loudness
- Meter: stress patterns
- Hierarchical levels: segments, syllables, etc.
What linguists are after
- What does a speaker of a language know (unconsciously)?
- What are languages like? Linguists would like to describe them.
- What is language like? Linguists would like to make generalizations about all languages or about particular kinds of languages. They are after universals.
- Knowledge of language as rules
  Example: The English regular past tense rule
  To form the past tense of a regular verb, add to the stem of the verb
  - /Id/ if the stem ends in /t/ or /d/
  - Otherwise /t/ if the stem ends in a voiceless segment (/p, t, k, f, s/, etc.)
  - Otherwise /d/

Periodicity and beats in language?
- Languages seem to be roughly periodic, but this has been difficult to find.
- Where might the periodicity be?
  - Syllables
    Possibly in some languages, but definitely not in a language such as English, where syllables vary dramatically in length
```
 the U   ni      ted States      of  A   me        ri  ca
```
  - Moras (units somewhat smaller than syllables)
    In Japanese moras tend to be the same length, but only on average when many of them are added together
```
ka  n   ta  n   na  ko  to  da  t   ta

di  ji  ta  ru  ko  n   pyu u   ta  a
```
  - Stress units
    Are the strong stresses (prominent syllables) equally spaced in a language such as English? Approximately in poetry, but apparently not in normal speech.
    This discussion of the development of more sophisticated styles leads to a consideration of the gross differences between old and new.
Meter in language?
- Are there recurring patterns of strong and weak beats in language as in music?
- 2-beat meter: Once upon a midnight dreary / As I pondered weak and weary / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore
- 3-beat meter: There was an old man from Dundee / Who slept with an ape in a tree / The result was most horrid / ...
- 7-beat meter: I wondered why he said he could not afford a bed with a cricket on his head ...

Last updated: 2 November 1995
URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~gasser/language1.html
Comments: gasser@salsa.indiana.edu
Copyright 1995, The Trustees of Indiana University