INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTISC

What is linguistics?

Linguistics is usually defined as the scientific study of language. Such a statement, however, raises, two further questions : what do we mean by scientific? And what do we mean by language? The first one can answered relatively easily but the second needs to be examined more fully.

What is language?

Put at its simplest, a language is a set of signals by which we communicate. Human beings are not the only species to have an elaborate communication system.

The components of language

When parrot utters words or phrases in our language, we understand them although it is reasonably safe to assume that the parrot does not. the parrot may be able to reproduce intelligible units from the spoken medium but has no awareness of the abstract system behind the medium.

Thus, our study of  language will involve us in an appraisal of the following levels of language :

Language

  

Phonology  - sound

Morphology –meaningful combinations of sounds

Lexis – words

Syntax –meaningful combinations of word

Semantics – meaning

PHONOLOGY

Phonology is the study of the sound system of  language : the rules that govern pronunciation.

(the word phonology itself comes from the Greek word phone , which mean voice).The emphasis in modern phonology, as it has developed over the last 30 years, has been primarily on the psychological system that underlies pronunciation, and secondarily on the actual physical articulation of speech.

The organ of speech :

Figure two shows the main organs of speech :

The jaw,the lips,the teeth,the teeth ridge (usually called the alveolar ridge),the tongue,the hard palate,the soft palate(the velum),the uvula,the pharynx,the larynx and the vocal cords.the mobile organ are the lower jaw the lips,the tongue,the velum,the uvula,the pharynx,and the vocalcords and although it is possible to learn to move each of these at will,we have most control over the jaw,lips and tongue. The tongue is so important in  the production of speech sounds that,for ease of reference, it has been divided,into four main areas,the tip,the blade,(or lamina),the front and the back as shown in fig.

PHONETICS

Human beings are capable of producing an infinite number of sounds but ni language uses more than a small proportion of this infinite set and no two human languages make use  of exactly the same set of sounds. When we speak, there is no continuous movement of such  organs as the tongue,the velum(soft palate), the lips and the lungs. We put spaces between individual words in the written medium but there are no similar spaces between individual words in the written medium but there are no similar spaces in speech. Words are linked together in speech and are normally perceived by one who does not know the language (or by a machine) as an uninterrupted stream of sound. We shall, metaphorically, slow the process down as we examine the organs of speech and the types of sound that result from using different organs.

MORPHOLOGY

Morphology is the study of word formation.(the word morphology itself comes from the Greek word morphe which mean form). Morphology is to words what syntax is to sentences. That is  morphology is the study of the architecture of words, just as syntax is the study of the architecture of sentences.

SYNTAX

Syntax is the study of the architecture of phrases,clauses,and sentences ; that is , of the way they are constructed. In contrast to semantics,syntax is of the better understood areas within linguistics. In fact,during the last 30 years,more has probably been written about syntax than about any other area within linguistics.

SEMANTICS

Semantics is the study of  linguistics meaning ; that is, the meaning of worda,phrases,and sentences. Unlike pragmatics,semantics is part of grammar proper, the study of the internal structure of language.

LEXICOLOGY

Lexicology is the study of words and whereas many readers will be new to the study of sounds or word segments,most of us feel that we are very familiar with words.indeed,when we think of language we tend to think about words.




REFERENCES
AN INTRODUCTION OF LINGUISTICS BY LORETO TODD

ALL ABOUT KAZURA

ALL ABOUT ME

Assalamualaikum wr wb..

Hello my friend’s, mungkin anda semua banyak yang belum kenal saya.. baiklah  my name is ketlin azura you can call me keket..

Saya tinggal di minas kabupaten siak propinsi riau, sekarang saya kuliah di Universitas tercinta Universitas lancang kuning,, Faculty of education and teachers training, English department,, I’m so glad to study there because the lecturer are handsome and beautiful,,

My reason to choose English because I love English and English is my destiny,, saya ingin lebih baik berbicara inggris dan kuliah di Lancang kuning sangat menyenangkan bagi saya terutama di Fkip.. di Fkip semuanya telah diatur terutama cara berpakaian , saya senang karna Fkip sangat disiplin dan mudah mudahan dapat menghasilkan pendidik yang baik dan bermutu,, saya juga mempunyai banyak teman disana dan mereka sangat baik walaupun terkadang menyebalkan..tetapi mereka tetap teman teman saya.. baiklah teman teman saya akan bercerita sedikit tentang kehidupan saya.. saya anak ketiga dari tiga bersaudara..ayah saya bekerja di PT Elnusa.. kakak saya seorang guru di Pesantren Al fadhlah dan  abang saya bekerja di PT.. saya sangat mencintai keluarga saya karena mereka lah saya bisa bersekolah dan saya ingin membanggakan mereka semua.. saya sangat hobby sekali melukis dan mendengar kan music lagu lagu barat pastinya, dari sana lah saya tertarik dengan bahasa inggris..waktu saya SMP saya pernah mengikuti lomba o2sn dan Alhamdulillah saya mendapatkan Juara satu lomba melukis antar Kecamatan dengan tema Budaya bangsaku,,dan saya mendapat juara tiga lomba kaligrafi antar kabupaten.. saat saya SMA saya mencoba mendalami seni yang ada dalam diri saya dan saat itu saya kembali mengikuti festival siak bermadah pada tahun 2012 dibidang Melayu dance.. dan di tahun yang sama saya juga terpilih menjadi salah satu dari pengibar bendera pada 17 agustus yaitu anggota PASKIBRA yang seleksinya dari semua Sma yang ada di minas..saya berturut turut terpilih pada tahun 2013 dan 2014.. saya sangat senang tetapi saya belum puas ,masih banyak yang ingin saya capai.. semoga apa yang saya cita cita kan bisa tercapai .. Aamiin..

Baiklah teman teman itu sedikit yang saya bagikan jika kalian ingin tahu lebih banyak silahkan tinggalkan komentar yaa J Terimakasih..

Wassalamualaikum wr wb..

Phonetic

What is phonetics?

Phonetics is the systematic study of speech and the sounds of language. Traditionally phoneticians rely on careful listening and observation in order to describe speech sounds. In doing this, a phonetician refers to a classificatory framework for speech sounds which is based on how they are made and on aspects of the auditory impression they make. The best known such framework is that of the International Phonetic Association. Much of our knowledge of the sounds of the world's languages comes from this kind of description, which is still an important aspect of phonetics today.
Since at least the nineteenth century, however, many techniques have been applied to speech which allow it to be measured objectively. Analysis of the acoustic speech waveform, laboriously by hand in the nineteenth century, then more rapidly by electrical and electronic machines, and in the last thirty years most conveniently by digital computers, has been central. Many techniques have been applied to study what the speaker is doing to produce speech, for instances x-rays to "see inside" the mouth and throat, masks and tubes to measure air flow and pressure, and artificial palates to record tongue contact with the roof of the mouth in different sounds.
Many experiments have also been done to discover which parts of the speech signal are most important in helping the hearer to distinguish speech sounds. A great boost to such work came around the middle of the twentieth century, when the development of flexible speech synthesis allowed researchers to manipulate different acoustic aspects of the signal to test which ones are important.
The knowledge phoneticians have accumulated from this range of approaches means that we have a much better scientific understanding now than ever before of how speech works. However, the more we learn, the more we appreciate how complex speech is; whether in terms of how skilfully we control our tongue and other speech organs, or the subtlety of sound effects which languages and dialects employ, or the multiplicity of cues which our perception can make use of in decoding the speech signal. Each answer in phonetic research raises new questions!
Phonetics is often defined with respect to phonology. Both disciplines are concerned with the sound medium of language, and it is not useful to draw a hard and fast line between them. The centre of gravity of the two fields is, however, different. In general, phonology is concerned with the pattering of sounds in a language (and in language in general), and is thus comparable to areas of linguistics such as syntax and morphology which deal with structural elements of language at other levels. Phonetics is more centred on the way those structural elements are "realised" in the world, through movements of the speech organs which create the acoustic signal. Phonetics therefore has important links not only to linguistics but to natural sciences such as physics and anatomy.
Phonetics has always had applications. Traditionally it has been important for language teaching, and for speech and language therapy. Nowadays it contributes to speech technology, and increasingly to forensic science (in cases, for instance, where speaker identification is at issue).
If you are interested in phonetics, you may find the list of where BAAP members are active in the British Isles useful.

http://www.baap.ac.uk/phonetics.html 

Defenition of Phonetic

Phonetic
 
Simple Definition of phonetic
• : of or relating to spoken language, speech sounds, or the science of phonetics
• : representing each speech sound with a single symbol
• : using a system of written symbols that represent speech sounds in a way that is very close to how they actually sound
 
Full Definition of phonetic
 
1. 1 : representing the sounds and other phenomena of speech: as a : constituting an alteration of ordinary spelling that better represents the spoken language, that employs only characters of the regular alphabet, and that is used in a context of conventional spelling b : representing speech sounds by means of symbols that have one value only c : employing for speech sounds more than the minimum number of symbols necessary to represent the significant differences in a speaker's speech
2. 2 a : of or relating to spoken language or speech sounds b : of or relating to the science of phonetics

References
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phonetic