Explaining a Linguistics Diagram - Essay Example

? Explaining a Linguistics Diagram LING/ENGL 1200 Exam #3 002 Spring 11 Eggert [school Linguistics refers to the scientific study of a tool that we all use: language. An intellectual and curious person, such as the friend described in the exam problem, has the basic tools to understand linguistics problems because ultimately these problems are made up of components used in daily life. In order to assist in comprehension of the diagram shown in Figure 1 in the appendix, it is necessary to break down the study of language and analyze the concepts that are ultimately being communicated on a deeper level. This can be accomplished by defining the terms and abbreviations in the diagram, explaining the interrelation of the diagram parts, and proposing a justification for the layout of the linguistics diagram given that will be simple for those outside of the field of linguistics to understand. In the science of linguistics there are hundreds of commonly used terms and abbreviations that help linguists to simply analysis of language. The most fundamental task when looking at the diagram is to define the terms and abbreviations contained in the diagram, logically starting at the top left position and moving to the bottom right along with the flow of the arrows (another communication tool). This will assist the non-linguist onlooker, who can then drawn on his own background—as well as the help given in this paper—to comprehend the meaning of linguistic terms. The most prominent term in the diagram is Lexicon. The lexicon is the vocabulary a language is made up of, which a combination of words and expressions. It is considered to be made up of lexemes, or different forms of the same word or expression (SIL International, 2011). An example would be “run, runs, ran and running,” a single lexeme. The abbreviation US can be taken to indicates that the subject of the diagram is United States English, and it is implied that contemporary English (not older forms) are being discussed. The acronym SS in linguistics or phonetics stands for “sentence structure” or the way that words are sounds, such as Alveolar fricatives, organized (Free Dictionary, 2011). Alveolar fricatives are consonant sounds that may be either voiceless, as in words like sit, or voiced, as in dogs. The abbreviation LF in linguistics stands for “logical form” and the abbreviation PF stands for the “phonetic form”, both of which are listed on the same level indicating that they are semantically equivalent (Freely, 2009). The phonetic form is shown to give rise to the phonetic output, of the literal words communicated, while the logical form gives rise to the linguistic meaning, which relies much more on the background of the speaker as shown by the additional arrows connecting extralinguistic knowledge with the final utterance meaning. The utterance meaning may be understood by the non-linguist, as in the case of the friend given in the exam problem, to be the meaning of a word or phrase. By defining the abbreviations terms given in the diagram, one could explain to a non-linguistic, such as the friend in the problem, that the diagram ultimately represents a way to understand word of phrase meaning in a logical and scientific fashion. In linguistics there are many forms of diagrams. The form demonstrated in this diagram is a flow chart. It is read from top to bottom, and from left to right, which is the standard in western cultures. Because the diagram subject is United States English, this form is the most logical, implying that most people that are to use the chart are also from western societies. If the diagram was aimed at eastern cultures, for instance Chinese or Japanese readers, a right to left orientation would be more appropriate. In the diagram, lexicon is given the highest priority by its placement at the top left. The secondary category defines the language type, US English, which also has the implications that many other languages exist and may be treated by similar diagrams. The child of the language category is sentence structure (SS), which implies that the meaning that the diagram assigns is to be that of verbalized sounds with the effects of pragmatics, or the context of the sound, stripped away (Grohmann, 2004). The category sentence structure is the first to have two child categories, phonetic form and logical form, which the diagram implies have equal importance because of their equal vertical position in the diagram. This suggests that both of these elements play an important role how words are comprehended; however, only the logical form is important in establishing the final utterance meaning because it is the element that takes into account how the speaker “means” the word based on previous knowledge or experience, characteristics which are unique to an individual. The diagram is designed to logically and simply demonstrate how meaning is given to words, but it also has wider implications because each subcategory in the hierarchy implies the existence of other categories. The diagram is a way of logically assigning meaning to words. For the inexperienced linguist this can be challenging to understand. The linguistic meaning is a combination of the pragmatic and semantic that ultimately yields the meaning of the utterance. Semantics deals with what must be true in the world for the utterance to have validity, while pragmatics has to do with the speaker and context related issues of the utterance (Grohmann, 2004). The diagram demonstrates this by visual showing that utterance meaning flows from the lexicon of a language by way of the logical form. If a step-by-step approach is followed, where the meaning of each step in the flow chart is analyzed, an onlooker could take the overall point that while phonetic sound is a critical part of speech it is the logical form, which encompasses much more than just a sound, that plays the biggest role in ascribing meaning to lexicon. Without further linguistic training, the friend could take away from this diagram a deeper understanding of how meaning can be given to groups of spoken words and how ultimately that meaning depends on the parent language and other knowledge that the speaker may possess. References SIL International. (2011). “Linguistics in Fieldwork & Research.” Retrieved from http://www.sil.org/linguistics/ The Free Dictionary. (2011) “SS.” Retrieved from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/s%27s Freely, Bill. (2009). “Headwords.” University of Delaware. Retrieved from www.udel.edu/billf/headwords.doc Hale, Mark. (2007). Historical linguistics: Theory and method. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Grohmann, Kleanthes. (2004) "Semantics and Pragmatics." University of Cyprus. Retrieved from http://www.punksinscience.org/kleanthes/courses/UCY04S/SP/CLASS_01.pdf Appendix Figure 1 Diagram given in exam problem. Read More