Linguistics for Beginners

129 Pages·2008·37.62 MB·English

by  W. Terrence Gordon

LINGUISTICS
F 0 R BEGINNERS

LINGUISTICS
F 0 R 8 E GINNERS
BY W. TERRENCE GORDON
ILLUSTRATIONS BY SUSAN WILLMARTH
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FOR BEGINNERS®
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Text: © 2008 W. Terrence Gordon
Illustrations: © 2008 Susan Willmarth
Cover Art: © 2008 Susan Willmarth
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v3.1
Linlut'stlc&
eerier
b~eo""~~ ;11 IV~~ ar~a.,
I feel llke IW. •~ C)z.,
Tv~ try;"'1 to tel( it lik~ it ~'·
-OJ4~ N1a~~
Wh$t ~Yo" ~ ..t ', A l"fttftt'"Sf~tl Pt.l•t"~
O>r A ~.ti~ ..L -+ery rafk! (r .. 'tZ)
If you have already heard a"out linguistics or read something a"out
the su,ject, and you share the feeling that Ogden Nash descri"es
a"ove, you've come to the right "ook. If you know nothing at all
a"out the topic "ut have picked up this "ook out of sheer curiosity,
so much the "etter. Read on, and take your first steps toward
learning what linguists do for a living.

HOW LANGUAGES WO/lK
Lessons One and Two
let's start with theee f1aslce:
J.ng~~~~~p ¥ II tool;
1/ngu/lltlerJ ¥ tM IINI~ of J.ngu,_
Why say that
language ls a tool?
Because llke any of the
things that we recognize as
tools, from hammers to
computers, lt lets us do things
that would otherwlee l7e
impo661l71e or a lot harder to
do (try to Imagine driving
nalls without a hammer
or complllng a city phone
directory without
the help of a
computer).
Language is a tool for
getting thoughts out of our
l7ralns and Into our mouths and
into other l7rains.
[3
How else would we communicate? Sure, you can just let out a yell to
warn of danger, or a groan to expre5s pain, strain, or 17oredom, and a
map or a sketch can give a lot of information. 5ut try sketching this:
f/1 niWtlf' forgtlt
htlf' lllugh.
Apart from "laugh,"
the elements of this
sentence are too
al7stract for a pic
ture. They are ideas
and concepts,
expressil71e only when
organized by and into
a complex system:
language.
Unlike most other tools, language can 17e used
on itself, and that is exactly what happens in
the study called linguistics. It is analysis of
language, it is language al7out language.
Here's another way to think al7out it: lin
guistie5 is to language what a mechanic's
manual is to a car. A linguist working on a lan
guage with analytical tools is not much differ
ent from a mechanic working on an engine with
his socket wrenche5. The shop manual is not a
driver education handl7ook. and a 17ook on lin
guistie5 doe5 not teach you how to speak. It's
possil71e to 17e a competent mechanic without
knowing how to drive a car and just as possil71e
to 17e a linguist without 17eing fluent in the lan
guage you are analyzing. (More al7out this
17elow, where we meet three guys named
Chomsky, Mithridate5, and Fazah.)
4]