Linguistics An Introduction, SECOND EDITION
LinguisticsAn IntroductionSECOND EDITIONANDREW RADFORDM A RT I N AT K I N S O ND AV I D B R I TA I NHARALD CLAHSENandANDREW SPENCERUniversity of Essex
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESSCambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São PauloCambridge University PressThe Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UKPublished in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New Yorkwww.cambridge.orgInformation on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521849487 Andrew Radford, Martin Atkinson, David Britain, Harald Clahsen and AndrewSpencer 2009This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to theprovision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any partmay take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.First published in print format 2009ISBN-13978-0-511-47924-3eBook 521-61478-8paperbackCambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracyof urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication,and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,accurate or appropriate.
ContentsList of illustrationsList of tablesPreface to the second editionA note for course organisers and class teachersIntroductionpage xxiixiiixiv1LinguisticsDevelopmental inguisticsExercises269111417Further reading and references21Part I Sounds1 Introduction2 Sounds and cises3 Sound variationLinguistic variables and sociological variablesStylistic variationLinguistically determined variationVariation and language changeExercises4 Sound changeConsonant changeVowel changeThe transition problem: regular sound change versus lexicaldiffusionSuprasegmental 072v
Contentsvi5 Phonemes, syllables and phonological processesPhonemesSyllablesSyllabification and the Maximal Onset PrinciplePhonological processesPhonological featuresFeatures and processesConstraints in phonologyExercises6 Child phonologyEarly achievementsPhonological processes in acquisitionPerception, production and a dual-lexicon modelExercises7 Processing soundsSpeech perceptionSpeech productionOther aspects of phonological processingExercisesPart ther reading and references122Words8 Introduction1251279 Word classes129Lexical categoriesFunctional categoriesThe morphological properties of English verbsExercises10 Building wordsMorphemesMorphological processes – derivation and 213513814014014314815015115311 Morphology across languages156The agglutinative idealTypes of morphological operationsExercises156162165
Contents12 Word meaningEntailment and hyponymyMeaning oppositesSemantic featuresDictionaries and prototypesExercises13 Children and wordsEarly words – a few factsApprentices in morphologyThe semantic significance of early wordsExercises14 Lexical processing and the mental lexiconSerial-autonomous versus parallel-interactive processingmodelsOn the representation of words in the mental lexiconExercises15 Lexical disordersWords and morphemes in aphasiaAgrammatismParaphasiasDissociations in SLI subjects’ inflectional systemsExercises16 Lexical variation and changeBorrowing wordsRegister: words for brain surgeons and soccer players,hairdressers and lifesaversBiscuit or cookie? Variation and change in word choiceSame word – new meaningVariation and change in morphologyExercisesFurther reading and referencesPart III Sentences17 Introduction18 Basic terminologyCategories and functionsComplex sentencesThe functions of 242244245247247250253254vii
viiiContents19 Sentence structureMergerTests for constituencyAgreement, case assignment and selectionExercises20 Empty categoriesEmpty T constituentPRO: the empty subject of infinitive clausesCovert complementsEmpty complementisersEmpty determinersExercises21 MovementHead movementOperator movementYes–no questionsOther types of movementExercises22 Syntactic variationInversion in varieties of EnglishSyntactic parameters of variationThe Null Subject ParameterParametric differences between English and GermanExercises23 Sentence meanings and Logical FormPreliminariesThematic rolesA philosophical diversionCovert movement and Logical FormExercises24 Children’s sentencesSetting parameters: an exampleNull subjects in early Child EnglishNon-finite clauses in Child EnglishChildren’s nominalsExercises25 Sentence processingClick studiesProcessing empty categoriesStrategies of sentence 336339345349350351354358361366367368370375
Contents26 Syntactic disordersAgrammatismParagrammatismSpecific Language Impairment (SLI)Exercises27 Using sentencesContext and pronounsTopic/focusPresuppositionsDoing things with wordsThe logic of conversationContext and coherenceRelevance TheoryTaking 398400402Further reading and references405Conclusion407Appendix 1 The International Phonetic AlphabetAppendix 2 Phonological distinctive featuresAppendix 3 Distinctive feature matrix for Englishconsonant phonemesBibliographyIndex411412414415422ix
IntroductionThe major perspective we adopt in this book regards a language as a cognitivesystem which is part of any normal human being’s mental or psychologicalstructure. An alternative to which we shall also give some attention emphasisesthe social nature of language, for instance studying the relationships betweensocial structure and different dialects or varieties of a language.The cognitive view has been greatly influenced over the past five decades bythe ideas of the American linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky. Thecentral proposal which guides Chomsky’s approach to the study of language isthat when we assert that Tom is a speaker of English, we are ascribing to Tom acertain mental structure. This structure is somehow represented in Tom’s brain, sowe are also implicitly saying that Tom’s brain is in a certain state. If Clare is also aspeaker of English, it is reasonable to suppose that Clare’s linguistic cognitivesystem is similar to Tom’s. By contrast, Jacques, a speaker of French, has acognitive system which is different in important respects from those of Tom andClare, and different again to that of Guo, a speaker of Chinese. This proposalraises four fundamental research questions:(1)What is the nature of the cognitive system which we identify with knowinga language?(2)How do we acquire such a system?(3)How is this system used in our production and comprehension of speech?(4)How is this system represented in the brain?Pursuit of these questions defines four areas of enquiry: linguistics itself, developmental linguistics, psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics.At the outset, it is important to be clear that an answer to question (1) is logicallyprior to answers to questions (2), (3) and (4); unless we have a view on the natureof the relevant cognitive system, it makes no sense to enquire into its acquisition,its use in production and comprehension and its representation in the brain.Question (1), with its reference to a cognitive system, looks as if it ought to fallin the domain of the cognitive psychologist. However, the Chomskian approachmaintains that we can formulate and evaluate proposals about the nature of thehuman mind by doing linguistics, and much of this book is intended to establishthe plausibility of this view. In order to do linguistics, we usually rely on nativespeakers of a language who act as informants and provide us with data; and it is1
2linguisticswith respect to such data that we test our hypotheses about native speakers’linguistic cognitive systems. Often, linguists, as native speakers of some languageor other, rely on themselves as informants. Linguists (as opposed to psycholinguists, see below) do not conduct controlled experiments on large numbers ofsubjects under laboratory conditions. This is a major methodological differencebetween linguists and cognitive psychologists in their study of the human mind,and some critics might see it as making linguistics unscientific or subjective.However, it is important to point out that the data with which linguists work(supplied by themselves or by other native speakers) usually have such clearproperties as to render controlled experimentation pointless. For instance, consider the examples in (5):(5)a.b.The dog chased the cat*Cat the dog chased theA native speaker of English will tell us that (5a) is a possible sentence of Englishbut (5b) is not (the * is conventionally used to indicate this latter judgement). Ofcourse, we could design experiments with large numbers of native speakers toestablish the reliability of these claims, but there is no reason to believe that suchexperiments would be anything other than a colossal waste of time. Native speakers have vast amounts of data readily available to them, and it would be perversefor linguists not to take advantage of this. Notice that above we said that the datasupplied by native speakers usually have very clear properties. When this is notthe case (and an example will arise in our discussion of psycholinguistics below),we proceed with more caution, trying to understand the source of difficulty.The logical priority of question (1) should not lead to the conclusion that wemust have a complete answer to this question before considering our otherquestions. Although question (2) requires some view on the cognitive linguisticsystem, there is no reason why acquisition studies of small children should notthemselves lead to modifications in this view. In such a case, pursuit of question(2) will be contributing towards answering question (1), and similar possibilitiesexist for (3) and (4). In practice, many linguists, developmental linguists, psycholinguists and neurolinguists are familiar with each other’s work, and there is aconstant interchange of ideas between those working on our four questions.Our questions foster different approaches to linguistic issues, and in thisintroduction we shall first take a preliminary look at these. Having done this, weshall turn to the social perspective mentioned at the outset and offer some initialremarks on how this is pursued.LinguisticsTo begin to answer question (1), Chomsky identifies knowing alanguage with having a mentally represented grammar. This grammar constitutesthe native speaker’s competence in that language, and on this view, the key to
Introductionunderstanding what it means to know a language is to understand the nature ofsuch a grammar. Competence is contrasted with performance, the perceptionand production of speech, the study of which falls under psycholinguistics(see below). Since this is a fundamental distinction that underlies a great deal ofwhat we shall be discussing, it is worth trying to get a clear grasp of it as early aspossible. Consider the situation of a native speaker of English who suffers a blowto the head and, as a consequence, loses the ability to speak, write, read andunderstand English. In fortunate cases, such a loss of ability can be short-lived,and the ability to use English in the familiar ways reappears quite rapidly. Whatcognitive functions are impaired during the time when there is no use of language?Obviously, the ability to use language, i.e. to perform in various ways, is notavailable through this period, but what about knowledge of English, i.e. linguisticcompetence? If we suppose that this is lost, then we would expect to see a longperiod corresponding to the initial acquisition of language as it is regained, ratherthan the rapid re-emergence which sometimes occurs. It makes more sense tosuppose that knowledge of language remains intact throughout such an episode;the problem is one of accessing this knowledge and putting it to use in speaking,etc. As soon as this problem is overcome, full knowledge of English is available,and the various abilities are rapidly reinstated.What does a grammar consist of? The traditional view is that a grammar tells ushow to combine words to form phrases and sentences. For example, by combininga word like to with a word like Paris we form the phrase to Paris, which can beused as a reply to the question asked by speaker A in the dialogue below:(6)speaker a: Where have you been?speaker b: To Paris.By combining the phrase to Paris with the word flown we form the larger phraseflown to Paris, which can serve as a reply to the question asked by speaker A in (7):(7)speaker a: What’s he done?speaker b: Flown to Paris.And by combining the phrase flown to Paris with words like has and he, we canform the sentence in (8):(8)He has flown to ParisOn this view, a grammar of a language specifies how to combine words to formphrases and sentences, and it seems entirely appropriate to suggest that nativespeakers of English and of other languages have access to cognitive systemswhich somehow specify these possibilities for combination (exercise 1). A veryimportant aspect of this way of looking at things is that it enables us to make senseof how a cognitive system (necessarily finite, since it is represented in a brain) cansomehow characterise an infinite set of objects (the phrases and sentences in anatural language). That natural languages are infinite in this sense is easy to see byconsidering examples such as those in (9):3
4(9)linguisticsa.b.c.d.Smith believes that the earth is flatBrown believes that Smith believes that the earth is flatSmith believes that Brown believes that Smith believes that the earth is flatBrown believes that Smith believes that Brown believes that Smith believesthat the earth is flatA native speaker of English will recognise that such a sequence of sentencescould be indefinitely extended, and the same point can be made in connectionwith a variety of other constructions in English and other languages (exercise 2).But the infinite nature of the set of English sentences, exemplified by those in (9),does not entail that the principles of combination used in constructing thesesentences are also infinite; and it is these principles which form part of a grammar.The view we have introduced above implies that a grammar contains twocomponents: (i) a lexicon (or dictionary), which lists all the words found in thelanguage, and (ii) a syntactic component, which specifies how to combine wordstogether to form phrases and sentences. Each lexical entry (i.e. each item listed inthe lexicon) will tell us about the linguistic properties of a word. For example, theentry for the word man will specify its phonological ( sound) properties (namelythat it is pronounced /man/ – for the significance of the slashes, see section 5), itsgrammatical properties (e.g. that it can function as a noun and that when itdoes, it has the irregular plural form men) and its semantic (i.e. meaning) properties (namely that it denotes an adult male human being). The linguistic propertiesof words, including the nature of lexical entries, form the subject matter of part IIof this book, while syntax (i.e. the study of how words are combined togetherto form phrases and sentences) provides the focus for part III. A grammar can besaid to generate (i.e. specify how to form) a set of phrases and sentences, andusing this terminology, we can view the task of the linguist as that of developinga theory of generative grammar (i.e. a theory about how phrases and sentencesare formed).Careful reflection shows that a grammar must contain more than just a lexiconand a syntax. One reason for this is based on the observation that many wordschange their phonetic form (i.e. the way they are pronounced) in connectedspeech, such sound changes being determined by the nature of neighbouringsounds within a word, phrase or sentence. These changes are effected by nativespeakers in a perfectly natural and unreflective way, suggesting that whateverprinciples determine them must be part of the relevant system of mental representation (i.e. grammar). We can illustrate what we mean here by consideringexamples of changes which result from the operation of regular phonologicalprocesses. One such process is elision, whereby a sound in a particular positioncan be dropped and hence not pronounced. For instance, the ‘f’ in the word of(which is pronounced /v/) can be elided in colloquial speech before a wordbeginning with a consonant (but not before a word beginning with a vowel):hence we say ‘pint o’ milk’ (sometimes written pinta milk) eliding /v/ beforethe /m/ of the word milk, but ‘pint of ale’ (not ‘pint o’ ale’) where the /v/ can’t beelided because the word ale begins with a vowel. A second regular phonological
Introductionprocess is assimilation, a process by which one sound takes on some or all thecharacteristics of a neighbouring sound. For example, in colloquial speech styles,the final ‘d’ of a word like bad is assimilated to the initial sound of an immediatelyfollowing word beginning with a consonant: hence, bad boy is pronounced as if itwere written bab boy and bad girl as if it were written bag girl (exercise 3).The fact that there are regular phonological processes such as those brieflydescribed above suggests that in addition to a lexicon and a syntactic component,a grammar must also contain a phonological component: since this determinesthe phonetic form ( PF) of words in connected speech, it is also referred to asthe PF component. Phonology, the study of sound systems and processesaffecting the way words are pronounced, forms the subject matter of part I ofthis book.So far, then, we have proposed that a grammar of a language contains threecomponents, but it is easy to see that a fourth component must be added, as nativespeakers not only have the ability to form sentences, but also the ability tointerpret (i.e. assign meaning to) them. Accordingly, a grammar of a languageshould also answer the question ‘How are the meanings of sentences determined?’A commonsense answer would be that the meaning of a sentence is derived bycombining the meanings of the words which it contains. However, there’s clearlymore involved than this, as we see from the fact that sentence (10) below isambiguous (i.e. has more than one interpretation):(10)She loves me more than youSpecifically, (10) has the two interpretations paraphrased in (11a, b):(11) a.b.She loves me more than you love meShe loves me more than she loves youThe ambiguity in (10) is not due to the meanings of the individual words in thesentence. In this respect, it contrasts with (12):(12)He has lost the matchIn (12), the word match is itself ambiguous, referring either to a sporting encounteror a small piece of wood tipped with easily ignitable material, and this observationis sufficient to account for the fact that (12) also has two interpretations. But (10)contains no such ambiguous word, and to understand the ambiguity here, we needto have some way of representing the logical (i.e. meaning) relations between thewords in the sentence. The ambiguity of (10) resides in the relationship betweenthe words you and loves; to get the interpretation in (11a), you must be seen as thelogical subject of loves (representing the person giving love), whereas for (11b), itmust function as the logical object of loves (representing the person receivinglove). On the basis of such observations, we can say that a grammar must alsocontain a component which determines the logical form ( LF) of sentences in thelanguage. For obvious reasons, this component is referred to as the LF component, and this is a topic which is discussed in section 23 of this book (exercise 4).5
6linguisticsOur discussi
Introduction 1 Linguistics 2 Developmental linguistics 6 Psycholinguistics 9 Neurolinguistics 11 Sociolinguistics 14 Exercises 17 Further reading and references 21 Part I Sounds 23 1 Introduction 25 . introduction we shall fir
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