Grammar

1. 1
BASIC LINGUISTIC
CONCEPTS
by Don L. F. Nilsen

2. 2
LIN 516 CARDS
• Your name (first name first)
• LIN 516
• Fall, 2009
• Local address & zip
• Permanent Address & zip
• Non-ASU e-mail
• Languages you’ve studied
• 1st six years of life: State or Country
• Tentative title of research paper (see next slide)

3. 3
LIN 516 Research Paper Must Deal with
Sophisticated Discourse
Allusion
Communicative Competence
Conversational Implicatures
Double Entendre
Epiphany
Ethnic Differences
Formality Differences
Gender Differences
Hyperbole
Humor
Interactional Sociolinguistics
Intertextuality
Irony
Jargon
Lexical Packing
Language Acquisition
Linguistic Relativity
Metaphor
Metonymy
Naming of Persons, Places or Things
Paradox
Parody
Prose Styles
Prototype Theory
Regional Differences
Rhetorical Devices (Schemes & Tropes)
Satire
Signifying
Speech Acts
Symbolism
Synecdoche
VARIES model

4. 4
Some Research-Paper Guidelines
The The Impotence of Proofreading (Taylor Mali):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OonDPGwAyfQ&feature=search
Victor Borge Phonetic Punctuation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4qii8S3gw&feature=search

5. 5
WORD-ATTACK SKILLS:
Analysis vs. Synthesis:
Parsing vs. Generative Grammar
Denotation vs. Connotation:
Pro-Choice vs. Pro-Life views of
“abortion”
Systematic vs. Accidental Gaps:
“schplick” vs. “blick”

6. 6
LEVELS OF ADEQUACY:
Prescriptive Adequacy: What people should do
Descriptive Adequacy: What people do do
Explanatory Adequacy: Patterns, Trends, and Predictions
Evaluative Adequacy: Based on Elegance
Simplicity
Completeness
Internal Consistency
Generative Power

7. 7
SURFACE STRUCTURE:
Syntax Allotag Tagmeme
Morphology Allomorph Morpheme
Graphology Allograph Grapheme
Phonology Allophone Phoneme

8. 8
DEEP STRUCTURE:
Pragmatics Allobehavior Behavioreme
Pragmatics (Context, Deictics, Anaphora,
Speech Acts, Conversational Implicatures,
Intent, Felicity Conditions)
Semantics Alloseme Sememe

9. 9
LANGUAGE VARIATION
SPEAKING, PARLANT, VARIES:
V-Vocational Differences
A-Age Differences
Individual
Language
R-Regional Differences
I-Informality Differences
E-Ethnic Differences
S-Sex Differences

10. 10
FORM-MEANING CORRELATION
CONTRAST SOUNDS, SPELLINGS AND MEANINGS:
Antonyms: tall vs. short
Converses: buy vs. sell
Cognates: embarrassed vs. embarazada
Heteronyms: minute vs. minute
Homographs: bank vs. bank
Homonyms: Homographs or Homophones
Homophones: too vs. two vs. to
Hyponyms: metaphor vs. metaphor
Synonyms: big vs. large

11. 11
WORD-LEVEL VS. SENTENCE-LEVEL GRAMMAR
LEXICAL: SYNTACTIC:
AMBIGUITY: Take your pick! Call me a taxi!
ANOMALY: She wanted a gnepf. John me cow a gave.
PARAPHRASE: William hit a policeman. Bill hit John.
vs. Bill slugged a cop. vs. John was hit by Bill.

12. 12
References:
Clark, Virginia P., Paul A. Eschholz, and Alfred F. Rosa, eds.
Language: Readings in Language and Culture, 6th Edition. New
York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Eschholz, Paul, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark, eds. Language
Awareness: Readings for College Writers, 10th Edition. Boston,
MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009.
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. An
Introduction to Language, 8th Edition. Boston, MA: Thomson
Wadsworth, 2007.
Mey, Jacob. Pragmatics: An Introduction, 2nd Edition. Malden,
MA: Blackwell, 2001.