FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND LANGUAGES

HBET1103: INTRODUCTION TO GENERAL LINGUISTICS

SEMESTER SEPTEMBER 2008
COURSE ASSIGNMENT (35%)

NAME : NASIDAH BINTI NASAHA

I/C

: 781218-01-5120

MATRIC NO : 781218015120001
TUTOR : FAZITA BINTI MD TAB
CONTACT NO :0197486198

Table of Content
Contents

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Statement of problem
1.2 Purpose of study
1.3 Methodology (such as Interview, questionnaire)
2.0 Findings and Discussion ( Data , label )
3.0 Conclusion (suggestion on future research)
4.0 References ( APA style)
Appendices

1.0 Introduction

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language A language is a dynamic set of

visual, auditory, or tactile symbols of communication and the elements used to
manipulate them. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general
phenomenon. Strictly speaking, language is considered to be an exclusively human
mode of communication. Although other animals make use of quite sophisticated
communicative systems, sometimes casually referred to as animal language, none of
these are known to make use of all of the properties that linguists use to define
language.
1.2 Statement of problem
It is important to distinguish between two common concepts in linguistics. These
concepts are linguistic competence and linguistic performance.
Linguistic competence refers to having the knowledge of a language. With the
knowledge of a language, a speaker can form long sentences by adding words,
phrases and joining sentences or by adding parts of speech like adjectives and adverbs
and adding modifiers to nouns.
However, when sentences get too long, a speaker may run out of breath, his listeners
may prefer to leave and he may forget what he has verbalised earlier. One who does
this may know the rules of the language but he does not apply this knowledge in
speech and comprehension. In other words, he lacks linguistic performance.
Linguistic performance refers to the ability to use language in order to perform
various linguistically related tasks. Although the language is grammatically correct,
that is, may be linguistically competent, for a reason, the linguistic performance
leaves much to be desired.

While linguistic competence and linguistic performance are two distinct concepts, the

relationship between the two should be clearly and carefully noted. One may have
linguistic competence but is lacking in linguistic performance as described earlier.
However, a certain amount of linguistic competence is required as a prerequisite in
order to be able to perform well linguistically. It is unlikely that there can be linguistic
performance without linguistic competence.
Linguistic performance is a concept popularised in the 1970s by sociolinguists such as
Hymes and Halliday. This was in response to prior emphasis on competence which
they considered an abstract concept with little use and benefit in real life.

1.2 Purpose of study

The purpose of the study is to identify that many people can speak their language
properly but they do not know about the history of the language.
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It endeavours to answer the question-what is language and how is represented in the mind? Linguists focus on describing
and explaining language and are not concerned with the prescriptive rules of the
language (ie., do not split infinitives). Linguists are not required to know many
languages and linguists are not interpreters.
The underlying goal of the linguist is to try to discover the universals concerning
language. That is, what are the common elements of all languages. The linguist then
tries to place these elements in a theoretical framework that will describe all
languages and also predict what can not occur in a language.
Linguistics is a social science that shares common ground with other social sciences
such as psychology, anthropology, sociology and archaeology. It also may influence
other disciplines such as English, communication studies and computer science.
Linguistics for the most part though can be considered a cognitive science. Along
with psychology, philosophy and computer science (AI), linguistics is ultimately
concerned with how the human brain functions.
Below are several different disciplines within linguistics. The fields of phonetics,
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and language acquisition are considered
the core fields of study and a firm knowledge of each is necessary in order to tackle
more advanced subjects.

1.3 Methodology (such as Interview, questionnaire)

Interview 5 Malaysians of any ethnic background. Ask them the following questions:
a. Basic respondent information (sample questions)
i. Do not include their name.
ii. Gender, age, education,
iii. Occupation, travel experience (have you lived in other countries)
b. Information on the language / languages (sample questions)
i. History of the language, the status of the language in the country,
c. Information about the language / languages. (sample questions)
i. The language sound system (E.G. does the language use any sounds /
phonemes that are not used by English?)
ii. The syntactical system of the language (E.G. what kind of syntax
structure does the language have? SVO, SOV ..)

2.0 Findings and Discussion

The first respondent is a malay woman and her age is 35 years old. She was graduated
from University Putra Malaysia. Her major was Kesusasteraan Bahasa Melayu. Now
she was teaching Bahasa Melayu at Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Tongkat. Her hobbies
are reading and writing. From the interview she knows specifically about history of
the language. She also can explain a lot about the language sound system and the
syntactical system.
The second respondent is a male. He is 30 years old and working as an engineer. He is
graduating from University of Chiba in Japan. He stays in Japan for 5 years. He can
speak 3 languages. He loves travelling. From the interview he only knows generally
about the language. He only knows Bahasa Malaysia is the national language but he
do not knows about the history of the language. He can explain a little about the
language sound system and the syntactical system of the language.

The third respondent is an English teacher from Sekolah Kebangsaan Belitong. She is
24 years old and graduated from University Utara Malaysia. She is from Pahang. She
likes to cooking and watching movies. From the interview she knows Bahasa
Malaysia or Malay language is the national language and taught to everyone in
school. However, more than one language is spoken in daily life, which normally is in
accordance to ones race. For instance, Malay is spoken by the Malays,
Tamil by Indians and Mandarin and the various Chinese Dialects by the Chinese. She
do not know much about the history of the language or the information about the
language.
The forth respondent is an Indian female. She is 24 years old. She is a teacher at
Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Tongkat. She can speak 3 languages. She graduated from
University Technology Mara. She has been teaching for 3 years. From the interview
she know a little about the language and the history of the language. She can explain
generally about the language sound system and the syntactical system of the language.

The fifth respondent is a Chinese male. He teaching at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan

Cina. He is from Serawak. From the interview he does not know about the history of
the language. But, he can explain about the language sound system and the syntactical
system of the language.

3.0 Conclusion
Based on the finding from the information getting from the respondents the average
Malaysian does not know much about their own language. From the data only 1
respondent can give a detail information about the language. The other respondent
only know the language generally .

4.0 References
1. http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/13142/84/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language

Appendices
Tamil translation
1. What is your name?
Unga peru enna?
2. She came by bus yesterday
Aval nethu pearundhu valiya vandha
3. Can you give me your pen?
Peanava kudukka mudiyuma?

Chinese translation
1. gu xng
what is your name?
2. n zh zi n l
where do you live?
Japanese translation