Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

University of Salamanca

Unit 2: Language as a system (Part I). Language as a physical and

as a biological system (speaking, writing and grammar)

STARTING POINT 1. The complexity of the study of human language

As seen in Unit 1, linguistics aim is the study of human language. But language is a very
complex phenomenon, ranging from stability (linguistic codes as consisting of sets of discrete
elements, such as letters or phonemes, are quite stable) to variation (language change, dynamic
evolution of languages, dialects and other varieties), and from conventional behaviour (as
when fulfilling the linguistic phatic function) to creativity (being linguistically personal even
when taking someone elses meanings or words).

EXAMPLE:
(Typical sign for theft prevention)
THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED
(Sign in a jewellers shop in Carnaby Street, London)
THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED AND SHOT

If we have a linguistic attitude, as Finch says, one relevant question here is

how can linguistics explain the added effect in the sign from the Carnaby
Street jewellers shop?.

The previous step for attempting to formulate an answer to this question is

that, in order to get linguistic explanations on facts like this one, we need some
sort of idealization or modelization (simulation of the linguistic processes) of
language.

Therefore, to start the description of language, we are going to start by

considering LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM.

SYSTEM: a system is considered to be a unity of mutually relevant elements

whose functions are determined by their respective contributions to the
workings of the whole. (De Beaugrande 1980:2) [e.g., the English phonetic
system]

What is more, taking its complexity into account, we are going to consider
language as a complex of systems or a system of systems.

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Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

2.1

University of Salamanca

LANGUAGE AS A PHYSICAL SYSTEM (or The matter of language: On

linguistic atoms and bits letters and phonemes)

STARTING POINT 1. Physical systems

Systems of the first order are physical systems, ranging in size from
subatomic particles or strings to the entire universe, but subject
throughout to the laws of physics. (Matthiessen 2001:49)

STARTING POINT 2. The study of language: looking for evidence

We simply do not know how language originated. We do know that
spoken language developed well before written language. Yet, when
we uncover traces of human life on earth dating back half million
years, we never find any direct evidence relating to the speech of our
distant ancestors. There are no dusty cassette-type fragments among
the ancient bones, for example, to tell us how language was back in
the early stages. Perhaps because of this absence of direct physical
evidence, there has been no shortage of speculation about the
origins of human speech. (Yule 1996:1)

As a PHYSICAL SYSTEM, language can be characterized according to

physical criteria.

Interrelated question relevant in reference to the physical dimension of language:

From a physical perspective on language, what kinds of direct physical

evidence can we obtain when studying language? [the sounds transmitted
through the air, the symbols drawn or written on a surface and so on]

Physical evidence of human language: sound (air) and imprints (surface) as

data sources

2.1.1

Sounds (air)

One physical evidence of human language consists of speech sounds.

In linguistics, speech sounds can be studied either from a phonetical or from a

phonological perspective.

PHONETICS

It is the general study of the characteristics of speech sounds (Yule

1996:41).

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4 areas of study:

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Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

University of Salamanca

1.

Articulatory phonetics: we investigate how speech sounds are

produced using the fairly complex oral equipment we have.
o

Articulation [READ FINCH 3.5.1]:

Front

Description of consonants

Voicing [=position of the vocal

cords] (voiced vs. voiceless)

Place of articulation (bilabials,

labiodentals, dentals, alveolars,
post-alveolars,
palato-alveolars,
palatals, velars and glottals)

Manner of articulation (plosives,

fricatives,
affricates,
nasals,
approximants = glides + liquids)

Description of vowels:

Open, half-open, half-close, close;

front, central, back

Vowel charts:
examples

Central

Description

and

Back
Close

Half-close

Half-open

Open

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Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

University of Salamanca

(University of Stirling: http://www.celt.stir.ac.uk/staff/HIGDOX/STEPHEN/PHONO/VOWEL/CARDIN.HTM)

2.

Acoustic phonetics: the study of the physical properties of

speech as sound waves in the air. Experimental or machine
phonetics: instrumental analysis of speech by means of
spectrograms or other instruments. Variables from physics:
intensity, tone and pitch.

(http://cslu.cse.ogi.edu/tutordemos/SpectrogramReading/spectrogram_reading.html)
(http://www.ling.lu.se/research/speechtutorial/tutorial.html)
3.

Auditory or perceptual phonetics: the study of the

perception, via the ear, of speech sounds.

4.

Forensic phonetics: phonetics applied to legal cases involving

speaker

identification

and

the

analyses

of

recorded

utterances.

PHONOLOGY

It is essentially the description of the systems and patterns of speech

sounds in a language (Yule 1996:54).

It is based on a theory of what every speaker of a language

unconsciously knows about the sound patterns of

that language.

Because this theoretical status, phonology is concerned with the

abstract or mental aspect of the sounds of language rather than with
the actual physical articulation of speech sounds. Phonology is about
the underlying design, the blueprint of the sound type, that serves as
the constant basis of all the variations in different physical
articulations of that sound type in different contexts.

Speech sounds must be distinct meaningful sounds, regardless of

which individual vocal tract is being used to pronounce them, because

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Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

University of Salamanca

they are what make words meaningful and distinct when speaking.
Considered from this point of view, we can see that phonology is
concerned with the abstract set of sounds in a language which allows
us to distinguish meaning in the actual physical sounds we say and
hear.

Basic unit: PHONEME

Each one of the meaning-distinguishing sounds in a

language which is represented by a single symbol
between /slash marks/.

A phoneme // is described as a sound type, of which all

the different spoken versions of [] are tokens.

The essential property of a phoneme is that it functions

contrastively. We know there are two phonemes /f/ and
/v/ in English because they are the only basis of contrast
in meaning between the strings of sounds /ft/ and

/vt/.

MINIMAL PAIRS: This contrastive property is the basic

operational test for determining the phonemes which
exist in a language. If we substitute one sound for
another in a word and there is a change of meaning, then
the two sounds represent different phonemes:
how, now, cow,

Relationship between phonetics and phonology:

Phonetics deals with how speech sounds are actually made,
transmitted and received. Phonology, on the other hand, deals
specifically with the ways those sounds are organized into the
individual languages. Phonology is, in effect, a sub-category of
phonetics.
(University of Stirling:
http://www.celt.stir.ac.uk/staff/HIGDOX/STEPHEN/PHONO/PHONOG.
HTM)

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Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

2.1.2

University of Salamanca

Imprints (surface)
By its nature, speech is transient. The desire for a more permanent
record of what was known must have been the primary motivation for
the development of markings and inscriptions and, eventually, of
written language. (Yule 1996:6)

Apart from sound, another physical evidence of human language consists of

some type of markings, inscriptions or graphic symbols done by human beings
on a surface (whatever type of surface it might be).

What is the earliest known writing system?

We may trace human attempts to represent information visually back to cave
drawings which were made at least 20,000 years ago, or to clay tokens from
about 10,000 years ago which appear to have been an early attempt at
bookkeeping, but these artifacts are best described as ancient precursors of
writing.

Writing which is based on some type of alphabetic script can only be traced
back to inscriptions dated around 5,000 years ago (around 3,000 B.C.). By the
time of the Sumerians, we have evidence that a writing system which was
word-based had come into existence. In fact, it is Sumerian cuneiform
inscriptions which are normally referred to when the expression the earliest
known writing system is used.

Chinese writing has the longest continuous history of use as a writing system
(i.e. 3,000 years).

Many Chinese written symbols, or characters, are used as representations of

the meaning of words and not of the sounds of spoken language.

This system has the advantage that two speakers of very different
dialects of Chinese, who might have great difficulty understanding
each others spoken forms, can both read the same written text.

One major disadvantage is that an extremely large number of

different written symbols exists within this writing system, although
basic literacy is possible with knowledge of only 2,000 characters.

Remembering large numbers of different word-symbols seems to present a

substantial memory load, and the history of most other writing systems

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Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

University of Salamanca

illustrates a development away from logographic writing. To accomplish this,

some principal method is required to go from symbols which represent words
(i.e. a logographic system) to a set of symbols which represent sounds (i.e. a
phonographic system).

Written English

Interrelated question relevant in reference to English language:

Why is there such a frequent mismatch between the forms of written English
and the sounds of spoken English? [the historical influences on the form of
written English]

The spelling of written English was very largely fixed in the form that
was used when printing was introduced into fifteenth-century
England. At that time, a number of conventions regarding the written
representation of words derived from forms used in writing other
languages, notably Latin and French. Moreover, many of the early
printers were native Dutch speakers and could not make consistently
accurate decisions about English pronunciations. Perhaps more
important is the fact that,

since the fifteenth century, the

pronunciation of spoken English has undergone substantial changes.

Thus, even if there had been a good, written-letter to speech-sound
correspondence at that time, and the printers had got it right, there
would still be major discrepancies for the present-day speakers of
English. If one adds in the fact that a large number of older written
English words were actually recreated by sixteenth-century spelling
reformers to bring their written forms more into line with what were
supposed, sometimes erroneously, to be their Latin origins, then the
sources of the mismatch begin to become clear. (Yule 1996:14)

Reasons for explaining this mismatch:

1.

Fixing of the spelling (written English) in the XVth century

Conventions derived from other languages (French, Latin)
Printers background (Dutch)

2.

Pronunciation (spoken English) has changed since XVth century

3.

Spelling (written English) reform in XVI century (for spelling to be more

into line with their supposedly Latin origin)

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Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

University of Salamanca

In linguistics, writing systems are usually studied from a diachronic

perspective [by Historical Linguistics].

2.2

LANGUAGE AS EVIDENCE

Forensic linguistics

Forensic linguistics is an application of linguistics. [] There are many branches within

linguistics, and the linguist might specialize in anything from language acquisition to grammar,
language and society or as in the present case- language, crime and the law. []
Language is the most advance means of communication known to us, and its use is central to
our existence. In the past few decades, the study of language and languages has greatly
increased at centres of higher learning throughout the world. This has had massive benefits to
both the science itself, and to students worldwide: whereas previously, linguistics inhabited its
very own ivory tower within academia, it has in this time become less and less concerned with
abstract theory and more concerned with the application of knowledge to everyday issues. One
area that has greatly benefited from this approach is the interface between language and crime.
In 1968, when Jan Svartvik analysed the statements of Timothy John Evans hanged for the
murder of his wife and baby, and posthumously pardoned- he coined the term forensic linguistics
but for years little happened in the field. In time, however, it became evident that linguists could
be of service to the law by helping those who had been treated unjustly by it, and in the early
1990s Malcolm Coulthard began to analyse other police statements. One of these was the text
attributed to Derek Bentley, also hanged in the 1950s and thanks largely to Coulthard- later
pardoned.
In the interim, forensic linguistics has grown exponentially, both in the number of people with an
interest in practising it and in the number of disciplines and sub-disciplines within its ambit, some
of which are listed in Table 1.1. (Olsson 2004:3)

Table 1.1 Disciplines of forensic linguistics (Olsson 2004:4-5)

Category

Description

Authorship identification

Identifying authors of texts

Ascertaining whether a text was produced

Mode identification

by speech, writing or some combination of

both (e.g. part written, part dictated)
Interpreting and translating in the courtroom,
viva interpreting for police and

Legal interpreting and translation

defendants/witnesses; translating statements

and other legal documents issues of
accuracy and fairness, the role of
interpreters, their licensing, control, etc.

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Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

University of Salamanca

In some legal systems statements are

Transcribing verbal statements

audio/video recorded and require

transcription for courtroom use issues of
completeness and bias
A study of the relationship between

The language and discourse of courtroom

courtroom participants and the language

they use issues of power, prejudice, culture
clashes, etc.
These include: the language rights of
minority groups in cultures dominated by
other languages or other dialects of the
same language, the linguistic rights of those
without language, and the oppressiveness of

Language rights

bureaucratic language. Note that some of

the other areas mentioned here are also
concerned (sometimes indirectly) with
language rights, e.g. interpreting,
transcription of statements, courtroom
discourse, etc.

Statement analysis

Analysing witness statements for their

veracity
Analysis of audio material for speaker

Forensic phonetics

identification and other purposes; voice lineups

Analysing texts and auditory material for
their genuineness, e.g. genuine vs hoax

Textual status

emergency calls, genuine vs simulated

suicide/ransom notes, etc.; assessing risk
from text

2.3

LANGUAGE AS A BIOLOGICAL SYSTEM (or On linguistic genes and

molecules: lexicogrammar)

STARTING POINT 1. Biological systems

Systems of the second order are biological systems. They are physical
systems with the added property of life: they are self-replicating.
(Matthiessen 2001:49)

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Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

University of Salamanca

As a physical system, we study and describe language as we feel or experience

it by means of our senses (mainly hearing and seeing but also touching as in
Braille writing for instance). Language is studied as matter, consisting of
atoms and bits (sounds and imprints).

As a biological system, we study and describe language as a living organic

entity. Language now is studied as life, consisting of molecules and genes
(words and grammar).

STARTING POINT 2. Biological systems consist of molecules

A molecule is considered to be a discrete small unit

made up of atoms joined together

Analogy: From

formal perspective,

word

is

considered to be a discrete small unit made up of sounds,

letters and/or syllables joined together

A molecule is the smallest particle of a chemical

compound that can take part in a reaction

Analogy: From a functional perspective, a word is the

smallest particle of a meaningful compound that can take
part in language

2.3.1

Words

Formal perspective

Words can be classified in different categories (classes) which have specific

formal properties (e.g., we can compare the properties of the class of
adjectives related to plural formation in English and in Spanish language).

In linguistics, the formal properties of words are studied by lexis and

morphology (word formation processes and so on). The theoretical unit used
in lexis is the LEXEME and in morphology is the MORPHEME. (As seen in
Unit 1, WORDS are PRACTICAL and not theoretical- UNITS consisting of
sounds, letters and/or syllables ELEMENTS)

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Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

University of Salamanca

Which of the following could not be or are not a word in English? And in
Spanish? Why?
English

Spanish

SKEPT

HMON

INMATURO

TYWYN

TXOKO

Interrelated question relevant in reference to words as discrete units:

How can we tell a word from a non-word? [Discreteness of syllables, letters and
sounds as relevant from a physical perspective, meaning and conventional use also
but from a socio-semiotic perspective]

Functional perspective

The communicative function is a property of words-in-discourse and not of

word classes: Words can fulfil different functions in discourse, in such a way
that it is only words-in-discourse which can be said to have a communicative
function, i.e. word classes do not have communicative functions.

In discourse, words are arranged in sequential hierarchical structures (linear

or non-linear) which assign a certain hierarchical order to a word in relation
to its immediate surroundings. In linguistics, this structural sequencing at
sentential level is studied by syntax, being its theoretical unit the
SYNTAGMEME but structuring also occurs at a higher level (paragraph,
chapter, textual macrostructure, textual superstructure, etc.)

As corpora analysis carried down in corpus linguistics show, words do not

associate with one another freely or randomly but tend to show differentiating
patterns of association. As Mike Scott and Chris Tribble point out (2006: vii)
words are like people, their relationship go beyond their neighbourhood and
there can be one-way or two-way attraction between them.

Apart from their formal properties (specific to each type of sentence, each
type of clause, of high-level structures and so on), discourse-structure main
function is to convey meaning to discourse by integrating logical and
superficial relations among words. In this way, words are considered discrete
elements which combined form higher-order meaningful units (paragraph,
text, discourse, etc.).

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Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

2.3.2

University of Salamanca

Lexicogrammar:
The way we are using the word grammar differs [] from its most
common meaning. In our sense, the grammar includes everything
speakers know about their language the sound system, called
phonology; the system of meanings, called semantics; the rules of
word formation, called morphology; and the rules of sentence
formation, called syntax. It also, of course, includes the vocabulary
of words the dictionary or lexicon. Many people think of the
grammar of a language as referring solely to the syntactic rules. This
latter sense is what students usually mean when they talk about their
class in English grammar. (Fromkin & Rodman 1998:18)

2.3.3

Perspectives on language as a biological system

Starting point 3. Biological systems consist of genes

A gene is the basic physical and functional unit of

heredity. Genes, which are made up of DNA, act as
instructions to make molecules called proteins

Invent a new word in your mother tongue. Explain to the class what it means.
Which class of words does it belong to? [Replication is a property of biological
systems. In the case of human language, this involves the possibility of creating
language. This property is a property of the linguistic system which is realized by
the speakers of each language. The creation of new words is rule-governed, i.e. all
the new words are classifiable into the existing categories, i.e. all the new words
present certain properties which allow us to classify them]

2.3.3.1 Properties of language as a biological system:

self-replication (genes = production, heredity, instructions, birth, death,

regulation)

evolution (change, dynamism)

uncertainty (probabilistic, unstable and chaotic behaviour)

equilibrium (self-regulation, system control)

2.3.3.2 Broad areas of enquiry on language as a biological system:

Generative perspective: interest in questions related to innateness (language

acquisition device or LAD, universal principles underlying language
acquisition and grammar). [Wexler points out that, as Universal Grammar
(UG) is an innate property of human mind, we should be able to account for it
in terms of human biology.]

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Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

University of Salamanca

Systemic perspective: interest in questions related to language as an OPEN

SYSTEM (dynamic), such as uncertainty, evolution and contextual-condition
dependency in synchronic or semi-synchronic conditions.

Functional perspective: the analysis of biological functions in terms of the

network of interacting molecules and genes (lexicogrammar) with the aim of
understanding how a linguistic system is organized.

Diachronic perspective: interest in questions related to birth and death of

languages, as well as formal changes along time.

2.4

THE STUDY OF LINGUISTIC CHANGE: VARIATIONS AND VARIETIES

(SOUNDS AND WORDS IN TIME AND SPACE)

2.4.1

Change along time (asynchronic studies of language): EVOLUTION

Birth and death of languages (pidgins and creoles, dead languages)

Changes within languages: laws of change (i.e. Grimms Law affecting the
Germanic branch of Indo-European sound changes involving certain
consonants)

2.4.2

Change along space (synchronic studies of language): VARIATION

Geographical perspective on change (most spoken but also written)

Language contact: families of languages

Germanic languages:

FAMILY TREE OF GERMANIC LANGUAGES (Schendl 2001:17)

PROTO-GERMANIC
WEST GERMANIC
Dutch
English
Frisian
High German
Low German

EAST GERMANIC

Danish
Icelandic
Norwegian
Swedish

Gothic

DIALECTOLOGY: The study of DIALECTS

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NORTH GERMANIC

Dialects: regional varieties

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Izaskun Elorza

Department of English Philology

iea@usal.es

University of Salamanca

EXAMPLE: Varieties of spoken English collected at the University of

Arizona: http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/

Standard vs. non-standard linguistic forms

Usage perspective on change

Variation according to users (most spoken but also written)

USER VARIETIES: Dialects, idiolects, sociolects, genderlects []

Variation according to use

USE VARIETIES: The language of science and technology, legal

English, the language of buying and selling, the language of classroom
interaction []

Prescriptive perspective on change

Linguists object to prescriptivism for a number of reasons. The views
are elitist, in that they assume that the linguistic grammars and
usages of a particular group in society (usually the more affluent and
those with political power) are the only correct ones. Prescriptivists,
for the most part, seem to have little knowledge of the history of the
language and less about the nature of language. They seem to be
unaware of the fact that all dialects are rule governed and that what is
grammatical in one language may be ungrammatical in another
(equally prestigious) language. (Fromkin & Rodman 1998:17)

Who is who? (In memoriam 1933-2007)

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