Understanding Human Language: An Overview of Jackendoff's Perspective, Study notes of Linguistics

Download Understanding Human Language: An Overview of Jackendoff's Perspective and more Study notes Linguistics in PDF only on Docsity! LIN 450 – FS06 Jackendoff overview, pp. 3-35 1) Study of human language as a way to study what makes us human–language as a characteristic of the species. 2) Is having language the same as being able to think? 3) What are the prerequisites for having language (how is language acquisition to be explained)? 4) Language ability in connection with intelligence. Language ability in connection with brain size. 5) Language versus animal communication systems. 6) The argument for mental grammar 7) Linguistic creativity 8) No upper bound on the number of possible sentences – the set of sentences cannot be memorized. 9) The need for rules 10) Recursion 11) Grammar versus “making sense” 12) Grammar versus habits 13) Descriptive versus prescriptive grammar 14) Rules of grammar not conscious, not available to introspection 15) The investigation of mental grammar (i.e. linguistics) is experimental science 16) The argument for innate knowledge 17) Evidence that the rules of grammar are not taught (binding conditions on pronouns and anaphors; constructions like expletive infixation; etc.) 18) Grammatical knowledge not conscious for children; children not consciously aware of what they are learning when they acquire language