Language levels: PMSS — Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics (+ Pragmatics as a 5th level for social context). P=Phonology, M=Morphology, S=Syntax, S=Semantics.
Phonology · Morphology · Syntax · Semantics
The four core levels of linguistic analysis — every language has all of them
Phonology: sound system — phonemes (meaning-distinguishing sounds), allophones. Morphology: word structure — morphemes (smallest meaning units), prefixes/suffixes. Syntax: sentence structure — how words combine into phrases and clauses. Semantics: meaning — word meanings and relationships. Pragmatics: how context shapes meaning (speech acts, implicature, politeness). Linguistic anthropology focuses on how all these interact with culture and society.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: strong (language determines thought — rejected) vs weak (language influences thought — supported)
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Does the language you speak shape how you think and perceive the world?
Strong Whorfian (linguistic determinism): language determines thought — not supported by evidence. Weak version (linguistic relativity): language influences certain cognitive patterns. Evidence for weak version: Russian speakers (separate blue/goluboy-siniy) faster at discriminating blues. Pirahã (no numbers) → counting difficulties. Spatial language differences affect navigation. Guugu Yimithirr (cardinal directions only) → superior spatial memory.
Language universals: all languages have nouns, verbs, negation, questions, and recursion. No "primitive" languages.
Universal Grammar
Despite surface differences, all languages share deep structural properties
Chomsky's universal grammar: innate language capacity (Language Acquisition Device). All ~7,000 languages: nouns and verbs, ways to negate and question, recursion (sentences within sentences). Language acquisition: children acquire any language equally fast — critical period ends ~puberty. No language is primitive or simpler than another — all equally complex. Endangered languages are not "less developed."
Diglossia: H (high = formal, written) + L (low = everyday speech) varieties used in same community.
Diglossia
When a community uses two distinct language varieties for different social contexts
Ferguson (1959) coined "diglossia." H variety: education, religion, formal writing, news — learned formally. L variety: home, market, casual conversation — acquired naturally. Examples: Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic vs dialects), Greek (Katharevousa vs Demotiki until 1976), Swiss German (Standard German vs Schwyzerdütsch). Code-switching: moving between varieties mid-conversation — socially meaningful, not "sloppy."
~7,000 languages exist; ~40% endangered. A language dies when its last fluent speaker dies. Extinction rate accelerating.
Language Endangerment and Loss
The global crisis of language extinction — and what's lost with each language
50–90% of current languages may be extinct by 2100. Each language encodes unique ecological knowledge, classification systems, history. Language shift: community adopts dominant language for economic/political reasons. Documentation: record grammar, lexicon, texts before last speakers die (ELDP — Endangered Languages Documentation Programme; AILLA — Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America). Revitalization: Hawaiian, Māori, Welsh successes. Master-apprentice program: immersive one-on-one transmission.
Sociolinguistics: language varies by region (dialect), class, age, gender, ethnicity. Variation is systematic, not random.
Sociolinguistics
Language is not uniform — it varies predictably according to social identity
Labov: variable rules — linguistic variation correlates with social variables. New York City /r/ dropping: class-stratified, style-stratified. AAVE (African American Vernacular English): fully rule-governed dialect — not "incorrect English." Dialect vs language: "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy" (Weinreich). Register: formal/informal speech styles. Gendered speech: different intonation, lexicon, politeness strategies across genders and cultures.
Language ideologies: beliefs about which languages/dialects are "better" — always reflect power relations, not linguistic fact.
Language Ideologies
Beliefs about language reflect and reinforce social hierarchies
Language ideology: shared beliefs about what language is and should be. Standard language ideology: one dialect is "correct," others are "corrupted" — always the dialect of the powerful. Linguistic discrimination: treating people differently based on their dialect (legal in many places). Colonial language policies: suppressing Indigenous languages — cultural genocide. Language revitalization as decolonization. Codeswitching as linguistic resistance and identity maintenance.
Speech acts (Austin/Searle): saying something IS doing something — "I now pronounce you..." changes reality.
Speech Act Theory
Language doesn't just describe the world — it acts on and changes it
Austin (1962): performatives — utterances that perform actions (promises, declarations, warnings). Locutionary act: the literal meaning. Illocutionary act: the social function (promising, threatening, requesting). Perlocutionary act: the effect on the listener. Searle: taxonomy of speech acts (assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, declarations). Indirect speech acts: "Can you pass the salt?" is a request, not a question about ability. Politeness strategies use indirect speech acts.
Pidgin: simplified contact language (no native speakers). Creole: pidgin that becomes a first language — gains full grammar.
Pidgins and Creoles
How new languages are born when speakers of different languages must communicate
Pidgin: simplified contact language with reduced grammar, from two+ language communities (trade, colonialism). No one's first language. Creole: when children acquire a pidgin as first language → they unconsciously add full grammatical complexity. Bickerton's Language Bioprogram Hypothesis: creoles share grammatical features because children draw on innate UG (Universal Grammar — the innate language faculty). Examples: Haitian Creole, Tok Pisin, Jamaican Creole. Creoles are fully complex languages — not simplified.
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🎓 Common Exam Questions
Q: Explain the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis — strong vs. weak versions and the evidence.
A: The strong version (linguistic determinism) holds that language determines thought — you cannot think what you cannot say. This is largely rejected. The weak version (linguistic relativity) holds that language influences thought and perception — supported by research. Classic example: color terms. Languages vary in how they carve up the color spectrum; speakers of languages with more basic color terms are faster at discriminating those colors. Spatial language also varies cross-linguistically and influences spatial cognition.
Q: What is language endangerment and why does it matter?
A: Of the world's ~7,000 languages, approximately 40% are endangered. A language dies when its last fluent native speaker dies. Languages are lost due to colonialism, urbanization, economic pressure, and stigma attached to minority languages. Each language encodes unique cultural knowledge, ecological knowledge, and cognitive structures. Language death is also a loss of cultural diversity, oral literature, and indigenous knowledge systems. Documentation and revitalization efforts are ongoing.
Q: What is sociolinguistics and what does it study?
A: Sociolinguistics studies the relationship between language and society — how language varies systematically by region (dialect), social class, age, gender, and ethnicity. Key findings: variation is systematic, not random or "incorrect." Labov's work on African American Vernacular English showed it has consistent grammatical rules. Code-switching (moving between languages/varieties) is a skilled communicative strategy. Language ideologies — beliefs about which varieties are "better" — always reflect social hierarchies, not linguistic fact.
Q: Explain the difference between a pidgin and a creole with an example.
A: A pidgin arises as a contact language between groups who share no common language — it is simplified, has no native speakers, and is used only in limited contexts (usually trade). A creole develops when children acquire a pidgin as their first language — it then expands grammatically and develops the full complexity of a natural language. Haitian Creole (from French-based pidgin) and Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) are examples. Creoles fascinate linguists because they show what grammatical structures emerge naturally when children acquire a language from impoverished input.
Q: What are the five levels of language analysis?
A: (1) Phonology — the sound system; which sounds are meaningful (phonemes). (2) Morphology — the structure of words; morphemes are the smallest units of meaning (un-help-ful = 3 morphemes). (3) Syntax — rules for combining words into grammatical sentences. (4) Semantics — meaning of words and sentences. (5) Pragmatics — how context shapes meaning; why "Can you pass the salt?" is a request, not a question about ability. All five levels are part of communicative competence.