Notes on Language: Basic Concepts for UGC NET Examination

1. Definition and Nature of Language

• Language: A system of communication using sounds, symbols, or gestures that are combined according to rules to convey information, express thoughts, and establish social relationships.
• Key Characteristics:
  • Arbitrariness: No inherent connection between words and their meanings.
  • Productivity: The ability to create new and unique expressions.
  • Displacement: The capability to talk about things not present in the immediate environment.
  • Duality of Patterning: Language operates on two levels—sounds and meaning.

2. Functions of Language

• Informative Function: Conveying information and facts.
• Expressive Function: Expressing emotions, feelings, and attitudes.
• Directive Function: Directing or influencing the behavior of others.
• Phatic Function: Establishing and maintaining social relationships.
• Metalinguistic Function: Discussing language itself.
• Poetic Function: Focus on the aesthetic qualities of language.

Notes on Language: Basic Concepts for UGC NET Examination

3. Components of Language

• Phonetics: The study of speech sounds, their production, and perception.
• Phonology: The study of how sounds function within a particular language or languages.
• Morphology: The study of the structure and form of words.
• Syntax: The study of sentence structure and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.
• Semantics: The study of meaning in language.
• Pragmatics: The study of how context influences the interpretation of meaning.

4. Phonetics and Phonology

• Phonetics:
  • Articulatory Phonetics: How speech sounds are produced.
  • Acoustic Phonetics: The physical properties of speech sounds.
  • Auditory Phonetics: How speech sounds are perceived.
• Phonology:
  • Phonemes: The smallest units of sound that can change meaning.
  • Allophones: Variations of phonemes that do not change meaning.
  • Minimal Pairs: Pairs of words that differ by only one phoneme.

Notes on Language: Basic Concepts for UGC NET Examination

5. Morphology

• Morphemes: The smallest units of meaning.
  • Free Morphemes: Can stand alone as words (e.g., "book").
  • Bound Morphemes: Cannot stand alone and must be attached to other morphemes (e.g., "un-" in "unhappy").
• Types of Morphological Processes:
  • Affixation: Adding prefixes, suffixes, infixes, or circumfixes to words.
  • Compounding: Combining two or more words to create a new word (e.g., "toothpaste").
  • Reduplication: Repeating all or part of a word to create a new word or form (e.g., "bye-bye").
  • Suppletion: Using an entirely different form to fill a gap in a paradigm (e.g., "go" and "went").

Notes on Language: Basic Concepts for UGC NET Examination

6. Syntax

• Sentence Structure: The arrangement of words in a sentence to convey meaning.
• Syntactic Categories: Different types of words and phrases that function in specific ways in sentences (e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives).
• Phrase Structure Rules: Rules that define the structure of phrases in a language.
• Transformational Grammar: A theory by Noam Chomsky that describes how changes in word order can transform sentences (e.g., active to passive voice).

7. Semantics

• Lexical Semantics: The study of word meanings and word relations.
  • Synonymy: Words with similar meanings.
  • Antonymy: Words with opposite meanings.
  • Hyponymy: Words that are more specific instances of a general term.
  • Polysemy: A single word having multiple related meanings.
• Compositional Semantics: How meanings of individual words combine to form meanings of larger units like phrases and sentences.

Notes on Language: Basic Concepts for UGC NET Examination

8. Pragmatics

• Speech Acts: Actions performed via utterances (e.g., asserting, questioning, commanding).
• Deixis: Words that cannot be understood without context (e.g., "this", "that", "here", "there").
• Implicature: Meaning inferred from context rather than explicitly stated.
• Presupposition: Background assumptions implied by utterances.

9. Language Acquisition

• First Language Acquisition: The process by which children learn their native language.
  • Stages: Babbling, one-word stage, two-word stage, telegraphic speech.
• Second Language Acquisition: The process by which people learn an additional language.
  • Theories: Behaviorist (imitation and reinforcement), Nativist (innate language ability), Interactionist (social interaction).

Notes on Language: Basic Concepts for UGC NET Examination

10. Sociolinguistics

• Language Variation: Differences in language use among different social groups.
  • Dialects: Regional or social variations of a language.
  • Registers: Variations in language use depending on context (e.g., formal vs. informal).
  • Pidgins and Creoles: Simplified languages that develop for communication between groups without a common language; Creoles evolve from pidgins and become native languages.

11. Psycholinguistics

• Language Processing: How the brain understands and produces language.
• Language and Thought: The relationship between linguistic structures and cognitive processes.

Notes on Language: Basic Concepts for UGC NET Examination

12. Historical Linguistics

• Language Change: How languages evolve over time.
  • Sound Change: Changes in pronunciation.
  • Semantic Change: Changes in word meanings.
  • Grammaticalization: The process by which words develop new grammatical functions.

13. Applied Linguistics

• Language Teaching: Methods and principles for teaching languages.
• Translation Studies: The theory and practice of translating texts from one language to another.
• Forensic Linguistics: The application of linguistic knowledge to legal issues.

Notes on Language: Basic Concepts for UGC NET Examination