What is Linguistics?: Crash Course Linguistics #1 - Free Educational videos for Students in K-12

What is Linguistics?: Crash Course Linguistics #1 - By CrashCourse

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00:0-1	Hello . I'm taylor and welcome to crash chris linguistics
00:02	. Language is everywhere in old books and new words
00:06	in a long conversation with a friend and a short
00:08	chat with a stranger . The endless streams on our
00:10	social media feeds and snippets on the back of a
00:12	cereal box . Language spans our whole lives from one
00:15	of the first things that we encounters babies to our
00:17	famous last words . Language is what I'm doing right
00:20	now . We can observe and study how language works
00:22	like any other natural phenomenon . And that's linguistics linguists
00:26	try to understand the big picture . How does language
00:28	work in general , What's going on in our minds
00:31	and our societies that allows every group of humans to
00:34	have language spoken or signed and why do each of
00:37	us use language slightly differently , linguistics is the study
00:51	of language , but we're already using language right now
00:54	. So let's back up a second . What do
00:56	we mean by studying language ? Let's go to the
00:59	thought bubble . Let's pretend I'm on a trip to
01:01	another country , the sun is shining and I'm enjoying
01:04	some time in a place where I don't know anyone
01:06	and I don't speak the language . Then I meet
01:08	another person walking along and while we're both admiring the
01:11	flowers , a rabbit hops , interview the person points
01:13	of the hopping rabbit and says Gavin guy . So
01:16	I think that must be the word in this person's
01:18	language for rabbit . If I reply with rabbit ,
01:21	we could both learn something , but maybe that's not
01:23	exactly what the other person meant . Does Gavin I
01:26	mean rabbit ? Maybe it just means fuzzy animal or
01:29	hopping or just , hey look . Or even as
01:32	the linguistic philosopher WV Quien proposed low and undertaxed rabbit
01:37	part or maybe this particular rabbit's name is gaga .
01:40	I could ask , but I don't speak the language
01:42	yet . And figuring out how to ask these complex
01:45	ideas requires us to know some more basic concrete words
01:48	like rabbit , which is what we're trying to figure
01:51	out in the first place . We need to get
01:53	out of this week . Let's start by making some
01:55	tentative assumptions , but we'll stay prepared for some of
01:57	them to be wrong . I'll smile , pointed the
01:59	hopping bunny and say rabbit . At least I'm indicating
02:02	a desire to communicate even though neither of us can
02:04	be sure exactly what the other person is trying to
02:07	say . As I walk with my new friend pointing
02:09	at animals and sharing words both of us can test
02:11	and refine our initial linguistic hypotheses . Maybe we encounter
02:15	some baby rabbits and I learned that they're not called
02:17	Gavin Guy so I can update my mental entry for
02:20	Gavin Guy to fully grown rabbit question mark . Maybe
02:23	I'll realize something about english that I hadn't noticed before
02:26	when I try to explain it like this little difference
02:28	between rabbit and bunny . Thanks thought bubble as we
02:32	just saw . Language is a unique area to study
02:34	because we need to use it to study it .
02:36	On the one hand , this means that we can
02:38	do a lot of linguistics without needing fancy equipment because
02:42	language is right there in our brains and in the
02:44	people around us . On the other hand , this
02:46	also means that we need to be really precise about
02:49	cultivating meta linguistic awareness . We need to test and
02:52	examine our assumptions about how language works to do this
02:56	, linguists have identified a few key features that distinguish
02:59	a language from other ways of communicating . First language
03:02	exists at two levels . There's the level of the
03:04	form like sounds or hand shapes which don't have meaning
03:07	in themselves . Then there's the level of combinations of
03:10	forms that create meaning . So when it comes to
03:12	speech the sounds , but uh e don't mean anything
03:16	individually but can be combined to make money . Like
03:19	our new friend , Gavin guy or those same sounds
03:21	can be arranged to make nubby because it's the combination
03:25	that makes the meaning , not the individual sounds .
03:27	This idea that words are made up of two levels
03:29	of structure is known as the duality of patterning .
03:32	Also , when we look at other languages , we
03:34	can see that there's no reason why a rabbit has
03:36	to be called bunny . It could be called conejo
03:39	, Kalin Chief , Gavin guy . Or there's no
03:42	inherent connection between the word bunny and this furry thing
03:46	. It refers to all these other sequences of sounds
03:49	and hand shapes also referred to this animal . The
03:51	words we use our signs that reference things in the
03:53	world , like how the street sign labels which street
03:55	you're on . but usually there's no specific reason why
03:58	a particular word or set of smaller units of sound
04:01	or shapes are used . So we can say that
04:04	the choice is arbitrary . This feature of language is
04:06	known as the arbitrariness of the sign and distinguishes the
04:09	language from other kinds of communication . Now it's a
04:11	bit confusing because sign means two things in linguistics .
04:15	First , a sign is anything that conveys a meaning
04:17	beyond itself . So the word rain and the smell
04:20	of moisture in the air can both be signs of
04:22	rain . The word rain is an arbitrary signs since
04:25	it's unconnected to the weather , a human could have
04:27	said the word rain and pointed at a rock or
04:29	a tree or Gava guy and the sign could have
04:32	stuck , but instead it's a sign that we arbitrarily
04:35	but collectively decided to use for this kind of weather
04:38	. But the smell of moisture is a non arbitrary
04:40	signs , since it's super connected to the experience of
04:42	water droplets falling from the sky . Second , we
04:45	use sign in a signed language here . We mean
04:47	a language which is produced using the hands , arms
04:50	and face compared to a spoken language , which is
04:52	produced using the tongue , lips and throat . So
04:55	the signs that make up sign languages are a subset
04:58	of the first kind of signs as our spoken words
05:01	, the kind of signs that convey a meaning beyond
05:03	themselves . Speaking of sign languages , it might be
05:05	tempting to assume that sign languages are less arbitrary because
05:09	in words like rabbit in a sl , the hand
05:12	shape looks a little bit like a rabbit's ear ,
05:13	but there are still many arbitrary reasons . This signal
05:16	means rabbit and not something else . For example ,
05:19	the Australian sign language , or asl and signed for
05:22	rabbit looks very different . Spoken languages can have less
05:25	arbitrary seeming patterns to in Swahili , shafia means sneeze
05:29	. Both shafia and sneeze have sounds that rush out
05:32	of your throat like the friction of a sneeze .
05:34	In contrast , Mboyo means burp and both of these
05:37	words have the burp of a serious belch belch that
05:41	also has that feeling still arbitrary though . Anyway ,
05:44	once we start building up meaning from smaller units ,
05:47	there are two more features that make language different from
05:50	just any old communication system . One is that we
05:52	can use language to talk about . Things that happened
05:55	in the past will happen in the future or may
05:58	happen in other worlds . Being able to talk about
06:00	things that aren't right here right now is known as
06:03	displacement . Another is that we can use language to
06:06	talk about language otherwise it would make doing linguistics hard
06:10	these videos impossible . The ability to get meta about
06:13	language is the feature of reflexive itty . When we
06:16	examine other kinds of communication with these four design features
06:19	in mind , we can see how they stack up
06:21	against language . These do a complicated waggle dance to
06:24	show their fellow bees where to find nectar , but
06:27	they can't do it to tell a story about some
06:28	great flowers they found last week or hope to find
06:31	tomorrow . They're waggle dances can't manage the full range
06:35	of the displacement feature . A parent may be able
06:37	to mimic the sound of many words in a language
06:39	, but it doesn't understand the meaning of those sounds
06:42	. Parrots don't manage duality of patterning . A dog
06:45	wagging , its tail always means that it's happy regardless
06:48	of what culture the dog lives in . It's not
06:50	an arbitrary sign . Animals can communicate , but none
06:53	of the ways that animals communicate have all the design
06:56	features of human language beyond animals . We know emojis
06:59	aren't going to become their own language until we can
07:01	use emojis to write a story about emojis . Emojis
07:05	don't have the feature of reflectivity because of the unique
07:08	features of human language is the number of words and
07:10	sentences we can make out of our bodies is infinite
07:14	, Even though the human body that we use to
07:16	make them is limited with two hands , two arms
07:18	and 10 fingers . There's only so many distinct signs
07:21	we can make and with the tongues , lips ,
07:23	teeth and throat , there's only so many sounds with
07:25	this small set of shared ingredients humans have created over
07:29	7000 identified languages and so many varieties within them .
07:33	For example , you may know someone who speaks your
07:35	language but has a different word for something than you
07:37	do or pronounces the same more differently than you do
07:41	, like that thing that you might call a water
07:43	fountain . I call it a bubbler . Linguists are
07:45	interested in all the different varieties of language is that
07:48	people speak and sign , not just the standardized version
07:51	that gets taught in schools , That's because all language
07:54	varieties tell us interesting things about how people use language
07:57	linguists study the variations within languages as well as language
08:01	itself . They approached the study of language by looking
08:04	at the different levels of structure that all languages have
08:07	in common . We'll tackle each one of these in
08:09	more depth throughout crash course linguistics . But today let's
08:12	start with the smallest chunks first and move through the
08:15	larger and larger units first . There is the study
08:17	of individual sounds and spoken languages or hand shapes and
08:20	sign languages , which is called phonetics languages combine these
08:23	individual sounds or hand shapes into words according to specific
08:27	patterns and the study of that is called phrenology .
08:30	Next , they can study how longer words can often
08:32	be broken down into an internal structure , an area
08:35	called morphology . The study of how words grouped together
08:38	to make sentences is syntax and we can study and
08:41	talk about the meaning of words and sentences or semantics
08:45	and the meaning in a larger social context or pragmatics
08:48	. There are also ways we can analyze the structure
08:50	of these different levels of language or the meaning that
08:53	they create . We can look at the language choices
08:56	people make and how this relates to society , history
08:59	or the brain . Linguists find language to study in
09:01	many different ways , like observing people , asking them
09:04	questions or doing experiments with them . Linguists can work
09:07	with existing text recordings , video or historical documents to
09:11	and because we each know at least one language ,
09:13	we can sometimes even figure certain things out by consulting
09:16	the language knowledge in our own heads . A process
09:19	called introspection , regardless of what level of linguistic structure
09:23	or perspective . We focus on linguists and we here
09:26	at crash course are interested in language as it's actually
09:29	used . We're not talking about correct language , which
09:32	is a pretty murky concept anyway , after all ,
09:34	if we were studying birdsong , we wouldn't go around
09:37	telling sparrows that they're not singing right because they don't
09:40	sound like parrots . Instead , we'd want to analyze
09:43	all birds or all language varieties , regardless of where
09:46	they stand in the pecking order , linguistics is relevant
09:50	to anyone who uses language , but it's especially irrelevant
09:53	to certain people and industries . It's directly relevant to
09:55	speech pathologists and people building speech recognition tools like the
09:59	voice assistant on your phone . A knowledge of linguistics
10:01	can also help people who teach grammar or language is
10:04	it's also useful for lawyers , writers , editors ,
10:07	poets , journalists and people who work in jobs that
10:09	require thoughtful understanding of language as a tool and finally
10:12	, understanding linguistics and how language works is valuable for
10:16	anyone who wants to better understand humans and the world
10:19	we live in . I studied linguistics as part of
10:20	my major in college along with writing in spanish linguistics
10:24	has made me more aware of how important languages .
10:27	So I'm a big fan and I'm excited to learn
10:29	more with you for the next 15 videos here in
10:31	crash chris linguistics will be exploring language at all of
10:35	these different levels together and building our understanding of language
10:38	and each other . So when you add a stranger
10:39	, watch a rabbit hop across the field together ,
10:42	your two languages might not have a direct translation for
10:45	what you want to say about that experience . But
10:47	we can learn to understand the similarities and differences between
10:50	languages and build communication . Thanks to the tools of
10:53	linguistics . Next time we'll be asking what is a
10:56	word and what are words made of ? See you
10:59	then . Thanks for watching this episode of crash course
11:01	linguistics . If you want to help keep all crash
11:03	chris free for everybody forever , you can join our
11:06	community on Patreon .

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