# What Linguistics Studies Languages I · Introduction to Linguistics · https://tryals.app/learn/languages-i/what-linguistics-studies ## Describing, Not Correcting Linguistics is the **scientific study of language**. It describes what speakers actually do rather than prescribing rules. | | Prescriptive | Descriptive | |---|---|---| | Question asked | What is correct? | What do speakers do? | | Evidence | Style guide | Corpora, utterances | | "Ain't" | An error | Ain't is a standard verb form in several dialects | A speaker saying **"I don't know nothing"** is not illogical. They are using negative concord, a rule found across many varieties of English. ### The levels of analysis Linguists analyse language at six distinct levels: - **Phonetics**: physical speech sounds. - **Phonology**: sound systems and contrasts. - **Morphology**: word structure. - **Syntax**: sentence structure. - **Semantics**: literal meaning. - **Pragmatics**: meaning in context. ### Competence and Performance Chomsky introduced a key distinction: - **competence**: a speaker's internalised knowledge of language rules. - **performance**: actual language production, including speech errors. Because competence is the primary object of study, linguists rely on **grammaticality judgements**. They ask native speakers whether a sentence sounds possible. Usage-based linguists challenge this split. They argue that performance data from corpora provides the only genuine evidence. > **Common pitfall:** Believing descriptive grammar means anything goes. The rules are strict: no speaker of English says *"the of house green"*. ## Practice questions 9 of this lesson's 13 practice questions, with answers. The full set is in the app. ### 1. A style guide condemns a construction that every speaker of a variety produces consistently and understands. What does a descriptive linguist conclude? A. That the construction is acceptable in speech but not in grammar B. That the guide should be rewritten to permit it C. That the speakers are making a systematic error D. That the variety has a rule the guide has not described **Answer:** D. That the variety has a rule the guide has not described **Why:** That there is a **rule** the guide missed. Errors are inconsistent by nature; a form produced reliably by a whole community and understood by all of them is being generated by a system. Note that the second option is a different claim entirely, it is advice about the guide, which is not a linguistic finding. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/what-linguistics-studies/a-style-guide-condemns-a-construction-that-every-speaker-of-a-variety ### 2. Sort each question by the level of analysis it belongs to. **Answer:** - Phonology: Why no initial ng?, Meaningful sound contrasts - Morphology: How unhappiness forms, Plural suffix base - Syntax: Why object after verb - Pragmatics: Salt query as a request **Why:** The levels are distinguished by their **units**: contrasts of sound, parts of words, arrangements of words, and the gap between what is said and what is done. The salt question is the clearest case of that gap, the sentence is literally a question about ability and is never answered as one. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/what-linguistics-studies/sort-each-question-by-the-level-of-analysis-it-belongs-to ### 3. Complete the account of the field. **Answer:** Chomsky distinguished a speaker's **competence**, their internalised knowledge, from their **performance**, what they actually produce. The level concerned with meaning in context is **pragmatics**, and the level concerned with how a language organises its sound contrasts is **phonology**. **Why:** The last two are the ones students most often swap. Semantics asks what a sentence means on its own; pragmatics asks what a speaker meant by it here. Phonetics measures the sound; phonology asks which differences the language treats as meaningful. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/what-linguistics-studies/complete-the-account-of-the-field ### 4. Negative concord, "I do not know nothing", is a feature of the grammar of several English varieties rather than a logical error. **Answer:** True **Why:** **True.** Negative concord is the norm in French, Spanish, Russian and Old English, and is used consistently in many English varieties. The "two negatives make a positive" argument imports a rule of formal logic into a system that never claimed to obey it, and if it held, *"nobody never said nothing"* would be a positive assertion, which no speaker takes it to be. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/what-linguistics-studies/negative-concord-i-do-not-know-nothing-is-a-feature-of-the ### 5. Which are legitimate kinds of linguistic evidence on the descriptive view? A. Native-speaker judgements of whether a sentence is possible B. A style guide's ruling on which form is correct C. Frequency counts from a large corpus D. Recordings of spontaneous conversation **Answer:** A. Native-speaker judgements of whether a sentence is possible; C. Frequency counts from a large corpus; D. Recordings of spontaneous conversation **Why:** The first three are observations of the language; the fourth is a social intervention *about* it. Style guides are worth studying — as evidence about attitudes, prestige and standardisation — but not as evidence about what the grammar contains. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/what-linguistics-studies/which-are-legitimate-kinds-of-linguistic-evidence-on-the-descriptive ### 6. Match each level of analysis to its basic unit. **Answer:** - Phonetics → The speech sound as a physical event - Phonology → The contrast that distinguishes words - Morphology → The meaningful part of a word - Syntax → The arrangement of words in a sentence - Semantics → Literal meaning, out of context **Why:** Pairing each level with its unit is the fastest way to keep them apart. The phonetics/phonology pair is the one worth rehearsing: two sounds can be physically different and phonologically identical, which is the whole subject of the second unit of this course. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/what-linguistics-studies/match-each-level-of-analysis-to-its-basic-unit ### 7. Linguists distinguish underlying competence from observable performance. What does this separation imply for how we evaluate slips of the tongue? A. They reflect external execution noise rather than broken rules B. They provide the primary evidence for refining systemic grammar C. They reveal temporary gaps in the speaker's internal knowledge D. They show that natural spoken language lacks structural rules **Answer:** A. They reflect external execution noise rather than broken rules **Why:** Mistaking production slips for grammar flaws confuses execution with internal knowledge. Performance errors do not alter structural rules, nor do they prove speech is anarchic. Real-time lapses simply expose physiological and processing constraints. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/what-linguistics-studies/linguists-distinguish-underlying-competence-from-observable ### 8. Grammaticality judgements are uncontroversial as evidence because they report competence directly. **Answer:** False **Why:** **False**, and the objection is a serious one. Corpus and usage-based linguists point out that a judgement about an invented sentence is itself something the speaker *does*, subject to fatigue, priming and prescriptive training. Judgements remain widely used; "uncontroversial" is what they are not. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/what-linguistics-studies/grammaticality-judgements-are-uncontroversial-as-evidence-because ### 9. Arrange these steps of a descriptive investigation in the order they are performed. **Answer:** 1. Collect utterances from speakers of the variety 2. Identify the recurring patterns in the data 3. State a rule that would generate those patterns 4. Test the rule against forms it predicts should be impossible 5. Revise the rule where the prediction fails **Why:** The fourth step is the one that makes it science. A rule that accounts for everything already collected is cheap; a rule that says *this form should be impossible*, checked against speakers who reject it, has been risked and survived. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/what-linguistics-studies/arrange-these-steps-of-a-descriptive-investigation-in-the-order-they