Chapter 1: Thinking Like a Linguist
The foremost property of mental grammar is that it is generative: it allows each speaker to create new words and sentences that have never been spoken before. The mental grammar generates these new words and sentences according to systematic principles that every speaker knows unconsciously.
Check Yourself
1. What does it mean to say that mental grammar is generative?
- Every child inherits a mental grammar through their genes.
- Some languages can generate concepts that are impossible to express in other languages.
- The principles of mental grammar allow us to form completely novel sentences, and to understand them when we hear them.
2. The systematic principles of English phonology generate some word forms but not others. Which of the following words could be a possible word in English?
3. The systematic principles of English syntax generate some sentences but not others. Which of the following sentences is not possible in English?
- You ain’t going nowhere.
- Herself have wrote these excellent book.
- Sam said she needed to speak to Chris and me.
- This expedition aims to boldly go where no expedition has gone before.
Video Script
Probably the most fundamental property of human language is creativity. When we say that human languages are creative, we don’t just mean that you can use them to write beautiful poems and great works of literature.
When we say that human language is creative, we mean a couple of different things:
First, every language can express any possible concept.
That notion might surprise you at first. I often see magazine articles or blog posts that talk about supposedly untranslatable words that exist in other languages but that don’t exist in English. A quick search online leads me to these gems:
Kummerspeck is the German word for excess weight gained from emotional overeating.
In Inuktitut, iktsuarpok is that feeling of anticipation when you’re waiting for someone to show up at your house and you keep going outside to see if they’re there yet.
And in Tagalog, gigil is the word for the urge to squeeze something that is irresistibly cute.
So if you believe that kind of article, it might seem like some concepts are restricted to certain languages. But think about it: Just because English doesn’t have one single word that means “the urge to squeeze something cute” doesn’t mean that English-speakers can’t understand the concept of wanting to squeeze something cute. As soon as I described it using the English phrase “the urge to squeeze something cute” you understood the concept! It just takes more than one word to express it! The same is true of every language: all of the world’s languages can express all concepts.
The other side of the creativity of language is even more interesting. Every language can generatean infinite number of possible new words and sentences.
Every language has a finite set of words in it. A language’s vocabulary might be quite large, but it’s still finite. And every language has a small and finite set of principles for combining those words.
But every language can use that finite vocabulary and that finite set of principles to generate an infinite number of sentences, new sentences every single day.
Likewise, every language has a finite set of sounds and a finite set of principles for combining those sounds. Every language can use those finite resources to generate an infinite number of possible new words in that language.
Because human languages are all capable of generating new words and generating new sentences, we say that human grammar is generative.
Remember that when we use the word “grammar” in linguistics, we’re talking not about the prescriptive rules that your Grade 6 teacher tried to make you follow, but about mental grammar, the things in our minds that all speakers of a language have in common that allow us to understand each other. Mental grammar is generative.
The final, and possibly the most important thing to know about the creativity of language is that it is governed by systematic principles. Every fluent speaker of a language uses systematic principles to combine sounds to form words and to combine words to form sentences. In Essentials of Linguistics, we’ll use the tools of systematic observation to discover what these systematic principles are.
FAQs
LANGUAGE GENERATIVITY. Language generativity might be described as the ability to produce sentences never before said, and to understand sentences never before heard—to ''speak with mean- ing,'' and ''listen with understanding'' (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes & Roche, 2001, p. 3).
What is meant by creativity in linguistics? ›
Linguistic creativity is primarily the activity of making new meaning by a speaker (in the. broadest sense of the user of language in all forms and in all mediums), and the re- creation and re-interpretation of meaning(s) by a receiver. Linguistic creativity is secondar-
What is an example of generativity of language? ›
One of the most common examples of generativity in language was created by linguist Noam Chomsky. He put forward the sentence "colourless green ideas sleep furiously" as an example of a grammatically correct sentence, but one that has no understandable meaning.
What is the main focus of generative linguistics? ›
Generative Grammar is a theory in linguistics that aims to describe the implicit knowledge that humans possess about the structure of their native language. It provides a set of formal rules that can generate all the grammatically correct sentences of a language and exclude those considered incorrect.
Why is generativity important for language? ›
The foremost property of mental grammar is that it is generative: it allows each speaker to create new words and sentences that have never been spoken before.
What is an example of generative linguistics? ›
The most famous example of generative grammar is by its theoretical founder, Noam Chomsky. It is the following sentence. "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." While non-sensical in the its meaning, it makes sense grammatically. This sentence has become the standard by which his theory has been evaluated.
Why is creativity important in language? ›
Why is creativity important in language classrooms? Language use is a creative act. We transform thoughts into language that can be heard or seen. We are capable of producing sentences and even long texts that we have never heard or seen before.
What is creative aspect in linguistics? ›
The notion of creativity has been used by many theorists to describe that aspect of language which enables a language user to use language in a novel way or to devise new forms of language. Chomsky especially uses the \creative aspect of language use\" to describe the innovative uses of language.
What are the 3 major parts of creativity? ›
These three components include (1) expertise, (2) creative-thinking skills, and (3) motivation, as shown in Figure 2.
What is an example of generativity? ›
What is an example of generativity? Caring for your children by guiding them through life is an example of generativity. Volunteering, mentoring, engaging in community activism, and fostering other people's growth at work are additional examples of generativity.
Generativity is the propensity and willingness to engage in acts that promote the wellbeing of younger generations as a way of ensuring the long-term survival of the species.
What does it mean when a language is generative? ›
In linguistics, generative is used to describe linguistic theories or models which are based on the idea that a single set of rules can explain how all the possible sentences of a language are formed.
What is the main focus of linguistics? ›
Linguistics is the scientific study of language, and its focus is the systematic investigation of the properties of particular languages as well as the characteristics of language in general.
Who is the father of generative linguistics? ›
Generative grammar began in the late 1950s with the work of Noam Chomsky, though its roots include earlier approaches such as structural linguistics.
What are generative approaches to language learning? ›
The generative approach to second language (L2) acquisition (SLA) is a cognitive based theory of SLA that applies theoretical insights developed from within generative linguistics to investigate how second languages and dialects are acquired and lost by individuals learning naturalistically or with formal instruction ...
What is the best definition of generativity? ›
Generativity is the propensity and willingness to engage in acts that promote the wellbeing of younger generations as a way of ensuring the long-term survival of the species.
Which of the following is an example of generativity? ›
Caring for your children by guiding them through life is an example of generativity. Volunteering, mentoring, engaging in community activism, and fostering other people's growth at work are additional examples of generativity.
What does "generative" mean in language? ›
adjective [ADJ n] In linguistics, generative is used to describe linguistic theories or models which are based on the idea that a single set of rules can explain how all the possible sentences of a language are formed.
What is generativity vs stagnation? ›
Generativity refers to making a positive impact and contributing to the world, such as through raising children, mentoring others, or engaging in meaningful work. Stagnation, on the other hand, represents feeling stuck and unproductive, lacking a sense of purpose.
