Knowledge of Your Language





What does it mean to say that you know a language? Let's start out by looking at some examples that illustrate our knowledge. In this section we shall illustrate a speaker's knowledge of the phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics of his/her language:




1.2.1. Phonological Knowledge


The following examples illustrate some aspects of your knowledge of English phonology:


(1) George Bernard Shaw and the English spelling system: how do you pronounce ghoti ?


(2) English phonotactics: brick, blick, bnick, sdpick.


These examples show that you know how a word can be pronounced even if you have never heard it said before, and whether a given sound sequence is a possible sequence in English even if you have never encountered the sequence before



1.2.2. Morphological Knowledge


Your knowledge of English morphology is amply illustrated by Lewis Carroll:


(3) Lewis Carroll and Through the Looking Glass (1872) and Alice in Wonderland (1865)



Jabberwocky


Twas brillig, and the slithy toves


Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:


All mimsy were the borogroves,


And the mome raths outgrabe.


Although some of these words are non-occurring English words, you know that they are all potentially meaningful and legitimate words of English. In fact, you also know what parts of speech (category) some of these words belong to, and may even imagine what they might mean



1.2.3. Semantic Knowledge.


a. Ambiguity. Your knowledge of English allows you to discern the ambiguity (or lack thereof) of some of the sentences below:


(4) a. Flying planes can be dangerous.
b. Flying planes are dangerous.
c. Flying planes is dangerous.


(5) a. Visiting relatives can be a nuisance.
b. Visiting relatives is a nuisance.
c. Visiting relatives are a nuisance.


(6) The chicken is ready to eat.


(7) Mistrust wounds.


b. Synonymy. Or synonymy among certain others:


(8) a. John has seen Bill.
b. Bill has been seen by John.


(9) a. It was certain that Kristel would win the Best Soprano Award.
b. Kristel was certain to win the Best Soprano Award.
(cf. Kristel was certain that she would win the Best Soprano Award.)


c. Missing Information. It also allows you to fill in missing information in a systematic (i.e., constrained and not random) way:


(10) a. John is eager to please.
b. John is easy to please.


(11) a. Visiting relatives can be a nuisance to him.
b. Visiting relatives is a nuisance to him. (him = visitor)
c. Visiting relatives are a nuisance to him. (him =\= visitor