ILO is for the International Linguistics Olympiad

1. ILOis for the International Linguistics Olympiad • One of 12 ‘academic’ Olympiads (in order of age: Mathematical, Physics, Chemistry, Informatics, Biology, Philosophy, Astronomy, Geography, Junior Science, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Earth Science) designed to stretch competitors’ subject knowledge • 5 ‘problems’ – non “language-specific,” i.e. usually in unfamiliar or imaginary languages [2-6 hours allowed!] • Tests ‘structural linguistic’ skills – the ability to recognize and put into practice the deep ‘rules’ of language[s] • The UKLO runs in the spring – Round One in college, round Two in Edinburgh - with the aim of ‘selecting’ competitors for the ILO in Sweden next summer • SO, we’ll be looking at ‘structural linguistics’ – what languages are & how they work – to improve your understanding of languages in general, to improve your facility in the languages you study in particular, and, possibly, to enter the UKLO….

2. A is for Apple, Arbitrariness & Ox • Why is ‘A’ for ‘Apple’? • What is ‘apple’ in other languages? • So, what is the relationship between ‘A’ and ‘apple’? • For linguists, a word is a signifier • What does ‘apple’ signify? That is, whatdo you think when you think ‘apple’?

4. A is for Apple, Arbitrariness & Ox • For linguists, what you think of when you think of a word is its signified [not a thing, but an idea of a thing…] • The first principle of linguistics is [according to Saussure, who started it!] ‘the arbitrariness of the sign’ - that is, the ‘arbitrariness of the relationship between the signifier and the signified’ • Meaning? Well, meaning that we could choose ANY word to refer to ANY thing… (As long as we all agreed)

5. A is for Apple, Arbitrariness & Ox • WHAT we all need to agree on are the ‘rules’ – HOW we are going to organise our language… • So a language is a rule-governed system of relationships between signifiers • ‘A green apple’ – what is the rule for adjectival modification in English? • …and in other languages?

6. A is for Apple, Arbitrariness & Ox • What is ‘A’ ‘for’ in other languages? • In the Phoenician alphabet, from which ours ultimately derives, the ‘A’ was ‘for’ the head of an ox … • The ‘alphabet’ thus begins as a pictographicsystem, before becoming a symbolicsystem… • Cattle were common in Egypt, where Phoenician originated, just as apples were common in medieval England: • Agreed signifieds for agreed signifiers…

7. A is for Apple, Arbitrariness & Ox • If a word [or a letter, or a sound…] is a signifier and • What the word refers to is its signified • Then, using a word to refer to something is a signification • For Saussurian or ‘structural’linguists, the only useful definition of a language is ‘a system of shared significations’ • When you work out the system, you work out the language…

8. What’s the system… • … of symbol/letter correspondence here? bx’tt wx bxsx Or here? pbx’tt gxfxs wx dx

9. R is for Regularity, Roots & recognition • What does it mean when we say that a language, or a linguistic form, is regular? “I love to skink.” • When we acquire a language, what we acquire is the ability to recognise & reproduce its regular patterns If “skink” is a regular verb, what form does it take in the following…? • “He ……….. for a living!” • “They’ve tried …………., and they didn’t like it.” How many regular forms could “skink” take in the following…? 3. “John & Julie ………….. for the first time yesterday.” 4. “He has ……………, but won’t do it again!” How would you describe the ‘rule’ in each example?

10. R is for Regularity, Roots & recognition • “skink” is amorpheme- a ‘base unit’ or ‘root form’ or ‘brick’ that cannot be meaningfully divided into smaller units [or forms or bricks] – all languages are systems of relationships between morphemes • Because it is free to stand alone, linguists call it a free morpheme. • Because alterations to its form would produce an alteration to its meaning, linguists call it a semantic morpheme. • The additional ‘s,’ ‘ing,’ ‘ed’ in ‘skinks,’ ‘skinking,’ ‘skinked’ need to be bound on to something to work, so each is a boundmorpheme. • Because changing which one of these is ‘bound’ to any free morphememodifies the grammatical tense or number, linguists call each a grammatical morpheme.

11. R is for Regularity, Roots & recognition • Morphemically, nouns are also ‘regular’ or ‘irregular’: • Which ONE nouncould bemodifiedby having ALL of the followingmorphemes boundto it? Note down your answers to EACH and why they reduce as you go along… • “step……..” • “grand…….” • “……less” • “……ly” • “……board” • “……ship” • Which of thesemorphemes are grammatical/bound, and whichsemantic/free? • Howdoes each of thegrammaticalmorphemesmodify the semantic morpheme“mother”?

12. R is for Regularity, Roots & recognition • What would you know about anounto which the followingmorphemes could bebound…? • “step……..,” AND “grand……..”? • “……free,” AND “…..rich”?

13. …what’s the system here?[A Drehu/English problem from the 2008 Linguistics Olympiad!] sanctuary [holy place] bunch of bananas calendar bone church coast awl [a tool for making holes] Sunday skeleton wall drai-hmitrötr gaa-hmitrötr i-drai i-jun i-wahnawa jun ngöne-gejë ngöne-uma nyine-thin uma-hmitrötr

14. (an Austronesian language with about 12,000 speakers on Lifou Island, New Caledonia.)

15. The solution • The REGULAR PATTERN = the modifying morpheme, follows its semantic morpheme or head. • drai-hmitrötr = Sunday (holy day) • gaa-hmitrötr = sanctuary (holy place) • uma-hmitrötr = church (holy house) • ngöne-uma = wall (house border) • ngöne-gejë = coast (water border) • nyine-thin = awl (tool to poke) • jun = bone • i-jun = skeleton (multitude of bones) • i-wahnawa = bunch of bananas (multitude of bananas) • i-drai = calendar (multitude of days)

16. C is for Carroll & Chomsky • PRINCIPLE 1: arbitrariness - Saussure points out that all linguistic units are arbitrary (there is no necessary connection between any signifier & any signified) • PRINCIPLE 2: regularisation - Chomsky points out that when we acquire a language, what we acquire are the ‘principles’ or ‘rules’ of the language as well as the arbitrary symbols to which they apply • Meaning? Meaning that whenever you look at a word or phrase, your mind instantly searches for its ‘rules’ in order to make sense of it

17. C is for Carroll & Chomsky • Before Saussure, & long before Chomsky, Lewis Carroll wrote Jabberwocky: "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun  The frumious Bandersnatch!“ • What do you know about ‘Jabberwock’? How? [what rules identify it?] • What do you know about ‘frumious’? How? [what rules identify it?] • What do you know about ‘Jubjub’? How? [what rules identify it?]

18. Am I dantier than I am cloovy? (a problem from the NALCO 07 Olympiad • Jane is molistic and slatty. • Jennifer is cluvious and brastic. • Molly and Kyle are slatty but danty. • The teacher is danty and cloovy. • Mary is blitty but cloovy. • Jeremiah is not only sloshful but also weasy. • Even though frumsy, Jim is sloshful. • Strungy and struffy, Diane was a pleasure to watch. • Even though weasy, John is strungy. • Carla is blitty but struffy. • The salespeople were cluvious and not slatty. Which of the following are you (most) likely to hear? • Meredith is blitty and brastic. • The singer was not only molistic but also cluvious. • May found a dog that was danty but sloshful. What quality or qualities would you be looking for in a person? • blitty • weasy • sloshful • frumsy Explain!