Would you still have taken LIGN 101 if it were a lower-division class?

• 1. Yes, because it’s a major requirement
• 2. Yes, absolutely
• 3. Yes, but I’m glad it counts as upper division
• 4. No, it wouldn’t have appealed to me as lower division class
• 5. No, it wouldn’t satisfy requirements I need as a lower division class

Reminders

• All grades are final seven days after release

  • All other grades are final at the start of the exam

  • Double-check everything next week!

• Clicker and SONA scores are being sorted soon

• https://savethevowels.org/exam has all the information you want

• We’ll have a study session next Week (Wednesday 3-6pm in AP&M 4301)

Linguistics 101: An Introduction to Language

Dr. Will Styler

Today’s Plan

• Your Linguistic Future

• Dostoevsky, Case, and Translation Theory

• A Life in Language

• The Secret to Great Linguistic Analysis

Your Linguistic Future

Admit it…

• You want to Major or Minor in Linguistics

• To find out more, contact linginfo@ling.ucsd.edu :)

• 

Many of you are already linguists and don’t know it yet

• Serial language learners

• Language Analyzers

• Easily distracted by odd language use

• People fascinated by the differences and similarities among languages

• If any of those things sound like you, you might be a linguist

You know who else didn’t know he was a linguist?

Dostoevsky, Case, and Translation Theory

What made Will a Linguist?

I started college as a Russian major

• I was going to be a translator!

• Then Linguistics hunted me down.

Case Systems

Grammatical Relations

How a language marks who did what to whom

English uses word order to mark grammatical relations.

• … but that’s not the only way!

Case Marking

• Use of inflectional morphemes to mark Grammatical Relations

Russian has case markers

• Each case marker corresponds to a grammatical role

• Nominative Case - “The Subject”

• Accusative Case - “The Object”

Russian Case Marking

• sobaka vidye-la koshk-u

• dog.NOM see-SG.FEM.PST cat-ACC.FEM

• “The dog saw the cat.”

• koshka vidye-la sobak-u

• cat.NOM see-SG.FEM.PST dog-ACC.FEM

• “The cat saw the dog.”

Russian Case Marking

• Ya tyebya vizh-u

• I.NOM you.ACC see-1SG

• “I see you”

• Ti myenya vid-ish

• you.NOM I.ACC see-2SG

• “You see me”

If we put the sentence “Niloo hugged the turtle” into Russian, the proper cases would be…

1. Niloo - NOM, Turtle - ACC

2. Niloo - ACC, Turtle - NOM

3. Niloo - NOM, Turtle - NOM

4. Niloo - ACC, Turtle - ACC

If we put the sentence “Niloo hugged the turtle” into Russian, the proper cases would be…

1. Niloo - NOM, Turtle - ACC

2. Niloo - ACC, Turtle - NOM

3. Niloo - NOM, Turtle - NOM

4. Niloo - ACC, Turtle - ACC

In Russian, Word order can be used for Pragmatics

• Koshka videla sobaku
  • “The cat saw the dog”
• Videla koshka sobaku
  • “The cat saw the dog”
• Sobaku videla Koshka
  • “The cat saw the dog”
• Russian is a “non-configurational” language

English has some case too!

• I see him

• I-NOM see he-ACC

• He sees me

• He-NOM see-3sg I-ACC

You know what other language has case?

Geonosian
??? - Geonosis

(… and I didn’t think I was a linguist)

… but Russian has more cases!

The Russian Case System

• Nominative Case - “The Subject”

• Accusative Case - “The Direct Object”

• Dative Case - “The Indirect Object or Recipient”

• Genitive Case - “The Possessor (and more)”

• Locative Case - “The Location (and more)”

• Instrumental Case - “The Tool (and more)”

Genitive Case

Marks possession

Genitive Case in Action

• Ya vi-zhu sharik sobak-i
• 1sg.NOM see-1sg ball-ACC dog-GEN
• “I see the dog’s ball”

Locative Case

Marks the location of events

• (this is also called the “Prepositional Case”)

Locative Case in action

• Ya zhiv-u v Californi-i
• 1sg.NOM live-1sg in California-LOC
• “I live in California”

Instrumental Case

Marks an object being used

Instrumental Case in Action

• Andres pish-et karandash-om

• Andres-NOM write-3sg pencil-INST

• “Andres writes with a pencil”

• Ya yem borscht so smetanoy

• 1sg-NOM eat borscht-ACC with sour.cream-INST

• “I eat borscht with sour cream”

Dative Case

Marks the indirect object, or recipient of an item

Dative Case

• Kevin dayot tsvet-i Lis-ye

• Kevin-NOM give.3sg Flowers-ACC.PLUR Lisa-DAT

• “Kevin gave Lisa flowers”

• Enchilad-i mne da-la Niloo

• Enchilada-ACC.PLUR 1sg.DAT give-PAST.FEM Niloo-NOM

• “Niloo gave me Enchiladas”

Dative as “Goal”

• Ya pomoga-yu Kevinu

• 1sg.NOM help-present.1sg Kevin-DAT

• “I’m helping Kevin”

• Mne zvoni-l Barack Obama

• 1sg-DAT call-past.masc Barack Obama-NOM

• “Barack Obama called me”

If we put the sentence “Jony gave Dieter some food” into Russian, the proper cases would be…

1. Jony - ACC, Dieter - DAT, food - NOM

2. Jony - NOM, Dieter - DAT, food - ACC

3. Jony - NOM, Dieter - ACC, food - DAT

4. Jony - DAT, Dieter - ACC, food - NOM

If we put the sentence “Jony gave Dieter some pellets” into Russian, the proper cases would be…

1. Jony - ACC, Dieter - DAT, Pellets - NOM

B) Jony - NOM, Dieter - DAT, Pellets - ACC

3. Jony - NOM, Dieter - ACC, Pellets - DAT

4. Jony - DAT, Dieter - ACC, Pellets - NOM

The Russian Case System

• Nominative Case - “The Subject”

• Accusative Case - “The Direct Object”

• Dative Case - “The Indirect Object or Recipient”

• Genitive Case - “The Possessor (and more)”

• Locative Case - “The Location (and more)”

• Instrumental Case - “The Tool (and more)”

• It’s actually way more complicated than this!

(Whoa! That looks like some of the argument roles we saw in lexical semantics!)

So, now you know the Russian system

• Just in case.

English can handle Nominative and Accusative.

• I saw him

  • I.NOM saw he.DAT

• … but Dative? We just can’t even.

This is a problem for translators.

(“Crime and Punishment”)

“упокой господь мертвых, а живым еще жить!”

(Upokoy gospod myortvikh, a zhivim eshyo zhit!)

• This sentence is super hard to translate.

“упокой господь мертвых, а живым еще жить!”

• “God give peace to the dead, the living have still to live!” - Constance Garnett

• “May the Lord grant rest to the souls of the dead, and let life be the realm of the living!” - David McDuff

• “May the Lord grant rest to the dead, but the living have still got to live!” - Pevear and Volokhonsky

• “God rest the dead, but still live alive!” - Google Translate (2018)

• “God rest the dead, and the living still live!” - Google Translate (2023)

Why is it so hard to translate?

Upokoy gospod myortvikh…

• out-rest-IMPERATIVE God-NOM.sg dead-ACC.pl

• The “u-” means that the rest is “from here”.

• The verb is a command, to God.

• The dead are not “recieving” rest (dative), but they’re being rested (accusative).

Upokoy gospod myortvikh…

• out-rest-IMPERATIVE God-NOM.sg dead-ACC.pl

• “God give peace to the dead…” - Constance Garnett

• “May the Lord grant rest to the souls of the dead…” - David McDuff

• “May the Lord grant rest to the dead…” - Pevear and Volokhonsky

• “God rest the dead…” - Google Translate

…a zhivim eshyo zhit

• but living-DAT.pl still to.live

• The act of living is what continues

• The living are not doing the living.

  • Dative means they are “recieving” their living.

…a zhivim eshyo zhit

• but living-DAT.pl still to.live

• “…, the living have still to live!” - Constance Garnett

• “…, and let life be the realm of the living!” - David McDuff

• “…, but the living have still got to live!” - Pevear and Volokhonsky

• “… but still live alive!” - Google Translate (2018)

• “… and the living still live!” - Google Translate (2023)

This ignores connotations not available to us, as well as the conversational context!

• (Bad idea!)

Yпокой господь мертвых, а живым еще жить!

• “God, take the dead and rest them, but those living still are given a life to live”

• … but that’s a terrible English sentence.

Which sentence do you find most pleasing to read and “English-like”?

1. “God, take the dead and rest them, but those living still are given a life to live”

2. “God give peace to the dead, the living have still to live!”

3. “May the Lord grant rest to the dead, but the living have still got to live!”

4. “God rest the dead, and the living still live!”

5. I have no opinion here.

Accuracy vs. Flow

• “God, take the dead and rest them, but those living still are given a life to live” - Will

• “God give peace to the dead, the living have still to live!” - Garnett

• “May the Lord grant rest to the dead, but the living have still got to live!” - Pevear and Volokhonsky

• “God rest the dead, and the living still live!” - Google Translate

Translation is an art, not a science

• You can’t capture Russian nuance in English, and vice versa

• All translations “favor” either the original or new language

  • Learn which you prefer, and use it.

• Good translators know to stop worrying about the details so much and just language

• Translation Theory is the branch of Linguistics that struggles with these issues

“All translations are well-meaning lies”

Doing this analysis broke me

• “How the heck is anybody supposed to translate anything?”

• “Is truly accurate translation a thing?”

• “How could I even tell if I was ‘close enough’?”

So, I took LING 101

… and I declared a Linguistics major

… and then I took Phonetics

• Then Morphology and Syntax

• Then Phonology

• LIGN 8’s Equivalent

• Then Semantics, then Pragmatics

• Then some independent studies

  • This is an option at UCSD too!

Then I realized I couldn’t picture doing anything else with my life but keep going

• I started looking at Grad schools

  • … and applying

• This is not necessarily the right choice for many, but it was for me

• I got into one of them

  • Only one 😭

  • (My application was hot garbage, though!)

I continued Grad School at CU Boulder

Linguistics Grad School

• Phonetics

• Phonology

• Morphology

• Syntax

• Semantics and Pragmatics

• Field Methods

… and whatever else sounded cool!

• Computational Linguistics

• Language Acquisition

• Diachronic Linguistics

• Deeper explorations of phonetics and phonology

• Statistics

• Seminars are a thing!

… and I attended the LSA Summer Institute

• Every two years (It’s at UMass Amherst in Summer 2023!)

• Take courses from amazing professors in interesting topics

You’ll also be put to work

• As a TA or Graduate Instructor

• Working on or managing research projects

• You’ll write large papers, alongside your coursework

Then, you’ll write a dissertation!

• A large research project where you need to advance the knowledge of the field (just a little!)

• Mine was ‘On the Acoustical and Perceptual Features of Vowel Nasality’

… and then I got a Ph.D

… and then I got a PostDoc

A Typical Linguistic Post Doctoral Fellowship

• Time to work on your own research

• Helping other folks work on theirs

• Advising Grad Students and Undergrads

• Sometimes teaching courses

• Time to get some publications and grow as a scholar

• Time to gain experience for the job market

Linguistics Jobs

Linguists have one big problem on the job market

• “Oh, you’re a linguist? Cool! How many languages do you speak?!”

• Lots of folks need linguists, but very few people know that they do or what we do!

• We’re called “Ontologists”, “Natural Language Specialists”, “Customer Feedback Analyst”, “Language specialist”, “Translation Director” and many, many more

• Here’s a page from the LSA about Linguistics Jobs

What else do linguists do?

• Check out the Linguistics Career Launch YouTube Channel

Linguists often make great data scientists

• Industry loves Linguists, as we’re great at patterns

• Linguists have experience with language data, not just numbers

• This is where the CSS program can help!

Industry loves computational linguists

• Text to Speech, Speech Recognition, NLP, and more!

  • Consider LIGN 6, 165, 167, 168 for this

• Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and more hire and work with linguists!

The Department of Defense loves linguists

• The NSA/CIA/FBI (and more!) want linguists for analysis

• Translation and language teaching like at the DLIFLC

Teaching English as a second language

• Everybody wants people to teach English as a Second Language

• Have language, will travel? Have job!

Speech Pathology and Audiology

• Speech Pathologists help adults and children having issues with communication, speech, swallowing, and voice.

• Audiologists help test, diagnose, and address many hearing disorders, and work with people to find treatments (e.g. hearing aids) which address their needs and desires.

• Both are steady, well-paid, and in demand jobs!

• For these careers, consider our Speech and Language Sciences Major!

Academic Positions

• PostDocs are increasingly common

• Also administrative and lab-management positions

• … but lots of folks want to be a Tenure-Track Professor

As a Professor…

• You have job security (if you don’t screw up!)

• You’ll do research

• You’ll teach

• You’ll do administrative stuff

• You’ll fight for grant money

• … but you’ll do all of it in pursuit of a field you love

There’s one problem with planning to be a professor…

The Linguistics Academic Job Market

The Academic Job Market is tough

• There will be 2-5 jobs per year in your subfield at well-known schools. Total.

• Competition is fierce

  • Jobs can have 100+ Applicants
  • 10-15 get online interviews
  • 3-5 visit campus
  • 1 job!

• You have to love teaching

  • Research-only jobs are very rare

• “Wait your turn, you only need one job”

  • … but boy, that sucks.

It’s not an easy path

• You’re going where the work is

  • I hope your people are mobile!

• You need to be able to tread water for a few years

• You’re taking a vow of fiscal renunciation during Grad School

  • … and you’ll make more money in industry than as a professor

After four long years on the job market, there I was

… and I love it

… but it could be

• Maybe you’ll go down the rabbit hole

• Maybe this class will do for you what 101 did for me

• … and you’ll see the true beauty of language

You’ve come a long way in this class

• … but one thing is for sure

In the future, you’ll all need to do linguistic analysis

• Perhaps as part of your teaching or research, if you decide to go the academic route

• Maybe in industry or defense, if that’s your path

• Maybe for fun, on the weekends

  • … and during the week

• You’ll want to do it well!

The Secret to Great Linguistic Analysis

Most linguistics students don’t learn this until graduate school

• Many not until a post-doc

• Some, not until they’re full professors

• Some poor souls never figure it out!

• … but you’ll know it today!

We’ll end the class like we’ve lived the class, staring at data!

• To discover the secret to Great Linguistic Analysis, you’ll need to figure out…

What is the Russian morpheme marking first person (e.g. ‘I do _____’) for these verbs?

</b>