This lesson provides a foundational understanding of what language is, the field of linguistics that studies it, the core components of language structure, and the basic mechanisms involved in producing speech.
The objectives of this lesson
The objectives of this lesson are to understand the fundamental aspects of language and speech production. Specifically, upon completion of this lesson, you should be able to:• Understand the definition of language as a complex human capacity for communication utilizing arbitrary symbols and hierarchical structures to produce an infinite number of utterances.
• Grasp the scope of linguistics as the scientific study of language, including its subfield psycholinguistics, which explores the psychological and neurobiological bases of language.
• Identify and describe the core areas of theoretical linguistics.
• Recognize that speech production is a complex physiological process involving various organs of the vocal tract.
• Identify the two main aspects used to classify phonemes based on articulation: place of articulation and manner of articulation, as well as the concept of phonation/voicing.