Geoff Nathan — "Linguist"

Geoff Nathan, Waye State University Professor of Linguistics, above with President Fred Ollison III, was the guest speaker at the May 16 luncheon meeting of Grosse Pointe Rotary.

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. In the gathering of data, it was found that languages can be really different from each.  This includes the sounds and structure. For example, in Japanese the verb is last in a sentence, in English it follows the subject, while in Hebrew it is always near the beginning. It is very hard to say how a language changes over time. For example, our current English is much different than early modern English (“hallowed be thy name”) which is much different than early English, which we would not even understand. 

The “parts” of linguistics are: 

1) sounds,

2) words,

3) syntax (grammar),

4) semantics (meaning),
5) historical (how it changes over time) and

6) social (reaction to what is being said).  

When speaking, don’t break the conventions of the language for the location/audience. It is the social judgments and reactions that allow one to be understood.

(Photo by George R. McMullen Jr.)