linguistic structures - Professor Binkert's Webpage - Oakland ...

dialects, different cultural patterns, and even different languages reflect different levels of human
competence, as well as the prevalent idea that grammatical structure is haphazard and unjustifiable.
Although it may be difficult to believe at this point, the study of grammar can lead to provocative
and interesting ideas about the nature of human beings and the origin of cultural diversity.
Needless to say, one cannot attain such a high level of generality about language, or anything else,
without attention to detail. Therefore, in the following chapters, students will be introduced to some
of the technical vocabulary of linguistics. The aim is not to memorize facts per se, although mastery
of some details is essential before application can begin; rather, it is to show how rigorous
investigation can lead to meaningful generalizations. Lists of memorized facts rarely stay in
people’s minds for very long, but genuine comprehension of issues does. Moreover, such
comprehension can have a significant impact on one’s life. In this regard, this text aims to satisfy
some of the major objectives of general education, which include, among other things, helping
students understand and master basic techniques for the analysis and synthesis of ideas. Such
techniques involve the ability to gather, organize, and interpret data, to separate what is significant
and interesting from what is irrelevant and trivial, and to formulate hypotheses of real explanatory
power. Effective thinking occurs when one is able to uncover the essential nature of any given
problem and to propose reasonable solutions consistent with available resources.
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