English Language 1: Understanding the Sounds and Structure of English Words, Dispense di Linguistica Inglese

Scarica English Language 1: Understanding the Sounds and Structure of English Words e più Dispense in PDF di Linguistica Inglese solo su Docsity! Session 1 Prof. Marta Degani ENGLISH LANGUAGE 1 What to expect  What is this course about?  Introduction to the study of the English language from a linguistic perspective  Development of metalinguistic awareness  What will I learn in this course?  Knowledge about the sounds of English and structure of English words  Phonetics, phonology, morphology, word formation How to get there  What will the final exam be about? What will I need for that?  Written exam about the contents of the teaching sessions and the books  In order to enrol for the exam you MUST have a B2 level language certificate  On the day of the exam you MUST bring along your B2 level language certificate  What about my final grade?  The final grade will consist of an average score between the result of the written exam and the grade reported in your B2 level language certificate Written and spoken English  George Bernard Shaw once suggested that the word fish should be spelled <ghoti> <gh> from words like enough <o> from words like women <ti> from words like motion Written and spoken English  One sound, multiple spelling:  <cup>, <mother,>, <young>, <blood>  <soap>, <grow>, <old>, <rose>  <bird>, <work>, <herd>, <church>, <earn>  <bath>, <laugh> Exercise 2: spelling and sound ® Read this set of English words aloud and pay attention to the pronunciation of the vowel sound in each of them. ® Beat ® Head e Great ® Heard ® Heart ® How many vowel sounds can you identify? ed /1:/,/e/, /er/, /3:/,/0:1 Written and spoken English  The pronunciation of English words is unpredictable  The spelling system (orthography) doesn’t tell you how words should be pronounced  How can I get to know how to pronounce English words correctly?  Check the pronunciation in an English Dictionary (you must be able to decode phonetic transcriptions!)  Be aware that the same word can be pronounced in different ways in the Anglophone word (British English, American English, Australian English, Indian English….) Written and spoken English  The written form can be misleading when you look for sounds that make up words  School  How many graphemes (alphabetic symbols)?  <s+c+h+o+o+l>  How many sounds?  /sku:l/ Relation btw written & spoken forms  How can we explain inconsistencies btw spelling and pronunciation of English words?  It is mostly a matter of the sound system historical development  <meat>; <meet>  Middle English: different spelling, different pronunciations  Today: different spelling, same pronunciation  homophones  spelling is more conservative than sounds  spelling can be studied by linguists to reconstruct how the sound of a word has developed through centuries (historical linguistics) Language evolution  A language is a living entity that changes with the passing of time:  New words are created (to google)  Old words get out of use (to xerox)  Sounds of words change (long-term process):  back, dash, glad, lamp, hand  glass, dance, after  the vowel sound in the 2 lexical sets was almost the same until 1660s Exercise  Provide at least 3 pairs of English homophones (words with different spelling but same pronunciation)  Specify whether each of the following words starts with one, two o three consonant sounds (not letters!):  Dog  Cup  Ship  There  Phone  Phrase  School  Sphere