linguistica inglese 1, Appunti di Linguistica Inglese

Scarica linguistica inglese 1 e più Appunti in PDF di Linguistica Inglese solo su Docsity! Linguistics and the components of language Linguistics is defined as the study of language system. Language is divided into levels or components. These components are conventional and arbitrary divisions of linguistic investigation. Language is divided in:  Phonology the study of the speech sounds of a particular language  Semantics the study of how meaning is conveyed in words, phrases or clauses  Pragmatics is a recent addition and is the study of functions of language and the use in context  Morphology the study of the structure or form of words in a particular language and of their classification  Syntax the study of the order and arrangement of words, it studies the structure and the types of sentences Language change and variation in English Language change, variation and history English language is subject to constant process of change which can take place suddenly, as in the case of introduction of new words, or slowly as the change of pronunciation from one generation to the next. All languages can be considered as open and dynamic entities which adapt to the history and culture of the speech communities in which they are in use. Language change happens through the adoption and diffusion of a certain language form or variant. As a consequence, equivalent variants may coexist within a speech community for ether a long or short time until one predominates over the other. The study of language variability commonly deals with how language varies among its speakers, when the speakers use different variants, and what the social and linguistic significance of such variation is. In major modern language we can find standard and non-standard varieties, the standard one is considered the language par excellence in terms of prestige. Non-standard varieties are considered unsystematic. According to sociolinguistics, all the varieties of a language have the same status. The categories of correctness and appropriateness should not be applied to languages. However, language varieties suffer from social, ethnic and racial prejudice. Sociolinguistics has mainly contributed to the understanding of how language behaviour and language variability are influenced by social factors, or social variables such as social class, social network, sex\gender, ethnicity and age and by the context in which the interaction takes place. Language behaviour is conditioned by factors like language attitude towards a specific language or variety. Language is also determined by their speakers; languages encode a particular social meaning which is determined by speech communities they are associated with and their functions and domain of use. Some languages are perceived as more prestigious and useful than others. The use of such a prestige variety represents a means which allows both social mobility and access to cultural values which are perceived as prestigious. Language change and variation do not emerge exclusively in relation to their social and structural status at a given time, or synchronically but they take place diachronically, that is along a historical continuum or ordered chronological sequencing of events. For historical language change we have two main approaches: 1. Comparative linguistics (language reconstruction) which is based on the concept of proto-language, usually a reconstructed language. For example, English is a Germanic language which originated from Indo- European 2. The history of language which is the study of the changes undergone by a single language over the centuries. Literature on the history of language has usually distinguished between external and internal causes for change. External causes are extralinguistic or social factors. Traditional histories of English have mainly focused on the history of the standard variety and its speakers and have conceived the history of English is divided into three main periods: 1. Old English 2. Middle English 3. Modern English: modern English is divided into early modern English and late modern English Types of language change Phonological change deals with any mutation within the sound system of a language and ca be both sporadic and regular. Sporadic change refers to changes which affect the sounds of a limited number of words. Regular change implies changes leading to the re-organization of the phonological inventory of a language. A further distinction concerning phonological change refers to the differentiation between an unconditioned and a conditioned change. An unconditioned change refers to sound change regardless of the phonetic context in which it happens. A conditioned change refers to a phonological change which is conditioned by a specific phonetic environment. Morpho-syntactic change Morpho-syntactic change refers to any change in both the morpho-phonematic and syntactic systems of a language. The main mechanisms of morpho-syntactic change are the following:  Analogy the process of modelling a language form in relation to an already existing form of that language.  Hypercorrection speakers’ awareness of the social value of the different language varieties within their speech community  Backformation the creation of a language form which is derived by subtracting constituents rather than adding ones, as would commonly occur in word-formation same mark or symbol, in many other cases there is no one-to-one correspondence. Phonemes may create minimal pairs which is a set of different words consisting of the same sound except for one sound. Minimal pairs are used to check the phonemes, we create the same environment and we change just one grapheme and if there is a different meaning because of that sound that means that there is a phoneme (which has no meaning). In some case graphemes and phonemes share the same mark or symbol, in other cases there is no correspondence because many graphemes are silent or because there is another pronunciation. Another difference is between homophones and homographs:  Homophones are words pronounced the same but spelled differently (bear/bare; meat/meet)  Homographs are words spelled the same but pronounced differently (lead/lead) Phoneme symbols are enclosed within slank brackets (//) language unit that do not have their own meaning but can create a meaning distinction between different words. Graphemes are marked by angle brackets (<>) written symbols representing a sound. The phonetic transcription of words is enclosed in square brackets ([]) the sound we can hear in natural speech of a given language. The most used phonemic notation is International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a set of symbols used for representing the phonemes and sounds of all languages. English phonology Phonology is the study of abstract sounds and describes the organization of the sound system of language. Suprasegmental phonology deals with syllables, rhythm and intonation phrases. The central task of phonology is the identification and the description of the smallest distinctive units. The nature of phonemes is abstract, it can be considered as sound type or a mental representation of the distinctive sounds of a language. Some sounds in a speech are influenced by other sounds, this influence is called phonetic variants or allophones and in transcriptions are represented by diacritic symbols and for example /t/ before a vowel is aspirated more than /t/ before a consonant. The pronunciation of British English In English there are 44 phonemes, they are divided into:  12 Vowels are oral, voiced and egressive sound produced without any obstruction to the airstream coming from lungs  8 Diphthongs are composed by two vowels  24 Consonants are produced with an egressive flow of air coming out of the mouth or the nose accompanied by obstruction in the articulators. Consonants can be voiced or voiceless depending on vocal cords Another important sound is the schwa, it is a sound of English which does not have a proper phonemic status because it occurs only in unstressed syllables. It is the most central vowel, the lips are neither rounded nor spread, all articulators are in a relaxed or neutral position. Vowels To describe a vowel, it is important to analyse the position of the tongue, and we need to consider only one criterion the place of articulation. Depending on the vertical distance between the tongue and the palate, a vowel can be: open /æ ʌ aː ɒ /, half open /e ɜː ɔː/ or close /ɪ iː ʊ uː/. All vowel is voiced and oral. Vowels are sounds articulated with no obstruction of the air stream, that is with open articulation. There is a lack of central closure of the air stream, though the tongue may come into contact with the teeth on the sides. Vowels are sounds that vary in pitch which is determined by the quality of the sound wave. Pitch is modified by changing the shape of the resonating chamber by changing the position and shape of tongue and lips and lowering or raising the velum. Vowels constitutes the nucleus of the syllable and they are necessary. A vowel can also be short or long and length is indicated by length marks, it depends on whether the vowel is in a stressed or unstressed syllable. Long vowels are classified as tense and short vowels are classified as lax. The position of the lips may be rounded, spread, neutral. The schwa It is a central lax, sound. It is pronounced in a relaxed position and occurs in unstressed syllables. Diphthongs A diphthong is a combination of two vowels, the first element is normally more audible than the second. We have two kinds of diphthongs: closing (/eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /aʊ/, /әʊ/) and centring (/ɪә/, /eә/, /ʊә/). Closing diphthongs are called in this way because the second element is a close vowel, centring diphthongs because the second element is the schwa. Consonants Consonants are classified according to four features: 1. The state of the glottis: voiced or voiceless 2. The state of the velum: lowered or raised 3. The place of articulation 4. The manner of articulation English consonants may be oral (the air escapes through the mouth) or nasal (the air escapes through the nose). Only three consonants are nasal /m, n, ŋ/. The place of articulation: The bilabial consonants are /p, b, m, w (semi-vowel/) and both lips are brought together. The labiodental consonants are /f, v/ the lower lip and the upper teeth are kept close to each other. The dental consonants are /θ, ð/ involve the contact of the blade of the tongue behind the upper teeth. The alveolar means that the tongue is in contact with the alveolar ridge Palato-alveolar the tongue is in further back position Palatal the tongue touches the palate Velar there is a contact between tongue and soft palate The manner of articulation: The fricatives are made by forcing air through a narrow gap so that a hissing noise is generated. This may be accompanied by voicing in which case the sound is a voiced fricative, such as /z/ or it may be voiceless. Plosive the air is blocked and then explodes Affricate there is a stop and a fricative at the same time Nasal the air passes through the nose Liquid produced with a certain amount of obstruction but not enough to be a fricative Lateralthe tongue is in a central position and the air passes through the sides Glide it is referred to semivowels, because they are continuant and voiced Fortis vs lenis Voiceless plosive consonants /p/, /t/, and /k/ are strong sounds so they are called fortis. Voiced plosive consonants /b/, /d/, and /g/ are weak sounds so lenis. This affects the length of the associated vowel sound, which tends to be longer after a weak plosive consonant. The syllable The syllable is the phonological unit made up of one or more phonemes. Minimum syllable is made up of one vowel. The number of sounds in a word is not usually the same as the number of letters. For example, in the word duck there are 4 letters and 3 sounds. The word night has the scheme CVC, frog CCVC, bee CV, dog CVC. Some syllables are said to be open because they end in vowel. There are syllables that end in a consonant are closed. The most common type of syllable in English is the one which is made up of consonant +vowel + consonant. Stress in word and multi-word units It is the relative prominence given to a syllable. The prominence is the result of pitch, loudness, duration and quality. In phonetic transcription indicated by a small vertical line preceding the stressed syllable. For example: money [‘mʌni] Morphemes can be combined to make up words and contribute to the construction of meaning and the creation of new words. Morphology is divided into two main branches:  Inflectional morphology: deals with patterns of word structure that are determined by the role of words in sentences  Derivational morphology: creates new words with different meaning (the adverb quickly from the adjective quick) A morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit of meaning or grammatical function. A morpheme cannot be further divided into smaller units. Morpheme are the minimal, indivisible element of words that are capable of carrying semantic content or grammatical function. Morpheme has two necessary conditions: 1. Must be identifiable from one to another in a similar position 2. Must contribute in some way to the meaning of the whole word A morpheme is internally indivisible, has internal stability, is externally transportable and has positional mobility. Morphemes are represented within curly brackets {} Basic terminology Base: an element to which additional morphemes are added. It is also called a stem. More than one morpheme can be added. Root: a morpheme around which words can be built up through the additional of affixes Affix: a bound morpheme which attaches to a base Prefixes attach to the front of a base Suffixes to the end of a base Infixes are inserted inside of a root Free morpheme: a morpheme that can stand alone as an independent word are single units. They can be functional and lexical Bound morpheme: a morpheme that cannot stand alone as an independent word, but must be attached to another free morpheme. They have little meaning when alone but they undeniably bring meaning to the new word and are therefore considered units of meaning. Morphemes and syllables A word may consist of one or more morpheme and each morpheme has a stable meaning. Inflection It is the process by which affixes combine with roots to indicate basic grammatical categories such as tense or plurality. it is the process of adding general meanings to existing words, not the creation of new words. Words do not change class. In English there are only inflectional suffixes which are added. Affixation Affix are bound morphemes and there are two types of affixes: 1. Inflectional: in English there are only 8 inflectional suffixes Nouns Verbs Adjectives -s Plural ‘s possessive -s Third person singular -ed Past definite -ing Present participle/ gerund -ed Perfect participle -er Comparative -est superlative 2. Derivational: derivation is the process through which existing words become new words, words change classes in English, derivational affixes are either prefixes or suffixes Semantic classes of prefixes in English  Time: pre-, after-  Number: tri-, multi-  Place: in-, inter-  Degree: super-, over-  Size: micro-, mini-  Negation: un-, anti-  Privation: a-, un- Derivational suffixes in English  Nominalizer (from a verb to a noun) -ment, -er, -ation, -al, -ance/ence (from an adjective to a noun) -dom, -ness, - ity  Verbalizer (from an adjective/noun to a verb) -lfy, -ize, -ate, -en  Adverbializer (from a noun/adjective to an adverb) -ward, -ly, -way(s)  Adjectivalizer (N>A) -y, -ous, -ful (V>A) -ive, -able, -ful, -ent/ant Derivation Buildbuilder employemployee politicpolitical Compounds 2 words= 1 words Ex. Greenhouse adjective + noun= adjective/noun Reduplication It is a process similar to derivation, in which the initial syllable or the entire word is duplicate. Often used in children’s language, reduplication can be formed with two meaningful parts. It has many different functions, it can express: disparagement, intensification, diminution, onomatopoeia, alternation. We can identify 3 kinds of reduplication: 1. Exact reduplication: papa, mama 2. Ablaut reduplication in which the vowel alternates while the consonants are identical: zig-zag 3. Rhyme reduplication in which the consonants change while the vowel remains the same: hob-nob Conversion or functional shift A word may change its class with no accompanying change in form if it is used in a particular syntactic context. A functional shift involves the conversion of one part of speech to another without the addition of a suffix Phone (n)  to phone (v)  phone contacts (a) The most common are: V>N N>V A>V A>N PRT>V Compounding It is the combination of nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs or prepositions. A compound is the combination of two or more free nots, we cannot predict the meaning of the compound. Back formation In back formation, speakers derive in a morphologically simple word from a form which they analyse, on the basis of derivational and inflectional patterns existing in English, as a morphologically complex word. Editionedit Shortening There are three types of shortening:  Acronyms  Initialism  Clipped forms They have in common the deletion of sound segments without respect to morphological boundaries. Ad/advert advertisement rehab rehabilitation Blends A blend involves two process of word formation, compounding and clipping. Two free words are combined and blended, usually by clipping off the end of the first word and the beginning of the second word. Sm(oke) + (f)rog  smog How can we divide words? Words are divided according to meaning. Root form + affixes Root form = morpheme = basic units Possessive case The Saxon genitive can be used alone with a place reference (see you at Tom’s) The possessive form is used with nouns referring to people, groups of people and animals. Other usages include the subjective genitive, the objective genitive and the descriptive genitive. The possessive form is also used to refer to shops, restaurants, churches and colleges, using the name or job title of the owner. Syntax When we study syntactic structures, we focus on a specific word order. Sentences are arranged through <group of words> called constituents. The number of words does not correspond to the number of constituents, it is a string of words which syntactically behaves as a unit (a phrase, a clause or a sentence) 1. Sentences= periodi It is the largest unit in syntax. It is usually though not entirely satisfactory, defined as a string of words that express a proposition and that begins in a capital letter and ends in a full stop. A sentence can be grammatically acceptable or grammatically unacceptable if the sentence complies to grammar rules or not. 2. Clauses= proposizioni A sentence within a sentence. For example that “he will be ok” is a subordinate clause within the sentence “I know that he will be ok” Matrix clause the main clause in a sentence to which other clauses are subordinate 3. Phrases= sintagmi Phrasea string of words that behaves as a constituent (unit) and has a head as its principal element We distinguish: