Scarica Mediating cultures II year e più Appunti in PDF di Linguistica Inglese solo su Docsity! MEDIATING CULTURES • LINGUISTICS = is the scientific study of human language including the units, nature, structure, and modification of language. Edward Sapir -> Language leads you to social reality, it conditions reflections on social problems and processes. In fact, linguistics regards: and We have two linguistic theories that are considered as antithetical: The formal-mentalist one by Noam Chomsky (a linguist who worked in the cognitive psychology) and the functional-communicative one by Michael Halliday (linguist who worked in sociology). 1) FOCUS ON LANGUAGE AS COGNITION In Chomsky’s Transformational-Generative Grammar, the aim of linguistics is not simply to focus on how language is structured, but also to understand language structure in order to understand the processes of the human mind. Languages have a double structure: language differs from each other only at the level of their surface structure (with different rules in pronunciation, word formation), but their deep structure is the same. To explain the innate human capacity to learn the syntactic structures of language, Chomsky postulates a mechanism of the brain, an hypothetical Language acquisition device (LAD) whose presence (in the human brain) explains why, language development in children, occurs so spontaneously. It offers a common grammatical principles, or Universal Grammar (UG), and some variable parameters adapting principles to the varying settings’ of the different languages; In Chomsky’s perspective, language is a cognitive, abstract knowledge developing in the human mind completely detached from the social contexts in which it is used. Text → In his work Language and mind the question is: “Why study language?” -> One reason is that language is a mirror of mind, because it is a product of human intelligence, created in everyone by operations not linked to will or consciousness. 2) FOCUS ON LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATION In Halliday’s Systematic-Functional Grammar, the aim of linguistics is to study language as social semiotic: according to Halliday language is not a biological evolution of the human being’s brain (as in Chomsky), but as a sociocultural evolution; so “language as social semiotic” means as a system of signs that have been developed to serve the communicative needs of people living in a social context. He found three important language functions, that are realized differently in different languages, because they reflect different “social semiotic” of different communities: Cognition = how language structures thoughts in the human mind; Communication = how language interacts in society. Indeed, as we acquire language during childhood, we also discover: Our identity as individuals = to refer to ourselves and our ideas or opinions Our identity as social beings = by communicating with other people. 1) The Ideational Function : the representation of the world, giving things a name. 2) The Interpersonal Function : interaction , where language serves to establish and to maintain social relations; the individuals, by their interaction are identified and reinforced. 3) The Textual Function : linguistic organization of the message. THE EXPERIENTIALIST PERSPECTIVE : However, a more recent Cognitive-Functional approach to grammar, brings together these two grammars: a common rationale. Ronald Langacker, who, in his two-volume work Cognitive Grammar (Volume two is titled "Descriptive Application), considers language as systematically grounded in human cognition since it is a conceptual system, that emerges from people’s everyday experience of their own physical and sociocultural environments. • SYNCHRONIC AND DIACHRONIC STUDIES OF LANGUAGE There are two main temporal dimensions of linguistics: 1) SYNCHRONIC LINGUISTICS: studies the present state of a language, as such it ignores language evolution and supports the concept of arbitrariness: the Swiss linguist Ferdinand De Saussure claims that words are only arbitrarily associated with the real things they refer to, in fact different words in different languages indicate the same thing. → for example: in Italian penna , in French stylo , in English pen. Moreover, Saussure asserts that language is “organised thought coupled with sound: an idea is fixed in a sound and the sound becomes the sound of an idea”. This view brought Saussure to formulate his theory of the sign: in which the relation between the words (the signifiers) and its concept (signified) is essentially arbitrary, motivated only by social conventions. 2) DIACHRONIC LINGUISTICS is the study of the historical development of language through different periods of time; it studies the evolution of a language and, as such, the sounds of languages are originated from a non-arbitrary common root, reproducing people’s initial physical experience of the words, through the 5 senses (hearing, touch, taste, smell, sight). → for example: the noise of a dog, in Italian abbaiare, in English to bark, in French aboyer The cognitive linguist Eve Sweetser presents a Cognitive structure accounting for non-arbitrary meaning associations between: - a conceptualisation of the experience of real object and events; - the sound of words associated with objects and events. In contrast to the Saussure’s point of view (by which the relation between an auditory image (signifier) and a concept (signified) is totally arbitrary), the Experientialism demonstrates the contrary with ONOMATOPOEIC WORDS They derive from the same root-sound /b/ MODULE 4 Grammar is not simply a decontextualized set of rules, but it reflects the mental categorization of the experience of the world developed over time by a community of people. This mental, internal grammar becomes external grammar when the same community of people needs to use it in social interaction. Grammar is formed by 3 fundamental dimensions, that are linked to each other. SEMANTICS = explores the mental, internal grammar of a language. It studies the sense relations, organized into mental propositions that conceptualize microstructures (at the basis of sentences) and macrostructures (at the basis of texts). Semantics focuses on cognitive dimension. We can ascribe the Semantics of the verb (in terms of Tense and Aspect) to the Halliday’s Ideational Function of language. Verbs are grammar classifications indicating processes of the real world and, Tense, is the time described by a verb, shown by its grammatical form. These processes can be: mental (to think, to imagine), material (to go, to eat), verbal (to speak), relational, behavioural and existential. There are 3 main tenses in English (that’s 3 semantic categories of time in reference to a process): past, present and future. The present tense principally indicates: - habitual process, where the speaker considers regularity -> I travel to London every month - process that started in the past and continues in the present, the speaker considers the duration that is normally signalled by prepositions such as: -> I have travelled to London for 2 years So between these 2 cases, the present time is involved but there’s a different perspective of the speaker; he emphasises different aspects. Therefore, we can say that the first aspect (indicating regularity) is the Simple Aspect; the second one (indicating duration) is the Perfect Aspect. SYNTAX = studies the way in which linguistic elements (such as words) are put together to form sentences (phrases and clauses) and then, connected with each other into a text, to express mental sense relations. So it explores the internal grammar; it focuses on the structural dimension of language. We ascribe Verb syntax to the Interpersonal Function of language. An English Verb Phrase (composed of the verbs of the sentence and any modifiers of verbs, including adverbs, prepositions) is introduced by 3 persons in the singular and 3 persons in the plural which cannot be omitted! These persons represent the syntactic categories through which the Logical Subject is actualized. Between a person and the Verb Phrase, must be syntactic agreement → This agreement, in the + form, is signalled by an -s ending at the 3rd person that signals that the verb is in the Present Tense; for this reason it is called “Present Tense Inflection” PRAGMATICS = is the area of linguistics that studies the social, external grammar of a language. Etymologically, it means “practical uses of language in actual contexts”, in fact pragmatics studies what people mean when they actualize sentences into utterances and texts into discourses in social life. It focuses on the communicative dimension. Pragmatics concerns communication, it focuses on the kind of message that a speaker intends to communicate. Language is manipulated consciously, and this mechanism is called “Critical Discourse Analysis”. TENSE AND ASPECT • TENSE = is the semantic category, the way we conceive in our mind a process that takes place at a certain period of time. Verbs indicating processes of the real world, can be principally: - mental (to think, to imagine…); - material (to go, to eat…); - verbal (to speak, to tell…). Processes occur at a particular time: in the past, present or future. PRESENT TENSE is a process occurring in a period of time that includes also the present time. It principally indicates: - an habitual process during the current period of time; - a process started in the past and that continues in the present. ASPECT = indicates different perspectives on a process. The verb has 2 aspects: 1) Simple Aspect = the period of time over which the regular process takes place is left unspecified; 2) Perfect Aspect = the process takes place within a concluded period of time an the focus is on its duration. Again, the Aspect is SIMPLE if it indicates regularity; the one that indicates duration -> PERFECT. • PRESENT SIMPLE → focusing on the current time in which the process occurs. The perspective is that of considering a period of time as PRESENT: “This morning, this year” but not “last week, yesterday”. • PRESENT PERFECT → the action started in the past, but it lasts also in the present. The time-perspective is on the duration of process as a whole, a complete (“perfect”) period of time that includes past and present but, again, is perceived by the speaker as PRESENT. The duration is signalled by some prepositions: - Over : indicating the whole period, including the present time; - For : indicating the duration, up to the present time; - Since : indicating the starting point, that continues up to the present time. It might be a Metaphorical use of the Present Perfect when the process took place in the past and has current relevance in the present. F.e. She has wrote that romance -> In this case, duration is not chronological but “metaphorically” psychological (depending on the speaker’s subjective perception of a past action as relevant to the present time). Present perfect is formed by the Present simple of have, followed by the Past Participle of the main verb. I HAVE WORKED Is the Finite Verb Is the Non-Finite Verb - → It’s necessary to insert the negative specifier “not” between the auxiliary verb have and the main verb. I HAVE NOT WORKED ? → It shows again a subject-auxiliary inversion movement. HAVE I WORKED? Standard-English speakers use the Present Perfect: when they want to indicate present relevance of a past process, because the focus is on the experience that the subject has built so far. MODULE 5 • PAST tense + Past Simple in regular verbs is formed by adding -ED to the infinitive without “to”. ∞ To wash -p.s.-> washed There are some exceptions, such as: - verbs ending in ‘e’ add only -ED ; - in verbs ending in ‘y’ following a consonant, the ‘y’ becomes ‘I’ before adding ED - ‘y’ following a vowel does not change. ? Of regular and irregular verbs is formed with DID + S + INFINITIVE without “to” Past simple is used: - For a past actions when the time is given; - When the time is asked about; - When the action clearly took place at a definite time even if this time is not mentioned. • PAST PERFECT: syntax and semantics + Past Perfect is constructed with the auxiliary had followed by the Past Participle of the main verb. I HAD WORKED ? → Subject-auxiliary inversion movement: Had I worked? Semantics : Pragmatics : The time-correlation in semantics is also reflected in the Pragmatics of actual discourse, where Past Simple and Past Perfect are always correlated into a time-sequence to convey the idea of the experiential relevance of a past action to a subsequent past action. Standard-English speakers use the Present Simple: when they want to express general truths, because Present Simple’s Denotation is to semantically represent mere facts; while Connotation is the presentation of factual truths without any subjective comment from the Speaker. When we use it, we focus objectively on a present fact (Pragmatic function). The unique tense-marker is constituted by the 3rd person singular -s. Finite Operator Non-Finite Predicator It is used for an action: - which was still continuing at that time. I had worked in that company for 2 years - stopped at that time or some time before it I was 18 years old when I moved to Rome The Past Perfect indicates a time in the past that is more remote than the time signalled by another verb in the Past Simple within the same sentence. She leaves on Sunday - She is leaving on Sunday This structure is used to express: 1. The Subject’s intention to do (or not to do) a certain future process, but without the idea of a definite arrangement expressed by the Present Continuous → She’s going to be a surgeon when she grows up 2. The Speaker’s prediction of a process expected to happen in the near future; prediction determined by the Speaker’s feeling of certainty based on present evidence → She’s going to cry! Look at her eyes! The AUXILIARY is a special category of verbs that accompany the main verbs and their actual function is to indicate Aspect. They are always Finite since they carry Tense, they take neither the -s (for the 3rdp. singular of the Present Tense) nor -ed (for the Past Tense). They signal the Present Tense, but they also mark a chronological Future Time. The 2 modals which the more convey the notion of futurity, are: WILL and SHALL, that are also inflected in the Present Tense. -> FUTURE SIMPLE with M. It doesn’t exist in English, it is a modalized form of Present Simple; this traditional grammar label is only used to facilitate our discussion. Syntactically, the Affirmative structure (that is the same for all the persons) is formed by the modal auxiliaries WILL or SHALL + the ∞ (without to) of the Main Verb. She will study She shall study The Negative structure is formed by the addition of not between the Modal aux. verb and the main verb. She will not study -> (contracted struct.) She won’t study She shall not study -> She shan’t study 1) The Affirmative Interrogative structure shows the typical Subject auxiliary inversion movement Will she work? Shall she work? 2) The Negative Interrogative structure shows 2 versions: Will/Shall she not work? Won’t/Shan’t she work? The action of “leaving” is already arranged and the Subject “she” will no change her mind. The action of “leaving” is arranged, but there are more probabilities that “she” changes her mind This notion of Future expressed by the Cont. Aspect, is even more emphasized by the construction of: F. EXPRESSED BY To Be Going To ASPECTUAL AUXILIARIES : Be – Have Respectively marking the Continuous and the Perfect Aspects DUMMY AUXILIARY: Do That signals the Simple Aspect of the main verb But there's a third kind: THE MODALS Semantically, WILL and SHALL are not interchangeable because each of them conveys a different meaning: - WILL indicates intention and volition -> I will study (I want to study) - SHALL indicates determination and obligation -> I shall study (I’m determined/obliged to study) -> FUTUR PERFECT with M. Also Future Perfect doesn’t exist in English, but this concept of a complete process projected in the future time is rendered by means of the Present Perfect, modalized by the aux. SHALL and WILL. Syntactically, the Affirmative structure of the Future Perfect (that is the same for all the persons) is formed with the modal auxiliaries WILL or SHALL + the Perfect ∞ of the Main Verb. She will have studied She shall have studied She wil/shalll not have studied She won’t/shan’t have studied + Will/Shall she have studied? - Will/Shall she not have studied? - Won’t/Shan’t she have studied? Semantically, the Future Perfect is used for a process that, at a given future time, will be in the past, or will just have ended. So it’s used with a time expression beginning with by (by a year, by a month…) -> By next year, they will have married -> FUTURE SIMPLE CONTINUOUS with M. Syntactically, Future Simple of “to be” + Present Participle of the Main Verb Will / Shall + be I will/shall be studying Semantically, it has 2 uses: 1) As an ordinary continuous form indicating a process that starts before a given point in time and probably continues after it. Only that, in this case, the time of the process is in the future. Next Sunday, at this time, Karl will be opening the new restaurant. 2) As an unintentional future process, which will occur in the normal course of events. She’ll be coming back home tomorrow (because she normally lives in Milan) -> FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS with M. Syntactically, it contains aux. of 3 different types: the modals SHALL/WILL, the Perfect HAVE and the continuous BE. So it’s formed with: Will/Shall + Have Been + Present Participle of the Main Verb She will have been studying Semantically, it can be used: 1) When the process indicated by the main verb is continuous By the end of the year, she will have been living here for 20 years = per 20 anni continui 2) When the process is emphatically expressed as a continuous process By the end of the year, she will have been playing tennis for 20 years = costantemente o non