Riassunti : The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Sintesi del corso di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Riassunti : The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! PART II ENGLISH VOCABULARY CHAPTER 8 ABBREVIATIONS The fashion for abbreviations can be tracked back over 150 years. In 1893 in the New York Evening Tatler it was written that loafers and gentlemen of the fancy were starting to use a species of spoken shorthand. The writer was referring to word such as OK (‘all correct?), PDQ (‘pretty damn quick’)- both of them have lasted-GT (‘gone to Texas’),LL (‘liver loafers’), and many other forms introduced, often with an humorous or satirical intent, by society people. During the time the use of abbreviations has come and gone in waves, but never totally absent. Nowadays it has been eclipsed by the emergence of abbreviations in science, technology, and other special fields, such as cricket, baseball, drug trafficking, the armed forces, and the media. The reason for using abbreviations are plenty. One is the desire for linguistic economy. Furthermore abbreviations enable to create a more synthetic style of speaking and writing. Knowing the typical abbreviations of a precise field makes you also be part of that specific group. They are mainly use in the technological field where words, such as ROM, RAM, DOS, and WYSIWYG are used. In case you need to check them up, this is a clear sign that you don’t belong to this group. In fact, all the people who are keen on this kind of things can get really annoyed when they speak with someone who tends to extend all the words instead of using abbreviations. Many abbreviations have also entered the common way of speech, which means that it could sound really strange to expand words such as BBC,NATO,USA,AIDS, because they are more known in their abbreviated form. Indeed, sometimes the extended version can also sound too sophisticated to be really understood (this also makes them perfect to be asked in quiz-games). TYPES of ABBREVIATIONS INITIALISM : they are also called alphabetisms due to the fact that are items which are spoken as individual letters. The vast majority of abbreviations belongs to this category. Not all use only the first letters of the constituent words : PhD, for example, uses the first two letters of the word philosophy, and GHQ and TV take a letter from the middle of the word. Other examples are : BBC,DJ,MP,EEC, and USA. ACRONYMS : they are initialisms which are pronounced as single words, such as NATO, laser, UNESCO ... the letters of such items can’t be separated by periods (this is a great contrast between initialisms and acronyms, because in initialisms the presence of punctuation can be easily found especially in older styles of English). However, there are many linguistics who don’t make any kind of distinction between acronyms and initialisms and they use the former word to name both of them. CLIPPING : a part of a word which serves for the whole, such as ad and phone. There are two chief types (one illustrated by ad and the other by phone). In one case the first part is kept, but in others only the middle part of the word is maintained (fridge, flu). There are also clippings which retain material from more than one part of the word, such as maths (UK), gents, and specs. Then we have Turps which represents a curiosity because it adds an –s. Several clipped form forms also show adaptation, such as fries (from French fried potatoes), Betty (from Elizabeth), and Bill (from William). BLENDS : a word which is made out of the shortened forms of two other words, such as brunch ( breakfast + lunch), smog (smoke + fog). Scientific terms frequently make use of blending (bionic), as do brand names and fashionable neologism. AWKWARD CASES : abbreviations which do not fall clearly into the above four categories. Some forms can be used either as initialism or acronyms. Some can form part of a larger word, using affixes. Some are used only in writing (Mr, St- always pronounced in full in speech). FACETIOUS FORMS : TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday) ; CMG (Call Me God); KCMG (Kindly Call Me God) (or Knight Commander of St Michael and St George) ; GCMG (God Calls Me God) (or Grand Cross of St Michael and St George); AAAAAA (Association for the Alleviation of Asinine Abbreviations and Absurd Acronyms). “The Acronyms, Initialisms, and Abbreviations Dictionary” published by the Gale Research Company contained over 400.000 entries in its 11th edition (1987). PROPER NAMES It is still not sure if proper names should enter the English lexicon. We do not usually count them as true vocabulary. On the other hand they cannot be excluded from the English language because in certain ways they are very important most of all when we talk about the English culture and history. However, proper names should be known by foreign speakers because they have to be able to translate in English words like name of towns or names of people. Furthermore, there are names which form part of the idiomatic history of an English-speaking community (Billy the Kid, The Mayflower, William the Conqueror...) and others which have taken on an additional sense (The White House : 'the US government)(Fido : 'any dog'). For all these reasons it is very difficult to decide if words with capital letters should be considered in the lexicon. Words like 'Bible' can be found written with or without capital letter, it depends on the book in which we find them. Allowing in just a proportion of the proper names, though, considerably increases the size of the lexicon. Some words which begin with capital letters have a language specific form ( Christmas, January, the Moon...). Others are felt to be independent of English, or any other language, and would seem to be more at home in an Encyclopaedia (Alpha Centauri, Diplodocus...). HOW LARGE IS YOUR LEXICON? When we talk about the extension of someone's lexicon we have to take into account two totals : one reflecting active vocabulary (lexemes actively used in speech or writing) and the other reflecting passive vocabulary (lexemes known but not used). LEXICAL STRUCTURE Most English vocabulary arises by making new lexemes out of old ones - either by adding an affix to previously existing forms, altering their world class, or combining them to produce compounds. AFFIXATION There are three types of affix: Go so we took her before the roots or a stem of a word (prefixes), those which occur after (suffixes), and those which occur within (infixes). English does not have affixes in large numbers. Not all affixes have a strong creative potential: the Old English -th ending, for example, is hardly ever used now to create a new words. On the other hand, there are tens of thousands of lexemes which are either exist or are awaiting creation through the use of the ending -ness. A SAMPLING OF SUFFIXES A number of them have a meaning which is fairly easy to state : -ess, for example, means 'female of'. Some have several meanings : -ette can mean 'female of', 'small version of', or 'substitute for'. Some I have a highly abstract meaning, difficult to define precisely: one of the meanings of -ery is 'the quality or state of having a particular trait'. Many suffixes also change the word's grammatical status : the -ify ending turns the noun beauty into thr verb beautify, and the -ing ending turns the concrete noun farm into the abstract one farming. In this respect, suffixes differ from prefixes, which rarely cause words to change their classes. INFIXIES Many languages and make great use of the infixes call mum I fixes are we sure are replaced within the stem of a word to express such notions as tense, number, or gender. English has no system of infixes, but people do from time to time coin words into which other forms have been inserted. 57 VARIETIES OF PREFIX The prefix in-, for example, becomes il- before words beginning with I/l (as in illiberal). Some prefixes have more than one meaning.  NEGATION : a- -theist, -moral; dis- -obey, -believe; in- -complete, -decisive; non- -smoker, - medical; un- -wise,-helpful  REVERSAL : de- -frost, -fraud; dis- -connect, -infect; un- -do, -mask  DISPARAGING : mal- -treat, -function; mis- hear, .lead; pseudo- -intellectual  SIZE or DEGREE : arch- -duke, -enemy; co- -habit, -pilot; hyper- -market, -card; mega- -loan, - merger; mini- -skirt, -bus; out- -class, -run; over- -worked, -flow; sub- -normal, -conscious; super- -market, -man; sur- -tax, -charge; ultra- -modern, -sound; under- -charge, -play; vice- - chair, -president  ORIENTATION : anti- -clockwise, -social; auto- -suggestion, -biography; contra- -indicate, -flow; counter- -clockwise, -act; pro- -socialist, -consul  LOCATION and DISTANCE : extra- -terrestrial, -mural; fore- -shore, -leg; inter- -marry, -play; intra- -venous, -national: pan- -African, -American; tele- -scope, -phone  TIME and ORDER : ex- -husband, - president; fore- -warn, -shadow; neo- -Gpthic,-classical; paleo- -lithic, -botany; post- war, -modern; pre- -school, -marital; proto- -type, -European; re- - cycle, -new  NUMBER : bi - -cycle, -lingual; demi- -gpd, -tasse; di- -oxide, -graph; mono- -rail, -plane; multi- - racial, -purpose; poly- -technic, -gamy; semi- -circle, -detached; tri- -maran, -pod; uni- -sex, - cycle  GRAMMATICAL CONVERSION : VERB to ADJECTIVE ( a- -stride, -board); NOUN to VERB (be- - friend, -witch; en- -flame, -danger). WILL IT BURN? The prefix in- has a locative or intensifying meaning, such as inflate and ingredient. But it also has a negative meaning. The famous case is inflammable, which derives fron inflame - that is, an inflammable object will burn. However, because so many people have interpreted the form to mean 'non-flame'- that is, it will not burn- there has been a gradual change in usage. These days, objects tend to be identified using the contrast of flammable vs nonflammable (or inflammable vs noninflammable). CONVERSION Lexemes can be made to change their word class without the addition of affixes - A process known as conversion. The items chiefly produced in this way are nouns, adjectives, and verbs (especially thr verbs which come from nouns and nouns which come from verbs). Not all the senses of a lexeme are usually carried through into the derived form. CONVERTED  VERB to NOUN : a swim/hit/cheat/bore/show-off/drive-in  ADJECTIVE to NOUN : a bitter/natural/final/monthly/regular/wet  NOUN to VERB : to bottle/catalogue/oil/brake/referee/bicycle  ADJECTIVE to VERB : to dirty/empty/dry/calm down/sober up  NOUN to ADJECTIVE : it’s cotton/brick/reproduction  GRAMMATICAL WORD to NOUN : too many ifs and buts; that’s a must; the how and the why  AFFIX to NOUN : ologies and isms  PHRASES to NOUN : a has-been/free-fro-all/also-ran/down-and-out  GRAMMATICAL WORD to VERB : to down tools/to up and do it. COMPOUNDS It is a unit of vocabulary which consists of more than one lexical stem. It appears to be two or more lexemes present, but in fact the parts are considered as a single item, which has its own meaning and grammar. It is pronounced as a unit with a single main stress and it is used grammatically as a unit (for example to create the plural). The unit is also signalled buy the orthography, but this is not a foolproof criterion. The two parts can be bound by a hyphen or are printed without space, then there is no difficulty. In all the other cases we have to look carefully at the meaning of the sequence and the way it is grammatically used. This problem occurs especially in American English, which uses fewer hyphens than does British English. Compounds are most readily classified into types based on the kind of grammatical meaning they represent. ANGLO-COMPUNDS-O-MATICS There is an interesting formation in which one of the elements does not occur as a separate word. These forms are usually classical in origin, and are linked to the other element of the compound by a linking vowel, usually -o-, but sometimes -a- or -i-. They are traditionally found in domains of science and scholarship.  FIRST ELEMENT : agri- -culture, -business; bio- -data, -technology; micro- -chip, -electronics; - Euro- -money, -feebleness; psycho- -logy, -analysis; techno- -phobia, -stress  SECOND ELEMENT : -aholic work-, comput-; -athon mar-, swim-, read-; -matic coffee-, wash-o-; -rama sports-a-, plant-o-. OTHER TYPES OF WORD-FORMATION BACK-FORMATION It's the process through which a shorter word is obtained by deleting an imagined affix in a longer word. Example : editor, looks as it covers from edit; television gave rise to televise ... The words created by using this type of word-formation can be coined because they meet a real need but sometimes they are just playful formations ( as when a tidy person is described as couth, kempt, or shevelled). BLENDS A lexical blend takes two lexemes which overlap in form, and welds them together to make one. Usually the elements used can be still recognise. Example : motor + hotel=motel; breakfast + lunch =brunch ... In most cases, the second elements gives the meaning of the word (a brunch is more a lunch than a breakfast). Blending's popularity increased in the 1980s when it got used in commercial and advertising contexts. REDUPLICATIVES A lexeme, which contains two identical or very similar constituents (goody-goody, din-din ...). Usually it's normal for a single vowel or consonant to change between the first constituent and the second (see-saw, walkie-talkie ...). Reduplicatives are used in a variety of ways : some suggest alternative movements (flip-flop, ping- pong ...); since simply imitate sounds (ding-dong,bow-wow ...); some are disparaging (dilly-dally, wishy-washy ...). Not many words are coined by using this way. On the other hand, it has also some penalties : not least, the slander it takes up. The Lexicon deals only with the central vocabulary of the language but it requires a book of nearly 1,000 pages. SEMANTIC FIELDS A fruitful notion in investigating lexical structure is the semantic or lexical field - a names are of meaning in which lexemes interrelate and define each other in specific ways. The task is not straightforward : some lexemes seem to belong to fields which are very difficult to define, or which are vague; others seem to belong to more than on field, and some lexemes seem to fall midway between two fields. There is also the question of how best to define a semantic field. THE THESAURUS It's an alternative possible approach to lexicography. Thesauri are based on the notion of grouping lexemes thematically - a notion which can be tracked back to 16th-century schemes for the classification of all human knowledge. Francis Bacon and John Wilkins wore essays which outlined a way of dividing everything into a small number of major areas, each being progressively subclassified until all concepts are dealt with in their appropriate place. Such attempts at a universal hierarchy fell out of favour until the 19th century, when scientific interest in taxonomy became a dominant feature of the age, and the botanical metaphor of the tree cane to be applied to language as well as to natural history. ROGET’S THESAURUS First published in 1852. It divides the lexicon into six main areas : abstract relations, space, the material world, the intellect, volition, and sentient/moral powers. Each area is then progressively subclassified, giving a total of 1,000 semantic categories. He added a short alphabetical index, but it was left to his son, John Lewis Roget, ti develop this in the 1879 edition into a major feature of the book. In modern editions, the index takes up as many pages as does the thematic classification. PETER MARK ROGET He was born in Soho, London. In 1808 he moved to London, where he held various medical posts, and was active in helping to found London University, he also became the first Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Russel Institution. He contributed to many encyclopaedias and journals. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and also of the Royal Society, where he eventually took up the post of Secretary. He started on the Thesaurus project in 1849 and after three years of intensive work, the book was published, and was a remarkable success. His son, John Lewis Roget, took over ad editor, and his son, Samuel Romilly Roget, continued the family editorial connection. NEW THEMATIC MODELS A Thesaurus acts as a complement to the traditional dictionary. By contrasts, in a Thesaurus we have a meaning in mind, and wish to check on the lexemes available to express it. It has obvious limitations : it does not provide and definitions; it says nothing about the stylistic levels at which the lexemes are used : formal and informal, as items belonging to technical, professional, domestic, regional, and other varieties; there is no principled basis to the way lexemes are organised within every paragraphs. Furthermore, people always have the feeling that, even though no lexeme is listed for the meaning they have in mind, one nonetheless exist, but have been omitted by accident. THE VISUAL DICTIONARY The Macmillan Visual Dictionary (1992). A book largely composed of nouns. 800 pages of diagrams covering 600 subjects, it is an informative guide to the use of some 25,000 terms. It presents detailed illustration, which add meaning to what would otherwise be a random listing of terms. LEXICAL STRUCTURE How are the semantic or lexical fields structure? We can image to organise them along two intersecting dimensions :  On the horizontal dimension, we sense the relationship between lexemes in a sequence. Or linguistic intuition tells us that a certain lexeme tended to occur only with other specific ones but not with others.  On the vertical dimension, we sense the way in which one lexeme can substitute for another, and relate to it in meaning. We might replace one lexeme by another of similar meaning ( a synonym); or by one of contrasting meaning (a antonym). We might replace (ex.) automobile by a lexeme of more specific meaning (a hyponym), such as Ford, or by one of more general meaning (a hypernym), such as vehicle. Or, of course, we might replace automobile by a lexeme which has nothing to do with it in meaning at all. The predictable links between lexemes are called sense relations, and they are at the core of any account of lexical structure. INVESTIGATION COLLOCATIONS there are two useful concepts in the study of collocations : there is a central lexeme, or node, surrounded by a fixed amount of language, a span, within which the search for collocations takes place. Often, collocational studies look only at the lexemes which are immediately adjacent to a node, or at those which fall within three or four places on either side of it. Predicting lexemes Lexemes come together randomly or predictably. For example, 'I like' gives us no clue about which lexeme will come next. It is up to the individual to choose. Such sequences as (I) like potatoes or like films are said to be 'free combinations' of lexemes. They are not collocations, because there is no mutual expectancy between the items. By contrast, the lexical items involved in a commission are always to some degree mutually predictable, occurring regardless of the interests or personality of the individual user. (Ex. commit a murder, monumental ignorance ...). Collocations may occur, moreover, with apparent disregard for the observable situation to which they relate. Collocations cannot be predicted from a knowledge of the world. All that is required, for a sequence of lexemes to be described as a collocations, is for one item to ' call up' another, in the mind of a native speaker. Sometimes the predictability is weak, sometimes it is strong. When sequences are so highly predictable that they allow little or no change in their lexical elements, it is not very illuminating to analyse theme as collocations, but they are usually referred to as fixed expressions, or, idioms. Lexical phrases There are survival assembled sequences of items which have been called sentence stems, composit forms, or lexical phrases. This field of study is fairly recently, so terminology is not yet fixed. We adopt the last of these terms : lexical phrases. They are chucks of language in which all the items have been pre-assembled (Ex. it seems to me ..., would you mind..., on the one hand... on the other hand..., and... lived happily ever after). Such phrases are used frequently in both speech and writing, but they are especially important in conversation, where they perform a number of roles (expressing agreement, summing up an argument, introducing an example, or changing a topic). The full analysis of international functions of this kind forms part of the study of pragmatics. IDIOMS Two central features identify an idiom. The meaning of the idiomatic expression cannot be deduced by examining the meanings of the constituent lexemes. And the expression is fixed, both grammatically and lexically. ASSOCIATIVE RESPONSES It is important to distinguish between collocations and associative responses. A lexeme might bring to mind all kinds of free associations, but only those, which are linguistically predictable sequences known by native English language users are considered collocations. TYPES OF LEXICAL PHRASES There are four main types :  POLYWORDS : short phrases which function very much like individual lexemes. They cannot be varied, and their parts cannot be separated. In a nutshell By the way The lexeme at the top is the superordinate term, or hypernym (Greek 'above' + 'name'). Hyponymy is the core relationship within a dictionary. The most illuminating way of defining a lexeme is to provide a hypernym along with various distinguishing features (an approach to definition, which can be tackled back to Aristotle). It is usually possible to trace a hierarchical path through a dictionary, following the hypernyms as they become increasingly abstract, until we arrive at such general notions (essence, being, existence) that clear sense-relations between the lexemes no longer exist. At any point along this path, a lexeme can be seen to have a hyponymic relationship with everything above it, though we usually take seriously only those involving successive levels. Furthermore, there are many lexemes which belong to no hypernym. Incompatibles When we want to include one meaning within another, we talk about hyponymy. When we want to exclude one meaning from another, we talk about incompatbility. Under this heading are grouped sets of lexemes which are mutually exclusive members of the same superordinate category. Daffodil, tulip, rose, and pansy, shown on the facing page, are examples, because they are all hyponyms of the same hypernym (flower). What this means can be seen by comparing these two sentences: I am thinking of a single flower and it is a daffodil and a rose. I am thinking of a single flower and it is a daffodil and a prize-winner. The first sentence fails to make sense because daffodil and rose are incompatible. The second sentence succeeds because daffodil and prize-winner are not; they are compatible. Other sense relations Other kinds of meaning relationship are much less widespread than synonymy, antonymy, and hyponymy, and they apply to restricted sets of lexemes. PARTS AND WHOLE The relationship is not as obvious as it may seem : in particulate, there is a strong tendency for the relationship to be acceptable only between adjacent items in a chain of more than two items (door- house-village : it would be most unusual to say that a door is a part of a village). On the other hand, certain chains do permit a relationship between non-adjacent items (cuff-sleeve-shirt). White some chains permit this and others do not is unclear. One distinction has been drawn between those parts which are an essential feature of an entity and those which are optional (referred to a normal male body : an arm is an essential feature, while a bread is not). There is also an uncertain boundary between allowing something to be a 'part' at all, as opposed to an 'attribute'. Part-whole relationship can be seen in many areas of the lexicon :  Clothing : zip, button, hem, collar, lining, cuff; (hem : orlo; lining : fodera, imbottitura)  Food : stalk, leaf, root, husk, shell, bone, seed; (stalk : gambo, stelo; husk :guscio, buccia)  Vehicle : wheel, brakes, engine, door, steering wheel; (brakes : freni; steering wheel : volante)  Animal : hoof, mane, leg, feather, claw, tail; (hoof : zoccolo; mane : criniera; feather : piuma; claw : artiglio)  Container : top, lid, door, side, handle, back; (lid : coperchio; handle : manico)  House : bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, roof, window, door. SERIES The number system is unique, because its teens are members of an open-ended series in which the place of each item is defined by mathematical rules. We might be tempted to refer to dico items as a hierarchy, but the number sissies is different : from a lexical point of view, 2 is not always 'higher' than 1. There are other lexical series which are not open-ended; the commonest are the days of the week and the months is the year, which are cyclical in character : we reach the end of the series then we start again. HIERARCHIES A lexical hierarchy is a graded series of lexemes in which each item holds a particular rank, being 'higher' or 'lower' than adjacent items (military ranks : sergeant is 'higher' than corporal). They often reflect relationships between people, as in the cafe of military ranks or church seniority. Notions of quantities are also important, especially in relation to units of measurement. Some hierarchies also represents levels of abstraction. MEAKING SENSE : THE DEFINITION It is the linguistic mechanism which brings everything together. It is a special type OSs sentence which relates all the relevant aspects of a lexeme's meaning, enabling us to understand it. They are listed in dictionaries, sometimes using a full sentence, sometimes in an abbreviated form. The basic structure has been known since the time of Aristotle, who distinguished two factors : a general category to which a word belongs, and the specific features or attributes which distinguish that word from related words (cow-dog : general category : animal; distinguished attributes : mooning - barking). In mature definitions, several attributes may be required, often involving both formal distinguishing features and functional ones. SEMANTIC FUZZINESS Definitions are not already as precise as we would like them to be, largely because the entities and events which we want to talk about in the real world are not always clear and determinate. It is not always possible to give a watertight definition of a certain lexeme in everyday language. For the most part, we tolerate a great deal of imprecision in daily interaction. Only in special cases, such as an Act of Parliament our a legal conflict, is it necessary to be truly precise. The more abstract the notion, the more difficult it is to arrive at a watertight lexical definition. Everyday language contains name expressions which introduce imprecision into what we say : typically, roughly, practically, in the region of, thereabouts, well nigh, within an ace of, verging on, virtually, perhaps, usually, invariably, sort of, etc. CHAPTER 12 LEXICAL DIMENSION A single lexeme simultaneously contains information relating to several linguistic dimensions : historical dimension, the structural dimension, the regional dimension, the social dimension, the occupational dimension ... The lexicon is a sensitive index of historical, social, and technological change. THE LOADED LEXICON The depression of a lexeme is its dictionary meaning. A deviation is the objective relationship between a lexeme and the reality to which it refers. It identifies the central aspect of lexical meaning, which everyone would agree about - hence, the concept of a 'dictionary definition'. By contrast, connotation refers to the personal aspect of lexical meaning - often, the emotional associations which a lexeme incidentally brings to mind. Connotations very according to the existence of individuals, and are to some degree unpredictable (unlike collocations). On the other hand, because people do have some common experiences, many lexemes in the language have connotations which would be shared by large groups of speakers. When a lexeme is highly charged with connotations, we commonly refer to it as 'loaded'. The language of politics and religion is full of such loaded expressions (capitalist, fascism, radical, democracy, politician; priest, dogma, pagan, orthodox, sect, heresy, fundamentalist). The language of science and law attempts to avoid vocabulary which is highly connotative. In general, the more a domain or topic is controversial, the more it will contain loaded vocabulary. CONNOTATIVE FUNCTIONS Connotations can play an important role in explaining the way in which lexemes are used. A group of synonyms, for example, cannot by definition be distinguished in terms of their denotation, but they usually display noticeable differences of connotation. Connotations are also an important means of conveying personal attitude and point of view. SNARLING AND PURRING The American writer on semantics, S. I. Hayakawa, distinguished between 'snarl' words and 'purr' words, when discussing connotations. The most ferocious snarl words raise distinct issues, and are best discussed separately under such headings as inventive and taboo. But there are many other words which carry negative or unfavourable connotations, as well as many which carry positive or favourable one. When we join a new social group, it seems we are much influenced by its swearing norms. Swearing is contagious. The commonest swearing pattern, always depends for its effect upon an audience being present, and varies in intensity according to the swearing habits of the participants - social swearing diminishes all round if a non-swearer is present. Annoyance swearing is different; this occurred as a reaction to stress, regardless of audience, and becomes more frequent as conditions become more difficult. However, when a situation is extremely stressful, there is no swearing at all. Swearing is s sign that a stressful situation is bearable, and indeed may be a factor in helping to reduce stress. It raises the interesting hypothesis that those who swear suffer less from stress than that who do not. BLOODY On 28 May 1714, Jonathan Swift commented, on one of his letters to Stella, that 'it was bloody hot walking today'. Almost exactly 200 years later, the Daily Sketch off 11 April 1914 repost a sensation, when Mrs Patrick Campbell has to say the line 'Not bloody likely' for the opening of Shaw's Pygmalion. The literal use of the word can be traced back to Old English, and was common in Elizabethan drama. Its later use as an intensifier (very) has never been satisfactorily explained. Because of the popular belief that it might be profane, the term started to be used only by the lower classes as a sweat-word. It had certainly begun to fall out from grace in Britain by the end of the 18th century, when it was recorded as part of underworld slang, and dictionaries began to refer to it as 'vulgar'. It was definitely common sweat-word by the end of the 19th century, called a 'horrid word', and printed as b----y. The word became a major social issue only in Britain. It never gained popularity in America, and in Australia it became so frequent that it quickly lost its pejorative associations. The 'great Australian adjective', as it was called towards the end of the 19th century, ceased to be regarded as swearing by the 1940s, and was often heard in respectable settings. This contrasts with the situation at the time in Britain, where the Lord Chamberlain's Officer was still excising the word from plays submitted to it, and people were being fined. But times were changing, and indeed The Times printed it in full in 1941. Jargon It is itself a loaded word. It is defined as 'the technical vocabulary or idiom of a special activity or group', but the more precise and widespread definition is : ' obscure and often pretentious language marked by s roundabout way of expression and use of long words'. Usually jargon is said to be a bad use of language, something to be avoided at all costs. No one ever described it in positive terms. The up side The reality is that everyone uses jargon. For example, all jobs present an element of jargon, which workers learn as they develop their expertise. Each society grouping has its jargon. The phenomenon turns out to be universal - and valuable. It is the jargon element which, in a job, can promote economy and precision of expression, and thus help make life easier for the workers. It is also the cited linguistic element which shows professional awareness and social togetherness. When we have learned to command it, jargon is something we readily take pleasure in. It can as pave, variety, and humour to speech. Furthermore, we are jealous of this knowledge because to know the jargon of a specific group enables us to enter in it. The down side In the other hand, jargon often had such a bad press mostly because it can exclude as well as included. When the subject matter is one where we feel implicated, and think we have a right to know, and the speaker uses words which act as a barrier to our understanding, then we start to complain; and if we suspect that the obfuscation is deliberate policy, we unreservedly condemn, calling down public derision upon it. Usually advertising, political, and military statements have been especially criticised in recent years by the various campaigns for Plain English. In these domains, the extent to which people are prepared to use jargon to hide realities is a ready source of amusement, disbelief, and horror. It is so easy to 'slip into' jargon, without realizing that the others are not understanding what we are saying. It is also temptingly easy to slip some jargon into our expression, to ensure that others do not understand. People like to be 'in', to be part of an intellectual or technical elite; and the use of jargon, whether understood or not, is a badge of membership. Jargon, also, can provide a lazy way into a group or an easy way of hiding uncertainties and inadequacies : when terminology slips plausibility from the tongue, it is not essential for the brain to keep up. Indeed, it is commonly asserted that politicians and civil servants have developed this skill to professional levels. The Doublespeak campaign During the 1970s in the USA, there was a marked increase in concern about the easy jargon was being used to gm confuse or deceive by people in power. In 1971, the National Council of Teachers of English passed two resolutions on language. 1. On Dishonest and Inhumane Use of Language : that the National Council of Teachers of English fine means to study dishonest and inhumane users of language and literature be advertisers, to bring offenders to public attention, and to propose classroom techniques for preparing children to cope with commercial propaganda; 2. On the Relation of Language to Public Policy : that the National Council of Teachers of English fine means to study the relation of language to public policy, to keep track of, publicize, and combat semantic distortion by public officials, candidates for office, political connections, and all those who transmit through the mass media. In 1973 the Council decided on its way forward, forming a Committee on Public Doublespeak. The Committee focused on classroom activities and in professional awareness, publishing a newsletter and other materials; but its highest public profile came with the birth of the annual Doublespeak Awards in 1974. WHAT IS DOUBLESPEAK? In the view of the Committee Chair, it's 'language which pretends to communicate, but really doesn't. It is Language which makes the bag seem good, the negative seem positive. It is language which avoids our shifts responsibility, language which is at variance with its task or its purported meaning. It is Language which conceals or prevents thought'. Such language is not the product of carelessness or sloppy thinking; rather, it is the result of clear thinking. The claim is that this language has been carefully designed to change reality and to mislead. The campaign to date has been remarkably successful. But no one is suggesting that the problem is anywhere near being solved. GOLDEN BULL AWARDS These are the British equivalent of the Doublespeak Awards, organized by the Plain English Campaign and the National Consumer Council. THE ORWELL AWARDS It should not always be bad news. There have also been efforts to reward those who have helped to direct public attention to the issues, and who themselves use language well. These were introduced by the National Council of Teachers of English to recognize a work which has made an outstanding contribution to the critical analysis of public discourse. A similar concern to develop positive initiatives is found in the UK, where in 1990 the Pain English Campaign introduced the Crystal Mark scheme to recognize clarity in written documents. The choice of the this title, it is believed, does not derive from the name of any linguistic author living or dead. Political corectness Some of the most loaded words in the language are those associated with the way society talks about itself, and especially about the groups of people whom it perceives to be disadvantage or oppressed. The most sensitive domains are to do with race, gender, sexual affinity, ecology, and (physical or mental) personal development. During the 1980s, an increasing number of people became concerned to eradicate what they saw to be prejudice (especially language prejudice) in these areas. The label racialist was always known from the turn of the century, and racist from the 1930s. Sexist was added in the 1960s, and followed ya series of others -ist trend which focused in real or imagined areas of linguistic discrimination. Many of the critics were members of progressive or activist groups (e.g. advocates of minority rights), especially in universities, and thus, as the movement grew, attracting hard-line extremists alongside moderates, it drew down upon itself the antagonism of conservative academics and journalists. By the 1990s, this hard-line linguistic orthodoxy was being referred to, pejoratively, as political correctness (PC). Anyone who used vocabulary held to be 'politically incorrect' rushed severe condemnation by PC activists. The word black, for example, was felt to be so sensitive that some banned its use in all possible contexts (including such instances as blackboard and the black pieces in chess). The generic use of Man was widely attacked. Mentally handicapped people were to become people with learning difficulties. Disabled people were to be differently abled. Third World countries were to be developing nations. The term buzz word is also used to describe such a development, and in some ways is a more appropriate term, with its suggestion of excitement, activity, and change - the features of any fashion. The use of affixes has come to be an important feature of vogue words in recent years. The -gate of Watergate has retained its popularity into the 1990s, producing hundreds of expressions. Euro- in the early 1990s also achieve vogue status, being attached to almost anything which has a European Community application. 1980s include -athon, -mega, -aid, -speak, and all the -isms and -ists. The trouble with vogue words is that they are transient and unpredictable. Slogans Originally, the word slogan was used to describe the battle-cry or rallying-cry of a Scottish clan. Today, the intention behind modern slogans is much the same - to form a forceful, catchy, mind- grabbing utterance which will rally people, in this cafe to buy solvent, or to behave in a certain way.  In their linguistic structure, slogans are very like proverbs.  Sentences tend to be short, with a strong rhythm.  They often have s balanced structure, especially if they get at all lengthy.  There can be striking use of figurative language.  Frequent use is made of alteration and rhyme.  And several mimic a conversational style. Slogans are an essential part of all campaigns - political, safety, protests, health, environmental, and so on. Indeed, one of the first steps in any campaign is to think up a good slogan, and some companies run regular competitions to obtain fresh ideas from the public. Graffiti The word graffito originally referred to a drawing or inscription scratched on an ancient wall. In the present century, the name has e to be used for any spontaneous and unauthorized writing or drawing on walls, vehicles, and other public places. It is typically obscene or political in character, but a great deal of humour and popular wisdom can also be found, which has fitness the basis of several collections by folklorists and humorists. Graffiti are often occasional, in character, responding to current events and preoccupations, such as an election or a famous scandal. Most graffiti, however, beat no relation to s particular time or place. The same themes recur, over the years, as do some of the favourite formulae of the graffiti-writers. Several general characteristics can be observed.  There is s great deal of straightforward praise or invective, for its against particular gangs, religious groups, political parties, protest groups, etc. The group's symbols or logos often play a prominent role in the design;  A large amount of space is devoted to obscenity and dirty jokes in general, as is only to be expected from data which originated on lavatory walls;  A common tactic is to respond to a well-known quotation or slogan. Biblical wording are frequently used as are commercial slogans;  Graffiti dialogues also exist, as writers react to each other;  Puns and word play abound. There are usually of the category that might charitably be described as execrable, but they are sometimes highly ingenious. WHO WUZ HERE? Two of the longest-standing graffiti are Kilroy and Chad, both of World War 2 origin, and sul being drawn around the world in the 1990s. KILROY Kilroy began in America. He may have been a Massachusetts shipyard inspector, James Kilroy, who in 1941 was marking the phrase on equipment to show he had checked it. Or he may have been a Sergeant Francis Kilroy wise Sunday at a Florida air base was anticipated by the notice Kilroy will be here next week. CHAD Chad (also known as Mr Chad) appeared in Britain early in the War, always accompanied by a standard phrase of the type 'What, no ---?'. He turns up, often under a different name, in several countries. A popular view is that the face grew out of a diagram, such as that of an alternating wave form, which could have been part of a lecture to military personnel. The name Chad was chiefly Royal Air Force; Private Snoops was the Army equivalent, and The Watcher was often found in the Navy. Theories about its origins are also highly speculative : they include the view that it drives from the name of a forces lecture centre (Chad-wick House), and that it comes from the name of a 1940's film (Chad Hannah). Slang The Oxford English Dictionary : ' language is a highly colloquial type, considered as below the level of educated standard speech, and consisting either of new words or odd current words employed in some special sense'. ' language of a la is vulgar type' and ' the special vocabulary or phraseology of a particular calling or profession'. this sums up the paradox of slangs very well. People look down on it, but can hardly avoid using it. There is upper-class slang alongside lower-class slang. THE USES OF SLANG According to the British lexicographer, Eric Partidge, people use slang for any PC at least 15 reasons: 1. In sheer high spirits, by the young in heart as well as by the young in years. ' just for the fun of the thing'; 2. As an exercise either in wit and ingenuity or in humour; 3. To be 'different', to be novel; 4. To be picturesque (either positively or - as in the wish to avoid insipidity - negatively); 5. To be unmistakeably arresting; 6. To escape from clichés, or to be brief and concise; 7. To enrich the language (this deliberateness is rare save among the well-educated; it is literary rather than spontaneous); 8. To make abstract or idealistic concepts more concrete and earthy ( in the cultured the effort is usually premeditated, while in the uncultured it is almost always unconscious when it is not rather subconscious); 9. To lessen the sting of, out on the other hand to give additional point to, a refusal, a rejection, a recantation; 9b. To reduce the solemnity, the pomposity, the excessive seriousness of a conversation; 9c. To soften the tragedy, to lighten the inevitability of death or madness, or to mask the ugliness or the pity of profound turpitude; to enable the speaker or his auditor or both to endure, to 'carry on'; 10. To speak or write down to an inferior, or to amuse a superior public; or merely to be on s colloquial level with either one's audience or one's subject matter; 11. For ease of social intercourse; 12. To induce either friendliness or intimacy of a deep or a durable kind; 13. To shows that one belongs to a certain school, profession, social class ... or to establish contract; 14. To show that someone is not part of the group; 15. To be secret - not understood by those around one. CLASSY TALK : the upper-class dialogues. RHYMING SLANG : these unusual formations are little recorded before the mid-19th-century. Probably originating as part of a criminal argot, the underworld associations have now largely disappeared. ARGOT : the special language of a secretive social group. A MONUMENT TO SLANG Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. First appearance : 1937, with the sub-heading Colloquialisms and Catch-phrases, Solecisms, and Catachreses, Nicknames, Vulgarisms, and such Americanisms ad have been naturalized. Second edition : 1938, contained a substantial Addendum. Third edition : 1948, with a much longer Addendum, largely consisting of new items from World War 2. Fifth edition : 1969, 100,000 words, and justified separate publication as a supplementary volume. Every page of the work shows its social, historical, and geographical range. The Dictionary was well received at the time, though when librarians discovered they it had 'those words' in it, many banned it from their shelves. THE DYING AND DEAD LEXICON Presumably, when no one uses a word any more, it is dead. But how much time should we allow to go by before we can say that a word has stopped being obsolescent (in occasional use by a few) and has come to be obsolete (used by no one)? In the case of standard lexicon, we might have to wait for a whole generation to pass away. In the case of small-group slang, a word may be born and die within weeks or months. We can rarely observe the birth of a word, and never its death. Quotations It is a fragment of socially-embalmed language. It is language which is freely available for anyone to use. An error (misquotation) may not always be noticed, but if it is, there is real risk of peer-group PART III ENGLISH GRAMMAR CHAPTER 13 GRAMMATICAL MYTHOLOGY The study of grammar fires back to the time of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Indians. The fundamental purpose of language is to make sense - to communicate intelligibly. But if we are to do this, we need to share a single system of communication. The ripped controlling the way a communication system works are known as its grammar, and both sender and recipient need to use the same grammar if they are to understand each other. If there is no grammar, there can e no effective communication. 'TO KNOW' OR 'TO KNOW ABOUT' Two very different types of knowledge are involved.  Knowing grammar, is a facility which developed with little conscious effort when we were young children. As adults, we learn to put words together in the right order, and at the right endings. Moreover, we have the ability to recognize certain types of error, and know how to correct them;  By contrast, ' knowing about' English grammar is s conscious, reflective process. It means being able to talk about what it is we are able to do when we construct sentences - to describe what the rules are, and what happens when they fail to apply. Fluent native speakers of English quite often say that they 'don't know' any grammar, per that foreigners speak English better than they do. It is true that many native speakers have little or no ability to describe their own grammatical knowledge, either because they have never been taught to do so, or because the potential fascination of this task has been stifled by or teaching methods. TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR In the middle of the 18th century a new approach to the language study was developed. It led to the first influential generation of what were later called traditional English grammars. The tradition that these grammars represent developed rapidly in the 19th century and was strongly in evidence even in the 1960s. Well over a thousand of such grammars came to be published throughout the English- soaking world. Hallmarks Two chief hallmarks of the traditional era account for much of the negative traction which can arise when people talk about the subject of grammar.  Traditional grammars insisted that only certain styles of English were worth studying - in particular, the more formal language used by the best orators and writers. Textual samples selected for analysis were typically widow and sophisticated sources. Informal styles of speech were ignored, or condemn as incorrect. Thus meant they the language which most children used and heard around them received no positive reinforcement in grammar lessons. To many, accordingly, the subject became distant and unreal;  Traditional English grammars also treated their subject in a highly abstruse way, describing grammatical patterns through the use of an analytical apparatus which derived from Latin grammars. The technique went under various names (such as parsing, clause analysis, and diagramming ( but the end result was the same : students had to mastery a classification system and terminology which was alien to English, and apply it correctly to an array of sentences which, very often, were chosen for their difficult. To many, accordingly, the subject seemed arbitrary and arcane. Whereas modern linguists take pains to set up their rules filtering a careful analysis of the way English language actually works, traditional grammarians assumed that all relevant grammatical distinctions and standards of use could be obtained by automatically applying the varieties and parties of Latin grammar. A SERIOUS SUBJECT English grammar has generally been perceived as a highly serious subject of study. The focus was always on the written language and in the elimination of what was considered to be grammatical error or infelicity. Rules of grammar were strictly defined and rigorously enforced, either by physical punishment or though social sanction. The atmosphere of many brandy classes was, as a consequence, one of uncertainty and trepidation. For most young people, the aim was to satisfy their teacher or their examiners, then to leave school and forget about grammar. Unfortunately, society would never permit school-leaves such friendly oblivion, the distance between the rules in their grammar books and the way they actually spoke was so great that for the rest of their lives they would find themselves burdened with a sense of linguistic inferiority. This is the real source of such notions, widely held among native speakers of English, that they do not speak 'correct English', or they foreigners speak the language 'better' than they do. PERSPECTIVE GRAMMAR Traditional grammar reflects the approach to language known as prescriptivism - the view that of variety of a language has an inherently higher value than others and ought to be the norm for the whole of the speech community. A distinction is occur drawn between prescriptive rules, which state usage considered to be acceptable, and proscriptive rules, which states usage to be avoided. THE SPLIT INFINITIVE STORY Traditional grammars have long objected to the insertion of an adverb between the particle and the infinitive of a verb, which makes a grammatical unit and the two parts should stay together. The fact that they was no precedent for separating them in Latin (which formed its infinitive using a word- ending) made the usage particularly unappealing. THE 20TH-CENTURY LEGACY Fine the outset, the perspective approach to English grammar had its critics, some of whom castigated Latinate tradition, responding to what they saw as excessive authoritarianism in the early grammars. By the beginning of the 20th century, however, the extreme positions had moderate somewhat. Mami traditional grammarians, while continuing to operate happily within a Lainate descriptive framework, began to accept that the influence of contemporary usage could not be completely ignored, and became more pragmatic in approach. There were also signs of an increasing respect for the value of the kind of disciplined approach to grammatical study which the Latinate framework represented. LOOK IT UP IN FOWLER Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926). It is a large, alphabetically organized list of entries on points of grammar, pronunciation, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, and style. Prescriptive in his aims Fowler certainly is, but he contrasts with 19th-century grammatical authors by the way ha combiner's a respect for tradition worn a readiness to debunk the worst excess of purism. On the other hand, in a Society for Pure English Tract he defends the role that traditional language study has played in shaping contemporary consciousness. THE MAIN BRANCHES OF GRAMMAR The field of grammar is often divided into two domains : morphology and syntax. The former focuses on the structure of words, dealing with such matters as inflectional endings and the way words can be built up out of smaller units; the latter focuses on the structure of sentences. A large part of traditional grammar was devoted to aspects of morphology - though not using this label, which is a term from linguistic. The traditional term was accidence ( from Latin accidentia, 'things which befall'), defined as 'the collective name for all those changes that are incidental to certain parts of speech'. Thus, accidence dealt with such matters as the number, gender, and case of nouns, and the voice, mood, number, person, and tense of verbs, as well as the question of their classification into regular and irregular types. Traditional grammar was also largely devoted to the techniques of clause analysis and the parting of parts of speech. By contrast, most of a modern grammar of English is given over to syntax. There is relatively little in the language to be accounted for under the heading of inflectional morphology, and in some grammars the notion of morphology is dispensed with altogether, its concerns being handled as the 'syntax of the word'. SYNTAX : from Latin syntaxis, and earlier from Greek syn + assein 'together + arrange'. The term is quite often used in a figurative way. MORPHOLOGY : ultimately from Greek morphē 'form' + logos 'word'. The term is also used in other contexts; in biology, for example, it refers to the form and structure of animals and plants. There is also a syntactic (often called a periphrastic) way of expressing higher degree, through the use of more (for the comparative) and most (for the superlative). THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT  Adjectives of one syllable usually take the inflectional form : big, thin, small, long, fat, red. But there are exceptions : real, right, and wrong do not allow -er. Nor do participles allow an inflection when they are used as adjectives;  Adjectives of the syllables or more use only the periphrastic form. But here too there are exceptions : for example, a few three-syllable adjectives which being with un- do allow the inflectional, as in the case of unhealthier and unhappiest;  The chief problem arises with two-syllable adjectives, many of which permit both forms of comparison. A few, such as proper and eager, are straightforward: they do not allow the inflectional at all. Others such as many adjectives ending in -y, -er, and -le, favour it, but the choice is often made on stylistic ground. Commoner avoids an inelegant clash with the use of more two words later. IRREGULARS There are very few irregular comparative forms, but the ones there are do occur quite frequently.  Better and best are the comparison forms of good; writers and worst are the comparison forms of bad;  Far has two forms : further/furthest and farther/farthest (the latter pair being less common, and mainly used to express physical distance, as in farthest north);  Old has regular forms (older/oldest) and also an irregular use (elder/eldest) when talking about family members;  Some adverbs also allow inflectional comparison, but most adverts are compared periphrastically. NOUNS : NUMBER Most nouns have both a singular and a plural form, expressing a contrast between ‘one' and 'more than one', and these are known as variable nouns. A small group of cases do not have a number contrast - the invariable nouns. Most variable nouns change from singular to plural in a wholly predictable way, usually described simply as 'adding an -s'. This is the regular plural form. By contrast, there are only a few hundred nouns with an irregular plural form. ONE OF MORE CASES In most s, the distinction between singular and plural corresponds to that between 'one' and 'more than one', but there are exceptions (Ex. foliage - leaves : one seems to be singular and the other plural, but the number of objects is the same in each case). ADDING AN –S In speech : The -s ending is pronounced in any of the possible ways, depending on the nature of the sound at the end of the singular noun.  If the sound ends in an /a/-like sound (a sibilant) - /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /t ʃ/, /d ʒ/ - it is followed by an extra syllable, /ɪz/;  All other nouns ending in a voiceless consonant add /s/;  All other nouns ending in a voiced consonant or a vowel (including r-coloured vowels) add /z/. In writing : The spelling rules are more complex. The vast majority of nouns in the language simply add an -s. Thus include those nouns where the singular form ends in a 'silent -e', such as plate. But there are several types of exception.  The ending is -es if there is no silent -e, and the noun ends in -s, -z, -x, -ch, and -sh (all sibilants);  If the noun ends in -o the plural is spelled -os in most cases, but there are a few nouns which require -oes, and some allow both (as in volcano (e)s), though modern usage seems to be slowly moving on towards the -os norm;  If a common noun ends in -y, with a preceding consonant, the -y is replaced by -i, and -es is added. If there is only a preceding vowel, the -y stays, as it does in proper nouns (opd and new Germanys, the three Marys);  There are several unusual cases, such as consonant doubling (quizzes, freezes), the use of apostrophes after a letter name (cross your t's) or a number (3's), especially in British English, and doubling a letter in some written abbreviations, as in pp. ('pages'), exx. ('examples'), and ll. ('lines'). EXCEPTIONAL PLURALS There are several group of native English words which display exceptional plural forms. It is often possible to see why they have their distinctive form by referring to the types of plural formation found in Old English or Germanic.  Seven nouns change their vowels (a process known as mutation, or umlaut) : man - men, foot - feet, goose - geese, mouse - mice, woman - women, tooth - teeth, louse - lice. The change does not take place when there is a derived sense;  Four nouns add -en, in two cases changing the vowel sound as well as : ox - oxen, child - children, brother - brethren. The use of /-n/ as a plural marker was a feature of an important class of Old English nouns. Several other family words showed rubies ending in Middle English, such as doughtre ('daughters'), and sustren ('sisters'), both found in Chaucer;  A few nouns change their final fricative consonant as well as adding /z/. Since change /-f/ to /- v/, as in wives, loaves, and halves. The spelling reflects a change which took place in Old English, where /f/ was voiced between vowels. Some change /-θ/ to /-ð/, as in paths, booths, and mouths. House is unique, with /-s/ changing to /-z/ in houses. In several cases, usage is uncertain : dwarf, hoof, scarf, and wharf will be found with both /-fs/ and /-vz/, and spelled accordingly; truth, oath, sheath, wreath, and (especially in American English) youth will be found with both /-θs/ and /-ðz/, but both spelled in the same way, -ths. NOUNS OF FOREIGN ORIGIN Nouns which have been borrowed from foreign languages pose a particular problem. Some have adopted the regular plural ending : choruses and not chori. Some have kept the original foreign plural : crises and not crisises. And some permit both : cactuses/cacti, There are no rolled. People have to learn which form to use as they meet the words for the first time, and must become aware of variations in usage. Where there is a choice, the classical plural is usually the more technical, learners, or formal, as in the case of formulas vs formulae. Sometimes, alternative plurals have even developed different senses, as in the of (spirit) medium vs (mass) media, or appendixes (in bloodied or books) vs appendices (only in books). INVARIABLE NOUNS Many nouns do not show a contrast between singular and plural : the invariable nouns. They are usually classified into two types : those used only in the singular, and those used only in the plural. Singular-only nouns  Proper names. SE does not allow;  Names off subjects, diseases, and games. SE does not allow. These nouns can mislead, because their -s ending makes them look plural. Some have singular and plural uses;  Nouns in a noncount use. SE does not allow. If the noun is used in a countable way, a plural is normal. Plural-only nouns  Names of 'two-part' items (scissors, binoculars, jeans). SE does not allow;  A few dozen nouns ending in -s. In such cases, either there is no singular form in SE or the singular gives a different sense;  A few nouns which look singular but are always plural : vermin, livestock, cattle, poultry, people, folk, and police. SE does not allow. Double-plural nouns Several animal names have two plurals. There is the regular plural, adding an -s, and there is a 'zero' plural form, with no ending at all. There is a clear difference in meaning. If the animals are being thought of as individuals, the plural form is used. If they are a category of game, they have a zero plural. Words without end A few nouns have the same form for both singular and plural, even though they are semantically variable, allowing a difference between 'one' and 'more than one'. In such cases, only the context enables us to know which nabbing is intended. To this category belong : the names of animals and nationalities, several nouns expressing quantity, and a few others (aircraft, offspring, series, species). Regular verbs appear in four forms, each playing a different role in the clause.  The base form - a form with no endings, as listed in a dictionary (sometimes called the infinitive form);  The -s form, made by adding an -(e)s ending to the base (someone with a spelling change), used for the third person singular in the present tense. The pronunciation of this ending varies, depending on the preceding sound : /-s/, as in looks, chops, and jumps; /-z/, as in tries, goes, and reminds, and /-ɪz/, as in passes, rushes, and buzzes. Does and says are exceptions, in that they change their pronunciation when the ending is added;  The -ing form, or -ing participle, made by adding -ing to the base (often with a spelling change). In traditional grammar, this would be called the present participle, but as the form is by no means restricted to expressing present time, this term is not used by many modern grammarians;  The -ed form, made by adding -ed to the base (often with s spelling change). Thus ending is found in the post form and in the -ed participle form. The ist form had just one use : to excited the past tense. The -ed participle form has four uses : to help express a post aspect; to help express the passive voice; in certain types of subordinate clause and to begin a clause; and as an adjective. The -ed participle form would have been called past participle in traditional grammar, but as its use is not restricted to past time thus label also tends to be avoided in modern grammar. Irregular verbs make their -s form and -ing form by adding an ending to the base, in the same way as regular verbs do. But they have either an unpredictable past tense, or an unpredictable -ed participle form, or both. Most irregular verbs therefore appear in five forms, instead of the usual four. THE IRREGULAR VERBS There are two main features of irregular lexical verbs :  Most irregular verbs change the vowel of the base to make their past or -ed participle forms. Thus process is known as gradation;  The -ed ending is never used in a regular way, and is often not used at all. Using these features, it is possible to group irregular verbs into seven broad classes : Class 1 About 20 verbs white only irregular feature is the ending used for both their past and -ed participle forms : have - had, send - sent; Class 2 About 10 verbs whose past tense is regular, but whose -ed participle form has an -n ending, as well as a variant form in -ed : mow - mown or mowed, swell - swollen or swelled; Class 3 About 40 verbs which have the same ending for the past and -ed participle forms, but this is irregular; they also change the vowel of the base form : keep - kept, sleep - slept, sell - sold; Class 4 About 75 verbs which have an -n ending for the -ed participle form, and an irregular pay form; they also change the vowel of the base form : blow - blew - blown, take - took - taken, see - saw - seen; Class 5 About 40 verbs which have the same form throughout, as in cut, let, shut; Class 6 About 70 verbs which have no ending, but use the same form for both past tense and -ed participle; they also change the vowel of the base form : spin - spun, sit - sat, stand - stood; Class 7 About 25 verbs, forming the most irregular type. There is no ending; the past and -ed participle forms differ; and the vowel change worth each form : swim - swam - swum, come - came - come, go - went - gone. A BURNING QUESTION Several irregular verbs (of Class 2) have alternative -ed forms, one regular (with -ed), the other irregular (with -t). The -t ending is rare in American English. In British English, however, there is a great deal of usage variation. The closer comparison of examples suggests that the -ed form may be more likely when the duration of an action is being emphasized. Something which has happened once, which has taken up very little time, or which focuses on the result of a process rather than on the process itself may be more likely to attract the -t ending. Sometimes the context does not beat one or other of the above interpretations. However, in many occasions the choice may well be random, because the verb or context does not motivate the drawing of such semantic distinctions. And the other extreme, there are some collocations which permit little or no variation. ADDING AN -ED? In speech The -ed ending of regular verbs is pronounced in any of the possible ways, depending on the nature of the sound at the end base form.  If the verb ends in a /t/ or /d/ (am alveolar), it is followed by an extra syllable, /ɪd/, as in wanted, boarded. This form has several pronunciation variants around the world;  All other verbs ending in a voiceless consonant add /t/, as in stopped /stopt/, boxed /bokst/;  All other verbs ending in a voiced consonant or a vowel (including r-coloured vowels) add /d/, as in robbed, died, barred. In writing The spelling rules are more complex, and show several regional variations between British and American English.  If the base form ends in a 'silent -e', this -e is dropped before -ed (and also before the -ing ending), as in typed. Most verbs ending in -ye, -oe, -ie, -nge, and ce others, lose the -e before -ed (but keep it before -ing), as in dyed (but dyeing), signed (but singeing). Thus allows such contrasts as singing and singeing to be distinguished;  A single consonant letter at the end of the base is doubled before -ed (and also before -ing), is the preceding vowel carries a stress and is spelt witha single letter : jogged (jogging), permitted (permitting). This doubling does not usually happen when the preceding vowel is unstressed or is written with two letters (greet - greeted, greeting);  Some final consonants ste exceptions to this rule, allowing a double consonant even when the preceding vowel is unstressed. This is normal practice in British English, but American English also permitted the use of a single consonant. The chief instances are -l, -m(me), and some verbs in -p. Verbs ending in a vowel + -c spell the doubling with -ck, as in panicked. However, when the base ends in a vowel + -s, there is great variation in usage, with some publishers insisting on a double consonant, and others avoiding it : focussed vs focused, blassed vs blased;  As with nouns, if the verb ends in -y, with a preceding consonant, the -y is replaced by -l, and - ed is added, as in cried, tried. If there is a preceding vowel, the -y usually remains (as in stayed). The same rule applies to the -s ending too : cries, tries. One difference from nouns is that the -y stays in cases where an -ing ending is used : crying, trying;  Even more than with nouns, there are exceptions to the exceptions. So, if a -y verb is preceded by -a-, the -y is replaced, as in paid and laid. And if a verb ending in -ie adds -ing, the -ie canges to -y, as in dying and tying. When a word ends in a silent consonant, it is not doubled, as in crocheted and hurrahed. In the present tense, there are such exceptions as does and goes, where an -e- has been added. And there are a few forms which present variation in usage, such as ageing and aging, arcked and arced, or verandahed and verandah'd. n't The contracted form of the negative word nor is used as an inflection with stone verbs. The ones which allow thus are the auxiliary verbs, most of which can thus appear in two negative forms : does not doesn't is not isn't In some cases, the form of the verb is altered will not won't shall not shan't were not weren't do not don't Since auxiliaries do not permit the ending in Standard English. Since usage are dated (mayn't, usedn't). But the major contrast is with lexical verbs, which never allow the contracted form. Traditional grammar did not have the same interest in studying the actual linguistic behaviour of word classes. It assumed the criteria which worked well for Latin would also work for English, and it used definitions of the parts of speech which related more to their supposed meaning than to the way they worked in sentences. SOME NEW WORD CLASSES Many words turn out to be unique. This approach brings to light several important groups of words in English which are syntactically so distinctive that they demand separate recognition - which means finding a new name for them. Here are three examples of these 'new' word classes.  Determiners : a group of words which can be used instead of the and a in the noun phrases, expressing such notions as quantity, number, possession, and definiteness (some, much, that, and my). Traditional grammar would call these adjectives;  Conjuncts : a group of words whose function is to relate independent grammatical units, such as clauses, sentences, and paragraphs (however, meanwhile, otherwise, and namely). Traditional grammar would call these adverbs;  Auxiliaries : a group of words whose function is to assist the main verb in a clause to express several basic grammatical contrasts, such as of person, number, and tense (have, can, do, and was). Terrorism grammar sometimes recognized these as a separate class of 'defective verbs'. HOW NOUN-LIKE IS PARIS? All the words in a proposed class are seen to be sharing sole features, but few share all of them. For example, there are four important features often suggested for nouns : A. They are words which can be the head of a noun phrase; B. They are words which can be the subject of a clause; C. They are words which can have a plural form; D. They are words which display a suffix such as -hood or -tion. The more criteria a word satisfies, the more 'noun-like' it is. THE CLASS OF NOUNS When we look at the easy nouns behave, we find that the following factors are involved :  Syntactic structure : a noun is the chief item of noun phrase. It is often preceded by one of a small class of determiners, such as the or some;  Syntactic function : a noun functions as the subject, object, or complement of a clause;  Grammatical morphology : a noun can change its form to expires a constant in singular/plural number or to mark the genitive case;  Lexical morphology : a noun can be formed by adding one of a small list of suffixes to a verb, an adjective, or another noun. In parsing nouns, traditional grammar insisted on noting gender as well as number and case. Modern grammar disregard this criterion, recognizing the gender has no grammatical rolls in English. They, however, respect other traditional contrasts, especially proper vs common, and abstract vs concrete, and have developed the contrast between mass and count nouns. THE MAIN SUBCLASSES Nouns can be grouped into six main classes. The first division is into proper and common nouns. Common nouns can then be dived into count and noncount types. And both of these can be further divided into concrete and abstract types. SUFFIXES THAT FORM NOUNS Suffix Add to Suffix Add to -age Noun -ant Verb -age Verb -ee Verb -al Verb -eer Noun -(a)tion Verb -er Noun -dom Noun -er Verb -(e)ry Noun -ese Noun/Adjective -ful Noun -ess Noun -hood Noun -ette Noun -ing Noun -(i)an Noun/Adjective -ing Verb -ist Noun/Adjective -ism Noun -ite Noun/Adjective -ity Adjective -let Noun -ment Verb -ling Noun -ness Adjective -or Verb -ocracy Noun -ster Noun -ship Noun PROPER AND COMMON NOUNS Proper nouns are names of specific people, places, times, occasions, events, publications, and so on. They differ from common nouns in three main ways.  Proper nouns can stand alone as a clause element, whereas only certain common nouns can;  Proper nouns do not usually allow a plural, whereas most common nouns do;  Proper nouns are not usually used with determines, whereas common nouns are. In some circumstances, proper nouns can behave like common nouns. Proper nouns are written with an initial capital letter. But not all words with initial capitals are proper nouns. Also, there is sometimes uncertainty as to whether a word should be considered proper or common. THE THE HAGUE A proper noun is a single word, but many proper names consist of more than one word. In such cases, the words work together as a single unit. Some are even used with the definite article, but The is part of the name in such cases. It cannot be omitted, changed, or separated. COUNT AND NON-COUNT NOUNS Common nouns can be divided into two toes. Count nouns refer to individual, countable entities. Noncount nouns refer to an undifferentiated mass or notion. Noncount nouns are also known as mass nouns. There are clear grammatical differences between them.  Count nouns cannot stand alone in the singular; noncount nouns can;  Count nouns allow a plural; noncount nouns do not;  Count nouns occur in the singular with a; noncount nouns with some. Both types can occur with the; Some nouns can be either count or noncouny, depending on their meaning. A ----- OF KITTENS Many noncount nouns have an equivalent countable expression using such words as piece or bit followed by of. Furthermore, English had some highly specialized collective nouns, especially for animals. GENDER In many languages, nouns can be grouped into types, based on the kind of endings that have, or no the way they pattern with other words in the noun phrase, and these types are known as gender classes. English has nothing like this. It has no grammatical gender; but it does have ways of identifying natural gender. We can distinguish animate beings from inanimate entities, personal from nonpersonal beings, and make from female sexes. It is chiefly done by using pronouns, which correlate with nouns in precise ways :  Inanimate nouns pattern only with it and which;  Animate nouns name barring use of he/she and who, and are divided into personal and nonpersonal types;  Personal animate nouns refer to males and females and Lauren with he/she/who and also in such pairs where the noun ending makes the gender clear. Some nouns can be either 'he' or 'she' (they have dual gender), such as artist, cook, cousin, and singer;  Nonpersonal animate nouns refer to animals. Most take it/which, but those with a special place in human society take he/she/who, and some even have distinct male/female forms. The 'lower animals' do not normally take she/he though an enthusiast for ants;  In British English, collective nouns, such as committee, government, team, army, and family, can take either or/which or they/who, depending on the point of view involved. The singular stresses the impersonal unity of the group; the plural the personal individuality of its members. Plural forms are far less common in American English. ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES Suffix Add to Suffix Add to -able Verb -less Noun -al Noun -like Noun -ed Noun -ly Noun -esque Noun -ous Noun -ful Noun -some Noun -ic Noun -worthy Noun -ish Noun -y Noun ive Verb ADJECTIVE OR NOT? Some words are much more adjective-like than others.  Numerals share some of the properties of central adjectives, but not others. They can occur before a noun and after be, but cannot compare or take -ly;  Words ending in -ed or -ing could be either an adjective or a form of a verb;  Words which are normally used as nouns many appear in the position associated with adjectives. They are no longer strictly nouns, because (for example) they have lost their capacity to pluralize. On the other hand, they are not strictly adjectives either, because (for example) they cannot compare. THE CLASS OF ADVERBS The adverb is the most heterogeneous of all the word classes in English grammar. Traditional grammar included under their hearing not only such items as quickly and soon, which are representative of large groups of words, but also such idiosyncratic items as no, not, and the (as in the sooner the better) - largely because there was no other class to which they could easily be assigned. Modern grammars try to identify their main functions and to set up subclasses to handle the most divergent types. Adverbs have two chief uses. Most can act as an element of clause structure usually relating directly to the meaning of the verb, but often to some other elements of the clause or to the clause as a whole. Some adverbs affect the meaning of an adjacent word or phrase by attacking themselves to it. TYPES OF ADVERBS Most adverbs are fairly easy to recognize because they are formed by adding an -ly suffix to an adjectives. Less obvious are the following :  Adverbs which have no distinctive element, such as just and soon, or compound adverbs, such as somehow and whereby;  A few other endings which mark a word as an adverb, used especially in informal speech : new- style, earthwards, clockwise, coinages such as physics-wise are very common in American English. THE CLASS OF VERBS A sentence may contain s single verb, or it may use a cluster of verbs which work together as a verb phrase. There can be up four auxiliaries, al going in front of the main verb, though constructions using an gour are unusual. Three classes of verb can occur within the verb phrase.  Lexical verbs (also called full verbs) are those with a meaning that can be clearly and independently identified. They act as main verbs;  Modal verbs convey a range of judgements about the likehood of events; they function only as auxiliary verbs, expressing meanings which are much less definable, focused, and independent than those of lexical verbs. There are nine verbs in this subclass : can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, and must, with dare, need, ought to, and used to having a very similar function;  Primary verbs can function either as main verbs or as auxiliary verbs. There are just three of them : be, have, and do. Finite and nonfinite Verbs are usually classified into two broad types, based on the kind of contrast in meaning they express. The notion of finiteness is the traditional way of classifying the differences. Thus term suggests that verbs can be 'limited' in some way.  The finite forms are those which limit the verb to a particular number, tense, person, or mood. For example, when the -s form is used, the verb is limited to the third person singular of the present tense. If there is a series of verbs in the verb phrase, the five verb is always the first;  The nonfinite forma do not limit the verb in this way. For example, when the -ing form is used, the b can be referring to any number, tense, person, or mood. A nonfinite form of the verb stays the same in a clause, regardless of the grammatical variation taking place alongside it. FINITE CONTRASTS The five forms of the verb are the -s form, the past form, and some uses of the base form. The nonfinite forms show no variation. Finite forms  Show a contrast in tense;  Show a contrast in number and person;  Allow the expression of facts, possibilities, wishes, and other contrasts of mood. Nonfinite forms There are three nonfinite forms of the verb :  The -ing participle;  The -ed participle;  The base form used as an infinitive. MULTI-WORD VERBS Since verbs consist of more than one word (and are thus better described as lexemes). The most common type consists of a verb followed by one or more particles. The particles are either spatial adverbs, prepositions, or words which in other contexts can act either as adverbs or as prepositions. Verbs which use adverb particles are often called phrasal verbs, with those taking prepositional particles being distinguished as prepositional verbs. In some grammar, however, the term phrasal verb is used for both. The number of multi-word verbs in the language has grown remarkably, especially in the present century. AUXILIARY VERBS Auxiliary (or 'helping') verbs assist the main verb in a clause to express several basic grammatical contrasts, such as in person, number, and tense. They do not follow the same grammatical rules as main verbs, which is why they must be considered as a separated class.  Auxiliaries can be used before the word not; main verbs cannot;  The contracted form n't can be attached to almost all auxiliaries; this is never possible with main verbs;  The first auxiliary in a verb phrase had a distinctive role, as it can be used before the subject in order to ask a question; this is not possible with main verbs. The auxiliary class can itself be divided into two subclasses :  The primary verbs have -s forms; the modals do not;  The primary verbs have nonfinite forms; the modals do not TRANSITIVITY  Verbs which can be used without an object, have long been called intransitive verbs;  Verbs which require an object are traditionally known as transitive verbs. THE CLASS OF PREPOSITIONS A preposition expresses a relationship of meaning between two parts of a sentence, most often showing how the two parts are related in space or time. Most of the common prepositions consist of only one word; they have no distinctive ending, and do not vary. Several prepositions consist of more than one word.  Single-word prepositions include : about, at, before, by, down, for, from, in, of, on, out, over, round, since, through, to, under, up, with;  Multi-word prepositions include : (two words) ahead of, because of, due to, instead of, near to; (three words) as far as, by means of, in accordance with, in spite of, on behalf of. The words in these prepositions do not vary freely. Several prepositions are restricted in their frequency of use, especially such foreign borrowings as anti, circa, versus, and vis-à-vis. Unto us archaic, and used only in religious contexts. There are also some dialect uses, such as towards (British) vs toward (American), outwith (Scots, 'except'), and while (Yorkshire, 'until'). Minor sentences do not follow all the rules of grammar. For example, we cannot change the person without changing the sense into something quite different. Nor can we change the tense. The sentence has to be learned as a whole, and used as an idiom. Only major sentences allow systematic variations of this kind. SOME MINOR SENTENCE TYPES  Formulae for stereotyped social situations, such as Hello, How do you do?, Thanks, and Cheers!;  Emotional ore functional noises (traditionally called interjections), many of which do not follow the normal pronunciation patterns of the language;  Proverbs or pithy sayings (aphorisms), such as Easy come, easy go or Least said, soonest mended;  Abbreviated forms, such as are used in postcards, instructions, or commentaries;  Words and phrases used as exclamations, questions, and commands, such as Nice day!, Taxi?, and All aboard! LEVELS OF SENTENCE STRUCTURE Major sentences can be very simple, but they have the potential to contain a great deal of grammatical structure. To demonstrate the order which controls this complexity, all grammars work with the idea of 'levels' of organization. A 'level' is a way of recognizing the fact that a sentence is not a simple linear string of items. Rather, items are grouped together into units, which then work as wholes in relation to other units. SENTENCE FUNCTIONS Traditional grammars recognized four types of sentence : statement, question, commands, and exclamation. Some modern grammar recognize a much larger range of functions. In particular, the bottom of 'question' covers several different kinds of construction; the sentences called 'commands' express other kinds of meaning in addition to commanding; the notion of 'exclamation' is unacceptably vague; and there is an important sentence type (the 'echo' utterance) which fits into none of these four categories. STATEMENTS A statement is a sentence whose primary purpose is to 'state' - to convey information. Two criteria usually apply :  The clause contains a subject - though in informal conversation this is sometimes omitted. (I) Beg (your) pardon? (I) Told you so. (It) Looks like rain.  The subject preceded the verb. Here too there are a few exceptions, such as when the clause begins with hardly, barely, or other 'negative' words. These sentences are traditionally said to have a declarative structure - a structure which 'declares' or 'makes something known'. QUESTIONS Questions are sentences which seek information. They fall into three main types, depending on the kind of reply they expect, and on how they are constructed. Sentences formed in these ways are said to have an interrogative structure - a structure which 'interrogates'.  Yes-no questions allow an affirmative or negative reply - often just 'yes' or 'no'. The subject follows the auxiliary verb; Are they ready? Is the plumber here? In addition, a questioning tone voice can turn a statement into a yes-no question. These questions have the structure of a declarative sentence, and only the question-mark shows their function in writing;  Wh-questions allow a reply from a wide trainee of possibilities. They begin with a question word, such as what, why, where, or who;  Alternative questions require a reply which relates to the options given in the intensive sentence. There always contain in the connecting word or. EXCLAMATORY QUESTIONS Some sentences resemble questions in their structure, but are actually being used as exclamations. They express the speaker's strong feelings, and ask the hearer to agree. Despite the presence of a negative element, they are strongly positive in meaning. Hasn't she grown! Wasn't it marvellous! Often, both positive and negative forms of the sentence can e used, with very little difference in meaning. In such cases, the auxiliary barn and the subject are usually strongly stressed. RHETORICAL QUESTIONS These sentences also resemble questions in their structure, but they are used as if they were emphatic statements. The speaker does not expect an answer. Who cares? How should I know? Public speakers, politicians, poets, and all who give monologues quite often used rhetorical questions as a means of making a dramatic point. TAG QUESTIONS Sometimes the interrogative structure is left to the end of the sentence, in the form of a tag question, which expects a yes/no kinds of reply. It's there, isn't it? She's not in, is she? The n't ending of some tag questions is replaced by not in formal English, Thus usage is conventionally normal in some regional dialect, such as northern British and Irish. If we change the intonation, we alter the meaning. In many dialects, when the bells is rising, the sentence is 'asking'; when it is falling, the sentence is 'telling'. In writing, the punctuation can indicate the difference. TAGS, EH? Informal English uses a few words which perform the same function as tag questions. They include eh?, Ok?, and right? Dialects often have a distinctive form, such as Canadian eh? or Welsh ay? (pronounced [aɪ]). DIRECTIVES Directives are sentences which instruct someone to do something. They are often called commands, but this term is misleading. Commanding is just one of the many uses of directive sentences.  -Commanding;  Inviting;  Warning;  Pleading;  Suggesting;  Advising;  Instructing;  Permitting;  Requesting;  Meditating;  Expressing good wishes;  Expressing an imprecation. In each case, the verb is in its basic form, with no endings, and there is usually no subject element present. Structures of this type are called imperative - from Latin imperare 'to commands'. Some directives do not use the basic pattern :  They allow a subject, with a strong stress : You be quiet! Nobody move!  They begins with le, followed by a subject : ANALYZING COMPOUNDS Compounds can be usefully classified into types based on the kind of grammatical meaning they represent. Nouns Subject + verb sunrise, headache, hangman, popcorn, washing machine, working party, dancing girl Verb + object haircut, tax-prayer, scarecrow, crime report, chewing-gum, window-cleaner, sightseeing Verb + adverbial living-room ('live in a room'), playgoer ('go to a play') Subject + object motorcycle, windmill, oil well, gaslight, doorknob, table leg, postman, chairperson Subject + complement ('X is Y' is like/for Y) oak tree, handyman, darkroom, flypaper, goldfish, birdcage, tissue paper, blackboard Adjectives Verb + object man-eating, breathtaking Verb + adverbial law-abiding, handmade, typewritten, widespread Verbless homesick, camera-ready, rock-hard, Franco-German CLAUSE TYPES Clause elements combine into a very small number of patterns. There are seven basic clause types, each minimally consisting of two, three, or four elements. S + V S + V + O S + V + C S + V + A S + V + O + O S + V + O + C S + V + O + A THE SUBJECT  The subject usually appears before the verb in statements, and after the first in questions;  The subject controls whether the verb is singular or plural in the third person of the present tense;  The subject controls the form of certain objects and complements;  Some pronouns have a distinctive form when used as a subject;  Subjects can be noun phrases (including subtle nouns), pronouns, or certain kinds of subordinate clause. THE OBJECT  Object elements usually followed the subject and verb in a clause. There are two types : direct and indirect. The direct object is the affected by the action expressed by the verb;  The indirect object typically refers to an animate being which is the recipient of the action. In these cases, a direct object is usually present in the clause as well;  Some pronouns have a distinctive form when used as an object;  Object can be noun phrases (including single nouns), pronouns, or certain kinds of subordinate clause. THE VERB  The verb plays a central role in clause structure. It is the most obligatory of all the clause elements. We cannot into the verb. There is just one type of exception - 'verbless' clauses;  The verb element must be a verb phrase (including a single verb );  The choice of been largely determines what other elements are used in the clause, such as whether an object is present or not. THE COMPLEMENT  Complements express a meaning which adds to that of another clause element - either the subject or the object;  A subject complement usually follows the subject and verb. The verb is most often a form to be, but it may also be one of a few other verbs that are able to link components to their subjects in meaning. These are called copular ('linking') verbs;  An object complement usually follows the direct object, and its meaning relates to that element;  Complements can be noun phrases (including single nouns), adjective phrases (including single adjectives), pronouns, or certain kinds of subordinate clause;  When the complement is a noun phrase, or agrees in number with its corresponding element. THE ADVERBIAL  Adverbials differ from other clause elements chiefly in that there can be an indefinite number of them in a single clause;  Adverbial can be used in several possible positions in the clause, though they are most common at the end;  Adverbials express a wide range of meanings, such as manner, place, and time;  Adverbials perform diverse roles in the sentence construction. Some add information about an event; some link clauses together; and some add a comment about what is being expressed;  Adverbials can be adverb phrases (including single adverbs), propositional phrases, some nouns and noun phrases, or certain kinds of subordinate clause;  Some verbs require an adverbial to complete their meaning. These are the S + V + A and S + V + O + A constructions. PHRASES A phrase is a syntactic construction which typically contains more than one word, but which lacks the subject-predicate structure usually found in a clause. Pears are traditionally classified into types based on the most important words they contain. Six word classes - nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and prepositions - are forms as the identifying elements (or heads) of phrasal constructions. However, there are considerable differences between the syntactic patterns which can occur within each type of phrase, ranging from the very limited possibilities of pronoun phrases to the highly variable patterns found within noun phrases.  Pronoun phrases are restricted to a small number of constructions, and tend not to be recognized as a productive type in English. They are usually analysed as a minor type of noun phrases;  Adverb phrases are typically found as short intensifying expressions. Also common are such time phrases as quite often and very soon, and constructions of the type as quickly (as I could);  Adjective phrases are usually combinations of an adjective and a preceding intensifier, such as very happy and not too awkward. Other types include cold enough and a wide range of constructions which complement the adjective, such as easy to please and loath to do it;  Verb phrases display very limited syntactic possibilities : a main verb preceded by to top four auxiliaries. However, this limitation does but prevent the verb phrase from expressing a wide range of meanings to do with time, mood, and manner of action;  Noun phrases allow an extremely wide range of syntactic possibilities, for such single constructions as the Harry too such complex phrases as not quite all the fine new hats which were in same;  Prepositional phrases are combinations of a preposition plus a noun pare : in the back garden, beneath the hedge. There typically person the role of adverbial in clause : I saw it in the garden = I saw it there. They are also adjectival : the linguist with the red beard. NOUN PHRASE STRUCTURE The noun phrase is the main construction which can appear as the subject, object, or complement of a clause. It consists essentially of a noun or noun-like word which is the most important constituent of the phrase. Sometimes the noun appears alone in its phrase. More often, it is accompanied by one or more other constituents, some of which are themselves fairly complex syntactic units in their own right. As a result, noun phrases are more varied in their construction than any other kinds of phrase in English. The parts of a noun phrase Four constituents : 1. The head is the most important constituent, around which any other constituents cluster. It is the heat which controls any agreement with other parts of the sentence; 2. The determiner appears before the noun. This constituent decides what kind of noun is in the phrase - in particular, whether it is definite or inductive, property or common, count or noncount. Words such as a, those, some, and any are determined. It is not essential for a noun phrase to have a determine, but most noun phrases do, and the commonest determines (the and a) are among the most frequent words in the language. The determine can be the centre of its own cluster of words which share in the expression of quantity. In the present approach, those which appear before the determine are called predeterminers; they include all, twice, half. Those which immediately follow the determiner, preceding any adjectives which may occur, are called postdeterminers; they are chiefly the numerals and a few other quantifying words (such as many and several); 3. The premodification comprises any other words appearing between the determine and the head noun - mainly adjectives or adjective-like words (in some grammar, the notion of Most uses refer to an action or state which has taken place in the past, at a definite time, with a gap between its completion and the present moment. Specific events, states, and habitual actions can all be expressed with this tense. The past tense is also used for present or future time.  The attitudinal past reflects a tentative , giving a more polite effect than would be obtained by using the present tense : Did you want to leave? (compare the more direct Do you want to leave?);  The hypothetical past expresses what is contrary to the speaker 's beliefs. It is especially used in it-clauses : I wish I had a bike;  In indirect speech, a past tense used in the verb of 'saying' allow the verb in the reported clause to be past tense as well, even though it refers to present time : Did you say you had no money? FUTURE TENSE? English has no future tense ending. Rather, future time is expressed by a variety of other means. One of these - three uses of will and shall - is often loosely referred to as the 'future tense'. But this usage changes the meaning of the word 'tense' so that is no longer refers only to the use of verb endings. There are in fact six main waits of referring to future time.  Will, shall, or 'll followed by the infinitive without to our the progressive form. This is by far the commonest use;  Be going to, followed by the infinitive. This common informal use usually suggests that the event will take place very soon;  The present progressive, stressing the way a future event follows on from an arranged plan. The happening is usually imminent;  The simple present tense, often implying definiteness;  The use of be to, be about to, have to, and a few others, al expressing a future action at various remove from the present : She 's to sit here, She's about to leave;  The modal verbs, which also cover a future implication : I may/might/could/should travel by bus. SHALL OR WILL? Traditional grammars drew a sharp distinction between the use of will and shall.  To express future time, they recommended shall with first persons, and will with second and third persons;  To express an invention to act, they recommended well worth first persons, and shall worth the others. Modern usage does not observe this distinction. The issue is or less relevance today, as shark has come to be increasingly replaced by will in several varieties. It is now rare to find shall in the second and third person and it is becoming less common in the first person. ASPECTS OF ASPECTS Aspect refers to how the time of action of the verb is regarded - such as whether it is complete, in progress, or slowing duration. English uses two types of special contrast, which it expresses with auxiliary verbs : the perfective and the progressive. Such contrasts were called tense in traditional grammar. Perfective aspect This is constructed using forms of the auxiliary verb have.  The present perfective is chiefly used for an action continuing up to the present. Thus meaning of 'current relevance' contrasts with the past tense. In informal American English, there is a strong tendency to use the past tense instead of the present perfective - a tense which has begun to affect non-US varieties also;  The past perfective also expresses 'anterior time', but in an earlier time frame. Specific events, started, and habitual actions can all be expressed using the perfective aspect Progressive aspect Forms of be can be used along with the -ing form of the main verb to express an event in progress at a given time. This is the progressive (also called the continuous) aspect. It is used with both tense and with both perfective aspects. Non-progressive forms are known as simple forms. With the progressive, the usual implication is that the activity is taking place over a limited period, and is not necessarily complete. By contrast, the simple aspect tends to stress the unit or completeness is the activity. Only a small proportion of al verb phrases appear in the progressive form, and most of those are found in conversation. TWO VOICES Most verbs which take an object (transitive verbs) can appear in both active and passive constructions. There are just a few exceptions, such as resemble and most uses of have. The issue is frequent in speech. In writing it is more common in informative than in imaginative prose, especially in contexts which demands an objective, impersonal style, such as scientific and official publications. When it is over-used, it there to attract criticism. Passives give writers the option of an impersonal style, which can be very useful in contexts where it is irrelevant to state who actually carried out an adverb. HOW TO FORM ACTIVES FROM PASSIVES  Move the subject of the scribe verb to the end of the class, making it the passive agent. Add by;  Move the object of the active verb to the front of the clause, making it the passive subject;  Replace the active verb phrase by a passive over - usually a form of the auxiliary verb be followed by the -ed participle. Get can also be used as a passive auxiliary, especially in contexts where we want to focus attention on the (usually unpleasant) event affecting the subject. The use of grey is avoided in formal style, and even in informal style it is much less frequent than be (apart from invective). Another option is to omit the by phrase agent. Indeed, this phrase is missing in around 80 per cent passive clauses, usually because the addition of an agent would be to state the obvious. Sometimes, though, the omission is deliberate, either because the agent is not known or because the speaker does not want it emphasized. MULTIPLE SENTENCES Sentences which contain only one clause are simple sentences. Sentences which contain more than one clause are multiple sentences. These latter constructions are often classified into two broad types, both recognized in traditional grammar : compound sentences and complex sentences. Compound sentences The classes are linked by coordination - usually by the coordinating conjunctions and, or, or but. Each clause can in principle stand as a sentence in its own - in other words, act as an independent clause, or main clause. 'Main', in this context, has a purely grammatical sense, and does not have its everyday general meaning of 'most important'. Complex sentences The clauses are linked by subordination, using such subordinating conjunctions as because, when, and since. Here, one clause (called the subordinate clause) is made dependent upon another (the main clause). The subordinate clause cannot stands as a sentence on its own. ELEMENTS AS CLAUSES Subordinate clauses can replace the whole of any clause element except the verb. Their grammatical fiction can always be tested by repairing the clause with a simple unit whose identity is known, such as a pronoun, adjective, adverb, or noun phrase. MULTIPLE STRUCTURES Both compound and complex sentences can contain several instances of coordination and subordination.  With multiple coordination, the analysis is simple. The continual use of and to build up a long sentence is by no means unusual;  With multiple subordination, we must take special care to keep the different 'levels' of subordination apart.  Several instances of subordination may occur 'at the same level';  Coordination and subordination may of course occur in the same sentence, to produce a compound-complex sentence. These are among the most complicated sentence structures to draw.  Some disjuncts convey the speaker's comment about the style or form of what is being said - expressing the conditions under which the listener should interpret the accompanying sentence. There are many words of this kind, such as honestly, literally, briefly, strictly, and confidentially;  Other disjuncts make an observation about the truth of a clause, or a value judgement about its content. Other words of this kind include curiously, foolish, regrettably, undoubtedly, and hopefully. Comment clauses Disjuncts may be words or phrases, and they may even have a clause character. When they are clausal, they can be analyzed as part of a large number of constructions they have been grouped together as content clauses. These are particularly common in informal conversation, where they are often spoken in a parenthetic tone of voice, with increased speed and decreased loudness. Comment clause express several kinds of meaning :  Tentativeness : I think, I assume, I suppose, I'm told, they say, it seems, rumour has it;  Certainly : I know, I'm sure, it transpires, I must say, it 's true, there's no doubt;  Emotional attitude : I'm pleased to see, I'm afraid, I hope, Heaven knows, I'm delighted to say, to be honest, frankly speaking;  Asking for attention : you know, you see, mind you, you have to admit, as you may have heard. When consent clauses become noticeable in conversation through over-use, it is widely held to be a sign of unclear or evasive thinking. REPORTING SPEECH The usual way in which we repost someone's speech is by using a special reposting clause, Siemens adding extra information. The accompanying speech or writing is given in the reported clause, which can appear in either of two forms : direct speech and indirect speech.  Direct speech gives the exact words used by the speaker or writer. They are usually ancora by quotation marks. The reporting clause may occur before, within, or after the direct speech. When it occurs in the middle or at the end of the sentence, the order of subject and verb can sometimes be inverted ; 'I think' Michael said, 'that it's time to leave.' 'I think' said Michael, 'that it's time to leave.' This inversion is most common when the verb is said and the subject is not a pronoun. Said she is literary and archaic. Immersion at the beginning of a sentence is found only in some narrative styles, such as popular journalism;  Indirect speech (also called reported speech) gives the words as subsequently reported by someone. It usually takes the form of a subordinate clause introduced by that. The conjunction is often omitted in informal contexts. GRAMMATICAL CHANGES When indirect speech is used, speakers need to introduce grammatical changes to allow for differences between their current situation and the situation they are resorting.  It is usually necessary to change the tense forms of the verbs used in the direct speech. In most cases, a present tense becomes past, and a past tense is shifted still further back, by using the perfective aspect. Reported clause are traditionally labelled the sequence of tenses. If the time reference of the original utterance is still valid at the time of reporting, the tense shift is optional. Mark said, 'Oil floats on water' Mark said oil floats on water Mark said oil floats on water;  Time and pace references also need to be altered : for example, tomorrow becomes the next day or the following day, here become there;  Personal pronouns need to be altered. First and second person pronouns have to be changed to third person, unless the original participants are still involved in the conversation. Pru said to Joe, 'I like your tie'. Pru said she liked his tie. (if the soaker is talking to someone other than Joe) Pru said she liked your tie (if the speaker is talking to Joe). SENTENCE INFORMATION Given and new information There are usually two kinds of information in a sentence. One part of the sentence tells us something new. The other part tells us something that we were aware of already (either from profound sentences or from our general knowledge) - in other words, its information is given. Given information tells us what a sentence is about; it provided the sentence theme. Because the information it contains is familiar, this part of the sentence is not likely to be spent with any extra prominence. New information, on the other hand, provided the point where we expect people to pay social attention, or focus. The part of the sentence containing the focus is always spoken in s prominent way. In most sentences, the theme appears first, and the focus of the message last. But it is possible to bring the focus forward, so as to emphasize an earlier part of the sentence. Conversations make frequent use of emphatic contrasts of this kind. VARYING THE INFORMATION STRUCTURE Fronting It occurs when we move to the beginning of a sentence an item which does not usually belong there. This item there becomes the theme, and in such cars it carries extra prominence : Across the road that ran David I say my name was Inversion Here the subject and verb appear in the reverse of the normal order : Here 's Johnny Down cane the rain They were hair and so I was The verb must be in its simple form. Cleft sentences We split the sentence into two clauses, giving each its own verb. The first clause consists of the pronoun it and a form of the verb be. The second clause begins with a proven stick as that or who : Ted broke the plate. It was Ted who broke the plate. It was the plate that Ted broke. Extraposition Where the subject or object element is a clause, it is possible to change the sentence around so that the clause covers later. The original element is then replaced by the pronoun it, which 'anticipates' the following clause : I find reading comics fun I find it fun, reading comics. Existentials Sometimes we want to bring the content of a whole clause to the attention of our listener or reader, making it an new information. To do this, there is a construction in which the first words have no meaning. They seem to act as a theme, because they appear at the beginning of the sentence, but it isn't so. The main means of achieving this effect is to use the word they're (without giving it any stress) followed by the simple present or past tense of be : Many people are in danger They are many people in danger Such sentences express the general existence of some state of affairs. Be is not the only verb capable of being used in this way, but others (such as exist and arise) are rate and more literary. BEYONG THE SENTENCE Normally, sentences appear in a sequence, such as a dialogue, a speech, a letter, or a book. Any set of sentences which 'cohere' in this way is called a text - a term which applies to both spoken and written material. The coherence is achieved through the use of a wide range of features which convert sentences, some of which fall well outside the domain of grammar.  General knowledge. We often make a link between servers because of our general knowledge or expectations about the way the world functions; a phonological point of view - that is, purely as part of the sound system, and regardless of the particular East they are articulated. THE VOWELS There are some 20 is so vowels in most accents of English (the accade number often depending on the way the system is analysed). TYPES OF VOWEL  Monophthongs (or pure vowels) are vowels with a single perceived auditory quality, made by a movement of the tongue towards one position in the mouth;  Diphthongs are vowels where two vowel qualities can be perceived. In /aɪ/, for example, the sound begins with an open /a/-type quality and ends with a close /i/-type quality;  Triphthongs are vowels in which three vowel qualities can be pervasive. No new symbols are required, however, as each can be seen as a combination of s diphthong + /ə/. Often, in the history is English, a cowl has changed its quality. They are two chief possibilities. When a diphthong becomes a monophthong, the sound is days to be minophthongized; conversely, when a monophthong becomes a diphthong, the sound is diphthongized. TRANSCRIBING VOWELS  The Gimson system introduced by British phonetician A. C. Gimson in An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English;  The system used by the British phonetician Daniel Jones. Gimson (a student of Jones) modifies this system in an attempt to show vowel qualities more accurately. The Jones list does not include the use of /ɔə/;  The system used by Victoria Fromkin & Robert Rodman (F&R) in An Introduction to Language, a widely used teaching textbook in the USA. It is a simplified version of the influential system devised by John S. Kenyon & Thomas A. Knott in A Producing Dictionary of American English, which aimed to provide a standard transcription for the vowels of the main dialect of American English;  /a/ in the British system does not appear as a separate phoneme. In F&R it is used in such words as dog, reflecting more directly the way this vowel is articulated further forward in the mouth. In addition, the same /a/ symbol is used by F&R in such words as father, calm, and car, again reflecting the typical sounds of these vowels in American English, whereas the British systems use /ɑː/;  /e/ in F&R refers to the vowel in such words as say, whereas the British systems show the diphthongal nature of this sound as /eɪ/ or /ei/;  /ʌ/ in the British systems refers only to the vowel in such words as sun. In F&R it is also used for the vowel in such words as bird (along with a following /r/ consonant);  /o/ in F&R refers to the vowel in such word as so;  F&R do not have separate symbols for the sounds in such words as deer, care, and poor. These words are analyzed as combinations of vowel + /r/. Describing vowels All vowels have certain properties in common, which distinguish them from consonants.  From a phonetic pint of view, vowels are articulated with a relatively open configuration of the vocal tract; no part of the mouth is closed, and none of the vocal organs come so close together that we can hear the sound of the air paint between them (what phoneticians call audible friction). The most noticeable vowel quality is therefore [a], said with the mouth wide open;  From a phonological point of view, vowels are units of the sound system which typically occupy the middle of a syllable. Consonants, by contrast, are typically found at the edges of syllables (It is reasoning of this kind which explains why letter Y can be described either as a consonant or as a vowel. In such words as yet, it acts as a consonant, occupying the same position as other consonants. In such words as my and tryst, it acts as a vowel, occupying the same position as other vowels);  Vowels typically involve the vibration of the vocal cords (voicing(, and their distinctive resonances are made by varying the shape of the mouth, using the tongue and lips. In English, there are no vowels whose chief characteristic is the use of nasal resonance (nasal vowels). English vowels are oral vowels, and take on a nasal quanti only when they are being influenced by an adjacent nasal consonant, as in no, long, and man. The most widely used methods of describing the articulation of vowels, was devised by Daniel Jones, and is known as the cardinal vowel system. THE LIPS Lip position is an important factor in the description of vowels, and three main types are recognized :  Round, where the lips are pushed forwards into the shape of a circle;  Spread, where the corners of the lips are moved away from each other, as in a smile;  Neutral, where the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread. THE CARDINAL VOWEL SYSTEM The cardinal vowel (CV) diagrams was devised to provide a set of reference point for the articulation and recognition of vowels, its dimensions correspond to the 'vowel space' in the center of the mouth where these sounds are articulated. The positions of the front, verbs, and back of the tongue are represented by vertical lines.  At the front of the north [a] represents the lowest pub that it is theoretically possible for the body of the tongue to two, and [ɑ] represents the correspondingly lowest point at the back of the mouth. Vowels in the region of [a] or [ɑ] are called open or low vowels;  [i] represents the highest point at the front that the body of the tongue can reach will still producing a vowel sound (anything higher, and the tongue would cover so near to the root of the mouth that a consonant sound would result). [u], similarly, represents the highest point at the back of the mouth. Vowels in the region of [i] and [u] are called close or high vowels;  Two horizontal lines divide the space between [i] and [a] into equal areas. Vowels made in the region of the higher of these lines, represented by [e] and [o], are called mid-close our half- close. Vowels made in the region of the lower of these lines, represented by [ɛ] and [ɔ], are mid-open or half-open. The term mid is often used to describe the whole of the area between these two lines;  The CV diagram also includes information about lip-rounding. It is possible to hear a difference in vowel quality depending on whether the lips are rounded or unrounded (spread). Thus, [i] is the high front unrounded vowel. The rounded member of a vowel pair is always the symbol of the right in the diagram. It is important not to confuse the phonetic symbols used to identify the 'cardinal' points in the CV diagram with the phonological symbols used in the actual description of English. The vowel system A particularly important factor is length (symbolized by [:]). When we listen to the 12 pure vowels, it is evident that five of them are relatively long in duration and seven are relatively short. Moreover, in hi * Diphthongs deu pil lav/ Jeol f Sui Vowels. Articulation Centre of tongue ralsed between half- «lose andhalf-open; lips neutrally spread; no firm contact between rims and Upper molars. Glide begins from slightiy below half- close front position, moves upwards and slightly backwards towards (i); lips Spread, Glide begins between back hi Openandopen positions, moves Upwards and for- wards towards [1]; fipsopen rounded changing to neutral. Glide begins between back and frontopen positions, moves upwards and slightly backwards towards (ul; lips change from neutraliy opento slightly rounded; Jaw movement quite ‘extensive. Glide begins in half- open front position, moves backwards towards/a; lips neu- trally open through- cut. Some regional variants Closerin Birmingham, Liverpool, Australia more open in conser: vative RP; shorter when followed by rin Scots, SW England, American; diphthon- gizedin some regional American (bird/bo1d/).. Noticeably more open first elementin Cockney and broad Australian; monoph- thongizedto [e:]in many British accents; closer start and more central second elementin Caribbean Uamalca /djamieka/). Closer first element in Cockney; more open Inconservative RP; longer first element INSUSA. Firstelement fronted In Cockney and broad Australian, and more noticeable rounding onsecond element; unrounded fronted second elementin ‘royal family RP (house [hars]; mono- phthongized close rounded vowel In Scots (house{hu:s]); first ele- ment fronted towards mid-open in West Country and Dublin; centralized first Closerstart In Cockney; much more open In refined RP: centralized longvowel n BlrmIng- ham [3:]; more open long vowel InLiver- pool [ei]: loser long vowelinScots (E. i Vowels Articulation Centre of tongue PI Ciged between alt dlose and half-open; lipsneutrally spread; nno firm contact between rims and upper molars. Glide begins slightly behind front open position, moves upwards towards [1 lips change from neutral to loosely spread; obvious clos- ing movement of the lower ]aw., lol Glide beginsin cen- tral position between half-close andhalf-open, moves upwards and back towards (ul: lips neutral changing to sfightlyrounded. ho] Glidebeginsinposi- tion for //, moves backwards and dowmwards tolwards Al lips neutral, with slight movement fromspread to open. Glide begins in posi- tlon for //, moves forwardsand down- wards towards fo/; Nlpsweaklyrounded becoming neutrally spread. Some regional variants Onlyin unstressed syliables in RP; replaces IN asa stressed omai in many regional accents; replaced by. stranger vowel quali- tiesin Caribbean and other stress-timed accents (p. 249). Considerable variation in flrstelement, both further forward and further back; often centralized, e.g. in Canadian; further back andoften roundedin broad Australian; monophthongized to {di:1) andto {i with a weak glide, ins USA (partofthe “southern drawl'), Firstelement more rounded and further back In conservative RP and Dublin; tendency to monophthongize In RP (goal (g3:1]); more open start in broad Australlan, and also in Cockney, where the glide Is more exten- sive, with little or nolip tounding. More open firstele- ment n conservative RP; second element sometimes strong In ‘affected’ RP (here fhjo). Much varlatlon in RP, ‘with more open first element; often monophthongized to [0i],50 that sure appearsaslfa:] shaw. CONSONANTS The difference between the number of letters and sounds found in English is far less significant in the case of consonants. There are 21 consonant letters in the written alphabet, and there are 24 consonant sounds in most English accents. The difficulty of transcribing speech is therefore less serious, as most of the written symbols can be assigned individual phonetic values, and the resulting transcription thus looks much more immediately readable than that of vowels. In several cases, of consonant sounds is spelled by more than one letter or one consonant letter symbolizes now than one sound. Describing consonants All consonants have certain properties in common, which identify them in contrast to vowels.  From a phonetic point of view, they are articulated in one two ways : either there is a closing movement of one of the vocal organs, forming such a narrow construction that it is possible to hear the sound of the air passing through; or the closing movement may involve the lips, the tongue, or the throat, but in each case the overall effect is very different from the relatively open and unimpeded articulation found in vowels;  From a phonological point of view, they are third of the sound system which typically occupy the edges of a syllable. They may also appear in sequence. In fact, up to three consonants may be used together at the beginning of a spoken word in English, and up to four consonants at the end, though not always very comfortably;  Some consonants involve the vibration of the vocal cords : these are the voiced consonants, such as /b/ and /m/. Others have no vocal cord vibration : these are the voiceless consonant, such as /p/ and /s/. The distinction is not absolute : depending on where in a word a consonant appears, there may be degrees of voicing. At the end of a word, for example, a voiced consonant typically loses a great deal of its vibration;  An alternative way of capturing the difference between such consonant pairs as /p/ and /b/ or to compare the force with which they are articulated. Voiceless consonants are producers with much greater force than their voiced counterparts, and the terms fortis ('string') and lenis ('weak') have come to be used to identify the two types. Thus, /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, and /tʃ/ are all fortis consonants; /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/, and /dʒ/ are all lenis;  Unlike vowels, since consonants are primarily identified through their use of the nasal cavity. Normally, in English, when we soak we keep the soft palate raised, so that is pressed against the back of the throat and allow no air out through the nose. With the three nasal consonants, /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/, however, the study palate remains lowered (as it is when we breathe), and the result is a series of sounds with a distinctive nasal resonance. Consonant or vowel Some sounds sour uneasily between the two, being articulated in the same way as vowels, but functioning in the language in the same way as consonants. /j/ add in yes and /w/ as in we are like this. /j/ is formed like a very short [i] vowel, but it occurs at the beginning of the word, as do other consonants. Similarly, /w/ is formed like a short [u] vowel, but acts as a consonant. These two consonants are therefore sometimes described as semi-vowels. Certain other consonants are also somewhat vowel-like, in that they can be sounded continuously without any audible friction : the three nasals, /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/, /l/ as in lie, and /r/ as in red. These can all be classed together as (frictionless) continuants our sonorants, within which the four oral items are often recognized as forming a distinct group. It d/ Fricatives UAZI Articulation: Bllabial ploslves: soft palate ralsed: complete closure made by the upper and lower lip; /p/ volceless, /b/ volced (and devoiced in word-final position); /p/fortis, /b/fenis. Some regional variants: No important regional variants, though the amount of aspiration (the force ofair following the release of/p/) and the degree of ‘voîcing can vary. Articulation: Alveolar plosives: soft palate raised; complete closure made by the tongue tip and rims ‘against the alveolar ridge and side teeth; /t/voiceless, Id! voiced (and devoiced in word-final position); /t/ fortis, /d/lenis; lip position influenced by adjacent vowel (spread for tee, meat; rounded for too, foot); tongue position influenced by a following consonant, becoming further back (post-alveolar) in try, dental in ‘eighth; whenin final position in a syliable or word, they readily assimilate (p. 247) t0/p, k/or/b, g/if followed by bilabial or velar consonants. Some regional variants: ‘In Arnerican, and often în Informai speech generally, /t/between vowelsisa lenis, rapid tap, resembling [d]; dental ini Irish; affricate release as ts] or [dz] in some urban UK dialects (Liverpool, Cockney) and Irish; /t/ replaced by glottalstop[?] between vowelsand before/1/(asin bottle) very noticeable in Cockney, Glasgow English, and urban speech generally; glottal stop increasingly heard in RP, especially replacing/t/before/n/(as in button) andin final position (as in shut the gate). Articulation: Velar plosives: soft palate raised; complete closure made by the back of the tongue against the soft palate; /k/voiceless, /9/voiced (and devoiced inword-final position); /k/fortis, /g/ lenis; position influenced by adjacent vowel (spread for ‘keen, meek, rounded for cool, book; also, quality varies depending on the following vowel /k/in keen ismuch further forward, approaching the hard palate, than/K/in car). Some regional variants: No important regional variations, apart from some variation in aspiration andvoicing (aswith /p/and/b/). Articulation: Labio-dentalfricatives: soft palate raised; light contact made by lower lip against upper teeth; /f/voiceless, /v/voiced (and devoiced in word- final position); /#/fortis, /v/lenis. Some regional variants: UK West Country/f/weakly articulated, approaching lv); /f/ in ofoften omitted in informa speech (cup o°tea), asisthe/v/in auxiliary have (could have). Ih/ (followedby[i] vowel) Articulation: Dental fricatives: soft palate raised; Por ‘make light contact with edge and ona surface of upper incisors, anda firmer contact with upper sideteeth tip protrudes between rteeth hi somespeakers; /0/voiceless, /3/voiced (and devoic sormord-final position); /0/fortis,/0/ lenis; ip position dependson adjacent vowel (spreadin thief, heath, rounded in though, 0ath). onalvariants: In Cockney and London= Simuenced varieties, replaced by labio-dentai/#/ and ,d by a dental /t/and/d/; often Irish, replace: clnad in clustersin informa! speech (e.g. /klovz/ forclothes). Articulation: Alveolar fricatives: soft palate raised; A "ipand blade make light contact with alveolar fidge, and rims make dlose contact with upper side ‘tesine ir escapes along a narrow groove in the centre bf the tongue; /s/voiceless, /2/ voiced (and devoiced in Word-final position}; /5/ fortis,/2/lenis; lip position dependson adjacent vowel (spread in see, ease, roundedin soup, 002€). inal variants: ‘UK West ‘Country /s/weakly Smanta approaching [2]; several deviant forms in pathology, especially the use of [9] and [0] for Island/z/tespectively (an interdental lisp). Articulation: Palato-alveolar fricatives: soft palate raised; tongue tip and blade make light contact with alveolar ridge, while front oftongue raised towards hard palate, and rims put in contact with upper side teeth; /J/voiceless, /3/ voiced (and devoiced in word- final position); /{/fortis, /3/lenis, but both sounds laxer than/s/and/2/; lip rounding influenced by adjacent vowel (spread in she, belge, rounded in shoe, rouge), but some speakers always round their lips for these sounds. Somereglonalvariants: Noimportant regional variation; some speakers vary between these sounds ‘and/sj/or/zj/inthe middle of such words as issue, casuali also usage variation with/s1/or /z1/asin appreciate, ratio; /{/and/3/ are themselves alternatives.in version, Asia, and several other words; /3/often replaced by /d3/ in word-final position (e.g. garage, rouge). Articulation: Glottal fricative; soft palate raised; alr from lungs causes audible friction as it passes through the openglottis, and resonates through the vocal tract with a quality determined chiefly by the position of the tongue taken up for the following vowel; voiceless with some voicing when surrounded by vowels (ha). Someregional variants: Occursonlyinsyllable initial position, before a vowel; omitted in many regional accents, and widely considered the chiefsign of ‘uneducated’ British speech; usage variation in initial unaccented syilable (e.g. an hotel vsa hotel). CONNECTED SPEECH Vowel and consonant segments combine into syllables; syllables combine into words; and words combine into phrases and sentences. But the process of producing connected speech affect the pronunciation of several of these segments in a number of interesting way. ASSIMILATION Adjacent signs often influence each other si that they become more alike, or assimilate. These affects are more common in rapid speech, but some degree of assimilation will be found in all spoken styles.  In anticipatory (or regressive) assimilation, a sound is influenced by the sound which follows (in the phrases ten balloons, /ten/ is likely to be pronounced /tem/, anticipating the following bilabial consonant);  In progressive assimilation, a sound is influenced by the sound which preceded it (the second words in Church Street would be found as /ʃtri:t/);  A third possibility is coalescence - a reciprocal influence, where two doubts first into a single new segment (in won't she, the final /t/ and initial /ʃ/ mutually assimilate to produce /tʃ/, resulting in the fused unit, /wəʊntʃi:/). ELISION As speech speeds up, sounds are likely to be left out, or elided. Thus especially so when clusters of consonants occur. Indeed, sine sequences are impossible to articulate naturally without elision.  Vowels in weak syllables are often elided in informal speech;  Consonants in clusters are commonly simplified;  Whole syllables may be elided, especially when there is a repeated consonant;  Some words are especially prone to elision, such as of before consonants (cup o' tea, lots o' people). Other examples include gonna (=going to), wanna (=want to), and the weak forms of auxiliary verbs. STRONG AND WEAK FORMS Nearly 50 words in English can be pronounced in two distinct ways. They are all words which perform a grammatical function - determines, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and particles. Strong (or full) forms are used when the word is said in isolation or is being emphasized. Weak forms are normal in connected speech : peripheral vowels (those which are articulated towards the edge of the vowel area in the mouth) are replaced by those of a more central quality, and some consonants may be elided. LIAISON A sound may be introduced between words or syllables to help them rob together more smoothly. The chief example of this in English is the pronunciation of word-final /r/ in RP. RP soakers pronunce the /r/ in such words as clear and mother only when there is a following vowel. This is usually called linking r. Similarly, RP speakers regularly link adjacent vowels with an /r/ even when there is no r in the spelling, as in media(r) interest. Thus intrusive r can attract ferocious criticism from conservative RP speakers, when they notice it, on the ground that there is nothing in the spelling to justify its use. It is especially disliked after an open back vowel, as in law(r) and order. PROSODY Verbal meaning ('what we say') relies on vowels and consonants to construct words, phrases, and sentences. Non- verbal meaning ('the way that we say it') makes use of such factors as intimation, rhythm, and tone of voice to provide speech with much of its structure and expressiveness. Prosodic features The main auditor properties of sound are : pitch, loudness, and speed. These properties, used singly or in combination (in the form of rhythm), and accompanied by the distinctive use of silence (in the form of praise), make up the prosody or prosodic features of the language.  The most important prosodic effects are thus conveyed by the linguistic use of pitch movement, or melody - the intonation system. Different pitch levels (tones) are used in particular sequences (contours) to express a wide range of meanings. Some of these meanings can be shown in writing, such as the opposition between statement and question, but most intonational effects have no equivalents in punctuation, and can be written down only through a special transcription;  Loudness is used in a variety of ways. Gross differences of meaning (such as anger, menace, excitement) can be conveyed by using an overall loudness level. English uses variations in loudness to define the difference between strong and weak (stressed and unstressed) syllables. The stress pattern of a word is an important feature of the word 's shown identity. They may even be contrasts of meaning partly conveyed by stress pattern, as with record (the noun) and record (the verb);  Varying the speed (or tempo) of speech is an important but less systematic communicative feature. By speeding up or slowing down the rate at which we say things, we can convey several kinds of meaning, such as (speeding up) excitement and impatience, or (slowing down) emphasis and thoughtfulness. And grammatical boundaries can often be signalled by tempo variation, as when a whole phrase is speeded up to show that it is functioning as a single word (a take-it-or-leave-it situation). A REALLY INTERESTING HIGH RISE INTONATION Prosody, and especially intonation, is an important feature of sociolinguistic identity. A well-known example is the way some regional English accents routinely use a rising tone at the end of statements, instead of the falling tone found there in most parts of the English-speaking world. Rising-time accents, often described as 'musical' or 'lilting', include those typical of Northern Ireland, Wales, and parts of NE England. In recent years, attention has been drawn to the increasing use of a particular route of rising statement intonation in what are traditionally known to be falling-tone accents. This is the use of the high rising contour. This usage has certainly been a very noticeable feature of Australian and New Zeland English, at least since the 1960s, and is greater frequency in the latter country suggests that it may well have originated there. Broadly speaking, two kinds of expansion have been proposed for the phenomenon. 1. One hypothesis focuses on the social differences, and suggests that the tone is preferred by less powerful members of society. It acts as an expression of uncertainty and lack of confidence, perhaps even of subservience and defence. This viewpoint has been particularly debated by linguists in relation to gender : one vote argues that women have come to use the time because of their subservience to men. It is also a widely held view in relation to nationhood; 2. An alternative explanation is that the high rising tone is used as a natural and widespread feature of conversational interaction. A speaker might introduce it for any of several discourse reasons - as an informal check to see if the listener has understood, as a request for empathy or some other form of feedback, or even as an indication that the speaker has not yet finished soaking. One recent phonetic study found that the tone was actually not very common in speech situations of uncertainty, such as the giving of opinions (arguing against the first hypothesis). Rather, it was particularly associated with narratives, especially when those parts of a story where the speaker wishes to heighten the interest of the listener. THE FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION  Emotional : Intonation's most obvious role is to express attitudinal meaning - sarcasm, surprise, reserve, impatience, delight, shock, anger, interest;  Grammatical : Intonation helps to identify grammatical structure in speech, performing a role similar to punctuation. Units such as clause and sentence issues depend on intonation for their spoken identity, and several specific contrasts, such as question/statement, make systematic use of it;  Informational : Intonation helps draw attention to what meaning is given and what is new in an utterance. The word carrying the most prominent tone in a contour signals the part of an utterance that the speaker is treating as new information;  Textual : Intonation helps large units of meaning than the sentence to contrast and cohere. In sports commentary, changes in prosody reflect the progress of the action;  Psychological : Intonation helps is to organize speech into units that are easier to percieve and memorize;  Indexical : Intonation, along with other prosodic features, is an important marker of personal or social identity. ADVERTISING In commercial advertising, the sound a product makes, and the emotion it is claimed to generate in the use, are often given onomatopoeic expression. Brand names common use sound (or letter) symbolism. CHILDREN'S LITERATURE Children's literature is full of sound symbolic. Onomatopoeic nonsense names also abound. Some rely on 'dark' sounds, full of voice plosives, nasals, and laterals. Others rely on 'light' sounds, full of short high vowels and voiceless consonant. PRONUNCIATION IN PRACTICE The study of the sound system of English is in principle no more difficult than the study of its queuing system, but two factors complicate the task. Most people are unfamiliar with the phonetic terminology required to describe vocal effects; and even after this terminology is understood it is not always easy to relate these descriptions to recognizable sound qualities. We tend to take pronunciation completely for granted, and notice it only when it becomes distinctive in some East, or when something goes wrong. TONGUE-SLIPPING Analysis slips of the tongue can sharpen our sense of syllable structure and sound categories. The sounds which 'slip' are usually from the same part of the syllable : an onset consonant swops with another onset consonant in mell wade (for well made); coda consonants are involved in wish a brush (for with); nuclei are affected in fool the pill (for fill the pool). They are often referred to as Spoonerism, after William Archibald Spooner, Warden of New College, Oxford, who had many such tongue slips attributed to him. CHAPTER 18 THE WRITIMG SYSTEM LETTERLAND It is an alphabetically populated world devised by British teacher Lyn Wendon to help children learn sound-letter relationships. In Letterland, letter shakes appear as pictographic body shape, and take in life as people and animals. Through the story-telling, the characters talk about the sounds they make, and why their songs vary in different contexts. Teachers who have used the system report that the children themselves also begin to talk about the sound-letter correspondences, and thus make progress in their metalinguistic skills. A BASIC PERSPECTIVE  Writing can refer to either a process or s result : while we are actively engaged in the process, we are said to be 'writing'; and when we have finished, the product (our composition, or text) is also called (a piece of) 'writing';  Writing can refer to either an everyday or a professional activity. All literate people, by definition, can write; but only a tiny minority are 'writers';  Written language, when contrasted with speech, refers to any visual manifestation of spoken language - whether handwritten, printed, typed, or electronically generated. On the other hand, when people say 'I can read your writing', they are referring only to handwritten (not printed or typed) text. The writing system Writing is a way of communicating which used a system of visual marks made on some kind of surface. It is one kind of graphic expression (other kinds include drawing, musical notation, and mathematical formulae). The standardized writing system is a language is known as its orthography. English orthography consists of the set of letters (the alphabet) and their variant forms (e.g. capitals, lower-case), the spelling system, and the set of punctuation marks. The linguistic properties of the orthographic system can be studied from two points of view;  Graphetic, a term coined on analogy with phonetics, is the study of the East human beings make, transmit, and receive written symbols. However, unlike phonetics, where a comprehensive methodology for describing the properties of speech sounds has been developed, there is as yet no sophisticated graphic classification; only a limited terminology has been developed to handle the most salient features of letter shapes;  Graphology, coined on analogy with phonology, is the study of the linguistic contrasts that writing systems express. In particular, it recognizes the notion of the grapheme, on analogy with the phoneme - the smallest unit in the wing system capable of causing a contrast in meaning. For example, because sat and rat have different meanings, <s> and <r> emerge as different graphemes; in the other hand, the contrast between sat and sɑt is not graphemic, because the graphic difference does not correlate with a change of meaning. Graphemes are usually transcribed in angle brackets. Punctuation marks (such as <.> and <?>) are graphemes also, as are such units as <2>, <&>, and <$>. GRAPHS Graphemes are abstract units, and appear in a variety of forms depending on such factors as handwriting style and typeface. Each of these possible forms is known as a graph. DIGRAPHS Where two letters represent a single sound, the combination is called a digraph. Consonant digraphs include sh and gh (h is by far the commonest second element); vowel digraphs include ea (bread) and oa (boat). Some digraphs may be physically joined (ligatured), as in æ, œ, ff, though this is unusual in modern practice. There is also the interesting 'split' or discontinuous digraph used to mark long vowels and diphthongs ad in rate and cone (which also illustrate the 'magic e', so-called because its effect operates at a distance, changing a siri vowel into a long one : rat - rate). Digraphs are an important part of the English writing system, because there are far more phonemes in speech than they are letters in alphabet. Historically the deficit has been made good by combining the 26 letters in various East, especially to capture the table of vowel distinctions which exist. Trigraphs also exist - three letters representing a single sound. Examples include tch and the UK spelling of manoeuvre, where the oeu represents /u:/. TYPOGRAPHIC TERMS serifs serifs ascender counter (n descender A limited terminology ‘exists to describe the many kinds of typeface and typesetting in regular use. Amongthe important termsare the following: ascender A partofa letter which extends above the heightofthe letter x, asin dandh.itcontrastswitha descender, a partofa letter ‘which extends below the footoftheletterx,asiny ‘ rp. spesso bold Atypewithvei re seen in [dfa sk Ho faunt Thesetofdharicters oftheone size ofthe same pui numeralg; also spelled font. italie Chafs&ers et op® tothe right.asinit Italic. justification Thee arrangementof lines of inoazlort-page. A typeface with no serifsiscallegSansserif) l'san'sentf/ (mis textsothatthereare even column).caraX:! sa CA _| 7at margins. Left-justified setting isstandard practice. In right-justified setting, thetypesetter)makes the last Citavactet of each line reach the right-hand margin. atthe same point (by ‘adjusting the spaces between thé letters and words). Unjéstified setting .hasa ‘ragge! cige: right hand margin (as inthis ita column). Wi pegrajto kern The partofa letter ‘which(overhangsthe body ofthetype, apinthe top partoff. paigere oltre leading /ledm/ The spacing between lines of type. The term derives from the former printing practice of separating lines ofmetal type by inserting stripsoflead between them. P imibor ligature Two or more letters joined together asa single character, asin e andff. lower case Small letters, as opposed to any kind of capital letters (upper case). (The "cases’were originally ‘two containers placed one above the other ina printing house: the type for capital letters came fromthe higher container; thesmall letters from the “lower.) Upper-case letters are divided into large capitalsand small capitals (BvsB).Small capitalsare similar in weight and ‘helght to a lower-casex. Large capitals arethe height ofan ascender. serif Asmall terminal stroke at the end ofthe main stroke of letter. A rif fypeface is used in the main text on the facing os sort Asingle characterof 24 sue dla type.Aspecialsortisone Alurer, Krom whichthe typesetter does is|not venni ‘not have routinely pi o ont avallableina fount, and W#Y which must be formed specially, such as a phonetic character. superscript Asmall letter or figure set beside and ‘above the top ciato character, asin42) also called a superior.it «contrasts with subscript, a small letter or figure set beside and below the foot ofa full-size character, asin &3 2150 called aninferior. x height The heightofthe —] distona. printingsurfaceofasmall 51°/2 ii letterx. Adel Mu These features wouldall Ghitrat1 Ci formpartofa graphetic Pers iu a analysis of printed vl au. language. Tp fe O pia î AAfterJ. Butcher, 1992.) 9) [ud D The fourth letter of the alphabet since Semitic times, D derives from Greek delta. A right-rounded shape appeared in Latin, and this came into English. The lower-case letter is a development of the capital, written rapidly to produce a form with a lengthened upper stroke and a reduced, left-rounded lower element. D/d typically represents a voiced alveolar plosive /d/, though with devoicing to /t/ when it occurs immediately after a voiceless consonant (crossed, pushed). It combines with g to represent /dʒ/ (badge), and is occasionally silent (handkerchief). Doubling is one way of showing a short preceding vowel (bidding vs biding). E E was a consonant symbol in the Semitic alphabet, but was used as a vowel in Greek, one of its shapes emerging in Latin and eventually in English as the capital letter. The lower-case letter developed as a smaller, rounded variant of the capital in cursive style. E/e represents both short /e/ (set) and long /i:/(me) phonetic values, with several other variants (English, certain, ballet, serious).It is often combined with other vowel letters, such as a (great, wear, ear) and i(rein, believe) less often u (Europe) and o (leopard), and it is often doubled (meet, beer). One of its major functions is to indicate a preceding long vowel, whether adjacent (die) or separated (the 'magic e' in make, bite). It may also mark a change in consonant value, as in teethe vs teeth, singe vs sing, and vice vs Vic. It often has no function, being a silent testimonial to an earlier period of pronunciation history (have, some, more). There are several variations in usage (judg(e)ment, ag(e)ing) and regional differences, both in spelling (US ax, UK axe) and sound. F F, along with U, V, and W, all come from a single symbol used in the North Semitic alphabet. This gave rise to two letters in early Greek, one of which was adapted by the Etruscans and Romans, and given the value of a voiceless labio-dental fricative, /f/. The elongated lower-case form arose later, when scribes began to run letters together in the cursive style. In Old English, the symbol was at first used for both voiced and voiceless labio-dental fricatives, but once /v/ emerged as a separate phoneme in English, f was almost entirely used for the voiceless sound (an exception being of). There is doubling in many words, indicating a preceding short vowel (stuff, waffle). Because other letters also represent the /f/ sound (cough, photo), there is occasional usage variation (US sulfur, UK sulphur). An interesting graphic archaism is the spelling of such upper-class surnames, arising from a medieval practice of representing a capital letter by doubling the lower-case character (ffoulkes). G G is found first in the 4th century BC, in a revised version of the Latin alphabet. Previous alphabets had used the C symbol for the voiced velar plosive /g/, and the new letter was a simple adaptation of that, adding a small cross-bar. The lower-case form went through a complex set of changes to produce the modern symbols-the g with a closed lower element (g), often found in print, and the 'open g' of handwriting. An insular variant was found in Anglo-Saxon writing, which lasted into early Middle English for the representation of certain palatal and velar sounds until eventually replaced by gh. After the Norman Conquest, g is found as both a 'hard' sound, the velar plosive (go), and a 'soft sound' (the affricate /dʒ/ used before e, i and y, as in age, gin, gym). French loan words with g also often retain a voiced fricative (rouge, genre). Popular letter combinations include d (ledge) and n (sing), and there is frequent doubling (egg, soggy, bigger). It is often silent (gnome, phlegm, resign, foreign, high) and is famous for its silence in the-ough spellings. There is some usage variation, both in sound and spelling (jail,gaol, and especially in proper names using a 'soft g': Geoffvs.Jeff). H H was originally a Semitic letter which came into Latin via Greek and Etruscan to represent the glottal fricative /h/. The lower-case form arose with the development of cursive script. A founded version, in the uncial style, led to the modern small letter. H/h is widely used as a combining form in such digraphs as ch, sh, th, and ph, but is not doubled (apart from such cases as ahh!) unless two syllables come together (withhold). It is often silent (Sarah, exhausted, hythm) and sometimes signals adjacent sound quality (e.g. showing that c before e in chemist is pronounced /k/). It is a major source of usage variation, with several accents not prouncing h initially, and some words varying between regions (UK herb pronounces the h, US herb usually does not). I I was a consonant in the Semitic alphabet, represented a vowel in Greek, and came into Latin with both vowel and consonant (y) values. The lower-case letter is a smaller form of the capital. The dot was originally a small diacritic, similar to an acute accent, added during the early Middle English period by scribes concerned to distinguish the stroke of an i from the otherwise identical strokes (known as minims) of adjacent letters (m, n, u). I/i has a wide range of sound values, both short (big) and long (find, ski); it is sometimes silent (session). It often combines as a digraph with e (lie, field), and appears doubled only when syllables become adjacent (radii). There is some usage variation with y (gipsy vs gypsy, US tire vs UK tyre), reflecting a time when i and y were interchangeable. The choice of the capital I for the first person singular pronoun was a standardization introduced by printers in late Middle English, after a period when i, j, I, y, and Y had all been used for this form. J The history of this letter in English dates only from the medieval period. Originally a graphic variant of i (a lengthened form with a bottom left-facing curve), it gradually came to replace i whenever that letter represented a consonant, as in major and jewel. The lower-case distinction did not become standard until the mid-17th century, and there was uncertainty about the upper-case distinction even as late as the early 19th century. J/j is chiefly pronounced as a voiced palato-alveolar affricate (/dʒ/(hab), with a fricative or vocalic sound in a few cases, such as foreign names Jacques, Jung, Juan). It is unusual to find it at the end of a word (raj). Many words with initial j are from French (jolly, juice) or Latin (junior, jubilation), and it is a common letter in personal names (Janet, John). It is also sometimes used as a nonstandard spelling for the voiced affricate /dʒ/ (Injuns, Roj= Roger). K K was a Semitic letter which came into Latin via Greek and Etruscan. It was in fact little used in Latin (which preferred C and Q), and is not found in Old English. The letter emerges in Middle English to represent the voiceless velar plosive /k/, which in Old English had been spelled with c. The need for the new symbol arose because of the arrival of many French words where c had a fricative sound before e and i (centre, city), and after a period of uncertainty k became used in those contexts where c would have had a plosive sound. In this way, Old English words such as cyning came to be written as king. The lower-case letter arose in handwriting through a simple extension of the upright stroke above the line. As a result, K/k in Modern English is common before e and i, but less so before other vowels kangaroo), unless it represents a Scandinavian sk- word, such as sky. It is not usually doubled, ck being the usual form after short vowels (but note such loan words as trekking and pukka). It is some times silent (knee, know). It is a common symbol when representing foreign names (Khrushchev, Kaiser), names of aliens (Kruls, Klingons), and as a non-standard spelling in trade names (Kwik-Fit) or humour (Keystone Kops). There is also some usage variation (disk vs disc, US check vs UK cheque, US skeptic vs UK sceptic). L L was a symbol in the Semitic alphabet, and developed via Greek, Etruscan, and Latin into its modern capital form, with a horizontal line replacing an earlier oblique. The lower-case letter arose in handwriting, when scribes joined L to adjacent letters by using an upper loop and turning the horizontal stroke into a curve. These linking features were omitted in the printed form. L/l represents a voiced alveolar lateral /l/ (lip, pool), with some variation according to context. Other pronunciations may occur in loan words, such as the voiceless lateral in Welsh ll (Llangollen). The letter is frequently doubled, usually to mark a preceding short vowel (million, well), but there are many exceptions (such as welcome, until, with l after a short vowel, and all, poll, with ll after a long vowel). L/l is often silent (could, chalk, folk), with some variation (almond with and without /l/). There is also some written usage variation (US enroll, traveler, chili vs UK enrol, traveller, chilli). M M has come from a Semitic letter via the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman alphabets (where it sometimes had four vertical strokes) into Old English. The lower-case letter appeared in a rounded form in uncial style. In medieval manuscripts, it was common practice to replace m by a small stroke over the preceding letter, a practice which can still be found in the 17th century. M/m represents a voiced bilabial nasal /m/, with some minor articulatory variations. Doubling is usual after a short vowel (comma vs coma); but there are many exceptions (camel vs mammal), especially at the end of monosyllabic words, where a single m is usual (am, time, seem), and