Phonetics and Morphology: Understanding English Pronunciation and Word Formation, Sintesi del corso di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Phonetics and Morphology: Understanding English Pronunciation and Word Formation e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! ENGLISH -MORPHOLOGY and SYNTAX+ the FORM of words and sentences - PHONETICS and PHONOLOGY +the SOUNDS of the language Latin — 29% French "29% Germanic | "26% Greek 6% Others 10% Historical periods and linguistic phases 1. The Anglo-Saxon period ——» 1. Old English (700-1150) 2. The Norman period » 2. Middle English (1150-1500) 3. Modern period ———_____»+ 3. Modern English (1500-1900) 4.20th Century —— ______» 4. Present-day English (to the present) Between 1400 and 1600 English people changed the way they pronounced vowels: Great Vowel Shift (GVS) In 1066 the Norman conquest was probably the most crucial event in the long evolution of the English language. William from Normandy is a Duke Normandy (Region of France). Normandy =Man from the North = Vikings -William the bastard = Duke of Normandy In the year 1066 there is no king in England = great opportunity! William invades England; in one they they won the battle (battle of Hastings) Now William is a king (not a duke anymore) of England. His name is not William the Bastard, but now it is William the Conqueror (conquistatore) They used to speak French (quando gli anglosassoni sono arrivati si trattava di un intero popolo, famiglie e bambini e hanno portato la loro lingua che è diventata la lingua del popolo inglese - di tutti. I normanni che invadono l'Inghilterra non sono un intero popolo che migra. Semplicemente si cambia la classe dominante, ma sono pochissimi: 2% normanni + 98% anglosassoni Animali vivi: (Anglosassoni) Animali cucinati: (Francesi) Pig Pork Sheep Mutton Cow Beef Questo perché la carne veniva mangiata dai ricchi = normanni che parlavano francese Ci vogliono circa 300 anni per vedere completamente un'unica lingua = English today INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET 1 suono vocale lungo d+ “schwa” " = euh IMPORTANTE e suono di cat È- suono di father D- “th =f”, suono di think p t k aes e | ys t pen talk i can five | sx | inanks she teacher b d g v z ò 3 d3 bed j | does get ver | zero this television | jacket h L'ler w m n Dn j hat Ì leg | read wet “I mother nurse sing yes n I i: u: | UL ei 19 aL hit been food I foot N page | nere «now a si DI D al (ce) au ago first bought got > five ù __ there 3 house x e e ai A DI va pen cat car but Met voice | poor -Grapheme: a letter of the alphabet. <t>, <g>, <c> -Phoneme: a sound in language capable of creating a distinction in meaning between two words. For example: path - bath /p/ - /b/ town - down /t/ - /d/ pin-pen /1/ - le/ /p/ - /b/ - /t/ - /d/ - // - /e/ are all phonemes because if you replace them in a word, like in the example, the meaning of the word changes! a) Same phoneme but different graphemes in spelling! -<c> = /k/ : cut -<c> = /s/ : nice b) Same grapheme but different phonemes! Many graphemes are silent: - <b>: - <>: - <@: - <<: - <h> debt, bomb, doubt -<m> muscle -<n>: Wednesday -<p>: sign -<s>: : hour, honour -<t>: i mnemonic autumn, column psychology island castle. often -<k> : know, knock -<1> : walk, talk, should - <w> : write, wrong Consonants: Lack of aspiration in voiceless /p, t, k/ in syllable initial position: no allophonic variation by Italian leamers - pain [p®emm] tea [t".] queue /k"ju:/ Lack of aspiration of /h/ at the beginning of stressed syllables - hotel [hav'tel] heart [ha:t] # art [a:t] Voicing of voiceless syllable initial [s] + consonant: In English ininitial position is always /s/! -small (not zmall) slim (not zlim) swim (not zwim) Noun inflections: -if the base form of a word ends with a voiceless consonant, the ending will be voiceless too: books [bvks] -if the base form of a word ends with a voiced consonant or a vowel, the ending will be voiced too: pens [penz], trees [tri:z] Verb inflections: -if a verb ends with a voiceless consonant, the ending will be voiceless too, [t]: asked [a:skt] -if a verb ends with a voiced consonant or a vowel, the ending will be voiced too, [d]: lived [livd] -if a verb ends in [t] or [d], ending will be [ld]: wanted ['wantid] HOW TO COUNT SYLLABLES? -To count syllables in English, DON'T look at the graphemes (letters), listen to their sound! - Say the word: how many times do you hear vowels as separate sounds? That's the number of syllables. beau-ti-ful /'bju:stasfal/ + There are 5 vowel graphemes (e, a, u, i, u) in this word, but only 3 vowel sounds (ju:, a, a), so 3 syllables. A very practical way to count syllables is the so-called Chin Method: 1. Put your hand under your chin. 2. Say the word. 3. How many times does your chin touch your hand? 4. This is the number of syllables. - Strong syllables are those syllables whose nucleus may be: A long vowel: father ['fa:»da] A diphthong: go [gav] A vowel + consonant coda: thank [9zenk] - Weak syllables are those syllables whose nucleus may be: the short vowels /i/ and /u/: happy ['heep = i] - thank you [Bzenk ju] schwa /2/: father ['fa: » da] - Strong syllable may be stressed (e.g. father) or unstressed (e.g. background), but weak syllables are always unstressed (e.g. happy) Stress is the greater prominence given to a syllable in a word - In phonetic transcription stress is indicated by a vertical line (stress mark) preceding the stressed syllable: breakfast ['brek=fost] - Words with multiple syllables may have a primary and a secondary stress (represented by the symbol ‘’): understand [An = da ='staend] “Just like in Italian, the stress is mobile in English, i.e. it's not always in the same position in words. Be careful! Sometimes the accent shifts from one syllable to another when the same word has a different grammar function: Noun Verb -digest /'daidzest/ to digest /ta dal' dzest/ “export /'ekspo:t/ to export /ta 1ks'po:t/ -desert /'dezet/ to desert /ta di'z3:t/ -contest /'kontest/ to contest /ta kan 'test/ -insult. /'insalt/ to insult /ta in_'salt/ -rebel /°_rebal/ to rebel /ta ri'bel/ There are some rules for stress and suffixes: -Stressed suffixes: -ee, -ese, -esque, -aire addressee, Chinese, picturesque, millionaire - Non-stressed suffixes: -able, -ful, -less, -ness, -ment, -ship comfortable, wonderful, homeless, happiness, development, relationship - Suffixes that attract stress to the penultimate syllable: -ic(s), -ion, -ian, -ish, -al, -ous economic, foolish, convention, politician, division, denial, contagious Connected speech - Changes in connected speech are articulatory accommodations : rule of “economy of effort”. Sometimes we even write these accommodations: give me > gimme going to > gonna want to > wanna Linking - Consonant to vowel linking: a smooth link between the two: fried egg /fraldeg/ leave early /li:v'3:li/ «r-linking: for example [fo:"ig'za:mpl] - Consonant to consonant linking: one single consonant sound is heard : let down /ledavn/ black cat /blaekaet/ played darts /pleida:ts/ -Vowel to vowel and semivowel linkings: a /W/ or a /j/ sound is added: how about [hav"a'bavt] say it [serlt] Assimilation - It is the replacement of a sound with another sound. Assimilation occurs in connected fluent speech. - Voice: He was sent [hi waz sent] [hi was sent] (voiceless /s/ and not /z/ in connected speech - Tongue or lip position: good cooks [gud kvks] [gug kuks] this shop [dis fap] [dif fap] this year [dis je] [djia] bad boys [baed boiz] [baeb boiz] Elision -It is the disappearance of a sound from pronunciation - Sometimes it is a historical phenomenon: castle /'ka:sl/ know /nav/ walk /w>:k/ write /rart/ More often it happens for economy in articulatory effort. For example: - dropping of /h/ e.g. weak forms of personal pronouns (her, him, his, etc.) : tell him /tel him/ /telim/ - loss of [d] and [t] when they appear between two consonant sounds: first class /fa:st kla:s/ /f3:s kla:s/, left behind /left bi'haind/ /lef bi'haind/, stand still /staend stil/ /staen stil/, mild summer /maild 'sama/ /mail 'sama/, didn't think /didnt nk/ /didn Bink/ Vowel reduction It is characteristic of grammatical words (e.g. articles, modals, auxiliaries, conjunctions, pronouns and prepositions) when used in weak position: -STRONG : If I like soccer? Of course, | do! [du:] - WEAK: Do you speak English? [da] -STRONG: Who is this present for? [fo:] - WEAK: It's for Mike. [fa] What happens to the sound of a grammatical word in weak position? Its sound becomes shorter and less clear, and very often the sound of the vowel will change to a schwa /a/. Rhythm and the English language: 1.English is a stressed-timed language: it means that strong and weak syllables occur regularly. 2.In connected speech strong syllables tend to: - have full vowels (weak syllables most commonly have schwa) - be one-syllable words with lexical meaning, and not grammatical (e.g., in the previous sentences: mind, smoke, week, just, need) - be the stressed syllables of polysyllabic words (chil-, fai-, sea-) Word classes Nine major word classes: Two minor word classes: 1. nouns 1. interjections (e.g. Wow, Hey) 2. lexical verbs 2. Wh- words (e.g. which, what, who, how) 3. auxiliary verbs 4. adjectives 5. adverbs 6. conjunctions 7. prepositions 8. determiners 9. pronouns Multiple class membership The same word form may belong to more than one word class: FAST+ fast food (Adj), you're driving too fast! (Adv), to launch a fast for human rights (N) The co-text, i.e. the surroundings of the word, allows the reader/listener to understand the difference and word stress helps disambiguation: rebel (N) ['rebal], rebel (V) [ri'bel] -Content words: 4 classes: nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, adverbs These classes are also called open classes because it is always possible to create new verbs, nouns etc. -Grammatical words: 5 classes: conjunctions, prepositions, determiners, pronouns, auxiliary verbs These classes also called closed classes because they have a fixed number of words. In other words, we don't create new prepositions or articles. Nouns are lexical words which refer to concrete or abstract objects or entities e house: common, concrete love: common, abstract London: proper We usually use another expression: -Don't act ina silly way. Not: Don't act sillily. -She said it in a friendly way. Not: She said it friendlily. Remember that some adverbs are not related to adjectives at all, example: just, quite, soon, so, too, very. Prepositions (Prep) 1. Closed class words that show the relationship between two items+ a bottle of wine 2.Two types: -Simple: single word + under, over, at, on, about - Complex: more than one word + according to, on behalf of, with regard to Determiners (Det) Closed class words used before a noun The main subclasses are: . articles (indefinite and definite): a, an, the . demonstratives: this, that, these, those . possessives: my, your, his, her, their, our, its, etc. . quantifiers: few, many, several, some, every, each, any, etc. . cardinal numbers: one, two, fifty, etc. 6. ordinal numbers: first, second, third, etc. Closed class items that replace words avoiding repetitions+ Michelle was offered an exciting new job and she decided to take it. There are: 1. Personal pronouns : They love football (subject) She loves them (object) 2. Possessive pronouns: This book is mine 3. Demonstrative pronouns : This is my friend Tom 4. Reflexive pronouns: She hurt herself 5. Interrogative pronouns: Whose car is this? 6. Relative pronouns : This is the car which/that I want to buy USAWNHE Auxiliaries (Aux) Closed class verbs which accompany lexical verbs -Primary auxiliaries: have, be, do: Liz is looking for a job Do you speak English? She has studied a lot - Modal auxiliaries (modality): can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must: I must go now! Would you like a cup of coffee? Wh- words what, when, where, which, who, whom, whose, why, how Wh- words may be: - Adverbs: When did you call her? - Pronouns : Whose car is that? - Determiners : Which book did you choose? ‘GRAMMATICAL FUNCTION Common verbs with 2 object include: - Award -Show - Lend - Hand - Give - Tell - Offer Teach - Pass «Throw - Owe “Ask -Bring -Write subject (S), verb (V), object (0), complement (C) and adverbial (A) Examples: 1) This (S) seems (V) a good idea (Cs) 2) Perhaps (A) you (S) should invite (V) Carl (Od) 3) She (S) called (V) him (Od) a liar (Co) 4) My sister (S) gave (V) me (Oi ) a very beautiful dress (Od) yesterday (A) 5) The tall woman (S) pushed (V) the boy with the umbrella (Od) OR The tall woman (S) pushed (V) the boy (Od) with the umbrella (A) THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY There are 3 different processes of lexical innovation: 1. The creation of completely new words: to google something/someone 2. The borrowing of words from other languages: Bravo! (from Italian) or déjà-vu (from French) 3. Various ways of transforming existing words, for example: -suffixes and prefixes: polite...impolite -compounding: cheeseburger, hitchhike - shortening: sitcom (short for situation comedy) - blending words: smog (smoke + fog) brunch (breakfast + lunch) - acronyms: Call me asap! (=as soon as possible) Common idioms The ball is in your court.+ It is up to you to make the next decision or step. To bark up the wrong tree.+ To look in the wrong place. To accuse the wrong person. To beat around the bush. + To avoid the main topic. To cry over spilt milk. + To complain about a loss from the past. To see eye to eye with someone.+ Used to say that two (or more people) agree on something. SIMILES work in a similar way: You are as fit as a fiddle+ In Italian: Sano come un pesce. PROVERBS are statements expressing popular wisdom and have a strong connection to the culture that produced them. We should never translate a proverb literally, the result will be incomprehensible at best, and sometimes embarrassing: The early bird catches the worm A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush When in Rome, do as the Romans do People who live in glass houses should not throw stones Birds of a feather flock together You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs 1. actually In realtà 13. Facility complesso/struttura 2. agenda ordine del giorno 14. Factory Fabbrica 3. argument — litigio 15. Ingenuity Ingeniosità 4. attitude atteggiamento 16. Lecture Conferenza 5. brave impavido 17. Library Biblioteca 6. commodity bene/prodotto 18. Magazine Rivista 7. consistent costante/coerente 19. Major Principale 8. delude ingannare 20. Morbid Morboso 9. director regista 21. Pretend fingere 10. dramatic spettacolare 22. Relevant pertinente 11. educated istruito 23. Sympathetic empatico 12. eventually infine 24.Traduce diffamare ENGLISH IN THE NEWS Plural or singular? There is no rule of grammar. Collective nouns such as: family, audience, band, cast, class, committee, company, faculty, department, gang, majority, party, school, society, team... can be either singular or plural. It depends whether the organisation is seen as a singular entity or as a collection of individuals. » It is possible and correct to write both: 1) My family is well. AND 2) My family are well. » It often happens to find sentences where the verb changes from singular to plural. Here's another example: 'A team of scientists has arrived in Hong Kong. They will start their investigations into the outbreak of smallpox tomorrow." > Insport, anyway, teams are always plural: 'England are expected to beat Andorra‘ 'Chelsea have extended their lead at the top of the Premiership." Reported Speech 1. “l work in bank”, he said. He said that he worked in bank. 2. “We went out last night”, they admitted. They admitted that they had gone/been out the night before. 3. “lm packing my stuff”, she said. She said that she was packing her stuff 4. “l was waiting for the bus when he arrived”, she said. She said that she had been waiting for the bus when he arrived. . “I had never been there before”, Mr Banks said. Mr Banks said that he had never been there before. n 6. “l didn't go to the party”, Susan confessed. Susan confessed that she hadn't gone/been to the party. 7. “Lucy will join us later”, he told me. He told me that Lucy would join us later 8. “I haven't eaten breakfast”, Tim said. Tim said that he hadn't eaten breakfast. 9. “I can help you tomorrow”, Michaela told him. Michaela told him that she could help him the following day. 10. “You should go to bed early”, her father told her. Her father told her that she should go to bed early 11. “She hasn't eaten sushi before”, Andrew whispered. Andrew whispered that she hadn't eaten sushi before. 12. “I could read when | was 3”, he insisted. He insisted that he could read when he was 3.