Introduction To English Linguistics PDF

Introduction to English Linguistics Week 5: Syntax, Part 1: Word classes Prof. Dr. Daniela Landert, 15 May 2024  Achievement Data Migration heiCO In Summary Alternative System...

Introduction to English Linguistics Week 5: Syntax, Part 1: Word classes Prof. Dr. Daniela Landert, 15 May 2024  Achievement Data Migration heiCO In Summary Alternative System For access from remote, set up VPN! May 9th, 2024 May 21st, 2024 June 1st, 2024 Continued availability of all essential Opening of alternative system with read- heiCO-System is available as usual. functionalities, except for changing only access. Achievement data / grades will be visible from degree programs and majors. June 15th at the earliest, adjustments will continue beyond June 15th. Click here to visit the heiCO system. Click here to visit the heiCO system. Click here to visit the heiCO system. Alternative System Related Links DOs All information regarding the achievement data migration: − Viewing achievements/credits https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/en/teaching-services-portal/heidelberg-campus-online/achievement- data-migration-may-21-to-may-31-2024 − Searching for courses, viewing information and dates heiCO FAQs: https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/en/faqs-students − Viewing exam dates Manuals: − Viewing student dossier https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/en/teaching-services-portal/heidelberg-campus-online/heico-downloads − Downloading and printing documents in the student heiCO-System: dossier https://heico.uni-heidelberg.de/heiCO/ee/ui/ca2/app/desktop/#/login − Downloading and printing proofs and certificates heiCO-Website: https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/en/teaching-services-portal/heidelberg-campus-online DON’Ts Website Universität Heidelberg – Study − Register for a course https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/en/study − Register for an exam heiCO-Helpdesk: [email protected] Achievement Data Migration | May 21st to May 31st, 2024 | Information for Students May 8th, 2024 Programme for today Syntax 1: Grammar: A descriptive perspective Language typology Word classes / parts of speech Constituency D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Today’s learning objectives At the end of this session students will be able to: Provide a definition and an example of a polysynthetic, inflectional, agglutinative and isolating/analytic language Classify English with respect to its morphological language type and explain why a clear-cut classification is not possible Identify all words in a given sentences with respect to their word class Summarise the main morphological, syntactic and semantic properties of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, using the appropriate linguistic terminology (e.g. attributive, predicative, periphrastic, …) Explain the problems of drawing clear boundaries between word classes and illustrate them with examples Identify sentence constituents with the help of five tests D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Grammar: A descriptive perspective D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024  https://pwa.klicker.uzh.ch/join/dlandert Word class identification Identify all nouns, main verbs and adjectives in the text! ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. (Jabberwocky, from Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass) Grammar - The study of the structure of a language Our knowledge of grammar allows us to - The rules according to which units of identify the word class of these invented language (morphemes, words, phrases, words! clauses) can be combined into larger units D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024  R eek Prescriptivism and descriptivism ec W ap 1 Prescriptive view Descriptive view Prescribes the correct use of language Describes how language is actually used E.g. School, style guides Acknowledges that language is constantly evolving View adopted by linguists Descriptive view on grammar: - What structural patterns can we observe, based on actual instances of language use? D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Language typology D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024  Morphological language types Synthetic Isolating / analytic One word contains several morphemes One word contains one morpheme Polysynthetic Inflectional Agglutinating Isolating / Analytic (Western Greenlandic) (Latin, Greek, German) (Japanese, Turkish, Finnish) (Chinese, Vietnamese) D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Isolating  word structure simple; no bound forms  one word form per lexeme Mandarin Chinese: ‘Dogs don’t like to eat vegetables’ gŏu bú ài chī qīngcài dog not like eat vegetable Vietnamese: ‘When I came to my friend’s house, we began to do lessons’ khi tôi đḗn nhà bḁn tôi chúng tôi bắt đằu bài when I come house friend I PLUR I begin do lesson Thai: ‘She is studying the Thai language’ khaw kamlang rian phasaa thaai yuu s/he PROG study language Thai at D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Agglutinating  word structure complex; one morpheme has one meaning only Turkish: ‘gelémiyeceğim’ gel é miy eceğ im come be-able NegativeFuture 1st person ‘I will not be able to come’ Swahili: ‘anajenipatia maji’ a na ye ni pat ia (maji) he Present who me get for (water) ‘he who gets water for me’ ‘ninakupenda’ ni na ku penda I Present you love ‘I love you’ D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Inflectional  word structure complex;  portmanteau morphemes: a single morpheme can take (or encode) several meanings  stem alternations: No clear segmentation into morphemes possible Latin: ambulo ambul- -o walk 1st person/Singular/Present/Indicative/Active ‘I walk’ French: réalisait réal is ait real Verb 3rd Pers. Sing. Past German: gib (Pres.) – gab (Past) D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Polysynthetic Polysynthetic languages are at the extreme end of the continuum  several morphemes per word. Elements that often occur as separate words in other languages (such as arguments of the verb) are expressed morphologically An example from Western Greenlandic, a polysynthetic and agglutinating language Aliikusersuillammassuaanerartassagaluarpaalli. aliiku-sersu-i-llammas-sua-a-nerar-ta-ssa-galuar-paal-li entertainment-provide-SEMITRANS-one.good.at-COP-say.that-REP-FUT-sure.but-3.PL.SUBJ/3SG.OBJ-but – 'However, they will say that he is a great entertainer, but...' (12:1 ratio of morphemes per word) D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024  Most languages What morphological type is English? cannot be classified neatly as belonging to exactly one morphological type! Inflectional Agglutinating Isolating - Portmanteau morphemes - Complex word structure - One morpheme per word - No clear segmentation into - One meaning per morpheme - Word order defines grammatical morphemes possible role The geese ran unhappiness the cat bit the dog She sings antidisestablishmentarianism the dog bit the cat English displays morphological properties from different types Overall, it has more similarities to isolating Long-term development: From inflectional to isolating languages like Chinese than to Latin or Greek D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024  R eek Inflectional morphemes: Closed class ec W ap 2 Portmanteau morph! -s Verbs 3rd pers. sg. present She waits at home. -ed1 Verbs past tense She waited at home. -ed2 Verbs past participle Mary has just arrived. -ing Verbs present participle She is eating the donut. -s Nouns plural She ate the donuts. -’s Nouns possessive Lisa’s hair is short. -er Adjectives comparative Her hair is shorter. -est Adjectives superlative He has the shortest hair. D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Word classes / parts of speech D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Word classes / parts of speech Word class: A group of words which, from a Commonly distinguished word classes: grammatical point of view, behave in the same way Open/lexical word classes Morphological similarities: Same inflections Nouns Syntactic similarities: Same positions within a Verbs sentence Adjectives (Semantic similarities: Similar types of meanings, Adverbs e.g. ‘name of a person, place or thing’) Prepositions, conjunctions Closed/grammatical/functional word classes Determiners (including articles) Pronouns Auxiliaries Prepositions, conjunctions D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024  the slithy toves, Nouns in the wabe, the borogoves, the mome raths outgrabe Morphology: Subclasses Inflect for number: plural -s Inflect for case: genitive -’s Common nouns: house, bike, dragon, tempest Proper nouns: Stephanie, London, Google Syntax: Take determiners: the house, a tree, my bike Count nouns: tree, bike, dragon Take attributive adjectives: the green house, my Non-count nouns: milk, flour, money, luggage, pretty bike traffic Semantics: Denote people, objects, creatures, phenomena, abstract ideas: Stephanie, phone, dragon, tempest, innovation D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Verbs Did gyre and gimble, the mome raths outgrabe Morphology: Subclasses Inflect for tense: She walks, she walked aspect: She walks, she has walked, she is Full/lexical verbs: walk, sing, love, entertain, … walking act as main verb person: I walk, she walks usually have four inflectional endings (plus zero number: she walks, they walk ending) mood: she walks – I wish she walked Auxiliary verbs: be, have, (do) Syntax: Take (some) adverbs: She sang prettily Modal verbs: can, could, may, might, will, would, shall should, must Semantics: don’t inflect Denote actions, states, events: She wrote, She are used in combination with a full verb loves the sea, It happened Marginal modals, semi-modals: need, dare, ought to, have to, … D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024  ‘Twas brillig, Adjectives the slithy toves, All mimsy were the borogoves, the mome raths outgrabe Morphology: Subclasses (Some) inflect for comparative and superlative: small–smaller–smallest Synthetic gradability: with inflectional endings Syntax: smaller, smallest Can premodify nouns in attributive uses: the green house, my pretty bike Analytic gradability: Can be used after be as a main verb in through periphrastic constructions predicative uses: the house is green, the bike is more beautiful, most beautiful pretty Can take modifiers, such as very, rather Semantics: Denote qualities or properties D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Adverbs under (Prep.): under my bed under (Adv.): the boat was going under Morphology: Subclasses Many derived from adjectives through suffix –ly: high–highly Simple adverbs: just, only, well, under BUT: well, fast, hard (e.g. she works hard), … Compound adverbs: somehow, somewhere, therefore Syntax: Derivational adverbs: happily, oddly, interestingly Modify verbs, adjectives and adverbs: to write carefully, they are blissfully ignorant, she played surprisingly well Can take modifiers: very carefully Semantics: Denote time, place or manner D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Word classes: Problems Word classes are abstractions: Not all words fall neatly into a single word class under as preposition and adverb need as main verb and modal verb This does not need to be the case. This need not be the case. Not all words of a word class share all properties Non-count nouns don’t inflect for number Modal verbs don’t inflect for tense Articles: a, the Some adverbs don’t take modifiers Determiners: include other forms that can occur in * very only the position of articles: Possessive determiners: my house, their cake Not everyone draws the boundaries between word Demonstrative determiners: this house, those classes in the same way cakes my, their: pronoun or determiner? Quantifiers: many houses, any cakes D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Constituency D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 From word to sentence – Constituency Words cold, evening, turn, recently, the, but, recently constituents of Phrases the evenings, very cold, in the evening, have constituents of turned Clauses the evenings have turned very cold constituents of Sentence The afternoons are still warm, but the evenings have turned very cold recently. Quirk et al (1985: 38–39) D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Testing for constituency Motivation: Five tests: Understanding the internal Substitution Note: Not every test works for every structure of phrases, clauses and Deletion kind of constituent! sentences: Movement Which elements are connected Coordination to each other more closely? Questioning Which more remotely? Which elements form a structural unit? D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Visualising constituency: tree structures Each node/sub-tree = a constituent All fifteen members of the group swam the entire length of the swimming pool yesterday afternoon D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Testing for constituency: Substitution Many constituents can be substituted with pro-forms: All fifteen members of the group swam the entire length of the swimming pool yesterday afternoon. - Pronouns for noun phrases - do so/that for verb phrases - They swam the entire length of the swimming pool - then, there, that way for adverbials yesterday afternoon. - All fifteen members of it swam the entire length of the swimming pool yesterday afternoon. - All fifteen members of the group swam the entire length of it yesterday afternoon. - All fifteen members of the group did so yesterday afternoon. - All fifteen members of the group swam the entire length of the swimming pool then. D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Testing for constituency: Deletion Some constituents can be deleted without creating All fifteen members of the group swam the entire length ungrammatical sentences of the swimming pool yesterday afternoon. All fifteen members of the group swam the entire length of the swimming pool. All fifteen members of the group swam the entire length of the swimming pool yesterday. All fifteen members of the group swam yesterday afternoon. All fifteen members swam the entire length of the swimming pool yesterday afternoon. All members of the group swam the entire length of the swimming pool yesterday afternoon. D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Testing for constituency: Movement Some constituents can be moved to a different place All fifteen members of the group swam the entire length in the sentence without creating ungrammatical of the swimming pool yesterday afternoon. sentences Yesterday afternoon, all fifteen members of the group swam the entire length of the swimming pool. The entire length of the swimming pool, all fifteen members of the group swam. D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Testing for constituency: Coordination Some constituents can be coordinated with a All fifteen members of the group swam the entire length constituent of the same type (see below for of the swimming pool yesterday afternoon. coordination) All fifteen members of the group and their friends swam the entire length of the swimming pool yesterday afternoon. All fifteen members of the group swam and dived the entire length of the swimming pool yesterday afternoon. All fifteen members of the group swam the entire length of the swimming pool and ran around the field yesterday afternoon. All fifteen members of the group swam the entire length of the swimming pool yesterday afternoon and today. D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Testing for constituency: Questioning Some constituents can be tested by forming questions All fifteen members of the group swam the entire length about them of the swimming pool yesterday afternoon. Who swam? -> All fifteen members of the group. All fifteen members of what swam? -> Of the group. When did they swim? -> Yesterday afternoon. How far did they swim? -> The entire length of the swimming pool. D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Sentence constituent? Jennifer and Heather found a number of interesting books on the final shelf of the Department library. 1) Jennifer and Heather 1) Yes. E.g. Substitution: they 2) Heather 2) Yes. E.g. Coordination: Jennifer and Heather and Judy 3) Heather found 3) No 4) found a number of interesting books 4) Yes. E.g. Substitution: did so 5) interesting books 5) Yes. E.g. Questioning: A number of what; Subst: them 6) interesting books on 6) No 7) on the final 7) No 8) final 8) Yes. E.g. Deletion: on the shelf. 9) on the final shelf 9) Yes. E.g. Questioning Where in the Deptartment library 10)on the final shelf of the Department library 10)Yes. E.g. Movement: On the final shelf of the 11)found a number of interesting books on the final Department library, Jennifer and Heather found … shelf of the Department library 11)Yes. E.g. Substitution: Jennifer and Heather did so. D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024  Chain and choice relationships syntagmatic: chain relationship paradigmatic: choice relationship The evenings have turned very cold recently over the past The afternoons have become cold month just a tiny bit They may turn ∅ more humid Quirk et al (1985: 41) D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 Recommended exercises Exercises 1 and 2 Identify all sentence constituents in a complex sentence using the five tests Advanced: Exercises 11 and 12 D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024 For next week: Syntax, Part 2 Read Chapter 4.22–4.3 (remaining part of Chapter 4) in your textbook Read Hinrichs et al. (2015) Another research article, this one dealing with relative clauses D. Landert, EV Introduction to English Linguistics, SoSe 24, 15 May 2024