Introduction to English Linguistics - Schleburg PDF

1 Language and Linguistics Introduction to English Linguistics – Schleburg 1 Language and Linguistics ›Communication‹ – Functions of language (CRYSTAL) social interaction control of reality instrument of thought emotional expression recording the facts...

1 Language and Linguistics Introduction to English Linguistics – Schleburg 1 Language and Linguistics ›Communication‹ – Functions of language (CRYSTAL) social interaction control of reality instrument of thought emotional expression recording the facts expression of identity power of sound 1 Language and Linguistics Aspects of language and fields of linguistics Language as structure: phonology, morphology, lexicology, semantics, syntax, text linguistics Language as a cultural and social phenomenon: pragmatics, historical linguistics, dialectology, sociolinguistics, stylistics Language as a biological phenomenon: phonetics, neurolinguistics, patholinguistics, psycholinguistics Practical applications of linguistics: language teaching, lexicography, rhetoric, translation, speech therapy, forensic linguistics, surveillance Related fields: anthropology, artificial intelligence research, history, literary studies, philosophy, psychology, semiotics, sociology … 1 Language and Linguistics Ways of approaching language descriptive vs. prescriptive approach descriptive statements prescriptive statements There is disagreement among It is better to say to go boldly than to English speakers about splitting boldly go. infinitives. According to polls, double negatives Double negatives like that ain’t no are stigmatised in the X variety of solution are bad grammar. English, but very common in the Y variety. Many speakers consider the word You shouldn’t say goddamn! goddamn offensive. = neutral description = value judgment 1 Language and Linguistics Ways of approaching language introspective vs. empirical approach introspective statements empirical statements I am a native speaker and I say In the British National Corpus of different from, not different than. Written English, comprising one million words, the construction different from is found 22 times, different than is found once. I have never heard this word. According to our count, the word occurs with a very low frequency and only in specialised discourse. = ›looking into yourself‹ = based on objective evidence 1 Language and Linguistics Ways of approaching language synchronic vs. diachronic approach synchronic statement diachronic statement The word knight is pronounced The spelling of the word knight /naɪt/. reflects a pronunciation [knɪçt] of the Late Middle Ages. The word blog means ‘online diary’. The word blog comes from weblog and is first attested in 1998. The verb keep has an irregular past Kept used to have the same vowel as tense form kept. keep, but it was shortened before the consonant cluster 800 years ago. = state at one point in time = development ›through time‹ (not necessarily the present) 1 Language and Linguistics The Structuralist approach Structuralist science describes systems in terms of the relations that hold between their elements: 1 Language and Linguistics The Structuralist approach In a language, too, each level (e. g. sounds, words, syntactic patterns) can be viewed as a homogeneous, self-contained sub-system of elements. The status (value, valeur) of each element within the system is defined by its relations to the other elements, especially those elements that can occur together with it and those that can replace it: ← syntagmatic → b æ t ← paradigmatic → iː horizontal, “chain relation”: elements co-occurring in a linear ɪ sequence form a syntagm ʌ ɔː vertical, “choice relation”: aɪ elements replacing each other in the same slot form a paradigm *k 1 Language and Linguistics The Structuralist approach Most linguists after Saussure have been more interested in the structure of the system, i. e. the function and distribution of the elements, than in their material realisation. Analogy: In the system of chess each element has a function determined by the rules of the game (e. g. its position on the board at the beginning of the game, the way it moves and captures other pieces). These rules define the abstract structure of the game, which is essentially independent of the material realisation. 1 Language and Linguistics The Structuralist paradigm For the rules of chess the substance of the pieces, i. e. their physical properties (such as material, shape, colour etc.), do not matter as long as functionally different pieces can be clearly distinguished. You can easily replace a lost piece by any small object to which you assign its function by a new convention (“I’ll use this dice as my eighth pawn”). What’s more, the game can be realised perfectly well without any physical pieces, e. g. on a computer, or even in imagination. 1 Language and Linguistics The Structuralist approach Linguistic examples: Phonology: the status of [θ] in the sound systems of English and German English German [maʊs] mouse [maʊs] contrast Maus equivalence [maʊθ] mouth [maʊθ] Semantics: the status of snail and Schnecke in the vocabulary systems of English and German Schnecke snail Schnecke snail ✘ 1 Language and Linguistics The Structuralist approach Linguistic examples: Morphology: the status of the English simple past (sang) and the German preterite (sang) in the grammatical system of either language Yesterday XY sang the part of Aida Gestern sang XY in der Staatsoper in the National Opera. ungrammatical die Aida. *She just sang the most famous aria Sie sang gerade die berühmteste when the performance was Arie, als die Vorstellung interrupted. unterbrochen wurde. If only she sang it once more next *Ach, wenn sie sie doch nächste week! Woche noch einmal sang! 1 Language and Linguistics The Structuralist approach Principles: The status of an element is not an intrinsic property but defined by the way the element interacts with other elements of the same system. Across different systems, even phenomena that are very similar in their substance or historically related or are conventionally referred to with the same label or widely considered as translation equivalents cannot be identified with one another and will usually be found to have a different distribution within their respective system. Each system has to be analysed and described in its own right, on the Thomas basis Coar: of theofattested A grammar the Englishdistributions of added tongue to which are its elements, exercises in bad English to be corrected by the rules of syntax. London 1796, 46. without imposing a preconceived grid on the data. 2 Writing Introduction to English Linguistics – Schleburg 2 Writing Writing vs. language Yes … Most people start thinking about their language only as they struggle with spelling it at school – the very word grammar is derived from the Greek root meaning ‘to write’! We acquire a considerable part of our vocabulary visually, via the written medium, especially in learning foreign languages. Writing helps us structure our thoughts; its products remain available for later reference, can be copied and sent to distant places. Writing systems and spelling rules may influence the way people speak. Standards and ›good style‹ have often been defined on the basis of written corpora. But … 2 Writing Writing vs. language Languages should not be equated with writing systems or spelling conventions, and grammar is neither orthography nor punctation. Commonly found statements like … Chinese is an ideographic language! Finnish is a phonetic language! actually refer to writing systems and have nothing to do with the grammars of the respective languages. Teachers’ obsession with spelling often obscures grammatical facts: grammatically regular: lay / / – / /–/ / grammatically irregular: house / /–/ / 2 Writing Writing vs. language The same language can be written in different systems … Romanian in Cyrillic: Ꙟмпърат ші прoлeтар ‘emperor and proletarian’ Romanian in Latin: Împărat și proletar Uzbek in Arabic → Latin (1928) → Cyrillic (1940) → Latin (1992) … or not at all. The same writing system can be used for entirely different languages: Arabic alphabet: Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Uyghur … Hebrew alphabet: Hebrew: ‫אוֹר‬-‫ַויּ ֹאמֶ ר אֱ הִ ים יְ הִ י אוֹר וַיְ הִ י‬ ← Way-yōʾmer ʾĕlōhîm: Yəhî ʾôr, wa-yəhî ʾôr. Yiddish:.‫ און עס איז געװאָ רן ליכט‬.‫ זאָ ל װערן ליכט‬:‫האָ ט גאָ ט געזאָ גט‬ ← Hot got gezogt: Zol vern likht. Un es iz gevorn likht. ‘God said: Let there be light! And there was light.’ 2 Writing Writing vs. speaking The priority of spoken language is supported by … biological priority: natural acquisition of spoken language in the individual – effort to master writing at a later age historical priority: speech as defining property of humans – writing used only in a fraction of history (dates from 4th to 3rd millennium BCE in Mesopotamia and Egypt) functional priority: wider range of communicative functions, additional levels of signalling (intonation, sounds, facial expressions, gestures) structural priority: writing represents the spoken word, based on secondary transfer from phonic to graphic channel Of course, written language, with all its properties, and writing systems form legitimate subjects of linguistic investigation in their own right … 2 Writing Writing systems based on meaning Logographic: signs represents units of meaning Example: Chinese characters in different East Asian languages sign meaning Mandarin Cantonese Japanese 刀 ‘sword’ dāo dou1 katana 島 ‘island’ dǎo dou2 shima 道 ‘way’ dào dou6 michi Logographic signs in European languages: English Danish Hungarian 8 eight otte nyolc & and og és 2 Writing Writing systems based on sounds Syllabary: signs represent syllables Example: Ancient Greek in Linear B (14th century BC?) a- re- ka- sa-da-ra = Alexandra Example: Japanese in Hiragana ふ る い け や fu- ru i- ke ya ‘An ancient pond: か わ ず と び こ む ka- wa- zu to- bi- ko- mu A frog jumps in – み ず の お と mi- zu no o- to The sound of the water!’ 2 Writing Writing systems based on sounds Alphasyllabary (›abugida‹): signs represent combinations of consonant and vowel (with default vowel unexpressed) Example: Devanagari (used for Sanskrit, Hindi etc.) la lā li lī lu lū le lo lai lau l lla Consonantal alphabet (›abjad‹): signs represent consonants (with vowels unexpressed, indicated partially or optionally) Example: Phoenician (6th century BCE) ← mlk bdʿštrt mlk ṣdnm bn bn mlk ʾšmnʿzr ‘King Bodʿaštart, King of the Sidonians, son of the son of King Eshmunʿazar’ 2 Writing Writing systems based on sounds Example: Arabic ← ktbt katabtu ‘I wrote’ katabta ‘you (m) wrote’ katabti ‘you (f) wrote’ katabat ‘she wrote’ … Alphabet: signs represent sounds (consonants and vowels) Example: Greek ΜΗΝΙΝ ΑΕΙΔΕ ΘΕΑ ΠΗΛΗΙΑΔΕΩ ΑΧΙΛΗΟΣ μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος mēnin aeide thea Pēlēiadeō Akhilēos ‘The wrath sing, goddess, of Peleus’ son, Achilles!’ 2 Writing The Latin alphabet Historically speaking most alphabetic writing systems derive from a consonantal alphabet developed by the Phoenician civilisation around 1100 BCE for their Semitic language. This origin is still reflected in … the names of Greek letters (alpha, beta, gamma …), the ordering of letters (A B … K L M N …), and the shape of many of the signs. Stages of transmission: Phoenician → Greek alphabet → Etruscan → Latin Later the Latin alphabet was enriched through diacritics, ligatures and other modified symbols to suit the needs hundreds of languages, e. g.: Azerbaijani ⟨ə ğ ş⟩, Catalan ⟨à l·l⟩, Czech ⟨ň ř ť ů⟩, French ⟨à é œ û ç⟩, German ⟨ä ö ü ß⟩, Hungarian ⟨ö ő⟩, Icelandic ⟨þ ð ý⟩, Norwegian ⟨æ å ø⟩, Polish ⟨ą ć ł ż⟩, Romanian ⟨ă î ș ț⟩, Spanish ⟨ñ ü⟩, Portuguese ⟨ã ê⟩, Vietnamese ⟨ắ ế ỉ ổ ự⟩ 2 Writing Writing English In the early Middle Ages, Old English was also written in the runic alphabet developed by the Germanic peoples. In the course of its history the alphabet used for English included … borrowed runes: Old English tƿa, þreo (two, three) ligatures: Old English sæt (sat) diacritics: Old English ðing (thing) a variant of ⟨g⟩ pronounced [ j ]: Middle English ȝer (year) a variant of ⟨s⟩ in certain positions: Early Modern English ſinnes (sins) 2 Writing Writing English Modern English works with the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet including the modern distinctions ⟨i⟩ : ⟨j⟩ and ⟨u⟩ : ⟨v⟩ as well as the medieval addition ⟨w⟩ and only exceptionally preserves or adopts special characters and diacritics: ligature: encyclopædia cedilla: façade, soupçon diaeresis: Brontë, coöperate grave accent: learnèd acute accent: fiancé, maté circumflex accent: rôle tilde: El Niño macron: Māori 2 Writing History of English spelling English spelling was … originally based on the medieval sound values of Latin letters, heavily influenced by the habits of French scribes and the ideals of Humanist scholars, gradually standardised from the 14th century onwards, especially after the introduction of the printing press (1476), further muddled by loanwords from very different sources. It fails to reflect … the sound changes of the last 500 years and the more recent diversification of varieties around the world. More or less radical spelling reforms have been proposed ever since the 16th century – and never materialised.