Introduction to Language

∂ Definition of the language A system of the signs we use to communicate with other people. Ferdinand de Saussure – structuralism – father of modern linguistics. Language is an organized system. La langue - the abstract knowledge of language/vocabulary/grammatical rule. Parole - the a...

∂ Definition of the language A system of the signs we use to communicate with other people. Ferdinand de Saussure – structuralism – father of modern linguistics. Language is an organized system. La langue - the abstract knowledge of language/vocabulary/grammatical rule. Parole - the actual act of speaking/writing using the abstract knowledge to communicate. Every act of language communication, even that mistaken, incorrect. Noam Chomsky – generative-transformation grammar. Competence – similar to la langue Performance – corresponds to parole, but it has to be grammatically correct. A sentence is not a sentence unless it is fully correct. ∂ Other approaches to the language Biological – language is ability to produce speech. Language as dialect and accent o Dialect - a variety of a language that is distinguished from other varieties of the same language by features of phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, and by its use by a group of speakers who are set off from others geographically or socially. o Accent - prominence of a syllable in terms of differential loudness, or of pitch, or length, or of a combination of these. Pronunciation, intonation. Variety of language – idiolect, ethnolect, argot o Idiolect –the language of one person, when one person speaks or writes in special, striking out way, like some writers and politicians, e.g. Wałęsa – “Dokonałem zwrotu o 360 stopni.” o Ethnolect – the language of an ethnic group. o Argot – secret language used by thieves, prisoners, small groups of people. Pidgin and creole o Pidgin – a mixture of two or more languages, almost no grammatical structure, artificially created by two groups of people who earlier did not share any language, but they had to communicate with each other somehow. o Creole - next step of the evolution of pidgin language, they have native speakers unlike pidgin, more developed than pidgin. Specialized languages: jargons (like bankers, lawyers, etc.) – a language used by professionals. Natural versus artificial languages – e.g. Esperanto (Ludwik Zamenhof), all pidgin languages, road sign, sign languages. ∂ Language structure To know – the ability to speak. To know about – know the theory of CORE the language. 1. Lexicon – vocabulary and grammar. a. Lexis – In linguistics, a lexis (from the Greek: “word") is the total word-stock or lexicon having items of lexical, rather than grammatical, meaning. b. Lexeme - A lexeme is an abstract unit of morphological analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single word. For example, in the English language, run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme, conventionally written as RUN. c. Lexicology - Lexicology is the part of linguistics which studies words, their nature and meaning, words' elements, relations between words (semantical relations), word groups and the whole lexicon. Vocabulary, sense relations (words are related in several ways), puns (language jokes), euphemisms, abbreviations, idioms (one, two or more words than cannot be translated separately). d. Lexicography – compilation of dictionaries.  2. Grammar – phonology, morphology, syntax. a. Morphology – study of internal structure of words. b. Syntax – how sentences are created, how words are put together into sentences. c. Phonology - a branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in languages. TRANSMISSION Lg dependent – they reflect the property 1. Sign language. of origin lg, e.g. English – they reflect a. British Sign Language (lg independent). grammatical properties of 1st language. b. Signing Exact English (lg dependent). 2. Graphology (writing system). a. Visual signs: vowels, consonants, punctuation marks, spacing, layout (way you organize piece of writing, very important in formal writing). 3. Phonology – speaking system. a. Sound segments of the spoken language, intonation, rhythm, tone of voice. EVENT (result of language production) Prosody - the stress and intonation patterns of an utterance. a. Text. Can be written, spoken or signed - It is a coherent, self-contained unit of discourse – product of lg use. E.g. lecture, info on a bus ticket, recorded conversation, news piece, sermon. ∂ Language use Personal variation – people affect a lg: memory, personality, intelligence, social background, personal experience, education. Social variation – society affects a lg: social class, occupation, sex, age, ethnic group. Regional variation – geography affects a lg: international versus intranational (within the borders of one country), dialects, accents… Temporal variation – time affects a lg: long term (when lg develop through centuries) versus short term (when we perfect our language for public speeches). Arbitrariness – conventional – the lack of correspondence between word (shape) and real object – physical similarity or any other. Sound – meaning relation is arbitrary. But: onomatopoeic words (moo, mew, splash, murmur, hiss) – this forms are quite similar, but it would mean that all languages should have the same words for onomatopoeic words, but we do not have. So onomatopoeic words are not the same as real sounds. ∂ Branches of linguistics Phonology. Morphology – the study of internal structure of words. Syntax – the study of how we coordinate individual words to make sentences. Semantics – dictionary, conceptual meaning of words. Pragmatics – all the other than conceptual meanings, speaker-intended meanings. ∂ Linguistics lingua – lat. ‘tongue’ General linguistics o Theoretical – provide a theory of the language versus applied – use the theoretical linguistics and puts them into use, practical. o Descriptive – analyse language as it is used at certain point of time versus historical – history of language at it changes. o Typological (comparative) – compare languages, provide a classification of languages, dialects, aspects of lg. o Synchronic (descriptive) versus diachronic (historical).  Specific linguistics o Computational - an interdisciplinary field dealing with the statistical or rule-based modelling of natural language from a computational perspective. Traditionally, computational linguistics was usually performed by computer scientists who had specialized in the application of computers to the processing of a natural language. o Neurolinguistics - the study of the neural mechanisms in the human brain that control the comprehension, production, and acquisition of language. o Psycholinguistics - the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. o Sociolinguistics – the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society. o Applied linguistics - an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, linguistics, psychology, computer science, anthropology, and sociology. ∂ The origins of the language The divine source – God-given phenomena. o Hindi tradition – goodness Sarasvati, wife of Brahma. o 600 BC Psammetichus, Phrygian words ‘bekos’ – bread. He placed a child with a mute shepherd in mountains. o 1500 AD James IV of Scotland, Hebrew - James IV of Scotland was said to have sent two children to be raised by a mute woman isolated on the island of Inchkeith, to determine if language was learned or innate. The children were reported to have spoken good Hebrew. The natural sound source o ‘natural sounds’ – onomatopoeic words: cuckoo, splash, bang, rattle, buzz, hiss, screech, bow-wow o First words were natural cries of emotion (pain, fear, anger, joy): ouch, sss. o ‘yo-heave-ho’ theory – expressions such as swear words, groans, grunts – expressions that people made while working physically together (prehistoric humans who did not have language) The oral-gesture source – connection between mouth and body language; first words: move of a tongue as an imitation of body language you use to express the same idea – link between physical gesture and orally produced sounds. Body language is non-verbal communication. “A specialized pantomime of the tongue and lips”. Physiological adaptation – physical features of humans not shared with other creatures: upright teeth, eve in height, small flexible lips, intricate (complex) muscle, flexible tongue, larynx, vocal cords, pharynx, upright posture, frontal position of the head. ∂ Properties of language Dictionary blocking – no need for another word which means the same, that convey exactly the same idea. Signals o Specifically communicative versus unintentionally informative. We should first distinguish between specifically communicative signals and those which may be unintentionally informative signals. Someone listening to you may become informed about you through a number of signals that you have not intentionally sent. She may note that you have a cold (you sneezed), that you aren’t at ease (you shifted around in your seat), that you are disorganized (non-matching socks) and that you are from somewhere else (you have a strange accent). However, when you use language to tell a person about something, e.g. "I’m one of the applicants for the vacant position of senior brain surgeon at the hospital", you are normally considered to be intentionally communicating something. o Displacement – only humans can talk about distant places, abstract things, non-existing places, people. Humans can refer to past/future time, other locations, mythical creatures, places.   Fixed reference – animals’ signals are instinctive, not learned – limited number, cannot add more. Signals they use are specified to the situation – one situation, one signal. Animal communication consist of a fixed and limited set of vocal and gestural forms. Exception: bees can communicate distant places, but only in horizontal level, not vertical. o Arbitrariness – conventional, the relation between word and form is arbitrary. Language forms lack any physical correspondence with the entities in the real words to which they refer. o Productivity - open-endedness: language productivity, lg users’ creativity. o Cultural transmission – language is passed from one generation to another. Humans are born with an innate predisposition to acquire language but not the ability to speak a given language. o Discreetness – sounds used in language are meaningfully distinct/discrete. The occurrence of one sound rather than other is meaningful, e.g. pack versus back. o Duality/double articulation - two layers of language. Lower – sounds with no meaning. Higher – morphemes, words, phrases that carry meaning. Other properties o The use of vocal-auditory channel: speech is generated via vocal organs and perceived via ears. o Reciprocity: if we can speak, we can understand. o Specialization: refers to the narrowing of choices that characterizes an emergent grammatical construction. The lexical meaning of a grammaticalizing feature decreases in scope, so that in time the feature conveys a generalized grammatical meaning. o Non-directionality: we cannot direct our words to one fixed person only. o Rapid fade: a word is audible only for a moment and it disappears. ∂ Morphology Deals with internal structure of words. The study of internal structure of words. What is a word? Morphology deals with morphemes. MORPH ALLOMORPH MORPHEME the smallest unit of lg that carries class of phonemically & semantically used in written version with letters, the meaning and cannot be divided identical morphs (the same a written form of the morph into any smaller units that will also pronunciation, the same meaning) e.g. reader + er = reader have meaning, e.g. ‘cat’ the morpheme '-s' (plural) has three building blocks out of which a minimal combination of phonemes allomorphs with the morph /s/, /z/, meaningful utterances of speech are that has a meaning and cannot be and /ɪz/ put together subdivided into smaller units which the variation in pronunciation of the have their own meaning smallest structural units possessing morpheme meaning, a group of allomorphs that each morph happens only once and allomorphs may be phonemically are semantically similar and in only in speech, so if we want to different complementary distribution write them down we use phonetic transcription there can be morphemes with more than one allomorph, e.g. in as /in-/ phonetic realization of a morpheme inappropriate, /im-/ immoral, /ill-/ - how the morpheme is said illogical; assimilation – e.g. leaf /li:f/ -s' is the morpheme, but the morph – leaves /li:vz/ changes in different words: cats - '-s' Kinds: morpheme is pronounced /s/, Bases (roots) – carry the principal dogs - '-s' morpheme is pronounced meaning in structures. Base has at /z/, houses - '-s' morpheme is least one allomorph that may appear pronounced /ɪz/ on its own, e.g. reader, unhelpful. Affixes (bound morphemes), have no free allomorphs, always appear with a base to which they are bound. Their allomorphs are always bound. Kinds of affixes: Prefixes – e.g. ex-housewife, unhappy Suffixes – e.g. housing, happily, friendship Infixes – e.g. sophistimacated, abso-bloody-lutely Interfixes (linking element) – e.g. speed-o-meter, sport-s-car ∂ Derivational morphology versus inflectional morphology Derivational – słowotwórstwo – word formation. Inflectional – fleksja – deklinacja, koniugacja. We produce new words with new meaning, new form. We do not form any new noun, like boy – boys. Marking Read – reader. grammatical categories, morphosyntactic categories. Derivational affixes Inflectional affixes May change the grammatical category of the stem – Do not change the category of the word – read – reads. read V – reader N. May be followed by other affixes – helpful – helpfulness. Indicate the grammatical function of the word. Take part in the formation of new, complex words. s, ed, ing, est, er -er reader – derivational /schwa/ -er longer – inflectional /schwa/ allomorphs /schwa/ Not the same allomorphs – different meaning. Reading can be both verb and noun. Derivational or inflectional? Longer – inflectional. (He) plays – inflectional. Statement – derivational. Boys – inflectional. Irresponsible – derivational. Playing – both. All prefixes are derivational. Morphological analysis – example Readership = {read} + {-er} + {-ship} Unfaithful = {un-} + {faith} + {-ful} Men = {man} + {-es} Receivers = {receive} + {-er} + {es} Mice = {mouse} + {-es} shut (p.p.) = {shut} + {-ed} Zero allomorph – sheep (pl.) = {sheep} + {-es} or {sheep} + {Ø} can also be used for irregular verbs like put or shut Phonologically conditioned allomorph Conditioned by the phonological rules of the systems of language (there may be different allomorphs). E.g. leaf – leaves. Inaccurate but immortal (assimilation). Illegal (assimilation). All plural endings /-s/, /-z/, /ɪz/. Resent /zent/ versus consent /sent/ - voicing. Resist /zɪst/ versus consist /sɪst/. Action – assimilation. Morphologically – grammatically conditioned allomorphs – cannot be explained by phonological rules. E.g. dwarf – dwarfs (invoicing). Soften (phoneme t is lost). Softer – here t is not lost. ∂ Creating new words We can assign a new meaning to the word – semantic way. Coinage – totally new creation, it does not have any connection with other language items. Usually invented to name products or companies. Creation of onomatopoeic words. Two most productive ways: semantic change & word formation. I) put language items together ① Affixation – (derivational) depends on adding prefixes or suffixes (prefixation or suffixation) – it can be double (two affixes). ② Compounding – involves putting together two or three bases together, e.g. postoffice, classroom, blackboard, nevertheless, forget-me-not. We can also put together verbs and nouns (its object) – earthquake, washing-machine, sunrise, dressmaking. Also verb + its adverbial – handwriting, homework. Verb + modifier – easy-going, well- meaning. Two prepositions: up-and-down. Adjectives: sweet-and-sour. In compound words primary stress falls on the first word/part. We start interpreting the meaning of compound from the end. Concatenative (linked in a series or order of things depending on each other, as if linked together; successive). II) non-concatenative morphology ① Conversion Inter-categorical – between categories, e.g. skin (noun) as to skin (verb), to walk (verb) as a noun (walk), empty (adjective) as to empty (verb), young (adjective) as young (noun). o A change in pronunciation – advice (noun / s) – advice (verb / z), house (noun/ s) – house (verb / z) o A change in spelling – advice – to advise. o A shift in stress – input, conduct, convert – noun, input, conduct, convert – verb Intra-categorical – within one grammatical category. o Coffee – normally uncountable, but three coffees – uncountable into countable or other way round o Proper nouns can change into common nouns – Picasso, but I have bought a Picasso o We can change gender in teacher, doctor, profession. Dual-gender nouns. ② Repetition – repeat the language element we have – goody-goody, quack-quack. ③ Partial repetition – a slight change – walkie-talkie, tick-tack, tip-top. ④ Clipping – phone – telephone, van – caravan, photo – photograph. o Fore-clipping: phone -> telephone – we clip the first syllable. o Back-clipping: exam -> examination – we clip last syllables. ⑤ Mixed-clipping: flu -> influenza, fridge -> refrigerator – we clip both sides. ⑥ Clipping compounds – Amerind – American + Indian, hi-fi – high-fidelity ⑦ Blending – also called contamination. We take two words, shorten and put them together to form totally new word with new meaning. Bruch = breakfast + lunch. Smog = smoke + fog. The two words may sometimes overlap – Nixonomics, slanguage, motel (motorway + hotel). ⑧ Acronymy – acronyms: CIA, UNESCO, VAT, UFO. If we abbreviate popular phrases, we use small letters – brb. ⑨ Back-formation – involves shortening words, but it can change the category, always from noun to verbs. Suffix- like element. Today we have no idea which was first, need to check the dictionary. E.g. sculpture – to sculpt, beggar – to beg, sightseeing – to sightsee, proofreading – to proofread, laser – to lase. ⑩ Internal modification – phonology would call it apophony. Irregular verbs – drive – drove, man – men. Also breath – to breathe. ∂ Semantics Arbitrariness. Conceptual versus associative meaning. o Conceptual: meaning you will find in a dictionary, facts, objective. Grammaticality versus acceptability. o The hot dog ate the child. My cat is reading Shakespeare. Defining word meaning: o Componential analysis – analyse the meaning into components. o Prototype semantics. Componential analysis Semantic features – components of meaning (structuralist approach), e.g. +animate, -animate, +human, -human, +male, -male; boy = +animate, + human, +male, +child. Prototype semantics Cognitive definition (versus traditional dictionary definition). o Includes connotations, stereotypes, experience, context. o Culture-related. o Individual point of view. o The same word has a slightly different meaning for every speaker. o Takes into account creative use of language, e.g. words used in new senses. o Category, e.g. “bird” – prototype – the most ‘birdy’ bird, different for every culture. Meaning Sense - we use language to define words. Denotation – we refer to non-linguistic world. Reference – reserved for definite expressions. Connotation – individual for every person. Denotation of e.g. house – all houses in the world, whole group of objects. House, dog, etc. do not have reference, only denotation. Reference – to a particular, concrete object. White House has sense, reference and connotation. Meaning versus sense Meaning is composed of senses. Mouse – 1. Rodent; 2. Computer device. Lexical relations as other ways of defining the word meaning Synonymy Antonymy o Gradable – comparative, superlative forms (young, old, big, small). o Non-gradable – cannot be graded, negation of one apply another (dead, alive). Homophony – the same pronunciation, spelled differently, different meaning (kneads – needs). Hyponymy – flower – tulip. Tulip is the hyponym/kind of flower. Superordinate Hyponym, co-hyponyms Polysemy – has more than one sense, they are related to one another (senses). Meronymy – part of relation, similar to hyponymy. Wheel a part of vehicle. Spoke a part of wheel. Homonymy – look identical, same spelling, same pronunciation, but different meaning (pupil). Polysemous words have one entry in a dictionary, but separate different meanings. Types of polysemy Lexical (school – institution, buildings, pupils, opportunity for learning). Syntactic – She called him a doctor. 1) She named him a doctor. 2) She called a doctor for him. Universal – regular, not included in dictionaries. I bought a Picasso. I read Shakespeare. Special cases of homonymy Homographs – lead (metal) and lead; read and read (past) – same spelling, different pronunciation and meaning. Homophones – sea – see, I – eye, write – rite – right. Problematic issues – discrepancies between dictionaries, e.g. bank – 60% - a homonymy, 40% a polysemy. Why? Semantic relatedness, etymology, formal identity or distinctness. But sole (of a shoe) and sole (fish) – same origin. Flower and flour (same origin). Can – auxiliary verb, ‘container’ N, to put into can V. Semantic changes Widening/broadening of meaning o Doga (old E. specific breed of dog) – dog. A word used to describe a more specific concept and over time it refers to a more inclusive concept. o H. Paul – 1889 – specific versus inclusive concept. Narrowing of meaning o Wife (any woman) – wife (married one). A word with a formerly broad application is reanalysed as having a narrower application. Shift of meaning o Molestare – neutral, to trouble. To molest – sexual connotation. It is a complete change of meaning. Amelioration o Negative to positive meaning. Nice as silly – now positive meaning. The word moves from a lower register to a higher register or from having a negative connotations to having positive connotations. o K. Jaberg – 1901 – high versus low register, positive versus negative connotations. Pejoration o Positive to negative meaning. Idiot (not educated) – idiot. A word moves downwards socially or emotionally. Metaphor o Extend the meaning of the words, basic one into metaphorical one. Similarity of senses. o Virus – computer malware. Head – cabbage. Hot potato. o S. Ullman – 1942 – relation between name and sense, between form and meaning. Metonymy o We use part of sth to refer to whole. Contiguity of senses. Part for whole. o Redbreast – robin. Invention/discovery after inventor/discoverer – volt. Products after place of origin – champagne. Folk etymology o Similarity of names. Similarity in sounds. Adidas – aids. Eclipsys o Contiguity of names. Daily = daily paper. Piano = piano forte. ∂ Pragmatics System (potential, dictionary, lexical) versus pragmatic (situational, context) meaning. Word/phrase meaning indented by the speaker. What did the speaker/writer intended to convey? Context: linguistic context (co-text) – other words/sentences which appear within the ambiguous sentences/words, physical context (situational). Deictic expressions – depends on situational context. Sentences which on their own did not mean anything. He told her that they will come there tomorrow. Here, there, that, now, then, yesterday. He, they, him, her, them. Deictic expressions depend for their interpretation on the immediate physical context in which they are uttered. Presupposition – what the speaker assumes is known by the hearer. When did you stop smoking cigarettes? ∂ Speech acts Actions – requests, commands, questions, statements. Direct versus indirect speech acts. DIRECT INDIRECT FORMS (sentence type) FUNCTIONS (act performed) Interrogative – “Did you buy the bread?” asking (question) Imperative – “Do stop smoking.” ordering (command, request) Declarative – “She stopped smoking.” asserting (statement) Sentences as acts performed do match sentence types. Can you pass the salt, please? request (not question) You left the door open. request (not statement) Locution – ‘act OF saying’ – meaningful and correct utterance Illocution – ‘act IN saying’ – intention, aim. Perlocution – ‘act BY saying’ – reaction of the listener. There is a snake in the garden. Statement – locution. Warning – illocution. Listener escapes – Perlocution. ∂ Language history and change Comparative linguistics. Separate language families. Various languages developed out of onomasiological (he branch of semantics concerned with the meanings of and meaning relations between individual words) need. First changes in vocabulary, then in syntax and morphology. Sumerian – the oldest recorded language, 4.000 BC, today’s Iraq. Cuneiform writing. Logograms – no connection between symbol, language form and meaning. In ancient Egypt we had pictograms. 11 principals language families. Hamito-Semitic (Afro-Asiatic): Old Egyptian, Berber, Austro-Asian: Khmer Somali, Hebrew, Arabic, Phoenician (extinct) Malayo-Polynesian: Indonesian, Malenisian, Ural-Altaic: Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, Mongolian, Polynesian, Micronesian – Hawaiian, Thaian Turkish (Mongolian & Turkish – agglutinative, what is Sudanese-Guinean: Hausa glued together? You combine different words into one to add more information). Bantu: Luganda, Shora, Zulu, Swahili Japanese-Korean Khoin: Hottenot, Bushman Sino-Tibetan: Chinese, Thai, Tibetan, Burmese Indo-European Dravidian: Tamil ARMENIAN: Armenian INDO-IRANIAN: Indic – Sanskrit (extinct), Hindi, Uru, Bengali, Sinhalese, Punjabi; Iranian – old Persian (extinct), Modern Persian, Avestan, Afghan, Kurdish BALTO-SLAVIC: Cyrillic script – some Slavic lgs. Baltic – Latvian, Lithuanian, Prussian Slavonic (Slavic AE) – East S. Russian, Byelorussian, Ukrainian; West S. Polish, Czech, Slovak, Serbian (Bautzen Cottbus); South S. Bulgarian, Slovenian, Serbio-Croat, Macedonian PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN LG FAMILY: Middle of Eastern Europe or southern steps of Russia; common words for winter and snow, not for sea or mountains; birch, wolf, mouse, right, mother, brother, cousin; ca. 4-3000 BC; series of waves thorough Europe and eastwards > India; no written records of the Indio-European lg; earliest writings in Hittie, Greek, Sanskrit (ca. 1500 BC). HITTIE: Hittie, 2000 BC, today’s Turkey, among the oldest recorded lgs ALBANIAN: Albanian, smallest group in the I-E lg family, no written record before 15th c. GERMANIC East Germanic: Gothic, Vandal, Burgundian (extinct). North Germanic: Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish. West Germanic: Dutch, German, English, Frisian, Plattdeutsch. Sir William Jones – British lawyer, amateur linguist in Calcutta, India. Judge of the high court in India. Father of comparative linguistics. 1786: found similarities between Sanskrit and classical lgs. HELLENIC Ancient Greek. Greek. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey – 8th century BC. Inscriptions clay tablets from 1500 BC. Up to 3rd c. Greek – lingua franca in the Mediterranean. ITALIC Developed form vulgar Latin. Classical Latin – in Rome, educated people, we learn it nowadays. Vulgar Latin – lower rate Latin. Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Romanian, Provencal, Catalan CELTIC Cymric: Welsh, Breton Gaelic: Irish Gaelic (Erse), Scots Gaelic (Manx) Cognates – with the same origin. A cognate of a word in one lg is a word in another lg which has similar graphic form and is, or was, used with a similar meaning. Comparative reconstruction – principle: 1) 3 forms begin with p one with b, majority have retained the original sound p, minority has changed through time. 2) Certain types of sound change are very common: final vowels often disappear, voiceless sounds become voiced between vowels, stops /p b t d k g/ may become fricatives /f, v, z, h, s, z, ẑ/, consonants become voiceless at the end of words. [pitar – Sanskrit, pater – Latin, pater – Greek ‘father’] ∂ The shaping of English British Isles before 55 BC. Celtics tribes: Scots (Ireland), Picts, Britons, Welsh. 55 BC – 410 AD. Julius Caesar and the Roman troops. Hadrian Wall 122 AD. Latin-Celtic bilingualism. Latin -chester, -caster in place names: Gloucester, Lancaster, Chesterfield. 449 AD invasion by the Germanic tribes (later Anglo-Saxon). 7th-11th c. – OLD ENGLISH. Linguistic influence: Celtic, Latin, Old Norse (first written reads in Old English in 17th c.) 1100 – 1500 – MIDDLE ENGLISH. Linguistic influence: French, Latin. 1500 – present – MODERN ENGLISH: Linguistic influence: from over 50 languages. OLD ENGLISH 449 AD (end of 3rd c.) – Angles, Saxons and Jutes – ‘God’s wrath toward Britain’. Native Celts were called ‘Wealas’ – foreigners/slaves. Angli – 601 AD. Aethelbert/Ethelbert of Kent – 560-616 AD, first English King. King of the people of England. Englisc < Angles (Engle). Engle – land, ‘land of the Angles’ c.a. 1000 AD Old English alphabet – Old English/Anglo-Saxon alphabet. Futhorc. 24 runes, magic. 5th c. earliest runic inscriptions on jewellery, armoury, monuments. 8th century – The Ruthwell Cross, Dumfries, Scotland ‘The Dream of the Rood’ – rood < OE rod ‘cross’. King Alfred the Great 849-899 Rex Angulsaxonum – King of the Anglo-Saxons. The Great. Encouraged the education and improved legal system. Encouraged for Latin texts to be translated into old English. Defeated the Vikings in 878 AD. Old English dialects Various tribes. Differences in pronunciation. Lack of uniformity in spelling and morphology. 10 th c. manuscripts in West-Saxon and Mercian dialects. 10th c. Benedictine reform – standard written English. Old English literature OE poetry preserved in oral tradition. Pagan and Christian elements/themes. OE prose: translations of Latin works and homilies (not only religious). Christian missionaries – late 6th century, Augustine sent from Rome to christianize the A-S. 601 AD Archbishopric of Canterbury established. Monks adapted the Roman alphabet to write in Old English (speaking of OE tells us about its pronunciation). Introduced several new letters to realise OE sounds. Peterborough Chronicle. Linguistic influence in Old English Celtic: binn ‘bin’, can ‘rock’, torr ‘peak’, ‘luh’ lake, mann, wif, cild, hus, mete ‘food’, etan ‘eat’. Celtic place names: Thames, Devon, Avon ‘river’, Dover ‘water’, London ‘wild’, Kent ‘border’. Latin: lg of church and scholarship: angel, bishop, church, priest, school, teacher. Semantic loans: heafon ‘heaven’, gast ‘spirit’, halga ‘holy’. Old Norse: lg of the Vikings: give, get, law, leg, skin, sky, skirt, they, wot, sister, steak, egg. Personal names: Ulf, Eric, Harald, Ingrede. Place names: Whitby ‘farm, town’, Linthorpe – ‘village’, Langthwaite ‘land’. MIDDLE ENGLISH Edward the Confessor dies in 1066. 1066, Battle of Hastings, the Norman conquest. William, Duke of Normandy (the Conqueror). English officials and bishops replaced with French ones. English earls executed (pretenders to the throne). Norman French becomes official lg in Britain. Lg of nobility, court, law, administration, monarch, church. Decline of written standard English. Bilingualism: marriages, business, social/political interaction. 1337 – 1453 Hundred’s Years War. Animosity towards everything French. Rise in prestige of English. 1362 - Parliament opened for the first time in English. 1349 – English reintroduced to schools. 1399 – Henry IV first monolingual English King. 1476 – setting up press in Westminster. Linguistic influence in Middle English Norman French: 10.000 words before end of 15th century. Army, court, defence, faith, prison, tax, crime, duke, mansion, art, music, dinner, feasts, dress. French upper class: mutton, beef, pork (French origin). English peasants: sheep, cows, swine (Old English). Different naming of kinds of meat. With time – semantic specialization – meaning narrowing. Latin: used by clergymen, scholars. Ecclesiastical: cleric, demon, disciple, paradise, prior. General: grammar, philosopher, hymn, choir, decline. EARLY MODERN ENGLISH 1485 – the Tudor dynasty. England – one of the first powers in Europe and the world. Henry VIII: church of England, Latin no longer used in churches. Elizabeth I: seas open to expansion and spread of English. Renaissance: printing in English, translations of ancient philosophers and the Bible, development of English vocabulary. English versus Latin – late 16th c. – first English grammar published. 1604 – monolingual dictionary Table Alphabetical, Robert Cawdrey. 1884 – Oxford English Dictionary (letter A). Whole – 1928. Linguistic influence in Early Modern English 10.000 words – cultural contacts, discoveries, Spanish/Portuguese: alligator, cocoa, mosquito, colonisation, trade. sombrero. Latin: accent, drama, fiction, phrase, assassinate, Dutch/Low German: dock, yacht, brandy, wine, exist, harass. landscape, drill. Greek: anonymous, catastrophe, lexicon, Haitian: batata, potato, tobacco. thermometer. Peruvian: ananans (later replaced by pineapple). French: anatomy, bizarre, duel, entrance, explore, Carib: hammock, hurricane, cannibal. moustache. Aztec: chocolate, tomato. Italian: algebra, balcony, design, carnival, gondola, North American Indian lgs: wigwam, tomahawk, violin, volcano. moccasin, squash. Spread of English 17th century – Scotland, Ireland (because of North America – religious things), India (bungalow, cashmere, china, jungle, nirvana, pariah). 18th century – Australia (boomerang, kangaroo), New Zeeland, Africa (banana, gorilla, zebra). Language changes Phonetic (pronunciation), syntactic (grammar), semantic (meaning of words), lexical (vocabulary). Phonetic changes: different quality of vowel sounds. o Some sounds disappear. /x/ as in OE nicht /nixt/ ‘night’. OE /hu:s/, /wi:f/, /spo:n/, /bre:k/, /ho:m/. o Metathesis: reversal of the two near sounds: OE brid > bird, hros > horse. o Epenthesis – involving adding sounds. OE spinel > spindle, aemting > empty. o Prosthesis – not in English, adding letter at the beginning. Latin spiritus > Sp. espiritu.  Syntactic changes o Word order – OE ferde he – ‘he travelled’ (S follows V), he hine geseah ‘he saw him’ (O placed before V). o Inflection – OE sealdest ‘you gave’, sealde ‘he gave’. o Double negation possible – OE and ne sealdest qu me noefre anticcen – and not gave you me never a child – and you never gave me a child o Negation – OE ne sealde – not gave Semantic changes o Broadening of meaning o Narrowing of meaning Lexical changes o Number of borrowed words. o Words disappear or became obsolete. OE were ‘man’ (werewolf). o New words appear. Google, blog. ∂ Major linguistic schools. A historical overview. Linguistics Diachronic (historical meaning, changes) versus synchronic (no interest in changes). Descriptive (analyse lgs as they are used) versus prescriptive (tell how people should use the language, set the rules). Theoretical (just analyse) versus applied (use it in practice, like language teacher or translator). Ancient Greek Philosophers Plato ‘Cratylus’ 4 c. BC. Dialogue about lg. Origin of lg. Relation between lg form and meaning: natural or conventional? NAMING theory – words are names for the things. Semantic changes: primary (real) meaning >> metaphorical extensions. Development of lexicography Middle Ages: bilingual dictionaries (Latin). 636 AD: ‘Liber glossarum’ by Isidor of Servilla. Late 16th c. – first Grammar of English (rise of prescriptive studies). 1604: 1ST monolingual dictionary of English ‘Table Alphabetical’ by R. Cawdrey. Comparative linguists 18th – early 20th century Cognates , proto-language, comparative reconstruction. Sir William Jones, Calcutta. 1786. Historical (diachronic) linguistics: language changes. Neogrammarians (Germany): Herman Paul, 1880, ‘Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte’. Linguistics is historical in character. Languages are what they are because in the course of time they have been subjects to changes. Otto Jespersen, 1922 – ‘Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin’. Structuralism 1857 – 1913, Ferdinand de Saussure, ‘Cours de linguistique generale’ 1916. Structural linguistics – reaction against historicism. We can analyse language as it is used today. Binary model of language – two opposing terms interact dynamically. La Langue – system of relations versus parole – free creativity. Linguistic sign: signifié (concept) and significant (acoustic picture) – concrete language realisation, use of it. Saussurean egg. signifié Signifié Meaning of word, concept. significant Form of linguistic sign, spoken or written. Inseparable, arbitrary relation between them. Arbitrariness. Synchronic versus diachronic studies. He believed that language system is organized on different levels. Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations. Collocations, idioms. Relations, hyponymy, antonymy, synonymy – words are connected and related in various ways. PARADYGMATIC my students are very diligent SYNTAGMATIC pupils my students ~ are friends are ~ very diligent children very ~ diligent Fruitful, watchful, hopeful – paradigmatic relation. Fruit ~ ful – syntagmatic. Linguistic sign 1923, C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards – ‘The Meaning of the Meaning’. Semiotic triangle. Meaning (concept) Sign (word) Reference (object) The sound (word) represents the object through concepts. First you have to understand meaning before you can e.g. draw it. Circus -> concept -> point the real circus. American structuralism 1930s (US) Leonard Bloomfield, ‘Language’ 1935. Immediate constituents, tree diagrams (structure relationships of the constituents).  Behavioural linguists The meaning of utterance refers to the behaviour of people who react to this utterance. Words evoke the same reactions as objects which they name (Pavlov’s dog). Counter arguments: 1) abstract words, 2) the same reactions to words with similar but not identical meaning. Claim: children learn language utterances by rote and then just reproduce them in response to environmental stimuli. Not creative way, only reproduction. Language can be studied through recordings and transcriptions of actual speech. Transformational-generative grammar 1950s (US) Noam Chomsky – ‘Syntactic structures’, 1957. ‘Aspects of the Theory of Syntax’, 1965. Explanation as a follow up to description. Criticized Saussure, there is more to linguistics than describing the structures of the lg. Criticized behaviourists for analysing only the produced utterances, actual speech. Universal grammar – looked for structural similarity between lgs. Innate grammar system – applicable to the grammar of any human lg. Language is a set of sentences each finite in length and constructed out a finite set of elements. Transformational grammar Deep structure (D, semantics), meaning versus surface structure (S, phonological form of a sentence). John is eager to please. John is easy to please. Surface is the same. Deep structure different. The cat bit the dog. The dog was bitten by the cat. Different surface, same deep structure. The police caught the burglars in their car. One surface structure, two deep structures. Old men and women. Two deep meanings. Surface do not tell the meaning, meaning becomes clear due to the transformations. Transformational grammar is also a system of formal rules which specify how deep structures are to be transformed into surface structures. John wrote a book. A book was written by the John. Two S structures derived from one common D structure. D is represented in the formal phrase structure tree. Phase structure tree rules. Governs the structure of sentences in a lg. E.g. in English: S > NP + VP, NP > Det. + N, VP > V + NP. They generate grammatical sentences in English. They look like mathematical formulas containing variables. [[NP [Det. The] [N cat] [VP [V ate] [NP [Det. The] [N [Adj. tiny] [N mouse]]]]] Co-constituents must appear in a fixed sequential order. *mouse tiny the Productivity – W. von Humboldt, 16th c. – language can make infinite use of finite means. Competence versus performance. o Competence: abstract knowledge of the language. Seems more or less like ‘language’. o Performance: these sentences which are grammatically correct. Difference between ‘parole’ here. Language is free from stimulus-control, the utterance that sb produces on a particular occasion is unpredictable. Rule-governed (prescriptive) creativity – can be creative as much as grammatical rules allow us. Utterances have a certain grammatical structure. Lg users’ creativity is limited by the productivity of the lg system. Non grammaticality versus non-acceptability: My dog is learning Latin. S + V + O, but semantically is odd.  Semantics in structuralism L. Hjemslev, ‘Prolegomena to a Theory of Language’, 1953. Semantic features theory: each lexeme has a set of distinctive semantic features – sems. J.J. Katz and J. Fodor, ‘The Structure of Semantic Theory’, 1963. Semantic markers: +/- animate, etc. 1965 Chomsky introduces the semantic component: semantic features. Oxford analytical school 1960s, J. L. Austin, ‘How to Do Things with Words”, 1962. J. Searle, ‘Speech Acts’, 1969. Concentrate on parole. System – potential, dictionary, lexical versus pragmatic (situational, context) meaning – speaker-intended. Speech acts – any utterance you make. 1. Locution – act of saying, meaningful and correct utterance. 2. Illocution – act in saying, intention, aim. 3. Perlocution – act by saying, reaction of the listener. Direct versus indirect speech acts. Pragmatic meaning = system meaning or not. Cognitive linguistics 1960s (USA and Europe). Ronald Langacker, ‘Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Theoretical Prerequisites”. 1987. George Lakoff, ‘Women, Fine and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind”. 1987. G. Lakoff and M. Johnson, ‘Metaphors we Live by”, 1980. Cognitivism: 1. Language directly reflects cognitive processes in human mind: lg is a tool of human cognition. 2. Links between a given language and its cultural reality in which this language functions. Reaction against Chomsky’s theory: - Reject formal description of lg. - Types of structure: phonological, semantic and symbolic that combines that first two. - To know grammar – to know conventions (descriptive attitude). Meaning is what lg is all about – Langacker, 1987. Cognitive definition. Importance of non-linguistic knowledge and individual points of views in interpretation. Metaphor: a reaction against Chomsky’s generative grammar which was unable to draw a diagram tree for metaphorical expression. Lexims – phrasal leximes. Creative use of lg, not mechanical according to rules. Words used in new senses and still understood by speakers. Extensive use of metaphor (including one-time metaphors). Categorising the world in different cultures. Colours in Navaho lg. Category: e.g. bird – prototype. Dolphin – a fish, mammal. Camomile – flower, herb, weed.