L1-II 24-25 Linguistic/Oral Communication PDF

L1 – II 24-25 LINGUISTIC/ORAL COMMUNICATION: *JARGON = a language which originates on the basis of another. Can have specific collocations, different vocabulary. Use same grammar. Is used mostly in informal settings, not formal* There are other means of communication: facial expressions, body lang...

L1 – II 24-25 LINGUISTIC/ORAL COMMUNICATION: *JARGON = a language which originates on the basis of another. Can have specific collocations, different vocabulary. Use same grammar. Is used mostly in informal settings, not formal* There are other means of communication: facial expressions, body language (sign language is still linguistic), personal space, tone of voice (pragmatics) => COMMUNICATION CAN BE NON- LINGUISTIC =>LANGUAGE = system of communication based upon use of words in a structured and conventional way LINGUISTICS = the scientific study of language, studies the nature of language and linguistic communication. ≠ from knowledge of a language. A linguist can identify and know the internal structure of a language without speaking it. FORMAL LINGUISTICS (phonology/fonetics/morphology…) ≠ USAGE-BASED LINGUISTICS (pragmatics/discourse analysis) INTERDISCIPLINARY LINGUISTICS = you can have computational linguistics, philosophical linguistics, geographical linguistics… FORMAL LINGUISTICS Involves structural linguistics = SEMANTICS + SYNTAX + MORPHOLOGY + PHONOLOGY + PHONETICS GRAMMAR = syntax + morphology Semantic = meaning of words Syntax = order of words regarding their function Morphology = structure of words and classes Phonology = role/function of sounds Phonetics = how sounds are produced USAGE-BASE LINGUISTICS Involves how formal linguistics manifests itself in speaking/writing = PRAGMATICS + DISCOURSE ANALYSIS PRAGMATICS = study of what is not explicitly said and the role of context in interpreting the speaker/writer’s intended meaning, the value that something said obtains when it is actually said DISCOURSE ANALYSIS = how smaller linguistic forms relate in larger linguistic units, such as conversation or written texts *POLITENESS = how you maintain distance with speakers* LINGUISTIC UNIVERSALS Categories and rules that all human languages follow ALL languages have NOUNS + VERBS ALL languages have VOWELS + CONSONANTS ALL languages have PRONOUNS MOST languages belong to SOV / VSO / SVO type BUT NOT ALL of them have TENSES There are TYPES: ABSOLUTE UNIVERSALS → apply to every known language, are quite few IMPLICATIONAL UNIVERSALS → apply to languages with a particular feature (Ex: subject-verb inversion in questions) TRANSLATION UNIVERSALS From a functional perspective, UNIVERSALS = properties necessary to all human languages which exist because of human cognitive and physical limitations regarding the creation of languages. From a functional perspective, LANGUAGE FUNCTION = conveying info + establishing/maintaining relations =>UNIVERSALS ARE MEETING OF FORM (properties…) and FUNCTIONS. Halliday proposed that language has a universal potential, which evolves around THREE METAFUNCTIONS: IDEATIONAL METAFUNCTION = man creates ideas about his experience  INTERPERSONAL METAFUNCTION = man expresses those ideas in space and time and possibly with other human beings TEXTUAL METAFUNCTION = those ideas are expressed through language/text in an environment / context of situation – culture / other instances. Textual metafunction creates COHESION → through reference – ellipsis – substitution – conjunction – lexical cohesion =>TRANSLATION UNIVERSALS? → NO EXIST cuz: Universal proposed for language SHOULD APPLY to translation as well, BUT THEN are ONLY language universals which also apply to translation Translation is not equal to the language it translates Directionality of translation → universals can be the same between passive translation (FRA- ITA) and active translation (ITA-FRA) Textual genres aren’t expressed the same way in different languages VARIATION IN LANGUAGE English is most described language in the world Linguists and grammarians aim at: describing existing patterns finding new regularities providing new insights about how English works VARIETY = -dialects + styles + genres + individual patterns - List of dialects of English -different varieties = different grammatical patterns / vocabulary / pronunciation -language change brings variety STANDARD VARIETY = form of language which is deemed most prestigious and used in formal contexts English is probably the language with most words because of colonialism, it keeps importing words because it’s the international language 1a I've not finished it. > Scotland / N England 1b I haven't finished it. > S England 2a I don't know whom to trust. > formal 2b I don't know who to trust. > informal/spoken 3a I have a friend lives in Auckland. > informal, possible, usu. not accepted 3b I have a friend who lives in Auckland. > standard (NEVER USE COMMA BETWEEN NOUN AND RELATIVE PRONOUN) Varieties of English: STANDARD ENGLISH LEARNING ENGLISH → English that people speak while learning INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH → English used as international mean of communication ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA → English used in intra-communication btw speakers with different mother tongue in a country that doesn’t have English as official language SIMPLIFIED TECHNICAL ENGLISH → used in aviation, decided by European Association of Aerospace Industries PRESCRIPTIVE AND DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR About notions of what should be done when using a language PREPOSITION STRANDING → syntactic construction in which a so-called stranded, hanging or dangling preposition occurs somewhere other than immediately before its corresponding object; for example, at the end of a sentence (Ex: who are you waiting FOR? You’re not the one I’m talking WITH) Mavens = experts (kind of derogatory) PROBLEMS WITH PRESCRIPTIVE STATEMENTS: Copied usage is a minority Suggestions on grammar follow patterns from other languages (like preposition stranding which wasn’t accepted because it didn’t exist in latin) Describing older patterns makes newer ones appear to be wrong DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR Claims to do no more than state what grammatical patterns can be observed in usage GRAMMAR = syntax + morphology / the DESCRIPTION OF HOW A LANGUAGE WORKS SYNTAX = the way in which words are ordered and how that relates to the meaning of larger units MORPHOLOGY = the way in which meaningful elements go together to make up words After reading the paragraph “What are the limits of grammar?”, how would you define grammar? What are idioms? =>WHAT IS GRAMMAR? Grammatical adequacy is only a part of what you need to know to speak natural-sounding English. Roman Jakobson: “Languages differ not in what you can say, but in what you must say” =>we can say everything in every language, just not in the same way, there are different degrees of precision =>GRAMMAR: A set of statements (rules, constraints, constructions, etc.) which specifies what is part of the language for which the grammar provides a description Something in the mind of the speaker of the language, developed over the period of language acquisition The information from that grammar as deduced and extrapolated from observed linguistic behaviour by grammarians and linguists Grammar provides information about what is part of the language and what is not. PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY PHONETICS → how sounds are produced (ARTICULATORY phonetics), how they are transmitted by air by investigating their physical properties: duration / frequency / intensity / quality (ACOUSTIC phonetics), how they are perceived by the listener’s auditory system (AUDITORY phonetics) PHONOLOGY → how sounds function in relation to each other, what a sound represents… NOTIONS: PHONE → “the smallest perceptible discrete segment of sound in a stream of speech”  PHONEME → the smallest unit that can bring about a change in meaning, includes all phonetic specifications of phones ALLOPHONE → phones that belong to the same phoneme PHONES PRODUCTION We use our VOCAL TRACT = passageway btw nostrils + lips – passageway btw lips + larynx => speech is produced by PUSHING AIR FROM THE LUNGS THROUGH THE VOCAL TRACT (first stage) CONVERTING AIR INTO PHONES THANKS TO VOCAL CORDS (second stage) PHONES DISTRIBUTED TO THE ORAL/NASAL CAVITY by the soft palate (third stage) =>RESPIRATION + PHONATION + ORO-NASAL PROCESS + ARTICULATION Classifiable by PLACE OF ARTICULATION, phones can be: BILABIAL LABIODENTAL DENTAL ALVEOLAR PALATAL VELAR GLOTTAL Classifiable by MANNER OF ARTICULATION, phones can be: COMPLETELY BLOCKED → oral stops (plosives) – nasal stops PARTIALLY BLOCKED → fricatives – affricates – approximants = glides – liquids | | Flow of air is constricted flow of air is but not enough to block / constricted impede phone but not enough to block / make friction VOICING Term used to characterize speech sounds as VOICED (yes vibration - z) / VOICELESS (no vibration - s) VOWELS Sounds produced using tongue + lips + jaws => Distinguish vowels by paying attention to: TONGUE HORIZONTAL POSITION (front – centre – back) TONGUE VERTICAL POSITION (high – mid – low) LIPS POSITION (rounded – relaxed) JAW POSITION (close – mid – open) Vowels can be LONG or SHORT. They can be PURE VOWELS (monophthongs – dog, bed) or DIPHTHONGS, where one vowel glides from another (may – kite). Diphthongs can be classified like this: PHONOLOGY AND TRANSLATION Each language has its own sounds, but there are SHARED SOUNDS, which are in an ARBITRARY RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR MEANINGS => there is NO CORRESPONDENCE btw LANGUAGE PAIR on PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL. At times, however, when translating SOME PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES are an important aspect in terms of FORMS → ≠ sounds ≠ forms MORPHOLOGY The study of the structure of words, concerned with word formation. Morphologists study morphemes = the smallest unit of language that has its own meaning, it can be a word in itself or the part of a word. So a word can be made up from one to many more morphemes. WORD = the meaningful linguistic unit that can be combined to form phrases and sentences”. It can be SIMPLE (one morpheme) – COMPOUND (two words in one) – COMPLEX (2+ morphemes) – COMPOUND COMPLEX (one compound word made of complex words). Morphemes can be: FREE MORPHEMES BOUND MORPHEMES Or: GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES LEXICAL MORPHEMES Morphology can be: ANALYTICAL → words can clearly be analyzed in smaller morphemes SYNTHETIC → words cannot be clearly analyzed in smaller morphemes PRODUCTIVITY The more combinations a morpheme can occur in, the more PRODUCTIVE it is said to be. The more productive a morpheme is, the stronger the evidence that it is a separate morpheme, so it can be used to form new words. HOMONYMOUS MORPHEMES ≠ ALLOMORPHS → two or more morphemes with the same meaning, or function, but phonologically different. TRANSLATION SHIFTS Any departure from “formal correspondence” in the process of translating from language A to language B. LEVEL SHIFTS → translating a grammatical category into lexis or viceversa (Three tourists are reported to have been killed in the attack – Nell’attentato sarebbero stati uccisi tre turisti) CATEGORY SHIFTS → -structural (I like you – Mi piaci) -class (A medical student – una studentessa di medicina) -unit (He changed the meaning in a dramatic way – Ha cambiato il significato drasticamente) -intra-system (He works as a doctor – Fa il dottore) Morphologically, shifts can be classified as: LEVEL SHIFTS → grammatical morpheme lends itself to a lexical morpheme UNIT SHIFTS → one morpheme lends itself to more than one morpheme or the other way round POSITION SHIFTS → morpheme changes its position in a larger unit STATUS SHIFTS → morpheme becomes bound / free WORD STRUCTURE SHIFTS → word changes its structure, thus changing type from simple to complex or viceversa There are also two types of translation: RANK-BOUND TRANSLATION → equivalent is sought at a morpheme-level category or word- level category, resulting in a possibly unacceptable translation UNBOUND TRANSLATION → equivalent is not tied to a particular rank, but rather sought at the level of phrase, clause or sentence =>EQUIVALENTS SHOULD BE SOUGHT AT LARGER LEVELS, not rank-bound MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESSES Can be: INFLECTIONAL = DECLENSION (applied to nouns and adjectives) – CONJUGATION (applied to verbs) WORD FORMATION = DERIVATION – COMPOUNDING INFLECTION There are 8 inflectional morphemes, which are added to the root: PLU → plural – nouns COMP → comparative degree – adjectives SUP → superlative degree – adjectives PRES → present – verbs PAST → past – verbs PAST PART → past participle – verbs PRES PART → present participle – verbs POSS → possessive – nouns For example, “better” = ROOT (good) + COMP morpheme WORD FORMATION All other bound, grammatical morphemes, are derivational morphemes in English, which are not limited in number AFFIXATION → a prefix, suffix, infix is added to the root. There are also circumfix and transfix COMPOUNDING → joining two words together to create a new word with ≠ meaning Nouns can be put together in three ways: NOUN + NOUN / PREPOSITIONAL STRUCTURE (the top of the hill) + POSSESSIV STRUCTURE (Jim’s dog). Noun + noun structures are used for well-known usual combinations, prepositional structures are used for unusual and more rare combinations. And possessives are used for something that belongs to a person, group, organization, country or animal. PREMODIFICATION This process is called premodification, as to modify a noun by putting an element at the beginning / before the noun. Premodification can take place through: GENERAL ADJECTIVE → a big pillow ED-PARTICIPIAL MODIFIER → established institutions ING-PARTICIPIAL MODIFIER → embarrassing situation NOUN → staff room !!!!the premodifying noun is usually singular!!!! MEANING RELATIONSHIPS EXPRESSED BY NOUN-NOUN SEQUENCES COMPOSITION → glass windows = windows made of glass PURPOSE → pencil case = a case for pencils IDENTITY → men workers = workers of male sex CONTENT → algebra text = a text about algebra OBJECTIVE (process / action) → egg production = production of eggs, to produce egg TIME → summer conditions = conditions in / during summer LOCATION → Paris conference = conference in Paris PARTITIVE (x is part of y) → cat legs = legs are part of the cat SPECIALIZATION → finance director = director specialized in finance CONCATENATION VERSUS NON-CONCATENATION All these morphological processes can be divided into CONCATENATION and NON- CONCATENATION CONCATENATION → the root is linked to affixes in a chain (carelessness) NON-CONCATENATIVE PROCESSES OF WORD FORMATION AND TRANSLATION SUPPLETION → when, to change meaning, you change form and literally substitute the word (go → went) CATEGORY EXTENSION AND TRANSPOSITION → a word belonging to a particular word-level category is transferred to another word-level category without changing the form. This process can be called TRANSPOSITION, that can be used as a strategy in translation (water – to water) SHORTENING → can imply CLIPPING – an existing form of a word is shortened, literally clipped, to form a new word with the same meaning (influenza → flu), it can be final / initial / medial (take out beginning and end of a word, leave the medial part) / complex (compound word is clipped) clipping. Or ABBREVIATION – it can be initialism (first letters of a group of words and pronounced individually, FBI) / acronyms (the same but pronounced as a whole word) / contraction (some letters are dropped, dr = doctor, he’s = he is…) BACK-FORMATION → what is mistakenly considered an affix is subtracted, thus creating a new word (sculptor → to sculpt) COINAGE → a word is formed on the basis of an analogy with word pairs existing in the linguistic system (prefix co- can be added to translator, on the basis of this union you can create also co-wife) BLENDING → parts of two words are pieced together to form a new word, these parts are not morphemes!!! They don’t carry any meaning. (smog) BORROWING → a lexical item is transferred from one language to another because of a gap in a linguistic system (abat-jour dal francese all’italiano), without any adaptation whatsoever. There are five strategies: o Matching = equation – substitution, can happen through literal translation, borrowing and calque o Zigzagging = convergence – divergence o Recrescence = amplification – reduction o Repackaging = diffusion – condensation o Reordering Strategies useful in translation are divided into:  DIRECT TRANSLATION: o BORROWING o CALQUE o LITERAL TRANSLATION OBLIQUE TRANSLATION: o TRANSPOSITION → implies semantic, syntactic and pragmatic changes o MODULATION o EQUIVALENCE o ADAPTATION TRANSLATING CAUSATIVITY The number of arguments / noun phrases is increased, thus indicating that the subject causes something or someone to change state in some way, whether it be by becoming or doing someone or something else. There are three main types of causatives: ANALYCTIC CAUSATIVES → by virtue of verbs LEXICAL CAUSATIVES → formed by certain verbs (to kill has to have someone to kill to be able to make sense) MORPHOLOGICAL CAUSATIVES → formed by adding certain suffixes COUNTABILITY English nouns can be COUNTABLE / UNCOUNTABLE. COUNTABLE → singular and plural forms, they can be “counted” (one book – five books). We can use A/AN or SOME. UNCOUNTALBE → have only one form, they can’t be “counted” (knowledge). Most uncountable nouns are only singular. BUT!!!! Some uncountable nouns CAN BE MADE COUNTABLE by adding quantifiers → a piece of / an item of / a bit of. There are more specific quantifiers in certain cases (a flash of lightning – a clap of thunder). This means that we do not have words listed as countable or uncountable, we are calculating the USE OF THAT NOUN as countable or uncountable => SYNTACTIC PATTERN gives meaning >>> GRAMMATIC CLASSIFICATION WHAT A COUNTABLE NOUN IS = not a matter of how the world is constructed, it’s about HOW WE PERCEIVE THE WORLD → information = uncountable in English / information = countable in French. PROBLEMS WITH COUNTABILITY This system is ever-changing → in the past fewer was only for countable, and less only for uncountable NOW LESS IS USED FOR BOTH SOME NOUNS are BOTH COUNTABLE + UNCOUNTABLE (cake → one cake / five cakes – too much cake is bad) Quantifiers are starting to get mixed usage → amount of should be used only with uncountable nouns, now it’s changing / much should be used with uncountable but there are expressions which make it sound countable, even though they’re primarily spoken English THE USE OF QUANTIFIERS SOME + ANY → plural / uncountable nouns MANY + (A) FEW → plural nouns => countable nouns MUCH + (A) LITTLE → uncountable nouns WHAT IF ENGLISH LOSES COUNTABILITY? It wouldn’t be a problem because it’s already happening and it is not troublesome. For example, instead of using many – much, we should have one alternative, but we already do: A LOT OF. Instead of classifying the usage of quantifiers, we should use them indifferently, but we already do. And so on… PHRASAL AND PREPOSITIONAL VERBS Phrasal and prepositional verbs are created by putting them together with particles (adverbs for phrasal and prepositions for prepositional). In PREPOSITIONAL verbs, you CAN’T SEPARATE the main verb from the particle, so the object always follows the particle. In PHRASAL verbs, you CAN SEPARATE the main verb from the particle + they ALWAYS SEPARATE IF OBJECT IS PRONOUN (Many Americans that took out home loans could not pay them back), but they tend to stay together before long objects (regarding transitive phrasal verbs). There are INSTRANSITIVE PHRASAL verbs – bounce back, die out, end up… Then there are PHRASAL-PREPOSITIONAL VERBS, made up of both an adverb and a preposition – come up with, look forward to, live up to… COMPARATIVES and SUPERLATIVES Some adjectives denote a single point or an extreme on a scale that you cannot go beyond, these are called GRADABLE ADJECTIVES, which means they have forms showing degrees of application: BASE FORM → big, small, pretty, atomic… COMPARATIVE FORM SUPERLATIVE FORM Both comparative and superlative have SYNTHETIC / SUFFIXED and PERIPHRASTIC forms THE PROBLEM WITH SYNTHETIC AND PERIPHRASTIC FORMS First of all, how do we know when and adjective is gradable or not? There is a difference of opinion on gradability. For MONOSYLLABIC ADJECTIVES, it’s usually stated that you should use SYNTHETIC FORMS, but there are EXCEPTIONS: PLURISYLLABIC ADJECTIVES (+3 syllables), it’s usually stated that you should use PERIPHRASTIC forms BUT NOT WITH -UN PREFIXES (untidier, unrulier, unlikelier…) The problem is with DISYLLABIC ADJECTIVES, those with two syllables, which sometimes behave like monosyllabic and sometimes like plurisyllabic. There are some guidelines: As with monosyllabic adjectives, past participles do not take synthetic comparison Forms with an -ing suffix take periphrastic comparison Adjectives that end in -able, -al, -(i)an, -ar, -ful, -ic, -ish, -ive, -less, -ous, -some and some other rare suffixes tend to allow periphrastic forms -Y and -ly forms allow the suffixed forms Suffix -some may, in general, be found more often with more, but handsome is found more often with -er /-est THE DOUBLE COMPARATIVE Common in spoken English. The problem of whether to use synthetic or periphrastic forms is avoided, because both are used – his more braver daughter / the most unkindest of all… In standard English you would say “the bravest daughter” or “the unkindest of all”. In a double comparative you mark the grammatical category as much as you can. THE PROGRESSIVE FORM The theory goes that verbs like swim / write / drink can be used with -ing. The progressive form is not available to all verbs in the language, because some verbs have built-in meanings which preclude them from being interpreted as unfolding over a period of time, these are called STATIVE VERBS, they describe ongoing static situations, which by definition, do not change, verbs such as love / own / be / know… THE BOUNDEDNESS OF A VERB Aside from the duration of an event, there is also its boundedness. That has to do with whether or not the event has a natural endpoint. Verbs like write, also called ACCOMPLISHMENT VERBS, have duration and a natural endpoint. Verbs like blink, also called ACHIEVEMENT VERBS, have no duration because of their instantaneous change but they do have a natural endpoint. Verbs like love, called STATIVE VERBS, have no duration because of their stativity and permanence and no endpoint. Verbs like gossip, called ACTIVITY VERBS, have duration but no endpoint. Stative verbs have been making an appearance together with progressive marking, many believe that perhaps the Americanization of English has created a shift in grammatical use. BUT We can find examples of progressive use of stative verbs from British English even back in the prose of Jane Austen. The initial use of the progressive with stative verbs may not have been as shocking or as noteworthy as it first appears because progressive marking was itself on the rise with all verbs during the nineteenth century. SOME EXPLANATIONS Maybe stativity is not a binary property, but a gradable distinction → stative verbs tend to refer to ongoing, unbounded affairs, they can also be used to express temporariness rather than permanence. We might be able to distinguish two different subtle components of stativity: on the one hand, there is the idea of a condition and temporality. Another explanation can be INTENSITY. A third explanation has to do with TENTATIVENESS AND POLITENESS (I was hoping that…) → using progressive forms with stative verbs sounds “polite” A fourth explanation has to do with NEGATIVITY + the adverb “ALWAYS” (He’s always being dramatic…)→ using progressive form with a stative verb accompanied by the adverb “always” sounds “negative”