English linguistics

* Segmental phonemes (consonants, vowels) based on -phonetically distinctive features, articulation, height, length, quality.. * Suprasegmental phonemes (stress, intonation) based on[r]

ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

1.Phonetics and Phonology a.What is phonetics?

*Phonetics and articulators/organs of speech *Articulatory Phonetics:

*Auditory Phonetics: *Acoustic Phonetics

*3 aspects of the study of phones/sounds:

-physical: articulation, height, length, quality, loudness, pitch, melody

-accent: regional characteristics

Phoneme - Phone - Allophone

1.Speech sounds are the movements of the air through human articulators (organs of speech) The air moves through

* the nasal cavity (the nose), nasal sounds /m, n, …/ appear;

* the oral cavity (the mouth), oral sounds /p, b, f, v, t, d, …/ appear; * the two lips, bi-labial sounds /p, b, m,…/ appear…

* A phoneme is a more abstract unit It is defined as the smallest unit of language existing as such a speech - sound which is capable of

distinguishing one word from another or one grammatical form of a word from another form of the same word

* An allophone can be defined as a predictable phonetic variant of a phoneme An actually pronounced speech sound is always a variant ( allophone) of a phoneme Different allophones of one and the same

phonemes are speech sounds which have one or more articulatory features and, therefore, acoustic features in common and at the same time differ from each other in some (usually slight) degree because of the influence of their position, of the neighboring speech sounds and of other purely

* An allophone is a variant of a phoneme The allophones of a phoneme form a set of sounds that

(a) not change the meaning of a word, (b) are all very similar to one another, and

(c) occur in phonetic contexts different from one another and (d) have non -distinctive differences

* In other words,

+ Phoneme is the minimal meaningless unit of language It contains a bundle of phonetic distinctive features,

b.The classification of phonemes:

*Segmental phonemes (consonants, vowels) based on -phonetically distinctive features, articulation, height, length, quality

*Suprasegmental phonemes (stress, intonation) based on -loudness (height, length, voice quality),

c.The classification of Consonants based on

*Points of articulation/Articulators/Organs of speech *Manner of articulation

*Voice

*Aspiration

d.The classification of Vowels based on

 DIPHTHONG

 A diphthong is a combination of two vowels pronounced within one syllable

 The first element of a diphthong is called the nucleus, the second element is called the glide The nucleus is a strong, clear and distinct vowel sound The glide is weak in the articulation of a diphthong The organs of speech start from the position necessary for the first vowels and glide in the

direction of the second vowels The first element in all the diphthongs is stressed and is stronger than the second

Diphthongs can be classified into

a- retracting ( ending in /u /, e.g now, town, go, show), b- fronting (ending in / i /, e.g eye, why, say, day, boy, destroy), and

c- centering (ending in / /, e.g ∂ hear, near) Diphthongs can also be classified into

a- closing ( ending in either / i / or / u /, e.g life, like, say, waiter, phone, know ) or

e.Syllables based on

*the structure: ONSET + RHYME (NUCLEUS + CODA) *the ending +with vowel: OPEN SYLLABLE

+with consonant: CLOSED SYLLABLE *stressed or unstressed syllables

f.Stress placed *over + the root *over + prefix

*over or before + suffix *over + compounds

g.Intonation types classified into

*fall (affirmation, confirming information in WH-question) *rise (YES-NO question)

*rise-fall (listing, correcting wrong facts ) *fall-rise (politeness, uncertainty, tail-questions)

PHONOLOGICAL CHANGES

1.Assimilation: Two adjacent consonants within a word or at word boundaries often influence each other in such a way that the articulation of one sound becomes similar to or even identical with the articulation of the other one.

2.Degrees of Assimilation:

2.1.Complete Assimilation: For example, horse shoe /ho:s u:/ ->/'ho: u:/.

2.2.Partial Assimilation: For example, in the assimilation of the alveolar variants of the consonants /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/, /s/,/z/ to the dental consonant // and// the

main phonemic features of the former are retained, but the point of articulation is changed, and they are replaced by the dental variants of the same phonemes under the influence of the following // and// Another example is the

assimilation of the sound /v/ in fivepence /faiv pns/ -> /faifpns/.

2.3.Intermediate Assimilation: Examples of intermediate assimilation are

gooseberry /'guzbri/, where / s/ in goose /gu:s/ is replaced by /z/ under the

2.Accommodation

In accommodation the accommodated sound does not change its main phonemic features and is pronounced as a variant of the same

phoneme slightly modified under the influence of a neighbouring sound In modern English there are six main types of

accommodation:

2.1 Rounding: An unrounded variant of a consonant phoneme is replaced by its rounded variant under the influence of a following rounded vowel phoneme, as at the beginning of the following words :

Unrounded variants of Rounded variants of

consonant consonant

/ti:/ tea /tu:/ too

2.2.Nasalization: a vowel becomes nasalized when it stands before, after or between nasal consonants For

example: at, attack -> an, mad, man

2.3 Aspiration: a consonant /p, t, k/ becomes aspirated

when it stands before a vowel except rounded

vowels.For example: hat, stop, sky -> time, people, can

2.4.Syllabication: some clusters of consonants become

syllabic when they are prounced as a syllable with a

3.Elision

 The nature of elision may be stated quite simply : under certain

circumstances sounds disappear : one might express this in more

technical language by saying that in certain circumstances a phoneme may be realized as zero, or have zero realization As with assimilation, elision is typical of rapid, casual speech We will look at some

examples of elision:

3.1.Loss of weak vowel after p,t, k In words like potato, tomato, canary, perhaps, today, the vowel in the first syllable may disappear; the

aspiration of the initial plosive takes up the whole of the middle portion of the syllable, resulting in these pronunciations : /p'teitou/, /t'ma:tou/

3.2.Avoidance of complex consonant clusters E.g acts -> /æks/, looked back /luk bæk/

3.3.Loss of final v in "of" before consonants E.g lots of them /lot  ðm/

4.Weakening:

In English speech, there are certain words which have two forms of pronunciation:

a- strong, or full, form and b- weak, or reduced form

As an example, the word can can be pronounced as /kæn/ (strong

There are three degrees of the reduction of strong forms:

1.The reduction of the length of a vowel without changing its quality Strong form Weak forms with qualitative reduction

You [ju:] [ju] [ju] He [hi: ] [hi] [hi] Your [jo:] [jo] [jo]

2.The second degree of reduction consists in changing the quality of a vowel Strong forms Weak forms with qualitative reduction

For [fo:] [f∂] Her [h∂ ] [h∂]

3.The third degree involves the omission of a vowel or consonant. Strong form Weak forms

Am [æm] [m] Of [ov] [v]

5.Linking and Insertion of /r/

 In natural communication, we sometimes link words together

5.1.The normal linking is:

Ex.: What time is it? (It’s half past twelve.)

5.2.The most familiar case is the use of linking r. Examples are:

a- here / hi∂ / but here are / hi∂r∂ / four /fo: / for egg / fo: regz / b- formula A / fo:mi∂l∂r ei /

c- media event / mi: di∂r ivent /

GRAMMAR: MORPHOLOGY

1.1.WORD-STRUCTURE a.What is morphology?

*Rules of word-structure: rules of forming words from morphemes

b.What is a morpheme?

*A minimal/smallest meaningful unit of language

*An elemental minimal meaningful unit of forming word-structure

*MORPHEME and ALLOMORPHS/ MORPHS

c.Types of morphemes identified on the basis of

*FREE-BOUND: IDENTIFIED = IDENTITY + FY (derivational) + ED (inflectional) *ROOT-AFFIXES (PREFIXES, INFIXES, SUFFIXES) – STEM/BASE

*DERIVATIONAL – INFLECTIONAL

d.Rules of word-formation

*Types of Word based on types of morphemes:

1.2.WORD-FORMATION

1 AFFIXATION : adding affixes to the old roots/ words Ex.: GANGSTER, LONDONER, NON-SMOKING

2 COMPOUNDING : joining the old roots/ words Ex.: EASY-GOING, MISSING-IN-ACTION

3 CONVERSION : changing the word classes of the old words Ex.: KNIFE (n) -> KNIFE (v),

MOTHER (n) >MOTHER (v)

4 BACK-FORMATION : shortening the ending of the old words Ex.: BURGLE (v) < -BURGLAR,

5 ABBREVIATION / CLIPPING : shortening the initial, middle, or / and final parts of the old words

Ex.: (IN)FLU(ENZA), (TELE)PHONE, EXAM(INATION)

6 ACRONYMY / INITIALISM : shortening the final parts of each word in the old phrases and joining their initial parts into one new word Ex.: A(TOMIC)-BOMB, UN, UNESCO,

7 BLENDING : shortening the final part of the first word and the initial part of the second word and blending them into one new word having the new concept

8 REDUPLICATION : doubling the old words by repeating the same rhyme of the old words

Ex.: TALKIE-WALKIE, TICK-TOCK,

9 BORROWING : borrowing the foreign words and changing the sounds by assimilation

Ex.: SOVIET, SPUTNIK,

10.INTERNATIONAL TRANSLATION: Ex.: 3-READINESS MOVEMENT;

3-NO CAMPAIGN- 3-YES CAMPAIGN; RED AND EXPERT;

GRAMMAR: SYNTAX 1.WORD-CLASS (PARTS OF SPEECH)

*Criteria to classify words into word classes: N, V, ADJ, ADV,

ART, PRO, NUM, AUX, PREP, CONJ, RELATOR, NEGATOR, INTENSIFIER,

 +word order/position

 +grammatical function

 +form/word stress

 +meaning

 +development:

 -OPEN CLASSES: N, V, ADJ, ADV

 -CLOSED CLASSES: PRO, ART, AUX, MODAL, NUM,

2.PHRASES:

2.1.Syntactic relations in Phrases: MODIFICATION, COMPLEMENTATION, COORDINATION

2.2.PHRASES can be classified on the basis of +sentence structure: NP, VP

+word classes of the head/centre: NP, VP, ADJP, ADVP, PREPP + -ENDOCENTRIC P./HEADED-P

-EXOCENTRIC P./NON-HEADED-P. +meaning:

-FREE P

3.CLAUSES/SENTENCES:

3.1.Syntactic relations in Clauses/SENTENCES: PREDICATION

3.2.Characteristics of SENTENCES (PREDICATION): 3.2.1.proposition: 1.S+V/2.NP+VP

2.ideational meaning: complete thought 3.2.2.modality: 1.Verb moods

2.Modal verbs, Modal words

3.Intonation, Punctuation marks

3.2.3.communicativity= 1.Topic-Comment 2.Theme-Rheme

3.3.Clauses classified on the basis of +VERB Clauses:

1.Finite clauses

2.Non-Finite Clauses 3.VERBLESS Clauses +grammatical functions:

1.-INDEPENDENT – DEPENDENT Clauses

4.Sentence elements:

4.1.in Sentences:

-Subject (S): - Helen came here.

-Verb (V): - Helen came here

-Direct/Indirect Object (DO/IO): - Helen gave sweets to Jim -Complement (C): - Helen was director of the company

-Adverbial (A): - Helen came here.

4.2.in Phrases:

-Modifier (M): - English pronunciation is very difficult.

5.Basic structures/ Obligatory structures:

5.1.S+V: Birds fly in the sky (NP+VP)

5.2.S+V+A: Helen lived here (NP+V+ADV) She stayed in this city. (NP+V+PP)

5.3.S+V+C: They were students here.(NP+V+NP) They were intelligent. (NP+V+ADJ)

5.4.S+V+DO: Helen loved Jim much (NP+V+NP)

5.5.S+V+IO+DO:Helen gave him sweets (NP+V+NP+NP) S+V+DO+IO:Helen gave sweets toJim.(NP+V+NP+TO+NP)

5.6.S+V+O+A: They put many books on the table (NP+V+NP+PP) They put many books here.(NP+V+NP+ADV)

6.TYPES OF SENTENCES 6.1.Grammatical structures:

6.1.1.Simple – Compound – Complex sentences 6.1.2.Kernel – Transformational sentences:

6.2.Functional structures:

6.2.1.Message structure: TOPIC + COMMENT 6.2.2.Information structure: OLD/GIVEN + NEW 6.2.3.Transitivity structure:

 +IDENTIFICATIONAL sentences  +QUALITATIVE sentences

6.2.4.Communicative structure:

 +Statement

 +Declaration/Affirmative

 +Question/Interrogative

 +Negative

 +Order/Imperative

 +Command

 +Request

 +Greeting

 +Exclamation

7 Sentence analysis:

*Branching-Tree Diagrams for Sentence Analysis S

S1 S2

NP VP N(P) V(P) VP NP

Dem N Aux MV Quant Adj N Conj N/Pro V

SEMANTICS

a.*Semantics: the study of sense, proposition (meaning in language)

*Pragmatics: the study of the relationships among sense, proposition, referent and the speaker’s/ writer’s intentions (meaning in use/ communication)

b.*Words with sense but without referent

*Words/Sentences with the same referents but with different senses/propositions

c.*Sense of words/expressions (the place of a word/an expression in a

system of semantic relationships with other words/expressions in the language; an indispensable hard core of meaning)

*Proposition of sentences (part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which describes some state of affairs)

d.Sense relations in words and sentences: relations of the senses of predicates/ lexemes/word-forms or the propositions of sentences

*Homonymy: predicates with same sounds or/and spellings but unrelated senses

Ex: (the) barks (of the tree) – (The dog) barks; aunt – aren’t – ain’t [ant];(the) wind – (to) wind.

*Polysemy: predicates with related senses by means of metaphor, metonymy Ex:

He is a HEAD of the company; he has a hard HEAD but no intelligent HEAD.

*Synonymy: predicates denoting the same referent/concept with same senses (semantic, connotative, situational/stylistic, regional synonyms)

Ex: begin – start – commence – depart; country – motherland – fatherland; parent – mother/father – dad/mum; fall - autumn

*Antonymy: predicates denoting the same referent/concept with contradictory, complementary, gradably opposite, relationaly/reversively opposite, or incompatible senses Ex: alive – dead; long – short; give – receive, older – younger; spring – summer – autumn - winter

*Meronymy: predicates with senses denoting the whole and predicates with senses denoting its parts Ex: tree  trunk, root, branch, ; human (body)  head, body, hands, legs…)

*Lexical/Semantic Fields (Collocations):

e.SEMANTIC CHANGE

1- Semantic broadening

 Semantic broadening is the process in which the meaning of a word becomes

more general or more inclusive than its historical earlier form Examples:

 Bird : small fowl -> any avian

 Barn : place to store barley -> any agricultural building  Aunt : father's sister -> father's or mother's sister

2.Semantic narrowing

 Semantic narrowing is the process in which the meaning of a word becomes

less general or less inclusive than its historically earlier meaning Examples:

 Meat : any type of food ->flesh of an animal  Fowl : any bird ->a domestic bird

3.Amelioration

 In amelioration the meaning of a word becomes more positive or

more favourable. Examples:

 Pretty: tricky, sly, cunning ->attractive

 Knight: boy -> a man of honorable military rank

4.Pejoration

 In pejoration, the meaning of a word becomes more negative or

unfavourable Examples:

4.Semantic weakening

 In this process of language change, the meaning of the word

becomes weakened. Examples:

 Wreak: avenge, punish ->to cause, to inflict  Quell: kill, murder -> to put down, to pacify

5.Semantic shift

 Semantic shift is a process in which a word loses its former

 *Metaphor

 Metaphor is a figure of speech based on a perceived similarity

between distinctive objects or actions Metaphorical change usually involves a word with a concrete meaning taking on a more abstract sense, although the word's original meaning is not lost The

meanings of many English words have been extended through metaphor.

 Metaphor may be based on similarity of

a- shape (e.g.head of a cabbage), b- position (e.g.the tail of procession),

c- movement (e.g the caterpillar of a tank), d- function (e.g the finger of the instrument), e- colour (e.g orange), and

 *Metonymy

 Metonymy can be considered as the semantic shift on the basis

of the real relation between different objects

 This kind of meaning transfer can be based on

a-the use of the name of the container for the thing contained

(e.g the auditorium for the audience),

b-the name of a material for the thing made from the material

(e.g the marble, the iron ),

f.Sense properties of the sentence

*Analytic sentence : necessarily TRUE, as a result of the senses of the words in it Ex: - Vietnam is

located in Asia – and is 4.

*Synthetic sentence : NOT analytic, but may be either true or false, depending on the way the world is Ex: - The teacher is from Hue - She is happy.

g Semantic and pragmatic relations among utterances

*Paraphrase: Ex: - He is an orphan He has no father nor mother.

*Presupposition: Ex: - Her son sold his old car She was married She had a son Her son bought a car long time ago

*Entailment: - Ex: - Her son sold his old car Someone did something to something Someone sold something Something happened to the car

*Speech acts:

*Utterances traditionally classified into

+Constative Utterance: describes/ asserts some state of affairs and is NOT performative: Ex: -The weather is fine –She is beautiful.

+Performative Utterance: actually describes the act that it performs,

*3 acts/meanings an utterance performs:

+LOCUTIONARY ACT (LOCUTION) = proposition Ex: - There are some pieces of fish on the table =

There existed something on the defined table.

+ILLOCUTIONARY ACT (ILLOCUTION) is the act viewed in terms of the utterance’s significance within a conventional system of social interactions Illocutions are acts defined by social conventions

Ex: - There are some pieces of fish on the table = The diner complains that the table is not clean

+PERLOCUTIONARY ACT (PERLOCUTION) carried out by a speaker making an utterance is the act of causing a certain effect on the hearer and others

Ex: - There are some pieces of fish on the table =

The diner suggests the waiter should clean the table,

*PERFORMATIVE FORMULA:

I + (HEREBY) + PERFORMATIVE VERB + NP + to VP/ THAT-clause We (affirmative, simple present tense, indicative mood, active voice) They + (passive voice)

He/She/It

*A PERFORMATIVE VERB is one which, when used in a simple positive present tense sentence, with 1st person singular subject, can make the utterance of that sentence performative.Ex:

invite, greet, ask, inform,…

*Explicit performative utterances containing performative hypothesis/ formula

Ex: - I agree with your ideas – I recommend that we should book rooms at that hotel – I apologize that I dis wrong things to you.

*Implicit performative utterances implicitly explained by performative formula Ex: - Go out! (I order you to go out)

- Have a beer please! (I invite you to have a beer)

- All passengers are requested to go through this check point (We request the passengers to go through this check point.).

*Speech acts represented through sentence types creating Direct and Indirect Illocutions:

-Declarative: Ex: -I suggest that we should go home earlier.

-Interrogative: Ex: -How are you? (I ask you about your health)

-Imperative: Ex: -Excuse me!

*Speech acts classified into types:

1.Commissive : a speech act that commits the speaker to doing something in the future, such as a promise or a threat, Ex: -I 'll take you to the movies tomorrow.

2.Declarative : a speech act which changes the state of affairs in the world For example, during the wedding ceremony the act of marriage is performed when the utterance I now pronounce you man and wife is uttered

3.Directive : a speech act that has the function of getting the listener to something, such as a suggestion, a request, or a command.

4.Expressive : a speech act in which the speaker expresses feelings and attitudes about something, such as an apology, a complaint, to thank someone, to congratulate someone.

*Inference: any conclusion that one is reasonably entitled to draw from a sentence or utterance Inferences are represented through entailments and conversational implicatures

*Implicature/Implication: another kind of inference, distinct from entailment Implicature is a matter of utterance meaning, and not of sentence meaning Implicature is not a form of inference that can be predicted solely from a knowledge of the system of sense

relations between sentences

-> Grice distinguished different sorts of implicature: * conventional implicature and

* conversational implicature

They have in common the property that they both convey an additional level of meaning, beyond the semantic meaning of the words uttered

*Implicature is based on maxims of (1) quantity/informativeness; (2)

quality/truthfulness; (3) relation/relevance, (4) manner/clarity, in conversational co-operativeness/ cooperative principle)

1.Quantity: : Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purpose of the exchange)

: Do not make your contribution more informative than required

2.Quality : Do not say what you believe to be false

: Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence 3.Relation : Be relevant

4.Manner : Avoid obscurity of expression

*Conventional implicatures are associated with specific words and result in additional conveyed meanings when those words are used: BUT, EVEN, YET, AND,

BUT: The interpretation of any utterance of the type “p but q” will be based on the conjunction p & q plus an implicature of “contrast” between the information in p

and the information in q.

Ex: -Mary suggested black, but I chose white.

EVEN: when EVEN is included in any sentence describing an event, there is an implicature of “contrary to expectation”

Ex: -Even John came to the party.

YET: the implicature of YET is that the present situation is expected to be different, or perhaps the opposite, at a later time

Ex: -Denis isn’t here yet.

AND: the implicature of AND is “in addition, plus”

Ex: -Yesterday, Mary was happy and ready to work.

AND: the implicature of AND is “and then”

*Conversational implicatures arise only in a particular context of utterance.

(1a) Generalized conversational implicatures: no special background knowledge is required in the context to calculate the additional conveyed meaning

Ex:

1.Charles: I hope you brought the bread and the cheese. Dexter: Ah, I brought the bread.

> Charles must intend that Dexter infer that what is not mentioned was not brought.

>The maxim of quantity

2.Doobie: Did you invite Bella and Carthy? Mary: I invited Bella.

> The maxim of quantity

(1b) Scalar (Generalized conversational) implicatures: are commonly communicated on the basis of a scale of values by using words expressing quantity from the highest to the lowest value:

<all, most, many, some, few> <always, often, sometimes>

or the scale of “likelihood” <certain, possible>; the scale of “obligation’’ <must, should>; the scale of “coldness’ <cool, frozen>

The basis of scalar implicature is that, when any form in a scale is asserted,

the negative of all forms higher on the scale is implicated

Ex:1: I’m studying linguistics and I’ve completed some of the required courses.

-> some +> not all

-> the maxim of quantity (most informative) and of quality (truthful)

2.It’s possible that they were delayed. -> possible +>not certain

(2) Particularized conversational implicatures (typically Implicatures): our conversations take place in very specific contexts in which locally recognized inferences are assumed Such

inferences are required to work out the conveyed meanings which result from particularized conversational implicatures

Ex:1.Rick: Hey, coming to the wild party tonight? Tom: My parents are visiting.

-> +>Tom won’t come to the party -> the maxim of relation (relevant) 2.A: “What subjects is Jack taking?” B: “He’s not taking Linguistics”

-> +> B does not know exactly which subjects Jack is taking -> the maxim of quantity (informativeness)

3.A: “Who was that man you were talking to?”

B: “That was my mother’s husband”

-> +> B’s mother’s husband is not B’s father -> the maxim of manner (clarity, brevity)

4.A: “Was there a fiddler at the bar last night?”

B: “As far as I know, there was a man scraping a bow across a violin”

> +>The fiddler at the bar was not very good.