Summary to Introduction to English Linguistics

INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 1 Introduction to English Linguistics 1.1 What is linguistics - Similarities and differences Study systematically Different scholars have different perspectives Different questions developed different branches “Linguistics is all about human language, that means it is primarily concerned with the uniquely human capacity to express ideas and feelings by voluntarily produced speech sounds or their equivalents, such as gestures in sign languages used by deaf persons” (Biswanger & Becker 2006[2010]: 2) Scholars who systematically study (a) language refer to themselves as - linguists grammarians communication experts philologists Linguists try to form smaller question in order to be able to study simple subjects more precisely, e.g., Evolutionary Linguistics → How and why did language develop? Historical/Diachronic Linguistics → How and why is language constantly changing? 1st Language Acquisition → How is language acquired by little children? Multilingualism → How do speakers of multiple languages use them in real life? Neurolinguistics → How and where is language stored in the brain and how is it processed? Cognitive Linguistics → How does language interact with cognition? Functional Linguistics → What communicative functions does language have? 1 Typology → How do languages differ from each other? … 1.2 Six core areas of linguistics 1) Phonetics: speech sounds and articulation and perception of these, can be looked at by different perspectives: in a social context e.g. social phonetics, and what about children? 2) Phonology: sounds system as abstract system, e.g. vowels can be pronounced differently (dialect, regions) 3) Morphology: morphemes such as prefixes and how they function and are organized 4) Syntax: subject of sentence 5) Semantics: general meaning independent of the importance 6) Pragmatics: in a context 1.3 Central concepts of linguistics - Synchronic vs. diachronic Diachronic means across different times (it examines changes, differences, the more you go back the more different language will be) Synchronic means at a certain point (abstraction – language is always in transition → synchronic studies are needed for diachronic studies) Language changes all the time as it is a “complex adaptive system” - Descriptive vs. prescriptive Descriptive: two perspectives: describes what actually happens, how do people actually speak and write, views language in different social circumstances 2 → → → Appropriate/inappropriate Formal/informal Standard/non-standard Teachers are prescriptive: they tell people how to speak, here it can be right or wrong, or good and bad → it defines a proper usage of language according to some authority → Right/wrong → Good/bad - Language vs. parole Langue describes the competence of understanding a language’s system Parole describes the actual performance of putting this system into practice and also describes the individual usage of this system in a specific situation - Signifier vs. signified Signifier is the sound/word, while signified means the content being described 1.4 History of Linguistic as a Science Modern linguistics emerged in the early 20th century! It’s “founding father“ and key figure in is Ferdinand de Saussure whose contributions are seen as a milestone in Linguistics. 1.5 Language is an evolutionary “Complex Adaptive System” This basically means that language usage can be compared to genetics. Sometimes there develop new variants (= Mutations), there can also be competition between variants. This can also lead to layering (co-existence) or loss of less used variants. 3 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 2 Semiotics = study of signs “From a linguist’s viewpoint Homo sapiens, the ‘rational’ or ‘knowing’ species, is above all Homo loquens, the ‘talking species.” (Matthews 2003: 14) → Humans are a symbolic species! (No other species has the same intricate sign system) Simple words can be a sign such as a street sign! In the sense of semiotics, a sign is a pairing of form and meaning, this does not have to be physical object. A form can also be a row of sounds. Linguistic signs are mostly concerned with words, and no symbols. Understanding this sign is a subconscious process which is learned over time, it is not genetical. Abb. 1 https://www.lorencic.at/ vorranggeben_95617_3.htm 2.1 Three types of signs ICON → form-meaning relation is one of resemblance Abb. 2 Powerpoint Slides of University of Vie INDEX → form implies the concept indirectly, through a particular causal link SYMBOL → form-meaning relation is arbitrary Abb. 3 Powerpoint Slides of University of Vie Sometimes there can be different interpretations! 2.2 Language as a system of signs A linguistic sign consists of two sides: signified and signifier 1 Abb. 4 Powerpoint of Uni Vie Usually linguistic signs are arbitrary (not connected) symbols, there is no natural relation between an object or the shape or sound of a word. One exception is ONOMATOPEIA (sounds and words are related: to buzz, splash) Yet onomatopoetic signs still contain some level of arbitrariness as for example dogs “bark differently in different languages). Nevertheless, they are considered icons, not symbols. Icons still generally contain a little degree of arbitrariness. Another type of linguistic signs that are not symbols are some written signs: These are icons because they are based on resemblance (like a painting) DEFINITION OF “WORD” an arbitrary conventionalized sign/symbol; a form-meaning pairing; stored in the human mind (langue) or produced as speech (parole) in spoken, written, or sign mode Abb. 5 Powerpoint from Uni Vie 3 Animal communication vs. human language Animals definitely have communication systems! The question is how much of it is intentional?! Examples → dancing bees chirping birds squeaking dolphins ‘send messages’ they signal danger or where a food source is; and there are even dialectal /regional differences in bird song Abb. 6 Open Domain Many animals can’t make sounds, but the use of speech sounds/vocalization is not a basic part of what we call a ‘language’ (as there is a big range of sign language)! 2 Talking birds like parrots don’t really understand what they are doing (in the sense that they don’t dissect their imitations into discrete units which can be recombined in a different way). Therefore, animals communicate by systems qualitatively different from human language systems. Properties that make human language special when together: - Reflexivity = ability to refer to the communication system itself – we can talk about language itself - Displacement = For example Animal communication is designed for the moment, here and now. A dog barks when it is hungry or angry in the present moment. In contrast, humans can refer to the past and the future. The property of displacement allows language users to talk about things and events not present or non-existent (e.g., future events, Santa Claus, unicorns, …) - Arbitrariness = no necessary connection between signifier and signified - Productivity/open-endedness = Humans can produce completely new sentences they have never uttered before From a limited/finite set of elements, a human speaker can create an infinite number of statements! Animal languages are usually very restricted (for example Cicadas have four signals to choose from) - Cultural transmission = not being born being able to speak, it is something that is learned over time, usually animal communication is instinctive - Duality/double articulation = Humans are able to produce different words of different sounds or signs, these don’t have a specific meaning by themselves, but combined they get one. (for example morphemes) - Recursion In human language we can (endlessly) embed statements into others (subordinate clauses; hypotaxis) For example: You are a fool. I think you are a fool. You think that I think that you are a fool. 3 I think that you think that I think that you are a fool. By the time children go to school, they normally develop a complex system of sounds (or signs) and structures, plus computational procedures that allow them to produce extended discourse containing a potentially infinite number of novel utterances. No other modern creature has been “using language” in this sense... The difference between human languages and animal communication systems is not a sharp one. (Cf. dolphin signature whistles, but also the reading in Yule on chimpanzee research!) But there really exists an objective difference - as far as we know. 4 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 4 Morphology Generally speaking, it can be said that there are different building blocks in language: SENTENCE [My dad adores old cars which were built in the 50ies] CLAUSE [My dad adores old cars] PHRASE [My dad]NP [adores]VP [old cars]NP WORD/LEXEME [My]+[dad]+… MORPHEME car+s PHONEME /k/ + /a:/ + /r/ +/z/ 4.1 GENERAL DEFINITIONS What is Morphology? study of the internal structure of words and the rules that govern it (the term was coined in biology and borrowed to linguistics from this discipline) What is a Morpheme? A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit! A word can consist of one morpheme or of more than one; it can be monomorphemic (simplex) or polymorphemic (complex) 4.2 TYPES OF MORPHEMES FREE MORPHEMES BOUND MORPHEMES Can appear on their own without any other Can appear only in combination with other Morphemes attached to them morphemes Examples: Examples: Man, cat, these, from unhappy, selfishness, happily, cats 1 Differentiating due to autonomy – IMPORTANT TERMS BASES Parts of words such as mother in motherhood which serve as the basis for attaching other morphemes DERIVATIVE motherhood is called a derivative= i.e. a word derived from a base SIMPLEX (WORDS) & COMPLEX (WORDS) bases can be simplex or complex e.g. agree > disagree > disagreement ROOTS simplex bases are called roots. Roots are the core element in a word and normally a word cannot exist without a root FUNCTION/MEANING LEXICAL MORPHEMES - Content words Establish a relation between the word and the world Nouns, adjectives, verbs (tree, talk, deep, negation) New items can be added quite easily New lexemes can be created quite easily GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES - Function words Establish a relation with other parts of the sentence Prepositions, articles, conjunctions, pronouns, plural -s, case, tense, Spontaneous neologism are impossible POSITION PREFIX SUFFIX Affix before the base Affix after the base Examples: Examples: Unhappy, dislike, malnutrition management, motherhood, cupful 2 AN OVERVIEW Abb. 1 Powerpoint of University of Vienna 4.3 Inflectional and Derivational Bound morphemes can either be grammatical/inflectional or lexical/derivational! o o If grammatical information and categories are expressed by affixes, this is called inflection. If new lexemes are created by adding an affix to a lexical base, this is called derivation. Some examples of inflection in English today are … - Plural -s Possessive of nouns ‘s Regular past tense -ed Some examples of derivation in English today are … - Reality Fondness Rewrite Disclaim Friendly Of course, it is possible to find both derivation and inflection in one word! 3 Some differences between inflection and derivation INFLECTION DERIVATION Never changes a word-class can change wordclass Stable form-meaning relationship variable form-meaning relationship Suffixes attach to all possible bases affixes attach to a subset of possible bases Only suffixes suffixes and prefixes Unique morphemes “Cranberry morphemes” are a type of bound morphemes that cannot be assigned a meaning nor a grammatical function, but nonetheless serves to distinguish one word from the other. Abb. 2 Public domain photo of cranberries 4.4 Allomorphy A morpheme is a minimal meaningful and/or functionally relevant element of an utterance. A morpheme may appear in different shapes. A morph constitutes the formal realization of a morpheme. Allomorphs are morphs which have been classified as representations of a specific morpheme. These different forms of a morpheme can have different reasons: 1. PHONOLOGICALLY CONDITIONED The shape of the allomorph depends on the neighbouring sounds 2. MORPHOLOGICALLY CONDITIONED The shape of the allomorph depends on the morpheme which precedes or follows 3. LEXICALLY CONDITIONED The shape of the allomorph depends on the word as a whole This might be a little bit confusing; an example might be able to help with that! 1 The indefinite article is an allomorph! [ ə ] before consonants [ ən ] before vowels PHONOLOGICALLY CONDIT. [ ei ] if stressed 4 2 Many Bases that change their shape when different affixes follow Exclaim → exclamation Able → ability MORPHOLOGICALLY CONDITIONED Receive → receptive 3 Irregular Plurals Sheep → sheep Ox → oxen LEXICALLY CONDITIONED Child → children 5 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 4 Morphology II Recap to Allomorphy can be found in my script and summary to Lecture 3! 4.5 WORD FORMATION WHAT CAN WE DO TO ADD NEW WORDS TO A LANGUAGE Invent from scratch, root creation, coinage → Google, blurb, Kodak, Marmite, Hobbit Borrow from another language → Sushi, Kindergarten Give a new meaning to an existing word → semantic change → Mouse Create a new word from already existing elements → word formation → facebook, facebooker, dadbod, hangry, catfish, to vape, conscious uncoupling, DIFFERENT WORD-FORMATION PROCESSES 1. Productive Word Formation Processes - Compounding - Affixation 2. Less productive word formation processes - Conversion - Shortenings COMPOUNDING Words thrown together… - English students, lecture hall handout, flashlight, headset, textbook word-formation, word-class Alternative Spellings – variation: word-formation or word formation 1 Stress English noun compounds are usually stressed on their left-hand member. ➔ e.g. English students - English STUdents = students from England (not a compound but a noun phrase) - ENGlish students = students who study English - Black BIRD = a bird which is black (not a compound but a noun phrase) BLACK bird = a particular type of bird (G Amsel) Stress difference between NP with Adjective (left) and compound [N] a green house → a greenhouse a black board → a blackboard a red neck → a redneck This makes the compound noticeable! Compound types (modifier = left-hand element) + (head = right-hand element) nominal, adjectival and verbal compounds Right hand element usually carries the main meaning and the syntactic category and word class and also carries inflections (example plural -s)! 2 Complexity & Constituency A constituent is a group which functions as a single unit in some hierarchical structure Wild-life sanctuary ((wildlife)sanctuary) → wildlife as one unit AFFIXATION Derivational Morphology new words are created by adding an affix and sometimes are changed in word class PREFIXES SUFFIXES rarely change word-class of the derivative often change the word-class of the derivative Sometimes it is possible for a word to be analyzed in two different ways: Abb. 1 Powerpoint of the University of Vienna Similar to Latin some Pre- und Suffixes that have a specific meaning: For example: PREFIXES Mono Poly Contra Ad Un Hyper one many opposite toward not over, to access 3 SUFFIXES -Er ‘somebody doing something’ -Al act of -Ness State of Condition One form can also have a range of meaning for example -er can mean “person who Xs” or “instrument that Xs”…! … More examples on the slides Suffixes also have certain ‘preferences’ for certain bases (for example by preferring a specific word class) Abb. 2 Powerpoint of University of Vienna Blocking An affixation is blocked because a synonymous word already exists.. Thief ≠ Stealer Friendship ≠ Friendhood 4 CONVERSION = Creation of a new word belonging to a new word class without any overt marking, also called ‘zero-derivation ‘. o o o o o a gesture > to gesture water > to water to flirt > a flirt Google > to google empty > to empty SHORTENINGS linguistic material is deleted rather than added → no change of word-class or meaning (exception: back-formation) 1. CLIPPING Clipping is also called truncation. What is retained is either the main stressed syllable or the first syllable… Example: Patricia > Pat Veterinary > Vet Gymnasium > Gym Influenza > Flu Airplane > Plane 2. BLENDS Blends, formed by combining parts of two words Smoke + Fog = Smog Motel, hangry, shopaholic 3. ABBREVIATION Formed from initial letters/sounds of several words Acronym (pronounces like a word) UNESCO, RAM, OPEC, TOEFL Initialism (pronounced letter by letter) TV, CD, PC, DJ, OED, BNC, IPA 4. BACK-FORMATION The complex word is the historically older one (usually by way of borrowing from another language) Later, a seeming suffix is stripped away, to fit the pattern of ‘ordinary’ derivation with change of word-class. Editor > edit Commentator > Commentate 5 Reversed process of derivation, something that was not meant to be suffix is interpreted as one and therefore is shortened OVERVIEW One Word Back-formation Clippings More than one word Blends Abbreviations acronyms initialisms 6 B.A. on Studydrive INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Lecture 5 SEMANTICS & LEXICON 1 1 SOME BASICS & QUESTIONS „Everything in language conspires to convey meaning” (Wierzbicka 1988) Generally speaking, Linguists working in the field of semantics are interested in meaning in human language. Semantics is the study of the nature and the structure of meaning. THERE ARE 3 LEVELS IN SEMANTICS Lexical Semantics …concerned with words/morphemes the meaning of Sentential/Phrasal semantics …concerned with the meaning of syntactic units larger than words (e.g. phrases, clauses, sentences) Discourse semantics …meaning that is created in context (very close to pragmatics) BUT there’s a difference between Pragmatics and Semantics! Semantics don’t depend on the context but focus on the general meaning → pragmatics look into the context. Semantics (i.e. objective, systematic study of the properties of meaning, focusing on what the words conventionally mean) is different from Pragmatics (i.e. study of the meaning intended by the speaker in context, on a particular occasion) Semantics: Parole, Pragmatics: Langue 2 THE WORD AND THE WORLD: THE SEMIOTIC TRIANGLE - Word meaning is coded and conventionalized (people understand each other because they share the same idea of a meaning of the words being used – but there can be different interpretations, yet we understand each other = one part is common and shared while the other one is individual) 1 B.A. on Studydrive - Saussure’s concept of the linguistic sign → The relationship between the two aspects of the linguistic sign is arbitrary (= not connected) The linguistic sign is the connection between the form and the meaning. WHAT IS MEANING? There is and have been many different views on this topic. 1. 1st view (older, traditional, classic, some lay people; incorrect!!): “words refer to objects in the world” 2. We do commonly use words to point to objects or events in the world, so there is indeed a connection between words and things in the real world 3. “Words are only names for things” (Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels) e.g., car, apple, London, Andrew, chalk 4. 1st definition: “Meaning is the relation between a linguistic expression and the entity for which it can be used” (Plag et al. 2009, a ‘possible’ but problematic definition) Not all words actually refer to a reallife object! But: difficult, ask, tradition, unicorn, dragon, Dracula, if, every… But: the tree; the plant; the living being the tall thing over there can all name one and the same object. But do they mean the same thing? THE SEMOTIC TRIANGLE Thought/Concept Linguistic Form stands for Referent, Object in Reality 2 B.A. on Studydrive 2nd definition: Meaning is the relation between a linguistic formal expression (e.g. a morph) and a mental category that is used to classify objects, i.e. a concept. This is a conceptual approach which includes the notion of mental concepts as a third player which is different from the referents in the outside world IMPORTANT ASPECT: Meaning is a relation! - A CONCEPT is in our head and is dependent of the language A MEANING relates a linguistic form and concept 3rd view: “The meaning of a word is its use in the language” (Ludwig Wittgenstein) (quite radical; but remember the meaning of “coffee”!) 3 DIMENSIONS OF WORD MEANING SENSE REFERENT/REFERENCE Senses can be different ways to refer to somebody/something. REFERENT: The object in the world picked out by a particular word or phrase when it is used For example, we can refer to Barack Obama as the 44th president of the US but also as Michelle Obamas husband. REFERENCE: the relationship of an expression (stored in the mind of a speaker/linguistic sign) and the referent Sense is close to a mental concept, but it refers to something existing in the language as opposed to in an individual speaker’s psychological state. Sense belongs to langue not parole! Reference happens in parole not langue! And reference is restricted by sense. For example, the sense of the cow is roughly “a large domesticated fourlegged animal species”. for example the reference to this example would be simple picture of a cow. 3 B.A. on Studydrive DENOTATION CONNOTATION Describes the primary meaning of sth. Includes all associations/ideas/emotions that come to mind in relation to a linguistic expression. Refers to the stable relationship between a linguistic expression and the concrete language external entities to which it refers Coffee means coffee Coffee can describe different drinks INTENSION EXTENSION Description of the semantic properties that an object should meet in order to be within the word’s donation. The actual entities in the real world that “satisfy” the intension . Can be given as a set of semantic features Extension of bird includes all birds: doves, parrots (but there are also other theories for how penguins… to write down the intension). With semantic features, the intension of bird could be the following feature set: + animate - human +wings + feathers 4 Approaches to word meaning and categorization How is meaning (linguistic) related to categorization (cognitive)? Words – Meanings – Mental Concepts → What is a table? When answering this, we use our mental concept “table”. The structure of that mental concept affects how we use word table => affects our language! ➔ To understand word use, we need to understand mental concepts/categories 4 B.A. on Studydrive 3 Approaches to categorization (cognitive) Basic Question: on what basis do we decide that extra-linguistic entities, referents in the outside world, belong to a category? 1. Semantic Feature Analysis (Aristotle) 2. Family resemblance (Wittgestein) 3. Prototype Theory/ Fuzziness of Meaning (Rosch) 1 Semantic feature Analysis MAN + human, + male, + adult WOMAN + human, - male, + adult Benefits of feature analysis: easy to understand, easy to apply; naturally defines relations Problems: - features are themselves concepts! (We define concepts with more concepts → never ending cycle that doesn’t bring us any further) some objects are somehow better examples for a category (If we add the feature “can’t fly” for a bird is penguin still a bird?..) BACHELOR + human, + adult, + male, - married The pope is a bachelor? Tarzan is a bachelor? Disadvantages/Problems of semantic feature analysis: - some features are not atomic componential analyses do not grasp all there is to word meaning (for example two words can have the same features but are used differently by speakers) which features should be listed (which are essential and necessary?) 2 Family Resemblance (Wittgenstein) Ludwig Wittgenstein was one of the first to realize the problem with semantic features; his famous example is the category GAME (tennis, cards, roulette, solitaire, soccer, chess, …) - done for entertainment somebody winds requires training or practice involves more than one person… Objective problem of analysis: not all games share all those features 5 B.A. on Studydrive Wittgenstein’s suggestion for solving this problem was to speak about family resemblance: every two members of a family have some resemblances, but different pairs are similar in different features - tennis and soccer are similar in being competitive, with two sides; in having a score; ... tennis and solitaire are similar in being practiced for entertainment; in requiring training; ... soccer – tennis – solitaire: some game pairs are more similar to each other than others 3 Prototype Theory Theory by Eleanor Rosch. TIGER a three-legged, toothless, albino tiger Semantic features of a tiger: striped, four legs, carnivorous, sharp teeth, feline…. OR: Our tiger is not a prototypical tiger, but still a tiger ➔ Prototype Theory Members graded according to their typicality! Central members share many features with the prototype, but not necessarily all. General agreement of speakers what is considered a typical “object”. Advantages - Allows for non-typical/ peripheral members Allows for gradience/ fuzzy boundaries Includes associative meaning (e.g. bachelor) Explains linguistic expressions that distinguish different grades of belonging to a category: • Typically • Strictly speaking • As such • Sort of, kind of Family resemblance theory vs. prototype theory - Similarity: Both allow gradience/fuzziness Similarity: Both allow for incorporation of associative meaning Difference: family resemblance does not declare some category members as most typical; in other words, family resemblance does not specify the “core” of a category, in family resemblance all members remain equal 6 B.A. on Studydrive ADDITIONAL NOTE: During the lecture we were supposed to discuss the Frege’s possible, as I, personally, thought it was really hard to wrap my head around it, I researched the topic, and this is what I found, so, in case you are interested, here are some links that might be useful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frege%27s_puzzles https://philosophy.tamucc.edu/notes/freges-puzzle 7 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Lecture 6 – Semantics & Lexicon 2 1 Revision → Revision of the semiotic triangle (notes to this topic can be found in my script of lecture 5). → Frege’s Puzzle: 1) Hesperus is Hesperus 2) Hesperus is Phosphorus. “Hesperus” and “Phosphorus” symbolize two different concepts, these concepts in our real world, happen to refer to the same astronomical entity: Venus. They have different sense but same reference. → A summary of important terms and their definitions can be found on the power point slides of the lecture on slide 7 (a more detailed description can be found in the lecture 5 script, or the power point of that lecture). 2 Lexicon = set of words existing in a language However, the definition of the term is not always clear. What is interesting to know, is that the Oxford English Dictionary contains nearly 200,000 thousand words. No one of us could ever speak that many – roughly we can saw that an educated adult speaker knows between 25,000 and 80,000 words. This number, nevertheless, will probably differ between different languages. However, our lexicon is not necessarily a big book, it’s a mental lexicon stored in our head. Native speakers may even recognize a word 200 milliseconds after its onset (even before they have been completely pronounced)Adults can still learn new words, this process can happen constantly, but children learn even faster, they can pick up between 10-12 new words a day. On average a 2-year-old actively uses around 500 words, a 3-year-old, over 1000, a 5-year-old up to 3000 even. Definition of “Lexicon” More definitions on slide 10, however those are not that important.. The mental lexicon in our mind is organised differently, not like an alphabetical list, it is organized as a network (similar words are somehow connected). The lexemes (words) are not separated and isolated. We can prove this via so called word association tests. For example: What reminds you of a canary (bird, yellow, sing). There can be a pattern recognized, even though associations, of course, can be different, they tend to be similar. This is strong psychological evidence for links 1 among words in our minds! The meaning of words is greatly influenced by their connections to other words. There are different kinds of connections. Example of a lexicon network Abb. 1 from the powerpoint slides of univie lecture “STEOP Introduction to English Linguistics” 3 Word Forms and their Senses It would be easy if every word had only one meaning, and every meaning has only one lexeme. However, this is not how it works, sometimes a word can have several meanings. And sometimes one meaning can have several words (synonyms). For example: 1. She hit the nail on the head. / The rock hit him on the head. 2. I’ve just seen a bat flying around. / He hit the ball with his bat. In examples (1) and (2) we see that the words have different meanings (lexical ambiguity). Now, if we compare the relations between different meanings, we can distinguish two forms of meaning variation: namely polysemy and homonymy. Polysemy One word has related meanings… HEAD → Head of a person → Head of a nail → Head of an institution 2 Their concepts are related, head is something on top of a person → also applies to the other words MOUSE → Animal → PC device (similarity in shape between the pc device and the animal) In the Dictionary, we can find the different meanings under their lexeme. And even though the relations might not seem obvious in the beginning they sometimes are if we take a further look. Homonymy One form has multiple unrelated meanings BAT → Small flying animal → Piece of wood for hitting a ball BARK → A dog is barking → The bark of a tree Those different words having the same form is just an accident. However, if you do not know that the computer mouse is related to the form of a mouse, you could think it is a homonymy. There are also unclear cases! 2 Cases Homophony: same sound Homography: same written form Homophony – Homophones: Two or more different forms have the same pronunciation, they have different spelling but the same pronunciation, for example: flower, flour; knight, night; die, dye; ate, eight; chilly, chili These are homophones not homographs Homography – Homographs Same spelling, different pronunciation, for example dove (sitting on a branch), dove (into the lake); tear (in my eye), tear (apart) Homographs which are not pronounced identically are sometimes called heteronyms. This means that all heteronyms are homographs, but not all homographs are heteronyms. (Unfortunately, not all linguists use the terms in the same way...) 3 EXAMPLE EAR 1) The visible organ of hearing 2) The sense of hearing 3) Spike that bears corn Polysemy Homonymy (Polysemy can also be argumented) 4 The network: semantic relations among words a) Synonymy: Synonyms …are words of different form that have (approximately) the same meaning beautiful, lovely, pretty, handsome, fair - or buy, purchase, acquire You look beautiful/lovely in these clothes. Her job/ occupation is what? – She is an engineer. He tried/ attempted to escape. Complications with synonymy Synonyms are not always interchangeable: I did a good job. > task I did a good *occupation. > professional employment They are synonyms on one meaning but not on the other ones, for example. As a special case, only one meaning of polysemous words may have a synonymy → head = boss? (Only in a few cases the words can be used synonymous) → On close inspection, no true synonyms / no perfect synonymy (only “near-synonyms”) List of synonyms can be looked up in a thesaurus. Synonyms may differ with regard to stylistic level, or social or regional variety: - Worker/employee (= more formal) Eat/Consume Lift/Elevator (Regional Difference) Truck/Lorry 4 Euphemism the substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener; sometimes used to avoid taboo words, but also for fun For example: - Toilet/bathroom/washroom/restroom Die/pass away Sometimes those become the more common and regular way to refer to the same thing b) Antonymy: Antonyms (oppositeness of meaning) Antonyms are opposites with respect to at least one component of their meaning: → A bit counterintuitively, to be opposites you need to have a lot in common! For example: - Come/go are opposites with respect to direction, but both involve the notion of movement Big/Small Clean/Dirty Dead/Alive True/False Tie/Untie There are 4 types: 1. Gradable antonyms (gradable pairs) Have a comparative, a superlative, and can be modified by adverts like very, extremely, little Hot → warm → tepid → cool → cold → freezing Slow → Fast 2. Complementaries (complementary pairs) Are not gradable complementaries Alive → dead True → False Animate → Inanimate Somebody/Something can be either … or not both 5 3. Reversives Are directional opposites Enter → exit Come → go 4. Converses Relational opposites, refer to the same situation but viewed from a different perspective Buy → sell Teacher → student Employer → employee Mother → Daughter Abb. 2 from the PowerPoint of University of Vienna Lecture STEOP Introduction to English Linguistics → Here we did a think and discuss session, that you can use for studying, they can be found on slide 38 of the lecture slides, however, please check them there, as I can not just copy a direct screenshot of an entire slide in here :) Complications of semantic relations among words Words may have different opposites in different contexts: Example: What is the opposite of light? - Light bag → heavy bag Light wind → strong wind Light colors → dark colors You know by now that words may have several meanings. light has different antonyms in its different meanings. 6 c) Hyponymy X is kind of Y → shows a hierarchical relationship between word Hyperonym (Superordinate) Hyponym (Subordinate) Color Flower Animal Red, blue, green,… Rose, tulip, lily,… Dog, cat,… If we draw them, we can come up with pretty complex hierarchies: Abb. 3 Picture from the PowerPoint slides of University to the Lecture STEOP Introduction to English Linguistics d) Meronymy Part-whole relationship, meronymy refers to parts of real objects: - Pits if a peach Finger is part of a hand Abb. 4 © MEV Verlag, Augsburg 5 Syntagmatic vs. Paradigmatic relations Syntagmatic relations loves strong tea. Mary hates weak coffee. Fred adores mild whisky. paradigmatic Julia 7 What the professor said to this topic: We can notice that all of those three sentences follow the same pattern → Name → Verb → Adjective → Noun. All words in each column are intuitively related. This is clearly not accidental. We need to recognize that there are certain words which can be part of certain sentences in a specific manner. So, the relationship between a column are said to be paradigmatic (= words which can substitute for each other) → in this table they are vertical. However, this is not the only important aspect of this table. Also, the horizontal relations matter, for example, “strong tea” appears together, we can, however, substitute strong with many different words like, mild, green, black. Words that can be frequently be used together after each other → syntagmatic relations. To summarize: paradigmatic relation: 'vertical' relationship of linguistic forms which can replace each other in a structure. syntagmatic relation: 'horizontal' relationship between linguistic forms which co-occur in the same structure. 8 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Lecture 7 – Semantics and Lexicon 3 1 Syntagmatic associations among words “You should know a word by the company it keeps” Collocations: cases of a strong syntagmatic relation, some lexemes are more likely to work together and therefore, somehow belong together “word partnership”, it is simply a cooccurrence pattern of words They form an important principle in the vocabulary of language, for example beige can only be used with words like car, coat and other things, blond describes basically the same colour, however it is mainly used for hair. More examples can be found on the PowerPoint slides of the University, such as fitting collocations for some verbs, such as “get lost/fired/a job…” Knowledge about these things is not black and white, some words might just seem a little more likely, even though, there can be different object, therefore, the connection between to words can be stronger and weaker: 1. Totally predictable collocations For example: addled eggs, rancid butter, blond hair 2. Less predictable collocation For example: Brown: hair, bread, leaves, shoes, car 3. Non predictable collocates (however not all is possible) For example, have, be, the... Here many word-classes work, however not all We can find that out by using a corpus, which consists of many texts, for example the Corpus of Contemporary American English. One particular collocation is: COLLIGATION = collocation with a grammatical structure For example: looking forward to +ING Collocations are important for our foreign-language-knowledge, for example in German we can use ‘kochen’ for many processes, in which we would use different words such as boil, cook, make. Collocational Bonds, they don’t only refer to 2 word classes of lexemes, they form a bridge: For example: argument and strong - A strong argument She further strengthened her argument by… She argued strongly for… 1 There are also highly fixed collocations, such as formulaic phrases “chunks”, sentence starters etc. For example: - Good morning! Mahlzeit! There are cases when a collocation is a phrase which can only be used in a fix form to convey a specific meaning. The meaning can differ from the “step-by-step/word-by-word” meaning. 2 Idioms Nonliteral compositional expressions, a meaning cannot be determined by only knowing the meaning of the words. There is a general principle: THE PRINCIPLE OF SEMANTIC COMPOSITIONALITY; the meaning of a sentences is determined by the meaning of their words. This allows us to use new sentences and gives human language a special compositionality and the ability to create new things. However, this does not apply to idioms. This is a spectrum as well… For example: - To cook some beans To spill the beans – divulge information Kick the bucket – to die → → → semantically compositional (literal) semi-compositional non-compositional DEFINITION … is an expression which is not predictable by the meaning of its elements and the general grammatical rules of a language How can they be classified 1. 2. - Meaning Transparent/Compositional Non transparent/non-compositional Syntactic classification Verb + object Prepositional phrase Compounds Binomials Simile Conversational phrases Sayings & proverbs 2 More examples on the slides Non-transparent idioms really have to be learned by heart. Non-Compositional Expressions - Lexical classification: such as made my day, and other idioms with make/made And via topics: Weather, idioms, Strength of the syntactic restriction: strong: kick the bucket → not transformable, or if it can be modified: spill the beans → the beans were spilled It is never a good idea to simply translate word by word: Aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten machen → make a mosquito out of an elephant does not work, however there is an idiom with a similar meaning: to make a mountain out of a molehill 3 Phrasal and sentential semantic The lexicon is finite, meanings can be listed, however, sentences can be produced in an infinite number, there is different combination, lengths, however, the meaning of most phrases is compositional. Here the PRINCIPLE OF SEMANTIC COMPOSITIONALOTY is important again. The meaning of an expression is determined by the meaning of its component parts and the way in which they are combined, for example word order is also important Peter hit John → John hit Peter. Contextual Meaning Lexical Ambiguity (when an element has more than one meaning) is usually resolved through context syntagmatic relations help to distinguish meaning (polysemous words and homophones). Without context, we cannot know which meaning is being referred to. However, sometimes we only need cultural context or some sort of knowledge. There are also other sources of ambiguity: LEXIAL AND STRUCTURAL The Rabbi married my sister. → either he become the husband, or he held the ceremony Sherlock saw the man using binoculars. Sherlock [saw the man] using binoculars. → Sherlock is the one using binoculars Sherlock saw [the man using binoculars.] → the man uses binoculars In spoken language, we may use different stresses, however, in text it might be hard to decipher only reading the sentence, if we know the context of an entire text or story, we might be able to know which of the two options is more likely. Phrasal/Sentential objective meaning (semantics) vs. speaker meaning (pragmatics) - What is coded in language = semantics Vs. what is implied by the speaker in special context = pragmatics 3 For example: We’re closing. (When opening the door of a store for example...) This literally means they are finishing their workday; however, they want to tell you to please not enter the store anymore. 4 Meaning relations among words Relations among propositions of declarative sentences - Paraphrase (similar to synonymy) Two sentences have more or less the same meaning and therefore paraphrase each other For example: Mary sold a car to Tom. → Tom bought a car from Mary. 2 sentences describe the same situation TRUTH CONDITIONS: sentences that are true under the same circumstances PROPOSITIONS: propositional, semantic content, the part of a meaning of a sentence that can be said to either true or false, describes a state of the world → A proposition describes a possible state of the world, ‘is their life on Mars or not’. It is possible for us to determine whether a statement is true or false - Entailment (similar to hyponymy) = the truth of one sentence implies that of the other For example: Mary likes all fruits. → entails → Mary likes apples. The entailment in this example is said to be asymmetrical, a entails b, but not the other way round; in contrast the entailment in paraphrases is symmetrical. - Contradiction (similar to antonymy) = if one sentence is true, the other one is false (“negative entailment”) For example: Charles is a bachelor → contradiction to → Charles is married 5 Semantic roles Who does what to whom? ACTION: attack ENTITIES INVOLVED: attacker, the attacked, weapon When we think of different situations they have a specific class, such as the situation of an attack here (usually described by the words) and some involved entities (who does what?). Theory of types of connections in a situation. 4 We need to distinguish between individuals involved and actions… o o o o Words that indicate relationships are called predicates (verbs) Words that indicate entities are called semantic arguments (nouns, pronouns) Linking can be done by predication Each predicate selects a different number of arguments, also it is the ‘most powerful’ element as it determines the situation and the other obligatory elements. For example Dr. Black carried the handouts Doer/Agent Action/PIVOT Theme/Patient from her office to the hall. Source Goal PIVOT = “Schlüsselfigur” Semantic role (thematic role, theta role…) = semantic relation between a semantic argument and its predicate, the semantic roles are key elements in establishing what happens in a situation, there also can be many different relationships between the argument and its predicate Examples can be found on the slide… Here the lecture ended (well time wise), the prof still rushed a bit through the missing slides, therefore I chose to summarize them here again in my script/summary of the lecture <3 Here are some semantic roles linguists distinguish between: Agent Experiencer Force/Natural Cause Patient/Theme Beneficiary/Recipient Stimulus Entity performing action Receives some sort of input Non-animate force which mindlessly performs an action Entity undergoing a process, either changing its state or not Subtype of goal = element for or against whose benefit the action is performed Entity that prompts sensory or emotional feeling Instrument Source Goal Location Path Time Manner Entity used to carry out an action Starting point End, where the action is directed to Place where action is located Between source and goal Self-explanatory The way in which an action is carried out 5 Different verbs demand different semantic roles For example: To steal needs an agent and a theme → to steal something, we need a subject and we need an object describing what is stolen The semantics of the verb put semantic conditions on the nouns: The table is reading the newspaper. We need something that is animate. The dog is reading the newspaper. We need a human that can read. … Problems of Semantic roles 1. How many roles are there? 2. How can they be categorized? 6 © Bernadette Anna on STUDYDRIVE INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Syntax 1 Ass. Prof. Dr. Igor Yanovich Lexicon & Semantics 3 Experiencer vs. Agent Experiencer = not actively being engaged, it’s more about perception (seeing, hearing) Agent = active participant of the action Syntax 1 I. Basics: What is grammar? Many different definitions, which are substantially different: • “The term grammar is used to refer to characteristics of morphology and syntax of language” (B&B 2010: 100) More Narrow Definition • “Grammar, rules of a language governing the sounds, words, sentences, and other elements, as well as their combination and interpretation. The word grammar also denotes the study of these abstract features or a book presenting these rules. In a restricted sense, the term refers only to the study of sentence and word structure (syntax and morphology), excluding vocabulary and pronunciation.” (source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/240915/grammar) Broad Definition • “In linguistics, the term ‘grammar’ refers to the complete system of phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic information and rules that speakers of a given language possess” (Plag et al. 2015: 114) Broad Definition All definitions are sort-of right, as different definitions are used by different authors and branches and therefore also refer to different things. The term can be used in many different ways. In a linguistic sense Grammar is something stored in our minds, information is stored abstractly, which enables us to communicate and understand and form strings of words. Grammar can be seen as a set of rules we need for that. Grammar books are descriptions of this; however, they are usually incomplete. Now we will look especially at the syntax … SYNTAX is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language, usually including word order. The word syntax comes from ancient Greek: 1 © Bernadette Anna on STUDYDRIVE σύνταξις "coordination", which consists of σύν syn, "together", and τάξις táxis, "an ordering". (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax ) Linguists will divide the description of a language in Lexicon, Phonology and Grammar (Syntax + Morphology). We can, though, divide this further. Figure 1 From the slides of the prof. on slide 11 Figure 2 from the slides of the prof on slide 11 Syntax is responsible for a sentence from nonsense words makes sense if the word order is correct. If also the word order is off, the sentence seems off as well. If we use normal words which semantically don’t belong, we can compare between: 1. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously* 2. Colorless green ideas sleeps furious 3. Ideas furiously colorless sleep green This illustrates that even when we abstract a word there are some structural rules which help us make sense of them and help us in a semantic sense. We can distinguish from word order and morphology what is a subject, predicate etc.. A syntactic analysis “must account for all the grammatically correct phrases and sentences and only those grammatically correct phrases and sentences in whatever language we are analyzing“ (Yule 2014: 95) This explains how linguists view syntax, it explains what is formed well syntactically and what is not. “the assumption is that you have a small and finite (i.e. limited) set of grammatical rules with which you can generate an infinite (i.e. unlimited) number of wellformed sentences” => generative grammar (Yule 2014: 95) 2 © Bernadette Anna on STUDYDRIVE There are different levels of syntactic structure This was also the case in different levels of the linguistic structures, and semantic structures. We can talk about words and their categories, then we can look at phrases, clauses, and sentences. Sentence [My dad adores old cars which were built in the 50s.] Sentence types (declarative, interrogative; complex, compound…) imperative, Clauses Figure 3 of the powerpoint slides of the prof, slide 14 [My dad adores old cars] Clause types (main clause vs. subordinate/dependent clause; finite vs. non- finite; noun clause, relative clause, adverbial clause…) Phrase [My dad]NP [adored]VP [old cars]NP Types of phrases and their syntactic functions; head vs. dependents; hierarchy inside the phrase, … Word/Lexeme [My] Determinative [Dad] Noun [adores] Verb… = parts of speech (Morpheme) Car + s (Phoneme) /k/ + /a:/ + /r/ +/z/ SENTENCE A string of words put together by the grammatical rules of language (LANGUE) UTTERANCE The use of one or several sentences in a particular context (PAROLE) Abstract concrete, actual, physical 3 © Bernadette Anna on STUDYDRIVE A sentence consists of at least a verb and often a subject, other common parts include objects and adjuncts The meaning of an utterance is derived from the meaning of a sentence in the utterance including context In a written text, usually begins with a capital letter, and ends with a full stop, or ?,! Competence, grammatical term Performance, communicative term To understand an Utterance, we need to know the meaning of the sentence first, and then we need the pragmatics for the context. We can view it different; we can analyze it as a sentence expressed or at utterances. In Syntax we are at the sentence level. utterance 1 (several sentences inside of it): oh – ms brown leaving – really – the best we’ve ever had – I mean, what next? utterance 2: Hearing about Ms Brown’s impending resignation, we suddenly realized that she was the best personnel manager we had ever had, and we did not know what to do next. ➔ Similar means can be conveyed differently Linguists analyze both spoken language and written language. But analyzing sentences like that in utterance 2 is easier: the structure is more explicitly spelled out, and it makes our task easier. In this introductory class, we’ll only be concerned with syntactic analysis of such fuller structures. A sentence can consist of one or more clauses (organized around a (main) verb) there are dependent and independent clauses. Dependent clauses can be finite or non-finite (and sometimes verbless) A sentence can consist of many clauses, which form around a verb (they can be finite and non-finite, finite means having a verb with a full inflection). We can divide - S(entence)/ M(ain) C(lauses) or simply Cl(auses) V(erb) P(hrases) N(oun) P(hrases) Figure 4 slide 21 of the powerpoint of the prof 4 © Bernadette Anna on STUDYDRIVE Approaches to Grammar o o o Prescriptive vs. Descriptive researching particular rules (how is the present perfect actually used today by speakers?) vs. writing a grammar book (The Most Complete and Unabridged Grammar of the English Language...) theoretical: a linguist‘s unified model of the organization, acquisition and development of languages in general (Systemic Functional Grammar, Generative Grammar, Cognitive Grammar, Construction Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar,….) II. Word classes We have to distinguish between closed and open word classes. Nouns can feature a huge number of different words, prepositions, however, are more limited in their number (it’s closed as it is not easy to add a new concept). The classes themselves can be further subdivided: Example of NOUNS With nouns we can distinguish between common nouns and proper nouns, and pronouns, these can again we subdivided. Figure 5 slide 25 of the lecture slides by the prof In course of this lecture, we will stay quite superficial about word classes. Figure 6 slide 26 on the lecture slides by the prof How can we determine word classes? 1. Semantic - Nouns denote persons and (concrete or abstract) objects, e.g. student, book, love - Verbs denote actions or states, e.g. eat, laugh, live, know - Adjectives denote (concrete or abstract) qualities(of persons or objects): dead, green, asleep, funny, real 5 © Bernadette Anna on STUDYDRIVE - - Prepositions denote place relations (in, on), time relations (after, during) and other relations (with, for) Adverbs denote manner (quickly), likelihood (probably), frequency (often), attitude (unfortunately), degree (very), etc. Determiners decide which kind of reference an NP has = definite (the), indefinite (a/an), partitive (some) or universal (all). A conjunction (abbreviated CONJ or CNJ) is a part of speech that connects words, phrases, or clauses that are called the conjuncts of the conjoining construction Some of these are not as easy as one would hope, this makes this a critical way to distinguish Also, there are always exceptions!! (Nouns can also be events, qualities…) 2. Morphological - Nouns: inflection (plural ending); derivational suffixes (e.g. -er, -ment, -tion, ness) - Verbs: inflection (past tense ending); derivational affixes (e.g. re-, dis-, -fy, -en) - Adjectives: inflection (comparative/superlative endings); derivational affixes (e.g. un-, -al, -ful, -less, -able) - Adverbs: -ly, -wise - However, what about prepositions, determinatives, conjunctions? - Also, this can be misleading, as some suffixes can be used for more than one word class (goodly (A), friendly (A); interesting (A), building (N), tired (A)) 3. Syntactic (=distributional) - Adjectives precede nouns - Deternimers precede adjectives - Adverbs modifying adjectives precede them - Not only conjunctions can occur in initial position - Prepositions do not always precede a noun phrase (What are you staring at?) - This is, however, also not always true, and there are exceptions - Also, this order differs from language to language and therefore cannot be applied in a general sense To categorize words, we use all 3 criteria. There are more easy and more difficult cases: - Is my a determiner or pronoun? What kind of word class is back? As it has 2 meanings and 2 types of being used? What about like? However, when we look at the full set of criteria, sensible classifications can be established. We can also take the prototype approach: e.g. some nouns/pronouns/verbs/etc. are more prototypical than others 6 © Bernadette Anna on STUDYDRIVE III. Phrases 5 Types 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Noun Phrase (NP) a dog, two black cats (Extended) Verb Phrase ((E)VP) bought a car, is watching a movie Adjectival Phrase (AdjP) very big, incredibly stupid Prepositional Phrase (PP) on the table, during the lecture Adverbial Phrase (AdvP) very often The name is determined by the HEAD. Internal structure of phrases: HEAD o o most important element of the phrase element which indicates what is being described by the phrase and its possible roles in the sentence DEPENDENTS (Prehead and Posthead) Example: a Noun Phrase may include Adjective dependents, but a Verb Phrase cannot … further examples for all kinds of phrases can be found on slide 41 :) Phrase structure rules o o o o o NP EVP AP PP Clause → (Det) → (Aux) → (Adv) →P NP → NP VP (A) V A N (NP) (PP) (PP) (Cl) This side describes the element a certain phrase (can) have Phrases have this clear structure With this example, we can see, which elements can be left out connected to the concrete formulated above. Complement = like an argument, it is a Figure 7 slide 43 in the lecture slides by the prof necessary semantic argument Modifiers = optional elements, also in a semantic sense 7 © Bernadette Anna on STUDYDRIVE There is a different way of portraying, tree diagrams also show the hierarchical structure of a phrase. We can continue the analysis till we arrive at the word level. Also, we can notice that phrases can nest, therefore, a NP can be part of a bigger PP. Figure 8 lecture slide 41 of the powerpoint by the prof We can draw these trees for all kinds of phrases, more examples can be found in the books and on the slides. Trees can also look very differently, you can take a look at that on the slides and in the books, and also my summary of all readings for linguistics, which I also uploaded here :) Sometimes we draw trees which only have binary branches (only 2 branches allowed), this can differ between different theories and by different authors. There is another way, called bracketing: Figure 9 slide 48 of the powerpoint by the prof IV. Constituents and constituency tests A syntactic constituent is a sequence of words which forms a structure and functions as a unit in language. They form proper building blocks. A single word is always a constituent. The question revolves around more words. There are different tests we can use to find out whether a sequence is a constituent or not 1. Pronominalization/Substitution substitution of a constituent by a pronoun/pro-form/pro-phrase; if you can substitute a string by a proform it is likely to be a constituent Example: The dog ate some bones: → It ate them. → The cat did so, too. 2. Movement placing a constituent in another position; if a string of words can together be moved to another sentential position it is likely to be a constituent, this can happen by passivisation for example Example: The dog ate some bones. → It was some boned that the dog ate. → Some bones were eaten by the dog. 8 © Bernadette Anna on STUDYDRIVE 3. Coordination Coordinating a constituent with a “mirroring“ constituent of the same kind by a coordinating conjunction; if we can coordinate a constituent with a similar constituent by ‘and‘, itis likely that it is a constituent Example: → The dog ate some bones and some cookies. → The dog ate some bones and drank some water. → The dog chased the cat through the kitchen and into the garden. 4. Gapping creating a tag question which leaves a gap for the constituent Example: → The dog has eaten all the bones, hasn‘t it_________? → The dog will eat all the bones, but the cat won ‘t_____. 5. Sentence Fragments/Question tests using constituents to answer a formulated question; if a sentence fragment is the answer to a formed question, it is likely to be a constituent Example: → Who has eaten all the bones? The dog. → What has the dog eaten? All the bones. → What did the dog do? Eat all the bones. → Where did the dog chase the cat? In the garden. Sometimes not all tests work, this is normal, and does not mean a sequence of words is not a constituent. We have to try more than one test! Again, you can find this in my summary, the books explain it quite well! 9 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Syntax 2 Ass. Prof. Dr. Igor Yanovich I. Features of Grammar 1) Hierarchy There is a hierarchy of constituents at different layers: There are constituents in constituents = nesting Smaller constituents are embedded into larger ones. Those layers are what we understand as hierarchies: Order matters for meaning This hierarchy can be seen in both bracketed formats and tree diagrams. There is hierarchy in how words are put together. The constituent tests help us determine the hierarchical structure. Examples can be found on the slides 2) Recursivity … is the process or the result of repeating items in a self-similar way … property of allowing recursion We can embed a nearly infinite number of NPs in another one! In Mathematics, a self-similar object is exactly or approximately similar to a part of itself Examples can be found on the slides 3) Ambiguity … human grammars allow ambiguity There can be two different interpretations of one sentence The soldiers saw the men with the binoculars. (Without context we do not know who has the binoculars) We can represent this different interpretation with both brackets and tree diagrams. Due to the hierarchy this is important. ON THE SLIDES YOU CAN FIND A DETAILED EXAMPLE AND A CONSTITUENCY TEST FOR IT! II. Syntactic form vs. syntactic function Syntactic form - Defined by semantic, morphological and syntactic criteria Word classes (noun, verb…) Phrases (NP, VP…) The internal property of a constituent 1 Syntactic function - The role of the element in a grammatical context Is the external role of the constituents Subject, Predicate, Adjunct… SUBJECT - Most reliable formal properties (in English) HE talks a lot Word order (in English) THE STUDENT corrected the teacher (subject precedes verb) Often realized by NPs (can also be clauses and PPs) PREDICATE - My little sister [likes books about medieveal knights] = predicate (traditional – everything but the subjects) My little sister [likes] … only like is the predicator COMPLEMENT = NON-SUBJECT ARGUMENT A constituent that cannot be left out. Types: - - - - - Direct objects My friend chases [me]. Oblique form following the verb, mostly realized by NPs or clauses Indirect objects My friend gave [me] a book. Oblique form, between verb and DO, mostly realized by NPs or PP Subject complements … complement about the subject … provides information about it … mostly realized by NPS or AdjPs … follows a copular verb Object complements … follows a direct object … provides information about it … mostly realized by NPs or AdjPs Prepositional object … follows verb or direct object … realized by PPs BUT not every PP is a prepositional object (and thus an argument), many PPs are adjuncts We can distinguish in a semantic sense: The place to somebody returning is a necessary component, we need to know the place, that’s what makes PPs an argument 2 ADJUNCTS … advervials (on the VP level) and modifiers … can be emitted syntactically … provide additional information … general term for all non-obligatory elements Can be AdvP, AdjP, PP, clause, NP… Modifiers: for example, places AVAILABLE, EXTREMELY boring, my LITTLE sister Adverbial: for example, I met him LAST WEEK, I left BECAUSE I WAS ANGRY, she ALWAYS complains ADJUNCT OR PREPOSTIONAL OBJECT - An adjcunt provides additional information, but is not necessary to complete the clause A prepositional object is an argument, and thus obligatory. It fills a semantic role. I [put [the book] [on the table]] prep. Object I noticed [the book [on the table]] adjunct to NP I [[arranged [the books]] [on the table]]. Adjunct to VP WHY? - Because the situation of putting features the place where something is put (Goal) Describing some books does not require specification (but they are somewhere) The situation of arranging something is complete without speaking about the place No One-to-One relation - One form may have many functions One function may be expressed by different forms Examples can be found on the slides NPS have particularly many functions they can take: - Subject Direct Object Indirect Object Subject Complement Object Complement Adjunct Different forms can be a subject: - NP Clause 3 - PP Adjunct on the VP an clausal level can be - AdvP PP NP Clause GRAFIK aus Plag et al. III. Complementation patterns The verb is the most powerful element in a clause, as they can express a variety of concepts, it can express many different grammatical concepts by inflectional morphology or periphrastic constructions. Complementation patterns of verbs: - - - - - Intransitive verbs (laugh, snore) No complements but a Subject The girl cried. The leaves are falling. Monotransitive verbs (buy, build) One complement (S V Od) The dog ate the bone. John bought a book. Ditransitive verbs (give, donate) Two complements (S V Oi Od/ S V Od Oi) The girl gave the dog the bone. My brother sent me an email. / My brother sent the email to me. PP-complement verbs (venture, lie) = complex transitive words a. Prepositional objects only (S V Op) He ventured into the deserted building. They longed for a rest. b. Direct Object and prepositional object (S V Od Op) He put the book on the table The dog knocked the vase off the table Copular verbs (be, become) … subject complement (S V Cs) The dog is in the garden. Alice was a little girl Sentences with object complement (S V Od Co) Copular verb can be seen as implied between Od and Co I consider him a fool (I think that he is a fool) He made me angry (He did something → I am angry) 4 Allice called Humpty Dumpty a liar The presence of an Adjunct does not change these complementation patterns. On the slide (37) we can find common sentence patterns! … differences in complementation patterns and obligatory syntactic arguments. For example, within this term we count the number of objects, not the overall arguments, monotransitive verbs need one object and a subject. Transitivity is the property of having direct objects. 5 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Typology & Language Change 1 Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Christiane Dalton-Puffer I. Language Typology TYPOLOGY = “a classification according to general type, especially in archaeology, psychology, or the social sciences” Also, a term used in other sciences, such as archeology… it is not an only linguistic term LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY = The study and classification of languages according to their structural and functional features → typology ≠ etymology In linguistics, by looking at these features we can categorize languages (not according to their origin) → the classification of languages or components of languages based on shared formal characteristics. Some things can be found in all languages: linguistic universals Typology involves: - examining formal features of a language cross-linguistic comparison classification of languages or components of languages GOAL = to identify cross-linguistic patterns and correlations between these patterns HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT Early Typologists: Two German philologists: • • Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829) Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) - Colonialism/Imperialism: interest in ‘exotic’ languages, there was an interest in describing “different” languages, however, they looked at them through the lens of their own language (also connected to Latin) Language has a soul/an essence and influences your thinking Nationalist perspective: some languages are better than others Languages close to the Latin system are “superior” - 1 Morphological classification: • • • affixal (agglutinating) inflectional (fusional) no structure languages (analytic/isolating) Joseph Greenburg (1915-2001) • • • • • founding father of Modern Typology He became famous for his work on linguistic universals (1963) "Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements" > based on 30 languages, 45 features Neutral description and comparison of different languages No language is better than another > just different (in morphosyntax) He considered no language superior or inferior Languages can be classified on the basis of their: • Morphology o analytic (isolating) languages ▪ one word =one morpheme ▪ one word → one meaning ▪ semantically transparent for example: Mandarin, Papiamentu, (English is “pretty isolating” today) o synthetic languages non-fusional (agglutinating) ▪ poly-morpheme words ▪ one morpheme → one meaning ▪ semantically transparent for example: Turkish, Quechua, Basque fusional or inflectional ▪ ▪ ▪ poly-morphemic words one morpheme  more than one meaning semantically non-transparent for example: Latin, Spanish, Russian Most languages are usually mixed! ENGLISH: o o mostly analytic (isolating), a little synthetic (inflections, fusional) English has become more analytical over time: ▪ Old English: cases & inflectional endings (noun, verb, adjective) 2 ▪ • Largely lost in Middle English; increase in the use of prepositions, auxiliaries, modal verbs Word order o Isolating (analytic) languages ▪ no inflection ▪ word order important (strict) ENGLISH: The dog bit the cat. S–V–O The cat bit the dog. S–V–O o Synthetic languages: ▪ rely on inflections ▪ word order free(r): GERMAN: Der Hund biss die Katze S–V–O Die Katze biss der Hund O–V–S OLD ENGLISH: Se hlāford bindeþ þone cnapan S – V – O the Lord-NOM binds the servant-ACC Þone cnapan bindeþ se hlāford (O V S) Se hlāford þone cnapan bindeþ (S O V) MAJOR SVO: e.g. English, SOV: e.g. Japanese, Turkish 40-45% MINOR VSO: Welsh, Tagalog, VOS: Malagasy, OVS: Amazonian languages <1% o o Indonesian TYPES 35-40% Hebrew Tzotsil TYPES 10-15% 3-5% Head initial languages ▪ i.e. head comes first in phrase (followed by specifiers, complements or adjuncts) ▪ e.g. NP: N A Det (e.g. meal good the, Essen gutes das) Head final languages ▪ i.e. head comes last in phrase (preceded by Figure 1 from the slides of the prof specifiers, complements or adjuncts) ▪ e.g. NP: Det A N (the good meal, das gute Essen, ein gutes Essen 3 Most languages have a mixed system Clause level: quite strict S V O order (main and subordinate clauses) ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ I like him You know that I like him I helped him because I like him EXCEPT: exception: fronting - HIM I don‘t like (O S V) - Particularly interesting are the early cases. (Cs V S) ▪ NP, AP: mixed (head final or head initial) - NP: expensive books – books yellow with age - AP: extremely cheap – fond of chocolate - AdvP: very independently – independently from his parents PP, VP: head initial - PP: in the garden, during the lecture - VP: bought books, ate a bone ▪ We differentiate between: o o clause level phrase level LINGUISTIC UNIVERSALS Greenberg's reputation rests partly on his contributions to synchronic linguistics and the quest to identify linguistic universals. During the late 1950s, Greenberg began to examine languages covering a wide geographic and genetic distribution. He located a number of interesting potential universals as well as many strong cross-linguistic tendencies. In particular, Greenberg conceptualized the idea of "implicational universal", which has the form, "if a language has structure X, then it must also have structure Y". There is both!! Types of universals: ▪ absolute vs. non-absolute (probabilistic) Absolute = hold true of all languages, all languages have feature X o All languages have consonants and vowels o All languages make a distinction between nouns and verbs o All languages have a way to form questions Non absolute = most languages have feature X, high probability of X; admit exceptions o Most languages have adjectives 4 o ▪ Languages usually employ rising intonation to signal a yes or no question implicational vs. non-implicational Implicational = given feature X in language, also feature Y is found o If language has inflection, it always has derivation o With overwhelming more than chance frequency, languages with dominant VSO have the adjective after the noun Non-Implicational II. Introduction to diachronic linguistics “Change is inevitable Robert C. Gallagher - except from a vending machine.” “All things move, and nothing remains still […] you cannot step twice into the same stream.” Heraclitus quoted by Socrates in Plato’s Cratylus HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS • • • • History of particular languages based on written evidence, evidence of spoken language is very young and difficult Comparative reconstruction of ancestor languages (no written evidence) Study of variation (dialectal, social etc...) → ongoing change Universal mechanisms, tendencies, reasons for change… Why study linguistic change? • • • • • • Synchronic systems are not systematic, static and homogenous → consequence of historical processes Irregularities in a language (odd-man-out; exceptions to the rule) are often relics of older language stages, when the system was different Linguistic forms are often inexplicable in synchronic terms awareness for variation/change helps to succeed in society (Register, Style, Formality,...) Interesting language-internal and external reasons why language changes Interesting different universal mechanisms and phenomena (e.g. semantic bleaching, grammaticalization, metaphorical extension, subjectification) Observable Change in Language Most obvious change is an addition in LEXICON For example: binge-watch, Yolo, FoMo, LoL, selfie, dadbod, to ghost, to cloud sth, Obamacare, humblebrag, thruthiness, to vape, unfriend, hashtag, App, Scooping technician, columbusing, conscious uncoupling, catfish, cronut, dancelexia, bro code, bling bling... 5 Changes can happen in all subcategories! Change in form meaning/ function - change in Example 1: food ME : fode /o:/ ➔ ModE: food /u:/ Example 2: Figure 2 from the slides of the prof Haus MHD: mîn hûs ➔ NHD: mein /ai/ Haus /au/ Example 3: goodbye ME: God be with ye ➔ ModE: goodbye Example 4: geil MHD ‚reichhaltig‘ ➔ NHD ‚lüstern‘ /‘super‘, ÖD ‚reichhaltig, fett‘(of food) Example 5: nice Latin nescius ‚not knowing‘ / ‚foolish‘ Figure 3 from the slides of the prof ➔ ModE: ‚delightful‘ Example 6: silly OE gesælig/selig ‚happy‘ ➔ ModE: ‚stupid Recent Morpho-Syntactic changes o o o o o o o (*) I am loving it/ I‘m hating this/*I‘m liking it (*) Come quick/ Ask nice * He love me  (*) I didn‘t do it yet (*) He kinda lost it, she is sorta nice (*) I‘m gonna be there * Two oxes dived in the pond. ...etc... Current (synchronic) linguistic variation is potential long-term change in the making!!! 6 Language is an evolutionary ‘Complex Adaptive System’ Diachronic perspective • • • • New variant (mutation) Successful spread (replication) Competition between variants Layering (co-existence) or loss Model: Linguistic Change Figure 4 from the slides of the prof Figure 5 from the slides of the prof This is the same idea like the “duck” example, just more technical. We start off with one realization and then a different meaning pops up, until one major meaning spreads and pushes out the original meaning. Gradual Change: The S-Curve Looking at it from a different angle we see that there is a temporal dynamic in language change, it starts of small, only few changed items, then it spreads. This is a different perspective of the two earlier graphics! However, no change ever reaches 100%. Figure 6 from the slides of the prof. Why and how? • Agreement: gradual diffusion (historical continuum) vs. abruptness (in the individual speaker) actuation/ innovation → variation → spread/ gradual diffusion → implementation → standardization/codification 7 • Disagreement: models of change (adult vs. child), when does this change happen? HOW CAN LANGUAGE CHANGE TAKE PLACE 1st scenario: Language Change takes place during the acquisition process of the child ➔ Language change happens from generations to generation For example: • • • • Parent grammar (competence): knowledge/rule [Hamburg+er] Parent output (performance): In Hamburg, I want to eat a Figure 7 from the slides of the prof Hamburger. Child grammar (competence) reanalysis: [Ham + burger] Child output (performance): I don’t want a hamburger but a cheeseburger. I want a burger. For example: • • • • Parent grammar (competence): knowledge/rule about reference to future with going to + base Parent output (performance): I am going to meet Sarah/ I’m gonna meet Sarah Child grammar (competence) reanalysis: gonna + base/ gonna + to + base Child output (performance): I’m gonna meet Sarah Or even *I’m gonna to meet Sarah 2nd Scenario: variation with adult speakers One person starts and uses the term in different social groups. More and more people adopt the innovation and it spread among all language speakers. Relates to the S-Curve Figure 8 from the slides of the prof 8 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Typology & Language Change 2 Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Christiane Dalton-Puffer Stages of English Periodisation of English OLD ENGLISH (OE): c. 500 – 1100 MIDDLE ENGLISH (ME): Early Middle English (eME): Late Middle English (lME): c. 1150 – 1500 c. 1100 – 1300 c. 1300 – 1500 MODERN ENGLISH (ModE): Early Modern English (EME): Late Modern English (LME): Present Day English (PDE) c. 1500 – 1700 c. 1700 – 1900 c. 1900 – today Prehistory of English In the course of history English was always influenced by many different languages. Through processes, like colonization, English now mostly influences other languages. Graphics from the slides of the prof, which can be found on moodle! 1 Celts GB had been populated for at least 50.000 years, Celtic tribes arrived between 1000 and 6000 BC. Celtic influence on the English language very small, as the Celts were defeated and pushed back to the north of Great Britain when the Romans invaded and afterwards the Germanic tribes. Mostly place names of Celtic origin (connected with hills and rivers). Romans • • • • • • The Romans arrived in Britain 55 BC under Julius Caesar permanent settlement only 100 years later under emperor Claudius (43 AD) Latin became the official language during Roman rule Roman legions withdrew in 410 AD quite some time before the Germanic tribes arrived (the Roman empire was attacked by the Huns, forces needed in the East) the Latin influence on English back then is small > words like OE ceaster from castra ‘camp’ Later enormous influence from Latin when Christianization of Britain started by Roman missionaries in the year 597. Comparison GERMAN OLD ENGLISH (990) Vater unser im Himmel, geheiligt werde dein Name. Dein Reich komme. Dein Wille geschehe, wie im Himmel, so auf Erden. Unser tägliches Brot gib uns heute, und vergib uns unsere Schuld, wie auch wir vergeben unseren Schuldigern. Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung, sondern erlöse uns von dem Bösen. Fæder ūre þū þe eart on heofonum Sī þīn nama gehālgod tō becume þīn rīce gewurþe ðīn willa on eorðan swā swā on heofonum. urne gedæghwamlīcan hlāf syle ūs tōdæg and forgyf ūs ūre gyltas swā swā wē forgyfað ūrum gyltendum and ne gelǣd þū ūs on costnunge ac alȳs ūs of yfele sōþlice MIDDLE ENGLISH (1389) EARLY MODERN ENGLISH (1688) Our fadir that art in heuenes, halwid be thi name; Thi kingdom cumme to; be thi wille don as in heuen and in earthe; giv to vs this day our breed ouer other substaunce; and forgeue to vs oure dettis, as we forgeue to oure dettours; and leede us nat in to temptacioun, but delyuere vs fro yuel. Our father which art in heauen, hallowed be thy name Thy kingdome come. Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heauen. Giue vs this day our daily bread. And forgiue vs our debts, as we forgiue our debters. And lead vs not into temptation, but deliuer vs from euill. PRESENT DAY (1988) Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. 2 Old English seems surprisingly similar to German! Old English (500-1100) ➔ Germanic tribes arrive (mostly from Northern German, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands): 1. Angles 2. Saxons 3. Jutes 4. Frisians • • • • • Roman occupation ends 410 Gradual settlement by Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes & Frisians) from c. 440 until 6th century the Venerable monk Bede (8th c.): writes about the first big attack in 449 Celtic population enslaved or pushed to margins (Wales, Abbildung 1 from the slides of the prof. Cornwall, Scotland) Engla lond = land of the Angles > England Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy • • 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Development from tribal organisation to kingdom(s) cf. cyning ‘king’; orig. ‘leader of the people’, prob. related to cynn ‘family, race, kin’ Northumbria (dominant 7th c.) Mercia (dominant 8th c.) East Anglia Essex Wessex (dominant 9th c.) Sussex Kent Three main dialects: West–Saxon, Kentish, Anglian (Mercian/ Northumbrian) Viking Invasion Abbildung 2 from the slides of the prof 3 Phases: 1) c. 790–c. 850: Viking raids 793 Lindisfarne monastery; 794 Jarrow monastery 3 2) 865–896: Invasion and settlement York captured by Vikings (866); Battle of Edington (878) & establishment of Danelaw (Vikings were called ‘the Danes’) 3) 980–1035: Second invasion and Cnut’s kingship Æthelred the Unready starts paying Danegeld (i.e. protection money) following Battle of Maldon (991); Cnut the Great of Denmark rules as King of England (10161035) LITERATURE Prose (uncommonly for that early century but still often written in this language): • E.g. The Abott Aelfric wrote Catholic Homilies Poetry (most dominant genre): • • • Beowulf: Heroic poem about Beowulf who fights the monster Grendel and his mother The Battle of Maldon (historical poems) The Dream of the Rood (religious poems)… Translations: • King Alfred’s translation of Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, Boethius’ De consulatione Philosophiae, Gregory’s Cura Pastoralis Annals: • E.g. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Law texts • E.g. Laws of Ine, Laws of Alfred LINGUISTIC SYSTEMS Based on Latin alphabet (cf. monastic culture) Special characters (old runes) for sounds that Latin did not have /æ/ < æ > ‘ash’ /θ/ [ð, θ] < ð > ‘eth’, < þ > ‘thorn’ /w/ < ƿ > ‘wynn’ Some notes on pronunciation: < c > [k] or [ʧ] cæg vs. ceosan < g > [g], [ɣ] or [j] gat vs. maga vs. geard < cg > [ʤ] brycg < sc > [ʃ] fisc 4 Very variable (dialectal and idiolectal differences) During 10th and 11th centuries, late West Saxon became widely used as an orthographic model (‘proto-standard’); monastic centre: Winchester; influential Abbildung 3 table from the slides of the prof. writers: Æthelwold, Ælfric Morphology from the slides of the prof. Bigger inflectional system, including gender, cases, articles. More like German today. The regular plural in Present English derives from this paradigm of strong nouns in the plural nominative. In OE we can also look at the verbs, and can see that the regular -ed past marker derived from OE. The red forms of the personal pronouns disappeared completely. What’s funny too, is that eower, eow, eow resemble the German ‘euer’ a lot. Syntax Fairly flexible word order due to morphological case marking and subject–verb agreement, but some preferences existed (cf. Singh, History of English, 88–89) þa þæt onfundon When that discovered ða Romani, þa noldon hi faron the Romans then would not they cross ofer þone ford. over that ford. Vocabulary Loanwords 5 Celtic (very few) - brocc ‘badger’, bratt ‘cloak’; but Celtic-derived place names (Kent, London, Thames, …) Latin - Via West Germanic: butere ‘butter’ cyse ‘cheese’, stræt ‘street’ Roman layer, partly via Celts: candel ‘candle’, mynster ‘monastery’, pere ‘pear’ After Christianisation: altar, mæsse ‘mass’, martyr, devil Scandinavian (fairly many, including core vocabulary) - Attested in OE: feolaga ‘fellow’, hyttan ‘to hit’ lagu ‘law’, tacan ‘to take’, scinn ‘skin’ Attested from early ME: sister, want; pronouns they, their, them Middle English External English PHASE 1 NORMAN ENGLAND (1100-1300) • • • • • • • • • • Battle of Hastings in 1066: Norman duke William the Conqueror wins over Anglo Saxon king Harold Godwinson and becomes king of England Normans become the ruling class Introduction of Feudal System: In return for services and allegiance, king (lord) allocated land to barons (vassals), who sublet it to lower nobility Establishment of a strict social hierarchy: Anglo-Norman speaking king and nobility at top Fortifications (stone fortresses and motte-and-baily castles) and cathedrals Court, feudal lords, ministers and clerics used (Anglo Norman) French as language of polite discourse, law and literature (=prestige language) Latin remained the language of the Church and replaced West Saxon OE as language of official documents and chronicles French culture (chivalric values, romance literature) was highly influential English dialects continued to be spoken by the general population; but no written evidence before c. 1150 and little before c. 1300 Multilingual country PHASE 2 THE RETURN OF ENGLISH (1300-1500) • • • • • • Phase of prosperity in England (population at 4 million people) Weakening of political ties between England and France: Loss of Normandy (1214), Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) Strengthening of internal socio-political ties (mutual dependence) between feudal lords, English gentry and peasants (Magna Carta 1215, Provisions of Oxford 1258) Black Death (bubonic plague) 1348-1350 Famines and succession of bad harvests Cattle and sheep disease 6 • • • • • • • • 30%-60% of the population died Edward the III starts the Hundred Years War (1337- 1453) Effect of it all: the peasants in the countryside survived more than the city population → new self-consciousness and they then moved to the cities to look for work (Peasants’ Revolt 1381) Anglo-Norman French declined in prestige New Sense of ‘Englishness’ Re-emergence of English as language for standard functions (Statute of Pleading 1362) and literature (Chaucer; Langland Piers Plowman; Gower Confessio Amantis) Statute of Pleading (1362): all lawsuits in English By 1489 parliament had stopped to use (Anglo)-French Literature Most surviving texts are in verse The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer, c. 1342- 1400) - - the most widely read Middle English text is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return. Stories of a miller, friar, merchant, wife, clerk,… Other texts • • • • • • Ormulum (c.1200) – biblical verse The Owl and the Nightingale (early 1200) – Poem Layamon’s Brut (history of Britain) Langland’s Piers Plowman - allegorical poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – (late 14th cent.) romantic poem Also many legal and medical documents, sermons and letters.. Linguistic system OE spelling conventions were gradually replaced by (‘Frenchified’) equivalents OE <æ> /æ/ => ME OE /uː/ => ME OE <ð/þ> [ð, θ] => ME OE /kw/ => ME OE <ƿ> /w/ => ME OE /hw/ => ME 7 Morphology Phonological reduction of inflections to schwa => loss of inflections & levelling We have to look at the pronunciation to explain the change and loss of inflections Pronouns often came from Scandinavian language contact Graphics and tables from the slides of the prof. SYNTAX Still fairly flexible word order, but due to loss of morphological case marking SVO became increasingly more frequent VOCABULARY Middle English vocabulary was highly mixed (Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Scandinavian, French) Assumption that 80 % of Anglo-Saxon was substituted with Anglo-Norman, today 30%-40% of the English word stock derives from French French Loanwords Anglo-Norman (before 1250): castle, justice, prison, army, court, prince, duke, baron, pork, beef, mutton, veal Parisian French (after 1250): country, language, usage; fashion, boot, curtain, blanket; leisure, dance, story; surgeon, plague, ointment, physician 8 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Typology & Language Change 3 Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Christiane Dalton-Puffer Early Modern English 1500-1700 External History - Introduction of the printing press (Caxton’s Printing Press 1476) English as the language of the British Isles Emergence of England as a nation state with centralized administration (the concept only arose around that time, usually at that time it wasn’t centered) Catholic church loses its power → English reformation (King James Bible 1611) Important people: Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, James I A period of linguistic standardization 1. 2. 3. 4. Selection (often accidental, e.g., prestige variety, printed variety) Acceptance (socio-linguistically motivated) Elaboration (“Ausbau” of vocabulary, syntax, style) Codification (dictionnaires, grammars, style, guides) London variety of the South-East Midlands became the standard - Large-scale reception and translation of classical works in Latin and Greek during the English-Renaissance English colonization of the Americas (Jamestown 1607, Plymouth 1620, Barbados 1627, New York 1664, Slave Trade 1660) Effects of imperialism and colonialization - English spreading even more (Indian English, Australian English) Many L1 and L2 varieties English became the fastest changing language in the world Nowadays most spoken language (L1, L2, L3 combined) English as a lingua franca Literature William Shakespeare (1564-1616) For example, Romeo and Juliet (1597) LADY CAPULET [to NURSE]: Where is my daughter? Call her forth to me. JULIET: Madam, I am here. What is your will? LADY CAPULET: Nurse, thou know'st my daughter's of a pretty age. NURSE: Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour. [to JULIET:] Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nursed: If I might live to see thee married once, I have my wish. 1 LADY CAPULET: Nurse, I pray thee, hold thy peace. [to JULIET:] Tell me, daughter Juliet, how stands your disposition to be married? Linguistic System - - - Compare the German Sie/Du distinction The distinction between thou/thee and ye/you became increasingly less a matter of number but became influenced by social dynamics of interaction 2 social factors influence speaker choice: Familiarity & Status Thou forms came to be used as a term to address social inferiors, you was used if you talked to social superiors Then commonality became an issue: if you were emotionally or socially close/acquainted speakers used thou, if you were distant and respectful, they used you Through time it more and more became less a matter of number but a matter of politness Great Vowel Shift - The consonant system is for the most part identical with Figure 1 From the slides Modern English - A few minor changes in pronunciation, but the - biggest fundamental phonological change in the history of English vowel pronunciation - The vowel system changed completely: the GVS started in the 14th century and affect all long vowels of Middle English - The so-called long vowels were either raised or diphthongized, i.e. they were chained into a combination of two vowel sounds pronounced together - Change was a chain reaction ➔ /fo:d/ > /fu:d/ but food KING CHARLES BIBLE ➔ /tʃi:ld/ > /tʃaild/ child AD 1611 ➔ /na:me/ > /neim/ name Our father which art in heauen, A summary of all time periods can be found in the hallowed be thy name book, my summary of the literature and on the lecture Thy kingdome come. slides from today! Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heauen. Giue vs this day our daily bread. Semantic Change And forgiue vs our debts, as we forgiue our debters. Semantic Meaning Shifts And lead vs not into temptation, 1. Widening (extension, broadening) but deliuer vs from euill. The meaning of word widens the range of meanings of a word increases so that the word can be used in more contexts Example: Dog: {specific breed of a dog} → {all breeds of dogs} 2 Salary: Latin salarium {salt that soldiers were played with} → PDE salary {wages fr everybody} Bird: {young bird} → {all birds} 2. Narrowing (specialization, restriction) The meaning of a word narrows, range of meaning(s) decrease so that the word can be used appropriately in fewer contexts Example: Fowl: OE fugal: {all birds} → PDE fowl {fowl} Girl: {child or person of either sex} → {female} Starve: OE steorfan {die} → {die from hunger} 3. Amelioration (elevation) The sense of a word takes on a more positive evaluation: increasingly positive value judgement Example: Pretty: OE praettig {sly} → PDE {beautiful} 4. Pejoration (degeneration) The sense of a word takes on a less positive, more negative evaluation Example: Spinster: {a woman who spins} → {grumpy old unmarried lady} Silly: OE/ME saelig {happy, innocent} → PDE {stupid} Semantic bleaching Very often in lexical change, some aspect of word’s meaning bleaches out in time or fades away Example: Gay: {jolly, happy} → {homosexual} → {nerdy, strange} Going to Future → meaning of ‘walking/movement’ has bleached German: ur- (zeitlicher Aspekt ging verloren) Metaphorization A word/phrase with a rather ‘concrete’ meaning is in time used to express more ‘abstract’, ‘metaphorical’ ideas A metaphor involves the understanding of experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another kind of thing Example: - I was totally pissed/soaked → I was drunk He is a real stud! → He is attractive Please chill! → Calm Down You are my sunshine! → I like you 3 Syntactic Change Grammaticalization - A type of morphosyntactic change ” The increase of the range of a morpheme advancing from a lexical to a grammatical or from a less grammatical to a more grammatical status”. (Kurylowicz 1965: 2) - For example, words representing lexical categories like Noun, Verb or Adjective change and become part of grammatical categories like, e.g. prepositions or auxiliaries, which can even further be reduced to affixes. In other words, words with full lexical content turn into form words which mark a certain construction. Not only lexical elements can undergo grammaticalization, but grammatical elements too can become even more grammatical. EXAMPLE: • • • • noun → preposition (back) full verbs → auxiliary (OE cunnian (to know, experience) → ModE. Can (können) noun → adverbs (while (noun) → while (temporal adverb) → while (contrast) verbs of movement → future markers (going-to-future) Characteristic features of grammaticalization Bleaching/Attribution/Erosion ➔ In the semantic realm, lexical-referential meaning develops into procedural, relational, systematic-grammatical meaning. The process of attrition leads to fewer semantic features of an item. The weight or substance of a lexical item is reduced through phonetic and semantic erosion. Loss of Independence ➔ Formally, the element loses its syntactic independence and its morphological distinctiveness. Coalescence/Bondedness ➔ The more grammaticalized a linguistic element is, the more its bondedness increases (e.g. it may fuse with other elements) → gonna Obligatorification/Fixation ➔ the grammaticalizing element becomes fixed in position ➔ the element becomes increasingly obligatory Analogical Change • One of the most important mechanisms/ types in linguistic change which can be found on all levels (borrowing, reanalysis,…) 4 • • • “historical process which projects a generalization from one set of expression to another” (International Encyclopedia of Linguistics 2003: 77) “a mechanism of change: the earlier structure is restructured to match an existing one,” (Traugott & Trousdale 2010: 36). Proportional (4 part) analogy a: b = c: x Example. → ride: rode = dive: dove (orig. past tense of dive was dived, but it changed under analogy with verbs like write: wrote, strive: strove) → fox: foxes = cactus: cactuses (instead of orig. cacti, a type of regularization) Figure 3 from the lecture slides Figure 2 from the lecture slides The prof. did not talk about the two boxes → they are only on the slides!! Interesting type of Analogy is Overgeneralization in FLA and SLA: - ox: oxes go – goed,… Hypercorrection (overcorrection): An attempt to change a less prestigious form to make it conform with how it would be pronounced in a more prestigious variety sometimes results in overcorrection. Southern US: Umbrella → umbrellow, pillar → pillow (due to fellow>fella) 5 Reasons for Language Change Figure 4 from the slides of the prof When looking at concrete changes historical linguists try to come up with concrete reasons for language change fitting to the change. Examples for internal tendencies: Ease of effort/ ease of articulation (psychological motivation) • • • • Laziness/ anatomical, physiological and psychological make – up influence linguistic developments Examples for ease of effort: phonetic erosion, monophthongisation, Loss of inflections at the end of words, ommision, assimilation ▪ Wha(t) studpidity! Ho(t) water (t-dropping) ▪ walkin(g) ▪ Handbag > hambag Difficulty to coordinate a number of articulatory movements or perceptual problems Analogical thinking/Economy (cognitive motivation) • Striving for economy/symmetry by eliminating the odd man out / simplification ▪ Regularizing irregular forms, changes is paradigms QUESTION ABOUT THAT IN THE FIRST EXAM! 6