General Concepts
diachronic: variation in language viewed from historical perspective of change through time
-> from OE to ME, ME to Modern English
synchronic: variation within a language in different places + among different groups at the
same time
-> describes language rules at a certain point of time
e.g. school grammar takes synchronic + prescriptive approach
comparison of Cockney and Standard English
Saussure:
Langue: - system of arbitrary signs which are capable of carrying + expressing meaning
- the totality of one language: rules + words stored in the speaker's mind
Parole: - concrete act of speaking
- language in use in social context at particular time + space
- opposed to langue
Langage: - faculty of speech of humans due to evolution, the simple ability to talk to each other
langage is made up by langue + parole
Chomsky:
competence: - language knowledge + ability (language system) which is stored in the speaker's mind
(~ Saussure's langue)
- linguistic knowledge – which just covers knowledge of elements + rules of
combining them, e.g knowledge of grammatical language use
performance:= language actually used in everyday life
- poorer version of language system stored in speaker's mind (competence)
-> people produce mistakes, pauses, hesitations, incomplete utterances
-> Chomsky's theory views language as cognitive ability of an individual speaker
-> Saussure defines language as a system of signs, that is common to society + speakers draw upon
descriptive: language is described as neutrally as possible -> without a judgement
-> criterion of scientificity for linguistics
prescriptive: rules about what is correct + incorrect, what should be done
Saussure:
sign: discrete unit of meaning, sth that stands for sth else
includes words, images, gestures, scents, tastes, textures, sounds
signifier (significant): material component, "shape" of a word, phonic component, appearance
in the real world
signified (signifié): ideational component, concept or object that appears in our minds when
we hear or read the signifier
types of signs:
- iconic sign: signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified
e.g. portrait, cartoon, onomatopoeia (cuckoo)
- indexical sign: relation to the signified not arbitrary but directly connected (physically or
causally)
causality: smoke – there must be a fire somewhere
contiguity: your shoes interpreted as an indexical sign of you/your presence
- symbolic sign: arbitrary relationship between signified + signifier → purely conventional
→ relationship must be learnt e.g. numbers, language, traffic lights
-> arbitrary signs used by entities that have consciousness + intentions -> for
communication only, not for signalling
code: set of conventions currently in use to communicate meaning, concerning whole sign systems
symbolic signs are coded -> association established by convention
e.g. red for danger
arbitrariness: - relation between signifier + signified is arbitrary → no natural connection between
shape + concept
- without knowing conventions or the code linking form + meaning, we would not be
able to understand such signs
2 Historical & Comparative Linguistics
etymology: study of the origin + history of words
from Greek étymon („original form“) + logia („study of“)
cognates: words that are related in origin/descend from the same ancestral root
-> similar words in different languages
e.g. English father is a cognate of Vater in German
3 types of linguistic change:
1. phonological change: processes of language change that affect pronunciation (phonetic) + sound
system structures (phonological)
- assimilation, dissimilation, neutralization, deletion, insertion
- replacement of one speech sound (phonetic feature) by another
- complete loss of the affected sound
- introduction of a new sound in a place where there was none before
→ phonological change alters the number or distribution of phonemes in a language
sound changes: velar softening – softening of velar /k/ to [s] before long + short /I/
electricity
sound shifts: e.g. Great Vowel Shift – massive sound change from 15th to 18th ct
long vowels shifted upwards
→ vowels produced in a place higher up in the mouth
→ the two highest long vowels became diphthongs
e.g. vowel in mouse was [uː] (similar to modern moose)
2. grammatical change: e.g. regularization of irregular past tense forms
3. semantic change: change of word usage: modern meaning sometimes radically different from
original usage
widening: extension/broadening of the meaning of a word → specific brand names being used for
the general product (Tempo)
narrowing: specialisation, word's meaning becomes less general
skyline: formerly any horizon, now only for horizon decorated by skyscrapers
metaphoric shift: based on similarity of thing
broadcast: to cast out seeds → now: transmission of video signals
metonymy shift: based on nearness in space or contiguity between concepts
animal horn → musical instrument
pejoration: downgrading of a word meaning (opposite: amelioration)
silly: happy/blissful in OE → Modern English: foolish
language types & language families
synthetic: bound morphemes, grammatical relationships of words expressed through inflections that
combine long strings of bound forms into single words
→ several concepts are put together into one word, e.g. Latin, OE
analytical languages: auxiliary words indicate grammatical relationship (→ total or partial exclusion
of inflections), e.g. Modern English
→ separate meanings are expressed by words that can be used in isolation
Indo-European languages:
2 branches: Centum group: Hellenic, Italic, Germanic + Celtic branches
Satem languages: Indian, Iranian, Armenian, Balto-Slavic + Albanian
→ division is result of a sound change in eastern section of Indo-European speech community
Centum languages:
Germanic languages: English German, Dutch, Flemish, Danish, Swedish + Norwegian
similar grammatical structure + common words, mostly from Latin
Romance languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, Occitan
Satem languages:
Slavic languages: Eastern Europe + Balkan region, Central Europe, northern part of Asia
e.g. Russian, Slovinian
West Germanic: largest branch → German, English, Dutch, Afrikaans, Frisian languages, Yiddish
North Germanic: Scandinavian languages
East Germanic: only one is Gothic
Old English - OE
700AD (first written documents preserved) until 11th ct (1066: Battle of Hastings)
-> afterwards French official language in England for ~300 years → massive changes in language
731: Monk Beda Venerabilis completes his church history of the English people
787: First attacks by Vikings/Danes
878: King Alfred the Great defeats the Viking Army (Vikings settle in Danelaw)
1000: Beowulf manuscript is produced (oldest surviving epic poem in a Germanic language)
1066: Battle of Hastings, Duke William of Normandy conquers Britain → end of OE period
Features:
- between mid 5th ct - 12th ct, from 9th ct heavy influence from Norse
- West Germanic language closely related to Old Frisian
- synthetic language -> inflectional endings signaled grammar, free word order
- 5 grammatical cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental),
- 3 three grammatical numbers (singular, plural, dual)
- 3 grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter)
- adjectives, pronouns, participles agreed with nouns in case, number + gender
- verbs agreed with their subject in person + number
- main difference from other ancient Indo-European languages: verbs conjugated in only 2 tenses
Middle English – ME
1066 (Battle of Hastings) until 15th ct (printing introduced by William Caxton in London 1476)
- probably end of the Great Vowel Shift
King William I of England founded Anglo-Norman dynasty, replaced English aristocracy by Norman noblemen → important positions in government, court, parliament
French strongly influenced English (only spoken by lower classes)
Normans originally Danes but used Northern French as language -> French official language
1167-1217: King John (Lackland) lost Duchy of Normandy 1205 → signed Magna Carta in 1215
from 13th ct bilingualism evolved (French more prestigious) → French words entered English → no longer purely Germanic but mixed language
areas in which French influential:
- politics: e.g. government, parliament, minister
- military: e.g. captain, soldier, lieutenant
- gastronomy: names for meat to be eaten, English for living animals: pig – pork, cow – beef,
14th century: English official language again
1340-1400: Chaucer (court poet): Canterbury Tales in English
1348: Great plague killed 1/3 of population: lack of French teachers in schools
shortage of labour force (remaining workers English) → more importance
middle class English changed most, London English became new Standard English
100-years war: 1337 to 1453, between England + France for control of French throne
war is expensive → partly financed by middle class which became more important
Features:
- spelled phonetically (as it is pronounced)
- today’s spelling represents ME → present day E spelled historically but pronunciation changed
- interest in writing in vernacular
- no Bibles ever printed in Middle English
Early Modern English
15th ct (art of printing introduced) until 1700 (beginning of Modern English period)
1476: introduction of printing -> vast number of documents written by Royal Chancery in London
→ e.g. plural ending -es
1564-1616: William Shakespeare (different spelling, pronunciation from Modern English)
1755: Johnson: Dictionary of English language, standard spelling + meaning fixed
Features:
- no inflectional ending as in OE
- grammar of Early Modern English is almost identical to that of Modern English
Shakespeare: great deal of SOV inversion + OSV constructions
- multiple negatives in 1 sentence
- slightly different orthography
- pronunciation is different -> silent consonants pronounces e.g. knot
-> pronunciation changes from the Great Vowel Shift, still some differences to Modern E
- large variations in dialect replaced by a new era of a more standardised language with a richer
lexicon + established literature
- you being used for both singular + plural, but in the singular it also had a role as an alternative to
thou + thee
you + ye used by people of lower status to those above them, formal context
thou + thee by people of higher rank to those beneath them + among loer classes
Modern English (Present Day English)
period between 1700 - today
pronunciation after the great vowel shift
1783: Webster: The American Spelling Book: to show differences between British + American E →
simplification of spelling
1884-1928: Oxford English Dictionary (Murray et al)
strong verbs: change of tense is indicated by a modification of root vowel
less numerous (in O.E. few over 300, 7 classes)
e.g. sing sang sung
weak verbs: change is indicated by the addition of a alveolar/dental plosive, sometimes extra syllable
adding a -ed, -d, or -t to the base form
concept of irregular not synonymous with that of strong -> irregular verbs which historically do not belong to group of strong verbs
e.g. told , said, for instance –if alveolar/dental plosive is added in past ( /d/ or /t/), then verb is weak
even though stem vowel may change
3 Phonetics + Phonology
phonetics: describes physical properties of sounds: articulation + perception
phonology: concerned with sound systems: how language is used to convey meaning
voicing: a speech sound produced with vibrating vocal cords is voiced
-> vocal cords at a narrow position, open + close at regular intervals
voiceless: speech sound produced with open, non-vibrating vocal cords
place of articulation (consonants): where the major obstacle is located
- bilabial: involving upper + lower lip [p, b, m, n]
- labiodental: involving lower lip + upper incisors (front teeth) [f, v]
- interdental: tip of tongue between upper + lower front teeth [ð, θ], the, thin
- alveolar: involving alveolar ridge + tip of tongue, [t,d,s,z,n, l,r]
- palatal: involving hard palate + front of tongue [j] young
- velar: involving soft palate (= velum) and back of the tongue, e.g. [k] or ng
- uvular: involving uvula (fleshy piece dangling at the back of oral cavity) + back of tongue
e.g. German + French versions of r-sound
- glottal: involving vocal cords, not the tongue
manner of articulation (consonants): concerned with nature of obstacle that causes air-stream to get
into turbulence
- Plosive/Stop: complete closure of vocal tract, pressure built up, closure released with sudden burst
of energy, e.g. [t], [b]
- Fricative: constriction in vocal tract, passing air creates friction, e.g. [s],[ð], [∫].
- Affricate: combination of plosive + fricative produced in same place that it is perceived as a single
sound unit, e.g. [t∫], [dз]
- nasal: complete closure of vocal tract, at the same time velum is lowered so escapes through nasal
cavity, e.g. [m], [n] -> all voiced
- lateral liquid: closure of the central part of the vocal tract with the air passing at the sides, e.g. [l]
- Approximant: consonants produced with relatively open vocal tract, relatively free passage of air
combined category of liquids + glides (all voiced):
liquids: 1) air stream flows around sides of tongue, tip of tongue contact with
alveolar ridge; [l]
2) tongue tip raised + curled back near alveolar ridge [r]
glides: tongue in motion (glides) to or from the position of a vowel (sometimes
called semi-vowel); [w,j]
- Aspiration: important feature of English voiceless stops is aspiration -> audible puff of air follows
the release of the constriction. e.g.[p]
tongue position (vowels)
front: tongue positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction
[i:], eæ
central: tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel
[Ɛ:], Ʌ, Ə
back: tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction
[u:], [ʊƆɑ:ɒ
tongue height (vowels)
high: tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth
[i:] [i] [u:] [ʊ]
low: tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth
[a]
high-mid: tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel
[e] [Ɔ
low-mid: tongue positioned two-thirds of way from an open vowel to a mid vowel
[ɜ:] [ʌ]
length (vowels): phonemic contrast between longer + shorter vowel sounds
long symbolized by colon following the long sound
[i:] , [u:] ʊ]
lip rounding: pronouncing a rounded vowel, the lips form a circular opening
unroundedvowels (also called spread vowels) are pronounced with the lips relaxed
-> roundedness correlates with tongue position –back vowels rounded, front unrounded
diphthong: vocal organs move from one vowel to the other -> combination of two vowels
closing + centring diphtongs
e.g from [a] to [I] in bye
vowel chart: schematic arrangement of vowels, form of a triangle
vertical position on the diagram denotes vowel height, with high vowels at the top
horizontal position denotes vowel position, with front vowels at the left of the diagram
minimal pair: words which differ only in one phonological element
allophone: set of multiple possible spoken sounds (or phones) used to pronounce a single phoneme
not meaning distinguishing -> speaker able to select freely from allophones, based on
personal habit or preference
[pʰ] (as in pin) and [p] (as in spin) are allophones for the phoneme /p/
phonological processes
Weakening: unstressed vowels are reduced to a [Ə] (schwa)
e.g. her - her eyes: /h3ɹ/ - /hƏr aIz
Elision: a phoneme is omitted (occurs especially with clusters of consonants)
e.g. texts [teksts] – [teks]
the wind stopped [ðə wind stapt] becomes [ ðəwinstapt]
Assimilation: phonemes become similar to other phonemes
[n] to [m] if a [p] follows, e.g. in Poland: [in polənd] in slow speech,
[impəulənd] -> [n] assimilated to [p]
handbag [hæmbæɡ]
Suprasegmentals/prosody:
- features stretch over more than a single segment (over syllables, words, phrases, sentences)
- phenomena in phonetics + phonology which do not become manifest in individual segments
- rhythm, stress + intonation of speech
→ can reflect the speakers emotional state or give info about the situation
Stress: extra-respiratory effort required in producing a speech sound
salience can be created by different means:
loudness: stressed syllable produced with more articulatory energy -> perceived louder
than the environment
pitch: stressed syllables set off from surrounding ones in pitch -> higher– deeper
length:vowels of stressed syllables tend to be longer than those of unstressed syllables
vowel quality:stressed syllables retain full quality, unstressed vowels weakened
multi-syllabic words have more than one stressed syllable
primary word stress: ['], secondary word stress [,]
e.g. suprasegmentals - [,suprƏsƏg'm ƐntƏlz]
English does NOT have fixed stress: stress is not automatically assigned to a particular
syllable (like in French, for example)
English has lexically designated stress: remains in same position irrespective of
syntactic context
Sentence stress:general pattern: content words are stressed, function words are unstressed
exceptions: wh-words, demonstratives and when indicating contrast
Intonation: - pitch fluctuation/speech melody across + within syllables
- syntactic, pragmatic + attitudinal functions in English
4 Morphology – concerned with internal structure of words
lexeme: basic unit of meaning, regardless of the number of inflectional endings
finds, found, finding are forms of the lexeme find
word form: Dog and dogs are considered different word forms of the same lexeme
content words: nouns, verbs, adjectives (major part of our vocabulary)
open class words (new words can be added easily)
function word: no clear lexical meaning but a grammatical function
articles, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliaries, pronouns
closed class words, because rarely new words are added
morpheme: smallest unit of linguistic function
unanalyzable, isolatable meaning + form
e.g. dogs: 2 morphemes: {dog}{s}, dog + s
neologism: new word in a language, created mostly through word formation processes
compounding: join two or more words to create a single one
e.g. bookcase, sunburn, girlfriend, textbook, blackbird
derivation: addition of affixes: prefixes: added at beginning of a word (un-, pre-, mis-, de-, inter-)
suffixes: added at end of word (–ful, -ish-, -less)
infixes: incorporated inside a word (abso-goddam-lutely)
conversion: change in word class without addition of suffixes → category change + function shift
e.g. paper (n v), dance (v n), butter (n v) → common in Modern English
clipping: long word reduced to shorter one, some part is deleted
e.g. telephone– phone, laboratory – lab
blending: combining two separate words to produce a new term, taking beginning of one + end of
acronym: word composed by initials of several words
e.g. NATO, UNO, AIDS, DNA, EU
borrowing/loan word: taking over words from other languages
e.g. piano, pretzel
loan translation (calque): direct translation of elements of a word into the borrowing language
e.g. skyscraper = Wolkenkratzer
back formation: word from one word class is reduced to form another word of a different word
class -> usually noun to verb, affixes are changed
e.g. typewrite (typewriter), babysit (babysitter)
reduplication: process that repeats a whole word or part of a word to produce a new word
e.g. teeny- weeny, itsy-bitsy, wishy-washy
coinage: invention of a totally new term, when companies invent new products
e.g. nylon, aspirin, kleenex
allomorph: one grammatical morpheme can have several forms → allomorphs of this morpheme
e.g. plural morpheme has following allomorphs: /s/, /z/, /ən/, Ø
lexically conditioned: choice of an allomorph is unpredictable → memorised on word-by-word basis
e.g. plurals oxen, sheep, children → can't be predicted from general
(foxes/ *foxen, *sheeps, *fishs)
phonologically conditioned: choice of allomorph is predictable on the basis of pronunciation of
adjacent morphemes: e.g. English plural marker pronounced /s/, /z/, /ɨz/
churches /ˈtʃɜrtʃɨz/
mats /ˈmæts/ (after voiceless sound)
dogs /ˈdɒɡz/ (after voiced sound)
free morpheme: can stand by itself as a single word
bound morpheme: can't stand alone, have to be attached to other forms
e.g. prefixes, suffixes, some roots (e.g. cran in cranberry)
lexical morphemes: open, dog, lovely → open class of words = content word
grammatical morphemes: conjunctions, prepositions, articles → closed class = function words
derivational morpheme: added to the stem to create new words or different grammatical categories
→ suffixes + prefixes
–ness changes adjective “good” to noun “goodness”
inflectional morpheme: indicate aspects of grammatical function of a word
no change of word class
e.g. 3rd person s, -ed in past tense or plural s
open class: new lexical content words can be added easily (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)
affixes: bound morphemes that are added to the stem
prefix: affixes added at the beginning of a word e.g. un-
suffix: affixes added at the end of a word e.g. -ish
5 Semantics – concerned with the intrinsic meaning of words + phrases
conceptual meaning/denotation: ‘dictionary meaning’ of a word or expression
connotation: cultural or emotional association that some word or phrase carries, in addition to the
word's or phrase's explicit or literal meaning
e.g. evening dress: denotative meaning: clothing worn for evening social events
connotative meaning: formality, elegance etc.
sense: conceptional/logical meaning (meaning of a linguistic sign)
-> the way that the term refers to the object
reference: relation between expression + entities in the world
-> object to which the term refers
collocation: words tend to go together with other words -> often more than one collocation
we seem to organise our knowledge of words by collocations
e.g. salt + pepper, bread + butter
semantic prototypes:
- a prototype is the best + clearest example of a semantic category
- some words in a category seem to be more central than others but are put into the same category
e.g. people have a prototype of an ideal bird in their minds + compare what they see to this prototype
+ its prototypical features (the birdiness of birds)
→ interpretation varies according to individual experience
componential analysis:
- way of analyzing the meaning of words in terms of their semantic features
- presence or absence of a semantic feature is marked with + or –
- rather restrictive analysis, problems with abstract nouns
Girl: [+human], [+female], [-adult]
Woman: [+human], [+female], [+adult]
lexical semantics:
- study of how + what words of a language denote (things in the world, concepts) -> depending
on the approach
- units of meaning are lexical units, which a speaker can continually add to throughout their life
-> learning new words + their meanings
- one can only easily learn grammatical rules of one's native language during a critical period (youth)
sense relations
- synonymy (synonym): same sense, closely related meanings
→ e.g. different register: buy – purchase, hide – conceal, answer – reply
- antonymy (antonym):words having the opposite sense
binary (non-gradable): only possibilities, negating one entails the other
e.g. dead–alive, true– false
gradable: scale of difference, in comparative constructions → to negate one,
does not imply the opposite
e.g. big – small, old – young
converse: seen from opposite directions/perspectives
e.g. parent – child, brother – sister
reversive: to do the reverse of something, e.g. dress – undress, enter – exit
- hyponymy (hypernym/superordinate & hyponym): meaning of one form is included in another
Hypernym: one term more general, e.g. flower - rose
Hyponym: shares a one-of relationship with its hypernym, e.g. rose - flower
- meronymy (holonym & partonym): denotes a constituent part of or member of something
e.g. 'finger' is a meronym of 'hand'
Holonym: defines the relationship between a term denoting the whole + a term
denoting a part of, or a member of, the whole
e.g. 'tree' is a holonym of 'bark' + 'trunk'