Apuntes, temas 1-2 PDF

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Filologia Inglesa, 2º de carrera...

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UNIT 1. INTRODUCTION TO LEXICOLOGY 1. WHAT IS LEXICOLOGY A. Definition Linguistic discipline which studies the words in a language (origin, formation, structure, meaning, development, current use…). The literal meaning of the greek words lexis and logos is ‘’The science of words’’. Synonyms of word: vocabulary, lexicon, lexis. Synchronic vs Diachronic approach Synchronic means at the same time: Studies vocabulary structure and meaning at a given point of time Diachronic means ‘’through’’ aka across time (evolution). Studies changes and development of vocabulary in the course of time. Beggar: ‘a person who begs’ (Cf. teacher ‘a person who teaches’) To beg > beggar

BEGGAR

Beggar: borrowed from Old French, ‘’to beg’’. Beggar > to beg

B. Lexicology in relationship with other disciplines Morphology: ‘’The study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming words. Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units which may constitute words or parts of words’’ (Jackson 2007). Ex: cat, child, sleeping, armchairs, farmer, unputdownable. We can guess the meaning by the morphemes that forms the words. Semantics: ‘’The study of meaning. Its aim is to explain and describe meaning in natural languages’’ (Jackson 2007). ● Pragmatics semantics studies the meaning of utterances in context, for example A: Wanna go to the movie? B:It’s five o’clock. The semantic meaning let us guess what's the intention of an utterance, maybe it’s too early to go to the cinema. ● Sentence semantics studies the meaning of sentences as well as meaning relation between sentences, for example You must be very tolerant. Obligation-You are under the obligation of being tolerant. Conclusion- so you are tolerant if you didn’t do anything. ● Lexical semantics studies the meaning of words and the meaning relations that are internal to the vocabulary. Just the meaning of the word itself. For example, bright. Shinny, intelligent… ● Acceptability vs Meaningless, for example: The woman is a man. That doll is a bomb. That walking-stick is a gun. It’s dice beeting you (pronounced with a cold it's nice meeting you) Lexicography: ‘’A special technique, the writing and compilation of dictionaries (...) the principles that underlie the process of compiling and editing dictionaries. >Descriptive vs Prescriptive approach

Phonology: ‘’The study of sound systems of individual languages and of the nature of such systems generally’’ (Matthews 2007) ● Minimal pairs: pill vs bill, sheep vs ship, meat vs meal. ● Suprasegmental or prosodic features: ex’port (verb) vs ‘export (noun). Meaning of the words vary depends of the stressed. ● Compounds: ‘Greenhouse vs ,Green ‘house, ‘Blackboard vs ,Black ‘board. Note: (‘) main or primary stress and (,) secondary stress. Syntax: ‘’The study of grammatical relations between words and other units within the sentence (Matthews 2007). Colorless green ideas sleep furiously (Chomsky 1957). Etymology: ‘’The study of the whole history of words, not just of their origin’’ (Jackson 2007) Ex: Nice ‘precise’ (a nice distinction) < ‘silly’ Latin nescius ’’ignorant’’ (ne- ‘not’ / se scissors) shears). ● Folk Etymology (Reanalysis): ‘’ A historical process whereby speakers who cannot analyse an obscure form replace it with a different form which is morphologically transparent (Jackson 2007). Example Vagabundo > Vagamundo (-bundo was obscure, speakers didn’t know their meaning so they replace it with a morpheme everybody knew the meaning). Hamburger (cheeseburger, veggie burger, burger with ham) or a person from hamburg. Bridegroom (bride-groom) brydeguma (In old English, the man who is going to marry. This is an immediately and abrought process, happens just in the moment the word is changed. Use the verb ‘’replace’’ and not ‘’substitute’’ to define the Etymological process. It’s ‘’Folk Etymology’’ and not ‘’The Folk Etymology’’ ● Study the examples in the reading (Reading 1): foxgloves, humble pie, dormouse, bikini… We are going to focus our study in the relation between LEXICOLOGY and: Morphology, Semantics and Etymology C. The structure of English vocabulary Word classes: nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, verbs, determinatives, subordinators, coordinator… Can be classified into two groups: ● Variable words: Inflect for morphological categories as number, tense, grade (nouns, verbs, adjectives and some adverbs) ○ Number: nouns as cat-cats ○ Tense: verbs as play-played ○ Grade: Adjectives as tall-taller ● Invariable words: prepositions, determinatives, auxiliaries, coordinators, subordinators and some adverbs.

2. WHAT ARE WORDS?

A. The word defined ● Ginzburg, Khidekel, Knyazeva & Sankin (1979) ‘’...The word is the basic unit of language system, the largest on the morphologic and the smallest on the syntactic plane of linguistic analysis. The word is a structural and semantic entity within the language system.’’ ● Jackson & Zé Amvela (2007) ‘’The term -word- is used to designate an intermediate structure smaller than a whole phrase and yet generally larger than a single sound segment. However, the word may be defined differently depending on wether we focus on its representation, the thought which it expresses, or purely formal criteria’’ Units of linguistics analysis: Sounds (Phonetics), Morphemes, Words (Morphology),Phrases, Clauses (Syntax) Texts (Pragmatics). Words are studied by Morphology, Lexicology and Syntax

Criteria used to recognized words: ● Writing traditions - Problem: She lives in the White House ● Indivisible unit of thought - Problem: Rethink ● Formal Criteria: Problem: phonological, lexical and grammatical word ○ Ex: finds - /findz/ - FIND - third p. Singular present indicate of FRIND Forms to represent and call words ● Orthographic word: Any string of characters separated by blank spaces. (Ex: White House) ○ Related Phenomena: Homographs (Different lexeme (with different pronunciations) represented by one orthographic word). Example: bow /bou/ reverencia /bau/ arco (Its also a homonymy) ● Phonological word: The pronunciation of any orthographic word (Ex: /’faindz’/) ○ RP: Homophones (different orthographic words but with the same pronunciation). Example: read, red ● Lexeme: Abstract entity - Always written in CAPITAL LETTERS (Ex: cat - Lexeme CAT) ○ RP: Homonymy (Different lexeme represented by the same word form) Example: Bank could be the place where you have the money or the back of a river. ● Word form: Each of the forms subsumed by a lexeme (Ex: lexeme cat is represented by the word form cat, cats, cat’s…) ○ RP: Syncretism ● Grammatical word: grammatical specification of a word form of a lexeme ○ RP: Syncretism (Different grammatical words represented by the same word form) Example: played- Past or Past Participle. Example: In both sentences Played is the same word form and the lexeme is PLAY. But there are different grammatical words. Why? - I played tennis - Past of play - I had never played tennis before. - Past Participle of play ACTIVITY You should not trouble trouble unit trouble troubles you. ● Phonological words: 6

● Orthographic words: 9 ● Lexemes: YOU, SHOULD, NOT, TROUBLE Verb, TROUBLE noun, UNTIL (6) Grammatical words: 6 - You base form of YOU, Should base form of SHOULD, not base form of NOT, Trouble base form of TROUBLE verb, Trouble singular form of TROUBLE noun, Troubles 3rd person ind of TROUBLE verb. ACTIVITY ● You, like your father, like to read alone, and after having read, you like to sleep. ○ Lexeme, Homograph and Homonymy: like-like. (como-gustar) ○ Homograph: read-read (rid-red) ● The player played tennis until she wished she had not ever played. ○ Syncretism: played-played (Past and P.Participle) ● Deer are not like cats, if I had a deer instead of my dear cat, I would be happier ○ Homophone: Deer-dear ○ Syncretism: Deer-Deer (Plural-singular) ● You guys , in the third row, would you like to row or should I give you a row? ○ Homophones and Homographs: 3rd row- to row (Homonyms as well) ○ Homographs: row-row (row-raw) Characteristics of words 1. The word is an uninterruptible unit. Mind: Infixes 2. The word may consist of one or more morphemes - Mind: Window, woman. Ambiguous words by a etymological point of view (1 morpheme? More? In ocasion depends) 3. The word typically occurs in the structure of phrases - Mind: Morphemes > Words > Phrases > Clauses > Sentences 4. Each word should belong to a specific word class or part of speech - Mind: Smoke: is a verb or a noun? Both Ambiguity in the notion of word 1. The generic character of the word - Example: Human Being, Animal, mammal, horse 2. The multiplicity of aspects of every word. - Table for two / table of contents / multiplication table / give money under the table 3. The nature of the non-linguistic word itself - English purple (morado) Spanish (morado, lila, violeta) Italian porpora (rojo) 4. Lack of familiarity with the referent of the world - Example: scythe vs sickle

B. Word meaning ● According to the Saussure (1916), the linguistic sign is a mental unit consisting of two faces, which cannot be separated: a concept (Signifié: thing meant - lo que en tu cabeza aparece al oír la palabra o leerla) and an acoustic image (Significant: signifier - cuando pronuncias la palabra).

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Alteration of the acoustic image = Difference in the concept

Polysemy ● Refers to the situation where the same word has two or more different meanings. ○ Example of board: A long thin flat piece of cut wood. / A flat surface with patterns, used for plating a game on. / A flat piece of hard material used for putting food on. / The cost of meals. / A committee or association set up for a special responsibility. / A flat piece of hard material fastened the the wall in a public place. ○ Example of flight: the act of flying. / The distance covered of course followed by a flying object. / A trip plane. / The aircraft making the journey. ○ In this examples we see one lexeme ●

Problems: ○ Number of meanings. Example eat: ‘’taking in through the mouth and swallowing’ & ‘use up, damage,destroy’ BUT: eat sup vs eat nuts. It is actually the same action? ○ Transference of meaning (Metaphor). Example of hands/face of a clock; foot of a bed/mountain; leg of a chair; tongue of a shoe; eye of a needle. Should be add these meanings to the definition of each words? ○ Difficulty in recognizing polysemy (vs homonymy). One word with several meanings vs. Several words with the same spelling and pronunciation.

Homonymy ● Refers to the situation where we have two or more words (=different lexemes) with the same shape (=same orthographical words + same phonological word). ○ Example bat: Batman is a man and a bat at the same time / a baseball bat is usually made of wood. ○ Example bank: I need to go the bank to withdraw money. / I love walking on the river bank ○ Example fan: In summer you really need a fan to cool down. / Penelope Cruz has more fans in the US than in Spain. ○ In this three example we have different lexemes in each words ● Criteria: 1. Etymology: same etymology vs different etymology. Same origin? A lexeme with dif significants. Different etymology? Used to be Homonymy. 2. Meaning relation: Polysemy vs Homonymy 3. Translation: Same translation (Polysemy) vs Different translation (Homonymy). If both words are translated in the same words there used to be polysemy, but if the translation are different words they tend to be Homonymys. ● Homonyms vs Homographs (The following are Homographs and not homonyms because they aren’t pronounced in the same form). ○ Lead: /lid/ vs /l3d/ Row: /rou/ vs /rau/ ○ Bow: /bau/ vs /bou/ ● Homonyms vs Homophones ○ Right/Write (/rait/); Knows/Nose (/neuz/); Knight/Night (/nait/) Multiword Lexemes ● Phrasal vs prepositional verbs.

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Consider: I looked at the picture Prepositional. / I looked up the word Phrasal. Phrasal verb: ‘’A verb idiom which consists of two words (a) a main verb, such as take, find .. And (b) a prepositional adverb, such as off, out, away. Ex: take off, carry on, find out… ○ Prepositional verb: ‘’A verb idiom consisting of a main verb followed by a preposition, for example look after, look at, decide on, consists of. The choice of preposition is determined by the verb rather than by the independent meaning of the preposition’’. Three criteria: ○ Transitivity: Prepositional verbs are transitive (call for,look at). Phrasal verbs may be transitive or intransitive (get up, give up vs bring up, look up) ○ Relative position of the direct object: The object of a prepositional verb must follow the preposition (incorrect: call John for, look him at). The object of a (transitive) phrasal verb may intervene between the verb and the particle (bring them up, look John up). ○ Semantic transparency: The meaning of prepositional verbs is transparent (look at). The meaning of phrasal verbs is idiomatic i.e. opaque (look up). Phrasal-prepositional verb ‘’A verb idiom which consists of three words, namely main verb + particle + preposition. For example put up with, look forward to, do away with…

Activity ● Prepositional verb: Talk about, depend on, laught at, listen to, deal with. ● Phrasal verb: pick up, find out, carry out, shut up, take off, put on, turn in, give up. ● Phrasal-Prepositional verb: get away with. Idioms ● Definition: a phrase the meaning of which cannot be predicted from the individual meaning of the morphemes it comprises ○ Examples: kick the bucket (to die) / don't beat a dead horse (?) / red herring (distraction) ● Partial idioms: red hair; white coffee, white wine, white people; black coffee, black people C. Meaning relation ● Sense relations ○ Synonymy ○ Antonymy ○ Hyponymy ○ Metonymy ● Collocation SENSE RELATIONS Synonymy Term used in modern semantics to refer to a relationship of ‘sameness of meaning’ that may hold between two words. Examples: native-indigenous, near-close, glitter-sparkle

But … Do they really mean the same? Not always ● Strict synonymy: Two words have to be interchangeable in all their possible contexts of use (there are not many). Ex: Sky and heaven in Early English were the same (Firmament and place you go when you die, sky was Scandinavian and heaven English). Strict synonymy is uneconomical: they split into sky (physical firmament) vs. Heaven (Spiritual realm of God). ● Loose synonymy: Two words have a significant similarity in meaning, but cannot substitute for each other in all contexts. Ex: find and discover COPIAR EJEMPLOS. Different dialects of English BrE Caravan Farm Lawyer Lift

AmE Trailer Ranch Attorney Elevator

Standard BrE Northern BrE Child Bairn Money Brass Nothing Nowt Sandwich Butty

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Varying in degree of formality Neutral Argument Die Give up Western Standard Destroy Drunk Insane Prison

Formal Disputation Decease Renounce Occidental Slang Zap Sloshed Barmy Clink

Differing in connotations Famous: notorious (disreputably) Hate: loathe (with repugnance) Misuse: abuse (of power or privilege) New: novel (strikingly) Obtain: procure (with effort) Ambiguous: equivocal (deliberately) Recollection: reminiscence (with pleasure) Proud: haughty. (With disdain) Persuade: inveigle (with ingenuity)

Why so many synonyms? ○ Main reason: the history of the English language, borrowings and origin. ○ Germanic, French and Latin Origin ○ Examples: Ask for (germanic) request (French/Latin); Need (germanic) require (French/Latin); pardon (French) amnesty (Latin); Generous (French) munificent (Latin).

Antonymy Term used to define the oppositeness of meaning referring words. We may find many kinds. ● Gradable Antonyms: Can be found on a continuous scale. ○ Example long-short, beautiful-ugly, good-bad, hot-cold, expensive-chea, lovehate. ● Contradictory / Complementary Antonyms: Cannot be found on a continuous scale. (Más radical, o vivo o muerto) ○ Example sleep-awake, dead-alive, win-lose, true-false. ● Converse / Relational Antonyms: The opposite meaning only make sense in the relation of the two words. (Menos radical, depende de la perspectiva, yo estoy detrás pero para el de atrás yo estoy delante) ○ Example Before-after, above-below, husband-wife, give-receiv, east-west. Hyponymy ● A term used to define the relationship which obtains between specific and general lexical items, such as that the former is ‘included’ in the latter. Example cat is hyponym of animal, flute of instrument, chair of furniture. ○ Tree, creeper and lichen are hyponyms of plant ○ Plant is the hyperonym of tree, creeper and lichen. ○ Tree, creeper and lichen are co-hyponyms.

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Tree is the hyperonym of oak and pine.

Meronymy ● A term used to define the relationship which obtains between ‘parts’ and ‘wholes’. The part of something. Example wheel and car, leg and knee. X is a part of Y (x is meronymy of Y and Y is the holonym of X). Wheel and knee are meronymys of car and leg. ○ Primary, secondary and tertiary are meronyms of (parts of) education ○ Education is a holonym of primary, secondary and tertiary. ○ Undergraduate and graduate are meronyms of higher education ○ Higher education is a holonym of undergraduate and graduate. Collocations ● A term used to refer to the habitual co.occurrence of individual lexical items. Collocations are a type of syntagmatic lexical relation. (Words that appear in the same context, that frequently occur with others). DO Do Business Do nothing Do someone a favor Do the cooking Do the housework Do the shopping Do your best Do your hair Do your homework

MAKE Make a difference Make a mess Make a mistake Make a noise Make an effort Make furniture Make money Make progress Make room Make trouble

UNIT 2. HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY 1. ORIGINS OF ENGLISH A. Diachronic development of English Brief introduction of the English language ● Invasions: Romans, Saxons-Angles-Jutes, Vikings, Normans… ● Influence of other languages (Latin, Germanic languages, Scandinavian languages known as Old Norse, Norman French)

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More influence: Central French Influence (Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales), Middle English dialects (Reflection of pronunciation=wrote as it was pronounce), Renaissance (More Latin influence), English spelling standardized in the 18th c. (Reflecting 14th c. pronunciation)

B. English: A Germanic Language? ● Indo-European Languages Maps* (Celtic, Germanic, Romance, Baltic, …) ● Some linguists differs in the origin of the English language. For example Paloma Tejada, a spanish linguist, suggest that English is formed by a influence of languages although the origin is Proto-Germanic, so her tree map is quite different (See Tree Map*). ● General thought about the origin of English: English < Low < West Germanic < ProtoGermanic ● Borrowings: Old English 3%, Present Day English 70% of borrowings, the rest native English. (Latin, Celtic, Scandinavian, French…) ● ‘’English has changed its vocabulary so dramatically that in terms of word stock it can no longer be considered a Germanic language’’ - Stockwell & Minkova 2001 C. Periodization of English ● Old English 8th-1066 ○ Origins to Norman Conquest ○ Period of full inflections (naman, gifan) ○ Early (8th-900) and Late (900-1066) OE periods. ● Middle English 1066-1485 ○ Norman Conquest to Tudors / Caxton's printing press ○ Period of levelled inflections (name, given) ○ Early (1066-1350, Chaucer’s birth) and Late (1350-1485) ME periods ● Modern English 1485-Today ○ Period of lost inflections (name give) ○ Early (1485-1700) and Late (1700-onwards) ModE ● Problems: ○ To establish different periods in the history of a language according to extralinguistic criteria is arbitrary ○ Since language change slowly but continuously, one should not think about periods or give dates at all. ‘’Changes in the language cannot be dated so specifically. It all depends on what data are used and which text are selected to provide the evidence.. We also have to keep in mind what particular feature should be chosen to provide the frameworks for dating the periods. Various features in the language undergo changes at different times.’’ (Blake 1996) 2. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH VOC...