English Language - Jonathan Culpeper PDF

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Riassunti dei seguenti capitoli: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15 + contenuti delle slide del prof. Halliday dell' a-a 2019-2020...

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0. False friends 0.5 ESL & EFL 1. Introduction - Studying the English Language 2. Phonetics 3. Phonology 4. Morphology 5. Grammar: Words 6. Grammar: Phrases 7. Grammar Clauses 9. Semantics 11. Standard English and Standardization 12. The History of English Spelling 14. Lexical Change 15. Semantic Change

FALSE FRIENDS It’s important to non-native-speakers of a language to be aware of the existence of the “false friend” phenomenon because it can create difficulties in the process of learning. False friends are words that look and sound the same in different languages BUT they mean different things. So a non-native speaker has to pay attention in the act of writing or pronouncing a word in English that is very similar to a word in Italian, but which he is not sure is a synonym of its Italian cognate. One of the most notorious examples of the phenomenon between English and Italian are the two words “sensible” and “sensibile”. The English synonym of the Italian sensibile is “sensitive”. So, for example, if we were to translate the Italian sentence “Giulia è una ragazza sensibile” with, “Giulia is a sensible girl,” we would clearly not be translating very effectively. Index and indice can therefore be “false friends”. The English “index” and the Italian indice, while obviously being cognates (i.e. literally words “born at the same time”), are not always synonyms. In the context of the apparatus of a book, the Italian synonym of the English “index” is indice analitico; while the English synonym of the Italian indice is “contents page”. The existence of this useful figurative name to describe the phenomenon is indicative of our innate dependence on metaphor in understanding the world around us: here language is likened to people. Words become friends who may or may not be true friends: words that look and even sound very similar may or may not be synonyms. EFL & ESL EFL and ESL are two terms used to indicate the process of learning English by people whose first language is not English; F stand for foreign and S for second The difference between EFL and ESL is simply a difference in levels of exposure: minimal and sporadic in the former, maximal and continuous in the latter. -In studying a language as a foreign language there is a lack of symmetry: we can expose ourselves to specific skills in the

language (usually the “passive” skills of reading and listening), but opportunities for producing (speaking, writing) and for achieving interaction in the language are relatively limited. A foreign language always remains “asymmetrical” because we have few opportunities to engage in its use in a holistic or total way.

-In studying a second language there is much more symmetry: it is much easier to come closer to equal, two-way communication when a language is used around us in our daily lives. By using the language in a context in which learners are genuinely interested and absorbed, the medium (the language) used to cultivate that context will inevitably benefit. But it’s not impossible creating a own personal ESL context to help the learning by watching many films in original version or english programms on TV, reading english books, writing essays which include new interesting vocabulary to practice them. One very simple way of distinguishing between EFL and ESL is to say that anyone learning English while living in a non Englishspeaking country is learning it as a foreign language. The truth, however, is that there can be English-speaking contexts within a larger non English-speaking context.

CHAPTER 1: Studying the English Language This chapter talks about the tricky question of what the study of English language involves. The roots of England are not in England at all, but in the old dialects of north-western Germany. Once it established in Britain, it was geographically restricted: in the sixteenth century there were 3 million speakers of English; today there are over 300 million native speakers on English, plus 300 million speaking it as a second language and people learning it as a foreign language of course. The English language study takes place in the UK, North America, Australia and New Zealand; so, most English is produced outside England. English has emerged as a global lingua franca, which means that is a language used all over the world as a medium to make easier communication between speakers of different language. English has a common core of words and structures that are recognized as being English. This common core is represented by the notion “Standard English”; in fact people can recognize different things as being English. There is the issue of what is meant by “standard” and what English Standard should we follow and the answer is that probably it depends on the social evaluation of language; for example British people tend to think that the British “standard” is the best. Culpeper et al. divide views of studying English into three main groups:

1 The folk view = it express beliefs about how English should be that come from “common knowledge”, based on no real awareness of how the language actually is. For example, someone could believe that the best pronunciation should reflect spelling, or that English sentences are always more concise than Italian sentences, Scottish accents are impossible to understand, and so on. 2 The academic views = includes beliefs on academic study and is subdivided into four more groups. These are:  the COMPARATIVE view → includes any study that considers similarities or differences between English and other languages. Comparing formal structures or cultural aspects of English with those of other languages can help to understand how it is constituted. For example, contrasting how people are polite in different languages and cultures  the VARIATIONAL view → which considers that varieties in English can contribute to understand the constitution of the language. Such varieties can be distinguished: synchronically ⇒ how they vary at one point in time (for example how they make up different accents) diachronically ⇒ how they vary over time (feeding into the history of English)  the STRUCTURAL view → includes any study that considers the actual mechanism/structure of the language (from phonetics to syntax) can help to understand how it works. This is a weak view because some of the phenomena discussed may also be characteristics of other languages.  the SOCIAL CONTEXT view → any study that considers how the specific social contexts in which English is used can contribute to an understanding of English constitution. So, the focus is on the use of English because, as speakers, we can completely change the context through our choice of words. This is a weak view because some of the phenomena discussed may also be characteristics of other languages. 3 The educational view = wherein studying English means increasing the ability to put it into practice (to speak it, write it and understand it). This is probably the best view because improve our life with your own study is a great satisfaction.

Besides the issue about what type of English we can considerate “standard”, there are other issues; - the first one concerns the relationship between English and literature. The author says that there is no doubt that English literature has cultural value but it represent the language that people consider to be English, not the English language as a whole. Those who study literature are more concerned with the literary “affect” produced by language, those who study language are more engaged by the “science” of linguistics. - the second one concerns the relationship between English and linguistics. (Linguistics is the study of languages with its phenomena and it is focused on the fundamental mechanism of language). In the author’s opinion it’s impossible to study English without also doing linguistics: if we are going to investigate a language, we need to be aware of how language works in general.

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY Chapters 2 and 3 of English Language, respectively titled “Phonetics” and “Phonology”, are very detailed in their descriptions of the structures and mechanisms that work together in the production of speech – phonetics and phonology – Phonetics regards the production of speech sounds. It’s the way in which particular sounds are pronounced, like the specific ways in which a speaker pronounces a certain vowel sound (the ways in which the vowel sounds are produced – position of the tongue, shape of the mouth and so on). For example, let’s take this joke ⇒ Q: What’s the definition of a crèche? [/krɛʃ/ /kreɪʃ/] A: It’s a collision between two motor vehicles in Kensington. This joke depends for its effect on knowledge of the fact that a crèche (a word English has obviously borrowed from French) is a nursery school and the fact that some upper-class British speakers

of English (British inhabitants of the London Borough of Kensington are quite likely to be of the upper classes) often pronounce the “a” in crash as if it were an “e”. “Crash” is normally pronounced /kræʃ/ Phonology regards the organization of those speech sounds in the language. It’s the significance – linguistic and social – of particular ways of pronouncing and speaking a language, so it’s more concerned with the larger context, the way the phonemes fit together, that the sounds of language inhabit. For example, the expression “to speak with a plum in your mouth” has many connotations, largely negative, in British English, indicating a mode of speech associated with the social status of British upper classes (with reference to the idea that speech suggests that one’s mouth is full of plums). The observation made above this kind of expression fall into the context of the study of phonology. The phonetic renditions of the vowel sounds depend on an instrument that is fundamental to the study of both phonetics and phonology: the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), whose symbols are used by the OED in its pronunciation guide to each entry. MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX Words are at the boundary between two major subdivisions of grammar: morphology and syntax. Morphology deals with grammar with the internal structure of words. Syntax deals with grammar outside the word, with how word behave in lager units (phrases, clauses and sentences). CHAPTER 2: Phonetics The main aim of this chapter is to provide the technical terminology necessary to understand how speech is made and how linguists describe it. The complexity and variety of these descriptions is inevitable given the complexity and variety of the sounds we make in producing language and the uses we put language too. It introduces the components of the vocal tract, asking readers to imagine instructions from the dentist to “say aahh” (ə) and “say eeee” (e) vowel sounds – the position of the tongue is very different

in the two cases and can facilitate the dentist’s access to certain areas of the mouth. The component parts are: the obvious tongue and the larynx – which together receives particular attention in the chapter - the lips, the teeth, the alveolar ridge, the roof of the mouth (hard palate), the velum (the soft palate), the uvula, the pharynx (the throat), the larynx containing the two vocal cords (vocal folds), with the glottis separating them. With regard to the articulation and description of speech sounds, an important instrument that is used universally is the IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet, first devised in the late nineteenth century by the IPA (International Phonetics Association). The phonetic renditions of the vowel sounds depend on this instrument that is fundamental to the study of both phonetics and phonology; its symbols are used by the OED in its pronunciation guide to each entry. In the section dedicated to “voicing” (2.2.1 – 2.2.2) author asks a question that is useful in describing the phenomenon: Imagine the tune of your favourite song, and then try to hum along to it while whispering. Can you do it? Not really. It is impossible to hum a tune while whispering because the different levels of pitch required to create the tune are produced as a result of the different speed of vibration in the vocal folds. During a whisper, the vocal folds do not vibrate and, as a consequence, no pitch can be generated. Place and manner of articulation are important elements in describing sound production – where and how the component parts (articulators) of the vocal tract are used in producing particular sounds. The first sounds to be described in the book are consonants. Articulators are divided into two basic groups – active and passive, the former being mobile elements, the latter fixed elements. It’s obvious that the tongue is the most active articulator in speech production. Watson provides a series of examples to help illustrate this, in his “illustration” and “advances” boxes. One of the simplest and most interesting is the invitation to readers to make a prolonged “s” sound followed by a prolonged “f” sound. Do this and try to be aware of the movement of your tongue (and your teeth) from an alveolar to a post- or palate-alveolar position. Obstruction is key in the creation of consonant sounds and is referred to as stricture. There are many different types:

 close approximation  open approximation The different types of complete stricture include: plosives (stops) with their closure, hold and release (bilabial – “p” and “b”, alveolar – “t” and “d”, glottal – the “t” in the word “ate” often becomes glottal; affricates, which have a more gradual release phase – the sounds at the beginnings and ends of the words “church” and “judge”; and nasal sounds – the beginning and the end of “man”. Partial stricture or close approximation leads us to fricative sounds such as the labiodental “f” in “leaf” and the “v” in “leave”, or the voiced dental fricative as above. Let us not forget alveolar fricatives such as the “z” in “zoo”, and don’t forget that postalveolar fricatives are produced, as in wash [ʃ] and measure [ʒ]. Finally, a constriction can be made by narrowing the glottis, producing the glottal fricative in house, [h]. While a crucial element in the description of English consonant sounds is the place of articulation, description of vowel sounds in English is more concerned with “the vowel space” – the space within which the tongue will not make contact with other parts of the vocal tract, which would otherwise cause a constriction and create a consonant. The position of the tongue is crucial in these descriptions, hence front, central and back vowels. Watson’s chapter is mostly concerned with standard English pronunciation, but he does acknowledge more “exotic” English sounds, including Liverpool’s famous “fricatives” – “We speak with an accent exceedingly rare.” The truth is, however, that English, worldwide, perhaps has more “exotic” than it has standard sounds.

CHAPTER 3: Phonology Phonology leads us into the territory of phonemes (smallest unit of sound in speech) and allophones (the variations, often minimal, in the pronunciation of a phoneme when it is used in combination with other phonemes). Phonology makes realize that the organization of speech sounds together is even more complex/the great variety in the way we use and perceive sound in language. The chapter provides some useful definitions of key terms in the field of segmental phonology •A phoneme is a minimal contrastive unit in phonology. In contrast with other phonemes, we can tell one word from another. •Allophones are phonetically similar ways of producing a phoneme. The realisation of an allophone is predictable from its phonetic environment. •Phones are minimal sound units. This word is useful as it does not require a phonological distinction between what is a phoneme and what is an allophone. We can use this as a technical term for ‘one sound’. • A segment is another term for a minimal chunk of speech is. This term is slightly more common than phone, but can technically refer to morphs in morphology as well as phones. Some textbooks use the words ‘phone’ and ‘segment’ interchangeably. •A minimal pair is a pair of words contrasted by only one phoneme, e.g. ‘tap’ and ‘top’. The existence of a minimal pair proves the contrasting sounds are phonemes. Suprasegmental phonology (aka prosody), on the other hand, is concerned with: -syllables The concept of syllable is one that initially appears very simple, but on closer inspection, these small units of language with their “syllable trees” (diagrams showing the component parts – onset, rhyme, nucleus and coda) are actually extremely complex. -tone The tone, the pitch (a musical term) at which a given utterance is uttered, is not actually used commonly in English as an instrument in communication. (Some languages, Cantonese for example, have very sophisticated tone systems in which the same sound emitted at different pitches has different meanings.)

-stress Stress, however, the shortening and lengthening of particular phonemes, certainly exists in English, even though in English stress tends to be on the first syllable of a word, and can be important in conveying meaning -intonation Intonation can have a very significant influence in meaning and understanding. There are many different ways, and different contexts, in which we can say, “Thank you.” The chapter on phonology closes with a case of study which concludes that there is a difference between “categorical” and “gradient” interpretations of the “lateral” phenomenon – those who seek to be categorical will be categorical, while those who seek to be less categorical will adopt a “gradient” view, a view in which there is simply no need to be so categorical.

CHAPTER 4: Morphology (STUDY OF WORD STRUCTURE) Morphology is the component of grammar devoted to the study of the internal structure of words, not only the structure of welletablished words, but also that of new words. A new word can be formed by combining: - two existing full words; for example “ear-witness” from “eyewitness” - the first letters of words in a phrase as in f.i.n.e Analyzing the word structure, speakers can help themselves with the subconscious cultural knowledge. For example, in the compound “disorient express” it can be seen the allusion to the train Orient Express. The study of morphology wants to make this cultural knowledge explicit. This chapter first explore different definition of the term word and then presents an overview of its structures. THE TERM ‘WORD’ One definition of the world could be: the smallest unit that can occur by itself/on its own as an utterance, or it can be independently relocated in a new position in the sentence by syntactic rules when, for example, passive sentences are formed by their active form and whole words are shunted around.

ES. The neighbour’s dogs disturbed burglars → Burglars were disturbed by the neighbour’s dogs Another definition of word could be morpheme, the minimal unit which has a meaning or a grammatical function. (smaller structural and semantic unit) ES. The word “boys” it contains two meaningful structural units, boy and -s But, defining a word is a complicated problem, so it is best approached by distinguishing various senses in which the term ‘word’ is used:  lexeme → is used when by ‘word’ we mean vocabulary item, a single dictionary entry. For example, the forms speak, speaking, spoke and spoken are all different manifestations of the lexeme speak.  grammatical word → is the word as syntactic unit. For example, speaking, spoke and spoken are characterized as grammatical words in this way: -speaking is the progressive form of the verb speak -spoke is the past tense form of the verb speak -spoken is the last participle form of the verb speak  word form → is a shape that represent a word in speech or writing. In the written language a word-forms orthographic words, preceded and followed by a space (or punctuation mark), while in the spoken language is called phonological word WORD STRUCTURE With regard to the word structure, we can distinguish between:  simple words which contain one morpheme → ES. child  complex words containing more than one morpheme and can be decomposed into smaller units called morph → ES. “re-writing” has three morphs Many m...