Introduction to English Linguistics - uni-tuebingen.de · 43 Introduction to English Linguistics...

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Introduction to English Linguistics

Part II: Structure of English

Winkler

WS07/08VLS01

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COURSE NOTES ANDWEB-BASED ASSESSMENT:

1. Go To:http://www.es-courseportal.uni-tuebingen.de/

2. Course Notes:http://homepages.uni-tuebingen.de/susanne.winkler

Select: Course Notes

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Course Books:

Syntax:

Radford, A. (2004) English Syntax: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press.

Morphology and Syntax:

O’Grady, W. et al. Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. New York: St. Martin’s Press. (recent edition).

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Assignments

1. Read Radford (2004), Chapters 1 and 2.

2. Register for the web-based assessment test:http://www.es-courseportal.uni-tuebinen.de

3. Reread „Course Notes“


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Today:

Approaches to English Grammar

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What is linguistics?

The study of language is the study of one aspect of human psychology, that is the human mind.

Introduction to English Syntax

Definition: Linguistics is the science of natural (i.e. human) language.

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What do we do when we study a language?

Three basic questions:

1. What constitutes knowledge of language?

2. How is knowledge of language acquired?

3. How is knowledge of language put to use?


What exactly is “knowledge of language”?

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Universal LanguageComparative Linguistics

Language Typology

Phonology

Pragmatics

Syntax Semantics

Morphology

Phonetics

The Learner

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The learner’s view:What’s in a language?

1. Sounds (Phonetics/Phonology and Meaning)

2. Words (Morphology and Meaning)

3. Sentences (Syntax and Meaning)

4. Utterances (Discourse and Meaning)


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Slips of the Tongue:What are they and what can they tell us?

When you say something by accident -something which you did not mean or plan to say - you have made a slip of the tongue.


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Slips of the Tongue:What can they tell us?

Slips of the tongue can provide an insight intolanguage planning and production.


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Slip of the Tongue 01: Phonetics

"What does it mean when 25 percent of our childrenin Harlem have asthma because of hair pollution? We can do better. America can do better. And helpis on the way." (John Kerry)


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Phonetics

Definition:

The study of the inventory and structure of the sounds of language.

(O‘Grady et al.)


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Example: 01sound file:

Berti Vogts: sound clipThis is a special match for Scotland;this is a special match for me.This is also a very special match for the German.

alveopalatal fricative [ ?] instead of alveolar fricative [s].

What makes this quote sound German?

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Example 02: Speech Accent Archive

soundfile: SAA: http://accent.gmu.edu/

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Phonology

Definition:

The component of a grammar made up of the elements and principles that determinehow sounds pattern in a language.

(O‘Grady et al.)


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Slip of the Tongue 02:Morphology or Semantics?

"...but to strengthen American forces that arenow overstretched, overextended, and underpressure, we will double our special forces to conduct terrorist operations...." (John Kerry)


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Q1: What did Kerry intend to say?


Q2: How do we know?

Q3: How can we characterize anti- ?

Q4: Where does anti- occur?Q5: What does anti- mean?

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The morpheme anti:

- anti- is a prefix;

- anti- can be prefixed to both nouns (anti-missile, anti-matter) and adjectives (anti-social);

- anti- means “being not in favor of”;

- anti-terrorist attacks: means “being not in favor of terrorist attacks”.


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Morphology

Definition:

The system of categories and rules involvedin word formation and interpretation.

(O‘Grady et al.)


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Semantics

Definition:

The study of meaning in human language.

(O‘Grady et al.)


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Slip of the Tongue 03:Semantics or Logic?

„We are here 282 years after right here in Boston we fought to establish the freedoms of America." (Rev. Al Sharpton)


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Or perhaps Morphology?

Note: 2004-1776 = 228

Two-hundred-and-twenty-eight vs.

Two-hundred-and-eighty-two


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Syntax:

Definition:

The system of rules and categories thatunderlies sentence formation in human language.

(O‘Grady et al.)


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Information Packaging 04:Complex Syntax - Complex Meaning?

“Let's respect one another.

And let's never misuse for political purposesthe most precious document in American history, the Constitution of the United States.”(John Kerry)


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Claim: English Word Order is SVO (T/F?)

S V OWe should respect one another.

V (S) V O

Let 's respect one another.


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Claim: English Complement Order is Direct Object before Prepositional Phrase (T/F?)

And let's never misusethe most precious document in American history, the Constitution of the United States


[for political purposes]

[for political purposes]

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Pragmatics:

Definition:

The study of the relations between languageand context that are basic to an account of language understanding.

(Levinson 1983, 21)


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Components of grammar:

1. Sounds (Phonetics/Phonology and Meaning)

2. Words (Morphology and Meaning)

3. Sentences (Syntax, Intonation and Meaning)

4. Utterances (Discourse and Meaning)


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Traditional view: the word grammar relates to the study of morphology and syntax. Broader view: grammar includes the study of phonetics, phonology, semantics and pragmatics.

What is a grammar of a language?

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A grammar of a language is a mental system of rules and categories that allows humans to form and interpret sounds, words, and sentences of their language.

What is a grammar of a language?

Definition of Grammar:

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Different approaches to the study of language:

1. the traditional approach

2. the formal approach

3. the cognitive approach

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The traditional approach:

? lists the rules of a specific language.

The description should account for

• illformed sentences

• ambiguous sentences

• wellformed sentences

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Agatha Christie has written many books.

Wellformed or illformed?

Agatha Christie many books written has.

I don´t like detective stories.

Detective stories I don’t like.

I detective stories like.*

*

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Students announced that they would protest vehemently and

Protest vehemently they did.

Students protested vehemently.

(?)

protest vehemently they did.

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Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

The child seems sleeping.

The child seems to be sleeping.

*

Tired little children sleep quietly.

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They don't want some cake.

We don‘t need no linguistics.

I didn‘t do nothing.

I saw nobody.

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We don't need no educationWe don‘t need no thought controlNo dark sarcasm in the classroomTeachers leave them kids aloneHey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!

(Pink Floyd)

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PD Dr. Susanne Winkler Universität Tübingen

I didn‘t say nothing (neg. concord reading)Contour A: Sentence focus contour

H*+L- H* L-L%

I didn't s a y n o th ing

fall fall

0

400

100

200

300

Time (s)0 0.904

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I didn‘t say nothing (logical double neg. reading)Contour B: Contrastive focus contour

H*+L H* L-H%

I didn't say n o th i n g

fall fall rise

75

400

200

300

Time (s)0 1.184


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Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Grammars:

Prescriptive Grammars: they lay down the normative rules of a grammar which define the so-called “standard language”.

They constitute an attempt to tell the users of thelanguage how to use it in order to speak correctly. This is the sense in which "I didn't do nothing" is„bad“ English grammar.

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Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Grammars:

A descriptive grammar then is not primarilyinterested in good or bad, correct or incorrectuse of language. Rather, it wants to provide a precise description of the facts. References to normative principles, or analogies with classiclanguages, such as Latin, are of no use. A descriptive grammar describes the actualgrammatical state of a language.

(Ferdinand de Saussure, 1891)

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Descriptive Grammars: attempt to describe thelanguage as it is being used, regardless of whether it is considered correct or not. In manydialects, people say "I didn't do nothing"; a descriptive grammar of such dialects wouldaccordingly treat that sentence as grammaticaland provide rules that account for it.

Likewise a descriptive grammar of formal English (standard English) would provide rules accountingfor "I didn't do anything."

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...þæt heora nan ne mehte nanes wæpnes gewealdanthat of-them none not could no weapon wield

'... that none of them could wield any weapon' (Orosius 4.10.103.24)

…ne sende se deofol ða fyr of heofenum, þeah þe hit ufan come…not sent the devil then fire from heaven though that it from above came

'the devil did not send fire from heaven then, though it came from above'

(ÆCHom I, (Pref)6.13)

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I want to thank my friend, Sen. He married a Texas girl, I want you to know.

Kary is with us. A West Texas girl,

(George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., May 27, 2004, 49:25-45)

Video Clip:

just like me.

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We‘ll make America what we want it to be –

a literate country and a hopefuller country.

(George W. Bush, Des Moines, Iowa, 8-21-2000; 11:35-12:14)

This has been tough weeks in that country.

(George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 13, 2004).

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The traditional approach:

? lists the rules of a specific language.

The description should account for

• illformed sentences

• ambiguous sentences

• wellformed sentences

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The father of the boy and the girl left.

Lisa saw young lions and tigers.

We don’t sell gasoline to anyone in a glass container.

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Ben could not go to her party. (two readings)

Ben couldn't go to her party. (one reading)

P1: It was not possible for Ben to go to her party.

P2: It was possible for Ben not to go to her party.

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To summarize: Traditional linguists formulate rules which account for the grammaticality, the ungrammaticality and the ambiguity of sentences.

And there is no doubt in my mind –

not one doubt in my mind –

that we will fail. (Busch, Oct. 4, 2001)

But, not everything can be explained on the basis of grammatical rules:

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- Language is described in terms of a taxonomy (i.e. classificatory list).

Traditional Grammar:

- Assumption: sentences are built up of a series of constituents (i.e. syntactic units), each of which belongs to a specific grammatical category and serves a specific grammatical function.

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“Every linguistic unit ( ... ) is to a greater or lesser degree restricted with respect to the contexts in which it can occur. This fact is expressed by saying that every linguistic unit (...) has a characteristic distribution. If two (or more) units occur in the same range of contexts they are said to be distributionally equivalent (or to have the same distribution).“

(John Lyons 1968: 70)


Distributional Analysis

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An observationally adequate grammar must be able to distinguish those strings of words which are sentences of the language from those which are not sentences of the language in question.


Observational Adequacy:

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A descriptively adequate grammar does not only list appropriate rules but also accounts for the competence of the speaker with respect to more general regularities of his or her language.

Descriptive adequacy:

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Generative Grammar (GG):A GG is defined as a formal grammar that isfully explicit. It consists of a set of rules bywhich it is possible to decide whether anygiven sentence is grammatical or not.

In most cases, a GG is capable of identifyingas grammatical ("generating") an infinite number of strings, from a finite set of rules. This is obviously a requirement for a correctgrammar of any natural human language.

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Result: "explanatory" adequate grammar

An explanatory grammar aims at the formulation of abstract rules, which specify universals on the one hand, and language acquisition on the other.

? Explaining the linguistic competence of the native speaker. The formal grammar has psychological reality.

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Conditions which we need to impose on a theory of language:

Criteria of adequacy:

1. universality

2. explanatory adequacy

3. maximally constrained

4. learnability

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Conclusion:A cognitive linguist – regardless whether preminimalist or minimalist - is like the formal linguist interested in isolating the principles or procedures that govern sentence formation and interpretation. But additionally, he conceives the study of language as the study of one aspect of human psychology, that is the human mind. As such, the cognitive linguist is interested in the linguistic abilities of the native speaker. A native speaker of a language is said to know his or her language without having explicitly studied the formation and interpretation rules. But the study of this implicit knowledge of language allows us to draw conclusions about the highly specialized functioning of the human mind.

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Introduction to English Linguistics - uni-tuebingen.de · 43 Introduction to English Linguistics...

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