LINGUA INGLESE I · •Basic concepts of linguistics •The current state of English: English...

LINGUA INGLESE I

VALENTINA PIUNNO

A.A. 2019/2020

CANALE E-O

Introducing English Linguistics

Elenco dei temi affrontatiPRIMA PARTE

• Alphabet Division

• Lingua inglese I (A-D)• Docente: Montini II SEM.

• Lingua inglese I (E-O)• Docente: Piunno I SEM.

• Lingua inglese I C (P-Z)• Docente: Ciambella I SEM.

Introducing English Linguistics AA 2019/2020

General information

General information

• Timetable

• Lingua inglese I B - Piunno (E-O)

• Thursdays 17-19 room T01• Fridays 11-13 room T02

10th October – 20th December


Attendance is not compulsory, but highly recommended

• Office hours and room

• Valentina Piunno

• Thursdays 15.30-17.00 (II floor, room 205)

• It may change!!!

• Always check the website http://www.lettere.uniroma1.it/users/valentina-piunno


General information

• Contacts

Websitehttp://www.lettere.uniroma1.it/users/valentina-piunnoThis is where all information pertinent to this class is posted.

[email protected]


General information

• Required textbooks• Further readings


General information

• Required textbooks

1) Lesley Jeffries

Discovering language.The Structure of Modern English

LondonPalgrave MacMillan, 2006


General information


2) Howard Jackson, Etienne Zé Amvela

Words, Meaning and Vocabulary.An Introduction to Modern EnglishLexicology

2nd Edition, LondonContinuum International, 2007

Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5


General information


3) Charles F. Meyer

Introducing English Linguistics

CambridgeCambridge University Press 2009

Chapter 2

Copisteria Jasmine Bookshop (Via dei Reti 11)


General information


3) Laurel J. Brinton & Donna M. Brinton

The linguistic structure of modernEnglish

Amsterdam/PhiladelphiaJohn Benjamins Publishing, 2010

Chapter 11 (section 2.3 excluded)


General information

Copisteria Jasmine Bookshop (Via dei Reti 11)

• Further readings

1) Laura PinnavaiaIntroduzione alla linguisticaingleseRoma, Carocci, 2015

(highly recommended)


General information

• Basic concepts of linguistics• The current state of English: English world-wide• English as a Germanic language: introduction to genealogical and typological

classification of English • Morphology

• the structure of words, morpheme, inflection, derivation & other word-formation processes• Syntax

• the phrase and the structure of sentences • clause functions and information structure

• The analysis of texts • coherence & cohesion, context

• Lexicon• the origin of English, the notion of «word», word classes, relations between words

• Semantics• the meaning of words, meaning relations

• Pragmatics• Phonetics and phonology

Course outline


Basic concepts of linguistics

• References:• Required textbooks

• Discovering language (Lesley Jeffries) à chapter 7

• Further readings (recommended, but not compulsory)• The Handbook of Linguistics, M. Aronoff & J. Rees-Miller, John Wiley

& Sons, 2017, pp. xiii-xv• Linguistics Student's Handbook, L. Bauer, Edinburgh University

Press, 2007, pp. 3-18• Nuovi fondamenti di linguistica, Raffaele Simone, McGraw Hill, 2013,

pp. 1-37.


Basic concepts of linguistics

LINGUISTICS§ Linguistics is the scientific study of Language (in general) and communication.§ Linguistics is a descriptive discipline§ Subfields of linguistics§ Interdisciplinary studies involving linguistics

LANGUAGE§ Language is a communication system of signs§ Linguistic signs are bilateral (signifier and signified)§ Differences between animal and human language

HUMAN LANGUAGE FEATURES§ Arbitrariness§ Duality of patterning§ Open-endedness (creativity)§ Displacement/stimulus-freedom


Subfields of linguistics (LEVELS OF ANALYSIS)

LINGUISTICS

PHONETICSThe study of

speech sounds and their acoustic

properties

PHONOLOGYThe study of the speech sounds

used in a particular language

MORPHOLOGYThe study of

word structure

SYNTAXThe study of

sentence structure

SEMANTICSThe study of

linguistic meaning

PRAGMATICSThe study of language use (language in

context)

LEXICOLOGYThe study of the lexicon (simple and complex

words)


Interdisciplinary branches of Linguistics

q LINGUISTIC TYPOLOGY (How languages can be analyzed and classified according to their structural and functional features)

q HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS (How languages change over time)

q SOCIOLINGUISTICS(How languages vary socially)

q ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS(The study of language in its cultural context)

Interdisciplinary studies involve two or more academic disciplines which are considered distinct. The most common interdisciplinary branches of Linguistics are:

Linguistics Student's HandbookL. Bauer


Interdisciplinary branches of Linguisticsq AREAL LINGUISTICS

(The features of linguistic structure that tend to characterise a particular geographical area

q LEXICOGRAPHY(The principles that underlie the process of compiling dictionaries)

q PSYCHOLINGUISTICS(What happens in people’s heads as they use language)

q NEUROLINGUISTICS(How language is processed and stored in the brain)

q LANGUAGE ACQUISITION (How people learn languages as their first or second language)

q COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS (The use of computers in the analysis of linguistic behavior and the human languages)

Linguistics Student's HandbookL. Bauer


English world-wide

• References:• Required textbooks

• Introducing English Linguistics (C.F. Meyer 2009), Chapter 2


The world languages• Many languages àfew speakers• A small subset à widely spoken


World languages Introducing English LinguisticsC.F. Meyer 2009

Most commonly spoken languages in the world


English world-wide§ English status as a world language: “global language”

§ a reflection of historic and economic developments, ICT development, globalisation and internationalisation

§ Functions of English§ (native language (ENL),§ second language (ESL),§ foreign language (EFL)

§ Regional varieties & Standard English

§ Received Pronunciation


The comparative method• Three kinds of linguistic and non-linguistic evidence

• A. Cognate vocabulary• B. Grammatical similarities• C. Historical/archeological information


The comparative method• A. Cognate vocabulary

• important for determining what the parent language might have lookedlike.• vocabulary representing common human experiences is compared

• E.g. Body part nouns, Pronouns, Seasons, Verbs of existence

words from Germanic languages words from other Indo-European languages

GRIMM’S LAW à Indo-European /p/ became /f/ in GermanicCf. father, Vater, padre, pére


The comparative method

B. Grammatical similarities

• Grammatical features on N or Adj• Case• Number• Gender

C. Historical/Archeological information

• non-linguistic evidence

• E.g. evidence about• when and where speakers of PIE lived• migrations


Typological classification of languages and of EnglishIntroduction to genealogical and typological classification of English

§ Classifications according to:

§ morphological features:§ Isolating, agglutinative, fusional, polysynthetic languages

• Some languages exhibit characteristics of more than one type• What about English?

• Old English à was a typically fusional language• Modern English à increasingly isolating

§ syntactic features (order of the subject (S), verb (V) and object (O))

§ phonological features (according to sounds)


Word structure & Inflection

References:

Required textbooks

• Discovering language (Lesley Jeffries)à chapter 3

• Words, meaning and vocabulary (Howard Jackson & Etinne ZéAmvela)

à chapter 4


English word structure - morphology§ Morpheme as the smallest unit of meaning in the language (form and

meaning)§ bound morphemes (-ness, -ly, -s, -est) § free morphemes (dark)

§ monomorphemic or simplex words (e.g. dark, tall, boy)§ polymorphemic or complex words (e.g. darkness)

Word structure


Morpheme§ The smallest meaningful linguistic unit and therefore the smallest linguistic sign.§ Larger than the phoneme (the smallest identifiable unit of speech which can

make, but not carry meaning) and smaller than the word § Morphemes usually have an identifiable meaning

§ The morpheme consists of a class of variants, the allomorphs§ different forms that a morpheme can take § are phonologically, grammatically or lexically conditioned.

e.g. {Plural}� Allomorphs of the plural morpheme

§ Phonological conditioning à regular plural allomorphs /z/, /s/, /iz/ (thevariations in pronunciation involve morphemes, so they are consideredallomorphs of the plural morpheme)

§ Grammatical contitioning à Irregular sheep§ Lexical conditioning à Irregular woman – women

Word structure


Inflection• Inflection

• à is the process by which the main lexical word classes (noun,verb, adjective and adverb) in English acquire regular endings• to form particular grammatical structures• to produce alternative grammatical forms of words

• Inflectional morphemes• are all suffixes in English§ regular, in both form and meaning§ apply to all the members of a word class, but with some significant

irregular exceptions§ do not change the class of the word, but alter the grammatical form

• Is English a highly inflected language?


• VERBS• {third person singular} morpheme -s• {past tense} morpheme -ed • {past participle} morpheme -ed (-en)• {progressive} morpheme -ing

• ADJECTIVES• {comparative } -er• {superlative } -est

• NOUNS• {plural form} à for countable nouns (free+bound morphemes, e.g. sisters)• {2 possessive forms} à free+bound morphemes

• bound morpheme added to the singular form (e.g. sister’s) • bound morpheme added to the plural form (e.g. sisters’)

Inflectional morphemes


Derivation

References:

Required textbooks



à chapter 4


Inflection vs Derivation• Talk• Talks• Talked• Talking

• Talk • Talker

Different forms of the same word

Different words for semantic and

syntactic reasons

Inflection Derivation


Inflection vs Derivation• Derivation

• is the process by which words have a morpheme added that changes• their meaning • often their class too

• creates new vocabulary items• less regular• some groups of words with shared semantic features that have

similar derivations

• Inflection• leads to the formation of alternative grammatical forms• highly productive


Inflection vs Derivation• Derivational morphemes

• Do not attach to words in a very regular way• Can be either prefixes or suffixes• A word can contain many derivational affixes• Derivational affixes may change or not the word class• Derivational suffixes always precede the inflectional suffixes

• E.g. payments payV + -ment + -s

• Inflectional morphemes• Can only be suffixes• A word can contain only one inflectional affix• Inflectional affixes don’t change the word class• Always at the end of a word


• Patterns of derivation

• Class-changing derivational affixes• Mainly suffixes• Each word class has distinct patterns of derivation

• NOUNS • Nominalizers

• VERBS• Verbalizers

• ADJECTIVES• Adjectivizers

• ADVERBS• Adverbializers

• Class-mantaining derivational affix• Change the meaning but not the word class• Mainly prefixes

Derivation


Compounding

References:

Required textbooks



à chapter 4


Compounding• Semantic features

• Unpredictable and arbitrary (e.g. dirty work vs *clean work)• Phonological features

• Specific pattern of stress: one syllable in the first element will receiveprimary stress, and one syllable in the second element secondary stress

• Syntactic features• Word order• Interruptibility• Modification• Inflectibility

• Morpho-syntactic & semantic features• Head & Modifier

• Syntactic features (inflection, lexical category)• Semantic features

• Endocentric (subordinate_1_head vs coordinate_2_heads)• Exocentric compounds

• Lexical features: different patterns, depending on the PoS (e.g. N+N, Adj+N)


Word formation processes

References:

Required textbooks


à chapter 4


Conversionq Conversion may involve: q A change within the same word class

• Uncountable nouns à countable• Intransitive verbs à transitive verbs

q A change from one word class to another• NOUN à VERB to cage, to bottle, to water, to gesture• VERB à NOUN a call, a guess, a spy

q Multiple changes of word classes• E.g. down

• PàV (to down), PàN (ups and downs), PàA (the level is down)

q A whole phrase• PHRASE à NOUN (A forget-me-not, A has been, A don’t know)• PHRASE à ADJECTIVE (A Monday morning feeling)


Stress• Any change in spelling or pronunciation

• E.g. STRESS• à the impression of more energy in the articulation of the stressed

syllable, which usually results in its sounding louder and longer thanother syllables

• Sometimes a change in the stress pattern distinguishes the wordclass• E.g. NOUNS VERBS

‘contract con’tract‘import im’port‘permit per’mit

• The stress is a derivational affix (NOT conversion!)


Blending

• The merging of two (often) longer words to form a new one • The first part of the first element is added to the second part of

the second element• fusion of their meanings

• E.g. brunch < Breakfast + Lunchglocal < Global + Localinfotainment < Information + EntertainmentBrexit < Britain + Exit

Also telescope words or portemanteau words


Shortening• CLIPPING

• E.g. • Lab < laboratory à beginning• Plane < airplane à end• Phone < telephone à end• Flu < influenza à middle

BACKFORMATION• A presumed affix, which is in fact not truly an affix,

is removed• Analogy with other formations

• televise < television, editor < edit, babysit < babysitter


Shortening• Initialism

• ALPHABETISMS UK < United Kingdom• ACRONYMS NATO < North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• Aphetic forms• The omission of the initial unstressed syllable• ‘cause < because


Word classesReferences:

Required textbooks



à pp. 21-22


Word classes• Lexical words

• Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs

• Content words à they carry the meaning of a sentence

• Very large• Open-ended

• new nouns being invented all the time (technology and science, fashion)

• Grammatical words• Conjunctions, Prepositions,

Pronouns, Determiners, (Auxiliaries)• Function words à grammatical

information• Very small classes (closed classes)• Very slow to change

distinguished according to Morphological & Syntactic features


• Noun

• Morphological properties• Plural suffix (Countable nouns)• Possessive morpheme ’s• Specific derivational suffixes: -ism, -hood, -ment

• Syntactic features• a noun is the ‘head’ of a noun phrase• it can occur after a definite or indefinite article or a determiner• may have a number of adjectives between the article and the noun

• Syntactic function in the clause• Subject: The crocodile (ate my hat)• Object: (The president announced) his plans• Complement: (This substance is) refined sugar• Adverbial: Every night (they sing a song)• Adjectival: world happiness report


Verbs• Semantics

• Lexical verbs

• Modal verbs

• Auxiliary verbs

+ lexical meaning- grammatical meaning

- lexical meaning+ grammatical meaning

FULL/HEAVY VERBS

LIGHT VERBS


VerbsLexical or full verbsq Depending on the context in which they occur• Intransitive

• SUBJ-VERB à do not require an Object to follow them

• Transitive• SUBJ-VERB-OBJà require an Object to complete them

• Ditransitive• SUBJ-VERB-OBJ1-OBJ2

à John sent his brother the letterà require the presence of two objects (Direct and Indirect)


VerbsLexical or full verbsq Depending on the clause structures in which they typically occur

q verb complementation à require complementation with specific phrases

• Verbs with compulsory adverbials• The meaning relates the subject to time/space

• E.g. • The teacher put the books away/in the cupboard• The festival lasts for a week/all week

• Intensive (or copular) verbs • à require a single complement

à VERB + ADJ/NOUN/PP à an intrinsic connection between the Subject and the

Complement• Bill became a teacher / Carrie is tall à equivalence• there is a tree à existence


• Adjectives• Morphological features

• Gradable• comparative and superlative forms (big, bigger, biggest)• regularly have preceding intensifying adverbs (totally awful)

• Non-gradable adjectives• meanings which cannot be modified by adverbs

• E.g. colour, material or nationality

• Functional features• Attributive and predicative functions

• Adverbs• Form (single word, prepositional phrases)• Function: Adjective modifier, Verb modifier, Sentence modifier


Grammatical word classes• Functions:

• To make explicit the links between lexical words• To create the context in which the lexical words can operate

successfully.

• Auxiliary & modal verbs• Dummy do• Progressive be• Passive be• Perfective have• Modals & (epistemic and deontic) modality


• Pronouns• Syntactic function

• they can be subjects, objects and complements• Textual function

• They substitute for more complex nouns and noun phrases in order to make the language more efficient and avoid repetition

• ‘anaphoric’ reference and ‘cataphoric’ reference

• Determiners• Syntactic distribution

• Determiners (before the noun or the adjective)• Predeterminers (specify quantity in the noun which follows them)

• Semantic properties• Define the head noun in certain ways in relation to the context

and the speaker


• Prepositions• Single word

• in, on, under, over, through, by, near, for, to, of• Complex prepositions

• because of, next to, as well as, in addition to, with respect to

• Conjunctions• Coordinating & Subordinating


SyntaxPhrases

References:

Required textbooks



• PHRASE• Structure: head (obligatory) + modifiers (optional)

• the head • is semantically the most important element• cannot be omitted• can sometimes be pronominalised

• NOUN PHRASES• Structure:

• Recursion & embedded structures • à relative clauses• à PPs

• Parsing and representation

Appositive NounsNon-finite clauseSome AdjectivesSome Adverbs


• VERB PHRASE• No recursion• Restriction on the sequence of modals, auxiliaries & lexical verbs

• ADJECTIVE PHRASE• Form (Simple unit: single word; Complex unit: complement)• Function

• premodifier of the head noun in a noun phrase • complement of intensive verbs

• ADVERB PHRASE • Form: single word• Functions (adverbial in a clause structure, adjective premodifier)

• PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE• Form: P+NP• Main functions

• noun phrase postmodifier , adjective postmodifier, adverbial clause element


SyntaxClauses & Sentences

References:

Required textbooks



• Clauses à a grammatical unit consisting of clause elements (usually a subject and a predicator)

• Clauses combine together to make complex sentences• Utterances• Clause elements in English

• Subject (Subj)• Function: Actor• Form: NP, Subordinate clause:• Distribution: Usually precedes the predicator; no subject in imperative structures

and subordinate clauses

• Predicator (Pred)• Form: few forms• Function: what is said about the S; Action, state, process• Distribution: normally follows the subject

• Object (Obj)• Function: the element affected by the verb, object that is not affected but

created by the action of the verb• Form: NP, clause• Distribution: after the predicator


• Indirect Object (IO)• Function: Beneficiary• Form: a noun phrase or a pronoun• Distribution: precedes the direct object or placed into an adverbial (PP)

• Complement (Comp) • Form: NP, ADJ_P• Function: used to complete what we know about something or somebody

already mentioned (S or O)• Distribution: subject complements after the verb, object complements after

the object

• Adverbial (Adv)• Form: ADV_P, PP, NP• Function: describes the circumstances in which the process of the clause

takes place; expresses modality• Distribution:

• Adjuncts: They have a potential for mobility that the other clause elements lack• Compulsory Adverbials: after the predicator


Form and function relationships

Form FunctionNoun phrase Subject, Object, Adverbial, ComplementVerb phrase PredicatorAdjective phrase ComplementAdverb phrase AdverbialPrepositional phrase Adverbial Clause Subject, Object


Seven basic clause structures

• Kernel sentences (simple clauses)• Basic structures which underlie most of the sentences in English

• SP: They ran• SPO: They played music• SPC: The journey was a nightmare/terrible• SPA: Mr Stevens went to London• SPOO: Philip sent me a present• SPOC: My mum made me an artist/artistic• SPOA: The conductor placed his baton on the music stand


Clauses & SentencesInformation structureText & Context

References:

Required textbooks

• Discovering language (Lesley Jeffries)à chapter 5à chapter 7 (pp. 182-187)


Clauses• Coordination & Subordination

• A) Coordination • does not change the structure, but simply adds some content to it• Two units are given equal status

• à coordination of words/phrases• à coordination of two whole clauses

• B) Subordination• à Embedding of phrases (e.g. NP: Postmodifying PPs, premodifying

Nouns)• à Embedding of clauses

• In the NP (relative clauses)• At the level of a clause element (noun clauses (S, O, C), adverb clauses

(adjuncts))


Information structure• The normal clause in English • à the new information tends to occur towards the end of the

clause

• There are some ways of altering the information focus of clauses = placing one clause element in a focal position• A) Fronting• B) Cleft sentence• C) Transformations (e.g. passive)


Text & text analysis• Text and discourse analysis is about how

• sentences combine to form texts. • texts work across boundaries of single sentences to form whole

stretches of language

• Coherence • à is the way in which ideas in a text are linked logically

• Cohesion • the linking mechanism between sentences • serves to make sure that a text is not simply a random series of

unconnected sentences• à is the way in which different parts of a text may refer to each other

(linking devices, pronouns, etc).


Cohesive linksCohesive links

• are textual rather than contextual

• make an explicit connection between the sentences in a text.

• Six different groups:• Repetition• Reference• Substitution• Ellipsis• Conjunction• Lexical cohesion


Context

References:

Required textbooks

• Discovering language (Lesley Jeffries)à pp. 190-192


Context• The language we use is affected by the people we interact with, our status in particular

situations, our recent experiences, our place of origin, our political, religious or social outlook

• Some of these factors are described by sociolinguistics, dialectology, pragmatics,conversation analysis and stylistics

• One aspect of meaning that is both textual and contextual in nature:

• Deixis is one feature of reference that is so pervasive and significant in terms of textualmeaning

• Function à to make direct links with the situational context of the speaker or writer

• Form à is textually based in English (e.g. adverbs of place (e.g. here and there)


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