Introduction to the English language and its structures

1
Introduction to the English language and its
structures

• Academic Year 2008-9

2
Examination

• written examination with exercises and open
  questions on the main topics dealt with during
  the course
• the result of the written exam is averaged out
  with the result of the prova propedeutica I
  (lettorato)
• the prova propedeutica MUST be taken and passed
  before taking the Lingua Inglese examination

3
Set readings

• K. Ballard The frameworks of English (second
  edition 2007)
• J. Jenkins World Englishes
• V. Pulcini The pronunciation of English
  (photocopies)

4
Course calendar

• week 1 Feb. 23, 24, 25
• week 2 March 2, 3, 4
• (NO LESSONS on March 9-11)
• week 3 March 16, 17, 18
• week 4 March 23, 24, 25
• week 5 March 30, 31, April 1
• week 6 April 6, 7, 8 (NO LESSON April 15)
• week 7 April 20, 21, 22
• week 8 April 27, 28, 29
• week 9 May 4, 5, 6

5
Syllabus

• week 1 5 Ballard
• week 6 7 Phonology
• week 8 9 Jenkins

6
Week 1 23 Feb, 2009Overview

• implicit vs explicit linguistic competence
• frameworks and levels
• speech and writing
• which English?

7
Implicit vs explicit linguistic competence

• whole scoffed the Kate cake greedy has
• greedy Kate /has scoffed /the whole cake
• grammatical, semantic, phonetic competence

8
frameworks and levels

• the structures of a language
• lexis vocabulary, words, lexicon
• grammar the set of rules which enable a speaker
  to construct well-formed sentences (syntax and
  morphology)
• discourse a sequence of sentences making up a
  text
• phonology the sounds and the sound patterns

9
Semantics

• the study of meaning
• e.g. grub, grubby, grudge, gruff, grumble,
  grumpy, grunt
• meaning is dependent on context
• e.g. My best friend has just played a trick on
  me
• a dirty, rotten trick.
• I laughed so much I cried.

10

• Colourless green ideas sleep furiously
• (Noam Chomsky)

11
Speech vs writing

• writing is highly valued in our culture
• it is more permanent
• speech is the primary mode of communication
• some lexical and grammatical choices are more
  typical of spoken or of written language

12
Which English?

• Standard English a variety of English used by
  textbooks, newspapers, the media, public
  documents. The variety that foreign learners
  learn.
• contemporary, present-day English
• descriptive vs prescriptive approach

13
Non-standard dialect or variety

• multiple negation
• I never did nothing to upset her.
• Wheres me coat?

14
Week 1 24 Feb 2009Overview

• word
• lexeme or lexical item
• homonymy
• polysemy
• open / closed classes of words

15
word

• Old fat cats like to sleep in quiet sunny places
• a word is a linguistic item which is written with
  a space on either side
• a word is a typical free-standing unit which
  cannot be interrupted (with some exceptions, e.g.
  put off)

16

• a word is a minimal free form
• a word in isolation can function as a complete
  utterance
• e.g. Stop!
• No/Yes
• Possibly

17
compound words, multi-word verbs

• world-class (world-class cricketer)
• weekend, week-end
• to put off (to postpone)
• to give in (to surrender)
• to run up a debt (idiomatic)
• to pay through the nose (to pay an excessive
  amouny of money for sth)

18
lexeme

• the abstract, representative form of a word
• the form which is given in dictionaries, also
  lemma or citation form
• e.g. play
• forms play, plays, played, playing

19
homonymy

• identical word forms with different
  etymologically unrelated meanings
• e.g. host 1
• host 2
• etc.
• ?separate lexemes, separate entries in
  dictionaries

20
polysemy

• the same word form with different etymologically
  related meanings
• e.g. mouse 1 (animal)
• mouse 2 (computer device)
• ?same lexeme, same entry in dictionaries

21
lexical set

• group of semantically related words belonging to
  the same word class
• e.g. shoes, slippers, boots, socks, sandals,
  etc.

22
semantic field

• a group of semantically related words belonging
  to different word classes
• e.g. goal keeper, penalty, to score, to kick,
  etc.

23
word classes

• 9 major word classes
• nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns,
  determiners, auxiliaries, prepositions,
  conjunctions
• 2 minor word classes
• interjections (wow) and particles (to, not)
• numerals

24
Divide the following words into 2 groups

• pig, autumn, me, explain, they, which, sing,
  suddenly, from, today, biology, and, truth,
  could, the, extraordinary, since, hot, announce,
  in

25

• pig, autumn, explain, sing, suddenly, today,
  biology, truth, extraordinary, hot, announce
• me, they, which, from, and, could, the, since, in

26
open and closed classes

• open-class words ? lexical words ? content words
• 4 classes
• nouns, (lexical) verbs, adjectives, adverbs
• closed-class words ? grammatical words ? function
  words
• 5 classes
• pronouns, determiners, auxiliaries,
  prepositions, conjunctions

27
open-class words

• length (generally) polysyllabic
• origin (generally) Latin, Greek, French,
  Germanic origin
• frequency less frequent

28
closed-class words

• length (generally) monosyllabic or
  disyllabic
• origin (generally) Germanic origin
• frequency more frequent

29
neology and obsolescence

• language change impossible to count the words in
  a language and provide an exhaustive list
• neologisms
• obsolete words
• dictionaries are late in recording new words
• open classes words cannot be counted
• closed classes words can be counted

30

• the same word form may belong to more than one
  word class
• e.g. fast (adj.), fast (adv.), fast (n.)
• park (n.), to park (v.)
• can (n.), can (aux.)
• only the co-text, i.e. the surroundings of
  the word, allows the reader/listener to
  understand the difference
• word stress helps disambiguation
• e.g. rebel (n.) ?????, rebel (v.) ??????

31
week 1 25 Feb. 2009overview

• nouns
• lexical verbs
• adjectives
• adverbs
• pronouns
• determiners
• auxiliaries
• prepositions
• conjunctions
• wh-words

32
nouns

• open class with a naming function (from Latin
  nomen)
• can be preceded by the definite article
• e.g. much to my amazement a large fat cat was
  sleeping in our garden
• the cat
• the garden
• the amazement
• applicable to common nouns only

33
common nouns, proper nouns

• the city , the London (I remember)
• the language , the English,
• the Bank of England, the USA
• concrete nouns vs. abstract nouns
• cat vs amazement
• car vs beauty

34
lexical verbs, auxiliary verbs

• open class denoting actions or states (from Latin
  verbum, word)
• lexical verbs ? main verbs ? full verbs ? verbs
• auxiliary verbs (or auxiliaries) are added to
  lexical verbs for various purposes
• e.g. I could go faster. (modality)
• John is going nowhere. (aspect)
• Do you go to school? (question)
• I havent been there yet. (negative)
• I do love him! (emphasis)

35
lexical verbs

• dynamic referring to physical processes
• e.g. to play, to stroll, to cut, etc.
• stative referring to states and conditions
• e.g. to feel, to love, to think, etc.

36
tense

• present tense
• e.g. Tom walks to the station.
• past tense
• e.g. Tom walked to the station.

37
Adjectives

• open-class with a descriptive function
• attributive function, before a noun
• e.g. the extraordinary boy
• an intelligent man
• predicative function, after copular verbs (to
  be, to seem, to appear)
• e.g. John is tall
• London is beautiful

38

• some adjectives are only used in either
  attributive or predicative function
• e.g. the child is afraid (predicative)
• the afraid child
• e.g. the chief mourner (attributive)
• the mourner is chief

39
gradability

• most adjectives are gradable
• it is possible to indicate to what extent the
  quality referred to by an adjective applies
• e.g. lucky
• very lucky
• fairly lucky
• extremely lucky
• adjectives may be graded by intensifiers

40

• some adjectives are not gradable
• e.g. enormous
• very enormous
• huge
• extremely huge
• unique
• very unique