Contrastive linguistics

1
Contrastive linguistics

• Polish-English major structural differences

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Differences

• microlinguistic analysis
• phonology/phonetics
• graphemics
• grammar
• morphology
• inflection
• word-formation
• syntax
• lexis

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Differences

• macrolinguistic analysis
• use of language in context
• linguistic context
• situational context
• who
• what
• when
• for what
• pragmatics

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microlinguistic analysis

• substance
• sounds
• characters
• symbols
• words, idioms lexical units
• combinations of symbols
• syntax

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substance

• languages are abstract
• languages are systems of relations
• one symbol to another
• a symbol to what it represents
• a symbol to the speaker/hearer
• we have to use those relations when speaking to
  other people

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substance

• a medium for conveying
• abstract linguistic relations
• a vehicle for a language
• sounds
• characters
• but also gestures

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symbols

• two functions
• meaningful units
• dog, make-up, do away with, it never rains but
  pours
• units for syntax
• NP, VP
• basic question how to create them?
• which also means
• what is their structure and
• discernible regularities

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syntax

• a system of relations of symbols
• a symbol is related to another symbol
• to produce a piece of information
• the sentence
• The sentence is traditionally the basic/highest
  linguistic unit
• A spoken sentence is called the utterance.
• Also a sentence in context is an utterance.

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English and Polish basic differences
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Phonology

• How to compare phonological systems?
• it assumes the same theoretical approach
• classical approach segmental
• distinctive features
• inventory of items (phonemes)
• distribution of phonemes (phonotactics)

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Phonology

• classical approach suprasegmental
• structure of the syllable
• word-stress
• connected speech
• intonation

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Phonetics

• How to compare phonetics?
• phonetic features, even those non-distinctive
  ones
• aspiration in English

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Phonology

• English
• vocalic
• 20 vowels in English (British RP)
• 7 vowels in Polish
• Polish
• consonental
• 35 consonants in Polish
• 24 consonants in English

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Phonology

• not only inventory but also combinations
• Polish
• pstry
• zlowieszczbny
• kontrsztaba
• przeciwwstrzasowy
• English strength, power

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Phonology problems

• Polish
• nasals?
• i/y?
• English
• diphthongs?

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Characters

• English
• uses only the Latin script
• NOT the classic script
• a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y
  z
• A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
  Z
• also for peculiarly English sounds
• th, sh
• Polish
• uses the Latin script
• and additional characters diacritics
• a c e l n ó s z z A C E L N Ó S Z Z

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Characters

• rules of combination are different
• English sh
• Polish sz, si, s

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Interpunction

• basically the same
• conventions differ

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Moby Dick

• Polish
• Chlopie ozwal sie oberzysta beda cie
  pewnikiem trapily w nocy koszmary.
• Gospodarzu szepnalem to chyba nie ten
  harpunnik, co?
• English
• 'My boy,' said the landlord, 'you'll have the
  nightmare to a dead sartainty.'
• 'Landlord,' I whispered, that 'aint the
  harpooneer, is it?'

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Interpunction

• Polish
• formal rules
• English
• semantic/interpretative
• grammatical function
• restrictive relative clauses

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Structure

• Most differences on the level of
• syntax
• inflection
• word-formation
• result from the basic difference between English
  and Polish

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Basic difference

• Different method of indicating relations in the
  sentence
• grammatical relations
• semantic relations

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Basic difference

• English
• word-order
• and inflection
• Polish
• inflection
• and word-order

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Word-order vs inflection

• Word order plays a fundamentally different role
• in Polish on the one hand and
• English on the other.
• Polish has a highly formalized case-ending system
  for indicating grammatical relations,
• it does not primarily make use of word order for
  indicating functions in the sentence.

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Polish

• Pan rzucil psu pilke.
• Pilke rzucil pan psu.
• Psu rzucil pilke pan.
• The master threw the ball to the dog.

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Polish-English

• Skakal
• Person
• 3d person
• Number
• singular
• Gender
• Masculine
• Tense
• Past
• Aspect
• imperfective

• He jumped
• jumped
• Tense
• Past
• Aspect?
• Non-continuous
• he
• gender
• human masculine
• number
• singular
• person
• 3d person

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Polish-English

• Skakal
• a modified word
• base modifying ending
• He jumped
• two words
• base base
• one word modifies the other

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Repetition of the same feature

• skakal
• Chlopiec skakal
• NMascSing VMascSing
• Duzy chlopiec skakal
• AdjMascSing NMascSing VMascSing
• The big boy jumped.
• Adj Nsing V

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Polish-English

• Polish
• the same semantic-grammatical feature is repeated
  as often as it is possible
• formal
• we need units that carry those features
• English
• there are as few semantic-grammatical features as
  possible
• interpretative
• there can be as few units as possible

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Polish-English

• It is a baby
• It/he/she is big.
• gender is interpretative
• The family/government are/is reunited
• number is interpretative

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Polish-English

• basic principle
• English
• addition of isolated items
• word-formation compounding
• sentence-formation word-order
• Polish
• modification of items bound together
• word-formation affixation
• sentence-formation inflection

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English-Polish

• compounding
• hamburger
• cheese/beef-burger
• table top
• little hand
• affixation
• reka
• raczka, rasia, raczynka
• blat stolu
• BUT kredyt bank, autoszyba

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Units

• Polish
• we need units that carry those features
• English
• there can be as few units as possible
• in translation that means that more words are
  necessary in Polish to translate an English text

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Units

• in the 1980s
• w LATACH osiemdziesiatych
• walk in space on Gemini 4
• Norman Mailer
• spacer w przestrzeni (w locie Gemini 4)
• actual translation
• arctic Canada
• Vladimir Nabokov
• podbiegunowe rejony Kanady
• possible translation