Linguistics Notes

TSL3101 INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

TOPIC 1 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

1.0 SYNOPSIS

Topic 1 introduces you to the History of the English language. It provides an overview of the origin of the English language and how it spreads all over the world. It also aims to help you understand better the varieties of English spoken in the world.

1.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of Topic 1, you will be able to:

trace the origin of English language

define the terms World Englishes and World English

name the varieties of English used

1.2 FRAMEWORK OF TOPICS

CONTENT

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Indo-European Language Family Tree


SESSION ONE (3 Hours)

History of the English Language

English is a member of the Indo-European family of languages. This broad family includes most of the European languages spoken today.

1.2.1 Indo-European Language Family Tree

The Indo-European family includes several major branches: Latin and the modern Romance languages (French etc.); the Germanic languages (English, German, Swedish etc.); the Indo-Iranian languages (Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit etc.); the Slavic languages (Russian, Polish, Czech etc.); the Baltic languages of Latvian and Lithuanian; the Celtic languages (Welsh, Irish Gaelic etc.); Greek.

The influence of the original Indo-European language can be seen today, even though no written record of it exists. The word for father, for example, is vater in German, pater in Latin, and pitr in Sanskrit. These words are all cognates, similar words in different languages that share the same root. Of these branches of the Indo-European family, two are, as far as the study of the development of English is concerned, of paramount importance, the Germanic and the Romance (called that because the Romance languages derive from Latin, the language of ancient Rome).

The Germanic Family of Languages

English is a member of the Germanic family of languages. Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European language family. It is believed that this group began as a common language in the Elbe river region about 3,000 years ago.

The map below shows how the Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and south coasts in the 5th century.

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By the second century BC, this Common Germanic language had split into three distinct sub-groups:

• East Germanic was spoken by peoples who migrated back to southeastern Europe. No East Germanic language is spoken today, and the only written East Germanic language that survives is Gothic.

• North Germanic evolved into the modern Scandinavian languages of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic (but not Finnish, which is related to Hungarian and Estonian and is not an Indo-European language).

• West Germanic is the ancestor of modern German, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, and English.

Indo-European languages around the world

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Within the red borders, the IE languages are the predominant or official languages.

1.2.2 World Englishes

World Englishes refers to the emergence of localized or indigenized varieties of English, especially varieties that have developed in nations colonized by England or the United States. World Englishes consist of varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts globally, and how sociolinguistic histories, multicultural backgrounds and contexts of function impact the use of colonial English in different regions of the world.

Currently, there are approximately 75 territories where English is spoken either as a first language (L1) or as an unofficial or institutionalised second language (L2) in fields such as government, law and education. It is difficult to establish the total number of Englishes in the world, as new varieties of English are constantly being developed and discovered

World English versus World Englishes

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_language


The notions of World English and World Englishes are far from similar, although the terms are often mistakenly used interchangeably. World English refers to the English language as a lingua franca used in business, trade, diplomacy and other spheres of global activity, while World Englishes refers to the different varieties of English and English-based creoles developed in different regions of the world.

Classification of Englishes

The spread of English around the world is often discussed in terms of three distinct groups of users, where English is used respectively as:

1. a native language (ENL); the primary language of the majority population of a country, such as in the United States or the United Kingdom.

2. a second language (ESL); an additional language for intranational as well as international communication in communities that are multilingual, such as in India, Nigeria, and Singapore.

3. a foreign language (EFL); used almost exclusively for international communication, such as in Japan and Germany.

Most of these Englishes developed as a result of colonial imposition of the language in

various parts of the world.Kachru's Three Circles of English

• The most influential model of the spread of English is Braj Kachru 's model of World Englishes. In this model the diffusion of English is captured in terms of three Concentric Circles of the language: The Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle

The Inner Circle

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braj_Kachru

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braj_Kachru

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingual

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-based_creole_languages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_English


The Inner Circle refers to English as it originally took shape and was spread across the world in the first diaspora. In this transplantation of English, speakers from England carried the language to Australia, New Zealand and North America.

The Inner Circle thus represents the traditional historical and sociolinguistic bases of English in regions where it is now used as a primary language: the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Malta, anglophone Canada and South Africa (South Africa is regarded as a special case), and some of Caribbean territories. English is the native language or mother tongue of most people in these countries. The total number of English speakers in the inner circle is as high as 380 million, of whom some 120 million are outside the United States.

The Outer Circle

The Outer Circle of English was produced by the second diaspora of English, which spread the language through the colonization by Great Britain and the USA in Asia and Africa. In these regions, English is not the native tongue, but serves as a useful lingua franca between ethnic and language groups.

Higher education, the legislature and judiciary, national commerce and so on may all be carried out predominantly in English. This circle includes India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania, Kenya, non-Anglophone South Africa, etc. The total number of English speakers in the outer circle is estimated to range from 150 million to 300 million.

The Expanding Circle

Finally, the Expanding Circle encompasses countries where English plays no historical or governmental role, but where it is nevertheless widely used as a medium of international communication. This includes much of the rest of the world's population not categorised above: China, Russia, Japan, most of Europe, Korea, Egypt, Indonesia, etc. The total in this expanding circle is the most difficult to estimate, especially because English may be employed for specific, limited purposes, usually business English. The estimates of these users range from 100 million to one billion. The Future of World Englishes

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Philippines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legislature

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_tongue

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora


Two scenarios have been advanced about English's future status as the major world language: it will ultimately fragment into a large number of mutually unintelligible varieties (in effect, languages), or it will converge so that differences across groups of speakers are largely eliminated.

English as the language of ‘others’

If English is, numerically speaking, the language of ‘others’, then the centre of gravity of the language is almost certain to shift in the direction of the ‘others’. In the words of Widdowson, there is likely to be a paradigm shift from one of language distribution to one of language spread:

"When we talk about the spread of English, then, it is not that the conventionally coded forms and meanings are transmitted into different environments and different surroundings, and taken up and used by different groups of people. It is not a matter of the actual language being distributed but of the virtual language being spread and in the process being variously actualized. The distribution of the actual language implies adoption and conformity. The spread of virtual language implies adaptation and nonconformity. The two processes are quite different."

In this new paradigm, English spreads and adapts according to the linguistic and cultural preferences of its users in the Outer and Expanding circles (refer to Kachru's Three Circles of English). However, if English is genuinely to become the language of ‘others’, then the ‘others’ have to be accorded – or perhaps more likely, accord themselves – at least the same English language rights as those claimed by mother-tongue speakers. However, it remains to be seen whether such a paradigm shift will take place.

The languages of ‘others’ as World Languages

The other potential shift in the linguistic centre of gravity is that English could lose its international role altogether, or, at best, come to share it with a number of equals. Although this would not happen mainly as a result of native-speaker resistance to the spread of non-native speaker Englishes and the consequent abandoning of English by large numbers of non-native speakers, the latter could undoubtedly play a part. Due to the inherent difficulties of the English language, it would not be surprising if there was eventually a move to abandon English in favour of an international language with fewer complicating linguistic factors along with less of a colonial

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http://www.answers.com/topic/international-language

http://www.answers.com/topic/international-language

http://www.answers.com/topic/international-english

http://www.answers.com/topic/paradigm-shift

http://www.answers.com/topic/henry-widdowson

http://www.answers.com/topic/language

http://www.answers.com/topic/mutual-intelligibility

http://www.answers.com/topic/mutual-intelligibility

http://www.answers.com/topic/world-language


discourse attached to it. Spanish appears to be a major contender, with its simpler pronunciation, spelling and verb systems, and its increasing influence in both the EU and America.

Further evidence that English may eventually give way to another language (or languages) as the world’s lingua franca is provided by the Internet. According to Crystal, "When the internet started it was of course 100 percent English because of where it came from, but since the 1980s that status has started to fall away. By 1995, it was down to about 80 per cent present of English on the internet, and the current figures for 2001 are that it is hovering somewhere between 60 percent and 70 percent, with a significant drop likely over the next four or five years . “

On the other hand, there are at least 1500 languages present on the internet now and that figure is likely to increase. Nevertheless Crystal predicts that English will remain the dominant presence.

Exercise 1

Based on the diagram below, find out the information on Old English, Middle English and Modern English. Provide written samples to show the differences.

Exercise 2

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http://www.answers.com/topic/david-crystal

http://www.answers.com/topic/global-internet-usage

http://www.answers.com/topic/lingua-franca

http://www.answers.com/topic/united-states

http://www.answers.com/topic/european-union

http://www.answers.com/topic/spanish-language


Based on the information that you have read in this topic, draw a graphic organizer to show the spread of English around the world as discussed in terms of the three distinct groups of users. Define these terms: native language, second language and foreign language.

Take a break before you move on to the next topic.

TOPIC 2 NATURE AND FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE

2.0 SYNOPSIS

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Topic 2 highlights the nature and function of language. It seeks to develop your knowledge in English language, by defining the meaning of a language, the purpose and properties of language. It also aims to help you understand the difference between human language and animal communication, verbal and non-verbal communication, speech and writing and the notion of correctness.


By the end of this Topic, you will be able to:

identify the purpose and use of a language

list the properties of language

compare and contrast human language and animal communication

give examples of non-verbal communication

differentiate between speech and writing

identify grammatically and non-grammatically correct sentences


CONTENT

SESSION ONE (3 Hours)

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Nature and Function of Language

Definition of language

Human languagevs animal

communicationcommon

communication

Forms of communicatio

n(VC & Non VC)

Purpose and use of language

Properties of language


2.2.1 Definition of language

There are various definitions of language.

Language is:-

a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings

(Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language 1961)

a system of arbitrary, vocal symbols which permit all people in a given culture, or other people who have learned the system of that culture, to communicate or to interact

(Finocchiaro 1964)

any set or system of linguistic symbols as used in a more or less uniform fashion by a number of people who are thus enabled to communicate intelligibly with one another

(Random House Dictionary of the English Language 1966)

a system of communication by sound, operating through the organs of speech and hearing, among members of a given community, and using vocal symbols possessing arbitrary conventional meanings

(Pei 1996)

In composite, language:

is systematic and generative. is a set of arbitrary symbols. those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be visual. the symbols have conventionalized meanings to which they refer. is used for communication. operates in a speech community or culture is essentially human, although possibly not limited to humans. is acquired by all people in much the same way.

2.2.2 Purpose and use of language

There are two main functions of a language: Interactional functions and Transactional functions

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Interactional Functions

Humans use language to interact with each other, socially and emotionally; how they indicate friendliness, co-operation or hostility, or annoyance, pain or pleasure. Examples of interactional functions are given below:

Emotional expression

Emotive or expressive function of language can be used whether or not we are alone.

Expressive - insult, compliment, expressing anger, happiness, sadness, disappointment.- angry or frustrated state; swear words and obscenities

Expressing appreciation to poetry, literature, paintings e.g. involuntary verbal reaction to a breathtaking scenery, and the emotional outpourings of certain kinds of poetry.

Social interaction

• Language is used to maintain a comfortable relationship between people. Its function is to provide a means of avoiding situation which both parties might otherwise find embarrassing.‘Good morning; and ‘Pleased to meet you’‘Lovely day; How are you?

• No factual content is involved: maintain rapport between people

The anthropologist Bronislow Malinoswki refers to it as ‘phatic communion’ - the basic need to signal friendship -social function.

• Directive - language of social control - persuasion - advertising, sermons, preaching, order.Examples; a) Sit up straight b) Pass the milk please

c) Aren’t you feeling hot? …meaning take off the coat. d) You make a good door … meaning get out of the way

Informative – most people think this is language primary function E.g. It is six o’clock. She’s almost five years old

My favourite colour is red.

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Transactional functions

Humans use their language to communicate knowledge, skills and information. It must have developed for the transfer of knowledge from one generation to another. The transfer remains fairly restricted in time and space as long as it can only be realised in speech.

All forms of supernatural belief involve the use of language as a means of controlling the forces which the believers feel affect their lives. For example, the various prayers and formulae which are directed at God, gods, devils, spirits, objects and other physical forces, are always in highly distinctive forms of language.

Recording the facts When language is used for the purpose of recording facts, it displays a much greater degree of organisation, impersonality, and explicitness. This function of language is represented by all kinds of record keeping such as historical records, geographical surveys, business accounts, scientific reports, parliamentary acts and public data bank.

The instrument of thought

People often feel the need to speak their thoughts aloud. It helps their concentration. The common use of language as an instrument of thought is found when people perform mathematical calculations in their head. Sometimes people move their lips but no sound comes out of them – sub-vocal form.

The expression of identity

Many social situations display language which unites rather than informs. Our use of language can tell our listener or reader a great deal about ourselves. A major function of language is the expression of personal identity.

• Multifunctional utterances are normal and frequent • E.g. Your son is a bully (informative, expressive, directive) • I’ll see you at ten in my office (informative, directive)

2.2.3 Properties of language

In any communication system, a code is used to transmit messages. A code is a complex pattern of association of the units of a communication system. Humans have a highly elaborated code called language, made up of words and the rules

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that combine them. (In language those units could be sound units; meaningful units, such as words, or meaningful units that are larger than words, such as phrases, clauses and sentences).

The study of language has identified several features of properties of language that differentiate human and animal codes.

1. Arbitrariness means that human languages use neutral symbols. There is no connection between the linguistic form and its corresponding linguistic meaning/ the thing being referred to / concept.

For example: Something as large as a ‘whale’ can be referred to by a very short word. Similarly, there is no natural connection between the word ‘dog’ and the four-legged animal it symbolises. It can be called by other names in other languages.

Onomatopoeic words such as "meow" or "bark“, “cuckoo”, “pop”, “bang”, “slurp”, and “squish”are often cited as counter-examples, based on the argument that they are pronounced like the sound they refer. However, the similarity is very loose. Give one example.

2. Cultural transmission and tradition indicates that human beings hand their languages down from one generation to another. Human language is not something inborn. However, the potential to acquire a language is innate. Humans have the genetic potential to learn to encode their messages by acquiring the rules or grammar of their language

3. Discreteness. It means that the basic units of speech sound can be categorized as belonging to distinct categories or treated as discrete. The sounds used in language are meaningfully distinct. /ʃ /, /ɪ/. There is no gradual, continuous shading from one sound to another in the linguistics system, although there may be a continuum in the real physical world.

4. Duality of patterning /(double articulation) . Language is organised in 2 layers, the basic sound units of speech or discrete sounds e.g. /p/,/e /,/n/, - only meaningful when combined. The discrete parts of a language can be recombined in a systematic way to create new forms. Duality of patterning refers to the ability to recombine small units in different orders.

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5. Displacement the ability to refer to things far removed in time and place. The speaker can talk about things which are not present, either spatially or temporally. For example, human language allows speakers to talk about the present, the past and the future.

They can also talk about things that are physically distant (such as other countries, the moon, etc.). They can even refer to things and events that do not actually exist (not present in reality) like Santa Claus or the destruction of Tara in Gone with the Wind.

Animal communication is almost exclusively designed for this moment, here and now

6. Structure dependence. Humans recognise the patterned nature of language and manipulate ‘structured chunks’ e.g. they understand that a group of words can sometimes be the structural equivalent of one. (productivity)

For example:- The old lady / who was wearing a white bonnet / gave the donkey a carrot.- A carrot / was given to the donkey / by the old lady who was wearing a white

bonnet.

7. Productivity is the ability to produce and understand virtually unlimited number of utterances (novel sentences) from a limited number of words. A person can talk about anything he likes because of the ability to generate novel meanings

8. Openness is the ability to add new words, phrases or other meaningful units to a language. Humans can coin new words at will, hence adding new lexical items.

Both properties are part of the creativity aspect of human language.

Prevarication refers to the ability to communicate about things that are not verifiable, things for which there is no empirical proof – saying about false or fictional things.

Generally absent in other animal communication system except perhaps some animals may fake conditions like death to confuse a predator, some animals

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mimic the sounds of other species. This playing dead and mimicking other species is similar to lying – but genetically pre-programmed whereas humans learn to lie.

9. Semanticity - the use of symbols to ‘mean or refer to objects and actions e.g. chair means a 4-legged contraption one sits on; jump means the act of leaping in the air. (specific signals matched with specific meanings). Some writers claimed that semanticity is exclusively human. Animals produce signal codes to denote a condition rather than referring to a specific object and action- threat, fear, danger, hunger, anger.

10. Vocal auditory channel - Sounds are made with the vocal organs and a hearing mechanism receives them

11.Reciprocity/ Interchangeability - Any speaker or sender of a linguistic signal can also be a listener or receiver. The speaker can both receive and broadcast the same signal.

Tutorial Task

1. The following are additional properties of human language. Elaborate each property.(i) Broadcast transmission and directional reception. (ii) Total feedback

2. Discuss how the properties of language distinguish human and animal codes.

3. What does it mean to know a language? Relate it to linguistic competence and linguistic performance.

SESSION TWO (3 Hours)

2.2.4 Human language vs animal communication

Look at the pictures.

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What do you think these animals are doing? Do you think they are communicating? What might they be saying? Are language and communication equivalent? Do they use language to communicate with

each other?

List down the things that human use to communicate with each other. Then compare your answers with a partner.

What is Communication?

Communication is the ability to share information with people, and to understand what information and feelings are being conveyed by others. It can take on many forms including gestures, facial expressions, signs, vocalizations (including pitch and tone), in addition to speech and written communication.

Teachers and students frequently use nonverbal methods to communicate. Students often show disinterest in school by avoiding eye contact or sitting back in their chairs with their arms folded across their chests during instruction. Staff members may indicate that they have time to talk but they may show disinterest by grading papers or busying themselves while you are trying to talk. Conversely, a smiling, nodding face indicates that the listener is interested in what we are saying and encourages us to continue.

Communication includes a broad range of actions which help the teachers work more effectively with students and other teachers. Teachers interact with many different people during the day, including administrators, other teachers, parents, students and others. The ability of teachers to contribute to the education program will depend on his or her communication skills.

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2.2.5 Non-Verbal Communication

There are two forms of communication: Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication.

Verbal communication requires a language. Language is defined in terms of semantics, that is, a group of labels used to represent approximations of space-time events and abstractions. The labels can be conveyed from one entity to another by a variety of means : vocalization, writing, etc.

Non-verbal communication (NVC) is any communication that takes place using non-linguistic signs, or “non-word signs” (Harrison, 1974). NVC is independent of a formal language, whereby ideas and concepts can be expressed without the use of coherent labels. It refers to the processes without the use of language proper, e.g. body movements, gesture, smells but also such extra-linguistic features of speech as intonation, speed or pause. Non-verbal messages often convey more meaning than the spoken words. 65% of a message’s meaning is communicated through non-verbal clues. (Birdwhistell, 1970). 90% of the meaning of a message is transmitted non-verbally. (Fromkin & Rodman, 1983).

Reflection

In your opinion, which of the items in the list below contribute most to communication? Number the five most important. Then compare your answers with a partner.

Things which human use to communicate with each other.

Style of dress, Hair style Gestures, Body posture Listening, Fluency, Accent Facial expressions, Behaviour Accurate use of language structures, Vocabulary Eye movements

Types of Non-Verbal Communication

There are three types on non-verbal communication: kinesics, proxemics and paralanguage. The types and examples are given below.

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KINESICS

1. GESTURES

They are used to convey meanings. For examples: a. Extremities of our bodies e.g. Hitchhiker’s outstretched thumb, thumb-

index finger circle for “OK”, use of middle finger. b. Directly tied to speech - mother in the window moving her hand to her

mouth, pretending to eat, to indicate to her child outside that he/she has to come in for dinner.

2. FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

These are similar across all cultures. Facial expressions readily reflect different feelings: happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, anger, disgust and interest. For examples : a. A child opening a present. You can observe the joy and delight in his/her

eyes and facial expression.b. Adults receiving news that they owe Revenue Malaysia a large sum of

money. Facial muscles would become tight and rigid indicating anger and disbelief.

c. A smile and joyful eyes when receiving expression of gratitude from some.d. Notification of next of kin of a death. Facial expression should show

sympathy and genuine concern.

3. EYE GAZE OR EYE CONTACT

This is an important means of giving social recognition. In some cultures, people of lower status tend not to look into the eyes of people of higher status or authority. When an individual of lower status does directly look at someone of authority, that directness may indicate hostility or confrontation. Avoiding eye contact may accompany emotions such as anxiety, shame and embarrassment. For examples:

a. Romeo lovingly gazing into the eyes of Juliet. His eyes will express warmth, passion and affection.

b. A teenager having purchased his first car. His eyes will express pride and satisfaction.

c. During a suspect interview, an accused may avoid direct eye contact with the police officers in the denial of his/her actions

4. BODY POSTURE OR BODY MOVEMENT

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This kinetic factor can communicate attitude, self-image and relationship.

For examples: a. The body movements of a potential employee in a job-related interview. Palms may be sweaty, maybe biting his nails. b. A father confronting his child about his wrongdoing. The child will fidget on the edge of the chair as he looks for a way out of the situation.

PROXEMICS

INTERPERSONAL DISTANCE or “SPACE BUBBLE” that surrounds each person.

Interpersonal distances:a. Intimate Distance – up to 18 inchesb. Personal Distance – 1 ½ feet to 4 feetc. Social Distance – 1 foot to about 12 feetd. Public Distance – 12 feet or overe. Canadians communicate at an arm’s distance from each other. Narrowing

the gap and actually touching the person being spoken to identifies the communication and establishes power. Restricting and invading another’s personal space creates tension for him or her.

For examples: a. In the observation of an argument, you will notice one of the parties involved

moving in close to the other one while trying to make the point. b. When you meet someone for the first time, you leave them a polite distance

and if the person moves within this distance, you become uncomfortable and uneasy (perhaps move away).

c. Police officer places hand on someone? d. Police officer putting hands on somebody – confrontation. “The strong hand

of the law”.

PARALANGUAGE

Tone of voice indicating attitude, authority, empathy. Pitch of voice indicating emotions and tensions and stress.

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Volume indicating the importance of certain words or phrases as well as emotions.

For Examples:

a. Arriving at the scene of a motor vehicle accident, the police officer has to take charge of the situation. The voice will be strong and firm expressing authority.

b. When a police officer is giving evidence in court, the voice will be steady and confident, showing impartiality.

A. Barbour, author of Louder Than Words: Nonverbal Communication said that the total impact of a message breaks down is: 7% verbal (words); 38% vocal (volume, pitch, rhythm, etc.); and 55% body movements (mostly facial expressions. This breakdown indicates that effective nonverbal communication skills are essential.

Non-Verbal Communication: Cues, Signals and Symbols

A cue is a type of communication used by an adult to let a child know what is expected of him/her in a given situation. Cues are a type of receptive communication.

Signals are movements the child used to communicate needs, desires and feelings to adults. Signals are a form of expressive communication. Symbols are representations of an event, object, person, or place that can be used to communicate about the event, action, person, or place. They can be used for both receptive and expressive communication. They may start as cues and signals.

One thing is certain is that whatever the means of non-verbal communication may be, it will have to be related to the senses of the communicators because, obviously, it is the senses which receive information. We, as humans, are aware of five senses suitable to be used in communicating. Communication for us can be related to any of these senses.

Task: Non-Verbal Communication Activity

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In this exercise you will be asked to exhibit some non-verbal communications. Ask a friend to help you with this exercise. Try to communicate the following using non-verbal communications.

a) No b) Sit down c) Come in d) Be quiet

e) I don't know f) Stand up g) I'm mad h) I'm happy

i) Stop j) Go away or get away

After you have practiced with a colleague or friend member, try to use non-verbal communication with your other friends.

Reflection

What is your reaction to the activity?

Did you feel you could communicate without speaking?

Do you think we sometimes convey one message verbally and a different message nonverbally? If so, which message is taken as most important?

Tutorial Task

Communication Profile

What are your own communication behaviors? Identify your non-verbal and verbal behaviors. Reflect on how you would react and answer the following questions.

How do you stand (arms, legs and posture) in the following situations? Angry Sad Relaxed Happy

What is your voice like in the situations above?

What facial expressions do you use for the following? Angry Sad Relaxed

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Happy

What gestures do you use in the situations above?

What is your eye contact like?

Do you have good eye contact when you are angry or happy?

Do you consider yourself to be a verbal or nonverbal person?

Remember that students are unaware of many of the behaviors that they exhibit when communicating. By perfecting your own communication skills you can become a positive role model for children and adolescents, helping them become more effective communicators as they practice good communication skills.

Tutorial Task

Find out why non-verbal communication is important? Be prepared to discuss your answers during the face-to-face interaction with your tutor.

Relax your mind for a while before you move on to the next session.

SESSION THREE (3 Hours)

2.2.6 Speech and writing

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When we talk about language, sometimes we mean speech (spoken language), sometimes writing (written language).

Reflection

What is speech (spoken language)?

What is writing (written language)?

How are they similar?

How are they different?

Speech is an interpersonal communication where sound is the medium. We use speech organs (mouth, throat) and ears in speaking and listening. Para-linguistics features, e.g. pause, loudness, stress, intonation etc. and extra-linguistics features, e.g. gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, nods, body posture, etc. used to aid communication. Speech is where thinking, speaking and listening go on at almost the same time. If the listener fails to understand what the speaker says it at the time, he will not get another chance to listen to it again.

Writing is a system for interpersonal communication using visible signs or graphic symbols on a flat surface such as paper, cloth or even stone slabs. Every language has its own graphic symbols. Written English uses a system consisting 26 letters (a, b, c, …..z). Writing is thinking put on paper and is a very complex skill. The writer needs to know the subject matter, purpose, interaction and a sense of audience, language, conventions, thinking skills, organizational skills, value systems, mechanics and the writing process.

2.9 Summary of Differences between Spoken and Written Language

No. Differences Spoken Language Written Language

1. Medium Sound is the medium. We use speech organs (mouth, throat) and ears in speaking and listening.

Words on a page or screen is the medium. We use our hands to write and our eyes to read.

2. Resources Para-linguistics features and extra- linguistics features are used to aid communication.

only words on the page and punctuation marks available.

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3. Processing time

thinking, speaking and listening go on at almost the same time. Speech is ephemeral.

the writer can take his time in composing and the reader can take his time reading and re-reading what is written. Writing is permanent.

4. Feedback the speaker can find out the listeners’ response to what he said almost instantly.

delayed feedback. The writer has to wait until he gets a reply to his letter or review of his ideas.

5. Language usually simple sentences and vocabulary used.

more sophisticated and complex structures and vocabulary used.

6. Organization more meandering and fewer organizational markers, especially in spontaneous speech, e.g. conversation.

Usually well-organized because more time for planning.

7. Performance many false starts, fillers, pauses, etc found.

editing. Therefore, no mistakes visible.

Tutorial Task:

There are some other differences between speech and writing (e.g. age, universality, acquisition, level of structure, interdependence, retrievability, prestige, standardization, formality, literacy and change).

Briefly explain what these differences are.

Take a break and move on to the notions of correctness when you are ready!

2.2.7 Notions of correctness

What is grammar?

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Grammar is what we know. It represents our linguistic competence - linguistic knowledge. Linguistic knowledge is learned subconsciously, with no awareness that rules are being learned => represents a complex cognitive system. Linguistic performance is applying (using) this knowledge in actual speech production and comprehension (e.g. slips of tongue, hesitations, repetitions etc.) The grammar of a language consist of the sounds and sound patterns, the basic units of meaning such as words, and the rules to combine all of these to form sentences with the desired meaning.

Grammatical versus ungrammatical

In all languages, every sentence is a sequence of words but not every sequence of words is a sentence. A sequence of words that conform to the rules of syntax are said to be well-formed or grammatical. Violation to the syntactic rules are ill-formed or ungrammatical. A sentence is said to be grammatical when it conforms to the rule of grammar – mental grammar and description of the internalised grammar. Not all strings of words constitute sentences in a language - our knowledge of a language determines which are and which are not “rules for forming sentences”.

Grammaticality is based on rules acquired or constructed unconsciously as children. The ability to make grammatical judgments depends on syntactic knowledge. For examples: Enormous crickets in pink socks danced at the prom; and A verb crumpled the milk. Grammatical judgments do not depend on whether the sentence is meaningful or not. Grammaticality does not depend on the truth of sentences.

The notion of ungrammatical is used to characterize utterances that cannot be said by native speakers of a language. For example, any violation of a relatively small set of prescriptive “rules” like these:

1. Never split the infinitive.2. Never begin a sentence with and or but3. It’s me is ungrammatical; it is I is grammatical.

Exercise 1

Check the grammaticality of the following sentences:

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1. Robin forced the sheriff leave.

2. The devil made Faust leave.

3. That birds can fly amazes.

4. Myself bit John

5. It is easy to frighten Emily.

That’s all you have to do.

Take a break and move on to topic 3 when you are ready!

TOPIC 3 PHONOLOGY: THE SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE

3.0 SYNOPSIS

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Topic 3 provides you with some basic information on the English sounds system. It gives you some practice in saying the words correctly with the right stress and intonation. It encourages you to tell your experience and your views on how you learn to speak English and the strategies that you use to encourage your pupils to speak. This will prepare you to speak with more confident and express your views fluently.


By the end of this Session, you will be able to:

label the articulators in the speech organs used in producing different

English sounds

know the phonetic symbol of the alphabets; transcribe and pronounce words according to their phonetic symbols identify and analyse vowel/ diphthong sounds and consonant sounds

speak with correct pronunciation, enunciation, stress and intonation


CONTENT

SESSION FOUR (3 Hours)

3.2.1 What is Phonology?

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Phonology: The Sounds of Language

Speech Organs and Articulation

Sounds of English

Phonemes and Phonemic

Transcriptions

Introduction to Supra- segmental

Features


Do you often wonder why some words are not pronounced the way they are spelt? Isn’t it frustrating when you can spell words correctly but don’t know how they are pronounced? Now, that’s the beauty of the English language.

To start off, let’s be clear of what phonology is and then look at the seven main articulators in our speech organs that are used in the production of speech.

Phonology is the study of the sound systems of languages, and of the general properties displayed by these systems (the contrast in sound [phonemes] which make the difference within the language.

3.2.2 Speech organs and articulation

There are seven main articulators.

Pharynx – a tube which begins just above the larynx. It is divided into two at its top, one part being the back of the mouth and the other being the beginning of the way through the nasal cavity. If you look in the mirror with your mouth open, you can see the back of the pharynx.

Velum / Soft Palate – often in speech, the velum is raised so that air cannot escape through the nose. It is also one of the articulators that can be touched by the tongue. When we make the sounds / k / and / g / the tongue is in contact with the lower side of the velum. Hence, these sounds are called velar consonants.

Hard Palate – it is often called ‘roof of the mouth’. You can feel its smooth curved surface with your tongue.

Alveolar Ridge – it is between the top front teeth and the hard palate. Its surface is covered with little ridges. You can feel its shape with your tongue. Sounds made with the tongue touching here such as / t / and / d / are called alveolar.Tongue – it is a very important articulator and can be moved into many different places and different shapes. The tongue is divided into different parts such as tip, blade, front, back and root. (see Figure 2.)

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Teeth (upper and lower) – most speakers have teeth to the sides of their mouth. The back is almost to the soft palate. The tongue is in contact with the upper side for many speech sounds. Sounds made with the tongue touching the front teeth are called dental.

Lips – they are important in speech. The lips can be pressed together (to produce the sounds / p /, brought into contact with teeth (as in / f /, / v /), or rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels like / u: /. Sounds in which lips are in contact with each other are called bilabial, while those with lip-to-teeth contact are called labiodental.

The seven articulators described above are the main ones but there are three other things to remember:

Larynx – it could also be described as an articulator; a very complex and an independent one. You can feel the vibration in your larynx (Adam’s apple) when you produce voiced sounds such as / z /.

Jaws – they are sometimes called articulators because the movement of the jaws (especially the lower one) helps a lot in speaking. However, the jaws are not articulators in the same way as the others because they themselves cannot make contact with other articulators.

Nose and nasal cavity – they are a very important part of our vocal apparatus of making sounds, particularly nasal consonants such as / m /, / n /. However, the nose and nasal cavity cannot really be described as articulators in the same way as the seven main articulators described above.

Reflection

How do you think speech sounds are produced?How Are Speech Sounds Produced?

First, air coming from the lungs passes through the vocal tract, which shapes it into different speech sounds. The air then exits the vocal tract through the mouth or nose or both. The process by which air is made to move out of the lungs is called an egressive pulmonic airstream.

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The processes that the vocal tract uses in creating a multitude of sounds are similar to those of wind instruments and organ pipes, which produce different musical sounds by varying the shape, size and acoustic character of the cavities through which air passes.

Likewise, every speech sound sounds different because of some unique combination of features in the way you shape your mouth and tongue and move parts of the vocal apparatus when you speak. All English sounds are produced in this manner.

Take a break for a while before you move on to the sounds of English!

3.2.3 Sounds of English

There are 26 letters in the English language, 5 vowels and 21 consonants. However, what we are more concerned with is the spoken sounds of the alphabets. The spoken English has 44 phonic sounds, 20 spoken vowels and 24 spoken consonants. We will look at the phonic structure of English in detail.

Vowel Sounds

Vowels (20 vowels sounds) – are articulated without any obstruction as the air passes from the larynx to the lips. The vocal cords always vibrate. In contrast, the air flow has to be obstructed at different points when articulating consonants.

cat sun rose, boat, toe girl, curl, fern poor, lure

car cape, sail, hay

moon, blue, screw

house, cow letter

saw, vault, ball bee, leaf book coin, boy

kid hen rose, boat, toe hare, fair

dog kite, tie, light fork, core ear, deer, here

List of phonetic symbols and keywords

Short vowels Long Vowels

ɪ as in bɪt i: as in sheep

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e as in bed α: as in father

æ as in cat ɔ: as in door

ɒ as in dog u: as in boot

ʌ as in but з: as in bird

ʊ as in put

ə as in about

i as in happy

u as in actuality

Diphthongs

Diphthongs (8 diphthongs) – a sound which consists of a glide from one vowel to another. A vowel which does not glide is a pure vowel. Some vowels end in a glide / i:j /, / u:w /.

Diphthongs glide between two vowels. The ending vowel in a diphthong is one of / ə /, / ɪ /, or / ʊ /, e.g. / ɪə / beer, / eə / bare, / eɪ / make, /əʊ / home, / aɪ / five, /aʊ / how, etc. (see diagram)

eɪ as in make ɔ: as in boy aʊ as in now eə as in hair uə as in actual

aɪ as in lie əʊ as in note ɪə as in real ʊə as in sure iə as in peculiar

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Some examples of diphthongs can be seen in the table above.

Consonants

Consonants have the following characteristics:

24 consonant sounds

bed hen pup wig chimp

cat, kid, sock jet rod yak then

dog log sun zip thumb

fan mop tub ring, sink television

gum net van shop

Consonants

p as in pen g as in get s as in soon x as in loch ŋ as in sung

b as in back f as in fat z as in zero tʃ as in cheer w as in wet

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t as in ten v as in view ʃ as in ship dʒ as in jump l as in let

d as in day θ as in thing ʒ as in pleasure m as in sum r as in red

k as in key ð as in then h as in hour n as in sun j as in yet

Now that you have gone through the phonetic sounds and symbols, let’s look at some exercises.

Exercise 1

In this exercise you are to rewrite the following words into phonetic symbols. (you can refer to the dictionary to help you).

Words Phonetic symbols

Apologize

Bewilder

Comprehend

Confess

Confide

Demolish

Devour

Discuss

Expose

Exercise 2

In this exercise, you are to rewrite the following phonetic symbols into words.

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Phonetic symbols Words

θІŋĸ

aɪѕ

ʃʊd

ðə

ɒv

gз:lz

Take a break for a while.

Strong and Weak Forms Certain well-known English words can be pronounced in two different ways: these are called strong forms and weak forms.

Weak forms are those words that are pronounced in an unstressed manner. They are called function words or grammatical words such as conjunctions, articles, pronouns, prepositions and some auxiliary and modal verbs.

The pronunciation of a weak form can be so different from the strong form that it is barely recognizable as being the same word. If said in isolation, it would be all but unintelligible. Usually, it is the context that makes it understandable.

It is possible to use only strong forms in English, and some non-native speakers do exactly this. However, it sounds very unnatural to a native speaker and it will also mean that a person who only uses the strong form of English will have trouble understanding native speakers of English who use the weak form all the time.Example:

Word Strong form Weak form Example

as æz əz əzgʊdəzðɪz

but bʌt bət bətðætsnɒtɔ:l

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and ænd ən ju:ənmi:

of ɒv əv ðəbestəvɔ:l

than ðæn ðən betəðəntɒmz

you ju: jə djənəʊ

does dʌz dəz wɒdəzʃi:wɒnt

from frm frəm Ιtsfrəmsu:

at æt ət lʊkətmi:

his hɪz əz hi:zɒnəzəʊn

There is sometimes an important difference in meaning between strong and weak forms, e.g.

I’m gonna be sick (prediction)I’m going to school (destination)

What have we gotta take? (necessity)What have we got to eat? (availability)

Tutorial Question

Prepare your answer to the following questions for your tutorial session.

(a) How do you differentiate between long vowels and short vowels?

(b) How would you define consonant clusters?

(c) How would you define vowel clusters?

(d) What are the problems that you faced while completing this topic?

SESSION FIVE (3 Hours)

3.2.4 Phonemes and phonemic transcriptions

A phoneme can be defined as a minimal sound unit which is capable of contrasting word meaning. This can be illustrated using minimal pairs.

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e.g. tip bit mate pat bet but

dip bid made pad bed bud

The words in each pair have different meanings and this difference is signaled by the difference between / t / and / d /. Therefore, / t / and / d / are separate phonemes. Another way of saying this is to state that sounds are separate phonemes if they contrast in identical environments.

In English, there are 44 phonemes (24 consonants and 20 vowels).

The /pʰ/ is aspirated (puff of air) as in ‘pill’ and ‘poker’ whereas un-aspirated / p / occurs after ‘s’ as in ‘sprint’ and ‘spine’. The different / p / sound is called an allophone. An allophone is described as a variant of a phoneme. Allophones occur only in certain positions within a word.

When two or more sounds do not occur in the same sound environment, they are said to be in complementary distribution. An example of complementary distribution occurs in the allophones of / l / in English. Dark / l / always occurs at the end of a syllable while light / l / always occurs at the beginning of a syllable. Neither allophone may occur in the other’s position.

Another type of relationship between allophones of a single phoneme is called free variation. Two allophones are said to be in free variation when a word is pronounced in two different ways – using two different phonemes but has no effect on the meaning. For example, pronunciation of the word ‘tomato’. There is no difference in meaning between the two ways of pronouncing the word. As such, the sounds / a: / and /eɪ / are in free variation of this word.

3.2.5 Introduction to Suprasegmental Features

Suprasegmental, also called Prosodic Feature, in phonetics, is a speech feature such as stress, rhythm, tone (intonation), or word juncture that accompanies or is added over consonants and vowels. These features are not limited to single sounds but often extend over syllables, words, or phrases. Suprasegmentals are so called in contrast to consonants and vowels, which are treated as serially ordered segments of the spoken utterance.

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Stress

Stress refers to the degree of prominence a syllable has. Generally three stress syllable are recognized. They are: primary, secondary and unstressed.

Word Stress

Study the stress pattern for each of the words shown below:

‘photograph

pho’tographer

photo’graphic

Using the correct stress patterns, try to pronounce the words.

Exercise 1

Practice pronouncing these words with the correct stress patterns.

Tiresome humanitarian ceremony

distinction praiseworthy downstream

exception particular exceptional

Check your stress patterns with your tutors!

Exercise 2

Place a primary stress mark over the syllable that has the greatest prominence.

1. defer _________________

2. differ _________________

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3. pervert (verb) _________________

4. pervert (noun) _________________

5. conflict (verb) _________________

6. conflict (noun) _________________

7. superb _________________

8. romance _________________

defence _________________

9. research _________________

10.accent _________________

11.education _________________

12. interruption _________________

13.humanitarian _________________

14.socialised _________________

Good work! Excellent!

Rhythm

Rhythm is the occurrence of stressed syllables at regular intervals of time. English speech is rhythmical.

Rhythm is important in English because it can result in miscommunication. Contrast “talking to themselves” and “talking to damsels”

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We need to understand rhythm patterns in English in order to understand native speakers of English and also to try to speak in that rhythm so that we may be understood by them.

Intonation

Intonation refers to the tune a speaker uses when speaking. There are two basic patterns of intonation: the rising tune and the falling tune. They can be put together in various combinations: rise-fall-rise, fall-rise-fall, etc.

Intonation and sentence stress are very clearly connected in speech. They are used together to put the precise message across to the listener.

The following two utterances are examples.

1. You speak English, don’t you? Falling tune

2. You speak English, don’t you? Rising tune

Exercise 1

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Read the dialogue and mark the intonation pattern.

See Ti : Hello, Ah Boo. How are you?

Ah Boo : Just fine, fine. What about you?

See Ti : Oh, not bad. Ah Boo, you know Rani, don’t you?

Ah Boo : Yes, I met her in our London office last month.

See Ti : In London? Relax and move on to the next section when you are ready.

TOPIC 4 MORPHOLOGY: THE WORDS OF LANGUAGE

4.0 SYNOPSIS

Topic 4 introduces you to the word structure and word formation of the English language. It seeks to develop your knowledge in English language, by understanding the different types of morphemes and how English words are structured and formed. It also aims to help you further improve your skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing and develop your confidence and fluency in using English in a variety of context.



1. discuss word structure and formation;

2. identify the different classification of morphemes

3. give reasons for the classification

4. analyse word formation processes


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CONTENT

SESSION SIX (6 Hours)

4.2.1 What is Morphology?

Morphology is the study of word structure and word formation. Words - though impossible to define in absolute terms, can be thought of as the units that are combined to form sentences in a language such as English.

Simple Words - consisting of a single morpheme; a word that cannot be analysed into smaller meaningful parts, e.g. ‘item’, ‘five’, ‘chunk’, ‘the’. Complex words consist of a root, plus one or more affixes (e.g. ‘items’, ‘walked’, ‘dirty’). Compound word is a word that is formed from two or more simple or complex words (e.g. landlord, red-hot, window cleaner)

4.2.2 Types of Morphemes

Just as sentences can be broken down in smaller units (words), we can break words down into smaller, meaningful parts. The smallest meaningful part of a word is called a morpheme. Not all words have more than one morpheme. Words that have only one morpheme are also called monomorphemic words (e.g. boy). Words with more than one morpheme are called polymorphemic words, as in foolishness (fool + ish + ness). Morphemes can be classified as either free or bound.

4.2.2.1 Free and Bound Morphemes

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Morphology: The Words of Language

Types of Morphemes

Free Morphem

e

Bound Morphem

e

Derivational

Morpheme

Inflectional

Morpheme

Word Formation Processes


Free morphemes are units of meaning which can stand alone as an independent word or alongside another free or bound morpheme (e.g. lid, sink, air, car – individual words). They cannot be split into anything smaller (e.g. tree, gate, pillow, butter, flower, rhinoceros etc.). However, the terms gate, butter and flower can also exist alongside another free morpheme e.g. gatepost, buttermilk, sunflower – consists two free morphemes.

A bound morpheme is a unit of meaning which can only exist alongside a free morpheme. It cannot stand alone as an independent word, but must be attached to another morpheme/word (affixes, such as plural ‘-s’, prefixes – ungrateful, insufficient, and suffixes – childish, goodness - are always bound). It cannot be split into anything smaller. They must be bound to one or more free morphemes.

A base is an element (free or bound, root morpheme or complex word) to which additional morphemes are added. It is also called a stem. It can consist of a single root morpheme, as with the ‘care’ of ‘careless’. It can also be a word that itself contains more than one morpheme (e.g. careless as a base to form the word ‘carelessness’)

A root is a (usually free) morpheme around which words can be built up through the addition of affixes (e.g. the root ‘kind’ can have affixes added to it to form ‘kindly’, ‘kindness’, ‘kinder’, ‘kindest’. The root is the item you have left when you strip all other morphemes off of a complex word.

The meaning of a word can be changed by adding another word or part of a word to it. Examples: Root-word Prefix Suffix

able unable ability

care uncaring careless/careful/carefully

able – means can She is able to do the job.

unable – means cannot She is unable to do the job.

ability – means skill need to do something.

She has the ability to take up the challenge of the job.

Now, take a look at the Prefixes.

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We add prefixes at the start of a word. Some prefixes are:

Prefix Meaning Exampleanti- Against something anti-socialcounter- Take opposite action counter-attackdis Not dislike, disapprove, disagreeex- Former, previous, past ex-wife, ex-student, ex-boyfriendin-, im-, il-, ir-

Not inactive, impossible,iilogical, irreplaceable

un- Not, changes a word to the opposite meaning

unkind, untidy, unable

mis- Done incorrectly mistake, misadventure, misusenon- Not non-violent, non-conformistre- Do over again, go back redo, replace, recycle, rewindinter- Between interfere, international, interchange

Remember, when words are added at the start of a word, they are called prefixes. Now, take at a look at Exercises 1 and 2 and do the exercises to check your understanding.

Exercise 1

Using the dictionary, find out what these words mean.

Word Meaning Root-word

glorious

eateries

probably

assortments

temptation

surrounded

Exercise 2

Add suitable prefixes to the following words.

Word Prefix Word Prefix

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like behave

proper unite

responsible rational

known pack

Did you get the answers all right? Well done! Now look at the suffixes.

In the meantime take a break first and move on to suffixes!

Suffixes

Suffixes are added to the end of a word. They not only change the meaning of a word, they also change the part of speech.

Suffix Meaning New word is a: Example-or, -er Person noun Teenager, actor-eer Person noun Engineer, auctioneer-ster Person doing an

activitynoun Gangster

-let, -ette Small noun Booklet, statuette-ess Female noun Waitress-hood, -ship, -dom

Status, condition noun Childhood, friendship, freedom

-ful The amount something has, being full of

noun, adjective SpoonfulWasteful

-ite Member of a community

noun Penangite

-ese, -(i)an Member of a community

noun, adjective Chinese, Christian

-ist Person or party noun, adjective Buddhist -ism Belief, attitude, actions abstract noun Marxism, heroism,

tourism-ant Person or instrument noun Combatant-tion, -sion State, action, group abstract,

collective nounGeneration, persuasion

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-ment State mainly abstract Excitement-age Result of action abstract noun Weightage-ness, -ity-ify, -ize Cause to make or

becomeverb Quantify, specialize,

madden-less Being empty of adjective Sleepless-ay, -al, -ish, -ive, -ous, -able, -ible, -like

Having the qualities of adjective Friendly, nutty, global, bookish, talkative, tortuous, readable, credible, warlike

-ly In this way adverb Cheaply, tiredly

Remember, for suffixes, the word is added at the end of the word. Now, look at Exercise 1 and try to add suffixes to the words.

Exercise 1:

Add suffixes to the following words. Use your dictionary to check your answers

glorious politeregular uniteproper lawfulpossible difficultsafe savour

Would you like to have more practice in prefixes and suffixes? You can list down as many words as you can think of and add prefixes or suffixes to these words.

The previous section gives you an idea of how words if added new word or part of a word to them would mean different things. Therefore, when you come across words with prefixes or suffixes, you need to be extra careful with their meanings.

Take a break first before you read on to other categories of morphemes and allormorphs.

Categories of Morphemes

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A content morpheme is a morpheme that names a concept/idea in our record of experience of the world. It has semantic content – independent and identifiable meaning; and has a full lexical meaning of its own. They fall into the classes of noun, verb, adjective, adverb.

A function morpheme is a morpheme whose primary meaning/function is to signal relationships between other morphemes. They provide information about grammatical function by relating certain words in a sentence to each other. Free morphemes can also be function morphemes. Function words have no independent meaning but just contributes to the grammatical meaning of a construction (the, by, of). Generally, they fall into classes such as articles (a, the), prepositions (of, at), auxiliary verbs (was eating, have slept), etc.

Allomorphs are the different forms/variations (pronunciations) of a single morpheme. Example: the plural morpheme in English is { -z }. Its allormorphs are / s /, / z /, and the upside-down, backwards e / ez /. Also the morpheme ‘leaf’ has two allormorphs: ‘leaf’ in words built from it (e.g. leafy) and ‘leav-’, found only in the plural ‘leaves’.

Types of Allormorphs

Allormorphs of plural morpheme:- / s / - shops, nuts, books / z / - cubs, mugs, stands / ɪz / - glasses, judges, dishes, houses

Allormorphs of past tense morpheme:- / t / - packed, milked, faked, chopped / d / - played, robbed, cared, died / ɪd / - shouted, arrested, counted, pointed

Allormorphs of negative morpheme Un – able, certain, lucky, true Ir – responsible, relevant, regular Im – possible, proper, polite In – ability, correct, experienced Dis – agree, qualify, regard Mis – spell, spend, use, management Non – smoker, stop, payment, resident Il – logical, legal, legitimate De – frost, camp, classify, throne

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Mal – function, nutrition, formation

4.2.2.2 Derivational & Inflectional Morphemes

Derivation is the process by which affixes combine with roots to create new words (e.g. in ‘modern-ize’, ‘read-er’, ‘-ize’ and ‘-er’ are derivational suffixes. It is viewed as using existing words to make new words. It is much less regular, (e.g. plural form – add ‘s’ or ‘es’ ; and much less predictable (e.g. nouns derived from verbs – refuse – refusal, pay – payment).

Derivational morphemes change the part of speech or meaning of a word. E.g., -ment added to a verb forms a noun, judg-ment, re-activate means “activate again”. They are not required by syntax. They typically indicate semantic semantic relations within a word, but no syntactic relations outside the word…, e.g., un-kind relates un-”not” to kind but has no particular syntactic connections outside the word – note that the same word can be used in he is unkind and they are unkind.

They are usually not very productive and are generally selective about what they will combine with, e.g., the suffix –hood occurs with just a few nouns such as brother, neighbour, and knight, but not with most others. E.g., friend, daughter, or candle.

They typically occur before inflectional suffixes, e.g. govern-ment-s: -ment, a derivational suffix, precedes –s, an inflectional suffix. May be prefixes or suffixes (in English), e.g. pre-arrange, arrange-ment

Inflection is the process by which affixes combine with roots to indicate basic grammatical categories such as tense or plurality (e.g. in ‘cat-s’, ‘talk-ed’, ‘-s’ and ‘-ed’ are inflectional suffixes). It is viewed as the process of adding very general meanings to existing words, not as the creation of new words.

Inflectional morphemes do not change meaning or part of speech, e.g big, bigg-er, bigg-est are all adjectives. They are required by the syntax. They typically indicate syntactic or semantic relations between different words in the sentence, e.g Nim love-s banana-s: -s marks the 3rd person singular present form of the verb, relating it to the 3rd singular subject Nim.

They are very productive. They typically occur with all members of some large class of morphemes, e.g. the plural morpheme –s occurs with almost all nouns.

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They occur at the margin of a word, after any derivational morphemes, e.g., ration-al-ation-s: -s is inflectional, and appears at the very end of the word. They are suffixes only (in English).

4.2.3 Word Formation Processes

Many words are formed or created from combinations of other words, or from combinations of words and prefixes or suffixes. There are many possible ways of forming or creating new words in English.

Derivation

The most productive process of word formation in a language is the use of derivational morphemes to form new words from already existing forms (.e.g. from arrange we can derive rearrange, from which we can still derive rearrangement). Can you think of other examples?

Coinage

Coinage is the invention of totally new words. The process usually involves the extension of a product a name from a specific reference to a more general one, e.g. Kleenex, Xerox and Kodak. These started as names of specific products but now used as the generic names for different brands of types of product. Can you think of other examples?

Conversion

Conversion is the extension of the use of one word from its original grammatical category to another category as well, e.g. the word must is a verb (e.g. “You must attend classes regularly”), but it can also used as a noun as in “Class attendance is a must”.

Borrowing

New words also enter a language through borrowing from other languages. English, for example, borrowed a lot of French words as a result of the Norman invasion in 1066. (e.g. croissant, chauffeur, dentist, resign)

Other examples of foreign words found their way into English:(a) leak, yacht (from Dutch)

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(b) Barbecue, cockroach (from Spanish)(c) Piano, concerto (from Italian)(d) Algebra, amulet, caramel, carat, coffee, safari, syrup, sheriff, soda (from

Arabic).(e) Yam, banana (from African languages).

Back-formation

Back-formation is the formation of a new word by removing an affix; that base then is used as a root, and becomes a word through widespread use. Examples: pronunciate (pronunciation, pronounce), enthuse (enthusiasm), burgle (burglar), burger (hamburger) televise (television), edit (editor).Compounding

Compounding is combining two or more words together to form a new complex word. Examples:

(a) post + card = postcard (b) post + office = post office (c) book + case = bookcase (d) mother-in-law, (e) sergeant-at-arms.

Blending

Blending is another way of combining words to form a new word. The difference between blending and compounding, however, is that in blending only parts of the words, not the whole words, are combined.

Examples: smoke + fog = smog motor + hotel = motel breakfast + lunch = brunch

Clipping

Clipping is the shortening of a longer word. Examples: pro (professional), prof (professor), math (mathematics), sub (substitute or submarine), fax (facsimile), gym (gymnasium), lab (laboratory)

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Acronyms

They are words created from the initial letters of several words. Examples: NATO, FBI, CIA, UN, UNICEF, UNESCO, RECSAM, RELC, AIDS, radar (radio detecting and ranging), laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation).

Onomatopoeia

A new word is formed by analogy with the sound made by the thing it names.Examples: buzz, beep, hiss,

Suppletion

Suppletion is about irregularity. It is the replacement of a word form by a completely different word. They are morphologically complex forms in which the connection between the base and the newly created form is not obvious at all. Examples: go (present) = went (past); good = better.

Reduplication

A way of building up words by repeating either a part or all of the base word. We don’t have this in English. Examples: total reduplication in B.M. (rumah-rumah); partial reduplication in Tagalog. We take the verb {bili} and reduplicate only the first two sounds to get the future form {bibili}

Morpheme-internal changes (ablaut)

Adding morphemes results in changes to a part of the word (stem internal vowel change). Some cases of this in English, though not “productive” ones. Examples: sing (present) - sang (past) mouse (singular) - mice (plural)

Exercise 1

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Identify the word formation processes that created the bold-printed words and try to find their meaning! 1). Eggers is owner of probably the most Googled name out there right now.

2). Hollywood has put Evita through the banalysis machine and found her just

another little girl who wants to be a star.

3). Scuba divers can protect only small areas.

4). Hyperfliers can be identified by pale complexion, red, watery eyes and a

crease in their stomach from having a laptop crushed into their body by the

reclining seat in front of them.

5). Similar high-pressure zones on Earth —under the Antarctic ice, for instance

— are suitable only for specially adapted organisms known as

extremophiles.

6). Tornado chasing, one form of weather tourism, has become particularly

popular lately.

7). Can I talk to my bro on the phone ?

8). Rock was a roly-poly detective who looked like a no-hoper but who always

outwitted the opposition with sly brilliance.

9). Jauch's fund-raising show not only was a telethon but turned out to be a

begathon.

10). If I did burgle Madge's house, like you said, then I wouldn't come round here

and tell you about it.

11). He was taken off the CIA payroll.

Exercise 2

Can you guess which words have combined to form the following computer terms?

Emoticon, netiquette, netizen,

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technophobe

Relax for a while. When you are ready, do exercise 3.

Exercise 3

Fill in blanks transforming the words in brackets:

1. The tailor took my _______ and said my suit would be ready in two weeks. (measure)

2. The cream cakes looked delicious but Harry resisted the _______ to have one. (tempt)

3. The police were puzzled by the _______ disappearance of the jewels. (mystery)

4. Bill always looks smart although his clothes are not very _______. (fashion)

5. Thompson's new novel is a considerable _______ on his last one. (improve)

6. It is very _______ whether the plan will go ahead. (doubt)

7. Despite hours of discussion, the members of the committee could not reach _______. (agree)

8. Karen is a very _______ person and loves outdoor holidays. (energy)

9. Leslie _______ broke a plate while doing the washing up. (accident)

10. Is everything included in the price or are there any _______ charges? (add)

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TOPIC 5 SYNTAX: THE SENTENCE PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE

5.0 SYNOPSIS

Topic 5 introduces you to the sentence patterns of English language. It provides the basic types of sentences that you can use in speaking or writing. By understanding these sentences, it will make it easier for you to write simple and grammatical correct sentences. It also aims to help you further improve your knowledge in phrase structure and transformational rules, your skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing and develop your confidence and fluency in using English in a variety of context.



1. identify the different types of sentences in English

2. Analyze the sentence patterns in English

3. explain the different types of ambiguities in sentences

4. draw a tree diagram on sentences based on Phrase Structure Rules

5. apply transformational rules in analyzing the sentences


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CONTENT

SESSION SEVEN (3 Hours)

5.2.1 What is Syntax?

Syntax is the study of the structure of sentences which attempts to uncover the underlying principles, or rules, for constructing well- informed sentences of a particular language. There are two rules in syntax: (1) phrase structure rules, and (2) transformational rules

Phrases are any groups of two or more words that together form a thought or express one meaning. A phrase has no subject or verb. Clauses are groups of two or more words that have a subject and a predicate. Clauses are either principal or subordinate. Principal clauses are also called independent, or main clauses. Only principal clauses can stand alone as complete sentences. Subordinate clauses are also called dependent clauses. Subordinate clauses express ideas or information related to principal clauses.

Example: The dog was sick because he ate grass.

5.2.2 Clause types

Clause elements combine into a very small number of patterns. Most sentences can be analysed into one of only seven basic clause types, each minimally consisting of two, three, or four elements as shown in the examples below.

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Indepen-dent

Clause

Depen-dent

Clause

Simple Senten

ce

Compound

Sentence

Complex

Sentence

Phrase Structure Rules

Tree Diagram

Ambiguity

Transfor-mational Grammar


S + V: I / yawned. S + V + O: I / opened / the door. S + V + C: I / am / ready. S + V + A: I / went / to London.

S + V + O + O: I / gave / him / a pen.

S + V + O + C: I / got / my shoes / wet. S + V + O + A: I / put/ the box/ on the floor.

How would you analyse the sentence below below?

He saw a cat, a dog, and a cow .

Do you know what is a subject?

The subject usually appears before the verb in statements, and after the first verb in questions. Examples:

The boy yawned.Are you going?

The subject controls whether the verb is singular or plural in the third person of the present tense. Examples:

She looks fine.They look fine.

The subject controls the form of certain objects and complements. Examples:

I shaved myself. They shaved themselves.

Subjects can be noun phrases (including singular nouns), pronouns, or certain kinds of subordinate clause. Examples:

The train was late.Carpets, cupboards and mirrors are for sale.Mary went home.What he said was funny.

Do you know what is a verb?

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The verb plays a central role in clause structure. We can omit other clause elements except the verb : drinks

That farmer drinks beer by the bucketful. S V O A

Do you know what is an object?

Object elements usually follow the subject and verb in a clause. There are two types: direct and indirect.

The direct object is the common one, typically referring to some person or thing directly affected by the action expressed by the verb. The child lost her ball. I remember the occasion.The indirect object typically refers to an animate being which is the recipient of the action.

She gave the dog a stroke. I told them my news.I gave my paper to the boy.

Objects can be noun phrases (including single nouns), pronouns, or certain kinds of subordinate clause.

I saw our new house. We asked John.

Exercise 1

Analyse the following sentences into clause types.

1) She is a teacher.

2) They asked her.

3) I walked quietly.

4) I told them my news.

5) He bought her a wallet .

6) They kept the books in the cupboard.

7) They laughed.

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Did you manage to analyse the sentences? Good! Take a break first before you move on to sentence types.

5.2.3 Sentence types

Do you know what a sentence is? It is a group of words which expresses a complete thought. Sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop, exclamation mark or question mark. You can make a sentence by putting a noun (subject) and a verb (predicate) together. Noun Verb (subject) (predicate) I go. Mosquitoes bite. Sentences are constructed in three main ways: simple, compound and complex.

Simple sentences

Simple sentences contain one complete verb and are made up of one main clause:

The cow ate the grass.Did the boys arrive before breakfast?

Study the two examples given.

Ate is a verb and the grass is the main clause.Arrive is the verb and before breakfast is the main clause.

It is simple, isn’t it? Now, try to do Exercise 2.

Exercise 2

Rearrange the jumbled words to form simple sentences.

e.g. is flat / tyre / the / back

The back tyre is flat.

1. last night / went / he / the theatre / to

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_______________________________________

2. enjoy / each other / they / arguing with ________________________________________

3. her / an expensive / bought / he / necklace _______________________________________

4. the baby / proud parents / the / with love / shower _______________________________________

5. watching birds / Allen’s / is / hobby _______________________________________

Now, we move on to Compound sentences.

A compound sentence is made up of two or more main clauses. The main clauses are joined by a conjunction, semicolon, or sentence connector. Look at the examples given below.

The pool was cold, so we only paddled.We heard the news; we couldn’t believe our ears.I know you want to come with me; however, I won’t let you.

The pool was cold – main clauseWe only paddled – main clause

The pool was cold so we only paddled. In this case the two clauses are joined by a conjunction so.

Now, try to do Exercise 3.

Exercise 3

Look at the following sentences.Underline the main clauses in them and circle the coordinating conjunction.

1. Suki was poor but he worked hard to support his family.

2. After the exercise, I felt tired and I also felt sleepy.

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3. He did not give them any money for he did not have any in his pocket.

4. He must have woken up late or he had forgotten about it.

5. The principal spoke loudly and he reminded the students to be punctual.

Remember, a simple sentence has one main clause or main idea, but a compound sentence has two main clauses or two main ideas. And these two main clauses or ideas are joined by a conjunction, a semicolon or sentence connectors. If you can remember these points, you will find it easy to write your sentences.

The next section is on complex sentences which is slightly difficult. So read carefully and try to understand what is a Complex sentence.

Complex sentences

A complex sentence is made up of a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses.

We had to go because the children were tired.

We had to go – main clauseBecause the children were tired – subordinate clause

Exercise 4

Underline the main clause in the following sentences and circle the conjunction.

1. Hand in your forms as soon as you have completed them.

2. Before you leave this room, please turn off all the lights.

3. He missed the train because of the flash flood.

4. He ate so greedily as if he had not eaten for days.

5. The pupils ran out of the classrooms as soon as they heard the bell for recess.

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Now that you have learnt the different types of sentences, see if you can do Exercise 5.

Exercise 5

Combine the clauses below into a complex sentence using the subordinate conjunctions ‘although’, ‘because’, ‘before’, or ‘so that’.

1. We packed all our things into our car the night before. We could leave early the next morning.

______________________________________________________________

2. Thomas had attended an intensive course in Japanese. He went to Japan to study. ______________________________________________________________

3. Nina had worked for ten years, she could not afford to buy a house. _____________________________________________________________

4. My mother bought five tins of cooking oil. The price of cooking oil went up.

______________________________________________________________

5. We have to work quickly. We can all go home at 5.00 pm.

______________________________________________________________

Reflections

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Based on your learning experience, did your teacher(s) explain to you the different types of sentences?

When you wrote your essay, could you remember what types of sentences you always used.

Now that you have learnt and understood the different types of sentences, can you suggest an activity that you can use to teach your pupils the types of sentences?

SESSION EIGHT (6 Hours)

5.2.4 Phrase Structure Rules (PS rules)

Phrase Structure Rules govern the structure of sentences in a language. One example is the rule that English sentences must consist of a Noun Phrase (NP) and a Verb Phrase (VP)

Phrase Structure Rules (rewriting rules)

S NP VPNP art NVP V NPArt the, aN man, horseV saw

5.2.4.1 Tree diagrams

A phrase structure tree is a form of representation of sentences in which nodes or elements are labelled by syntactic category (noun phrase (NP), verb phrase (VP), prepositional phrase (PP), etc.)

Examples of Tree Diagrams

S S

NP VP NP VP

N V N V NP

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http://www.hfac.uh.edu/COGSCI/lang/Entries/verb_phrase.html

http://www.hfac.uh.edu/COGSCI/lang/Entries/noun_phrase.html


He ate N

He saw herS

NP VP

N V NP NP

N art N

He gave her the book S

NP VP

N V PP

P N

She went to sea

S

NP VP N V PP PP/AP

det Adj P N P N P NP

adj det N

The old man went to sea in a boat

Draw tree diagrams for the following sentences

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1. I chopped potatoes on the board.

2. He gave John the book.

3. A black bird flew into the room.

4. Which book did you read?

5. Ahmad ate the meat pie yesterday.

5.2.4.2 Ambiguity

A word, phrase or sentence is ambiguous if it has more than one meaning.

Example:

(a) ambiguous word = light ( not very heavy or not very dark)

(b) phrase = porcelain egg container

porcelain egg container

(c ) sentence= The police shot the rioters with gun.

The police shot the rioters with gun.

Types of ambiguity

Lexical ambiguity

e.g. nouns = bank, chip etc.

verbs = call, draw etc.

Structural ambiguity

e.g. Tibetan history teacher

The chicken is ready to eat.

Identify and explain the ambiguity in the following sentences.

Examples:

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(1) William saw a star.

Type: lexical ambiguity Meaning A: William saw a celestial object. Meaning B: Willaim saw a celebrity.

(2) I saw the man with the telescope.

Type: structural ambiguity Meaning A: I saw the man who had the telescope.Meaning B: I used the telescope to see the man.

(1) He seemed nice to her.

(2) I want the music box on the table.

(3) She attacked the man with a knife.

(4) Young girls and boys are admitted.

(5) The English literature teacher was absent yesterday.

(6) My old coin collection has disappeared.

(7) Bruce is a large sheep farmer.

(8) Flying earoplanes can be dangerous.

(9) The woman cannot bear children.

(10) Visiting relatives can be tiring.

One other feature of Phrase Structure Rules is that they will generate all sentences with fairly fixed word order to the constituents.

Example: adverbs will always come at the end of their sentences if we follow the rules

(i) George helped Mary yesterday.

This is fine for generating this sentence, but how would we get the second sentence?

(ii) Yesterday George helped Mary.

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To do this, we need a set of rules which change or move constituents in the structures derived from the phrase structure rules. These are called Transformational Rules.

5.2.5 Transformational Grammar

Originally interpreted as string operations, mapping one string onto another by reordering, inserting (context-sensitive rewrite rule) or deleting (unrestricted rewrite rules) material. The passive transformation given earlier involves the first two operations. Essentially what TRs do is to take a ‘branch’ of the ‘tree’ away from one part of the tree diagram, and attach it to a different part.

Example:

S S

NP VP Adv NP VP

V NP Adv V NP

George helped Mary yesterday Yesterday George helped Mary

This is an example of a movement transformation.

One of the best arguments for having transformational rules involves what seems to be the movement of a very small element in English sentence structure.

Example: two sentences having a great deal in common.

(i) Doobie picked up the magazine.

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(ii) Doobie picked the magazine up.

These sentences contain a verb-particle construction (verb=pick; particle= up) which can be symbolized as: V Vb part.

The particle can be separated from the verb and moved to the end of the sentence.

A constituent structure analysis would have some difficulty accommodating this type of sentence.

A phrase structure analysis would have to create two distinct tree diagrams. Under circumstances like these, the optional transformation called “Particle Movement” which takes that structural description and yields the structural change to NP Verb NP Particle is proposed.

Phrase SStructure NP VPTree V NP

Vb part. Art N

Doobie picked up the magazine

Particle Movement: Doobie picked the magazine up

By taking this simple transformational rule, we have provided the means for explicitly relating the two structures in sentences (i) and (ii) as ‘surface’ variations of a single underlying structure. This type of transformational analysis can solve a number of tricky problems for syntactic descriptions.

The transformational part of the grammar operates on the deep, abstract structures as specified by the PSR’s of the grammar. Transformational rules operate on bits and pieces of the deep structure: these rules may delete constituents, add constituents, or change constituents around.

Examples:• The boy shot the dog.• The boy could shoot the dog.

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Transformations that could apply to these sentences (if the correct deep structure is specified) are the following:

Question transformation:• Did the boy shoot the dog?• Could the boy shoot the dog?

Negative transformation:• The boy didn’t shoot the dog.• The boy couldn’t shoot the dog.

Passive transformation:• The dog was shot by the boy.• The dog could be shot by the boy.

Command (imperative) transformation:• Shoot the dog!

Subject-Auxiliary Inversion and Wh- Movement.

Two principal kinds of questions exist in English: Yes/No questions and information questions.

Yes/No Questions. In the pairs of statements and questions below, the questions are called “yes/no questions” because they can be answered with a reply of yes or no.

1. Sue will earn a fair wage. Will Sue earn a fair wage?

2. John was winning the race when he stumbled. Was John winning the race when he stumbled?

If you compare the form of the statement with the form of the question above, you will see that a yes/no question requires inverting the subject NP with the auxiliary verb. Verbs such as will in 1 above and was in 2 – as well as did and does in 3 and 4 – are called auxiliary verbs, as distinguished from main verbs like earn and winning. Auxiliary verbs are precisely those that can be inverted with the subject NP to form questions; they are also the constituent of the verb phrase that carried the negative element in contractions such as can’t, shouldn’t, and

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wasn’t. An auxiliary constituent is postulated in the underlying structure of sentences. It can be generated by a phrase-structure rule. Instead of the earlier expansion of S as NP VP, the following expansion is assumed:

S NP AUX VP

We can represent the structure or this expansion in a tree diagram:

S

NP AUX VP

The operation that transforms the constituent structure of the yes/no question does so by inverting NP and Aux. Thus, subject-auxiliary inversion does this:

S S

NP AUX VP AUX NP VP

Write down important notes on the phrase structure rules and the transformational rules. Give a few examples of each.

Serve the net to get more information on these rules.

Construct ten simple/compound/complex sentences and draw tree diagrams to show your understanding of phrase structure rules.

Then take a break and move on to the next topic when you are ready!

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TOPIC 6 SEMANTICS: LANGUAGE AND MEANING

6.0 SYNOPSIS

Topic 6 introduces you to language and its meaning. It seeks to develop your knowledge in English language, by improving your knowledge in figurative language as well as phrasal verbs. It also aims to help you further improve your skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing and develop your confidence and fluency in using English in a variety of context.



1. understand how figurative language is used in communication

2. use figurative and phrasal verbs in spoken and written language


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SESSION NINE (6 Hours)

6.2.1 What is Semantics?

Semantics is the study of the linguistic meanings of words, phrases and sentences in human language. A word’s meaning is determined by the people who use that word, not by the dictionary. In other words, the meaning is decided by convention or consensus of the people.

Why is semantics important in linguistics / language teaching?

(i) To be able to understand each other – hence facilitating communication.(ii) To disambiguate ambiguities

6.2.2 Word meaning

Meaning is a multifaceted notion. Word meaning can be content words or function words

Denotative Meaning

Referential meaning (Denotation/Denotative meaning) refers to the person, object, abstract notion, event or state of affairs described by a word. It is

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Word Meaning

Phrase and Sentence Meaning

Lexical and Structural Meaning

Figurative Language

Phrasal Verbs


described in terms of a set of semantic properties which serves to identify the particular concept associated with the word in question. Examples of words as having referential or denotative meaning:

(i) I went to the store this morning.

(ii) All dogs are animals

What can you comment with regard to the truth of the sentences?

(i) It may not be true. The speaker may be lying.

(ii) Is inherently true.

Meaning is probably also determined in part by the conditions under which a sentence may be used: questions, orders, wishes etc.

Connotative Meaning

In addition to denotative meaning, a word may convey certain affective or evaluative associations. For example: house vs home: meaning goes beyond referential meaning i.e. affection, feelings, emotional attachment. It reflects what the language user feels about the content. This is connotative meaning.

Some connotations are shared by people of the same status, social or economic background. Consider violin & fiddle; and cheap & inexpensive. I’m thrifty; you’re tight; he’s stingy.

6.2.3 Phrase and sentence meaning

What do you know when you know what a sentence means?

Anyone who knows a sentence meaning knows the conditions under which it would be true. Sentence meaning depends on the meaning of the individual words but semantic roles must be taken into consideration. Utterance meaning on the other hand, is entirely dependent on circumstances.

6.2.4 Lexical and structural meaning e.g. collocations

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Another basic distinction in semantics is the contrast between lexical meaning and sentence meaning. We know that sentence structure makes a contribution to sentence meaning as seen in Kearns’ examples:

(i) The rat that bit the dog chased the cat.

(ii) The cat that chased the dog bit the rat.

These sentences are made out of the same words, but put together in different ways. The differences tell a speaker of English what bit what and what chased what.

English speakers do not find other word orders to be equally unambiguous, e.g., Chased the dog the cat.

We use the combination of word meanings and sentence structure to compose the meanings of sentences and larger units of discourse. One of the goals of linguistic semantics is to understand how speakers construct the compositional meanings of sentences.

6.2.5 What is Figurative Language?

Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else,you are using figurative language.

Figurative language is a word or phrase that departs from everyday literal language for the sake of comparison, emphasis, clarity, or freshness. Metaphor and simile are the two most commonly used figures of speech, but things like hyperbole, synecdoche, puns, and personification are also figures of speech.

Used well, figurative language enhances your fiction and can be an economical way of getting an image or a point across. However, used incorrectly, figurative language can be confusing or downright silly.

Also Known As: figure of speech, rhetorical figure, metaphorical language.

Examples:

"Its fleece was white as snow" is an example of a figurative language from a children's rhyme. In this case, comparing the lamb's fleece to snow helps create a picture of how white Mary's lamb really was.

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Though we might associate figurative language more with poetry than with fiction, most of us automatically use figurative language all the time in our writing. Done well, it helps us communicate and makes our prose fresher and more vivid.

What Is a Metaphor?

Some people think of metaphors as nothing more than the sweet stuff of songs and poems--Love is a jewel, or a rose, or a butterfly. But in fact all of us speak and write and think in metaphors every day. They can't be avoided: metaphors are built right into our language.

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something important in common. The word metaphor itself is a metaphor, coming from a Greek word meaning to "transfer" or "carry across." Metaphors "carry" meaning from one word, image, or idea to another.

When Dr. Gregory House (in the TV series House, M.D.) says, "I'm a night owl, Wilson's an early bird. We're different species," he's speaking metaphorically. When Dr. Cuddy replies, "Then move him into his own cage," she's extending House's bird metaphor--which he caps off with the remark, "Who'll clean the droppings from mine?"

Conventional Metaphors

Some metaphors are so common that we may not even notice that they are metaphors. Take the familiar metaphor of life as a journey, for example. We find it in advertising slogans:

"Life is a journey, travel it well." (United Airlines)

"Life is a journey. Enjoy the Ride." (Nissan)

"Life is a journey. Enjoy the ride with a GM reward card." (General Motors)

What is a Simile?

A simile uses the words “like” or “as” to compare one object or idea with another to suggest they are alike.

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Example: busy as a bee

The metaphor states a fact or draws a verbal picture by the use of comparison.A simile would say you are like something; a metaphor is more positive - it says you are something. Example: You are what you eat.

What is an Idiom?

According to Webster's Dictionary, an idiom is defined as: peculiar to itselfeither grammatically (as no, it wasn't me) or in having a meaningthat cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements(as Monday week for "the Monday a week after next Monday")

6.2.6 Phrasal Verbs

A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and a preposition, a verb and an adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition, any of which are part of the syntax of the sentence, and so are a complete semantic unit. Sentences may contain direct and indirect objects in addition to the phrasal verb. Phrasal verbs are particularly frequent in the English language. A phrasal verb often has a meaning which is different from the original verb.

Phrasal verbs are usually used informally in everyday speech as opposed to the more formal Latinate verbs, such as “to get together” rather than “to congregate”, “to put off” rather than “to postpone”, or “to get out” rather than “to exit”.

Literal usage

Many verbs in English can be combined with an adverb or a preposition, and readers or listeners will easily understand a phrasal verb used in a literal sense with a preposition:

"He walked across the square."

Verb and adverb constructions can also easily be understood when used literally:

"She opened the shutters and looked outside."

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverb

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verb


"When he heard the crash, he looked up."

An adverb in a literal phrasal verb modifies the verb it is attached to, and a preposition links the verb to the object.

Idiomatic usage

It is, however, the figurative or idiomatic application in everyday speech which makes phrasal verbs so important:

"I hope you will get over your operation quickly." "Work hard, and get your examination over with."

The literal meaning of “to get over”, in the sense of “to climb over something to get to the other side”, no longer applies to explain the subject's enduring an operation or the stress of an examination which they have to overcome. It is when the combined meaning of verb plus adverb, or verb plus preposition is totally different from each of its component parts, that the semantic content of the phrasal verb cannot be predicted by its constituent parts and so becomes much more difficult for a student learning English to recognise.

Other idiomatic usages of phrasal verbs show a: verb + direct object + preposition/adverb + indirect object construction:

Idioms which are formed from phrasal verbs, such as let the cat out of the bag. These idioms are printed in heavy type. Idioms have a meaning which is different from the meaning of the single words, and usually have a fixed word order.[3]

Courtney then cites among many other examples in the dictionary such phrases as "to add insult to injury", "to add fuel to the flames", "to leave someone in the lurch", "to scare someone out of their wits", etc.

Phrasal verb patterns

A phrasal verb contains either a preposition or an adverb (or both), and may also combine with one or more nouns or pronouns.

Particle verbs

Phrasal verbs that contain adverbs are sometimes called "particle verbs", and are related to separable verbs in other Germanic languages. There are two main

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separable_verb

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_particle


patterns: intransitive and transitive. An intransitive particle verb does not have an object:

“When I entered the room he looked up.”

A transitive particle verb has a nominal object in addition to the adverb. If the object is an ordinary noun, it can usually appear on either side of the adverb, although very long noun phrases tend to come after the adverb:

Switch off the light. Switch the light off. Switch off the lights in the hallway next to the bedroom in which the

president is sleeping.

With some transitive particle verbs, however, the noun object must come after the adverb. Such examples are said to involve "inseparable" phrasal verbs:

The gas gave off fumes. (not *The gas gave fumes off.)

Other transitive particle verbs require the object to precede the adverb, even when the object is a long noun phrase:

I cannot tell the dogs apart. (not *I cannot tell apart the dogs.) I cannot tell the bulldogs and the pugs who look like them apart.

However, some authors say that the particle must be adjacent to the verb whenever the noun phrase is lengthy and complicated.

With all transitive particle verbs, if the object is a pronoun, it must, with just one type of exception, precede the adverb:

Switch it off. (not *Switch off it.) The smell put them off. (not *put off them) They let him through. (not *they let through him)

The exception occurs if the direct object is contrastively stressed, as in

Figure out THESE, not THOSE.

Most phrasal verbs consist of two words, but a few consist of three words, which always stay together.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noun_phrase

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_(grammar)


Verb Meaning Example

ask someone out

invite on a dateBrian asked Judy out to dinner and a movie.

ask aroundask many people the same question

I asked around but nobody has seen my wallet.

add up to something

equalYour purchases add up to $205.32.

back something up

reverseYou'll have to back up your car so that I can get out.

back someone up

supportMy wife backed me up over my decision to quit my job.

blow up explodeThe racing car blew up after it crashed into the fence.

blow something up

add airWe have to blow 50 balloons up for the party.

break downstop functioning (vehicle, machine)

Our car broke down at the side of the highway in the snowstorm.

break down get upsetThe woman broke down when the police told her that her son had died.

break something down

divide into smaller partsOur teacher broke the final project down into three separate parts.

break in force entry to a buildingSomebody broke in last night and stole our stereo.

break into something

enter forciblyThe firemen had to break into the room to rescue the children.

break something in

wear something a few times so that it doesn't look/feel new

I need to break these shoes in before we run next week.

break in interruptThe TV station broke in to report the news of the president's death.

break up end a relationshipMy boyfriend and I broke up before I moved to America.

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break up start laughing (informal)The kids just broke up as soon as the clown started talking.

break out escapeThe prisoners broke out of jail when the guards weren't looking.

break out in something

develop a skin conditionI broke out in a rash after our camping trip.

Draw a table as above and write down as many phrasal verbs as you can, explain the meanings and give examples.

Check your answers with your tutor!

TOPIC 7 PRAGMATICS: MEANING AND CONTENT, AND THE INTENTION TO COMMUNICATE

7.0 SYNOPSIS

Topic 7 introduces you to pragmatics. It seeks to develop your ability to describe how language can be used in social contexts by knowing the ways in which context contributes to meaning. You will learn that all conversations follow a basic set of rules which people use to express themselves when speaking. It also aims to help you further improve your skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing and develop your confidence and fluency in using English in a variety of context.



1. explain the nature and scope of pragmatics and its place within linguistics

2. identify the key features of speech act theory, conversational maxims, and politeness theory.

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3. demonstrate understanding of the kinds of cognitive processes involved in

utterance comprehension

4. express different levels of understanding when speaking

5. follow the basic set of rules when speaking


SESSION TEN (6 Hours)

7.2.1 What is Pragmatics?

A branch of linguistics concerned with the use of language in social contexts and the ways in which people produce and comprehend meanings through language. In other words, it is language use to perform speech acts.

Examples: Assert, inform, claim, declare, state… Predict, forecast, … Describe, assess, classify, … Offer, propose, …. Apologize, condole, congratulate, greet, thank, ...

In pragmatics, two kinds of contexts are relevant. The first is linguistic context – the discourse that precedes the phrase or sentence to be interpreted; the second is situational context – virtually everything non-linguistic in the environment of the speaker.

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http://grammar.about.com/od/mo/g/meaningterm.htm

http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/languageterm.htm

http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/linguisticsterm.htm


Speakers know how to combine words and phrases to form sentences, and they also know how to combine sentences into a larger discourse to express complex thoughts and ideas. Discourse analysis is concerned with the broad speech units comprising multiple sentences. It involves questions of style, appropriateness, cohesiveness, rhetorical force, topic/subtopic structure, differences between written and spoken discourse, as well as grammatical properties.

Within a discourse, preceding sentences affect the meaning of sentences that follow them in various ways. For example, the reference or meaning of pronouns often depends on prior discourse. As well, prior discourse often disambiguates words like bank, in that situation the discussion may be about rafting on a river or interest rates.

Situational context, on the other hand, is the nonlinguistic environment in which a sentence or discourse happens. It is the context that allows speakers to seamlessly, even unknowingly, interpret questions like Can you pass the salt? as requests to carry out a certain action. Situational context includes the speaker, hearer, and any third parties present, along with their beliefs and their beliefs about what the others believe. It includes the physical environemnt, the subject of conversation, the time of the day, and so on, ad infinitum. Almost any imaginable extralinguistic factor may, under appropriate circumstances, influence the way language is interpreted.

Pronouns provide a good way to illustrate the two kinds of contexts – linguistic and situational – that affect meaning.

7.2.2 Pronouns and Discourse

Pronouns may be used in place of noun phrases from prior discourse or may be used to refer to entities presumably known to the participants of a discourse. When that presumption fails, it may result in miscommunication.

In a discourse, prior linguistic context plays a primary role in pronoun interpretation. In the following discourse:

It seems that the man loves the woman.Many people think he loves her.

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the most natural interpretation of her is ‘the woman’ referred to in the first sentence, whoever she happens to be. But it is also possible for her to refer to a different person, perhaps one indicated with a gesture. In such a case her would be spoken with added emphasis:

Many people think he loves her!

Similar remarks apply to the reference of he, which is ordinarily co-referential with the man, but not necessarily so. Again, intonation and emphasis would provide clues.

When semantic rules and contextual interpretation determine that a pronoun is co-referential with an NP (Noun Phrase), we say that the pronoun is bound to the noun phrase antecedent. If her in the previous example refers to ‘the woman’ it would be a bound pronoun. Reflective pronouns are always bound. When a pronoun refers to some object not explicitly mentioned in the discourse, it is said to be free or unbound. The reference of a free pronoun must ultimately be determined by the situational context.

First and second person non-reflexive (Are, you) pronouns are bound to the speaker and hearer respectively. They therefore depend on the situational context, namely, who is doing the talking and who is being addressed. With third-person pronouns, as in the preceding example, semantic rules permit her either to be bound to the woman, or to be a free pronoun, referring to some person not explicitly mentioned. The ultimate interpretation is context-dependent.

Referring to the previous discourse, strictly speaking, it would be ungrammatical if the discourse went this way:

It seems that the man loves the woman.Many people think the man loves the woman.

However, most people would find that the discourse sounds stilted. Often in discourse, the use of pronouns is a stylistic decision, which is part of pragmatics.

7.2.3 Deixis

In pragmatics (linguistics), deixis is a process whereby words or expressions rely

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http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Linguistics

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Pragmatics


absolutely on context. The Origo is the context from which the reference is made, in other words, the "point of view" that must be to be understood in order to interpret the statement. (If Tom is speaking and he says "I", he refers to himself, but if Tom is hearing Betty and she says "I", then the origo is with Betty and the reference is to Betty.) A word that depends on deictic clues is called a deictic or a deictic word.

Pronouns are generally considered to be deictics, but a finer distinction is often made between personal pronouns such as I, you, he, she, it and pronouns that refer to places and times such as now, then, here, there. In most texts, the word "deictic" implies the latter but not necessarily the former.

It is common for languages to show at least a two-way referential distinction in their deictic system: one category of deictics refers to things and places near or closer to the speaker, while the other refers to things and places far from the speaker and/or closer to the hearer. English exemplifies this with such pairs as this/that, here/there. In other languages the distinction is a three-way one: near the speaker vs. near the hearer vs. far from both. This is the case in Romances and Japanese.

Closer-to-speaker deictic references are often termed proximal, while the others are named distal.

Spatial deictics are often reused as anaphoric pronouns that stand for phrases or propositions (that is, items of discourse, not items of the outside reality). Consider the following statement:

"There may be ice hidden in unexplored places of the Moon. This ice could be useful for future lunar expeditions."

In the above example, this ice is not near the speaker in the physical sense, but the deictic doesn't refer to real ice. This refers to the phrase ice hidden in unexplored places, which is "near" the speaker in the discourse flow.

7.2.4 Maxims of Conversation

A conversation is communication by two or more people, or sometimes with one’s self, on a particular topic. Conversations are the ideal form of communication in some respects, because they allow people with different views on a topic to learn from each other.

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http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Pronoun

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Anaphora

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Japanese_language

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Romance_language

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/English_language

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Pronoun

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Origo


Paul Grice, a British-educated philosopher of language who spent the final two decades of his career in the U.S., noted that all conversations follow a basic set of rules which people use to express themselves when speaking.

Imagine what would happen to language if there were no rules to follow during conversations.

It would be perfectly acceptable to follow “Hi, how are you doing?” with “birds fly in the sky”, or to simply lie with every statement you make. But then conversations would be impossible to have. And while everyone follows Grice’s rules, it doesn’t necessarily mean that people are aware of what the rules are or how they work. In fact, Grice’s maxims often work outside of our immediate awareness.

The question now is, what exactly are these rules?

One of the most basic assumptions we must make for successful communication to take place is that both people in a conversation are cooperating – this is called the Cooperative Principle. Grice further identified 4 groups of maxims (a “maxim” is kind of like a rule of thumb) which people implicitly obey when communicating.

The four Conversational Maxims

A. Maxims of quality

According to the first rule, people are expected to say what they know to be true. When talking with each other we expect the others to tell us the truth. If your friend asks, “…have you seen my dog?” an honest answer is expected.

1. Do not say what your belief to be false.2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

It is also possible to violate the first maxim by being too informative. For example, some of my students occasionally invite me to eat with them in the campus dining halls. When we arrange a luncheon date, they often ask something like "Where should we meet?" My response ought to be something on the order of "How about if you come to my office?" rather than something much more detailed like "Please come to my office door, and I will be standing 27 centimeters inside of it." The latter is bizarre, presumably by virtue of being overly specific.

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B. Maxims of quantity

According to this rule, when talking, we are expected to provide just enough information to get our point across. We usually assume that people are telling us everything we need to know. If they don’t say something, then we assume they simply don’t know that information.

1. Make your contribution as informative as required.2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

The second maxim has to do with truthfulness. Generally, conversation partners assume that the other is telling the truth, or at least what the speaker believes to be the truth. On some occasions, it is permissible to violate this maxim-for example, to be ironic. Imagine that a friend who's missed a lecture in a class in which you are both enrolled asks, "How was class today?" You can respond, "Utterly fascinating!" even if it really was dry as toast, if you somehow signal that your answer isn't to be taken literally. Rolled eyes, exaggerated intonation, winks, and the like help to communicate that your violation of the maxim of quality is itself meant to communicate something-in this case, ironic humor. If you simply utter an untruthful response without letting your listener know that you aren't being candid, then your conversation will not be successful, and your conversation partner could legitimately complain about your conversation skills.

Someone who consistently violates the maxims of quantity or quality may well be perceived as uncooperative or obnoxious and, after a while, may find it difficult to attract conversation partners.

C. Maxim of relation

According to this rule, you are expected to stay on the topic. In other words, make sure that what you say is relevant for what is talked about. If asked, “Isn’t Larry the biggest jerk you ever met?” you certainly won’t be on topic if you answer by saying “Uh, it sure is nice for this time of year, eh?”

1. Be relevant.

Someone who consistently violates the third maxim of relation by responding with irrelevant utterances will have a bigger problem: He or she will simply be

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regarded as, at best, very bizarre. To illustrate, imagine a conversation between Tom and Joe, two college roommates:

TOM (looking around): Hey, Joe, have you seen my sweater?

JOE (looking at Tom, and smiling): Lo, a flaming squirrel!

If Joe persists in violating the maxim of relation, he will likely find himself at a complete loss for conversation partners, if not roommates and friends.

D. Maxims of manner

The last rule states that your comments should be direct, clear, and to the point. This maxim relates to the form of speech you use. You shouldn’t use words you know your listeners won’t understand or say things which you know could be taken multiple ways. You should also not state something in a long, drawn-out way if you could say it in a much simpler manner. As an example, we have “Miss Singer produced a series of sounds corresponding closely to the score of The Star-Spangled Banner” vs. “Miss Singer sang The Star-Spangled Banner.”

1. Avoid obscurity of expression.2. Avoid ambiguity.3. Be brief.4. Be orderly.

The fourth maxim, the maxim of manner, generally governs the way you choose to construct your conversation contributions. The general idea is that you should speak as clearly as possible, using language appropriate to your listener and the context. Among other things, this maxim forbids you to answer your professors in pig Latin or your younger siblings in "academese." It also prevents you from holding a filibuster (unless you are a congressperson) and requires that you at least try to organize what you say before you begin speaking.

Why should you follow them

These maxims allow you to be more brief in communicating, since you don’t need to say everything you would need to if you were being perfectly logical –

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you don’t say “John has 4 and only 4 children”. Also, by exploiting or flouting a maxim, they allow you to say things indirectly to avoid some of the discomfort which comes from saying unpleasant things directly. They can also show you how to “read between the lines.”

Grice did not assume that all people should constantly follow these maxims. Instead, he found it interesting when these were “flouted” or “violated” (either purposefully or unintentionally breaking the maxims) by speakers, which would imply some hidden meaning. Why imply instead of just saying what you mean? Well, implication can get across a great deal of meaning with relatively little actual speech. Thinking of what you want to get across and interpreting what other people have said seems to take much quicker than the relatively slow process of actually verbalizing all the necessary sounds. So saying a little, while implying a lot, is a way to avoid “phonological bottleneck” and communicate more efficiently.

What is interesting to note is the fact that these maxims may be better understood as describing the assumptions listeners normally make about the way speakers will talk, rather than prescriptions for how one ought to talk. And the implications of this fact can be a powerful and creative way to get across a point.

Violations of the maxims produce conversations that are noticeably odd. For instance, if someone asks, "Do you have a watch?" and you respond, "Yes, I do," you are violating the first maxim of quantity: You are being less informative than is required. Your conversation partner is not, in all likelihood, taking a census for Timex or Rolex; he or she probably wants to know the time. As a member of the language community that you live in, you are expected to know that the question asked is really a request for the time and to respond appropriately.

Gricean maxims are not always obeyed, but the assumption is that people try to obey them most of the time. When the maxims are violated, the speaker apparently wishes to end the conversation, wishes to avoid the conversation, or expects the listener to understand that the violation is occurring and why (Miller & Glucksberg, 1988). Again, though, it is doubtful that the average person is consciously aware of the rules. As with most linguistic rules, maxims are implicitly understood even if they can't be precisely stated.

7.2.5 Implicature

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In pragmatics, it means an indirect or implicit speech act: what is meant by a speaker's utterance - that is not part of what is explicitly said. It is the act of suggesting that something is true, although you do not say it directly. You are being careful about what you say: imply, get at, convey, hedge, fudge, evade, skirt, parry, intimate, mince (your) words. In other words, what a speaker intends to communicate is characteristically far richer than what she directly expresses.

The probabilistic character of conversational implicature is easier to demonstrate than define. If a stranger at the other end of a phone line has a high-pitched voice, you may infer that the speaker is a woman. The inference may be incorrect.

Generally speaking, a conversational implicature is an interpretive procedure that operates to figure out what is going on. . . . Assume a husband and wife are getting ready to go out for the evening:

1. Husband: How much longer will you be?

2. Wife: Make yourself a drink.

To interpret the utterance in Sentence 2, the husband must go through a series of inferences based on principles that he knows the other speaker is using. . . . The conventional response to the husband's question would be a direct answer where the wife indicated some time frame in which she would be ready. This would be a conventional implicature with a literal answer to a literal question. But the husband assumes that she heard his question, that she believes that he was genuinely asking how long she would be, and that she is capable of indicating when she would be ready. The wife . . . chooses not to extend the topic by ignoring the relevancy maxim. The husband then searches for a plausible interpretation of her utterance and concludes that what she is doing is telling him that she is not going to offer a particular time, or doesn't know, but she will be long enough yet for him to have a drink. She may also be saying,

'Relax, I'll be ready in plenty of time.'"

We use the term speech act to describe actions such as 'requesting,' 'commanding,' 'questioning,' or 'informing.' We can define a speech act as the action performed by a speaker with an utterance. If you say, I'll be there at six,

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7.2.6 Speech Acts

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus/british/mince#mince-your-words_1

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus/british/intimate_14#intimate_18

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus/british/parry#parry_5

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus/british/skirt_10#skirt_17

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus/british/evade#evade_7

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus/british/fudge_7#fudge_11

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus/british/hedge_7#hedge_11

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus/british/convey#convey_4

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus/british/get-at#get-at_4

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus/british/imply#imply_8

http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/literalangterm.htm

http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/inferenceterm.htm

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=directly

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=it

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=say

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=not

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=do

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=you

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=although

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=true

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=is

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=something

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=that

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=suggesting

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=of

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=act

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/search-thesaurus/british/direct/?q=the

http://grammar.about.com/od/tz/g/utteranceterm.htm

http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/speechactterm.htm

http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/pragmaticsterm.htm


you are not just speaking, you seem to be performing the speech act of 'promising.' It is an utterance defined in terms of a speaker's intention and the effect it has on a listener.

In order to explain what can go wrong with statements we cannot just concentrate on the proposition involved (whatever that is) as has been done traditionally. We must consider the total situation in which the utterance is issued--the total speech-act--if we are to see the parallel between statements and performative utterances, and how each can go wrong.

When an interrogative structure such as Did you . . .? Are they . . .? or Can we . . .? is used with the function of a question, it is described as a direct speech act. For example, when we don't know something and we ask someone to provide the information, we usually produce a direct speech act such as:

Can you ride a bicycle?

Compare that utterance with Can you pass the salt? [Here] we are not really asking a question about someone's ability. In fact, we don't normally use this structure as a question at all. . . . This is an example of an indirect speech act.

Several categories of speech acts have been proposed, viz. directives (speakers try to get their listeners to do something, e.g. begging, commanding, requesting), commissives (speakers commit themselves to a future course of action, e.g. promising, guaranteeing), expressives (speakers express their feelings, e.g. apologizing, welcoming, sympathizing), declarations (the speaker's utterance brings about a new external situation, e.g. marrying, resigning, etc).

Now lets look at "Pragmatics" self-study exercises

Exercise 1

Circle the right answer. Then click the answer box to check your answer.

1. Pragmatics is the study of how meaning and syntax are related in a

language.

A. True

B. False

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Answer

http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/interrogaterm.htm

http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/speakerterm.htm

http://grammar.about.com/od/tz/g/utteranceterm.htm


2. This rule says that you must be relevant in the conversation.

A. Maxims of Quality

B. Grice's Maxim of Relation

C. Grice's Maxim of Quantity

3. Make your contribution as informative as is required. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.




4. Do not say what you believe to be false. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.




5. Background knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer.

A. Physical context

B. Epistemic context

C. Linguistic context

D. Social context

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Answer

Answer

Answer


6. The social relationship and setting of the speakers and the hearers.

A. Physical context



D. Social context

7. The utterances previous to the utterances under consideration.

A. Physical context



D. Social context

8. Where the conversation takes place, what objects are present, and what actions are taking place.

A. Physical context



D. Social context

9. Please take out the garbage.

A. Direct speech act

B. Indirect speech act

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Answer

Answer

Answer

Answer


10. I don’t know if John married Helen.



11. Did John Marry Helen?



12. I would like to know if John Married Helen.



13. I ask you whether John Married Helen.



14.Do you know if John married Helen?



15. I request you to take out the garbage.

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Answer

Answer

Answer

Answer

Answer

Answer




16.The garbage isn’t out yet.



17.Could you take out the garbage?



18.Would you mind taking out the garbage?



19.How many times do I have to tell you to clean the office?



20. I would like for you to take out the garbage.



Exercise 2

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Answer

Answer

Answer

Answer

Answer

Answer


Circle the right answer. Then click the answer button to see the correct answer.

1. [Sentence Type] What is the structure and word order of the following sentence?

How many times do I have to tell you to clean your room?

A). Declarative:

B). Interrogative:

C). Imperative:


Who is that man over there?

A). Declarative:

B). Interrogative:

C). Imperative:


Could you lift 200 pounds?

A). Declarative:

B). Interrogative:

C). Imperative:

4. What type of speech act is the following sentence?

How many times do I have to tell you to clean your room?

A). Assertion

B). Question

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Answer

Answer

Answer


C). Directive


Who is that man over there?

A). Assertion:

B). Question:

C). Directive:


Could you lift 200 pounds?

A). Assertion:

B). Question:

C). Directive:

7. Classify this sentence: sentence type, speech act, and direct or indirect (only choose three answers).

That sure looks like a good candy bar. [Tom says to his friend George during lunch]

A. Declarative:

B. Interrogative:

C. Imperative:

D. Assertion

E. Question

F. Directive

G. Indirect

h. Direct

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Answer

Answer

Answer



The water is too cold in the swimming pool. [Friend says to friend in a public swimming pool]

A. Declarative:

B. Interrogative:

C. Imperative:

D. Assertion

E. Question

F. Directive

G. Indirect

H. Direct


It is too cold in this house. [Husband says to wife].

A. Declarative:

B. Interrogative:

C. Imperative:

D. Assertion

E. Question

F. Directive

G. Indirect

H. Direct

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Answer

Answer

Answer


10.Classify this sentence: sentence type, speech act, and direct or indirect (only choose three answers).

Jane says to her mother: "I wonder why Frank (her brother) didn't come home today.

A. Declarative:

B. Interrogative:

C. Imperative:

D. Assertion

E. Question

F. Directive

G. Indirect

H. Direct


Can you pass the salt?

A. Declarative:

B. Interrogative:

C. Imperative:

D. Assertion

E. Question

F. Directive

G. Indirect

H. Direct

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Answer

Answer



I noticed that the car hasn't been washed yet. [Father says to son]

A. Declarative:

B. Interrogative:

C. Imperative:

D. Assertion

E. Question

F. Directive

G. Indirect

H. Direct


It sure is a beautiful day.

A. Declarative:

B. Interrogative:

C. Imperative:

D. Assertion

E. Question

F. Directive

G. Indirect

H. Direct

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14.Which maxim is violated, thus resulting in an implicature?

Woman: Did you bring enough food for the party?

Man: I’d say that you made just the right amount-if a couple of hundred people show up.





Sandy: Does Tom work right now?

Tom: Well, he goes to Riverside every weekend.





Susan: Are you coming to the movies tonight?

Elizabeth: Do I look like I have any free time?





Corey: Do you think Mary is pretty?

Jeff: Let’s just say that I wouldn’t vote for her in the local beauty contest.


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Laura: I don’t believe any men are coming to visit today, Mother.

Amanda: What? Not one? You must be joking! Not one man? It can’t be true! There must be a flood! There must have been a tornado!





A: How are you today?

B: Well, my car is not working too good right now and to tell you the truth, I don’t have very much money. In fact, I don’t know how I’m going to pay my bills this month.




20. Which maxim is violated, thus resulting in an implicature?

James: Do I look fat?

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Leslie: Have you thought about working out or joining a health spa?




That’s all you have to do. Good Luck!

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Linguistics Notes

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english language english

germanic languages english

indoeuropean languages

origin of english language

east germanic language

indoeuropean language

common germanic language

different languages