Appunti esame Lingua e linguistica inglese

INGLESE VALLERIANI ANNO 2024-2025

SOCIOLINGUISTICS = language variation according to social aspects

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS = influence of psychology on linguistic choices

ETHNOLINGUISTICS = anthropological

NEUROLINGUISTICS = study of the parts that deal with language

APPLIED LINGUISTICS = practical problems of language and communication

that can be solved with theories of linguistics

prescriptivism

APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE : what is right and wrong



descriptivism

(double negative is wrong); : describe linguistic facts (people

use double negative)

Shibboleth = linguistic feature of a specific linguistic group

Diachronic view = focus on history of a language

Synchronic view = focus on how language functions at any given moment

in time i-language

Competence = ability to produce language ( )

e-language

Performance = actual production of a language ( )

1970, Eugen COSERIU 4 dimensions of linguistic variations:



1. DIACHRONIC VARIATION machro-diachrony (centuries) / micro-



diachrony (lifetime)

2. DIATOPIC VARIATION geographical areas: dialects / regional variaties



3. DIASTRATIC VARIATION social strata: sociolect



4. DIAPHASIC VARIATION contest: different style, registers, jargons,



slangs

DOPO

5. DIAMESIC VARIATION medium of communication (scritto / orale)



RECONSTRUCTION = methods to identify a language in the past when written

documents are not available

1

COMPARATIVE METHOD = findind regular and systematic correspondences

between sounds among languages = language family.



3 ages of English language:

- 450-1150: OLD ENGLISH (full inflection)

- 1150-1500: MIDDLE ENGLISH (inflection reduced)

- 1500: MODERN ENGLISH 1500-1600: EARLY MODERN ENGLISH /



1600-: LATE MODERN ENGLISH

Lingue parlate prima dell’inglese:

CELTIC (prima lingua indoeuropea)

 43 a.C = conquista dei Romani GB provincia Impero Romano MA

 

LATINO NON SOSTITUISCE CELTIC (era usato per cose burocratiche ma la

massa parlava Celtic)

449 invasion of GERMANIC TRIBES: Jutes nel Kent; Angles nell’East

 

Cost; Saxons nel West e South West

I Celti chiamavano gli invasori “SAXONS” ma gli scrittori latini li hanno



chiamati “ANGLI” da qui ENGLAND / ENGLISC (lingua delle tribù



germaniche)

GERMANIC LANGUAGE diversa da ALTRE LINGUE INDOEUROPEE x:

consonants

1. Shifting of certain (Grimm’s law)

2. Weak/strong adjectives and verbs

3. Strong stress accent on the first root syllable

4. Runes = simbolo dell’alfabeto germanico = FUTHARK

450-1150 OLD ENGLISH:



Non uniform ma 4 dialetti: NORTHUMBRIAN, MERCIAN, WEST SAXON,

 KENTISH

Consonants the same as today + velar fricative (x)

 “sh” corresponded to “sc”

 Vowel length was phonemic

 SYNTHETIC LANGUAGE = la relazione delle parole nella frase è

 inflections

espresso tramite le desinenze ( ) modern English is



ANALYTIC LANGUAGE: depend on word order, prepositions and

auxiliary verbs.

5 casi singolare e plurale: subject-object-genitive-dative-instrumental

 3 generi x aggettivi

 Verbi con diverse desinenze in base a persona, numero, tempo e modo

 Solo 2 tempi: presente e passato

 Indicativo, imperativo e full-fledged subjunctive mood

 Strong verbs (cambiano tempo con apofonia = ablaut) and weak

 verbs (aggiungono -ed-t/-d)

2 Parataxis >> hypotaxis

 Self-explaining ompounds e prefixes / suffixes

 Vocabulary purely Germanic + celtic influence (geografia) + latin

 influence (agriculture, commercio, Guerra, cibo, religione) + scandinavian

influence (pronome they + -s alla terza persona singolare)

1066 NORMANN CONQUEST (William the Conqueror, Battle of Hastings)

 

FRENCH imposed as a new language among upper class (english by the

molte LATIN WORDS

masses) =

RIAFFERMAZIONE DELL’INGLESE XK:

1204 loss of Normandy + guerra dei 100 anni (1337-1453) + anglo-french



considerato non top come french 14th century = english di nuovo know



by everyone; French rimaneva language of Parliament and local

administrations. 15 english = lingua anche delle courts.

th 

1150-1550 MIDDLE ENGLISH:



Inizio della trasformazione ANALYTIC LANGUAGE (la relazione tra le

 parole dipende dal word order, dalle preposizioni e dai verbi ausiliari).

-s x genitive e plural,

Loss of inflections (desinenze): rimane solo tutti

 gli altri casi si perdono: l’ordine delle parole determina il caso 

english diventa SVO language (soggetto-verbo-oggetto)

Loss of strong verbs (analogy = simpler and most common pattern)

 Compound and affixes continuano ma il lessico si espande soprattutto

 con i prestiti BORROWING dal french (law, religion, army, ecc)

Dialetti = NORTHERN, WEST MIDLAND, EAST MIDLAND, SOUTHERN,

 KENTISH

Inizio dello sviluppo dello STANDARD dall’EAST MIDLAND xk middle

 

position + large base of parlanti + Cambridge and Oxford + influenza di Londra

(1476 printing press con speech of London in printing)

Passaggio da Middle a Modern English (14 – 15 ) GREAT VOWEL

th th 

SHIFT = change of quality of long vowels: all raised or turned into

diphthongs + unaccented vowels tendency to weaken (indebolirsi) / disappear

1500-1640 EARLY MODERN ENGLISH:



Progress of printing press; + educated people; rapid means of

 communication; growing of a self-consciousness about language

(individual and public level)

Some latin words were naturalized other were borrowed = INKHORN

 borrowed

TERMS in generale, poi:



3 PERMANENT ADDITIONS (oggi indispensabili); ADAPTATION



(adattamenti tagliando latin endings); REJECTED WORDS (did not

survive).

The only noun inflection was -s for plural and ‘s for possessive

 Aggettivi hanno perso their ending tranne per comparative e

 superlativi (REGOLE FIXED IN THIS PERIOD)

Disuse of pronomi “thou, thee, thy, thine” + sostituzione di “ye” con

 “YOU”

Introduzione di “who” come relativo

 Interrogative forms without inversion

 2 pers. Sing. In -eat; 3 in -eth e 3 plu in -s

 Introduzione di molti idioma = modi di dire



1650-… LATE MODERN ENGLISH:



Ricerca di STABILITY “STANDARDISE + REFINE + FIX THE ENGLISH

 

LANGUAGE” = fenomeno dell’accertamento ASCERTAINMENT 

PRESCRIPTIVISM VIEW (identify what is right and wrong) = 1.

CODIFY principles of language and reduce it to rule, 2. Settle

disputed points, 3. Point out common errors and correct

1662: Royal Society found

 1712: J.Swift scrive “A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining

 the English Tongue” ma non ha avuto effetti

1755: primo vero vocabolario (a Dictionary of the English Language

 modo arbitrario.

by S.Johnson) MA NON con metodo scientifico ma in

Introduzione della progressive form (passiva e attiva)

 Borrowing from spanish, portoghese, Indian, africano, dutch,

 native American, Australian languages

19 century spread of STANDARD SPEECH

th

 

1895 THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (autorevolezza

 

riconosciuta da subito)

1990 nuova variety = ESTUARY ENGLISH = compromesso tra

 

Cockney e RP.

2000s nuove parole con social networks.

 

Why english global language?



- Non caratteristiche sue ma era al posto giusto al momento giusto, per il

suo POWER (politico e militare = british empire; scientifico e tecnologico

= rivoluzione industriale; economico; culturale)

- englishES = non solo le diverse varieties ma anche multicultural

identities

KACHRU’S MODEL world language ha 3 cerchi:



4 1. INNER CIRCLE ENL, norm PROVIDING (correct ones)



2. OUTER CIRCLE ESL, norm DEVELOPING (post colonial communities



with their own norms), english has key role in institutions

3. EXPANDING CIRCLE EFL / ELF, norm DEPENDENT (adopt norms of



the Inner circle) individual proficiency

LIMITATIONS OF KACHRU non considera la

 

(competenza): all’interno dei cerchi l’inglese non è omogeneo (bilingual,

multilingual speakers + pigins + creoles + immigrants in inner + native

speakers in outer + new varieties in expanding)

PRIMA inglese serviva a expanding x parlare con inner e outer; ORA

  

anche per parlare dento expanding stesso ENGLISH = LINGUA



FRANCA = which is used habitually by people whose mother tongue

 facilitate the communications between them:

are different, in order to it

is a CONTACT LANGUAGE.

trasformazione del “parlante modello”: non + native ma uno che parla in



modo fluente mantenendo la sua identità nazionale differenza tra nativo e



non nativo cade in secondo piano.

ELF = MULTILINGUAL PHENOMENON: you cannot use ELF without being

multilingual ê

MULTILINGUALISM = + di 1 lingua “polyglot”

BILINGUAL / MONOLINGUAL

Ci sono Paesi con + di 1 lingua ufficiale gerarchia decisa dal governo:



SUPERORDINATE LANGUAGE + SUBORDINATE LANGUAGE

LANGUAGE SHIFT: la sub potrebbe perdere parlanti in favore della

 super

LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE: community holds onto (mantiene) its

 language e