Inglese 2 linguistica- vocaboli B2 e lezioni di linguistica

Linguistica: The English Language

English Speakers

English speakers (Crystal 2006):

• 360-700M L1 speakers
• 750M L2 speakers

For comparison:

• UK population: 67M
• US population: 331M

"There are more Chinese people learning English than there are native speakers of English in the United States!"

Most English is spoken, read, and produced outside of the UK and US.

English as Lingua Franca

English is used throughout the world as a means of communication between speakers of different languages. It is a major language in the scientific, academic, and professional contexts internationally.

Standards of English

The sum of core words, structures, and sounds that are recognized as English:

• Standard English?
• Correct English?
• UK/US English?

Can we really talk about "standards" in relation to a language spoken in so many different places, by so many different people? What "standards"? The standards of one variety are not necessarily valid for another variety. "Standard" too often overlaps with "best": prescriptive view, rather than descriptive (e.g., UK English for UK people, received pronunciation).

Approaches to the English Language

We can identify three ways of approaching the English language:

• "The folk view"
• "The academic view"
• "The educational view"

The Folk View

The view of the layman, often prescriptive: beliefs on how English should be. E.g., believing that UK pronunciation (RP) is the "right" pronunciation, neutral accent; or that pronunciation should mirror spelling.

The Academic View

The academic perspective, the point(s) of view of the linguist. It can be broken down into four sub-types:

• The comparative view
• The variational view
• The structural view
• The social (context) view

• Comparative view: Comparing English to other languages, formally and in real-life contexts
• Variational view: Comparing English varieties, synchronically and diachronically
• Structural view: Studying the structure of English (lexis, syntax, morphology, etc.)
• Social (context) view: Examining how English is used in applied contexts of everyday communication

The Educational View

The typical view of those who study English in educational contexts (e.g., you): studying the language, not to better understand how it works, but to be able to use it in practical situations: writing, speaking, understanding English. The language studied in this way is usually "standard" (UK or US) written English, "prestigious" pronunciation.

Our Module

• "Language" sessions: studying English mainly from an educational point of view
• "Linguistics" sessions: studying English mainly from an academic point of view, specifically the structural view

There’s a certain degree of interaction between these viewpoints: educational view and structural view.

Linguistics vs. Educational View

• The study of the English language (mainly, the academic view)
• The study of how to use the English language (mainly, the educational view)

English Phonetics

La parola è il mezzo principale attraverso il quale le persone comunicano tra loro. La fonetica è il ramo della linguistica che studia il discorso. Comprendere la fonetica inglese ci permette non solo di identificare e descrivere i suoni della lingua inglese ("visione accademica"), ma anche di migliorare il modo in cui produciamo questi suoni ("visione educativa").

Making Sounds

I suoni sono prodotti mentre l'aria viaggia dai nostri polmoni dalla nostra bocca. Gli "ostacoli" che il flusso d'aria incontra lungo il suo percorso determinano il suono che pronunciamo.

• Articolatori: labbra, denti, lingua, cresta alveolare, palato molle (velum), ugola, laringe (mela d'Adamo), corde vocali.

Sounds are produced as air travels from our lungs out of our mouth. The "obstacles" the stream of air encounters along its path determine the sound we utter.

• Articulators: lips, teeth, tongue, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate (velum), uvula, larynx (Adam’s apple), vocal cords.

The Human Voice Tract

Lo stesso suono di discorso può essere scritto in molti modi diversi. /f/ sound can be spelled as <f>, <gh>, <ph>. But <gh> is /f/ in laugh but /g/ in ghost. We need a system to represent one sound with one symbol, hence the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). // are used for sounds, <> are used for letters, so <laugh> is /lɑːf/ and <ghost> is /ɡəʊst/.

English Consonants

Consonants are described on the basis of three factors:

• Voice quality
• Place of articulation
• Manner of articulation

English Consonants: Voice Quality

Are vocal cords vibrating?

• Yes: voiced consonant
• No: voiceless consonant

Note the difference between /s/ and /z/.

Most Common Places of Articulation for English Consonants

• Entrambe le labbra (bilabiale), /p/ in <pop>
• Denti superiori che si muovono verso il labbro inferiore (labiodentale), /f/ in <pesce>
• Punta della lingua vicino ai denti (dentale), /θ/ in <bagno>
• Punta della lingua vicino alla cresta alveolare (alveolare), /t/ in <top>
• Lama della lingua appena dietro la cresta alveolare (palato-alveolare), /ʃ/ in <nave>
• Fronte della lingua vicino al palato duro (palatale), /j/ in <sì>
• Dorso della lingua che si avvicina al velum (velare), /k/ in <bacio>
• Solo glottide, senza ostruzione (glottile), /h/ in <house>

• Flusso d'aria fermato, poi improvvisamente rilasciato (plosive), /p/, /b/, /g/, /t/
• Flusso d'aria fermato, poi rilasciato lentamente (affricato), /tʃ/, /dʒ/ in <chiesa>, <giudice>
• Flusso d'aria parzialmente ostruito (attrito), /s/, /v/, /f/
• Il flusso d'aria passa attraverso il naso (nasale), /m/, /n/
• Gli articolatori si uniscono, ma abbastanza spazio per il flusso d'aria (approximant), /l/ in <loud>, /w/ in <wet>

Voice Quality + Place of Articulation + Manner of Articulation

Examples:

• /p/ is a voiceless bilabial plosive
• /z/ is a voiced alveolar fricative

• Voiceless alveolar fricative; /s/
• Voiced velar nasal; /ŋ/
• Voiced bilabial nasal; /m/
• Voiceless velar plosive; /k/
• Voiced palatal affricate; /dʒ/

English Vowels

Le vocali contrastano con le consonanti in quanto il tratto vocale è aperto, nessun accumulo di pressione sopra la glottide. Le vocali formano anche il nucleo delle sillabe, quindi hanno una definizione fonologica (più avanti). Le vocali sono sempre espresse in inglese normale (devoiced nel discorso sussurrato).

Vowels Are Determined by the Position of the Tongue Within the Vowel Space

• Vertical position (how high or low the tongue is; aperture of the jaw)
• Horizontal position (how far forward or back the tongue is)

English Vowels

• /æ/ in <hat> front➡Open
• /ʊ/ in <foot> back vowel➡Close-mid
• /iː/ in <feet> Close front vowel➡
• /I/ in <kit> Short near-close near front vowel➡
• /uː/ in <soup> Long close back vowel➡
• /ʊ/ in <put> Short near-close back vowel➡

Phonetic Transcription for the Following Words

• <jam>; /dʒæm/
• <though>; /ðoʊ/
• <civic>; /sɪvɪk/
• <photograph>; /fəʊtəɡrɑːf/
• <thigh>. /θaɪ/

• <truth>: /truːθ/
• <infrastructure>: /ɪnfrəstrʌktʃə/
• <Thames>: /temz/
• <awe>: /ɔː/
• <these>: /ðiːz/

Morphology

La morfologia è lo studio della struttura interna delle parole e come queste regole vengono applicate alla creazione di un vocabolario nuovo ed esistente. Comprendere la morfologia inglese ci permette non solo di descrivere la struttura interna delle parole ("visione accademica"), ma anche di migliorare il modo in cui usiamo queste parole ("visione educativa").

What’s NOT a Word?

A word is not the minimum unit of meaning. E.g.: BelievableUn. A morpheme è un'unità morfologica significativa che non può essere ulteriormente divisa.

Complex Words Contain Two or More Morphemes

• slow-ly
• key-board
• paint-ing

Types of Morphemes

• Free morphemes: can occur in isolation, as an independent word. E.g.: dog, window, asses, slow
• Bound morphemes: cannot occur in isolation, as an independent word. E.g.: un-, -ly, -ing, -ed

Longest Word

Do you know what’s the longest word ever? How many letters does it have? Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylalanyl...isoleucine. The full chemical name of the protein “titin”. It’s 189,819 letters long!

Use of Morphemes

Some bound morphemes don’t change the base, but are required by grammar rules. E.g.: rewriting, dogs, concerned.

Some bound morphemes change the meaning or the syntactic category of the base. E.g.: believable ➡ unbelievable, sing ➡ singer, calm ➡ calmly.

Inflectional vs. Derivational Morphemes

• Inflectional morphemes don’t change the base, but are required by grammar rules. Derivational morphemes change the meaning or the syntactic category of the base.
• In English, inflectional morphemes are a closed group. Very productive: they apply to (almost) all words in English (all nouns, all verbs, etc.). They are all suffixes and syntax-driven, and usually come at the end of the word.
• Derivational morphemes are a (potentially) open group. Not very productive but quite flexible. E.g.: -ish childish, but also ten-ish

Shall we say 10ish o’clock?

Examples of Morphemes

1. Rider is a derivational suffix meaning “one who…” ➡ -er
2. Colder -er is an inflectional suffix marking the comparative. ➡
3. Silver no suffix ➡
4. Smoker as in rider ➡
5. Friendly -ly is a derivational suffix meaning “like a…” ➡
6. Sadly -ly is a derivational suffix meaning “in a … manner” ➡
7. Softly the same -ly as in sadly ➡
8. Silly there is no suffix ➡
9. Sons -s is an inflectional suffix marking the plural ➡
10. Lens there is no suffix ➡
11. Vans same -s as in sons ➡
12. Runs -s is an inflectional suffix marking the 3rd person singular ➡

Lexicon

The inventory of all the words in a language, as well as the patterns to create new ones. Lexicology studies the lexicon of a language, which contains “all signs whose meaning is not predictable, whether they are morphemes, words, or combinations of words.”

Understanding English lexicology allows us not only to describe words ("academic view").