Inglese 2 linguistica- vocaboli B2 e lezioni di linguistica

LINGUISTICA:

The English language

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 that there are native speakers of English in

the United states!

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

English as lingua franca: English used throughout the world as means of communication

between speakers of different languages. Major language in the scientific, academic,

professional contexts internationally.

The sum of core words, structures, sounds that are recognised 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).

we can identify three ways of approaching

the English language:

1. “The folk view”;

2. “The academic view”;

3. “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 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 every-day

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

• The study of the English language (mainly, the academic view)

vs

• 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.

ing: 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:

1. Voice quality;

2. Place of articulation;

3. 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 are:

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

a. Voiceless alveolar fricative; /s/

➡

b. Voiced velar nasal; /ŋ/

➡

c. Voiced bilabial nasal; /m/

➡

d. Voiceless velar plosive; /k/

➡

e. Voiced palatal affricate. /dʒ/

➡

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 nearfront vowel

➡

/uː/ in <soup> Long close back vowel

➡

/ʊ/ in <put> Short near-close back vowel

➡

phonetic transcription for the following words.

a. <jam>; /dʒæm/

➡

b. <though>; /ðoʊ/

➡

c. <civic>; v /sɪvɪk/

d. <photograph>; /fəʊtəɡrɑːf/

➡

e. <thigh>. /θaɪ/

➡

/truːθ/; <truth>

➡

b. /ɪnfrəstrʌktʃə/; <infrastructure>

➡

c. /temz/; <Thames>

➡

d. /ɔː/; <awe>

➡

e. /ðiːz/. <these>

➡

Morphology 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.: Believable

Un

A morpheme è un'unità morfologica significativa che non può essere ulteriormente divisa

Complex words contain two or more morphemes

es. slow-ly

key-board

paint-ing

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

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 letter long!

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 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?

They are both prefixes and suffixes.

1. rider is a derivational suffix meaning “one who…”

➡-er

2. colder -er is a inflectional suffix marking the comparative.

➡

3. silver no suffix

➡

4. smoker as in rider

➡

friendly -ly is a derivational suffix meaning “like a…”

➡

sadly -ly is a derivational suffix meaning “in a … manner”

➡

softly the same -ly as in sadly

➡

silly there is no suffix

➡

sons -s is an inflectional suffix marking the plural

➡

lens there is no suffix

➡

vans same -s as in sons

➡

runs -s is an inflectional suffix marking the 3rd person singular

➡

lez 7 rivedere

Lexicon: the inventory of all the words in a language, as well as the patterns to create new

one.

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”)