Riassunto esame Lingua inglese 1, Prof. Riboni Giorgia, libro consigliato Handbook of a present day english, Pulcini

The Varieties of English

Different labels have been used to describe the varieties of English worldwide: regional (Yorkshire English), social Englishes (Cockney English), colonial Englishes (American, Canadian...), post-colonial (Chicano English) immigrant Englishes, Pidgin Englishes and Creoles, Shift-Englishes (Aboriginal English) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF).

Global Englishes can also be considered in two different ways:

1. As a polylectal continuum ranging from standard varieties or acrolect (used by educated people) to low prestigious varieties or basilect (used by people with little knowledge of the language) and in the middle we find local intermediate mixed varieties of Englishes or mesolect.
2. As a cline of bilingualism: at one end of the cline we find the educated variety of English, while at the other there are varieties which reflect a particular cultural, social and linguistic identity and show the following instrumental four functions: (or English as the language of...

Education plays a crucial role in the spread of English as a global language. English is often used as a medium of instruction in schools and universities around the world. It is also the language of choice for academic research and publication.

English is also used as a regulatory language in many countries. It is often used in administrative and bureaucratic settings, such as government offices and international organizations. This use of English helps to ensure clear communication and understanding.

Interpersonal communication is another important aspect of global English. People from different linguistic backgrounds often use English as a common language to communicate with each other. This is especially true in situations where two languages are unintelligible to each other.

English is also used imaginatively in different literary genres. It is the language of choice for many writers and poets around the world. English literature has a rich tradition and has produced many influential works.

There are different perspectives on the emergence of global Englishes. The deviationist perspective has been dominant for a long time. However, this perspective has been challenged for not considering linguistic creativity. According to this perspective, it is important to distinguish between mistakes, which should not be accepted, and deviations, which are a productive process that contributes to language change.

Another perspective sees global Englishes as the result of complex processes of language contact. It has been suggested that global Englishes have developed through five stages: foundation, exonormative use, nativisation, endonormative stabilisation, and...

• foundation
• exonormative use
• nativization
• endonormative stabilisation
• differentiation

correspond to the re-adjustment that English has undergone in contexts “distant” from its original one. English has undergone a process of acculturation, or manipulation and adaptation to new socio-cultural contexts through a process of linguistic creativity.

4.7 THE LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF GLOBAL ENGLISHES

The result of language nativisation and acculturation is also reflected in structural variation in global Englishes.

1. the deletion of noun plural marker
2. the substitution of singular with plural
3. the use of singular personal pronouns for plural
4. the absence of copular in the present tense

4.8 ENGLISH AS A LANGUAGE OF POWER

A more recent approach, which has taken into account English as a global language, is English as a Lingua Franca, which is primarily interested in the structures and functions of the language as used in international contact settings, by individuals with different linguacultural backgrounds, and for none of whom English is a native language.

4.9 FROM

GLOBAL ENGLISH TO ENGLISH IN THE WORLD

Recent lines of thinking are now gaining momentum as regard English as a global language. The dynamic of PDE and its spread worldwide are linked to what is defined as globalization, or a set of technological driven socio-cultural, linguistic and economic process, which favour the circulation and relocation of both a material and immaterial resources, included languages, and the reconstruction of linguistic practices in both virtual and real spaces.

II. THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH

1. ACCENTS OF ENGLISH.

The pronunciation of the English language is regarded by many learners as the hardest aspect to master. If students know the standard pronunciation of a word and have received good phonetic training, they will also be able to recognize different pronunciations. British English and American English will be used, as they are considered to be the labels most frequently used by Italians to refer to these varieties. By the term accent we mean the way in which a language

English is pronounced differently in different geographical areas where it is used as a mother tongue. Besides native accents of English in ENL countries, there are non-native or "nativised" accents used by speakers of English as a second language (ESL). Additionally, many speakers of English in countries where English is a foreign language (EFL) are extremely competent users of English. For example, in Scandinavian countries, English is learned from a very early age, heard on TV, and widely used in education.

The pronunciation of English characteristic of EFL speakers may reveal traces of "foreignness" that other people may be able to recognize or even imitate, such as German, French, or Italian pronunciation of English.

2. PHONETICS AND THE ARTICULATORS

Phonetics is the science that studies the physical characteristics of sounds. It deals with the production (articulatory), transmission (acoustic), and reception (auditory) aspects of sounds, and its applications may

The hard palate can be touched with the tip of the tongue and is also called "the roof of the mouth". The alveolar ridge is between the hard palate and the front teeth; its surface is rough because it presents small ridges.

The tongue is perhaps the most important articulator because it is the change of its position inside the oral cavity which determines the type of sound produced.

Lips, teeth, tongue, palate, and pharynx are the main articulators. The nose is involved in the production of nasal sounds when the air stream is let into the nasal cavity by the lowering of the soft palate, or velum.

3. GRAPHEMES AND PHONEMES

The term grapheme refers to a letter of the alphabet (a discrete mark in writing or print). A phoneme is a distinctive sound in a language capable of creating a distinction in meaning between words.

A minimal pair is made up of the same phonemes, except for one. Graphemes and phonemes should not be confused.

In many cases, graphemes and phonemes share the same mark or symbol;

In many other cases there is no one-to-one correspondence between grapheme and morpheme. The most widely used phonemic (and phonetic) notation is the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), a set of symbols used for representing the phonemes and sounds of all languages. The phonetic transcription which considers only phonemic values is called broad transcription, while the transcription which signals a greater amount of phonetic information is called narrow transcription.

4. ENGLISH PHONOLOGY

Phonology describes the organisation of the sound system of a language. Suprasegmental phonology deals with units larger than the phoneme (syllables, rhythm groups and intonation phrases) and their related phenomena (stress, rhythm and intonation). The different realisation of the same phonemes in different contexts are called allophones and are represented in transcription by diacritic symbols added to the phonemic ones. top For example, the phoneme /t/ in the word is generally accompanied by aspiration because

English which does not have a proper phonemic status because it occurs only in unstressed syllables. However, it is extremely important for pronunciation as it occurs quite frequently in speech. It is a central, lax sound, also used as an expression of hesitation.

5.1 VOWELS

In order to describe English vowels, we must take into consideration the position of the tongue. Depending on the vertical distance between the tongue and the palate, a vowel may be:

• ɑː ʌ ɒ open: / æ /;
• ɔː ɜː half open: / e /;
• ɪ ʊ close: / iː uː /.

Depending on which part of the tongue is raised, it may be:

• ɪ front: / iː e æ /;
• ʌ ɜː central: / /;