Linguistica inglese

Introduction

The goals of linguistics include the description of human language in general and of individual languages like English or French. A diachronic description of English is concerned with the evolution of the language through time, while a synchronic description is concerned with a particular "language state" (the language system as it presented itself at a particular time in its history).

Language Varieties

Every individual speaks a variety of the language (idiolect) that is uniquely his own, determined by factors such as geographical origin, social status, profession, education, age, and sex. Standard British English is a dialect that has been "standardized". This means that, as a result of economic, political, and other factors, it is recognized as the variety of the language and has consequently acquired more prestige than the other dialects. In Great Britain, it is a non-localized variety used mostly by educated speakers. It is also the language of the school, the press, and most radio and television programmes.

Written vs Spoken Language

Levels of linguistic analysis include sound level, morphological level, syntactic level, and semantic level.

• Sound level: Phonetics (concerned with speech sound) and phonology (language-specific).
• Morphological level: Morphology is concerned with the internal structure of words (morphemes are the smallest meaningful unit of grammatical description). Free morphemes vs bound morphemes.
• Syntactic level: Syntax is concerned with the rules that specify which combination of words constitute a grammatical string and which do not.
• Semantic level: Semantics is concerned with the meaning of words and sentences; it is possible for two sentences to contain the same words with the same meanings, but to signal entirely different messages.

If a sequence of words is to constitute a sentence, it must be meaningful. The network of relations between the words of a sentence is called its structure, and the importance of word order (different meanings – emphasis) and word-meaning are emphasized. An ambiguous sentence is one to which we can assign more than one structure and so more than one meaning.

Sentence Structure

Devices for notation of sentence structures include diagramming (tree-diagrams) and bracketing. The parts into which a sentence can be segmented are the constituents of the sentence. The immediate constituents (IC) are those constituents that together form higher-order constituents. Phrases are independent linguistic objects with their own characteristics; they serve as constituents of sentences and can be of one word or more. Types include noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, adverb phrase, and prepositional phrase.

Word classes include noun, verb, adjective, etc. A minimal word consists of just one constituent (always a free morpheme). Rank scales are the hierarchy of units of linguistic description. Rank shifts occur when a unit of a rank has a constituent of a unit of the same or lower rank. Function and class do not necessarily have a one-to-one correspondence between function and classes; however, most classes have typical functions.

Summarizing

• If a sequence of words is to constitute a sentence, it must be meaningful.
• Sentences are interpreted not as strings of individual words but as sequences of groups of words.
• Between the words and word-groups of a sentence, there exist certain relations.
• The network of relations between the words and word-groups of a sentence is called its structure.
• Clues to the structure of a sentence can be found in its word order and in the meanings of the words in the sentence.
• Although word order provides a significant clue to the structure of a sentence, sentence structure is not always observed in the linear sequence of the words in the sentence.

The Morpheme

The morpheme is the minimal unit of grammatical description in the sense that it cannot be segmented any further at the grammatical level of analysis. Free vs bound morphemes: In English, most roots are free morphemes. The phonological variant of a morpheme is called an allomorph. Bound morphemes are also called affixes. Affixes that are added to the beginning of a word are prefixes, and affixes that are added to the end of a word are suffixes. Affixes are either inflectional or derivational.

Inflectional affixes mark distinctions such as the singular-plural contrast in nouns and the present tense-past tense contrast in verbs. Derivational affixes are added to the root or stem in order to produce a new word (e.g., king > kingdom). Prefixes are always derivational, and many of them are non-class-changing. Suffixes are either derivational or inflectional, with the majority of derivational suffixes being class-changing.

The Word

Words can be grouped together into word classes (also called parts of speech). Words of the same class share a number of properties. Word class membership depends on morphological and syntactic properties. Morphological, if the word in question has inflectional and/or derivational affixes typical of that class; syntactic upon the typical ways in which a member of a class functions in sentences and phrases. Syntactic criteria are more important than morphological ones since the morphology of English words does not always enable us to assign them to a particular class.

Many English words, considered in isolation, cannot be classified. It's called conversion, the phenomenon in which a word belonging primarily to a class is used in a function associated with another class. It's called multiple membership when a word belongs to more than one class at the same time.

Distinction between open classes (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs) and closed classes (prepositions, conjunctions, articles, numerals, pronouns, quantifiers, interjections). In open classes, the membership is unrestricted and indefinitely large since they allow the creation of new members; in closed classes, the membership is restricted since they do not allow the creation of new members, and the number of items they comprise is so small that it can be listed.

Nouns are identifiable on the basis of typical derivational suffixes. Moreover, most nouns can take typical inflectional suffixes (one to mark the number, one to mark the case). The plural morpheme {s} is realized in three ways:

• /s/ after bases ending in voiceless sounds except sibilants (books, roofs, etc.)
• /z/ after bases ending in voiced sounds except sibilants (trees, bars, etc.)
• /ɪz/ after bases ending in a sibilant (horses, noises, brushes, mirages, etc.)

Exception to the Rules

1. Change in the base + regular suffix: /θ/ /ð/ + /z/ as in baths, mouths, paths; /f/ /v/ + /z/ as in halves, knives, thieves; /s/ /z/ + /ɪz/ as in houses.
2. Change in the base without a suffix (mutation): foot - feet; louse - lice; man - men.
3. No change (zero plural): deer, grouse, species, Chinese, Portuguese, aircraft.
4. Plural -en: child - children (with mutation); ox - oxen (without mutation).

The spelling of the regular plural of English nouns is "s" or "es". The latter spelling is found in:

• Words ending in -s, -z, -ch, -sh, and -x (gases, dresses, waltzes, matches, wishes, boxes).
• Many words ending in a consonant symbol + o (echoes, potatoes, tomatoes - but not kilos, photos, pianos).

The spelling is also found in the following two cases, where the spelling of the base is affected:

• Words ending in a consonant symbol + y, where y changes into i (bodies, countries, cities).
• The following words, where the f of the base is changed into v: halves, knives, lives, wives, leaves, sheaves, thieves, loaves, wolves, elves, selves, shelves.

Foreign Words in English

Foreign words in English form their plural in three different ways:

• Those that take a regular native plural (dilemma - dilemmas).
• Some foreign words take both a native and a foreign plural (formula - formulas/formulae).
• Foreign words that take a foreign plural only (analysis - analyses).

The genitive is one of the two cases of the English noun, the other being the common (or unmarked) case. In the singular, the genitive morpheme {s} is regularly realized in three ways:

• /s/ after bases ending in voiceless sounds except sibilants (Dick - Dick's car).
• /z/ after bases ending in voiced sounds except sibilants (Fred - Fred's salary).
• /ɪz/ after bases ending in a sibilant (horse - a horse's tail).

Proper nouns ending in /z/ take either /ɪz/ or /Ø/, the regular form being /ɪz/ (Dickens - Dickens's).

The genitive singular suffix is realized by /Ø/ in two cases:

• In a number of fixed expressions (for goodness' sake, for Jesus' sake).
• With Greek names of more than one syllable (Sophocles' plays).

In the plural, the genitive morpheme is realized in two ways:

• /z/ with irregular plurals not ending in -s (men's clothes).
• /Ø/ in all other cases (boys - a boys' school).

The spelling of the genitive suffix in both the singular and the plural is either 's or s'.

Nouns can be subdivided into:

1. Common nouns: these are further subdivided into count nouns and mass nouns.
2. Proper nouns.

Noun Properties

Proper nouns do not occur in the plural and cannot be preceded by numerals and by quantifiers such as many, few, several, much, and little. Nor can they be preceded by the definite and indefinite articles. Count nouns have plurals and can be collocated with numerals, the quantifiers many, few, several, the definite and indefinite article. Mass nouns are collocated with the quantifiers much, little, and the definite article. Proper and mass nouns in some cases can be treated as count nouns.

Many members of the class of adjectives are identifiable on the basis of typical derivational suffixes. Many adjectives are also characterized by the fact that they inflect for the comparative and the superlative. Many adjectives take inflectional suffixes to form the comparative (-er) and the superlative degrees (-est).

Comparison by inflection is characteristic of monosyllabic adjectives (bright - brighter - brightest). These suffixes are also found with many disyllabic adjectives, for example, those that are stressed on the second syllable and those ending in -er, -le, -ow, and -y (narrow - narrower - narrowest). A number of adjectives have irregular degrees of comparison. Among them are:

• bad - worse - worst
• far - farther - farthest/further - furthest
• good - better - best

Adjectives that do not inflect for comparison are modified by more and most (expensive - more expensive - most expensive). From a syntactic point of view, we can distinguish between the attributive and predicative use of adjectives. Most adjectives can be used attributively as well as predicatively.

• Attributive adjectives are constituents of the noun phrase and precede the noun phrase head.
• Predicative adjectives function in the structure of the sentence as either subject attribute (the door is green) or object attribute (we painted the door green).

Attributive adjectives normally precede the noun phrase head. In some cases, they follow it (somebody important). Apart from the majority of adjectives which can be used both attributively and predicatively, there are adjectives that can only be used in one of these ways (e.g., the latter solution). Most adjectives beginning with "a-" are used predicatively only (e.g., alike). Some adjectives can be used both attributively and predicatively in one meaning but are restricted to attributive use in another meaning (an old book – that book is old / an old friend - *that friend is old). In other cases, there can be a semantic difference between the attributive and predicative use (his late wife – his wife is late).

Many adverbs can be identified on the basis of typical derivational suffixes. Some adverbs inflect for comparison. Typical derivational suffixes for adverbs are:

• -ly (fully, intelligently, wisely)
• -ward(s) (afterwards, homewards, upwards)
• -wise (likewise, edgewise, lengthwise)

Although -ly is the most productive of these suffixes, it should be borne in mind that...