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- Communication is intentional and language is a science that studies communication and its types.
The differences between human and animal communication are:
1 Reflexivity (speak about language and its uses)..2 Displacement (speak about things that aren't present or unsure).. 3 Arbitrariness (no connection between words and its meanings).. 4 Productivity ( to create new expressions).. 5 Cultural transmission (animal language is instinctive while human communication has to be learned)... 6 Duality ( two levels of communication, the sound level and the meaning level).
The variations of language corresponds to two types:
- According to the USER: they shape a dialect.
- Regional origin
- Social classes
- Age
- Gender
- there's no general dialect or variety of language
- Language varies depending on the finality on which it is put
- Language according to use, is also called style and register
1.- Register: depends on tenor (relationship between speakers), mode (medium:written or spoken), and field or domain (the activity or kind of target=objetivo).
Chomsky's Generative Theory of Languages --> There's a general set of rules from which all languages are derived, so the principles of grammar are innate to general language. Chomsky thinks that linguistic tries to study the "universal grammar", that is, the general features of all languages when they're compared. That features in common will be called ABSOLUTE
GRAMÁTICA 1, TEORÍA
COMPLETA
UNIVERSALS, while other trends or tendencies will be named RELATIVE UNIVERSALS. The dominant order of words is VSO
Language consists of signs, which belong to three types : iconic, indexical and simbolic (in order of connection between words and its meanings... most language is simbolic, arbitrary).
Linguistics study: a specific language, language in contrast or comparison, and features common for all languages.
- There are four periods in English Language:
- Old English (Before 1100)
- Middle English (From 1100 to 1500)
- Early Modern English ( 1500 to 1700)
- Modern English (1700 to nowadays)
Standard English is a dialect used to describe the variety most widely accepted today: is the general English of the schools, culture and all printed texts. In few words, it's the neutral written form of English. However, there's a controversion between people who think that there should be a pluricentric view of English (American standard English, Australian standard, etc.. Englishes) rather than one monocentric view of English.
Grammar is also a science that studies language, but, according to Crystal, there are 6 types of grammar which are:
1.- PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR: It's the grammar of manuals, the one which tells us which constructions are socially correct and which are not.
2.-PEDAGOGICAL GRAMMAR: It's the grammar for teaching a foreign language or to study our own one.
3.- DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR: it is used to describe the structure of a language, without judging it at the social level.
4.- REFERENCE GRAMMAR: it's a grammatical description of English, which tries to be useful as an example, a model to follow, a reference.
5.- THEORETICAL GRAMMAR: It's the study of grammar beyond a specific language: it is a tool for linguistic universals.
6.- TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR: It's the historical and older grammar, unscientific, based on the Latin and Greek origins of language.
have only 3 Immediate constituents (a verb phrase and 2 noun phrases). With this, we can begin analyzing sentences for the exam.
In relation to MORPHEMES, we know that there are free morphemes (or roots) that can occur on their own, and bound morphemes that are always attached to a free morpheme. These bound morphemes can be classified thus:
1.- Depending on the place where they are put in the word:
- At the beginning --> Prefixes
- At the end --> Suffixes
2.- Depending on the type of information they add:
- Derivational affixes: they add lexical meaning to produce new words. Example : Disagree (agree), happiness(happy), etc.
- Inflectional affixes: they add grammatical meaning (singular/plural, changes in tenses, degrees of adjectives), but don't change the word. Example: petS,askING,loudEST
Prefixes are always inflectional, but suffixes can be derivational or inflectional.
Some words have just 1 morpheme (the free one): they are the MONOMORPHEMIC words. The Root is the free morpheme, to which some affixes can be added. This part of the word (to which is added the morpheme) is called BASE. All roots can be bases, but not all bases can be roots. This way of creating new words is called AFFIXATION, but there is another way, which is called COMPOUNDING. Compound words are those which consist on more than one base, but function as one single word.
Words can be grouped thus:
-MORPHOLOGICAL (the morphemes they allow)
-SYNTACTIC (their typical functions and elements they co-occur with)
-SEMANTIC (the meaning, less reliable)
Besides, words can belong to the open class and closed class. The open class admits words of new creation ( to google, download, etc). They are the adjectives, nouns, adverbs and verbs. On the contrary, the closed class don't admit new words: they are 7 ( prepositions, conjunctions, articles, numerals, pronouns, quantifiers and interject.)
However, there are some problems concerning classification of words when we try to figure out to which class belongs a word in isolation:
-Multiple membership: many words can belong to different types (answer/desire can be nouns and verbs)
-Conversion: Some words belonging to a type can behave as belonging to other type (poor=adjective... In "the poor", poor is a noun).
**** ADVERBS: *****
Adverbs have typical derivational affixes, and some of them can inflect for the comparative and superlative: ( early-earlier-earliest...well, better, best...soon, bad).
Syntactically, adverbs can be constituents of phrases(where they modify or change adjectives and other adverbs) , and constituents of sentences (where they function as adverbials). When they FUNCTION as adverbials, they can express time, place, manner, degree, attitude and linking between phrases.
Adverbials can be realized by adverb phrases ( we waited PATIENTLY) but it can be realized by prepositional phrases ( they waited IN LINE), noun phrases and clauses.
There are 3 types of adverbial: Adjuncts (all the rest), Disjuncts(They add comments of the speaker to the phrase) and Conjucts (they serve as a connection between a phrase and the previous one)
**** VERBS: *****
The inflectional morphemes that characterize verbs are:
- S3: It's the final sound /s/, /z/ or /iz/... Ex: Catch- catchES
-ED1/ED2: They are the final sounds /d/ (for words ended in voiced sounds) or /t/ for voiceless sounds... EX: Kiss-kissED... Play-played...Load-loaded
-ING: It's the final sound of continuous tenses, and it makes some changes on the spelling of words (for example, turning "ie" into "y" = lie - lying, and some other changes)
There are 2 classes of verbs: Auxiliary and lexical verbs. The differences between them are the following:
- Auxiliary verbs are closed, whereas lexical verbs are open.
-To form a negative, auxiliaries can co-occur with "not" (can-cannot-can't), while lexical verbs need the periphrastic verb "do" (she DOESN'T - or does not - eat chocolate).
- To form a question, lexical verbs also need "do", while auxiliaries go directly before the subject ( when IS he leaving? what CAN I do?)
-Auxiliary verbs can be used as a substitute, but Lexical verbs not ( Did Anna go to the park? - Yes, she DID).
1.- Copular verbs: They are accompained by Subject Attribute ( you look ill...they are teachers)
2.- non-transitive PC verbs: they only need a Predicator Complement PC, cannot be turned into the passive and the complement is different from SA. (I have 2 houses)
*****ADJECTIVES*****
GRADABILITY is the property of expressing adjectives in different levels ( positive, comparative, superlative), although there are some adjectives which are not gradables (left, main, etc)
Most adjectives take inflections for the comparative and superlative (inflections like those endings "er", "est), but there are some others that don't inflect, but change their complete structure: they are the irregular adjectives (good-better-best...bad-worse-worst, etc).
Syntactically, adjectives can be:
- ATTRIBUTIVE: They are constituents of the noun phrase (modifiers) and can precede or follow the head: ( our RECENT history... somebody IMPORTANT)
- PREDICATIVE: Predicative adjectives function as SUBJECT ATTRIBUTE OR OBJECT ATTRIBUTE, which means that THEY ALWAYS ARE IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENTS of the sentence.
Most adjectives can be both attributive and predicative (an uninteresting location... the location was uninteresting), but there are some exceptions:
1- Attributive only: they are always modifiers
2.- Predicative only: most adjectives beginning in a (asleep, awake, afraid, alive) and those which follow
3.- Both uses depending on meaning: Some adjectives can be used both ways if we try to express one meaning, but if we try to express it someway else, they can only be atributively (examples: an old book=the book is old/ an old friend""the friend is old)
4.- Both uses with a change in meaning: some adjectives' meaning depends on whether it is used as attributive or predicative (the present king/the king is present).
*****NOUNS*****
English nouns can be distinguished by three factors: syntactic function, meaning and morphological characteristics (which are derivational suffixes and inflectional morphemes such as plural and genitive):
- PLURALS(S1):
Most common nouns allow the plural/singular distinction, but there are some others that do not (invariable plural/invariable singular= clothes, people, ignorance).
S1 is usually pronounced as /s/ when words end in voiceless sounds, /z/when voiced sounds, and /iz/ in other like church - churches, dish - dishes, etc.However, some plurals demonstrate a change in the pronunciation: changes in the structure (knife-knives), changes or mutation of words (foot-feet), other plurals don't change (sheep-sheep, salmon-salmon, chinese-chinese), other plurals add "en" instead of "s/es" (child-children, ox-oxen).
In English, foreign words form the plural in 3 ways:
1.- Regular native plural: dilemma-dilemmas, virus-viruses, museum-museums, etc
2.- with both native and foreign plurals: formula-formulas/formulae, cactus-cactus/cacti, memorandum-memorandums/memoranda, etc
3.- only foreign plural: erratum-errata, alumnus-alumni, basis-bases, criterion-criteria, etc
English nouns have 2 cases: unmarked and marked (common case or genitive case): man (unmarked), man's (marked).
Nouns inflect for the genitive case, and S2 (genitive) sounds same way as S1(plural).
Singulars, when indicate posession, often are spelled thus: -noun-'s "singular"... Ex: Tom's sister. That is also the case of irregular plurals, but the regular plurals have a final apostrophe. Ex: the barbarians' war... children' sleep.
When you add S2 (PLURAL) to a word that ends with "s", you can do 3 things:
- add another "s" after the apostrophe ( James's sister)
- ommit the "s" (James' sister)
- ommit the S in colloquial expressions.
There are some types of noun:
