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INGLESE II 1C
COD 13045
COURSE INTRODUCTION
The map that has been proposed to us shows 2 different colors:
- Dark blue → countries where English is the 1 st^ language used
- Light blue → countries where is the 2nd language used. However, when we think about English, we think about a language that is being spoken all around the world, but it is being used for many reasons. Numbers are a great start to understand how wide in use English is, we have:
- 36 countries where English is a ENL (native language) → 400 million speakers.
- 57 countries where English is a ESL (second language) → it has an official state but it is not the first one spoken, about 430 million speakers.
- 139 countries where English is a EFL (foreign language) → learnt and spoken in school as a 2 nd^ language, about 750 million speakers. These are estimative numbers, there isn’t a real number that can estimate the number of English speakers, the ground total is of about 1,5/2 billion speakers (1/3 of the world’s population). If w e think about the sum of the non-native speaker and we compare it to natives one the ratio is of 1:4.
ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE
It is:
- Used on all continent
- Used for internal function in many countries
- Lingua franca → used to communicate between 2 people of ≠ languages (Italian→chinese)
- Perceived as a gateway for better opportunities
- Indigenized in many countri es→ it has become a 1st^ language in places where it usually wouldn’t be. We have to consider the factors that made English a global language :
- Number
- Aesthetic qualities → a language that has a very good sound (Hebrew)
- Clarity of expression
- literature
- religion
- ease of learning history of the language is also a factor but if we stick with the definition given by Crystal (2003):”… a language has traditionally become an international language for one chief reason: the power of it’s people… ” the reason why English is now an international language is not only due to military reasons (look at the roman empire) but also due to an economically one. ex: USA, a leading economic and militarypower. In general a global language is a “ language that develops a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country ”. Due to the introduction of English in many situation, it’s no longer correct to talk about a single English, so new terms have been introduced:
- new englishes → recent and emerging nature (it’s not completely correct because some new English are actually older than other new English) ex: Caribbean English
- postcolonial English → due to historical process
- glocalized English → global+localized and recognize the root of the English in a certain context
- world English → used when we think it as a lingua franca
- world englishes → term that we will use that highlights the uses, due to the fact that it has become a pluricentric language.
BASIC DEFINITIONS
- dialect → a language form associate to a group of people that in which aspers of the vocabulary and grammar indicate regional or social background a) regional dialect → tell us infos on the geographical origin b) social dialect → defines the social class of the speaker Formally there isn’t a difference between the 2 but if we had to make a few points out we would say that:
- it’s a matter of politics → “a language is a dialect with an army and a navy”
- accent → focuses on pronunciation
- variety → any distinct form of a language (most neutral and general)
- standard language → specific variety of a language
- register → stylistic-defined language form a) associated to a specific channel b) associated to a situational context
- speech community → a group of people that share norms and expectations with regard to language use
c) Context-dependent → creol : natural and fully fledged language
SOCIO CULTURAL EXPLANATION
English was considered as a guarantor of political unity. Especially after WW1 many german colonies were transferred to Britain and other English-speaking countries, the fact that also it’s used as a lingua franca and also in political and scientifical context. Another factor is the educational one and also the media and the new means of mass production and transportation (the press, advertising and broadcasting) but also cinema and music. Again for safety (seaspeak, policespeak and airspeak) LEZIONE DEL 21/10/
LEVELS OF ENGLISH VARIATION AND ANALYS
We have analyzed 2 poems for the activity one:
- Gardner, The Sierry Petes, or tying knots in the devil’s tail → from Arizona
- Jamieson, Varg → Scotland In the 1st^ and 2nd^ text we can notice:
- Blue (pronunciations)→ how words are pronounced
- Green (morphology)→ formations of the word
- Pink (syntaxis)
- Purple (lexis)
- Orange The thing we have to concentrate on is the level of variety and to do so, we need to analyze all the 6 levels (the ≠ colors):
- Phonetics (sound) → studies the physical characteristics of speech sounds (phones)
- Phonology → looks at systems of sounds (phonemes)
- Morphology → how we combine sounds together to make words (morphemes)
- Syntax → how words combine to make clauses, phrases and sentences
- Semantic → looks at the meaning
- Pragmatics → looks at the language in use. PHONETICS Studies how sounds are produced and received, how the auditory apparats works and how we represent it.
HOW SOUND IS MADE
Generally after inhaling air it goes in our trachea and exit’s through mouth or nose. Something needs to happen otherwise we wouldn’t have sound, depending on how we structure our mouth we create sounds. These structures are called articulators and are:
- Lip
- Teeth
- Alveolar ridge
- Palat (soft and hard)
- Uvula
- Tongue
- Epiglottis GRAPHIC RAPRESENTATION OF SOUNDS Talking about phonetics we transcribe sounds. For this reason, the IPA alphabet was created. Sounds are divided into:
- Consonant sound → obstructed passage of air
- Vowel sounds → relatively obstructed passage of air.
CONSONANT SOUND
We divide them based on:
- Articulation site
- Manner of articulation : a) Plosive or stops b) Nasal
ENGLISH DIPTHONGS
CONVENTIONS
- <> → spelling letters
- [] → sounds phonetic
- // → phonemes Assimilation → consists in the phonetic accommodation of sounds to their neighbors for ease of articulation. It divides into: a) Labialization (lip rounding) → teeth-tooth. The sound is the same but the lips tends to round more in one b) Palatalization → student-stju:dent c) Velarization → dark-light
SUPRASEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY
Has to do with non-verbal meaning, which means conveyed without a real sound but by tone, volume and speed of speech. Conveyed by:
- Stress → syllables can be given a more prominent pronunciation
- Pitch → height of the voice by modulating it (due to the ≠ frequency of vibration)
- Intonation → the way pitch rises and fall
- Voice quality → a type of spoken voice
- Volume → level of softness and loudness
- Tempo → speed (words per minute) LEZIONE DEL 28/10/ → Lexical set : group of words represented by a keyword containing a vowel that has the same pronunciation in a variety of English. There are some cases in which the entire lexical set changes.
- KIT → ship, sick, myth
- TRAP → tap, back, hand
- STRUT → cup, suck, blood
- CHOICE → noise, join, toy MORPHOLOGY Looks at combination of sounds, and specifically at the single word structure. We define “ morpheme ” the smallest unit of morphology. A morpheme needs a vowel but can have consonants attached to it. We have ≠ categories of morphemes:
- Free morphemes (can occur in isolation)
- Bound morphemes (cannot occur in isolation)
- Lexical morphemes (content words)
- Functional morphemes (function words)
- Words a) Simple word (one morpheme, one word) b) Complex word (one word, more than one morpheme)
- Allomorph → morph variant in a specific context
- Word structure → root+affixes (both prefixes and suffixes)
1. WORD FORMATION
Generally, there are 2 different processes:
- Inflection → described as syntactically-motivated word- formation ( the addition of suffixes→ plurals, past tense, gender). Inflection is used generally to express: a) Agreement→ plurals (this boy→ those boys) b) Government→ accusative (towards she→ towards her)
- Derivation → not regulated by context but we define it as one way to make new words, it can change Meaning or Syntactical category. Morphology also studies how a person can create from zero a new word in it’s vocabulary.
- Derivation → derive a word from another. We can do that by:
b) Pronouns c) Numeral d) Prepositions e) Conjunctions f) Auxiliaries g) Discourse markers → in a language the most frequents are content words , but in a readable text function words are the most frequent (most frequent one used→ the) SYNTAX Compared to morphology, It’s the study of how words behave in larger unit’s, such as:
- Phrases (syntagma) → head+ (1 or + modifiers). We can have phrases without a modifier formed by more heads.
- Clauses → subject + predicate + (object) + (1 or + adjunct). The simplest phrase is just subject and predicate.
- Sentences (period) → main clause + (1 or +coordinated clauses) + (1 or + embedded clauses) SEMANTICS It’s the study of meaning, whether descriptive, referential, prepositional, or ideational. In general, the most important concept is reference defined as the relationship between linguistic and non- linguistic elements. The relationship between referent and referring expression is arbitrary, which means that there is no explanation between the name and the reason why it is like that. Onomatopoeia are the exceptions due to the fact that they change within the ≠ languages.
SENSE RELATION
Defines the relation between the words. One the most important sense relation is:
- Hyponymy → X is a type of Y Ex: a pig is a type of animal
- Meronymy → part of a whole Ex: finger is a part of a hand
- Synonymy → similarity in meaning, and an 100% true similarity is impossible. Ex : fear- terror
- Opposition a) Complementarity→ 2 mutually exclusive options, which means that if something is in a condition that excludes another one it cannot be called differently Ex : a person who is alive, cannot be dead at the same time. b) Antonymy→ gradable options that can have options in between them. Ex : Hot and cold→ hot /warm/tepid/mild/ cold
- Polysemy → has to do with words that can have multiple related meanings Ex: paper as a word can be intended as many things→ sheets of paper, paper as documents
- Homonimy → a word with multiple non-related senses Ex: bear (animal and a verb)
- Metaphor → structuring one concept in terms of another. a) Dead metaphor→ used so much over time that it has become part of a language b) Creative metaphor→ a new freshly created.
- Metonymy → words to refer a part for the whole. Ex : “the white house has said…”→ the white house is used to refer to the entire American government. PRAGMATICS Deals with the relationship among linguistic signs, what they mean and the users. Looks at how words are used and conveyed. Verschueren , 1999 → It’s a general cognitive, social, and cultural perspective on linguistic phenomena to their usage in forms of behavior. Pragmatics it’s not exclusively a linguistic concept, due to the study of linguistic phenomena in their use. The topic that covers are:
- Presuppositions → things that speakers understand even if not said
- Speech acts → referrers to doing things through language Ex : at a wedding, when the officiant declares husband and wife he’s not just talking but he’s legalizing a wedding.
- Conversational implicatures → when we speak there are some unwritten rules.
- Terms of addresses → how we convey politeness through process.
The most influential. Kachru described the countries in circles, in particular we have
- Inner circle → countries where English is an ENL
- Outer circles → countries where English is a spoken second/semiofficial language (ESL), correspondent to the former British colonies.
- Expanding circle → countries where it is learned as a foreign language (EFL). 1970 - 1990 MODELS The 1 st^ period accounts the ≠ natures and pluralistic nature of English. We also challenge the importance attributed to ENL countries and before that, it wasn’t looked at much by linguistic, they however give equal importance to native and non-native varieties. There are however some problematic aspects due to:
- Heterogeneity and multilingualism
- Identity
- Language attitudes
- Geopolitical models → these models looked only to one model 1990 - 2010 MODELS
DYNAMIC MODEL OF ENGLISHES
One of the most prominent after Schneider. Accounts for the process of development for a new English after the colonial phenomena. He talks about it dividing it in 5 stages:
1. Foundation → English was brought to a new territory due to colonial settlement and indigenous community and the colonial have a little contact. 2. Exonormative stabilization → English has been introduced and spoken regularly, however there is not a stability yet. 3. Structural nativization → the language becomes a native language, and the colonized language is no longer relevant. Earlier cultural and political allegiances are no longer relevant, and a new identity is born. 4. Endonormative rules → the local variety of English is accepted as legitimate and there is a promotion of local norms. 5. Differentiation → the language goes through variation and we get to a point where dialects get created.
MECHANICAL MODEL OF NEW DIALECT FORMATION
Look at how new dialects are formed but in a mechanical prospective. It follows a mechanical process when it comes to dialect formation. In this model accommodation is still described as automatic and what happen is that identity is not implied as important:
1. Deterministic and mechanical model → outcome of colonial situation is always the same 2. Dialect formation → based on mixing, levelling, and unmarking
3. Accommodation → it’s an automatic process so identity doesn’t play part in this process.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE COMPLEX
It is not really a dynamic model, but we talk about a complex. Following this model Englishes is grouped by sociolinguistic characteristics shared by certain countries:
**1. Metropolitan standard
- Colonial standard
- Regional dialect
- Social dialects
- Pidgin englishes
- Creole englishes
- ESL
- EFL
- Immigrant englishes
- Language shift englishes
- Jargon englishes (prepidgin state)
- Hybrid englishes 2010 - TODAY MODELS** Looks at English as a lingua franca between speakers.
INTERACTIONS ACROSS INGLESHES MODELS
Looks at how englishes is used to ensure communication where it’s not a so used language (EFL). Interlocutors of ≠ varieties of English talking to each other form a pool of linguistic features which they can select from, but still English is considered as a lingua franca.
LANGUAGE CONTACT MODEL
Language contact can improve development of varieties, there are 5 main types of contact setting:
- English has no official function → used but for communication only
- English is a major learner language → EFL countries
- English is an official language in a multilingual context → englishes in a multilingual constellation (ESL)
- English as a dominant language in a restricted contact situation → refers to creoles and pidgins
- Different dialects in strict contact → koine English (ENL)
EXTRA AND INTRATERRITORIAL FORCES MODEL
Applies the dynamic model to non-postcolonial settings, we have the notion of extra and intra territorial forces applied to non-postcolonial English and post-colonial context.
The Norman conquests in England brought a French dialect influenced by German dialect. Of course the Norman conquerors spoke a dialect and that became the language of the aristocracy leading English into a second language status. The influence of the French language was important because in introduced:
- Vocabulary
- Pronunciation→ /ʒ/
- Grammar→ specifically interrogative pronouns and plural ”you” used for curtesy. Later in the 11th^ century we had the colonization of Wales and in the 12th^ Ireland.
MODERN ENGLISH
English reemerged as the language of England due to the Tudor dynasty. The most important contest situation is the one made up by the colonization process that led to the creation of new varieties of English (English being exported in new territories). Nowadays we can say that we have an immensely large number of English varieties and goes on also for the pronunciation, this is due:
- Regional differences
- Social factors → accents are a class marker. ENGLISH IN ENGLAND We must consider
- Received pronunciation (RP)
- Cockney
- Estuary English
- Northern English
- West country English
RECIVED PRONUNCIATION
Received pronunciation (RP) → also known as BBC English or Oxbridge accent. Is basically the royals language but also the one used Church of England. Is a super-regional accent and it’s important because it has become a reference in dictionaries. It has become a reference due to it’s social status, on the other hand we have the same but it’s general American. It’s spoken by a small and declined amount of population ( described as a cutglass accent→ reflects the fashionable origin of aristocracy). It’s 1 st^ appearance was in the John Walker’s pronunciation dictionary in 1791 at the end of 18th century. London society perceived it as the source of good manners and elegance, with the concept that if you talked like an upper class you were one of it. It was also in a way enhanced in the 19th^ century by the BBC to ensure that everyone could comprehend what was being said. Another reason for it’s popularity was because it was the language of missionaries, public servants and diplomants, becoming the voice (publicly) of the british empire. We have 3 main type of RP:
- General RP → mainstream varieties
- Refined RP → upper-class families and some professionals
- Near RP → basis of it with a mixture of regional and individual characteristics. The main characteristics are:
- Non rhoticity→ mainly at the end of the word, leading Rs to drop
- ɘ diphthongs dropping→ due to the losing of the R
- Long /aː/
- /ʌ/
- /ɘʊ/
COCKNEY
The variety of English spoken by Working-class Londoners (Cockneys). The term refers to Cock’s eggs who are malformed and the term was later applied to people in the city who were considered ignorant. The main characteristics are:
- /aɪ/ instead of /eɪ/
- Aitch-dropping
- Dental sounds /f/ and /v/ are pronounced as /ɵ/ and /
- Glottal stops instead of /t/ between the vowels or at the end of a word
- L- vocalization→ /o/ and /u/ instead of /l/
ESTUARY ENGLISH
Form of English spoken along the Thames and the estuary. A more generally spreading of popular London speech outside the metropolis, an RP superstratum influenced by a Cockney substratum. The main characteristics are:
- Dental sounds /f/ and /v/ are pronounced as /ɵ/ and /
- L- vocalization→ /o/ and /u/ instead of /l/
- Glottal stops instead of /t/ between the vowels or at the end of a word
- Ling /iː/ after consonants
- Affrication→ /t/ becomes /tʃ/ and /d/ becomes ʤ.
NORTHEN ENGLISH
Generally, we think of the north but also industrial cities such as Liverpool but also the midlands. There are differences but all of these have common features. If we think about it half of the population of England speaks Northern English so it’s very frequent. It represents an old variety of English, it has preserved the main characteristics of this variety. The northern area were the one where the Scandinavian settlers were stronger and they left linguistical and grammatical residues.
- Sing-song intonation
- pronounced /ɫ/ ENGLISH IN SCOTLAND The 1st^ thing to consider is when the language has entered. In the 7th^ century the Northumbrian dialect filtered in the lowlands of Scotland. It was inhabited by both Celts and angles and these 2 tribes were quite cohesive both for:
- Christianity
- Scandinavian attacks Due to the Scandinavian settlement the language was then influences, creating Scots. Later in the 1603 England and Scotland fused, leading to a loss of independency in the language. The languages in Scotland once were:
- Gaelic → the most widespread
- Northern old English → in the lowlands
- Norn → brought by Vikings, spoken in the northern island
- Cumbric → a celtic language spoken in the south-west
- Norman French → after 1066, spoken by nobility
- Latin → language of university and church
SCOTTISH VARIETIES
- Gaelic → predominant language in the highlands until the 18th^ century. It lost ground after the 1745 rebellion failed. As a consequence the native language and culture was suppressed or discouraged.
- Scots → is the language in the lowlands and it is also referred to as a) Lalands b) Guid scots c) Broad scots It’s a variety that descends from the northumbrian variety of OE and by the 15th^ century it was spoken by nobility. The main characteristics are:
- Rhoticity→ thrilled or tappet
- Different vowel sounds
- Pure vowels instead of diphthongs
- No systematic between long and short vowel
- /hw/ in wh- words
- Specific vocabularies→ aye=yes / bonnie= pretty / wee= little
- Contracted verbs+ not for negation→ I’ll not
- Shortened negative in nae→ I cannae help it
- Double modal construction→ I might could go
ENGLISH IN IRELAND
The indigenous language is Irish (Celtic language), however Germanic contact in the 11th^ century led to a linguistic fusion. English arrived in the 12th^ century when anglo-Norman adventurer invaded the land. The earliest recorded use of English is in the 13th^ century and only in the 16th century both English and Scotland settlers arrived in the land leading the power in the hand of irish and anglo protestant governing class. In the 1801 ireland became part of the UK and in 1833 were given the first rights to Catholics. The independency of Ireland arrived in the 1921 where only the southern part became independent (1949→ it became a republic) The main characteristics are:
- After +ing verb → to convey the perfect tense
- Cleft construction → “it is looking for a new job a lot of them are”
- Full answer → use of “it is” or “I am” instead of yes/no
- Pure vowels instead of diphthongs → face→ /feːs/
- Rhoticity → retroflexed Rs
- /t/ and /d/ are almost allophones
- Rising intonation → the tone used makes statement sound like a question.
NEW WORLD ENGLISHES: ENGLISH IN THE NORTH AMERICA
LEZIONE DEL 11/11/
THE COLONIZATION OF NORTH AMERICA
We have 3 settlement moment:
- Colonial period (1607-1790) → immigration from south England and slaves from Africa
- National expansion period (1790-1865) → expansion in the south and old northwest with immigration from the British Isles and northern Europe. Third period (1865-1929) → immigration from mostly south and western Europe.
