Scarica RIASSUNTO THE CAMBRIDGE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE - CRYSTAL - INGLESE I e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Cultura Inglese I solo su Docsity!
CAP 8 – THE NATURE OF THE LEXICON
The term “ lexicon ” is known in English from the early 17th century, when it referred to a book containing a selection of a language’s words and meanings, arranged in alphabetical order. The term itself comes from Greek “ lexis ” [word, speech]. Within linguistics it refers to the total stock of meaningful units in a language (words, idioms, and parts of words which express meaning, such as the prefixes and suffixes).To study the lexicon of English is to study all aspects of the vocabulary of the language (for examples: how words are formed, how they are developed over the time, how they are used now…). It is a study which is carried on by lexicologists, who are thus practising lexicology. Lexicographers lexicologists who choose to write a dictionary and their calling is lexicography. Lexicographers need to have had some training in lexicology, if they are to come up with good dictionaries. But one can be a good lexicologist without ever having written a dictionary at all. LEXEMES Lexeme (or lexical item) is a unit of lexical meaning, which exists regardless of any inflectional endings it may have or the number of words it may contain. (ex: fibrillate, rain cats and dogs, come in, face the music, happiness…). The headwords in a dictionary are all lexemes. It may have a number of inflectional forms or grammatical variants (ex: loved; loving; lover). HOW LARGE IS THE ENGLISH LEXICON? The Webster’s Third New International counts over 450, lexemes in 1961. The Oxford English Dictionary counts over 500,000 lexemes in 1992. ABBREVATION The story of abbreviations can be traced back over 150 years. The fashionable use of abbreviation – a kind of society slang – comes and goes in waves, though it is never totally absent. The reason to use abbreviation: -the desire for linguistic economy. -succinctness and precision are highly valued and abbreviations can contribute to a concise style. -abbreviations help to convey a sense of social identity: using an abbreviated form to be part of a social groups. TYPES OF ABBREVATIONS: initialism : items which are spoken as individual letters (ex. BBC, USA…). Not always they use the first letters of the constituent words: PhD uses the first two letters of the word philosophy; Tv take a letter from the middle of the word. Acronyms : a word formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts, so, initialisms which are pronounced as single words (ex. NATO, laser, UNESCO). Such items would never have periods separating the letters. Clipping : the shortening of a longer word, often reducing it to one syllable. (ex: ad, phone). Blends : a word which is made up of parts of two or more other words. (ex: brunch breakfast + lunch; smog smoke + fog). Latin abbreviations : etc.; et al.; etc… PROPER NAME - English proper names are on the boundary of the lexicon. Some of them are so closely bound up with the way meanings is structured in the language that it would be difficult to exclude them from any superdictionary. They are felt to belong to the language and often have a language-specific form (ex. Christmas, January, the Moon…).
HOW LARGE IS YOUR LEXICON? It depends on a person’s hobbies and educational background. Someone who reads several novels a week is obviously going to pick up a rather larger vocabulary than someone whose daily reading is restricted to the telephone directory. There must always be two totals given when presenting the size of a person’s vocabulary: one reflecting active vocabulary (lexemes active used in speech or writing); one reflecting passive vocabulary (lexemes know but not used).
CAP 9 – THE SOUCES OF THE LEXICON
WHY DOES ENGLISH HAVE MORE WORDS THAN ANY OTHER LANGUAGE?
The reason for this is historical: -English was originally a Germanic language, related to Dutch and German. -However, after the Norman Conquest in 1066 it was hugely influenced by Norman French (the language of the ruling class) and by Latin (the language of scholarship and of the Church). -English is also very ready to accommodate foreign words. NATIVE VOCABULARY Many lexemes have arrived with the Germanic invaders (settled in Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries) and have never fallen out of use. The invaders all spoke a language that was Germanic and displaced the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants. The Anglo-Saxon lexical character continues to dominate everyday conversation, whether it be grammatical words (in, on, be, that), lexical words (love, name) or affixes (mis-, un-, -ness, -less). Anglo- Saxon lexemes provide almost all the most frequently used words in the language. Anglo-Saxon words:
- Parts of the body (arm, bone, chest, ear, eye, foot, hand, heart)
- The natural environment (field, hedge, hill, land, meadow, wood)
- The domestic life (door, floor, home, house)
- The calendar (day, month, moon, sun, year)
- Animals (cow, dog, fish, goat, hen, sheep, swine),
- Common adjectives (black, dark, good, long, white, wide)
- Common verbs (become, do, eat, fly, go, help, kiss, live, love, say, see, sell, send, think) FORREIGN BORROWINGS When one language takes lexemes from another, the new items are usually called loan words or borrowings. Celtic borrowings The borrowing began even before the Anglo-Saxons arrived. Although the Celts were already resident in Britain when the Anglo-Saxons arrived, there are few obvious traces of their language in English today. [Words that survive in modern English include brock (badger), alongside many place names.] Latin borrowings The influence of Latin is strong, especially after the arrival of Christianity (ex: church, school, giant, plant.).
A shorter word is derived from a longer one by deleting an imagined affix. (We remove part of a word - suffix or prefix) (e.g. to enthuse). Blends LEXICAL CREATION Nonce word* A nonce word is a lexeme created for temporary use, to solve an immediate problem of communication. Neologism A neologism is forming a new word by coining (e.g. quark). A neologism stays new until people start to use it without thinking or alternatively until it falls out of fashion and they stop using it.
CAP 14 – THE STRUCTURE OF WORDS / CAP
15 – WORD CLASSESSUB-FIELDS OF
LINGUISTICS:
-Morphology -Syntax -Phonetics -Phonology -Semantics: the study of meaning(individual words/sentences) -Pragmatics: a branch of Linguistic that studies the phrases and sentences in the actual context of discourse. MORPHOLOGY It’s the study of the words of Language or deals with the internal structure of words. An approach divides the filed into two domains:
- lexical (or derivational morphology ) studies the way in which new items of vocabulary can be built up out of combinations of elements.
- Inflectional morphology studies the way words vary in their form in order to express a grammatical contrast. Word : They’re the smallest independent units of language. Independent: -do not depend on other words -can be separated from other units -can change position Many words cannot be broken down into grammatical parts: boy, yes, person… These words are said to consist only of a base form (aka root or stem ). English permits the addition of meaningful, dependent elements both before and after the base form: these are called affixes : - infixes : affixes occurring within the base
- prefixes : affixes which precede the base
- suffixes : affixes which follow the base. There are of two types of suffixes:
- purely lexical (they change the meaning of the base form ex: -ness, -able)
- purely grammatical (they show how the word must be used in a sentence ex: plural -s, past tense - ed)
WORDS VS MORPHEMES
Words have internal structure built of even smaller pieces SIMPLE WORDS : Don’t have internal structure (only consist of one morpheme) eg work, build, run, horse. They can’t be split into smaller parts which carry meaning or function. COMPLEX WORDS : Have internal structure (consist of two or more morphemes) eg worker: affix -er added to the root work to form a noun; horses (plural marker added). WORD CLASSES All words in the English language can be classified as one of the eight different word classes. The eight-word classes are: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions and interjections. It’s important to study the parts of speech to be able to make general and economical statements about the way the words of the language behave. CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS It is not possible to tell which word class a word belongs to just by looking t it. We need to look carefully at how it behaves in a sentence. (ex: brown can be an adjective, noun, verb) NOUNS A noun is a word whose job is naming, or labelling (people, places, objects, concepts, ideas…). The most important division is into proper nouns and common nouns (count nouns/noncount nouns; concrete/abstract…) Pag 208? Nouns: number. Most nouns have both a singular and a plural form, expressing a contrast between “one” and “more than one” and these are known as variable nouns. A small group of cases do not have a number contrast – the invariable nouns. Most variable nouns change from singular to plural by adding an -s. Nouns: cases. The only two cases left in Modern English are: -common case (where the noun has no ending at all)
- genitive (is formed by adding an ‘s to the singular form) ADJECTIVES Words which express some feature or quality of a noun or pronoun. Adjectives: how to use them -Most adjectives can be used in front of a noun. -Most adjectives can be used on their own, after a verb. -You can also put adverbs in front of many adjectives (like very). -You can use adjectives to make comparisons: -the base form of the adjective is called the absolute form (big, happy) -adding -er produces the comparative form (bigger, happier) -adding -est produces the superlative form (biggest, happiest) -Adjectives are the parts of speech that contain the most explicit sentiment (=subjective information). Adjectives: positions To count as an adjective, a word must be able to function in both attributive or predicative positions. central class of adjective. Words which can appear in only one position are peripheral adjective. VERBS The verb is the element which makes everything hold together. A sentence may contain a single verb or it ay use a cluster of verbs which work together as a verb phrase.
Pronouns: types TYPES OF PRONOUNS DESCRIPTION Personal pronouns They are the main mans of identifying speakers, addresses and others (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) Reflexive pronouns Thy always endings in -self or -selves (myself, etc..), ‘reflect’ the meaning of a noun or pronoun elsewhere in the clause (they washed themselves). Possessive pronouns They express ownership and appear in two form. -My, your etc… ae used as determiners in the noun phrase. (in my car) -Mine, yours etc… are used on their own. (this is mine) Reciprocal pronouns They are used to express a ‘two-way’ relationship: each other, one another. Interrogative pronouns They are used to ask questions about personal and nonpersonal nouns: who? what? Relative pronouns They are used to link a subordinate clause to the head of the nous phrases. (who, whom, whose, which, that). Demonstrative pronouns They express a contrast between ‘near’ and ‘distant’ (this/these, that/those). Indefinite pronouns They express a notion of quantity. Main types: -Compound pronouns: consist in two elements (every-, some- any-). -Of-pronouns: consists of several forms which may appear alone or be followed by of (I’ve eaten all of the cake) CONJUCTIONS Conjunctions are items which join clauses or pars od clauses together. Conjunctions: types Coordinating conjunctions: link units which have the same status in the sentence, such as two clauses, two noun phrases or two adjectives. (and, or for). Subordinating conjunctions: joint units which do not have the same grammatical status in the sentence. PREPOSITIONS A preposition expresses a relationship of meaning between two parts of a sentence, most often showing how the two parts re related in space or time. If you get the preposition wrong, it can bevery misleading. Most of the common preposition consist of only one word; the have no distinctive endings and do not vary. Several prepositions consist of more than one words. Single-word prepositions include: about, at, before, by, out, over, since… Multi-word prepositions include: ahead of, because of, instead of, as far as, by means of.
INTRJECTIONS Used to express our emotions (surprise, pain, disgust...). They don’t form part of a sentence.
CAP 16 – THE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES
SYNTAX Syntax is the study of sentence structure (It’s the way words go together to make sentences). A sentence can stand on its own. Only certain combinations of words can be sentences. A sentence usually makes sense. SENTENCES Sentences are constructed according to a system of rules, known by all the adult mother- tongue speakers of the language, and summarized in a grammar. A sentence formed in his way is said to be grammatical. Sentences are the largest constructions to which the rules of grammar apply. Sentences are constructions which can be used on their own – units of meaning which seem to ‘make sense’ by themselves. TYPES OF SENTENCE MINOR SENTENCES They are not constructed in a regular way. They don’t follow the grammatical rules found in the majority of other sentences. They are also common in certain types of written language, such as notices, headlines, labels, advertisements… MAJOR SENTENCES They are formed using the basic grammatical rules of the language. They are sentence which can be broken down into a specific and predictable pattern of elements ( clause ). *(vedere pag. 11) -Simple sentence: sentences which consist of just one clause. -Multiple sentences: sentence which can be immediately analysed into more than one clause. -Complex sentences: have at least one independent clause plus at least one dependent clause. LEVELS OF SENTENCE STRUCTURE A ‘level’ is a way of recognizing the fact that a sentence in not a simple linear string of items. Rather, items are grouped together into units, which than work as whose in relation to other units. SETENCE FUNCTIONS Traditional grammars recognized four types of sentence function: statement, question, command and exclamation. Statement : is a sentence hose primary purpose is to ‘state’ – to convey information. Two criteria usually apply -the clause contains a subject -the subject precedes the verb Questions : are sentences which seek information. There three types of questions, depending on the kind of reply: -yes/no question allow an affirmative or negative reply
Pronoun phrases are restricted to a small number of constructions and tend not to be recognised as a productive type in English. (ex: You there! We all…). They are usually analysed as a minor tye of noun phrase. Adverb phrases are typically found as short intensifying expressions, such as terribly slowly, very happily indeed, very soon… Adjective phrases are usually combinations of an adjective and a preceding intensifier, such as very happy or not to awkward. Verb phrases display very limited syntactic possibilities: a main verb preceded by up to four auxiliaries (ex: may have gone). Noun phrases allow an extremely wide rage of syntactic possibility, from simple phrases to complex constructions. Prepositional phrases are combinations of a preposition plus a noun phrases (ex: in the back garden). ASPECTS OF NOUN PHRASES STRUCTURE Pag 223? VERB PHRASE MEANINGS With only a few verb endings to take into account and a very limited rage of auxiliary verbs and sequences, the verb phrase would seem to provide the linguistic with an easy task of syntactic description. But appearances are deceptive. It is true that the possible patterns of constituents can be described quite quickly, but the meanings which each pattern can convey are extremely difficult to state, being influenced by what else is happening in the sentence, and even by the meaning of particular types of verb. For example: I’m leaving tomorrow is hours away from I’m leaving. (pag 224 -225) MULTIPLE SENTENCE* Simple sentences : sentences that contain only one clause. Multiple sentences : sentences that contain more than one clause. Compound sentences : the clauses are linked by coordination – usually, by the coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but). Each clause can in principle stand as a sentence on its own – in other words, act as a independent clause, or main clause. Complex sentences : the clauses are linked by subordination, using such subordinating conjunctions as because, when and since. MULTIPE STRUCTURES Both compound and complex sentences can contain several instances of coordination or subordination. -With multiple coordination, the analysis is simple.
-With multiple subordination we must take special care to keep the different ‘levels’ of subordination apart. -Several instances of subordination may occur ‘at the same level’. -Coordination and subordination may of course occur in the same sentence, to produce a compound-complex sentence. OTHER SYNTACTIC ISSUES Abbreviating the sentence There two main ways in which a sentence an be shortened, to avoid saying or writing the same thing twice. -A pro-form can be used – a word which replaces or refers to a longer construction in a sentence. When the pro-form has the same meaning (or ‘reference’) as another construction, but does not replace it, we talk about pro-form co-reference. (I’ve bought a new coat and Mar’s bought one too ‘one’ replaces the noun phras ‘a new coat’).
- Ellipsis occurs when part of a sentence is left out because it would otherwise repeat what is said elsewhere. (I’d like to eat that biscuit, but I won’t ‘eat that biscuit’ is omitted). ADDING A COMMENT Disjuncts They are a type of adverbial. Some disjuncts convey the speaker’s comment about the style or form of what is being said – expressing the conditions under which the listener should interpret the accompanying sentence. Other disjuncts make an observation about the truth of a clause or a value judgement about its content. Comment clauses Disjuncts may be words or phrases, and they ay even have a clausal character. When they are clausal, they can be analysed as part of a lrge number of constructions that have been grouped together as comment clauses. Comment clause: types Tentativeness : I think, I assume, I suppose… Certainty : I know, I’m sure, I must say…
- the palate is a passive, waiting articulator. Examples: to make the /l/ sound (as in LIFE), the tip of your tongue (active) makes contact with your palate (passive), just behind your teeth. ALLOPHONES Two different ways of pronouncing the same phoneme Example: -when the consonant /t/ occurs in a word such as ‘top’ it is aspirated. -when it follows a /s/, such as in the word ‘stop’, it is not aspirated. THE SOUND OF ENGLISH AND THEIR REPRESENTATION We are used to seeing the written language as a sequence of letters, separated by small segments of space. We formed our letters one at a time and we learned to call five of these letters ‘ vowels’ (A, E, I, O, U) and others ‘ consonants’. We may also have learned that letter Y is sometimes used a vowel. Everybody born with the normal capacity to learn acquires the ability to listen and speak long before the ability to read and write. In English, there is no one-to-one relation between the system of writing and the system of pronunciation. -The alphabet has 26 letters but in (Standard British) English there are approximately 44 speach sounds.
- International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represent the basic sound of spoken languages.
THE ORGAN OF ARTICULATION
THE VOWELS There are in fact some 20
or so vowels in most accents of English and
their sound qualities can vary enormously
from accent to accent. The vowel sounds
of American English, for example, are
clearly different from those of British or
Australian. Indeed, vowel differences make
up most of the distinctiveness which we
associate with a particular accent.
The vowel: types
Monophthongs (or pure vowels)
are vowels with a single perceived
auditory quality, made by a
movement of the tongue towards
one position in the mouth. (It’s where there is one vowel sound in a syllable.) e.g.: Sheep
(ʃiːp) - Good (gʊd)
Diphthongs are vowels where two vowel qualities can be perceived. (It’s where there are
two vowel sounds in a syllable.) e.g.: Size (saɪz) - Mouse (maʊs )
Triphthong are vowels in which three vowel qualities can be perceived. (It’s when there
are three vowel sounds in a syllable.) e.g.: Player (pleɪə)
CONSONANTS vs VOWELS
Consonants are found at the beginnings and ends of words; the vowels are usually in the middle.
Some words (such as a and I) don’t have any consonants in them at all.All vowels have certain
properties in common, which distinguish them from consonants:
-From a phonetic point of view, vowels are articulated with a relatively open configuration if the
vocal tract: no part of the mouth is closed and none of the vocal organs come so close together
that we can hear the sound of the air passing between them. Consonants have a very different
methods of articulation.
-From a phonological point of view, vowels are units of the sound system which typically occupy
the middle of a syllable, as in cat /kat/ and big /bɪg/. Consonants are typically found at the edges
of syllables.
- Vowels typically involve the vibration of the vocal cords (voicing) and their distinctive resonances
are made by varying the shape of the mouth, using the
tongue and lips. English vowels are all oral vowels, there
aren’t nasal vowels.
THE CARDINAL VOWEL SYSTEM
SYLLABLES
Vowels and consonants typically do not at alone; there
are very few word or word-like noises which consist of
only one sound (I, eye, oh, m). The vast majority of
English words contain a combination of vowels (V) and consonants (C), such as CV ( go ), VC ( up ),
CVC ( cat )… The combined units are called syllables.
Monosyllables (or monosyllabic words ): words that contain only one unit.
Polysyllabic words : words that contain more than one syllable (most of the words in the language)
Two-syllable (disyllabic): despite (CVCCVC).
Three-syllable (trisyllabic) : instances (VCCCVCCVC).
To count the number of syllables : each syllable contains one vowel or vowel-like nucleus. The
word despite has two such nuclei, so there are two syllables. The number of syllables we assign to
such words can depend on whether they are being spoken spontaneously or read aloud, and on
whether they are being said with emphasis, emotion or equanimity.
Some words are especially prone to elision, such as of before consonants (cup o’ tea).
Other examples include gonna (=going to), wanna (want to).
STRONG AND WEAK FORMS Nearly 50 words in English ca be pronounced in two distinct ways,
depending on the degree of force with which they are uttered. They are all words which perform a
grammatical function – determiners, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions and
particles.
Strong (or full ) forms are used when the word is said in isolation or is being emphasized.
Weak forms are normal in connected speech: peripheral vowels are replaced by those of a
more central quality and some consonants may be elided. Weak forms are sometimes
represented in writing, though not usually very accurately (bacon ‘n eggs, cup o’ coffee).
VEDERE TABELLA PAG 247
LIASION A sound may be introduced between words or syllables to help them run together more
smoothly. Example is the pronunciation of word-final /r/ in RP. RP speakers pronounce the /r/ in
such words as clear and mother only when there is a following vowel (example on book).
Similarly, RP speakers regularly link adjacent vowels with an /r/ even when there is no /r/ in the
spelling like in media(r) interest.
PROSODY The sound system enables us to express meaning in speech in both verbal and non-
verbal ways.
Verbal meaning ( what we say ): relies on vowels and consonants to construct words,
phrases and sentences.
Non-verbal meaning ( the way that we say it ): makes use of such factors as intonation,
rhythm and tone of voice to provide speech with much of its structure and expressiveness.
Prosodic features There are many ways to say things and the chief possibilities are dictated by
the main auditory properties of sound: pitch, loudness and speed. These properties, used singly or
in combination (in the form of rhythm ) and accompanied by the distinctive use of silence (in the
form of pause ), make up the prosody or prosodic features of the language.
The most important prosodic effects are those conveyed by the linguistic use of pitch
movement or melody -the intonation system. Different pitch levels ( tones ) are used in
particular sequences ( contours ) to express a wide range of meanings.
Loudness is used in a variety of ways. Gross differences of meaning (such as anger,
menace, excitement) can be conveyed by using an overall loudness level. English uses
variations in loudness to define the difference between strong and weak ( stressed and
unstressed ) syllables. The stress pattern of a word is an important feature of the world’s
spoken identity: thus we find na tion, not na tion. There may be even contrasts f meaning
partly conveyed by stress pattern, as with re cord (the noun) and re cord (the verb).
Varying the speed (or tempo ) of speech is an important but less systematic communicative
feature. By speeding up or slowing down the rate at which we say syllables, words and
sentences, we can convey several kinds of meaning, such as (speeding up) excitement and
impatience or (slowing down) emphasis and thoughtfulness.
THE FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION
Emotional : intonation’s most obvious role is to express attitudinal meaning – sarcasm,
surprise, reserve, impatience…
Grammatical : intonation helps to identify grammatical structure in speech, performing a
role similar to punctuation.
Informational : intonation helps draw attention to what meaning is given and what is new
in an utterance.
Textual : intonation helps larger units of meaning than the sentences to contrast and
cohere.
Psychological : intonation helps us to organize speech into units that are easier to perceive
and memorize.
Indexical : intonation, along with other prosodic features, is an important marker of
personal or social identity.
RHYTHM Features of itch, loudness, speed and silence combine o produce the effect known as
speech rhythm. Our sense of rhythm is a perception that there are prominent units occurring at
regular intervals as we speak. In the main tradition of English poetry, this regularity is very clear, in
the form of the metrical patterns used in lines of verse. All forms of spoken English have their
rhythm, though in spontaneous speech it is often difficult to hear, because hesitations interfere
with the smooth flow of the words. This is often called a stress-timed (or isochronous) rhythm –
one based n the use of stressed syllables which occur at roughly regular intervals in the stream of
speech. The history of English is one of stress-timing, though the alternative rhythm has been
emerging in parts of the world where English as been in contact with syllable-timed languages,
such as India and South Africa.
PARALINGUISTIC FEATURES Prosody does not exhaust all the non-verbal vocal effects available
in English. The various cavities of the throat, mouth and nose can each be used to produce ‘tones
of voice’ that alter the meaning of what is being said.
SOUND SYMBOLISM It is a fundamental principle of linguistic enquiry that individual sounds do
not have meanings. It does not seem to make sense to ask such questions as ‘What does [t]
mean?’. Consonants and vowels are used only to give a distinctive shape to words, and it is these –
the words themselves, along with their component morphemes, such as un - and - ness – which
express a meaning. However, there are an interesting number of apparent exceptions to this
general rule – cases where native speakers feel that there is some kind of meaningful connection
between a sound, or cluster of sound, and properties of the outside world. The phenomenon is
known as sound symbolism , also called phonaesthesia (when focusing on the aesthetic values of
sounds) or onomatopoeia (when focusing on the use of sound in poetry). Sound symbolic effects
can be studied from various points of view. Some of the most frequently occurring types: initial
consonant clusters (such as /s-/), lateral sounds and plosives are notable. Then there is the
question of how clearly we can identify a symbolic meaning. This is sometimes fairly easy to state,
especially when there is a noise to copy in the outside world: bang, clip-clop, cough, knock. But
sometimes we can do no more than express a vague feeling that the word is somehow
appropriate to the thins but we can’t say why:
a written text; handwriting and typography provide subtle but pervasive dimensions of
interpretation; and the rules governing letter combinations (‘spelling’) promote a standard of
intelligible and acceptable communication – though at the expense of presenting young children
with a long-term and unprecedented exercise in conscious memorization.
A BASIC PERSPECTIVE The study of the linguistic properties of the written language has lagged
somewhat behind the study of the sounds of speech.
Writing can refer to either a process or a result: while we are actively engaged in the
process, we are said to be ‘writing’; and when we are finished, the product is also called
‘writing’.
Writing can refer to either an everyday or a professional activity. All literate people can
write; but only a tiny minority are ‘writers’.
Written language refers to any visual manifestation of spoken language -handwritten,
printed, typed or electronically generated. In this sense, private letters, bus timetables,
teletext and books are all examples of ‘written text’. On the other hand, when people say ‘I
can’t read your writing’, they are referring only to handwritten text.
The writing system Writing is a way of communicating which uses a system of visual marks
made on some kind of surface. It is one kind of graphic expression (other kinds include musical
notation, drawing and mathematical formulae). In an alphabetic system, such as is found in
English, the graphic marks represent, with varying regularity, individual speech sounds (or
phonemes). The standardized writing of a language is known as its orthography. English
orthography consists of the set of letters (the alphabet) and their variant forms (e.g. capitals,
lower-case), the spelling system and set of punctuation marks. The orthographic system can be
studied from two points of view:
1. Graphetics : a term coined on analogy with phonetics , is the study of the way human beings
make, transmit and receive written symbols.
Graphology : coined on analogy with phonology , is the study of the linsguistics contrasts
that the writing systems express. It recognizes the notion of the grapheme, on analogy with
the phoneme- the smallest unit in the writing system capable of causing a contrast in
meaning. For examples, because sat and rat have different meanings, and emerge s
different graphemes.
DIGRAPHS When two letters represent a single sound, the combination is called digraph.
Consonant digraphs include sh in ship and gh in trough ; vowel digraphs include ea in bread and oa
in boat. There is also the interesting ‘split’ or discontinuous digraph used to mark long vowels and
diphthongs as in rate and cone. Digraphs are an important part of the English writing system,
because there are far more phonemes in speech than there are letters in the alphabet. Trigraphs
also exist- three letters representing a single sound. Examples include tch ( watch ).
TYPOGRAPHIC TERMS These features would all form part of a graphetic analysis of a printed
language.A limited terminology exists to describe the many kinds f typeface and typesetting in
regular use. Among the important terms are the following:
Ascender : a part of a letter which extends above the height of the letter x , as in d and h. In
contrast with a descender, a part of a letter which extends below the foot of a letter x, as in
y and p.
Bold : a type with very thick stokes as seen in boldface.
Fount : the set of characters of the one size of the same typeface, including capitals, lower
case, punctuation marks and numerals; also spelled font.
Italic : characters that slope to the right, as in italic.
Justification : the arrangement of lines of text so that there are even margins. Left-justified
setting I standard practise. In right-justified setting, the last character of each line is mad to
reach the right-hand margin at the same point. Unjustified setting has a ‘ragged-edge’
right-hand margin.
Kern : the part of a letter which overhangs the body of the type, as in the top part of f.
Leading : the spacing between lines of type. The term derives from the former printing
practise of separating lines of metal type by inserting strips of lead between them.
Ligature : two or more letters joined together as a single character, as in æ and ff.
Lower case : small letters, as opposed to any kind of capital letters. Upper-case letters are
divided into large capitals and small capitals.
Serif : a small terminal stroke at the end of the main stroke of a letter. A serif typeface is
used in the main text on the facing page.
Sort : a single character of type. A special short is one which the typesetter does not have
routinely available in a fount, and which must be formed specially such as a phonetic
character.
Superscript : a small letter of figure set beside and above the top of a full-size character, as
in x⁴; also called a superior. It contrasts with subscript, a small letter of figure set beside
and below the foot of a full-size character, as in 3ₓ; also called an inferior.
X height : the height of the printing surface of a small letter x.
THE ALPHABET The letter-shapes of the modern alphabet in most cases are part of an alphabetic
tradition which is over 3.000 years old. The earliest-known alphabet was the 22-letter North
Semitic, which developed c. 1700 BC in the middle East. Several alphabets were based on this
model, including the Phoenician, which c. 1000 BC was used as a model buy the Greeks, who
added letters for vowels. Greek in c. 800 BC itself became the model for the alphabet used by the
Etruscans (civilization in the Tuscany area of central Italy). And it is from Etruscan that the capital
of the 23-letter Roman alphabet derived. The Christian era saw the emergence of new style of
writing throughout the Roman Empire, with scribes developing smaller scripts which could be
written rapidly and smoothly, and in which the pen remained in contact with the paper as much as
possible. The distinctive shapes of several modern lower-case letters arose through the constraints
imposed by the need for efficient handwriting.
Old English was first written in the runic alphabet, but the arrival of Christian missionaries brought
the rapid introduction of the Roman alphabet. The 23 Latin letters were applied to the Old English
sound system in a systematic way, with the addition of four new symbols to represent unfamiliar
sounds: ash, thorn, eth, wynn, yogh. [libro]. Following the Norman Conquest, the distinctively
Anglo-Saxon symbols gradually disappeared, at first because the French scribes preferred more
familiar letters, and later because Continental printers did not have the sorts to print the earlier
