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Word Analysis (Subject) / Terms and concepts (Lesson)
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- Refunctionalisation Use of an existing letter to signal a different sound English /ə/ --> <e> (win > wine) Ger. Dehnungs-h (gên > gehen) Double consonants (Engl. diner > dinner, Ger. koman > kommen)
- The history of Ger. and Engl. spelling Ger. and English. - Germanic origin => Christianization - Variation due to i) dialects, ii) foreign influence, iii) indiv. scribal praxis - Standardisation: scribal conventions (e.g. Symbols like umlaut or ß) Invention of printing press (Gutenberg, Caxton) + early dictionaries - Capitalising: Every noun in Ger, 'important' ones in Engl.
- German has a 'more phonetic spelling' - Words are written as they are pronounced - More homophones (bean - been) and homographes (tear - read) in Engl.
- Semantic changes 1. Semantic expansion => Word increases range of meaning (geil) 2. Semantic restriction => meaning becomes narrower (muot - Mut) 3. Semantic Deterioration => meaning becomes more negative (Bonze) 4. Semantic Amelioration => meaning becomes more positive (romantisch)
- Loanwords (origins) I) Latin: Trade, Christianisation, religion, scholarship, law + administration, science+ mathematics, arts II) Skaninavian: Everyday-words, non-palatalisation of sk (sky, skin) III) French: Chivalry, military, luxury goods, entertainment VI) English: Science, technics, sport... etc.
- Loanwords: Alternatives to loans 1. Direct loan translations:to google => googeln (new word in target language) 2. Approximate loan translations: clash of cultures - Kampf der Kulturen 3. Semantic Loans: Defender (Fußball) - Verteidiger (Wort exists, but becomes now connected to the same meaning as the original word)
- Inflectional vs. derivational morphology Derivational morphology: => creation of complex lexemes (compounding as well) - Deriving new words (Foot + ball = football), diminutives (Bächlein), prefixed verbs (nach-denken) Inflectional morphology: => creation of complex word forms - person, number, case, comperatives, superlatives
- Morphology (definition) The internal structure of complex words (and the rules that produce them)
- Morphological marker Segment that signals a morphological categorie
- Phonological conditioning Restriction of a (morph.) marker to a certain phonological environment
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- Lexical conditioning restriction of a (morph.) marker to individual lexical items
- Productivity The ability of a marker to be used in new words
- - morphologically simplex? - internal change? - regular markers? - conversion? - suppletion? - set phrase morphologically simplex: Not extended by affixes => Bruder (complex: Bruderschaft, brüderlich) internal change: Change within the words vowels (sometimes +affix) => Brüder, Bäuer-in regular markers: => e.g. -ed for past in Engl. conversion: Word of a new word-class from an existing one => essen > das Essen suppletion: Word formation without a shared root => go, went set phrase: (morph.) unanalysed sentences => If I were you
- Analogy (def.) The application of existing morphological patterns to create new forms
- Analogical Extension - Extension of one (frequent) morph. pattern to new environment => Engl. -ed (past), Ger. -s (plural marker)
- Analogical Levelling - Elimination of allomorphy (different forms for one meaning) - Usually in flectional paradigms
- Back formation removal of actual or supposed affixes => new simplex lexeme
- Analogical creation Creating a new lexemes based on an existing one blackboard => whiteboard
- Reanalysis - New interpretation of a words morphological constituents (often leads to analogical creation) Hamburger => hamburg-er => ham-Burger
- Natural morphology - seeks to define principles for morphological change Thesis: - some morph. alternations are 'more natural' then others (lack of perceptual complexity) - languages develope towards maximal naturalness Two main factors: I) Constructional iconity: The semantically marked form is also formally marked (maximally iconic <-- Tag - Tage > Vater - Väter > Hammer - Hammer > hond - hon (Meckl.) --> countericonic) II) Transparency of encoding: One-to-one relationship between form and meaning (Turkish plural always -ler)
- Reasons for non-phonetic spelling English: 1) GVS: /a:/ > /ei/ make; /e:/ > /i:/ feet; /i:/ > /ai/ mine; /o:/ > /u:/ fool 2) Consonant cluster reduction: knee, gnaw, write, ring 3) Voiceless ‘w’ merged with voiced one: which (cf. witch) 4) /x/ became dropped: night, right or > /f/: laugh 5) Final schwa became dropped: give 6) Double consonants pronounced as single ones: kiss German: 1) Pronunciation of <w> as a fricative /v/: Wasser* 2) Pronunciation of <v> as voiceless /f/: vier 3) ‘Weakening’ of double consonants: e.g. <tt> /t/: bitten
- Umlaut/ i-mutation - a type of assimilation or 'vowel-harmony' (late gmc. period) - back vowel is fronted and/or front vowel raised if /i/ or /j/ are part of the following syllable - German has kept the lip rounding (grüßen) while English has the unrounded equivalents /i/, /e/ (greet)