Englisch (Subject) / Steop Introduction To English Linguistics (Lesson)

linguistics

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• SYNCHRONIC studies language at a certain point of time synchronic study of language: abstraction, because language is always in transition
• DIACHRONIC studies language over time the changes that can be observed in the course of the history of a language
• DESCRIPTIVE VS PRESCRIPTIVE descriptive = to descripe how people speak prescriptive/normative = to tell people how to speak
• LANGUE VS PAROLE langue = system of signs and rules parole = actual, concrete realization of signs Langue (French, meaning "language") and parole (meaning "speaking") are linguistic terms distinguished by Ferdinand de Saussure in his Course in General Linguistics. Langue encompasses the abstract, systematic rules and conventions of a signifying system; it is independent of, and pre-exists, individual users. Langue involves the principles of language, without which no meaningful utterance, "parole", would be possible. Parole refers to the concrete instances of the use of langue. This is the individual, personal phenomenon of language as a series of speech acts made by a linguistic subject. Saussure did not concern himself overly with parole; however, the structure of langue is revealed through the study of parole. The distinction is similar to that made about language by Wilhelm von Humboldt, between energeia (active doing) and ergon (the product of that doing). Saussure drew an analogy to chess to explain the concept of langue and parole. He compared langue to the rules of chess—the norms for playing the game—and compared the moves that an individual chooses to make—the individual's preferences in playing the game—to the parole.
• SYNTAGMATIC VS PARADIGMATIC Syntagmatic: what other signs can be connected to a signin order to form a sentence?Axis of combination Paradigmatic: what other signs can ‘replace’ a sign within asentence?Axis of selection or substitution A paradigmatic relationship refers to the relationship between words that are the same parts of speech and which can be substituted for each other in the same position within a given sentence. A syntagmatic relationship refers to the relationship a word has with other words that surround it. In the table below, paradigmatic relationships are shown vertically and syntagmatic relationship - horizontally:                 purchased                       costly                             bicycle                 got                                   pricey               old         motorcycle John        bought           a(n)            expensive         new       car As you can see, the substitution of one word for another will not affect the syntax of the sentence. Paradigmatic (vertical) axis The words car, motorcycle and bicycle are related to each other because they all belong to the same semantic group: vehicles - a relationship known as hyponymy with a vehicle as a hypernym (a more general or superordinate word) and car, motorcycle and bike as hyponyms (more specific words, in this case types of vehicles). The other two kinds of paradigmatic relationship are those of synonymy (buy = purchase) and antonymy (new / old). Syntagmatic (horizontal) axisUnlike the paradigmatic relationships, the syntagmatic relationships of a word are not about meaning. They are about the lexical company the word keeps (collocation) and grammatical patterns in which it occurs (colligation). Let's look again at the table / graph above where expensive can be substituted for pricey: expensive new car pricey new car It seems to work, but you're unlikely to say "costly new car". Also old cannot be easily replaced by new as the combination expensive old is less likely than expensive new. In any case, the opposite of new in this case would probably be used or second-hand and not necessarily old. All these are collocational patterns. But there are also colligational preferences.
• sound inventory pool of sounds which speakers of a given language use to construct words of their language, differs from language to language, e.g. Ü is part of German sound inventory, but not of English, whereas the “th-sound” from bath, is not in German inventory, therefore = every language uses only a subset of all possible speech sounds, none uses all
• phonetics Sub-discipline of linguistics which deals with the following sound-related aspects of language: • Production of speech sounds (articulatory phonetics)• Physical properties (acoustic phonetics)• Perception and processing of the speech signals by the listener (auditory phonetics)
• spelling vs pronounciation: the representation of speech sounds We have do distinguish between letters and sounds – no one-to-one correspondence of sound and orthographic symbol. Spelling does not necessarily reflect the sound structure of words, spelling and pronounciation are two pair of shoes.
• International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) whenever we use a certain symbol, people know exactly which sound we are talking about. Therefore phoneticians have established transcription systems which have a seperate symbol for each sound. The most well known and most standardised transcription system is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Many look like ordinary letters  Phonetic symbols represents sounds in a one-to-one fashion  Two kinds of brackets: <words> [sounds]  American English and British English have different IPA Symbols British English = Received Pronounciation (RP) North American English = General American
• PULMONIC EGRESSIVE AIRSTREAM MECHANISM Sounds are produced with air being pushed out from the lungs through the mouth or nose Demands little energy and is most common one in the languages of the world.
• Pulmonic Ingressive sounds made while breathing in regularly used only in a minority of languages
• the vocal tract • Vocal tract = the entire passage above the larynx, all organs above the larynx, including the nasal and oral cavities that participate in the pronunciation of sound• Divided into two main cavities• Nasal cavity• Oral cavity – including mouth, pharyngeal areas• Active articulators – can be moved, e.g. tongue, lip, lower jaw• Passive articulators – can not be moved, e.g. upper teeth, hard palate
• Vowel? Consonant? Distinguish between consonants and vowels, but how?• Vowel – type of speech sound in which the airstream is modulated and not obstructed• Consonant – type of speech sound in which the airstream is severely obstructed• Criteria for the classification of consonants• Place of articulation – The point of closest constriction in the vocal tract• Manner of articulation – The way in which airstream is obstructed
• bilabial sounds involving both lips  
• PHONETICS  Phonetics is the study of the human sound system  Phonetics is a subdiscipline of linguistics dealing with artculatory phoneticcs,  acoustic phonetics & auditory phonetics
• Articulatory phonetics investigates how speech sounds are articulated/produced
• Acoustic phonetics describes the physical properties of speech sounds themselves
• Auditory phonetics investigates how speech sounds are perceived and processed
• VOCAL FOLDS/GLOTTIS The vocal folds are a pair of membranes stretchedacross the larynx. To test whether a certain sound is voiced orvoiceless, put your finger against your larynx. Ifyou feel it vibrating, the sound is voiced.
• ACTIVE ARTICULATORS Movable = Lips, tongue, lower jaw
• Passive articulators Non-movable = Alveolar ridge, upper teeth, hard palate,..
• VOWELS VS CONSONANTS VOWELS produced without obstruction of the air stream CONSONANTS produced through articulators obstruting the air stream
• DESCRIBING SOUNDS Place of articulationwhere the air stream is obstructed • Manner of articulationhow the air stream is obstructed • Voicingdoes the production involve a vibration of the vocal folds or not?
• BILABIAL  the air stream is blocked by bringing your lips together  /p/ as in “purse“ and “rap“  /b/ as in “back” and “cab”  /m/ as in “mad” and “calm”  /w/ as in “wet”
• LABIO DENTAL the air stream is blocked by bringing your lower lip to your upper teeth /f/ as in “father“ and “calf“ /v/ as in “vine” and “live”
• DENTAL the air stream is blocked by the tip of your tongue touching the back of your upper teeth /θ/ as in “thick“ and “bath“ /ð/ as in “this” and “rather”
• ALVEOLAR the air stream is blocked by raising your tongue to the alveolar ridge  /n/ as in “no“ and “man“  /t/ as in “tip” and “rat”  /d/ as in “dip” and “bad”  /s/ as in “suit” and “bus”  /z/ as in “zit” and “jazz”  /l/ as in “luck” and “fully”
• Palato-alveolar the air stream is blocked by your tongue touching the point between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate  /ʃ/ as in “shoot“ and “brash“  /ʒ/ as in “vision” and “masure”  /tʃ/ as in “chicken” and “match”  /dʒ/ as in “jam” and “badge
• PALATAL the air stream is blocked by the tongue touching the hard palate  /j/ as in “yes” and “yonder”
• VELAR the air stream is blocked by raising the back of the tongue to the velar  /ŋ/ as in “going“ and “uncle“  /k/ as in “cat” and “back”  /g/ as in “good” and “bug”
• GLOTTAL the air stream is blocked by the gloes being in a firm contact /h/ as in “hi“ and “Bahamas“  /?/ as in “button” and “mountain”
• MANNERS OF ARTICULATION Plosives  Fricatives Affricates Nasals  Approximants
• PLOSIVES the air stream is blocked completely and then released in a burst  /p/ as in “purse“ and “rap“ (bilabial)  /b/ as in “back” and “cab” (bilabial)  /t/ as in “tip” and “rat” (alveolar)                                                                                            /d/ as in “dip” and “bad” (alveolar)                                                                                            /k/ as in “cat” and “back” (velar)                                                                                            /g/ as in “good” and “bug” (velar)
• FRICATIVE the air stream is blocked partly and the air is being forced through a narrow channel  /f/ as in “father“ and “calf“ (labio-dental)  /v/ as in “vine” and “live” (labio-dental)  /θ/ as in “thick“ and “bath“ (dental)  /ð/ as in “this” and “rather” (dental)  /s/ as in “suit” and “bus” (alveolar)  /z/ as in “zit” and “jazz” (alveolar)  /ʃ/ as in “shoot“ and “brash“ (palato-alveolar)  /ʒ/ as in “vision” and “measure” (palato-alveolar)  /h/ as in “happy” and “hope” (glottal)
• AFFRICATES a combination of plosives and fricatives the air stream is obstructed completely and then released through a narrow channel  /tʃ/ as in “chicken” and “match” (palato-alveolar)  /dʒ/ as in “jam” and “badge” (palato-alveolar)
• NASALS the air stream is released through the nose  /m/ as in “mad” and “calm” (bilabial)  /n/ as in “no“ and “man“ (alveolar)  /ŋ/ as in “going“ and “uncle“ (velar)
• APPROXIMATES no complete closureliquids [l r] glides/semi-vowels [w j] lateral approximant [ l ] the air passes around the sides of the tongue central approximant [w j r] the air escapes by flowing over the tongue
• VOICING Voiced sounds:  – vocal folds vibrate when air passes through • Voiceless sounds: –vocal folds wide apart –no vibration–[p t k tʃ f θ s ʃ h]
• VOWEL TONGUE HEIGHT = CLOSENESS how much space is there between the tongue and the roof of the mouth• high – mid – low • high: [ɪ] [iː] [ʊ] [uː]  mid: [ə] [e] [ɜː] [ɔː]  low: [æ] [ʌ] [ɑː] [ɒ]
• VOWEL TOUNGUE BACKNESS = FRONTNESS how far away is the raised body of the tongue from the back of the mouth• front – central – backfront [iː] [ɪ] [e] [æ]central:[ɜː] [ə] [ʌ] back:[uː] [ʊ] [ɔː] [ɑː] [ɒ]
• Received Pronunciation    Southern British accento model/normo only spoken by about 5% of the British population
• General American perceived as neutral (“TV voices”)o accent closes to Midwest (i.e. eastern Nebraska,central Iowa, western Illinois
• Rounding of Lips the vowels [uː], [ʊ], [ɔː] involve a higher degree of lip rounding • boot (/buːt/) -> lips are rounded• beat (/biːt/)  -> lips are spread
• SUMMARY VOWELS Height of tongue (closeness) high – mid – low • Part of tongue (frontness) front – central – back • Lip rounding • Vowel length
• Monophthongs (simple vowels):quality remains (mostly) constant throughout the pronunciation of the sound
• Diphthongs change quality during articulationmove from one vowel position to the other IPA transcription consists of two vowelsymbols, e.g. [baɪ] as in “buy“
• Closing diphthongs move towards a high (close) position towardsthe end of articulation• [eɪ] [aɪ] [ɔɪ] [aʊ] [əʊ] [oʊ]
• Centering diphthongs (only RP!):• move towards a schwa [ə] at the end ofarticulation• [ɪə] [eə] [ʊə] (as in "hear" "wear" "tour")
• SUMMATY VOWEL SOUNDS Classficatory criteria: • Monophthongs:o tongue height (high – mid – low)o tongue backness (front – central – back)o lip roundingo vowel length • Diphthongs:o closing vs. centeringo change in height & position
• Phonology 1. Phonology is the study of the abstractcategories that organize the sound system ofa language• function and (mental) organization of thesound inventory 2. The phonological system (sound system) of alanguage

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