Linguistics (American Studies)

roughly 7000, half of the world's population speaks the 23 most populous languages
(1299 million Chinese native speakers = 14,4% of world's population)

• If these are produced in the same place and in the same manner, how do they differ?• p, b• f, v• θ, ð
Vocal cords are in action (they vibrate) or not:• VOICELESS vs. VOICED→ They differ in VOICING.

 
 
 

Speech is a combination of:-Muscular activity (contraction & relaxation)
-Air movement: pulmonic, mostly egressive(PULMONIC EGRESSIVE AIRSTREAM MECHANISM)
-Airstream modification (vibration)
 
Cavities (‘Hohlraum’), vocal tract: oral and nasal-Cavity: ‘resonating space’ (Resonanzraum)-Where does the air escape?

- phonetics = study of sounds
 
1. Articulatory phonetics(Artikulatorische Phonetik)
Sound production/articulation
 
2. Acoustic phonetics(Akustische Phonetik)
Physical properties of sounds
 
3. Auditory phonetics(Auditive Phonetik)
Sound perception and processing

• ARBITRARY: no naturally motivated connection between signs (form, i.e. sound strings) and things they refer to (signified, concepts, objects) 
 
• CONVENTIONAL: language community ‘agrees’ on the ‘meaning’ of the linguistic sign(s) to make communication possible and meaningful
 
• DUALITY: signs are in a form-meaning relationship; limited number of sounds for unlimited combinations → allows for creativity

- SYMBOLS: no relation between sign and signifiedPurely conventional, interpretation has to be learned
e.g. knowing it's called tree when seeing a tree
-> symbols are arbitrary
 
- INDEX: existential or physical effectcause or effect-reason relationship between the sign and what it stands for
e.g. black smoke -> something bad happened, burned etc.
 
- ICON: similarity between the sign and what it stands for
- simplified images
e.g. sign of someone with finger in front of his mouth -> be quiet; maps, pictrograms

• binary relationship: two parts à inseparably linked to one another
• reciprocal relationship: sound sequence automatically evokes the concept linked to it and vice versa (arrows)
 
So far: sign and the signifiedSaussure: signifiant & signifié
(Bezeichnendes/Form & Bezeichnetes/Concept)
 
- two sides of the lingustic sign -> DUALITY
- one side does not make sense without the other -> BILATERAL MODEL

- study of signs ('Zeichen')
- science of the linguistic and non-linguistic signaling system and signing processes
(" I have a word - what can it stand for?")
 

• REFLEXIVITY
We reflect on language use, i.e. talk about language itself.
e.g. ‘I wish you wouldn’t use so many technical terms.’
 
• DISPLACEMENT
We can talk about past or future;
About distant objects;
Things we don’t even know if they exist (e.g. unicorns, god)
 
• PRODUCTIVITY (also called CREATIVITY)
We continually ‘manipulate’ our linguistic material to talk about new concepts/ideas or to form, use and process novel expressions.
 
• CULTURAL TRANSMISSION
Cognitive capacity to acquire language (but not inherited)
We learn it in our speech community (it’s transmitted)
 
• DUALITY (also called DOUBLE ARTICULATION)
Two interrelated levels: sound and meaning.
Limited number of sounds to create (potentially) infinite number of meaningful signs
• ARBITRARINESS
No naturally motivated or ‘iconic' connection between form and meaning

‘Descriptive’ approach: why people speak the way they do, not tell them what we think is ‘correct’ or ‘aesthetic’ à neutral depiction of language varieties as they are actually used by speakers
 
‘Prescriptive’ approach: formulating and dictating rules for how language should be used ‘correctly’

- ACCENT refers to differences in pronunciation, only.
 
- DIALECT refers to differences on all levels of grammar,i.e. lexicon, morphology, syntax

-conversation work - even in situations when we don't say what we mean
(Can you tell me the time? - The Milkman has come)

-indexical devices ('pointing' towards) -> pointing at extralinguistic contexts
-person (I,you,me,himm etc)
-temporal (today, tomorrow, last year etc)
-spatial (near,far,these,those etc)

-cannot be understood out of their context -> perspective matters
-focussing device within a reference frame sared by Speaker and Hearer -> we need to build/have a 'common ground'

1. Linguistic co(nt)text: what's in the words/structure (e.g. Amazingly, he already loves her.)

2. Situational context:n what's in the situation (e.g. John met Mary yesterday. Amazingly, he already loves her.)
- situational context includes speaker, hearer, any third party and their beliefs/knnowledge, physical environment, subject of conversation, time of the day... -> any extralinguistic factor that influences interpretation

-semantics: word meaning & relationship between words
- pragmatics: meaning in wider social/interactional context

- idea: meaning of an expression is the sum of its parts (and their syntactic relationship)
-> we can parse an infinite number of utterances
- problems: especially difficult on idioms

- compositionality (Frege's principle): difference between what is said and what is meant (This task is a piece of cake -> means it's easy, not actual cake)

- internal structure not homogenous
- not all category members are equally good representatives of the category

-fuzziness of category boundaries: not clear-cut, depend on the speaker

- usually only applicable for content words like nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs
- but also within content words often problematic -> abstract nouns
- sum of semantic features is indefinite

- binary features suggest clear boundaries ('either-or')
- based on "necessary and sufficient" conditions

- form-meaning relationship is arbitrary
-"systematic" = meaning networks are structures systematically, not random

-Lexical ambiguity -> same form, different meaning:
-POLYSEMY (same form, related meaning) e.g. education, word, brain, foot
-HOMONYMY (same form, unrelated meaning) e.g. fluke, bow, present, ball

- metonymy ('change of name'): expression normally or strictly used for something else, based on association
- e.g. I have Shakespeare on my bedside table, She drank the whole bottle

- Difference to metaphor: metonymy remains in the same domain

-concept understood in terms of another based on similarities

-source domain (typically the concrete, physical sphere)
-> applied to
- target domain (typically abstract/ psychological sphere

- metaphor = transfer, carry across (Greek)
- metonomy = change of name (Greek)

-metapher is usually regarded as a figure of speech, investigated in literature studies

- same form, unrelated meanings (by coincidence)
- "same form" = same pronounciation
- same writing -> homography (bank for institution/riverside)
- different writing -> homophony (right/write, to/too/two)

- homonyms have seperate histories and meanings, but are accidentally form-identical

- same form, related meanings (by extension)
e.g. leg/head (body) - leg of a table, head of a company

-usually considered one lexeme with
-> different meanings
-> common origin

polysemy: related meanings
homonymy: unrelated meanings

- words with opposite meanings are called antonyms
- opposites with respect to at least one component of their meaning, BUT share other aspects of their meaning
types:
1. gradable: small/medium/large
2. complementary: male/female, on/off
3. relational: teacher/student
4. directional: come/go, arrive/depart

- synonymy: sameness in meaning/sense (correct vs right, casual vs informal, answer vs reply, present vs gift)

-Problems:
- context
-intensity
-style or register

-> absolute synonymy is extremely rare

"meaning is the relation between a linguistic expression and a mental category that is used to classify objects"

- semantics: from Grek semainein, 'to mean, signify'
- two main levels: sentence semantics, lexical semantics
- two main approaches to the study of meaning :
1. structural semantics (componential, feature analysis)
2. cognitive semantics (e.g. prototype semantics)

- verbs require elements arguments (objects or complements) or not
->
1. intransitive (monovalent): no object (he laughs, she sleeps)
2. transitive (divalent): one object (he invites her)
3. ditransitive (trivalent): two objects
(she gives him the present)

syntactic functions of individual phrases and clauses in a sentence, the grammatical relations they express

- simple sentece: one man clause only
(Anna watches TV.)
- non-simple sentence:
1. compound sentence: main clause + one other or several main clauses
(Anna watches TV and her brother plays the violin.)
2. complex sentence: main clause + one or several subordinate clauses
(Anna watches TV, although she is ill.)

-sentence: largest independent syntactic unit which is not embedded in any larger construction
-clause: consituent with one subject-predicate structure
-phrase: consist of more than one word -> NO subject-predicate structure

English is an SVO language:
- Subject: determined by sentential distribution (agreement)
- Verb: main (full, lexical) verb vs. auxilaries
- Object: object cae is only marked on pronouns, follow the verb directly (before adverbials), can be passivized (objects individually)
- Complement: what's required by the verb (also: arguments)
- Adverbial: circumstantial information (time, place, manner)

1. Coordination - by 'and'
- the mother and the father, cook, breakfast for the child and dinner for the uncle, for them, every morning and every evening

2. Sentence Fragment Test: only phrses can be the answer to questions
- Who cooks breakfast? -> the mother
- When does the mother cook breakfast? -> every morning
- Who does the mother cook for? -> her child

Example sentence: The mother cooks breakfast for her child every morning.

1. Pronominalisation/Substitution: Which elements can be substituted by pronouns?
- the mother -> she
- her child -> it
- every morning -> then, now
- cooks breakfast for her child every morning -> does

2. Movement: Which elements can be moved around together?
- every morning, the mother cooks breakfast for her child
- for her child, the mother cooks breakfast every morning

1. declarative sentence -> informing
(Mary is reading.)
2. interrogative sentence --> getting information
(Is Mary reading?)
3. imperative sentence -> 'commanding'
(Read!)
4. exclamatory sentence -> expressing attitudes
(How fast Mary is reading!)

-phrase: building block
-clause: one or more phrases
-utterance: one or ore clauses (main clause, subordinate clause(s))

1. attributive: the BIG man.
2. predicative: the man is BIG.

- hardly any morphology
- grammatical relations marked largely through distribution
- most grammatical categories are not marked (they are relics of traditional grammar writing/description)

- words can belong to more than one class
- some members of a class do not exhibit all properties commonly shared by other members of the same class
"some adjectives are more adjectictival than other"

1. Meaning (semantic criterion)
- verbs = 'action', nouns = 'things' etc.

2. Inflection (morphological criterion)
- morphological properties of a word
- e.g. plural marking: nouns; tense marking: verbs etc.

3. Distribution (syntactic criterion)
- position/function within a phrase, clause or sentence

form of word depends on its function/ position, i.e. is dependent on the relation to some other element

inflection depends on grammatical categories, i.e. the position or function of the unit within the clause or sentence

- nouns: declension: boys (plural), boy's (posessive)
- verbs: conjugation: works (3.sg.ind.pres.), worked (past), working (pres.part), has worked (past.part)
- adjectives: comparison: stronger (comparative), strongest (superlative)

- layperson's use: what is 'correct' and 'incorrect'
-> prescriptive use of 'rule'

- linguistic use: underlying or governing rules or regularity in language system(s)
-> descriptive use of 'rule'

-layperson`s use: what's in a grammar book for language, what students tend to hate in school
-> highly reductive

-linguistic use: complex interplay of all levels of language; the complete system of phonological, morphological, syntatic, and semantic information and rules that speakers of a given language possess
-> details depend on perspective or theoretical background

- inflectional morphology (the grammatical structure of words)
- syntax (structure of phrases and sentences, function of phrases within a sentence and their relationship/ dependencies)

- conncept `word`is fuzzy
- word could also include word form
word-formation includes derivation, conversion, compounding etc. -> i.e. the formation of lexemes
- lexeme is the precise term for the process in question, hence lexeme-formation could be a more accurate term

- clipping ('truncation'): doctor - doc
- blends (Kontamination): situation + comedy -> sitcom
- abbrevations: alphabetisms/initialisms (UK, LA pronounced letter by letter) and acronyms (NATO, ERASMUS pronounced as words)
- back-formation: babysitter - babysit
- coinages: Kleenex, sandwich

- 'change of word-class without change in form'
- no specific morphological marker indicating the change of word class and meaning (often called zero-derivation)
- free morpheme develops an additional usage as a member of a different word class

consis of two free parts: modifier + head
- head: most important element (determines word class, semantic function & carries morphological information)

- normal suffix: 'turning x into noun' (-ment, -er, -ee)
- verbal suffix: 'turning x into verb' (-ize, -ify, -ate)
- adjectival suffix: 'turning x into adjective' (-al, -able, -ish)

-examples pf word-class changes prefixes:
- be- or en-: befriend, enrich
- de- or dis-: defrost, discourage

bound + free -> prefixation (en-danger)
free + bound -> suffixation (refug-ee)

1. phonological conditioning -> completely regular/ predictable
2. morphological conditioning -> moderately regular/ predictable (bases change phonological form, meaning does not e.g. agile - agility)
3. lexical conditioning -> completely unregular/ unpredictable (often etymological/ historical) e.g.irregular plurals foot-feet

-open class: 'content words'
-> lexical items (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) can easily 'receive new members'

-closed class: 'function words'
-> grammatical items (articles, prepositions, affixes etc.) limited inventory

a morpheme can be realized by different allomorphs based on phonological conditioning

1. plural morpheme -s (cats, dogs, kisses (-s,-z,-iz)
2. indefinite article a/an (a banana, an apple)
3. Latin prefix in- ('not'): inadequate, impossible, irregular, illegal

We do it by referring to the minimal building blocks:
- morpheme = meaning-bearing element

morphology = 'study of words, their structure & meaning', 'grammar of words'

1. the minimal building blocks of language: morphemes
2. derivation, word formation: How do we form new words?

only morphemes have sign status

elision = omission of sounds, syllables or words in speech
-> usually in order to simplify the pronounciation
(e.g. desktop, landmark)

linking = insertion of consonant between syllables

always an -s at the end of the word BUT
not every plural -s is pronouunced alike
hint:
/s/ voiceless as in sick
/z/ voiced as in zoo

plural -s = assimilation of voicing

- general process whereby adjacent sounds with differing properties become more similar in terms of voicing, place of articulation or manner of articulation

- assimilate 'to become similar'
-> a sound can cause a change to a surrounding sound

- assmilation ('becoming similar')
linking & epenthesis
- elision ('dropping' of sounds)
- rhythm, intonation, stress (shift)
- weak vs. strong syllables
e.g. ðә vs. ðiː ‘the’

= 'contraints on the permissible sequence of phonemes'
- strong cross-linguistic tendencies/preferences
(note: no principle is ever absolute!)
- not all sounds can occur in all positions
- the more complex, the fewer combinations (i.e. more restrictions)
- mostly language-specific
- /s/ is a special case (both in onset and coda)

'vowel-like'
plosives > affricates > fricatives > nasals > approximants > vowels

Maximal Onser Principle (MOP)
- associate consonants to the onset position as many times as possible untill we run out of consonants, or we encounter a cluster which can't form an onset (Spencer 1998)

Sonority Hierarchy (Sonority Sequencing Principle)
- 'the nucleus of a syllable is always the most sonorant element, while the onset tends to increase in the sonority towards the nucleus and the coda tends to decrease in sonority away from the nucleus' (Spencer 1998)

Phonotactics
'constraints on the permissible sequence of phonemes'

plosives (d,p,t) > fricatives (f, ʃ, s) > nasals (m,ŋ, n) > approximants (l, r)
loudness increases

1. segmental phonology (the individual sounds)

2. suprasegmental phonology
(supra= 'above the segment')
combination of sounds, i.e. syllables, phonotactics, linking, assimilation, stress, intonation etc.

- rhoticity: i.e. (non-)rhotic variety

- rhotic: /r/ is pronounced everywhere: ka:r 'car'
- non-rhotic: /r/ is pronounced only before vowels ka: 'car'

- rhotic varieties: US, Canada, Scotland, Ireland
- non-rhotic varieties: RP, English in most of England: Australia, NZ, South Africa, Singapore

- if sounds distinguish meaning: phonemes, e.g. /k/, /p/
- if not: allophones of a phoneme, e.g. [ph]

Phonemes = meaning-distinguishing speech sounds abstract representation of sound segments
Allophones = variations of phonemes (complementary distribution vs. free variation)

- two allophones of one phoneme are in complementary distribution, i.e. they (predictably) do not occur in the same environment

- phonemes: meaning-distinguishing elements
- allophones: do not change meaning ’

- allophone: Greek 'other sound'
Phoneme = different sound
Allophone = variation of the same sound
Phone = concrete realisation

- minimal pair: pair of words that
-> have same number of segments
-> differ in exactly one sound (or segment)
-> differ in meaning

E.g.
cat cut
kæt kʌt

- a sound is a phoneme of a language if it is contrastive
i.e. if it can change meaning

1. Segmental phonology
/phonemes/ i.e. idealized sounds

2. Suprasegmental phonology
Combination of sounds
i.e. syllables, phonotactics, linking, assimilation, stress, intonation etc...

Phonetics: How you make sounds
Phonology: How you use sounds

same pronounciation, different meanings

schwa – ə
~ 10% of sounds in spoken English (Crystal 1995: 239)

Btw: the least frequent sound is ʊə at 0.06% — less than the least frequent consonant ᴣ.

- In English: unstressed syllables. əˈloŋ, ˈhɑːmənɪ (along, how many)
- Also in German: ˈmʏkə, ɡəˈʃpʁʊŋən (Mücke, gesprochen?)

- Monophthongs (one vowel) -> see /i:/
- Diphthongs (sequence of two vowels) -> say /eɪ/
 
- RP speciality: triphthongs (sequence of diphthong + ə)  -> fire /aɪə/
!!! RP pronunciation -> GA does not have triphthongs!

- phonetically -> no obstruction
- phonologically -> center of a syllable, carry most of the loudness,  pitch, and tone of voice
 

Consonants: obstruction of airflowVowels: no obstruction of airflow