Introduction to Linguistics

Introduction to Linguistics

v     Linguistics

v     Semiotics study of signs

v     Communication studies

Signs are the main points to communicate.

Communication

v     Is conscious and intentional

v     We communicate by means of words and something more

v     You can never give somebody too much information

v     Words and utterance mean the same to the speaker and the listener (NO)

v     The message sent in an act of communication is the same as the message received

v     Communication is a one-way activity (NO)

Body language communicate something also. Space and time management is important also (for example when we came late or earlier to the party, it communicates something)

We always behave, we cant say that we dont behave. So when we always behave, we always communicate.

Sounds can only have meanings as used with words.

Level of politeness is important. It says how we must behave (for example: I want you to stop talking, so please shut up its polite, but we can use some nice words)

Meaning negotiation- we can negotiate our communication in a proper way.

Context of the message in very cases is more important than a word.

Language basics.

Time scale

v     Cave drawings 20.000 years ago

v     Oldest records 4.000 BC

v     Alphabetic script 3.000 BC

Glottogony - Theories of language origin. (speculative)

What is that we are seeking the origin of?

v     Manipulate skill. Good sound discrimination. Ability to imitate and respond to differing sound patterns. Ability to form concepts. Ability to generalise and solve practical problems. Better than usual vertebrate sight. Bodily agility. Close group banding.

v     Mouth gesture theory (ta-ta theory)

v     Bow- wow theory (natural sounds)

v     Pooh pooh theory (instinctive emotional sounds)

v     natural sound theory (chanting- physical tasks)

v     Ding dong theory (sound sense harmony)

v     Poetic theory (expressive nature of language)

v     Contact theory (contact sound cry call word)

Origin of language

v     Monogenetic vs polygenetic origin of language

v     Interactional (indicating emotions and socialising) vs. transactional functions of language (communicating knowledge, skills, information)

Speech vs. Writing (language vs. tongue)

v     Code and message structure and event or system and usage

v     Primacy of speech

v     Primitive people vs. primitive languages

v     Language vs. Nationality

Languages of the world

There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2.000 of those languages have fewer than 1.000 speakers. The most popular language in the world is Mandarin Chinese.

Development of writing

v     Pictograms (signs, road sings)

v     Ideograms

v     Cuneiform writing (pismo klinowe Sumerians)

Definition of language

A system of arbitrary vocal symbols by which members of a social group cooperate and interact.

Language is a system, because there are elements which relay on one another.

Language reflects reality.

v     Arbitrary vs. Onomatopoetic

Meow miaau miau

Bow wow Wauwau hau hau toutou

Whisper flustern susuvrar chuchoter susogui

v     Vocal respiratory organs involved

v     Symbols vs. Sings

v     System consistency in which sounds and their combinations are put together in a language.

Structural / syntactic predictions

v     Speech community

Language reflects reality, for example when we say something in singular (e.g. boy) it shows less numerous reality. But when we say something in plural (e.g. boys) it shows more numerous reality.

Linguistics is a science

v     Observable truths, facts

v     Any language is studied, regardless of speakers

v     Synchronic* vs. Diachronic study (descriptive vs. Historical study)

v     Contrastive analysis (when we present differences and similarities between languages)

v     Language levels

v     Schools of linguistics structuralism, generativism, cognitivism.

*Synchronic study of language language is changing, so its hard to learn a language without historical knowledge of language ( np. Kiedy uczymy się słowa Dzień dobry, słyszymy od innych niewyraźne słowo, do ktrego ludzie przywykli mwiąc. Ktoś, kto poznaje słowo Dzień dobry, musi poznać jego znaczenie i jak powinno się wymawiać teraz).

Syntax is related to semiotics.

Feedback a knowledge that we can get and allows us to modify a message. (e.g. when someone is saying to us, we consciously modify this)

Semanticity language has a meaning and its systematic.

Level of separate sounds

We have words: cat, act, tac (kind of nail)

The same letters, but they sounds different, it depends on a word.

Properties of language

v     Informative vs. Communicative signals

v     Communication in all spieces.

v     Unique properties of human language

Duality of patterning (sound meaning)

Displacement (beyond here and now)

Productivity (open endedness)

Cultural transmission/ learn ability

Stimulus freedom

Arbitrariness (pack vs. back)

Semanticity / symbolic character (type vs. token)

Complete feedback (monitoring performance) We always monitor our speech, our mistakes

Prevarication (lying)

Reflexivity (self reference)

Non unique features

Arbitrariness vs. Iconicity

Use of vocal auditory channel (also writing)

The waggle dance (how flies communicate) the angle from the sun indicates direction; the duration of the waggle part of the dance signifies the distance

In language everything changes, there is nothing stable. For example - we need new vocabulary for new items, things, etc.

Were not born with language, its not in a genes, we must learn this by heart.

Language is stimulus, responsible activity (XIX/XX century)

Behaviorism

Language is not motivated

Symbolic character between type and token:

Type is abstract unit which we have in our minds. (Like p or b, we know in our minds how to write this letters)

Token every single word is different (everyone pronounce the word different)

Language cant be only use to talk what we heard or seen, but we can use it also to describe something imagine.

Reflexivity we use language in order to talk about language (e.g. I didnt hear that word)

Functions of language:

v     Communicative

v     Referential (We refer to exterminal world/to activity) /Propositional/Ideational/ transactional (to influence other people)

v     Emotional expression (Wow!)

v     Social interaction (Bless you, Thank you) Transactional

v     Phonetic effect (Shirley Tenple, Oneple, Twople)

v     Controlling reality (formulas: I baptise you)

v     Record- keeping

v     Instrument of thought (helps to say things)

v     Expression of identity (e.g. group chanting like in a subcultures you must use a proper language in different groups)

We do not use a language in one purpose, but we use many functions.

Functions of language (by R. Jakobson)

v     Referential: conveys information about some real phenomenon

v     Expressive: describes feelings of the speaker

v     Conative: attempts to elicit some behaviour from the addressee.

v     Phatic*: builds a relationship between both parties in a conversation

v     Metalingual: self references (I want you to repeat the word)

v     Poetic: when words refer to something, for example Thank you doesnt refer to anything, but Peter sleeps well refers to person and action.

divine origin theory (original lg God-given)
experiments Pharoah Psammatichos and James IV; primitive vs developed lgs
Tower of Babel (Gen. 11-1-9)

The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words.

While men were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.

They said to one another, 'Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.' They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar.

Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.'

LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men had built.

Then the LORD said: 'If now, while they are one people, all speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do.

Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says.'

Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world. It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth

physiological adaptation theory - shape of vocal organs made speech possible: upright teeth, flexible lips and tongue, small mouth, larynx with voice cords and pharynx (resonating box), lateralised brain (language in the left hemisphere)

Origin of language

monogenetic vs polygenetic origin of language

Interactional (indicating emotions and socialising) vs transactional functions of language (communicating knowledge, skills, information)

The dog is eating a chicken

My brother believes he is a chicken

Speech vs writing (language vs tongue)

code and message, structure and event or system and usage

primacy of speech

primitive people vs primitive languages

language vs nationality

Languages of the world

There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers.

The most popular language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 885,000,000 people in China that speak that language.

Most Widely Spoken Languages in the World

Language  Approx. number
of speakers

 1. Chinese (Mandarin) 1,075,000,000

 2. English 514,000,000

 3. Hindustani 496,000,000

 4. Spanish 425,000,000

 5. Russian 275,000,000

 6. Arabic 256,000,000

 7. Bengali 215,000,000

 8. Portuguese 194,000,000

 9. Malay-Indonesian 176,000,000

10. French 129,000,000

26. Polish

Development of writing

Pictograms

language-independent

do not represent words

Ideograms

Cuneiform writing (pismo klinowe; Sumerians)

logograms (word-symbols; Chinese)

The ideographic representation of a child beneath a roof, which once had the meaning of 'to care for', has since changed over the years to the meaning of 'character', 'word' or simply, 'ideogram'.

Rebus writing

/ba/ means boat

/baba/ means father

Syllabic writing

Alphabetic writing

Definition of language

A SYSTEM OF ARBITRARY VOCAL SYMBOLS BY WHICH MEMBERS OF A SOCIAL GROUP COOPERATE AND INTERACT

A language is a system of visual, auditory, or tactile symbols of communication and the rules used to manipulate them. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon. Language is considered to be an exclusively human mode of communication; although other animals make use of quite sophisticated communicative systems, none of these are known to make use of all of the properties that linguists use to define language. (Wikipedia)

arbitrary vs onomatopoeic

meow miaau miau

bow-wow Wauwau hau-hau toutou

whisper flstern susurrar chuchoter susogni

vocal respiratory organs involved

symbols vs signs

system consistency in which sounds and their combinations are put together in a lg, structural/syntactic predictions

speech community

observable truths, facts

any language is studied, regardless of speakers

synchronic vs diachronic study (descriptive vs historical study)

contrastive analysis

language levels

schools of linguistics structuralism, generativism, cognitivism

Properties of language

informative vs communicative signals

communication in all species

unique properties of human language:

- duality of patterning (sound-meaning)

- displacement (beyond here and now)

- productivity (open-endedness)

- cultural transmission/learnability

- stimulus-freedom

- arbitrariness

- discreteness (pack vs back)

- semanticity / symbolic character (type vs token)

- complete feedback (monitoring performance)

- prevarication (lying)

reflexivity (self-reference)

discreteness

semanticity

arbitrariness

Properties of language

non-unique features

arbitrariness vs iconicity

use of vocal-auditory channel (also writing)

reciprocity (speaker-receiver)

specialization (no other purpose)

non-directionality

rapid fade

Functions of language

communicative

referential / propositional / ideational / transactional

emotional expression (Wow)

social interaction (Bless you, Thank you)

phonetic effect (Shirley Tenple, Oneple, Twople,)

controlling reality (formulas: I baptise you)

record-keeping

instrument of thought (helps to say things)

expression of identity (e.g. group chanting)

Functions of language (R. Jakobson)

- referential: conveys information about some real phenomenon

- expressive: describes feelings of the speaker

- conative: attempts to elicit some behavior from the addressee

- phatic: builds a relationship between both parties in a conversation

- metalingual: self-references

- poetic: focuses on the text independent of reference

Animals and human language

Viki raised as a human child

Washoe taught a sign language

Koko taught a sign language

Language Organization Linguistic Subdisciplines

Phonetics the general study of the characteristics of speech sounds

      Articulatory (speech organs), Acoustic (sound waves) and Auditory (ear) phonetics

      Activity of speech organs:

-        - respiration (expiratory, inspiratory air stream)

-        - phonation (vocal organs: lungs, windpipe, larynx, vocal cords)

-        - modification (pharynx, oral and nasal cavities, upper-lower articulators tongue, teeth, lips, hard and soft palate, jaws)

Place of Articulation

Articulation

types of articulation (position of articulators):

bilabial (p,b,m),

labio-dental (f,v),

dental (th),

alveolar (t,d,s,z,n,l,r),

post-alveolar (tr,dr),

palato-alveolar (∫,t∫,з, dз),

palatal (y),

velar (k,g,ŋ),

glottal (h,s),

labio-velar (w)

voiced-voiceless, oral-nasal oppositions

vowel-consonant continuum

continuants/non-continuants (degree of obstruction in air passage):

stops (plosives p,b,t,d,k,g,s)

affricates (t∫, dз)

fricatives (f,v,th,s,z,∫,з)

vibrants (trilled r)

laterals (liquids - l)

nasals (m,n,ŋ)

semivowels (glides y, w, r - yes, well, red)

vowels

Vowel system

Cardinal vowel system:

-        front, central, back; high, mid, low (tongue);

-        close, open (mouth);

-        rounded-unrounded (lips)

-        8 primary and 8 secondary cardinal vowels

International Phonetic Alphabet (Roman letters and diacritics)

Phonetic vs phonemic (narrow and broad) transcription

Diphthongs and triphthongs

Phonology: systems and patterns of speech sounds

Phoneme (abstract sound unit)

minimal pair (big-bag) and minimal set (feat, fit, fate, fought, foot)

phones (phonetic realisations of a phoneme) and allophones (phonetic variants do not result in change of meaning)

complementary distribution of allophones (pin vs spin) vs phonemic contrast (distribution equivalence)

free variation (lack of contrast in a given context)

neutralisation of contrast in certain positions -

assimilation process at juncture of words: I can go [aykəŋgo]

elision (zero manifestation of a certain sound perhaps, he must be)

distinctive features

e.g. [k]: -La, +Ve -De, -Vo - Na

Phones

Complementary distribution is the mutually exclusive relationship between two phonetically similar segments. It exists when one segment occurs in an environment where the other segment never occurs.

Free variation is the interchangeable relationship between two phones, in which the phones may substitute for one another in the same environment without causing a change in meaning.

Examples of context-sensitive variation:

nasalization of oral vowels if preceding a nasal consonant (as in sand, can't, bend)

palatalization of [s] when preceding a [j] -- turns into [∫] (as in this year, tissue)

peripheral vowels may become centralized, esp. in rapid speech if unstressed (vowel reduction towards [ə])

There are three types of assimilation:

1. assimilation of place (as in ratbag or oatmeal -- [t] often realized as [p])
2. assimilation of manner (as in Indian pronounced as [indзən] -- stop [d] and glide [j] merge to form an affricate [dз])
3. assimilation of voicing (as in have to -- [v] often realized as [f], assimilating to unvoiced [t])

Elision - instance of complete sound deletion, e.g.

in consonant clusters, such as facts (deletion of [t]) or fifths (deletion of [θ]) -- to ease the articulation process

when unstressed, the word and often loses its [d]

entire unstressed syllables are often elided from longer words, such as February and library

Phonology: systems and patterns of speech sounds

Permanent features (vocalic, consonantal, nasal etc) , features capable of neutralisation (voiced, aspiration)

Segmental phonemes (infrastructure) and suprasegmental phonemes (superstructure): stress (force of voice: subject vs subject), pitch (musical tone or vibration frequency falling/rising/level: John is my friend) and juncture (break in speech stream: I scream vs ice cream) - INTONATION

strong and weak forms (two potential forms of pronunciation)

liaison (linking together of sounds), hiatus (linking together of two vowels, which is avoided by glottal stop react, linking r here I am, here they are; )

Phonology

Phonology as grammar of phonetic patterns

The consonant cluster /st/ is OK at the beginning, middle or end of words in English.

At beginnings of words, /str/ is OK in English, but /∫tr/ is not (it is ungrammatical).

/∫tr/ is OK in the middle of words, however, e.g. in 'ashtray'.

/∫tr/ is OK at the beginnings of words in German.

Morphology and word-formation

Morpheme (smallest meaningful reusable unit or minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function)

      Morph actual forms used to realise morphemes

      free morphemes lexical (boy) and functional (and)

      bound morphemes derivational (ness) and inflectional (-ing)

      Complex words (boyish) vs compound words (gentleman)

      Base (root) vs affixes (prefixes, suffixes and infixes)

      Derivational and inflexional affixes (number, person, tense, possession, comparison)

      Derivational paradigm (manly, mannish, manhood etc) and inflexional paradigm (work, works, worked, working); declensional and conjugational paradigms

      Inflectional affixes in English do not change word class, may be added to all bases of a class, always appear last and only one can be used per word

      Content words (N, V, Adj and Adv) and function words (suffixes, articles, prepositions, conjunctions and auxiliaries); dictionary (word meaning) vs grammatical meanings (signals of grammar and word order)

  Allomorph variation in the phonetic shape of a given morpheme (e.g. hats, dogs, churches) non-contrastive positional variant of a morpheme;

-        non-predictable allomorphs (oxen, children);

-        zero-allomorphs (sheep);

-        plural allomorphs involving internal vowel change (men, feet)

      Sandhi creation of a new form because of contact with two other forms, e.g. Does she? Did you eat? Jamaica

      morphology (study of construction of free and bound morphemes),

      morphemics (study of distribution and classification of morphemes),

      morphophonemics (study of phonemic variations between allomorphs morphophonemic alternations)

Morphology

wheelchair patient (free m + free m ) + free m

compounding + compounding

drug dealer free m + (free m + bound m)

derivation + compounding

washing-up liquid [(free m + bound m) + free m] + free m

derivation + derivation + compounding

dish-washing liquid

Typology of languages according to word structure and number of concepts combined into a unit

synthetic or inflexional lgs (affixes, internal word changes, different units of meaning within single words

Latin, Lithuanian, Latvian, Slavic lgs, Romance lgs (conjugation paradigm, no declension paradigm), Germanic lgs (fewer inflections auxiliaries instead

agglutinative lgs affixes and bases are glued to each other but preserve individuality no internal change (Turkish, Finnish, Hungarian, Japanese and Swahili)

haz-ak-ban (Hung. hous-es-in = in the houses)

tabe-sase-rare-ru (Jap. eat-cause-passive-infinitive= to be caused to eat = to be fed), tabe-sase-ru (to feed sb)

ni-na-soma (Swahili: first person sg. affix-continuous present tense affix-read = I am reading), unasoma (you are reading)

analytic, isolating lgs sentence is of prime importance (Chinese, Vietnamese no distinction between N, V, Adj etc) word as unalterable unit

wo kan ta I see him,

ta kan wo He sees me,

ta kan wo peng he sees my friend,

ta gei wo chyan he gives me money

polysynthetic (incorporating) lgs subject, object and verb in a single unit with no separate existence (multiplying the number of bound morphemes within a unit)

Eskimo qasu-iiq-saq-bbik-saq-si-nnit-luinaq-naq-pouq (someone has completely failed to find a resting place = to be tired - not to be-causative-place for-repetition-to find-negative-completely-accomplished action third person sing ending)

English as aggregate example some inflecting paradigms, some isolating lg features (words as members of various word classes), some agglutinative features (some affixes join bases)

Morpheme-word ratio as indicator of type of lg:

1-2.22 analytic lg,

2.22-3 synthetic lg,

over 3 polysynthetic (highest 3.72 Eskimo)

Word-formation processes

coinage (kleenex, xerox, nylon, blurb, gobbledygook)

-        adapting proper names, personal names, place names (sandwich, boycott, lynch, kashmere, camembert)

-        borrowing (croissant, robot, alcohol, boss) and calque (superman, un gratte-ciel, nastolatek)

-        blending (smoke + fog = smog, brunch)

-        clipping (gas, ad, lab, flu, prof, bus, veg)

-        backformation (editor edit, enthusiasm enthuse)

-        conversion (zero-derivation; noun as a verb, e.g. He papered the bedroom)

-        acronyms (laser, radar, scuba)

-        derivation (prefixes, suffixes and infixes, native and non-native affixes in English)

-        reduplication (puff-puff, goody-goody, zig-zag, willy-nilly)

compounding (compound V, N, Adj, Adv, Prep)

endo- vs exocentric compounds: table-tennis (a kind of tennis) vs redskin (not a kind of skin), hunchback, pale face etc.;

syntactic vs asyntactic: blackbird, pick-pocket vs fire-proof (proof against fire), frost bitten (bitten

by frost);

coordinative vs subordinative: bitter-sweet (bitter and

sweet) vs cry-baby (not: cry and baby, a kind of baby),

Darkened compounds / Grammaticalization

productivity vs blocking potential words (laboriousness blocks *laboriosity)

potential words - *arrivation, *refusation, *derival, *describal

actual words approval and approbation, recital and recitation

Syntax

Grammar the way smaller elements (such as words) are combined into larger elements (such as sentences).

      Every human language has a grammar the size of grammar does not depend on the technological advancement of a culture

      Rules of grammar vs opinions about good usage

Grammar is a set of implicit rules that govern the formation of sentences. We may have no explicit knowledge of these rules, but we obey them every time we speak and use them every time we comprehend a sentence.

Usage is a set of explicit prescriptive rules that people impose on language in order to separate socially acceptable grammatical sentences from others that are not socially acceptable.

Grammar

Grammar (1) An analysis of the structure of a language, either as encountered in a corpus of speech or writing (a performance grammar) or as predictive of a speakers knowledge (a competence grammar). A contrast is often drawn between a descriptive grammar, which provides a precise account of actual usage, and a prescriptive grammar, which tries to establish rules for the correct use of language in society. A further contrast may be drawn between a grammar which concentrates on the study of linguistic forms (formal grammar) and one which assumes the existence of extralinguistic categories in order to define grammatical units (notional grammar). (2) A level of structural organization which can be studied independently of phonology and semantics. It is generally subdivided into the domains of syntax and morphology.

1. Grammar and usage

2. Grammaticality vs acceptability; Hymes (1972): the possible, the feasible, the appropriate, and the performed.

A preposition is something you should never end a sentence with

It is I vs It is me

Dont use a split infinitive

1. Give it to her!
2. Give it her!
3. Give her it!
4. It her give!

Rules of grammar

Word order

There is a spider in the bath.

*Bath the in spiders a theres.

Bainuan armiarma bat dago

[Bath-the-in spider a theres]

*Dago bat armiarma n a bainu

[There is a spider in the bath]

After Lisa got up, she had a shower.

Lisa had a shower after she got up.

After she got up, Lisa had a shower.

She had a shower after Lisa got up

An anaphor may not both precede and command its antecedent.
A word (like she) that takes its meaning entirely from a second word in the same sentence (like Lisa) cannot come before that second word if that second word is inside a subordinate clause

Categories of Grammar

Categories of grammar indispensable for the description of the rules, although every native speaker knows them intutitively:

 Primary/substantial categories parts of speech or word classes

 Defining word classes (e.g. nouns):

 - distributional properties

 The was nice

The were nice

- inflectional properties

singular/plural

library/libraries, child /children

oats, police, wheat, furniture

- derivational properties

 suffixes dog/doglike (N Adj)

prefixes happy/unhappy (Adj-Adj), dog-*undog

Syntax

Cognitive approach: grammar is subservient to semantics (meaning)

Noun one of two universal grammatical categories, which prototypically signifies time-stable phenomena (telephone), but also has peripheral members which signify more time-related phenomena (stupidity) and can be construed as time-related (to be stupid)

Sentence abstract unit at the level of langue

Utterance stretch of parole produced by native speaker out of sentences generated by the system and rules which constitute langue

We needed a new telephone

We called the telephone company

They installed it in the afternoon

But they did a lousy job

I am still amazed at their stupidity

Primary/substantial categories parts of speech

      Secondary/ accidental categories:

- person (deictic category, honorifics),

- number (sg/pl, countability),

- gender (natural boy he; grammatical: das Mdchen, le livre),

6 genders in Swahili (gender prefixes: humans, inanimate objects, trees and plants, abstract nouns, plus two assorted categories including stones etc and collectives such as beard)

- case (peculiarly grammatical category): subjective, agentive, objective, instrumental, possessive, local cases (in the house, into the house)

- tense (deictic category, now as zero point),

mood (command, interrogation, intention, obligation, possibility)

Modality: factive, deontic (volition), epistemic (judgement); hedges

- aspect (perfective, imperfective, iterative (frequentative), punctual, habitual, inchoative=denoting beginning of action)

- Concord/agreement

Functional categories

-        subject, predicate, subject the function in a clause structure (usually filled by a NP.; before the predicate in canonical clauses) that in active clauses describing action normally denotes the actor

-        object: John caught the ball

-        complement (obligatory): The parade was in central park on Sunday

-        adjunct (optional): John killed Bill in Central Park on Sunday

-        voice: active, passive, agentive/non-agentive 'middle' in Greek or French Je me lave (une chemise)

I am getting shaved (by a barber)

I am shaving

I am being shaved

Constituents (groupings of speech units)

Basic sentence pattern: The concert was good.

Immediate constituent analysis (breaking up syntactic structures into successive components)

- (The rebellious students) (walked to the deans office)

- (The) (rebellious students) (walked) (to the deans office)

- (The) (rebellious) (students) (walked) (to) (the deans office)

- (The) (rebellious) (students) (walked) (to) (the) deans office)

- (The) (rebellious) (students) (walked) (to) (the) (deans) office)

Tree diagram

Syntax Logical vs grammatical criteria of gram. Functions

Ch. Hockett: Topic (person or thing about which sth is said) preceded comment (focus, statement made about person or thing) vs subject/predicate:

That new book by Thomas Guernsey I havent read yet

This book millions of people have read

This book has been read by millions of people

M. Halliday: Given vs new

Who ran away? John (comment) ran away (topic)

What happened? John ran away (all new/comment)

What did John do? John (topic) ran away (comment)

marked vs unmarked word orders

It was John who ran away

What John did was ran away

The one who ran away was John

Actor vs goal: John kills Bill, Bill is killed by John

Theme (what is spoken about) tends to be placed first and rheme (what is stated about it) at the end principle of functional sentence perspective

Syntax

Five canonical clause structures

1. Ordinary intransitive

S P We hesitated

2. Complex-intransitive

S P PC We felt happy

3. Ordinary monotransitive

S P Od We sold our house

4. Complex-transitive

S P Od PC We made them happy

5. Ditransitive

S P Oi Od We gave them some food

Compound sentences (relations of coordination):

It was cold and the window was frosted.

Her loved beauty, variety, oddity.

Complex sentences (relations of subordination):

Although she needed the job, she did not accept the offer.

Traditional approach prescriptive approach based on classical tradition

 Nom. The man (Latin homo)

Gen. The mans or of the man (hominis)

Dat. to the man (homini)

Acc. The man (hominem)

Abl. by, from the man (homine)

Voc. Oh man! (homo)

Noun the name of a person, place or thing

Descriptive (later structural) approach rules of grammar have no value except as statements of facts (whatever is in use is gram. correct) Henry Sweet (1891)

- Noun a word which patterns or behaves like boy, boys, boys and boys and can enter into construction like The boy is tall, I see the boy and John is a boy

      Charles Fries (1952) structural analysis of 50 hours of telephone conversations in Am. English. Search for formal signals, structure, rather than thought content (Bloomfieldian approach)

      Structural meaning (fundamental) vs lexical meaning

four form classes (N, V, Adj, Adv) based on their distribution in the sentence and formal markers + function words:

15 separate groups: articles (the) and determiners (some), auxiliaries (may), qualifiers (very), connectives (and), prepositions (in), subordinators (because), etc

Semiotics

Peirce, Ch. We think only in signs

Signs take the form of words, images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts or objects, but such things have no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning.

Semiotics is the study of signs (from the Greek semeion, sign)

Semiology - a science which studies the role of signs as part of social life. Linguistics is only one branch of this general science.

Semiosis (a term borrowed from C.S. Peirce) designates the process by which a culture produces signs and/or attributes meaning to signs (Eco)

Semiotics (C W Morris )

semantics: the relationship of signs to what they stand for;

syntactics (or syntax): the formal or structural relations between signs;

pragmatics: the relation of signs to interpreters

Semiotics is often employed in the analysis of texts (although it is far more than just a mode of textual analysis). Here it should perhaps be noted that a text can exist in any medium and may be verbal, non-verbal, or both, despite the logocentric bias of this distinction.

A linguistic sign

A linguistic sign is not a link between a thing and a name, but between a concept and a sound pattern. The sound pattern is not actually a sound; for a sound is something physical. A sound pattern is the hearers psychological impression of a sound, as given to him by the evidence of his senses.

SIGN

The sign is the whole that results from the association of the signifier with the signified (Saussure). The relationship between the signifier and the signified is referred to as signification

Symbols

Symbols are not proxy for their objects but are vehicles for the conception of objects In talking about things we have conceptions of them, not the things themselves; and it is the conceptions, not the things, that symbols directly mean (S. Langer)

Types of signs

Index/indexical: a sign in which the signifier is not arbitrary but is directly connected in some way (physically or causally) to the signified - this link can be observed or inferred: e.g. 'natural signs' (smoke, thunder, footprints, echoes, non-synthetic odours and flavours), medical symptoms (pain, a rash, pulse-rate), measuring instruments (weathercock, thermometer, clock, spirit-level), 'signals' (a knock on a door, a phone ringing), pointers (a pointing 'index' finger, a directional signpost), recordings (a photograph, a film, video or television shot, an audio-recorded voice), personal 'trademarks' (handwriting, catchphrase) and indexical words ('that', 'this', 'here', 'there').

Icon/iconic: a sign in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified (recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it) - being similar in possessing some of its qualities: e.g. a portrait, a cartoon, a scale-model, onomatopoeia, metaphors, 'realistic' sounds in 'programme music', sound effects in radio drama, a dubbed film soundtrack, imitative gestures;

Symbol/symbolic: a sign in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional - so that the relationship must be learnt: e.g. language in general (plus specific languages, alphabetical letters, punctuation marks, words, phrases and sentences), numbers, morse code, traffic lights, national flags;

Types of signs

index (contiguity)

icon (similarity)

symbol (convention

Types of signs

Conventional vs. Natural

Arbitrary   vs. Motivated

Digital vs. Analogical

Type / token

signs in which there may be any number of tokens (replicas) of the same type (e.g. a printed word, or exactly the same model of car in the same colour);

signs whose tokens, even though produced according to a type, possess a certain quality of material uniqueness (e.g. a word which someone speaks or which is handwritten);

signs whose token is their type, or signs in which type and token are identical (e.g. a unique original oil-painting or Princess Dianas wedding dress).
(U.Eco)

Functions of a semiotic system

the ideational metafunction to represent, in a referential or pseudo-referential sense, aspects of the experiential world outside its particular system of signs;

the interpersonal metafunction to project the relations between the producer of a sign and the receiver/reproducer of that sign; and

the textual metafunction to form texts, complexes of signs which cohere both internally and within the context in and for which they were produced. (Kress & van Leeuwen)

Paradigms and Syntagms

He

The man over there

Peter is, unfortunately, my brother

This idiot

What you see

paradigmatic

syntagmatic axis

1. She selects signs from three paradigms (i.e. sets of possible signs - upper body garments, lower body garments, and footwear). Each paradigm contains a possible set of pieces from which she can choose only one. From the upper-body-garment paradigm (including blouses, tee-shirts, tunics, sweaters), she selects one. These items share a similar structure, function, and/or other attribute with others in the set: they are related to one another on the basis of similarity. She further selects items related by similarity from the lower-body-garment and footwear paradigms. A socially defined, shared classification system or code shapes her selections.
2. She combines the selected signs through rules (i.e., tee-shirts go with sandals, not high heels), sending a message through the ensemble - the syntagm. Selection requires her to perceive similarity and opposition among signs within the set (the paradigm), classifying them as items having the same function or structure, only one of which she needs. She can substitute, or select, a blouse for the tee-shirt - conveying a different message. The combination, tee-shirtjeanssandals, requires her to know the 'rules by which garments are acceptably combined The combination is, in short, a kind of sentence The tee-shirtjeanssandals syntagm conveys a different meaning (sends a different message) at the beach than at a formal occasion.

Communication Models

Participants, message, medium, intersubjectivity

Code model

2. Inferential model
3. Interactional model

A model of interpersonal verbal communication (R. Jakobson)

Lexicon and semantics

Vocabulary of a lg lexical systems with semantic structure describable in terms of paradigmatic and syntagmatic sense relations holding between lexical items

Sense of a lexical item set of relations which hold between that and other items in the same lexical system or the place of a word in a system of relationships which it contracts with other words in the vocabulary (no presupposition about the existence of objects and properties outside the vocabulary of the lg) (structural definitions)

Reference relationship which holds between words and the things, events, actions and qualities they stand for (referents)

Paradigmatic relations of sense all members of the related sets of terms can occur in the same context (e.g. colour terms)

Syntagmatic relations of sense relations of co-occurence (blond + hair)

Connotation (associative meaning)

Denotation (reference)

Componential analysis (semantic features):

The hamburger ate the man

My cat studied linguistics

A table was listening to some music

Table: - animate, - human, male, - adult

The ________ ate the man

N + animate

Polysemy words with two or more related senses, the distance between which may be small (big town, big difference; head),

man-woman, man-boy, man-animal (definition by antonymy),

cat (general vs specific),

brothers-brethren,

operation (military, surgical and mathematical context)

source: language economy

Homonyms two or more unrelated words identical in form but different in meaning:

real homonyms (bank, pupil),

homophones (course-coarse, threw-through),

homographs (wind: [wind][waind]),

interlanguage homonyms (false friends)

source: matter of chance, etymological origin

bank (1) financial institution,' 1474, from either O.It. banca or M.Fr. banque (itself from the O.It. term), both meaning 'table' (the notion is of the moneylender's exchange table), from a Gmc. source (cf. O.H.G. bank 'bench'); see bank (2). The verb meaning 'to put confidence in' (U.S. colloquial) is attested from 1884. Bank holiday is from 1871, though the tradition is as old as the Bank of England. Bankroll (v.) 'to finance' is 1920s. To cry all the way to the bank was coined 1956 by flamboyant pianist Liberace, after a Madison Square Garden concert that was packed with patrons but panned by critics.

bank (2)

'earthen incline, edge of a river,' c.1200, probably in O.E., from O.N. banki, from P.Gmc. *bangkon 'slope,' cognate with P.Gmc. *bankiz 'shelf.'

pupil (2) 'center of the eye,' 1670 (in L. form from 1398), from O.Fr. pupille (14c.), from L. pupilla, originally 'little girl-doll,' dim. of pupa 'girl, doll' (see pupil (1)), so called from the tiny image one sees of himself reflected in the eye of another. Gk. also used the same word, kore (lit. 'girl'), to mean both 'doll' and 'pupil of the eye;' and cf. obsolete baby 'small image of oneself in another's pupil' (1593), source of 17c. colloquial expression to look babies 'stare lovingly into another's eyes.'

'Self-knowledge can be obtained only by looking into the mind and virtue of the soul, which is the diviner part of a man, as we see our own image in anothers eye.' [Plato, 'Alcibiades,' I.133]

pupil (1)

'student,' 1382, originally 'orphan child, ward,' from O.Fr. pupille (14c.), from L. pupillus (fem. pupilla) 'orphan, ward, minor,' dim. of pupus 'boy' (fem. pupa 'girl'), probably related to puer 'child,' probably from PIE *pup-, from base *pu- 'to swell, inflate.' Meaning 'disciple, student' first recorded 1563.

wind (v.)

'move by turning and twisting,' O.E. windan 'to turn, twist, wind' (class III strong verb; past tense wand, pp. wunden), from P.Gmc. *wendanan (cf. O.S. windan, O.N. vinda, O.Fris. winda, Du. winden, O.H.G. wintan, Ger. winden, Goth. windan 'to wind'), from PIE *wendh- 'to turn, wind, weave' (cf. L. viere 'twist, plait, weave,' vincire 'bind,' Lith. vyti 'twist, wind'). Related to wend, which is its causative form, and to wander. Wind down 'come to a conclusion' is recorded from 1952; wind up 'come to a conclusion' is from 1825. Winding sheet 'shroud of a corpse' is attested from c.1420.

wind (n.) 'air in motion,' O.E. wind, from P.Gmc. *wendas (cf. O.S., O.Fris., Du. wind, O.N. vindr, O.H.G. wind, Ger. Wind, Goth. winds), from PIE *we-nt-o- 'blowing,' from base *we- 'to blow' (cf. Skt. va-, Gk. aemi-, Goth. waian, O.E. wawan, O.H.G. wajan, Ger. wehen, O.C.S. vejati 'to blow;' Skt. vatah, Avestan vata-, Hittite huwantis, L. ventus, O.C.S. vetru, Lith. vejas 'wind;' Lith. vetra 'tempest, storm;' O.Ir. feth 'air;' Welsh gwynt, Bret. gwent 'wind'). Normal pronunciation evolution made this word rhyme with kind and rind (Donne rhymes it with mind), but shifted to a short vowel 18c., probably from influence of windy, where the short vowel is natural. A sad loss for poets, who now must rhyme it only with sinned and a handful of weak words. Symbolic of emptiness and vanity since c.1290.

'I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind.' [Ernest Dowson, 1896]

To get wind of 'receive information about' is recorded from 1809, perhaps from Fr. avoir le vent de. Wind-chill index is recorded from 1939. The verb meaning 'tire, put out of breath' is attested from 1811.

Synonyms - words or phrases with the same or nearly the same meaning (various shades of meaning);

absolute synonyms (kind sort) - interchangeable in all contexts;

complete synonymy (identity in cognitive and emotive sense);

close synonyms (jump-leap);

synonyms differing in intensity (break-smash);

synonyms in phraseology (cast fling a stone)

kind (n.) 'class, sort, variety,' from O.E. gecynd 'kind, nature, race,' related to cynn 'family' (see kin), from P.Gmc. *gakundiz (see kind (adj.)). lfric's rendition of 'the Book of Genesis' into O.E. came out gecyndboc. The prefix disappeared 1150-1250. No exact cognates beyond Eng., but it corresponds to adj. endings such as Goth -kunds, O.H.G. -kund. Also as a suffix (mankind, etc.). Other earlier, now obs., senses in Eng. included 'character, quality derived from birth' and 'manner or way natural or proper to anyone.' Use in phrase a kind of (1591) led to colloquial extension as adv. (1804) in phrases such as kind of stupid ('a kind of stupid (person)').

sort (n.)

c.1380, from O.Fr. sorte 'class, kind,' from L. sortem (nom. sors) 'lot, fate, share, portion, rank, category,' from PIE base *ser- 'to line up' (cf. L. serere 'to arrange, attach, join;' see series). The sense evolution in V.L. is from 'what is allotted to one by fate,' to 'fortune, condition,' to 'rank, class, order.' Out of sorts 'not in usual good condition' is attested from 1621, with lit. sense of 'out of stock

jump: a/ ęłęto push yourself suddenly off the ground and into the air using your legs:

The children were jumping up and down with excitement

b/ to push yourself suddenly off the ground in order to go over something:

Can you jump over/across this stream?
All the horses are finding it difficult to jump the last fence

leap to make a large jump or sudden movement, usually from one place to another:

He leapt out of his car and ran towards the house.

break to (cause something to) separate suddenly or violently into two or more pieces, or to (cause something to) stop working by being damaged:

The dish fell to the floor and broke.
Charles is always breaking things.

smash to cause something to break noisily into a lot of small pieces:

Rioters ran through the city centre smashing windows and looting shops.

cast (v.)

c.1230, from O.N. kasta 'to throw.' The noun sense of 'a throw' (c.1300) carried an idea of the form the thing takes after it has been thrown, which led to varied meanings, such as 'group of actors in a play' (1631). O.E.D. finds 42 distinct noun meaning and 83 verbal ones, with many sub-definitions. A cast in the eye preserves the older sense of 'warp, turn,' in which it replaced O.E. weorpan (see warp), and is itself largely superseded now by throw. Still used of fishing line and glances. Castaway first recorded 1526. Cast-iron is 1664.

fling (v.).1300, probably from O.N. flengja, of uncertain origin. The M.E. intransitive sense is preserved in phrase have a fling at 'make a try.' The noun sense of 'period of indulgence on the eve of responsibilities' first attested 1827. Meaning 'vigorous dance' (associated with the Scottish Highlands) is from 1806. An obsolete word for 'streetwalker, harlot' was fling-stink (1679).

Tautonyms synonyms across lg varieties (wrench US-spanner UK, girl-bird (sl), valley-dale (North England)

Antonymy oppositeness;

not always binary (sweet vs sour or bitter; wealth

vs poverty, want, destitution);

complementary antonyms (single-married, male-female; denial of one implies assertion of the other);

contradictory antonyms (above-below, find-lose, blue vs red, yellow, green etc, sitting room vs dining room, bedroom etc),

converse antonyms (buy-sell, husband-wife)

contrary antonyms (gradable, modifiable, and contextually flexible big vs small, not hot vs cold, smarter vs more silly)

Hyponyms (=a kind of) words included in the meaning of others, with narrower or more specific meaning, subordinate terms (daffodil vs flower; solid, liquid, gas vs matter); co-hyponyms (dog and horse are co-hyponyms of animal)

Hyperonyms superordinate terms, could be examples of underspecification (stone for diamond)

Lexical (semantic) fields subsystems or lexical domains groups, or networks of words whose members are related by meaning (Peter Rogets Thesaurus 1852 1000 semantic categories), e.g. colour words, kinship terms, container terms (glass, jar, jug, pitcher etc), parts of the body, domestic animals, verbs of motion, terms of quantity (bushel, pound), spatial orientation (long, tall, up, down, high, low etc)

Idioms combination of words that cannot be derived from individual components (to run out of sth, be well off)

Part-whole relations handle-door, foot-leg, kitchen-house, tree-forest, grain-sand (synecdoche part for whole or whole for part e.g. there wasnt a soul around)

Radial network - e.g. concept of school

g/ Tendency in art, lit.

h/ Opinion, method of taking action

BROADENING

c/lessons 

a/ Educ. Institution e/inst.of higher

METON. METON. education

b/ The building f/ type of course

d/ Teachers NARROWING

pupils

METAPHOR

g/ training, bringing under control

Metaphor traditionally: transfer of exterior features e.g. personification (animal-human ass, human-thing eye of a needle, thing human honey)

Cognitive theory: perception of similarity between source domain and target domain: conceptual metaphor (one domain mapped on another)

ARGUMENT IS WAR: win, lose argument,

hold ground, withdraw, surrender

ARGUMENT IS WAR

Your claims are indefensible

He attacked every weak point in my argument

His criticisms were right on the target

I demolished his argument

Ive never won an argument with him

You disagree? Ok, shoot!

If you use that strategy m hell wipe you out

CONTAINER metaphor: thought at the back of mind

Role of metaphor in cognition (only literary texts vs pervasive feature of lg)

Metonymy attribute for a thing:

THE PART FOR THE WHOLE

Get your butt over here !

We don't hire longhairs

PRODUCERFOR PRODUCT

He bought a Ford.

He's got a Picasso in his den.

I hate to read Heidegger.

OBJECT USED FOR USER

The gun he hired wanted fifty grand.

The buses are on strike.

CONTROLLER FOR CONTROLLED

Nixon bombed Hanoi.

Napoleon lost at Waterloo.

INSTITUTTON FOR PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE

You'll never get the university to agree to that.

The Army wants to reinstitute the draft

The Senate thinks abortion is immoral.

THE PLACE FOR THE INSTITUTION

The White House isn't saying anything

Washington is insensitive to the needs of the people.

The Kremlin threatened to boycott the next round of talks

generalisation and particularisation

conceptual metonymy (element/aspect of one domain expressed by element/aspect of another and being in adjacency relation to it)

I am not in the phonebook,

Currently we read Joyce

My village votes Green

My Bosch works perfectly

This box was excellent

Levels of meaning:

General categories: plant animal vehicle

Basic level categories: tree dog motor car

Specific categories: oak Alsatian truck

Salience effect (the most common meaning, usually basic level what is it that barks at you?

I like fruit.

Taxonomic categories:

Superordinate level clothing

Basic level

Skirt trousers ? suit

Subordinate level mini-skirt shorts shirt

jeans T-shirt

leggins sweater

lexical gaps

fuzziness of domains: male/female clothing

Metaphors and metonymies - at the heart of language change: narrowing, extension of meaning

Rise of pragmatics

Pragmatics is a study of how people interact when using language

Language in use is part of human interaction - shift from langue to parole (particular human communicative intentions in part. comm. situations, with part. configuration of participants)

Better definition: study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (writer) and interpreted by a listener (reader) - WHAT PEOPLE MEAN BY WHAT THEY SAY

Milestones in pragmatic research:

Austin (1962), How to do Things with Words

Searle (1969), Speech Acts

Grice (1975), Logic and Conversation

Leech (1983), Principles of Pragmatics

Levinson (1983), Pragmatics

Sperber and Wilson (1986), Relevance: Communication and Cognition

Brown and Levinson (1987), Universals in language usage: politeness phenomena

Wierzbicka (1991), Cross-cultural Pragmatics: Semantics of Human Interaction

Verschueren (1999), Handbook of Pragmatics

Pragmatic issues:

role of context (verbal, situational, pragmatic)

deictic expressions (referring to speaker and hearer, time and place)

I have put it there.

co-operative principle: make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose of the talk exchange in which you are engaged (theory of rational cooperation)

maxims of:

quantity make your contribution as informative

as is required (not more)

quality - do not say what you believe to be false,

do not say that for which you lack adequate

evidence

relevance make your contribution relevant

manner avoid obscurity and ambiguity, be brief

and orderly

what is cooperative?

Daughter: Where is my ball?

Father: Why dont you look behind volume 6 of Dostoyevskys Collected Works?

communicative intentions (explicit and implicit)

principle of relevance overriding according to Sperber and Wilson:

minimum effort and maximum cognitive benefit

successful communicator makes his (informative, persuasive etc) intentions manifest to himself and the partner(s):

George has a big cat.

conventional implicatures (do not depend on context, associated with certain words):

Mary suggested black, but I chose white.

Even John came to the party.

The flag is red (= completely red)

conversational implicatures (violations of maxims):

I hope you brought the bread and the cheese. Ah, I brought the bread.

You left the door of the fridge open.

How do you like my hairstyle? Let's get going.

a) Generalized implicature (no special knowledge required):

I was sitting in a garden one day. A child looked over the fence.

b) scalar implicature:

I have completed some of the courses.

They are sometimes really interesting.

This should be stored in a cool place.

It is possible that they were delayed.

c) particularized implicature (the context necessary):

Hey, coming to the wild party tonight? My parents are visiting.

Where are you going with the dog? To the V-E-T.

Do you like ice-cream? Is the Pope Catholic?

presuppositions (sth assumed by the speaker pragmatic presupposition)

The present King of France is bald (existential)

When did he leave? (structural)

Why are you so lazy?

How fast was the car going when it ran the red light?

He stopped smoking. (lexical)

He started complaining.

Cut us another slice.

He did not realize she was ill. (factive)

I am glad that it is over.

I dreamt I was rich. (non-factive)

If you were my friend, you would have helped me. (counterfactual)

speech acts

locution (act of uttering)

illocution, illocutionary force (function of the utterance)

perlocution (effect of the utterance)

felicity conditions (appropriate circumstances)

I sentence you to six months in prison

When you leave this building, you will get a

surprise.

general conditions (understanding the lg, serious)

content conditions (promise/warning future

events)

preparatory conditions (promise the event will not happen by itself, it will be beneficial;

warning hearer may not know sth will occur, speaker believes it will occur, it will not be beneficial)

sincerity conditions (promise speaker genuinely intends, warning speaker genuinely believes)

essential condition (promise creates obligation,)

classification of speech acts:

assertives: The earth is flat. (S believes X)

declaratives: I pronounce you man and wife.

(S causes X)

expressives: I am sorry. (S feels X)

directives: Dont touch that! (S wants X)

commissives: I will be back. We will not do that.

(S intends X)

three basic structures: declarative, interrogative and imperative

direct speech acts (direct relation between structure and function):

Shut the door.

Do you wear a seat belt?

- indirect speech acts

Could you pass the salt?

There's a draught in here.

Do you have to stand in front of the TV?

You would make a better door than a window.

Politeness principles

'face' - interactional identity, public self-image:

Will others be upset? Will they like me? How can I say what I want to say?

negative face need to be independent, to have freedom of action, not to be imposed on by others

positive face need to be accepted, liked by others, to belong to a group, to know that ones wants are shared by others

face-saving (FS) and face-threatening (FT) acts:

Stop that awful noise right now.

Are you going to stop soon because it is getting a

bit late and people need to get to sleep?

politeness verbal or non-verbal strategy of human behaviour, which consists in observing conventionalised social norms aimed at respecting another persons face

negative politeness a FSA which is oriented to the negative face shows deference, emphasizes the others time and concerns, autonomy, apologises

Could you lend me your pen?

I am sorry to bother you, but can I ask you for a pen or something.

There is going to be a party, if you can make it.

positive politeness a FSA which is oriented to the positive face shows solidarity, emphasizes that both speakers want the same, have common goals

I would appreciate it if you let me use your pen.

Let us shut the door.

These biscuits smell wonderful.

Come on, let us go to the party. Everyone will be there.

politeness principle: minimize the expression of impolite beliefs, maximize the expression of polite beliefs

maxim of tact: You could borrow my copy if you liked.

maxim of generosity: I could lend you my copy.

maxim of approbation: Your lecture was outstanding.

maxim of modesty: How stupid of me! (*clever)

maxim of agreement: It was a nice performance, wasnt it? Yes, it was, wasnt it?(*No)

maxim of sympathy: I am terribly sorry (*delighted) to hear about your cat.

hedging: Well, I think.., I suppose, He is kind of strange, I just have my doubts, or something like that, perhaps, may, suggest

interactive elements which may serve as a bridge between the propositional information in the text and the writers actual interpretation

taxonomy of hedges

modal auxiliary verbs (can, may, would)

modal lexical verbs (seem, believe, assume, suggest, argue, indicate, speculate)

adjectival, adverbial or nominal modal phrases (possible, unlikely, perhaps, apparently, virtually, assumption, claim, estimate)

approximators (roughly, about, often, occasionally)

introductory phrases (we believe, it is own knowledge)

if clauses (if true, if anything)

compound hedges (it seems reasonable, it would seem somewhat unlikely that)

non-informative use of language (joking, lying, metaphor)

Whats the difference between a hungry man and a glutton? One longs to eat and the other eats too long.

How many lawyer jokes are there? Only three. The rest are true stories.

My wife is a monster

different communication purpose: to inform, to entertain, to mislead, to inspire esthetically, to persuade

irony

- traditional definition: saying the opposite of what you mean:

Its lovely today, isnt it? (seeing the heavy rain outside)

- irony as mentioning (echoing) sth heard before (as opposed to using the expression for the first time)

Its lovely today, indeed.

- irony as the inappropriate, but relevant

I do so love the warm spring rain (one farmer to another, ploughing the dry field in the scorching sun)

cross-cultural pragmatics

PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE responsible for mechanisms recovering un-coded meanings of messages

Rise of text linguistics

text - linguistic expressions used in (oral and written) communication and interpretation the hearer/reader makes of them. Applies only to verbal expressions (paraverbal and non-verbal ones are excluded - just interpretation clues)

INTERPRETATION BASIS (knowledge + ideas, feelings) ; TEXT + INTERPRETATION CLUES

text linguistics - study of how speaker and hearer manage to communicate via text, esp. via relations between sentences, paragraphs, sections etc.

writer/speaker has the intention of conveying a message to a reader/hearer. He formulates a message called the text. In order to understand it we have to study the representations speaker/hearer have of the text.

no direct mapping of communicative intentions to linguistic expressions. The mapping is mediated through the conceptual level =text representation

seven standards of textuality: what makes a text a text:

cohesion, coherence, informativity, intentionality acceptability, situationality, intertextuality

coherence - property that distinguishes texts from arbitrary sets of sentences

a text is coherent if it is possible to construct a coherent representation of that text

cohesion presence of elements that link clauses to surrounding text

In the street I was approached by a man. The man was very friendly.

My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by saving every penny he could. That car would be worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my college education. Sometimes I think Id rather have the convertible.

My father bought a Lincoln convertible. The car driven by the police was red. That color does not suit her. She consists of three letters. However, a letter isnt as fast as a telephone call.

referential coherence

- endophoric (to cotext) and exophoric (to outside

context)

Look at the sun. Its going down quickly.

Its going down quickly, the sun.

Look at that.

anaphoric (to preceding text) and cataphoric (to

following text),

Peel and slice the potatoes. Put them in cold water.

I turned the corner and almost stepped on it. There

was a large snake in the middle of the path.

- underspecification: zero anaphora

Drop the slices into hot oil. Cook [?] for three

minutes.

Or the indefinite in place of the definite article

overspecification name for pronoun (additional effects)

coherence relations (consequence, contrast, evidence etc.), connectives: therefore, but, for example, etc

coherence is possible to achieve with cohesion if cultural background fills in the gaps (frames, scripts, scenarios - forms of background knowledge)

I just rented a house. The kitchen is really big.

The bus came on time, but he did not stop.

When you go to the polling station, give the clerk your

name and address.

He sat down, examined the menu, ordered a steak,

and got up and left.

missing inferences:

The house has a kitchen.

The bus has a male driver.

Typical restaurant script/scenario:

ENTERING

walk into restaurant

look for table

decide where to sit

go to table

sit down

ORDERING

get menu

look at menu

choose food

waiter arrives

give order to waiter

waiter takes order to cook

wait, talk

cook prepares food etc.

EATING

PAYING

LEAVING

Trying not to be out of the office for long, Suzy went into the nearest place, sat down and ordered a sandwich. It was quite crowded, but the service was fast, so she left a good tip when she had to rush back.

dangers of (elaborative) inferencing:

The animal ran towards the kennel.

The policeman held up his hand and stopped the car.

The housewife spoke to the manager about the increased meat prices.

discourse coherence

role of relations between sentences, speech acts (illocution):

Self Employed Upholsterer. Free estimates. 332 5862.

Find a Ball. Win a House. Page 4.

What time is it?

Well, the postmans been already.

Can you go to Edinburgh tomorrow?

BA pilots are on strike.

Thats the telephone.

Im in the bath.

OK.

Did you want an ice lolly or not?

What kind have they got?

ambiguity of speech acts:

Hey, Michele, youve passed the exam.

other criteria of textuality:

informativity: Sea is water.

San Juan gunfire kills one.

intentionality/acceptability (goals, tolerance of range)

I cannot collect my sick pay. I have six children,

Can you tell me why?

situationality: (relevant factors):

Are you here or not?

intertextuality:

Are you some sort of Hamlet?

genres or text types

criteria: succession, chronology, prescription (instruction), projection (for future or past)

narrative (+S+Ch-Pro-Pre)

procedural (+S +Ch+Pro+Pre)

expository (-S-CH-Pro-Pre)

hortatory (-S-Ch+Pre +Pro)

N: He went to get the eggs.

P: Take four eggs and throw them onto the pan.

E: The eggs lay on the kitchen table smelling rather suspicious.

H: You should always make sure that the eggs smell good before you use them.

Other distinctions:

narrative and non-narrative texts,

fiction vs non-fiction,

literary vs non-literary texts

non-narrative not only temporal, generic truth, permanent across contexts, verifiable events, impersonal

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