English language and linguistics: general interest

Summary

PREVIEW

In this chapter you will first learn to segment words into their smallest meaningful parts, their morphemes. Different types of morphemes will then be distinguished on a number of dimensions. The classes arising from such distinctions are useful because they allow us to formulate generalizations about the properties shared by the members of these classes and the restrictions they are subject to. A second type of generalization covered in this chapter concerns the patterns and rules which underlie the formation of complex lexemes, i.e. words that are made up of more than two lexical morphemes. This is the realm of word-formation. You will be introduced to the range of word-formation patterns that can be used to form new words with the help of existing words and morphemes, including compounding, i.e. the joining of two or more words to form a new complex lexeme (e.g. interest rate, washing-machine or watertight), prefixation, yielding words such as disagree,unjust or ex-minister, and suffixation (e.g. agreement, justify, ministerial). Further word-formation patterns, which are less regular and transparent, include conversion (hammerN → to hammerV or emptyAdj → to emptyV), back-formation (e.g.to sightsee ← sightseeing; to burgle ← burglar), blending (e.g. infotainment ← information + entertainment), clipping (e.g. ad ← advertisement, phone ← telephone), and the formation of acronyms or initialisms from fixed sequences of words (URL ← unique resource locator; NATO ← North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

INTRODUCTION

Generally speaking, the linguistic discipline of morphology – the term is derived from the Greek word morphos meaning ‘form’ – examines the internal makeup and structure of words as well as the patterns and principles underlying their composition. In doing so, morphology straddles the traditional boundary between grammar (i.e. the rule-based, productive component of a language) and the lexicon (i.e. the idiosyncratic, rote-learned component). Morphology looks at both sides of linguistic signs, i.e. at the form and the meaning, combining the two perspectives in order to analyse and describe both the component parts of words and the principles underlying the composition of words.

Unlike phonology, morphology does not analyse words in terms of syllables but in terms of morphemes, i.e. components of words that are carriers of meanings.

Summary

Exploring Language and Linguistics is designed to meet the needs of undergraduate students approaching linguistics for the first time. As teachers of first-year linguistics courses ourselves, we have always welcomed students from a range of academic backgrounds. The key challenge for instructors on introductory-level linguistics/English language modules is to introduce a wide range of topics, approaches and concepts in an accessible manner to students with little or no prior experience of studying language. Meanwhile, the key challenge for students lies in their ability to understand and then apply their learning to real-world settings. Our volume seeks to address these challenges with writing which is concise, accessible and richly illustrated with examples. We make no assumptions about prior experience with grammar or with learning foreign languages. In this book, we aim to provide readers with a thorough grounding in the terminology and techniques of linguistic description, as well as taking them forward into more specialist fields in the subject.

Linguistics is a developing subject, and new areas of enquiry are opening up. This book features chapters on language and ideology, media discourse, including a discussion of the language of computer-mediated discourse in social media, and clinical linguistics. Such wide but detailed coverage of developing areas makes this book stand out from other textbooks in linguistics.

The textbook is aimed at readers who are likely to be first-year undergraduates taking their first course in linguistics. Our students have told us that what excites them about the subject are the many applications to real-world problems. Each of these chapters is written by an expert in the field and will contain introductory as well as more challenging material. The first eight chapters introduce readers to the different levels of linguistic analysis: sound (phonetics and phonology), grammar (morphology, grammar, syntax), meaning (semantics and pragmatics) and structure beyond the sentence (discourse analysis). These chapters will all be preparatory reading for approaching the subsequent chapters, as students will be required to bring this body of knowledge to the study of applications of linguistics. The order in which the chapters are presented suggests the order of reading, but they may be read in any order.

Summary

PREVIEW

This chapter examines how language users employ aspects of context in the production and interpretation of utterances. Context pervades every aspect of language use, from the lexical choices that we make to the way in which we disambiguate linguistic expressions. Its pervasive character is such that it has been shown in recent years to permeate those aspects of meaning that were once thought to be strictly semantic in nature. In fact, the debates which take place at the semantics–pragmatics interface are some of the most contentious in modern linguistics. This chapter begins by delineating the contributions of semantics and pragmatics to this interface. A simple cleavage between these disciplines is neither possible nor desirable, it will be argued. The chapter will then turn to the notion of context. More often than not, context is alluded to, rather than directly examined, in discussions of pragmatics. Context will be characterized along social, physical, linguistic and epistemic aspects in this chapter. Several pragmatic concepts exemplify the influence of context on language meaning. These concepts include deixis, presupposition, speech acts and implicatures. Speech acts and implicatures reflect the influence on the development of pragmatics of the language philosophies of John L. Austin, John Searle and H. Paul Grice. The views of these philosophers of language will be briefly examined. By the end of the chapter, you will have an understanding of the significant contribution of pragmatics to the study of language meaning as well as the key concepts and ideas that have shaped this linguistic discipline.

INTRODUCTION

This chapter will introduce you to a key set of ideas and concepts that has come to define the discipline of pragmatics. Many of these ideas emerged from a dissatisfaction about how far semantics could take us in the study of language meaning. One of the earliest insights to shape the emerging discipline of pragmatics was the idea that linguistic utterances can do more than merely describe states of affairs in the world. Rather, utterances can be used to perform a range of actions such as issuing requests and warnings, undertaking promises and apologies and extending congratulations and threats to others. None of these speech acts are possible without permitting a role for language users in an account of meaning.

Summary

PREVIEW

The focus of the last chapter was on phonetics, examining the characteristics of speech sounds, how they are produced and their physical properties, along with important related issues such as tone and intonation, and the crucial distinction between (phonetic) transcription and (orthographic) spelling systems like English writing. In this chapter we turn to phonology, which focuses on the systematic organization of speech sounds. As we will see, there are systematic behaviours in the speech sounds of language that cannot be attributed to the phonetics alone. We will also see that some aspects of the sound system of language – for instance, native speakers’ intuitions about the relationships among the sounds of their language which may be at odds with phonetic reality – can be best understood at an abstract level of representation.

INTRODUCTION

In the previous chapter it was pointed out that phonetics deals with the characteristics of speech sounds themselves, while phonology deals with the organization of speech sounds into systems. There are aspects of the sound systems of human languages that cannot be explained by phonetics alone. Consider first the Greek word πτέρυγα [ˈptɛrɪɣɑ] > ‘wing’, the French word psychologie [psikɔlɔʒi] > ‘psychology’ and the German word Knie [kniː] ‘knee’ (and remember that the symbols in square brackets [] show how the words are pronounced). And now consider English: there are no words beginning with the sounds [pt], [ps] or [kn]. Since Greek, French and German are human languages, it cannot be the case that [pt], [ps] and [kn] are impossible (for human beings) to pronounce. Rather, it is a fact about the organization of the sound system of English that initial [pt], [ps] and [kn] are disallowed. Looking more closely, it is not really a fact about words, but a fact about syllables: English syllables do not begin with [pt], [ps] or [kn]. Recall from Chapter 2 that English spelling does not accurately represent how words are pronounced. There are words of English spelt with <pt>, <ps> and <kn>, as in pterodactyl, psychology and knee, but there are no words of English in which these sequences are routinely pronounced at the beginnings of words or even at the beginnings of syllables. In these cases only one of the initial consonants is pronounced: [tɛɹəˈdæktəɫ], [saɪˈkɔlɔʤiː], [niː].

Summary

PREVIEW

This chapter explores how language, grammar and rhetoric can be employed as critical tools in text analysis, and in particular, in the analysis of literary texts. The logical point of departure in literary linguistics is that since prose and poetry are made up of words, phrases, clauses and sentences, the most appropriate way to analyse those texts is by means of linguistic frameworks. Just as an art critic might come to a balanced interpretation by observing and commenting on patterns of things like colour, depth and form, so the literary linguist can attain a grounded understanding of the textual object of investigation, as it were, by detecting and reporting on perceptible lexical, syntactic and discoursal patterns within a given context.

In this chapter, you will first be introduced to the historical background of literary linguistics as it developed in the twentieth century. Thereafter, we will consider some of the directions the field is taking today. Lastly, and moving on to a more practical side, you will be introduced to a range of literary linguistic tools and methods. The focus here will be on analysis up to and including the sentence level. It is here that we will be exploring the notion of foregrounding at the levels of language. The goal is to anchor our literary interpretations and evaluations in concrete linguistic description. By the end of the chapter, not only will you have acquired a firm knowledge of the history, tools and methods of literary linguistics, you will also be able to bring what you have learned to bear on your own literary linguistic analyses.

INTRODUCTION

The term ‘literary linguistics’ is often used interchangeably with ‘stylistics’. Literary linguistics does not engage solely in the analysis of literary texts, but in other discourse forms too, including political discourse, advertising discourse, legal discourse and even everyday conversation. The reason for this is that the notions of creativity and innovation in language are not just confined to the realm of literature. Just look at the world around you: the internet, the television, even the public texts on display on your university campus.

Summary

PREVIEW

This chapter examines the many ways in which language and communication can break down in children and adults. These so-called communication disorders are usually the result of illness, disease and injury. These medical and traumatic events can compromise speech and language or the ability to produce voice, and have their onset in the developmental period or childhood, or adulthood and later life. You will be introduced to various stages in the communication cycle, and the specific disorders that result when these stages are disrupted. By locating disorders at different points in this cycle, you will see that quite different processes are involved in communication disorders. Several clinical distinctions that are integral to the study of communication disorders and to the work of speech and language therapists will be examined. They include the distinction between a receptive and an expressive language disorder, a developmental and an acquired communication disorder and an important clinical distinction between a speech disorder and a language disorder. You will then see how these disorders are manifested in children and adults through a discussion of speech, language and voice in two developmental and two acquired communication disorders: cleft lip and palate, and specific language impairment in children, and aphasia and laryngectomy in adults. By the end of the chapter, you will have knowledge of an important clinical application of linguistics, as well as an awareness of the work of speech and language therapy.

INTRODUCTION

For a significant number of children and adults, speech and language skills are disordered to such an extent that they pose a significant barrier to effective communication. The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists estimates that 2.5 million people in the UK have a communication disorder. Of this number, some 800,000 people have a disorder that is so severe that it is hard for anyone outside their immediate families to understand them. In the US, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders estimates that one in every six Americans has some form of communication disorder. These large figures convey something of the extent of the burden of communication disorders on society as a whole. They should not, however, serve to distract from the personal impact of these disorders, an impact that is most often experienced as reduced quality of life as well as educational and occupational disadvantage.

Summary

PREVIEW

This chapter looks at the relationship between language and society. This means that we will be examining language in its social contexts – how it is actually used by people (rather than how grammarians may prescribe language ‘should’ be spoken). Sociolinguistics investigates how the language practices of one individual differ from situation to situation or how they differ within one community. This involves looking at the social characteristics of language users or speakers – such as social class, gender and sexuality – as well as the social context in which language use changes. We will also discuss how we can adapt our language to fit a situation and the people we are speaking with. We all have a verbal repertoire of speech styles and ways to use language, which allow us to switch, depending on the person we are talking to and the situation we are in, and we frequently do so without being aware of it. Issues such as language policy, language planning and education can also be included within sociolinguistics, although we will not be looking at these in this chapter.

INTRODUCTION

We may think of languages as single entities – English, French and Yoruba for example – but things are not as simple as this. If we think specifically about English, we may think of the English used in education, law courts, on the media or the English that is taught to foreign speakers as ‘being’ English. But this is just one variety – in this case, Standard English. It is the English used in dictionaries and grammar books. Most people who speak English can understand other English speakers, but that is not to say that we all speak the same; consider the differences in the English spoken in the UK, USA, Canada, South Africa and India to name just a few examples. We pronounce words differently and use different words or grammatical constructions, but we are all speaking ‘English’.

The unique characteristics of the spoken language of an individual person are called a speaker's idiolect. Although everybody has a range of styles, also known as their verbal repertoire, we see that individuals tend to share their linguistic practices with others. This means there are groups of speakers who use language in a similar way, but differently from the standard form.

Summary

PREVIEW

This chapter explains the insights and techniques of historical linguistics, the study of how language changes over time. We begin with a brief explanation of the value of historical linguistics before going on in Section 10.2 to describe the background to its development. In Section 10.3 we examine some key explanations for why languages change over time. In so doing we discuss how changes come about and how they then spread throughout speech communities. Following this, we describe some of the types of change that languages go through. Here we focus particularly on change at the levels of phonology, grammar, lexis and semantics. We give examples of changes that have occurred at these levels of language and describe some influential theories that have sought to explain such developments. We then move on in Section 10.5 to describe some of the main techniques that historical linguists use to study language change. By the end of this chapter you should have a good knowledge of the variety of ways in which languages change, as well as an insight into the methods that linguists use to study such changes.

INTRODUCTION

Primarily, historical linguistics involves describing how and explaining why language changes over time. Much work has focused on sound change, such as the fact that Germanic languages, past and current, have the sound [t] at the beginning of the number ‘two’ (e.g. Gothic twai, English two, Dutch twee, German zwei (pronounced [tsvaɪ])),whereas other Indo-European languages past and current typically have [d] (e.g. Latin duos, Italian due, French deux, Spanish dos, etc.). But other linguistic areas – grammar, semantics and lexis – have also received significant attention, and most recently areas such as pragmatics have come into focus.

Why bother with historical linguistics? Importantly, it helps explain language that is used today. For example, why is it that when we say the English word knight we do not pronounce the <k>? Historical linguistic detective work has been able to establish that the <k> used to be pronounced. But that sound has been subject to a regular process of sound change, mapped out by historical linguists, until it reached the final endpoint of complete loss. Today's spelling simply retains the <k> as an archaeological relic.

Summary

PREVIEW

This chapter will summarize arguments in favour of an innate mechanism for language learning. This is not a general mechanism for learning, but is dedicated to language – the name given to the innate mechanism is Universal Grammar. Universal Grammar must be able to deal with the fact that languages differ quite dramatically in their structural properties, and that learning paths can vary for different languages. Evidence for an innate, language-specific mechanism comes from children's innovations during development, lack of negative evidence from caregivers, creation of signed languages and creoles, and first language learners who have various deficits in their cognitive abilities. We consider the need for a better integration of language acquisition theory with the theory of language processing.

INTRODUCTION

Chimpanzees are our closest relatives. Yet chimpanzees cannot learn a human language. With training, they can develop a repertoire of signs, and they can combine these signs in meaningful ways. But chimpanzees have never been shown to use the abstract structural relations between signs (words) that are characteristic of human language.

In this chapter, we argue that humans are equipped with an innate ability to construct a grammar, and that this ability is generally independent of intelligence. In order to make this argument, we need to examine what adult human languages are like – to tackle the issue of cross-linguistic variation. That is, we need to look at the samenesses and differences that human languages offer, and then to look at the challenges that the task of learning a first language poses. After that, we will examine the progress children make with learning different types of language, and the stages children typically pass through. Although the data from many languages is sparse, the conclusion we can draw is that roughly by age 3 years, the fundamentals of the language the child is learning have been acquired. The combination of the intricate complexity of adult languages and the seeming ease with which children get to grips with the fundamentals of their language forms a basic argument for an innate learning capacity. We will then consider in more detail the alternative(s) to the claim that language acquisition is possible only by virtue of human biology.

Summary

PREVIEW

Psycholinguistics studies how the mind enables human beings to produce and understand language. The field is a wide and diverse one; the most important areas it covers are:

Summary

PREVIEW

In the last four decades, the focus of linguistic studies has changed from the description of formal properties of language as a code to the description of how people communicate through semiotic systems. This chapter will introduce some of the most important developments in language studies that contributed to a new approach to the analysis of interaction called discourse analysis. Key notions about communication will be presented so that the concepts of text, genre and discourse can be discussed. Since all discourse is multimodal, in other words, we communicate our meanings through different semiotic modes, some of the differences between these modes will be addressed, especially between the oral and written modes. Another important topic in the area of discourse analysis is the question of how interactants exchange meanings. We will be discussing therefore how participants and roles are realized linguistically.

INTRODUCTION

This chapter introduces you to important aspects of recent research in the areas of discourse analysis and suggests practical applications to the interpretation and production of texts. The main purpose of this chapter is to consider the relationship between language, other semiotic signs, and society. You will be introduced to theories of discourse analysis and spend time doing textual analysis. This chapter will enable you to develop a critical understanding of some key concepts involved in discourse analysis and to understand how language reflects, mediates and creates our everyday reality. The first objective of the chapter is, then, to make you aware of communicative processes. The second objective is to review some different approaches to communication, written and oral. We will also be mentioning the important issue of how we communicate through other means that do not involve the linguistic expression.

The final aim is that by being exposed to current approaches to the analysis of interaction, you should improve your own production, both oral and written, and become more aware of what is involved when we use our linguistic resources to communicate our meanings.

How do we communicate?

Language is only one of the ways we communicate meanings in our daily lives. We use the resources of our bodies and the environment we are placed in at the moment of communication to send a message to somebody else.

Summary

PREVIEW

This chapter looks at media discourse – that is, how the media use language and images to construct meaning in society. We are interested in how media discourse can influence the way we think and we emphasize the need for greater critical awareness of the messages we are exposed to daily by analysing discourse found in media texts. The concept of investigating media discourse is closely linked with discourse analysis and we recommend that this chapter should be read in conjunction with Caldas-Coulthard's comprehensive examination of this topic in Chapter 9. We provide some context for the emergence of media discourse within the field of discourse analysis, as well as describing some theoretical approaches and methods that have been used to study media texts whether news reports, advertisements or broadcast interviews. But as former journalists, and now academics whose main body of research lies in the study of media texts, we focus in particular on the language of the news to exemplify how critical analysis and interpretation are crucial in becoming media literate. This chapter will give you a greater appreciation and understanding of media and their significance.

INTRODUCTION

Discourse surrounds us. It is the meaning that lies behind everyday conversations, letters, signs in shop windows, speeches, paintings, photographs, a tweet, a slogan on a t-shirt, a television programme, a product brand, a website or even a car's personal registration plate. The text is what we actually read, see or hear – in other words the ‘observable product’ that carries meaning (Talbot 2007: 9). Discourse is ‘a form of knowledge’ (Devereux 2003: 158) that is conveyed through text. One way to grasp the concept of discourse is to think of the commonly used phrase ‘reading between the lines’ where we seek to understand what is being implied rather than explicitly said.

Although media discourse can relate in today's terms to any form of medium of communication such as weblogs or social networking sites, in this chapter we are concerned specifically with the discourse that is constructed and conveyed through news organizations.

Summary

PREVIEW

This chapter builds upon the basics of language structure and functions (Chapters 2–9) to demonstrate how texts (spoken or written, long or short) present a particular view of the world which reflects the ideological position of one (or more) of the perceived producers of the text. The chapter takes a neutral view of what ideology means, seeing it as referring to sets of values (and also, in some cases, beliefs) that are held by a group of people, often a society as a whole. You will be introduced to the framework of critical stylistics, which allows you to analyse the hidden and implicit ideologies inherent in textual construction. The basis of this framework is the ‘textual-conceptual function’ which demonstrates how the text is constructing different aspects of the world of the text by processes such as naming, negating, hypothesizing and enumerating. This approach shares with critical discourse analysis (CDA) the idea that ideology is present in all texts, but unlike CDA it is politically neutral rather than taking an explicitly socialist or Marxist stance in itself.

INTRODUCTION

Although we tend to assume that there is some kind of abstract linguistic system in place, underpinning the things we say and write, linguistics has long recognized that there are also discrepancies between this ‘idealized’ system which is made up of items (phonemes, morphemes, words, phrases, clause elements etc.) and the rules for how they combine into texts (the phonological rules and the grammar) – and the way in which the system is ‘realized’ when it is used. Famously, Saussure (see also Chapter 1), often seen as the founder of modern linguistics, labelled this distinction (in French) langue (language) and parole (speech) and much of the effort of early linguistic description went into describing how the langue worked. Later, when it became evident that there was regular patterning even in the apparently messy reality of parole, subdisciplines of linguistics (e.g. sociolinguistics, pragmatics, conversation analysis) grew up to try and map out the regularities in usage as much as in the system itself. Later, the cognitive approach to human language represented in Chomsky's transformational-generative grammar recognized a similar distinction between the abstract underlying system of the language – here seen as part of human cognition and therefore labelled ‘competence’ – and the usage of the system which was labelled ‘performance’ (see also Chapter 1).

Exploring Language and Linguistics considers the key concepts of linguistics and the application of these concepts to real-world settings. The first eight chapters cover the standard topics of introduction to linguistics courses, while subsequent chapters introduce students to applied topics such as media discourse, literary linguistics and psycholinguistics. Each chapter has been written by a subject expert and experienced teacher, ensuring that the text is both up-to-date and clearly presented. Numerous learning features provide extensive student support: exercises allow students to review their understanding of key topics; summaries encourage students to reflect on the main points of each chapter; figures, photos, tables and charts clarify complex topics; and annotated suggestions for further reading point students to resources for self-study. A companion website, with 170 self-test questions, suggested group exercises, audio files and links to additional web resources, completes the learning package.

Summary

PREVIEW

This chapter provides an introduction to semantics, which we define as the study of meaning in language. The chapter begins by drawing a fluid boundary between semantics and pragmatics, characterizing the former as knowledge of the linguistic system and the latter as its use in real-life situations. An important distinction is made between reference, the act of using language to identify items in the world, and sense or meaning, which allows the link to be made between sounds and reality. The chapter discusses meaning at the levels of word and sentence. At the word or lexical level, a number of semantic relations are identified, such as synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy. These relations structure a language's vocabulary. We will see how some relations, such as hyponymy, have effects at both word and sentence level. At the sentence level, the chapter introduces some of the rich repetoire of semantic systems which allow speakers a choice in characterizing situations, including situation type, aspect, tense and semantic roles. A central theme will be construal, the choice of semantic options made by a speaker when talking about a situation or event. The discussion moves on to examine the proposal that the philosophical notion of truth should be used to characterize sentence meaning. The chapter closes with the distinction between literal and non-literal language, looking briefly at the cognitive semantics position that questions this traditional and longstanding distinction. By the end of the chapter you will have been introduced to a range of semantic systems that are embodied in speakers’ knowledge of their native language.

Introduction

Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. It shares this interest with pragmatics, which is the subject of the next chapter. The dividing line between the two areas is fluid and depends in part on the type of linguistic theory we employ. However, in advance of both chapters we can say that in studying semantics we try to model what speakers implicitly know about the meanings of words, phrases and sentences in their native languages. A primary concern of pragmatics, on the other hand, is how speakers integrate contextual and non-linguistic knowledge in the communication of meaning. Another way of making the distinction is to say that semantics is concerned with language as a system, while pragmatics is concerned with how speakers use language.

English language and linguistics: general interest

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21502 results in English language and linguistics: general interest

4 - Morphology

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Preface

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Frontmatter

8 - Pragmatics

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3 - Phonology

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17 - Literary linguistics

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14 - Clinical linguistics

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11 - Sociolinguistics

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List of figures

10 - Historical linguistics

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12 - Child language acquisition

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Index

13 - Psycholinguistics

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9 - Discourse analysis

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16 - Media discourse

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15 - Language and ideology

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Exploring Language and Linguistics

List of contributors

7 - Semantics

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Glossary

English language and linguistics: general interest

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Exploring Language and Linguistics

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