English for philology

comparative linguistics – the study of different languages and their respective linguistic systems.. historical linguistics - the study of language change over time?. Language is notorio

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF PEDAGOGY

FOREIGN LANGUAGE SECTION

PREFACE

The aim of this book is to help both the students of Philology faculty and those who are interested in linguistics literature

We would like to thank all those whose sources have been used in this book

We are grateful too, to teachers, colleagues and students for their guidance in the preparation of this book

There are certainly short comings in the book we are ourselves responsible for

We hope we will get more valuable comments and suggestions from the concerned in order to improve the quality of the book

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2003

Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy

TALKING ABOUT ABILITY

PRESENTATION

Read the passage below

At the age of sixty-five, Laura Ingalls Wibder could write a series of novels for young people based on her early experiences on the American frontier Born in the state of Wisconsin in 1867, she and her family were rugged pioneers seeking better farm land, they could go by covered wagon to Missouri in 1869, then on to Kansas the next year They returned to Winconsin in 1871 and traveled on to Minnesota and Iowa before they were able to settle permanently in South Dakota in 1879 Due to this constant moving Wilder’s early education could take place in a succession of one-room schools From age thirteen to sixteen, she could attend school more regularly although she never graduated Although her novels were written many years ago, young generation loves them very much They can understand her life and her ideas through her stories

™ Grammar questions

1 Look at these sentences and find out what verbs are used in the underlined words

They can understand her life and her ideas through her stories

- “At the age of 65, Laura Ingalls Wilder could write a series of novels for young people”

- “They traveled on to Minnesota and Iowa before they were able to settle permanently in South Dakota in 1879”

- “From age thirteen to sixteen she could attend school more regularly, although she never graduated

2 Rule: We use _ + to talk about present ability to do

something

We use _ + to talk about past ability to do something

PRACTICE

A Work in pairs Ask and answer the following questions:

1 How many languages can you speak?

2 Could you speak English when you were 6?

3 Can you compose a poem?

4 Can you read a novel all day?

5 How do people communicate?

6 Can you record what you say and think?

7 Can you communicate through time? Why or why not?

- Think of a many questions as you can about communication

B Complete these sentences using can, can’t, could or couldn’t and the verb in brackets

1 I am a student of Philology faculty I (compose) a poem

2 When I was ten years old I (read) a short story in English I learned English when I was seven years old

3 I don’t want to read this book I _(study) Chinese)

4 She (drive) until she went for lessons last year

5 My grandmother was Chinese, so she _ (use) chopsticks

6 My sister _ (speak) German and French

7 My brother (talk) to foreigners when he was only six years old

8 My father is slightly deaf He (hear) very well

C Jane and Joan are friends but each one always wants to be better than the other at everything Complete their conversation using can, could or be able to Follow the example

1 Jane : I could read when I was only four years old

Joan : Well, I could read when I was three!

2 Jane : I _ speak three languages

Joan : That’s nothing! I speak five languages

3 Jane : Last week, with my savings, I buy myself a pony

Joan : Really? Well, last week I _ buy a racing horse

4 Jane : The garden of my house is so big that I _ walk to the end of

it

Joan : That sounds rather small The garden of my house is so big that I

_ drive to the end of it in a car

5 Jane : I _ play the piano and the violin

Joan : Is that all? I play the piano, the violin, the flute and the

trumpet

6 Jane : When I was at school I _read a whole book in a day

Joan : How slow When I was at school I _ write a whole book in a

day

7 Jane : Last year, I got so many presents on my birthday that I fit

them all in one room

Joan : What a shame Last year, I got so many presents on my birthday that I

fit them all in my house – I had to rent the house next door too!

8 Jane : I’m very fit I _ run a mile in less than four minutes

Joan : Well, I _run a mile in less than four minutes – backwards !

™ Language review

1 Can is used to talk about the ability to do something As with most modal verbs,

we use can with the infinitive without to of the verb:

I can speak two languages

The negative is cannot or can’t:

Where’s the foreign language centre of HCM city university of Pedagogy? I can’t

find it

In questions using can, we do not use do, but we reverse the order of can and the

subject

Can you speak Japanese?

2 The past form of can is could The negative of could is could not (couldn’t):

When I was young, I could speak English quite well

Before this year, I couldn’t compose any poems

We use could to say that someone had a general ability in the past

Could you read a novel all day?

We do not use could to talk about individual situations For individual situations we

have to use was/were able to:

He could speak French When we got lost in Paris he was able to ask for directions

However, we can use the negative form of could in both general and individual

situations

He couldn’t translate the story into English because he lost the dictionary

3 Can and could do not have other form such as infinitives or participles If we need

to use these forms, we must use be able to am/are able to, was/were able to, etc)

instead of can and could:

I might be able to tell you about the main branches of linguistics

They have been able to tell about problems of syllables and morphemes in

c grammar 3 the system of language, including its phonology,

morphology, syntax, semantics, and lexicon The linguistic knowledge of a speaker of a language

g discourse 7 the branch of linguistics that deals with language change

by comparing related languages

B Crosswords

Here are some very small crosswords Can you complete them? You might need to

check one or two answers in your dictionary

Crossword 1

1 2 3

4

5 Across Down

1 The …… of the pudding is in the

eating (Proverb)

1 Please…… in block capitals

4 He’s perfect He’s the …… man for

1 ………… not, want not (Proverb) 1 ……… there’s a will, there’s a way

(Proverb)

4 If you don’t pay your rent, your

landlord will ……… you

2 Everything he said was nice, but of course there was a ……… in the tail

5 Keen and enthusiastic 3 Come on, you’ve got to ………… into the

spirit of the occasion

C Word Games

1 Complete the spelling of the words below using the clues to help you

Answer the following question

What branches does linguistics consist of?

Reading

LINGUISTICS: THE MAIN BRANCHES

Phonetics/phonology, syntax and semantics/pragmatics constitute the principal levels of linguistics Whatever branch of the subject we look at we shall inevitably find ourselves talking about them We use the metaphor of a tree here because this seems the best way to capture the relationship between these core areas, collectively the “trunk”; and the individual disciplines, or “branches”, which sprout from them Changing the metaphor,

we could think of the core as the hub of a wheel with the various branches as the individual spokes radiating out There are the main ones, followed by a brief definition of each:

sociolinguistics - the study of language and society

stylistics - the study of language and literature

psycholinguistics – the study of language and mind

computational linguistics – the simulation of language by the use of computers

comparative linguistics – the study of different languages and their respective linguistic

systems

historical linguistics - the study of language change over time

applied linguistics – the study of language teaching (You will sometimes find that

stylistics and comparative linguistics are treated as branches of applied linguistics)

sub-The branches have become more numerous over the years as the subject has grown but,

arguably, the principal developments in linguistics in recent years have been in stylistics,

sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics As a consequence, a majority of the terms

discussed in this chapter are from these branches The chapter begins with a short

introduction to each branch, followed by detailed entries, alphabetically arranged as

usual, on key items

Comprehension check

A True / False exercise: Circle T (for true) or F (for false) for each statement below

1 When we study syntax, it means we’re studying one of the principal levels of

4 Another description of linguistics branches can be the hub of a wheel with the

individual spokes radiating out T - F

5 The number of branches of linguistics hasn’t increased in recent years T - F

B Matching exercise

Match the definition of column A with the subject of linguistics

A B

1 The study of language change over time a applied linguistics

2 The study of language and mind b psycholinguistics

3 The study of language teaching c sociolinguistics

4 The simulation of language by the use of

computer

d comparative linguistics

5 The study of language and literature e historical linguistics

6 The study of language and society f stylistics

7 The study of different languages and their

respective linguistic system

g computational linguistics

What do you think?

Work in groups

The languages that a person uses can tell us what group of society that person belongs to

Do you agree with the idea? Support your opinion?

™ Listening

Listen to the following test and fill in the blanks with the missing words

Idiom is language where the words are not used with their c _ basic meanings

If you go to the d once in a blue moon, you go very rarely If you haven’t seen someone for donkey’s years, you haven’t e him for a very long time

A f _part of language is idiomatic Here are some g _examples

She’s under the h

I got cold feet

™ Translation

LINGUISTICS: A BRIEF SURVEY

Linguistics is the systematic study of language Some people refer to it as the “science of language” but I have avoided this description because it can be misleading The popular view of language is that it is regulated by precise laws which prescribe the “correct” use

of words, a little in the manner that Newtonian physics does the operation of the solar system But the merest acquaintance with language shows us it is not like that Language

is notoriously slippery; words change their meaning and pronunciation form continually, they never stay still This fertile capacity of language for endless diversity means that any attempt to reduce it to a set of laws is fraught with danger

None the less, it is true to say that linguists approach language in a scientific manner First of all, they adopt an objective, or disinterested, stance They have no axe to grind: they are not concerned, like some politicians and educators, in enforcing or promoting any “standards” of language use Secondly, their method is empirical, that is they proceed

by observation, description and explanation These are the three stages of linguistic enquiry distinguished by the linguist Noam Chomsky Linguists begin by observing the way in which “people use language, on the basis of which they provide a description of

language use, and finally, when all the data has been analyzed, an explanation Explanations of language use are the stage at which linguists endeavour to establish the underlying rules which speakers are following It is a basic presupposition of modern linguistics that language is rule-governed, i.e., those speakers obey an internalized set of instructions in the way the construct and use sentences The word “internalized” is important here, because these rules are derived not from any kind of external authority, like a dictionary or grammar, but from the speaker’s own intuitive knowledge, or competence Once the rules for particular languages have been mapped in this empirical fashion the linguist hopes to provide a model which will explain how all languages work The production of this model, or universal grammar, is the pinnacle of linguistic enquiry

\TALKING ABOUT PROBABILITY AND POSSIBILITY

PRESENTATION

Read the passage carefully

Nowadays Edgar Allan Poe may be regarded as one of the premier authors of horror stories but he might not have received much recognition and money for his stories while

he lived Twenty five of his greatest stories were published in a collection called “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque”, which appeared in 1840, but at that time little notice could have been taken of it Three years later, another story, “The Gold Bug”, was published, selling 300,000 copies, and by 1845 he had written twelve more stories, which he published in “Tales” But a poem “The Raven”, could bring him his greatest recognition

as a writer

™ Grammar questions:

1 Underline one verb that shows possibility in the present

2 Underline two verbs that show probability and possibility in the past

PRACTICE

A Rewrite these sentences using the word in brackets Follow the example

1 It is possible that they did all the fundamental tasks of every language (might)

They might have done all the fundamental tasks of every language

2 Perhaps they are reading about Plato and Aristoile (could)

B Complete these sentences using the correct form of the verb in brackets Follow the example

1 Paul isn’t at home yet He might be having (have) a lecture on morphology

(have)

2 I’ve lost my book about Alfred Lord Tenmyson this morning I might (leave) it

on the train

3 It is very cold I think it may (snow) tonight

4 If you studied in Philology faculty, you could _ (know) more about the history of English poetry in the twentieth century

5 I don’t want to cook tonight I may (go out) for dinner

6 The students are outside in the corridor They could (discus) about the last poem of W.B Yeats

7 Neil was very unfriendly last night He may (be) tired

8 Lisa is in her room She might _ (study) for her exam tomorrow

C Complete these sentences using can or could and a suitable verb from the box Follow the example

1 My last car could break down at the most difficult times

2 Polly strange clothes sometimes

3 It is very quiet in the country park You _all day without seeing anyone

4 My mother was very musical She for hours

5 My father is getting old now, he very well

6 In winter, the temperature _ to 2oC

™ Language preview

Probability and possibility: can, could, may, might

1 May, might and could are used to talk about the chance, or possibility, of a present

I feel ill I might not have a lecture on computational linguistics tomorrow

2 To talk about something that is possibly happening as we speak, we can use the

continuous form of may, might or could, which is made using be and the –ing form

of the verb

Where’s Bob? He might be reading a book on linguistics in the library

It’s a nice day He could be sitting in the garden to compose a poem

3 When we talk about possibility in the past we use may, might or could with have

and the past participle of the verb:

walk

past participle

I said hello to Cathy but she didn’t reply She might not have heard me

Fiona lost her dictionary It could have been left in class

4 Can is used to talk about facts or something which is often true:

People can communicate with each other in many different ways

Students of Philology Faculty can become linguists

5 Could is used to talk about these kinds of possibility in the past

When my friend was small, he could be very intelligent

language (e.g pairs such as please/pleasant demonstrate a

change involving front vowels in English)

b Internal

reconstruction

2 the phonetic alphabet designed by the International Phonetic Association to be used to represent the sounds found in all human languages

c International

Phonetic Association

3 the organization founded in 1888 to further phonetic research and develop the IPA

d semantics 4 the semantic function of the referent of a Noun Phrase, as

determined by its relation to the verb e.g agent, patient, location, instrument, goal, source

e semantic role 5 the study of the meaning of words and sentences

B Complete each sentence with the opposite of the word in brackets Choose from one

of the following words Use each word once only

lengthen miss pass receive

reject set shut win

1 Do you think he’ll your offer? (ACCEPT)

2 He really didn’t want to so much money (BORROW)

3 They saw him his glass again (EMPTY)

4 I’m sure he’s going to his driving test (FALL)

5 How many times did she the target? (HIT)

6 Do you need a license to these goods? (IMPORT)

7 I think sales will in the next year (INCREASE)

8 They all began to when they heard what had happened

(LAUGH)

9 How much money did you playing cards? (LOSE)

10 Do you really going to concerts so much? (LOVE)

11 What time do the shops .? (OPEN)

12 You must try to what happened (REMEMBER)

13 They saw the sun in the distance (RISE)

14 We hope to the letter tomorrow (SEND)

15 She decided to her skirt (SHORTEN)

16 The meeting didn’t until 6 o’clock (START)

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

™ Reading and speaking

Pre-reading task:

Work in pairs to discuss the below questions

1 Language is the most effective way for communicating Discuss Do you agree

with the idea?

2 In conversation one sometimes doesn’t understand much or misunderstand what

the addresser means What do you think are the reasons?

Reading

STYLISTICS

Stylistics is concerned with using the methodology of linguistics to study the concept of

“style” in language Every time we use language we necessarily adopt a style of some sorts: we make a selection from a range of syntactic and lexical possibilities according to the purpose of the communication The study of style has traditionally been the preserve

of literary criticism, but since the rise of linguistics there has been a more systematic attempt to provide a “linguistic” foundation for literary effects, as well as a concern to broaden the scope of enquiry to include non-literary texts: recipes, car manuals, sermons, and so forth

In many respects stylistics is a twentieth-century development of the classical study of rhetoric The interest really began with the publication in 1909 because of a work on French stylistics by the linguist Bally, a pupil of Ferdinand de Saussure Other European linguists were gradually attracted to the subject, and in the ensuing decades its influence spread

There are various sub-branches of stylistics, reflecting the diversity of approaches which exist within the field itself General stylistics is used as a cover term to refer to the analyses of nonliterary varieties of language The main focus of such studies is with establishing principles which can account for the choices made by individuals and social groups in their use of language The problem for linguists is to establish a principled framework which can cope with the almost infinite acts of communication which occur between individuals, or groups Once of the most influential models has been that of Roman Jakobson, the Swedish linguist, presented at a conference at Indiana University in

1958 Despite the brevity of Jakobson’s paper, most discussions of the factors affecting style have taken his model, which seeks to match six general functions of language to their corresponding situational partners The idea underlying this model is that all language is oriented in some way towards one or more features of the communicative situation Language which is oriented towards the situational context, for example, is likely to be referential in nature (a discussion of the weather will contain lots of references to the elements), whilst language directed at the addressee, is likely to be cognitive, i.e persuasive, interrogative, or directive The other functions can be paired as below:

Phatic language (greetings, leave-takings, and so on) – oriented towards the contact or channel of communication

Emotive language (the expression of feelings and attitudes) – oriented towards the addresser

Metalingual language (language about language, e.g requests for clarification, I don’t

understand/can’t read that) – oriented towards the code

Poetic language (verbal play, e.g figurative devices, humour, and so on) – oriented towards the message

Comprehension check

A The answers to some questions are given as follows Write down the question

1 1909 5 Referential language

2 Bally 6 Cognitive language

3 Roman Jakolson 7 Emotive language

4 Six general functions

B Answer the following questions:

1 What have the linguists attempted to do since the rise of linguistics?

2 What is “general stylistics”?

3 How is language oriented in communicative situations?

What do you think?

™ Translation

Translate the text into Vietnamese

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTICS

Early history

Linguistics, in the sense in which I have been describing it, first developed as a subject in its own right in the late eighteenth century Before then, language in the western world had been the interest largely of philosophers and prescriptive grammarians – people concerned to enforce particular language forms as “correct” But in 1786, an Englishman, Sir William Jones, delivered a paper demonstrating that the ancient Indian language, San-skirt, bore striking structural similarities to Greek, Celtic, Latin and Germanic The conclusion which he drew was that all of these languages must have sprung from a common source So important was this discovery that for the next hundred years scholars became preoccupied with tracing the original ancestor from which all these languages were descended Comparative linguistics became the dominant branch of linguistic enquiry This entailed a detailed comparison of different languages in terms of their phonology, morphology, and lexis, with the aim of internally reconstructing the lost original As a result of these painstaking enquiries, we now have an evolutionary map of languages in the western world which shows their individual lineage and their relationship to the hypothetical ancestor, Indo-European

TALKING ABOUT NECESSITY AND OBLIGATION

PRESENTATION

Read the passage carefully

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812 When he was eleven his father fell into debt? Because he could not pay off his debt, he and his family were sent to a debtor’s prison to work Charles Dickens himself had to work in a factory washing bottles to earn

6 shillings a week People looked down on his family and him Dickens was unhappy and ashamed of this period of his life His loss of dignity was later reflected in his book

“David Copperfield”, in which the main character also had to work in a factory washing bottles as he did

™ Grammar question

1 Complete the sentence:

Charles Dicken _ in a factory washing bottles to earn 6 shillings a week

2 Which verb in the sentence talks about Dicken’s obligation? What is its present

form?

PRACTICE

A Complete these sentences using the correct form of have to Follow the example

1 When the telephone rang he had to stop composing the poem to answer it

2 It expects I _ get a part-time job next year

3 Our television broke down last week, so we _ buy a new one

4 My parents have been on holiday for two weeks, so I _ look after their dog

5 If you fail the exam, you sit it again next year

6 You stay in bed for a week until you feel better

7 Since Harold got his new job, he work every weekend

8 I wait for an hour in the supermarket last week

B Complete these sentences using must or have to Follow the example

1 My dictionary was stolen, so I have to borrow another one from the library

2 The law says that everyone wear a seat belt when they are traveling

by car

3 You _ give me this book as soon as you finish reading

4 I like to sleep late, but I start work at 8 am every morning

5 I don’t like my hair I _have it cut soon

6 The doctor says I _stay in bed today

7 You be back home before it gets dark or I will be worried

8 I feel terrible I _ sit down

™ Language review

1 We use must and have to talk about something which is necessary Must is more

personal than have to We use must when the speaker feels the necessity or obligation

himself:

I must study hard I really want to pass this exam

2 We use have to when the necessity or obligation comes from a rule or situation we

have no control over:

I have to work late tonight My teacher has told me to

3 As must does not have any other forms such as an infinitive or participles, we use have

to when these forms are needed:

The translation was so difficult that he had to use different dictionaries

If I don’t finish my report today I might have to work at the weekend

They have so little vocabulary they have had to use a dictionary all the time

VOCABULARY

A Match a term in A with a phrase in B

A B

a communication 1 The knowledge of a language represented by the

mental grammar which accounts for speakers’ linguistic creativity For the most part, linguistic competence is unconscious knowledge

b linguistic theory 2 The use of linguistic competence in the production and

comprehension of language; behavior as distinguished from knowledge

c definite 3 The principles which characterize all human

languages, the discovery of which is the goal of modern linguistics

d linguistic

performance

4 A system for conveying information Language is a linguistic system of communication; there are also non- linguistic systems of human communication as well as systems used by other species

1

BREAK

2 CARRY

3 JOIN

4

FIND

5 TURN

6

CALL

7 GET

8 COME

9 PASS

E AWAY

F

ACROSS

G WITH

H INTO

I OUT

J

UP Use the phrasal verbs to complete each of these sentences:

1 Does this jacket my trousers?

2 I wish I could the truth

3 If you late for work, you’re going to get into

trouble (2 phrasal verbs here)

4 We had to our holiday because my wife was

taken into hospital the day before out intended departure

5 While I was tidying up, I these old photos

6 The burglar the house while the owner was away

8 She’s lived alone since her husband

9 It’s taken her a long time to the tragedy

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

™ Reading and speaking

Pre reading task

Look up the following words in your dictionary

of dialectology was inherently conservative and was part of larger, comparative language studies pursued under the discipline of philology Labov was one of the first linguists to turn his attention away from rural, to urban, subjects, in an attempt to analyze the contemporary features of American speech

Sociolinguistics is in many ways a blend of sociology and linguistics It is sometimes referred to as the “sociology of language”, although that label suggests a greater concern with sociological rather than linguistic explanations, whereas sociolinguists are principally concerned with language, or, to be more precise, with what Dell Hymes crucially calls “socially constituted” language: with the way language is constructed by, and in turn helps to construct, society Its popularity has grown very much as a reaction to the more “armchair” methods of generative linguists of the Chomskyan school

Generative linguists examine “idealized” samples of speech in which utterances are complete, in a standard form of the language, and free from performance errors

The standard way in which sociolinguists investigate such use is by random sampling of the population In classic cases, like those undertaken in New York by Labov, or in Norwich by Trudgill, a number of linguistic variables are selected, such as “r” (variably pronounced according to where it occurs in a word) or “ng” (variably pronounced /n/ or /ŋ/) Sections of the population, known as informants, are then tested to see the frequency with which they produce particular variants The results are then set against social indices which group informants into classes, based on factors such as education, money, occupation, and so forth On the basis of such data it is possible to chart the spread of innovations in accent and dialect regionally One complicating factor, however, is that people do not consistently produce a particular accent or dialect feature They vary their speech according to the formality or informality of the occasion So tests have to take into account stylistic factors as well as social ones

A major object of Labovian-type sociolinguistics is to understand how and why languages change At its core is a very precise, empirical methodology, and its procedures are based

on established ways of working in the social sciences Since these classic studies, however, changes in methods of enquiry have altered the way in which sociolinguists gather their material In particular, procedures using participant observation, in which observers immerse themselves in communities, rather than relying on random sampling for the collection of data, have yielded more refined accounts of linguistic behavior

At its outer edges sociolinguistics merges into the related area of stylistics, and in particular, discourse analysis Two sub-branches, ethnomethodology, and the ethnography

of communication, are concerned with style in its contextual and communicative dimension The first is devoted to analyzing conversation and the rules, or principles, which govern turn-taking Knowing when to speak and what counts as reply, as opposed

to an interruption, are important socializing factors in language use The second is concerned, on a much broader scale, with the effect of social and cultural variables on what is loosely termed, “linguistic behavior” Knowing whether to call someone “Mr Jones”, “Jimmy”, or “Jones”, for example, depends on a number of factors to do with the situational context, the nature of our relationship and the cultural assumptions within which we are speaking “Terms of address”, as they are known, are a complex area of study, not least because customs differ between countries and nationalities

™ Comprehension check

Work in pairs: Ask and answer the questions

1 How had dialects been studied before William Labov’s and Peter Trugill’s work?

2 What did Labov do in the early 1960s?

3 In what way are sociolinguists principally concerned with language?

4 What do generative linguists examine?

5 What does ethnomethodology study?

6 What does ethnography study?

What do you think?

Talk about advantages of using English as a foreign language in Vietnamese education

5 being away from problems at home

Here are some difficulties:

1 being away from family and friends

2 being away from familiar places

3 being alone; no one to help

4 difficult language; unfamiliar educational system

5 expensive life

Add some of your own reasons Be sure to make one point of view stronger than the other Make an outline before you write

™ Listening

Listen to the following text and fill in the blanks with the missing words

STRUCTURALISM AND MORPHOLOGY

1 When structuralism was in its prime, especially between c _ and 1960, the

study of morphology occupied centre stage Many major structuralists investigated d in the theory of word-structure (Bloomfield; Harris; Hockett…) Nida’s course-book entitled Morphology, which was published e _codified structuralist theory and f _ It introduced generations of linguists to the descriptive analysis of words

The structuralists g that words may have intricate internal structures Traditional linguistics had treated the word as the basic h _ of

grammatical theory and lexicography, whereas American structuralists showed that words are analyzable in terms of morphemes These are the smallest units of meaning and grammatical function

2 In structuralism grammar covers both morphology and syntax, whereas in

generative linguistics the term i is employed in a much wider sense It covers not only morphology and syntax, but also semantics, lexicon and phonology Hence, there are rules of grammar in every linguistic module Phonological rules, morphological rules, syntactic rules and semantic rules are all regarded as rules of grammar

3 Morphology is the study and j _of word structure It also studies

on the board and its relationship with the other pieces Thus a bishop operating on the white squares has considerably more freedom of manoeuvre if its opposite number has been taken, and a pawn occupying a central square is more powerful if supported by other pawns And just as games of chess, though all following the same rules, are all different,

so languages can be said to vary in a similarly principled manner

Saussurean linguistics approaches language as a self-enclosed system Words are related

to each other as signs and can be strung together in various combinations to form sentences The extent of a word’s capacity to form sentences is seen as the sum of its potential to combine with, or substitute for, others Saussure imagined sentences as having two axes on which items could be sorted in these ways The axis of substitution he termed paradigmatic, and that of combination he termed syntacmatic

TALING ABOUT PURPOSE : IN ORDER TO, SO AS TO

PRESENTATION

Read the passage carefully

William Shakespeare was the son of an English merchant He was born in 1564 at Stratford upon Aron When he was 21, he left for London in order to find an opportunity

of showing his ability as an actor He became a member of one of the chief acting companies of the day, then He shortly began writing plays for this company and in a few years became famous and prosperous

Shakespeare’s experience as an actor must have helped him a great deal to compose his plays His knowledge of the stage, combined with his poetical genius and deep insight into the life and thoughts of his time, gave his plays a character of unsurpassed realism

™ Grammar questions

1 Answer the following questions briefly

a Why did Shakespeare leave for London?

A Use the phrases in the box to make complete sentences Follow the example

1 They bought this book in order to understand the relationship

between language and social activities in Vietnam

2 He studied hard in order not to know more about Professors

Charles Fries and Robert Lado

3 They stopped discussing the

notion

so as to check the spelling

4 They read a text about “Applied

linguistics” in sociolinguistics

so as not to show them the way

5 She wrote the number down read a text about

sociolinguistics

6 They read a text about

sociolinguistics

pass his exams

7 He drew a map forget it

8 She used a dictionary have a rest

1 They bought this book in order to/so as to read a text about sociolinguistics

1 I do exercise in order to keep myself fit (keep/fit)

2 I read this book every day know/written text

3 Diane went to the library _ (get/book)

4 It was hot so he took off his jacket _ (be/comfortable)

5 Jo borrowed these books _(misunderstand the development of ethnic minority languages in Vietnam from 1945)

6 I joined this course (understand/comparative linguistics)

7 They played their music quietly (disturb/neighbours)

8 She went to college (get/degree)

C Jim is seven years old and he asks his mum a lot of questions Complete her answers using in order to/so as to and a suitable reason Use the words in brackets to help you Follow the example

1 Jim : Why do people go sunbathing ?

4 Jim : Why did Carrie go to teacher training

college? (become / teacher) Mum : _

_

5 Jim : Why did Oliver take an

English course ? (learn

English)

6 Jim : Why did dad go on a diet? (lose

weight) Mum : _

Mum : _

_

_

7 Jim : Why should people stop

smoking ? (not/become ill)

Mum : _

_

8 Jim : Why do people go on holiday ?

(relax) Mum : _

_

™ Language review

1 We use in order to and so as to connect two clauses which explain why someone

does something:

He wanted to be a journalist so as to be famous

He wanted to be famous in order to be rich

2 We use in order not to and so as not to in negative sentences

He used body language so as not to talk much

He kept calm in order not to produce slips of the tongue

VOCABULARY

A Match a term in A with a phrase in B

a acoustic signal 1 Pertaining to physical aspects of sound

b agreement 2 The study of the physical properties of speech sounds

c acoustic 3 The sound waves produced by any sound source,

including speech

d allophones 4 A relationship between words of a sentence in which the

choice of one restricts the choice of the other (e.g the choice of a pronoun is restricted by the person, number, and gender of its antecedent) See also subject verb agreement

e acoustic phonetics 5 Predictable phonetic variants of phonemes (e.g [p]

and [p’] of the phoneme /p/ in English)

B Which of the words on the right does not rhyme with the word on the left ?

shown price beer

thrown prize dear

town tries fear

mood lose peas sew paid post foot

should shows please threw played roast shoot

wood toes trees through said toast suit

C Colloquial English and Slang

The kind of informal English which is normal in ordinary conversation but is not considered acceptable in more formal language is called “colloquial” “Slang” is even more informal language and consists mainly of particular words and phrases used principally by one group of people, e.g young children, teenagers, students, professional people, working people etc (The line between colloquial and slang words is not at all clear and many words considered colloquial by some people would be considered slang

by others) After each conversation below, rewrite the conversation with the colloquial or slang item in a more formal style

E.g Alan : Do you fancy going to the pictures tonight ?

Jill : Great Hang on, though There’s something good on telly

Answer :

Alan : Would you like to go to the cinema this evening ?

Jill : Wonderful But wait There’s a good program on television

1 Peter : Lend us a few quid I’m broke

Tony : Here’s a fiver

Peter : Smashing Ta

2 George : Where’s my thingumajig ?

Eileen : Whatsisname’s got it

3 Chris : Do you like your new school ?

Gus : It’s OK

Chris : And the kids in your class ?

Gus : They’re a decent bunch

Chris : And the teacher ?

Gus : Oh, he’s a terrific bloke

4 Fred : I’m not too keen on this new guy in the office

Alex : Yeah, he’s a bit of a big-head Throws his weight around

Fred : Yeah, if I get any more hassle from him, I’m going to tell him what I think Alex : Come off it You haven’t got the guts You’d get the sack

5 Joe : Post suit !

Brian : My grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary We’re having a bit of a do Joe : Come and have a drink first On me

Brian : Just for a mo Mustn’t get there plastered

Probably the best developed branch of the subject, however, is the study of language acquisition in children, the most important outcome of which has been the establishment

of stages of acquisition Recent studies of language acquisition all suggest that children are tuned into language from a very early age Just as important is the issue of what language is used for, and how it relates to the child’s emerging sense of self

One of the hotly debated issues in current psycholinguistic studies, not unrelated to this discussion, is the extent to which language activity can be seen as the responsibility of discrete language modules in the brain, or as the output of general cognitive abilities used

in thinking and conceptualizing about anything Some psycholinguists argue that syntactic processing, the way in which we produce and recognize well-formed strings, is carried out separately from other processes performed by the brain, whilst others argue for a more wholistic view of linguistic and other competences Much of the debate has centered on evidence from the study of language abilities can exist separately from others Nevertheless, it is still a large step from evidence of this kind to the conclusion that language is a wholly discrete cognitive ability processed in a series of autonomous stages

by autonomous components The distinctive way in which language is interwoven with other human activities would suggest otherwise

What is at issue here is the relation between brain and mind In popular thought these terms are often used interchangeably, but it’s important not to confuse them The brain is the physical organ in the skull which controls bodily behavior and thought, and, like any other organ, its operations can be observed The mind, on the other hand, comprises the mental and emotional capabilities which make us human In contrast with the brain, it’s not a physical organ and not open to direct observation Clearly our minds are dependent

on our brains, but no one has yet managed to correlate their workings in any precise way

In an earlier age theologians were exercised with trying to find the exact location of the soul in the body Attempting to determine the boundaries of the mind is proving no lesser task

Psycholinguistics, however, is only indirectly concerned with the brain; its principal target is the human mind As such it has gained considerably from the discipline of psychology Making an utterance involves selecting the appropriate information one wishes to share (for whatever purpose), arranging it in such a way that its topic and focus are clear and will attract the attention of our addressee, and performing it successfully There are various kinds of mental knowledge required here, including the conceptualization of the message, its formulation in terms of a linguistic structure, and its phonological processing At the same time, however, it’s important to bear in mind that language comprehension is not solely the preserve of autonomous linguistic processes

We also rely on non-linguistic cues from texts, and knowledge of characters, entities and events not explicitly mentioned, for a full interpretation If an action takes place in a restaurant, for example, the listener can infer the presence of a kitchen, even though it may not be explicitly mentioned This side of psycholinguistics connects with discourse analysis and is concerned with how we make sense of texts Evidence suggests that we do

so by constructing mental models or schemas based on our knowledge both of the world around us and of its representation in language

Comprehension check

Are the following statements about the text True or False? Say why

1 Psycholinguistics is the significant branch of linguistics

2 Technical information about neurolinguistics has enriched some areas of

psycholinguistics

3 The establishment of stages of acquisition is the most important outcome of the

study of language acquisition in children

4 Children can acquire a language from a very early age

5 According to most psycholinguistics, syntactic processing occurs separately from

other brain processes

6 Brain and mind are basically different from each other

7 Either the mind or the brain makes us human

8 The principal target of psycholinguistics is both the human mind and brain

9 Mental knowledge includes the conceptualization of the message, its linguistic

structure and its phonological processing

10 Language comprehension is not only solely the preserve of autonomous linguistic

processes, but it is also relied on non-linguistic cues from the texts

Discussion

Work in groups of four to discuss the questions

1 In what age can a child start learning a foreign language?

2 Which learners may acquire a foreign language better? Children or adults?

™ Writing

When you write any kind of composition, and especially when you write an analysis, you must operate on at least two levels: a general level that covers the whole topic and a more specific level that gives parts, or divisions, of the general

In the following example, there are two levels: one whole (general) and two equal parts

Example:

I have set several important

future goals for myself First, I

want to master English in

order to complete my education

Second, I want to get a good

job so that I can support my family

specific 2 :

job for support

In the exercise below, write two sentences to complete each short text In your sentences, name some specific parts of the topic introduced by the general beginning sentence Express your own knowledge and experience in the specifics

LEARNING ENGLISH

There are several linguistic factors that make it difficult for a foreign student to learn English

First, _

Second, _

™ Listening

Listen to a teacher giving a talk about Guatemala

Complete the chart below with facts about this country

™ Translation

MID-TWENTIETH-CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS

It was America that many of the most important developments in mid-century linguistics took place In many respects these owed much to the concern of American anthropologists to record the culture and languages of native Indian tribes, which were rapidly vanishing before the concerted power of the white races The problem, however, was that no generally agreed descriptive framework existed to assist scholars in providing

a coherent account of what were sometimes called “exotic” languages But in 1933, the linguist, Leonard Bloomfield, published a book called Language, in which he outlined a methodology for the description of any language Bloomfield’s approach was rigorously descriptive It is sometimes referred to as descriptive linguistics, occasionally as

“structuralist” (in a slightly different sense than the Saussurean), and, despite the revolutions that have occurred in linguistic thought it is still at the heart of much linguistic practice For Bloomfield the task of linguists was to collect data from native speakers of a language and then to analyze it by studying he phonological and syntactic patterns The concept that all language is patterned was fundamental to these procedures Bloomfield argued that one of the principal ways in which items are ordered in a language is in terms of, what are called its immediate constituents These, in turn, can be analyzed into further constituents, and so on, down to those at the ground level of words, which are the smallest continents A sentence is thus conceived of as a hierarchy of interlocking continents, all of which can demonstrate their constituency, because they can

be either substituted by similar constituents, or redistributed to form other sentences Descriptive linguistics provided a powerful means of uncovering some of the surface structures of language but it ignored two important aspects of language First, it was not interested in meaning, or semantics, partly because it proved too difficult to analyze the meanings of constituents in the same descriptive fashion and partly because it didn’t seem immediately relevant to providing an account of syntactic structure Second, it laboured under the illusion that description alone was sufficient for arriving at a set of language rules It was Chomsky who showed that more important than mere description for the linguist was explanation To arrive at that meant penetrating beyond the output and understanding the system which produced it

TALKING ABOUT THE CONTRAST

PRESENTATION

William Blake, the English poet, painter, and engraver, who created a unique form of illustrated verse, his poetry, inspired by mystical vision, is among the most original, lyric, and prophetic in the language

As a child, Blake wanted to become a painter He was send to drawing of school and at the age of 14 was apprenticed to James Basire, an engraver In 1784 he set up a printshop,

although it failed after a few years, for the rest of his life Blake eked out a living as an

engraver and illustrator His wife helped him print the illuminated poetry for which he is remembered today

™ Grammar questions

Look at the example pick out from the passage

“In 1784 he set up a print-shop although it failed after a few years”

What does the underlined clause express?

PRACTICE

A Rewrite these sentences using the adverb in brackets Follow the example

1 She has all kinds of dictionaries, but it is still difficulty for her to translate this

quotation (even though)

Even though she has all kinds of dictionaries, it’s still difficult for her to translate this quotation

It’s still difficult for her to translate this quotation even though she has all kinds of dictionaries

2 We did enjoy the film, but it was a little too long (though)

1 He continued using hyperbole, even though he knew he should stop (despite)

He continued using hyperbole, despite knowing he should stop

2 Robber didn’t use any dictionaries although the translation had a lot of

morphological terms (in spite of)

Concession : although, (even) though, in spite of, despite

1 Although, though and even though are all adverbs for concession They are used to

connect two clauses which we would not expect to be together They are always followed

by a clause, but they can be used at the beginning of a sentence or in the middle position:

Although phonetics and phonology are difficult, they still like researching them

They didn’t catch the teacher though they tried their best

Even though they didn’t know many terms, they understood the content of the test Although is more informal than though Even though is used for emphasis – to make

things very clear; even although is wrong

2 In spite of and despite are also adverbs of concession and they have similar

meanings to although and though They are used followed by a noun/pronoun or an –ing form of a verb

In spite of/Despite the slips of the tongue, they still kept calm

They didn’t find complete synonymy despite/in spite of using a lot of different

dictionaries

3 No adverb of concession should be used together with but:

Although there were a lot of terms in this text, they understood it

Either one, or the other, should be used in the sentence

VOCABULARY

Match a term in A with a phrase in B

A B

a goal 1 (in artificial intelligence) The storehouse of facts in the

computer’s memory; (in linguistics) linguistic competence

b gloss 2 list of all morphemes and words; lexicon

c knowledge 3 The semantic role of the Noun Phrase toward whose

referent the action of the verb is directed (e.g the theatre in

We went to the theatre)

d lingua franca 4 A word in one language given to express the meaning

of a word in another language (e.g “house” is the gloss for the French word mansion); a brief definition of a difficult word or expression

e dictionary 5 The major language used in an area where speakers of

more than one language live, which enables communication and commerce among them

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

™ Reading and Speaking

THE NEWSPAPER

1 Reading a newspaper is different from reading a book Newspapers are organized

and written in a special way, a way that enables the reader to select exactly what he or she

wants to read For example, articles are generally categorized into sections on business,

sports, entertainment, and local, national, and international news Then the articles are

evaluated by the newspaper staff as to their relative importance within the section, with

the most important articles or stories appearing at the beginning The first page, or front

page of a newspaper usually has an index listing the sections and their page numbers

2 The front page of a newspaper also contains articles that are, in the judgment of the

newspaper staff, the most important for that particular day The headlines, the dark, large

titles, serve two purposes: they tell the reader what the article is about, and they indicate,

by size and darkness of the type, the importance of the story Headlines help readers

choose the articles that they want to read Because some readers read only the headlines

in papers, the wording of headlines is very important

3 Just below the headline, at the beginning of the news article, are the abbreviations

for the different news services, for example, AP for Associated Press, UPI for United

Press International, and Reuters for Reuters Press These abbreviations indicate the source

of the information, the press service that is responsible for the writing The place that the

news originated is written just before the news service abbreviation (News items like these are factual and usually do not include the name of the author)

4 The opening paragraph of a news article is called the lead; it contains all the

essential facts of the story A reader in a hurry could read only the headline and the first paragraph of a story and know the most important information The rest of the article consists of additional details and explanation, organized according to importance Thus, the closing paragraph of a news story is usually not a conclusion – instead, it contains the least important information

5 This special newspaper style of writing is also evident in the length of the

paragraphs They are short, so they are easy to read in a column, the long narrow lines of print Newspapers are generally printed in columns so they can be read faster: the reader’s eyes can move down a column faster than on a line across the page

6 Some articles have a “by-line” just under the headline that indicates who wrote the

article Feature articles and articles written by columnists have “by-lines” Any subjective article, one that presents the writer’s point of view or opinion or that is not a serious news article, is likely to include the author’s name in a “by-line” (for example, by John S Smith)

7 The opinions of the editors of the newspaper are found on the editorial page Those

articles that have no author or “by-line” on that page are written by the newspaper staff to express their opinions or suggestions about a local, national, or international problem

8 Newspapers are written to read efficiently by the reader Whatever the reader’s

interests or needs, he or she can satisfy them more quickly by understanding how a newspaper is organized

Comprehension check

Work in pairs:

1 What is another word for the first page?

2 What are headlines?

3 What is a press service ?

™ Listening

Listen to the following text and fill in the blanks with the missing words

Syntax is a tern in general use and in linguistics for the study of the c

in which words combine into such units as phrases, clauses, and d _ The sequences that result from these combinations are referred to in linguistics as syntactic e _ The ways in which components of words are combined into words are studied in morphology, and syntax and morphology f _are generally regarded as the major constituents of grammar, although in one of its uses, grammar is strictly g _with syntax and excludes morphology

In models of h description that are divided into levels of analysis or components, the i _level or component is contrasted with the phonological level and semantic j _or component Syntactic descriptions do not usually go beyond the level of the sentence, though they may deal with k _between sentences such as are signaled by a l _(it, them) or a conjunction (therefore)

on the subject, whilst the emphasis of Saussure on the symbolic functioning of language has appealed to students of media and communication systems At the same time, however, the last quarter of the twentieth century has seen the development of alternative models of language These are not necessarily at variance with existing models; as often

as not they prioritize aspects with which they have not been primarily concerned

Linguistics today then is a subject whose boundaries are forever widening and which presents no single face to the world In the current work of Chomsky and other GENERATIVE grammarians it continues to grow in intellectual elegance and indeed one

of the strengths of Chomsky, and one of the principal reasons for his continued dominance, is his ability to challenge, not simply other people’s orthodoxies, but his own The account of transformational grammar which exists today differs considerably from that of its first heady outing And yet, despite the inherent radicalism of linguistics there

is much that suggests continuity The leading ideas of the subject are now in place and, after many years in which it was considered as something of an “upstart” among academic disciplines, it has finally achieved the respect it deserves as a major humanistic discipline Which is only what one would expect since the final subject matter of linguistics is not so much language, as ourselves, our human existence in time and space, and that will always be endlessly fascinating

TALKING ABOUT REASON: BECAUSE, SINCE, AS, BECAUSE OF

PRESENTATION

Read the passage carefully

Charles Dickens, who wrote such unforgotten table stories as Oliver Twist and David Copperfield was born to a poor family When Charles was 12, his father was sent to prison because he failed to pay his debts Young Charles had to work in a dismal factory This terrible experience remained to haunt him even when he attained success with his novels

Because of his humble nature, Dickens never forgot what was like to be poor He was always concerned about the orphaned and the destitute Dickens was a very respected writer when he died in 1870 Till now, many people think that he is the greater of English novelist

™ Grammar question

1 Look at these examples picked out from the passage

- “His father was sent to prison because he failed to pay his debts”

- “Because of his humble nature Dickens never forgot what was like to be poor”

2 Complete the rule: To express reasons we use:

because with ………

or because of with ………

PRESENTATION

A Use the words in the box to make complete sentences Follow the example

1 June was sad because we want to know more about

functional linguistics

2 Henry got this book as they were enjoying themselves

3 Sally went to the reference since we are interested in linguistics and

literature

4 We often join this course there was a lecture on diachronic

linguistics

5 Paul arrived late the lecturer arrived

6 The day passed quickly her book about subject – prominent

language was lost

7 People think we are students in

philology department

he missed the bus

8 The students stopped talking it helped him to write an essay about

terminology

1 June was sad because her book about subject – prominent language was lost

1 It was raining The picnic was cancelled (as)

The picnic was cancelled as it was raining

2 The tree had to be cut down It was dangerous (since)

1 I like Jane Austen She is a famous novelist

a) I like Jane Austen because she is a famous novelist

b) I like Gordon because of her fame

2 Sue’s parents are proud of her She is intelligent

a) _ b) _

3 Pat doesn’t like Mike He is selfish

a) _ b) _

4 Brian married Sara She is rich

a) _