English Language and Linguistics for University Students M-Z

English Language and Linguistics Overview

STUDII
ERSITAS
TAURINENSIS
1404
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
(First Year) Students M-Z
LINGUA E TRADUZIONE - LINGUA INGLESE (L-LIN/12)

Introduction to Present-Day English

"Introduction to present-day English:
historical background, geographical spread
and linguistic features"
Proff. Virginia Pulcini / Giorgia Riboni

Language Change and Variation in English

Lesson 12LANGUAGE CHANGE AND VARIATION
IN ENGLISH

Main Topics in English Language Study

• Concepts of change and variation: how and why
• [Attitudes to language: standard and non-standard
  varieties
• [The main stages in the history of English
  Causes of the spread of English in the world
• [Present-day English: from English to "Englishes"
• [English as a global language: advantages and
  disadvantages and future predictions

Linguistic Variability

Linguistic variability
All languages are open and dynamic
entities which adapt to the history and
culture of the speech communities in
which they are in use.

Standard vs Non-Standard Varieties

Standard vs non-standard varieties
A standard variety is the language par excellence in
terms of social prestige, language functions and
domains of use
e.g. the West-Saxon dialect in the Old English period (the
first standard written language in the 9th -11th centuries)
e.g. London English used by Caxton in the 15th century
e.g. English used by educated speakers and the mass media
all over the world in the 21th century

Sociolinguistics and Language

Sociolinguistics
The study of the relation between language and society

• social variables: class, network, gender (men,
  women ... ),
  sexual
  orientation
  (heterosexual,
  homosexual ... ), age (young, old), ethnicity
• attitudes (positive, negative) influence language
  change (some variants may be perceived as more or
  less prestigious)
• Watch William Labov on the pronunciation of
  American English
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W68VaOuY6e
  w

Labov's Study on New York Department Stores

Labov's study

• In the North-East US, non-rhoticity is a major feature
  of working-class dialect (in the UK it is exactly the
  opposite!).
• William Labov's study of New York Department stores
  in 1972.
  "Fourth floor"
• High class department stores
• Saks Fifth Avenue: rhotic variety (63%)
• Mid-lower class department stores
• Macy's (medium status): non-rhotic variety (56%)
• S. Klein (low status): non-rhotic variety (92%)

Hypercorrection in Speech

Hypercorrection

• speakers tend to conform to the more
  prestigious linguistic norms
• hypercorrection is more typical of
  socially insecure speakers such as middle
  classes and women

Historical Linguistics and Language Change

Historical linguistics or diachronic
linguistics

• The main paradigm (approach) to the study
  of language change
• 1. comparative linguistics or linguistic
  reconstruction
• 2. the history of language: the changes in a
  language over the centuries

Linguistic Reconstruction Practice

1. Linguistic reconstruction
Practice of establishing the features of an unattested ancestor
language of one or more given languages

dva
<
Russian
dva
Proto - Slavia
du Lithuanian
di,
Latvian
dav
Welsh
do
irish
*
duwo
*
dwaw
Proto-Celtic
Serbo-Croatian
dwa
Polish
dva
Czech
d
dui
Bengalí
dva
*
dwoh,
dúo
Greek
+wo
English
do
Punjabi
Proto-Indo-European
Juva
Proto- Ivaníán
+wai
Proto-Germanic
> zwei
German
do
Balochi
dos
Spanish
<
duo
Latín
+svey
Yiddish
Persian
dois
Portuguese
+veir <
Icelandic
to
Norwegian
Kurdish
due deux
French
doi
Romanian
to
Danish
två
Swedish
Italian
English
father
mother three
Sanskrit
pitar
matar trayas
Greek
pater
mater treis
Latin
pater
mater tres
Italian
padre
madre tre
k
Para-Balto-
Slavía
y
albanian
do
Hindi
Sanskrit
twee
Dutch
du«
+veir
Old NorseWelsh
Irish Gaelic
Breton
Scots Gaelic
Manx
Cornish
Hindi
Punjabi
Urdu
Gujarati
Nepali
Sindhi
Bengali
Marathi
Assamese
Konkani
Sinhala
Bihari
Maldivian
Kashmiri
Romany
Yiddish
Flemish
Celtic
Indic
Germanic
Iranian
Italian
Provencal
Romansh
Latin
Catalonian
Romanian
Galician
Moldavian
French
Slavic
Illyric
Baltic
Hellenic
Albanian
Russian
Slovene
Belorussian
Croatian
Serbian
Polish
Slovak
Macedonian
Czech
Bulgarian
Lithuanian
Latvian
Greek
English
German
Afrikaans
Danish
Swedish
Dutch
Norwegian
Icelandic
Farsi
Kurdish
Tadzhik
Pashto
Baluchi
Spanish
Indo - European
Languages
Thracian
Armenian
Oriya

Internal and External Causes of Language Change

2. Internal and external causes of
change

• internal: regularisation, e.g. the levelling of
  the OE inflectional case system
  (see OE stan, PDE stone)
• external: extralinguistic or social factors
  (invasions,
  technological
  innovations,
  immigration)

Levels of Language Change

Levels of language change

• Phonological
• Morpho-syntactic
• Semantic

Phonological Change Examples

Phonological Change

• Loss of <r>
  OE spræc PDE speak
• 1600 split of /n/ and /n/ as in sin and sing
• The Great Vowel Shift from the 15th century

Morpho-syntactic Change Examples

Morpho-syntactic Change

• levelling of the OE case system
• word order in ME
• grammaticalisation: e.g. OE wilan (want) main verb
  PDE will (modal verb)

Semantic Change Examples

Semantic Change

• ME dogue (a Great Dane)
  (widening)
  PDE dog (Spanish dogo)
• ME mete (food)
  PDE meat (narrowing)
• OE sælig (PDE happy)
  ME seely (PDE innocent)
  ModE silly (deserving compassion)
  weak
  simple
  ignorant
  foolish (pejoration)
• OE cwen (woman)
  PDE queen (amelioration)

Activity: Clause Analysis

Activity
Analyse the constituent parts of
the following clauses, illustrating them
with a tree diagram
The careless taxi driver was unaware of the new traffic lights