Lesson (1) The origins of language How did language originate? Or How did language begin? • In this lesson, we will talk about how the first language began or what the source of languages is. • There are different assumptions about the origins or sources of language. • But these assumptions are not taken for granted. This is because that they are not based on scientific evidence. • We will focus only on two sources: 1- divine source 2- natural sound source 1. The divine source • In most religions, it is believed that language was given to human beings by God. • When God created Adam, He gave him the ability to speak and name things. • We can say that there appears to be a divine source (God) who provides humans with language. Now what was the first language that God gave to Adam at that time? Was it English, Arabic, or Hebrew? Or what? * Scientifically, there has been no direct evidence that tells us what the first language was. * Were there attempts to discover the first language? Yes, some experiments were carried out to identify that language. * These experiments were based on the following hypothesis: “If human infants were allowed to grow up without hearing any language around them, then they would spontaneously begin using the original God-given language.” What are these experiments? Can we know one of them? • Yes, we will give here only the following experiment: - An Egyptian pharaoh tried an experiment with two newborn babies more than 2,500 years ago. After two years of isolation except for the company of goats and a mute shepherd, the children were noticed to utter a foreign word. This word wasn’t the same language of the pharaoh but was similar to another language known at that time as “Phrygian”. The pharaoh concluded that Phrygian must be the first language that God gave it to Adam. - However, this experiment cannot be trusted because the children may not have taken this “word” from any human source, but as some scholars have pointed out, they must have heard what the goats were saying. In other words, the two children were not speaking the divine language but they only imitated the sound of the goats ☺. In addition, very young children living without access to human language in their early years grow up with no language at all. 2. The natural sound source - This theory or source is based on the concept of natural sound around us (e.g. sounds of birds, cats, dogs, trees, wind, and rains). - The theory has another name “bow-wow”. - The basic idea of this theory is that primitive words (words of the first language) could have been imitations of the natural sounds which early men and women heard around them. - For example, men and women at that time used the sound “coo-coo” to refer to birds, and the sound “meow” to refer to cats. - In all languages, there are words that their pronunciation reflects their meanings. This phenomenon is called “onomatopia”, for example, hiss, beep, buzz, and bang. Properties of Human Language Lecture One Communication • Communication is the process of understanding and sharing information. • Communication is the primary function of human language. • Types of communication: 1. Informative signals: they are what we are doing unintentionally. For example, when your friend sneezed, you may note that he has a cold. In this example, your friend didn’t tell you that he has a cold but sneezing can be taken as a sign of illness. 2. Communicative signals: they are what we are doing intentionally. For example, when your friend told you that he has a cold. Properties of human language • 1- Displacement: It is the ability of humans to refer to past and future time and talk about things and events. • The property of displacement allows us to talk about things such as angles, fairies, heaven and hell. • However, animals cannot tell about things or events in the past or future. Thus, animals lack the property of displacement. • In other words, your cat, for example, cannot tell you what it did yesterday or what will do tomorrow. But if you ask your friend, he can, of course, tell you. 2. Arbitrariness • It means that there is no natural or logical relation connection between a word and its meaning. • For example, there is no natural relation between the word “dog” and its shape. • However, there are some words that have a relation between the word and its meaning. For example, the word “meow” means the sound of the cat. So the meaning of the word “meow” can be understood from its pronunciation. This phenomenon is known as “onomatopoeia.” 3. Productivity • It means that humans are always able to create and understand new words and sentences. • The property is also known as “creativity” or “open- endedness”. • Productivity is an aspect of language which is linked to the fact that the potential number of utterances in any human language is infinite. 4.Cultural Transmission • It means that humans inherit their language from their parents as they inherit their physical features such as the color of the eyes or hair. • It can be said that it is the process that a language is passed on from one generation to the next generation. 5. Duality • The property of duality means that words in human language are organized into two levels: sound and meaning. • In other words, a word is a combination of two levels. The first level is related to the sounds in the word and the other level is the meaning of these sounds when combined together. • For example, the word “pen” has three distinct sounds (p, e, and n), and these three sounds together form the word “pen”. Exercise 1- What is the difference between communicative and informative signals, with one example for each? 2. Explain briefly the following properties of human language: - productivity: - Arbitrariness: - Displacement: - Cultural transmission: Sounds of Language Class Three • The general study of speech sounds in language is called phonetics. • There are two types of sounds: voiced and voiceless. • In this lesson, we will focus on the following questions: - What are voiced sounds? - What are voiceless sounds? - What is the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds? Voiced Sounds • When the vocal folds are drawn together, the air from the lungs pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect. Sounds produced in this way are described voiced. • To make sure that the sound is voiced, put your finger on the top of your throat, if you feel some vibration the sound in this case is voiced. • Voiced sounds require a vibration of the vocal cords, which are located in your throat. Feel the vibration by touching your hands to your throat, and then pronounce this sound: /z/. Do you feel the vibration? Many consonant sounds are voiced. • Voiced consonants are consonant sounds that are made by vibrating the vocal chords Examples • • • • • • • • • • The sound /b/ in the word “but” is voiced. The sound /d/ in the word “door” is voiced The sound /z/ in the word “zero” is voiced The sound /v/ in the word “van” is voiced The sound /dʒ/ in the word “jump” is voiced The sound /ʒ/ in the word “treasure” is voiced The sound /ð/ in the word “that” is voiced The sound /m/ in the word “man” is voiced The sound /n/ in the word “name” is voiced The sound /ŋ/ in the word “sing” is voiced • As you may have already guessed, voiceless sounds do not have vibration of the vocal cords. Try pronouncing this sound: /s/. If you feel vibration in your throat, then imagine whispering the sound. Some consonant sounds are voiceless. Voiceless • The sound /p/ in the word “play” is voiceless. • The sound /t/ in the word “tea” is voiceless. • The sound /k/ in the word “book” is voiceless. • The sound /f/ in the word “fat” is voiceless. • The sound /s/ in the word “system” is voiceless. • The sound /ʃ/ in the word “sheep” is voiceless. • The sound /tʃ/ in the word “chair” is voiceless. • The sound /θ/ in the word “thing” is voiceless. Exercise • Which of the following underlined sounds are voiced and voiceless? - Smoke: _________ - Read: ___________ - File: ____________ - Then: ___________ - Cat: _____________ - Pen: ____________ - Milk : __________ Place of Articulation Class Four • Once the air has passed through the larynx. It comes up and through the mouth or nose. most consonants sounds are produced by using the tongue and other parts of the mouth to constrict in some way the shape of the oral cavity through which the air is passing. The terms used to describe many sounds are these which indicate the place of the articulation of the sound: the place inside the mouth at which the constriction of the air takes place. The figure shows the place of articulation in the vocal cavity. • Bilabial: they are the sounds formed using both upper and lower lips. • Examples: - /b/ : book, back, black - /P/ : pen, peace, jump - /m/ : man, seem, milk - /w/ : walk, way, war • Labiodentals: they are the sounds formed with the upper teeth and the lower lip. - /f/ : fan, feel, leaf - /v/ : van, love, very • Dentals: they are the sounds formed with the tongue tip and the upper front teeth. - /θ/: three, month, think, health - /ð/: this, that, they, brother, with • Alveolars: They are the sounds formed with the front part of the tongue on the alveolar ridge. - /t/ : team, tall, better, seat - /d/ : door, deal, lead, middle - /s/ : song, bus, class, sport - / z/ : zero, zone, lazy - /n/ : nick, man, nurse, sun - /l/ : late, milk, ball, light - /r/ : ring, right, pray, lorry • Palatals: they are the sounds formed the tongue and the palate - /ʃ/: ship, push, short - /tʃ/ : chair, church, cheap - /dʒ/ : jump, bridge, large - /ʒ/ : measure, treasure, - /j/: yes, young, you • Velars: they are the sounds formed with the back of the tongue against the velum. - /k/ : king, kill, kick - /g/ : game, gun, big - /ŋ/: sing, ring, long • Glottals: they are formed with using the glottis. - Glottis is the space between the vocal cords in the larynx Examples: - /h/ : hat, he, heart, here, help, health Manner of Articulation Lesson Five Manner of Articulation • Manner of articulation means how the sounds are produced or articulated. • Sounds can be classified according the way the are produced as follows: - Stops - Fricatives - Affricates - Nasals - Liquids - Glides 1- Stops: They are sounds produced by stopping or blocking the airstream. - Stops are also called “plosives”. - The following sounds are stops: 1- /p/: pen, pencil, lip, deep 2- /b/: book, block, black 3- /t/: tree, tall, meet, metal 4- ./d/: door, bad, deep 5- /k/: king, keep, milk, car 6- /g/: game, mug, goal 2- Fricatives: • They are sounds with almost blocking the air stream and having the air push through very narrow opening. As the air is pushed through, a type of friction is produced and the resulting sounds are called fricatives. • If you put your open hand in front of your mouth when making these sounds, [f] and [s] in particular, you should be able to feel the stream of air being pushed out. • The following sounds are fricatives: - /f/: fan, feel, loaf - /v/: van, vegetables, love - /θ/: three, bath, math - /ð/: there, them, then - /s/: song, bus, dance - /z/: zero, zone, lazy, busy - /ʃ/: sheep, shy, sheet - /ʒ/: measure, pleasure, treasure 3- Affricates: • They are a combination of a fricatives and a stop. • If you combine a brief stopping of the air stream with an obstructed release which causes some friction, you will be able to produce the sounds [ʧ] and [ʤ]. These are called affricates and occur at the beginning of the words cheap and jeep. • The following sounds are affricates: - [ʧ] : chair, cheep, lunch - [ʤ]: judge, badge, bridge 4- Nasals: • Most sounds are produced orally, with the velum raised, preventing airflow from entering the nasal cavity. However, when the velum is lowered and the air stream is allowed to flow out through the nose to produce [m], [n] and [ŋ], the sounds are described as nasals. These three sounds are all voiced. • The following sounds are nasals: - /m/: meat, man, team - /n/: not, near, neck - / ŋ/: long, sing, tongue 5- Liquids: • The initial sounds in led and red are described as liquids. They are both voiced. The [l] sound is called a lateral liquid and is formed by letting the air stream flow around the sides of the tongue as the tip of the tongue makes contact with the middle of the alveolar ridge. The [r] sound at the beginning of red is formed with the tongue tip raised and curled back near the alveolar ridge. • The following sounds are liquieds: - /l/: late, let, male - / r/: rate, red, ring 6- Glides: • These sounds are typically produced with the tongue in motion (or “gliding”) to or from the position of a vowel and are sometimes called semi-vowels. • They are mid-way between consonants and vowels. • The following sounds are glides: - /w/: when, why, way, we - /j/: year, yes, yet, young Vowels Lesson 6 • While the consonant sounds are mostly articulated via closure or obstruction in the vocal tract, vowel sounds are produced with a relatively free flow of air. • Vowels are voiced. • How to describe vowels? We consider the way in which the tongue influences the shape through which the airflow must pass. • What is the place of articulation of vowels? We think of the space inside the mouth as having a front versus a back and a high versus a low area. Thus, in the pronunciation of heat and hit, we talk about “high, front” vowels because the sound is made with the front part of the tongue in a raised position. In contrast, the vowel sound in hat is produced with the tongue in a lower position and the sound in hot can be described as a “low, back” vowel. Types of vowels: front, central, back, high, mid, and low. • Front vowels: they are produced with the front part of the tongue raised towards the hard palate. • There are four front vowels: - [i]: e.g. bead, beef, key, me - [ɪ]: e.g. bid, myth, women - [ɛ]: e.g. bed, dead, said - [æ]: e.g. bad, laugh, wrap • Back vowels: These are shaped with the back of the tongue raised towards the soft palate (velum) • There are four front vowels: - [u]: e.g. boo, move, two, you - [ʊ] e.g. book, could, put - [ɔ] e.g. born, caught, fall, raw - [ɑ] e.g. Bob, cot, swan • Central vowels: they are produced with the tongue positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel. • There are two sounds: - [ə] above, oven, support. This sound is called “schwa “ - [ʌ] butt, blood, dove, tough This sound is called “wedge” • High vowels: they are produced with the tongue positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth as it can be without creating a constriction. • There are four sounds: - [i]: e.g. bead, beef, key, me - [ɪ]: e.g. bid, myth, women - [u]: e.g. boo, move, two, you - [ʊ]: e.g. book, could, put • Low vowels: they are produced with the tongue positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. • There are two sounds: - [æ]: e.g. bad, laugh, wrap - [ɑ]: e.g. Bob, cot, swan • Mid vowels: they are produced with the tongue positioned midway between an open vowel and a close vowel. • There are four sounds: - [ɛ]: e.g. bed, dead, said - [ə]: e.g. above, oven, support - [ʌ]: e.g. butt, blood, dove, tough - [ɔ]: e.g. born, caught, fall, raw Full description of vowels • [i] is high and front • [ɪ] is high and front • [ɛ] is front and mid • [æ] is front and low • [ə] is mid and central • [ʌ] is mid and central • [u] is back and high • [ʊ] is back and high • [ɔ] is back and mid • [ɑ] is back and low Diphthongs • In addition to single vowel sounds, we regularly create sounds that consist of a combination of two vowel sounds, known as diphthongs. • Our vocal organs move from one vocalic position [a] to another [ɪ] as we produce the sound [aɪ], as in Hi or Bye. The movement in this diphthong is from low towards high front. Alternatively, we can use movement from low towards high back, combining [a] and [ʊ] to produce the sound [aʊ]. Examples • [aɪ]: buy, eye, I, my, pie, sigh • [aʊ]: bough, doubt, cow • [ɔɪ]: boy, noise • [eɪ]: bait, eight, great, late, say • [oʊ]: boat, home, throw, toe Phonology Lesson 7 • Phonology is essentially the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language. • It is, in effect, based on a theory of what every speaker of a language unconsciously knows about the sound patterns of that language. Because of this theoretical status, phonology is concerned with the abstract or mental aspect of the sounds in language rather than with the actual physical articulation of speech sounds Phoneme • Definition of phoneme: Each one of these meaning-distinguishing sounds in a language. • When we learn to use alphabetic writing, we are actually using the concept of the phoneme as the single stable sound type which is represented by a single written symbol. • An essential property of a phoneme is that it functions contrastively. We know there are two phonemes /f/ and /v/ in English because they are the only basis of the contrast in meaning between the words “fan” and “van”, or “fine” and “vine”. This contrastive property is the basic operational test for determining the phonemes that exist in a language. • If we substitute one sound for another in a word and there is a change of meaning, then the two sounds represent different phonemes • We use “features” to distinguish each phoneme from the next. If the feature is present, we mark it with a plus sign (+) and if it’s not present, we use a minus sign (−). Thus /p/ can be characterized as [−voice,+bilabial,+stop] and /k/ as [−voice,+velar,+stop). Because these two sounds share some features (i.e. both are voiceless stops). • they are sometimes described as members of a natural class of sounds. The prediction would be that sounds which have features in common would behave phonologically in some similar ways. A sound which does not share those features would be expected to behave differently. • For example, the sound /v/ has the features [+voice,+labiodental,+fricative] and so cannot be in the same “natural” class of sounds as /p/ and /k/. So we can say that /v/ is a phoneme. • The sound /t/ and /d/ are phonemes. Becouse each one of them has distinct features. In the word “sad”, if we change the sound /d/ into /t/, we will have have a new word that is different in meaning “sat”. So we can say /d/ and /t/ are both phonemes. • The sound /s/ and /m/ are different phonems. Becouse if we change the sound /s/ in the word “seat” into the sound /m/, the meaning will change into new different word, which “meet”. • The sound /b/ in the word “bat” is a phoneme because if we change the word into “hat”, the meaning will change. So, the sound /b/ and /h/ are phonemes. • The sound /l/ is a phoneme in the word “lead” because if we change the sound /l/ into /r/ in the word “read”, the meaning will change. So the sounds /l/ and /r/ are phonemes. Phonology Lesson 8 Minimal pairs and minimal set: • When two words such as “pat” and “bat” are identical in form except for a contrast in one phoneme, occurring in the same position, the two words are described as a minimal pair. • Examples of minimal pairs: fan van site side look book read lead kill bill book back • When a group of words (more than two words) can be differentiated, each one from the others, by changing one phoneme (always in the same position in the word), then we have a minimal set. • Examples: - Seat, beat, heat , meat, meet, feet - Lead, read, seed, need, feed - Fit, foot, fat, fight, foot - Feel, meal, heal, deal, seal, Phonotactics • Phonotactics: they are permitted arrangements of sounds in a language and are obviously part of every speaker’s phonological knowledge. • For example, the combination of the two phonemes /s/ and /t/ at the beginning of a words in English is permissible .e.g. star, step, storm • The combination of the phonemes /s/ and /v/ at the beginning of a word in English is not permissible. No word in English starts with /sv/. • /sm/ is permissible: e.g. smart, small, smell • /ng/ is not permissible at the beginning of a word but it is permissible at the end of a word such as sing, long, bring Syllables • A syllable is a unit of speech that must contain a vowel. • Commonly, a syllable has a consonant (C) and a vowel (V). • The most common type of syllable in language also has a consonant (C) before the vowel (V) and is typically represented as CV. • Examples: - Man /mæn/: it is a syllable that has three sounds: two consonants /m/ and /n/ and one vowel /æ/. So the syllable is CVC (i.e consonan+vowel+consonant) - Eat /i:t/ : it has two sounds /i:/ and /t/. The syllable is VC (vowel+consonant). - She /ʃi:/: it has two sounds /ʃ/ and /i:/. The syllable is CV (consonant+vowel) The basic elements of the syllable are the onset (one or more consonants) followed by the rhyme. The rhyme (sometimes written as “rime”) consists of a vowel, which is treated as the nucleus, plus any following consonant(s), described as the coda. • Onset: the sound occurs before the nucleus. • Coda: the sound occurs after the nucleus. • Rhyme: it contains the nucleus and coda. • Examples: - cat /kæt/: the onset is the consonant sound /k/ the rhyme is /æt/: the vowel and the consonant. the vowel /æ/ is the nucleus and the consonant /t/ is the coda - book /bʊk/: the onset is the consonant /b/, the rhyme is /ʊk/. The vowel is the nucleus and the consonant is the coda. • There are two types of syllables: closed and open. • The syllable is closed when it has a coda e.g. book, hat, long, lead , eat. • The syllable is open when it has no coda e.g. tree, she, he, fly, me, no. • More examples: - Lead /li:d/ : the syllable is CVC. The onset is /l/, the rhyme is the nucleus /i:/ and the coda /d/. It is open because it has a coda. - Tree /tri:/ : the syllable is CCV (two consonants+ a vowel). The onset is /t/ and /r/, the rhyme is the nucleus /i:/ but it has no coda. It is closed because it has no coda. - Eye /aɪ/: it has only one vowel sound. It has no onset because there is no consonant at the beginning of the syllable. The rhyme is the nucleus /aɪ/ but it has no coda, so it is open. Kinds of syllables in English • /CV/: she, he, me, two, to , tea, bye • /VC/: at, up, am, eat, on • /V/: I, eye • /CVC/: cat, rat, hat, hot, lead, lip, neck, them, fight • /CCV/: tree, three, cry, try, free, throw, play • /VCC/: and, eggs, ink • /CVCC/: milk, bank, post, lost, most, cost • /CCVC/: green, brain, train, block, stop, Word Formation Class 9 • Etymology: - The study of the origin and history of a word is known as its etymology. - When we look closely at the etymologies of less technical words, we soon discover that there are many different ways in which new words can enter the language. We should keep in mind that these processes have been at work in the language for some time and a lot of words in daily use today were, at one time, considered barbaric misuses of the language. • There are different processes of word formation. In this class, we will study some of these processes. 1.Coinage - Definition: Coinage is the invention of totally new terms. - It is ne of the least common processes of word formation - The most typical sources are invented trade names for commercial products that become general terms (usually without capital letters) for any version of that product. • Examples: aspirin, nylon, Vaseline, Kleenex, google • New words based on the name of a person or a place are called eponyms. For example, - Sandwich: from the eighteenth-century Earl of Sandwich who first insisted on having his bread and meat together while gambling. - Jeans: from the Italian city of Genoa where the type of cloth was first made. 2. Borrowing • Definition: the taking over of words from other languages. • It is one of the most common sources of new words in English. • Throughout its history, the English language has adopted a vast number of words from other languages, including croissant (French), lilac (Persian), piano (Italian), sofa (Arabic), tattoo (Tahitian), and yogurt (Turkish). • special type of borrowing is described as loan-translation or calque (/kælk/). In this process, there is a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language. For example, the English word superman is thought to be a loan-translation of German. 3. Compounding • Definition: • It is a process of joining of two separate words to produce a single form. • It is very common in languages such as German and English, but much less common in languages such as French and Spanish. • Common English compounds are bookcase, doorknob, fingerprint, sunburn, textbook, wallpaper, wastebasket and waterbed. All these examples are nouns, but we can also create compound adjectives (good-looking, low-paid) and compounds of adjective (fast) plus noun (food) as in a fast-food restaurant or a full-time job. 4. Blending • Definition: - The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word. • Examples: - smog: smoke + fog - Brunch: breakfast+ lunch - Infotainment: information +entertainment - Frenemy: friend+ enemy • Franglais : French/Anglais. • Spanglish : Spanish/English 5. Clipping • Definition: • To reduce a word of more than one syllable to a shorter form, usually beginning in casual speech. • Examples: - facsimile: fax Gasoline: gas advertisement: ad Influenza: flu Examination: exam Chemistry: chem Gymnastics: gym Mathematics: math 6. Acronyms • Definition: Acronyms are new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words. • Examples: - CD: compact disk - VIP: very important person - USA: united states of America - Laser: light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation - radar: radio detecting and ranging - Scuba: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus - ATM: automatic teller machine. - PIN: personal identification number. Morphology Lesson Ten •Definition: Morphology is the study of the structure and forms of words in language. Morphemes • Definition: a morpheme is “a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function.” • Units of grammatical function include forms used to indicate, for example, past tense or plural • Examples: - The word “cat” has one morpheme. - The words “cats” has two morphemes (cat + s). - The words “played” has two morphemes (play + ed) - The word “ teachers” has three morphemes (teach +er +s) - The word “reopened” has three morphemes (re+ open +ed) - The word “careful” has two morphemes (care + ful) - The word “interesting” has two morphemes (interes + ing) - The word “tourists” has three morphemes (tour +ist + s) •Types of morphemes: 1. Free morphemes 2. Bound morphemes • Free morphemes can be defined as morphemes that can stand by themselves as single words. • Bound morphemes can be defined as those forms that cannot normally stand alone and are typically attached to another form, such as as re-, -ist, -ed, -s. • All affixes (prefixes and suffixes) in English are bound morphemes. - Suffixes: they are morphemes that can be added at the end of words, for examples, plural “s” in “books” , “ed” in “visited”, “ing” in “playing”, and “ful” in “careful”. - Prefixes: they are morphemes that can be added at the beginning of words” such as “re” in “reopen”, “un” in “unhappy”, “im” in “impossible”, and “dis” in “disappear”. • The free morphemes can generally be identified as the set of separate English word forms such as basic nouns (e.g. cat, boy, school, chair, ball), adjectives (e.g. happy, good, sad), verbs (e.g. go, sleep, play, visit), etc. When they are used with bound morphemes attached, the basic word forms are technically known as stems. • For example, the word “played” has two morphemes (play + ed). The word “play” here is a stem. In other words, we can delete the morpheme “ed” but we cant delete the morpheme “play”. • Examples: * books: - it has two morphemes (book + s) - “book” is a free morpheme because it can stand alone. - “s” is a bound morpheme because it can’t stand alone. - the stem is the morpheme “book”. - the morpheme “s” is a suffix. • teachers: - it has two morphemes (teach +er +s) - “teach” is a free morphemes - “er” and “s” are bound morphemes. - The stem is the morpheme “teach” - The morphemes “er” and “s” are suffixes. • Unhappy: - it has two morphemes (un + happy) - “un” is a bound morpheme. - “happy” is a free morpheme - the stem is the morpheme happy - the morpheme “un” is a prefix. * Carelessness: - It has three morphemes (care + less + ness). - “Care” is a free morpheme. - “Less” and “ness” are bound morphemes. - The stem is the morpheme “care”. - The morphemes “less” and “ness” are suffixes. • Disappear: - It has two morphemes (dis + appear) - the morpheme “dis” is bound. - The morpheme “appear” is free. - the stem is the morpheme “appear” - the morpheme “dis” is a prefix. Slowly: - it has two morphemes (slow + ly) - The morpheme “slow” is free. - The morpheme “ly” is bound. - The stem is the morpheme “slow”. - The morpheme “ly” is a suffix. • Table - It has only one morpheme. - The free morpheme is “table”. - It has no bound morpheme. - The stem is “table”. - It has no suffixes or prefixes. • Tables: - It has two morphemes (table + s) - The free morpheme is “table” - The bound morpheme is “s” - The stem is “table” - The morpheme “s” is a suffix. Derivational and inflectional morphemes Class 11 The set of affixes that make up the category of bound morphemes can also be divided into two types: derivational and inflectional. 1. Derivational morphemes We use the bound morphemes to make new words or to make words of a different grammatical category from the stem. For example, the addition of the derivational morpheme -ness changes the adjective “good” to the noun “goodness”. The noun “care” can become the adjectives “careful” or “careless” by the addition of the derivational morphemes ful or -less. - A list of derivational morphemes will include suffixes such as the -ish in foolish, -ly in quickly, and the -ment in payment. The list will also include prefixes such as re-, pre-, ex-, mis-, co-, un- and many more. Examples • • • • • • • • • • • • Help (verb): helpful (adjective) Health (noun): healthy (adjective) Employ (verb): employment (noun) Teach (verb): teacher (noun) Sad (adjective): sadness (noun) Weak (adjective): weaken (verb) Black (adjective): blacken (verb) Personal (adjective): personalize (verb) Write (verb): writer (noun) Quick (adjective): quickly (adverb) Appear (verb): disappear (verb) : they are verbs but the meaning changes Happy (adjective): unhappy (adjective): the are verbs but the meaning changes 2. Inflectional morphemes • The second set of bound morphemes contains what are called inflectional morphemes. - These are not used to produce new words in the language, but rather to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word. - Inflectional morphemes are used to show if a word is plural or singular, if it is past tense or not, and if it is a comparative or possessive form. Examples • English has only eight inflectional morphemes (or “inflections”), illustrated in the following sentences. - possessive “s”: Jim’s two sisters are really different. - simple present “s”: Ahmed speaks English very well - Plural “s”: Ahmed has three brothers. - Progressive “ing”: Ahmed is playing tennis - Past form “ed”: Ahmed played tennis. - Past form “en”: The book is written in English - Comparative and superlative forms “er” and “est”: Ahmed is taller than his brother. Ahmed is tallest one in the class. Grammar Class 12 What is Grammar? The process of describing the structure of phrases and sentences that we account for all the grammatical sequences in a language and rule out all the ungrammatical sequences is one way of defining grammar. The parts of speech • Terms such as “adjective” and “noun” are used to label forms in the language as the parts of speech or word classes. • The speech parts or word classes in English are: 1. Nouns 2. Articles 3. Adjectives 4. Verbs 5. Adverbs 6. Prepositions 7. Pronouns 8. conjunctions Definitions and examples 1. Nouns are words used to refer to people (boy), objects (backpack), creatures (dog), places (school), qualities (roughness), phenomena (earthquake) and abstract ideas (love) as if they were all “things.” 2. Articles are words (a, an, the) used with nouns to form noun phrases classifying those “things” (You can have a banana or an apple) or identifying them as already known (I’ll take the apple). 3. Adjectives are words used, typically with nouns, to provide more information about the things referred to (happy people, large objects, a strange experience). 4. Verbs are words used to refer to various kinds of actions (go, talk) and states (be, have) involving people and things in events (Jessica is ill and has a sore throat so she can’t talk or go anywhere). 5. Adverbs are words used, typically with verbs, to provide more information about actions, states and events (slowly, yesterday).Some adverbs (really, very) are also used with adjectives to modify information about things (Really large objects move slowly. I had a very strange experience yesterday). 6. Prepositions are words (at, in, on, near, with, without) used with nouns in phrases providing information about time (at five o’clock, in the morning), place (on the table, near the window) and other connections (with a knife, without a thought) involving actions and things. 7. Pronouns are words (she, herself, they, it, you) used in place of noun phrases, typically referring to people and things already known (She talks to herself. They said it belonged to you). 8. Conjunctions are words (and, but, because, when) used to make connections and indicate relationships between events (Chantel’s husband was so sweet and he helped her a lot because she couldn’t do much when she was pregnant). Grammatical Categories Class 13 • In addition to the terms used for the parts of speech in the last class (e.g. nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs), traditional grammatical analysis has also given us a number of other categories, including “number,” “person,” “tense,” “voice” and “gender.” • These categories can be discussed in isolation, but their role in describing language structure becomes clearer when we consider them in terms of agreement. For example, we say that the verb “loves” agrees with the noun “Ahmed” in the sentence “Ahmed loves his cat”. - This agreement is partially based on the category of number, that is, whether the noun is singular or plural. - It is also based on the category of person, which covers the distinctions of first person (involving the speaker as in the pronouns “I” and “we”), second person (involving the hearer as in the pronoun “you”) and third person (involving any others as in the pronouns “he”, “she”, “it”, and “they”). The different forms of English pronouns can be described in terms of person and number. For example, Ahmed is singular and third person. So, in the sentence “Ahmed loves his cat”, we have a noun Ahmed, which is third person singular, and we use the verb loves (not love) to “agree with” the noun. • In addition, the form of the verb must be described in terms of another category called “tense” (such as simple present, simple past, and future). In this case, the verb “loves” is in the present tense, which is different from the past tense (loved). The sentence is also in the active voice, describing what Ahmed does (i.e. he performs the action of the verb). An alternative would be the passive voice, which can be used to describe what happens to Ahmed (i.e. he doesn’t perform the action), as in Ahmed is loved by his friends or just Ahmed is loved. • Our final category is “gender”, which helps us describe the agreement between Ahmed and “his” in our example sentence (Ahmed loves his cats but not Ahmed loves her cat). In English, we have to describe this relationship in terms of natural gender, mainly derived from a biological distinction between male and female. The agreement between the noun “Ahmed” and the pronoun “his” is based on a distinction made in English between reference to female entities (she, her), male entities (he, his) and things or creatures, when the sex is unknown or irrelevant (it, its). Grammatical Gender • The type of biological distinction used in English is quite different from the more common distinction found in languages that use grammatical gender. Whereas natural / real gender is based on sex (male and female), grammatical gender is based on the type of noun (masculine and feminine) and is not tied to sex. In this latter sense, nouns are classified according to their gender class and, typically, articles and adjectives have different forms to “agree with” the gender of the noun. • Arabic, for example, has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine, illustrated by the expressions “( الشمسthe sun”) and “( القمرthe moon”). The word » «الشمسis feminine but the word » «القمرis masculine, but this does not mean that the word » «الشمسis a girl or female and does not mean that the word » «القمرis a boy or male. So we call this case “grammatical gender”. When the word is masculine or feminine in reality such as الرجلand المرأة, this case is called “biological/ natural gender”. Lexical Relations Class 16 • Not only can words be treated as “containers” of meaning, or as fulfilling “roles” in events, they can also have “relationships” with each other. In everyday talk, we often explain the meanings of words in terms of their relationships. If we’re asked the meaning of the word conceal, for example, we might simply say, “It’s the same as hide,” or give the meaning of shallow as “the opposite of deep,” or the meaning of daffodil as “a kind of flower.” In doing so, we are characterizing the meaning of each word, not in terms of its component features, but in terms of its relationship to other words. This approach is used in the semantic description of language and treated as the analysis of lexical relations. The lexical relations we have just exemplified are synonymy (conceal/hide), antonymy (shallow/deep) and hyponymy (daffodil/flower). Types of Lexical Relations • 1. synonymy • 2. Antonymy • 3. Hyponymy • 4. Polysemy 1.Synonymy • Two or more words with very closely related meanings are called synonyms. They can often, though not always, be substituted for each other in sentences. In the appropriate circumstances, we can say, What was his answer? or What was his reply? with much the same meaning. Other common examples of synonyms are the pairs: almost/nearly, big/large, broad/wide, buy/purchase, couch/sofa, freedom/ liberty. cab/taxi, car/automobile, • We should keep in mind that the idea of “sameness” of meaning used in discussing synonymy is not necessarily “total sameness.” There are many occasions when one word is appropriate in a sentence, but its synonym would be odd. For example, whereas the word answer fits in the sentence Sandy had only one answer correct on the test, the word reply would sound odd. Synonymous forms may also differ in terms of formal versus informal uses. The sentence My father purchased a large automobile has virtually the same meaning as My dad bought a big car, with four synonymous replacements, but the second version sounds much more casual or informal than the first. 2.Antonymy • Two forms with opposite meanings are called antonyms. Some common examples are the pairs: alive/dead, big/small, fast/slow, happy/sad, hot/cold, long/short, male/ female, married/single, old/new, rich/poor, true/false. Antonyms are usually divided into two main types, “gradable” (opposites along a scale) and “non-gradable” (direct opposites). Gradable antonyms, such as the pair big/ small, can be used in comparative constructions like I’m bigger than you and A pony is smaller than a horse. Also, the negative of one member of a gradable pair does not necessarily imply the other. For example, the sentence My car isn’t old, doesn’t necessarily mean My car is new. With non-gradable antonyms (also called “complementary pairs”), comparative constructions are not normally used. We don’t typically describe someone as deader or more dead than another. Also, the negative of one member of a non-gradable pair does imply the other member. That is, My grandparents aren’t alive does indeed mean My grandparents are dead. Other non-gradable antonyms in the earlier list are the pairs: male/female, married/single and true/false. Although we can use the “negative test” to identify non-gradable antonyms in a language, we usually avoid describing one member of an antonymous pair as the negative of the other. For example, while undress can be treated as the opposite of dress, it doesn’t mean “not dress.” It actually means “do the reverse of dress.” Antonyms of this type are called reversives. Other common examples are enter/exit, pack/unpack, lengthen/shorten, raise/lower, tie/untie. 3. Hyponymy • When the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another, the relationship is described as hyponymy. Examples are the pairs: animal/dog, dog/poodle, vegetable/ carrot, flower/rose, tree/banyan. The concept of “inclusion” involved in this relationship is the idea that if an object is a rose, then it is necessarily a flower, so the meaning of flower is included in the meaning of rose. Or, rose is a hyponym of flower. 4. Polysemy When we encounter two or more words with the same form and related meanings , we have what is technically known as polysemy. Polysemy can be defined as one form (written or spoken) having multiple meanings that are all related by extension. Examples are the word head, used to refer to the object on top of your body, froth on top of a glass of beer, person at the top of a company or department, and many other things. Other examples of polysemy are foot (of person, of bed, of mountain) or run (person does, water does, colors do). If we aren’t sure whether different uses of a single word are examples of homonymy or polysemy, we can check in a dictionary. If the word has multiple meanings (i.e. it’s polysemous), then there will be a single entry, with a numbered list of the different meanings of that word. If two words are treated as homonyms, they will typically have two separate entries. In most dictionaries, bank, mail, mole and sole are clearly treated as homonyms whereas face, foot, get, head and run are treated as examples of polysemy Of course, it is possible for two forms to be distinguished via homonymy and for one of the forms also to have various uses via polysemy. The words date (= a thing we can eat) and date (= a point in time) are homonyms. However, the “point in time” kind of date is polysemous in terms of a particular day and month (= on a letter), an arranged meeting time (= an appointment), a social meeting (= with someone we like), and even a person (= that person we like). So the question How was your date? could have several different interpretations.
