Language Typology Sketches - DG - V01 - 2006-10-31
Language:English
Investigator: Language Universals Class Collective
Comments: First rough draft of English Sketch Grammar
Linguistic Domain
Phonology
Units
1/11
Date: 2006-10-31
Description
Phoneme/allophone a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound; an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme
Vowels
Vowels in English
Definition: A vowel is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by an open configuration of the vocal tract
so that there is no build-up of air pressure above the glottis. Vowels form the nucleus or peak of
syllables.
They are characterized by: “The point reached by the body of the tongue in the oral cavity.”
Vowel catagories:
Height
The height of the Tongue in the oral cavity (left column in the chart).
Frontness/ Backness
The horizontal position of the tongue in the oral cavity (top line in the chart).
Tense
Higher and less centralized vowel ( , ,
, ).
Lax
Lower and more centralized vowel ( , , , ).
Rounded
Lips are rounded when pronouncing
, , , .
Unrounded
Lips are spread when pronouncing , , , ,
,
, .
Monophthongs
Simple vowels which maintain a relatively constantly position.
Diphthongs
Complex vowels which involve a movement of the tongue body from one position to another (either centering 
from the periphery towards schwa, or from the center to the periphery).
GenAm
/aʊ/ as in house
Table of vowels:
/aɪ/ as in kite
/eɪ/ as in same
/oʊ/ as in tone
/ɔɪ/ as in join
Language Typology Sketches - DG - V01 - 2006-10-31
Language:English
Investigator: Language Universals Class Collective
Comments: First rough draft of English Sketch Grammar
2/11
Date: 2006-10-31
Allophones:
Definition: In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme.
Speakers of a particular language perceive a phoneme as a single distinctive sound in that language.
Thus an allophone is a phone considered as a member of one phoneme.
Vowel length: Vowel phonemes are realized as long vowel allophones before voiced consonant phonemes in the
coda of a syllable. For example, the vowel /æ/ in /’bæt/ ‘bat’ is realized as a short allophone [æ]
in [‘bæt], because the /t/ is unvoiced, while the same vowel /æ/ in /’bæd/ ‘bad’ is realized as a
long allophone in [‘bæːd], because /d/ is voiced.
Quellenverzeichnis:
1) http://www.umanitoba.ca/linguistics/russell/138/2001/artic/describing-vowels.html
2) http://www.all-dictionaries.com/encyclopedia/EN/Vowel#Roundedness
3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_length#Phonemic_vowel_length
Consonants
Consonants:
A phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language. An allophone is a phonetic variation of a phoneme (in a
given language).
Examples of the phonemes /r/ and /l/ :
- rip vs. lip
An example for English allophones is:
- /p/ and /p/
/l/ - voiced alveolar liquid; allophones: [l] [ɫ] “dark l” syllable final
Language Typology Sketches - DG - V01 - 2006-10-31
Language:English
Investigator: Language Universals Class Collective
Comments: First rough draft of English Sketch Grammar
3/11
Date: 2006-10-31
/r/ - voiced alveolar approximant; all.: [
/w/ - voiced labialized velar approximant; all.:[ʍ] found in certain varieties
/j/ - voiced palatal approximant
/m/ - voiced bilabial nasal
/n/ - voiced alveolar nasal
/ ŋ/ - voiced velar nasal; all.: [ŋ], [n]
/p/ - unvoiced bilabial plosive; all.: [p] , [ph], [p’](inaudible release when prededing another stop)
/t/ - unvoiced alveolar plosive; all.: [t], [d], [ɾ] alveolar flap in unstressed syllables in North American English and increasingly in
Australian English / between primary stressed vowel and a reduced syllable, usually: ‘V_`v, [t’] (inaudible release…)
/k/ - unvoiced velar plosive; all.: [k], [x], [kx] in Liverpool
/b/ - voiced bilabial plosive
/d/ - voiced alveolar plosive; all.: [d] ,[dn], [ɾ] see above, [d’] inaudible r., [dl] lateral release before /l/
/g/ - voiced velar plosive, all.: [g], [g’] inaudible r.
/f/ - unvoiced labio-dental fricative
/ θ/ - unvoiced dental fricative
/s/ - unvoiced alveolar fricative; all.: [s], [z]
/ ʃ/ - unvoiced post-alveolar fricative
/h/ - unvoiced glottal fricative
/v/ - voiced labio-dental fricative
/ ð/ - voiced dental fricative
/z/ - voiced alveolar fricative
/ ʒ/ - voiced post-alveolar fricative
/d ʒ/ - voiced post-alveolar affricate
/t ʃ/ - unvoiced post-alveolar affricate
Devoicing of sonorant consonants:
In environments where voiceless stops are aspirated, a sonorant consonant following the aspirated stop will show partial devoicing. The
aspiration of the stop is realised in the sonorant consonant.
Syllabic consonants ‘l’ and ‘n’:
Usually /@n/ is realised as a syllabic ‘n’ following /t/ or /d/
Prosody: Syllables
Def.: A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. It is typically made up of a syllable
nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants).
Syllables are often considered the phonological "building blocks" of words. They can influence the rhythm of a
Language Typology Sketches - DG - V01 - 2006-10-31
Language:English
Investigator: Language Universals Class Collective
Comments: First rough draft of English Sketch Grammar
4/11
Date: 2006-10-31
language, its prosody, its poetic meter, its stress patterns, etc.;
there are monosyllabic words like ‘cat’, disyllabic w. like ‘monkey’, polysyllabic w. like ‘intelligence’; general
structure of a syllable: onset -> (consonant); Rime: nucleus (vowel) + coda (consonant) -> example: CVC –
syllable: cat => onset = ‘c’ nucleus = ‘a’; coda = ‘t’; rime = ‘at’.
English onset consists of up to 3 syllables e.g. street, splash, scream etc. and ends with as many as 4 syllables e.g.
prompts, sixths, etc.
website: www.en.wikipedia.org
Prosody: Intonation Rises and falls in pitch can be attributed to stress which means that (in English) we give stress to certain words while other words are
quickly spoken. Basically, stress words are considered content words such as nouns, principal verbs, adjectives, adverbs. Non stressed
words are considered function words (i.e. determiners, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions). It can also be attributed to other pitch
patterns. For instance:
- The difference between a statement and a question
- Tonic Stress
An intonation unit almost always has one peak of stress, which is called 'tonic stress', or 'nucleus'
* I'm going.
* I'm going to London.
* I'm going to London for a holiday.
- Emphatic Stress
One reason to move the tonic stress from its utterance final position is to assign an emphasis to a content word
i. It was very BOring. (unmarked)
ii. It was VEry boring. (emphatic)
i. You mustn't talk so LOUDly. (unmarked)
ii. You MUSTN'T talk so loudly. (emphatic)
- Contrastive Stress
any lexical item in an utterance can receive the tonic stress provided that the contrastively stressed item can be contrastable in that
Language Typology Sketches - DG - V01 - 2006-10-31
Language:English
Investigator: Language Universals Class Collective
Comments: First rough draft of English Sketch Grammar
5/11
Date: 2006-10-31
universe of speech.
a) Do you like this one or THAT one?
b) I like THIS one.
Many other larger contrastive contexts (dialogues) can be found or worked out, or even selected from literary works for a study of
contrastive stress. Consider the following:
# She played the piano yesterday. (It was her who...)
# She played the piano yesterday. (She only played (not. harmed) ...)
# She played the piano yesterday. (It was the piano that...)
# She played the piano yesterday. (It was yesterday...)
- New Information Stress
In a response given to a wh-question, the information supplied, naturally enough, is stressed,
a) What's your NAME
b) My name's GEORGE.
a) Where are you FROM?
b) I'm from WALES.
Orthography
Graphemes
Morphophonology
Morpheme/allomorp
h
Prosody
Morphology
Morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest unit of language which can convey meaning.
There are two types of morphemes, namely free and bound morphemes.
- The free morpheme carries the meaning in its own right (e.g. sun, cold, rain).
- The bound morpheme cannot normally stand up on its own (re-, de-, -ist, -ing, -al). Bound morphemes include all prefixes and
suffixes, plural forms and tense endings.
There are two distinct types of free morphemes: lexical and functional morphemes.
 Lexical morphemes include adjectives, nouns and verbs.
 Functional morphemes include word classes such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns.
Language Typology Sketches - DG - V01 - 2006-10-31
Language:English
Investigator: Language Universals Class Collective
Comments: First rough draft of English Sketch Grammar
6/11
Date: 2006-10-31
There are also two different types of bound morphemes: derivational and inflectional morphemes.
 Derivational morphemes are the “bits” you can add to a word to make new words, e.g. prefixes and suffixes.
 Inflectional morphemes are the “bits” you add to change tense, number or case.
Allomorph is the term used to describe morphemes which do the same job.
In English, grammatical morphemes are unstressed, whereas lexical morphemes are stressed.
Word formation
Simplex words
Derived words
Compound words
Consisting of or marked by only one part or element; A word that has no affixes and is not part of a compound - a simple word;
-
In linguistics, derivation is the process of creating new lexemes from other lexemes, for example, by
adding a derivational affix. It is a kind of word formation.
-
Derivational affixes usually apply to words of one syntactic category and change them into words of
another syntactic category. For example, the English derivational suffix -ly changes adjectives into adverbs
(slow → slowly).
-
Derivational affixes do not necessarily modify the syntactic category; they can also modify the meaning.
-
Note that derivational affixes are bound morphemes.
-
Derivation may occur with or without any change of form, for example telephone (noun) and to telephone.
This is called Zero derivation.
Prefix
Suffix
En- (able-enable)
-ness (lonely-loneliness)
Be- (loved-beloved)
-ize (character-characterize)
Em- (brace-embrace)
-al (recreation-recreational)
In- (tolerant-intolerant)
-fy (glory-glorify)
Dis- (like-dislike)
-able (drink-drinkable)
= lexemes that consist of more than one free morpheme, e.g. doghouse
Re- (vision-revision)
-ance (ignorant-ignorance)
Un- (faithful-unfaithful)
-ate (compensation-compensate)
Co- (operate-cooperation)
-en (fast-fasten)
Language Typology Sketches - DG - V01 - 2006-10-31
Language:English
Investigator: Language Universals Class Collective
Comments: First rough draft of English Sketch Grammar
7/11
Date: 2006-10-31
Categories
Semantics:
 endocentric: consists of a head and modifiers, e.g. doghouse (head = house; modifier = dog)
 exocentric: meaning cannot be transparently guessed from its constituent parts, e.g. white-collar (as a metaphor for
socioeconomic status)
 bicentric: refers to two or more objects that could be connected in sense by the conjunction 'and', e.g. whisky-soda,
Orthography:
 open: consists of two or more words written separately, such as salad dressing
 solid: consists of two or more words that are written as one word, such as keyboard or typewriter
 hyphenated: consists of two or more words connected by a hyphen, such as age-old or mother-in-law
Frequency:
- permanent: fixed by common usage and can usually be found in the dictionary. (formerly temporary compounds), e.g. goodwill.
- temporary: is created by the speaker for a particular use (e.g. to avoid ambiguity or to modify another word) and will probably
not be in any dictionary, e.g. Beckham-type.
Prosody
Morphosyntax
Nominal inflexion
Inflexion is the modification or marking of a word to reflect grammatical information, such as gender, tense, number or person.
regular inflexion: -s/-es for plural; -’s/ -s’ for possessive
irregular inflexion (for plural): e.g. woman-womenregular inflexion: -ed for past; -s for 3rd person singular; -ing for progressive
irregular inflexion (for past): e.g. write-wrote-written
Verbal inflexion
Simple Present : ‘s’ in 3rd person singular
Simple Present Progressive : present of ‘to be’ + ‘ing’
Simple Past : ‘ed’ (except irregulars)
Simple Past Progressive : past of ‘to be’ + ‘ing’
Present Perfect : present of ‘to have’ + ‘ed’ (except irregulars)
Present Perfect Progressive : present of ‘to have’ + past participle ‘been’ + ‘ing’
Past Perfect : past of ‘to have’ + ‘ed’
Past Perfect Progressive : past of ‘to have’ + past participle ‘been’ + ‘ing’
Future Simple : will + infinitive
going to-future : going to + infinitive
Language Typology Sketches - DG - V01 - 2006-10-31
Language:English
Investigator: Language Universals Class Collective
Comments: First rough draft of English Sketch Grammar
8/11
Date: 2006-10-31
Future Progressive : will + infinitive ‘be’ + ing
Future Perfect : will + have + ‘ed’
Prosody
Phrase structure
Nominal structures
Verbal structures
Intonation
Sentence structure
Simple sentences
- unit of syntactic structure
- contains at least one finite clause
-
A sentence is a grammatical unit which contains at least one finite clause
The most basic type of sentence is the simple sentence. It is the most natural type of sentence and by far the most common
sentence in spoken languages.
It consists of one clause and may be as short as one word (example: “Run!”)
It usually consists of at least a subject and a predicate (S + Pred)
Sources:
http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/sntstrct.html
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba/syn/Syntax_sentences.html
A simple sentence consists of a single independent clause (consisting of at least a subject and a predicate, makes sense in itself) with no
dependent clauses (something that cannot stand alone in a sentence).
Example: Andi works.
Imperative clauses: base form of the verb (2nd person), the subject (‘you’) is generally not expressly stated.
The negative: do not/ don`t + base form. (Don´t make so much fuss.)
Emphasis: do + base form. (Do be careful.)
Positive: Come in.
The subject can be mentioned when it contrasts with another person/ can also be used to make an order emphatic or even aggressiv.
Word order similar to interrogative clauses: Don´t you eat cookies?/ Don´t you eat cookies before dinner!
Language Typology Sketches - DG - V01 - 2006-10-31
Language:English
Investigator: Language Universals Class Collective
Comments: First rough draft of English Sketch Grammar
9/11
Date: 2006-10-31
Positive tag after a positive imperative: Get out your books, will/would/can/could you?
Negative tag expresses greater feeling: Keep still, won´t/can´t you?
In warnings, reminders and good wishes, the tag is won´t you? after a positive imperative and will you? after a negative.
In offers and invitations the tag is will you? or won´t you?
Let´s + base form of the verb expresses a suggestion. (It´s a lovely day. Let´s sit outside.) The negative is let´s not or don´t let´s (Let´s not
waste any time./Don´t let´s waste any time).and for emphasis we use do let´s (Do let´s get started.).
- most basic type of sentence: - simple sentence: noun phrase ( the subject) and verbal phrase ( predicate) and their modifiers
Examples:
“Run!”
Linda cries.
The aggressive dog and the small girl fight brutally.
Questions
1) inverted simple sentence
There are 3 basic types of question:
1. Inversion emtpy at front: Inverting the word order in some way; examples: English changes
the order of the subject and the first auxiliary verb. "You are sure" becomes "Are you sure?"
(taken from wikipedia).
2. Inversion with auxiliary at the front:
Subordinate clauses A subordinate clause contains a subject and predicate, but cannot stand alone in a sentence, for the meaning cannot be understood.
Example: who walks to town
Types of subordinate clauses:
-linked to the main clause by a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so),
by a conjunctive adverb (e.g. however, therefore)
by a semicolon alone.
Language Typology Sketches - DG - V01 - 2006-10-31
Language:English
Investigator: Language Universals Class Collective
Comments: First rough draft of English Sketch Grammar
10/11
Date: 2006-10-31
http://wwwnew.towson.edu/ows/sentences.htm#SIMPLE%20SENTENCE
When a coordinate and a subordinate clause are connected with the conjunction “and”, the subject in the subordinate clause can be left
out.
Example: Andi writes and reads.
Types:
1) Relative clauses:

a relative clause has a relative pronoun (e.g. who, which, that...), which is usually the subject or object of the verb in the relative
clause

relative pronouns have no masculine, female and plural forms

a relative clause follows the noun it refers to

distinction between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses (also called defining and non-defining relative clauses);
examples: Elephants who marry mice are very unusual. (defining: essential information, no commas), Elephants, which
are large and grey, can sometimes be found in zoos. (non-defining: additional information, separated by commas)

in English: zero relative pronoun (the relative pronoun can be omitted when it is the object of the relative clause, example: The
mouse that the elephant loved was very beautiful.
OR The mouse the elephant loved was very beautiful.
Coordinate clauses
A coordinate clause (or independent clause) can stand by itself in a sentence.
Example: Andi fakes working.
Punctuation patterns (to match A, B, C and D above):
A. Dependent clause, independent clause
B. Independent clause dependent clause
C. Independent, nonessential dependent clause, clause.
D. Independent essential dependent clause clause.
Language Typology Sketches - DG - V01 - 2006-10-31
Language:English
Investigator: Language Universals Class Collective
Comments: First rough draft of English Sketch Grammar
Prosody
Larger units
Text, dialogue
Ancillary systems
Paralinguistic
Gesture
11/11
Date: 2006-10-31
INTONATION (question): The classic example of intonation is the question-statement distinction. For example, north eastern American
English, like very many languages (Hirst & DiCristo, eds. 1998), has a rising intonation for echo or declarative questions (He found it on
the street?), and a falling intonation for wh- questions (Where did he find it?) and statements (He found it on the street.). Yes or no
questions (Did he find it on the street?) often have a rising end, but not always (taken from wikipedia).