The Origins and Development
of the English Language
Chapter 1: Language and the
English Language
John Algeo
Michael Cheng
National Chengchi University
A Definition of Language
Language is a system of conventional vocal signs
by means of which human beings communicate.
System
Signs
Vocal
Conventional
Human
Communicate
Language as System
Language is not a collection of words, like a
dictionary
There are rules or patterns that relate the words to
one another
Duality of patterning
– Meaningful units: Words and words parts
• Adam liked apples.
– Meaningless components: Sounds of letter
• About 35 basic sounds in English
Language as System
Duality of patterning lets people build an
immensely large number of meaningful
words out of only a handful of meaningless
sounds. (p. 2)
Meaningless Components: sound system or
phonology
Meaningful Units: lexis or vocabulary;
grammatical system or morphosyntax
Language as System
Patterns in the sound system:
– mb never occurs at the beginning or end of words in
Modern English
Lexis is least systematic, but there are
collocations.
– mild and gentle vs. lenient
– mild weather; gentle breeze; severe case of the flu;
severe judgment; lenient judgment; lenient case of the
flu
Language as System
Here are more collocations.
– In its narrow cage, the lion paced back and
__________.
– The boys ran ____ _____ fro across the field.
– Please pass we the salt and ______.
– This issue isn’t just _______ and white.
While lexis or our vocabulary is less systematic,
English grammar is much more systematic.
– What does the suffix -s indicate to us?
Language as System
Grammatical Signals: The grammatical system of any
language has various techniques for relating words to one
another within the structure of a sentence.
Most important:
1. Parts of speech: noun, verb, adjective, adverb
2. Affixes: prefixes, suffixes, inflectional suffixes
3. Concord or agreement
4. Word order
5. Function words
6. Prosodic signals
Language as System:
Parts of speech: noun, verb, adjective, adverb
Some words can only be one part of speech
– child, seek
Other words can be many parts of speech
–
–
–
–
They caught the last bus.
The runner arriving last will be eliminated.
That was the last we saw of her.
The guitar solo lasted for twenty minutes
Some words are being shifted and used as new
parts of speech
– I read a good book. That book is a good read.
Language as System:
Affixes: prefixes, suffixes, inflectional suffixes
Affixes are sounds or letters that change the meaning of a
word or its part of speech
What does the prefix en- do? => encipher, enrage, entomb
How about the suffix -ist? => dentist, violinist, geologist
Here are some examples of inflectional suffixes:
– boys, boy’s,
– aids, aided, aiding
– slow, slower, slowest
You can also have inflection by changing a vowel in a
word: man men; sing sang
Language as System:
Concord or agreement
Inflection also marks concord or agreement in a sentence
The bird sings
The birds sing
This day
These days
English has less inflection and concord than it used to
have.
Language as System:
Word Order
As inflection becomes less important, word order
becomes more important
The man finished the job.
The job finished the man.
He died happily.
Happily he died.
Language as System:
Function words
Articles, auxiliaries, conjunctions, prepositions,
pronouns, adverbial particles
They are important because English is highly
dependent on word order to transmit its meaning
I gave the dog a bone.
I gave a bone to the dog.
Language as System:
Prosodic signals
Pitch, stress and tempo can also transmit
grammatical meaning
– He’s here.
– He’s here?
– Noun vs Verb version of conduct
– He died happily. He died, happily.
Language Signs
The system organizes signs
Signs stand for something else
– apple stands for the actual object
– Tell me a really long word.
Linguistic signs can be smaller or larger
than whole words.
Language Signs
The smallest linguistic sign is a morpheme, which
is a meaningful form that cannot be divided into
smaller meaningful parts (p. 5)
Free morphemes: can be used alone as words
Bound morphemes: must be combined with other
morphemes to make words.
Reactivation: re-act-ive-ate-ion
(again) (adj)(v) (n)
Language Signs
Morphemes can have more than one
pronunciation or spelling
Plural noun ending: -s/-es ; [s],[z],[әz]
Spoken variations are allomorphs
Language Signs
Base morphemes and affixes
Affix is a bound morpheme that is added to a base
morpheme
Affixes can be prefixes or suffixes
– reactivation
Base morphemes are usually free
– Insulate (insula + ate) insula = lat. island
Compound: word with more than one base
morpheme
– firefighter
Language Signs
Language signs can be larger than words
Idioms: a combination of words whose
meaning cannot be predicted from those of
its constituent parts (p. 6)
Language as Speech
Language is basically oral-aural
– Produced by the mouth and received by the ear
Sounds follow one another sequentially
Language is one dimensional
Other ways of expressing language:
– writing, sign language
What are the advantages and disadvantages
of other ways of expressing language?
Language as Speech
Writing vs. Speech
Which is primary and which is secondary?
Language as Speech :
Writing as Speech
Humans have been writing for 5000 years
Writing developed from speech and is meant to
represent speech
Some spoken languages have no written form
We talk before we write
We have to take special effort to learn to write
Many people who can speak are unable to write
Language as Speech
“If speaking makes us human, writing
makes us civilized.”
Advantages of writing:
Permanent
Indicates pauses more clearly:
– Grade A vs. gray day
– Pretty hot day vs. pretty, hot day
Language as Speech :
Writing as Speech
Deficiencies of writing:
Can’t indicate pitch
–
–
–
–
Why did you do it? (rising vs. falling)
sound quality (tone vs. quality)
incense (enrage vs. stuff to burn)
sewer (tailor vs. conduit)
Language as Speech:
Writing as Speech
Homonyms: homographs, homophones
Transliteration
Translation
Orthography: Writing system
Language as Speech:
Gestures and Speech
Gestures can communicate also
Speech may have developed from gestures
Gestures can be unconscious
Kinesics: study of communicative body
movement
Tone of voice
Paralanguage: parallel communication that
accompanies language
Language as Convention
Language is mostly conventional and
arbitrary
There is usually no reason we connect the
sounds we make with a particular meaning,
but each language agrees on what particular
sounds mean
Exception: echoic words/onomatopoeia
– Bow wow, gnaf-gnaf, wau-wau
Language as Convention:
Language Change
Language changes because it is culturally
transmitted
Causes of language change:
Syntagmatic change: nearby elements
influence one another within the flow of
speech
– Sandwich
– What did you say?
Language as Convention:
Language Change
Paradigmatic or Associative Change
Words can be affected by other words that
are not immediately present but with which
they are associated
Language as Convention:
Language Change
Starboard = Right
Ladeboard = Left
Ladeboard  Larboard  Port
Language as Convention :
Language Change
Social Change
Language changes because of the influence
of events in the world
New technology: google
New forms of behavior: suicide bomber,
sexting
Contact with new people and cultures
Language as Convention :
The Notion of Linguistic Corruption
Every generation believes that its version of
English is the right one and that young
people are corrupting it.
– all right vs. alright
Language as Convention :
Language Variation
Language exists in many varieties
Historical or diachronic variation
Contemporary or synchronic variation
– Dialects – mutually intelligible forms of language
associated with particular regions or groups
– Dialect: Language associated with a certain place,
social level, ethnic group, sex, age
– Registers – Variations according to participants,
settings, and topics
– Register: Variety of language used for a certain
purpose: sermon, restaurant, telephone, postcard
Language as Convention :
Registers
Formality scale
This diagram is from Quirk et al (1985), who use the term attitude rather than style or register
Formality scale
Very formal,
Frozen, Rigid
← FORMAL
Neutral
INFORMAL →
Very informal,
Casual, Familiar
Language as Convention :
Registers
Joos (1961) cited in Wikipedia
Frozen: Printed unchanging language such as bible quotations; often
contains archaisms.
Formal: One-way participation, no interruption. Technical vocabulary;
"Fussy semantics" or exact definitions are important. Includes
introductions between strangers. (This is the standard for work, school,
and business.)
Consultative: Two-way participation. Background information is
provided — prior knowledge is not assumed. "Backchannel behaviour"
such as "uh huh", "I see", etc. is common. Interruptions allowed.
(Formal Register used in conversations.)
Casual: In-group friends and acquaintances. No background
information provided. Ellipsis and slang common. Interruptions
common. (Language used in conversation with friends.)
Intimate: Non-public. Intonation more important than wording or
grammar. Private vocabulary. (Language between lovers (and twins).)
Dialects and registers provide options
Alternate ways to communicate depending
on the circumstances
Language as Convention :
Correctness and Acceptability
Correctness: Idea that some form of English
is pure or correct.
Language isn’t so clean cut
Acceptability: Degree to which users will
judge an expression to be OK, or will not
notice anything out of the ordinary
How acceptable? To whom?
Language as Convention :
Correctness and Acceptability
If I were in your shoes…
If I was in your shoes…
If we was in your shoes…
ate
– et
– εt
Language as Human
Gestures may have preceded language
Ability to learn language is innate
Children below 9 can learn a new language
better than their native language
Children of about 5 have mastered
comprehension of most grammatical forms
of a language (but still continue to improve)
Language as Human: Animals in the
wild, do they communicate?
Informative behavior vs. Communicative
behavior
Do you intend an action to inform?
Alarm cries are signaling behavior but not
intentionally communicative
Do animals display deceptive behavior?
Innate, involuntary, limited in number
Language as Human
Conditioning vs. Intentionality
Clever Hans
Some birds can mimic human sounds
Language as Human
Closest human relatives are apes
Teaching apes to talk has been a complete failure
Problem is anatomical
Alternatives to speech include signing and
“writing”
Apes are capable of forming paired associates:
linking an object with an arbitrary symbol
(Holzman, 1997)
Language as Human
Sarah: used plastic tokens to communicate
Lana typed messages
Washoe used Ameslan
Kanzi used lexagrams
Is this real communication?
Language as Communication
Relationship between language and thought
Language is clothing for thought and
thought is quite independent of the language
used to express it
Thought is merely suppressed language, and
when we are thinking, we are just talking
under our breath
Language as Communication
Whorf hypothesis
The language we speak influences the way we
think about the world and the way we perceive it
Sorting colored chips into piles
– Usually make as many piles as basic color terms in
your language
– http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-blue-and-howdo-we-see-color-2015-2
Australian Bushman give directions by NWSE
Other Characteristics of Language
Open: you can make up new combinations
of words that no one has made before
Displaced: you can talk about things that are
not present; abstract, lie,
Entertaining: it is not just utilitarian, you
can joke, tell stories, etc.
Why Study the History of English?
To understand how things are, it is often
helpful … to know how they got that way
(p. 18)
Many of the irregularities of English are
remnants of earlier regular patterns
Clarify literature written in earlier periods
Keats description of sculptured effigies on
tombs:
The sculptur’d dead, on each side, seemed to
freeze
Emprison’d in black, purgatorial rails.
Exercises