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15 - 11 - 17 - English Language (Metalanguage)
15 - 11 - 17 - English Language (Metalanguage)
Errata : j ames.spencer477@gmail.com
Licence : This work is licensed under the C
Cnd licence
Contributors : James Spencer
Metalanguage
Metalanguage: T he words and language we use to talk about a particular area of study (in this case, language itself)
Subsystems of Language :
● phonetics (sounds)
● phonology (sound patterns)
● morphology (word structure)
● lexicology (word history)
● syntax (phrases, clauses and sentences)
● discourse analysis (study of the entire text)
● semantics (meaning of language)
● pragmatics (context and appropriateness of language)
Etymology : The study of the history of words and of the development of meanings in words
Morpheme : The smallest unit of meaning (i.e. stop = 1, stop + able = 2)
● free morpheme : a unit of meaning which can stand alone as a word
● bound morpheme : those that must be attached to another morpheme in order to make a word
● stem : a morpheme that can stand alone; represents the core meaning of the word
● affix : a morpheme that cannot occur on it’s own and needs to be attached to a stem to make a word
○ prefix : a morpheme attached to the front of a stem
○ suffix : a morpheme attached to the end of a stem
● inflectional morphemes (grammatical morphemes) : gives grammatical information (includes plural, tense, etc.)
● derivational morphemes : change the class of an existing word (i.e. joy [noun] > joy+ful [adjective])
Lexicology : The study of words. A lexicographer studies the words in a language and compiles dictionaries
Lexicon : A person’s vocabulary or the vocabulary used in a branch of learning (i.e. law has it’s own lexicon, as does engineering)
Word Class : ‘A group of words which, from a grammatical point of view, behave in the same way’ David Crystal
● open class words : word classes that readily admit new members, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs
○ Noun : identification of people, places, or things (common noun), or to name a particular one of these (proper noun)
○ Adjective : names an attribute of a noun
○ Verb : used to describe an action, state, or occurrence
○ Adverb : a word or phrase that modifies the meaning of an adjective, verb, or other adverb, expressing manner, place, time, or degree
■ She sang l oudly ( indicating manner)
■ We left it h
ere (indicating place)
■ I worked y esterday (indicating time)
■ You o ften make mistakes (indicating frequency)
■ He u ndoubtedly did it (indicating certainty)
○ Exclamation : a word or phrase that expresses strong emotion, such as surprise, pleasure, or anger
● closed class words : word classes that do not admit new members, including prepositions, conjunctions, determiners and pronouns
○ Pronoun : used in place of a noun that is already known
■ Relative: relate subordinate adjective clauses to the rest of the sentence (that, which, who, whom, whose, whichever, whoever,
whomever)
■ Personal: used in place of nouns referring to specific people or things (I, me, we, us; you; she, he, they, them)
■ Interrogative: used in a question (what, whom which, whom, whose)
■ Possessive: used to indicate ownership (my, your, his, her, it's)
■ Indefinite: anything, each, either, everything, nothing, something, both, few, many, all, any, most
■ Reflexive: myself
○ Preposition : a word governing, and usually preceding, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause, as
in ‘the man on the platform’, ‘she arrived after dinner’, ‘what did you do it for?’.
○ Conjunctions : used to connect phrases, clauses, and sentences
○ Determiner : a word that introduces a noun (a/an, the, every, this, those, or many)
○ Modal Auxiliaries : special verbs which behave irregularly that give additional information about the function of the main verb that follows it (can,
could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must)
○ Auxiliary Verb : a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it appears in order to express tense, aspect, modality,
etc. (am, is, was, do, did, has, have)
Language Function : The purpose and use of specific language subsystems in specific contexts.
● Metalanguage
● Referential
● Conative (persuasive)
● Ludic (wordplay)
● Expressive
● Phatic (language used for general purposes of social interaction, rather than to convey information, etc.)
● Transactional (language which is used to make a transaction and which has a result)
● Instrument of Thought
● Identity
Phoneme : The distinctive units of sound in a language (Australian English has 44 units of sound)
Voiced Sounds : Refers to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate when pronouncing a phoneme
Intonation : The pattern changes in pitch during speech.
IPA : An internationally recognized set of phonetic symbols, based on the principle of onetoone correspondence between sounds and symbols.
Sentence Hierarchy:
● word : c omposed of one or more morphemes
● phrase: composed of one or more words
● clause : composed of one or more phrases
● sentence : composed of one or more clauses
Coordinating Conjunctions:
A conjunction placed between words, phrases, clauses, or sentences of equal rank
● and (addition)
● but (contrast)
● or (alternative)
Subordinating Conjunctions:
A conjunction that introduces a subordinating clause (of less or secondary importance). Meanings expressed include t ime, place, purpose, condition and
reason .
● after
● although
● as
● because
● if
● that
● until
● while
<> (Main Clause) [ ] (Subordinate Clause)
Compound Sentences:
Involve two (or more) clauses linked together by coordinating conjunctions.
Examples: <I drove into the wrong house> a nd <I collided with a tree.>, <I ate a piece of cake> a
nd <I rode by bike.>
Complex Sentences:
Contain two (or more) clauses where the relationship of one is one of subordination. There is a main clause, and one (or more) subordinate clauses that form
part of the main clause. The linkers are subordinating conjunctions.
Examples: <She returned the computer> [a fter she noticed it was damaged.], <Let’s go back to the restaurant> [w here we had our first date.]
CompoundComplex Sentences:
As the name suggests, compoundcomplex sentences are composed of one (or more) coordinated clause and one (or more) subordinated clause.
Examples:
● <I had been driving for 40 years> [w hen i fell asleep at the wheel ] a nd <i had an accident>
● [ Although I like to do it],<I haven't had the time to go camping lately> a nd <I haven't found anyone to go with>
Sentence Types:
● Declarative: states a fact or an argument and ends with a full stop
● Imperative: gives a direct command. It can end in a full stop or an exclamation mark, depending on the forcefulness of the command.
● Interrogative: asks a direct question and always ends in a question mark.
● Exclamative: a more forceful version of a declarative sentence; expressive
Ellipsis: T he omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues. (...)
Vocative: U sed in addressing or invoking a person or thing. Generally referred to as a title.
Discourse Particles: A discourse particle is a lexeme that adds n o direct meaning in the context of a sentence , having rather a pragmatic function: it indicates
the speaker's attitude, or helps structure their interactions with other participants. In English, some of the most common discourse particles are w ell , y ou know
and l ike .
Fillers: A filler is a sound or word that is spoken in conversation to signal to others that they have paused to think but has not yet finished speaking. In
English, some of the most common filler sounds are ‘uh’ and ‘um’.
Idiolect: T he speech habits peculiar to a particular person.
Childhood Language Acquisition
Parentese (baby talk)
● A term used to describe the highly simplistic words adults use when speaking to very small children.
Stages in Language Acquisition
● Babbling (6 8 months) → The stage where an infant appears to be experimenting with uttering articulate sounds, but does not yet produce any
recognizable words.
● Oneword stage [Holophrastic] (9 18 months) → The stage where an infant utters single, openclass words or word stems
● Twoword stage (18 24 months) → The stage where an infant forms "minisentences" with simple semantic relations
● Telegraphic stage (24 30 months) → The stage where an infant creates sentences with " telegraphic" structure, containing just enough information for
the sentence to make sense. This stage contains many three and four word sentences. Sometime during this stage the child begins to see the links
between words and objects and therefore overgeneralization comes in.
Strategies used in Language Development
● Omission (beginning or end) leaving out sounds
● Elision (in connected speech) the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking
● Substitution replacing one sound with another
● Assimilation substituting one sound with a similar one
Innate (Noam Chomsky) Interactionist (Jean Piaget)
Linguist Noam Chomsky is the main advocate of the theory that language Cognition theory states that a child acquires language within the context
learning is innate or inborn . He believes c hildren are biologically of its intellectual development. Theorists would argue that children must
‘programmed’ to learn language in the same way they naturally learn to have developed cognitive foundations or thought structures in the
walk . When a child is exposed to speech, the child's brain will automatically same way that they must crawl and develop their muscles before they can
begin to make sense of the utterances because it has been 'programmed' to walk i n order to move on to the next stage of language ability .
do so. His original theory was that human beings are born with a l anguage
acquisition device (LAD) . For example, before children can use structures of comparison such as ‘my
dad is bigger than yours', they first need to have developed the ability to
This d evice within the brain holds those principals that are universal to make judgements about relative size.
all languages . C homsky and his followers now refer to the child’s innate
ability to learn grammar as U niversal Grammar (UG) . Noam Chomsky Psychologist Piaget claimed that there are many similarities between
claimed that h umans have a b iological disposition to develop language . language acquisition and cognitive development . The development of
The view that certain grammatical knowledge is innate is known as object permanence (the ability to realise that objects have an existence
‘ nativism ’. independent of one's interaction with them), which develops during the first
two years of life, enables a child to experience a rapid growth in their ability
● Learning is innate or inborn to name objects.
● Children are biologically programmed to learn language
● Humans born with ‘language acquisition device’ Children during the first twentyfour months also develop the ability to
● A child does not need a trigger to begin language acquisition, it classify objects and actions, which could play a role in dividing words
happens on its own. into linguistic categories such as nouns and verbs.
● It does not matter if a child is corrected, they still grasp the language
in the same manner and speak the same way. ● Child acquires language within context of its intellectual development
● Universal grammar (children from different cultural groups learned ● Must have developed thought structures to move on to next stage of
similar words from similar categories) acquisition e.g. before making
● Ability of deaf to learn language shows that learning language is ● comparisons in size verbally, they must be able to make judgements
biologically determined about relative size
● Development of object permanence
Universal Grammar
The laws that govern all human languages, representing the universal
properties of languages.
Behavioural (Burrhus Skinner)
The behavioural approach emphasises that children learn to speak by
imitating the language the language they hear around them and by
positive reinforcement on the part of their caretakers . For example,
imitation m ay be an exact copy an utterance the child has heard, or it may
be an imitation that only partially resembles a previously heard
utterance and the child then substitutes words within the frame of the
utterance that they are imitating.
Behaviourist Skinner believed that language is acquired through
principles of conditioning, including association, imitation, and
reinforcement. According to this view, c hildren learn words by
associating sounds with objects, actions, and events . They also learn
words and syntax by imitating others. A dults enable children to learn
words and syntax by reinforcing correct speech.
● Child learn to speak by imitating language and receiving positive
reinforcement
● Imitation may be an exact copy, or a modified utterance into which
words are substituted.
● Skinner: language is acquired through conditioning, including
association, imitation, and reinforcement.
○ Children learn words by associating sounds with objects,
actions, and events.
Spoken Language
Transcription of Speech
● Each line represents one intonation unit (each breath)
● Continuing intonation units are marked with a comma
● Final intonation units are marked with a full stop or a question mark if the intonation is rising
● Long pauses are shown by three dots (...); shorter pauses are shown by two dots (..).
● Lengthened syllables are marked with an equals sign (=)
● Pitch can be indicated with slashes and dashes. ‘/’ for rising pitch, ‘’ for level pitch, ‘\’ for falling pitch
● Laughter is indicated by the at sign (@)
● Speech that is soft is marked ‘<P P>’ or ‘<PP PP>’ if it is very soft.
● Speech that is loud is marked ‘<F F>’ or ‘<FF FF>’ is it is very loud
● Speech that gets louder is marked ‘<CR CR>’
● Tempo can be marked ‘<A A>’ for fast speech, and ‘<L L>’ for slow speech
● Rhythmic speech is marked ‘<RH RH>’
● Truncated words are marked with a hyphen ‘’
● Emphatic stress is marked with a carat ‘^’
Discourse Particles
A discourse marker is a word or phrase that does not change the truth conditional meaning of the sentence, and has a somewhat empty meaning. Examples
include the particles "oh", "well", "now", "then", "you know", and "I mean", and the 'discourse connectives', "so", "because", "and", "but", and "or".
Filler
Fillers are parts of speech which are not generally recognized as purposeful or containing formal meaning, usually expressed as pauses such as “uh”, “err”
and “ah”, but also extending to self correction ("He was wearing a black—uh, I mean a blue, a blue shirt")
Hedging
A hedge is a mitigating word or sound used to lessen the impact of an utterance. Typically, they are adjectives or adverbs, but can also consist of clauses. It
could be regarded as a form of euphemism.
Examples:
● There might just be a few i nsignificant problems we need to address. (adjective)
● The party was s omewhat spoiled by the return of the parents. (adverb)
● I'm not an expert but you might want to try restarting your computer. (clause)
False Start
Common in spontaneous speech where the speaker begins an utterance then self corrects and rephrases.
Reduction
Shortening of words in speech
Elision
Loss of sound in connected speech
Prosodic Features
Features that appear when we put sounds together in connected speech.
● Stress
● Pitch
● Volume
● Speed
● Tone
Speech vs Written Language
● Writing is usually permanent a nd written texts cannot usually be changed. S peech is usually transient , unless recorded, and s peakers can
correct themselves and change their utterances as they go along.
● Written language tends to be more complex and intricate than speech with l onger sentences and m any subordinate clauses . S
poken
language tends to be full of repetitions, incomplete sentences, corrections and interruptions.
● Writers receive no immediate feedback from their readers . Therefore they cannot rely on context to clarify things so there is more need to
explain things clearly and unambiguously. S peech is usually a dynamic interaction between two or more people. Context and shared knowledge
play a major role , so it is possible to leave much unsaid or indirectly implied .
● Writers can make use of punctuation, headings, and other graphical effects in their written texts. Speech can use timing, tone, volume, and timbre to
add emotional context.
● Written material can be read repeatedly and closely analysed, and notes can be made on the writing surface. Only recorded speech can be used in
this way.