Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University

MananaRusieshvili
RusudanDolidze

READINGS
in
ENGLISH PHILOLOGY

Materials for
SEMINARS
 წინამდებარე სახელმძღვანელო გახლავთ კურსის “ინგლისური ფილოლოგიის შესავალი” სე-
მინარების მასალების წიგნად გამოცემის პირველი ცდა. მის შესაქმნელად გვიბიძგა ორმა გარემოე-
ბამ: ამგვარი ნაშრომების სიმცირემ და დიდმა სურვილმა, ქართველ სტუდენტებს ჰქონოდათ ისეთი
მასალა, რომელიც მათ გააცნობდა საენათმეცნიერო ტექსტების ენას, შეუქმნიდა ზოგად წარმოდგე-
ნას ენათმეცნიერების მნიშვნელოვანი თეორიებისა და თანამედროვე პრობლემატიკის შესახებ და
ასევე, უზრუნველყოფდა ინგლისური ენის სწავლების თანამედროვე მეთოდიკის გათვალისწინებით
შედგენილი სავარჯიშოებით.
სახელმძღვანელო გათვალისწინებულია ინგლისური ფილოლოგიის სპეციალობის სტუდენ-
ტებისათვის, თუმცა მასში აღწერილმა პრობლემატიკამ შესაძლოა დააინტერესოს ნებისმიერი
მკითხველი.

რედაქტორები: პროფესორი ტ რ ე ვ ო რ კ ა რ ტ ლ ე ჯ ი
ასოც.პროფესორი გიორგი ყუფარაძე

რეცენზენტები: პროფესორი მ ა ი კ ლ ბ ე რ მ ა ნ ი
ფილოლოგიისდოქტორი რუსუდან ტყემალაძე

This textbook is intended for use at the seminars of the theoretical course entitled The
Introduction to English Philology. It intends to raise the students’ awareness of the latest linguistic
theories and also of so-me of the essential issues concerning the state-of-the-art of contemporary
linguistics. In addition to the the-ory, the practice section is based on the latest approaches to ELT.
The textbook is written for the students of English Philology though the issues discussed here
may be of interest to a wider public.

Editors: Professor T r e v o r C a r t l e d g e
Associate Professor G i o r g i K u p a r a d z e

Reviewers: Professor M i c h a e l B e r m a
Tkemaladze
n Doctor of Philology R u s u d
an

wigni gamosca Tsu gamomcemlobam, 2013

Published by TSU Press, 2013

ISBN 978-9941-13-299-5
Contents
PAGE
UNITS READING S
Unit 1 p. 5 ‐ 16
Reading 1 The origin of of alphabet p. 5
Reading 2 The Georgian Alphabet p. 10
Reading 3 The English Alphabet p. 13
UNIT 2 p. 17 ‐26
Reading 1 How did languages originate? p. 17
Reading 2 Germanic Languages p. 20
Reading 3 Caucasian Languages p. 23
UNIT 3 p. 27 ‐ 39
Reading 1 What does Phonetics study? p. 27
Reading 2 L. Bloomfield ‐ Language p. 32
Reading 3 D. Crystal – Vanishing Languages p. 36
UNIT 4 p. 40 ‐ 44
Reading 1 Most popular theories of Formal Linguistics p. 40
Reading 2 Areas of Formal Linguistics p. 42
UNIT 5 p. 45 ‐ 52
Reading 1 Words, words, words p. 45
Reading 2 Does Internet improve spelling? p. 47
Reading 3 Cannot chimpanzees talk? p. 50
UNIT 6 p. 53 ‐ 60
Reading 1 Functions of the language p. 53
Reading 2 Functions of the language (macro‐ and micro functions) p. 58
TEST Self‐Assessment Test 1 (units 1‐6) p. 61 ‐ 64
UNIT 7 p. 65 ‐ 70
Reading 1 Dictionaries p. 65
Reading 2 What is Lexicography? p. 68
Unit 8 p. 71 ‐ 77
Reading 1 Development of the English language p. 71
Reading 2 Lingua Franca p. 74
3
 PAGE
UNITS READING S
UNIT 9 p. 78 ‐86
Reading 1 English ‐ lingua franca of the Internet p. 78
Reading 2 World linguas Franca p. 81
Reading 3 Varieties of English p. 85
UNIT 10 p. 87 ‐100
Reading 1 Borrowings in English p. 87
Reading 2 French borrowings p. 91
Reading 3 The Georgian Language in History p. 97
UNIT 11 p. 101‐ 109
Reading 1 Sociolinguistics p. 101
Reading 2 Language and social interaction p. 105
Reading 3 Psycholinguistics p.108
UNIT 12 p. 110 ‐121
Reading 1 Oscar Wilde p. 110
Reading 2 The Nightingale and the Rose p. 114
Reading 3 The Nightingale and the Rose (continued) p. 118
UNIT 13 p. 122‐127
Reading 1 The Nightingale and the Rose (continued) p.122
Reading 2 The Nightingale and the Rose (continued) p.125
UNIT 14 p.128‐136
Reading 1 Ernest Hemingway p.128
Reading 2 Cat in the Rain p.131
Reading 3 Cat in the Rain (continued) p.134
TEST Self‐Assessment Test 2 (units 7‐12) p. 137 ‐ 142
KEYS
Self‐Assessment Test 1 (units 1‐6) p.140
Self‐Assessment Test 2 (units 7‐12) p.141
4
UNIT 1

READING 1

When and Where did the Alphabet Originate?

The alphabet is a set of letters or characters

representing sounds. It is used in writing a language.
The word is derived from “alpha” and “beta”, the first
two letters of the Greek alphabet. The English
language uses the twenty-six letter alphabet, called
the Roman. It is however interesting to note that the
Romans were not the original inventors of the
English alphabet; they merely improved upon the
system of writing that had already been in existence
for thousands of years.

Reading 1

The origin of writing types of alphabet

In ancient times people mostly communicated by speaking or making gestures. Education was also gained
by word of mouth. All important events were memorised. Because of the non-existence of writing
systems, messages too had to be delivered verbally. This was obviously very inconvenient and people
began to look for easier means of communication.
The earliest forms of writing began with the expression of ideas through pictures; this is now studied
under the branch called Ideography. This mode of expression enabled people to communicate with each
other, however, it soon became inconvenient and time-consuming.

5
 Pictographs
Chinese Characters

In the next stage of writing studied under the branch of Logography, people exchanged thoughts and
ideas through signs that stood for certain words. For instance, instead of drawing a basket of fruits, people
now drew only one sign for the basket and another for fruits.

People then started following a Syllabic system in which a particular sign could be used for any other
phonetic combination that sounded like that word. This form of writing is also called Rebus writing.

The Alphabet system was finally invented in which individual signs stood for particular sounds.
Nowadays, most important written languages of the world follow the alphabet system.

A History of the Alphabet

The earliest was the Egyptian writing, which was a sort of "picture writing". It was invented around
3000BC. In this system of writing several hundred signs stood for full words or syllables. They could
either represent the whole word by a single sign or by appropriate signs for each sound. Phoenician
writing was developed about 1000BC. Early Phoenician writing was a mixture of borrowed pictographic
forms and invented geometric signs. The Cypriot style of writing developed by the peoples of the Cyprus
islands was a collection of 56 signs. The Greek alphabet was invented about 800 BC. The Greek style was
greatly influenced by the Phoenician writing, whose symbols were modified to form the twenty-four-
letter Greek alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet included more consonants than the Greeks used and, as a
result, the Greeks introduced more vowel sounds. The Greek alphabet could now be used to spell out any
word. Phoenician names and their signs, in most cases, were adopted by the Greeks for their alphabet.
For example, the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet called aleph became alpha; the second, beth
became beta and so on. The Etruscan alphabet was influenced by the Greek alphabet and the Roman
alphabet was a modification of the Etruscan style, initially consisting of twenty letters, gradually gaining
three more. The English alphabet developed from a number of early writing systems. Linguists today use
an almost perfect alphabet, the International Phonetic Alphabet, which has

6
more than eighty characters because the regular English alphabet today is not suited to writing words in
English. That is to say, the regular English alphabet does not have a separate character for every
distinctive sound in the language.

Chinese is the only language that does not have an alphabetical system of writing. The Chinese mostly
make use of pictographic characters. Some Chinese characters can be used in expressing syllables of
proper names or foreign words. Japanese is basically copied from Chinese; the only difference being that
their characters represent either syllables or words.

1. Match the words with their Georgian definitions:

1 expression a იეროგლიფი
2 non-existence b მოდიფიცირებული
3 inconvenient c შესაფერისი
4 syllabic d გადაღებული
5 appropriate e შეძენა
6 borrowed f არარსებობა
7 modified g ნასესხები
8 character h გამოხატვა
9 gain i მოუხერხებელი
10 copied j მარცვლოვანი

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2. Match the words with their synonyms:

1 copy a stand for

2 draw b contain
3 appropriate c independent
4 modify d rewrite
5 represent e sketch
6 influence f suitable
7 separate g learn
8 study h affect
9 include i change

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
7
3. State whether the following statements are True or False:

1. In Phoenician writing several hundred signs stood for full words or syllables. T F
2. The Greek style was greatly influenced by the Phoenician writing. T F
3. The Egyptian writing was not a picture writing. T F
4. Phoenician names and their signs were adopted by the Greeks for their T F
alphabet.
5. The Roman alphabet was a modification of the Greek style. T F
6. Chinese has an alphabetical system of writing. T F
7. The only difference between Japanese and Chinese is that their characters T F
represent either syllables or words.
8. Ideography was inconvenient and time–consuming. T F
9. The Greek alphabet was invented about 600 BC. T F
10. The regular English alphabet provides a separate character for every sound. T F

4. Fill in the sentences using appropriate words or phrases:

1. _____________________ was developed about 1000BC.

2. ___________________ was invented about 800 BC.

3. ___________________ was influenced by the Greek alphabet and was developed about
1000 BC.

4. _____________________ was a modification of the Etruscan style.

5. _____________________ make use of pictographic characters as they do not have a writing system.

6. The people of the Cyprus islands developed _________________________ which

was a collection of 56 signs.

8
5. Fill in the gaps with the words from the box:

Developed from peoples adopt illiterate

Empire came northern collapsed history

The Latin alphabet

The Etruscan 1………………………………. of Italy picked up the alphabet from the Greeks,
in about the 7th Century BC, and 2. ………………………….. the Etruscans it ultimately
3. ……………………………… to the Romans.

During its nearly a thousand-year 4. ……………………………, the Roman Republic and later
the Roman 5. ……………………………. grew to be the most influential power in the world,
and one of the most influential empires of history. At its height the Roman Empire spread from England

to 6. ……………………………….. Africa, from Spain to Mesopotamia.

The Roman Empire 7. …………………………….. in the 5th Century AD, but its alphabet would remain.
The 8. ……………………………… barbarians who conquered the remains of the Roman Empire would
ultimately 9. ……………………… its alphabet as they 10. ………………………………….. their own
written languages.

9
Reading 2

The Georgian Alphabet

The Georgian alphabet is the writing system used in Georgian and other Kartvelian languages (Svan and
Megrelian).

The word meaning "alphabet," Georgian ანბანი, is derived from the first two letters of each of the three
Georgian alphabets. The three alphabets look very dissimilar to one another but share the same
alphabetic order and letter names. The alphabets may be considered mixed to some extent, though in
Georgian there is normally no distinction between upper and lower cases in any of the alphabets.

Writing of the Georgian language has progressed through three forms, known by their Georgian names:
Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri, and Mkhedruli. They have always been distinct alphabets, even though they
have been used together to write the same languages, and alphabets share the same letter names.
Although the most recent alphabet Mkhedruli, contains more letters than the two historical ones, those
extra letters are no longer needed for writing modern Georgian.

The Georgian kingdom of Iberia was converted to Christianity as early as the 330s AD. Scholars believe
that the first Old Georgian alphabet was modelled upon the Greek alphabet. The alphabet made it easier
for the Georgians of that period to read religious scriptures. This happened in the 4th or 5th century,
shortly after the conversion. The oldest uncontested example of Georgian writing is an Asomtavruli
inscription from 430 AD in a church in Bethlehem.

Georgian historical tradition attributes the invention of the Georgian alphabets to one of the kings,
Parnavaz I of Iberia in the 3rd century BC. Examples of the earliest alphabet, Asomtavruli (also known as
Mrgvlovani), are still preserved in monumental inscriptions such as those of the Georgian church in
Bethlehem (near Jerusalem 430 AD) and the church of Bolnisi Sioni near Tbilisi (4th-5th cc.). The
Nuskhuri (ნუსხური "minuscule, lowercase") alphabet first appeared in the 9th century. It was mostly
used in ecclesiastical works. Nuskhuri is related to the word nuskha (ნუსხა "inventory, schedule"). The
currently used alphabet called Mkhedruli (მხედრული, "cavalry" or

10
"military"), first appeared in the 11th century. It was used for non-religious purposes up until the
eighteenth century, when it completely replaced the Khutsuri style (which used the two previous
alphabets). Mkhedruli is related to mkhedari (მხედარი, "horseman", "knight", or "warrior"); Khutsuri is
related to khutsesi (ხუცესი, "elder" or "priest").

1. Match the words with their Georgian meanings:

1 dissimilar a დიდი ასო

2 distinction b შეიცავს
3 upper case c წარწერა
4 lower case d შენარჩუნება
5 contains e პატარა ასო
6 uncontested f განსხვავებული
7 scripture g განსხვავება
8 inscription h უდავო
9 preserve i საღმრთო წერილი, ბიბლია
10 minuscule j პატარა

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2. State whether the following statements are T or F

1 Georgian has two types of alphabet. T F

2 All the Georgian alphabets look similar. T F
3 Georgian does not use upper and lower case in alphabets. T F
4 These alphabets have common letter names and alphabetic order. T F
5 The three forms of the alphabet are not independent from each other. T F
6 Mkhedruli still actively uses extra letters. T F
7 Mkhedruli contains the fewest letters of the three alphabets. T F
8 Khutsuri was completely replaced by Mkhedruli in the 11th century. T F
9 The use of the alphabet made it easy to read literature. T F
10 Mkhedruli was introduced for religious purposes. T F

11
3. Finish the sentences using appropriate words or phrases:

1. It is believed that the first Georgian alphabet was modelled upon _____________ .

2. The first Georgian alphabet was introduced in the ________________ century.

3. There are three Georgian alphabets known which are:______________________ .

4. ______________________ contains more letters than the two historical alphabets.

5. The inscription in a church in Bethlehem is the oldest uncontested example of ___

______________ .

6. Asomtavruli is sometimes referred to as ____________________________ .

7. Bolnisi Sioni was built in ________________________________ .

8. Until __________________________ Mkhedruli was used for non-religious purposes.

9. _____________________________________ first appeared in the 9th century.

10. Nuskha in Georgian means _____________________________ .

12
Reading 3

The English Alphabet

The modern English alphabet is a Latin-based alphabet consisting of 26 letters – the same letters that are
found in the Basic modern Latin alphabet:

Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)

A B C D E F G H I J K L MNO P Q R S T U VWX Y Z

Minuscule Forms (also called lowercase or small letters)

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p
q r s t u v w x y z

The exact shape of printed letters varies depending on the typeface. The shape of handwritten letters can
differ significantly from the standard printed form (and between individuals), especially when written in
cursive style. Written English also uses a number of digraphs, but they are not considered to be part of
the alphabet.

The English language was first written in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet, in use from the fifth
century. This alphabet was brought to what is now England, along with the proto- form of the language
itself, by Anglo-Saxon settlers. Very few examples of this form of written Old English have survived,
these being mostly short inscriptions or fragments.

The Latin alphabet was introduced by Christian missionaries and it began to replace the Anglo- Saxon
futhorc from about the seventh century, although the two continued in parallel for some time. Later
Latin borrowings re-introduced homographs into Middle and Early Modern English.

The names of the letters are rarely spelled out, except when used in derivations or compound words (e.g.
tee-shirt, deejay, okay, etc.), derived forms (e.g. exed out), and in the names of objects named after letters
(e.g. em (space) in printing and wye (junction) in railroading). The forms listed below are from the
Oxford English Dictionary. Vowels stand for themselves, and consonants usually have the form
consonant + ee or e + consonant (e.g. bee and ef). The exceptions are the letters aitch, jay, kay, cue, ar, ess
(but es- in compounds ), wye, and zed. Plurals of consonants end in -s or, in the cases of aitch, es, and ex,
in -es. Of course, all letters may stand for themselves, generally in capitalised form (okay or OK), and
plurals may be based on these (As, Bs, etc.)

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Letter Letter name Pronunciation
A ei /eɪ/
B bee /bi:/
C cee /si:/
D dee /di:/
E e /i:/
F ef /ɛf/
G gee /dʒi:/

H
aitch /eɪtʃ/
haitch /heɪtʃ/
I i /aɪ/

J jay /dʒeɪ/
jy /dʒaɪ/
K kay /keɪ/
L el /ɛl/
M em /ɛm/

N en /ɛn/
O o /oʊ/
P pee /pi:/
Q cue /kju:/
R ar /ɑr/
S ess (es-) /ɛs/
T tee /ti:/
U you /ju:/
V vee /vi:/
W double-you /dʌbəlju:/ in
careful speech
X ex /ɛks/
Y wy or wye /waɪ/
zed /zɛd/
Z zee /zi:/
izzard /ɪzərd/

Some groups of letters, such as pee and bee, or em and en, are easily confused in speech, especially when
heard over the telephone or a radio communications link. Spelling alphabets such as the one used by
aircraft pilots, police and others, are designed to eliminate this potential confusion by giving each letter a
name that sounds quite different from any other. For instance, table can be spelt out like this: Trevor,
Anna, Bob, Lowri, Esther.

14
1. Match the words with their Georgian definitions:

1 varies a გადარჩენა
2 significantly b ასო–ასო დამარცვლა
3 cursive c გამონაკლისი
4 survive d ჩამოთვლილი
5 rarely e მნიშვნელოვნად
6 spell out f იშვიათად
7 listed g გაუქმება
8 based h იცვლება
9 exception i კურსივი
10 eliminate j დაფუძნებული

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2. Find the following words in the text:

1. მცხოვრებნი ___________________ 6. თანხმოვანი __________________

2. განსხვავდებიან ___________________ 7. მრავლობითი __________________
3. ზუსტი ___________________ 8. ხმოვანი __________________
4. ხელნაწერი ___________________ 9. არევ-დარევა __________________
5. დიგრაფი ___________________ 10. თავიდან შემოყვანა __________________

3. Fill in the gaps with appropriate words:

The Greek Alphabet

It is 1 ……………………………. the Greeks that we get our name for the word “alphabet.”
It comes from 2 …………………………….. first two letters of their alphabet, Alpha and
Beta. Scholars are not quite sure when the Greeks first came 3 …………………………..
contact with the Phoenician alphabet;

The Greeks were the first to introduce vowels 4 ……………………………. the alphabet. While
the Phoenicians did have the letter “aleph” which became “alpha,” it originally represented a guttural
tone, rather than what we consider the letter “a.” Within Greece

15
5 ……………………………… were many different alphabets, most of 6 …………………………. had
about 25 letters and were mostly similar, 7 …………………………… some slight differences.

Many of the new countries formed in the aftermath of the Roman Empire would actually adopt Latin 8
………………………….. their language as well as the Latin alphabet.
Spanish, Portuguese, French, Romanian, and Italian are all descended 9 ……………… the
Latin language. Countries such as Germany and England that did not adopt the Latin language still
adopted the Latin alphabet into 10 …………… written language.

Speaking

Discuss the following questions and report to the group:

1. Who introduced the Latin alphabet to Anglo-Saxons?

2. What do you know about Christian missionaries?

3. What do you understand by “spelling alphabet”? Give examples.

Writing

Write about the development of the alphabet (150-200 words)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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………………………

16
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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UNIT 2

READING 1

How did languages originate?

Nobody knows exactly how many languages there are in the world, partly because of the difficulty of
distinguishing between a language and a sub-language (or dialects within it). One authoritative source
that has collected data from all over the world, the Ethnologue, listed the total number of languages as
6,809.

The famous linguist Noam Chomsky argued that the inborn ability of children to acquire the grammar
necessary for a language can be explained only if one assumes that all grammars are variations of a single
‘Universal Grammar’, and that all human brains come ‘with a built-in language organ that contains this
language blueprint’.

Explaining this ‘innate ability’, a ‘universal grammar’, and the ‘built-in language organ’ of humans has
proved to be impossible! Steven Pinker, the eminent psychologist wrote that the number of living
languages with different structures and characters represents one of the most challenging problems of
science. However, it is still apparent that the whole variety of dialects and sub-languages has developed
from a relatively few (perhaps even less than twenty) languages. These original ‘proto-languages’- from
which all others allegedly have developed — were distinct within themselves, with no previous ancestral
language. Carl Wieland rightly remarked: ‘The evidence wonderfully agrees with the notion that a small
number of languages, separately created at Babel, has given us the huge variety of languages we have
today’.
17
1. State whether the following statements are True or False:

1 The exact number of living languages is not known. T F

2 Chomsky argued that children are able to learn languages because of T F
their ability to learn grammar.
3 According to Chomsky all the grammars come from one grammar. T F
4 Later research proved this theory to be right. T F
5 Linguists don’t think that all the languages came from several languages T F
6 A Proto-language means the original language . T F

2. Match the words with their Georgian definitions:

1. partly a სწავლა
2. distinguish b ნაწილობრივ
3. inborn c წინაპრების
4. acquire d გეგმა
5 assume e შექმნა
6. total f შეიცავს
7. ancestral g თანდაყოლილი
8. contains h მთლიანი
9. blueprint i გარჩევა ( განარჩევს)
10. create j ჩათვლა

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

18
3. Write the synonyms of the following words:

1. eminent ___________________
2. challenging ___________________
3. apparent ___________________
4. allege ___________________
5. built-in ___________________
6. huge ___________________
7. remark ___________________

4. Replace the underlined words with their antonyms :

1. The number of living languages is still unknown. ______________

2. It is possible to define the number of words in English. ____________

3. The evidence shows that today there is a huge variety of languages .

_______________

4. People assume that our languages came from several original languages.
_______________ .

19
Reading 2

Germanic languages

The Germanic Family of Languages

The Indo-European family of languages has the greatest number of speakers, spoken in most of Europe
and the areas of Europe and in southwestern and southern Asia. All of these languages are descended
from a single unrecorded language which was spoken more than 5,000 years ago in the steppe regions
north of the Black Sea and which split into a number of dialects by 3000 BC. Carried by migrating tribes
to Europe and Asia, these dialects developed into separate languages. The main branches are Anatolian,
Indo-Iranian (including Indo-Aryan and Iranian), Greek, Italic, Germanic, Armenian, Celtic and
Albanian.
Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, comprising
languages which descended from Proto-Germanic. These are divided into West
Germanic, including English, German, Frisian, Dutch, Afrikaans, and Yiddish; North
Germanic, including Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Faeroese (the
language of the Faroe Islands); and East Germanic, now extinct, comprising Gothic
and the languages of the Vandals, Burgundians, and a few other tribes. The Gothic
Bible of AD 350 is the earliest extensive Germanic text. The West Germanic languages
emerged around the North Sea and in overseas areas were colonized by their
speakers. The North Germanic or Scandinavian languages were carried as far west as
Greenland and as far east as Russia in the Viking expansion of the early Middle Ages.
The continental Scandinavian languages were strongly influenced by Low German in
the late Middle Ages, but Icelandic and Faeroese have preserved many characteristics
of Old Scandinavian grammar.
(www. britannica.com)

20
1. State whether the statements are True or False:

1. Proto-Germanic language was spoken more than 6 500 years ago. T F

2. Proto-Germanic language split into several dialects by 3000 BC. T F
3. Greek is one of the branches of the Germanic languages. T F
4. Afrikaans is one of the languages of the West Germanic branch. T F
5. The Burgundian belongs to the North Germanic branch of languages. T F
6. Icelandic and Faeroese are similar to Old Scandinavian Grammar T F
in many ways.
7. The East Germanic language is still active today. T F

2. Draw a family tree of the Germanic languages:

Germanic Languages

West Germanic North Germanic East Germanic

1. English 1. Danish 1. Gothic
2. 2. 2.
3. 3. 3.
4. 4.
5. 5.
6.

3. Match the words with their Georgian definitions:

1. unrecorded a გახლეჩა
2. comprise b გადაშენებული
3. steppe c დამწერლობის გარეშე
4. descend d შედგენა
5. migration e სტეპი
6. tribes f წარმოშობა

21
7. preserve g ფართო
8. split h ტომები
9. extensive i შენახვა
10. extinct j მიგრაცია

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4. Write the Georgian equivalents of the following words:

1. Anatolian ______________ 6. Afrikaans ______________

2. Italic ______________ 7. Dutch ______________
3. Albanian ______________ 8. Yiddish ______________
4. Celtic ______________ 9. Faeroese ______________
5. Frisian ______________ 10. Swedish ______________

22
Reading 3

Caucasian Languages

A group of languages spoken in the Caucasus region which does not contain members of any language
families spoken elsewhere in the world. Caucasian languages, spoken by some nine million people, are
divided into three subgroups: the South Caucasian, or Kartvelian family; the Northwest Caucasian, or
Abkhaz-Adyghe languages; and the Northeast Caucasian, or Nakh-Dagestanian languages. Kartvelian,
with more than 4.5 million speakers, comprises four relatively closely related languages, including
Georgian. Northwest Caucasian languages include Abkhaz and a chain of dialects called collectively
Circassian. The North-East Caucasian languages are further divided into two groups, Nakh and
Dagestanian. The Nakh languages include Chechen and Ingush, spoken by more than a million people
mainly in Chechnya and Ingushetia. Dagestanian is an extraordinarily diverse group of 25 – 30 languages
spoken by some 1.7 million people mainly in northern Azerbaijan and the Republic of Dagestan. Several
Dagestanian languages, including Avar, Lak, Dargva (Dargwa), and Lezgian, number their speakers in the
hundreds of thousands; others are spoken in only a few villages. In spite of their great diversity, most
Caucasian languages have in common large consonant inventories; in some languages the number of
consonants distinguished approaches 80. Those Caucasian languages with standard written forms employ
the Cyrillic alphabet, with the prominent exception of Georgian. An effort is being made to introduce the
Latin alphabet for Chechen in Chechnya.

( www.britannica.com)

23
1. State whether the following statements are True or False:

1. Caucasian languages are divided into four groups. T F

2. Abkhazian belongs to Kartvelian languages. T F
3. Most Caucasian languages possess many consonants. T F
4. Georgian uses Cyrillic as an alphabet. T F
5. The Chechen language uses Latin alphabet. T F
6. Ingush and Chechen belong to one and the same group. T F
7. Daghestanian belongs to the South-East Caucasian languages. T F
8. Lak belongs to Kartvelian languages. T F
9. Dagestanian includes about 25 small languages. T F
10. The Kartvelian group includes 4 languages. T F

2. Fill in the blanks with the words from the box:

Georgian consonant word earliest appeared Caucasian

The Georgian language

Georgian is unique among 1. ………………….. languages in having an ancient literary

tradition. The 2. …………………… attestation of the language is an inscription of AD 430 in
a church in Palestine, in a script ancestral to that used for Old Georgian (5th – 11th cc.). The script used
to write Modern 3. …………………….. , with 33 characters and no distinction between upper- and
lowercase, was an offshoot of a script that first 4.
……………………… in the 10th century. Georgian has features typical of other Caucasian
languages, including a large 5. …………………………. inventory (with clusters of up to six
consonants appearing at the beginning of a 6. ……………………..).

24
3. Fill in the appropriate missing parts :

1. Caucasian languages are divided into three subgroups: __________________

_______________________________________ .

2. Circassian is a collective name used to refer to __________________________

________________________________________ .

3. The North-East Caucasian languages are further divided into two groups ________
___________________________________________ .

4. In some Caucasian languages the number of consonants approaches ______

___________________ .

5. Several Dagestanian languages, including ________________________ are spoken by

hundreds of thousands of people.

Speaking:

Discuss the following issues and report to the group: Which languages are members of the Kartvelian
group of languages ? Briefly characterise them.

Project

1. In groups, find more information and characterise West Germanic and Kartvelian languages. Base
the research on the following criteria:

a) their geographical location;

b) the number of people speaking each of them;

c) their structural and morphological characteristics.

25
 2. Look at the Indo-European tree, choose a group and characterize it.

26
UNIT 3

READING 1

What does Phonetics study?

Phonetics (from the Greek word phone = sound/volume) is a fundamental branch of Linguistics which
studies speech sounds and itself has three different aspects: a) Articulatory Phonetics which describes
how vowels and consonants are produced or “articulated” in various parts of the mouth and throat; b)
Acoustic Phonetics which studies how speech sounds are transmitted. When a sound travels through the
air from the speaker's mouth to the hearer's ear, it forms vibrations in the air; c) Auditory Phonetics,
which studies how speech sounds are perceived; it also looks at the way in which the hearer’s brain
transforms the sound waves back into the vowels and consonants as originally intended by the speaker.

Closely associated with Phonetics is another branch of Linguistics known as Phonology. Phonology deals
with the way speech sounds behave in particular languages or in languages generally. This focuses on the
way languages use differences between sounds in order to convey different meaning. All theories of
phonology hold that spoken language can be broken into a string of sound units which are called
phonemes. A phoneme is defined as the smallest ‘distinctive unit sound’ of a language. Thus, it
distinguishes one word from another in a given language. For

27
instance, in Georgian ქუდი - კუდი differ only by one sound /ქ/-/კ/; but changing a phoneme in a word
produces another word that has a different meaning. Another example: in the pair of words (minimal
pairs) 'cat' and 'bat' the distinguishing sounds /k/ and /b/, on the one hand, and /ქ/-/კ/, on the other, are
phonemes.

The phoneme is an abstract term (a speech sound as it exists in the mind of the speaker) and it is specific
to a particular language. A phoneme may have several allophones which are the related sounds that are
distinct but do not change the meaning of a word when they are interchanged. The sounds corresponding
to the letter "t" in the English words 'tea' and 'trip' are not in fact quite the same. The position of the
tongue is slightly different, which causes a difference in sound detectable by an instrument such as the
speech spectrograph. Thus the [t] in 'tea' and the [t] in 'trip' are allophones of the phoneme /t/.

Phonology is the link between Phonetics and the rest of Linguistics. Only by studying both phonetics and
phonology of English it becomes possible to acquire a full understanding of the use of sounds in the
English speech.

1. Match the words with their Georgian definitions:

1. fundamental a აკუსტიკური
2. articulatory b შესამჩნევი
3. acoustic c დისტინქტიური (განმასხვავებელი)
4. distinctive d ტვინი
5. transmit e ფუნდამენტური
6. perceive f წარმოთქმის შემსწავლელი
7. transform g დარგი
8. detectable h გადაქცევა
9. branch i გადაცემა
10. brain j აღქმა

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

28
2. State whether the following statements are True or False:

1. Articulatory Phonetics studies how speech sounds are transmitted. T F

2. Auditory Phonetics studies how speech sounds are perceived. T F
3. A phoneme does not have a meaning. T F
4. A phoneme distinguishes meanings. T F
5. Allophones of one and the same phoneme change the meaning. T F

3. Fill in the blanks with the words from the box:

Australian pronunciation Received British dictionaries

upper pronounce American regions accents phonologists

English Pronunciation

We use the term ‘accents’ to refer to differences in pronunciations. Pronunciation can vary with cultures,
1. ……………………… and speakers, but there are two major standard
varieties in English pronunciation: British English and 2. …………………… English.

Within British English and American English there are also a variety of 3. …………….. .
Some of them have received more attention than others from phoneticians and 4. ……………………

.These are Received pronunciation (RP)* and General American (GA).

5. ……………………….. pronunciation is a form of pronunciation of the English language,

sometimes defined as the "educated spoken English of southeastern England". RP is close to BBC English
(the kind spoken by 6. ……………………….. newscasters) and it is
represented in the pronunciation schemes of most British 7. …………………….. . RP is
rather a social accent than regional, associated with the educated 8. …………………….
classes (and/or people who have attended public schools) in Britain.

English 9. ………………………. is also divided into two main accent groups, the rhotic and
the non-rhotic, depending on when the phoneme /r/ is pronounced. Rhotic speakers

29
10. ………………………….. written "r" in all positions. Non-rhotic speakers pronounce "r"
only if it is followed by a vowel, such as in right, rain, room, Robert, far away, etc.

Non-rhotic accents are British Received Pronunciation and some other types of British English, 11.
……………………… , New Zealand and South African English. American
English is rhotic (the "r" is always pronounced), with the notable exception of the Boston area and New
York City. Rhotic accents can also be found in most of Canada. England is non-rhotic, apart from the

south-western England and some ever-diminishing northern areas. Scotland and Ireland are rhotic.

On this map of England, the red areas are where Map of rhoticity (pronounced non‐prevocalic "r")
the rural accents were rhotic as of the 1950s. in modern, i.e. late 20th century dialects in
Based on H. Orton et al., Survey of English England.
dialects (1962‐ 71).

* "Received" here is used in its older sense to mean "generally accepted".

30
4. Match the words with their Georgian definitions:

1. newscaster a რომელსაც ახასიათებს ბგერა r-ს წარმოთქმა

2. social b შესამჩნევი
3. rhotic c გამონაკლისი
4. notable d სხვადასხვაობა
5. exception e სტანდარტული
6. diminish f ახალი ამბების წამყვანი
7. standard g შემცირება
8. variety h სოციალური

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

31
Reading 2
Leonard Bloomfield

An American linguist, he began his career as a philologist

trained in Indo-European, especially Germanic languages.
Bloomfield was educated a Harvard University and the
Universities of Wisconsin and Chicago. He taught at
several universities before becoming professor of
Germanic philology at the University of Chicago (1927 –
1940) and professor of Linguistics at Yale University (1940
– 1949). In his book Language (1933), one of the clearest
20th century presentations of linguistics, the author
stressed the importance of the study of linguistic
phenomena in isolation from their nonlinguistic
environment and emphasised the need for empirical
description. His thinking was influence by his work on
non-Indo-European languages. The Menomini Language
(1962) is a paragon of linguistic description and American
Indian linguistic scholarship.

Leonard Bloomfield

(1887- 1949)

L. Bloomfield – Language

with a new foreword by C. F. Hochett 1984,

The University of Chicago Press

Language plays a great part in our life. Perhaps because of its familiarity, we rarely observe it, taking it for
granted, as we do breathing and walking. The effects of language are remarkable, and include much of what
distinguishes man from animals.

It is only within the last two centuries that language has been studied in a scientific way,
by careful and comprehensive observation.

32
 The most difficult step in the study of language is the first step. Linguistic science arose from relatively
practical ideas, such as the use of writing, the study of literature, especially of older records, and prescription
of elegant speech, but people can spend a lot of time on these things without actually entering upon a
linguistic study.

Writing is not language, but just a way of recording language by means of visible marks. In some
countries, such as China, Egypt and Mesopotamia, writing was practised thousands of years ago, but to
most of the languages that are spoken today it has been applied either in relatively recent times or not at
all. Moreover, until the days of printing, education was confined to a very few people. All languages
were spoken by people who did not read or write; the languages of such peoples are just as stable,
regular, and rich as the languages of literate nations.
A language is the same no matter what system of writing may be used to record it, as a person is the
same no matter how you take his picture. The Japanese have three systems of writing and they are
developing the fourth. When the Turks, in 1928, adopted the Latin alphabet in the place of Arabic, they
went on talking in just the same way as before. In order to study writing, we must know something
about language. (adapted from ‘The language’).

1. Match the words with their Georgian definitions:

1. familiarity a მოთხოვნა ( აქ)

2. rarely b ამომწურავი
3. observe c დასანახი, შესამჩნევი
4. remarkable d წიგნიერება
5. comprehensive e ჩინებული
6. prescription f დაკვირვება
7. visible g თანამედროვე
8. literacy h ნაცნობობა, სიახლოვე
9. confine i შემოფარგვლა
10. recent j იშვიათად

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

33
2. Match the following words to make up phrases from the text:

1. play a writing
2. do b upon the study
3. take for c an alphabet
4. enter d very few people
5. confine to e walking
6. develop f A great part
7. adopt g granted
8. study h a system

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

3. Write the corresponding noun of the following verbs:

1. observe________________
2. breathe________________
3. study ________________
4. enter ________________
5. record ________________
6. practise ________________
7. develop ________________
8. know ________________
9. prescribe ________________

4. Fill in the blanks with the derivatives of the words in bold:

1. know 3. psychology
2. speak 4. history

Linguistics is the study of language. 1. ……………………….. of linguistics, however, is

different from the knowledge of a language. Just as a person can drive a car without understanding the
engine, so, too, can a speaker use a language without any knowledge of its structure. Similarly, a
linguist can know and understand the structure of a language without actually 2………………….. it.
A linguist, then, is not an
34
individual who speaks more than one language. Rather, a linguist studies a language as a human
phenomenon. Linguists study grammar, the social and 3
……………………….. aspects of language use, and the relationships among languages,
both 4……………………………… and present-day.

Speaking

1. In pairs read the following paragraph by L. Bloomfield and discuss the following questions:
1. What does literature study?
2. What does linguistics study?
3. What do philologists study?

The student of literature studies the utterances of certain persons (say, of Shakespeare), the
content of their works and with the unusual expressions used by them. The interest of the
philologist is even broader, for he is concerned with the cultural significance and background of
what he reads. The linguist, on the other hand, studies the language of all persons alike; the
problem of how the language of a great writer differs from ordinary speech interests the linguist
no more than the individual features of any other person’s speech, and much less than the
features that are common to all speakers.
(Adapted from ‘The language’)

2. In pairs discuss why empirical description may be important for linguistic studies. Report your
findings to the group.

35
Reading 3

David Crystal

VANISHING LANGUAGES
When the last speakers go, they take with them their history and culture

There is a Welsh proverb I’ve known as long as I remember: ‘Cenedl heb iaitb, Cenedl heb gallon.’ It
means, ‘A nation without a language (is) a nation without a heart,’ and it’s become more poignant over
the years as more and more families in North Wales speak English instead of Welsh across the dinner
table.
Welsh, the direct descendant of the Celtic language that was spoken throughout of most Britain when the
Anglo-Saxons invaded, has long been under threat from English. England’s economic and technological
dominance has made English the language of choice, causing a decline in the number of Welsh speakers.
The Welsh language is really in trouble. Someday, it may join the rapidly growing list of extinct
languages…. A century from now, one half of the world’s 6,000 or more languages may be extinct.
There is some controversy over exactly how to count the number of languages in the world. A great deal
depends on whether the speech patterns of different communities are viewed as dialects of a single
language or separate languages.

36
Taking a conservative estimate of 6,000 languages worldwide, one fact becomes immediately clear:
Languages reveal enormous differences in populations. At one extreme, there is English, spoken by more
people globally than any other language in history, probably by a third of the world’s population as the
first, second or foreign language. At the other extreme is Ngarla (and most of the other languages of the
native peoples of Australia, Canada and the United States), whose total population of speakers may
amount to just one or two. And then there are closely related groups of languages like the Maric family in
Queensland, Australia which consists of 12 languages. When it was surveyed in 1981, only one of those,
Bidyara, had as many as 20 speakers. Most had fewer than five. Five of them had only one speaker each.

The loss of languages may have accelerated recently, but it is hardly a new problem. In the 19 th century,
there were more than 1,000 Indian languages in Brazil, many spoken in small, isolated villages in the rain
forest; today there are a mere 200, most of which have never been written down or recorded. In North
America, the 300 or more indigenous languages spoken in the past have been halved.
People sometimes talk of ‘the beauty of Italian’ or of ‘German authority,’ as if such characteristics might
make a language more or less influential. But there is no internal mechanism in a language that settles its
fate. Languages are not, in themselves, more or less powerful. People don’t adopt them because they are
more precise. They gain ascendancy when their speakers gain power and they die out when people die
out or disperse.
(From D. Crystal – Civilization, February-March, 1997, pp. 40-45)

1. Match the words with their Georgian definitions:

1. poignant a გავლენიანი
2. descendant b შთამომავალი
3. decline c მიმოფანტვა
4. extinct d მთლიანი
5. influential e გადაშენებული
6. disperse f დაკნინება
7. indigenous g მკვიდრი
8. total h მწვავე

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

37
 2. Fill in the blanks with the words from the box:

words written minority die dominant

only Empire Welsh language power

A language’s fortunes are tied to its culture’s. Just as one language holds sway over others when its
speakers gain 1. ......................... – politically, economically or
technologically – it diminishes, and may even die, when they lose that prominence. Latin, now used
almost exclusively in its 2. ........................ form, had its day as a world
language because of the power of Rome. English, once promoted by the British 3.
......................... , is thriving today chiefly because of the prominence of the USA. But it
was once an endangered 4. ...................... , threatened by the Norman invaders of Britain in the 11th
century, who brought with them a multiple of French 5. ........................ . In
South America, Spanish and Portuguese, the languages of colonialists, have replaced many of the
indigenous tongues.
There has been little research into exactly what happens when a language begins to 6.
..................... . The process depends on how long there has been contact between the
users of the minority language and their more powerful neighbours. If the contact has been minimal the
7. .................... language might remain almost unchanged until the last
of its speakers die. But if two languages have been in contact for generations, the 8.
....................... language will slowly erode the pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar of
the minority language. Take the Celtic languages of northwest Europe. Following the death of the last
mother-tongue speakers of Cornish (spoken in Cornwall until the 19th century) and Manx (spoken in the
Isle of Man until the 1940s), the 9. ........................
remaining Celtic languages are Breton (in northwest France), Irish and Scottish Gaelic, and 10. .................
. All have been in steady decline during the 20th century.
( from Crystal, Vanishing languages)

38
3. Match the following words to make phrases from the text:

1. causing a population
2. reveal b a decline
3. total c forest
4. isolated d prominence
5. rain e villages
6. Indigenous f decline
7. gain g power
8. die h differences
9. steady i out
10. lose j languages

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

39
UNIT 4

READING 1

Most Popular theories of Formal Linguistics

Formal linguistics studies how language works and how it is organised. Formal linguists study the
structures of different languages, and by identifying and studying the elements common among them, try
to discover the most efficient way to describe language in general. There are three main schools of
thought in formal linguistics:
(1) The "traditional," or "prescriptive”, approach to grammar is probably familiar to most of us. It is
what we are usually taught in school. "A noun is a person, place, or thing" is a typical definition in
traditional grammar. Such grammars typically prescribe rules of correct usage.
(2) "Structural linguistics” is principally an American phenomenon of the mid 20th century started by
Leonard Bloomfield. Structuralists are primarily concerned with phonology, morphology, and syntax.
They focus on the physical features of utterances and do not pay much attention to meaning or lexicon
(Crystal, 1980). They distinguish words according to their grammatical features. For example, a noun is
defined in terms of its position in a sentence and its inflections, such as the "s" for plural.
(3) The "generative/transformational" approach to the study of grammar was introduced by Noam
Chomsky in 1957 in his work, "Syntactic Structures." Here he talked about a relationship between the
"deep structure" of sentences (what is in the mind) and their "surface structure" (what is spoken or
written). For example, the surface structure of the sentence, "The postman was bitten by the dog," was
derived from the deep structure, "The dog bit the postman," through the passive transformation. This
theory gave rise to the theory of Universal Grammar which claims that all languages share certain
linguistic features (universals).

1. State whether the following statements are True or False:

1. Formal linguistics makes an attempt to describe language structures T F

in most adequate ways.
2. Traditional grammar is referred to as “generative’’. T F
3. Transformational approach was developed by Chomsky. T F
4. Chomsky’s theory gave rise to the Universal Grammar. T F
5. Prescriptive and Transformational grammars are synonyms. T F
6. Traditional grammar states the rules of correct usage. T F
7. Structural linguistics was started by Trubetskoy. T F

40
2. Complete the following sentences in the most appropriate way:

1. In school people are usually taught ……………………………………………………. grammar.

2. ………………………………………………….. typically prescribe rules of correct usage.

3. Structuralists are usually concerned with ………………………………………………………….. .

4. According to Chomsky, ………………………………………….. are derived from their deep

structures.

5. Structuralists define words according to ……………………………………………………………… .

3. Match the words with their Georgian definitions:

1. common a პრესკრიფციული
2. efficient b წარმოება
3. prescriptive c გაზიარება
4. typical d გამოთქმა
5. concern with e საქმის ქონა
6. utterance f საერთო
7. derive g მტკიცება
8. transformation h ტრანსფორმაცია
9. claim i ეფექტური
10. share j ტიპიური

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

41
Reading 2

Areas of Formal Linguistics

Formal linguistics includes five principal areas of study:

Phonetics is the study of the sounds of language and their physical properties. Phonetics describes how
speech sounds are produced by the vocal apparatus (the lungs, vocal cords, tongue, teeth, etc.) and
provides a suitable system for their classification.

Phonology involves analysing how sounds function in a given language or dialect. For example, /p/ has
two possible sounds in English depending on its position in a word. If you place a sheet of paper near
your mouth and pronounce the words "pin" and "spin," the paper will vibrate after the /p/ in the first
word but not after the same sound in the second word. This occurs when /p/ is in the initial position of a
word in English. Phonologists examine such phonetic shifts to construct theories about linguistic sounds
in one language that can be used in comparing linguistic systems. Such analysis of sounds in different
languages can be very useful for foreign language teachers.

Morphology is the study of the structure of words. Morphologists study minimal units of meaning, called
"morphemes," and investigate their possible combinations in a language to form words. For example, the
word "imperfections" is composed of four morphemes: "im" + "perfect" + "ion" + "s." The root "perfect" is
transformed from an adjective into a noun by the addition of "ion," made negative with "im," and
pluralised by "s."

Syntax is the study of the structure of sentences. Syntacticians describe how words combine into phrases
and clauses and how these combine to form sentences. For example, "I found a coin yesterday" is
embedded as a relative clause in the sentence, "The coin that I found yesterday is quite valuable."
Syntacticians describe the rules for converting the first sentence into the second.

Semantics is the study of meaning in language. The goal of semantic study is to explain how sequences of
language are matched with their proper meanings and placed in certain environments by speakers of the
language. The importance of meaning is revealed in the following well-known example from Chomsky
(1957): "Colourless green ideas sleep furiously." This sentence is well-formed from the morphological and
syntactic points of view, though it is largely meaningless in ordinary usage.

42
1. Match the words with their Georgian definitions:

1. properties a მნიშვნელობის არმქონე

2. vocal b შედარება
3. apparatus c საწყისი
4. vibrate d ვიბრირება
5. initial e გადაქცევა
6. construct f ხმიერი
7. compare g აპარატი
8. embedded h ჩართული
9. convert i აგება
10. meaningless j თვისებები

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2. Transform the following words according to the model:

0 . Lexicography – lexicographer

1. Phonetics ___________________
2. Morphology ___________________
3. Syntax ___________________
4. Grammar ___________________
5. Linguistics ___________________
6. Philology ___________________
7. Phonology ___________________
8. Lexicology ___________________
9. Stylistics ___________________
10. Sociolinguistics ___________________

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3. Complete the following sentences in the most appropriate way:

1. ………………………….. is the study of the sounds of language and their physical

properties.
2. ………………………….. analysis of sounds in different languages can be very useful for
foreign language teachers.
3. The structure of words is studied by …………………………………………………….. .
4. Syntacticians describe how words combine into phrases and clauses and how these
………………………………………………… .
5. Morphologically and syntactically ……………………………………… may be largely
meaningless in ordinary usage.
6. “Semantics" is the study of ………………………………………………………………………. .

4. Transform the following sentences so that the meaning the same: remains

1. Morphologists study minimal units of meaning, called "morphemes”.

Minimal units ____________________________________ by morphologists.

2. Phonetics provides a suitable system for the classification of the sounds of a language.

A suitable system _______________________________________by Phonetics.

3. The rules for converting sentences are described by Syntacticians. Syntacticians

___________________________________________sentences.

4. Morphologists investigate possible combinations of morphemes to form words in a language.

Possible ………………………………………………………………..… by
Morphologists.

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UNIT 5

READING 1

The question “How many words are there in English?” is based on a misunderstanding of language. It is
based on the false assumptions that words are (1) objects that someone creates and (2) stores in a
published dictionary. Neither assumption is true.

Words that are only spoken but never published do not enter dictionaries. However, that does not mean
that they are not words. Only about 2,400 of the world’s roughly 7,200 languages and dialects have
writing systems, most of these were created only for the translation of the Bible. If words were things
found only in dictionaries, the majority of the world’s languages would have no words!

In point of fact, all languages are equipped to produce as many words as are necessary for communication
either internally, by derivation rules (lawyer > lawyerly) and compounding (water + fall > waterfall), or,
externally, by borrowing from other languages. So one answer to the question is: the number of possible
words in any language at any given time is infinite, for there is no limit to the number of possible words
in any human language. However, we may distinguish between possible and actual words, so how many
actual words are there in English?

(Adapted from www. dictionary.com)

1. Answer the following questions:

1. Can a language produce as many words as it needs?

2. How many types of words are distinguished in the text?

3. How many ways of word formation/production are mentioned in the text?

4. Do you think that a language can express anything? Why?

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2. Match the words with their Georgian definitions:

1 false a წარმოქმნა
2 assumption b ვარაუდი, თვალსაზრისი
3 store c ნასესხობა
4 roughly d უსასრულო
5 internally e გარჩევა
6 derivation f დაგროვება
7 compounding g მცდარი
8 borrowing h დაახლოებით
9 infinite i შინაგანად
10 distinguish j რთული სიტყვის შექმნა

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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Reading 2

Does Internet improve spelling?

It is well-known that people do a lot of chatting, texting and messaging on the web. While doing so, they
use a number of newly-coined words or abbreviations. It was assumed that because people were using
abbreviations like "LOL" (laughing out loud) in messaging they were losing their writing skills. There was
a controlled study done in the UK. in which students who were on the web a lot and those who had no
connection to the web were asked to write essays. Surprisingly, it turned out that the people on the web
did better - because they write more. Obviously, it is easier and faster so they do more of it. In order to
validate the results, the study was repeated in the United States and the results were confirmed.

Thus, it can be assumed that the web has been good in helping people to write because being on the web
people tend to write more. Moreover, the web is equipped with spellcheckers. If one misspells a word,
they see it corrected before their eyes. On

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the other hand, if people are still using a pencil and paper, they tend to make that mistake over and over
again and may not even know about it. This is one aspect of technology that has already had a positive
impact on the people.

1. Match the words with Georgian definitions:

1 improve a ახლად შექმნილი

2 newly-coined b აღჭურვა
3 abbreviations c განმტკიცება
4 assume d დადასტურება
5 connection e შემოკლება
6 validate f არასწორად დაწერა
7 confirm g გავლენა
8 equip h ჩათვლა
9 misspell i გამოსწორება
10 impact j კავშირი

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2. Finish the following sentences in the most appropriate way:

1. It was assumed earlier that being on the web the people ___________
_______________________ .

2. Lol is an abbreviation which means __________________________________.

3. People who often use the internet were more successful because __________

_______________________________________________________________ .

4. A similar study repeated in the US _______________________________ .

5. Two possible reasons why the web possibly improves the people's writing skills are: a)

_____________________________________________________________.

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b) _____________________________________________________________.

6. People who write using a traditional method of a pencil and a pen build up a habit of making the
same mistakes again because ______________________________

_______________________________________________________________ .

3. Fill in the blanks with the correct verb forms:

The number of descendants of Noah 1. …………………….. (become) higher and higher.

Their growing number 2. …………………….. (force) them to go and live farther and
farther from their original motherland. They 3 …………………… (say): Come, let us 4
……………………….. (make) a city and a tower, the top of which may reach to heaven;
and let us make our name famous before we all 5 ……………….. (go) to different places
of the world. They 6 …………………….. (start/build) – they 7………………… (have) brick
instead of stones and worked all nights and days. But God 8 …………………. (confound)
their tongue, so that they 9 ……………………. (not/understand) one another's speech,
and thus they 10 ……………………. (scatter) from that place into all lands, and they 11
…………………….. (stop) to build the city.

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Reading 3

Cannot Chimpanzees talk?

Genetically, chimpanzees are identical to human beings. Naturally, this genetic closeness means
similarities. However, there are also a lot of differences between them and us. One difference is that
chimpanzees are not able to speak. Attempts were made to teach chimpanzees a spoken language; which
were largely unsuccessful. One example of a study that had limited success involved a chimpanzee named
Vicki. This chimpanzee acquired a limited vocal vocabulary of four words: mama, papa, cup, and up.
These words were hard to understand with her heavy chimpanzee accent and were largely voiceless. This
was because of the fact that chimpanzees have a relatively thin tongue and a higher larynx which makes
their pronunciation difficult to understand.
Another reason that it is unlikely for a chimpanzee to learn a vocal language is that chimpanzees tend to
be very quiet. Many people have reported passing a tree in the jungle and later realising that it was filled
with chimpanzees silently grooming or eating!
In the 1920s it was recognized that, though chimpanzees could understand what people say, they never
imitate their sounds. Researchers of free-living chimpanzees have also found that chimpanzees often
communicate with gestures. When requesting to groom, they may raise an arm over their head.
With these and other observations, the use of sign language seemed to compliment the nature of
chimpanzees. The chimpanzees have acquired many signs. The experiments reveal that they have even
made signs of their own to communicate with their human companions. Chimpanzees who communicate
through sign language have also creatively combined signs to identify things, for example: BIRD-MEAT
(turkey), WATER-BIRD (swan).

50
1. Match the words with the Georgian definitions :

1 Closeness a შემოქმედებითად
2 Identical b თხოვნა
3 Vocally c თავის მოვლა, მოწესრიგება
4 Largely d კომპანიონი
5 Pronunciation e სიახლოვე
6 Groom f წარმოთქმა
7 Request g იდენტური
8 Creatively h ხმიერად
9 Acquire i უმთავრესად
10 Companion j შეძენა

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2. Write the antonyms of these words:

1 organised _____________ 8 hard ______________

2 include _____________ 9 heavy ______________
3 claim _____________ 10 thin ______________
4 similarities _____________ 11 higher ______________
5 successful _____________ 12 difficult ______________
6 limited _____________ 13 unlikely ______________
7 acquire _____________ 14 reveal ______________

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Speaking:

Discuss the following issues and report to the group:

1. What other positive/negative impacts does technology have on people?

2. Why do people use the internet?
3. Do you use the Internet? In what way?
4. Do you think that chimps can acquire a language?

Writing

Some people think that the Internet is a good way of communication. Others believe that it makes
people lazy and too keen on a virtual life. What do you think?

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