Professional Documents
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Apuntes Ingles
Apuntes Ingles
LANGUAGE
ENGLISH 7
Grading:
Continuous assessment (50% of final grade) 2.5 to 5 points (see detailed
workplan for due dates)
Task 1 = 1.5 points (either individual or teamwork)
Task 2 = 1.5 points (either individual or teamwork)
Final project = 2 points (teamwork)
Final exam (50% of final grade) 2.5 to 5 points
Voluntary task (up to 1 extra point)
No passing grade will be given for the exam alone, regardless of the grade, and
no passing grade will be given unless at least 2.5 points (out of 5) are reached in
each of the evaluation components (continuous assessment & exam). Every
evaluation component can be resit in the convocatoria extraordinaria
clara.molina@uam.es
1. LANGUAGE VARIATION AND CHANGE
(GETTING STARTED)
Two language types: synthetic and analytic aunque las lenguas no suelen cambiar de tipo, el
inglés lo ha hecho.
● Change ≠ Variation: the fact that you have variation doesn’t mean that you don’t have
change. They are two sides of the same coin.
Variation: different pronunciations, words… reasons for variation: different contexts exist. If
you are from one region or another you will use the language differently (north/south) if you
are from a different class (higher variation/lower variation). The context in which the
language is used. Variation gives you options, so the language then changes. Entonces si
tienes variación en el presente puede que haya change en el futuro, aunque no
necesariamente. Pero para que haya cambio tiene que haber habido variación previamente.
Variation is inevitable. *Language in synchrony: the study of a language at a specific point
and time.
● Historical linguistics is not about deciding what is right and wrong. Language is not a
product is a project.
● Languages are not willing entities, they don’t have a will, they don’t have entities.
“La lengua cambia”. Es común que tendamos a la personificación de las cosas y eso
hacemos con la lengua. Les otorgamos a las lenguas propiedades que no les
pertenecen. Languages change but they are not trying to get anywhere. El cambio
linguistico no puede controlarse, pasa por “inercia”, como cuando envejecemos y nos
salen canas.
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● Languages are:
➢ Conventional: a matter of agreement. A society has agreed upon.
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2. INTRODUCING HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
Diachronic linguistics: Study of language change over time. Language is always changing
(whether we like it or not).
Synchronic linguistics: the study of the state of a language at a given point in time
Anglo-Saxon and Old English weren’t unified languages. There is no awareness of being
unitary people. Different languages, but really similar, wars all the time.
7th century: we have the first texts in which we find Old English.
Language change is not a formal science because it depends on people. We cannot make
predictions, we only look at the past. We cannot discover the origin of language.
Varieties of English: formal, informal, etc. there is not only one English because every
speaker speaks one variety of English. There are different varieties of English: Hombre >
ombre > onvre > omvre in Old English it was like that.
Languages are very redundant → tone of voice, gestures,… Por ejemplo, no es lo mismo ir a
clase que escuchar una clase solo por audio o que te lean un texto en lugar de leerlo tú if you
do not understand something while reading you can always reread the text
Redundant sentence → He is a man → we make sure that the message comes across
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Reading: The ever-whirling wheel
• Goes over examples of older English texts to point at how much language evolves.
• Many intelligent people condemn language change (it is sloppiness, lazyness). Goes over examples
of articles critizising language change during the 60s to the 80s, referred to as "decline".
• Author's goal: examine how language change occurs in order to find out the direction in which
language is moving (wether it is good or bad)
Possibilities:
○ Decay
○ Evolution towards efficiency ("survival of the fittest")
‘In the evolution of languages the discarding of old flexions goes hand in hand with the
development of simpler and more regular expedients that are rather less liable than the old
ones to produce misunderstanding.’
SEARCH OF PURITY
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- Muchas de las palabras que usamos son calcos de otros idiomas y no pasa nada
- Los cambios no son producto del azar, siguen patrones sistemáticos
- Reading: The ever-whirling wheel
- Goes over examples of older English texts to point at how much language evolves.
- Many intelligent people condemn language change (it is sloppiness, lazyness). Goes
over examples of articles critizising language change during the 60s to the 80s,
referred to as "decline".
- Author's goal: examine how language change occurs in order to find out the direction
in which language is moving (wether it is good or bad)
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3 . ATTITUDES TOWARDS LANGUAGE CHANGE
● A number of “common sense” attitudes
● Neither illogical nor recent add-ons (but a long history of complaints about linguistic
corruption)
● Correctness vs. acceptability (a much more useful alternative for our purposes)
● El lenguaje siempre va a cambiar y cada vez más deprisa, no podemos hacer nada
para impedirlo: you know (1350), super for good (1850) some people complain about
these things, they think that is not the “real English”
● Ain’t probably the most despised world, it is very common.
Absolute stability in a language is never found … All parts of the language are subject to
change, and any period will see a revolution of greater or lesser extent. It may vary in rapidity
or intensity, but the principle admits no exceptions: the linguistic river never stops flowing.
Suassure
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4. HOW LANGUAGE CHANGES
1. The problem of evidence:
● Problems concerning the availability of evidence, the relationship between
internal and external evidence, and the interpretation of whatever evidence
exists
■ Internal vs external evidence: linguistic as such (language samples
from texts and documents) versus non-linguistic historical
information (from archaeological sites or contemporary written
histories). Changes IN THE LANGUAGE (for example, the use of
‘ss’)
■ Internal vs external history of a language: an account of the
language at different points in time vs an account to who spoke the
language, where and when. Things that happened TO THE
SPEAKERS of the languages (for example, French invasions)
Por ejemplo, en unos siglos aunque leyesen el BOE no sabrían cómo hablábamos en
2020 porque no refleja la lengua de verdad, solo el canon de la lengua
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4. Things to keep in mind:
● The aim of studying language change is not knowing “what happened when”
● Languages do not change because of time: not only because of time (for
example, Latin has not changed these last centuries)
● Speakers are those who change language → there are problems in
communication and speakers solve them
● Los cambios se producen en los márgenes de la lengua: “Just like a seed is
likely to enter the ground where the soil is soft, such as a crack between
paving stones, so a sound change is likely to creep into a language at a
vulnerable point”
● Both speakers and hearers have a role in language change
6. Rutas de cambio:
➢ From contextual to away from contextual. There (deictic) > there is a house
➢ From iconic to conventional: iconicity > opacity > reiconicity: folk
etymology
➢ From marginal to central: from non-relevant to relevant contexts, from
sporadic to habitual, from less to more functional, from ambiguity to
preciseness
➢ From lexical to grammatical: lexicon > derivative morphology > flexive
morphology
➢ From concrete to abstract: physical > temporal > symbolic (dentro, dentro de
una hora, dentro de lo que cabe)
➢ There is always tension between stability and change.
➢ Margenes de la lenguaàweak, vulnerable spots=conceiled linguistic susceptibility.
➢ Difference btw triggers and causes, causa y desencadenante
➢ Catalyst
➢ Social linguistic causes are superficial in language change:
○ Immediate (social) vs long term (mental)
○ External (social) vs internal (internal)
➢ Minimal adjustment theory: La teoría del "ajuste como proceso" describe que, desde
el momento en que nacemos, los humanos estamos en un estado constante de ajuste.
Dado que vivimos en un estado de cambio constante, a menudo rápido, se deduce que
no podemos dividir estos cambios en desafíos separados y no relacionados.
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5. LANGUAGE VARIATION AND CHANGE
1. Things we already know:
- Language change is constant, inevitable and neither right nor wrong. Human
activity, a subjective, socially and culturally transmitted thing, so its bound to change.
- Language change involves both sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic factors.
❖ Sociolinguistic: language used by younger people
❖ Pycolinguistic: el worksheet 5 da más info de psycholinguistic factors.
- Language change is gradual: tug-of-war (back and forth conflic) between conflicting
loyalties and tension between stability and change
- Language is ecological and self-regulating.
❖ Self regulation: when there are important changes going on in a part of a
language, las otras partes tend to remain stable. There are turns (not stricts
turns) a la hora de que ocurran cambios en un idioma. Not all parts of the
language change at the same time, they take turns.
❖ Ecological: we very rarely create thing out from scratch. If we have one
word and its meaning is obsolete, we either change the meaning (reuse) or
stop using it. Ecological, recycling.
- Language change is regular (it cannot be predicted)
- De una era a otra hay cambios que marcan the end of an era Old middle
english, pero no son harsh endings and begginings.
- Middle English: change in vocab, French words…
We also know that language change attracts criticism. Sometimes it can be socially and/or
politically undesirable. What then?
- If it disrupts communication
- At the and of me this happened, people complained ab the lang because they didn’t
understand each other. The changes in the south were more rapid than in the north.
Habia barrera idiomatica. Communication was hindered. They created the standard
English incorporating mostly aspects of the south language, aunque para que no fuera
una imposicion para el resto, Tambien se incluyeron aspectos lingüísticos del norte y
del este de la isla. The presence of the standard slows down the process of change.
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- Self-regulation: if there are extensive ongoing changes in one language sub-system,
other subsystems tend to remain stable cuando los cambios anteriores ya se han
estabilizado, empiezan otros, se asegura de manera natural de que los hablantes no lo
cambien todo a la vez, se autoregula para no explotar
CAUSES OF CHANGE
Not only one cause: always a constellation of both external and internal causes
o Substratum theory; simeplre se ha dicho q las lenguas cambian porque hay una
comunidad imigrante que mezcla su propia lengua de origen con la del lugar.
Pero esto no es del todo cierto porque se tiende a una supercorrecion que acaba
por desembocar en la lengua del lugar, la lengua más prestigiosa.
o Language contact:
But remember! A language only accepts those elements it is ready for + foreign influence only
accelerates changes somehow under way
Internal causes: speakers and hearers need to solve their communicative problems
(todos somos las dos cosas de manera simultánea)
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Internal causes: Randomness and language acquisition
What both speakers & hearers need to solve their communicative problems
Analogy
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6. UNIVERSAL PROCESSES OF LANGUAGE CHANGE
El inglés adoptó muchas palabras de la lengua más prestigiosa del momento, que era el inglés.
COGNATES: palabras que se parecen mucho porque tienen orígenes muy similares Patterns
in language change: roots, etc.
Phonological change
Morphosyntactic change
Grammaticalization: a form takes more grammatical function over time. Go (verb of motion)
Semantic change
Broadening: a word takes on a broader meaning over time. Dog, Kleenex, holiday
Narrowing: a word takes on a narrower meaning over time: hound, girl, wife (any woman, now only
married ones)
Amelioration: a word takes on a more positive meaning over time: bad, dope, sick
Pejoration: a word taking a negative meaning over time. Hussy, vulgar, pathetic, silly
1. Language change is possible because of the conventional (i.e., arbitrary) nature of the linguistic
sign
o Iconic signs (photographs, star charts…): sth that clearly resembles the fact in real
life. La papelera de windos, es igual que la papelera de real life.
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o Symbolic signs (a flag to a nation, a rose to love…): human arrangements,
arbitrary connections, we have agreements por ejemplo, te doy una rosa para
demostrar amor, es una conexion arbitraria, una decision. As it is a decision it is
easier to change
§ Most thins in language are symbolic, therefore they are arbitrary and that’s
why linguistic change happens.
«La eficacia del sistema se basa precisamente en mantener un equilibrio muy rentable entre cambio y
continuidad. Los hablantes rara vez generan innovaciones a partir de la nada, radicalmente novedosas, es
decir, evitan esfuerzos de creación e interpretación innecesarios con los que se arriesgan además a que fracase
la comunicación. Lo habitual es renovar y utilizar recursos ya existentes. En este sentido, la lengua actúa como
una perfecta planta de reciclaje, en la que continuidad e innovación se dan la mano»
La lengua está a punto de cambiar ya que está creada de elementos simbólicos. Si algo está en la
naturaleza, pasa. Cambiar está en la naturaleza de la lengua.
Instead of creating new words, we replace them to give them a new meaning. Recycling. Sino entre
generaciones no nos entenderíamos.
Todos estos factores y necesidades o sólo parte de ellos pueden incidir en una determinada situación y pueden
hacerlo con distinto grado de intensidad. ¿Por qué ha triunfado brunch? Probablemente por ser
simultáneamente necesaria, eufónica, breve, expresiva, por no estar ligada a sectores marginales, por
difundirse a través de la publicidad y por acomodarse a patrones de formación léxica del inglés y a una
tradición que se remonta al menos hasta el siglo XVII. Es precisamente la combinabilidad cuantitativa y
cualitativa de los factores lo que provoca que a situaciones aparentemente similares la lengua dé soluciones
distintas; que la lengua cambie con mayor o menor rapidez, que los cambios resulten más o menos probables.
Pongamos un ejemplo más. En inglés, la {-s} se generalizó como marca de plural hacia el siglo XIV. Este
morfema se veía favorecido por múltiples factores: la mayoría de los sustantivos formaban el plural con un
morfema similar; en la época se introdujeron múltiples préstamos del francés, variante prestigiada, cuyo
morfema de plural coincidía fónicamente con el nativo; al tiempo, la progresiva reducción flexiva estaba
provocando la pérdida del género gramatical en inglés; la confusión inicial, a la que contribuyó la mezcla de
formas nativas y extranjeras, indujo a que los sustantivos ingleses originalmente femeninos y neutros adoptaran
mayoritariamente el morfema de plural más generalizado, es decir, el que compartían los masculinos nativos y
los préstamos franceses; todo esto ocurrió además en un momento en que el inglés dejaba de ser una lengua
esencialmente vernácula para convertirse en lengua normalizada, institucionalmente más compleja y preparada
para difundir geográfica y socialmente patrones lingüísticos homogéneos.
Para percibir el contrapunto de esta situación tenemos que recurrir a la especulación. Sería raro, por ejemplo,
que hoy por hoy se generalizara en inglés el sistema de clasificación de sustantivos bantú, caracterizado por la
presencia de sufijos que diferencian los objetos por la forma. El inglés y el bantú no son lenguas genéticamente
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relacionadas, ni tampoco comparten rasgos fonéticos, morfológicos ni de otra índole; no hay contacto
significativo entre hablantes de una y otra lengua; la cultura bantú no reviste prestigio alguno para los
miembros de la comunidad anglosajona y la innovación supone una alteración particularmente radical para los
esquemas morfológicos del inglés, por lo demás altamente estandarizada. En este caso comprobamos cómo la
mayoría de los factores se aúnan para rechazar el cambio; sería, por tanto, muy improbable, nada previsible,
casi imposible que la innovación apuntada encontrara acomodo en el sistema inglés (excerpted from Cruz &
Martín Arista, eds. 2001. Lingüística
A tendency toward symmetry (phonological pairs of matching vowels & consonants, regularized
plurals & verbs because of analogy…)
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7. RESEARCH METHODS IN HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
- Methods for linguistic reconstruction (to study the prehistory of languages when no texts are
available). You never have enough texts, and you cannot assume that the written version is
similar to spoken language.
Linguistic reconstruction
COGNATES: Terms that look sound and seem the same in different languages. Normally because
they come from the same family.
§Uniformity principle
2. Internal reconstruction:
Is exactly the same as morphemic analysis, but the emphasis of the two is different. Morphemic
analysis brushes aside unproductive irregular alternations, whereas internal reconstruction
concentrates on them. In traditional historical linguistics the technique known as internal
reconstruction is complementary to the comparative method for studying the earlier forms of
languages.
Internal reconstruction involves comparing forms within a single language, if they give any indication
regarding an earlier state of that language. In present day linguistics, much of what has previously
been subsumed under internal reconstruction is taken over by descriptive linguistics, specifically
under the heading of morphophonemic analysis. Nonetheless, from historical point of view internal
reconstruction remains a valid device for getting at earlier stages of languages.
Another approach, pioneered by the American Structuralist linguist Morris Swadesh, is called
lexicostatistics. For a set of languages of interest, we get a small vocabulary list of common, basic
words (typically 100-200 items). For each pair of languages, we determine the percentage of words on
this list that appear to be cognate. Determination of cognation is dependent on the subjective judgment
of the linguist, and we expect some errors, especially if the scholar does not know the languages very
well, but we hope that the error rate will be small enough not to affect the results.
We can then arrange these cognate percentages in a table, from which we draw some conclusions
about the degree of relationship among the languages involved.
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Swadesh and others took this type of analysis further, based on the idea that the average rate of loss of
cognates could be regarded as constant over historical time, just like the rate of radioactive decay.
Swadesh looked at some languages where historical stages are well documented, and concluded that
basic vocabulary decays by 14 percent every millenium. According to the entry on Swadesh in the
Encyclopedia of Linguistics:
Thus, if the basic vocabularies of two related languages are found to match by 70
percent, they can be assumed to have developed from a single language that existed
approximately 12 centuries before.The assumption that basic vocabulary decay is
generally uniform has been largely rejected. If one allows that languages, just like
societies, may develop at different rates at different times, the assumption of steady
vocabulary decay in particular, and the glottochronological method in general, is
seriously undermined.
4. Protolexicon
1. Isolating: each word expresses a distinct idea and has no inflections; variations in the parts
of speech and syntactic relations are determined by WO and by separate particles
2. Agglutinating: a single word combines various linguistic elements, each having a distinct,
fixed connotation and separate existence
3. Inflectional: words have affixes (prefixes & suffixes) that modify meaning and identify the
grammatical relations within a sentence
1. Isolating the boy will ask the girl vs the girl will ask the boy
2. Simplified verbal system only present & past tenses indicated by inflection
3. Weak and strong verbs •weak verbs (dental suffix): talk—talked • strong verbs (vowel
change): sing—sang
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4. Weak and strong adjectives •weak adjectives: þa geongan ceorlas • strong adjectives:
geonge ceorlas
6. Vowel changes •IE /a:/ > Germanic /o:/ •Latin mater versus OE modor
7. Grimm’s Law
Verner's Law was the answer to some irregularities in Grimm's Law (step 2): in some environments, t
> ð (rather than θ), which explains *pater > OE fæd
English, then, began its separate existence as a form of Germanic brought by pagan
warrior-adventurers from the Continent to the then relatively obscure island that the Romans called
Britannia and that had up until a short time before been part of their mighty empire. There, in the next
five centuries or so, it was to develop into an independent language quite distinct from any Germanic
language spoken on the Continent.
Moreover, it had become a language sufficiently rich in its word stock, thanks largely to the impetus
given to learning by the introduction of Christianity, that by the year 1000, this newcomer could
measure swords with Latin in every department of expression and was incomparably superior to the
French speech that came in with William of Normandy. English, then, began its separate existence as
a form of Germanic brought by pagan warrior-adventurers from the Continent to the then relatively
obscure island that the Romans called Britannia and that had up until a short time before been part of
their mighty empire. There, in the next five centuries or so, it was to develop into an independent
language quite distinct from any Germanic language spoken on the Continent.
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La lengua a medida que evoluciona acorta palabras, etc., pero siempre deja la primera letra de
la raíz
Las palabras más frecuentes son las que suelen cambiar más
Ver cómo ha evolucionado una lengua: compararlas con otras lenguas de la misma rama o
analizar cómo una sola lengua ha cambiado a lo largo del tiempo
Research methods:
It has been used by historical linguists to reconstruct lexical, phonological and morphological
data
Belief in the arbitrary nature of language: recurring similarities between words from different
languages or dialects indicate that these languages or dialects are related to each other and
must therefore have descended from a common ancestral language
Belief in the Neogrammarian hypothesis: sound changes are regular under like circumstances
Belief in the Uniformity Principle: miracles do not exist and changes are not haphazard
Economy: when multiple alternative are available, the one which requires the fewest
independent changes is most likely to be the right
Method of recovering information about language’s past from the characteristics of the same
language but a later date
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Involves making a detailer study of a single language at a simple point in time, and ducting
acts about previous states of that language
Irregularities within a language are due to language change, so this method tries to reconstruct
the earlier language stage
The thins compared in this method are the forms in the language which have more than one
phonological shape in different circumstances
Lexicostatistics
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8. ENGLISH AS A GERMANIC LANGUAGE
•The Germanic family of languages
Old English has influence from the people that conquered them: OLD EAST NORSH (germanicos)
Middle English has influence from the people that conquered them: OLD FRENCH
GERMANIC LANGUAGES
•The Germanic culture (known for runes, skaldic poetry & alliterative sagas) was only alive until
Christianism
•The Germanic language was never recorded in writing (hence, the name Proto-Germanic) and did not
leave records
•In the 19th century, it was reconstructed from written evidence in descendant languages
•Over time, dialectal differences + migrations > branches within the Germanic family = Germanic
languages English, already by 1000, A non-prototypical Germanic language (even a non-prototypical
west Germanic language)
1. Simplicity of inflection
2. Openness of vocabulary
3. Flexibility of function
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9. LINGUISTIC CONTACT THROUGH HEL
Periodization in the history of English (in relation to language contact)
Kingship, Christianity, literacy (Alfredian scriptoria) > budding written standard (does not
survive the Viking raids)
OLD ENGLISH
Spelling
•Different letter combinations used to express familiar sounds: (sh) fisc (qu) cwic (wh) hwaet
(dge) bricg
• Some letter combinations no longer in use: <lc> folc <lh> wealh ‘Welsh' <hl> hlaf
<hn>hnutu
Vocabulary
• Many new words formed by compounding: leohtfaet (light-vessel) 'lamp', daegred (day-red)
'dawn'
Grammar
• Pronominal separate 'dual case' (wit 'we two', git 'ye two’) • Existence of a definite article
('the') questionable
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MIDDLE ENGLISH ( 1 1 0 0 - 1 5 0 0 ) :
- William I (1066-1087)
- William II (1087-1100)
- Henry I (1100-1135)
- Stephan (1135-1154)
- Henry II (1154-1189)
- Richard I (1189-1199)
All bilingual;
English only:
- Henry IV (1399-1413)
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- Henry V (1413-1422)
ME
Spelling
Vocabulary
● A great deal of French influence (mostly after the Provisions of Oxford): some
10,000 loanwords between 1250-1450.
● Many prefixes (pre-, super-, inter-, sub-, dis-) and suffixes (-ance, -ence, -ant) came
into the language from French and Latin.
● English develops from being a highly inflected language to being an analytical
language: loss of inflexional endings
● There was an absence of a written standard: linked to regional variation written from
changed a lot over time
● 3 possibilities:
● French words replaced English words
● English words stayed in the language
● French words merged with English words
● 10,000 French words were introduced in the English language: about ¾ of which are
still in use today
Grammar
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Ne isaeh naevere na man selere chiht nenne. // No-one had ever seen a better
knight.
● English becomes an analytical language. Case and number endings are reduced or
disappear
● Grammatical functions are indicated through the use of grammatical words and word
order
● When languages come together, a process of grammatical simplification normally
takes place
● Nouns: case suffixes were lost, generalised plural marked became -s
● Adjectives: lost agreement with nouns
● Adverbs: ending -lic became -ly
● No aprender todos los detalles, solo saber cómo la lengua inglesa ha cambiado hasta
llegar hasta hoy y hablar sobre sus cambios
Pronunciation
Dialects
Middle English: Language of the people (99% of population) Raise of East Midland
(London standard)
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Early Modern English (EModE) 1500-1700 (1707 Act of Union) CONSOLIDATION OF
STANDARD ENGLISH
By the end of the 14th century, there were many complaints about the “gret diversité” By the
mid-15th century, the standard is consolidated, but only for official documents.
o When the proper reforms have been put in place, the language should be
fixed permanently and protected from change.
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10. STANDARD ENGLISH
1. The process of language standarization
STANDARIZATION
Advantages
Disadvantages
● Creates a sense of elitism among the speakers of the standard and a feeling of
inferiority in those who use non-standard forms (low-status speakers)
● Forces parents who wish for their children to be accepted by the dominant group to
conform to the standard variety, possibly neglecting the language and culture they
were born into
The process of state formation creates the condition for a unified linguistic market where
one linguistic variety acquires the status of standard language.
Standard English gradually took over and ultimately was imposed upon many other varieties
and languages it had coexisted with so far. But remember! everyone speaks dialect
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- Forms that used to be standard in the past are no longer standard
today, forms that are now standard were deviant in the past
Once the language of Protestantism and of the British Empire, English is now a world
language: The Englishes, A Lingua Franca taught all over the world
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11. THE ENGLISHES
2. Terminology
English as a Second Language (ESL)
English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
English as an Additional Language (EAL)
English for Specific Purposes (ESP)
English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)
English as an International Language (EIL)
English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI)
World Englishes (WE)
Before the 1980s, discussions of English worldwide usually employed a normative vocabulary that
foregrounded a distinction between “native” versus “nonnative” speakers and employed such terms as
English as a Native Language (ENL), English as a Second Language (ESL), and English as a Foreign
Language (EFL), in order to classify particular varieties of English.
Since the early 1980s, however, world Englishes, with its inclusive plural, has increasingly become
the standard term to refer to varieties of English worldwide
● Pluricentric perspective
● Sociolinguistic standpoint
3. Models
- The inner circle (norm providing) represents the traditional sources of English speaking, e.g.,
UK, and USA, which have provided the language norms for English Language Teaching
(ELT). The first diaspora
- The outer circle (norm developing) which includes countries in Africa and Asia, where
English is not necessarily people’s first language but has been important historically through
colonization. The second diaspora
- The expanding circle of countries (norm dependent) where English has never had an official
status but is now important as an additional language or a lingua franca
Criticisms
● Based on geography, not how speakers use the language
● The situation is not homogeneous in all countries within each circle
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2. McArthur’s wheel model (also Gorlach’s)
8 regional standard and/or standardizing varieties out from an idealized central variety (best
represented by “written international English”) + an outer layer of localized subvarieties
Wheel models highlight the presence of varieties (all of them equidistant from the hub of the wheel),
but:
- No such thing as a “World Standard English”
- 3 sets of speakers (L1, L2, EFL) conflate in 2nd cycle
- Pidgins, creoles and L2 Englishes in the 3rd cycle
According to Blommaert, “globalization forces sociolinguistics to unthink its classic distinctions and
biases and to rethink itself as a sociolinguistics of mobile resources” because “we need to replace it
[traditional sociolinguistics] with a view of language as something intrinsically and perpetually
mobile, through space as well as time, and made for mobility.”
New terminology to describe a range of sociolinguistic processes associated with mobility, for
instance:
- Superdiversity and metrolingualism: it is a lens of looking at society, not a theory. People use
social networks and communicate with people from people arround the world.
Metrolingualism, using many languages to communicate. this destroys the theory on
language-nation, because language transpases borders.
29
12. ENGLISH AS A WORD LANGUAGE
● Accent in a foreign language: it happens because sounds differ from language to language.
- Adaptation of words to fit → ehSpain-Spain
- Stress: all french words are stressed in the last syllable: HusTON, HUston
- Is control of English shifting away from British and American native speakers?
- Stop trying to be a native speaker: IDENTITY
- Should English be taught as a 'global' language?
- What about the future?
3. Checklist: 25 questions to make sure you know all you need to know about HEL
4. Thinking about the final exam
30
WORKSHEETS
1
WORKSHEET 1: GETTING STARTED
Watch this video: El inglés está invadiendo la publicidad
What is, in your opinion, the function of the RAE (Royal Spanish Academy)? Can
Spanish, or any other language, be protected from change? Should it be so? How?
In my opinion, the RAE should limit itself to documenting the usage of Spanish speakers, not
trying to influence these changes.
La RAE tiene como misión velar porque los cambios que experimente la lengua española en
su constante adaptación a las necesidades de sus hablantes no quiebren la esencial unidad que
mantiene en todo el ámbito hispánico.
Fijar significa escoger una variedad y fijarla como la estándar. Limpiar significa eliminar todo
lo que no es correcto, todo lo que no es la variedad estándar, los anglicismos, por ejemplo.
Una lengua también tiene que ver con la nacionalidad, a veces es considerada una bandera, un
signo nacional. Dar esplendor tiene que ver con la conservadora idea de que tiene que reflejar
una clase social, y todo lo que no le dé ese “prestigio” tiene que ser eliminado. Es
prescriptivo: esto está bien, esto no, elimina esto… Por ello recibe tantas críticas por parte de
los lingüistas. Hay que describir la lengua tal cuál es.
La RAE te puede recomendar o no cierto uso, pero no te lo puede prohibir. Algunas lenguas
tiene una RAE, pero otras no. Por ejemplo, el inglés no tiene academia, pero eso no significa
que no les preocupe su lengua a los hablantes. Si no tienen una academia tendrán un
diccionario, el OED.
According to the RAE, what is the influence of ICT (Information and Communication
Technology) on Spanish? What about Spanglish? Is the RAE against it? Are you? Why?
Why not?
According to RAE, the influence of ICT is negative for the Spanish language and is against
Spanglish. Although I am not against Spanglish, I think there are many things that could be
said directly in our language.
Según la RAE, las nuevas tecnologías hacen que la lengua cambie más rápidamente, también
les preocupa que se empobrezca el idioma.
Personalmente no creo que se escriba peor ya que nuestra generación ha tenido más acceso a
la formación que generaciones anteriores. Simplemente, como el mundo va tan rápido y solo
buscamos optimizar el tiempo, abreviamos palabras. Al tener correctores en el móvil se nos
olvida escribir ciertas palabras. Más que la regla tenemos que ser conscientes del contexto.
Think of the "netspeak" and/or English terms you and/or your friends use. Why do you
use them? What do your parents think about that?
I wear them out of habit, but not because I think it's cooler. When my parents hear netspeak
they criticise it, they don't like it and don't understand it.
2
Watch these videos (Where did English come from? & How did English evolve?) and be
prepared to discuss the following questions:
Why are Old English and Present-Day German so similar? Why are English and
German so different today? How are the Spanish words "padre" or "diente" related to
"father" or "tooth" in English?
Tienen el mismo origen, pero han sufrido distintos cambios debidos a su contexto. Mientras
que el alemán no ha cambiado mucho, el inglés sí. En inglés se incluyeron muchas palabras
en alemán, pero también en francés. Cogmates: coger una palabra de otra lengua y meterla en
nuestra lengua. El cambio lingüístico es regular, es decir, sigue patrones regulares (a las
personas nos salen arrugas cuando envejecemos, pero no alas), los cambios no son
casualidad.
Celtas > romanos > sajones > bárbaros > ? > normandos
Prepare the answers to the Paternoster exercise below, adapted from T. Pyles & J.
Algeo. 2004 (4th ed.) Origins and Development of the English Language: Workbook.
Wadsworth Publishing.
Here are three translations of the Paternoster corresponding to the three major periods in the
history of our language: Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Middle English, and Early Modern
English. The first was made about the year 1000, the second is from the Wyclif Bible of 1380,
and the third is from the King James Bible of 1611.
OLD ENGLISH: Fæðer ūre, þū þe eart on heofonum, sī þīn nama gehālgod. Tōbecume þīn
rīce. Gewurðe þīn willa on eorðan swā swā on heofonum. Ūrne gedæghwāmlican hlāf syle ūs
tō dæg. And forgyf ūs ūre gyltas, swā swā wē forgyfað ūrum gyltendum. And ne gelǣd þū ūs
on costnunge, ac ālȳs ūs of yfele. Sōðlice.
MIDDLE ENGLISH: Oure fadir that art in heuenes halowid be thi name, thi kingdom come
to, be thi wille don in erthe as in heuene, yeue to us this day oure breed ouir other substaunce,
& foryeue to us oure dettis, as we foryeuen to oure dettouris, & lede us not in to temptacion:
but delyuer us from yuel, amen.
3
EARLY MODERN ENGLISH: Our father which art in heauen, hallowed be thy Name. Thy
kingdome come. Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heauen. Giue vs this day our dayly
bread. And forgiue vs our debts, as we forgiue our debters. And leade vs not into temptation,
but deliuer vs from euill: For thine is the kingdome, and the power, and the glory, for euer,
Amen.
Our father which art in heaven, hallo would be their Name. Their kingdom come. They will
be done, in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our
debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver vs from evil: For
thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever, Amen.
Some Old English words that may look completely unfamiliar have survived in Modern
English in fixed expressions or with changed meanings. Finding the answers to these
questions in a dictionary may help you to translate the Old English paternoster:
What is the meaning of worth in ‘woe worth the day’? (cf. gewurðe) What is the Old
English source-word for Modern English loaf? What is the meaning of sooth in
soothsayer or forsooth? (cf. sōðlice)
What three letters of the Old English writing system have been lost from our alphabet?
Ae (ash), eth, thorn
What different forms does Old English have for the word our? Can you suggest why Old
English has more than one form for this word? Urne, urum,…
List three phrases from the Wyclif translation in which the use of prepositions differs
from that in the King James version, and another three phrases in which the word order
differs from that in the Old English version.
What reasons might an Elizabethan have for thinking the language of your version to be
“corrupt”? What reasons might an Englishman of the year 1000 have for thinking the
language of the King James version “corrupt”? Why would they both be wrong?
4
WORKSHEET 2:
1. Read the chapter The ever-whirling wheel (from Jean Aitchison’s book Language
Change: Progress or Decay?) and listen to the podcast A web of worries (from Jean
Aitchison’s The Language Web lecture series)
“Me se ha caído”, etc. En el siglo XVIII eran muy rígidos en cuanto a lo que estaba bien y
estaba mal.
What was the puristic movement? Why do you think it was at its height in the 18th
century? Why was Latin so admired in the 18th century? What were some of the effects
of such admiration? Why do people still tend to think that language is going down the
drain?
Los puristas marcaban las cosas que la gente hacía bien o mal hablando. They had this idea
that Latin was the ideal language, so rules that were applied to Latin should be applied in
English. We tend to think that wealthy people speaks better than us, and this has no sense
because there are rules considered wrong based on non-linguistic things. For example: pescao
is not ok because rich people do not say that. Why was Latin the model? It was associated
with the church.
Las cosas que nos molestan nos producen este efecto porque es lo que hemos aprendido desde
pequeños, lo que hemos interiorizado.
Explain the following metaphors in the podcast: damp spoons, crumbling castles, infectious
diseases. Can you think of any other metaphors we use to refer to language?
2. Prepare the answers to the Attitudes towards language change exercises below,
adapted from L. Trask. 1994. Language change workbook. London: Routledge.
EXERCISE 1: Here are few examples of contemporary English usage which many
conservative speakers vigorously object to. In each case, do you find the example normal
and unremarkable, or do you too object to it? If you find it normal, can you put your
finger on the problem perceived by the conservatives?
This project was carried out by Sarah and myself. myself solo puede ir con ‘me’
I tried to persuade Juliet to join the choir, but she was disinterested. uninterested or
“was not interested”
5
Your analysis is questionable, but your data is certainly interesting. data are (porque
‘data’ en latin es plural)
Just between you and I, Alison and Steve have broken up.
The audience were literally glued to their seats. The audience was
Senna is one of those drivers who always seems to get the best out of his car. seem
EXERCISE 2: Can you bring examples of any changes regarding sexism in English or
Spanish you would like to promote? What do you think about those changes proposed
by others? Manpower (fuerza laboral), manslaughter,…
3. Watch the video A surprising new language: Texting. Was there anything that John
McWhorter said that surprised you? After completing this worksheet, how would you
summarize your own attitude towards language change? Give at least one example that
illustrates your point.
6
WORKSHEET 3:
1) Read the chapters Charting the changes, Spreading the word & Conflicting loyalties (from
Jean Aitchison’s book Language Change: Progress or Decay?) and answer the following
questions (to be discussed in class):
In the past, language change was thought to be observable only after it had already taken place.
However, Labov’s experiment about the pronunciation of /r/ in New York tells us otherwise.
How? Explain how a change can be observed while it is still taking place and provide a couple of
examples of ongoing changes (in English or any other language).
Los de clases altas lo pronuncian distinto a las bajas. Cuando les preguntaron por segunda vez a los de
clase baja, estos imitaron a los de las clases bajas.
What is language variation? Why is it such a crucial notion for language change? Relate your answer
to the statement “Changes are signalled by the frayed edges of languages” (page 42).
Cuando tenemos variaciones es que hay un cambio en marcha (variation). Fuzziness: no está muy
claro si son correctos o no. No hay cambios sin variation pero sí hay variation sin cambios. Además,
los cambios siempre se producen muy despacio, sobre todo los cambios sintácticos, solo se producen
cambios rápidos en ciertas palabras concretas, y es raro. La variación va antes del cambio y puede
durar siglos. Cambio: cuando una variación gana a la otra.
Why does the reading say that “humans are more like stars than sponge-cakes” (page 49)?
Relate your answer to the concept of “social network”. Then think about the sociolinguistic
networks in which you participate and how they influence your linguistic repertoire, that is,
every language and language variety within you, when you use them, what for or with whom
(you can watch this video to learn more about repertoires.)
Cuando vives en un pueblo y no tienes internet es poco probable tener contacto con gente nueva y de
otros lugares, pero en la ciudad entre la cantidad de gente que hay y el Internet, hay más contacto con
gente distinta. Por tanto, hay más variación y, por tanto, más probabilidad de cambio.
The chapter Conflicting loyalties mentions something that usually happens when a nonstandard
feature suddenly emerges into the consciousness of people. What is it?
Es más común que las mujeres corrijan a los niños en el lenguaje que los hombres. Los hombres para
dar una imagen de “pasotismo” tienden a usar más variaciones que son consideradas “incorrectas”.
Dependiendo de la imagen que queramos dar a veces utilizamos una variación u otra, como destacar o
pasar desapercibido, dependiendo del contexto.
The chapter concludes that “a change occurs when a group consciously or subconsciously takes
another as its model, and copies from its speech” (page 83). How does this statement relate to
7
the ways in which a change in language begins? What is the relationship between prestige and
the diffusion of a language change? Be ready to provide examples to illustrate your answers.
Also, be ready to explain the case studies described in the chapter in your own words.
Muchas veces no somos conscientes de las variaciones que utilizamos, por ejemplo, cuando vamos a
la universidad se nos pegan cosas del lenguaje.
WORKSHEET 4:
Read the chapters Catching on and taking off & The reason why (from Jean Aitchison’s
book Language Change: Progress or Decay?) and answer the following questions (to be
discussed in class)
Explain in your own words the meaning of the following statement: “Just like a seed is
likely to enter the ground where the soil is soft, such as a crack between paving stones,
so a sound change is likely to creep into a language at a vulnerable point” (page 84). On
the same page Aitchison explains how, in the past, linguists thought that “all sound
changes, as mechanical processes, take place according to laws with no exceptions”.
Today we know that is not true, as not all words are affected simultaneously. Give
examples and relate your answer to what Aitchison calls “the snowball effect”.
Necesitamos algo interno en el lenguaje que active este cambio, necesitamos factores
externos e internos. Es cierto que es importante el factor externo, como cuando cambiamos
nuestro lenguaje para que nos perciban de cierta forma, pero no es el único.
Explain the meaning of the following quotation in relation to language change: “A skier
may trigger an avalanche by going off-piste and skiing on untouched snow. But the skier
alone did not cause the avalanche. The underlying causes were a combination of factors,
such as the depth of the snow, the angle of the slope, and the amount of sunshine to
which it was exposed. When these reached a certain point, any one of a number of
events could have triggered the avalanche; for example, a skier, a shower of rain, a
gunshot, a rock fall, or an extra-hot day” (page 111).
Los catalizadores/detonantes provocan y aceleran el cambio, sí, pero no solo es uno, hay
muchos motivos. Quizá hubiese tardado más en producirse, pero habría llegado finalmente.
Se tienen que combinar una serie de factores: combinación de motivos sociales y
sociolingüísticos (factores externos e internos).
What does the statement “sociolinguistic causes of language change are superficial”
(page 151) mean? What is the meaning of self-regulation in language? How does this
relate to the interplay of internal and external factors in language change?
We turn to borrow words, then we make it fit in language (turn it plural, masculine,…
anything your language needs), we make it resemble to our language (que se parezca a
nuestro lenguaje, que parezcan native words: por ejemplo, los rusos al ‘jazz’ lo escriben
‘dzhaz’. Si no encajase con nuestro idioma no la habríamos escogido, esto se llama minimal
adjustment tendency naturalising process.
8
In what sense is “borrowing” a misleading term? What are, according to Aitchison, the
main characteristics of borrowing? What is the most frequent cause for the adoption of
English loanwords in Spanish? Now read the handout below and think of a reason for
the striking similarities between French and Spanish loanwords. Be ready to explain
how and why borrowings occur and what consequences they have for the receiver
language.
There are many degrees of integration that respond to the minimal adjustment tendency. Los
dos extremos serían totalmente alienado y totalmente naturalizado, pero hay muchos “grises”
entre estos dos extremos, en el texto aparecen los siguientes:
Traducciones: de lejos/con mucho (by far), aplicar para un trabajo, controversial, atender a
clase
Darle otro significado a una palabra ya existente: ‘aplicar’ como ‘aplicar a un trabajo’,
‘remover’ de ‘remover los escombros’ (remove)
Se mantiene una parte del significado: ‘smoking’ (viene de fumar, pero se refiere a ropa), irse
de camping
Coger una palabra de otro idioma y cambiarle la función gramatical: lifting (facelift). Parking
(car park)
To conclude, can language change be socially undesirable? Are there any brakes to
language change? Can language change be said to be regular? Can it be predicted?
No se pueden juzgar los cambios en las lenguas porque no son conscientes ni voluntarios. No
se puede predecir ni regularizar porque la lengua no es algo independiente e inmutable sino
inconsciente y adaptado al contexto. El ritmo de cambio de la lengua es ahora mucho más
rápido de lo que era antes y eso nos obliga a estar muy atentos para no quedarnos atrás.
9
WHORKSHEET 5:
Están hechos para facilitarle la vida al hablante
SYNCOPE: Kind of ellipsis in which weakly stressed vowels are lost in middle
position Example: [intrestin]
APOCOPE: Loss of phonemes, usually vowels, from the end of a word Example:
Latin civitate
Spanish ciudad
10
Por ejemplo: croqueta
HAPLOLOGY: Similar and adjacent syllables are reduced to one Example: Latin
*stipipendium stipendium
METAPHOR AND METONYMY: see, grasp > 'understand'; going to: spacial
distance > temporal distance, future; foot: human being > mountain I got you, I follow
you
WORD CREATION PROCESSES: coger cosas de otras lenguas y empezar a utilizarlas en las
nuestras
DERIVATION: -hood, -ly < OE had, lic forma más común de crear palabras, con
sufijos y prefijos
MORPHO-SYNTACTIC PROCESSES:
11
AVOIDANCE of REDUNDANCY
12
CHECKLIST
1. Why study HEL (Historical English Language)? Necesitamos la perspectiva del pasado para
comprender la lengua actual
Synchronic linguistics aims at describing a language at a specific point of time, often the present. In
contrast, a diachronic (from δια- "through" and χρόνος "time") approach, as in historical linguistics,
considers the development and evolution of a language through history.
4. What is arbitrariness? What is iconicity? How are they related to the notions of economy and
motivation? What role do they play in language change? Give examples.
8. What is the meaning of "innovation" and "propagation" when referring to language change? What
is the relationship between them?
9. What is the difference between external and internal evidence? What about external and internal
history of a language?
External evidence: históricas, arceologicas, dna (not related to the text en si)
13
10. Can language change be observed? Can it be predicted?
Observed yes
Predict also, we can more or less predict what way is a language going to take
11. What is the difference between conscious and unconscious language change? How do they work?
12. What is the role of the speaker in language change? What about the hearer?
13. What is the meaning of the expression "conflicting loyalties" in relation to language change?
14. Why are S-curves said to be the typical profile of language change? What are the implications for
the study of language change?
regular
15. What is lexical diffusion? Where does this process rest on?
Lexical diffusion: change spreading throughout the language. It rests on generalization. Whatever you
do for a word, in the beginning, it gets widespread.
16. Why are external forces said to be "triggers" rather than "causes"? List these forces and discuss
their role for an explanation of how language changes.
17. In what situations is language change most likely to take place? Why?
18. What is grammaticalization? How would you define it? Give examples.
19. What is analogy? How would you define it? Give examples.
21. What is the "minimal adjustment" tendency? How is it related to the overall operation of language
change?
22. Why is the principle of least effort unsatisfactory as an explanation for all changes that occur in a
language? What about sloppiness and imperfect learning?
23. Can language change be stopped? Are there any factors impeding language change?
24. Is there any situation in which language change could be undesirable? Explain.
14
25. Can languages die?
15
clara.molina@uam.es Language variation and change
WORKSHEET 6
1 Read the chapter Lengua e historia (from Paloma Tejada’s book El cambio lingüístico: claves
para interpretar la lengua inglesa) and check the websites The Roots of English &
Reconstructing the Proto-Indo-European language to make sure you know the answer to
the following questions:
What are cognate words and how are they used for linguistic reconstruction?
What is a protolanguage? How can historical linguistics help reconstruct the homeland and
culture of peoples extinct long ago?
What is the difference between a genetic and typological classification of languages?
2 Complete the exercises on cognates (from C.M. Millward. 1996. Workbook to accompany A
biography of the English language, 2nd ed. Boston: Hartcourt Brace) and typology (from J.
Algeo. 1982. Problems in the origins and development of the English language, 3rd ed.
Boston: Hartcourt Brace) below. Beware, this takes a while!
COGNATES
The accompanying chart lists fourteen words from seventeen different languages. Of these
seventeen languages, twelve are Indo-European and represent three different subdivisions of Indo-
European. The remaining five languages represent three different sets of related, non-Indo-
European languages. Inspect the list and sort the languages into six groups, three Indo-European
and three non-Indo- European. Remember that some forms will not be cognate, even between
closely related languages; further, the more distantly related two languages are, the more
differences between them will be found.
2. From your knowledge that English is a Germanic language, identify which of the
groups above is Germanic.
5. How do you explain the fact that the word for “tobacco” is obviously from the same
root in many different, unrelated languages, yet is sometimes from different roots
in two related languages?
1
clara.molina@uam.es Language variation and change
LANGUAGE TYPES
The older and often imprecise classification of languages into four types (isolating, agglutinative,
inflective, and incorporative) has been greatly refined by modern scholars. Joseph H. Greenberg
discusses the history of the four-way classification and suggests a number of indexes by which the
type of a language can be determined quite precisely. For a rough and ready classification,
however, the four terms are still useful, although linguists no longer use them to imply an
evolutionary development in language. The following examples will illustrate the four types.
An isolating language is one in which words tend to be one syllable long and invariable in
form. They take no inflections or other suffixes. The function of words in a sentence is
shown primarily by word order.
CHINESE
Ni men ti hua wo pu tu tung ‘I do not entirely understand your language’
ni men ti hua wo pu tu tung
you plural possessor language I not all understand
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clara.molina@uam.es Language variation and change
TURKISH
Babam kardeşime bir mektup yazdirdi ‘My father had my brother write a letter’
Baba -m kardeş -im -e bir mektup yaz -dir -di
father my brother my dative a letter write cause to past tense
Inflective languages are like agglutinative ones in that each word tends to have a number
of suffixes. In an inflective language, however, the suffixes often show great irregularity in
varying their shape according to the word-base to which they are added. Also, a single
suffix tends to express a number of different grammatical concepts.
LATIN
Arma virumque cano ‘I sing about weapons and a man’
Arm- a vir -um -que
weapon neuter accusative plural man masculine accusative singular and
can -o
sing first person singular present indicative
An incorporative language is one in which the verb and the subject or object of a sentence
may be included in a single word. What we would think of as the main elements of a
sentence are joined in one word and have no independent existence.
ESKIMO
Qasuiirsarvigssarsingitluinarnarpuq ‘Someone did not at all find a suitable resting place’
Qasu -iir -sar -vig -ssar -si -ngit
tired not causing to be place for suitable find not
-luinar -nar -puq
completely someone third person singular indicative mood
EXERCISE. To which of the four types does each of these languages seem to belong?
1. Ya dumayu, chto eto samyĭ malen’kiĭ iz vsekh gorodov Rossii
‘I think that this is the smallest of all the cities of Russia’
Ya duma -yu chto eto sam -yĭ
I think first person singular present tense that this most masc. nominative singular
malen’k -iĭ iz vs -ekh
small masculine nominative singular out of all genitive plural
gorod -ov Rossi -i
city masc. genitive plural Russia fem.gen.sg.
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clara.molina@uam.es Language variation and change
5. Tis ara houtos estin, hoti kai ho anemos kai he thalassa hypakouei autoi?
‘Who then is this, that both the wind and the sea obey him?’
Ti -s ara hout- os
who masculine nominative singular then this masculine nominative singular
es -tin hoti kai h -o
be third person sg present indicative that/ and the masculine nominative sg
anem -os kai h -e
wind masculine nominative singular and the feminine nominative singular
thalass -a hypakou -ei
sea feminine nominative sg obey third person sg present indicative/
aut -oi
same masc. dative singular
6. Kahä ‘eisibäti
‘He fractured his skull’
Kah -ä’ei -si -bä -ti
blow, strike head be in condition of cause to third person sg intransitive verb
8. Wa?shagnihwęhtonie? Bil
‘We made a snowsnake [stick used in winter games] for Bill’
Wa?- shag- ni- hwęht- oni e ?
non future definite event I-him dual subject snowsnake make for event
occurring
bil only once
Bill
The eight languages above are Russian, Vietnamese, Esperanto, Hawaiian, Greek, Arapaho, Swahili & Onondaga.