453 History of English

Chapter 1

Whaddya Think?

How old is language? How did it develop?

Issues with origination theories?

Duality of patterning

Meaningful Vocabulary (AKA Lexis // Lexicon) Grammatical System (AKA

Morphosyntax) Meaningless

Sound System (AKA Phonology)

Systematicness of Language

Phonology

Syntax

Lexis

Predictable

Unpredictable

Grammatical Signals Part of speech

Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, etc. Affix

Prefix, suffix Inflectional, derivational Agreement Word order Function words Prosodic signals

Pitch, stress, tone, tempo…

Whaddya Think?

Which denote “good” English? Pure, correct, aesthetic, commonly

used, prestigious, literary, appropriate…

Morphemes

Smallest linguistic sign Bound Free Allomorphs Base + affix Compound Idiom (AKA phrasal verb)

Allomorph: The Plural Suffix

Orthography: -s or -es Phonetic: [-s], [-z] or [-z] Sort the following phonetically:

Ace, almanac, bag, book, burlesque. Church, cough, cup, dish, dress, fall, graph, hat, house, hunch, judge, lad, lash, lathe, maze, moor, myth, oaf, pillow, room, tax, thing, train, wisp

Distinguishable Pairs? Red eye

Cheap Whiskey Long shot

A kind of bet Big head

Conceited

Red eye Bloodshot eye

Long shot Great shot-put

effort Big head

Large skull

How about these? New Jersey

The state Old maid

Spinster Little woman

Wife Long Island

The place

New jersey Just bought blouse

Old maid Elderly servant

Little woman Small female

Long island Any elongated isle

Any difference between this slide’s pairs and the last set?

Speech vs. Orthography Did he believe Caesar could see the

people seize the seas? Did he believe Caesar could see the

people seize the seas? Did he believe Caesar could see the

people seize the seas?

Now you try: The silly amoeba stole the key to the machine

Oral Ambiguity? He came to. He came too.

She found a pear. She found a pair.

The math department is teaching plane geometry The math department is teaching plain geometry

The directions read: “Leave address with her” The directions read: “Leave a dress with her”

Speech & Writing “Speech is primary & writing

secondary”

Write it down… Translation ≠ Transliteration

Homonyms: a lot alike Homophones Homographs

Language Change

Systematic Associative Social

Language Variation

Diachronic Synchronic

Dialect Idiolect Register

On Linguistic Corruption… Prescriptive vs. descriptive Acceptability

Periods of English Old English

450 – 1100 Beowulf

Middle English 1100-1500 Chaucer

Modern English 1500 – Present Shakespeare

Exercises

Interesting Stuff

Say it this way… “He’s a very enthusiastic person”

Just the fact… I like him. His enthusiasm is great. I don’t like him. His enthusiasm is annoying. I am reluctant to describe him. I mean him, not her. I’m asking you, not telling you. Is that what you said? I don’t think so. Enthusiasm is the only good thing about

him.

Ambiguity

Old men and women abandon ship first

They went by the old highway He painted the picture in the hall The girl asked him to leave quietly She gave him an order to leave

Discussion Questions

What is the function of a dictionary?

Misconceptions & errors about language?

Is thought ‘unexpressed language” or not?

Workbook Exercises 1.5 The Sound System 1-3 1.7 Noun Classes All 1.8 Function Words All 1.10 Related Sentences #1: All

#2 – 5: two each 1.11 Morphemes All 1.12 Different Systems All 1.13 Echoic Words All 1.14 Language Change 1-7 1.16 Usage & the Dictionary #2: All 1.18 Using the OED 1-6