Unit One: Introducing Phonetics & Linguistics

Q What is linguistics?

Linguistics is often defined as the ‘the scientific study of language’ by language; it’s either ‘human language’ or a ‘specific language’ like English, Arabic, etc. On the other hand, scientific means: linguistics employ scientific methods and principles in their description and analyses. Linguistics: the systematic study of the structure and development of a language in general or of particular languages.

The characteristics of scientific approach

It must be objective [not subjective] no room for personal liking or disliking It must be consistent, by using the same methodology, terms, symbols, etc It must be explicit [clear] the used terms, methods in the analyses should be clear It must be comprehensive [complete] It must be based on correct evidence [proof]

- Descriptive linguistics: descriptive language studies describe how language is spoken by a group of people in a speech community, and the following studies fall in the overall framework of these studies:

- A description of physical properties of the sounds of the language [phonetics]- A description of the significant sounds of the language [phonology]- A description of the internal structures of words and their derivations [morphology]- A description of sentences structure and the derivation of sentences [syntax]- A description of the structure of spoken and written texts [discourse]

Other branches/divisions of linguistics

- Anthropological linguistics: the study of the relations between language and culture.

- Applied linguistics: the study of the applications of linguistic knowledge to areas such as: foreign language teaching, speech therapy, dictionary making, and translation.

- Comparative linguistics (comparative philology): a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing language in order to establish they are historically related.

- Corpus linguistics: the study of language as expressed in samples or real world texts.

- Historical linguistics (diachronic linguistics): the study of language change

- Psycholinguistics or psychology of language: the study of the psychological factors that enable humans to acquire [learn], use, and understand language.

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Q What is Phonetics?

A fundamental branch of linguistics, it is the study of the physical properties of speech production (sounds) and perception by human beings.

Three divisions or branches of phonetics:

1. Articulatory phonetics: it describes how speech sounds [vowels and consonants] are produced or ‘articulated’ in various parts of the mouth and throat.

2. Acoustic phonetics: it is the study how speech sounds are transmitted as vibrations in the air.

3. Auditory phonetics: it is the study of how speech sounds are perceived or received by the hearer [interpreting sounds]

Q What is language?

Language is a system of communication consisting of sounds, words and grammar, or other system of communication used by the people of a particular country or profession.

Q Discus how all human languages are similarly structured?

- All languages are made of sounds that combine together to make meaning- All languages have rules to combine sounds to make words, words to make phrases, etc- All spoken languages have consonants and vowels- All languages have categories like: nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc- In any language there will be distinct terms for body, head, arm, eyes, etc Q Discus how all human languages are used for communication?

- All languages are spoken except for some dead languages like Latin- All languages are capable of serving the communicative needs of their speakers- New vocabulary items and expressions or terms can be added - In communication, native speakers of any language can ask questions, express liking and disliking, agree, disagree, etc

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Unit Two: Phonetics 1 [English sounds & letters]

* English language has more sounds than letters; it has 26 letters, with 44 sounds

Consonants Sounds

No Sound symbol Letter Example Additional remarks1 / b / b bank2 / p / p park3 / d / d day4 / t / t tin5 / f / f fat6 / v / v vase7 / g / g give

8 / k /k Kingq quickc catch chemistry

9 / l / l late10 / m / m man11 / n / n night12 / s / s sin13 / ʤ / j judge this sound is represented by combining d & j14 / z / z zoo z sound can be represented by s in bags15 / ʒ / s pleasure s sound can be represented by G in beige16 / r / r rat17 / h / h hat18 / j / y yes19 / w / w win20 / ð / th this21 / θ / thin22 / η / ng bang23 / ʧ / ch cheap ch can also represent /k/ in chemist24 / ʃ / sh sheep this sound can be represented by s in sure

Same letter having different pronunciation3

Letter Sound Example Remarksc / k / cat

consonants letters/ s / city

s/ s / slim/ ʃ / sugar/ z / dolls/ ʒ / pleasure

g / g / give/ ʤ / giant

th / ð / then / there combinationof

consonants letters/ θ / thin / Thursday

ch / k / chemist/ ʧ / cherry

Consonants [sounds & letters]Sound Letter & Letter combination Example Remarks

/ f /f fat

consonants sounds represented by different

consonants letters or different combinations of

consonants letters

ff effortph photogh enough

/ s /s satc cinemasc sceness class

/ t /t tenttt attaind walked

/ k /

k keepc cattlech mechanicck backq queen

/ ʃ /sh shames sugarss mission

/ z / z zeros boys / rose

/ ʧ /ch cheese / Chinat picture

tch match / watch

Unit Three: Phonetics 2 [English Consonants]4

Organs of speech

1. Lungs: they produce the air stream

2. Trachea [windpipe]: it’s the tube that carries the air out from the lungs to the larynx and the vocal tract.

3. Larynx: 'Adam's Apple' or voice box, it is a box-like organ that is placed at the top of the wind pipe [it contains the vocal cords].

4. Vocal Cords: a pair of folds [muscles] placed inside Adam's apple, and their edges move quickly backwards & forwards and produce sounds when the air stream from the lungs moves over them (when the vocal folds vibrate, they produce voiced sounds, but when they do not vibrate, they produce unvoiced sounds)

5. Pharynx: the soft part at the top of the throat which connects the mouth & nose to the larynx.

6. Oral Cavity [mouth]: the mouth contains the following organs that play an important role in modifying the passage of the air flow coming from the lungs:

- Tongue: the most important organ of speech because it can perform many movements that modify the air flow to produce different sounds [Tip/Blade/Front/Back/Root]

- The roof of the Mouth: the tongue may be raised towards different points in the roof of the mouth, therefore producing and controlling the sound produced, and it's divided into four parts as following:

The alveolar ridge: immediately behind the upper front teeth. The hard plate: the area behind the alveolar ridge. The velum [soft plate]: the back part of roof of the mouth. The uvula: a small soft muscle dangling from the velum.

- The lips: the play and important role in modifying the quality of the sound produced.

7. Nasal Cavity: the nasal cavity extends from the upper part of the pharynx to the nostrils [nose opening], lowering soft plate, the air stream produces sounds like [m & n].

Q What is the difference between consonants and vowels?5

Consonants: sounds that are produced by stooping the air from flowing freely through the mouth, by closing the lips or by touching the teeth with the tongue.

Vowels: sounds that are produced when the air flows out through the mouth without being blocked by the teeth, tongue or lips.

* Active & Passive articulator: the active articulator is the part of speech [organ] which moves towards the other part of speech [organ] is called the passive articulator.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Consonants [Manner of Articulation]

1. Stop/Plosive [6 sounds]: they are produced when the air stream is completely stopped at certain points in the vocal tract [p/b/t/d/k/g].

2. Fricative [9 sounds]: they are produced through a complete closure of the air passage; it is rather narrowed so the air rubs against the organs of speech [f/v/θ/ð/s/z/ʃ/ʒ/h]

3. Affricate [2 sounds]: these two sounds come in words such as church & judge, and in the production of these sounds there is first a total closure (obstruction) of the air stream and then it is allowed to pass out through a narrow passage slowly.

4. Nasal [3 sounds]: in the production of these sounds, the soft plat is lowered so that the air stream flows out through the nose, because the oral cavity is closed [m/n/η].

5. Approximant [2 sounds]: in the production of these sounds, the active articulator moves close toward the passive articulator but without a point of contact [(j) yes/w]

6. Lateral approximant [1 sound]: the production of the sound l where the air flows through the two sides of the tongue [lull].

7. Trill [1 sound]: a series of rapid closure between two articulators [r] in trill.

Consonants [Place of Articulation]

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1. Bilabial [the two articulators are the lips] such as sounds p in pipe

2. Labiodental [active articulator lower lip & passive articulator teeth] such as f in fan

3. Labial-velar or Labio-velar such as sounds w in wind

4. Dental [active articulator tip of tongue & passive articulator upper front teeth] θ in thick & ð in that

5- Alveolar [active articulator tip of tongue & passive articulator alveolar ridge] such as sounds t in table

6. Post-alveolar [active articulator tip of tongue & passive articulator back part of alveolar ridge] such ʒ in pleasure

7. Palatal [active articulator front of tongue & passive articulator hard palate] j in yes

8- Velar [active articulator back of tongue & passive articulator soft plate] η in ring

9. Glottal [the vocal cords are the producing articulators] h in hope

No Sound Symbol Example Voicing Place of articulation Manner of articulation1 / f / fine voiceless labiodental fricative2 / v / verb voiced labiodental fricative3 / s / sit voiceless alveolar fricative4 / z / zoo voiced alveolar fricative5 / ʃ / wish voiceless post-alveolar fricative6 / ʒ / measure voiced post-alveolar fricative7 / θ / thin voiceless dental fricative8 / ð / there voiced dental fricative9 / p / pin voiceless bilabial plosive

10 / b / box voiced bilabial plosive11 / t / master voiceless alveolar plosive12 / d / drive voiced alveolar plosive13 / k / catch voiceless velar plosive14 / g / bigger voiced velar plosive15 / ʧ / watch voiceless post-alveolar affricate16 / ʤ / bridge voiced post-alveolar affricate17 / m / swim voiced bilabial nasal18 / n / name voiced alveolar nasal19 / η / sing voiced velar nasal20 / l / low voiced alveolar lateral21 / h / happy voiced / unvoiced glottal fricative22 / j / yes voiced palatal approximant

Unit Four: Phonetics 3 [English Vowels & Diphthongs]7

Characteristics of vowels

- All vowel sounds are commonly voiced- A vowel sound occupies the nucleus of a syllable- In the production of vowel sounds there is a complete closure and no stricture close enough to cause friction

Classes of vowel sounds [a / o / u / I / e]

- Short vowels

Front Central BackSymbol Example Symbol Example Symbol Example

|ɪ| ship |ə| above |ʊ| foot|e| head |Λ| cup |Ɗ| sock|æ| hat

- Long Vowels

Front Central BackSymbol Example Symbol Example Symbol Example

|i:| sheep |3:| bird |u:| cool|ɔ:| horse|ɑ:| farm

- Diphthong: a complex vowel sound which changes its quality within a single syllable.

No Symbol Example1 /ɪə/ near2 /ʊə/ tour3 /ɑɪ/ my4 /ɔɪ/ toy5 /əʊ/ snow6 /eə/ hair7 /ɑʊ/ now8 /eɪ/ say

Unit Five: Phonology8

Q What is phonology?

Phonology is a branch of linguistics, which deals with how sounds are combined together to produce meaningful words (the rules governing how phonemes are combined in any given language to produce words).

- Phoneme: the smallest distinctive sound unit in a language, the English language has 44 phonemes.

- Allophones: varieties of a phoneme, in the sense that they do not change the meaning of a word if one is used instead of the other, such as dark (L) like, and clear (L) animal.

- Minimal pairs: two different words that have the same sounds, but differ in a single sound, such as [cat / rat] [white / fight].

The influence of surrounding sounds [phonological phenomena]

- Assimilation: it is the change of a certain sound into another, under the influence of another sound. In combining two words, at which the first word ends with the consonant /d/ the pronunciations of the two words in speech will change [good girl: goog girl].

- The Linking [r]: in connected Reserved Pronunciation speech, when a word ends in the schwa /ə/ and the next word begins with any vowel, a linking [r] sound is commonly heard between them, such as [later on] [higher up].

- Aspiration: when a voiceless plosive /p/ /t/ /k/ occurs at the beginning of a stressed syllable and followed by vowel like [pipe / tool], it is released with a puff of air.

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Unit Six: Prosody

Q What is prosody?

Prosody is the name of the speech elements of stresses, rhythm and intonation, and these elements extend over stretches of utterances longer than segments (phonemes).

A – Stresses

1- Word stresses (lexical stresses): the degree of breath force placed on each syllable in a word, strong stress is represented by the ['] placed before the stressed syllable. Other factors such as loudness and higher pitch are involved in making a stressed syllable prominent.

2- Stresses in connected utterances (sentence stresses): this type of stresses is related to sentences (not words). It is used in English where some words, normally content words (nouns, adjectives, main or lexical verbs and adverbs) are stressed and other words, usually the smaller function words, are not stressed.

3- Elision: the omission of a final or initial sound across word boundary or in the same word. When the sound /t/ or /d/ is used between two consonants, it is often omitted.

B- Rhythm: a regular pattern of stress beats. This pattern is repeated in a tempo-like fashion. It is achieved in English chiefly through the patterning of stressed and unstressed syllables as in poetry.

C- Intonation: when a person speaks, not only does he/she stress syllables, but the pitch of his/her voice continuous to rise and fall. When the vocal cords vibrate faster, the pitch rises and when their vibration slows down the pitch falls, so intonation deals with rise and fall of voice pitch.

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Unit Seven: Morphology

Q What is morphology?

Morphology is the study of word formation, and the basic unit in the study of morphology is the morpheme [the study of internal structures of words and how they can be modified]. A word consists at least of one morpheme as in friend, but it may consist of two or more morphemes as in the word uninteresting, which consists of three units (morphemes): [un + interest + ing]. Morpheme is the minimal meaningful unit of a word.

Morpheme types

1- Free morpheme: a morpheme that has meaning and can stand alone, such as cat / black / note / boy / read / go.

2- Bound morpheme: a morpheme that cannot stand alone, but it is added to another morpheme to become meaningful, such as un or ment in words like unhappy and judgment.

Combinations of morphemes

1- Free + free: two free morphemes that form one word [class + room] classroom.

2- Free + bound: one free morpheme plus one bound morpheme [care + less] careless.

3- Bound + free: one bound morpheme plus one free morpheme [un + happy] unhappy.

4- Bound + free + bound: [un + interest + ing] uninteresting.

5- Bound + free + bound + free: [un + interest + ing + ly] uninterestingly.

6- Bound + bound: two bound morphemes [de + crease] [in + crease] decrease / increase.

* Affixing: the process of adding a bound morpheme to the beginning or to the end of a free morpheme (word), and these are called prefixes and suffixes.

1- Prefixes: the process of adding a bound morpheme to the beginning of a word, such as adding [un + happy] unhappy / [ill + logical] illogical [re + write] rewrite

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2- Suffixes: the process of adding a bound morpheme to the end of a word, such as adding [care + less] careless [swim + ing] swimming [beauty + full] beautiful

Unit Eight: Word classes

Q What are the main word classes categories?

1- Nouns: a class of words that identify people, things, places, animals or abstractions, such as common nouns [coffee / table / boy] and proper nouns that start with a capital letter such as [London / Jack / Jordan].

2- Verbs: a class of words that identify actions or events, such as [play / drive / read]

3- Pronouns: a class of words that may replace a noun, such as [he / she / it / them / I /].

4- Adjectives: a class of words used to describe something or someone, such as [the heavy bag].

5- Adverbs: a class of words used to describe a verb or add information to other categories, and adverbs are distinguished by using the [ly] ending.

6- Prepositions: a class of words that function to link lexical words in the sentence, such as [in / on / up / down / under / at / before]

7- Articles: a class of words used with the nouns to show if they are definite or indefinite, such as [the / a / an].

8- Demonstratives: a class of words which indicate the distance if something or someone, such as near demonstratives [this / these] far demonstratives [that / those].

9- Conjunctions: a class of words which connect words, phrases or sentences together, such as [and / or / but / because / however / nevertheless/ while / as].

Criteria for classification

- Semantic criteria: classifying word classes or parts of speech depending on meaning.

- Morphological criteria: classifying word classes that have the similar morphological characteristics.

- Syntactic criteria: classifying word classes depending on sentence-construction.

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Unit Nine: Syntax 1 – What is syntax?

Q What is syntax?

It is the study of how words combine to form acceptable and grammatical sentences, therefore the syntactic level shows how words are arranged in phrases, and how phrases combine together to produce sentences.

* Sentences consist of clauses / clauses consist of phrases / phrases consist of words

- The girls cocked and the boys washed the dishes

The girls [n.p] cooked [v.p] and [conjunction] the boys [n.p] washed [v.p] the dishes [n.p]

Q What is a sentence?

A sentence is a group of words normally (subject plus predict) expressing a complete thought; a complete unit of meaning; the largest grammatical unite consisting of phrases and/or clauses, used to express statement, question, command, etc, and it most be correct in punctuation form, beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark.

- Subject: it is either what the sentence is about (topic) or the doer of the action (agent).

- Predict: It is part of the sentence that tells something about the subject.

John (subject) has no job (predict)I (subject) posted the letter yesterday (predict)This (subject) is the introductory unit (predict)Smoking (subject) is bad for your health (predict)Both my father and grand father (subject) prefer buses on trains (predict)

Phrases

The man (noun phrase) killed (verb phrase) the beast (noun phrase)

Jack (noun phrase) bought (verb phrase) an expensive book (adjective phrase)

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Jo (noun phrase) speaks (verb phrase) English (noun phrase) fluently (adverb phrase)

* Example on sentences, clauses, phrases and words

My father was reading the news paper and my mother was cooking diner1 sentence, 2 clauses, 6 phrases, 13 words

Unit Ten: Syntax 2 – Sentences types and Classes

Q What is a clause?

A clause is a group of words that consist of a subject and predict [SVO] or [SVOC], meaning subject plus verb plus object plus complement.

Types of Sentences

1- Simple sentence: a sentence that consists of one clause, one subject and one predict, such as: birds fly / Jack wrote a book.

2- Compound sentence: a sentence that consists of two main clauses (independent) connected by a conjunction [and/or/but] like: You can wait here and I will get the key.

3- Complex sentence: a sentence consisting of two clauses, one is the main clause (independent) and the other is a subordinate clause (dependent) connected by a conjunction: If he invites me (dependent clause), I will go to the party (independent clause)

4- Compound- complex sentence: a sentence that consists of three clauses, two are main clauses (independent) and one is a subordinate clause (dependent), connected by conjunctions, for example: The students line up at 7:45 (independent) and their teachers monitor them (independent) while they go to their classes (dependent).

Grammatical Form

* According to grammatical form, sentences are divided into four major syntactic classes:

1- Declarative sentenceThe lion is a strong animalJack stayed at home

2- Interrogative sentence [wh-question or yes/no question]What is your name?Did you write the assignment?

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3- Imperative sentenceOpen the door.Don't interrupt me.

4- Exclamatory sentenceHow beautiful she is!What a slow bus this is!

Unit Eleven: Syntax 3 – Sentences Structure and Patterns

1- Sentence Structure

A- According to the categories (classes) to which the constituents (phrases) of the sentence belong. This type of description is called a categorical description (CD), and there are five phrases in English.

* Categorical description

phrase Head word Example1. Noun phrase (n.p) noun the tall boy2. Verb phrase (v.p) verb has been eating3. Adjective phrase (adj.p) adjective so/very important4. Adverb phrase (adv.p) adverb very carefully5. Prepositional phrase (prep.p) preposition in the garden

B- According to the function which the constituents of the sentence have (in that particular sentence). This type of description is called a functional description (FD), and the five basic functions to describe sentences in English.

* Functional Description

1- Subject [S]2- Verb [V]3- Object [O], Direct object [Od], Indirect object [Oi].4- Complement [C], Subject complement [Cs], Object complement [Co]5- Adverbial [ADV]

Subject [s] Verb [v] Direct Object [Od] Adverbial [ADV]

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The police have searched the rooms very carefully

Subject [s] Verb [v] Subject complement [Cs]The man is my supervisor

Subject [s] Verb [v] Direct Object [Od] Adverbial [ADV]My father rented the rooms in London

2- Sentence Patterns

Pattern 1 [Su+ V-Intrans]

S V-IntransThe sun is shiningMy head aches

Pattern 2 [S + V-mono-trans + Od]

S V-mono-trans OdThat lecture board me

I have seen a horrible accident

Pattern 3 [S + Linking V + ADV]

S V-link ADVMary is with meThey are living in a small village

Pattern 4 [S + Linking V + Cs]

S V-link CsYour dinner seems ready

He is getting angry

Pattern 5 [S + mono-transitive V + Od + ADV]

S V Od ADVYou can put the dish on the tablethey kept the child indoors

Pattern 6 [S + complex-transitive V + Od+ Co]

S V Od Co16

Most students have found her helpfulThey called him a fool

Pattern 6 [S + ditransitive V + Oi + Od]

S V Oi OdHe showed me the photoI must send my parents an anniversary card

Unit Twelve: Semantics

- Semantics: the study of the meanings of words [lexical meaning] and how these combine to form the meanings of sentences.

Word formation a variety of word formation process & methods

1- Compounding: compounds are made up of more than one word element (more than one root), and they are written in three ways:

- Solid: written as one word [bedroom]- Hyphenated: linked by a hyphen [tax-free]- Open: written as separate words [reading material]

2- Affixation: English uses this method frequently for coining words, and affixes in English are two types, prefixes and suffixes.

3- Clipping: it means removing one or more parts of a word, for example, in a word like phone, the removed (clipped) part is [tele-] which stands at the beginning of the original word telephone, or like the word lab, the clipped part is at the end of laboratory.

4- Blending: it is achieved when two words are merged together (blended) in order to coin a new word, this is normally done by using a part of each word, like the word smog [smoke & fog] or brunch [breakfast & lunch].

5- Acronyms: they are words formed from the initial of two or more words, such as VIP which is made of the initial letters of the words [very important person].

Homonymy, Polysemy, Synonymy, Antonymy, Homography

- Homonymy: when two words are split and pronounced the same way, they are termed 'Homonymy', like: the two words left (opposite of right) and left (past tense of leave).

- Polysemy: the case of attaching more than one meaning closely related to each other to a single word, like the noun school, which means either a building or an institute.

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- Synonymy: two words are considered to have the same meaning, like the following words [wish / desire] [gift / donation] [bright / intelligent].

- Antonymy: when words that express opposite meaning, like [front / back] [young / old]

- Homography: when words, which have the same spelling, but which are pronounced differently and have different meanings, like bow (n) that is pronounced to mean [a weapon for shooting arrows] or bow (v) that is pronounced to mean [to move the head down or to bend]

Unit Thirteen: Discourse & Text

Q What is discourse & discourse analysis?

Discourse is the study of units beyond the sentence boundary, the analysis of discourse is necessarily the analysis of language in use. As such, it cannot be restricted to the description of linguistic forms independent of the purpose or function which these forms are designed to serve in human affairs.

Q What is the main objective of discourse analysis?

The main objective of all research within the domain of discourse analysis is to study all aspects related to language use, or strictly speaking language in use (language as used in real communicative situations by real people and the actual context in which communication takes place.

Q What are the differences between spoken & written discourse?

1- The structure of written discourse is more explicit and more standardized than that of spoken discourse.

2- Sentences in written discourse are clearly marked off by punctuation marks; whereas in spoken discourse they are not marked off in a definite and clear manner.

3- Sentences in written discourse are generally longer and more complex than those in spoken discourse.

4- Some of the features of the spoken discourse are inappropriate in written discourse, such as repetition of words and phrases use of slang words, etc.

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