nullLecture 4 The units of EnglishLecture 4 The units of English
Describe the following sounds:Describe the following sounds:/f/
/i/
/:/Review null
[f]: voiceless, labia-dental, (oral), fricative
/i/: high, front, lax, short, unrounded
/:/: mid, central, tense, long, unroundedMajor contentsMajor contents4.1 English morphemes
4.2 English words
4.3 English clauses and sentences
4.4 Collocations, idioms, and constructions in English null
Morphology [形态学] is the branch of grammar that studies the internal structure of words and the rules of word formation.
Morphology falls into two categories:
inflectional morphology (study of inflections)
lexical/derivational morphology (study of word formation).
4.1 English morphemes4.1 English morphemesThe morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning, lexical or grammatical.
Ask: How many morphemes does the following word contain?
weaknessesMorphemic analysisMorphemic analysis
Practice: Practice: Analyze the word:
unwomanlinessClassification:Classification:free/bound morpheme e.g. weak/ness
derivational/inflectional morpheme
(lexical meaning) (grammatical meaning)
e.g. weak/ness-es
root/affix morpheme e.g. weak/ness
TaskTask What are the inflectional morphemes in the following phrases?
(a) the government’s policies
(b) the latest news
(c) two frightened cowsRoot, affixRoot, affixRoot: the part expressing the basic meaning of a word. It can be free or bound.
c.f. brotherly—receive
Affix morphemes: prefix; infix; suffix
Example of infix: foot-feet goose-geese BUT: It 's controversial.
null Discuss
P. 53 No. 1, 2CompoundCompoundA word composed of two or more free root morphemes is a compound.
c.f. bookcase -- friendship
AllomorphAllomorphA set of allomorphs, e.g. in-, im-, il- ir-, are the variants (different realizations) of a morpheme, in- in this case. They have the same meaning and are in complementary distribution.
For the morpheme of "plural meaning" in English:
map-maps /s/, dog-dogs /z/,
watch-watches /iz/, mouse-mice /ai/,
ox-oxen /n/, tooth-teeth /i:/,
sheep-sheep /Ø/Root and stemRoot and stemThe stem is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an affix can be attached.
e.g. lived, shortened, weaknesses, landlords
A stem-formative is the morpheme that serves to create stems.
e.g. biology, thermometer
nullDiscuss
PP. 53-54 No. 34.2 English words4.2 English words
Presentation session
Word formation in English nullPractice:
Point out the devices of word formation for each of the following:
smog, enthuse, tec, PLO,
hospitalize, plane (v.) nylonSyntactic unitsSyntactic unitsHierarchical system:
(morpheme-)word-phrase--clause—sentence
e.g. I met Tom.
a (handsome American young) man
a (handsome American young) man who always spoke a very heavy dialect.
null
Classification of English words
grammatical words (function words/form words/ functors)
lexical words
Practice: Identify those that are function words and those that are lexical words in the following short paragraph. What’s the percentage of function words?Practice: Identify those that are function words and those that are lexical words in the following short paragraph. What’s the percentage of function words? What does it mean to be fat? And, moreover, what does it mean to be a woman who is fat? In the United States, the word “fat” is not merely descriptive; it has a negative connotation. Women are pressured to be thin and young looking at every age, and those who do not fit this definition of normal, are, for the most part, marginalized. (67 words)
nullclosed-class words -- open-class words
New members of word class:
particles: pass by; make up; to do; not
auxiliaries: I don't do it; is he coming? he has gone.
pro-forms: Your pen is here (pro-adjective); He knows better than I do (pro-verb); I hope so(pro-ad); He's here, behind the tree. (pro-locative)English phrasesEnglish phrasesPhrase is a single element of structure containing more than one word, and lacking the subject-predicate structure typical of clauses. e.g.
(1) a traditional festival
(2) freezing cold
(3) in the next century
4.3 English clauses and sentences4.3 English clauses and sentencesA clause in English is one unit of organization that contains a subject-predication structure. A simple sentence is a clause. Alternatively:
A clause is a group of words that has its own subject and predicate but is included in a sentence. e.g.
(1) I want to know why.
(2) Having an influential father is often advantageous.
(3) Do you know where I come from?nullA clause may be finite or non-finite. In the latter case, the subject of the predicate is implicit but inferable from the sentence containing the clause, such as an infinite clause, a –ing or –ed participle clause.
superordinate/main/matrix clause
subordinate clauseEnglish sentencesEnglish sentencesa. Definition:
Semantically, the minimal form that expresses a complete thought
Formally, not included in any larger linguistic form
ClassificationClassificationnullDiscussDiscussPP. 56-57 No. 74.4 Collocations, idioms, chunks, and constructions4.4 Collocations, idioms, chunks, and constructionsSome phrases, for various reasons, are more or less tight collocations (like “a handsome car”, “a pretty girl”) or closed idioms (like “in the end” and “leave off”). nullIdioms generally have semantic unity and function as noun, verb, adjective and so forth.
Idioms differ from compound words in that they, for the most part, allow a certain amount of internal modification. The nominal idiom “man-of-war”, for example, pluralizes as “men-of-war”, instead of “man-of-wars”.
nullVerb-particle idioms have become extremely common in English during the last three centuries or so.
Such constructions are more common in American English than in British English. Those consisting of three rather than two parts, like “miss out on” and “meet up with”, are almost exclusively American in origin. nullDiscuss:
PP. 59-60 No. 6nullA very large part of language is made up of prefabricated chunks, or ready-made expressions, phraseological units which do not have to be generated every time they are used. “for example”, “think of”, “on the whole” are such chunks.
Native speakers retain many prefabricated lexical items in their memory.
PP. 55-56 No. 6Chunks in English
ConstructionsConstructionsRather than treating sentences as uniformly formed by virtue of generative rules, a new perspective known as construction grammar argues that there is no principled divide between lexicon and rules and language is a repertoire of more or less complex patterns – constructions – that integrate form and meaning in conventionalized and often non-compositional ways.
Form in constructions may refer to any combination of syntactic, morphological, or prosodic patterns and meaning is understood in a broad sense that includes lexical semantics, pragmatics, and discourse structure (to be expounded later). nulla. Jane gave John an apple. (ditransitive construction)
b. Jane gave an apple to John. (dative construction)
c. It was Jane that John saw. (It-cleft construction)
d. Jane, John saw her. (left dislocation construction)
e. Jane John saw. (topicalization construction)
f. Jane kissed John unconscious. (resultative construction)Assignment:Assignment:PP. 60-61 No. 9
Explore whether there are parallel word formation devices in Chinese. Use examples to illustrate.Lecture 5Lecture 5The Structures of English (1)ContentsContents5.1 Defining syntax (句法学)
5.2 Syntactic patterns in English
5.3 Syntactic relations
5.4 The hierarchical structuring of English sentences
5.5 Surface and deep structures5.1 Defining syntax5.1 Defining syntaxSyntax is the study of how words combine into sentences; specifically the syntactic patterns of sentences /internal structures of sentences /syntactic properties and functions, and the rules governing the syntactic combinations. nullSyntax accounts for:
-- the grammaticality of sentences;
-- word order;
-- hierarchical organization of sentences;
-- grammatical relations
-- whether different structures have different meanings or the same meaning;
-- the creative aspect of language.nullThe boy found the ball.
*The boy found quickly.
*The boy found in the house.
Bill hired Mary.
Mary hired bill.
Mary was hired by Bill.
He has everything a woman wants,
-- and he wants everything a woman has.nullRecursiveness/ Recursion
PP. 74-75 No. 1null A children's rhyme
This is the farmer sowing the corn,
that kept the cock that crowed in the morn,
that waked the priest all shaven and shorn,
that married the man all tattered and torn,
that kissed the maiden all forlorn,
that milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
that tossed the dog,
that worried the cat,
that killed the rat,
that ate the malt,
that lay in the house that Jack built.5.2 Sentence patterns/types in English5.2 Sentence patterns/types in Englishi) SVC Mary is a nurse/poor.
ii) SVA Mary weighs 120 pounds.
iii) SV Mary came.
iv) SVO Mary cheated me.
v) SVOC Mary called me Jim.
vi) SVOA Mary put her child down.
vii) SVOO Mary lend him some money.
Language typesLanguage types SVO: English, French, Swahili, Hausa, Thai
VSO: Tagalog, Irish, (Classical) Arabic, (Biblical) Hebrew
SOV: Turkish, Japanese, Persian, Georgian
OVS: Apalai (Brazil), Barasano (Colombia), Panare (Venezuela)
OSV: Apurina and Xavante (Brazil)
VOS: Cakchiquel (Guatemala), Huave (Mexico)nullThe most frequent word orders in languages of the world are SVO, VSO, and SOV, while languages with OVS, OSV, and VOS as basic word orders are much rarer. P. 78 No. 85.3 Syntactic relations5.3 Syntactic relationsPositional relation (word order, horizontal relations, syntagmatic relations--Hjemslev; chain relations--Halliday)
nullSyntagmatic relation refers to the sequential or linear arrangement of words in a language.
Any language has its patterns of arrangement.
Word order determines syntactic relations and sentence meaning, esp. for those analytical languages like Chinese.nullRelation of substitutability (associative relations--Saussure; paradigmatic relations--Hjemslev; vertical relations; choice relations--Halliday)
(1) He is fond of dancing/swimming/his pretty cousin/literature, etc.
(2) He left yesterday/at midnight/before he had finished his homework/ the moment I arrived.5.4 The hierarchical structuring of English5.4 The hierarchical structuring of English
Sentences are not strings of words put together linearly but rather hierarchical constructions.
e.g. young boys and girls
IC analysisIC analysisForm classes
Form classes: phonetic and grammatical features (distribution, grammatical function, inflectional features)nullJohn likes singing Chinese songs.
John likes?
likes singing?
singing Chinese?
BUT: likes (singing (Chinese songs))
John (likes (singing (Chinese songs)))IC analysisIC analysisSome conceptsSome concepts1) Binary cutting
2) Immediate constituent/ ultimate constituent
3) Tree diagram/ labeled tree diagram
4) IC analysis: the approach to analyze sentences into immediate constituents by binary cuttings until obtaining the ultimate constituents
Labeled tree-diagramLabeled tree-diagramnullPractice: Apply IC analysis onto the following sentence:
The world today is highly competitive.AmbiguityAmbiguityPP. 75-76 No. 2, 3Two ways of IC analysisTwo ways of IC analysisEye drops off shelfEye drops off shelfEyedrops off shelfdropsoff shelfoffshelfEye dropsoff shelfEyedropsoffshelfnullBut IC analysis cannot
-- remove the ambiguity as found in
Flying planes can be dangerous. -- explain why structures like the following look similar but basically different:
a. He is easy to please.
b. He is eager to please.P. 77 No. 65.5 Surface and deep structures
e.g. He is easy to please.
He is eager to please.
5.5 Surface and deep structuresnullAnalysis in terms of Chomsky’s TG grammarPresentation sessionPresentation sessionInterrogative sentences in EnglishAssignments:Assignments:P. 80 No. 2, 3
P. 81 No. 6
Collect at least two cases of ambiguity from newspaper headlines, advertisements, etc.
Lecture 6Lecture 6
The Structures of English (2)Review:Review:What is meant by IC analysis?
What are ‘surface structure’ and ‘deep structure’?
Analyze how the following sentence is ambiguous:
Flying planes can be dangerous. IC analysisIC analysisFlying planes can be dangerousflying planescan be dangerousflyingplanescan bedangerouscanbeLabeled tree diagramLabeled tree diagramSNPVPAdjPc ??NflyingplanesVPAdjAUXVcanbedangerousDeep Structure 1Deep Structure 1Flying planes can be dangerouscan be dangerousNP VPAdjP NflyingplanesDeep Structure 2Deep Structure 2can be dangerousNP VPS’ NflyingplanesNPVPSAuxV(are)ContentsContents
6.1 English paragraphs
6.2 English texts
6.3 Cohesion in English texts
6.4 Turn taking in English conversations
6.1 English paragraphs6.1 English paragraphsPP. 87-886.2 English texts6.2 English textsP. 88
Discuss PP. 90-91 No. 26.3 Cohesion in English texts6.3 Cohesion in English textsSentence connection
a. Conjoining (coordination)
b. Embedding (subordination)
nullMeans of cohesion(衔接):
a. Lexically ( repetition, synonymy,
antonymy, hyponymy--reiteration)
b. Grammatically (ellipsis, substitution,
reference)
c. Logically (connectives)
nullA latest survey has been held among some citizens from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou about the Internet’s influence on people’s habit of reading. The research shows that 40% of them have strong belief that it will replace the book as the sole source of information, but the remaining 60% argue that the Internet will coexist with the traditional means of information transmission. I agree with the latter.Identify the cohesive devices in the following passage:DiscussDiscussP. 93 No. 6nullReference deserves further elaboration here. The first distinction can be drawn between endophoric reference and exophoric reference. While the former points to a relation between an entity in the situational context and a linguistic item in the text (as in “He is the man you want to see!” said when the mentioned person comes over to the speaker), the latter refers to the relation between two linguistic items in the same text. nullFor endophoric reference, further distinction is attempted between anaphoric reference and cataphoric reference. The former involves a relation between a preceding referential expression or an antecedent and the current pronominal item (as in “John loves Jane. He takes great care of her. This is known to all.”) , whereas the latter denotes a relation between the current pronominal item and the later occurring expression (as in “This is what John does for Jane: he sends a bunch of roses to her every day.”) . DiscussDiscussP. 90 No. 16.4 Turn taking in English conversations6.4 Turn taking in English conversationsIn conversation, dialogue rather than monologue dominates. Conversationalists take turns speaking. The chance to speak is technically termed as floor. The current speaker may try to maintain the floor, or give up the floor. While the next speaker may opt to interrupt in order to seize the floor, he or she can wait to be nominated by the current speaker, or take the hints from him such as a long pause, a gesture, a gaze, etc. nullAn initiation, say a question or a request, by the first speaker and the response by the second speaker, like an answer to the question and a compliance with the request, form an adjacency pair. If the second part of the adjacency pair is positive, it is preferred; if the second part of the adjacency pair is negative, it is dispreferred. The latter is characterized by the use of such signals as “well”, hesitation markers like “erm”, pauses, explanations or accounts, etc. null Discuss
PP. 91-92 No. 3, 4Presentation sessionPresentation session Phatic communion in English and ChineseAssignments:Assignments:P. 95 No. 9
P. 98 No. 5