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Úvod do štúdia anglického jazyka - poznámky (uvod_do_anj-poznamky.doc)

What is language. The main features of language

Communication can be:

1. verbal - human communication, speaking, using linguistics forms, produced by articular organs
2. non-verbal - body language, eye contact, facial expressions.

→ communication

- transfer of intonation from one system to another on the basis of some physical embodiment

        channel of communication – connection, when tool is language

                  direct                         verbal

                  indirect                         non-verbal

Language is a system of visual, auditory, or tactile symbols of communication and the rules used to manipulate them.

Human language is a system of symbols used for communication and cognitions.

Language is a dynamic, versatile, flexible system, it is different other kind of communication.

= hierarchically structured, dynamic, open system

= a tool of communication

= goal-oriented, hierarchically organized, mono-stereotyped behaviour

Human language has a very difficult vocabulary. There are 400 languages having standardized form and 20000 with all the dialects. Every one human being uses IDIOLECT = individual human way to speak.

The scientific study that deals with human language is linguistics.

A linguistic community is a heterogeneous community using any given language.

Linguistics is scientific study of human language communication.

General (or theoretical) linguistics consists of a number of sub-fields, such as the study of language structure (grammar) and meaning (semantics). The study of grammar encompasses morphology (formation and alteration of words) and syntax (the rules that determine the way words combine into phrases and sentences). Also part of this field are phonology, the study of sound systems and abstract sound units, and phonetics, which is concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds (phones), non-speech sounds, and how they are produced and perceived.

LANGUAGE

→ articulated = structured

        - structure is hierarchical, formed with units where the lower unit is contained in higher unit

        - morpheme → word → phrase → clause → sentence → paragraph → text

→ system

        - organized and structured whole consisting of organized elements:

                1. reciprocally exclusive (a/the)

                2. reciprocally defining (this-that)

        - can be : OPEN – indefinite number of elements (N, V, Adj)

                   CLOSED – definite number of elements (articles, tenses)

→ sign

        - a combination of concept and acoustic/written image

        - arbitrary, abstract, general

        = conventional character

        - symbol – a kind of sign carrying 2 or more information directly or indirectly

        - icon – picture, photograph, representing an idea

 semiotic triangle

                         concept  

               you have to imagine it

- no direct relation between referent and symbol

- if we want to define referent, we have to use a concept, item

- the relation is mediated by our thinking

- the symbol isn’t directly motivated by the referent

class - symbol           object - referent

            word                          phoneme                    

Main features of language

One of basic characteristics of human beings is their ability to communicate. This process is carried out by means of language. Although communication as such is common to human and animals there are some basic differences This are the FEATURES OF LANGUAGE = PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE.

1. Arbitrariness

- it is the link to conventionality

- it is about the extra-linguistic reality

- there is no direct connection between the entities and their names

- there is no direct link between the symbol and the phenomena

- no real connection between objective reality and the names of the things

- the name of the subject is obligatory

- in most languages we have different names for nominate an object

Just in ONOMATOPOEIC = NON-ARBITRARY. there is a relationship between the phoneme and the onomatopoeic, they are non-arbitrary or partially arbitrary, they imitate natural sounds.

2. Duality

- there are 2 levels of structure:

a) elements - they are meaningless, abstract

                   - these are phonemes = they are abstract (P, I, T)  / the sound is concrete on the other side

b) units - they are meaningful, they have a distinctive function

             - these are words = the phonemes together build a word (PIT / PET)

Human are able to create a very large number of words out of a limited number of phonemes

3. Discreetness

- there is a strict exactness, definiteness, separation - there is just on meaning

- in speech I can differently realize the context meaning but the word is discreet

- it is important if we say PIT or PET

4. Displacement

- the ability to speak about things or events remote in time or space

- humans are able to think and speak about the past, the present and the future

- human language is abstract - we can imagine even a non-existing object & we can talk about feelings (love)  

Animals can’t think abstract, they are just in and about the present, what they need to stay alive.

5. Productivity

- the ability to form new words and sentences

- the capacity for the free appropriate & creative use of language and as an expression of thought

- the function of the language system like a puzzle, we can combine words into phrases, clauses, sentences, texts

- e.g. “the president” are 2 words but lexical it is just 1 phrasal

6. Cultural transmission

- language is not hereditary; it is a matter of cultural transmission

- the culture and the language are transmitted to an individual

- one generation teaches language to another  a L. system of a L. community is learned from one to another

7. Reflexiveness

-  the ability to talk about language itself

8. Prevarication

- the ability to tell a lie or to talk nonsense

Basic functions of language

1. referential (ideational)

- it is a macro function of language

- by means of this function, we construct our experience of the world around or inside us (our psychic world)

- we refer to extralingual reality (people, objects, ideas)

2. expressive (emotive) - we express our emotional attitudes, feelings
3. regulatory (instrumental, interpersonal) - we regulate people, try to control them, warn, order, request
4. heuristic - we seek information, explore reality, put questions (WH- words)
5. interactional (phatic) - we open social contacts or close down the channel of communication

                                  - includes also non-verbal (body language)

6. cognitive - we realize thought processes (comparisons, hypothesis…)
7. metalingual - L we use to talk about language
8. aesthetic - use of L for its own sake, pleasure, aesthetic meaning (poetry, prose, fiction)
9. ceremonial - L for religious purposes, specific occasions (wedding, gratulations, funerals…)

Approaches of study of language - SAUSSURE & CHOMSKY

- several linguists dealt with the language and with it’s development  several discussions concerning it’s origin

- the process went from the protolanguage to language consisting long chains  

Ferdinand Saussure (French)

1. sociologist
2. for him the language system exists only with a social system
3. language system is just a manual  we can just use it
4. he separates language in parts:

1. langue - abstract idealised system that functions only with society = language system
2. parole - concrete realization of language system, concrete everyday use = speech

Noam Chomsky

5. psychologist
6. for him language MAY exists with the society
7. he deals with the individual knowledge
8. he says that we are born with a predisposition to learn language, with some kind of inner grammar
9. we learn what is around us, where we are born in

1. competence - language knowledge by an individual = ability to speak
2. performance - use of this competence in individual speak = the act of speaking              

Language and linguistics

Language

System of signs used for communication (human, animal, math, computer)

Language is a system of visual, auditory, or tactile symbols of communication and the rules used to manipulate them.

Linguistics is scientific study of human language communication.

General (or theoretical) linguistics consists of a number of sub-fields, such as the study of language structure (grammar) and meaning (semantics). The study of grammar encompasses morphology (formation and alteration of words) and syntax (the rules that determine the way words combine into phrases and sentences). Also part of this field are phonology, the study of sound systems and abstract sound units, and phonetics, which is concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds (phones), non-speech sounds, and how they are produced and perceived.

Language is classified:

Verbal – ordinary expressive words, phrases, sentences

Non-verbal – expressions, facial mimics, gestures, body language, body gestures, eye contact, eye gaze or eye shifting, etc.

4000 languages (standardised forms – in dictionaries)/ somebody talks about 20 000 languages + geography dialects

Language can be studied as – language as such (in general)

a philosophical phenomenon

There are 2 approaches of study of language:

a) Ferdinand Saussure

b) Noam Chomsky

Ferdinand Saussure divided language into:

La langue

La parole

1. Founder of modern linguistics
2. Actual realization of the language system is speech – la parole – use of this system in speech
3. La parole

1. actual behaviour of individual language user (speech/ speaking/ language in use),
2. it refers to the concrete act of speaking, writing, sign language in particular situation (concrete use of language)

4. La langue – generalize, abstract language system of signs
5. He is a sociologist because of his view on the language - Language is a social phenomenon – it exists perfectly only within the community

Noam Chomsky divided language into:

Competence

Performance

1. Competence

1. individual’s knowledge of language
2. it is the knowledge of the system and rules, which means approximately the same as la langue, but the competence is on higher level of abstraction

2. Performance

1. use of this knowledge in speech – concrete individual’s language behaviour
2. it is the actual use of the rules in speaking, with errors, memory limitations etc.

3. Language is a psychological phenomenon – he is a psychologist

Each individual own way of speaking is called idiolects

Basic properties of language

Language is:

1. Flexible
2. Versatile
3. Dynamic

ARBITRARINNESS (nesúvislosť, nezávislosť)

1. There is no direct link between object, process or state of extralinguistic reality (e.g. dog, walk, pretty) and what it represents (the sound sequence denoting that object)
2. no link between linguistic sign and its meaning – it refers to what is coined as a matter of convention, it means that the names of the objects, states and processes were created by humans arbitrarily – e.g. the word “dog” doesn’t look like the animal that it represents
3. e.g.: table – furniture – concrete entity

Onomatopoeic = non-arbitrary (zvukomalebné slová)

1. They are phonetically motivated - Sound form motivates the creation of the new word (motivované zvukovou stránkou javu, opierame sa o zvukový charakter javu) – e.g. to bark, oink, cock-a-doodle-doo - Sounds of animals; splash, ding-dong
2. Represents the character of the extralinguistics phenomenon
3. Sort of imitation of the natural sounds – tries to imitate extralinguistic signs
4. The sound form of these words actually resembles the real sounds
5. It is not perfect - Sound different in different languages- each language has its own onomatopoeic words – so it remains a conventionalised link

DUALITY

Human communication is based on 2 levels:

1. Elements

1. ordinary sounds
2. set of distinct sounds of language – phonemes
3. most of phonemes are meaningless in isolation, but when we combine them in specific ways, we build meaningful units

2. Units = words

1. meaningful

1. Meaningless letters P E N form into larger linguistic levels – meaningful word “pen”

1. Meaningless letters (Elements) have distinctive feature (function) – when they are replaced, they change the meaning (create a new word)

e.g. P E N

T E N

2. Duality provides language with enormous productive power – a relatively small number of elements at one level can enter into thousands of different combinations to form units of meaning at the other level

DISCREETNESS

1. discreet (oddeliteľné) = jednoznačnosť, striktná vydeliteľnosť
2. every language consists of certain limited number of discrete sounds – phonemes
3. these discrete elements are grouped in a certain way to build higher units – words, which have their specific meaning
4. if we change one phoneme for another in a particular word, we may change the meaning of the word – this difference in meaning is due to difference between the phonemes
5. thus, the discrete, but (mostly) meaningless, elements of language (phonemes) can bring about a change in the meaning of meaningful units of language (words) – this is called discreetness – so sounds used to produce language are distinct from one another (in our minds)
6. e.g. PIT – PET

BACK – PACK

PRODUCTIVITY

1. On the bases of the limited sounds (units/phonemes) – we can produce an unlimited number of words
2. e.g. /P/ /E/ /N/
3. it is the ability to create new words in language, and also to form new sentences, (possibly) ones that have never been formed before
4. Phonemes are combined into the sentences

Elements (phonemes) – words (units) – sentences – text

Linguistic forms are words, phrases, clauses, sentences, text

DISPLACEMENT

1. Also proper only to human language (is unique)
2. Animals don’t refer to removed places, time, abstract things – our communication needn’t be always linked with present time (talk about tomorrow, love…)
3. So humans are capable of referring to past, present, and future alike – this is called displacement

CULTURAL TRANSMISSION

1. Language passes from generation to another
2. LAD (= Language acquisition device) – we are born with predisposition to acquire language easily
3. each language must be learnt by a child
4. child learns language from his parents – we must live in language community – children brought up in isolation do not acquire language
5. the language is not hereditary – it is matter of cultural transmission – the culture and the language are transmitted to an individual from his/her community

Communicative competence is a linguistic term which refers to a second language learner's ability. It not only refers to a learner's ability to apply and use grammatical rules, but also to form correct utterances, and know how to use these utterances appropriately.

Noam Chomsky distinguishes competence, the knowledge that native speakers have of their language as a system of abstract formal reactions and performance, their actual behavior. Performance is particular, variable, and dependent on circumstances. It may offer evidence of competence, but it is circumstantial evidence and not to be relied on. What we know cannot be equated with what we do. Performance, then, becomes particular instances of behavior which result from the exercise of ability and are not simply the reflexes of knowledge.

The term “communicative competence” was coined by Dell Hymes in 1966, reacting against the perceived inadequacy of Noam Chomsky's (1965) distinction between competence and performance. Chomsky's view of linguistic competence, however, was not intended to inform pedagogy, but serve as part of developing a theory of the linguistic system itself, idealized as the abstract language knowledge of the monolingual adult native speaker, and distinct from how they happen to use and experience language. Hymes, rather than Chomsky, had developed a theory of education and learning.

Canale and Swain (1980) defined communicative competence in terms of four components:

1. linguistic competence: words and rules
2. sociolinguistic competence: appropriateness
3. discourse competence: cohesion and coherence
4. strategic competence: appropriate use of communication strategies

Canale and Swain's definition has become canonical in applied linguistics.

Through the influence of communicative language teaching, it has become widely accepted that communicative competence should be the goal of language education, central to good classroom practice (e.g. Savignon 1998). This is in contrast to previous views in which grammatical competence was commonly given top priority. The understanding of communicative competence has been influenced by the field of pragmatics and the philosophy of language concerning speech acts as described in large part by John Searle and J.L. Austin.

Language teaching in the United States is based on the idea that the goal of language acquisition is communicative competence: the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately to accomplish communication goals. The desired outcome of the language learning process is the ability to communicate competently, not the ability to use the language exactly as a native speaker does.

Communicative competence is made up of four competence areas:

1. linguistic
2. sociolinguistic
3. discourse
4. strategic

Linguistic competence is: knowing how to use the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of a language. Linguistic competence asks: What words do I use? How do I put them into phrases and sentences?

Sociolinguistic competence is: knowing how to use and respond to language appropriately, given the setting, the topic, and the relationships among the people communicating. Sociolinguistic competence asks: Which words and phrases fit this setting and this topic? How can I express a specific attitude (courtesy, authority, friendliness, respect) when I need to? How do I know what attitude another person is expressing?

Discourse competence is: knowing how to interpret a series of sentences and utterances in order to perform a meaningful whole and to achieve coherent texts that are relevant to a given context. Discourse competence asks: How are words, phrases and sentences put together to create conversations, speeches, email messages, newspaper articles?

Strategic competence is: knowing how to recognize and repair communication breakdowns, how to work around gaps in one’s knowledge of the language, and how to learn more about the language and in the context. Strategic competence asks: How do I know when I’ve misunderstood or when someone has misunderstood me? What do I say then? How can I express my ideas if I don’t know the name of something or the right verb form to use?

In the early stages of language learning, instructors and students may want to keep in mind the goal of communicative efficiency: That learners should be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest. They should try to avoid confusion in the message (due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary); to avoid offending communication partners (due to socially inappropriate style); and to use strategies for recognizing and managing communication breakdowns.

Historical development of English

3 periods:

1. Old English – 7-11ct.

2. Middle English – 1100-1500

3. Modern English – 1500-

Celtic language was the first spoken language

Many other languages were brought by invaders

Proto-Germanic Language

Proto-Germanic, or Common Germanic, is the hypothetical common ancestor (proto-language) of all the Germanic languages such as modern English, Dutch, German, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Swedish.

The Proto-Germanic language is not directly attested by any surviving texts but has been reconstructed using the comparative method. However, a few surviving inscriptions in a runic script from Scandinavia dated to c. 200 are thought to represent a stage of Proto-Norse or Late Common Germanic immediately following the "Proto-Germanic" stage.

In historical linguistics, Proto-Germanic is a node in the tree model; that is, if the descent of languages can be compared to a biological family tree, Proto-Germanic appears as a point, or node, from which all the daughter languages branch, and is itself at the end of a branch leading from another node, Proto-Indo-European.

Proto-Germanic must be regarded as a diachronic sequence of sound changes.

Old English

Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon, Englisc by its speakers) is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England and southern Scotland between the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. What survives through writing represents primarily the literary register of Anglo-Saxon. It is a West Germanic language and is closely related to Old Frisian. It also experienced heavy influence from Old Norse, a member of the related North Germanic group of languages.

Vocabulary – man, wife, house, eat…

6-8ct – Anglo-Saxon were converted to Christianity

Latin language started to penetrate to English – e.g. mass, priest, psalm, temple, cheese, wine, and street

8-10ct – Vikings came to the region of today’s Britain and influenced English with Old Norse - Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300. It evolved from the older Proto-Norse, in the 8th century and evolved into the modern North Germanic languages after the Viking Age

e.g. law, skin, take, ill, both, cut, ugly

the influence of Old Norse on the English language has been profound: responsible for such basic vocabulary items as sky, leg, the pronoun they, the verb form are, and hundreds of other words.

Traditionally, many maintain that the influence of Celtic on English has been small, citing the small number of Celtic loanwords taken into the language. The number of Celtic loanwords is of a lower order than either Latin or Scandinavian.

4 main dialects:

1. Northumbrian - Angles
2. Mercian - Angles
3. Kentish - Jutes
4. West-Saxon - Saxons

Each of those dialects was associated with an independent kingdom on the island. Of these, all of Northumbria and most of Mercia were overrun by the Vikings during the 9th century. The portion of Mercia and all of Kent that were successfully defended were then integrated into Wessex.

After the process of unification of the diverse Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in 878 by Alfred the Great, there is a marked decline in the importance of regional dialects. This is not because they stopped existing; regional dialects continued even after that time to this day, as evidenced both by the existence of middle and modern English dialects later on, and by common sense – people do not spontaneously develop new accents when there is a sudden change of political power.

It was syntactic type of language

It was characterized by strong and weak verbs; a dual number for pronouns (for example, a form for we two as well as for we); two different declensions (skloňovanie) of adjectives; four declensions of nouns; and grammatical distinctions of gender.

The most important force in shaping Old English was its Germanic heritage in its vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar which it shared with its sister languages in continental Europe. Some of these features were specific to the West Germanic language family to which Old English belongs, while some other features were inherited from the Proto-Germanic language from which all Germanic languages are believed to have been derived.

Like other West Germanic languages of the period, Old English was fully inflected with five grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental, though the instrumental was very rare), which had dual plural forms for referring to groups of two objects (but only in the personal pronouns) in addition to the usual singular and plural forms. It also assigned gender to all nouns, including those that describe inanimate objects: for example, sēo sunne (the Sun) was feminine, while se mōna (the Moon) was masculine (cf. modern German die Sonne vs. der Mond).

Used 4 cases:

STONE – STAN

STANES - kameňa

STANE - kameňu

STÁN

The inflectional morphemes joined to the stem of the word

Stem can be defined as a part of the word in which grammatical endings are added

BLACK BOARDS – 2 lexical morphemes

Root = stem

Syntactic language changed to analytic – the reason was an articulatory effort – first part of the word was stressed and the ending was neglected – was not pronounced

Grammaticalization – word order had to be grammaticalized

S-V-O

Another feature of Old English was multiple negation – sentence may have had 2 or more negative words

NE SEALDEST OV NOÉFRE AN TICCEN

You have never given me a child

18ct – under the influence of Latin and rationalist view one negative particle on the sentence was more logical and the multiple negation is changed into single negation

A large percentage of the educated and literate population (monks, clerics, etc.) were competent in Latin, which was the scholarly and diplomatic lingua franca of Europe at the time. It is sometimes possible to give approximate dates for the entry of individual Latin words into Old English based on which patterns of linguistic change they have undergone. There were at least three notable periods of Latin influence. The first occurred before the ancestral Saxons left continental Europe for Britain. The second began when the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity and Latin-speaking priests became widespread. The third and largest single transfer of Latin-based words happened after the Norman invasion of 1066, after which an enormous number of Norman words entered the language.

Middle English

Influenced by great events – Norman Conquest – defeat of Anglo-Saxons by Norman French – battle of Hastings – 1066

Norman became the ruling class – French language was introduced – e.g. prison, danger, parliament, defence

By this time the Northumbrian dialect spoken in south east Scotland was developing into the Scots language. The language of England as spoken after this time, up to 1650, is known as Early Modern English.

The change from Old English to Middle English

The Middle English (ME) period lasted from about 1100-1500. Major historical events influenced the language change. In 1066, the Duke of Normandy, the famous William, henceforth called "the Conqueror", sailed across the British Channel. He challenged King Harold of England in the struggle for the English throne. After winning the battle of Hastings where he defeated Harold, William was crowned King of England. A Norman Kingdom was now established. The Anglo-Saxon period was over.

The Norman invasion naturally had a profound effect on England's institutions and its language. The Norman French spoken by the invaders became the language of England's ruling class. The lower classes, while remaining English-speaking, were influenced nevertheless by the new vocabulary. French became the language of the affairs of government, court, the church, the army and education where the newly adopted French words often substituted their former English counterparts. The linguistic influence of Norman French continued for as long as the Kings ruled both Normandy and England.

When King John lost Normandy in the years following 1200, the links to the French-speaking community subsided. English then slowly started to gain more weight as a common tongue within England again. A hundred years later, English was again spoken by representatives of all social classes, this new version of the English language being strikingly different, of course, from the Old English used prior to the Norman invasion. The English spoken at this turn of events is called Middle English. About ten thousand French words had been taken over by English during the Middle English period, and most of them have remained in the language until the present day. Aside from the already mentioned new vocabulary pertaining to the affairs of government, court, the church, the army, and education, many words relating to food and fashion were introduced as well. In some fields an original English terminology did not exist. Therefore, many French terms were borrowed. One example is the names of animals and their meat. Whereas the names of the animals remained the same, their meat was renamed according to the Norman custom.

This correlated to the sociological structures: the farmers that raised the animals were predominantly English natives and could afford to keep using their own vocabulary while farming - those serving the meat at the dining room table to the mainly French upper classes had to conform to the French language.

The English language also has doublets (dvojtvar) - these are pairs of words that have the same etymology, i.e. the same source, but that differ in meaning because they had been introduced into the English language by two separate languages. The Latin and French influence, for instance, made for many of such word pairs. Latin vocabulary adopted by the Celts directly became a part of English. The same vocabulary was sometimes adopted by the Gauls and introduced to English via Norman French.

As far as grammar is concerned, a reduction of inflections began. The grammatical gender disappeared and inflections merged. As the inflections of the Old English disappeared, the word order of Middle English became increasingly fixed. This change made for a great loss of strong verbs. At a time when English was the language mainly of the lower classes and largely removed from educational or literary domains and influence, it was natural that many speakers applied the pattern of inflecting weak verbs to verbs which were historically strong. This linguistic principle of adopting the pattern of a less common form to a more familiar one is called analogy. The exclusive use of the pattern SVO (subject - verb - object; see the chapter on universals) emerged in the twelfth century and has remained part of English ever since.

By the end of the period the relationship between the elements of the sentence depended basically on word order. As early as 1200 the three or four grammatical case forms of nouns in the singular had been reduced to two, and to denote the plural the noun ending (e)s had been adopted.

Several representatives of the Old English modification of the root vowel in the plural survive also, such as man, men, and foot, feet.

In the early period of Middle English, a number of utilitarian words, such as egg, sky, sister, window, and get, came into the language from Old Norse.

Before 1250 about 900 new words had appeared in English, mainly words, such as baron, noble, and feast, that the Anglo-Saxon lower classes required in their dealings with the Norman-French nobility.

Midland, the dialect of Middle English derived from the Mercian dialect of Old English, became important during the 14th century, when the English counties in which it was spoken developed into centres of university, economic, and courtly life. East Midland, one of the subdivisions of Midland, had by that time become the speech of the entire metropolitan area of the capital, London.

Early modern period

Modern English language had been subdivided into Early Modern English which was used from the fifteenth century, more or less up to end of the seventeenth century, or according to some scholars even in the eighteenth century, and Modern English was used from that time till now.

In the early part of the Modern English period the vocabulary was enlarged by the widespread use of one part of speech for another and by increased borrowings from other languages. The revival of interest in Latin and Greek during the Renaissance brought new words into English from those languages. Other words were introduced by English travellers and merchants after their return from journeys on the Continent. From Italian came cameo, stanza, and violin; from Spanish and Portuguese, alligator, peccadillo, and sombrero. During its development, Modern English borrowed words from more than 50 different languages. The works of William Shakespeare are prime examples of the way in which an accomplished writer could incorporate a wide vocabulary and reflect the expanding geographical and cultural horizons of the Renaissance.

Word stock

During this period there was rather a lot of conscious borrowing of words from other languages in an effort to improve the English language.  The majority of these terms were borrowed from Latin and although some did not survive, many remain with us today e.g. ‘autograph’, ‘disability’, ‘conspicuous’, ‘expensive’, and ‘benefit’.

The Great Vowel Shift

During this period all the long vowels changed their pronunciation to become closer to their modern day pronunciation.  Words containing the high vowels / and // came to be pronounced with diphthongs while words containing other vowels began to be pronounced with the tongue body higher in the mouth.  Spelling did not however change to reflect these new pronunciations.

In earlier periods of English ‘thou’ was used for second person singular and ‘ye’ for the second person plural. In the eighteenth century the plural/formal form (you) spread into almost all contexts and the singular/intimate form (thou) was lost.  The distinction is still maintained in Quaker populations today but speakers of standard English still have no way of distinguishing singular and plural ‘you’.

Progressive verb forms (e.g. ‘I am working’) become much more common in the seventeenth century.

Concepts of spelling and usage have been influenced to a great extent by printers who first published the literary works and other documents that make up our heritage of the English language.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century there was no true dictionary of the English language to provide writers with a guide to standard usage and spelling. The earliest dictionaries in the seventeenth century were intended to define only difficult and unusual words, not every word in the language. The first book to call itself an English dictionary was a two-part work by Henry Cockeram, published in London in 1623 and entitled The English Dictionarie: or, and Interpreter of hard English Words.

In the late 17th century and during the 18th century, certain important grammatical changes occurred. The formal rules of English grammar were established during that period. The pronoun its came into use, replacing the genitive form his, which was the only form used by the translators of the King James Bible (1611). The progressive tenses developed from the use of the participle as a noun proceeded by the preposition on; the preposition gradually weakened to a and finally disappeared. Thereafter only the simple ing form of the verb remained in use, as in, for example, “The baby is crying.” After the 18th century this process of development culminated in the creation of the progressive passive form, for example, “The job is being done.”

Late Modern English (1800-Present)

The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.

In the period of Late Modern English the standard of pronunciation which is aimed at by all the contemporary learners of English as a foreign language, namely Received Pronunciation (RP), emerged. Since that time Received Pronunciation has been a standard for noblemen and upper class of society in Great Britain. However, unlike nowadays in the Late Modern English RP the phoneme <r> was pronounced in all positions.

The most important development begun during this period and continued without interruption throughout the 19th and 20th centuries concerned vocabulary. As a result of colonial expansion, notably in North America but also in other areas of the world, many new words entered the English language. From the indigenous peoples of North America, the words raccoon and wigwam were borrowed; from Peru, llama and quinine; from the West Indies, barbecue and cannibal; from Africa, chimpanzee and zebra; from India, bandanna, curry, and punch; and from Australia, kangaroo and boomerang. In addition, thousands of scientific terms were developed to denote new concepts, discoveries, and inventions. Many of these terms, such as neutron, penicillin, and supersonic, were formed from Greek and Latin roots; others were borrowed from modern languages, as with blitzkrieg from German and sputnik from Russian.

Language types (areal, genetic and typological classifications)

Spoken-gestured-signaled communication involves the same process for all humans, and any human language can convey any human thought; nevertheless, the actual languages spoken in the world are numerous, and they differ vastly in their sound systems and grammatical structures.

1. areal (geographical)

1. convergent development
2. areal classification is based on the observation of the ways in which neighbouring languages have influenced one another. These languages have borrowed grammar, sounds, and vocabulary from one another. Such regional resemblances, however, do not necessarily indicate either genetic relationship or typological similarity
3. interchange vocabulary  influence each other
4. one region group = cluster

1. Czech, Slovak = Slovan
2. Swedish, Danish =German
3. Finish, Hungarian = Finno-Ugric
4. Estonian, Latvia = Baltic

2. genetic

1. based on historical relationship between language that are developed from single parent language
2. belong to language family
3. is a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor (proto-language)
4. in linguistics, genetic relationship is the usual term for the relationship which exists between languages that are members of the same language family. Two languages are considered to be genetically related if one is descended from the other or if both are descended from a common ancestor
5. the concept of language families is based on the assumption that over time languages gradually diverge into dialects and then into new languages
6. most EU languages belong to Indo-European language
7. the discipline of historical linguistics rests on the notion that almost all of the languages spoken in the world today can be grouped by derivation from common ancestral languages into a relatively small number of families. For example, English is related to other Indo-European languages and more specifically to the Germanic family (West Germanic branch)

3. typological

1. based on similarities/differences in lexical, syntactic, chronological, morphological features of the language

According to typological criterion languages are divided into:

Analytic (Chinese, English, French)

1. English is analytical language because it is isolated  It isolates morphemes expressing grammatical categories (tense of the verb, case of the noun, number of noun…)

OKNÁM – 2 grammatical categories

TO WINDOWS – morpheme is isolated from expressing word

2. Word order expresses grammatical categories  If you change word order, you change the meaning

PETER SEES PAUL

PAUL SEES PETER

Synthetic (Slovak, Czech, Polish)

3. are inflectional – various morphological categories are represented by suffixes
4. here the grammatical categories make an internal part of the word
5. word order is less important

Introflectional (Arabic languages)

6. the flection  is in the inner part of the word, in the middle
7. grammatical categories are expressed by the change inside the word

KALBUN – singular

KILABUN – plural

Agglutinative (Finnish, Estonian,  Hungarian)

8. agglutination is the morphological process of adding affixes to the base of a word
9. Morphemes are glued together - most words are formed by joining morphemes together
10. An agglutinative language is a form of synthetic language where each affix typically represents one unit of meaning and bound morphemes are expressed by affixes
11. Affixes do not become fused with others, and do not change form conditioned by others
12. the morphemes are integrated in the word
13. they glue together individual morphemes, each of them express an individual gram. category

ABLAK AK NAK

Basic/ number/ gram.cat. of case

GYEREK EK NEK

Polysynthectic (American-Indian languages, Polynesian)

1. They put together several words in order to make one larger word
2. Grammatical categories expressed by another meaningful word
3. Words are composed of many morphemes
4. Incorporation refers to the phenomenon where lexical morphemes (or lexemes) are combined together to form a single word. Not all polysynthetic languages are incorporating, and not all incorporating languages are polysynthetic.
5. One word expresses the idea that would be conveyed in an entire sentence in a non-polysynthetic language

ORANG = človek / ORANG-ORANG = ľudia

BEHASA = jazyk / BEHASA BEHASA = jazyky

KINDERGARTEN – Germans have also the tendency to synthesize

Varieties of English

In different English-speaking countries recognizable varieties of English have developed. For example, the English language in Ireland has retained certain individual peculiarities of pronunciation, some of which result from contact with Ireland’s Gaelic language and some of which result from contact with Scots. Scotland has a number of regional dialects and is considered by some linguists to have developed into a separate language.

The English spoken in Australia is notable for its marked diphthongization of vowels, its retention of features from English regional dialect usages, its incorporation of indigenous Australian terms such as wallaby and digeridoo.

American English

An important development of English outside Great Britain occurred with the colonization of North America. American English may be considered to include the English spoken in Canada, although the Canadian variety retains some features of British pronunciation, spelling, and vocabulary. The most distinguishing differences between American English and British English are in pronunciation and vocabulary, although there are slighter differences in grammar, spelling, pitch, and stress as well. American English appears to be both tolerant of newly coined words and conservative in comparison to British English.

There are a wide variety of American dialects, some of which appear to be diverging markedly from others. In particular, dialects of certain Northern cities seem to be undergoing shifts that are different from those of certain Southern cities. Furthermore, American English has developed rather distinctive ethnic dialects, such as African American Vernacular English and Hispanic American English. The use of ethnic dialects varies from region to region and social group to social group.

Pidgin English

English also features a number of simplified languages that arose among non-English-speaking peoples. Pidgin English developed as a means of communication between English and non-English-speaking traders. It is spoken in the Melanesian islands, New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines, and Hawaii, and on the Asian shores of the Pacific Ocean. The speakers of Pidgin English developed a simplified structure with a vocabulary formed from a mixture of English, indigenous, and international words. The vocabulary gradually expanded with frequency of contact and the extension of communication requirements.

Bêche-de-Mer, a pidgin spoken in the southern and western Pacific islands, is predominantly English in structure, although it includes many Polynesian words. Chinook Jargon, used as a lingua franca by the Native Americans, French, and English on the North American Pacific coast, contains English, French, and Native American words; its grammatical structure is based on that of the Chinook language. The use of pidgin is growing in Africa, notably in Cameroon, Sierra Leone, and East Africa. Certain varieties of this sort have developed further, becoming the first language of generations of speakers. These languages are referred to as creoles; examples include Jamaican and Hawaiian Creole.

A Creole is a language descended from a pidgin that has become the native language of a group of people. The majority of Creole languages are based on English, Portuguese, French, Spanish and other languages (their superstrate language), with local or immigrant languages as substrate languages. Pidgins are rudimentary languages improvised by non-native speakers; when pidgins creolize, however, they develop fully-formed and stable grammar structures, usually as a result of the pidgin being natively learned by children (see Nicaraguan Sign Language). In some cases the group of people who speak such a language are called Creoles.

Linguistic signs and their relations

(Unilateral and bilateral theories. Geneva school of linguistics. Structural relations)

SIGN

1. something that represents something else
2. Something that conveys meaning, such as an object, token, mark, image, movement, gesture, sound, event, or pattern.

Classification:

Types

1. represent general categories of things
2. abstract and unique
3. references to types is not limited to letters, vowels and words, but occur extensively in all branches of linguistics

Tokens

1. represents particular/concrete examples of types
2. are concrete particulars, composed of ink, pixels of light (or the suitably circumscribed lack thereof) on a computer screen, electronic strings of dots and dashes, smoke signals, hand signals, sound waves

I have done my homework and I have to leave now.

11 tokens

9 types

General classification of signs - can be divided:

SIGNALS

– are supposed to be followed by an action or process

Traffic lights – red = stop

     green = move

SYMPTOMS

– signify some circumstances, some symptoms or state

Smoke indicates fire

Fever indicates illness

SYMBOLS

– are typical features of the entities or phenomena

anchor = symbol of hope

red = symbol of revolution

– in human language (verbal comm.) the symbols are conventional arbitrary expressive meanings

– symbol in human language are ordinary words symbolising some object or phenomena

CHARLES PIERCE - American linguist, he divided signs into:

1. symbols
2. indexes (correspond with symptoms)
3. icons)

Pierce added ICONS = ICONIC SIGNS – describe physical properties of entities

Sign form is similar to the signified object.

Pictures are considered iconic - hieroglyphs, pictures, diagrams.

Iconic signs are in human language onomatopoeic words. They are extremely rare and can be considered iconic because they imitate the character of natural signs.

This category is very abstract - we can express love, peace, freedom.

Linguistic signs are characterised by conventionality and arbitrariness.

There is no direct relationship.

These are words, phrases, sentences, morphemes.

Linguistic sign can occur on 2 levels:

Spoken level – primary

Written level – secondary

Best known theories

UNILATERAL

– we study only the form of the sign

– the sign is represented only by its form

– the meaning is outside

BILATERAL

– the generally accepted theory

– we consider the sign as an object having form and meaning  bilateral object

– each sign has to have form

– lexemes are signs that have both form and meaning, so they are bilateral

Charles Pierce – semiotics – is the study of sign processes (semiosis), or signification and communication, signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. It includes the study of how meaning is constructed and understood - action, or influence, which is, or involves, a cooperation of three subjects, such as a sign, its object, and its interpretant, this tri-relative influence not being in any way resolvable into actions between pairs

Saussure – semiology – the science or art of signs; the art of using signs in signalling – he proposed a dualistic notion of signs, relating the signifier as the form of the word or phrase uttered, to the signified as the mental concept

Saussure claimed that language is made up of signs, which have little to do with the referent, the actual objects in the world; so each sign consists of:

a) acoustic image = signifiant (signifier)

1. = form

1. it is psychological trace of sound in our mind
2. it reflects itself in the human consciousness/human speech
3. it is joined with the concept of the entity/phenomena
4. the letters on the page or the sound that bounces off our eardrum

b) concept = signifié (signified)

1. = meaning
2. a form of thinking expressing general properties of the thing or phenomena

1. can be defined as a form of thinking expressing general properties of thing or phenomena of extralinguistic reality

1. the ideational component, the concept or object that appears in our minds when we hear or read the signifiant
2. it organizes our knowledge of the entity on the ground of categorisation

This categorisation is based on some principles:

1. the principle of identity – we identify the single entity in time and space
2. the principle of equivalence – we focus our interest on some properties of some entities on the bases of

                                                         this properties we consider them as examples of some class

3. we have different words in different languages – the concept is usually the same but it is joined with different sound – the concept is arbitrary – relation between the sign form and meaning is arbitrary – if it is non-arbitrary, it will exist only one language

Saussure thought of language sounds as a series of linguistic signs that are purely arbitrary.

Different model of a linguistic sign was developed by OGDEN & RICHARDS

Semiotic triangle – the relation between the referent (object, phenomenon) and the sign (word) is indirect

This relation must be mediated by concept (thought, reference) = conceptual meaning

Sound form of the word doesn’t refer to the word directly, it express the reflection in our mind = reference approach

The meaning of the sign is further specified in relation to other signs (in other languages) = functional approach

Heavy smoke

Heavy table

        CONCEPT - idea, thought

WORD                   OBJECT

   linguistic sing                            referent          

          form                                phenomena

1. there is no connection between the sign and the referent
2. there is an indirect relationship
3. it must be connected - mediated - through concept

 Objects are referents

 The relationship between the word and the object is called reference

THIS IS THE PRAGMATIC RELATIONSHIP

10. the relationship between sigh and sigh use
11. what we mean by using a given linguistic sign

There are many types of relationships between the signs - words

SYNTAGMATIC

3. syntagm – connection of minimally 2 words
4. Occurs on horizontal level – sentences, phrases…
5. A syntagmic relationship is one where signs occur in sequence or parallel and operate together to create meaning.
6. Syntagmic relationships are often governed by strict rules, such as spelling and grammar.

I am not here  Linguistic signs are in syntagmic relation = “am” is related with “I”, “not” and “here”

PARADIGMATIC

1. its model – paradigm
2. It occurs on vertical level
3. When elements can be substituted for each other and form a paradigm
4. A paradigmatic relationship is one where an individual sign may be replaced by another.

I am not here / You are not there

Perfectly interchangeable – if you can interchange 2 words they are paradigmatic – “I” is in paradigmatic relation with “you”

Types of paradigmatic relations:

HOMONYMY

Relation between words (signifiant) which have identical sounds or spelling forms or both but have different meaning (signifié) – relation between different lexemes

1. Homophones – identical in sound form

Sell – Cell

2. Homographs – coincide in spelling

LEAD1 – vedenie

LEAD2 – olovo

3. Full homonyms – have identical sound form and spelling

BANK1- financial institution

BANK2- of the river

POLYSEMY

It is wrong interchangeable with homonyms

The signifiant is identical but the meaning is different – relation among different meanings of 1 lexeme - relation between meanings – it occurs within 1 word

E.g. football = inflated leather ball used in games

                   = the game played with football

SYNONYMY

Relation between words with identical or similar meaning – occurs that 2 or more signifiants have 1 signifié

e.g. DESK – TABLE; reject – refuse; daddy - father

ANTONYMY

Relationship occurring between words with opposite meaning

Are divided into:

1. Antonymy in narrow sense

= Gradable

– the one does not implies the assertion of the other

– between 2 antonyms exist at least one third element

bad – good

2. Complementarity

= Non-gradable

– denial of the one implies the assertion of the other and vice versa

single – married

male – female

3. Conversness

– pairs of sentences with lexemes imply each other mutually

– they are not gradable nor the negation of one means the assertion of the other pair member

John is Mary’s husband. – Mary is John’s wife.

HYPONYMY/HYPERONYMY

Is based on hierarchical relationship of signs – relation between more general term and more specific term

Hyponym = subordinate lexical item

Hyperonym = superordinate one; covers the meaning of all its hyponyms

PLANTS

Flower          tree

Tulip          rose

Language study and linguistics theories

(genetic, analytic, functional and structuralist approaches)

Diachronic study of language – study of historical development of language from one state to another; may be looking for common origins or causes of categorizing phenomena, viewed as genetic relationships; is the study of language change; it is also called historical linguistics.

Synchronic study – study of language on particular period or nowadays; relating to the study of a language at only one point in its history; the synchronic comparison of two languages focuses on categorizing phenomena typologically

Historical (comparative) linguistics = genetic

Analytical linguistics is a cover term that can be given to numerous schools of thought in linguistics (for example, "generative grammar", "lexical functional grammar", "cognitive grammar"). These analytical theories describe various properties of things that people say.

Analytical linguistics = generative linguistics

The analytic study seeks to answer questions:  

1. How do two persons understand each other?  
2. Because they share the same language?  
3. Well then, what makes the ‘same’ language?  
4. The same way of linking speech signs (or written signs) with meanings?  

In answering these questions, analytic linguistics looks at the various subsystems that together make up a language and thus partially regulate behaviour.

                (a)        Phonology

                (b)        Grammar

                (c)        Lexicon (Lexicology)

                (d)        Semology (Semantics)

                (e)        The writing system (Graphonomy)

                (f)        The naming system (Onomastics)

                (g)        The vocal gestures (Paraphonology)

Structuralism is divided into:

1. structuralism (čistý štrukturalismus) – Geneva School
2. functionalism – Prague School

The firs attempts to study language were done by Plato and Aristotle. They contributed to the linguistics by classification of grammatical categories.

Linguistics has 3 main approaches:

1. historical comparative
2. structural
3. generative

In 1786 Sir William Jones find out that Indian language “Sanskrit” had a similar structure as most European languages. This was the proof that most English languages had a common source.

The next 100 years linguists deal with comparative grammar. They compared grammars of existing IndoEuropean language and tried to restore the Porto Indo-European language.

The founder of comparative approach was the German linguist Franz Bopp.

FRANZ BOPP

- very famous German philologist

- monograph = On the conjugation system of Sanskrit in comparison with that of Greek, Latin, Persian and German

- aim → to explain the origins of verbal conjugation. He used method of genetic comparison - trying to establish a common source of the compared word-forms found in genetically related languages. These genetically related languages had developed from one common parent language (has not been preserved in any text)

- the period after Bopp → the method of genetic comparison was applied to the research into separate language groups (each contained genetically related languages)

Another German linguist August Schleicher considered linguistics as an organism based on the same principles and undergoing the same evolution as living organisms. He created the GENEALOGICAL TREE presenting the idea that European inflectional languages were developed from simpler forms of isolating and agglutinative languages. According to Schleicher every language is first of all isolating, then it develops the system of inflectional morphemes, later it looses grammatical affixes and starts to degenerate.

AUGUST SCHLEICHER

- new phase of comparative research

- a professor at Prague University.

- book: A compendium of the comparative grammar in the Indo-European, Greek and Latin languages

- insisted on the study of historical phonetics → study language from living speech

- methodological innovation → systematically reconstructed the forms of the hypothetical proto-language = in the emergence of the Neogrammarian school

- conceived language as living biological organism independent from men which has its birth, flourish, decline and death

The precursor of modern linguistics was Wilhelm von Humboldt. For him linguistics is an “Energeia” - an organism that develops spontaneously. He disclosed a relationship between language and thinking and said that a language expresses the mentality of it’s  nation.  He labeled language as a historical fact.

Wilhelm von Humboldt

- founder of method of analytic comparison.

- studied a number of languages of various genetic origins and tried to find the typical features which differentiated them from one another. The method used by Humboldt was exclusively synchronic, non-historical. He placed himself into conscious opposition to the genetically comparative approach, which declared that only the diachronic study of language could claim scientific status.

- did not regard language as a system, but rather as an actual use of language Language is not ergon (a completed piece of work), but an energeis (creative activity)

- tried to explain the specific character of a given language from the specificity of the national character of the people speaking that language (language is influenced by nation)

- application of the psychological methods to ling. problems – they could not cope with complex problems of language

- best-known ling. study: On the Kawi Language of Java

- introduced terms inner speech form = semantic & gram. structure of a language partially common to all men as part of their intellectual equipment & partially specific for every language community

In 1870´s there was set up the YOUNG GRAMMARIANS SCHOOL (Neogrammatics). It is also named Leipzig School. The main representatives were Brughmann and Leskien. This school stresses the “regularity principle”. By this regularity it is meant that if a sound changes it is similarly changed in all the same phonetic surroundings as a law that admits no exception. The Young Grammarians considered language as a collective human product. This historical approach is considered GENETIC.

The Neogrammarian school

- centre in Leipzig.

- the method of genetic comparison reached its climax

- representatives were August Leskien, Karl Brugmann.

Karl Brugmann and Herman Osthoff programmatically declared the thesis of the unexceptional character of sound laws 2 years later in work Morphological investigations.

- get rid of Schleicher´s language as a living biological organism independent from men which has its birth, flourish, decline and death

- there is a similarity between the sound laws & the laws of physics & other natural sciences

The achievements of the neogrammarian school:

 they injected greater scientific precision into linguistics

 they did show some basic shortcomings

Shortcomings:

         were interested only in historical phonetics & phonology

         problems of syntax were shifted into the background

         too mechanistic approach, omitting the speakers

         dealt with form only, ignoring function & the social basis of the language

atomism = mechanical sum of an individual (isolated) facts, not as a systemic whole consisting those facts (mutually interrelated)

 historical bias (concerned with older periods and neglected the contemporary stage)

 the comparison only of genetically related languages (distantly related or unrelated at all language were considered to be incomparable)

 could not came closer to the idea of ling. characterology (structural differences of compared languages)

Leskien and Brugman - tried to find similarity between the sound-laws and the laws of physics and other natural sciences

K. Werner – Danish scholar

= explanation of the sound-law

- proto-germanic soundshifting → regular consequences of another sound-law (Werner´s law) whose operation depended on the position of stress in Indo-European languages

other followers of neogrammarian school:

- F. de Saussure (in his earlier years)

- F. F. Fortunatov (Russian scholar)

- Joseph Wright (English)

The 20th century was the period of introduction of STRUCTURALISM. The father of Structuralism was FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE. He labeled language as a social phenomenon. He underlines the communicative function of language. His work “Course in General Linguistic” was published posthumously by his students Bally and Sehechaye.

Saussure, Bally and Sehechaye are considered representatives of Geneva School of Linguistic. This school stressed the idea that language is a system of interlinked items.  Here occurred the form of the distinctive value - the meaning of value of the language unit is given by it´s opposition by another unit, so words are in oppositions that give the meaning of it. Because there is “small”, there have to be a “big”, too.

Saussure introduced concept of SIGNIFIANT AND SIGNIFIÉ.

Signifiant is the form of the word. It signifies the signifié The connection of signifiant is an acoustic image.

Signifié is what the word represents. It is a part of extralinguistic reality. It is the soundform which signifies the signifiant.

The relationship between signifiant and signifié is arbitrary. It means that the same concept can be associated with different sounds.

For Saussure linguistics sings are bilateral phenomena. Saussure introduced:

1. lang & parole

4. langue - abstract idealised system that functions only with society = language system
5. parole - concrete realization of language system, concrete everyday use = speech

b) syntagm

6. the linear connection of at least two words in phrases, sentences, clouses
7. this is the horizontal connection of words

c) synchrony & diachrony

Diachronic study of language – study of historical development of language from one state to another; may be looking for common origins or causes of categorizing phenomena, viewed as genetic relationships; is the study of language change; it is also called historical linguistics.

Synchronic study – study of language on particular period or nowadays; relating to the study of a language at only one point in its history; the synchronic comparison of two languages focuses on categorizing phenomena typologically

In 1926 there was extablished the PRAGUE SCHOOL OF LINGUISTICS. The main representatives were Nikolay TRUBETZKOY, Roman JAKOBSON, Vilém MATHESIUS, René WELLEK, Josef VACHEK, Jan MUKAŘOVSKÝ. It is labeled functional because it studies particular functions of units. It studies functions of the system. In phonology it studies phonemes and their role in distinctive words. In syntax it concentrates in the role of sentence structure in context.

The Prague school of linguistics

- late 19th C in Prague, representatives = N. S. Trubeckoy, R. Jacobson, B. Havránek, V. Mathesius, B. Trnka

= a synthesis of functional & structural approach

- combination of Humboldtian synchronistic tradition with an effort as the methodological exactness (one characteristics of Neogrammarian research)

- they called themselves:

"structuralists" - distanced themselves from the Neogrammarian atomism (= were concerned with sounds as individual phonetic segments)

- their description is based n abstraction of the relevant from the non-relevant aspects of phenomenon

"functionalists" - underlined communicative function of language - communicative needs are responsible for systemic organization of formal language means and for the changes in this systemic organization

- changes in language are motivated by the need to keep/re-establish the balance of the system of language (BALANCE = adequate relation of com. needs and formal means of language)

- emphasis on communicative needs implies the necessity for studying language & its development with constant regard for the economic, political & cultural history of the people using that language.

Radical immanentism - explanation of language on the basis of its formal structural make-up → neglect of externally

Radical formalism - misrepresents (doesn’t describe) the intimate connection between form & meaning, where form is implemented primarily by phonic means & meaning constitutes the reference of these means to the extralinguistic reality → neglect of the material aspect of speech = the phonetic aspect of concrete utterances

Contributions of the Prague school:

- introduction of terms (first used about sounds):

a. marked – the presence of linguistic feature (eg. the plural form -s, voice)

b. unmarked – the absence of linguistic feature (singular)

- distinction between:

a. centre – central units are often irregular (eg. to be, to have, parts of the body, pronouns ...)

b. periphery – rare words (Engl. subjunctive)

Prague dictum:

- language constitutes a system of values, these values are relatively fixed in the consciousness of language users

(there must be a system of normative values in a language - because language users realize when something is said incorrectly)

On of the founder of PSL was Nikolay TRUBETZKOY. He is credited for setting up the base for the study of phonology. In his veiw the phoneme is considered to be the smallest unit of language having the distincitve function. He created the THEORY OF BINARY PHONOLOGICAL OPPOSITIONS.

An other representative of the PSL was Roman JAKOBSON (American). He developed further theory of binary oppositions and applied this theory in the study of morphemes.

The next representative of the PSL was Wilém MATHESIUS. He considered language as a system of expressive means manifested in actual communication and depending also on non-linguistic factors. Mathesius underlines synchrony approach in the study of language. He introduced two stages of language description:

1. functional onomatology - studies the naming studies in which the thoughts are incoded
2. functional syntax - how this incoded naming units are organized or mutually constituted utterance

The Geneva school of linguistics

The expression Geneva School refers to a group of linguists based in Geneva who pioneered modern structural linguistics. The most prominent figure of the Geneva School of Linguistics school was Ferdinand de Saussure. The most significant linguistic book connected with this school is Cours de languistique générale, the main work of de Saussure, which was published by his students Charles Bally and Albert Sehechaye. The book was based on lectures with this title that de Saussure gave three times in Geneva from 1906 to 1912. Sehechaye and Bally did not themselves take part in these lecture classes, but they used notes from other students. The most important of these students was Albert Riedlinger, who provided them with the most material. Furthermore Bally and Sehechaye continued to develop de Saussure's theories, mainly focusing on the linguistic research of speech. Sehechaye also concentrated on syntactic problems.

Ferdinand de Saussure was the originator of the 20th century structuralism, and evidence of this can be found in Course in General Linguistics, written by Saussure's colleagues after his death and based on student notes, where he focused not on the use of language (parole, or speech), but rather on the underlying system of language (langue) and called his theory semiology. However, the discovery of the underlying system had to be done via examination of the parole (speech). As such, Structural Linguistics is actually an early form of corpus linguistics (quantification). This approach focused on examining how the elements of language related to each other in the present, that is, 'synchronically' rather than 'diachronically'. Finally, he argued that linguistic signs were composed of two parts, a signifiant (the sound pattern of a word, either in mental projection or in actual, physical realization as part of a speech act) and a signifié (the concept or meaning of the word). This was quite different from previous approaches which focused on the relationship between words and things in the world that they designate.

Key notions in Structural Linguistics are the notions of paradigm, syntagm and value, though these notions were not yet fully developed in De Saussure's thought. A structural paradigm is actually a class of linguistic units (lexemes, morphemes or even constructions) which are possible in a certain position in a given linguistic environment (like a given sentence), which is the syntagm. The different functional role of each of these members of the paradigm is called value.

Saussure's Course influenced many linguists between World War I and WWII. In America, for instance, Leonard Bloomfield developed his own version of structural linguistics, as did Louis Hjelmslev in Denmark and Alf Sommerfelt in Norway. In France Antoine Meillet and Émile Benveniste would continue Saussure's program. Most importantly, however, members of the Prague School of linguistics such as Roman Jakobson and Nikolai Trubetzkoy conducted research that would be greatly influential.

The clearest and most important example of Prague School structuralism lies in phonemics. Rather than simply compile a list of which sounds occur in a language, the Prague School sought to examine how they were related. They determined that the inventory of sounds in a language could be analyzed in terms of a series of contrasts. Thus in English the sounds /p/ and /b/ represent distinct phonemes because there are cases (minimal pairs) where the contrast between the two is the only difference between two distinct words (e.g. 'pat' and 'bat'). Analyzing sounds in terms of contrastive features also opens up comparative scope - it makes clear, for instance, that the difficulty Japanese speakers have differentiating /r/ and /l/ in English is because these sounds are not contrastive in Japanese. While this approach is now standard in linguistics, it was revolutionary at the time. Phonology would become the paradigmatic basis for structuralism in a number of different forms.

Language theories

1. bow-wow theory = language originated in imitations of natural sounds (dogs, birds, animals + nature)

2. ding-dong theory = language originated out of a natural correspondence between objects of perception of sense and the vocal noises which were a part of early men's reaction to them. This theory is usually associated with the name of German scholar and philologist Max Müller or Friedrich Max Müller

- the theory holds that the origin of language is found in the sense of rhythm

- the beginnings of a language are found in the rhythm which are innate in a man from a very primitive stage of his existence and by which is related to the rest of the universe

3. pooh-pooh theory = lang. orig. in interjections (citoslovcia) which gradually acquired meaning; (emotional interjections evoked by feelings of pleasure, power, pain, surprise, wonder ...)

4. gesture theory = advanced W. Wundt - founder of modern psychology; the earliest method of communication was sound and gesture made with hands. Such a “language” was natural and spontaneous; today when we speak we still use gestures

The main characteristic features of present day English

Together with Spanish, French, and Chinese, English is one of the international languages of our contemporary world. It is one of six United Nations official languages spoken by more than 600 million people either as a first or second language.

The English language has been differentiated (divergent development) into diverse geographical varieties. Due to media and culture it is nowadays integrated (convergent development), which means that the geographical varieties are gradually giving way to two common general standards - General British and General American. Even these two national standards strongly influence each other, which proves their appurtenance to one large living language system - the English language

In spite of its predominantly Romance vocabulary, English has preserved a Germanic character. This is, of course, due to its typically Germanic core vocabulary using, for instance, strong verbs (ablaut, e.g. sing - sang - sung), but also basic Germanic grammatical structures, etc. English words have a strong tendency towards monosyllabism. It means their forms become reduced, but their meanings gradually widen. The particular sememe of the English lexeme is thus usually actualized in the context.

English words are semantically very, vague and can be easily converted from one word class to another. Thus polysemy and conversion are other essential features of Present-Day English.

Typologically, English is an analytic language, which means it does not synthesize grammatical morphemes with word stems hut uses mostly independent prepositions or word order to express morphological categories. Thus, the rather fixed English sentence word order follows the

"subject - predicate - object" pattern.

English sentences are very compact. They tend to be condensed in order to eliminate dependent clauses. English sentences also contain a number of nominal elements used, for instance, in the place of predicative verbs. Other characteristic features of English, therefore, are condensation and nominal tendency. As far as the English sentences are concerned passive constructions are abundant as well.

Gender is not grammatical but natural and mostly used with pronouns. English nouns typically have common gender (reference is indifferently used to male and female).

Stress plays a very important role in spoken English. Most English words are stressed on the first syllable. Polysyllabic words may have primary and secondary stress. Only stressed syllables have full vowels, while vowels in the unstressed syllables are usually reduced. By shifting the

stress, English words can change their meanings. In the sentence, grammatical words are usually unstressed.

There are historically conditioned differences between spoken and written forms of English. Many attempts have been made at inventing a new spelling, which could resemble pronunciation, but all of them have failed.

Recently, the importance of the English language has been increasing considerably. Due to the economic and political influence of the USA it is mostly American English influencing other language vocabularies and penetrating world-wide as a language of business, education and cultural globalization.