Если у вас возникли сложности с курсовой, контрольной, дипломной, рефератом, отчетом по практике, научно-исследовательской и любой другой работой - мы готовы помочь.
Предоплата всего
Подписываем
History of English
1.According to English scientists Henry Sweet classified this periods are connected with the development of English endings. Henry Sweet classified them as
1. The Period of Full Ending.
2. The Period of Levelled Endings in reality contains the levelled vowel in the ending, but at the same time lots of endings were already lost;
3. The Period of Lost Endings - present-day language, as we know, is not totally devoid of endings, for some of the paradigmatic forms are still made by means of endings, scarce as they are.
Periodisation. The historical development of a language is a continuous uninterrupted process without sudden breaks or rapid transformations. The commonly accepted, traditional Periodisation divides English history into three periods: Old English (OE), Middle English (ME) and New English (NE). the following Periodisation of English history is based on the conventional three periods; it subdivides the history of the English language into seven periods differing in linguistic situation and the nature of linguistic changes.
There is a tradition of recognizing
1. The Old English period (449-1066), Early Old English may be taken separately, as the period of pre-written functioning of the language. The formation of kingdoms on the British territory transformed the tribal dialects into regional (local) dialects that took place during the later, Written Old English (or Anglo-Saxon period).
2. The Middle Eglish (1066-1475), the Early Middle English the writings of the period, represented mainly by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Peterborough Chronicle, such poems as Ormulum. Late Middle English which came to our times in writings of G. Chaucer already presents a paragon of speech. London dialect becomes more and more prestigious, and what is written in “The Canterbury Tales” is already almost understood by a reader without a special linguistic training.
3. New English 15th century. Early New English - known as Shakespeare’s English is represented by numerous writings of a whole bunch of prominent thinkers, writers, scientists. Late New English is established and reviewed, and that is what you are studying in the course of practical English. I-Mutation
I-MUTATION (also known as "i-umlaut") is the raising and fronting of a root vowel in anticipation of "i" or "y" sound in a suffix.
Think of the difference between the -o sound in the do of "How do you do?" and that of the last word in "How are you doing?" The last word of that sentence might be written *diwin if it were spelled phonetically the way the average modern American pronounces it. When that -o- shifts up to an -i-, that's i-mutation.
I-mutation turns up in an adjective formed from a noun by adding -ish in at least one important case: English (O.E. Englisc) from the people called AnI-mutation is particularly visible in the inflectional and derivational morphology of Old English, since it affected so many of the Old English vowels.
2. Word Formation
New words were formed in a variety of ways on OE. Below are listed some common suffixes, prefixes, and useful guidelines to being creative with your OE vocabulary in ways that can commonly be understood by other OE speakers. Contents [show]
Prefixes be-: often equals a sense of around or about: be-gān - surround; sometimes is a derivative: be-dǣlan - to deprive; sometimes makes intransitive verbs transitive or makes a transitive verb out of an adjective/noun: be-wēpan - to bewail
ġe-: often gives a sense of togetherness or a group of things: ġe-brōþor - brothers, ġe-fēran - to accompany; often does nothing to the meanings or sense of a word
Suffixes
-an: forms either strong verbs or verbs of weak verb classes 1 or 3
-ettan: forms class 1 weak verbs from nouns and adjectives: mūþettan - to speak about, to declare (secrets)
-rian: usually forms a subclass of class 1 weak verbs
Nouns
-cund: betokens strong neuter nouns which mean an entire kind of thing: hrefne-cund - raven-kind
-nis: makes nouns from adjectives or verbs, sometimes from other wordkinds, though.
Adjectives
-cund: makes adjectives usually formed from nouns and betokens a sense of being within the same kind as the word from whence it is formed: god-cund - divine ("god-kind")
-iġ: is equivalent to Modern English -y: blōd-iġ - bloody
-liċ: is equivalent to Modern English -like: god-liċ - divine, god-like
Ways of word-formation
OE employed two ways of word-formation: derivation and word-composition.
Word-derivation
Derived words in OE were built with the help of affixes: prefixes and suffixes; in addition to these principal means of derivation, words were distinguished with the help of sound interchanges and word stress.
Sound interchanges The earliest source of root-vowel interchanges employed in OE word-building was vowel gradation inherited from PG and IE. Ablaut was used in OE as a distinctive feature between verbs and nouns and also between verbs derived from a single root. e.g.:
a) nouns and verbs: fōd – fēdan (NE food – feed)
b) adjectives and verbs: full – fyllan (NE full – fill)
c) nouns and adjectives: long – lenзþu (NE long, length).
Prefixation Genetically, some OE prefixes go back to IE prototypes, e.g. OE un-, a negative prefix. Many more prefixes sprang in PG and OE from prepositions and adverbs, e.g. mis-, be-, ofer-. Prefixes were widely used with verbs but were far less productive with other parts of speech.
The prefix modified the lexical meaning of the word, usually without changing its reference to a part of speech, e.g. spēdiз – unspēdiз. Some prefixes, both verbal and nominal, gave a more special sense to the word and changed its meaning very considerably, e.g.: weorðan – for-weorðan v, forwyrð n (become, perish, destruction). Some prefixes had a very weak of general meaning bordering on grammatical
Suffixation Suffixation was by far the most productive means of word derivation in OE. Suffixes not only modified the lexical meaning of the word but could refer it to another part of speech. Suffixes were mostly applied in forming nouns and adjectives, seldom – in forming verbs. Etymologically OE suffixes can be traced to several sources: old stem-suffixes, which had lost their productivity, but could still be distinguished in some words as dead or non-productive suffixes; derivational suffixes proper inherited from PIE and PG; new suffixes which developed from root-morphemes in Late PG and OE in the course of morphological simplification of the word.
3. The English language we now know would not have been the same if it was not for the events that happened in 1066. In 1066, the Duke of Normandy, William sailed across the British Channel. He challenged King Harold of England in the struggle for the English throne. After winning the battle of Hastings William was crowned king of England and the Norman Kingdom was established. Norman-French became the language of the English court. At the beginning French was spoken only by the Normans but soon through intermarriage
One of the most obvious changes that occurred after the Norman conquest was that of the language: the Anglo-Norman. When William the Conqueror was crowned as king of England, Anglo-Norman became the language of the court, the administration, and culture.
In vocabulary, about 10000 words entered the English language at this stage, and more than a third of today’s PdE (Present-day English) words are related to those Anglo-Norman ME (Middle English) words.
English pronunciation also changed. The fricative sounds [f], [s], [Ɵ] (as in thin), and [ʃ] (shin), French influence helped to distinguish their voiced counterparts [v], [z], [] (the), and [ƺ] (mirage), and also contributed the diphthong [oi] (boy).
English has also added some words and idioms that are purely French, and that are used nowadays.
Thus, the linguistic situation in Britain after the Conquest was complex. French was the native language of a minority of a few thousand speakers, but a minority with influence out of all proportion to their numbers because they controlled the political, ecclesiastical, economic, and cultural life of the nation.
4. The most widely studied language family in the world is the Indo-European. There are a number of reasons for this:
Examples: English, Spanish, French, German, Russian.
The Indo-European languages tend to be inflected (ie verbs and nouns have different endings depending on their part in a sentence). Some languages (eg English) have lost many of the inflections during their evolution.
The Indo-European languages stretch from the Americas through Europe to North India.
The Indo-European Family was originally thought to have originated in the forests north of the Black Sea (in what is now Ukraine) during the Neoloithic period (about 7000BC). Modern research appears to indicate an origin in Anatolia (Modern Turkey). Either way, the people bagan to migrate between 3500BC and 2500BC, spreading west to Europe, south to the Mediterranian, north to Scandinavia, and east to India.
The Indo-European Family is divided into twelve branches, ten of which contain existing languages. I will describe each of these branches separate The Germanic Branch
These languages originate from Old Norse and Saxon. Due to the influence of early Christian missionaries, the vast majority of the Celtic and Germanic languages use the Latin Alphabet.
They include English, the second most spoken language in the world, the most widespread, the language of technology, and the language with the largest vocabulary. A useful language to have as your mother tongue.
Dutch and German are the closest major languages related to English. An even closer relative is Frisian.
Flemish and Afrikaans are varieties of Dutch while Yiddish is a variety of German. Yiddish is written using the Hebrew script.
Three of the four (mainland) Scandinavian languages belong to this branch: (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish). Swedish has tones, unusual in European languages. The fourth Scandinavian language, Finnish, belongs to a different family.
Icelandic is the least changed of the Germanic Languages - being close to Old Norse. Another old language is Faroese.
Gothic (Central Europe), Frankish (France), Lombardo (Danube region), Visigoth (Iberian Peninsula) and Vandal (North Africa) are extinct languages from this branch.
German has a system of four cases and three genders for its nouns. Case is the property where a noun takes a different ending depending on its role in a sentence. An example in English would be the forms: lady, lady's, ladies and ladies'. The genders are masculine, feminine and neuter. German has three dialects spoken in northern Germany, southern Germany and Austria, and a very different form spoken in Switzerland.
English has lost gender and case. Only a few words form their plurals like German (ox, oxen and child, children). Most now add an s, having been influenced by Norman French.ly.
Theor phonetics
1. American-Based Pronunciation Standards of English
The development of American Engl has short history. The eng lge of the 17th century was brought to America by first settlers.
Generally speaking, the situation in the USA may be characterized as exoglossic, i.e. having several languages on the same territory, the balance being in favour of American English. However, time has passed, American English has drifted considerably from English English though as yet not enough to give us ground to speak of two different languages. Thus we speak of the national variant of English in America. American English shows a lesser degree of dialect than British English due to some historical factors: the existence of Standard English when first English settlers came to America, the high mobility of population, internal migrations of different communities and so on.
In the USA three main types of cultivated speech are recognized: the Eastern type, the Southern type and Western or General American.
The Eastern type is spoken in New England, and in New York City. It bears a remarkable resemblance to Southern English, though there are, of course, some slight differences.
The Southern type is used in the South and South-East of the USA. This type includes Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Lousiana, Texas ans parts of Maryland, West Virginia and Oklahoma. It possesses a striking distinctive feature – vowel drawl, which is a specific way of pronouncing vowels, consisting in the diphthongization.
The third type of educated American speech is General American (GA), also known as Northern American or Western American spoken in the central Atlantic States: New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin and others. GA pronunciation is known to be the pronunciation standard of the USA. There are some reasons for it. GA is the form of speech used by the radio and television. It is mostly used in scientific, cultural and business intercourse.
Non-systematic Differences between General American and Received Pronunciation
A. 1. Many differences involve the pronunciation of individual words or groups of words.
1. In words of French origin GA tends to have stress on the final syllable, while RP has it on the initial one:frontier ['fr٨ntiə] [fr٨n'tiɔr]composite ['kɔmpəzit] [kəm'pa:zət]primarily ['praimərfli] [prai'merfli]
2. Some words have first-syllable stress in GA whereas in RP the stress may be elsewhere. 3. Some compound words have stress on the first element in GA and in RP they retain it on the second element: weekend, ice-cream, hotdog, New Year.
C. Intonation DifferencesGA intonation on the whole is similar to that of RP. But there are, of course, some differences .
The main differences in intonation concern the direction of the voice pitch and the realization of the terminal tones. In GA the voice doesn't fall to the bottom mostly. This explains the fact that the English speech for Americans sounds "affected" and "pretentious" or "sophisticated". And for the English, Americans sound "dull", "monotonous", "indifferent". It should also be mentioned that the distribution of terminal tones in sentence types is also different in both variants of English.
2.INTONATION AND PROSODY
Phonemes, syllables and words, as lower—level linguistic units, are grouped by various prosodic means into a higher unit — the utterance. Every concrete utterance, alongside of its phonemic and syllabic structures has a certain prosodic structure, or intonation.
Intonation is a complex unity of speech melody, sentence stress, tempo, rhythm and voice timbre, which enables the speaker to express his thoughts, emotions and attitudes towards the contents of the utterance and the hearer.
Acoustically, intonation is a complex combination of varying fundamental frequency, intensity and duration.
On the articulatory, or production, level intonation is also a complex phenomenon. In the production of speech melody certain respiratory muscles regulate the subglottal air—pressure, which makes the vocal cords vibrate. An increase of subglottal pressure raises the pitch of the voice, and its decrease lowers the pitch.
A great number of phoneticians abroad, (including D.Jones, L.Armstrong, R.Kingdon, A.Gimson, J.O'Connor and G.Arnold) define intonation as the variation of the pitch of the voice, thus reducing it to one component — speech melody. This is a narrow approach to the definition of intonation.
Alongside of the term "intonation" the term "prosody" is widely used. "Prosody" and "prosodic" denote non—segmental phenomena, i.e. those which do not enter into the system of segmental phonemes. D. Crystal defines prosodic features as "vocal effects constituted by variations along the parameters of pitch, loudness, duration and silence".
By prosody the majority of phoneticians mean constant physical acoustic characteristics of speech (mainly fundamental frequency, intensity, duration.
The notion of prosody, consequently, is broader than the notion of intonation as it can be applied to the utterance, the word, the syllable, whereas prosody of the utterance and intonation are equivalent notions.
PROSODIC UNITS
One of the basic problems in the study of prosody is to determine the units in which prosodic features are actualized.
The syllable is widely recognized to be the smallest prosodic unit. It has no meaning of its own, but it is significant for constituting higher prosodic units. Prosodic features of the syllable (tone, stress, duration) depend on its position and function in the rhythmic unit and in the utterance.
A rhythmic, or accentual, unit (or group) is either one stressed syllable or a stressed syllable with a number of unstressed ones grouped around it.
3.Methods applied in investigation the sound matter of the lang
We distinguish between subjective methods of analysis by sensory impression and the "objective" methods of analysis by instruments. The oldest simplest and most available method is method of direct observation.
Training and practicing we can gain a high degree of conscious control over the muscular functioning of our vocal operators and by experience we can enquire considerable skills in associating the qualities of the heard sound with the nature of articulations producing it.
Instrumental methods were introduced into phonetics in the 2nd half of 20th cent. The use of instruments for measurements and instrumental analysis has resulted in detailed study of the phenomenon which are present in the sound waves or in the articulative processes at any given moment.
Instruments:1.spectography-is a computer that produces pictures of speech sounds;2.redijgraphy-exemines activity inside the vocal cords;3.glotography-studies the vibration of the vocal cords. Both subjective and objective nethods are widely used in modern phonetics.
Articulatory phonetics borders with anatomy and physiology and the tools for investigating just what the speech organs do are tools which are used in these fields: direct observation, wherever it is possible, e.g. lip movement, some tongue movement; combined with x-ray photography or x-ray cinema photography; observation through mirrors as in the laryngoscopic investigation of vocal cord movement; palatography – recording patterns of contact between the tongue and the palate; glottography – studying the vibrations of the vocal cords, etc.Acoustic phonetics comes close to studying physics and the tools used in this field enable the investigator to measure and an alyse the movement of the air in the terms of acoustics. This generally means introducing a microphone into the speech chain, converting the air movement into corresponding electrical activity and analysing the result in terms of frequency of vibration in relation to time. The use of such technical devices as spectrograph, intonograph and other sound analysing and sound synthesizing machines is generally combined with the method of direct observation.The methods applied in auditory phonetics are those of experimental psychology.
4)Theoretical Phonetics has the following branches: 1)articulatory2)acoustic3)auditory4)functional /phonological Each branch of Theoretical Phonetics investigates the appropriate aspect of speech sounds.
Phonetics is the study of human speech sounds.
Articulatory phonetics -The study of how speech sounds are produced by the human vocal apparatus.
Acoustic phonetics- The study of the sound waves made by the human vocal organs for communication.
Auditory phonetic-The study of how speech sounds are perceived by the ear, auditory nerve, and brain.
Articulatory Phonetics investigates the functioning of one’s speech apparatus and mechanism.
Acoustic Phonetics studies the acoustic properties of sounds (quantity, timber/voice quality, intensity, the pitch of the voice and temporal factor) in terms of the frequency of vibration and the amplitude of vibration in relation to time.
Auditory Phonetics is aimed at investigating the hearing process which is the brain activity. Auditory Phonetics and Acoustic Phonetics are very closely connected.
Functional phs investigates the function of sounds in specific languages. It is also called phonology. It studies language phenomenon from the point of view of their use. Functional phs also studies the linguistic function of consonants and vowels ,syllabic structure, word accent and prosodic features such as: tempo, stress, pitch. It’s aim is to discover the principles that govern the way the sounds are originated in languages. Phonology is also sub-divided into 2 branches: segmental(studies phonemes);super segmental( studies intonation). Phonology originated in the 20th-30th years of the 20th century among linguistics of Prague school(mateziw,Strubezkoj). People engaged in the study of phs are known as phonetitians;people engaged in the study of phonology are known as phonologists.
stylistic
1. Expressive means and stylistic devices.
All stylistic means of language can be divided into expressive means and stylistic devices.
Expressive means of a language are those phonetic, morphological, lexical, phraseological and syntactic units and forms which function in the language for emotional and logical intensification of utterance. They can be fixed in dictionaries.
Stylistic devices are not language phenomena. They are formed in speech and most of them do not exit out of context. Stylistic device is a conscious and intentional literary use of some of the facts of the language (including expressive means).
The classification of expressive means and stylistic devices suggested by Prof. Galperin is based on the level-oriented approach. He subdivides all expressive means and stylistic devices into the following groups:
1. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices.
2. Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices.
3. Phraseological expressive means and stylistic devices
4. Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices.
Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices include onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance.
To lexico-semantic stylistic devices we refer simile, metaphor, personification, zeugma, metonymy, synecdoche, allegory, antonomasia, euphemism, periphrasis, antithesis, oxymoron, irony, climax, anticlimax, hyperbole, meiosis, litotes.
On phraseological level stylistic devices are represented by quotation/proverb and saying/cliché/epigram/allusion.
Syntactic stylistic devices are ellipsis, aposiopesis, nominative sentences, asyndeton, parceling, repetition, enumeration, tautology, polysyndeton, parallel constructions, detachment, inversion, rhetorical questions.
PHONETIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVISES are used for the purpose of producing a certain acoustic effect, Phonetic stylistic devises include onomatopoeia, alliteration and assonance.
Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind wailing, rustling of leaves) by things (machines or tools, etc. - buzz) by people (singing, laughter, yawning, giggle) and animals (moo, croak (frog).
Alliteration is a repetition of consonants, particularly at the beginning of successive words. assonance repetition of vowels.
LEXICO-SEMANTIC STYLISTIC DEVICES
A metaphor is the result of transference of the name of one object to another object (based upon similarity):
Dear Nature is the kindest Mother.
Metonymy It is a transference of a name of one object to another object. It is based on some kind of association connecting the two objects: the word crown may stand for king or queen
Irony is realization of two meanings standing in opposition to each other: It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one's pocket.
Zeugma is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two adjacent words in the context, the semantic relations being on the one hand literal, and on the other, transferred. He possessed 2 false teeth and a kind heart.
The pun is a play on words.
Visitor, to a little boy:Is your mother engaged?Engaged? She is already married.
The epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence. crazy behaviour
0 x y m o r o n is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense. hot snow
Simile –draws comparison between two different objects in one or more aspects busy as a bee
Periphrasis is the replacement of a direct name of a thing or phenomenon by the description of some quality of this thing or phenomenon.to tie the knot – to marry
Euphemism is a variety of periphrasis. Euphemism is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by more acceptable one. to die —to pass away, to expire, to be no more, to depart, to join the majority, to give up the ghost, to go west
Hyperbole is a deliberate exaggeration of a certain quality of an object or phenomenon. She was scared to death.
Meiosis (understatement) is deliberate diminution of a certain quality of an object or phenomenon:Her house is one minute from here.
Litotes consists of such necessary constituents: negative particle not and a word with negative meaning or a negative prefix. He is not without sense of humour.
Climax (висхідна градація) the figure of inequality consists in arranging the utterance so that each subsequent component of it increases significance, importance or emotional tension of narration: I am so sorry, I am so very sorry, I am so extremely sorry.
Anticlimax (нисхідна градація) consists in arranging the utterance so that each subsequent component of it decreases significance, importance or emotional tension of narration: Not a dollar, not a penny of my money I will devote to you.
Antonomasia (антономазія) is a variant of metaphor which is based upon the principle of identification of human beings with things which surround them. The Snake shouted at her and said that she was fired.
Personification is ascription of human behaviour, thoughts and actions to inanimate objects:
the face of London
Paradox is a figure of speech in which the statement appears to be self-contradictory, but contains something of a truth. Nothing spoils a romance so much as a sense of humour in the woman.
PHRASEOLOGICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES
Quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech and the like used by way of illustration. The work containing the utterance quoted must have been published or at least spoken in public. It is easier to forgive an enemy than forgive a friend (W. Blake – an English poet).
Proverbs are short, well-known, supposedly wise sayings, usually in simple language.
Love without return is like a question without an answer.
Cliché is generally defined as an expression that has become hackneyed and trite. It has lost its originality by constant repetition; in other words it has become stereotyped:rosy dreams of youth
Epigram is a short clever amusing saying or poem. Men marry because they are tired, women because they are curious. Both are disappointed (O. Wilde).
Allusion is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythological fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing.
2. The wordstock of English can be divided into:
Common literary words are chiefly used in writing and in polished speech.
Common colloquial vocabulary overlaps into the standard English vocabulary and is therefore to be considered part of it.
The Spesial literary vocabulary consists of the following groups of words:
Terms are generally associated with a definite branch of science. they always come in clusters, either in a text on the subject to which they belong, or in special dictionaries Terms are characterized by a tendency to be monosemantic. e.g. ammonia – хім. аміак
Poetic words are used primarily in poetry. Their main function is to sustain the special elevated atmosphere of poetry. e.g. eventide - вечір Poetic words and ser expressions make the utterance understandable only to a limited number of readers. It is mainly due to poeticisms that poetical language is sometimes called poetical jargon.
Archaic words are words that gradually disappear. Archaic words are used to create a realistic historical background to novels. e.g. methinks (it seems to me) Archaic words are used in historical novels, in official and diplomatic documents, in business letters,
legal language, etc. Archaic words, word-forms and word combinations are also used to create an elevated effect.
Barbarisms and foreign words. are borrowings from other languages. Barbarisms are words originally borrowed from a foreign language and usually assimilated into the native vocabulary, not to differ from its units in appearance or in sound. Foreign words do not belong to the English vocabulary and they are not registered in the English dictionaries and often are to be explained. Neologism is a new word or a new meaning for an established word.
3. The wordstock of English can be divided into:
Common literary words are chiefly used in writing and in polished speech.
Common colloquial vocabulary overlaps into the standard English vocabulary and is therefore to be considered part of it.
The Special colloquial layer of words is frequently limited to a definite language community or confined to a special locality where it circulates. The colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups:
-slang; jargonisms; professional words; dialect words; vulgar words; colloquial coinages.
Slang is sometimes described as the language of subcultures or the language of the streets. People use slang because it is more expressive than standard usage. give smb. wings –teach to use drugs
Jargonisms are generally old words with entirely new meanings imposed on them. Jargonisms are social in character. They are not regional.Professionalisms are term-like words. They are used by members of certain trade and profession. Their function is to make speech economical, substituting lengthy Standard English vocabulary. scalpel – a small sharp knife.Vulgar words express strong emotions mainly annoyance, anger. They are not to be found in any style of speech except emotive prose, and here only in the direct speech of the characters. Be hanged ! - До біса ! Dialectal words in the process of integration of the English national language remained beyond its literary boundaries, and their use is generally confined to a definite locality. Their function is to characterize personalities thorough their speech.loch – lakeColloquial coinages (nonce-words) are spontaneous and elusive. Not all of the colloquial nonce-words are fixed in dictionaries or even in writing and therefore most of them disappear from the language leaving no trace in it.nerd – person who spends too much time at the computer.
4. Syntactic expressive means and stylistic devices.
ELLIPSIS (еліпс) is such a syntactic structure in which there is no subject, or predicate, or both. The main parts of elliptical sentences are omitted by the speaker :
Aposiopesis is also realized through incompleteness of sentence structure. It appears when the speaker is unwilling to proceed and breaks off his narration abruptly: If you go on like this...
A nominative sentence is a variant of one-member structures: it has neither subject nor predicate.
Morning. April. Problems.
ASYNDETON is deliberate omission of structurally significant conjunctions and connectives:
Father, mother, sister, brother hand in hand with one another.
Parceling is intentional splitting of sentences into smaller parts separated by full stops:
He loves this girl. Very much.
Stylistic repetition of language units in speech (separate words, word-combinations or sentences) is one of the most frequent and potent stylistic devices.
I am very, very, very tired!
Enumeration is a syntactic device of naming objects so that there appears a chain of homogeneous parts of the sentence:
There were cows, hens, goats and sheep in the village.
Tautology is a repetition of unintentional, involuntary nature.
Darling, darling Kate. Oh, darling Kate. She's dead; I know she's dead. Oh, my darling. Kate darling, darling Kate.
Polysyndeton is stylistically motivated redundant repetition of conjunctions or prepositions:
He no п longer thought about storms, nor about women, nor about great fish, nor about fights, nor about his wife.
Parallelism (паралелізм) is a stylistic device of producing two or more syntactic structures according to the same syntactic pattern:
Mary cooked dinner, John watched TV, Pete played tennis.
Detachment is placement of secondary part of the sentence so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically refers too:
She adored her father, strong, brave and polite.
Rhetoric questions are not questions but affirmative or negative statements put into the interrogative shape: Why should I do it?
Theor grammar
1. Systemic approach to the study of language structure.
Modern linguistic theory is based on the systemic approach to the study of the language. According to this approach L. is the set of elements which are organized in a certain order. So L. is a system of signs (meaningful units) which has strict inner organisation. A distinction should be made between the two notions - Language system and language structure.
Language system is a set of orderly arranged elements (linguistic units) united by the common function.
By Language structure we mean the peculiarities of the organization of the language system, which is expressed in the character of interrelation between its elements.
The first scholar who represented L. as a structured system was the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913).
Language system is made up of levels, there are following:
The levels are represented by the corresponding level units:
The phonological level is the lowest level, unit is the` phoneme (the smallest meaningful unit). It has form and function(differentiate morphemes and words), has no meaning.
The syntactical level has three level units as well:
a)phrase b) sentence - the main communicative unit. c)text
Lexical level, its unit is:
The supersyntactical level has the text as its level unit.
Language as a functional system.
One of the main assumptions of Theoretical grammar is the systemic approach to the study of the linguistic units, which means that language is the system of interrelated and interconnected elements. Language system is a functional system, i.e. system that performs a certain function.
Function is the main property of the language.
The functions that the language performs are the following:
These three functions are closely connected and interrelated. They are the basic functions of the language.
2. The dichotomy “plane of content – plane of expression”. The problem of their interrelation and correspondence.
Dichotomy is a separation between two opposed notions, phenomena, etc., which are given in comparison. In linguistic theory there are 3 dichotomies:
Each of the dichotomies reveals a certain aspect of language system and gives an insight into the nature of language functioning.
The notion of linguistic dichotomies was introduced by a Swiss linguist Ferdinant de Saussure.
Plane of content – plane of expression. This dichotomy focuses on the fact that all linguistic units are two-sided, i.e. having form and meaning as each linguistic form corresponds to certain meaning. These two sides were called correspondently as plane of expression (план вираження) and plane of content (план змісту).
Plane of content comprises all meaningful characteristics of the language, plane of expression comprises the material (formal) characteristics of the language.
The complexity of the correspondence between the two planes results in such linguistic phenomena as polysemy, homonymy and synonymy.
The dichotomy: synchrony- diachrony
Synchrony means co-existence of the elements of the language and diachrony means different time periods in the development of the language.
The diachrony stresses the fact that the language is a developing system and it is changing. On the other hand language is a synchronic system of meaningful element at any stage of its hystorical evolution.
3. Grammatical meaning. Oppositional theory of grammatical category.
The most general notions reflecting the most general properties of phenomena are referred in logic as “categorical notions” (categories). And the most general meaning rendered by language and expressed by systemic correlation of word-forms are interpreted in linguistics as categorical grammatical meaning.
Grammatical meaning is confined not only to one individual word but to a whole class of words. Grammatical meaning is divided into:
Implicit meaning can be of two types:
All these meanings are inherent in a word, they are unmarked.
Grammatical category presents a unity of grammatical meaning and means of its formal expression. Grammatical category is a system of expressing a generalized grammatical meaning by means of correlation of grammatical forms.
Grammatical category is expressed as an opposition of at least two grammatical forms which are the contrastive members of the opposition. One of these forms is marked (or strong) member of the opposition and the other is unmarked (weak) member.
The marked (strong) member is characterized by the presence of a certain differential feature (“mark” – the morpheme that renders certain grammatical meaning), while the other member (weak) is characterized by the absence of this feature.
By the number of members contrasted, oppositions are divided into binary (two member), ternary, quaternary, etc.
The realization of the grammatical category is restricted by the dependent implicit meaning.
Oppositional reduction is neutralization of oppositional differences in grammatical categories; when weak member takes up the meaning of a strong member. E.g. Man is master of nature. (man – weak member is used with the meaning of a strong member as “man” stands for all mankind, not for individual person).
The problem of analytical nature of grammatical structure of English.
English is analytical language by its structure as the majority of grammatical forms in English are formed with the help of different auxiliary elements, i.e. by external means of the word.
4. Pragmatic study of the language. The Theory of Speech Acts.
Pragmatics is one of the modern trends of linguistics. It appeared as a trend of functional linguistics the representatives of which elaborated their own interpretation of the communicative function of the language.
According to pragmatics people in attempt to express themselves do not only produce utterances containing grammatical structures and words but they perform actions via those utterances. These actions are called Speech Acts. The task of Pragmatics is to study these actions. Speech act – is the action performed by the speaker via utterance in the process of communicative intercourse.
The Theory of Speech Acts.
The theory was elaborated by the Americans J.L.Austin and J.R.Searle.
According to this theory, speech acts are communicative structures which include 3 components:
Locutive force includes semantic meaning of the speech act (propositional meaning) and the very act of production the utterance (the act of uttering); thus, locution – the actual words uttered.
Illocutive force determines the character of the speech act: whether it is a promise, a threat, a complaint, etc.
Perlocutive force is the effect produced by a given speech act (utterance) upon the listener, i.e. the result which is intended; thus, perlocution - the effect of the illocution on the listener.
Pragmatic classification of utterances.*Direct and indirect speech acts.
Pragmatics suggests its own classification of sentences based on the character of illocutive force of the utterance. So, the following types of speech acts (SA) are distinguished:
Direct and indirect speech acts.
In pragmatics there is also classification of SA which is based on the correspondence between the structure (form) of the utterance and the expected illocutive force (communicative function). On this principle linguists distinguish direct and indirect speech acts.
There are three basic structural forms of the utterances (declarative, interrogative, imperative) and three general communicative functions (statement, question, command/request). When there is a direct relationship between the structure and the function the speech act is direct; i.e. when a declarative form is used to make a statement, interrogative – to make a question, imperative – to make a command or request. When there is an indirect relationship between the grammatical structure and illocutive force the speech act is indirect (for example, when a declarative sentence is used to make a request (not a statement).
lexikology
1.The etymological structure of the English vocabulary. Native and borrowed words in English. Assimilation of borrowings.
Etymology – the study of the origin and history of words and changes in their meaning.
In some cases there is a change in meaning. For example the word meat which now means “animal flesh used as food” is from the Old English word mete which meant “food in general”) The native words are diachronically subdivided into the words of Endo-European Origin and Common Germanic Origin.
Words of Indo-European origin have cognates in the vocabularies of different Indo-European languages.
Words of Indo-European origin fall into fallowing lexico-semantic groups:
(Lexico-semantic groups – are sets of words grouped according to their meaning or close in their meaning.)
Lexico-grammatical groups – groups of words united on the basis of their common part-of-speech meaning. Here belong:
I. Verbs that are frequently used: to sit, to stand, to come, to work, to sow, to know, to lie, to tear,etc.
II. Adjectives that denote physical properties: high, low, hard, light, quick, right, red, slow, raw, thin, white
III. The numerals: one, three, five, six
Words of common Germanic origin
1) nouns: ground, winter, storm, coal, iron, house, life, hope, need, rest, grass
2) verbs: keep, buy, burn, drive, hear, learn, live, meet, see, shut, spread, draw, follow.
3) adjectives: broad, deaf, dead, dear,left, little
4) adverbs: along, again, near, forward
5) pronouns: all, each, he, self, such
The words of Indo-European origin and the words of Common Germanic origin form the Etymological background of the English vocabulary.
Words of the native stock are characterised by the following features:
It has been approximately estimated that more than 60% of the English vocabulary are borrowings and about 40% are words native in origin.
2.The concept of word-formation. Ways of word-formation. Non-productive ways of word-formation.
Word-building is one of the main ways of enriching vocabulary. There are four main ways of word-building in modern English: affixation, composition, conversion, abbreviation. There are also secondary ways of word-building: sound interchange, stress interchange, sound imitation, blends, back formation.
Affixation is one of the most productive ways of word-building. It consists in adding an affix to the stem of a definite part of speech. Affixation is divided into suffixation and prefixation.
Suffixation. The main function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part of speech from another, the secondary function is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. ( e.g. „educate” is a verb, „education” is a noun, and „ child” is a noun, „childhood” is also a noun) Prefixation is the formation of words by means of adding a prefix to the stem. Prefixes can be classified according to the nature of words in which they are used: prefixes used in notional words and prefixes used in functional words. Prefixes used in notional words are proper prefixes which are bound morphemes, e.g. un- (unhappy).
Productive ways of word-building in English.
Composition is the way of word-building when a word is formed by joining two or more stems to form one word.
Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-building system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixationVerbs can be formed from nouns of different semantic groups and have different meanings.
Abbreviation. In the process of communication words and word-groups can be shortened. The causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic. By extra-linguistic causes changes in the life of people are meant. There are two main types of shortenings: graphical and lexical.
Non-productive (secondary) ways of wordbuilding.
Sound interchange is the way of word-building when some sounds are changed to form a new word. It is non-productive in Modern English, it was productive in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European languages.
Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin: nouns have the stress on the first syllable and verbs on the last syllable, e.g. `accent - to ac`cent. As a result of it we have such pairs in English as : to af`fix -`affix, to con`flict- `conflict, to ex`port -`export
Sound imitation (Onomatopoeia). It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by imitating different sounds. sounds produced by human beings, such as: to whisper, produced by animals, birds, insects, such as: to hiss, to buzz
Blends are words formed from a word-group or two synonyms. In blends two ways of word-building are combined: abbreviation and composition.
Back formation (Reversion).It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by dropping the final morpheme to form a new word. It is opposite to suffixation, that is why it is called back formation.
3.English idioms. Different approaches to classification of phraseological units. V.V. Vinogradov’s classification.
The vocabulary of a language is enriched not only by words but also by phraseological units. Phr. units (idioms) can be described as the most picturesque, colourful and expressive part of language vocabulary.
Phraseological units are word-groups that cannot be made in the process of speech, they exist in the language as ready-made units. They are compiled in special dictionaries. Phraseological units express a single notion and are used in a sentence as one part of it.
The term idiom implies that the essential feature of linguistic unit is its idiomasity or lack of motivation. The term word equivalent stresses not only semantic but functional inseparability of a certain word-group, its ability to function in speech as a single word.
Phraseological units can be classified according to the degree of motivation of their meaning. This classification was suggested by acad. V.V. Vinogradov for Russian phraseological units. He pointed out three types of phraseological units:
a) fusions where the degree of motivation is very low, we cannot guess the meaning of the whole from the meanings of its components, they are highly idiomatic and cannot be translated word for word into other languages, e.g. at sixes and sevens - (in a mess) etc;
b) unities where the meaning of the whole can be guessed from the meanings of its components, but it is transferred (metaphorical or metonymical), e.g. to play the first fiddle (to be a leader in something), old salt (experienced sailor) etc;
c) collocations where words are combined in their original meaning but their combinations are different in different languages, e.g. cash and carry - (self-service shop), in a big way (in great degree) etc.
4.Semasiology (approaches to meaning). Semantic processes in English (change of meaning). Types of word meaning. The theory of the semantic field.
The branch of lexicology which deals with the meaning is called semasiology.
WORD – MEANING. Every word has two aspects: the outer aspect (its sound form) and the inner aspect (its meaning).
LEXICAL MEANING – NOTION. The lexical meaning of a word is the realization of a notion by means of a definite language system. A word is a language unit, while a notion is a unit of thinking. A notion cannot exist without a word expressing it in the language, but there are words that do not express any notion but have a lexical meaning.
SEMANTIC PROCESSES. CHANGE OF MEANING. The meaning of a word can change in the course of time. Semantic changes have been classified by different scientists. The most complete classification was suggested by a German scientist Herman. It is based on the logical principle. He distinguishes two main ways where the semantic change is gradual (specialization and generalization), two momentary semantic changes (metaphor and metonymy) and also secondary ways: gradual (elevation and degradation), momentary (hyperbole and litote).
Semantic classification of English vocabulary. Polysemy, synonymy and antonymy in ME.
POLYSEMY. The word „polysemy” means „plurality of meanings” it exists only in the language, not in speech. A word which has more than one meaning is called polysemantic.
E.g. the word „blanket” has the following meanings: a woolen covering used on beds, a covering for keeping a horse warm, a covering of any kind /a blanket of snow/, covering all or most cases /used attributively/, e.g. we can say „a blanket insurance policy”
SYNONYMS. Synonyms are words different in their outer aspects, but identical or similar in their inner aspects. Traditional Linguistics defines synonyms as words of the same category of a part of speech conveying the same notion but differing either in shades of meaning or in stylistic characteristics.
The following characteristic features of the dominant synonym can be underlined:
ANTONYMS. Antonyms are words belonging to the same part of speech, identical in style, expressing contrary or contradictory notions.
V.N. Komissarov in his dictionary of antonyms classified them into two groups : absolute or root antonyms /”late” - „early”/ and derivational antonyms / „to please’ - „to displease”/ . Absolute antonyms have different roots and derivational antonyms have the same roots but different affixes. In most cases negative prefixes form antonyms / un-, dis- , non-/. Sometimes they are formed by means of suffixes -ful and -less.
Morphemic structure of English word. Productive ways of word formation.
English words are constructed from two different types of morphemes -- Roots and Affixes. Each of these classes can be further subdivided: Roots can be divided into Free Roots and Bound Roots; Affixes can be divided into Prefixes and Suffixes.
Roots differ from affixes in two ways:
1) Roots usually have a rather specific meaning, and this meaning tends to be relatively constant across all the words that use the root. EVERY WORD HAS AT LEAST ONE ROOT.
For example, pter is a root meaning 'wing'. It appears in words like:
The form pter always has the specific meaning 'wing' in each word.
Affixes are morphemes which are attached to roots and other affixes. Their main use is to modify the meaning conveyed by the root or roots.
Types of Roots
Free Roots are roots that can occur alone as whole words. Many native words such as blue and berry, are free roots because they can stand alone as single words. Free roots can also be combined with other roots or affixes to form more complex words, for example blueberry and bluish.
Bound Roots can never occur alone as whole words. For example, the roots cran and rasp cannot stand alone; they must occur in combination with other morphemes, such as cranberry and raspberry.
Types of Affixes
Affixes by definition are always bound. They are divided into two different types depending on where they attach to the root.
The two types of affixes also differ in how they affect the meaning of the word.
Prefixes modify the meaning of the root in some way. Often, they provide spatial information about an action named by the root.
Their most important function of Suffixes is to indicate the part of speech of the word. Suffixes identify a word as being a NOUN, VERB, ADJECTIVE, or ADVERB. They can change the word from one part of speech to another.