Introduction to Linguistics- 31.10.07

PHONOLGY: ENCODING WORDS

First of all, we had a revision on the lecture last week and we kept talking about the topic of that kecture, beacuse we hadn´t finished it last week.



Evidence from East Germanic:










Evidence from North Germanic:












Semantic Change:
-Mechanisms:
->Generalisation
->Specialisation
->Metaphor

- Examples (explain in terms of the mechanisms):
->dog
->deer
->town
->shirt
->hamburger, frankfurter
->...



Word formation - word creation:
- derivation
- compounding
- abbreviation
- sign-meaning similarities:
–> sound symbolism, onomatopoeia
–> synaesthesia


The development and spread of English:















Greek
















Finally we started with the topic "Phonology- encoding words" and Mr.Gibbon mentioned the two most important aspects of phonology:


(1) phonemes and syllables, because they are important for the representation of sounds


(2) graphemes are important for the visual encoding

Further he told us, that there are 2 kinds of interpretation:
(1) phonteic interpretation -> pronounciation
(2) ortographic interpretation -> spelling


and he explained us the representation of sounds:

- The prosodic hierarchy:
–> phonemes:
- function: “smallest word-distinguishing segments”
- internal structure: “configuations of distinctive phonetic features”
- external structure (see syllables)
- rendering: “contextual variants”, “allophones”
–> syllables:
- function: “word distinguishing phoneme configurations”
- internal structure: “configurations of sequential features (consonantal, vocalic; voiced, unvoiced; ...) and
simultaneous features (tone, accent)
- external structure (word)
- rendering: a function of the rendering of phonemes

QUIZ:

(1) Find out who or what “Beowulf” is
- an epic poem
- the longest medieval manuscript: 3183 lines
(2) Find the text and a translation

Text (Old English):

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearðfeasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendraofer hronrade hyran scolde,gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning!Ðæm eafera wæs æfter cenned,geong in geardum, þone god sendefolce to frofre; fyrenðearfe ongeatþe hie ær drugon aldorleaselange hwile. Him þæs liffrea,wuldres wealdend, woroldare forgeaf;Beowulf wæs breme (blæd wide sprang),Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in.Swa sceal geong guma gode gewyrcean,fromum feohgiftum on fæder bearme,þæt hine on ylde eft gewunigenwilgesiþas, þonne wig cume,leode gelæsten; lofdædum sceal in mægþa gehwære man geþeon.Him ða Scyld gewat to gescæphwilefelahror feran on frean wære.Hi hyne þa ætbæron to brimes faroðe,swæse gesiþas, swa he selfa bæd,þenden wordum weold wine Scyldinga;leof landfruma lange ahte.þær æt hyðe stod hringedstefna,isig ond utfus, æþelinges fær.Aledon þa leofne þeoden,beaga bryttan, on bearm scipes,mærne be mæste. þær wæs madma felaof feorwegum, frætwa, gelæded;ne hyrde ic cymlicor ceol gegyrwanhildewæpnum ond heaðowædum,billum ond byrnum; him on bearme lægmadma mænigo, þa him mid scoldonon flodes æht feor gewitan.Nalæs hi hine læssan lacum teodan,þeodgestreonum, þon þa dydonþe hine æt frumsceafte forð onsendonænne ofer yðe umborwesende.þa gyt hie him asetton segen geldenneheah ofer heafod, leton holm beran,geafon on garsecg; him wæs geomor sefa,murnende mod. Men ne cunnonsecgan to soðe, selerædende,hæleð under heofenum, hwa þæm hlæste onfeng.


Translation (Modern English):

Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kingsof spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,awing the earls. Since erst he layfriendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,till before him the folk, both far and near,who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate,gave him gifts: a good king he!To him an heir was afterward born,a son in his halls, whom heaven sentto favor the folk, feeling their woethat erst they had lacked an earl for leaderso long a while; the Lord endowed him,the Wielder of Wonder, with world's renown.Famed was this Beowulf:1 far flew the boast of him,son of Scyld, in the Scandian lands.So becomes it a youth to quit him wellwith his father's friends, by fee and gift,that to aid him, aged, in after days,come warriors willing, should war draw nigh,liegemen loyal: by lauded deedsshall an earl have honor in every clan.Forth he fared at the fated moment,sturdy Scyld to the shelter of God.Then they bore him over to ocean's billow,loving clansmen, as late he charged them,while wielded words the winsome Scyld,the leader beloved who long had ruled....In the roadstead rocked a ring-dight vessel,ice-flecked, outbound, atheling's barge:there laid they down their darling lordon the breast of the boat, the breaker-of-rings,2by the mast the mighty one. Many a treasurefetched from far was freighted with him.No ship have I known so nobly dightwith weapons of war and weeds of battle,with breastplate and blade: on his bosom laya heaped hoard that hence should gofar o'er the flood with him floating away.No less these loaded the lordly gifts,thanes' huge treasure, than those had donewho in former time forth had sent himsole on the seas, a suckling child.High o'er his head they hoist the standard,a gold-wove banner; let billows take him,gave him to ocean. Grave were their spirits,mournful their mood. No man is ableto say in sooth, no son of the halls,no hero 'neath heaven, -- who harbored that freight!

Introduction to Linguistics- 24.10.07

HISTORY OF ENGLISH

At the beginning of the lecture we discussed the origin of today’s English referring to our homework and the question where English had been 6000 years ago. English like German and many other languages which are obviously different nowadays origin from Proto-Indo-European. Mr. Gibbon clarified the development of English and other languages with a tree model of the different Proto-Indo-European languages (Fig. 1). Still today you can see that some words in different languages are not different (e.g. “father” (English), “Vater” (German), “padre” (Spanish)). Even languages on other continents show (unexpectedly) some similarities to European languages – this was already found out by missionaries.

In addition to the model tree Mr. Gibbon pointed out that written language is not as old as spoken language. This means that the history of writing is approximately 3000 years old and the history of written English even “only” 1500. Another fact that was shown on the model tree was that English, which is an Germanic language was also influenced by French. The reason therefore lies in the Norman conquest of England in 1066.

Who was in Britain before the English?
It is not known who the original human inhabitants of the British Isles were. The earliest known inhabitants however were the Celts who immigrated East and West from Danube. After about 400 AD was the West Germanic migration by the Angles and Saxons. The North Germanic migration by the Viking was after about 600 AD. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 has already been mentioned.

Sound changes
Referring to the tree model and the similarities of different languages we discussed the development of language, the history of words and how languages are related to each other. Considering the history of words, it becomes quite obvious that languages are dynamic and have always been changing. Sound changes that we discussed in the lecture were Grimm’s Law, the High German Soundshift (which belongs to Grimm’s Law) and the Great Vowel Shift.

Introduction to Linguistics- 17.10.07

ORGANISATION

At the beginning of the lecture we had a quite similar procedure compared to the first lecture of “How to Make a Dictionary”.

Firstly Mr. Gibbon and the tutors introduced themselves and the students got the basic information about the lecture and its requirements (attendance, tasks and quizzes, timetable, end of term test).

Secondly it was pointed out that creating a web portfolio is mandatory for every student – support will be provided by the tutors.

Thirdly we got a short overview over the different topics we will deal with in this lecture. The main topics will be: -Language History

-Language in Society

-Language and the mind

-Building Blocks of English and Applying Linguistics.

Having finished the introduction Mr. Gibbon gave some examples what linguistics among other things are about. He explained that once e.g. English and German were not different languages. Approximately 2500 years ago there was no distinction between these two. Looking back 5000 years even more languages which nowadays are obviously different were more or less equal. By mentioning this it was clarified that language is not static at all ->Language is dynamic and has always been changing and developing.

Besides the explanation of languages as something dynamic Mr. Gibbon also introduced the model of the “properties of signs” to the plenum. This model represents that when producing or receiving a text, every individual has its own unique formulation (= text structure) in its mind. Therefore we call it "The world of the mind". The appearance (= media) of the text means that the formulation is represented (e.g. by writing or saying) and so “leaves” the mind and becomes part of "The shared world". The formulation is encoded. The encoded representation of the own formulation can only be understood by somebody else of the shared world who is able to decode it. To avoid a misapprehension it is necessary that addresser and addressee also share the same understanding of the meaning (= semantics and pragmatics) of the appeared formulation.

QUIZ:

(1) Why is a portfolio important?

A web portfolio is a form of "Applied Text Linguistics" and by creating an own web portfolio students

become familiar with an appropriate use of electronic media. An own web portfolio is the best source for

learning for the final exam, because web portfolios enable an easier access and interaction than via paper or

or email.



(2) What should a portfolio contain and how are these components defined?

A portfolio consists of the topic of the lecture, a short personal introduction, a reader's diary ( = summary of

the lecture), a brief evaluation of the lecture, exercises (quizzes and homework) and a glossary composed of

important terms we dealt with in the lecture.



(3) Why should the portfolio be on a website?

The big advantage of an online portfolio is that it is everywhere available where one has access to the internet

and students become familiar with an appropriate use of electronic media.



(4)How do you make a website?

Obviously there is not only one way to make a website. There are several opportunities one can chose (e.g.

www.homepage-baukasten.de or www.blogspot.com etc.)



TASK:

- What are the following, and how old are they?



INDO-EUROPEAN: The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most of the major languages of Europe, the northern Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and much of Central Asia. Indo-European (Indo refers to the Indian subcontinent) has the largest numbers of speakers of the recognised families of languages in the world today, with its languages spoken by approximately three billion native speakers.



PROTO-GERMANIC (500 BC – 50 BC): Proto-Germanic (or Common Germanic) is the hypothetical common ancestor (proto-language) of all the Germanic languages, which include, among others, modern English, Dutch, German and Swedish. The Proto-Germanic language is not directly attested by any surviving texts, but has been reconstructed using the comparative method.
Proto-Germanic is itself descended from Proto-Indo-European (PIE).



OLD ENGLISH: Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon, Englisc by its speakers) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what are now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. 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.



MIDDLE ENGLISH: Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the introduction of the printing press into England by William Caxton in the 1470s, and slightly later by Richard Pynson. 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.



EARLY MODERN ENGLISH: Early Modern English refers to the stage of the English language used from about the end of the Middle English period (the latter half of the 15th century) to 1650. Thus, the first edition of the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare both belong to the late phase of Early Modern English, although the King James Bible intentionally keeps some archaisms that were not common even when it was published. Prior to and following the accession of James VI to the English throne the emerging English standard began to influence the spoken and written Middle Scots of Scotland. Current readers of English are generally able to understand Early Modern English, though occasionally with difficulties arising from grammar changes, changes in the meanings of some words, and spelling differences.



- What are the main differences between English and German?

English and German originate from different West Germanic languages. English is originates from the Anglo Frisian Languages and German from Old High German.

How to make a dictionary- 30.10.07

THE ARCHITECTURE OF A DICTIONARY

At the beginning we spent quite a lot of time on discussing the homework and repeating what we had learned in the previous lecture and we shortly sum up what the difference between a definition and an explanation is.
A definition answeres the quetion "What?" and an explanation answeres the question "Why?"

After that we talked about the 4 parts of a dictionary:
(1) MEGASTRUCTURE:
- contains f.e. metadata, list of abbreviations, grammar, phonetic transcription...
- the Megastructure of a dictionary is the entire structure of the dictionary, including: -the front matter,
abbreviations and explanations of grammar, the body of the dictionary
(2)MACROSTRUCTURE:
-body, lexical information...
- the Macrostructure is the organisation of the lexical entries in the body of a dictionary: lists, tree structures, networks
(3)MESOSTRUCTURE:
- holds the part of the macrostructure together
- links
-the Mesostructure is the set of relations between lexical entries and other entries such as other parts of a
dictionary or a text corps
(4) MICROSTRUCTURE:
- information about the structure of a word
- the word field
- the historical background
- the Microstructue is the consistent organisation of lexical information within lexical entries in the dictionary

QUIZ:

(1) What is the Megastructure of a lexicon?
The megastructure of a dictionary is its entire structure.

(2) What is the Macrostructure of a lexicon?
The macrostructure of a dictionary refers to its actual body – it shows the organisation of the lexical entries
into lists and tree structures.

(3) What is a semasiological dictionary?
A semasiological dictionary (reader’s dictionary, decoding dictionary) is a dictionary in that terms are
described and sometimes put into a context. The definitions in this kind of dictionary are constructive
definitions.

(4) What is an onomasiological dictionary?
In an onomasiological dictionary (writer’s dictionary, encoding dictionary) terms are defined by using similar
words.

How to make a dictionary- 23.10.07

ON DEFINING "DEFINITION"

In the beginning, Mr Gibbon introduced us to two different kinds of dictionaries, which contain different kinds of information:

-semsiological dictionary: reader´s dictionary, decoding dictionary
-> you know which word you´re looking for, but you don´t know the meaning

-onomasiological dictionary: writer´s dictionary, encoding dictionary
-> you know only the meaning and now you´re looking for the right word

After that Mr.Gibbon told us, that dictionaries are texts, and texts ave meanings. So dictionaries have meanings too. To make that clear he showed us a sign, which he uses in nearly every case:



Now we told about basic definition types and Mr. Gibbon told us, what good and bad definitions are.
Good definitions: - standard dictionary definitions: X is a Y kind of Z
- contextual definition
- recursive definition
- real definition: (a) ostensive defintions
(b) models (e.g. illustrations or the text/information model)
Bad (but sometimes unavoidable) defintions: -circular definitions

To give us some examples, he uses the "X is a Y kind of Z"- definition and the "Definitio per genus proximum et differentia specifica" (definition by nearest kind and specific differences).
Examples:

X is a Y kind of Z
a poodle is a dog with a special haircut

Definitio per genus proximum et differentia specifica
babble: to say or talk quickly and foolishly or in a way that is hard to understand
baby: a very young child, especially one who has not yet learned to speak or walk


QUIZ:
(1) What is a dictionary?
A dictionary is a collection of words, either in a printed or in an online version. Words are ordered alphabetically. There are different types of dictionaries.

(2) What kinds of dictionaries are there?
- monolingual dictionaries
- bilingual dictionaries
- Thesaurus
- Name dictionary
- Rhyming dictionary
- Glossaries
- Dictionaries of idioms

(3) What is the difference between a semasiological dictionary and an onomasiological dictionary?
A semasiological dictionary (reader’s dictionary, decoding dictionary) is a dictionary in that terms are described and sometimes put into a context. The definitions in this kind of dictionary are constructive definitions. In an onomasiological dictionary (writer’s dictionary, encoding dictionary) terms are defined by using similar words.

How to make a dictionary- 16.10.07

First lecture:



What am I expeceting??

Actually I don´t really expect something special, because everything is new, and so I don´t know anything, about this course. But it is the first lecture, so I think, we will discuss some organisational things.



What we´ve done:

Mr. Gibbon gave us an short overview about the topics and all the other information we need, to survive this class. We met our new tutors and Mr. Gibbon told us, that we have to create a web-portfolio.

Than we got to know, why a web-portfolio is helpful and how to create one.

Further we talked about texts and hypertexts and at the end of the lecture we got a QUIZ and a task, we have to do for next week.

By the way, Mr. Gibbon told us, that he will always make Quizzes,that we have to answer and which should belong to our web-portfolios.



So, here is my first one:





QUIZ:


What is text linguistics?

Text Linguistics is the analysing of any kind of text and interpret it.


What is a website?

A website is a huge document wich is online. It could be read by everybody at any time and place.


What is a hypertext?

A hypertext is a document which is linked with others of its kind.E.g. google, homepages of professors, amazon,...


What is a text? What are its main properties?
A text consits of words and structures. It is any kind of written material.Its main properties are meaning, formulation and appearance.



How do these properties relate to the world/ to the mind?
To the mind : The properties are some kind of code wich is in your head like a higher-leveled structure of s.th.

To the world : They are for everybody accessable. You can absorb them actively.


TASK:


defining "definition"


->A defintion is a statement of meaning of a word or a word group, a sign or a symbol. It is a statement expressing the essential nature of something.The word "definition" is dated from the Middel English (diffinicoun), the Anglo-French and from Latin (definitio).