Heinemann English Language VCE Units 3&4

Chaptertwo The language

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Linguistics has its own language which we call metalanguage: this is the language we use to talk about language. In order to be able to discuss language in a meaningful way you need to be able to use the metalanguage. If you have studied Units 1 and 2 of the English language course, then much of the metalanguage will be familiar to you; if not, then it is extremely important that you thoroughly acquaint yourself with the metalanguage now. To the uninitiated, many linguistic terms may seem a little daunting at first but once you understand their meanings you will see how useful they are when it comes to discussing written and spoken texts. The language toolbox will help you to speak, write and analyse texts with greater precision. It is a resource for you to refer back to as you work your way through the course. This chapter covers the following key knowledge: • the inter-connection between the different subsystems of language • phonology and phonetics—the sound system • morphology and lexicology—how we make and classify words and how they are linked • syntax—making sentences • semantics—meaning in language • discourse analysis—taking apart written and spoken texts

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2.1

The subsystems of language

The basic tool you need for this subject is the knowledge of the five subsystems of language—phonetics and phonology, morphology and lexicology, syntax, semantics and discourse analysis. These are the component parts of the ‘whole’ that is language.

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Heinemann English Language: Units 3&4

The sound system of the language— phonology

How words are formed— morphology

How phrases and clauses are put together—syntax

The discourse— the conversation or text

What it all means —semantics Figure 2.1.1 The five subsystems of language

How sentences are made (syntax)

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The words (lexicon)

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How words are made (morphology)

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It is important that you see that these subsystems form parts of a whole, because when you come to analyse texts you will need to bear each of them in mind in order to do the analysis as fully as possible. Take your time to study Figure 2.1.1 carefully to see what these terms mean and how they are interrelated. Make sure you understand how each part fits in to the whole.

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Grammar the ‘rules’ of language

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The Mode speech (phonology), sign and writing (graphology)

Discourse Analysis Influenced by register, appropriateness, stress + intonation (in speech) + punctuation + layout (in writing)

Meaning (semantics) Figure 2.1.2 How we use the five subsystems to make language

The language toolbox

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2.2

Phonetics and phonology

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Phonetics is concerned with the actual physical sounds that human beings utter in making intelligible speech. It is concerned with the mechanics and acoustics of speech, such as where we make sounds in the mouth or the places of articulation.

Sounds carry meaning for human beings. A siren grabs our attention. We can tell the difference between a cry of joy and a cry of terror—one will capture our attention, the other will alarm us. We can make noises to indicate that we are feeling tired or impatient, angry or amorous. We can make noises to show that we agree or disagree. A cough may be used to gain attention or may indicate nervousness, but it is only the sounds of speech that are called phones. It is this level, the level of speech sounds, that is of interest to phoneticians. Some of the others are of interest to other areas of linguistic study (pragmatics) and to discourse (conversation) analysis. Phonetics and phonology both contain the Greek root phone meaning ‘sound’. Phonetics is the study of human speech sounds. Each language has different speech sounds. Even within the English language; New Zealand English for example, contains some different speech sounds from Australian English—notably in the vowel sounds, a New Zealand back may sound like beck. Other languages may have sounds that English doesn’t—for example, Bantu clicks—or they may not have sounds that English does. Swedish has no /z/, for example, so speakers of Swedish will tend to pronounce lazy as lacy. Most learners of foreign languages experience some difficulties with speech sounds that do not occur in their own language—that is, with the phonological differences.

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Phones are the physical units of sound produced by speech organs; that is, all the different sounds used in all the different languages in the world.

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The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) English spelling does not always reflect the way words sound in connected speech, so we need to find other ways to represent the sounds we hear. To do this we can use the International Phonetic Alphabet. How would you represent this sentence using the IPA? Your cat just chortled.

Vowels

oυ as in ‘hoe’ iə as in ‘here’ εə as in ‘hair’ υə as in ‘tour’

Consonants

r as in ‘rain’ tʃ as in ‘choke’ d as in ‘joke’ m as in ‘mile’ n as in ‘neat’ ŋ as in ‘sing’ j as in ‘you’ w as in ‘woo’ l as in ‘last’ n as in ‘neat’ ʔ as in ‘wha’?’

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/hoυ/ /hiə/ /hεə/ /tυə/

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/bai/ /bei/ /bɔi/ /baυ/

p as in ‘pet’ /pεt/ b as in ‘bet’ /bεt/ t as in ‘tale’ /teil/ d as in ‘dale’ /deil/ k as in ‘came’ /keim/ as in ‘game’ /eim/ f as in ‘fine’ /fain/ v as in ‘vine’ /vain/ θ as in ‘thin’ /θin/ ð as in ‘this’ /ðis/ s as in ‘seal’ /sil/ z as in ‘zeal’ /zil/ ʃ as in ‘show’ /ʃoυ/

as in ‘measure’ /mε ə/ h as in ‘heat’ /hit/ d

/pɔt/ /pυt/ /pul/ /pt/ /ə pat/

Diphthongs ai as in ‘buy’ ei as in ‘bay’ ɔi as in ‘boy’ aυ as in ‘bow’

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ɔ as in ‘port’ υ as in ‘put’ u as in ‘pool’ as in ‘pert’ ə as in ‘apart’

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/pit/ /pit/ /pεt/ /pt/ /pat/ /pɒt/ /bt/

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i as in ‘peat’ i as in ‘pit’ ε as in ‘pet’ as in ‘pat’ a as in ‘part’ ɒ as in ‘pot’ as in ‘but’

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/rein/ /tʃoυk/ /d oυk/ /mail/ /nit/ /siŋ/ /ju/ /wu/ /last/ /nit/ /wɔʔ/

Stress The symbol (before a syllable) indicates that the syllable is stressed. The symbol (after a vowel) indicates lengthening. The symbol (above a vowel) indicates that the vowel is made in the front of the mouth. The language toolbox

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The sound /d/ is made by raising the tip (front) of the tongue and lightly tapping it against the ridge behind the upper front teeth—the alveolar ridge. Try this sound for yourself, feeling where your tongue is placed, how much of the tongue is involved and what pressure is needed to produce the sound. In words like soared, scared and curled, for example, this /d/ sound represents the -ed ending. But what happens to the sound when it occurs at the end of words like crunched, kissed and tended? Describe how the sound changes and suggest why this might be. Can you identify the ‘rule’ at work here?

The production and description of the sounds of English

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Most speech sounds are made with an outward flow of breath. Air from the lungs is moulded into different shapes, or obstructed and then released, or modified by the various speech organs in the throat and mouth. In order to describe the different sounds speakers make, it is necessary to learn the names for the places of articulation in the mouth. First of all, have a look at Figure 2.2.1 and make yourself familiar with all the labels on the diagram. Then cross-reference this information with the linguistic terms in Table 2.2.1, which shows the most important places for the production of English consonants. It will help if you consciously take note of sound placements by trying out the examples in Table 2.2.1.

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Nasal cavity Hard palate

Place of articulation describes the point at which the articulators actually touch, or are at their closest. Manner of articulation describes the type of closure made by the vocal organs.

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Soft palate Teeth-ridge

Teeth Lips

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Phonology is the study of the sound systems and the different patterns of sound that can occur in a language. For example, most English speakers would guess straight away that the sentence Sekejap lagi saya nak keluar is not English. Although the individual phonemes may occur in English, this particular combination is not English. (In fact, sekejap lagi saya nak keluar is Malaysian for I’m going out in a minute.)

try this

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Phonemes are the minimal distinctive sounds in a language. Phonemes are usually meaningless on their own because most words are comprised of more than one phoneme—for example, /t/, /p/, and /ɒ/ have no meaning in isolation—and only become meaningful when combined together in various ways—/ tɒp/, / pɒt/, /ɒpt/. Australian English has 44 of these abstract sound units, but only 26 letters of the alphabet to represent them. This is one of the reasons why English spelling can be so frustrating; the letters don’t always match the pronunciation. Consider the following—although, bough, cough, enough, thought, through. How many vowel sounds are represented by ou?

Uvula

Front Central Back

Vocal cords

Tongue Larynx

Figure 2.2.1 The organs of speech

In order to articulate any speech sound we combine the place of articulation and the manner of articulation. For example, /p/, /b/ and /m/ are all articulated using both lips and therefore their place of articulation is bilabial. The manner of articulation, however, for /p/ and /b/ is a complete closure followed by a release (or an ‘explosion’) of air—a plosive or stop. By contrast, /m/, which shares the same place of articulation is articulated in a nasal manner—air escapes through the nose to make the sound.


Table 2.2.1 Place and manner of articulation of English consonants Manner of articulation

Bilabial Labiodental

Dental

Place of articulation Alveolar PalatoPalatal alveolar

Voiced and voiceless sounds Velar

Glottal

ʔ

Stop Voiceless Voiced

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t d

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Nasal

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Fricative Voiceless Voiced

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θ ð

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Affricate Voiceless Voiced

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tʃ d l r

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Lateral Approximant

ʃ

If the vocal cords vibrate when a sound is produced, the sound is said to be voiced. If the vocal cords do not vibrate when a sound is produced, it is said to be voiceless. A simple exercise will demonstrate the logic of this terminology. Place your fingers gently on your vocal cords or voicebox while saying sssssss and zzzzzz. Now try the same for the sounds f and v. Which sounds of these sound pairs are voiced and which are voiceless?

Figure 2.2.2 Vibrating vocal cords—look somewhat like a pair of lips moving from closed to open.

activity 2.2.1 Study Table 2.2.1 and imagine you are explaining to a friend whose first language is not English how to articulate the following sounds—/θ/ and /ð/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/ and /d/. To do this exercise you will need to think carefully about what it is you do with your tongue, mouth, teeth and so on, in order to make these sounds. First, explain the sounds orally and then put your explanations in plain written English with the technical terms in brackets. Which is easier and why?


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Vowel sounds The articulation of vowel sounds is largely dependent on variations in the position of the tongue, but the degree of lip-rounding also plays a part. In describing vowels, the important factors are: 1 The height of the body of the tongue 2 The front-back position of the tongue 3 The degree of lip-rounding (whether the lips are rounded or unrounded) front high

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he—high front unrounded vowel ham—low front unrounded vowel hood—high back rounded vowel hot—low back unrounded vowel

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hot

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Figure 2.2.3 This diagram charts the space where Australian English vowel sounds are made inside the mouth

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(i) showing the tongue at its highest and farthest forward.

(a) showing the tongue at its lowest and farthest back.

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A diphthong is a vowel where there is a single, noticeable change in quality during a syllable — for example /e/ to /i/ in /bei/ ‘bay’.

With simple vowels, the tongue does not move significantly when articulating the sound. However, with diphthongs the tongue moves from one position to another during the production of the vowel sound. Try saying the word right while laying a pen on your tongue. The front of your tongue will want to rise upwards to produce this diphthong.

activities 2.2.2 Try your hand at some phonetic transcriptions of English. Tape short excerpts of your favourite television program. Using the IPA on page 7, try transcribing the speech of at least two different characters.

2.2.3 Watch some short excerpts from ‘Taggart’ or ‘Blue Heelers’ or a current television show with distinctive accents and identify some of the distinctive features of different characters’ speech.

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Prosodic features—stress, pitch and intonation The prosodic features are the aspects of speech apart from the words—elements such as stress, pitch and intonation. Stress is the emphasis placed on a particular syllable or on a part of a word as it is pronounced. For example, different patterns of stress emerge in the pronunciation of different words. Notice how the stress shifts when these three words are said individually. — — — — – — — — — compete competition competent

activity 2.2.4

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Work out the stress patterns in the following words—that is, which syllable is stressed? geography, geographic provoke, provocative, provocateur, provocation

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Within any spoken utterance shifting the stress can change the meaning of the utterance. For example, What kind of phone call did you make? meaning ‘you were a long time. Did you call long distance, local or mobile?’ What kind of phone call did you make? meaning ‘someone else made a particular kind of call. Now, what kind did you make?’ What kind of phone call did you make? meaning ‘I don’t believe what I just heard. Was that a 0055 number you called?’ You may notice that the stressed words tend to be slightly higher in pitch and take more energy to pronounce than the unstressed syllables and words.

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activity 2.2.5

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Give these utterances different meanings in speech by altering the prosodic features. 1 Who’s going to buy a birthday present for her? 2 That’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever heard. 3 What time did you get in last night? Underline the stressed parts and clarify what the real meaning is, as in the above example.

Pitch refers to the level at which a sound is placed on a scale from ‘low’ to ‘high’. Actually, the faster the vocal cords vibrate, the higher the pitch. The range of pitch will vary from person to person. Race commentators typically display a narrow pitch range, beginning a race call in a near monotonal drone and building to a higher pitch in the final stretch before the finish line.

activity 2.2.6 As a class, tape-record three or four examples of sports commentaries—racing, cricket, football, wrestling, snooker. Transcribe a couple of minutes’ worth from each example and compare, taking particular note of stress, pitch and intonation. Also take note of the sorts of lexical choices and vocabulary associated with that sport.


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Intonation refers to the patterns of changes in pitch. Together with stress, intonation can give us extra information about the message the speaker is expressing. If we say a few sentences with no intonation at all—that is, in a monotone—it sounds strangely robotic. The comedian The Sandman (3JJJ and ‘Good News Week’) uses this kind of monotonal delivery for comic effect. Generally, though, in everyday conversation, our pitch will rise and fall in patterns.

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Consider the range of meanings in the following intonation patterns using just one word. – "the answer is 'yes'."

yes – high

– "Did you say 'yes'?" rising

– "'Yes', go on. I'm listening."

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yes – low

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yes – falling

– "I don't know about this."

yes – rising-falling

– "I'm absolutely positive about this."

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yes – falling-rising

Sounds in connected speech

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The ‘Try this’ exercise gave you some clues as to what happens when we connect the different speech sounds. Even when the sounds of a word are worked out in phonetics, that representation of the word may change when it is set beside other sounds in a spoken utterance. Worked out individually, the word and, for example, may be represented by /nd/. But in everyday conversation the sound and shape of the word may change to become /n/ as in ‘rock’n’roll’, or /n/ as in /n ðεn ai sεd/ or even /m/ as in /sɔʔmpεp/.

Loss of sounds Sometimes in rapid speech, sounds are left out of words—for example, t(e)rrific, gran(d)ma’s, libr(ar)y. In speech, we may say are you goin’ tonight? This is commonly called ‘dropping the g’ because of the way the sounds are represented in writing. In fact, there is no /g/ in the sound, only /ŋ/ thus goin’ changes from /oυiŋ/ to /oυin/. We distinguish between the strong form and the weak form when describing the two distinct ways common English words are pronounced. The strong form is the way words are pronounced in isolation and the weak form is the way we pronounce words in rapid speech or everyday conversation.

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them was to and the must

Strong form [ðεm] [wɒz] [tu] [ nd] [ði] [m st]

Weak form [im, m] [wəz] [tə] [ən, n] [ðə] [məs, ms]

Addition of sounds Sometimes sounds are added as the various parts of the vocal tract move from one sound to another. It seems that people prefer a consonant–vowel–syllable structure and will often insert vowels in between difficult clusters of consonants as a way of simplifying the cluster fillum for film, athalete for athlete and so on. And then there’s the extra vowel which some people add to words like school /skuwal/ and pool /puwal/.

Modification of sounds

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Morphology and lexicology

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Sounds and syllables can be affected by their neighbouring sounds. Handbag may become ‘hambag’, income may become ‘ingcome’ and vodka may become ‘vogka’, even without any drunken slurring. This process is called assimilation.

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I love the way the water moves. The way the water moves is lovely. In what ways has the word ‘love’ changed?

The word morphology contains the Greek word morphe meaning ‘form’ and -ology meaning ‘the study of,’ so morphology refers to the study of the internal structure of words or how they are formed. For example, many English words are formed with the help of Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes. Take the examples of presume, resume and consume; three words are formed using the same stem (sume) but their meanings are quite different. Prefixes

Stem

Suffixes

preindecon-

script

-ion -ive

Figure 2.3.1 Morphology is the study of how words are formed

Lexicology is the study of words and their meanings.

A lexicon is a person’s vocabulary (all the words they know), and is also sometimes used to mean dictionary. For example, a five year old’s lexicon or vocabulary would be nowhere near as large as an adult’s. When parents wish to speak about something discreetly in front of a child, they will draw on their larger lexicon to keep the child in the dark. A lexicon is also the vocabulary used in a branch of learning; for instance, medicine has its own lexicon, as does bookkeeping. Most fields of study and vocations have their own lexicons. A lexicographer studies the words in a language and compiles dictionaries. The language toolbox

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A morpheme is the most elementary unit of grammatical form, in other words the smallest unit of meaning—for example, walk is one morpheme, walking is two morphemes, walk+ing.

Morphemes

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As the smallest unit of meaning morphemes cannot be cut up into smaller units of meaning; they are complete on their own. However, a morpheme may require other morphemes to be a complete word that can stand on its own. For example, presume contains two morphemes, neither of which can stand alone pre+sume. Morphemes can be classified in several ways but the most important distinction is whether they are free or bound. Free morphemes are those which can stand on their own as words—for example, dream and I. Bound morphemes are those that must be attached to another morpheme in order to make a word— -ing and un- as in walking and unable, and -sume as in presume. Stems or roots are morphemes that can stand alone. A stem represents the core meaning of the word—arm, bad and good are all stems. Other morphemes can be added to modify the stem—for example, arm+ed, bad+ly and good+ness. Affixes are bound morphemes that cannot occur on their own but need to be added to a stem to make a complete word. Prefixes and suffixes are affixes. Prefixes are morphemes that are attached to the front of the stem—for example, in-, ex-, and pre- as in insane, excite and preview respectively. Suffixes are morphemes that are attached to the end of the stem—for example, -ion, -or and -ary as in action, actor and honorary respectively.

Inflectional morphemes are sometimes called grammatical morphemes because they serve a grammatical function. The inflection -ed helps to form the simple past tense as in want+ed, butter+ed and paint+ed. Derivational morphemes are derived from and add new meaning to existing words. When a derivational affix is added to a stem it creates a new word which usually changes the class and can change the meaning of the word. For example,

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happy is an adjective but when the derivational affix -ness is added it becomes the noun happiness; it changes from an adjective to a noun. (See Heinemann English Language VCE Units 1 & 2, Chapter 4 for a discussion of word classes.)

activities 2.3.1 List five English prefixes and five suffixes. Give their meanings, the types of stems they may be prefixed or suffixed to and two examples of each.

2.3.2

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Identify the types of affixes—derivational or inflectional, free or bound—in the following words—bookend, wordy, lifeless, beautify, confectioners, tasted, pocketful, cooking.

Word classes or parts of speech

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NOUN

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Word classes or parts of speech are the ways in which grammarians traditionally categorise words on the basis of their formal similarities. They are grammatical categories. Word classes may be defined as groups of words that from a grammatical point of view behave in the same way.

VERB VERB

ADJECTIVE

NOUN

activity 2.3.3 Think of as many words as you can to substitute for the words went, market and coriander in the following sentence. I went to market this morning but they didn’t have any coriander. It may be helpful to do this together on the blackboard. Try substituting other words in your own sentences. Discuss how you decide which words will ‘fit’ and which won’t.

If you substituted went with words such as walked and drove (verbs), and market and coriander with words like shop and carrots (nouns) in Activity 2.3.3, then you were absolutely right. You already knew the word class. Perhaps you knew the The language toolbox

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Linguistic determinism Linguistic determinism (the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis) is a contentious theory developed by American anthropolgists and linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf. This theory holds that the nature of the language we speak actually determines the way in which we perceive the world. Whorf illustrated the theory with an Amer–Indian language, Hopi. He suggested, for example, that Hopi had no tense system because the Hopi didn’t measure time in the way Europeans did. However, the hypothesis has proved very difficult to test and translation from one language to another would seem to show that the hypothesis is at least flawed. A weaker form of the theory—linguistic relativity—suggests that the way in which we perceive the world is reflected in our language.

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Puns reflect the human need to play. Punning deliberately brings out different meanings for a similar string of phonemes and lexemes. For example, if you were whale watching along the coast and turned to your friend to say, I’m having a whale of a time you would be punning on the word whale and your friend would probably be justified in hitting you.

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Homonyms are words that have the same pronunciation and same spelling but a different meaning—for example, bill meaning ‘beak’ and bill meaning ‘a statement of what you owe’. Homophones are words that are pronounced the same way but may be spelt differently—for example, feet and feat.

Discourse analysis

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A: No mail?

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B: Couch.

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A: So, how did you go with your essay? B: Not very far. A: Hey? B: Not very far. A: Did you get hold of Ubeldo? B: Oh…Cassandra…Ten o’clock Friday. A: Oh, well I suppose…can just relax for a while.

Discourse is a connected stretch of language (written or spoken) usually bigger than a sentence—an interaction between two or more speakers, or between writer and readers.

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Read the above transcription and with a partner discuss what you think the context is. How could you tell that the above model was a spoken text if you hadn’t been told? What evidence can you find in the text itself that it is a spoken one? Who might the speakers be? What might their relationship be? Share your ideas in a class discussion.

To analyse a discourse means to study it carefully, taking apart the different elements that make up the whole structure. Discourse analysis involves questions of appropriateness, style, register, structure, context, meaning and so on. Elements such as the roles people adopt and the lexical choices they make need to be taken


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into account, as well as how topics are guided or changed and what further light this sheds on the relationship between participants. Discourse is not just a matter of linking sentences together. In, for example, everyday conversation, there are certain conventions—people tend to take it in turns to talk, even if one of the participants can’t actually talk. Even a mother talking to her baby is discoursing—asking questions, announcing actions. In, for example, a letter or an e-mail, there are also conventions that we follow—we open with a greeting and we use punctuation.

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Although any discourse will tend to follow predictable patterns, the options chosen by a particular speaker or writer depend on the occasion and the particular social situation.

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Speaking and writing in English

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You have probably by now been struck by the seeming incoherence of speech. We do not often speak in clear complete sentences, particularly in informal situations. We repeat ourselves, leave out bits, and um and ah, and none of this bothers us or our hearer. In writing on the other hand, we generally use complete sentences, avoid repetition, are careful to include everything we feel the reader needs and never um and ah. Writing needs to be clear and coherent if our readers are to understand us. Because writers and readers are not usually face to face, there is no opportunity to, for example, repeat our point if the reader hasn’t understood. We are all able to discourse in spoken English—some of us better than others, of course. There are, as you will discover, many forms of spoken language—from the very formal speech of legal or political rituals to the informal speech of the mother and baby. Along this continuum of spoken language, speakers demonstrate a range of features that we will analyse in various examples of speech. In Chapter 7 you will look in detail at these features of spoken English through an analysis of a number of spoken texts. In your analysis you will need to use many of the terms you have learned in this chapter and you will learn some more terms relating specifically to spoken texts. Written English discourse also occurs along a continuum from the informal language of postcards and e-mails to the formal language of an essay or journal article. Writing employs many devices to ensure both its cohesion and its coherence; how these devices are employed is a measure of the writer’s skill. In The language toolbox

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Chapter 8 you will cover the distinctive features of written texts. Again, you will use much of what you have learned in this chapter and discover new terms relating specifically to analysing written texts.

activity 2.6.1 Pick a topic you feel you know very well—a hobby, a sport you play, a recipe you prepare often. 1 Prepare a short talk on the topic and present it to the class. 2 Then prepare a short written explanation on the same topic. 3 What are the obvious differences between the features of each of the texts?

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In this chapter you have covered the concepts and acquired the tools necessary to work through Units 3 and 4 of VCE English Language. In this book, each unit includes a glossary of the key terms you will need to understand to complete the activities and school assessed coursework in the outcomes. Refer to this chapter and the glossaries as you work through the subject.

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