DIPARTIMENTO DI STORIA ANTROPOLOGIA RELIGIONI ARTE SPETTACOLO (SARAS) DISPENSE CORSO DI LINGUA INGLESE 1 - CANALE P-Z CDL "ARTI E SCIENZE DELLO ...
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Dipartimento di Storia Antropologia Religioni Arte Spettacolo (SARAS)
Dispense corso di Lingua Inglese 1 – canale P-Z
CdL «Arti e Scienze dello Spettacolo» L-3
a.a. 2019/2020
Docente: dott. Fabio Ciambella
Materiale didattico destinato ad esclusivo uso interno
Modulo A – Libro di riferimento:
D. Crystal, The English Language
Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Say It Right: English phonetics,
phonology and morphology
Dr Fabio Ciambella
a.y. 2019/2020
SEAI Department
Sapienza University (Rome)
Dr. Fabio Ciambella
The history of English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfKhlJIAhew
1. Old English (449 – XII century) [Late Old English/Early Middle English (1066 – XII cent.)]
2. Middle English (XII – XV century) [1476?]
3. Modern English (XV century – today): [Early Modern (XV – mid-XVII cent.), Late Modern (mid-XVII cent. onwards)]
3
Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Old English/Anglo-Saxon
449 – Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrived in Britain;
AD 1000: Angelcynn → Englalond (language: Englisc);
Weird spelling: sounds that were not present in the Latin alphabet (thorn þ, eth ð and ash
æ);
Inflected language: declensions and cases (that’s why the Saxon genitive is still with us);
Varied word order: verbs before the subject or at the end of a sentence (like Latin);
7 groups of ‘strong’ verbs (which mainly correspond to our modern irregular verbs)
4
Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Old English: Its story
Celts from Iberia were the first ‘invaders’ of the British Isles during the Iron Age (600 BC – AD 50);
Romans (Julius Caesar 55 BC, Emperor Claudius AD 43-47, Hadrian’s Wall AD 122) → Signs of Latin language: cities in –chester, words like ‘street’;
V century: Anglo-Saxons arrived → Celts escaped to Cornwall, Wales, Cumbria and Scotland (where Gaelic languages are spoken today);
A few Celtic words came into English (River Thames, Greenwich);
Dark age between 449 and 597 (when St. Augustine of Canterbury christianized England);
Latin MMS with lists of Old English glosses (AD 700 → inscriptions and short poems) – 450 Latin words in English vocabulary;
Viking/Danes invasions (787 – XI cent.);
Most important literary output in Old English: Beowulf (MS Cotton Vitellus);
4 extant MSS: 1) Junius, 2) Exeter Book, 3) Vercelli Book and 4) Cotton Vitellus or Nowell Codex;
Most of these MSS date back to the reign of Alfred the Great (849-899) of Wessex, the king who stopped the Viking invasion at Edington in 878, ordered the translation
of Latin works (among which the most important is Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiatical History) and began the writing of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle;
991: Viking invasion, king Aethelred can’t stop it and Vikings reign in England for 25 years;
Effects on language (1,800 words):
1. Names of cities ending in –by, -thorp, -thwaite and –toft;
2. Nouns with sk-;
3. Personal pronoun ‘they/them’ and possessive ‘their’;
4. ‘Are’;
5. Articles and prepositions (no more declensions and cases) 5
Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Old English dialects
Where modern English
comes from because
of London
Most MSS were written
in West Saxon
because of Alfred
Have fun with Old English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbbpXLUP_qY 6
Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Runes and Futhark
Invented in the Rhine river area (modern Germany and the Netherlands) because of commercial
contacts between Germanic tribes and the Romans (→ influence of Latin alphabet);
Futhark (from the name of the first six letters of the Runic alphabet);
Originally 24 letters, in Britain 31 to cover all the sounds of Old English;
Mystical meaning and secret messages;
Ruthwell Cross in Dumfriesshire, Scotland (VIII century)
7
Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Runes today: The Bluetooth
Jim Kardach of Intel (1990s) and his passion for Vikings;
King Harald Blåtand of Denmark (958-986) and the CONNECTION
(unification) of Scandinavian people;
The macabre warriors with blue teeth;
8
Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Middle English
1066 – Battle of Hastings: William of Normandy conquered Britain;
Not immediate effects of the French invasion (still texts in West Saxon dialect continued to
be written until the mid-XII century);
Peterborough Chronicle: first text in East Midland dialect, no French words;
French barons and clergy members (influence of French language);
3 languages spoken at the same time: English by the population, French by the Court and
Latin by the Church;
1204: King John lost Normandy → rise of English nationalism;
1362: English used at Parliament for the first time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtGoBZ4D4_E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJJbad0R1Q0
9
Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Middle English vocabulary
10,000 French words entered Middle English vocabulary;
Law and administration, medicine, art and fashion (3/4 still used today);
New French words substituted the Old English ones, but in most cases the two versions co-
existed;
XIV-XV century: new flux of Latin words (1348: John Wycliffe’s Bible) → sets of 3 words
expressing the same concept (e.g. Old English ‘time’, French ‘age’, Latin ‘epoch’) with
the Old English version being ‘popular’, the French one literary and the Latin one learned
10Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Middle English grammar
Declensions finally died away (except the possessive ‘s and some accusative forms of
personal pronouns) → word order becomes strict;
Verb endings remained the same ( present –s and past tense –ed simplification occurred
after Middle English);
Some irregular verbs became regular;
–s was employed for most plural nouns
11Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Middle English spelling and pronunciation
Spelling changed a lot thanks to Norman scribes who didn’t understand Old English
sounds (e.g. cw → qu; c → ch; thorn þ, eth ð and ash æ disappeared);
Some words beginning with /h/ dropped the /h/ sound
12Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Literary output
XIV century:
1. Sir Gawayne an the Grene Knight (c. 1350);
2. Langland’s Piers Plowman (c. 1360);
3. Pearl (c. 1375);
4. Wycliffe’s Bible (1382-1395);
5. Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (most important
achievement in Middle English) – 1387-1400
(published 1476)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0ybnLRf3gU
13Dr. Fabio Ciambella
The Great Vowel Shift
1400-1600: 7 long vowels of Middle English varied (higher and forward) very quickly →
pronunciation changed;
1476: Caxton brought printing in England → spelling was fixed;
As a consequence, while pronunciation evolves even today, we use the same spelling Chaucer
used!
14Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Middle English dialects:
towards standard English
East Midland dialect at the base of modern standard
English (‘Golden triangle’: London, Oxford and
Cambridge);
Agricultural area and wool trade;
Bridge between Northern and Southern dialects;
Caxton set up his printing press in Westminster, London
15Dr. Fabio Ciambella
(Early) Modern English (1)
XVI century: scholars begin to talk about language (Cheke
proposed to eliminate all the silent letters in 1569, Bullokar
proposed a new alphabet of 37 letters in 1560, and in 1604
Cadrey published a first, rudimental modern English
dictionary, A Table Alphabeticall);
Standard English had to be defined if people wanted to
understand what books contained;
This process took 100 years (XVII century)
16Dr. Fabio Ciambella
(Early) Modern English (2): The Renaissance
From Caxton (XV century) to mid-XVII century (Cromwell’s civil war);
Interest for new publications and Latin and Greek classics;
Double tendency: ‘inkhorn’ terms (new words from over 50 foreign languages come into
English through affixation and conversion), Chaucerism (willingness to revive obsolete
English words);
Latin was used by scientists and in the XVII century by the Church (only Catholic)
17Dr. Fabio Ciambella
(Early) Modern English (3): Shakespeare and the Bible
Two main influences of the time
(apart from Caxton’s printing press):
works by William Shakespeare and
https://www.youtube.com/w
the Authorized Version of the Bible (or
atch?v=4L9wh3-6wHM
King James’s Bible, 1611);
Shakespeare introduced a lot of https://www.youtube.com/w
idioms (e.g. ‘It’s Greek to me’, ‘Make atch?v=qYiYd9RcK5M&t=25s
https://www.youtube.com/watch a virtue of necessity’, etc.) – his
?v=TsPtb8pkAuY vocabulary was of about 20,000
words;
The language in King James’s Bible
(and consequently in the Book of the
Common Prayer, 1549 and 1662, this
latter the version we still use today) is
more conservative – 8,000 words, look
backwards in grammar
18Dr. Fabio Ciambella
(Early) Modern English (4): Shakespeare vs. Bible
Irregular verbs still have their old forms in the Bible (e.g. ‘spake’ for ‘spoke’ or ‘holpen’ for
‘helped’);
Old words are still in use; no use of ‘do’ in questions or negative form (Shakespeare alternates);
The northern form of the 3rd person’s –s is found sometimes in Shakespeare, but the Bible still
always uses –eth;
2nd person singular subject pronoun was thou, the object thee, the possessive adj. thy and the
possessive pronoun thine;
2nd person plural subject pronoun was ye, the object you, the possessive adj. your and the
possessive pronoun yours;
His was used also for its;
Will was found only in informal context (so in Shakespeare), shall was used in formal contexts;
Double superlatives (e.g. the most highest);
Prepositions were used differently
19Dr. Fabio Ciambella
(Late) Modern English (5): The age of the
dictionary (The age of Johnson)
1604: A Table Alphabeticall (dictionary of difficult words);
1721: The Universal Etymological English Dictionary (N. Bailey);
XVII-XVIII century: feeling of unease about the language (e.g. some added letters to
words claiming that they were from Latin, but they weren’t: island and scissors);
Proposal for an English Academy (following the example of the Italian Accademia della
Crusca in 1583 or the Académie française in 1622)
20Dr. Fabio Ciambella
(Late) Modern English (5): Johnson’s Dictionary
1755: Definition of over 40,000 words (it influenced Lowth’s
Short Introduction to English Grammar in 1762 or Murray’s
English Grammar in 1794);
Origin of some current grammar controversies;
Shall vs. will;
A sentence can’t finish with a preposition;
Two negatives make an affirmative
21Dr. Fabio Ciambella
(Late) Modern English (6): from the Industrial
Revolution to today
Thousands of new words especially in Science and Technology;
Pronunciation and grammar have had little changes;
Three main events characterized the development/enrichment of (Late) Modern English
vocabulary:
1. Industrial Revolution (e.g. ‘railway’, ‘train’, ‘engine’, but also scientific words from Latin
and Greek, like ‘oxygen’, ‘caffeine’, ‘bacteria’, ‘biology’, etc.);
2. Rise of the British Empire and the successive development of the USA after 1776 (e.g.
‘boomerang’, ‘kangaroo’ from Australia, ‘jungle’, ‘pyjamas’, ‘shampoo’ from India,
‘tomato’, ‘potato’ from North America);
3. New technologies and internet (e.g. ‘to text’, ‘to google’, etc.)
https://theconversation.com/what-will-the-english-language-be-like-in-100-years-50284
22Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Mutual
agreement
among
authonomous
states (the
King/Queen of
the UK is only a
representative
head of State)
Different nations
governed by one
single emperor
(same set of laws,
etc.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsvL8uv4A_I
23Dr. Fabio Ciambella
English today (1)
Accents and dialects underline both
regional and social diversification;
‘Americanization’ of world culture
(above all thanks to pop, dance, rap
https://en.oxforddictionari
music and TV series);
es.com/definition/americ Main influence of English → vocabulary
anization
(loans);
Mixed languages → Franglais, Japlish,
but above all Spanglish (Tex-Mex)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMQJVtrpG4Y
24Dr. Fabio Ciambella
English today (2): Social identity
Age, occupation and sex
Vocabulary (1. what happened to words like
‘postman’? → sexually neutral language, 2.
New words like ‘transgender’, ‘bromance’);
Grammar/written language → (s)he or they or
change sentence;
25Dr. Fabio Ciambella
English today (3): Gender issues
26Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Vocabulary
500,000 – 2,000,000 words;
Counting from written English (→ standard forms which sound educated);
Core vocabulary → half a mln words;
Creating new words:
1. Borrowings (loans);
2. Affixes (morphemes attached to a word to create new words): prefixes, infixes, suffixes;
3. Conversion (change of grammatical function; e.g. ‘water’);
4. Compounds;
5. Abbreviations, contractions, blendings, acronyms, initialisms;
6. Repetition (e.g. zigzag);
English has a wider core vocabulary than any other language in the world → foreign influences,
flexibility;
Objections for words that are changing (e.g. gay, verbs in –ize);
Passive vocabulary richer than active 27Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Spelling (1): The origin of irregularities
Irregularities are due to:
Roman missionaries who didn’t understand some sounds of Old English (not enogh Latin letters
to reproduce Old English sounds→ Runes; e.g. th → ð). Some graphemes could reproduce
different sounds (e.g. the grapheme ‘g’ for /ʤ/ and /g/);
French scribes (after 1066) replaced some Old English spelling because they didn’t understand
it (1. ‘cw’ became ‘qu’; 2. ‘gh’ instead of ‘h’ as in ‘night’; 3. ‘ch’ instead of ‘c’ as in ‘chair’; 4.
‘ou’ instead of ‘u’ as in ‘neighbour’; 5. when ‘u’ was next to ‘v’, ‘n’ or ‘m’ it was replaced by ‘o’
because they were written similarly as in ‘one’);
1476 William Caxton introduced the printing in England. Necessity to adopt a ‘standardized’
spelling and made it stable. Unfortunately, in those centuries, while spelling was becoming
stable, pronunciation began to change (see ‘Great vowel shift’). So, our spelling is the same of
Chaucer’s time, but pronunciation keep changing.
XVI century: showing etymology in spelling (e.g. they added a ‘b’ in ‘debt’ to underline its Latin
origin from ‘deBitum’) and attempts to amalgamate some spelling forms (e.g. ‘gh’ was added
in ‘delight’ because ‘light’ was spelled with ’gh’ );
XVII century: loans (French, Latin, Greek, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc.)
28Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Spelling (2): Reform attempts
1876: Spelling Reform Association (USA)
1908: British Simplified Spelling Society (UK)
1949: Nue Spelling (NS) 1980s: International English
presented to Parliament Spelling (Interspel)
By V. Hule at Harvard
Pros Cons
• Language would be easier to • Practical introduction;
learn (for children and • Acceptance by everyone;
foreigners); • Gradual or neat change
• Writing would become quicker;
29Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Uses of English: Language variety
Tendency to refer to ‘English languages’ or new ‘Englishes’
Accent (way of pronouncing which identifies the speaker’s place of origin; except RP speakers who are
simply identified as British. Mixed accents are fashionable today) vs. dialect (includes not only
pronunciation, but also variations in grammar, vocabulary and spelling). Dialects is mostly used in
informal context (colloquial speech or vernacular literature)
Speech (inexplicit, spontaneous, informal and domestic vocabulary, manoeuvring strategies, tone of
voice) vs writing (explicit, structurally intricate, precise vocabulary, organization, graphic features);
Social groups’ slang (especially religious and legal English)
"I, ___, take thee, ___, to be my wedded husband/wife, to have and
to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for
poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD0XUcJ9stM us part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge
thee my faith [or] pledge myself to you."
30Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Technology (1)
Netspeak (Internet as a medium of linguistic communication)
1. E-mails
2. WWW
3. Synchronous and asynchronous chatgroups (MSN)
4. Virtual worlds (Second Life)
5. Social media
No traditional speaking or writing;
‘Written speech’:
Writing → typing
Speech → quickness, segmental properties, but no intonation,
stress, rhythm (emoticons)
31Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Technology (2): Netspeak future(s)
New words created an inserted in everyday English vocabulary (e.g. selfie);
Compounds:
1. Repetition (e.g. mouse, mousepad; web, webcam);
2. Cyber- & hyper-;
3. At (@);
4. Blends (e.g. internaut);
5. Replacing a word-element by a similar sound item (e.g. ‘dot’);
6. Acronyms (e.g. HTML, FAQ, URL)
Graphology (different use of capital letters; e.g. capitals in emails or text
messages)
Spelling (American more common than British; e.g. plural in –z)
Minimal punctuation
32Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Technology (3): Texting
Smaller screens + smaller keypads → more abbreviated language (e.g. 2day, CUl8r, RUOk?, ASAP)
33Dr. Fabio Ciambella ‘Standard’ English (1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_IBM8xeduc 34
Dr. Fabio Ciambella
‘Standard’ English (2)
It’s a social convention (3-5% of the English population – almost 2 mln people);
Process of ‘standardization’: selection, codification (its use has been described in
grammar books and dictionaries) and stabilization;
The role of the Royal Court in London (pre-standard English) → mixed dialect, since people
who spoke it were from different areas of the south f England around London;
Grammatical peculiarities:
1. No distinction between the forms of ‘do’ when it is auxiliary or main verb;
2. No double negative (no negative concord);
3. Irregular reflexive pronouns (e.g. ‘myself’ from the adj., ‘himself’ from the pronoun)
4. Past tense of ‘to be’ distinguished ‘was’ from ‘were’;
5. In many forms, Standard English distinguishes between past tense and past participle.
35Dr. Fabio Ciambella
World Standard English
Language which is universally intelligible;
USA first world country;
Plain English → trend in contemporary language (official) above all for companies (UK’s Golden
Bull awards for the organizations that produce the clearest documents; Double-speak award in
the USA);
Plain English involves economy, health and safety;
Plain English vademecum (some points are from Orwell’s Politics and the English Language,
1947):
1. Short words, sentences and paragraphs
2. Concrete words
3. Avoid passive voice
4. Never use a metaphor
5. Cut a word if not necessary
6. Never use a foreign word/phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if there’s a plain English
equivalent
36Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Current situation of the English language
Kachru’s 3-circle model of World Englishes (1992):
ENL (English as a Native Language) – 400 mln speakers (about 250 mln Americans, the rest
is made up of British, Irish, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, South Africans);
ESL (English as a Second Language) – c. 400 mln, 70 countries (English is somehow
recognised as an ‘official’ language). Especially in African and Asian countries where their
native languages are 1) inadequate for communication and/or 2) it is completely arbitrary
to choose one single language among the them (on the same footing). Population grows
quickly;
EFL (English as a Foreign Language) – c. 700 mln. The rest of the world learn English at
school.
1.5 bln people speak English STANDARD
37Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Kachru’s 3-circle model (1992)
ENL
ESL
EFL
38Dr. Fabio Ciambella
ENL Crystal’s iceberg (1988)
ESL EFL
39Dipartimento di Storia Antropologia Religioni Arte Spettacolo (SARAS)
Dispense corso di Lingua Inglese 1 – canale P-Z
CdL «Arti e Scienze dello Spettacolo» L-3
a.a. 2019/2020
Docente: dott. Fabio Ciambella
Materiale didattico destinato ad esclusivo uso interno
Modulo B – Libro di riferimento:
P. Skandera e P. Burleigh, A Manual of English Phonetics and PhonologyDr. Fabio Ciambella
The structure of the English language
1. Phonetics/phonology = pronunciation
2. Morphology = structure of words
Morphosyntax=grammar
3. Syntax = sentence patterns
4. Lexicology and semantics = vocabulary
41Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Phonetics/phonology
Aural competence: We hear, then we learn to speak, and then to read and write;
Learn about writing first, then about speaking (thinking about speaking in terms of writing);
Phonetics: study of how sounds are produced, transmitted and perceived = parole (de
Saussure)/performance (Chomsky):
1. Articulatory: how vocal organs are used to produce sounds;
2. Acoustic: how air vibrates when sounds are produced;
3. Auditory: how sounds are perceived ad decodified from the ear to the brain;
Phonology: study of the speakers’ knowledge of a sound system of a language = langue
(Saussure)/competence (Chomsky):
1. Segmental: individual speech sounds and how they combine;
2. Suprasegmental (prosody): stress, rhythm and intonation (or pitch)
Speaker’s brain Phonology
Speaker’s mouth Articulatory phonetics
Transmission of sound through air Acoustic phonetics
Listener’s ear Auditory phonetics
Listener’s brain Phonology
42Dr. Fabio Ciambella
A matter of…standard
Standard = variety of language associated with well educated people;
Standard British English (UK) – King’s/Queen’s English, BBC English, Oxford English, etc.;
General American (US);
A standard has a fixed grammar and vocabulary, but its pronunciation can change;<
according to different accents;
The most prestigious accent in a standard variety of language becomes the model on
which pronunciation is taught (e.g. RP in the UK or Network Standard/English in the US);
RP is spoken by 3-4%;
Most educated British people talk something called modified or near RP.
43Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Describing speech sounds
There are 9 parameters:
1. Loudness – Amplitude of the vibration of the vocal cords;
2. Pitch – Frequency of the vibration of the vocal cords;
3. Tone of voice (timbre) – Variation in the pitch;
4. Duration (phonetics) & length (phonology); e.g. No vs Noooooo
5. Air-stream mechanism – All sounds of English are produced through an egressive (=outwards)
pulmonic air-stream mechanism;
6. Voicing – It depends on the state of the glottis (the space between the vocal cords). If the
space is narrow, the cords vibrate and the sound is voiced, vice versa the sound is voiceless. A
third possibility is when the glottis is completely closed: the «sound» produced is called glottal
stop as in many varieties of English around the world;
7. Intensity of articulation – lenis vs fortis articulation (it depends on the breath force);
8. Place of articulation – the place in the pharynx where the sound is obstructed;
9. Manner of articulation – how much speech organs are closed
44Dr. Fabio Ciambella
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
Phonetic transcription: visual representation of speech sounds through phonetic symbols. A set of phonetic
symbols creates a phonetic alphabet;
It is based on the phonographic relationship (correspondence between speech and writing), given the
highly fluctuating spelling of English;
1886-1888 by a group of French and British linguists led by Passy who formed the International Phonetic
Association;
IPA → alphabetic system of phonetic notation to standardize the representation of the sounds of any
language;
Slashes / / signal a broad (phonemic or phonological) transcription → it indicates only a general, abstract
transcription of the most noticeable phonetic characteristic of an utterance (langue/competence);
Square brackets [ ] signal a narrow (phonetic) transcription, concrete utterances (parole/performance);
NB.: For pedagogical reasons, an inbetween transciption is adopted (referred to as broad phonetic
transcription, in square brackets, which is a phonemic transcription with some of the details of phonetic
transcription)
Pointed brackets or single quotation marks ‘’ signal ordinary written letters;
E.g. /k/ represent an abstract sound, the sound how it should be pronounced according to the standard;
[k] represent a concrete sound, a sound produced by a speaker;
is the letter ‘k’ as in the word “kite” 45Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Phonemes and phones
Phoneme: abstract concept corresponding to the smallest unit in the sound system of a
language (phonology) – e.g. /a:/;
Phone: concrete realisation of a phoneme by speakers (phonetics) – e.g. [a:];
To understand how many phonemes are there in a language, linguists contrast pairs of
words (called ‘minimal pairs’) in which a change of phoneme corresponds to a change in
meaning (e.g. time vs rhyme) and they find the phonemic inventory of a language;
46Dr. Fabio Ciambella
The
phonemic
chart
47Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Consonant sounds: classification
Consonant: obstruction of the air-stream in the pharynx or in the vocal tract;
VPM label: classification of the consonants according to:
Voicing – are vocal chords used?;
Place of articulation (13) – where the air is obstructed;
Manner of articulation – nature of the air obstruction
Voicing Place of articulation Manner of articulation
Voiced; Bilabial (p, b, m); Plosive or stop (p, t, k, b, d, g);
Voiceless Labio-dental (f, v); Fricative(f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h);
(Inter)dental (θ, ð); Affricate (tʃ, dʒ);
Alveolar (t, d, s, z, n, l); Nasal (m, n, ŋ);
Postalveolar (r); Lateral or liquid (l);
Palato-alveolar (ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ); Approximant or glide (r, j, w)
Palatal (j);
Velar (k, g, ŋ); 48Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Places of articulation
Bilabial: lips are brought together;
Labio-dental: upper teeth touch;
Intradental: the tip of the tongue is between upper
and lower teeth;
Alveolar: tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge;
Palato-alveolar: blade of the tongue touches the
area between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate;
Palatal: blade of the tongue touches the hard palate;
Velar: back of the tongue touches the soft
palate/velum;
Glottal: the air passes through the vocal chords and it
is narrowed
49Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Manner of articulation
Plosives (or stops): Complete closure in the mouth. The air is blocked for a while and then
released with a plosion;
Fricatives: Non-complete closure. The obstruction provokes a friction;
Affricates: Combination of plosives and fricatives – initial complete closure and then a
release that moves backwards;
Nasals: Complete closure in the mouth but the air goes through the nose;
Laterals: The ait goes through the sides of the tongue;
Approximants: the tongue doesn’t touch anywhere, it approaches the roof of the mouth
but there’s no obstruction
50Dr. Fabio Ciambella
The consonant table
21 graphemes vs. 24 consonant sounds
=Fortis =Lenis 51Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Semi-vowels
Consonants Vowels
1. Obstruction of the air; 1. No obstruction of the air;
2. They occur at the margins of 2. They occur in the middle of
syllables syllables
Glides (/w/ and /j/) are considered semi-vowels (or semi-consonants) because the occur
at the margins of syllables like consonants, but they are produced without any obstraction
of the air-stream like vowels.
52Dr. Fabio Ciambella
The vowel chart
https://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise- https://agendaweb.org/phonetic-intermediate
english-2/exercise-english-20336.php
5 graphemes (a, e, i, o ,u, + 2 semi-vowels: w, y) vs. 20 vowel sounds (12 monophthongs [7 short and 5 long ] + 8 diphthongs)
The shwa sound is the sound that occurs in unstressed syllables in
English (that’s the reason why it is the most widespread sound in
1. Closeness/openness (tongue Vowel quadrilateral (by D. Jones) the English language). Some linguists call it ‘neutral vowel’ or
height) – distance between the
tongue and the palate: ‘reduced vowel’.
• Close,
• Mid-close
• In the middle,
• Mid-open Mid-close
• Open
2. Frontness/backness – which part of
the tongue is raised highest?
• front,
• centre, Mid-open
• Back
3. Shape of the lips (not distinctive in
English)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72M770xTvaU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1HZPx8DuDw
53Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Citation form vs. Connected speech
Ex. 1: Would you like a piece of cake? /wʊd juː laɪk ə piːs ɒv keɪk/ → CITATION FORM
Ex. 2: Would you like a piece of cake? [wəʤʊ’laɪkə’piːsəv’keɪk] → CONNECTED SPEECH
What happened?
Liaison/Catenation/Linking (unifying two sounds without anything happening)
Particular examples are the linking r (meaning the pronunciation of the /r/ sound when it shouldn’t, at least in the majority of non-rhotic accents, e.g. ‘far’ /fa:/ vs ‘far away’ /fa:r əweɪ/) and the intrusive r (the
letter is not even present in the two or more words, but the sound is inserted because the previous words ends with a vowel and the following word begins with another vowel, e.g. law and order /lɔ:r ən ɔ:də/
Assimilation (the articulation of one sound influences its neighbouring sound)
There are four categories of assimilation:
1.Contiguous (contact) assimilation (ex. That book → [ðæp bʊk]) vs non-contiguous (distant) assimilation;
2.Progressive assimilation (influence of a preceding sound, e.g. asked → [æskt]), regressive assimilation (influence of a following sound, e.g. have to → [hæf tʊ]) and mutual assimilation (both sounds influence
each other, e.g. don’t you → [dəʊntʃu]). When /t, d, s, z/ merge with /j/ and form /tʃ, dʒ, ʃ, ʒ/ this is called yod coalescence;
3.Assimilation of intensity (voiceless sounds influence voiced sounds and vice versa, e.g. have to), of place (regressive and affects alveolars, e.g. that book) and of manner (e.g. in the → ɪnnə);
4.Partial assimilation (the two sounds remain distinguishable even if they change one of their features, e.g. “have to”, where the sound /v/ changes only its voicing, but not place or manner of articulation) vs
total assimilation (one of the two sounds becomes identical with the following (e.g. Good boy → [gʊbbɔɪ]
Elision (dropping of sounds)
There are two categories of elision:
1.Elision based on the kind of sound omitted: elision of consonants, above all in consonant clusters (e.g. next please → [neks pli:z]), elision of vowels (e.g. evening → [ɪvnɪŋ]), elision of whole syllables (e.g.
particularly → [pətɪkjəlɪ]);
2.Elision based on the position of the sounds omitted: apheresis, at the beginning of a word (e.g. knife, lone. When entire parts of words are omitted at the beginning, this is called clipping, e.g. ‘bus’ from
‘omnibus’), syncope, in the middle of a word (e.g. listen, often, etc.), apocope, at the end of a word (e.g. tomb, dumb, etc. When entire parts of words are elided at the end, this is called back-clipping, e.g.
hippo, lab, etc.);
Intrusion (adding sounds that are not represented in the spelling; see ‘intrusive r’ in RP)
In connected speech content words tend not to alter their pronunciation, while function words are reduced.
54Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Rhoticity: rhotic vs. non-rhotic accents
Distinction coined by Wells;
Rhotic (r-pronouncing/r-full) accents: /r/ sound is pronunced whenever is ortographically
present;
Non-rhotic (non-r-pronouncing/r-less) accents: /r/ is pronounced only in two positions:
1. Syllable-initial;
Rhotic accents Non-rhotic accents
2. Intervocalically;
CanEng AfEng
IndEng AusEng
IrEng EngEng
South-western EngEng NZEng
ScotEng SAfEng
Northern USEng (apart from Boston Southern USEng
area of New England and New WEng
York) WInEng in the Caribbean 55Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Rhythm:
Stress-timed vs. syllable-timed languages
Isochrony: Branch of phonology that studies the rhythmic division of time into portions;
Stress-timed languages (e.g. Standard English): regular intervals between two stresses. The
interval between a stress and the last syllable before the next stress is called foot. In stress-timed
languages one foot can contain an indefinite number of syllables (this is called compression).
The more syllables there are in one foot, the more vowels will be reduced and weak forms used;
Syllable-timed languages (e.g. Italian): regular intervals between syllables. No syllables are
pronounced faster than the others (so no compression or reduction of vowel sounds);
Why is English so difficult to understand?
Stress-timed language → All the unstressed syllables between two accents, NO MATTER HOW
MANY THEY ARE, have to be squeezed to fit the beat of the stress. That’s why function words,
especially in informal connected speech, are unstressed in a sentence. They are not necessary
to the entire meaning of a sentence (given by content words), so they are squeezed together
(think about rap!);
Example: Bob is a doctor.
Bob Is a good doctor.
Bob is a very good doctor.
Bob is certainly a very good doctor. 56Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Content vs. function words
Content or lexical words: they carry the meaning (mainly nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives,
most adverbs). They are an open class because the number of content words is
potentially infinite;
Function or grammatical words: they connect or qualify content words (prepositions,
pronouns, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions, articles). They are a closed class because the
number of function words is finite, limited.
57Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Intonation (=pitch movement)
In all languages, intonation has the following characteristics:
1. All languages have intonation;
2. It is the variation of pitch and prominence;
3. It has 4 functions: 1) Structural (it signals the grammatical role of an utterance), 2) Accentual (it helps focusing on certain words in connected speech), 3) Attitudinal (speakers’ orientation towards what they
say), 4) Discursive (it regulates turn-taking in conversation);
4. Intonation patterns are limited and determined;
5. To analyse it, continuous speech can broken into smaller units
Pitch: frequency of vibration of the vocal cords (faster vibration=higher pitch). It is the fundamental frequency of the voice (F0) measured in hertz (120 for males and 210 for females)
Tone: pitch movement of accents (auditory sensation perceived by the hearer);
Connected speech can be divided into utterances (a unit that begins and ends with a pause). Utterances can be divided into tone units, smaller units where a single pitch movement occur;
A tone unit is generally divided into four components: 1. The tonic syllable TS or nucleus (the last prominent syllable of the unit); 2. The head H, from the first prominent syllable to the syllable preceding the nucleus;
3. The pre-head PH, meaning all the non-prominent syllables before the head; 4. the tail T, from the nucleus to the end of the unit
I | saw an amazing|mo | vie.
PH H TS T
Two kinds of tones (falling and rising) which can also be combined into five intonation patterns with the following functions:
1. Fall: English unmarked (= default, general, habitual) intonation is falling, from high pitch to low pitch. After the nucleus the intonation stays low. Falling intonation is used for statements (e.g. I’m from China),
commands (e.g. Just sit down!), exclamations (e.g. What a lovely day!), second part of alternative questions (e.g. Do you prefer kebab or pizza?), wh-word questions (e.g. Where are you from?);
2. Rise: Rising intonation is used for general yes/no questions that begin with an auxiliary verb (e.g. Can you ski?), introductory clauses (e.g. When I graduate, I’ll go and find a job in Tasmania), first part of alternative
questions (e.g. Do you prefer kebab or pizza?), initial vocatives (e.g. Ben, where are you?), lists (e.g. Can you buy some milk, biscuits, and chocolate?);
3. Fall-rise: It is used to confirm an equal participation in the discourse → shared information (e.g. We’re on time, aren’t we?), confirming information (e.g. No, we can’t, it’s too late), ask for permission (e.g. May I go
to the toilet, please?) , reassure (e.g. Everything’s gonna be all right);
4. Rise-fall: it is used for personal impressions → strong positive attitude (e.g. it’s a beautiful day!), surprise (e.g. I can’t believe it!);
5. High key: the pitch stays high → strong disagreement or agreement (e.g. You’re definitely wrong/right!)
NB: Tag-questions: 1) If the expected answer is yes, intonation is falling (e.g. You’re a vet, aren’t you?); 2) If I’m not sure about the answer, intonation is rising (e.g. You’re ok, aren’t you?)
58Dipartimento di Storia Antropologia Religioni Arte Spettacolo (SARAS)
Dispense corso di Lingua Inglese 1 – canale P-Z
CdL «Arti e Scienze dello Spettacolo» L-3
a.a. 2019/2020
Docente: dott. Fabio Ciambella
Materiale didattico destinato ad esclusivo uso interno
Modulo C – Libro di riferimento:
A. Carstairs-McCarthy, An Introduction to English MorphologyDr. Fabio Ciambella
Morphology (Grammar and vocabulary)
Morphology: study of the structure of words and the relationships among them;
Morpheme: minimal unit of morphology. Words may be monomorphemic (only one morpheme, e.g.
Read!) or polymorphemic (2+ morphemes, e.g. dis|respect|ful). In polymorphemic words there is a
morpheme which carries the main meaning of the word and it is called stem or root (e.g. in ‘disrespectful’,
the morpheme ‘respect’ is the stem);
According to the way morphemes connect with each other, there are two kinds of morphemes: free
(which can stand on their own as words, e.g. respect, mainly of German origin)and bound (which have no
full meaning alone, e.g. appl-, generally of Latin/French origin)
Two branches of morphology (according to the way new words are formed):
1. Inflectional (inflected forms of words);
2. Derivational (affixation)
60Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Inflectional morphology
It concerns changing, modifying the shape of words according to the grammatical context
they are inserted in.
In English the maximum number of inflections is small and the affect:
1. Nouns (2 inflectional morphemes, e.g. pen, pens);
2. Verbs (maximum of 5, e.g. drive, drives, driving, drove, driven);
3. Adjectives and adverbs (3, e.g. hard, harder, hardest)
So, generally speaking, the regular endings (inflectional morphemes) in English are:
1. -(‘)s (plural, 3rd person present tense, Saxon genitive);
2. -ed (past tense, past participle);
3. -ing + irregular plurals
4. -n’t (negative form) + irregular comparatives and superlatives
+ 300 irregular verbs
5. -er
6. -est
61Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Inflectional morphology: number
The regular inflection to mark the plural in English is –s;
Irregular inflections include:
1. –i (e.g. fungus – fungi);
2. -ae (e.g. alga – algae); Borrowings from Latin and Greek
3. -a (e.g. aquarium – aquaria)
4. -(r)en (e.g. child – children, ox – oxen)
Some nouns change their root to mark the plural (e.g. man – men)
Some nouns do not display any change when forming the plural (e.g. fish, sheep, deer,
trout, etc.);
Some nouns are pluralia tantum (e.g. trousers, scissors, etc.)
62Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Inflectional morphology: case
The only inflection which denotes and contrasts cases in English concerns personal
pronouns (subj. and obj.), possessive adj. and pronouns (he, she, it – him, her, it – his, her, its
– his, hers, its)
63Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Inflectional morphology: tenses
Maximum five distinct forms:
1. Base form
2. 3rd person singular –s;
3. Irregular past tense;
4. Irregular past participle (different from the past tense);
5. -ing form;
The verb ‘to be’ is an exceptional verb since it has 8 forms (‘be’ is the base form, ‘am/are/is’ form for the
present tense, ‘was/were’ for the past tense, ‘been’ for the past participle, and the –ing form ‘being’);
Some verbs have four forms (regular verbs at the past tense, or irregular verbs which have the same past tense
and past participle forms, e.g. start, burn, etc.). When two forms are identical, but have two different functions,
they are syncretised;
Some verbs have three forms (irregular verbs whose base form, past tense and past participle are identical
(e.g. cut, cost, etc.);
A few verbs (mainly modals) have only two forms (e.g. the verb ‘can’ has only a base form and a past tense
form, since it doesn’t add –s at the 3rd person singular of the present tense, has no –ing form and its past
participle is the periphrastic form ‘been able to’) 64Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Derivational morphology
New words are formed through affixes (prefixes – before the root – and suffixes – after the
root);
Some derived words can be formed in some non-affixal way:
1. Stress change with noun/verb homographs (e.g. noun ‘suspect’, verb ‘suspect’);
2. Final consonant change (e.g. noun ‘advice/practice’, verb ‘advise/practise’);
3. Vowel change or addition (magic ‘e’) (e.g. noun ‘song’, verb ‘sing’; noun ‘unit’, verb
‘unite’);
4. Conversion (zero derivation) (e.g. noun ‘drink’, verb ‘drink’);
Not all adverbs are formed simply adding –ly to the adjectival root (e.g. free → freely). In
fact there are:
1. Monomorphemic adverbs (e.g. adverbs of frequency);
2. Polymorphemic adverbs without –ly (e.g. somewhere, nowadays);
3. Adverbs formed by conversion (e.g. fast, hard)
65Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Most
common
affixes
66Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Other ways to form new words
Compound: new words are created combining two roots (e.g. football, pianoforte);
Compounds can be:
1. Verbs (VV-testdrive, NV-babysit, AV-doubleclick, PV-overcome)
2. Adjectives (NA-groundbreaking, AA-English-speaking, PA-understudied)
3. Nouns (VN-swearwords, NN-hairdrier, AN-whiteboard, PN-income)
Phrasal words: they have the internal structure of phrases but function as words (e.j. jack-in-the-
box)
Blend: one of the two or both components of a compound is/are partially reduced (e.g.
Complete blend: smog; partial blend: cheeseburger);
Acronym: words of a long locution are reduced to just one letter, usually the first and letters are
pronounced as a new word (e.g. NATO);
Abbreviation/initialism: an acronym pronounced letter by letter (e.g. UK, USA)
67Dipartimento di Storia Antropologia Religioni Arte Spettacolo (SARAS)
Dispense corso di Lingua Inglese 1 – canale P-Z
CdL «Arti e Scienze dello Spettacolo» L-3
a.a. 2019/2020
Docente: dott. Fabio Ciambella
Materiale didattico destinato ad esclusivo uso interno – Libro di riferimento:
L. Pinnavaia, Introduzione alla linguistica inglese (capp. 4 e 5)Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Sintassi
Studia il modo in cui le parole si combinano fra di loro (ordine delle parole – word order) in
tre modi:
1. Frase (sentence)
2. Proposizione (clause)
3. Sintagma (phrase)
69Dr. Fabio Ciambella
La frase (sentence)
Definita da Crystal nel 2003 come «unità che esprime un pensiero completo». Due caratteristiche generali:
1. Sono costituite da un sistema di regole
2. Sono costrutti che hanno senso da soli
Sono costituite da due tipologie principali:
1. Major sentences – frasi regolari, divisibili in uno schema di elementi precisi e prevedibili. Sono formate da
proposizioni. Se una frase = una sola proposizione, allora si chiamano simple sentences (frasi semplici); se una frase =
più proposizioni, esse possono essere legate fra loro in modo coordinativo (le frasi hanno la stessa importanza) o
subordinativo (c’è una proposizione principale che è più importante e le sue subordinate che dipendono da lei)
2. Minor sentences – irregolari: interazioni emotive o funzionali (e.g. What?!), proverbi e idioms (e.g. Speak of the
devil…), espressioni abbreviate (e.g. And now?), esclamazioni, domande e comandi (e.g. Sshh!)
4 tipi di funzioni:
1. Affermazione (esporre e trasmettere info. Es.: I really like Moscow Mule)
2. Domanda (1. polari: risposta yes o no; 2. aperte; 3. a coda: che finiscono con una tag question; 4. disgiuntive:
o…o…)
3. Comando
4. Esclamazione 70Dr. Fabio Ciambella
La proposizione (clause)
Strutture principali che compongono una frase. Ogni sentence ha almeno una clause.
Hanno 5 elementi sintattici: 1. soggetto, 2. verbo (mai omesso, tranne che in alcune minor sentences), 3. oggetto, 4. complemento (dà maggiori info
sul soggetto o sull’oggetto), 5. avverbiale (di predicato, e.g. Tomorrow it will rain; o di frase, e.g. this is obviuosly correct)
Gli elementi sintattici di una proposizione possono combinarsi in 7 modi diversi (kernel sentences – enunciati nucleari):
1. S+V (es.: I ate.)
2. S+V+dir O (es.: I ate pasta)
3. S+V+ind O+dir O (es.: I gave him his book)
4. S+V+compl del soggetto (dà info sul soggetto. Es.: You look amazing!)
5. S+V+dir O+compl dell’oggetto (dà info sull’oggetto. Es.: They consider your attitude very rude)
6. S+V+Avv (Es.: I ran fast)
7. S+V+dir O+Avv (Es. I ate spaghetti quickly)
Sei tipi di proposizioni subordinative:
1. Nominali (sogg. o ogg. di una principale, introdotte da that o da pronomi relativi o interrogativi)
2. Avverbiale (temporali, causali, finali, concessive, consecutive, ipotetiche)
3. Relativa (defining e non-defining)
4. Comparativa (as…as…, …than)
5. Infinitiva (infinito, gerundio o participio passato)
6. Priva di verbo (e.g. Once alone, I cried)
71Dr. Fabio Ciambella
I sintagmi (phrase)
Strutture sintattiche che compongono una proposizione
Hanno una testa (head) che serve a classificare il sintagma più modificatori (pre- o post-
modifiers) che danno informazioni sulla testa che precedono (pre-modificatori) o seguono
(post-modificatori):
1. Sintagmi nominali (NP)
2. Sintagmi aggettivali (AP)
3. Sintagmi verbali (VP) – verbo lessicale, verbo ausiliare+lessicale, phrasal verb, prepositional
verb
4. Sintagmi avverbiali (AdvP)
5. Sintagmi preposizionali (PP)
6. Sintagmi pronominali (PrP)
72Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Semantica
Studio del significato. Due campi di indagine:
1. Linguistica semantica – studio del significato dal punto di vista linguistico (cioè studia le
relazioni fra le parole in relazione agli oggetti che rappresentano). Si divide in: 1.
Semantica lessicale (studio delle content words, o parole categorematiche, cioè che
hanno un senso se prese in isolamento) e 2. Semantica grammaticale (studio delle
function words, o parole sincategorematiche, cioè che non hanno un senso se prese in
isolamento)
2. Linguistica pragmatica – studio del significato in rapporto a come si comporta il parlante
73Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Semantica lessicale
Studio del significato dei lessemi. Tre questioni principali:
1. Diversa tipologia di significato che un lessema può avere a seconda del contesto
2. Diversa tipologia di rapporto tra questi diversi significati
3. Modalità con la quale il significato di un lessema può cambiare nel tempo
Diversi significati un lessema:
1. Denotativo (di base)
2. Concettuale
1. Connotativo (determinato da comportamenti sociali e culturali. Ex. This place is a desert)
2. Affettivo (influenza la carica emotiva del lessema)
3. Stilistico (grado di formalità)
4. Collocativo (emerge dall’uso del lessema nel cotesto. Es.: It’s raining cats and dogs.)
5. Riflesso (quando si utilizza un lessema che ha più significati denotativi: polisemia. Es.: fire)
74Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Semantica grammaticale
Relazione fra elementi grammaticali e loro significato:
1. Ordine delle parole (e.g. esso distingue, per esempio, un’affermazione da una domanda)
2. I morfemi grammaticali legati (bound morphemes) cambiano il significato del morfema
lessicale al quale si legano
3. Il numero caratterizza grammaticalmente un significato
4. Il tempo e l’aspetto cambiano il significato di un verbo
5. La modalità esprime l’atteggiamento di un parlante (es.: I go vs I can go vs I must go)
75Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Pragmatica
Studia come si esplica a livello linguistico l’interazione fra parlanti e di come l’ascoltatore
capisca le intenzioni del parlante
Atto linguistico (speech act): Secondo Austin e Searle ci sono 3 tipi di atto linguistico:
1. Locutori (locutionary) – stringa di parole pronunciate da un parlante
2. Illocutori (illocutionary) – intenzioni del parlante
3. Perlocutori (perlocutionary) – effetto sull’ascoltatore
A seconda del contesto, gli atti linguistici possono essere diretti (se l’atto locutorio
corrisponde perfettamente con l’atto illocutorio) o indiretti (se l’atto illocutorio vuole
aggiungere una sfumatura in più rispetto all’atto locutorio)
76Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Teorie pragmatiche: Grice
Grice (1975): Principio di cooperazione (CP: cooperative principle) – emittente e
destinatario collaborano alla buona riuscita della conversazione e lo fanno attraverso 4
massime:
1. Quantità (non dare più informazioni di quelle necessarie)
2. Qualità (dì solo quello di cui sei sicuro)
3. Relazione (sii pertinente a ciò di cui si sta parlando)
4. Modo (sii chiaro e conciso)
77Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Teorie pragmatiche: Leech (1983)
Leech studia la cortesia (politeness), ossia come far sì che gli scambi conversazionali siano
fruttuosi ed equilibrati. Egli individua 7 massime:
1. Tact
2. Generosity
3. Appreciation
4. Modesty
5. Agreement
6. Sympathy
7. Consideration
78Dr. Fabio Ciambella
Teorie pragmatiche: Goffman (1967) e
Brown & Levinson (1978/1987)
Per Goffman la cortesia si basa sul principio di salvaguardare la propria «faccia», intesa
come la maschera sociale che ognuno di noi indossa quando interagisce con gli altri
Brown e Levinsonon affermano che la faccia può essere positiva (quando vogliamo
essere apprezzati dagli altri per quel che diciamo) o negativa (quando non vogliamo che
gli altri ci ostacolino)
Faccia positiva e negativa possono essere minacciate dai cosiddetti face threatening
acts (FTAs), atti linguistici volti a mettere in crisi la maschera sociale di un parlante (come
disapprovazione, accusa, ordini, ecc.)
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