Tips from Dr. Fee

Background Discussion of Terminology

What do I mean when I say that English (and all other languages) is systematic?
· Series of interrelated systems
· These systems are governed by rules
· Languages are highly structured (recurring patterns and rules which impose these patterns)
· Native speakers learn these rules and patterns (seemingly) intuitively; the exceptions are harder

What does an asterisk before a word, phrase, or linguistic form mean?
· Ungrammatical (or)
· Hypothetical

What are the interrelated systems which every language includes?
· Phonology
· Morphology
· Syntax
· Lexicon
· Semantics
· *Graphics* (in those languages which have a written system

Someone please define:
· Phonology: the sounds of a language/the study of these sounds
· Phonetics: the study of speech sounds independent of any system
· Phonemics: the study of the sounds of a given language as they significantly differ from one another
· Phonemes: the members of a phonemic system
· Morphology: study of the relationships between smallest meaningful units in any language
· Morphemes: these minimum units (base words, affixes: prefixes and suffixes)
· Free vs. Bound Morphemes: independent word or not
· Inflectional vs. Derivational Affixes (grammatical (-s; -ed) vs. meaning or pos (un-; trans-; -ness)
· Syntax: arrangement/word order
· Lexicon: list of all morphemes in a language (includes independent words, bound morphemes, etc.
· Semantics: study of meanings expressed by a language
· Denotation: root meaning
· Connotation: all possible associations related to a word

We’ve talked about how it is the nature of language to change, and we will discuss this concept in greater depth next time. In the meantime, what are some examples of Semantic change?
· Generalization vs. Narrowing
· Amelioration vs. Pejoration
· Strengthening vs. Weakening
· Abstraction vs. Concretization
· Denotative shift
· Connotative shift

What do I mean when I say that all languages are:
· Conventional
· Arbitrary
· Redundant

There were some hypothetical examples of individual “events” in the history of the changing nature of English. What were they?
· Him vs. Hine
· City
· Stillare

Even if we could reconstruct the history of the language in this way, we might lose the forest for the trees; what are we looking for instead?
· Changes in overall patterns or rules which are adopted by a significant portion of speakers of a language

What surprising information did the text offer about the development of metaphors across various languages?
· Same metaphors over and over

What might this suggest to you about the connection between culture and language, and between various cultures? What is common?

What examples were offered?
· The foot of the bed
· Lighthearted
· “Doublets”: formal Latin vs. colloquial Native English (a pattern we will notice from OE through PDE)