Topic1 Language and Communication

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Lengua Inglesa IIGrammar Topics

2009-2010Tom Morton

IV-bis [email protected]


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Grammar topic 1:

Language andcommunication


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1. Language and

communicationWhat is language? Code for communication Learnt, not biologically inherited

Meaning is arbitrarily assigned to symbols

What / who is involved in human language?

How is language studied? Language as sounds Phonology: the way languages organize sounds

to convey differences in meaning).

Language as wordingsSyntax / Grammar: the study of word structure(morphology) and the study of word sequence within sentences (syntax).

Language as meaningsSemantics: the way language is structured or

organized to express meanings.Approaches to language:

Cognitive approach: language is something that exists in the minds ofthe users.

Social approach: Observe what people do with language and model theirlinguistic behaviour.

1.1. Language


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1. Language and

communicationGrammar studies how words combine together to form larger units.

Approaches to Grammar:

Generative approach:forms of the language and how they combineFunctional approach:function of each utterance (e.g. declarative vs.

interrogative)

Types of grammar:

Prescriptive grammar:one variety of language has higher value thanothers, and therefore should be imposed on the whole speechcommunity. Standard.

Descriptive grammar:concerned with the facts of linguistic usage

1.2. Grammar


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1. Language and

communicationWhich of the following statements are prescriptive and which

are descriptive?

a. "It's me" is ungrammatical; "It's I" is the correct way to say this.

b. People who say "ain't" may suffer some negative socialconsequences because many speakers of English associate"ain't" with the dialects of the working classes.

c. In casual styles of speaking, English speakers frequently end

sentences with prepositions; ending sentences with prepositionsis avoided in formal styles.

d. "Between you and me" is correct; "between you and I" isungrammatical.

(fromLanguage Files 1994: 14)

1.2. Exercises (i): prescription vs. description


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1. Language and

communicationLanguage Description via Google:

Which is correct?

1. John and I went out.

2. John and me went out.

3. John and myself went out.



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1. Language and

communicationLanguage Description via Google:

Which is correct? Google hits

1. John and I went... 10 million

2. John and me went ... 71,000

3. John and myself went ... 50,000

With so many real usages, can any of these be said to beincorrect?

(Important to check for false hits, and pages written by non-native speakers)



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1. Language and

communicationAll of these sentences are acceptable to some speakers of English, but not to others.Which prescriptive rule has been violated in each case?

a. He don't know about the race.

b. You was out when I called.

c. Me and Peter walked to school.

d. There's 20 horses registered in the show.

e. That window's broke, so be careful.

f. Jim and me are gonna go campin' this weekend.

g. I hope to quickly finish writing my essay.

h. Jack has approached the essay topic differently to the way I took it.

i. None of us were there on time. (???)j. We haven't done nothing wrong.

(a-f from O'Grady et al. 1993. Contemporary Linguistics. An Introduction, p. 12; g-k from O'Dell, F. 1997.English Panorama 1. C.U.P)

1.2. Exercises (ii): Prescriptive rules broken


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1. Language and

communication Experiential meaning:

Deals with the content of the message, the speaker's conceptualisation ofreality.

Experiential meanings are expressed through the choice of processes,

participants, circumstances and attributes.

1.3. Language: types of meaning

Tarantino will present his new

movie

tomorrow

Actor Process: material Goal Circumstance:

time

He told reporters that he thought it was

his best movie yet

Sayer Process:

verbal

Addressee Verbiage


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1. Language and

communicationExperiential meaning:

Deals with the content of the message, the speaker's conceptualisation ofreality.

Experiential meanings are expressed through the choice of processes,

participants, circumstances and attributes.


Tarantino will present his new

movie

tomorrow

Actor Process: material Goal Circumstance:

time

He told reporters that he thought it was

his best movie yet

Sayer Process:

verbal

Addressee Verbiage

Participant Process Participant Circumstance


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1. Language and

communicationInterpersonal meaning:

What is the speaker/writer trying to achieve in respect to the listener/reader:

give information, request information, demand action, etc.

Often calledspeech acts.

Informal labels:statement, question, order, promise, offer, thanking, etc.

Examples: Thanks a lot; Do not close the door; Shall we go?

Interpersonal meanings are expressed through the Mood structure.

Typically:

Statement: declarative mood

Question: interrogative mood

Order: imperative mood Although other expressions are possible:

Question/declarative: John is coming?

Order/declarative: This floor must be clean by 5!



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1. Language and

communicationTextual meaning:

How the text is organised as a message:

What does the speaker/writer indicate as important (Theme,

marked word order), e.g.

Johnwas seen by Mary vs.Marysaw John Use of cohesive devices to help us understand the text:

John lost his bag. vs. John lost Johns bag.

Textual meaning expressed through various parts of the

grammar, e.g.,

Theme: use of marked word order and other grammatical choices to

place particular entities at the front (see Topic 8)

Cohesion: pronouns, determiners, ellipsis, substitution (see Topic 7)



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1. Language and

communicationMatch each line with the following discourse functions/illocutionary acts: thanking, offer, echoquestion, directive, promise, exclamation (2), question (3), statement (3).

1.3. Exercise on interpersonal meanings

Offer J: If you like, I'll come into your shop tomorrow and get some model aeroplane kits.

C: OK.

Don't forget to bring the bill with you this time.

J: I won't.

Do you enjoy working here?

C: It's all right, I suppose.

C: But I am looking for another job.

My dad keeps on at me to go into his business.

but the last thing I want to do is work for him!

J: Why?

C: Why?

Hesa bit of a slave driver.

Do you think it is possible to get me on a part-time Youth Leadership course?

J: I'll ring up tomorrow, Chris, and find out for you.

C: Thanks a lot.


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1. Language and

communication

1.3. Exercise on interpersonal meanings

Offer J: If you like, I'll come into your shop tomorrow and get some model aeroplane kits.C: OK.

dir Don't forget to bring the bill with you this time.

prom J: I won't.

quest Do you enjoy working here?

Stat C: It's all right, I suppose.C: But I am looking for another job.

stat My dad keeps on at me to go into his business.

exclam but the last thing I want to do is work for him!

quest J: Why?

Echo quest C: Why?

exclam Hesa bit of a slave driver.

Quest/dir Do you think it is possible to get me on a part-time Youth Leadership course?

prom J: I'll ring up tomorrow, Chris, and find out for you.

thank C: Thanks a lot.


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1. Language and

communication1. For each of the following clauses say whether aparticipant or a circumstance has been chosen as

Theme:

a) Main Street is usually crowded on late shopping nights.

b) The girls armed with hockey-sticks chased the burglar.

c) Quite by accident I came across a very rare postage-stamp.

d) Away in the distance you can see Mount Kilimanjaro.

e) What I am going to tell you must not be repeated.

Exerc ise (i)


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1. Language and

communication1. For each of the following clauses say whether aparticipant or a circumstance has been chosen as Theme:a) Main Street is usually crowded on late shopping nights.

participant

b) The girls armed with hockey-sticks chased the burglar.participant

c) Quite by accident I came across a very rare postage-stamp.

circumstance

d) Away in the distance you can see Mount Kilimanjaro.circumstance

e) What I am going to tell you must not be repeated.

participant

Exerc ise (i)


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1. Language and

communication2. In each of the following clauses say whether the Subject,the Direct Object or the Adjunct has been chosen asTheme:

a. About fifty or sixty thousand years ago, there lived on earth a creature

similar to man.

b. Skulls and bones of this extinct species of man were found at

Neanderthal.

c. Where the first true men originated we do not know.

d. These newcomers eventually drove the Neanderthalers out ofexistence.

e. In Asia or Africa there may be still undiscovered deposits of earlier

and richer human remains.

Exerc ise (ii)


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1. Language and

communication2. In each of the following clauses say whether the Subject,the Direct Object or the Adjunct has been chosen asTheme:

a. About fifty or sixty thousand years ago, there lived on earth a creature

similar to man. Adjunct

b. Skulls and bones of this extinct species of man were found at

Neanderthal. Subject

c. Where the first true men originated we do not know. Direct Object

d. These newcomers eventually drove the Neanderthalers out ofexistence. Subject

e. In Asia or Africa there may be still undiscovered deposits of earlier

and richer human remains. Adjunct

Exerc ise (ii)


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Windows is shutting down, and grammar are

On their last leg. So what am we to do?

A letter of complaint go just so far,

Proving the only one in step are you.

Better, perhaps, to simply let it goes.

A sentence have to be screwed pretty bad

Before they gets to where you doesnt knows

The meaning what it must of meant to had.

The meteor have hit. Extinction spread,

But evolution do not stop for that.

A mutant languages rise from the dead

And all them rules is suddenly old hat.

Too bad for we, us what has had so long

The best seat from the only game in town.

But there it am, and whom can say its wrong?

Those are the break. Windows is shutting down.

(Guardian, April 27, 2005)


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Agree or disagree?

1. New forms of communication such as email, twitter ortext messages are changing the grammar of English andSpanish.

2. Using correct forms of grammar is not important in

these types of communication.3. Young people (e.g. in Spain, the US or UK) do not use

grammar correctly.

4. A new variety of English (English as a Lingua Franca orELF) is emerging and its rules are different from those

of native speakers.5. It is better (and easier) to learn ELF for communicating

with other non-native speakers than native English.

Topic1 Language and Communication

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