ENGLISH

LANGUAGE SYSTEM
WEEK 2 - FOUNDATION:
The Language System & English
CONTENTS

Language & its system History of English

 LANGUAGE

• We use language prac-cally 24/7.

• Language is present when we are awake, when we are asleep
(dream), in our inner thoughts, when we are reading silently
• What is language then?
 LANGUAGE

Are these language?

• the sounds: [p], [n]
• emojis: 👍 ⛔ 🚻
• the words: happy (English), ceria (Malay), ‘hapē (Spanish)
• what is happy in your L1?
 LANGUAGE

• a symbolic, rule-driven system of conven1onal signs employed for purposes of communica2on,

self-expression, representa2on, thinking, defini2on of the world and reality, storage and
transmission of knowledge, establishing and maintaining of social rela2ons, suppor2ng and
par2cipa2ng in group iden22es, incorpora2ng new members into an exis2ng group, marking
boundaries with or excluding other individuals or groups, and the crea2ve and recrea2ve
transforma2on of the world.
 HOW IS LANGUAGE ACQUIRED

Various Theories
• Skinner’s:
• A child imitates the language of its parents or carers. Successful a9empts are rewarded (posi<ve
reinforcement). Unsuccessful ones are forgo9en
• Evidence of weaknesses
• Chomsky’s Theory of Universal Grammar:
• A child's brain contains special language-learning mechanisms (LAD) at birth (innateness)
- children must have an inborn faculty for language acquisi<on.
• this capacity/ a universal or core grammar capacity exis<ng as a deep mental structure that gives rise to
all the different grammars of the different languages of the world
• Evidence of Universal Grammar
evidence for this theory is furnished by compara<ve observa<on of different languages and of the ways
in which children learn language.
 LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS

• all languages have a grammar - sentence structure

• How are sentences in your L1 structured?

• all languages change over 2me - language evolves

• all languages use sounds to convey meaning (except ?)

 LANGUAGE FEATURES

1. symbolic, conven2onal & arbitrary: nothing natural, eternal, pure or essen2al about the specific
words that a language uses

o evidence from varia2on of onomatopoeias (echoic words) in different languages (English dog
bark: arf, arf; Spanish: guau, guau; German: wau, wau; Japanese: wung, wung)
2. systema2c: operates through the interac2on of various systems (of sounds, meanings,
sequencing/grouping of meaningful elements, wriKen characters, etc.)
3. gramma2cal: structured and governed by rules
 LANGUAGE FEATURES

4. idioma2c: idioms are expressions peculiar to a language and whose meaning cannot be
predicted from the meanings of their cons2tuent parts, e.g. “go bananas"

5. crea2ve and produc2ve: using a fixed number of rules and elements, speakers of the language
can produce a virtually unlimited number of statements
 SYSTEM of LANGUAGE

• system?

• a set of connected things that operate together

• what is this set of connected things that form the language system?
 Phonetics
&
Phonology

Semantics Morphology

Linguis<c
System

Syntax Lexicon
 SYSTEM of LANGUAGE

Phonetics & phonology - the study of Speech sounds

• How they are produced in the vocal tract
• Their physical properties
• Phoneme: a minimal sound unit recognized as distinct and significant by the speakers of a
language (e.g. [p], [b], [a]); the smallest sound that can distinguish one word from another
(e.g.[f]at/[v]at, stri[f]e/ stri[v]e)
§ about 100-150 human sounds (see International Phonetic Alphabet)(only 35-45 used in
English)

What sounds have you

heard in other languages What two English sounds are oNen
that are not in English? confused when they are heard on
the telephone?
 SYSTEM of LANGUAGE

• Morphology: The structure of words in a language, including patterns of inflections

and derivation
• The study of how words are formed in a language
• Parts of speech: nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, function words (examples?)
o grammatical functions: case (subject, direct object, indirect object, etc.),
number (singular, plural), person (first, second, third), tense (present, past,
etc.), etc.
o morpheme: the smallest meaningful unit of a language (roots, stems, and affixes)
(e.g. un-like-ly)
§ free and bound morphemes (e.g. "the" is free morpheme, "un-" is a bound

morpheme
§ affixes: morphemes which are appended to the beginning (prefixes) or

ending (suffixes) of a word to signify grammatical and other functions

SYSTEM of LANGUAGE

o inflection: variation in the form of a word to signify grammatical functions or

changes in meaning

o inflections can take the form of added affixes (dog à dogs) or changes in
internal parts of the word (run à ran)

§ declension: inflection of nouns and pronouns (e.g.?)

§ comparison: inflection of adjectives (e.g.?)

• conjugation: inflection of verbs (e.g.?)

 SYSTEM of LANGUAGE

• syntax: the study of the order or structure of words in phrases, clauses, sentences

• lexicon: total inventory of the morphemes of a language

• semantics: the study of meaning in language

• graphics: the writing system of a language (e.g. alphabetic, logographic)

 SYSTEM of LANGUAGE

• paralanguage: extra-linguistic signals and information contributing to meaning and supporting

the functioning of the systems of the language

• tone of voice, pitch, tempo/speed, rhythm, pauses, volume, sighs, coughs, gestures, body
motions, setting, cultural context, etc.

o prosody: study of the stress, accent, pitch, and rhythm patterns of a language (dyslexia
possibly related to inaccurate perception of rhythms of spoken language),

§ pitch difference: "he's here" vs "he's here?"

o kinesics: body-motion, gestures accompanying language and contributing to meaning

o pragmatics: language users' shared knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, context of an utterance

 WORLD LANGUAGES

• More than 7,000 languages in the world

• Most widely spoken languages (1999 data, including first and second language speakers, see
individual languages in Ethnologue; see also http://www.krysstal.com/spoken.html):
o Mandarin Chinese, 1,052 million speakers
o English, 730 million
o Hindi, 487 million
o Spanish, 417 million
These data are outdated.
o Russian, 277 million Help me update the numbers.
o Arabic, 246 million
o Bengali, 211 million
o Portuguese, 191 million
o Malay-Indonesian, 159 million
o French 128 million
o German, 128 million
 WORLD LANGUAGES

• Language dominance is related to population size, political, social, economic, and technological
factors
• lingua franca: a language used by people from different cultures as a common medium of
communication for business, education, etc. (e.g. English in the international arena)
• dialects: variants of a language associated with a place, social or ethnic group, etc.
• pidgin and creole languages: special hybrid languages which develop as means of
communication at points of contact between peoples who speak different languages (a pidgin
is the initial stage of such developments, a creole is a pidgin that has become the native
language of its speakers)
 LANGUAGE CHANGE

• change is a fundamental aspect of language

• systematic or sporadic
• external pressures: social, economic, political factors; foreign influence
• principle of least effort
• slower changes in graphics/writing than in sounds of spoken language
 History of the English Language

Why the different shades of

blue?
The English Language

Early Modern
Old English English

Middle English Late Modern

English
The history of the English language really started with the arrival
of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th
century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes,
crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and
northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke
a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed
west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales,
Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from Englaland and their
language was called Englisc - from which the words England
and English are derived.
 The Germanic Family of Languages

English is a member of the Germanic family of

languages.

Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European language

family
Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and south coasts
in the 5th century
 Old English (450-1100 AD)

Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English

The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in

Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English
did not sound or look like English today. Na<ve English speakers
now would have great difficulty understanding Old English.
Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in
Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and
water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was
spoken un<l around 1100.
 Old English
• Soþlice on þam dagum wæs geworden gebod fram þam
casereAugusto, þæt eall ymbehwyr: wære tomearcod. Þeos
tomearcodneswæs æryst geworden fram þam deman Syrige Cirino.
And ealle hig eodon,and syndrige ferdon on hyra ceastre. Ða ferde
Iosep fram Galilea of þæreceastre Nazareth on Iudeisce ceastre
Dauides, seo is genemned Bethleem, for þam þe he wæs of Dauides
huse and hirede; þæt he ferde mid Marianþe him beweddod wæs,
and wæs geeacnod. Soþlice wæs geworden þa hi þar wæron, hire
dagas wæron gefyllede þæt heo cende. And heo cende hyre
frumcennedan sunu, and hine mid cildclaþum bewand, and hine on
binne alede, for þam þe hig næfdon rum on cumena huse. And
hyrdas wæron on þam ylcan rice waciende, and nihtwæccan
healdende ofer heora heorda. Þa stod Drihtnes engel wiþ hig, and
Godes beorhtnes him ymbe scean; and hi him mycelum ege
adredon. And se engel him to cwæð, Nelle ge eow adrædan; soþlice
nu ic eow bodie mycelne gefean, se bið eallum folce; for þam to dæg
eow ys Hælend acenned, se is Drihten Crist, on Dauides ceastre. And
þis tacen eow byð: Ge gemetað an cild hræglum bewunden, and on
binne aled. And þa wæs færinga geworden mid þam engle mycelnes
heofenlices werydes, God heriendra and þus cweþendra, Gode sy
wuldor on heahnesse, and on eorðan sybb mannum godes willan.
 Middle English by Chaucer 1100-1500AD

In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of

modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new
conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of
French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the
ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of
linguis<c class division, where the lower classes spoke English and
the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became
dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This
language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great
poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would s<ll be difficult for na<ve
English speakers to understand today.
 Middle English
(translation by John Wycliffe, c. 1380-83)
• And it was don in tho daies, a maundement wente out fro the
emperour August, thatal the world schulde be discryued. This firste
discryuyng was maad of Cyryn, iustice of Sirie. And alle men wenten
to make professioun, ech in to his owne citee. And Joseph went vp
fro Galilee, fro the citee Nazareth, in to Judee, in to a citee of Dauid,
that is clepid Bethleem, for that he was of the hous and of the
meyne of Dauid, that he schulde knouleche with Marie, his wijf, that
was weddid to hym, and was greet with child. And it was don, while
thei weren there, the daies were fulfillid, that sche schulde bere
child. And sche bare hir first borun sone, and wlappide hym in
clothis, and leide hym in a cratche, for ther was no place to hym in
no chaumbir. And scheepherdis weren in the same cuntre, wakynge
and kepynge the watchis of the nygt on her flok. And lo! the aungel
of the Lord stood bisidis hem, and the cleernesse of God schinede
aboute hem; and thei dredden with greet drede. And the aungel
seide to hem, Nyle ye drede; for lo! Y preche to you a greet ioye,
that schal be to al puple. For a sauyoure is borun to dai to you, that
is Crist the Lord, in the citee of Dauid. And this is a tokene to you; ye
schulen fynde a yong child wlappid in clothis, and leid in a cratche.
And sudenli ther was maad with the aungel a multitude of heuenli
knygthod, heriynge God, and seiynge, Glorie be in the higeste thingis
to God, and in erthe pees be to men of good wille.
 Early Modern English (1500-1800)

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and dis<nct change in

pronuncia<on started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and
shorter. From the 16th century the Bri<sh had contact with many
peoples from around the world. This meant that many new words and
phrases entered the language. The inven<on of prin<ng also meant that
there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and
more people learned to read. Prin<ng also brought standardiza<on to
English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London,
where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the
first English dic<onary was published.
 (King James version, c. 1604)
• And it came to passe in those dayes, that there went out a decree
from Cesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this
taxing was first made when Cyrenius was gouernor of Syria) And all
went to bee taxed, euery one into his owne ci<e. And Joseph also
went vp fro Galilee, out of the ci<e of Nazareth, into Judea, vnto the
ci<e of Dauid, which is called Bethlehem, (because he was of the
house and linage of Dauid,) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife,
being great with child. And so it was, that while they were there, the
dayes were accomplished that she should be deliuered. And she
brought foorth her first borne sonne, and wrapped him in swadling
clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no roome for
them in the Inne. And there were in the same countrey shepheards
abiding in y field, keeping watch ouer their flocke by night. And loe,
the Angel of the Lord came vpon them, and the glory of the Lord
shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the Angel
said vnto them, Feare not: For behold, I bring you good <dings of great
ioy, which shall be to all people. For vnto you is borne this day, in the
ci<e of Dauid, a Sauiour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a
signe vnto you; yee shall find the babe wrapped in swadling clothes
lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the Angel a mul<tude
of the heauenly hoste praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good wil towards men.
 Late Modern English (1800-Present)

The main difference between Early Modern English

and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late
Modern English has many more words, arising from
two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial
Revolution and technology created a need for new
words; secondly, the British Empire at its height
covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the
English language adopted foreign words from many
countries.
Based on the current and
previous slides on English
evolu<on, what do you think
contributed to this evolu<on?
 Varieties of English

From around 1600, the English colonization of North America

resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of
English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when
they reached America. In some ways, American English is more
like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is.
Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in
fact original British expressions that were preserved in the
colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example trash for
rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn;
another example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain
through Hollywood gangster movies). Spanish also had an
influence on American English (and subsequently British
English), with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante
being examples of Spanish words that entered English through
the settlement of the American West. French words (through
Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade)
also influenced American English (and so, to an extent, British
English).
Today, American English is par2cularly influen2al, due to the
USA's dominance of popular culture (cinema, television, music),
trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are
many other varie2es of English around the world, including for
example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian
English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean
English.