KIND OF ENGLISH

KIND OF ENGLISH

Temporal: it is necessary to study the English of last centuries;

Geographical: English is a world language and there are different varieties of the language; in Europe w study a mixture of British and American English, because USA is a world power;

Mode of communication: the written and spoken forms of languages are different;

Communicative purpose: our reason for using language also influences the kind of language we learn.

STANDARD ENGLISH

English has a standard and non-standard form; the standard form corresponds to the English which reflects what is found in grammar books and dictionaries and this use of English is considered the acceptable form of English for most of the population.

LANGUAGE LEVELS

There are four different levels:

Phonology: study of distinctive sound units of language;

Morphology: study of ways in which words are formed;

Semantics: the study of meaning (also the English vocabulary);

Syntax: study of how words combine to form sentences and rules which govern their formation.

ENGLISH VOCABULARY

English is the world's hoover.

The lexical substratum: the most basic English words are of Germanic origin, so it is the result of the dialects spoken by the Germanic tribes (fifth-sixth centuries);
Other words: in English there are either many words that have come from another language or have come in modified form from another language (Loan Words--- Celtic, French, Italian, etc).

ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN THE 16^TH CENTURY

The period of 1500-l700 is referred to as an early modern English, so the 16^th century is important for the way in which English changed. Scholars of those years recognised that the English vocabulary was very limited, in fact there were not enough English words useful to understand Latin and Greek literature. The new words either came from other languages or were the result of native word formation devices.

INKHORN TERMS

These exaggerations were words which seemed deliberately obscure and just used to show the author's learning.

WORD FORMATION PROCESSES

These processes include:

the adding of suffixes (ness, er, ment) and prefixes (un, counter, pre);

the formation of compound nouns (sheep farmer, market towns);

rank change (cambio categoria grammat.)--- eye(noun) --- eye (verb);

blends (fusione di 2 forme e significati) --- brunch= brakfast,lunch;

acronym (laser = ligthwave amplification );

initialism (it is pronounced by the individual letters making up the word) ---VIP.

EUPHEMISM

They result from a need to create new words to refer the taboo subjects or areas considered socially delicate (the human body, race, etc.).

NON-SEXIST LANGUAGE

It is a recent creation, more finite than euphemisms; dissatisfaction with sexist language leads to:

the substitution of words which have an exclusive male meaning by neutral ones (mankind-humankind);

the creation of new words when the reference is to women only (spokesman-spokeswoman),

WHY DO NEW WORDS DISAPPEAR?

Obviously because they are no long needed or because a word with the same meaning already exists; the object refered to by the word no longer exists or the word is very popular for a short time and then loses its popularity and disappears.

ANGLICISM IN ITALIAN (Computer, Water, Trendy, etc.)

WORDS THAT CHANGE MEANING

This process can involve:

specialization (the meaning of the word becomes more limited --- brave is courageous in English, but before it had the same sense as "bravo" in Italian);

generalization (the meaning of the word becomes wider --- straight it has the slang meaning of "heterosexual", but before it had the meaning of something which does not bend or curve) a line;

deterioration (the meaning of the word assumes a negative connotation --- mental before it just referred to the process of thinking, now someone it is mad);

amelioration (the meaning of the word assumes a positive connotation --- enthusiasm before it had the negative meaning of excessive religion passion, now its meaning is positive).

SPOKEN AND WRITTEN VOCABULARY

Spoken language often has:

more generalized vocabulary (a lot of, thing, nice, etc.)

more fillers (riempitivi - ah, you know, I mean)

more repeated words.

Written language often has:

more specific or specialized lexis.

SPOKEN AND WRITTEN GRAMMAR AND SYNTAX

Spoken language often has:

use of active verbs (I wrote the letter);

use of non-standard grammar (I don't know nothing);

infrequent use of more than two pre-modifying adjectives, before a noun (I saw the young, tall handsome man);

use of paratactic structures, short sentences (I saw the man. He was at the bus stop);

frequent use of coordinating conjunction like "and", "but" (they went there and they talk a lot but . );

many incomplete sentences and pauses (I got about £50. Today . A good day's work);

repetition of syntactic structure (we decided to go there because we thought . we decided..);

changes in the sentence structure during the course of it (I was going . we were going).

Written language usually has:

standard grammar;

greater use of the passive (the letter was written);

more pre-modifying adjectives before noun phrases (the tall, elegant, dark-eyed lawyer);

greater use of hypotactic structures (when you arrive, you will see her);

complete sentences.

PHONOLOGICAL FOREGROUNDING

This expression indicates the particular vocal prominence given to a word by means of, for example:

alliteration: the repetition of the initial consonant in two or more words (Peter piper pick);

assonance: the same stressed  vowel or diphthong is repeated in words, but with a different final consonant and only the sound is important (fish and chips) (great and fail);

consonance: the repetition of final consonants (suing and rung) (sin and run);

sibilance (suona sibilante): the marked presence of a hissing (/s/) sound;

rhyme: repetition of final vowel/diphthong and consonant (June and moon).

LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS

1. Emotive (expressive): language which describes the communicator's feelings, centred around the author (creative literary texts, autobiographies);

2. Referential (informative): used to give information, it is content centred (Newspaper reports, textbooks);
3. Conative (vocative): used to persuade and convince, it is reader-centred (advertising, proanda)
4. Poetic (aesthetic): the form of the communication is as important as the content of the message, it is used for special aesthetic effect (kinds of poetry which are especially musical and pleasing to the senses);

5. Phatic: used to establish and maintain contact for social reasons (how do you do?);

6. Metalingual: used to speak about itself, it is employed to talk about language (grammar books, dictionaries).

CONTEXT OF SITUATION

A model for analysing the context of situation consists of three different categories:

- field of discourse: what is happening in the communication;

- tenor of discourse: who is taking part in the communicative situation;

- mode of discourse: the means (mezzo) of communication adopted (written, spoken).