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English Language Studies in the 21 century
Research within English often sets a pattern for the analysis of other languages:
- Advanced level of the English language studies - Army of linguistics- Popularity of English Major problem is the scope of issues for research is exhaustible Crisis is looming
Language and Identity (anthropocentric paradigm)
- expansion of English- soaring cases of bilingualism and multilingualism (growing number of L2 & L3
learners; problems of L2 & L3 acquisition)
Noam Chomsky
- language faculty (knowledge, vocabulary + grammar)- language performance (operation, how you use)- language creativity (coinage of new words/phrases)
Cognitive Studies:
- correlation of mentality & mother tongue- influence of L2 & L3 on mentality & mother tongue- code switching and language preferences in communication
NS (Native Speakers) vs NNS (Non-native Speakers)
(early/late bilinguals, trilinguals, quadrilinguals)
- bilingualism, trilingualism, quadrilingualism VS tri-/quadri-/multiculturalism (migration processes, social integration, assimilation, identity policies, language policies)
Immigrants in big cities: gradually big cities turn into multilingual communities with large multicultural component in education and life.
Peculiar patterns of:
- code-switching
- language mixing- language crossing- specific speech styles
o pragmatic rules do not always coincide with Gricean maxims
Social integration (assimilation) VS attempt to preserve national identity (these are two opposite trends)
English and ecolinguistics
The Last speaker of Cornish died two years ago, though constant efforts were made to revive the language, only 50-60 people speak it.
- Ecolinguistics as a component of language policy- Languages of small ethnic groups- Ancestral education & heritage Ecolinguistics VS ecologically-oriented communication in gardens, zoos, when
visitors are constantly reminded about the need to protect animals, birds, plants, nature in general
Singlish in Singapore
SSE – Singapore Standard English English in Taiwan in terms of language planning South Africa – colour-blind society
Variability of English and teachability
- Variability of English brings a methodological problem – how to teach English in the diverse cultural society
International Standard EnglishBBC English against the background of World Englishes
- Computers & information technologies- Electronic communication- Internet- Chat-lines- Electronic variants of newspapers and magazines- FTF (face-to-face) VS CMC (computer-mediated) communication
Nomination- Telephone: mobile (cell) phone ↔ fixed line telephone
- Online ↔ offline- Email ↔ snailmail- Hi-fi ↔ wi-fi- Retailor ↔ e-tailor
o E-mmersion (electronic + immersion) – study of language with the e-communication; immersion principle in Language Immersion Villages (метапогружение; method gained popularity before electronic communication; today the concept of global village is more popular)
The focus in Web-bases assignments is on fluency, accuracy and complexity (digital format sets particular requirements for the texts; focus on the Web-based design of reports).
- CMC/IT-mediated communication as written speaking - E-communication requires specific type of computer literacy, visual literacy
too, competence in web-design and being hypertext-literate- MALL (mobile-assisted language learning)- Voice-operated computers
Disadvantages:- Electronic plagiarism- Brits and global English (redundant to study other languages)- Video, media libraries- Motherese and language of teachers in primary schools- Humor in classrooms- Greying world (Eugen Rosenstock) young generation and old do not
communicate as their speaking styles are too different (age-gap)- Aphasia/Alzheimer’s disease/Autism
Gender factor
- All-female workplace- Gendered talk at work (range of workplace roles)- Females in mixed-sex group- Extralinguistic factors that change (feminine communication strategies) →
esp. after WWII Teachability of communicative strategies Genres, typical communicative situations Client-guided conversations Air traffic controllers (SLA – second-language acquisition as a cognitive
science)
Seamen Law-VIP web-based materials Flirting
New trends:
- Educational linguistics- speech perception
English and Medicine
medicine (AIDS/cancer treatment) clinical linguistics (speech-language pathology) clinical sociolinguistics neuroscience cognitive Neuroscience of second language acquisition- ESP (English for Specific Purposes)- Corporate discourse/companyspeak TV, mass media → medialinguistics (tellability of stories)
ЧОГОСЬ НЕ ВИСТАЧАЄ??? F@%k!
Corpus Linguistics and Lexicography Programming for Linguistics Quantitative methods in Linguistics
Linguistics in the 21st century- Expansionism- Functionalism (Pres. S. and Past S. squeeze out all the other forms of tenses)- Anthropocentrism- Explanatory nature (it’s necessary to explain sth, not just notice things)
Agenda of Linguistics in the 21st century
1. Discourse analysis2. Discourse variability3. Cognitive analysis4. Genre analysis5. Corpus linguistics6. Applied linguistics7. Experimental phonetics
8. Word formation – coinage of new words, semantic, lexical and stylistic changes (*Facebook resolutions in Muslim countries)
9. English as a global language10. World Englishes11. Variants and varieties of English12. English in cross-cultural communication 13. Stereotyping in the English language and Communication14. Communication Strategies in English Communities15. English and manipulation16. English in virtual communication17. English in Mass Media 18.Computational linguistics: English for software and within programming19. English within Language Mapping of the World
English as a global language (World English)
- 400 mln mother tongue speakers- 350 mln as a 2nd language- 100 mln use English fluently as a foreign language- 2/3 world scientists write in English- ¾ world mail in English- 80% electronic information- In 1997 81% of Internet users used English, in September 2002 only 36,5%- “The 20th century will be the century of men who speak English” Theodore
Roosevelt- In 1600 England was a second-rate country. In the 19th century – the British
Empire. “The sun never sets in the British Empire” 18th century.→ The sun never sets in the empire of the English language
~ rating of world languages VS rating of world currencies
WWII: $6 - £1
Now: $1,4/1,7 - £1
World companies adopt English as a working language: In Germany 98% of specialists in Physics and 93% in Chemistry communicate in English
Pluses and minuses of English invasion
In Germany:
Non-English Health resources
Non-English documents Non-English titles Non-English shopping
Besides economic and political factors, vogue for English computers & electronic produce made their contribution → communicative shift (Lotman) or semiotic revolution: Computers + English
Semiotic revolution has changed the nature of communication making it
Electronically/digitally-based Computer-mediated In virtual world With focus on audio & video
→ Language policy in different countries aimed at protection of their mother tongue
Usage of English words is known as anglosnobism and the words are anglosnobs
~ in 1992 Academy of France published the Dictionary of French with 6000 words from other languages despite all criticism of purists. Among the words forbidden ti use were: copyright, self-made man, fast food, sandwich, parking, know-how, boss, cocktail, supermarket, sponsor etc.
French VS English
Téléscopie fax
courriel e-mail
imprimante printer
~ Latin America complains about English invasion
~ in the USA during the 90s Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean people population increased very much
~ many of Spanish-speaking young people prefer English in numerous situations
→ the number of native English-speaking population (WASP) in the US decreases as a result of greying and browning in America
“Will America paint the White House Black?”
English VS other languages
World localized Link confining Neutral biased Window closed
English and ideology
W.Churchill in the USA → Pigeon English British Council as an institution to promote English English invasion was masterminded
→ Modern China and biculturalism
“Think global, teach local! Mind the gap!” – British Council
~ but it’s not possible to teach language without teaching culture
Criticism of English
Donor-recipient relations Dominant and domineering cultures English linguistic hegemony Linguistic imperialism
→ anglocentricity
→ glottopolitics → American policy
English and other languages
Defeat/interaction
(most popular derivation patterns)
ing-family is the most popular except in French. un lifting (are fully appropriated by the other language, acquire articles,
slightly change meaning: un lifting – подтяжка; parking; lashing – to make eye-lashes longer).
Pressing – French: a dry-cleaner’s shop; Italian – applying pressure; German: tackling at as football.
Chile: bluying – jeans
Portuguese: queque – little cake
Serbo-Croatian: nylon hotel – brothel; nylon beach – for nudists.
Japanese began to borrow words which assimilate
Sumato ← smart Nyuu ritchi ← newly rich Rushawa ← rush hour Moga ← modern girl Wa-pro ← word processor Masukomi ← mass communication Erebeta ← elevator Bata ← butter Sarada ← salad Mobaru ← mobile Wet ← weto ← sentimental
Singapore
- English language is criticized for being sexist – s/he- Shims (she-hims) transvestites
German:
Brunchen, chichen, fighten, jobben, shoppen, mobben, outen, relaxen etc. Old-timer (= veteran car, old car), handy.
Sport terms:
Aerobic classes, jogging, warm-up…
English German
Professional (pro) profi
Last but not least last not least
Model on the front coverboy/covergirl
Crisis management krisenmanagement
The Netherlands
Bij de veg – by the way Dat it alles voor nu – that’s all for now Zie je later – see u later Plakje cake – piece of cake Njet mijn copie thee – not my cup of tea
Proost – cheers Hallo – hello
→Leidinggevende – manager
Outspannen – relax
Dienstveriening – services. Dutch equivalents are no longer used!
Chat = chat room
Mobieltie – cell phone
English in the Netherlands.
Nederelgels, Dunglish, Amerilands.
Englutch, Engerlands,
Dutchglish.
IT loans
Password User Surfen, browsen, bloggen, mailen, deleten, printen, typen, forwarden, editen.
Slogans
Heinekken refreshes the parts that other beers cannot reach.
Philips – Let’s make things better, Sense and Simplicity.
Sports loans – no Dutch equialents for sports terms.
Racen, squashen, joggen, fitnessen, golf, keeper, penalty.
Code-switching
The room is vol people (full of)
I have ook received it (too)
They try, nee, they tried to help us (no)
He distributed it aan everybody (to)
False friends of interpreters
Pakistan
Bootpolish – to lick smb’s boots
Cheap – sly, petty
Lift – special attention
Light – electric power
His meter has gone full circle. – he’s lost his temper
Typical – a bit peculiar person
Water – irrigation channel
Korea
Second – kept mistress
Super – supermarket
T – t-shirt
Talent – tv-actor
Old miss – unmarried woman past conventional age of marrying, spinster.
Pro – tv-radio-guide
Rouge – lipstick
Over – overcoat
Thai
Air – air-conditioned
Over – exaggerate
Fan – girl/boyfriend
Campaign – advertising
Apartment
Repeat – to study an extra year in college
Smart – elegantly dressed
Japan
Companion – attractive young lady at the exhibition
Half – half-Japanese
Hearing – listening
Hot – hot coffee
Talent – young nedia celebrity
Silver – relating to old age
Text – textbook of foreign language
Tobacco – cigarette
Italian: fume – rumour
Spanish: assistant – daily helping woman
Audience – court hearing
Librarian – book seller
Mascara – disguised person
Examples from other languages – English borrowings!!
Maybe Hebrew??
Cornflakes
Super
Cottage
Cash&carry – заплати и забери
Cherry – tomatoes
English as a glocal language (global+local)
Word Englishes
Who owns English? Not Britain anymore. English is beyond Britain and Europe.
Englishness, Americanism, Anglocentrism, Britishness, Britocentrism VS Europeanness of English.
Franglaise = Frenglish Germish = Denglish Swedlish Spanglish Janglish = Japlish Konglish (Korea) Portuguish
Initially British Lingaphone company offered courses of English: ‘English’ VS ‘American English’ (not British…)
The term ‘British English’ was non-existent. English was viewed as a real stuff and something fundamental.
Division between:
Standardisation & diversification Intellibility (how comprehensible the language is) & practicality
ENL – English as a native language (anglophone speakers) L1
ESL – English as the second language L2
EFL – English as a foreign language L3
tripartite model
NB! 110 territories worldwide, ex-USSR is not mentioned.
EIL - English as international language
EILTS – English as International language testing system (standards for Commonwealth countries)
New Concepts:
Neutrality VS cultural linguistic imperialism, new form of impact and expansion.
Mitigated influence of the USA and Great Britain.
Appropriation - Latin letters in Tokyo underground- International English in computer industries- But: РФ as an Internet address
World Englishes. Agenda
Latest research in World Englishes
Content analysis of WE Cultural-conceptual analysis of WE Politics of code-switching Core and periphery of WE Corpus-based exploration Education, language and the rights of the child American English as a medium of international communication WE – response to globalization English on Japanese pop-music British attitude towards variability of English
How to call those world Englishes?
- Dialect - Lingualect- Variant- Variation of English (Spanglish…)
25.02.
Ghana
Семенец О.Е., 1985
False friends of interpreters:
Linguist – a person who speaks on behalf of a tribe leader Oracle – herbalist (Quack – in Western Africa)
Cover cloth – overcoat Canvas – shoes A motor – bicycle Storey – storeyhouse (more than 1 storey) Electrolux – any fridge Colgate – any toothpaste Kodak – any – Hoover – any – To take seed/to take in – to become pregnant
Simplification of English
Newspeak (word by Orwell)
Basic English – constructed language – 1930 Charles Kay Ogden (you master it in 7 weeks), words selected via tests – 850 words. Each of 300 verbs can be turned into nouns and adjectives by adding suffixes.
Words are grouped: Operations (100), Things (400), Things – 200 picturable words, Qualities…
Easy English – simplified at level A, level B. A – 1200 words as a foreign language B – 2800 words, Cambridge First Certificate
Commonwealth English – standard English spoken within Commonwealth.
Plain English – simple writing style Globish – simplified, most common English words, made as a result common
practice Voice of America English BBC English International English
IAL – International Auxiliary Languages.
Artificial languages VS English as Esperanto of our days
~ Linguistic jealousy! (French are nostalgic about the past)
Singlish
English in Singapore = English-based creole spoken colloquially in Singapore
Numerous cases of code-switching (Chinese, Malay, Tamil) Broken English/bad English → Speak Good English Movement Schools discourage students from taking Singlish It is incomprehensible for native speakers or normal English speakers Singlish is often used for humorous effect, when the audience is local Used in the Army Coffee-shops & restaurants Can be characterized as a sociolinguistic phenomenon: Sociolect Acrolectal – high-class form, used by well-educated people in informal
situations, close to BrE This guy’s Singlish is very good Mesolectal – middle class, semi-formal situations Dis guy Singlish very powerful one Basilectal – colloquial, unique lexical, phonological & grammatical features Dis guy Singlish is bey powerful one
Singlish phonology/p/, /t/. /k/ become unaspirated esp among Malay SingaporeansPat, tin, come – bat, din, gum/t/, /d/ - also The distinction between /l/ & /r/ not found at basilectal level – ‘Use your blain!’Plural – ‘s’ is often omitted which might be the result of Chinese influence which does not distinguish between single and plural forms.
Singlish is syllable-timed compared with other varieties of English which are stress-timed.
Pitch tones are well-defined, tones resemble Chinese.
Singlish tends to preserve tone of loan words from Mandarin and other languages.
Singlish Grammar
Nouns are optionally marked for plurality. Articles are optional too.
He can play piano. I like to read novel.
As a copulkar and auxiliary verb be is often omitted.
Past tense markers are optional – He talk for so long, never stop, not even when I ask him.
I eat liao (I ate or I have eaten)
How come he never pay just now? (Negation + past tense marker)
Interrogative forms: This book you want or not? Can or not? They never study, is it? You don’t like that, is it?
Reduplication
My boy-boy is going to primary school.
We two friend-froend one.
You got take the small-small one.
Kena – is an auxiliary to mark the passive voice:
He was scoulded – He kena scold (negative evaluation). VS *he kena praised.
Singlish Discourse Particles
Lah – Drink, lah! – Come on, drink! (in the end of the sentence to assert solidarity)
What /wat/ - But he very good at sports what!
Mah – This one can also work mah!
Leh – command, complaint, claim. Give me leh!
Vocabulary
Chop – stamp – eh, your passport
Eye – power
Manglish/Malgish
Malaysian variant of English. Shares a substantial pool with Singlish, some experts claim they are the same languages with a few slang words found in one and non-existent in another.
Manglish particles
Lah – used in the end of a sentence to affirm a statement which often ends with ‘!’
Don’t be an idiot lah!
Mah – less intensive than lah. She’s like that mah.
Liao – ‘already’
‘What’ – is used with an exclamation mark: What! How could you do that?
Vocabulary
Kapster – talkative person Blur – confused Jalan – to walk Kena – to get caught Minum – to drink Makan – to eat On/off – activate/deactivate Best/syok – ‘really good’
Many patterns borrowed from Chinese dialects: ‘Why are you so like that one?’
HP handphone – cell phone
Medical certificate – sick note
Can – yes/alright
Cannot – no
Photostat – xerox
New Englishes
Metropolitan Standards
- The term would have once been applicable to standard English of England- AE also as a metropolitan accent, that influences the Englishes of the world
Colonial standards (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Northern & Southern Rhodesia (Zambia & Zimbabwe) )
- Varieties spoken there are known as historical dialectology and extraterritorial Englishes
Regional dialects
- The varieties that may be distinguished on the basis of regional variation within metropolis and colony
- A rule of thumb is that the older the settlement of English speakers, the firmer the regional differentiation within the language
Social dialects
- Identifiable varieties within a region along the lines of class and ethnicity may occur. In London there is a difference between Cockney of the working class, RP of the upper-middle class and the intermediate Estuary English
- In Australia linguists identify Broad, General and Cultivated varietieso Tom McArthur’s Circle of World English (1987)o Braj Kachru’s Circle model of World Englisheso David Crystal Map of English Language
Phonetics in Britain
Estuary English, Dialects in Britain
Daniel Jones & A.C. Gimson set up principles of phonetic research in Great Britain.
General Phonetics
Voice quality across languages: different languages spoken with typical voice qualities via access to standard speech and language corpora (voice quality & impact of mother tongue on articulation)
Recording very high quality speech signals Facilities for multi-channel recording including laryngographic analysis
London School of Phonetics Redefining RP – what are the characteristics of contemporary English
pronunciation in England? Connected speech phenomena – how is the pronunciation of English words
modified in authentic running speech? Stressing & accentuation – irregularity and idiomaticity Intonation – the new high-rise nucleus (“upspeak”) L2 and inter-language – what are the phonetic characteristics of learners of
English? How are they to be explained? Pronunciation preferences – how do people’s preferences change over the
time?
Dialect leveling in Britain (1990-2000)
BrE in the 20th century is characterized by dialectic leveling & standardization
1st stage: affected traditional rural dialects once spoken by the majority of population, be the beginning of the 20th century – only 50%
o There are fewer differences between ways of speaking in different parts of the country
- New dialects emerged different from standard English in pronunciation and grammar. Families have abandoned rural dialects in favour of a type of speech which was more urban of the local city
- More urban ways of speaking were labeled modern dialects or mainstream dialects by Peter Trudgill
o They are more like standard English in phonology, grammar and vocabulary
2nd stage: affected urbanized varieties of English themselves. The dialects are subjected to further leveling. It’s impossible to say where the person comes from. The differences are subtle, purely phonetic ones.
Factors that made impact on dialect leveling:
- Migration- Mass media
Modern dialect studies moved from the country to the city → urban dialectology (city talk, urban observations)
- The mechanism of standardization lies in a network of social contacts- People accommodate in the speech of those who they communicate at work,
usually people of higher social status – upward convergence. Rarely one can come across downward convergence.
Social changes are connected to moving to standard English
Daniel Jones
SOC STANDARD LANGUAGEIAL------------------------------------------------ Regional variation
Regional accents have become more acceptable nowadaysLinguistic class codes
Nancy Mitford coined the phrase “U” and “Non-U” to upper middle class and non-upper middle class
o Low ranks drop consonants (‘alf past ten)o Upper classes drop vowels (hnkchf)o Low classes pronounce “th” as “f”, “v” (teeth → teef, that → vat)
Received Pronunciation ! RP is a minority accent (3-5%)! RP is changing rapidly
- Mainstream RP- Adoptive RP- Near RP- Conservative RP – older generation- General RP – most commonly used- Advanced RP – mainly young people- U-RP – upper-crust RP (elite)
Survey of English dialects
Tri-dialectal future
- Dinner with the family (local variant)- Business (BSE) – broad- Holiday in Egypt (WSE) – world One cannot get rid of his dialect and uses different ones in different situations
Estuary English- Estuary English = grassroots strike back- First described by Edward Roswarne in 1984 & much criticized - RP speakers make 3% of population, though in the 1970s it seemed that RP
speakers were everywhere- EE is becoming the most popular pronunciation model
o Absolute majority speaks EE, only 10% RP- EE is viewed as variety of modifies regional speech, a mixture of non-regional
and local south-eastern pronunciation and intonation- Within a continuum with RP and London speech at both ends EE is in the
middle:- London speech → EE → RP- Very often EE is described as cockneyfied, esturian, localized English- Phonetics: vocalization of preconsonantal final /l/ - miwk bottoo – milk-bottle- H-dropping (‘and on ‘eart)
- TH-fronting (I fink)- Realization of /r/ (rotic!!) - Tone & pitch features – prominence given to prepositions and auxiliary verbs
which are not normally stressed in RP- Rise-fall intonation
15/03/2011- Variant and variation of Eng- Major problem in teaching – lack of standards- Ecolinguistics – preserving the languages of minorities- World English: Status is quite vague- Most popular borrowings: ing-borrowings - Simplified English: creolized, - L and R – people do not differentiate between these 2 sounds- Linguistic analysis of advantages and disadvantages of English: lack of
conjugation and declation, lack of gender, lack of endings, vocabulary based on latin(?), Latin alphabet, extralinguistic factors
- Artificial languages (NEW) VS English!!-
Corpus Linguistics
Corpora
Corpus is a large collection of a computer-readable texts.
Since the 1960s – was first created.
Why should a corpus be machine-readable?
1. Automatic processing2. Automatic transmission (much easier)- Lots of info is now available
General benefits of the Corpus Method
1. Large corpora of computerized (We deal with) authentic rather that invented language.
2. Computers can process enormous amounts of data3. Retrieval of the data is objective, not intuitive, that implies that the search can
be replicated (- it can be checked easily! Responsibility and correctness is required)
4. Specific corpora selected from particular types of texts allow to compare the use and frequency of certain features in different text types, provided the corpora is large enough.
Corpus Linguistics is a study of language that includes all processes related to processing, usage, analysis of written or spoken machine-readable corpora.
CL is a relatively new term used to refer to methodology based on example of “real life” language use. It is based on computer science.
BNC – British National Corpora
Corpora in Corpus & Applied Linguistics. Types of Corpora
General corpus contains texts of many types (written or spoken, produced in one or many countries)/ It can be used to produce reference books therefore it is called …
Specialized corpus contains texts of particular types (newspaper editorials, essays…)
o CANCODE – Cambridge & Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in Englisho MICASE – Michigan …
Comparable corpora - two or more corpora in diff languages or diff varieties of a language (Indian English VS Canadian English)
o The ICE corpora is used to facilitate comparison between regional varieties
Parallel corpora – 2 or more corpora in diff languages each containing texts that have been translated from one language into the other
o The EU regulations Learner corpus – collection of texts produced by learners of a language.
o LOGNESS – The Louvian Corpus of Native English Essays Historical or diachronic corpus
o The Helsinki Corpus of English – texts from 700 to 1700 and comprises 1,5 million words
- The proportion of text types remains constant, so that each year is directly comparable with every other
- You should maintain the balance – of different text types, of the size of texts…- TRACTOR archive – corpora from bewly independent countries- The Brown Corpus – 60s, The Brown University Corpus of American English- LOB corpus – Lancaster-Oslo Bergen Corpus, British English
- London-Lund Corpus – 500 000 words of spoken English, transcribed in detailed prosodic notation
- The Longman Written American Corpus – 100 mln words from books, texts, newspapers
- The Longman Spoken American Corpus – 5 mln words- The Longman/Lancaster Corpus – 30 mln words (Past Time, Tenses,
Literature)- The American National Corpus
CSLU Speech Corpora (Center for Spoken Speech Understanding) – several speech corpora (telephone talks, babytalk, talk with children, pronunciation of separate letters of the alphabet).
DCPSE (Diachronic Corpus of Present-Day English) – diachronic approach to colloquial speech – 400000 words from spoken speech.
EUSTACE (Edinburgh University Timing Archive and Corpus of English) – 4608 sentences from British colloquial speech of 6 speakers; Phonetic characteristics and length of sentences are studied.
FRED (Freiburg English Dialect Corpus) – corpus of 9 dialect areas of British Isles; 370 texts, 2.45 mln words, 300 hours of speaking; 1968-2000; 420 speakers.
HCPC Map Task Corpus – created by research center of Edinburgh University comprises 8 CD and transcripts; 18 hours, 15000 words, 128 speakers.
- Problem: How to make analysis and approach objective? There should be some minimal requirements for Corpora: for ex., 10 years/100 speakers.
IViE (Intonational Variation in English) – to study stylistic variation on English.
ANDOSL - Australian National database of Spoken English
BASE – British Academic Spoken English
CANCODE (Cambridge and Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in English) – 5 mln words of spontaneous speaking from 1995 till 2000, give information about relationships between speakers.
Lancaster / IDM Spoken English Corpus (SEC) – monologues from British speakers 1984 – 1987
LeaP – Learning the Prosody of a foreign language.
Limerick Corpus of Irish English – colloquial speech; 375 transcripts; 1 mln words; Speakers 14 – 78 years old.
Reading / Leeds Emotional Speech Corpus; 4,5 hours of speech.
Switchboard Corpus (SWB); 240 hours of telephone spontaneous talks; 2438 telephone talks in 1990s; 3 mln words; 543 speakers.
TRAINS Spoken Dialogue Corpus 55000 words
West Point Company G3 American English Speech Data Corpus – 53 females & 56 males.
Wellington Language in the Workplace Project Coprus
The Czech Copus, The Oslo Corpus of Bosnian, Australian English Corpus… - different corpuses in different countries.
The British National Corpus (BNC)
100 mln words BNC is a sample corpus composed of text samples not longer than 45000
words Synchronic corpus. Includes fiction texts since 1960, informative texts since
1975, imaginative texts, religious texts, newspapers BNC is a general corpus, not restricted to a particular field, subject or genre Mixed corpus: 90% written texts, 10% spoken texts Monolingual – only English All texts are classified according to the date of production, date of recording,
date of their first publication. Selection features
o Domain (subject)o Timeo Medium (books, periodicals, recordings)o 1-5 words for search
1991-1992 initial reports The Source is the Bank of English Leading partner is Oxford University Press Text selection, data capture, transcription of spoken texts by Longman Storage, encoding, distribution by Oxford University Press Corpus purpose (Application areas):
o Reference book publishing
o Academic linguistic researcho Teaching real language to avoid mistakeso Artificial intelligenceo Natural language processingo speech processing
BNC within linguistics: 1. Finding new tendencies within language development having new language
samples 2. Finding speaker’s role in language production 3. Contrastive analysis of English as mother tongue and as a foreign language. 4. Parallel corpora in theory and practice of translation 5. Morphological data, spelling 6. Linguistic information retrievable from the corpora – lexical, semantic,
pragmatic, syntactic 7. Speech processing
Modern English Grammar: Vision and Terminology
Shall is infrequent in AmE, they prefer will or be going to.o I shall be in the office at 9.30.
Frequency of shall per 1 mln words: BrE 118, AmE 16. However, AmE allows shall in first person interrogatives (… shall we?) Must: in BrE three times more often. AmE prefers have to. Have to is more frequent in AmE, BrE – have got to. Had better is 6 times more frequent in BrE than AmE. Directions: Am – you’re gonna see, Br – come, turn left.. I guess is 30 times more frequent in spoken American. In Br I reckon, I suppose
is more frequent. Am- full form of negation (jim is NOT working here), Br – jim isn’t working
here. Interrogative tags a 4 times more frequent in BrE that AmE: he’s brilliant, isn’t
he? I changed the school 3 times. AmE – You did? BrE – Did you? Affirmative copy tags are more often in BrE: I like them. I do. Tails – more in BrE: that was a nightmare, that one. American – ‘real’, not ‘really’. They were real nice to us. BrE: I’m well. AmE: I’m good. Present Perfect is less frequent in American English (Past Simple instead). American exclamatives: geez, goddamn, oh my gosh.
22/03/2011
Corpora in Applied and Computational Linguistics
- To improve communicability of computers- The use of linguistic corpora in applied linguistics have expanded rapidly over
the past 20 years because ofo More accessible systems of electronic storage and analysis ando Ever-growing appreciation of the huge potential of corpus work.
You have huge amount of data. Those who produce corpora have to come to the conclusion. Plagiarism increases due to corpora.
The study of corpora have revolutionized the study of language & the application of language
Corpora allow researches not only to count categories in traditional approaches to language but to observe categories & phenomena never noticed before.
PrS/PastS 80%, Future 5%, PresPerf/PastPer 10%, Cont 5% - you can see this with the help of corpora
Key terms Type
o Counting each repeated item once only, so that onl;y different words are counted, gives 31 types.
Tokeno For example, if there are 42 words in a passage, there are 42 sequences
of letters separated by spaces or punctuation. In other words there are 42 tokens.
Hapaxo The words that occur only once are called hapax legomena or hapax.
Lemmao Unit & units are two word-forms belonging to the same lemma. Eat,
eating, ate are word-forms of lemma EAT. Word-form Annotate Tagging
o The term tagging is normally used to refer to the addition of a code to each word in a corpus, indicating the part of speech.
o Tags are useful components of word searches (e.g. WORK noun VS WORK verb)
o Computers understand and use tagso Automatic tagging – automatically disambiguating part-of-speech labels
in the text.o Two main approaches to automatic tagging: probabilistic and rule-
based. Rule-based taggers are based on grammar. NN – common noun, neutral for number (cod, sheep,
headquarters) NNJ – organization noun, neutral for number (co., group) NNL1 – singular locative noun (island, street) ATA – after-article (other, only)
o Tags can be of different types depending on the corpora – there’s no unification!! (problem)
Parsing o Corpus parsing is the analysis of text into constituents, such as classes
and groups.o Parsing is connected with grammatical analysis. BNC:
Fa – adverbial clause G – genitive
Annotation o A superordinate term for tagging and parsing is annotation. It’s also
used to describe other kinds of info (annotation of spoken corpus for intonation, annotation for anaphora which identifies the cohesion).
You cannot include something else and violate the corpora.
Assignment: To find some material relevant to your master paper in Corpus Linguistics.
Frequency – the words in a corpus can be arranged in order of their frequency in that corpus.
- Typical syntactic patterns, use of specific nouns…
Word Frequency Comparison. Across Corpora
1. The2. Of (genitive case) 3. To
4. And (pause-filler) 5. A6. In7. That8. S9. Is 10. It 11. For12. I 13. Was14. On15. He16. With17. AS18. You19. Be20. At 21. By22. But23. Have24. Are25. His26. From27. They28. This29. Not30. Had 31. Has32. An33. We34. N’T35.Or36. Said37. One38. There39. Will40. Their 41. Which
42. She43. Were 44. All45. Been 46. Who47. Her48. Would 49. Up50. If
Books Times Spoken
Must 683 460 363 Have to 419 371 802 Incredibly 8 10 15 Surprisingly 25 29 4 Man 980 583 137 Woman 456 208 137 Husband 163 140 92 Wife 216 224 83
Collocations, combinability. The verbs co-occurring most significantly with myself are find, sell, tell, ask, let, make, stop, bring, get, give, consider, feel, enjoy, help.
Phraseology
Many people use and access the corpora through a concordancing program. Concordance lines bring together many instances of use of a word or phrase, allowing the user to observe the regularities.
The Bank of English by Cobuild. KWIC software.
Concordance
It is a ‘word-based’ method of investigating corpora Searches a corpus for a selected word or phrase Concordance lines present information; they do not interpret it. Interpretation requires the insight and intuition of the observer. Aston claims that methods of conversation analysis are being used. Barth uses the corpus as a convenient way of storing texts with the additional
advantage that selected features can be tagged
Centrality VS typicality – observing ‘central’ and ‘typical’
Typical might be used to describe the most frequent meanings or collocations or phraseology or phraseology of an individual word or a phrase.
The concept of ‘centrality’ can be applied to categories of things rather than to individual words
Barlow 1996 & Shortall 1999 use the term prototypical to indicate a usage which is commonly felt to be typical but is not necessarily typical (transitivity is in fact a more important category than tense!)
The verbs used most often with reflexives are see, imagine, visualize, consider, ask that verbs of physical action such as he hit himself.
Each meaning is associated with particular pattern. Passives with BE are most frequent in expository prose and least frequent in
conversation. For GET passives the reverse is true. Passives with BECOME are the most frequent in fiction and least frequent in
conversation. Fox indicates the pitfalls of shortening sentences for inclusion into a
dictionary: Her anguish was terrible for her to behold. Her anguish was terrible – this
sentence is not typical for English, it’s too bald. Unemployment is used much more often than unemployed. As in Great Britain
the discourse focuses mainly on abstract demographic trends, not on categories of people.
New emerging collocations can be used to indicate the growth of new concepts, and changes in the meaning of words.
Collocations like single parent families & unmarried mothers signal important changes in social structures.
Because of semantic prosody, a word or a phrase can carry a covert message, Strubbs notes that intellectual co-occurs with words people would regard as negative, including contempt, hippie, leftist, students.
Stylometrics is a discipline devoted to literary style. Forensic linguistics Corpora are used to assist the studies of a language produced in different
situations. Young speakers noticeably favour okay, hi, wow, hey, wow and adjectives
such as weird, massive, horrible, sick, funny. Speakers from the economically advantaged social group use actually & really
much more often than other speakers while less advantageous groups use SAY, numbers and taboo words more often.
Swedish speakers of English use a few informal connectors such as but with great frequency, but others such as however, though & yet, less frequently than native speakers do.
Learners tend to use certain vocabulary items of generality (people, things). But native speakers use collocations as sort of things, stuff like that more often than learners. (also – women use these more!)
9/04/2011
Cognitive structures. Language as verbal packaging of mental structures
Categorization
Dixon studying the languages of aborigines of Australia offered principles of categorization which can be described as cognitive and universal:
Centrality – major categories are central points Chain connection – complicated categories have chain structure, formed via
chain of central and peripheral elements Experience domains – culture-specific fields of experience which
predetermine categorization Ideal models – ideal models of world including myths and beliefs Specific knowledge – which becomes preferable in categorizations and
classifications in comparison with universal knowledge Miscellaneous – uncategorized things/items of minor importance Human factor in categorization: Preferences after the Norman Conquest:
Anglo FrenchCalf vealCow, ox beefSwine, pig porkSheep muttonDeer venison
Human factor in categorization = value for humans = environmental racism People Animals Plants
Pests weeds
Eat feed graze absorb consume
Murder hunt trap butcher fell cut down
Slaughter an animal
Land catch a fish
Make love mate
Die wither dry droop
Corpse carcass
Flesh meat
Anthropocentric nature of the language and categorization
Human factor in nomination:
Garden plant, house plant, indoor plant, medical plant, ornamental plant Domestic animal, farm animal, zoo animal Edible mushroom, poisonous mushroom
Categorization/ Environmental issues
Herbicide, pesticide, insecticide, fungicide, molluscicide Being ecologically correct Animal testing – Not tested on animals! Cruelty-free Waste water – reclaimed water Flowers – botanical companions Paper – tree carcasses Eggs – stolen non-human animal products
Ecologically-relevant concepts:
Environment Pollution Energy Climate change Chernobyl Environment is a key concept Environmental degradation, damage, hazards, health threat Environmental activists, professionals, organizations, pressure, lobby group Environmental agreements policy Environmental Ministry
Energy – nuclear safety, nuclear terrorism; pro-nuclear, anti-nuclear, non-nuclear, nuclear-free
Renewables, alternatives
Wind-powered, solar-powered, bio-based, straw-fueled, propane-powered, hydrogen-fueled, fuel-celled-powered
Fuel-efficient, energy-efficient Pollution – air, water, soil pollution; NEW types – noise pollution, light, gene… Pollutants Knowledge and information shift from academic to mass level therefore
abbreviated as it is easier to memorize and recognize: PPCPs, PVC, CFCs Low-sulphur, unleaded, non-GM, mercury-free, zero-emission GMO Climate Change – climate-related disasters, weather-triggered disasters,
drought-ravaged, heat-related disasters Curb Combat climate change global warming Chernobyl – No more Chernobyls; Fears of a second Chernobyl; Chernobyl
orphans, Chernobyl widows Positive associations (green, renewable, recyclable, organic, sustainable) and
negative associations (scare, corporate, Mc – food-scare, greed, McLibel, McDonalds)
Cognitive structures are components of the conceptual picture of the world.
Conceptual picture is a cognitive basis, mentalese, lingua mentalis, language of thought.
Many components of mentalese are based on associations, visual components etc.
Conceptual picture of the world is more global, comprehensive than any language picture.
Cognitive structures
Cognitive models Frames Scripts Scenario Schemata Plan Prototypes Stereotypes Key national issues are cognitive – cultural scripts
Frame is a cognitive unit which is made of clichés of conscience which is a cluster of predictable valencies/slots/vectors of predetermined associations
Frame constists of a top – word which gives a stimulus and slots or terminals – associations or propositions
There is a hierarchy within frames Culturally marked frames Don Quixote : - is a stimulus Wind mills, Sahcha Pansa, Horse, Dulcinea, Useless work, Knight, Errant,
Chivalric nobility, Noble, High priciples Christmas Eve : Family, Last minute shopping, panics& squabbles, Tree lights,
Drinking, Too many nuts and chocolates, Possible church (early evening carols or midnight service)
Christmas Day : Family, Tree, Present-giving rituals, Marathon cooking and eating of hue Christmas lunch, Queen, More food and drinks, Uncomfortable night
Boxing Day : hangover, family outings of some sort, long country walk, Visiting the other set of relatives, Escape from family to pub
27 th -30th of December: slightly strange limbo period, Some back at work but achieving very little, others shoppin, going for walks, trying to keep childen amused
New Years Eve : friends, big boozy parties, dressing up.fancy dress, loud music, dancing, champaigne, fireworks
New Years Day : sleep late, hangover
Scenario/ Scenario frame:
Standard sequence of events, recurrent situation
Situation dependence Conventionality Situational memory Generalized events memory Examples: Shopping at the supermarket, Seminar at the university
Prototype
Prototype is a general idea about some item of reality, collective general image with characteristics typical of all objects of majority
Cognitive reference points & prototypes – subcategories or category members that have a special cognitive status – that of being ‘the best example’
Rosch, Lakoff Bachelor – How old is he? Might be? 26? 72? Confirmed, eligible, dying in the wool Is monk a bachelor? Is Pope a bachelor? Celibacy = bachelorhood?
Widow – the one who murdered her husband? Cyberwidow, golf/football widow, grasswidow Mother – working, genetic, surrogate? Full-time mother Stay-at-home mother VS stay-at-home father, househusband NB!!! Housewives VS househusband___
15.04.2011
Prototypes
Mother – genetic, birth, real, natural, biological, surrogate; expectant mother, mother-to-be; unmarried, single, lone (social status, attitude of society); breastfeeding, nursing mother; working, stay-at-home, full-time mother; foster, step, adoptive, mother-in-law.
Wife – working wife; old boot, old lady, the old woman; ex; mate/mama; football/golf/cyberwidow; trophy wife; common-law wife; her indoors, housewife, home-maker.
- The new aspect of the meanings
Widow – war widow; grass widow; golf/football cyberwidow.
Prostitute – female sex worker; call girl, curtisan, payment princes, lady of the night, working girl, streetwalker; whore, hustler, chicken girl, B-girl, alley cat
Manager – personnel manager, sales manager, stage, fine, marketing, prosuction, area, regional manager; top, middle, boss, general, junior manager, suit; female manager; mgr.
Executive – business, sales, advertising, publishing; top, chief, senior.
Officer – staff, CEO, TEO, TIO, TLO, PRO; welfare, medical, environmental.
Secretary – male secretary; Miss Smith, undersecretary; private, press, executive, secretary general.
Politician – baby-kisser, politico, apparatchik; MEP, MSP, Mr. Clean, parliamentarian; pol/polly.
Journalist – press-agent, paparazzi, gossip columnist; newspaperman; journo, hack.
Star – child star; megastar, superstar, big, rising, shining, co-star; rock, pop, movie/film, Hollywood.
- 1 or 2 pages of examples: prototype and frame of examples. Religion?!!!
Values
Were popularized in the 19th century in Victorian Britain Are studied by Axiology Ideal models Are social and sociological ideas and views shared by the community and
inherited by other generations Values are viewed as positive ideas, but within axiology they differentiate
negative values (drugs, smoking, abortion etc.) NB: Right to abortion is positive within feminism Evaluate everything in bipolar way either as positive or as negative Are ideals Are not easy to formulate for ordinary people AMERICA Duty VS Family values Zippergate – Pres.Clinton and Monica Levinsky Superpower, American dream, melting pot… R.Reagan: partnership, individuslism…
Gestalt
Is rendered as an integrated structure or a shape, entity whose properties cannot be deduced from the sum of its parts
Picture of the world is viewed as a whole
Stereotypes
Chernyshevsky posed a ? about beauty; A peasant – red-cheeked, physically strong An aristocrat – pale, slender, weak National characteristics of beauty
Lacunae
Sushi, paella, stiff upper lip, jihad…
Stereotypes in cross-cultural communication
1. Why stereotyping? Human interaction presupposes making of assumptions about human
behavior Sometimes there are assumptions which are impossible to verify But they may serve as the 1st step to establish contact Assumptions as well as norms culturally defined as clichés, and stereotypes
generally help us to find a way in this world Category members rather than individuals Cognitive elements of culturally/ socially specific knowledge and exist as
mental , formalized language and behavior schemes They are expressed in explicit and implicit ways and might have positive,
negative evaluative meaning.
We identify people from:
Non-verbal identification signs, i.e. wearing uniforms Specific characteristic Additional characteristic which are usually personality characteristics
The important feautyre of stereotype:
This charactarestic is applied to all memebers of the group
Stereotyping: philosophy, cognitology, culturology, psychology, sociology, ethnography, linguistics.
“Stereotypes are simplified pictures in our heads of people and events in the world.”
W.Lippman “Public opinion” 1922.
C.G. Young: Stereotype is a word or phrase used to give a gru=oup general and abstract characteristics which are not supported by sound or… representation 1957/
Bringham 1971: Stereotypes are undesirable and should be eradicated
…not overgeneralization but cultural absolutism or ethnocentrism of stereotypes is what makes them false. Brown and Campbell 1965.
Stereotypes research
1. Experimentsa. Bochner. ‘newspaper announcement’b. Gartner ‘lost number’c. Katz & Braly (1930s), Gilbert (1950s): traits list
2. Associative experiment3. Projective drawing4. Content analysis5. Questionnaire, interviewing
Associations in linguistics
1. Stereotypes are determined by the fact of social agreement -Social nature of stereotypes
2. They can change through time, but rather slow3. They get more clear and hostile with inter-group social tension; then they are
difficult to manage and modify4. Are acquired in an early age and are used long before clear impressions of one
or another groups appear
Ethnic stereotypes are determined by:
Real specific traits of the group – object of stereotyping The specifics of perceiving these traits in the conscience of the group doing
stereotyping A set of economic, political and cultural relations between these two groups
Facts that might influence communication:
There is an illusion of a link between group membership and psychological traits – The Brits are conservative. The Germans – pedantic.
Stereotypes influence information processing. “In-group” (autostereotypes) is viewed in more positive terms than the “Out-group” (about other nations).
Brits abroad – picture
Nowadays stereotypes are viewed as:
Stable general picture of some event or a number of traits typical for a group and shared by the majority
Cognitive elements of the communicative process Culture-determined pictures of the world that exist both in cognitive, verbal
and visual form
Are divided into
Ethnic, gender, occupational, age stereotypes and deviant groups.
Verbal form: xenophobic words (kiwis, spaghettis, Aussies), generalizations (all Russians are drunkards), precedent texts…
Non-verbal level: Street signs also can give information about national character.
Quasi-stereotypes – may coincide in general but differ in nuances
Sources of stereotypes:
Mass Media – World War II, Cold War, Tuzla conflict Literature
National concepts
England – privacy, humour, gentleman, stiff upper lip, homeland France – freedom, liberty Russia – воля, душа, тоска
Traditional way of life, ethnos environment, political and economic activities, traditions, customs, leisure become objects of stereotyping.
Clothing – typical European/ Slavic/ Asian dress style
National character – jokes, cuisine, symbols, telephone boxes,
Reasons for stereotyping – motivational (scapegoat theory, authoritarian personality theory, intergroup competition), cognitive – ‘faulty’ thinking
Stereotypically, the English are viewed as:
Reserved, polite, weather-talk, hooliganism, hypocrisy, privacy, eccentrism, queuing, compromise, humor
Autostereotypes: to be born English is to win the first place in the lottery of life – mistrustful of abroad (dodgy food/water/plumbing/foreigners)
“the English are moral, good, clever, modest and misunderstood” Other nations: Italians are too emotionals, German are too serious, Russians
are gloomy, Dutch are solid and sensible, Scandinavians, Belgians, Swiss are dull, Indians, Pakis and Bangladeshis play cricket
Special affinity with Americans and Australians English have a developed sense of individual personal freedom Do not touch = physical contact is still reserved; privacy and personal space,
hand gestures are viewed as suspicious ‘Englishman’s-home-is-his-castle’ belief, DIY Obsession with puzzles and crosswords Bogside reading, piles of books, magazines near the loo Shoping as a chore, retail therapy, shopaholicism Pet rules = Petiquette House is a castle, a dog is a king in a castle “Nice” is quintessential English word defined by the context Weather-speak: when you can differentiate between scattered showers and
showery outbreaks or intermitted rains you’ve arrived at a stage of complete Englishness
As a simple greeting, filler…
English VS Americans
Everything is bigger in America
English class system – placing each other accents, not showing off behavior, minding your own business
Food is the new sex; Lie back and think of England.
Margaret Thatcher – careful, smart, bright-blue suits, shining blouses…
