Seidlhofer, Widdowson Core Lecture Linguistics K518 Introductory Unit

10 October 2006

Aim: discover critical awareness to schools of linguistics, forming an opinion on several topics, making informed judgements Regular readings required, in library Handapparat There are many approaches to linguistics and each serves a special purpose, depending on one s interest. There are many perspectives of language. Handout: Language Samples 1) statement of form: active/passive, grammar statement of meaning: which form do you choose? depends on situation of speaking, your focus source: grammar book, device for displaying the structure, surface forms of a deep structure (Chomsky) 2) notion of modality (grammar-might) and neutral verb; aspect change: birds are flying, speech act (last sentence?) its a warning Smoking kills expressed through the use of linguistic forms, question of how you treat them: separately or together. How can you relate the three pragmatically. Capital letters increase importance, how text looks like is important in conveying meaning. Pragmatic meaning is different from semantic meaning. Pigs might fly: figurative expression, idiom (meaning: this will never happen) 3) SILENCE: order in several places (hospital, library,) linguistic form: noun and verb, can be text or speech act, depends also on place of it context! One word is also a complete text. BEWARE OF THE DOG: warning, advice, private location is meant to keep you safe BEWARE OF CHILDREN: request, advice, public location-is meant to keep children safe ! lexis: meaning of words (beware, be wary, be aware) denotation, collotation but in these examples context overrides possible meanings. Question: how far does context override meaning as encoded in the language itself? IMMIGRANTS SETTLE IN WELL: newspaper headline, reduced language! ambiguity (well=adverb or well=noun), structural ambiguity (sequence and structure) 4) Five people were lost in a small rowing boat. Structural ambiguity. Two structures one sequence. Next text: problem with ambiguity related to the reference of the pronoun. Who or what is they? The elderly or the leaves? How do pronouns work? Ambiguity derived

from coding deficiency no difference between animate and inanimate in pronouns, both are they. Next week: 2 readings in Handapparat: Chomsky and Haynes. How are their views different? 2. VO, 17 October 2006 Prof. Widdowson Handout: Language Samples 5) Use of language: instructions, directions; you find this text on a first aid kit, refers to how to use the material inside. Without the material one cant act about it, one needs the package. The use of language depends on the context. Text is shortened. In the first text relative pronoun is left out, in the second a pronoun. Certain features of grammar are missing that is also a convention. Features are left out that are encoded in the language. Telegram language, text messaging. Reason is that you need the instruction as clear as possible, but also as short as possible. Code and context compliment each other. 6) Edgar A. Poe, The House of Usher There are lots of adjectives in the text. It is literature. There are long sentences (only two). The sentence structure is complex. Standard structure is subject-verb-object. Here you can change the sequence. The adverbial is first to create a dramatic effect. You get a picture first, the suspense and then the action. The nouns are held back, as well as the subject. The structure of the text represents that long day. 7) Poem by Emily Dickinson Dead-said: rhyme, then no rhyme Grammar of first sentence: passive (dead); no passive in the second sentence (alive) At the end of each line you have a closure complete structure. In the second sentence there is no closure. What is being said is being reflected in how it is said. 8) I wasted time and now doth time waste me. Shakespeare, Richard II. How many words? That depends on the interpretation of words, whether you count repetitions or not, even different cases of the same word (waste-wasted, I-me). You also get lexical items: waste (difference in meaning, because agent is different). What a word is, is not clear. Its old language: doth. That leads to language variation and change. Language is continually changing. The doth is replaced by does. What causes language to change from time to time and also place. 9) Fictional example of how language might be in the future. Again that leads us to language change.

Conclusion:

Internal relations of language, formal encoding at various levels (grammatical, metaphorical), external levels (context), how texts are made, what motivates people to create text and what you need to interpret text, language change and variation, at what point is it a different language, or a dialect, it is not the linguist who decides that Where do you start? How to bring order in all these observations? We treat the samples as examples of a kind. We are generalising. To do that we have to disregard the things that are different. Examples are based on likenesses. We look for types and tokens for types. We abstract the differences. Its the business of identifying likenesses. In one sense we idealise the data data becomes evidence, but its not the same thing. Classification depends on purpose. A linguist makes models. Such a model is like a map. A map can never recapture reality completely. It depends on for what you want your map. Classical example is the London underground map, which is very useful but does not represent reality at all. Its so successful because it represents the relations, not the distances. When you are walking you need accurate distances, but not buildings. So your map depends on the purpose of it. A linguist establishes relations and models, so it is necessary to leave out things. How do the 2 articles on reading list relate to that? Chomsky: leaves out social aspect of language, got criticism for that from Hymes; he just produced the abstract underground map, But: the more information you include, the less useful it is. The further you get to how language really is, the harder it is. The more you leave out in your model, the more abstract it is, the easier it is. What should a linguistic model include? Chomsky called it internal language (in the head), the knowledge of language. The Ilanguage (Chomsky-perspective): formal rules of grammar and word formation, we can just look at linguistic forms and how they relate. There are 2 dimensions: syntagmatic axis, paradigmatic axis of selection Combination of words: syntagmatic axis: the duke gave my aunt this teapot - horizontal line. Paradigmatic axis: you can take out parts of sentence and replace it with other words (equivalents), the queen gave Vertical line. They are grammatical equivalents but not phonological equivalents. A+b+c+d A1 A2 A3 A4 That can be made ad infinitum. Slide: The duke / gave my aunt this teapot / visited my aunt / died

The

duke who lived nearby. old silly lecherous etc.

Example House of Usher: you get a selection of the paradigmatic axis (number of adjectives). Next week: again Chomsky and Hymes

3. VO, 24 October 2006 Prof. Widdowson/Seidlhofer Last week: models, map-making, description of language has to be based on abstraction, classification of language (bottle metaphor), is based on ignorance of factors to stress others How do linguists look on language? Basic principles: syntagmatic axis (horizontally, sentence-structure) and paradigmatic axis (vertically, items that fit into a slot, classes of units), that works on different levels Another factor is meaning semantics example: proximal (e.g. this) distal (e.g. that) ! different meaning in a sentence pronouns, P1-P2-P3 in sg and pl (I-you-he/she/it-them), you is ambiguous, it could be male or female, sg or pl, inferior or superior (German) I and we is not so ambiguous, we is not a lot of Is, but sometimes meaning of we is rather unclear (as we all know) Grammar of a language is motivated, because the purpose is to express meaning. Language is encoding of reality. Grammar narrows down what we can mean in a particular language encode features we are familiar with. There has to be a context. You cant just look at the code, you also have to look at how the language is used to achieve meaning. Readings 1: Chomsky, p.3 ideal speaker-listener, homogenous speech community who knows lang. perfectly in contrast: Hymes he starts in a bottom up way, practical work first then theory theoretical and practical problems converge, there is no linguistic theory and practical research has to apply 1) 2) 3) 4) Whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible Whether (and to what degree) something is feasible Whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate Whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed (attested)

Ad 1) possible can be rephrased with correct, careful, there are many varieties of language ! in one variety it is correct, in the other it is wrong (he just left vs. he has just left), phonotactics some sound combinations are legal, others are not-illegal (ncat, psit, gnu) Cat sit mat: legal combination of sounds, mit is a legal sound combination in English, but not lexically correct, mitt (Fustling) is; lexical and phonological does not necessarily overlap, syntagmatic level: The mouse the cat the dog the man the woman married beat chased ate had white tail. impossible

Still, some encodings are possible in one speech community, which are impossible in another. Example: prepone impossible in Brit. Engl., but perfectly possible in Indian Engl. Meaning put something forward; it is morphologically possible but not lexically as far as Brit. Engl. Is concerned. Ad 2) area of what goes on in the brain, psycho-linguistics, processing of grammatical structures, memory capacity Processable: The mouse had a white tail. Gets more complicated: the mouse, the cat ate, had a white tail. Hard: the mouse, the cat, the dog chased, ate, had a white tail. This is much less feasible. The mouse the cat the dog the man the woman married beat chased ate had white tail. What this is not feasible?? In fact, this is a grammatically correct sentence. But: Me Tarzan-you Jane is feasible, but not grammatically correct.

Chomsky is only looking at the first criteria, Hymes looks at all. Hymes paper was published 1971 and became very influential. It was done within a study of children with language problems ! socio-cultural factors ARE important here (idea of heterogeneous speechcommunity does not exist); a competent speaker also has to be able to be appropriately ungrammatical (when, where, with whom-quotation); someone who only produces grammatically correct sentences is a kind of alien, a monster! Language is just a small part of communication. A statement can be perfectly correct, but totally inappropriate. Grammatical rules are useless when you cant act upon them. Hymes talks about how children learn all the other competences of communication. There are a number of factors to be considered. Competence of use and competence of grammar are learnt concurrently. Language is learnt in context, but Chomsky is not interested in that. He is only interested in how people learn the code, not how they use it. Therefore theoretical linguistics and the study of a particular language have to be kept apart.

3. VO, 24 October 2006 Prof. Widdowson/Seidlhofer Last week: models, map-making, description of language has to be based on abstraction, classification of language (bottle metaphor), is based on ignorance of factors to stress others How do linguists look on language? Basic principles: syntagmatic axis (horizontally, sentence-structure) and paradigmatic axis (vertically, items that fit into a slot, classes of units), that works on different levels Another factor is meaning semantics example: proximal (e.g. this) distal (e.g. that) ! different meaning in a sentence pronouns, P1-P2-P3 in sg and pl (I-you-he/she/it-them), you is ambiguous, it could be male or female, sg or pl, inferior or superior (German) I and we is not so ambiguous, we is not a lot of Is, but sometimes meaning of we is rather unclear (as we all know) Grammar of a language is motivated, because the purpose is to express meaning. Language is encoding of reality. Grammar narrows down what we can mean in a particular language encode features we are familiar with. There has to be a context. You cant just look at the code, you also have to look at how the language is used to achieve meaning. Readings 1: Chomsky, p.3 ideal speaker-listener, homogenous speech community who knows lang. perfectly in contrast: Hymes he starts in a bottom up way, practical work first then theory theoretical and practical problems converge, there is no linguistic theory and practical research has to apply 1) 2) 3) 4) Whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible Whether (and to what degree) something is feasible Whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate Whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed (attested)

Ad 1) possible can be rephrased with correct, careful, there are many varieties of language ! in one variety it is correct, in the other it is wrong (he just left vs. he has just left), phonotactics some sound combinations are legal, others are not-illegal (ncat, psit, gnu) Cat sit mat: legal combination of sounds, mit is a legal sound combination in English, but not lexically correct, mitt (Fustling) is; lexical and phonological does not necessarily overlap, syntagmatic level: The mouse the cat the dog the man the woman married beat chased ate had white tail. impossible

Still, some encodings are possible in one speech community, which are impossible in another. Example: prepone impossible in Brit. Engl., but perfectly possible in Indian Engl. Meaning put something forward; it is morphologically possible but not lexically as far as Brit. Engl. Is concerned. Ad 2) area of what goes on in the brain, psycho-linguistics, processing of grammatical structures, memory capacity Processable: The mouse had a white tail. Gets more complicated: The mouse, the cat ate, had a white tail. Hard: The mouse, the cat, the dog chased, ate, had a white tail. This is much less feasible. The mouse the cat the dog the man the woman married beat chased ate had white tail. What?? This is not feasible! In fact, this is a grammatically correct sentence. But: Me Tarzan-you Jane is feasible, but not grammatically correct (possible). If a message is contextualised understanding is more feasible. You read or hear the message in the context it then becomes appropriate! Ad 3) context can override the problem of decoding of a message; external link between code and context; interpretation of the utterance Derivational theory of complexity: the more complex a structure was, the more difficult the sentence is to decode (process). As soon as the people had context it didnt work anymore. In everyday life we deal with context, and not just with sentences alone. Macbeth: If it were done when tis done, twere well it were done quickly. This is appropriate, but not feasible. Poem: Why bother where I went? For I went spinning on the Four wheels of my car Along the wet road until I saw a girl with one leg Over the rail of a balcony He is making us misunderstand. Reader anticipates end of clause and is irritated. It lacks feasibility, but appropriate in creating the effect of anticipation. Was it ten oclock tomorrow? perfectly appropriate, but formally impossible. Are you the fish? appropriate in a restaurant

Ad 4) Big/little large/small: customary frequency of usage of words - big and small, large and little Also more frequent: small boys (not little), little girls (not small). Why?? To know that depends on an extremely good knowledge of a language (idiomatic usage).

The book which/that the students discussed last week The book the students discussed last week. The book that was discussed by the students last week. ! so which domain is used in which context? How are all 4 concepts linked?

Chomsky is only looking at the first criteria, Hymes looks at all. Hymes paper was published 1971 and became very influential. It was done within a study of children with language problems ! socio-cultural factors ARE important here (idea of heterogeneous speechcommunity does not exist); a competent speaker also has to be able to be appropriately ungrammatical (when, where, with whom-quotation); someone who only produces grammatically correct sentences is a kind of alien, a monster! Language is just a small part of communication. A statement can be perfectly correct, but totally inappropriate. Grammatical rules are useless when you cant act upon them. Hymes talks about how children learn all the other competences of communication. There are a number of factors to be considered. Competence of use and competence of grammar are learnt concurrently. Language is learnt in context, but Chomsky is not interested in that. He is only interested in how people learn the code, not how they use it. Therefore theoretical linguistics and the study of a particular language have to be kept apart. Ways in which the possible can be described: we talk about the encoded form of a language; knowledge of the code; Saussure: langue (competence-Chomsky, basic internal relationships, book of rules that every individual has in speech community) and parole (you act upon your knowledge) A model of language is a model of their competence, what they know about knowledge. Process of idealisation: 3 things necessary: process of regularization: you get rid of features of spoken language, performance features (emotions, food in your mouth, drunk, repetitions, .) process of standardization: you assume a stable language, there is no variety (Chomsky: ideal speaker listener) process of decontextualisation: you get rid of context This is not reality, but necessary when looking at the possible. Linguists introspect (consult their own knowledge), they take themselves as a representative of a language; 1st person data; problems: how do you know whether you are a representative?; not very reliable

Linguists elicit information, they get second person data, they ask people who are assumed to be experts; informants Linguists observe and infer, how do people use language?; third person data Structuralist / taxanomic approach Widely used in the USA, derived from Saussure What does it say about sentences? The duke gave my aunt this teapot. That is a structure and slots in a structure. This teapot was given to my aunt That is a different structure. A structuralist makes a list of all different structures !Slot and Filler approach But basically the active and passive structure are the same thing. On the surface many structures have the same proposition. In all cases its the same meaning. Is there a deep structure (Chomsky)? It is the underlying structure that all surface forms are drawn from. Chomsky said we do that with 2 rules: transformational rules derived from the deep structure and phrase structure rules. The further down you go in a structure you can come across universal features of human language. So these universal features of lang. must be innate, according to Chomsky. Case-grammar: He sliced the bread with the knife. He sliced the bread in the kitchen. You can shift all elements around, but the roles always stay the same. You have number of cases (giver, receiver, place, ), that overrides any lexical difference. The bread was cut by him Copy - handout!

5.VO - 7 11. 2006 core lecture linguistics Widdowson/Seidlhofer Handout 2 with task: approaches to grammar Advice: do reading, make notes, might be important for exam Idealisation led to models of language Deep structure: relationships in peoples minds Set of basic concepts get transformed Hallidays Functional Grammar: Language is at is because it has developed 3 basic functions. People need language to relate to their environment (link P1 to P3) ideational function People need language to relate to other people (P1-P2) interpersonal function Ideational function: transitivity systems: the clause as representation, formal grammatical realisation, Material Process (eg. build, kiss) The duke kissed my aunt (grammar of doing) Mental process (eg. see, love) The duke kissed my aunt. The duke loved my aunt Grammar of sensing Relational Process (eg. be, seem) The duke is a tyrant. (grammar of being) Interpersonal Function (internalized in the grammar of the transitivity systems) Mood systems: the clause as exchange, addressed to a second person Did the duke kiss my aunt? Is the duke a tyrant? Textual Function Theme systems: the clause as message What the duke did was kiss my aunt. It was my aunt the duke kissed. These 3 systems interrelate. Form of a grammar reflects reality of outside world. These are encodings of social necessary usage of language. Questions: all grammars are idealized, it creates the illusion that language is stable and clearly defined

1) How does ambiguity happen? Is it just a matter of the possible? 2) What is a language, and who decides?

6.VO 21. 11. 2006 core lecture linguistics Widdowson/Seidlhofer Questions from last time: 1) How does ambiguity happen? Is it just a matter of the possible? Homonomy, polysomy, syntactic structures: conjunctions which can represent time or place or reason, lexical ambiguity Structural ambiguity: two deep structures which converge in the same surface (Chomsky) Pragmatic ambiguity: context 2) What is a language, and who decides? System encoding meaning in sounds, words Institutional decision (but who is the authority in English?), corpus planning, E. Haugen One language is not intelligible by speakers of another language Possible ways of distinguishing one language from another: External Criteria - a language is spoken in a particular country (French in France, Chinese in China, etc.), defined by a national boundary; problem: we speak German in Austria; original speakers of a language think they own this language they have the right to set the standards only - within national borders there are often different languages (there is no Nigerian but many Nigerian languages, same for Switzerland), reasons can be colonialism (problem: missionaries labelled languages in a Western way, in Africa the view is rather different, more open, there is a switching between languages, which is not recognised as such, see: S. Makoni), immigration - when a new state is created, a new language emerges? In a sense it does (Croatian in Croatia). - Some people have a language, but no state (Kurds, Basques), its a notion of identity - The feeling is that when you have a state you need a language to legitimise your identity, other way round: no state, no status; there is a strong sense of a language being part of a nation Internal Criteria: - questions like phonology, morphology - typology of languages: one can identify different language families (historical) - in types of phonology there are tone languages and intonation languages - morphology: isolating languages grammatical relationships are expressed in different words (Chinese), inflectional languages grammatical changes are expressed by changes in the word form (German, English, Latin), agglutinative languages grammatical relations are expressed by the adding of phonemes (Turkish) - different languages have different ways of organising their grammar ! types

in English word order is very important, but such a word order also differs between languages (English: SVO, also SOV or OSV possible in other languages) SVO The duke kissed my aunt SOV The duke my aunt kissed OSV My aunt the duke kissed within these types languages also differ, so its a matter of degree (differences between Swedish and Danish, or Flemish and Dutch), slight differences are separate languages sometimes big differences in one language are seen as dialects, f.e. in China level of intelligibility a criteria: two forms of speaking are mutually unintelligible ! different languages sociolinguistic criteria: social forces are very powerful in discussing intelligibility

Conclusion: you cant define language externally, you also cant only use structural criteria (types) It has to do with what the people themselves think of their language, whether they define it as different to others. A definition of language depends on its users. Language provides the speaker with social identity. No matter how similar or different languages are, whether they are considered as one language or several depends on the speakers. Thats the reason why people are so passionate about language. Its a matter of attitude. It is a strong symbolic fiction for the users it defines you and your community (inside, outside). That goes so far that users deliberately make their language more different or more the same. Example: Noah Webster when he set up his dictionary deliberately changed the spelling to make it more different, he also tried to introduce new words. There is also variation in a language. That can also be explained by the need to be different to other speakers in the same community. Marthas Vineyard: posh holiday resort, island; but there were also the fishermen, posh people took on the accent of the fishermen, so the fishermen modified their accent to be different, the y wanted to disassociate themselves with the rich people. Teenagers develop ways of speaking, when others adopt that, they change it. There are different types of slang, or jargon. New reader in handapparat (sociolinguistics) dont focus on details but get familiar

28. 11.06 Core Lecture Linguistics; Seidlhofer and Widdowson Relationship between language and society = sociolinguistics Nature of language; it is very difficult to identify what language is. Only with references to aspects can we say that we speak a language. Language is a social construct. Two main functions of language; 1. Language is used to communicate with each other in a community. 2. Language is a device for representing social identity. Communication ------------Identity are functions of language. Sense of community is very flexible! A person has a sense of community in a very small group. The more frequent the network , the more the community you will remember. Network is different from place to place. Language changes since network changes. Language community is called speech community. Speech community is a community define by networking. And they can have several languages or language repertoire. Plurilinguism = individual plurality Multilinguism = society plurality How are the languages differently used? What is the purpose of language use? The purpose of language use is social and communicative identity. Code-switching; why we are doing this? What is the effect of switching? Eg. Stranded costs=money as the loss for bad investments (see gas bill) Languages are clearly defined in the domain of Diglossia (Ch.Ferguson) Diglossia (two different systems)- situation where there are two variants of the same language that coexists in a community. (two situations that shows which language to use high or low) Fergusons examples; Swiss: High German, and Swiss German Hochdt = Switzerland

Haitian Creole-French (redundantly developed) Vernacular Egyptian/ classical Arabic Dhimotiki(evry day l.)/ Kathavevusa ? There are certain domains where the speaker recognises the appropriateness of using evry day language or high language. High form - codified, standardised, formal presentation: not widely used. Low form - not codified, not described, not sanctioned by official authorities Choosing language appropriate to the domain and situation you deal with. Labove= there are no single style speakers. He studied phonological level. RP is an accent, prestigious DialectsStandard English is also a dialect Labove focuses on small features of accent. He looked at a community in New York which has a very specific sound. The pronunciation of [th] as [d]which is a mark that belongs to a particular, local, working social class. And the high social class with the correct pronunciation of [th]. Labove gave those people a task to do, to read a word list, and looked at their reading style, careful speech, casual speech. In this way Labove focuses on sociolinguistic patterns, social and stilistic variations in the use of [th] in NY community. Attention paid to speech; the style shifts accordingly to the situation you are in. Also the use of [r] is a socio-linguistic matter. Hypercorrection = you try to be over-correct.

7. VO fehlt 8. VO 5 December 2006 core lecture last week: Labov mysterious graphs: hypercorrection: the more attention they pay to speech, the more they move to the prestigious form; but some go beyond it! They use more than upper classes do they provide more sounds that are necessary, they are overcompensating Accommodation: there is a tendency of speakers to accommodate to others they think highly of; comes from social psychology Accommodation - convergence: social acceptance, understanding, intelligibility - divergence: disassociating from a group, marking off, identity (distinct)

derives from sense of territory: someone ones to be like you ! convergence someone likes to be separate ! divergence It is a protection of social space. The case of Alberto: he lived for about 30 years in the US and just speaks rudimentary English! he is protecting his space, he wants to be an Italian, and not an American. In learning a language you have to converge with another group, psychology is very important. There is the expression: He doesnt speak my language. Meaning: I dont want to get involved with that person. Language is not only a marker of social groups, but also of ethnic groups. There are markers of ethnic identity. There is also a difference between the genders men and women. (reader!) Formal differences in gender roles: Japanese pronoun usage, in African languages avoiding of certain morphemes. There are some forms women use, men dont. Women have a larger repertoire in colour terms (not just pink, but fuchsia, purple, mauve). Conversational behaviour is also different between the genders (there have been changes in the last 30 years reader!). A lot of gender studies is only done in the west and language always changes, so its necessary to be cautious! If its the case that social structure affects language, does language affect social structure? Example: political correctness usage of female forms; female forms are used, because there are inequalities in society! So language is used to draw attention to that social fact. So does this change the attitude? Germany in the 30s: names for things were created to avoid foreign influence (Fernsprecher Telefon). Does society change, when language is changed? So is language used to manipulate, control thought? The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: different languages encode different aspects of reality; some languages differ between names for affine and kin relatives (not so in English, German;

different encodings of time between cultures); there are several categories of reality, that are expressed in different languages; so you have a tendency towards thinking in the categories your languages has encoded things. Discourse Analysis Contextual factors correlate with linguistic forms. Bits of language: In/out Private Fragile Silence Ladies Danger This side up One way They are not interesting, but have their meaning. This meaning is encoded in the language itself. When you come across them you identify them as public notices, you recognise the pragmatic meaning the symbolic meaning. You encounter them as texts, not as word, or grammatical classes. They are bits of communication. There is a message. It is a question what people mean by these words, and not what these words mean (like in a dictionary). Even in a foreign language you recognise a text. Meaning is created by using the text, and that is not the same by what you mean by the text. (?) We use language to express a message; give expression for intended meaning. The text is not the meaning. It has to be interpreted from there. Its dependent from what the receiver makes of it. You have an idea in your head, you use your language to get your message across. The receiver interprets the text to get the meaning. The text mediates, and thats where the problems, the misunderstandings arise.

9. VO 12 December 2006 core lecture handout discourse analysis: difference between language as a code and what people do with language, what does the speaker mean and what do the listeners understand, pragmatic meaning My mother took hers off at a garden party in front of the vicar. without context this sentences is not possible to comprehend its context-dependent, as soon as you try to imagine what the speakers means you are into discourse (difference to text) handout Nr. 1: A: Thats the telephone. B: Im in the bath. A: OK. A and B are interacting. Beyond the words there is meaning. That are utterances with certain functions. Its not a statement, its a request, then the answer is an excuse, A accepts the excuse. A lot of collaboration and interpretation is going on. Nr. 3 cohesion reference substitution ellipsis conjunction lexical cohesion

standard book: Halliday&Hasan 1976

Its about links across sentences. That is a taxonomy of what kind of links exist. Nr. 4 The system The Usage What is semantically and grammatically possible Depends on context, what is appropriate Text Discourse Sentence Utterance Cohesion (cohesive ties) Coherence Nr. 5 Hymess speaking model speech events With the use of language we want to achieve something. S P E A Setting time, place, and other physical conditions surrounding the speech act Scene psychological counterpart to setting Participants speaker or sender, the addresser, the hearer, the audience, the receiver Ends purpose, goals Act Sequence form and content of message

K Keys tone of conversation (serious or mocking) I Instrumentalities channels, mediums how to convey a message N Norms norms of interaction, interpretation, internalised rules of interpretation G Genres fairy tale, advertisement, etc. Meaning in a text has to be activated, and that only works with context. Nr. 6 Extract from Doris Lessings Golden Notebook reactions to the book and the three types of reactions. Its either only a reference in regard to sex, or only politics, or only mental illness. Different readers derive different discourses from one text. Thats because all the readers are different. So readers arent passive recipients, they derive discourses. One text is read/ understood differently by different people. There is not one and only meaning. Nr. 7 Reference Proposition/locution

Force illocution

Effect perlocution

Austin: How to do things with words. Searle They are talking about that language is not only used, there is a purpose, why language is used. Illocutionary Acts: Forecast Foretell Predict Promise Threaten Warn Apologize Confess Name/baptize

Trespassers will be prosecuted. ! referred to a particular context Keep off the grass. ! warning, also dependant on context Schemas are activated by texts, which are quite strong. It is also adjusted when previous schema doesnt work any more.

10. VO, 9 January 2007 core lecture exam: not names, terms and facts, but coverage is achieved, understanding of issues, own ideas looking at a short text and comment (discourse analysis) Example: The term discourse is used in somewhat different ways by different scholars, but underlying the differences is a common concern for language beyond the boundaries of isolated sentences. The term TEXT is used in similar ways. Both terms may refer to a unit of language larger than a sentence: one may speak of a discourse or a text. (W. Chafe) think about whether this is your view as well, sentence does not need to be a sentence to get meaning across, discuss text - discourse handout from last year Schemata: constructs of context example: easy text, feasible, correct sentences BUT meaning unclear, not understandable without background knowledge (context). Context is doing the laundry (title), then its feasible. Title activates a schema, an expectation, background knowledge. The sense is not in the language but what you make of it. You make sense of what people mean with language. Knowing the semantic meaning of the text, does not mean that you understand it. Bartlett, Remembering he came up with the term schema. He played an Native Indian story to British students and told them to recall, the students the story into something they could understand. So when you get in contact with a schema you dont know, you can either give up or try to figure it out and try to connect it to one of your schemata, you convert something you dont understand into something you can understand. Thats also the problem of multicultural misunderstandings. Even when the context seems obvious (chair, door,..), it is mentally processed. When two people interact, schematic worlds are converged. Person 1 tries to communicate with Person 2. Both people have schematas in their head. When you want to communicate you have to make sure, that the other person has the same schema. Otherwise the communication is not successful. The converging area of two peoples schematas can be small or big. You need to negotiate reference, force (what do mean by that? illocution), effect (perlocution; Can I speak quite frankly, with due respect but, ..). Grice: Cooperative Principle. It applies to all communication (written and spoken). They communicate on the prior understanding that they cooperate. Cooperating doesnt mean agreement. There are 4 maxims, relative to the purpose of the conversation. - Quantity: dont say more or less than is needed to say - Quality: dont say things which are untrue/false - Relation: be relevant

Manner: be clear, avoid obscurity

When someone violates these principles an effect is created (why did he say that?). Violation or flouting of a maxim ! implicature. Does the cooperative principle has to be seen together with the schematas? Example telegram: shortened language; condolences: tell lies about the deceased. This does not violate the maxims, because there are conventions.

11. VO 16 January 2007, core lecture schematic knowledge: structures of familiar knowledge, structure of reality deriving from peoples life (background, upbringing) Grices cooperative principle, four maxims (quantity, quality, relation, manner) violation of maxims: implicature; an effect is created (why does he say that now?? you wonder) Why dont people cooperate? They want to make an impact, to impress, to do something that is noticed, but also because of convention, politeness. Its a negotiation of human relationships. You always run the risk of your space being invaded, when you talk to others. There is always a convergence of two worlds. One person is moving into the world of the other person, and so the factor of territory is becoming relevant. Cooperation vs. territoriality, you are polite because you want the other one to be polite as well, and not to invade your space (territorial imperative). Different cultures have different notions of space, there is a source of misunderstanding. It is a cultural indicator. Hymes 4 criteria revision: Nr. 4: whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed, and what its doing entails. ! thats data, first person data introspective (you ask yourself: would I say that, or not), second person data elicitation (you ask a second person: would you say that?), third person data observation (you observe from outside this is corpus linguistics). The emphasis has shifted from 1st person (pre-computer era) to 3rd person knowledge. Corpus linguistics Any dictionary, esp. an Engl. Dict., is a corpus based dictionary. Collins Cobuild grammar is corpus based, most grammars are. Its what people really say and write. That has become technically possible in some way. The emphasis is of course mostly on written language. This collection of language is impressive but what does a corporate analysis tell us about language? Moreover, every variety has its own grammar. There is also the illusion that English, or languages of the first world, are the predominant language. There is a difference of prescriptive and descriptive grammars. This accelerates language change. A corpus deals with text, something that has actually happened. It counts products of English, of our conversation. Corpus linguistics works on the basis of frequency and patterns of cooccurance. There are a number of words which are the top words, the most used words (depends on whether text is spoken or written), and they are usually the, a, I. There are some words which have a similar meaning, like large and big, or small and little, astonishing, surprising and amazing. Which words are used, in which frequency? That depends on where your data comes from, and whether its spoken or written. So you can get wordlists, next you can have a look at what stands beside the words that are counted. Its the co-text. You can look at collocations. There are also collocational

relationships (little girl-small boy is more frequent than little boy-small girl). A word can have a different frequency and collocation depending on what kind of text it is (academic, fiction, spoken), and in what form the word is used (sg. or pl., tense). Larger parts of frequently used language (phrases) are called colligations (f.e.: it is not surprising that). These are patterns of language and idioms, co-textually performed patterns. These patterns arent taught, you just learn them from exposure to the language. They are not used consciously. That is what makes a language idiomatic, real. Can the computer tell us that? Its a move from descriptive linguistics to applied linguistics.

12. VO 23 January 2007, core lecture Questions from audience: How can a language be defined? Hymes communicative competence (4 criteria) in relation to the 4 maxims? Describe phenomenon of hyper-correction. ! Labov, adjust your language according to who you are talking, when you do too much its hypercorrection Whats the connection of text and context and when does the notional (?) schema come in? Is there a distinction between context and co-text? There will be coverage questions (6-8, short ones) and a couple of essay-type questions (coherent prose)

Applied Linguistics Situations from Widdowson series (applied ling.), examples of people confronted with problems about language (whats the best way to study a language, language education policy of a school, language planning) Theoretical Linguistics deals with general properties of language, its functions. It deals with models of language, its something abstract and idealised. You look at what is common to all languages, the underlying concept. What is not asked is how these abstractions are realised. Then we move to descriptive linguistics you look at a particular language, or more languages. You look at details. Then categories are needed (tense, aspect). One approach doesnt work without the other. Applied linguistics takes these rules of the two types of linguistics back to reality, real life. Explanation is the process of interpreting of linguistic findings so that you can make them accessible. Language is observed from the outside. Linguist is the analyst. Procedural knowledge: language you use without thinking about it, language comes naturally Declarative knowledge: offering explanations of language (teaching ones own knowledge) Applied linguistics tries to get the insights of linguists to the real life. How can these findings be used? Example: you feel unwell, you have stomach ache, that is procedural knowledge, you go to the doctor and ask him for professional advice, doctor is a specialist, he should use his declarative knowledge to give you an explanation that a non-specialist understands, when you understand the principles of your stomach ache you know how to avoid it, you make use of the specialists knowledge, thats exploitation Exploitation is using of expert knowledge. When you understand a process you can alter this knowledge and intervene.

Linguistics is the science of language applied linguistics is the technician (??) Linguistics applied vs. applied linguistics In everyday life there are problems with language. So specialists are needed to solve the problems. Forensic linguistics: language and the law; a linguist has to find out whether letters are genuine Classroom experience: language as a subject in school, different from how English naturally occurs, but its the reality of many language learners, developments of teaching can be related to the 4 principles of Hymes Old-fashioned: focus on the possible and the feasible, on the coded forms of English the structure, its not a language that is used, aspects of grammar, constant repetition Later: communicative approach, taking the appropriate into the account, you learn the communicative competence, a move away from pure grammar It moved from semantics to pragmatics, but ignoring the context of the learner (British textbooks for Chinese kids its not appropriate). With corpus analysis one has access to which language is produced by native speakers. Its real language, language that is actually used. But learners in the classroom have a different reality the reality doesnt travel from the user to the learner. The linguist describes the language of native use; its not the reality of the language learner. Applied linguistics is the mediation of findings of linguists to that special situation (f.e. classroom).