Describing language (Chapter 5)

Hassan Hassani

Meaning in context

No one who speaks English has any difficulty understanding the meaning of a sentence like

'It's warm in here.' But why it is being said, and what the speaker

wishes to convey by saying it, depends entirely on two things: the context in which it is said and what the speaker wants people to understand.

1. Someone who is either lazy, ill or in some position of power, might be either a request or an order for someone to open a window.

2. Two people come in out of the cold, might well be an expression of satisfaction or pleasure.

3. two people are trying to decide which room to use as their bedroom, might serve as a suggestion to choose or not to choose the room.

The meaning of language depends on where it occurs within a larger stretch of discourse, and thus the relationship that the different language elements have with what comes before and after them. In other words, speakers and writers have to be able to operate with more than just words and grammar; they have to be able to string utterances together.

A : We can leave the ice here till we need it. B : It's warm in here.

A : Is it? OK, then, let's find somewhere else. The utterance 'It's warm in here' acts as a rejection

of A's suggestion. A can then use 'it' to refer to the whole of B's

proposition ('It's warm in here'). 'OK' suggests that A has absorbed all of the

discourse so far (suggestion - rejection - agreement with the rejection)

The elements of language

Whatever the sentence 'It's warm in here.' is used to mean, the speaker has put together a number of elements in order to get that meaning across:

1. Grammar Our sentence depends, for its success, on putting a

number of elements in the correct order, in this case subject (it), verb (is), complement ( warm ), and adverbial ( in here). The elements have to go in the right order for the sentence to work.

*'It here in warm is'

We can't, for example, put an adjective or an adverb in the subject slot.

*'Stealthily is warm in here.' Or a verb in the adverbial position

*'It's warm go.' However, there are some changes we are allowed to

make to our sentence elements, and these will alter the meaning of the sentence.(subject-verb ---> verb-subject) will make our sentence into a question.

'Is it warm in here?'

Not all sentences consist of just one clause. We can make things considerably more complex by joining and amalgamating a number of different clauses. For example, the following sentences:

'The girl met the woman.' 'The woman was standing by the canal.'

'They went to a cafe.' 'They had a meal.' 'They enjoyed it very much.‘ can be amalgamated into a multi-clause sentence such as: 'The girl met the woman who was standing by the canal and they

went to a cafe and had a meal, which they enjoyed very much.'

2 .Vocabulary

The sentence 'It is warm in here.' is made up of the words 'it', 'is', 'warm', 'in' and 'here'. The speaker has chosen these words on purpose to express a particular meaning. He or she could have chosen 'hot' or 'cold' instead of , warm' and, as a result, the sentence would mean something different.

A speaker's knowledge of a word also includes an understanding of how the shape of that word can be altered so that its grammatical meaning can be changed. We call the system of rules that determine how these changes can be made morphology. For example, a simple morphological change will make the sentence which started this section less categorical (It's warmish in here') whereas adding '-er' to the adjective (It's warmer in here') makes it a comparative adjective. In the same way adding '-ed' to a regular verb ('he walked', 'she played') makes it a past tense verb.

3. Pronunciation The way the sentence is spoken will also determine exactly

what it means. Pitch describes the level (high or low) at which we speak. Changing our pitch in an utterance is absolutely crucial for getting our meaning across.

The word 'Yes', for example, can be said with a falling voice, a rising voice or a combination of the two. By changing the direction of the voice we can make 'Yes' mean 'I agree' or 'Perhaps it's true' or 'You can't be serious' or 'Wow, you are so right', or any number of other things.

There are two main categories of sounds: vowel sounds and consonant sounds. Vowel sounds can either be single or combinations of two or more sounds (diphthongs or triphthongs). Consonants can sometimes be joined together to make sounds. Consonants can be either voiced or voiceless. Voiced consonants are those where we close the vocal cords in our throat and they vibrate as the air from the lungs passes between them. Consonants like Ibl, Idl, Ivl and Ig/are all voiced in this way, whereas when we say the consonants Ipl, Itl, If I and IkI the vocal cords are left open and so there is no vibration, and therefore no voice. Thus, while, for example, we use exactly the same parts of the mouth to make the sounds Idl and Itl, the first is voiced while the second is not. The same is true of the pairs Ibl and Ipl, lvI and If I, and Igl and Ik I .

Forms and meanings

1. One form, many meanings The present continuous verb form can refer to both the

present (I'm not listening') and the future (I'm seeing him tomorrow'). It can be used to refer to a temporary uncompleted event ('They are enjoying the weather') or to a series of completed events ('He's always putting his foot in it').

Words can also mean more than one thing, for example, 'book' (something to read, to reserve, a list of bets, etc)

With so many available meanings for words and grammatical forms, it is the context the word occurs in which determines which of these meanings is being referred to.

2. One meaning, many forms A meaning or concept can be expressed in many different ways.

Consider, for example, the concept of the future. Different forms can be used to express the same basic concept.

I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m going to see you tomorrow. I’m seeing you tomorrow- that's the arrangement, isn't it?

I can get to you by about six o'clock. I see you at six, and afterwards I have a meeting with John. The choice of which way to express futurity depends on whether the

speaker wants to talk about fixed arrangements, plans, schedules, offers, or just a simple concept of the future with none of these overtones.

Word meaning can also be expressed in different ways. Even where words appear to have the same meaning - to be synonyms - they are usually distinct from each other. For example, we can describe an intelligent person by using a number of different words: 'intelligent', 'bright', 'brainy', 'clever', 'smart', etc. But each of these words has a different connotation (shade of meaning). 'Brainy' is an informal word and might well have a negative connotation when used by a schoolchild about a classmate. 'Bright‘ carries the connotation of lively and young. 'Smart' is commonly used in American English and has a slight connotation of trickiness, and 'clever' is often used in phrases with negative connotations.

Parts of speech

These are the categories which help us determine how grammatical sequences are put together, and which words can goin which slots.

We will consider the parts of speech in terms of the noun phrase, verbs, adverbs and prepositions, and discourse.

1. The noun phrase A noun phrase may consist of just a noun

(John) or a pronoun (he, they). The noun may be preceded by a determiner (this woman, a man). There may be one or more adjectives before the noun (a young woman, a handsome old man), and the noun may be post- modified in some way (a woman with a computer, the man wearing a hat).

Nouns: Countable and uncountable Plural nouns, singular verbs( darts, news)Collective nouns (family, team, government)Compound nouns (walking stick, cherry tree )Pronouns: personal pronouns( objective, subjective)reflexive pronouns (myself, mine ...)relative pronouns (who, where ...)

Articles and determiners Articles ('the', 'a' and 'an') belong to a class of words called

determiners. These identify the noun phrase, telling us whether it is general or specific, or whether it is known about or is new. Other examples of determiners are 'this', 'that', 'these', 'those', 'some' and 'all of'. Determiners usually come before a noun or at the beginning of a noun phrase, e.g. 'an apple', 'the red bus', 'some of my best friends', 'these fresh oranges'.

Definite article (the) Indefinite article(a/an)

Adjectives Comparative and superlative forms('big -

bigger‘ 'biggest', 'more colourful', 'most colourful', 'bad - worse - worst‘)

Adjective sequence size colour origin material purpose noun

the small purple German silk evening gown

the large () () wooden () crate

Adjective and preposition 'interested in', 'keen on','happy about'

Adjectives as nouns 'the blind', 'the poor‘

Adjective or adverb? Some words can be both adjectives and adverbs, depending

on whether they modify nouns or verbs. When we say 'I had a late lunch', 'late' is an adjective, but when we say 'He arrived late', it is an adverb. Although many adverbs end in '-ly', a word like 'deadly' ('a deadly disease') is functioning as an adjective

2. The verb phrase In any discussion of verbs we need to bear in mind

two main parameters, tense and aspect. A verb tense is the form of the verb we choose when we want to say what time ( past, present, future). The aspect (continuous, simple, perfect, etc) which we choose for the verb describes this. There are three different types of verb: auxiliary verbs, main verbs and phrasal (multi-word) verbs.

Auxiliary verbs Auxiliary and the modal auxiliary verbs. They are used with main verbs in affirmative sentences,

negative sentences and question formation.

Main verbs They can stand alone and express the main idea.

Phrasal (multi-word) verbs Phrasal verbs are formed by adding a particle (adverb or preposition - or an adverb and a preposition) to

a verb to create new meanings. Type 1: intransitive: does not take a direct object (take off, stand up) Type 2: transitive and inseparable: These are verbs which take an object, and where the object must

come after the complete verb (the verb and the particle cannot be separated). (go on, look after) Type 3: transitive and separable: the object can come between the verb and the particle. (give back,

work out) Type 4: transitive, 2+ particles, inseparable: Where there is more than one particle, the object has to

come at the end. (run out of, break up with)

Verb forms

Participles: (present and past participles) Regular and irregular verbs Active and passiveVerb complementation

simple continuous

present John is in the kitchen. What's happening?

I love it here. I'm not listening.

past

She said goodbye. He was waiting at the

gate.

He cried.

They weren't listening. She didn't buy a new cellphone.

simple continuous

present perfect

I've read his new book. I've been reading his new book.

They haven't arrived yet. They haven't been travelling for long.

past perfect

He had studied English as a child. He had been waiting for about half an hour.

I had never worked with a robot before. They hadn't been talking for

more than a minute when ...

future perfect

I'll have finished this homework by tomorrow.

In August we'll have been living here for twenty-six years.

By this time next year, I will have been to the gym about 160 times.

When you get back, I'll have been working on this chapter for

six hours.

Perfect verbs

Hypothetical meaning

When we talk about something that is not real, but that might be the case, we are talking hypothetically. English has many ways of expressing hypothetical meaning:

1. Modal verbs modals are auxiliary verbs which we use to comment on

the likelihood of something. Thus, if we say 'It might rain' we are saying that it is a hypothetical possibility. If we say 'Perhaps I could be persuaded' or 'I would if I could' we are hypothesising situations in which such eventualities are possible.

2. Conditional sentences Conditional sentences are formed when the conjunction 'if' is

used to preface a condition, e.g. 'If it rains (condition), you'll get wet (result)'. In this case, it is quite likely that it will rain, and therefore the result is possible. However, if we change the sentence to 'If it rained, you would get wet' we are suggesting that the chance of it raining is unlikely - in other words, we are talking hypothetically - and this is signalled by the use of 'would' rather than 'will'. A further change of verb tense/form (using the past perfect) will produce an impossible condition, e.g. 'If it had rained, you would have got wet'. But it didn't so you were spared!

These three conditional forms are often called first, second and third conditionals. It is useful to understand whether they are real (possible) or hypothetical (impossible) and whether they refer to the present, future or past.

hypothetical real

If I had a dog, I'd take it for walks.I'd take a dog for walks if I had one.

If you pay online, you get a discount. You get a discount if you pay on line.

talking about the present

If I won the lottery, I'd travel round the world. If I were you I'd get a new jacket.

If you work hard, you'll pass the exam. You'll pass the exam if you work hard.

talking about the past

If I'd known about the rail strike, I would have come by car.I would have come by car if I'd known about the rail strike.

If it was very warm, we ate outside. We ate outside if it was very warm.

talking about the future

Words together 1. Collocations: If any two words occur together more often than just by

chance, we often call them collocations. In other words, when you hear the word 'asleep' there is a good chance that the word 'fast' will be used with it ('fast asleep'). More examples: heavy traffic, heavy rain/snow, heavy fighting, heavy drinker ...

2. Lexical chunks: Lexical chunks are strings of words which behave almost as one unit. Some of these are fixed (which means you can't change any of the words, e.g. over the moon, out of the blue), and some of them are semi-fixed (which' means you can change some of the words, e.g. nice to see you/good to see you/great to see you, etc).

3. Idioms: Are lexical phrases where the meaning of the whole phrase may not be comprehensible even if we know the meaning of each individual word ('full of beans' = energetic, 'as plain as the nose on your face' = obvious).

Language functions

A language function is a purpose you wish to achieve when you say or write something. By 'performing' the function, you are performing an act of communication. If you say 'I apologise', you are performing the function of apologising; if you say 'I promise', you are performing the function of promising. But functions are more often performed without using verbs like this at all. We can apologise by saying 'sorry' and invite someone not by saying 'I invite you' but by saying things like 'Do you fancy coming round for a meal?'. As we have seen above, there are many ways of recommending a course of action.

Text and Discourse 1. Cohesion: Cohesion refers to the devices we use to stick text together - the

way we connect ideas and sentences together. Lexical cohesion involves using words and groups of words throughout a text to bind a topic together. In this case we use grammatical cohesion, anaphoric reference and tinkers.

2. Coherence: Cohesion will make no difference to the success of a text if it is not coherent. When a text is coherent - when it has some internal logic – the readers should be able to perceive the writer's purpose and follow their line of thought.

3. Conversational discourse: Many of the same elements of cohesion and coherence apply to face-to- face spoken discourse as well. But in speech we can also use ellipsis for grammatical cohesion, and participants need to be proficient at turn-taking, the conversational convention that requires that only one person speak at anyone time. Moreover, if the conversation is to be successful, speakers should avoid long silences, and should listen when someone else is speaking.

Language variables The way English speakers use systems of grammar, vocabulary and

pronunciation is dependent upon a number of variables; speaking and writing, register and language varieties.

1. Speaking and writing: The way we put words together in correct sequences is often influenced by whether or not we are doing it in speech or writing. For example, we find that in conversation we tend to use more contractions (e.g. 'it is' contracted to 'it's', 'I have' contracted to 'I've' ) than in writing. In speech we might well shorten 'It's warm in here' to 'Warm in here' or even 'Warm', though such ellipsis is less likely in writing. However, the choice of whether something is more or less speaking-like or writing-like may depend on the register the speaker is using. Students of English need to be able to recognise the difference between more speaking- like and writing-like language, and to use these differences creatively.

2. Register: Our choice of words is also determined by the register we are speaking in. Register refers to both the topic we are speaking about and the tone (for example formal or informal) that we wish to adopt. Thus, for example, in a weather forecast we would expect to hear topic words such as 'depression', 'cold front', 'moving in from ... ', 'temperatures' and 'hot', 'cool' and 'warm'. Students of English need to be able to recognise register differences so that they can choose their words appropriately, depending on who they are speaking or writing to, and on the topic in question.

3. Language varieties: English is not just one language, of course. There are many different varieties. Even if we take just British English for example, we will find that whereas a speaker from southern England might say 'It's really warm in here', someone from Newcastle in the north of England might say 'It's right warm in here' (where 'right' is pronounced 'reet'). There are regional variations in Britain in pronunciation, word choice and grammar. There are differences between varieties of British English and the English used in other countries too. An Australian speaker, using an informal tone, might well change our sentence to 'Bloody warm in here, mate', and many American speakers of English will say Iwo:rmI rather than Iwo:mI - i.e. with the Irl sound clearly audible. There are other marked differences between British and American English, too.

The status of English as one language is challenged by the many different 'Englishes' being used around the world, and notions of the ownership of English have shifted dramatically. Although there are still many people who advocate using a native-speaker model to teach English, there is growing acceptance of the concept of an International English, used as a common language of communication by people whose native language is not English. This International English belongs to everyone who speaks it, but it is no one's mother tongue. Students should be aware of the difference in language varieties and should be given opportunities to experience different Englishes, though not in such a way as to make things incomprehensible to them. Furthermore, they need to be aware that there is much more that is similar about different Englishes than is different.

Thank you for your attention.Thank you for your attention.

Thank you for your attention.

Thank you for your attention.