Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

LINGUISTICS 1 – FINAL EXAM PREPARATION

1. THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

1.1. THE GENERAL PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE

Linguistics is the science that studies language which includes phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. The main role and the importance of language in
the evolution of the human species have to do with the human capacity for self-awareness and thought (which are facilitated by language), with the ability to transfer
complex information, to discuss the meanings of events and the possible outcomes of actions, and to share feelings and ideas. All of these would have been impossible to
achieve without the existence of language.

The ability for an individual to model the world for himself and to communicate using language was probably the single most advantageous evolutionary
adaptation of the human species.

The human species developed the ability to use sounds in systems which could communicate meaning through their mental capacity (COGNITION). Even though
languages differ in many ways, they are all processed by the brain in the same way. Therefore, it can be said that all languages share certain fundamental
design features and structural characteristics that enable them to work the way they do.

The fundamental job of linguists is to understand and explain the universal properties common to all languages.

UNIVERSAL PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE

1. Modularity → /mɒdjʊ’læriti/ (Fasold and Connor-Linton) (formalists’ thinking). It is the inherent property of language that involves producing and interpreting
language as a set of component subsystems/modules/levels of analysis in a coordinated way. In other words, each module or level of analysis is responsible for
a part of the total job: the modules operate simultaneously as each module takes the output of another module as its input and its output is taken as the input of
another module, and so on. All languages are organised into modular systems.

Every language is made up of components or subsystems (also: levels of analysis) that speakers need to use in a coordinated fashion in order to communicate.
These components or aspects of language appear to be processed by different areas of the brain and they have become the focus of attention of subareas in
linguistics. In addition, these particular subfields may divide their subject matter into more specific subsystems.

The levels of analysis or modules of language are:

➢ Phonology: (phonetics is not a module) it is the subsystem that studies the organisation of phonemes in language.
➢ Morphology: it is the subsystem of language that studies the structures within words.
➢ Syntax: it is the subsystem of language that studies the structures of sentences.
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*Interacting with morphology and syntax is the LEXICON, which is the repository of linguistic elements with their meanings and structural properties.
➢ Semantics: it is the subsystem of language that studies the meaning production in languages.

💥 MAIN IMPORTANCE/IMPLICATION: as the different levels of analysis of language appear to be processed by different areas of the brain, they can all be
studied separately in order to facilitate linguistic analysis. Therefore, linguists can focus on one area of study.

*Discourse is not a module, it’s a perspective through which language use can be analysed. Discourse is the result of speakers (or language users) use of the
different modules of language and the interplay of numerous variables.

Examples of modules taking the input of other modules: speech sounds (phonemes) are the output of phonological processes (phonology) and these phonemes
become the input of morphology (the formation of morphemes). Morphemes and words (i.e., the output of morphology) in turn become the input of syntax
(formation of sentences).

2. Constituency and Recursion → (Fasold and Connor-Linton)

CONSTITUENCY /kənˈstɪtʃuənsi/ is the inherent property of language that involves the idea that all languages are organised into constituents, which implies
that more complex units enter structures where simpler ones are also possible. Languages are organised into component parts that can be made up of a
word or a group of words. This word or group of words functions as a single unit within a hierarchical structure. CONSTITUENT: a syntactic unit with a
syntactic function (a word, a phrase). Being composed of constituents gives language a balance of structure and flexibility, as constituents can:
➢ be replaced by other constituents: he painted the wall >> the man painted the wall
➢ be moved: the man painted the wall >> the wall was painted by the man
➢ be made more complex: (through different grammatical processes that can be used recursively/repeatedly) the man painted the wall >> the man I hired
painted the wall of my bedroom

There are three tests for constituency:

➢ substitution: she answered my letter.
➢ movement: my letter was answered by the secretary.
➢ coordination: the assistant and my secretary answered my letter.

💥 MAIN IMPORTANCE/IMPLICATION: languages are structurally balanced and flexible. They are flexible because, through the move operation,
constituents can be moved to form new sentences, and they are structurally balanced as the deep structure does not change. In other words, the number of
constituents is the same, thus the relationship between them is the same as well.

RECURSION /rɪˈkɜːʃn/ is a property of language which implies that grammatical processes (such as embedding or coordination at the syntactic level, or
derivational affixation and compounding at the morphological level) can be applied repeatedly, combining constituents to produce an infinite variety of sentences
of indefinite length, or to form complex words. The human brain is finite, but this property of language means that it is capable of producing and understanding an
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infinite number of sentences.

It can be analysed at two different modules or levels of analysis of language:

➢ Morphology: through derivational affixation (prefixes and suffixes) and compounding → Through the recursive use of derivational affixation, complex
lexemes can be formed. For example, the derivational suffix -al is attached to the root “centre” to form the base “central”, which is an adjective. Then the
derivational suffix “-ise” is added to the base “central” forming “centralise” and the grammatical category changes as it results in a verb. Then, the suffix “-tion”
is attached to the base “centralise” to form centralisation, which is a noun. Finally, the derivational prefix “de-” is attached to the base to form the complex word
“decentralisation” which is a noun. Or, through the recursive use of compounding, the lexeme “system” can become “COVID19 Virus attack defence system”.
➢ Syntax: through embedding and coordination → Through the recursive use of embedding, a simple sentence becomes/is expanded into a more complex
one. For example, through embedding, the simple sentence “The man did a good job” is extended into “The man I hired to paint my house did a very good job.”
And, through the recursive use of coordination, the same sentence can be expanded into “The man I hired and his assistant did a good job and charged very
little money for it.”

💥 MAIN IMPORTANCE/IMPLICATION: The human brain is finite, but this property of language means that it is capable of producing and understanding an
infinite number of sentences. Thus, recursion implies that grammatical processes can be applied repeatedly, combining constituents to produce an infinite
variety of sentences of indefinite length.

3. Discreteness → /dɪˈskriːtnəs/ (Fasold and Connor-Linton). The basic units of speech can be identified as belonging to distinct categories. There is no gradual,
continuous shading from one sound into another in the linguistic system. Discreteness is the property of all languages that allows speakers to recognize
different units (speech sounds, morphemes, words) in a language. The range of sounds that human beings can make is continuous, like a slide whistle. All
languages divide that continuous space of sound into discrete, incremental territories (phones, morphemes, words).

Discrete units can be replaced by other discrete units, which results in a change in meaning.
Discreteness can be analysed at different levels of linguistic analysis.
➢ Phonology: at the level of Phonology, the noun “cat” consists of three discrete units (speech sounds) /k/ /a/ /t/, which, if the speech sound /k/ is replaced by
/h/, the word changes, thus the meaning of “hat” is different from “cat” [minimal pair]. More minimal pairs: mat, pat, cat, bat, hat, rat, sat, fat.
➢ Morphology: at the level of Morphology, the complex word “unchargeable” is made up of three discrete units: the derivational prefix “un-”, the root “charge”,
and the derivational suffix “-able”. Thus, if the aforementioned discrete units (morphemes) are replaced, another complex word is formed. For instance:
rechargeable. Further examples: disorganisation, reorganisation; decentralisation.
➢ Syntax: at the level of syntax, the noun phrase “the big house” is made up of three discrete units (words): the determiner “the”, the adjective “big”, and the
head (noun) “house”. Thus, if the discrete units are changed, another different noun phrase can be formed: “a small flat”.
➢ Semantics: focal colours. Languages differ in the way they divide the colour spectrum into words.
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💥 MAIN IMPORTANCE/IMPLICATION: Speech sounds that are discrete in one language may not be discrete in another. What is discrete varies from one
language to another, but all languages have the property of discreteness. For example, in English we distinguish /ӕ/ from /e/, so that “pat” and “pet” are different
words. The same is not true in German, so German speakers have trouble hearing pat and pet as different words.

4. Productivity → /ˌprɒd.ʌkˈtɪv.ɪ.ti/ (Fasold and Connor-Linton). Human languages (natural languages) allow speakers to create novel utterances (i.e. utterances that
have not been produced or heard before) that other speakers can understand. Languages can systematically combine the minimal units of morphological meaning,
called morphemes /ˈmɔːfiːmz/, into novel words, whose meaning is nonetheless deducible from the interaction of its morphemic components. The productivity of
languages derives, in large part, from the fact that they are organised around a finite set of principles (=rules) which systematically constrain (limit) the ways in
which sounds, morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences may be combined.

💥 MAIN IMPORTANCE/IMPLICATION: Productivity is one way in which languages change to meet the changing communicative needs of their speakers.
Since languages place no limits on the use of recursive processes, all languages are potentially infinitely productive.

5. Arbitrariness → /ˈɑːbɪtrərinəs/ (Fasold and Connor-Linton) (see Saussure’s section). There is no necessary or natural connection between signified and
signifier. The form of an expression is generally independent of its meaning except for the associations established by convention. Words have no principled or
systematic connection with what they mean. → Relate to Saussure → the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign. The linguistic sign: the signified (a concept) / the
signifier (a sound pattern). Arbitrary (=unmotivated): the signifier has no natural connection with the signified in reality. E.g: there is no natural connection between
the sound pattern /teibl/ and the concept “piece of furniture that (...)”. Words have no principled or systematic connection with what they mean.

6. Duality and Reliance on Context → (Fasold and Connor-Linton)

DUALITY /djuːˈæləti/ is a corollary of arbitrariness. The same sequence of sounds can represent different concepts in the same language, concepts that may be
unrelated. (SEMANTICS: HOMONYMY). Homonyms are different lexemes (concepts) with the same pronunciation (sound patterns) [homophones &
homographs]. For instance, the case of /rait/: you’re right / turn right / defend your rights / write a letter.

RELIANCE ON CONTEXT /rɪˈlaɪ.əns ɒn ˈkɒntekst/ There is a connection between form (what is said) and the textual, physical, and social circumstances in which
that form is used. This is a crucial property of languages, not just in figuring out the meaning of words like “one” and “won”, but in interpreting the
meaning of entire utterances. Reliance on context is the property of language that helps to interpret the meaning of entire utterances. The meaning of a
sentence not only depends on what it expresses, but also on the context in which it is uttered.

There are two types of context:

➢ LINGUISTIC CONTEXT: the utterance or utterances that immediately precede it.
➢ SITUATIONAL CONTEXT: the broader physical or social circumstances in which the sentence is uttered.
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This property of language can be analysed at the level of semantics or from the pragmatic perspective:
➢ Semantics: words “right” and “write”.
➢ Pragmatics: (pragmatics is not a module, it’s a perspective) utterances like “It’s cold in here”. “It is hot here”: could be a complaint, a request to open the
window or even a compliment (for example, if the person comes from another place that was cold)

💥 MAIN IMPORTANCE/IMPLICATION: languages rely on the connection between form (what is said) and context (when, where, by whom, and to whom it is
said) to communicate much more than is contained in a sequence of words.

7. Variability → /ˌveəriəˈbɪləti/ (Fasold and Connor-Linton) (synchronic studies). The linguistic choices that speakers prefer are related to aspects of their social
identity and the immediate speech situation. It is a property of language that allows speakers to communicate far more than the semantic content of the
utterances they produce. This property is indexical because speakers vary in the way they use language to signal their social identities and to define the
immediate speech situation. Like most design features of language, variability/variation can be observed at different levels of analysis.

At the level of syntax, for example, we can observe that negation (variable) has different realisations (variants), which can index a speaker’s social class, ethnic
group, or level of education. E.g: It is not my fault / It ain't my fault. Similarly, at the level of phonology, the realisation of the words “night” and “life” as /nↄoit/ and
/lↄif/ instead of their standard pronunciation /naɪt/ and /laɪf/ can signal a speaker’s geography or origin (probably Ireland).

8. Creativity →/ˌkriːeɪˈtɪvəti/ (O’Grady) (see productivity above). The creativity of language goes hand in hand with a second defining characteristic - the presence of
SYSTEMATIC CONSTRAINTS that establish the boundaries within which innovation can occur. Systematic constraints are essential to the viability of the
creative process. If well established words were constantly being replaced by new creations, a language's vocabulary would be so unstable that communication
could be jeopardised.

SYSTEMATIC CONSTRAINTS: If well-established words were constantly replaced by new words, the lexicon of a given language would be so unstable that it
would imperil communication. For that reason, there are systematic constraints that set the limits within which creativity can occur. These constraints exist at each
level of analysis:
➢ Phonology: phonotactics /ˌfəʊnəˈtæktɪks/. Phonotactics is the set of constraints on how sequences of segments (=speech sounds) pattern. It forms part of a
speaker’s knowledge of the phonology of his or her language. The segment sequences of any word conform to the pronunciation requirements of a language.
The sequence /rfa/ is an impermissible sequence in English. Likewise, /st/ is not allowed in Spanish at the beginning of a word. There are language-specific
phonotactic rules that establish how sound sequences pattern (combine) in a given language. According to these rules, some sequences of sounds
are permissible while others are not. In English, the sequence /gli/ is permissible at the onset of a word (e.g: glitter, glimmer), and so new words
beginning in that sequence can be coined. In contrast, the sound sequence /lgi/ is not permissible, so no word in English could begin with that sequence.
➢ Morphology: derivational processes constraints. We cannot coin a new verb if there is a well-established equivalent. In English, novel words can be
created through conversion. For example, from the nouns “bottle” and “cash”, the verbs “to bottle” and “to cash” were coined, so it is possible to say “to bottle
a drink” or to “cash a check”. However, a new word is not coined when there is already a well-established equivalent for the intended meaning. For instance,
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we cannot use the word “oven” as a verb, as in “to oven a cake”, because there is a well-established verb that means “to cook in an oven”, which is “to bake”.
➢ Syntax: word order constraints. My went brother cinema to. THE BLUEPRINT >> THE X’ SCHEMA
➢ Semantics: conventionality constraints. All members of the community have to agree on the meaning of a word.

💥 MAIN IMPORTANCE/IMPLICATION: (the same as in productivity) creativity is one way in which languages change to meet the changing communicative
needs of their speakers.

9. Grammar and Linguistic Competence → (O’Grady)

LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE is the ability of speakers of a language to produce and interpret an unlimited number of utterances and to recognize that
certain utterances are not acceptable in their language (grammaticality judgements). When investigating linguistic competence, linguists focus on grammar.

GRAMMAR is the mental system that allows human beings to form and interpret the sounds, words, and sentences of their language; they often break it
down into the subcomponents or modules:
➢ Phonology: the patterning of speech sounds.
➢ Morphology: word formation.
➢ Syntax: sentence formation.
➢ Semantics: the interpretation of words and sentences.

*GRAMMAR is an intricate mental system of knowledge that encompasses sound and meaning, as well as form and structure.

10. Generality →/ˌdʒenəˈræləti/ (O’Grady). All languages have a grammar. Each spoken language must have an intricate system of knowledge that encompasses
sound and meaning, as well as form and structure. Although no two languages have exactly the same grammar, there are no languages without a grammar.

11. Parity →/ˈpærəti/ (O’Grady). All grammars are equal (in linguistic terms). All grammars do essentially the same thing: they tell speakers how to form and
interpret the words and sentences of their own language. The form and meaning of those words and sentences vary from language to language and even from
community to community. The analysis of language must reflect the way it is actually used, not someone’s idealised version of how it should be used: Linguistics
is DESCRIPTIVE, not prescriptive; its goal is to describe and explain the facts of languages, not to change them. *There are simply no grounds for claiming that
one language or variety of language is somehow superior to another.

12. Universality →/ˌjuːnɪvɜːˈsæləti/ (O’Grady). Grammars are alike in basic ways. All languages share principles and parameters that constraint the use of
language. At the level of Syntax, there are universal constraints on how words can be put together to form sentences: Structure dependency: it is a principle of
language knowledge built-in to the mind. It is stated that the structure of questions depends on the structure of the sentence itself rather than on the sequence of
words in it. The mind knows that in order to form a question by movement [move operation], it must rely on the phrase structure of the sentence. A Spanish
speaker will be able to identify a sentence like "Le mensaje un envié" as ungrammatical because of his / her innate knowledge about the principle of
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structure-dependency.

13. Mutability →/ˌmjuːtəˈbɪləti/ (O’Grady). Grammars change over time (diachronic studies) (compare with “variability”). The features of language that are not
universal or fixed are subject to change over time. Within these limits, the grammars of all languages are constantly changing. Some changes are relatively minor
and occur very quickly, for example: the addition of new words such as “ghosting”, “quarantine”, “truthiness”, etc. Other changes have a more dramatic effect on the
overall form of the language and typically take place over a long period of time, as “ne” before the verb and a variant of not after it in Old English for negative
constructions: Ic ne seye not (I don’t say).

14. Inaccessibility →/ˌɪnækˌsesəˈbɪləti/ (O’Grady). Grammatical knowledge is subconscious. Knowledge of a grammar is largely subconscious and not accessible
to introspection, that is, you can't figure out how it works just by thinking about it, for example, the pronunciation of the past tense ending written as ed in words
such as “hunted” /id/, “slipped” /t/, “buzzed” /d/ → Native speakers of a language acquire the grammatical subsystem regulating this aspect of speech at a young
age and it exists subconsciously in their minds, allowing them to automatically make the relevant contrasts. This means that speakers of a language know what
sounds right and what doesn’t, but they are not sure how they know the reason why (grammaticality judgements).

MNEMOTECNIA → GUMPI: Generality, Universality, Mutability, Parity, Inaccessibility

1.2. STRUCTURALISM

KEY TERM: RELATIONSHIP

THE SPEECH CIRCUIT /ˈsɜːkɪt/
In order to identify what role linguistic structure plays within the totality of language, we must consider the individual act of speech and trace what takes place in the
speech circuit. This act requires at least two individuals: without this minimum, the circuit would not be complete. The speech circuit involves PSYCHOLOGICAL,
PHYSIOLOGICAL, AND PHYSICAL FACTORS. The starting point of the circuit is in the brain of one individual, for instance A, where facts of consciousness we shall call
concepts are associated with representations of linguistic signs or sound patterns by means of which they may be expressed. Let us suppose that a given concept
triggers in the brain a corresponding sound pattern. This is an entirely PSYCHOLOGICAL phenomenon, followed in turn by a PHYSIOLOGICAL process: the brain
transmits to the organs of phonation an impulse corresponding to the pattern. Then, sound waves are sent from A’s mouth to B’s ear: a purely PHYSICAL process.
Next the circuit continues in B in the opposite order.

The speech circuit may be further divided into:

➢ External and internal: an external part (sound vibrations passing from mouth to ear) and an internal part (comprising all the rest);
➢ Psychological and non-psychological: a psychological and a non-psychological part, the latter comprising both the physiological facts localised in the organs and the
physical facts external to the individual; and
➢ Active and passive: an active part comprising everything which goes from the association centre of one individual to the ear of the other, and the passive part
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comprising everything which goes from an individual’s ear to his own association centre.

THERE ARE FIVE DICHOTOMIES (BINARY OPTIONS) WHEN APPROACHING LANGUAGE FROM THE STRUCTURALIST PERSPECTIVE:
1. SYNCHRONIC & DIACHRONIC STUDIES → (how to approach the study of language)
➢ Synchronic Studies: (changes at a particular time). Synchronic studies concern relations on the axis of simultaneity /ˌsɪmltəˈneɪəti/ (vertical axis), the
passage of time is excluded, and it is focused on linguistic variation (variability). Saussure approached the study of language SYNCHRONICALLY.
➢ Diachronic Studies: (over time) Diachronic studies concern relations on the axis of succession (horizontal axis) → language is viewed in relation to an
extension of time to see its evolution, and it is focused on language change (mutability). It can be analysed at the levels of phonology, syntax, and
morphology. E.g: pronouns thou - you. These changes can be Retrospective (←) and Prospective (→).

2. LANGUE & PAROLE → (why individual vs social / essential vs accidental) In separating the linguistic system (langue) from the use of the system by individual
members of a community (parole), we are at the same time separating (1) what is social (shared by the members of a speech community) from what is individual,
and (2) what is essential from what is accessory and more or less accidental. Language (langue) is a product that is passively assimilated by the individual. It
never requires premeditation. On the contrary, speaking (parole) is an individual act. It is willful and intellectual. Besides, langue is homogeneous while parole is
heterogeneous.
➢ Langue: (the linguistic system) it is an abstract system, social, passive,essential, homogeneous, different from speech, it can be studied independently (i.e.:
it is concerned with the study of language as a system of rules), it is also referred to as the language structure, the linguistic system, and it is studied by
Saussure synchronically.
➢ Parole: (the use of the system) it is individual, accessory / accidental / ancillary, heterogeneous, actively acquired, it is concerned with the study of
language as a system of communication with the appropriateness of the choices made by speakers when using the system in specific contexts
(functionalism). It is the concrete realisation of the system, and it is also referred to as speech and language use.

3. SIGNIFIER & SIGNIFIED: sound pattern & concept

THE LINGUISTIC SIGN: The linguistic sign is not a link between two material things, i.e. a sign and a name. The linguistic
sign is a two-sided psychological entity. It is the link that exists between concept (signified) and sound pattern
(signifier), which is the hearer’s psychological impression of any given sign. The two elements involved in the linguistic sign
are both psychological and are connected in the brain by an associative link, thus the linguistic sign is a two-sided
psychological entity. Sound pattern (psychological) is not the same as acoustic sounds (physical). The signifier (sound
pattern) has no natural connection with the signified (concept) in reality: it is the hearer’s psychological impression of a
sound, as given to him by the evidence of his senses. The link between signification / signified (concept) and signal / signifier
(sound pattern) is arbitrary or unmotivated and conventionalized. That is, it is shared by the members of a speech
community. For example, there is no natural connection between the sound pattern /teibl/ and the concept piece of furniture.
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These two elements are intimately linked and each triggers the other. They are two inseparable aspects.

*The sound patterns of the words are not to be confused with actual sounds. The sound patterns are psychological, just as the concepts associated with them.

THE TWO FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LINGUISTIC SIGN are the following:
➢ Arbitrariness: /ˈɑːbɪtrərinəs/ the sign is arbitrary. Arbitrariness refers to the link between sound pattern (signal) and concept (signification). The relation
between concept and sound pattern is not principled (=arbitrary) but conventionalized. There is no internal connection between the idea “house” and
the English sequence of sounds /ˈhaʊs/, which acts as its sound pattern. The same idea might as well be represented by any other sequence of sounds. The
link between concept and sound pattern is conventionalized: any means of expression accepted in a society rests in principle upon collective habit, or on
convention, which comes to be the same thing. This is demonstrated by differences between languages, and even by the existence of different languages.

*The word arbitrary must not be taken to imply that a sound pattern depends on the free choice of the speaker. The term simply implies that the sound pattern
is unmotivated: i.e., it is arbitrary in relation to its concept, with which it has no natural connection in reality.

**Two objections against the principle of arbitrariness are related to onomatopoeic /ˌɒ.nəʊ.mə.təʊ.ˈpiːɪk/ words and exclamations, and focal colours.

➢ Linearity: it refers to the temporal aspect of each sign. The linguistic sign, being auditory in nature, has a temporal aspect and hence certain temporal
characteristics. The linear character of the sound pattern concerns the syntagmatic relationships between linguistic signs. Summing up, it occupies a
certain temporal space and this space is measured in just one dimension: it is a line.

SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONSHIPS: The principle of linearity gives rise to syntagmatic relationships between signs. The whole mechanism of the linguistic
structure depends upon this principle. Unlike visual signals (e.g. ships’ flags) which can exploit more than one dimension simultaneously, auditory signals have
available to them only the linearity of time. The elements of such sound patterns are presented one after another: they form a chain. This feature
appears immediately when they are represented in writing, and a spatial line of graphic signs is substituted for a succession of sounds in time.

💥 MAIN IMPORTANCE/IMPLICATION: Linearity establishes the syntagmatic relationships between a specific number of language elements that are
combined in a fixed sequence.

*When describing the linguistic sign, always make sure to make use of the pair of terms correctly as they all mean the same but should not be mixed: signified &
signifier, signification & signal, concept & sound pattern.

4. SIGNIFICATION & VALUE

SIGNIFICATION (= concept) is simply the counterpart of a sound pattern. For example, the counterpart of the sound pattern /kæt/ is its concept: domestic
animal. It is the relevant relation one can establish between a sound pattern and a concept, within the limits of the word, which is for this purpose treated as a
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self-contained unit, existing independently. There is more to meaning than just signification:

VALUE A language is a system in which all the elements fit together, and in which the value of one element depends on the simultaneous coexistence
of all the others. Values of any kind seem to be governed by a paradoxical principle. In other words, the value of any given word is determined by what other
words there are in that particular area of the vocabulary. The value of a sign derives from the relationship between a sign and every other sign of the system
through similarities and differences. It depends on the value of other comparable signs. In any given language, all the words which express neighbouring ideas
help define one another’s meaning. It is acquired through opposition. Values are concepts defined not positively, in terms of their content, but negatively by
contrast with other signs in the same system. The value of a sign is defined by what it is not.

*No word has a value that can be identified independently of what else there is in its vicinity.

Values always involve:

➢ something dissimilar which can be exchanged for the item whose value is under consideration, and
➢ similar things which can be compared with the item whose value is under consideration.

A word can be substituted for something dissimilar: an idea. At the same time, it can be compared to something with the same nature: another word. Its value is
therefore not determined merely by that concept or meaning for which it is a token. It must also be assessed against comparable values, by contrast, with other
words. The content of a word is determined in the final analysis not by what it contains but by what it exists outside it. As an element in a system, the word has not
only a meaning but also – above all – a value.

Example: the sign “cat” /kæt/ → Signification: the counterpart of signifier - i.e. the concept: domestic animal. Value: depends on the simultaneous coexistence with
dog, rabbit, turtle, hamster. // The value of the sign "vet" derives from the relationship between this sign and every other sign in the system through similarities and
differences. It depends on the value of other comparable signs, such as "veterinary owner", "dog walker", "pet owner", "nurse", among other words in the same
area of vocabulary.

Cross-linguistic examples of the value of some linguistic signs at the level of grammar and lexis:
The value of … in (language) is broader / narrower / more restricted than the value of … in (language) since “...” encompasses the meanings of …, …., …. .
Examples: 1) fish / pez, pescado; 2) hope, expect, wait / esperar; 3) you / vos, tú, usted, ustedes; 4) the / el, los, la, las.
1. The value of the sign “pez” in Spanish is restricted by the simultaneous coexistence of other signs in the same area of vocabulary, like “pescado”. And it is
narrower than the sign “fish” in English, which has a broader value, since it encompasses both meanings: the living fish and the dead ones.
2. The value of the sign “esperar” in Spanish is restricted by the simultaneous coexistence of other signs in the same area of vocabulary, such as “desear”, and
its value is broader than the value of the signs “hope”, “expect”, and “wait” as the Spanish sign encompasses the three meanings of the three different signs
in English.
3. Two signs, each comprising a signification and a signal, are not different from each other, but only distinct. They are simply in opposition to each other. For
example, let’s compare the value of the linguistic sign “you” in English vs. the linguistic signs “vos, tú, usted, ustedes” in Spanish. The sign “vos” coexists
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with other signs in Spanish that restrict its meaning.“Vos” has a more restricted/narrower value than “you” in English. Therefore, the English sign “you” is
broader since it’s not limited by other signs in the same area of vocabulary that restrict its meaning.
4. In English, the linguistic value of the definite article “the” is broader than its Spanish equivalents “el, la, los, las”. This is so because in English there is only
one definite article (the), whereas in Spanish the definite articles are “el”, “los”, “la”, and “las.” Therefore, in Spanish the value of the definite articles is more
restricted since the value of one sign restricts (and it is restricted by) the value of the others.

5. SYNTAGMATIC & PARADIGMATIC / ASSOCIATIVE RELATIONSHIPS

SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONSHIPS (horizontal axis) In discourse (language use), due to the linear character of language, two speech sounds, morphemes or
words cannot be uttered at the same time. This characteristic of language (linearity) establishes the syntagmatic relationships between a specific number of
language elements that are combined in a fixed sequence.
➢ Succession: they hold between phonemes, morphemes or words in discourse (instances of language use).
➢ In presentia: they hold between two or more terms that are co-present in a sequence, based on the linear character of language.
➢ Fixed sequence.
➢ Specific number of elements.

**Outside the context of discourse, words, phonemes and morphemes hold associative (paradigmatic) relationships with other ones accumulated in the
speakers’ brains which are called paradigmatic relationships.

It can be analysed at the different levels of analysis:

➢ Phonology: in the sound sequence /vet/ there is a syntagmatic relationship between speech sounds that are copresent in this sequence; the consonant sound
/v/ is syntagmatically related to the vowel sound /e/. The consonant sound /v/ is paradigmatically related to other consonant sounds that can occur in the same
position in the sound sequence instead of /v/ forming other words such as /pet/, /set/ or /get/ → minimal pairs.
➢ Morphology: there are syntagmatic relationships between the morphemes that form the word “rechargeable”. The prefix “re” is related to the root “charge” and
the base ”recharge” is related to the suffix “-able”. The prefix “re-“ is at the same time paradigmatically related to other prefixes, such as “un” or “non” that can be
affixed/attached to “chargeable”.
➢ Syntax: In discourse [on the horizontal axis: syntagmatic relationships], in the phrase “postcolonial studies” the adjective “postcolonial” is syntagmatically
related to the noun (head) “studies”. Outside the context of discourse [on the vertical axis: paradigmatic relationships], the adjective “postcolonial” is
paradigmatically related to other adjectives such as “precolonial”, “premodernist”, “postmodernist”, etc, which could be used in the same position in the
syntagma.

*Syntagmatic relationships stem from linearity.

Example: “The smart students”: At the phonological level, in “smart” the phoneme /s/ is syntagmatically related to the phoneme /m/ which in turn is
syntagmatically related to the phoneme /a/ that is syntagmatically related to the phoneme /r/ which is syntagmatically related to the phoneme /t/ due to the linear
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character of language, as two speech sounds cannot be uttered at the same time. At the morphological level, in “students” the inflectional affix -s is attached to
the root student to make up the plural form of the noun. At the syntactic level, the determiner “the” is syntagmatically related to the adjective “smart” which in turn
is syntagmatically related to the noun/head “students” to form the noun phrase “the smart students”.

PARADIGMATIC RELATIONSHIPS (a.k.a. associative relationships) (vertical axis) The connection between the words “house”, “flat”, and “bedsitter” is not based
on linear sequence. It is a connection in the brain. Such connections are part of that accumulated store which is the form the language takes in an individual’s
brain. While a syntagma brings in straight away the idea of a fixed sequence, with a specific number of elements, an associative group has no particular number
of items in it (indefinite number); nor do they occur in any particular order (indeterminate order).

To conclude:
➢ they are not based on the linear character of language,
➢ they hold in absentia (i.e. they hold between terms constituting a mnemonic group),
➢ they hold ad infinitum,
➢ they are established on a vertical axis.

💥 MAIN IMPORTANCE/IMPLICATION: Linearity establishes the syntagmatic relationships between a specific number of language elements that are
combined in a fixed sequence.

Example: The definite article “the” is paradigmatically related to “some / several / many”, that is, words that can be used in the same position in the sequence. The
noun “students” is paradigmatically related to: pupils / teachers / scholars.

1.3. LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT - SAEED

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

“The nature of the relation between language and thought has long been the concern of linguists, anthropologists, and philosophers. Within linguistic theory, there are
two extreme positions, which are commonly referred to as “Mould Theories” and “Cloak Theories”.

➢ MOULD THEORIES
○ THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS
■ Strong View: DETERMINISM - determine - it has been refuted empirically.
■ Weak View: RELATIVITY - there is evidence to support this view.
● COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE: New Whorfianism - there is a two-way relationship between language and thought.

➢ CLOAK THEORIES:
○ UNIVERSALISM
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The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Whorf (1930’s) “When linguists became able to examine critically and scientifically a large number of languages of widely
different patterns, their base of reference expanded (…). It was found that the background linguistic system (in other words,
the grammar) of each language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather is itself a shaper of
ideas, the programme and guide thesis of his mental stock in trade. Formulation of ideas is not an independent process,
strictly rational in the old sense, but it is part of a particular grammar, and differs, from slightly to greatly, between
different grammars. We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages. The categories and types that we
isolate from the world of phenomena which are not found there because they stare every observer in the face; on the
contrary, the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organised by our minds —largely by
the linguistic system in our minds. We cut nature up, organise it into concepts and ascribe significance as we do,
MOULD THEORY largely because we are parties to an agreement to organise it in this way.
of language
STRONG VERSION It holds that Language entirely determines thought: a speaker of language X will
a one way relationship keyword: determinism. understand the world in a fundamentally different way from a speaker of language
The idea that language DETERMINES Y, particularly if those two languages have significantly different grammatical
non-linguistic thought systems. In other words, a speaker will only have access to cognitive categories
that correspond to the linguistic categories of his or her language.

WEAK VERSION It holds that the structure of a language may influence (rather than determine) how
keyword: relativity. the speaker performs certain cognitive processes, because the structure of
The idea that language INFLUENCES different languages influences how information is ‘packaged’.
non-linguistic thought

UNIVERSALISM: The Whorfian perspective is in strong contrast to the extreme universalism of those who adopt the cloak
theory. The idea of language as simply the dress of thought is based on the assumption that the same thought can
be expressed in a variety of ways. Universalists argue that we can say whatever we want to say in any language, and
that whatever we say in one language can always be translated into another one, no matter how different the source
CLOAK THEORY and the target languages are. This is the basis of the most common refutation of Whorfianism.
of language
FORMAL LINGUISTICS: REJECT WHORFIANISM. Since the rise of the generative model in the 1960s, proponents of
formal linguistics have tended to reject the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis altogether, given its incompatibility with the hypothesis
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that there might exist a universal set of pre-linguistic conceptual primitives, and therefore a universal ‘mentalese’ or ‘language
of thought’.

COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS (FUNCTIONALISM). While most modern linguists would probably agree that the strong version
of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is untenable, some interesting findings have emerged in cognitive linguistics and related
fields, particularly in linguistic anthropology, cognitive psychology, and language acquisition research,(…) a cognitive linguistic
approach to the relationship between language, thought and experience, together with the facts of cross-linguistic diversity, is
compatible with a weaker form of the linguistic relativity thesis. For this reason, the view we present here might be described
as neo-Whorfian.

The position adopted in cognitive linguistics is that there are commonalities in the ways humans experience and perceive
the world and in the ways humans think and use language. This means that all humans share a common
conceptualising capacity. However, these commonalities are no more than constraints, delimiting a range of possibilities.
As we have seen, there is striking diversity in the two domains we have surveyed, which shows that the way English
THE COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS speakers think and speak about space and time by no means represents the only way of thinking and speaking about space
POSITION and time. According to cognitive linguists, language not only reflects conceptual structure, but can also give rise to
conceptualisation. It appears that the ways in which different languages ‘cut up’ and ‘label’ the world can differentially
a two way relationship influence non-linguistic thought and action. It follows that the basic commitments of cognitive linguistics are consonant
with a weak version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, a position that some linguists argue is gathering increasing empirical
support.

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE AGAINST THE STRONG VERSION OF THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS → DANI → This evidence originally came from work on colour
categorisation. It may surprise readers who are only familiar with English to learn that some languages have an extremely small set of basic colour terms. These are
terms that are morphologically simple (for example, “bluish” is excluded) and are not subsumed under another colour term (for example, “crimson” and
“scarlet” are not basic colour terms because they fall within the category denoted by “red”). For instance, the Dani, a tribe from New Guinea, only have two
basic colour terms in their vocabulary. The expression mola, which means ‘light’, refers to white and warm colours like red, orange, yellow, pink, and purple. The
expression mili, which means ‘dark’, refers to black and cool colours like blue and green.

Yet, in colour experiments where Dani subjects were shown different kinds of focal colours (these are colours that are perceptually salient to the human visual
system) they had little difficulty remembering the range of colours they were exposed to (Heider 1972; Rosch 1975, 1978). These experiments involved presenting
subjects with a large set of coloured chips, from which they were asked to select the best examples of each colour; in later experiments, they were asked to recall what
colours they had selected previously.
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REFUTATION OF DETERMINISM → If language entirely determined thought, then the Dani would not have been able to categorise and remember a complex
set of distinct focal colours because they only have two basic colour terms in their language.

In another experiment, Rosch taught the Dani subjects sixteen colour names based on words from their own language (clan names). She found that the names for the
focal colours were learnt faster than names for non-focal colours. These findings illustrate that humans have common perceptual and conceptualising capacities,
as we noted earlier. Due to shared constraints, including environment, experience, embodiment, and perceptual apparatus, we can, and often do,
conceptualise in fundamentally similar ways, regardless of language. However, this does not entail that variation across languages has no influence on
non-linguistic thought.
There are TWO LINES OF EVIDENCE THAT SUPPORT A WEAK VERSION OF THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS. These are considered below:
LINE OF EVIDENCE 1: Language facilitates conceptualisation
LINE OF EVIDENCE 2: Cross-linguistic differences and their effect on non-linguistic thought and action
CONCEPTUALISATION OF SPACE AND ACTION
CONCEPTUALISATION OF TIME AND ACTION

THE PRINCIPLE OF LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY - Relented to Semantics

22LI1 MODULE 3 U1-3 PRINCIPLE LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY

CROSS-LINGUISTIC VARIATION IN SEMANTIC SYSTEMS / CROSS-LINGUISTIC VARIATION IN LINGUISTIC CATEGORIES / IN THE CATEGORIZATION OF

GENDER ENGLISH SPANISH

(Developed in unit 2: Morphology) Natural gender Grammatical gender - binary
Neither the article, the adjective or the noun is/are Articles, adjectives and nouns are inflected for gender.
inflected for gender. E.g.: The new teacher E.g.: La nueva profesora

SECOND PERSON PRONOUN YOU VOS, USTED and TÚ

SINGULAR IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH

FOCAL COLOURS ENGLISH DANI (Indonesian tribe)

(Relate it to language and perception) 7 focal colours Two focal colours

TIME ENGLISH AIMARA / MANDARYN

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SPACE ENGLISH KOREAN

Seen as a container

1.4. FORMAL AND FUNCTIONAL PARADIGMS

FORMALISM & FUNCTIONALISM

As two approaches to linguistics, formalism and functionalism tend to be associated with very different views of the nature of language.

FORMALISM FUNCTIONALISM

Formalists (e.g. Chomsky) tend to regard language primarily as a mental Functionalists (e.g. Halliday) tend to regard language primarily as a
phenomenon. It’s a system of rules stored in our mind. It studies societal phenomenon system of choices (communicative system).
language as an autonomous system, i.e., independent from all other
cognitive systems and functions.
UG: innate - principles and parameters
PG: acquired - setting for the parameter

Formalists tend to explain linguistic universals as deriving from a Functionalists tend to explain them as deriving from the universality
common genetic linguistic inheritance of the human species. That’s of the uses to which language is put in human societies.
why they assert that universal grammar is innate.

Formalists are inclined to explain children's acquisition of language in Functionalists are inclined to explain it in terms of the development
terms of a built-in human capacity to learn language, in other words, a of the child's communicative needs and abilities in society
genetic endowment that is activated through exposure to linguistic input. through interaction.

Above all, formalists study language as an autonomous system (code) Functionalists study it in relation to its social function (use).
independent of any other cognitive function.

On the face of it, the two approaches are completely opposed to one another. In fact, however, each of them has a considerable amount of
truth on its side.
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FORMALIST APPROACHES FUNCTIONALIST APPROACHES

What is language? ● a mental phenomenon / ling competence ● a system of human communication

● a set of rules ● a societal phenomenon
● a view of language as an abstract set of generalised ● a system of choices
rules detached from any particular context of use (1) ● a view of how language functions as a system of human
communication (1)

What is the aim of GRAMMATICALITY APPROPRIACY

their enquiry? What makes a sentence grammatical? What makes an utterance appropriate?

Close the door! Close the door!

Could you close the door? Could you close the door?

Sentences abstracted from their context Utterances in context

WELL-FORMED / ILL-FORMED / GRAMMATICAL / APPROPRIATE / INAPPROPRIATE UTTERANCES

UNGRAMMATICAL SENTENCES
AIM: To discover the reasons why a speaker uses a
AIM: To discover the rules that govern how constituents particular wording in a specific context an not others
are grouped to form grammatically correct sentences.
choices of meanings/functions
Chomsky insisted that linguistics should go beyond choices of wordings
merely describing syntactic structures, and aim to explain
why language is structured the way it is – which includes Functional grammar sets out to investigate what the relevant
explaining why other kinds of structures are not found. context-dependent choices are, both in the kinds of
He argued that, to do this adequately, it was essential to meanings we might want to express (or functions that we
make language description absolutely explicit. might want to perform) and in the kinds of wordings that we
can use to express these meanings; and to match these two
The aim is to discover the rules which govern how sets of choices (8)
constituents can be put together to form grammatically
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correct sentences, and to formulate these rules in as “…the use of the term ‘choice’ does not necessarily imply a
general a way as possible. (3) conscious process of selection by the speaker …”
GRAMMATICAL APPROPRIATE

Meaning He ate a chocolate He ate a chocolate

Did he eat chocolate? Did he eat chocolate?

● sentences ● utterances
● grammaticalness ● appropriateness
● the same propositional meaning ● different meanings = fulfil different functions
● they are made up of the same constituents: two noun ● make a statement
phrases and one verb phrase ● request information
● the relationship between the constituents is the same
in both

What is their type of DECONTEXTUALIZED SENTENCES analysed in SENTENCES IN CONTEXT since how a sentence fits a
data / unit of isolation / abstracted from their context particular context is part of its meaning
analysis?
Sentences = syntactic units = abstract = not UTTERANCES = TEXT = any instance of language in use
produced by real speakers
Each UTTERANCE is analysed in context since
Each sentence is analysed in complete isolation, both understanding how the present message fits in its context is
from the other sentences and from the situations in which clearly part of the meaning, just as the difference between a
it might be used. This limitation is self-imposed because statement and a question is part of the meaning
TG (transformational generative) linguists feel that it is
only worth describing those aspects of language which
can be described scientifically. A statement and its
interrogative counterpart (include example) have
exactly the same propositional content in terms of
sentences (same constituent and same relationship
between constituents).

Transformational – generative grammar: Chomsky Systemic functional grammar: Halliday

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BOTH APPROACHES ARE DESCRIPTIVE

Why are formalists not interested in context?

GRAMMATICAL EXPLANATIONS ARE PRIMARILY FORMAL.

● To the extent that grammatical rules are conventional, the theory or model of grammar which explains them will be formal.
● Broadly, a formal grammatical theory such as transformational grammar (Chomsky 1965:15-18) defines a language as a set of sentences. These sentences have
meanings (senses) and pronunciations, and so in effect the grammar has to define a set of mappings whereby particular senses are matched with particular
pronunciations (Chomsky 1965:15-18). The central level of syntax, at which each sentence is represented as a string of words or formatives, is an essential
component of this complex mapping. Three levels of representation - semantics, syntactic, and phonological – are therefore assumed, and the justification of
distinguishing these levels is that there are many-many mappings between them. In addition to mapping rules, there are rules of well-formedness, specifying what is a
well-formed or grammatical representation at each level.
● Such a model is intended to represent what native speakers implicitly know to be the case about their language. Native speakers of English, for example, know that
That girl washed himself is semantically ill-formed. A formal theory must account for innumerable facts of these kinds, providing an account of our linguistic knowledge
in the form of a set of rules and categories determining the form of linguistic representations at different levels. The requirements made of this theory, as of any theory,
are those of consistency, predictive strength, simplicity, and coverage of data. In this formal sense it explains the facts of a speaker's knowledge of his language.

PRAGMATIC EXPLANATIONS ARE PRIMARILY FUNCTIONAL.

● Insofar as the principles of general pragmatics are motivated or goal-oriented, the theory which explains them will be functional.
● Explanation in pragmatics goes further than this, and yet is in a sense a weaker form of explanation. It is weaker because pragmatic principles impose weaker
constraints on language behaviour than grammatical rules: they can only be predictive in a probabilistic sense.
● On the other hand, it answers the question 'Why?' in a way that goes beyond the goals of formal grammatical theories. It explains that X occurs rather than Y because
X is: more in accord with the way language functions as a communicative system. Formal explanation will always leave something unexplained, and hence, if a
functional explanation is available, we should not hesitate to use it. Hence functionalism may be brought in to redress a balance which has tipped in favour of
formalism.

2. LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS

2.1. PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY

The study of speech sounds can be divided into the disciplines of phonetics and phonology. Phonetics studies speech sounds as physical objects (how speech sounds
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are made [ARTICULATORY] and perceived), whereas phonology studies how languages organise sounds into different patterns (into a meaningful system).

PHONETICS is the study of the inventory and structure of the sounds of language (“lenguaje”) - this is not a system. Phonetics studies features of speech
sounds structure. Phoneticians study the physical aspects of linguistic sounds: movements of the structures of the vocal tract, place and manner of articulation,
the propagation of sound waves through the air, hearing and speech perception, computer measurement of fundamental frequency and formant structure.

PHONOLOGY is the component of a grammar made up of the elements and principles that determine / constrain how sounds pattern in a language (idioma).
Phonologists study the more abstract organisation of sound patterns: syllable structure, phonotactic constraints, alternations, the relationship between underlying
and surface representations. *Phonology can never be completely divorced from phonetics, since sound patterns can never be completely separated from how sounds
are produced and heard, and production and perception are always influenced by the overarching linguistic organisation.

What are the differences between the sound system in English and the sound system in Spanish?
Languages differ not only in the sounds they use (phonetically), but in how they organise those sounds in patterns (phonologically):

ENGLISH SPANISH

PHONETICS → features of speech There are more vowel sounds (like a dozen). There are two consonant sounds that do not exist in English: ñ, rr.
sounds (=phones / segment) in lg ñandú: consonant sound at syllable onset.
perro: intervocalic consonant sound

PHONOLOGY → sound patterns in /str-/ permissible in English at syllable onset → Phonotactic Sound sequence not permissible in Spanish.
A language Constraints. Example: stress, struc.ture, stroll, stride, strive, Example: es.trés, es.tructura, es.trellar, es.tribo, des.truir,
street, de.stroy, a.stro.naut as.tro.nau.ta

THE VOCAL TRACT / ARTICULATORS

Basically, sound is vibrating air. Speaking means using your vocal tract (lungs, trachea, larynx, mouth, and nose) to
get air moving and vibrating, and then shaping that movement in different ways. Inside the mouth itself, there are
many different structures (active articulators and passive articulators) that we use to shape speech sounds as the
air passes through the vocal tract.
➢ Active articulators: the active articulators move toward the passive articulators in order to constrict and
shape the air that is moving out from the lungs. Active articulators include the lips, which can be opened or
closed, pursed or spread, and the tongue.
➢ Passive articulators: the passive articulators include the teeth, the alveolar ridge, the hard palate, the soft
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palate or velum, and the uvula.

INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET (IPA)

The phonetic alphabet is a system to graphically represent all the sounds in a language. Writing down sounds using this alphabet is called phonetic transcription. We need
a PHONETIC ALPHABET for systematicity and efficiency. We can’t rely on spelling or graphemes, since a combination of two letters are pronounced as only
one sound: rough, photo, staff, family → /f/ these four graphemes are pronounced the same. | cat, car, take, coda → all the “a” graphemes are pronounced differently.

The phonetic alphabet is needed for systematicity and efficiency and it is useful to describe precisely any sound to characterise all the languages of the world. The two
principles on which the Phonetic Alphabet is based are:
➢ The alphabet will be universal. There would be enough symbols so that every sound in every human language could be represented.
➢ The alphabet would be unambiguous. Every sound will have one symbol and every symbol one sound.

➢ SPELLING VS PRONUNCIATION → Graphemes are interpreted as the smallest units of writing that correspond with sounds (more accurately phonemes). In this
concept, the “sh” in the written English word “shake” would be a grapheme because it represents the phoneme /ʃ/.

1. Four words with four different spellings / graphemes for the same phoneme /f/:
The grapheme “gh” in rough is pronounced /f/
The grapheme “ff” in puff is pronounced /f/
The grapheme “ph” in photo is pronounced /f/
The grapheme “f” in fog is pronounced /f/

2. Four words that have the grapheme “a” pronounced differently:

The grapheme “a” in cat is pronounced /æ/
The grapheme “a” in car is pronounced /ɑ/
The grapheme “a” in take is pronounced /eɪ/
The grapheme “a” in coda is pronounced /ə/

SPEECH SOUNDS & FEATURES (sound) segment = speech sound = phone

➢ FEATURES → they are articulatory and acoustic categories that a sound segment (also: speech sound or phone) is composed of. The main
implication/importance of features is that:
➢ they help classify sounds,
➢ they may be contrastive, like /t/ and /p/ in “top” and “pot”, and
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➢ they may constrain what sounds combine together, as /n/ and /p/.

Voicing, aspiration, manner, and place of articulation can all be used contrastively. Similarly, we have seen these same dimensions used to define sets of
sounds that are relevant for phonological alternations. Distinctive feature theory aims to encode all the phonetic dimensions that languages have available to encode
contrasts and natural classes. CONTRASTIVENESS concerns differences in meaning brought about by the presence of a speech sound in a sequence: top vs
pot - /t/ and /p/.

➢ SPEECH SOUNDS → The two main types of sounds of speech are vowels and consonants. The similarities are that both of them have a manner of articulation
and that they are produced by the air released from the lungs. The differences are that, in order to produce vowel sounds, the vocal tract is always open, but
consonant sounds have a clear place of articulation.

SEGMENTS / INDIVIDUAL SPEECH SOUNDS are sounds that carry/have meaning in a language that other speakers can understand. A segment is an
individual sound produced in isolation. They can be classified into vowels and consonants. Vowels + consonants = types of speech sounds.

CRITERIA / PARAMETERS USED TO CLASSIFY SOUNDS (pl.: criteria; sing.: criterion)

➢ CONSONANT SOUNDS → Consonant sounds can be classified according to the following three different criteria/parameters: voicing, manner of articulation, and
place of articulation.

PeTaCa /p/ /t/ /k/, BoDeGa /b/ /d/ /g/, MaNdiNGa /m/ /n/ /ŋ/, y LoRo /l/ /r/

1) VOICING: It refers to the vibration or lack of vibration of the vocal folds.

➢ Voiced Sounds → they involve the vibration of the vocal cords.
➢ Voiceless Sounds → there’s no vibration.

2) MANNER OF ARTICULATION: It refers to HOW the air is restricted in sound production (plosive, nasal, fricative, approximant, lateral, affricates) in which
the active articulators are involved. *OBSTRUENTS: stops, fricatives, and affricates are called like this because they make noise by obstructing the airflow
in the vocal tract, causing a burst of sound as a closure to be released or a hissing sound as the air passes through a narrow constriction. **SONORANTS:
nasal stops, approximants, and vowels make audible sounds by letting the air resonate. Sonorant sounds are almost always voiced.

➢ Stops / Plosives → PeTaKa (voiceless) & BoDeGa (voiced): a speech sound made by stopping the flow of air coming out of the mouth and then
suddenly releasing it. Active and passive articulators are brought together to make a complete closure, so the airflow is completely cut off. Plosives
are: /p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, /g/.
➢ Affricates →CHanGe: a speech sound that is made up of a plosive followed immediately by a fricative. Affricates combine a sequence of stop +
fricative in a single sound. Affricates are: /tʃ/ and /dʒ/.
➢ Nasals → MaNdiNga: in nasal sounds the velum (soft palate) is lowered blocking off the oral cavity. Air can only escape through the nose. English
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nasals are /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/ and are all voiced. The consonant sound /m/ is a nasal stop because the lips are completely closed although the velum is
open and air flows freely out of the nose.
➢ Fricatives → Si Vos y Yo Fuéramos Zorras Hoy: a speech sound made by forcing breath out through a narrow space in the mouth with the lips, teeth
or tongue in a particular position. Articulators are brought close together but not closed completely, so the stream of air forced between them
becomes turbulent and noisy. The following sounds are fricatives: /f/ /v/ /θ/ /ð/ /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /h/.
➢ Approximants → JeWeLleRy: a speech sound made by bringing the parts of the mouth that produce speech close together but not actually touching.
The active articulator moves to narrow the vocal tract, but not so much that fricative noise is created. The following sounds are approximants: /ɹ/ /j/
/w/ /l/
○ Glides → YelloW: Glides are /j/, /w/.
○ Liquids → LoRo: Liquids are /l/, /r/. The /l/ is called lateral, because air flows over the sides of the tongue. The /r/ is called rothics.

3) PLACE OF ARTICULATION: It has to do with the organs involved in sound production; the location in the vocal tract where the stream of air is
constricted. According to their place of articulation, sounds can be classified into the following categories:
1. Bilabial
2. Labiodental
3. Dental
4. Alveolar
5. Post-Alveolar
6. Palatal
7. Velar
8. Glottal

➢ VOWEL SOUNDS → By definition, vowels have an open vocal tract, so the tongue doesn't actually touch the upper surface of the vocal tract at any particular
place and the term place of articulation isn't really appropriate. Instead, different vowels are described in terms of the ways in which the tongue body and lips move.
Linguists classify vowels by the height of the tongue body, whether it is bunched toward the front or back of the mouth, and whether the lips are rounded. Vowel
sounds can be classified according to the following three different criteria/parameters:
1) TENSENESS: it is the force with which the tongue is stiffened for vowel production. It can be tense or lax.
2) POSITION OF THE TONGUE IN THE VOCAL TRACT: it is the point of the tongue with respect to a horizontal axis during sound production. It can be at
the front, centre, or back.
3) LIP ROUNDING: It can be round or unround.
4) HEIGHT: it is the highest point of the tongue with respect to a vertical axis during sound production. It can be high, mid or low. Vowels have an open vocal
tract: the tongue does not touch the upper surface of the vocal tract at any particular place, that is, vowels do not have a place of articulation. They are
described in terms of the ways in which the tongue body (whether it is towards the front or back of the mouth) and lips movement (whether the lips are
rounded or not). The air flows because they are produced with the mouth open; they’re ALL VOICED. Describing English vowels is a difficult task, mainly
because there are a lot of them. The most common number of vowels for a language to have is five. However, the English language uses more than a
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

dozen different vowel sounds.

ECS ECS
(English Manner of Place of Voicing (English Manner of Place of Voicing
Consonant Articulation Articulation Consonant Articulation Articulation
Sounds) Sounds)

/p/ stop / plosive bilabial voiceless /v/ fricative labiodental voiced

/b/ stop / plosive bilabial voiced /θ/ fricative dental voiceless

/t/ stop / plosive alveolar voiceless /ð/ fricative dental voiced

/d/ stop / plosive alveolar voiced /s/ fricative alveolar voiceless

/k/ stop / plosive velar voiceless /z/ fricative alveolar voiced

/g/ stop / plosive velar voiced /ʃ/ fricative postalveolar voiceless

/tʃ/ affricate postalveolar voiceless /ʒ/ fricative postalveolar voiced

/dʒ/ affricate postalveolar voiced /h/ fricative glotal voiceless

/m/ nasal bilabial voiced /r/ approximant retroflex voiced

(liquid)

/n/ nasal alveolar voiced /j/ approximant palatal voiceless

(glides)

/ŋ/ nasal velar voiced /w/ approximant labial velar voiced

(glides)

/f/ fricative labiodental voiceless /l/ approximant alveolar voiced

(liquids)
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SUPRASEGMENTALS & SYLLABLE STRUCTURE

Aspects of speech that influence stretches of sound larger than a single segment (=speech sound) are called suprasegmentals. Since it involves the organisation of
sounds into larger units, the study of suprasegmental pertains to the domains of phonetics (the study of speech sounds as physical objects) and phonology (the study of
how languages organise sounds into different patterns).

Suprasegmentals are five: (LISST) length, tone, intonation, syllable structure, and stress.

1. LENGTH → it is related to how long it takes to articulate a given segment. Many factors influence length, sometimes differences in vowel length are
unintentional results of how different vowels are articulated. High/front vowels: a - e - i. Low/back vowels: u - o. Example: low vowels (the mouth is open wide)
take longer to articulate than high vowels. Long consonants are called geminates. English can create long consonants when two words come together (e.g:
bookcase), but we don’t distinguish long and short consonants within words. When double consonants are written, they actually tell us about the quality of the
vowel, not the length of the consonant.

💥 Does English make distinctions in length as regards suprasegmentals? Yes, but they don’t bring about changes in meaning. The meaning changes not
because of the length of the vowel but because of its quality.

2. TONE → the (linguistic) use of pitch to convey meaning at word level. The pitch of the voice carries a lot of information - whether the speaker is male/female,
old or young. High pitch >> the person is frightened. Low pitch >> the person is angry. We use tone to distinguish different words.

3. INTONATION → the use of pitch to convey meaning at sentence or discourse level. It distinguishes different kinds of sentences or focuses attention on a
particular word. Asking for information, providing info, or expressing disbelief. All languages use intonation to some extent, though the patterns and meanings differ
across languages.

4. SYLLABLE STRUCTURE → a way of organising sounds around a peak of sonority, which can be defined as
relative openness of the vocal tract, which corresponds directly to the relative loudness of a sound. The speech
stream is organised into peaks and valleys of sonority. We alternate sounds that are more sonorous and less
sonorous, so each stands out better against the background of the other.

➢ NUCLEUS: The most sonorous element of a syllable, the peak itself.

➢ ONSET: Lower sonority sounds preceding the nucleus.
➢ CODA: Those following the nucleus.
➢ RHYME = NUCLEUS + CODA.
➢ SYLLABLE STRUCTURE = ONSET + RHYME

*Since vowels are the most sonorous sounds, they usually constitute the nuclei, but it’s not always the case.
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5. STRESS → it is a prominence relation between syllables. Stressed and unstressed syllables tend to alternate across the word, and sometimes even move around
in order to accommodate an alternating pattern (sixTEEN and SIXteen YEARS). Certain syllables are longer, louder, higher pitched, or more clearly articulated than
those around them. There are 3 different levels of stress in English: main or primary stress, secondary stress, and unstressed.

In some languages, stress serves a contrastive function, but in others it doesn't. Stress is contrastive since it can change the category and meaning of words.
Example: conflict: stress is contrastive as when it falls on the first syllable, it is a noun - N: ‘conflict, but when it falls in the second syllable, it is a verb - V: con’flict.
Other examples in SP: terminó - termino - término / celebre - celebré - célebre / estacione - estacioné

THE SOUND SYSTEM OF LANGUAGE

1. PHONETIC INVENTORY → /p/: abstract - contrastive units. PHONEME: it is a distinctive individual sound that serves to differentiate a word from another.
Phonemes are indicated by slashes //. A phoneme is a label for a group of sounds that are perceived by the speaker to be the “same” sound. It’s
contrastive in nature and has unpredictable distribution.

💥 What are some factors that characterise the sound system of a language or dialect/variety of a language? One of them is its phonetic inventory of
phonemes: English counts /θ/ and /ð/ among its phonemes, whereas French and German do not. Phonemes are contrastive, i.e. they mark a difference in
meaning. Another factor is the inventory of allophonic variation. Speech sounds that are contrastive in one language may not be contrastive in another.
Moreover, the way speech sounds are combined and ordered sequentially is also important. This information belongs to the domain of phonotactics. The
phonological system of a language imposes constraints on the combinations of sounds in that language. These constraints are called phonotactic rules, and
they reflect what sequences of sounds are possible or permissible in the language.

2. ALLOPHONIC VARIATION → it refers to the different realisations of each phoneme depending on the linguistic environment. What is contrastive in one language
may not be so in another. ALLOPHONES: An allophone [ ] is a variant of the same phoneme / / which depends on a particular linguistic environment. The
different ways of pronouncing a sound (phoneme) depends on the linguistic context in which it is produced. They are the different realisations of a phoneme.
They’re non-contrastive and in complementary / predictable distribution. For example: phonemes in English /d/ /ð/, day/they are minimal pairs; that is, they
are contrastive and their distribution is unpredictable. In Spanish, [ð] counts as an allophone of /d/, as in dedo: /d/e/ð/o, whereas in English it does not.

PHONOLOGICAL TRANSCRIPTIONS → / /
ALLOPHONIC TRANSCRIPTIONS → [ ]

➢ DISTRIBUTION refers to all the possible places where a sound can occur in and the potential different meanings such places convey.

➢ MINIMAL PAIR is a pair of words that only differ in only one sound in the same position within a word. Their distribution is unpredictable and
contrastive. When two sounds in a language form minimal pairs, those two sounds represent different phonemes. Example: map vs. nap >> The existence of
minimal pairs means that the difference between the two sounds are contrastive, and if they are contrastive, their distribution is unpredictable. If you
change one sound for another one, you've created a contrast in meaning (i.e a different word), and therefore, their distribution is unpredictable.
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➢ COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION (ALLOPHONES) When two sounds in a language are in complementary distribution (that is, their distribution is
predictable from the phonological environment and non-contrastive), the two sounds are allophones of the same phoneme. The two sounds have
different distributions → In Spanish, only /d/ is found in initial position and only /ð/ is found between vowels. Example: /d/ dama vs. /ð/ adorno; dedo /d/e/ð/o.
The distribution is predictable, that is, if you know the linguistic context you can predict whether one or the other will be used.

➢ CONTRASTIVE DISTRIBUTION (PHONEMES) In phonology, two sounds of a language are said to be in contrastive distribution if replacing one with
the other in the same phonological environment results in a change in meaning of the word. If a sound is in contrastive distribution, it is considered
a phoneme in that language. For example, in English, the sounds [p] and [b] can both occur word-initially, as in the words “pat” and “bat” (minimal pairs),
which are distinct lexemes (= different meanings). Therefore, [p] and [b] are in contrastive distribution and so are phonemes of English.

Note that two sounds that are in contrastive distribution in one language can be in complementary distribution or free variation in another. These sounds occur
in English, as in the word team [tʰiːm] and steam [stiːm], but their occurrence is purely dependent upon phonological context. Therefore, in English, [tʰ] and [t]
are not in contrastive distribution but in complementary distribution. E.g: In English, /d/ /ð/ are two different phonemes, whereas in Spanish, these are two
realisations of the same phoneme, i.e., they are allophones.

3. PHONOTACTIC CONSTRAINTS & PHONOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS → Phonological and phonotactic constraints are both types of constraints that govern
the possible sound combinations that can occur in a language, but they operate at different levels of linguistic analysis.

➢ PHONOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS refer to the rules that govern the distribution of sounds and the way they are organised in a language. For example,
in English, the rule that a voiceless plosive consonant like /p/ can only occur at the beginning of a word and not at the end is a phonological constraint.
Phonological constraints are usually defined in terms of the distinctive features of sounds (natural classes), such as their place and manner of articulation,
and they help to differentiate one sound from another.

➢ PHONOTACTIC CONSTRAINTS refer to the rules that govern the permissible sequences of sounds in a language. For example, in English, the sequence
/skl/ is a permissible cluster at the beginning of a word (as in "skeleton"), but the sequence /tl/ is not. Phonotactic constraints are usually defined in terms of the
permissible combinations of sounds and their order within words. They are related to syllable structure.

IN A NUTSHELL, while both phonological and phonotactic constraints are important in understanding the sound patterns of a language, they operate at different
levels of linguistic analysis. Phonological constraints govern the distribution and organisation of sounds, while phonotactic constraints govern the permissible
sequences of sounds within words.

💥How can the sound system of a language be characterised?

PHONOTACTICS: SIX NATURAL CLASSES
Natural classes help us to define the set of sounds that is targeted for alternation, the change itself, and the environment where the change takes place. This
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

can be clearly seen in the case of voiceless stops /p/ and fricatives. Nasals agree with the place of articulation with the following stop: camp, wind, and think. Because
these nasals are within a single morpheme, we never see alternation in how they are pronounced. But some English prefixes that end with a nasal are pronounced
differently when the prefix is added to words beginning with different sounds.

In phonology, NATURAL CLASSES refer to groups of sounds that share a particular set of phonetic or phonological features. These classes are defined based
on similarities in their production or perception. There are six primary natural classes of phonology: vowels, consonants, sonorants, obstruents, voiced sounds,
and voiceless sounds.

1. Vowels → Vowels are sounds produced with an open vocal tract, allowing relatively free airflow. They form the nucleus of syllables and are typically
characterised by their pitch, duration, and quality. Examples of vowels include /i:/ (as in "see"), /a/ (as in "cat"), and /u:/ (as in "moon").
2. Consonants → Consonants are sounds produced with some degree of constriction or obstruction of airflow. They function in combination with vowels to form
syllables. Consonants are further divided into subcategories based on their manner of articulation, place of articulation, and voicing. Examples of consonants include
/p/ (as in "pen"), /m/ (as in "mat"), and /k/ (as in "cat").
3. Sonorants → Sonorants are a subset of consonants characterised by a relatively open vocal tract, resulting in a more resonant sound quality. They include
nasals, liquids, and glides. Examples of sonorants are /m/ (as in "man"), /l/ (as in "lip"), and /j/ (as in "yes").
4. Obstruents → Obstruents are another subset of consonants characterised by a significant constriction or obstruction of airflow. They include stops
(plosives), fricatives, and affricates. Examples of obstruents include /t/ (as in "top"), /s/ (as in "sit"), and /ʧ/ (as in "church").
5. Voiced Sounds → Voiced sounds are produced with the vocal cords vibrating. They have a vocal fold vibration during their production. Both vowels and certain
types of consonants can be voiced. Examples of voiced sounds are /z/ (as in "zip"), /b/ (as in "bat"), and /v/ (as in "vote").
6. Voiceless Sounds → Voiceless sounds, on the other hand, are produced without vocal fold vibration. These sounds are typically aspirated or characterised by a
lack of voicing. Many consonants fall into this category. Examples of voiceless sounds include /s/ (as in "sit"), /p/ (as in "pat"), and /f/ (as in "fun").

💥 MAIN IMPORTANCE/IMPLICATION: These natural classes provide a framework for understanding and analysing the phonological patterns and processes within
languages.

Example: Consider the negative prefix in- >> Before a vowel or an alveolar, in- is pronounced /in/ (inedible, inaudible, intolerable, insufferable); but before the bilabials /m/,
/b/, or /p/ it becomes /im/ (immobile, imbalanced, impossible); before /k/ or /g/, it’s pronounced /ŋ/ (incompetent, incalculable, inglo(u)rious, ingratitude).

Phonological constraints seldom target random collections of sounds. Rather, they almost always target a group of sounds that have one or more phonetic properties
in common, i.e. natural classes. In phonology, a natural class is a set of phonemes that share certain distinctive features. A natural class is determined by participation
in shared phonological processes, described using the minimum number of features necessary for descriptive adequacy.

PHONEMES AND ALLOPHONES

PHONEMES /ˈfəʊniːm/ Distinctive sounds in a language that contrast with other sounds in that language (e.g., the sounds /ɪ/ and /iː/ as in rich /rɪtʃ/ and reach /riːtʃ/
contrast with each other as separate phonemes in English but not in Spanish. CONTRAST: Segments are said to contrast when their presence alone may distinguish
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forms with different meanings from each other. E.g., /s/ and /z/ in the words sip and zip / /ɪ/ and /iː/ in the words /ʃɪp/ and /ʃiːp/

➢ CONTRASTIVE DISTRIBUTION (PHONEMES) In phonology, two sounds of a language are said to be in contrastive distribution if replacing one with the other in the
same phonological environment results in a change in meaning. If a sound is in contrastive distribution, it is considered a phoneme in that language. For
example, in English, the sounds /p/ and /b/ can both occur word-initially, as in the words pat and bat (minimal pairs), which are distinct morphemes (=different
meanings). Therefore, /p/ and /b/ are in contrastive distribution and so are phonemes of English.

Note that two sounds that are in contrastive distribution in one language can be in complementary distribution or free variation in another. These sounds
occur in English, as in the word team [tʰiːm] and steam [stiːm], but their occurrence is purely dependent upon phonological context. Therefore, in English, [tʰ] and [t]
are not in contrastive distribution but in complementary distribution.

➢ COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION (ALLOPHONES & ALLOMORPHS) is he distribution of allophones (and allomorphs) in their respective phonetic
environments such that one never appears in the same phonetic context as the other (e.g., the distribution of aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops /t/ /k/ and /p/
and the distribution of the allomorphs of the definite article “the”). Some examples are:

Example: The allophones of the lateral consonant sound /l/ are: clear /l/ (voiced), dark /ɬ/ (voiceless). It is dark (=voiceless) following a voiceless plosive in an initial
stressed position: plot /plɒt/, atlantic /ətˈlantɪk/, clue /kl̥ u:/.

ASPIRATION: Aspiration refers to a feature of certain consonants in which there is a brief burst of air following the release of the sound. It is characterised by a puff of air
that is produced when a voiceless stop consonant (such as /p/, /t/, or /k/) is released at the beginning of a syllable. When a voiceless stop consonant is aspirated, it
means that the vocal cords remain open and inactive for a short period after the stop closure is released. This delay in vocal cord activity results in the release of a small
burst of air. Aspiration is commonly associated with voiceless stops at the beginning of stressed syllables in many languages.

● "Pat" /pæt/: When pronouncing the word "pat," the /p/ sound at the beginning of the word is aspirated. This means that there is a noticeable release of a burst of air after
the /p/ sound is released. The aspiration occurs because /p/ is at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
● "Top" /tɒp/: In the word "top," the /t/ sound at the beginning of the word is also aspirated. The aspiration is present because /t/ is at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
● "Cat" /kæt/: The voiceless plosive /k/ at the beginning of the word "cat" is aspirated. The aspiration occurs because /k/ is at the beginning of a stressed syllable.

It's important to note that not all languages have aspiration as a phonemic feature, and the degree of aspiration can also vary between languages. In some languages, like
English, aspiration may be more prominent in certain positions or environments, while in others, it may be less salient or nonexistent.

PHONOLOGICAL ALTERNATIONS PHENOMENA

An alternation is seen when the same phoneme is pronounced differently (similar to allophone variation) depending on the context. The morpheme can be a prefix or a
suffix. When we put different morphemes together to create larger words, we create different contexts. Depending on the context, different forms of the morpheme, i.e.
allomorphs, are pronounced.
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➢ ASSIMILATION → It occurs when two sounds that are different become similar. It may be either local or long-distance.

1. local assimilation: when two sounds are next to each other, for example, voicing assimilation: when the plural suffix agrees in voicing with a previous stop
>> cats /kæts/; dogs /dogz/. It may also affect place of articulation: the English negative prefix in- is an example of allomorphic variation; it’s a nasal
assimilating in place of articulation to a following stop (indecent vs. impossible).
- complete assimilation: when two sounds that are next to each other become identical. Example: the negative prefix in- before /l/ and /r/ undergoes
complete assimilation as it becomes “irregular” and “illegal”.
2. long-distance assimilation: when two sounds that are at different segments seem to affect each other. Example: those shoes /ðəʊz ʒuz/.

➢ DISSIMILATION → It occurs when two sounds that are similar become different. One cause may be ease of articulation: two sounds that are similar but not
exactly the same seem to be particularly difficult to pronounce correctly right next to each other. So, the similar sounds are made identical or more different.
Example: Diphthong /dɪfˌθɔŋ/ → /dɪpˌθɔŋ/ (the fricative turns into a plosive/stop).

➢ INSERTION / EPENTHESIS → It’s related to syllable structure, when vowels are inserted to break up the strings of consonants. It often happens in
loanwords or when morphemes come together. EXAMPLE: In English, to pluralize a word that ends in /s/ or /z/ the vowel /i/ is added before the plural suffix to
break up the two fricatives as in dress - dresses ; choice / tʃɔɪs / - choices / tʃɔɪsIZ/. Other example: -ed /id/ showing pastness.

➢ DELETION → Instead of breaking up a sequence of consonants with a vowel, we may delete one of the consonants, as in the loss of the initial /p/ in pneumonia
/nemounia/ or psychology. Another example is the case of many dialects in which the /r/ sound is not pronounced when it’s not followed by a vowel as in car, park,
sure. I have a car vs. The car is red.

➢ LENITION→ It occurs when sounds become softer or weaker: stops > fricatives, fricatives change to approximants.

➢ FORTITION → It occurs when sounds become stronger. Fricatives change into stops. In some dialects, /ð/ and /θ/ are pronounced as /d/ and /t/.This has the
result of reducing the markedness of the sounds [θ] and [ð]. Fortition also frequently occurs with voiceless versions of the common lateral approximant [l], usually
sourced from combinations of [l] with a voiceless obstruent. The product is a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative [ɬ].

➢ METATHESIS → /məˈtæθəsɪs/ It means switching the order of sounds. Example: horse (before it was ‘hros’), before the [ro] sequence was metathesized, wasp
used to be 'waps'; bird used to be 'brid'.

➢ REDUPLICATION → It means copying. In English, we tend to copy parts of words to convey a pejorative, diminutive sense: teeny-tiny; itsy-bitsy, easy-peasy,
hanky-panky, hocus-pocus, super-duper.

ALLOMORPHS / ALLOMORPHIC VARIATION

An alternation is seen when the same morpheme is pronounced in different ways depending on the context. A morpheme is any entry in your mental dictionary; it can be a
word or a part of a word, like a prefix (added to the beginning of a word) or a suffix (added to the end of a word). For example, in English, cat is a morpheme, and so is the
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

inflexional suffix marking the plural form -s. As we put different morphemes together to create larger words, we create different contexts. Depending on the context,
different forms of the morpheme, i.e. different allomorphs, are pronounced. The same phonotactic constraints that disallow certain sequences of sounds within
morphemes also give rise to alternations when the combination of morphemes creates new environments that violate phonotactic constraints.

💥 Interplay of phonetics and morphology in the affix - IN. Exemplify and explain. Why does this occur? i- in- im- (are not phonemes) it’s the same morpheme with
different pronunciations. Allomorphs are the variants of morphemes. Example: the negative prefix in- has 4 allomorphs i- /i/, in- /in/, im- /im/, and in- /ŋ/: illegal,
inacceptable, immeasurable, incompetent/incompatible/incomplete.

Other examples: the definite article the has two allomorphs in complementary distribution: “the” /ðə/ in “the house” vs “the” /ði/ in “the office”. Also: “a” and “an”.

➢ “-ed” suffix showing pastness

/ɪd/ /d/ /t/

when the root of the verb ends with a /d/ when the last sound of a verb is voiced when the last sound of a verb is
or a /t/, the “-ed” inflexional suffix showing and is not /d/ the -ed is pronounced /d/. voiceless and is not /t/ then the -ed is
pastness is pronounced /ɪd/. pronounced /t/.

Examples: spot, accept, abort, expect, Examples: call, clean, offer, damage, Examples: help, look, wash, watch,
boast, molest, commit, escort, defend, love, use, follow, enjoy, amaze. laugh, breath, kiss, dance, fix.
demand, respond, expend, expand.

2.2. MORPHOLOGY

MORPHOLOGY AS A SYSTEM: Why is Morphology considered a system?

MORPHEMES /ˈmɔːfiːm/
They are the smallest meaningful unit of language that combine both FORM (the way they sound) and MEANING (what they mean). Words are easily segmented,
i.e. they are broken up into individually meaningful parts: read + s, read + er, kind (free) + ness (bound), un + happy, and so on. These parts are called morphemes.
Words may of course consist of more than two morphemes, e.g. un-happi-ness, read-abil-ity, un-friend-ly, un-friend-li-ness. Morphemes can be defined as the smallest
meaningful constituents of a linguistic expression.

*A morpheme is not identical to a word. The main difference between them is that a morpheme sometimes does not stand alone (bound morphemes), but a word, by
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definition, always stands alone, such as “work”: it is a simple word / a free morpheme; “worker”, instead, is a complex word made up by a free morpheme followed by a
bound morpheme.

Morphemes can be classified as follows:

➢ Free Morphemes → they can function independently as words, e.g. town, dog. They can stand alone. Examples: Free LEXEMES: cat, vital, laugh → they carry
the meaning of the word / Free GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES: Prepositions (to, at, near, etc), Conjugations (and, but, or) Articles (a, the)

➢ Bound Morphemes → they appear only as parts of words, always in conjunction with a root / base and sometimes with other bound morphemes. Bound
morphemes can be classified into prefixes and suffixes.

➢ Prefixes: when they precede the root/base. For example, un- appears only accompanied by other morphemes to form a word: unhappy >> un (bound) + happy
(free) = complex word.
➢ Suffixes: when they follow the root/base. Examples of suffixes are -tion, -sion, -tive, -ation, -ible, and -ing.

Most bound morphemes in English are affixes, particularly prefixes and suffixes, which can in turn be subclassified into derivational and inflectional affixes:
➢ Derivational Affixes: They can be both prefixes (attached before the root) and suffixes (attached after the root).
➢ Inflectional Affixes: There are only 8 inflectional suffixes in EN: boys, develops, John’s, worked, working, eaten, taller, tallest.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INFLECTIONAL & DERIVATIONAL MORPHEMES: MEANING AND CATEGORY CHANGE
➢ INFLECTIONAL MORPHEMES → these convey grammatical meaning of the lexeme: tense, aspect, mood, person or number of a verb, or the number, gender
or case of a noun, adjective, or pronoun, without affecting the word’s meaning or class.

ENGLISH VS SPANISH >> Spanish is a highly inflected language. Compare: worked (tense) vs trabajaba (person, number, tense, aspect, mood).

➢ DERIVATIONAL MORPHEMES → these change the category and or meaning of the lexeme: when combined with a base, they change its meaning (and
category). For example, in the word happiness, the addition of the bound morpheme -ness to the root / base happy changes the word from an adjective (happy) to
a noun (happiness). In the word unkind, un- is a derivational morpheme and it CHANGES the meaning of the word formed by the root kind (without changing its
category in this case).

Examples: “developed” >> -ed: bound, suffix, inflectional. “Development” >> -ment: bound, suffix, derivational.
*The same form can function as different morphemes: “building” -ing can be both an inflectional and a derivational suffix, which can be differentiated taking into
account the linguistic context, as in:
He is building a shed: inflectional, its grammatical meaning is progressive aspect.
An amazing person: derivational, category change, adjective.
He designed the building: derivational, category change and meaning, noun.
He designed the building: verb + ed: inflection: past time.
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He is talented: derivational noun + ed: with / concerned parents.

He is smarter: adj + er: adjective, inflectional, grammatical meaning.
He is a designer: verb + er: noun: derivational, doer of the action.
He is a Londoner: noun + er: noun derivational: coming from.
**EXCEPTION: There was a murder/wonder: in these cases, “murder” and “wonder” are free morphemes, not complex words.

There are five differences between inflectional and derivational affixation which are the following:

DIFFERENCE 1: PRODUCTIVITY
➢ INFLECTIONAL: these suffixes apply to (almost) all the members of a given class (e.g. all verbs, all count nouns). For example: the plural marker -s applies to
almost all countable nouns (it is more productive than a derivational suffix).
➢ DERIVATIONAL: these suffixes apply only to some of the members of a class. For example: the suffix “-ment” only applies to some verbs as in “development”,
"abandonment”, but not to many others like “work” or “build”.

DIFFERENCE 2: MEANING
➢ INFLECTIONAL: these suffixes are associated with relatively concrete meanings.They express grammatical meanings, such as plural, past time, perfective
aspect (-ed / -en), progressive aspect -ing, comparative, superlative, and genitive case.
➢ DERIVATIONAL: these suffixes are associated with relatively abstract meanings, such as quality of being in sweetness, state of being in boyhood, process in
development, cause to be in sweetened, etc.

DIFFERENCE 3: ORDER
➢ INFLECTIONAL: these affixes appear at word periphery. (There can be only one inflectional suffix in a lexeme in English) E.g.: disorganizations. **EXCEPTION:
boys’.
➢ DERIVATIONAL: these affixes appear close to the base. In “developments”, the verb develop is the base, “ment” is a derivational suffix close to the base, and
“-s” is an inflectional suffix at word periphery.

DIFFERENCE 4: ITERABILITY
➢ INFLECTIONAL: these types of affixes are not iterable (only one inflectional morpheme can be attached to the base). **EXCEPTION: in “the boys’ toys”, the
noun boy is inflected for number showing plurality, and for case, showing possession.
➢ DERIVATIONAL: these types of affixes are iterable as there can be more than one derivational suffix in the same word. For example: dis- organ -iz(e) -ation
-s is a complex word made up by a free morpheme (organ) and four bound morphemes, of which three are derivational (dis-, -iz(e), -ation) and one is inflectional
(-s) conveying the meaning of plurality.

*ITERABLE: DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES // RECURSIVE: DERIVATIONAL AFFIXATION. Example: organise: organ is the root and it is the base to which the suffix -ize
can be attached; disorganised >> root: organ, base: organise. Derivational affixes are iterable because one complex word may be formed by more than one
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derivational affix (e.g. disorganisation). Therefore, derivational affixation is recursive since, by applying this morphological process repeatedly, a finite set of complex
words of different –or the same– grammatical categories can be formed.

DIFFERENCE 5: WORD CATEGORY CHANGE

➢ INFLECTIONAL: these suffixes do no not change the category or meaning of the base. For example: boy (v) >> boys (v); great (adj) >> greater (adj).
➢ DERIVATIONAL: these suffixes do change the grammatical category of the word. For example: empty (adj) >> emptiness (n).

DERIVATION INFLECTION

PRODUCTIVITY: It applies only to some of the members of PRODUCTIVITY: It applies to all members of a given class.
a class. It’s more restricted. Example: -ment. *workment Example: All verbs take -s to indicate 3° person singular; All
*studiment *joyment. countable nouns take -s to form plurals.

MEANING: It’s associated with relatively abstract meanings - MEANING: It’s associated with relatively concrete
the suffix is added to a lexeme to indicate grammatical meanings.
information.

ITERABILITY: It’s iterable - The process can be applied more ITERABILITY: It’s not iterable - We cannot inflect a word
than once. E.G: premodifier - The terrifying huge old round twice.
dark chinese room.

WORD CATEGORY CHANGE: It may bring about a word WORD CATEGORY CHANGE: It never brings about a word
class change. E.G: organise (V) → organisation (N) class change. E.G: book (N) → books (N)

STRESS PATTERN CHANGE: It may bring about a stress STRESS PATTERN CHANGE: It never brings about a
pattern change. E.G: ‘address → ad’dress / ‘record → re’cord stress pattern change.

-ING: there are three -ing affixes in English, one inflectional and two derivational:
Inflectional -ing combines with a verb to form another verb, as in He is breathing. In this case, it expresses progressive aspect (ONLY IN PROGRESSIVE TENSES).
As for the derivational -ing suffixes, one derivational -ing combines with a verb to form a noun, as in The breathing of the runners; while the other converts a verb into
an adjective, as in The sleeping giant.

-EN / -ED: there are also two types of -en / -ed suffixes, one inflectional and the other derivational.
The inflectional suffixes -en and -ed indicate the perfective aspect, as in He has eaten / studied (PERFECT TENSES). However, the derivational suffixes -en and
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-ed turn verbs into adjectives so that they can appear in structures such as the stolen money / the stripped t-shirt / the broken bottle / the fallen tree. Other cases to
consider are: talented - open-minded - ed (=with) talent.

The following are more examples of suffixes that can be either derivational or inflectional:

DERIVATIONAL INFLECTIONAL

It’s combined with a verb to form a noun or an It’s combined with a verb to form another verb
-ING adjective: swimming (N) / sleeping beauty indicating the progressive aspect: she was
(adj). going (...).

It’s combined with a verb to form an adjective: It’s combined with a verb to form another verb
-EN the stolen money. and form the past participle: he has eaten.

It’s combined with a verb to form an adjective: It’s combined with a verb to derive a verb in the
-ED the talented singer. past: worked.

It’s combined with a verb to form a noun It’s added to an adjective for the comparative
indicating the doer of the action: teacher. degree: taller.
-ER
It’s combined with a noun to indicate origin:
londoner, newyorker.

💥 DERIVATION ALWAYS TAKES PLACE BEFORE INFLECTION.

Other Morphological Phenomena by O’grady
Phenomenon Definition Examples

1. Cliticization CLITICS: these elements must be attached to another word I am → I’m

(a.k.a. host). In English, some verb forms have reduced You are → you’re
variants: ‘m, ‘s, ‘re, ‘ve, ‘ll, n’t. They are bound: they cannot Are not → aren’t
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stand alone as they no longer constitute a syllable. Cliticization

occurs when a clitic is attached to a host.

● Enclitics: clitics that attach to the end of their host.

● Proclitics: clitics that attach to the beginning of their host.

MAIN DIFFERENCE WITH AFFIXATION: Clitics are members

of a lexical category such as verb, noun, pronoun, or
proposition.

2. Conversion ZERO DERIVATION: when an existing word changes its ➔ V derived from N: to ink, to butter, to
syntactic category without attaching any affixes to it. ship, to button.

* Conversion is usually restricted to words containing a single ➔ N derived from V: (a long) run, (to
morpheme, except for: propos-ition (N to V), refer-ee (N to V), have a) drink, (to go for a) drive, (to fill
dirt-y (Adj. to V). a) report, (to make a) call.

Conversion in two-syllable words is often accompanied by ➔ V derived from Adj.: to dirty (a shirt),
stress shift in English: implant (v) /ɪmˈplɑːnt/ → implant (n) to empty (a box), to better (a day), to
/ˈɪmplɑːnt/ | present (v) /prɪˈzent/ → present (n) /ˈpreznt/ | right (a wrong), to total (a car).
compact (v) /kəmˈpækt/ → compact (n) /ˈkɒmpækt/

3. Clipping Through clipping, polysyllabic words are shortened by doc, ad, auto, lab, sub, deli, demo, condo,
deleting one or more syllables. Some of the most common maths, burger, zoo, fax, blog
cases of clipping are names: Liz, Ron, Rob, Sue.
Many clipped forms have been accepted in general usage.

4. Blends Blends are words that are created from nonmorphemic parts brunch (breakfast + lunch)
of two already existing items, usually the first part of one and teanner (tea + dinner)
the final part of another one. smog (smoke + fog)
spam (spice + ham)
infomercial (information + commercial)

5. Backformation
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6. Acronyms

7. Onomatopoeia

EXAM QUESTIONS & PRACTICE:

➢ What is the smallest meaningful unit? morpheme
➢ How can morphemes be classified? 3 classifications (1 free/bound; 2 prefixes/suffixes; 3 derivational/inflectional)
➢ What are the five main differences between inflectional and derivational suffixes?
➢ In each of the following groups identify suffixes (if any) and classify them. How many morphemes (either inflectional or derivational) are there in each group?
➢ ER: part of the word or 3 different morphemes: murder (simple word), murderer (derivational suffix = doer of the action), taller (inflectional suffix =
comparative), preacher (derivational = doer of the action), Londoner, Dubliner (derivational = origin), paper (simple word)
➢ ED: I studied, I have studied, the escaped convict (adj), She is talented (adj), open-minded (ed= with an open mind)
➢ ING: the meeting (der/noun), he is working (inf progr asp), running water (der -adj), Henning (simple word)
➢ S: boys, classes, he works, Peter’s - 2 plural markers, third person singular - genitive case.

ALLOMORPHS /ˈæləmɔːf/
Just as an allophone is a variant (a different realisation) of a phoneme, an allomorph is a variant or a different realisation of a morpheme. A word’s pronunciation can
be sensitive to the particular phonological environment in which morphemes occur. Allomorphs can also be sensitive to morphological factors, including a word’s internal
structure.

There are three types of allomorphic variation: phonologically conditioned allomorphy, morphologically conditioned allomorphy, and semantically conditioned
allomorphy.

TYPE 1: PHONOLOGICALLY CONDITIONED ALLOMORPHY

The local phonological environment may influence the form of morphemes, for example, in English the inflectional suffix for plural ending ‘-s’ can be realised in three
different ways. Therefore, there are three possible forms for the plural suffix for regular nouns in English. These variants are in complementary distribution and are
called allomorphs. In other words, they are the different realisations of the morpheme depending on the phonological environment. Therefore, their
distribution is predictable or phonologically conditioned by the final / initial sound of the base.

It’s conditioned by the previous sound. Examples:

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-ED /t/, /d/, /id/ ➢ /t/ → after voiceless sounds: passed /pɑːst/
➢ /d/ → after voiced sounds: called /kɔːld/
➢ /id/ → after voiceless stops (epenthesis: the insertion of a sound or letter within a word): wanted /ˈwɒntɪd/

It’s conditioned by the previous sound. Examples:

-S /s/, /z/, /iz/ ➢ /s/ → after voiceless consonants other than sibilant fricatives: cats
➢ /z/ → after voiced sounds and vowels: dogs
➢ /iz/ → after a base that ends in fricative sounds - epenthesis: dresses

A / AN /ə/, /ən/ It’s conditioned by the following sound. Examples: a house / an apple.

THE /ðə/, /ði/ It’s conditioned by the following sound. Examples: the house / the apple.

It’s conditioned by the following sound. Examples:

IN- (not) /i/, /in/, /im/, /iŋ/ ➢ /i/ → complete assimilation before liquids: illegal/irregular
➢ /in/ → before vowel sounds: inability
➢ /im/ → before bilabial sounds: impossible
➢ /iŋ/ → before velar sounds: incomplete

In Spanish, the definite article “la” is used with feminine nouns, but it becomes “el” when the following word begins with a stressed /a/. Examples: el álbum, el ángel.
Therefore, “la” can be “la” or “el” depending on the noun that follows it.

TYPE 2: MORPHOLOGICALLY CONDITIONED ALLOMORPHY

Many languages have different verb classes called conjugations, which condition the variant of morphemes we can use, such as agreement markers. For example,
in Spanish the infinitive form of the verbs may end in -ar, -er or -ir to indicate present tense, indicative mood. Their occurrence is motivated by morphological factors,
so we can say “amar, temer, partir”. However, in order for subject-verb agreement in the second-person singular these verbs take -s, so we say “amas, temes,
partes”.

TYPE 3: SEMANTICALLY CONDITIONED ALLOMORPHY

Semantic factors may also play a role in determining how morphemes can be realised. The English prefix -un (meaning not) can be attached to adjectives when
representing opposite poles of a semantic contrast (happy/sad). The positive value (happy) is usually the unmarked quality, from which the marked negative value
can be derived by adding the affix un- “unhappy”. However, lexemes already containing the negative value, such as “sad”, often cannot take a negative affix
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(*unsad), so instead, we have to use the free-morpheme variant ‘not’.

LEXEMES & WORD FORMS

➢ LEXEME /ˈleksiːm/ (dictionary word) A lexeme is a word in an abstract sense. “Live” is a verb lexeme: it represents the core meaning shared by forms such as live,
lives, lived, and living (1 lexeme [1 core meaning] - 4 word forms/inflected forms). In most languages, dictionaries are organised according to lexemes, so it is usually
reasonable to think of a lexeme as a ‘dictionary word’. Although we must assign names to lexemes to be able to talk about them, lexemes are abstract entities that
have no phonological form of their own. “Live” is, therefore, just a convenient label to talk about a particular lexeme; the sequence of sounds /liv/ is not the
lexeme itself. Let’s keep in mind the following: phoneme (abstract) >> allophone (a realisation of a phoneme); lexeme (core meaning) >> word forms (different
realisations of that lexeme). So: LIVE: live, lives, lived, living >> 1 lexeme (core meaning), 4 word forms (realisations) [PARADIGM].

➢ WORD FORM (concrete word) A word-form is a word in a concrete sense. It is a sequence of sounds that expresses the combination of a lexeme (e.g. live)
and a set of grammatical meanings (or grammatical functions) appropriate to that lexeme (e.g. third person singular present tense). “Lives” is a word form. Thus, word
forms are concrete in that they can be pronounced.
*WORD FORM: LEXEME + INFLECTION

PARADIGM vs WORD FAMILY

➢ PARADIGM → (inflection) Lexemes consist of a fair number of word-forms. The set of word-forms that belongs to a lexeme is often called a paradigm. LIVE
lives, live, living, lived (SET OF INFLECTED FORMS OF A LEXEME = PARADIGM) Examples: The paradigm of the lexeme BOY consists of 4 word forms: boy, boys,
boy’s, boys’.The paradigm of the lexeme TALL consists of 3 word forms: tall, taller, tallest.The paradigm of the lexeme STUDY consists of 4 word forms: study, studies,
studying, studied.The paradigm of the lexeme BE consists of am, are, is, was, were, being, been.

➢ WORD FAMILY → (derivation) Different lexemes may also be related to each other, and a set of related lexemes is called a word family.
For example:
Two English word families: READ: read, readable, unreadable, reader, readability, reread.
LOGIC: logic, logician, logical, illogical, illogicality.
PARADIGM - INFLECTION: WORK: work, works, worked, working >> 1 LEXEME, SEVERAL WORD FORMS.
WORD FAMILY - DERIVATION: WORK: work (v), work (n), worker (n), workable (adj) >> SEVERAL LEXEMES.

Paradigm of the lexeme MOTHER: mother, mothers, mother’s, mothers’

Paradigm
Word Family: MOTHER: mother, mother (n), motherhood, maternity, maternal, matron, matronize.
mothers
mother’s
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mothers’

SUMMING UP

LEXEME: READ (dictionary word - core meaning - abstract) WORD FAMILY: 1 lexeme plus other lexemes that derive from it
forming different dictionary entries.
WORD FORMS: (concrete sense) read, reads, read, reading.
WORD FORM: LEXEME + INFLECTION Example: READ: reader, readability, readable, unreadable,
readership.
PARADIGM: (WORD FORMS of a Lexeme)
READ: read, reads, read, reading. So, word families are abstract too, because they are conformed
by abstractions (lexemes).

FORMED THROUGH INFLECTION FORMED THROUGH DERIVATION

COMPLEX LEXEME VS COMPOUND LEXEME

➢ COMPLEX LEXEMES → Generally, they denote new concepts that are different from the concepts of the corresponding simple lexemes. E.g.: EAT: is a simple
lexeme, but EATABLE, UNETABLE, EATER are complex lexemes that derive from EAT (they are within the word family).

*COMPLEX LEXEME: BASE + 1 OR MORE DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES (either prefixes or suffixes).

**MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESS AT PLAY: DERIVATION & AFFIXATION.

➢ COMPOUND LEXEMES → Some morphologically complex words belong to two (or more) word families simultaneously, for instance, the lexeme
FIREWOOD belongs both in the family of fire and in the family of wood. Such relationships are called compounding, and lexemes like FIREWOOD are called
compound lexemes, or just compounds, for short.

*MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESS AT PLAY: COMPOUNDING.

AFFIX, BASE & ROOT

➢ AFFIX → It’s a grammatical morpheme which must be bound to a root or another affix. It can have an abstract meaning (derivational affixes) or concrete
meaning (inflectional affixes) and they cannot occur by itself. Those affixes that follow the main part of the word are called suffixes, and those that precede it are
called prefixes.

*AFFIX: BASE + AFFIX

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**CLITIC: “m” in I’m: HOST + CLITIC

➢ BASE → It is the part of a word that an affix is attached to. Affixes and bases can be identified both in inflected word forms and in derived lexemes. E.g: in
read-er, read-able, and re-read, read is the base, -er and -able are suffixes. A base is also sometimes called a stem, especially if an inflectional (as opposed to
derivational) affix attaches to it. Bases or stems can be complex themselves, for instance, in activity, -ity is a suffix that combines with the base active, which itself
consists of the suffix -ive and the base act.

Another example of our own: In the case of DECENTRALISATION, the root is “central”, to which the derivational suffix -ize is attached forming the complex lexeme
centralise. The derivational suffix -ation is attached to the base centralise forming the complex lexeme CENTRALISATION, which in turn is the base the
derivational prefix de- is attached to, forming a whole new complex lexeme: DECENTRALISATION.

*The BASE is a relative notion that is defined with respect to the notion ‘affix’.

➢ ROOT → It is a base that cannot be further analysed into its constituent morphemes. It’s an irreducible form and it’s always lexical, for example, the root organ
in contrast to the base organise.

*In the case of DISORGANISATION: the root in all cases is organ. But the base varies every time an affix is attached (organ, organise, organisation).

MORPHOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS
There are two kinds of morphological relationships:
INFLECTION (=inflectional morphology): the relationship between word-forms of a lexeme (paradigm). Example: read, read, reads, reading (progressive aspect)
DERIVATION (=derivational morphology): the relationship between lexemes of a word family. Example: read, reader, readability, unreadable, reading (derivational suffix)

Morphologists also use the corresponding verbs inflect and derive. For instance, one would say that the Latin lexeme insula is inflected (or inflects) for case and number,
and that the lexeme reader is derived from the lexeme read.

INFLECTIONAL PROCESSES IN ENGLISH

These processes help mark grammatical class / express grammatical meanings without changing the category of the base.
1. AFFIXATIONAL INFLECTION: AFFIXATION: toy - toys (plural); work - worked (past); work - working (progressive aspect); tall - taller (comparative); tall - tallest
(superlative degree) Boy - boy´s (genitive case) Boys’ is the only case in which inflectional affixation can be concatenative (plural + genitive case).
2. NON-AFFIXATIONAL INFLECTION (non-concatenative)
➢ INTERNAL CHANGE (one segment = speech sound)
● UMLAUT (nouns) foot - feet / mouse - mice / goose - geese / man - men (nouns)
● ABLAUT (verbs) swim - swam / ring - rang / feed - fed /come - came / drink - drank (verbs)
3. SUPPLETION
➢ PARTIAL SUPPLETION: think - thought / bring - brought / catch - caught
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➢ TOTAL SUPPLETION: go - went / be - was / she - her / I - me /

💥 ALL THESE PROCESSES ARE NON-RECURSIVE.

➢ CONCATENATIVE PROCESSES: /kənˈkætənətɪv/ they involve the combination of different words or word parts.
● DERIVATIONAL AFFIXATION: centr -al - iz(e) -ation
● COMPOUNDING: body defence mechanism activator

➢ NON-CONCATENATIVE PROCESSES:
● INFLECTIONAL PROCESSES tooth - teeth, meet - met, teach - taught, go - went.
● DERIVATIONAL PROCESSES → CONVERSION (ZERO DERIVATION):
➔ Noun >> Verb: To bottle, to corner, to coat, to mask, to peel, to brake, to knife, to nurse.
➔ Verb >> Noun: Doubt, laugh, catch, bore, cover, walk, turn, retreat, drive.
➔ Adjective >> Verb: To calm, to dirty, to dry, to tidy.

Other types of conversion

➔ Adjective >> Noun: A daily, a comic, marrieds, the poor, gays.
➔ Preposition >> Verb: to up the prices, to down a beer
➔ Closed-system words >> Noun: A must
➔ Affixes >> Nouns: Isms - Capitalism, Islamism,

DERIVATIONAL PROCESSES
➢ AFFIXATIONAL DERIVATION: un- imag- in(e) - able
➢ CONVERSION (0 DERIVATION): a bottle - to bottle
➢ COMPOUNDING:
a. Endocentric compounds rightheaded: the right head determines the category and the meaning of the compound (they denote a relationship of
hyponymy: kind of ..) chocolate milk (the category of the word is inside), patrol car - - milk and car are the right heads - the right-headedness generalisation
only applies in the case of endocentric compounds. Examples: policeman, notebook, patrol car (kind of …) HEAD: hypernym: milk; COMPOUND: hyponym:
chocolate milk ( a kind of milk)
b. Exocentric compounds (unheaded): there’s no head in the compound. Neither lexeme determines the overall grammatical category or meaning: drawback,
get-together, redhead, outcome, outcast (the word category is known by analysing the linguistic context)

STRUCTURAL TREES
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💥 IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER!

➔ Always indicate the word category of the root and of the derived word/s.
➔ Always indicate what kind of affix is attached. Is it derivational or inflectional?
➔ Affixes are attached one at a time: some words have both prefixes and suffixes. In such cases, it's a good idea to think about the typical behavior of affixes.
For example, in order to form the verb "re-hospitalize", the suffix "-ize" is attached first to the noun root "hospital" in order to form the verb "hospitalize". (It's
impossible to attach "re-" first because there is no word "re-hospital" in English.) Only after the word (a verb) "hospitalize" is formed, the prefix "re-" attaches to it
in order to form the verb "re-hospitalize"

*Caught:Verb inflected for past tense or perfect aspect

EXAM QUESTIONS
DERIVATION
a. List derivational affixes in English. List derivational affixes in Spanish.
b. Does derivation always result in category change? Back up your answer and illustrate.
c. In which cases is "-ed" derivational? → amused / bored / annoyed singer ( verb + aff (d) = adjective)
d. Does derivation always create new lexemes? Back up your answer and illustrate.
e. Where are lexemes stored?
f. Draw structural trees to represent the internal structure of these words: musicality - phonetician - compositionally
g. g.Explain the typical behavior of the suffix "-ion". Consider these words: "introduction", "infusion", "elevation", "reversion", and "domination".
h. b-Explain the typical behavior of the suffix "-ic". Consider these words: "pathetic", "sympathetic", "magnetic", and "aristocratic".
i. c-Explain the typical behavior of the suffix "-ly". Consider these words: "badly", "wrongly", "exceptionally", and "argumentatively".

NOTES:
All prefixes are derivational because they change the meaning of the word.
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Inflectional suffixes are more productive because they can be applied to almost all roots // rather, derivational suffixes cannot be applied to all roots. E.g:
-ed is more productive because it can be applied to almost all verb roots # -ment cannot be applied to many verb roots.
Inflectional suffixes can only be used once (iterability)

2.3. SYNTAX

SYNTAX: It is the subcomponent of the grammar that involves the study of rules whereby words or other elements of sentence structure are combined to form
grammatical sentences.
IT IS THE SUBSYSTEM OF GRAMMAR THAT IS IN CHARGE OF PUTTING WORDS TOGETHER INTO A GRAMMATICAL STRING OF WORDS >> every sentence is
a string of words, but not every string of words is a sentence. This component of Grammar deals with the arrangement of words and phrases into well-formed structures.
The units of analysis are: words, phrases, and sentences.

💥 EXAM QUESTION: Why not every string of words form sentences? What does a string of words need to display in order to be considered a sentence? If a
string of words is not generated considering the grammatical rules of a language then it is considered ungrammatical or not possible by the native speakers of that
language, and, therefore, it does not form a sentence/an inflectional phrase. A sentence needs to be generated according to the syntactic rules of a particular language
(there are a set of rules that can generate an infinite number of sentences). To illustrate, determiners are used before nouns, therefore, “the cow” is grammatical but “cow
the” is ungrammatical.

GRAMMATICALITY JUDGEMENT: Native speakers of a language judge whether a sentence is grammatical or not. Speakers of a language are able to combine words in
novel ways, forming sentences that they have neither heard nor read before. However, not just any combination of words will produce a well-formed sentence. An
utterance is grammatical if native speakers judge it to be a possible sentence of their language.

SYNTAX

O’Grady (structure) generative grammar (Chomsky), x’ theory Radford (theory)

LANGUAGE STRUCTURE LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

universal grammar >> syntactic component linguistic / grammatical competence and

performance. Evidence
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words >> categories grammar - level of adequacy - a particular language -

descriptive adequacy

phrases >> the BLUEPRINT: the x’ schema theory of grammar - universal grammar - levels of
adequacy

sentences >> operations: merge and move innateness hypothesis about language acquisition

principles and parameters

LANGUAGE STRUCTURE - O’GRADY

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR: Generatives’ view - Language as a faculty in the mind. Speakers have the innate linguistic competence (Noam Chomsky) which allows
them to combine words and phrases into well-formed sentences. Generative Grammar makes emphasis on Universal Grammar (UG), the system of categories,
operations, and principles that are shared by all languages.

UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR - SYNTACTIC COMPONENT

UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR: Transformational grammar linguists follow Chomsky’s tradition. In working with transformational syntax, the emphasis is on Universal
Grammar (UG), which is the system of categories, operations, and principles that are shared by all languages.

*KEY IDEA → despite the many superficial differences among languages, there are certain commonalities with respect to the manner in which sentences are formed.
**KEY TERMS → genetic endowment, tacit (implicit) knowledge, inaccessibility.

Linguistic competence: tacit knowledge about the system of rules through which we can produce and understand novel sentences in a language.

Linguistic competence:
➢ innate: universal grammar.
➢ acquired: particular grammar and lexicon.

SYNTAX IS MADE UP BY THE LEXICON or mental dictionary which provides speakers with information about words (words, pronunciation of words, word categories,
subcategorization groups: information about the complements that a word can take [collocations]), AND BY THE COMPUTATIONAL SYSTEM which provides information
about syntactic operations that are made available by the grammar of a language to speakers to combine words and form sentences (structure-building operations):
merge operation and move operation.
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The SYNTACTIC COMPONENT of any grammar must include at least two subcomponents:

LEXICON COMPUTATIONAL SYSTEM

The LEXICON or mental dictionary that includes a A COMPUTATIONAL SYSTEM which includes two types of operations
list of the languages’ words, along with information through which we combine and arrange words in particular ways.
about:
● their pronunciation, The two principal structure-building operations available by UG are the
● their form (syntactic category of the word, inflectional following ones:
properties and subcategorization properties),
● MERGE OPERATION → it combines elements to create phrases and
● complement options of words, and
● meaning.
sentences compatible with the x’ schema and subcategorization rules.

Declarative sentences yield the deep structure of sentences, for example:

“The swan is swimming across the lake”.

● MOVE OPERATION → (also known as transformation) it transports an

element to a new position within a particular sentence.

Yes-No interrogative sentences yield the surface structure, the final

syntactic structure of a sentence, for example: “Is the swan swimming
across the lake?”

In a nutshell, the yes-no interrogative sentence has been formed following

two steps: first, Merge operation; second, Move operation.

1. WORDS
In all human languages, words can be grouped into a relatively small number of classes called syntactic categories. The classification reflects a verity of factors,
such as the type of meaning that the word expresses, the type of affixes that they can take, and the type of structures in which they can occur. Some items belong to
more than one category.

Syntactic categories of words:

➢ Lexical categories → Nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and adverbs. They play a very important role in sentence formation.
➢ Non-lexical categories → Determiners, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions, degree words. They generally have meanings that are harder to define and paraphrase.
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

Three different criteria can be applied to identify the category a word belongs to (MID):

➢ Meaning → Nouns typically name entities; verbs designate actions, sensations, and states; adjectives designate a property or attribute of the entities denoted
by nouns; adverbs typically denote properties and attributes of actions, sensations, and states designated by verbs. However, a word’s category doesn't
always bear such a straightforward relationship to its meaning. E.g: nouns as “difficulty” or “truth” do not name entities in the strict sense. There are other
words very similar in meaning, such as “like” and “fond of” (one is a verb and the other is an adjective).

➢ Inflection → Most nouns can be pluralized, verbs can be inflected by tenses, and some adjectives can be expressed in the comparative and superlative form.
However, even inflection doesn’t always provide the information needed to determine a word’s category. An instance of this is that in English not all
adjectives can take the comparative and superlative suffixes (*calmer; *aggressivest), and some nouns can’t be pluralized (wisdom, knowledge)

➢ Distribution → It’s the most reliable criterion for determining a word’s category that involves the type of elements (especially functional categories) with
which it can co-occur (its distribution). E.g: Nouns typically occur with a determiner, verbs with an auxiliary, adjectives with a degree word.

SAMPLE ANSWERS: Write a paragraph for each sentence explaining how each criterion helps determine the syntactic category to which the word “works”
belongs to in each sentence.

His works are admired all over the world.

In the sentence “His works are admired all over the world”, “works” belongs to the word category of nouns for three main reasons. Firstly, regarding the criterion of
meaning, in this case “works” may mean a task or the result product of somebody's job or to an artistic item such as a painting or a book. However, as this word is
polysemous, one cannot rely only on this criterion alone. Secondly, considering the criterion of inflection, the inflectional suffix -s denoting plurality has been attached to
the root “work.” However, the same inflectional change can take place in order to form the third person singular form of the verb in the Present Simple tense. Finally, the
distribution criterion should be taken under consideration. The word “works” is the head of a Noun Phrase and it is preceded by the possessive pronoun “his” which is
acting as a specifier. Furthermore, “works” is followed by the Verb Phrase “are admired.” In sum, because of its syntactic environment, the word “works” is a noun in this
case.

Mary works hard every day.

In this sentence, the word “works” belongs to the syntactic category of verbs. There exist certain criteria within the syntactic categories of words that can be applied to
identify the category “works” belongs to. First, at the level of semantics, the criterion of meaning indicates that the word “work” denotes an action carrying out a
mental/physical effort related to one’s job. However, a word’s category doesn't always bear such a straightforward relationship to its meaning. Therefore, another
criterion needs to be applied. At the level of morphology, the criterion of inflection marks the inflectional suffix -s attached to the verb “work”, which denotes the third
person singular. But even inflection doesn’t always provide the information needed to determine a word’s category. A third criterion must be applied at the level of
syntax: the distribution criterion involves the type of elements (especially functional categories) with which the word “works” can co-occur. In this case, “work” is the head
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of a verb phrase and it can co-occur with other syntactic elements within the same sentence structure: it is preceded by the subject pronoun “Mary” and it is followed by
the adverb “hard”. Thus, due to the complementary distribution in the verb’s syntax environment, it can be said that the word “work” is a verb.

2. PHRASES
Sentences are not formed by simply stringing words together. Rather, they have a hierarchical design in which words are grouped together into successively larger
structural units. Phrases are the units that stand between words and sentences in syntactic structure.

THE BLUEPRINT → XP: (S) X ( C ) Any phrase consists of an optional specifier, the head, and optional complements. These are arranged as specified in
the blueprint or X’ schema. X stands for any category (N, A, V, Prep.), so XP stands for a phrase, such as NP, VP, AP, PP. Such structure is represented by inverted
trees, which capture the hierarchical organisation of phrases and sentences and show how constituents relate to one another, since they’re not all at the
same level.

The X’ schema captures four generalisations:

1. All phrases have a three-level structure: (X, X’, XP).
2. All phrases contain a head (X).
3. If there’s a complement, it is attached at the intermediate level, as a “sister” of the head
4. If there’s a specifier, it is attached at the XP level.

PHRASE STRUCTURE
Phrases are built around a nucleus called the head. Although phrases usually consist of two or more words, a head may form a phrase.

➢ HEADS: The head is the obligatory element around which a phrase is built. The category that can function as the head of the phrase are nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and prepositions. Although phrases usually consist of two or more words, a head may also form a phrase all by itself. It’s the most important
element in the phrase because it determines the syntactic category of it. E.g: books >> N - N’ - NP

➢ SPECIFIERS: The type of specifier that appears in a particular phrase depends on the category of the head. Determiners serve as specifiers of nouns,
while preverbal adverbs typically function as the specifiers of verbs, and degree words as specifiers of adjectives and some prepositions. They are attached at
the XP level in accordance with the X’ schema.
● Syntactically, specifiers mark a phrase boundary. In English, they occur at the beginning of their respective phrases.
● Semantically, they help to make the meaning of the head more precise.

➢ COMPLEMENTS: They are phrases that provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head. For
example, in the sentence “A girl would always read a book in the library”, the meaning of ‘read’ implies an object that is read, and in the phrase ‘in the library’ the
meaning of ‘in’ implies a location. It’s also possible to have phrases that consist of a head and a complement with no specifier. E.g: “read a book”, “in the
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

classroom”.

TESTS FOR PHRASE STRUCTURE

➢ SUBSTITUTION: Phrases are syntactic units, so they can often be replaced by a pro form (an element, such as “it,” “they,” “do so,” “there,” “then”). The string
of words can be replaced by a single word; the elements that do not form a constituent cannot be replaced in this way. To illustrate: “The girl found her dress in
the kitchen” (She found it there) >> The sentence is still grammatically correct and still makes sense.

➢ MOVEMENT: Phrases can be moved as a single unit to a different position within the sentence. E.G: “in the kitchen” can be moved from a position after the
verb to the beginning of the sentence: “in the kitchen, the girl found her dress”

➢ COORDINATION: Phrases can be joined to another group of words by a conjunction, such as and, or, but. E.G: The girl found her dress in the kitchen and
near the bedroom. NOTE: the phrase must be one of the same status/category.

SUBCATEGORIZATION PROPERTIES/RULES → COMPLEMENT OPTIONS

Information about the complements permitted by a particular head is included in its entry in a speaker’s lexicon. For instance, the lexicon for English includes an
entry for ‘cut’ that indicates its syntactic category (v), its phonological representation /kʌt/, its meaning and the fact that it takes a NP complement. This information
must be stored in the lexicon, since it cannot be predicted from a word’s meaning.The term subcategorization is used to refer to information about a word’s
complement options. THINK OF COLLOCATIONS.

➢ Subcategorization information helps ensure that lexical items appear in the appropriate types of tree structures. E.G: by saying that ‘cut’ belongs to the
subcategory of verbs that require a NP complement, we are permitting it to occur in patterns, such as “the girl cuts the trees” but not in “ *the girl cuts”.
➢ A word can belong to more than one subcategory. E.g: ‘EAT’ can occur with or without a NP complement.

COMPLEMENT CLAUSES
All human languages allow sentence-like constructions to function as complements. E.G: “the boss believes that our team will win”. → The complement clause is
embedded in the matrix clause.

Complementizers - They take an IP complement, forming the CP (complementizer phrase): That, Whether, If
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SUBCATEGORIZATION INFORMATION helps ensure that lexical items appear in the appropriate types of tree structures (=grammatical construction). This
information tells you the properties of a word / how to use this word / all the information a person has in mind (mental lexicon). (COLLOCATIONS)

Some examples of verb complements are the following ones:

● ∅ → vanish, arrive, die → Her lover’s perfume vanished (as he walked out the door).
● NP → devour, cut, prove → The lioness devoured NP the gazelle.
● AP → be, become → The young lady became AP highly interesting and mysterious.
● PPto → dash, talk, refer → The children talked PP to her mom.
● NP NP → spare, hand, give → Belén handed NP the professor NP her exam.
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● NP PPto → hand, give, send → She gave NP a healthy cookie PP to her lovely dog.
● NP PPfor → buy, cook, reserve → Tommy cooked NP a meal PP for his fiancee.
● NP PPloc → put, place, stand → Stella put NP the book PP on the dining table.
● PPto PPabout → talk, speak → She talked PP to her mother PP about the trip to London.
● NP PPfor PPwith → open, fix → Roy opened NP the door PP for Tyson PP with a crowbar.

*There is NO limit on the number of embedded clauses that can occur in a sentence, since any CP can contain a verb that itself takes a complement CP.

3. SENTENCES
They are the largest units of syntactic analysis. They have as their heads an abstract category called I (or inflection) that indicates the sentence’s tense.

Explain the following quote: “Unlike the traditional analysis of sentence structure, many linguists now believe that S have the same internal structure
as phrases in the sense that they are compatible with the x’ schema: they have a head, a specifier and a complement.”

Sentences have as their head an abstract category dubbed / called “I” or “Infl” (for inflection), which indicates the sentence’s tense. It is commonly assumed that
the I node also contains information about subject-verb agreement, which – like tense – is often realized as verbal inflection. Because I, like all heads, is obligatory,
this automatically accounts for the fact that all sentences of English have tense (e.g., they are past or nonpast). Other important aspects of sentence structure
follow from the fact that the I category takes a VP as its complement and an NP (the subject) as its specifier.” To sum up, O’Grady adopts the view that sentences
have I as their head and that this element may be realized as either a tense label (past or nonpast) or an auxiliary.

*SENTENCES HAVE THE SAME INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF PHRASES:

➢ IP (inflectional phrase = sentence)
➢ HEAD: inflection >> which is typically an auxiliary verb except in the simple present or simple past. The inflection is either -past or +past
➢ SPECIFIER: noun phrase (subject)
➢ COMPLEMENT: verb phrase

SO, THE X’ SCHEMA APPLIES TO SENTENCES → Sentences have a head called Inflection or I - abstract category (usually coincides with an auxiliary)

SENTENCES: IMAGE 2: SENTENCES WITH AN AUXILIARY VERB (PRIMARY OR MODAL AUXILIARIES)

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TESTS FOR SENTENCE STRUCTURE

The three tests for sentence structure are techniques used in linguistics to analyse the underlying structure of a sentence and to determine if a string of words is a
constituent. These tests are movement, substitution, and coordination.

➢ MOVEMENT TEST: This test involves moving a constituent (word or phrase) from one position in the sentence to another. By analysing the resulting
sentence, we can determine the underlying structure of the original sentence.
For example: Original sentence: The cat is sleeping on the couch. Movement test: On the couch, the cat is sleeping. Result: The prepositional phrase "on the
couch" has been moved from its original position to the beginning of the sentence.

➢ SUBSTITUTION TEST: This test involves substituting a constituent with a pronoun or a pro-form (e.g. "do so," "did so"). By analysing the resulting
sentence, we can determine the underlying structure of the original sentence. The string of words can be replaced by a single word; the elements that do not
form a constituent cannot be replaced in this way.
For example: Original sentence: Mary gave the book to John. Substitution test: She gave it to him. Result: The noun phrase "the book" has been substituted
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with the pronoun "it," and the noun phrase "John" has been substituted with the pronoun "him." The sentence is still grammatically correct and still makes
sense.

➢ COORDINATION TEST: This test involves coordinating two or more constituents with a coordinating conjunction (e.g. "and," "or," "but"). By analysing
the resulting sentence, we can determine the underlying structure of the original sentence.
For example: Original sentence: The dog barked and the cat meowed. Coordination test: The dog barked, but the cat meowed. Result: The coordinating
conjunction "and" has been replaced with "but," which suggests that the two clauses have a contrasting relationship.

*NOTE: the clauses must be one of the same status/ category.

IN A NUTSHELL: the movement, substitution, and coordination tests are useful techniques for analyzing sentence structure. By using these tests, we can
identify the deep structure of the sentence. SUBSTITUTION: he/she. MOVEMENT: The contract was signed by the manager. COORDINATION: The
manager and his business partners signed the contract.

DEEP AND SURFACE STRUCTURE

What are the two levels of syntactic structure that derivation for a sentence typically yields?

In traditional work in transformational syntax, all instances of Merge operation take place before any instances of the Move operation. As a result, the
derivation for a sentence typically yields two distinct levels of syntactic structure. The first, called DEEP STRUCTURE (D-STRUCTURE), is formed by Merge in
accordance with the head’s subcategorization properties and the phrase structure schema. Deep structure plays a special role in the interpretation of sentences.

The second level of syntactic structure corresponds to the final syntactic form of the sentence. Called SURFACE STRUCTURE (OR S-STRUCTURE), it results
from applying whatever transformations are appropriate for the sentence in question.

MERGE OPERATION DECLARATIVE SENTENCES Yields the DEEP STRUCTURE of a sentence

DERIVATION compatible with the following:
● Phrase structure schema.
● Subcategorization properties

MOVE OPERATIONS YES/NO - WH INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES Yields the SURFACE

MOVE = TRANSFORMATION STRUCTURE of a sentence

1. MOVE OPERATION
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It is possible to build a very large number of different sentences by allowing the merge operation to combine words and phrases in accordance with the X’
schema, and the subcategorization properties of individual words. However, there are many sentences that cannot be built through merge operation.There are
two such patterns that are accommodated through another sentence building operation called MOVE.

The formation of question/interrogative structures requires the use of a structure-building operation called MOVE OPERATION, traditionally known as
‘transformation’. Move applies to structures, such as “that girl should leave” and moves the auxiliary verb in the I position to a new position in front of the subject.
To illustrate, move applies the auxiliary verb in I position to a new position in front of the subject.

Under the transformational analysis, ALL auxiliaries originate inside the sentence: Auxiliaries that occur in front of the subject, simply undergo an extra process →
the move operation that transports the I category in front of the subject in order to signal a question. The transformational analysis automatically captures the
fact that the sentence “should that girl leave?” is the question structure corresponding to ‘That girl should go’. BOTH have the same basic structure. They differ
only in that the move operation has applied to the I category in the interrogative structure.

The MOVE OPERATION is traditionally known as TRANSFORMATION because it transforms an existing structure. In other words, it can modify these tree
structures by moving an element from one position to another.

➢ YES-NO QUESTIONS: The formation of question structures requires the use of a structure-building operation called Move. The move operation used for this
kind of questions is often informally called inversion, which consists in moving I category and the auxiliary verb that it contains to the Complementizer position.
In the case of sentences that do not contain an auxiliary, as the I category contains only an abstract tense marker, do insertion is required to make inversion
possible, known as the insertion rule which is an operation that adds an element to a tree structure.

That girl leaves. D-STRUCTURE

That girl does leave. D-STRUCTURE, MERGE OPERATION (insertion: should)
Should that girl t leave? S-STRUCTURE, MOVE OPERATION (inversion)

This sentence is built in three steps:

1. In the initial step, the merge operation interacts with the X’ schema to give the D-structure (that girl leaves), which contains no auxiliary verb in the I
position. The merge operation combines the determiner “that” with the N’ “girl” to form the NP “that girl”.
2. The insertion rule then adds the special interrogative “does,” creating an intermediate level of structure: “That girl does leave.”
3. The move operation then moves I to C position (complementizer position = initial position), creating the sentence’s S-Structure, the final syntactic form of
the sentence in “Does that girl leave?” This move operation used for yes-no questions is often formally called Inversion.
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

*A transformation only changes an element’s position. It doesn’t change the category of words or eliminate any part of the previous structure. The trace (t)
records the fact that the moved element comes from the head position within IP.

ALL IPs occur inside CPs, whether they are embedded or not. When embedded within a larger sentence, the CP can contain an over complementizer, such
as that / whether / if. Elsewhere, the C position simply contains information about whether the sentence is a statement or a question.

➔ INVERSION / TRANSFORMATION → It moves the auxiliary from the I position to an empty C position in front of the subject NP. This gives the
correct word order for question structure and explains why inversion sounds unnatural when the C position is already taken by another element.
➔ DO-INSERTION → We insert the interrogative ‘Do’ into an empty I position. Do is inserted into sentences that do not have an auxiliary verb already,
thereby making inversion possible. E.G: Those birds sing” → Those birds do sing → Do those birds t sing?
➔ WH-MOVEMENT → We move a wh-phrase to the specifier position under CP. The wh-word replaces the NP, VP, etc. that was removed, so it takes
the position the NP, VP, etc. had before. E.G: “Your father works where” → Where does your father t work t?
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The Wh-movement cannot eliminate any part of the previously formed structure. The position initially occupied by the wh-phrase is therefore not lost.
Rather, it remains a trace (an empty category) indicating that the moved element corresponds to the complement of the verb “work”.

➢ SUBJECT QUESTIONS:
The answer is the subject of the sentence. They don’t take auxiliaries.
E.g: John should call the director.
Who should call the director? D-E
Who t should call the director? S-E

➢ WH QUESTIONS:
Jane went where. (D-STRUCTURE)
Jane did go where. (D-S) (Do-insertion)
Where did Jane t go t. (S-S) (Move 1: inversion) (Move 2: Wh-movement)

2. MERGE OPERATION

The MERGE OPERATION is an operation for sentence building to combine words in a manner compatible with the phrase structure schema and their
subcategorization properties. Continued application of the Merge operation to additional words can lead to the formation of phrases and sentences of unlimited
complexity. For example: MERGE allows for a determiner such as “the” be combined with a N’ consisting of the Noun ‘suitcase’ to form the NP “the suitcase”. It’s
then able to take a head, such as “under” and combine it with the NP “the suitcase” to form the P’ and PP: “under the suitcase”.

*The continued application of the merge operation to additional words can lead to the formation of phrases and sentences of unlimited complexity.

3. DERIVATION

The process whereby a syntactic structure is formed by these operations is called DERIVATION.

EQ: Explain the differences between derivation at both levels: morphology and syntax.

In linguistics, derivation is a structural process that creates new words from existing ones by adding morphemes. However, the way that derivation operates
differs depending on whether we are analysing language at the morphological or syntactic level.

AT THE MORPHOLOGICAL LEVEL, derivation involves the creation of new words by adding morphemes to existing words. For example, in English, the word
"happy" can be derived from the root "happ-" by adding the suffix "-y" to create the adjective "happy." This is an example of a derivational suffix, which changes
the meaning or grammatical category of the base word. Another example of derivation at the morphological level is the word "unhappy." In this case, the prefix
"un-" is added to the base word "happy" to create a new word with a different meaning. This is an example of a derivational prefix, which also changes the
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meaning or grammatical category of the base word.

AT THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL, derivation refers to the process of creating new sentences or phrases by manipulating existing ones through various syntactic
operations. For example, consider the sentence "The cat is chasing the bird." We can derive a new sentence by applying a passive transformation to it: "The bird
is being chased by the cat." In this case, the passive transformation changes the grammatical structure of the sentence by moving the object of the verb to the
subject position and adding the auxiliary verb "be." Another example of derivation at the syntactic level is the creation of relative clauses. Consider the sentence
"The man who is wearing a hat is my neighbour." In this case, the relative clause "who is wearing a hat" is derived from the original sentence by extracting the
noun phrase "the man" and adding the relative pronoun "who" to form a new sentence.

In summary, while derivation is a process that operates at both the morphological and syntactic levels, the way it operates differs depending on the level of
analysis. At the morphological level, derivation involves the creation of new words by adding morphemes to existing ones, while at the syntactic level,
derivation involves the creation of new sentences or phrases by manipulating existing ones through various syntactic operations.

DEEP AND SURFACE STRUCTURE:

All instances of the merge operation take place before any instances of the move operation. As a result, the derivation of a sentence typically yields
two distinct levels of syntactic structure:

1. Deep Structure or (D-Structure) is formed by the merge operation in accordance with subcategorization properties and the X’ schema.
2. Surface Structure or (S- Structure) corresponds to the final syntactic form of the sentence, and it results from applying whatever other operations are
appropriate for the sentence in question.

The merge operation creates tree structures by combining categories in a manner consistent with the subcategorization properties and the X’ schema, while the
move operation can then modify these tree structures by moving an element from one position to another.

The process whereby a syntactic structure is formed by these operations is called DERIVATION.

UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR AND PARAMETRIC VARIATION:

Recent work on Universal Grammar (UG) suggests that all languages are fundamentally alike with respect to the basics of syntax. For instance, all languages
use the Merge operation to combine words on the basis of their syntactic category and subcategorization properties, creating phrases that comply with the X’ schema.
However, this doesn’t mean that all languages must be alike in all respects. UG leaves room for variation, allowing individual languages to differ with respect to certain
parameters.

IN A NUTSHELL: UG provides all languages with the same general type of syntactic mechanism, which includes a merge operation that combines words in
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

accordance with their syntactic category and their subcategorization properties, creating a representation called DEEP STRUCTURE. This structure must comply with
the X’ schema, which stipulates the place of heads, specifiers, and complements in phrase structure. Move operations (transformations) can modify deep structure by
moving words and phrases in particular ways to produce the SURFACE STRUCTURE. Although the form of sentences can vary considerably from language to
language, such differences can, for the most part, be attributed to a small set of parameters, each of which makes available a variety of alternatives from which
individual languages may choose.

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION (THEORY) - RADFORD

It is concerned with how and when children acquire grammar. Chomsky’s innateness hypothesis of language acquisition postulates that the course of acquisition is
determined by a biologically endowed innate language faculty within the brain, which provides children with a genetically transmitted algorithm for developing
a grammar, on the basis of their linguistic experience (the speech input they receive). The acquisition process can be represented as follows:

Experience of L → Language Faculty → Grammar of L

L= language being acquired

★ The child’s linguistic experience of the language is made up by the set of expressions that the child hears.
★ The input to the language faculty is the child’s experience and the output of the language faculty is the grammar of the language being acquired.

LINGUISTIC / GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE

➢ GRAMMAR → It’s the study of principles which govern the formation and interpretation of words, phrases, and sentences. In terms of the traditional division
of grammar into Morphology and Syntax, we can say that Morphology studies the formation and interpretation of words, whereas Syntax is concerned with the
formation and interpretation of phrases and sentences.

Each native speaker of the language has GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE in their native language: they have a tacit (implicit) knowledge of the grammar, i.e.
how to form and interpret words, phrases, and sentences in the language.

➢ COMPETENCE & PERFORMANCE

CHOMSKY has drawn the difference between linguistic competence and linguistic performance:
➢ COMPETENCE: The fluent native speaker’s tacit (inaccessible) knowledge of his/her language.
➢ PERFORMANCE: What people actually say or understand by what somebody else says on a given occasion. It’s the actual use of language in concrete
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situations. There are non-linguistic factors that can affect performance, like boredom and drunkenness, so it is not useful as a theory.

QUESTION: Is a speaker’s performance a perfect reflection of his/her grammatical competence?

No, it's not; all speakers can have performance errors. Grammar is more concerned with competence rather than performance → Grammars traditionally
set out to tell you what you need to know about a language in order to have native speaker competence in the language → “Grammar is the study of
grammatical/linguistic competence”.

A COGNITIVE VIEW OF GRAMMAR (Language as a mental system)

If the term “grammatical competence” is used to denote what native speakers tacitly know about the grammar of their language, then grammar is part of the more
general study of cognition. According to Chomsky, we study language as a COGNITIVE SYSTEM internalized within the human brain and our ultimate goal is to
characterize the nature of the internalized linguistic system (I-language), which enables humans to speak and understand their native language. In devising a
grammar of a language, we are attempting to describe the GRAMMATICAL KNOWLEDGE possessed by the fluent native speaker. But it is INACCESSIBLE (related
to unit 1) → Native speakers have no conscious awareness of such processes. Thus, we have to study competence indirectly.

EVIDENCE
What kind of evidence is there about the nature of grammatical competence? → intuitions about the grammaticality and interpretation of words, phrases and
sentences.

Sources of INTROSPECTIVE EVIDENCE about grammar → The nature of grammatical competence lies in the native speaker’s intuitions about the grammaticality
and interpretation of words, phrases and sentences in their native language.

INTUITIONS ABOUT GRAMMATICALITY (grammatical judgements) → the richest source of readily available evidence about the nature of grammatical
competence. Any native speaker is capable of recognizing ungrammatical words, phrases, and sentences in their native language, solely with their intuition which
forms part of their grammatical competence. “*man the car bought a”. They have the ability to make grammatical judgments about words, phrases, and sentences in
their native language → the ability to judge whether particular expressions are grammatical or ungrammatical within their native language.

INTUITIONS ABOUT THE INTERPRETATION of words, phrases, and sentences in their native language. E.g: Any native speaker of English can tell you that a
sentence such as “Sam loves you more than Jim” is ambiguous, and it has two different interpretations: Sam loves you more than Jim does// Sam loves you more than
Sam loves him.
*It can be said that the native speaker’s grammatical competence is reflected not only in intuitions about grammaticality but also in intuitions about interpretation of
words, phrases, and sentences in their native language.
A GRAMMAR OF A LANGUAGE IS A MODEL (DESCRIPTION) OF THE COMPETENCE OF A FLUENT SPEAKER OF THE LANGUAGE, AND COMPETENCE IS
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REFLECTED / EVIDENCED IN INTUITIONS ABOUT GRAMMATICALITY AND INTERPRETATIONS.

➢ Level of Adequacy: a grammar of any language has to be DESCRIPTIVELY ADEQUATE.
➢ Theory of Grammar: concerns the study of UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR - it has to be EXPLANATORILY ADEQUATE.

CRITERION OF ADEQUACY FOR A GRAMMAR OF A GIVEN LANGUAGE

Each grammar of any language is DESCRIPTIVELY ADEQUATE if it correctly describes whether any given sequence of words in a language is or isn’t grammatical,
and also correctly describes what interpretation(s) the relevant sequence has → It’s the primary concern of a descriptive linguistics.

“While the concern of the descriptive linguists is to devise grammars of particular languages (and reach descriptive adequacy), the concern of the theoretical linguists is to
devise a theory of grammar. (and reach explanatory adequacy ...”

BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS SUBJECT OF STUDY SCOPE OF STUDY CRITERIA OF ADEQUACY

DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS GRAMMAR PG - Particular grammar of a language DESCRIPTIVE ADEQUACY

THEORETICAL LINGUISTICS A THEORY OF UNIVERSAL UG - Common to all languages EXPLANATORY ADEQUACY:

GRAMMAR (UG) 5 criteria of adequacy

The primary concern of a theoretical linguist is to devise A THEORY OF GRAMMAR → It’s a set of hypotheses about the nature of possible and impossible
grammar of natural (= human) languages. By explaining why grammars have the properties they do, the theory reaches an explanatory adequacy.
The criteria that any adequate theory of grammar must satisfy → it isn’t enough for a theory of UG simply to list sets of universal properties of natural language
grammars; on the contrary, a theory of UG must seek to explain the relevant properties.

The key question any adequate theory of UG has to answer is: WHY DO NATURAL LANGUAGE GRAMMARS HAVE THE PROPERTIES THEY DO? = the
criterion of explanatory adequacy.

1. UNIVERSALITY → A theory of grammar should provide us with the tools needed to describe the grammar of any natural language adequately. A theory of
grammar must enable us to devise a descriptively adequate grammar for every natural language, i.e. the ultimate goal is to develop a theory of Universal Grammar.

2. EXPLANATORY ADEQUACY → The theory should explain why grammars have the properties they do.There are two levels of adequacy: Descriptive: it
should be able to show what is acceptable / unacceptable in one language; Explanatory: it can account for all the grammars and all the languages, and be able to
explain what is possible in grammars of all languages.
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3. RESTRICTIVE → The theory of language must be maximally restrictive: it should provide us with technical devices which are so constrained in their
expressive power that they can only be used to describe natural languages, and are inappropriate for the description of other communication systems, like
animals’ communication system or artificial language.

4. LEARNABILITY → The theory of language must provide grammars which are learnable by young children in a relatively short period of time. (= tiene que
ser fácil de aprender a corta edad).

5. MINIMALISM → A related requirement is that linguistic theory should provide grammars which make use of minimal theoretical apparatus, i.e. grammars
should be as simple as possible.

THE INNATENESS HYPOTHESIS

Children’s linguistic development:

By the age of 12 months, children generally produce their first recognizable word (e.g. Mama or Dada)
In the following 6 months, they acquire different words, even though they do not seem to develop their grammar so much.
At age 18 months, children have acquired about a dozen words. and the first signs of grammar acquisition are found: children start to make productive use of the
inflections using plural nouns alongside singular ones. They start to produce elementary utterances of two and three words: want teddy, eating cookie.
By the age of 30 months, children have acquired most of the inflections and core grammatical constructions used in their natural language, and they are able to produce
adultlike utterances such as: Where’s mommy gone? Can we go to the zoo?

This uniformity and (once the spurt has started) the rapidity in the pattern of children’s linguistic development are the central facts which a theory of language
acquisition must seek to explain. But how? → The Theory of Language acquisition
*Children acquiring a language will observe people around them using the language, and the set of expressions in the language which the child hears – and the context
in which they are used – in the course of acquiring the language constitute the child’s linguistic experience of the language. This experience serves as input to the child’s
language faculty, which provides the child with a procedure for (subconsciously) analysing the experience, and the output of the language faculty is a grammar of the
language being acquired.
*”Chomsky maintains that language acquisition is an activity unique to human beings, and different in kind from any other type of learning which human beings
experience, so that learning a language involves mental processes entirely distinct from those involved in e.g. learning to play chess, or learning to ride a bicycle.”

Experience of the language used around us A biologically endowed innate language faculty Language acquisition output
Exposure to linguistic input which activates the UG PG
language faculty Experience of the language used around us

PRINCIPLES AND PARAMETERS

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Language acquisition is an entirely subconscious and involuntary activity, meaning that we cannot consciously choose whether or not to acquire our native language; it
is also an activity which is largely unguided in the sense that parents don’t teach children to talk.
What makes the uniformity and rapidity of acquisition more remarkable is the fact that the child’s linguistic experience is often degenerate (imperfect), since its based on
linguistic performance of adult speakers.Therefore, the language faculty is partly endowed by nature in humans, and it’s also partly acquired by the
incorporation of a set of universal grammar principles, which could not have been learnt on the basis of linguistic experience, so they are universal.

In seeking to determine the nature of the language faculty, we are looking for universal principles which determine the very structure of language.
★ Principles that govern the kinds of grammatical operations which are (and are not) permitted in natural languages, principles of such an abstract nature that they could
not possibly have been learnt on the basis of experience.
★ Since they are postulated to be universal, they will constrain the application of every grammatical operation in every language.
“… children can in principle acquire any natural language as their native language. It therefore follows that the language faculty must incorporate a set of principles of
Universal Grammar. “ → PPT theory = Principles and Parameters theory.

A child’s language faculty (UG) includes a set of universal principles of grammatical structure, and a set of structural parameters which impose severe constraints
on the range of structural variations permitted in natural languages. Since universal principles of grammatical structure don’t have to be learned, the child’s structural
learning task is limited to that of parameter-setting. This model is known as the PRINCIPLES-AND-PARAMETERS THEORY OF LANGUAGE. This theory has
important implications for the nature of the language acquisition process. Those structural principles of language which are invariant across languages will not have to be
learned by the child, since they will be part of the child’s genetic endowment. All that the child has to learn are those grammatical properties which are subject to
parametric variation across languages. Languages differ in their structure along a range of different grammatical parameters, including
➢ the wh-parameter: it determines whether wh-expressions can be fronted),
➢ the null subject parameter (missing but understood subjects), and
➢ the head parameter (it concerns the relative position of heads and complement within phrases).

Each of these parameters is inherently binary in nature, and consequently the structural learning which the child faces involves parameter-setting (determining which of
the two alternative settings provided by UG is the appropriate one).

PRINCIPLES → permanent/innate / PARAMETERS→ acquired/learnt.

NOTES: PRINCIPLES AND PARAMETERS THEORY

If we assume that abstract grammatical principles which are universal are part of our biological endowment, then the Structure Dependence Principle is wired into the
language faculty, and thus, forms part of the child’s genetic blueprint for a grammar. This in turn means that the innate language faculty incorporates a set of universal
grammatical principles: Experience of L → UG → Grammar of L.
➢ The child’s experience is processed by the UG module which is an integral part of the language faculty.
➢ Since UG principles do not have to be learnt by the child as they’re innately endowed, the theory of UG minimises the burden of grammatical learning imposed on
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

the child, and thereby maximises the learnability of natural language grammars.
➢ Although there are universal principles which determine the broad outlines of the grammatical structure of words, phrases and senteces in every natural language,
there are also language-specific aspects of grammatical structure which children have to learn as part of the task of acquiring their native language. Therefore,
language acquisition involves:
- lexical learning (vocabulary)
- structural learning
➢ Since universal principles of grammar structure do not have to be learnt by the child, the structural learning will be limited to those parameters of grammatical
structure which are subject to language particular variation. By examining structural learning, it tells us about the process of language acquisition which is subjected
to parameters of grammatical structure, such as:
Null Subject Parameter → (PRO-DROP/ NON PRO-DROP) It’s a binary parameter with only two possible settings: a language does or does not allow finite
verbs to have null subject.
EN → * drinks tea ⇒ We need an explicit subject, because if not it’s ungrammatical.
SP → va a casa ⇒ null-subject expresses person, number and/or gender agreement with the referent on the verb.

Wh- Parameter → The parameter which determines whether wh-expressions can be fronted or not. It’s binary in nature, since it allows for only 2 possibilities: a
language does/does not allow wh-movement.
EN → It’s permissible
KOREAN → It’s not permissible

Head (position) Parameter → It has to do with the relative positioning of heads with respect to their complements: a language can be head first (EN) or head-last
(Korean). E.g:
‘Close the door’ - EN= Head [v] +complement
‘Mooul dadala’ (door- close) - Korean= complement + Head [v]

‘a nice door’ - EN = (specifier [determiner “a”] + complement [adjective “nice”] + HEAD [noun “door”]
‘una puerta linda’ - SP = (specifier [determiner “una”] + HEAD [noun “puerta”] + complement [adjective “linda"]

The child’s language faculty incorporates a Theory of UG which includes:

A. a set of principles of grammar structure,
B. a set of structural parameters which impose severe constraints on the range of structural variation permitted in natural languages.

Since universal principles of grammatical structure don’t have to be learnt, the child’s structural learning task is limited to that of parameter setting. For this reason, the
model outlined has become known as the principles-and-parameters theory (PPT) of language. Each of these is inherently binary in nature.
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↓
Implications of this theory:
- Such a model would reduce the complexity of the acquisition task which children face.
- The child’s learning task will be further simplified if it turns out that the value which a parameter can have falls within a narrowly specified range (binary choices).
This theory accounts also for the fact that the acquisition of specific parameters appears to be a remarkably rapid and error-free process in young children.

2.4. SEMANTICS

OBJECTIVIST SEMANTICS O’GRADY → Truth Conditional Analysis: A DIRECT relationship between LANGUAGE AND REALITY
DEFINITION OF SEMANTICS
SEMANTICS concerns the study of linguistic meaning conveyed by natural languages. Its unit of analysis is word meaning and sentence meaning. In order for
language to fulfil its communicative function, utterances must also convey a message: they must have content. Speaking very generally, we can refer to an utterance’s
content as its MEANING.
➢ SENSE RELATIONS BETWEEN WORDS: synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, meronymy, polysemy, homonymy.
➢ SENSE / LOGICAL RELATIONS BETWEEN SENTENCES: truth conditional analysis (paraphrase, entailment, and contradiction).

➢ SEMANTIC / SENSE RELATIONS AMONG WORDS → Words and phrases can enter into a variety of semantic relations with each other:
➢ SYNONYMY: Synonyms are words or expressions that have similar meanings in some or all contexts. It is a relationship of likeness, not sameness,
between two or more lexemes. E.g: Sofa/couch; trigger/spark/ fuel; House/home; lift/ elevator → We use one or the other depending on the intention, the
context, the cultural region.

Other examples: youth-adolescent, automobile-car, remember-recall, big-large. Perfect synonymy is rare because it would be inefficient for a language to
have two words or phrases with absolutely identical meanings. For example, considering youth-adolescent, only the latter word can be used to imply
immaturity, as in Such an irresponsible behaviour - what an adolescent!

➢ ANTONYMY: Antonyms are words or phrases that are opposites with respect to some component of their meaning. For example, dark-light, boy-girls,
up-down, come-go contrast with respect to at least one aspect of their meaning (light intensity, gender, directions).
● Relative → rich and poor / broke / destitute - 2 or more LEXEMES
● Absolute → dead or alive - 2 or more LEXEMES
● Converses → the existence of one lexeme implies the existence of the other. E.g: teacher-student, doctor-patient. 2 or more LEXEMES

➢ HYPONYMY: kind of (a group). Example: HYPERNYM: instrument - HYPONYM: guitar, drums, base - 2 or more LEXEMES.
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➢ MERONYMY: part of (a whole). Example: SUPERORDINATE TERM: house - MERONYM: kitchen, livingroom, bedroom - 2 or more LEXEMES

➢ POLYSEMY: it occurs where one lexeme has two or more related meanings. One word (1 LEXEME) with related senses organised in a radial structure from
the centre (literal meanings) to the periphery (non-literal meanings / metaphorical extensions) showing that the relationship between the various senses is not
arbitrary but systematic and natural.

Some examples:

EMPTY (adj.): the adjective empty is polysemous - 1 word with related senses as evidenced in empty glass, empty stomach, empty bank account, empty life: 1
LEXEME with RELATED SENSES → CENTRAL: LITERAL / PERIPHERAL SENSES: METAPHORICAL EXTENSION.

Another example: touch the floor - touch my heart. Another example: Key ⇒ the key to my house/ the key to success (metaphorical extension of the central
meaning. The linguistic realisation of the concept structure metaphor).

For example: bright can mean “shining” or “intelligent”; to glare can mean to “shine intensely” or “to stare angrily”.

➢ THE CASE OF HOMONYMY: Homonymy occurs when a single form (homophones or homographs) has two or more distinct meanings. In those cases, it’s
assumed that there are separate words / different lexemes with the same pronunciation rather than a single word with different meanings. It's not a sense
relation between different words. [Relate it to arbitrariness, duality, and reliance on context.]

● Homophones → same pronunciation with different spelling that constitute different lexemes with unrelated senses: right/write, meat/meet, be/bee,
ate/eight.
● Homographs → different lexemes with the same spelling: the human race; to run a race >> in this case, the lexemes “race” (n) and “to race” (v) are
homophones & homographs at the same time as they have the same spelling and the same pronunciation; however, they are different lexemes as they
belong to different grammatical categories (the former is a noun, and the latter is a verb) and they have different meanings.

POLYSEMY and HOMOPHONY create lexical ambiguity → a single form has two or more meanings. Thus, a sentence such as ‘Liz bought a pen’
could mean either that Liz purchased an instrument to write with or she bought an enclosure.

EXAM QUESTION:

What do the lexemes pronounced as /reis/ have in common? How do they differ? What they have in common is their pronunciation
(homophones) and their spelling (homographs). What they differ in is their sense, so they are homonyms (two lexemes with unrelated senses).
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➢ SEMANTIC / SENSE RELATIONS AMONG SENTENCES → sentences have meanings that can be analysed in terms of their relation to other meanings.
TRUTH CONDITIONAL ANALYSIS: sentences which are true under the same circumstances.
➢ PARAPHRASE: two sentences that can have the same meaning. Example: a) Paul bought a car from Sue. b) Sue sold a car to Paul. It would be impossible for
one sentence to be true without the other also being true: they have the same TRUTH CONDITIONS. That is, they are true under the same circumstances.

➢ ENTAILMENT: this sense relation occurs when the truth of one sentence guarantees the truth of another sentence. Asymmetrical entailment - example: a)
Prince is a dog. b) Prince is an animal.

➢ CONTRADICTION: The relationship that holds between sentences where if one sentence is true, then another must be false. EG: The dog is dead / The
dog is alive. I’m single/ I’m married. These two sentences have different truth value: She is rich / She is poor. THE RELATIONSHIP HOLDS BETWEEN
SENTENCES AND PROPOSITIONS: I’m not hungry and I ate two sandwiches.

TRUTH-CONDITIONAL SEMANTICS is a theory of the meaning of natural language sentences.

TRUTH CONDITIONAL ANALYSIS BASIC ASSUMPTIONS:
Objectivist semantics ● It takes the language–world relation as the basic concern of semantics.
● There is a direct relationship between language and the world.
● It exists between language and a state of affairs in the world.
● A sentence describes a state of affairs in the world rather than the language–mind relation: language is about states of affairs in
the world.

Semanticists call a sentence being true or false its TRUTH VALUE.

TRUTH VALUE Turning a sentence into the negative changes its truth value.
(sentences) I’m an orphan.
I’m not an orphan.

Semanticists call the facts that would have to be obtained in reality to make a sentence true or false, its TRUTH CONDITIONS.
TRUTH CONDITIONS I’m an orphan.
(world) TRUTH VALUE OF THIS SENTENCE: true.
TRUTH CONDITIONS: my parents have died.

COGNITIVE SEMANTICS SAEED → Representational Theory: AN INDIRECT relationship between LANGUAGE and REALITY mediated through COGNITION
THE UNIT OF ANALYSIS OF SEMANTICS: WORD MEANING AND SENTENCE MEANING
If an independent component of semantics is identified, one central issue is the relationship between word meaning and sentence meaning. Knowing language
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involves knowing thousands of words. We can call the mental store of these words a lexicon. We can imagine the mental lexicon as a large but finite body of knowledge,
part of which must be semantic. This lexicon is not completely static because we are continually learning and forgetting words. It is clear though that at any one time we
hold a large amount of semantic knowledge in memory.

● PRODUCTIVITY → Sentence meaning is more productive than word meaning.

Phrases and sentences also have meaning, but an important difference between word meaning and phrase and sentence meaning concerns productivity. It is
always possible to create new words, but this is a relatively infrequent occurrence. In contrast, speakers regularly create sentences that they have never used
or heard before, confident that their audience will understand them. It is one of the most important insights of Noam Chomsky’s generative grammar that a
relatively small number of combinatory rules may allow speakers to use a finite set of words to create a very large, perhaps infinite, number of sentences. To allow
this, the rules for sentence formation must be recursive, allowing repetitive embedding or coordination of syntactic categories.

● COMPOSITIONALITY → Sentence meaning is compositional.

Clearly, if a speaker can make up novel sentences and these sentences are understood, then they obey the semantic rules of the language. So the meanings of
sentences cannot be listed in a lexicon like the meanings of words: they must be created by rules of combination too. Semanticists often describe this by
saying that sentence meaning is compositional. The meaning of an expression is determined by the meaning of its component parts and the way in which they are
combined.

1. LITERAL AND NON-LITERAL MEANING

LITERAL MEANING → Speakers use factual, transparent, neutral language, and conventional expressions.

NON-LITERAL MEANING → Uses of language are instances where speakers deliberately describe sth in untrue or impossible terms to achieve special effects.
These uses are called figurative and are described by rhetorical terms including metaphors, irony, metonymy, synecdoche /sɪˈnɛkdəki/, hyperbole, and litotes. E.g.:
she’s devastated (instead of very sad).

It’s difficult to draw a firm line between literal and non-literal uses of language because it's difficult to determine the point at which the use of a word is literal
rather than figurative. Languages change over time as its speakers shift the meaning of words to fit new conditions. Therefore, some metaphorical expressions
become part of normal literal meaning while other metaphors fade over time. E.g: He’s surfing the internet.

*Lakoff claims that there is no principled distinction between literal and metaphorical uses of language. Such scholars see metaphor as an integral part of
human categorization: a basic way of organising our thoughts about the world. Some examples of this are: You’re wasting my time / This gadget will save you
hours / How do you spend your time these days? Their claim is that whole semantic fields are systematically organised around central metaphors such as
these, and that their use is not just an isolated stylistic effect: that we think, culturally, of time as a commodity.

2. REFERENCE AND DENOTATION

REFERENCE AND SENSE
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One important point made by the linguist Saussure is that the meaning of linguistic expressions derives from two sources: the language they are part of and the
world they describe. Words stand in a relationship to the world, or our mental classification of it: they allow us to identify parts of the world, and make statements
about them. However, words also derive their value from their position within the language system. The meaning of a word derives both from what it can be used to
refer to and from the way its semantic scope is defined by related words (= its value).
➢ REFERENCE → The relationship by which language hooks onto the world is usually called REFERENCE.
➢ SENSE → The semantic links between elements within the vocabulary system is an aspect of their SENSE, or meaning.

Example: The president of the United States >> sense: head of state of a nation; reference: Biden.

LEVELS OF LANGUAGE
There are three terms used to describe three levels of language. The three of them convey meaning but they represent different levels of linguistic abstraction.

UTTERANCE SENTENCES

● Produced whenever participants (interlocutors) interact. Syntactic and semantic unit of analysis.They’re abstract grammatical elements
● Some utterances may coincide or may not with sentences. obtained from utterances.
● They include gestural meaning and body language. ● A structure which is not produced in speech and they’re by definition
● It’s created by speaking or writing a piece of language. It’s any grammatically correct because they are decontextualized.
instance of a concrete use of language by the speaker. ● They’re the unit of analysis of syntax.
● They may have ungrammatical elements and they’re always ● From the speaker’s point of view: they’re abstract elements to be made real by
contextualised. uttering them.
● It’s the unit of analysis of pragmatics. ● From the hearer’s point of view: they’re abstract elements reached by filtering
out certain kind of info. from utterances

PROPOSITIONS

● Abstractions: they are more abstract than sentences.

● They are an idea expressed in a sentence in an utterance.
● It’s the core meaning of a sentence, made up of a predicate and at least two arguments.

One further step of abstraction is possible for special purposes: to identify propositions (core semantic meaning). In trying to establish rules of valid deduction,
logicians discovered that certain elements of grammatical information in sentences were irrelevant; for example, the difference between active and passive
sentences, as in Peter beat John / John was beaten by Peter / It was Peter who beat John → Same proposition: BEAT (Peter, John) - different sentences.
These sentences seem to share a description of the same state of affairs. To capture this fact, logicians identify a common proposition. Logicians commonly
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use formulae for propositions in which the verb is viewed as a function, and its subject and any objects as arguments of the function. Such formulae often
delete verb endings, articles, and other grammatical elements.

SAMPLE ANALYSIS:
Sentence: The cat ate the mouse (grammatically correct, decontextualized, invented string of words).
Proposition: EAT (cat, mouse)
Utterance: “The cat ate the mouse”
From the point of view of Semantics, this sentence is about an action, the action of eating which involves two entities: “the cat” (the one that does the action;
the agent) and “the mouse” (the one which is affected by/receives the impact of the action; the goal). The verb “eat” requires two arguments.

Sentence: Mary is between John and Tim.

Proposition: BETWEEN (Mary, John, Tim)
Utterance: “Mary is between John and Tim.”
This sentence is about location. The preposition “between” requires three arguments (...).

● Propositions are descriptions of states of affairs and basic elements of sentence meaning.
● We can identify a description of an event or situation which might be a shared element in different sentences.
● It’s more abstract than sentences because the same proposition can be represented by different statements:

KILL (police, burglar): The main idea expressed is the action “to kill” which requires two arguments: the doer of the action (police) and the argument affected by
the action (burglar).
TALL (building): The main idea expressed is the quality of the argument (building) >> That building is tall.
BETWEEN (house, coffee-shop, post-office): It is a case of a three-place predicate which requires three arguments (house, coffee-shop, post-office), and the
main idea expressed is that of location. The house is between the coffee-shop and the post-office.

3. SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS: These terms denote related and complementary fields of study, both concerning the transmission of meaning through
language. Drawing the line between the two fields is difficult and controversial, but as a preliminary we can turn to an early use of Morris’s division of semiotics:
Narrowing signs to linguistic signs, this would give us a view of pragmatics as the study of the speaker/hearer’s interpretation of language.

We might interpret this, rather crudely, as:

● SEMANTICS: Meaning abstracted away from users. Sentence meaning arises from linguistic information (decontextualized) → sentence meaning. Unit of
analysis: linguistic meaning of words and sentences.
● PRAGMATICS: Meaning described in relation to speakers and hearers. Non-linguistic information (the social and physical world) (contextualised) →
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utterance meaning / speaker meaning. Unit of analysis: utterances.

My computer is out of order

Semantic meaning: linguistic information My computer does not work
Pragmatics: non-linguistic knowledge about the social context: who the interactants are, what is their relationship; physical world: the situation they find themselves in

A speaker can utter the same sentence to a listener. We can imagine a whole series of uses for this simple sentence, depending on the speaker’s wishes and the
situation the participants find themselves in. Some semanticists would claim that there is some element of meaning common to all of these uses and that this
common, non-situation-specific meaning is what SEMANTICS is concerned with [SENTENCE MEANING]. On the other hand, the range of uses a sentence
can be put to, depending on context, would be the object of study for PRAGMATICS [SPEAKER MEANING].

One way of talking about this is to distinguish between sentence meaning and speaker meaning. This suggests that words and sentences have a meaning
independently of any particular use, which meaning is then incorporated by a speaker into the particular meaning he/she wants to convey at any one time. In this view,
semantics is concerned with sentence meaning and pragmatics with speaker meaning.

The advantage of such a distinction is that it might free the semanticist from having to include all kinds of knowledge in semantics. It would be the role of pragmatists
to investigate the interaction between purely linguistic knowledge and general or encyclopaedic knowledge. A semantics pragmatics division enables semanticists to
concentrate on just the linguistic element in utterance comprehension. Pragmatics would then be the field which studies how hearers fill out the semantic structure
with contextual information and make inferences which go beyond the meaning of what was said to them.

The semantics/pragmatics distinction seems then to be a useful one. The problems with it emerge when we get down to detail: precisely which phenomena are
semantic and which pragmatics? It is very difficult to shake context out of language and the structure of sentences minutely reveals that they are designed by their
speakers to be uttered in specific contexts and with desired effects.

Advantages of the distinction:

● It might free the semanticists from having to include all kings of knowledge in semantics.
● It would be the role of pragmatists /ˈpræɡmətɪsts/ to investigate the interaction between purely linguistic knowledge and general encyclopaedic knowledge.
● It enables semanticists to concentrate on just the linguistic element in utterance comprehension.
● Pragmatics would be the field which studies how hearers fill out the semantic structure with contextual information and make inferences which go beyond
the meaning of what it’s said to them, as in working out who the speaker is referring to by some personal pronoun or “It’s cold” → close the window, please.

Disadvantages of the distinction:

The drawbacks of making such distinctions emerge when specialists go down to detail: precisely which phenomena are semantic and which are pragmatic?
Since much of the meaning seems to depend on context and it’s very difficult to take context out of language.
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SEMANTICS → sentence meaning - linguistic information.

PRAGMATICS → speaker meaning - non linguistic information.

SEMANTICS PRAGMATICS

both deal with meaning conveyed through language

● It studies the relationship between signs and the objects to which these signs ● It studies the relationship to interpreters = meaning described in
are applicable. relation to speakers.
● Meaning is abstracted away from users. ● It tends to focus on implicit meaning → it’s related to what speakers
● It’s concerned with the study of abstractions → It’s concerned with sentence try to intend when they express themselves through the use of
meaning. language.
Unit of analysis: linguistic expressions, words, lexemes, sentences, ● It studies meaning that is beyond the literal meaning.
propositions. ● It’s concerned with speaker meaning.
Note: a lexeme is an abstraction realised as a word. Unit of analysis: utterances.

Although semantics and pragmatics are related and complementary fields of study, since both are concerned with the transmission of meaning through language,
there are some differences between them:
● While semantics is a traditional component of linguistics, whose unit of study is sense, pragmatics is a perspective of language as human behaviour and its unit of
study is what speakers mean or intend by using language in a particular context. Thus:
➢ SEMANTICS studies the relations of signs to the objects to which these are applicable; it analyses sentences and propositions and is concerned with
sentence meaning - linguistic information.
➢ PRAGMATICS studies the relations of signs to interpreters, analyses utterances and is concerned with speaker meaning - non linguistic information.

SAEED (3) - MEANING, THOUGHT AND REALITY

THEORIES ABOUT OUR ABILITY TO TALK ABOUT THE WORLD
➢ REFERENTIAL THEORY: Reference as a Theory of Meaning. MEANING IS ATTACHED TO OR GROUNDED IN THE REAL WORLD.
E.g: I like your shoes. The meaning of the noun “shoes” can be explained from the perspective of the referential theory since it is attached to the real world.
● Limitations of this approach.

➢ REPRESENTATIONAL (COGNITIVE) THEORY: CONCEPTS and Mental Representations.

➢ CONCEPTS - approaches to describing concepts.
● Necessary and sufficient conditions
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● PROTOTYPES
- Prototype vs good / central / prototypical example
- Prototype effects

REFERENCE AND DENOTATION

MEANING, THOUGHT AND REALITY
All languages allow speakers to describe aspects of what they perceive. In semantics, this action of picking out or identifying objects or entities with words is often
called referring or denoting. The entity referred to is usually called the referent (or the denotatum). Some writers separate the terms refer and denote.

For these writers denote is used for the relationship between a linguistic expression and the world, while refer is used for the action of a speaker in picking out
entities in the world. In other words, referring is what speakers do, while denoting is a property of words. Another difference which follows from these is that
denotation is a stable relationship in a language which is not dependent on any one use of a word. Reference, on the other hand, is a moment-by-moment
relationship: what entity somebody refers to by using the word room depends on the context.

DENOTATION: WORDS DENOTE → RELATIONSHIP of a word and the world → STABLE RELATIONSHIP
REFERENCE: SPEAKERS REFER → ACTION → MOMENT-BY-MOMENT RELATIONSHIP

*Referring expression: Real-world referent.

*Non-referring expressions: No referent in the real world.

REFER DENOTE

➔ It’s used for the action of a speaker in picking out entities in the world. ➔ It’s used for the relationship between a linguistic expression and the
➔ It’s a moment-by-moment relationship: what entity sb refers to by using the world.
word ‘house’ depends on the context. ➔ It’s a stable relationship in a language which is not dependent on any use
➔ It’s what speakers do. of a word.
➔ It’s a property of words.

E.g: A sparrow flew into the room → The two NP are used to refer to things in the world (A sparrow, and the room), while the nouns (sparrow; room) denote
certain classes of items. Therefore, denoting is a property of words, while referring is what speakers do.

ASPECTS/DIMENSIONS OF MEANING OF LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS

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SEMANTIC MEANING

1. REFERENCE A relationship between a linguistic expression and the entity in the real world. It is the relationship by which language hooks
onto the world. The action of identifying or pointing to a particular entity in the real world: whenever a language user identifies
entities in the real world. The referent (thing identified) may be different every time the expression is used. NOT ALL LINGUISTIC
EXPRESSIONS ARE REFERENTIAL. For instance, the pronoun “it” may be referential, or it may be non-referential, as when it
functions as “dummy it.”

*Reference is an action. It is what speakers do: speakers refer.

*It is a moment-by-moment relationship.

2. DENOTATION A relation between a linguistic expression and the set of things which that linguistic expression is associated with.
The set/type/class of entity identified by a linguistic expression. Any expression has denotation. It has to do with the concept
associated with a linguistic expression. It is relatively stable.
*Words denote.
*Stable relationship.

3. CONNOTATION The mental associations triggered/evoked by a linguistic expression. They may be different for members of different
communities, cultures or even the same linguistic community (in which they share the same language). It should not be reduced to
positive/negative connotations.

4. EXTENSION The set of all the possible referents of a linguistic expression / all the concrete entities that can be identified by an
expression. All extensions make up the denotation of a linguistic expression.
*It can be taken as the same as denotation.

5. INTENSION The concept/idea connected with the expression / the concept an expression evokes.

6. SENSE The word sense has two meanings / senses:

1. The links/connections between expressions in the vocabulary. It is related to Saussure’s concept of value.
In what ways can a linguistic expression be connected to one another?
Sense relations among lexemes:
🡺 Synonymy
🡺 Antonymy
🡺 Polysemy
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Sense relations between different propositions:

🡺 Paraphrase
🡺 Entailment
🡺 Contradiction
2. The concepts associated with a word.

THEORIES / APPROACHES ABOUT OUR ABILITY TO TALK ABOUT THE WORLD

How is it that we can use language to describe the world? Clearly all languages allow speakers to describe or model aspects of what they perceive.
There are different views of how semanticists should approach this ability to talk about the world. Two of these are particularly important in current semantic
theories: we can call them the referential (or denotational) approach and the representational (or cognitive) approach. We can see these two approaches as
focusing on different aspects of the same process: talking about the world. Is language a direct reflection of the world?

REFERENTIAL / DENOTATIONAL APPROACH REPRESENTATIONAL APPROACH

This theory derived from cloak theories (lang as a dress for thought) The theory derives from mould theories (lang.shapes/influences the way we see
the world)

Theoretical Premise: Language reflects/mirrors reality. Theoretical Premise: Language reflects the concepts in our minds.
There’s a direct relationship between language and reality: There’s no direct relationship between language and reality, but there’s
➔ ling. expression → entity in the real world something that mediates that relationship:
➔ sentence → state of affairs in reality
➔ language → reality CONCEPTUAL STRUCTURES.
● We can give the meaning of words and sentences by showing how they relate ● Meaning derives from language being a reflection of our conceptual
to situations ⇒ there are no other aspects of meaning than reference. structures.
● Language derived from being attached to or grounded in reality → words pick ● Experience is mediated by mental representations or cognitive categories.
out elements in the real world. ● Semantic meaning comes from mental representations which are
● The action of putting words into relationships w/ the world is meaning, so we conventionalised.
need to show how the expressions of a language can hook onto the world. ● Our ability to talk about the world depends on our mental model of it →
The relationship between linguistic expressions and reality is a direct one. speakers will view the same situation differently.
The relationship between language and reality is indirect and mediated by
cognition.

E.g: N are meaningful because they denote entities in the world and sentences are E.g: “I have a cold” → estoy resfriado.
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

so too because they denote situations and events. In EN thi situation is seen as a possession, since the person possesses the
“I like dogs” and “I don’t like dogs” → 2 sentences describe different situations. If I disease. However, in SP the sit. is conveyed as a state.
say them both, we assume that they’re incompatible or that one of them is false. Different conceptualizations influence the description of the real-world situation.

PROBLEMS WITH THE REFERENTIAL APPROACH

1. Not all linguistic expressions are referring: Many words have no meaning for it’s very difficult to find a real-world referent for words like so, not, very, but, of
but they still have meaning: but means opposition.They’re non-referring but meaningful.
2. The lack of meaning for abstractions: Many nominal expressions used by speakers don’t have a referent that exists or has ever existed. EG: batman,
unicorn, Santa, happiness, hope. Nominal expression without a referent in the real world.
3. The lack of one-to-one correspondence: The same concrete entity can be identified by different linguistic expressions: there’s not always a one-to-one
correspondence between a linguistic expression and the item we want to identify. E.g: “My brother plays rugby” and “Martin Lazarte plays rugby”. The same
individual is referred to by a name and by a definite description, so these two expressions share the same referent but we probably want to say they have
different meanings.

*COGNITIVE APPROACH → it is claimed that there’s an intermediate level between language and reality that mediates the way we represent it.
We can say that reference and meaning are not exactly the same thing: there is more to meaning than reference. This extra dimension can be characterised by
distinguishing two aspects of our semantic knowledge: its sense and its reference. Sense is primary in that it allows reference. It’s because we understand the
expression that we can use it to refer to a particular individual at any given time. So, the meaning of an expression will arise from both its sense and its
reference.

Sense → 3 meanings or related senses:

1. Mental representation that a speaker of a language has of a word. EG: ‘house’ (is different from one another)
2. A concept or definition: to be able to talk about ref. we have to have a definition
3. Sense as an opposite to reference: sense is equated with VALUE. The scope of a word is in the system because other words are in the same system too.

TYPES OF REFERENCE

REFERRING EXPRESSIONS NON-REFERRING EXPRESSIONS

They are used to identify an entity or prototypical words to refer to things. There are linguistic expressions which can never be used to refer, such as
Nouns are potentially referring expressions. Pronouns, Verbs (actions/states) non-lexical categories like determiners, quantifiers, conjunctions and
EG: > “The cat looks great” the N is a referring expression since it’s being used intensifiers. → these words contribute meaning to the sentences they occur
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

to identify an entity. > “A cat is an animal” is not referring, since the nominal and thus, help sentences to denote but they’re not themselves referring
has a generic interpretation. > “He was run over by a bus”. Not any bus. A expressions, since they don’t identify entities in the world. They’re intrinsically
particular bus in the world did it. non-referring items. “Henry is going to make a cake” NON-REFERRING. It is
not a cake in the world yet.

CONSTANT REFERENCE VARIABLE REFERENCE

Expressions that will have the same referent across a range of utterances. EG: These expressions have their referent totally dependent on context. To identify
The Eiffel Tower; The Pacific Ocean. They're typically proper names that refer who is being referred to by pronouns, we need to know about the context. We
to only one thing because there’s only one referent. use the term ‘deixis’ as a label for words whose denotational capability needs
contextual support. EG: “He wrote to you”

REFERENT EXTENSIONS

The thing/entity picked out by uttering the expression in a particular context. It’s the set of optional entities which could possibly be the referent of a
EG: “I’m using this mouse” → ‘mouse’ here is used as a computer device. particular expression. The relationship btw. an expression and its extension is
called denotation.

EG: To identify the specific referent of the expression “The President of Argentina” we need to know when the expression was uttered. If we utter that today, the
referent would be “Alberto Fernández”, but without accessing its temporal context, the extension of the expression could be any of the Presidents of Argentina had
or will have, for example Menem or Macri.

Nouns and NP → both can be used as referring expressions

● Definite and indefinite NPs can operate like names to pick out an individual: - I spoke to a woman about the noise vs I spoke to the woman about the noise ⇒
The difference hangs on whether the woman is known to the listener and/or has been identified earlier in the conversation.
● Definite NPs can also form definite descriptions where the referent is whoever fits the description as in “she has a crush on the captain of the hockey team”
● NPs can be used to refer to groups or individuals, either distributively (focusing on the individual members of a group) or collectively (focusing on the
aggregate)
● Nominals denote substances, actions and abstract ideas.

Reference as a theory of meaning cannot be accepted - The simplest theory of meaning is to claim that to give the meaning of a word one shows
what it denotes. In its simplest form, this theory would claim that reference picks out elements in the real world. The problems (already been
mentioned above)
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4. CONCEPTS
MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS AND CONCEPTS
MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS CONCEPTS

Sense places a new level between words and the world: a level of mental If we adopt the hypothesis that the meaning of, say a noun, is a combination of its
representation. Thus, a noun is said to gain its ability to denote because it is denotation and a conceptual element, then two questions arise: (1) what form can
associated with something in the speaker/hearer’s mind. The sense of some we assign to concepts and (2) how do children acquire them?
words, while mental, is not visual but a more abstract element: a concept. Lexicalized concepts are concepts that correspond to a single word. Not all
One simple and very old idea is that these mental entities are images. concepts are lexicalized. Some concepts are described by phrases.
Presumably the relationship between the mental representation and the We can speculate that the reason why some concepts are lexicalized and others
real-world entity would then be one of resemblance. This theory however runs not is utility. If we refer to something enough it will become lexicalized.
into serious problems with common nouns. This is because of the variation in When we talk about children acquiring concepts, we have to recognize that their
images that different speakers might have of a common noun depending on concepts may differ from the concepts of adults: children can underextend
their experience. Even if images are associated with some words, they cannot concepts (as when for a child dog can only be used for their pet) and overextend
be the whole story. concepts (where a child uses daddy for every male adult), or the concepts may
The most usual modification of image theory is to hypothesise that the sense of be just different, reflecting the fact that items in a child’s world may have different
some words, while mental, is not visual but a more abstract element: a salience than for an adult.
concept. A concept might be able to contain the non-visual features which
make, for instance, a dog a dog. Another advantage for linguists is that they
might be able to pass on some of the labour of describing concepts to
psychologists rather than have to do it all themselves.

CATEGORIES

CLASSICAL / ARISTOTELIAN VIEW COGNITIVE VIEW

This view was originally proposed by Aristotle. ● A category has FUZZY LIMITS/BOUNDARIES: it is not clear where the limits
A mental category was thought of as something that had rigid limits/boundaries. of the category are. A member of a category can have attributes of another
Concepts in the mind or cognitive categories were conceived of as if they were category.
something with strictly delineated boundaries. ● Categories have a HIERARCHICAL ORGANISATION: more
It was assumed that elements would either fit a category or not. There was no
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hierarchy: concepts had the same status. central/peripheral; good/bad examples.

E.g:
Category: Bird: includes several concepts organised around a
Prototype: an abstract set of attributes:
- small animal
- with feathers, wings, beak,
- short legs,
- fly,
- nests and lay eggs.

Central members: pigeon and dove (have most of the attributes)

Peripheral members: penguins and ostriches (they have only some of the
attributes or differ in some of them).

SALIENCE: has to do with more prototypical members of the category: good/bad

examples depending on the degree of prototypicality.

1. NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT CONDITIONS

One traditional approach to describing concepts is to define them by using sets of NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT CONDITIONS. If we have a concept like
WOMAN, it must contain the information necessary to decide whether something in the world is a woman. This information is organised as a set of characteristics or
attributes: these attributes can be seen as conditions. If they must have something in particular to be a woman, then they can be called necessary conditions (the
minimal requirements for belonging to a category.) In addition, if we can find the right set, so that just that set is enough to define a woman, then they can be called
sufficient conditions, i.e. we have identified the right amount of information for the concept.
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

This theory views concepts as lists of bits of knowledge: the necessary and sufficient conditions for something to be an example of that concept. Whatever does not
meet those conditions is not part of the concept.

Problems of the necessary and sufficient conditions view:

● It seems to assume that if speakers share the same concept they will agree on the necessary and sufficient conditions: if something has them, it is an X, if not, not.
● Ignorance: speakers often use words to refer knowing very little, and sometimes nothing, about the identifying characteristics of the referent. We can use the words
without knowing very much about the referent. It seems unlikely that a word is referring to a concept composed of a set of necessary and sufficient conditions, or
what amounts to the same thing, a definition.

2. PROTOTYPE

Because of the problems with necessary and sufficient conditions, or definitions, several more sophisticated theories have been proposed. One influential
proposal is due to Eleanor Rosch and her co-workers who have suggested the notion of prototypes. This is a model of concepts which views them as
structured so that there are central or typical members of a category, but then a shading off into less typical or peripheral members.

Speakers tend to agree more readily on typical members than on less typical members; they come to mind more quickly, etc. The boundaries between concepts
can seem to speakers uncertain, or “fuzzy”, rather than clearly defined.

This approach allows for borderline uncertainty: an item in the world might bear some resemblance to two different prototypes. E.g: the case of platypus.

A prototype is an abstraction that might be a set of characteristic features (not a concrete member), to which we compare real items. Around it, there are
members of a category, organised in terms of degree of prototypicality. Members of a category have different status (more central or more peripheral). There’s
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

an organisation, a hierarchy.

This model challenges the view that concepts have the same status (Traditional/Aristotelian view).

GOODNESS OF EXAMPLE RATINGS

Attributes can be collected in a fairly simple test procedure. One of these tests include typicality ratings that can be used to verify the goodness-of-example
ratings. While good examples have many attributes in common with other members of the same category, bad or marginal examples share only few attributes
with members of the same category. Bad examples share only a small number of attributes with other members of their category, but have several attributes
which belong to other categories as well.

CONTEXT DEPENDENCE AND CULTURAL MODELS

Prototypes are likely to keep shifting as the context changes. E.g: she carried a dog in her arms. What kind of dog? It is likely that the prototypical dog in this
example is a small dog: a poodle, a Yorkshire terrier, etc. and not a Rottweiler or a Greyhound. Yet, a greyhound would be the prototypical dog in the example:
“Right from the start of the race the dogs began chasing the rabbit.” For each of these sentences, you will have formed a different image of the kind of dog that
is denoted.

3. FAMILY RESEMBLANCES

The principle of family resemblances refers to a network of overlapping similarities. In the category of “games”, you will not see something that is common to all,
but similarities, relationships among some of them. The principle of family resemblances opens up an alternative to the classical view that attributes must be
common to all category members, that they must be category wide. In other words, the family resemblance principle argues that members which could be
thought to be connected by one common feature may in fact be connected by a series of overlapping similarities, where NO ONE feature is common to all of the
things/items.

4. IDEALISED COGNITIVE MODELS

These are approaches to typicality that claim that speakers have folk theories about the world, based on their experience and rooted in their culture. They
suggest that there is a division of our knowledge about a word: part is a dictionary-type definition and part is an encyclopaedia-type entry of cultural
knowledge (the frame or ICM). The first can be called linguistic or semantic knowledge and the second real-world or general knowledge. In this view, using a
word involves combining semantic knowledge and encyclopaedic knowledge, and this interaction may result in typicality effects. It is this idealised model, a form
of general knowledge, which governs our use of, say, the word bachelor, and restrains us from applying it to celibate priests, or people living in isolation.
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

SUMMARY:
● Though it seems true that through language we can identify or refer to real world entities, it is difficult to use reference as the whole of a theory of meaning.
● Our semantic knowledge seems to include both reference and sense.
● There are two different approaches to our ability to talk about the world: a denotational approach which emphasises the links between language and external
reality; and a representational approach which emphasises the link between language and conceptual structure.
● These issues of the relationship between language, thought, and reality have typically led linguist to adopt one of three positions:
➢ To leave these issues to philosophers and psychologists and decide that linguists should concentrate on sense relations within a language, or between
languages 🡪 LEXICAL SEMANTICS
➢ To decide that meaning is essentially denotation and try to develop a theory to cope with the various types of reference, including the ability to talk about
imagined situations 🡪 FORMAL SEMANTICS
➢ To decide that meaning does rely on a theory of conceptual structure and go on to try to determine the nature of linguistic concepts 🡪 COGNITIVE
SEMANTICS

COGNITIVE SEMANTICS
1. “… a defining characteristic of cognitive semantics is the rejection of what is termed objective semantics, which is the basic metaphysical belief that categories exist in
objective reality, together with their properties and relations, independently of consciousness (Lakoff).
2. According to cognitive linguistics, there is no separation of linguistic knowledge from general thinking or cognition. Linguistic behaviour is just another part of the
general cognitive abilities that allow learning, reasoning, etc.
3. According to cognitive semanticists, cognition mediates the relationship between language and reality, so the linguistic expression “The sun rises in the
East” is not a reflection of reality but of our perception of reality.
4. We have no access to a reality independent of human categorization and therefore the structure of reality as reflected in language is a product of the human mind.
5. Linguistic truth and falsity must be relative to the way an observer construes a situation, based on his or her conceptual framework.
6. “… meaning is based on conventionalized conceptual structures. Thus semantic structure, along with other cognitive domains, reflects the mental categories which
people have formed from their experience of growing up and acting in the world.”

CONCEPTUAL STRUCTURES
1. METAPHORS
A conceptual metaphor is an analogical mapping between two domains: the target domain (abstract), which is the starting point or described concept, and the
source domain (concrete or less abstract), which is the comparison concept or the analogy. For example in, “TIME is MONEY ”, the source domain is money and the
target domain is time since we talk about the abstract notion of time in terms of something more concrete which is money.
analogical: similarities
mapping: transference
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domains: areas of (human) activity or experience

CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS: SIGNIFICANCE

Lakoff and Johnson → “We have found (…) that metaphors are pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual
system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.” “(…) metaphor is not just a matter of language, that is, of mere words. We
shall argue that, on the contrary, human thought processes are largely metaphorical. This is what we mean when we say that the human conceptual system is
metaphorically structured and defined. Metaphors as linguistic expressions are possible precisely because there are metaphors in a person's conceptual system.”

Why are conceptual metaphors so important for cognitive linguists? Saeed → Cognitive semanticists are interested in conceptual metaphors because
“…metaphor is an essential element in our categorization of the world and our thinking processes. (….)
The features of conceptual metaphors are:
➢ Conventionality,
➢ Systematicity,
➢ Asymmetry, and
➢ Abstraction

Metaphors are conceptual structures and not merely linguistic in nature, though they're normally realised linguistically. A conceptual metaphor cannot be
reduced to a finite set of linguistic expressions, since myriad linguistic / metaphorical expressions can tap into the same conceptual structure. >> “Your claims are
indefensible.”, “He attacked every weak point in my argument.” and “His criticisms were right on target.” are the LINGUISTIC REALISATION of the CONCEPTUAL
METAPHOR ARGUMENT (target domain) is WAR (source domain).

EXAMPLES

Is that the foundation for your theory? / The theory needs more support. IDEAS (target domain) are BUILDINGS / CONSTRUCTIONS
/ The argument is shaky. (source domain)

What he said left a bad taste in my mouth. / There are too many facts IDEAS are FOOD
here for me to digest them all. / I just can’t swallow that claim. / That’s
food for thought. / He’s a voracious reader.

I’m crazy about her. / I’m just wild about Harry. / I’m insane about her LOVE is MADNESS
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His ideas have finally come to fruition /fruˈɪʃn/ / Mathematics has many IDEAS are VEGETABLES
branches. / The seeds of his great ideas were planted in his youth. / She
has a fertile imagination.

His mother’s death hit him hard. / She’s a knockout. / I was struck by his EMOTIONS are PHYSICAL FORCES
sincerity. / I was touched by his remark.

ONTOLOGICAL AND EPISTEMIC CORRESPONDENCES BETWEEN DOMAINS

“A computer virus caused my computer to shut down” this metaphorical expression is the realisation of the
conceptual metaphor COMPUTER PROBLEMS are HEALTH PROBLEMS

ONTOLOGICAL virus problem

CORRESPONDENCES body computer
(concepts) illness malfunctioning
doctor technician
injection
recovery or
death

EPISTEMIC CORRESPONDENCES When a virus enters the body, it When a problem affects our computer, it
(relationships between concepts) causes an illness. causes some malfunctioning.

Viruses invaded my body and the immune system starting defending itself is the linguistic realisation
of the conceptual metaphor ILLNESS is WAR

ONTOLOGICAL soldiers viruses

CORRESPONDENCES to invade to enter
(concepts) territory body
other soldier immune system
to defend to be activated
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armed forces health professionals

to launch a missile to give an injection
to win the battle to recover

EPISTEMIC CORRESPONDENCES if / when

(relationships between concepts)

His prose is delicious is the linguistic realisation of the conceptual metaphor IDEAS are FOOD

ONTOLOGICAL meal novel / book

CORRESPONDENCES delicious interesting
(concepts) eat read

EPISTEMIC CORRESPONDENCES When a meal is delicious you can't When a book is intersting, you
(relationships between concepts) stop eating cannot stop reading

SAMPLE ANALYSIS OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR

The linguistic expression / metaphorical expression “…………………………” is the realization of the conceptual structure metaphor. The source domain of this
metaphor is “…………………………” and the target domain is “…………………………” The ontological correspondences between the concepts in the source domain
(“…………………………”,“…………………………” and “…………………………” ) have been mapped onto the target domain
(“…………………………”,“…………………………” and “…………………………” ) The epistemic correspondences between the relations holding between the elements
in the source domain (if ……………………………………………………………………………………………………)have been extended / mapped onto the relations
between the elements in the target domain ((if……………………………………………………………………………………………………)
The image schema underlying this metaphor is …………………………, which derives from our experience of

2. METONYMY
Metonymy is a referential strategy which involves identifying a referent by something associated with it. This reflects the traditional definition in terms of contiguity.
Metonymy is a stand-for relationship in which, for example, the whole can stand metonymically for the part, or the part can stand metonymically for the whole, the
container for the content, the controlled for the controller, the institution for the people, etc.
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SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN METAPHOR AND METONYMY The conceptual structure underlying “I’m boiling over sth” is metaphor (ANGER IS A
HOT LIQUID), while the conceptual structure underlying “The kettle is boiling” is metonymy (CONTAINER (kettle) stands metonymically for CONTENT (hot liquid)

For cognitivist semanticists metonymy shows many of the same features as metaphor:
a. they are both conceptual processes
b. both may be conventionalized
c. both are used to create new lexical resources in language (polysemy)
d. both show the same dependence on real-world knowledge or cognitive frames or domains

The distinction is made in terms of these cognitive frames or domains

e. metaphor is viewed as a mapping across conceptual frames, for example disease and computers in computer virus(ANALOGY)
f. metonymy establishes a connection in the same domain (CONTIGUITY)

TAXONOMY OF METONYMIC RELATIONS [Saeed 352-3] Identify the stand-for relationships in the following:

a. Argentina wins the Soccer world cup. The whole for the part
Argentina stands metonymically for the national soccer team

b. I see many new faces today. the part (the face) stands metonymically for the whole (person)

c. I was pale. the effect stands metonymically for the cause

d. We don’t want another Cromagnon to happen. The building stands for the event

e. We don’t want another September 11th to happen. the date stands for the event

f. We must wait to hear from the crown until we make any further the object for the the institution
decisions.

g. The White House will be announcing the decision around noon today. the building for the institution

h. If we do not fill out the forms properly, the suits will be after us shortly. part for the whole

i. She's planning to serve the dish early in the evening. container for the content
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j. The cup is quite tasty. container for the content

k. The Pentagon will be revealing the decision later on in the morning the building for the institution

k. The Pentagon will be revealing the decision later on in the morning

l. The library has been very helpful to the students this morning. the institution for the people

m. Can you please give me a hand carrying this box up the stairs?

n. The United States will be delivering the new product to us very soon

3. IMAGE SCHEMAS
Image schematic metaphor
LANGUAGE: my life is empty
MIND: COGNITION: CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR: LIFE is a CONTAINER
PHYSICAL EXPERIENCE; IMAGE SCHEMA: CONTAINMENT

My life is empty is the linguistic realisation of the conceptual metaphor LIFE is a CONTAINER.
The image schema underlying this metaphor is CONTAINMENT, which derives our experience of ….
when justifying with reliance on context → the meaning can be differentiated when a person utters / writes …
truth conditional approach: literal meaning
cognitivist approach: figurative meaning

IMAGE SCHEMAS
“Image schemas are an important form of conceptual structure in the cognitive semantics literature. The basic idea is that because of our physical experience of
being and acting on the world –of perceiving the environment, moving our bodies, exerting and experiencing force, etc., we form basic conceptual structures which
we then use to organise thought across a range of more abstract domains. [Saeed 353] “Image schemas are proposed as experientially based conceptual
constructs by which we categorise, for example, spatial relations, and which can be metaphorically extended across a range of domains, typically shifting from
the external and concrete to the internal and abstract. Such schemas are seen as the building blocks of metaphor, allowing us to conceive of emotional states as
containers (She is in love), evidence as compulsion (He must be guilty), or purposes as paths. (A: Have you finished the book? B: I’m getting there) Polysemy is the
result of this extension of schemas to form radial categories and it is seen as a natural and ubiquitous phenomenon in language. [Saeed 366]
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SCHEMA CONCRETE / ABSTRACT / INTERNAL DOMAIN

It derives from experience of EXTERNAL can be extended by a process of metaphorical extension…
DOMAIN

Mark Johnson → The containment schema Implications: The schema of containment can be extended by a process of
derives from our experience of the human metaphorical extension into abstract domains. Lakoff and Johnson
body itself as a container; from our (1980) identify containers as a group ontological metaphors,
experience of being physically located ourselves where our experience of non-physical phenomena is described in
within bounded locations, etc; and from putting terms of simple physical objects like substances and containers.
objects into containers. The result is an abstract
schema representing an entity within a bounded -the visual field is often conceived as a container: “The ship
location. Such a schema has certain came into sight”, “There is nothing in sight.”
experientially-based characteristics: it has a
kind of natural logic. (see “rules”) (367) -activities can be viewed as containers: “I’ve put a lot of energy
CONTAINMENT into washing the window”: “He’s out of the race”; “She’s deep in
thought”

-States can be viewed in the same way: “He's in love” “He's

coming out of the comma now” “She got into a rage” “We stood in
silence”

Lakoff and Johnson these examples are typical and reveal the
important role of metaphor in allowing us to conceptualise
experience

This schema reflects (derives from) our Implications: The implications associated with this schema are evidenced in the
everyday experience of moving around the metaphorical extension of this schema into abstract domains: we
PATH world and experiencing the movements of other talk, for example, of achieving purposes as paths: “He's writing a
entities. Our journeys typically have a beginning PhD thesis and he’s nearly there.” “I meant to finish painting it
and an end, a sequence of places on the way yesterday, but I got side-tracked.”
and direction.
LIFE IS A JOURNEY
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In the basic force schema of Compulsion a Implications: He pushed me into doing

FORCE COMPULSION force vector acts on an entity, which causes
movement along a trajectory. This force may
continue or may be blocked.

FORCE BLOCKAGE In the more specific schema of Blockage, a Implications: Don´t stand in my way
force meets an obstruction and acts in various
ways: being diverted, or continuing on by
moving the obstacle or passing through it.

FORCE REMOVAL In the related schemas of Removal of Implications: You opened my eyes
Restraint, the removal (by another cause) of a
blockage allows an exertion of force to continue
along a trajectory.

This schema seems to derive from our Implications: The schema of VERTICALITY can be extended by a process of
experience of lying down and getting up. metaphorical extension into abstract domains. Lakoff and his
colleagues identified spatial metaphors, where our experience of
lying down and getting up are associated with consciousness,
health and power, i.e. of verticality in human experience. By using
VERTICALITY language like this, we are not adding rhetorical or poetical flourishes
to our language: this is how we conceive of happiness, health, etc.

HAPPY IS UP; SAD IS DOWN

CONSCIOUS IS UP; UNCONSCIOUS IS DOWN

HEALTH AND LIFE ARE UP; SICKNESS AND DEATH ARE DOWN

HAVING CONTROL OR FORCE IS UP; BEING SUBJECT TO

CONTROL OR FORCE IS DOWN
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GOOD IS UP; BAD IS DOWN

My life is empty / my life is full.

LANGUAGE: these expressions are the realisation
COGNITION: of the conceptual metaphor LIFE (target domain) is a CONTAINER (source domain)
PHYSICAL EXPERIENCE: The image schema underlying this conceptual metaphor is CONTAINER, which derives from our physical experience of ……

IMAGE SCHEMA AND POLYSEMY

POLYSEMY
“Image schema and their extension by metaphor have been used to describe a number of areas which display polysemy: the phenomenon where we find a group
of related but distinct meanings attached to a word. G. Lakoff (1897) uses the term radial category for the characteristic pattern produced by the metaphorical
extension of meaning from a central origin.

POLYSEMY PREPOSITIONS IN / OVER

G. Lakoff (1987) uses the term radial category for the characteristic pattern produced by the metaphorical extension of meanings from a central origin.
(centre-periphery structure) (Saeed, 370) (…) The relationship between the various senses is not arbitrary but systematic and natural. Brugman and Lakoff
(1988) argue that the polysemous nature of several prepositions cannot be accurately described using semantic features of definitions but instead requires an
essential topographical approach, i.e. a description employing spatial models. (Saeed, 371-2)”

PROTOTYPE THEORY AND POLYSEMY

The Idea of a prototype within a conceptual category is useful to describe a polysemous preposition (like the English preposition “in” or the Spanish preposition “de”.
a. RADIAL STRUCTURE OF PREPOSITION “ON”(as proposed in class at college) “The model of radial structure proposed has the following attributes:
● Relatively permanent,
● Contact (between figure and ground, being in contact with a surface),
● Support,
● Surface,
● Dependence (the idea of consumption),
● and sub categories like:
■ continuation,
■ operation,
■ dependence,
■ medium,
■ time (continuation)”
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POLYSEMY MODAL AUXILIARIES

Modal verbs in English have both deontic (requirement) and epistemic (likelihood) senses. In both cases force schemas can be used to analyse both senses.
Talmy (1985, 1988) analyses deontic uses in terms of forces and barriers; for example, a typical use of “may” is an example of removing a barrier or keeping back a
potential but absent barrier. Sweetser (1990) observes that the normal use of “may” relates to a social barrier (deriving from authority). The use of “must” for obligation
is an example of the Compulsion Force schema. The idea seems to be that there is a conceptual link between someone physically pushing you in a direction and a
moral force impelling you to act in a certain way. Both are forces which can be resisted or acceded to. Sweetser (1990) analyses the epistemic use of modals as a
metaphorical extension of these deontic uses since such uses for rational argument and judgement are derived from their uses for the real world of social
obligation and permission. This derivation follows the usual metaphorical extension from the EXTERNAL CONCRETE WORLD to the INTERNAL WORLD OF
COGNITION AND EMOTION. In the use of “may”, the epistemic use is again taken to represent a lack of barrier to the line of reasoning leading to the conclusion
expressed. Thus an overt parallel is drawn in this account between BARRIERS IN SOCIAL ACTION and BARRIERS IN MENTAL REASONING. (Saaed, 375-6) The
relationship between the deontic and epistemic use of each modal is not accidental but an example of polysemy: i.e. the different uses are semantically related. What
relates them is the metaphorical extension of the force and barriers schemas from THE SOCIAL WORLD to OUR INNER REASONING.”

SAMPLE ANALYSIS OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR

The linguistic expression / metaphorical expression “…………………………” is the realization of the conceptual structure metaphor. The source domain of this
metaphor is “…………………………” and the target domain is “…………………………” The ontological correspondences between the concepts in the source domain
(“…………………………”,“…………………………” and “…………………………” ) have been mapped onto the target domain
(“…………………………”,“…………………………” and “…………………………” ) The epistemic correspondences between the relations holding between the elements
in the source domain (……………………………………………………………………………………………………) have been extended / mapped onto the relations between
the elements in the target domain ((……………………………………………………………………………………………………)
The image schema underlying this metaphor is …………………………, which derives from our experience of

3. THE PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE

3.1. LINGUISTIC PRAGMATICS

23LI1 U3 1-PRAGMATICS NEW GUIDE & 23LI1 U3 PRAGMATICS EXAM QUESTIONS

● Go through the 5 topics

● Exemplify with syntax
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

● The pragmatic perspective >> semantics

1. IMPLICIT MEANINGS: 20LI1 U3 2-IMPLICIT MEANING

2. PRESUPPOSITION TRIGGERS: 22LI1 U3 3-KEY CONCEPTS RELATED TO PRESUPPOSITIONS
3. SPEECH ACT THEORY: 20LI1 U3 5-SPEECH ACTS
4. PRINCIPLE OF COOPERATION (MAXIMS): 20LI1 U3 4-COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE
5. PRINCIPLE OF POLITENESS: 20LI1 U3 6-POLITENESS

UNDERSTANDING PRAGMATICS | VERSCHUEREN

Pragmatics can be defined as the study of language use or the study of linguistic phenomena from the point of view of their usage properties and processes.
Linguistics is traditionally divided into component disciplines such as phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Each of those is related to a specific unit of analysis.
(*) Phonetics: it studies speech sounds. [IT’S NOT A MODULE]
➢ Phonology: it studies how this speech sounds are organised into meaningful units.
➢ Morphology: it studies morphemes, the minimal units carrying meaning.
➢ Syntax: it studies sentence-formation processes.
➢ Semantics: it studies the meaning of propositions and sentences.

All of these endeavours share a focus on language resources (ingredients people use for expressive and communicative purposes). There are no linguistic phenomena, at
any level of structure, that a pragmatic perspective can afford to ignore.

Charles Morris, the father of pragmatics, distinguishes between:

➢ Syntax: the relationship of signs to other signs. Syntactic rules determine the sign relations between sign vehicles.
➢ Semantics: the relations of signs to the object to which signs are applicable. Semantic rules correlate sign vehicles with other objects.
➢ Pragmatics: whatever relations there are between signs and their users or interpreters.

PRAGMATICS = INTERDISCIPLINARY /ˌɪntədɪsəˈplɪnəri/

Linguistic pragmatics studies people’s use of language, a form of behaviour or social action. The dimension which the pragmatic perspective is intended to give insight into
is the link between language and human life in general. A pragmatic perspective is by definition interdisciplinary. Pragmatics is also the link between linguistics
and the rest of humanities and social sciences.

Several interdisciplinary fields have their own correlational object in relation to which language is studied.
● Neurolinguistics: the neurophysiological bases and processes of speaking and listening.
● Psycholinguistics: the relations between language and the mind in general.
● Cognitive Linguistics: the relations between language and the mind in general.
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● Sociolinguistics: the way in which social relationships, statuses interact with language structure and use.
● Anthropological Linguistics: the relationships between language and culture.

Pragmatics is concerned with the full complexity of linguistic behaviour. The main function of linguistic pragmatics is to make sure that there is a point of
convergence for the various interdisciplinary undertakings. Pragmatics could function quite effectively as the latch connecting what we called the linguistics of
language resources and the interdisciplinary fields. Pragmatics can be defined as a general cognitive, social and cultural perspective on linguistic phenomena in
relation to their usage in forms of behaviour. It is an area of knowledge that studies language in relation to social and cultural situations. It investigates meaning in
context. Its topic of investigation: the meaningful functioning of language in actual use, as a complex form of behaviour that generates meaning.

MEANINGFUL FUNCTIONING OF LANGUAGE

Language is the major instrument in attempts to construct meaning in a world which does not have meaning itself. The term to generate meaning allows for both: the
language user’s active contribution to the processes under discussion and for their more spontaneous activation beyond the direct control of a language user’s
intentionality. The term to generate meaning involves a lower degree or less salient type of agentivity or consciousness.
There is a difference between SEMANTICS and PRAGMATICS:
★ SEMANTICS deals with context-independent meaning.
★ PRAGMATICS investigates meaning in context. It emphasises the functional relatedness of language with the other facets of human life. It focuses on the
functioning of language in actual contexts of use.

SUMMARY
There is a distinction between:
★ The linguistics of language resources, consisting of the traditional components of a linguistic theory, each of which has its own units of analysis (the modules).
★ Interdisciplinary fields of investigation, each of which has its own extra-linguistic correlational objects.

Pragmatics is presented as: the linguistics of language use.

★ It has neither its own unit of analysis nor its own correlational object.
★ It constitutes a general functional perspective on language.
★ Its topic of investigation is the meaning functioning of language in actual use, as a complex form of behaviour that generates meaning.
★ It serves as a point of convergence for the interdisciplinary /ˌɪntədɪsəˈplɪnəri/ fields of investigation and as a latch between those and the components of
linguistics of language resources.

Meaning is dynamically generated in the process of using language.

3.2. DEIXIS
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PRAGMATICS | LEVINSON

DEIXIS /ˈdaɪksɪs/
It’s a linguistic phenomenon realised through different grammatical categories or features called deictic expressions or indexicals, which establish a link
between the utterance where they appear and the context (textual/situational). It concerns the ways in which language encodes or grammaticalizes features of the
context of utterance and the ways in which the interpretation of utterances depends on the analysis of that context.

Deixis belongs within the domain of pragmatics because it directly concerns the relationship between the structure of language and the contexts in which they are
used, the encoding of many different aspects of the circumstances surrounding the utterances. Utterances are “anchored” /ˈæŋkə(r)d/ directly to the aspects of the
context, so in order to understand the referent of the indexical we need information about the deictic context.

DEICTIC EXPRESSIONS HAVE VARIABLE / PRAGMATIC MEANING: They’re linguistic elements used to refer to different aspects of the situational context everytime
they are used. Deictics encode grammatical features of the context of the utterance, anchoring it to the immediate speech situation. Therefore, the meaning of
these expressions can only be understood if we have information about when the utterance was produced, that is, the deictic context. Besides, the referent of an
indexical is always variable since it depends on the textual or situational context where an utterance occurs.

E.g: if I say to my mom “You told me that I can go”, the referent of the personal pronoun “you” is my mom, BUT if the same is uttered to my maths teacher, the referent of
“you” will change >> In order to know who the referent of the personal pronoun “you” is, you need information about the deictic context. The meaning is only
accessible through knowledge of the context.

CATEGORY WHAT IS IT ABOUT INDEXICALS / DEICTIC EXPRESSIONS

1. PERSON DEIXIS It concerns the encoding of the role of participants in ● First person singular pronoun → grammaticalization of the speaker’s
the speech event in which the utterance in question is reference to himself. E.g: I have to go to the doctor.
delivered. ● Second person pronouns → speaker’s reference to one or more
addresses. E.g: You went to college with me.
● Third person pronoun → it’s not deictic, unless it’s accompanied by a
gesture.

● FIRST PERSON PLURAL

➔ PROTOTYPICAL READING: INCLUSIVE WE → it includes the speaker
and the audience. E.g: We are going to the cinema. (= you and I)
➔ NON-PROTOTYPICAL READING: EXCLUSIVE WE
a. speaker-oriented reading → it includes the speaker and some other
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individuals, but not the audience. E.g: We are going to pay for the
damages.
b. hearer-oriented reading → (you) it is used for directives (orders or
requests) minimising the blow or threat to our interlocutor’s negative
face. E.g: We have to study harder next time.

2. PLACE / It concerns the spatial locations relative to the location Place deixis is usually encoded in the following indexicals:
SPATIAL DEIXIS of the participants in the speech event. ● demonstratives: this, that, these, those
● adverbs of place: here, there, over there
● PROXIMAL: physically close to the speaker. ● verbs: come, go, bring, take
● DISTAL: (non-proximal) sometimes close to addressee.

3. TIME / It concerns the encoding of temporal points and spans It’s commonly grammaticalized in:
TEMPORAL relative to the time at which an utterance was spoken ● adverbs of time: now, then, yesterday, this year
DEIXIS (or a written message inscribed). Coding time (CT) may ● TENSE: conjugated verbs
be distinct from Receiving time (RT). E.g: We’ll see each other in three days >> it points to three days after the
utterance was made.

4. SOCIAL DEIXIS It has to do with the encoding of social distinctions that It is encoded in:
are relative to participant-roles, particularly aspects of ● pronouns
the social relationship between speakers and addressees, ● summons forms: hey, che, eu, oi
or/and referent. ● vocatives: you, vos

5. DISCOURSE / It has to do with the encoding of reference to portions of E.g: below, above, in the previous chapter
TEXT DEIXIS the unfolding discourse in which the utterance (which
includes the text referring expression) is located.

CHARACTERISTICS OF INDEXICALS
DEICTIC EXPRESSIONS are linguistic units or morphemes that have a deictic usage as basic or central.

Two kinds of deictic usage are:

➔ GESTURAL USAGE: terms can only be interpreted with reference to an audio-visual-tactile gesture, and in general a physical, monitoring of the speech event. They
 Linguistics 1 - Sosa, Camila Daniela; Lima, Belén

require a moment-by-moment physical monitoring of the speech event for interpretation (examples are demonstrative pronouns used with a selecting gesture).
➔ SYMBOLIC USAGE: it requires for their interpretation only knowledge of the basic spatio-temporal parameters of the speech event. It refers to contextual coordinates
available to participants antecedent to the utterance.

Deixis is organised in an “egocentric way”: we think of deictic expressions as anchored to specific points in the communicative event. There is always a deictic centre
(the point of reference that we have from which the dimension is looked at). THERE IS ALWAYS A DEICTIC CENTRE.

We typically assume that:

➔ The central person is the speaker.
➔ The central time is the time at which the speaker produces an utterance.
➔ The central place is the speaker’s location at utterance time or CT (coding time).
➔ The discourse centre is the point at which the speaker currently is in the production of his utterance.
➔ The social centre is the speaker’s social status and rank, to which the status/rank of addressees is relative.

DEICTIC PROJECTION: shifts in point of view (the deictic centre may shift to other participants).

NON-DEICTIC USAGES: there is a difference between:

➔ ANAPHORIC USAGE: some term picks out as referent the same entity (or class of objects) that some prior term in the discourse picked out.
➔ NON-ANAPHORIC USAGE

3.3. IMPLICIT MEANINGS

IMPLICIT MEANINGS
Since pragmatics studies language as a form of action anchored in a real-world context, one of the most immediate consequences is that it must pay attention to
non-literal types of meaning, which are a range of meanings emerging from the contextually embedded action character of speech and it could be captured under the term
implicit meaning. It depends on which context the utterance in question appears. Implicit meaning is derived from the context in which the communication takes
place.

1. The impossibility of complete explicitness: Due to the impossibility of complete explicitness and the need to rely on shared background information to understand
a range of meanings emerging from the contextually embedded action character of speech, which could be captured under the general term implicit meanings,
languages provide numerous conventionalized carriers of implicit meaning (tools for linking explicit content to relevant aspects of background information). A first
category of such tools are presupposition-carrying expressions and constructions (triggers).
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2. Conventional linguistic means to cope with that impossibility: entailments, presuppositions, implicatures.
Language provides conventionalized carriers of implicit meaning, tools for linking explicit content to relevant aspects of background information.
These are:

A. ENTAILMENT
● It’s a relationship between two sentences.
● All sentences have entailments.
● Implicit meaning that can be logically inferred from a form of expression.
● A logical relation between forms and implicit meanings.
● They’re said to be truth conditionals (A entails or logically implies B, so if A is true, then B must also be true)
● They’re based on linguistic information alone.
● Behaviour under negation: Entailments are cancelled.

Example:
A: “I saw a black cat”
B: “I saw an animal”

A: “I bought a car”
B: “I bought a Toyota”
In this case, B entails A, since if you buy a Toyota, it is understood that you're buying a car. So, if B is true, then A is true. Yet, the reverse might not be necessarily
true, as A doesn´t necessarily entail B. This is so since if you just say that you bought “a car”, it could be any brand, such as a Mercedes Benz, BMW, Chevrolet, etc.
So, the relationship between A and B is asymmetrical.

B. PRESUPPOSITION
● It’s concerned with inferences that hearers make on the basis of what the speaker said.
● Aspects of meaning that must be presupposed, understood or taken for granted for an utterance to make sense.
● It’s one of a number of inferences that the listener might make.
● Presuppositions are relations between a form of expression (presupposition-trigger devices) and an implicit meaning which can be arrived at by a process of
inference. Therefore, they’re tied to particular words or aspects of the surface structure (S-S).
● A presupposition trigger is a lexical item or linguistic construction which is responsible for the presupposition. “The (...) triggers the presupposition that …”
● They’re:
○ Partly semantic, as they’re tied to some elements of the sentence’s surface structure that triggers it, which are called triggers.
○ Partly pragmatic, as they’re dependent on speaker and listener sharing background information.

PROPERTIES:
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- Constancy Under Negation: The main property of presuppositions is the following: any specified presupposition holds no matter whether the sentences are
true or false. In general the main propositions of a sentence carrying a presupposition can be negated without affecting the presupposition. E.g: in the sentence “I
saw the red dog”, the definite description “the red dog” triggers the presupposition that there is a red dog (regardless of whether this is actually true or false). If we
negate this sentence: “I didn’t see the red dog”, the presupposition still holds / is untouched.The negation of the main verb only alters a sentence’s entailment,
but it leaves the presupposition untouched. E.g:
My brother is in town: the definite noun phrase “my brother” triggers the presupposition that I have a brother.
My brother is not in town: the presupposition still holds.

- Defeasibility / Context Sensitivity: Presuppositions are cancelled in certain contexts. For example, in “Before she finished her thesis, she travelled abroad.”,
the temporal clause “Before she finished her thesis,” triggers the presupposition that she finished her thesis, but this presupposition is cancelled in “Before she
finished her thesis, she died.” Presuppositions can be suceptive to small changes in linguistic and non-linguistic context (context sensitivity).

The presupposition can be cancelled when there’s information within the same sentence or in another sentence that invalidates the presupposition:
→ Intra-sentential: (within the same sentence or utterance)
“She travelled abroad before she met him” - Presupposition: she met him.
“She died before she met him” - The information presupposed by the temporal clause “before she met him” is cancelled.

→ Inter-sentential: (in different sentences or utterances)

A: I ran into your brother last night.
B: I don’t have any brothers; I’m an only child. - The information presupposed by the possessive construction “your brother” is cancelled.

One aspect of context-sensitivity or defeasibility is the PROJECTION PROBLEM: in some cases where presupposition-carrying constructions are
embedded into a more complex structure they preserve their presupposition (i.e. they project them onto the wider structure), whereas in other cases they
lose them. For example, in the simple sentence “John managed to get a job.”, the implicative verb manage presupposes that John tried to get a job. In the complex
sentence “When John managed to get a job, his life changed.”, the presupposition triggered by managed is left untouched since it is projected into the wider structure.
However, in “John managed to get a job without trying / just by chance.”, the presupposition is cancelled or blocked by its explicit negation “without trying”

I thought I ran into your brother last night, but then I remembered you are an only child >> This is an instance of context sensitivity / defeasibility: the presupposition
that you have a brother in the first clause “I thought I ran into your brother last night” is not projected onto the second clause “then I remembered you are an only child”
as it is automatically cancelled by “you are an only child”.

I thought I ran into your brother last night, but then I remembered he’s out of town >> In this case, the presupposition triggered by the possessive noun phrase “your
brother” in “I thought I ran into your brother last night” is projected onto the second clause “then I remembered he’s out of town” and the presupposition holds.

C. IMPLICATURES (Conventional)
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Conventional meanings attached to the conventional forms. E.g: “I don’t play tennis but football” - the implicit meaning is made explicit: the word ‘but’ shows contrast.

EXAMPLE:
A: Waiter, the check please!
B: I forgot my wallet.
Entailment: I forgot sth / I didn’t remember to bring my wallet (semantics)
Presupposition: The implicative verb “forget” triggers the presupposition “I had to bring my wallet”.
Implicature: Can you pay the bill please?

3. STRATEGIES to exploit it in generating meaning: conversational implicatures (= MAXIMS). The impossibility of being fully explicit in language lends itself to
strategic exploitation: a creative exploitation of the restrictions on the possibility of explicitness is one of the resources for the generation of meaning by
means of language use.

The goal of Contemporary Pragmatics: the development of a comprehensive theory of the relations between language use and sociocultural context. It departs from
the idea that the interpretation of utterances depends on a multiplicity of factors. Discourse Pragmatics is the comprehensive theory that investigates the
different meanings an utterance can possibly take according to the context in which it’s uttered.
To understand this, we must know Grice’s theory of meaning, which is concerned foremost with recognizing the interlocutor’s communicative intentions in a
speech act. GRICE poses a division of meaning into:
➢ Sentence meaning → the processing of words on the basis of linguistic knowledge.
➢ Speaker meaning → the processing of the circumstances of the utterance.

Pragmatic theory is concerned with explaining HOW interlocutors bridge the gap between sentence meaning and speaker meaning. Hence, its unit
of analysis is utterances in specific context → importance of inferencing.

Grice focuses on the predictability of inference formation in communication → He proposed a system of “conversational logic” based on a number of
maxims of conversation. The predictability of inference formation could be explained by postulating a cooperative principle.

PRESUPPOSITIONS

DEFINITION It’s concerned with inferences that hearers make on the basis of what the speaker said. They are concerned with aspects of
meaning that must be presupposed, understood or taken for granted for an utterance to make sense. It’s one of a number of
inferences that the listener might make. Presuppositions are relations between a form of expression (presupposition-trigger devices)
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and an implicit meaning which can be arrived at by a process of inference. Therefore, they’re tied to particular words or aspects of
surface structure (S-S).

PRESUPPOSITION A presupposition trigger is a lexical item or linguistic construction which is responsible for the presupposition. “The ... (...)
TRIGGERS triggers the presupposition that ...” Triggers are linguistic devices which are commonly used for ideological or manipulative purposes,
to smuggle in, as common sense, assumptions which are debatable, controversial, or simply inapplicable.

TYPE TRIGGERS

1 Existential Definite Noun Phrases

Presuppositions The war in Iraq has not finished yet.
‘the war in Iraq’ → There is a war in Iraq.
The noun phrase “the war in Iraq” triggers the existential presupposition that there is a war in Iraq.

2 Possessive Possessive Constructions

Presuppositions I looked under John’s piano for your cat.
‘John’s piano’ → John has a piano.
‘your cat’ → you have a cat.
The possessive constructions “John’s piano” and “your cat” trigger the possessive presuppositions that John has a piano and that you
have a cat.

3 Change-of-state Stative verbs that require for obligatory complementation

Presuppositions It’ll make you look and feel beautiful → stative verb (make look/feel) + obligatory object complement (beautiful) (direct object: you)
You’ll become more self-assured → stative verb (become) + obligatory subject complement (more self assured) (subject: you)
The clause “It’ll make you look and feel beautiful” triggers the change-of-state presupposition that either you are not beautiful or you do
not feel beautiful. And, the clause “You’ll become more self-assured” triggers the presupposition that you are not completely
self-assured.

4 Factive Verbs A) Factive Verbs: know, regret, agree, realise, deny + -ing clause
Factual John realised he had come to the wrong house.
presupposition? ‘realised’ → John had come to the wrong house.
The factive verb “realise” in “John realised he had come to the wrong house” triggers the presupposition that John did come to the
wrong house.
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B) be + adjective: aware, sorry, proud, indifferent, glad, sad, odd that

He’s glad that the trial is over.
‘glad (that)’ → The trial is over.
The factive verb construction “be glad that” in “He’s glad that the trial is over” triggers the presupposition that the trial is over.

5 Counterfactual A) Counterfactual Conditionals Type 2: “if + simple past” (about the present)
Presuppositions If it weren’t raining, I would go out.
‘If it weren’t raining’ → It is raining.
The counterfactual conditional type 2 construction “If it weren’t raining” triggers the counterfactual presupposition that it is raining.

B) Counterfactual Conditionals Type 3: “if + past perfect”

If he hadn’t lied to her, she would have forgiven her.
‘If he hadn’t lied to her’ → He lied to her.
The counterfactual conditional type 3 construction “If he hadn’t lied to her” triggers the counterfactual presupposition that he lied to her.

6 Lexical A) Implicative Verbs: manage, forget, didn’t plan / intend to, avoid –ing, was expected to, ought to
Presuppositions Students shouldn’t forget to submit their assignments in time.
Forget to → they had to submit their homework in time.

He managed to overcome his problems.

‘managed’ → He tried to overcome his problems.

The implicative verb “manage to” in “He managed to overcome his problems” triggers the lexical presupposition that he tried to
overcome his problems and did so.

B) Change of State Verbs: begin, start, continue, carry on, stop, finish, cease
The war inevitably started after China attacked Japan.
‘started’ → The war wouldn’t have started if Japan hadn’t been attacked by China.
The stative verb denoting a change of state “start” in “The war inevitably started after China attacked Japan” triggers the lexical
presupposition that the war wouldn’t have started if Japan hadn’t been attacked by China.

C) Iteratives: again, another time, any more, return, come back, restore, repeat, for the fifth time
You are late again.
‘again’ → You were late before.
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The iterative “again” in “You are late again” triggers the lexical presupposition that this is not the first time that you have come late.

7 Structural A) QUESTIONS: WH-questions introduce the presuppositions obtained by replacing the WH-word by the appropriate
Presuppositions existentially quantified variable (the content of the question): who → someone / when → sometime / where → somewhere / how
→ somehow / why → for some reason. These presuppositions are not in variant to negation (in other words, they cannot be
cancelled).
When did you see the victim for the last time?
‘when’ → You saw the victim sometime.
The wh-question word “when” in “when did you see the victim?” triggers the structural presupposition that you saw the victim at some
point in time.

B) Temporal Clauses: before, after, while, whenever, as, during

Since Churchill died, we’ve lacked / haven’t lacked a leader.
‘Since Churchill died’ → Churchill died.
The subordinating conjunction “since” in “Since Churchill died, we’ve lacked a leader” triggers the structural presupposition that
Churchill died.

C) Cleft sentences (verb “be” + sb / so): It cleft & WH cleft GRAMMATICAL SUBJECTS - EXPLETIVES
It was John that kissed Mary.
‘It was John that…’ → somebody kissed Mary
What Peter lost was his job.
‘What Peter lost …’ → Peter lost something
The dummy it in the cleft sentence ‘It was John that kissed Mary’ triggers the structural presupposition that somebody kissed Mary. The
wh-word “what” in the wh-cleft sentence “What Peter lost was his job” triggers the structural presupposition that Peter lost something.

D) Comparison and Contrast

Comparisons and contrast may be marked by stress (or by other prosodic means), by particles like too, back, in return, or by
comparative constructions: A is comparable to B in X.
Carol is/isn’t a better linguist than Barbara.
‘a better linguist than’ → Barbara is a linguist.
The comparative construction “a better linguist than” in “Carol is/isn’t a better linguist than Barbara” triggers the structural
presupposition that Barbara is a linguist.

E) Non-Defining Relative Clauses

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Hillary, who climbed Everest in 1953, was the greatest explorer of our day.
‘who climbed Everest in 1953’ → Hillary climbed Everest in 1953.
The nondefining relative clause “who climbed Everest in 1953” in “Hillary, who climbed Everest in 1953, was the greatest explorer of our
day” triggers the structural presupposition that Hillary climbed Everest in 1953.

F) Appositions & Nominalizations

Barack Obama, the president of the US, welcomed Pope Francis.
“The president of the US” → Barack Obama is the president of the US.
The apposition “the president of the US” in “Barack Obama, the president of the US, welcome Pope Francis ” triggers the structural
presupposition that B.Obama is the president of the US.

President Bill Clinton's impeachment was never that big a deal in Latin America.
‘President Bill Clinton’s impeachment’ → Bill Clinton was impeached.
The nominalization “President Bill Clinton's impeachment” in “President Bill Clinton's impeachment was never that big a deal in Latin
America” triggers the structural presupposition that Bill Clinton was impeached.
G) Polar Questions (either)
Are you a teacher or a student? → You’re either a teacher or a student.
Do you study or work?
“Study or work” → You either study or work.
The polar question “Do you study or work?” triggers the structural presupposition that you either study or work.

H) Focusing Adverb (even)

Even John came to my party.
“Even John” → Everybody came to my party.
He even does voluntary work. I don’t know how he managed his time. → He does a lot of things.
The focusing adverb “even” in “Even John came to my party ” triggers the structural presupposition that everybody came to my party.

I) Adverbs of Frequency & Quantifiers (sometimes → always / all → some)

These students sometimes study linguistics.
“sometimes” → these students do not always study linguistics.
I didn’t drink all the whisky.
“All the whisky” → I drink some.
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Grice’s Theory: Co-operative Principle (CP)

Grice’s Cooperative Principle (CP) is a mutual tacit agreement between the speaker and the listener that underlies
Definition verbal communication. It’s a principle that regulates conversation; it is not a rule to be followed, but speakers and listeners
must speak cooperatively and mutually accept one another to be understood. It’s always at work. The CP is always adhered to,
whether the speaker flouts or observes a maxim. It’s based on four main sub principles or maxims of conversation, which
enable effective communication (quality, quantity, relevance, and manner).

CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE: the term was introduced by Paul Grice. There seems to be enough regularity in the
inference-forming behaviour of listeners for speakers to exploit this by implying something, rather than stating it.
Grice argued that this predictability of inference formation could be explained by postulating a COOPERATIVE
PRINCIPLE: a tacit agreement between speaker and listener to cooperate in communication. The assumptions made by
hearers about a speaker’s conduct are of different types (different types of inference). Different IMPLICATURES, called by
Grice “MAXIMS.”

MAXIMS OF CONVERSATION /ˈmæksɪm/ (4)

1 QUALITY It has to do with being truthful: the speaker agrees to try to make the contribution one that is true.

2 QUANTITY It has to do with the quantity of information. The speaker agrees to make the contribution as informative as it is required.

3 RELEVANCE It has to do with being relevant and directly relating to the subject being discussed or considered.

4 MANNER It has to do with being clear (avoiding ambiguity and obscurity of expression) being brief and orderly. The speaker agrees to
being perspicuous, avoiding ambiguity, avoiding obscurity, being brief, being orderly, being clear.

Particularised conversational implicatures (PCIs): the implicature is entirely context dependent.

Generalised conversational implicatures (GCIs): the implicature is more predictable and less context dependent.

Violating the Maxims It occurs when the speaker secretly breaks them by lying → He’s not being cooperative; no implicature is generated.
Grice distinguished between the speaker secretly breaking the maxims, e.g. by lying, versus overtly breaking them for
some linguistic effect, which he called “flouting.”
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Observing the Maxims Assuming that these maxims are generally adhered to, they give rise to conventional implicatures.
A: Where are my keys?
B: They are on the table in the hall.

Flouting the Maxims When the speaker wants to imply something different from what is said, they can flout (disrespect/defy) one or more maxims.
But since speakers are expected to be cooperative by using language in accordance with the maxims, any clear breaching or
flouting will be interpreted by a co-operative interlocutor as a conscious act signalling special (implicit) meaning. Therefore, a
conversational implicature arises. If the speaker overtly breaks them for some linguistic effect, he’s exploiting the maxim and
being cooperative. Flouting a maxim is a strategic exploitation of implicitness, since speakers are expected to be
cooperative by using language in accordance with the maxims, any clear flouting will be interpreted by a cooperative
interlocutor as a conscious act signalling special meaning.

FLOUTING THE MAXIMS:

1. Maxim of Quality: it can be flouted by means of using irony, metaphor, or hyperbole.
A: Did you like her performance?
B: I love it when she sings out of key all the time.

2. Maxim of Quantity: it can be flouted by means of giving less or too much information, tautology.
A: Have you studied for today’s test?
B: Well, if I haven’t, I haven’t.

3. Maxim of Manner: it can be flouted by means of being wordy, spelling out the words.
A: Where are you going with little Jamie?
B: To the D-E-N-T-I-S-T.

4. Maxim of Relevance: it can be flouted by means of changing the topic or talking about something that seems irrelevant.
A: Hey! Are you coming to the party tonight?
B: My parents are visiting.

PROPERTIES OF THE MAXIMS OF CONVERSATION

1 Defeasible They are defeasible as they can be cancelled or changed by modifying or adding to the utterance.
/di-ˈfē-zə-bəl/ A: Can I borrow $20?
B: My purse is in the hall. → implicature: you can have the money.
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B: My purse is in the hall but don’t dare to touch it. → the implicature is cancelled.

2 Non-Detachable They are non-detachable as the implicature is tied to the propositional content of the utterance, not to a linguistic
item/construction. E.g: What a delightful child! → child, delightful.

3 Not Fully They are not fully determinable as the meaning doesn’t have to be stable across instances of use nor does it have to be
Determinable the same for different users. That is to say, the interpretation is subject to contextual variation.

4 Calculable They are calculable as they can be questioned and made explicit. The interactants can understand each other because they
share some context.
A: Did you enjoy the party?
B: There were two hundred people!
(B implicates something that A will understand: ‘I didn’t like it because there were too many people’ or ‘I liked it because there
were a lot of people’. It depends on whether B likes crows or not. A can make it explicit and ask ‘What do you mean…?’)
To understand an utterance, hearers have to access and use contextual information of different types. Each of these tasks
involve calculation. Hearers have to create meaning by combining linguistic and contextual information - in doing so, they make
inferences. The types of contextual information allows the hearer to:
● Fill in deictic expressions
● Make inferences
● Fix the reference of nominals
● Access background information

Explicatures are interpretations which are expansions of the original underspecified linguistic input. These processes
EXPLICATURES of expanding to explicit content are seen as operating at the word level in what is termed LEXICAL PRAGMATICS. The
contextual plasticity of words is seen as a product of a number of inferential processes, including:
● NARROWING: Narrowing the meaning of an utterance.
He does not drink → drink has been narrowed to drink alcohol.
● BROADENING or approximation, where the sense of word is extended.

Writers make a distinction between:

● IMPLICATED PREMISES: is not directly stated and therefore is implicated but it is provided as an inferential support for
the final implicature, or implicated conclusion.
● IMPLICATED CONCLUSIONS
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IN A NUTSHELL
To understand some utterances, hearers have to access and use contextual information of different types. Hearers have to create meaning by
combining linguistic and contextual information, they make inferences. What do we call the result of combining meaning with contextual information
to get the final message? One response is to distinguish between three types of meaning:
● the conventional meaning of words and sentences in the language.
● the speaker’s intended meaning.
● the hearer’s constructed meaning.

Another possibility is to call:

● MEANING: the linguistically encoded sentence meaning.
● CONTENT: the speaker's meaning.
● INTERPRETATION: the hearer meaning.

Verschueren → Types of Implicit Meaning

- Implicit meaning that can be logically inferred from a form of expression

- Inference types that are supposed to lead logically to relations between forms and implicit meanings
For example, “I saw a cat,” entails “I saw an animal.”

1 ENTAILMENT Logical implication are said to be truth-conditional (in the sense that A entails or logically implies B if and only if every
situation that makes A true also makes B true)

Conventional implicature are non-truth conditional inferences that are nevertheless attached by convention to specific forms of
expression, such as lexical items.

2 PRESUPPOSITIONS - Implicit meaning that must be presupposed, understood, taken for granted for an utterance to make sense
Properties
➢ Constancy under negation
➢ Defeasibility
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3 CONVERSATIONAL CONVENTIONAL / - Implicit meaning that can be conventionally inferred from forms of expression in combination with
IMPLICATURES STANDARD assumed standard of adherence to conversational maxims
(MAXIMS)
NON-CONVENTIONAL / - Implicit meaning inferred from the obvious flouting of a conversational maxim in combination with
OCCASION SPECIFIC assumed adherence to the co-operative principle

EXAMPLE COMBINING ALL IMPLICIT MEANINGS:

A: Are you coming to the party tonight?
B: I have an exam tomorrow again.

Implicit meanings:
ENTAILMENT: You have a test tomorrow again
PRESUPPOSITION: The iterative adverb ‘again’ triggers the presupposition that you had an exam before.
CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE: You’re not coming to the party.

IN A NUTSHELL
● Deixis → It’s the anchoring of language use in the real world by pointing at variables along some of its dimensions, particularly time, space, society, and discourse.
● Speech Acts → They are the “things” that one does with words at the structural level of sentences.
● Implicit Meanings → What can be meant or communicated beyond what is explicitly or literally said by means of presuppositions, implications and implicatures.

3.4. SPEECH ACT THEORY

FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE: SPEECH AS ACTION | SAEED KEY WORD: ILLOCUTIONS /ˌɪləˈkjuːʃn/

SPEECH ACTS: the uses to which utterances are conventionally put in the new language community and how these uses are signalled. Part of understanding
the meaning of an utterance is knowing whether we have been asked a question, invited to do sth, etc. These functions of language are called “speech acts”.
A speech act is an utterance (or linguistic expression) that has the capacity to perform certain kinds of communicative functions, such as requests, apologies,
suggestions, commands, offers. Utterances are communicative acts that convey an intended language function in communication, so they are used not only to express
propositions but also to perform certain linguistic actions, such as indirectly requesting the hearer to open the door. They are pragmatic in nature because different
syntactic constructions and word forms can be used to convey many different illocutions or speech acts on the part of the speaker, which can only be analysed
case by case and also knowing the situational context in which those were uttered.
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Also, speech acts have two main characteristics:

- Interactivity and Context Dependency → In order to understand a speech act, we need information not only about the social conventions but also knowledge about
the context of the utterance. So the meaning of the function of the utterance depends on the interaction of the participants and the context in which they are.
- The study of Speech Act occupies a border between semantics and pragmatics → In many cases, the intended function is linguistically coded (through performative
verbs: I request (speech act) you to do sth). However, communicating functions also rely on both:
➔ general knowledge of social conventions
➔ specific knowledge of the local context of utterance.

Hearer’s have to coordinate LINGUISTIC and NON-LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE to interpret a speaker’s intended meaning.

Speech acts can’t be studied from the perspective of syntax because the same sentence structure can have different illocutionary forces. E.g: Declarative
mood: statement, request, complaint. That is to say, there is not a one-to-one correspondence between sentence structure and illocutionary force. Some sentences
have a particular grammatical form which is conventionally associated with a certain speech act. Sentence type is identified when there’s a conventional match between
grammatical form of the sentence and the speech act function associated with. However, sometimes there’s a mismatch (indirect speech act).

The conventional, literal uses of these sentence types will be to perform the speech act as following ones:
● Declarative: it performs the speech act of assertions.
● Imperative: it performs the speech act of orders.
● Interrogative: it performs the speech act of questions.
● Optative: it performs the speech act of wishes.

Characteristics of Speech Acts:

➢ Interactivity → Communication involves the speaker in a coordinated activity with other language users. For example, a student says “I don’t understand”, so the
teacher repeats the explanation.
➢ Context Dependency → It has two aspects:
○ Many speech acts rely on social conventions to support them. Sometimes they are very explicit, supported by institutional facts, and some can only be performed by
the relevant people in the right situations. E.G: A priest saying ‘I now pronounce you husband and wife’.
○ The local context of a speech act: An utterance may signal one speech act in one situation and a different one in another situation. E.g: Using a declarative sentence
with the force of a request. “It's hot in here”

AUSTIN’S SPEECH ACT THEORY

Speech act theory was developed by J. L. Austin. His work is in many respects a reaction to some traditional and influential attitudes to language. The attitudes can be
said to involve three related assumptions:
1) The basic sentence type in language is declarative (statement/assertion).
2) The principal use of language is to describe states of affairs (by using statements).
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3) The meaning of utterances can be described in terms of their truth or falsity.

These assumptions are associated with the philosophers known as LOGICAL POSITIVISTS interested in how far the meaning of a sentence is reducible to its
verifiability; the extent to which, and by which, it can be shown to be T or F. AUSTIN’S OPPOSITION: “common sense” that language is used for far more than making
statements and that for the most part utterances cannot be said to be either true or false. He makes two observations:

➢ Not all sentences are statements, and much of conversation is made up of questions, exclamations, commands, and expressions of wishes.
➢ Not all sentences with the grammatical form of declaratives are used to make statements. These sentences are in themselves a kind of action. They are called
PERFORMATIVE UTTERANCES since they perform the action named by the first verb in the sentence. We can insert the adverb “hereby” to stress the function. E.g: I
hereby crown you the King of England / I apologise for being late >> you state that you are sorry for sth and apologise at the same time.
EVALUATING PERFORMATIVE UTTERANCES
Performative utterances should be asked whether they work or not. A performative that works is called felicitous —it satisfies the social conventions—, and one that does
not, is called infelicitous.

The enabling conditions for a performative are FELICITY CONDITIONS:

➢ SINCERITY CLAUSES: participants must have the requisite thoughts, feelings, and intentions, as specified by the procedure, that if subsequent conduct is called for,
the participants must conduct themselves.
➢ “MISFIRE”: the speech act is unsuccessful by failing the conditions.

Special features of the performative utterances:

● They tend to begin with a first-person verb in simple present form.
● This verb belongs to a special class describing verbal activities.
● Generally, the performative nature can be emphasised by inserting the adverb “hereby”.

If all these characteristics are present, the utterance is an explicit performative. On the other hand, an implicit performative is an utterance’s ability to be expanded to
an explicit performative that identifies it as a performative utterance.

STATEMENTS AS PERFORMATIVES
● Performatives are speech acts subject to felicity conditions. They are to be contrasted with declarative sentences, which are potentially true or false descriptions of
situations (constatives). The making of statements as just another type of speech act, which he called stating.
● Austin argued that there is no theoretically sound way to distinguish between performatives and constatives. Ex: felicity applies to statements too. All utterances
constitute speech acts of one kind or another.
● For some, the type of act is explicitly marked by their containing a verb labelling the act (warn, bet, suggest, etc.)
● There are 2 basic parts to meaning:
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o The conventional meaning of a sentence = proposition

o The speaker’s intended speech act

THREE FACETS OF A SPEECH ACT

●Austin proposed that communicating a speech act consist of 3 elements:
✔ The speaker says something= LOCUTIONARY ACT: the act of saying something that makes sense in a language.
✔ The speaker signals an associated speech act = ILLOCUTIONARY ACT: the uses by which language can be in society.
✔ The speech act causes an effect on the participants = PERLOCUTIONARY ACT: the effect of an illocutionary act.

IN A NUTSHELL

JOHN AUSTIN

“(Speech act theory) has been one of the basic ingredients of pragmatics for a long time. In his own search (Austin’s) for ways of coping with language as a form of
action, he first made a distinction between “constative” and “performative” utterances.

CONSTATIVES ACT OF SAYING: Utterances in which something is said which can be evaluated along a dimension of truth. → We went down to
Como.

PERFORMATIVES ACT OF DOING: Utterances in which something is done which cannot be said to be true or false but which can be evaluated along a
dimension of felicity (=appropriacy) → Go anywhere today?

Austin’s conclusion was simple: all utterances contain both constative and performative elements; they are all sayings and doings at the same time. To capture
the implications of this intuition, he replaced the constative-performance terminology by a three-fold distinction:
➔ Locutionary act
➔ Illocutionary act
➔ Perlocutionary act

LOCUTIONARY ACT Locutions (the words the speaker uses) are acts of saying something (the uttering of a string of sounds, I promise to go to Como,
what the speaker is saying containing a proposition, or the constative aspect of the speech act). Performing a locutionary act includes the expression of one or
more propositions.

ILLOCUTIONARY ACT Illocutions (or illocutionary force - what the speaker is doing by using those words) are what is done in saying something (in
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what the speaker is doing saying: I promise to go to Como, I make a promise). The same locutionary act (the same string of words) can realise different
illocutionary acts.
For example: “My computer is out of order.” → Fix it / I can't work today / I need to get a new one. The same illocutionary act can be
performed via different locutionary acts.

PERLOCUTIONARY ACT Perlocutions are the effects of those words on the hearer.

SAMPLE ANALYSIS SAMPLE 1

“Mike: Annie, give me some cash.”
- Locution: Mike uttered the words ‘Give me some cash’, which can be semantically paraphrased as: "Hand me some money over to
me", with me referring to Mike.
- Illocution: Mark performed the act of requesting Annie to give him some cash. This is a direct speech act since an imperative
sentence has been used with the illocutionary force of a command / request (directive = Searle’s classification))
- Perlocution: Mike's utterance could have any of the following perlocutions: “Mike persuaded Annie to give him the money"; "Annie
refused to give him the money"; "Annie was offended", As you can see, the perlocution is defined by the hearer's reaction.

JOHN SEARLE

A SPEECH ACT FORMULA

“…John Searle takes over with his Speech Act Formula F(p), where ´F´stands for (illocutionary) Force, the action side of every speech act, and ´p´stands for
proposition, the content side of the speech act (consisting of a reference and a predication)

B FELICITY CONDITIONS (APPROPRIACY)

Searle further developed Austin’s notion of felicity conditions for a successful speech act:

1 PROPOSITIONAL CONTENT CONDITIONS: features of the semantic content of an utterance. For example, requests usually contain references to the
future, whereas apologies (most of the time, but not exclusively) refer to an act in the past. Promises: first person and a reference to the future.
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2 PREPARATORY CONDITIONS: the necessary contextual features needed for the specific speech act to be performed, such as the ability of the hearer to
perform the requested act (for directives), or the assumptions that some offence has been committed (for apologies).

3 SINCERITY CONDITIONS: the speaker’s wants and beliefs, such as his wish that the hearer does the requested act (for requests), or his belief that an
offence has been committed, and recognized as such by the hearer (for apologies).

4 ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS: the convention by which the utterance is to count as an attempt to get the hearer to do something (for requests) or as an
undertaking to remedy a social imbalance (for apologies)

C CATEGORIES OF SPEECH ACTS “…orthodox speech act theory also suggests that all speech acts, in any language anywhere in the world, fall into five
categories.
➢ These categories are by no means mutually exclusive.
➢ This classification is entirely based on three dimensions of variation:
➔ Psychological state,
➔ Direction of fit,
➔ Illocutionary point.

1 ASSERTIVES / They commit the speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition (asserting, concluding…). It’s about making words fit the world.
REPRESENTATIVES
Some assertives are: state, suggest, boast, complain, claim, report, warn.

They are attempts by the speaker to get the addressee to do something (requesting, questioning). It’s about making the world fit the
2 DIRECTIVES words, as directives have the intention of eliciting some sort of action on the part of the hearer.

Some directives are: order, command, request, beg, beseech, advise, warn, recommend.

They commit the speaker to some future course of action (promising, threatening, offering). It’s about making the world fit the
words.
3 COMMISSIVES
Some commissives are: promise, vow, offer, undertake, contract, threaten.

4 EXPRESSIVES They express a variety of psychological states, having no direction of fit between the world and the words, and simply counting as
expressions of a psychological state.
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Some expressives are: thank, apologise, welcome, congratulate, condole, praise, blame, forgive, pardon.

Effect immediate changes in the institutional state of affairs, which tend to rely on elaborate extra linguistic institutions
(excommunicating, declaring war, christening, marrying, firing from employment…). It’s about making both the word fit the world and
5 DECLARATIONS the world fit the word and the point of which is to bring about a change in (institutional) reality. NOTE: Declaratives are said to bring
about a change in reality: that is, the world is in some way no longer the same after they have been said.

Some declaratives are: resign, dismiss, divorce (in Islam), christen, name, open (e.g. an exhibition), excommunicate, sentence (in court),
consecrate, bid (in an auction), declare.

Searle uses a mix of criteria to establish these different types:

➔ The act’s ILLOCUTIONARY POINT; its “FIT” with the world. It concerns direction of relationship between language and the world. It is the purpose or aim of the
act.
➔ The PSYCHOLOGICAL state of the speaker relates to the speaker’s state of mind.
➔ The CONTENT of the act relates to restrictions on speech acts by what they are about, their propositional content.

DIRECT & INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

Speech acts can be divided into direct or indirect. Directness has to do with an explicit speech act. Indirectness has to do with an implicit speech act.

SPEECH ACTS

DIRECT An act in which the pragmatic meaning of a proposition is Declarative assertions His name is Tom.
SPEECH ACT realised by the type of sentence typically associated with
it. E.g: Open the door. Directive through an imperative Interrogative questions What is that?
sentence. (There’s correspondence between grammar and
pragmatic meaning) E.g.: explicit request, order, etc. Imperative commands Stop it!

INDIRECT an act of speech in which the pragmatic meaning is not Declarative commands, I order you to stop.
SPEECH ACT realised by the type of sentence typically associated with complaints This room is cold.
it. E.g.: Could you please open the door? Directive through
an interrogative sentence. E.g.: implicit request, order, Interrogative requests Would you close the window?
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command, etc. Imperative 1. advice 1. Don’t talk to strangers. (advice)

2. offer 2. Come and have breakfast with us. (offer)
3. suggestion 3. You better go see a doctor. (suggestion)
4. invitation 4. Welcome. (invitation)
5. gratitude 5. Thank you for saying that darling.
6. warning (gratitude)
7. threat 6. Be careful today baby. (warning)
8. resentment 7. You’d better pay me back or I’ll take action.
9. persuasion (threat)
10. prohibition 8. Don’t buy that car, it’s not like you can drive
anyways. (resentment)
9. Give me that or I´ll tell mom what you did.
(persuasion)
10. Don’t wake the children. (prohibition)

ILLOCUTIONARY FORCE INDICATING DEVICES (IFIDs)

They are devices that show us which the illocutionary force is, which also include the sentence type, certain adverbs (seriously, briefly), aspects of word order,
stress and intonation.

Declarative (ASSERTIVE FORCE) sentences,

1 Sentence Type Interrogative (QUESTION FORCE) sentences,

Imperative (DIRECTIVE FORCE) sentences.

2 Certain Adverbs E.g: frankly, honestly, please associated with requests.

3 Word Order ????

4 Stress and Intonation ????

5 Explicit Performative Verbs They describe the kind of act that is being performed.
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For example: I baptise this ship ‘Nemo’ / I promise to go to Como.

EXCEPTION: All other forms of utterance (they do not indicate illocutionary force).
Implicit Performative Verbs For example: I´ll go to Como.

SPEECH ACT THEORY’S MAIN CONTRIBUTION

The main contributions of speech act theory to the study of discourse are in drawing attention to four major phenomena:

1. Utterances serve not only to express propositions but also to perform linguistic actions (speech acts) in context. (such as indirectly requesting to shut a door)
2. Language provides speakers with a variety of linguistic means (ranging in levels of illocutionary and propositional transparency) for the performance of every
speech act. (such as interrogative mood to request an action from the hearer)
3. The same utterance (depending on context) serves to perform different pragmatic functions.
4. Speech acts can be differentiated by specifying the types of contextual preconditions needed for their successful performance.

The MAJOR PROBLEM IN APPLYING SPEECH ACT ANALYSIS TO DISCOURSE is how we can identify the illocutionary force of utterances in context given that:
A. an utterance in context may carry multiple functions, and
B. the speech act interpretation we assign to any given utterance derives at least in part from where it is placed sequentially (what comes before and after) and in part
from our familiarity with the context in which it appears.

A FEW MORE SPEECH ACT NOTIONS

Austin makes a distinction between:

➢ Explicit performatives (performatives) are speech acts of the type I promise to help you or I declare you husband and wife, which contain verbs such as
promise and declare in the first-person singular present indicative active, describing the kind of act that is being performed.
➢ Primary performatives: all forms of utterances other than the explicit performatives are primary performatives (implicit performatives)
➢ Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices (or IFIDs) include performative verbs, sentence type, certain adverbs, aspect of word order and intonation.
➢ Indirect speech act: it is usually assumed that the major sentence types – serving as IFIDs – have a typically associated literal force:
➔ an assertive force for declarative sentences,
➔ a question force for interrogative sentences and
➔ a directive force for imperative sentences.
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When this pattern is broken, as in …, which is literally a … but which functions as …, the label indirect speech act is used. In a case like this, the ´primary
illocutionary point´ is that of a …: the utterance counts as … the illocutionary point that defines the literal force, that of a … is secondary at best.

3.5. POLITENESS

PRINCIPLE OF POLITENESS 21LI1 PRESENTATION PAPER 3

Politeness is the intentional, strategic behaviour of an individual meant to satisfy self and other face wants in case of threat, enacted via positive or negative
styles of redress.
➢ FACE → it is related to the positive social value a person effectively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact.
Our social needs. Following Goffman, Brown and Levinson claim that maintaining face is a basic motivation of human interaction and has two dimensions (positive and
negative)
● Positive face: it has to do with the person’s concern that he or she be thought well by others, as positively contributing to the social world. We want to be
accepted, recognized, valued.
● Negative face: it has to do with a person’s wishes to preserve a certain degree of autonomy; a ‘space’ within which he or she has freedom of action and the right
not to be imposed upon. This aspect of face, because it claims the right for non-imposition, is negative face. We don’t want to be imposed on.

➢ FTA: FACE THREATENING ACTS → The need to balance face needs derives from the fact that most acts of communication are inh1erently imposing, or face
threatening. E.g: all directives challenge the hearer’s need for freedom of action (negative face) (This is De Cock’s main concern in her paper), warnings and
criticisms constitute a threat to the hearer’s positive face, the admission of guilt involved in an apology constitutes a threat to the speaker’s positive face.

SPEECH ACTS CAN BE THREATENING TO:

➔ OUR POSITIVE FACE: a criticism.
➔ OUR NEGATIVE FACE: an order.

STRATEGIES TO MINIMISE / MITIGATE THE THREAT:

● BALD ON-RECORD → direct
● POSITIVE POLITENESS → nicknames, incluse we.
● NEGATIVE POLITENESS → hedges (to soften what we say or write. Hedges are an important part of polite conversation. They make what we say less direct. Hedging
involves tense and aspect, modal expressions including modal verbs and adverbs, vague language such as sort of and kind of, and some verbs.) E.g: I’m sorry to
● OFF THE RECORD → indirect
● OPTING OUT → you do not perform the speech act.
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Examples: (refer to face and its use in politeness theory)

A) Student to teacher: “Mrs Robinson, they are making too much noise outside. I cannot focus.”OFF THE RECORD - REQUEST THAT MAY BE THREATENING TO
THE TEACHER’S NEGATIVE FACE.
B) Friend to friend: Tony: “Do you want to go with my friends and me to Norfolk by bike this weekend?” SALLY: “I'd love to, but I have to finish two reports for Monday.”
NEGATIVE POLITENESS - REJECTING AN INVITATION - THREATENING TO SALLY'S POSITIVE FACE.
C) Sergeant to recruits: “Do a 100 push ups, then mop the floor.” Bald-on record. Giving a command. Threatening to the recruits’ negative face.

MAIN FOCUS OF THE PAPER: the use of the first person plural “we” / (nosotros) with a hearer-dominant reading to minimise the threat to addressees’
negative face posed by directives (orders, requests, etc.)

IN A NUTSHELL
In answer to the initial question ‘‘Why we can be you?’’, various factors which favour the HD-reading of the 1st person plural have been examined:
● In the first place, person reference generally functions at a conceptual level, which does not necessarily correlate with physical reference.
● The addresser and addressee roles can be mapped at the two ends of a continuum. Shifts on this continuum are possible, resulting in an interpretation of the
addresser/speaker ranging from complete inclusion to involvement. These shifts are usually triggered by mechanisms which bring the hearer to the fore.
● In addition to the explicit mentioning of the hearer, less direct means of hearer-foregrounding, such as discourse markers or interrogative constructions, play an
important role.
● Tense and aspect influence the interpretation of the role of the speaker in the HD-reading, by virtue of impact of the imperfective aspect vs. the perfective
aspect on the inclusion of speaker and hearer.
● The case of exhortatives is particular in two respects: Some exhortatives exploit different positions on the continuum (let’s, vamos a). The Spanish
subjunctive is used as an exhortative predominantly hearer-oriented. While the form of a 1st person plural remains intact in all exhortatives discussed,
their interpretation is generally that of a mitigated directive. The shift towards an HD-reading in the case of let’s and vamos a is triggered by similar devices as
it is with indicative forms. It is therefore necessary to undertake a contrastive study which takes into account various variables, such as genre and register.
● English and Spanish data suggest that, while HD-prompting is a cross-linguistic phenomenon, some language-specific constraints may trigger or block the
HD-reading.
● The English tag-question profiles the hearer instance, thus giving way to a hearer-dominant interpretation.
● In Spanish, by contrast, nosotros blocks the HD-reading.
● Finally, given the Spanish T/V address system, the non-prototypical use of a 1st person plural without overt subject pronoun can be seen as an avoidance
strategy.
● Since contemporary English does not make the T–V distinction, the avoidance of a certain form of address is not at stake.
● In order to establish a politeness judgement of non-prototypical 1st person plural uses, a more precise concept of politeness must be adopted:
- From a politeness1-perspective (the commonsensical meaning of politeness), the hearer’s reaction will depend on the type of interaction and on the nature of the
social relationship between speaker and hearer, especially the degree to which speaker and hearer wish to create or accept a power relationship between them.
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- From a politeness2-perspective (politeness as a theoretical construct), the HD-reading of the 1st person plural reduces the face threat of the propositional content
and, hence, is a politeness strategy. This effect may nevertheless be countered by other strategies which create FTAs (face-threatening acts).
● The analysis has shown that the interpretation and the polite effect of the HD-reading are not merely a matter of world knowledge or interlocutors’
intuition, but that analysing the broader context leads to a comprehensive view on the triggers of the hearer-dominant reading, as well as its politeness
effects.

EQ1: What is the prototypical meaning of first person plural forms? In what sense can there be a mismatch between form and pragmatic meaning? Why
does De Cock place the complexity of addresser and addressee on a continuum?
PROTOTYPICAL MEANING: The prototypical meaning of 1st person plural forms is denoting the ‘‘speaker and a variable’
NON-PROTOTYPICAL MEANING: the hearer dominates over the speaker—hearer-dominant reading of first person plural forms
This hearer-dominant reading of first person plural forms is an instance of a mismatch between linguistic form and pragmatic function.
CONTINUUM: The complexity of the addresser and addressee concept is yet another argument to place the conceptualizations of addresser and addressee on a
continuum. We can then situate the reference of the 1st person plural forms themselves along this continuum, as proposed by Bazzanella (2009:114). At the poles, only
the addresser or addressee is referred to. Towards the centre of the continuum, however, other conceptualizations are possible, which are not founded on mere
inclusion or exclusion, but may express various degrees of involvement.

EQ2: What are the two main differences between the Spanish and the English pronoun systems / the structuring of the person reference paradigm?
1ST DIFFERENCE:
SPANISH: A PRO-DROP LANGUAGE: The markedness of explicit nosotros enhances the speaker profile, thus precluding its downgrading and the gliding towards an
HD-reading (Gelabert-Desnoyer, 2006:11). The deictic anchoring of the addresser is strengthened. This makes a mainly addressee-oriented (or addressee-dominant)
reading impossible. The presence of a subject pronoun effectively cancels the possibility of a reading in which the addressee has more weight than the addresser Our
data corroborate this observation: none of the Spanish utterances with an HD-reading have an explicit pronoun.
ENGLISH: NON-PRO-DROP LANGUAGE: In English, by contrast, the subject pronoun is compulsory and, by default, unmarked. Markedness can be realised by,
among other features, intonational accent. Its effect is similar to the presence of the Spanish subject pronoun, in the sense that it strengthens the deictic anchoring and
precludes an HD-reading.

2ND DIFFERENCE: In addition to being pro-drop vs. non-pro-drop, English and Spanish also differ in the complexity of their address system.
SPANISH: T/V LANGUAGE: As it is well-known, Spanish, being a T/V-language, distinguishes between an informal form of address, tú/vos, and a formal or honorific
one, usted(es) – or their corresponding verb morphology (Brown and Gilman, 1960). It will be shown in section 6.4 that the HD-reading may also be related to the
(avoidance of) T/V-choice, bringing in an extra dimension of the HD-reading.
ENGLISH: ONE FORM OF ADDRESS: English, by contrast, has only one form of address, you, for informal and honorific, singular and plural address.

EQ3: What are some hearer-foregrounding / hearer activation devices in English and Spanish?
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RESPONDER