Transcript MARIA TERESA PRAT - Il Dipartimento

LINGUA INGLESE I, 2012-2013
V. Pulcini
LAUREA TRIENNALE
I ANNO L-15 , CODE: LIN.0009
9 CREDITS, 54 HOURS
LINGUE E CULTURE PER IL TURISMO
TITLE of the COURSE
“Introduction to present-day English:
historical background, geographical
spread and linguistic features”
SET BOOK
V. Pulcini, a cura di,
A Handbook of Present-day English,
Carocci, Roma , 2009
(Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, pp. 1-237)
* Chapter 5 will be covered in the second year
COURSE TIMETABLE, Second Semester 2013
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 10-12
Room 1M Palazzo Venturi
 18, 19, 20 February: Introduction – Language change and
variation in English
 25 February The history of English
 26, 27 February NO LESSON
 4, 5, 6 March The history of English
 11, 12, 13 March: The pronunciation of English
 18, 19, 20 March: The pronunciation of English
 25, 26, 27 March: English grammar
 Easter break: 28 March- 2 April
 8, 9, 10 April English grammar
 15, 16, 17 April English grammar
 22, 23, 24 April The English lexicon: from words to phraseology
 29, 30 April: The English lexicon: from words to phraseology
 6, 7, 8 May exercises and mock exam
EXAM PROGRAMME
• a written exam
• it will consist in activities and questions, in
English, based on the course contents and on
the set book
• it can be taken only once per session
• students must have passed the first year
“prova propedeutica” (or “lettorato”), whose
result will be integrated with the mark of the
lingua inglese course
EXAM SESSIONS 2012-2013
PROVE PROPEDEUTICHE: 3 per year (1 in the
Summer Session 2013, 1 in the Autumn
Session 2013, 1 in the Winter Session 2014)
LINGUA INGLESE : 8 per year
4 in the summer session 2013 (1 in May, 2 in
June, 1 in July)
2 in the autumn session 2013(1 in September, 1
in November)
2 in the winter session 2013 (1 in January, 1 in
February)
LINGUA INGLESE STUDENTS SHOULD COMBINE TWO
TYPES OF COMPETENCE
1. PRACTICAL COMPETENCE in the use of English,
both spoken and written
(language teaching and learning / EFL
methodology)
2. SCIENTIFIC STUDY of English: based on data,
making implicit knowledge explicit, using a
metalanguage to talk about language (English
linguistics)
BECOMING FAMILIAR WITH THE
HANDBOOK
DIFFERENCES:
four chapters written by
four lecturers in this
university
(Mazzaferro, Pulcini,
Minutella, Prat)
(see Table of Contents pp.
7-9)
SHARED FEATURES
Each chapter
1. …is composed of the main
text, the chapter overview
and a list of study questions
and activities
2. … is structured into titled and
numbered sections
3. … has key-terms and names
in bold print (see analytic
index)
4. … has key concepts in the
margin
5. …has a selected bibliography
of important references
SOME FEATURES OF AN ACADEMIC
HANDBOOK
1
ACADEMIC ENGLISH. A handbook is written by experts to
experts-to be.
e.g. concepts and terms, which are widely shared by the
scientific community, are explained, or clarified through
examples.
e.g. Different approaches and terminologies may be
presented and compared
2 ACADEMIC CONVENTIONS
e.g. use of graphic devices (e.g italics), abbreviations and
phonetic symbols (pp.11-15), cross-references (see Chapter
3, §4), bibliographic conventions in the text and in the final
bibliographies
From A Handbook of Present-Day English
“Introduction: the goals of this book”
• Many students equate knowing a language with being able to
communicate in everyday situations and in various professional and
vocational areas. Indeed, the acquisition of communicative
competence in English is an important goal for all students and a
primary one for students of modern languages. English is today the
lingua franca of international business and worldwide communication
and is therefore considered ‘useful’ and a requirement for getting a
good job and interacting successfully in several professional fields.
• There is, however, another important component of linguistic
competence which is proper to higher education and involves more
ambitious and far-reaching academic objectives. This is the acquisition
of explicit linguistic knowledge about the English language and its
structures. This body of linguistic description is given to us by English
linguistics, an academic discipline which takes its name from its specific
object of study, i.e. language.
LANGUAGE CHANGE AND VARIATION IN
ENGLISH
MAIN TOPICS
•
•
•
•
•
•
Concepts of change and variation: how and why
Attitudes to language: standard and non-standard
varieties
The main phases in the history of English
Causes of the spread of English in the world
Present-day English: from English to “Englishes”
English as a global language: advantages and
disadvantages and future predictions
BRAINSTORMING ON LANGUAGE CHANGE AND
VARIATION (Chapters 1, § 1 and 2)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Do languages change in time?
Why do languages change?
How do languages change?
Why and how do languages vary at a given
time in history?
5. What is “the best form” of a language?
From general to expert knowledge
SOME CONCEPTS AND TERMS:
1. Synchrony, diachrony, sociolinguistics, historical
linguistics, history of the language, comparative
linguistics, language family, Indo-European,
Germanic family, Romance or Neolatin family
2. Causes for language change: “external” (e.g.
historical events, inventions, new ideas) versus
“internal” (e.g. analogy, hypercorrection, push
chain processes)
3. Types of change: phonological, morpho-syntactic
and semantic
4. Standard and non-standard varieties
A very important question:
• Is the study of the history and varieties
of English relevant to university
students of English?
YES
1.
2.
for cultural reasons
to understand more about present-day English
- the gap between spelling and pronunciation
- the mixed nature of its lexis e.g. “liberty” vs
“freedom”
- the existence of regular and irregular verbs
- the linguistic situation of present-day UK
3. to reinforce practical competence
- to improve pronunciation and grammatical
correctness
- to expand lexical competence
- to be prepared to understand different varieties of
English
Similarities among Indo-European
languages
•
•
•
•
English
Sanscrit
Greek
Latin
father
pitar
pater
pater
mother
matar
mater
mater
three
trayas
treis
tres
the Celts
• Indo-European people who lived in Europe
from 2000 BC to 100 AD
• they inhabited the British Isles before the
Roman and Anglo-Saxon invasions
• names of Celtic origin: London, Leeds, Avon,
Thames, Kent, Cornwall
• very few Celtic words in Old English
• Celtic languages spoken today: Welsh, Irish
Gaelic, Scots Gaelic (Breton)
Historical Periods and Linguistic Phases
1. The Anglo-Saxon period
1.
2.
OLD ENGLISH, OE (700-1150)
MIDDLE ENGLISH , ME
(1150-1500)
1.
MODERN ENGLISH, ModEngl.
(1500-1900)
2.
PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH (PDE) (to
the present)
2. The Norman period
3. Modern period
Great Britain and Northern Ireland
united under the British crown.
New territories explored and
stable colonies established in
America, Asia and Africa
4. 20th Century :
From English to “Englishes”
English as a global language
The Story of English started in a small
Island…
1. United Kingdom of
Great Britand and
Northern Ireland (Uk) is composed
of
England
Scotland
Wales
Northern Ireland
2. Great Britain (GB) / Britain is
composed of
England
Scotland
Wales
3. The Republic of Ireland
Stonehenge (2500 BC)
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument, one of
the most famous sites in the world.
The Roman baths of Bath
Hadrian’s Wall
Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification
in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during
the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first
of two fortifications built across Great
Britain.
Major historical events
• Stonehenge, about 3,000-2500 BC
• 100 BC the first Celts appeared in Britain
• 55-54 BC Julius Caesar invaded Britain ( …and
the Romans left it in the 5th century)
• 5th century: some Germanic tribes (AngloSaxons and Jutes) arrived in England and
forced the Celts to move west and north
Old English period (700-1150)
• this term refers to Germanic dialects spoken
by Jutes, Angles and Saxons: Kentish, WestSaxon, Mercian and Northumbrian
• the West-Saxon reign was the most important
religious, military and cultural centre in
Europe
• West-Saxon was considered the first standard
written language, associated with political,
military and cultural power in society
Christianisation of Britain
• 6th century
• introduction of the Latin alphabet
• abandonment of the Runic alphabet by the
Anglo-Saxons
• from the 9th to the 11th centuries
manuscripts were translated from Latin into
Old English
• Latin and Greek gave Old English a wide range
of Gospel words related to religion and
spirituality
the invasion of the Scandinavian Vikings
(793 AD)
• 8th century
• dark ages recorded in the Chronicles
• the Danes destroyed all the Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms
• King Alfred the Great raised an army and pushed
them out of his kingdom
• Alfred saved the English language
• he commissioned the AngloSaxon Chronicle and
encouraged the use of English in writing and in
speech
Viking words
• thorpe= settlement
• beck= stream
• by= farm
• sky, skin, skirt, run, window, ombudsman
(difensore civico)
the Celtic/Gaelic countries in the British Isles
an example from OE
(Ælfric’s Colloquy, c. 998)
OE:
We cildra biddaþ þe, eala lareow, þæt þu tæce us [...]
Latin:
Nos pueri rogamus te, magister, ut doceas nos [...]
PDE:
Master, we young men would like you to teach us [...]
features of Old English
•
•
•
•
•
Latin alphabet, with some differences from PDE
(e.g. the consonant thorn, or þorn, <þ>)
nouns, adjectives and pronouns were inflected for
case,number and gender (synthetic versus analytic
language)
two types of verbs (strong and weak) = regular and
irregular verbs in PDE
word order was free
lexis was mainly Germanic but included words of
Celtic (names of places, e.g. London) , Latin (e.g.
schol from schola) and Scandinavian origin (e.g.
landes mann = native in PDE)
Synthetic, inflected language
• grammar is determined by a system of
inflections
• the king
se cyning
• of the king
thaes cyninges
• to the king
thaem cyninge
The king meets the bishop
Se cyning (S) meteth thone biscop (O) /Thone
biscop (O) meteth se cyning (S)
Middle English, ME
(1150-1500)
(Chapter 1, § 3.2)
Major historical events
1066 A new ruling class coming from France went into power.
The Normans spoke French while Latin was the language
of the Church and education and English was still the
language of the majority of the population
1204 The Normans lost their power in favour of English kings
1215 The Magna Charta Libertatum (in Latin)
The most authoritative example of written literary English: The
Canterbury Tales by G. Chaucer (14th century)
1476 Introduction of the printing press in England by William
Caxton
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)
The Canterbury Tales
Canterbury Cathedral
From Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales
Middle English:
Thanne were ther yonge povre scolers two,
That dwelten in this halle, of which I seye.
PDE:
Then there were two young poor scholars,
Who dwelt in this hall, of which I tell.
features of Middle English
• reduction of the case system in particular in nouns
and adjectives
• development of the future with shall/will and the
present progressive
• introduction of the pronoun “she/shoe”
• increasingly fixed word order, with some variation
• French (e.g. “marry” from “marier”) and Latin (e.g.
“inferior”) influence on vocabulary
Modern English
(c. 1500-c.1900)
Chapter 1, § 3.3.
Major historical/cultural events in the
Modern English period
TWO MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS:
1.
•
•
•
•
•
BRITAIN BECAME A UNITED AND POWERFUL COUNTRY (but with 7
million inhabitants!)
Separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church
Queen Elisabeth I established the power of Britain on the seas
Great flourishing of the theatre and literature (Shakespeare, The Authorized
Translation of the Bible)
The English Civil War over the power of the Parliament versus the power of
the Monarchy
In 1702 England and Scotland were united under the British Crown
2. BRITAIN BECAME A COLONIAL WORLD POWER
•
•
•
Since the I7th century English trading companies in India and slave trade in
Africa
Since the 17th century stable colonies established in America, Australia, New
Zealand, Canada, The Caribbean and South Africa
19th century colonial empire in Asia and Africa
Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
William SHAKESPEARE (baptised 26 April
1564 and died 23 April 1616)
1611 King James’ Authorized Version of the
Bible in English
THE BEHEADING OF CHARLES I DURING THE
CIVIL WAR (1649)
The British Empire
A quotation from Love’s Labour Lost by
Shakespeare
CURAT
I praise God for you sir, your reasons at dinner
haue beene sharpe and sententious: pleasant
without scurrillity, witty without affection,
audacious without impudency, learned
without opinion, and strange without
heresie: I did conuerse this quondam day
with a companion…
(Late) Modern English (1500-1900)
• Simplification of inflection (only ‘s genitive
and -s plural in nouns, the comparative and
superlative endings in adjectives) with the
exception of pronouns
• Tendency to fixed word order
• Debate between Neologisers ( in favour of
words of foreign origin) and Purists ( in
favour of native words)
Standard English
• Development of a standard form of English
through long processes of selection (London
English) and codification through grammars
and dictionaries
• Development of a standard accent : The
Received Pronunciation (RP)
Samuel JOHNSON’S DICTIONARY 1755
LEXICO’GRAPHER. n.s. [?
lixicographe, French.] A
writer of dictionories; a
harmless drudge, that
busies himself in tracing
the original, and detailing
the signification of words.
Commentators and
lexicographers acquainted with
the Syriac language, have given
these hints in their writings on
scripture. Watt’s Improvement of
the Mind.
The four main periods of English:
a summary
Old English (700-1100 c.)
● fully inflected
● free word order
● Germanic vocabulary
Modern English (1500-1900)
● very limited inflection
● greater use of fixed word order
● codification of language
Middle English (1100-1500)
● reduced inflection
● increasingly fixed word
order
● French influence on
vocabulary
Present-day English (1900nowdays)
● language spread and
differentiation
● formation of new varieties
worldwide
● English as a global lingua franca
The reasons for the present predominance of
English in the world: a summary
External reasons: the colonial and industrial
power of Great Britain in the 18th and 19h
centuries; the political, economic and technological
power of the USA in the 20th century; the number
of speakers; the geographical spread; cultural
heritage
and/or
Internal reasons:
clarity, simplicity, size of its
vocabulary, flexibility in creating new words,
adaptability to distant contexts
Present-day English
(1900-nowdays)
Chapter 1, §4.1-4.10
MAIN POLITICAL AND CULTURAL EVENTS
1. English is the official – or main- language of many
important countries in the world (e.g. UK, USA,
Australia, Canada, New Zealand).
2. English has been retained as the official language
(along with other native languages) in more than
70 former British colonies after their political
independence (e.g. in India, and several African
countries).
3. English has acquired growing importance
worldwide in science, technology, international
organisations and business.
WHY HAS ENGLISH BECOME A “GLOBAL”
LANGUAGE?
Native varieties of English (ENL or L1)
2 Varieties of English as a Second Language (ESL or L2),
used intranationally in former British colonies in the
institutional, media and educational fields.
3. English as a Foreign language (EFL), English as a lingua
franca (ELF), English for Special Purposes (ESP),
Business English, English for Academic Purposes
(EAP), Airspeak, Policespeak…
4. Within each category there is a continuum from an
educated standard to a very limited form of
communication
1.
The three-circles model
for PDE by B. Katchru
Native varieties or “Colonial Englishes”,
are…
• a set of different but related varieties
which share a common core of grammar
and vocabulary
• they differ mainly in pronunciation and
lexis
• the two main ones are British English
and American English
• they provide the norms for EFL learners
Second language varieties,
or New Englishes …
• are used in institutional or educational
contexts in multilingual countries, usually
former British colonies
• have gone through a process of language
contact (e.g. as honest as an elephant)
• have been progressively acknowledged as
local standards (e.g. Indian English, EastAfrican English)
• share common features that are different
from native standard varieties
Are these mistakes or the result of linguistic
creativity? (see. pp. 49-53)
1. I was feeling thirsty, so I bought one
soda
2. Last time she come on Thursday
3. We are having something to do
4. Whenever we go there they be playing
5. She came yesterday, isn’t it?
The speech community of PDE
• bi-lingualism or multilingualism is the norm
• languages play an important role in the
construction of people’s identities
• language contact
• nativization, hybridization, code-switching
• new coinages: been-to= a person who has
spent a long time abroad; change-room=
dressing room
English as a foreign language
Various options:
- choose one of the native standards for production
on the basis of proximity, tradition, personal needs
or taste (e.g. British English or American English)
- favour a non-native model, English as a Lingua
Franca
but
- be prepared to understand different varieties
English as a Lingua Franca
1. in the past contact languages for trade
(e.g. PIDGINS and CREOLES in Africa based
on English and African languages )
2. now in international scientific conferences,
business meetings or the internet ( based on a
core of norms drawing on British and
American English and intended to guarantee
mutual international intelligibility)
The predominance of English
DISADVANTAGES
ADVANTAGES
positive
World languages have
always existed
A world language is
necessary in a
globalised world
A post-national language
may be useful to world
democracy and
citizenship
…
negative
English is killing other
languages and cultures
People are becoming lazy in
learning other languages
English expresses a particular
world view and favours its
native speakers (cultural
imperialism)
English has become
uncontrollable
What about interpreters and
translators?
Who owns English today?
“…the English language ceased to
be the sole possession of the
English some time ago”
(Rushdie, 1991)
WHAT WILL BE THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH?
FROM
ENGLISH
TO
ENGLISHES
Will English …?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
go on being a polycentric language comprising several
mutually intelligible varieties ?
achieve a balance between identity and international
intelligibility?
remain strong until English-speaking countries are
powerful ?
fragment into mutually unintelligible languages as
already happened for Romance languages?
be rejected as a symbol of colonialism (e.g. Malaysia)
or cultural imperialism
be spoken as a simplified lingua franca by non-native
speakers?