Academic Study Notes: Lexis and Basic Grammar

Course Introduction to Lexis and Basic Grammar (LEN3611)

Target Audience: Students of BEd (Sec) at the University of Namibia.
Exit Learning Outcomes: * Using spoken and written English accurately and effectively. * Employing a well-developed and powerful vocabulary. * Developing a sound understanding of English to proofread and edit writing.
Administrative Details: This is a semester course ( $6$ months) requiring at least $5$ hours of study per week. Admission requires a pass in LEN3581.

Unit 1: English: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Origins of British English: * The term ‘Angli’ was used by the end of the $6^{th}$ century BC. * ‘Anglia’ became the usual name for England in the $7^{th}$ century BC. * Old English ‘Engle’ and ‘Englisc’ (where ‘sc’ represents the Modern English ‘sh’ sound) were the early designations. * ‘Engelaland’ (‘land of the Angles’) appeared by $1000$ BC. * Standard English grew in the London area by the $14^{th}$ century BC, specifically within an East Midlands triangle bounded by London, Cambridge, and Oxford. * The development of printing fixed the standard form in the early $16^{th}$ century.
The Spread of English: * By the end of the $12^{th}$ century, children of the nobility spoke English as a mother tongue, despite the Norman-French influence. * Causes of Language Change (C.L. Barber): * Commercial/Prestige Influence: French influenced Europe for centuries; US power spreads English today. * Social/Cultural Change: New inventions (steam engines, nylon) or concepts (sentimentalism) require new words. * Principle of Minimum Effort: Shortening words (e.g., ‘public house’ to ‘pub’, ‘television’ to ‘telly’). * Analogy: Invention of new elements based on known systems (e.g., children saying ‘mouses’ instead of ‘mice’). Rare words are more susceptible to being regularized by analogy.
Modern English Controversies: * By the end of the $18^{th}$ century BC, spelling, punctuation, and grammar became close to modern standards. * Lowth (1762): Prescriptive approach. Aimed to teach propriety and judge forms as right or wrong. * Priestley (1761): Descriptive approach. Argued that custom of speaking is the only just standard.
World Englishes: * Statistics: English is used by at least $750$ million to $1$ billion people. It is the repository for $80$ percent of computer-stored information. Nearly half of European business deals are in English. * World Standard English: A set of guidelines for international communication. * Regional Standard Englishes: Varieties that preserve national identity (British vs. American vs. Indian English).
Black Englishes: Emerging during American settlement, resulting from African slaves being brought to the West Indies and mainland USA. Groups of different language backgrounds developed pidgin English, which evolved into the first black Creole speech when used as a mother tongue.
English as Threatened/Threatening: * Threatening: It interferes with local languages, leading to ‘lexical invasion’ (e.g., Danish and Icelandic concerns). * Threatened: In the USA, the growth of Hispanic speakers led to the ‘US English’ protectionist movement, where $23$ states made English official by $1996$ .
New Ways of Studying English: * Corpora: Large, systematic whole texts allowing account of linguistic features. * Lexical Databases: Fueling the explosion of online dictionaries.

Unit 2: Phonetics of English

Definitions: * Phonetics: The study of the characteristics of speech sounds. * Articulatory Phonetics: How sounds are made/articulated. * Auditory Phonetics: Perception of sounds via the ears. * Acoustic Phonetics: Physical properties of sound waves.
Sounds vs. Letters: Written English has $26$ letters ( $5$ vowels, $21$ consonants) but produces $39$ sounds ( $15$ vowel sounds, $24$ consonant sounds).
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA): The standard notation for phonetic representation. Symbols are written in brackets ( $[r]$ ).
Consonant Classification ( $3$ pillars): * Voicing: Voiced ( $+V$ ) involve vocal cord vibration (e.g., $b, d, g$ ). Voiceless ( $-V$ ) do not (e.g., $p, t, k$ ). * Place of Articulation: * Bilabial: Both lips (e.g., $p, b, m, w$ ). * Labiodental: Lower lip to upper teeth (e.g., $f, v$ ). * Interdental/Dental: Tongue tip between teeth (e.g., $\theta, \eth$ ). * Alveolar: Tongue tip to alveolar ridge (e.g., $t, d, s, z, n, l$ ). * Palatal: Front of tongue to hard palate (e.g., $j$ ). * Velar: Back of tongue to velum (e.g., $k, g, \eta$ ). * Glottal: Opening between vocal cords (e.g., $h$ ). * Manner of Articulation: * Stop/Plosive: Complete closure followed by explosion (e.g., $p, b, t, d, k, g$ ). * Fricative: Near complete stoppage causing audible friction (e.g., $f, v, s, z, h$ ). * Affricate: A stop followed by a fricative (e.g., $t\int, d\zeta$ ). * Nasal: Low soft palate allows air through nose (e.g., $m, n, \eta$ ). * Approximants: Smooth airflow, least constricted (e.g., $w, j, r$ ).
Vowels: Sounds where air is not blocked. Classified by tongue position (high/mid/low) and lip rounding. * Schwa ( $\theta$ ): The most common vowel sound; mid-central, unstressed (e.g., second syllable of ‘woman’). * Diphthongs: Two adjacent vowels forming one indivisible sound with two elements (nucleus and glide; e.g., $[ei], [ai], [au], [oi], [ou]$ ). * Apophony (Ablaut): Vowel gradation causing grammatical change (e.g., ‘sing’ vs. ‘sang’).

Unit 3: Phonology of English

Definition: The study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages.
Phoneme: The smallest contrastive linguistic unit that changes meaning (e.g., /l/ in ‘kill’ vs. /s/ in ‘kiss’).
Allophones: Alternative pronunciations for a single phoneme. They can be complementary (predictable by context) or free variant (personal habit).
Syllables: Basic units consisting of uninterrupted sound. * Structure: Onset + Rhyme (Peak/Nucleus + Coda). * Types: Closed (ends in consonant), Open (ends in vowel), Silent-E, Vowel Combination, Vowel-R, Consonant-L-E.
Co-articulation Effects: * Assimilation: One sound becomes more like a neighbor (e.g., ‘ten billion’ sounding like ‘tem billion’). Types: Regressive (Anticipatory), Progressive (Carry-over), Coalescent (Bidirectional). * Elision: Loss of a sound (e.g., omitting the /d/ in ‘friendship’ or vowels in ‘every’ [ $evri$ ]). * Dissimilation: Enhancing differences between sounds for recognition (e.g., forming ‘singular’ instead of ‘singulal’ for the adjective suffix).
Suprasegmental Features: * Stress: Measures relative volume. English is a ‘stress-timed’ (isochronous) language. * Pitch: Frequency of vibration. Used for tone (meaning shift in words) or intonation (attitude shift in sentences). * Intonation: Includes Falling (neutral), Rising (uncertainty/lack of finality), Rise-fall, and Fall-rise patterns.

Unit 4: Morphemes and Morphology

Definitions: * Morphology: Study of the internal structure of words. * Morpheme: Smallest grammatical unit conveying meaning. Identified if it cannot be divided further without violating meaning.
Classification: * Free Morphemes: Can stand alone (e.g., ‘cat’, ‘walk’). Subdivided into Content (lexical) and Function words. * Bound Morphemes: Must attach to others (e.g., prefixes like ‘un-’, suffixes like ‘-ly’). * Cranberry Morphemes: Bound morphemes with no intrinsic meaning outside a specific word (e.g., ‘cran-’ in cranberry, ‘-couth’ in uncouth).
Bound Morpheme Classes: * Inflectional: Predictable influence; modify tense/number/aspect without changing word class (e.g., $s, ed, ing$ ). * Derivational: Create new words, often changing word class (e.g., ‘modern’ [adj] to ‘modernize’ [verb]).
Word Types: * Simple: Single morpheme (e.g., ‘lake’). * Complex: Two bound OR free + bound (e.g., ‘televise’). * Compound: Two free morphemes (e.g., ‘blackbird’). Unlike phrases, compounds have a specific, unpredictable meaning (e.g., ‘White House’ vs. ‘white house’).
Other combinations: * Reduplication: Copying some portion of the root (e.g., ‘ping-pong’). * Mutation: Grammatical change involving a vowel shift in the root (e.g., ‘take’ to ‘took’). * Circumfix: Single morpheme with parts before and after a root. * Infix: Morpheme inserted within a root.

Unit 5: Word Formation Processes

Historical Base: Indo-European group -> West Germanic (German, English, Dutch, Afrikaans).
Primary Processes: * Borrowing: Taking words from other languages (e.g., ‘khaki’ from India). * Back-formation: Creating words by removing supposed affixes (e.g., ‘television’ [noun] -> ‘televise’ [verb]). * Blending (Portmanteau): Combining parts of two words (e.g., ‘brunch’ = breakfast + lunch). * Clipping: Shortening words (e.g., ‘ad’ from advertisement; ‘flu’ from influenza). * Coinage (Neologism): Inventing entirely new words (e.g., ‘nylon’, ‘google’). Includes Eponyms (based on names, like ‘sandwich’ or ‘hertz’). * Compounding: Joining two stems (e.g., ‘teapot’). * Conversion (Zero-affixation): Shifting a word's part of speech without change (e.g., ‘walk’ [verb] to ‘a walk’ [noun]). * Acronyms: Formed from initial letters and pronounced as a word (e.g., $NATO$ ). * Initialisms: Letters pronounced separately (e.g., $NBC, VIP$ ). * Sound Symbolism: Words mimicking sounds. Includes Onomatopoeia (‘bang’), Clustering (‘hut’, ‘home’ related by /h/), and Iconism (‘stamp’ vs. ‘step’).

Unit 6: Syntax and Sentence Structure

English Word Order: Strict SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) pattern.
Basic Qualities for Evaluation: Meaning, Clarity, Coherence, Emphasis, Conciseness, Rhythm.
Sentence Functions: * Declarative: Conveying facts/beliefs. * Interrogative: Questions. Includes Yes/No, Wh-questions, Alternative, and Tag questions. * Imperative: Commands (bare infinitive used; ‘you’ is omitted). * Exclamatory: Expressing strong emotion.
Sentence Types: * Simple: One independent clause ( $S+V$ or $S+V+O$ ). * Compound: Two independent clauses joined by a coordinator (FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) with a comma. * Complex: Independent clause + one or more dependent clauses using subordinators (because, since, although, etc.). * Compound-Complex: Combined patterns (at least two independent and one dependent clause).
Construction Classifications: * Loose: Main clause at the beginning (rambling). * Periodic: Main point at the end (creates suspense). * Balanced: Clauses in contrast or balance. * Mixed: Main clause in the middle.

Unit 7: Traditional Grammar and Parts of Speech

Traditional Approach: Rooted in Latin logic; prescriptive rather than descriptive. Focused on formalized writing and ‘correctness’.
Parts of Speech ( $8$ standard): 1. Nouns: Refer to entities. Identified by plural/possessive inflections or derivational suffixes (-ness, -tion). Includes Count vs. Non-count (mass) nouns. 2. Pronouns: Replace NP. Includes Personal, Possessive, Demonstrative, Interrogative, Relative (who, which, that), Reflexive, and Emphatic. 3. Adjectives: Describe nouns. Can be modified by adverbs. Positions: Pre-nominal (before noun) and Post-nominal (after noun). 4. Verbs: (Expanded in Units $8$ and $9$ ). 5. Adverbs: Describe verbs/adj/adverbs. Categories: Manner, Place, Time, Degree, Sentence adverbs. 6. Prepositions: Show relationships of time, place, possession. Includes compound prepositions (e.g., ‘in spite of’, ‘on account of’). 7. Conjunctions: Connectives. Coordinators (join same rank) vs. Subordinators (join dependent to main). 8. Interjections: Purely emotional (e.g., ‘wow!’, ‘gosh!’).
Subjects and Objects: * Subject: Determines concord; precedes verb. * Direct Object: Answers ‘What?’/‘Whom?’ * Indirect Object: The beneficiary of the action.
Verbals: * Participles: Present (-ing) and Past (-ed). Must be related to a subject to avoid ‘misrelated participles’. * Gerunds: -ing forms acting as nouns (e.g., ‘I like swimming’).

Unit 8: Verbs and Tenses

Classification of Verbs: * Lexical (Full): Definable in dictionaries (sit, eat). * Modal: JUDGMENTS on likelihood; function only as auxiliaries (can, might, will). * Primary: Can be main or auxiliary (be, have, do).
Irregular Verbs ( $7$ classes): * $1$ : Same past and past participle form (send-sent-sent). * $2$ : Irregular past, -n ending for participle (mow-mowed-mown). * $3$ : Vowel change + same irregular past/participle (keep-kept-kept). * $4$ : Vowel change + different past/participle + -n ending (take-took-taken). * $5$ : Same form throughout (put-put-put). * $6$ : Vowel change, no endings (sit-sat-sat). * $7$ : Most irregular; vowel change each form (swim-swam-swum).
Finite vs. Non-finite: * Finite: Limited by tense, number, person. The first verb in a cluster is always the finite one. * Non-finite: Present/Past participles and Infinitives. They do not show variety based on the subject.
Concord Agreement: Singular subject = singular verb. Nouns form plurals by adding -s; verbs form singulars by adding -s.
Tenses ( $12$ manifestations): * Simple/Indefinite: General events. * Continuous: Ongoing events at a specific time. * Perfect: Actions completed before another action. * Perfect Continuous: Long-term ongoing actions.

Unit 9: Verbs and Sentence Construction

Passive and Active Voice: * Active: Doer before action (The rain destroyed the crops). * Passive: Object before doer (The crops were destroyed by the rain). Tense must remain consistent during conversion.
Direct and Indirect Speech: * Direct: Uses quotation marks and actual words. * Indirect/Reported: If the reporting verb is PAST (said), the reported action shifts (Present -> Past; Past -> Past Perfect; Now -> Then; Here -> There).
Modality/Mood: * Indicative (facts), Imperative (commands), Subjunctive (hypothetical/desires; e.g., ‘If I were you’).

Unit 10: Phrases

Phrase Definition: Syntactic construction of more than one word without a typical subject-predicate structure (no finite verb).
Phrase structure (X-schema): * Head: Compulsory central word (N, V, Adj, Prep, Adv, Part). * Specifier: Marks boundary; makes head meanings precise (Determiners for nouns, Degree words for adj/prep). * Complement: Phrases that follow and complete the status of the head.
Constituent Tests: Substitution (replace with ‘they’ or ‘do so’), Movement (shifting the unit), and Coordination (pairing with ‘and’/‘but’).
Noun Phrases (NP): Head + Determiner + Modifier (Pre-modifiers or Post-modifiers like Prep phrases).
Verb Phrases (VP): Head (Verb) + Auxiliaries + Modifiers + Complements (Objects).

Unit 11: Clauses

Definition: Groups of words containing a subject and a finite verb.
Independent Clause: Logical unit that stands alone as a sentence.
Dependent Clause: Subordinate; cannot stand alone.
Relative Clauses: Adjectival function. * Restrictive (Defining): Limits meaning; no commas (e.g., ‘The man who met you is my uncle’). * Non-restrictive (Commenting): Additional info; separated by commas (e.g., ‘My uncle, who is $64$ , plays tennis’).
Expletive ‘There’: Meaningless slot-filler positioning the subject after the verb (e.g., ‘There is a rabbit in your garden’).
Tag Questions: Small clauses at the end of a statement to create bond/expectations. If statement is Positive ( $+$ ), tag is Negative ( $-$ ) and vice versa.

Unit 12: Semantics

Meaning Types: * Conceptual: Literal, essential components. * Associative (Connotative): Subjective, local meanings or feelings evoked.
Lexical Relations: * Homonymy: Same form, unrelated histories/meanings (e.g., ‘bank’ of river vs. ‘bank’ of money). * Polysemy: Multiplicity of related meanings in a single lexeme (e.g., ‘head’ of body vs. ‘head’ of department). * Synonymy: Same/similar meanings (rarely perfect). * Antonymy: Direct opposites. * Entailment: Truth of sentence A guarantees truth of sentence B.
Extension vs. Intension: Extension is the set of real-world referents; Intension is the inherent concept/sense.
Semantic Change Processes: * Extension/Generalization: Meaning widens (e.g., ‘novice’ applied outside church). * Narrowing/Specialization: Meaning becomes specific (e.g., ‘engine’ formerly any mechanical device, now specific source of power). * Amelioration: Becomes more positive (e.g., ‘revolutionary’, ‘lean’). * Pejoration/Deterioration: Becomes negative (e.g., ‘villain’ once meant farm worker, ‘cowboy’ meaning irresponsible business).

Unit 13: Editing and Proofreading

Editing: Improving content, flow, readability, and consistency. Requires intuition and background skills.
Proofreading: Final stage for surface errors (spelling, typos, punctuation). Do not rely solely on automated spell checkers.
Common Sentence Errors: * Comma Splice: Joining two independent clauses with only a comma. * Run-on: Two sentences without end punctuation or a conjunction. * Sentence Fragment: Statement lacking a subject, or a verb, or standing as a standalone dependent clause.
Common Usage Issues: * ‘Than’ (comparison) vs. ‘Then’ (time). * ‘Bated breath’ (held) vs. ‘Baited’ (fishing). * ‘PIN number’ (redundant; use PIN). * ‘It’s’ (it is) vs. ‘Its’ (possession).