GRAMMATICALITY, DIALECTS, AND PRONUNCIATION (Vocabulary flashcards)

GRAMMATICALITY

• Grammatical vs. correct
  • Descriptive or prescriptive linguistics?
  • Linguists attempt to describe the grammar of the language that exists in the minds.
  • Descriptive vs prescriptive grammar.
  • Un/grammatical or well/ill-formed but not necessarily incorrect. Example: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
  • No superiority – all languages are equally complex, logical, and able to produce an infinite set of sentences.
  • Descriptive vs prescriptive grammar?! (note: rhetorical comparison)
• PRESCRIPTIVE APPROACH
  • Language purists advocate certain correct forms and seek to prescribe rather than describe rules.
  • Historically influenced by Latin grammar (e.g., Bishop Robert Lowth, A Short Introduction to English Grammar with Critical Notes).
  • Classic prescriptive changes show shifts such as:
  • Previously: I don’t have none → Now: I don’t have any
  • You was wrong about that → You were wrong about that
• STANDARD LANGUAGE
  • The standard language and language purists:
  • Language at schools, on TV, in literature and printed documents.
  • Example: RP (Received Pronunciation) and SSB (Standard Southern British English).
• QUESTION: How do we decide what is grammatical and/or standard?
• WRITTEN OR SPOKEN LANGUAGE?
  • Prompt for comparison of norms in written vs. spoken language.

SPOKEN VS WRITTEN LANGUAGE?

• Spoken language characteristics
  • No prescriptive pressures, less artificial, more spontaneous, variation among individuals.
  • More linguistic information in speech (intonation, rhythm, etc.).
  • More frequently used in daily communication.
• Linguistic knowledge and competence
  • Linguistic knowledge = competence → two physical manifestations (spoken language and sign language as one possible manifestation) 2 physical manifestations (spoken language and sign language).
  • Abstract grammatical competence underlies the physical realizations of that competence.
• Individual variation
  • All native speakers have their own way of speaking (idiolect).
  • Geographical background (dialect): Scottish English, Northern English, etc.
  • Social background (sociolect) → Sociolinguistics. Examples: RP vs. Cockney vs. Estuary English vs. SSB.
• DIALECTS
  • Dialects differ due to factors such as age, sex, health, size, personality, emotional state, personal idiosyncrasies.
  • Idiolect: language of an individual speaker.
  • Dialects: language varieties from different geographical regions or social groups.
  • Dialect vs. accent:
  • Accents: regional phonological/phonetic distinctions (country or part of country where the speaker grew up; also refers to non-native speech).
  • Mutual intelligibility and language status
  • When two dialects become mutually unintelligible, they are considered different languages (e.g., Danish vs Norwegian; Spanish vs Portuguese).
  • Dialectal diversity: geographically and socially separated.
• DIALECTS (cont.)
  • Changes in grammar happen gradually, originating in one region and spreading → may take several generations.
  • If a change does not spread, it may be a dialectal difference (e.g., rhotic vs non-rhotic accents).
  • Regional dialects reveal how languages change over time (e.g., America in the 17th/18th centuries).
  • Three main dialect areas in America: 3 main dialect areas: Northern, Midland, Southern dialects.
  • Non-rhotic dialects → Southern England (18th century).
• PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES (DIALECTS cont.)
  • Vowels: realization changes (e.g., leisure).
  • Consonants: glottalization, tapping, etc.
  • Syncope and other sound dropping.
• LEXICAL VARIATION (DIALECTS cont.)
  • Lexical pairs: lift/elevator, petrol/gas, pants/trousers.
  • Regional terms: freeway (LA), thruway (NY), parkway (NJ), motorway (England), expressway/turnpike.
• SYNTACTIC VARIATION (DIALECTS cont.)
  • Examples: between you and me / I, Have them (to) come early.
• SPELLING
  • Spelling variations across dialects; no specific examples on the slide.

DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR

• DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR 1–7 (overview of the categories)
  • 1. Spelling and pronunciation
  • 2. Phonetics → broad phonetic transcription
  • SSB: [ðə saɪkəʊθerəpɪst hæz lɒkt ðə nɔːti skuːlɡɜːl ɪn ðiː ɒfɪs]
  • GA: [ðə saɪkəθerəpɪst hæz lɑːkt ðə nɔːri skuːlɡɜːl ɪn ðiː ɑːfəs]
• DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR 3–7
  • 3. Phonology
  • 4. Morphology
  • 5. Syntax (categories, functions, word-order) (Tree diagram with syntactic structure)
  • Sentence: The psychotherapist has locked the naughty schoolgirl in the office.
  • 6. Semantics
  • 7. Pragmatics – Ambiguity / context
• EXAMPLE SENTENCE ANALYSIS
  • Sentence: The psychotherapist has locked the naughty schoolgirl in the office.
  • S: Sentence
  • NP: The psychotherapist
  • VP: has locked the naughty schoolgirl in the office
  • Breakdown (illustrative):
  • NP → DET (The) + NOM (psychotherapist)
  • PERF (pres) → (has)
  • VP1 → V (trans) (locked) + VP2
  • NP → DET (the) + NOM (naughty) + N (schoolgirl)
  • PP → P (in) + NP → DET (the) + NOM (office)

PROSODIC AND SEMANTIC VARIATION IN DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR

• Focus on how lexical items (psychotherapist, naughty, schoolgirl) contribute to meaning in context.
• Pragmatics addresses ambiguity and context dependence.

VARIETIES OF ENGLISH

• GA = General American
• RP = Received Pronunciation (LONG DEAD!!) (2LT model)
• SSB = Standard Southern British
• Cockney
• Estuary English
• SSE = Scottish Standard English
• Australian English
• New Zealand English
• etc.

THE SHORT HISTORY OF RP

• The global perception of British pronunciation is rooted in RP.
• RP is an upper-class London-area model that became considered “RESPECTABLE” or “RECEIVED.”
• Historical vowel and rhotic features:
  • After was pronounced with a broad [a], final [r] dropped ([a:ftə]) in RP; in America, traditional [a] and final [r] were preserved ([a:ftar]).
• Historical labels:
  • “Public School Pronunciation”
  • “BBC English”
• 1960s: pop culture (The Beatles) increased glamour; social privilege and upper-class speech were questioned and mocked.
• Education: all five Prime Ministers from 1964 to 1997 were educated at state schools.
• Contemporary Britain: diversity is celebrated; accents of the South predominate in public life; Southern speech used as a natural teaching standard for “British English” today.
• The abbreviation SSB = Standard Southern British pronunciation.
• RP is:
  • An accent of England, not representative of Scotland, Ireland, or former British colonies (where pronunciation differs).
• The turn of the 21st century may mark RP being referred to in the past tense.
• ROADMAP (for RP study)
  • Overview of RP vocalic and consonantal systems.
  • Some changes and characteristic features of SSB.
  • Some info concerning GA, since many features bring British pronunciation closer to American:
  • Pronunciation: Tuesday → RP [tju:zdi] → SSB [tʃuwzdi]
  • Vocabulary: awesome, cool, movie, etc.
  • Grammar: I’ve just eaten → I just ate.
  • CONSONANTS vs VOWELS
  • Difference between [j] and [iː]?
  • Distribution constraints (e.g., definite/indefinite article in English).
  • Distribution within the syllable.
  • Diphthongization of long vowels in SSB, e.g. [iː] → [ij] in see, keep, etc.

ENGLISH CONSONANTS

• Place of articulation
• Manner of articulation
• Voice specification

THE ARTICULATORS (vocal tract diagram)

• nose
• upper teeth
• alveolar ridge
• upper lip
• lower lip
• lower teeth
• tongue
• hard palate
• soft palate (velum)
• pharynx
• larynx

OBSTRUENTS vs. SONORANTS

• Slide 1: Obstruents (Plosives / oral stops)
  • Voiceless: [p], [t], [k]
  • Voiced: [b], [d], [g]
  • Places of articulation:
  • [p], [b] → bilabial
  • [t], [d] → alveolar
  • [k], [g] → velar
  • [ʔ] → glottal
• Slide 2: Glottal Stop
  • Traditionally working-class London speech.
  • Found in Southern British (Cockney, Estuary English).
  • Examples: a lot of, football, but, Great Britain, etc.

GLottalization

• Slide 3: Glottal replacement [ʔ] and glottal reinforcement [ʔt].
  • Very common syllable-final form of [t], but also occurs with [p] and [k] (to a lesser degree).
  • Contexts:
  • Word-internal before a consonant: fit[ʔ]ness, net[ʔ]work, out[ʔ]door, Sco[ʔ]land, treat[ʔ]ment
  • Word-final before a consonant: a lo[ʔ] more, a[ʔ] least, ge[ʔ] ready, Grea[ʔ] Britain, ou[ʔ] there, tha[ʔ] one
• Slide 4: Glottalization (Less common contexts)
  • Word-internal before a vowel: be[ʔ]er, Bri[ʔ]ish, ci[ʔ]y, pho[ʔ]o, par[ʔ]y, Twi[ʔ]er, wa[ʔ]er
  • Word-final before a vowel: abou[ʔ] eight, a lo[ʔ] of, ge[ʔ] out, Grea[ʔ] Expectations, tha[ʔ] is, wha[ʔ] else

T-VOICING / TAPPING

• Slide 5: Tapping
  • Tapping is the North American pronunciation, and may occur in SSB (t-voicing).
  • Examples:
  • British, pretty (as in pretty much).
  • At the end of short words like: at, but, get, got, it, lot, not, put, that, what (when followed by a vowel).
  • Examples with tapping: ge[d] out, a lo[d] of, no[d] only, bu[d] also, pu[d] away, tha[d] alone, wha[d] else
• Slide 6: Aspiration
  • Aspiration of [p, t, k]: devoicing at the beginning of a following sound (a vowel), creating an [h]-like whisper.
  • Example: kiss [kʰɪs]
  • Occurs in stressed & unstressed syllables (SSB).
• Slide 6 (continued): Affrication
  • The alveolar plosive [t] differs from [p], [k]: pronounced with [s]-like friction → called affrication.
  • Transcription: [t͡s]
  • Examples: take [t͡seɪk], tea [t͡siː], city [sɪt͡si]
  • Affrication also common with [d] → [d͡z].
  • American tapping vs. SSB affrication.
  • Example: city SSB [sɪt͡si], GE [sɪɾi]
  • water SSB [wɔt͡sə], GA [wɔɾɚ]
  • If preceded by [s], voiceless plosives are unaspirated → sound like [b, d, g].
  • stay sounds like day
  • screen sounds like green
  • Non-native speakers often over-aspirate [p, t, k] after [s].

FRICATIVES

• Slide 7: Fricatives
  • Voiceless: [s], [ʃ], [f], [θ], [h]
  • Voiced: [z], [ʒ], [v], [ð]
  • Places of articulation:
  • Alveolar: [s], [z]
  • Palato-alveolar: [ʃ], [ʒ]
  • Labio-dental: [f], [v]
  • (Inter-)dental: [θ], [ð]
  • Glottal: [h]

TH-FRONTING (TH-fronting)

• Slide 8: TH-fronting
  • In several native varieties of English, [θ] and [ð] are avoided.
  • Recently replaced with [f], [v] among younger speakers (esp. in Britain, sometimes on TV).
  • Heard in all socio-economic groups, mostly among youth, but also in middle age.
  • Cockney: traditional working-class London accent:
  • [ð] → [v] (and sometimes [wɪv])
  • [θ] → [f] (think → [fɪŋk])
  • Speaker-specific in London speech.
  • Common replacements:
  • [ð] → [v] in words like another, other, together, whether, without.
  • [θ] → [f] in through.
  • Note: Native speakers do not usually replace [θ]/[ð] with [s]/[z] → perceived as foreign.