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Introduction to linguistics – The sounds of German R21118 Dr Nicola McLelland

Sounds Words Sentence Context Levels of linguistic analysis

Sounds Words Sentence Context phonetics phonology the lexicon: lexis word-shape: morphology word-meaning: semantics syntax Pragmatics Discourse analysis Levels of linguistic analysis

First … what we wont cover here … The middle and bottom of the pyramid semantics morphology syntax pragmatics discourse analysis Sounds Words Sentence Context

The bottom of the pyramid … Language in context 1.Pragmatics – the study of meaning in context - Können Sie das Fenster aufmachen? - Ja. (no accompaning action!)

The bottom of the pyramid … Language in context 1. Pragmatics – the study of meaning in context - Können Sie das Fenster aufmachen? - Ja. (no accompaning action!) Or, recognizing the speech act, a request: - Ja, gerne. (opens window)

Language in context 2. Discourse analysis - Turn-taking and other unwritten rules in conversations - The structure of written texts (NB discourse has a different meaning in linguistics to that in cultural theory!)

The centre of the pyramid: words and sentences

the lexicon: lexis word-shape: morphology word-meaning: semantics Words

Lexis is …. the vocabulary of a language -The aspect of the language where change is most noticeable to speakers themselves

Language contact and new lexis Borrowing der Reseller Billing Das IT-Team

Language contact and new lexis Loan translation Telekommunikationsbranche (cf. telecomms. industry) Loan creation Führungsaufgabe (cf. management role)

Man sagt, dass die Deutschen viel arbeiten, aber der durchschnittliche Brite hat im Jahre 2004 drei Stunden länger gearbeitet als sein deutscher Kollege. What is a word? How many words here?

Man sagt, dass die Deutschen viel arbeiten, aber der durschnittliche Brite hat im Jahre 2004 drei Stunden länger gearbeitet als sein deutscher Kollege. 23 words?

Man sagt, dass die Deutschen viel arbeiten, aber der durschnittliche Brite hat im Jahre 2004 drei Stunden länger gearbeitet als sein deutscher Kollege. Two different words? Or one word in two different forms?

Man sagt, dass die Deutschen viel arbeiten, aber der durschnittliche Brite hat im Jahre 2004 drei Stunden länger gearbeitet als sein deutscher Kollege. What about Deutschen and deutscher? Adjective and noun ….

The problem …. word is too vague to be a useful word in linguistics!

Wen hat die Studentin gestern gesehen? The solution: lexemes Lexis: the vocabulary of a language 6 lexemes: wer haben der/die/das studentin gestern sehen

The solution: 1 lexeme ……… Wer Haben Sehen …? Many word-forms wer, wen, wem, wessen haben, habe, hast, hat, habt, gehabt, hatte, etc.

Lexeme sehen Word-forms sehe, siehst, sieht, seht, sehen, sah, sahst, sahen, […] gesehen

Looking at the word-forms … How can we analyse these different word- forms? Word-forms sehe, siehst, sieht, seht, sehen, sah, sahst, sahen, […] gesehen

We need a unit of analysis smaller than a word …..

Introducing ….

We need a unit of analysis smaller than a word ….. Introducing …. the morpheme!

A morpheme is …. The smallest unit of language that carries meaning (die kleinste bedeutungstragende Einheit) Studentin = Student+in 2 morphemes Gestern = gestern 1 morpheme Gesehen = ge+seh+en 3 morphemes (or 2?)

Morphology is …. the study of word structure It examines the internal structure of words.

Morphology of the job ad. Führungsaufgabe bei Telekommunikationsunternehmen How many morphemes here?

Morphology of the job ad. führ + ung + s + auf + gab + e + bei + tele + kommunik + ation + s + unter + nehm + en How many morphemes here?

Wen hat die Studentin gestern gesehen? Student+in gestern ge+seh+en You can probably tell that there are different kinds of morphemes!

Word meaning … semantics Concept + man-made + glass + light source Linguistic sign light bulb Glühbirne Referent

Words … Lexis Morphology Semantics

Now on to sentences … Syntax is the study of sentence structure Jutta trinkt einen Tee im Café mit ihrem Freund

Now on to sentences … Syntax is the study of sentence structure Jutta trinkt einen Tee im Café mit ihrem Freund OR … Einen Tee trinkt Jutta im Café mit ihrem Freund

3 approaches to sentence structure 1.We can note the order the words come in e.g. Jutta trinkt einen Tee mit ihrem Freund Canonical word order: SVO

1. Rules about word order … We can contrast the word order in different types of clauses e.g. Sie kommt nicht zum Seminar, weil sie immer noch im Café sitzt. Main clause: V2 (verb second) Dependent clause: V-last (verb comes last)

1. Rules about word order … 1.…. We can state rules about the position of nicht, about the order of objects, etc. e.g. *Nicht sie kommt zum Seminar, weil sie immer noch im Café sitzt. e.g. Sie schenkt ihrem Mann ein Buch. Sie schenkte es ihm. *Sie schenkte ihm es.

1. Rules about word order … … the order of objects: e.g. Sie schenkt ihrem Mann ein Buch. Sie schenkte es ihm. *Sie schenkte ihm es. …. Whats the rule?

1. Rules about word order … …. the order of objects: e.g. Sie schenkt ihrem Mann ein Buch. Sie schenkte es ihm / ihrem Mann. *Sie schenkte ihm es. …. Normally animate object precedes inanimate. But an accusative pronoun object must come first.

1. Rules about word order … Problem: useful rules for learners, but they dont tell us much about the structure of the sentence, or why some constructions are ungrammatical

…Other, more theoretical approaches: Look at word groups and how they fit together: 2. Valency grammar (esp. in Germany) 3. grammar (esp. in Anglo-Saxon tradition)

2. Valency grammar Cf. chemistry …! (where the valency of an element tells you how many atoms of it are needed to form a compound)

2. Valency grammar In grammar, the valency of a verb tells us what construction it requires to be grammatical. e.g. Sie schenkte ihrem Mann ein Buch *Sie schenkte *Sie schenkte ihrem Mann

2. Valency grammar … e.g. Sie schenkte ihrem Mann ein Buch Schenken needs: A subject sie A direct object ein Buch An indirect object ihrem Mann

2. Valency grammar … Compare: Sie traf ihren Freund. Treffen needs two elements: A subject sie A direct object ihren Freund

2. Valency grammar … Valency also allows us to make useful contrasts between German and English e.g. He followed me. One element, a direct object. Er folgte mir. One element, an indirect object. A subject meine Schwester

e.g. Der Junge spielte mit dem Ball. S NP VP D N V PP P NP D N Der Junge spielte mit dem Ball 3. Generative grammar …

S = Sentence NP = Noun phrase VP = Verb phrase PP = Prepositional phrase D = Determiner N = Noun, V = Verb, D = Determiner P = Prepostion

3. Generative grammar … Syntactic trees like this make the internal structure of the sentence clearer – e.g. they reflect our sense that mit dem Ball is more closely tied to spielte than it is to der Junge

3. Generative grammar … … tries to generate tree structures like this using rules that reflect what native speakers just know intuitively … rules that produce all possible grammatical sentences, no ungrammatical ones … easier said than done!

And finally … applying the theory … Applied linguistics Speech therapy Speech synthesis and recognition Lexicography Translation … and foreign language learning

Applied linguistics: language acquisition … the process by which learners acquire a second language -Stages which all learners progress through -Typical error patterns a better understanding of your own learning …. More later!

Back to the top of the pyramid … Phonetics and Phonology

Phonology is … studying the sound system of languages, how sounds behave in languages Das Rathaus ist rot und grün. rot /ro:t/ (3 phonemes) (transcription using the IPA, international phonetic alphabet)

Phonetics is … the study of speech sounds how speech sounds are produced their acoustics (sound waves) how speech sounds are perceived

Acoustic phonetics

Das Rathaus ist rot … = [Ro:t] or [ro:t] or ….! [R] uvular trill 2 allophones of the [r] alveolar trill phoneme /r/ (Another example: Contrast German l and English velarized l in hell)

Phonology The phoneme: the smallest unit of meaning that distinguishes meaning (die kleinste bedeutungunterscheidende Einheit) (morpheme – die kleinste bedeutungstragende Einheit)!

Phonological rules Regular processes that can be expressed as rules (often using formal notation, a bit like in mathematics)

Phonological rules … Whats the regular process behind the fact that these words all sound as if they end in a /p, t, k/ (and not the sounds b, d, g as the spelling suggests? Bund, fand, Hand, Mund, Grab, Schub, ab, trug, schlug, arg …

Auslautverhärtung Lit. hardening of the final sound (der Auslaut) hardening = devoicing Applies to all voiced stops at the end of a syllable in German (not just end of a word – cf. abholen)

Minimal pairs Which of these pairs are minimal pairs in German? (ie. They differ only by one crucial phoneme) Hand / Land, Sank / Sang, rot / Boot Kennen / können, Saal / soll, mehr / Mauer Bad / bat, Friede / Friese, frische / mische Ei / Eier, Fuß / Kuss, Schuh / Kuh Which phonemes can we identify from the minimal pairs, then?

Minimal pairs Hand / Land, Sank / Sang, rot / Boot Kennen / können, Saal / soll, mehr / Mauer Bad / bat, Friede / Friese, frische mische Ei / Eier, Fuß / Kuss, Schuh / Kuh Which phonemes can we identify from the minimal pairs, then?

Minimal pairs Hand / Land, Sank / Sang, rot / Boot Kennen / können, Saal / soll, mehr / Mauer Bad / bat, Friede / Friese, frische mische Ei / Eier, Fuß / Kuss, Schuh / Kuh Which phonemes can we identify from the minimal pairs, then?

Minimal pairs Hand / Land, Sank / Sang, rot / Boot Kennen / können, Saal / soll, mehr / Mauer Bad / bat, Friede / Friese, frische mische Ei / Eier, Fuß / Kuss, Schuh / Kuh Which phonemes can we identify from the minimal pairs, then? /h l k η (=eng) r b d z / and vowels including /œ ε α/

Notation Weve seen that letters do not give a good guide to actual sounds: More than one letter = one sound ( ) One letter can represent different sounds in different contexts:,

the International Phonetic Association notation (IPA) So we use different notation to make it clear that we are talking about actual sounds (which may be spelled differently within a language and also in different languages): The IPA script – see your handout Some symbols are similar to ordinary spelling, which makes them easier to remember – but unlike letters, they always have the same sound value

Making it clear what we are talking about … : these brackets tell us we are talking about spelling – graphemes (written sybmols) only

Making it clear what we are talking about … / b d g/ : the / / tell us that we are talking about phonemes, sounds that distinguish meaning in a language [ b h ] : [ ] indicates phonetic transcription: we transcribe what we hear, in more or less detail (narrow vs. broad transcription), which may or may not be phonemic (we may not know yet, if we are transcribing a language for the first time, or we may not care for our purposes anyway ….)

In this module … We will mainly be learning to transcribe phonemes But we will be talking about greater phonetic detail some of the time – e.g. when we talk about regional variation or when we are contrasting German and English accents

Why does any of this matter? It helps with our accent and to understand why others' accents are like they are It's just interesting anyway It helps us understand one of the universal things that makes us human: our language ability It's useful for speech synthesis:

Und jetzt: Arbeitsblatt Woche 2