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Contact details
Dr Nicola McLelland
Nicola.mclelland@nottingham.
ac.uk
Tel. 0115 951 5822
Consultation hours
Introduction to linguistics –
The sounds of German
R21118
Dr Nicola McLelland
Levels of linguistic analysis
Sounds
Words
Sentence
Context
Levels of linguistic analysis
Sounds
phonetics
phonology
Words
the lexicon: lexis
word-shape: morphology
word-meaning: semantics
Sentence
syntax
Context
Pragmatics
Discourse analysis
First … what we won’t cover
here …
The middle and bottom of the pyramid
semantics
Sounds
morphology
Words
syntax
Sentence
Context
pragmatics
discourse analysis
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
Words
the lexicon: lexis
word-shape: morphology
word-meaning: semantics
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”)
What is a word?
How many words here?
“Man sagt, dass die Deutschen viel
arbeiten, aber der durchschnittliche
Brite hat im Jahre 2004 drei Stunden
länger gearbeitet als sein deutscher
Kollege.”
“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!
The solution: lexemes
Wen hat die Studentin gestern gesehen?
Lexis:
the vocabulary
of a language
6 lexemes:
wer
haben
der/die/das
studentin
gestern
sehen
The solution:
1 lexeme ………
Many word-forms
Wer
wer, wen, wem,
wessen
Haben
haben, habe, hast,
hat, habt, gehabt,
hatte, etc.
Sehen …?
Lexeme
Word-forms
sehen
sehe, siehst,
sieht, seht,
sehen, sah,
sahst,
sahen, […]
gesehen
Looking at the word-forms …
How can we
analyse these
different wordforms?
Word-forms
sehe, siehst,
sieht, seht,
sehen, sah,
sahst,
sahen, […]
gesehen
We need a unit of analysis smaller than
a word …..
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
Referent
Concept
+ man-made
+ glass
+ light source
Linguistic sign
light bulb
Glühbirne
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.
…. What’s 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 don’t 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
3. Generative grammar …
e.g. Der Junge spielte mit dem Ball.
S
NP
D
VP
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
[r] alveolar trill
2 allophones of the
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 …
What’s 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
We’ve seen that letters do not give a good
guide to actual sounds:
More than one letter = one sound (<sch, ng,
th>)
One letter can represent different sounds in
different contexts: <Bad, ich bade>, <gierig>
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 …
< b,d g>: 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
[ bh ] : [ ] 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:
http://www.tik.ee.ethz.ch/~spr/SVOX/svoxdemo/svoxdemo.html
Und jetzt:
Arbeitsblatt Woche 2