What are the following and how old are they?
a) Indo-European
To the Indo-European languages belong several hundred related dialects and languages: Most of the major languages in South, Southwest and Central Asia as well as in Europe. Indo-European languages are spoken by about three billion people and therefore have the largest number of recognised speakers of the language families of the world. First suggestions of similarity between European and Indian languages have been made by European visitors in India during the 16th century.
b) Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic is also called Common Germanic. It is “the hypothetical common ancestor (proto-language) of all the Germanic languages, which include, among others, modern English, Dutch, German and Swedish. The Proto-Germanic language is not directly attested by any surviving texts, but has been reconstructed using the comparative method” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Germanic). Some documents belonging to the Proto-Norse period of language, which was immediately following the Proto-Germanic time, may be dated to c.200. Proto-Germanic has only two tenses.
c) Old English
Old English is also known as Anglo-Saxon. It was spoken in southern Scotland and parts of England and is regarded as an early form of the modern English language. It was strongly influenced from Old Norse and is as a West Germanic language closely related to Old Frisian. Old English assumedly covered a period of time of about 700 years: Beginning with the Anglo-Saxon migration and ending with Norman invasion of 1066.
d) Middle English
Middle English is the term that is used for English languages which were spoken between 1066 (Norman invasion) and mid-to-late 15th century, when Chancery Standard was more commonly used. Middle English displays a wide variety of scribal forms in written and spoken English.
e) Early Modern English
The term Early Modern English refers to the time between the end of the Middle English period (see above) and 1650. Works of William Shakespeare as well as the first edition of the King James Bible belong to that language period. It is in most cases possible for present reader to understand texts written in Early Modern English, while difficulties may arise from changes in meaning of some vocabulary, of the grammatical structure or a different spelling.
What are the main differences between English and German?
- sexes (three versus two)
- use of Present perfect / past
- no progressive form in German
- formal “you” – address formally
- tricky: false friends
- partly different punctuation (after that, because, defining relative clause)
- sentence structure
- capitalized letters at the beginning of words
- certain letter-combination (th, sch)
- pronunciation
2007-10-23
Find examples for all of these concepts (as far as we have discussed the different historical changes in today’s lecture)
a) Grimm’s Law:
tertius – third
b) High German Sound Shift:
Ship – Schiff
Task 2 b)
Find examples of
a) English words containing /p/, etc.
b) corresponding German words containing /pf/ etc.
/p/ - /pf/ :
- apple – Apfel
- plough – Pflug
/t/ - /ts/
- cat - Katze
- two - Zwei
Task 3 a)
Great Vowel Shift
What are the corresponding German forms?
Make – machen
Beak, break – brechen
Feet – Füße
Mice – Mäuse
Mouse – Maus
Boat – Boot
Basically the long vowels shifted upwards, meaning that a vowel used to be pronounced in a higher place in the mouth. That all happened in different steps we did not discuss any further.
Task 3 b)
- Who or what is “Beowulf”
“Beowulf” is an Old English heroic epic poem. Neither the author nor the genesis is known. Scholars guess that it must be written about 700 – 750 AD. The manuscript itself has no title, but is known as “Beowulf” since the early 19th century. It is the single major Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry that has been found. It has risen to so much prominence that it is also described as “England’s national epos”.
- Find an example of the text and a translation
Text passage:
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga,
þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Translation:
Quit! Our story speaks
of the Spear-Danes
their greates kings’
accomplisments
How in former times
lived fearless men.
(http://alliteration.net/beoIndex.htm)
Actually, looking at the text and the translation I can just agree with our findings during the lecture: Old English is from our present point of view neither totally readable nor understandable. It sees, that “Hwaet” means “Quit”; “We” could stand for “Our”, so that they may had a different use of pronouns during that time; “hu” could mean “how” and “ellen fremedon” probably “fearless men”. But all together it is very hard to find similarities.
Since the schedule for today’s lecture changed a bit, we also changed the homework tasks:
Task 3 c)
Find some Arabic, Chinese or Hindu influence on the English language.
Chinese
- Feng Shui
- ginkgo
- ketchup
- kung fu
- silk
- tofu
- tea
- Ying Yang
Arabic
- alcohol
- amber
- apricot
- coffee
- crimson
- giraffe
- hashish
- mascara
- massage
- monsoon
- sugar
- zero
Hindi
- jungle
- bungalow
- punch
- shampoo
- bangle
In some urban and semi-urban areas of India “Hinglish” is spoken; a mixture between English and Hindi. That is partly because of the popularity of English. Also the Bollywood films contribute to the distribution of Hinglish. An example would be:
- "Dad, time kyā huā hai?" (Dad, what is the time right now?).
- "I have hazār things on my mind right now." (I have thousands of things on my mind right now.)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi)
Most of the words with this Asian origin are to be seen in connection with coming in contact with a new culture: Adapting habits (massage, Feng Shui), food (apricot), customs, so far unknown animals (giraffe), plants (hashish, coffee, Gingko) or phenomenon (monsoon).
Task 3 d)
How is the consonant “c” differently realized?
- pronounced as a “k”: car, cat, crazy (at the beginning of a word)
- pronounced as “k”: logical, scholar (within a word)
- pronounced as “k”: atmospheric (at the end of a word)
- pronounced as a “sch”: chef, chair, chain, chic (in combination with “h”)
- pronounced as a “tsch”: chestnut (at the beginning of a word)
- pronounced as a “ch”: Chinese (at the beginning of a word)
- pronounced as a “s”: reticence (within a word)
2007-11-07
Task 4 a)
Define:
- syllable
A syllable consists of phonemes and organizes as a unit speech sounds. The general structure consists of onset, a rhyme, a nucleus (mostly a vowel) and a coda (typically a consonant).
- phoneme
A phoneme can be described as the smallest word-distinguishing unit of speech. It consists of different phones. A group of phones that belong to the same phoneme are called allophones. They vary in pronunciation according to their environment. A phoneme can be determined by forming minimal-pairs.
- find examples of 5 not-too-short words and divide them into syllables
- haircut: \ˈher-ˌkət\ ; hair -cut
- playground: \ˈplāˌgrau̇nd\; play-ground
- sunglasses: \ˈsən-ˌglas\ ; sun-glasses
- raincoat: \ˈrān-ˌkōt\ ; rain-coat
- accident: \ˈak-sə-dənt\; ac-ci-dent
Task 4 b)
(Since we did focus on pronunciation (and skipped the spelling), I regard those tasks as more important)
List:
- the consonants in German which do not occur in English
In English you do not find the voiced velar fricative and the unvoiced uvular fricative.
- the consonants of English which do not occur in German
In German you do not find both realisations of the “th”: the voiced and unvoiced dental fricative; as well as the alveolar approximant.
- the vowels of German which do not occur in English
I think in English you can’t find the following vowels:
- front, close, unrounded
- close-mid, back, unrounded
- front, open-mid, rounded
- front, open, rounded
- the vowels of English which do not occur in German
I think in German you can’t find the following vowels:
- back, open-mid, rounded
- back, open, unrounded
Task 4 c)
Take a look at models of the ear: summarise the functions of the outer ear, the middle ear, the inner ear.
The sound waves reach the outer ear: The pinna protects the ear and helps to collect the sound waves. Then it passes the outer ear canal and deflects the eardrum. While it is transmitted via the auditory ossicles, the sound gets transformed into mechanical movement. The tension between the anvil and the stirrup has also a protection function because it reduces the frequency. The stirrup touches the oval window, the entrance to the inner ear: The cochlea. The Cochlea is filled with liquid and divided by two membranes. The basilar membrane is very important. On its stiffer end it is sensible to higher frequencies, compared to the more flexible end (lower frequencies). Along the membrane you can find the organ of corti. Tinny little hair cells transmit neural signal through the auditory nerve to the brain, where the sound gets interpreted.
2007-11-14
Task 5 a)
See last week’s task.
2007-11-21
Task 6 a)
Find at least 20 simple words
Simple words consist just of one morpheme: tea, water, light, green, nice, pen, mouse, heart, card, bird, map, go, hide, like, fear, paper, rose, puddle, heat
Find at least 20 complex words
Complex words consist of more than one morpheme: cups, believed, goes, married, quickly, driver, car-driver, dogs, photos, arguing, hastily, cupboard, hiding, loves, horses, nearly, heard, hurts, slowly, playing
Task 6 b)
Make a list of 20 free morphemes
Free morphemes may stand alone and therefore are simple words (see above). Other examples may be: Bus, walk, black, cat, kitchen, house, slow, bike, eat, sofa, need, shirt…
Find bound morphemes
Bound morphemes can only occur in connection with other morphemes: -ly, -ed, -ing, -s, -ion, -ize, -un
Task 6 c)
List inflectional suffixes of English and Germen
English:
- regular plural: -s (cat – cats)
- irregular plural often by umlaut: (foot – feet)
- regular past tense: -ed (love – loved)
- irregular past often by ablaut: (ride – rode – ridden)
- third person singular: -s (walk – he/she/it walks)
- present participle:- ing (walk – is / are walking)
- comparative (regular, short adjective): -er (fast – faster)
- superlative (regular, short adjectives): -est (fast – the fastest)
….
German
You can find umlaut and ablaut more often in German than in English
- the German plural form may be indicated in various ways: -e (Hund – Hunde), -er (Haus – Häuser), -en (Frau – Frauen) …
- past tense: often by ablaut (schwimmen – schwamm), -te (lieben – liebte)
- third person singular: no difference in German
- present participle: not existing in German
- comparative: -er (schnell – schneller)
- superlative: -sten (schnell – am schnelsten)
2007-11-28
Task 7
Find the allomorphs for
- 3rd person present singular
/z/: after voiced consonants
/s/ : after voiceless consonants
/lz/: after sibilants
- simple past
/d/: after voiced consonants
/t/: after voiceless consonants
/ld/: after sibilants
- What are the similarities and differences to the plural allomorphs?
All variations have in common that the choice of the allophone depends on the surrounding sounds. There is not much of a difference between the regular plural and 3rd person present singular s because it depends on the pronunciation and not on the meaning. The principle which is applied to the simple past forms is also much alike: Voiced follows voiced and unvoiced follows unvoiced. In case of a sibilant we integrate an additional phoneme.
2007-12-05
Task 8 a)
Identify the syntagmatic relations in the following constructions:
- “department store detective”
It is a compound, which consist of three nouns:
Department store detective (compound noun) → department (noun) + store (noun) + detective (noun)
- “three people saw a woman and her dog in the shop"
→ Three people (noun) – saw a woman and her dog in the shop (predicate)
→ Three people (noun) – saw (verbal) a woman and her dog (object) in the shop (determination of place)
(sorry, no tree-structures possible)
Task 8 b)
Identify the paradicmatic relations in the following sets (similarities and differences)
- {/p/, /t/, /k/}
→ they are all plosives
→ they are all voicless
→ p: bilabial, t: alveolar, k: velar
- {object, furniture, chair, table}
→ they are all things
→ “table” and “chair” are hyponyms; “furniture” is their hypernym and “object” is even above in a hierarchical taxonomy structure (chair + table → furniture → objects)
- {walk, drive, run, ride}
→ they are all ways of moving
→ “run” and “walk” can be done by our own without any other objects
→ we need an additional object (car, horse, bike) for “drive” and “ride”
→ “run” is a faster movement than “walk”
→ “drive” (car, truck) and “ride” (horse, bike) belong to certain fitting activities
Task 8 c)
- Identify the part of speech of each word in the text.
Prostitutes’ deaths inquests open
Inquests (noun) into (preposition) the (determiner) deaths (noun) of (preposition) four (numeral) women (noun) who (determiner) were (verb) killed (main verb) in (preposition) Suffolk (noun) have (verb) been (verb) opened (main verb) and (conjunction) adjourned (main verb). The (determiner) hearing (noun) at (preposition) Ipswich (noun) Coroner’s (noun) Court (noun) found (main verb) no (quantifier) clear (adjective) cause (noun) of (preposition) death (noun) for (prepositioin) Tania Nicol (noun) and (conjunction) Annette Nicholls (noun). Anneli Alderton (noun) was (verb) asphyxiated (main verb) and (conjunction) Paula Clennell (noun) died (main verb) from (preposition) compression (noun) of (preposition) the (determiner) neck (neck), coroner (noun) Dr Peter Dean (noun) said (main verb). The (determiner) inquest (noun) into (preposition) the (determiner) death (noun) of (preposition) another (quantifier) victim (noun), Gemma Adams (noun), was (verb) opened (verb) last (adverb – time) week (noun).
Police (noun) are (verb) continuing (main verb) to question (verb - infinitive) two (quantifier) men (noun) about (preposition) the (determiner) murders (noun). The (determiner) first (quantifier) suspect (noun), Tom Stephens (noun), 37 (quantifier), was (verb) arrested (main verb) on (preposition) Monday (noun). A (determiner) second (quantifier) man (noun) being (verb) held (main verb) has (verb) been (verb) named (main verb) locally (adverb) as 48-years-old (adjective/quantifier?) Stephen Wright (noun). Both (quantifier) are (verb) suspected (main verb) of (preposition) killing (noun) all (quantifier) five (quantifier) women (noun).
- Group the words of one sentence into larger units.
Sentence: Both are subjected of killing all five women.
Both (subject) - are subjected of killing all five women (predicate).
Both (subject) – are subjected (verbal) of killing all five women (object)
(sorry, no tree-structure possible)
Task 8 d)
What happens when you count uncountable nouns?
You can’t just add a number (three milks*), but you have to use an appropriate word to make it countable (e.g. two bottles of milk, three kilos of flour, a cup of tea). You also have to use much instead of many and less instead of few.
2007-12-12
Task 9 a)
What is the meaning of “of”?
“Of” is called the “all purpose preposition” because you may use it in many contexts:
- genitive
- place
- distance
- to divide something
- Reason
- Topic
- Time
- …..
Construct prepositional phrases corresponding to the types of adverbs.
I am not sure what is meant with this task.
Task 9 b)
Find examples of conjunctions of each type and put them into sentences.
a) Coordinate conjunction:
- Tina goes to school and Tim goes to work.
- Tina goes to school, but she does not like it.
b) Subordinating conjunctions
- Tina, who is Tim’s sister, is good in math.
- Tina goes to school because she has to.
Task 9 c)
Find examples of different interjections.
- “uh”
- “mhm”
- “ah”
- “mm”
- “um”
- “so”
Task 9 d)
Select a newspaper text (2, 3 sentences)
Jones had already handed back the three gold medals and two bronze she won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Last month, the International Association of Athletics Federations erased all of Jones’ results dating to September 2000, but it was up to the IOC to formally disqualify her and erase her Olympic medals.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/athletics/article3040787.ece
- make a list of the parts of speech
Jones (proper noun) had (auxiliary verb – aspectual) already (adverb: time) handed (verb: non-finite form, past participle) back (preposition) the (definite article) three (cardinal number) gold (adjective) medals ( common countable noun – compound noun) and (co-ordinating conjunction) two (cardinal number) bronze (adjective) she (personal pronoun) won (verb: finite-form) at (preposition) the (definite article) 2000 (cardinal number) Sydney (proper noun) Olympics (compound noun). Last (adverb: time) month (common countable noun), the (definite article) International (adjective) Association (commom countable noun – proper compound noun) of (preposition) Athletics (common uncountable noun) Federations (common countable noun – compound noun) erased (verb: finite-form) all (adjective) of (preposition) Jones’ (proper noun) results (common countable noun) dating (verb) to (preposition) September (common countable noun) 2000 (cardinal number), but (co-ordinating conjunciton) it (pronoun) was (verb: finite-form) up to (preposition) the (definite article) IOC (abrivation) to (prepositon) formally (adverb) disqualify (verb: finite form) her (personal pronoun/ possessive?) and (co-ordinating conjuction) erase (verb: finite-form) her (personal pronoun/ possessive?) Olympic medals (common countable compound noun).
- make a tree drawing of the sentences
Sorry, it is not possible to put such a tree drawing on my blog.
Find examples of sentences with subordinate clauses
- I like to go for a walk because the weather is nice.
- My car, which I bought two weeks ago, is very fast.
Formulate recursive rules for coordinated sentences
- with and
- base case: “and” links two main clauses
Tim goes to school and I go to work.
- complex case: “and” links at least two main clauses
Tim goes to school and I go to work and (but) my friend stays at home.
I like blue and red and
- exclusion condition: Nothing else is a coordinated sentence with and.
- for lists with comma and then with “and” at the end
- base case: “and” links words of the same category
I like blue and green balloons.
- complex case: “and” links the two last words when we have a list of words of the same category
I like blue, green, yellow and red balloons.
- exclusion condition: Nothing else is linked with “and” in a list with commas.
Task 9 f)
Give examples of non-verbal signs.
- beet gestures
- structuring gestures
- pointing
- shaking the head
- ….
Task 9 g)
Analyse these signs:
Please refer to (slight 10):
http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/gibbon/Classes/Classes2007WS/ITL/07-IntroSemantics.pdf
From left to right, beginning at the top:
1.
- arrow: index (physical proximity)
- writing: symbol (arbitrary relationship)
2.
- picture: icon (similarity with its meaning)
3.
- picture: icon (similarity with its meaning)
4.
- P: symbol (arbitrary relationship) / icon: (similarity: parking begins with p)
- red circle: symbol (arbitrary relationship, denotes part of speech act: forbidden)
5.
- writing: symbol (arbitrary relationship)
6.
- arrow: index (physical proximity)
7.
- red circle with white crossbar: symbol (arbitrary relationship, denotes part of speech act: forbidden)
8.
- deer: icon (similarity with meaning)
9.
- arrow : index (physical proximity); icon (similarity in meaning → shape)
- red circle: symbol (arbitrary relationship, denotes part of speech act: forbidden)
Strong paradigmatic relationship of similarity and a few differences to 4.
10.
- writing: symbol (arbitrary relationship)
11.
- arrow: index (physical proximity)
12.
- writing in combination with shape: symbol (arbitrary relationship)
13.
- writing: symbol (arbitrary relationship)
- arrow: index (physical proximity)
- picture: icon (similarity with meaning)
2007-12-19
No new tasks today (see last week).
2008-01-09
No new tasks today .
2008-01-16
No new tasks today.
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