Linguistics

-two simple tenses: present and preterite

-weak and strong verbs

-strong verbs are characterised by root vowel alternation and divided into seven classes

-weak verbs fall into three classes, dental suffix for preterite and past participle

-Celtic people arrived in the British Isle

--probably originated in upper Rheinland

-knew how to smelt iron alloys for weapons, armour and tools

-Roman occupation (43-410 AD)

-Latin was official language but did not replace Celtic Languages

-Latin spoken by the Romans

-Celtic dialects were L-variety, spoken by the Britons

-no direct contact with the Germanic tribes but Latin influence on place names

-Old English had long and short consonants

-difference indicated in writing by doubling the consonants

-length distinction among one consonants lost in Middle English

-loss of velar fricatives

-i-mutation: one vowel becomes more like another, phonological process that happened prior to Old English

-synchronic irregularities can be accounted for if they are taken to be once regular and became irregular as a result of sound changes

-Sturtevants Paradox: sound change is regular but creates irregularity whereas nalogy is irregluar but creates regularity

-the notion of sound laws in the 1870`s 

-sound laws are exceptionless

-sounds change proceeds mechanically by analogy

-diachronic sound changes affects all words in which its environment is met, no exception

-sound shift occurs when.

1. one phoneme shifts to another phoneme

2. every word that includes that phoneme stops being pronounced with that phoneme and cmoes to be pronounced with the other phoneme

-change in meaning of existing words

-lexical creativity, formation of new words (using a languages own resources)

introduction of new words from other languages

-three aspects of language that allow semantic change to occur:

-words are typically polysemic

-language is transmitted discontinuously, children do not receive a fully-formed grammar but create their own on the basis of the input, make abductive inferences which alter the language

-semantic change is sanctionised by the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign, exceptions like onomatoppoeia resist sound and semantic change

-restriction, range of meanings narrowed down 

-extension, number of contexts in which a word can be used is increased

-pejoration, downward move in evaluative judgement

-amelioration, improvement in assigned value

-derivation

-native and foreign affixes 

-compounding

-blending

-notion of productivity

-Gastword: unassimilated borrowing that kept its pronounciation, orthography and grammar, but is not used widely

-Fremdwort: adapted into the native system, stable spelling and pronounciation

-Lehnwort: indistinguishable from the rest of the lexicon, open to normal rules of word use and word formation, phonological and morphological adaptation

reflexivity, displacement, arbitrariness, productivity/creativity, cultural transmission, duality

language can be used to think and talk about language

language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker

usually there is no "natural" connection between meanings and sounds

"open-endedness" of linguistic production: possibiity to continually describe new objects and situations; to from new words and utterances by using the same rules

a languagee is taught and learned within a particular cultural background

limited set of discrete sounds can be combined inteo a very large number of sound combinations tith distinct meanings e.g. i-b-n -> bin/nib

- prescriptive is the policy of describing languages as we would like them to be, rather than as we find them

- linguistics take a descrptive approach

> how language is really used, varies, how it is changing

> avoid terms like `wrong`, `correct`, `strange`, 

> against discrimination based on language use

- focus on individual languages

- comparison of two or more languages -> search for universall, common ancestors

- development of theoretical frameworks

- apllied linguistics: foreign-language teaching, forensic linguistics

- introspective: relying on intuition 

- empirical studies: research based on authentic language data

- key figure: ferdinand de saussure

- focus: synchronic description of language system

- important dichotomy:

>language (abstract language system) vs. parole (actual language use)

- key figure: Noam Chomsky

- focus: idealised mental knowledge of language

- important dichotomy: competence ( language system, cf. language) vs. performance (language use, cf. parole)

-Heterogeneous approaches

- focus: search for motivations of particular language choices in certain contexts

- view that language use (parole/performance) over time shapes language system (language/competence)