Introduction to English Linguistics

[tri¦]           expression     signifiant       sound pattern

Bild           meaning         signifié           concept

Baum

there is no internal link between the sound shape and the meaning of the linguistic sign.

Competence: the knowledge we have of the language we grow up with

Performance: the speech we actually produce

Me Tarzan, You Jane

descriptive-prescriptive: factual language use/ binding rules for correct use of the language

synchronic-diachronic: language at a specific point of time/ language changes over time

Non-constrastive-constrastive: monolingual-one language in focus/ languages are compared and contrasted

Old English       450(700)-1100

Middle English   1100-1500

Early Modern English  500-1700

Modern English  ab 1700

Germanic tribes arrive from the middle of the fifth century

-mostly Germanic word-stock

-fully inflected

-inflections begin to be levelled

introducing of printing into England by William Canxton in 1476

spread of English around the world starts (Colonisation)

-Great Vowel Shift

-Standarisation and regularisation

-large-sclae borrowing from Latin, Greek, French and other European languages

Norman Conquest in 1066 --> start Renaissance--> End

-enormous influx of French vocabulary

-levelld inflections

-Great Vowel Shift starts

English as a global language

-almost no inflections

-borrowing from many languages world-wide