Chapter 9

Semantics

Semantics/ is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences

referential meaning:- the basic components of meaning conveyed by the literal

use of words

associative meaning:- the type of meaning that people might connect with the use
of words (e.g. needle = “painful”) that is not part of conceptual meaning

Semantic Roles

Agent: the enttity that performs the action

Theme: the enttity that is involved in or affected by the action

Ex_the boy kicked the ball

The boy : agent

The ball: theme

Instrument: another entity in order to perform an action

Ex- I Write the message by pen

Pen is (Instrument)

Experiencer: entitty as the person who has a feeling perception or state

Ex-The women feel sad

Sad is (Experience)

location (in semantics): the semantic role of the noun phrase identifying where an
entity is (e.g. The boy is sitting in the classroom)

source: the semantic role of the noun phrase identifying where an entity moves
from (e.g. The boy ran from the house)
goal: the semantic role of the noun phrase identifying where an entity moves
to (e.g. The boy walked to the window)

- Lexical Relations

Synonymy: two or more words with very closely related meanings Ex- big/large

Antonymy: two forms with opposite meanings Ex- old/new

gradable antonyms: words with opposite meanings along a scale (e.g. big–small)

non-gradable antonyms: words which are direct opposites (e.g. alive–dead)

homophones: two or more words with different forms and the same pronunciation
(e.g. to– too–two)

homonyms: two words with the same form that are unrelated in meaning (e.g.
mole (on skin) – mole (small animal))

polysemy: a word having two or more related meanings (e.g. foot, of person, of
bed, of mountain)

metonymy: a word used in place of another with which it is closely connected in

everyday

experience (e.g. He drank the whole bottle (= the liquid))

Chapter 10
Pragmatics : the study of speaker meaning and how more is communicated than is
said.

Context

Physical context : the situation, time or place in which words are used.

Linguistic context :the set of other words used in the same phrase or sentence also
called co-text .
Deixis:-There are some very common words in our language that can’t be
interpreted at all if we don’t know the context.

inference: additional information used by a listener to create a connection between

what is said and what must be meant .

Ex: Can I took you Chomsky?

Sure, it is on the shelf over there

Anaphora:-We usually make a distinction between introducing new referents (a

puppy) and referring back to them (the puppy, it).

politeness: showing awareness and consideration of another person’s face.

face-threatening act: saying something that represents a threat to another person’s

self-image .

face-saving act: saying something that reduces a possible threat to another

person’s self-image.

Speech chacts: an action such as promising performed by a speaker with an

utterance is of two types: direct and indirect.

direct speech act: an action in which the form used (e.g. interrogative) directly
matches the function (e g. question)performed by a speaker with an utterance, in
contrast to an indirect speech act .

indirect speech act: an action in which the form used (e.g. interrogative) does not

directly match the function (e.g. request) performed by a speaker with an utterance,
in contrast to a direct speech act.

Chapter 11
Discoures analysis

Discoures analysis: language beyond the sentence

Cohesion : the formal ties and connections between worlds that exist within texts .
Ex-my father once bought a lincoln convertible he did it by saving every penny he
could .

coherence: the connections that reader and listener create in their minds to arrive
at a meaningful interpretation of texts.

HER: That’s the telephone.

HIM: I’m in the bath.

HER: O.K.

Conversation analysis :In simple terms, English conversation can be described as

an activity in which, for the most part, two or more people take turns at speaking
.completion point: in conversation, the end of a turn, usually marked by a pause
at the end of a phrase or sentence .

Completion point

If you want to show that you have completed your speech :

1- by asking a question .

2-by pausing at the end of a completed .

3_ syntactic structure like a phrase or sentence .

turn-taking: the way in which each speaker takes a turn in conversation

Turn-taking

How to keep the conversation going:

1-keep the turn

2-using connectors ( and -then-so-but)

3-hesitation marker (er -em -uh-ah)

The co-operative principle...

The Quantity maxim: Make your contribution as informative as is required, but

not more or less than is required .
The Quality maxim: Do not say that which you believe to be false or for which
you lack adequate evidence.

The Relation maxim: Be relevant.

The Manner maxim: Be clear, brief and orderly.

Hedges:-Hedges can be defined as words or phrases used to indicate that we’re not
really sure that what we are saying is sufficiently correct or complete.

As far as I know …,

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but …

I’m not absolutely sure, but …

Implicatures:-that someone is

“implying”something in conversation

CAROL: Are you coming to the party tonight?

LARA: I’ve got an exam tomorrow.

CHAPTER 13
First language acquisition

Acquisition: the gradual development of ability in a first or second language by

using it naturally in communicative situations.

The process of language acquisition has some basic requirements:

1- During the first two or three years of development, a child requires

interaction with other language-users in order to bring the general

language capacity into contact with a particular language such as English.

2- A child who does not hear or is not allowed to use language will learn no
language.

3- The particular language a child learns is not genetically inherited, but is acquired
in a particular language-using environment.
4- The child must also be physically capable of sending and receiving

sound signals in a language.

Caregiver speech: is characterized by simple sentence structures and a lot of

repetition and paraphrasing, with reference largely restricted to the here and now.

The acquisition schedule:

1- Cooing: During the first few months of life, the child gradually becomes
capable of producing sequences of vowel-like sounds, particularly high vowels
similar to [i] and [u].

2- Babbling: Between six and eight months, the child is sitting up and producing a
number of different vowels and consonants, as well as combinations such as ba-ba-
ba and gagaga. This type of sound production is described as babbling.

3- The one-word stage: Between twelve and eighteen months, children begin to
produce a variety of recognizable single unit utterances.This period, traditionally
called the one-word stage, is characterized by speech in which single terms are
uttered for everyday objects such as “milk,” “cookie,” “cat,” “cup” and “spoon”

4- The two-word stage: the two-word stage can begin around eighteen to twenty
months, as the child’s vocabulary moves beyond fifty words. By the time the child
is two years old, a variety of combinations, similar to baby chair, mommy eat, cat
bad,will usually have appeared.

5- Telegraphic speech: Between two and two-and-a-half years old, the child
begins producing a large number of utterances that could be classified as “multiple-
word” speech

Learning through imitation?

“imitation” is the basis of the child’s speech production has been found in studies
of the structures used by young children. They may repeat single words or phrases,
but not the sentence structures. In the following example, the children were asked
to repeat what the adult said (on the left).

The dogs are hungry ~ dog hungry

It is likely that the children understand what the adults are saying in the example.
They just have their own way of expressing what they understand.

CHAPTER 14
Second language

acquisition/learning

A distinction is sometimes made between learning in a “foreign language” setting

(learning a language that is not generally spoken in the surrounding community)
and a “second language” setting (learning a language that is spoken in the
surrounding community).That is, Japanese students in an English class in Japan are
learning

English as a foreign language (EFL) and, if those same students were in an English
class in the USA, they would be learning English as a second language (ESL).

A more significant distinction is made between acquisition and learning:

The term acquisition is used to refer to the gradual development of ability in a

language by using it naturally in communicative situations with others who know
the language. Acquisition normally takes place without a teacher. The term
learning, however, applies to a more conscious process of accumulating knowledge
of the features of a language, such as pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar,
typically in an institutional setting,with teachers. (Mathematics, for example, is
learned, not acquired.)

Transfer means using sounds, expressions or structures from the L1 when

performing in the L2.

If the L1 and L2 have similar features (e.g. marking plural on the ends of nouns),
then the learner may be able to benefit from the positive transfer of L1 knowledge
to the L2. On the other hand, transferring an L1 feature that is really different from
the L2 (e.g. putting the adjective after the noun) results in negative transfer and it
may make the L2 expression difficult to understand.
Motivation:

Many learners have an instrumental motivation. That is, they want to learn the L2
in order to achieve some other goal, such as completing a school graduation
requirement or being able to read scientific publications, but they are not really
planning on engaging in much social interaction using the L2 . In contrast those
learners with an integrative motivation want to learn the L2 for social purposes, in
order to take part in the social life of a community using that language and to
become an accepted member of that community .

Communicative competence can be defined as the general ability to use

language accurately, appropriately and flexibly.

1- The first component is grammatical competence, which involves the accurate

use of words and structures.

2- The ability to use appropriate language is the second component, called

sociolinguistic competence. It enables the learner to know when to say Can I have
some water? versus Give me some water!

3- The third component is called strategic competence. This is the ability to

organize a message effectively and to compensate, via strategies, for any
difficulties.

4- communication strategy: a way of overcoming a gap between

communicative intent and a limited ability to express that intent, as part of strategic
competence

Example: saying the things that horses wear under their feet, the iron things and the
listener understood immediately what she meant (horseshoes).