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In mathematics, thesigned areaororiented areaof a region of anaffine planeis itsareawithorientationspecified by thepositive or negative sign, that is "plus"(+{\displaystyle +})or "minus"(−{\displaystyle -}). More generally, the signed area of an arbitrarysurfaceregion is itssurface areawith specified orientation. When theboundaryof the region is asimple curve, the signed area also indicates the orientation of the boundary.
Themathematics of ancient Mesopotamia,Egypt, andGreecehad no explicit concept ofnegative numbersor signed areas, but had notions ofshapescontained by some boundary lines or curves, whose areas could be computed or compared by pasting shapes together or cutting portions away, amounting to addition or subtraction of areas.[1]This was formalized in Book I ofEuclid'sElements, which leads with several common notions including "if equals are added to equals, then the wholes are equal" and "if equals are subtracted from equals, then the remainders are equal" (among planar shapes, those of the same area were called "equal").[2]The propositions in Book I concern the properties oftrianglesandparallelograms, including for example that parallelograms with the same base and in the same parallels are equal and that any triangle with the same base and in the same parallels has half the area of these parallelograms, and aconstructionfor a parallelogram of the same area as any "rectilinear figure" (simple polygon) bysplitting it into triangles.[3]Greek geometers often compared planar areas byquadrature(constructing asquareof the same area as the shape), and Book II of theElementsshows how to construct a square of the same area as any given polygon.
Just as negative numbers simplify thesolution of algebraic equationsby eliminating the need to flipsignsin separately considered cases when a quantity might be negative, a concept of signed area analogously simplifies geometric computations and proofs. Instead of subtracting one area from another, two signed areas of opposite orientation can be added together, and the resulting area can be meaningfully interpreted regardless of its sign. For example, propositions II.12–13 of theElementscontain a geometric precursor of thelaw of cosineswhich is split into separate cases depending on whether the angle of a triangle under consideration isobtuseoracute, because a particular rectangle should either be added or subtracted, respectively (thecosineof the angle is either negative or positive). If the rectangle is allowed to have signed area, both cases can be collapsed into one, with a single proof (additionally covering theright-angledcase where the rectangle vanishes).
As with the unoriented area of simple polygons in theElements, the oriented area ofpolygonsin the affine plane (including those withholesorself-intersections) can be conveniently reduced to sums of oriented areas of triangles, each of which in turn is half of the oriented area of a parallelogram. The oriented area of any polygon can be written as a signedreal numbercoefficient (thesigned areaof the shape) times the oriented area of a designated polygon declared to have unit area; in the case of theEuclidean plane, this is typically aunit square.
Among the computationally simplest ways to break an arbitrary polygon (described by an ordered list of vertices) into triangles is to pick an arbitraryoriginpoint, and then form the oriented triangle between the origin and each pair of adjacent vertices in the triangle. When the plane is given aCartesian coordinate system, this method is the 18th centuryshoelace formula.[4]
The ancient Greeks had no general method for computing areas of shapes with curved boundaries, and thequadrature of the circleusing only finitely many steps was an unsolved problem (proved impossible in the 19th century). However,Archimedesexactly computed thequadrature of the parabolavia themethod of exhaustion, summing infinitely many triangular areas in a precursor of modernintegral calculus, and heapproximated the quadrature of the circleby taking the first few steps of a similar process.
Theintegralof areal functioncan be imagined as the signed area between thex{\displaystyle x}-axis and the curvey=f(x){\displaystyle y=f(x)}over aninterval[a,b]. The area above thex{\displaystyle x}-axis may be specified as positive(+{\displaystyle +}), and the area below thex{\displaystyle x}-axis may be specified as negative(−{\displaystyle -}).[5]
Thenegative areaarises in the study ofnatural logarithmas signed area below the curvey=1/x{\displaystyle y=1/x}for0<x<1{\displaystyle 0<x<1}, that is:[6]lnx=∫1xdtt=−∫x1dtt<0.{\displaystyle \ln x=\int _{1}^{x}{\frac {dt}{t}}=-\int _{x}^{1}{\frac {dt}{t}}<0.}
Indifferential geometry, the sign of the area of a region of asurfaceis associated with theorientationof the surface.[7]The area of a setAin differential geometry is obtained as an integration of adensity:μ(A)=∫Adx∧dy,{\displaystyle \mu (A)=\int _{A}dx\wedge dy,}where dxand dyaredifferential 1-formsthat make the density. Since thewedge producthas theanticommutative property,dy∧dx=−dx∧dy{\displaystyle dy\wedge dx=-dx\wedge dy}. The density is associated with a planar orientation, something existing locally in a manifold but not necessarily globally. In the case of the natural logarithm, obtained by integrating the area under the hyperbolaxy= 1, the density dx∧ dyis positive forx> 1, but since the integral∫1xdtt{\displaystyle \int _{1}^{x}{\frac {dt}{t}}}is anchored to 1, theorientationof the x-axis is reversed in theunit interval. For this integration, the (− dx) orientation yields the opposite density to the one used forx> 1. With this opposite density the area, under the hyperbola and above the unit interval, is taken as a negative area, and the natural logarithm consequently is negative in this domain.
Signed areas were associated withdeterminantsbyFelix Kleinin 1908.[8]When a triangle is specified by three points, its area is:12|x1y11x2y21x3y31|.{\displaystyle {\frac {1}{2}}{\begin{vmatrix}x_{1}&y_{1}&1\\x_{2}&y_{2}&1\\x_{3}&y_{3}&1\end{vmatrix}}.}For instance, when(x3,y3)=(0,0),{\displaystyle (x_{3},\ y_{3})=(0,0),}then the area is given byx1y2−x2y12.{\frac {x_{1}y_{2}-x_{2}y_{1}}{2}}.
To consider a sector area bounded by acurve, it is approximated by thin triangles with one sideequipollentto (dx,dy) which have an area12|001xy1x+dxy+dy1|=12(xdy−ydx).{\displaystyle {\frac {1}{2}}{\begin{vmatrix}0&0&1\\x&y&1\\x+dx&y+dy&1\end{vmatrix}}={\frac {1}{2}}(x\ dy-y\ dx).}Then the "area of the sectorbetween the curve and two radius vectors" is given by12∫12(xdy−ydx).{\displaystyle {\frac {1}{2}}\int _{1}^{2}(x\ dy-y\ dx).}For example, thereverseorientationof theunit hyperbolais given byx=cosht,y=−sinht.{\displaystyle x=\cosh t,\quad y=-\sinh t.}Thenxdy−ydx=−cosh2tdt+sinh2tdt=−dt,{\displaystyle x\ dy-y\ dx=-\cosh ^{2}t\ dt+\sinh ^{2}t\ dt=-dt,}so the area of thehyperbolic sectorbetween zero and θ is−12∫0θdt=−t2|0θ=−θ2,{\displaystyle {\frac {-1}{2}}\int _{0}^{\theta }dt={\frac {-t}{2}}{\big |}_{0}^{\theta }=-{\frac {\theta }{2}},}giving a negativehyperbolic angleas a negative sector area.
Mikhail Postnikov's 1979 textbookLectures in Geometryappeals to certaingeometric transformations– described as functions of coordinate pairs(x,y){\displaystyle (x,y)}– to express "freely floating area elements".[9]Ashear mappingis either of:
(x,y)→(x,y+kx),(x,y)→(x+ky,y){\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}(x,y)&\to (x,\ y+kx),\\(x,y)&\to (x+ky,\ y)\end{aligned}}}
for any real numberk{\displaystyle k}, while asqueeze mappingis
(x,y)→(λx,y/λ){\displaystyle (x,y)\to (\lambda x,\ y/\lambda )}
for any positive real numberλ{\displaystyle \lambda }. An area element is related(∼){\displaystyle (\thicksim )}to another if one of the transformations results in the second when applied to the first. As anequivalence relation, the area elements are segmented intoequivalence classesof related elements, which arePostnikov bivectors.
Proposition:If(a1,b1)=(ka+ℓb,k1a+ℓ1b){\displaystyle (a_{1},b_{1})=(ka+\ell b,\ k_{1}a+\ \ell _{1}b)}and
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Inmathematics, asigned measureis a generalization of the concept of (positive)measureby allowing the set function to takenegativevalues, i.e., to acquiresign.
There are two slightly different concepts of a signed measure, depending on whether or not one allows it to take infinite values. Signed measures are usually only allowed to take finiterealvalues, while some textbooks allow them to take infinite values. To avoid confusion, this article will call these two cases "finite signed measures" and "extended signed measures".
Given ameasurable space(X,Σ){\displaystyle (X,\Sigma )}(that is, asetX{\displaystyle X}with aσ-algebraΣ{\displaystyle \Sigma }on it), anextended signed measureis aset functionμ:Σ→R∪{∞,−∞}{\displaystyle \mu :\Sigma \to \mathbb {R} \cup \{\infty ,-\infty \}}such thatμ(∅)=0{\displaystyle \mu (\varnothing )=0}andμ{\displaystyle \mu }isσ-additive– that is, it satisfies the equalityμ(⋃n=1∞An)=∑n=1∞μ(An){\displaystyle \mu \left(\bigcup _{n=1}^{\infty }A_{n}\right)=\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }\mu (A_{n})}for anysequenceA1,A2,…,An,…{\displaystyle A_{1},A_{2},\ldots ,A_{n},\ldots }ofdisjoint setsinΣ.{\displaystyle \Sigma .}The series on the right mustconverge absolutelywhen the value of the left-hand side is finite. One consequence is that an extended signed measure can take+∞{\displaystyle +\infty }or−∞{\displaystyle -\infty }as a value, but not both. The expression∞−∞{\displaystyle \infty -\infty }is undefined[1]and must be avoided.
Afinite signed measure(a.k.a.real measure) is defined in the same way, except that it is only allowed to take real values. That is, it cannot take+∞{\displaystyle +\infty }or−∞.{\displaystyle -\infty .}
Finite signed measures form a realvector space, while extended signed measures do not because they are not closed under addition. On the other hand, measures are extended signed measures, but are not in general finite signed measures.
Consider anon-negativemeasureν{\displaystyle \nu }on the space (X, Σ) and ameasurable functionf:X→Rsuch that
Then, a finite signed measure is given by
for allAin Σ.
This signed measure takes only finite values. To allow it to take +∞ as a value, one needs to replace the assumption aboutfbeing absolutely integrable with the more relaxed condition
wheref−(x) = max(−f(x), 0) is thenegative partoff.
What follows are two results which will imply that an extended signed measure is the difference of two non-negative measures, and a finite signed measure is the difference of two finite non-negative measures.
TheHahn decomposition theoremstates that given a signed measureμ, there exist two measurable setsPandNsuch that:
Moreover, this decomposition is uniqueup toadding to/subtractingμ-null setsfromPandN.
Consider then two non-negative measuresμ+andμ−defined by
and
for all measurable setsE, that is,Ein Σ.
One can check that bothμ+andμ−are non-negative measures, with one taking only finite values, and are called thepositive partandnegative partofμ, respectively. One has thatμ=μ+− μ−. The measure |μ| =μ++μ−is called thevariationofμ, and its maximum possible value, ||μ|| = |μ|(X), is called thetotal variationofμ.
This consequence of the Hahn decomposition theorem is called theJordan decomposition. The measuresμ+,μ−and |μ| are independent of the choice ofPandNin the Hahn decomposition theorem.
The sum of two finite signed measures is a finite signed measure, as is the product of a finite signed measure by a real number – that is, they are closed underlinear combinations. It follows that the set of finite signed measures on a measurable space (X, Σ) is a realvector space; this is in contrast to positive measures, which are only closed underconical combinations, and thus form aconvex conebut not a vector space. Furthermore, thetotal variationdefines anormin respect to which the space of finite signed measures becomes aBanach space. This space has even more structure, in that it can be shown to be aDedekind completeBanach latticeand in so doing theRadon–Nikodym theoremcan be shown to be a special case of theFreudenthal spectral theorem.
IfXis a compact separable space, then the space of finite signed Baire measures is the dual of the real Banach space of allcontinuousreal-valued functions onX, by theRiesz–Markov–Kakutani representation theorem.
This article incorporates material from the followingPlanetMatharticles, which are licensed under theCreative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License: Signed measure, Hahn decomposition theorem, Jordan decomposition.
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Ingeometryandalgebra, thetriple productis a product of three 3-dimensionalvectors, usuallyEuclidean vectors. The name "triple product" is used for two different products, thescalar-valuedscalar triple productand, less often, thevector-valuedvector triple product.
Thescalar triple product(also called themixed product,box product, ortriple scalar product) is defined as thedot productof one of the vectors with thecross productof the other two.
Geometrically, the scalar triple product
is the (signed)volumeof theparallelepipeddefined by the three vectors given.
Strictly speaking, ascalardoes not change at all under a coordinate transformation. (For example, the factor of 2 used for doubling a vector does not change if the vector is in spherical vs. rectangular coordinates.) However, if each vector is transformed by a matrix then the triple product ends up being multiplied by the determinant of the transformation matrix. That is, the triple product of covariant vectors is more properly described as ascalar density.
Ta⋅(Tb×Tc)=det(TaTbTc)=det(T(abc))=det(T)det(abc)=det(T)(a⋅(b×c)){\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}T\mathbf {a} \cdot (T\mathbf {b} \times T\mathbf {c} )&=\det \left({\begin{matrix}T\mathbf {a} &T\mathbf {b} &T\mathbf {c} \end{matrix}}\right)\\&=\det \left(T\left({\begin{matrix}\mathbf {a} &\mathbf {b} &\mathbf {c} \end{matrix}}\right)\right)\\&=\det(T)\det \left({\begin{matrix}\mathbf {a} &\mathbf {b} &\mathbf {c} \end{matrix}}\right)\\&=\det(T)(\mathbf {a} \cdot (\mathbf {b} \times \mathbf {c} ))\end{aligned}}}
Some authors use "pseudoscalar" to describe an object that looks like a scalar but does not transform like one. Because the triple product transforms as a scalar density not as a scalar, it could be called a "pseudoscalar" by this broader definition. However, the triple product is not a "pseudoscalar density".
When a transformation is an orientation-preserving rotation, its determinant is+1and the triple product is unchanged. When a transformation is an orientation-reversing rotation then its determinant is−1and the triple product is negated. An arbitrary transformation could have a determinant that is neither+1nor−1.
Inexterior algebraandgeometric algebrathe exterior product of two vectors is abivector, while the exterior product of three vectors is atrivector. A bivector is an oriented plane element and a trivector is an oriented volume element, in the same way that a vector is an oriented line element.
Given vectorsa,bandc, the product
is a trivector with magnitude equal to the scalar triple product, i.e.
and is theHodge dualof the scalar triple product. As the exterior product is associative brackets are not needed as it does not matter which ofa∧borb∧cis calculated first, though the order of the vectors in the product does matter. Geometrically the trivectora∧b∧ccorresponds to the parallelepiped spanned bya,b, andc, with bivectorsa∧b,b∧canda∧cmatching theparallelogramfaces of the parallelepiped.
The triple product is identical to thevolume formof the Euclidean 3-space applied to the vectors viainterior product. It also can be expressed as acontractionof vectors with a rank-3 tensor equivalent to the form (or apseudotensorequivalent to the volume pseudoform); seebelow.
Thevector triple productis defined as thecross productof one vector with the cross product of the other two. The following relationship holds:
This is known astriple product expansion, orLagrange's formula,[2][3]although the latter name is also used forseveral other formulas. Its right hand side can be remembered by using themnemonic"ACB − ABC", provided one keeps in mind which vectors are dotted together. A proof is providedbelow. Some textbooks write the identity asa×(b×c)=b(a⋅c)−c(a⋅b){\displaystyle \mathbf {a} \times (\mathbf {b} \times \mathbf {c} )=\mathbf {b} (\mathbf {a} \cdot \mathbf {c} )-\mathbf {c} (\mathbf {a} \cdot \mathbf {b} )}such that a more familiarmnemonic"BAC − CAB" is obtained, as in “back of the cab”.
Since the cross product is anticommutative, this formula may also be written (up to permutation of the letters) as:
From Lagrange's formula it follows that the vector triple product satisfies:
which is theJacobi identityfor the cross product. Another useful formula follows:
These formulas are very useful in simplifying vector calculations inphysics. A related identity regardinggradientsand useful invector calculusis Lagrange's formula of vector cross-product identity:[4]
This can be also regarded as a special case of the more generalLaplace–de Rham operatorΔ=dδ+δd{\displaystyle \Delta =d\delta +\delta d}.
Thex{\displaystyle x}component ofu×(v×w){\displaystyle \mathbf {u} \times (\mathbf {v} \times \mathbf {w} )}is given by:
Similarly, they{\displaystyle y}andz{\displaystyle z}components ofu×(v×w){\displaystyle \mathbf {u} \times (\mathbf {v} \times \mathbf {w} )}are given by:
By combining these three components we obtain:
If geometric algebra is used the cross productb×cof vectors is expressed as their exterior productb∧c, abivector. The second cross product cannot be expressed as an exterior product, otherwise the scalar triple product would result. Instead aleft contraction[6]can be used, so the formula becomes[7]
The proof follows from the properties of the contraction.[6]The result is the same vector as calculated usinga× (b×c).
In geometric algebra, threebivectorscan also have a triple product. This product mimic the standard triple vector product. The antisymmetric product of three bivectors is.
This proof is made by taking dual of the geometric algebra version of the triple vector product until all vectors become bivectors.
This was three duals. This must also be done to the left side.
By negating both side we obtain:
Intensor notation, the triple product is expressed using theLevi-Civita symbol:[8]a⋅[b×c]=εijkaibjck{\displaystyle \mathbf {a} \cdot [\mathbf {b} \times \mathbf {c} ]=\varepsilon _{ijk}a^{i}b^{j}c^{k}}and(a×[b×c])i=εijkajεkℓmbℓcm=εijkεkℓmajbℓcm,{\displaystyle (\mathbf {a} \times [\mathbf {b} \times \mathbf {c} ])_{i}=\varepsilon _{ijk}a^{j}\varepsilon ^{k\ell m}b_{\ell }c_{m}=\varepsilon _{ijk}\varepsilon ^{k\ell m}a^{j}b_{\ell }c_{m},}referring to thei{\displaystyle i}-th component of the resulting vector. This can be simplified by performing acontractionon theLevi-Civita symbols,εijkεkℓm=δijℓm=δiℓδjm−δimδjℓ,{\displaystyle \varepsilon _{ijk}\varepsilon ^{k\ell m}=\delta _{ij}^{\ell m}=\delta _{i}^{\ell }\delta _{j}^{m}-\delta _{i}^{m}\delta _{j}^{\ell }\,,}whereδji{\displaystyle \delta _{j}^{i}}is theKronecker delta function(δji=0{\displaystyle \delta _{j}^{i}=0}wheni≠j{\displaystyle i\neq j}andδji=1{\displaystyle \delta _{j}^{i}=1}wheni=j{\displaystyle i=j}) andδijℓm{\displaystyle \delta _{ij}^{\ell m}}is thegeneralized Kronecker delta function. We can reason out this identity by recognizing that the indexk{\displaystyle k}will be summed out leaving onlyi{\displaystyle i}andj{\displaystyle j}. In the first term, we fixi=l{\displaystyle i=l}and thusj=m{\displaystyle j=m}. Likewise, in the second term, we fixi=m{\displaystyle i=m}and thusl=j{\displaystyle l=j}.
Returning to the triple cross product,(a×[b×c])i=(δiℓδjm−δimδjℓ)ajbℓcm=ajbicj−ajbjci=bi(a⋅c)−ci(a⋅b).{\displaystyle (\mathbf {a} \times [\mathbf {b} \times \mathbf {c} ])_{i}=(\delta _{i}^{\ell }\delta _{j}^{m}-\delta _{i}^{m}\delta _{j}^{\ell })a^{j}b_{\ell }c_{m}=a^{j}b_{i}c_{j}-a^{j}b_{j}c_{i}=b_{i}(\mathbf {a} \cdot \mathbf {c} )-c_{i}(\mathbf {a} \cdot \mathbf {b} )\,.}
Consider theflux integralof the vector fieldF{\displaystyle \mathbf {F} }across the parametrically-defined surfaceS=r(u,v){\displaystyle S=\mathbf {r} (u,v)}:∬SF⋅n^dS{\textstyle \iint _{S}\mathbf {F} \cdot {\hat {\mathbf {n} }}\,dS}. The unit normal vectorn^{\displaystyle {\hat {\mathbf {n} }}}to the surface is given byru×rv|ru×rv|{\textstyle {\frac {\mathbf {r} _{u}\times \mathbf {r} _{v}}{|\mathbf {r} _{u}\times \mathbf {r} _{v}|}}}, so the integrandF⋅(ru×rv)|ru×rv|{\textstyle \mathbf {F} \cdot {\frac {(\mathbf {r} _{u}\times \mathbf {r} _{v})}{|\mathbf {r} _{u}\times \mathbf {r} _{v}|}}}is a scalar triple product.
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Inphysicsandmathematics, thedimensionof amathematical space(orobject) is informally defined as the minimum number ofcoordinatesneeded to specify anypointwithin it.[1][2]Thus, alinehas adimension of one(1D) because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it – for example, the point at 5 on a number line. Asurface, such as theboundaryof acylinderorsphere, has adimension of two(2D) because two coordinates are needed to specify a point on it – for example, both alatitudeandlongitudeare required to locate a point on the surface of a sphere. Atwo-dimensional Euclidean spaceis a two-dimensional space on theplane. The inside of acube, a cylinder or a sphere isthree-dimensional(3D) because three coordinates are needed to locate a point within these spaces.
Inclassical mechanics,spaceandtimeare different categories and refer toabsolute space and time. That conception of the world is afour-dimensional spacebut not the one that was found necessary to describeelectromagnetism. The four dimensions (4D) ofspacetimeconsist ofeventsthat are not absolutely defined spatially and temporally, but rather are known relative to the motion of anobserver.Minkowski spacefirst approximates the universe withoutgravity; thepseudo-Riemannian manifoldsofgeneral relativitydescribe spacetime with matter and gravity. 10 dimensions are used to describesuperstring theory(6Dhyperspace+ 4D), 11 dimensions can describesupergravityandM-theory(7D hyperspace + 4D), and the state-space ofquantum mechanicsis an infinite-dimensionalfunction space.
The concept of dimension is not restricted to physical objects.High-dimensional spacesfrequently occur in mathematics and thesciences. They may beEuclidean spacesor more generalparameter spacesorconfiguration spacessuch as inLagrangianorHamiltonian mechanics; these areabstract spaces, independent of thephysical space.
Inmathematics, the dimension of an object is, roughly speaking, the number ofdegrees of freedomof a point that moves on this object. In other words, the dimension is the number of independentparametersorcoordinatesthat are needed for defining the position of a point that is constrained to be on the object. For example, the dimension of a point iszero; the dimension of alineisone, as a point can move on a line in only one direction (or its opposite); the dimension of aplaneistwo, etc.
The dimension is an intrinsic property of an object, in the sense that it is independent of the dimension of the space in which the object is or can beembedded. For example, acurve, such as acircle, is of dimension one, because the position of a point on a curve is determined by its signed distance along the curve to a fixed point on the curve. This is independent from the fact that a curve cannot be embedded in aEuclidean spaceof dimension lower than two, unless it is a line. Similarly, asurfaceis of dimension two, even if embedded inthree-dimensional space.
The dimension ofEuclideann-spaceEnisn. When trying to generalize to other types of spaces, one is faced with the question "what makesEnn-dimensional?" One answer is that to cover a fixedballinEnby small balls of radiusε, one needs on the order ofε−nsuch small balls. This observation leads to the definition of theMinkowski dimensionand its more sophisticated variant, theHausdorff dimension, but there are also other answers to that question. For example, the boundary of a ball inEnlooks locally likeEn-1and this leads to the notion of theinductive dimension. While these notions agree onEn, they turn out to be different when one looks at more general spaces.
Atesseractis an example of a four-dimensional object. Whereas outside mathematics the use of the term "dimension" is as in: "A tesseracthas four dimensions", mathematicians usually express this as: "The tesseracthas dimension 4", or: "The dimension of the tesseractis4".
Although the notion of higher dimensions goes back toRené Descartes, substantial development of a higher-dimensional geometry only began in the 19th century, via the work ofArthur Cayley,William Rowan Hamilton,Ludwig SchläfliandBernhard Riemann. Riemann's 1854Habilitationsschrift, Schläfli's 1852Theorie der vielfachen Kontinuität, and Hamilton's discovery of thequaternionsandJohn T. Graves' discovery of theoctonionsin 1843 marked the beginning of higher-dimensional geometry.
The rest of this section examines some of the more important mathematical definitions of dimension.
The dimension of avector spaceis the number of vectors in anybasisfor the space,i.e.the number of coordinates necessary to specify any vector. This notion of dimension (thecardinalityof a basis) is often referred to as theHamel dimensionoralgebraic dimensionto distinguish it from other notions of dimension.
For the non-freecase, this generalizes to the notion of thelength of a module.
The uniquely defined dimension of everyconnectedtopologicalmanifoldcan be calculated. A connected topological manifold islocallyhomeomorphicto Euclideann-space, in which the numbernis the manifold's dimension.
For connecteddifferentiable manifolds, the dimension is also the dimension of thetangent vector spaceat any point.
Ingeometric topology, the theory of manifolds is characterized by the way dimensions 1 and 2 are relatively elementary, thehigh-dimensionalcasesn> 4are simplified by having extra space in which to "work"; and the casesn= 3and4are in some senses the most difficult. This state of affairs was highly marked in the various cases of thePoincaré conjecture, in which four different proof methods are applied.
The dimension of a manifold depends on the base field with respect to which Euclidean space is defined. While analysis usually assumes a manifold to be over thereal numbers, it is sometimes useful in the study ofcomplex manifoldsandalgebraic varietiesto work over thecomplex numbersinstead. A complex number (x+iy) has areal partxand animaginary party, in which x and y are both real numbers; hence, the complex dimension is half the real dimension.
Conversely, in algebraically unconstrained contexts, a single complex coordinate system may be applied to an object having two real dimensions. For example, an ordinary two-dimensionalspherical surface, when given a complex metric, becomes aRiemann sphereof one complex dimension.[3]
The dimension of analgebraic varietymay be defined in various equivalent ways. The most intuitive way is probably the dimension of thetangent spaceat anyRegular point of an algebraic variety. Another intuitive way is to define the dimension as the number ofhyperplanesthat are needed in order to have an intersection with the variety that is reduced to a finite number of points (dimension zero). This definition is based on the fact that the intersection of a variety with a hyperplane reduces the dimension by one unless if the hyperplane contains the variety.
Analgebraic setbeing a finite union of algebraic varieties, its dimension is the maximum of the dimensions of its components. It is equal to the maximal length of the chainsV0⊊V1⊊⋯⊊Vd{\displaystyle V_{0}\subsetneq V_{1}\subsetneq \cdots \subsetneq V_{d}}of sub-varieties of the given algebraic set (the length of such a chain is the number of "⊊{\displaystyle \subsetneq }").
Each variety can be considered as analgebraic stack, and its dimension as variety agrees with its dimension as stack. There are however many stacks which do not correspond to varieties, and some of these have negative dimension. Specifically, ifVis a variety of dimensionmandGis analgebraic groupof dimensionnacting onV, then thequotient stack[V/G] has dimensionm−n.[4]
TheKrull dimensionof acommutative ringis the maximal length of chains ofprime idealsin it, a chain of lengthnbeing a sequenceP0⊊P1⊊⋯⊊Pn{\displaystyle {\mathcal {P}}_{0}\subsetneq {\mathcal {P}}_{1}\subsetneq \cdots \subsetneq {\mathcal {P}}_{n}}of prime ideals related by inclusion. It is strongly related to the dimension of an algebraic variety, because of the natural correspondence between sub-varieties and prime ideals of the ring of the polynomials on the variety.
For analgebra over a field, the dimension asvector spaceis finite if and only if its Krull dimension is 0.
For anynormal topological spaceX, theLebesgue covering dimensionofXis defined to be the smallestintegernfor which the following holds: anyopen coverhas an open refinement (a second open cover in which each element is a subset of an element in the first cover) such that no point is included in more thann+ 1elements. In this case dimX=n. ForXa manifold, this coincides with the dimension mentioned above. If no such integernexists, then the dimension ofXis said to be infinite, and one writes dimX= ∞. Moreover,Xhas dimension −1, i.e. dimX= −1if and only ifXis empty. This definition of covering dimension can be extended from the class of normal spaces to allTychonoff spacesmerely by replacing the term "open" in the definition by the term "functionally open".
Aninductive dimensionmay be definedinductivelyas follows. Consider adiscrete setof points (such as a finite collection of points) to be 0-dimensional. By dragging a 0-dimensional object in some direction, one obtains a 1-dimensional object. By dragging a 1-dimensional object in anew direction, one obtains a 2-dimensional object. In general, one obtains an (n+ 1)-dimensional object by dragging ann-dimensional object in anewdirection. The inductive dimension of a topological space may refer to thesmall inductive dimensionor thelarge inductive dimension, and is based on the analogy that, in the case of metric spaces,(n+ 1)-dimensionalballs haven-dimensionalboundaries, permitting an inductive definition based on the dimension of the boundaries of open sets. Moreover, the boundary of a discrete set of points is the empty set, and therefore the empty set can be taken to have dimension −1.[5]
Similarly, for the class ofCW complexes, the dimension of an object is the largestnfor which then-skeletonis nontrivial. Intuitively, this can be described as follows: if the original space can becontinuously deformedinto a collection ofhigher-dimensional trianglesjoined at their faces with a complicated surface, then the dimension of the object is the dimension of those triangles.[citation needed]
TheHausdorff dimensionis useful for studying structurally complicated sets, especiallyfractals. The Hausdorff dimension is defined for allmetric spacesand, unlike the dimensions considered above, can also have non-integer real values.[6]Thebox dimensionorMinkowski dimensionis a variant of the same idea. In general, there exist more definitions offractal dimensionsthat work for highly irregular sets and attain non-integer positive real values.
EveryHilbert spaceadmits anorthonormal basis, and any two such bases for a particular space have the samecardinality. This cardinality is called the dimension of the Hilbert space. This dimension is finite if and only if the space'sHamel dimensionis finite, and in this case the two dimensions coincide.
Classical physics theories describe threephysical dimensions: from a particular point inspace, the basic directions in which we can move are up/down, left/right, and forward/backward. Movement in any other direction can be expressed in terms of just these three. Moving down is the same as moving up a negative distance. Moving diagonally upward and forward is just as the name of the direction impliesi.e., moving in alinear combinationof up and forward. In its simplest form: a line describes one dimension, a plane describes two dimensions, and a cube describes three dimensions. (SeeSpaceandCartesian coordinate system.)
Atemporal dimension, ortime dimension, is a dimension of time. Time is often referred to as the "fourth dimension" for this reason, but that is not to imply that it is a spatial dimension[citation needed]. A temporal dimension is one way to measure physical change. It is perceived differently from the three spatial dimensions in that there is only one of it, and that we cannot move freely in time but subjectively movein one direction.
The equations used in physics to model reality do not treat time in the same way that humans commonly perceive it. The equations ofclassical mechanicsaresymmetric with respect to time, and equations of quantum mechanics are typically symmetric if both time and other quantities (such aschargeandparity) are reversed. In these models, the perception of time flowing in one direction is an artifact of thelaws of thermodynamics(we perceive time as flowing in the direction of increasingentropy).
The best-known treatment of time as a dimension isPoincaréandEinstein'sspecial relativity(and extended togeneral relativity), which treats perceived space and time as components of a four-dimensionalmanifold, known asspacetime, and in the special, flat case asMinkowski space. Time is different from other spatial dimensions as time operates in all spatial dimensions. Time operates in the first, second and third as well as theoretical spatial dimensions such as afourth spatial dimension. Time is not however present in a single point of absolute infinitesingularityas defined as ageometric point, as an infinitely small point can have no change and therefore no time. Just as when an object moves throughpositionsin space, it also moves through positions in time. In this sense theforcemoving anyobjectto change istime.[7][8][9]
In physics, three dimensions of space and one of time is the accepted norm. However, there are theories that attempt to unify the fourfundamental forcesby introducingextra dimensions/hyperspace. Most notably,superstring theoryrequires 10 spacetime dimensions, and originates from a more fundamental 11-dimensional theory tentatively calledM-theorywhich subsumes five previously distinct superstring theories.Supergravity theoryalso promotes 11D spacetime = 7D hyperspace + 4 common dimensions. To date, no direct experimental or observational evidence is available to support the existence of these extra dimensions. If hyperspace exists, it must be hidden from us by some physical mechanism. One well-studied possibility is that the extra dimensions may be "curled up" (compactified) at such tiny scales as to be effectively invisible to current experiments.
In 1921,Kaluza–Klein theorypresented 5D including an extra dimension of space. At the level ofquantum field theory, Kaluza–Klein theory unifiesgravitywithgaugeinteractions, based on the realization that gravity propagating in small, compact extra dimensions is equivalent to gauge interactions at long distances. In particular when the geometry of the extra dimensions is trivial, it reproduceselectromagnetism. However, at sufficiently high energies or short distances, this setup still suffers from the same pathologies that famously obstruct direct attempts to describequantum gravity. Therefore, these models still require aUV completion, of the kind that string theory is intended to provide. In particular, superstring theory requires six compact dimensions (6D hyperspace) forming aCalabi–Yau manifold. Thus Kaluza-Klein theory may be considered either as an incomplete description on its own, or as a subset of string theory model building.
In addition to small and curled up extra dimensions, there may be extra dimensions that instead are not apparent because the matter associated with our visible universe is localized on a(3 + 1)-dimensionalsubspace. Thus, the extra dimensions need not be small and compact but may belarge extra dimensions.D-branesare dynamical extended objects of various dimensionalities predicted by string theory that could play this role. They have the property that open string excitations, which are associated with gauge interactions, are confined to thebraneby their endpoints, whereas the closed strings that mediate the gravitational interaction are free to propagate into the whole spacetime, or "the bulk". This could be related to why gravity is exponentially weaker than the other forces, as it effectively dilutes itself as it propagates into a higher-dimensional volume.
Some aspects of brane physics have been applied tocosmology. For example, brane gas cosmology[10][11]attempts to explain why there are three dimensions of space using topological and thermodynamic considerations. According to this idea it would be since three is the largest number of spatial dimensions in which strings can generically intersect. If initially there are many windings of strings around compact dimensions, space could only expand to macroscopic sizes once these windings are eliminated, which requires oppositely wound strings to find each other and annihilate. But strings can only find each other to annihilate at a meaningful rate in three dimensions, so it follows that only three dimensions of space are allowed to grow large given this kind of initial configuration.
Extra dimensions are said to beuniversalif all fields are equally free to propagate within them.
Several types of digital systems are based on the storage, analysis, and visualization of geometric shapes, includingillustration software,Computer-aided design, andGeographic information systems. Different vector systems use a wide variety of data structures to represent shapes, but almost all are fundamentally based on a set ofgeometric primitivescorresponding to the spatial dimensions:[12]
Frequently in these systems, especially GIS andCartography, a representation of a real-world phenomenon may have a different (usually lower) dimension than the phenomenon being represented. For example, a city (a two-dimensional region) may be represented as a point, or a road (a three-dimensional volume of material) may be represented as a line. Thisdimensional generalizationcorrelates with tendencies in spatial cognition. For example, asking the distance between two cities presumes a conceptual model of the cities as points, while giving directions involving travel "up," "down," or "along" a road imply a one-dimensional conceptual model. This is frequently done for purposes of data efficiency, visual simplicity, or cognitive efficiency, and is acceptable if the distinction between the representation and the represented is understood but can cause confusion if information users assume that the digital shape is a perfect representation of reality (i.e., believing that roads really are lines).
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Inmathematics, a structure on aset(or on some sets) refers to providing or endowing it (or them) with certain additional features (e.g. anoperation,relation,metric, ortopology). Τhe additional features are attached or related to the set (or to the sets), so as to provide it (or them) with some additional meaning or significance.
A partial list of possible structures aremeasures,algebraic structures(groups,fields, etc.),topologies,metric structures(geometries),orders,graphs,events,equivalence relations,differential structures, andcategories.
Sometimes, a set is endowed with more than one feature simultaneously, which allows mathematicians to study the interaction between the different structures more richly. For example, an ordering imposes a rigid form, shape, or topology on the set, and if a set has both a topology feature and a group feature, such that these two features are related in a certain way, then the structure becomes atopological group.[1]
Mapbetween two sets with the same type of structure, which preserve this structure [morphism: structure in thedomainis mapped properly to the (same type) structure in thecodomain] is of special interest in many fields of mathematics. Examples arehomomorphisms, which preserve algebraic structures;continuous functions, which preserve topological structures; anddifferentiable functions, which preserve differential structures.
In 1939, the French group with the pseudonym "Nicolas Bourbaki" saw structures as the root of mathematics. They first mentioned them in their "Fascicule" ofTheory of Setsand expanded it into Chapter IV of the 1957 edition.[2]They identifiedthreemother structures: algebraic, topological, and order.[2][3]
The set ofreal numbershas several standard structures:
There are interfaces among these:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_structure
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Inmathematics, particularly inuniversal algebraandcategory theory,transport of structurerefers to the process whereby amathematical objectacquires a newstructureand itscanonical definitions, as a result of beingisomorphicto (or otherwise identified with) another object with a pre-existing structure.[1]Definitions by transport of structure are regarded as canonical.
Since mathematical structures are often defined in reference to an underlyingspace, many examples of transport of structure involve spaces andmappingsbetween them. For example, ifV{\displaystyle V}andW{\displaystyle W}arevector spaceswith(⋅,⋅){\displaystyle (\cdot ,\cdot )}being aninner productonW{\displaystyle W}, such that there is anisomorphismϕ{\displaystyle \phi }fromV{\displaystyle V}toW{\displaystyle W}, then one can define an inner product[⋅,⋅]{\displaystyle [\cdot ,\cdot ]}onV{\displaystyle V}by the following rule:
Although the equation makes sense even whenϕ{\displaystyle \phi }is not an isomorphism, it only defines an inner product onV{\displaystyle V}whenϕ{\displaystyle \phi }is, since otherwise it will cause[⋅,⋅]{\displaystyle [\cdot ,\cdot ]}to bedegenerate. The idea is thatϕ{\displaystyle \phi }allows one to considerV{\displaystyle V}andW{\displaystyle W}as "the same" vector space, and by following this analogy, then one can transport an inner product from one space to the other.
A more elaborated example comes fromdifferential topology, in which the notion ofsmooth manifoldis involved: ifM{\displaystyle M}is such a manifold, and ifX{\displaystyle X}is anytopological spacewhich ishomeomorphictoM{\displaystyle M}, then one can considerX{\displaystyle X}as a smooth manifold as well. That is, given a homeomorphismϕ:X→M{\displaystyle \phi \colon X\to M}, one can define coordinate charts onX{\displaystyle X}by "pulling back" coordinate charts onM{\displaystyle M}throughϕ{\displaystyle \phi }. Recall that a coordinate chart onM{\displaystyle M}is anopen setU{\displaystyle U}together with aninjectivemap
for somenatural numbern{\displaystyle n}; to get such a chart onX{\displaystyle X}, one uses the following rules:
Furthermore, it is required that the chartscoverM{\displaystyle M}(the fact that the transported charts coverX{\displaystyle X}follows immediately from the fact thatϕ{\displaystyle \phi }is abijection). SinceM{\displaystyle M}is asmoothmanifold, ifUandV, with their mapsc:U→Rn{\displaystyle c\colon U\to \mathbb {R} ^{n}}andd:V→Rn{\displaystyle d\colon V\to \mathbb {R} ^{n}}, are two charts onM{\displaystyle M}, then the composition, the "transition map"
is smooth. To verify this for the transported charts onX{\displaystyle X}, notice that
and therefore
Thus the transition map forU′{\displaystyle U'}andV′{\displaystyle V'}is the same as that forU{\displaystyle U}andV{\displaystyle V}, hence smooth. That is,X{\displaystyle X}is a smooth manifold via transport of structure. This is a special case of transport of structures in general.[2]
The second example also illustrates why "transport of structure" is not always desirable. Namely, one can takeM{\displaystyle M}to be the plane, andX{\displaystyle X}to be an infinite one-sided cone. By "flattening" the cone, a homeomorphism ofX{\displaystyle X}andM{\displaystyle M}can be obtained, and therefore the structure of a smooth manifold onX{\displaystyle X}, but the cone is not "naturally" a smooth manifold. That is, one can considerX{\displaystyle X}as a subspace of 3-space, in which context it is not smooth at the cone point.
A more surprising example is that ofexotic spheres, discovered byMilnor, which states that there are exactly 28 smooth manifolds which arehomeomorphicbutnotdiffeomorphictoS7{\displaystyle S^{7}}, the 7-dimensional sphere in 8-space. Thus, transport of structure is most productive when there exists acanonicalisomorphism between the two objects.
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Inmathematics, acategory(sometimes called anabstract categoryto distinguish it from aconcrete category) is a collection of "objects" that are linked by "arrows". A category has two basic properties: the ability to compose the arrowsassociativelyand the existence of an identity arrow for each object. A simple example is thecategory of sets, whose objects aresetsand whose arrows arefunctions.
Category theoryis a branch of mathematics that seeks to generalize all of mathematics in terms of categories, independent of what their objects and arrows represent. Virtually every branch of modern mathematics can be described in terms of categories, and doing so often reveals deep insights and similarities between seemingly different areas of mathematics. As such, category theory provides an alternative foundation for mathematics toset theoryand other proposed axiomatic foundations. In general, the objects and arrows may be abstract entities of any kind, and the notion of category provides a fundamental and abstract way to describe mathematical entities and their relationships.
In addition to formalizing mathematics, category theory is also used to formalize many other systems in computer science, such as thesemantics of programming languages.
Two categories are the same if they have the same collection of objects, the same collection of arrows, and the same associative method of composing any pair of arrows. Twodifferentcategories may also be considered "equivalent" for purposes of category theory, even if they do not have precisely the same structure.
Well-known categories are denoted by a short capitalized word or abbreviation in bold or italics: examples includeSet, the category ofsetsandset functions;Ring, the category ofringsandring homomorphisms; andTop, the category oftopological spacesandcontinuous maps. All of the preceding categories have theidentity mapas identity arrows andcompositionas the associative operation on arrows.
The classic and still much used text on category theory isCategories for the Working MathematicianbySaunders Mac Lane. Other references are given in theReferencesbelow. The basic definitions in this article are contained within the first few chapters of any of these books.
Anymonoidcan be understood as a special sort of category (with a single object whose self-morphisms are represented by the elements of the monoid), and so can anypreorder.
There are many equivalent definitions of a category.[1]One commonly used definition is as follows. AcategoryCconsists of
such that the following axioms hold:
We writef:a→b, and we say "fis a morphism fromatob". We write hom(a,b) (or homC(a,b) when there may be confusion about to which category hom(a,b) refers) to denote thehom-classof all morphisms fromatob.[2]
Some authors write the composite of morphisms in "diagrammatic order", writingf;gorfginstead ofg∘f.
From these axioms, one can prove that there is exactly one identity morphism for every object. Often the map assigning each object its identity morphism is treated as an extra part of the structure of a category, namely a class function i: ob(C) → mor(C).
Some authors use a slight variant of the definition in which each object is identified with the corresponding identity morphism. This stems from the idea that the fundamental data of categories are morphisms and not objects. In fact, categories can be defined without reference to objects at all using a partial binary operation with additional properties.
A categoryCis calledsmallif both ob(C) and mor(C) are actuallysetsand notproper classes, andlargeotherwise. Alocally small categoryis a category such that for all objectsaandb, the hom-class hom(a,b) is a set, called ahomset. Many important categories in mathematics (such as the category of sets), although not small, are at least locally small. Since, in small categories, the objects form a set, a small category can be viewed as analgebraic structuresimilar to amonoidbut without requiringclosureproperties. Large categories on the other hand can be used to create "structures" of algebraic structures.
Theclassof all sets (as objects) together with allfunctionsbetween them (as morphisms), where the composition of morphisms is the usualfunction composition, forms a large category,Set. It is the most basic and the most commonly used category in mathematics. The categoryRelconsists of allsets(as objects) withbinary relationsbetween them (as morphisms). Abstracting fromrelationsinstead of functions yieldsallegories, a special class of categories.
Any class can be viewed as a category whose only morphisms are the identity morphisms. Such categories are calleddiscrete. For any givensetI, thediscrete category on Iis the small category that has the elements ofIas objects and only the identity morphisms as morphisms. Discrete categories are the simplest kind of category.
Anypreordered set(P, ≤) forms a small category, where the objects are the members ofP, the morphisms are arrows pointing fromxtoywhenx≤y. Furthermore, if≤isantisymmetric, there can be at most one morphism between any two objects. The existence of identity morphisms and the composability of the morphisms are guaranteed by thereflexivityand thetransitivityof the preorder. By the same argument, anypartially ordered setand anyequivalence relationcan be seen as a small category. Anyordinal numbercan be seen as a category when viewed as anordered set.
Anymonoid(anyalgebraic structurewith a singleassociativebinary operationand anidentity element) forms a small category with a single objectx. (Here,xis any fixed set.) The morphisms fromxtoxare precisely the elements of the monoid, the identity morphism ofxis the identity of the monoid, and the categorical composition of morphisms is given by the monoid operation. Several definitions and theorems about monoids may be generalized for categories.
Similarly anygroupcan be seen as a category with a single object in which every morphism isinvertible, that is, for every morphismfthere is a morphismgthat is bothleft and right inversetofunder composition. A morphism that is invertible in this sense is called anisomorphism.
Agroupoidis a category in which every morphism is an isomorphism. Groupoids are generalizations of groups,group actionsandequivalence relations. Actually, in the view of category the only difference between groupoid and group is that a groupoid may have more than one object but the group must have only one. Consider a topological spaceXand fix a base pointx0{\displaystyle x_{0}}ofX, thenπ1(X,x0){\displaystyle \pi _{1}(X,x_{0})}is thefundamental groupof the topological spaceXand the base pointx0{\displaystyle x_{0}}, and as a set it has the structure of group; if then let the base pointx0{\displaystyle x_{0}}runs over all points ofX, and take the union of allπ1(X,x0){\displaystyle \pi _{1}(X,x_{0})}, then the set we get has only the structure of groupoid (which is called as thefundamental groupoidofX): two loops (under equivalence relation of homotopy) may not have the same base point so they cannot multiply with each other. In the language of category, this means here two morphisms may not have the same source object (or target object, because in this case for any morphism the source object and the target object are same: the base point) so they can not compose with each other.
Anydirected graphgeneratesa small category: the objects are theverticesof the graph, and the morphisms are the paths in the graph (augmented withloopsas needed) where composition of morphisms is concatenation of paths. Such a category is called thefree categorygenerated by the graph.
The class of all preordered sets with order-preserving functions (i.e., monotone-increasing functions) as morphisms forms a category,Ord. It is aconcrete category, i.e. a category obtained by adding some type of structure ontoSet, and requiring that morphisms are functions that respect this added structure.
The class of all groups withgroup homomorphismsasmorphismsandfunction compositionas the composition operation forms a large category,Grp. LikeOrd,Grpis a concrete category. The categoryAb, consisting of allabelian groupsand their group homomorphisms, is afull subcategoryofGrp, and the prototype of anabelian category.
The class of allgraphsforms another concrete category, where morphisms are graph homomorphisms (i.e., mappings between graphs which send vertices to vertices and edges to edges in a way that preserves all adjacency and incidence relations).
Other examples of concrete categories are given by the following table.
Fiber bundleswithbundle mapsbetween them form a concrete category.
The categoryCatconsists of all small categories, withfunctorsbetween them as morphisms.
Any categoryCcan itself be considered as a new category in a different way: the objects are the same as those in the original category but the arrows are those of the original category reversed. This is called thedualoropposite categoryand is denotedCop.
IfCandDare categories, one can form theproduct categoryC×D: the objects are pairs consisting of one object fromCand one fromD, and the morphisms are also pairs, consisting of one morphism inCand one inD. Such pairs can be composedcomponentwise.
Amorphismf:a→bis called
Every retraction is an epimorphism. Every section is a monomorphism. The following three statements are equivalent:
Relations among morphisms (such asfg=h) can most conveniently be represented withcommutative diagrams, where the objects are represented as points and the morphisms as arrows.
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Attraction, inlinguistics, is a type of error in language production that incorrectly extends a feature from one word in a sentence to another.[1]This can refer to agreement attraction, wherein a feature is assigned based on agreement with another word. This tends to happen in English with subject-verb agreement, especially where the subject is separated from the verb in a complex noun phrase structure. It can also refer to case attraction, which assigns features based on grammatical roles, or in dialectal forms of English, negative attraction which extends negation particles.[2]
Agreement attractionoccurs when a verb agrees with a noun other than itssubject. It most commonly occurs with complex subjectnoun phrases, a notable example of this appeared in the New Yorker:
Theheadof the subject noun phrase, "efforts", is plural, but the verb appears in a singular form because the local noun "language" in the interceding phrase is singular, and therefore attracts the production of the singular feature in "is". While Bock pointed to this example, it doesn't follow the more common pattern where the local nouns are plural and attract plural marking onto the verb, such as in the sentence:
"The key to the cabinets were missing"[3]
The tendency for plural nouns to elicit attraction more often is caused by a marking plurality as a feature, where singularity is considered part of the default, and that activation of the noun plurality marker is what attracts the plural verb form activation.[3]Agreement attraction not only appears with subject-verb agreement, but also with object-verb agreement inWH-movementin English. Take this ungrammatical construction:
"Which flowers are the gardener planting"[4]
This sentence is ungrammatical because the subject "gardener" is singular, but "are" is plural, which was attracted by the plural noun object phrase "which flowers" that appear just before the verb due to WH-movement.
Object attraction also appears in SOV constructions in Dutch, where agreement attraction occurs between the verb and the local object noun.[4]
"John gave his pencil to the teacher" - "his" refers to "John" as it is a possessive marker[5]
There can be a lot of confusion caused by words that are grammatically plural but conceptually singular such as "scissors", but also those that are grammatically and conceptually plural such as "suds", as well as words that are grammatically singular but can be conceptually plural such as "army".[6]
Case attractionis the process by which arelative pronountakes on (is "attracted to") thecaseof itsantecedentrather than having the case appropriate to its function in the relative clause. For example, in the following English sentence, the relative pronoun has the appropriate case, theaccusative:
The following erroneous sentence, on the other hand, has case attraction:
Because the antecedent, "[of] the man", is possessive, the relative pronoun has become possessive as well. Attraction is a theoretical process in StandardEnglish, but it is common in theGreekof theSeptuagintand also occurs in theNew Testament.[citation needed]
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Inlinguistics,case governmentis a type ofgovernmentwherein a verb oradpositionimposesgrammatical caserequirements on its noun phrase complement. For example, inGermanthe prepositionfür'for' governs theaccusative case:für mich'for me-accusative'.[1]Case government may modify the meaning of the verb substantially, even to meanings that are unrelated.
Case government is an important notion in languages with many case distinctions, such asRussianandFinnish. It plays less of a role in English, because English does not rely on grammatical cases, except for distinguishing subject pronouns (I, he, she, we, they) from other pronouns (me, him, her, us, them). In English, true case government is absent, but if the aforementioned subject pronouns are understood as regular pronouns in theaccusative case, it occurs in sentences such asHe found me(not for example *He found I).
InStandard German, there areprepositionswhich govern each of the three oblique cases:Accusative,Dative, andGenitive. Case marking in German is largely observed on elements which modify the noun (e.g. determiners, adjectives). In the following table, examples ofLöffel'spoon' (Masculine),Messer'knife' (Neuter), andGabel'fork' (Feminine) are in definite noun phrases for each of the four cases. In the oblique cases (i.e. non-Nominative), the prepositions supplied dictate different cases:ohne'without' governs the accusative,mit'with' governs the dative, andwegen'because of' governs the genitive:[2]
der
the.M.NOM.SG
Löffel
spoon.NOM.SG
der Löffel
the.M.NOM.SG spoon.NOM.SG
'the spoon'
das
the.N.NOM.SG
Messer
knife.NOM.SG
das Messer
the.N.NOM.SG knife.NOM.SG
'the knife'
die
the.F.NOM.SG
Gabel
fork.NOM.SG
die Gabel
the.F.NOM.SG fork.NOM.SG
'the fork'
ohne
without
den
the.M.ACC.SG
Löffel
spoon.ACC.SG
ohne den Löffel
without the.M.ACC.SG spoon.ACC.SG
'without the spoon'
ohne
without
das
the.N.ACC.SG
Messer
knife.ACC.SG
ohne das Messer
without the.N.ACC.SG knife.ACC.SG
'without the knife'
ohne
without
die
the.F.ACC.SG
Gabel
fork.ACC.SG
ohne die Gabel
without the.F.ACC.SG fork.ACC.SG
'without the fork'
mit
with
dem
the.M.DAT.SG
Löffel
spoon.DAT.SG
mit dem Löffel
with the.M.DAT.SG spoon.DAT.SG
'with the spoon'
mit
with
dem
the.N.DAT.SG
Messer
knife.DAT.SG
mit dem Messer
with the.N.DAT.SG knife.DAT.SG
'with the knife'
mit
with
der
the.F.DAT.SG
Gabel
fork.DAT.SG
mit der Gabel
with the.F.DAT.SG fork.DAT.SG
'with the fork'
wegen
because of
des
the.M.GEN.SG
Löffels
spoon-M.GEN.SG
wegen des Löffels
{because of} the.M.GEN.SG spoon-M.GEN.SG
'because of the spoon'
wegen
because of
des
the.N.GEN.SG
Messer-s
knife-N.GEN.SG
wegen des Messer-s
{because of} the.N.GEN.SG knife-N.GEN.SG
'because of the knife'
wegen
because of
der
the.F.GEN.SG
Gabel
fork.F.GEN.SG
wegen der Gabel
{because of} the.F.GEN.SG fork.F.GEN.SG
'because of the fork'
There are also two-way prepositions which govern the dative when the prepositional phrase denoteslocation(where at?), but the accusative when it denotesdirection(to/from where?).
in
in
seinem
his.M.DAT.SG
Palast
palace.DAT.SG
in seinem Palast
in his.M.DAT.SG palace.DAT.SG
'in his palace'
in
in
seinen
his.M.ACC.SG
Palast
palace.ACC.SG
in seinen Palast
in his.M.ACC.SG palace.ACC.SG
'into his palace'
In Finnish, certain verbs or groups of verbs require associated objects to employ particular cases or case-like suffixes regardless of the circumstances in which a case is normally used. For example, certain verbs expressing emotions such asrakastaa(to love),inhota(to hate), andpelätä(to fear) require the use of thepartitive case: thus, "Minä rakastan sinua" (I love you), in which "sinua" is partitive although a complete concrete entity as object would normally take thegenitive. A number of verbs associated with sensory perception such asmaistua(to taste) andkuulostaa(to sound) employ theablative-like suffix-lta/-ltä: "Jäätelö maistuu hyvältä" (Ice cream tastes good). And certain verbs referring to interests or hobbies such aspitää(to like) andnauttia(to enjoy) use theelative-like suffix-sta/-stä.[3]
In books on Finnish grammar written in Finnish the phenomenon of case government is usually referred to as "rektio", from theLatinrēctiō(control or governance).
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Inlinguistics,declension(verb:todecline) is the changing of the form of aword, generally to express itssyntactic functionin the sentence by way of aninflection. Declension may apply tonouns,pronouns,adjectives,adverbs, anddeterminers. It serves to indicatenumber(e.g. singular, dual, plural),case(e.g.nominative,accusative,genitive, ordative),gender(e.g. masculine, feminine, or neuter), and a number of othergrammatical categories. Inflectional change ofverbsis calledconjugation.
Declension occurs in many languages. It is an important aspect of language families likeQuechuan(i.e., languages native to theAndes),Indo-European(e.g.German,Icelandic,Irish,Lithuanian and Latvian,Slavic,Sanskrit,Latin,AncientandModern Greek,Albanian,Romanian,Kurdish,ClassicalandModern Armenian),[excessive detail?]Bantu(e.g.Swahili,Zulu,Kikuyu),Semitic(e.g.Modern Standard Arabic),Finno-Ugric(e.g.Hungarian,Finnish,Estonian), andTurkic(e.g.Turkish).
Old Englishwas aninflectional language, but largely abandoned inflectional changes as it evolved intoModern English. Though traditionally classified assynthetic, Modern English has become a mostlyanalytic language.
Unlike English, many languages usesuffixesto specify subjects and objects and word cases in general.Inflected languageshave a freer word order than modern English, ananalytic languagein whichword orderidentifies the subject and object.[1][2]As an example, even though both of the following sentences consist of the same words, the meaning is different:[1]
Hypothetically speaking, suppose English were a language with a more complex declension system in which cases were formed by adding the suffixes:
The first sentence above could be formed with any of the followingword ordersand would have the same meaning:[1]
As a more complex example, the sentence:
becomes nonsensical in English if the words are rearranged (because there are no cases):
But if English were a highly inflected language, likeLatinor someSlavic languagessuch asCroatian, both sentences could mean the same thing.[1]They would both contain five nouns in five different cases:mum– vocative (hey!),dog– nominative (who?),boy– genitive (of whom?),cat– accusative (whom?),street– locative (where?);[3]the adjectivelittlewould be in the same case as the noun it modifies (boy), and the case of the determinerourwouldagreewith the case of the noun it determines (street).[4]
Using the case suffixes invented for this example, the original sentence would read:
And like other inflected languages, the sentence rearranged in the following ways would mean virtually the same thing, but with different expressiveness:[5]
Instead of thelocative, theinstrumental formof "down our street" could also be used:[6]
Different word orders preserving the original meaning are possible in an inflected language,[5]while modern English relies on word order for meaning, with a little flexibility.[1]This is one of the advantages of an inflected language. The English sentences above, when read without the made-up case suffixes, are confusing.
These contrived examples are relatively simple, whereas actual inflected languages have a far more complicated set of declensions, where the suffixes (or prefixes orinfixes) change depending on thegender of the noun, thequantity of the noun, and other possible factors. This complexity and the possible lengthening of words is one of the disadvantages of inflected languages. Notably, many of these languages lackarticles. There may also beirregular nounswhere the declensions are unique for each word (likeirregular verbswithconjugation). In inflected languages, otherparts of speechsuch asnumerals,demonstratives,adjectives,[7]andarticles[8]are also declined.
It is agreed thatAncient Greekshad a "vague" idea of the forms of a noun in their language. A fragment ofAnacreonseems to confirm this idea. Nevertheless, it cannot be concluded that the Ancient Greeks actually knew what the cases were. TheStoicsdeveloped many basic notions that today are the rudiments oflinguistics. The idea of grammatical cases is also traced back to the Stoics, but it is still not completely clear what the Stoics exactly meant with their notion of cases.[9][10]
InModern English, the system of declensions is so simple compared to some other languages that the termdeclensionis rarely used.
Most nouns in English have distinctsingularandpluralforms. Nouns and most noun phrases can form apossessiveconstruction. Plurality is most commonly shown by theending-s(or-es), whereas possession is always shown by the enclitic-'sor, for plural forms ending ins, by just an apostrophe.
Consider, for example, the forms of the noungirl. Most speakers pronounce all forms other than the singular plain form (girl) exactly the same.[note 1]
By contrast, a few irregular nouns (likeman/men) are slightly more complex in their forms. In this example, all four forms are pronounced distinctly.
For nouns, in general, gender is not declined in Modern English. There are isolated situations where certain nouns may be modified to reflect gender, though not in a systematic fashion. Loan words from other languages, particularly Latin and the Romance languages, often preserve their gender-specific forms in English, e.g.alumnus(masculine singular) andalumna(feminine singular). Similarly, names borrowed from other languages show comparable distinctions:AndrewandAndrea,PaulandPaula, etc. Additionally, suffixes such as-ess,-ette, and-erare sometimes applied to create overtly gendered versions of nouns, with marking for feminine being much more common than marking for masculine. Many nouns can actually function as members of two genders or even all three, and the gender classes of English nouns are usually determined by their agreement with pronouns, rather than marking on the nouns themselves.
There can be other derivations from nouns that are not considered declensions. For example, the proper nounBritainhas the associated descriptive adjectiveBritishand thedemonymBriton. Though these words are clearly related, and are generally consideredcognates, they are not specifically treated as forms of thesame word, and thus are not declensions.
Pronounsin English have more complex declensions. For example, thefirst person"I":
Whereas nouns do not distinguish between thesubjective (nominative)andobjective (oblique)cases, some pronouns do; that is, they decline to reflect their relationship to averborpreposition, orcase. Consider the difference betweenhe(subjective) andhim(objective), as in "He saw it" and "It saw him"; similarly, considerwho, which is subjective, and the objectivewhom(although it is increasingly common to usewhofor both).
The one situation wheregender[note 2]is still clearly part of the English language is in the pronouns for the third person singular. Consider the following:
The distinguishing of neuter for persons and non-persons is peculiar to English. This has existed since the 14th century.[11][12]However, the use ofsingular theyis often restricted to specific contexts, depending on the dialect or the speaker. It is most typically used to refer to a single person of unknown gender (e.g. "someone left their jacket behind") or a hypothetical person where gender is insignificant (e.g. "If someone wants to, then they should"). Its use has expanded in recent years due to increasing social recognition of persons who do not identify themselves as male or female[13](seegender-nonbinary). Thesingular theystill uses plural verb forms, reflecting its origins.
Some English adjectives and adverbs are declined fordegree of comparison. The unmarked form is thepositiveform, such asquick. Comparative forms are formed with the ending-er(quicker), while superlative forms are formed with-est(quickest). Some are uncomparable; the remainder are usually periphrastic constructions withmore(more beautiful) andmost(most modestly). Seedegree of comparisonfor more.
Adjectives are not declined for case in Modern English (though they were in Old English), nor number nor gender.[note 3]
The demonstrative determinersthisandthatare declined for number, astheseandthose.
Thearticleis never regarded as declined in Modern English, although formally, the wordsthatand possiblyshecorrespond to forms of the predecessor ofthe(sēm.,þætn.,sēof.) as it was declined in Old English.
Just as verbs in Latin are conjugated to indicate grammatical information, Latin nouns and adjectives that modify them are declined to signal their roles in sentences. There are five important cases for Latin nouns:nominative,genitive,dative,accusative, andablative. Since thevocative caseusuallytakes the same form as the nominative, it is seldom spelt out in grammar books.[dubious–discuss]Yet another case, thelocative, is limited to a small number of words.
The usual basic functions of these cases are as follows:
The genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative also have important functions to indicate the object of a preposition.
Given below is the declension paradigm of Latinpuer'boy' andpuella'girl':
From the provided examples we can see how cases work:
liber
book
puerī
boy.GEN
liber puerī
book boy.GEN
the book of the boy
puer
boy.NOM
puellae
girl.DAT
rosam
rose.ACC
dat
give.3SG.PRES
puer puellae rosam dat
boy.NOM girl.DAT rose.ACC give.3SG.PRES
the boy gives the girl a rose
Sanskrit, another Indo-European language, has eight cases:nominative,vocative,accusative,genitive,dative,ablative,locativeandinstrumental.[14]Some do not count vocative as a separate case, despite it having a distinctive ending in the singular, but consider it as a different use of the nominative.[15]
Sanskrit grammatical cases have been analyzed extensively. The grammarianPāṇiniidentified six semanticrolesorkaraka, which correspond closely to the eight cases:[16]
For example, consider the following sentence:
vṛkṣ-āt
from the tree
parṇ-aṁ
a leaf
bhūm-āu
to the ground
patati
falls
vṛkṣ-ātparṇ-aṁbhūm-āupatati
{from the tree} {a leaf} {to the ground} falls
"a leaf falls from the tree to the ground"
Hereleafis the agent,treeis the source, andgroundis the locus. The endings-aṁ,-at,-āumark the cases associated with these meanings.
Verse 37 of the Rāmarakṣāstotram gives an example of all 8 types of declensions in Sanskrit for the singular proper noun Rāma.[17]
The case declension here isRāmaḥbut thevisargahas undergonesandhi.
Both words 'Rāma Rameśa'are individually declined as 'rāmaṃ rameśaṃ
Rāmeṇais the declension that underwent sandhi with the wordabhihatā
Dative case is used here to show thatRāmais the receiver of the reverence.
The declension here isRāmātthat has undergone sandhi withnāsti.
Ablative case is also used for comparisons in Sanskrit
Normal declension without sandhi.
Locative case to indicate the 'focus of thoughts'
Vocative case uses the plain stem, unlike Nominative which adds a visarga.
Sometimes vocative is considered to be a different use of nominative.[15]
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Intaxonomy,binomial nomenclature("two-term naming system"), also calledbinary nomenclature, is a formal system of namingspeciesof living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which useLatin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages. Such a name is called abinomial name(often shortened to just "binomial"), abinomen,binominal name, or ascientific name; more informally, it is also called aLatin name. In theInternational Code of Zoological Nomenclature(ICZN), the system is also calledbinominal nomenclature,[1]with an "n" before the "al" in "binominal", which isnota typographic error, meaning "two-name naming system".[2]
The first part of the name – thegeneric name– identifies thegenusto which the species belongs, whereas the second part – thespecific nameorspecific epithet– distinguishes the species within the genus. For example, modern humans belong to the genusHomoand within this genus to the speciesHomo sapiens.Tyrannosaurus rexis likely the most widely known binomial.[3]Theformalintroduction of this system of naming species is credited toCarl Linnaeus, effectively beginning with his workSpecies Plantarumin 1753.[4]But as early as 1622,Gaspard Bauhinintroduced in his bookPinax theatri botanici(English,Illustrated exposition of plants) containing many names of genera that were later adopted by Linnaeus.[5]Binomial nomenclature was introduced in order to provide succinct, relatively stable and verifiable names that could be used and understood internationally, unlikecommon nameswhich are usually different in every language.[6]
The application of binomial nomenclature is now governed by various internationally agreed codes of rules, of which the two most important are theInternational Code of Zoological Nomenclature(ICZN) for animals and theInternational Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants(ICNafporICN). Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are some differences in the terminology they use and their particular rules.
In modern usage, the first letter of the generic name is always capitalized in writing, while that of the specific epithet is not, even when derived from aproper nounsuch as the name of a person or place. Similarly, both parts areitalicizedin normal text (or underlined in handwriting). Thus the binomial name of the annual phlox (named after botanistThomas Drummond) is now written asPhlox drummondii. Often, after a species name is introduced in a text, the generic name is abbreviated to the first letter in subsequent mentions (e.g.,P. drummondii).
In scientific works, theauthorityfor a binomial name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned, and the year of publication may be specified.
The wordbinomialis composed of two elements:bi-(Latinprefix meaning 'two') andnomial(theadjectiveform ofnomen, Latin for 'name'). In Medieval Latin, the related wordbinomiumwas used to signify one term in a binomial expression in mathematics.[7]In fact, the Latin wordbinomiummay validly refer to either of the epithets in the binomial name, which can equally be referred to as abinomen(pl.binomina).[8]
Before the adoption of the modern binomial system of naming species, a scientific name consisted of a generic name combined with a specific name that was from one to several words long. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature.[9]These names had two separate functions: to designate or label the species, and to be a diagnosis or description. These two goals were eventually found to be incompatible.[10]In a simple genus that contained few species, it was easy to tell them apart with a one-word genus and a one-word specific name; but as more species were discovered, the names necessarily became longer and unwieldy—for instance,Plantago foliis ovato-lanceolatus pubescentibus, spica cylindrica, scapo tereti("plantain with pubescent ovate-lanceolate leaves, a cylindric spike and ateretescape"), which we know today asPlantago media.[11]
Such "polynomial names" may sometimes look like binomials, but are different. For example, Gerard's herbal (as amended by Johnson) describes various kinds of spiderwort: "The first is calledPhalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort; the second,Phalangium non ramosum, Unbranched Spiderwort. The other ... is aptly termedPhalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia".[12]The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels.
TheBauhins, in particularCaspar Bauhin(1560–1624), took some important steps towards the binomial system by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words.[13]The adoption by biologists of a system of strictly binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physicianCarl Linnaeus(1707–1778).It was in his 1753Species Plantarumthat Linnaeus began consistently using a one-wordtrivial name(nomen triviale) after a generic name (genus name) in a system of binomial nomenclature.[14]Trivial names had already appeared in hisCritica Botanica(1737) andPhilosophia Botanica(1751). This trivial name is what is now known as aspecific epithet(ICNafp) orspecific name(ICZN).[14]The Bauhins' genus names were retained in many of these, but the descriptive part was reduced to a single word.
Linnaeus's trivial names introduced the idea that the function of a name could simply be to give a species a unique label, meaning that the name no longer needed to be descriptive. Both parts could, for example, be derived from the names of people. Thus Gerard'sPhalangium ephemerum virginianumbecameTradescantia virginiana, where the genus name honouredJohn Tradescant the Younger,[note 1]an English botanist and gardener.[15]A bird in the parrot family was namedPsittacus alexandri, meaning "Alexander's parrot", afterAlexander the Great, whose armies introduced eastern parakeets to Greece.[16]Linnaeus's trivial names were much easier to remember and use than the parallel polynomial names, and eventually replaced them.[4]
The value of the binomial nomenclature system derives primarily from its economy, its widespread use, and the uniqueness and stability of names that the Codes ofZoologicalandBotanical,BacterialandViralNomenclature provide:
Binomial nomenclature for species has the effect that when a species is moved from one genus to another, sometimes the specific name or epithet must be changed as well. This may happen because the specific name is already used in the new genus, or toagree in genderwith the new genus if the specific epithet is an adjective modifying the genus name. Some biologists have argued for the combination of the genus name and specific epithet into a single unambiguous name, or for the use of uninomials (as used in nomenclature of ranks above species).[23][24]
Because genus names are unique only within a nomenclature code, it is possible for homonyms (two or more species sharing the same genus name) to happen, and even the same binomial if they occur in different kingdoms. At least 1,258 instances of genus name duplication occur (mainly between zoology and botany).[25][26]
Nomenclature (including binomial nomenclature) is not the same as classification, although the two are related. Classification is the ordering of items into groups based on similarities or differences; inbiological classification, species are one of the kinds of item to be classified.[27]In principle, the names given to species could be completely independent of their classification. This is not the case for binomial names, since the first part of a binomial is the name of the genus into which the species is placed. Above the rank of genus, binomial nomenclature and classification are partly independent; for example, a species retains its binomial name if it is moved from one family to another or from one order to another, unless it better fits a different genus in the same or different family, or it is split from its old genus and placed in a newly created genus. The independence is only partial since the names of families and other higher taxa are usually based on genera.
Taxonomyincludes both nomenclature and classification. Its first stages (sometimes called "alpha taxonomy") are concerned with finding, describing and naming species of living orfossilorganisms.[28]Binomial nomenclature is thus an important part of taxonomy as it is the system by which species are named. Taxonomists are also concerned with classification, including its principles, procedures and rules.[29]
A complete binomial name is always treated grammatically as if it were a phrase in the Latin language (hence the common use of the term "Latin name" for a binomial name). However, the two parts of a binomial name can each be derived from a number of sources, of which Latin is only one. These include:
The first part of the name, which identifies the genus, must be a word that can be treated as a Latinsingularnoun in thenominative case. It must be unique within the purview of eachnomenclatural code, but can be repeated between them. ThusHuia recurvatais an extinct species of plant, found asfossilsinYunnan, China,[39]whereasHuia masoniiis a species of frog found inJava, Indonesia.[40]
The second part of the name, which identifies the species within the genus, is also treated grammatically as a Latin word. It can have one of a number of forms:
Whereas the first part of a binomial name must be unique within the purview of each nomenclatural code, the second part is quite commonly used in two or more genera (as is shown by examples ofhodgsoniiabove), but cannot be used more than once within a single genus. The full binomial name must be unique within each code.
From the early 19th century onwards it became ever more apparent that a body of rules was necessary to govern scientific names. In the course of time these becamenomenclature codes. TheInternational Code of Zoological Nomenclature(ICZN) governs the naming of animals,[42]theInternational Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants(ICNafp) that of plants (includingcyanobacteria), and theInternational Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria(ICNB) that ofbacteria(includingArchaea).Virusnames are governed by theInternational Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses(ICTV), a taxonomic code, which determines taxa as well as names. These codes differ in certain ways, e.g.:
Unifying the different codes into a single code, the "BioCode", has been suggested,[47]although implementation is not in sight. (There is also a published code for a different system of biotic nomenclature, which does not use ranks above species, but instead namesclades. This is calledPhyloCode.)
As noted above, there are some differences between the codes in how binomials can be formed; for example theICZNallows both parts to be the same, while theICNafpdoes not. Another difference is in how personal names are used in forming specific names or epithets. TheICNafpsets out precise rules by which a personal name is to be converted to a specific epithet. In particular, names ending in a consonant (but not "er") are treated as first being converted into Latin by adding "-ius" (for a man) or "-ia" (for a woman), and then being made genitive (i.e. meaning "of that person or persons"). This produces specific epithets likelecardiifor Lecard (male),wilsoniaefor Wilson (female), andbrauniarumfor the Braun sisters.[48]By contrast, theICZNdoes not require the intermediate creation of a Latin form of a personal name, allowing the genitive ending to be added directly to the personal name.[49]This explains the difference between the names of the plantMagnolia hodgsoniiand the birdAnthus hodgsoni. Furthermore, theICNafprequires names not published in the form required by the code to be corrected to conform to it,[50]whereas theICZNis more protective of the form used by the original author.[51]
By tradition, the binomial names of species are usually typeset in italics; for example,Homo sapiens.[52]Generally, the binomial should be printed in afont styledifferent from that used in the normal text; for example, "Several moreHomo sapiensfossils were discovered." When handwritten, a binomial name should be underlined; for example,Homosapiens.[53]
The first part of the binomial, the genus name, is always written with an initial capital letter. Older sources, particularly botanical works published before the 1950s, used a different convention: if the second part of the name was derived from a proper noun, e.g., the name of a person or place, a capital letter was used. Thus, the modern formBerberis darwiniiwas written asBerberis Darwinii. A capital was also used when the name is formed by two nouns in apposition, e.g.,Panthera LeoorCentaurea Cyanus.[54][note 3]In current usage, the second part is never written with an initial capital.[56][57]
When used with a common name, the scientific name often follows in parentheses, although this varies with publication.[58]For example, "The house sparrow (Passer domesticus) is decreasing in Europe."
The binomial name should generally be written in full. The exception to this is when several species from the same genus are being listed or discussed in the same paper or report, or the same species is mentioned repeatedly; in which case the genus is written in full when it is first used, but may then be abbreviated to an initial (and a period/full stop).[59]For example, a list of members of the genusCanismight be written as "Canis lupus,C. aureus,C. simensis". In rare cases, this abbreviated form has spread to more general use; for example, the bacteriumEscherichia coliis often referred to as justE. coli, andTyrannosaurus rexis perhaps even better known simply asT. rex, these two both often appearing in this form in popular writing even where the full genus name has not already been given.
The abbreviation "sp." is used when the actual specific name cannot or need not be specified. The abbreviation "spp." (plural) indicates "several species". These abbreviations are not italicised (or underlined).[60][61]For example: "Canissp." means "an unspecified species of the genusCanis", while "Canisspp." means "two or more species of the genusCanis". (These abbreviations should not be confused with the abbreviations "ssp." (zoology) or "subsp." (botany), plurals "sspp." or "subspp.", referring to one or moresubspecies. Seetrinomen(zoology) andinfraspecific name.)
The abbreviation "cf." (i.e.,conferin Latin) is used to compare individuals/taxa with known/described species. Conventions for use of the "cf." qualifier vary.[62]In paleontology, it is typically used when the identification is not confirmed.[63]For example, "Corvuscf.nasicus" was used to indicate "a fossil bird similar to theCuban crowbut not certainly identified as this species".[64]In molecular systematics papers, "cf." may be used to indicate one or more undescribed species assumed to be related to a described species. For example, in a paper describing the phylogeny of small benthic freshwater fish called darters, five undescribed putative species (Ozark, Sheltowee, Wildcat, Ihiyo, and Mamequit darters), notable for brightly colored nuptial males with distinctive color patterns,[65]were referred to as "Etheostomacf.spectabile" because they had been viewed as related to, but distinct from,Etheostoma spectabile(orangethroat darter).[66]This view was supported to varying degrees by DNA analysis. The somewhat informal use of taxa names with qualifying abbreviations is referred to asopen nomenclatureand it is not subject to strict usage codes.
In some contexts, the dagger symbol ("†") may be used before or after the binomial name to indicate that the species is extinct.
In scholarly texts, at least the first or main use of the binomial name is usually followed by the "authority" – a way of designating the scientist(s) who first published the name. The authority is written in slightly different ways in zoology and botany. For names governed by theICZNthe surname is usually written in full together with the date (normally only the year) of publication. One example of author citation of scientific name is: "AmabelaMöschler, 1880."[note 4]TheICZNrecommends that the "original author and date of a name should be cited at least once in each work dealing with the taxon denoted by that name."[67]For names governed by theICNafpthe name is generally reduced to a standard abbreviation and the date omitted. TheInternational Plant Names Indexmaintains an approved list of botanical author abbreviations. Historically, abbreviations were used in zoology too.
When the original name is changed, e.g., the species is moved to a different genus, both codes use parentheses around the original authority; theICNafpalso requires the person who made the change to be given. In theICNafp, the original name is then called thebasionym. Some examples:
Binomial nomenclature, as described here, is a system for naming species. Implicitly, it includes a system for naming genera, since the first part of the name of the species is a genus name. In a classification system based on ranks, there are also ways of naming ranks above the level of genus and below the level of species. Ranks above genus (e.g., family, order, class) receive one-part names, which are conventionally not written in italics. Thus, the house sparrow,Passer domesticus, belongs to the familyPasseridae.Familynames are normally based on genus names, such as in zoology,[69]although the endings used differ between zoology and botany.
Ranks below species receive three-part names, conventionally written in italics like the names of species. There are significant differences between theICZNand theICNafp. In zoology, the only formal rank below species is subspecies and the name is written simply as three parts (a trinomen). Thus, one of the subspecies of theolive-backed pipitisAnthus hodgsoni berezowskii. Informally, in some circumstances, aformmay be appended. For exampleHarmonia axyridisf.spectabilisis the harlequin ladybird in its black or melanic forms having four large orange or red spots. In botany, there are many ranks below species and although the name itself is written in three parts, a "connecting term" (not part of the name) is needed to show the rank. Thus, the American black elder isSambucus nigrasubsp.canadensis; the white-flowered form of the ivy-leaved cyclamen isCyclamen hederifoliumf.albiflorum.[70]
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Inlinguistics, especially withingenerative grammar,phi features(denoted with the Greek letterφ'phi') are themorphologicalexpression of asemanticprocess in which a word ormorphemevaries with the form of another word or phrase in the same sentence.[1]This variation can includeperson,number,gender, andcase, as encoded in pronominal agreement withnounsandpronouns(the latter are said to consist only of phi-features, containing no lexical head). Several other features are included in the set of phi-features, such as the categorical features ±N (nominal) and ±V (verbal), which can be used to describelexical categoriesand case features.[2]
Phi-features are often thought of as the "silent" features that exist onlexicalheads (or, according to some theories,[3]within the syntactic structure) that are understood for number, gender, person or reflexivity. Due to their silent nature, phi-features are often only understood if someone is anativespeaker of a language, or if the translation includes a gloss of all these features. Many languages exhibit apro-dropphenomenon which means that they rely on other lexical categories to determine the phi-features of the lexical heads.
Chomskyfirst proposed that the N node in a clause carries with it all the features to include person, number and gender.[4]InEnglish, we rely on nouns to determine the phi-features of a word, but some other languages rely on inflections of the different parts of speech to determine person, number and gender of the nominal phrases to which they refer.[5]Adjectives also carry phi-features in some languages, however, they tend to agree in number and gender but rarely for person.[5]
The grammatical termnumberis the name of the system contrasting singular and plural.[6]In English, number agreement is not expressed through agreement of verbal elements like they are in other languages (though present tense verbs do agree in number with third person subjects). This is partly because English is a language that requires subjects and the subjects in English overtly express number. Instead, English number is a phi-feature that is inflected on nouns when the nominal phrase isplural. The most common in English is-sinflected on nouns that are plural:
- Ducks, fridges, baseballs, cups, books, mirrors, cars, buildings, clowns, bridges, creams....
Some cases of plurality in English require inflection within the noun to express the phi-feature of plurality:
- Men, women, mice, teeth....
Neither verbs nor adjectives are used to agree with the number feature of the noun that they are agreeing with in English.
Some languages, however, likeSalish Halkomelem, differ from English in their syntactic categorization of plural marking. Halkomelem allows for both marked and unmarked plural forms of its nouns. It also allows for the determiners to be marked or unmarked in their plurality. Plural nouns and determiners in Halkomelem can be freely combined as well, but it appears that if a determiner is plural in a phrase it is sufficient to pluralize the noun that it modifies:[7]
English is a language that does not have nominal phrases that belong to a gender class where agreement of other elements in the phrase is required. Dutch is another language that only differentiates between neuter and the common gender.[8]Many other languages of the world do have gender classes.German, for example, has three genders; feminine, masculine and neuter.[8]For a Romance language like Italian, there are feminine and masculine genders. Inflections on theadjectivesanddeterminersare used for gender agreement within the pronominal phrase.[9]
English only expresses gender when the pronoun addresses a specific person who semantically belongs to a certain gender. See the table below for Pronominal Case Forms in English under3 sg. fem/masc.
The phi-feature ofcaseis explicit in English only for pronominal forms (see the picture of the table for Pronominal Case Forms in English). English is not a language that has inflectional case forms for proper nouns.
German is a language that exhibits some inflectional case forms on nouns.[10]It also obligatorily displays case forms on its determiners:
Case in terms ofreflexivityis overt in English for every person (see the table for Pronominal Case Forms in English):
myself,yourself,himself, herself, yourselves, ourselves, themselves
The pattern for the reflexive form of the third person masculine pronoun does not follow the same pattern of reflexivity as the other pronouns in terms of case form marking for pronominal English.
In many languages, reflexivity is not overt for person. A prime example is apparent inFrenchse. Frenchseis used to express reflexivity for every expression of the third person, regardless of gender or number. It also functions as a middle, an inchoative, an applicative and an impersonal. For this reason, some theories suggest that reflexive phi-features for languages such as French posit in a level on the syntactic structure that is silent, between the determiner and the noun. This creates a new "silent" projection to a node specifically for φ-reflexives in French structure.[11]
When phi feature agreement occurs on a verb, it typically marks features relating to grammatical function (subject versus object), person, gender, or case.[12]A key area of verbal agreement is attraction, in which case verbs are sensitive to the grammatical number of a noun phrase that is not the expected controller, but is close in vicinity.[13]In other words, agreement is understood to be a relationship between a probing head and a target goal in the probe's c-command domain.[14]
In English, agreement on a verb is triggered by the highest DP in subject position of a finite clause.[15]Overt agreement is found only in the present tense, with a 3rd person singular subject, in which case the verb is suffixed with -s:[16]
In anull-subject languagesuch asItalian, however, pronominal subjects are not required (in fact, in many null-subject languages, producing overt subjects is a sign of non-nativity). These type of "unstressed" pronouns are called clitic pronouns. Therefore, Italian uses a different inflectional morphology on verbs that is based on the person features of the nominal subject it agrees with:[9]
Past tense, present continuous tense and the future tense are the three divisions of time expression of the action of a verb.[17]In languages such as English, verbs agree with their subjects and not their objects. However, inMohawk, an Indigenous language of North America, verbs agree with their subjects as well as their objects. Interestingly in Mohawk, a predicate can be counted as a verb, like 'big'. As shown in 1a), the form of 'big' changes to express the particular grammatical function, tense.[18]
CIS:cislocative
NE:Mohawk prenominal particle
Ra-kowan-v-hne'
MsS-be.big-STAT-PAST
ne
NE
Sak.
Sak
Ra-kowan-v-hne' ne Sak.
MsS-be.big-STAT-PAST NE Sak
‘Sak used to be big.’
This change utilizes /v-hne/ as can be compared with the verb present in sentence 1b), 'fallen'.
t-yo-ya't-y'-v-hne'
CIS-NsO-body-fall-STAT-PAST
t-yo-ya't-y'-v-hne'
CIS-NsO-body-fall-STAT-PAST
‘It has fallen.'[18]
Example 2) demonstrates the use of 'big' without inflecting for tense (/v-hne/), but instead we see, /-v/.
w-a'shar-owan-v.
NsS-knife-be.big-STAT
w-a'shar-owan-v.
NsS-knife-be.big-STAT
"The knife is big; it is a big knife.'[18]
Verb negation in many languages, including English, is not subject to phi-feature agreement. However, there do exist some languages which possess the morphological variance that indicates agreement. As an example, one of these is theIbibiolanguage inNigeria. In sentences with anauxiliary verb, the auxiliary verb is directly affixed with a negation agreement morpheme /í/, in place of the typical subject-verb agreement morphemes /á/ or /é/, and the non-auxiliary verb subject-verb agreement also changes in agreement with the negation, despite the fact that only the auxiliary undergoes negation.[19]This double variation is shown in 1a-b), where I in the sentence gloss indicates the agreement affix /í/. In these examples, the verbs are undergoing morphological changes in order to be in agreement with the negation, regardless of whether they are directly negated or not.
Okon
Okon
i-sʌk-kɔ
I-AUX-NEG
i-di
I-come
Okoni-sʌk-kɔi-di
OkonI-AUX-NEGI-come
'Okon has still not come (in spite of...)'
Okon
Okon
i-sɔp-pɔ
I-do.quickly-NEG
i-dɔk
I-make
ekpat.
bag
Okoni-sɔp-pɔi-dɔk ekpat.
OkonI-do.quickly-NEGI-make bag
'Okon did not make the bag quickly.'[19]
In certain languages, verb agreement can be controlled by formality, as withKoreansubject honorific agreement. When the subject of the sentence is a respected person, the honorificsuffixsioccurs after the verbrootand the honorific subjectcase markerisKkeysein as seen in (3a). Moreover, honorific agreement is optional, as seen in(3b).,
Seonsaengnim-kkeys-e
teacher-HON.NOM
o-si-ess-ta.
come-HON-past-DEC
Seonsaengnim-kkeys-eo-si-ess-ta.
teacher-HON.NOMcome-HON-past-DEC
‘The teacher came.’
Seonsaengnim-i
teacher-NOM
o-ass-ta.
come-past-DEC
Seonsaengnim-i o-ass-ta.
teacher-NOM come-past-DEC
‘The teacher came.’[20]
There is a debate about whether Korean subject honorific marking is authentic agreement. The debate stems from the fact that languages where verbs show person agreement, the agreement is obligatory. Based on this reason, some scholars contend that since honorific marking is optional, it is not an instance of agreement. However, other scholars others argue that it is indeed agreement.[20]A fundamental quality about honorific marking that is often overlooked is the fact that is it possible only with a human referent. Consequently, as shown by the examples in (4), when the subject is non-human, honorific agreement is ungrammatical.[21]
cha-ka
car-NOM
o-(*si)-ess-e.
come-HON-PST-DECL
cha-ka o-(*si)-ess-e.
car-NOM come-HON-PST-DECL
‘The car came.’
kwukhoy-ka
congress-NOM
ku
the
pepan-ul
bill-ACC
simuy-ha-(*si)-ess-e
review-do-HON-PST-DECL
kwukhoy-ka ku pepan-ul simuy-ha-(*si)-ess-e
congress-NOM the bill-ACC review-do-HON-PST-DECL
‘The congress reviewed the bill.’[21]
Phi-features can also be considered the silent features that determine whether a root word is a noun or a verb. This is called the noun-verb distinction ofDistributed Morphology. The table below describes how category classes are organized by their Nominal or Verbal characteristics. Definitions for these four categories of predicates have been described as follows:
Averbal predicatehas a predicative use only; anominalpredicate can be used as the head of a term; anadjectivalpredicate can be used as a modifier of a nominal head; aprepositionacts as a term-predicate for which the noun is still the head; anadverbial(not shown below) predicate can be used as a modifier of a non-nominal head.[22]
X-bar theory approaches categorical features in this way: when a head X selects its complement to project to X', the XP that it projects to then is a combination of the head X and all of its categorical features, those being either nominal, verbal, adjectival or prepositional features.[23]It has also been argued thatadpositions(cover term for prepositions and postpositions[24]) are not part of the [+/-N] [+/-V] system as shown above. This is because they resist being part of a single class category, like nouns, verbs and adjectives do. This argument also posits that some appositions may behave as part of this type of categorization, but not all of them do.
There arethree main hypothesesregarding the syntactic categories of words. The first one is theStrong Lexicalhypothesis, which states that verbs and nouns are inherent in nature, and when a word such as "walk" in English can surface as either a noun or a verb, depending on the speaker's intuitions of what the meaning of the verb is.[25]This means that the root "walk" in English has two separate lexical entries:[26]
walkN <[AP]>an act or instance of going on foot especially for exercise or pleasure[27]
walkV <[DPtheme]>to move along on foot : advance by steps[27]
This analysis states that the category is determined by syntax or context. Aroot wordis inserted into the syntax as bare and the surrounding syntax determines if it will behave as a verb or a noun. Once the environment has determined its category, morphologicalinflectionsalso surface on the root according to the determined category. Typically, if the element before it is a determiner, the word will surface as a noun, and if the element before it is a tense element, the root word will surface as a verb.[29]The example in the photo shows an example from Italian. The root of the word iscammin-("walk"). This word could surface as either a noun or verb. The first tree shows that when the element before is a D "una", the root will be an N and the following morphology will inflect-atawhich is the correct full orthography for the noun "walk" in Italian. The tree on the right shows a similar process but in the environment where the root follows a tense element, and the morphology inflects-oas a suffix, which makes the verb surface not only as a verb, but as discussed before in person agreement, also shows that this is the first person present form of the verb ("I walk").
Syntactic decomposition for categorization ofparts of speechincludes an explanation for why some verbs and nouns have a predictable relationship to their nominal counterparts and why some don't. It says that the predictable forms aredenominaland that the unpredictable forms are strictly root-derived.[30]The examples provided are of the English verbshammerandtape. A verb such as hammer is aroot-derived form, meaning that it can appear within an NP or within a VP. Adenominalized verb, such as tape must first be converted from an NP because its meaning relies on the semantics of the noun.[31]
The discussion of how categorical features are determined is still up for debate and there have been numerous other theories trying to explain how words get their meanings and surface in a category. This is an issue within categorical distinction theories that has not yet come to a conclusion which is agreed upon in the linguistic community. This is interesting because phi-features in terms of person, number and gender are concrete features that have been observed numerous times in natural languages, and are consistent patterns that are rooted in rule-based grammar.
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Inlinguistics, aredundancyisinformationthat is expressed more than once.[1][2]
Examples of redundancies include multipleagreementfeatures inmorphology,[1]multiple features distinguishingphonemesinphonology,[2]or the use of multiple words to express a single idea inrhetoric.[1]For instance, while the previous sentence is grammatically correct and uses words appropriately, its rhetorical structure contains unnecessary repetitions and could be revised as, "Linguistic redundancy is regarded as having more than one: agreement feature in morphology; phoneme distinguishing feature in phonology; or word to express a single idea in rhetoric." as a clear, concise, and redundancy-free way to express the original concept.
Redundancy may occur at any level ofgrammar. Because ofagreement– a requirement in many languages that the form of different words in a phrase or clause correspond with one another – the samesemantic informationmay be expressed several times. In theSpanishphraselos árboles verdes("the green trees"), for example, thearticlelos, thenounárboles, and theadjectiveverdesare allinflectedto show that the phrase isplural.[1]An English example would be:that man is a soldierversusthose men are soldiers.
In phonology, aminimal pairis a pair of words or phrases that differs by only one phoneme, the smallest distinctive unit of the sound system. Even so, phonemes may differ on severalphonetic features. For example, the English phonemes/p/and/b/in the wordspinandbinfeature differentvoicing,aspiration, andmuscular tension. Any one of these features is sufficient to differentiate/p/from/b/in English.[2]
Generative grammaruses such redundancy to simplify the form of grammatical description. Any feature that can be predicted on the basis of other features (such as aspiration on the basis of voicing) need not be indicated in the grammatical rule. Features that are not redundant and therefore must be indicated by rule are calleddistinctive features.[2]
As withagreementin morphology, phonologically conditionedalternation, such ascoarticulationandassimilation, add redundancy on the phonological level. The redundancy of phonological rules may clarify some vagueness inspoken communication. According to psychologistSteven Pinker, "In the comprehension of speech, the redundancy conferred by phonological rules can compensate for some of the ambiguity of the sound wave. For example, a speaker may know thatthisripmust bethis ripand notthe sripbecause in English the initialconsonant clustersris illegal."[3]
Writing guides, especially fortechnical writing, usually advise avoiding redundancy, "especially the use of two expressions that mean the same thing. Such repetition works against readability and conciseness."[4]Others make a distinction between redundancy and repetition:
Repetition, if used well, can be a good tool to use in your writing. It can add emphasis to what you are trying to say and strengthen a point. There are many types of useful repetition. Redundancy, on the other hand, cannot be a good thing. Redundancy happens when the repetition of a word or idea does not add anything to the previous usage; it just restates what has already been said, takes up space, and gets in the way without adding meaning.[5]
Computer scientistDonald E. Knuth, author of highly acclaimed textbooks, recommends "to state things twice, in complementary ways, especially when giving a definition. This reinforces the reader's understanding."[6]
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Thesequence of tenses(known inLatinasconsecutio temporum, and also known asagreement of tenses,succession of tensesandtense harmony) is a set ofgrammaticalrules of a particular language, governing theagreementbetween thetensesof verbs in relatedclausesorsentences.
A typical context in which rules of sequence of tenses apply is that ofindirect speech. If, at some past time, someone spoke a sentence in a particular tense (say the present tense), and that act of speaking is now being reported, the tense used in the clause that corresponds to the words spoken may or may not be the same as the tense that was used by the original speaker. In some languages the tense tends to be "shifted back", so that what was originally spoken in the present tense is reported using the past tense (since what was in the present at the time of the original sentence is in the past relative to the time of reporting).Englishis one of the languages in which this often occurs. For example, if someone said "Ineeda drink", this may be reported in the form "She said sheneededa drink", with the tense of the verbneedchanged from present to past.
The "shifting back" of tense as described in the previous paragraph may be calledbackshiftingor anattracted sequenceof tenses. In languages and contexts where such a shift does not occur, there may be said by contrast to be anatural sequence.
InEnglish, anattracted sequenceof tenses (backshifting) is often used inindirect speechand similar contexts. The attracted sequence can be summarized as follows: If the main verb of a sentence is in thepast tense, then other verbs must also express a past viewpoint, except when a general truth is being expressed.[1]
For example, ifBatmanspoke the following words:
the speech act may be reported using the following words:
with thepresent tenseneedreplaced by thepast tenseneeded, since the main verb of saying (said) is in the past tense. Further examples can be found atUses of English verb forms § Indirect speech.
In some cases, though, anatural sequenceof tenses is more appropriate. Here the tense of a verb in asubordinate clauseis not determined by the tense of the verb in the superordinate clause, but is determined simply according to the sense of the clause taken apart from the rest of the sentence.[2]The rule for writers following the natural sequence of tenses can be expressed as follows: imagine yourself at the point in time denoted by the main verb, and use the tense for the subordinate verb that you would have usedat that time.[3]Thus the tense used in the indirect speech remains the same as it was in the words as originally spoken. This is normal when the main verb is in the present orfuture tense(as opposed to past tense orconditional mood). For example:
However it is also possible to use the natural sequence even if the main verb is past or conditional:
This option is more likely to be used when the circumstance being expressed remains equally true now as it did when the speech act took place, and especially if the person reporting the words agrees that they are true or valid.
Debate amongstgrammariansover the appropriateness of the two types of sequence of tenses goes back as far as the 18th century.[2]Use of the attracted sequence sometimes leads to additional problems when the grammatical construction ofindirect speechincludes an incorporated quotation – that is, when an attempt is made (though using indirect rather thandirect speech) to report the words actually spoken. For example, if a minister spoke the words "Such a policy is not without its drawbacks", then a writer may attempt to report this as follows:[1]
usingquotation marksto denote that that portion of the sentence represents the minister's actual words. This, however, requires use of the natural sequence of tenses, which might not be felt appropriate in the given situation. There are various possible solutions to this problem:[1]
Similar problems arise from the other changes that typically occur in indirect speech, such as changes of pronoun (depending on speaker).
For more details, see the article onindirect speech, and also the article onuses of English verb forms, particularly the sections onindirect speechanddependent clauses.
Indirect speech in Russian and other Slavic languages generally uses the natural sequence of tenses (there is no backshifting). For examples, seeIndirect speech § Russian.
InLatin, the sequence of tenses rule affects dependent verbs in the subjunctive mood, mainly in indirect questions, indirect commands, and purpose clauses.[4]If the main verb is in one of the non-past tenses, the subordinate verb is usually in the present or perfect subjunctive (primary sequence); if the main verb is in one of the past tenses, the subordinate verb is usually in the imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive (historic sequence). For example, when the subordinate verb refers to a time contemporaneous or later than the time of the main verb, the present or imperfect subjunctive is used:
When the subordinate verb refers to a time earlier than that of the main verb, the perfect or pluperfect subjunctive is used:
If the main verb is a historic present (i.e. a present tense with a past meaning), either primary or historic sequence may be used, or in a long sentence even a mixture of the two:
If the main verb is a perfect tense, it is usually followed by the historic sequence, but if the meaning is equivalent to an English present perfect (i.e. "have done"), it may be followed by primary sequence:
There are frequent exceptions to the sequence of tenses rule (seeLatin tenses#Sequence of tenses rule). For example, verbs in conditional clauses do not usually follow the rule:
Consecutive clauses also do not always follow the rule:
When the sentence is an indirect statement (which uses theaccusative and infinitiveconstruction in Latin), the main verb of the reported sentence is an infinitive which remains unchanged, no matter what the tense of the main verb. The present infinitive is used for a situation contemporaneous with the main verb:[5]
The perfect infinitive is used for an event or situation earlier than the time of the main verb:
However, subordinate clauses in an indirect statement use the subjunctive mood, which is subject to the sequence of tenses rule:
InClassical Greek, the tenses in subordinate clauses must correspond to those in the superordinate clauses governing them.[7]
A principal tense (present tense,future tense, orperfect tense) in the superordinate clause is followed by a principal tense in theindicative moodorsubjunctive mood. Such a principal tense is followed by:[7]
A historical tense (imperfect,pluperfect, oraorist) in the superordinate clause is followed by a historical tense in the indicative mood oroptative mood. Such a historic tense is followed by:[7]
The set of rules comprising the sequence of tenses (and modes of the main and subordinate clauses) in the Italian language corresponds in general to the "consecutio temporum" of the Latin grammar.
To determine the form of the verb in the subordinate clause it is necessary to know:
The various combinations are summarized in four tables (see below).
If the verb of the main clause is in the past (simple past, imperfect, or past perfect), the verbal forms of the subordinate clause refer to the moment indicated in the main clause and adapt accordingly. The present in the subordinate clase will transform to imperfect, the past will become past perfect, etc.:
Despite the use of the subjunctive, the verbal tenses follow rules similar to those of the Indicative mood. The Present Indicative of the subordinate clause will be substituted with thesubjunctive present; similarly, thepresent perfectwill be substituted with its correspondent form, that of thepast subjunctiveand thePast perfect tensewith thesubjunctive past perfect.
If the verb of the main clause is in the past tense, the verbal forms of the subordinate will be adapted to that of the main clause:
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Inphilosophy, anactionis something anagentdoes. Actions contrast with events which merely happen to someone and are typically performed for apurposeand guided by anintention.[1][2]The first question in thephilosophy of actionis to determine how actions differ from other forms of behavior, likeinvoluntary reflexes.[3][4]According toLudwig Wittgenstein, it involves discovering "What is left over if I subtract the fact that my arm goes up from the fact that I raise my arm".[5]A common response to this question focuses on the agent's intentions. So driving a car is an action since the agent intends to do so, butsneezingis a mere behavior since it happens independent of the agent's intention. The dominant theory of the relation between the intention and the behavior iscausalism:[1]driving the car is an action because it iscausedby the agent's intention to do so. On this view, actions are distinguished from other events by their causal history.[2]Causalist theories includeDonald Davidson's account, which defines actions as bodily movements caused by intentions in the right way, and volitionalist theories, according to whichvolitionsform a core aspect of actions. Non-causalist theories, on the other hand, often see intentions not as the action's cause but as a constituent of it.
An important distinction among actions is between non-basic actions, which are done by doing something else, and basic actions, for which this is not the case. Most philosophical discussions of actions focus on physical actions in the form of bodily movements. But many philosophers consider mental actions to be a distinct type of action that has characteristics quite different from physical actions. Deliberations and decisions are processes that often precede and lead to actions. Actions can be rational or irrational depending on the reason for which they are performed. The problem of responsibility is closely related to the philosophy of actions since we usually hold people responsible for what they do.
Conceptions of action try to determine what all actions have in common or what their essential features are. Causalist theories, likeDonald Davidson's account or standard forms of volitionalism, hold that causal relations between the agent's mental states and the resulting behavior are essential to actions. According to Davidson, actions are bodily movements that are caused by intentions in the right way. Volitionalist theories include the notion of volitions in their account of actions. Volitions are understood as forms of summoning of means within one's power and are different from merely intending to do something later. Non-causalists, on the other hand, deny that intentions or similar states cause actions.
The most well-known account of action, sometimes simply referred to as thestandard account, is due to Davidson, who holds that actions are bodily movements that are caused by intentions.[6]Davidson explains the intentions themselves in terms ofbeliefsanddesires.[1]For example, the action of flipping a light switch rests, on the one hand, on the agent's belief that this bodily movement would turn on the light and, on the other hand, on the desire to have light.[7]Because of its reliance on psychological states and causal relations, this position is considered to be aHumean theory of action.[8]According to Davidson, it is not just the bodily behavior that counts as the action but also the consequences that follow from it. So the movement of the finger flipping the switch is part of the action as well as the electrons moving through the wire and the light bulb turning on. Some consequences are included in the action even though the agent did not intend them to happen.[2][4]It is sufficient that what the agent does "can be described under an aspect that makes it intentional".[9][4]So, for example, if flipping the light switch alerts the burglar then alerting the burglar is part of the agent's actions.[1]In an example fromAnscombe's manuscriptIntention, pumping water can also be an instance of poisoning the inhabitants.[10]
One difficulty with theories of action that try to characterize actions in terms of causal relations between mental states and bodily movements, so-calledcausalist theories, is what has been referred to aswaywardcausal chains.[3]A causal chain iswaywardif the intention caused its goal to realize but in a very unusual way that was not intended, e.g. because the skills of the agent are not exercised in the way planned.[1]For example, a rock climber forms the intention to kill the climber below him by letting go of the rope. A wayward causal chain would be that, instead of opening the holding hand intentionally, the intention makes the first climber so nervous that the rope slips through his hand and thus leads to the other climber's death.[11]Davidson addresses this issue by excluding cases of wayward causation from his account since they are not examples of intentional behavior in the strict sense. So bodily behavior only constitutes an action if it was caused by intentionsin the right way.
One important objection to Davidson's theory of actions is that it does not account for the agent's role in the production of action. This role could include reflecting on what to do, choosing an alternative and then carrying it out.[6]Another objection is that mere intentions seem to be insufficient to cause actions, that other additional elements, namely volitions or tryings, are necessary. For example, asJohn Searlehas pointed out, there seems to be a causal gap between intending to do something and actually doing it, which needs an act of the will to be overcome.[6]
Volitionalistsaim to overcome these shortcomings of Davidson's account by including the notion ofvolitionortryingin their theory of actions.[6]Volitionsandtryingsare forms of affirming something, likeintentions. They can be distinguished from intentions because they are directed at executing a course of action in the here and now, in contrast to intentions, which involve future-directed plans to do something later.[6]Some authors also distinguishvolitions, as acts of the will, fromtryings, as the summoning of means within one's power.[6][12]But it has been argued that they can be treated as a unified notion since there is no important difference between the two for the theory of action because they play the same explanatory role.[13]This role includes both the experiential level,[4]involving the trying of something instead of merely intending to do so later, and the metaphysical level, in the form of mental causation bridging the gap between mental intention and bodily movement.[14][6]
Volitionalismas a theory is characterized by three core theses: (1) that every bodily action is accompanied by a trying, (2) that tryings can occur without producing bodily movements and (3) that in the case of successful tryings, the trying is the cause of the bodily movement.[6][4]The central idea of the notion oftryingis found in the second thesis. It involves the claim that some of our tryings lead to successful actions while others arise without resulting in an action.[15]But even in an unsuccessful case there is still something: it is different from not trying at all.[6]For example, a paralyzed person, after having received a new treatment, may test if the treatment was successful by trying to move her legs. But trying and failing to move the legs is different from intending to do it later or merely wishing to do it: only in the former case does the patient learn that the treatment was unsuccessful.[6]There is a sense in which tryings either take place or not, but cannot fail, unlike actions, whose success is uncertain.[15][3]This line of thought has led some philosophers to suggest that the trying itself is an action: a special type of action calledbasic action.[1]But this claim is problematic since it threatens to lead to avicious regress: if something is an action because it was caused by a volition then we would have to posit one more volition in virtue of which the first trying can be regarded as an action.[3][16]
An influential criticism of the volitional explanations of actions is due toGilbert Ryle, who argued that volitions are eitheractive, in which case the aforementioned regress is inevitable, or they are not, in which case there would be no need to posit them as an explanatorily inert "ghost in the machine".[4]But it has been suggested that this constitutes afalse dilemma: that volitions can play an explanatory role without leading to avicious regress.John Stuart Mill, for example, avoids this problem by holding that actions are composed of two parts: a volition and the bodily movement corresponding to it.[4]
Volitions can also be used to explain how the agent knows about her own action. This knowledge about what one is doing or trying to do is available directly through introspection: the agent does not need to observe her behavior through sensory perception to arrive at this knowledge, unlike an external observer.[1][4]The experience of agency involved in volitions can be distinguished from the experience of freedom, which involves the additional aspect of having various alternative routes of action to choose from.[4]But volition is possible even if there are no additional alternatives.[4]
Volitionalists usually hold that there is a causal relation between volitions and bodily movements.[6]Critics have pointed out that this position threatens to alienate us from our bodies since it introduces a strict distinction between our agency and our body, which is not how things appear to us.[6][17]One way to avoid this objection is to hold that volitions constitute bodily movements, i.e. are an aspect of them, instead of causing them.[17]Another response able to soften this objection is to hold that volitions are not just the initial triggers of the bodily movements but that they are continuous activities guiding the bodily movements while they are occurring.[6][18]
Non-causalistoranti-causalisttheories deny that intentions or similar statescauseactions.[19][20][21]They thereby opposecausalisttheories like Davidson's account or standard forms of volitionalism. They usually agree that intentions are essential to actions.[22]This brings with it the difficulty of accounting for the relation between intentions and actions in a non-causal way.[19]Some suggestions have been made on this issue but this is still an open problem since none of them have gathered significant support. The teleological approach, for example, holds that this relation is to be understood not in terms ofefficient causationbut in terms offinal "causation".[23]One problem with this approach is that the two forms of causation do not have to be incompatible. Few theorists deny that actions are teleological in the sense of being goal-oriented. But the representation of a goal in the agent's mind may act as an efficient cause at the same time.[19]Because of these problems, most of the arguments for non-causalism are negative: they constitute objections pointing out why causalist theories are unfeasible.[19][24]Important among them are arguments from wayward causation: that behavior only constitutes an action if it was caused by an intention in the right way, not in any way. This critique focuses on difficulties causalists have faced in explicitly formulating how to distinguish between proper and wayward causation.[25]
An important challenge to non-causalism is due to Davidson.[22][25]As he points out, we usually have many differentreasonsfor performing the same action. But when we perform it, we often perform it for one reason but not for another.[25][24]For example, one reason for Abdul to go for cancer treatment is that he has prostate cancer, another is that they have his favorite newspaper in the waiting area. Abdul is aware of both of these reasons, but he performs this action only because of the former reason. Causalist theories can account for this fact through causal relation: the former but not the latter reason causes the action. The challenge to non-causalist theories is to provide a convincing non-causalexplanationof this fact.[25][24]
The problem ofindividuationconcerns the question of whether two actions are identical or of how actions should be counted. For example, on April 14, 1865,John Wilkes Boothboth pulled the trigger of his gun, fired a shot andkilled Abraham Lincoln. On afine-grainedtheory ofindividuation, the pulling, the firing and the killing are three distinct actions.[3]In its most extreme form, there is one distinct action for every action type.[4]So, for example, since "singing" and "singing loudly" are two different action types, someone who sings loudly performs at least these two distinct actions.[3]This kind of view has the unintuitive consequence that even the most simple exercises of agency result in a vast number of actions. Theories ofcoarse-grainedindividuation of actions, on the other hand, hold that events that constitute each other or cause each other are to be counted as one action.[3][2]On this view, the action of pulling the trigger is identical to the action of firing the gun and to the action of killing Lincoln. So in doing all of these things, Booth performed only one action. One intuition in favor of this view is that we often do one thing by doing another thing:[2]we shoot the gun by pulling the trigger or we turn on the light by flipping the switch. One argument against this view is that the different events may happen at different times.[4]For example, Lincoln died of his injuries the following day, so a significant time after the shooting. This raises the question of how to explain that two events happening at different times are identical.[4]
An important distinction among actions is betweenbasicandnon-basic actions. This distinction is closely related to the problem of individuation since it also depends on the notion of doing one thingbyorin virtue ofdoing another thing, like turning on a light by flipping a switch.[26][27][28]In this example, the flipping of the switch is more basic than the turning-on of the light. But the turning-on of the light can itself constitute another action, like the action of alerting the burglar. It is usually held that the chain or hierarchy of actions composed this way has a fundamental level at which it stops.[26][4]The action at this fundamental level is called abasic action: it is not done by doing something else.[3]For this reason,basic actionsare simple while non-basic actions are complex.[26]
It is often assumed that bodily movements arebasic actions, like the pressing of one's finger against the trigger, while the consequences of these movements, like the firing of the gun, arenon-basic actions.[3]But it seems that bodily movements are themselves constituted by other events (muscle contractions)[4]which are themselves constituted by other events (chemical processes). However, it appears that these more basic events are not actions since they are not under our direct volitional control.[1][4]One way to solve these complications is to hold thatbasic actionscorrespond to the most simple commands we can follow.[26]This position excludes most forms of muscle contractions and chemical processes from the list of basic actions since we usually cannot follow the corresponding commands directly. What counts as a basic action, according to this view, depends on the agent's skills.[26]So contracting a given muscle is a basic action for an agent who has learned to do so. For something to be a basic action it is not just important what the agent can do but what the agent actually does. So raising one's right hand may only count as a basic action if it is done directly through the right hand. If the agent uses her left hand to lift the right hand then the raising of the right hand is not a basic action anymore.[1][4]
A contrasting view identifies basic actions not with bodily movements but with mental volitions.[1]One motivation for this position is that volitions are the most direct element in the chain of agency: they cannot fail, unlike bodily actions, whose success is initially uncertain.[3]One argument against this position is that it may lead to avicious regressif it is paired with the assumption that an earlier volition is needed in order for the first volition to constitute an action.[16]This is whyvolitionistsoften hold that volitions cause actions or are parts of actions but are not full actions themselves.
Philosophers have investigated the concept of actions mostly in regard to physical actions, which are usually understood in terms of bodily movements.[9][16]It is not uncommon among philosophers to understand bodily movements as the only form of action.[6]Some volitionists, on the other hand, claim that all actions are mental because they consist in volitions. But this position involves various problems, as explained in the corresponding section above. However, there is a middle path possible between these two extreme positions that allows for the existence of both physical and mental actions.[16]Various mental events have been suggested as candidates for non-physical actions, like imagining, judging or remembering.[16]
One influential account of mental action comes fromGalen Strawson, who holds that mental actions consist in "triggering the delivery of content to one's field of consciousness".[16][29]According to this view, the events of imagining, judging or remembering are not mental actions strictly speaking but they can be the products of mental actions.[16]Mental actions, in the strict sense, areprefatoryorcatalytic: they consist in preparing the mind for these contents to arise.[29]They foster hospitable conditions but cannot ensure that the intended contents will appear.[16]Strawson uses the analogy of jumping off a wall, in which the jumping itself (corresponding to the triggering) is considered an action, but the falling (corresponding to the entertaining of a content) is not an action anymore since it is outside the agent's control.[16][29]Candace L. Upton and Michael Brent object that this account of mental actions is not complete.[16]Taking their lead from mental activities taking place duringmeditation, they argue that Strawson's account leaves out various forms of mental actions, like maintaining one's attention on an object or removing a content from consciousness.[16]
One reason for doubting the existence of mental actions is that mental events often appear to be involuntary responses to internal or external stimuli and therefore not under our control.[16]Another objection to the existence of mental actions is that the standard account of actions in terms of intentions seems to fail for mental actions. The problem here is that the intention to think about something already needs to include the content of the thought. So the thought is no longer needed since the intention already "thinks" the content. This leads to a vicious regress since another intention would be necessary to characterize the first intention as an action.[16]An objection not just to mental actions but to the distinction between physical and mental actions arises from the difficulty of finding strict criteria to distinguish the two.[30]
Deliberationsanddecisionsare relevant for actions since they frequently precede the action. It is often the case that several courses of action are open to the agent.[3]In such cases, deliberation performs the function of evaluating the different options by weighing the reasons for and against them. Deciding then is the process of picking one of these alternatives and forming an intention to perform it, thereby leading toward an action.[3][31]
Explanationscan be characterized as answers to why-questions.[32][33]Explanations of actions are concerned with why the agent performed the action. The most straightforward answer to this question cites the agent's desire. For example, John went to the fridgebecausehe had a desire for ice cream. The agent's beliefs are another relevant feature for action explanation.[3]So the desire to have ice cream does not explain that John went to the fridge unless it is paired with John's belief that there is ice cream in the fridge. The desire together with the belief is often referred to as thereasonfor the action.[3][4]Causalist theoriesof action usually hold that this reason explains the action because itcausesthe action.[3][6]
Behavior that does not have a reason is not an action since it is not intentional. Every action has a reason but not every action has a good reason. Only actions with good reasons are consideredrational.[34]For example, John's action of going to the fridge would be considered irrational if his reason for this is bad, e.g. because his belief that there is ice cream in the fridge is merely based onwishful thinking.[35]
The problem ofresponsibilityis closely related to the philosophy of actions since we usually hold people responsible for what they do. But in one sense the problem of responsibility is wider since we can be responsible not just for doing something but for failing to do something, so-calledomissions.[3][2][4]For example, a pedestrian witnessing a terrible car accident may be morally responsible for calling an ambulance and for providing help directly if possible. Additionally to what the agent did, it is also relevant what the agent could have done otherwise, i.e. what powers and capacities the agent had.[36]The agent's intentions are also relevant for responsibility, but we can be responsible for things we did not intend. For example, a chain smoker may have a negative impact on the health of the people around him. This is a side-effect of his smoking that is not part of his intention. The smoker may still be responsible for this damage, either because he was aware of this side-effect and decided to ignore it or because he should have been aware of it, so-callednegligence.[37]
In the theory ofenactivism, perception is understood to besensorimotorin nature. That is, we carry out actions as an essential part of perceiving the world.Alva Noëstates:
'We move our eyes, head and body in taking in what is around us... [we]: crane our necks, peer, squint, reach for our glasses or draw near to get a better look...'...'Perception is a mode of activity on the part of the whole animal...It cannot be represented in terms of merely passive, and internal, processes...'[38]
Some philosophers (e.g.Donald Davidson[39]) have argued that the mental states the agent invokes as justifying his action are physical states that cause the action.[citation needed]Problems have been raised for this view because the mental states seem to be reduced to mere physical causes.[citation needed]Their mental properties don't seem to be doing any work.[citation needed]If the reasons an agent cites as justifying his action, however, are not the cause of the action, they must explain the action in some other way or be causally impotent.[citation needed]Those who hold the belief that mental properties are reducible to physical properties are known as token-identity reductionists.[40]Some have disagreed with the conclusion that this reduction means the mental explanations are causally impotent while still maintaining that the reduction is possible.[41]For example, Dretske has put forward the viewpoint of reasons as structuring causes.[41]This viewpoint maintains that the relation, intentional properties that are created in the process of justifying one's actions are causally potent in that the process is an instance of action.[41]When considering that actions are causally potent, Dretske claims that the process of justifying one's actions is necessarily part of the causal system.[41]Others have objected to the belief that mental states can cause physical action without asserting that mental properties can be reduced to physical properties.[42]Such individuals suggest that mental states are epiphenomenal, in that they have no impact on physical states, but are nonetheless distinct entities (seeepiphenomenalism).[43]
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Descriptionis any type of communication that aims to make vivid a place, object, person, group, or other physical entity.[1]It is one of fourrhetorical modes(also known asmodes of discourse), along withexposition,argumentation, andnarration.[2]
Fiction writing specifically has modes such asaction, exposition, description,dialogue, summary, and transition.[3]AuthorPeter Selginrefers tomethods, including action, dialogue, thoughts, summary,scenes, and description.[4]
Description is the mode for transmitting a mental image of the particulars of a story. Together with dialogue, narration, exposition, and summarization, it is one of the most widely recognized of the fiction-writing modes. As stated inWriting from A to Z, edited by Kirk Polking, it is more than the amassing of details; it is bringing something to life by carefully choosing and arranging words and phrases to produce the desired effect.[5]
A purple patch is an over-written passage in which the writer has strained too hard to achieve an impressive effect, by elaborate figures or other means. The phrase (Latin: "purpureus pannus") was first used by the Roman poetHoracein hisArs Poetica(c. 20BC) to denote an irrelevant and excessively ornate passage; the sense of irrelevance is normally absent in modern usage, although such passages are usually incongruous. By extension,purple proseis lavishly figurative, rhythmic, or otherwise overwrought.[6]
In philosophy, thenature of descriptionhas been an important question sinceBertrand Russell's classical texts.[7]
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Elocutionis the study of formal speaking inpronunciation,grammar, style, andtoneas well as the idea and practice of effective speech and its forms. It stems from the idea that while communication is symbolic, sounds are final and compelling.[1][2]
Elocution emerged inEnglandin the 18th and 19th centuries and in theUnited Statesduring the 19th century. It benefited men and women in different ways; the overall concept was to teach both how to become better, more persuasive speakers, standardize errors in spoken and writtenEnglish, and the beginnings of the formulation of argument were discussed.
In Western classicalrhetoric, elocution was one of the five core disciplines ofpronunciation, which was the art of delivering speeches. Orators were trained not only on properdiction, but on the proper use of gestures, stance, and dress. There was a movement in the eighteenth century to standardize English writing and speaking and elocution was a part of this movement, with the help of Sheridan and Walker.[3](Another area of rhetoric,elocutio, was unrelated toelocutionand, instead, concerned the style of writing proper to discourse.)
Elocution emerged as a formal discipline during the eighteenth century. One of its important figures wasThomas Sheridan, actor and father ofRichard Brinsley Sheridan. Thomas Sheridan's lectures on elocution, collected inLectures on Elocution(1762) and hisLectures on Reading(1775), provided directions for marking and reading aloud passages from literature. Another actor,John Walker, published his two-volumeElements of Elocutionin 1781, which provided detailed instruction on voice control, gestures, pronunciation, and emphasis. Sheridan had a lot of ground to cover with having to be one of the first to establish great ideas about this subject, speaking more vaguely on subjects, but promising to explain them further. While Walker's approach was an attempt to put in place rules and a system on the correct form of elocution.
One reason these books gained traction was that both authors took a scientific approach and made rhetorically-built arguments in a time period where manual-styled, scientific, how-to books were popular.[3]Including these were "over four hundred editions" of grammar and "two hundred fifteen editions" of dictionary books that became available to the public in the 1700s, "five times more ... after 1750" than prior.[3]This was because education held a heavier weight in social status so therefore upper-class, higher educated people were reading these books as well as whoever else wanted to have the appearance of more gentleman or lady-like class than they may have been from.[4]
With the publication of these works and similar ones, elocution gained wider public interest. While training on proper speaking had been an important part of private education for many centuries, the rise in the nineteenth century of a middle class in Western countries (and the corresponding rise of public education) led to great interest in the teaching of elocution, and it became a staple of the school curriculum. American students of elocution drew selections from what were popularly deemed "Speakers." By the end of the century, several Speaker texts circulated throughout the United States, including McGuffey'sNew Juvenile Speaker, theManual of Elocution and Reading, theStar Speaker, and the popularDelsarte Speaker. Some of these texts even included pictorial depictions of body movements and gestures to augment written descriptions.[citation needed]
The era of the elocution movement, defined by the likes of Sheridan and Walker, evolved in the early and mid-1800s into what is called the scientific movement of elocution, defined in the early period by James Rush'sThe Philosophy of the Human Voice(1827) andRichard Whately'sElements of Rhetoric(1828), and in the later period byAlexander Melville Bell'sA New Elucidation of Principles of Elocution(1849) andVisible Speech(1867).
The once-popular female-dominated genre of elocution set to musical accompaniment in the United States is the subject of a 2017 book byMarian Wilson Kimber.[5]
In a 2020 article, "'The Artful Woman': Mrs. Ellis and the Domestication of Elocution", Don Paul Abbott writes aboutSarah Stickney Ellisand her workYoung Ladies Reader(1845) and its impact on women's lives in the nineteenth century. Ellis' work, as well as others that were published around the same time, had compilations of other authors' works.[4]Ellis had intended her work to be for other women, therefore she compiled a number of women's writings in her work, as did other authors more or less dependent on specific ones.[4]This was still during a time when it was well believed that women and men lived in "separate spheres".[4]
Ellis did not go the lengths that Sheridan and Walker did when it came to developing theories and rules for elocution but she made it clear through her writing that she believed that the spoken word was powerful and mastering it "deserves the attention" of ladies all around.[4]She comes to this idea of "The Artful Woman", a concept of a lady who is able to persuade others, specifically mentioning her husband. According to Abbott, Ellis believes that she had empowered women in their own sphere, so much so he argues in his journal article that it is possible she delayed women stepping "from the parlor to the podium".[4]
An example can be seen in the table of contents ofMcGuffey'sNew Sixth Eclectic Readerof 1857:
Jason Munsell, a communications and speech professor, theorizes that part of elocution is strategic movement and visuals. This is suggested due to a major portion of communication occurring digitally.[6]In his journal article from 2011, he wrote that the writings of elocution during the mid-nineteenth century aided women in becoming rhetorically empowered.[6]Munsell, when examining a bulletin from the time period, makes an argument that elocution may have been the beginning of the rhetoric concept ofLiterary theory, "The bulletin also explained that the function of elocution was to discover possible meanings of a reading, to learn how to express those meanings, then to discover the intended purpose."[6]
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Greetingis an act ofcommunicationin which human beings intentionally make their presence known to each other, to show attention to, and to suggest a type of relationship (usually cordial) orsocial status(formal or informal) between individuals or groups of people coming in contact with each other. Greetings are sometimes used just prior to aconversationor to greet in passing, such as on a sidewalk or trail. While greetingcustomsare highlyculture- and situation-specific and may change within a culture depending on social status and relationship, they exist in all known human cultures. Greetings can be expressed both audibly and physically, and often involve a combination of the two. This topic excludes military and ceremonialsalutesbut includes rituals other thangestures. A greeting, orsalutation, can also be expressed in written communications, such as letters and emails.
Some epochs and cultures have had very elaborate greeting rituals, e.g. greeting a sovereign. Conversely,secret societieshave often furtive or arcane greeting gestures and rituals, such as asecret handshake, which allows members to recognize each other.
In some languages and cultures, the word or gesture is used as both greeting andfarewell.
A greeting can consist of an exchange of formal expression, kisses, handshakes, hugs, and various gestures. The form of greeting is determined by social etiquette, as well as by the relationship of the people.
The formal greeting may involve a verbal acknowledgment and sometimes a handshake, but beyond that, facial expression, gestures, body language, and eye contact can all signal what type of greeting is expected.[1]Gestures are the most obvious signal, for instance, greeting someone with open arms is generally a sign that a hug is expected.[2]However, crossing arms can be interpreted as a sign of hostility. The facial expression, body language, and eye contact reflect emotions and interest level. A frown, slouching and lowered eye contact suggests disinterest, while smiling and an exuberant attitude is a sign of welcome.
Many different gestures are used throughout the world as simple greetings. In Western cultures, thehandshakeis very common, though it has numerous subtle variations in the strength of grip, the vigour of the shake, the dominant position of one hand over the other, and whether or not the left hand is used.
Historically, when men normally wore hats out of doors, male greetings to people they knew, and sometimes those they did not, involved touching, raising slightly ("tipping"), or removing their hat in a variety of gestures. This basic gesture remained normal in very many situations from the Middle Ages until men typically ceased wearing hats in the mid-20th century. Hat-raising began with an element of recognition of superiority, where only the socially inferior party might perform it, but gradually lost this element; KingLouis XIV of Francemade a point of at least touching his hat to all women he encountered. However, the gesture was never used by women, for whom their head-covering included considerations of modesty. When a man was not wearing a hat he might touch his hair to the side of the front of his head to replicate a hat-tipping gesture. This was typically performed by lower classmen to social superiors, such as peasants to the land-owner, and is known as "tugging the forelock", which still sometimes occurs as a metaphor for submissive behaviour.
The Arabic termsalaam(literally "peace", from the spoken greeting that accompanies the gesture), refers to the practice of placing the right palm on the heart, before and after a handshake.
In Moroccan society, same-sex people do not greet each other the same as do opposite sex. While same-sex people (men or women) will shake hands, kiss on the cheek and even hug multiple times, a man and woman greeting each other in public will not go further than a handshake. This is due to Moroccan culture being conservative. Verbal greetings in Morocco can go from a basicsalaam, to asking about life details to make sure the other person is doing well.[3]In the kingdom of Morocco, the greeting should always be made with the right hand, as the left hand is traditionally considered unclean.
The most common Chinese greeting,Gongshou, features the right fist placed in the palm of the left hand and both shaken back and forth two or three times, it may be accompanied by a head nod or bow. The gesture may be used on meeting and parting, and when congratulating, thanking, or apologizing.
In India, it is common to see theNamastegreeting (or "Sat Sri Akal" forSikhs) where the palms of the hands are pressed together and held near the heart with the head gently bowed.
Among Christians in certain parts of the world such asPoland, the greeting phrase "Praise the Lord" has had common usage, especially in the pre-World War IIera.[4][5][6]
Adab, meaning respect and politeness, is a hand gesture used as a secular greeting in South Asia, especially of Urdu-speaking communities ofUttar Pradesh,Hyderabad, andBengalin India, as well as among theMuhajir peopleof Pakistan.[7]The gesture involves raising the right hand towards the face with palm inwards such that it is in front of the eyes and the fingertips are almost touching the forehead, as the upper torso is bent forward.[8]It is typical for the person to say "adab arz hai", or just "adab". It is often answered with the same or the word "Tasleem" is said as an answer or sometimes it is answered with a facial gesture of acceptance.
In Indonesia, a nation with a huge variety of cultures and religions, many greetings are expressed, from the formalized greeting of the highly stratified and hierarchicalJavaneseto the more egalitarian and practical greetings of outer islands.
Javanese,Batakand other ethnicities currently or formerly involved in the armed forces will salute a government-employed superior, and follow with a deep bow from the waist or short nod of the head and a passing, loose handshake. Hand position is highly important; the superior's hand must be higher than the inferior's. Muslim men will clasp both hands, palms together at the chest and utter the correct Islamicslametan(greeting) phrase, which may be followed by cheek-to-cheek contact, a quick hug or loose handshake. Pious Muslim women rotate their hands from a vertical to the perpendicular prayer-like position in order to barely touch the fingertips of the male greeter and may opt-out of the cheek-to-cheek contact.
If the male is anAbdi Dalemroyal servant, courtier or particularly "peko-peko" (taken directly from Japanese to mean obsequious) or even a highly formal individual, he will retreat backwards with head downcast, the left arm crossed against the chest and the right arm hanging down, never showing his side or back to his superior. His head must always be lower than that of his superior. Younger Muslim males and females will clasp their elder's or superior's outstretched hand to the forehead as a sign of respect and obeisance.
If a manual worker or a person with obviously dirty hands salute or greets an elder or superior, he will show deference to his superior and avoid contact by bowing, touching the right forehead in a very quick salute or a distant "slamet" gesture.
The traditional JavaneseSungkeminvolves clasping the palms of both hands together, aligning the thumbs with the nose, turning the head downwards and bowing deeply, bending from the knees. In a royal presence, the one performingsungkemwould kneel at the base of the throne.
A gesture called awaiis used in Thailand, where the hands are placed together palm to palm, approximately at nose level, while bowing. Thewaiis similar in form to the gesture referred to by the Japanese termgasshoby Buddhists. In Thailand, the men and women would usually press two palms together and bow a little while saying "Sawadee ka" (female speaker) or "Sawadee krap" (male speaker).
In Europe, the formal style of upper-class greeting used by a man to a woman in theEarly Modern Periodwas to hold the woman's presented hand (usually the right) with his right hand and kiss it while bowing. In cases of a low degree of intimacy, the hand is held but not kissed. The ultra-formal style, with the man's right knee on the floor, is now only used in marriage proposals, as a romantic gesture.
Cheek kissingis common in Europe, parts of Canada (Quebec) and Latin America and has become a standard greeting mainly in Southern Europe but also in some Central European countries.
While cheek kissing is a common greeting in many cultures, each country has a unique way of kissing. In Russia, Poland, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Iran and Egypt it is customary to "kiss three times, on alternate cheeks".[9]Italians, Spanish, Hungarian, Romanians, Bosnia-and-Herzegovinans usually kiss twice in a greeting and in Mexico and Belgium only one kiss is necessary. In the Galapagos women kiss on the right cheek only[10]and in Oman, it is not unusual for men to kiss one another on the nose after a handshake.[11]French culture accepts a number of ways to greet depending on the region. Two kisses are most common throughout all of France but inProvencethree kisses are given and in Nantes four are exchanged.[12]However, in Finistère at the western tip of Brittany and Deux-Sèvres in the Poitou-Charentes region, one kiss is preferred.[13][14]
A spoken greeting or verbal greeting is acustomaryorritualisedword or phrase used to introduce oneself or to greet someone. Greeting habits are highly culture- and situation-specific and may change within a culture depending on social status.
As with gestures, some languages and cultures use the same word as both greeting andfarewell. Examples ofcolexifiedgreetings are "Good day" in English, "Drud" inPersian, "Sat Shri Akaal" inPunjabi, "As-salamu alaykum" inArabic, "Aloha" inHawaiian, "Shalom" inHebrew, "Namaste" inHindi, "Ayubowan" inSri Lanka, "Sawatdi" inThaiand "Ciao" inItalian.
InEnglish, some common verbal greetings are:
Voicemail greetings are pre-recorded messages that are automatically played to callers when theanswering machineorvoicemailsystem answers the call. Some systems allow for different greetings to be played to different callers.
In ruralBurundi, familiar women greet each other in a complex interlocking vocal rhythm calledakazehe, regardless of the meeting's contextual occasion or time.[15]
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Orthoepyis the study ofpronunciationof a particular language, within a specificoral tradition. The term is from theGreekὀρθοέπειαorthoepeia, fromὀρθόςorthos('correct') andἔποςepos('speech'). The antonym iscacoepy"bad or wrong pronunciation". The pronunciation of the wordorthoepyitself varies widely; theOEDrecognizes the variants/ˈɔːθəʊ.iːpi/,/ˈɔːθəʊ.ɛpi/,/ˈɔːθəʊ.ɨpi/, and/ɔːˈθəʊ.ɨpi/for British English, as well as/ɔrˈθoʊ.əpi/for American English.[1]
The pronunciation is sometimes clarified with adiaeresis:orthoëpy, such as in the title of Edward Barrett Warman'sWarman's Practical Orthoëpy and Critique, published in 1888 and found in Google Books.
Warman states on page 5: "Words possess three special characteristics: They have their Eye-life—Orthography. Ear-life—Orthoëpy. Soul-life—Significance." As with Warman's book, the purpose of this article is "to deal exclusively with the ear-life, or orthoëpy".[2][3]
InEnglish grammar, orthoepy is the study of correct pronunciation prescribed forStandard English. This originally was understood to meanReceived Pronunciationspecifically, but other standards have emerged and been accepted since the early 20th century (e.g.,General American,General Australian).[citation needed]
In ancient Greek, ὀρθοέπειαorthoepeiahad the wider sense of "correctdiction" (cf.LSJad loc., or the etymology in the OED), referencing correct pronunciation not just of individual words but also of entire passages, especially poetry, along with the distinction of good poetry vs. bad poetry. The archaic English term for this subject isorthology, and in this sense its opposite issolecism. The study of orthoepeia by theGreeksophistsof the 5th century BCE, especiallyProdicus(c. 396 BCE) andProtagoras, also included proto-logicalconcepts.[citation needed]
Thisphoneticsarticle is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it.
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Poetic dictionis the term used to refer to the linguisticstyle, thevocabulary, and themetaphorsused in the writing ofpoetry. In the Western tradition, all these elements were thought of as properly different in poetry and prose up to the time of theRomanticrevolution, whenWilliam Wordsworthchallenged the distinction in his Romantic manifesto, the Preface to the second (1800) edition ofLyrical Ballads(1798). Wordsworth proposed that a "language near to the language of men" was as appropriate for poetry as it was for prose. This idea was very influential, though more in theory than practice: a special "poetic" vocabulary and mode of metaphor persisted in 19th century poetry. It was deplored by theModernistpoets of the 20th century, who again proposed that there is no such thing as a "prosaic" word unsuitable for poetry.
In some languages, "poetic diction" is quite a literal dialect use. InClassical Greekliterature, for example, certain linguistic dialects were seen as appropriate for certain types of poetry. Thus,tragedyandhistorywould employ different Greek dialects. InLatin, poetic diction involved not only a vocabulary somewhat uncommon in everyday speech, but syntax and inflections rarely seen elsewhere. Thus, the diction employed byHoraceandOvidwill differ from that used byJulius Caesar, both in terms of word choice and in terms of word form.
The first writer to discuss poetic diction in the Western tradition wasAristotle(384 BC—322 BC). In hisPoetics, he stated that the perfect style for writing poetry was one that was clear without meanness. He went on to define meanness of style as the deliberate avoidance of unusual words. He also warned against over-reliance on strange words:
The perfection of Diction is for it to be at once clear and not mean. The clearest indeed is that made up of the ordinary words for things, but it is mean... A certain admixture, accordingly, of unfamiliar terms is necessary. These, the strange word, the metaphor, the ornamental equivalent, etc., will save the language from seeming mean and prosaic, while the ordinary words in it will secure the requisite clearness. What helps most, however, to render the Diction at once clear and non-prosaic is the use of the lengthened, curtailed, and altered forms of words.[notes 1]
Germanic languages developed their own form of poetic diction. InAnglo-SaxonandOld Norse, poetry often involved exceptionally compressedmetaphorscalled "kennings", such aswhale-roadfor "the sea", orsword-weatherfor "battle". Also, poetry often containedriddles(e.g. theGnomic Versesin Anglo-Saxon). Therefore, the order of words for poetry as well as the choice of words reflected a greater tendency to combine words to form metaphor.
InIceland,Snorri Sturlusonwrote theProse Edda, a.k.a. theYounger Eddaaround 1200 A.D., partially to explain the olderEddaand poetic diction. Half of theProse Edda, theSkáldskaparmál("language of poetry creation" or "creative language of poets"), is a manual of traditional Icelandic poetic diction, containing alist of kennings. The list is systematized so as to function as a practicalthesaurusfor the use of poets wishing to write in the genuine old manner, and structured as anFAQ. Snorri gives traditional examples and also opens the way for creating correct new kennings:
How should man beperiphrased? By his works, by that which he gives or receives or does; he may also be periphrased in terms of his property, those things which he possesses, and, if he be liberal, of his liberality; likewise in terms of the families from which he descended, as well as of those which have sprung from him. How is one to periphrase him in terms of these things? Thus, by calling him accomplisher or performer of his goings or his conduct, of his battles or sea-voyages or huntings or weapons or ships.... Woman should be periphrased with reference to all female garments, gold and jewels, ale or wine or any other drink, or to that which she dispenses or gives; likewise with reference to ale-vessels, and to all those things which it becomes her to perform or to give. It is correct to periphrase her thus: by calling her giver or user of that of which she partakes. But the words for 'giver' and 'user' are also names of trees; therefore woman is called in metaphorical speech by all feminine tree-names.[notes 2]
In Britain the distinctively Germanic spirit of Anglo Saxon prosody placed particular emphasis on elaborate, decorative and controlled use of strongly ornate language, such as in consistent and sustainedalliteration, as exemplified by the anonymousPearl Poetof North-West England. In Scotland this spirit continued through to the renaissance so that inMiddle Scotsdiction the 15th and 16th centuryMakarsachieved a rich and varied blend of characteristically GermanicAnglicfeatures with newer Latinate andaureatelanguage and principles.
InJapanese poetry, the rules for writing traditionalhaikurequire that each poem include a reference to a specific season. For therengalinked-verse form from which haiku derived, the rules specify that certain stanzas should have seasonal references. In both cases, such references are achieved by inclusion of akigo(season word). Japanese poets regularly use aSaijiki, a kigo dictionary that contains lists of season words, organized by season, together with examples of haiku using those kigo.
InEnglish, poetic diction has taken multiple forms, but it generally mirrors the habits of Classical literature. Highly metaphoric adjective use, for example, can, throughcatachresis, become a common "poetic" word (e.g. the "rosy-fingered dawn" found inHomer, when translated into English, allows the "rose fingered" to be taken from its Homeric context and used generally to refer not to fingers, but to a person as being dawn-like). In the 16th century,Edmund Spenser(and, later, others) sought to find an appropriate language for theEpicin English, a language that would be as separate from commonplace English as Homeric Greek was fromkoine. Spenser found it in the intentional use of archaisms. (This approach was rejected byJohn Milton, who sought to make his epic out ofblank verse, feeling that common language in blank verse was more majestic than difficult words in complex rhymes.)William Wordsworthalso believed in using the language of the common man to portray a certain image and display his message. In the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth says "I have proposed to myself to imitate, and as far as possible, to adopt, the very language of men."[1]
In the 18th century,pastoralandlyric poetryboth developed a somewhat specialized vocabulary and poetic diction. The common elision within words ("howe'er" and "howsome," e.g.) were not merely graphical. AsPaul Fusselland others have pointed out, these elisions were intended to be read aloud exactly as printed. Therefore, these elisions effectively created words that existed only in poetry. Further, the 18th century saw a renewed interest in Classical poetry, and thus poets began to test language fordecorum.A word in a poem needed to be not merely accurate, but also fitting for the given poetic form. Pastoral, lyric, and philosophical poetry was scrutinized for the right type of vocabulary as well as the most meaningful.Joseph AddisonandRichard Steelediscussed poetic diction inThe Spectator,andAlexander Popesatirized inappropriate poetic diction in his 1727Peri Bathos.
TheRomanticsexplicitly rejected the use of poetic diction, a term whichWilliam Wordsworthuses pejoratively in the 1802 "Preface to Lyrical Ballads":
There will also be found in these volumes little of what is usually called poetic diction; I have taken as much pains to avoid it as others ordinarily take to produce it; this I have done for the reason already alleged, to bring my language near to the language of men, and further, because the pleasure which I have proposed to myself to impart is of a kind very different from that which is supposed by many persons to be the proper object of poetry.
In an appendix, "By what is usually called poetic diction", Wordsworth goes on to define the poetic diction he rejects as above all characterized by heightened and unusual words and especially by "a mechanical adoption of... figures of speech, ... sometimes with propriety, but much more frequently applied... to feelings and ideas with which they had no natural connection whatsoever". The reason that a special poetic diction remote from prose usage gives pleasure to readers, suggests Wordsworth, is "its influence in impressing a notion of the peculiarity and exaltation of the Poet's character, and in flattering the Reader's self-love by bringing him nearer to a sympathy with that character." As an extreme example of the mechanical use of conventionally "poetic" metaphors, Wordsworth quotes an 18th-century metrical paraphrase of a passage from the Old Testament:
How long, shall sloth usurp thy useless hours,Unnerve thy vigour, and enchain thy powers?While artful shades thy downy couch enclose,And soft solicitation courts repose,Amidst the drowsy charms of dull delight,Year chases year with unremitted flight,Till want now following, fraudulent and slow,Shall spring to seize thee, like an ambushed foe.[notes 3]
"From this hubbub of words", comments Wordsworth, "pass to the original... 'How long wilt thou sleep, O Sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travaileth, and thy want as an armed man.'" (Proverbs, vii, 6)
At the same time, Wordsworth withColeridgehad an interest in the archaisms found in the border regions of England and introduced dialect into their poetry. While such language was "unnatural" to theLondonreadership, Wordsworth was careful to point out that he was using it not for an exotic or elevated effect, but as a sample of the contemporary "language of men", specifically the language of poor, uneducated country folk. On the other hand, the later Romantic poetJohn Keatshad a new interest in the poetry of Spenser and in the "ancient English" bards, and so his language was often quite elevated and archaic.
Modernism, on the other hand, rejected specialized poetic diction altogether and without reservation.Ezra Pound, in hisImagistessay/manifestoA Few Don'ts(1913) warned against using superfluous words, especiallyadjectives(compare the use of adjectives in the 18th-century poem quoted above) and also advised the avoidance of abstractions, stating his belief that 'the natural object is always theadequatesymbol'. Since the Modernists, poetry has approached all words as inherently interesting, and some schools of poetry after the Modernists (MinimalismandPlain language, in particular) have insisted on making diction itself the subject of poetry.
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Insociolinguistics, aregisteris avarietyoflanguageused for a particular purpose or particular communicative situation. For example, when speaking officially or in a public setting, anEnglishspeaker may be more likely to followprescriptive normsfor formalusagethan in a casual setting, for example, by pronouncing words ending in-ingwith avelar nasalinstead of analveolar nasal(e.g.,walkingrather thanwalkin), choosing words that are considered more formal, such asfathervs.dadorchildvs.kid, and refraining from using words considerednonstandard, such asain'tandy'all.
As with other types oflanguage variation, there tends to be a spectrum of registers rather than a discrete set of obviously distinct varieties—numerous registers can be identified, with no clear boundaries between them. Discourse categorization is a complex problem, and even according to the general definition of language variation defined by use rather than user, there are cases where other kinds of language variation, such as regional or agedialect, overlap. Due to this complexity, scholarly consensus has not been reached for the definitions of terms such asregister,field, ortenor; different scholars' definitions of these terms often contradict each other.
Additional terms such asdiatype,genre,text types,style,acrolect,mesolect,basilect,sociolect, andethnolect, among many others, may be used to cover the same or similar ground. Some prefer to restrict the domain of the termregisterto a specific vocabulary[1]which one might commonly callslang,jargon,argot, orcant, while others argue against the use of the term altogether. Crystal and Davy, for instance, have critiqued the way the term has been used "in an almost indiscriminate manner".[2]These various approaches to the concept of register fall within the scope of disciplines such as sociolinguistics (as noted above),stylistics,[1]pragmatics,[3]andsystemic functional grammar.[4]
The termregisterwas first used by the linguistT. B. W. Reidin 1956,[5]and brought into general currency in the 1960s by a group of linguists who wanted to distinguish among variations in language according to theuser(defined by variables such as social background, geography, sex and age), and variations according touse, "in the sense that each speaker has a range of varieties and choices between them at different times."[6]The focus is on the way language is used in particular situations, such aslegaleseormotherese, the language of a biology research lab, of a news report, or of the bedroom.
M. A. K. HallidayandR. Hasan[4]interpretregisteras "the linguistic features which are typically associated with a configuration of situational features—with particular values of the field, mode and tenor."Fieldfor them is "the total event, in which the text is functioning, together with the purposive activity of the speaker or writer; includes subject-matter as one of the elements."Modeis "the function of the text in the event, including both the channel taken by language – spoken or written, extempore or prepared – and its genre, rhetorical mode, as narrative, didactic, persuasive, 'phatic communion', etc."Tenorrefers to "the type of role interaction, the set of relevant social relations, permanent and temporary, among the participants involved". These three values – field, mode and tenor – are thus the determining factors for the linguistic features of the text. "The register is the set of meanings, the configuration of semantic patterns, that are typically drawn upon under the specified conditions, along with the words and structures that are used in the realization of these meanings." Register, in the view of M. A. K. Halliday and R. Hasan, is one of the two defining concepts of text. "A text is a passage of discourse which is coherent in these two regards: it is coherent with respect to the context of situation, and therefore consistent in register; and it is coherent with respect to itself, and therefore cohesive."
One of the most analyzed areas where the use of language is determined by the situation is the formality scale. The termregisteris often, inlanguage teachingespecially, shorthand for formal/informal style, although this is an aging definition. Linguistics textbooks may use the termtenorinstead,[7]but increasingly prefer the termstyle—"we characterise styles as varieties of language viewed from the point of view of formality"[8]—while definingregistersmore narrowly as specialist language use related to a particular activity, such as academic jargon. There is very little agreement as to how the spectrum of formality should be divided.
In one prominent model,Martin Joosdescribes five styles in spoken English:[3]
TheInternational Organization for Standardization(ISO) has defined the international standardISO 12620,Management of terminology resources – Data category specifications.[9]This is a registry for registering linguistic terms used in various fields of translation, computational linguistics and natural language processing and defining mappings both between different terms and between different systems in which the same terms are used. The registers identified are:
The termdiatypeis sometimes used to describe language variation which is determined by its social purpose.[10]In this formulation, language variation can be divided into two categories:dialect, for variation according touser, and diatype for variation according touse(e.g. the specialised language of an academic journal). This definition of diatype is very similar to those ofregister.The distinction between dialect and diatype is not always clear; in some cases a language variety may be understood as both a dialect and a diatype. Diatype is usually analysed in terms offield, the subject matter or setting;tenor, the participants and their relationships; andmode, the channel of communication, such as spoken, written or signed.
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Speech productionis the process by which thoughts are translated into speech. This includes the selection ofwords, the organization of relevantgrammaticalforms, and then the articulation of the resulting sounds by themotor systemusing thevocal apparatus. Speech production can be spontaneous such as when a person creates the words of aconversation, reactive such as when they name a picture orreadaloud awritten word, or imitative, such as inspeech repetition. Speech production is not the same aslanguage productionsincelanguagecan also be produced manually bysigns.
In ordinary fluentconversationpeople pronounce roughly foursyllables, ten or twelvephonemesand two to three words out of theirvocabulary(that can contain 10 to 100 thousand words) each second.[1]Errors in speech production are relatively rare occurring at a rate of about once in every 900 words in spontaneous speech.[2]Words that arecommonly spokenor learned early in life or easily imagined are quicker to say than ones that are rarely said, learnt later in life, or are abstract.[3][4]
Normally speech is created with pulmonary pressure provided by thelungsthat generates sound byphonationthrough theglottisin thelarynxthat then is modified by thevocal tractinto differentvowelsandconsonants. However speech production can occur without the use of the lungs and glottis inalaryngeal speechby using the upper parts of the vocal tract. An example of such alaryngeal speech isDonald Duck talk.[5]
The vocal production of speech may be associated with the production of handgesturesthat act to enhance the comprehensibility of what is being said.[6]
The development of speech production throughout an individual's life starts from an infant's first babble and is transformed into fully developed speech by the age of five.[7]The first stage of speech doesn't occur until around age one (holophrastic phase). Between the ages of one and a half and two and a half the infant can produce short sentences (telegraphic phase). After two and a half years the infant develops systems oflemmasused in speech production. Around four or five the child's lemmas are largely increased; this enhances the child's production of correct speech and they can now produce speech like an adult. An adult now develops speech in four stages: Activation of lexical concepts, select lemmas needed,morphologicallyandphonologicallyencode speech, and the word is phonetically encoded.[7]
The production ofspoken languageinvolves three major levels of processing: conceptualization, formulation, and articulation.[1][8][9]
The first is the processes ofconceptualizationor conceptual preparation, in which the intention to create speech links a desired concept to the particular spoken words to be expressed. Here the preverbal intended messages are formulated that specify the concepts to be expressed.[10]
The second stage is formulation in which the linguistic form required for the expression of the desired message is created. Formulation includes grammatical encoding, morpho-phonological encoding, and phonetic encoding.[10]Grammatical encoding is the process of selecting the appropriate syntactic word orlemma. The selected lemma then activates the appropriatesyntacticframe for the conceptualized message. Morpho-phonological encoding is the process of breaking words down into syllables to be produced in overt speech. Syllabification is dependent on the preceding and proceeding words, for instance:I-com-pre-hendvs.I-com-pre-hen-dit.[10]The final part of the formulation stage is phonetic encoding. This involves the activation ofarticulatory gesturesdependent on the syllables selected in the morpho-phonological process, creating an articulatory score as the utterance is pieced together and the order of movements of thevocal apparatusis completed.[10]
The third stage of speech production is articulation, which is the execution of the articulatory score by the lungs, glottis, larynx,tongue,lips,jawand other parts of the vocal apparatus resulting in speech.[8][10]
Themotor controlfor speech production inright handed peopledepends mostly upon areas in the leftcerebral hemisphere. These areas include the bilateralsupplementary motor area, the left posteriorinferior frontal gyrus, the leftinsula, the leftprimary motor cortexandtemporal cortex.[11]There are also subcortical areas involved such as thebasal gangliaandcerebellum.[12][13]The cerebellum aids the sequencing of speech syllables into fast, smooth and rhythmically organized words and longer utterances.[13]
Speech production can be affected by several disorders:
Until the late 1960s research on speech was focused on comprehension. As researchers collected greater volumes ofspeech errordata, they began to investigate the psychological processes responsible for the production of speech sounds and to contemplate possible processes for fluent speech.[14]Findings from speech error research were soon incorporated into speech production models. Evidence from speech error data supports the following conclusions about speech production.
Some of these ideas include:
Models of speech production must contain specific elements to be viable. These include the elements from which speech is composed, listed below. The accepted models of speech production discussed in more detail below all incorporate these stages either explicitly or implicitly, and the ones that are now outdated or disputed have been criticized for overlooking one or more of the following stages.[16]
The attributes of accepted speech models are:
a) a conceptual stage where the speaker abstractly identifies what they wish to express.[16]
b) a syntactic stage where a frame is chosen that words will be placed into, this frame is usuallysentence structure.[16]
c) a lexical stage where a search for a word occurs based on meaning. Once the word is selected and retrieved, information about it becomes available to the speaker involvingphonologyandmorphology.[16]
d) a phonological stage where the abstract information is converted into a speech like form.[16]
e) aphoneticstage where instructions are prepared to be sent to themuscles of articulation.[16]
Also, models must allow for forward planning mechanisms, a buffer, and a monitoring mechanism.
Following are a few of the influential models of speech production that account for or incorporate the previously mentioned stages and include information discovered as a result of speech error studies and other disfluency data,[17]such astip-of-the-tongueresearch.
The Utterance Generator Model was proposed by Fromkin (1971).[18]It is composed of six stages and was an attempt to account for the previous findings of speech error research. The stages of the Utterance Generator Model were based on possible changes in representations of a particular utterance. The first stage is where a person generates the meaning they wish to convey. The second stage involves the message being translated onto a syntactic structure. Here, the message is given an outline.[19]The third stage proposed by Fromkin is where/when the message gains different stresses and intonations based on the meaning. The fourth stage Fromkin suggested is concerned with the selection of words from thelexicon. After the words have been selected in Stage 4, the message undergoes phonological specification.[20]The fifth stage applies rules of pronunciation and produces syllables that are to be outputted. The sixth and final stage of Fromkin's Utterance Generator Model is the coordination of the motor commands necessary for speech. Here, phonetic features of the message are sent to the relevant muscles of the vocal tract so that the intended message can be produced. Despite the ingenuity of Fromkin's model, researchers have criticized this interpretation of speech production. Although The Utterance Generator Model accounts for many nuances and data found by speech error studies, researchers decided it still had room to be improved.[21][22]
A more recent (than Fromkin's) attempt to explain speech production was published by Garrett in 1975.[23]Garrett also created this model by compiling speech error data. There are many overlaps between this model and the Fromkin model from which it was based, but he added a few things to the Fromkin model that filled some of the gaps being pointed out by other researchers. The Garrett Fromkin models both distinguish between three levels—a conceptual level, and sentence level, and a motor level. These three levels are common to contemporary understanding of Speech Production.[24]
In 1994,[25]Dell proposed a model of the lexical network that became fundamental in the understanding of the way speech is produced.[1]This model of the lexical network attempts to symbolically represent the lexicon, and in turn, explain how people choose the words they wish to produce, and how those words are to be organized into speech. Dell's model was composed of three stages, semantics, words, and phonemes. The words in the highest stage of the model represent the semantic category. (In the image, the words representing semantic category are winter, footwear, feet, and snow represent the semantic categories of boot and skate.) The second level represents the words that refer to the semantic category (In the image, boot and skate). And, the third level represents the phonemes (syllabic informationincludingonset, vowels, and codas).[26]
Levelt further refined the lexical network proposed by Dell. Through the use of speech error data, Levelt recreated the three levels in Dell's model. The conceptual stratum, the top and most abstract level, contains information a person has about ideas of particular concepts.[27]The conceptual stratum also contains ideas about how concepts relate to each other. This is where word selection would occur, a person would choose which words they wish to express. The next, or middle level, thelemma-stratum, contains information about the syntactic functions of individual words includingtenseand function.[1]This level functions to maintain syntax and place words correctly into sentence structure that makes sense to the speaker.[27]The lowest and final level is the form stratum which, similarly to the Dell Model, contains syllabic information. From here, the information stored at the form stratum level is sent to the motor cortex where the vocal apparatus are coordinated to physically produce speech sounds.
The physical structure of the human nose, throat, and vocal cords allows for the productions of many unique sounds, these areas can be further broken down intoplaces of articulation. Different sounds are produced in different areas, and with different muscles and breathing techniques.[28]Our ability to utilize these skills to create the various sounds needed to communicate effectively is essential to our speech production. Speech is a psychomotor activity. Speech between two people is aconversation- they can be casual, formal, factual, or transactional, and the language structure/ narrative genre employed differs depending upon the context. Affect is a significant factor that controls speech, manifestations that disrupt memory in language use due to affect include feelings of tension, states of apprehension, as well as physical signs like nausea. Language level manifestations that affect brings could be observed with the speaker's hesitations, repetitions, false starts, incompletion, syntactic blends, etc. Difficulties inmanner of articulationcan contribute to speech difficulties andimpediments.[29]It is suggested that infants are capable of making the entire spectrum of possible vowel and consonant sounds.IPAhas created a system for understanding and categorizing all possible speech sounds, which includes information about the way in which the sound is produced, and where the sounds is produced.[29]This is extremely useful in the understanding of speech production because speech can be transcribed based on sounds rather than spelling, which may be misleading depending on the language being spoken. Average speaking rates are in the 120 to 150 words per minute (wpm) range, and same is the recommended guidelines for recording audiobooks. As people grow accustomed to a particular language they are prone to lose not only the ability to produce certain speech sounds, but also to distinguish between these sounds.[29]
Articulation, often associated with speech production, is how people physically produce speech sounds. For people who speak fluently, articulation is automatic and allows 15 speech sounds to be produced per second.[30]
An effective articulation of speech include the following elements – fluency, complexity, accuracy, and comprehensibility.[31]
Before even producing a sound, infants imitate facial expressions and movements.[32]Around 7 months of age, infants start to experiment with communicative sounds by trying to coordinate producing sound with opening and closing their mouths.
Until the first year of life infants cannot produce coherent words, instead they produce a reoccurringbabblingsound. Babbling allows the infant to experiment with articulating sounds without having to attend to meaning. This repeated babbling starts the initial production of speech. Babbling works withobject permanenceand understanding of location to support the networks of our firstlexicalitems or words.[7]The infant’s vocabulary growth increases substantially when they are able to understand that objects exist even when they are not present.
The first stage of meaningful speech does not occur until around the age of one. This stage is the holophrastic phase.[33]The holistic stage refers to when infant speech consists of one word at a time (i.e. papa).
The next stage is the telegraphic phase. In this stage infants can form short sentences (i.e., Daddy sit, or Mommy drink). This typically occurs between the ages of one and a half and two and a half years old. This stage is particularly noteworthy because of the explosive growth of theirlexicon. During this stage, infants must select and match stored representations of words to the specific perceptual target word in order to convey meaning or concepts.[32]With enough vocabulary, infants begin to extract sound patterns, and they learn to break down words intophonologicalsegments, increasing further the number of words they can learn.[7]At this point in an infant's development of speech their lexicon consists of 200 words or more and they are able to understand even more than they can speak.[33]
When they reach two and a half years their speech production becomes increasingly complex, particularly in its semantic structure. With a more detailedsemantic networkthe infant learns to express a wider range of meanings, helping the infant develop a complex conceptual system oflemmas.
Around the age of four or five the child lemmas have a wide range of diversity, this helps them select the right lemma needed to produce correct speech.[7]Reading to infants enhances their lexicon. At this age, children who have been read to and are exposed to more uncommon and complex words have 32 million more words than a child who islinguisticallyimpoverished.[34]At this age the child should be able to speak in full complete sentences, similar to an adult.
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Vocal pedagogyis the study of the art and science ofvoiceinstruction. It is used in the teaching ofsingingand assists in defining what singing is, how singing works, and howsinging techniqueis accomplished.
Vocal pedagogy covers a broad range of aspects of singing, ranging from the physiological process of vocal production to the artistic aspects of interpretation of songs from different genres or historical eras. Typical areas of study include:[1]
All of these different concepts are a part of developingvocal technique. Not allvoice teachershave the same opinions within every topic of study which causes variations in pedagogical approaches and vocal technique.
Within Western culture, the study of vocal pedagogy began inAncient Greece. Scholars such asAlypiusandPythagorasstudied and made observations on the art of singing. It is unclear, however, whether the Greeks ever developed a systematic approach to teaching singing as little writing on the subject survives today.[2]
The first surviving record of a systematized approach to teaching singing was developed in themedievalmonasteriesof theRoman Catholic Churchsometime near the beginning of the 13th century. As with other fields of study, the monasteries were the center of musical intellectual life during the medieval period and many men within the monasteries devoted their time to the study of music and the art of singing. Highly influential in the development of a vocal pedagogical system were monksJohannes de GarlandiaandJerome of Moraviawho were the first to develop a concept ofvocal registers. These men identified three registers:chest voice,throat voice, andhead voice(pectoris, guttoris, and capitis). Their concept of head voice, however, is much more similar to the modern pedagogists understanding of thefalsetto register. Other concepts discussed in the monastic system includedvocal resonance,voice classification, breath support, diction, and tone quality to name a few. The ideas developed within the monastic system highly influenced the development of vocal pedagogy over the next several centuries including theBel Cantostyle of singing.[2]
With the onset of theRenaissancein the 15th century, the study of singing began to move outside of the church. The courts of rich patrons, such as the Dukes ofBurgundywho supported theBurgundian Schooland theFranco-Flemish School, became secular centers of study for singing and all other areas of musical study. The vocal pedagogical methods taught in these schools, however, were based on the concepts developed within the monastic system. Many of the teachers within these schools had their initial musical training from singing in church choirs as children. The church also remained at the forefront of musical composition at this time and remained highly influential in shaping musical tastes and practices both in and outside the church. It was the Catholic Church that first popularized the use ofcastratosingers in the 16th century, which ultimately led to the popularity of castrato voices inBaroqueand Classicaloperas.[3]
While the church maintained its dominance on intellectual and cultural life, there are individual examples of writers on voice pedagogy from this period who were from outside the church who put forward new ways of thinking and talking about the art of singing; although they lacked the wider influence of the monastic writers. The physician and court singerGiovanni Camillo Maffeiwas the first writer on vocal pedagogy to incorporate knowledge of the physiology of the voice into a theory of singing in his treatiseDiscorso delta voce e del modo d'apparare di cantar di garganta, and Scala naturale, overo Fantasia dolcissima, intorno alle cose occulte e desiderate nella filosofia(Venice, 1564).[4]
It was not until the development of opera in the 17th century that vocal pedagogy began to break away from some of the established thinking of the monastic writers and develop deeper understandings of the physical process of singing and its relation to key concepts likevocal registrationandvocal resonation. It was also during this time that notedvoice teachersbegan to emerge.Giulio Cacciniis an example of an important early Italian voice teacher.[2]In the late 17th century, thebel cantomethod of singing began to develop in Italy. This style of singing had a huge impact on the development of opera and the development of vocal pedagogy during theClassicalandRomanticperiods. It was during this time that teachers and composers first began to identify singers by and write roles for more specificvoice types. However, it was not until the 19th century that more clearly defined voice classification systems like the GermanFachsystem emerged. Within these systems, more descriptive terms were used in classifying voices such ascoloratura sopranoandlyric soprano.[3]
Voice teachers in the 19th century continued to train singers for careers in opera.Manuel Patricio Rodríguez Garcíais often considered one of the most important voice teachers of the 19th century, and is credited with the development of thelaryngoscopeand the beginning of modern voice pedagogy.
The field of voice pedagogy became more fully developed in the middle of the 20th century. A few American voice teachers began to study the science, anatomy, and physiology of singing, especiallyRalph AppelmanatIndiana University,Oren Brownat theWashington University School of Medicineand later theJuilliard School, andWilliam Vennardat theUniversity of Southern California. This shift in approach to the study of singing led to the rejection of many of the assertions of thebel cantosinging method, most particularly in the areas ofvocal registrationandvocal resonation.[5]As a result, there are currently two predominating schools of thought among voice teachers today, those who maintain the historical positions of the bel canto method and those who choose to embrace more contemporary understandings based in current knowledge of human anatomy and physiology. There are also those teachers who borrow ideas from both perspectives, creating a hybrid of the two.[6][7]
Appelman and Vennard were also part of a group of voice instructors who developed courses of study for beginning voice teachers, adding these scientific ideas to the standard exercises and empirical ways to improve vocal technique, and by 1980 the subject of voice pedagogy was beginning to be included in many college music degree programs for singers and vocal music educators.[5]
More recent works by authors such asRichard Millerand Johan Sundberg have increased the general knowledge of voice teachers, and scientific and practical aspects of voice pedagogy continue to be studied and discussed by professionals. In addition, the creation of organisations such as theNational Association of Teachers of Singing(now an international organization of Vocal Instructors) has enabled voice teachers to establish more of a consensus about their work, and has expanded the understanding of what singing teachers do.[1][8]
There are basically three major approaches to vocal pedagogy. They're all related to how the mechanistic and psychological controls are employed while singing. Some voice instructors advocate an extreme mechanistic approach that believes that singing is largely a matter of getting the right physical parts in the right places at the right time, and that correcting vocal faults is accomplished by calling direct attention to the parts which are not working well. On the other extreme, is the school of thought that believes that attention should never be directed to any part of the vocal mechanism—that singing is a matter of producing the right mental images of the desired tone, and that correcting vocal faults is achieved by learning to think the right thoughts and by releasing the emotions through interpretation of the music. Most voice teachers, however, believe that the truth lies somewhere in between the two extremes and adopt a composite of those two approaches.[9]
There are four physical processes involved in producing vocal sound:respiration,phonation,resonation, andarticulation. These processes occur in the following sequence:
Although these four processes are to be considered separately, in actual practice they merge into one coordinated function. With an effective singer or speaker, one should rarely be reminded of the process involved as their mind and body are so coordinated that one only perceives the resulting unified function. Many vocal problems result from a lack of coordination within this process.[7]
In its most basic sense, respiration is the process of moving air in and out of the body—inhalation and exhalation. Sound is produced in the larynx. But producing the sound would not be possible without a power source: the flow of air from the lungs. This flow sets the vocal folds into motion to produce sound.[10]Breathing for singing and speaking is a more controlled process than is the ordinary breathing used for sustaining life. The controls applied to exhalation are particularly important in good vocal technique.[7]
Phonationis the process of producing vocal sound by the vibration of thevocal foldsthat is in turn modified by the resonance of thevocal tract.[11][12]It takes place in thelarynxwhen thevocal foldsare brought together and breath pressure is applied to them in such a way that vibration ensues causing an audible source of acoustic energy, i.e., sound, which can then be modified by the articulatory actions of the rest of thevocal apparatus. The vocal folds are brought together primarily by the action of the interarytenoid muscles, which pull thearytenoid cartilagestogether.[1]
Vocal resonationis the process by which the basic product of phonation is enhanced in timbre and/or intensity by the air-filled cavities through which it passes on its way to the outside air. Various terms related to the resonation process include amplification, enrichment, enlargement, improvement, intensification, and prolongation, although in strictly scientific usage acoustic authorities would question most of them. The main point to be drawn from these terms by a singer or speaker is that the result of resonation is, or should be, to make a better sound.[1]
There are seven areas that may be listed as possible vocal resonators. In sequence from the lowest within the body to the highest, these areas are thechest, thetracheal tree, thelarynxitself, thepharynx, theoral cavity, thenasal cavity, and thesinuses.[9]
Research has shown that the larynx, the pharynx and the oral cavity are the main resonators of vocal sound, with the nasal cavity only coming into play in nasal consonants, or nasal vowels, such as those found in French. This main resonating space, from above the vocal folds to the lips is known as thevocal tract. Many voice users experience sensations in the sinuses that may be misconstrued as resonance. However, these sensations are caused by sympathetic vibrations, and are a result, rather than a cause, of efficient vocal resonance.[8]
Articulation is the process by which the joint product of the vibrator and the resonators is shaped into recognizable speech sounds through the muscular adjustments and movements of the speech organs. These adjustments and movements of the articulators result in verbal communication and thus form the essential difference between the human voice and other musical instruments. Singing without understandable words limits the voice to nonverbal communication.[9]In relation to the physical process of singing, vocal instructors tend to focus more on active articulation as opposed to passive articulation. There are five basic active articulators: the lip ("labial consonants"), the flexible front of the tongue ("coronal consonants"), the middle/back of the tongue ("dorsal consonants"), the root of the tongue together with theepiglottis("pharyngeal consonants"), and theglottis("glottal consonants"). These articulators can act independently of each other, and two or more may work together in what is calledcoarticulation.
Unlike active articulation, passive articulation is a continuum without many clear-cut boundaries. The places linguolabial and interdental, interdental and dental, dental and alveolar, alveolar and palatal, palatal and velar, velar and uvular merge into one another, and a consonant may be pronounced somewhere between the named places.
In addition, when the front of the tongue is used, it may be the upper surface orbladeof the tongue that makes contact ("laminal consonants"), the tip of the tongue ("apical consonants"), or the under surface ("sub-apical consonants"). These articulations also merge into one another without clear boundaries.
Interpretation is sometimes listed by voice teachers as a fifth physical process even though strictly speaking it is not a physical process. The reason for this is that interpretation does influence the kind of sound a singer makes which is ultimately achieved through a physical action the singer is doing. Although teachers may acquaint their students with musical styles and performance practices and suggest certain interpretive effects, most voice teachers agree that interpretation can not be taught. Students who lack a natural creative imagination and aesthetic sensibility can not learn it from someone else. Failure to interpret well is not a vocal fault, even though it may affect vocal sound significantly.[1]
Vocal sounds are divided into two basic categories—vowelsandconsonants—with a wide variety of sub-classifications. Voice teachers and serious voice students spend a great deal of time studying how the voice forms vowels and consonants, and studying the problems that certain consonants or vowels may cause while singing. TheInternational Phonetic Alphabetis used frequently by voice teachers and their students.[9]
Describing vocal sound is an inexact science largely because thehuman voiceis a self-contained instrument. Since the vocal instrument is internal, the singer's ability to monitor the sound produced is complicated by the vibrations carried to the ear through the Eustachean (auditory) tube and the bony structures of the head and neck. In other words, most singers hear something different in their ears/head than what a person listening to them hears. As a result, voice teachers often focus less on how it "sounds" and more on how it "feels". Vibratory sensations resulting from the closely related processes of phonation and resonation, and kinesthetic ones arising from muscle tension, movement, body position, and weight serve as a guide to the singer on correct vocal production.
Another problem in describing vocal sound lies in the vocal vocabulary itself. There are many schools of thought within vocal pedagogy and different schools have adopted different terms, sometimes from other artistic disciplines. This has led to the use of a plethora of descriptive terms applied to the voice which are not always understood to mean the same thing. Some terms sometimes used to describe a quality of a voice's sound are: warm, white, dark, light, round, reedy, spread, focused, covered, swallowed, forward, ringing, hooty, bleaty, plummy, mellow, pear-shaped, and so forth.[7]
The singing process functions best when certain physical conditions of the body exist. The ability to move air in and out of the body freely and to obtain the needed quantity of air can be seriously affected by the body alignment of the various parts of the breathing mechanism. A sunken chest position will limit the capacity of the lungs, and a tense abdominal wall will inhibit the downward travel of thediaphragm. Good body alignment allows the breathing mechanism to fulfill its basic function efficiently without any undue expenditure of energy. Good body alignment also makes it easier to initiate phonation and to tune the resonators as proper alignment prevents unnecessary tension in the body. Voice Instructors have also noted that when singers assume good body alignment it often provides them with a greater sense of self-assurance and poise while performing. Audiences also tend to respond better to singers with good body alignment. Habitual good body alignment also ultimately improves the overall health of the body by enabling better blood circulation and preventing fatigue and stress on the body.[6]
All singing begins with breath. All vocal sounds are created byvibrationsin thelarynxcaused by air from thelungs.Breathingin everyday life is asubconsciousbodily function which occurs naturally; however, thesingermust have control of the intake and exhalation of breath to achieve maximum results from their voice.
Natural breathing has three stages: a breathing-in period, a breathing-out period, and a resting or recovery period; these stages are not usually consciously controlled. Within singing there are four stages of breathing:
These stages must be under conscious control by the singer until they become conditioned reflexes. Many singers abandon conscious controls before their reflexes are fully conditioned which ultimately leads to chronic vocal problems.[13]
In Europeanclassical musicandopera, voices are treated likemusical instruments.Composerswho write vocal music must have an understanding of the skills, talents, and vocal properties of singers.Voice classificationis the process by which human singing voices are evaluated and are thereby designated intovoice types. These qualities include but are not limited to:vocal range,vocal weight,vocal tessitura, vocaltimbre, andvocal transition pointssuch as breaks and lifts within the voice. Other considerations are physical characteristics, speech level, scientific testing, andvocal registration.[14]The science behind voice classification developed within European classical music and has been slow in adapting to more modern forms of singing. Voice classification is often used withinoperato associate possible roles with potential voices. There are currently several different systems in use within classical music including: the GermanFachsystem and the choral music system among many others. No system is universally applied or accepted.[3]
However, most classical music systems acknowledge seven different major voice categories. Women are typically divided into three groups:soprano,mezzo-soprano, andcontralto. Men are usually divided into four groups:countertenor,tenor,baritone, andbass. When considering children's voices, an eighth term,treble, can be applied. Within each of these major categories there are several sub-categories that identify specific vocal qualities likecoloraturafacility and vocal weight to differentiate between voices.[1]
Withinchoral music, singers voices are divided solely on the basis of vocal range. Choral music most commonly divides vocal parts into high and low voices within each sex (SATB). As a result, the typical choral situation affords many opportunities for misclassification to occur.[1]Since most people have medium voices, they must be assigned to a part that is either too high or too low for them; the mezzo-soprano must sing soprano or alto and the baritone must sing tenor or bass. Either option can present problems for the singer, but for most singers there are fewer dangers in singing too low than in singing too high.[15]
Within contemporary forms of music (sometimes referred to asContemporary Commercial Music), singers are classified by thestyle of musicthey sing, such as jazz, pop, blues, soul, country, folk, and rock styles. There is currently no authoritative voice classification system within non-classical music.[16]Attempts have been made to adopt classicalvoice typeterms to other forms of singing but such attempts have been met with controversy. The development of voice categorizations were made with the understanding that the singer would be using classical vocal technique within a specified range using unamplified (no microphones) vocal production. Since contemporary musicians use different vocal techniques, microphones, and are not forced to fit into a specific vocal role, applying such terms as soprano, tenor, baritone, etc. can be misleading or even inaccurate.[7]
Many voice teachers warn of the dangers of quick identification. Premature concern with classification can result in misclassification, with all its attendant dangers. Vennard says:
"I never feel any urgency about classifying a beginning student. So many premature diagnoses have been proved wrong, and it can be harmful to the student and embarrassing to the teacher to keep striving for an ill-chosen goal. It is best to begin in the middle part of the voice and work upward and downward until the voice classifies itself."[6]
Most voice teachers believe that it is essential to establish good vocal habits within a limited and comfortable range before attempting to classify the voice. When techniques of posture, breathing,phonation, resonation, and articulation have become established in this comfortable area, the true quality of the voice will emerge and the upper and lower limits of the range can be explored safely. Only then can a tentative classification be arrived at, and it may be adjusted as the voice continues to develop.[9]Many acclaimed voice instructors suggest that teachers begin by assuming that a voice is of a medium classification until it proves otherwise. The reason for this is that the majority of individuals possess medium voices and therefore this approach is less likely to misclassify or damage the voice.[1]
Vocal registrationrefers to the system of vocal registers within the human voice. A register in the human voice is a particular series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of thevocal folds, and possessing the same quality. Registers originate inlaryngealfunction. They occur because the vocal folds are capable of producing several different vibratory patterns. Each of these vibratory patterns appears within a particular range ofpitchesand produces certain characteristic sounds.[17]The term register can be somewhat confusing as it encompasses several aspects of the human voice. The term register can be used to refer to any of the following:[1]
Inlinguistics, aregister languageis a language which combinestoneand vowelphonationinto a singlephonologicalsystem.
Withinspeech pathologythe term vocal register has three constituent elements: a certain vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, a certain series of pitches, and a certain type of sound. Speech pathologists identify four vocal registers based on the physiology of laryngeal function: thevocal fry register, themodal register, thefalsetto register, and thewhistle register. This view is also adopted by many teachers of singing.[1]
Some voice teachers, however, organize registers differently. There are over a dozen different constructs of vocal registers in use within the field. The confusion which exists concerning what a register is, and how many registers there are, is due in part to what takes place in the modal register when a person sings from the lowestpitchesof that register to the highest pitches. The frequency of vibration of the vocal folds is determined by their length, tension, and mass. As pitch rises, the vocal folds are lengthened, tension increases, and their thickness decreases. In other words, all three of these factors are in a state of flux in the transition from the lowest to the highest tones.[17]
If a singer holds any of these factors constant and interferes with their progressive state of change, his laryngeal function tends to become static and eventually breaks occur with obvious changes of tone quality. These breaks are often identified as register boundaries or as transition areas between registers. The distinct change or break between registers is called apassaggioor aponticello.[18]Vocal instructors teach that with study a singer can move effortlessly from one register to the other with ease and consistent tone. Registers can even overlap while singing. Teachers who like to use this theory of "blending registers" usually help students through the "passage" from one register to another by hiding their "lift" (where the voice changes).
However, many voice instructors disagree with this distinction of boundaries blaming such breaks on vocal problems which have been created by a static laryngeal adjustment that does not permit the necessary changes to take place. This difference of opinion has effected the different views on vocal registration.[1]
Singing is an integrated and coordinated act and it is difficult to discuss any of the individual technical areas and processes without relating them to the others. For example, phonation only comes into perspective when it is connected with respiration; the articulators affect resonance; the resonators affect the vocal folds; the vocal folds affect breath control; and so forth. Vocal problems are often a result of a breakdown in one part of this coordinated process which causes voice teachers to frequently focus in, intensively, on one area of the process with their student until that issue is resolved. However, some areas of the art of singing are so much the result of coordinated functions that it is hard to discuss them under a traditional heading like phonation, resonation, articulation, or respiration.
Once the voice student has become aware of the physical processes that make up the act of singing and of how those processes function, the student begins the task of trying to coordinate them. Inevitably, students and teachers will become more concerned with one area of the technique than another. The various processes may progress at different rates, with a resulting imbalance or lack of coordination. The areas of vocal technique which seem to depend most strongly on the student's ability to coordinate various functions are:[1]
Some consider that singing is not a natural process but is a skill that requires highly developed muscle reflexes, but others consider that some ways of singing can be considered as natural.[19]Singing does not require much muscle strength but it does require a high degree of muscle coordination. Individuals can develop their voices further through the careful and systematic practice of both songs and vocal exercises. Voice teachers instruct their students to exercise their voices in an intelligent manner. Singers should be thinking constantly about the kind of sound they are making and the kind of sensations they are feeling while they are singing.[7]
There are several purposes for vocal exercises, including:[1]
An important goal of vocal development is to learn to sing to the natural limits of one's vocal range without any undesired changes of quality or technique. Voice instructors teach that a singer can only achieve this goal when all of the physical processes involved in singing (such as laryngeal action, breath support, resonance adjustment, and articulatory movement) are effectively working together. Most voice teachers believe that the first step in coordinating these processes is by establishing good vocal habits in the most comfortable tessitura of the voice first before slowly expanding the range beyond that.[6]
There are three factors which significantly affect the ability to sing higher or lower:
McKinney says, "These three factors can be expressed in three basic rules: (1) As you sing higher, you must use more energy; as you sing lower, you must use less. (2) As you sing higher, you must use more space; as you sing lower, you must use less. (3) As you sing higher, you must use more depth; as you sing lower, you must use less."[1]
Some voice teachers will spend time working with their students on general music knowledge and skills, particularlymusic theory,music history, and musical styles and practices as it relates to the vocal literature being studied. If required they may also spend time helping their students become better sight readers, often adoptingsolfège, which assigns certain syllables to the notes of the scale.
Since singing is a performing art, voice teachers spend some of their time preparing their students for performance. This includes teaching their students etiquette of behavior on stage such as bowing, learning to manage stage fright, addressing problems like nervous tics, and the use of equipment such as microphones. Some students may also be preparing for careers in the fields ofoperaormusical theaterwhere acting skills are required. Many voice instructors will spend time on acting techniques and audience communication with students in these fields of interest. Students of opera also spend a great deal of time with their voice teachers learning foreign language pronunciations.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_pedagogy
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Inlinguistics,affectis an attitude oremotionthat a speaker brings to an utterance. Affects such as sarcasm, contempt, dismissal, distaste, disgust, disbelief, exasperation, boredom, anger, joy, respect or disrespect, sympathy,pity, gratitude, wonder, admiration, humility, and awe are frequently conveyed throughparalinguisticmechanisms such asintonation, facial expression, andgesture, and thus require recourse to punctuation oremoticonswhen reduced to writing, but there are grammatical and lexical expressions of affect as well, such aspejorativeandapprobativeorlaudativeexpressions or inflections, adversative forms,honorific and deferential language,interrogativesandtag questions, and some types ofevidentiality.
Lexical choices mayframea speaker's affect, such asslender(positive affect) vs.scrawny(negative affect),thrifty(positive) vs.stingy(negative) andfreedom fighter(positive) vs.terrorist(negative).[1]
In many languages of Europe,augmentativederivations are used to express contempt or other negative attitudes toward the noun being so modified, whereasdiminutivesmay express affection; on the other hand, diminutives are frequently used to belittle or be dismissive. For instance, inSpanish, a name ending in diminutive-ito(masculine) or-ita(feminine) may be aterm of endearment, butseñorito"little mister" forseñor"mister" may be mocking.Polishhas a range ofaugmentativeanddiminutiveforms, which express differences in affect. So, fromżaba"a frog", besidesżabuchafor simply a big frog, there is augmentativeżabskoto express distaste,żabiskoif the frog is ugly,żabulaif it is likeably awkward, etc.
Affect can also be conveyed by more subtle means. Duranti, for example, shows that the use of pronouns in Italian narration indicates that the character referred to is important to the narration but is generally also a mark of a positive speaker attitude toward the character.[2]
InJapaneseandKorean, grammatical affect is conveyed both throughhonorific, polite, and humble language, which affects both nouns and verbal inflection, and through clause-finalparticlesthat express a range of speaker emotions and attitudes toward what is being said. For instance, when asked in Japanese if what one is eating is good, one might say 美味しいoishii"it's delicious" or まずいmazui"it's bad" with various particles for nuance:
The same can be done inKorean:
In English and Japanese, thepassiveof intransitive verbs may be used to express an adversative situation:
雨が
ame-ga
rain-NOM
降った。
fut-ta
fall-PFV
雨が 降った。
ame-ga fut-ta
rain-NOM fall-PFV
It rained.
雨に
ame-ni
rain-DAT
降られた。
fu-rare-ta
fall-PASS-PFV
雨に 降られた。
ame-ni fu-rare-ta
rain-DAT fall-PASS-PFV
I was rained on.
In some languages withsplit intransitivegrammars, such as theCentral Pomo languageofCalifornia, the choice of encoding an affectedverb argumentas an "object" (patientive case) reflects empathy or emotional involvement on the part of the speaker:[3]
ʔaː=tʼo
1.AGT=but
béda=ht̪ow
here=from
béː=yo-w
away=go-PFV
dá-ːʔ-du-w
want-REFL-IPFV-PFV
tʃʰó-w.
not-PFV.
béda
here
ʔaː
I.AGT
qʼlá-w=ʔkʰe.
die-PFV=FUT.
ʔaː=tʼo béda=ht̪ow béː=yo-w dá-ːʔ-du-w tʃʰó-w. béda ʔaː qʼlá-w=ʔkʰe.
1.AGT=but here=from away=go-PFV want-REFL-IPFV-PFV not-PFV. here I.AGT die-PFV=FUT.
"(But) I don't want to go away from here. I (agentive) will die here." (said matter-of-factly)
ʔaː
I.AGT
tʃá=ʔel
house=the
ʔtʃí=hla
get=if
t̪oː
I.PAT
qʼlá=hla
die=if
tʼo?
but
ʔaː tʃá=ʔel ʔtʃí=hla t̪oː qʼlá=hla tʼo?
I.AGT house=the get=if I.PAT die=if but
"(But) what if I (patientive) died after I got the house?" (given as a reason not to buy a new house)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affect_(linguistics)
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The termboundary tonerefers to a rise or fall in pitch that occurs in speech at the end of a sentence or other utterance, or, if a sentence is divided into two or moreintonational phrases, at the end of each intonational phrase. It can also refer to a low or high intonational tone at the beginning of an utterance or intonational phrase.
The term was first introduced in aPhDthesis on EnglishintonationbyMark Libermanin 1975 but without being developed further.[1]It was taken up again in 1980 in another PhD thesis on English intonation byJanet Pierrehumbert.[2]In Pierrehumbert's model, which later developed into theToBIsystem of intonational transcription, everyintonational phraseis marked as ending in a boundary tone, written either H% when the speaker's voice rises up or remains high, or L% when it falls or remains low.
In modern intonational studies the term 'boundary tone' replaces the notion of 'terminal junctures' (falling #, rising //, and level /) used in earlier American studies of intonation.[3]
Pierrehumbert gives the example of the sentenceThis is my sister Mary. This can be pronounced in two ways, either as a single intonational phrase with a single high pitch on the first syllable ofMary(L L L L L H L), or as two intonational phrases with a high pitch both onsisterand onMary(L L L H L H L). If it is pronounced the second way, the wordssisterandMaryboth have a falling intonation, and each one is transcribed by Pierrehumbert as H* L−L%.[4]Here the asterisk (*) indicates apitch accent, the hyphen (−) indicates aphrase accent, which fills the interval between the last pitch accent and the final boundary tone, and the percent symbol (%) indicates the boundary tone itself.[5]
In another example, in response to the question, "What about Anna? Who did she come with?", a speaker may replyAnna came with Manny. Again there are two possible pronunciations: the speaker can either say this as a single intonational phrase with a single high pitch onManny(L L L L H L), or as two intonational phrases with one high pitch on the first syllable ofAnnaand another on the first syllable ofManny(H L L L H L). If the sentence is pronounced in the second way, because the wordAnnais the topic of the sentence and does not give new information, it will have a slight rise in pitch on the second syllable (see the illustration). In this case it is transcribed by Pierrehumbert as H* L−H%.[6]
A boundary tone can also begin a sentence or intonational phrase. For example, the phraseAnother orangewould usually be pronounced with a low pitch on the first syllable. However, it can sometimes be pronounced with a high pitch on the vowelA-. Pierrehumbert marks this high pitch also with H%.[7](A low boundary tone at the beginning of an utterance is usually not marked by Pierrehumbert.)
Because of its simplicity compared with previous attempts at transcribing English intonation, Pierrehumbert's model has been influential[8]and has been successfully adapted to several other languages, for examplePersian,[9]German,[10]andDutch.[11]Some analyses use a larger number of boundary tones than L% and H%; for example for Dutch,Gussenhovenuses L%, H%, and % (no boundary tone) at the end of an utterance, and %L, %H, and %HL at the beginning;[11]while forItalianFrota and Prieto posit six boundary tones, written L%, H%, LH%, HL%, L!H%, and H!H% (where !H represents adownsteppedhigh tone, i.e. one slightly lower in pitch than the previous one).[12]
A rising boundary tone can often be heard internally in a sentence in some languages, for example, to mark a topic,[13]to mark off items in a list, or following the subordinate clause in a sentence such as "If you like it, please buy it".[14](See further:Chichewa tones#Boundary tones.)
Boundary tones are also used to mark questions in many languages. For example, in Chichewa, a yes–no question may be indicated either by a rising tone on the final syllable, or by a high-low falling tone (e.g.mwalandirâ?"have you received it?").[15]InLuganda, a related language spoken inUganda, on the contrary, a yes–no question is indicated by alowtone on the final syllable (e.g.ssóméró'it is a school' vs.ssóméro'is it a school?').[16](SeeChichewa tonesandLuganda tones.)
A corpus-based study of yes–no questions in American English found that the great majority of them (approximately 90%) ended in a high boundary tone (H%), most frequently (80%) using a "low-rise" final contour transcribed L*H-H%. The next most common contour is H*H-H%, which is described as "high-rise". A typical low-rise question transcribed in the study isAnd do you still work for a veterinarian?, with the syllableve-marked as L* followed by a smooth rise to a high pitch at the end.[17]Less commonly a yes–no question will end in a "high-fall", for example,Is it treatable?, in which the wordtreatableis marked H*L-L%.[18]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_tone_(linguistics)
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Inlinguistics,focus(abbreviatedFOC) is agrammatical categorythat conveys which part of the sentence contributes new, non-derivable, or contrastive information. In theEnglishsentence "Mary only insulted BILL", focus is expressedprosodicallyby apitch accenton "Bill" which identifies him as the only person whom Mary insulted. By contrast, in the sentence "Mary only INSULTED Bill", the verb "insult" is focused and thus expresses that Mary performed no other actions towards Bill. Focus is a cross-linguistic phenomenon and a major topic in linguistics. Research on focus spans numerous subfields includingphonetics,syntax,semantics,pragmatics, andsociolinguistics.
Information structure has been described at length by a number of linguists as a grammatical phenomenon.[1][2][3]Lexicogrammatical structures that code prominence, or focus, of some information over other information has a particularly significant history dating back to the 19th century.[4]Recent attempts to explain focus phenomena in terms of discourse function, including those byKnud LambrechtandTalmy Givón, often connect focus with the packaging of new, old, and contrasting information. Lambrecht in particular distinguishes three main types of focus constructions: predicate-focus structure, argument-focus structure, and sentence-focus structure. Focus has also been linked to other more general cognitive processes, includingattentionorientation.[5][6]
In such approaches,contrastive focusis understood as the coding of information that is contrary to the presuppositions of theinterlocutor.[7][8][9]Thetopic–commentmodel distinguishes between the topic (theme) and what is being said about that topic (the comment, rheme, or focus).[9][10][11]
Standard formalist approaches to grammar argue thatphonologyandsemanticscannot exchange information directly (See Fig. 1). Therefore, syntactic mechanisms including features andtransformationsinclude prosodic information regarding focus that is passed to the semantics and phonology.
Focus may be highlighted either prosodically or syntactically or both, depending on the language. In syntax this can be done assigning focus markers, as shown in (1), or by preposing as shown in (2):
In (1), focus is marked syntactically with the subscripted ‘f’ which is realized phonologically by a nuclearpitch accent.Cleftinginduces an obligatory intonation break. Therefore, in (2), focus is marked via word order and a nuclear pitch accent.
In English, focus also relates to phonology and has ramifications for how and wheresuprasegmentalinformation such asrhythm,stress, andintonationis encoded in the grammar, and in particular intonational tunes that mark focus.[12]Speakers can use pitch accents on syllables to indicate what word(s) are in focus. New words are often accented while given words are not. The accented word(s) forms the focus domain. However, not all of the words in a focus domain need be accented. (See[13][14][15]for rules on accent placement and focus-marking). The focus domain can be eitherbroad, as shown in (3), ornarrow, as shown in (4) and (5):
The question/answer paradigm shown in (3)–(5) has been utilized by a variety of theorists[12][16]to illustrate the range of contexts a sentence containing focus can be used felicitously. Specifically, the question/answer paradigm has been used as a diagnostic for what counts as new information. For example, the focus pattern in (3) would be infelicitous if the question was ‘Did you see a grey dog or a black dog?’.
In (3) and (4), the pitch accent is marked in bold. In (3), the pitch accent is placed ondogbut the entire noun phrasea grey dogis under focus. In (4), the pitch accent is also placed ondogbut only the noundogis under focus. In (5), pitch accent is placed ongreyand only the adjectivegreyis under focus.
Historically, generative proposals made focus a feature bound to a single word within a sentence.ChomskyandHalle[17]formulated a Nuclear Stress Rule that proposed there to be a relation between the main stress of a sentence and a single constituent. Since this constituent is prominent sententially in a way that can contrast with lexical stress, this was originally referred to as "nuclear" stress. The purpose of this rule was to capture the intuition that within each sentence, there is one word in particular that is accented more prominently due to its importance – this is said to form thenucleusof that sentence.
Focus was later suggested to be a structural position at the beginning of the sentence (or on the left periphery) inRomance languagessuch as Italian, as the lexical head of a Focus Phrase (or FP, following theX-bar theoryofphrase structure).Jackendoff,[18]Selkirk,[13][14]Rooth,[19][20]Krifka,[21]Schwarzschild[15]argue that focus consists of a feature that is assigned to a node in the syntactic representation of a sentence.
Because focus is now widely seen as corresponding between heavy stress, or nuclear pitch accent, this feature is often associated with the phonologically prominent element(s) of a sentence.
Sound structure (phonologicalandphonetic) studies of focus are not as numerous, as relational language phenomena tend to be of greater interest to syntacticians and semanticists. But this may be changing: a recent study found that not only do focused words and phrases have a higher range of pitch compared to words in the same sentence but that words following the focus in bothAmerican EnglishandMandarin Chinesewere lower than normal in pitch and words before a focus are unaffected. The precise usages of focus in natural language are still uncertain. A continuum of possibilities could possibly be defined between preciselyenunciatedandstaccatostyles of speech based on variations inpragmaticsortiming.
Currently, there are two central themes in research on focus in generative linguistics. First, given what words or expressions are prominent, what is the meaning of some sentence? Rooth,[19]Jacobs,[22]Krifka,[21]and von Stechow[23]claim that there are lexical items and construction specific-rules that refer directly to the notion of focus. Dryer,[24]Kadmon,[25]Marti,[26]Roberts,[16]Schwarzschild,[27]Vallduvi,[28]and Williams[29]argue for accounts in which general principles of discourse explain focus sensitivity.[12]Second, given the meaning and syntax of some sentence, what words or expressions are prominent?
Focus directly affects the semantics, or meaning, of a sentence. Different ways of pronouncing the sentence affects the meaning, or, what the speaker intends to convey. Focus distinguishes one interpretation of a sentence from other interpretations of the same sentence that do not differ in word order, but may differ in the way in which the words are taken to relate to each other. To see the effects of focus on meaning, consider the following examples:
In (6), accent is placed on Sue. There are two readings of (6) – broad focus shown in (7) and narrow focus shown in (8):
The meaning of (7) can be summarized asthe only thing John did was introduce Bill to Sue. The meaning of (8) can be summarized asthe only person to whom John introduced Bill is Sue.
In both (7) and (8), focus is associated with the focus sensitive expressiononly. This is known as association with focus. The class of focus sensitive expressions in which focus can be associated with includes exclusives (only,just) non-scalar additives (merely,too) scalar additives (also,even), particularlizers (in particular,for example), intensifiers, quantificational adverbs, quantificational determiners, sentential connectives, emotives, counterfactuals, superlatives, negation and generics.[12]It is claimed that focus operators mustc-commandtheir focus.
In thealternative semanticsapproach to focus pioneered byMats Rooth, each constituentα{\displaystyle \alpha }has both an ordinary denotation[[α]]o{\displaystyle [\![\alpha ]\!]_{o}}and a focus denotation[[α]]f{\displaystyle [\![\alpha ]\!]_{f}}which are composed by parallel computations. The ordinary denotation of a sentence is simply whatever denotation it would have in a non-alternative-based system while its focus denotation can be thought of as the set containing all ordinary denotations one could get by substituting the focused constituent for another expression of the same semantic type. For a sentence such as (9), the ordinary denotation will be thepropositionwhich is true iff Mary likes Sue. Its focus denotation will be the set of each propositions such that for some contextually relevant individual 'x', that proposition is true iff Mary likes 'x'.[30][19][20]
In formal terms, the ordinary denotation of (9) will be as shown below:
Focus denotations are computed using thealternative setsprovided by alternative semantics. In this system, most unfocused items denote thesingleton setcontaining their ordinary denotations.
Focused constituents denote the set of all (contextually relevant) semantic objects of the same type.
In alternative semantics, the primary composition rule isPointwise Functional Application. This rule can be thought of as analogous to thecross product.
Applying this rule to example (9) would give the following focus denotation if the only contextually relevant individuals are Sue, Bill, Lisa, and Mary
The focus denotation can be "caught" by focus-sensitive expressions like "only" as well as other covert items such as thesquiggle operator.[19][20][30]
Following Jacobs[22]and Williams,[29]Krifka[21]argues differently. Krifka claims focus partitions the semantics into a background part and focus part, represented by the pair:
Thelogical formof which represented inlambda calculusis:
This pair is referred to as astructured meaning. Structured meanings allow for a compositional semantic approach to sentences that involve single or multiple foci. This approach followsFrege's(1897) Principle of Compositionality: the meaning of a complex expression is determined by the meanings of its parts, and the way in which those parts are combined into structured meanings. Krifka’s structured meaning theory represents focus in a transparent and compositional fashion it encompasses sentences with more than one focus as well as sentences with a single focus. Krifka claims the advantages of structured meanings are twofold: 1) We can access the meaning of an item in focus directly, and 2) Rooth's[19][20]alternative semantics can be derived from a structured meaning approach but not vice versa. To see Krifka’s approach illustrated, consider the following examples of single focus shown in (10) and multiple foci shown in (11):
Generally, the meaning of (10) can be summarized asJohn introduced Bill to Sue and no one else, and the meaning of (11) can be summarized asthe only pair of persons such that John introduced the first to the second is Bill and Sue.
Specifically, the structured meaning of (10) is:
The background part of the structured meaning is;introd (j, b, x); and the focus part iss.
Through a (modified) form of functional application (orbeta reduction), the focus part of (10) and (11) is projected up through the syntax to the sentential level. Importantly, each intermediate level has distinct meaning.
It has been claimed thatnewinformation in the discourse is accented whilegiveninformation is not. Generally, the properties ofnewandgivenare referred to as a word's discourse status. Definitions ofnewandgivenvary. Halliday[31]definesgivenas "anaphorically" recoverable, whilenewis defined to be "textually and situationally non-derivable information". To illustrate this point, consider the following discourse in (12) and (13):
In (13) we note that the verbmakeis not given by the sentence in (12). It is discourse new. Therefore, it is available for accentuation. However,toastin (13) is given in (12). Therefore, it is not available for accentuation. As previously mentioned, pitch accenting can relate to focus. Accented words are often said to be in focus or F-marked often represented by F-markers. The relationship between accent placement is mediated through the discourse status of particular syntactic nodes.[33]The percolation of F-markings in a syntactic tree is sensitive to argument structure and head-phrase relations.[15]
Selkirk[13][14]develops an explicit account of how F-marking propagates upsyntactic trees. Accenting indicates F-marking. F-marking projects up a given syntactic tree such that both lexical items, i.e.terminal nodesand phrasal levels, i.e.nonterminal nodes, can be F-marked. Specifically, a set of rules determines how and where F-marking occurs in the syntax. These rules are shown in (1) and (2):
To see how (14) and (15) apply, consider the following example:
Because there is no rule in (14) or (15) that licenses F-marking to the direct object from any other node, the direct objectparrotmust be accented as indicated in bold. Rule (15b) allows F-marking to project from the direct object to the head verbadopted. Rule (15a) allows F-marking to project from the head verb to the VPadopted a parrot. Selkirk[13][14]assumes the subjectJudyis accented if F-marked as indicated in bold.[33]
Schwarzschild[15]points out weaknesses in Selkirk’s[13][14]ability to predict accent placement based on facts about the discourse. Selkirk’s theory says nothing about how accentuation arises in sentences with entirely old information. She does not fully articulate the notion of discourse status and its relation to accent marking. Schwarzschild differs from Selkirk in that he develops a more robust model of discourse status. Discourse status is determined via the entailments of the context. This is achieved through the definition in (16):
The operation in (16b) can apply to any constituent.∃{\displaystyle \exists }-type-shifting "is a way of transforming syntactic constituents into fullpropositionsso that it is possible to check whether they areentailedby the context".[33]For example, the result of∃{\displaystyle \exists }-type-shifting the VP in (17) is (18):
Note that (18) is a full proposition. The existential F-closure in (16b) refers to the operation of replacing the highest F-marked node with an existentially closed variable. The operation is shown in (19) and (20):
Given the discourse context in (21a) it is possible to determine the discourse status of any syntactic node in (21b):
If the VP in (21a) is the salient antecedent for the VP in (21b), then the VP in (21b) counts as given.∃{\displaystyle \exists }-type-shifed VP in (21a) is shown in (22). The existential F-closure of the VP in (21b) is shown in (23):
(22) entails (23). Therefore, the VP of (21b) counts as given. Schwarzschild[15]assumes anoptimality theoreticgrammar.[34]Accent placement is determined by a set of violable, hierarchically ranked constraints as shown in (24):
The ranking Schwarzschild[15]proposes is seen in (25):
As seen, GIVENness relates F-marking to discourse status. Foc relates F-marking to accent placement. Foc simply requires that a constituent(s) of an F-marked phrase contain an accent. AvoidF states that less F-marking is preferable to more F-marking. HeadArg encodes the head-argument asymmetry into the grammar directly.[33]
Recent empirical work by Germanet al.[33]suggests that both Selkirk’s[13][14]and Schwarzschild’s[15]theory of accentuation and F-marking makes incorrect predictions. Consider the following context:
It has been noted that prepositions are intrinsically weak and do not readily take accent.[32][33]However, both Selkirk and Schwarzschild predict that in the narrow focus context, an accent will occur at most on the preposition in (27) as shown in (28):
However, the production experiment reported in Germanet al.[33]showed that subjects are more likely to accent verbs or nouns as opposed to prepositions in the narrow focused context, thus ruling out accent patterns shown in (28). Germanet al.argue for a stochastic constraint-based grammar similar to Anttila[35]and Boersma[36]that more fluidly accounts for how speakers accent words in discourse.
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Thehigh rising terminal(HRT), also known asrising inflection,upspeak,uptalk, orhigh rising intonation(HRI), is a feature of some variants of English wheredeclarative sentencescan end with a rising pitch similar to that typically found inyes–no questions. HRT has been claimed to be especially common among younger speakers and women, though its exactsociolinguisticimplications are an ongoing subject of research.
Empirically, one report proposes that HRT inAmerican EnglishandAustralian Englishis marked by a high tone (high pitch or highfundamental frequency) beginning on the final accented syllable near the end of the statement (the terminal), and continuing to increase in frequency (up to 40%) to the end of the intonational phrase.[1]New research suggests that the actual rise can occur one or more syllables after the last accented syllable of the phrase, and its range is much more variable than previously thought.[2]
In the United States, the phenomenon of HRT may be fairly recent but is an increasingly common characteristic of speech especially among younger speakers. However, serious scientific and linguistic inquiry on this topic has a much more extensive history in linguistic journals from Australia, New Zealand, and Britain where HRT seems to have been noted as early as World War II.
It has been noted in speech heard in areas of Canada, inCape Town, theFalkland Islands, and in the United States where it is often associated with a particularsociolectthat originated among affluent teenage girls in southern California (seeValleyspeakandValley girl). It was observed in Mississippi in 1963 (see "Twirling at Ole Miss" inRed-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes). Elsewhere in the United States, this tonal pattern is characteristic of the speech heard in parts of the ruralupper Midwestthat have come under the influence ofNorwegian phonologythroughNorwegian migration to MinnesotaandNorth Dakota.
Although it is characterized in Britain as "Australian question intonation" (AQI) and blamed on the popularity ofAustralian soap operasamong teenagers, HRT is also a feature of several Irish-English dialects, especially inmid-Ulster and Belfast English.[3]
Research published in 1986, regarding vernacular speech inSydney, suggested that high rising terminal was used more than twice as often by young people than older people, and was more common among women than men.[4]In other words, HRT was more common among women born between 1950 and 1970, than among men born before 1950. The same research (and other sources) also suggested that the practice often served to discourage interruption, by indicating that a speaker had not quite completed a particular statement.[2][5][4]
High rising terminal also occurs in non-English languages, such as in Arabic (Iraqi Arabic,Egyptian ArabicandLebanese Arabic),Amharic,Cham,Tuvaluan,French, andDominican[6]and other varieties of Spanish.[7]
Media in Australia, Britain, and the United States have negatively portrayed the usage of HRT, claiming that its use exhibits a speaker's insecurities about the statement and undermines effective speaking.[8][9][10][11][12]Timereports that it hampers job interviews.[13]However, other research has suggested HRT can be an effective way for speakers to establishcommon ground, that this often involvesbreathy voice,
and that its meaning is highly situational, derived from a "complex interaction of time, presupposition, and inference."[14][15]
Recent evidence shows that leaders of the peer group are more likely to use HRT in their declaratives than the junior members of the particular peer group.[2][16][17]According toUniversity of PennsylvaniaphonologistMark Liberman,George W. Bushbegan to use HRT extensively in his speeches as his presidency continued.[18]LinguistRobin Lakoffdrew attention to the pattern in her bookLanguage and Women's Place, which argued that women were socialized to talk in ways that lacked power, authority, and confidence. Rising intonation on declarative sentences was one of the features Lakoff included in her description of "women's language", a gendered speech style she believed reflected and reproduced its users' subordinate social status.[19]
Because HRT has been popularized as "Valley Girl Speak", it has acquired an almost exclusively feminine gender connotation. Studies confirm that more women use HRT than men.[20]LinguistThomas J. Linnemancontends, "The more successful a man is, the less likely he is to use HRT; the more successful a woman is, the more likely she is to use uptalk."[20]Though women appear to use HRT more often than men, the differences in frequency are not significant enough to brand HRT as an exclusively female speech pattern. Susan Miller, a vocal coach in Washington, D.C., insists that she receives both male and female clients with equal frequency—not because either gender is concerned that they sound too feminine, but that they sound too young.[21]
Findings have thus been inconclusive regarding HRT as a gendered speech pattern, though the (partial) evidence that HRT is more common among women is consistent with the third principle of thegender paradoxidentified by sociolinguistWilliam Labov, namely that "in linguistic change from below, women use higher frequencies of innovative forms more than men do." Viewing HRT as "change from below" also explains why it appears to be more common among young speakers.
There appears to be merit to the claim that gendered connotations of HRT give rise to difficulties for women in particular.Anne Charity Hudley, a linguist atStanford University, suggests, "When certain linguistic traits are tied to women . . . they often will be assigned a negative attribute without any actual evidence."[22]Negative associations with the speech pattern, in combination with gendered expectations, have contributed to an implication that for female speakers to be viewed as authoritative, they ought to sound more like men than women. These implications are perpetuated by various media, including the coverage of politics.
U.S. SenatorKirsten Gillibrand, for example, has voiced her concern that traditionally feminine speech patterns do not allow a female speaker to be taken seriously. "To meet those standards," she says, "you have to speak less like a young girl and more like a young, aspiring professional . . . it's a choice every young woman is going to have to make about how she wants to be and how she wants to be received."[23]Lydia Dallet ofBusiness Insideraffirms this concern.[24]
The origins of HRT remain uncertain. Anecdotal evidence places the conception of the American English variety on the West Coast—anywhere fromSouthern Californiato thePacific Northwest.[25]This in turn comes into prominence due to development of "Valleyspeak" popularized by theFrank Zappasong "Valley Girl" in the early 1980s.
With respect to the southern hemisphere, it has been suggested that the feature may have originated inNew Zealand.[5]
It is unclear whether the American English varieties and the Oceanic varieties had any influence on each other regarding the spread of HRT.
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Inlinguistics, aprosodic unitis a segment of speech that occurs with specific prosodic properties. These properties can be those of stress,intonation(a singlepitchandrhythmcontour), ortonalpatterns.
Prosodic units occur at ahierarchy of levels, from thesyllable, themetrical footandphonological wordto theintonational unit(IU) and to a completeutterance.[1]However, the term is often restricted to intermediate levels which do not have a dedicated terminology. Prosodic units do not generally correspond to syntactic units, such asphrasesandclauses; it is thought that they reflect different aspects of how the brain processes speech, with prosodic units being generated through on-line[definition needed]interaction and processing, and with morphosyntactic units being more automated.
Prosodic units are characterized by several phonetic cues, such as
pitch movement, pre-boundary lengthening, and pauses.[2]Breathing, both inhalation and exhalation, only occurs at the boundaries (pausa) between higher units. Several short contours may carry an additional overall gradual decline in pitch and slowing of tempo; this larger unit is termed adeclination unit(DU). At the boundaries (pauses) between declination units, the pitch and temporeset; for this reason the final one of the shorter internal contours is said to havefinalprosody, whereas the others are said to havecontinuingprosody.
These two levels of thehierarchymay be schematized as follows:
In English orthography, acontinuingprosodic boundary may be marked with a comma (assuming the writer is using commas to represent prosody rather than grammatical structure), whilefinalprosodic boundaries may be marked with a full stop (period).
TheInternational Phonetic Alphabethas symbols (single and double pipes) for "minor" and "major" prosodic breaks. Since there are more than two levels of prosodic units, the use of these symbols depends on the structure of the language and which information the transcriber is attempting to capture. Very often, each prosodic unit will be placed in a separate line of the transcription. Using the single and double pipes to mark continuing and final prosodic boundaries, we might have American English,
or French,
The last syllable with a full vowel in aFrenchprosodic unit is stressed, and the last stressed syllable in anEnglishprosodic unit hasprimary stress. This shows that stress is notphonemicin French, and that the difference between primary and secondary stress is not phonemic in English; they are both elements of prosody rather than inherent in the words.
The pipe symbols – thevertical bars|and‖– used above are phonetic, and so will often disagree with English punctuation, which only partially correlates with prosody.
However, the pipes may also be used formetricalbreaks – a single pipe being used to mark metrical feet, and a double pipe to mark both continuing and final prosody, as their alternate IPA descriptions "foot group" and "intonation group" suggest. In such usage, each foot group would include one and only oneheavy syllable. In English, this would mean one and only one stressed syllable:
In many tone languages withdowndrift, such asHausa, the single pipe ⟨|⟩ may be used to represent a minor prosodic break that does not interrupt the overall decline in pitch of the utterance, while ⟨‖⟩ marks either continuing or final prosody that creates apitch reset. In such cases, some linguists use only the single pipe, with continuing and final prosody marked by a comma and period (full stop), respectively. The major break mark may also be doubled, ⟨‖‖⟩, for the most salient (full stop) breaks.
In transcriptions of non-tonal languages, the three symbols – pipe, comma, and period – may also be used, with the pipe representing a break more minor than the comma, the so-calledlist prosodyoften used to separate items when reading lists, spelling words, or giving out telephone numbers.
In Eastern European tradition, the non-IPA dotted line ⟨⸽⟩ may be used for list prosody, and the non-IPA wavy line ⟨⸾⟩ for an unexpected interruption or breaking off of speech, which is indicated with a final hyphen when common punctuation is used.
While each prosodic unit may carry a large information load in rehearsed speech, in extemporaneous conversation the amount of information is much more limited. There is seldom more than a singlelexicalnoun in any one IU, and it is uncommon to have both a lexical noun and a lexical verb in the same IU. Indeed, many IUs are semantically empty, taken up by filler words such asum, well,ory'know.Chafe (1994) believes that this reflects the constraints of information processing by the brain during speech production, with chunks of speech (IUs) corresponding to chunks of cognitive output. It is also a possibility that the distribution of information across IUs is designed to maximize language comprehension by the other party.
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Inlinguistics,prosody(/ˈprɒsədi,ˈprɒz-/)[1][2]is the study of elements of speech, includingintonation,stress,rhythmandloudness, that occur simultaneously with individualphoneticsegments: vowels and consonants. Often, prosody specifically refers to such elements, known assuprasegmentals, when they extend across more than one phonetic segment.[3]
Prosody reflects the nuanced emotional features of the speaker or of their utterances: their obvious or underlying emotional state, the form of utterance (statement, question, or command), the presence ofironyorsarcasm, certain emphasis on words or morphemes,contrast,focus, and so on. Prosody displays elements of language that are not encoded bygrammar,punctuationor choice ofvocabulary.
In the study of prosodic aspects of speech, it is usual to distinguish betweenauditorymeasures (subjectiveimpressions produced in the mind of the listener) and objective measures (physical properties of thesound waveand physiological characteristics ofarticulationthat may be measured objectively). Auditory (subjective) and objective (acousticand articulatory) measures of prosody do not correspond in a linear way.[4]Most studies of prosody have been based on auditory analysis using auditory scales.
Auditorily, the major prosodic variables are:
Acoustically, these prosodic variables correspond closely to:
Different combinations of these variables are exploited in the linguistic functions of intonation and stress, as well as other prosodic features such as rhythm and tempo.[4]Additional prosodic variables have been studied, including voice quality and pausing. The behavior of the prosodic variables can be studied either as contours across the prosodic unit or by the behavior of boundaries.[5]
Prosodic features are suprasegmental, since they are properties of units of speech that are defined over groups of sounds rather than single segments.[6]When talking about prosodic features, it is important to distinguish between the personal characteristics that belong to an individual's voice (for example, their habitual pitch range, intonation patterns, etc.) and the independently variable prosodic features that are used contrastively to communicate meaning (for example, the use of changes in pitch to indicate the difference between statements and questions). Personal characteristics that belong to an individual are not linguistically significant while prosodic features are. Prosody has been found across all languages and is described to be a natural component of language. The defining features of prosody that display the nuanced emotions of an individual differ across languages and cultures.
Some writers (e.g., O'Connor and Arnold)[7]have described intonation entirely in terms of pitch, while others (e.g., Crystal)[8]propose that "intonation" is a combination of several prosodic variables. English intonation is often said to be based on three aspects:
The choice of pitch movement and the highlighting of particular words to create different intonation patterns can be seen in the following English conversation:
The exchange above is an example of using intonation to highlight particular words and to employ rising and falling of pitch to change meaning. If read out loud, the pitch of the voice moves in different directions on the word "cat." In the first line, pitch goes up, indicating a question. In the second line, pitch falls, indicating a statement— a confirmation of the first line in this case. Finally, in the third line, a complicated fall-rise pattern indicates incredulity. Each pitch/intonation pattern communicates a different meaning.[6]
An additional pitch-related variation ispitch range; speakers are capable of speaking with a wide range of pitch (this is usually associated with excitement), while at other times with a narrow range. English makes use of changes inkey; shifting one's intonation into the higher or lower part of one's pitch range is believed to be meaningful in certain contexts.[9][10]
Stress functions as the means of making a syllable prominent. Stress may be studied in relation to individual words (named "word stress" orlexical stress) or in relation to larger units of speech (traditionally referred to as "sentence stress" but more appropriately named "prosodic stress"). Stressed syllables are made prominent by several variables. Stress is typically associated with the following:
Some of these cues are more powerful or prominent than others. Alan Cruttenden, for example, writes "Perceptual experiments have clearly shown that, in English at any rate, the three features (pitch, length and loudness) form a scale of importance in bringing syllables into prominence, pitch being the most efficacious, and loudness the least so".[12]
When pitch prominence is the major factor, the resulting prominence is often calledaccentrather than stress.[13]
There is considerable variation from language to language concerning the role of stress in identifying words or in interpreting grammar and syntax.[14]
Although rhythm is not a prosodic variable in the way that pitch or loudness are, it is usual to treat a language's characteristic rhythm as a part of its prosodic phonology. It has often been asserted that languages exhibit regularity in the timing of successive units of speech, a regularity referred to asisochrony, and that every language may be assigned one of three rhythmical types: stress-timed (where the durations of the intervals between stressed syllables is relatively constant), syllable-timed (where the durations of successive syllables are relatively constant) and mora-timed (where the durations of successivemoraeare relatively constant). As explained in theisochronyarticle, this claim has not been supported by scientific evidence.
Voicedor unvoiced, the pause is a form of interruption toarticulatorycontinuity such as an open or terminaljuncture.Conversation analysiscommonly notes pause length. Distinguishingauditoryhesitation from silent pauses is one challenge. Contrasting junctures within and withoutword chunkscan aid in identifying pauses.
There are a variety of"filled" pausetypes.Formulaic languagepausefillersinclude "Like", "Er" and "Um", andparalinguisticexpressive respiratory pauses include thesighandgasp.
Although related to breathing, pauses may contain contrastive linguistic content, as in the periods between individual words inEnglishadvertisingvoice-overcopysometimes placed to denote high information content, e.g. "Quality. Service. Value".
Pausing or its lack contributes to the perception of word groups, or chunks. Examples include thephrase,phraseme,constituentorinterjection. Chunks commonly highlightlexical itemsorfixed expressionidioms. Chunking prosody[15]is present on any complete utterance and may correspond to asyntactic category, but not necessarily. The well-known English chunk "Know what I mean?" in common usage sounds like a single word ("No-wada-MEEN?") due to blurring or rushing the articulation of adjacent word syllables, thereby changing the potential open junctures between words into closed junctures.
Prosody has had a number of perceptually significantfunctions in Englishand other languages, contributing to the recognition and comprehension of speech.[16]
It is believed that prosody assists listeners in parsing continuous speech and in the recognition of words, providing cues to syntactic structure,grammaticalboundaries and sentence type. Boundaries between intonation units are often associated with grammatical or syntactic boundaries; these are marked by such prosodic features aspausesand slowing of tempo, as well as "pitch reset" where the speaker's pitch level returns to the level typical of the onset of a new intonation unit. In this way potentialambiguitiesmay be resolved. For example, the sentence "They invited Bob and Bill and Al got rejected" is ambiguous when written, although addition of a writtencommaafter either "Bob" or "Bill" will remove the sentence's ambiguity. But when the sentence is read aloud, prosodic cues like pauses (dividing the sentence intochunks) and changes in intonation will reduce or remove the ambiguity.[17]Moving the intonational boundary in cases such as the above example will tend to change the interpretation of the sentence. This result has been found in studies performed in both English and Bulgarian.[18]Research in English word recognition has demonstrated an important role for prosody.[19][20]
Intonation and stress work together to highlight important words or syllables forcontrastandfocus.[21]This is sometimes referred to as theaccentual functionof prosody. A well-known example is the ambiguous sentence "I never said she stole my money", where there are seven meaning changes depending on which of the seven words is vocally highlighted.[22]
Prosody helps convey many other pragmatic functions, including expressing attitudes (approval, uncertainty, dissatisfaction, and so on), flagging turn-taking intentions (to hold the floor, to yield the turn, to invite abackchannellike uh-huh, and so on), and marking topic structure (starting a new topic, closing a topic, interpolating a parenthetical remark, and so on), among others.[23][24][25]For example, David Brazil and his associates studied how intonation can indicate whether information is new or already established; whether a speaker is dominant or not in a conversation; and when a speaker is inviting the listener to make a contribution to the conversation.[26]
Prosody is also important in signalling emotions and attitudes. When this is involuntary (as when the voice is affected by anxiety or fear), the prosodic information is not linguistically significant. However, when the speaker varies their speech intentionally, for example to indicate sarcasm, this usually involves the use of prosodic features. The most useful prosodic feature in detecting sarcasm is a reduction in the mean fundamental frequency relative to other speech for humor, neutrality, or sincerity. While prosodic cues are important in indicating sarcasm, context clues and shared knowledge are also important.[27]
Emotional prosody was considered byCharles DarwininThe Descent of Manto predatethe evolution of human language: "Even monkeys express strong feelings in different tones – anger and impatience by low, – fear and pain by high notes."[28]Native speakerslistening to actors reading emotionally neutral text while projecting emotions correctly recognized happiness 62% of the time, anger 95%, surprise 91%, sadness 81%, and neutral tone 76%. When a database of this speech was processed by computer, segmental features allowed better than 90% recognition of happiness and anger, while suprasegmental prosodic features allowed only 44%–49% recognition. The reverse was true for surprise, which was recognized only 69% of the time by segmental features and 96% of the time by suprasegmental prosody.[29]In typical conversation (no actor voice involved), the recognition of emotion may be quite low, of the order of 50%, hampering the complex interrelationship function of speech advocated by some authors.[30]However, even if emotional expression through prosody cannot always be consciously recognized, tone of voice may continue to have subconscious effects in conversation. This sort of expression stems not from linguistic orsemanticeffects, and can thus be isolated from traditional[clarification needed]linguistic content.[dubious–discuss]Aptitude of the average person to decode conversational implicature of emotional prosody has been found to be slightly less accurate than traditional facial expression discrimination ability; however, specific ability to decode varies by emotion. These emotional[clarification needed]have been determined to be ubiquitous across cultures, as they are utilized and understood across cultures. Various emotions, and their general experimental identification rates, are as follows:[31]
The prosody of an utterance is used by listeners to guide decisions about the emotionalaffectof the situation. Whether a person decodes the prosody as positive, negative, or neutral plays a role in the way a person decodes a facial expression accompanying an utterance. As the facial expression becomes closer to neutral, the prosodic interpretation influences the interpretation of the facial expression. A study by Marc D. Pell revealed that 600 ms of prosodic information is necessary for listeners to be able to identify theaffectivetone of the utterance. At lengths below this, there was not enough information for listeners to process the emotional context of the utterance.[32]
Unique prosodic features have been noted in infant-directed speech (IDS) - also known asbaby talk, child-directed speech (CDS), or "motherese". Adults, especially caregivers, speaking to young children tend to imitate childlike speech by using higher and more variable pitch, as well as an exaggerated stress. These prosodic characteristics are thought to assist children in acquiring phonemes, segmenting words, and recognizing phrasal boundaries. And though there is no evidence to indicate that infant-directed speech is necessary for language acquisition, these specific prosodic features have been observed in many different languages.[33]
Anaprosodiais an acquired or developmental impairment in comprehending or generating the emotion conveyed in spoken language. Aprosody is often accompanied by the inability to properly utilize variations in speech, particularly with deficits in the ability to accurately modulate pitch, loudness, intonation, and rhythm of word formation.[34]This is seen sometimes inautisticindividuals.[35]
The three main types of aprosodia are:
Lexical prosody refers to the specific amplitudes, pitches, or lengths of vowels that are applied to specific syllables in words based on what the speaker wants to emphasize. The different stressors placed on individual syllables can change entire meanings of a word. Take one popular English word for example:
In English, lexical prosody is used for a few different reasons. As we have seen above, lexical prosody was used to change the form of a word from a noun to a verb. Another function of lexical prosody has to do with the grammatical role that a word plays within a sentence. Adjectives and nouns of a sentence are often stressed on the first syllables while verbs are often stressed on the second syllable. For example:
Here, adults will emphasize the first syllable, "IN", as "increase" functions as an adjective.
Here, adults will emphasize the second syllable, "CREASE", as "increase" functions as a verb.
Another way that lexical prosody is used in the English language is in compound nouns such as "wishbone, mailbox, and blackbird" where the first compound is emphasized. Some suffixes can also affect the ways in which different words are stressed. Take "active" for example. Without the suffix, the lexical emphasis is on "AC". However, when we add the suffix -ity, the stress shifts to "TIV".[36]
Phrasal prosody refers to the rhythm and tempo of phrases, often in an artistic setting such as music or poetry, but not always. The rhythm of the English language has four different elements: stress, time, pause, and pitch. Furthermore, "When stress is the basis of the metric pattern, we have poetry; when pitch is the pattern basis, we have rhythmic prose" (Weeks 11). Stress retraction is a popular example of phrasal prosody in everyday life. For example:
Contrastive stress is another everyday English example of phrasal prosody that helps us determine what parts of the sentence are important. Take these sentences for example:
Emphasizing that the STAIRS is how the man went up.
Emphasizing that it was a MAN who went up the stairs.[37]
It's important to note that the right hemisphere of the brain dominates one's perception of prosody. In contrast to left hemisphere damage where patterns ofaphasiasare present, patterns of aprosodias are present with damage to the left hemisphere. In patients with right hemisphere lesions, they are characterized as monotonous and as lacking variety in their tone and expression. They're also seen to struggle with the identification and discrimination of semantically neutral sentences with varying tones of happiness, sadness, anger, and indifference, exemplifying the importance of prosody in language comprehension and production.
Producingthese nonverbal elements requires intact motor areas of the face, mouth, tongue, and throat. This area is associated withBrodmann areas44 and 45 (Broca's area) of the leftfrontal lobe. Damage to areas 44/45, specifically on the right hemisphere, produces motor aprosodia, with the nonverbal elements of speech being disturbed (facial expression, tone, rhythm of voice).
Understandingthese nonverbal elements requires an intact and properly functioning right-hemisphereperisylvian area, particularlyBrodmann area 22(not to be confused with the corresponding area in thelefthemisphere, which containsWernicke's area).[38]Damage to the right inferior frontal gyrus causes a diminished ability to convey emotion or emphasis by voice or gesture, and damage to right superior temporal gyrus causes problems comprehending emotion or emphasis in the voice or gestures of others. The right Brodmann area 22 aids in the interpretation of prosody, and damage causes sensory aprosodia, with the patient unable to comprehend changes in voice andbody language.
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In thephilosophy of languageandlinguistics, aspeech actis something expressed by an individual that not only presents information but performs an action as well.[1]For example, the phrase "I would like the mashed potatoes; could you please pass them to me?" is considered a speech act as it expresses the speaker's desire to acquire the mashed potatoes, as well as presenting a request that someone pass the potatoes to them.
According toKent Bach, "almost any speech act is really the performance of several acts at once, distinguished by different aspects of the speaker's intention: there is the act of saying something, what one does in saying it, such as requesting or promising, and how one is trying to affect one's audience".[2]
The contemporary use of the term "speech act" goes back toJ. L. Austin's development ofperformative utterancesand his theory oflocutionary,illocutionary, andperlocutionary acts. Speech acts serve their function once they are said or communicated. These are commonly taken to include acts such as apologizing, promising, ordering, answering, requesting, complaining, warning, inviting, refusing, and congratulating.[3]
For much of the history of thepositivistphilosophy of language, language was viewed primarily as a way of making factualassertions, and the other uses of language tended to be ignored, as Austin states at the beginning of Lecture 1, "It was for too long the assumption of philosophers that the business of a 'statement' can only be to 'describe' some state of affairs, or to 'state some fact', which it must do either truly or falsely."[1]: 1Wittgensteincame up with the idea of "don't ask for the meaning, ask for the use," showing language as a new vehicle for social activity.[4]Speech act theory hails from Wittgenstein's philosophical theories. Wittgenstein believed meaning derives from pragmatic tradition, demonstrating the importance of how language is used to accomplish objectives within specific situations. By following rules to accomplish a goal, communication becomes a set oflanguage games. Thus, utterances do more than reflect a meaning, they are words designed to get things done.[5]The work ofJ. L. Austin, particularly hisHow to Do Things with Words, led philosophers to pay more attention to the non-declarative uses of language. The terminology he introduced, especially the notions "locutionary act", "illocutionary act", and "perlocutionary act", occupied an important role in what was then to become the "study of speech acts". All of these three acts, but especially the "illocutionary act", are nowadays commonly classified as "speech acts".
Austin was by no means the first one to deal with what one could call "speech acts" in a wider sense. The term 'social act' and some of the theory of this type of linguistic action are to be found in the fifth ofThomas Reid'sEssays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind(1788, chapter VI, Of the Nature of a Contract).[6]
Adolf Reinach(1883–1917)[7]andStanislav Škrabec(1844–1918)[8]have been both independently credited with a fairly comprehensive account of social acts as performative utterances dating to 1913, long before Austin andSearle.
The term "Speech Act" had also been already used byKarl Bühler.[9][10]
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) views speech as an act („[…] sprechen ist so nicht bloß sprechen, sondern handeln, indem ich mich an die Vorstellung wende, und diese das Erzeugende einer Wirklichkeit ist, so bin ich das Erhaltende oder Zerstörende.“ – „[…] speaking thus is not merely speaking, but acting, in that I turn to the imagination, which is the generator of an actuality, so I am the sustainer or destroyer [of this actuality].“ (Lectures on the Philosophy of Right III, GW 26,3, p. 1467).
Speech acts can be analysed on multiple levels:
The concept of anillocutionary actis central to the concept of a speech act. Although there are several scholarly opinions regarding how to define 'illocutionary acts', there are some kinds of acts that are widely accepted as illocutionary. Examples of these widely accepted acts are commands or promises.
The first of these opinions is the one held byJohn L. Austinwho coined the term "speech act" in his bookHow to Do Things with Wordspublished posthumously in 1962.[1]According to Austin's preliminary informal description, the idea of an "illocutionary act" can be captured by emphasizing that "by saying something, wedosomething", as when someone issues an order to someone to go by saying "Go!", or when a minister joins two people in marriage saying, "I now pronounce you husband and wife." (Austin would eventually define the "illocutionary act" in a more exact manner.)
John R. Searlegave an alternative to Austin's explanation of the illocutionary act saying, a "speech act" is often meant to refer to exactly the same thing as the term illocutionary act. Searle's work on speech acts is understood to further refine Austin's conception. However, some philosophers have pointed out a significant difference between the two conceptions: whereas Austin emphasized the conventional interpretation of speech acts, Searle emphasized a psychological interpretation (based on beliefs, intentions, etc.).[12]
While illocutionary acts relate more to the speaker,perlocutionary actsare centered around the listener. Perlocutionary acts always have a 'perlocutionary effect', which is the effect a speech act has on a listener. This could affect the listener's thoughts, emotions or even their physical actions.[13]An example of this could be if someone uttered the sentence "I'm hungry." The perlocutionary effect on the listener could be the effect of being persuaded by the utterance. For example, after hearing the utterance, the listener could be persuaded to make a sandwich for the speaker.
An interesting type of illocutionary speech act is that performed in the utterance of what Austin callsperformative utterances, typical instances of which are "I nominate John to be President", "I sentence you to ten years' imprisonment", or "I promise to pay you back." In these typical, rather explicit cases of performative sentences, the action that the sentence describes (nominating, sentencing, promising) is performed by the utterance of the sentence itself. J.L. Austin claimed that performative sentences could be "happy or unhappy". They were only happy if the speaker does the actions he or she talks about. They were unhappy if this did not happen. Performative speech acts also use explicit verbs instead of implicit ones. For example, stating "I intend to go." does convey information, but it does not really mean that you are [e.g.]promisingto go; so it does not count as "performing" an action ("such as" the action of promising to go). Therefore, it [the word "intend"] is an implicit verb; i.e., a verb that would not be suitable for use in performative speech acts.[14]
In the course of performing speech acts people communicate with each other. The content of communication may be identical, or almost identical, with the content intended to be communicated, as when a stranger asks, "What is your name?" However, the meaning of the linguistic means used may also be different from the content intended to be communicated. One may, in appropriate circumstances, request Peter to do the dishes by just saying, "Peter ...!", or one can promise to do the dishes by saying, "Me!"[citation needed]
One common way of performing speech acts is to use an expression, which indicates one speech act, and indeed performs this act, but also performs a further speech act, which is indirect. One may, for instance, say, "Peter, can you close the window?", thereby asking Peter whether he will be able to close the window, but also requesting that he does so. Since the request is performed indirectly, by means of (directly) performing a question, it counts as anindirect speech act.[citation needed]
An even more indirect way of making such a request would be to say, in Peter's presence in the room with the open window, "I'm cold." The speaker of this request must rely upon Peter's understanding of several items of information that is not explicit: that the window is open and is the cause of them being cold, that being cold is an uncomfortable sensation and they wish it to be taken care of, and that Peter cares to rectify this situation by closing the window. This, of course, depends much on the relationship between the requester and Peter—he might understand the request differently if they were his boss at work than if they were his girlfriend or boyfriend at home. The more presumed information pertaining to the request, the more indirect the speech act may be considered to be.[citation needed]
Indirect speech acts are commonly used to reject proposals and to make requests. For example, if a speaker asks, "Would you like to meet me for coffee?" and the other replies, "I have class", the second speaker has used an indirect speech act to reject the proposal. This is indirect because the literal meaning of "I have class" does not entail any sort of rejection.[citation needed]
This poses a problem forlinguists, as it is confusing to see how the person who made the proposal can understand that his proposal was rejected. In 1975 John Searle suggested that the illocutionary force of indirect speech acts can be derived by means of aGriceanreasoning process;[15]however, the process he proposes does not seem to accurately solve the problem[citation needed].
In other words, this means that one does not need to say the words apologize, pledge, or praise in order to show they are doing the action. All the examples above show how the actions and indirect words make something happen rather than coming out straightforward with specific words and saying it.[16]
Speech Acts are commonplace in everyday interactions and are important for communication, as well as present in many different contexts. Examples of these include:
In 1975 John Dore proposed that children's utterances were realizations of one of nine primitive speech acts:[20]
There is no agreed formalization of Speech Act theory. In 1985,John Searleand D. Vandervecken attempted to give some grounds of an illocutionary logic.[21]Other attempts have been proposed byPer Martin-Löffor a treatment of the concept of assertion insideintuitionistic type theory, and byCarlo Dalla Pozza, with a proposal of a formalpragmaticsconnecting propositional content (given withclassicalsemantics) and illocutionary force (given byintuitionisticsemantics). Up to now the main basic formal applications of speech act theory are to be found in the field ofhuman–computer interactionin chatboxes and other tools. Recent work inartificial intelligenceproposes aBayesianapproach to formalize speech acts[22]
In 1991, computational speech act models ofhuman–computer conversationwere developed,[23]and in 2004 speech act theory has been used to modelconversationsfor automated classification and retrieval.[24]
Another highly-influential view of Speech Acts has been in theconversation for actiondeveloped byTerry WinogradandFernando Floresin their 1986 text "Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design".[25]Arguably the most important part of their analysis lies in a state-transition diagram in Chapter 5, that Winograd and Flores claim underlies the significant illocutionary (speech act) claims of two parties attempting to coordinate action with one another, no matter whether the agents involved might be human–human, human–computer, or computer–computer.
A key part of this analysis is the contention that one dimension of the social domain-tracking the illocutionary status of the transaction (whether individual participants claim that their interests have been met, or not) is very readily conferred to a computer process, regardless of whether the computer has the means to adequately represent the real world issues underlying that claim. Thus a computer instantiating the conversation for action has the useful ability to model the status of the current social reality independent of any external reality on which social claims may be based.
This transactional view of speech acts has significant applications in many areas in which (human) individuals have had different roles, for instance, a patient and a physician might meet in an encounter in which the patient makes a request for treatment, the physician responds with a counter-offer involving a treatment they feel is appropriate, and the patient might respond, etc. Such a conversation for action can describe a situation in which an external observer (such as a computer or health information system) may be able to track theillocutionary(or speech act)statusof negotiations between the patient and physician participants even in the absence of any adequate model of the illness or proposed treatments. The key insight provided by Winograd and Flores is that the state-transition diagram representing thesocial(Illocutionary) negotiation of the two parties involved is generally much, much simpler than any model representing the world in which those parties are making claims; in short, the system tracking the status of the conversation for action need not be concerned with modeling all of the realities of the external world. A conversation for action is critically dependent upon certain stereotypicalclaimsabout the status of the world made by the two parties. Thus a conversation for action can be readily tracked and facilitated by a device with little or no ability to model circumstances in the real world other than the ability to register claims by specific agents about a domain.
In the past, philosophy has discussed rules for when expressions are used. The two rules areconstitutiveandregulative rules.[26]
The concept ofconstitutive rulesfinds its origin inWittgensteinandJohn Rawls,[27]and has been elaborated byG.C.J. Midgley,[28]Max Black,[29]G.H. von Wright,[30]David Shwayder,[31]andJohn Searle.[32]
Whereasregulative rulesare prescriptions that regulate a pre-existing activity (whose existence is logically independent of the rules),constitutive rulesconstitute an activity the existence of which is logically dependent on the rules.
For example: traffic rules areregulative rulesthat prescribe certain behaviour in order to regulate the traffic. Without these rules however, the traffic would not cease to be. In contrast: the rules of chess areconstitutive rulesthat constitute the game. Without these rules chess would not exist, since the game is logically dependent on the rules.[33]
Multi-agent systemssometimes use speech act labels to express the intent of an agent when it sends a message to another agent. For example, the intent "inform" in the message "inform(content)" may be interpreted as a request that the receiving agent adds the item "content" to its knowledge-base; this is in contrast to the message "query(content)", which may be interpreted (depending on the semantics employed) as a request to see if the item content is currently in the receiving agents knowledge base. There are at least two standardisations of speech act labelled messagingKQMLandFIPA.
KQML and FIPA are based on the Searlian, that is, psychological semantics of speech acts.Munindar P. Singhhas long advocated moving away from the psychological to a social semantics of speech acts—one that would be in tune with Austin's conception.[34]Andrew Jones[35]has also been a critic of the psychological conception. A recent collection of manifestos by researchers in agent communication reflects a growing recognition in the multiagent systems community of the benefits of a social semantics.[36]
In political science, theCopenhagen Schooladopts speech act as a form of felicitous speech act (or simply 'facilitating conditions'), whereby the speaker, often politicians or players, act in accordance to the truth but in preparation for the audience to take action in the directions of the player that are driven or incited by the act. This forms an observable framework under a specified subject matter from the player, and the audience who are 'under-theorised [would] remain outside of the framework itself, and would benefit from being both brought in and drawn out.'[39]It is because the audience would not be informed of the intentions of the player, except to focus on the display of the speech act itself. Therefore, in the perspective of the player, the truth of the subject matter is irrelevant except the result produced via the audience.[40]
The study of speech acts is prevalent in legal theory since laws themselves can be interpreted as speech acts. Laws issue out a command to their constituents, which can be realized as an action. When forming a legal contract, speech acts can be made when people are making or accepting an offer.[41]Considering the theory of freedom of speech, some speech acts may not be legally protected. For example, a death threat is a type of speech act and is considered to exist outside of the protection of freedom of speech as it is treated as a criminal act.
In a sociological perspective, Nicolas Brisset adopts the concept of speech act in order to understand how economic models participate in the making and the spreading of representations inside and outside of the scientific field. Brisset argues that models perform actions in different fields (scientific, academic, practical, and political). This multiplicity of fields induces a variety of felicity conditions and types of performed actions. This perspective is a criticism of the essentialism of philosophical modelling studies.[42]This approach is largely inspired by the work ofPierre Bourdieu[43]andQuentin Skinner.
In finance, it is possible to understand mathematical models as speech acts: in 2016 the notion of "financial Logos" was defined as the speech act ofmathematical modellingoffinancial risks. The action of the financial Logos on financial practices is the framing of financial decision-making by risk modelling.[44]
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Informal semantics, thesquiggle operator∼{\displaystyle \sim }is an operator that constrains the occurrence offocus. In one common definition, the squiggle operator takes a syntacticargumentα{\displaystyle \alpha }and adiscoursesalient argumentC{\displaystyle C}and introduces apresuppositionthat theordinary semantic valueofC{\displaystyle C}is either asubsetor anelementof thefocus semantic valueofα{\displaystyle \alpha }. The squiggle was first introduced by Mats Rooth in 1992 as part of his treatment of focus within the framework ofalternative semantics. It has become one of the standard tools in formal work on focus, playing a key role in accounts of contrastive focus,ellipsis, deaccenting, and question-answer congruence.
The empirical motivation for the squiggle operator comes from cases in which focus marking requires asalientantecedent indiscoursethat stands in some particular relation with the focused expression. For instance, the following pairs shows thatcontrastive focusis onlyfelicitouswhen there is a salientfocus antecedent, which contrasts with the focused expression (capital letters indicate the focused expression).[1][2]
Another instance of this phenomenon isquestion-answer congruence, also known asanswer focus. Informally, a focused constituent in an answer to aquestionmust represent the part of the utterance which resolves the issue raised by the question. For instance, the following pair of dialogues show that in response to a question of who likesstroopwafel, focus must be placed on the name of the person who likes stroopwafel. When focus is instead placed on the word "stroopwafel" itself, the answer is infelicitous, as is indicated by the # sign.[3][4]
If instead the question is what Helen likes, the word "stroopwafel" will be the expression that resolves the issue. Thus, focus will belong on "stroopwafel" instead of "Helen".
In the Roothian Squiggle Theory,∼{\displaystyle \sim }is what requires a focused expression to have a suitable focus antecedent. In doing so, it also allows thefocus denotationand theordinary denotationto interact. In the alternative Semantics approach to focus, each constituentα{\displaystyle \alpha }has both an ordinary denotation[[α]]o{\displaystyle [\![\alpha ]\!]_{o}}and a focus denotation[[α]]f{\displaystyle [\![\alpha ]\!]_{f}}which are composed by parallel computations. The ordinary denotation ofα{\displaystyle \alpha }is simply whatever denotation it would have in a non-alternative-based system. The focus denotation of a constituent is typically the set of all ordinary denotations one could get by substituting a focused constituent for anotherexpressionof the same type.[5]
The squiggle operator takes two arguments, a contextually provided antecedentC{\displaystyle C}and an overt argumentα{\displaystyle \alpha }. In the above examples,C{\displaystyle C}is a variable which can be valued asα{\displaystyle \alpha }'s focus antecedent, whileα{\displaystyle \alpha }itself could be theconstituent[HELEN likes stroopwafel].
On one common definition,∼{\displaystyle \sim }introduces apresuppositionthatC{\displaystyle C}'s ordinary denotation is either a subset or an element ofα{\displaystyle \alpha }'s focus denotation, or in other words that either[[C]]o⊆[[α]]f{\displaystyle [\![C]\!]_{o}\subseteq [\![\alpha ]\!]_{f}}or[[C]]o∈[[α]]f{\displaystyle [\![C]\!]_{o}\in [\![\alpha ]\!]_{f}}. If this presupposition is satisfied,∼{\displaystyle \sim }passes along its overt argument's ordinary denotation while "resetting" its focus denotation. In other words, when the presupposition is satisfied,[[α∼C]]o=[[α]]o{\displaystyle [\![\alpha \sim C]\!]_{o}=[\![\alpha ]\!]_{o}}and[[α∼C]]f={[[α]]o}{\displaystyle [\![\alpha \sim C]\!]_{f}=\{[\![\alpha ]\!]_{o}\}}.[6]
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Toneis the use ofpitchinlanguageto distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or toinflectwords.[1]All oral languages use pitch to express emotional and other para-linguistic information and to convey emphasis, contrast and other such features in what is calledintonation, but not all languages use tones to distinguish words or their inflections, analogously to consonants and vowels. Languages that have this feature are called tonal languages; the distinctivetone patternsof such a language are sometimes called tonemes,[2]by analogy withphoneme. Tonal languages are common inEastandSoutheast Asia,Africa, theAmericasand thePacific.[1]
Tonal languages are different frompitch-accent languagesin that tonal languages can have each syllable with an independent tone whilst pitch-accent languages may have one syllable in a word ormorphemethat is more prominent than the others.
Most languages usepitchasintonationto conveyprosodyandpragmatics, but this does not make them tonal languages.[3]In tonal languages, eachsyllablehas an inherent pitch contour, and thusminimal pairs(or larger minimal sets) exist between syllables with the same segmental features (consonants and vowels) but different tones.VietnameseandChinesehave heavily studied tone systems, as well as amongst their various dialects.
Below is a table of the six Vietnamese tones and their corresponding tone accent or diacritics:
Mandarin Chinese, which hasfive tones, transcribed by letters with diacritics over vowels:
These tones combine with a syllable such asmato produce different words. A minimal set based onmaare, inpinyintranscription:
These may be combined into atongue-twister:
See alsoone-syllable article.
A well-known tongue-twister in Standard Thai is:
A Vietnamese tongue twister:
A Cantonese tongue twister:
Tone is most frequently manifested on vowels, but in most tonal languages wherevoicedsyllabic consonantsoccur they will bear tone as well. This is especially common with syllabic nasals, for example in manyBantuandKru languages, but also occurs inSerbo-Croatian. It is also possible for lexically contrastive pitch (or tone) to span entire words or morphemes instead of manifesting on the syllable nucleus (vowels), which is the case inPunjabi.[4]
Tones can interact in complex ways through a process known astone sandhi.
In a number of East Asian languages, tonal differences are closely intertwined withphonationdifferences. InVietnamese, for example, thengãandsắctones are both high-rising but the former is distinguished by havingglottalizationin the middle. Similarly, thenặngandhuyềntones are both low-falling, but thenặngtone is shorter and pronounced withcreaky voiceat the end, while thehuyềntone is longer and often hasbreathy voice. In some languages, such asBurmese, pitch and phonation are so closely intertwined that the two are combined in a single phonological system, where neither can be considered without the other. The distinctions of such systems are termedregisters. Thetone registerhere should not be confused withregister tonedescribed in the next section.
Gordon and Ladefoged established a continuum of phonation, where several types can be identified.[5]
Kuang identified two types of phonation:pitch-dependentandpitch-independent.[6]Contrast of tones has long been thought of as differences in pitch height. However, several studies pointed out that tone is actually multidimensional. Contour, duration, and phonation may all contribute to the differentiation of tones. Investigations from the 2010s using perceptual experiments seem to suggest phonation counts as a perceptual cue.[6][7][8]
Many languages use tone in a more limited way. InJapanese, fewer than half of the words have adrop in pitch; words contrast according to which syllable this drop follows. Such minimal systems are sometimes calledpitch accentsince they are reminiscent ofstress accentlanguages, which typically allow one principal stressed syllable per word. However, there is debate over the definition of pitch accent and whether a coherent definition is even possible.[9]
Both lexical or grammatical tone and prosodicintonationare cued by changes in pitch, as well as sometimes by changes in phonation. Lexical tone coexists with intonation, with the lexical changes of pitch like waves superimposed on larger swells. For example, Luksaneeyanawin (1993) describes three intonational patterns in Thai: falling (with semantics of "finality, closedness, and definiteness"), rising ("non-finality, openness and non-definiteness") and "convoluted" (contrariness, conflict and emphasis). The phonetic realization of these intonational patterns superimposed on the five lexical tones of Thai (in citation form) are as follows:[10]
With convoluted intonation, it appears that high and falling tone conflate, while the low tone with convoluted intonation has the same contour as rising tone with rising intonation.
Languages with simple tone systems orpitch accentmay have one or two syllables specified for tone, with the rest of the word taking a default tone. Such languages differ in which tone is marked and which is the default. InNavajo, for example, syllables have a low tone by default, whereas marked syllables have high tone. In the related languageSekani, however, the default is high tone, and marked syllables have low tone.[11]There are parallels with stress: English stressed syllables have a higher pitch than unstressed syllables.[12]
In manyBantu languages, tones are distinguished by their pitch level relative to each other. In multisyllable words, a single tone may be carried by the entire word rather than a different tone on each syllable. Often, grammatical information, such as past versus present, "I" versus "you", or positive versus negative, is conveyed solely by tone.
In the most widely spoken tonal language,Mandarin Chinese, tones are distinguished by their distinctive shape, known ascontour, with each tone having a different internal pattern of rising and falling pitch.[13]Many words, especially monosyllabic ones, are differentiated solely by tone. In a multisyllabic word, each syllable often carries its own tone. Unlike in Bantu systems, tone plays little role in the grammar of modern standard Chinese, though the tones descend from features inOld Chinesethat hadmorphologicalsignificance (such as changing a verb to a noun or vice versa).
Most tonal languages have a combination of register and contour tones. Tone is typical of languages includingKra–Dai,Vietic,Sino-Tibetan,Afroasiatic,Khoisan,Niger-CongoandNilo-Saharanlanguages. Most tonal languages combine both register and contour tones, such asCantonese, which produces three varieties of contour tone at three different pitch levels,[14]and the Omotic (Afroasiatic) languageBench, which employs five level tones and one or two rising tones across levels.[15]
Mostvarieties of Chineseuse contour tones, where the distinguishing feature of the tones are their shifts in pitch (that is, the pitch is acontour), such as rising, falling, dipping, or level. Most Bantu languages (except northwestern Bantu) on the other hand, have simpler tone systems usually with high, low and one or two contour tone (usually in long vowels). In such systems there is a default tone, usually low in a two-tone system or mid in a three-tone system, that is more common and less salient than other tones. There are also languages that combine relative-pitch and contour tones, such as manyKru languagesand other Niger-Congo languages of West Africa.
Falling tones tend to fall further than rising tones rise; high–low tones are common, whereas low–high tones are quite rare. A language with contour tones will also generally have as many or more falling tones than rising tones. However, exceptions are not unheard of;Mpi, for example, has three level and three rising tones, but no falling tones.
Another difference between tonal languages is whether the tones apply independently to each syllable or to the word as a whole. InCantonese,Thai, andKru languages, each syllable may have a tone, whereas inShanghainese,[citation needed]Swedish,Norwegianand manyBantu languages, the contour of each tone operates at the word level. That is, a trisyllabic word in a three-tone syllable-tone language has many more tonal possibilities (3 × 3 × 3 = 27) than a monosyllabic word (3), but there is no such difference in a word-tone language. For example, Shanghainese has two contrastive (phonemic) tones no matter how many syllables are in a word.[citation needed]Many languages described as havingpitch accentare word-tone languages.
Tone sandhi is an intermediate situation, as tones are carried by individual syllables, but affect each other so that they are not independent of each other. For example, a number of Mandarin Chinese suffixes and grammatical particles have what is called (when describing Mandarin Chinese) a "neutral" tone, which has no independent existence. If a syllable with a neutral tone is added to a syllable with a full tone, the pitch contour of the resulting word is entirely determined by that other syllable:
After high level and high rising tones, the neutral syllable has an independent pitch that looks like a mid-register tone – the default tone in most register-tone languages. However, after a falling tone it takes on a low pitch; the contour tone remains on the first syllable, but the pitch of the second syllable matches where the contour leaves off. And after a low-dipping tone, the contour spreads to the second syllable: the contour remains the same (˨˩˦) whether the word has one syllable or two. In other words, the tone is now the property of the word, not the syllable. Shanghainese has taken this pattern to its extreme, as the pitches of all syllables are determined by the tone before them, so that only the tone of the initial syllable of a word is distinctive.
Lexical tones are used to distinguish lexical meanings. Grammatical tones, on the other hand, change thegrammatical categories.[16]To some authors, the term includes both inflectional and derivational morphology.[17]Tian described a grammatical tone, theinduced creaky tone, inBurmese.[18]
Languages may distinguish up to five levels of pitch, though theChori languageof Nigeria is described as distinguishing six surface tone registers.[19]Since tone contours may involve up to two shifts in pitch, there are theoretically 5 × 5 × 5 = 125 distinct tones for a language with five registers. However, the most that are actually used in a language is a tenth of that number.
SeveralKam–Sui languagesof southern China have nine contrastive tones, including contour tones. For example, theKam languagehas 9 tones: 3 more-or-less fixed tones (high, mid and low); 4 unidirectional tones (high and low rising, high and low falling); and 2 bidirectional tones (dipping and peaking). This assumes thatchecked syllablesare not counted as having additional tones, as they traditionally are in China. For example, in the traditional reckoning, theKam languagehas 15 tones, but 6 occur only in syllables closed with the voicelessstop consonants/p/,/t/or/k/and the other 9 occur only in syllables not ending in one of these sounds.
Preliminary work on theWobe language(part of the Wee continuum) of Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire, theTicuna languageof the Amazon and theChatino languagesof southern Mexico suggests that some dialects may distinguish as many as fourteen tones or more. TheGuere language,Dan languageandMano languageof Liberia and Ivory Coast have around 10 tones, give or take. TheOto-Mangueanlanguages of Mexico have a huge number of tones as well. The most complex tonal systems are actually found in Africa and the Americas, not east Asia.
Tones are realized as pitch only in a relative sense. "High tone" and "low tone" are only meaningful relative to the speaker's vocal range and in comparing one syllable to the next, rather than as a contrast of absolute pitch such as one finds in music. As a result, when one combines tone with sentenceprosody, the absolute pitch of a high tone at the end of aprosodic unitmay be lower than that of a low tone at the beginning of the unit, because of the universal tendency (in both tonal and non-tonal languages) for pitch to decrease with time in a process calleddowndrift.
Tones may affect each other just as consonants and vowels do. In many register-tone languages, low tones may cause adownstepin following high or mid tones; the effect is such that even while the low tones remain at the lower end of the speaker's vocal range (which is itself descending due to downdrift), the high tones drop incrementally like steps in a stairway orterracedrice fields, until finally the tones merge and the system has to be reset. This effect is calledtone terracing.
Sometimes a tone may remain as the sole realization of a grammatical particle after the original consonant and vowel disappear, so it can only be heard by its effect on other tones. It may cause downstep, or it may combine with other tones to form contours. These are calledfloating tones.
In many contour-tone languages, one tone may affect the shape of an adjacent tone. The affected tone may become something new, a tone that only occurs in such situations, or it may be changed into a different existing tone. This is called tone sandhi. In Mandarin Chinese, for example, a dipping tone between two other tones is reduced to a simple low tone, which otherwise does not occur in Mandarin Chinese, whereas if two dipping tones occur in a row, the first becomes a rising tone, indistinguishable from other rising tones in the language. For example, the words 很[xɤn˨˩˦]('very') and 好[xaʊ˨˩˦]('good') produce the phrase 很好[xɤn˧˥xaʊ˨˩˦]('very good'). The two transcriptions may be conflated with reversed tone letters as[xɤn˨˩˦꜔꜒xaʊ˨˩˦].
Tone sandhi inSinitic languagescan be classified with a left-dominant or right-dominant system. In a language of the right-dominant system, the right-most syllable of a word retains its citation tone (i.e., the tone in its isolation form). All the other syllables of the word must take their sandhi form.[20][21]Taiwanese Southern Minis known for its complex sandhi system. Example: 鹹kiam5'salty'; 酸sng1'sour'; 甜tinn1'sweet'; 鹹酸甜kiam7sng7tinn1'candied fruit'. In this example, only the last syllable remains unchanged. Subscripted numbers represent the changed tone.
Tone changemust be distinguished fromtone sandhi.Tone sandhiis a compulsory change that occurs when certain tones are juxtaposed. Tone change, however, is a morphologically conditionedalternationand is used as an inflectional or a derivational strategy.[22]Lien indicated that causative verbs in modernSouthern Minare expressed with tonal alternation, and that tonal alternation may come from earlier affixes. Examples: 長 tng5'long' vs. tng2'grow'; 斷 tng7'break' vs. tng2'cause to break'.[23]Also, 毒 inTaiwanese Southern Minhas two pronunciations: to̍k (entering tone) means 'poison' or 'poisonous', while thāu (departing tone) means 'to kill with poison'.[24]The same usage can be found in Min, Yue, and Hakka.[25]
In East Asia, tone is typically lexical. That is, tone is used to distinguish words which would otherwise behomonyms. This is characteristic of heavily tonal languages such as Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, andHmong.
However, in many African languages, especially in theNiger–Congofamily, tone can be both lexical and grammatical. In theKru languages, a combination of these patterns is found: nouns tend to have complex tone systems but are not much affected by grammatical inflections, whereas verbs tend to have simple tone systems, which are inflected to indicatetense and mood,person, andpolarity, so that tone may be the only distinguishing feature between "you went" and "I won't go".
InYoruba, much of the lexical and grammatical information is carried by tone. In languages of West Africa such as Yoruba, people may even communicate with so-called "talking drums", which are modulated to imitate the tones of the language,[26]or bywhistlingthe tones of speech.[citation needed]
Note that tonal languages are not distributed evenly across the same range as non-tonal languages.[27]Instead, the majority of tone languages belong to the Niger-Congo, Sino-Tibetan and Vietic groups, which are then composed by a large majority of tone languages and dominate a single region. Only in limited locations (South Africa, New Guinea, Mexico, Brazil and a few others) do tone languages occur as individual members or small clusters within a non-tone dominated area. In some locations, like Central America, it may represent no more than an incidental effect of which languages were included when one examines the distribution; for groups like Khoi-San in Southern Africa and Papuan languages, whole families of languages possess tonality but simply have relatively few members, and for some North American tone languages, multiple independent origins are suspected.
If generally considering only complex-tone vs. no-tone, it might be concluded that tone is almost always an ancient feature within a language family that is highly conserved among members. However, when considered in addition to "simple" tone systems that include only two tones, tone, as a whole, appears to be more labile, appearing several times within Indo-European languages, several times in American languages, and several times in Papuan families.[27]That may indicate that rather than a trait unique to some language families, tone is a latent feature of most language families that may more easily arise and disappear as languages change over time.[28]
A 2015 study byCaleb Everettargued that tonal languages are more common in hot and humid climates, which make them easier to pronounce, even when considering familial relationships. If the conclusions of Everett's work are sound, this is perhaps the first known case of influence of the environment on the structure of the languages spoken in it.[29][30]The proposed relationship between climate and tone is controversial, and logical and statistical issues have been raised by various scholars.[31][32][33]
Tone has long been viewed as a phonological system. It was not until recent years that tone was found to play a role ininflectional morphology. Palancar and Léonard (2016)[34]provided an example with TlatepuzcoChinantec(anOto-Manguean languagespoken in SouthernMexico), where tones are able to distinguishmood,person, andnumber:
InIau language(the most tonally complexLakes Plain language, predominantly monosyllabic), nouns have an inherent tone (e.g. be˧ 'fire' but be˦˧ 'flower'), but verbs don't have any inherent tone. For verbs, a tone is used to markaspect. The first work that mentioned this was published in 1986.[35]Example paradigms:[36]
Tones are used to differentiatecasesas well, as inMaasai language(aNilo-Saharan languagespoken inKenyaandTanzania):[37]
Certainvarieties of Chineseare known to express meaning by means of tone change although further investigations are required. Examples from twoYue dialectsspoken inGuangdong Provinceare shown below.[22]InTaishan, tone change indicates the grammatical number of personal pronouns. In Zhongshan,perfectiveverbs are marked with tone change.
The following table compares the personal pronouns of Sixian dialect (a dialect ofTaiwanese Hakka)[38]with Zaiwa and Jingpho[39](bothTibeto-Burman languagesspoken inYunnanandBurma). From this table, we find the distinction between nominative, genitive, and accusative is marked by tone change andsound alternation.
There are several approaches to notating tones in the description of a language. A fundamental difference is betweenphonemicandphonetictranscription.
A phonemic notation will typically lack any consideration of the actual phonetic values of the tones. Such notations are especially common when comparing dialects with wildly different phonetic realizations of what are historically the same set of tones. In Chinese, for example, the "four tones" may be assigned numbers, such as ① to ④ or – after the historical tone split that affected all Chinese languages to at least some extent – ① to ⑧ (with odd numbers for theyintones and even numbers for theyang). In traditional Chinese notation, the equivalent diacritics⟨꜀◌꜂◌◌꜄◌꜆⟩are attached to theChinese character, marking the same distinctions, plus underlined⟨꜁◌꜃◌◌꜅◌꜇⟩for theyangtones where a split has occurred. If further splits occurred in some language or dialect, the results may be numbered '4a' and '4b' or something similar. Among theKradai languages, tones are typically assigned the letters A through D or, after a historical tone split similar to what occurred in Chinese, A1 to D1 and A2 to D2. (SeeProto-Tai language.) With such a system, it can be seen which words in two languages have the same historical tone (say tone ③) even though they no longer sound anything alike.
Also phonemic areupstepanddownstep, which are indicated by the IPA diacritics⟨ꜛ⟩and⟨ꜜ⟩, respectively, or by the typographic substitutes⟨ꜞ⟩and⟨ꜝ⟩, respectively. Upstep and downstep affect the tones within a language as it is being spoken, typically due to grammatical inflection or when certain tones are brought together. (For example, a high tone may be stepped down when it occurs after a low tone, compared to the pitch it would have after a mid tone or another high tone.)
Phonetic notation records the actual relative pitch of the tones. Since tones tend to vary over time periods as short as centuries, this means that the historical connections among the tones of two language varieties will generally be lost by such notation, even if they are dialects of the same language.
An IPA/Chao tone letter will rarely be composed of more than three elements (which are sufficient for peaking and dipping tones). Occasionally, however, peaking–dipping and dipping–peaking tones, which require four elements – or even double-peaking and double-dipping tones, which require five – are encountered. This is usually only the case whenprosodyis superposed on lexical or grammatical tone, but a good computer font will allow an indefinite number of tone letters to be concatenated. The IPA diacritics placed over vowels and other letters have not been extended to this level of complexity.
In African linguistics (as well as in many African orthographies), a set of diacritics is usual to mark tone. The most common are a subset of theInternational Phonetic Alphabet:
Minor variations are common. In many three-tone languages, it is usual to mark high and low tone as indicated above but to omit marking of the mid tone:má(high),ma(mid),mà(low). Similarly, in two-tone languages, only one tone may be marked explicitly, usually the less common or more 'marked' tone (seemarkedness).
When digits are used, typically 1 is high and 5 is low, except inOmotic languages, where 1 is low and 5 or 6 is high. In languages with just two tones, 1 may be high and 2 low, etc.
In the Chinese tradition, digits are assigned to various tones (seetone number). For instance,Standard Mandarin Chinese, the official language of China, has four lexically contrastive tones, and the digits 1, 2, 3, and 4 are assigned to four tones. Syllables can sometimes be toneless and are described as having a neutral tone, typically indicated by omitting tone markings. Chinese varieties are traditionally described in terms of four tonal categoriesping('level'),shang('rising'),qu('exiting'),ru('entering'), based on the traditional analysis ofMiddle Chinese(seeFour tones); note that these are not at all the same as the four tones of modern standard Mandarin Chinese.[c]Depending on the dialect, each of these categories may then be divided into two tones, typically calledyinandyang.Typically, syllables carrying therutones are closed by voiceless stops in Chinese varieties that have such coda(s) so in such dialects,ruis not a tonal category in the sense used by Western linguistics but rather a category of syllable structures. Chinese phonologists perceived thesechecked syllablesas having concomitant short tones, justifying them as a tonal category. InMiddle Chinese, when the tonal categories were established, theshangandqutones also had characteristic final obstruents with concomitant tonic differences whereas syllables bearing thepingtone ended in a simple sonorant. An alternative to using the Chinese category names is assigning to each category a digit ranging from 1 to 8, sometimes higher for some Southern Chinese dialects with additional tone splits. Syllables belonging to the same tone category differ drastically in actual phonetic tone across thevarieties of Chineseeven among dialects of the same group. For example, theyin pingtone is a high level tone in Beijing Mandarin Chinese but a low level tone in Tianjin Mandarin Chinese.
More iconic systems use tone numbers or an equivalent set of graphic pictograms known as "Chaotone letters". These divide the pitch into five levels, with the lowest being assigned the value 1 and the highest the value 5. (This is the opposite of equivalent systems in Africa and the Americas.) The variation in pitch of atone contouris notated as a string of two or three numbers. For instance, the four Mandarin Chinese tones are transcribed as follows (the tone letters will not display properly without acompatible fontinstalled):
A mid-level tone would be indicated by /33/, a low level tone /11/, etc. The doubling of the number is commonly used with level tones to distinguish them from tone numbers; tone 3 in Mandarin Chinese, for example, is not mid /3/. However, it is not necessary with tone letters, so /33/ =/˧˧/or simply/˧/. If a distinction is made, it may be that/˧/is mid tone in a register system and/˧˧/is mid level tone in a contour system, or/˧/may be mid tone on a short syllable or a midchecked tone, while/˧˧/is mid tone on a long syllable or a mid unchecked tone.
IPA diacritic notation is also sometimes seen for Chinese. One reason it is not more widespread is that only two contour tones, rising/ɔ̌/and falling/ɔ̂/, are widely supported by IPA fonts while several Chinese varieties have more than one rising or falling tone. One common workaround is to retain standard IPA/ɔ̌/and/ɔ̂/for high-rising (e.g./˧˥/) and high-falling (e.g./˥˧/) tones and to use the subscript diacritics/ɔ̗/and/ɔ̖/for low-rising (e.g./˩˧/) and low-falling (e.g./˧˩/) tones.
Several North American languages have tone, one of which isCherokee, anIroquoian language. Oklahoma Cherokee has six tones (1 low, 2 medium, 3 high, 4 very high, 5 rising and 6 falling).[42]TheTanoan languageshave tone as well. For instance,Kiowahas three tones (high, low, falling), whileJemezhas four (high, mid, low, and falling).
In Mesoamericanist linguistics, /1/ stands for high tone and /5/ stands for low tone, except inOto-Mangueanlanguages for which /1/ may be low tone and /3/ high tone. It is also common to see acute accents for high tone and grave accents for low tone and combinations of these for contour tones. Several popular orthographies use⟨j⟩or⟨h⟩after a vowel to indicate low tone. TheSouthern Athabascan languagesthat include theNavajoandApache languagesare tonal, and are analyzed as having two tones: high and low. One variety ofHopihas developed tone, as has theCheyenne language.
In Roman script orthographies, a number of approaches are used. Diacritics are common, as inpinyin, but they tend to be omitted.[43]Thaiuses a combination of redundant consonants and diacritics. Tone letters may also be used, for example inHmong RPAand several minority languages in China. Tone may simply be ignored, as is possible even for highly tonal languages: for example, the Chinese navy has successfully used toneless pinyin in government telegraph communications for decades. Likewise, Chinese reporters abroad may file their stories in toneless pinyin.Dungan, a variety of Mandarin Chinese spoken in Central Asia, has, since 1927, been written in orthographies that do not indicate tone.[43]Ndjuka, in which tone is less important, ignores tone except for a negative marker. However, the reverse is also true: in the Congo, there have been complaints from readers that newspapers written in orthographies without tone marking are insufficiently legible.[citation needed]
Standard CentralThaihas five tones–mid, low, falling, high and rising–often indicated respectively by the numbers zero, one, two, three and four. TheThai alphabetis analphasyllabary, which specifies the tone unambiguously. Tone is indicated by an interaction of the initial consonant of a syllable, the vowel length, the final consonant (if present), and sometimes a tone mark. A particular tone mark may denote different tones depending on the initial consonant. TheShan alphabet, derived from theBurmese script, has five tone letters:ႇ,ႈ,း,ႉ,ႊ; a sixth tone is unmarked.
Vietnameseuses the Latin alphabet and its six tones are marked by letters withdiacriticsabove or below a certain vowel. Basic notation for Vietnamese tones are as follows:
The Latin-basedHmongandIu Mienalphabets use full letters for tones. In Hmong, one of the eight tones (the˧tone) is left unwritten while the other seven are indicated by the lettersb, m, d, j, v, s, gat the end of the syllable. Since Hmong has no phonemic syllable-final consonants, there is no ambiguity. That system enables Hmong speakers to type their language with an ordinary Latin-letter keyboard without having to resort to diacritics. In theIu Mien, the lettersv, c, h, x, zindicate tones but unlike Hmong, it also has final consonants written before the tone.
TheStandard ZhuangandZhuang languagesused to use a unique set of six "tone letters" based on the shapes of numbers, but slightly modified, to depict what tone a syllable was in. This was replaced in 1982 with the use of normal letters in the same manner, like Hmong.
The syllabary of theNuosu languagedepicts tone in a unique manner, having separate glyphs for each tone other than for the mid-rising tone, which is denoted by the addition of a diacritic. Take the difference between ꉬ nge [ŋɯ³³], and ꉫ ngex [ŋɯ³⁴]. In romanisation, the letters t, x, and p are used to demarcate tone. As codas are forbidden in Nuosu there is no ambiguity.
André-Georges Haudricourtestablished that Vietnamese tone originated in earlier consonantal contrasts and suggested similar mechanisms for Chinese.[44][45]It is now widely held that Old Chinese did not have phonemically contrastive tone.[46]The historical origin of tone is calledtonogenesis, a term coined byJames Matisoff.
Tone is sometimes anarealrather than aphylogeneticfeature. That is to say, a language may acquire tones through bilingualism if influential neighbouring languages are tonal or if speakers of a tonal languageshiftto the language in question and bring their tones with them. The process is referred to ascontact-induced tonogenesisby linguists.[47]In other cases, tone may arise spontaneously and surprisingly fast: the dialect ofCherokeein Oklahoma has tone, but the dialect in North Carolina does not, even though they were onlyseparatedin 1838.Hong Kong Englishis tonal, a result of the contact between non-tonalBritish EnglishwithHong Kong Cantonese, a tonal language;[48][49]a similar process of tonogenesis has happened inSingapore English, although under slightly different conditions of linguistic contact, resulting in different tonal outcomes.[49]
Tone arose in theAthabascan languagesat least twice, in a patchwork of two systems. In some languages, such asNavajo, syllables with glottalized consonants (including glottal stops) in thesyllable codadeveloped low tones, whereas in others, such asSlavey, they developed high tones, so that the two tonal systems are almost mirror images of each other. Syllables without glottalized codas developed the opposite tone. For example, high tone in Navajo and low tone in Slavey are due to contrast with the tone triggered by the glottalization.
Other Athabascan languages, namely those in western Alaska (such asKoyukon) and the Pacific coast (such asHupa), did not develop tone. Thus, the Proto-Athabascan word*tuː('water') is tonelesstoːin Hupa, high-tonetóin Navajo, and low-tonetùin Slavey; while Proto-Athabascan*-ɢʊtʼ('knee') is toneless-ɢotʼin Hupa, low-tone-ɡòdin Navajo, and high-tone-ɡóʔin Slavey.Kingston (2005)provides a phonetic explanation for the opposite development of tone based on the two different ways of producing glottalized consonants with eithertense voiceon the preceding vowel, which tends to produce a highfundamental frequency, orcreaky voice, which tends to produce a low fundamental frequency. Languages with "stiff" glottalized consonants and tense voice developed high tone on the preceding vowel and those with "slack" glottalized consonants with creaky voice developed low tone.
TheBantu languagesalso have "mirror" tone systems in which the languages in the northwest corner of the Bantu area have the opposite tones of other Bantu languages.
ThreeAlgonquian languagesdeveloped tone independently of one another and of neighboring languages:Cheyenne,Arapaho, andKickapoo. In Cheyenne, tone arose via vowel contraction; the long vowels of Proto-Algonquian contracted into high-pitched vowels in Cheyenne while the short vowels became low-pitched. In Kickapoo, a vowel with a following [h] acquired a low tone, and this tone later extended to all vowels followed by a fricative. InAfrikaansthe glottal fricative also lowers the tone of surrounding vowels.
InMohawk, a glottal stop can disappear in a combination ofmorphemes, leaving behind a long falling tone. Note that it has the reverse effect of the postulated rising tone inCantoneseorMiddle Chinese, derived from a lost final glottal stop.
InKorean, a 2013 study which compared voice recordings of Seoul speech from 1935 and 2005 found that in recent years,lenis consonants(ㅂㅈㄷㄱ),aspirated consonants(ㅍㅊㅌㅋ) and fortis consonants (ㅃㅉㄸㄲ) were shifting from a distinction viavoice onset timeto that of pitch change, and suggests that the modernSeoul dialectis currently undergoing tonogenesis.[50]These sound shifts still show variations among different speakers, suggesting that the transition is still ongoing.[51]Among 141 examined Seoul speakers, these pitch changes were originally initiated by females born in the 1950s, and have almost reached completion in the speech of those born in the 1990s.[52]
"There is tonogenetic potential in various series of phonemes: glottalized vs. plain consonants, unvoiced vs. voiced, aspirated vs. unaspirated, geminates vs. simple (...), and even among vowels".[53]Very often, tone arises as an effect of thelossormergerof consonants. In a nontonal language,voiced consonantscommonly cause following vowels to be pronounced at a lower pitch than other consonants. That is usually a minor phonetic detail of voicing. However, if consonant voicing is subsequently lost, that incidental pitch difference may be left over to carry the distinction that the voicing previously carried (a process calledtransphonologization) and thus becomes meaningful (phonemic).[54]
This process happened in thePunjabi language: the Punjabimurmured(voiced aspirate) consonants have disappeared and left tone in their wake. If the murmured consonant was at the beginning of a word, it left behind a low tone; at the end, it left behind a high tone. If there was no such consonant, the pitch was unaffected; however, the unaffected words are limited in pitch and did not interfere with the low and high tones. That produced a tone of its own, mid tone. The historical connection is so regular that Punjabi is still written as if it had murmured consonants, and tone is not marked. The written consonants tell the reader which tone to use.[55]
Similarly, finalfricativesor other consonants may phonetically affect the pitch of preceding vowels, and if they thenweakento[h]and finally disappear completely, the difference in pitch, now a true difference in tone, carries on in their stead.[56]This was the case with Chinese. Two of the three tones ofMiddle Chinese, the "rising" and the "departing" tones, arose as theOld Chinesefinal consonants/ʔ/and/s/→/h/disappeared, while syllables that ended with neither of these consonants were interpreted as carrying the third tone, "even". Most varieties descending from Middle Chinese were further affected by atone splitin which each tone divided in two depending on whether the initial consonant was voiced. Vowels following a voiced consonant (depressor consonant) acquired a lower tone as the voicing lost its distinctiveness.[57]
The same changes affected many other languages in the same area, and at around the same time (AD 1000–1500). The tone split, for example, also occurred inThaiandVietnamese.
In general, voiced initial consonants lead to low tones while vowels after aspirated consonants acquire a high tone. When final consonants are lost, a glottal stop tends to leave a preceding vowel with a high or rising tone (although glottalized vowels tend to be low tone so if the glottal stop causes vowel glottalization, that will tend to leave behind a low vowel). A final fricative tends to leave a preceding vowel with a low or falling tone. Vowel phonation also frequently develops into tone, as can be seen in the case of Burmese.
1. The table below is the process of tonogenesis inWhite Hmong, described byMartha Ratliff.[58][59]The tone values described in the table are from Christina Esposito.[60][61]
2. The table below shows theVietnamesetonogenesis.[62][63][64]The tone values are taken from James Kirby.[65][66]
3. The table below is the tonogenesis ofTai Dam(Black Tai). Displayed in the first row is the Proto-Southern Kra-Dai, as reconstructed by Norquest.[67][68][69]
4. The table below shows theChinese languagetonogenesis.[70][71]
The tone values are listed below:
The tones across allvarieties(ordialects) of Chinese correspond to each other, although they may not correspond to each other perfectly. Moreover, listed above are citation tones, but in actual conversations, obligatorysandhirules will reshape them. The Sixian and Hailu Hakka inTaiwanare famous for their near-regular and opposite pattern (of pitch height). Both will be compared withStandard Chinesebelow.
5. The table below shows Punjabi tonogenesis in bisyllabic words. Unlike the above four examples, Punjab was not under the east Asian tonesprachbund, instead belonging to a separate one in its own area of Punjab. As well, unlike the above languages, which developed tone from syllable endings, Punjab developed tone from its voiced aspirated stops losing their aspiration.[75]Tone does occur in monosyllabic words as well, but are not discussed in the chart below.
/ V_V
(C = any consonant, T = non-retroflex stop, R = retroflex stop; C̬ = voiced, C̥ = unvoiced; Cʰ = aspirated; V = Neutral tone, V́ = Rising tone, V̀ = Falling tone)
Most languages ofSub-Saharan Africaare members of theNiger-Congo family, which is predominantly tonal; notable exceptions areSwahili(in the southeast), most languages spoken in theSenegambia(among themWolof,SererandCangin languages), andFulani. The Afroasiatic languages include both tonal (Chadic,Omotic) and nontonal (Semitic,Berber,Egyptian, and mostCushitic) branches.[76]All threeKhoisanlanguage families—Khoe,Kx'aandTuu—are tonal. Most languages of theNilo-Saharan familyare tonal.
Numerous tonal languages are widely spoken inChinaandMainland Southeast Asia.Sino-Tibetan languages(includingMeitei-Lon,Burmese,Mogand mostvarieties of Chinese; though some, such asShanghainese, are only marginally tonal[77]) andKra–Dai languages(includingThaiandLao) are mostly tonal. TheHmong–Mien languagesare some of the most tonal languages in the world, with as many as twelve phonemically distinct tones.AustronesianandAustroasiaticlanguages are mostly non-tonal, with a number of exceptions, e.g.Vietnamese(Austroasiatic),CèmuhîandYabem(Austronesian).[78]Tones inVietnamese[79]andTsatmay result fromChineseinfluence on both languages. There were tones inMiddle Korean[80][81][82]and a few tones in Japanese.[83][84][85]Other languages represented in the region, such asMongolianandUyghurbelong to language families that do not contain any tonality as defined here. In South Asia tonal languages are rare, but someIndo-Aryan languageshave tonality, includingPunjabi,Haryanvi,Khariboli, andDogri,[86][87][88][89]Sylheti,[90]Chittagonian,Rohingya,Noakhailla,Chakmaas well as theEastern Bengalidialects.[91][92]
A large number of North, South and Central American languages are tonal, including many of theAthabaskan languagesofAlaskaand theAmerican Southwest(includingNavajo),[11]and theOto-Manguean languagesof Mexico. Among theMayan languages, which are mostly non-tonal,Yucatec(with the largest number of speakers),Uspantek, and one dialect ofTzotzilhave developed tone systems. TheTicuna languageof the western Amazon is perhaps the most tonal language of the Americas. Other languages of the western Amazon have fairly simple tone systems as well. However, although tone systems have been recorded for many American languages, little theoretical work has been completed for the characterization of their tone systems. In different cases, Oto-Manguean tone languages in Mexico have been found to possess tone systems similar to both Asian and African tone languages.[93]
Norwegian[94]and Swedish share tonal language features via the 'Single' and 'Double' tones, which can be marked in phonetic descriptions by either a preceding ' (single tone) or ៴ (double tone). The single tone starts low and rises to a high note (˩˦). The double tone starts higher than the single tone, falls, and then rises again to a higher pitch than the start (˨˩˦), similar to the Mandarin third tone (as in the wordnǐ,/ni˨˩˦/).
Examples in Norwegian: 'bønder (farmers) and ៴bønner (beans) are, apart from the intonation, phonetically identical (despite the spelling difference). Similarly, and with in this case identical spelling, 'tømmer (timber) and ៴tømmer (present tense of verb tømme – to empty) are distinguished only through intonation. Entire phrases can also change meaning depending on intonation, like the phrase "Hagen gror igjen" which can mean either "The garden is growing again" or "The garden is getting overgrown".
According to Watson,Scousecontrasts certain tones.[95]
Languages that are tonal include:
In some cases, it is difficult to determine whether a language is tonal. For example, theKet languageofSiberiahas been described as having up to eight tones by some investigators, as having four tones by others, but by some as having no tone at all. In cases such as these, the classification of a language as tonal may depend on the researcher's interpretation of what tone is. For instance, the Burmese language has phonetic tone, but each of its three tones is accompanied by a distinctivephonation(creaky, murmured or plain vowels). It could be argued either that the tone is incidental to the phonation, in which case Burmese would not bephonemicallytonal, or that the phonation is incidental to the tone, in which case it would be considered tonal. Something similar appears to be the case with Ket.
The 19th-centuryconstructed languageSolresolcan consist of only tone, but unlike all natural tonal languages, Solresol's tone is absolute, rather than relative, and no tone sandhi occurs.
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Autosegmental phonologyis a framework of phonological analysis proposed byJohn Goldsmithin hisPhD thesisin 1976 at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT).
As a theory of phonological representation, autosegmentalphonologydeveloped a formal account of ideas that had been sketched in earlier work by several linguists, notablyBernard Bloch(1948),Charles Hockett(1955) andJ. R. Firth(1948). According to such a view, phonological representations consist of more than one linear sequence ofsegments; each linear sequence constitutes a separate tier. The co-registration of elements (orautosegments) on one tier with those on another is represented by association lines. There is a close relationship between analysis of segments intodistinctive featuresand an autosegmental analysis; each feature in a language appears on exactly one tier.
The working hypothesis of autosegmental analysis is that a large part of phonological generalizations can be interpreted as a restructuring or reorganization of the autosegments in a representation. Clear examples of the usefulness of autosegmental analysis came in early work from the detailed study of Africantonal languages, as well as the study of vowel and nasal harmony systems. A few years later,John McCarthyproposed an important development by showing that the derivation of words fromconsonantal rootsinArabiccould be analyzed autosegmentally.
In the first decade of the development of the theory,G. N. Clementsdeveloped a number of influential aspects of the theory involving harmonic processes, especiallyvowel harmonyand nasal harmony, and John McCarthy generalized the theory to deal with the conjugational system ofclassical Arabic, on the basis of an autosegmental account of vowel and consonant slots on a central timing tier (see alsononconcatenative morphology).
The autosegmental formalism departs from the depiction of segments as matrices of features in order to show segments as connected groups of individual features. Segments are depicted through vertical listings of features connected by lines. These sets can also underspecify in order to indicate a class rather than a single segment. Environments can be shown by placing other connected sets of features around that which is the focus of the rule. Feature changes are shown by striking through the lines that connect a feature that is lost to the rest of the segment and drawing dotted lines to features that are gained.
Rather than classify segments using the categories given in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet, the autosegmental formalism makes use of distinctive features, which provide greater granularity and make identification ofnatural classeseasier. A segment is identified by a +/− dichotomy of a series of binary features, some of which are subfeatures of unary features (place of articulation, in particular, is identified by unary features indicating the active articulator, and binary subfeatures that distinguish further). For example, [p], the voiceless bilabial stop, is indicated [−sonorant, −continuant, −voice, labial], and the set of voiced coronal stops can be indicated [−sonorant, −continuant, +voice, coronal].
For unary features to be fully specified, it is necessary to include binary subfeatures that correspond to them. In the autosegmental formalism, this is depicted by placing the binary subfeature at a horizontal offset from the unary feature and connecting them with a line. The next top-level feature in the segment would then be connected to the unary feature as well as opposed to the tone.
There are situations in which the rule applies not to a particular value of a feature, but to whatever value the feature has. In these situations, it is necessary to include the presence of the feature, but not to specify its value. This can be done by including a placeholder feature composed of ellipses, with an indication of the type of feature. For example, a generic place feature can be indicated [...]P.
The autosegmental formalism deals with several separate linear sequences; because of this, a phonological representation is depicted on several distinct tiers. Each of these tiers shows a different language feature.
The autosegmental tier (also "skeletal tier") contains the features that define thesegmentsarticulated in the phonological representation. The descriptions given in the previous section deal with the segmental tier. In the segmental tier, features are assigned to segments.
The timing tier contains timing units that define thelengthsof segments in the phonological representation. These timing units are commonly depicted as X's, and are assigned to segments.
The stress tier contains the features that show the distribution ofstressin the phonological representation. The features in the stress tier are [+/– stress] and [+/– main], and they are assigned to the stress-bearing units of the language (syllables or moras).
The tone tier contains the features that show the distribution oftonesin the phonological representation. The features in the tone tier are [+/– high pitch] and [+/– low pitch], and they are assigned to the tone-bearing units of the language (syllables or moras).
As a theory of the dynamic of phonological representations, autosegmental phonology includes a Well-formedness Condition on association lines (each element on one tier that "may" be associated to an element on another tier "must" be associated to such an element, and association lines do not cross) plus an instruction as to what to do in case of a violation of the Well-formedness Condition: add or delete the minimum number of association lines in order to maximally satisfy it. Many of the most interesting predictions of the autosegmental model derive from the automatic effects of the Well-formedness Condition and their independence of language-particular rules.
The autosegmental formalism can be especially useful in describing assimilation rules. Using it for such rules makes the relationship between the result of the rule and the environment obvious. It also makes it possible to concisely describe rules that apply to different environments in different ways.
The phenomenon whereby /ɪn/ goes to [ɪn] in such words as <intractable> and <indestructible>, [ɪŋ] in such words as <ingrate> and <incapacitate>, and [ɪm] in such words as <impossible> and <implausible> can be represented in the autosegmental formalism. The rule is that a coronal nasal will assimilate to the place of the following consonant. The nasal is depicted by [+nasal] connected to a [coronal]P, and the consonant is depicted to the nasal's right as [...]P. No more specification is necessary because place is the only feature of the following segment that factors into the rule. The assimilation is shown by striking through the line to [coronal]Pon the left and drawing a dotted line to the [...]Pon the right.
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Inlinguistics,apophony(also known asablaut, (vowel)gradation, (vowel)mutation,alternation,internal modification,stem modification,stem alternation,replacive morphology,stem mutation, orinternal inflection) is analternationofvowel(quality) within awordthat indicatesgrammatical information(ofteninflectional).
Apophony is exemplified inEnglishas theinternalvowel alternations that produce such related words as
The difference in these vowels marks variously a difference intenseoraspect(e.g.sing/sang/sung),transitivity(rise/raise),part of speech(sing/song), orgrammatical number(goose/geese).
That these sound alternations function grammatically can be seen as they are often equivalent to grammaticalsuffixes(anexternal modification). Compare the following:
The vowel alternation betweeniandaindicates a difference between present and past tense in the pairsing/sang. Here the past tense is indicated by the vowelajust as the past tense is indicated on the verbjumpwith the past tense suffix-ed. Likewise, the plural suffix-son the wordbookshas the same grammatical function as the presence of the voweleein the wordgeese(whereeealternates withooin the pairgoose/geese).
Consonants, too, can alternate in ways that are used grammatically. An example is the pattern in English of verb-noun pairs with related meanings but differing invoicingof a postvocalic consonant:
Most instances of apophony develop historically from changes due tophonologicalassimilationthat are latergrammaticalized(or morphologized) when the environment causing the assimilation is lost. Such is the case with Englishgoose/geeseandbreath/breathe.
Apophony may involve various types of alternations, includingvowels,consonants,prosodicelements (such astone,syllable length), and even smaller features, such asnasality(on vowels).
The sound alternations may be usedinflectionallyorderivationally. The particular function of a given alternation will depend on the language.
Apophony often involves vowels.Indo-European ablaut(Englishsing-sang) andGermanic umlaut(goose-geese), mentioned above, are well attested examples. Another example is fromDinka:[1]
The vowel alternation may involve more than just a change in vowel quality. InAthabaskan languages, such asNavajo, verbs have series of stems where the vowel alternates (sometimes with an addedsuffix) indicating a different tense-aspect. Navajo vowel ablaut, depending on the verb, may be a change in vowel,vowel length,nasality, and/ortone. For example, the verb stemkaah/-ką́'to handle an open container' has a total of 16 combinations of the 5 modes and 4 aspects, resulting in 7 different verb stem forms (i.e.-kaah,-kááh,-kaał,-kááł,-ka’,-ká,-ką́).
Another verb stem |-géésh/-gizh'to cut' has a different set of alternations and mode-aspect combinations, resulting in 3 different forms (i.e.-géésh,-gizh,-gish):
Various prosodic elements, such as tone, syllable length, andstress, may be found in alternations. For example,Vietnamesehas the following tone alternations which are used derivationally:[2]
Albanianuses different vowel lengths to indicate number andgrammatical genderon nouns:[3]
English hasalternating stress patternsthat indicate whether related words are nouns (first syllable stressed) or verbs (second syllable stressed). This tends to be the case with words in English that came from Latin:[citation needed]
Prosodic alternations are sometimes analyzed as not as a type of apophony but rather as prosodicaffixes, which are known, variously, assuprafixes,superfixes, orsimulfixes.
Consonant alternation is commonly known asconsonant mutationorconsonant gradation.Bembaindicatescausativeverbs through alternation of the stem-final consonant. Here the alternation involvesspirantizationandpalatalization:[4]
Celtic languagesare well known for their initial consonant mutations.
InIndo-Europeanlinguistics,ablautis the vowel alternation that produces such related words as sing, sang, sung, and song. The difference in the vowels results from the alternation (in theProto-Indo-European language) of the vowelewith the voweloor with no vowel.
To cite a few other examples of Indo-European ablaut,Englishhas a certain class ofverbs, calledstrong verbs, in which thevowelchanges to indicate a differentgrammatical tense-aspect.
As the examples above show, a change in the vowel of the verb stem creates a different verb form. Some of the verbs also have asuffixin thepast participleform.
In Indo-European linguistics,umlautis the vowel fronting that produces such related words as foot > feet or strong > strength. The difference in the vowels results from the influence of an/i/,/iː/or/j/(which in most cases has since been lost) at the end of the word causing the stem vowel to be pulled forward. Someweak verbsshow umlaut in the present tense, with the past tense representing the original vowel: bought > buy (/ɔː/>/aɪ/). Hundreds of similar examples can be found in English, German, Dutch and other languages.
Germanic a-mutationis a process analogous to umlaut, but involving the influence of a low vowel such as/ɑ/causing a high vowel in the stem to lower.
In Indo-European historical linguistics the termsablautandumlautrefer to different phenomena and are not interchangeable.Ablautis a process that dates back toProto-Indo-Europeantimes, occurs in all Indo-European languages, and refers to (phonologically) unpredictable vowel alternations of a specific nature. From an Indo-European perspective, it typically appears as a variation betweeno,e, and no vowel, although various sound changes result in different vowel alternations appearing in different daughter languages.Umlaut, meanwhile, is a process that is particular to theGermanic languagesand refers to a variation betweenback vowelsandfront vowelsthat was originally phonologically predictable, and was caused by the presence of an/i/or/j/in the syllable following the modified vowel.
From adiachronic(historical) perspective, the distinction between ablaut and umlaut is very important, particularly in the Germanic languages, as it indicates where and how a specific vowel alternation originates. It is also important when taking asynchronic(descriptive) perspective on old Germanic languages such asOld English, as umlaut was still a very regular and productive process at the time. When taking a synchronic perspective on modern languages, however, both processes appear very similar. For example, the alternations seen insing/sang/sungandfoot/feetboth appear to be morphologically conditioned (e.g. the alternation appears in the plural or past tense, but not the singular or present tense) and phonologically unpredictable.
By analogy, descriptive linguists discussing synchronic grammars sometimes employ the termsablautandumlaut, usingablautto refer to morphological vowel alternation generally (which is unpredictable phonologically) andumlautto refer to any type of regressivevowel harmony(which is phonologically predictable). Ambiguity can be avoided by using alternative terms (apophony,gradation,alternation,internal modificationforablaut;vowel harmonyforumlaut) for the broader sense of the words.
Stem modifications (i.e. apophony) may co-occur with other morphological processes, such asaffixation. An example of this is in the formation of plural nouns inGerman:
Here the singular/plural distinction is indicated through umlaut and additionally by a suffix-erin the plural form. English also displays similar forms with a-rensuffix in the plural and a-ensuffix in the past participle forms along with the internal vowel alternation:
Chechenfeatures this as well:
A more complicated example comes fromChickasawwhere the positive/negative distinction in verbs displays vowel ablaut along withprefixation(ak-) andinfixation(-'-):
Thenonconcatenative morphologyof theAfroasiatic languagesis sometimes described in terms of apophony.[5]The alternation patterns in many of these languages is quite extensive involving vowels and consonantgemination(i.e. doubled consonants). The alternations below are ofModern Standard Arabic, based on the rootk–t–b'write' (the symbol ⟨ː⟩ indicates gemination on the preceding consonant):
Other analyses of these languages consider the patterns not to be sound alternations, but rather discontinuous roots with discontinuous affixes, known astransfixes(sometimes consideredsimulfixesorsuprafixes). Some theoretical perspectives call up the notion ofmorphologicaltemplates ormorpheme"skeletons".
It would also be possible to analyze English in this way as well, where the alternation ofgoose/geesecould be explained as a basic discontinuous rootg-sethat is filled out with aninfix-oo-"(singular)" or-ee-"(plural)". Many would consider this type of analysis for English to be less desirable as this type of infixal morphology is not very prevalent throughout English and the morphemes-oo-and-ee-would be exceedingly rare.
Another analytical perspective on sound alternations treats the phenomena not as merely alternation but rather a "replacive" morpheme that replaces part of a word. In this analysis, the alternation betweengoose/geesemay be thought of asgoosebeing the basic form where-ee-is a replacive morpheme that is substituted foroo.
This usage of the termmorpheme(which is actually describing a replacement process, and not a true morpheme), however, is more in keeping with Item-and-Process models of morphology instead of Item-and-Arrangement models.
Ablaut reduplication, orablaut-motivated compounding, is a type ofword formationof "expressives" (such asonomatopoeiaorideophones), in which words are formed byreduplicationof a base and alternation of the internal vowel.
The pattern of vowel alternation in English follows afronttobackvowel order, which amongclipped vowelsmeans a subset of/ɪ/>/ɛ/>/æ/>/ʌ/>/ɒ/>/ʊ/, as in:
And partially ineeny, meeny, miny, moe.
In many Turkic languages the vowel pattern islowtohigh, as in Turkishçak-çuk(which follows the English patten) andfan-fin(which contravenes it).[6][7][8]
Examples from Japanese include:
Examples from Chinese include:
Some languages do not appear to have a preferred order, for example Mongolian with bothpay-puyandpuy-pay.[6]
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Inlinguisticmorphology, atransfixis a discontinuousaffixwhich is inserted into aword root, as inroot-and-patternsystems of morphology, like those of manySemitic languages.
A discontinuous affix is an affix whose phonetic components are not sequential within a word, and instead, are spread out between or around thephonesthat comprise the root. The word root is often an abstract series of three consonants, though single consonant, biliteral, and quadriliteral roots do exist.[1]An example of a triconsonantal root would beḍ–r–b(ض ر ب) in Arabic, which can be inflected to create forms such asḍaraba'he beat' andyaḍribu'he beats'. While triconsonantal roots are widely considered to be the most common state, some linguists posit that biliteral roots may in fact be the default, though at least one scholar is skeptical of the legitimacy of these claims.[1]
Transfixes are placed into these roots in assigned positions, dictated by templates which are tied to the specific meaning of a giveninflectionorderivation.[2]The transfixes in the examples above are–a–a–aandya––i–u.
Transfixes are different fromprefixes,suffixes, andinfixesin that a complete transfix is the entire structure which is placed into a root. A transfix is not a combination of prefixes, suffixes, and infixes, but its own unique structure which is split through a word. Similarly, another difference transfixes hold from other affixes is that the individual components of the transfix are meaningless on their own. If we look again atḍaraba,the components of the–a–a–atransfix do not encode any meaning individually. Only together do they create the tense meaning.
The following are examples of verb inflection inMaltese, noun derivation inArabic, and noun pluralization inHausa, all three of which areAfro-Asiatic languages.
The Maltese example efficiently demonstrates the broad nature of transfixes and how they can be inserted into a root.
The Arabic example shows the ways in which a great variety of different nouns and verbs can be derived from a single root through the use of transfixes.
The Hausa example demonstrates the presence of transfixation in non-Semitic languages, though the phenomenon does not seem to be attested outside the Afro-Asiatic family.
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Inlinguisticmorphology, adisfixis a subtractivemorpheme, a morpheme manifest through the subtraction ofsegmentsfrom arootorstem. Although other forms of disfixation exist, the element subtracted is usually the final segment of the stem.[1]
Productive disfixation is extremely rare among the languages of the world but is important in theMuskogean languagesof the southeastern United States. Similar subtractive morphs in languages such asFrenchandPortugueseare marginal.[2]
The terms "disfix" and "disfixation" were proposed by Hardy andTimothy Montlerin a 1988 paper on the morphology of theAlabama language.[2]The process had been previously described byLeonard Bloomfieldwho called it aminus feature,[3]andZellig Harriswho called it a "minus morpheme". Other terms for the same or similar processes aresubtraction, truncation, deletion,andminus formation.[1]
In Muskogean, disfixes markpluractionality(repeated action, plural subjects or objects, or greater duration of a verb).[4]In theAlabama language, there are two principal forms of this morpheme:
Bloomfield described the process of disfixation (which he called minus features) through an example from French[3]although most contemporary analyses find this example to be inadequate because the masculine forms might be taken as the base form and the feminine forms simply as suppletives.[1]Though not productive like Muscogean and therefore not true disfixation,[5]some French plurals are analysed as derived from the singular, and many masculine words from the feminine by dropping the final consonant and making some generally predictable changes to the vowel:
Historically, this reflects that the masculine was once pronounced similar to the current feminine, and the feminine formed by adding/ə/. The modern situation results from regularapocopewhich removed a consonant from the masculine and the final schwa of the feminine.
In Portuguese, some words which have the masculine ending-ãohave a feminine equivalent-ã, synchronically analyzable as a disfixation.
The root cause of this disfixation is the loss of intervocalic-n-in the evolution of Latin to Portuguese. Therefore, the Latin ending-anusbecame-ãoin Portuguese and its feminine-anabecame-ãaand then-ã. For comparison, notice the Spanish equivalentshermano-hermana,cristiano-cristiana, etc.
It is important to note, however, that not all words with -ão come from Latin-anus, meaning that their feminine derivation will be different (cf.leão-leoa, for instance). There are also words whose disfixation was made by comparison (the case ofcharlatão, which is a French loanword).
There are also two words which have feminine derivations made through disfixation:mau(bad) andréu(defendant, as used in law), whose feminines aremáandrérespectively.
Genitive forms of nouns belonging to theEstoniannominal types 5e, 7, and 7e, are formed by disfixing the last consonant-s, may be also accompanied with reverseconsonant gradation:kallas→ genitivekalda"shore".[6]
Similar to Estonian above,Livonianalso sometimes employs disfixation to form genitives. Nominal types 168, 179–185, and 226–231 simply remove-z(or-žin type 231):käbrāz→ genitivekäbrā"nimble", while modification in types 169–178 are more complex while also removing-z:tōvaz→ genitivetouva"sky".[7]
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Arabic grammar(Arabic:النَّحْوُ العَرَبِيُّ) is the grammar of theArabic language. Arabic is aSemitic languageand its grammar has many similarities with thegrammar of other Semitic languages.Classical ArabicandModern Standard Arabichave largely the same grammar; colloquial spokenvarieties of Arabiccan vary in different ways.
The largest differences between classical and colloquial Arabic are the loss ofmorphological markingsofgrammatical case; changes inword order, an overall shift towards a moreanalyticmorphosyntax, the loss of the previous system ofgrammatical mood, along with the evolution of a new system; the loss of the inflectedpassive voice, except in a few relict varieties; restriction in the use of thedual numberand (for most varieties) the loss of the feminineplural. Many Arabic dialects,Maghrebi Arabicin particular, also have significantvowel shiftsand unusualconsonant clusters. Unlike in other dialects, first person singular verbs inMaghrebi Arabicbegin with a n- (ن). This phenomenon can also be found in theMaltese language, which itself emerged fromSicilian Arabic.
The identity of the oldest Arabic grammarian is disputed; some sources state that it wasAbu al-Aswad al-Du'ali, who establisheddiacriticalmarks and vowels forArabicin the mid-600s,[1]Others have said that the earliest grammarian would have beenIbn Abi Ishaq(died AD 735/6,AH117).[2]
The schools ofBasraandKufafurther developed grammatical rules in the late 8th century with the rapid rise of Islam,[3][4]usingQuranas the main source for Arabic grammar rules.[5]From the school of Basra, generally regarded as being founded byAbu Amr ibn al-Ala,[6]two representatives laid important foundations for the field:Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidiauthored the first Arabic dictionary and book of Arabicprosody, and his studentSibawayhauthored the first book on theories of Arabic grammar.[1]From the school of Kufa,Al-Ru'asiis universally acknowledged as the founder, though his own writings are considered lost,[7][8]with most of the school's development undertaken by later authors. The efforts of al-Farahidi andSibawayhconsolidated Basra's reputation as the analytic school of grammar, while the Kufan school was regarded as the guardian ofArabic poetryandArab culture.[2]The differences were polarizing in some cases, with early Muslim scholarMuhammad ibn `Isa at-Tirmidhifavoring the Kufan school due to its concern with poetry as a primary source.[9]
Early Arabic grammars were more or less lists of rules, without the detailed explanations which would be added in later centuries. The earliest schools were different not only in some of their views on grammatical disputes, but also their emphasis. The school of Kufa excelled in Arabic poetry andexegesisof theQur'an, in addition toIslamic lawand Arab genealogy. The more rationalist school of Basra, on the other hand, focused more on the formal study of grammar.[10]
For classical Arabic scholars, the arabic language sciences are divided into four branches:
The grammar or grammars of contemporaryvarieties of Arabicare a different question.Said M. Badawi, an expert on Arabic grammar, divides Arabic grammar in Egypt into five different types based on the speaker's level ofliteracyand the degree to which the speaker deviates fromClassical Arabic: Illiterate Spoken Arabic (عامِّيّة الأُمِّيِّينِ‘āmmīyat al-ummiyyīn), Semi-literate Spoken Arabic (عامِّيّة المُتَنَوِّرِينَ‘āmmīyat al-mutanawwirīn), Educated Spoken Arabic (عامِّيّة اَلمُثَقَّفِينَ‘āmmīyat al-muthaqqafīn),Modern Standard Arabic(فُصْحَى العَصْرfuṣḥá l-‘aṣr), andClassical Arabic(فُصْحَى التُراثfuṣḥá t-turāth).[11]
Classical Arabic has 28consonantalphonemes, including twosemi-vowels, which constitute theArabic alphabet.
It also has sixvowelphonemes (three short vowels and three long vowels). These appear as variousallophones, depending on the preceding consonant. Short vowels are not usually represented in the written language, although they may be indicated with diacritics.
Word stress varies from one Arabic dialect to another. A rough rule for word-stress in Classical Arabic is that it falls on the penultimatesyllableof a word if that syllable is closed, and otherwise on the antepenultimate.[12]
Hamzat al-waṣl(هَمْزة الوَصْل), elidablehamza, is a phonetic object prefixed to the beginning of a word for ease of pronunciation, sinceLiterary Arabicdoesn't allow consonant clusters at the beginning of a word. Elidablehamzadrops out as a vowel, if a word is preceding it. This word will then produce an ending vowel, "helping vowel" to facilitate pronunciation. This short vowel may be, depending on the preceding vowel, afatḥah(فَتْحة:ـَ), pronounced as/a/; akasrah(كَسْرة:ـِ), pronounced as/i/; or aḍammah(ضَمّة:ـُ), pronounced as/u/. If the preceding word ends in asukūn(سُكُون), meaning that it is not followed by a short vowel, thehamzat al-waṣlassumes akasrah/i/. The symbolـّ(شَدّةshaddah) indicatesgeminationor consonant doubling. See more inTashkīl.
InClassical ArabicandModern Standard Arabic(MSA), nouns and adjectives (اِسْمٌism) aredeclined, according tocase(i‘rāb),state(definiteness),genderandnumber. In colloquial orspoken Arabic, there are a number of simplifications such as the loss of certain final vowels and the loss of case. A number of derivational processes exist for forming new nouns and adjectives. Adverbs can be formed from adjectives.[citation needed]
In Arabic,personal pronounshave 12 forms. In singular and plural, the 2nd and 3rd persons have separatemasculineandfeminineforms, while the 1st person does not. In the dual, there is no 1st person, and only a single form for each 2nd and 3rd person. Traditionally, the pronouns are listed in the order 3rd, 2nd, 1st.
Informal Arabic tends to avoid the dual formsantumāأَنْتُمَاandhumāهُمَا. The feminine plural formsantunnaأَنْتُنَّandhunnaهُنَّare likewise avoided, except by speakers of conservative colloquial varieties that still possess separate feminine plural pronouns.
Theencliticforms of personal pronouns (اَلضَّمَائِر الْمُتَّصِلَةaḍ-ḍamā’ir al-muttaṣilah) are used both as accusative and genitive forms of the pronouns. As genitive forms they appear in the following contexts:
As accusative forms they appear:
Only the first person singular makes a distinction between the genitive and accusative function.[13]As a possessive it takes the form-īwhile as an object form it has the form-nī(e.g. (رَأَيْتَنِيraʼayta-nī"you saw me").
Most of the enclitic forms are clearly related to the full personal pronouns.
For all but the first person singular, the same forms are used regardless of the part of speech of the word attached to. In the third person masculine singular,-huoccurs after the vowelsuora(-a, -ā, -u, -ū, -aw), while-hioccurs afteriory(-i, -ī, -ay). The same alternation occurs in the third person dual and plural.
In the first person singular, however, the situation is more complicated. Specifically,-nī"me" is attached to verbs, but-ī/-ya"my" is attached to nouns. In the latter case,-yais attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a long vowel or diphthong (e.g. in the sound masculine plural and the dual), while-īis attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a short vowel, in which case that vowel is elided (e.g. in the sound feminine plural, as well as the singular and broken plural of most nouns). Furthermore,-ūof the masculine sound plural is assimilated to-ībefore-ya(presumably,-awof masculine defective-anplurals is similarly assimilated to-ay). Examples:
Prepositions use-ī/-ya, even though in this case it has the meaning of "me" (rather than "my"). The "sisters ofinna" can use either form (e.g.إنَّنِيinna-nīorإِنِيinnī), but the longer form (e.g.إنَّنِيinnanī) is usually preferred.
The second-person masculine plural past tense verb ending-tumchanges to the variant form-tumūbefore enclitic pronouns, e.g.كَتَبْتُمُوهُkatabtumūhu"you (masc. pl.) wrote it (masc.)".
Some very common prepositions — including the proclitic prepositionli-"to" (also used for indirect objects) — have irregular or unpredictable combining forms when the enclitic pronouns are added to them:
In the above cases, when there are two combining forms, one is used with "... me" and the other with all other person/number/gender combinations. (More correctly, one occurs before vowel-initial pronouns and the other before consonant-initial pronouns, but in Classical Arabic, only-īis vowel-initial. This becomes clearer in the spoken varieties, where various vowel-initial enclitic pronouns exist.)
Note in particular:
In a less formal Arabic, as in many spoken dialects, the endings-ka, -ki, and -huand many others have their final short vowel dropped, for example, كِتابُكَkitābukawould become كِتابُكkitābukfor ease of pronunciation. This doesn't make a difference to the spelling as the diacritics used to represent short vowels are not usually written.
There are twodemonstratives(أَسْماء الإشارةasmā’ al-ishārah), near-deictic('this') and far-deictic ('that'):
The dual forms are only used in very formal Arabic.
Some of the demonstratives (hādhā, hādhihi, hādhāni, hādhayni, hā’ulā’i, dhālika, andulā’ika) should be pronounced with a longā, although the unvocalised script is not written with alif (ا). Instead of an alif, they have the diacriticـٰ(dagger alif:أَلِف خَنْجَرِيّةalif khanjarīyah), which doesn't exist on Arabic keyboards and is seldom written, even in vocalised Arabic.
Qur'anic Arabic has another demonstrative, normally followed by a noun in a genitive construct and meaning 'owner of':
Note that the demonstrative and relative pronouns were originally built on this word.hādhā, for example, was originally composed from the prefixhā-'this' and the masculine accusative singulardhā; similarly,dhālikawas composed fromdhā, an infixed syllable-li-, and thecliticsuffix-ka'you'. These combinations had not yet become completely fixed in Qur'anic Arabic and other combinations sometimes occurred, e.g.dhāka,dhālikum. Similarly, the relative pronounalladhīwas originally composed based on the genitive singulardhī, and the old Arabic grammarians noted the existence of a separate nominative plural formalladhūnain the speech of theHudhayltribe in Qur'anic times.
This word also shows up inHebrew, e.g. masculineזהzeh(cf.dhī), feminineזאתzot(cf.dhāt-), pluralאלהeleh(cf.ulī).
Therelative pronounis declined as follows:
Note that the relative pronoun agrees in gender, number and case, with the noun it modifies—as opposed to the situation in other inflected languages such asLatinandGerman, where the gender andnumber agreementis with the modified noun, but the case marking follows the usage of the relative pronoun in the embedded clause (as in formal English "the manwhosaw me" vs. "the manwhomI saw").
When the relative pronoun serves a function other than the subject of the embedded clause, aresumptive pronounis required:اَلَّرَجُلُ ٱلَّذِي تَكَلَّمْتُ مَعَهُal-rajul(u) (a)lladhī takallamtu ma‘a-hu, literally "the man who I spoke with him".
The relative pronoun is normally omitted entirely when an indefinite noun is modified by a relative clause:رَجُلٌ تَكَلَّمْتُ مَعَهُrajul(un) takallamtu ma‘a-h(u)"a man that I spoke with", literally "a man I spoke with him".
The above system is mostly unchanged in the colloquial varieties, other than the loss of the dual forms and (for most varieties) of the feminine plural. Some of the more notable changes:
Numbers behave in a very complicated fashion.wāḥid-"one" andithnān-"two" are adjectives, following the noun and agreeing with it.thalāthat-"three" through‘asharat-"ten" require a following noun in the genitive plural, but disagree with the noun in gender, while taking the case required by the surrounding syntax.aḥada ‘ashara"eleven" throughtis‘ata ‘ashara"nineteen" require a following noun in the accusative singular, agree with the noun in gender, and are invariable for case, except forithnā ‘ashara/ithnay ‘ashara"twelve".
The formal system ofcardinal numerals, as used in Classical Arabic, is extremely complex. The system of rules is presented below. In reality, however, this system is never used: Large numbers are always written as numerals rather than spelled out, and are pronounced using a simplified system, even in formal contexts.
Example:
Cardinal numerals (الأَعْداد الأَصْلِيّةal-a‘dād al-aṣlīyah) from 0–10. Zero isṣifr, from which the words "cipher" and "zero" are ultimately derived.
It is very common, even by news announcers and in official speeches, to pronounce numerals in local dialects.[14]
The endings in brackets are dropped in less formal Arabic and in pausa.ة(tā’ marbūṭah) is pronounced as simple/a/in these cases. If a noun ending inةis the first member of anidafa, theةis pronounced as/at/, while the rest of the ending is not pronounced.
اِثْنانِithnān(i)is changed toاِثْنَيْنِithnayn(i)in oblique cases. This form is also commonly used in a less formal Arabic in the nominative case.
The numerals 1 and 2 are adjectives. Thus they follow the noun and agree with gender.
Numerals 3–10 have a peculiar rule of agreement known aspolarity: A feminine referrer agrees with a numeral in masculine gender and vice versa, e.g.thalāthu fatayātin(ثَلَاثُ فَتَيَاتٍ) "three girls". The noun counted takes indefinite genitive plural (as the attribute in a genitive construct).
Numerals 11 and 13–19 are indeclinable for case, perpetually in the accusative. The form is always that of the construct state, whether preceded by a definite article or not:ithnatā ‘ašarata laylatan"twelve nights",al-ithnatā ‘ašarata laylatan"the twelve nights". Numbers 11 and 12 show gender agreement in the ones, and 13–19 show polarity in the ones. Number 12 also shows case agreement in the units. The gender ofعَشَرin numbers 11–19 agrees with the counted noun (unlike the standalone numeral 10 which shows polarity). The counted noun takes indefinite accusative singular.
Unitary numbers from 20 on (i.e. 20, 30, ... 90, 100, 1000, 1000000, etc.) behave entirely as nouns, showing the case required by the surrounding syntax, no gender agreement, and a following noun in a fixed case. 20 through 90 require their noun to be in the accusative singular; 100 and up require the genitive singular. The unitary numbers themselves decline in various fashions:
The numbers 20–99 are expressed with the units preceding the tens. Both parts decline like independent nouns, taking thetanwīnin the indefinite state. There is agreement in gender with the numerals 1 and 2, and polarity for numerals 3–9. The whole construct is followed by the accusative singular indefinite.
mi’at-"100" andalf-"1,000" can themselves be modified by numbers (to form numbers such as 200 or 5,000) and will be declined appropriately. For example,mi’atāni"200" andalfāni"2,000" with dual endings;thalāthatu ālāfin"3,000" withalfin the plural genitive, butthalāthu mi’atin"300" sincemi’at-appears to have no plural.
In compound numbers, the number formed with the last two digits dictates the declension of the associated noun, e.g. 212, 312, and 54,312 would all behave like 12.
Large compound numbers can have, e.g.:
Note also the special construction when the final number is 1 or 2:
Fractionsof a whole smaller than "half" are expressed by the structurefu‘l(فُعْل) in the singular,af‘āl(أَفْعَال) in the plural.
Ordinal numerals(الأعداد الترتيبيةal-a‘dād al-tartībīyah) higher than "second" are formed using the structurefā‘ilun,fā‘ilatun, the same as active participles of Form I verbs:
They are adjectives, hence there is agreement in gender with the noun, not polarity as with the cardinal numbers. Note that "sixth" uses a different, older root than the number six.
Verbs in Arabic (فعلfi‘l) are based on a root made up of three or four consonants (called a triliteral or quadriliteral root, respectively). The set of consonants communicates the basic meaning of a verb, e.g.k-t-b'write', q-r-’ 'read', ’-k-l 'eat'. Changes to the vowels in between the consonants, along with prefixes or suffixes, specify grammatical functions such as tense, person and number, in addition to changes in the meaning of the verb that embody grammatical concepts such as mood (e.g. indicative, subjunctive, imperative), voice (active or passive), andfunctionssuch as causative, intensive, or reflexive.
Since Arabic lacks a verb meaning "to have", constructions usingli-,‘inda, andma‘awith the pronominal suffixes are used to describe possession. For example:عنده بيت(ʿindahu bayt) – literally: At him (is) a house. → He has a house.
For the negation of Arabic verbs, seeNegation in Arabic.
There are two types of prepositions, based on whether they arise from thetriconsonantal roots systemor not. The 'true prepositions' (حُرُوف اَلْجَرّḥurūf al-jarr) do not stem from the triconsonantal roots. These true prepositions cannot have prepositions preceding them, in contrast to the derived triliteral prepositions. True prepositions can also be used with certain verbs to convey a particular meaning. For example,بَحَثَbaḥathameans "to discuss" as a transitive verb, but can mean "to search for" when followed by the prepositionعَنْ‘an, and "to do research about" when followed byفِيfī.
The prepositions arising from the triliteral root system are called "adverbs of place and time" in the native tradition (ظُرُوف مَكان وَظُرُوف زَمانẓurūf makān wa-ẓurūf zamān) and work very much in the same way as the 'true' prepositions.[17]
A noun following a preposition takes thegenitive case.[18]However, prepositions can take whole clauses as their object too if succeeded by the conjunctionsأَنْ’anorأَنَّ’anna, in which case the subject of the clause is in the nominative or the accusative respectively.
A noun may be defined more precisely by adding another noun immediately afterwards. In Arabic grammar, this is calledإضافةiḍāfah("annexation, addition") and in English is known as the "genitive construct", "construct phrase", or "annexation structure". The first noun must be in theconstruct formwhile, when cases are used, the subsequent noun must be in the genitive case. The construction is typically equivalent to the English construction "(noun) of (noun)". This is a very widespread way of forming possessive constructions in Arabic,[19]and is typical of a Semitic language.[20]
Simple examples include:
The range of relationships between the first and second elements of theidafahconstruction is very varied, though it usually consists of some relationship of possession or belonging.[21]In the case of words for containers, theidāfahmay express what is contained:فِنْجانُ قَهْوةٍfinjānu qahwatin"a cup of coffee". Theidāfahmay indicate the material something is made of:خاتَمُ خَشَبٍkhātamu khashabin"a wooden ring, ring made of wood". In many cases the two members become a fixed coined phrase, theidafahbeing used as the equivalent of acompoundnoun used in some Indo-European languages such as English. Thusبَيْتُ الطَلَبةِbaytu al-ṭalabatican mean "house of the (certain, known) students", but is also the normal term for "the student hostel".
Classical Arabic tends to prefer the word orderVSO(verb before subject before object), but uses the particleʼinnaandSVO(subject before verb) to emphasize the subject. Verb-initialword orderslike in Classical Arabic are relatively rare across the world's languages, occurring only in a few language families includingCeltic,Austronesian, andMayan. The different Arabic word orders have an agreement asymmetry: the verb shows person, number, and gender agreement with the subject in SVO constructions but only gender (and possibly person) agreement in VSO, to the exclusion of number.[22]
Modern Standard Arabic tends to use SVO withoutʼinna.
al-mu‘allimūna
the-teachers-M.PL.NOM
qara’u
read.PAST-3.M.PL
l-kitāb
the-book-ACC
al-mu‘allimūna qara’u l-kitāb
the-teachers-M.PL.NOM read.PAST-3.M.PLthe-book-ACC
'The (male) teachers read the book.'
al-mu‘allimātu
the-teachers-F.PL-NOM
qara’na
read.PAST-3.F.PL
l-kitāb
the-book-ACC
al-mu‘allimātu qara’na l-kitāb
the-teachers-F.PL-NOM read.PAST-3.F.PLthe-book-ACC
'The (female) teachers read the book.'
qara’a
read.PAST-3M.SG
l-mu‘allimūna
the-teacher-M.PL.NOM
l-kitāb
the-book-ACC
qara’a l-mu‘allimūna l-kitāb
read.PAST-3M.SGthe-teacher-M.PL.NOM the-book-ACC
'The (male) teachers read the book.'
qara’at
read.PAST-3.F.SG
al-mu‘allimātu
the-teacher-F.PL-NOM
l-kitāb
the-book-ACC
qara’at al-mu‘allimātu l-kitāb
read.PAST-3.F.SGthe-teacher-F.PL-NOM the-book-ACC
'The (female) teachers read the book.'
Despite the fact that the subject in the latter two above examples is plural, the verb lacks plural marking and instead surfaces as if it were in the singular form.
Though early accounts of Arabic word order variation argued for a flat,non-configurationalgrammatical structure,[24][25]more recent work[23]has shown that there is evidence for a VP constituent in Arabic, that is, a closer relationship between verb and object than verb and subject. This suggests a hierarchical grammatical structure, not a flat one. An analysis such as this one can also explain the agreement asymmetries between subjects and verbs in SVO versus VSO sentences, and can provide insight into the syntactic position of pre- and post-verbal subjects, as well as the surface syntactic position of the verb.
In the present tense, there is no overtcopulain Arabic. In such clauses, the subject tends to precede the predicate, unless there is a clear demarcating pause between the two, suggesting a marked information structure.[23]It is a matter of debate in Arabic literature whether there is a null present tense copula which syntactically precedes the subject inverbless sentences, or whether there is simply no verb, only a subject and predicate.[26][27][28][29][30][31]
Subject pronouns are normally omitted except for emphasis or when using a participle as a verb (participles are not marked for person). Because the verb agrees with the subject in person, number, and gender, no information is lost when pronouns are omitted. Auxiliary verbs precede main verbs, prepositions precede their objects, and nouns precede their relative clauses.
Adjectives follow the noun they are modifying, and agree with the noun in case, gender, number, and state: For example,فَتَاةٌ جَمِيلَةٌfatātun jamīlatun'a beautiful girl' butالفَتاةُ ٱلْجَمِيلةُal-fatātu al-jamīlatu'the beautiful girl'. (Compareالفَتاةُ جَمِيلةٌal-fatātu jamīlatun'the girl is beautiful'.)Elativeadjectives, however, usually do not agree with the noun they modify, and sometimes even precede their noun while requiring it to be in the genitive case.
Colloquial spoken Arabic may employ different word order than Classical Arabic or Modern Standard Arabic.[32]
Regarding subject-verb order, Owens et al. (2009), examined three dialects of the Arabian peninsula from a discourse informational and a morpholexical perspective.[33]They show that subject-verb or verb-subject word order is correlated with the lexical class (i.e. pronoun, pronominal, noun), definiteness, and the discourse-defined lexical specificity of a noun.[33]Owens et al. (2009) argue that verb-subject order usually presents events, while subject-verb indicates available referentiality.[33]
In Modern Standard Arabic, the VSO and SVO word orders results in an agreement asymmetry between the verb and the subject: the verb shows person, number, and gender agreement with the subject in SVO constructions, but only gender (and possibly person) agreement in VS, to the exclusion of number.[22]In Lebanese Arabic and Moroccan Arabic, there is agreement between verb and subject in number under both the SV and the VS orders.[34]
El-Yasin (1985) examined colloquial Jordanian Arabic, and concluded that it exhibits a SVO order.[35]This, according to El-Yasin, provides evidence of a language changing from a VSO (CA) into a SVO language (Jordanian Arabic).[35]On the other hand, Mohammad, M. A. (2000) showed that MSA allows all six possible word orders (VSO, SVO, VOS, SOV, OSV, OVS) while Palastinian Arabic (PA) allows only three word orders, namely: VSO, VOS, and SVO.[36]
In her bookSpoken Arabic,Brustad, K. (2000) notes that in the dialects she studied (Moroccan, Egyptian, Syrian, and Kuwaiti) verb initial (VSO) and subject initial (SVO) word orders are present.[37]In the case of verb initial word order, it is common that the subject is marked on the verb and is not expressed as an independent verb.[37]
Brustad, K. (2000) points out that if both VSO and SVO are basic typologies in spoken Arabic, then functional typology investigating the semantic and pragmatic roles can shed light on the different contexts where these word orders appear.[37]Despite the analysis that both VS and SV typologies are found in spoken Arabic dialects (Moroccan, Egyptian, Syrian, and Kuwaiti), Brustad, K. (2000) notes that sentence typologies found in spoken Arabic are not limited to these two word orders.[37]She adds that almost any basic constituent may begin an Arabic sentence. She argues that sentences other than VS and SV are marked forms of topic-prominent or subject-prominent sentences.[37]
The subject of a sentence can be topicalized and emphasized by moving it to the beginning of the sentence and preceding it with the wordإِنَّinna'indeed' (or 'verily' in older translations). An example would beإِنَّ ٱلسَّمَاءَ زَرْقَاءُinna s-samā’a zarqā’(u)'The sky is blue indeed'.
’Inna, along with its related terms (or أَخَوَات’akhawāt"sister" terms in the native tradition) أَنَّanna'that' (as in "I think that ..."),inna'that' (after قَالَqāla'say'), وَلٰكِنَّ(wa-)lākin(na)'but' and كَأَنَّka-anna'as if' introduce subjects while requiring that they be immediately followed by a noun in the accusative case, or an attached pronominal suffix.
'inna wa ’akhawātuha
As aparticle,al-does not inflect forgender,number,person, orgrammatical case. The sound of the final -l consonant, however, can vary; when followed by asun lettersuch as t, d, r, s, n and a few others, it is replaced by the sound of the initial consonant of the following noun, thus doubling it. For example: for "the Nile", one does not sayal-Nīl, butan-Nīl. When followed by amoon letter, like m-, no replacement occurs, as inal-masjid("the mosque"). This affects only the pronunciation and not the spelling of the article.
The absolute object (المفعول المطلقal-maf'ūl al-muṭlaq) is an emphaticcognate objectconstruction in which averbal nounderived from the main verb appears in the accusative (منصوبmanṣūb) case.[38]
Theobject of purpose[ar](المفعول لأجلهal-maf'ūl li-'ajlihi) is an adverbial structure used to indicate purpose, motive, or reason for an action.[39]It consists of a verbal noun derived from the main verb that appears in the accusative (منصوبmanṣūb) case.[39]
Some people, especially in the region ofArabia, when they are descended from a famous ancestor, start their last name withآلāl/ʔaːl/, anounmeaning "family" or "clan", like the dynastyAl Saud(family of Saud) orAl ash-Sheikh(family of the Sheikh).آلāl/ʔaːl/is distinct from the definite articleالal-/al/.
Object pronouns arecliticsand are attached to the verb; e.g.,أَرَاهَاarā-hā'I see her'. Possessive pronouns are likewise attached to the noun they modify; e.g.,كِتَابُهُkitābu-hu'his book'. The definite articleاَلـal-is a clitic, as are the prepositionsلِـli-'to' andبِـbi-'in, with' and the conjunctionsكَـka-'as' andفَـfa-'then, so'.
An overhaul of the native systematic categorization of Arabic grammar was first suggested by the medieval philosopheral-Jāḥiẓ, though it was not until two hundred years later whenIbn Maḍāʾwrote hisRefutation of the Grammariansthat concrete suggestions regarding word order andlinguistic governancewere made.[40]In the modern era, Egyptian litterateurShawqi Daifrenewed the call for a reform of the commonly used description of Arabic grammar, suggesting to follow trends in Western linguistics instead.[41]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_grammar
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TheArabic scripthas numerousdiacritics, which include consonant pointing known asiʻjām(إِعْجَام,IPA:[ʔiʕdʒæːm]), and supplementary diacritics known astashkīl(تَشْكِيل,IPA:[t̪æʃkiːl]). The latter include the vowel marks termedḥarakāt(حَرَكَات,IPA:[ħæɾækæːt̪];sg.حَرَكَة,ḥarakah,IPA:[ħæɾækæ]).
The Arabic script is a modifiedabjad, where all letters are consonants, leaving it up to the reader to fill in the vowel sounds. Short consonants and long vowels are represented by letters, but short vowels andconsonant lengthare not generally indicated in writing.Tashkīlis optional to represent missing vowels and consonant length. Modern Arabic is always written with thei‘jām—consonant pointing—but only religious texts, children's books and works for learners are written with the fulltashkīl—vowel guides and consonant length. It is, however, not uncommon for authors to add diacritics to a word or letter when the grammatical case or the meaning is deemed otherwise ambiguous. In addition, classical works and historical documents rendered to the general public are often rendered with the fulltashkīl, to compensate for the gap in understanding resulting from stylistic changes over the centuries.
Moreover, tashkīl can change the meaning of the entire word, for example, the words: (دِين), meaning (religion), and (دَين), meaning (debt). Even though they have the same letters, their meanings are different because of the tashkīl. In sentences without tashkīl, readers understand the meaning of the word by simply using context.
The literal meaning ofتَشْكِيلtashkīlis 'formation'. As the normal Arabic text does not provide enough information about the correct pronunciation, the main purpose oftashkīl(andḥarakāt) is to provide a phonetic guide or a phonetic aid; i.e. show the correct pronunciation for children who are learning to read or foreign learners.
The bulk of Arabic script is written withoutḥarakāt(or short vowels). However, they are commonly used in texts that demand strict adherence to exact pronunciation. This is true, primarily, of theQur'an⟨ٱلْقُرْآن⟩(al-Qurʾān) andpoetry. It is also quite common to addḥarakāttohadiths⟨ٱلْحَدِيث⟩(al-ḥadīth; plural:al-ḥādīth) and theBible. Another use is in children's literature. Moreover,ḥarakātare used in ordinary texts in individual words when an ambiguity of pronunciation cannot easily be resolved from context alone. Arabic dictionaries with vowel marks provide information about the correct pronunciation to both native and foreign Arabic speakers. In art andcalligraphy,ḥarakātmight be used simply because their writing is consideredaestheticallypleasing.
An example of a fullyvocalised(vowelisedorvowelled) Arabic from theBismillah:
بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِbismi l-lāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmIn the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Especially-Merciful.
Some Arabic textbooks for foreigners now useḥarakātas a phonetic guide to make learning reading Arabic easier. The other method used in textbooks is phoneticromanisationof unvocalised texts. Fully vocalised Arabic texts (i.e. Arabic texts withḥarakāt/diacritics) are sought after by learners of Arabic. Some online bilingual dictionaries also provideḥarakātas a phonetic guide similarly to English dictionaries providing transcription.
Theḥarakātحَرَكَات, which literally means 'motions', are the short vowel marks. There is some ambiguity as to whichtashkīlare alsoḥarakāt; thetanwīn, for example, are markers for both vowels and consonants.
Thefatḥah⟨فَتْحَة⟩is a small diagonal line placedabovea letter, and represents a short/a/(like the /a/ sound in the English word "cat"). The wordfatḥahitself (فَتْحَة) meansopeningand refers to the opening of the mouth when producing an/a/. For example, withdāl(henceforth, the base consonant in the following examples):⟨دَ⟩/da/.
When afatḥahis placed before a plain letter⟨ا⟩(alif) (i.e. one having no hamza or vowel of its own), it represents a long/aː/(close to the sound of "a" in the English word "dad", with an open front vowel /æː/, not back /ɑː/ as in "father"). For example:⟨دَا⟩/daː/. Thefatḥahis not usually written in such cases. When a fathah is placed before the letter ⟨ﻱ⟩ (yā’), it creates an/aj/(as in "lie"); and when placed before the letter ⟨و⟩ (wāw), it creates an/aw/(as in "cow").
Although paired with a plain letter creates an open front vowel (/a/), often realized as near-open (/æ/), the standard also allows for variations, especially under certain surrounding conditions. Usually, in order to have the more central (/ä/) or back (/ɑ/) pronunciation, the word features a nearby back consonant, such as the emphatics, as well asqāf, orrā’. A similar "back" quality is undergone by other vowels as well in the presence of such consonants, however not as drastically realized as in the case offatḥah.[1][2][3]
Fatḥahs are encodedU+0618ؘARABIC SMALL FATHA,U+064EَARABIC FATHA,U+FE76ﹶARABIC FATHA ISOLATED FORM, orU+FE77ﹷARABIC FATHA MEDIAL FORM.
A similar diagonal linebelowa letter is called akasrah⟨كَسْرَة⟩and designates a short/i/(as in "me", "be") and its allophones [i, ɪ, e, e̞, ɛ] (as in "Tim", "sit"). For example:⟨دِ⟩/di/.[4]
When akasrahis placed before a plain letter⟨ﻱ⟩(yā’), it represents a long/iː/(as in the English word "steed"). For example:⟨دِي⟩/diː/. Thekasrahis usually not written in such cases, but ifyā’is pronounced as a diphthong/aj/,fatḥahshould be written on the preceding letter to avoid mispronunciation. The wordkasrahmeans 'breaking'.[1]
Kasrahs are encodedU+061AؚARABIC SMALL KASRA,U+0650ِARABIC KASRA,U+FE7AﹺARABIC KASRA ISOLATED FORM, orU+FE7BﹻARABIC KASRA MEDIAL FORM.
Theḍammah⟨ضَمَّة⟩is a small curl-like diacritic placed above a letter to represent a short /u/ (as in "duke", shorter "you") and its allophones [u, ʊ, o, o̞, ɔ] (as in "put", or "bull"). For example:⟨دُ⟩/du/.[4]
When aḍammahis placed before a plain letter⟨و⟩(wāw), it represents a long/uː/(like the 'oo' sound in the English word "swoop"). For example:⟨دُو⟩/duː/. Theḍammahis usually not written in such cases, but ifwāwis pronounced as a diphthong/aw/,fatḥahshould be written on the preceding consonant to avoid mispronunciation.[1]
The wordḍammah(ضَمَّة) in this context meansrounding, since it is the only rounded vowel in the vowel inventory of Arabic.
Ḍammahs are encodedU+0619ؙARABIC SMALL DAMMA,U+064FُARABIC DAMMA,U+FE78ﹸARABIC DAMMA ISOLATED FORM, orU+FE79ﹹARABIC DAMMA MEDIAL FORM.
Thesuperscript (or dagger)alif⟨أَلِف خَنْجَرِيَّة⟩(alif khanjarīyah), is written as short vertical stroke on top of a letter. It indicates a long/aː/sound for whichalifis normally not written. For example:⟨هَٰذَا⟩(hādhā) or⟨رَحْمَٰن⟩(raḥmān).
The daggeralifoccurs in only a few words, but they include some common ones; it is seldom written, however, even in fully vocalised texts. Most keyboards do not have daggeralif.The wordAllah⟨الله⟩(Allāh)(God) is usually produced automatically by enteringalif lām lām hāʾ.The word consists ofalif+ ligature of doubledlāmwith ashaddahand a daggeralifabovelām, followed byha'.
Themaddah⟨مَدَّة⟩is atilde-shaped diacritic, which can only appear on top of analif(آ) and indicates aglottal stop/ʔ/followed by a long/aː/.
In theory, the same sequence/ʔaː/could also be represented by twoalifs, as in *⟨أَا⟩, where a hamza above the firstalifrepresents the/ʔ/while the secondalifrepresents the/aː/. However, consecutivealifs are never used in the Arabic orthography. Instead, this sequence must always be written as a singlealifwith amaddahabove it, the combination known as analif maddah. For example:⟨قُرْآن⟩/qurˈʔaːn/.
In Quranic writings, amaddahis placed on any other letter to denote the name of the letter, though some letters may take on a daggeralif. For example:⟨لٓمٓصٓ⟩(lām-mīm-ṣād) or⟨يـٰسٓ⟩(yāʼ-sīn)
Thewaṣlah⟨وَصْلَة⟩,alif waṣlah⟨أَلِف وَصْلَة⟩orhamzat waṣl⟨هَمْزَة وَصْل⟩looks like the head of a smallṣādon top of analif⟨ٱ⟩(also indicated by analif⟨ا⟩without ahamzah). It means that thealifis not pronounced when its word does not begin a sentence. For example:⟨بِٱسْمِ⟩(bismi), but⟨ٱمْشُوا۟⟩(imshūnotmshū). This is because in Arabic, the first consonant in a word must always be followed by a vowel sound: If the second letter from thewaṣlahhas a kasrah, the alif-waslah makes the sound /i/. However, when the second letter from it has a dammah, it makes the sound /u/.
It occurs only in the beginning of words, but it can occur after prepositions and the definite article. It is commonly found in imperative verbs, the perfective aspect of verb stems VII to X and theirverbal nouns(maṣdar). Thealifof the definite article is considered awaṣlah.
It occurs in phrases and sentences (connected speech, not isolated/dictionary forms):
Like the superscript alif, it is not written in fully vocalized scripts, except for sacred texts, like the Quran and Arabized Bible.
Thesukūn⟨سُكُونْ⟩is a circle-shaped diacritic placed above a letter (ْ). It indicates that the letter to which it is attached is not followed by a vowel, i.e.,zero-vowel.
It is a necessary symbol for writing consonant-vowel-consonant syllables, which are very common in Arabic. For example:⟨دَدْ⟩(dad).
Thesukūnmay also be used to help represent a diphthong. Afatḥahfollowed by the letter⟨ﻱ⟩(yā’) with asukūnover it (ـَيْ) indicates the diphthongay(IPA/aj/). Afatḥah, followed by the letter⟨ﻭ⟩(wāw) with asukūn, (ـَوْ) indicates/aw/.
Sukūns are encodedU+0652ْARABIC SUKUN,U+FE7EﹾARABIC SUKUN ISOLATED FORM, orU+FE7FﹿARABIC SUKUN MEDIAL FORM.
Thesukūnmay have also an alternative form of the small high head ofḥāʾ(U+06E1ۡARABIC SMALL HIGH DOTLESS HEAD OF KHAH), particularly in some Qurans. Other shapes may exist as well (for example, like a small comma above ⟨ʼ⟩ or like acircumflex⟨ˆ⟩ innastaʿlīq).[5]
The three vowel diacritics may be doubled at the end of a word to indicate that the vowel is followed by the consonantn. They may or may not be consideredḥarakātand are known astanwīn⟨تَنْوِين⟩, or nunation. The signs indicate, from left to right,-an, -in, -un.
These endings are used as non-pausal grammatical indefinite case endings inLiterary Arabicorclassical Arabic(triptotesonly). In a vocalised text, they may be written even if they are not pronounced (seepausa). Seei‘rābfor more details. In many spoken Arabic dialects, the endings are absent. Many Arabic textbooks introduce standard Arabic without these endings. The grammatical endings may not be written in some vocalized Arabic texts, as knowledge ofi‘rābvaries from country to country, and there is a trend towards simplifying Arabic grammar.
The sign⟨ـً⟩is most commonly written in combination withalif⟨ـًا⟩,tā’ marbūṭah⟨ةً⟩,alif hamzah⟨أً⟩, or stand-alonehamzah⟨ءً⟩.Alifshould always be written (except for words ending intā’ marbūṭah, hamzahor diptotes) even ifanis not. Grammatical cases andtanwīnendings in indefinite triptote forms:
Theshaddaorshaddah⟨شَدَّة⟩(shaddah), ortashdid⟨تَشْدِيد⟩(tashdīd), is a diacritic shaped like a small written Latin "w".
It is used to indicategemination(consonant doubling or extra length), which is phonemic in Arabic. It is written above the consonant which is to be doubled. It is the onlyḥarakahthat is commonly used in ordinary spelling to avoidambiguity. For example:⟨دّ⟩/dd/;madrasah⟨مَدْرَسَة⟩('school') vs.mudarrisah⟨مُدَرِّسَة⟩('teacher', female). Note that when the doubled letter bears a vowel, it is the shaddah that the vowel is attached to, not the letter itself:⟨دَّ⟩/dda/,⟨دِّ⟩/ddi/.
Shaddahs are encodedU+0651ّARABIC SHADDA,U+FE7CﹼARABIC SHADDA ISOLATED FORM, orU+FE7DﹽARABIC SHADDA MEDIAL FORM.
Thei‘jām(إِعْجَام; sometimes also callednuqaṭ)[6]are the diacritic points that distinguish various consonants that have the same form (rasm), such as⟨ص⟩/sˤ/,⟨ض⟩/dˤ/. Typicallyi‘jāmare not considered diacritics but part of the letter.
Early manuscripts of theQurandid not use diacritics either for vowels or to distinguish the different values of therasm.Vowel pointing was introduced first, as a red dot placed above, below, or beside therasm, and later consonant pointing was introduced, as thin, short black single or multiple dashes placed above or below therasm. Thesei‘jāmbecame black dots about the same time as theḥarakātbecame small black letters or strokes.
Typically, Egyptians do not use dots under finalyā’(ي), which looks exactly likealif maqsurah(ى) in handwriting and in print. This practice is also used in copies of themuṣḥaf(Qurʾān) scribed by‘Uthman Ṭāhā. The same unification ofyāandalif maqṣūrāhas happened inPersian, resulting in whatthe Unicode Standardcalls "Arabic Letter Farsi Yeh", that looks exactly the same asyāin initial and medial forms, but exactly the same asalif maqṣūrahin final and isolated forms.
At the time when thei‘jāmwas optional, unpointed letters were ambiguous. To clarify that a letter would lacki‘jāmin pointed text, the letter could be marked with a small v- orseagull-shaped diacritic above, also a superscript semicircle (crescent), a subscript dot (except in the case of⟨ح⟩; three dots were used with⟨س⟩), or a subscript miniature of the letter itself. A superscript stroke known asjarrah, resembling a longfatħah, was used for a contracted (assimilated)sin. Thus⟨ڛ سۣ سۡ سٚ⟩were all used to indicate that the letter in question was truly⟨س⟩and not⟨ش⟩.[7]These signs, collectively known as‘alāmātu-l-ihmāl, are still occasionally used in modernArabic calligraphy, either for their original purpose (i.e. marking letters withouti‘jām), or often as purely decorative space-fillers. The smallکabove thekāfin its final and isolated forms⟨ك ـك⟩was originally an‘alāmatu-l-ihmālthat became a permanent part of the letter. Previously this sign could also appear above the medial form ofkāf, when that letter was written without the stroke on itsascender. Whenkafwas written without that stroke, it could be mistaken forlam, thuskafwas distinguished with a superscriptkafor a small superscripthamza(nabrah), andlamwith a superscriptl-a-m(lam-alif-mim).[8]
Although not always considered a letter of the alphabet, thehamzaهَمْزة(hamzah,glottal stop), often stands as a separate letter in writing, is written in unpointed texts and is not considered atashkīl.It may appear as a letter by itself or as a diacritic over or under analif,wāw, oryā.
Which letter is to be used to support thehamzahdepends on the quality of the adjacent vowels and its location in the word;
Consider the following words:⟨أَخ⟩/ʔax/("brother"),⟨إسْماعِيل⟩/ʔismaːʕiːl/("Ismael"),⟨أُمّ⟩/ʔumm/("mother"). All three of above words "begin" with a vowel opening the syllable, and in each case,alifis used to designate the initial glottal stop (theactualbeginning). But if we considermiddlesyllables "beginning" with a vowel:⟨نَشْأة⟩/naʃʔa/("origin"),⟨أَفْئِدة⟩/ʔafʔida/("hearts"—notice the/ʔi/syllable; singular⟨فُؤاد⟩/fuʔaːd/),⟨رُؤُوس⟩/ruʔuːs/("heads", singular⟨رَأْس⟩/raʔs/), the situation is different, as noted above. See the comprehensive article onhamzahfor more details.
Diacritics not used in Modern Standard Arabic but in other languages that use the Arabic script, and sometimes to write Arabic dialects, include (the list is not exhaustive):
Historically Arabic script has been adopted and used by many tonal languages, examples includeXiao'erjingforMandarin Chineseas well asAjami scriptadopted for writing various languages of Western Africa. However, the Arabic script never had an inherent way of representing tones until it was adapted for theRohingya language. TheRohingya Fonnaare 3 tone markers which are part of the standardized and accepted orthographic convention of Rohingya. It remains the only known instance of tone markers within theArabic script.[14][15]
Tone markers act as "modifiers" of vowel diacritics. In simpler words, they are "diacritics for the diacritics". They are written "outside" of the word, meaning that they are written above the vowel diacritic if the diacritic is written above the word, and they are written below the diacritic if the diacritic is written below the word. They are only ever written where there are vowel diacritics. This is important to note, as without the diacritic present, there is no way to distinguish between tone markers andI‘jāmi.e. dots that are used for purpose of phonetic distinctions of consonants.
Hārbāy
TheHārbāyas it is called in Rohingya, is a single dot that's placed on top ofFatḥahandḌammah, orcurly Fatḥahandcurly Ḍammah(vowel diacritics unique to Rohinghya), or their respectiveFatḥatanandḌammatanversions, and it's placed underneathKasrahorcurly Kasrah, or their respectiveKasratanversion. (e.g.دً࣪ / دٌ࣪ / دࣨ࣪ / دٍ࣭) This tone marker indicates ashort high tone(/˥/).[14][15]
Ṭelā
TheṬelāas it is called in Rohingya, is two dots that are placed on top ofFatḥahandḌammah, orcurly Fatḥahandcurly Ḍammah, or their respectiveFatḥatanandḌammatanversions, and it's placed underneathKasrahorcurly Kasrah, or their respectiveKasratanversion. (e.g.دَ࣫ / دُ࣫ / دِ࣮) This tone marker indicates along falling tone(/˥˩/).[14][15]
Ṭāna
TheṬānaas it is called in Rohingya, is a fish-like looping line that is placed on top ofFatḥahandḌammah, orcurly Fatḥahandcurly Ḍammah, or their respectiveFatḥatanandḌammatanversions, and it's placed underneathKasrahorcurly Kasrah, or their respectiveKasratanversion. (e.g.دࣤ࣬ / دࣥ࣬ / دࣦ࣯) This tone marker indicates along rising tone(/˨˦/).[14][15]
According to tradition, the first to commission a system ofḥarakātwasAliwho appointedAbu al-Aswad al-Du'alifor the task. Abu al-Aswad devised a system of dots to signal the three short vowels (along with their respective allophones) of Arabic. This system of dots predates thei‘jām, dots used to distinguish between different consonants.
Abu al-Aswad's system of Harakat was different from the system we know today. The system used red dots with each arrangement or position indicating a different short vowel.
A dot above a letter indicated the vowela, a dot below indicated the voweli, a dot on the side of a letter stood for the vowelu, and two dots stood for thetanwīn.
However, the early manuscripts of the Qur'an did not use the vowel signs for every letter requiring them, but only for letters where they were necessary for a correct reading.
The precursor to the system we know today is Al Farahidi's system.al-Farāhīdīfound that the task of writing using two different colours was tedious and impractical. Another complication was that thei‘jāmhad been introduced by then, which, while they were short strokes rather than the round dots seen today, meant that without a color distinction the two could become confused.
Accordingly, he replaced theḥarakātwith small superscript letters: small alif, yā’, and wāw for the short vowels corresponding to the long vowels written with those letters, a smalls(h)īnforshaddah(geminate), a smallkhā’forkhafīf(short consonant; no longer used). His system is essentially the one we know today.[17]
The process of automatically restoring diacritical marks is called diacritization or diacritic restoration. It is useful to avoid ambiguity in applications such asArabic machine translation,text-to-speech, andinformation retrieval. Automatic diacritization algorithms have been developed.[18][19]ForModern Standard Arabic, thestate-of-the-artalgorithm has aword error rate(WER) of 4.79%. The most common mistakes are propernounsandcase endings.[20]Similar algorithms exist for othervarieties of Arabic.[21]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tashk%C4%ABl
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TheArabic scripthas numerousdiacritics, which include consonant pointing known asiʻjām(إِعْجَام,IPA:[ʔiʕdʒæːm]), and supplementary diacritics known astashkīl(تَشْكِيل,IPA:[t̪æʃkiːl]). The latter include the vowel marks termedḥarakāt(حَرَكَات,IPA:[ħæɾækæːt̪];sg.حَرَكَة,ḥarakah,IPA:[ħæɾækæ]).
The Arabic script is a modifiedabjad, where all letters are consonants, leaving it up to the reader to fill in the vowel sounds. Short consonants and long vowels are represented by letters, but short vowels andconsonant lengthare not generally indicated in writing.Tashkīlis optional to represent missing vowels and consonant length. Modern Arabic is always written with thei‘jām—consonant pointing—but only religious texts, children's books and works for learners are written with the fulltashkīl—vowel guides and consonant length. It is, however, not uncommon for authors to add diacritics to a word or letter when the grammatical case or the meaning is deemed otherwise ambiguous. In addition, classical works and historical documents rendered to the general public are often rendered with the fulltashkīl, to compensate for the gap in understanding resulting from stylistic changes over the centuries.
Moreover, tashkīl can change the meaning of the entire word, for example, the words: (دِين), meaning (religion), and (دَين), meaning (debt). Even though they have the same letters, their meanings are different because of the tashkīl. In sentences without tashkīl, readers understand the meaning of the word by simply using context.
The literal meaning ofتَشْكِيلtashkīlis 'formation'. As the normal Arabic text does not provide enough information about the correct pronunciation, the main purpose oftashkīl(andḥarakāt) is to provide a phonetic guide or a phonetic aid; i.e. show the correct pronunciation for children who are learning to read or foreign learners.
The bulk of Arabic script is written withoutḥarakāt(or short vowels). However, they are commonly used in texts that demand strict adherence to exact pronunciation. This is true, primarily, of theQur'an⟨ٱلْقُرْآن⟩(al-Qurʾān) andpoetry. It is also quite common to addḥarakāttohadiths⟨ٱلْحَدِيث⟩(al-ḥadīth; plural:al-ḥādīth) and theBible. Another use is in children's literature. Moreover,ḥarakātare used in ordinary texts in individual words when an ambiguity of pronunciation cannot easily be resolved from context alone. Arabic dictionaries with vowel marks provide information about the correct pronunciation to both native and foreign Arabic speakers. In art andcalligraphy,ḥarakātmight be used simply because their writing is consideredaestheticallypleasing.
An example of a fullyvocalised(vowelisedorvowelled) Arabic from theBismillah:
بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِbismi l-lāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmIn the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Especially-Merciful.
Some Arabic textbooks for foreigners now useḥarakātas a phonetic guide to make learning reading Arabic easier. The other method used in textbooks is phoneticromanisationof unvocalised texts. Fully vocalised Arabic texts (i.e. Arabic texts withḥarakāt/diacritics) are sought after by learners of Arabic. Some online bilingual dictionaries also provideḥarakātas a phonetic guide similarly to English dictionaries providing transcription.
Theḥarakātحَرَكَات, which literally means 'motions', are the short vowel marks. There is some ambiguity as to whichtashkīlare alsoḥarakāt; thetanwīn, for example, are markers for both vowels and consonants.
Thefatḥah⟨فَتْحَة⟩is a small diagonal line placedabovea letter, and represents a short/a/(like the /a/ sound in the English word "cat"). The wordfatḥahitself (فَتْحَة) meansopeningand refers to the opening of the mouth when producing an/a/. For example, withdāl(henceforth, the base consonant in the following examples):⟨دَ⟩/da/.
When afatḥahis placed before a plain letter⟨ا⟩(alif) (i.e. one having no hamza or vowel of its own), it represents a long/aː/(close to the sound of "a" in the English word "dad", with an open front vowel /æː/, not back /ɑː/ as in "father"). For example:⟨دَا⟩/daː/. Thefatḥahis not usually written in such cases. When a fathah is placed before the letter ⟨ﻱ⟩ (yā’), it creates an/aj/(as in "lie"); and when placed before the letter ⟨و⟩ (wāw), it creates an/aw/(as in "cow").
Although paired with a plain letter creates an open front vowel (/a/), often realized as near-open (/æ/), the standard also allows for variations, especially under certain surrounding conditions. Usually, in order to have the more central (/ä/) or back (/ɑ/) pronunciation, the word features a nearby back consonant, such as the emphatics, as well asqāf, orrā’. A similar "back" quality is undergone by other vowels as well in the presence of such consonants, however not as drastically realized as in the case offatḥah.[1][2][3]
Fatḥahs are encodedU+0618ؘARABIC SMALL FATHA,U+064EَARABIC FATHA,U+FE76ﹶARABIC FATHA ISOLATED FORM, orU+FE77ﹷARABIC FATHA MEDIAL FORM.
A similar diagonal linebelowa letter is called akasrah⟨كَسْرَة⟩and designates a short/i/(as in "me", "be") and its allophones [i, ɪ, e, e̞, ɛ] (as in "Tim", "sit"). For example:⟨دِ⟩/di/.[4]
When akasrahis placed before a plain letter⟨ﻱ⟩(yā’), it represents a long/iː/(as in the English word "steed"). For example:⟨دِي⟩/diː/. Thekasrahis usually not written in such cases, but ifyā’is pronounced as a diphthong/aj/,fatḥahshould be written on the preceding letter to avoid mispronunciation. The wordkasrahmeans 'breaking'.[1]
Kasrahs are encodedU+061AؚARABIC SMALL KASRA,U+0650ِARABIC KASRA,U+FE7AﹺARABIC KASRA ISOLATED FORM, orU+FE7BﹻARABIC KASRA MEDIAL FORM.
Theḍammah⟨ضَمَّة⟩is a small curl-like diacritic placed above a letter to represent a short /u/ (as in "duke", shorter "you") and its allophones [u, ʊ, o, o̞, ɔ] (as in "put", or "bull"). For example:⟨دُ⟩/du/.[4]
When aḍammahis placed before a plain letter⟨و⟩(wāw), it represents a long/uː/(like the 'oo' sound in the English word "swoop"). For example:⟨دُو⟩/duː/. Theḍammahis usually not written in such cases, but ifwāwis pronounced as a diphthong/aw/,fatḥahshould be written on the preceding consonant to avoid mispronunciation.[1]
The wordḍammah(ضَمَّة) in this context meansrounding, since it is the only rounded vowel in the vowel inventory of Arabic.
Ḍammahs are encodedU+0619ؙARABIC SMALL DAMMA,U+064FُARABIC DAMMA,U+FE78ﹸARABIC DAMMA ISOLATED FORM, orU+FE79ﹹARABIC DAMMA MEDIAL FORM.
Thesuperscript (or dagger)alif⟨أَلِف خَنْجَرِيَّة⟩(alif khanjarīyah), is written as short vertical stroke on top of a letter. It indicates a long/aː/sound for whichalifis normally not written. For example:⟨هَٰذَا⟩(hādhā) or⟨رَحْمَٰن⟩(raḥmān).
The daggeralifoccurs in only a few words, but they include some common ones; it is seldom written, however, even in fully vocalised texts. Most keyboards do not have daggeralif.The wordAllah⟨الله⟩(Allāh)(God) is usually produced automatically by enteringalif lām lām hāʾ.The word consists ofalif+ ligature of doubledlāmwith ashaddahand a daggeralifabovelām, followed byha'.
Themaddah⟨مَدَّة⟩is atilde-shaped diacritic, which can only appear on top of analif(آ) and indicates aglottal stop/ʔ/followed by a long/aː/.
In theory, the same sequence/ʔaː/could also be represented by twoalifs, as in *⟨أَا⟩, where a hamza above the firstalifrepresents the/ʔ/while the secondalifrepresents the/aː/. However, consecutivealifs are never used in the Arabic orthography. Instead, this sequence must always be written as a singlealifwith amaddahabove it, the combination known as analif maddah. For example:⟨قُرْآن⟩/qurˈʔaːn/.
In Quranic writings, amaddahis placed on any other letter to denote the name of the letter, though some letters may take on a daggeralif. For example:⟨لٓمٓصٓ⟩(lām-mīm-ṣād) or⟨يـٰسٓ⟩(yāʼ-sīn)
Thewaṣlah⟨وَصْلَة⟩,alif waṣlah⟨أَلِف وَصْلَة⟩orhamzat waṣl⟨هَمْزَة وَصْل⟩looks like the head of a smallṣādon top of analif⟨ٱ⟩(also indicated by analif⟨ا⟩without ahamzah). It means that thealifis not pronounced when its word does not begin a sentence. For example:⟨بِٱسْمِ⟩(bismi), but⟨ٱمْشُوا۟⟩(imshūnotmshū). This is because in Arabic, the first consonant in a word must always be followed by a vowel sound: If the second letter from thewaṣlahhas a kasrah, the alif-waslah makes the sound /i/. However, when the second letter from it has a dammah, it makes the sound /u/.
It occurs only in the beginning of words, but it can occur after prepositions and the definite article. It is commonly found in imperative verbs, the perfective aspect of verb stems VII to X and theirverbal nouns(maṣdar). Thealifof the definite article is considered awaṣlah.
It occurs in phrases and sentences (connected speech, not isolated/dictionary forms):
Like the superscript alif, it is not written in fully vocalized scripts, except for sacred texts, like the Quran and Arabized Bible.
Thesukūn⟨سُكُونْ⟩is a circle-shaped diacritic placed above a letter (ْ). It indicates that the letter to which it is attached is not followed by a vowel, i.e.,zero-vowel.
It is a necessary symbol for writing consonant-vowel-consonant syllables, which are very common in Arabic. For example:⟨دَدْ⟩(dad).
Thesukūnmay also be used to help represent a diphthong. Afatḥahfollowed by the letter⟨ﻱ⟩(yā’) with asukūnover it (ـَيْ) indicates the diphthongay(IPA/aj/). Afatḥah, followed by the letter⟨ﻭ⟩(wāw) with asukūn, (ـَوْ) indicates/aw/.
Sukūns are encodedU+0652ْARABIC SUKUN,U+FE7EﹾARABIC SUKUN ISOLATED FORM, orU+FE7FﹿARABIC SUKUN MEDIAL FORM.
Thesukūnmay have also an alternative form of the small high head ofḥāʾ(U+06E1ۡARABIC SMALL HIGH DOTLESS HEAD OF KHAH), particularly in some Qurans. Other shapes may exist as well (for example, like a small comma above ⟨ʼ⟩ or like acircumflex⟨ˆ⟩ innastaʿlīq).[5]
The three vowel diacritics may be doubled at the end of a word to indicate that the vowel is followed by the consonantn. They may or may not be consideredḥarakātand are known astanwīn⟨تَنْوِين⟩, or nunation. The signs indicate, from left to right,-an, -in, -un.
These endings are used as non-pausal grammatical indefinite case endings inLiterary Arabicorclassical Arabic(triptotesonly). In a vocalised text, they may be written even if they are not pronounced (seepausa). Seei‘rābfor more details. In many spoken Arabic dialects, the endings are absent. Many Arabic textbooks introduce standard Arabic without these endings. The grammatical endings may not be written in some vocalized Arabic texts, as knowledge ofi‘rābvaries from country to country, and there is a trend towards simplifying Arabic grammar.
The sign⟨ـً⟩is most commonly written in combination withalif⟨ـًا⟩,tā’ marbūṭah⟨ةً⟩,alif hamzah⟨أً⟩, or stand-alonehamzah⟨ءً⟩.Alifshould always be written (except for words ending intā’ marbūṭah, hamzahor diptotes) even ifanis not. Grammatical cases andtanwīnendings in indefinite triptote forms:
Theshaddaorshaddah⟨شَدَّة⟩(shaddah), ortashdid⟨تَشْدِيد⟩(tashdīd), is a diacritic shaped like a small written Latin "w".
It is used to indicategemination(consonant doubling or extra length), which is phonemic in Arabic. It is written above the consonant which is to be doubled. It is the onlyḥarakahthat is commonly used in ordinary spelling to avoidambiguity. For example:⟨دّ⟩/dd/;madrasah⟨مَدْرَسَة⟩('school') vs.mudarrisah⟨مُدَرِّسَة⟩('teacher', female). Note that when the doubled letter bears a vowel, it is the shaddah that the vowel is attached to, not the letter itself:⟨دَّ⟩/dda/,⟨دِّ⟩/ddi/.
Shaddahs are encodedU+0651ّARABIC SHADDA,U+FE7CﹼARABIC SHADDA ISOLATED FORM, orU+FE7DﹽARABIC SHADDA MEDIAL FORM.
Thei‘jām(إِعْجَام; sometimes also callednuqaṭ)[6]are the diacritic points that distinguish various consonants that have the same form (rasm), such as⟨ص⟩/sˤ/,⟨ض⟩/dˤ/. Typicallyi‘jāmare not considered diacritics but part of the letter.
Early manuscripts of theQurandid not use diacritics either for vowels or to distinguish the different values of therasm.Vowel pointing was introduced first, as a red dot placed above, below, or beside therasm, and later consonant pointing was introduced, as thin, short black single or multiple dashes placed above or below therasm. Thesei‘jāmbecame black dots about the same time as theḥarakātbecame small black letters or strokes.
Typically, Egyptians do not use dots under finalyā’(ي), which looks exactly likealif maqsurah(ى) in handwriting and in print. This practice is also used in copies of themuṣḥaf(Qurʾān) scribed by‘Uthman Ṭāhā. The same unification ofyāandalif maqṣūrāhas happened inPersian, resulting in whatthe Unicode Standardcalls "Arabic Letter Farsi Yeh", that looks exactly the same asyāin initial and medial forms, but exactly the same asalif maqṣūrahin final and isolated forms.
At the time when thei‘jāmwas optional, unpointed letters were ambiguous. To clarify that a letter would lacki‘jāmin pointed text, the letter could be marked with a small v- orseagull-shaped diacritic above, also a superscript semicircle (crescent), a subscript dot (except in the case of⟨ح⟩; three dots were used with⟨س⟩), or a subscript miniature of the letter itself. A superscript stroke known asjarrah, resembling a longfatħah, was used for a contracted (assimilated)sin. Thus⟨ڛ سۣ سۡ سٚ⟩were all used to indicate that the letter in question was truly⟨س⟩and not⟨ش⟩.[7]These signs, collectively known as‘alāmātu-l-ihmāl, are still occasionally used in modernArabic calligraphy, either for their original purpose (i.e. marking letters withouti‘jām), or often as purely decorative space-fillers. The smallکabove thekāfin its final and isolated forms⟨ك ـك⟩was originally an‘alāmatu-l-ihmālthat became a permanent part of the letter. Previously this sign could also appear above the medial form ofkāf, when that letter was written without the stroke on itsascender. Whenkafwas written without that stroke, it could be mistaken forlam, thuskafwas distinguished with a superscriptkafor a small superscripthamza(nabrah), andlamwith a superscriptl-a-m(lam-alif-mim).[8]
Although not always considered a letter of the alphabet, thehamzaهَمْزة(hamzah,glottal stop), often stands as a separate letter in writing, is written in unpointed texts and is not considered atashkīl.It may appear as a letter by itself or as a diacritic over or under analif,wāw, oryā.
Which letter is to be used to support thehamzahdepends on the quality of the adjacent vowels and its location in the word;
Consider the following words:⟨أَخ⟩/ʔax/("brother"),⟨إسْماعِيل⟩/ʔismaːʕiːl/("Ismael"),⟨أُمّ⟩/ʔumm/("mother"). All three of above words "begin" with a vowel opening the syllable, and in each case,alifis used to designate the initial glottal stop (theactualbeginning). But if we considermiddlesyllables "beginning" with a vowel:⟨نَشْأة⟩/naʃʔa/("origin"),⟨أَفْئِدة⟩/ʔafʔida/("hearts"—notice the/ʔi/syllable; singular⟨فُؤاد⟩/fuʔaːd/),⟨رُؤُوس⟩/ruʔuːs/("heads", singular⟨رَأْس⟩/raʔs/), the situation is different, as noted above. See the comprehensive article onhamzahfor more details.
Diacritics not used in Modern Standard Arabic but in other languages that use the Arabic script, and sometimes to write Arabic dialects, include (the list is not exhaustive):
Historically Arabic script has been adopted and used by many tonal languages, examples includeXiao'erjingforMandarin Chineseas well asAjami scriptadopted for writing various languages of Western Africa. However, the Arabic script never had an inherent way of representing tones until it was adapted for theRohingya language. TheRohingya Fonnaare 3 tone markers which are part of the standardized and accepted orthographic convention of Rohingya. It remains the only known instance of tone markers within theArabic script.[14][15]
Tone markers act as "modifiers" of vowel diacritics. In simpler words, they are "diacritics for the diacritics". They are written "outside" of the word, meaning that they are written above the vowel diacritic if the diacritic is written above the word, and they are written below the diacritic if the diacritic is written below the word. They are only ever written where there are vowel diacritics. This is important to note, as without the diacritic present, there is no way to distinguish between tone markers andI‘jāmi.e. dots that are used for purpose of phonetic distinctions of consonants.
Hārbāy
TheHārbāyas it is called in Rohingya, is a single dot that's placed on top ofFatḥahandḌammah, orcurly Fatḥahandcurly Ḍammah(vowel diacritics unique to Rohinghya), or their respectiveFatḥatanandḌammatanversions, and it's placed underneathKasrahorcurly Kasrah, or their respectiveKasratanversion. (e.g.دً࣪ / دٌ࣪ / دࣨ࣪ / دٍ࣭) This tone marker indicates ashort high tone(/˥/).[14][15]
Ṭelā
TheṬelāas it is called in Rohingya, is two dots that are placed on top ofFatḥahandḌammah, orcurly Fatḥahandcurly Ḍammah, or their respectiveFatḥatanandḌammatanversions, and it's placed underneathKasrahorcurly Kasrah, or their respectiveKasratanversion. (e.g.دَ࣫ / دُ࣫ / دِ࣮) This tone marker indicates along falling tone(/˥˩/).[14][15]
Ṭāna
TheṬānaas it is called in Rohingya, is a fish-like looping line that is placed on top ofFatḥahandḌammah, orcurly Fatḥahandcurly Ḍammah, or their respectiveFatḥatanandḌammatanversions, and it's placed underneathKasrahorcurly Kasrah, or their respectiveKasratanversion. (e.g.دࣤ࣬ / دࣥ࣬ / دࣦ࣯) This tone marker indicates along rising tone(/˨˦/).[14][15]
According to tradition, the first to commission a system ofḥarakātwasAliwho appointedAbu al-Aswad al-Du'alifor the task. Abu al-Aswad devised a system of dots to signal the three short vowels (along with their respective allophones) of Arabic. This system of dots predates thei‘jām, dots used to distinguish between different consonants.
Abu al-Aswad's system of Harakat was different from the system we know today. The system used red dots with each arrangement or position indicating a different short vowel.
A dot above a letter indicated the vowela, a dot below indicated the voweli, a dot on the side of a letter stood for the vowelu, and two dots stood for thetanwīn.
However, the early manuscripts of the Qur'an did not use the vowel signs for every letter requiring them, but only for letters where they were necessary for a correct reading.
The precursor to the system we know today is Al Farahidi's system.al-Farāhīdīfound that the task of writing using two different colours was tedious and impractical. Another complication was that thei‘jāmhad been introduced by then, which, while they were short strokes rather than the round dots seen today, meant that without a color distinction the two could become confused.
Accordingly, he replaced theḥarakātwith small superscript letters: small alif, yā’, and wāw for the short vowels corresponding to the long vowels written with those letters, a smalls(h)īnforshaddah(geminate), a smallkhā’forkhafīf(short consonant; no longer used). His system is essentially the one we know today.[17]
The process of automatically restoring diacritical marks is called diacritization or diacritic restoration. It is useful to avoid ambiguity in applications such asArabic machine translation,text-to-speech, andinformation retrieval. Automatic diacritization algorithms have been developed.[18][19]ForModern Standard Arabic, thestate-of-the-artalgorithm has aword error rate(WER) of 4.79%. The most common mistakes are propernounsandcase endings.[20]Similar algorithms exist for othervarieties of Arabic.[21]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_diacritics
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Amater lectionis(/ˌmeɪtərˌlɛktiˈoʊnɪs/ⓘMAY-tərLEK-tee-OH-niss,/ˌmɑːtər-/MAH-tər -;[1][2]Latinfor 'mother of reading',pl.matres lectionis/ˌmɑːtreɪs-/MAH-trayss -;[2]originalHebrew:אֵם קְרִיאָה,romanized:ʾēm qərîʾāh) is any consonant letter that is used to indicate a vowel, primarily in the writing ofSemitic languagessuch asArabic,HebrewandSyriac. The letters that do this in Hebrew arealephא,heה,vavוandyudי, with the latter two in particular being more often vowels than they are consonants. In Arabic, thematres lectionis(though they are much less often referred to thus) areʾalifا,wāwوandyāʾي.
The original value of thematres lectioniscorresponds closely to what are called in modern linguisticsglidesorsemivowels.[3]
Because the scripts used to write some Semitic languages lack vowel letters, unambiguous reading of a text might be difficult. Therefore, to indicate vowels (mostly long), consonant letters are used. For example, in the Hebrewconstruct-stateformbēt, meaning "the house of", the middle letterיin the spellingביתacts as a vowel, but in the corresponding absolute-state formbayit("house"), which is spelled the same, the same letter represents a genuine consonant.Matres lectionisare extensively employed only in Hebrew,Aramaic,SyriacandArabic, but the phenomenon is also found in theUgaritic,Moabite,South ArabianandPhoenicianalphabets.
Historically, the practice of usingmatres lectionisseems to have originated when/aj/and/aw/diphthongs, written with theyodיand thewawוconsonant letters respectively,monophthongizedto simple long vowels/eː/and/oː/. This epiphenomenal association between consonant letters and vowel sounds was then seized upon and used in words without historic diphthongs.
In general terms, it is observable that earlyPhoeniciantexts have very fewmatres lectionis, and that during most of the 1st millennium BCE, Hebrew and Aramaic were quicker to developmatres lectionisthan Phoenician. However, in its latest period of development inNorth Africa(referred to as "Punic"), Phoenician developed a very full use ofmatres lectionis, including the use of the letterayinע, also used for this purpose much later inYiddish orthography.
In pre-exilic Hebrew, there was a significant development of the use of the letterheהto indicate word final vowels other thanīandū. This was probably inspired by the phonological change of the third-person singular possessive suffix from/ahuː/>/aw/>/oː/in most environments. However, in later periods of Hebrew, the orthography was changed so word-finalōwas no longer written withה, except in a few archaically-spelled proper names, such asSolomonשלמהandShilohשלה. The difference between the spelling of the third-person singular possessive suffix (as attached to singular nouns) withהin early Hebrew versus withוin later Hebrew has become an issue in the authentication of theJehoash Inscription.
According to Sass (5), already in the Middle Kingdom there were some cases ofmatres lectionis, i.e. consonant graphemes which were used to transcribe vowels in foreign words, namely in Punic (Jensen 290, Naveh 62), Aramaic, and Hebrew (ה,ו,י; sometimes evenalephא; Naveh 62). Naveh (ibid.) notes that the earliest Aramaic and Hebrew documents already usedmatres lectionis. Some scholars argue that the Greeks must therefore have borrowed their alphabet from the Arameans. However, the practice has older roots, as theSemitic cuneiform alphabet of Ugarit(13th century BC) already hadmatres lectionis(Naveh 138).
The earliest method of indicating some vowels in Hebrew writing was to use the consonant lettersyodי,wawו,heה, andalephאof the Hebrew alphabet to also write longvowelsin some cases. Originally,אandהwere only used as matres lectiones at the end of words, andיandוwere used mainly to write the originaldiphthongs/aw/and/aj/as well as/VjV/sequences (/j/surrounded by two vowels, which sometimes simplified to plain long vowels). Gradually, as it was found to be insufficient for differentiating between similar nouns,יandוwere also inserted to mark some long vowels of non-diphthongal origin.
If words can be written with or withoutmatres lectionis, spellings that include the letters are calledmalē(Hebrew) orplene(Latin), meaning "full", and spellings without them are calledḥaserordefective. In some verb forms,matres lectionisare almost always used. Around the 9th century CE it was decided that the system ofmatres lectionisdid not suffice to indicate the vowels precisely enough for purposes of liturgical recitation of Biblical texts so a supplementalvowel pointing system(niqqud, diacritic symbols indicating vowel pronunciation and other important phonological features not written by the traditional basic consonantal orthography) joinedmatres lectionisas part of the Hebrew writing system.
In some words in Hebrew, there is a choice of whether to use amater lectionisor not, and in modern printed textsmatres lectionisare sometimes used even for short vowels, which is considered to be grammatically incorrect according to traditional norms, though instances are found as far back asTalmudictimes. Such texts from Judaea and Galilee were noticeably more inclined tomalēspellings than texts fromBabylonia. Similarly, in theMiddle Ages,Ashkenazi Jewstended to usemalēspellings under the influence ofEuropean languages, butSephardi Jewstended to useḥaserspellings under the influence of Arabic.
Most commonly,yodיindicatesiore, whilewawוindicatesooru.Alephאwas not systematically developed as amater lectionisin Hebrew (unlike in Aramaic and Arabic), but it is occasionally used to indicate anavowel. (However, a silentא, indicating an originalglottal stopconsonant sound that has become silent in some contexts in Hebrew pronunciation, can occur after almost any vowel.) At the end of a word,heהcan also be used to indicate that the vowelaoreshould be pronounced.
Examples:
In Arabic, there is no choice, and the almost invariable rule is that a long vowel is written with amater lectionisand a short vowel with a diacritic symbol, but theUthmanicorthography, the one in which theQuranis traditionally written and printed, has some differences, which are not always consistent. Also, under influence from orthography of European languages, transliterating of vowels in borrowed words into Arabic is usually done usingmatres lectionisin place of diacritics, even when the vowel transliterated is short or when words from another Semitic language, such as Hebrew, are transliterated. That phenomenon is augmented by the neglect of diacritics in most printed forms since the beginning of mechanical printing.
The name given to the threematres lectionisby traditional Arabic grammar isḥurūf al-līn wa-l-madd(حروف اللين والمدّ, 'consonants of softness and lengthening'), orḥurūf al-ʿilla(حروف العلّة, 'causal consonants' or 'consonants of infirmity', because as in Greek grammar, words with 'accidents' were deemed to be afflicted, ill, in opposition to 'healthy' words without accidents).[4]
Informal orthographies of spoken varieties of Arabic also usehāʾهto indicate a shorter version ofalifاin final position, a usage augmented by the ambiguity of the use ofهandtāʾ marbūṭahةin formal Arabic orthography. It is a formal orthography in other languages that use Arabic script, such asKurdish alphabets.
Syriac-Aramaic vowels are classified into three groups: thealap(ܐ), thewaw(ܘ), and theyod(ܝ). Themater lectioniswas developed as early as the 6th century to represent long vowels, which were earlier denoted by a dot under the line. The most frequent ones are theyodand thewaw, while thealapis mostly restricted to some transliterated words.[5]
In theMandaic alphabet, vowels are usually written out in full. The first letter,a(corresponding toalaph), is used to represent a range of open vowels. The sixth letter,wa, is used for close back vowels (uando), and the tenth letter,yais used for close front vowels (iande). These last two can also serve as the consonantsw/vandy. The eighth letter corresponds to the Semiticheth, and is calledeh; it is pronounced as a longi-vowel but is used only as a suffix for thethird person singular. The sixteenth letter,e(Aramaicayn), usually representseat the beginning of a word or, when followed bywaorya, represents initialuorirespectively.
Later, in some adaptations of the Arabic alphabet (such those sometimes used forKurdishandUyghur) and of the Hebrew alphabet (such as those used forJudeo-Arabic,YiddishandJudaeo-Spanish),matres lectioniswere generally used for all or most vowels, thus in effect becoming vowel letters: seeYiddish orthography. This tendency was taken to its logical conclusion in fully alphabetic scripts such asGreek,Latin, andCyrillic. Many of the vowel letters in such languages historically go back tomatres lectionisin the Phoenician script. For example, the letter⟨i⟩was originally derived from the consonant letteryod. Similarly the vowel letters in theAvestan alphabetwere adapted frommatres lectionisin the version of theAramaic alphabetadapted as thePahlavi scripts.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mater_lectionis
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Mimation(Arabic:تَمْيِيم,tamyīm) is the phenomenon of a suffixed-m(the lettermemin many Semiticabjads) which occurs in someSemitic languages.
This occurs inAkkadianin singular nouns.[1]It was also present in theProto-Semitic language.
It is retained in the plural and dual forms inHebrew. It corresponds to the letternun(-n) inClassical Arabicand is retained in the singular (nunation), dual, and plural.
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ThisSemitic languages-related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimation
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Inlinguistics, anaffixis amorphemethat is attached to aword stemto form a new word or word form. The main two categories arederivationalandinflectionalaffixes. Derivational affixes, such asun-,-ation,anti-,pre-etc., introduce a semantic change to the word they are attached to. Inflectional affixes introduce a syntactic change, such as singular into plural (e.g.-(e)s), or present simpletenseinto present continuous or past tense by adding-ing,-edto an English word. All of them arebound morphemesby definition;prefixesandsuffixesmay beseparable affixes.
Changing a word by adding a morpheme at its beginning is calledprefixation, in the middle is calledinfixation, and at the end is calledsuffixation.[1]
Prefixandsuffixmay be subsumed under the termadfix, in contrast toinfix.[5]
When marking text forinterlinear glossing, as shown in the third column in the chart above, simple affixes such as prefixes and suffixes are separated from the stem with hyphens. Affixes which disrupt the stem, or which themselves are discontinuous, are often marked off with angle brackets. Reduplication is often shown with a tilde. Affixes which cannot be segmented are marked with a back slash.
Semantically speaking,lexical affixesorsemantic affixes, when compared with free nouns, often have a more generic or general meaning. For example, one denoting "water in a general sense" may not have a noun equivalent because all the nouns denote more specific meanings such as "saltwater", "whitewater", etc. (while in other cases the lexical suffixes have becomegrammaticalizedto various degrees.) Although they behave asincorporated nounroots/stems within verbs and as elements ofnouns, they never occur as freestanding nouns. Lexical affixes are relatively rare and are used inWakashan,Salishan, andChimakuan languages— the presence of these is anareal featureof the Pacific Northwest ofNorth America- where they show little to no resemblance to free nouns with similar meanings. Compare the lexical suffixes and free nouns ofNorthern Straits Saanichwritten in the Saanich orthography and inAmericanist notation:
Some linguists have claimed that these lexical suffixes provide only adverbial or adjectival notions to verbs. Other linguists disagree, arguing that they may additionally be syntacticargumentsjust as free nouns are and, thus, equating lexical suffixes with incorporated nouns. Gerdts (2003) gives examples of lexical suffixes in theHalkomelem language(theword orderhere isverb–subject–object):
In sentence (1), the verb "wash" isšak’ʷətəswherešak’ʷ-is the root and-ətand-əsare inflectional suffixes. The subject "the woman" isłə słeniʔand the object"the baby"isłə qeq. In this sentence, "the baby" is a free noun. (Theniʔhere is anauxiliary, which can be ignored for explanatory purposes.)
In sentence (2),"baby"does not appear as a free noun. Instead it appears as the lexical suffix-əyəłwhich is affixed to the verb rootšk’ʷ-(which has changed slightly in pronunciation, but this can also be ignored here). The lexical suffix is neither "the baby" (definite) nor "a baby" (indefinite); such referential changes are routine with incorporated nouns.
Inorthography, the terms for affixes may be used for the smaller elements of conjunct characters. For example,Maya glyphsare generally compounds of amain signand smalleraffixesjoined at its margins. These are calledprefixes, superfixes, postfixes,andsubfixesaccording to their position to the left, on top, to the right, or at the bottom of the main glyph. A small glyph placed inside another is called aninfix.[6]Similar terminology is found with the conjunct consonants of theIndic alphabets. For example, theTibetan alphabetutilizes prefix, suffix, superfix, and subfix consonant letters.[7]
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Inlinguisticsand social sciences,markednessis the state of standing out as nontypical or divergent as opposed to regular or common. In a marked–unmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one. The dominant default or minimum-effort form is known asunmarked; the other, secondary one ismarked. In other words, markedness involves the characterization of a "normal" linguistic unit against one or more of its possible "irregular" forms.
In linguistics, markedness can apply to, among others,phonological,grammatical, andsemanticoppositions, defining them in terms of marked and unmarked oppositions, such ashonest(unmarked) vs.dishonest(marked). Marking may be purely semantic, or may be realized as extra morphology. The term derives from the marking of a grammatical role with a suffix or another element, and has been extended to situations where there is no morphological distinction.
Insocial sciencesmore broadly, markedness is, among other things, used to distinguish two meanings of the same term, where one is common usage (unmarked sense) and the other is specialized to a certain cultural context (marked sense).
Inpsychology, the social science concept ofmarkednessis quantified as a measure of how much one variable is marked as a predictor or possible cause of another, and is also known asΔp(deltaP) in simple two-choice cases. Seeconfusion matrixfor more details.
In terms of lexical opposites, a marked form is a non-basic one, often one withinflectionalorderivationalendings. Thus, a morphologically negative word form is marked as opposed to a positive one:happy/unhappy,honest/dishonest,fair/unfair,clean/unclean, and so forth. Similarly, unaffixed masculine or singular forms are taken to be unmarked in contrast to affixed feminine or plural forms:lion/lioness,host/hostess,automobile/automobiles,child/children. An unmarked form is also a default form. For example, the unmarkedlioncan refer to a male or female, whilelionessis marked because it can refer only to females.
The default nature allows unmarked lexical forms to be identified even when the opposites are not morphologically related. In the pairsold/young,big/little,happy/sad,clean/dirty, the first term of each pair is taken as unmarked because it occurs generally in questions. For example, English speakers typically ask how old someone is; use of the marked term (howyoungare you?) would presuppose youth.
While the idea of linguistic asymmetry predated the actual coining of the termsmarkedandunmarked, the modern concept of markedness originated in thePrague SchoolstructuralismofRoman JakobsonandNikolai Trubetzkoyas a means of characterizing binary oppositions.[1]
Both sound and meaning were analyzed into systems of binary distinctive features.Edwin Battistellawrote: "Binarism suggests symmetry and equivalence inlinguistic analysis; markedness adds the idea of hierarchy."[2]Trubetzkoy and Jakobson analyzed phonological oppositions such as nasal versus non-nasal as defined as the presence versus the absence of nasality; the presence of the feature,nasality, was marked; its absence, non-nasality, was unmarked. For Jakobson and Trubetzkoy, binary phonological features formed part of a universal feature alphabet applicable to all languages. In his 1932 article "Structure of the Russian Verb", Jakobson extended the concept to grammatical meanings in which the marked element "announces the existence of [some meaning] A" while the unmarked element "does not announce the existence of A, i.e., does not state whether A is present or not".[3]Forty years later, Jakobson described language by saying that "every single constituent of a linguistic system is built on an opposition of two logical contradictories: the presence of an attribute ('markedness') in contraposition to its absence ('unmarkedness')."[4]
In his 1941Child Language, Aphasia, and Universals of Language, Jakobson suggested that phonological markedness played a role inlanguage acquisitionandloss. Drawing on existing studies of acquisition andaphasia, Jakobson suggested a mirror-image relationship determined by a universal feature hierarchy of marked and unmarked oppositions. Today many[who?]still see Jakobson's theory of phonological acquisition as identifying useful tendencies.[5]
The work of Cornelius van Schooneveld,Edna Andrews, Rodney Sangster, Yishai Tobin and others on 'semantic invariance' (different general meanings reflected in the contextual specific meanings of features) has further developed thesemantic analysisof grammatical items in terms of marked and unmarked features. Other semiotically-oriented work has investigated the isomorphism of form and meaning with less emphasis on invariance, including the efforts of Henning Andersen, Michael Shapiro, and Edwin Battistella. Shapiro and Andrews have especially made connections between the semiotic ofC. S. Peirceand markedness, treating it "as species of interpretant" in Peirce's sign–object–interpretant triad.
Functional linguists such asTalmy Givónhave suggested that markedness is related to
cognitive complexity—"in terms of attention, mental effort or processing time".[6]Linguistic 'naturalists' view markedness relations in terms of the ways in which extralinguistic principles of perceptibility and psychological efficiency determine what is natural in language. Willi Mayerthaler, another linguist, for example, defines unmarked categories as those "in agreement with the typical attributes of the speaker".[7]
Since a main component of markedness is the information content and information value of an element,[8]some studies have taken markedness as an encoding of that which is unusual or informative, and this is reflected in formal probabilistic definitions of markedness andinformednessthat, for dichotomous problems, correspond to the chance-correct unidirectional components of theMatthews correlation coefficientknown as Δp and Δp'.[9]Conceptual familiarity with cultural norms provided by familiar categories creates a ground against which marked categories provide a figure, opening the way for markedness to be applied to cultural and social categorization.
As early as the 1930s Jakobson had already suggested applying markedness to all oppositions, explicitly mentioning such pairs as life/death, liberty/bondage, sin/virtue, and holiday/working day. Linda Waugh extended this to oppositions like male/female, white/black, sighted/blind, hearing/deaf, heterosexual/homosexual, right/left, fertility/barrenness, clothed/nude, and spoken language/written language.[10]Battistella expanded this with the demonstration of how cultures align markedness values to create cohesive symbol systems, illustrating with examples based onRodney Needham's work.[11]Other work has applied markedness to stylistics, music, and myth.[12][13][14]
Markedness depends oncontext. What is more marked in some general contexts may be less marked in other local contexts. Thus, "ant" is less marked than "ants" on the morphological level, but on the semantic (and frequency) levels it may be more marked since ants are more often encountered many at once than one at a time. Often a more general markedness relation may be reversed in a particular context. Thus, voicelessness ofconsonantsis typically unmarked. But betweenvowelsor in the neighborhood of voiced consonants, voicing may be the expected or unmarked value.
Reversal is reflected in certainWest Frisianwords' plural and singular forms:[15]In West Frisian, nouns with irregular singular-plural stem variations are undergoing regularization.[citation needed]Usually this means that the plural is reformed to be a regular form of the singular:
However, a number of words instead reform the singular by extending the form of the plural:
The common feature of the nouns that regularize the singular to match the plural is that they occur more often in pairs or groups than singly; they are said to be semantically (but not morphologically) locally unmarked in the plural.
Joseph Greenberg's 1966 bookLanguage Universalswas an influential application of markedness to typological linguistics and a break from the tradition of Jakobson and Trubetzkoy. Greenberg took frequency to be the primary determining factor of markedness in grammar and suggested that unmarked categories could be determined by "the frequency of association of things in the real world".
Greenberg also applied frequency cross-linguistically, suggesting that unmarked categories would be those that are unmarked in a wide number of languages. However, critics have argued that frequency is problematic because categories that are cross-linguistically infrequent may have a high distribution in a particular language.[16]
More recently the insights related to frequency have been formalized as chance-corrected conditional probabilities, withInformedness(Δp') and Markedness (Δp) corresponding to the different directions of prediction in human association research (binary associations or distinctions)[17]and more generally (including features with more than two distinctions).[citation needed]
Universalshave also been connected toimplicational laws. This entails that a category is taken as marked if every language that has the marked category also has the unmarked one but not vice versa.
Markedness has been extended and reshaped over the past century and reflects a range of loosely connected theoretical approaches. From emerging in the analysis of binary oppositions, it has become a global semiotic principle, a means of encoding naturalness and language universals, and a terminology for studying defaults and preferences in language acquisition. What connects various approaches is a concern for the evaluation of linguistic structure, though the details of how markedness is determined and what its implications and diagnostics are varies widely. Other approaches to universal markedness relations focus on functional economic and iconic motivations, tying recurring symmetries to properties of communication channels and communication events. Croft (1990), for example, notes that asymmetries among linguistic elements may be explainable in terms economy of form, in terms of iconism between the structure of language and conceptualization of the world.
Markedness entered generative linguistic theory throughNoam ChomskyandMorris Halle'sThe Sound Pattern of English. For Chomsky and Halle, phonological features went beyond a universal phonetic vocabulary to encompass an 'evaluation metric', a means of selecting the most highly valued adequate grammar. InThe Sound Pattern of English, the value of a grammar was the inverse of the number of features required in that grammar. However, Chomsky and Halle realized that their initial approach to phonological features made implausible rules and segment inventories as highly valued as natural ones. The unmarked value of a feature was cost-free with respect to the evaluation metric, while the marked feature values were counted by the metric. Segment inventories could also be evaluated according to the number of marked features. However, the use of phonological markedness as part of the evaluation metric was never able to fully account for the fact that some features are more likely than others or for the fact that phonological systems must have a certain minimal complexity and symmetry.[18]
Ingenerative syntax, markedness as feature-evaluation did not receive the same attention that it did in phonology. Chomsky came to view unmarked properties as an innate preference structure based first in constraints and later in parameters ofuniversal grammar. In their 1977 article "Filters and Control", Chomsky andHoward Lasnikextended this to view markedness as part of a theory of 'core grammar':
We will assume that [Universal Grammar] is not an 'undifferentiated' system, but rather incorporates something analogous to a 'theory of markedness' Specifically, there is a theory of core grammar with highly restricted options, limited expressive power, and a few parameters. Systems that fall within core grammar constitute 'the unmarked case'; we may think of them as optimal in terms of the evaluation metric. An actual language is determined by fixing the parameters of core grammar and then adding rules or conditions, using much richer resources, ... These added properties of grammars we may think of as the syntactic analogue of irregular verbs.[19]
A few years later, Chomsky describes it thus:
The distinction between core and periphery leaves us with three notions of markedness: core versus periphery, internal to the core, and internal to the periphery. The second has to do with the way parameters are set in the absence of evidence. As for the third, there are, no doubt, significant regularities even in departures from the core principles (for example, in irregular verb morphology in English), and it may be that peripheral constructions are related to the core in systematic ways, say by relaxing certain conditions of core grammar.[20]
Some generative researchers have applied markedness tosecond-language acquisitiontheory, treating it as an inherent learning hierarchy which reflects the sequence in which constructions are acquired, the difficulty of acquiring certain constructions, and the transferability of rules across languages.[21]More recently,optimality theoryapproaches emerging in the 1990s have incorporated markedness in the ranking of constraints.[22]
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Inmorphologyandlexicography, alemma(pl.:lemmasorlemmata) is thecanonical form,[1]dictionary form, orcitation formof a set ofwordforms.[2]In English, for example,break,breaks,broke,brokenandbreakingare forms of the samelexeme, withbreakas the lemma by which they are indexed.Lexeme, in this context, refers to the set of all the inflected or alternating forms in the paradigm of a single word, andlemmarefers to the particular form that is chosen by convention to represent the lexeme. Lemmas have special significance in highlyinflected languagessuch asArabic,Turkish, andRussian. The process of determining thelemmafor a given lexeme is calledlemmatisation. The lemma can be viewed as the chief of theprincipal parts, although lemmatisation is at least partly arbitrary.
The form of a word that is chosen to serve as the lemma is usually the leastmarkedform, but there are several exceptions such as the use of the infinitive for verbs in some languages.
For English, the citation form of anounis thesingular(and non-possessive) form:mouserather thanmice. For multiword lexemes that containpossessive adjectivesorreflexive pronouns, the citation form uses a form of theindefinite pronounone:do one's best,perjure oneself. In European languages withgrammatical gender, the citation form of regular adjectives and nouns is usually the masculine singular.[citation needed]If the language also hascases, the citation form is often the masculine singular nominative.
For many languages, the citation form of averbis theinfinitive:Frenchaller,Germangehen,Hindustaniजाना/جانا,Spanishir. English verbs usually have an infinitive, which in its bare form (without the particleto) is its least marked (for example,breakis chosen overto break,breaks,broke,breaking, andbroken); fordefective verbswith no infinitive the present tense is used (for example,musthas only one form whileshallhas no infinitive, and both lemmas are their lexemes' present tense forms). ForLatin,Ancient Greek,Modern Greek, andBulgarian, the first person singularpresent tenseis traditionally used, but some modern dictionaries use the infinitive instead (except for Bulgarian, which lacks infinitives; forcontracted verbsin Ancient Greek, an uncontracted first person singular present tense is used to reveal the contract vowel:φιλέωphiléōforφιλῶphilō"I love" [implying affection],ἀγαπάωagapáōforἀγαπῶagapō"I love" [implying regard]).Finnishdictionaries list verbs not under their root, but under the first infinitive, marked with-(t)a,-(t)ä.
ForJapanese, the non-past (present and future) tense is used. ForArabicthe third-person singular masculine of the past/perfect tense is the least-marked form and is used for entries in modern dictionaries. In older dictionaries, which are still commonly used, thetriliteralof the word, either a verb or a noun, is used. This is similar toHebrew, which also uses the third-person singular masculine perfect form, e.g. בראbara'create, כפרkaphardeny.Georgianuses theverbal noun. ForKorean,-dais attached to the stem.
InTamil, anagglutinative language, the verb stem (which is also the imperative form - the least marked one) is often cited, e.g.,இரு
InIrish, words are highly inflected by case (genitive, nominative, dative and vocative) and by their place within a sentence because ofinitial mutations. The nouncainteoir, the lemma for the noun meaning "speaker", has a variety of forms:chainteoir,gcainteoir,cainteora,chainteora,cainteoirí,chainteoiríandgcainteoirí.
Some phrases are cited in a sort of lemma:Carthago delenda est(literally, "Carthage must be destroyed") is a common way of citingCato, but what he said was nearer tocenseo Carthaginem esse delendam("I hold Carthage to be in need of destruction").
In a dictionary, the lemma "go" represents theinflectedforms "go", "goes", "going", "went", and "gone". The relationship between an inflected form and its lemma is usually denoted by an angle bracket, e.g., "went" < "go". Of course, the disadvantage of such simplifications is the inability to look up a declined or conjugated form of the word, but some dictionaries, likeWebster's Dictionary, list "went". Multilingual dictionaries vary in how they deal with this issue: theLangenscheidtdictionary of German does not listging(<gehen), but the Cassell does.
Lemmas orword stemsare used often incorpus linguisticsfor determining word frequency. In that usage, the specific definition of "lemma" is flexible depending on the task it is being used for.
A word may have differentpronunciations, depending on itsphoneticenvironment (the neighbouring sounds) or on the degree ofstressin a sentence. An example of the latter is theweak and strong formsof certain Englishfunction wordslikesomeandbut(pronounced/sʌm/,/bʌt/when stressed but/s(ə)m/,/bət/when unstressed). Dictionaries usually give the pronunciation used when the word is pronounced alone (itsisolation form) and with stress, but they may also note common weak forms of pronunciation.
Thestemis the part of the word that never changes even when morphologically inflected; a lemma is the least marked form of the word. In linguistic analysis, the stem is defined more generally as a form without any of its possible inflectional morphemes (but including derivational morphemes and may contain multiple roots).[3]Whenphonologyis taken into account, the definition of the unchangeable part of the word is not useful, as can be seen in the phonological forms of the words in the preceding example: "produced"/prəˈdjuːst/vs. "production"/prəˈdʌkʃən/.
Some lexemes have several stems but one lemma. For instance the verb "to go" has the stems "go" and "went" due tosuppletion: the past tense was co-opted from a different verb, "to wend".
Aheadwordorcatchword[4]is thelemmaunder which a set of relateddictionaryorencyclopaediaentries appears. The headword is used to locate the entry, and dictates its alphabetical position. Depending on the size and nature of the dictionary or encyclopedia, the entry may include alternative meanings of the word, itsetymology,pronunciationandinflections, related lemmas such ascompound wordsor phrases that contain the headword, and encyclopedic information about the concepts represented by the word.
For example, the headwordbreadmay contain the following (simplified) definitions:
TheAcademic Dictionary of Lithuaniancontains around 500,000 headwords. TheOxford English Dictionary(OED) has around 273,000 headwords along with 220,000 other lemmas,[5]whileWebster's Third New International Dictionaryhas about 470,000.[6]TheDeutsches Wörterbuch(DWB), the largest lexicon of theGerman language, has around 330,000 headwords.[7]These values are cited by the dictionary makers and may not use exactly the same definition of a headword. In addition, headwords may not accurately reflect a dictionary's physical size. TheOEDand theDWB, for instance, include exhaustive historical reviews and exact citations fromsource documentsnot usually found in standard dictionaries.
The term 'lemma' comes from the practice in Greco-Roman antiquity of using the word to refer to the headwords of marginalglossesinscholia; for this reason, theAncient Greekplural form is sometimes used, namelylemmata(Greek λῆμμα, pl. λήμματα).
Many dictionaries list all forms of a term combined as one entry under a single headword. The form chosen for the headword is then governed by some common conventions.
For languages withgrammatical case, the headword takes the form of thenominative case, used when the noun serves as thesubject (grammar)of a sentence. Unless it concerns aplurale tantum, the singular is used. For example, the Latin word for "rose" will traditionally be listed under the entryrosa, together with itsinflected forms(rosae,rosam,rosarum,rosis) – if these are given at all. Some languages have separate forms for a male and female sense of a noun, as in Frenchchanteur(for a male singer) andchanteuse(for a female singer). The female form may then be listed under the male form, which is used as the headword.
As for nouns, adjectives are listed in the nominative singular (for languages that inflect for grammatical case or number). If adjectives are inflected for gender, the masculine form is traditionally used for the headword. This headword may also serve as the headword for the comparative and superlative, even when these are irregular, as ingood–better–best.
For most languages, the traditional headword of a verb is itsinfinitiveform. Notable exceptions areLatinandAncient Greek; for these, the traditional choice is the first-person singular. So a traditional Latin dictionary has an entrydico(meaning "I say"), and notdicere("to say"). Likewise, for Ancient Greek the traditional headword is the first-person singularλέγω(legō), and not the infinitiveλέγειν(legein).Modern Greekhas no infinitives; again, the first-person singular is used. The same holds forBulgarian, while forMacedonianthe third-person singular is used.
Infinitives and other verb forms may be marked fortense,aspectandvoice; the headword of choice is usually as unmarked as possible, which for many languages may correspond to present tense, imperfective aspect and active voice. In languages withdeponent verbs, which have no active forms, the middle or passive voice is used for such verbs. For example, the Latin verb for "follow" will be found undersequor("I follow").
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Inmorphology, anull morphemeorzero morphemeis amorphemethat has no phonetic form.[1]In simpler terms, a null morpheme is an "invisible" affix. It is a concept useful for analysis, by contrasting null morphemes with alternatives that do have some phonetic realization.[2]The null morpheme is represented as either the figure zero (0) or theempty setsymbol ∅.
In most languages, it is theaffixesthat are realized as null morphemes, indicating that the derived form does not differ from thestem. For example, plural formsheepcan be analyzed as combination ofsheepwith added null affix for the plural. The process of adding a null affix is callednull affixation,null derivationorzero derivation. The concept was first used by the 4th century BCESanskrit grammarianfrom ancient India,Pāṇini, in hisSanskritgrammar.[3]
The existence of a null morpheme in awordcan also be theorized by contrast with other forms of the same word showing alternative morphemes. For example, the singular number of Englishnounsis shown by a null morpheme that contrasts with the plural morpheme-s.
In addition, there are some cases in English where a null morpheme indicates plurality in nouns that take on irregular plurals.
Also, a null morpheme marks the present tense of Englishverbsin all forms but the third person singular:
According to some linguists' view, English verbs such asto clean,to slow,to warmare converted fromadjectivesby a null morpheme – in contrast to verbs such asto widenorto enablewhich are also converted from adjectives, but using non-null morphemes.[citation needed]Null derivation, also known asconversionif theword classchanges, is very common inanalytic languagessuch as English.
In languages that show the above distinctions, it is quite common to employ null affixation to mark singular number, present tense and third persons. It is also frequent to find null affixation for the least-markedcases(thenominative caseinnominative–accusative languages, and theabsolutive caseinergative–absolutive languages). English is unusual in its marking of the third person singular with a non-zero morpheme, by contrast with a null morpheme for others. Another unusual usage of the null morpheme is the feminine genitive case plural in most Slavic languages, cf.Russiansingular nominativeженщин-а(zhenshchin-a),woman, singular genitiveженщин-ы(zhenshchin-y),woman'sand plural genitiveженщин-∅(zhenshchin-∅),women's.
In most languages of the world it is the affixes that are realized as null morphemes. But in some casesrootsmay also be realized as these. For instance, the Russian word вы-∅-ну-ть (vynut', 'to take out') consists of oneprefix(вы-), one zero root (-∅-), and two suffixes (-ну- and -ть).[4]
A basic radical element plus a null morpheme is not the same as anuninflected word, though usage may make those equal in practice.
Note: All of the examples under the Inflection heading come from the same source.
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Inlinguistics, analternationis the phenomenon of amorphemeexhibiting variation in itsphonologicalrealization. Each of the various realizations is called analternant. The variation may be conditioned by the phonological,morphological, and/orsyntacticenvironment in which the morpheme finds itself.
Alternations provide linguists with data that allow them to determine theallophonesandallomorphsof a language's phonemes and morphemes and to develop analyses determining the distribution of those allophones and allomorphs.
The term "sound change" refers todiachronicchanges, which occur in a language's sound system. On the other hand, "alternation" refers to changes that happensynchronically(within the language of an individual speaker, depending on the neighbouring sounds) and do not change the language'sunderlying system.
An example of a phonologically conditioned alternation is theEnglishpluralmarker commonly spelledsores.[1]This morpheme is pronounced/s/,/z/, or/ᵻz/,[note 1]depending on the nature of the preceding sound.
Frenchhas an example of morphologically conditioned alternation. Thefeminine formof manyadjectivesends in aconsonantsound that is missing in the masculine form. In spelling, the feminine ends in asilent e, while the masculine ends in a silent consonant letter:[2]
Syntactically conditioned alternations can be found in theInsular Celtic languages, where words undergo various initialconsonant mutationsdepending on their syntactic position.[3]For example, inIrish, an adjective undergoeslenitionafter a feminine singular noun:
InWelsh, anounundergoessoft mutationwhen it is the directobjectof afinite verb:
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Afloating toneis amorpheme[1]or element of a morpheme that contains neitherconsonantsnorvowels, but onlytone. It cannot be pronounced by itself but affects the tones of neighboring morphemes.[2][3]
An example occurs inBambara, aMande languageof Mali that has twophonemictones,[4]highandlow.Thedefinite articleis a floating low tone, and with a noun in isolation, it is associated with the preceding vowel and turns a high tone into a falling tone: [bá]river;[bâ]the river. When it occurs between two high tones, itdownstepsthe following tone:
Also common are floating tones associated with asegmentalmorpheme such as an affix.[5]For example, inOkphela, anEdoid languageof Nigeria,[6]the main negative morpheme is distinguished from the present tense morpheme by tone; the present tense morpheme (á-) carries high tone, whereas the negative past morpheme (´a-) imposes a high tone on the syllable which precedes it:
Floating tones derive historically from morphemes whichassimilate[7]orlenite[8]to the point that only their tone remains.[9]
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Greekmorphemesare parts ofwordsoriginating from theGreek language. This article lists Greek morphemes used in the English language.
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Morphological parsing, innatural language processing, is the process of determining themorphemesfrom which a given word is constructed. It must be able to distinguish between orthographic rules and morphological rules. For example, the word 'foxes' can be decomposed into 'fox' (the stem), and 'es' (a suffix indicating plurality).
The generally accepted approach to morphological parsing is through the use of afinite state transducer(FST), which inputs words and outputs their stem and modifiers. The FST is initially created through algorithmic parsing of some word source, such as a dictionary, complete with modifier markups.
Another approach is through the use of an indexed lookup method, which uses a constructedradix tree. This is not an often-taken route because it breaks down for morphologically complex languages.
With the advancement ofneural networksin natural language processing, it became less common to use FST for morphological analysis, especially for languages for which there is a lot of availabletraining data. For such languages, it is possible to build character-levellanguage modelswithout explicit use of a morphological parser.[1]
Orthographicrules are general rules used when breaking a word into itsstemandmodifiers. An example would be: singular English words ending with -y, when pluralized, end with -ies. Contrast this to morphological rules which contain corner cases to these general rules. Both of these types of rules are used to construct systems that can do morphological parsing.
Morphological rules are exceptions to the orthographic rules used when breaking a word into its stem and modifiers. An example would be while one normally pluralizes a word in English by adding 's' as a suffix, the word 'fish' does not change when pluralized. Contrast this to orthographic rules which contain general rules. Both of these types of rules are used to construct systems that can do morphological parsing.
Various models of natural morphological processing have been proposed. Some experimental studies suggest thatmonolingualspeakers process words as wholes upon listening to them, while their latebilingualspeers break words down into their corresponding morphemes, because their lexical representations are not as specific, and because lexical processing in the second language may be less frequent than processing the mother tongue.[2]
Applications of morphological processing includemachine translation,spell checker, andinformation retrieval.
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Morphophonology(alsomorphophonemicsormorphonology) is the branch oflinguisticsthat studies the interaction betweenmorphologicalandphonologicalorphoneticprocesses. Its chief focus is the sound changes that take place inmorphemes(minimal meaningful units) when they combine to form words.
The origins of morphophonology trace back to the early 20th century with foundational works in structural linguistics. Notable contributions includeRoman Jakobson’s insights into phonological alternations andChomsky& Halle’sThe Sound Pattern of English(1968), which formalized the relationship between phonology and morphology within generative grammar. Subsequent theories, such as Autosegmental Phonology and Optimality Theory, have refined the analysis of morphophonological patterns
Morphophonological analysis often involves an attempt to give a series of formalrulesorconstraintsthat successfully predict the regular sound changes occurring in the morphemes of a given language. Such a series of rules converts a theoreticalunderlying representationinto a surface form that is actually heard. The units of which the underlying representations of morphemes are composed are sometimes calledmorphophonemes. The surface form produced by the morphophonological rules may consist ofphonemes(which are then subject to ordinary phonological rules to produce speech sounds orphones), or else the morphophonological analysis may bypass the phoneme stage and produce the phones itself.
Morphophonology bridges the gap between morphology and phonology, offering insights into the dynamic interactions between word formation and sound patterns. It continues to evolve as a field, integrating innovative approaches and broadening our understanding of linguistic systems globally.
Whenmorphemescombine, they influence each other's sound structure (whether analyzed at a phonetic orphonemiclevel), resulting in different variant pronunciations for the same morpheme. Morphophonology attempts to analyze these processes. A language's morphophonological structure is generally described with a series of rules which, ideally, can predict every morphophonologicalalternationthat takes place in the language.
An example of a morphophonological alternation in English is provided by thepluralmorpheme, written as "-s" or "-es". Its pronunciation varies among[s],[z], and[ɪz], as incats,dogs, andhorsesrespectively. A purely phonological analysis would most likely assign to these three endings the phonemic representations/s/,/z/,/ɪz/. On a morphophonological level, however, they may all be considered to be forms of the underlying object⫽z⫽, which is amorphophonemerealized as one of the phonemic forms{s,z,ɪz}. The different forms it takes are dependent on the segment at the end of the morpheme to which it attaches: the dependencies are described by morphophonological rules. (The behaviour of the English past tense ending "-ed" is similar: it can be pronounced/t/,/d/or/ɪd/, as inhoped,bobbedandadded.)
The plural suffix "-s" can also influence the form taken by the preceding morpheme, as in the case of the wordsleafandknife, which end with[f]in the singular/but have[v]in the plural (leaves,knives). On a morphophonological level, the morphemes may be analyzed as ending in a morphophoneme⫽F⫽, which becomesvoicedwhen a voiced consonant (in this case the⫽z⫽of the plural ending) is attached to it. The rule may be written symbolically as/F/→ [αvoice] /__[αvoice]. This expression is called Alpha Notation in which α can be + (positive value) or − (negative value).
Common conventions to indicate a morphophonemic rather than phonemic representation include double slashes (⫽ ⫽) (as above, implying that the transcription is 'more phonemic than simply phonemic'). This is the only convention consistent with the IPA. Other conventions include pipes (| |), double pipes (‖ ‖)[a]and braces ({ }).[b]Braces, from a convention inset theory, tend to be used when the phonemes are all listed, as in{s,z,ɪz}and{t,d,ɪd}for the English plural and past-tense morphemes⫽z⫽and⫽d⫽above.[1]
For instance, the English wordcatsmay be transcribed phonetically as[ˈkʰæʔts], phonemically as/ˈkæts/and morphophonemically as⫽ˈkætz⫽, if the plural is argued to be underlyingly⫽z⫽, assimilating to/s/after a voiceless nonsibilant. The tilde ~ may indicate morphological alternation, as in⫽ˈniːl~nɛl+t⫽or{niː~ɛl},{niː~ɛl+t}forkneel~knelt(the plus sign '+' indicates a morpheme boundary).[2]
Inflected and agglutinating languages may have extremely complicated systems of morphophonemics. Examples of complex morphophonological systems include:
Until the 1950s, many phonologists assumed thatneutralizingrules generally applied beforeallophonicrules. Thus phonological analysis was split into two parts: a morphophonological part, where neutralizing rules were developed to derive phonemes from morphophonemes; and a purely phonological part, where phones were derived from the phonemes. Since the 1960s (in particular with the work of thegenerativeschool, such as Chomsky and Halle'sThe Sound Pattern of English) many linguists have moved away from making such a split, instead regarding the surface phones as being derived from the underlying morphophonemes (which may be referred to using various terminology) through a single system of(morpho)phonological rules.
The purpose of both phonemic and morphophonemic analysis is to produce simpler underlying descriptions for what appear on the surface to be complicated patterns. In purely phonemic analysis the data is just a set of words in a language, while for the purposes of morphophonemic analysis the words must be considered in grammaticalparadigmsto take account of the underlyingmorphemes. It is postulated that morphemes are recorded in the speaker's "lexicon" in an invariant (morphophonemic) form, which, in a given environment, is converted by rules into a surface form. The analyst attempts to present as completely as possible a system of underlying units (morphophonemes) and a series of rules that act on them, so as to produce surface forms consistent with the linguistic data.
Theisolation formof a morpheme is the form in which that morpheme appears in isolation (when it is not subject to the effects of any other morpheme). In the case of abound morpheme, such as the English past tense ending "-ed", it is generally not possible to identify an isolation form since such a morpheme does not occur in isolation.
It is often reasonable to assume that the isolation form of a morpheme provides its underlying representation. For example, in some varieties ofAmerican English,plantis pronounced[plænt], whileplantingis[ˈplænɪŋ], where the morpheme "plant-" appears in the form[plæn]. Here, the underlying form can be assumed to be⫽plænt⫽, corresponding to the isolation form, since rules can be set up to derive the reduced form[plæn]from this (but it would be difficult or impossible to set up rules that would derive the isolation form[plænt]from an underlying⫽plæn⫽).
That is not always the case, however; the isolation form itself is sometimes subject toneutralizationthat does not apply to some other instances of the morpheme. For example, the French wordpetit("small") is pronounced in isolation without the final[t]sound, but in certain derived forms (such as the femininepetite), the[t]is heard. If the isolation form were adopted as the underlying form, the information that there is a final "t" would be lost, and it would then be difficult to explain the appearance of the "t" in the inflected forms. Similar considerations apply to languages withfinal obstruent devoicing, in which the isolation form undergoes loss of voicing contrast, but other forms may not.
If the grammar of a language is assumed to have two rules, rule A and rule B, with A ordered before B, a given derivation may cause the application of rule A to create the environment for rule B to apply, which was not present before the application of rule A. Both rules then are in afeeding relationship.
If rule A is ordered before B in the derivation in which rule A destroys the environment to which rule B applies, both rules are in ableeding order.
If A is ordered before B, and B creates an environment in which A could have applied, B is then said to counterfeed A, and the relationship iscounterfeeding.
If A is ordered before B, there is acounterbleedingrelationship if B destroys the environment that A applies to and has already applied and so B has missed its chance to bleed A.
Conjunctive orderingis the ordering that ensures that all rules are applied in a derivation before the surface representation occurs. Rules applied in a feeding relationship are said to beconjunctively ordered.
Disjunctive orderingis a rule that applies and prevents the other rule from applying in the surface representation. Such rules have a bleeding relationship and are said to bedisjunctively ordered.
The principle behindalphabeticwriting systems is that the letters (graphemes) representphonemes. However, manyorthographiesbased on such systems have correspondences between graphemes and phonemes that are not exact, and it is sometimes the case that certain spellings better represent a word's morphophonological structure rather than the purely-phonological structure. An example is that the English plural morpheme is written-s, regardless of whether it is pronounced/s/or/z/:catsanddogs, notdogz.
The above example involves active morphology (inflection), and morphophonemic spellings are common in this context in many languages. Another type of spelling that can be described as morphophonemic is the kind that reflects theetymologyof words. Such spellings are particularly common in English; examples includescience/saɪ/vs.unconscious/ʃ/,prejudice/prɛ/vs.prequel/priː/,sign/saɪn/signature/sɪɡn/,nation/neɪ/vs.nationalism/næ/, andspecial/spɛ/vs.species/spiː/.
For more detail on this topic, seePhonemic orthography, particularly the section onMorphophonemic features.
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Morphotacticsrepresent the ordering restrictions in place on the ordering ofmorphemes. Etymologically, it can be translated as "the set of rules that define how morphemes (morpho) can touch (tactics) each other".
Many Englishaffixesmay only be attached directly to morphemes with particularparts of speech:
but not
The suffix-ityproduces a noun from an adjective, and-ablecreatesadjectivesfrom verbs.[1]To reverse the order violates the rules of English morphotactics, making the wordungrammatical(marked with anasterisk).
Finite-state machineandGraphare the two models which are often used as a set of rules for morphotactics.
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TheMotif-Index of Folk-Literatureis a six volume catalogue ofmotifs, granular elements offolklore, composed by American folkloristStith Thompson(1932–1936, revised and expanded 1955–1958). Often referred to asThompson's motif-index, the catalogue has been extensively used infolklore studies, where folklorists commonly use it in tandem with theAarne–Thompson–Uther Index(ATU), an index used for folktale type analysis.
The motif-index and the ATU indices are regarded as standard tools in the study of folklore. For example, folklorist Mary Beth Stein said that, "Together with Thompson's six-volumeMotif-Index of Folk-Literature, with which it is cross-indexed,The Types of Folktaleconstitutes the most important reference work and research tool for comparative folk-tale analysis.”[1]Alan Dundes, who was an outspoken critic, also said substantially the same thing, without confining the application to comparative studies: "[the indices] constitute two of the most valuable tools in the professional folklorist's arsenal of aids for analysis".[2]
Concise outlines of both indices appear in Thompson'sThe Folktale(1946).[3]
In the context of the index, Thompson has definedmotifas follows: "Amotifis the smallest element in a tale having a power to persist in tradition. In order to have this power it must have something unusual and striking about it".[4]
But in theMotif-indexitself, Thompson had also provided a more "cautious" definition:[5]"[a]nything that goes to make up a traditional narrative ... When the term motif is employed, it is always in a very loose sense, and is made to include any of the elements of narrative structure".[6]
This use of the nounmotifis specialized to the field of folklore studies. According to theOxford English Dictionary, folkloristic use of the nounmotifis not summed up in the definition for literary criticism ("Motif", def. 3a), but deserves its own separate sense of this definition ("Motif", def. 3b).[7]Similarly, the compound nounmotif indexis used incultural anthropologyto denote "an index of standard motifs, esp. those found in folk tales".[8]
Thompson discusses composing theMotif-Index of Folk-Literaturein his autobiography,A Folklorist's Progress: Reflection of a Scholar's Life.[9]In producing the motif-index, Thompson built upon the research of Finnish folkloristAntti Aarne, who in 1910 published an index of European tale-types. Thompson himself had revised this in 1928 to cover the region from Europe to Asia: this is known as theAarne-Thompson tale type index.[10]In hisMotif-Index, Thompson then compiled, classified, and numbered the traditional motifs of the mostly European folktale types in the tale-type index.[11][page range too broad]
Thompson's motif-index organizes thousands of motifs. Entries are first organized by an umbrella topic (for example, category S is "Unnatural Cruelty"). Entries are then divided into more specific subcategories. For example, entry S50 "Cruel relatives-in-law" contains the sub-entry S51.1 "Cruel mother-in-law plans death of daughter-in-law". Thompson'sThe Folktaleincludes the following overview of the motif-index:[12]
The idea has been expressed that a combined set of motifs (in the motif-index) may constitute a folktale narrative (cf. the description of theMotif-Indexas "a huge catalogue of folk narrative elements that may variously combine to form whole folk narratives" byJan Harold Brunvand).[13]
This idea had already been anticipated byAlexander Veselovskywho wrote that a "cluster of motifs" constituted a "plot", influencingRussian formalistslikeVladimir Propp, whose study prefigured Thompson'sMotif-Index, as has been pointed out.[14]
In the bookThe Folktale, Thompson invokes this phrase "cluster of motifs" in several passages, as here, in connection with tales involving the dead helper:[note 1][15]
The chain of circumstances by which this helper joins the hero and certain details of his later experience are so uniform and well articulated as to form an easily recognizable motif, or rather cluster of motifs. This fact has caused some confusion to scholars who have not sufficiently distinguished between such a motif and the entire tale of which it forms only an important part.
But in this instance, Thompson is warning that the motif cluster is rather "only aframeworkfor the adventures of the hero",[15]containing "at least three different tales within".[16]
Thompson also explains that a single motif may be found in numerous folktales "from all parts of the earth" (383).[15]
Many folklorists have produced extensive motif and tale-type indices for culture areas not covered by Thompson, or covered only to a limited extent. For surveys, see
Examples of related folklore studies indices include the following:
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Theoretical linguisticsis a term inlinguisticsthat,[1]like the related termgeneral linguistics,[2]can be understood in different ways. Both can be taken as a reference to thetheory of language, or the branch oflinguisticsthat inquires into thenature of languageand seeks to answer fundamental questions as to what language is, or what the common ground of all languages is.[2]The goal of theoretical linguistics can also be the construction of a general theoretical framework for the description of language.[1]
Another use of the term depends on the organisation of linguistics into different sub-fields. The term 'theoretical linguistics' is commonly juxtaposed withapplied linguistics.[3]This perspective implies that the aspiring language professional, e.g. a student, must first learn thetheoryi.e. properties of the linguistic system, or whatFerdinand de Saussurecalledinternal linguistics.[4]This is followed bypractice,or studies in the applied field. The dichotomy is not fully unproblematic becauselanguage pedagogy,language technologyand other aspects of applied linguistics also include theory.[3]
Similarly, the term general linguistics is used to distinguish corelinguisticsfrom other types of study. However, because college and university linguistics is largely distributed with the institutes and departments of a relatively small number ofnational languages, some larger universities also offer courses and research programmes in 'general linguistics' which may cover exotic andminority languages,cross-linguistic studiesand various other topics outside the scope of the mainphilologicaldepartments.[5]
When the concept of theoretical linguistics is taken to refer tocoreorinternal linguistics, it means the study of the parts of the language system. This traditionally meansphonology,morphology,syntaxandsemantics.Pragmaticsanddiscoursecan also be included; delimitation varies between institutions. Furthermore, Saussure's definition of general linguistics consists of the dichotomy ofsynchronic and diachronic linguistics, thus includinghistorical linguisticsas a core issue.[4]
There are various frameworks of linguistic theory which include a general theory of language and a general theory oflinguistic description.[6]Current humanistic approaches include theories withinstructural linguisticsandfunctional linguistics. In addition to the humanistic approaches of structural linguistics and functional linguistics, the field of theoretical linguistics encompasses other frameworks and perspectives.Evolutionary linguisticsis one such framework that investigates the origins and development of language from an evolutionary and cognitive perspective. It incorporates various models withingenerative grammar, which seeks to explain language structure through formal rules and transformations.Cognitive linguisticsandcognitive approaches to grammar, on the other hand, focuses on the relationship between language and cognition, exploring how language reflects and influences our thought processes.[6]
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Inlinguistics, aword stemis awordpart responsible for a word'slexicalmeaning. The term is used with slightly different meanings depending on themorphologyof the language in question. For instance, inAthabaskan linguistics, a verb stem is arootthat cannot appear on its own and that carries thetoneof the word.
Typically, a stem remains unmodified duringinflectionwith few exceptions due toapophony(for example inPolish,miast-o("city") andw mieść-e("in the city"); in English,sing,sang, andsung, where it can be modified according to morphological rules or peculiarities, such assandhi).
Word stem comparisons acrosslanguageshave helped revealcognatesthat have allowedcomparative linguiststo determinelanguage familiesandtheir history.[1]
The wordfriendshipis made by attaching themorpheme-shipto theroot wordfriend(which some linguists[2]also call a stem). While the inflectional plural morpheme-scan be attached tofriendshipto formfriendships, it can not be attached to the rootfriendwithinfriendshipto formfriendsship. A stem is a base from which all itsinflectedvariants are formed.[3]For example, thestabil-(a variant ofstableunable to stand alone) is the root of thedestabilized, while the stem consists ofde·stabil·ize, includingde-and-ize. The-(e)d, on the other hand, is not part of the stem.
A stem can be a lone root, such asrun, or acompound word, such as the compound nounsmeatballandbottleneckor the compound verbsblackenandstandardize.
The stem of theverbto waitiswait: The stem is the word part that is common to all of its inflected variants.
In languages with very little inflection, such asEnglishandChinese, the stem is usually not distinct from the "normal" form of the word (the lemma, citation, or dictionary form). However, in other languages, word stems may rarely or never occur on their own. For example, the English verb stemrunis indistinguishable from its present tense form (except in the third person singular). However, the equivalentSpanishverb stemcorr-never appears as such because it is cited with the infinitive inflection (correr) and always appears in actual speech as a non-finite (infinitive or participle) or conjugated form. Such morphemes that cannot occur on their own in this way are usually referred to asbound morphemes.
Incomputational linguistics, the term "stem" is used for the part of the word that never changes, even morphologically, when inflected, and a lemma is the base form of the word.[citation needed]For example, given the word "produced", its lemma (linguistics) is "produce", but the stem is "produc-" because of the inflected form "producing".
A list of all the inflected forms of a word stem is called its inflectional paradigm. The paradigm of theadjectivetallis given below, and the stem of this adjective istall.
Some paradigms do not make use of the same stem throughout; this phenomenon is calledsuppletion. An example of a suppletive paradigm is the paradigm for the adjectivegood: its stem changes fromgoodto the bound morphemebet-.
Both inLatinandGreek, thedeclension(inflection) of somenounsuses a different stem in theoblique casesthan in thenominativeandvocativesingular cases. Such words belong to, respectively, the so-calledthird declensionof the Latin grammar and the so-calledthird declensionof the Ancient Greek grammar. For example, thegenitivesingular is formed by adding-is(Latin) or -ος (Greek) to the oblique stem, and the genitive singular is conventionally listed in Greek and Latin dictionaries to illustrate the oblique.
English words derived from Latin or Greek often involve the oblique stem:adipose,altitudinal,android, andmathematics.
Historically, the difference in stems arose due to sound changes in the nominative. In the Latin third declension, for example, the nominative singular suffix-sis combined with a stem-final consonant. If that consonant wasc, the result wasx(a mere orthographic change), while if it wasg, the-scaused it todevoice, again resulting inx. If the stem-final consonant was anotheralveolar consonant(t, d, r), it elided before the-s. In a later era,nbefore the nominative ending was also lost, producing pairs likeatlas, atlant-(for EnglishAtlas,Atlantic).
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Adpositionsare aclass of wordsused to express spatial or temporal relations (in, under, towards, behind, ago, etc.) or mark varioussemantic roles(of, for).[1]The most common adpositions areprepositions(which precede their complement) andpostpositions(which follow their complement).
An adposition typically combines with anoun phrase, this being called itscomplement, or sometimesobject.Englishgenerally has prepositions rather than postpositions – words such asin, underandofprecede their objects, such as "in England", "under the table", "of Jane" – although there are a few exceptions includingagoandnotwithstanding, as in "three days ago" and "financial limitations notwithstanding". Some languages that use a different word order have postpositions instead (likeTurkic languages) or have both types (likeFinnish). Thephraseformed by an adposition together with its complement is called anadpositional phrase(or prepositional phrase, postpositional phrase, etc.). Such a phrase can function as an adjective or as an adverb.
A less common type of adposition is thecircumposition, which consists of two parts that appear on each side of the complement. Other terms sometimes used for particular types of adposition includeambiposition,inpositionandinterposition. Some linguists use the wordprepositionin place ofadpositionregardless of the applicable word order.[2]
The wordprepositioncomes fromLatin:prae-prefix (pre- prefix) ("before") andLatin:ponere("to put"). This refers to the situation in Latin andGreek(and inEnglish), where such words are placed before their complement (except sometimes in Ancient Greek), and are hence "pre-positioned".
In some languages, includingSindhi,Hindustani,Turkish,Hungarian,Korean, andJapanese, the same kinds of words typically come after their complement. To indicate this, they are calledpostpositions(using the prefixpost-, from Latinpostmeaning "behind, after"). There are also some cases where the function is performed by two parts coming before and after the complement; this is called acircumposition(from Latincircum-prefix "around").
In some languages, for exampleFinnish, some adpositions can be used as both prepositions and postpositions.
Prepositions, postpositions and circumpositions are collectively known asadpositions(using the Latin prefixad-, meaning "to"). However, some linguists prefer to use the well-known and longer-established termprepositionin place ofadposition, irrespective of position relative to the complement.[2]
An adposition typically combines with exactly onecomplement, most often anoun phrase(or, in a different analysis, adeterminer phrase). In English, this is generally a noun (or something functioning as a noun, e.g., agerund), together with itsspecifierandmodifierssuch asarticles,adjectives, etc. The complement is sometimes called theobjectof the adposition. The resultingphrase, formed by the adposition together with its complement, is called anadpositional phraseor prepositional phrase (PP) (or for specificity, a postpositional or circumpositional phrase).
An adposition establishes agrammaticalrelationship that links its complement to another word or phrase in the context. It also generally establishes asemanticrelationship, which may be spatial (in,on,under, ...), temporal (after,during, ...), or of some other type (of,for,via, ...). TheWorld Atlas of Language Structurestreats a word as an adposition if it takes a noun phrase as a complement and indicates the grammatical or semantic relationship of that phrase to the verb in the containing clause.[3]
Some examples of the use of English prepositions are given below. In each case, the prepositional phrase appears initalics, the preposition within it appears inbold, and the preposition'scomplementisunderlined. As demonstrated in some of the examples, more than one prepositional phrase may act as anadjunctto the same word.
In the last of these examples the complement has the form of an adverb, which has beennominalisedto serve as a noun phrase; seeDifferent forms of complement, below. Prepositional phrases themselves are sometimes nominalized:
An adposition may determine thegrammatical caseof its complement. In English, the complements of prepositions take theobjective casewhere available (from him, not *from he). InKoine Greek, for example, certain prepositions always take their objects in a certain case (e.g., ἐν always takes its object in the dative), while other prepositions may take their object in one of two or more cases, depending on the meaning of the preposition (e.g., διά takes its object in the genitive or the accusative, depending on the meaning). Some languages have cases that are used exclusively after prepositions (prepositional case), or special forms ofpronounsfor use after prepositions (prepositional pronoun).
The functions of adpositions overlap with those of case markings (for example, the meaning of the English prepositionofis expressed in many languages by agenitive caseending), but adpositions are classed assyntacticelements, while case markings aremorphological.
Adpositions themselves are usuallynon-inflecting("invariant"): they do not have paradigms of the form (such as tense, case, gender, etc.) the same way that verbs, adjectives, and nouns can. There are exceptions, though, such as prepositions that have fused with a pronominal object to forminflected prepositions.
The following properties are characteristic of most adpositional systems:
As noted above, adpositions are referred to by various terms, depending on their position relative to the complement.
While the termprepositionsometimes denotes any adposition, its stricter meaning refers only to one that precedes its complement. Examples of this, from English, have been given above; similar examples can be found in many European and other languages, for example:
In certain grammatical constructions, the complement of a preposition may be absent or may be moved from its position directly following the preposition. This may be referred to aspreposition stranding(see alsobelow), as in "Whom did you gowith?" and "There's only one thing worse than being talkedabout." There are also some (mainly colloquial) expressions in which a preposition's complement may be omitted, such as "I'm going to the park. Do you want to comewith[me]?", and the FrenchIl fait trop froid, je ne suis pas habilléepour("It's too cold, I'm not dressedfor[the situation].")
The bolded words in these examples are generally still considered prepositions because when they form a phrase with a complement (in more ordinary constructions) they must appear first.
Apostpositionfollows its complement to form a postpositional phrase. Examples include:
Some adpositions can appear either before or after their complement:
An adposition like the above, which can be either a preposition or a postposition, can be called anambiposition.[5]However,ambipositionmay also be used to refer to a circumposition (see below),[6]or to a word that appears to function as a preposition and postposition simultaneously, as in theVedic Sanskritconstruction (noun-1)ā(noun-2), meaning "from (noun-1) to (noun-2)".[7]
Whether a language has primarily prepositions or postpositions is seen as an aspect of itstypologicalclassification, and tends to correlate with other properties related tohead directionality. Since an adposition is regarded as theheadof its phrase, prepositional phrases are head-initial (or right-branching), while postpositional phrases are head-final (or left-branching). There is a tendency for languages that feature postpositions also to have other head-final features, such asverbs that follow their objects; and for languages that feature prepositions to have other head-initial features, such asverbs that precede their objects. This is only a tendency, however; an example of a language that behaves differently isLatin, which employs mostly prepositions, even though it typically places verbs after their objects.
Acircumpositionconsists of two or more parts, positioned on both sides of the complement. Circumpositions are very common inPashtoandKurdish. The following are examples fromNorthern Kurdish(Kurmanji):
Various constructions in other languages might also be analyzed as circumpositional, for example:
Most such phrases, however, can be analyzed as having a different hierarchical structure (such as a prepositional phrase modifying a following adverb). The Chinese example could be analyzed as a prepositional phrase headed bycóng("from"), taking thelocative noun phrasebīngxīang lǐ("refrigerator inside") as its complement.
Aninpositionis a rare type of adposition that appears between parts of a complex complement. For example, in the native CalifornianTimbisha language, the phrase "from a mean cold" can be translated using the word order "cold from mean"—the inposition follows the noun but precedes any followingmodifiersthat form part of the samenoun phrase.[8]The Latin wordcumis also commonly used as an inposition, as in the phrasesumma cum laude, meaning "with highest praise", lit. "highest with praise".
The terminterpositionhas been used[9]for adpositions in structures such aswordforword, Frenchcoupsurcoup("one after another, repeatedly"), and Russian другсдругом ("one with the other"). This is not a case of an adposition appearing inside its complement, as the two nouns do not form a single phrase (there is no phrase *word word, for example); such uses have more of acoordinatingcharacter.
Preposition stranding is asyntacticconstruct in which a preposition occurs somewhere other than immediately before its complement. For example, in the English sentence "What did you sit on?" the prepositiononhaswhatas its complement, butwhatismoved to the startof the sentence, because it is aninterrogative word. This sentence is much more common and natural than the equivalent sentence without stranding: "On what did you sit?" Preposition stranding is commonly found inEnglish,[10]as well asNorth Germanic languagessuch asSwedish. Its existence inGermanis debated. Preposition stranding is also found in someNiger–Congo languagessuch as Vata and Gbadi, and in some North American varieties ofFrench.
Some prescriptive English grammars teach that prepositions cannot end a sentence, although there isno ruleprohibiting that use.[11][12]Similar rules arose during the rise of classicism, when they were applied to English in imitation of classical languages such as Latin.Otto Jespersen, in hisEssentials of English Grammar(first published 1933), commented on this definition-derived rule: "...nor need a preposition (Latin:praepositio) stand before the word it governs (go the foolsamong(Sh[akespeare]); What are you laughingat?). You might just as well believe that all blackguards are black or that turkeys come from Turkey; many names have either been chosen unfortunately at first or have changed their meanings in the course of time."[13]
Simple adpositions consist of a single word (on,in,for,towards, etc.). Complex adpositions consist of a group of words that act as one unit. Examples of complex prepositions in English includein spite of,with respect to,except for,by dint of, andnext to.
The distinction between simple and complex adpositions is not clear-cut. Many complex adpositions are derived from simple forms (e.g.,with + in→within,by + side→beside) throughgrammaticalisation. This change takes time, and during the transitional stages, the adposition acts in some ways like a single word, and in other ways like a multi-word unit. For example, currentGerman orthographic conventionsrecognize the indeterminate status of certain prepositions, allowing two spellings:anstelle/an Stelle("instead of"),aufgrund/auf Grund("because of"),mithilfe/mit Hilfe("by means of"),zugunsten/zu Gunsten("in favor of"),zuungunsten/zu Ungunsten("to the disadvantage of"),zulasten/zu Lasten("at the expense of").[14]
The distinction between complex adpositions and free combinations of words is not a black-and-white issue: complex adpositions (in English, "prepositional idioms") can be more fossilized or less fossilized. In English, this applies to a number of structures of the form "preposition + (article) + noun + preposition", such asin front of,for the sake of.[15]The following characteristics are good indications that a given combination is "frozen" enough to be considered a complex preposition in English:[16]
Marginal prepositions are prepositions that have affinities with other word classes, most notably participles.[17]Marginal prepositions behave like prepositions but derive from other parts of speech. Some marginal prepositions in English includebarring,concerning,considering,excluding,failing,following,including,notwithstanding,regarding, andrespecting.
In descriptions of some languages, prepositions are divided intoproper(oressential) andimproper(oraccidental). A preposition is called improper if it is some other part of speech being used in the same way as a preposition. Examples of simple and complex prepositions that have been so classified includeprima di("before") anddavanti (a)("in front of") inItalian,[18]andergo("on account of") andcausa("for the sake of") inLatin.[19]In reference toAncient Greek, however, an improper preposition is one that cannot also serve as aprefixto averb.[20]
As noted above, adpositions typically havenoun phrasesas complements. This can includenominal clausesand certain types ofnon-finite verbphrase:
The wordtowhen it precedes theinfinitive in Englishis not a preposition, but rather is a grammaticalparticleoutside of any mainword class.
In other cases, the complement may have the form of an adjective oradjective phrase, or an adverbial. This may be regarded as a complement representing a differentsyntactic category, or simply as an atypical form of noun phrase (seenominalization).
In the last example, the complement of the prepositionfromis in fact another prepositional phrase. The resulting sequence of two prepositions (from under) may be regarded as acomplexpreposition; in some languages, such a sequence may be represented by a single word, as Russian из-подiz-pod("from under").
Some adpositions appear to combine with two complements:
It is more commonly assumed, however, thatSammyand the following predicate forms asmall clause, which then becomes the single complement of the preposition. (In the first example, a word such asasmay be considered to have beenelided, which, if present, would clarify the grammatical relationship.)
Adpositions can be used to express a wide range ofsemanticrelations between their complement and the rest of the context. The relations expressed may be spatial (denoting location or direction), temporal (denoting position in time), or relations expressing comparison, content, agent, instrument, means, manner, cause, purpose, reference, etc.
Most common adpositions are highlypolysemous(they have various different meanings). In many cases, a primary, spatial meaning becomes extended to non-spatial uses bymetaphoricalor other processes. Because of the variety of meanings, a single adposition often has many possible equivalents in another language, depending on the exact context. This can cause difficulties in foreignlanguage learning. Usage can also vary between dialects of the same language (for example,American Englishhason the weekend, whereasBritish Englishusesat the weekend).
In some contexts (as in the case of somephrasal verbs) the choice of adposition may be determined by another element in the construction or be fixed by the construction as a whole. Here the adposition may have little independent semantic content of its own, and there may be no clear reason why the particular adposition is used rather than another. Examples of such expressions are:
Prepositions sometimes mark roles that may be considered largely grammatical:
Spatial meanings of adpositions may be eitherdirectionalorstatic. A directional meaning usually involves motion in a particular direction ("Kay wenttothe store"), the direction in which something leads or points ("A pathintothe woods"), or the extent of something ("The fog stretchedfromLondontoParis"). A static meaning indicates only a location ("atthe store", "behindthe chair", "onthe moon"). Some prepositions can have both uses: "he satinthe water" (static); "he jumped in the water" (probably directional). In some languages, thecaseof the complement varies depending on the meaning, as with several prepositions inGerman, such asin:
In English and many other languages, prepositional phrases with static meaning are commonly used aspredicative expressionsafter acopula("Bob is at the store"); this may happen with some directional prepositions as well ("Bob is from Australia"), but this is less common. Directional prepositional phrases combine mostly with verbs that indicate movement ("Jay is going into her bedroom", but not *"Jay is lying down into her bedroom").
Directional meanings can be further divided intotelicandatelic. Telic prepositional phrases imply movement all the way to the endpoint ("she ran to the fence"), while atelic ones do not ("she ran towards the fence").[21]
Static meanings can be divided intoprojectiveandnon-projective, where projective meanings are those whose understanding requires knowledge of the perspective or point of view. For example, the meaning of "behind the rock" is likely to depend on the position of the speaker (projective), whereas the meaning of "on the desk" is not (non-projective). Sometimes the interpretation is ambiguous, as in "behind the house," which may mean either at the natural back of the house or on the opposite side of the house from the speaker.[22]
Some languages feature inflected adpositions—adpositions (usually prepositions) marked for grammatical person and/or grammatical number to give meanings such as "on me," "from you," etc. In the Indo-European languages this phenomenon is mostly confined to theCeltic languageslikeWelshandIrish.Polishalso allows some degree of combining prepositions with pronouns in the third person.[23]
The majority of Welsh prepositions can be inflected. This is achieved by having a preposition such aso('of/from') + a linking element; in the case ofothis is-hon-+ the assimilated pronoun element, resulting inohon-being the preposition's "stem" form. It is common in speech for the pronoun to be present after the preposition, but it can be omitted. Unless used with a pronoun the form is alwaysoand not the "stem", e.g.dw i'n dodoGymru–'I comefromWales',gormodogwrw–'too much (of) beer'.
The following table gives the inflected forms of the prepositiono('of/from'). The optional pronouns that follow the inflected forms are given in parentheses.
Cymerodd ef hiohonof–'he took itfrom me'.
Inflected prepositions are found inSemitic languages, includingHebrew,[24]Arabic,Assyrian Neo-AramaicandAmharic.
For example, the Arabic prepositionعلى(/ʕalaː)'on'inflects asعلَيَّ(/ʕalajːa/)'on me',علَيْكَ) (/ʕalajka/)'on youM.SG)',علَيْهِ(/ʕalajhi/)'on him', etc.
SomeIranic languages, includingPersian, have developed inflected prepositions. For example, Persianaz u'from him/her'becomesazaš;bā šomā'with youPL'becomesbāhātun.
InIberian Romance languagessuch asSpanishandPortuguese, the prepositionconorcom'with'has special forms incorporating certain pronouns (depending on the language). For example, in Spanish andAsturianconmigomeans'with me'. Historically, this developed from the Latin use ofcum'with'after a pronoun, as inmecum'with me'.
Bororo, an indigenous language of Brazil, uses postpositions in all contexts:tori ji'about the mountains'. When these modify a pronoun rather than a full noun, the phrase contracts into an inflected postposition[25](and therefore looks like a pronominal prefix, rather than a suffix as in the examples above:bagai'for',i-wagai'for me').
There are often similarities in form between adpositions andadverbs. Some adverbs are derived from the fusion of a preposition and its complement (such asdownstairs, fromdown (the) stairs, andunderground, fromunder (the) ground). Some words can function both as adverbs and as prepositions, such asinside,aboard,underneath(for instance, one can say "go inside", with adverbial use, or "go inside the house", with prepositional use). Such cases are analogous to verbs that can be used eithertransitivelyor intransitively, and the adverbial forms might therefore be analyzed as "intransitive prepositions". This analysis[26]could also be extended to other adverbs, such ashere(this place),there(that place),afterward, etc., even though these never take complements.
Many Englishphrasal verbscontainparticlesthat are used adverbially, even though they mostly have the form of a preposition (such words may be calledprepositional adverbs). Examples areonincarry on,get on, etc., andoverintake over,fall over, and so on. The equivalents inDutchandGermanareseparable prefixes, which also often have the same form as prepositions: for example, Dutchaanbiedenand Germananbieten(both meaning "to offer") contain the separable prefixaan/an, which is also a preposition meaning "on" or "to".
Some words can be used both as adpositions and assubordinating conjunctions:
It would be possible to analyze such conjunctions (or even other subordinating conjunctions) as prepositions that take an entireclauseas a complement.
In some languages, including a number ofChinese varieties, many of the words that serve as prepositions can also be used asverbs. For instance, inStandard Chinese, 到dàocan be used in either a prepositional or a verbal sense:
Because of this overlap, and the fact that a sequence of prepositional phrases and verb phrases often resembles aserial verb construction, Chinese prepositions (and those of other languages with similar grammatical structures) are often referred to ascoverbs.
As noted in previous sections, Chinese can also be said to have postpositions, although these can be analyzed as nominal (noun) elements. For more information, see the article onChinese grammar, particularly the sections oncoverbsandlocative phrases.
Somegrammatical casemarkings have a similar function to adpositions; a case affix in one language may be equivalent in meaning to a preposition or postposition in another. For example, in English, the agent of apassiveconstruction is marked by the prepositionby, while inRussianit is marked by the use of theinstrumental case. Sometimes such equivalences exist within a single language; for example, thegenitivecase inGermanis often interchangeable with a phrase using the prepositionvon(just as in English, the prepositionofis often interchangeable with thepossessive suffix's).
Adpositions combinesyntacticallywith their complement, whereas case markings combine with a nounmorphologically. In some instances it may not be clear which applies; the following are some possible means of making such a distinction:
Even so, a clear distinction cannot always be made. For example, the post-nominal elements inJapaneseandKoreanare sometimes called case particles and sometimes postpositions. Sometimes they are analyzed as two different groups because they have different characteristics (e.g., the ability to combine with focus particles), but in such analysis, it is unclear which words should fall into which group.
Turkish,FinnishandHungarianhave both extensive case-marking and postpositions, but there is evidence to help distinguish the two:
In these examples, the case markings form a word with their hosts (as shown byvowel harmony, other word-internal effects and agreement of adjectives in Finnish), while the postpositions are independent words. As is seen in the last example, adpositions are often used in conjunction with case affixes – in languages that have a case, a given adposition usually takes a complement in a particular case, and sometimes (as has been seenabove) the choice of the case helps specify the meaning of the adposition.
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Inlinguistics, acompound verborcomplex predicateis a multi-wordcompoundthat functions as a singleverb. One component of the compound is alight verborvector, which carries anyinflections, indicatingtense,mood, oraspect, but provides only fine shades of meaning. The other, "primary", component is a verb or noun which carries most of thesemanticsof the compound, and determines itsarguments. It is usually in eitherbaseor [in Verb + Verb compounds]conjunctiveparticipialform.
A compound verb is also called a "complexpredicate" because the semantics, as formally modeled by a predicate, is determined by the primary verb, though both verbs appear in the surface form. Whether Noun+Verb (N+V) compounds are considered to be "compound verbs" is a matter of naming convention. Generally, the termcomplex predicateusually includes N+V compounds, whereas the termcompound verbis usually reserved for V+V compounds. However, several authors [especially Iranists] refer to N+V compounds as compound verbs.[1]
Compound verbs are to bedistinguished from serial verbswhich typically signify a sequence of actions, and in which the verbs are relatively equal in semantic and grammatical weight. They are also to be distinguished from sequences ofauxiliaryplus main verbs.
Thus, there are two classes of complex predicates:
Compound verbs of both types (V+V and N+V) are very common in all the languages of India, though V+V compounds are more frequent in the northernIndo-Aryan languagesthan inDravidian languages. In addition toSouth Asian languages, V+V compounds occur inTurkic languageslikeUzbek,KyrgyzandUyghur, inTibeto-Burmanlanguages likeLimbuandNewari, inKoreanandJapanese, in northeast Caucasian languages likeTsezandAvar, and inQuichua, a variety ofQuechua. The Indo-European language Greek also possesses some verb–verb compounds. V+V compounds do not occur in Iranian languages. What are called "compound verbs" by Iranists are N+V compounds.
The English lexicon contains a few true compound verbs, such asstirfry,kickstartandforcefeed. These are not serial verbs – though, as with many compounds, they may be spelled as two words (or hyphenated). Rather, the first verb expresses how the action expressed by the second verb is carried out. The second verb is the only one which may express tense.[2]
English also expresses aspectual distinctions as to the beginning, duration, completion, or repetition of an action usingauxiliaries. Examples here includewas starting,had lived,had been seen, etc.[3]These sequences function in place of morphologically complex predicates like the inchoative orinceptivestems ofLatin(amo, 'I love';amasco, 'I'm starting to love', 'I'm falling in love';florere, 'to flower';florescere, 'to start flowering'; etc.), and ofRussian(smeyat'sya,смеяться, 'to laugh';zasmeyat'syaзасмеяться, 'to start laughing').
Though verb + verb compounds are rare inEnglish, one may illustrate the form with the example "to go crashing [through the door]". In some interpretations, one may consider "go" as alight verb, which carries markers like tense. However, the main part of the meaning, as well as the arguments, i.e. answers to questions such aswho?(agent) orwhat was it that "went crashing"?(subject), are determined by the second, semantically primary verb, "crash". "Go" carries plural/tense markers (they go | he goes crashing), whereas "crashing" appears in this fixed form and does not change with tense, number, gender, etc. Whethergerundiveforms like "went crashing" are compound verbs is controversial in English; many linguists prefer to treat "crashing" as a nominal in its gerundive form. However, the compound verb treatment may have some advantages, particularly when it comes to semantic analysis. For example, in response toShe went crashing, the question "Where did she go?" is less revealing than "Where did she go crashing?".
English has many examples of noun + verb compound predicates, calledstretched verbs, which combine alight verbwith an "eventive" noun (an action-describing noun which can also operate as a verb, though it may have become an uncommon one), or with a noun phrase composed of such a noun and one or more prepositions. Common examples include: tooffer [one's] condolences, totake a bite out of, and toget rid of(whileto ridandto condoleare infrequent).
Sometimes examples labeledserial verbsturn out to be compound verbs, as in "What did yougo and dothat for?" and "Your business might justget up and leave."
Another variety of open-compound verb is common in English, German, and some other languages: Thephrasal verbis in one in which a verb word and apreposition,particle, or both act together as a unit which does not convey what the words would indicate when taken literally. Examples include tothinksomethingover, tolook forward tosomething, and tolook upsomething in a dictionary (contrast the literal and non-compoundlook up the chimney).
A dictionary comparison reveals that compound verbs of some sorts are more frequent inAmerican Englishthan inBritish English.[4]
Compound verbs are very common inIndo-Aryan languages, such asHindustaniandPanjabi, where as many as 20% of the verb forms in running text may be compounds.
For example, inHindi-Urdu,nikal gayā (निकल गया, نِکَل گَیا, lit. "exit went") means 'went out', whilenikal paṛā(निकल पड़ा, نِکَل پَڑا, lit. "exit fell") means 'departed' or 'was blurted out'. In these examplesnikal(निकल, نِکَل, lit. "exit") is the primary verb, andgayā(गया, گَیا, lit. "went") andpaṛā(पड़ा, پَڑا, lit. "fell") are the vectors or "light verbs". Compound verbs in Hindi-Urdu have the additional property of alternation. That is, under partly specifiable conditions [such as negation] compound verbs likenikal gayāandnikal paṛāare replaced with a non-compound counterpart [niklā, निकला, نِکلا] with little or no change in meaning. However, the phenomenon of alternation is not found in all languages that have compound verbs.
The Noun + Verb complex predicates are a quite different matter. There is no alternation with a simplex counterpart and in approximately half of all Hind-Urdui N+V compound verbskarnā( करना, کَرنا, lit. "to do") is the light verb, and in another 20% usehōnā(होना, ہونا, lit. "to be") is the light verb. A significant number usekhānā(खाना, کهانا, lit. "to eat"). However, the verbkarnāandkhānā never occur as second elements in a Verb + Verb compound.
Persianmakes extensive use of N+V compound verbs. The meaning of compound verbs in Persian is sometimes distinct from the connotation of either the verbal or non-verbal component. The most common verbal element used in Persian compound verbs is كردنkardan('to do/make'), e.g. فكر كردنfekr kardan('to think'). Other common verbal elements include دادنdādan('to give'), e.g. انجام دادنanjām dādan('to perform'); گرفتنgereftan('to take'), e.g. جشن گرفتنjashn gereftan('to celebrate'); زدنzadan('to hit'), e.g. حرف زدنharf zadan('to speak'); and داشتنdāshtan('to have'), e.g. دوست داشتنdust dāshtan('to like').
The verbal element of Persian compound verbs takes inflection for person, tense, and mood.
فكر
fekr
thought
می
mi
PRES
كنم
konam
do-I
فكر می كنم
fekr mi konam
thought PRES do-I
'I think'
آنها
ānhā
they
با
ba
to
من
man
me
حرف
harf
speech
زدند
zadand
PAST-hit-they
آنها با من حرف زدند
ānhā ba man harf zadand
they to me speech PAST-hit-they
'They spoke to me'
!جشن
jashn
celebration
بگیرید
begirid!
IMP-take-you.PL
!جشن بگیرید
jashn begirid!
celebration IMP-take-you.PL
'celebrate!'
Japanesehas many compound verbs, reflecting theagglutinativenature of modern as well asOld Japanese.
In bothEnglishstart readingand Japanese読み始めるyomihajimeru"read-CONJUNCTIVE-start" "start reading," thephrasal verbsstartand始めるhajimeru"start" change according totense,negation, and the like while the main verbsreadingand読みyomi"reading" usually remain the same. An exception to this is thepassive voice, in which both English and Japanese modify the main verb:start to be readand読まれ始めるyomarehajimerulit. "read-PASSIVE-(CONJUNCTIVE)-start"start to be read. Of course, "hajimeru" still changes according to tense,mood, negation, and the like.
Some Japanese compounds have undergonegrammaticalisation, as reflected in theorthography. Many Japaneseserial verbsare formed by connecting two verbs, as in "go and ask"(行って聞く,ittekiku), and in Japanese orthography lexical items are generally written withkanji(here行くand聞く), while grammatical items are more likely to be written withhiragana[as in the compound verb "faded away"(消えていった,kiete itta). Serial verbs are thus generally written with a kanji for each constituent verb, but some of the second verbs in other compounds, having become grammaticalized, are often written using hiragana, such as "try out, see"(〜みる,-miru), from "see"(見る,miru), as in "try eating (it) and see"(食べてみる,tabetemiru)and "do something regrettable"(〜しまう,-shimau), from "put away"(仕舞う,shimau), as in "I mistakenly fell in love"(愛してしまった,aishiteshimatta).
Only native Japanese verbs (yamatokotobaverbs) can be used aslight verbsor vectors in this way. Such verbs comprise a smallclosed class. Borrowed words, which can be used as verbs by combining them with theauxiliary verb-suru(〜する, to do), do not occur as the second element in compound verbs. For example, theSino-Japanese verb"to love"(愛する,ai suru)itself can be modified, as in "to try loving"(愛してみる,ai shitemiru), but it does not combine with another verb as its second or modifying element.
Japanesei-adjectives, which function grammatically asnon-finite verbs, can also compound, functioning ascompound modifiers, but that is less common than for verbs. (SeeJapanese adjectivesfor details.)
Under the influence of aKichwasubstrate, speakers living in the EcuadorianAltiplanohave innovated compound verbs in Spanish.
De
from
rabia
anger
puso
put
rompiendo
breaking
la
the
olla.
pot
De rabiapusorompiendola olla.
from angerputbreakingthe pot
'In anger (he/she) smashed the pot.'
Botaremos
[we]will throw
matándote.
kill-you
Botaremosmatándote.
[we]will throwkill-you
'We will kill you.'(n Kichwa:huañuchi-shpa shitashun)
In conformity with theSVO languageword order of Spanish, the vector precedes the main verb while inSOV languageKichwa, the vector follows the main verb.
The compound verbs of modern Greek are formed as other compounds in the language, creating a compound stem by prefixing the stem of a second verb to another verb with the compounding interfix -o-. Although only the second verb is inflected, the typical Greek compound verb is a coordinative compound formed by two semantically opposed, equal verbs, and in semantic terms neither can be nominated the compound head with the other as a dependent. The action expressed by the verb is semantically equal to using both verbs individually, linked by a conjunction.
Examples:μπαίν-ω['beno] 'I go in' +βγαίν-ω['vjeno] 'I come out' =μπαινοβγαίνω[beno'vjeno] 'I go in and out';ανάβ-ω[a'navo] 'I light up'σβήν-ω['zvino] 'I put out (a light)' =αναβοσβήνω[anavo'zvino] 'I flash on and off'. These compound verbs are of thedvandvatype. Semantically they equal the phrasesμπαίνω και βγαίνω'I go in and go out',ανάβω και σβήνω'I light up and put out'.
UnlikeClassical Hebrew,Israeli Hebrewis abundant with V+N compound verbs. Consider the following pairs in which the first is an Israeli Hebrew compound verb and the last is a Classical Hebrew synthetic form:[5]
According toGhil'ad Zuckermann, the Israeli V+N compound verb is employed here for the desire to express swift action, and stems from Yiddish. He compares the Israeli periphrasis to the following Yiddish expressions all meaning “to have a look”:
Zuckermann argues that the Israeli V+N compound verbs “are not nonce, ad hoc lexical calques of Yiddish. The Israeli system is productive and the lexical realization often differs from that of Yiddish”. He provides the following Israeli examples:
The Israeli Hebrew compound verb דפק הופעהdafák hofaá, which literally means “hit a show”, actually means “dressed smartly”.[6]
As languages change, the vector or light verb may retain its original meaning or it may undergo different degrees ofbleaching, part of the process ofgrammaticalization.
Thus, in the Hindi-Urdu compoundnikal paṛā(exit fell),paṛ-has almost none of its "fall" meaning, though some of the finality of "fall" also is transferred as aperfectiveaspect (through the ending-ā).
On the other hand, the Japanese "begin" はじめる(hajimeru)retains a good deal of its independent word meaning even in the compound. Contrast this with the grammaticalization of "put away"しまう(shimau), as in 愛してしまった ai shite shimatta ("I mistakenly fell in love"). A deeper degree of grammaticalization may lead to phonological changes, too - usually some kind of shortening: 愛しちゃった ai shi chatta ("Damned if I didn't fall in love!") where 〜てしま -te shima- has been replaced by ちゃ 〜chya.
In the long run, it has been suggested that LVs that are particularly frequent, may become grammaticalized, so that they may now occur systematically with other verbal constituents, so that they become
anauxiliary verb(e.g. the English verb "be", as in "I am eating", or "had" in "they had finished"), or, after sound change, even aclitic(a shortened verb, as in "I'm"). In particular, some verb inflections (e.g.Latin future tense inflections) are thought to have arisen in this manner. Sanford Steever has shown the same phenomenon has a role in the emergence of the ditransitive paradigm in Dravidian.
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Deflexionis a diachronic linguistic process ininflectionallanguages typified by the degeneration of the inflectional structure of a language. All members of theIndo-Europeanlanguage family are subject to some degree of deflexional change. This phenomenon has been especially strong in Western European languages, such asEnglish,French, and others.
Deflexion typically involves the loss of some inflectional affixes, notably affecting word endings (markers) that indicate nouncases, verbaltensesandnoun classes. This is part of a process of gradual decline of the inflectionalmorphemes, defined as atomic semantic units bound to abstract word units (lexemes). Complete loss of the original subset of affixes combined with a development towardsallomorphyand new morphology is associated in particular withcreolization, i.e. the formation ofpidginsandcreole languages.[1][2]
Directly related to deflexion is the languages becoming lesssyntheticand moreanalyticin nature. However, the ways in which languages undergo deflexion and the results of these developments are by no means uniform. For example, the modernRomance languagesall continue to feature a complex verb system, while having strongly deflected their nouns, adjectives, and pronouns.German, on the other hand, has further simplified the already simple Germanic verb system (even radically so in some dialects) but has preserved the three genders and four cases of early Germanic languages.
Deflexion is a common feature of the history of many Indo-European languages. According to the Language Contact Hypothesis for Deflexion,[3]supported by the comparison between Germanic languages[4](for instance, Icelandic and Afrikaans), this process is attributed to language contact. Specifically, the phenomenon occurs in the presence of large, influential groups of speakers that have acquired the leading idiom as a second language (L2)[5]and so is limited to economical trade-offs widely considered acceptable. Though gradual, English experienced a dramatic change from Old English, a moderately inflected language using a complex case system, to Modern English, considered a weakly inflected language or even analytic. Important deflexion changes first arrived in the English language with theNorth Sea Germanic(Ingvaeonic) shifts, shared byFrisianandLow Germandialects, such as merging accusative and dative cases into an objective case. Viking invasions and the subsequent Norman conquest accelerated the process. The importance of deflexion in the formative stage of a language can be illustrated by modern Dutch, where deflexion accounts for the overwhelming majority of linguistic changes in the last thousand years or more. Afrikaans originated from Dutch virtually by deflexion.
According to theunidirectionality hypothesis,[6]deflexion should be subject to a semantically driven one-way cline of grammaticality.[clarification needed]However, exceptions to the gradualdiachronic processhave been observed where the deflexion process diminished or came to a halt, or where inflexional case marking was occasionally reinforced. There are also a few cases of reversed directionality, e.g. in the evolution of the common Romance inflected future and conditional (or "indicative future-of-the-past") from earlier periphrastic suppletive forms for the loss of the corresponding classical Latin tenses.
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Acollateral adjectiveis anadjectivethat is identified with a particularnounin meaning, but that is not derived from that noun. For example, the wordbovineis considered the adjectival equivalent for the nouncattle, but it is derived from a different word, which happens to be the Latin word for "cattle" (n.b. the collateral adjective forcowas specifically restricted to adult female cattle, isvaccine). Similarly,lunarserves as an adjective to describe attributes of theMoon;Mooncomes fromOld Englishmōna"moon" andlunarfromLatinluna"moon". The adjectivethermaland the nounheathave a similar semantic relationship. As in these examples, collateral adjectives in English very often derive from the Latin or Greek translations of the corresponding nouns. In some cases both the noun and the adjective are borrowed, but from different languages, such as the nounair(from French) and the adjectiveaerial(from Latin). The term "collateral" refers to these two sides of the relationship.
In English, mostordinal numberssound like theircardinal numbers, such as the ordinal 3rd (third) sounding like the cardinal number 3 (three), 4th (fourth) sounding like 4 (four), 10th (tenth) sounding like 10 (ten), 117th (one-hundred seventeenth) sounding like 117 (one-hundred seventeen), etc. However, 1st (first) and 2nd (second) sound unfamiliar to their cardinal counterparts 1 (one) and 2 (two). This is because these two ordinal numbers were derived from different roots, with "first" being derived from theProto-Indo-Europeanroot meaning "forward", and "second" deriving from the Latin word "secundus", meaning "following".[1]
The phenomenon of ordinal numbers being collateral adjectives of cardinal numbers is common in theSinospheric languages, includingJapanese,Korean, andVietnamese.[citation needed]For example, Japanese usually useSino-Japanese numerals(words for numbers based on the Chinese language) formeasure wordsthat use ordinal numbers. Since Japanese, much like Chinese, does not have any inflections that indicatenumber, it uses measure words alongside a number to determine amounts of things.[citation needed]The numerals 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10 usually use the pronunciation derived from Chinese (on'yomi), i.e.ichi, ni, san, go, roku, hachi, kyū,andjūrespectively. However, 4 can be pronounced using either its on'yomishior its native Japanese pronunciation (kun'yomi)yon, depending on context, and likewise 7 can be pronounced eithershichiornana, depending on context. Most measure words require the speaker to use the Sino-Japanese on'yomi numbers, e.g. 3 years issannenkan(3年間), 6 o'clock isrokuji(6時), 9 dogs iskyūhiki no inu(9匹の犬), 7 people isshichinin(7人), and 4 seasons isshiki(四季). However, there are some measure words (and even a select few numbers among certain measure words) that require the native kun'yomi numbers: 7 minutes isnanafun(7分), 4 apples isyonko no ringo(4個のリンゴ). Measure words that use native numbers include days of the month andtsu, which is the generic measure word that roughly translates into "things". 1–10 arehitotsu(1つ), futatsu(2つ), mittsu(3つ),yottsu(4つ),itsutsu(5つ),muttsu(6つ),nanatsu(7つ),yattsu(8つ),kokonotsu(9つ), and tō(10). While the measure word for people,nin(人), usually uses Sino-Japanese numbers, such assannin(3人),hachinin(8人), andjūnin(10人), the measures for 1 and 2 people use the native numbers, which arehitori(1人) andfutari(2人).[2]
Attributiveusage of a collateral adjective is generally similar in meaning to attributive use of the corresponding noun. For example,lunar rocketandmoon rocketare accepted as synonyms, as arethermal capacityandheat capacity. However, in other cases the two words may havelexicalizeduses so that one cannot replace the other, as innocturnal viewandnight view, orfeline gracebutcat food(not *cat graceor *feline food).
Collateral adjectives contrast withderived(denominal) adjectives. For the nounfather, for example, there is a derived adjectivefatherlyin addition to the collateral adjectivepaternal.Similarly, for the nounrain,there is derivedrainyand collateralpluvial,and forchild,there are derivedchildishandchildlikeas well as collateralinfantileandpuerile.
The term "collateral adjective" was coined by theFunk and Wagnallsdictionaries, but as they are currently out of print, the term has become rare. A synonym sometimes seen in linguistics is asuppletive(denominal) adjective,though this is a liberal and arguably incorrect use of the word 'suppletive'.
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Aregular verbis anyverbwhoseconjugationfollows the typical pattern, or one of the typical patterns, of the language to which it belongs. A verb whose conjugation follows a different pattern is called anirregular verb. This is one instance of the distinction betweenregular and irregular inflection, which can also apply to other word classes, such as nouns and adjectives.
InEnglish, for example, verbs such asplay,enter, andlikeare regular since they form their inflected parts by adding the typical endings-s,-ingand-edto give forms such asplays,entering, andliked. On the other hand, verbs such asdrink,hitandhaveare irregular since some of their parts are not made according to the typical pattern:drankanddrunk(not "drinked");hit(aspast tenseandpast participle, not "hitted") andhasandhad(not "haves" and "haved").
The classification of verbs asregularorirregularis to some extent a subjective matter. If some conjugationalparadigmin a language is followed by a limited number of verbs, or if it requires the specification of more than oneprincipal part(as with theGerman strong verbs), views may differ as to whether the verbs in question should be considered irregular. Most inflectional irregularities arise as a result of series of fairly uniform historical changes so forms that appear to be irregular from asynchronic(contemporary) point of view may be seen as following more regular patterns when the verbs are analyzed from adiachronic(historical linguistic) viewpoint.
When a language develops some type ofinflection, such as verbconjugation, it normally produces certain typical (regular) patterns by which words in the givenclasscome to make their inflected forms. The language may develop a number of different regular patterns, either as a result of conditionalsound changeswhich cause differentiation within a single pattern, or through patterns with different derivations coming to be used for the same purpose. An example of the latter is provided by the strong andweakverbs of theGermanic languages; the strong verbs inherited their method of making past forms (vowelablaut) fromProto-Indo-European, while for the weak verbs a different method (addition ofdentalsuffixes) developed.
Irregularities in verb conjugation (and otherinflectional irregularities) may arise in various ways. Sometimes the result of multiple conditional and selective historical sound changes is to leave certain words following a practically unpredictable pattern. This has happened with the strong verbs (and some groups of weak verbs) in English; patterns such assing–sang–sungandstand–stood–stood, although they derive from what were more or less regular patterns in older languages, are now peculiar to a single verb or small group of verbs in each case, and are viewed as irregular.
Irregularities may also arise fromsuppletion– forms of one verb may be taken over and used as forms of another. This has happened in the case of the English wordwent, which was originally the past tense ofwend, but has come to be used instead as the past tense ofgo. The verbbealso has a number of suppletive forms (be,is,was, etc., with various different origins) – this is common forcopular verbsin Indo-European languages.
The regularity and irregularity of verbs is affected by changes taking place by way ofanalogy– there is often a tendency for verbs to switch to a different, usually more regular, pattern under the influence of other verbs. This is less likely when the existing forms are very familiar through common use – hence among the most common verbs in a language (likebe,have,go, etc.) there is often a greater incidence of irregularity. (Analogy can occasionally work the other way, too – someirregular English verb formssuch asshown,caughtandspathave arisen through the influence of existing strong or irregular verbs.)[citation needed]
The most straightforward type of regular verb conjugation pattern involves a single class of verbs, a singleprincipal part(therootor one particular conjugated form), and a set of exact rules which produce, from that principal part, each of the remaining forms in the verb'sparadigm. This is generally considered to be the situation with regularEnglish verbs– from the one principal part, namely the plain form of a regular verb (the bareinfinitive, such asplay,happen,skim,interchange, etc.), all the other inflected forms (which in English are not numerous; they consist of the third person singularpresent tense, thepast tenseandpast participle, and thepresent participle/gerundform) can be derived by way of consistent rules. These rules involve the addition of inflectional endings (-s,-[e]d,-ing), together with certainmorphophonologicalrules about how those endings are pronounced, and certain rules of spelling (such as the doubling of certain consonants). Verbs which in any way deviate from these rules (there arearound 200such verbs in the language) are classed as irregular.
A language may have more than one regular conjugation pattern.French verbs, for example, follow different patterns depending on whether their infinitive ends in-er,-iror-re(complicated slightly by certain rules of spelling). A verb which does not follow the expected pattern based on the form of its infinitive is considered irregular.
In some languages, however, verbs may be considered regular even if the specification of one of their forms is not sufficient to predict all of the rest; they have more than one principal part. InLatin, for example, verbs are considered to have four principal parts (seeLatin conjugationfor details). Specification of all of these four forms for a given verb is sufficient to predict all of the other forms of that verb – except in a few cases, when the verb is irregular.
To some extent it may be a matter of convention or subjective preference to state whether a verb is regular or irregular. In English, for example, if a verb is allowed to have three principal parts specified (the bare infinitive, past tense and past participle), then the number of irregular verbs will be drastically reduced (this is not the conventional approach, however). The situation is similar with the strong verbs inGerman(these may or may not be described as irregular). In French, what are traditionally called the "regular-reverbs" (those that conjugate likevendre) are not in fact particularly numerous, and may alternatively be considered to be just another group of similarly behaving irregular verbs. The most unambiguously irregular verbs are often very commonly used verbs such as thecopular verbbein English and its equivalents in other languages, which frequently have a variety ofsuppletiveforms and thus follow an exceptionally unpredictable pattern of conjugation.
It is possible for a verb to be regular in pronunciation, but irregular inspelling. Examples of this are the English verbslayandpay. In terms of pronunciation, these make their past forms in the regular way, by adding the/d/sound. However their spelling deviates from the regular pattern: they are not spelt (spelled) "layed" and "payed" (although the latter form is used in some e.g. nautical contexts as "the sailor payed out the anchor chain"), butlaidandpaid. This contrasts with fully regular verbs such asswayandstay, which have the regularly spelt past formsswayedandstayed. The English present participle is never irregular in pronunciation, with the exception thatsingeingirregularly retains theeto distinguish it fromsinging.
In linguistic analysis, the concept of regular and irregular verbs (and other types ofregular and irregular inflection) commonly arises inpsycholinguistics, and in particular in work related tolanguage acquisition. In studies of first language acquisition (where the aim is to establish how the human brain processes its native language), one debate among 20th-century linguists revolved around whether small children learn all verb forms as separate pieces of vocabulary or whether they deduce forms by the application of rules.[1]Since a child can hear a regular verb for the first time and immediately reuse it correctly in a different conjugated form which he or she has never heard, it is clear that the brain does work with rules; but irregular verbs must be processed differently. A common error for small children is to conjugate irregular verbs as though they were regular, which is taken as evidence that we learn and process our native language partly by the application of rules, rather than, as some earlier scholarship had postulated, solely by learning the forms. In fact, children often use the most common irregular verbs correctly in their earliest utterances but then switch to incorrect regular forms for a time when they begin to operate systematically. That allows a fairly precise analysis of the phases of this aspect of first language acquisition.
Regular and irregular verbs are also of significance insecond language acquisition, and in particular inlanguage teachingand formal learning, where rules such as verb paradigms are defined, and exceptions (such as irregular verbs) need to be listed and learned explicitly. The importance of irregular verbs is enhanced by the fact that they often include the most commonly used verbs in the language (including verbs such asbeandhavein English, their equivalentsêtreandavoirinFrench,seinandhabeninGerman, etc.).
Inhistorical linguisticsthe concept of irregular verbs is not so commonly referenced. Since most irregularities can be explained by processes of historical language development, these verbs are only irregular when viewedsynchronically; they often appear regular when seen in their historical context. In the study ofGermanic verbs, for example, historical linguists generally distinguish between strong and weak verbs, rather than irregular and regular (although occasional irregularities still arise even in this approach).
When languages are being compared informally, one of the few quantitative statistics which are sometimes cited is the number of irregular verbs. These counts are not particularly accurate for a wide variety of reasons, and academic linguists are reluctant to cite them. But it does seem that some languages have a greater tolerance for paradigm irregularity than others.
With the exception of the highly irregular verbbe, an English verb can have up to five forms: its plain form (or bareinfinitive), a third person singularpresent tense, apast tense(orpreterite), apast participle, and the-ingform that serves as both apresent participleandgerund.
The rules for the formation of the inflected parts ofregularverbs are given in detail in the article onEnglish verbs. In summary they are as follows:
The irregular verbs of English are described and listed in the articleEnglish irregular verbs(for a more extensive list, seeList of English irregular verbs). In the case of these:
Some examples of common irregular verbs in English, other than modals, are:[3]
For regular and irregular verbs in other languages, see the articles on the grammars of those languages. Particular articles include, for example:
Some grammatical information relating to specific verbs in various languages can also be found inWiktionary.
Mostnatural languages, to different extents, have a number of irregular verbs. Artificialauxiliary languagesusually have a single regular pattern for all verbs (as well as otherparts of speech) as a matter of design, because inflectional irregularities are considered to increase the difficulty of learning and using a language. Otherconstructed languages, however, need not show such regularity, especially if they are designed to look similar to natural ones.
The auxiliary languageInterlinguahas some irregular verbs, principallyesser"to be", which has an irregular present tense formes"is" (instead of expectedesse), an optional pluralson"are", an optional irregular past tenseera"was/were" (alongside regularesseva), and a unique subjunctive formsia(which can also function as an imperative). Other common verbs also have irregular present tense forms, namelyvader"to go" —va,ir"to go" —va(also shared by the present tense ofvader), andhaber"to have" —ha.
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Inlinguistics, abound morphemeis amorpheme(the elementary unit of morphosyntax) that can appear only as part of a larger expression, while afree morpheme(orunbound morpheme) is one that can stand alone.[1]A bound morpheme is a type ofbound form, and a free morpheme is a type offree form.[2]
A form is a free form if it can occur in isolation as a complete utterance, e.g.Johnny is running, orJohnny, orrunning(this can occur as the answer to a question such asWhat is he doing?).[3]A form that cannot occur in isolation is a bound form, e.g.-y,is, and-ing(inJohnny is running). Non-occurrence in isolation is given as the primary criterion for boundness in most linguistics textbooks.[4]
Affixesare bound by definition.[5]English languageaffixes are almost exclusivelyprefixesorsuffixes:pre-in "precaution" and-mentin "shipment". Affixes may beinflectional, indicating how a certain word relates to other words in a larger phrase, orderivational, changing either thepart of speechor the actual meaning of a word.[6][dead link]
Mostrootsin English are free morphemes (e.g.examin-inexamination, which can occur in isolation:examine), but others are bound (e.g.bio-inbiology). Words likechairmanthat contain two free morphemes (chairandman) are referred to ascompoundwords.[7]
Cranberry morphemesare a special form of bound morpheme whose independent meaning has been displaced and serves only to distinguish one word from another, like incranberry,in which the free morphemeberryis preceded by the bound morphemecran-,meaning "crane" from the earlier name for the berry, "crane berry".[8]
An empty morpheme is a special type of bound morpheme with no inherent meaning. Empty morphemes change the phonetics of a word but offer no semantic value to the word as a whole.[9]
Examples:
Words can be formed purely from bound morphemes, as in Englishpermit,ultimately fromLatinper"through" +mittō"I send", whereper-and-mitare bound morphemes in English. However, they are often thought of as simply a single morpheme. Per is not a bound morpheme; a bound morpheme, by definition, cannot stand alone as a word. Per is a standalone word as seen in the sentence, "I go to the gym twice per day."
A similar example is given inChinese; most of its morphemes are monosyllabic and identified with aChinese characterbecause of the largelymorphosyllabicscript, but disyllabic words exist that cannot be analyzed into independent morphemes, such as 蝴蝶húdié'butterfly'. Then, the individual syllables and corresponding characters are used only in that word, and while they can be interpreted as bound morphemes 蝴hú-and 蝶-dié,it is more commonly considered a single disyllabic morpheme. Seepolysyllabic Chinese morphemesfor further discussion.
Linguists usually distinguish betweenproductiveand unproductive forms when speaking about morphemes. For example, the morphemeten-intenantwas originally derived from the Latin wordtenere, "to hold", and the same basic meaning is seen in such words as "tenable" and "intention." But asten-is not used in English to form new words, most linguists would not consider it to be a morpheme at all.
A language with a very low morpheme-to-word ratio is anisolating language. Because such a language uses few bound morphemes, it expresses most grammatical relationships byword orderor helper words, so it is ananalytic language.
In contrast, a language that uses a substantial number of bound morphemes to express grammatical relationships is asynthetic language.
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Anisolating languageis atype of languagewith amorphemeperwordratio close to one, and with noinflectionalmorphologywhatsoever. In the extreme case, each word contains a single morpheme. Examples of widely spoken isolating languages areYoruba[1]in West Africa andVietnamese[2][3](especially itscolloquialregister) in Southeast Asia.
A closely related concept is that of ananalytic language, which uses unbound morphemes or syntactical constructions to indicate grammatical relationships. Isolating and analytic languages tend to overlap in linguistic scholarship.[2]
Isolating languages contrast withsynthetic languages, also calledinflectional languages, where words often consist of multiple morphemes.[4]Synthetic languages are subdivided into the classificationsfusional,agglutinative, andpolysynthetic, which are based on how the morphemes are combined.[5]
Although historically, languages were divided into three basic types (isolating,inflectional,agglutinative), the traditional morphological types can be categorized by two distinct parameters:
A language is said to be more isolating than another if it has a lower morpheme per word ratio.
To illustrate the relationship between words and morphemes, the English term "rice" is a single word, consisting of only one morpheme (rice). This word has a 1:1 morpheme per word ratio. In contrast, "handshakes" is a single word consisting of three morphemes (hand,shake,-s). This word has a 3:1 morpheme per word ratio. On average, words in English have a morpheme per word ratio substantially greater than one.
It is perfectly possible for a language to have one inflectional morpheme yet more than one unit of meaning. For example, theRussianwordvídyat/видят "they see" has a morpheme per word ratio of 2:1 since it has two morphemes. The rootvid-/вид- conveys the imperfectiveaspectmeaning, and the inflectional morpheme-yat/-ят inflects for four units of meaning (third-personsubject,pluralsubject, present/futuretense, indicativemood). Effectively, it has four units of meaning in one inseparable morpheme:-yat/-ят.
Languages with a higher tendency toward isolation generally exhibit a morpheme-per-word ratio close to 1:1. In an ideal isolating language, visible morphology would be entirely absent, as words would lack any internal structure in terms of smaller, meaningful units called morphemes. Such a language would not usebound morphemeslikeaffixes.
The morpheme-to-word ratio operates on a spectrum, ranging from lower ratios that skew toward the isolating end to higher ratios on the synthetic end of the scale. A larger overall ratio suggests that a language leans more toward being synthetic rather than isolating.[6][7]
Some isolating languages include:
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Morphological derivation, inlinguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding aprefixorsuffix, such asun-or-ness.For example,unhappyandhappinessderive from theroot wordhappy.
It is differentiated frominflection, which is the modification of a word to form differentgrammatical categorieswithout changing its core meaning:determines,determining, anddeterminedare from the rootdetermine.[1]
Derivationalmorphologyoften involves the addition of a derivational suffix or otheraffix. Such an affix usually applies towordsof onelexical category(part of speech) and changes them into words of another such category. For example, one effect of theEnglishderivational suffix-lyis to change anadjectiveinto anadverb(slow→slowly).
Here are examples of English derivational patterns and their suffixes:
However, derivational affixes do not necessarily alter the lexical category; they may change merely the meaning of the base and leave the category unchanged. A prefix (write→re-write;lord→over-lord) rarely changes the lexical category in English. The prefixun-applies to adjectives (healthy→unhealthy) and some verbs (do→undo) but rarely to nouns. A few exceptions are the derivational prefixesen-andbe-.En-(replaced byem-beforelabials) is usually a transitive marker on verbs, but it can also be applied to adjectives and nouns to form transitive verbs:circle(verb) →encircle(verb) butrich(adj) →enrich(verb),large(adj) →enlarge(verb),rapture(noun) →enrapture(verb),slave(noun) →enslave(verb).
When derivation occurs without any change to the word, such as in the conversion of the nounbreakfastinto the verbto breakfast, it's known asconversion, or zero derivation.
Derivation that results in a noun may be callednominalization. It may involve the use of an affix (such as withemploy → employee), or it may occur via conversion (such as with the derivation of the nounrunfrom the verbto run). In contrast, a derivation resulting in a verb may be called verbalization (such as from the nounbutterto the verbto butter).
Some words have specific exceptions to these patterns. For example,inflammableactually meansflammable,andde-evolutionis spelled with only onee,asdevolution.
Derivation can be contrasted withinflection, in that derivation produces a new word (a distinctlexeme), whereas inflection produces grammatical variants (or forms) of the same word.
Generally speaking, inflection applies in more or less regular patterns to all members of apart of speech(for example, nearly everyEnglish verbadds-sfor the third person singular present tense), while derivation follows less consistent patterns (for example, thenominalizingsuffix-itycan be used with the adjectivesmodernanddense, but not withopenorstrong). However, derivations and inflections can share homonyms, that being,morphemesthat have the different sound, but not the same meaning. For example, when the affix-eris added to an adjective, as insmall-er, it acts as an inflection, but when added to a verb, as incook-er, it acts as a derivation.[2]
A derivation can produce a lexeme with a different part of speech but does not necessarily. For example, the derivation of the worduncommonfromcommon+un-(a derivational morpheme) does not change its part of speech (both are adjectives).
An important distinction between derivational and inflectional morphology lies in the content/function of a listeme[clarification needed]. Derivational morphology changes both the meaning and the content of a listeme, while inflectional morphology doesn't change the meaning, but changes the function.
A non-exhaustive list of derivational morphemes in English:-ful, -able, im-, un-, -ing, -er.
A non-exhaustive list of inflectional morphemes in English:-er, -est, -ing, -en, -ed, -s.
Derivation can be contrasted with other types ofword formationsuch as compounding.
Derivational affixes arebound morphemes– they are meaningful units, but can only normally occur when attached to another word. In that respect, derivation differs fromcompoundingby whichfreemorphemes are combined (lawsuit,Latin professor). It also differs frominflectionin that inflection does not create newlexemesbut newword forms(table→tables;open→opened).
Derivational patterns differ in the degree to which they can be calledproductive. A productive pattern or affix is one that is commonly used to produce novel forms. For example, the negating prefixun-is more productive in English than the alternativein-; both of them occur in established words (such asunusualandinaccessible), but faced with a new word which does not have an established negation, a native speaker is more likely to create a novel form withun-than within-. The same thing happens with suffixes. For example, if comparing two wordsThatcheriteandThatcherist, the analysis shows that both suffixes-iteand-istare productive and can be added to proper names, moreover, both derived adjectives are established and have the same meaning. But the suffix-istis more productive and, thus, can be found more often in word formation not only from proper names.
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Screeveis a term of grammatical description in traditional Georgian grammars that roughly corresponds totense–aspect–moodmarking in the Western grammatical tradition. It derives from theGeorgianwordმწკრივიmts’k’rivi'row'. Formally, it refers to a set of six verb forms inflected for person and number forming a single paradigm. For example, theaoristscreeve for most verbal forms consists at least of a preverb (და-da-'PFV'), a root (წერts’er'write'), and a screeve ending (-ე-e,-ა-a,-ეს-es), and in the first and second persons a plural suffix (-თ-t) to form the inflection (დაწერეთdats'eret):
დავწერე
davts’ere
დავწერე
davts’ere
'I wrote it'
დავწერეთ
davts'eret
დავწერეთ
davts'eret
'We wrote it'
დაწერე
dats’ere
დაწერე
dats’ere
'You (singular) wrote it'
დაწერეთ
dats’eret
დაწერეთ
dats’eret
'You (plural) wrote it'
დაწერა
dats’era
დაწერა
dats’era
'He/she wrote it'
დაწერეს
dats’eres
დაწერეს
dats’eres
'They wrote it'
Similar constructions exist in Western grammars, but screeves differ from them in significant ways. In many Western languages, endings encode all of tense, aspect and mood, but in Georgian, the screeve endings may or may not include one of these categories. For example, the perfect series screeves have modal and evidential properties that are completely absent in theaoristand present/future series screeves, such thatწერილი დაუწერიაts’erili dauts’eria'He has apparently written the letter'implies that the speaker knows the letter is written because (for example) they have seen the finished letter sitting on a table. However, the present formწერილს დაწერსts’erils dats’ers'He will write the letter'is simply neutral with respect to the question of how the speaker knows (or does not know) that the letter will be written.
Thislinguisticsarticle is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it.
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Ingrammar, the termparticle(abbreviatedPTCL) has a traditional meaning, as apart of speechthat cannot beinflected, and a modern meaning, as afunction word(functor) associated with another word or phrase in order to impart meaning. Although a particle may have an intrinsic meaning and may fit into other grammatical categories, the fundamental idea of the particle is to add context to the sentence, expressing a mood or indicating a specific action.
In English, for example, the phrase "oh well" has no purpose in speech other than to convey a mood. The word "up" would be a particle in the phrase "look up" (as in "look up this topic"), implying that one researches something rather than that one literally gazes skywards. Many languages use particles in varying amounts and for varying reasons. In Hindi, they may be used as honorifics, or to indicate emphasis or negation. In some languages, they are clearly defined; for example, in Chinese, there are three types ofzhùcí(助詞;'particles'):structural,aspectual, andmodal.Structuralparticles are used forgrammatical relations.Aspectualparticles signalgrammatical aspects.Modalparticles expresslinguistic modality. However,Polynesian languages, which are almost devoid of inflection, use particles extensively to indicate mood, tense, and case.
In modern grammar, aparticleis afunction wordthat must be associated with another word or phrase to impart meaning, i.e., it does not have its own lexical definition.[citation needed]According to this definition, particles are a separatepart of speechand are distinct from otherclassesof function words, such asarticles,prepositions,conjunctionsandadverbs.[citation needed]Languages vary widely in how much they use particles, some using them extensively and others more commonly using alternative devices such as prefixes/suffixes, inflection,auxiliary verbsand word order. Particles are typically words that encodegrammatical categories(such asnegation,mood,tense, orcase),clitics,fillersor (oral)discourse markerssuch aswell,um, etc. Particles are neverinflected.[1]
Some commonly used particles inAfrikaansinclude:
Sy
She
is
is
nie1
not
moeg
tired
nie2
PTCL.NEG
Sy is nie1moeg nie2
She is not tiredPTCL.NEG
'She is not tired'
Jy
You
moet
must
onthou
remember
om
COMP
te
PTCL.INF
eet
eat
Jy moet onthou om te eet
You must rememberCOMPPTCL.INFeat
'You must remember to eat'
Peter
Peter
se
PTCL.GEN
boek
book
Peter se boek
PeterPTCL.GENbook
'Peter's book'
die
the
boek
book
van
PTCL.GEN
Peter
Peter
die boek van Peter
the bookPTCL.GENPeter
'Peter's book'
so
PTCL.CMPR
groot
big
soos
PTCL.CMPR
'n
a
huis
house
so groot soos 'n huis
PTCL.CMPRbigPTCL.CMPRa house
'as big as a house'
Particles in Arabic can take the form of a single root letter before a given word, like "-و" ('and'), "-ف" ('so') and "-ل" ('to'). However, other particles like "هل" (which marks a question) can be complete words as well.[2]
There are three types of zhùcí (助詞; particles) in Chinese: Structural, Aspectual, and Modal. Structural particles are used forgrammatical relations. Aspectual particles signalgrammatical aspects. Modal particles expresslinguistic modality. Note that particles are different from zhùdòngcí (助動詞; modal verbs) in Chinese.
Particleis a somewhat nebulous term for a variety of small words that do not conveniently fit into other classes of words.[3]The Concise Oxford Companion to the English Languagedefines a particle as a "word that does not change its form through inflection and does not fit easily into the established system of parts of speech".[4]The term includes the "adverbial particles" likeuporoutin verbal idioms (phrasal verbs) such as "look up" or "knock out"; it also includes the "infinitival particle"to, the "negative particle"not, the "imperative particles"doandlet, and sometimes "pragmatic particles" (also called "fillers" or "discourse markers") likeohandwell.[4]
AGerman modal particleserves no necessary syntactical function, but expresses the speaker's attitude towards the utterance. Modal particles includeja, halt, doch, aber, denn, schonand others. Some of these also appear in non-particle forms.Aber, for example, is also the conjunctionbut. InEr ist Amerikaner,aberer spricht gut Deutsch, "He is American,buthe speaks German well,"aberis a conjunction connecting two sentences. But inEr sprichtabergut Deutsch!, theaberis a particle, with the sentence perhaps best translated as "What good German he speaks!"[5]These particles are common in speech but rarely found in written language, except that which has a spoken quality (such as online messaging).[6][7][8]
There are different types of particles present inHindi: emphatic particles, limiter particles, negation particles, affirmative particles, honorific particles, topic-marker particle and case-marking particles.[9]Some common particles of Hindi are mentioned in the table below:
Particles[9]
Particles
Particles
Particles
Particles
Compare with the honorific particles in Japanese, e.g.さま(sama)andさん(san).
Particles
Particles
Particles
The termparticleis often used in descriptions ofJapanese[18]andKorean,[19]where they are used to marknounsaccording to theirgrammatical caseorthematic relationin a sentence or clause.[20]Linguistic analyses describe them assuffixes,clitics, orpostpositions. There are sentence-tagging particles such as Japanese question markers.
Polynesian languagesare almost devoid of inflection, and use particles extensively to indicate mood, tense, and case. Suggs,[21]discussing the deciphering of therongorongoscript ofEaster Island, describes them as all-important. InMāorifor example, the versatile particleecan signal theimperative mood, the vocative case, the future tense, or the subject of a sentence formed with most passive verbs. The particleisignals the past imperfect tense, the object of a transitive verb or the subject of a sentence formed with "neuter verbs" (a form of passive verb), as well as the prepositionsin,atandfrom.[22]
InTokelauan,iais used when describing personal names, month names, and nouns used to describe a collaborative group of people participating in something together.[23]It also can be used when a verb does not directly precede a pronoun to describe said pronouns.[23]Its use for pronouns is optional but mostly in this way.Iacannot be used if the noun it is describing follows any of the prepositionse, o, a, orko.[23]A couple of the other ways unrelated to what is listed above thatiais used is when preceding a locative or place name.[23]However, ifiais being used in this fashion, the locative or place name must be the subject of the sentence.[23]Another particle in Tokelauan isa, or sometimesā.[23]This article is used before a person's name as well as the names of months and the particlea teis used before pronouns when these instances are following the prepositionsiorki.Ia teis a particle used if following the prepositionmai.[23]
InRussian, particles sometimes play an important role making an additional nuance for a meaning of a phrase or of a whole sentence. One example is the particleбы, which imparts conditional mood (subjunctive) to a verb it is applied to or to a whole sentence. Other examples are-тоandжеwhich are usually used to emphasise or accent other words. Generally there are lots of different particles in Russian of many kinds. Some of them are complex, consisting of other particles, others are as simple as one letter (б, -с).
In some sources, exclamations and conjunctions are also considered Turkish particles. In this article, exclamations and conjunctions will not be dealt with, but only Turkish particles. The main particles used in Turkish are:
Particles can be used with the simple form of the names to which they are attached or in other cases. Some of particles uses with attached form, and some particles are always used after the relevant form. For examples,-den ötürü,-e dek,-den öte,-e doğru:
Turkish particles according to their functions.Başka, gayrı, özgeused for 'other, another, otherwise, new, diverse, either'.
Göre, nazaran, dâir, rağmenused for 'by, in comparison, about, despite'.
İçin, üzere, dolayı, ötürü, nâşi, diyeused for 'for, with, because, because of, how'.
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Code-mixingis the mixing of two or more languages orlanguage varietiesin speech.[a]
Some scholars use the terms "code-mixing" and "code-switching" interchangeably, especially in studies ofsyntax,morphology, and otherformalaspects of language.[1][2]Others assume more specific definitions of code-mixing, but these specific definitions may be different in different subfields oflinguistics,education theory,communicationsetc.
Code-mixing is similar to the use or creation ofpidgins, but while a pidgin is created across groups that do not share a common language, code-mixing may occur within amultilingualsetting where speakers share more than one language.
Some linguists use the terms code-mixing and code-switching more or less interchangeably. Especially in formal studies of syntax, morphology, etc., both terms are used to refer toutterancesthat draw from elements of two or moregrammatical systems.[1]These studies are often interested in the alignment of elements from distinct systems, or on constraints that limit switching.
Some work defines code-mixing as the placing or mixing of various linguistic units (affixes, words, phrases, clauses) from two different grammatical systems within the same sentence and speech context, while code-switching is the placing or mixing of units (words, phrases, sentences) from two codes within the same speech context. The structural difference between code-switching and code-mixing is the position of the altered elements—for code-switching, the modification of the codes occurs intersententially, while for code-mixing, it occurs intrasententially.[3]
In other work the term code-switching emphasizes a multilingual speaker's movement from one grammatical system to another, while the term code-mixing suggests a hybrid form, drawing from distinct grammars. In other words,code-mixingemphasizes the formal aspects of language structures orlinguistic competence, whilecode-switchingemphasizeslinguistic performance.[citation needed]
While many linguists have worked to describe the difference between code-switching andborrowingof words or phrases, the term code-mixing may be used to encompass both types of language behavior.[4]
While linguists who are primarily interested in the structure or form of code-mixing may have relatively little interest to separate code-mixing from code-switching, some sociolinguists have gone to great lengths to differentiate the two phenomena. For these scholars, code-switching is associated with particularpragmaticeffects,discoursefunctions, or associations with groupidentity.[b]In this tradition, the termscode-mixingorlanguage alternationare used to describe more stable situations in which multiple languages are used without such pragmatic effects. See alsoCode-mixing as fused lect, below.
In studies of bilinguallanguage acquisition,code-mixingrefers to a developmental stage during which children mix elements of more than one language. Nearly all bilingual children go through a period in which they move from one language to another without apparent discrimination.[5]This differs from code-switching, which is understood as the socially and grammatically appropriate use of multiple varieties.
Beginning at thebabblingstage, young children in bilingual or multilingual environments produce utterances that combine elements of both (or all) of their developing languages. Some linguists suggest that this code-mixing reflects a lack of control or ability to differentiate the languages. Others argue that it is a product of limited vocabulary; very young children may know a word in one language but not in another. More recent studies argue that this early code-mixing is a demonstration of a developing ability to code-switch in socially appropriate ways.[5]
For young bilingual children, code-mixing may be dependent on the linguistic context, cognitive task demands, and interlocutor. Code-mixing may also function to fill gaps in their lexical knowledge. Some forms of code-mixing by young children may indicate risk forlanguage impairment.[6]
Inpsychologyand inpsycholinguisticsthe labelcode-mixingis used in theories that draw on studies of language alternation or code-switching to describe the cognitive structures underlying bilingualism. During the 1950s and 1960s, psychologists and linguists treated bilingual speakers as, in Grosjean's terms, "two monolinguals in one person".[7]This "fractional view" supposed that a bilingual speaker carried two separate mental grammars that were more or less identical to the mental grammars of monolinguals and that were ideally kept separate and used separately. Studies since the 1970s, however, have shown that bilinguals regularly combine elements from "separate" languages. These findings have led to studies of code-mixing in psychology and psycholinguistics.[8]
Sridhar and Sridhar define code-mixing as "the transition from using linguistic units (words, phrases, clauses, etc.) of one language to using those of another within a single sentence".[8]They note that this is distinct from code-switching in that it occurs in a single sentence (sometimes known asintrasentential switching) and in that it does not fulfill the pragmatic or discourse-oriented functions described by sociolinguists. (SeeCode-mixing in sociolinguisticsabove.) The practice of code-mixing, which draws from competence in two languages at the same time suggests that these competencies are not stored or processed separately. Code-mixing among bilinguals is therefore studied in order to explore the mental structures underlying language abilities.
Amixed languageor afused lectis a relatively stable mixture of two or more languages. What some linguists have described as "codeswitching as unmarked choice"[9]or "frequent codeswitching"[10]has more recently been described as "language mixing", or in the case of the most strictlygrammaticalizedforms as "fused lects".[11]
In areas where code-switching among two or more languages is very common, it may become normal for words from both languages to be used together in everyday speech. Unlike code-switching, where a switch tends to occur atsemanticallyorsociolinguisticallymeaningful junctures,[c]this code-mixing has no specific meaning in the local context. A fused lect is identical to a mixed language in terms of semantics and pragmatics, but fused lects allow less variation since they are fully grammaticalized. In other words, there are grammatical structures of the fused lect that determine which source-language elements may occur.[11]
A mixed language is different from acreole language. Creoles are thought to develop from pidgins as they becomenativized.[12]Mixed languages develop from situations of code-switching. (See the distinction between code-mixing and pidgin above.)
There are many names for specific mixed languages or fused lects. These names are often used facetiously or carry apejorativesense.[13]Named varieties include the following, among others.
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Aneggcornis the alteration of a word or phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements,[1]creating a new phrase which is plausible when used in the same context.[2]Thus, an eggcorn is an unexpectedly fitting or creativemalapropism. Eggcorns often arise as people attempt to make sense of a stock phrase that uses a term unfamiliar to them,[3]as for example replacing "Alzheimer's disease" with "old-timers' disease",[2]orWilliam Shakespeare's "to the manner born" with "to themanorborn".[1]Theautological word"eggcorn" is itself an eggcorn, derived fromacorn.
Eggcorns arise when people attempt to useanalogyand logic to make sense of an expression – often a stock one – that includes a term which is not meaningful to them.[3]For example, the stock expression "in one fell swoop" might be replaced by "in one foul swoop", the infrequently used adjective "fell" (for "fierce", "cruel", or "terrible"[4]) being replaced with the more common word "foul" in order to convey the cruel/underhand meaning of the phrase as the speaker understands it.[3]
Eggcorns are of interest to linguists as they not only show language changing in real time, but can also shed light on how and why the change occurs.[3]
The termegg corn(later contracted into one word,eggcorn) was coined by professor of linguisticsGeoffrey Pullumin September 2003 in response to an article byMark Libermanon the websiteLanguage Log, a group blog for linguists.[5]In his article, Liberman discussed the case of a woman who had used the phraseegg cornforacorn, and he noted that this specific type of substitution lacked a name. Pullum suggested usingegg cornitself as a label.[6]
Eggcorns are similar to but distinct from several other linguistic expressions:[22]
Where the spoken form of an eggcorn sounds the same as the original, it becomes a type ofhomophone.
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Homophonic translationrenders a text in one language into a near-homophonictext in another language, usually with no attempt to preserve the original meaning of the text. For example, the English "sat on a wall"/ˌsætɒnəˈwɔːl/is rendered as French "s'étonne aux Halles"[setɔnoal](literally "gets surprised at theParis Market"). More generally,homophonic transformationrenders a text into a near-homophonic text in the same or another language:e.g., "recognize speech" could become "wreck a nice beach".[1]
Homophonic translation is generally used humorously, asbilingual punning(macaronic language). This requires the listener or reader to understand both the surface, nonsensical translated text, as well as thesource text—the surface text then sounds like source text spoken in a foreign accent.
Homophonic translation may be used to render proper nouns in a foreign language. If an attempt is made to match meaning as well as sound, it isphono-semantic matching.
Frayer Jerker(1956) is a homophonic translation of the FrenchFrère Jacques.[2]Other examples of homophonic translation include some works byOulipo(1960–),Frédéric Dard,Luis van Rooten's English-FrenchMots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames(1967) (Mother Goose's Rhymes),Louis Zukofsky's Latin-EnglishCatullus Fragmenta(1969),Ormonde de Kay's English-FrenchN'Heures Souris Rames(1980) (Nursery Rhymes), John Hulme's German-EnglishMorder Guss Reims: The Gustav Leberwurst Manuscript (Mother Goose's Rhymes),[3]andDavid Melnick's Ancient Greek-EnglishMen in Aida(1983) (Homer'sIliad).
An example of homophonic transformation in the same language isHoward L. Chace's "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut", written in "Anguish Languish" (English Language) and published in book form in 1956.
A British schoolboy example ofDog Latin:[4]
Caesar adsum jam forte.Brutus aderat.Caesar sic in omnibus.Brutus sic enat.
Caesar 'ad somejamfortea.Brutus 'ad arat.Caesar sick inomnibus.Brutus sick in'at.
I, Caesar, am already here, as it happens.Brutus was here also.Caesar is so in all things.Brutus so escapes.
Other names proposed for this genre include "allographic translation",[5]"transphonation", or (in French) "traducson",[6]but none of these is widely used.
Here is van Rooten's version ofHumpty Dumpty:[7]
Humpty DumptySat on a wall.Humpty DumptyHad a great fall.All the king's horsesAnd all the king's menCouldn't put HumptyTogether again.
Un petit d'un petitS'étonne aux HallesUn petit d'un petitAh! degrés te fallentIndolent qui ne sort cesseIndolent qui ne se mèneQu'importe un petitTout gai de Reguennes.
A child of a childIs surprised at the MarketA child of a childOh, degrees you needed!Lazy is he who never goes outLazy is he who is not ledWho cares about a little oneAll happy with Reguennes
The individual words are all correct French. (*fallentis an obsolete form of the verbfalloir;Reguennesis an invented proper name), and some passages follow standard syntax and are interpretable (though nonsensical), but the result is in fact not meaningful French.
The Italian rabbiLeon of Modenacomposed at age 13[8]anoctaveby the name of "Kinah Sh'mor", meaningful in bothHebrewandRenaissanceJudeo-Italian, as an elegy for his teacher Moses della Rocca.[9]The first four verses are below.
Ghil'ad Zuckermann's "Italo-Hebraic Homophonous Poem"[10]is meaningful in both Italian and Hebrew, "although it has a surreal, evocative flavour, and modernist style".[11]
Libido, Eva,comes out ofNicolette:who gives the following:...
Libido, Eva,ליבִּי דוֹאב,esce daהאש עֵדה.Nicolet,אני קוֹלֵטche tale dá:קטע לידה...
My heart is languishing,the fire is a witness.I am absorbinga stage of labour.....
Here is another example of a sentence which has two completely different meanings if read in Latin or in Italian:
An accidental homophonic transformation is known as amondegreen. The term has also been applied to intentional homophonic translations of song lyrics, often combined with music videos, which have gained popularity on the internet. In Japan, homophonic transformation for humor is known assoramimi.
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The following are lists of words in theEnglish languagethat are known as "loanwords" or "borrowings," which are derived from other languages.
ForOld English-derived words, seeList of English words of Old English origin.
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Macaronic languageis any expression using a mixture oflanguages,[1]particularlybilingual punsor situations in which the languages are otherwise used in the same context (rather than simply discrete segments of a text being in different languages).Hybrid wordsare effectively "internally macaronic". In spoken language,code-switchingis using more than one language or dialect within the same conversation.[2]
Macaronic Latinin particular is a jumbledjargonmade up ofvernacularwords givenLatinendings or of Latin words mixed with the vernacular in apastiche(comparedog Latin).
The wordmacaroniccomes from theNeo-Latinmacaronicus, which is from theItalianmaccarone, or "dumpling", regarded as coarse peasant fare. It is generally derogatory and used when the mixing of languages has a humorous orsatiricalintent or effect but is sometimes applied to more serious mixed-language literature.
Texts that mixed Latin andvernacular languageapparently arose throughout Europe at the end of theMiddle Ages—a time when Latin was still the working language of scholars, clerics and university students, but was losing ground to vernacular among poets,minstrelsand storytellers.
An early example is from 1130, in theGospel bookofMunsterbilzen Abbey. The following sentence mixes lateOld Dutchand Latin:
Tesi samanunga was edele unde sconaet omnium virtutum pleniter plena
Translated:This community was noble and pure, and completely full of all virtues.
TheCarmina Burana(collected c.1230) contains several poems mixing Latin with Medieval German or French. Another well-known example is the first stanza of the famouscarolIn Dulci Jubilo, whose original version (written around 1328) had Latin mixed with German, with a hint ofGreek. While some of those early works had a clear humorous intent, many use the language mix for lyrical effect.
Another early example is in theMiddle EnglishrecitalsThe Towneley Plays(c.1460). InThe Talents(play 24),Pontius Pilatedelivers a rhyming speech in mixed English and Latin.
A number of English political poems in the 14th century alternated (Middle) English and Latin lines, such as in MS Digby 196:
The taxe hath tened [ruined] vs alle,Probat hoc mors tot validorumThe Kyng þerof had smallfuit in manibus cupidorum.yt had ful hard hansell,dans causam fine dolorum;vengeaunce nedes most fall,propter peccata malorum(etc)
Severalanthemsalso contain both Latin and English. In the case of 'Nolo mortem peccatoris' byThomas Morley, the Latin is used as a refrain:
Nolo mortem peccatoris; Haec sunt verba Salvatoris.Father I am thine only Son, sent down from heav’n mankind to save.Father, all things fulfilled and done according to thy will, I have.Father, my will now all is this: Nolo mortem peccatoris.Father, behold my painful smart, taken for man on ev’ry side;Ev'n from my birth to death most tart, no kind of pain I have denied,but suffered all, and all for this: Nolo mortem peccatoris.
Translated: "'I do not wish the death of the wicked'; These are the words of the Saviour." An allusion to John 3:17 and 2 Peter 3:9.
The ScottishChaucerianWilliam Dunbar'sLament for the Makarisuses as a refrain for every four-linestanzathe phrase from theOffice of the Dead"Timor mortis conturbat me" ["The fear of death disturbs me"].
The termmacaronicis believed to have originated inPaduain the late 15th century, apparently frommaccarona, a kind of pasta ordumplingeaten by peasants at that time. (That is also the presumed origin ofmaccheroni.)[3]Its association with the genre comes from theMacaronea, a comical poem byTifi Odasiin mixed Latin and Italian, published in 1488 or 1489. Another example of the genre isTosonteabyCorrado of Padua, which was published at about the same time as Tifi'sMacaronea.
Tifi and his contemporaries clearly intended tosatirizethe broken Latin used by many doctors, scholars and bureaucrats of their time. While this "macaronic Latin" (macaronica verba) could be due to ignorance or carelessness, it could also be the result of its speakers trying to make themselves understood by the vulgar folk without resorting to their speech.[4]
An important and unusual example of mixed-language text is theHypnerotomachia PoliphiliofFrancesco Colonna(1499), which was basically written using Italian syntax and morphology, but using a made-up vocabulary based on roots from Latin,Greek, and occasionally others. However, while theHypnerotomachiais contemporary with Tifi'sMacaronea, its mixed language is not used for plain humor, but rather as an aesthetic device to underscore the fantastic but refined nature of the book.
Tifi'sMacaroneawas a popular success, and the writing ofhumoroustexts in macaronic Latin became a fad in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly in Italian, but also in many other European languages. An important Italian example wasBaldobyTeofilo Folengo, who described his own verses as "a gross, rude, and rustic mixture of flour, cheese, and butter".[5][6]
Macaronic verse is especially common in cultures with widespreadbilingualismorlanguage contact, such as Ireland before the middle of the nineteenth century. Macaronic traditional songs such asSiúil A Rúinare quite common in Ireland. In Scotland, macaronic songs have been popular amongHighlandimmigrants toGlasgow, using English andScottish Gaelicas a device to express the alien nature of the anglophone environment. An example:[7]
When I came down to Glasgow first,a-mach air Tìr nan Gall.I was like a man adrift,air iomrall 's dol air chall.[...]
translation:When I came down to Glasgow first,down to the Lowlands(lit. "out to the land of foreigners").I was like a man adrift,astray and lost.
Folk and popular music of theAndesfrequently alternates between Spanish and the givenSouth Americanlanguage of its region of origin.
SomeClassical Persian poemswere written with alternatingPersianandArabicverses or hemistichs, most famously bySaadi[8]andHafez.[9]Such poems were calledmolamma'(ملمع, literally "speckled", pluralmolamma‘ātملمعات),[10]Residing inAnatolia, in some of his poemsRumimixed Persian with Arabic as well as the local languages ofTurkishandGreek.[11]
Macaronic verse was also common inmedievalIndia, where the influence of the Muslim rulers led to poems being written in alternating indigenousHindiand the Persian language. This style was used by poetAmir Khusroand played a major role in the rise of theUrduorHindustani language.
Occasionally language is unintentionally macaronic. One particularly famed piece of schoolyard Greek in France isXenophon's line "they did not take the city; but in fact they had no hope of taking it" (οὐκ ἔλαβον πόλιν· άλλα γὰρ ἐλπὶς ἔφη κακά,ouk élabon pólin; álla gàr elpìs éphē kaká).Readin the French manner, this becomesOù qu'est la bonne Pauline? A la gare. Elle pisse et fait caca.('Where is Pauline the maid? At the [railway] station. She's pissing and taking a shit.')[12][13]
Macaronic text is still used by modern Italian authors, e.g. byCarlo Emilio GaddaandBeppe Fenoglio. Other examples are provided by the character Salvatore inUmberto Eco'sThe Name of the Rose, and the peasant hero of hisBaudolino.Dario Fo'sMistero Buffo("Comic Mystery Play") featuresgrammelotsketches using language with macaronic elements.
The 2001 novelThe Last SamuraibyHelen DeWitt[14]includes portions of Japanese,Classical Greek, andInuktitut, although the reader is not expected to understand the passages that are not in English.
Macaronic games are used by the literary groupOulipoin the form of interlinguistichomophonic transformation: replacing a known phrase with homophones from another language. The archetypal example is byFrançois Le Lionnais, who transformedJohn Keats' "A thing of beauty is a joy forever" into "Un singe de beauté est un jouet pour l'hiver": 'A monkey of beauty is a toy for the winter'.[15]Another example is the bookMots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The d'Antin Manuscript.
Macaronisms figure prominently inThe Trilogyby thePolishnovelistHenryk Sienkiewicz, and are one of the major compositional principles for James Joyce's novelFinnegans Wake.
InMichael Flynn's science fiction novels of the Spiral Arm series, a massive interplanetary exodus from all Earth language groups has led to star system settlements derived from random language and culture admixtures. At the time of the novels' setting, several hundred years later, each planet has developed a macaronic pidgin, several of which are used for all the dialogs in the books.
The ReverendFergus Butler-Gallie's second book bears a cross-lingual pun as its title,Priests de la Résistance.
Two well-known examples of non-humorous macaronic verse areByron'sMaid of Athens, ere we part(1810, in English with aGreekrefrain);[16]andPearsall's translation of the carolIn Dulci Jubilo(1837, in mixed English and Latin verse).
An example of modern humorous macaronic verse is the anonymous English/Latin poemCarmen Possum("The Opossum's Song"), which is sometimes used as a teaching and motivational aid in elementary Latin language classes. Other similar examples areThe Motor BusbyA. D. Godley, and the anonymousUp I arose in verno tempore.
Ezra Pound'sThe Cantosmakes use of Chinese, Greek, Latin, and Italian, among other languages.
Recent examples are themużajkior 'mosaics' (2007) ofMaltesepoetAntoine Cassar[17]mixing English, Spanish,Maltese, Italian, and French; works of Italian writerGuido Monte;[18]and the late poetry of Ivan Blatný combining Czech with English.[19]
Brian P. Cleary's "What Can I C'est?" makes use of macaronic verse, as do other poems in his bookRainbow Soup: Adventures in Poetry:
My auntie Michelle is big in the BON(As well as the hip and the thigh).And when she exhales, OUI haul out our sailsAnd ride on the wind of VERSAILLES.
A whole body of comic verse exists created by John O'Mill, pseudonym ofJohan van der Meulen, a teacher of English at the Rijks HBS (State Grammar School),Breda, theNetherlands. These are in a mixture of English and Dutch, often playing on common mistakes made when translating from the latter to the former.
The finale of act 1 ofGilbert and Sullivan'sSavoy OperaIolanthehas several instances of humorous macaronic verse.[20]
First, the three lords mix Italian and Latin phrases into their discussion of Iolanthe's age:
Lord Mountararat:This gentleman is seen, / With a maid of seventeen, / A-taking of hisdolce far niente...
Lord Chancellor:Recollect yourself, I pray, / And be careful what you say- / As the ancient Romans said,festina lente...Lord Tolloller:I have often had a use / For a thorough-bred excuse / Of a sudden (which is English forrepente)...
Lord Mountararat:Now, listen, pray to me, / For this paradox will be / Carried, nobody at allcontradicente...
Then, the chorus of peers sing macaronic verse as they attempt to resist the fairies' powers:
Our lordly style you shall not quench with basecanaille! (That word is French.)
Distinction ebbs before a herd of vulgarplebs! (A Latin word.)Twould fill with joy and madness stark theoι πoλλoί! (A Greek remark.)
One Latin word, one Greek remark, and one that's French.
"Macaronisms" are frequently used in films, especially comedies. InCharlie Chaplin'santi-warcomedyThe Great Dictator, the title character speaks English mixed with a parody of German (e.g. "Cheese-und-cracken"). This was also used by Benzino Napaloni, the parody character ofBenito Mussolini, using Italian foods (such assalamiandravioli) as insults.
Other movies featuring macaronic language are the Italian historical comediesL'armata BrancaleoneandBrancaleone alle crociate(d.Mario Monicelli), which mix modern and medieval Italian as well as Latin (sometimes in rhyme, and sometimes with regional connotations, such as theItalo-Normansusing words from modernSicilian).
OnSaturday Night Live, the character, Opera Man, played byAdam Sandler, would often sing snippets using Macaronic language.[citation needed]
Amacaronic songis one that combines multiple languages. Macaronic songs have been particularly common in Ireland (Irish–English)[21][22][23]and also occur for other languages, such asYiddish–Ukrainian.[24]
Macaronic language appearing in popular songs includeRammstein's "Amerika" (German and English), theBeatles' "Michelle",Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" andThe Weeknd's "Montreal" (French and English),The Clash's "Spanish Bombs",José Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad" (Spanish and English),Bandolero's "Paris Latino",Magazine 60's "Don Quichotte (No Están Aquí)", andJJ Lin's "只對你說 (Sarang Heyo)" (Mandarin, English, and Korean).[25]
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Soramimi(空耳, "thought to have heard", or "pretending to have not heard"[1][2])is aJapaneseword that in the context of contemporary Japanese internet meme culture and its related slang is commonly used to refer to humorous homophonic reinterpretation, deliberately interpreting words as other similar-sounding words for comedy (similar to amondegreen, but done deliberately).
The word is more commonly used for its original, literal meaning.
The slang usage is derived from the long-running "Soramimi Hour" segment on Japanese comedianTamori's TV programTamori Club. Tamori is one of the "big three" televisioncomediansin Japan and is very influential.[3]The segment, in which he and his co-host watch mini-skits based on submissions from fans, began in 1992.[4]
In modern Japanese internet culture, soramimi also includes videos with subtitles of humorously misinterpreted subtitles or text transcripts that do the same. Unlikehomophonic translation, soramimi can be contained within a single language. An example of "soramimi" humor confined to Japanese can be seen in the songKaidoku Funōby the rock bandJinn, in which the lyrics "tōkankaku, hito no naka de" ("feeling of distance, amongst people"), which are considered hard to make out by Japanese listeners, are intentionally misinterpreted as "gōkan da, futon no naka de" ("it's rape, in a futon") for comedic reasons.[5][user-generated source][6][user-generated source]
Soramimi applies to dialogue as well as song lyrics. For example, in the 2004 filmDownfall, whenAdolf Hitlersays "und betrogen worden", it is misrepresented as "oppai purun purun" ("titty boing boing").[7][8][9][user-generated source]
Soramimi humor was a staple in Japanese message board Flash animation culture from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s. It later became very popular onNiconico, a Japanese video-sharing website in which comments are overlaid directly onto the video, synced to specific playback times, allowing for soramimi subtitles to be easily added to any video.[10]One such example is theMoldovanbandO-Zone's song "Dragostea Din Tei". The refrain of the original song (inRomanian) is:
Asoramimiversion, from the JapaneseFlashanimationMaiyahi, translates these words as:[11][12][a]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soramimi
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Translationis the communication of themeaningof asource-languagetext by means of anequivalenttarget-languagetext.[1]The English language draws aterminologicaldistinction (which does not exist in every language) betweentranslating(a written text) andinterpreting(oral orsignedcommunication between users of different languages); under this distinction, translation can begin only after the appearance ofwritingwithin a language community.
A translator always risks inadvertently introducing source-language words,grammar, orsyntaxinto the target-language rendering. On the other hand, such "spill-overs" have sometimes imported useful source-languagecalquesandloanwordsthat have enriched target languages. Translators, including early translators ofsacred texts, have helped shape the very languages into which they have translated.[2]
Because of the laboriousness of the translation process, since the 1940s efforts have been made, with varying degrees of success, toautomate translationor tomechanically aid the human translator.[3]More recently, the rise of theInternethas fostered aworld-wide marketfortranslation servicesand has facilitated "language localisation".[4]
The word for theconceptof "translation", in English and some other European languages, stems from the Latinnountranslatio,[6]formed from theadverbtrans, "across", and-latio, derived fromlatus, thepast participleof theverbferre, to "carry" or "bring". Thus, the Latin nountranslatioand itscognatemodern derivatives mean the "bringing across" (i.e., thetransferring) of a text from one language to another.[7]
In some other European languages, the word for theconceptof "translation" stems from another Latinnoun,trāductiō, derived from theverbtrādūcō, "bring across", formed from theadverbtrans, "across", anddūcō, to "lead" or "bring".[7]
TheAncient Greekterm for "translation" (metaphrasis, "a speaking across") has supplied English with "metaphrase" (word-for-word translation), as contrasted with "paraphrase" (rephrasing in other words, fromparaphrasis).[7]"Metaphrase" corresponds in one of the more recent terminologies toformal equivalence, and "paraphrase" todynamic equivalence.[8]
The concept of metaphrase (i.e., word-for-word translation) is an imperfect concept, because a given word in a given language often carries more than one meaning, and because a similar given meaning may often be represented in a given language by more than one word. Nevertheless, metaphrase and paraphrase may be useful as ideal concepts that mark the extremes in the spectrum of possible approaches to translation.
Discussions of the theory and practice of translation reach back intoantiquityand show remarkable continuities. Theancient Greeksdistinguished betweenmetaphrase(literal translation) andparaphrase. This distinction was adopted by English poet and translatorJohn Dryden(1631–1700), who described translation as the judicious blending of these two modes of phrasing when selecting, in the target language, "counterparts," orequivalents, for the expressions used in the source language:
When [words] appear... literally graceful, it were an injury to the author that they should be changed. But since... what is beautiful in one [language] is often barbarous, nay sometimes nonsense, in another, it would be unreasonable to limit a translator to the narrow compass of his author's words: 'tis enough if he choose out some expression which does not vitiate the sense.[7]
Dryden cautioned, however, against the license of "imitation", i.e., of adapted translation: "When a painter copies from the life... he has no privilege to alter features and lineaments..."[8]
This general formulation of the central concept of translation—equivalence—is as adequate as any that has been proposed sinceCiceroandHorace, who, in 1st-century-BCERome, famously and literally cautioned against translating "word for word" (verbum pro verbo).[8]
Despite occasional theoretical diversity, the actualpracticeof translation has hardly changed since antiquity. Except for some extreme metaphrasers in the early Christian period and theMiddle Ages, and adapters in various periods (especially pre-Classical Rome, and the 18th century), translators have generally shown prudent flexibility in seekingequivalents—"literal" where possible, paraphrastic where necessary—for the originalmeaningand other crucial "values" (e.g.,style,verse form, concordance with musical accompaniment or, in films, with speecharticulatorymovements) as determined from context.[8]
In general, translators have sought to preserve thecontextitself by reproducing the original order ofsememes, and henceword order[9]—when necessary, reinterpreting the actualgrammaticalstructure, for example, by shifting fromactivetopassive voice, orvice versa. The grammatical differences between "fixed-word-order"languages[10](e.g. English,French,German) and "free-word-order" languages[11](e.g.,Greek,Latin,Polish,Russian) have been no impediment in this regard.[8]The particular syntax (sentence-structure) characteristics of a text's source language are adjusted to the syntactic requirements of the target language.
When a target language has lackedtermsthat are found in a source language, translators have borrowed those terms, thereby enriching the target language. Thanks in great measure to the exchange of calques and loanwords between languages, and to their importation from other languages, there are fewconceptsthat are "untranslatable" among the modern European languages.[8]A greater problem, however, is translating terms relating to cultural concepts that have no equivalent in the target language.[12]For full comprehension, such situations require the provision of agloss.
Generally, the greater the contact and exchange that have existed between two languages, or between those languages and a third one, the greater is the ratio ofmetaphrasetoparaphrasethat may be used in translating among them. However, due to shifts inecological nichesof words, a commonetymologyis sometimes misleading as a guide to current meaning in one or the other language. For example, the Englishactualshould not be confused with thecognateFrenchactuel("present", "current"), the Polishaktualny("present", "current," "topical", "timely", "feasible"),[13]the Swedishaktuell("topical", "presently of importance"), the Russianактуальный("urgent", "topical") or the Dutchactueel("current").
The translator's role as a bridge for "carrying across" values between cultures has been discussed at least sinceTerence, the 2nd-century-BCE Roman adapter of Greek comedies. The translator's role is, however, by no means a passive, mechanical one, and so has also been compared to that of anartist. The main ground seems to be the concept of parallel creation found in critics such asCicero. Dryden observed that "Translation is a type of drawing after life..." Comparison of the translator with a musician or actor goes back at least toSamuel Johnson's remark aboutAlexander PopeplayingHomeron aflageolet, while Homer himself used abassoon.[13]
In the 13th century,Roger Baconwrote that if a translation is to be true, the translator must know bothlanguages, as well as thesciencethat he is to translate; and finding that few translators did, he wanted to do away with translation and translators altogether.[14]
The translator of theBibleinto German,Martin Luther(1483–1546), is credited with being the first European to posit that one translates satisfactorily only toward his own language. L.G. Kelly states that sinceJohann Gottfried Herderin the 18th century, "it has been axiomatic" that one translates only toward his own language.[15]
Compounding the demands on the translator is the fact that nodictionaryorthesauruscan ever be a fully adequate guide in translating. The Scottish historianAlexander Tytler, in hisEssay on the Principles of Translation(1790), emphasized that assiduous reading is a more comprehensive guide to a language than are dictionaries. The same point, but also including listening to thespokenlanguage, had earlier, in 1783, been made by the Polish poet andgrammarianOnufry Kopczyński.[16]
The translator's special role in society is described in a posthumous 1803 essay by "Poland'sLa Fontaine", the Roman CatholicPrimate of Poland, poet,encyclopedist,authorof the first Polish novel, and translator from French and Greek,Ignacy Krasicki:
[T]ranslation... is in fact an art both estimable and very difficult, and therefore is not the labor and portion of common minds; [it] should be [practiced] by those who are themselves capable of being actors, when they see greater use in translating the works of others than in their own works, and hold higher than their own glory the service that they render their country.[17]
Due toWestern colonialismand cultural dominance in recent centuries, Western translation traditions have largely replaced other traditions. The Western traditions draw on both ancient and medieval traditions, and on more recent European innovations.
Though earlier approaches to translation are less commonly used today, they retain importance when dealing with their products, as when historians view ancient or medieval records to piece together events which took place in non-Western or pre-Western environments. Also, though heavily influenced by Western traditions and practiced by translators taught in Western-style educational systems, Chinese and related translation traditions retain some theories and philosophies unique to the Chinese tradition.
Traditions of translating material among the languages of ancientEgypt,Mesopotamia,Assyria(Syriac language),Anatolia, andIsrael(Hebrew language) go back several millennia. There exist partial translations of the SumerianEpic of Gilgamesh(c.2000 BCE) intoSouthwest Asianlanguages of the second millennium BCE.[18]
An early example of abilingualdocument is the 1274 BCETreaty of Kadeshbetween theancient EgyptianandHittie empires.
TheBabylonianswere the first to establish translation as a profession.[19]
The first translations of Greek and Coptic texts into Arabic, possibly indirectly from Syriac translations,[20]seem to have been undertaken as early as the late seventh century CE.[21]
The second Abbasid Caliph funded a translation bureau in Baghdad in the eighth century.[22]
Bayt al-Hikma, the famous library in Baghdad, was generously endowed and the collection included books in many languages, and it became a leading centre for the translation of works from antiquity into Arabic, with its own Translation Department.[23]
Translations into European languages from Arabic versions of lost Greek and Roman texts began in the middle of the eleventh century, when the benefits to be gained from the Arabs’ knowledge of the classical texts were recognised by European scholars, particularly after the establishment of the Escuela de Traductores de Toledo in Spain.
William Caxton’sDictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres(Sayings of the Philosophers, 1477) was a translation into English of an eleventh-century Egyptian text which reached English via translation into Latin and then French.
The translation of foreign works for publishing in Arabic was revived by the establishment of theMadrasat al-Alsun(School of Tongues) in Egypt in 1813.[24]
There is a separate tradition of translation inSouth,SoutheastandEast Asia(primarily of texts from theIndianandChinesecivilizations), connected especially with the rendering of religious, particularlyBuddhist, texts and with the governance of the Chinese empire. Classical Indian translation is characterized by loose adaptation, rather than the closer translation more commonly found in Europe; andChinese translation theoryidentifies various criteria and limitations in translation.
In the East Asian sphere of Chinese cultural influence, more important than translationper sehas been the use and reading of Chinese texts, which also had substantial influence on the Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese languages, with substantialborrowings of Chinese vocabularyand writing system. Notable is the Japanesekanbun, a system forglossingChinese texts for Japanese speakers.
Though Indianized states in Southeast Asia often translatedSanskritmaterial into the local languages, the literate elites and scribes more commonly used Sanskrit as their primary language of culture and government.
Some special aspects of translating fromChineseare illustrated inPerry Link's discussion of translating the work of theTang dynastypoetWang Wei(699–759 CE).[25]
Some of the art of classicalChinese poetry[writes Link] must simply be set aside asuntranslatable. The internal structure ofChinese charactershas a beauty of its own, and thecalligraphyin which classical poems were written is another important but untranslatable dimension. Since Chinese characters do not vary in length, and because there are exactly five characters per line in a poem like [the one thatEliot Weinbergerdiscusses in19 Ways of Looking atWang Wei(with More Ways)], another untranslatable feature is that the written result, hung on a wall, presents a rectangle. Translators into languages whose word lengths vary can reproduce such an effect only at the risk of fatal awkwardness....
Another imponderable is how to imitate the 1-2, 1-2-3rhythmin which five-syllablelines in classical Chinese poems normally are read. Chinese characters are pronounced in one syllable apiece, so producing such rhythms in Chinese is not hard and the results are unobtrusive; but any imitation in a Western language is almost inevitably stilted and distracting. Even less translatable are the patterns oftonearrangement in classical Chinese poetry. Each syllable (character) belongs to one of two categories determined by thepitch contourin which it is read; in a classical Chinese poem the patterns of alternation of the two categories exhibitparallelismand mirroring.[26]
Once the untranslatables have been set aside, the problems for a translator, especially of Chinese poetry, are two: What does the translator think the poetic line says? And once he thinks he understands it, how can he render it into the target language? Most of the difficulties, according to Link, arise in addressing the second problem, "where the impossibility of perfect answers spawns endless debate." Almost always at the center is the letter-versus-spiritdilemma. At the literalist extreme, efforts are made to dissect every conceivable detail about the language of the original Chinese poem. "The dissection, though," writes Link, "normally does to the art of a poem approximately what thescalpelof ananatomyinstructor does to the life of a frog."[26]
Chinese characters, in avoidinggrammaticalspecificity, offer advantages to poets (and, simultaneously, challenges to poetry translators) that are associated primarily with absences ofsubject,number, andtense.[27]
It is the norm in classicalChinese poetry, and common even in modern Chinese prose, to omit subjects; the reader or listener infers a subject. The grammars of some Western languages, however, require that a subject be stated (although this is often avoided by using a passive or impersonal construction). Most of the translators cited in Eliot Weinberger's19 Ways of Looking atWang Weisupply a subject. Weinberger points out, however, that when an "I" as a subject is inserted, a "controlling individual mind of the poet" enters and destroys the effect of the Chinese line. Without a subject, he writes, "the experience becomes both universal and immediate to the reader." Another approach to the subjectlessness is to use the target language'spassive voice; but this again particularizes the experience too much.[27]
Nounshave nonumberin Chinese. "If," writes Link, "you want to talk in Chinese about one rose, you may, but then you use a "measure word" to say "one blossom-of roseness."[27]
Chineseverbsaretense-less: there are several ways to specify when something happened or will happen, butverb tenseis not one of them. For poets, this creates the great advantage ofambiguity. According to Link, Weinberger's insight about subjectlessness—that it produces an effect "both universal and immediate"—applies to timelessness as well.[27]
Link proposes a kind of uncertainty principle that may be applicable not only to translation from the Chinese language, but to all translation:
Dilemmas about translation do not have definitive right answers (although there can be unambiguously wrong ones if misreadings of the original are involved). Any translation (except machine translation, a different case) must pass through the mind of a translator, and that mind inevitably contains its own store of perceptions, memories, and values.
Weinberger [...] pushes this insight further when he writes that "every reading of every poem, regardless of language, is an act of translation: translation into the reader's intellectual and emotional life." Then he goes still further: because a reader's mental life shifts over time, there is a sense in which "the same poem cannot be read twice."[27]
Translation of material intoArabicexpanded after the creation ofArabic scriptin the 5th century, and gained great importance with the rise ofIslamand Islamic empires. Arab translation initially focused primarily on politics, rendering Persian, Greek, even Chinese and Indic diplomatic materials into Arabic. It later focused on translating classical Greek and Persian works, as well as some Chinese and Indian texts, into Arabic for scholarly study at major Islamic learning centers, such as theAl-Karaouine(Fes,Morocco),Al-Azhar(Cairo,Egypt), and theAl-Nizamiyya of Baghdad. In terms of theory, Arabic translation drew heavily on earlier Near Eastern traditions as well as more contemporary Greek and Persian traditions.
Arabic translation efforts and techniques are important to Western translation traditions due to centuries of close contacts and exchanges. Especially after theRenaissance, Europeans began more intensive study of Arabic and Persian translations of classical works as well as scientific and philosophical works of Arab and oriental origins. Arabic, and to a lesser degree Persian, became important sources of material and perhaps of techniques for revitalized Western traditions, which in time would overtake the Islamic and oriental traditions.
In the 19th century, after theMiddle East'sIslamicclerics and copyists
had conceded defeat in their centuries-old battle to contain the corrupting effects of theprinting press, [an] explosion in publishing ... ensued. Along with expanding secular education, printing transformed an overwhelmingly illiterate society into a partly literate one.
In the past, thesheikhsand the government had exercised a monopoly over knowledge. Now an expanding elite benefitted from a stream of information on virtually anything that interested them. Between 1880 and 1908... more than six hundred newspapers and periodicals were founded in Egypt alone.
The most prominent among them wasal-Muqtataf... [It] was the popular expression of atranslation movementthat had begun earlier in the century with military and medical manuals and highlights from theEnlightenmentcanon. (Montesquieu'sConsiderations on the RomansandFénelon'sTelemachushad been favorites.)[28]
A translator who contributed mightily to the advance of the Islamic Enlightenment was the Egyptian cleric Rifaa al-Tahtawi (1801–73), who had spent five years inParisin the late 1820s, teaching religion toMuslimstudents. After returning to Cairo with the encouragement ofMuhammad Ali(1769–1849), theOttomanviceroy of Egypt, al–Tahtawi became head of the new school of languages and embarked on an intellectual revolution by initiating a program to translate some two thousand European and Turkish volumes, ranging from ancient texts on geography and geometry toVoltaire's biography ofPeter the Great, along with theMarseillaiseand the entireCode Napoléon. This was the biggest, most meaningful importation of foreign thought into Arabic sinceAbbasidtimes (750–1258).[29]
In France al-Tahtawi had been struck by the way the French language... was constantly renewing itself to fit modern ways of living. YetArabichas its own sources of reinvention. The root system that Arabic shares with otherSemitictongues such as Hebrew is capable of expanding the meanings of words using structuredconsonantalvariations: the word for airplane, for example, has the same root as the word for bird.[30]
The movement to translate English and European texts transformed the Arabic andOttomanTurkishlanguages, and new words, simplified syntax, and directness came to be valued over the previous convolutions. Educated Arabs and Turks in the new professions and the modernizedcivil serviceexpressedskepticism, writesChristopher de Bellaigue, "with a freedom that is rarely witnessed today ... No longer was legitimate knowledge defined by texts in the religious schools, interpreted for the most part with stultifying literalness. It had come to include virtually any intellectual production anywhere in the world." One of theneologismsthat, in a way, came to characterize the infusion of new ideas via translation was"darwiniya", or "Darwinism".[28]
One of the most influential liberal Islamic thinkers of the time wasMuhammad Abduh(1849–1905), Egypt's senior judicial authority—its chiefmufti—at the turn of the 20th century and an admirer ofDarwinwho in 1903 visited Darwin's exponentHerbert Spencerat his home inBrighton. Spencer's view ofsociety as an organismwith its own laws of evolution paralleled Abduh's ideas.[31]
AfterWorld War I, when Britain and France divided up the Middle East's countries, apart from Turkey, between them, pursuant to theSykes-Picot agreement—in violation of solemn wartime promises of postwar Arab autonomy—there came an immediate reaction: theMuslim Brotherhoodemerged in Egypt, theHouse of Saudtook over theHijaz, and regimes led by army officers came to power inIranand Turkey. "[B]oth illiberal currents of the modern Middle East," writesde Bellaigue, "Islamism and militarism, received a major impetus from Westernempire-builders." As often happens in countries undergoing social crisis, the aspirations of the Muslim world's translators and modernizers, such asMuhammad Abduh, largely had to yield to retrograde currents.[32]
Fidelity(or "faithfulness") and felicity[33](ortransparency), dual ideals in translation, are often (though not always) at odds. A 17th-century French critic coined the phrase "les belles infidèles" to suggest that translations can be either faithful or beautiful, but not both.[a]Fidelity is the extent to which a translation accurately renders the meaning of thesource text, without distortion. Transparency is the extent to which a translation appears to a native speaker of the target language to have originally been written in that language, and conforms to its grammar, syntax and idiom. John Dryden (1631–1700) wrote in his preface to the translation anthologySylvae:
Where I have taken away some of [the original authors'] Expressions, and cut them shorter, it may possibly be on this consideration, that what was beautiful in the Greek or Latin, would not appear so shining in the English; and where I have enlarg'd them, I desire the false Criticks would not always think that those thoughts are wholly mine, but that either they are secretly in the Poet, or may be fairly deduc'd from him; or at least, if both those considerations should fail, that my own is of a piece with his, and that if he were living, and an Englishman, they are such as he wou'd probably have written.[35]
A translation that meets the criterion of fidelity (faithfulness) is said to be "faithful"; a translation that meets the criterion of transparency, "idiomatic". Depending on the given translation, the two qualities may not be mutually exclusive. The criteria for judging the fidelity of a translation vary according to the subject, type and use of the text, its literary qualities, its social or historical context, etc. The criteria for judging the transparency of a translation appear more straightforward: an unidiomatic translation "sounds wrong" and, in extreme cases of word-for-word translation, often results in patent nonsense.
Nevertheless, in certain contexts a translator may consciously seek to produce a literal translation. Translators of literary, religious, or historic texts often adhere as closely as possible to the source text, stretching the limits of the target language to produce an unidiomatic text. Also, a translator may adopt expressions from the source language in order to provide "local color".
While current Western translation practice is dominated by the dual concepts of "fidelity" and "transparency", this has not always been the case. There have been periods, especially in pre-Classical Rome and in the 18th century, when many translators stepped beyond the bounds of translation proper into the realm ofadaptation.Adapted translationretains currency in some non-Western traditions. TheIndianepic, theRamayana, appears in many versions in the variousIndian languages, and the stories are different in each. Similar examples are to be found inmedieval Christianliterature, which adjusted the text to local customs and mores.
Many non-transparent-translation theories draw on concepts fromGerman Romanticism, the most obvious influence being the German theologian and philosopherFriedrich Schleiermacher. In his seminal lecture "On the Different Methods of Translation" (1813) he distinguished between translation methods that move "the writer toward [the reader]", i.e., transparency, and those that move the "reader toward [the author]", i.e., an extreme fidelity to the foreignness of the source text. Schleiermacher favored the latter approach; he was motivated, however, not so much by a desire to embrace the foreign, as by a nationalist desire to oppose France's cultural domination and to promoteGerman literature[citation needed].
In recent decades, prominent advocates of such "non-transparent" translation have included the French scholarAntoine Berman, who identified twelve deforming tendencies inherent in most prose translations,[36]and the American theoristLawrence Venuti, who has called on translators to apply "foreignizing" rather than domesticating translation strategies.[37]
The question offidelityvs.transparencyhas also been formulated in terms of, respectively, "formalequivalence" and "dynamic[orfunctional] equivalence" – expressions associated with the translatorEugene Nidaand originally coined to describe ways of translating theBible; but the two approaches are applicable to any translation. "Formal equivalence" corresponds to "metaphrase", and "dynamic equivalence" to "paraphrase". "Formal equivalence" (sought via "literal" translation) attempts to render the text literally, or "word for word" (the latter expression being itself a word-for-word rendering of theclassical Latinverbum pro verbo) – if necessary, at the expense of features natural to the target language. By contrast, "dynamic equivalence" (or "functionalequivalence") conveys the essential thoughts expressed in a source text—if necessary, at the expense of literality, originalsememeandword order, the source text's active vs. passivevoice, etc.
There is, however, no sharp boundary between formal and functional equivalence. On the contrary, they represent a spectrum of translation approaches. Each is used at various times and in various contexts by the same translator, and at various points within the same text – sometimes simultaneously. Competent translation entails the judicious blending of formal and functionalequivalents.[38]
Common pitfalls in translation, especially when practiced by inexperienced translators, involve false equivalents such as "false friends"[39]andfalse cognates.
In the practice of translation, thesource languageis the language being translated from, while thetarget language– also called thereceptor language[40][41]– is the language being translated into.[42]Difficulties in translating can arise fromlexicalandsyntacticaldifferences between the source language and the target language, which differences tend to be greater between two languages belonging to differentlanguage families.[43]
Often the source language is the translator'ssecond language, while the target language is the translator'sfirst language.[44]In some geographical settings, however, the source language is the translator's first language because not enough people speak the source language as a second language.[45]For instance, a 2005 survey found that 89% of professional Slovene translators translate into their second language, usually English.[45]In cases where the source language is the translator's first language, the translation process has been referred to by various terms, including "translating into a non-mother tongue", "translating into a second language", "inverse translation", "reverse translation", "service translation", and "translation from A to B".[45]The process typically begins with a full and in-depth analysis of the original text in the source language, ensuring full comprehension and understanding before the actual act of translating is approached.[46]
Translation for specialized or professional fields requires a working knowledge, as well, of the pertinent terminology in the field. For example, translation of a legal text requires not only fluency in the respective languages but also familiarity with the terminology specific to the legal field in each language.[47]
While the form and style of the source language often cannot be reproduced in the target language, the meaning and content can. LinguistRoman Jakobsonwent so far as to assert that all cognitive experience can be classified and expressed in any living language.[48]LinguistGhil'ad Zuckermannsuggests that the limits are not of translationper sebut rather ofeleganttranslation.[49]: 219
In translation, asource text(ST) is a text written in a given source language which is to be, or has been, translated into another language, while atarget text(TT) is a translated text written in the intended target language, which is the result of a translation from a given source text. According toJeremy Munday's definition of translation, "the process of translation between two different written languages involves the changing of an original written text (the source text or ST) in the original verbal language (the source language or SL) into a written text (the target text or TT) in a different verbal language (the target language or TL)".[50]The terms 'source text' and 'target text' are preferred over 'original' and 'translation' because they do not have the same positive vs. negative value judgment.
Translation scholars includingEugene NidaandPeter Newmarkhave represented the different approaches to translation as falling broadly into source-text-oriented or target-text-oriented categories.[51]
A "back-translation" is a translation of a translated text back into the language of the original text, made without reference to the original text. Comparison of a back-translation with the original text is sometimes used as a check on the accuracy of the original translation, much as the accuracy of a mathematical operation is sometimes checked by reversing the operation.[52]But the results of such reverse-translation operations, while useful as approximate checks, are not always precisely reliable.[53]Back-translation must in general be less accurate than back-calculation becauselinguisticsymbols (words) are oftenambiguous, whereas mathematical symbols are intentionally unequivocal. In the context of machine translation, a back-translation is also called a "round-trip translation." When translations are produced of material used in medicalclinical trials, such asinformed-consent forms, a back-translation is often required by theethics committeeorinstitutional review board.[54]
Mark Twainprovided humorously telling evidence for the frequent unreliability of back-translation when he issued his own back-translation of a French translation of hisshort story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". He published his back-translation in a 1903 volume together with his English-language original, the French translation, and a "Private History of the 'Jumping Frog' Story". The latter volumne included a synopsized adaptation of his story that Twain stated had appeared, unattributed to Twain, in a Professor Sidgwick'sGreek Prose Composition(p. 116) under the title, "The Athenian and the Frog"; the adaptation had for a time been taken for an independentancient Greekprecursor to Twain's "Jumping Frog" story.[55]
When a document survives only in translation, the original having been lost, researchers sometimes undertake back-translation in an effort to reconstruct the original text. An example involves the novelThe Saragossa Manuscriptby the Polish aristocratJan Potocki(1761–1815), who wrote the novel in French and anonymously published fragments in 1804 and 1813–14. Portions of the original French-language manuscript were subsequently lost; however, the missing fragments survived in a Polish translation, made byEdmund Chojeckiin 1847 from a complete French copy that has since been lost. French-language versions of the completeSaragossa Manuscripthave since been produced, based on extant French-language fragments and on French-language versions that have been back-translated from Chojecki's Polish version.[56]
Many works by the influentialClassicalphysicianGalensurvive only in medievalArabictranslation. Some survive only inRenaissance Latintranslations from the Arabic, thus at a second remove from the original. To better understand Galen, scholars have attempted back-translation of such works in order to reconstruct the originalGreek.[57]
When historians suspect that a document is actually a translation from another language, back-translation into that hypothetical original language can provide supporting evidence by showing that such characteristics asidioms,puns, peculiargrammaticalstructures, etc., are in fact derived from the original language. For example, the known text of theTill Eulenspiegelfolk tales is inHigh Germanbut contains puns that work only when back-translated toLow German. This seems clear evidence that these tales (or at least large portions of them) were originally written in Low German and translated into High German by an over-metaphrastictranslator.
Supporters ofAramaic primacy—the view that theChristianNew Testamentor its sources were originally written in theAramaic language—seek to prove their case by showing that difficult passages in the existingGreektext of the New Testament make much more sense when back-translated to Aramaic: that, for example, some incomprehensible references are in fact Aramaic puns that do not work in Greek. Due to similar indications, it is believed that the 2nd century GnosticGospel of Judas, which survives only inCoptic, was originally written in Greek.
John Dryden(1631–1700), the dominant English-language literary figure of his age, illustrates, in his use of back-translation, translators' influence on the evolution of languages and literary styles. Dryden is believed to be the first person to posit that English sentences should not end inprepositionsbecause Latin sentences cannot end in prepositions.[58][59]Dryden created the proscription against "preposition stranding" in 1672 when he objected toBen Jonson's 1611 phrase, "the bodies that those souls were frighted from", though he did not provide the rationale for his preference.[60]Dryden often translated his writing into Latin, to check whether his writing was concise and elegant, Latin being considered an elegant and long-lived language with which to compare; then he back-translated his writing back to English according to Latin-grammar usage. As Latin does not have sentences ending in prepositions, Dryden may have applied Latin grammar to English, thus forming the controversial rule ofno sentence-ending prepositions, subsequently adopted by other writers.[61][b]
Competent translators show the following attributes:
A competent translator is not only bilingual butbicultural. Alanguageis not merely a collection ofwordsand of rules ofgrammarandsyntaxfor generatingsentences, but also a vast interconnecting system ofconnotationsandculturalreferences whose mastery, writeslinguistMario Pei, "comes close to being a lifetime job."[63]The complexity of the translator's task cannot be overstated; one author suggests that becoming an accomplished translator—after having already acquired a good basic knowledge of both languages and cultures—may require a minimum of ten years' experience. Viewed in this light, it is a serious misconception to assume that a person who has fair fluency in two languages will, by virtue of that fact alone, be consistently competent to translate between them.[16]
Michael Wood, aPrinceton Universityemeritus professor, writes: "[T]ranslation, like language itself, involves contexts, conventions, class, irony, posture and many other regions wherespeech actshang out. This is why it helps to compare translations [of a given work]."[64]
Emily Wilson, a professor of classical studies at theUniversity of Pennsylvaniaand herself a translator, writes:
[I]t is [hard] to produce a good literary translation. This is certainly true of translations ofancient GreekandRomantexts, but it is also true of literary translation in general: it is very difficult. Most readers of foreign languages are not translators; most writers are not translators. Translators have to read and write at the same time, as if always playing multiple instruments in aone-person band. And most one-person bands do not sound very good.[65]
When in 1921, three years before his death, the English-language novelistJoseph Conrad– who had long had little contact with everyday spoken Polish – attempted to translate into EnglishBruno Winawer's short Polish-language play,The Book of Job, he predictably missed many crucial nuances of contemporary Polish language.[66]
The translator's role, in relation to the original text, has been compared to the roles of other interpretive artists, e.g., a musician or actor who interprets a work of musical or dramatic art. Translating, especially a text of any complexity (like other human activities[67]), involvesinterpretation: choices must be made, which implies interpretation.[13][c][d]Mark Polizzotti writes: "A good translation offers not a reproduction of the work but an interpretation, a re-representation, just as the performance of aplayor asonatais a representation of thescriptor thescore, one among many possible representations."[69]A translation of a text of any complexity is – as, itself, a work of art – unique and unrepeatable.
Conrad, whose writingsZdzisław Najderhas described as verging on "auto-translation" from Conrad's Polish and French linguistic personae,[70]advised his niece andPolishtranslatorAniela Zagórska:
[D]on't trouble to be too scrupulous ... I may tell you (in French) that in my opinionil vaut mieux interpréter que traduire[it is better to interpret than to translate] ...Il s'agit donc de trouver les équivalents. Et là, ma chère, je vous prie laissez vous guider plutôt par votre tempérament que par une conscience sévère ...[It is, then, a question of finding the equivalent expressions. And there, my dear, I beg you to let yourself be guided more by your temperament than by a strict conscience....]"[71]
Conrad advised another translator that the prime requisite for a good translation is that it be "idiomatic". "For in theidiomis theclearnessof a language and the language's force and its picturesqueness—by which last I mean the picture-producing power of arranged words."[72]Conrad thoughtC.K. Scott Moncrieff's English translation ofMarcel Proust'sÀ la recherche du temps perdu(In Search of Lost Time—or, in Scott Moncrieff's rendering,Remembrance of Things Past) to be preferable to the French original.[73][e]
Emily Wilson writes that "translation always involves interpretation, and [requires] every translator... to think as deeply as humanly possible about each verbal, poetic, and interpretativechoice."[74]
Daniel Mendelsohn, aclassicistatBard College, has similarly said, in an interview, that
a lot of people, when they think about translation, think you sit down with a dictionary and look at the text and get going, but you really have to have an interpretation.... You need to make a decision. I don’t think there’s any translation that is not also an interpretation. There’s no such thing as an absolutely transparent translation.[75]
Translation of other than the simplest brief texts requires painstakinglyclose readingof thesource textand the draft translation, so as to resolve the ambiguities inherent inlanguageand thereby toasymptoticallyapproach the most accurate rendering of the source text.[76]
Part of the ambiguity, for a translator, involves the structure of human language.Psychologistandneural scientistGary Marcusnotes that "virtually every sentence [that people generate] isambiguous, often in multiple ways. Our brain is so good at comprehending language that we do not usually notice."[77]An example of linguistic ambiguity is the "pronoun disambiguation problem" ("PDP"): a machine has no way of determining to whom or what apronounin a sentence—such as "he", "she" or "it"—refers.[78]Such disambiguation is not infallible by a human, either.
Ambiguity is a concern both to translators and – as the writings of poet and literary criticWilliam Empsonhave demonstrated – toliterary critics. Ambiguity may be desirable, indeed essential, inpoetryanddiplomacy; it can be more problematic in ordinaryprose.[79]
Individualexpressions–words,phrases,sentences– are fraught withconnotations. As Empson demonstrates, any piece of language seems susceptible to "alternative reactions", or as Joseph Conrad once wrote, "No English word has clean edges." All expressions, Conrad thought, carried so many connotations as to be little more than "instruments for exciting blurred emotions."[80]
Christopher Kasparekalso cautions that competent translation – analogously to the dictum, in mathematics, ofKurt Gödel'sincompleteness theorems– generally requires more information about the subject matter than is present in the actualsource text. Therefore, translation of a text of any complexity typically requires some research on the translator's part.[76]
A translator faces two contradictory tasks: when translating, to strive foromniscienceconcerning the text; and, when reviewing the resulting translation, to adopt the reader's unfamiliarity with it. Analogously, "[i]n the process, the translator is also constantly seesawing between the respective linguistic and cultural features of his two languages."[76]
Thus, writes Kasparek, "Translating a text of any complexity, like the performing of a musical or dramatic work, involvesinterpretation: choices must be made, which entails interpretation.Bernard Shaw, aspiring to felicitous understanding of literary works, wrote in the preface to his 1901 volume,Three Plays for Puritans: 'I would give half a dozen ofShakespeare's plays for one of the prefaces he ought to have written.'"[76]
It is due to the inescapable necessity of interpretation that –pacethe story about the 3rd century BCESeptuaginttranslations of some biblicalOld Testamentbooks fromHebrewintoKoine Greek– no two translations of a literary work, by different hands or by the same hand at different times, are likely to be identical. As has been observed – byLeonardo da Vinci?Paul Valéry?E.M. Forster?Pablo Picasso? by all of them? – "A work of art is never finished, only abandoned."[76]
Translators may render only parts of the original text, provided that they inform readers of that action. But a translator should not assume the role ofcensorand surreptitiously delete orbowdlerizepassages merely to please a political or moral interest.[81]
Translating has served as a school of writing for many an author, much as the copying of masterworks ofpaintinghas schooled many a novice painter.[82]A translator who can competently render an author's thoughts into the translator's own language, should certainly be able to adequately render, in his own language, any thoughts of his own. Translating (likeanalytic philosophy) compels precise analysis oflanguage elementsand of their usage. In 1946 the poetEzra Pound, then atSt. Elizabeth's Hospital, inWashington, D.C., advised a visitor, the 18-year-old beginning poetW.S. Merwin: "The work of translation is the best teacher you'll ever have."[83][f]Merwin, translator-poet who took Pound's advice to heart, writes of translation as an "impossible, unfinishable" art.[85]
A translator acts as a bridge between two languages and cultures. When he has completed the first draft of a translation, he stands at the bridge's midpoint. Only after he has fully converted the vocabulary, idioms, grammar, and syntax of the source text to those of the target language, does he arrive at the bridge's other end.
Translators, including monks who spreadBuddhisttexts inEast Asia, and the early modern European translators of the Bible, in the course of their work have shaped the very languages into which they have translated. They have acted as bridges for conveying knowledge betweencultures; and along with ideas, they have imported from the source languages, into their own languages, loanwords and calques ofgrammatical structures,idioms, andvocabulary.
Interpretingis the facilitation oforalorsign-languagecommunication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between two, or among three or more, speakers who are not speaking, or signing, the same language. The term "interpreting," rather than "interpretation," is preferentially used for this activity by Anglophone interpreters and translators, to avoid confusion with other meanings of the word "interpretation."
Unlike English, many languages do not employ two separate words to denote the activities ofwrittenand live-communication (oralorsign-language) translators.[g]Even English does not always make the distinction, frequently using "translating" as a synonym for "interpreting."
Interpreters have sometimes played crucial roles inhuman history. A prime example isLa Malinche, also known asMalintzin,MalinalliandDoña Marina, an early-16th-centuryNahuawoman from the MexicanGulf Coast. As a child she had been sold or given toMayaslave-traders from Xicalango, and thus had become bilingual. Subsequently, given along with other women to the invading Spaniards, she became instrumental in theSpanishconquest ofMexico, acting as interpreter, adviser, intermediary and lover toHernán Cortés.[87]
Nearly three centuries later, in theUnited States, a comparable role as interpreter was played for theLewis and Clark Expeditionof 1804–6 bySacagawea. As a child, theLemhi Shoshonewoman had been kidnapped byHidatsaIndians and thus had become bilingual. Sacagawea facilitated the expedition's traverse of theNorth American continentto thePacific Ocean.[88]
The famous Chinese man of lettersLin Shu(1852 – 1924), who knew no foreign languages, rendered Western literary classics into Chinese with the help of his friend Wang Shouchang (王壽昌), who had studied in France. Wang interpreted the texts for Lin, who rendered them into Chinese. Lin's first such translation, 巴黎茶花女遺事 (Past Stories of the Camellia-woman of Paris–Alexandre Dumas, fils's,La Dame aux Camélias), published in 1899, was an immediate success and was followed by many more translations from the French and the English.[89]
Sworn translation, also called "certified translation," aims at legal equivalence between two documents written in different languages. It is performed by someone authorized to do so by local regulations, which vary widely from country to country. Some countries recognize self-declared competence. Others require the translator to be an official state appointee. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, certain government institutions require that translators be accredited by certain translation institutes or associations in order to be able to carry out certified translations.
Many commercial services exist that will interpret spoken language via telephone. There is also at least one custom-built mobile device that does the same thing. The device connects users to human interpreters who can translate between English and 180 other languages.[90]
Web-based human translation is generally favored by companies and individuals that wish to secure more accurate translations. In view of the frequent inaccuracy of machine translations, human translation remains the most reliable, most accurate form of translation available.[91]With the recent emergence of translationcrowdsourcing,[92]translation memorytechniques, andinternetapplications,[citation needed]translation agencies have been able to provide on-demand human-translation services tobusinesses, individuals, and enterprises.
While not instantaneous like its machine counterparts such asGoogle TranslateandBabel Fish(now defunct), as of 2010 web-based human translation has been gaining popularity by providing relatively fast, accurate translation of business communications, legal documents, medical records, andsoftware localization.[93]Web-based human translation also appeals to private website users and bloggers.[94]Contents of websites are translatable but URLs of websites are not translatable into other languages. Language tools on the internet provide help in understanding text.
Computer-assisted translation (CAT), also called "computer-aided translation," "machine-aided human translation" (MAHT) and "interactive translation," is a form of translation wherein a human translator creates atarget textwith the assistance of a computer program. The machine supports a human translator.
Computer-assisted translation can include standarddictionaryand grammar software. The term, however, normally refers to a range of specialized programs available to the translator, including translation memory,terminology-management,concordance, and alignment programs.
These tools speed up and facilitate human translation, but they do not provide translation. The latter is a function of tools known broadly as machine translation. The tools speed up the translation process by assisting the human translator by memorizing or committing translations to a database (translation memory database) so that if the same sentence occurs in the same project or a future project, the content can be reused. This translation reuse leads to cost savings, better consistency and shorter project timelines.
Machine translation (MT) is a process whereby a computer program analyzes asource textand, in principle, produces a target text without human intervention. In reality, however, machine translation typically does involve human intervention, in the form of pre-editing andpost-editing.[95]With properterminologywork, with preparation of thesource textfor machine translation (pre-editing), and with reworking of the machine translation by a human translator (post-editing), commercial machine-translation tools can produce useful results, especially if the machine-translation system is integrated with a translation memory ortranslation management system.[96]
Unedited machine translation is publicly available through tools on theInternetsuch asGoogle Translate,Almaany,[97]Babylon,DeepL Translator, andStarDict. These produce rough translations that, under favorable circumstances, approximate the meaning of the source text. With the Internet, translation software can help non-native-speaking individuals understand web pages published in other languages. Whole-page-translation tools are of limited utility, however, since they offer only a limited potential understanding of the original author's intent and context; translated pages tend to be more erroneously humorous and confusing than enlightening.
Interactive translations withpop-up windowsare becoming more popular. These tools show one or more possible equivalents for each word or phrase. Human operators merely need to select the likeliest equivalent as the mouse glides over the foreign-language text. Possible equivalents can be grouped by pronunciation. Also, companies such asEctacoproduce pocket devices that provide machine translations.
Relying exclusively on unedited machine translation, however, ignores the fact that communication inhuman languageiscontext-embedded and that it takes a person to comprehend the context of the original text with a reasonable degree of probability. It is certainly true that even purely human-generated translations are prone to error; therefore, to ensure that a machine-generated translation will be useful to a human being and that publishable-quality translation is achieved, such translations must be reviewed and edited by a human.[h]Claude Pironwrites that machine translation, at its best, automates the easier part of a translator's job; the harder and more time-consuming part usually involves doing extensive research to resolveambiguitiesin thesource text, which thegrammaticalandlexicalexigencies of the target language require to be resolved.[99]Such research is a necessary prelude to the pre-editing necessary in order to provide input for machine-translation software, such that the output will not bemeaningless.[95]
The weaknesses of pure machine translation, unaided by human expertise, arethose of artificial intelligence itself.[100]As of 2018, professional translator Mark Polizzotti held that machine translation, byGoogle Translateand the like, was unlikely to threaten human translators anytime soon, because machines would never grasp nuance andconnotation.[101]Writes Paul Taylor: "Perhaps there is a limit to what a computer can do without knowing that it is manipulating imperfect representations of an external reality."[102]
Gary Marcusnotes that a so far insuperable stumbling block to artificial intelligence is an incapacity for reliabledisambiguation. "[V]irtually every sentence [that people generate] isambiguous, often in multiple ways." A prominent example is known as the "pronoun disambiguation problem": a machine has no way of determining to whom or what apronounin a sentence—such as "he", "she" or "it"—refers.[103]
James Gleickwrites: "Agencyis what distinguishes us from machines. For biological creatures,reasonandpurposecome from acting in the world and experiencing the consequences. Artificial intelligences – disembodied, strangers to blood, sweat, and tears – have no occasion for that."[104]
Translation ofliterary works(novels,short stories,plays,poems, etc.) is considered a literary pursuit in its own right. Notable inCanadian literaturespecificallyas translators are figures such asSheila Fischman,Robert Dickson, andLinda Gaboriau; and the CanadianGovernor General's Awardsannually present prizes for the best English-to-French and French-to-English literary translations.
Other writers, among many who have made a name for themselves as literary translators, includeVasily Zhukovsky,Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński,Vladimir Nabokov,Jorge Luis Borges,Robert Stiller,Lydia Davis,Haruki Murakami,Achy Obejas, andJhumpa Lahiri.
In the 2010s a substantial gender imbalance was noted in literary translation into English,[105]with far more male writers being translated than women writers. In 2014 Meytal Radzinski launched theWomen in Translationcampaign to address this.[106][107][108]
The first important translation in the West was that of theSeptuagint, a collection ofJewishScriptures translated into earlyKoine GreekinAlexandriabetween the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. The dispersed Jews had forgotten their ancestral language and needed Greek versions (translations) of their Scriptures.[109]
Throughout theMiddle Ages, Latin was thelingua francaof the western learned world. The 9th-centuryAlfred the Great, king ofWessexinEngland, was far ahead of his time in commissioningvernacularAnglo-Saxontranslations ofBede'sEcclesiastical HistoryandBoethius'Consolation of Philosophy. Meanwhile, theChristian Churchfrowned on even partial adaptations ofSt. Jerome'sVulgateofc.384 CE,[110]the standard Latin Bible.
InAsia, the spread ofBuddhismled to large-scale ongoing translation efforts spanning well over a thousand years. TheTangut Empirewas especially efficient in such efforts; exploiting the then newly inventedblock printing, and with the full support of the government (contemporary sources describe the Emperor and his mother personally contributing to the translation effort, alongside sages of various nationalities), the Tanguts took mere decades to translate volumes that had taken theChinesecenturies to render.[citation needed]
TheArabsundertooklarge-scale efforts at translation. Having conquered theGreekworld, they made Arabic versions of its philosophical and scientific works. During the Middle Ages, translations of some of these Arabic versionswere made into Latin, chiefly atCórdobainSpain.[111]KingAlfonso X the WiseofCastilein the 13th century promoted this effort by founding aSchola Traductorum(School of Translation) inToledo. There Arabic texts, Hebrew texts, and Latin texts were translated into the other tongues by Muslim, Jewish, and Christian scholars, who also argued the merits of their respective religions. Latin translations of Greek and original Arab works of scholarship and science helped advance EuropeanScholasticism, and thus European science and culture.
The broad historic trends in Western translation practice may be illustrated on the example of translation into the English language.
The first fine translations into English were made in the 14th century byGeoffrey Chaucer, who adapted from theItalianofGiovanni Boccaccioin his ownKnight's TaleandTroilus and Criseyde; began a translation of the French-languageRoman de la Rose; and completed a translation of Boethius from the Latin. Chaucer founded an Englishpoetictradition onadaptationsand translations from those earlier-establishedliterary languages.[111]
The first great English translation was theWycliffe Bible(c.1382), which showed the weaknesses of an underdeveloped Englishprose. Only at the end of the 15th century did the great age of English prose translation begin withThomas Malory'sLe Morte d'Arthur—an adaptation ofArthurian romancesso free that it can, in fact, hardly be called a true translation. The first greatTudortranslations are, accordingly, theTyndale New Testament(1525), which influenced theAuthorized Version(1611), andLord Berners' version ofJean Froissart'sChronicles(1523–25).[111]
Meanwhile, inRenaissanceItaly, a new period in the history of translation had opened inFlorencewith the arrival, at the court ofCosimo de' Medici, of theByzantinescholarGeorgius Gemistus Plethoshortly before the fall ofConstantinopleto the Turks (1453). A Latin translation ofPlato's works was undertaken byMarsilio Ficino. This andErasmus' Latin edition of theNew Testamentled to a new attitude to translation. For the first time, readers demanded rigor of rendering, as philosophical and religious beliefs depended on the exact words of Plato,AristotleandJesus.[111]
Non-scholarly literature, however, continued to rely onadaptation.France'sPléiade, England's Tudor poets, and theElizabethantranslators adapted themes byHorace,Ovid,Petrarchand modern Latin writers, forming a new poetic style on those models. The English poets and translators sought to supply a new public, created by the rise of amiddle classand the development ofprinting, with works such as the original authorswould have written, had they been writing in England in that day.[111]
The Elizabethan period of translation saw considerable progress beyond mere paraphrase toward an ideal ofstylisticequivalence, but even to the end of this period, which actually reached to the middle of the 17th century, there was no concern forverbalaccuracy.[112]
In the second half of the 17th century, the poet John Dryden sought to makeVirgilspeak "in words such as he would probably have written if he were living and an Englishman". As great as Dryden's poem is, however, one is reading Dryden, and not experiencing the Roman poet's concision. Similarly,Homerarguably suffers fromAlexander Pope's endeavor to reduce the Greek poet's "wild paradise" to order. Both works live on as worthyEnglishepics, more than as a point of access to the Latin or Greek.[112]
Throughout the 18th century, the watchword of translators was ease of reading. Whatever they did not understand in a text, or thought might bore readers, they omitted. They cheerfully assumed that their own style of expression was the best, and that texts should be made to conform to it in translation. For scholarship they cared no more than had their predecessors, and they did not shrink from making translations from translations in third languages, or from languages that they hardly knew, or—as in the case ofJames Macpherson's "translations" ofOssian—from texts that were actually of the "translator's" own composition.[112]
The 19th century brought new standards of accuracy and style. In regard to accuracy, observes J.M. Cohen, the policy became "the text, the whole text, and nothing but the text", except for anybawdypassages and the addition of copious explanatoryfootnotes.[i]In regard to style, theVictorians' aim, achieved through far-reaching metaphrase (literality) orpseudo-metaphrase, was to constantly remind readers that they were reading aforeignclassic. An exception was the outstanding translation in this period,Edward FitzGerald'sRubaiyatofOmar Khayyam(1859), which achieved its Oriental flavor largely by using Persian names and discreet Biblical echoes and actually drew little of its material from the Persian original.[112]
In advance of the 20th century, a new pattern was set in 1871 byBenjamin Jowett, who translated Plato into simple, straightforward language. Jowett's example was not followed, however, until well into the new century, when accuracy rather than style became the principal criterion.[112]
As a language evolves, texts in an earlier version of the language—original texts, or old translations—may become difficult for modern readers to understand. Such a text may therefore be translated into more modern language, producing a "modern translation" (e.g., a "modern English translation" or "modernized translation").
Such modern rendering is applied either to literature from classical languages such as Latin or Greek, notably to the Bible (see "Modern English Bible translations"), or to literature from an earlier stage of the same language, as with the works ofWilliam Shakespeare(which are largely understandable by a modern audience, though with some difficulty) or withGeoffrey Chaucer'sMiddle-EnglishCanterbury Tales(which is understandable to most modern readers only through heavy dependence on footnotes). In 2015 theOregon Shakespeare Festivalcommissioned professional translation of the entire Shakespeare canon, including disputed works such asEdward III,[113]into contemporary vernacular English; in 2019, off-off-Broadway, the canon was premiered in a month-long series of staged readings.[114]
Modern translation is applicable to any language with a long literary history. For example, in Japanese the 11th-centuryTale of Genjiis generally read in modern translation (see "Genji:modern readership").
Modern translation often involves literary scholarship and textual revision, as there is frequently not one single canonical text. This is particularly noteworthy in the case of the Bible and Shakespeare, where modern scholarship can result in substantive textual changes.
Anna Northwrites: "Translating the long-dead languageHomerused — a variant ofancient Greekcalled Homeric Greek — into contemporary English is no easy task, and translators bring their own skills, opinions, and stylistic sensibilities to the text. The result is that every translation is different, almost a new poem in itself." An example isEmily Wilson's 2017 translation of Homer'sOdyssey, where by conscious choice Wilson "lays bare the morals of its time and place, and invites us to consider how different they are from our own, and how similar."[115]
Modern translation meets with opposition from some traditionalists. In English, some readersprefertheAuthorized King James Versionof the Bible to modern translations, and Shakespeare in the original ofc.1600to modern translations.
An opposite process involves translating modern literature into classical languages, for the purpose ofextensive reading(for examples, see "List of Latin translations of modern literature").
Views on the possibility of satisfactorily translating poetry show a broad spectrum, depending partly on the degree of latitude desired by the translator in regard to a poem's formal features (rhythm, rhyme, verse form, etc.), but also relating to how much of the suggestiveness and imagery in the host poem can be recaptured or approximated in the target language. In his 1997 bookLe Ton beau de Marot,Douglas Hofstadterargued that a good translation of a poem must convey as much as possible not only of its literal meaning but also of its form and structure (meter, rhyme or alliteration scheme, etc.).[116]
TheRussian-bornlinguistandsemioticianRoman Jakobson, however, had in his 1959 paper "On Linguistic Aspects of Translation", declared that "poetry by definition [is] untranslatable".Vladimir Nabokov, another Russian-born author, took a view similar to Jakobson's. He considered rhymed, metrical, versed poetry to be in principle untranslatable and therefore rendered his 1964 English translation ofAlexander Pushkin'sEugene Oneginin prose.
Hofstadter, inLe Ton beau de Marot, criticized Nabokov's attitude toward verse translation. In 1999 Hofstadter published his own translation ofEugene Onegin, in verse form.
However, a number of more contemporary literary translators of poetry lean towardAlexander von Humboldt's notion of language as a "third universe" existing "midway between the phenomenal reality of the 'empirical world' and the internalized structures of consciousness."[117]Perhaps this is what poetSholeh Wolpé, translator of the 12th-century Iranian epic poemThe Conference of the Birds, means when she writes:
Twelfth-century Persian and contemporary English are as different as sky and sea. The best I can do as a poet is to reflect one into the other. The sea can reflect the sky with its moving stars, shifting clouds, gestations of the moon, and migrating birds—but ultimately the sea is not the sky. By nature, it is liquid. It ripples. There are waves. If you are a fish living in the sea, you can only understand the sky if its reflection becomes part of the water. Therefore, this translation ofThe Conference of the Birds, while faithful to the original text, aims at its re-creation into a still living and breathing work of literature.[118]
PoetSherod Santoswrites: "The task is not to reproduce the content, but with the flint and the steel of one's own language to spark what Robert Lowell has called 'the fire and finish of the original.'"[119]According toWalter Benjamin:
While a poet's words endure in his own language, even the greatest translation is destined to become part of the growth of its own language and eventually to perish with its renewal. Translation is so far removed from being the sterile equation of two dead languages that of all literary forms it is the one charged with the special mission of watching over the maturing process of the original language and the birth pangs of its own.[120]
Gregory Hays, in the course of discussingRomanadapted translations ofancient Greek literature, makes approving reference to some views on the translating of poetry expressed byDavid Bellos, an accomplished French-to-English translator. Hays writes:
Among theidées reçues[received ideas] skewered by David Bellos is the old saw that "poetry is what gets lost in translation." The saying is often attributed toRobert Frost, but as Bellos notes, the attribution is as dubious as the idea itself. A translation is an assemblage of words, and as such it can contain as much or as little poetry as any other such assemblage. TheJapaneseeven have a word (chōyaku, roughly "hypertranslation") to designate a version that deliberately improves on the original.[121]
Book-title translations can be either descriptive or symbolic. Descriptive book titles, for exampleAntoine de Saint-Exupéry'sLe Petit Prince(The Little Prince), are meant to be informative, and can name the protagonist, and indicate the theme of the book. An example of a symbolic book title isStieg Larsson'sThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, whose original Swedish title isMän som hatar kvinnor(Men Who Hate Women). Such symbolic book titles usually indicate the theme, issues, or atmosphere of the work.
When translators are working with long book titles, the translated titles are often shorter and indicate the theme of the book.[122]
The translation of plays poses many problems such as the added element of actors, speech duration, translation literalness, and the relationship between the arts of drama and acting. Successful play translators are able to create language that allows the actor and the playwright to work together effectively.[123]Play translators must also take into account several other aspects: the final performance, varying theatrical and acting traditions, characters' speaking styles, modern theatrical discourse, and even the acoustics of the auditorium, i.e., whether certain words will have the same effect on the new audience as they had on the original audience.[124]
Audiences in Shakespeare's time were more accustomed than modern playgoers to actors having longer stage time.[125]Modern translators tend to simplify the sentence structures of earlier dramas, which included compound sentences with intricate hierarchies of subordinate clauses.[126][127]
In translating Chinese literature, translators struggle to find true fidelity in translating into the target language. InThe Poem Behind the Poem, Barnstone argues that poetry "can't be made to sing through a mathematics that doesn't factor in the creativity of the translator".[128]
A notable piece of work translated into English is theWen Xuan, an anthology representative of major works of Chinese literature. Translating this work requires a high knowledge of thegenrespresented in the book, such as poetic forms, various prose types including memorials, letters, proclamations, praise poems, edicts, and historical, philosophical and political disquisitions, threnodies and laments for the dead, and examination essays. Thus the literary translator must be familiar with the writings, lives, and thought of a large number of its 130 authors, making theWen Xuanone of the most difficult literary works to translate.[129]
Translation of a text that is sung in vocal music for the purpose of singing in another language—sometimes called "singing translation"—is closely linked to translation of poetry because most vocal music, at least in the Western tradition, is set toverse, especially verse in regular patterns withrhyme. (Since the late 19th century, musical setting ofproseandfree versehas also been practiced in someart music, though popular music tends to remain conservative in its retention ofstanzaicforms with or withoutrefrains.) A rudimentary example of translating poetry for singing is churchhymns, such as the Germanchoralestranslated into English byCatherine Winkworth.[j]
Translation of sung texts is generally much more restrictive than translation of poetry, because in the former there is little or no freedom to choose between a versified translation and a translation that dispenses with verse structure. One might modify or omit rhyme in a singing translation, but the assignment of syllables to specific notes in the original musical setting places great challenges on the translator. There is the option in prose sung texts, less so in verse, of adding or deleting a syllable here and there by subdividing or combining notes, respectively, but even with prose the process is almost like strict verse translation because of the need to stick as closely as possible to the original prosody of the sung melodic line.
Other considerations in writing a singing translation include repetition of words and phrases, the placement of rests and punctuation, the quality of vowels sung on high notes, and rhythmic features of the vocal line that may be more natural to the original language than to the target language. A sung translation may be considerably or completely different from the original, thus resulting in acontrafactum.
Translations of sung texts—whether of the above type meant to be sung or of a more or less literal type meant to be read—are also used as aids to audiences, singers and conductors, when a work is being sung in a language not known to them. The most familiar types are translations presented as subtitles orsurtitlesprojected duringoperaperformances, those inserted into concert programs, and those that accompany commercial audio CDs of vocal music. In addition, professional and amateur singers often sing works in languages they do not know (or do not know well), and translations are then used to enable them to understand the meaning of the words they are singing.
An important role in history has been played by translation of religious texts. Such translations may be influenced by tension between the text and the religious values the translators wish to convey.[130]For example,Buddhistmonkswho translated theIndiansutrasintoChineseoccasionally adjusted their translations to better reflectChina's distinctculture, emphasizing notions such asfilial piety.
One of the first recorded instances of translation in the West was the 3rd century BCE rendering of some books of the biblicalOld Testamentfrom Hebrew intoKoine Greek. The translation is known as the "Septuagint", a name that refers to the supposedly seventy translators (seventy-two, in some versions) who were commissioned to translate the Bible atAlexandria, Egypt. According to legend, each translator worked in solitary confinement in his own cell, and all seventy versions proved identical. TheSeptuagintbecame thesource textfor later translations into many languages, including Latin,Coptic,Armenian, andGeorgian.
Still considered one of the greatest translators in history, for having rendered the Bible into Latin, isJerome(347–420 CE), thepatron saintof translators. For centuries theRoman Catholic Churchused his translation (known as theVulgate), though even this translation stirred controversy. By contrast with Jerome's contemporary,Augustine of Hippo(354–430 CE), who endorsed precise translation, Jerome believed in adaptation, and sometimes invention, in order to more effectively bring across the meaning. Jerome's colorful Vulgate translation of the Bible includes some crucial instances of "overdetermination". For example,Isaiah's prophecy announcing that the Savior will be born of a virgin, uses the word 'almah, which is also used to describe the dancing girls atSolomon's court, and simply means young and nubile. Jerome, writesMarina Warner, translates it asvirgo, "adding divine authority to the virulent cult ofsexualdisgust that shaped Christian moral theology (the [Moslem]Quran, free from this linguistic trap, does not connectMariam/Mary's miraculous nature with moral horror of sex)." The apple thatEveoffered toAdam, according to Mark Polizzotti, could equally well have been anapricot, orange, or banana; but Jerome liked thepunmalus/malum(apple/evil).[33]
Pope Francishas suggested that the phrase "lead us not into temptation", in theLord's Prayerfound in theGospels of Matthew(the first Gospel, writtenc.80–90 CE) andLuke(the third Gospel, writtenc.80–110 CE), should more properly be translated, "do not let us fall into temptation", commenting that God does not lead people into temptation—Satandoes.[k]Some important early Christian authors interpreted the Bible's Greek text andJerome's Latin Vulgate similarly to Pope Francis. A.J.B. Higgins[132]in 1943 showed that among the earliest Christian authors, the understanding and even the text of this devotional verse underwent considerable changes. These ancient writers suggest that, even if the Greek and Latin texts are left unmodified, something like "do not let us fall" could be an acceptable English rendering. Higgins citedTertullian, the earliest of the LatinChurch Fathers(c.155– c.240 CE, "do not allow us to be led") andCyprian(c.200–258 CE, "do not allow us to be led into temptation"). A later author,Ambrose(c.340–397 CE), followed Cyprian's interpretation. Augustine of Hippo (354–430), familiar with Jerome's Latin Vulgate rendering, observed that "many people... say it this way: 'and do not allow us to be led into temptation.'"[133]
In 863 CE the brothersSaints Cyril and Methodius, theByzantine Empire's "Apostles to the Slavs", began translating parts of the Bible into theOld Church Slavoniclanguage, using theGlagolitic scriptthat they had devised, based on theGreek alphabet.
The periods preceding and contemporary with theProtestant Reformationsaw translations of the Bible intovernacular(local) European languages—a development that contributed toWestern Christianity's split into Roman Catholicism andProtestantismover disparities between Catholic and Protestant renderings of crucial words and passages (and due to a Protestant-perceived need to reform the Roman Catholic Church). Lasting effects on the religions, cultures, and languages of their respective countries were exerted by such Bible translations asMartin Luther's into German (theNew Testament, 1522),Jakub Wujek's into Polish (1599, as revised by theJesuits), andWilliam Tyndale's version(New Testament, 1526 and revisions) and theKing James Versioninto English (1611).
Efforts to translate the Bible into English had theirmartyrs.William Tyndale(c.1494–1536) was convicted ofheresyatAntwerp, was strangled to death while tied at the stake, and then his dead body was burned.[134]Earlier,John Wycliffe(c.mid-1320s– 1384) had managed to die a natural death, but 30 years later theCouncil of Constancein 1415 declared him a heretic and decreed that his works and earthly remains should be burned; the order, confirmed byPope Martin V, was carried out in 1428, and Wycliffe's corpse was exhumed and burned and the ashes cast into theRiver Swift. Debate and religiousschismover different translations of religious texts continue, as demonstrated by, for example, theKing James Only movement.
A famousmistranslationof aBiblicaltext is the rendering of the Hebrew wordקֶרֶן(keren), which has several meanings, as "horn" in a context where it more plausibly means "beam of light": as a result, for centuries artists, including sculptorMichelangelo, have renderedMoses the Lawgiverwith horns growing from his forehead.
Such fallibility of the translation process has contributed to theIslamicworld's ambivalence about translating theQuran(also spelledKoran) from the original Arabic, as received by the prophetMuhammadfromAllah(God) through the angelGabrielincrementally between 609 and 632 CE, the year of Muhammad's death. During prayers, theQuran, as the miraculous and inimitable word of Allah, is recited only in Arabic. However, as of 1936, it had been translated into at least 102 languages.[135]
A fundamental difficulty in translating theQuranaccurately stems from the fact that an Arabic word, like a Hebrew or Aramaic word, may have arange of meanings, depending oncontext. This is said to be a linguistic feature, particularly of allSemitic languages, that adds to the usual similar difficulties encountered in translating between any two languages.[135]There is always an element of human judgment—of interpretation—involved in understanding and translating a text. Muslims regard any translation of theQuranas but one possible interpretation of theQuranic (Classical) Arabictext, and not as a full equivalent of that divinely communicated original. Hence such a translation is often called an "interpretation" rather than a translation.[136]
To complicate matters further, as with other languages, the meanings and usages of some expressions have changedover time, between the Classical Arabic of theQuran, and modern Arabic. Thus a modern Arabic speaker may misinterpret the meaning of a word or passage in theQuran. Moreover, the interpretation of a Quranic passage will also depend on the historic context of Muhammad's life and of his early community. Properly researching that context requires a detailed knowledge ofhadithandsirah, which are themselves vast and complex texts. Hence, analogously to the translating ofChinese literature, an attempt at an accurate translation of theQuranrequires a knowledge not only of the Arabic language and of the target language, including their respective evolutions, but also a deep understanding of the twoculturesinvolved.
Experimental literature, such asKathy Acker’s novelDon Quixote(1986) andGiannina Braschi’s novelYo-Yo Boing!(1998), features a translative writing that highlights discomforts of the interlingual and translingual encounters and literary translation as a creative practice.[137][138]These authors weave their own translations into their texts.
Acker'sPostmodernfiction both fragments and preserves the materiality ofCatullus’s Latin text in ways that tease out its semantics and syntax without wholly appropriating them, a method that unsettles the notion of any fixed and finished translation.[137]
Whereas Braschi's trilogy of experimental works (Empire of Dreams, 1988;Yo-Yo Boing!, 1998, andUnited States of Banana, 2011) deals with the very subject of translation.[139]Her trilogy presents the evolution of the Spanish language through loose translations of dramatic, poetic, and philosophical writings from the Medieval,Golden Age, andModernisteras into contemporary Caribbean, Latin American, and Nuyorican Spanish expressions. Braschi's translations of classical texts in Iberian Spanish (into other regional and historical linguistic and poetic frameworks) challenge the concept of national languages.[140]
Science fictionbeing agenrewith a recognizable set of conventions and literary genealogies, in which language often includesneologisms, neosemes,[clarification needed]andinvented languages, techno-scientific andpseudoscientificvocabulary,[141]and fictional representation of the translation process,[142][143]the translation of science-fiction texts involves specific concerns.[144]The science-fiction translator tends to acquire specific competences and assume a distinctive publishing and cultural agency.[145][146]As in the case of other mass-fiction genres, this professional specialization and role often is not recognized by publishers and scholars.[147]
Translation of science fiction accounts for the transnational nature of science fiction's repertoire of shared conventions andtropes. AfterWorld War II, many European countries were swept by a wave of translations from the English.[148][149]Due to the prominence of English as a source language, the use ofpseudonymsandpseudotranslationsbecame common in countries such as Italy[144]and Hungary,[150]and English has often been used as avehicular languageto translate from languages such as Chinese and Japanese.[151]
More recently, the international market in science-fiction translations has seen an increasing presence of source languages other than English.[151]
Technical translation renders documents whose useful lives are often limited – such as manuals, instruction sheets, internal memos, minutes, and financial reports – for a limited audience who are directly affected by the document. Thus, a user guide for a particular model of refrigerator is useful only for the refrigerator's owner and will remain useful only so long as that refrigerator model is in use. Similarly, software documentation generally pertains to a particular software, whose applications are used only by a certain class of users.[152]
Some translators need to entrust letters, debates, and similar texts in other languages and specialized fields to other translators in order to enhance the completeness of their work. For example, in the bookTarikh-e Alam-ara-ye Abbasithe translator collaborated with an Ottoman Turkish translator and a specialist in Islamic sciences to translate the work into English.[153]Some translators also need to travel to different countries for accurate translation and identification of geographical names. They sometimes seek assistance from specialists to read and translate certain difficult and illegible historical texts.[153]
Asurveyquestionnaireconsists of a list of questions and answer categories aimed at extracting data from a particular group of people about their attitude, behavior, or knowledge. In cross-national and cross-culturalsurvey research, translation is crucial to collecting comparable data.[154][155]Originally developed for theEuropean Social Surveys, the model TRAPD (Translation, Review, Adjudication, Pretest, and Documentation) is now "widely used in the global survey research community, although not always labeled as such or implemented in its complete form".[156][157][158]
A team approach is recommended in the survey-translation process, to include translators, subject-matter experts, and persons helpful to the process.[159]For example, even when project managers and researchers do not speak the language of the translation, they know the study objectives well and the intent behind the questions, and therefore have a key role in improving the translation.[160]In addition, a survey-translation framework based onsociolinguisticsstates that a linguistically appropriate translation cannot be wholly sufficient to achieve the communicative effect of the source-language survey; the translation must also incorporate the social practices and cultural norms of the target language.[161]
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Neoclassical compoundsarecompound wordscomposed from combining forms (which act asaffixesorstems) derived fromclassical languages(classical Latinorancient Greek)roots.Neo-Latincomprises many such words and is a substantial component of thetechnicalandscientificlexiconofEnglishand other languages, viainternational scientific vocabulary(ISV). For example, Greekbio-combines with-graphyto formbiography("life" + "writing/recording").
Neoclassical compounds represent a significant source ofNeo-Latinvocabulary. Moreover, since these words are composed fromclassical languageswhose prestige is or was respected throughout the Western European culture, these words typically appear in many different languages. Their widespread use makestechnical writinggenerally accessible to readers who may only have a smattering of the language in which it appears.
Not all European languages have been equally receptive to neoclassical technical compounds.GermanandRussian, for instance, have historically attempted to create their own technical vocabularies from native elements. Usually, these creations are German and Russiancalqueson the international vocabulary, such asWasserstoffand "водород" (vodoród) forhydrogen. Like any exercise inlanguage prescription, this endeavour has been only partially successful, so while official German may still speak of aFernsprecher, publictelephoneswill be labelled with the internationally recognizedTelefon.
These words are compounds formed from Latin and Ancient Greek root words. Ancient Greek words are almost invariably romanized (seetransliteration of Ancient Greek into English). In English:
Thus, for example, Ancient Greekσφιγξbecomes English (and Latin)sphinx. Exceptions to these romanizing rules occur, such asleukemia(leukaemia); compareleukocyte, alsoleucocyte. In Latin, and in the target languages, the Greek vowels are given their neoclassical values rather than their contemporary values indemotic Greek.
Ancient Greek words often containconsonant clusterswhich are foreign to thephonologyof contemporary English and other languages that incorporate these words into their lexicon:diphthong;pneumatology,phthisis. The traditional response in English is to treat the unfamiliar cluster as containing one or moresilent lettersand suppress their pronunciation, moremodernspeakers tend to try and pronounce the unusual cluster. This adds to the irregularities ofEnglish spelling; moreover, since many of these words are encountered in writing more often than they are heard spoken, it introduces uncertainty as to how to pronounce them when encountered.
Neoclassical compounds frequently vary their stressed syllable whensuffixesare added:ágriculture, agricúltural.This also gives rise to uncertainty when these words are encountered in print. Once a classical compound has been created andborrowed, it typically becomes the foundation of a whole series of related words: e.g.astrology, astrological, astrologer/astrologist/astrologian, astrologism.
Mainstream medical and ISV pronunciation in English is not the same asClassical Latinpronunciation. LikeEcclesiastical Latin, it has a regularity of its own, and individual sounds can be mapped or compared. Although the Classical Latin pronunciation ofvenae cavaewould be approximately/ˈwɛnaɪˈkɑːwaɪ/, the standard English medical pronunciation is/ˈviːniːˈkeɪviː/.
English began incorporating many of these words in the sixteenth century;geographyfirst appeared in an English text in 1535. Other early adopted words that still survive includemystagogue, from the 1540s, andandrogyne, from the 1550s. The use of these technical terms predates thescientific method; the several varieties ofdivinationall take their names from neoclassical compounds, such asalectryomancy, divination by the pecking ofchickens.
Not all English writers have been friendly to the inflow of classical vocabulary. The Tudor period writer SirJohn Chekewrote:
I am of this opinion that our own tung should be written cleane and pure, unmixt and unmangeled with borrowing of other tunges; wherein if we take not heed by tiim, ever borowing and never paying, she shall be fain to keep her house as bankrupt.
and therefore rejected what he called "inkhorn terms".
Similar sentiments moved the nineteenth century authorWilliam Barnesto write "pure English," in which he avoided Greco-Latin words and foundAnglo-Saxonequivalents for them: for Barnes, the newly invented art of thephotographbecame asun-print. Unlike this one, some of Barnes's coinages caught on, such asforeword, Barnes's replacement for theprefaceof a book. Later,Poul Andersonwrote a jocular piece calledUncleftish Beholdingin aconstructed languagebased on English which others have called "Ander-Saxon"; this attempted to create a pure English vocabulary fornuclear physics. For more information, seeLinguistic purism in English.
Many such words, such asthermometer,dinosaur,rhinoceros, andrhododendron, are thoroughly incorporated into the English lexicon and are the ordinary words for their referents. Some are prone tocolloquialshortening;rhinocerosoften becomesrhino. Thebinomial nomenclatureoftaxonomyandbiologyis a major source for these items of vocabulary; for many unfamiliar species that lack a common English name, the name of thegenusbecomes the English word for that life form.
In themetric system, prefixes that indicatemultipliersare typically Greek in origin, such askilogram, while those that indicatedivisorsare Latin, as inmillimeter: the base roots resemble Greek words, but in truth areneologisms. These metric and other suffixes are added to native English roots as well, resulting in creations such asgigabyte. Words of mixed Latin and Greek lineage, or words that combine elements of the classical languages with English – so-calledhybrid words– were formerly castigated as "barbarisms" byprescriptionistusage commentators; this disapproval has mostly abated. Indeed, in scientific nomenclature, even more exotic hybrids have appeared, such as for example the dinosaurYangchuanosaurus. Personalnamesappear in some scientific names such asFuchsia.
Neoclassical compounds are sometimes used to lend grandeur or the impression of scientific rigour to humble pursuits: the study ofcosmetologywill not help anyone become anastronaut. Compounds along these models are also sometimes coined for humorous effect, such asodontopodology, the science of putting your foot into your mouth. These humorous coinages sometimes take on a life of their own, such asgarbology, the study ofgarbage.
Some neoclassical compounds formclassical plurals, and are therefore irregular in English. Others do not, while some vacillate between classical and regular plurals.
There are hundreds of neoclassical compounds in English and other European languages. As traditionally defined, combining forms cannot stand alone as free words, but there are many exceptions to this rule, and in the late 20th century such forms are increasingly used independently:bioas a clipping ofbiography,tellyas a respelt clipping oftelevision. Most neoclassical combining forms translate readily into everyday language, especially nouns:bio-as 'life'-graphyas 'writing, description'.
Because of this, the compounds of which they are part (usuallyclassicalorlearned compounds) can be more or less straightforwardly paraphrased:biographyas 'writing about a life',neurologyas 'the study of the nervous system'. Many classical combining forms are designed to take initial or final position:autobiographyhas the two initial or preposed formsauto-andbio-, and one postposed form-graphy. Although most occupy one position or the other, some can occupy both:-graph-as ingraphologyandmonograph;-phil-as inphilologyandAnglophile. Occasionally, the same base is repeated in one word:logologythe study of words,phobophobiathe fear of fear.
Prefixes include:aero-air,crypto-hidden,demo-people,geo-earth,odonto-tooth,ornitho-bird,thalasso-sea. Many have both a traditional simple meaning and a modern telescopic meaning: inbiology,bio-means 'life', but inbio-degradableit telescopes 'biologically'; althoughhypno-basically means 'sleep' (hypnopaedialearning through sleep), it also stands for 'hypnosis' (hypnotherapycure through hypnosis).
When a form stands alone as a present-day word, it is usually a telescopic abbreviation:biobiography,chemochemotherapy,hydrohydroelectricity,metrometropolitan. Some telescoped forms are shorter than the original neoclassical combining form:gynieis shorter thangyneco-and stands for bothgynecologyandgynecologist;anthrois shorter thananthropo-and stands foranthropology.
Suffixes include:-ectomycutting out,-graphywriting, description,-kinesismotion,-logystudy,-mancydivination,-onymname,-phagyeating,-phonysound,-therapyhealing,-tomycutting. They are generally listed in dictionaries without the interfixed vowel, which appears however in such casual phrases as 'ologies and isms'.
Some classical combining forms are variants of one base.
Some are also free words, such asmaniaindipsomaniaandphobiainclaustrophobia.
Some are composites of other elements, such asencephalo-brain, fromen-in,-cephal-head; and-ectomycutting out, fromec-out,-tom-cut,-y, a noun-forming suffix that means "process of".
In Greek and Latin grammar, combining bases usually require a thematic or stem-forming vowel. Inbiography, from Greek, the thematic is -o-; inagriculture, from Latin, it is-i-. In English morphology, this vowel can be considered as aninterfix: in biology, the interfix-o-; inminiskirt, the interfix-i-. It is usually regarded as attached to the initial base (bio-,mini-) rather than the final base (-graphy,-skirt), but in forms where it is conventionallystressed, it is sometimes considered as part of the final base (-ography,-ology). If the final element begins with a vowel (for example,-archyas inmonarchy), the mediating vowel has traditionally been avoided (not *monoarchy), but in recent coinages it is often kept, sometimes accompanied by a hyphen (auto-analysis,bioenergy,hydroelectricity, not *autanalysis, *bienergy, *hydrelectricity).
Its presence helps to distinguish neoclassical compounds likebiographyandagriculturefrom vernacular compounds liketeapotandblackbird.[citation needed]
Generally, English has acquired its neoclassical compounds in three ways: through French from Latin and Greek, directly from Latin and Greek, and by coinage in English on Greek and Latin patterns. An exception isschizophrenia, which came into English through German, and is therefore pronounced 'skitso', not 'skyzo'.
Most dictionaries follow theOxford English Dictionaryin usingcombining form(comb. form) to label such classical elements. In appendices to dictionaries and grammar books, classical combining forms are often loosely referred to as roots or affixes: 'a logo …, properly speaking, is not a word at all but a prefix meaning word and short for logogram, a symbol, much as telly is short for television' (MontrealGazette, 13 Apr. 1981). They are often referred to as affixes because some come first and some come last. But if they wereaffixesproper, a word likebiographywould have no base whatever.
While affixes are grammatical (like prepositions), classical combining forms arelexical(like nouns, adjectives, and verbs): for example,bio-translates as a noun (life),-graphyas a verbal noun (writing). This is why some reference works also call themstems. They are also often loosely called roots because they are ancient and have a basic role in word formation, but functionally and often structurally they are distinct fromrootsproper: the-graphinautographis both a root and a classical combining form, while the-graphyincryptographyconsists of root-graph-and suffix-y, and is only a classical combining form.
From theRenaissanceuntil the mid-20th century, the concept of derivational purity has often regulated the use of classical compounds, with aphilologicalgoal of like with like (Greek with Greek, Latin with Latin) and a minimum ofhybridization. For example,biographyis Greek,agricultureLatin; but this ideal has seen only limited realization in practice, as for example the wordtelevisionis a hybrid of Greektele-and Latin-vision(probably so coined because the 'pure' formtelescopehad already been adopted for another purpose).
Generally, classical compounds were a closed system from the 16th century to the earlier 20th century: the people who used them wereclassically educated, their teachers and exemplars generally took a purist's view on their use, contexts of use were mainly technical, and there was relatively little seepage into the language at large. However, with the decline of classical education and the spread of technical and quasitechnical jargon in the media, a continuum has evolved, with at least five stages:
In the older sciences, classical combining forms are generally used to form such strictly classical and usually Greek compounds asanthocyanin,astrobleme,chemotherapy,chronobiology,cytokinesis,glossolalia,lalophobia,narcolepsy,osteoporosis,Pliohippus,sympathomimetic.
In technical, semitechnical, and quasitechnical usage at large, coiners of compounds increasingly treat Latin and Greek as one resource to produce such forms asaccelerometer,aero-generator,bioprospector,communicology,electroconductive,futurology,mammography,micro-gravity,neoliberal,Scientology,servomechanism.
In the later 20th century, many forms have cut loose from ancient moorings:crypto-as in preposedCrypto-Fascistandpseudo-as inpseudoradical; postposed-meterinspeedometer,clapometer. Processes of analogy have created coinages likepetrodollar,psycho-warfare,microwaveon such models aspetrochemical,psychology,microscope. Such stunt usages aseco-doom,eco-fears,eco-freaks, common in journalism, often employ classical combining forms telescopically:eco-standing forecologyandecologicaland not as used ineconomics. In such matters, precision of meaning is secondary to compactness and vividness of expression.
In recent years, the orthography of many word forms has changed, usually without affecting pronunciation and stress. The same spoken usage may be writtenmicro-missile,micro missile,micromissile, reflecting the same uncertainty or flexibility as inbusinessman,business-man,business man. When used in such ways, classical compounds are often telescopic:Hydro substationHydro-Electricity Board substation,Metro highwaysMetropolitan highways,porno cultpornography cult.
The mix of late 20th century techno-commercial coinages includes three groups of post- and non-classical forms:
In East Asia, a similar role to Latin and Greek has been played by Chinese, with non-Chinese languages both borrowing a significant number of words from Chinese and using morphemes borrowed from Chinese to coin new words, particularly in formal or technical language. SeeSino-Japanese vocabulary,Sino-Korean vocabulary, andSino-Vietnamese vocabularyfor discussion.
The coinage of new native terms on Chinese roots is most notable in Japanese, where it is referred to aswasei kango(和製漢語, Japanese-made Chinese-words). Many of these have been subsequently borrowed into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese, with the same (or corresponding) characters being pronounced differently according to language, just as happens in European languages – compare Englishbiologyand Frenchbiologie.
For example, 自動車 (Japanesejidōsha,Koreanjadongcha,Mandarinzìdòngchē) is a Japanese-coined word meaning "automobile", literally self-move-car; compare toauto(self) +mobile(moving).
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International scientific vocabulary(ISV) comprises scientific and specialized words whose language of origin may or may not be certain, but which are in current use in several modern languages (that is,translingually, whether innaturalized,loanword, orcalqueforms).
The name "international scientific vocabulary" was first used byPhilip GoveinWebster's Third New International Dictionary(1961).[1]As noted byDavid Crystal,[2]science is an especially productive field for new coinages. It is also especially predisposed to immediate translingual sharing of words owing to its very nature: scientists working in many countries and languages, reading each other's latest articles inscientific journals(via foreign language skills, translation help, or both), and eager to apply any reported advances to their own context.
According toWebster's Third, "some ISV words (likehaploid) have been created by taking a word with a rather general and simple meaning from one of the languages of antiquity, usuallyLatinandGreek, and conferring upon it a very specific and complicated meaning for the purposes of modernscientificdiscourse." An ISV word is typically aclassical compoundor a derivative which "gets only its raw materials, so to speak, from antiquity." Its morphology may vary across languages.
The online version of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (Merriam-Webster, 2002)[3]adds that the ISV "consists of words or other linguistic forms current in two or more languages" that "differ fromNew Latinin being adapted to the structure of the individual languages in which they appear."[4]In other words, ISV terms are often made with Greek, Latin, or othercombining forms, but each language pronounces the resulting neo-lexemeswithin its own phonemic "comfort zone", and makes morphological connections using its normal morphological system. In this respect, ISV can be viewed as heavily borrowingloanwordsfromNeo-Latin.
McArthur[5]characterizes ISV words and morphemes as "translinguistic", explaining that they operate "in many languages that serve as mediums for education, culture, science, and technology." Besides European languages, such as Russian, Swedish, English, and Spanish, ISV lexical items also function in Japanese, Malay, Philippine languages, and other Asian languages. According to McArthur, no other set of words and morphemes is so international.
It is not always practically relevant, to any concerns exceptphilologyand thehistory of science, which language any particular ISV term first appeared in, as its cognate naturalized counterparts in other languages are effectivelycoevalwith it for most practical scientific purposes, as well as being self-evidently equivalent insurface analysis. This characteristic is corollary to the very nature of science: it is predisposed to immediate translingual sharing of words, as scientists, working in many countries and languages, are perennially reading each other's latest articles inscientific journals(via foreign language skills, translation help, or both), and eager to apply any reported advances to their own context. This theme applies even regardless of whether each instance of scientific exchange is openly collaborative (as inopen science) or is driven byespionageorindustrial espionage(as for example regarding weapons systems development).
The ISV is one of the concepts behind the development and standardization of theconstructed languagecalledInterlingua. Scientific and medical terms in Interlingua are largely of Greco-Latin origin, but, like most Interlingua words, they appear in a wide range of languages. Interlingua's vocabulary is established using a group ofcontrol languagesselected as they radiate words into, and absorb words from, a large number of other languages. Aprototypingtechnique then selects the most recent common ancestor of each eligible Interlingua word or affix. The word or affix takes a contemporary form based on the control languages. This procedure is meant to give Interlingua the most generally international vocabulary possible.[6]
This is a list of scientific words andword rootswhich have different meanings from those in the original languages.
-stege
This is a list of scientific words andword rootswhich have one meaning from Latin and another meaning from Greek.
This is a list of other scientific words andword rootswhich have two meanings.
Another difference between scientific terms and classical Latin and Greek is that many compounded scientific terms do notelidetheinflectionvowel at the end of arootbefore another root or prefix that starts with a vowel, e.g.gastroenteritis; but elision happens ingastrectomy(not *gastroectomy).
The Greek wordτέρας(τέρατο-) = "monster" is usually used to mean "monster (abnormal)" (e.g.teratology, teratogen), but some biological names use it to mean "monster (enormous)" (e.g. the extinct animalsTeratornis(acondorwith a 12-foot wingspan) andTerataspis(atrilobite2 feet long)).
A feature affecting clarity in seeing a scientific word's components ishaplology, i.e. removing one of two identical or similar syllables that meet at the junction point of a compound word. Examples are:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_scientific_vocabulary
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The English language uses manyGreekandLatinroots,stems, andprefixes. These roots are listed alphabetically on three pages:
Some of those used inmedicineand medical technology are listed in theList of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_and_Latin_roots_in_English
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Sino-Japanese vocabulary, also known askango(Japanese:漢語,pronounced[kaŋɡo], "Hanwords"), is a subset of Japanese vocabulary that originated inChineseor was created from elements borrowed from Chinese. Most Sino-Japanese words were borrowed in the 5th–9th centuries AD, fromEarly Middle ChineseintoOld Japanese. Some grammatical structures and sentence patterns can also be identified as Sino-Japanese.
Kangois one of three broad categories into which the Japanese vocabulary is divided. The others are native Japanese vocabulary (yamato kotoba) and borrowings from other, mainly Western languages (gairaigo). It has been estimated that about 60% of the words contained in modern Japanese dictionaries arekango,[1]and that about 18–20% of words used in common speech arekango.[a]The usage of suchkangowords also increases in formal or literary contexts, and in expressions of abstract or complex ideas.[2]
Kango, the use of Chinese-derived words in Japanese, is to be distinguished fromkanbun, which is historicalLiterary Chinesewritten by Japanese in Japan. Bothkangoin modern Japanese and classicalkanbunhaveSino-xeniclinguistic and phonetic elements also found in Korean and Vietnamese: that is, they are "Sino-foreign", meaning that they are not pure Chinese but have been mixed with the native languages of their respective nations. Such words invented in Japanese, often with novel meanings, are calledwasei-kango. Many of them were created during theMeiji Restorationto translate non-Asian concepts and have beenreborrowedinto Chinese.
Kangois also to be distinguished fromgairaigoof Chinese origin, namely words borrowed from modern Chinese dialects, some of which may be occasionally spelled withChinese charactersorkanjijust likekango. For example,北京(Pekin, "Beijing") which was borrowed from a modern Chinese dialect, is notkango, whereas北京(Hokkyō, "Northern Capital", a name forKyoto), which was created with Chinese elements, iskango.
Ancient China's enormous political and economic influence in the region had a deep effect on Japanese,Korean,Vietnameseand otherAsian languagesinEastandSoutheast Asiathroughout history, in a manner somewhat similar to the preeminent position thatGreekandLatinhad in European history. For example, theMiddle Chineseword for gunpowder,Chinese:火藥(Late Middle Chinese pronunciation:[xwa˧˥jak]),[3]is rendered ashwayakin Korean, and askayakuin Japanese. At the time of their first contact, the existing Japanese language had no writing system, while the Chinese had a written language and a great deal of academic and scientific information, providing new concepts along with Chinese words to express them. Chinese became the language of science, learning, religion and government. The earliest written language to be used in Japan wasliterary Chinese, which has come to be calledkanbunin this context. Thekanbunwriting system essentially required every literate Japanese to be competent in written Chinese, although it is unlikely that many Japanese people were then fluent in spoken Chinese. Chinese pronunciation was approximated in words borrowed from Chinese into Japanese; this Sino-Japanese vocabulary is still an important component of the Japanese language, and may be compared to words of Latin or Greek origin in English.
Chinese borrowings also significantly influencedJapanese phonology, leading to many new developments such asclosed syllables(CV(N), not just CV) andlengthbecoming a phonetic feature with the development of bothlong vowelsandlong consonants. (SeeEarly Middle Japanese: Phonological developmentsfor details.)
Sino-Japanese words are almost exclusively nouns, of which many are verbal nouns or adjectival nouns, meaning that they can act as verbs or adjectives. Verbal nouns can be used as verbs by appendingsuru(する, "do")(e.g.benkyō suru(勉強する, do studying; study)), while an adjectival noun uses-na(〜な)instead of-no(〜の)(usual for nouns) when acting attributively.
In Japanese, verbs and adjectives (that is, inflecting adjectives) areclosed classes, and despite the large number of borrowings from Chinese, virtually none of these became inflecting verbs or adjectives, instead being conjugatedperiphrasticallyas above.
In addition to the basic verbal noun +suruform, verbal nouns with a single-character root often experienced sound changes, such as-suru(〜する)→-zuru(〜ずる)→-jiru(〜じる), as inkinjiru(禁じる, forbid), and some cases where the stem underwent a sound change, as intassuru(達する, reach), fromtatsu(達).
The termkangois usually identified withon'yomi(音読み, "sound reading"), a system of pronouncing Chinese characters in a way that at one point approximated the original Chinese. On'yomi is also known as the 'Sino-Japanese reading', and is opposed tokun'yomi(訓読み, "reading by meaning")under which Chinese characters are assigned to, and read as, native Japanese vocabulary.
However, there are cases where the distinction between on'yomi and kun'yomi does not correspond to etymological origin. Chinese characters created in Japan, calledkokuji(国字), normally only have kun'yomi, but some kokuji do have on'yomi. One such character is働(as in働くhataraku, "to work"), which was given the on'yomidō(from the on'yomi of itsphonetic component,動) when used in compounds with other characters, e.g. in労働rōdō("labor"). Similarly, the character腺("gland") has the on'yomisen(from the on'yomi of its phonetic component,泉sen"spring, fountain"), e.g. in扁桃腺hentōsen"tonsils"; it was intentionally created as akangoand does not have a kun'yomi at all. Although not originating in Chinese, both of these are regarded as 'Sino-Japanese'.
By the same token, that a word is the kun'yomi of a kanji is not a guarantee that the word is native to Japanese. There are a few Japanese words that, although they appear to have originated in borrowings from Chinese, have such a long history in the Japanese language that they are regarded as native and are thus treated as kun'yomi, e.g.,馬uma"horse" and梅ume. These words are not regarded as belonging to the Sino-Japanese vocabulary.
While much Sino-Japanese vocabulary was borrowed from Chinese, a considerable amount was created by the Japanese themselves as they coined new words using Sino-Japanese forms. These are known aswasei-kango(和製漢語, Japanese-createdkango); compare towasei-eigo(和製英語, Japanese-created English).
Many Japanese-createdkangorefer to uniquely Japanese concepts. Examples includedaimyō(大名),waka(和歌),haiku(俳句),geisha(芸者),chōnin(町人),matcha(抹茶),sencha(煎茶),washi(和紙),jūdō(柔道),kendō(剣道),Shintō(神道),shōgi(将棋),dōjō(道場),seppuku(切腹), andBushidō(武士道).
Another miscellaneous group of words were coined from Japanese phrases or crossed over fromkun'yomitoon'yomi. Examples includehenji(返事meaning 'reply', from native返り事kaerigoto'reply'),rippuku(立腹'become angry', based on腹が立つhara ga tatsu, literally 'belly/abdomen stands up'),shukka(出火'fire starts or breaks out', based on火が出るhi ga deru), andninja(忍者from忍びの者shinobi-no-monomeaning 'person of stealth'). In Chinese, the same combinations of characters are often meaningless or have a different meaning. Even a humble expression likegohan(ご飯or御飯'cooked rice') is a pseudo-kangoand not found in Chinese. One interesting example that gives itself away as a Japanese coinage iskaisatsu-guchi(改札口literally 'check ticket gate'), meaning the ticket barrier at a railway station.
More recently, the best-known example is the prolific numbers ofkangocoined during theMeijiera on the model of Classical Chinese to translate modern concepts imported from the West; when coined to translate a foreign term (rather than simply a new Japanese term), they are known asyakugo(訳語, translated word, equivalent). Often they use corresponding morphemes to the original term, and thus qualify ascalques. These terms include words for new technology, like電話denwa('telephone'), and words for Western cultural categories which the Sinosphere had no exact analogue of on account of partitioning thesemantic fieldsin question differently, such as科学kagaku('science'),社会shakai('society'), and哲学tetsugaku('philosophy'). While many terms were coined afresh (such as科学and哲学), many were repurposed classical Chinese compounds, whose meanings were tenuously similar to their western counterparts. Here are a few examples:
Notably, the names of the military ranks used throughout the Sinosphere were neither coined anew nor repurposed from Classical Chinese, but were based on the ranks under theRitsuryōgovernment. Certain military agencies, such as the Konoefu(近衛府), the Hyōefu(兵衛府)and the Emonfu(衛門府), were headed by officials titled withshō(将),sa(佐)andi(尉)(see the Japanese article,四等官), which later corresponded to "general officer", "senior officer" and "junior officer" in theImperial Japanese Armed Forcesand adopted by other militaries in China, Korea and Vietnam. See the articles for these ranks for more (Ranks of the Imperial Japanese Army,Comparative military ranks of Korea,Ranks of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force,Ranks of the People's Liberation Army Navy,Ranks of the People's Liberation Army Air Force,Republic of China Armed Forces rank insignia,Vietnamese military ranks and insignia).
Despite resistance from some contemporary Chinese intellectuals, manywasei kangowere "back-borrowed" into Chinese around the turn of the 20th century. Such words from that time are thoroughly assimilated into the Chinese lexicon, but translations of foreign concepts between the two languages now occur independently of each other.[4]These "back-borrowings" gave rise to Mandarindiànhuà(fromdenwa),kēxué(fromkagaku),shèhuì(fromshakai) andzhéxué(fromtetsugaku). Since the sources for thewasei kangoincluded ancient Chinese texts as well as contemporary English-Chinese dictionaries, some of the compounds—including文化bunka('culture', Mandarinwénhuà) and革命kakumei('revolution', Mandaringémìng)—might have been independently coined by Chinese translators, had Japanese writers not coined them first.[5]A similar process ofreborrowingoccurred in the modernGreek language, which took back words like τηλεγράφημαtelegrafíma('telegram') that were coined in English from Greek roots.[6]Many of these words have also been borrowed intoKoreanandVietnamese, forming (a modern Japanese) part of theirSino-KoreanandSino-Vietnamesevocabularies.
Alongside these translated terms, the foreign word may be directly borrowed as gairaigo. The resulting synonyms have varying use, usually with one or the other being more common. For example,野球yakyūandベースボールbēsubōruboth translate as 'baseball', where the yakugo野球is more common. By contrast,庭球teikyūandテニスtenisuboth translate as 'tennis', where the gairaigoテニスis more common. Note that neither of these is a calque – they translate literally as 'field ball' and 'garden ball'. ('Base' is塁rui, but塁球ruikyūis an uncommon term for 'softball', which itself is normallyソフトボールsofutobōru).
Finally, quite a few words appear to be Sino-Japanese but are varied in origin, written withateji(当て字)— kanji assigned without regard for etymology. In many cases, the characters were chosen only to indicate pronunciation. For example,sewa('care, concern') is written世話, using theon'yomi"se" + "wa" ('household/society' + 'talk'); although this word is not Sino-Japanese but a native Japanese word believed to derive fromsewashii, meaning 'busy' or 'troublesome'; the written form世話is simply an attempt to assign plausible-looking characters pronounced "se" and "wa". Otheratejiof this type include面倒mendō('face' + 'fall down' = 'bother, trouble') and野暮yabo('fields' + 'livelihood' = 'uncouth'). (The first gloss after each character roughly translates the kanji; the second is the meaning of the word in Japanese.)
On'yomiwere originally used inondoku(音読"sound reading"), the Japanese system for reading aloud texts in the Middle Chinese (MC) language. A huge number of loanwords entered the Japanese language from Middle Chinese, intermediated by these conventionalized pronunciations. There are different types ofon'yomifor Sino-Japanese vocabulary, depending mainly on the time period of borrowing.
Go-on(呉音"Wu sound") readings represent the first major wave of Chinese borrowing in the 5th and 6th centuries, coinciding with the introduction ofBuddhism in Japan. It is not agreed whether Go-on pronunciations are clearly derived from a particular dialect of Middle Chinese. Buddhist teachings along with the Chinese language were largely imported through the Korean peninsula, and it is unclear to what extent this fact influenced the Go-on pronunciations. Certain genres of modern vocabulary largely use Go-on readings, especially words related to Buddhism and law.
Kan-on(漢音"Han sound") readings were introduced in the 7th through 9th centuries during theTang dynasty, and are based on the central Chang'an pronunciation of Middle Chinese. While there was a large-scale effort to replace Go-on readings with Kan-on readings when pronouncing Chinese texts in Japan, this effort did not extend to changing the pronunciation of borrowed words that were already used in Japanese.[7]Massive borrowing of Chinese loanwords continued during this period, and these new borrowings reflected the new Kan-on readings. Today, Kan-on readings are the most commonly encountered type ofon'yomi.
Kan'yō-on(慣用音"customary sound") readings are not considered to follow the regular patterns for adapting either Go-on or Kan-on readings, but are commonly encountered in existing Sino-Japanese words. In some cases, the Kan'yō-on reading is in fact a regular development of the original Go or Kanon'yomiin a particular environment. For example,拉(MClop) has the Kan'yō-on reading /raQ/ (or /ra/) in all Sino-Japanese words, which is the regular development of earlier /rap(u)/ before a voiceless obstruent. A common irregularity for Kan'yō-on is an unexpected voicing value for an initial obstruent. For example,斬(MCtʂɛmX) is read in all Sino-Japanese words as /zaN/ rather than the expected Kan-on reading /saN/.
Tō-on/Sō-on(唐音"Tang sound" or宋音"Song sound") readings were introduced mostly from the 12th century onward, during and after theSong dynasty. "Tang" was in this context used to mean "Chinese" (i.e. "real Chinese pronunciation"), with no intended connection to the earlier Tang Dynasty.[7]Due to their more recent borrowing, Tō-on readings are sometimes more recognizably similar to Modern Chinese pronunciations. There are far fewer Sino-Japanese loanwords with Tō-on readings compared to Go-on and Kan-on readings. Dictionaries do not attempt to provide a Tō-on reading for each kanji as many do for Go-on and Kan-on readings.
Go-on and Kan-on readings have a special status when compared with otheron'yomitypes. Arising initially out of the need to be able to read any Chinese text aloud usingondoku, there is a long-standing practice of providing a Go and Kan reading for every kanji, even those which have never actually been used in borrowed Sino-Japanese vocabulary. The readings which are not actually encountered in Sino-Japanese loanwords were largely codified in theEdo periodthrough the philological study ofChinese rime tables.[8]These readings are given in many dictionaries, though for the less common kanji there is sometimes disagreement between sources.
All characters used to write Middle Chinese represented a single syllable in the spoken language, made up of an "initial" (a singleonsetconsonant), and arime(the remainder of the syllable). Originally, theon'yomifor kanji attempted to closely match the Middle Chinese pronunciation for each character, while guided by the possible sounds and structures of Japanese as spoken at the time. In fact a number of new word shapes entered the language to accommodate the large influx of Chinese borrowings. Subsequently, many sound changes took place in Japanese, affecting both borrowed and native vocabulary. As such,on'yominow often bear little resemblance to their original Middle Chinese source, and are even less similar to the pronunciation of the same characters in modern Chinese languages, which have undergone many changes from Middle Chinese. For example,兄(MCxjwæŋ) had the Go-on pronunciation [kwjaũ] when it was first borrowed, which subsequently developed to [kjaũ], then [kjau], then [kjɔː], and finally modern Japanese /kyō/ [kjoː].
The Early Middle Chinese (EMC)initialshave the following regular correspondences in Go and Kanon'yomi.
Aspirationwas contrastive in Middle Chinese, but voiceless obstruents were adapted to Go and Kan pronunciations in the same way regardless of aspiration. However, many Kan'yōon'yomiexist with voiced obstruents corresponding to Middle Chinese unaspirated (and sometimes aspirated) voiceless obstruents. For example,軍(MCkjun) 'army' has the prescribed Go/Kan readingkun, but Kan'yōgunis the only reading actually used in Japanese. There are multiple reasons for the changes from the earlier Go to the later Kan pronunciations. These borrowings were drawn both from different times and different regions of China, and furthermore the Go pronunciations were likely intermediated through Korean Buddhist monks. However, there is little to support the claim that Go-on pronunciations were at the time of their introduction "less accurate" than their later Kan-on counterparts. The discrepancies between the twoon'yomicategories are largely due to changes that took place between Early and Late Middle Chinese. The Early Middle Chinese (EMC) voiced obstruents became breathy voiced inLate Middle Chinese, e.g. [b > bʱ]. EMC [ɲ] became [ʝ̃], later becoming [ʐ] in Northern Chinese dialects. In the Japanese of both time periods, the voiced obstruents were prenasalized as [mb,nd,ndz,ŋg], helping to explain why they correspond to Middle Chinese nasals in Kanon'yomi. The Japanese consonant [p] developed first to [f] or [ɸ], and more recently to /h/ (with allophones [h, ɸ, ç]). Older [p] remains modern Japanese /p/ after the special moras /N/ and /Q/, and as such all /h/-initialon'yomihave regular variants with /p/ in this environment, for example Kan-on筆/hitu/ 'brush' vs.鉛筆/eN.pitu/ 'pencil'.
Middle Chinese rimesor "finals" contained a vowel, optional glides before the vowel (sometimes called "medials"), and an optional coda consonant /j, w, m, n, ŋ, p, t, k/— schematically (j)(w)V(C). The precise phonetic realization of the MC vowels is debated, and the set of vowels possible before different coda consonants varies considerably. When borrowed into Japanese, the more complicated MC vowel system was adapted to fit the Japanese five vowel system with /i, e, a, o, u/. MC rimes could begin with a glide /w/, /j/, or both /jw/. The earliest Japaneseon'yomiallow the following sequences containing glides:
All of the /Cy/ and /Cw(y)/ sequences were newly introduced by borrowing from Chinese, though some would later arise in native vocabulary.[9]By the advent of the "historical kana" spellings (13th century, lasting until 1946[10]), the "ancient" kana sequences with /CwyV/ had long before lost their /w/, those with /Cwi/ had become /Cui, ki, gi/, and /ye/ merged with /e/. Later, /w/ was lost everywhere except in the sequence /wa/ with no preceding consonant. The presence of these glides inon'yomiis in some cases not easily predictable, for example 約 (MCʔjak) has the Go readingyaku, while 央 (MCʔjaŋ) has thejōyōGo readingō, withyōlisted as an alternate (but unused) Go reading.
The tables below show the regular correspondences between MC rimes and Japaneseon'yomi(Go and Kan readings). The rimes are given in the transcription systems ofBernhard Karlgren,Li Rong, andWilliam Baxter(seeMiddle Chinese finalsfor more transcription systems). Examples are given using the MC reconstructions from Karlgren'sGrammata Serica Recensa(GSR), with the rimes transcribed usingBaxter's system(seeCharacter List for Karlgren's GSR). Japaneseon'yomiare given in a phonemic transcription (seeJapanese phonology).
Different MC rimes were restricted to following only certain MC initial consonants. Furthermore, the identity of the initial consonant sometimes results in a different regular outcome for the Japaneseon'yomi. For the purposes of determining the Japaneseon'yomi, the following sets of consonants can be distinguished:
Developments after the Japanese consonants /r/ (from MC /l/) and /n/ (from MC /n, ɳ, ɲ/) are noted where relevant. The MC onset /j/ (like all palatal onsets) appears only with MC rimes beginning in /j/, and generally patterns inon'yomiwith MC /ʔ/ before the same rimes, but sometimes there is a distinction, where /j/ patterns with S. Where one of these five categories (P, T, S, K, Ø) appears in parentheses in the tables below, it refers to the adaptation of the MC rime after these different sets of consonants. Five columns in each table mark whether the given MC rime is found after each of these onset categories. A bullet (•) indicates that Go and Kanon'yomiexist corresponding to the given MC rime after the given onsets. When (~) appears, it indicates that an MC character exists which is expected to provide a relevant Japaneseon'yomi, but it either has no identified reading, hason'yomiwhich are not clearly distinguished as Go vs. Kan, or has multiple MC pronunciations which make it impossible to determine which MC rime theon'yomicorrespond to.
While the correspondences between MC rimes and Japaneseon'yomiare rather consistent, there exists considerably more irregularity than is represented in these tables. Exceptional pronunciations are often found even for officially recognized Go and Kan readings. Furthermore, many kanji have Kan'yō-on readings, which by definition do not follow the regular correspondences, but appear in established Sino-Japanese words. The illusion of regularity is bolstered by the fact that lexicographers generally provide Go and Kan readings for characters based on their expected outcome, even when these readings are not actually employed in any Japanese word. Out of necessity, many of the examples shown below are of this type. Readings in thejōyōkanjilist are highlighted in blue.
These MC rimes have no consonant after the vowel.
These MC rimes are analyzed as having a palatal glide after the vowel, though not all of the rimes end in a phonetic [j] in all MC transcription systems. These mostly end up as Japaneseai,e,ē,i, orui.
The MC rimes ending in a labial glide were for the most part borrowed as diphthongs in Japanese. These later monophthongized as long vowels, such that these MC rimes mostly correspond to modern Japaneseō,yō,ū, oryū.
MC coda /m/ was originally written in Japanese with theman'yōgana无, which came to stand for the nasal special mora /N/. Themanyō'gana无developed into thehiraganaん used to represent /N/. It is possible that无originally represented two distinct sounds, moraic /m/ and moraic /n/ (from MC coda /n/, see below), but they may have been pronounced identically in Sino-Japanese vocabulary from the start. Regardless,无would not have stood for /mu/ in these words (the Go-on reading), just as the precursors of hiragana つ represented /t/ and not /tu/ when adapting the MC coda /t/ (see below). Native /mu/ from this time (man'yōgana牟or武, among others) remains /mu/, developing to /N/ only under very specific circumstances, while the borrowed moraic /m/ always develops to /N/.
MC coda /n/ was adapted in Japanese as the nasal special mora /N/.
MC coda /ŋ/ was borrowed as a single Japanese phoneme which was realized as two nasalized offglides: [ĩ] after /e/, and [ũ] after /u, o, a/. The nasality of these glides was generally not represented in writing, but in some cases was indicated with the same diacritic mark that would become thedakutenused to mark prenasalized obstruents.[9]These glides then denasalized, and the resulting diphthongs later monophthongized as long vowels. As such, almost all characters with the MC coda /ŋ/ end inō,yō,ē,ū, oryūin modern Japaneseon'yomi.
MC coda /p/ was borrowed as Japanese /pu/ (likely pronounced as [βu] after a vowel at the time of borrowing[11]). Note that these original readings are identical to the readings for MC /m/-final rimes, but with ふ in place of ん. The phoneme /p/ eventually lenited to /h/ word-initially, but was lost between vowels (except Vpa > Vwa). The result was that all /pu/-final readings developed /Vu/ sequences, which later monophthongized. This same change is seen in native vocabulary, as in OJke1pu> ModJkyō'today'. As a result of this development, all characters with the MC coda /p/ have Go and Kan readings ending inō,yōoryūin modern Japanese.
Originally, borrowed coda /p/ functioned just like coda /t, k/ (see below) in that the "epenthetic" vowel /u/ did not appear before a voiceless obstruent /h~p, t, s, k/ in the same word, resulting in readings with the obstruent special mora /Q/ in place of /pu/. This phenomenon can still be seen in a number of Japanese words, for example十/zipu/ > /zyū/ 'ten' vs.十歳/ziQ.sai/ [dʑissai] 'ten years old' (now usually /zyuQ.sai/ [dʑɯssai]). For拉(MClop), the expected Kan reading /rapu > rō/ is not found in Sino-Japanese vocabulary, but only /raQ/ as in拉致/raQ.ti/ [ɾattɕi] 'abduction' (shortened in most words to /ra/). However, for many characters, the vowel-final readings have been extended to all environments. In some cases, the reading with /Q/ led to the analogical creation of a /tu/-final reading. Notably, for立(MClip) the Kan'yō-on reading /ritu/ (from regular /riQ/) is overwhelmingly common in Sino-Japanese vocabulary.
The MC coda /t/ was borrowed as Japanese /t/. Characters ending in this consonant were at first consistently pronounced with no epenthetic vowel, with the kana つ serving double duty to represent /t/ and /tu/.[9]Note that these readings are identical to the readings for MC /n/-final rimes, but with つ/ち in place of ん. Later, an epenthetic vowel /u/ or /i/ was inserted after the consonant in most environments. Kan-on readings use /tu/ exclusively, while the earlier Go'on readings use both /ti/ and /tu/ unpredictably. For example, MC跋batis adapted as Go /batu/, while the homophonous MC犮batis listed in dictionaries as Go /bati/ (though it is not actually used in existing Japanese words). Often Go readings with /ti/ and /tu/ are listed for the same character, though in practice those with /tu/ are much more common. For example,滅has the Go readings /meti/ and /metu/, but only /metu/ is recognized as thejōyōreading, and this is the only Go reading found in existing Japanese words. In fact only nine characters havejōyōreadings with /(C)Vti/, though these include the common characters一/iti/ 'one',七/siti/ 'seven',八/hati/ 'eight', and日/niti/ 'day'. Before a voiceless obstruent /h~p, t, s, k/ in the same word, the epenthetic vowel does not appear, and the /t/ functions as the obstruent special mora /Q/, forming a geminate with the following obstruent. For example,日/niti/ 'day' appears as /niQ/ in the word日記/niQ.ki/ [nikki] 'diary'.
MC coda /k/ was borrowed as Japanese /k/ with a following epenthetic /i/ (after /e/) or /u/ (after /a, o, u/). After /i/, the epenthetic vowel (/iki/ vs. /iku/) depends on the original Middle Chinese vowel. The readings for MC /k/-final rimes are very similar to the original readings for MC /ŋ/-final rimes with く/き in place of nasalized う/い, but in this case there are some differences. Just like with coda /t/, the epenthetic vowel is absent before a voiceless obstruent /h~p, t, s, k/ in the same word, and the /k/ functions as the obstruent special mora /Q/. For example,学/gaku/ 'study' appears as /gaQ/ in the word学校/gaQ.kō/ [gakkō] 'school'.
All MC roots were a single syllable, and due to the restrictions on possible MC syllable shapes, a limited set of readings (on'yomi) are possible for borrowed Sino-Japanese roots. Furthermore, due in large part to the many distinct MC sounds which were merged when borrowed into Japanese, some readings are extremely common across different kanji, while others are very rare. The below table gives the number of kanji with each possiblejōyōon'yomi(not distinguishing between Go, Kan, Tō, and Kan'yō, and not including readings considered restricted or rare). A zero represents a reading which is attested in Sino-Japanese vocabulary, but uses a non-jōyōreading. Readings which are listed in dictionaries but which are merely hypothesized and do not appear in attested Japanese words are not considered.
Due to the fact that most MC syllables had a coda, most Japaneseon'yomiare bimoraic, containing either two syllables, a long vowel, or the moraic nasal /N/. These last two structures are extremely common in Sino-Japanese roots, but somewhat rare in native Japanese vocabulary. For these and other reasons, the phonological patterns of Sino-Japanese words and native Japanese words are markedly different, and it is very often possible to correctly guess the etymological origin of a word based solely on its shape.
At first glance, theon'yomiof many Sino-Japanese words do not resemble theModern Standard Chinesepronunciations at all. Firstly, the borrowings occurred in three main waves, with the resulting sounds identified asGo-on(呉音),Kan-on(漢音), andTō-on(唐音); these were at different periods over several centuries, from different stages inHistorical Chinese phonology, and thus source pronunciations differ substantially depending on time and place. Beyond this, there are two main reasons for the divergence between Modern Standard Chinese and Modern Standard Japanese pronunciations of cognate terms:
Nonetheless, the correspondences between the two are fairly regular. As a result, Sino-Japanese can be viewed as a (transformed) "snapshot" of an archaic period of the Chinese language, and as a result is very important for comparative linguists as it provides a large amount of evidence for the reconstruction of Middle Chinese.
The following is a rough guide to equivalencies between modern Chinese words and modern Sino-Japaneseon'yomireadings.
Unless otherwise noted, in the list below, sounds shown in quotation marks or italics indicate the usage of non-IPAromanization such asHanyu pinyinfor Mandarin Chinese andHepburn romanizationfor Japanese. Symbols shown within slashes or square brackets, like/ɡ/or[dʒ], areIPA transcriptions.
Note:
Initials:
Finals:
Notes:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Japanese_vocabulary
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Kanji(漢字,pronounced[kaɲ.dʑi]ⓘ)arelogographicChinese characters, adapted fromChinese script, used in the writing ofJapanese.[1]They were made a major part of theJapanese writing systemduring the time ofOld Japaneseand are still used, along with the subsequently-derivedsyllabic scriptsofhiraganaandkatakana.[2][3]The characters have Japanesepronunciations; most have two, with one based on the Chinese sound. A few characters were invented in Japan by constructing character components derived from other Chinese characters. After theMeiji Restoration, Japan made its own efforts to simplify the characters, now known asshinjitai, by a process similar toChina'ssimplification efforts, with the intention to increaseliteracyamong the general public. Since the 1920s, theJapanese governmenthas published character lists periodically to help direct the education of its citizenry through the myriad Chinese characters that exist. There are nearly 3,000 kanjiused in Japanese namesandin common communication.
The termkanjiin Japanese literally means "Hancharacters".[4]Japanese kanji and Chinesehanzi(traditional Chinese:漢字;simplified Chinese:汉字;pinyin:hànzì;lit.'Hancharacters') share a common foundation.[5]The significant use of Chinese characters in Japan first began to take hold around the 5th century AD and has since had a profound influence in shaping Japanese culture, language, literature, history, and records.[6]Inkstoneartifacts at archaeological sites dating back to the earlierYayoi periodwere also found to contain Chinese characters.[7]
Although some characters, as used in Japanese and Chinese, have similar meanings and pronunciations, others have meanings or pronunciations that are unique to one language or the other. For example,誠means 'honest' in both languages but is pronouncedmakotoorseiin Japanese, andchénginStandard Mandarin Chinese. Individual kanji characters and multi-kanji words invented in Japan from Chinesemorphemeshave been borrowed into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese in recent times. These are known asWasei-kango, or Japanese-made Chinese words. For example, the word fortelephone,電話denwain Japanese, was derived from the Chinese words for "electric" and "conversation." It was thencalquedasdiànhuàin Mandarin Chinese,điện thoạiin Vietnamese and전화jeonhwain Korean.[8]
Chinese charactersfirst came toJapanon official seals, letters, swords, coins, mirrors, and other decorative items imported fromChina.[9]The earliest known instance of such an import was theKing of Na gold sealgiven byEmperor Guangwu of Hanto aWaemissary in 57 AD.[10]Chinese coins as well asinkstonesfrom the first century AD have also been found inYayoi periodarchaeological sites.[6][7]However, the Japanese people of that era probably had little to no comprehension of the script, and they would remain relatively illiterate until the fifth century AD, when writing in Japan became more widespread.[6]According to theNihon ShokiandKojiki, a semi-legendary scholar calledWaniwas dispatched to Japan by theKingdom of Baekjeduring the reign ofEmperor Ōjinin the early fifth century, bringing with him knowledge ofConfucianismand Chinese characters.[11]
The earliest Japanese documents were probably written by bilingual Chinese or Korean officials employed at theYamatocourt.[6]For example, the diplomatic correspondence fromKing Bu of WatoEmperor Shun of Liu Songin 478 AD has been praised for its skillful use ofallusion. Later, groups of people calledfuhitowere organized under the monarch to read and writeClassical Chinese. During the reign ofEmpress Suiko(593–628), the Yamato court began sending full-scale diplomatic missions to China, which resulted in a large increase in Chinese literacy at the Japanese court.[11]
In ancient times, paper was so rare that people wrote kanji onto thin, rectangular strips of wood, calledmokkan(木簡). These wooden boards were used for communication between government offices, tags for goods transported between various countries, and the practice of writing. The oldest written kanji in Japan discovered so far were written in ink on wood as a wooden strip dated to the 7th century, a record of trading for cloth and salt.[12]
The Japanese language had no written form at the time Chinese characters were introduced, and texts were written and read only in Chinese. Later, during theHeian period(794–1185), a system known askanbunemerged, which involved using Chinese text withdiacritical marksto allow Japanese speakers to read Chinese sentences and restructure them into Japanese on the fly, by changing word order and adding particles and verb endings, in accordance with the rules ofJapanese grammar. This was essentially a kind of codifiedsight translation.[citation needed]
Chinese characters also came to be used to write texts in the vernacularJapanese language, resulting in the modernkanasyllabaries. Around 650 AD, a writing system calledman'yōgana(used in the ancient poetryanthologyMan'yōshū) evolved that used a number of Chinese characters for their sound, rather than for their meaning.Man'yōganawritten incursive styleevolved intohiragana(literally "flutteringkana" in reference to the motion of the brush during cursive writing), oronna-de, that is, "ladies' hand",[13]a writing system that was accessible to women (who were deniedhigher education). Major works ofHeian-eraliteratureby women were written inhiragana.Katakana(literally "partialkana", in reference to the practice of using a part of a kanji character) emerged via a parallel path:monasterystudents simplifiedman'yōganato a single constituent element. Thus the two other writing systems,hiraganaandkatakana, referred to collectively askana, are descended from kanji. In contrast withkana(仮名, literally "borrowed name", in reference to the character being "borrowed" as a label for its sound), kanji are also calledmana(真名, literally "true name", in reference to the character being used as a label for its meaning).[citation needed]
In modern Japanese, kanji are used to write certain words or parts of words (usuallycontent wordssuch asnouns,adjectivestems, andverbstems), whilehiraganaare used to writeinflectedverb and adjective endings,phonetic complementsto disambiguate readings (okurigana),particles, and miscellaneous words which have no kanji or whose kanji are considered obscure or too difficult to read or remember.Katakanaare mostly used for representingonomatopoeia,non-Japanese loanwords(except those borrowed fromancient Chinese), the names of plants and animals (with exceptions), and for emphasis on certain words.[citation needed]
Since ancient times, there has been a strong opinion in Japan that kanji is the orthodox form of writing, but others have argued against it.[14]Kamo no Mabuchi, a scholar of theEdo period, criticized the large number of characters in kanji. He also appreciated the small number of characters inkanacharacters and argued for the limitation of kanji.[citation needed]
After theMeiji Restorationand as Japan entered an era of active exchange with foreign countries, the need for script reform in Japan began to be called for. Some scholars argued for the abolition of kanji and the writing of Japanese using onlykanaor Latin characters. However, these views were not so widespread.[citation needed]
However, the need to limit the number of kanji characters was understood, and in May 1923, the Japanese government announced 1,962 kanji characters for regular use. In 1940, theJapanese Armydecided on the "Table of Restricted Kanji for Weapons Names"(兵器名称用制限漢字表,heiki meishō yō seigen kanji hyō)which limited the number of kanji that could be used for weapons names to 1,235. In 1942, the National Language Council announced the "Standard Kanji Table"(標準漢字表,hyōjun kanji-hyō)with a total of 2,528 characters, showing the standard for kanji used by ministries and agencies and in general society.[15]
In 1946, afterWorld War IIand under theAllied occupation of Japan, the Japanese government, guided by theSupreme Commander of the Allied Powers, instituted a series oforthographicreforms, to help children learn and to simplify kanji use in literature and periodicals.[citation needed]
The number of characters in circulation was reduced, and formal lists of characters to be learned during each grade of school were established.
Some characters were given simplifiedglyphs, calledshinjitai(新字体). Many variant forms of characters and obscure alternatives for common characters were officially discouraged.[citation needed]
These are simply guidelines, so many characters outside these standards are still widely known and commonly used; these are known ashyōgaiji(表外字).[citation needed]
Thekyōiku kanji(教育漢字,lit."education kanji")are the 1,026 first kanji characters that Japanese children learn in elementary school, from first grade to sixth grade. The grade-level breakdown is known as thegakunen-betsu kanji haitōhyō(学年別漢字配当表), or thegakushū kanji(学習漢字). This list of kanji is maintained by theJapanese Ministry of Educationand prescribes which kanji characters and which kanji readings students should learn for each grade.
Thejōyō kanji(常用漢字, regular-use kanji)are 2,136 characters consisting of all thekyōikukanji, plus 1,110 additional kanji taught in junior high and high school.[16]In publishing, characters outside this category are often givenfurigana. Thejōyōkanji were introduced in 1981, replacing an older list of 1,850 characters known as thetōyō kanji(当用漢字, general-use kanji), introduced in 1946. Originally numbering 1,945 characters, thejōyōkanji list was expanded to 2,136 in 2010. Some of the new characters were previouslyjinmeiyōkanji; some are used to write prefecture names:阪,熊,奈,岡,鹿,梨,阜,埼,茨,栃and媛.
As of September 25, 2017, thejinmeiyō kanji(人名用漢字, kanji for use in personal names)consists of 863 characters. Kanji on this list are mostly used in people's names and some are traditional variants ofjōyōkanji. There were only 92 kanji in the original list published in 1952, but new additions have been made frequently. Sometimes the termjinmeiyōkanji refers to all 2,999 kanji from both thejōyōandjinmeiyōlists combined.
Hyōgai kanji(表外漢字, "unlisted characters")are any kanji not contained in thejōyōkanji andjinmeiyōkanji lists. These are generally written using traditional characters, butextendedshinjitaiforms exist.
TheJapanese Industrial Standardsfor kanji andkanadefine character code-points for each kanji andkana, as well as other forms of writing such as theLatin alphabet,Cyrillic script,Greek alphabet,Arabic numerals, etc. for use in information processing. They have had numerous revisions. The current standards are:
Gaiji(外字, literally "external characters")are kanji that are not represented in existing Japaneseencoding systems. These include variant forms of common kanji that need to be represented alongside the more conventionalglyphin reference works and can include non-kanji symbols as well.
Gaijican be either user-defined characters, system-specific characters or third-party add-on products.[20]Both are a problem for information interchange, as thecode pointused to represent an external character will not be consistent from one computer or operating system to another.
Gaijiwere nominally prohibited in JIS X 0208-1997 where the available number of code-points was reduced to only 940.[21]JIS X 0213-2000 used the entire range of code-points previously allocated togaiji, making them completely unusable. Most desktop and mobile systems have moved toUnicodenegating the need forgaijifor most users. Historically,gaijiwere used by Japanese mobile service providers foremoji.
Unicodeallows for optional encoding ofgaijiinprivate use areas, whileAdobe's SING(Smart INdependent Glyphlets)[22][23]technology allows the creation of customized gaiji.
TheText Encoding Initiativeuses a⟨g⟩element to encode any non-standard character or glyph, including gaiji. Thegstands forgaiji.[24][25]
There is no definitive count of kanji characters, just as there is none of Chinese characters generally. TheDai Kan-Wa Jiten, which is considered to be comprehensive in Japan, contains about 50,000 characters. TheZhonghua Zihai, published in 1994 in China, contains about 85,000 characters, but the majority of them are not in common use in any country, and many are obscure variants or archaic forms.[26][27][28]
A list of 2,136jōyōkanjiis regarded as necessary for functional literacy in Japanese. Approximately a thousand more characters are commonly used and readily understood by the majority in Japan and a few thousand more find occasional use, particularly in specialized fields of study but those may be obscure to most out of context. A total of 13,108 characters can be encoded in variousJapanese Industrial Standards for kanji.
Individual kanji may be used to write one or more different words ormorphemes, leading to different pronunciations or "readings." The correct reading may be determined by contextual cues (such as whether the character represents part of a compound word versus an independent word), the exact intended meaning of the word, and its position within the sentence. For example,今日is mostly readkyō, meaning "today", but in formal writing it is readkonnichi, meaning "nowadays".Furiganais used to specify ambiguous readings, such as rare, literary, or otherwise non-standard readings.[29]
Readings are categorized as either kun'yomi(訓読み,literally "meaning reading"), native Japanese, or on'yomi(音読み,literally "sound reading"), borrowed from Chinese. Most kanji have at least a single reading of each category, though some have only one, such askiku(菊, "chrysanthemum", anon-reading)oriwashi(鰯, "sardine", akun-reading); Japanese-coined kanji (kokuji) often only havekun'yomireadings.
Some common kanji have ten or more possible readings; the most complex common example is生, which is read assei,shō,nama,ki,o-u,i-kiru,i-kasu,i-keru,u-mu,u-mareru,ha-eru, andha-yasu, totaling eight basic readings (the first two areon, while the rest arekun), or 12 if related verbs are counted as distinct.
Theon'yomi(音読み,[oɰ̃jomi],lit."sound(-based) reading"), theSino-Japanesereading, is the modern descendant of the Japanese approximation of the base Chinese pronunciation of the character at the time it was introduced. It was often previously referred to astranslation reading, as it was recreated readings of the Chinese pronunciation but was not the Chinese pronunciation or reading itself, similar to the English pronunciation of Latin loanwords. There also exist kanji created by the Japanese and given anon'yomireading despite not being a Chinese-derived or a Chinese-originating character. Some kanji were introduced from different parts of China at different times, and so have multipleon'yomi, and often multiple meanings. Kanji invented in Japan (kokuji) would not normally be expected to haveon'yomi, but there are exceptions, such as the character働"to work", which has thekun'yomi"hatara(ku)" and theon'yomi"dō", and腺"gland", which has only theon'yomi"sen"—in both cases these come from theon'yomiof the phonetic component, respectively動"dō" and泉"sen".
Thekun'yomi(訓読み,[kɯɰ̃jomi],lit."meaning reading"), the native reading, is a reading based on the pronunciation of a nativeJapaneseword, oryamato kotoba, that closely approximated the meaning of theChinesecharacter when it was introduced. As withon'yomi, there can be multiplekun'yomifor the same kanji, and some kanji have nokun'yomiat all.
Ateji(当て字)are characters used only for their sounds. In this case, pronunciation is still based on a standard reading, or used only for meaning (broadly a form ofateji, narrowlyjukujikun). Therefore, only the full compound—not the individual character—has a reading. There are alsospecial caseswhere the reading is completely different, often based on a historical or traditional reading.
The analogous phenomenon occurs to a much lesser degree inChinese varieties, where there areliterary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters—borrowed readings and native readings. In Chinese these borrowed readings and native readings are etymologically related, since they are between Chinese varieties (which are related), not from Chinese to Japanese (which are not related). They thus formdoubletsand are generally similar, analogous to differenton'yomi, reflecting different stages of Chinese borrowings into Japanese.
Longer readings exist for non-Jōyōcharacters and non-kanji symbols, where a longgairaigoword may be the reading (this is classed askun'yomi—seesingle character gairaigo, below)—the character糎has the sevenkanareadingセンチメートルsenchimētoru"centimeter", though it is generally written as "cm" (with two half-width characters, so occupying one space); another common example is '%' (the percent sign), which has the five kana readingパーセントpāsento.
There are many kanji compounds that use a mixture ofon'yomiandkun'yomi; these may be consideredhybrid words. Readings in which the first kanji ison'yomiand the second iskun'yomiare classified asjūbakoyomi(重箱読み, multi-layered food box reading), whilekun-onwords are classified asyutōyomi(湯桶読み, hot liquid pail reading). The wordsjūbakoandyutōare themselves examples of the reading patterns they represent (they areautological words). Other examples includebasho(場所, "place",kun-on),kin'iro(金色, "golden",on-kun)andaikidō(合気道, the martial artAikido",kun-on-on).
Atejioften use mixed readings. For instance, the city ofSapporo(サッポロ), whose name derives from theAinu languageand has no meaning in Japanese, is written with theon-kuncompound 札幌(sapporo)(which includessokuonas if it were a purelyoncompound).
Gikun(義訓)andjukujikun(熟字訓)are readings of kanji combinations that have no direct correspondence to the characters' individualon'yomiorkun'yomi. From the point of view of the character, rather than the word, this is known as anankun(難訓, "difficult reading"), and these are listed in kanji dictionaries under the entry for the character.
Gikunare other readings assigned to a character instead of its standard readings. An example is reading寒(meaning "cold") asfuyu("winter") rather than the standard readingssamuorkan, and instead of the usual spelling forfuyuof冬. Another example is using煙草(lit.'smoke grass') with the readingtabako("tobacco") rather than the otherwise-expected readings of*kemuri-gusaor*ensō. Some of these, such as fortabako, have becomelexicalized, but in many cases this kind of use is typically non-standard and employed in specific contexts by individual writers. Aided withfurigana,gikuncould be used to convey complex literary or poetic effect (especially if the readings contradict the kanji), or clarification if the referent may not be obvious.
Jukujikunare when the standard kanji for a word are related to the meaning, but not the sound. The word is pronounced as a whole, not corresponding to sounds of individual kanji. For example,今朝("this morning") isjukujikun. This word is not read as*ima'asa, the expectedkun'yomiof the characters, and only infrequently askonchō, theon'yomiof the characters. The most common reading iskesa, a native bisyllabic Japanese word that may be seen as a singlemorpheme, or as a compound ofke(“this”, as inkefu, the older reading for今日, “today”), andasa, “morning”.[30]Likewise,今日("today") is alsojukujikun, usually read with the native readingkyō; itson'yomi,konnichi, does occur in certain words and expressions, especially in the broader sense "nowadays" or "current", such as今日的("present-day"), although in the phrasekonnichi wa("good day"),konnichiis typically spelled wholly withhiraganarather than with the kanji今日.
Jukujikunare primarily used for some native Japanese words, such asYamato(大和or倭, the name of the dominant ethnic group of Japan, a former Japanese province as well as ancient name for Japan), and for some old borrowings, such as柳葉魚(shishamo, literally "willow leaf fish") from Ainu,煙草(tabako, literally “smoke grass”) from Portuguese, or麦酒(bīru, literally “wheat alcohol”) from Dutch, especially if the word was borrowed before theMeiji period. Words whose kanji arejukujikunare often usually written ashiragana(if native), orkatakana(if borrowed); some old borrowed words are also written ashiragana, especially Portuguese loanwords such asかるた(karuta) from Portuguese "carta" (English “card”) orてんぷら(tempura) from Portuguese "tempora" (English “times, season”),[citation needed]as well asたばこ(tabako).
Sometimes,jukujikuncan even have more kanji than there are syllables, examples beingkera(啄木鳥, “woodpecker”),gumi(胡頽子, “silver berry, oleaster”),[31]andHozumi(八月朔日, a surname).[32]This phenomenon is observed in animal names that are shortened and used as suffixes for zoological compound names, for example when黄金虫, normally read askoganemushi, is shortened tokoganein黒黄金虫kurokogane, although zoological names are commonly spelled with katakana rather than with kanji. Outside zoology, this type of shortening only occurs on a handful of words, for example大元帥daigen(sui), or the historical male name suffix右衛門-emon, which was shortened from the worduemon.
The kanji compound forjukujikunis often idiosyncratic and created for the word, and there is no corresponding Chinese word with that spelling. In other cases, a kanji compound for an existing Chinese word is reused, where the Chinese word andon'yomimay or may not be used in Japanese. For example,馴鹿(“reindeer”) isjukujikunfortonakai, from Ainu, but theon'yomireading ofjunrokuis also used. In some cases, Japanese coinages have subsequently beenborrowed back into Chinese, such as鮟鱇(ankō, “monkfish”).
The underlying word forjukujikunis a native Japanese word or foreign borrowing, which either does not have an existing kanji spelling (eitherkun'yomiorateji) or for which a new kanji spelling is produced. Most often the word is a noun, which may be a simple noun (not a compound or derived from a verb), or may be a verb form or a fusional pronunciation. For example, the word相撲(sumō, “sumo”) is originally from the verb争う(sumau, “to vie, to compete”), while今日(kyō, “today”) is fusional (from olderke, “this” +fu, “day”).
In rare cases,jukujikunis also applied to inflectional words (verbs and adjectives), in which case there is frequently a corresponding Chinese word. The most common example of an inflectionaljukujikunis the adjective可愛い(kawai-i, “cute”), originallykawafayu-i; the word(可愛)is used inChinese, but the correspondingon'yomiis not used in Japanese. By contrast, "appropriate" can be either相応しい(fusawa-shii, asjukujikun) or相応(sōō, ason'yomi). Which reading to use can be discerned by the presence or absence of the-shiiending (okurigana). A common example of a verb withjukujikunis流行る(haya-ru, “to spread, to be in vogue”), corresponding toon'yomi流行(ryūkō). A samplejukujikundeverbal (noun derived from a verb form) is強請(yusuri, “extortion”), from強請る(yusu-ru, “to extort”), spelling from強請(kyōsei, “extortion”). Note that there are also compound verbs and, less commonly, compound adjectives, and while these may have multiple kanji without intervening characters, they are read using the usualkun'yomi. Examples include面白い(omo-shiro-i, “interesting”, literally “face + white”) and狡賢い(zuru-gashiko-i, “sly”,lit.“cunning, crafty + clever, smart”).
Typographically, thefuriganaforjukujikunare often written so they are centered across the entire word, or for inflectional words over the entire root—corresponding to the reading being related to the entire word—rather than each part of the word being centered over its corresponding character, as is often done for the usual phono-semantic readings.
Broadly speaking,jukujikuncan be considered a form ofateji, though in narrow usage, "ateji" refers specifically to using characters for sound and not meaning (sound-spelling), whereas "jukujikun" refers to using characters for their meaning and not sound (meaning-spelling). Manyjukujikun(established meaning-spellings) began asgikun(improvised meaning-spellings). Occasionally, a single word will have many such kanji spellings. An extreme example ishototogisu(lesser cuckoo), which may be spelt in many ways, including杜鵑,時鳥,子規,不如帰,霍公鳥,蜀魂,沓手鳥,杜宇,田鵑,沓直鳥, and郭公—many of these variant spellings are particular tohaikupoems.
In some rare cases, kanji may have a reading borrowed from a modern foreign language (gairaigo), though usuallygairaigoare written inkatakana. Notable examples includepēji(頁、ページ, page),botan(釦／鈕、ボタン, button),zero(零、ゼロ, zero), andmētoru(米、メートル, meter). These are classed askun'yomi, because the character is used for its meaning—thekun'yomilabel may sometimes be misleading, since mostkun'yomiare native Japanese readings. The readings are also rendered inkatakana, unlike the usualhiraganafor nativekun'yomi. Note that most of these characters are for units, particularlySI units, in many cases using new characters (kokuji) coined during theMeiji period, such askiromētoru(粁、キロメートル, kilometer,米"meter" +千"thousand").
Some kanji also have lesser-known readings callednanori(名乗り), which are mostly used for names (oftengiven names) and, in general, are closely related to thekun'yomi. Place names sometimes also usenanorior, occasionally, unique readings not found elsewhere.
Although there are general rules for when to useon'yomiand when to usekun'yomi, many kanji have multiple on- or kun-readings, and the language is littered with exceptions; how a character was meant to be read is sometimes ambiguous even to native speakers (this is especially true for names, both of people and places).
A single kanji followed byokurigana(hiraganaforming part of a word)—such as the inflectable suffixes forming native verbs and adjectives like 赤い (akai; red) and 見る (miru; to see)—alwaysindicateskun'yomi.Okuriganacan indicate whichkun'yomito use, as in食べる(ta-beru) versus食う(ku-u), both meaning "(to) eat", but this is not always sufficient, as in開く, which may be read asa-kuorhira-ku, both meaning "(to) open".
Kanji compounds (jukuji), especiallyyojijukugo, usually, but not always, useon'yomi, usually (but not always)kan-on. Inge-doku(解毒, detoxification, anti-poison), 解 is read with itskan-onreading instead of its more commongo-onreading,kai. Exceptions are common—情報(jōhō; information), for example, isgo-kan.牛肉(gyū-niku; beef) and羊肉(yō-niku; mutton) haveon-onreadings, but豚肉(buta-niku; pork) and鶏肉(tori-niku; poultry) havekun-onreadings. Examples of fullykun'yomicompounds include手紙(tegami; letter),日傘(higasa; parasol), and the infamous神風(kamikaze; divine wind). Somekun'yomicompounds have non-inflectiveokurigana, such as唐揚げ(karaage; Chinese-style fried chicken) and折り紙(origami); many can also be written with theokuriganaomitted.
Kanji in isolation are typically read using theirkun'yomi; exceptions include theon'yomi愛(ai; love),禅(Zen), and点(ten; mark, dot). Most of theseon'yomicases involve kanji that have nokun'yomi. For kanji with multiple common isolated readings, such as金, which may be read askin(gold) orkane(money, metal), only context can determine the intended reading.
The isolated kanji versus compound distinction gives words for similar concepts completely different pronunciations. Alone,北(north) and東(east) use thekun'yomikitaandhigashi, but北東(northeast), uses theon'yomihokutō. Inconsistencies also occur between compounds;生is read asseiin先生(sensei; teacher) but asshōin一生(isshō; one's whole life) (bothon'yomi).
Multiple readings have given rise to a number ofhomographs, in some cases having different meanings depending on how they are read. One example is上手, which can be read in three different ways:jōzu(skilled),uwate(upper part), orkamite(stage left/house right). In addition,上手いhas the readingumai(skilled). More subtly,明日has three different readings, all meaning "tomorrow":ashita(casual),asu(polite), andmyōnichi(formal).
Conversely, some terms are homophonous but not homographic, and thus ambiguous in speech but not in writing. To remedy this, alternate readings may be used for confusable words. For example,私立(privately established, esp. school) and市立(municipal) are both normally pronouncedshi-ritsu; in speech these may be distinguished by the alternative pronunciationswatakushi-ritsuandichi-ritsu. More informally, in legal jargon前文(preamble) and全文(full text) are both pronouncedzen-bun, so前文may be pronouncedmae-bunfor clarity, as in "Have you memorized the preamble [not 'whole text'] of the constitution?". As in these examples, this is primarily done using akun'yomifor one character in a normallyon'yomiterm.
Certain words take different readings depending on whether the context concerns legal matters or not. For example:
In some instances where even context cannot easily provide clarity forhomophones, alternative readings or mixed readings can be used instead of regular readings to avoid ambiguity. For example:
kaishun(買春, "buying sex", yutō)[35]
jūshimai(従姉妹, "female cousin", on)
jūkei(従兄, "older male cousin", on)
jūshi(従姉, "older female cousin", on)
jūtei(従弟, "younger male cousin", on)
jūmai(従妹, "younger female cousin", on)
kototen(事典, "encyclopedia", yutō)[35][33]
mojiten(字典, "character dictionary", irregular, frommoji(文字, "character"))[35]
bakegaku(化学, "chemistry", yutō)[35][33]
togaryō(科料, "misdemeanor fine", yutō)[35][33]
Kinoetatsu(甲辰, "Greater-Wood-Dragon year", kun)
Kanoesaru(庚申, "Greater-Fire-Monkey year", kun)
Kanoetatsu(庚辰, "Greater-Fire-Dragon year", kun)
Susumushin(晋, "Jin", irregular, from the alternative readingSusumuused as a personal name)[35][33]
watakushiritsu(私立, "private", yutō)[35][33]
There are also cases where the words are technically heterophones, but they have similar meanings and pronunciations, therefore liable to mishearing and misunderstanding.
Several famous place names, includingthose of Japanitself (日本Nihonor sometimesNippon), those of some cities such asTokyo(東京Tōkyō) andKyoto(京都Kyōto), and those of the main islandsHonshu(本州Honshū),Kyushu(九州Kyūshū),Shikoku(四国Shikoku), andHokkaido(北海道Hokkaidō) are read withon'yomi; however, the majority of Japanese place names are read withkun'yomi:大阪Ōsaka,青森Aomori,箱根Hakone. Names often use characters and readings that are not in common use outside of names. When characters are used as abbreviations of place names, their reading may not match that in the original. TheOsaka(大阪) andKobe(神戸) baseball team, theHanshin(阪神) Tigers, take their name from theon'yomiof the second kanji ofŌsakaand the first ofKōbe. The name of theKeisei(京成) railway line—linking Tokyo (東京) andNarita(成田)—is formed similarly, although the reading of京from東京iskei, despitekyōalready being anon'yomiin the wordTōkyō.
Japanese family namesare also usually read withkun'yomi:山田Yamada,田中Tanaka,鈴木Suzuki. Japanesegiven namesoften have very irregular readings. Although they are not typically consideredjūbakooryutō, they often contain mixtures ofkun'yomi,on'yomiandnanori, such as大助Daisuke[on-kun],夏美Natsumi[kun-on]. Being chosen at the discretion of the parents, the readings of given names do not follow any set rules, and it is impossible to know with certainty how to read a person's name without independent verification. Parents can be quite creative, and rumors abound of children called地球Āsu("Earth") and天使Enjeru("Angel"); neither are common names, and have normal readingschikyūandtenshirespectively. Some common Japanese names can be written in multiple ways, e.g., Akira can be written as亮,彰,明,顕,章,聴,光,晶,晄,彬,昶,了,秋良,明楽,日日日,亜紀良,安喜良and many other characters and kanji combinations not listed,[38]Satoshi can be written as聡,哲,哲史,悟,佐登史,暁,訓,哲士,哲司,敏,諭,智,佐登司,總,里史,三十四,了,智詞, etc.,[39]and Haruka can be written as遥,春香,晴香,遥香,春果,晴夏,春賀,春佳, and several other possibilities.[40]Common patterns do exist, however, allowing experienced readers to make a good guess for most names. To alleviate any confusion on how to pronounce the names of other Japanese people, most official Japanese documents require Japanese to write their names in bothkanaand kanji.[32]
Chinese place names andChinese personal namesappearing in Japanese texts, if spelled in kanji, are almost invariably read withon'yomi. Especially for older and well-known names, the resulting Japanese pronunciation may differ widely from that used by modern Chinese speakers. For example,Mao Zedong's name is pronounced asMō Takutō(毛沢東)in Japanese, and the name of the legendary Monkey King,Sun Wukong, is pronouncedSon Gokū(孫悟空) in Japanese.
Today, Chinese names that are not well known in Japan are often spelled inkatakanainstead, in a form much more closely approximating the native Chinese pronunciation. Alternatively, they may be written in kanji withkatakanafurigana. Many such cities have names that come from non-Chinese languageslikeMongolianorManchu. Examples of such not-well-known Chinese names include:
Internationally renowned Chinese-named cities tend to imitate the older English pronunciations of their names, regardless of the kanji'son'yomior the Mandarin or Cantonese pronunciation, and can be written in eitherkatakanaor kanji. Examples include:
Notes:
In some cases the same kanji can appear in a given word with different readings. Normally this occurs when a character is duplicated and the reading of the second character has voicing (rendaku), as in人人hito-bito"people" (more often written with theiteration markas人々), but in rare cases the readings can be unrelated, as intobi-haneru(跳び跳ねる, "hop around", more often written飛び跳ねる).
Because of the ambiguities involved, kanji sometimes have their pronunciation for the given context spelled out inruby charactersknown asfurigana, (smallkanawritten above or to the right of the character, e.g.振仮名) orkumimoji(smallkanawritten in-line after the character). This is especially true in texts for children or foreign learners. It is also used innewspapersandmangafor rare or unusual readings, or for situations like the first time a character's name is given, and for characters not included in the officially recognized set ofessential kanji. Works of fiction sometimes usefuriganato create new "words" by giving normal kanji non-standard readings, or to attach a foreign word rendered inkatakanaas the reading for a kanji or kanji compound of the same or similar meaning.
Conversely, specifying a given kanji, or spelling out a kanji word—whether the pronunciation is known or not—can be complicated, due to the fact that there is not a commonly used standard way to refer to individual kanji (one does not refer to "kanji #237"), and that a given reading does not map to a single kanji—indeed there are many homophonouswords, not simply individual characters, particularly forkango(withon'yomi). It is easiest to write the word out—either on paper or tracing it in the air—or look it up (given the pronunciation) in a dictionary, particularly an electronic dictionary; when this is not possible, such as when speaking over the phone or writing implements are not available (and tracing in air is too complicated), various techniques can be used. These include givingkun'yomifor characters—these are often unique—using a well-known word with the same character (and preferably the same pronunciation and meaning), and describing the character via its components. For example, one may explain how to spell the wordkōshinryō(香辛料, spice)via the wordskao-ri(香り, fragrance),kara-i(辛い, spicy), andin-ryō(飲料, beverage)—the first two use thekun'yomi, the third is a well-known compound—saying "kaori,karai,ryōas ininryō."
In dictionaries, both words and individual characters have readings glossed, via various conventions. Native words and Sino-Japanese vocabulary are glossed inhiragana(for bothkunandonreadings), while borrowings (gairaigo)—including modern borrowings from Chinese—are glossed inkatakana; this is the standard writing convention also used infurigana. By contrast, readings for individual characters are conventionally written inkatakanaforonreadings, andhiraganaforkunreadings. Kun readings may further have a separator to indicate which characters areokurigana, and which are considered readings of the character itself. For example, in the entry for食, the reading corresponding to the basic verbeat(食べる,taberu)may be written asた.べる(ta.beru), to indicate thattais the reading of the character itself. Further,kanji dictionariesoften list compounds including irregular readings of a kanji.
Since kanji are essentially Chinesehanziused to write Japanese, the majority of characters used in modern Japanese still retain their Chinese meaning, physical resemblance with some of their moderntraditional Chinese characterscounterparts, and a degree of similarity withClassical Chinesepronunciation imported to Japan from the 5th to 9th centuries.[41]Nevertheless, after centuries of development, there is a notable number of kanji used in modern Japanese which have different meaning fromhanziused in modern Chinese. Such differences are the result of:
Likewise, the process ofcharacter simplificationinmainland Chinasince the 1950s has resulted in the fact that Japanese speakers who have not studied Chinese may not recognize some simplified characters.
In addition to unique Japanese renditions of existing Chinese characters, there also exist kanji that were invented in Japan; these may be referred to askokuji(国字, national characters)orwasei kanji(和製漢字, Japanese-made kanji). They are primarily formed by combining existing components in unique ways, as is typical for Chinese characters. TheJōyōlist contains about 9kokuji, of which the most commonly used is働(dō; work) used in the fundamental verb働く(hataraku; to work). It is formed from the'person' radical亻 plus 動 (movement). Somekokuji, including 働, have entered the Chinese language.
The termkokujimay also refer to Chinese characters coined in other (non-Chinese) countries; the corresponding phenomenon in Korea is calledgukja(Korean:국자;Hanja:國字; national characters); there are however far fewer Korean-coined characters than Japanese-coined ones.Other languagesusing theChinese family of scriptssometimes have far more extensive systems of native characters, most significantly Vietnamesechữ Nôm, which comprises over 20,000 characters used throughout traditional Vietnamese writing, andZhuangsawndip, which comprises over 10,000 characters, which are still in use.
In addition tokokuji, there are kanji that have been given meanings in Japanese that are different from their original Chinese meanings. These are not consideredkokujibut are instead calledkokkun(国訓) and include characters such as the following:
Han-dynastyscholarXu Shen, in his 2nd-century dictionaryShuowen Jiezi, classified Chinese characters into six categories (Chinese:六書liùshū, Japanese:六書rikusho). The traditional classification is still taught but is problematic and is no longer the focus of modern lexicographic practice, as some categories are not clearly defined, nor are they mutually exclusive: the first four refer to structural composition, while the last two refer to usage.[42]
Shōkei(Mandarin:xiàngxíng) characters arepictographicsketches of the object they represent. For example,目is an eye, while木is a tree. The current forms of the characters are very different from the originals, though their representations are more clear inoracle bone scriptandseal script. These pictographic characters make up only a small fraction of modern characters.
Shiji(Mandarin:zhǐshì) characters areideographs, often called "simple ideographs" or "simple indicatives" to distinguish them and tell the difference from compound ideographs (below). They are usually simple graphically and represent an abstract concept such as上"up" or "above" and下"down" or "below". These make up a tiny fraction of modern characters.
Kaii(Mandarin:huìyì) characters are compound ideographs, often called "compound indicatives", "associative compounds", or just "ideographs". These are usually a combination of pictographs that combine semantically to present an overall meaning. An example of this type is休(rest) from亻(person radical) and木(tree). Another is thekokuji峠(mountain pass) made from山(mountain),上(up) and下(down). These make up a tiny fraction of modern characters.
Keisei(Mandarin:xíngshēng) characters are phono-semantic orradical-phonetic compounds, sometimes called "semantic-phonetic", "semasio-phonetic", or "phonetic-ideographic" characters, are by far the largest category, making up about 90% of the characters in the standard lists; however, some of the most frequently used kanji belong to one of the three groups mentioned above, sokeisei mojiwill usually make up less than 90% of the characters in a text. Typically they are made up of two components, one of which (most commonly, but by no means always, the left or top element) suggests the general category of the meaning or semantic context, and the other (most commonly the right or bottom element) approximates the pronunciation. The pronunciation relates to the original Chinese, and may now only be distantly detectable in the modern Japaneseon'yomiof the kanji; it generally has no relation at all tokun'yomi. The same is true of the semantic context, which may have changed over the centuries or in the transition from Chinese to Japanese. As a result, it is a common error in folk etymology to fail to recognize a phono-semantic compound, typically instead inventing a compound-indicative explanation.
Tenchū(Mandarin:zhuǎnzhù) characters have variously been called "derivative characters", "derivativecognates", or translated as "mutually explanatory" or "mutually synonymous" characters; this is the most problematic of the six categories, as it is vaguely defined. It may refer to kanji where the meaning or application has become extended. For example,楽is used for 'music' and 'comfort, ease', with different pronunciations in Chinese reflected in the two differenton'yomi,gaku"music" andraku"pleasure".
Kasha(Mandarin:jiǎjiè) arerebuses, sometimes called "phonetic loans". The etymology of the characters follows one of the patterns above, but the present-day meaning is completely unrelated to this. A character was appropriated to represent a similar-sounding word. For example,来in ancient Chinese was originally a pictograph for "wheat". Its syllable was homophonous with the verb meaning "to come", and the character is used for that verb as a result, without any embellishing "meaning" element attached. The character for wheat麦, originally meant "to come", being akeisei mojihaving 'foot' at the bottom for its meaning part and "wheat" at the top for sound. The two characters swapped meaning, so today the more common word has the simpler character. This borrowing of sounds has a very long history.
Theiteration mark(々) is used to indicate that the preceding kanji is to be repeated, functioning similarly to aditto markin English. It is pronounced as though the kanji were written twice in a row, for exampleiroiro(色々, "various")andtokidoki(時々, "sometimes"). This mark also appears in personal and place names, as in thesurnameSasaki (佐々木). This symbol is a simplified version of the kanji仝, a variant ofdō(同, "same").
Another abbreviated symbol isヶ, in appearance a smallkatakanake, but actually a simplified version of the kanji箇, a general counter. It is pronouncedkawhen used to indicate quantity (such as六ヶ月,rokkagetsu"six months") orgaif used as a genitive (as in関ヶ原sekigahara"Sekigahara").
The way how these symbols may be produced on a computer depends on the operating system. InmacOS, typingじおくりwill reveal the symbol々as well asヽ,ゝandゞ. To produce〻, typeおどりじ. Under Windows, typingくりかえしwill reveal some of these symbols, while in Google IME,おどりじmay be used.
Kanji, whose thousands of symbols defy ordering by conventions such as those used for theLatin script, are oftencollatedusing the traditional Chineseradical-and-stroke sortingmethod. In this system, common components of characters are identified; these are calledradicals. Characters are grouped by their primary radical, then ordered by number of pen strokes within radicals. For example, the kanji character桜, meaning "cherry", is sorted as a ten-stroke character under the four-stroke primary radical木meaning "tree". When there is no obvious radical or more than one radical, convention governs which is used for collation.
Other kanji sorting methods, such as theSKIPsystem, have been devised by various authors.
Modern general-purposeJapanese dictionaries(as opposed to specifically character dictionaries) generally collate all entries, including words written using kanji, according to theirkanarepresentations (reflecting the way they are pronounced). Thegojūonordering ofkanais normally used for this purpose.
Japanese schoolchildren are expected to learn 1,026 basic kanji, thekyōikukanji, before finishing the sixth grade. The order in which these characters are learned is fixed. Thekyōikukanji list is a subset of a larger list, originally of 1,945 kanji and extended to 2,136 in 2010, known as thejōyōkanjirequired for the level of fluency necessary to read newspapers and literature in Japanese. This larger list of characters is to be mastered by the end of the ninth grade.[43]Schoolchildren learn the characters by repetition andradical.
Students studying Japanese as a foreign language are often required by a curriculum to acquire kanji without having first learned the vocabulary associated with them. Strategies for these learners vary from copying-based methods tomnemonic-based methods such as those used inJames Heisig's seriesRemembering the Kanji. Other textbooks use methods based on theetymologyof the characters, such as Mathias and Habein'sThe Complete Guide to Everyday Kanjiand Henshall'sA Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters. Pictorialmnemonics, as in the textKanji Pict-o-graphixby Michael Rowley, are also seen.
The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation provides theKanji kentei(日本漢字能力検定試験Nihon kanji nōryoku kentei shiken; "Test of Japanese Kanji Aptitude"), which tests the ability to read and write kanji. The highest level of theKanji kenteitests about six thousand kanji.[44]
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Aureation("to makegolden", fromLatin:aureus) is a device in arts ofrhetoricthat involves the "gilding" (or supposed heightening) ofdictionin one language by the introduction of terms from another, typically aclassical languageconsidered to be more prestigious. Aureation commonly involves other mannered rhetorical features in diction; for examplecircumlocution, which bears a relation to more native literary devices such as thekenning. It can be seen as analogous toGothicschools of ornamentation in carving,painting, orceremonial armoury.[citation needed]
In terms ofprosodyit stands in direct contrast toplain languageand its use is sometimes regarded, by current standards of literary taste, as overblown and exaggerated. But aureated expression does not necessarily mean loss of precision or authenticity in poetry when handled by good practitioners.
In the context of language development, aureation can be seen as an extension of processes in which historicallyvernacular languagesare expanded throughloan words. In Europe this usually meant borrowings from Latin andGreek. The medieval and renaissance periods were a fertile time for such borrowings and inGermanic languages, such asEnglishandScots, Greek and Latinatecoinageswere particularly highlighted (seeclassical compoundsespecially), though this has sometimes been decried as pretentious, these coinages being criticized asinkhorn terms. While many classically derived loan words become useful new terms in the host language, some more mannered orpolysyllabicaureations may tend to remain experimental and decorative curiosities. Words such asconservartix,pawsacioun, orvinarye envermaildyare examples inScots.
In theBritish Isles, aureation has often been most associated withScottishrenaissancemakars, especiallyWilliam DunbarorGavin Douglas, who commonly drew on the rhetoric and diction ofclassical antiquityin their work. After Europe's colonial era widened the orbits of cultural contact, aureation could in theory draw on other ancient languages such asSanskrit.
An example of considered diction with an aureate inflection occurs in the Scots couplet
Up sprang the goldyn candill matutyne,With clere depurit bemes cristallyne
Matutyne,depuritandcristallyneare aureate words. Aureate diction occurs in thenoun phrasegolden candlematutine, acircumlocutionwhich stands forsun. The couplet can thus be translated as:up rose the sun with clear pure crystal light.
Dunbar himself uses the term later in the same poem in a passage that employs thelimits to expressiontopos. It occurs as part of adream visionin which themakaris describing the army ofgoddesseshe has witnessed alighting upon the earth:
Discrive I wald, but quho coud weleendyteHou all the feldís wyth thai liliesquhiteDepayntwar bricht, quhilk to the heven didglete?Noucht thou,Omer, als fair as thou could wryte,For all thine ornatestilísso perfyte;Nor yit thouTullius, quhoislippíssueteOffrhetorikedid in to termésflete:Your aureatetongísboth bene allto lyteFor to compile that paradise complete.
In simple modern English, this means: "I would (attempt to) describe (the scene), but who could satisfactorily frame in verse the way in which all the fields were radiantly adorned by those white lilies(the landing army)that shone upwards into the sky? Not you, Homer, sublime as you were in writing, for all your faultlessly ornate diction; nor you, Cicero, whose sweet lips were so consistently lucid in rhetoric: your aureate tongues both [the Greek and the Roman] were not adequate to describe that vision in full."
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Franglais(French:[fʁɑ̃ɡlɛ]) orFrenglish(/ˈfrɛŋɡlɪʃ/FRENG-glish) is a French blend that referred first to the overuse of English words by French speakers[1]and later todiglossiaor themacaronicmixture ofFrench(français) andEnglish(anglais).[2]
The wordFranglaiswas first attested in French in 1959,[3]but it was popularised by the academic, novelist, and criticRené Étiemblein his denunciation of the overuse of English words in French,Parlez-vous franglais?published in 1964.[4]Earlier than the French term was the English labelFrenglish, first recorded in 1937.[5]Other colloquial blends for French-influenced English includeFranglish(recorded from 1967),Frenchlish(1974), andFringlish(1982).[6]
In English,Franglaismeans a combination of English and French. It evokes the linguistic concepts ofmixed languageandbarbarism. Reasons for this blend could be caused bylexical gaps, native bilingualism, populations trying to imitate a language where they have no fluency (sometimes known as creoles/pidgins), or humorous intent. Franglais usually consists of either filling in gaps in one's knowledge of French with English words, usingfalse friends, or speaking French which (although ostensibly "French") would not be understood by a French speaker who does not also have a knowledge of English (for example, by using a literal translation of English idiomatic phrases).
Some examples of Franglais are:
Geoffrey Chaucer'sPrioressknew nothing of theFrench of France, but only that ofStratford-atte-Bow('CockneyFrench'). Similar mixtures occur in the later stages ofLaw French, such as the famous defendant who "ject un brickbat a le dit Justice, que narrowly mist" ("threw abrickbatat the said Justice, which narrowly missed").[12]
Another example inEnglish literatureis found inHenry VbyWilliam Shakespeare. In Act 3, Scene 4,[13]a French princess is trying to learn English, but unfortunately,footas pronounced by her maid sounds too much likefoutre(vulgar French for 'semen', or 'to have sexual intercourse' when used as a verb) andgownlikecon(French for 'cunt', also used to mean 'idiot'). She decides that English is too obscene.
A literary example of the delight inmélangeoccurs inRobert Surtees'Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities:
You shallmanger cinq foisevery day," said she; "cinq fois," she repeated.—"Humph!" said Mr. Jorrocks to himself, "what can that mean?—cank four—four times five's twenty—eat twenty times a day—not possible!" "Oui, Monsieur, cinq fois," repeated the Countess, telling the number off on her fingers—"Café at nine of thematin, déjeuner à la fourchetteatonzeo'clock,dîneratcinq heure, caféat six hour, andsouperatneufhour.
The 19th-century American writerMark Twain, inInnocents Abroad(1869), included the following letter to a Parisian landlord:[14]
PARIS,le 7 Juillet. Monsieur leLandlord—Sir:Pourquoidon't youmettezsomesavonin your bed-chambers?Est-ce que vous pensezI will steal it?La nuit passéeyou charged mepour deuxchandelleswhen I only had one;hier vous avezcharged meavecglacewhen I had none at all;tout les joursyou are coming some fresh game or other on me,mais vous ne pouvez pasplay thissavondodge on me twice.Savonis a necessaryde la vieto any body but a Frenchman,et je l'aurai hors de cet hotelor make trouble. You hear me.Allons.BLUCHER.
The humouristMiles Kingtonwrote a regular column "Let's Parler Franglais" which was published in the British magazinePunchin the late 1970s. These columns were collected into a series of books:Let's Parler Franglais,Let's Parler Franglais Again!,Parlez-vous Franglais?,Let's Parler Franglais One More Temps,The Franglais Lieutenant's Woman and Other Literary Masterpieces.
A somewhat different tack was taken inLuis van Rooten'sMots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The D'Antin Manuscript.[15]Here, Englishnursery rhymesare written with meaningless French phrases which are meant to recall the sounds of the English words, and the resulting French texts are presented as a historical manuscript and given a pseudo-learned commentary.
Another classic is Jean Loup Chiflet'sSky My Husband! Ciel Mon Mari!which is a literal translation of French into English. However, in this context, the correct translation ofciel...!is 'heavens...!'
InMonty Python's 1975 movieMonty Python and the Holy Grail, the French castle guard (John Cleese) orders, when King Arthur (Graham Chapman) does not want to go away, his fellow guards to "Fetchez la vache." The other French guards respond with "Quoi?" and he repeats "Fetchez la vache!" The guards finally get it: fetchla vache('the cow'), which they then catapult at the Britons.[16]
In French,franglaisrefers to the use of English words sometimes deemed unwelcome borrowings or bad slang. An example would bele week-end(alsoweekend), which is used in many French dialects which have no synonym; however,Canadianswould usela fin de semaine('the end of the week') instead, althoughfin de semainein France refers to the end of the work week, i.e. Thursday and Friday.Franglaisalso refers to nouns coined from Anglo-Saxon roots or from recent English loanwords (themselves not always English in origin), often by adding-ingat the end of a popular word—e.g.,un parking('a car park or parking lot' is alternativelyun stationnementin Canadian French, althoughstationnementmeans 'the action of parking or the state of being parked' in European French);un camping('a campsite'); anddu shampoing('shampoo', but pronounced[ʃɑ̃pwɛ̃], not*/ʃɑ̃pu.iŋ/), which has been standardized and has appeared on many French hair-care product labels since at least the 1960s. A few words which have entered French are derived from English roots but are not found at all in English, such asun relooking('a makeover'), andun rugbyman('a rugby player'). Others are based on misunderstandings of English words, e.g.:unfootingmeaning 'a jog or a run' rather than 'a pediment';un tramwaymeaning 'a tram', not 'a tram-track'. Still others are based onmisapprehensions of English punctuation, e.g.un pin's[dubious–discuss][original research?](with the apostrophe in both singular and plural) meaning 'a lapel pin'; orword order, e.g.un talkie-walkie[dubious–discuss][original research?]meaning 'a walkie-talkie' (hand-held, two-way radio). For those who do not speak English, such words may be believed to exist as such in English. However, inCanada, where both English and French are spoken, expressions such asfootingandrelookingare not used.
Some examples of Franglais are in fact imagined or examples of words beingadoptedfrom one language into another in the opposite direction of what many people believe. People who have no linguistic training or do not bother to consult dictionaries tend to create and perpetuate such urban legends about Franglais. For example, manynumismatiststhink that the French spellingpiéfortof the English termpiedfortresults from an imagined reintroduction of an English misspelling. In fact, the spellingpiéfortis found in French dictionaries as an alternative ofpied-fortand even as the only spelling given in the 1932–1935 edition of theDictionnaire de l'Académie française[17]and the etymology derived by professional linguists and shown in these dictionaries shows the change in spelling happened within French.[18][19]
Owing to the worldwide popularity of the Internet, relatively new English words have been introduced into French (e.g.e-mailandmail, referring to either e-mail or an e-mail address). An equivalent for the English worde-mailderived from French roots was coined inQuebec Frenchand promoted by Quebec government:courriel(fromcourrier électronique), and this term is now widely used there. TheAcadémie françaisehas also suggested the use of the abbreviationmél.(frommessage électronique) as an analogy with the abbreviationtél.for 'telephone', to be used before an e-mail address;[20]however, the termmél., which roughly approximates the English pronunciation ofmail, is now used more broadly in France than that prescribed usage. Another example from French is the wordlook. The equivalent of the English verbto look atin French isregarderbut the nouna look(i.e. the way that something looks or is styled) has becomeun lookin French, such that the sentence "This Pepsi can has a new look" in French would be "Cette cannette de Pepsi a un nouveau look".
AfterWorld War II, a backlash began inFranceover the growing use of English there. "Corruption of the national language" was perceived by some to be tantamount to an attack on the identity of the country itself. During this period, ever greater imports of American products led to the increasingly widespread use of some English phrases in French. Measures taken to slow this trend included governmentcensorshipofcomic stripsand financial support for the French film and French-language dubbing industries. Despite public policies against the spread of English, Franglais is gaining popularity in both writing and speaking.
In recent years, English expressions are increasingly present in French mass media:
Most telecommunication and Internet service providers use English and Franglais expressions in product names and advertising campaigns. The leading operator,France Télécom, has dropped the accents in its corporate logo. In recent years, it has changed its product names with trendier expressions such as Business Talk, Live-Zoom, Family Talk. France Télécom's mobile telecommunications subsidiaryOrange SAruns a franchise retail network calledmobistores. Its Internet subsidiary, formerly known asWanadoo(inspired by the American slang expressionwanna do) provides a populartriple playservice through itsLiveboxcable modem. The second-largest Internet service provider in France isFree, which offers itsfreebox.Set-top boxesthat are offered by many other providers are also following this trend (e.g. Neuf-box, Alice-box, etc.) and the wordboxby itself is gradually ending up referring to these set-top boxes.
SNCF, the state-owned railway company, has recently introduced a customer fidelity program called S'Miles. Meanwhile,Air Francehas renamed its Fréquence Plusfrequent flyer programto Flying Blue. The Paris transportation authorityRATPhas also recently introduced acontactless smartcardticketing system (like theOyster cardinLondon) calledNaviGO.
Public authorities such as theAcadémie françaiseand theConseil supérieur de la langue françaisegenerally propose alternative words for anglicisms. The acceptance of such words varies considerably; for example,ordinateurandlogicielexisted before the English wordscomputerandsoftwarereached France, so they are accepted (even outside France in the case ofordinateur). On the other hand,vacancellefailed to replaceweekendorfin de semaine(the latter being in current usage in Canada). The wordcourriel, equivalent to 'e-mail', coined and used inFrench-speaking Canada, is gaining popularity in written European French. However, most French Internet users generally speak aboutmailwithout the prefix "e-". Note that English words are often shorter, and they are usuallycoinedfirst (the French alternatives are generally thought of only after the original word has already been coined, and then they are debated at length before coming into use). This is partly why they tend to stay in use.
Alternative words proposed by the Académie française are sometimes poorly received by a technologically aware audience and unclear to a non-technologically aware audience. The proposed terms may be ambiguous (often because they are coined based on phonetics, thus hiding their etymology) which results in nonsense (e.g.cédéroms réinscriptiblesforCD-RW(literally 'rewritable CD-ROMs', despiteROMmeaning 'read-only memory'). Some words are considered uncool, for example,tchat(formed by addingt-tochat) ordévédé(formed by writingDVDphonetically).
The use of English expressions is very common in theyouth language, which combines them withverlanwordplay. The letterjis thus sometimes humorously pronounced as in English in words such asjeunes('youth'), rendered as /dʒœns/ and thus writtendjeun's,to refer to this trend.[dubious–discuss]
Quebecis the only French-majority province in Canada and the onlyde jure(but notde facto) monolingual jurisdiction.New Brunswickis officially bilingual, and the other provinces, while mostlyEnglish-speaking, are not officiallyEnglish-only.
When a speaker usescalquesandloanwordsin speech which includes English or French words and grammatical structures in a combination, it is sometimes referred to as Franglais, or amixed language. TheMontreal Gazettehas examined this so-called "linguistic mosaic".[21]
Quebec Frenchhas longstanding borrowings from English due to the historical coexistence of two speech communities withinQuebec(and especially aroundMontreal). Likewise,Quebec English, the language of the English-speaking minority, has borrowed many French words such asdépanneur('convenience store'),autoroute('highway'),stage('internship'),circular('flyer', from the wordcirculaire, a circulated pamphlet), and many others(seeQuebec English). These are permanent and longstanding features of local usage, rather than the recent slangish improvisation by any speaker or affinity group with poor knowledge of the other language.[22]
These expressions have mainly become part of a common tongue/registerborn out of mutual concession to each other. In fact, the substantial bilingual community in and around Montreal will occasionally refer to Franglais, usually after it is pointed out by an observer that someone has used various French and English words, expressions or prepositions in the same sentence, a surprisingly common occurrence in various spokenregisters.
Canadian Frenchis French as it is spoken in Canada. Scholars debate to what extent language mixture can be distinguished from other mechanisms, such as code-switching, substrata, or lexical borrowing. Amixed languagearises in a population which is fluent in both languages.
The wordFranglaisrefers to the long-standing and stable mixes of English and French spoken in some towns, cities, and rural areas of other Canadian provinces:New Brunswick,Nova Scotia,Ontario,Alberta,Manitoba, andNewfoundland. Such mixing is used in the northern regions ofMaine(U.S.) (seeChiacandAcadian French). It has been asserted[who?]that this mix uses approximately equal proportions of each language (except in Newfoundland), although it is more likely to be understood by a French-speaker, since it usually uses English words in French pronunciation and grammar.
Franglais is commonly spoken in French-language schools in Ontario and Alberta, as well as in DSFM (Division scolaire franco-manitobaine) schools in Manitoba, where students may speak French as their first language but will use English as their preferred language, yet will refer to school-related terms in French specifically (e.g. "Let's go to thebibliothèque", instead of "Let's go to the library"). As many French schools and French immersion classes have a strict "French-only" policy, English or Franglais is used out of class, between students.[citation needed]
Because of bilingual product packaging, speakers and readers may form new pronunciations that become terms. For example, someone may pronounce the words on a package of strong cheddar and call it "old fort".
Franglais, in the sense of mistaken usage bysecond-languagespeakers, occurs across Canada. An example of an anglicism turned Franglais is the mistranslation of English phrases into French by students who are unaware of theCanadian Frenchword. For example, ahot dogis sometimes calledun chien chaudwhen the French word is simplyun hot dog. (However, the Quebec government has itself promoted expressions such aschien chaudfor 'hot dog', andhambourgeoisfor 'hamburger', neither of which has gained widespread acceptance.) In some ways, confusion over which expression is more correct, and the emphasis that many immersion schools place on eliminating anglicisms from students' vocabulary, has promoted the use of Franglais.[citation needed]Franglais can also slowly creep into use from mispronunciation and misspelling by many bilingual Canadians. Common mistakes that immersion or bilingual students propagate include incorrect inflection and stresses on syllables, incorrect doubling of consonants, strange vowel combinations in their spelling and using combinations of prefixes and suffixes from English.
Recently[when?], Canadian youth culture (especially in British Columbia and southeastern Ontario) purposely uses Franglais for its comical oreuphemisticcharacteristics, for example, in replacing English swear words with French ones. Some English-speaking Canadians, especially Anglo-Quebecers and those in southeastern Ontario, euphemistically use theQuébécois sacres(i.e., religious words such assacramentasexpletives) rather than swearing in English.
There is a particular form of Franglish which consists of the adoption of English words with alternative meanings to their usage in English.
These are words likeforcing('a scramble', 'a rush', 'a strong effort'), orbronzing('a tan', 'the act of sunbathing'), made by adding the English ending-ingto a verb from French (e.g.forcer'to force' orbronzer'to tan') to form a new noun. These are slang or informal at best, and not widely accepted.
Another type of false anglicism comes from the shortening of an English name, keeping only the first word (while the important word is the last). For example, a dress suit is designated by the wordsmoking, borrowed ultimately from 'smoking jacket'. Yet the British usedinner jacketand Americans usetuxedo(ortux); in English,smokingis used only as aparticipleand as thegerund. Another example is the use of the wordclapfor 'clapperboard' used in filmmaking.
They are either French constructions which mimic English rules, or shifts of meaning which affect borrowings.
Cameroonhas substantial English and French-speaking populations as a legacy of its colonial past asBritishSouthern CameroonsandFrenchCameroun. Despite linguistically segregated education since independence, many younger Cameroonians in urban centres have formed a version of Franglais/Franglish from English, French andCameroonian Pidgin Englishknown asCamfranglaisorFrananglais. Many educational authorities disapprove of it, and they have banned it in their schools. Nevertheless, the youth-cultureargothas gained popularity and has a growing music scene.[23]
Franglais is spoken in London, due to its largeFrench-speaking population.
Franglais also thrives in communities where imperfect English–French bilingualism is common. TheUnited Nations Office at Genevais so named in an imitation of the Frenchà Genève, rather than the expected "inGeneva".
Another example is provided by the civil servants inEuropean Unioninstitutions (European Parliament,European Commission,European Court of Justice), based in bilingualBrussels(French and Dutch) andLuxembourg City(LuxembourgishandGerman). They often work in English, but they are surrounded by a French-speaking environment, which influences their English (e.g. "I'm a stagiaire at the Commission and I'm looking for another stage in a consultancy", referring to internships).
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Plain languageis writing designed to ensure the reader understands as quickly, easily, and completely as possible.[1]Plain language strives to be easy to read, understand, and use.[2]It avoidsverbose, convoluted language andjargon. In many countries, laws mandate that public agencies use plain language to increase access to programs and services. The United NationsConvention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilitiesincludes plain language in its definition ofcommunication.[3]
Mostliteracyandcommunicationsscholars agree that plain language means:
Plain language focuses on ways of writing a text so that it is clear, concise, pertinent, efficient, and flows well for the reader.[4]The Center for Plain Language states that: "[a] document, web site or other information is in plain language if the target audience can read it, understand what they read, and confidently act on it".[5]Writing in plain language does not mean oversimplifying the concepts, but presenting the information in a way that makes it easier to understand and use by a wider audience.[6]Texts written in plain language are still formal, but are easier to read and inspire confidence for the reader.[7]
Using plain language in communications ultimately improves efficiency, because there is less ambiguity for the readers, and less time is taken for clarifications and explanations.[8]Clear communication improves the user's experience with the organization, ultimately creating trust in the company.[9]
Writers who wish to write in plain language must first and foremost consider their target audience.[5]This should influence what information is included in the text and how it is written.[5]Different audiences have different needs, and require different information.[5]When writing, it is important to consider what the target audience needs to accomplish, and what and how much information they need to complete it.[5]The needs of the target audience will also affect the chosen vocabulary: writing for someone in the same field as the author is different from writing for someone whose native language is not English.[10]
Provide informative headings, topic sentences, and frequent summaries to help orient the reader. For complex documents, create a comprehensive table of contents.[11]
Organize the text logically:the most important information should be mentioned first, in the text as a whole and in every individual paragraph.[10]Headings help the reader skim the text more rapidly to find what they're looking for.[5]Sentences should be kept short, and only include necessary information.[5]A long, verbose sentence tends to present too much information at once, and blurs its main point.[10]The text should be direct and concise, and have an easy flow to it.[5]
The chosen vocabulary must remain simple and familiar.[10]Everyday language should be favoured against acronyms, jargon and legal language.[8]Plain language favours the use of the verb form of the word, instead of the noun form.[8]To increase clarity, use the active voice, in which the subject does the action of the verb.[10]Sentences written in plain language have a positive construction and address the reader directly.[8]
Writing in plain language also takes into account the presentation of the text. It is important to choose a font that is easy to read, and set it to an adequate size.[10]Sentences written in capital letters are harder to read because the letters are less distinguishable from one another.[10]Simple design elements like leaving white spaces, using bullets, and choosing contrasting colours encourages a user to read the text and increases readability.[6]
Proponents of plain language adoption argue that it improves reading comprehension and readability, and grants readers greater access to information.[12][13]Simple language allows documents to be read and understood by a larger audience, as plain language adoption often involves rewriting very technical and field-specific documents, like legal and medical documents.[14]
Some scholars promote plain language use as a means of making documents accessible, especially for disabled readers or those who lack the expertise and education to understand overly technical documents. Simpler language can decrease a reader's cognitive load, and improve information retention in readers who normally struggle to read complex documents.[12]Changes in font, text size, and colour can make texts more readable for individuals with impaired vision.[15]Some scholars view plain language from a social justice perspective as a means of increasing equal access to information, especially for marginalized populations that might have decreased access to education.[12]
While plain language has positive practical outcomes across many situations, it can also be understood within the framework of ethical action.[16]While not all plain language practitioners and scholars agree that "Plain language is a civil right", as the motto for the US-based Center for Plain Language declares, many practitioners agree that using plain language is part of ethical action, such as being responsive, respectful, honest, truthful and fair. On the other hand, plain language can also be used for unethical ends, such as to obscure or withhold truths. Willerton proposes the BUROC framework for identifying situations requiring the ethical action of plain language: bureaucratic, unfamiliar, rights-oriented, critical.[16]
The United States'Federal Rules of Civil Procedurerequire aclaim for reliefto include "a short and plain statement of the grounds for the court’sjurisdiction", and "a short and plain statement of the claim". A party claiming adefenseto a claim must state its defense "in short and plain terms".[17]
Ciceroargued, "When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men's minds take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind."[citation needed]
Shakespeare parodied the pretentious style, as in the speeches of Dogberry inMuch Ado About Nothing.
The plain, or native style, was, in fact, an entire literary tradition during the English Renaissance, fromJohn SkeltonthroughBen Jonsonand include such poets asBarnabe Googe,George Gascoigne,Walter Raleigh, and perhaps the later work ofFulke Greville. In addition to its purely linguistic plainness, the Plain Style employed an emphatic, pre-Petrarchanprosody(each syllable either clearly stressed or clearly unstressed).
By the end of the 19th century, scholars began to study the features of plain language. A. L. Sherman, a professor of English literature at the University of Nebraska, wroteAnalytics of Literature: A Manual for the Objective Study of English Prose and Poetryin 1893. In this work, Sherman showed that the typical English sentence has shortened over time and that spoken English is a pattern for written English.
Sherman wrote:
Literary English, in short, will follow the forms of the standard spoken English from which it comes. No man should talk worse than he writes, no man writes better than he should talk.... The oral sentence is clearest because it is the product of millions of daily efforts to be clear and strong. It represents the work of the race for thousands of years in perfecting an effective instrument of communication.
Two 1921 works, Harry Kitson's "The Mind of the Buyer", andEdward L. Thorndike's "The Teacher's Word Book" picked up where Sherman left off. Kitson's work was the first to apply empirical psychology to advertising. He advised the use of short words and sentences. Thorndike's work contained the frequency ratings of 10,000 words. He recommended using the ratings in his book to grade books not only for students in schools but also for average readers and adults learning English. Thorndike wrote:
It is commonly assumed that children and adults prefer trashy stories in large measure because they are more exciting and more stimulating in respect to sex. There is, however, reason to believe that greater ease of reading in respect to vocabulary, construction, and facts, is a very important cause of preference. A count of the vocabulary of "best sellers" and a summary of it in terms of our list would thus be very instructive.
The 1930s saw many studies on how to make texts more readable. In 1931, Douglas Tyler and Ralph Waples published the results of their two-year study, "What People Want to Read About". In 1934, Ralph Ojemann,Edgar Dale, and Ralph Waples published two studies on writing for adults with limited reading ability. In 1935, educational psychologistWilliam S. Grayteamed up with Bernice Leary to publish their study, "What Makes a Book Readable".
George Orwell's 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language" decried the pretentious diction, meaninglessness, vagueness, and worn-out idioms of political jargon. In 1979, thePlain English Campaignwas founded in London to combat "gobbledegook, jargon and legalese".[22]
Lyman Brysonat Teachers College in Columbia University led efforts to supply average readers with more books of substance dealing with science and current events. Bryson's students include Irving Lorge andRudolf Flesch, who became leaders in the plain-language movement. In 1975, Flesch collaborated withJ. Peter Kincaidto create theFlesch-Kincaid readability test, which uses an algorithm to produce grade level scores that predict the level of education required to read the selected text.[23]The instrument looks at word length (number of letters) and sentence length (number of words) and produces a score that is tied to a U.S. grade school level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can read the document.
Others who later led plain language and readability research include educator Edgar Dale of Ohio State,Jeanne S. Challof the Reading Laboratory of Harvard, and George R. Klare of Ohio University. Their efforts spurred the publication of over 200 readability formulas and 1,000 published studies on readability.
Beginning in 1935, a series of literacy surveys showed that the average reader in the U.S. was an adult of limited reading ability. Today, the average adult in the U.S. reads at the 9th-grade level.
Access to health information, educational andeconomic developmentopportunities, and government programs is often referred to in a social justice context. To ensure more community members can access this information, many adult educators, legal writers, and social program developers use plain language principles when they develop public documents[citation needed]. The goal of plain language translation is to increase accessibility for those with lower literacy levels.
In the United States, the movement towards plain language legal writing began with the 1963 bookLanguage of the Law, by David Mellinkoff.[24]However, the movement was popularized by Richard Wydick's 1979 bookPlain English for Lawyers.[24]This was followed by famous plain languagepromissory notesby Nationwide Mutual Insurance and Citibank in the 1970s.[13]
Concerned about the large number of suits against its customers to collect bad debts, the bank voluntarily made the decision to implement plain language policies in 1973.[25]That same decade, the consumer-rights movement won legislation that required plain language in contracts, insurance policies, and government regulations. Americanlaw schoolsbegan requiring students to take legal writing classes that encouraged them to use plain English as much as possible and to avoid legal jargon, except when absolutely necessary. Public outrage with the skyrocketing number of unreadable government forms led to thePaperwork Reduction Actof 1980.
In 1972, the Plain Language Movement received practical political application, when PresidentRichard Nixondecreed that the "Federal Register be written in layman's terms". On March 23, 1978, U.S. PresidentJimmy Cartersigned Executive Order 12044, which said that federal officials must see that each regulation is "written in plain English and understandable to those who must comply with it".[26]President Ronald Reagan rescinded these orders in 1981, but many political agencies continued to follow them. By 1991, eight states had also passed legislation related to plain language. Plain Language Association International (PLAIN) was formed in 1993 as the Plain Language Network. Its membership is international; it was incorporated as a non-profit organization in Canada in 2008.[27][28]In June 1998, PresidentBill Clintonissued a memorandum that called for executive departments and agencies to use plain language in all government documents.[26]Vice PresidentAl Goresubsequently led a plain language initiative that formed a group called the Plain Language Action Network (PLAIN) to provide plain language training to government agencies.
PLAIN provided guidance to federalexecutive agencieswhen PresidentBarack Obamasigned thePlain Writing Act of 2010, which required federal executive agencies to put all new and revised covered documents into plain language.[29]The Act's sponsor, U.S. RepresentativeBruce Braley, noted upon its passage that "The writing of documents in the standard vernacular English language will bolster and increase the accountability of government within America and will continue to more effectively save time and money in this country."[30]
Plain language is also gaining traction in U.S. courts andlegal aidagencies.[31][32]California was the first state to adopt plain language court forms and instructions, for which it received the 2003Burton Awardfor Outstanding Reform.[33]A 2006 comparative study of plain language court forms concluded that "plain language court forms and instructions are better understood, easier to use, and more economical".[34]
TheEuropean Unionprovides standards for making information easy to read and understand.[35]The rules are comparable to the rules for plain language. Based in Germany there is a dictionary for plain language called Hurraki.[36]InFrance, a 2002 decision by theConstitutional Councilrecognized a constitutional goal of ensuring the "clarity and intelligibility" of French law.[37]In 2013 the Israeli Knesset passed service accessibility regulations which mandated the use of simple language and/or language simplification (Hebrew = פישוט לשוני),[38]which were subsequently codified in 2015 for implementation.[39]
ISOhas formed a Working Group within Technical CommitteeISO/TC 37to develop plain language standards and guidelines. Their work began officially towards the end of 2019. It has published standard ISO 24495-1 in 2023.[40]
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Prestigeinsociolinguisticsis the level of regard normally accorded a specificlanguageordialectwithin aspeech community, relative to other languages or dialects. Prestigevarietiesare language or dialect families which are generally considered by a society to be the most "correct" or otherwise superior. In many cases, they are thestandard formof the language, though there are exceptions, particularly in situations ofcovert prestige(where anon-standard dialectis highly valued). In addition to dialects and languages, prestige is also applied to smaller linguistic features, such as thepronunciationor usage of words orgrammatical constructs, which may not be distinctive enough to constitute a separate dialect.[1]The concept of prestige provides one explanation for the phenomenon of variation in form among speakers of a language or languages.[2]
The presence of prestige dialects is a result of the relationship between the prestige of a group of people and the language that they use. Generally, the language or variety that is regarded as more prestigious in that community is the one used by the more prestigious group. The level of prestige a group has can also influence whether the language that they speak is considered its own language or a dialect (implying that it does not have enough prestige to be considered its own language).
Social class has a correlation with the language that is considered more prestigious, and studies in different communities have shown that sometimes members of a lower social class attempt to emulate the language of individuals in higher social classes to avoid how their distinct language would otherwise construct their identity. The relationship between language and identity construction as a result of prestige influences the language used by different individuals, depending on to which groups they belong or want to belong.
Sociolinguistic prestige is especially visible in situations where two or more distinct languages are used, and indiverse,socially stratifiedurban areas, in which there are likely to be speakers of different languages and/or dialects interacting often. The result of language contact depends on the power relationship between the languages of the groups that are in contact.
The prevailing view among contemporary linguists is that, regardless of perceptions that a dialect or language is "better" or "worse" than its counterparts, when dialects and languages are assessed "on purely linguistic grounds, all languages—and all dialects—have equal merit".[3][4][5]
Additionally, which varieties,registersor features will be considered more prestigious depends on audience and context.[6][7]There are thus the concepts ofovertandcovertprestige. Overt prestige is related to standard and "formal" language features, and expresses power and status; covert prestige is related more tovernacularand oftenpatois, and expresses solidarity, community andgroup identitymore than authority.[8]
Prestige varieties are those that are regarded mostly highly within a society. As such, the standard language, the form promoted by authorities—usually governmental or from those in power—and considered "correct" or otherwise superior, is often the prestige variety. However, there are many exceptions to this rule, such asArabic, in whichEgyptian Arabicis widely used inmass mediaaimed at international audiences, whileLiterary Arabic(also known as Standard Arabic) is a more prestigious form.[9][10][11]Prestige varieties do not exhibit features, grammatically speaking, which prove them superior in terms of logic, efficacy or aesthetics.[12]With certain exceptions, they are the language varieties of the prestigious social classes.[8]Therefore, the prestige variety of a given language community or nation-state has symbolic significance and may act as an instrument of political power.
The notion of astandard languagein aspeech communityis related to the prestige of the languages spoken in the community. In general, "greater prestige tends to be attached to the notion of the standard, since it can function in higher domains, and has a written form."[13]While there are some counterexamples, such as Arabic, "prestigious and standard varieties [tend to] coincide to the extent that the two terms can be used interchangeably."[9]
In countries like theUnited States, wherecitizensspeak many different languages and come from a variety ofnationalandethnic groups, there is a "folk linguistic" belief that the most prestigious dialect is the single standard dialect ofEnglishthat all people should speak.[14]LinguistRosina Lippi-Greenbelieves that this belief in a standard language defends and rationalizes the preservation of thesocial order, since it equates "nonstandard" or "substandard" language with "nonstandard or substandard human beings."[3]Linguists believe that novarietyof language is inherently better than any other, for every language serves its purpose of allowing its users to communicate.[15]This is because every variety of a language is systematic and rule governed. These rules do not contain a hierarchy, thus certain varieties—linguistically—are not placed above another.
The terms and conditions of prestige assigned to a language variety are subject to change depending on speaker, situation and context. Adialector variety which is considered prestigious in one context will not carry the same status in another.[6]The relative status of language varies according to audience, situation and other contextual elements such as geographic location.Covert prestigerefers to relatively high value placed on a non-standard form of language.[7]
Different languages and dialects are accorded prestige based upon factors, including "rich literary heritage, high degree of language modernization, considerable international standing, or the prestige of its speakers".[16]These, and other attributes and factors contribute to how the language is viewed as being of high prestige,[17]leaving a language or dialect with few or none of these attributes to be considered to be of low prestige.
"Language is intertwined with culture," therefore there is often a strong correlation between the prestige of a group of people and the prestige accorded to the language they speak,[18]as linguist Laurie Bauer's description ofLatin's prestige exemplifies this phenomenon:
The prestige accorded to the churchmen, lawyers and scholars who used Latin was transferred to the language itself. Latin was held to be noble and beautiful, not just the thoughts expressed in it or the people who used it. What is called 'beauty' in a language is more accurately seen as a reflection of the prestige of its speakers.[19]
This phenomenon is not limited to English-speaking populations. InWestern Europe, multiple languages were considered to be of high prestige at some time or another, including "Italianas theMediterraneanlingua francaand as the language of theRenaissance; and the 17th-18th centuryFrenchof thecourt culture".[20]
Similarly, when British philologistWilliam Jonespublished:
The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists: there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothic and the Celtic, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanskrit.
It started a moment in time in which Sanskrit was considered the oldest language in the world, followed by other languages increasing their prestige by claiming to be as close to a presumedProto-Indo-European languageor linked to otherProto-Indo-European mythology, both in Europe and South Asia.[21]
Walt Wolfram, a professor of linguistics atNorth Carolina State University, notes that he "can't think of any situations in the United States where low-prestige groups have high-prestige language systems".[3]Wolfram further emphasizes this in his PBS documentary "Do You Speak American?", and explains how there is a very clear hierarchy in which "modern American English" is at the top, andAfrican American Vernacular English(AAVE) is at the bottom, because AAVE is seldom considered "standard" English in academic settings.[22]
The education system is one of the primary agents in emphasizing a "standard" way of speaking. For example, Wolfram's documentary also shows how speakers of AAVE are often corrected by teachers, since it has linguistic features that are different from what has been deemed the "standard." Criticism of AAVE in schools by teachers not only insults the students that speak AAVE, but those insults also put the individuals who taught these students how to speak, such as their family members, in a subordinate position.[22]In turn, this further reinforces stratification of social groups in a linguistic and social context. In schools around the world that teach English, speaking "proper" English is emphasized, even if other varieties are equally valid and able to communicate the same ideas. In a school in Mumbai, India, there is a large emphasis placed on speaking "good English." Thus, proficiency is not determined by ability to convey ideas, but rather the grammatical adherence of the speaker to the rules used in the "standard" English variety, and speaking English that way.[23]This not only perpetuates the idea of a "correct" way of speaking in the classroom, but this subordination extends well outside of the classroom.
Many films and TV shows (especially children's TV shows) use different language varieties for different characters, which constructs their identity in particular ways. For example, the protagonists ofDisneyanimated films tend to speakStandard American English, while minor characters or antagonists are more likely to speak with other accents.[24]This is true even when characters would not logically speak English, as in the filmAladdin, where the title characterAladdin, his love interestJasmine, and Jasmine's father have American accents, but several other characters do not. Associating the American accent with sympathetic or prestigious characters in children's TV shows/movies can have negative implications, contributing to the formation of stereotypes and biases.[24]
One of the primary examples of the debate of prestige within the media is the Oaklandebonicscontroversy of 1996. Illustrating the pervasiveness of public views on socio-educational issues in relation to language diversity, the Oakland, California school board came to a resolution recognizing Ebonics within public education. This proposition recognized Ebonics as a language system in attempts for the city to receive public funding for bilingual situations. Heavy debate arose amongst members of congress, newscasters, and other commentators with relatively little linguistics knowledge.
The debate was extremely controversial, with beliefs stemming from the same beliefs that govern morality, religion, and ethics. Similar to the beliefs that govern these areas, the debate on Ebonics was believed to be inflexible. The discussion "surfaced foundational beliefs about language and language diversity and exposed an alternative, non-mainstream set of beliefs about language and language variation."[25]
Prestige influences whether a language variety is considered alanguageor a dialect. In discussing definitions of language,Dell Hymeswrote that "sometimes two communities are said to have the same, or different, languages on the grounds ofmutual intelligibility, or lack thereof", but alone, this definition is often insufficient.[26]
Different language varieties in an area exist along adialect continuum, and movinggeographicallyoften means a change in the local variety.
This continuum means that despite the fact thatstandard Germanandstandard Dutchare not mutually intelligible, the speech of people living near theborderbetweenGermanyand theNetherlandswill more closely resemble that of their neighbors across the border than the standard languages of their respective home countries. Even so, speakers near the border would describe themselves as speaking a variety of their respective standard languages, and the evolution of these dialects tends to mirror that of the standard languages as well.[27][28]
That they are classified as such reflects the fact that "language differences are not only marks of differential group membership, but also powerful triggers of group attitudes".[29]Such fuzziness has resulted in theaphorism"A language is a dialect with an army and navy." That is, speakers of some language variety with political and social power are viewed as having a distinct language, while "'dialect' is [...] a term that suggests lower-class or rural speech".[30]
Acanonicalexample of this is theScandinavian languages, includingDanish,Swedish, andNorwegian, where language differences "constitute barriers to but do not wholly block communication", but are considered distinct languages because they are spoken in differentcountries.[31]
While some differences between dialects areregionalin nature, there are alsosocialcauses for differences in dialects. Very often, the "public prestige dialect of the elite in a stratified community differs from the dialect(s) of the non-elite strata (working classand other)".[32]In fact, in an article which in part tried to motivate the study ofsociolinguistics,Raven McDavidwrote that "the importance of language as a mirror of culture can be demonstrated by dialect differences in American English".[33]Thus the relation between the way speakers use a language and their social status is a long recognized tool in sociolinguistics.
In 1958, one of the earliest studies of the relationship between social differences and dialect differences was published byJohn Gumperz, who studied the speech patterns inKhalapur, a small, highly stratifiedvillageinIndia. In all, the village has 31castes, ranging fromBrahminsandRajputsat the top, toChamarsandBhangisat the bottom, and 90% of the overall population wasHindu, with the remaining 10%Muslim.[34]
Gumperz observed that the different castes were distinguished bothphonologicallyandlexically, with each caste having avocabularyspecific to theirsubculture.[35]Remarkably, the speech differences between Hindus and Muslims "are of the same order as those between individual touchable castes and certainly much less important than the variation between touchables and untouchables".[36]
Gumperz also observed that the lower prestige groups sought to imitate the higher prestige speech patterns and that over time, it had caused theevolutionof the prestige away from the regional standard, as higher prestige groups sought to differentiate themselves from lower prestige groups.[36]He concluded that in determining speech patterns in thiscommunity, "the determining factor seems to be informal friendship contacts" rather than work contacts.[37]
An example of this was also observed in a study in Madrid, Spain, whereLatin American Spanish-speakers noticed that certain features of their Spanish were evaluated negatively by local speakers. Spanish varieties spoken in Latin American countries have linguistic differences from the way many locals in Madrid speak. Their use of Latin American Spanish is associated with "symbolic and monetary capital (such as social class and ethnicity)." The study asserted that "To be accepted, therefore, the speakers have to "correct" these "errors" and "adapt" to the local variety of Spanish, which is considered the model to follow. In other words, to be acknowledged as full participants in their respective communities, these participants have to sound like locals." Thus, social class plays a role in determining prestige, impacting the way that Latin American Spanish is acknowledged.[38]
One notable example of the relationship between dialect and social stratification in English isWilliam Labov's 1966 study of thevariable pronunciation ofrinNew York City. Labov went to three New York Citydepartment storesthat catered to three clearly delineatedsocioeconomicgroups—Saks(high),Macy's(middle), andS. Klein(low)—and studied how their employees pronounced the phrase "fourth floor". His results demonstrated that the employees at Saks pronouncedrmost often, Macy's employees pronouncedrless often, and at S. Klein, seventy-nine percent of the respondents said norat all. Another trend Labov noticed was that at all three of the stores, but Macy's in particular, when prompted to say "fourth floor" a second time, employees were much more likely to pronounce ther.[39]
Labov attributed his findings to the perceived prestige of each dialect. He noted that New York City's "dropped 'r' has its origins in posh British speech", but afterWorld War II, "with the loss of Britain's imperial status 'r'-less British speech ceased to be regarded as 'prestige speech'".[40]In 1966, when Labov performed his study, pronouncing words likecarandguardwithrwas then considered an element of prestige speech.[41]This resulted inmiddle-classemployees, once made conscious of having to pronounce "fourth floor", altering their pronunciation in order to match that of the high prestige dialect. The prestige given torwas also evident in thehypercorrectionobserved in lower-class speech. Knowing thatr-pronunciation was a prestigious trait, many of the lower-class speakers in another Labov study—in which speakers were asked to read from word lists—added-rto words that did not have anrat all. The difference between this study and the "fourth floor" study was the fact that speakers were closely monitoring their speech, not speaking spontaneously, and were thus careful to addrin an attempt to mimic a higher social class.[42]
Another prime example of covert prestige is within popular culture. The pervasiveness of hip hop music and its usage of AAVE has coined many widely used terms. Usage of AAVE has created a certain social capital, or clout, in certain social contexts. Contrastingly, in educational or hierarchical settings, usage of this variety can result in negative connotations. Due to this, practitioners are often perceived as having minimal academic prowess or being lowly educated. They can also be associated with poverty or low economic means. These inherent stigmas and biases impede the AAVE speaker from academic, social, and economic success.[citation needed]
Non-standard dialects are usually considered low-prestige, but in some situations dialects "stigmatized by the education system still enjoy acovertprestige among working-class men for the very reason that they are considered incorrect".[43]These situations occur when the speaker wants to gain recognition, acceptance, orsolidaritywith a specific—and non-prestigious—group of people, or to signal to other speakers their identification with that group.[44]The idea of covert prestige was first introduced by William Labov, who noticed that even speakers who used non-standard dialects often believed that their own dialect was "bad" or "inferior". Labov realized that there must be some underlying reason for their use of the dialect, which he identified as a signal of group identity.[8]One example is a 1998 study on the use of word-final-ingversus-inamong collegefraternitymen in the United States. The fraternity men used "-in" rather than "-ing," from which the author concluded that the men used-into demonstrate what they saw as working-class behavioral traits, such as 'hard-working' and 'casual,' thus creating a specific identity for themselves.[45]
In a study by Elaine Chun, it was noted that even though the use of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is not viewed as the standard in many American schools, and thus is often corrected by teachers, there are some instances where non-African Americans use AAVE to construct their identity in a particular way and enjoy covert prestige in the African American speech community. The study pointed out that "mainstream uses of AAVE 'slang' are especially prevalent in social circles that desire to create and project a heterosexual masculinity," and included examples of a Korean-American student using AAVE to gain recognition/acceptance in the African American speech community. This underscores that the relative status of language varies according to audience.[46]
Likewise, in studies of the speech patterns inBritish English,Peter Trudgillobserved that more working-class women spoke the standard dialect than men.[47]Farida Abu-Haidar performed a similar study inBaghdadof prestige in the Arabic language, after which she concluded that in Baghdadi Arabic, women are more conscious of prestige than are men.[48]Other areas in which this has been observed includeNew ZealandandGuangdonginChina.[49][50]As explanation, Trudgill suggests that for men, there is covert prestige associated with speaking the working-class dialect.[6]In fact, he observed men claiming to speak alessprestigious dialect than that which they actually spoke. According to this interpretation then, "women's use of prestige features simply conforms to the ordinary sociolinguistic order, while men deviate from what is expected."[51]Elizabeth Gordon, in her study of New Zealand, suggested instead that women used higher prestige forms because of the association ofsexualimmoralitywith lower-classwomen.[52]Whatever the cause, women across many cultures seem more likely than men to modify their speech towards the prestige dialect.
Though women use prestige dialects more than men, the same gender preference for prestige languages does not seem to exist. A study ofdiglossicsocieties by John Angle and Sharlene Hesse-Biber showed that the poorer men were more likely to speak the prestige language than were poorer women, even though women were more particularly "drawn to the language of the rich."[53]One explanation put forth for this is that poorer men are more likely to have the means of acquiring a second language than poorer women as a result of having "greater exposure" and "greater economic motivation."[53]
When different language varieties come into contact, a variety of relationships can form between the two, all typically influenced by prestige. When they have equal power or prestige, they formadstratum, as exemplified byOld EnglishandOld Norse, which shared elements with each other more or less equally.
Far more common is for the two languages to have an unequal power relationship, as is the case of many colonial language contact situations. Languages that have a higher status in relation to a certain group often manifest themselves inword borrowing. One example is in English, which features many French words, as a result of the historical prestige of French. Another potential result of such contact relationships includes the creation of apidginor eventuallycreolethroughnativization. In the case of pidgins and creoles, it is usually noted that the low prestige language provides the phonology while the high prestige language provides thelexiconandgrammatical structure.
In addition to forming a new language, known as a creole,language contactcan result in changes, such aslanguage convergence,language shiftorlanguage death. Language convergence is when two languages have been exposed for a long period of time and they begin to have more properties in common. Language shift is when a speaker shifts from speaking a lower prestige dialect to a higher prestige dialect. Language death can happen in many ways, one of which is when speakers of a language die off, and there are no new generations learning to speak this language. The intensity of the contact between the two languages and their relative prestige levels influence the degree to which a language experiences lexical borrowing and changes to themorphology, phonology,syntax, and overall structure of the language.[54]
When two languages with an asymmetrical power relationship come into contact, such as throughcolonizationor in arefugeesituation, the creole that results is typically largely based on the prestige language; as noted above, linguists have observed that the low-prestige language usually provides the phonology while the high-prestige language provides the lexicon and grammatical structure. Over time, continued contact between the creole and the prestige language may result indecreolization, in which the creole begins to more closely resemble the prestige language. Decreolization thus creates acreole continuum, ranging from anacrolect(a version of the creole that is very similar to the prestige language), tomesolects(decreasingly similar versions), to thebasilect(the most "conservative" creole). An example of decreolization described by Hock and Joseph is African American Vernacular English (AAVE), in which older, more conservative versions preservefeaturessuch as thecompletive markerdonewhile newer, less conservative versions do not.[55]
Some instances of contact between languages with different prestige levels have resulted in diglossia, a phenomenon in which a community uses a high prestige language or dialect in certain situations, usually fornewspapers, inliterature, onuniversity campuses, for religious ceremonies, and ontelevisionand theradio, but uses a low prestige language or dialect for other situations, often in conversation in the home or inletters,comic strips, and inpopular culture. LinguistCharles A. Ferguson's 1959 article "Diglossia" listed the following examples of diglossic societies: in the Middle East and North Africa,Standard Arabicandvernacular Arabics; in Greece,KatharevousaandDhimotiki; in Switzerland,Swiss Standard GermanandSwiss German; and in Haiti,Standard FrenchandHaitian Creole.[56]In most African countries, a European language serves as the official, prestige language (Standard French, English,Portuguese), while local languages (Wolof,Bambara,Yoruba) or creoles (Ivorian French,Nigerian English) serve as everyday languages of communication.
In diglossic societies, the prestigious language tends to conservatively resist change over time while the low-prestige language, the local vernacular, undergoes normal language change. For instance, Latin, the high prestige language ofEuropefor many centuries, underwent minimal change while the everyday low prestige spoken languages evolved significantly. If, however, the two languages are spoken freely, the prestige language may undergovernacularizationand begin to incorporate vernacular features. An example isSanskrit, an ancient prestige language that has incorporated the vernacular pronunciations of[tʃ]and[b]for word-initialy-andv-.[57]
The prestige language may also change under the influence of specific regional dialects in a process known asregionalization. For example, in medieval times,Ecclesiastical Latindeveloped different forms in countries such as Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Catalonia, as well as other Roman Catholic nations, notably in pronunciation – seeLatin regional pronunciation. Some of these differences were minor, such ascbeforeiandebeing pronounced[tʃ]in Italy but[s]in France, but after English underwent theGreat Vowel Shiftbetween 1200 and 1600, the vowel system in England became nearly unrecognizable to its European ecclesiastic counterparts.[58]
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"Uncleftish Beholding" is a short text byPoul Anderson, first published in the Mid-December 1989 issue of the magazineAnalog Science Fiction and Fact(with no indication of its fictional or factual status)[1]and included in his anthologyAll One Universe(1996).[2]It is designed to illustrate what English might look like without its large number of words derived from languages such asFrench,Greek, andLatin,[3]especially with regard to the proportion of scientific words with origins in those languages.
Written as a demonstration oflinguistic purism in English, the work explainsatomic theoryusing Germanic words almost exclusively andcoiningnew words when necessary;[4]many of these new words havecognatesin modernGerman, an important scientific language in its own right. The title phraseuncleftish beholdingcalques"atomic theory."[5]
To illustrate, the text begins:[1]
For most of its being, mankind did not know what things are made of, but could only guess. With the growth of worldken, we began to learn, and today we have a beholding of stuff and work that watching bears out, both in the workstead and in daily life.
It goes on to definefirststuffs(chemical elements), such aswaterstuff(hydrogen),sourstuff(oxygen), andymirstuff(uranium), as well asbulkbits(molecules),bindings(compounds), and several other terms important touncleftish worldken(atomic science).[6]WasserstoffandSauerstoffare the modernGermanwords for hydrogen and oxygen, and inDutchthe modern equivalents arewaterstofandzuurstof.[7]Sunstuffrefers to helium, which derives fromἥλιος, theAncient Greekword for 'sun'.YmirstuffreferencesYmir, a giant inNorse mythologysimilar toUranusinGreek mythology.
Chokestuffis inspired bychokedamp, a term for oxygenless air found in mines and other confined spaces. Chokedamp is composed mostly of nitrogen. The cognate in German isStickstoffand in Swedishkväve, both bearing the meaning "choke".
The vocabulary used in "Uncleftish Beholding" does not completely derive fromAnglo-Saxon.Around, fromOld Frenchreond(Modern Frenchrond), completely displaced Old Englishymbe(modern Englishumbe(now obsolete), cognate to Germanumand Latinambi-) and left no "native" English word for this concept. The text also contains the French-derived wordsrest,ordinaryandsort.
The text gained increased exposure and popularity after being circulated around the Internet,[18]and has served as inspiration for some inventors of Germanic Englishconlangs.Douglas Hofstadter, in discussing the piece in his bookLe Ton beau de Marot, jocularly refers to the use of only Germanic roots for scientific pieces as "Ander-Saxon."
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Purism in the linguistic fieldis the historical trend of languages to conserve intact their lexical structure ofword families, in opposition to foreign influences which are considered 'impure'. Historically,linguistic purism in Englishis a reaction to the great number ofborrowingsin theEnglish languagefrom other languages, especiallyOld French, since theNorman conquest of England, and some of its native vocabulary and grammar have been supplanted by features ofLatinateandGreekorigin.[1]Efforts to remove or consider the removal of foreign terms in English are often known asAnglish, a term coined by author and humoristPaul Jenningsin 1966.[2]
English linguistic purism has persisted in diverse forms since theinkhorn termcontroversy of theearly modern period. In its mildest form, purism stipulates the use ofnative terms instead of loanwords. In stronger forms, new words are coined fromGermanicroots (such aswordstockforvocabulary) or revived fromolder stages of English(such asshritheforproceed). Noted purists ofEarly Modern EnglishincludeJohn Cheke,[3]Thomas Wilson,[4]Ralph Lever,[5]Richard Rowlands,[6]andNathaniel Fairfax.[7]Modern linguistic purists includeWilliam Barnes,[1]Charles Dickens,[8]Gerard Manley Hopkins,[9]Elias Molee,[10]Percy Grainger,[11]andGeorge Orwell.[12]
English words gave way to borrowings fromAnglo-Normanfollowing theNorman Conquestas English lost ground as a language of prestige. Anglo-Norman was used in schools and dominated literature, nobility and higher life, leading a wealth of French loanwords to enter English over the course of several centuries—English only returned to courts of law in 1362, and to government in the following century.[13]
Notwithstanding, some texts of earlyMiddle Englishengaged in linguistic purism, deliberately avoiding excessive Anglo-Norman influence.Layamon'sBrut, composed in the late 12th or early 13th century, espoused several features of Old English poetic style and used a predominantly Anglo-Saxon vocabulary.[14]Ancrene Wisse, of the same era, allowed for French and Old Norse loans but maintained conservative spelling and syntax to keep with Old English.[15]Ayenbite of Inwyt, aKentishtranslation of a French treatise on morality written about a century earlier, usedcalquesto avoid borrowing from French.[16]
Controversy overinkhorn terms—foreign loanwords perceived to be needless—persisted in the 16th and 17th centuries. Among others,Thomas Elyot, aneologiser, borrowed extensively from abroad in support of "the necessary augmentation" of English.[17]Linguistic purists such asJohn Chekeopposed this borrowing in favour of keeping English "unmixt and unmangled".[18]Thomas Wilson, a contemporary of Cheke, criticised borrowing from foreign languages as seeking an "outlandish English".[4]
With the influx of new industrial and scientific terms from Greek and Latin, linguistic purism saw renewed interest in the 19th century.[19]AmericanstatesmanThomas Jeffersonobserved in an 1825 letter that "a taste is reviving in England for the recovery of the Anglo-Saxon dialect".[20]Dorsetpoet, minister, and philologistWilliam Barnescoined several words to promote "strong old Anglo-Saxon speech", includingspeechcraftforgrammar,birdloreforornithology, andbendsomeforflexible.[21]PoetGerard Manley Hopkinsdiscussed Barnes in an 1882 letter toRobert Bridges, lamenting the "utter hopelessness" of Barnes's purism but nonetheless writing in support of it, claiming that "no beauty in a language can make up for want of purity".[9][22]Charles Dickensemphasised the importance of Germanic elements of English during this period, stressing that a writer should not "seek abroad" for new words.[8]
The fifth rule of vocabulary inThe King's English, published in 1917, suggests that writers should "prefer the Saxon word to the Romance".[8]In his 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language",George Orwellcriticised the extensive use of "foreign" words in English.[12]AustraliancomposerPercy Grainger, a contemporary of Orwell, invented a "blue-eyed English" that he perceived to be linguistically pure and preferred the use of English words in the place of traditional Italian music terms.[11]One year after Grainger's death, philologistLee Hollanderemphasised in his 1962 translation of thePoetic Edda—a collection ofOld Norsepoems—that "Germanic material must be drawn upon to the utmost extent ... because of the tang and flavor still residing in the homelier indigenous speech material".[23]
Paul Jenningscoined the term "Anglish" in a three-part series inPunchcommemorating the 900th anniversary of theNorman conquest of England.[2]Jennings's articles, entitled "1066 and All Saxon" and published in June 1966, envisioned an England in which the conquest had failed and included linguistically pure English passages; Jennings gave "a bow toWilliam Barnes" as an inspiration.[24]In 1989,science fictionwriterPoul Andersonreleased a similarly-written text about basicatomic theorycalledUncleftish Beholdingcomposed almost fully of Germanic-rooted words. In 1997,Douglas Hofstadterjokingly entitled the style "Ander-Saxon".[25]
The September 2009 publicationHow We'd Talk if the English had Won in 1066by David Cowley updates Old English words to today's English spelling, seeking mainstream appeal by covering words in five grades ranging from "easy" to "weird and wonderful" and giving many examples of use with drawings and tests.[26]Paul Kingsnorth's 2014The Wakeis written in a hybrid ofOld EnglishandModern Englishto account for its 1066 milieu,[27]and Edmund Fairfax's 2017 satiric literary novelOutlawsis similarly written in a "constructed" form of English consisting almost exclusively of words of Germanic origin.[28]An online newsletter calledThe Anglish Timeshas regularly reported on current events without non-Germanic borrowed words since January 2021.[29]
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Ingeolinguistics,areal featuresare elements shared by languages ordialectsin a geographic area,[1]particularly when such features are not descended from a common ancestor orproto-language. An areal feature is contrasted withgenetic relationshipdetermined similarity within the samelanguage family. Features may diffuse from one dominant language to neighbouring languages (see "sprachbund").
Genetic relationships are represented in thefamily tree modelof language change, and areal relationships are represented in thewave model.
Resemblances between two or more languages (whether in typology or in vocabulary) have been observed to result from several mechanisms, including lingual genealogical relation (descent from a common ancestor language, not principally related to biological genetics);borrowingbetween languages;retention of featureswhen a population adopts a new language; and chance coincidence. When little or no direct documentation of ancestor languages is available, determining whether the similarity is genetic or merely areal can be difficult.Edward Sapirnotably used evidence of contact and diffusion as a negative tool for genetic reconstruction, treating it as a subject in its own right only at the end of his career (e.g., for the influence ofTibetanonTocharian).[2]
William Labovin 2007 reconciled the tree and wave models in a general framework based on differences between children and adults in their language learning ability. Adults do not preserve structural features with sufficient regularity to establish a norm in their community, but children do. Linguistic features are diffused across an area by contacts among adults. Languages branch into dialects and thence into related languages through small changes in the course of children's learning processes which accumulate over generations, and when speech communities do not communicate (frequently) with each other, these cumulative changes diverge.[3]Diffusion of areal features for the most part hinges on low-level phonetic shifts, whereas tree-model transmission includes in addition structural factors such as "grammatical conditioning, word boundaries, and the systemic relations that drive chain shifting".[4]
In some areas with high linguistic diversity, a number of areal features have spread across a set of languages to form asprachbund(also known as a linguistic area, convergence area or diffusion area). Some examples are theBalkan sprachbund, theMainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, and the languages of theIndian subcontinent.[citation needed]
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Inlinguistics,code-switchingorlanguage alternationoccurs when a speaker alternates between two or morelanguages, orlanguage varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation.[citation needed]These alternations are generally intended to influence the relationship between the speakers, for example, suggesting that they may share identities based on similar linguistic histories.
Code-switching is different fromplurilingualismin that plurilingualism refers to the ability of an individual to use multiple languages,[1]while code-switching is the act of using multiple languages together.Multilinguals(speakers of more than one language) sometimes use elements of multiple languages when conversing with each other. Thus, code-switching is the use of more than one linguistic variety in a manner consistent with thesyntaxandphonologyof each variety.
Code-switching may happen betweensentences,sentence fragments,words, orindividual morphemes(insynthetic languages). However, some linguists consider theborrowingof words or morphemes from another language to be different from other types of code-switching.[2][3]
Code-switching can occur when there is a change in the environment in which one is speaking, or in the context of speaking a different language or switching the verbiage to match that of the audience. There are many ways in which code-switching is employed, such as when speakers are unable to express themselves adequately in a single language or to signal an attitude towards something. Several theories have been developed to explain the reasoning behind code-switching from sociological and linguistic perspectives.
The earliest known use of the term "code-switching" in print was published in 1953, in a chapter byRoman JakobsoninResults Conf. Anthropologists & Linguists,[4][5]written with C. F. Voegelin, T. A. Sebeok, and C. Lévi-Strauss. He attributes the idea to linguistWilliam Freeman Twaddell, inspired by "communication engineers". In the 1950s, many scholars considered code-switching to be a substandard use of language.[6]Since the 1980s, however, most scholars have come to regard it as a normal, natural product of bilingual and multilingual language use.[7][8]
In popular usage and in sociolinguistic study, the term code-switching is frequently used to refer to switching amongdialects,stylesorregisters.[9]This form of switching is practiced, for example, by speakers ofAfrican American Vernacular Englishas they move from less formal to more formal settings.[10]Such shifts, when performed by public figures such as politicians, are sometimes criticized as signalinginauthenticityor insincerity.[11]
The term "code-switching" is also used outside the field of linguistics. Informally,code-switchingis sometimes used to refer to relatively stable informalmixtures of two languages, such asSpanglish,Taglish, orHinglish.[12]Some scholars of literature use the term to describe literary styles that include elements from more than one language, as in novels by Chinese-American, Anglo-Indian, or Latino writers.[13]
As switching between languages is exceedingly common and takes many forms, we can recognize code-switching more often as sentence alternation. A sentence may begin in one language, and finish in another. Or phrases from both languages may succeed each other in apparently random order. Such behavior can be explained only by postulating a range of linguistic or social factors such as the following:[14]
Code-switching involves the capacity of bilingual individuals to switch between different languages within a single conversation.[15]John Guiteriz notes that it is important to note that code-switching is most commonly observed among bilingual individuals who are highly skilled in both languages and is actually prevalent in numerous bilingual communities, contrary to common beliefs. The patterns of language switching exhibited by the speaker can be influenced by the listener's level of proficiency in the languages or their personal language preferences.[15]
Code-switching is distinct from otherlanguage contactphenomena, such asborrowing,pidginsandcreoles, andloan translation (calques). Borrowing affects thelexicon, the words that make up a language, while code-switching takes place in individualutterances.[16][17][18]Speakers form and establish a pidgin language when two or more speakers who do not speak a common language form an intermediate, third language. Speakers also practice code-switching when they are each fluent in both languages.Code-mixingis a thematically related term, but the usage of the termscode-switchingandcode-mixingvaries. Some scholars use either term to denote the same practice, while others applycode-mixingto denote the formal linguistic properties of language-contact phenomena andcode-switchingto denote the actual, spoken usages by multilingual persons.[19][20][21]
There is much debate in the field of linguistics regarding the distinction between code-switching andlanguage transfer.[22]According to Jeanine Treffers-Daller, "considering CS [code-switching] and [language] transfer as similar phenomena is helpful if one wants to create a theory that is as parsimonious as possible, and therefore it is worth attempting to aim for such a unified approach, unless there is compelling evidence that this is not possible."[22]
Not all linguists agree on whether they should be considered similar phenomena. In some cases, linguists refer to the benefits and disadvantages oflanguage transferas two separate phenomena, i.e., language transference and language interference, respectively.[23]In such views, these two kinds oflanguage transfer, along with code-switching, comprise what is known as cross-linguistic influence.[23]
Part of the debate may be solved by simply clarifying some key definitions. Evidently, linguists sometimes use different terminology to refer to the same phenomenon, which can make it confusing to distinguish between two phenomena from one another in investigative discourse. For instance, psycholinguists frequently make use of the term language switching in reference to the "controlled and willed switching" to another language. However, this term is hardly used by linguists working on natural code-switching.[22]
Nevertheless, adopting the notion that code-switching involves switching between languages by a multilingual speaker fluent in the languages being alternated can alleviate the contention behind this debate. This is so because language transfer does not require such a switch between language systems to be performed by a multilingual speaker fluent in the alternated languages. As a result, this can account for transfer errors, when proficiency in one language is lower than the proficiency of the speaker in the other.
On the other hand, there are linguists that maintain "that CS and transfer are manifestations of the same phenomenon, i.e. the influence of one language on another, is an attractive null hypothesis that can be tested in experimental settings."[22]
Some terms are commonly confused with usage when discussing code-switching. Sometimes they are used interchangeably as there is not a fixed and definitive definition of code-switching in the field. Below are some commonly considered definitions by scholars in the field of these terms easily confused with code-switching, highlighting the differences between them and code-switching.
Code-meshing is considered to be the combination or variation of one language with other linguistic aspects of the same language, like linguistic traditions, or simply with other languages. Whereas code-switching can indicate one language having higher recognition over another in certain settings, resulting in the latter being transmitted into the former or even being switched out for the former,[24]code-meshing may indicate the achievement of a relative linguistic equality.[25]The resulting product of code-meshing turns out to be more of an integration or system of language,[24]instead of having the different components of the product separated or segregated.[26]Therefore, it even avoids some issues regarding racism and promotes rhetoric effectiveness compared to code-switching.[27]
Translingual ortranslanguagingmay have come in the form of a combination of language usage with nonlinguistic elements.[28]For example, people can use multiple different languages plus drawing symbol or small images to express one message or idea by putting them together on a surface.[28]When compared to code-switching, it has a more common or fixed purpose of making sense or conveying meanings.[28]Some scholars use the term translingualism to broadly describe the behavior of combining different languages together without prescriptive definition and articulation.[29]Specifically, they consider translingualism to be highly the usage of multiple language in writing and divide it into translingual work, translingual negotiation and translingual rhetoric for discussion and research study purpose.[29]
There are several reasons to switch codes in a single conversation:
Scholars use different names for various types of code-switching.
Most code-switching studies primarily focus on intra-sentential switching, as it creates many hybrid grammar structures that require explanation. The other types involve utterances that simply follow the grammar of one language or the other. Intra-sentential switching can be alternational or insertional. In alternational code-switching, a new grammar emerges that is a combination of the grammars of the two languages involved. Insertional code-switching involves "the insertion of elements from one language into the morphosyntactic frame of the other."[37]
Aportmanteau sentenceis a particular type of intrasentential code-switching. It is a hybrid involving structures from two different languages in one sentence[38]: 199in which an item in one language is used as a bridge between portions of the sentence in languages which have differingword order typologies.[38]: 193–194It is more of a "syntactic blend" than the kind of lexical blend one sees inportmanteau wordssuch assmog.[39]
Almedia Jacqueleline Toribio's study aims to answer a fundamental question: How do second language learners acquire the necessary knowledge to maintain structural coherence and make well-formedness judgments when using code-switched forms?[40]The study reveals that there are two main beneficial aspects of code-switching. Both developmental patterns contribute to assessing methodological linguisitic constructs. Toribio offers an illustration of intrasentential code-switching, showcasing consistent grammatical patterns. Proficient bilingual individuals, equipped with advanced proficiency in both languages, engage in intra-sentential code alternations.[40]
Intrasentential code-switchingshould be distinguished from the related linguistic phenomenon of 'insertional code-switching'. Toribio defines 'Intrasentential code-switching' as the practice of switching between two languages within a single sentence structure while adhering to grammatical rules. Skilled bilingual individuals, who are competent in both languages, can judge whether the acceptability of such code-switching is grammatically and functionally correct.[40]
Insertional code-switchingis often referred to as 'borrowing' or 'tag-switching'. Toribio refers to 'Insertional code-switching' when lexical items from a secondary language are introduced into the primary language. These loan words are partially or fully assimilated into the secondary language, conforming to its phonological and morphological structure. Insertional code-switching serves a "pragmatic purpose, acting as sentence enhancers or indicating the speaker's attitude towards the context of an utterance."[40]
Example of 'Intrasentential code-switching'
1)Llegamos a los Estados Unidos en los 60s.We came to New York in the 60s.
"We arrived in the United States in the 60s. We came to New York in the 60s.
2) Code-switching among bilingualsha sido la fuente de numerosas investigaciones.
"Code-switching among bilingualshas been the source of numerous studies."
Toribio also provides an instance of 'Insertional code-switching', which demonstrates the incorporation of specific lexical elements into a target language. The borrowed words can be integrated into the host language either partially or entirely, taking into account their phonological and morphological structure.[40]
Example of 'Insertional code-switching':
1)El estudiante leyó el libro en elreference room.
"The student read the book in thereference room.
2) I met up with mycompadresat thefiesta.
"I met up with mybuddiesat theparty."
In most language education programs, such as English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, educators and learners have significant proficiency differences in their target language (the language which those learners are learning). Therefore, under such condition, code-switching is often a very common method to establish communication between educators and learners.[41]
The application of code-switching under such a condition can be divided into two main different situations: one is the interaction between learners and the educator, and the other is the communication between students and classmates.[41]Linguists and educators have different opinions and views toward the use of code-switching under different situations in language teaching, so the two situations will be discussed separately. Assuming that both learners and language teachers have the same native language background, which means that everyone can use their same native language to build normal communication. In addition, the situation of foreign teachers (whose native language is the target language), and students from diverse backgrounds (each student has a different native language) are not included.[42]
According to Grace Cornell Gonzales and Emily Machado, many teachers adapt their teaching styles to code-switching because they believe that it allows students to feel as if they are maintaining their full identity.[43]Some educators allow students to code-switch when talking or writing. This strategy has been seen to be effective because it allows students to communicate their experiences just how they felt them happen.[43]In some cases, some teachers will participate in code-switching when interacting with students because it allows students to feel more comfortable. According to Barbara Mellix, code-switching also allows students to feel more confident and secure with their languages and writing because they see that code-switching is acceptable in certain instances.[44]Although code-switching can become difficult to control, it has been said that speaking and writing go hand in hand: if a person can write, then they can speak and control their switch in the same or similar way.[44]According to Ena Lee and Steve Marshall, the process of code-switching in a classroom also allows for a "greater access" to knowledge.[45]It is important to note that code-switching occurs more often with those whose dominant language is not standard English.[46][44]
Code switching involves utilizing entire sentences, phrases, and borrowed vocabulary from a different language. It is a prevalent linguistic occurrence observed among individuals who are bilingual. To proficiently engage in code switching, students need to possess a substantial comprehension of both cultures, along with a profound understanding of the fundamental structures and functions of language systems. Contrary to the conventional notion of code switching representing a disadvantaged and partially literate upbringing, it actually signifies an intellectual advantage.[47]
Nevertheless, code switching has typically not been regarded as a favorable attribute by educational institutions, teachers, or the dominant culture.[47]The methods employed for assessing and identifying giftedness have traditionally focused on a single language or relied on criteria and behaviors that align with the values and norms of the majority culture.[47]
Historically, there has been a prevalent tendency to discourage code switching in both the educational system and society as a whole.[48]Jean Aitchison's notes that discouragement stems from concerns regarding the potential negative impact on the languages involved, which could potentially lead to language erosion or decline. According to Aitchison, one possible explanation for the widespread disapproval of language variations is rooted in social-class prejudice. There exists a general belief that someone should arbitrate between the different forms of English. Aitchison concludes that the puristic stance toward language, which maintains the idea of an absolute standard of correctness, has its roots in a natural inclination towards nostalgia, further amplified by social pressures.[48]
On the other hand, Adalberot Aguirre Jr. argues that language alternation, commonly known as code-switching, can serve as a valuable teaching and learning strategy in the bilingual classroom. A bilingual teacher possesses an intuitive understanding of bilingual behavior, which can play a crucial role in constructing a sociolinguistic profile of the student in such a classroom. This understanding enables the teacher to determine three key aspects: 1) the nature of the code-switching and how it occurs; 2) whether a student is mixing or alternating languages in a manner that indicates confusion; and 3) criteria for discerning between code-switching that carries meaning and code-switching that lacks significance.[49]
Aguirre asserts that a bilingual teacher's intuitive knowledge of bilingual behavior can be instrumental in his or her construction of a sociolinguistic profile for the student in the bilingual classroom.[49]He supports his argument by outlining three ways in which a teacher's intuitive knowledge can benefit bilingual children in the classroom. Firstly, if a teacher's intuitive knowledge suggests that a child possesses similar linguistic abilities in both languages, they may choose to alternate languages during instruction. This approach aims to enhance sentence complexity and expand the student's vocabulary, thereby strengthening their intuitive knowledge base for bilingual behavior. Secondly, a bilingual teacher's intuition may alert them to instances where a bilingual student is mixing languages in a way that indicates confusion rather than intentional code switching. Lastly, teachers can utilize their intuitive understanding of code switching to establish criteria for distinguishing meaningful code switching from meaningless instances.[49]
In these language education programs, the most common situation is that the learners do not have proficient language skills in the targeting language.[41]For some examples, the vocabulary mastery of the learners is not enough to build the desired conversation or the learners lack of the abilities to construct sentence in the targeting language structure. In this case, it is impractical to build a complete conversation in the target language. In order to establish a clearer conversation in target language, learners often inevitably use code-switching so that they use their mother tongue to fill the gap caused by the lack of proficiency in the target language. Code-switching's occurrence in this case can reflected in a phenomenon known as "Cited Language".[41]This phenomenon simply means that Code-switching is used as a tool to fill in the lexical gaps that arise when establishing conversation in the target language. A simple example for this is to ask how to say a certain thing or a certain word in the target language. In addition, students in these language learning programs could actively avoid using Code-switching, either because of their own desire to establish a pure conversation in targeting language or because of the demands of their instructor. This is reflected in the fact that learners in these language programs often use code-switching briefly in a low-voice manner to help form a complete dialogue. Although the presence of code-switching in language learning programs is common, there are some educators who believe that the use of code-switching can cause dependency. For example, with frequent use of code-switching, students do not quickly adapt to speaking purely in the target language.[50]Moreover, in language programs where the native language is quite different from the target language, the use of code-switching can lead to confusion about grammar and other sentence structures.
In contrast with learners, educators usually have a higher level of proficiency in the target language which means they can use the target language for normal communication without barriers. Educators can converse fluently in both languages, so they have a choice as to whether and how often code-switching is used in the language teaching process.[42]From the perspective of learning, in most cases, these frequencies are often inversely correlated with the learners' proficiency in the target language, that is, the higher the proficiency of the learners, the rarer the occurrence of code-switching.
From another perspective, compared to enhancing knowledge construction, some of these moves are done unintentionally because speaking in native languages simply helps reducing the complexity of communication, which simplified communication is also easier for students to understand what their teacher is trying to convey. A code-switched expression can be useful rather than in academic conversation that student actually learning languages through figuring out complicated sentences. These situations might cover maintaining class order, understanding students' mental health state, or making clarifications. Although instructors have the ability to choose whether or not to use code-switching, the question of when and how often to use it remains controversial. It is undeniable that code-switching is a powerful tool for making clarifications in many cases, especially when the scholar is extremely unfamiliar with the target language.[51]But on the other hand, the use of code-switching by teachers can also lead to students not being able to adapt to new language situations.
Code-switching in the classroom can be challenging because it requires adapting to different languagesandcultural norms. Students tend to assimilate into the new culture to fit in with other students.[1]The way students talk, learn, and think begins to change because they start learning what is the "correct" way of speaking.[1]The difficulty of adapting to a new language and culture with different rules and norms is often understated.[1]
Henry Lawert emphasizes how "an effective knowledge of English is not as universal as many of us would like to believe."[2]Teaching non-native speakers can be a challenge, especially when the classroom's primary language is a secondary language or the student isn't fluent. Many students speak other languages at home, making learning the classroom's primary language more challenging.[3]When switching languages, it can become difficult for a child to understand what is going on in the classroom, and might learn at a different pace than other students.[52]Teachers start to label children as "inadequate" or "behind".[3]As a result, children start feeling resentment towards their own culture and begin to think their native language is inferior or invalidated. With an average classroom class being 30:1, it can be difficult to receive help from a teacher, and even more difficult when the student prefers to use a different language.[1]This can discourage students, and it can become harmful to the long-term aptitude of students, even after they reach fluency.[6]
Many consider code-switching harmful to the classroom, especially for particular populations of students whose first language may not be the language of the country they reside. Code-switching is considered by some as a racist pedagogy that upholds the structure of domination of the English language. This is because code-switching encourages a monolingual classroom which prevents students from thinking or speaking in ways that come easiest to them.[53]
Instead many prefer the alternative of code-meshing, where all languages and dialects are valued equally. This pedagogy celebrates and encourages students to use their primary language to diversify and improve their school work without limiting them to a singular language. It exposes students to more cultures in an unfiltered way.[24]
Some teachers consider code-switching useful in the classroom because it helps students who do not speak standard English as their first language feel more welcomed in the class and also learn the material more easily. It also helps with learning a new language since it allows students to guess what words in another language mean outside of the context that is given in their native language. One of the challenges with code-switching is that teachers have to consider that if they code-switch or otherwise use more than one language in their classroom, they have to ensure that the students truly understand what the content is in the different language. To do so, teachers often lessen the amount of material that they cover, teaching their students only the basics and allowing them to learn the rest by themselves.[54]
Code-switching can pressure students to conform to one language over another.[7]For some students it can lead to a feeling of disconnection to their own culture, and that those students are betraying their culture by learning English over their mother tongue. Being a non-native speaker in a foreign country can lead to total isolation due to the inability to communicate. There is this sense of feeling lost and many feel the need to hide their cultural identity.[6]Many educators have argued that in a classroom, all cultures should be celebrated and students should feel like they are fully accepted and valued for who they are.[7]
Code-switching is very common in classrooms of multiple languages for many different purposes.[55]
Code-switching in remote settings has become higher on the writing agenda due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. Remote settings have taken the likes of social media, emails, and any other setting where communication has been made via online platforms. A study done by Cambridge University looked into how code-switching is present on remote, online platforms.[56]Looking at tweets from Twitter regardingHurricane Irma, researchers looked to see how posting went hand in hand with the impacted English and Spanish speaking countries. They found that many utilized English due to the platform's systemic influences. However, translations were prevalent in tweets to make them accessible to both English and Spanish speakers. To understand the relationship between how often people code-switched, the researchers calculated the proportion of code-switches of prior and current Tweets. The results of the study found that language switching produces Tweets that are better at conveying messages the individual wished to put across. Likewise, they found that multilingual individuals differed their code switches based on the language used in their previous Tweets. Due to the difficulty to use multiple languages in the same sentence in writing, more messages were English than in Spanish. Finally, when comparing non-code switching Tweets by the same writer, those with code-switching present had more complex language. This study is only one of potentially many studies to be done. Writing studies has much more to dissect about remote code-switching. Potential research could look into Zoom etiquette, Discord forums, etc.
Code-switching relates to, and sometimesindexessocial-group membership in bilingual and multilingual communities. Some sociolinguists describe the relationships between code-switching behaviours andclass,ethnicity, and other social positions.[57]In addition, scholars ininteractional linguisticsandconversation analysishave studied code-switching as a means of structuring speech in interaction.[58][59][60]Some discourse analysts, including conversation analystPeter Auer, suggest that code-switching does not simply reflect social situations, but that it is a means to create social situations.[61][62][63]
The Markedness model, developed byCarol Myers-Scotton, is one of the more complete theories of code-switching motivations. It posits that language users arerationaland choose to speak a language that clearly marks their rights and obligations, relative to other speakers, in the conversation and its setting.[64]When there is no clear,unmarkedlanguage choice, speakers practice code-switching to explore possible language choices. Many sociolinguists, however, object to the Markedness Model's postulation that language-choice is entirely rational.[65][66]
Scholars of conversation analysis such as Peter Auer andLi Weiargue that the social motivation behind code-switching lies in the way code-switching is structured and managed in conversational interaction; in other words, the question of why code-switching occurs cannot be answered without first addressing the question of how it occurs. Using conversation analysis (CA), these scholars focus their attention on the sequential implications of code-switching. That is, whatever language a speaker chooses to use for a conversational turn, or part of a turn, impacts the subsequent choices of language by the speaker as well as the hearer. Rather than focusing on the social values inherent in the languages the speaker chooses ("brought-along meaning"), the analysis concentrates on the meaning that the act of code-switching itself creates ("brought-about meaning").[58][65]
Thecommunication accommodation theory(CAT), developed byHoward Giles, professor of communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara, seeks to explain the cognitive reasons for code-switching, and other changes in speech, as a person either emphasizes or minimizes the social differences between himself and the other person(s) in conversation. Giles posits that when speakers seek approval in a social situation they are likely to converge their speech with that of the other speaker. This can include, but is not limited to, the language of choice, accent, dialect, and para-linguistic features used in the conversation. In contrast to convergence, speakers might also engage in divergent speech, in which an individual person emphasizes the social distance between himself and other speakers by using speech with linguistic features characteristic of his own group.
In a diglossic situation, some topics are better suited to the use of one language over another.Joshua Fishmanproposes a domain-specific code-switching model[67](later refined by Blom andGumperz)[68]wherein bilingual speakers choose which code to speak depending on where they are and what they are discussing. For example, a child who is a bilingual Spanish-English speaker might speak Spanish at home and English in class, but Spanish at recess.[69]
In studying the syntactic andmorphologicalpatterns of language alternation, linguists have postulated specificgrammaticalrules and specific syntactic boundaries for where code-switching might occur.
Shana Poplack's model of code-switching is an influential theory of the grammar of code-switching.[37]In this model, code-switching is subject to two constraints. Thefree-morpheme constraintstipulates that code-switching cannot occur between a lexical stem and bound morphemes. Essentially, this constraint distinguishes code-switching from borrowing. Generally, borrowing occurs in the lexicon, while code-switching occurs at either the syntax level or the utterance-construction level.[16][17][18]Theequivalence constraintpredicts that switches occur only at points where the surface structures of the languages coincide, or between sentence elements that are normally ordered in the same way by each individual grammar.[37]For example, the sentence: "I like youporque eres simpático" ("I like youbecause you are friendly") is allowed because it obeys the syntactic rules of both Spanish and English.[70]On the contrary, cases like the noun phrasesthe casa whiteandthe blanca houseare ruled out because the combinations are ungrammatical in at least one of the languages involved. Spanish noun phrases are made up of determiners, then nouns, then adjectives, while the adjectives come before the nouns in English noun phrases.The casa whiteis ruled out by the equivalence constraint because it does not obey the syntactic rules of English, andthe blanca houseis ruled out because it does not follow the syntactic rules of Spanish.[37]
Moreover, some observations on Sankoff and Poplack's model were later pointed out by outside researchers. The observations regard that free-morpheme and equivalence constraints are insufficiently restrictive, meaning there are numerous exceptions that occur. For example, the free morpheme constraint does not account for why switching is impossible between certain free morphemes. The sentence: "The students hadvisto la película italiana" ("The students hadseen the Italian movie") does not occur in Spanish-English code-switching, yet the free-morpheme constraint would seem to posit that it can.[71]The equivalence constraint would also rule out switches that occur commonly in languages, as when Hindi postpositional phrases are switched with English prepositional phrases like in the sentence: "John gave a bookek larakii ko" ("John gave a bookto a girl"). The phraseek larakii kois literally translated asa girl to, making it ungrammatical in English, and yet this is a sentence that occurs in English-Hindi code-switching despite the requirements of the equivalence constraint.[37]Sankoff and Poplack's model focuses on the instances where code-switching does not interfere with the syntactic rule of the speaker's primary or second language.[72]Although the model has been challenged with counter-examples collected by other researchers, there is a conclusion that most agree on. The conclusion is that the practice of code-switching demonstrates grammatical proficiency of an equivalent level as a monolingual speaker's speech competence, unlike the claims that code-switching reflects incompetence in either of the two languages of a bilingual speaker.[73]
Carol Myers-Scotton's Matrix Language-Frame (MLF) model is the dominant model of insertional code-switching.[37]The MLF model posits that there is aMatrix Language(ML) and anEmbedded Language(EL). In this case, elements of the Embedded Language are inserted into the morphosyntactic frame of the Matrix Language. The hypotheses are as follows (Myers-Scotton 1993b: 7):
The Matrix Language Hypothesis states that those grammatical procedures in the central structure in the language production system which account for the surface structure of the Matrix Language + Embedded Languageconstituent (linguistics)are only Matrix Language–based procedures. Further, the hypothesis is intended to imply that frame-building precedes contentmorphemeinsertion. A Matrix Language can be the first language of the speaker or the language in which the morphemes or words are more frequently used in speech, so the dominant language is the Matrix Language and the other is the Embedded Language. AMatrix Language islandis a constituent composed entirely of Matrix Language morphemes.[74]
According to theBlocking Hypothesis, in Matrix Language + Embedded Language constituents, a blocking filter blocks any Embedded Language content morpheme which is not congruent with the Matrix Language with respect to three levels of abstraction regarding subcategorization. "Congruence" is used in the sense that two entities, linguistic categories in this case, are congruent if they correspond in respect of relevant qualities.
The three levels of abstraction are:
We see that example 1 is consistent with the Blocking Hypothesis and the system content morpheme criteria, so the prediction is that the Hindi orUrduequivalents are also content morphemes. Sometimes non-congruence between counterparts in the Matrix Language and Embedded Language can be circumvented by accessing bare forms. "Cell" is a bare form and so the thematic role of "cell" is assigned by the verb-wek-'put in/on'; this means that the verb is a content morpheme.
TheEmbedded Language Island Trigger Hypothesisstates that when an Embedded Language morpheme appears which is not permitted under either the Matrix Language Hypothesis or Blocking Hypothesis, it triggers the inhibition of all Matrix Language accessing procedures and completes the current constituent as an Embedded Language island. Embedded Language islands consist only of Embedded Language morphemes and are well-formed by Embedded Language grammar, but they are inserted in the Matrix Language frame. Therefore, Embedded Language islands are under the constraint of Matrix Language grammar.
Example 1 is ungrammatical (indicated by the leading asterisk) because "your" is accessed, so the Embedded Language Island Trigger Hypothesis predicts that it must be followed by an English head (e.g., "your letter") as an Embedded Language island. The reason is that possessive adjectives are system morphemes. We see the same thing happen in example 2, which is therefore ungrammatical. However, the correct way to finish the sentence is not "for wewe", switching back to Swahili; rather, it should end with "for you", which would be an Embedded Language island.
TheEmbedded Language Implicational Hierarchy Hypothesiscan be stated as two sub-hypotheses:
TheImplication Hierarchy of Embedded Language Islands:
We see example 1 work because the French Embedded Language islandLe matin de bonne heure, "early in the morning", is a time expression. (Also, it is repeated in Wolof in the second sentence.) In example 2, we see the quantifiera lot ofis a predicted Embedded Language island. Here we see an objective complement of a finite verb begin with the quantifier.
Jeff MacSwanhas posited aconstraint-free approachto analyzing code-switching. This approach views explicit reference to code-switching in grammatical analysis astautological, and seeks to explain specific instances of grammaticality in terms of the unique contributions of the grammatical properties of the languages involved. MacSwan characterizes the approach with the refrain, "Nothing constrains code-switching apart from the requirements of the mixed grammars."[75]The approach focuses on the repudiation of any rule or principle which explicitly refers to code-switching itself.[76]This approach does not recognize or accept terms such as "matrix language", "embedded language", or "language frame", which are typical in constraint-based approaches such as the MLF Model.
Rather than posit constraints specific to language alternation, as in traditional work in the field, MacSwan advocates that mixed utterances be analyzed with a focus on the specific and unique linguistic contributions of each language found in a mixed utterance. Because these analyses draw on the full range of linguistic theory, and each data set presents its own unique challenges, a much broader understanding of linguistics is generally needed to understand and participate in this style of codeswitching research.
For example, Cantone and MacSwan (2009)[77]analyzed word order differences for nouns and adjectives in Italian-German codeswitching using a typological theory of Cinque that had been independently proposed in the syntax literature; their account derives the word order facts of Italian-German codeswitching from underlying differences between the two languages, according to Cinque's theory.[citation needed]
Myers-Scotton and MacSwan debated the relative merits of their approaches in a series of exchanges published in 2005 inBilingualism: Language and Cognition, issues 8(1) and 8(2).
Much remains to be done before a more complete understanding of code-switching phenomena is achieved. Linguists continue to debate apparent counter-examples to proposed code-switching theories and constraints.[19][37][78]
TheClosed-class Constraint, developed byAravind Joshi, posits thatclosed classitems (pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, etc.) cannot be switched.[79]TheFunctional Head Constraintdeveloped by Belazi et al. holds that code-switching cannot occur between afunctionalhead(acomplementizer, adeterminer, aninflection, etc.) and its complement (sentence, noun-phrase, verb-phrase).[71]These constraints, among others like the Matrix Language-Frame model, are controversial among linguists positing alternative theories, as they are seen to claim universality and make general predictions based upon specific presumptions about the nature of syntax.[19][78]
Compared to their monolingual peers, bilingual children seem to have some advantage in non-linguistic tasks related to executive and attentional control. For instance, they are able to identify relevant visual information and ignore irrelevant perceptual information better than monolingual children. Bilinguals employ these executive and attentional processes daily as they need to quickly be able to select the correct vocabulary and grammar in context.[80]According to Ena Lee and Steve Marshall, people are also able to switch from their bi/multilingual identity to a strict monolingual identity whenever they are required to do so.[45]According to a research study, bi/Multilingual people's brains are working quicker than monolingual people's brains because they are constantly switching between different languages.[46]When writing, bi/multilingual people tend to go through different stages of writing styles, essentially allowing them to go through the learning process in more depth compared to monolingual writers.[44]Code-switching is a writing tool that many people use in order to communicate with similar people whenever they are struggling with formulating words or ideas.[45]
Despite the advantages to code-switching in the classroom, research has shown that bilingual children seem to have more of a disadvantage compared to their monolingual peers.[43]For example, many of them are required to write or speak in English in American schools, rather than writing and speaking in their native languages.[43]Ena Lee and Steve Marshall state that "many students are required to write or speak in English, causing them to push away their other known languages that make up a huge part of their identities."[45]Oftentimes, children speak their native language at home whenever they are around their family, and then once they leave their homes they speak in English. According to Barbara Mellix, the switch in language causes a person to be careful and aware of their surroundings in order to know when it is acceptable to speak a certain language. On the contrary, whenever they feel comfortable around someone, they tend to code-switch and speak in a mixture of two languages or more.[45][46][44]The adaptation to standard English language can be quite difficult for bi/multilingual speakers andMultilingual writersbecause they can feel unsupported and discouraged by the educational systems. Code-switching occurs very naturally and is hard to control for those who are fluent in more than one language.[46]
During class writing activities, bi/multilingual students are often times faced withwriter's blockbecause they are constantly thinking in more than one language, making it difficult to narrow down their ideas so that they can be expressed in a single language. It has been noted thatEnglish grammaris one of the most important yet most difficult topics in English, which even monolingual students struggle with. Code-switching makes it very difficult to follow all of standard English grammar rules because students' brains are constantly wanting to switch from one language to another, making it harder for students to formulate good grammatical sentences.[81]According to Barbara Mellix, bi/multilingual writers can oftentimes feel "diminished"[44]or "embarrassed"[44]whenever they are forced to solely stick to standard English because they are afraid to be wrong and stand out in a negative way compared to their monolingual peers.[44]
Research has shown that the knowledge and use of more than one language alters both the anatomical and functional organization of the brain, which leads to different functional capabilities both in language and other areas. Certain regions of the bilingual brain have been repeatedly shown to differ from those of monolinguals in both size and neural activity.
One such study (Michelli et al., 2004) showed significant increase in grey matter density in theleft inferior parietal cortexof bilinguals relative to monolinguals as a specific instance of experience-dependentbrain plasticity. Another study (Coggins et al., 2004) showed an increase in the volume of the anterior midbody of thecorpus callosum, which is involved in primary and somatosensory function, in bilinguals. The research suggests the increase is an accommodation for the increasedphonemiccapacity requirement of bilinguals.[80]
By using case studies of bilingual patients with cerebral lesions, researchers theorized that language switching relies on the inhibition of the non-target language using theleft basal gangliaalongside executive control processes with theanterior cingulate,prefrontal, andfront cortices, or[clarification needed]bilateralsupramarginal gyriandBroca's area. Thedorsolateral prefrontal cortexhas also been shown as significant in controlling language switching and inhibiting the unused language through observations of uncontrollable language switching in patients with damage to this brain area. Increased activation is seen in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during language switching, but not regularly.[80]
It is postulated that the language not in use is "active" during another language's use and can be primed by a conversation. That priming is what makes it difficult to pinpoint changes in activation within any given network. Based on various studies, it is shown that the immediate spoken context affects the likelihood of a code-switch; "prior utterances can influence the activation of lexico-syntactic representations, making such representations more available for selection".[82]
The extended control process model states the following:
"Language control signals operate on a subcortical gate that acts as a constructor of utterance plans. The gate interacts with frontal regions to select a syntactic structure and binds roles in that structure to a specific lexical content. Plans are constructed in the planning layer of competition queuing CQ network. The competitive choice layer of this network allows serial order to emerge from the parallel activation of items in the plan."[82]
The model hypothesizes that single language use and code-switching use two different types of language control, which is competitive control and cooperative control, respectively. In competitive language control, the "gate" will only allow constructions from a single language to enter the plan. On the other hand, there are two forms of cooperative control: coupled control ("the matrix language temporarily cedes control to other language to allow intended insertion or alternation before control is returned back") and open control ("entry into the utterance planning mechanism is determined by whichever items from either language are most active at some moment in time").[82]
In a study published in 2001,event-related potentials(ERPs) were recorded from native English speakers as they randomly named digits in English or their L2. The results of the study showed that participants named digits slower after a language switch, regardless of the switch direction. Language switches from the L1 to L2 were characterized with an N320 ERP, indicating inhibition of unwanted lexicon, which may reflect a greater need to suppress an active L1 when using L2. However, code-switching during language comprehension, as opposed to production, did not result in an N320.[80]
A 2002 study showed that language switches based on expected endings to sentences (from context) elicited a response consistent with code switches being treated like "unexpected events at the physical level than at the lexico-semantic level. The more proficient the bilingual in L2, the earlier the latency and the smaller the amplitude was this positivity to the code-switch."[80]
The lack of controlled environments for test subjects and their cognitive capabilities regarding language use and fluency has long been a concern in multilingual experimentation. Researchers try to "offset" results that follow no trends by analyzing the social and linguistic history of the populations they are testing, but a good method to standardize data patterns and variation based on individual idiolects has yet to be created and implemented.[80][82]
Only a few studies have been done to measure brain activity during code switches, and so general trends cannot be expanded into larger theories without additional research.
In this section, segments that are switched from the primary language of the conversation are shown in bold.
Children growing up in African American communities, who natively speakAfrican-American Vernacular English(AAVE), acquire a kind of bilingualism (or bidialectism) when entering mainstream American classrooms. Teachers and academic expectations they encounter require them to usestandard,higher-prestigelinguistic features for school assignments and classroom participation, often effectively leading these students to develop an ability to code-switch rapidly betweennonstandardAAVE and standard English features. This can pose a processing obstacle for some students who have to navigate subtle grammatical differences between the two varieties of English when interpreting prompts and instructions (see, e.g., Terry, et al., 2010 on past tense copulawas/were).[83][84][85]Age is a significant factor in determining how many AAVE forms vs. more standard forms are produced by a given student with a significant downshift in classroom AAVE production occurring around the transition from preschool to kindergarten and first grade. Craig and Washington (2004) found a reduction in five out of sixmorpho-syntacticcharacteristics studied across the transition frompre-kindergartentokindergartenincludingnull copula,zero articles, zero past tense, zero plurals, and zero prepositions.[86]Thebidialectismdeveloped by these children offers similar advantages to other kinds of bilingualism including increasedexecutive functionand advances incritical thinking.[87][88]As an example of this code-switching in action, see the following transcript ofRachel Jeantel's testimony in thetrial of George Zimmermanfor the murder ofTrayvon Martinbelow. This transcript was analyzed in Rickford and King (2016); the bolded elements represent places where initially a null copula (indicated by thesymbol ∅) was used which was switched to an overt copula ('s) when asked for clarification by the court reporter:[89]
Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda:Okay. And after he used, pardon my language, he said, 'Oh, shit', what happened then?Rachel Jeantel:Thenigga ∅behind me.Court reporter:I'm sorry, what?Jeantel:[Slowly, deliberately] Thenigga'sbehind—thenigga ∅behind me.
The structure of African American English differs significantly from standard English, particularly in the use of the Invariant "be." An illustration of this distinction is evident in its application for habitual or repeated actions. In instances involving actions in the present with subjects other than "I," the use of a form of "be" is omitted. For actions in the past tense, "was" or "were" is employed, while present tense questions utilize a conjugated form of "be." Questions pertaining to habitual actions employ the combination of "do" and "be." Notably, the Invariant "be" also serves to indicate future actions, wherein it may be optionally combined with an auxiliary. Unlike the verb "to be," the Invariant "be" lacks variant forms such as "is," "are," or "am".[90]Getting to know the African American English is very important because many African American students use this English in class and then often get told to use the standard English forms. The invariant be is also considered a code switching because you technically switch in between two languages. Even though these languages are almost the same there are still some grammatical differences that makes the African American English its own language.
The following examples demonstrate two types of code-switching (intra-sentential and inter-sentential code-switching) by Cantonese-English bilingual children. The examples are taken from the Hong Kong Bilingual Child Language Corpus.[91][92]
The first example illustrates intra-sentential code-switching, where the child Alicia (age 2) inserted the English nounappleinto her Cantonese sentence:[93]
The second example displays inter-sentential code-switching, where the child Kasen (age 2) switched to Cantonese amid an English dialogical context:[94]
Research has found that Cantonese-English bilingual children's intra- and inter-sentential code-switching behaviour is shaped by different factors. The children's intra-sentential code-switching is influenced by parental input rather than developmental language dominance.[93][95]On the other hand, the children's inter-sentential code-switching is affected by their developmental language dominance (besides pragmatic factors).[94]In Hong Kong, intra-sentential code-switching is a common social practice among adults. Since families provide the first social environment, and interaction with parents is highly influential in socializing children's language use, parental input will have impact on children's intra-sentential code-switching.[93]On the other hand, inter-sentential code-switching is not as common in Hong Kong. It has been proposed that, for Cantonese-English children, their inter-sentential code-switching is related to their readiness, competency, and preference of speaking the designated language of the dialogical context; hence, their inter-sentential code-switching can be affected by developmental language dominance.[94]This finding implies that, in societies where intra-sentential (but not inter-sentential) code-switching is a common social practice, inter-sentential code-switching may serve as signs of a bilingual child's language-dominance status.[94]
Code-switching between English andTagalog(Filipino), as well as English and other native languages, is very widespread in thePhilippines. Known generally asTaglish, it has become the de factolingua francaamong the urbanized and/or educatedmiddle class. It is largely considered the "normal acceptable conversation style of speaking and writing" in informal settings. It is so widespread that a non-native speaker can be identified easily because they predominantly use pure Tagalog, whereas a native speaker would switch freely with English.[96][97][98]
Roger Thompson’s research it suggests that the interactions between Tagalog and English depend on what is taking place. In the classroom teachers prefer students to use English. When in media the Philippines tends to prefer using Tagalog over English but in smaller social interactions people use their local dialect over both.[99][100]
According to the linguist Maria Lourdes S. Bautista, there are two contrasting types of code-switching in the Philippines: deficiency-driven and proficiency-driven. Deficiency-driven code-switching is when a person is not competent in one language and thus has to switch back to the language they are more familiar with. This is common among younger children, as in the example below given by Bautista:[96][98]
Proficiency-driven code-switching, on the other hand, is when a person is fully competent in both languages being used and can switch between them easily. It is the main type of code-switching in the islands. The example below is given by Bautista, taken from an interview with thetelevision journalistJessica Soho:[98]
Proficiency-driven code-switching is characterized by frequent switching of the Matrix Language (ML) between Tagalog and English, demonstrating the high proficiency of the speakers in both languages. There are also a wide range of strategies involved, including: the formation of bilingual verbs by the addition of prefixes, suffixes, and infixes (e.g.Nagsa-sweatako= "I was sweating"); switching at the morphological, word, phrasal, or clausal levels; and the use of system morphemes (likeenclitics,conjunctions, etc.) within long stretches of ML content; and even the inversion of theverb–subject–objectword order of Tagalog into thesubject-verb-objectorder of English.[98]
According to Bautista, the reason for this type of code-switching is what she termed "communicative efficiency", wherein a speaker can "convey meaning using the most accurate, expressive, or succinct lexical items available to them."[96][98]The linguist Rosalina Morales Goulet also enumerated several reasons for this type of code-switching. They are: "for precision, for transition, for comic effect, for atmosphere, to bridge or create social distance, for snob appeal, and for secrecy."[97]
This example of switching fromFrenchtoTamilcomes fromethnographerSonia Das's work with immigrants fromJaffna,Sri Lanka, toQuebec.[101]Selvamani, who moved from Sri Lanka to Quebec as a child and now identifies asQuébécois, speaks to Das in French. When Selvamani's sister, Mala, laughs, Selvamani switches to Tamil to ask Mala why she is laughing. After this aside, Selvamani continues to speak in French. Selvamani also uses the wordtsé("you know", contraction oftu sais) and the expressionje me ferai pas poigner("I will not be caught"), which are not standard French but are typical of the working-class Montreal dialectJoual.[101]
ResearcherPaul Kroskrityoffers the following example of code-switching by three elderArizona Tewamen, who are trilingual inTewa,Hopi, andEnglish.[102]They are discussing the selection of a site for a new high school in the easternHopi Reservation. In their two-hour conversation, the three men primarily speak Tewa; however, when Speaker A addresses the Hopi Reservation as a whole, he code-switches to Hopi. His speaking Hopi when talking of Hopi-related matters is a conversational norm in the Arizona Tewa speech community. Kroskrity reports that these Arizona Tewa men, whoculturallyidentify themselves as HopiandTewa, use the different languages to linguistically construct and maintain their discrete ethnic identities.
Irish annalswere written inIrelandbetween the 8th and 17th centuries by Christian monks and priests. These were fluent in bothIrishandLatinand wrote the annals in both languages, often switching between them within a single sentence.[103][104][105][106]
An example is given below, from the 9th-centuryMartyrology of Óengusthat gives a spurious etymology of the prince Connadil's name:
According to the scholar Nike Stam, "Many switches consisted of inserted Latin fragments: short phrases or single words. Some of these Latin phrases appeared to be of a formulaic nature and seemed to have originated in the medievalcatenatradition. They are often used to provide cross-references to other sources or to combine conflicting opinions on a text. These are phrases likeut in proverbio dicitur ["as is said in the proverb"]andut ferunt peritii ["as experience bears out"]. Most of the language switches, however, consisted of whatMuyskencalled alternation: longer fragments likeclausesor longphrases. This type of code-switching has been linked tobilingualismin societies that are stronglydiglossic, and thus suggests that the scribes compiling and writing the glosses preferred to use their two languages according to specific norms."[107]
ResearcherAna Celia Zentellaoffers this example from her work with Puerto Rican Spanish-English bilingual speakers in New York City.[12]In this example, Marta and her younger sister, Lolita, speak Spanish and English with Zentella outside of their apartment building. Zentella explains that the children of the predominantly Puerto Rican neighbourhood speak both English and Spanish: "Within the children's network, English predominated, but code-switching from English to Spanish occurred once every three minutes, on average."[12]
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Apidgin[1][2][3]/ˈpɪdʒɪn/, orpidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have alanguagein common: typically, itsvocabularyandgrammarare limited and often drawn from several languages. It is most commonly employed in situations such astrade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the country in which they reside (but where there is no common language between the groups).
Fundamentally, a pidgin is a simplified means of linguistic communication, as it is constructed impromptu, or by convention, between individuals or groups of people. A pidgin is not thenative languageof any speech community, but is instead learned as a second language.[4][5]
A pidgin may be built from words, sounds, or body language from a multitude of languages as well asonomatopoeia. As thelexiconof any pidgin will be limited to core vocabulary, words with only a specific meaning in thelexifierlanguage may acquire a completely new (or additional) meaning in the pidgin.[citation needed]
Pidgins have historically been considered a form ofpatois, unsophisticated simplified versions of their lexifiers, and as such usually have lowprestigewith respect to other languages.[6]However, not all simplified or "unsophisticated" forms of a language are pidgins. Each pidgin has its own norms of usage which must be learned for proficiency in the pidgin.[7]
A pidgin differs from acreole, which is thefirst languageof a speech community ofnative speakersthat at one point arose from a pidgin. Unlike pidgins, creoles have fully developed vocabulary and patterned grammar.[citation needed]Most linguists[according to whom?]believe that a creole develops through a process ofnativizationof a pidgin when children of speakers of an acquired pidgin learn it and use it as their native language.[citation needed]
Pidginderives from aChinesepronunciation of the English wordbusiness, and all attestations from the first half of the nineteenth century given in the third edition of theOxford English Dictionarymean "business; an action, occupation, or affair" (the earliest being from 1807). The termpidgin English('business English'), first attested in 1855, shows the term in transition to referring to language, and by the 1860s the termpidginalone could refer to Pidgin English. The term came to be used in a more general linguistic sense to refer to any simplified language by the late 19th century.[8][9]
A popularfalse etymologyforpidginis Englishpigeon, a bird sometimesused for carryingbrief written messages, especially in times prior to modern telecommunications.[8][10]
The wordpidgin, formerly also spelledpigion,[9]was first applied toChinese Pidgin English, but was later generalized to refer to any pidgin.[11]Pidginmay also be used as the specific name for local pidgins orcreoles, in places where they are spoken. For example, the name of the creole languageTok Pisinderives from the English wordstalk pidgin. Its speakers usually refer to it simply as "pidgin" when speaking English.[12][13]Likewise,Hawaiian Creole Englishis commonly referred to by its speakers as "Pidgin".
The termjargonhas also been used to refer to pidgins, and is found in the names of some pidgins, such asChinook Jargon. In this context, linguists today usejargonto denote a particularly rudimentary type of pidgin;[14]however, this usage is rather rare, and the termjargonmost often means the specialized vocabulary of some profession.
Pidgins may start out as or becometrade languages, such asTok Pisin. Trade languages can eventually evolve into fully developed languages in their own right, such asSwahili, distinct from the languages they were originally influenced by. Trade languages and pidgins can also influence an established language'svernacular, especially amongst people who are directly involved in a trade where that pidgin is commonly used, which can alternatively result in aregional dialectbeing developed.[citation needed]
Pidgins are usually less morphologically complex but more syntactically rigid than other languages, and usually have fewer morphosyntactic irregularities than other languages.
Characteristics shared by most pidgins:
The initial development of a pidgin usually requires:
Keith Whinnom (inHymes (1971)) suggests that pidgins need three languages to form, with one (the superstrate) being clearly dominant over the others.
Linguists sometimes posit that pidgins can becomecreole languageswhen a generation of children learn a pidgin as their first language,[15]a process that regularizes speaker-dependent variation in grammar. Creoles can then replace the existing mix of languages to become the native language of a community (such as theChavacano languagein thePhilippines,KrioinSierra Leone, andTok PisininPapua New Guinea). However, not all pidgins become creole languages; a pidgin may die out before this phase would occur (e.g. theMediterranean Lingua Franca).
Other scholars, such asSalikoko Mufwene, argue that pidgins and creoles arise independently under different circumstances, and that a pidgin need not always precede a creole nor a creole evolve from a pidgin. Pidgins, according to Mufwene, emerged among trade colonies among "users who preserved their native vernaculars for their day-to-day interactions". Creoles, meanwhile, developed in settlement colonies in which speakers of a European language, oftenindentured servantswhose language would be far from the standard in the first place, interacted extensively with non-Europeanslaves, absorbing certain words and features from the slaves' non-European native languages, resulting in a heavilybasilectalizedversion of the original language. These servants and slaves would come to use the creole as an everyday vernacular, rather than merely in situations in which contact with a speaker of the superstrate was necessary.[16]
Many of these languages are commonly referred to by their speakers as "Pidgin".
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Alingua franca(/ˌlɪŋɡwəˈfræŋkə/;lit.'Frankish tongue'; for plurals see§ Usage notes), also known as abridge language,common language,trade language,auxiliary language,link languageorlanguage of wider communication(LWC), is alanguagesystematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share anative languageor dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both of the speakers' native languages.[1]
Linguae francae have developed around the world throughout human history, sometimes for commercial reasons (so-called "trade languages" facilitated trade), but also for cultural, religious, diplomatic and administrative convenience, and as a means of exchanging information between scientists and other scholars of different nationalities.[2][3]The term is taken from the medievalMediterranean Lingua Franca, aRomance-basedpidgin languageused especially by traders in theMediterranean Basinfrom the 11th to the 19th centuries.[4]Aworld language—a language spoken internationally and by many people—is a language that may function as a global lingua franca.[5]
Any language regularly used for communication between people who do not share a native language is a lingua franca.[6]Lingua franca is a functional term, independent of any linguistic history or language structure.[7]
Pidginsare therefore lingua francas;creolesand arguablymixed languagesmay similarly be used for communication between language groups. But lingua franca is equally applicable to a non-creole language native to one nation (often a colonial power) learned as asecond languageand used for communication between diverse language communities in a colony or former colony.[8]
Lingua francas are often pre-existing languages with native speakers, but they can also be pidgins or creoles developed for that specific region or context. Pidgins are rapidly developed and simplified combinations of two or more established languages, while creoles are generally viewed as pidgins that have evolved into fully complex languages in the course of adaptation by subsequent generations.[9]Pre-existing lingua francas such as French are used to facilitate intercommunication in large-scale trade or political matters, while pidgins and creoles often arise out of colonial situations and a specific need for communication between colonists and indigenous peoples.[10]Pre-existing lingua francas are generally widespread, highly developed languages with many native speakers.[11]Conversely, pidgins are very simplified means of communication, containing loose structuring, few grammatical rules, and possessing few or no native speakers.Creolelanguages are more developed than their ancestral pidgins, utilizing more complex structure, grammar, and vocabulary, as well as having substantial communities of native speakers.[12]
Whereas avernacularlanguage is the native language of a specific geographical community,[13]a lingua franca is used beyond the boundaries of its original community, for trade, religious, political, or academic reasons.[14]For example,Englishis avernacularin theUnited Kingdombut it is used as alingua francain thePhilippines, alongsideFilipino. Likewise,Arabic,French,Standard Chinese,RussianandSpanishserve similar purposes as industrial and educational lingua francas across regional and national boundaries.
Even though they are used as bridge languages,international auxiliary languagessuch asEsperantohave not had a great degree of adoption, so they are not described as lingua francas.[15]
The termlingua francaderives fromMediterranean Lingua Franca(also known asSabir), the pidgin language that people around theLevantand the eastern Mediterranean Sea used as the main language of commerce and diplomacy from the lateMiddle Agesto the 18th century, most notably during theRenaissance era.[16][8]During that period, a simplified version of mainlyItalianin the eastern Mediterranean andSpanishin the western Mediterranean that incorporated manyloanwordsfromGreek,Slavic languages,Arabic, andTurkishcame to be widely used as the "lingua franca" of the region, although some scholars claim that the Mediterranean Lingua Franca was just poorly used Italian.[14]
In Lingua Franca (the specific language),linguais from the Italian for 'a language'.Francais related to GreekΦρᾰ́γκοι(Phránkoi) and Arabicإِفْرَنْجِي(ʾifranjiyy) as well as the equivalent Italian—in all three cases, the literal sense is 'Frankish', leading to the direct translation: 'language of theFranks'. During the lateByzantine Empire,Frankswas a term that applied to all Western Europeans.[17][18][19][20]
Through changes of the term in literature,lingua francahas come to be interpreted as a general term for pidgins, creoles, and some or all forms of vehicular languages. This transition in meaning has been attributed to the idea that pidgin languages only became widely known from the 16th century on due to European colonization of continents such as The Americas, Africa, and Asia. During this time, the need for a term to address these pidgin languages arose, hence the shift in the meaning of Lingua Franca from a single proper noun to a common noun encompassing a large class of pidgin languages.[21]
As recently as the late 20th century, some restricted the use of the generic term to mean only mixed languages that are used as vehicular languages, its original meaning.[22]
Douglas Harper'sOnline Etymology Dictionarystates that the termLingua Franca(as the name of the particular language) was first recorded in English during the 1670s,[23]although an even earlier example of the use of it in English is attested from 1632, where it is also referred to as "Bastard Spanish".[24]
The term is well established in its naturalization to English and so major dictionaries do not italicize it as a "foreign" term.[25][26][27]
Its plurals in English arelingua francasandlinguae francae,[26][27]with the former being first-listed[26][27]or only-listed[25]in major dictionaries.
The use of lingua francas has existed since antiquity.
Akkadianremained the common language of a large part of Western Asia from several earlier empires, until it was supplanted in this role byAramaic.[28][29]
Sanskrithistorically served as a lingua franca throughout the majority of South Asia.[30][31][32]The Sanskrit language's historic presence is attested across a wide geography beyond South Asia. Inscriptions and literary evidence suggest that Sanskrit was already being adopted in Southeast Asia and Central Asia in the 1st millennium CE, through monks, religious pilgrims and merchants.[33][34][35]
Until the early 20th century,Literary Chineseserved as both the written lingua franca and the diplomatic language in East Asia, including China,Korea,Japan,Ryūkyū, andVietnam.[36]In the early 20th century,vernacular written Chinesereplaced Classical Chinese within China as both the written and spoken lingua franca for speakers of different Chinese dialects, and because of the declining power and cultural influence of China in East Asia, English has since replaced Classical Chinese as the lingua franca in East Asia.
Koine Greekwas the lingua franca of the Hellenistic culture. Koine Greek[37][38][39](ModernGreek:Ελληνιστική Κοινή,romanized:Ellinistikí Kiní,lit.'Common Greek';Greek:[elinistiˈciciˈni]), also known as Alexandrian dialect, common Attic, Hellenistic, or Biblical Greek, was thecommon supra-regional formof Greek spoken and written during theHellenistic period, theRoman Empireand the earlyByzantine Empire. It evolved from the spread of Greek following the conquests ofAlexander the Greatin the fourth century BC, and served as the lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries.[40]
Latin, through the power of theRoman Republic, became the dominant language inItalyand subsequently throughout the realms of the Roman Empire. Even after theFall of the Western Roman Empire, Latin was the common language of communication, science, and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became adead languagein the modern linguistic definition.
Old Tamilwas once the lingua franca for most of ancientTamilakamandSri Lanka.John Guystates that Tamil was also the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India.[41]The language and its dialects were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century CE.[42]
Classical Māoriis the retrospective name for the language (formed out of many dialects, albeit all mutually intelligible)[43]of both the North Island and the South Island for the 800 years before theEuropean settlement of New Zealand.[44][45][46][47][48]Māorishared a common language that was used for trade, inter-iwidialogue onmarae, and education throughwānanga.[49][50]After the signing of theTreaty of Waitangi, Māori language was the lingua franca of theColony of New Zealanduntil English superseded it in the 1870s.[43][51]The description of Māori language as New Zealand's 19th-century lingua franca has been widely accepted.[52][53][54][55]The language was initially vital for all European andChinese migrantsin New Zealand to learn,[56][57][58]as Māori formed a majority of the population, owned nearly all the country's land and dominated the economy until the 1860s.[56][59]Discriminatory laws such as theNative Schools Act 1867contributed to the demise of Māori language as a lingua franca.[43]
Sogdianwas used to facilitate trade between those who spoke different languages along theSilk Road, which is why native speakers of Sogdian were employed as translators inTang China.[60]The Sogdians also ended up circulating spiritual beliefs and texts, including those ofBuddhismandChristianity, thanks to their ability to communicate to many people in the region through their native language.[61]
Old Church Slavonic, anEastern South Slaviclanguage, is the first Slavicliterary language. Between 9th and 11th century, it was the lingua franca of a great part of the predominantlySlavicstates and populations inSoutheastandEastern Europe, inliturgyand church organization, culture, literature, education and diplomacy, as anOfficial languageandNational languagein the case ofBulgaria. It was the first national and also international Slavic literary language (autonymсловѣ́ньскъ ѩꙁꙑ́къ,slověnĭskŭ językŭ).[62][63]The Glagolitic alphabet was originally used at both schools, though theCyrillic scriptwas developed early on at thePreslav Literary School, where it superseded Glagolitic as the official script inBulgariain 893. Old Church Slavonic spread to other South-Eastern, Central, and Eastern European Slavic territories, most notablyCroatia,Serbia,Bohemia,Lesser Poland, and principalities of theKievan Rus'while retaining characteristicallySouth Slaviclinguistic features. It spread also to not completely Slavic territories between theCarpathian Mountains, theDanubeand theBlack Sea, corresponding toWallachiaandMoldavia. Nowadays, the Cyrillicwriting systemis used for various languages across Eurasia, and as the national script in various Slavic,Turkic,Mongolic,Uralic,CaucasianandIranic-speaking countries inSoutheastern Europe, Eastern Europe, theCaucasus, Central, North, and East Asia.
TheMediterranean Lingua Francawas largely based on Italian andProvençal. This language was spoken from the 11th to 19th centuries around the Mediterranean basin, particularly in the European commercial empires of Italian cities (Genoa, Venice,Florence, Milan,Pisa,Siena) and in trading ports located throughout the eastern Mediterranean rim.[64]
During theRenaissance, standard Italian was spoken as a language of culture in the main royal courts of Europe, and among intellectuals. This lasted from the 14th century to the end of the 16th, when French replaced Italian as the usual lingua franca in northern Europe.[citation needed]Italian musical terms, in particular dynamic and tempo notations, have continued in use to the present day.[65][66]
Classical Quechuais either of two historical forms ofQuechua, the exact relationship and degree of closeness between which is controversial, and which have sometimes been identified with each other.[67]These are:
Ajem-Turkicfunctioned as lingua franca in the Caucasus region and in southeasternDagestan, and was widely spoken at the court and in the army ofSafavid Iran.[76]
English is sometimes described as the foremost global lingua franca, being used as a working language by individuals of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds in a variety of fields and international organizations to communicate with one another.[77]English is themost spoken languagein the world, primarily due to the historical global influence of theBritish Empireas well as theUnited States.[78]It is aco-official language of the United Nationsand many other international and regional organizations and has also become thede factolanguage ofdiplomacy,science,international trade,tourism,aviation,entertainmentand theInternet.[79]
When theUnited Kingdombecame a colonial power, English served as the lingua franca of the colonies of theBritish Empire. In the post-colonial period, most of the newly independent nations which had manyindigenous languagesopted to continue using English as one of their official languages such asGhanaandSouth Africa.[77]In other former colonies with several official languages such asSingaporeandFiji, English is the primary medium of education and serves as the lingua franca among citizens.[80][81][82]
Even in countries not associated with theEnglish-speaking world, English has emerged as a lingua franca in certain situations where its use is perceived to be more efficient to communicate, especially among groups consisting of native speakers of many languages. InQatar, the medical community is primarily made up of workers from countries without English as a native language. In medical practices and hospitals, nurses typically communicate with other professionals in English as a lingua franca.[83]This occurrence has led to interest in researching the consequences of the medical community communicating in a lingua franca.[83]English is also sometimes used inSwitzerlandbetween people who do not share one of Switzerland'sfour official languages, or with foreigners who are not fluent in the local language.[84]In theEuropean Union, the use of English as a lingua franca has led researchers to investigate whether aEuro Englishdialect has emerged.[85]In the fields of technology and science, English emerged as a lingua franca in the 20th century.[86]English has also significantlyinfluencedmany other languages.[87]
The Spanish language spread mainly throughout theNew World, becoming a lingua franca in the territories and colonies of theSpanish Empire, which also included parts of Africa, Asia, and Oceania. After the breakup of much of the empire in the Americas, its function as a lingua franca was solidified by the governments of the newly independent nations of what is nowHispanic America.[88]While its usage in Spain's Asia-Pacific colonies has largely died out except in thePhilippines, where it is still spoken by a small minority, Spanish became the lingua franca of what is nowEquatorial Guinea, being the main language of government and education and is spoken by the vast majority of the population.[89]
Due to large numbers of immigrants from Latin America in the second half of the 20th century and resulting influence, Spanish has also emerged somewhat as a lingua franca in parts of theSouthwestern United Statesand southernFlorida, especially in communities where native Spanish speakers form the majority of the population.[90][91]
At present it is the second most used language in international trade, and the third most used in politics, diplomacy and culture after English and French.[92]
It is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world[93]and is also one of thesix official languages of the United Nations.
French is sometimes regarded as the first global lingua franca, having supplantedLatinas the prestige language of politics, trade, education, diplomacy, and military inearly modernEurope and later spreading around the world with the establishment of theFrench colonial empire.[94]WithFranceemerging as the leading political, economic, and cultural power of Europe in the 16th century, the language was adopted by royal courts throughout the continent, including the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Russia, and as the language of communication between European academics, merchants, and diplomats.[95]With the expansion of Western colonial empires, French became the main language of diplomacy and international relations up untilWorld War IIwhen it was replaced by English due the rise of theUnited Statesas the leadingsuperpower. Stanley Meisler of theLos Angeles Timessaid that the fact that theTreaty of Versailleswas written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language.[96]Nevertheless, it remains the second most used language in international affairs and is one of thesix official languages of the United Nations.[97][98][99]
As a legacy of French andBelgiancolonial rule, most former colonies of these countries maintain French as an official language or lingua franca due to the many indigenous languages spoken in their territory. Notably, in most FrancophoneWestandCentral Africancountries, French has transitioned from being only a lingua franca to the native language among some communities, mostly in urban areas or among the elite class.[100]In other regions such as the French-speaking countries of theMaghreb(Algeria,Tunisia,Morocco, andMauritania) and parts of theFrench Caribbean, French is the lingua franca in professional sectors and education, even though it is not the native language of the majority.[101][102][103]
French continues to be used as a lingua franca in certain cultural fields such ascuisine,fashion, andsport.[104][94]
As a consequence ofBrexit, French has been increasingly used as a lingua franca in theEuropean Unionand its institutions either alongside or, at times, in place of English.[105][106]
Germanis used as a lingua franca in Switzerland to some extent; however, English is generally preferred to avoid favoring it over the three other official languages.Middle Low Germanused to be the Lingua franca during the lateHohenstaufentill the mid-15th century periods, in theNorth Seaand theBaltic Seawhen extensive trading was done by theHanseatic Leaguealong the Baltic and North Seas. German remains a widely studied language in Central Europe and the Balkans, especially informer Yugoslavia. It is recognized as an official language in countries outside of Europe, specificallyNamibia. German is also one of theworking languagesof the EU along English and French, but it is used less in that role than the other two.
Today,Standard Mandarin Chineseis the lingua franca ofChinaandTaiwan, which are home to many mutually unintelligiblevarieties of Chineseand, in the case of Taiwan, indigenousFormosan languages. Among manyChinese diasporacommunities,Cantoneseis often used as the lingua franca instead, particularly in Southeast Asia, due to a longer history of immigration and trade networks with southern China, although Mandarin has also been adopted in some circles since the 2000s.[107]
Arabicwas used as a lingua franca across the Islamic empires, whose sizes necessitated a common language, and spread across the Arab and Muslim worlds.[108]InDjiboutiand parts ofEritrea, both of which are countries where multiple official languages are spoken, Arabic has emerged as a lingua franca in part thanks to the population of the region being predominantly Muslim and Arabic playing a crucial role in Islam. In addition, after having fled from Eritrea due toongoing warfareand gone to some of the nearby Arab countries, Eritrean emigrants are contributing to Arabic becoming a lingua franca in the region by coming back to their homelands having picked up the Arabic language.[109]
Russian is in use and widely understood inCentral Asiaand theCaucasus, areas formerly part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Its use remains prevalent in manypost-Soviet states. Russian has some presence as a minority language in theBaltic statesand some other states in Eastern Europe, as well as in pre-openingChina.[citation needed]It remains the official language of theCommonwealth of Independent States. Russian is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.[110]Since thecollapse of the Soviet Union, its use has declined in post-Soviet states. Parts of the Russian speaking minorities outside Russia have either emigrated to Russia or assimilated into their countries of residence by learning the local language, which they now prefer to use in daily communication.
For contrast, inCentral Europeancountries that after the Second World War were included in the Soviet Union's sphere of influence, the Russian language was used only asEastern Bloc's language of internal political communication. There are no Russian minorities in these countries, in schools the primary foreign language is English and nowadays the Russian language practically does not exist.
Portugueseserved as lingua franca in the Portuguese Empire, Africa, South America and Asia in the 15th and 16th centuries. When the Portuguese started exploring the seas of Africa, America, Asia and Oceania, they tried to communicate with the natives by mixing a Portuguese-influenced version of lingua franca with the local languages. When Dutch, English or French ships came to compete with the Portuguese, the crews tried to learn this "broken Portuguese". Through a process of change the lingua franca and Portuguese lexicon was replaced with the languages of the people in contact. Portuguese remains an important lingua franca in thePortuguese-speaking African countries,East Timor, and to a certain extent inMacauwhere it is recognized as an official language alongside Chinese though in practice not commonly spoken. Portuguese and Spanish have a certain degree ofmutual intelligibilityandmixed languagessuch asPortuñolare used[citation needed]to facilitate communication in areas like the border area between Brazil and Uruguay.
TheHindustani language, withHindiandUrduas dual standard varieties, serves as the lingua franca ofPakistanandNorthern India.[111][self-published source?][112][page needed]Many Hindi-speaking North Indian states have adopted thethree-language formulain which students are taught: "(a) Hindi (with Sanskrit as part of the composite course); (b) Any other modern Indian language including Urdu and (c) English or any other modern European language." The order in non-Hindi speaking states is: "(a) the major language of the state or region; (b) Hindi; (c) Any other modern Indian language including Urdu but excluding (a) and (b) above; and (d) English or any other modern European language."[113]Hindi has also emerged as a lingua franca inArunachal Pradesh, a linguistically diverse state in Northeast India.[114][115]It is estimated that nine-tenths of the state's population knows Hindi.[116]
Urdu is the lingua franca of Pakistan and had gained significant influence amongst its people, administration and education. While it shares official status with English, Urdu is the preferred and dominant language used for inter-communication between different ethnic groups of Pakistan.[117]
Malayis understood across a cultural region in Southeast Asia called the "Malay world" includingBrunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, southernThailand, and certain parts of the Philippines. It ispluricentric, with several nations codifying a local vernacular variety into several national literary standards:[118]AlthoughJavanesehas more native speakers, Indonesia uses a standardized form ofRiauMalay as the basis for the national language "Indonesian." Bahasa Indonesia is the sole official language even though it is the mother tongue ofonly 7%of Indonesians.[119]
Swahilideveloped as a lingua franca between severalBantu-speaking tribal groups on the east coast of Africa with heavy influence from Arabic.[120]The earliest examples of writing in Swahili are from 1711.[121]In the early 19th century the use of Swahili as a lingua franca moved inland with the Arabic ivory and slave traders. It was eventually adopted by Europeans as well during periods of colonization in the area. German colonizers used it as the language of administration inGerman East Africa, later becomingTanganyika, which influenced the choice to use it as a national language in what is now independentTanzania.[120]Swahili is currently one of the national languages and it is taught in schools and universities in several East African countries, thus prompting it to be regarded as a modern-day lingua franca by many people in the region. SeveralPan-Africanwriters and politicians have unsuccessfully called for Swahili to become the lingua franca of Africa as a means of unifying the African continent and overcoming the legacy of colonialism.[122]
Persian, anIranian language, is the official language ofIran,Afghanistan(Dari) andTajikistan(Tajik). It acts as a lingua franca in both Iran and Afghanistan between the various ethnic groups in those countries. The Persian language in South Asia, before theBritish colonized the Indian subcontinent, was the region's lingua franca and a widely used official language in north India and Pakistan.
Hausais the language of communication between speakers of different languages in NorthernNigeriaand other West African countries,[123]including the northern region of Ghana.[124]
Amharicis the lingua franca and most widely spoken language in Ethiopia, and is known by most people who speak another Ethiopian language.[125][126]
Creoles, such asNigerian Pidginin Nigeria, are used as lingua francas across the world. This is especially true in Africa, theCaribbean,Melanesia, Southeast Asia and in parts of Australia byIndigenous Australians.
The majority of pre-colonial North American nations communicated internationally usingHand Talk.[127][128]Also called Prairie Sign Language, Plains Indian Sign Language, or First Nations Sign Language, this language functioned predominantly—and still continues to function[129]—as a second language within most of the (now historical) countries of the Great Plains, fromNewe Segobiain the West toAnishinaabewakiin the East, down into what are now the northern states of Mexico and up intoCreeCountry stopping beforeDenendeh.[130][131]The relationship remains unknown between Hand Talk and other manual Indigenous languages likeKeresan Sign LanguageandPlateau Sign Language, the latter of which is now extinct (though Ktunaxa Sign Language is still used).[132]Although unrelated, perhapsInuit Sign Languageplayed and continues to play a similar role acrossInuit Nunangatand the variousInuitdialects. The original Hand Talk is found acrossIndian Countryin pockets, but it has also been employed to create new or revive old languages, such as withOneida Sign Language.[133]
International Sign, though a pidgin language, is present at most significant international gatherings, from which interpretations of nationalsign languagesare given, such as inLSF,ASL,BSL,Libras, orAuslan. International Sign, or IS and formerly Gestuno, interpreters can be found at manyEuropean Unionparliamentary or committee sittings,[134]during certain United Nations affairs,[135]conducting international sporting events like theDeaflympics, in allWorld Federation of the Deaffunctions, and across similar settings. The language has few set internal grammatical rules, instead co-opting national vocabularies of the speaker and audience, and modifying the words to bridge linguistic gaps, with heavy use of gestures andclassifiers.[136]
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Amixed language, also referred to as ahybrid languageorfusion language, is a type ofcontact languagethat arises among a bilingual group combining aspects of two or more languages but not clearly deriving primarily from any single language.[1]It differs from acreoleorpidgin languagein that, whereas creoles/pidgins arise where speakers of many languages acquire a common language, a mixed language typically arises in a population that is fluent in both of the source languages.
Because all languages show some degree of mixing[2]by virtue of containingloanwords, it is a matter of controversy whether the concept of a mixed language can meaningfully be distinguished from the type of contact and borrowing seen in all languages.[3][4]Scholars debate to what extent language mixture can be distinguished from other mechanisms such ascode-switching,substrata, or lexical borrowing.[5]
Other terms used inlinguisticsfor the concept of a mixed language includehybrid languageandfusion language; in older usage, 'jargon' was sometimes used in this sense.[6]In some linguists' usage,creolesandpidginsare types of mixed languages, whereas in others' usage, creoles and pidgins are merely among the kinds of language that might become full-fledged mixed languages.
Thomason (1995) classifies mixed languages into two categories: Category 1 languages exhibit "heavy influence from the dominant group's language in all aspects of structure and grammar as well as lexicon" (Winford 171). Category 2 languages show a "categorial specificity of the structural borrowing" or a uniform borrowing of specific categories (Winford).[citation needed]
Mixed language and intertwined language are seemingly interchangeable terms for some researchers. Some use the term "intertwining" instead of "mixing" because the former implies "mixture of two systems which are not necessarily the same order" nor does it suggest "replacement of the either the lexicon or of the grammatical system", unlikerelexification, massive grammatical replacement, and re-grammaticalization. The grammar of a mixed language typically comes from a language well known to first-generation speakers, which Arends claims is the language spoken by the mother. This is because of the close relationship between mother and child and the likelihood that the language is spoken by the community at large.[citation needed]
Arends et al. classify an intertwined language as a language that "has lexical morphemes from one language and grammatical morphemes from another". This definition does not includeMichif, which combines French lexical items in specific contexts, but still utilizes Cree lexical and grammatical items.[3]
Yaron Matras distinguishes between three types of models for mixed language: "language maintenance andlanguage shift, unique and predetermined processes ("intertwining"), and "conventionalisation of language mixing patterns". The first model involves the use of one language for heavy substitutions of entire grammatical paradigms or morphology of another language. This is because a speech community will not adopt a newer dominant language, and so adapt their language with grammatical material from the dominant language. Bakker (1997) argues that mixed languages result from mixed populations. Languages "intertwine", in that the morphosyntax (provided by female native speakers) mixes with the lexicon of another language (spoken by men, often in a colonialist context). This appears to have been the case with Michif, where European men and Cree, Nakota, and Ojibwe women had offspring who learned a mixture of French and Cree. The third model "assumes a gradual loss of the conversational function of language alternation as a means of expressing contrast". In other words, language no longer becomes a means of differentiation between two speech communities as a result of language mixing.[7]
Lexical reorientation, according to Matras, is defined as "the conscious shifting of the linguistic field that is responsible for encoding meaning or conceptual representations away from the language in which linguistic interaction is normally managed, organised, and processed: speakers adopt in a sense one linguistic system to express lexical meaning (or symbols, in the Buhlerian sense of the term) and another to organize the relations among lexical symbols, as well as within sentences, utterances, and interaction. The result is a split, by source language, between lexicon and grammar."[7]
A mixed language differs frompidgins,creolesandcode-switchingin very fundamental ways. In most cases, mixed language speakers are fluent, even native, speakers of both languages; however, speakers of Michif (a verb-noun or V-N mixed language) are unique in that many are not fluent in both of the source languages.[8]Pidgins, on the other hand, develop in a situation, usually in the context of trade, where speakers of two (or more) different languages come into contact and need to find some way to communicate with each other. Creoles develop when a pidgin language becomes a first language for young speakers. While creoles tend to have drastically simplifiedmorphologies, mixed languages often retain the inflectional complexities of one, or both, of the parent languages. For instance, Michif retains the complexities of its Cree verb-phrases and its French noun-phrases.[9]
It also differs from a language that has undergone heavy borrowing, such as Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese from Chinese (seeSino-Xenic), English from French, orMaltesefrom Sicilian/Italian. In these cases, despite the heavy borrowing, the grammar and basic words of the borrowing language remain relatively unchanged, with the borrowed words confined mainly to more abstract or foreign concepts, and any complex morphology remains that of the host language rather than being borrowed along with the borrowed word. In the case of Maltese, for example, if verbs borrowed from Italian were inflected using Italian inflectional rules rather than Arabic-derived ones, then Maltese would be a candidate for being a mixed language.
Finally, a mixed language differs fromcode-switching, such asSpanglishorPortuñol, in that, once it has developed, the fusion of the source languages is fixed in the grammar and vocabulary, and speakers do not need to know the source languages in order to speak it. But, linguists believe that mixed languages evolve from persistent code-switching, with younger generations picking up the code-switching, but not necessarily the source languages that generated it.[citation needed]
Languages such asFranglaisandAnglo-Romaniare not mixed languages, or even examples of code-switching, butregistersof a language (hereFrenchandEnglish), characterized by large numbers ofloanwordsfrom a second language (hereEnglishandRomani).[citation needed]Middle English(the immediate fore-runner of Modern English) developed from such a situation, incorporating manyNormanborrowings intoOld English, but it is not considered a mixed language.[10]
Michif derives nouns, numerals, definite/indefinite articles, possessive pronouns, some adverbs and adjectives fromFrench, while it derives demonstratives (in/animate), question words, verbs (in/animacy agreement with the subject/object), and some adverbs/verb-like adjectives fromCree.[3]The Cree components of Michif generally remain grammatically intact, while the French lexicon and grammar is restricted to noun phrases where nouns occur with a French possessive element or article (i.e. in/definite, masculine/feminine, singular/plural).[11][12]Further, many speakers of Michif are able to identify the French and Cree components of a given sentence, likely from the phonological and morphological features of words. Although the phonological systems of both French and Cree are generally independent in Michif, there is convergence in 1) mid-vowel raising, 2) sibilant harmony, 3) vowel length (e.g. French vowel pairs [i]/[ɪ] and [a]/[ɑ] differ in length as in Cree), and 4) instances where the three nasal vowels /æ̃/, /ũ/, and /ĩ/ occur in the Cree components, although this last point of convergence may be due to Ojibwe influence.[12]Scholars propose that, in theMétismultilingual community, Michif emerged as a need to symbolize a new social identity.[11]The first unambiguous mention of Michif dates to the 1930s.[12]
The Métis of St. Laurent, a tribe of indigenous people in Canada, were made to feel their language was a sign of inferiority by nuns, priests, and other missionaries who insisted that the Metis switch to Standard Canadian French. Because missionaries stigmatized Michif French as an inferior, "bastardized" form of Canadian French, the Métis began to develop a sense of inferiority and shame which they associated with speaking Michif. Although Michif may have arisen as a way for Métis people to identify themselves, it became taboo to speak Michif inter-ethnically.[13]
In an attempt to make students unlearn Michif French, some nuns used a "token-system" in which each student was given ten tokens each week, and for every use of Michif French, a student would have to surrender a token. Students with the most tokens were rewarded with a prize. Overall, this system did not work.[13]
Mednyj Aleut is identified as a mixed language composed of mostly intact systematic components from two typologically and genetically unrelated languages:AleutandRussian. This mixed language's grammar and lexicon are both largely Aleut in origin, while the finite verb morphology, a whole grammatical subsystem, is primarily of Russian origin. Nonetheless, there are some syntactic patterns with Russian influence and some Aleut features in the finite verb complex such as, 1) a topic-number agreement pattern, 2) Aleut pronouns with unaccusatives, 3) the Aleut agglutinative tense + number + person/number pattern in one of two alternative past-tense forms. Scholars hypothesize that due to the elaborate Russian and Aleut components of Mednyj Aleut, the Aleut/Russian creoles in which the mixed language arose must have been fluent bilinguals of Aleut and Russian and, therefore, not a pidgin language—that is, "imperfect learning" is usually a feature in the emergence of a pidgin. Furthermore, some code-switching and deliberate decisions likely served as mechanisms for the development of Mednyj Aleut and it is possible that these were motivated by a need for a language that reflected the community's new group identity.[12]
Ma’a has aCushiticbasic vocabulary and a primarilyBantugrammatical structure. The language also shares some phonological units with languages in the Cushitic phylum (e.g. the voiceless lateral fricative, the voiceless glottal stop, and the voiceless velar fricative that do not occur in Bantu), as well as syntactic structures, derivational processes, and a feature of inflectional morphology. However, few productive non-lexical structures in Ma’a appear derived from Cushitic.Sarah G. Thomasontherefore argues for a classification of Ma’a as a mixed language since it does not have enough Cushitic grammar to be genetically related to the Cushitic language. By contrast, Ma’a has a productive set of inflectional structures derived from Bantu. Ma’a also demonstrates phonological structures derived from Bantu—for instance, the prenasalized voiced stops /ᵐb ⁿd ᶮɟ ᵑg/, phonemic tones, the absence of pharyngeal fricatives, labialized dorsal stops, ejective and retroflex stops, and final consonants— as well as noun classification, number category, and verb morphology patterns of Bantu. Syntactic and derivational patterns in Ma’a vary between Cushitic and Bantu origins—some Ma’a constructions used, such as genitive and copula constructions, are both from Cushitic and Bantu. These observations, in view of additionallanguage contactcases like Cappadocian Greek, Anglo-Romani, and Mednyj Aleut, suggest that Ma'a arose as a product of massive interference from a Bantu language via intense cultural pressure on a Cushitic-speaking community.[14]
Media Lengua (roughly translated to "half language" or "in-between language"), also known asChaupi-shimi,Chaupi-lengua,Chaupi-Quichua,Quichuañol,Chapu-shimiorllanga-shimi,[nb 1][15]is a mixed language that consists of SpanishvocabularyandEcuadorianQuichuagrammar, most conspicuously in itsmorphology. In terms of vocabulary, almost alllexemes(89%[16][17]), includingcore vocabulary, are of Spanish origin and appear to conform to Quichuaphonotactics. Media Lengua is one of the few widely acknowledged examples of a "bilingual mixed language" in both the conventional and narrowlinguisticsense because of its split between roots and suffixes.[18][19]Such extreme and systematic borrowing is only rarely attested, and Media Lengua is not typically described as a variety of either Quichua or Spanish. Arends et al. list two languages subsumed under the nameMedia Lengua: Salcedo Media Lengua and Media Lengua of Saraguro.[3]The northern variety of Media Lengua, found in the province ofImbabura, is commonly referred to as Imbabura Media Lengua[20][21]and more specifically, the dialect varieties within the province are known as Pijal Media Lengua and Anglas Media Lengua.[16]
Scholars indicate that Media Lengua arose largely via relexification mechanisms.[22]Pieter Muysken suggests that the social context in which the language emerged as an intralanguage involved a presence of "acculturated Indians" that neither identified with traditional, rural Quechua nor with urban Spanish cultures. This is an instance of a language developing from a need for "ethnic self-identification".[12]
Light Warlpiri, seen as a form of Warlpiri by speakers, derives verbs and verbal morphology largely from AustralianKriol, while nouns are largely fromWarlpiriand English and nominal morphology from Warlpiri. Light Warlpiri likely developed as an intralanguage viacode-mixingbetween Warlpiri and either Kriol or English. This code-mixing conventionalized into Light Warlpiri, which is now learned by Lajamanu children as a first language, along with Warlpiri, although Light Warlpiri is often produced first and used in daily interactions with younger speakers and adults within theLajamanucommunity. Light Warlpiri is considered a new language for several reasons: 1) Light Warlpiri speakers use an auxiliary verb-system that older Warlpiri speakers do not while code-mixing, 2) elements are distributed differently in Light Warlpiri than in code-mixing varieties of older Warlpiri speakers, 3) Light Warlpiri is a native language, which indicates stability of the language, and 4) grammatical structures and lexical items from each source language occur consistently in Light Warlpiri.[23]
Gurindji Kriol exhibits a structural split between the noun phrase and verb phrase, with Gurindji contributing the noun structure including case-marking, and the verb structure including TAM (tense-aspect-mood) auxiliaries coming from Kriol. In this respect, Gurindji Kriol is classified as a verb-noun (V-N) mixed language. Other examples of V-N mixed languages includeMichifandLight Warlpiri. The maintenance of Gurindji within the mixed language can be seen as the perpetuation of Aboriginal identity under massive and continuing cultural incursion.
BothCappadocian GreekandCypriot Maronite-Arabicare cases of extreme borrowing—the former fromTurkishand the latter fromGreek. The remaining Greek dialects ofAsia Minordisplay borrowing of vocabulary, function words, derivational morphology, and some borrowed nominal and verbal inflectional morphology from Turkish. Cypriot Arabic largely shows borrowing of vocabulary, and consequently Greek morphosyntax.[22]Both Cappadocian Greek and Cypriot Arabic (as well as Ma'a) differ socially from Michif and Mednyj Aleut because they have evolved out of intense language contact, extensive bilingualism, and a strong pressure for speakers to shift to the dominant language. Nonetheless, neither language has an entire grammar and lexicon that is derived from a single historical source and in each case the linguistic group achieves fluent bilingualism. The social context in which they arose largely distinguishes them from pidgins and creoles and, for some scholars, identifies them closely with mixed languages.[24]
The Kaqchikel-K'iche' Mixed Language, also known as the Cauqué Mixed Language or Cauqué Mayan, is spoken in the aldea of Santa María Cauqué, Santiago Sacatepéquez, Department of Sacatepéquez in Guatemala. A 1998 study by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) estimated speaker population at 2,000.[25]While the language's grammatical base is from K'iche', its lexicon is supplied by Kaqchikel.
In 1861,Max Müllerdenied "the possibility of a mixed language".[35]In 1881, William D. Whitney wrote the following, expressing skepticism regarding the chances of a language being proven a mixed language.
Such a thing as the adoption on the part of one tongue, by a direct process, of any part or parts of the formal structure of another tongue has, so far as is known, not come under the notice of linguistic students during the recorded periods of language-history. So far as these are concerned, it appears to be everywhere the case that when the speakers of two languages, A and B, are brought together into one community, there takes place no amalgamation of their speech, into AB; but for a time the two maintain their own several identity, only as modified each by the admission of material from the other in accordance with the ordinary laws of mixture; we may call them Aband Ba, and not AB. [...] [W]e shall doubtless meet now and then with the claim that such and such a case presents peculiar conditions which separate it from the general class, and that some remote and difficult problem in language-history is to be solved by admitting promiscuous mixture. Any one advancing such a claim, however, does it at his peril; the burden of proof is upon him to show what the peculiar conditions might have been, and how they should have acted to produce the exceptional result; he will be challenged to bring forward some historically authenticated case of analogous results; and his solution, if not rejected altogether, will be looked upon with doubt and misgiving until he shall have complied with these reasonable requirements.[36]
Wilhelm Schmidtwas an important proponent of the idea of mixed languages in the very late 19th and early 20th century.[37]In the judgement ofThomas Sebeok, Schmidt produced "not a scrap of evidence" for his theory.[38]Margaret Schlauchprovides a summary of the various objections to Schmidt's theory ofSprachmischung,[39]by prominent linguists such asAlfredo Trombetti,Antoine Meilletand A. Kholodovich.
Despite the old and broad consensus that rejected the idea of a "mixed language", Thomason and Kaufman in 1988 proposed to revive the idea that some languages had shared genealogy.[24]Meakins,[40]who finds Thomason and Kaufman's account credible, suggests that a mixed language results from the fusion of usually two source languages, normally in situations of thoroughbilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of thelanguage familiesthat were its sources.
Despite these recent efforts to rehabilitate mixed languages as an idea, many linguists remained unconvinced. For example, van Driem rejects one by one each of Thomason and Kaufman's examples as well as those more recently proposed.[41]Most recently, Versteegh rejects the notion of a mixed language, writing that at "no point is it necessary to posit a category of mixed languages."[42]
In the opinion of linguist Maarten Mous the notion of mixed languages has been rejected because "[m]ixed languages pose a challenge tohistorical linguisticsbecause these languages defy classification. One attitude towards mixed languages has been that they simply do not exist, and that the claims for mixed languages are instances of a naive use of the term. The inhibition to accept the existence of mixed languages is linked to the fact that it was inconceivable how they could emerge, and moreover their mere existence posited a threat to the validity of thecomparative methodand to genetic linguistics."[43]
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Metatypy/mɪˈtætɪpi/is a type ofmorphosyntacticandsemanticlanguage changebrought about bylanguage contactinvolvingmultilingualspeakers. The term was coined by linguistMalcolm Ross.
Ross (1999: 7, 1) gives the following definition:
[Metatypy is a]change in morphosyntactic type and grammatical organisation[and also semantic patterns]which a language undergoes as a result of its speakers’ bilingualism in another language. This change is driven by grammaticalcalquing, i.e. the copying of constructional meanings from the modified language and the innovation of new structures using inherited material to express them. A concomitant of this reorganisation of grammatical constructions is often the reorganisation or creation of paradigms of grammatical functors.... Usually, the language undergoing metatypy (the modified language) is emblematic of its speakers’ identity, whilst the language which provides themetatypic modelis aninter-community language. Speakers of the modified language form a sufficiently tightknit community to be well aware of their separate identity and of their language as a marker of that identity, but some bilingual speakers, at least, use the inter-community language so extensively that they are more at home in it than in the emblematic language of the community.
Ross (2002) identifies the following metatypic changes:
Ross finds that semantic reorganization occurs before syntactic restructuring. The syntactic changes occur in the order of (i) sentence/clause, (ii) phrase, and (iii) words.
Here are some languages that have undergone metatypy:
The example given by Ross (1999) is the "Papuanisation" of theTakia language(of the Oceanic family, western branch) because of influence from the neighbouringWaskia language(of theMadangfamily, Trans–New Guinea). In Ross' terminology, Takia is themodified languageand Waskia is theinter-community language. Waskia, however, does not seem to have been significantly influenced by Takia. Both languages are spoken onKarkar Island.
The end result of the metatypic change leaves Takia usually having a word-for-word Waskia translation such as the following:
The pairing of syntactic and semantic structures makes this word-for-word translation possible. Some of the grammatical changes that Takia has undergone include the following:
Thediffusionalchanges of Takia are only in terms of metatypy: Takia has not altered itsphonologyand has virtually noloanwordsborrowed from Waskia.
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Nahuatlhas been in intensecontactwithSpanishsince the Spanish conquest of 1521. Since that time, there have been a large number of Spanishloanwordsintroduced to the language, loans which span from nouns and verbs to adjectives and particles.Syntactical constructionshave also been borrowed into Nahuatl from Spanish, through which the latter language has exertedtypologicalpressure on the form such that Nahuatl and Spanish are exhibiting syntactic and typological convergence. Today, hardly any Nahuatl monolinguals remain, and the language has undergone extreme shift to Spanish, such that some consider it be on the way to extinction.[citation needed]
The Nahuatl and Spanish languages have coexisted in stable contact for over 500 years in centralMexico. This long, well-documented period of contact provides some of the best linguistic evidence for contact-induced grammatical change. That is to say, Spanish seems to have exerted a profound influence on the Nahuatl language, but despite the extreme duration of their contact Nahuatl has only recently begun to show signs of language shift. This shift is progressing at a startling rate. Though Nahuatl still has over a million speakers, it is considered by some linguists to be endangered and on the way to extinction.[1]As with regional languages the world over, Nahuatl finds itself being replaced by a‘world’ language, Spanish, as other small linguistic communities have shifted to languages likeEnglishandChinese. The world's loss in linguistic diversity can be tied to its changing economic and political conditions, as the model of industrial capitalism under a culturally homogenizing nation state spread throughout the world and culture becomes more and more global rather than regional. However, we do not always know exactly why some local or ‘traditional’ languages are clung to and preserved while others vanish much more quickly.[1]
Contact in earnest between the two languages began along with the beginning of theSpanish conquest of Mexicoin 1519. Prior to that, Nahuatl existed as the dominant language of much of central, southern, and western Mexico, the language of the dominantAztec cultureandMexicaethnic group. Though the Spanish tried to eradicate much of Mexica culture after their defeat of the Mexica Aztec in their capital ofTenochtitlanin 1521, Aztec culture and the Nahuatl language were spread among a variety of ethnic groups in Mexico, some of whom, like theTlaxcala, were instrumental allies of the Spanish in their defeat of the Aztec empire. Since a large part of the surviving indigenous population, whom the Spanish hoped toChristianizeand assimilate, were part of the now fragmented Aztec culture and thus speakers of Nahuatl, the Spanish missionaries recognized that they would continue to need the help of their Nahuatl speaking indigenous allies, and allowed them some relative autonomy in exchange for their help in conquering and Christianizing the remainder of the territory, in parts of which indigenous populations remained hostile throughout the 16th century. In this way, friendly Nahuatl speaking communities were valuable in their role as intermediaries between the Spanish and other indigenous groups.
Though the Spanish issued many decrees throughout the centuries discouraging the uses of native tongues, such decrees were difficult to enforce, and often counter-productive to the goals of the missionary and military forces actually interacting with the indigenous populations.[2][full citation needed]That is early SpanishFranciscan missionariesbelieved mutual comprehension between converter and convertee to be essential to a successfulChristianization. Many such missionaries learned Nahuatl and developed a system of writing for the language with theLatin alphabet, enabling them to transcribe many works of classical Nahuatl poetry and mythology, preserving the older, pre-contact varieties of the language. Thanks to the efforts of these early missionaries, there are documented sources of the Classical Nahuatl language dating back to the 1540s, which have enabled a systematic investigation of the changes it has undergone over the centuries under the influence of Spanish. Learning Nahuatl also enabled missionaries to teach theChristian gospelto American Indians using evangelical materials prepared in the indigenous language and using indigenous concepts, a technique which certain sects, particularly theJesuits, believed was often met with better results.[3][page needed]
Thus, though Nahuatl usage was discouraged officially, its use was actually preserved and encouraged by the Spanish in religious, scholarly, and civil spheres into the late 18th century, until theSpanish monarchybegan to take a more hard-line approach towards assimilating indigenous populations into the state. By the time of the 1895 census, there were still 659,865 Mexican citizens who reported themselves to be monolingual Nahuatl speakers, which group represented 32.1% of the total indigenous-speaking population, but over the next century the number of monolingual Nahuatl speakers would decline. By 1930 there were reportedly 355,295 monolingual speakers, and as of the 2000 census there remain only approximately 220,000 monolinguals among the 1.5 million Nahuatl speakers, the vast majority of whom being middle-aged or elderly.[2]At this point, Spanish was well-integrated into most Mexicano communities, andlanguage shiftwas rapidly occurring among the younger generations.
As there came to be greater and greater degrees of interaction between Indian and Hispanic communities and with it greaterbilingualismand language contact, the Mexicano language changed typologically to converge with Spanish and ease the incorporation of Spanish material. Through the first few years of language contact, most Spanish influence of Nahuatl consisted in simple lexical borrowings of nouns related to the emergent material exchange between the two cultures. However, where the influence of Nahuatl on Mexican Spanish largely stopped at the level of basic lexical borrowings, Nahuatl continued on to borrow more grammatical words: verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, connective particles, anddiscourse markers. Incorporation of such borrowed materials into the native language made forced some grammatical alterations to accommodate structures that would not be possible within Classical Nahuatl.[4][full citation needed]The net effect of such alterations was that “Nahuatl by 1700 or 1720 had become capable in principle of absorbing any Spanish word or construction. The rest has been done by continued, ever growing cultural pressures, bringing in more words and phrases as the two bodies of speakers became more intertwined and bilingualism increased.”[3][page needed]
To be more specific, there has been convergence in word order, level of agglutination, and incorporation of Spanish grammatical particles and discourse markers in Nahuatl speech. For instance, whereas Nahuatl had an adjective-noun word order Mexicano follows Spanish in its noun-adjective word order.[4]This may be due to the borrowing of phrases from Spanish incorporating the Spanish particle de, in phrases of the form NOUN + de + ADJ, e.g. aretes de oro meaning ‘gold earrings’.[5]Furthermore, the incorporation of de in Nahuatl may have also influenced a parallel shift from modifier-head to head-modifier in possessive constructions. That is, Classical Nahuatl had a possessor-possessum/noun-genitive order, but infiltration of the Spanish particle de may have also driven the shift to possessum-possessor/genitive-noun order. Whereas previously possessive noun clauses in the Nahuatl were markedly introduced by an inflected possessum plus and adjunctor in and a possessor, or unmarkedly simply by an possessor and inflected possessum (that is, the in particle was inserted in front of the displaced element of a marked word order), Nahuatl speakers have analyzed the loan de as functioning in a parallel fashion to native in, and used it to create unmarked possessum/possessor constructions in the manner of Spanish, without genitive inflections.
So far this change has only spread to constructions with inanimate possessors, but it may extend further to compete with and displace Classical varieties and complete syntactic convergence.[6]Parallel incorporation of Spanish prepositions in the previously postpositional language, along with Mexican Spanish discourse markers like pero, este, bueno, and pues have resulted in a modern Mexicano language that can sound strikingly Spanish in terms of its sentence frames, rhythm, and vocabulary.[7][full citation needed]Finally, someagglutinative tendenciesof Nahuatl have faded in contemporary dialects. For instance, in Nahuatl there was a tendency to incorporate nouns into verbs as sorts of adverbial modifiers which is losing productivity.[8]One could tortilla-make for instance. Verbs generally were accompanied by a wide variety of objective, instrumental, tense, and aspect markers. One commonly would agglutinatively indicate directional purposivity, for instance, but such constructions are now more commonly made with a periphrastic Spanish calque of the form GO + (bare) INF (a la ir + INF). Such disincorporation of verbal modifiers into periphrastic expressions on analogy with Spanish forms indicates a shift towards a more analytic style characteristic of Hispanic speech.
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Apost-creole continuum(or simplycreole continuum) is adialect continuumofvarietiesof acreole languagebetween those most and least similar to thesuperstratelanguage (that is, a closely related language whose speakers assert or asserted dominance of some sort). Due to social, political, and economic factors, a creole language candecreolizetowards one of the languages from which it is descended, aligning itsmorphology,phonology, andsyntaxto the local standard of the dominant language but to different degrees depending on a speaker's status.
William Stewart, in 1965, proposed the termsacrolect, the highest or most prestigious variety on the continuum, andbasilect, the lowest or least prestigious variety, as sociolinguistic labels for the upper and lower boundaries, respectively, of a post-creole speech continuum.[1]In the early 1970sDerek Bickertonpopularized these terms (as well asmesolectfor intermediate points in the continuum) to refer to the phenomenon ofcode-switchingused by some users of creole languages who also have some fluency in thestandard languageupon which the contact language is based.University of ChicagolinguistSalikoko Mufweneexplains the phenomenon of creole languages as "basilectalization" away from a standard, often European, language among a mixed European and non-European population.[2]In certainspeech communities, a continuum exists between speakers of a creole language and a related standard language. There are no discrete boundaries between the different varieties, and the situation in which such a continuum exists involves considerable social stratification.
The following table (fromBell 1976) shows the 18 different ways of rendering the phraseI gave him oneinGuyanese English:
The continuum shown has the acrolect form as[aɪɡeɪvhɪmwʌn](which is identical withStandard English) while the basilect form is[mɪɡiːæmwan]. Due to code-switching, most speakers have a command of a range in the continuum and, depending on social position, occupation, etc. can implement the different levels with various levels of skill.[3]
If a society is so stratified as to have little to no contact between groups who speak the creole and those who speak the superstrate (dominant) language, a situation ofdiglossiaoccurs, rather than a continuum. Assigning separate and distinct functions for the two varieties will have the same effect. This is the case inHaitiwithHaitian CreoleandFrench.
Use of the termsacrolect,mesolectandbasilectattempts to avoid thevalue judgementinherent in earlier terminology, by which the language spoken by the ruling classes in a capital city was defined as the "correct" or "pure" form while that spoken by the lower classes and inhabitants of outlying provinces was "a dialect" characterised as "incorrect", "impure" or "debased".
It has been suggested (Rickford 1977;Dillard 1972) thatAfrican American Vernacular Englishis a decreolized form of a slave creole. After emancipation, African-Americans' recognition and exercise of increased opportunities for interaction created a strong influence ofStandard American Englishonto the speech of Black Americans so that a continuum exists today with Standard English as the acrolect and varieties closest to the original creole as the basilect.
InJamaica, a continuum exists betweenJamaican EnglishandJamaican Patois.[4][5]
In Haiti, the acrolect isHaitian Frenchand the basilect has been standardized asHaitian Creole.
Meanwhile, in southern Africa,Afrikaansis a codified mesolect, or a partial creole,[6][7]with the acrolect (standardDutch) stripped of official status decades ago, having been used for only religious purposes.
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Asprachbund(/ˈsprɑːkbʊnd/, fromGerman:Sprachbund[ˈʃpʁaːxbʊnt]ⓘ,lit.'language federation'), also known as alinguistic area,area of linguistic convergence, ordiffusion area, is a group oflanguagesthat shareareal featuresresulting from geographical proximity andlanguage contact. The languages may begenetically unrelated, or only distantly related, but the sprachbund characteristics might give a false appearance of relatedness.
A grouping of languages that share features can only be defined as a sprachbund if the features are shared for some reason other than the genetic history of the languages. Without knowledge of the history of a regional group of similar languages, it may be difficult to determine whether sharing indicates a language family or a sprachbund.[1]
In a 1904 paper,Jan Baudouin de Courtenayemphasised the need to distinguish between language similarities arising from a genetic relationship (rodstvo) and those arising fromconvergencedue to language contact (srodstvo).[2][3]
Nikolai Trubetzkoyintroduced the Russian termязыковой союз(yazykovoy soyuz'language union') in a 1923 article.[4]In a paper presented to the firstInternational Congress of Linguistsin 1928, he used a Germancalqueof this term,Sprachbund, defining it as a group of languages with similarities insyntax, morphological structure, cultural vocabulary and sound systems, but without systematic sound correspondences, shared basic morphology or shared basic vocabulary.[5][3]
Later workers, starting with Trubetzkoy's colleagueRoman Jakobson,[6][7]have relaxed the requirement of similarities in all four of the areas stipulated by Trubetzkoy.[8][9][10]
A rigorous set of principles for what evidence is valid for establishing a linguistic area has been presented by Campbell, Kaufman, and Smith-Stark.[11]
The idea of areal convergence is commonly attributed toJernej Kopitar's description in 1830 ofAlbanian,BulgarianandRomanianas giving the impression of"nur eine Sprachform ... mit dreierlei Sprachmaterie"(lit.'only one language form with three kinds of language material'),[12]which has been rendered byVictor Friedmanas "one grammar with the [sic] three lexicons".[13][14]
TheBalkan Sprachbundcomprises Albanian, Romanian, theSouth Slavic languagesof the southern Balkans (Bulgarian,Macedonianand to a lesser degreeSerbo-Croatian),Greek, BalkanTurkish, andRomani.
All but one of these areIndo-European languagesbut from very divergent branches, and Turkish is aTurkic language. Yet they have exhibited several signs of grammatical convergence, such as avoidance of theinfinitive,future tenseformation, and others.
The same features are not found in other languages that are otherwise closely related, such as the other Romance languages in relation to Romanian, and the other Slavic languages such as Polish in relation to Bulgaro-Macedonian.[9][14]
Languages of theMainland Southeast Asia linguistic areahave such great surface similarity that early linguists tended to group them all into a single family, although the modern consensus places them into numerous unrelated families. The area stretches from Thailand to China and is home to speakers of languages of theSino-Tibetan,Hmong–Mien(or Miao–Yao),Tai–Kadai,Austronesian(represented byChamic) andMon–Khmerfamilies.[15]
Neighbouring languages across these families, though presumed unrelated, often have similar features, which are believed to have spread by diffusion.
A well-known example is the similartonesystems inSinitic languages(Sino-Tibetan), Hmong–Mien,Tai languages(Kadai) andVietnamese(Austroasiatic). Most of these languages passed through an earlier stage with three tones on most syllables (but no tonal distinctions onchecked syllablesending in astop consonant), which was followed by atone splitwhere the distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants disappeared but in compensation the number of tones doubled. These parallels led to confusion over the classification of these languages, untilAndré-Georges Haudricourtshowed in 1954 that tone was not an invariant feature, by demonstrating that Vietnamese tones corresponded to certain final consonants in other languages of the Mon–Khmer family, and proposed that tone in the other languages had a similar origin.[15]
Similarly, the unrelatedKhmer(Mon–Khmer),Cham(Austronesian) andLao(Kadai) languages have almost identical vowel systems.
Many languages in the region are of theisolating(or analytic) type, with mostly monosyllabic morphemes and little use ofinflectionoraffixes, though a number of Mon–Khmer languages havederivational morphology.
Shared syntactic features includeclassifiers,object–verb orderandtopic–commentstructure, though in each case there are exceptions in branches of one or more families.[15]
In a classic 1956 paper titled "India as a Linguistic Area",Murray Emeneaulaid the groundwork for the general acceptance of the concept of a sprachbund. In the paper, Emeneau observed that the subcontinent'sDravidianandIndo-Aryan languagesshared a number of features that were not inherited from a common source, but wereareal features, the result of diffusion during sustained contact. These includeretroflex consonants,echo words,subject–object–verbword order,discourse markers, and thequotative.[16]
Emeneau specified the tools to establish that language and culture had fused for centuries on the Indian soil to produce an integrated mosaic of structural convergence of four distinct language families:Indo-Aryan,Dravidian,MundaandTibeto-Burman. This concept provided scholarly substance for explaining the underlying Indian-ness of apparently divergent cultural and linguistic patterns. With his further contributions, this area has now become a major field of research in language contact and convergence.[9][17][18]
Some linguists, such asMatthias Castrén,G. J. Ramstedt,Nicholas PoppeandPentti Aalto, supported the idea that theMongolic,Turkic, andTungusicfamilies of Asia (and some small parts of Europe) have a common ancestry, in a controversial group they callAltaic.[citation needed]KoreanicandJaponiclanguages, which are also hypothetically related according to some scholars likeWilliam George Aston, Shōsaburō Kanazawa,Samuel MartinandSergei Starostin, are sometimes included as part of the purported Altaic family. This latter hypothesis was supported by people includingRoy Andrew Miller, John C. Street andKarl Heinrich Menges.Gerard Clauson,Gerhard Doerfer,Juha Janhunen,Stefan Georgand others dispute or reject this.[citation needed]A common alternative explanation for similarities among the "Altaic" languages, such asvowel harmonyandagglutination, is that they are due to areal diffusion.[19]
TheQinghai–Gansu sprachbund, in the northeastern part of theTibetan plateauspanning the Chinese provinces ofQinghaiandGansu, is an area of interaction between varieties of northwestMandarin Chinese,Amdo TibetanandMongolicandTurkic languages.[citation needed]
Standard Average European(SAE) is a concept introduced in 1939 byBenjamin Whorfto group the modernIndo-Europeanlanguages of Europewhich shared common features.[20]Whorf argued that theselanguageswere characterized by a number of similarities includingsyntaxandgrammar,vocabularyand its use as well as the relationship between contrasting words and their origins, idioms and word order which all made them stand out from many other language groups around the world which do not share these similarities; in essence creating a continentalsprachbund. His point was to argue that the disproportionate degree of knowledge of SAE languages biasedlinguiststowards considering grammatical forms to be highly natural or even universal, when in fact they were only peculiar to the SAElanguage group.
Whorf likely consideredRomanceandWest Germanicto form the core of the SAE, i.e. theliterary languagesofEuropewhich have seen substantial cultural influence fromLatinduring themedieval period. TheNorth GermanicandBalto-Slavic languagestend to be more peripheral members.
Alexander Gode, who was instrumental in the development ofInterlingua, characterized it as "Standard Average European".[21]The Romance,Germanic, andSlaviccontrol languages of Interlingua are reflective of the language groups most often included in the SAESprachbund.
The Standard Average EuropeanSprachbundis most likely the result of ongoinglanguage contactin the time of theMigration Period[22][full citation needed]and later, continuing during theMiddle Agesand theRenaissance.[citation needed]Inheritance of the SAE features fromProto-Indo-Europeancan be ruled out because Proto-Indo-European, as currently reconstructed, lacked most of the SAE features.[23][full citation needed]
Language families that have been proposed to actually be sprachbunds
The work began to assume the character of a comparison betweenHopiand western European languages. It also became evident that even the grammar of Hopi bore a relation to Hopi culture, and the grammar of European tongues to our own "Western" or "European" culture. And it appeared that the interrelation brought in those large subsummations of experience by language, such as our own terms "time", "space", "substance", and "matter". Since, with respect to the traits compared, there is little difference betweenEnglish,French,German, or otherEuropean languageswith the 'possible' (but doubtful) exception ofBalto-Slavicandnon-Indo-European, I have lumped these languages into one group called SAE, or "Standard Average European."
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Alanguage island(a calque of GermanSprachinsel; alsolanguage enclave,language pocket) is anenclaveof alanguagethat is surrounded by one or more different languages.[1]The term was introduced in 1847.[2]Many speakers of these languages also have their own distinctculture.
Language islands often form as a result ofmigration,colonization,imperialism, ortradewithout a common tongue. Language islands are common of indigenous peoples, especially in theAmericas, where colonization has led them to isolate themselves greatly.
Patagonian Welsh is the dialect of theWelsh languagespoken inPatagonia, a region of southernArgentina. Despite it still being mutually intelligible with European Welsh, it has been heavily influenced bySpanish, the national language ofArgentina. Many Welsh Argentinians arebilingualor sometimestrilingualin Spanish, Welsh, andEnglish.
Education reports by English education officials created racist propaganda to raise suspicions against the Welsh people;[3]this led to laws prohibiting the Welsh language and parts of its culture.
Talianis a dialect ofWider Venetianspoken in several provinces of what is nowBrazil.[4]It is result of Italian settlers, most of them fromVeneto, taking permanent stay along the Brazilian coast, although some of them migrated further into the continent.
Examples of language islands:
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Inlinguisticsanaccidental gap, also known as agap,paradigm gap,accidental lexical gap,lexical gap,lacuna, orhole in the pattern, is a potentialword,word sense,morpheme, or other form that does not exist in some language despite being theoretically permissible by thegrammatical rulesof that language.[1]For example, a word pronounced/zeɪ̯k/is theoretically possible in English, as it would obey English phonological rules, but does not currently exist. Its absence is therefore an accidental gap,in the ontologic sense of the wordaccidental(that is, circumstantial rather thanessential).
Accidental gaps differ from systematic gaps, those words or other forms which do not exist in a language due to the boundaries set by phonological, morphological, and other rules of that specific language. In English, a word pronounced/pfnk/does not andcannotexist because it has no vowels and therefore does not obey theword-formationrules of English. This is a systematic, rather than accidental, gap.
Various types of accidental gaps exist. Phonological gaps are either words allowed by thephonological systemof a language which do not actually exist, or sound contrasts missing from oneparadigmof the phonological system itself. Morphological gaps are nonexistent words or word senses potentially allowed by themorphological system. A semantic gap refers to the nonexistence of a word or word sense to describe a difference inmeaningseen in other sets of words within the language.
Often words that are allowed in the phonological system of a language are absent. For example, in English theconsonant cluster/spr/is allowed at the beginning of words such asspreadorspringand thesyllable rime/ɪk/occurs in words such assickorflicker. Even so, there is no English word pronounced */sprɪk/. Although this potential word is phonologicallywell-formedaccording to Englishphonotactics, it happens to not exist.[2]
The term "phonological gap" is also used to refer to the absence of aphonemic contrastin part of the phonological system.[1]For example,Thaihas several sets ofstop consonantsthat differ invoicing(whether or not thevocal cordsvibrate) andaspiration(whether a puff of air is released). Yet the language has no voicedvelar stop(/ɡ/).[3]This lack of an expected distinction is commonly called a "hole in the pattern".[2]
A morphological gap is the absence of a word that could exist given the morphological rules of a language, including itsaffixes.[1]For example, in English adeverbal nouncan be formed by adding either the suffix-alor-(t)ionto certain verbs (typically words fromLatinthroughAnglo-Norman FrenchorOld French). Some verbs, such asrecitehave two related nouns,recitalandrecitation. However, in many cases there is only one such noun, as illustrated in the chart below. Although in principle the morphological rules of English allow for other nouns, those words do not exist.[4]
Manypotential wordsthat could be made following morphological rules of a language do not enter thelexicon.[5]Blocking, includinghomonymy blockingandsynonymy blocking, stops some potential words.[6]Ahomonymof an existing word may be blocked. For example, the wordlivermeaning "someone who lives" is only rarely used because the wordliver(an internal organ) already exists.[7]Likewise, a potential word can be blocked if it is asynonymof an existing word. An older, more common word blocks a potential synonym, known astoken-blocking. For example, the wordstealer("someone who steals") is also rarely used, because the wordthiefalready exists. Not only individual words, but entireword formationprocesses may be blocked. For example, thesuffix-nessis used to form nouns from adjectives. Thisproductiveword-formation pattern blocks many potential nouns that could be formed with-ity. Nouns such as *calmity(a potential synonym ofcalmness) and *darkity(cf.darkness) are unused potential words. This is known astype-blocking.[6]
Adefective verbis a verb that lacks somegrammatical conjugation. For example, several verbs inRussiando not have afirst-personsingularform innon-past tense. Although most verbs have such a form (e.g.vožu"I lead"), about 100 verbs in thesecond conjugationpattern (e.g. *derz'u"I talk rudely"; the asterisk indicatesungrammaticality) do not appear as first-person singular in the present-future tense.[8]Morris Halle called this defective verb paradigm an example of an accidental gap.
The similar case ofunpaired wordsoccurs where one word is obsolete or rare while another wordderivedfrom it is more common. Examples includeeffable(whenceineffable),kempt(whenceunkempt), orwhelm(root ofoverwhelmed).[9]
A gap insemanticsoccurs when a particular meaning distinction visible elsewhere in the lexicon is absent. For example, English words describing family members generally showgenderdistinction. Yet the English wordcousincan refer to either a male or female cousin.[1]Similarly, while there are general terms for siblings and parents, there is no comparable common gender-neutral term for a parent's sibling, and traditionally none for a sibling's child. The separate words predicted on the basis of this semantic contrast are absent from the language, or at least from many speakers' dialects. It is possible to coin new ones (as happened with the wordnibling), but whether those words gain widespread acceptance in general use, or remainneologisticand resisted outside particularregisters, is a matter of prevailingusagein each era.
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Incultural anthropologyandcultural geography,cultural diffusion, as conceptualized byLeo Frobeniusin his 1897/98 publicationDer westafrikanischeKulturkreis, is the spread ofculturalitems—such asideas,styles, religions,technologies,languages—between individuals, whether within a single culture or from one culture to another. It is distinct from thediffusion of innovationswithin a specific culture. Examples of diffusion include the spread of thewar chariotand ironsmeltingin ancient times, and the use ofautomobilesand Westernbusiness suitsin the 20th century.
Five major types of cultural diffusion have been defined:
Inter-cultural diffusion can happen in many ways.Migrating populationswill carry their culture with them. Ideas can be carried by trans-cultural visitors, such as merchants,explorers, soldiers, diplomats, slaves, and hired artisans. Technology diffusion has often occurred by one society luring skilled scientists or workers by payments or another inducement. Trans-cultural marriages between two neighboring or interspersed cultures have also contributed. Among literate societies, diffusion can occur through letters, books, and, in modern times, through electronic media.
There are three categories of diffusion mechanisms:
Direct diffusion was common in ancient times when small groups of humans lived in adjoining settlements. Indirect diffusion is common in today's world because of the mass media and the invention of the Internet. Also of interest is the work of American historian and criticDaniel J. Boorstinin his bookThe Discoverers, in which he provides a historical perspective on the role of explorers in thediffusion of innovationsbetweencivilizations.
The many models that have been proposed for inter-cultural diffusion are:
A concept that has often been mentioned in this regard, which may be framed in the evolutionary diffusionism model, is that of "an idea whose time has come"—whereby a new cultural item appears almost simultaneously and independently in several widely separated places, after certain prerequisite items have diffused across the respective communities. This concept was invoked with regard to the independent development ofcalculusbyNewtonandLeibnitz, and the inventions of the airplane and of theelectronic computer.
Hyperdiffusionists deny thatparallel evolutionor independent invention took place to any great extent throughout history; they claim that all major inventions and all cultures can be traced back to a single culture.[5]
Early theories of hyperdiffusionism can be traced to ideas about South America being the origin of mankind.Antonio de León Pinelo, a Spaniard who settled inBolivia, claimed in his bookParaíso en el Nuevo Mundothat theGarden of Edenand the creation of man had occurred in present-day Bolivia and that the rest of the world was populated bymigrationsfrom there. Similar ideas were also held by Emeterio Villamil de Rada; in his bookLa Lengua de Adánhe attempted to prove thatAymarawas the original language of mankind and that humanity had originated inSoratain the BolivianAndes. The first scientific defence of humanity originating in South America came from the ArgentinepaleontologistFlorentino Ameghinoin 1880, who published his research inLa antigüedad del hombre en el Plata.[6]
The work ofGrafton Elliot Smithfomented a revival of hyperdiffusionism in 1911; he asserted that copper–producing knowledge spread fromEgyptto the rest of the world along withmegalithicculture.[7]Smith claimed that all major inventions had been made by the ancientEgyptiansand were carried to the rest of the world by migrants and voyagers. His views became known as "Egyptocentric-Hyperdiffusionism".[8]William James Perryelaborated on Smith's hypothesis by usingethnographicdata. Another hyperdiffusionist wasLord Raglan; in his bookHow Came Civilization(1939) he wrote that instead of Egypt all culture and civilization had come fromMesopotamia.[9]Hyperdiffusionism after this did not entirely disappear, but it was generally abandoned by mainstream academia.
Diffusion theory has been advanced[according to whom?]as an explanation for the "European miracle", the adoption of technological innovation inmedieval Europewhich by the 19th century culminated in European technological achievement surpassing theIslamic worldandChina.[10]Technological imports to medieval Europe includegunpowder,clockmechanisms,shipbuilding, paper, and thewindmill; however, in each of these cases, Europeans not only adopted the technologies but improved the manufacturing scale, inherent technology, and applications to a point clearly surpassing the evolution of the original invention in its country of origin.
There are also some historians who have questioned whether Europe really owes the development of such inventions as gunpowder, the compass, the windmill or printing to the Chinese or other cultures.[11][12][13]
However, historian Peter Frankopan argues that influences, particularly trade, through the Middle East and Central Asia to China through the silk roads have been overlooked in traditional histories of the "rise of the West". He argues that the Renaissance was funded with trade with the east (due to the demise of Byzantium at the hands of Venice and the Fourth Crusade), and that the trade allowed ideas and technology to be shared with Europe. But the constant warfare and rivalry in Europe meant there was extreme evolutionary pressure for developing these ideas for military and economic advantage, and a desperate need to use them in expansion.[14]
While the concept of diffusion is well accepted in general, conjectures about the existence or the extent of diffusion in some specific contexts have been hotly disputed. An example of such disputes is the proposal byThor Heyerdahlthat similarities between the culture ofPolynesiaand the pre-Columbian civilizations of theAndesare due to diffusion from the latter to the former—a theorythat currently has few supporters among professionalanthropologists.[15][16][17][18][19]
Major contributors to inter-cultural diffusion research and theory include:
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Linguistic anthropologyis theinterdisciplinarystudy of how language influences social life. It is a branch ofanthropologythat originated from the endeavor to documentendangered languagesand has grown over the past century to encompass most aspects oflanguage structureand use.[1]
Linguistic anthropology explores how language shapes communication, forms social identity and group membership, organizes large-scale cultural beliefs andideologies, and develops a common cultural representation of natural andsocial worlds.[2]
Linguistic anthropology emerged from the development of three distinctparadigmsthat have set the standard for approaching linguistic anthropology. The first, now known as "anthropological linguistics," focuses on the documentation of languages. The second, known as "linguistic anthropology," engages in theoretical studies of language use. The third, developed over the past two or three decades, studies issues from other subfields of anthropology with linguistic considerations. Though they developed sequentially, all three paradigms are still practiced today.[3]
The first paradigm, anthropological linguistics, is devoted to themes unique to the sub-discipline. This area includes documentation oflanguagesthat have been seen as at-risk forextinction, with a particular focus on indigenous languages of native North American tribes. It is also the paradigm most focused on linguistics.[3]Linguistic themes include the following:
The second paradigm can be marked by reversing the words. Going fromanthropological linguisticstolinguistic anthropology, signals a more anthropological focus on the study. This term was preferred byDell Hymes, who was also responsible, withJohn Gumperz, for the idea ofethnographyofcommunication. The termlinguistic anthropologyreflected Hymes' vision of a future where language would be studied in the context of the situation and relative to the community speaking it.[3]This new era would involve many new technological developments, such as mechanical recording.
This paradigm developed in critical dialogue with the fields offolkloreon the one hand andlinguisticson the other. Hymes criticized folklorists' fixation on oral texts rather than the verbal artistry of performance.[4]At the same time, he criticized the cognitivist shift in linguistics heralded by the pioneering work ofNoam Chomsky, arguing for an ethnographic focus on language in use.
Hymes had many revolutionary contributions to linguistic anthropology, the first of which was a newunit of analysis. Unlike the first paradigm, which focused on linguistic tools like measuring ofphonemesandmorphemes, the second paradigm's unit of analysis was the "speech event". A speech event is defined as one with speech presented for a significant duration throughout its occurrence (ex., a lecture or debate). This is different from a speech situation, where speech could possibly occur (ex., dinner). Hymes also pioneered a linguistic anthropological approach toethnopoetics. Hymes had hoped that this paradigm would link linguistic anthropology more to anthropology. However, Hymes' ambition backfired as the second paradigm marked a distancing of the sub-discipline from the rest of anthropology.[5][6]
The third paradigm, which began in the late 1980s, redirected the primary focus on anthropology by providing a linguistic approach to anthropological issues. Rather than prioritizing the technical components of language, third paradigm anthropologists focus on studying culture through the use of linguistic tools. Themes include:
Furthermore, similar to how the second paradigm used new technology in its studies, the third paradigm heavily includes use of video documentation to support research.[3]
Contemporary linguistic anthropology continues research in all three paradigms described above:
The third paradigm, the study of anthropological issues through linguistic means, is an affluent area of study for current linguistic anthropologists.
A great deal of work in linguistic anthropology investigates questions of socioculturalidentitylinguistically and discursively. Linguistic anthropologistDon Kulickhas done so in relation to identity, for example, in a series of settings, first in a village calledGapunin northernPapua New Guinea.[7]He explored how the use of two languages with and around children in Gapun village: the traditional language (Taiap), not spoken anywhere but in their own village and thus primordially "indexical" of Gapuner identity, andTok Pisin, the widely circulating official language of New Guinea. ("indexical" points to meanings beyond the immediate context.)[8]To speak theTaiap languageis associated with one identity: not only local but "Backward" and also an identity based on the display of hed (personal autonomy). To speak Tok Pisin is toindexa modern, Catholic identity, based not on hed but on save, an identity linked with the will and the skill to cooperate. In later work, Kulick demonstrates that certain loud speech performances in Brazil called um escândalo, Braziliantravesti(roughly, 'transvestite') sex workers shame clients. The travesti community, the argument goes, ends up at least making a powerful attempt to transcend the shame the larger Brazilian public might try to foist off on them, again by loud public discourse and other modes ofperformance.[9]
In addition, scholars such asÉmile Benveniste,[10]Mary BucholtzandKira Hall[11]Benjamin Lee,[12]Paul Kockelman,[13]andStanton Wortham[14](among many others) have contributed to understandings of identity as "intersubjectivity" by examining the ways it is discursively constructed.
In a series of studies, linguistic anthropologistsElinor OchsandBambi Schieffelinaddressed the anthropological topic ofsocialization(the process by which infants, children, and foreigners become members of a community, learning to participate in its culture), using linguistic and other ethnographic methods.[15]They discovered that the processes ofenculturationand socialization do not occur apart from the process oflanguage acquisition, but that children acquire language and culture together in what amounts to an integrated process. Ochs and Schieffelin demonstrated thatbaby talkis notuniversal, that the direction of adaptation (whether the child is made to adapt to the ongoing situation of speech around it or vice versa) was a variable that correlated, for example, with the direction it was held vis-à-vis a caregiver's body. In many societies caregivers hold a child facing outward so as to orient it to a network of kin whom it must learn to recognize early in life.
Ochs and Schieffelin demonstrated that members of all societies socialize children bothtoandthroughthe use of language. Ochs and Schieffelin uncovered how, through naturally occurring stories told during dinners in whitemiddle classhouseholds inSouthern California, both mothers and fathers participated in replicatingmale dominance(the "father knows best" syndrome) by the distribution of participant roles such as protagonist (often a child but sometimes mother and almost never the father) and "problematizer" (often the father, who raised uncomfortable questions or challenged the competence of the protagonist). When mothers collaborated with children to get their stories told, they unwittingly set themselves up to be subject to this process.
Schieffelin's more recent research has uncovered the socializing role ofpastorsand other fairly new Bosavi converts in theSouthern Highlands, Papua New Guineacommunity she studies.[16][17][18][19]Pastors have introduced new ways of conveying knowledge, new linguisticepistemicmarkers[16]—and new ways of speaking about time.[18]And they have struggled with and largely resisted those parts of the Bible that speak of being able to know the inner states of others (e.g. thegospel of Mark, chapter 2, verses 6–8).[19]
In a third example of the current (third) paradigm, sinceRoman Jakobson's studentMichael Silversteinopened the way, there has been an increase in the work done by linguistic anthropologists on the major anthropological theme ofideologies,[20]—in this case "language ideologies", sometimes defined as "shared bodies ofcommonsensenotions about the nature of language in the world."[21]Silverstein has demonstrated that these ideologies are not merefalse consciousnessbut actually influence the evolution of linguistic structures, including the dropping of "thee" and "thou" from everydayEnglishusage.[22]Woolard, in her overview of "code switching", or the systematic practice of alternating linguistic varieties within a conversation or even a single utterance, finds the underlying question anthropologists ask of the practice—Why do they do that?—reflects a dominant linguistic ideology. It is the ideology that people should "really" be monoglot and efficiently targeted toward referential clarity rather than diverting themselves with the messiness of multiple varieties in play at a single time.[23]
Much research on linguistic ideologies probes subtler influences on language, such as the pull exerted on Tewa, a Kiowa-Tanoan language spoken in certain New Mexican pueblos and on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona, by "kiva speech", discussed in the next section.[24]
Other linguists have carried out research in the areas oflanguage contact,language endangerment, and 'English as a global language'. For instance, Indian linguistBraj Kachruinvestigated local varieties of English in South Asia, the ways in whichEnglish functions as a lingua francaamong multicultural groups in India.[25]British linguist David Crystal has contributed to investigations oflanguage deathattention to the effects of cultural assimilation resulting in the spread of one dominant language in situations of colonialism.[26]
More recently, a new line of ideology work is beginning to enter the field oflinguisticsin relation toheritage languages. Specifically, applied linguistMartin Guardadohas posited that heritage language ideologies are "somewhat fluid sets of understandings, justifications, beliefs, and judgments that linguistic minorities hold about their languages."[27]Guardadogoes on to argue that ideologies of heritage languages also contain the expectations and desires of linguistic minority families "regarding the relevance of these languages in their children’s lives as well as when, where, how, and to what ends these languages should be used." Although this is arguably a fledgling line of language ideology research, this work is poised to contribute to the understanding of how ideologies of language operate in a variety of settings.
In a final example of this third paradigm, a group of linguistic anthropologists have done very creative work on the idea of social space. Duranti published a groundbreaking article onSamoangreetingsand their use and transformation of social space.[28]Before that, Indonesianist Joseph Errington, making use of earlier work by Indonesianists not necessarily concerned with language issues per se, brought linguistic anthropological methods (andsemiotictheory) to bear on the notion of the exemplary center, the center of political and ritual power from which emanated exemplary behavior.[29]Errington demonstrated how theJavanesepriyayi, whose ancestors served at the Javanese royal courts, became emissaries, so to speak, long after those courts had ceased to exist, representing throughout Java the highest example of "refined speech." The work of Joel Kuipers develops this theme vis-a-vis the island ofSumba,Indonesia. And, even though it pertains toTewaIndians inArizonarather than Indonesians,Paul Kroskrity's argument that speech forms originating in the Tewakiva(or underground ceremonial space) forms the dominant model for all Tewa speech can be seen as a direct parallel.
Silverstein tries to find the maximum theoretical significance and applicability in this idea of exemplary centers. He feels, in fact, that the exemplary center idea is one of linguistic anthropology's three most important findings. He generalizes the notion thus, arguing "there are wider-scale institutional 'orders of interactionality,' historically contingent yet structured. Within such large-scale, macrosocial orders, in-effectritualcenters ofsemiosiscome to exert a structuring,value-conferring influence on any particular event of discursiveinteractionwith respect to the meanings and significance of the verbal and other semiotic forms used in it."[30]Current approaches to such classic anthropological topics as ritual by linguistic anthropologists emphasize not static linguistic structures but the unfolding in realtime of a"'hypertrophic' set of parallel orders oficonicityand indexicality that seem to cause the ritual to create its own sacred space through what appears, often, to be themagicof textual and nontextual metricalizations, synchronized."[30][31]
Addressing the broad central concerns of the subfield and drawing from its core theories, many scholars focus on the intersections of language and the particularly salient social constructs of race (and ethnicity), class, and gender (and sexuality). These works generally consider the roles of social structures (e.g., ideologies and institutions) related to race, class, and gender (e.g., marriage, labor, pop culture, education) in terms of their constructions and in terms of individuals' lived experiences. A short list of linguistic anthropological texts that address these topics follows:
Ethnopoetics is a method of recording text versions of oral poetry or narrative performances (i.e. verbal lore) that uses poetic lines, verses, and stanzas (instead of prose paragraphs) to capture the formal, poetic performance elements which would otherwise be lost in the written texts. The goal of any ethnopoetic text is to show how the techniques of unique oral performers enhance the aesthetic value of their performances within their specific cultural contexts. Major contributors to ethnopoetic theory include Jerome Rothenberg, Dennis Tedlock, and Dell Hymes. Ethnopoetics is considered a subfield of ethnology, anthropology, folkloristics, stylistics, linguistics, and literature and translation studies.
Endangered languagesare languages that are not being passed down to children as their mother tongue or that have declining numbers of speakers for a variety of reasons. Therefore, after a couple generations these languages may no longer be spoken.[32]Anthropologists have been involved with endangered language communities through their involvement in language documentation and revitalization projects.
In alanguage documentationproject, researchers work to develop records of the language - these records could be field notes and audio or video recordings. To follow best practices of documentation, these records should be clearly annotated and kept safe within an archive of some kind.Franz Boaswas one of the first anthropologists involved in language documentation within North America and he supported the development of three key materials: 1) grammars, 2) texts, and 3) dictionaries. This is now known as the Boasian Trilogy.[33]
Language revitalization is the practice of bringing a language back into common use. The revitalization efforts can take the form of teaching the language to new speakers or encouraging the continued use within the community.[34]One example of a language revitalization project is the Lenape language course taught at Swathmore College, Pennsylvania. The course aims to educate indigenous and non-indigenous students about the Lenape language and culture.[35]
Language reclamation, as a subset of revitalization, implies that a language has been taken away from a community and addresses their concern in taking back the agency to revitalize their language on their own terms. Language reclamation addresses the power dynamics associated with language loss. Encouraging those who already know the language to use it, increasing the domains of usage, and increasing the overall prestige of the language are all components of reclamation. One example of this is the Miami language being brought back from 'extinct' status through extensive archives.[36]
While the field of linguistics has also been focused on the study of the linguistic structures of endangered languages, anthropologists also contribute to this field through their emphasize onethnographicunderstandings of the socio-historical context of language endangerment, but also of language revitalization and reclamation projects.[37]
The Jurgen Trabant Wilhelm von Humboldt Lectures (7hrs)
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Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursiveis a historical dictionary ofAnglo-Indianwords and terms fromIndian languageswhich came into use duringBritish rule in India.
It was written bySir Henry YuleandArthur Coke Burnelland first published in 1886. Burnell died before the work was finished, and most of it was completed by Yule, who acknowledged Burnell's detailed contributions.[1]A subsequent edition was edited byWilliam Crookein 1903, with extra quotations and an index added.[2]The first and second editions are collector's items; the second edition is widely available in facsimile.
The dictionary holds over 2,000 entries,[3]generally with citations from literary sources, some of which date to the first European contact with theIndian subcontinent, frequently in other non-English European languages. Most entries also haveetymologicalnotes.[4]
The project began through correspondence between Sir Henry Yule, who was then living inPalermo, and Arthur Coke Burnell, who was a member of the Madras Civil Service, and was holding posts in several places in South India, and particularly, inThanjavur. In 1872, Burnell wrote to Yule that he had been collecting instances of Anglo-Indian usages of English, as Yule had also been working on a similar list of his own. At Yule's suggestion, they combined their projects, working together until Burnell's death in 1882.[5]Yule and Burnell compiled the text by using a variety of sources, including accounts of Anglo-Indian language and usages by other authors of the time, as well as government documents such as glossaries of revenue administrative and legislative terms, and contemporary dictionaries.[5]
In Indian English, the termHobson-Jobsonreferred to any festival or entertainment, but especially ceremonies of theMourning of Muharram. In origin, the term is a corruption by British soldiers of "YāḤasan! YāḤosain!" which is repeatedly chanted byShia Muslimsthroughout the procession of the Muharram; this was then converted to Hosseen Gosseen, Hossy Gossy, Hossein Jossen and, ultimately, Hobson-Jobson.[6]Yule and Burnell wrote that they considered the title a "typical and delightful example" of the type of highly domesticated words in the dictionary that also implied their own dual authorship.[7]
The scholar Traci Nagle, however, also finds a note of condescension in the choice.Rhyming reduplication(as in "Hobson-Jobson" or "puli kili") is highly productive in South Asian languages, where it is known popularly as anecho word. In English, however, rhyming reduplication is generally either juvenile (as inHumpty Dumptyorhokey-pokey) orpejorative(as innamby-pambyormumbo-jumbo); further, Hobson and Jobson werestock charactersin Victorian times, used to indicate a pair of yokels, clowns, or idiots.[8][9]The title thus produced negative associations – being at best self-deprecatory on the part of the authors, suggesting themselves a pair of idiots – and reviewers reacted negatively to the title, generally praising the book but finding the title inappropriate. Indeed, anticipating this reaction, the title was kept secret – even from the publisher – until shortly before publication.[10]
The volume received praise on its initial publication from, among others,Rudyard Kipling.[11]Paul Pelliot, the French Sinologist, welcomed the 1903 version, though including a list of corrections and questions.[12]
More recently, however, the scholarVijay Mishraobjected that neither Yule nor Burnell had sound training in the languages required. He further objected that "it may be said that built into these hobson-jobsons is a contemptuous attitude, an ironic belittling of the values contained in the original vernacular words." That is, the British colonialists represented in the volume did not know or care to know the original meanings of the words. He gives as an example the word "babu” (babú) which in the original is “an educated or distinguished person" and a term of respect. But as a hobson-jobson “baboo" is degrading as it "attempts to reduce educated Indians (especially Bengalis) to mimics and harlequins."[13]
James A. Murraymade extensive use ofHobson-Jobsonin writing entries on South Asian words for theOxford English Dictionary.[14]
The term "law of Hobson-Jobson" is sometimes used inlinguisticsto refer to the process ofphonological changeby whichloanwordsare adapted to thephonologyof the new language, as in thearchetypalexample of "Hobson-Jobson" itself.[15]Webster's Third International Dictionarygives as examples of the law of Hobson-Jobson: Spanishcucarachabecoming Englishcockroach, and Englishriding coatbecoming Frenchredingote.[16]
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Inlinguistics, aninternationalismorinternational wordis aloanwordthat occurs in several languages (that is,translingually) with the same or at least similar meaning and etymology. These words exist in "several different languages as a result of simultaneous or successive borrowings from the ultimate source".[1]Pronunciationandorthographyare similar so that the word is understandable between the different languages.
It is debated how many languages are required for a word to be considered an internationalism.[citation needed]Furthermore, the languages required can also depend on the specifictarget languageat stake. For example, according toGhil'ad Zuckermann, the most important languages that should include the same lexical item in order for it to qualify as an internationalism inHebrewareYiddish,Polish,Russian,French,GermanandEnglish.[2]
The term is uncommon inEnglish,[citation needed]although English has contributed a considerable number of words to world languages, e.g., the sport termsfootball,baseball,cricket, andgolf.
International scientific vocabularyis a class of terms that contains many internationalisms. For some of them it is known which modern language used them first, whereas for others it is not traceable, but the chronologic sequence is usually of limited practical importance anyway, as almost immediately after their origination they appeared in multiple languages.
European internationalisms originate primarily fromLatinorGreek, but from other languages as well.[3]However, due toEnglishbeing the mainlingua francaof theWestern world, an increasing number of internationalisms originate from English. Many non-European words have also become international.
Internationalisms often spread together with the innovations they designate. Accordingly, there aresemantic fieldsdominated by specific languages, e.g. thecomputingvocabulary which is mainlyEnglishwith internationalisms such ascomputer,disk, andspam. New inventions, political institutions, foodstuffs, leisure activities, science, and technological advances have all generated newlexemesand continue to do so:bionics,cybernetics,gene,coffee,chocolate, etc..
Some internationalisms are spread by speakers of one language living in geographical regions where other languages are spoken. For example, some internationalisms coming from the English in India arebungalow,jute,khaki,mango,pyjamas, andsari.[citation needed]
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Aphonestheme(/foʊˈnɛsθiːm/foh-NESS-theem;[1]phonaesthemein British English) is a pattern of sounds systematically paired with a certainmeaningin alanguage. The concept was proposed in 1930 by British linguistJ. R. Firth, who coined the term from the Greekφωνήphone, "sound", andαἴσθημαaisthema, "perception" (fromαίσθάνομαιaisthanomai, "I perceive").[2]For example, sequence "sl-" appears in English words denoting low-friction motion, like "slide", "slick" and "sled".[3]
A phonestheme is different from aphoneme(a basic unit of word-differentiating sound) or amorpheme(a basic unit of meaning) because it does not meet the normal criterion ofcompositionality.[4][5]
WithinC.S. Peirce's"theory of signs" the phonestheme is considered to be an "icon" rather than a "symbol" or an "index".[6]
Phonesthemes are of critical interest to students of the internal structure of words because they appear to be a case where the internal structure of the word is non-compositional; i.e., a word with a phonestheme in it has other material in it that is not itself a morpheme. Phonesthemes "fascinate some linguists", asBen Zimmerhas phrased it, in a process that can become "mystical" or "unscientific".[7]
For example, the English phonestheme "gl-" occurs in a large number of words relating to light or vision, like "glitter", "glisten", "glow", "gleam", "glare", "glint", "glimmer", "gloss", and so on; yet, despite this, the remainder of each word is not itself a phonestheme (i.e., a pairing of form and meaning); i.e., "-isten", "-ow", and "-eam" do not make meaningful contributions to "glisten", "glow", and "gleam".[8]There are multiple main ways in which phonesthemes are empirically identified.[9]
The first is through corpus studies, where the words of a language are subjected to statistical analysis, and the particular form-meaning pairing, or phonestheme, is shown to constitute a statistically unexpected distribution in the lexicon or not.
Corpus studies can inform a researcher about the current state of the lexicon, a critical first step, but importantly are completely uninformative when it comes to questions of whether and how phonesthemes are represented in the minds of language users.
The second type of approach makes use of the tendency for phonesthemes to participate in the coinage and interpretation ofneologisms(i.e., new words in a language). Various studies have demonstrated that, when asked to invent or interpret new words, subjects tend to follow the patterns that are predicted by the phonesthemes in their language. It is known, for example, that the wordbangleis aloanfromHindibut speakers tend to associate it with Englishonomatopoeialikebang. While this approach demonstrates the vitality of phonesthemic patterns, it does not provide any evidence about whether (or how) phonesthemes are represented in the minds of speaker-hearers.
The final type of evidence uses the methods ofpsycholinguisticsto study exactly how phonesthemes participate in language processing. One such method is phonesthemic priming — akin to morphological priming — which demonstrates that people represent phonesthemes much as they do typical morphemes, despite the fact that phonesthemes are non-compositional.
Discussions of phonesthesia are often grouped with other phenomena under the rubric ofsound symbolism.
While phonaesthemes may be language-specific, it has been pointed out that people may be sensitive to some phonaesthemes (e.g. /fl-/, or /tr-/) irrespective of where sound-meaning correspondences are exemplified in the lexicon of their mother tongue (e.g. English, French, Spanish or Macedonian).[10]
Phonesthemes have been documented in numerous languages from diverse language families, among them English, Swedish, and otherIndo-European languages,Austronesian languages, and Japanese.[citation needed]
While phonesthemes have mostly been identified in the onsets of words and syllables, they can have other forms. There has been some argument that sequences like "-ash" and "-ack" in English also serve as phonesthemes, due to their patterning in words that denote forceful, destructive contact ("smash", "crash", "bash", etc.) and abrupt contact ("smack", "whack", "crack", etc.), respectively.[11]
In addition to the distribution of phonesthemes, linguists consider theirmotivation. In some cases, there may appear to be good sound-symbolic reasons why phonesthemes would have the form they have. In the case of "-ack", for example, we might imagine that the words sharing this phonestheme do so because they denote events that would produce a similar sound. But critically, there are many phonesthemes for which there can be no sound-symbolic basis, such as "gl-", for the simple reason that their meanings (such as 'pertaining to light or vision') entail no sound.
While there are numerous studies on living languages, research is lacking about ancient languages, although the first documented example of phonesthemes dates back to at least the fourth century B.C.: Plato's
Cratylus clearly mentioned a gl- phonestheme (a different one from that discussed previously, as those words are not of Greek origin) as well as an st- one and gave an explanation in terms of phonosemantics.[12]
Examples of phonesthemes in English include:
"cl-":related to a closing motion of a single object, such as "clam", "clamp", "clap", "clasp", "clench", "cling", "clip", "clop", "clutch".
"fl-":related to movement, such as "flap", "flare", "flee", "flick", "flicker", "fling", "flip", "flit", "flitter", "flow", "flutter", "fly", "flurry".[13]
"gl-":related to light, as in "glade", "glance", "glare", "glass", "gleam", "glimmer", "glint", "glisten", "glitter", "gloaming", "gloom", "gloss", "glow".[4][14]
"sl-":appears in words denoting frictionless motion, like "slide", "slick", "sled", and so on. These are themselves a subset of a larger set of words beginning with “sl-“ that are pejorative behaviours, traits, or events: slab, slack, slang, slant, slap, slash, slate, slattern, slaver, slay, sleek, sleepy, sleet, slime, slip, slipshod, slit, slither, slobber, slog, slope, sloppy, slosh, sloth, slouch, slough, slovenly, slow, sludge, slug, sluggard, slum, slump, slur, slut, sly.[15][5]
"sn-":related to the nose or mouth, as in "snack", "snarl", "sneer", "sneeze", "snicker/snigger", "sniff", "sniffle", "snivel", "snoot", "snore", "snorkel", "snort", "snot", "snout", "snub" (as an adjective), "snuff", "snuffle".[13]
"st-":appears in three families of meanings:[16]
"str-":denoting something long and thin, as in "straight", "strand", "strap", "straw", "streak", "stream", "string", "strip", "stripe".[17]
"sw-":related to a long movement, as in "sway", "sweep", "swerve", "swing", "swipe", "swirl", "swish", "swoop".
"tw-":connotes a twisting motion, as in "twist", "twirl", "tweak", "twill", "tweed", "tweezer", "twiddle", "twine", "twinge".[14]
"-ow(e)l":connotes something sinister, as in "owl", "prowl", "scowl", "growl", "howl", "rowel", "bowel", "jowl".[14]
"-ump":related to a hemispherical shape or pile, as in "bump", "clump", "dump", "jump", "hump", "lump", "mump", "rump", "stump".[13]
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Inlinguistics,sound symbolismis theperceptualsimilarity betweenspeech soundsandconcept meanings. It is a form oflinguistic iconicity. For example, the English worddingmay sound similar to the actual sound of a bell.
Linguistic sound may be perceived as similar to not only sounds, but also to other sensory properties, such as size, vision, touch, or smell, or abstract domains, such asemotionorvalue judgment. Such correspondence between linguistic sound and meaning may significantly affect the form of spoken languages.
InCratylus,PlatohasSocratescommenting on the origins and correctness of various names and words. WhenHermogenesasks if he can provide another hypothesis on how signs come into being (his own is simply 'convention'), Socrates initially suggests that they fit their referents in virtue of the sounds they are made of:
Now the letterrho, as I was saying, appeared to the imposer of names an excellent instrument for the expression of motion; and he frequently uses the letter for this purpose: for example, in the actual words rein and roe he represents motion by rho; also in the words tromos (trembling), trachus (rugged); and again, in words such as krouein (strike), thrauein (crush), ereikein (bruise), thruptein (break), kermatixein (crumble), rumbein (whirl): of all these sorts of movements he generally finds an expression in the letter R, because, as I imagine, he had observed that the tongue was most agitated and least at rest in the pronunciation of this letter, which he therefore used in order to express motion
However, faced by an overwhelming number of counterexamples given by Hermogenes, Socrates has to admit that "my first notions of original names are truly wild and ridiculous".
TheUpanishadsandVyākaraṇacontain a lot of material about sound symbolism, for instance:
The mute consonants represent the earth, the sibilants the sky, the vowels heaven. The mute consonants represent fire, the sibilants air, the vowels the sun… The mute consonants represent the eye, the sibilants the ear, the vowels the mind.
The concept ofSphotaandNiruktais also based on this.
Kūkai, the founder ofShingon, wrote hisSound, word, realityin the 9th century which relates all sounds to the voice of theDharmakayaBuddha.
The idea of phonosemantics was sporadically discussed during theMiddle Agesand theRenaissance. In 1690,Lockewrote against the idea inAn Essay Concerning Human Understanding. His argument was that if there were any connection between sounds and ideas, then we would all be speaking the same language, but this is an over-generalisation.Leibniz's bookNew Essays on Human Understandingpublished in 1765 contains a point by point critique of Locke's essay. Leibniz picks up on the generalization used by Locke and adopts a less rigid approach: clearly there is no perfect correspondence between words and things, but neither is the relationship completely arbitrary, although he seems vague about what that relationship might be.[3]
Modern linguistics has been seen as opposing sound symbolism, beginning withFerdinand de Saussure(1857–1913), considered the founder of modern 'scientific' linguistics. Central to what de Saussure says about words are two related statements: First, he says that "thesignis arbitrary". He considers the words that we use to indicate things and concepts could be any words – they are essentially just a consensus agreed upon by the speakers of a language and have no discernible pattern or relationship to the thing. Second, he says that, because words are arbitrary, they have meaning only in relation to other words. A dog is a dog because it is not a cat or a mouse or a horse, etc. These ideas have permeated the study of words since the 19th century.[citation needed]
Onomatopoeiarefers to words that imitate sounds. Some examples in English arebow-wowormeow, each representing the sound of adogor acat.
Anideophoneis "a member of an open lexical class of marked words that depict sensory imagery".[4]Unlike onomatopoeia, an ideophone refers to words that depict any sensory domain, such asvisionortouch. Examples are Koreanmallang-mallang말랑말랑 'soft' and Japanesekira-kiraキラキラ 'shiny'. Ideophones are heavily present in many African and East/Southeast Asian languages, such asJapanese,Thai,CantoneseandXhosa. Their form is very oftenreduplicated, but not necessarily so.
Aphonaesthemeis a sub-morphemic sequence of sounds that are associated to a certain range of meanings. A well-known example is Englishgl-, which is present in many words related to light or vision, such asgleam,glow, orglare. Since it is submorphemic,gl-itself is not a morpheme, and it does not form compounds with other morphemes:-eam,-ow, and-arehave no meaning of their own. Phonaesthemes, however, are not necessarilyiconic, as they may be language-specific and may not iconically resemble the meaning they are associated to.
Blasi et al. (2016),[5]Joo (2020),[6]and Johansson et al. (2020)[7]demonstrated that in the languages around the world, certain concepts in the basic vocabulary (such as theSwadesh listor theLeipzig-Jakarta list) tend to be represented by words containing certain sounds. Below are some of the phonosemantic associations confirmed by the three studies:
High front vowels, such as /i/, are known to be perceptually associated to small size, whereas low and/or back vowels, such as /u/ or /a/, are usually associated with big size. This phenomenon is known asmagnitude symbolism.
Sapir (1929)[8]showed that, when asked which of the two tables, namedmilandmal, is bigger than the other, many people choosemalto be bigger thanmil. This phenomenon is not only observable inpseudowords, but present throughout English vocabulary as well.[9]
In many languages, the proximaldemonstrativepronoun ('this') tends to have high front vowels (such as /i/), whereas the distal demonstrative pronoun ('that') tends to have low and/or back vowels (such as /u/).[10]Examples include: Englishthisandthat, Frenchceciandcela, and Indonesianinianditu.
First person pronouns(me) and second person pronouns (you) tend to contain anasal sound.[11]Joo (2020)[12]suggests that this may be related to the infant's tendency of using the nasal sound to seek the attention of the caretaker.
Wolfgang Köhlerintroduced what is known as the Takete-Maluma phenomenon. When presented two shapes, one being curvy and another being spiky, and asked which one is calledTaketeand which one is calledMaluma, participants are more likely to associate the nameTaketeto the spiky shape and the nameMalumato the curvy shape.[13]
FollowingRamachandranand Hubbard in 2001, this phenomenon is now more commonly known as thebouba/kiki effect, and has been demonstrated to be valid across different cultures and languages.[14][15][16]
Bilabial consonantshave been demonstrated to be linked to the perception of softness, arguably due to the soft texture of human lips.[17][18]
Thetrilled Ris frequent in words for 'rough' while infrequent in words for 'smooth'.[19]
Sound symbolism is used in commerce for the names of products and even companies themselves.[20]For example, a car company may be interested in how to name their car to make it sound faster or stronger. Furthermore, sound symbolism can be used to create a meaningful relationship between a company's brand name and the brand mark itself. Sound symbolism can relate to the color, shade, shape, and size of the brand mark.[21]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonosemantics
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Poetry(from theGreekwordpoiesis, "making") is a form ofliterary artthat usesaestheticand oftenrhythmic[1][2][3]qualities oflanguageto evokemeaningsin addition to, or in place of,literalor surface-level meanings. Any particular instance of poetry is called apoemand is written by apoet.
Poets use a variety of techniques called poetic devices, such asassonance,alliteration,euphony and cacophony,onomatopoeia,rhythm(viametre), andsound symbolism, to producemusicalor other artistic effects. They also frequently organize these effects intopoetic structures, which may be strict or loose, conventional or invented by the poet. Poetic structures vary dramatically by language and cultural convention, but they often userhythmic metre(patterns ofsyllable stressorsyllable (mora) weight). They may also use repeating patterns ofphonemes,phonemegroups, tones (phonemic pitch shifts found intonal languages), words, or entire phrases. These includeconsonance(or justalliteration),assonance(as in thedróttkvætt), andrhyme schemes(patterns inrimes, a type of phoneme group). Poetic structures may even besemantic(e.g. thevoltarequired in aPetrachan sonnet).
Most written poems are formatted inverse: a series or stack oflineson a page, which follow the poetic structure. For this reason,versehas also become asynonym(ametonym) for poetry.[note 1]
Some poetry types are unique to particularculturesandgenresand respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. Readers accustomed to identifying poetry withDante,Goethe,Mickiewicz, orRumimay think of it as written inlinesbased onrhymeand regularmeter. There are, however, traditions, such asBiblical poetryandalliterative verse, that use other means to create rhythm andeuphony. Other traditions, such asSomali poetry, rely on complex systems of alliteration and metre independent of writing and been described as structurally comparable to ancient Greek and medieval European oral verse.[4]Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition,[5]testing the principle of euphony itself or altogether forgoing rhyme or set rhythm.[6][7]
Poetry has a long and variedhistory, evolving differentially across the globe. It dates back at least to prehistoric times with hunting poetry inAfricaand topanegyricandelegiaccourt poetry of the empires of theNile,Niger, andVolta Rivervalleys.[8]Some of the earliest written poetry in Africa occurs among thePyramid Textswritten during the 25th century BCE. The earliest surviving Western Asianepic poem, theEpic of Gilgamesh, was written in theSumerian language.
Early poems in theEurasiancontinent include folk songs such as the ChineseShijing, religioushymns(such as theSanskritRigveda, theZoroastrianGathas, theHurrian songs, and the HebrewPsalms); and retellings of oral epics (such as the EgyptianStory of Sinuhe,Indian epic poetry, and theHomericepics, theIliadand theOdyssey).
Ancient Greek attempts to define poetry, such asAristotle'sPoetics, focused on the uses ofspeechinrhetoric,drama,song, andcomedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such asrepetition,verse form, andrhyme, and emphasized aesthetics which distinguish poetry from the format of more objectively-informative, academic, or typical writing, which is known asprose.
Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differentialinterpretationsof words, or to evokeemotiveresponses. The use ofambiguity,symbolism,irony, and otherstylisticelements ofpoetic dictionoften leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly, figures of speech such asmetaphor,simile, andmetonymy[9]establish a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individualverses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.
Poets – as, from theGreek, "makers" of language – have contributed to the evolution of the linguistic, expressive, and utilitarian qualities of their languages. In an increasinglyglobalizedworld, poets often adapt forms, styles, and techniques from diverse cultures and languages.
AWestern culturaltradition (extending at least fromHomertoRilke) associates the production of poetry withinspiration– often by aMuse(either classical or contemporary), or through other (often canonised) poets' work which sets some kind of example or challenge.
In first-person poems, the lyrics are spoken by an "I", acharacterwho may be termed thespeaker, distinct from thepoet(theauthor). Thus if, for example, a poem asserts, "I killed my enemy in Reno", it is the speaker, not the poet, who is the killer (unless this "confession" is a form ofmetaphorwhich needs to be considered in closercontext– viaclose reading).
Some scholars believe that the art of poetry may predateliteracy, and developed from folkepicsand other oral genres.[10][11]Others, however, suggest that poetry did not necessarily predate writing.[12]
The oldest surviving epic poem, theEpic of Gilgamesh, dates from the 3rd millenniumBCE inSumer(inMesopotamia, present-dayIraq), and was written incuneiformscript on clay tablets and, later, onpapyrus.[13]TheIstanbul tablet#2461, dating toc.2000BCE, describes an annual rite in which the kingsymbolically marriedand mated with the goddessInannato ensure fertility and prosperity; some have labelled it the world's oldest love poem.[14][15]An example of Egyptian epic poetry isThe Story of Sinuhe(c. 1800 BCE).[16]
Other ancient epics includes the GreekIliadand theOdyssey; the PersianAvestanbooks (theYasna); theRomannational epic,Virgil'sAeneid(written between 29 and 19 BCE); and theIndian epics, theRamayanaand theMahabharata. Epic poetry appears to have been composed in poetic form as an aid to memorization and oral transmission in ancient societies.[12][17]
Other forms of poetry, including such ancient collections of religioushymnsas the IndianSanskrit-languageRigveda, the AvestanGathas, theHurrian songs, and the HebrewPsalms, possibly developed directly fromfolk songs. The earliest entries in the oldest extant collection ofChinese poetry, theClassic of Poetry(Shijing), were initiallylyrics.[18]The Shijing, with its collection of poems and folk songs, was heavily valued by the philosopherConfuciusand is considered to be one of the officialConfucian classics. His remarks on the subject have become an invaluable source inancient music theory.[19]
The efforts of ancient thinkers to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form, and what distinguishes good poetry from bad, resulted in "poetics"—the study of the aesthetics of poetry.[20]Some ancient societies, such as China's through theShijing, developed canons of poetic works that had ritual as well as aesthetic importance.[21]More recently, thinkers have struggled to find a definition that could encompass formal differences as great as those between Chaucer'sCanterbury TalesandMatsuo Bashō'sOku no Hosomichi, as well as differences in content spanningTanakhreligious poetry, love poetry, andrap.[22]
Until recently, the earliest examples ofstressed poetryhad been thought to be works composed byRomanos the Melodist(fl.6th century CE). However,Tim Whitmarshwrites that an inscribed Greek poem predated Romanos' stressed poetry.[23][24][25]
Classical thinkers in theWestemployed classification as a way to define and assess the quality of poetry. Notably, the existing fragments ofAristotle'sPoeticsdescribe three genres of poetry—the epic, the comic, and the tragic—and develop rules to distinguish the highest-quality poetry in each genre, based on the perceived underlying purposes of the genre.[26]Lateraestheticiansidentified three major genres: epic poetry,lyric poetry, anddramatic poetry, treatingcomedyandtragedyassubgenresof dramatic poetry.[27]
Aristotle's work was influential throughout the Middle East during theIslamic Golden Age,[28]as well as in Europe during theRenaissance.[29]Later poets and aestheticians often distinguished poetry from, and defined it in opposition toprose, which they generally understood as writing with a proclivity to logical explication and a linear narrative structure.[30]
This does not imply that poetry is illogical or lacks narration, but rather that poetry is an attempt to render the beautiful or sublime without the burden of engaging the logical or narrative thought-process. EnglishRomanticpoetJohn Keatstermed this escape from logic "negative capability".[31]This "romantic" approach viewsformas a key element of successful poetry because form is abstract and distinct from the underlying notional logic. This approach remained influential into the 20th century.[32]
During the 18th and 19th centuries, there was also substantially more interaction among the various poetic traditions, in part due to the spread of Europeancolonialismand the attendant rise in global trade.[33]In addition to a boom intranslation, during the Romantic period numerous ancient works were rediscovered.[34]
Some 20th-centuryliterary theoristsrely less on the ostensible opposition of prose and poetry, instead focusing on the poet as simply one who creates using language, and poetry as what the poet creates.[35]The underlying concept of the poet ascreatoris not uncommon, and somemodernist poetsessentially do not distinguish between the creation of a poem with words, and creative acts in other media. Other modernists challenge the very attempt to define poetry as misguided.[36]
The rejection of traditional forms and structures for poetry that began in the first half of the 20th century coincided with a questioning of the purpose and meaning of traditional definitions of poetry and of distinctions between poetry and prose, particularly given examples of poetic prose and prosaic poetry. Numerous modernist poets have written in non-traditional forms or in what traditionally would have been considered prose, although their writing was generally infused with poetic diction and often with rhythm andtoneestablished bynon-metricalmeans. While there was a substantialformalistreaction within the modernist schools to the breakdown of structure, this reaction focused as much on the development of new formal structures and syntheses as on the revival of older forms and structures.[37]
Postmodernismgoes beyond modernism's emphasis on the creative role of the poet, to emphasize the role of the reader of a text (hermeneutics), and to highlight the complex cultural web within which a poem is read.[38]Today, throughout the world, poetry often incorporates poetic form and diction from other cultures and from the past, further confounding attempts at definition and classification that once made sense within a tradition such as theWestern canon.[39]
The early 21st-century poetic tradition appears to continue to strongly orient itself to earlier precursor poetic traditions such as those initiated byWhitman,Emerson, andWordsworth. The literary criticGeoffrey Hartman(1929–2016) used the phrase "the anxiety of demand" to describe the contemporary response to older poetic traditions as "being fearful that the fact no longer has a form",[40]building on a trope introduced by Emerson. Emerson had maintained that in the debate concerning poetic structure where either "form" or "fact" could predominate, that one need simply "Ask the fact for the form." This has been challenged at various levels by other literary scholars such asHarold Bloom(1930–2019), who has stated: "The generation of poets who stand together now, mature and ready to write the major American verse of the twenty-first century, may yet be seen as what Stevens called 'a great shadow's last embellishment,' the shadow being Emerson's."[41]
In the 2020s, advances inartificial intelligence(AI), particularlylarge language models, enabled the generation of poetry in specific styles and formats.[42]A 2024 study found that AI-generated poems were rated by non-expert readers as more rhythmic, beautiful, and human-like than those written by well-known human authors. This preference may stem from the relative simplicity and accessibility of AI-generated poetry, which some participants found easier to understand.[43]
Prosody is the study of the meter,rhythm, andintonationof a poem. Rhythm and meter are different, although closely related.[44]Meter is the definitive pattern established for a verse (such asiambic pentameter), while rhythm is the actual sound that results from a line of poetry. Prosody also may be used more specifically to refer to thescanningof poetic lines to show meter.[45]
The methods for creating poetic rhythm vary across languages and between poetic traditions. Languages are often described as having timing set primarily byaccents,syllables, ormoras, depending on how rhythm is established, although a language can be influenced by multiple approaches.Japaneseis amora-timed language.Latin,Catalan,French,Leonese,GalicianandSpanishare called syllable-timed languages. Stress-timed languages includeEnglish,Russianand, generally,German.[46]Varyingintonationalso affects how rhythm is perceived. Languages can rely on either pitch or tone. Some languages with a pitch accent are Vedic Sanskrit or Ancient Greek.Tonal languagesinclude Chinese, Vietnamese and mostSubsaharan languages.[47]
Metrical rhythm generally involves precise arrangements of stresses or syllables into repeated patterns calledfeetwithin a line. In Modern English verse the pattern of stresses primarily differentiate feet, so rhythm based on meter in Modern English is most often founded on the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (alone orelided).[48]In theclassical languages, on the other hand, while themetricalunits are similar,vowel lengthrather than stresses define the meter.[49]Old Englishpoetry used a metrical pattern involving varied numbers of syllables but a fixed number of strong stresses in each line.[50]
The chief device of ancientHebrewBiblical poetry, including many of thepsalms, wasparallelism, a rhetorical structure in which successive lines reflected each other in grammatical structure, sound structure, notional content, or all three. Parallelism lent itself toantiphonalorcall-and-responseperformance, which could also be reinforced byintonation. Thus, Biblical poetry relies much less on metrical feet to create rhythm, but instead creates rhythm based on much larger sound units of lines, phrases and sentences.[51]Some classical poetry forms, such asVenpaof theTamil language, had rigid grammars (to the point that they could be expressed as acontext-free grammar) which ensured a rhythm.[52]
Classical Chinese poetics, based on thetone system of Middle Chinese, recognized two kinds of tones: the level (平píng) tone and the oblique (仄zè) tones, a category consisting of the rising (上sháng) tone, the departing (去qù) tone and the entering (入rù) tone. Certain forms of poetry placed constraints on which syllables were required to be level and which oblique.
The formal patterns of meter used in Modern English verse to create rhythm no longer dominate contemporary English poetry. In the case offree verse, rhythm is often organized based on looser units ofcadencerather than a regular meter.Robinson Jeffers,Marianne Moore, andWilliam Carlos Williamsare three notable poets who reject the idea that regular accentual meter is critical to English poetry.[53]Jeffers experimented withsprung rhythmas an alternative to accentual rhythm.[54]
In the Western poetic tradition, meters are customarily grouped according to a characteristicmetrical footand the number of feet per line.[56]The number of metrical feet in a line are described using Greek terminology:tetrameterfor four feet andhexameterfor six feet, for example.[57]Thus, "iambic pentameter" is a meter comprising five feet per line, in which the predominant kind of foot is the "iamb". This metric system originated in ancientGreek poetry, and was used by poets such asPindarandSappho, and by the greattragediansofAthens. Similarly, "dactylic hexameter", comprises six feet per line, of which the dominant kind of foot is the "dactyl". Dactylic hexameter was the traditional meter of Greekepic poetry, the earliest extant examples of which are the works ofHomerandHesiod.[58]Iambic pentameter and dactylic hexameter were later used by a number of poets, includingWilliam ShakespeareandHenry Wadsworth Longfellow, respectively.[59]The most common metrical feet in English are:[60]
There are a wide range of names for other types of feet, right up to achoriamb, a four syllable metric foot with a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables and closing with a stressed syllable. The choriamb is derived from some ancientGreekandLatin poetry.[58]Languages which usevowel lengthorintonationrather than or in addition to syllabic accents in determining meter, such asOttoman TurkishorVedic, often have concepts similar to the iamb and dactyl to describe common combinations of long and short sounds.[62]
Each of these types of feet has a certain "feel," whether alone or in combination with other feet. The iamb, for example, is the most natural form of rhythm in the English language, and generally produces a subtle but stable verse.[63]Scanning meter can often show the basic or fundamental pattern underlying a verse, but does not show the varying degrees ofstress, as well as the differing pitches andlengthsof syllables.[64]
There is debate over how useful a multiplicity of different "feet" is in describing meter. For example,Robert Pinskyhas argued that while dactyls are important in classical verse, English dactylic verse uses dactyls very irregularly and can be better described based on patterns of iambs and anapests, feet which he considers natural to the language.[65]Actual rhythm is significantly more complex than the basic scanned meter described above, and many scholars have sought to develop systems that would scan such complexity.Vladimir Nabokovnoted that overlaid on top of the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse was a separate pattern of accents resulting from the natural pitch of the spoken words, and suggested that the term "scud" be used to distinguish an unaccented stress from an accented stress.[66]
Sanskrit poetry is organized according tochhandas, which are manifold and continue to influence several South Asian languages' poetry.
Different traditions and genres of poetry tend to use different meters, ranging from the Shakespeareaniambic pentameterand the Homericdactylic hexameterto theanapestic tetrameterused in many nursery rhymes. However, a number of variations to the established meter are common, both to provide emphasis or attention to a given foot or line and to avoid boring repetition. For example, the stress in a foot may be inverted, acaesura(or pause) may be added (sometimes in place of a foot or stress), or the final foot in a line may be given afeminine endingto soften it or be replaced by aspondeeto emphasize it and create a hard stop. Some patterns (such as iambic pentameter) tend to be fairly regular, while other patterns, such as dactylic hexameter, tend to be highly irregular.[67]Regularity can vary between language. In addition, different patterns often develop distinctively in different languages, so that, for example,iambic tetrameterin Russian will generally reflect a regularity in the use of accents to reinforce the meter, which does not occur, or occurs to a much lesser extent, in English.[68]
Some common metrical patterns, with notable examples of poets and poems who use them, include:
Rhyme, alliteration, assonance andconsonanceare ways of creating repetitive patterns of sound. They may be used as an independent structural element in a poem, to reinforce rhythmic patterns, or as an ornamental element.[74]They can also carry a meaning separate from the repetitive sound patterns created. For example,Chaucerused heavy alliteration to mock Old English verse and to paint a character as archaic.[75]
Rhyme consists of identical ("hard-rhyme") or similar ("soft-rhyme") sounds placed at the ends of lines or at locations within lines ("internal rhyme"). Languages vary in the richness of their rhyming structures; Italian, for example, has a rich rhyming structure permitting maintenance of a limited set of rhymes throughout a lengthy poem. The richness results from word endings that follow regular forms. English, with its irregular word endings adopted from other languages, is less rich in rhyme.[76]The degree of richness of a language's rhyming structures plays a substantial role in determining what poetic forms are commonly used in that language.[77]
Alliteration is the repetition of letters or letter-sounds at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals; or the recurrence of the same letter in accented parts of words. Alliteration and assonance played a key role in structuring early Germanic, Norse and Old English forms of poetry. The alliterative patterns of early Germanic poetry interweave meter and alliteration as a key part of their structure, so that the metrical pattern determines when the listener expects instances of alliteration to occur. This can be compared to an ornamental use of alliteration in most Modern European poetry, where alliterative patterns are not formal or carried through full stanzas. Alliteration is particularly useful in languages with less rich rhyming structures.
Assonance, where the use of similar vowel sounds within a word rather than similar sounds at the beginning or end of a word, was widely used inskaldicpoetry but goes back to the Homeric epic.[78]Because verbs carry much of the pitch in the English language, assonance can loosely evoke the tonal elements of Chinese poetry and so is useful in translating Chinese poetry.[79]Consonance occurs where a consonant sound is repeated throughout a sentence without putting the sound only at the front of a word. Consonance provokes a more subtle effect than alliteration and so is less useful as a structural element.[77]
In many languages, including Arabic and modern European languages, poets use rhyme in set patterns as a structural element for specific poetic forms, such asballads,sonnetsandrhyming couplets. However, the use of structural rhyme is not universal even within the European tradition. Much modern poetry avoids traditionalrhyme schemes. Classical Greek and Latin poetry did not use rhyme.[80]Rhyme entered European poetry in theHigh Middle Ages, due to the influence of theArabic languageinAl Andalus.[81]Arabic language poets used rhyme extensively not only with the development of literary Arabic in thesixth century, but also with the much older oral poetry, as in their long, rhymingqasidas.[82]Some rhyming schemes have become associated with a specific language, culture or period, while other rhyming schemes have achieved use across languages, cultures or time periods. Some forms of poetry carry a consistent and well-defined rhyming scheme, such as thechant royalor therubaiyat, while other poetic forms have variable rhyme schemes.[83]
Most rhyme schemes are described using letters that correspond to sets of rhymes, so if the first, second and fourth lines of a quatrain rhyme with each other and the third line do not rhyme, the quatrain is said to have an AA BArhyme scheme. This rhyme scheme is the one used, for example, in the rubaiyat form.[84]Similarly, an A BB A quatrain (what is known as "enclosed rhyme") is used in such forms as thePetrarchan sonnet.[85]Some types of more complicated rhyming schemes have developed names of their own, separate from the "a-bc" convention, such as theottava rimaandterza rima.[86]The types and use of differing rhyming schemes are discussed further in themain article.
Poetic form is more flexible in modernist and post-modernist poetry and continues to be less structured than in previous literary eras. Many modern poets eschew recognizable structures or forms and write infree verse. Free verse is, however, not "formless" but composed of a series of more subtle, more flexible prosodic elements.[87]Thus poetry remains, in all its styles, distinguished from prose by form;[88]some regard for basic formal structures of poetry will be found in all varieties of free verse, however much such structures may appear to have been ignored.[89]Similarly, in the best poetry written in classic styles there will be departures from strict form for emphasis or effect.[90]
Among major structural elements used in poetry are the line, thestanzaorverse paragraph, and larger combinations of stanzas or lines such ascantos. Also sometimes used are broader visual presentations of words andcalligraphy. These basic units of poetic form are often combined into larger structures, calledpoetic formsor poetic modes (see the following section), as in thesonnet.
Poetry is often separated into lines on a page, in a process known aslineation. These lines may be based on the number of metrical feet or may emphasize a rhyming pattern at the ends of lines. Lines may serve other functions, particularly where the poem is not written in a formal metrical pattern. Lines can separate, compare or contrast thoughts expressed in different units, or can highlight a change in tone.[91]See the article online breaksfor information about the division between lines.
Lines of poems are often organized intostanzas, which are denominated by the number of lines included. Thus a collection of two lines is acouplet(ordistich), three lines atriplet(ortercet), four lines aquatrain, and so on. These lines may or may not relate to each other by rhyme or rhythm. For example, a couplet may be two lines with identical meters which rhyme or two lines held together by a common meter alone.[92]
Other poems may be organized intoverse paragraphs, in which regular rhymes with established rhythms are not used, but the poetic tone is instead established by a collection of rhythms, alliterations, and rhymes established in paragraph form.[93]Many medieval poems were written in verse paragraphs, even where regular rhymes and rhythms were used.[94]
In many forms of poetry, stanzas are interlocking, so that the rhyming scheme or other structural elements of one stanza determine those of succeeding stanzas. Examples of such interlocking stanzas include, for example, theghazaland thevillanelle, where a refrain (or, in the case of the villanelle, refrains) is established in the first stanza which then repeats in subsequent stanzas. Related to the use of interlocking stanzas is their use to separate thematic parts of a poem. For example, thestrophe,antistropheandepodeof the ode form are often separated into one or more stanzas.[95]
In some cases, particularly lengthier formal poetry such as some forms of epic poetry, stanzas themselves are constructed according to strict rules and then combined. Inskaldicpoetry, thedróttkvættstanza had eight lines, each having three "lifts" produced with alliteration or assonance. In addition to two or three alliterations, the odd-numbered lines had partial rhyme of consonants with dissimilar vowels, not necessarily at the beginning of the word; the even lines contained internal rhyme in set syllables (not necessarily at the end of the word). Each half-line had exactly six syllables, and each line ended in a trochee. The arrangement of dróttkvætts followed far less rigid rules than the construction of the individual dróttkvætts.[96]
Even before the advent of printing, the visual appearance of poetry often added meaning or depth.Acrosticpoems conveyed meanings in the initial letters of lines or in letters at other specific places in a poem.[99]InArabic,HebrewandChinese poetry, the visual presentation of finelycalligraphedpoems has played an important part in the overall effect of many poems.[100]
With the advent ofprinting, poets gained greater control over the mass-produced visual presentations of their work. Visual elements have become an important part of the poet's toolbox, and many poets have sought to use visual presentation for a wide range of purposes. SomeModernistpoets have made the placement of individual lines or groups of lines on the page an integral part of the poem's composition. At times, this complements the poem'srhythmthrough visualcaesurasof various lengths, or createsjuxtapositionsso as to accentuate meaning,ambiguityorirony, or simply to create an aesthetically pleasing form. In its most extreme form, this can lead toconcrete poetryorasemic writing.[101][102]
Poetic diction treats the manner in which language is used, and refers not only to the sound but also to the underlying meaning and its interaction with sound and form.[103]Many languages and poetic forms have very specific poetic dictions, to the point where distinctgrammarsanddialectsare used specifically for poetry.[104][105]Registersin poetry can range from strict employment of ordinary speech patterns, as favoured in much late-20th-centuryprosody,[106]through to highly ornate uses of language, as in medieval and Renaissance poetry.[107]
Poetic diction can includerhetorical devicessuch assimileandmetaphor, as well as tones of voice, such asirony.Aristotlewrote in thePoeticsthat "the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor."[108]Since the rise ofModernism, some poets have opted for a poetic diction that de-emphasizes rhetorical devices, attempting instead the direct presentation of things and experiences and the exploration oftone.[109]On the other hand,Surrealistshave pushed rhetorical devices to their limits, making frequent use ofcatachresis.[110]
Allegoricalstories are central to the poetic diction of many cultures, and were prominent in the West during classical times, thelate Middle Agesand theRenaissance.Aesop's Fables, repeatedly rendered in both verse and prose since first being recorded about 500 BCE, are perhaps the richest single source of allegorical poetry through the ages.[111]Other notables examples include theRoman de la Rose, a 13th-century French poem,William Langland'sPiers Ploughmanin the 14th century, andJean de la Fontaine'sFables(influenced by Aesop's) in the 17th century. Rather than being fully allegorical, however, a poem may containsymbolsorallusionsthat deepen the meaning or effect of its words without constructing a full allegory.[112]
Another element of poetic diction can be the use of vividimageryfor effect. The juxtaposition of unexpected or impossible images is, for example, a particularly strong element in surrealist poetry andhaiku.[113]Vivid images are often endowed with symbolism or metaphor. Many poetic dictions use repetitive phrases for effect, either a short phrase (such as Homer's "rosy-fingered dawn" or "the wine-dark sea") or a longerrefrain. Such repetition can add a somber tone to a poem, or can be laced with irony as the context of the words changes.[114]
Specific poetic forms have been developed by many cultures. In more developed, closed or "received" poetic forms, the rhyming scheme, meter and other elements of a poem are based on sets of rules, ranging from the relatively loose rules that govern the construction of anelegyto the highly formalized structure of theghazalorvillanelle.[115]Described below are some common forms of poetry widely used across a number of languages. Additional forms of poetry may be found in the discussions of the poetry of particular cultures or periods and in theglossary.
Among the most common forms of poetry, popular from theLate Middle Ageson, is the sonnet, which by the 13th century had become standardized as fourteen lines following a set rhyme scheme and logical structure. By the 14th century and theItalian Renaissance, the form had further crystallized under the pen ofPetrarch, whose sonnets were translated in the 16th century bySir Thomas Wyatt, who is credited with introducing the sonnet form into English literature.[116]A traditional Italian orPetrarchan sonnetfollows the rhyme schemeABBA, ABBA, CDECDE, though some variation, perhaps the most common being CDCDCD, especially within the final six lines (orsestet), is common.[117]TheEnglish (or Shakespearean) sonnetfollows the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, introducing a thirdquatrain(grouping of four lines), a finalcouplet, and a greater amount of variety in rhyme than is usually found in its Italian predecessors. By convention, sonnets in English typically useiambic pentameter, while in theRomance languages, thehendecasyllableandAlexandrineare the most widely used meters.
Sonnets of all types often make use of avolta, or "turn," a point in the poem at which an idea is turned on its head, a question is answered (or introduced), or the subject matter is further complicated. Thisvoltacan often take the form of a "but" statement contradicting or complicating the content of the earlier lines. In the Petrarchan sonnet, the turn tends to fall around the division between the first two quatrains and the sestet, while English sonnets usually place it at or near the beginning of the closing couplet.
Sonnets are particularly associated with high poetic diction, vivid imagery, and romantic love, largely due to the influence of Petrarch as well as of early English practitioners such asEdmund Spenser(who gave his name to theSpenserian sonnet),Michael Drayton, and Shakespeare, whosesonnetsare among the most famous in English poetry, with twenty being included in theOxford Book of English Verse.[118]However, the twists and turns associated with thevoltaallow for a logical flexibility applicable to many subjects.[119]Poets from the earliest centuries of the sonnet to the present have used the form to address topics related to politics (John Milton,Percy Bysshe Shelley,Claude McKay), theology (John Donne,Gerard Manley Hopkins), war (Wilfred Owen,E. E. Cummings), and gender and sexuality (Carol Ann Duffy). Further, postmodern authors such asTed BerriganandJohn Berrymanhave challenged the traditional definitions of the sonnet form, rendering entire sequences of "sonnets" that often lack rhyme, a clear logical progression, or even a consistent count of fourteen lines.
Shi(simplified Chinese:诗;traditional Chinese:詩;pinyin:shī;Wade–Giles:shih) Is the main type ofClassical Chinese poetry.[120]Within this form of poetry the most important variations are "folk song" styled verse (yuefu), "old style" verse (gushi), "modern style" verse (jintishi). In all cases, rhyming is obligatory. The Yuefu is a folk ballad or a poem written in the folk ballad style, and the number of lines and the length of the lines could be irregular. For the other variations ofshipoetry, generally either a four line (quatrain, orjueju) or else an eight-line poem is normal; either way with the even numbered lines rhyming. The line length is scanned by an according number of characters (according to the convention that one character equals one syllable), and are predominantly either five or seven characters long, with acaesurabefore the final three syllables. The lines are generally end-stopped, considered as a series of couplets, and exhibit verbal parallelism as a key poetic device.[121]The "old style" verse (Gushi) is less formally strict than thejintishi, or regulated verse, which, despite the name "new style" verse actually had its theoretical basis laid as far back asShen Yue(441–513 CE), although not considered to have reached its full development until the time ofChen Zi'ang(661–702 CE).[122]A good example of a poet known for hisGushipoems isLi Bai(701–762 CE). Among its other rules, the jintishi rules regulate the tonal variations within a poem, including the use of set patterns of thefour tonesofMiddle Chinese. The basic form of jintishi (sushi) has eight lines in four couplets, with parallelism between the lines in the second and third couplets. The couplets with parallel lines contain contrasting content but an identical grammatical relationship between words. Jintishi often have a rich poetic diction, full ofallusion, and can have a wide range of subject, including history and politics.[123][124]One of the masters of the form wasDu Fu(712–770 CE), who wrote during the Tang Dynasty (8th century).[125]
The villanelle is a nineteen-line poem made up of five triplets with a closing quatrain; the poem is characterized by having two refrains, initially used in the first and third lines of the first stanza, and then alternately used at the close of each subsequent stanza until the final quatrain, which is concluded by the two refrains. The remaining lines of the poem have an AB alternating rhyme.[126]The villanelle has been used regularly in the English language since the late 19th century by such poets asDylan Thomas,[127]W. H. Auden,[128]andElizabeth Bishop.[129]
A limerick is a poem that consists of five lines and is often humorous. Rhythm is very important in limericks for the first, second and fifth lines must have seven to ten syllables. However, the third and fourth lines only need five to seven. Lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyme with each other, and lines 3 and 4 rhyme with each other. Practitioners of the limerick includedEdward Lear,Lord Alfred Tennyson,Rudyard Kipling,Robert Louis Stevenson.[130]
Tanka is a form of unrhymedJapanese poetry, with five sections totalling 31on(phonological units identical tomorae), structured in a 5–7–5–7–7 pattern.[131]There is generally a shift in tone and subject matter between the upper 5–7–5 phrase and the lower 7–7 phrase. Tanka were written as early as theAsuka periodby such poets asKakinomoto no Hitomaro(fl.late 7th century), at a time when Japan was emerging from a period where much of its poetry followed Chinese form.[132]Tanka was originally the shorter form of Japanese formal poetry (which was generally referred to as "waka"), and was used more heavily to explore personal rather than public themes. By the tenth century, tanka had become the dominant form of Japanese poetry, to the point where the originally general termwaka("Japanese poetry") came to be used exclusively for tanka. Tanka are still widely written today.[133]
Haiku is a popular form of unrhymed Japanese poetry, which evolved in the 17th century from thehokku, or opening verse of arenku.[134]Generally written in a single vertical line, the haiku contains three sections totalling 17on(morae), structured in a 5–7–5 pattern. Traditionally, haiku contain akireji, or cutting word, usually placed at the end of one of the poem's three sections, and akigo, or season-word.[135]The most famous exponent of the haiku wasMatsuo Bashō(1644–1694). An example of his writing:[136]
Thekhlong(โคลง,[kʰlōːŋ]) is among the oldest Thai poetic forms. This is reflected in its requirements on the tone markings of certain syllables, which must be marked withmai ek(ไม้เอก,Thai pronunciation:[májèːk],◌่) ormai tho(ไม้โท,[májtʰōː],◌้). This was likely derived from when the Thai language had three tones (as opposed to today's five, a split which occurred during theAyutthaya Kingdomperiod), two of which corresponded directly to the aforementioned marks. It is usually regarded as an advanced and sophisticated poetic form.[137]
Inkhlong, a stanza (bot,บท,Thai pronunciation:[bòt]) has a number of lines (bat,บาท,Thai pronunciation:[bàːt], fromPaliandSanskritpāda), depending on the type. Thebatare subdivided into twowak(วรรค,Thai pronunciation:[wák], from Sanskritvarga).[note 2]The firstwakhas five syllables, the second has a variable number, also depending on the type, and may be optional. The type ofkhlongis named by the number ofbatin a stanza; it may also be divided into two main types:khlong suphap(โคลงสุภาพ,[kʰlōːŋsù.pʰâːp]) andkhlong dan(โคลงดั้น,[kʰlōːŋdân]). The two differ in the number of syllables in the secondwakof the finalbatand inter-stanza rhyming rules.[137]
Thekhlong si suphap(โคลงสี่สุภาพ,[kʰlōːŋsìːsù.pʰâːp]) is the most common form still currently employed. It has fourbatper stanza (sitranslates asfour). The firstwakof eachbathas five syllables. The secondwakhas two or four syllables in the first and thirdbat, two syllables in the second, and four syllables in the fourth.Mai ekis required for seven syllables andMai thois required for four, as shown below. "Dead word" syllables are allowed in place of syllables which requiremai ek, and changing the spelling of words to satisfy the criteria is usually acceptable.
Odes were first developed by poets writing in ancient Greek, such asPindar, and Latin, such asHorace. Forms of odes appear in many of the cultures that were influenced by the Greeks and Latins.[138]The ode generally has three parts: astrophe, anantistrophe, and anepode. The strophe and the antistrophe of the ode possess similar metrical structures and, depending on the tradition, similar rhyme structures. In contrast, the epode is written with a different scheme and structure. Odes have a formal poetic diction and generally deal with a serious subject. The strophe and antistrophe look at the subject from different, often conflicting, perspectives, with the epode moving to a higher level to either view or resolve the underlying issues. Odes are often intended to be recited or sung by two choruses (or individuals), with the first reciting the strophe, the second the antistrophe, and both together the epode.[139]Over time, differing forms for odes have developed with considerable variations in form and structure, but generally showing the original influence of the Pindaric or Horatian ode. One non-Western form which resembles the ode is theqasidainArabic poetry.[140]
Theghazal(alsoghazel,gazel,gazal, orgozol) is a form of poetry common inArabic,Bengali,PersianandUrdu. In classic form, theghazalhas from five to fifteen rhyming couplets that share arefrainat the end of the second line. This refrain may be of one or several syllables and is preceded by a rhyme. Each line has an identical meter and is of the same length.[141]The ghazal often reflects on a theme of unattainable love or divinity.[142]
As with other forms with a long history in many languages, many variations have been developed, including forms with a quasi-musical poetic diction inUrdu.[143]Ghazals have a classical affinity withSufism, and a number of major Sufi religious works are written in ghazal form. The relatively steady meter and the use of the refrain produce an incantatory effect, which complements Sufi mystical themes well.[144]Among the masters of the form areRumi, the celebrated 13th-centuryPersianpoet,[145]Attar, 12th century Iranian Sufi mystic poet who Rumi considered his master,[146]and their equally famous near-contemporaryHafez. Hafez uses the ghazal to expose hypocrisy and the pitfalls of worldliness, but also expertly exploits the form to express the divine depths and secular subtleties of love; creating translations that meaningfully capture such complexities of content and form is immensely challenging, but lauded attempts to do so in English includeGertrude Bell'sPoems from the Divan of Hafiz[147]andBeloved: 81 poems from Hafez(Bloodaxe Books) whose Preface addresses in detail the problematic nature of translating ghazals and whose versions (according toFatemeh Keshavarz, Roshan Institute forPersian Studies) preserve "that audacious and multilayered richness one finds in the originals".[148]Indeed, Hafez's ghazals have been the subject of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing post-fourteenth century Persian writing more than any other author.[149][150]TheWest-östlicher DiwanofJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, a collection of lyrical poems, is inspired by the Persian poet Hafez.[151][152][153]
In addition to specific forms of poems, poetry is often thought of in terms of differentgenresand subgenres. A poetic genre is generally a tradition or classification of poetry based on the subject matter, style, or other broader literary characteristics.[154]Some commentators view genres as natural forms of literature. Others view the study of genres as the study of how different works relate and refer to other works.[155]
Narrative poetry is a genre of poetry that tells astory. Broadly it subsumesepic poetry, but the term "narrative poetry" is often reserved for smaller works, generally with more appeal tohuman interest. Narrative poetry may be the oldest type of poetry. Many scholars ofHomerhave concluded that hisIliadandOdysseywere composed of compilations of shorter narrative poems that related individual episodes.
Much narrative poetry—such as Scottish and Englishballads, andBalticandSlavicheroic poems—isperformance poetrywith roots in a preliterateoral tradition. It has been speculated that some features that distinguish poetry from prose, such as meter,alliterationandkennings, once served asmemoryaids forbardswho recited traditional tales.[156]
Notable narrative poets have includedOvid,Dante,Juan Ruiz,William Langland,Chaucer,Fernando de Rojas,Luís de Camões,Shakespeare,Alexander Pope,Robert Burns,Adam Mickiewicz,Alexander Pushkin,Letitia Elizabeth Landon,Edgar Allan Poe,Alfred Tennyson, andAnne Carson.
Lyric poetry is a genre that, unlikeepicand dramatic poetry, does not attempt to tell a story but instead is of a morepersonalnature. Poems in this genre tend to be shorter, melodic, and contemplative. Rather than depictingcharactersand actions, it portrays the poet's ownfeelings,states of mind, andperceptions.[157]Notable poets in this genre includeChristine de Pizan,John Donne,Charles Baudelaire,Gerard Manley Hopkins,Antonio Machado, andEdna St. Vincent Millay.
Epic poetry is a genre of poetry, and a major form ofnarrativeliterature. This genre is often defined as lengthy poems concerning events of a heroic or important nature to the culture of the time. It recounts, in a continuous narrative, the life and works of aheroicormythologicalperson or group of persons.[158]
Examples of epic poems areHomer'sIliadandOdyssey,Virgil'sAeneid, theNibelungenlied,Luís de Camões'Os Lusíadas, theCantar de Mio Cid, theEpic of Gilgamesh, theMahabharata,Lönnrot'sKalevala,Valmiki'sRamayana,Ferdowsi'sShahnama,Nizami(or Nezami)'s Khamse (Five Books), and theEpic of King Gesar. A Sanskrit analogue to the epic poem is themahākāvya.[citation needed]
While the composition of epic poetry, and oflong poemsgenerally, became less common in the west after the early 20th century, some notable epics have continued to be written.The CantosbyEzra Pound,Helen in EgyptbyH.D., andPatersonbyWilliam Carlos Williamsare examples of modern epics.Derek Walcottwon aNobel prizein 1992 to a great extent on the basis of his epic,Omeros.[159]
Poetry can be a powerful vehicle forsatire. TheRomanshad a strong tradition of satirical poetry, often written forpoliticalpurposes. A notable example is the Roman poetJuvenal'ssatires.[160]
The same is true of the English satirical tradition.John Dryden(aTory), the firstPoet Laureate, produced in 1682Mac Flecknoe, subtitled "A Satire on the True Blue Protestant Poet, T.S." (a reference toThomas Shadwell).[161]Satirical poets outside England includePoland'sIgnacy Krasicki,Azerbaijan'sSabir,Portugal'sManuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage, and Korea'sKim Kirim, especially noted for hisGisangdo.
An elegy is a mournful, melancholy or plaintive poem, especially alamentfor the dead or afuneralsong. The term "elegy," which originally denoted a type of poetic meter (elegiacmeter), commonly describes a poem ofmourning. An elegy may also reflect something that seems to the author to be strange or mysterious. The elegy, as a reflection on a death, on a sorrow more generally, or on something mysterious, may be classified as a form of lyric poetry.[162][163]
Notable practitioners of elegiac poetry have includedPropertius,Jorge Manrique,Jan Kochanowski,Chidiock Tichborne,Edmund Spenser,Ben Jonson,John Milton,Thomas Gray,Charlotte Smith,William Cullen Bryant,Percy Bysshe Shelley,Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,Evgeny Baratynsky,Alfred Tennyson,Walt Whitman,Antonio Machado,Juan Ramón Jiménez,William Butler Yeats,Rainer Maria Rilke, andVirginia Woolf.
The fable is an ancientliterary genre, often (though not invariably) set inverse. It is a succinct story that featuresanthropomorphisedanimals,legendary creatures,plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that illustrate a moral lesson (a "moral"). Verse fables have used a variety ofmeterandrhymepatterns.[164]
Notable verse fabulists have includedAesop,Vishnu Sarma,Phaedrus,Marie de France,Robert Henryson,Biernat of Lublin,Jean de La Fontaine,Ignacy Krasicki,Félix María de Samaniego,Tomás de Iriarte,Ivan Krylov, andAmbrose Bierce.
Dramatic poetry isdramawritten inverseto be spoken or sung, and appears in varying, sometimes related forms in many cultures.Greek tragedyin verse dates to the 6th century B.C., and may have been an influence on the development of Sanskrit drama,[165]just as Indian drama in turn appears to have influenced the development of thebianwenverse dramas in China, forerunners ofChinese Opera.[166]East Asianverse dramas also include JapaneseNoh. Examples of dramatic poetry inPersian literatureincludeNizami's two famous dramatic works,Layla and MajnunandKhosrow and Shirin,Ferdowsi's tragedies such asRostam and Sohrab,Rumi'sMasnavi,Gorgani's tragedy ofVis and Ramin, andVahshi's tragedy ofFarhad. American poets of 20th century revive dramatic poetry, includingEzra Poundin "Sestina: Altaforte,"[167]T.S. Eliotwith "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".[168][169]
Speculative poetry, also known as fantastic poetry (of which weird or macabre poetry is a major sub-classification), is a poetic genre which deals thematically with subjects which are "beyond reality", whether viaextrapolationas inscience fictionor via weird and horrific themes as inhorror fiction. Such poetry appears regularly in modern science fiction and horror fiction magazines.
Edgar Allan Poeis sometimes seen as the "father of speculative poetry".[170]Poe's most remarkable achievement in the genre was his anticipation, by three-quarters of a century, of theBig Bang theoryof theuniverse's origin, in his then much-derided 1848essay(which, due to its very speculative nature, he termed a "prose poem"),Eureka: A Prose Poem.[171][172]
Prose poetry is a hybrid genre that shows attributes of both prose and poetry. It may be indistinguishable from themicro-story(a.k.a.the "short short story", "flash fiction"). While some examples of earlier prose strike modern readers as poetic, prose poetry is commonly regarded as having originated in 19th-century France, where its practitioners includedAloysius Bertrand,Charles Baudelaire,Stéphane Mallarmé, andArthur Rimbaud.[173]
Independently of the European poetic tradition, Sanskrit prose-poetry (gadyakāvya) has existed from around the seventh century, with notable works includingKadambari.[174]
Since the late 1980s especially, prose poetry has gained increasing popularity, with entire journals, such asThe Prose Poem: An International Journal,[175]Contemporary Haibun Online,[176]andHaibun Today[177]devoted to that genre and its hybrids.Latin American poetsof the 20th century who wrote prose poems includeOctavio PazandAlejandra Pizarnik.
Light poetry, orlight verse, is poetry that attempts to be humorous. Poems considered "light" are usually brief, and can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often featureword play, includingpuns, adventurous rhyme and heavyalliteration. Although a few free verse poets have excelled at light verse outside the formal verse tradition, light verse in English usually obeys at least some formal conventions. Common forms include thelimerick, theclerihew, and thedouble dactyl.
While light poetry is sometimes condemned asdoggerel, or thought of as poetry composed casually, humor often makes a serious point in a subtle or subversive way. Many of the most renowned "serious" poets have also excelled at light verse. Notable writers of light poetry includeLewis Carroll,Ogden Nash,X. J. Kennedy,Willard R. Espy,Shel Silverstein,Gavin EwartandWendy Cope.
Slam poetry as a genre originated in 1986 inChicago,Illinois, whenMarc Kelly Smithorganized the first slam.[178][179]Slam performers comment emotively, aloud before an audience, on personal, social, or other matters. Slam focuses on the aesthetics of word play, intonation, and voice inflection. Slam poetry is often competitive, at dedicated "poetry slam" contests.[180]
Performance poetry, similar to slam in that it occurs before an audience, is a genre of poetry that may fuse a variety of disciplines in a performance of a text, such asdance,music, and other aspects ofperformance art.[181][182]
The termhappeningwas popularized by theavant-gardemovements in the 1950s and regard spontaneous, site-specific performances.[183]Language happenings, termed from thepoeticscollectiveOBJECT:PARADISEin 2018, are events which focus less on poetry as a prescriptiveliterarygenre, but more as a descriptivelinguisticact and performance, often incorporating broader forms ofperformance artwhile poetry is read or created in that moment.[184][185]
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