An introduction to language

I. English sound:
* English sound system:
- Consonants (phụ âm): 24 consonants
/p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /tʃ/ /dʒ/ /k/ /g/
/f/ /v/ /ð/ /θ/ /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/
/m/ /n/ /η/ /h/ /l/ /r/ /w/ /j/
- Vowels (nguyên âm): 20 vowels
+ Monothongs (nguyên âm đơn): 12 monothongs
/i:/ /ɪ/ /uː/ /ʊ/
/e/ /æ/ /ɜ:/ /ə/
/ɔː/ /ɒ/ /ɑ:/ /ʌ/
+ Diphthongs (nguyên âm đôi): 8 diphthongs
/eɪ/ /ɪə/ /ɔɪ/ /aɪ/
/əʊ/ /aʊ/ /eə/ /ʊə/

* Vocal tract:
- Tongue (lưỡi)
- Teeth (răng)
- Lips (môi)
- Alveolar ridge (phần lợi phía sau răng trên)
- Hard palate (ngạc cứng/vòm cứng)
- Soft palate / velum (ngạc mềm/ vòm mềm)
=> Articulators (Các bộ phận phát âm)
* Classification of consonants: 5 criteria
1. State of vocal cords (Trạng thái dây thanh): Voiced (hữu thanh),
Unvoiced/Voiceless (vô thanh)
- Voiced: /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /ʒ/, /z/, /dʒ/, /w/, /j/, /r/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /η/
- Voiceless: /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /h/
2. Place of articulation (Vị trí cấu âm)
- Bilabial (môi): /p/, /b/, /m/, /w/
- Labiodental (môi răng): /f/, /v/
- Interdental (răng): /θ/, /ð/
- Alveolar (lợi-sau răng trên): /t/, /d/, /n/, /s/, /z/, /l/, /r/
- Post-alveolar (palato alveolar): /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/
- Palatal (ngạc cứng/vòm cứng): /j/
- Velar (ngạc mềm/vòm mềm): /k/, /g/, /η/, /w/
- Glottal (thanh môn): /h/, /ʔ/
3. Central or lateral articulation (Âm giữa hoặc âm bên)
- The only lateral is /l/.
- Others are central
4. Soft palate raised or lowered (oral (âm miệng) or nasal (âm mũi))
- Oral sounds: all except /m/, /n/, /η/
- Nasal: /m/, /n/, /η/
5. Manner of articulation (Phương thức cấu âm)
- Stops (âm tắc): /p/, /b/, /m/, /t/, /d/, /n/, /k/, /g/, /η/, /ʔ/
- Fricatives (âm sát): /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/
- Affricates (âm tắc xát): /tʃ/, /dʒ/
- Approximants (âm rung): /w/, /j/ (Glides-âm lướt), /r/, /l/ (Liquids-âm lỏng)

* Classification of vowels: 4 criteria

1. Tongue position:
- Front: /i:/, /ɪ/, /e/, /æ/
- Central: /ə/, /ɜ:/, /ʌ/
- Back: /uː/, /ʊ/, /ɔː/, /ɒ/, /ɑ:/
2. Lip rounding
- Rounded: /uː/, /ʊ/, /ɔː/, /ɒ/
- Unrounded: others
3. Tongue height
- High: /i:/, /ɪ/, /uː/, /ʊ/
- Mid: /e/, /ə/, /ɜ:/, /ɔː/
- Low: /æ/, /ʌ/, /ɒ/, /ɑ:/
4. The length of vowels
- Long: /i:/, /uː/, /ɜ:/, /ɔː/, /ɑ:/
- Short: others

* Rules for English allophones (Quy tắc cho các âm vị tiếng Anh)
1. Consonants:
- /p-k-t/ Aspirated (bật) - initial (âm đầu). E.g. pop, test, kick
Exploded (nổ) - last (âm cuối)
Unaspirated after /s/ (không bật). E.g. sky, spy, still
Unexploded if followed by a stop (/p/, /b/, /m/, /t/, /d/, /n/, /k/, /g/, /η/, /ʔ/)
(không nổ). E.g. stopped, appointment
- /w-r-j-l/ partially voiceless when occurring after /p-k-t/. E.g. twin, pray, print, cry,
play
2. Vowels:
- Vowel is longest in an open syllable, less long in a syllable closed by a voiced
consonant, shortest in a syllable closed by a voiceless consonant.
(Nguyên âm dài nhất ở âm tiết mở, ngắn hơn ở âm tiết đóng bằng phụ âm hữu
thanh, ngắn nhất ở âm tiết đóng bằng phụ âm vô thanh)
E.g. sea (open-longer) – seed (voiced) – seat (voiceless-shorter); sigh – side – site;
save – safe
- Vowels are longer in stressed syllable. E.g. ability /ə’bɪlətɪ/ (longer)
- Vowels are retracted (co lại) before syllable final /l/, /r/
E.g. here, there, peel, feel

II. Morphemes and word formation

(Hình vị từ và cách thành lập từ)
* Words:
- Content words: Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
Lexical meaning: open-class words
- Function words: Conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns ‘it’ (Liên từ, giới
từ, mạo từ, đại từ ‘it’)
Grammatical meaning: (little or no semantic content (nội dung ngữ nghĩa));
closed class words

* Morphemes:
- The smallest unit of a language/meaning.
- Minimal form that cannot decomposed.
- Morphemes: content words, grammatical form
- Morphology: the study of the internal structure of words, and the rules by which
words are formed.

* Types of morphemes:
- Free morphemes: constitute (tạo thành) words by themselves.
- Bound morphemes (affixes-phụ tố): only parts of words.
E.g. understand-able (free morpheme-bound morpheme(suffix)); function-al (free
morpheme-(bound morpheme(suffix)); dis-honest (bound morpheme(prefix)-free
morpheme)
* Roots and stems:
- A root: may/may not stand alone.
- A morpheme root + 1/more affixes => a stem
- A word: a stem that cannot add more.
E.g. believe + able = believable (a stem)
Un(prefix) + believe(a root) + able(suffix) = unbelievable (a word – cannot add
more)
Un + system(a root) + atic + al + ly = unsystematically (a word); stems:
unsystematic, unsystematical, systematic, systematically

* Rules of word formations:

- Derivational morphology (Hình thái phái sinh): bound morphemes added to the
base of a new word with a new meaning is derived (suy ra) with clear semantic
(ngữ nghĩa) content.
E.g. beautify => meaning: derived words (beauty, beautification, …)
(free-bound morpheme)
- Inflectional morphology (Hình thái biến cách): bound morphemes added but
never change grammatical category(phạm trù ngữ pháp) of stem – and carry a
grammatical function(chức năng ngữ pháp) – relationships between different parts
of a sentence (tense, number, person, etc)
E.g. She stays at home.
She stayed at home.
She is staying at home.
She has stayed at home.
Inflectional (Suffixes only) Derivational (both prefixes and
suffixes)
Grammatical function Lexical function
No word class change Word class may change
Little/no meaning change Some meaning change
Often required rules of grammar Never required by rules of grammar
 Follow(theo sau) derivational Precede(đặt trước) inflectional
morphemes in word morphemes in a word
Productive Some productive, many nonproductive

* Classification of English morphemes:

* Hierachical structure of words:

- Ambiguity(tính mơ hồ): clearly shown by structurally ambiguous words (more
than one structure)(các từ mơ hồ về mặt cấu trúc.
E.g.
Un (prefix)
Adj V - forget
Adj
suffix - able

un (prefix)
unlockable lock (v)
lockable
(adj)
able (suffix)
=> not able to be locked.

un (prefix)
unlock (v)
unlockable lock (v)
able (suffix)

=> able to be unlocked

The English history teacher: Giáo viên dạy lịch sử nước Anh/ Giáo viên dạy lịch sử
là người Anh.

* Compounds:
-N+N=N
- N + Adj = Adj (headstrong)
- Adj + Adj = Adj (ice-cold, bittersweet, worldlywide)
- Adj + N = N (poorhouse)
- Adj + V = V (whitewash)
- V + N = N (pickpocket)
- V + V = V (sleepwalk)
- Meaning of compounds:
+ Literal meaning:
Sum of meaning of its parts (schoolboy)
Meaning relations between parts.
E.g. A boathouse (a house for boats); a falling star (a star that falls)
But not always, as in:
Blackboard (maybe green or white)
Redcoat
Idioms
A cathouse (nhà thổ), a looking glass, an eating apple, laughing gas, baby oil
- Seagames: How is this word formed?
Sea: free mor
Games: free mor + bound (suffix – inflectional)
=> Seagames : compounding