HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF PEDAGOGY

FOREIGN LANGUAGE SECTION

Compiled by:

NGUYEN THI BICH THUY - MA.

HoChiMinh City, 2003.

ENGLISH

For PHILOLOGY

PREFACE

The aim of this book is to help both the students of Philology faculty and those
who are interested in linguistics literature.

We would like to thank all those whose sources have been used in this book.

We are grateful too, to teachers, colleagues and students for their guidance in
the preparation of this book.

There are certainly short comings in the book we are ourselves responsible for.
We hope we will get more valuable comments and suggestions from the
concerned in order to improve the quality of the book.

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2003

Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy

TALKING ABOUT ABILITY

PRESENTATION

Read the passage below.

At the age of sixty-five, Laura Ingalls Wibder could write a series of novels for young
people based on her early experiences on the American frontier. Born in the state of
Wisconsin in 1867, she and her family were rugged pioneers seeking better farm land,
they could go by covered wagon to Missouri in 1869, then on to Kansas the next year.
They returned to Winconsin in 1871 and traveled on to Minnesota and Iowa before they
were able to settle permanently in South Dakota in 1879. Due to this constant moving
Wilder’s early education could take place in a succession of one-room schools. From age
thirteen to sixteen, she could attend school more regularly although she never graduated.
Although her novels were written many years ago, young generation loves them very
much. They can understand her life and her ideas through her stories.

Grammar questions
1. Look at these sentences and find out what verbs are used in the underlined words.

They can understand her life and her ideas through her stories.

- “At the age of 65, Laura Ingalls Wilder could write a series of novels for young

people”.

- “They traveled on to Minnesota and Iowa before they were able to settle

permanently in South Dakota in 1879”.

- “From age thirteen to sixteen she could attend school more regularly, although

she never graduated.

2. Rule: We use _____________ + __________ to talk about present ability to do

something.

We use _____________ + __________ to talk about past ability to do

something.

PRACTICE

A. Work in pairs. Ask and answer the following questions:

1. How many languages can you speak?
2. Could you speak English when you were 6?
3. Can you compose a poem?
4. Can you read a novel all day?
5. How do people communicate?
6. Can you record what you say and think?
7. Can you communicate through time? Why or why not?
- Think of a many questions as you can about communication.

B. Complete these sentences using can, can’t, could or couldn’t and the verb in brackets.

1. I am a student of Philology faculty. I ________ (compose) a poem.
2. When I was ten years old. I ________ (read) a short story in English. I learned

English when I was seven years old.

3. I don’t want to read this book. I _________(study) Chinese)
4. She ________ (drive) until she went for lessons last year.
5. My grandmother was Chinese, so she _______ (use) chopsticks.
6. My sister _______ (speak) German and French.
7. My brother ______ (talk) to foreigners when he was only six years old.
8. My father is slightly deaf. He ________ (hear) very well.

C. Jane and Joan are friends but each one always wants to be better than the other at

everything. Complete their conversation using can, could or be able to. Follow the
example.

1. Jane : I could read when I was only four years old.

Joan : Well, I could read when I was three!

2. Jane : I _____________ speak three languages.

Joan : That’s nothing! I ____________speak five languages.

3. Jane : Last week, with my savings, I ____________ buy myself a pony.

Joan : Really? Well, last week I _______________ buy a racing horse.

4. Jane : The garden of my house is so big that I _____________ walk to the end of

it.

Joan : That sounds rather small. The garden of my house is so big that I

___________ drive to the end of it in a car.

5. Jane : I _________ play the piano and the violin.

Joan : Is that all? I ____________ play the piano, the violin, the flute and the

trumpet.

6. Jane : When I was at school I ___________read a whole book in a day.

Joan : How slow. When I was at school I _________ write a whole book in a

day.

7. Jane : Last year, I got so many presents on my birthday that I ____________ fit

them all in one room.

Joan : What a shame. Last year, I got so many presents on my birthday that I

__________ fit them all in my house – I had to rent the house next door
too!

8. Jane : I’m very fit. I_________ run a mile in less than four minutes.

Joan : Well, I ___________run a mile in less than four minutes – backwards !

Language review
1. Can is used to talk about the ability to do something. As with most modal verbs,

we use can with the infinitive without to of the verb:

I can speak two languages.
The negative is cannot or can’t:

Where’s the foreign language centre of HCM city university of Pedagogy? I can’t

find it.

In questions using can, we do not use do, but we reverse the order of can and the

subject.

Can you speak Japanese?

2. The past form of can is could. The negative of could is could not (couldn’t):

When I was young, I could speak English quite well.
Before this year, I couldn’t compose any poems.
We use could to say that someone had a general ability in the past.
Could you read a novel all day?
We do not use could to talk about individual situations. For individual situations we

have to use was/were able to:

He could speak French. When we got lost in Paris he was able to ask for directions.
However, we can use the negative form of could in both general and individual

situations.

He couldn’t translate the story into English because he lost the dictionary.

3. Can and could do not have other form such as infinitives or participles. If we need

to use these forms, we must use be able to am/are able to, was/were able to, etc)
instead of can and could:

I might be able to tell you about the main branches of linguistics.

They have been able to tell about problems of syllables and morphemes in

Vietnamese.

VOCABULARY
A.

Match a term in A with a phrase in B :

A B

descriptive

grammar

1. the branch of linguistics that deals with how languages
change, what kinds of changes occur, and why they occur.

computational

linguistics

2. a linguist’s description or model of the mental grammar,
the units, structures and rules of speakers of a particular
language. The attempt to state what speakers unconsciously
know about their language.

grammar

3. the system of language, including its phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics, and lexicon. The linguistic
knowledge of a speaker of a language.

comparative

linguistics

4. a subfield of linguistics and computer science that is
concerned with computer processing of human language.

e. psycholinguistics

5. linguistic units composed of several sentences.

f. historical
linguistics

6. the branch of linguistics concerned with linguistic
performance, language acquisition, and speech production
and comprehension.

discourse

7. the branch of linguistics that deals with language change
by comparing related languages.

B. Crosswords

Here are some very small crosswords. Can you complete them? You might need to

check one or two answers in your dictionary.

Crossword 1

1 2 3

Across Down

1. The ……. of the pudding is in the
eating. (Proverb)

1. Please…….. in block capitals.

4. He’s perfect. He’s the …….. man for
the job.

2. Where one door shuts, another ……..
(Proverb)

5. I don’t like this cheese. It’s got a very
strange……..

3. Untrue.

Crossword 2

1 2 3

Across Down

1. ………… not, want not. (Proverb)

1. ……………. there’s a will, there’s a way.
(Proverb)

4. If you don’t pay your rent, your
landlord will ……… you.

2. Everything he said was nice, but of course
there was a ………. in the tail.

5. Keen and enthusiastic.

3. Come on, you’ve got to ………… into the
spirit of the occasion.

C. Word Games

Complete the spelling of the words below using the clues to help you.

not day

| G H T

noun of “see”

| G H T

heaviness

noun of “high”

| G H T

may

not dark

| G H T

not wrong

| G H T

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Reading and speaking

Pre-reading task

Answer the following question.

What branches does linguistics consist of?

Reading

LINGUISTICS: THE MAIN BRANCHES

Phonetics/phonology, syntax and semantics/pragmatics constitute the principal levels of
linguistics. Whatever branch of the subject we look at we shall inevitably find ourselves
talking about them. We use the metaphor of a tree here because this seems the best way to
capture the relationship between these core areas, collectively the “trunk”; and the
individual disciplines, or “branches”, which sprout from them. Changing the metaphor,
we could think of the core as the hub of a wheel with the various branches as the
individual spokes radiating out. There are the main ones, followed by a brief definition of
each:

sociolinguistics - the study of language and society.

stylistics - the study of language and literature.

psycholinguistics – the study of language and mind.

computational linguistics – the simulation of language by the use of computers.

comparative linguistics – the study of different languages and their respective linguistic

systems.

historical linguistics - the study of language change over time.

applied linguistics – the study of language teaching. (You will sometimes find that

stylistics and comparative linguistics are treated as sub-
branches of applied linguistics).

The branches have become more numerous over the years as the subject has grown but,
arguably, the principal developments in linguistics in recent years have been in stylistics,
sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics. As a consequence, a majority of the terms
discussed in this chapter are from these branches. The chapter begins with a short
introduction to each branch, followed by detailed entries, alphabetically arranged as
usual, on key items.

Comprehension check

A. True / False exercise: Circle T (for true) or F (for false) for each statement below.

1. When we study syntax, it means we’re studying one of the principal levels of

linguistics.

T -

2. We won’t have to talk about linguistics if we choose phonology as our major. T -

3. The branches of linguistics can be described like the metaphor of a tree.

T -

4. Another description of linguistics branches can be the hub of a wheel with the

individual spokes radiating out

T - F

5. The number of branches of linguistics hasn’t increased in recent years. T - F

B. Matching exercise

Match the definition of column A with the subject of linguistics.

A B

1. The study of language change over time.

a. applied linguistics

2. The study of language and mind

b. psycholinguistics

3. The study of language teaching

c. sociolinguistics

4. The simulation of language by the use of
computer

d. comparative linguistics

5. The study of language and literature

e. historical linguistics

6. The study of language and society

f. stylistics

7. The study of different languages and their
respective linguistic system

g. computational linguistics

What do you think?

Work in groups.

The languages that a person uses can tell us what group of society that person belongs to.
Do you agree with the idea? Support your opinion?

Listening

Listen to the following test and fill in the blanks with the missing words.

Idiom is language where the words are not used with their c _____ basic meanings.

If you go to the d ____________ once in a blue moon, you go very rarely. If you haven’t
seen someone for donkey’s years, you haven’t e____________ him for a very long time.
A f _________part of language is idiomatic. Here are some g
_____________examples.

She’s under the h____________

I got cold feet.

Translation

LINGUISTICS: A BRIEF SURVEY

Linguistics is the systematic study of language. Some people refer to it as the “science of
language” but I have avoided this description because it can be misleading. The popular
view of language is that it is regulated by precise laws which prescribe the “correct” use
of words, a little in the manner that Newtonian physics does the operation of the solar
system. But the merest acquaintance with language shows us it is not like that. Language
is notoriously slippery; words change their meaning and pronunciation form continually,
they never stay still. This fertile capacity of language for endless diversity means that any
attempt to reduce it to a set of laws is fraught with danger.

None the less, it is true to say that linguists approach language in a scientific manner.
First of all, they adopt an objective, or disinterested, stance. They have no axe to grind:
they are not concerned, like some politicians and educators, in enforcing or promoting
any “standards” of language use. Secondly, their method is empirical, that is they proceed
by observation, description and explanation. These are the three stages of linguistic
enquiry distinguished by the linguist Noam Chomsky. Linguists begin by observing the
way in which “people use language, on the basis of which they provide a description of

language use, and finally, when all the data has been analyzed, an explanation.
Explanations of language use are the stage at which linguists endeavour to establish the
underlying rules which speakers are following. It is a basic presupposition of modern
linguistics that language is rule-governed, i.e., those speakers obey an internalized set of
instructions in the way the construct and use sentences. The word “internalized” is
important here, because these rules are derived not from any kind of external authority,
like a dictionary or grammar, but from the speaker’s own intuitive knowledge, or
competence. Once the rules for particular languages have been mapped in this empirical
fashion the linguist hopes to provide a model which will explain how all languages work.
The production of this model, or universal grammar, is the pinnacle of linguistic enquiry.

\TALKING ABOUT PROBABILITY AND POSSIBILITY

PRESENTATION

Read the passage carefully

Nowadays Edgar Allan Poe may be regarded as one of the premier authors of horror
stories but he might not have received much recognition and money for his stories while
he lived. Twenty five of his greatest stories were published in a collection called “Tales of
the Grotesque and Arabesque”, which appeared in 1840, but at that time little notice could
have been taken of it. Three years later, another story, “The Gold Bug”, was published,
selling 300,000 copies, and by 1845 he had written twelve more stories, which he
published in “Tales”. But a poem “The Raven”, could bring him his greatest recognition
as a writer.

Grammar questions:

1. Underline one verb that shows possibility in the present.
2. Underline two verbs that show probability and possibility in the past.

PRACTICE

A. Rewrite these sentences using the word in brackets. Follow the example.

1. It is possible that they did all the fundamental tasks of every language (might)
They might have done all the fundamental tasks of every language.
2. Perhaps they are reading about Plato and Aristoile. (could)

_______________________________________________________

3. It is possible that they will not devote to study archeological evidence much

longer. (may not).

_______________________________________________________

4. Perhaps they are talking about the cultural differences between English and

Russian. (might).

_______________________________________________________

5. Perhaps the children forgot to think of grammatical standard. (may)

_______________________________________________________

6. Perhaps David didn’t receive the letter. (might not).

_______________________________________________________

7. It is possible that Noah Webster’s manuscript will be read tomorrow. (could).

_______________________________________________________

8. It is possible that there are no books about homonymy left (might)

_______________________________________________________

B. Complete these sentences using the correct form of the verb in brackets. Follow the

example.

1. Paul isn’t at home yet. He might be having (have) a lecture on morphology

(have).

2. I’ve lost my book about Alfred Lord Tenmyson this morning. I might (leave) it

on the train.

3. It is very cold. I think it may ____________(snow) tonight.
4. If you studied in Philology faculty, you could _____________ (know)

about the history of English poetry in the twentieth century.

5. I don’t want to cook tonight. I may ____________ (go out) for dinner.
6. The students are outside in the corridor. They could ______________ (discus)

about the last poem of W.B. Yeats.

7. Neil was very unfriendly last night. He may ______________ (be) tired.
8. Lisa is in her room. She might _______________ (study) for her exam tomorrow.

C. Complete these sentences using can or could and a suitable verb from the box.

Follow the example.

1. My last car could break down at the most difficult times.
2. Polly ______________ strange clothes sometimes.
3. It is very quiet in the country park. You_____________all day without seeing

anyone.

4. My mother was very musical. She __________________ for hours.
5. My father is getting old now, he ____________________ very well.
6. In winter, the temperature _________________________ to 2

Language preview

Probability and possibility: can, could, may, might

1. May, might and could are used to talk about the chance, or possibility, of a present

or future situation:
I may go to the conference on comparative linguistics tonight. (It is possible that I
will go).
What are you doing next year? I might join a course in English, but I’m not sure.
Where are my books? They could be on the shelf.

We can use the negatives of may and might (may not, might not) in the same way:
They are busy so they may not take part in a workshop on applied linguistics.
I feel ill. I might not have a lecture on computational linguistics tomorrow.
2. To talk about something that is possibly happening as we speak, we can use the

continuous form of may, might or could, which is made using be and the –ing form
of the verb.
Where’s Bob? He might be reading a book on linguistics in the library.
It’s a nice day. He could be sitting in the garden to compose a poem.

3. When we talk about possibility in the past we use may, might or could with have

and the past participle of the verb:

sing

wear

drop not hear

break down

walk

past participle
I said hello to Cathy but she didn’t reply. She might not have heard me.
Fiona lost her dictionary. It could have been left in class.

4. Can is used to talk about facts or something which is often true:

People can communicate with each other in many different ways.
Students of Philology Faculty can become linguists.

5. Could is used to talk about these kinds of possibility in the past.

When my friend was small, he could be very intelligent.

VOCABULARY
A. Match a term in A with a phrase in B

A B

a. International
Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA)

the comparing of morphologically different forms of a

word in a language to deduce facts about earlier stages of the
language (e.g. pairs such as please/pleasant demonstrate a
change involving front vowels in English).

b. Internal
reconstruction

2. the phonetic alphabet designed by the
International Phonetic Association to be used to represent the
sounds found in all human languages.

c. International
Phonetic Association

3. the organization founded in 1888 to further phonetic research
and develop the IPA.

d. semantics

4. the semantic function of the referent of a Noun Phrase, as
determined by its relation to the verb. e.g. agent, patient,
location, instrument, goal, source.

e. semantic role

5. the study of the meaning of words and sentences.

B. Complete each sentence with the opposite of the word in brackets. Choose from one

of the following words. Use each word once only.

cry

decrease

end

export

fill

forget

hate

lend

lengthen

miss

pass

receive

reject

set

shut

win

1. Do you think he’ll .............................. your offer? (ACCEPT)

2. He really didn’t want to....................... so much money. (BORROW)

3. They saw him ............................................. his glass again. (EMPTY)

4. I’m sure he’s going to .................................his driving test. (FALL)

5. How many times did she ............................ the target? (HIT)

6. Do you need a license to .............................these goods? (IMPORT)

7. I think sales will .................................. in the next year. (INCREASE)

8. They all began to ............................. when they heard what had happened.

(LAUGH)

9. How much money did you ......................... playing cards? (LOSE)

10. Do you really ............................ going to concerts so much? (LOVE)

11. What time do the shops .............................? (OPEN)

12. You must try to............................... what happened. (REMEMBER)

13. They saw the sun ......................... in the distance. (RISE)

14. We hope to.................................... the letter tomorrow. (SEND)

15. She decided to .............................. her skirt. (SHORTEN)

16. The meeting didn’t ...................... until 6 o’clock. (START)

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Reading and speaking

Pre-reading task:

Work in pairs to discuss the below questions

1. Language is the most effective way for communicating. Discuss. Do you agree

with the idea?

2. In conversation one sometimes doesn’t understand much or misunderstand what

the addresser means. What do you think are the reasons?

Reading

STYLISTICS

Stylistics is concerned with using the methodology of linguistics to study the concept of
“style” in language. Every time we use language we necessarily adopt a style of some
sorts: we make a selection from a range of syntactic and lexical possibilities according to
the purpose of the communication. The study of style has traditionally been the preserve
of literary criticism, but since the rise of linguistics there has been a more systematic
attempt to provide a “linguistic” foundation for literary effects, as well as a concern to
broaden the scope of enquiry to include non-literary texts: recipes, car manuals, sermons,
and so forth.

In many respects stylistics is a twentieth-century development of the classical study of
rhetoric. The interest really began with the publication in 1909 because of a work on
French stylistics by the linguist Bally, a pupil of Ferdinand de Saussure. Other European
linguists were gradually attracted to the subject, and in the ensuing decades its influence
spread.

There are various sub-branches of stylistics, reflecting the diversity of approaches which
exist within the field itself. General stylistics is used as a cover term to refer to the
analyses of nonliterary varieties of language. The main focus of such studies is with
establishing principles which can account for the choices made by individuals and social
groups in their use of language. The problem for linguists is to establish a principled
framework which can cope with the almost infinite acts of communication which occur
between individuals, or groups. Once of the most influential models has been that of
Roman Jakobson, the Swedish linguist, presented at a conference at Indiana University in
1958. Despite the brevity of Jakobson’s paper, most discussions of the factors affecting
style have taken his model, which seeks to match six general functions of language to
their corresponding situational partners. The idea underlying this model is that all
language is oriented in some way towards one or more features of the communicative
situation. Language which is oriented towards the situational context, for example, is
likely to be referential in nature (a discussion of the weather will contain lots of
references to the elements), whilst language directed at the addressee, is likely to be
cognitive, i.e. persuasive, interrogative, or directive. The other functions can be paired as
below:

Phatic language (greetings, leave-takings, and so on) – oriented towards the contact or
channel of communication.

Emotive language (the expression of feelings and attitudes) – oriented towards the
addresser.

Metalingual language (language about language, e.g. requests for clarification, I don’t
understand/can’t read that) – oriented towards the code.

Poetic language (verbal play, e.g. figurative devices, humour, and so on) – oriented
towards the message.

Comprehension check

A. The answers to some questions are given as follows. Write down the question.

1909 5.

Referential

language

Bally 6. Cognitive

language

3. Roman Jakolson

7. Emotive language.

4. Six general functions.

Answer the following questions:

1. What have the linguists attempted to do since the rise of linguistics?

2. What is “general stylistics”?

3. How is language oriented in communicative situations?

What do you think?

Work in groups:

Tell some common types of figures of speech.

Listening

Listen to the dialog and complete the profile of Patty.

PROFILE

Name : _______________________________________

Nationality : ___________________________________

Marital status : _________________________________

Home town : __________________________________

Qualifications : ________________________________

Occupation :___________________________________

Languages spoken : _____________________________

Translation

Translate the text into Vietnamese.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTICS

Early history

Linguistics, in the sense in which I have been describing it, first developed as a subject in
its own right in the late eighteenth century. Before then, language in the western world
had been the interest largely of philosophers and prescriptive grammarians – people
concerned to enforce particular language forms as “correct”. But in 1786, an Englishman,
Sir William Jones, delivered a paper demonstrating that the ancient Indian language, San-
skirt, bore striking structural similarities to Greek, Celtic, Latin and Germanic. The
conclusion which he drew was that all of these languages must have sprung from a
common source. So important was this discovery that for the next hundred years scholars
became preoccupied with tracing the original ancestor from which all these languages
were descended. Comparative linguistics became the dominant branch of linguistic
enquiry. This entailed a detailed comparison of different languages in terms of their
phonology, morphology, and lexis, with the aim of internally reconstructing the lost
original. As a result of these painstaking enquiries, we now have an evolutionary map of
languages in the western world which shows their individual lineage and their
relationship to the hypothetical ancestor, Indo-European.

TALKING ABOUT NECESSITY AND OBLIGATION

PRESENTATION

Read the passage carefully

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812. When he was eleven his father fell into
debt? Because he could not pay off his debt, he and his family were sent to a debtor’s
prison to work. Charles Dickens himself had to work in a factory washing bottles to earn
6 shillings a week. People looked down on his family and him. Dickens was unhappy and
ashamed of this period of his life. His loss of dignity was later reflected in his book
“David Copperfield”, in which the main character also had to work in a factory washing
bottles as he did.

Grammar question

1. Complete the sentence:

Charles Dicken ___________ in a factory washing bottles to earn 6 shillings a
week.

2. Which verb in the sentence talks about Dicken’s obligation? What is its present

form?

PRACTICE

A. Complete these sentences using the correct form of have to. Follow the example.

1. When the telephone rang he had to stop composing the poem to answer it.
2. It expects I _______________ get a part-time job next year.
3. Our television broke down last week, so we _______________ buy a new one.
4. My parents have been on holiday for two weeks, so I

_____________

look

after their dog.

5. If you fail the exam, you ______________sit it again next year.
6. You ______________ stay in bed for a week until you feel better.
7. Since Harold got his new job, he ______________ work every weekend.
8. I____________ wait for an hour in the supermarket last week.

B. Complete these sentences using must or have to. Follow the example.

1. My dictionary was stolen, so I have to borrow another one from the library.
2. The law says that everyone____________ wear a seat belt when they are traveling

by car.

3. You _________ give me this book as soon as you finish reading.
4. I like to sleep late, but I ________

start work at 8 am every morning.

5. I don’t like my hair. I _____________have it cut soon.
6. The doctor says I

_________________stay in bed today.

7. You ________be back home before it gets dark or I will be worried.
8. I feel terrible. I _____________ sit down.

Language review

1. We use must and have to talk about something which is necessary. Must is more

personal than have to. We use must when the speaker feels the necessity or obligation
himself:
I must study hard. I really want to pass this exam.

2. We use have to when the necessity or obligation comes from a rule or situation we

have no control over:
I have to work late tonight. My teacher has told me to.

3. As must does not have any other forms such as an infinitive or participles, we use have

to when these forms are needed:
The translation was so difficult that he had to use different dictionaries.
If I don’t finish my report today I might have to work at the weekend.
They have so little vocabulary they have had to use a dictionary all the time.

VOCABULARY
A.

Match a term in A with a phrase in B

A B

a. communication

1. The knowledge of a language represented by the
mental grammar which accounts for speakers’ linguistic
creativity. For the most part, linguistic competence is
unconscious knowledge.

b. linguistic theory

2. The use of linguistic competence in the production and
comprehension of language; behavior as distinguished
from knowledge.

c. definite

3. The principles which characterize all human
languages, the discovery of which is the goal of modern
linguistics.

d. linguistic
performance

4. A system for conveying information. Language is a
linguistic system of communication; there are also non-
linguistic systems of human communication as well as
systems used by other species.

e. linguistic
competence

5. Referring to a unique object insofar as the speaker and
listener are concerned.

B. By matching the numbers with the letters find the phrasal verbs with the meanings

given.

BREAK

CARRY

JOIN

FIND

TURN

CALL

GET

COME

PASS

OFF

OVER

AWAY

ACROSS

WITH

INTO

OUT

Use the phrasal verbs to complete each of these sentences:

1. Does this jacket ......................................... my trousers?

2. I wish I could ............................................. the truth.

3. If you ......................................................... late for work, you’re going to get into

trouble. (2 phrasal verbs here).

4. We had to ................................................. our holiday because my wife was

taken into hospital the day before out intended departure.

5. While I was tidying up, I ............................ these old photos.

6. The burglar ............................................... the house while the owner was away

on holiday.

7. Is this a private matter or can anyone ............................?

ARRIVE 5

CANCEL

CONTINUE 2

DIE

DISCOVER 4

ENTER BY FORCE

FIND BY CHANCE

MATCH

PARTICIPATE 3

RECOVER

8. She’s lived alone since her husband................................

9. It’s taken her a long time to ........................................... the tragedy.

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Reading and speaking

Pre reading task

Look up the following words in your dictionary

- dialectology (n)
- philosophy (n)
- concern (n)
- utterance (n)

- discourse (n)
- ethnomethodology (n)
- variable (n)

Reading

SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Sociolinguistics, or the study of language in relation to society, is a relative newcomer to
the linguistic fold. It wasn’t until the early 1960s, largely as a result of William Labov’s
work in America, and Peter Trudgill’s in Britain, that it developed into a recognized
branch of linguistics. Before then there had been a long tradition of studying dialects,
usually in remote rural areas, as part of language surveys, but with an agenda largely
dictated by concerns to record and preserve historical features of the language. This kind
of dialectology was inherently conservative and was part of larger, comparative language
studies pursued under the discipline of philology. Labov was one of the first linguists to
turn his attention away from rural, to urban, subjects, in an attempt to analyze the
contemporary features of American speech.

Sociolinguistics is in many ways a blend of sociology and linguistics. It is sometimes
referred to as the “sociology of language”, although that label suggests a greater concern
with sociological rather than linguistic explanations, whereas sociolinguists are
principally concerned with language, or, to be more precise, with what Dell Hymes
crucially calls “socially constituted” language: with the way language is constructed by,
and in turn helps to construct, society. Its popularity has grown very much as a reaction to
the more “armchair” methods of generative linguists of the Chomskyan school.

Generative linguists examine “idealized” samples of speech in which utterances are
complete, in a standard form of the language, and free from performance errors.

The standard way in which sociolinguists investigate such use is by random sampling of
the population. In classic cases, like those undertaken in New York by Labov, or in
Norwich by Trudgill, a number of linguistic variables are selected, such as “r” (variably
pronounced according to where it occurs in a word) or “ng” (variably pronounced /n/ or
/ŋ/). Sections of the population, known as informants, are then tested to see the frequency
with which they produce particular variants. The results are then set against social indices
which group informants into classes, based on factors such as education, money,
occupation, and so forth. On the basis of such data it is possible to chart the spread of
innovations in accent and dialect regionally. One complicating factor, however, is that
people do not consistently produce a particular accent or dialect feature. They vary their
speech according to the formality or informality of the occasion. So tests have to take into
account stylistic factors as well as social ones.

A major object of Labovian-type sociolinguistics is to understand how and why languages
change. At its core is a very precise, empirical methodology, and its procedures are based
on established ways of working in the social sciences. Since these classic studies,
however, changes in methods of enquiry have altered the way in which sociolinguists
gather their material. In particular, procedures using participant observation, in which
observers immerse themselves in communities, rather than relying on random sampling
for the collection of data, have yielded more refined accounts of linguistic behavior.

At its outer edges sociolinguistics merges into the related area of stylistics, and in
particular, discourse analysis. Two sub-branches, ethnomethodology, and the ethnography
of communication, are concerned with style in its contextual and communicative
dimension. The first is devoted to analyzing conversation and the rules, or principles,
which govern turn-taking. Knowing when to speak and what counts as reply, as opposed
to an interruption, are important socializing factors in language use. The second is
concerned, on a much broader scale, with the effect of social and cultural variables on
what is loosely termed, “linguistic behavior”. Knowing whether to call someone “Mr.
Jones”, “Jimmy”, or “Jones”, for example, depends on a number of factors to do with the
situational context, the nature of our relationship and the cultural assumptions within
which we are speaking. “Terms of address”, as they are known, are a complex area of
study, not least because customs differ between countries and nationalities.

Comprehension check

Work in pairs: Ask and answer the questions

1. How had dialects been studied before William Labov’s and Peter Trugill’s work?
2. What did Labov do in the early 1960s?
3. In what way are sociolinguists principally concerned with language?
4. What do generative linguists examine?

5. What does ethnomethodology study?
6. What does ethnography study?

What do you think?

Talk about advantages of using English as a foreign language in Vietnamese education.

Writing

Argue for or against studying in a foreign country. Here are some possible matters:

1. new language
2. new people; new culture
3. educational opportunities
4. job
5. being away from problems at home

Here are some difficulties:

1. being away from family and friends
2. being away from familiar places
3. being alone; no one to help
4. difficult language; unfamiliar educational system
5. expensive life

Add some of your own reasons. Be sure to make one point of view stronger than the
other. Make an outline before you write.

Listening

Listen to the following text and fill in the blanks with the missing words.

STRUCTURALISM AND MORPHOLOGY

1. When structuralism was in its prime, especially between c_______ and 1960, the

study of morphology occupied centre stage. Many major structuralists investigated
d______________ in the theory of word-structure (Bloomfield; Harris; Hockett…).
Nida’s course-book entitled Morphology, which was published e ___________

codified structuralist theory and f_______________

introduced

generations of linguists to the descriptive analysis of words.

The structuralists g __________ that words may have intricate internal structures.

Traditional linguistics had treated the word as the basic h ___________

grammatical theory and lexicography, whereas. American structuralists showed that
words are analyzable in terms of morphemes. These are the smallest units of meaning and
grammatical function.

2. In structuralism grammar covers both morphology and syntax, whereas in

generative linguistics the term i __________

is employed in a much wider sense. It

covers not only morphology and syntax, but also semantics, lexicon and phonology.
Hence, there are rules of grammar in every linguistic module. Phonological rules,
morphological rules, syntactic rules and semantic rules are all regarded as rules of
grammar.

3. Morphology is the study and j_____________of word structure. It also studies

word formation.

Translation

FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE

Buy if we were to award the credit for turning linguistics from the intensively narrow
scholastic position it occupied in the nineteenth century into the broad-based intellectual
discipline it is today there would be little disagreement in awarding it to the Swiss linguist
Ferdinand de Saussure, himself a nineteenth century linguist, who had the vision to see a
larger role for his subject. Saussure, sometimes called “the father of modern linguistics”,
never actually published any major work on the subject. But, after his death, his students
collected together his lecture notes and published them with the title Cours de linguistique
générale. Despite its slimness it had, and continues to have, a seminal influence on
linguistics. Saussure was instrumental in the development of structural linguistics. He
likened language to a game of chess in which each piece is defined by both its situation
on the board and its relationship with the other pieces. Thus a bishop operating on the
white squares has considerably more freedom of manoeuvre if its opposite number has
been taken, and a pawn occupying a central square is more powerful if supported by other
pawns. And just as games of chess, though all following the same rules, are all different,
so languages can be said to vary in a similarly principled manner.

Saussurean linguistics approaches language as a self-enclosed system. Words are related
to each other as signs and can be strung together in various combinations to form
sentences. The extent of a word’s capacity to form sentences is seen as the sum of its
potential to combine with, or substitute for, others. Saussure imagined sentences as
having two axes on which items could be sorted in these ways. The axis of substitution he
termed paradigmatic, and that of combination he termed syntacmatic.

TALING ABOUT PURPOSE : IN ORDER TO, SO AS TO

PRESENTATION
Read the passage carefully.
William Shakespeare was the son of an English merchant. He was born in 1564 at
Stratford upon Aron. When he was 21, he left for London in order to find an opportunity
of showing his ability as an actor. He became a member of one of the chief acting
companies of the day, then. He shortly began writing plays for this company and in a few
years became famous and prosperous.
Shakespeare’s experience as an actor must have helped him a great deal to compose his
plays. His knowledge of the stage, combined with his poetical genius and deep insight
into the life and thoughts of his time, gave his plays a character of unsurpassed realism.

Grammar questions

Answer the following questions briefly

Why did Shakespeare leave for London?

________________________________

What could his experience as an actor help him to do?

________________________________

Which words are used to express purpose?

________________________________

PRACTICE
A. Use the phrases in the box to make complete sentences. Follow the example.

1 They bought this book

in order to

understand the relationship
between language and social
activities in Vietnam

2 He studied hard

in order not to

know more about Professors
Charles Fries and Robert Lado

3 They stopped discussing the
notion

so as to

check the spelling.

4 They read a text about “Applied
linguistics” in sociolinguistics

so as not to

show them the way.

5 She wrote the number down

read

text

about

sociolinguistics

6 They read a text about

sociolinguistics

pass

his

exams

7 He drew a map

forget it.

8 She used a dictionary

have a rest

1. They bought this book in order to/so as to read a text about sociolinguistics.

2. ______________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

5. ______________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

6. ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

7. ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

8. ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

B. Complete these sentences by choosing in order to or so as to and a suitable reason.

Use the words in the brackets to help you. Follow the example.

1. I do exercise in order to keep myself fit (keep/fit)
2. I read this book every day __________________ know/written text.
3. Diane went to the library _________________________ (get/book)
4. It was hot so he took off his jacket _________________ (be/comfortable)
5. Jo borrowed these books _____________________(misunderstand the

development of ethnic minority languages in Vietnam from 1945)

6. I joined this course ______________(understand/comparative linguistics)
7. They played their music quietly ________________ (disturb/neighbours)
8. She went to college __________________________ (get/degree)

C. Jim is seven years old and he asks his mum a lot of questions. Complete her

answers using in order to/so as to and a suitable reason. Use the words in
brackets to help you. Follow the example.

1 Jim : Why do people go sunbathing ?

(get/tan)

Mum : They go sunbathing so as to

get a tan.

2 Jim : Why do people eat fast food ? (save

money)

Mum : _______________________

_____________________

3 Jim : Why did Phil buy a boat ? (go

sailing)

Mum :_______________________

______________________

4 Jim : Why did Carrie go to teacher training

college? (become / teacher)

Mum : _______________________

_____________________

5 Jim : Why did Oliver take an

English course ? (learn
English)

6 Jim : Why did dad go on a diet? (lose

weight)

Mum : _______________________

Mum : _____________________

_____________________

7 Jim : Why should people stop

smoking ? (not/become ill)

Mum : _____________________

_____________________

8 Jim : Why do people go on holiday ?

(relax)

Mum : _______________________

_____________________

Language review

1. We use in order to and so as to connect two clauses which explain why someone

does something:

He wanted to be a journalist so as to be famous.
He wanted to be famous in order to be rich.
2. We use in order not to and so as not to in negative sentences.
He used body language so as not to talk much.
He kept calm in order not to produce slips of the tongue.

VOCABULARY
A. Match a term in A with a phrase in B

a. acoustic signal

1. Pertaining to physical aspects of sound.

b. agreement

2. The study of the physical properties of speech sounds.

c. acoustic

3. The sound waves produced by any sound source,
including speech.

d. allophones

4. A relationship between words of a sentence in which the
choice of one restricts the choice of the other (e.g. the
choice of a pronoun is restricted by the person, number, and
gender of its antecedent). See also subject verb agreement.

e. acoustic phonetics

Predictable phonetic variants of phonemes (e.g. [p]

and [p’] of the phoneme /p/ in English).

B. Which of the words on the right does not rhyme with the word on the left ?

1. alone
2. buys
3. clear
4. could
5. goes

phone

advise

bear

shown

price

beer

thrown

prize

dear

town

tries

fear

6. knees
7. knew
8. made
9. most

10. route

good

chose

niece

grew

afraid

cost

boot

mood

lose

peas

sew

paid

post

foot

should

shows

please

threw

played

roast

shoot

wood

toes

trees

through

said

toast

suit

Colloquial English and Slang

The kind of informal English which is normal in ordinary conversation but is not
considered acceptable in more formal language is called “colloquial”. “Slang” is even
more informal language and consists mainly of particular words and phrases used
principally by one group of people, e.g. young children, teenagers, students, professional
people, working people etc. (The line between colloquial and slang words is not at all
clear and many words considered colloquial by some people would be considered slang
by others). After each conversation below, rewrite the conversation with the colloquial or
slang item in a more formal style.

E.g. Alan : Do you fancy going to the pictures tonight ?

Jill : Great. Hang on, though. There’s something good on telly.

Answer :

Alan : Would you like to go to the cinema this evening ?

Jill : Wonderful. But wait. There’s a good program on television.

1. Peter : Lend us a few quid. I’m broke.

Tony : Here’s a fiver.

Peter : Smashing. Ta

2. George : Where’s my thingumajig ?

Eileen : Whatsisname’s got it.

3. Chris : Do you like your new school ?

Gus : It’s OK.

Chris : And the kids in your class ?

Gus : They’re a decent bunch.

Chris : And the teacher ?

Gus : Oh, he’s a terrific bloke.

4. Fred : I’m not too keen on this new guy in the office.

Alex : Yeah, he’s a bit of a big-head. Throws his weight around.

Fred : Yeah, if I get any more hassle from him, I’m going to tell him what I think.

Alex : Come off it. You haven’t got the guts. You’d get the sack.

5. Joe : Post suit !

Brian : My grandparents’ 50

wedding anniversary. We’re having a bit of a do.

Joe : Come and have a drink first. On me.

Brian : Just for a mo. Mustn’t get there plastered.

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Reading and Speaking

Pre-reading task

Work in pairs :

1. “Psycholinguistics” is a combined word? Can you say what it means based on its

formation?

2. Anyone can learn a foreign language. Do you agree with the opinion? Why or why

not?

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

Psycholinguistics is the study of the mental processes underlying the planning,
production, perception, and comprehension of speech. A principal aim of modern
linguistics, since the Chomskyan revolution, has been to arrive at an understanding of the
way in which our minds work, and in this respect it could be argued that
psycholinguistics, with its unique blend of psychology and linguistics, is the most
significant of all the linguistic branches. Not surprisingly, because it covers a very large
territory, the boundaries of psycholinguistics are rather fluid. One important sub-branch is
concerned with psychological constraints on the use of language (e.g. how memory
limitations affect speech production and comprehension), yet another with the
investigation of speech disorders (clinical linguistics, aphasiology). All of these areas
have been enriched in recent year by technical information about language and the brain
(neurolinguistics).

Probably the best developed branch of the subject, however, is the study of language
acquisition in children, the most important outcome of which has been the establishment
of stages of acquisition. Recent studies of language acquisition all suggest that children
are tuned into language from a very early age. Just as important is the issue of what
language is used for, and how it relates to the child’s emerging sense of self.

One of the hotly debated issues in current psycholinguistic studies, not unrelated to this
discussion, is the extent to which language activity can be seen as the responsibility of
discrete language modules in the brain, or as the output of general cognitive abilities used
in thinking and conceptualizing about anything. Some psycholinguists argue that
syntactic processing, the way in which we produce and recognize well-formed strings, is
carried out separately from other processes performed by the brain, whilst others argue
for a more wholistic view of linguistic and other competences. Much of the debate has
centered on evidence from the study of language abilities can exist separately from others.
Nevertheless, it is still a large step from evidence of this kind to the conclusion that
language is a wholly discrete cognitive ability processed in a series of autonomous stages
by autonomous components. The distinctive way in which language is interwoven with
other human activities would suggest otherwise.

What is at issue here is the relation between brain and mind. In popular thought these
terms are often used interchangeably, but it’s important not to confuse them. The brain is
the physical organ in the skull which controls bodily behavior and thought, and, like any
other organ, its operations can be observed. The mind, on the other hand, comprises the
mental and emotional capabilities which make us human. In contrast with the brain, it’s
not a physical organ and not open to direct observation. Clearly our minds are dependent
on our brains, but no one has yet managed to correlate their workings in any precise way.
In an earlier age theologians were exercised with trying to find the exact location of the
soul in the body. Attempting to determine the boundaries of the mind is proving no lesser
task.

Psycholinguistics, however, is only indirectly concerned with the brain; its principal
target is the human mind. As such it has gained considerably from the discipline of
psychology. Making an utterance involves selecting the appropriate information one
wishes to share (for whatever purpose), arranging it in such a way that its topic and focus
are clear and will attract the attention of our addressee, and performing it successfully.
There are various kinds of mental knowledge required here, including the
conceptualization of the message, its formulation in terms of a linguistic structure, and its
phonological processing. At the same time, however, it’s important to bear in mind that
language comprehension is not solely the preserve of autonomous linguistic processes.
We also rely on non-linguistic cues from texts, and knowledge of characters, entities and
events not explicitly mentioned, for a full interpretation. If an action takes place in a
restaurant, for example, the listener can infer the presence of a kitchen, even though it
may not be explicitly mentioned. This side of psycholinguistics connects with discourse
analysis and is concerned with how we make sense of texts. Evidence suggests that we do
so by constructing mental models or schemas based on our knowledge both of the world
around us and of its representation in language.

Comprehension check

Are the following statements about the text True or False? Say why

1. Psycholinguistics is the significant branch of linguistics.
2. Technical information about neurolinguistics has enriched some areas of

psycholinguistics.

3. The establishment of stages of acquisition is the most important outcome of the

study of language acquisition in children.

4. Children can acquire a language from a very early age.
5. According to most psycholinguistics, syntactic processing occurs separately from

other brain processes.

6. Brain and mind are basically different from each other.
7. Either the mind or the brain makes us human.
8. The principal target of psycholinguistics is both the human mind and brain.
9. Mental knowledge includes the conceptualization of the message, its linguistic

structure and its phonological processing.

10. Language comprehension is not only solely the preserve of autonomous linguistic

processes, but it is also relied on non-linguistic cues from the texts.

Discussion

Work in groups of four to discuss the questions.

1. In what age can a child start learning a foreign language?
2. Which learners may acquire a foreign language better? Children or adults?

Writing

When you write any kind of composition, and especially when you write an analysis, you
must operate on at least two levels: a general level that covers the whole topic and a more
specific level that gives parts, or divisions, of the general.

In the following example, there are two levels: one whole (general) and two equal parts.

Example:

I have set several important

future goals for myself. First, I

want to master English in

order to complete my education.

general:

future goals

specific 1 :

English for education

Second, I want to get a good

job so that I can support my family.

specific 2 :

job for support

In the exercise below, write two sentences to complete each short text. In your sentences,
name some specific parts of the topic introduced by the general beginning sentence.
Express your own knowledge and experience in the specifics.

LEARNING ENGLISH

There are several linguistic factors that make it difficult for a foreign student to learn
English.

First, _____________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Second, ___________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Listening

Listen to a teacher giving a talk about Guatemala.

Complete the chart below with facts about this country.

GUATEMALA

Capital City

Average income

Religions

Languages

Industries

Export crops

Translation

MID-TWENTIETH-CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS

It was America that many of the most important developments in mid-century linguistics
took place. In many respects these owed much to the concern of American
anthropologists to record the culture and languages of native Indian tribes, which were
rapidly vanishing before the concerted power of the white races. The problem, however,
was that no generally agreed descriptive framework existed to assist scholars in providing
a coherent account of what were sometimes called “exotic” languages. But in 1933, the
linguist, Leonard Bloomfield, published a book called Language, in which he outlined a
methodology for the description of any language. Bloomfield’s approach was rigorously
descriptive. It is sometimes referred to as descriptive linguistics, occasionally as
“structuralist” (in a slightly different sense than the Saussurean), and, despite the
revolutions that have occurred in linguistic thought it is still at the heart of much
linguistic practice. For Bloomfield the task of linguists was to collect data from native
speakers of a language and then to analyze it by studying he phonological and syntactic
patterns. The concept that all language is patterned was fundamental to these procedures.

Bloomfield argued that one of the principal ways in which items are ordered in a
language is in terms of, what are called its immediate constituents. These, in turn, can be
analyzed into further constituents, and so on, down to those at the ground level of words,
which are the smallest continents. A sentence is thus conceived of as a hierarchy of
interlocking continents, all of which can demonstrate their constituency, because they can
be either substituted by similar constituents, or redistributed to form other sentences.

Descriptive linguistics provided a powerful means of uncovering some of the surface
structures of language but it ignored two important aspects of language. First, it was not
interested in meaning, or semantics, partly because it proved too difficult to analyze the
meanings of constituents in the same descriptive fashion and partly because it didn’t seem
immediately relevant to providing an account of syntactic structure. Second, it laboured
under the illusion that description alone was sufficient for arriving at a set of language
rules. It was Chomsky who showed that more important than mere description for the
linguist was explanation. To arrive at that meant penetrating beyond the output and
understanding the system which produced it.

TALKING ABOUT THE CONTRAST

PRESENTATION

William Blake, the English poet, painter, and engraver, who created a unique form of
illustrated verse, his poetry, inspired by mystical vision, is among the most original, lyric,
and prophetic in the language.
As a child, Blake wanted to become a painter. He was send to drawing of school and at
the age of 14 was apprenticed to James Basire, an engraver. In 1784 he set up a printshop,
although it failed after a few years, for the rest of his life Blake eked out a living as an
engraver and illustrator. His wife helped him print the illuminated poetry for which he is
remembered today.

Grammar

questions

Look at the example pick out from the passage.

“In 1784 he set up a print-shop although it failed after a few years”.
What does the underlined clause express?

PRACTICE
A. Rewrite these sentences using the adverb in brackets. Follow the example.

1. She has all kinds of dictionaries, but it is still difficulty for her to translate this

quotation. (even though)

Even though she has all kinds of dictionaries, it’s still difficult for her to translate this
quotation.
It’s still difficult for her to translate this quotation even though she has all kinds of
dictionaries.

2. We did enjoy the film, but it was a little too long. (though)

_____________________________________________________________

3. Sandy thought she had failed the test, but she had actually passed. (although)

_____________________________________________________________

4. I had a map, but I still got lost. (even though)

_____________________________________________________________

5. He watered the plants often, but they died. (even though)

_____________________________________________________________

6. The weather forecast said it would be fine, but it rained. (although)

_____________________________________________________________

7. The book looked modern, but the content was horrible. (though)

______________________________________________________________

8. Lisa arrived early, but the books were sold out. (even though)

______________________________________________________________

Rewrite these sentences using the adverb in brackets. Follow the example.

1. He continued using hyperbole, even though he knew he should stop. (despite)

He continued using hyperbole, despite knowing he should stop.

2. Robber didn’t use any dictionaries although the translation had a lot of

morphological terms. (in spite of).

________________________________________________________________

3. Karen failed her history test, although she studied very hard. (in spite of)

________________________________________________________________

4. Amy was afraid of dogs, but she tried to be friendly to her neighbour’s pets.

(despite)

________________________________________________________________

5. Even though they searched all night, they couldn’t find the dog. (in spite of)

________________________________________________________________

6. She enjoyed the meal, even though her soup was cold. (despite)

________________________________________________________________

7. Although they were beaten, they enjoyed playing the game. (despite)

________________________________________________________________

8. He won the race, even though he had hurt his ankle. (in spite of)

________________________________________________________________

9. Though it was very hot, Amy still wore a jacket. (despite)

________________________________________________________________

10. Happiness is better than wealth, although wealth is very useful. (in spite of)

________________________________________________________________

Language review

Concession : although, (even) though, in spite of, despite

1. Although, though and even though are all adverbs for concession. They are used to

connect two clauses which we would not expect to be together. They are always followed
by a clause, but they can be used at the beginning of a sentence or in the middle position:

Although phonetics and phonology are difficult, they still like researching them.
They didn’t catch the teacher though they tried their best.
Even though they didn’t know many terms, they understood the content of the test.
Although is more informal than though. Even though is used for emphasis – to make

things very clear; even although is wrong.

2. In spite of and despite are also adverbs of concession and they have similar

meanings to although and though. They are used followed by a noun/pronoun or an –ing
form of a verb.

In spite of/Despite the slips of the tongue, they still kept calm.
They didn’t find complete synonymy despite/in spite of using a lot of different

dictionaries.

3. No adverb of concession should be used together with but:
Although there were a lot of terms in this text, they understood it.
Either one, or the other, should be used in the sentence.

VOCABULARY
Match a term in A with a phrase in B

A B

a. goal

1. (in artificial intelligence) The storehouse of facts in the
computer’s memory; (in linguistics) linguistic competence.

b. gloss

2. list of all morphemes and words; lexicon.

c. knowledge

3. The semantic role of the Noun Phrase toward whose
referent the action of the verb is directed (e.g. the theatre in
We went to the theatre).

d. lingua franca

A word in one language given to express the meaning

of a word in another language (e.g. “house” is the gloss for
the French word mansion); a brief definition of a difficult
word or expression.

e. dictionary

5. The major language used in an area where speakers of
more than one language live, which enables communication
and commerce among them.

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Reading and Speaking

THE NEWSPAPER

1. Reading a newspaper is different from reading a book. Newspapers are organized

and written in a special way, a way that enables the reader to select exactly what he or she
wants to read. For example, articles are generally categorized into sections on business,
sports, entertainment, and local, national, and international news. Then the articles are
evaluated by the newspaper staff as to their relative importance within the section, with
the most important articles or stories appearing at the beginning. The first page, or front
page of a newspaper usually has an index listing the sections and their page numbers.

2. The front page of a newspaper also contains articles that are, in the judgment of the

newspaper staff, the most important for that particular day. The headlines, the dark, large
titles, serve two purposes: they tell the reader what the article is about, and they indicate,
by size and darkness of the type, the importance of the story. Headlines help readers
choose the articles that they want to read. Because some readers read only the headlines
in papers, the wording of headlines is very important.

3. Just below the headline, at the beginning of the news article, are the abbreviations

for the different news services, for example, AP for Associated Press, UPI for United
Press International, and Reuters for Reuters Press. These abbreviations indicate the source
of the information, the press service that is responsible for the writing. The place that the

news originated is written just before the news service abbreviation. (News items like
these are factual and usually do not include the name of the author).

4. The opening paragraph of a news article is called the lead; it contains all the

essential facts of the story. A reader in a hurry could read only the headline and the first
paragraph of a story and know the most important information. The rest of the article
consists of additional details and explanation, organized according to importance. Thus,
the closing paragraph of a news story is usually not a conclusion – instead, it contains the
least important information.

5. This special newspaper style of writing is also evident in the length of the

paragraphs. They are short, so they are easy to read in a column, the long narrow lines of
print. Newspapers are generally printed in columns so they can be read faster: the reader’s
eyes can move down a column faster than on a line across the page.

6. Some articles have a “by-line” just under the headline that indicates who wrote the

article. Feature articles and articles written by columnists have “by-lines”. Any subjective
article, one that presents the writer’s point of view or opinion or that is not a serious news
article, is likely to include the author’s name in a “by-line” (for example, by John S.
Smith).

7. The opinions of the editors of the newspaper are found on the editorial page. Those

articles that have no author or “by-line” on that page are written by the newspaper staff to
express their opinions or suggestions about a local, national, or international problem.

8. Newspapers are written to read efficiently by the reader. Whatever the reader’s

interests or needs, he or she can satisfy them more quickly by understanding how a
newspaper is organized.

Comprehension check

Work in pairs:

1. What is another word for the first page?
2. What are headlines?
3. What is a press service ?
4. What is a lead ?
5. What is a column ?
6. What is a by-line ?

Writing

Analyze English as a language that is difficult to learn (if you think it is difficult). Narrow
the topic down: what aspect of English is difficult (pronunciation, writing, listening
comprehension, etc.) ? Who is it difficult for? Why is it difficult? Give reasons. Give
examples.

Listening

Listen to the following text and fill in the blanks with the missing words.

Syntax is a tern in general use and in linguistics for the study of the c____________

which words combine into such units as phrases, clauses, and d _____________

.The sequences that result from these combinations are referred to in linguistics as

syntactic e ___________ The ways in which components of words are combined into
words are studied in morphology, and syntax and morphology f _________are generally
regarded as the major constituents of grammar, although in one of its uses, grammar is
strictly g _________with syntax and excludes morphology.

In models of h__________description that are divided into levels of analysis or

components, the i___________level or component is contrasted with the phonological
level and semantic j _________or component. Syntactic descriptions do not usually go
beyond the level of the sentence, though they may deal with k_________between
sentences such as are signaled by a l___________(it, them) or a conjunction (therefore).

Translation

LINGUISTICS TODAY

It is a tribute to the combined influence of Saussure and Chomsky that the study of
language has become increasingly important in the late twentieth century to non-linguists
as well as linguists. The concern with the language potential of human beings has meant
that a wide variety of disciplines, notably sociology, psychology and literary criticism,
have begun to take more interest in linguistics, and in so doing have left their own mark
on the subject, whilst the emphasis of Saussure on the symbolic functioning of language
has appealed to students of media and communication systems. At the same time,
however, the last quarter of the twentieth century has seen the development of alternative
models of language. These are not necessarily at variance with existing models; as often
as not they prioritize aspects with which they have not been primarily concerned.

Linguistics today then is a subject whose boundaries are forever widening and which
presents no single face to the world. In the current work of Chomsky and other
GENERATIVE grammarians it continues to grow in intellectual elegance and indeed one
of the strengths of Chomsky, and one of the principal reasons for his continued
dominance, is his ability to challenge, not simply other people’s orthodoxies, but his own.
The account of transformational grammar which exists today differs considerably from
that of its first heady outing. And yet, despite the inherent radicalism of linguistics there
is much that suggests continuity. The leading ideas of the subject are now in place and,
after many years in which it was considered as something of an “upstart” among
academic disciplines, it has finally achieved the respect it deserves as a major humanistic
discipline. Which is only what one would expect since the final subject matter of
linguistics is not so much language, as ourselves, our human existence in time and space,
and that will always be endlessly fascinating.

TALKING ABOUT REASON: BECAUSE, SINCE, AS, BECAUSE OF

PRESENTATION
Read the passage carefully
Charles Dickens, who wrote such unforgotten table stories as Oliver Twist and David
Copperfield was born to a poor family. When Charles was 12, his father was sent to
prison because he failed to pay his debts. Young Charles had to work in a dismal factory.
This terrible experience remained to haunt him even when he attained success with his
novels.
Because of his humble nature, Dickens never forgot what was like to be poor. He was
always concerned about the orphaned and the destitute. Dickens was a very respected
writer when he died in 1870. Till now, many people think that he is the greater of English
novelist.

Grammar question

1. Look at these examples picked out from the passage.

“His father was sent to prison because he failed to pay his debts”.

“Because of his humble nature. Dickens never forgot what was like to be

poor”.

2. Complete the rule: To express reasons we use:

because with

……………………

or because of with ……………………

PRESENTATION
A. Use the words in the box to make complete sentences. Follow the example

1 June was sad

because

we want to know more about
functional linguistics.

2 Henry got this book

they were enjoying themselves

3 Sally went to the reference

since

we are interested in linguistics and
literature

4 We often join this course

there was a lecture on diachronic
linguistics

5 Paul arrived late

the lecturer arrived

6 The day passed quickly

her book about subject – prominent
language was lost

7 People think we are students in
philology department

missed

the

bus

8 The students stopped talking

it helped him to write an essay about
terminology

1. June was sad because her book about subject – prominent language was lost

2. _______________________________________________________________
3. _______________________________________________________________
4. _______________________________________________________________
5. _______________________________________________________________
6. _______________________________________________________________
7. _______________________________________________________________
8. _______________________________________________________________

]
B. Join these sentences, making sure they are in the right order, using the word in

brackets. Follow the example.

1. It was raining. The picnic was cancelled. (as)

The picnic was cancelled as it was raining.

2. The tree had to be cut down. It was dangerous. (since)

_________________________________________________________________

3. The smoke alarm went off. Kate’s cake was burning. (because)

_________________________________________________________________

4. The neighbours complained about the noise. The police stopped the party (because)

_________________________________________________________________

5. Karen bought the house. It had a big garden. (since)

_________________________________________________________________

6. There were road works. It took two hours to get home. (because)

_________________________________________________________________

7. Jenny couldn’t sleep. A dog was barking all night. (as)

_________________________________________________________________

8. They had watched a horror film. The children had nightmares. (as)

_________________________________________________________________

C. Combine these sentences using both because and because of each time. Follow the

example.

1. I like Jane Austen. She is a famous novelist.

a) I like Jane Austen because she is a famous novelist.
b)

I like Gordon because of her fame.

2. Sue’s parents are proud of her. She is intelligent.