چند لغتي كه تازه به زبان انگليسي اضافه شده اند

در زبان انگليسي اين قابليت وجود دارد كه بتوان لغات تازه را با توجه به نياز به اين زبان وارد كرد (To coin a word) . در ادامه ليستي از لغاتي كه تازه به اين زبان وارد شده اند همراه با معني و نكات جالب توجه آمده است.

1- Audiophile : Person who loves and collects high-quality audio equipment. - 

         شخصي كه دوستار موسيقي مي باشد و عاشق جمع كردن ابزار صوتي مي باشد.

2- Baggravation : Blend of the words 'bag' and 'aggravation' .A feeling of annoyance and frustration at the airport when your baggage has not arrived but the other passengers' bags have.

 اين كلمه از ادغام دو كلمه Blend و Aggravation  ايجاد شده است كه به نوعي حالت ناراحتي و استرس گفته مي شود كه           وقتي ساك و يا كيف يك مسافر در فرودگاه هنوز نرسيده باشد، درحالي كه براي بقيه مسافران همچنين اتفاقي نيفتده باشد.

3- Busker :  Refers to those street performers that usually perform in crowded public places and ask for donation.They do things like singing, dancing, ...

به آن افرادي گفته مي شود در كه در خيابان ها و جاهاي شلوغ كارهايي مانند خوانندگي ، گيتار زدن و يا رقصيدن انجام مي دهند و از اين راه پول در مي آورند.

4- Copyleft : Opposite of copyright.

Whereas copyright imposes restrictions on the distribution of a word or publication, copyleft eliminates restrictions and allows freedom of use for all.

يكي ديگه از كلمه هاي جالب كه به تازگي در انگليسي coin شده است ( ايجاد شده) كلمه copyleft مي باشد كه برخلاف copyright به اين معني مي باشد كه شما اجازه تكثير و يا انتشار مطلب مورد نظر copyleft شده را داريد و به شما آزادي عمل داده است.

5-Cot potato: Very young child who spends a lot of time watching television.(cot = a baby's bed)

به كودك خيلي كوچكي گفته مي شود كه دوست دارد زمان زيادي را جلوي تلويزيون به سر برد.

6- Daycation : A trip or short vacation which lasts only one day ----Vacation Vs. Daycation!

به سفري گفته مي شود كه فقط يك روز طول بكشد و شخص هم شب را در سفر سپري نكند. اين كلمه از Vacation گرفته شده است.

7- Dramedy : Combination of  'drama' and 'comedy'. A film, play or TV programm that mixes drama and comedy. 

به نوعي برنامه تلويزيوني گفته مي شود كه مخلوطي از درام و كمدي باشد

8- Earworm : A tune that keeps repeating itself over and over again in our heads 

به آهنگي گفته مي شود كه مدام در سرمان ناخودآگاه تكرار مي شود

9- Emoticon : A blend of 'emotion' and 'icon'. A symbol, used in email messages, which is made out punctuation marks and resembles a human face.

همان نمادها و نشانه هايي مانند :) , ;( كه به عنوان حالت شخص استفاده مي شوند.

10- Fashionista :   Person who dresses according to the latest fashion trends.

كسي كه مطابق با آخرين مد لباس مي پوشد

11- Flexitarian:   A vegetarian who sometimes eats meat or fish. The funny thing is the blend of 'Flex' and 'Vegetarian' 

به شخص گياهخواري گفته مي شود كه گه گاه گوشت و يا ماهي هم مي خورد.

12- Infomania :   Constantly checking and responding to email and text messages.

كسي كه بطور مدام در حال چك كردن ايميل  و پاسخ دادن به اس ام اس مي باشد.

13- Netizen : Blend of 'internet' and 'citizen'. A person who spends an excessive amount of time on the internet.

كسي كه زمانش را آنقدر در اينترنت سپري مي كند كه عملا شهروند اينترنتي شده باشد!

14- Newbie :   A new member of any group, community, or activity.

كسي كه تازه عضو گروه، يا فعاليت و ... شده باشد

15- Overparenting : Being excessively protective of one's children in order to guarantee their safety and ensure their success in life.

به والديني گفته مي شود كه بيش از حد مراقب كودك خود باشد.

16- Sandwich Generation : A generation of people who care for the needs of their children
  as well as those of their own elderly parents.

به نسل از افراد گفته مي شود كه هم به نيازهاي كودكان خود اهميت مي دهند و هم به نيازهاي والدين و بزرگتر ها.

17- Trekkie : A fan of the TV science fiction series Star Trek.

به كسي گفته مي شود كه طرفدار برنامه پيشتازان فضا باشد.

18- Widget : Blend of 'window' and 'gadget'. A small application or tool that can be installed and executed within a web page.

شايد شما با كلمه Widget آشنا باشيد. اين كلمه براي برخي انواع برنامه ها در موبايل يا ساير ابزار استفاده مي شود
اين كلمه هم ، نسبتا در زبان انگليسي تازه مي باشد و از ادغام دو كلمه Window و Gadget ايجاد شده است.

19- Winterval : Blend of 'winter' and 'festival'. A festival that takes place in winter.

به فستيوالي گفته مي شود كه در زمستان برگزار شود.

20- Webinar :  Presentation or seminar conducted over the web.

به يك نوع سمينار گفته مي شود كه از طريق اينترنت برگزار شود.

منبع:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/farhikhtegan/gOqa/~3/jeycbIgwj6s/blog-post_09.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email

Spoonerisms

where you accidentally, or purposefully, mix up the first letter of different

words to create a new and amusing phrase.

fighting a liar lighting a fire

you hissed my mystery lecture you missed my history lecture

searched every crook and nanny searched every nook and cranny

cattle ships and bruisers battle ships and cruisers

nosey little crook cosy little nook

a blushing crow a crushing blow

Kinquering Congs their titles take Conquering Kings their titles take

(announcing hymn in chapel)

tons of soil sons of toil

let us drink to the queer old Dean let us drink to the dear old Queen

we'll have the hags flung out we'll have the flags hung out

you've tasted two worms you've wasted two terms

our shoving leopard our loving shepherd

a half-warmed fish a half-formed wish

is the bean dizzy? is the Dean busy?

6 busty crolls (crusty rolls) Hello,

Witches of Swatzerland (Watches of Switzerland)

Thanks to Jacky for these two!

for god's sake shake a tower: for god's sake take a shower

he has really mad banners: he has really bad manners

wave the sails, man: save the whales, man

he flew at the lead of spite: he flew at the speed of light

ooh look a pretty flutter by: butterfly i love cop porn:

i love pop corn oh no! not a bat flattery: oh no, not a flat battery

would you like a nasal hut? would you like a hazel nut?

see ya, eye ball: see ya bye

all my chips are lapped my lips are chapped -

From Diane

Alliteration

Alliteration is the name given to a part of speech in the English language,

whereby several words all start with one particular letter.

This is common in so-called Tongue Twisters, of which there are

a couple of examples in the list below.

The phrase Tongue Twister itself is of course alliterative:

Examples of Alliteration

• (Stuttering) rifles' rapid rattle - (Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum est)
  
• Peter Piper picked (a) peck (of) pickled peppers. (Tongue twister)
  
• She sells seashells (by the) sea shore. (Tongue twister)
  
• Behemoth, biggest born (of earth)... (Milton)
  
• Better brave than bored
• Train the toughest, talk the tiniest

 

Palindromes

A palindrome is a sentence that reads the same both forwards and

backwards. For instance, the simplest sort of palindrome is a name like

Anna, whether you read from left to right or right to left it still reads 'Anna'.

Here are some more palindromes:

Able was I ere I saw Elba

A Toyota's a Toyota

Borrow or rob

Cigar? Toss it in a can, it is so tragic

see bees?

Dogma: I am God

Enid and Edna dine

Goddesses so pay a possessed dog

Harass selfless Sarah

He lived as a devil, eh

If I had a hi-fi

I saw desserts I'd no lemons, alas no melon Distressed was I

I saw I was

I Kayak salad: Alaska yak

Lager, sir, is regal

Lid off a daffodil

Madam, I'm Adam

Murder for a jar of red rum

Name now one man

 No garden, one dragon

No lemons, no melon

Nurse, I spy gypsies, run

Oh, cameras are macho

Party boobytrap

Pupils slip up

Red rum, sir, is murder

Rise to vote, sir

Satire: Veritas

Senile felines

Star comedy by Democrats

 Stella won no wallets

Step on no pets

Ten animals I slam in a net

Tracy, no panic in a pony-cart

Warsaw was raw

Yawn a more Roman way.

Narrative Discourse Productions in Older Language Impaired Learning Disabled Children: Employing Str

Narrative Discourse Productions in Older Language Impaired Learning Disabled Children: Employing Stricter Reliability MeasuresLuanne Henshilwood and Dale OgilvyDepartment of Logopaedics

University of Cape Town

 
ABSTRACT

This study aimed to describe narrative discourse productions of language impaired learning disabled (LILD) persons, using stringent reliability measures. Coherence and cohesion were the measures of analysis employed. Interrater and intrarater reliability measures were calculated and testing for stability of scores across three testing sessions was undertaken. Content and clarity ratings provided a subjective analysis of narrative productions. The results indicated subtle differences in the coherence and cohesion of narrative productions in the LILD compared with controls. The findings of this study support past literature, which calls for greater research in this area using stricter reliability measures. 

ادامه نوشته

سلامی دوباره

سلام دوستان عزیزم.........ببخشید خیلی دیر اومدم......درگیر امتحانات و پروزه های آخر ترم بودم....خلاصه درس زبانشناسی کاربردی این ترممون رو اینجا اوردم امیدوارم مفید باشه.

 

Overview

Applied linguistics has been considered a subset of linguistic principles or theories to certain more or less practical matters (Brown 1976, Kaplan et al 1981).
Second and foreign language teaching, translation, and speech therapy are typical areas of practical application.
Although the primary aim of applied linguistics may not be the development of theoretical linguistics, applied linguistics may still do research under the heading of theoretical linguistics.
Applied Linguistics
 In a broad sense, applied linguistics is concerned with increasing understanding of the role of language in human affairs and thereby with providing the knowledge necessary for those who are responsible for taking language-related decisions whether the need for these arises in the classroom, the workplace, the law court, or the laboratory.
Issues in applied linguistics
Language and acquisition/learning
Language and assessment
Language and research methodology
Language and translation/interpretation
Language and cognition
Language and brain
Language and culture
Language and society
Language and policy
Language and media
Language and technology
Second Language Acquisition

ادامه نوشته

Early Modern English

By Kamil Wiśniewski Sep 10th, 2007

Modern English language had been subdivided into Early Modern English which was used from the fifteenth century, more or less up to end of the seventeenth century, or according to some scholars even in the eighteenth century, and Modern English was used from that time till now. Only recently was this division renewed as with the end of the twentieth century the time perspective enabled linguists to look at the English language (learn English :-) from a different angle and thus nowadays Modern English is subdivided into Early Modern English and Late Modern English (more or less 1700-1900), while the language used in the twentieth and twenty first century is called Contemporary English, or sometimes Present Day English.

There are numerous factors influencing the development of the English language in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The technological advances enabled faster travels, therefore people started visiting different parts of Britain more often and so the dialects blended. At that time in America sound voices supported the division between British and American English. Dictionaries were published in the USA which provided deliberately distinct norms of spelling to make the American variety more distinguishable. In addition to that many new words came from the British colonies with the new concepts, inventions customs and scientific discoveries.

The grammatical peculiarities of the Late Modern English are divided into two types: changes in syntax which begun in Early Modern English and continued till that time, and totally new aspects introduced in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The former include the use of ‘do’ in questions and negatives which became a standard at that time. Moreover, the rules regarding the use of wh-relatives: who, whom, whose, which became standardized and more stable. Innovations introduced in the Late Modern English include the ‘be + -ing’ construction not only in Present Continuous tense, but also in passives. Also at that time the two schools of approaching grammar emerged. According to some linguists grammarians should only describe the language as it is actually used, while others provided rules that should be obeyed in the ‘correct’ English. The long discussion between the representatives of the two different schools of thought is still serious.

In the period of Late Modern English the standard of pronunciation which is aimed at by all the contemporary learners of English as a foreign language, namely Received Pronunciation (RP), emerged. Since that time Received Pronunciation has been a standard for noblemen and upper class of society in Great Britain. However, unlike nowadays in the Late Modern English RP the phoneme was pronounced in all positions.

When it comes to the sources of Early Modern English loanwords what is interesting is the fact that at that time the Englishmen opposed the influx of French words to their language. Thus the major sources of lexis were Latin and Greek. According to current estimates about two thirds of loanword of Late Middle English have either Latin or Greek etymology.

Brown K. (Editor) 2005. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics – 2nd Edition. Oxford: Elsevier.

Development of writing

By Kamil Wiśniewski, Aug. 12th, 2007

The oldest cave drawings representing important information were made 20,000 years ago and clay tokens with marks suggesting some writing attempts are about 10,000 years old, yet they are considered to be only the precursors of writing and not fully developed writing systems. The first systematic writing systems were developed about 5,000 years ago. Cave drawings are treated as a tradition of pictorial art as the history of writing systems starts with pictograms.

A pictogram is a drawing which is used in a consistent way in order to represent an object. Thus, a form such as might be used to represent sun. It is remarkable that thanks to the conventional relationship between the symbol and its referent users of different languages should understand the meaning of pictograms in a similar way, as with the contemporary pictograms in common use:

With time the sign representing sun might develop into a more symbolic and abstract form, like for example, and start to be used with several additional meanings such as ‘heat’ and ‘daytime’. Then, such a type of symbol is no longer a pictogram, but it is a part of a system based on idea-writing called ideogram. The difference between pictograms and ideograms is that the former represent their referent in a conventional way and the latter are more abstract and arbitrary, as well as less picture-like.

When a further development of the writing system occurred one symbol started to represent one word. A writing system based on arbitrary relationships between the written form and the object it represents is known as word-writing or logogram. The oldest logographic writing was used by the Sumerians about 5,000 years ago, yet because of the shapes they used as symbols their writing system is known as cuneiform. The arbitrary forms of logograms have no resemblance to the entities they represent which the example of cuneiform symbol for sun clearly shows: .

The next step in the development of writing was using symbols to represent the sounds of language. In rebus writing the symbol for an entity starts to be used as the symbol for the spoken word, subsequently used in any place the sound of the word occurs. In such a way it is relatively easy to reconstruct how this system worked. Taking the pictogram as an example, supposing it developed into the logogram meaning ‘eye’. In rebus writing it could be used always when the sounds which are pronounced when saying ‘eye’ are used as in ‘I’, or ‘cross-eye’. Therefore, you might refer to yourself as , or to the latter example as .

The last but one step of writing system development towards the most popularly used system nowadays is the syllabic writing. In syllabic writing (also known as syllabary) each symbol represents one syllable. The first fully developed syllabic writing systems were used by Phoenicians in between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago. The final stage of the evolution of writing systems so far is the inventing writing by use of an alphabet. An alphabet is a set of symbols in which one symbol represent one sound. Interestingly, the first alphabets of languages such as Arabic and Hebrew consisted only of sounds representing consonant. The history of the majority of alphabets used nowadays can be traced back to the Phoenicians and their writing system.

Finch G. 1998. How to study linguistics. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Yule G. 1996. The study of language. Cambridge: CUP.

Discourse analysis

Discourse analysis

 

DEFINITION OF DISCOURSE

Since its introduction to modern science the term 'discourse' has taken various, sometimes very broad, meanings. In order to specify which of the numerous senses is analyzed in the following dissertation it has to be defined. Originally the word 'discourse' comes from Latin 'discursus' which denoted 'conversation, speech'. Thus understood, however, discourse refers to too wide an area of human life, therefore only discourse from the vantage point of linguistics, and especially applied linguistics, is explained here.

There is no agreement among linguists as to the use of the term discourse in that some use it in reference to texts, while others claim it denotes speech which is for instance illustrated by the following definition: "Discourse: a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative" (Crystal 1992:25). On the other hand Dakowska, being aware of differences between kinds of discourses indicates the unity of communicative intentions as a vital element of each of them. Consequently she suggests using terms 'text' and 'discourse' almost interchangeably betokening the former refers to the linguistic product, while the latter implies the entire dynamics of the processes (Dakowska 2001:81). According to Cook (1990:7) novels, as well as short conversations or groans might be equally rightfully named discourses.

Seven criteria which have to be fulfilled to qualify either a written or a spoken text as a discourse have been suggested by Beaugrande (1981). These include:

• Cohesion - grammatical relationship between parts of a sentence essential for its interpretation;
• Coherence - the order of statements relates one another by sense.
• Intentionality - the message has to be conveyed deliberately and consciously;
• Acceptability - indicates that the communicative product needs to be satisfactory in that the audience approves it;
• Informativeness - some new information has to be included in the discourse;
• Situationality - circumstances in which the remark is made are important;
• Intertextuality - reference to the world outside the text or the interpreters' schemata;

Nowadays, however, not all of the above mentioned criteria are perceived as equally important in discourse studies, therefore some of them are valid only in certain methods of the research (Beaugrande 1981, cited in Renkema 2004:49).

• Features of discourse.

Since it is not easy to unambiguously clarify what a discourse is it seems reasonable to describe features which are mutual to all its kinds. To do it thoroughly Saussurean concepts of langue and parole are of use. Ferdinand de Saussure divided the broad meaning of language into langue, which is understood as a system that enables people to speak as they do, and parole - a particular set of produced statements. Following this division discourse relates more to parole, for it always occurs in time and is internally characterized by successively developing expressions in which the meaning of the latter is influenced by the former, while langue is abstract. To list some additional traits: discourse is always produced by somebody whose identity, as well as the identity of the interpreter, is significant for the proper understanding of the message. On the other hand langue is impersonal that is to say more universal, due to society. Furthermore, discourse always happens in either physical, or linguistic context and within a meaningful fixed time, whereas langue does not refer to anything. Consequently, only discourse may convey messages thanks to langue which is its framework .

دانش - به كارش ببر یا رهایش كن

دانش  - به كارش ببر یا رهایش كن

براساس دو پژوهش جدید كه در ژورنال نیچر به چاپ رسیدند، كلمه‌هایی كه در زبان روزانه بیشتر از همه به كار می‌روند، آنهایی هستند كه با كندترین نرخ تكامل می‌یابند. در یكی از این مقالات، پژوهشگران دانشگاه هاروارد، روی تكامل صرف افعال انگلیسی در طول یك دوره 1200 ساله متمركز شدند. در بررسی دیگری كه توسط تیمی در دانشگاه ریدینگ انگلستان انجام شد، برای آنكه تعیین شود چگونه تمام زبان‌های هند و اروپایی از نیای مشتركی كه بین شش تا 10 هزار سال پیش تكلم می شد به وجود آمده‌اند، واژه‌های هم‌ریشه (Cognate) مورد بررسی قرار گرفتند. واژه‌های هم‌ریشه واژه‌هایی با تلفظ مشابه در زبان‌های مختلف برای یك شی یا معنای خاص هستند، برای مثال Water در انگلیسی و Wasser در آلمانی.

مارك پاجل (M.Pagel)، استاد زیست‌شناسی تكاملی دانشگاه ریدینگ، درباره پژوهش خویش می‌گوید «اثر تكرر كاربرد به ما امكان می‌دهد عناصر زبان شناختی فوق پاینده (ultraconserved) را شناسایی كنیم. یعنی واژه‌هایی كه مدام آنها را به كار می‌بریم.» پاجل و تیمش در جست‌وجوی واژه‌های هم‌ریشه، حدود 200 كلمه را در 87 زبان هند و اروپایی بررسی كردند، از جمله كلماتی را كه برای «آب»، «دو»، «مردن» و «كجا» به كار می‌رود. تعداد دسته‌های متمایز واژه‌های هم‌ریشه برای هر كلمه از یك (یعنی موردی كه تمام كلمه‌های آن شبیه هم تلفظ می‌شوند) در مورد مفاهیم پركاربرد نظیر اعداد، تا 46 مصوت پایه متفاوت برای توصیف یك موجود خاص مثلا پرنده، متغیر است. كلمه مربوط به عدد سه، برای مثال در تمام زبان‌های هند و اروپایی شبیه به نسخه انگلیسی آن یعنی three است: از tres در اسپانیایی گرفته تا drei در آلمانی و theen در هندی. در عوض كلمه‌ای كه برای پرنده (bird) به كار می‌رود چندین مصوت متفاوت مربوط به هم همچون pajaro در اسپانیایی و oiseau در فرانسوی دارد.
پژوهشگران در گام بعدی توجه خویش را به تكرر كاربرد هر یك از كلمه‌ها فقط در چهار زبان هند و اروپایی ـ انگلیسی، اسپانیایی، یونانی و روسی ـ معطوف كردند. به گفته پاجل یافته تیم پژوهشی آن بود كه این كلمات در چهار زبان به یك اندازه به كار برده می‌شوند حتی اگر كلمه‌های هم معنا هم‌ریشه نزدیك نباشند. او می‌گوید «كلمه‌های پركاربرد در اسپانیایی همان كلمه‌های پركاربرد انگلیسی‌اند. این بدان معناست كه می‌توان نوعی تكرر كاربرد هند و اروپایی ارائه كرد.» این پژوهشگران با تركیب داده‌هایشان توانستند تعیین كنند كه جانشینی كلمه‌های كم كاربرد دست‌كم 750 سال و تكامل كلمه‌های جدید و رسیدن به جایگاه پركاربردترین كلمه‌ها تا 10 هزار سال طول خواهد كشید.
پژوهشگران هاروارد اختصاصا با دنبال كردن صرف افعال در زبان از دوره بیوولف در 1200 سال پیش تا شكسپیر در قرن شانزدهم و تا شكل كنونی‌اش، ریشه‌های زبان انگلیسی را بررسی كردند. در طول سالیان، شكل گذشته (زمان ماضی) چندین فعل در انگلیسی از بین رفته و اكنون تنها یكی به عنوان قاعده باقی مانده است: افزودن ed به انتهای افعال. (در انگلیسی امروزی افعالی كه در شكل زمان گذشته خود ed می‌گیرند «افعال باقاعده» نامیده می‌شوند.) پژوهشگران، متن‌های دستوری مربوط به دوران انگلیسی باستان را زیر و رو كرده و تمام افعال بی‌قاعده‌ای كه با آنها برخورد كردند را فهرست كردند. از جمله آنها می‌توان به افعال هنوز بی‌قاعده sing/sang و go/went و نیز فعل قاعده‌مند شده smite اشاره كرد كه در انگلیسی باستان صورت گذشته آن به شكل smote صرف می‌شد اما اكنون به شكل smited درآمده است و فعل slink كه شكل گذشته آن اكنون slinked است اما 1200 سال پیش slunk بود. آنها 177 فعل را یافتند كه در انگلیسی باستان بی‌قاعده بودند و 145 تا از آنها در انگلیسی میانه هنوز بی‌قاعده مانده بودند؛ امروزه تنها 98 فعل از آن 177 فعل اولیه هنوز قاعده‌مند نشده‌اند.
پس از محاسبه تكرر كاربرد هر كدام از 177 فعل بی‌قاعده انگلیسی باستان، پژوهشگران به این نتیجه رسیدند افعالی كه سریع‌تر از همه به اشكال صرفی قاعده‌مند تكامل یافتند، به طرز معناداری كمتر از آنهایی به كار می‌روند كه در طول زمان بدون تغییر ماندند. در واقع تحلیل آماری آنها نشان می‌دهد كه از دو فعل مفروض، اگر یكی صد برابر كمتر از دیگری به كار رفته باشد، ده برابر سریع‌تر از فعلی تكامل می‌یابد كه اغلب مورد استفاده قرار می‌گیرد. آنها پیش‌بینی می‌كنند كه از این پس نخستین فعلی كه به راه می‌آید فعل wed است كه شكل گذشته آن از wed به wedded قاعده‌مند خواهد شد.
ارز لیبرمن (E.Lieberman) دانشجوی تحصیلات تكمیلی ریاضیات كاربردی در دانشگاه‌ هاروارد و از نویسندگان این مقاله می‌‌گوید «فعل هر چه پركابردتر باشد، پایدارتر است.» وی می‌افزاید كه هم مقاله هاروارد و هم مقاله ریدینگ بیانگر مواردی از نوعی انتخاب طبیعی هستند كه روی تكامل زبان شناختی عمل می‌كند و انعكاسی از تكامل زیستی است. او می‌گوید «هر دو پژوهش تاثیر عمیقی را روشن می‌كنند كه تكرر كاربرد روی بقای یك واژه دارد.»

پارتا نیوگی (P.Niyogi)، نویسنده كتاب «ماهیت محاسباتی یادگیری زبان و تكامل» و استاد آمار و علوم كامپیوتر دانشگاه شیكاگو، می‌گوید این یافته‌های تجربی با مدل‌های نظری درباره تكامل واژگان سازگار است. او اشاره می‌كند كه «زبان پیوسته در تغییر است. در تكامل زیستی به این واقعیت بسیار توجه شده، اما واقعیت این است كه در زبان‌ها نیز این اتفاق دائم می‌افتد. داروین در كتاب «نسب انسان» گفته است كه زبان‌ها در طول زمان تكامل می‌یابند و در آنها گونه‌زایی رخ می‌دهد.»

كاوه فیض‌اللهی: روزنامه کارگزاران

Applied linguistics

Applied linguistics

 

Applied linguistics is an umbrella term that covers a wide set of numerous areas of study connected by the focus on the language that is actually used. The emphasis in applied linguistics is on language users and the ways in which they use languages, contrary to theoretical linguistics which studies the language in the abstract not referring it to any particular context, or language, like Chomskyan generative grammar for example.

Interestingly even among applied linguists there is a difference of opinion as to the scope, the domains and limits of applied linguistics. There are many issues investigated by applied linguists such as discourse analysis, sign language, stylistics and rhetoric as well as language learning by children and adults, both as mother tongue and second or foreign language. Correlation of language and gender, as well as the transfer of information in media and interpersonal communication are analyzed by applied linguists. Also forensic linguistics, interpretation and translation, together with foreign language teaching methodology and language change are developed by applied linguistics.

Shortly after the introduction of the term applied linguistics it was associated mainly with first, second and foreign language teaching, however nowadays it is seen as more interdisciplinary branch of science. Although in certain parts of the world language teaching remains the major concern of applied linguists, issues such as speech pathologies and determining the levels of literacy of societies, or language processing along with differences in communication between various cultural groups - all gain interest elsewhere.

In European union the focus of applies linguistics is put on the issues connected with the language policy of this multilingual community. The primary aim is to keep the balance in fulfilling the need for lingua franca and maintaining smaller languages in order for them not to get devalued. This is a pressing matter as with the migration of people within the European union and from outside its boarders the mixture of languages is getting more and more complex. Therefore, the focus is also put on analyzing language attitudes, adopting common language policy, creating teaching textbooks and other materials.

As it can be seen there are many trends in applied linguistics, some interconnected, others not having too much in common. There are, however, some very general tendencies among applied linguists to put more effort on certain investigations such as languages of wider communication, corpus analysis, or critical applied linguistics. When it comes to languages of wider communication it is clear that with the increasing numbers of international travels and technological advances the need for an international language raises. As English is the contemporary lingua franca applied linguists attempt to include language policy and planning in their interest, but is also concerned with analyzing language and identity, and special educational needs. Corpus analysis takes both quantitative and qualitative approach to the study of language and applied linguists focus of the identification of patterns of language use depending on social context, audiences, genres and settings. Critical applied linguistics is interested in the social problems connected with language such as unemployment, illiteracy and pedagogy.

Brown K. (Editor) 2005. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics – 2nd Edition. Oxford: Elsevier.

Age and Language

Age and Language

Although it's debatable when the best time to learn a language, one thing's for sure and that's at different ages, you learn differently. Just take a look below to learn how people learn at different stages in their lives.

As Young Children
Children are like sponges, they don't question grammar or pronunciation, they just learn to listen, understand and speak. A young child (from birth to about age 5) will have the ability to learn a language quickly and have native pronunciation.

While listening and speaking come easily, reading and writing, because of their age, are a bit more difficult. Another thing must be said about learning languages at a young age, if the child doesn't keep up with the language, they will lose it just as quickly as they learnt it.

Older Children
Children in primary and secondary school are able to read and write, so they get input from both reading and listening. Since they already have a native language, their pronunciation might not be as good as a child who learns another language at a younger age.

Another challenge is that since they are fixed in their native language, they might want to translate or think first in their native language. They will want to know the "why" behind the foreign language as well.

University Aged Students
At university, students' minds are more open to new ideas and concepts added to more free time than they had in secondary school which in turn allows them to study more makes learning a language at this age possible.

Adults
While adults have many things against them, such as being rooted in their native language and being fixed on the grammar of a foreign language, they also have a lot of things going for them. As an adult, they are stricter with themselves and their learning, they have time to study and are usually more disciplined than younger students.

Conclusion
Learning a language is possible at any age. With dedication and discipline, your students can be competent in English too.

Predicate Vs. Predicator

ممکنه بچه های زبان، Predicator و Predicate  رو اشتباه بگیرند(از جمله خودم!). امروز در پاسخ به سوال یکی

از دوستان متوجه این نکته شدم و بر آن شدم یه پست در این مورد بذارم.

از نظر چامسکی جمله از دو قسمت تشکیل شده Predicator + Verb . همه اجزای جمله قبل از فعل

Predicatorهستند و انواع Predicator از نظر ظرفیت فعلی داریم.

اما از یک دیدگاه دیگر، هر جمله شامل Subject و Predicate است. یه چیزی مثل نهاد و گزاره. Predicate 

فعل راتوصیف می کند. در زیر شرح انگلیسی با مثال را میتوانید ببینید.

Predicate

Every complete sentence contains two parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject is what (or whom) the sentence is about, while the predicate tells something about the subject. In the following sentences, the predicate is enclosed in braces ({}), while the subject is highlighted.

    Judy {runs}.
    Judy and her dog {run on the beach every morning}.

To determine the subject of a sentence, first isolate the verb and then make a question by placing "who?" or "what?" before it -- the answer is the subject.

    The audience littered the theatre floor with torn wrappings and spilled popcorn.

The verb in the above sentence is "littered." Who or what littered? The audience did. "The audience" is the subject of the sentence. The predicate (which always includes the verb) goes on to relate something about the subject: what about the audience? It "littered the theatre floor with torn wrappings and spilled popcorn."
Unusual Sentences

Imperative sentences (sentences that give a command or an order) differ from conventional sentences in that their subject, which is always "you," is understood rather than expressed.

    Stand on your head. ("You" is understood before "stand.")

Be careful with sentences that begin with "there" plus a form of the verb "to be." In such sentences, "there" is not the subject; it merely signals that the true subject will soon follow.

    There were three stray kittens cowering under our porch steps this morning.

If you ask who? or what? before the verb ("were cowering"), the answer is "three stray kittens," the correct subject.
Simple Subject and Simple Predicate

Every subject is built around one noun or pronoun (or more) that, when stripped of all the words that modify it, is known as the simple subject. Consider the following example:

    A piece of pepperoni pizza would satisfy his hunger.

The subject is built around the noun "piece," with the other words of the subject -- "a" and "of pepperoni pizza" -- modifying the noun. "Piece" is the simple subject.

Likewise, a predicate has at its centre a simple predicate, which is always the verb or verbs that link up with the subject. In the example we just considered, the simple predicate is "would satisfy" -- in other words, the verb of the sentence.

A sentence may have a compound subject -- a simple subject consisting of more than one noun or pronoun -- as in these examples:

    Team pennants, rock posters and family photographs covered the boy's bedroom walls.
    Her uncle and she walked slowly through the Inuit art gallery and admired the powerful sculptures exhibited there.
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ادامه نوشته

به مناسبت 80 ساله شدن چامسکی

به مناسبت 80 ساله شدن چامسکی

بین تمام زبانشناسان ببیشترین چیزی که بروز پیدا می کند بحث ها و مقالات زبان شناسی ست و استثنایی

در کارنیست که به نظریات و مکاتبی که پیرو آن بودند پرداخته شود.از نوام چامسکی گرفته که آنارشیست

بودنش تحت عنواین پوشش داده شده گم می شود تا نایدا که فقط برای اصول شناسی ترجمه سراغ

کتابهایش می رویم.برای نوشتن لازم است چندین رگ را به هم ربط داد تا به هدفی رسید که سلامت را تا جای

ممکن داراباشد.گاهی چندین و چند مویرگ از هرجایی سر در می آورند و متن آنقدر پیچیده می شود که شاید

سلامتی را دچار مالیخولیا کند.اگر نایدا آنارشیست بود ترجمه ی آزاد را قبول می کرد یا وجدان خود را موظف به

وفاداری به متن می دانست؟اگر چامسکی آنارشیست نبود و به لیبرالیسم توجهی نشان نداده بود آیا باز هم

چنین نظریاتی را بروز می داد یا اصلاَ سراغ زبان شناسی می رفت؟اگر کمونیست بود یا فاشیست زبان

شناسی را از چه دیدگاهی هدایت می کرد؟آیا باز هم نظرش در مورد دستور زبان زایا همان می شد که اگر 

پیرو داداییسم بود؟فرضاَ اگر دستور زبان زایا قرار بود با توجه به "ساختار شکنی" دریدا تو صیف شود نیاز به هیچ

نوع انتزاعی در دسته بندی تکواژها پیش می آمد؟

جهان بینی چامسکی می توانسته قبل یا بعد از زبان شناسی تغییر کند،اما آیا قبل از اینکه تصمیم به تمرکز بر

زبان شناسی بگیرد هیچ پیش فرضی را نمی شود در نظر گرفت که شاید گاهی زبان شناسی وی تحت تاثیر

جهان بینی اش قرار بگیرد،مگر نه اینکه نظرات او در مورد تمام جنبه های زبان شناسی نیز می تواند در طول

زمان تغییر کند نه اینکه الزاما توسط خودش نقض شود.نظریه ی ساختار شکنی دریدا از همان جا شروع شد که

همه چیز ساختار بندی شده بود.پس نظریه ی او هم معلول( به) قبول وجود ساختارهای پذیرفته شده در زبان

بود.همان طور که تمام ساختارهایی که چامسکی بر زبان اثبات کرد معلول (به) وجود از هم گسیختگی های

زبان بود.ساختارشکنی دریدا هم گاهی به اندازه ی ساختار سازی چامسکی لطف تلقی می شود.می شود با

نظر دریدا مبنی بر قابلیت تبدیل و تحرک واژه شیفته ی زبان شد؛ درست به همان اندازه می توان برای استفاده

از قواعد به جمع کردن تفکرات و تبدیلشان به متون قابل فهم حداقل برای خود نویسنده پرداخت و از ناگفته ها

گره گشایی کرد.گاهی که جدایی دین و سیاست را در نظر می گیریم و بدون تعصب در پایان کار و اخلاق

شناسیش می اندیشیم تمام فرض هایمان غلط از آب در می آیند.اگر مقصود به تکامل باشد نمی شود دو

مقوله را که در تمام تمدن های امروزی بی اجبار پذیرفته شده اند از هم تفکیک کرد.اما قرار نیست که سیاست

بر مبنای دین پیش رود یا بالعکس.این دو مقوله در گرو هم نیستند اما نا خودآگاه اخلاقیات وارد سیاست می

شوند و اخلاقیات را که محسوس تر به دین ربط می دهیم سکولاریسم هم زیر سوال می رود.از آن طرف گاهی

وارد کردن بحث های مذهبی خاص تمام زیربنای سیاست را مسموم می کند حتی اگر تعمدی در کار

نباشد.شاید لازم باشد آن قسمت هایی از دین در سیاست بازتاب داشته باشد که در جهانی بودنش شکی

نیست.هرچند تمام قدرتهای جهانی و حتی نامرغوب ترین سیاست های جهانی در پی پیش بردن هژمونی خود

از هیچ قانونی چه در دین و چه در سیاست برداشتی جهانی نخواهند داشت.چامسکی فلسفه ی خود پذیرفته

اش را بر متن غالب نمی کند و متن را به قالب فلسفه ی خود تزیین نخواهد کرد اما در عین حال ناخود آگاه

متونش به نوعی دستخوش جهان بینی اش می شود.همان طور که دین و سیاست از هم تفکیک 

می شوند و نا خودآگاه تحت تاثیر فرعیات یکدیگر قرار می گیرند.

برگرفته از وبلاگ بالنگ

Persian Phonetics and Phonology (Sounds)

Persian Phonetics and Phonology (Sounds)

Consonants:

There are 23 consonant sounds in Persian, most of which are also found in English. The velar fricatives [x] and [q] are the only Persian consonants that do not occur in English. Conversely, there are four English consonants that do not exist in Persian. These sounds are the interdentals [ ] and [ð], as in thigh and thy, the rounded velar glide [w], as in went, and the velar nasal [ ], as in the final sound of sing. 

continue......>

ادامه نوشته

فونولوژي چيست؟

فونولوژي چيست؟ و برخي موضوعات مرتبط با آن.

مقدمه :

1-1- قلمرو

فونولوژي زير شاخه اي از زبانشناسي است كه در ارتباط با  صداهاي زبان مي باشد. به عبارت دقيق تر فونولوژي در ارتباط با نقش، رفتار و سازماندهي صداها به  عنوان واحدهاي زباني مي باشد. بالعكس، آواشناسي كه بيشتر به مطالعه خنثي خود صداها به عنوان پديده هايي در جهان مادي و خصوصيتهاي فيزيولوژيكي ،جسمي ، عصبي و رواني انسان كه باعث توليد آنها مي شود، اشاره مي نمايد. واجشناسي همچون نحو ، واژه شناسي و به مقدار بسيار زيادي معني شناسي «زباني» است در حاليكه آواشناسي بر جنبه هاي مختلفي از فيزيولوژي اعصاب، روانشناسي ادراكي و فيزيك و... نظر دارد.

بايد در نظر داشته باشيم كه ما نمي توانيم نقش صداهاي زبان را بدون ارجاع به چگونگي توليد آنها و يا خصوصيات فيزيكيشان مطالعه كنيم. همچنين ما نمي توانيم صداها را در خلاء و بدون ارجاع به نقش زباني آنها مطالعه نمائيم.

در اينجا سئوالاتي مطرح مي شود از قبيل اينكه: چطور واجشناسي به كل زبانشناسي مرتبط مي گردد؟ يا چطور جنبة واجي زبان به بقيه زبان يعني معني شناسي، نحو و واژشناسي مرتبط مي گردد؟ …

ممكن است ما اين ارتباط را بطور سطحي با استفاده از بيان سوسور در تمايز بين صورت[1][1] و ماده يا جوهر[2][2] بيان نمائيم، از يك نظر، زبان مجموعه اي از ارتباطات صوري و انتزاعي مي باشد (كه شايد بطريقي در ذهن سخنگويان آن نمود پيدا مي كند). اما از جنبة ماده (جوهر)، زبان به عنوان صدا، علائم روي كاغذ و… مي باشد. به عبارتي ديگر هر نشانة زباني متشكل از دو عنصر مي باشد : يك مفهوم مدلول[3][3] مانند «سگ» يا «سوم شخص مفرد» و يك دلالت گر[4][4] كه از اتخاذ آنان «واژه» يا «سازه اي»[5][5] ديگر بوجود مي آيد. بنابراين مفهوم «سگ» در زبان توسط زنجيره اي آوايي مشخص مي شود : در فارسي [sag] در انگليسي [dog] . علاوه بر اين، زبان توسط آنچه برخي محققان آن را توليد دوگانه[6][6] (تجربه دوگانه) مي نامند، نيز توصيف مي گردد. در يك سطح، ما اساسا عناصر بي معني داريم (مثلا عناصر آوايي) با قوانين خاص تركيب و خصوصيات غيرمعنايي ديگرشان و از طرف ديگر تركيبات معناداري از اين عناصر بي معني وجود دارد. اما رابطه ميان معني و عنصر بدون معني اساساً يك رابطة اختياري است . دليل خاصي وجود ندارد كه چرا بايد «سگ» [sag] باشد و...

هر زباني ممكن است از يك نقطه نظر معيني ، «مجموعه اي از تطابقهاي معنايي- آوايي» تعريف شود و يك توصيف يا دستور يك زبان، موضوع رسمي (صوري) است كه اين مطابقتها را بيان مي دارد كه البته محدودة اين توصيف و گسترة مواد زباني مورد شك است و چهارچوبهاي نظري مختلف ، اَشكال متفاوتي از يك توصيف كارآمد را پيشنهاد داده اند. در واقع مي توانيم بگوئيم كه واج شناسي داراي دو وظيفه عمده مي باشد: يكي، كشف طبيعت نمود آوايي هستة صوري زبان هم به طور كلي و هم براي زبانهاي خاص و ديگر ، مرتبط ساختن اين نمود واقعي با خود صورت كه البته من مورد دوم را به عنوان يك هدف فرعي مي بينيم.

ادامه نوشته

syllable

What is a syllable?

 

Definition
	A syllable is a unit of sound composed of
	a central peak of sonority (usually a vowel), and the consonants that cluster around this central peak.

Discussion
	Syllable structure, which is the combination of allowable segments and typical sound sequences, is language specific.

Parts

Parts	Description	Optionality
Onset	Initial segment of a syllable	Optional
Rhyme	Core of a syllable, consisting of a nucleus and coda (see below)	Obligatory
– Nucleus	Central segment of a syllable	Obligatory
– Coda	Closing segment of a syllable	Optional

Example (English)
	Here is an example of the syllable structure of the English word limit:

Kinds

Here are some kinds of syllables:

Kind	Description	Example
Heavy	Has a branching rhyme. All syllables with a branching nucleus (long vowels) are considered heavy. Some languages treat syllables with a short vowel (nucleus followed by a consonant (coda) as heavy.	CV:C, CVCC, CVC
Light	Has a non-branching rhyme (short vowel). Some languages treat syllables with a short vowel(nucleus) followed by a consonant (coda) as light.	CV, CVC
Closed	Ends with a consonant coda.	CVC, CVCC, VC
Open	Has no final consonant	CV

Diagram
	Here is a diagram of a syllable:

Tongue Twisters

What are Tongue Twisters?

When most people think of tongue twisters a childhood image comes to mind: Attempting to recite a tricky rhyme or phrase as fast as possible without tripping over the verbal challenges and hurdles lurking within these tongue-tying sentences, such as Peter Piper Picked A Peck of Pickled Peppers.

By combining the effects of alliteration (repetition of a sound), particularly of similar but not identical sounds, with a phrase designed such that it is made very easy to slip (perhaps making a Spoonerism) accidentally, these sentences and poems can be guaranteed to provide us with lots of fun and laughter.

But tongue twisters are not only for light-hearted linguistic fun and games. They serve a practical purpose in practising pronunciation. English tongue twisters may be used by foreign students of English to improve their accent, actors who need to develop a certain accent, and by speech therapists to help those with speech difficulties.

When their use is for one of these more serious reasons, then tongue twisters are generally subdivided into categories classifying them by the particular vowel or consonant sounds they exercise. The Peter Piper twister, for example, clearly provides practice for the P sound.


    Tongue-twister: a formula of sequence of words difficult to pronounce without blundering.
  
 The Chambers Dictionary

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?
If Peter Piper Picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

She sells seashells by the seashore.
The shells she sells are surely seashells.
So if she sells shells on the seashore,
I'm sure she sells seashore shells.

Red lorry, yellow lorry.

Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches?

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
If a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could,
And chuck as much as a woodchuck would
If a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Kids' Funny Tongue Twisters


Many an anemone sees an enemy anemone.

Freshly-fried flying fish.

She stood on the balcony,
inexplicably mimicking him hiccoughing,
and amicably welcoming him home.

Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager
imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.

The epitome of femininity.

A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk,
but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.

Greek grapes.

There are dozens more on our other tongue twister pages! Click the twister links below:

    * Tongue Twisters Poems.
    * Your Favourite Tongue Twisters.
    * Rude Tongue Twisters. (not for children or the easily offended)
    * More about Tongue Twisters.

First language acquisition

First language acquisition is a complex process, not fully accounted for yet, with as many facts discovered as questions that still remain to be answered. Although it seems that the majority of children acquire a mother tongue without any major difficulties there are certain conditions that have to be fulfilled in order for young people to learn to speak. One such requirement is that a child cannot be deaf, as exposure to some linguistic input pays a major role in the language acquisition process. Moreover, the exposure to language needs to occur before certain age, otherwise no oral communication will take place.

 

On the other hand, when the language acquisition takes place it usually follows a schedule, whatever language is to be learned. Thus contrary to popular belief the process does not start when the child utters its first word. At the age of one month most children are able to distinguish between their mother’s voice and the voices of other people, as well as some differences in the rhythm of speech and intonation. In many cases it is apparent that children are able to understand the tone of voice as early as at the age of two to four months, differentiating between joyful, angry, or soothing tones. When the child is between six and nine months old some simple utterances of parents are associated with situations in which they are used, and thus infants learn the meanings of the first words. By the end of the first year babies usually understand more or less 20 words.

 

Communication with children seem vital for their acquisition of language, however, what is characteristic of that interaction is that very often adults do not use normal sentences that they would use while conversing with another adult. When parents talk to their children they frequently use simplified vocabulary, they speak slower and with exaggerated intonation. This type of speech is called caregiver speech or motherese and is also characterized by a common use of questions, slow speed of speech and numerous long pauses. It seems that such a type of speech is used in order to facilitate interaction which stimulates the language acquisition process.

 

The ability to communicate develops gradually since the very beginning of the infant’s life. The first stage of developing linguistic competence is called cooing as the sounds that children make resemble [k] or [g] and it lasts until about fourth or fifth month of life, when children also start to hear the differences between some vowels. When the child begins to produce combinations of sounds – at about six and eight month this stage of language development is called babbling, which lasts till about twelfth month with more and more complex combinations produced. Then at between twelfth and eighteenth month a holophrastic or one word stage begins. It is characterized by the use of whole words, yet often not to refer to one entity, but to a whole phrase. When a child reaches the age of about eighteen to twenty months the two-word stage usually starts, and the child usually knows about fifty words.

 

 

The next stage is called telegraphic speech as children do not use almost any grammatical constructions and utter strings of words such as food now. When such speech brings desired results such as requested behavior or reply from adults children start using it more and more and with time some prepositions and grammar inflections start to appear and the vocabulary is quickly expanding.

 

As a general rule correcting children’s grammar at such an early age does not bring any results. While if a child uses a wrong word it can be quickly corrected, but when it comes to grammar even repetitive corrections of a similar mistake might not make the child to say a correct form. It seems that such mistakes vanish with time as infants participate in natural conversations.

 

 

 

Yule G. 1996. The study of language. Cambridge: CUP.

 

Brown K. (Editor) 2005. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics – 2nd Edition. Oxford: Elsevier.

 

Crystal D. 2005, The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language - 2nd edition. Cambridge: CUP.

 

Wilson R. A. (Editor) 1999. The MIT encyclopedia of cognitive sciences. London: The MIT Press.

 

 

Corpus

 A corpus (plural: corpora) in linguistics is a vast and organized set of texts of different kinds nowadays stored and processed mainly on computers. The first attempts to create a language corpus were made in the 1960s adopting lexicographic approach with the focus put on the meaning of words in sentences and not on the thoughts expressed by those sentences. The language that was analyzed was mainly that used by common people in order to examine the currently used syntax and lexis.
What is important in studying corpora is that they enable more quantitative research which was difficult before their creation. Investigations of commonly used language, it is assumed, will uncover the patterns of language as when people from different parts of a country show some patterns of language use those patterns are most probably the patterns of language.
The first electronic corpus was compiled in the 1960s at Brown University and it consists of about a million words from documents published in 1961. despite its advanced age it is still in use, moreover, its design was considered a standard for many years. More or less at the same time in Edinburgh a corpus of informal spoken language was created, however the scholars working on those two projects were not aware of each other’s work.
The short history of corpora can be divided into three periods:
The first twenty years: 1960-1980 when linguists learned how to build corpora and how to use the technological novelties such as tape recorders and computers for gathering data; the corpora consisted of up to a million words;
The second twenty years, subdivided into two decades: 1980s when the use of scanners enables linguists to increase the quantity of corpora to 20 million words, and 1990s when computer typesetting allowed a different target size of corpora
The new millennium: with its increasing popularity the Internet makes previously unavailable texts easily accessible.

Although the history of corpora is relatively short the technological advances enabled creating many different types of such sets of texts, so nowadays apart from monolingual corpora there are bilingual or multilingual corpora. Another type is called sample corpora and those show a state of language at a given point in time. A Reference corpus is one that can reliably portray all the features of a language. There are also historical corpora which aim at comparison of past forms of a language with its present state, they can be subdivided into two kinds depending of the features they want to emphasize. Thus, diachronic corpora present samples of language with intervals of about a generation of users, while monitor corpora attempt to follow the language change while it occurs. Apart from historical approaches there are topic corpora which focus on a particular field of interest or a genre.
In order to help applied linguists, methodologists and language learners non-native speaker corpora were created. Thanks to them the analysis of learner language and of possible difficulties or mistakes is much easier and enables new approaches to teaching. However there are not many such corpora. Another type of corpora that still needs more data are speech corpora. For all the other types of corpora printed texts from different periods make it easier for linguists to find desired data than in the case of speech where the tape recorders and later devices enabled gathering data relatively recently.
An exemplary excerpt from a corpus showing instances of the word door:

 

A Sturmabteeilung opened the door that led into the cabin and Frick walked in.

At 44, she found most doors slammed shut.

He got out of bed and tiptoed to the door to listen.

and down on the pavement opposite her door.

He stepped outside, closed the doors, swithed off the flashlight and walked.

I'd allowed the door to swing behind me.

We had the trap door, the back door.

 

Brown K. (Editor) 2005. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics – 2nd Edition. Oxford: Elsevier.

 

Mnemonics

Mnemonics

Mnemonics are devices to help us remember (aide memoir or memory aide). They come in many varieties and flavours, and can aid memorization of many types of information. This section concentrates on mnemonics related to words and numbers.

In our what are mnemonics? section, you'll discover more about mnemonics and the various types that exist.

Where there is something to remember, mnemonics can be put to use. You will find them in every discipline from music, medicine, biology, and electronics to spelling, physics, geography, and remembering telephone numbers! For examples of all of these, take a look at our mnemonics page.

Mnemonics can even be used to remember numbers, and we have a special number mnemonics section where you will discover methods to remember telephone numbers, or the number pi to great accuracy! But of course there's not room for everything on this site. If you want to explore mnemonics further, or need a comprehensive book to assist you with spelling, or learning for your exams, then visit the mnemonics books section of our online wordplay books section.

Do You Recognise These Mnemonics?
Do you know what the following famous mnemonics are to aid the memory of? Answers to these mnemonics here.

    * Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants.
    * Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain.
    * Every Good Boy Deserves Favour.
    * A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream.
    * High to Low; look out below. Low to High; clear blue sky.
    * How I like a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics.

Source

Oxymorons

Oxymorons

Ever noticed that it's simply impossible to find seriously funny oxymorons online? The only choice is to ask one of those paid volunteers at the library – the ones in the long-sleeved T-shirts – for an original copy of some obviously obscure documents that were found missing amongst some paperwork almost exactly one hundred years ago.

Notice anything strange about the paragraph above? It makes some sort of sense, yet it's riddled with contradictions (in blue). These are oxymorons. Here are some more:

    * Jumbo Shrimp
    * Same Difference
    * Pretty Ugly
    * Definite Maybe
    * Show me more funny oxymorons!

Perhaps you agree some of these could be oxymorons too!

    * Military Intelligence
    * Microsoft Works
    * Civil Engineer
    * Click for more oxymorons!

Shakespeare and Oxymorons
William Shakespeare loved to play with words. In A Midsummer Night's Dream Theseus speaks these oxymoronic words (Act V, Scene I):

"A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
And his love Thisby; very tragical mirth.'
Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow."

ادامه نوشته

Cognitive linguistics

Cognitive linguistics

By Kamil Wiśniewski Aug 17th, 2007

 

Cognitive linguistics is still a very young discipline which had its beginnings in the 1970s, and whose quick development and extension of investigated issues dates to the mid-1980s. Since then the scope of interest of this branch of science started to include various areas such as syntax, discourse, phonology and semantics, all of which are looked upon as the representation of conceptual organization in language.

Probably the most developed idea that emerged from cognitive linguists’ efforts is that of the cognitive grammar. The aim of cognitive grammar is to formulate a theory of meaning and grammar which would be cognitively probable and would fulfill the following requirements that the only structures allowed in the grammar are:

    * Symbolic, semantic, or phonological structures usually occurring in linguistic expressions (Saussurean ‘sign’)
    * Schemas for such structures (acquired by exposure to multiple examples of the pattern)
    * Categorization of relationships among the above mentioned elements.

Apart from that, cognitive linguistics is interested in issues such as processes by which and patterns in which conceptual content is arranged in language. Therefore, the structuring of concepts like scenes and events, space and time, force and causation, together with motion and location attract the cognitive linguists’ interest. Moreover, the ideational and affective categories ascribed to cognitive agents such as expectation and affect, volition and intention, as well as attention and perspective are examined.

By and large, the cognitive linguists’ intentions are to ascertain the integrated organization of conceptual structuring in language by approaching such issues as the semantic structure of lexical and morphological forms, together with syntactic patterns. Also interrelationships of conceptual structures, as in the gathering of conceptual categories into large structuring systems are investigated.

 

Brown K. (Editor) 2005. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics – 2nd Edition. Oxford: Elsevier.
Wilson R. A. (Editor) 1999. The MIT encyclopedia of cognitive sciences. London: The MIT Press.

 

Farsi or Persian...........Which one?

نام زبان ما به انگليسی چيست: فارسی (Farsi) يا پرژن (Persian)؟

نام زبان ما فارسی است. در انگليسی به آن پِرژِن (Persian) می گويند. اگر چه اين گفته ساده می نمايد اما در سالهای اخير در زبان انگليسی به گونه ای روز افزون به جای واژه پرژن (Persian)، از واژه فارسی (Farsi) استفاده می گردد. در اين گفتار کوتاه، می خواهم توضيح دهم که چرا چنين جايگزينی صورت می گيرد، چه کسانی آن را انجام می دهند، و سرانجام اينکه زيان های اين جايگزينی کدام است. پيش از اين ديگران در اين باره نکاتی را مطرح کرده اند و بحث های بسياری هم صورت گرفته اما بنظر می رسد که مسئله هنوز حل نگرديده است و هر روز هم جدی تر می شود.
قرن هاست که در غرب از واژه پرژن (Persian) استفاده می کنند که اصل آن به واژه های پارس و پارسی بر می گردد. هنگامی که هزار سال پيش از ميلاد مسيح اقوام آريايی به سرزمين پرسيس مهاجرت کردند پارس و زبان آنها نيز پارسی شناخته شد. اين زبان از آن هنگام تا کنون دچار دگرگونی های بسياری در دوره های گوناگون شده است که نتيجه آن پديداری پارسی کهن (که تا سه سده پيش از ميلاد زنده بوده)، پارسی ميانه يا پهلوی (که تا سده نهم پس از ميلاد رايج بوده)، و پارسی نو که ديگر پس از تسلط عرب ها نام آن به فارسی موسوم شد – بوده است.چرا که در زبان حاکمان جديد صدای "پ" وجود نداشت. اگر اين صدا وجود داشت و يا اگر ايرانيان پشتکار بيشتری در نگهداری نام واقعی آن می کردند، با توجه به تشابه آن با نام آن در زبانهای غربی کار امروز ما یقينا ساده تر می بود. ولی ايرانيان از فرم عربی اين واژه که همان "فارسی" است برای ناميدن زبان خود استفاده کردند. اما در غرب از همان دوران يونان و رم باستان اين زبان پرژن (Persian) - يا با تلفظی شبيه به آن بسته بهنوع زبان اروپايی خوانده شد. فارسی در دوران امپراتوری اسلامی همچنان اهميت خود را حفظ کرد و در کنار عربی به يک زبان جهانی بويژه در فلات ايران، در آسيای ميانه، و تا همين سده های اخير بعنوان يک زبان رسمی در هند تبديل گرديد. در اين دوران حجم بزرگی از آثار تاريخی، شعری، و ادبی، اجتماعی، و علمی به فارسی نوشته شد. امروزه نيز فارسی همچنان نه تنها زبان رسمی ايران بلکه يکی از زبانهای رسمی افغانستان و جمهوری تاجيکستان و هنوز هم زبان مردم بسياری در ساير نقاط آسيای ميانه است.
اما سخن اصلی ما بر سر نام اين زبان در زبان انگليسی است نه تاريخچه آن. مسئله اين است که چرا ناگهان در امريکا و نيز در بسياری از کشورهای اروپايی بجای نام انگليسی (Persian) يا فرانسوی (Persane)، يا آلمانی ( Persisch) آن، واژه "فارسی" (Farsi) که در واقع نام بومی زبان ما در ايران يا کشورهای فارسی زبان است بکار برده می شود و چه کسانی به اين کار دامن می زنند ؟ اشکال آن چيست؟
 

ادامه نوشته

یک بحث خیلی جالب زبان شناسی در مورد کلمات متقارن

Palindromes

 

The word palindrome is derived from the Greek palíndromos, meaning running back again (palín = AGAIN + drom–, drameîn = RUN). A palindrome is a word or phrase which reads the same in both directions. Some simple examples are:

 

RACECAR	DEED	LEVEL	PIP
ROTOR	CIVIC	POP	MADAM
EYE	NUN	RADAR	TOOT

 

Words like LIVE and STRAW (which read EVIL and WARTS backwards) are not themselves palindromes but the "phrases" LIVE EVIL and STRAW WARTS are. A palindrome is not necessarily a single word.

 

The longest single English word in common usage which is a palindrome is REDIVIDER, although the contrived chemical term DETARTRATED is two letters longer. In Finnish there is a 25-letter palindromic word: SOLUTOMAATTIMITTAAMOTULOS which means the result from a measurement laboratory for tomatoes, although technically it is a compound of four words. There is also the equally long SAIPPUAKUPPINIPPUKAUPPIAS which means soap cup trader.

 

When creating reversible sentences, it is usually accepted that punctuation and word spacings are ignored, and so the famous MADAM, I'M ADAM is a valid palindrome.

 

Palindrome Varieties

 

There are two other types of palindrome, although neither is particularly common. The first is the word-unit palindrome. As the name suggests, these are palindromes in which the words form the same sentence in either direction, e.g. WOMEN UNDERSTAND MEN; FEW MEN UNDERSTAND WOMEN. Occasionally these are also traditional palindromes, such as in I DID, DID I? but this only happens when each word is itself a traditional palindrome.

 

The other kind of palindrome is the mirrored palindrome. These are palindromes which are graphically reversible. Not all letters in mirrored palindromes necessarily have symmetry about a vertical axis (A, H, I, M, O, T, U, V, W, X) since some letters are (more or less) mirror images of others (e.g. L and J). Therefore a mirrored palindrome is not necessarily also a traditional palindrome. Punctuation and spaces cannot be ignored when creating mirrored palindromes. When reversed A TOYOTA becomes ATOYOT A which, strictly speaking, is not the same. WOT TOW, although fairly meaningless, is a valid mirrored palindrome. Of course, with this type of palindrome, it is important whether upper or lower case letters are used: bid is a mirrored palindrome, but BID is not Examples

Don't nod
Dogma: I am God
Never odd or even
Too bad – I hid a boot
Rats live on no evil star
No trace; not one carton
Was it Elliot's toilet I saw?
Murder for a jar of red rum
May a moody baby doom a yam?
Go hang a salami; I'm a lasagna hog!
Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas!
A Toyota! Race fast... safe car: a Toyota
Straw? No, too stupid a fad; I put soot on warts
Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?
Doc Note: I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod
No, it never propagates if I set a gap or prevention
Anne, I vote more cars race Rome to Vienna
Sums are not set as a test on Erasmus
Kay, a red nude, peeped under a yak
Some men interpret nine memos
Campus Motto: Bottoms up, Mac
Go deliver a dare, vile dog!
Madam, in Eden I'm Adam
Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo
Ah, Satan sees Natasha
Lisa Bonet ate no basil
Do geese see God?
God saw I was dog
Dennis sinned

 

 

منبع

Basic sentences

اولین پست این وبلاگ مطلبی بود در مورد ساختار جملات در زبان انگلیسی....

حالا بر می گردیم به همان بحث بعد از یک سال.....

جملات ساده و نه مرکب در زبان انگلیسی دارای 5 الگوی کلی می باشند، البته بعضی منابع

7 الگو را برای جملات ارائه داده اند که شامل جملات دو مفعولی نیز می شوند. من در اینجا همان

5 الگو را آوردم و جملات دو مفعولی را Basic  محسوب نمی کنیم.

There are five basic patterns around which most English sentences are built.* They are
as follows:

S-V	Subject-Verb	John sleeps.
		Jill is eating.
		Jack will arrive next week.
S-V-O	Subject-Verb-Object	I like rice.
		She loves her job.
		He's eating an orange.
S-V-Adj	Subject-Verb-Adjective	He is funny.
		The workers are lazy.
		Karen seems angry.
S-V-Adv	Subject-Verb-Adverb	Jim is here.
		Flowers are everywhere.
		No one was there.
S-V-N	Subject-Verb-Noun	She is my mom.
		The men are doctors.
		Mr. Jones is the teacher.

English morphological system

An overview of the English morphological system

 

 

· Basic terminology with definitions and examples

 

• MORPHEME = the smallest meaningful unit of language (any part of a word that cannot be broken down further into smaller meaningful parts, including the whole word itself). The word 'items' can be broken down into two meaningful parts: 'item' and the plural suffix '-s'; neither of these can be broken down into smaller parts that have a meaning. Therefore 'item' and '-s' are both morphemes.
• FREE MORPHEME = a morpheme that can stand alone as an independent word (e.g. 'item').
• BOUND MORPHEME = a morpheme that cannot stand alone as an independent word, but must be attached to another morpheme/word (affixes, such as plural '-s', are always bound; roots are sometimes bound, e.g. the 'kep-' of 'kept' or the '-ceive' of 'receive'.
• BASE = an element (free or bound, root morpheme or complex word) to which additional morphemes are added.  Also called a STEM. A base can consist of a single root morpheme, as with the 'kind' of 'kindness'. But a base can also be a word that itself contains more than one morpheme. For example, we can use the word 'kindness' as a base to form the word 'kindnesses'; to make 'kindnesses', we add the plural morpheme, spelled '-es' in this case, to the base 'kindness'.
• ROOT = a (usually free) morpheme around which words can be built up through the addition of affixes. The root usually has a more-soecific meaning than the affixes that attach to it. Ex.: The root 'kind' can have affixes added to it to form 'kindly', 'kindness', 'kinder', 'kindest'. The root is the item you have left when you strip all other morphemes off of a complex word. In the word dehumanizing, for example, if you strip off all the affixes -- -ing, -ize, and de-, human is what you have left. It cannot be divided further into meaningful parts. It is the root of the word.

 

ادامه نوشته

Language: Correct or not to Correct!

  شاید برنامه " فارسی را پاس بداریم " که سالیان گذشته از صدا و سیما پخش می شد

دیده باشید. برنامه ای که سعی داشت عادات غلط زبانی مردم را اصلاح کند.

به نظر شما اصلاح زبان کار صحیحی می باشد؟ سوالی که بحث های جنجالی در اوایل

دهه 40 میلادی بین زبان شناسان صاحب نام جهان برانگیخت. بالاخره  گروهی از زبان شناسان

به رهبری بلومفیلد(Bloomfield) با زبان شناسی توصیفی" Descriptive linguistics"، عقاید نو

خودشان را به جهان معرفی کردند. آنها بر این باور بودند که "هر نوع تلاشی که برای برقرار کردن

 ملاک‌های مطلق و معیارهای قاطع به کار رود تا زبان مردم را تنظیم کند، از گام نخست محکوم به

شکست است، زیرا، هیچ مقامی وجود ندارد که حق یا توانایی آن را داشته باشد که بر زبان

مردم حکومت کند. و حتی وقتی که چنین مقامی رسما به وجود آید (مانند آکادمی‌های فرانسه

 و اسپانیا) نمی‌تواند ملاک‌های معتبری برای طراحی زبان مردم پیدا کند."

ادامه نوشته

Applied linguistics

Applied linguistics یکی از شاخه های مهم زبان شناسی از یک نوع تقسیم بندی می باشد.

تاکید این شاخه بر کاربرد ( Use ) واقعی زبان و راه های به کار بردن زبان توسط کاربران است.

اطلاعات بیشتر در مقاله موجود در ادامه مطلب.

ادامه نوشته

Anthropological linguistics

امروز درباره یکی از شاخه های علم زبانشناسی به نام انسان شناسی زبان بحث می کنیم.

دانشمندان این رشته به بررسی تاثیر زبان بر روی جامعه و مردم آن جامعه می پردازند.

تاثیر متقابل فرهنگ و زبان بر همدیگر نیز از دیگر موضوعات مورد بحث در این رشته است.

نظریه معروف سپیر وورف در مورد تاثیر زبان و درک مردم از جهان نتیجه کار انسان شناسان بوده است.

در ادامه مطلب مقاله انگلیسی در همین مورد آوردم.

ادامه نوشته

Phonetics

امروز میخوام درباره Phonetics بحث کنم....علم بررسی آواها و صداهای

زبان های بشری....مقاله جالبی در ادامه مطلب آوردم که میتونم بگم

واقعا کامله... از همه جوانب موضوع رو بررسی کرده..... بخونید و لذت ببرید.

ادامه نوشته

Theories about how young children acquire and develop language

تو این پست چند تا از تئوری های موجود در مورد یادگیری زبان اول

توسط کودکان رو به صورت خلاصه آوردم.امیدوارم مورد استفاده قرار بگیره.

Theories about how young children acquire and develop language

 

 

Young children become amazingly proficient communicators during the first three years of life. As the Birth to Three Matters framework points out, they use 'the hundred languages of children' - body language (including facial expressions and dance); sign language (their own and family inventions as well as an officially recognised sign language); painting, drawing and mark-making; and oral expression. They have been acutely active listeners since their days in the womb, where they learned to recognise the speech patterns, tunes and tones of the languages used in their home contexts

 

CONTINUE

ادامه نوشته

A Hot Topic:What is The Origin Of Language

  یک سوال بحث برانگیز : ریشه زبان به کجا برمی گردد؟

آیا همه زبان های موجود از یک زبان مادر ریشه گرفته اند؟

دلیل این همه تنوع و گوناگونی زبان ها چیست؟ آیا نظریات موجود درباره

ریشه زبان با نظریات مذهبی در مورد خلقت انسان تناقض ندارد ؟

آیا انسان های نخستین دارای زبان بودند؟

اینها همه سوالاتی است که مقاله های این پست به آنها جواب می دهند.

هر چه امروز در مورد ریشه زبان گفته شده هنوز در حد فرضیه باقی مانده است

و هنوز ناگفته های زیادی در تاریخ شناسی زبان که یکی از مباحث جالب زبانشناسی

وجود دارد....

ادامه نوشته

Contrastive analysis of Lori and Standard Persian

در واپسین روزهای کلاس ها مقاله ای رو تحت عنوان مقایسه

گویش لری و زبان فارسی معیار تهیه کردم و به عنوان کار پایانی

درس زبان شناسی مقابله ای ارائه دادم. امیدوارم مورد استفاده

علاقه مندان قرار بگیره....مقاله به فارسی می باشد.

روی ادامه مطلب کلیک کنید.

 

ادامه نوشته

10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make your resume and you look stupid

10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid...!

Employment News April 9th, 2007



These days, we tend to communicate via the keyboard as much as we do verbally. Often, we’re in a hurry, quickly dashing off emails with typos, grammatical shortcuts (I’m being kind here), and that breezy, e.e. cummings, no-caps look. It’s expected. It’s no big deal. But other times, we try to invest a little care, avoiding mistakes so that there’s no confusion about what we’re saying and so that we look professional and reasonably bright.

In general, we can slip up in a verbal conversation and get away with it. A colleague may be thinking, “Did she just say ‘irregardless’?”, but the words flow on, and our worst transgressions are carried away and with luck, forgotten.

That’s not the case with written communications. When we commit a grammatical crime in emails, discussion posts, reports, memos, and other professional documents, there’s no going back. We’ve just officially gone on record as being careless or clueless. And here’s the worst thing. It’s not necessary to be an editor or a language whiz or a spelling bee triathlete to spot such mistakes. They have a way of doing a little wiggle dance on the screen and then reaching out to grab the reader by the throat.

So here we are in the era of Word’s red-underline “wrong spelling, dumb ass” feature and Outlook’s Always Check Spelling Before Sending option, and still the mistakes proliferate. Catching typos is easy (although not everyone does it). It’s the other stuff — correctly spelled but incorrectly wielded — that sneaks through and makes us look stupid. Here’s a quick review of some of the big ones.

#1: Loose for lose
No: I always loose the product key.

Yes: I always lose the product key.

#2: It’s for its (or god forbid, its’)
No: Download the HTA, along with it’s readme file.

Yes: Download the HTA, along with its readme file.

No: The laptop is overheating and its making that funny noise again.

Yes: The laptop is overheating and it’s making that funny noise again.

#3: They’re for their for there
No: The managers are in they’re weekly planning meeting.

Yes: The managers are in their weekly planning meeting.

No: The techs have to check there cell phones at the door, and their not happy about it.

Yes: The techs have to check their cell phones at the door, and they’re not happy about it.

#4: i.e. for e.g.
No: Use an anti-spyware program (i.e., Ad-Aware).

Yes: Use an anti-spyware program (e.g., Ad-Aware).

Note: The term i.e. means “that is”; e.g. means “for example”. And a comma follows both of them.

#5: Effect for affect
No: The outage shouldn’t effect any users during work hours.

Yes: The outage shouldn’t affect any users during work hours.

Yes: The outage shouldn’t have any effect on users.

Yes: We will effect several changes during the downtime.

Note: Impact is not a verb. Purists, at least, beg you to use affect instead:

No: The outage shouldn’t impact any users during work hours.

Yes: The outage shouldn’t affect any users during work hours.

Yes: The outage should have no impact on users during work hours.

#6: You’re for your
No: Remember to defrag you’re machine on a regular basis.

Yes: Remember to defrag your machine on a regular basis.

No: Your right about the changes.

Yes: You’re right about the changes.

#7: Different than for different from
No: This setup is different than the one at the main office.

Yes: This setup is different from the one at the main office.

Yes: This setup is better than the one at the main office.

#8 Lay for lie
No: I got dizzy and had to lay down.

Yes: I got dizzy and had to lie down.

Yes: Just lay those books over there.

#9: Then for than
No: The accounting department had more problems then we did.

Yes: The accounting department had more problems than we did.

Note: Here’s a sub-peeve. When a sentence construction begins with If, you don’t need a then. Then is implicit, so it’s superfluous and wordy:

No: If you can’t get Windows to boot, then you’ll need to call Ted.

Yes: If you can’t get Windows to boot, you’ll need to call Ted.

#10: Could of, would of for could have, would have
No: I could of installed that app by mistake.

Yes: I could have installed that app by mistake.

No: I would of sent you a meeting notice, but you were out of town.

Yes: I would have sent you a meeting notice, but you were out of town.

 

seven ways to help students enjoy grammar

Grammar and vocabulary:

seven ways to help students enjoy grammar

 

Introduction

Students’ reactions to grammar-focused lessons seem to be typically one of three kinds. Some students find grammar very appealing, some find it intrinsically boring, and some find it useful but really hard work.

 

There might be a number of reasons for these reactions. For example, some students’ brain chemistry might be more (or less) pre-programmed for learning grammar. If this is the case, the teacher has limited power to promote the enjoyment of grammar. But it’s also possible that students have had a negative learning experience with grammar – they might be used to listening to long lectures about grammar (yes, even today) and doing long, esoteric exercises on one particular area of target language.

 

In order to make grammar more interesting for students, I’d recommend a more inductive approach, i.e. students should be allowed to work out the meaning and the rules of the grammar for themselves. I also think that the teachers’ ‘metalanguage’ (i.e. the language used to talk about the target language) should be kept to an absolute minimum. Furthermore, it’s crucial to get learners to use the target language in an authentic way about their own lives. And, in addition to such communicative work, I think that students can be encouraged to do some analytical work, particularly where communicative outcomes are affected.

 

Let’s now study, in more detail, what I mean by the above. Below are the seven ways, together with sample teacher language for each part of the lesson.

‍CONTINUE........

ادامه نوشته

مشكلات رايج كاربران زبان در صحبت كردن

در اين پست دو تا از مشكلات رايج كاربران زبان در صحبت كردن را آوردم....

 

  Malapropisms

This is the hilarious
 world of malapropisms, verbal slips and gaffes, Bushisms, Colemanballs, and, of course, Mrs. Malaprop. We all know that when someone misuses a word, the result can induce hysterics, unless of course it is we who have made the blunder, in which case embarrassment it the more likely effect. When an incorrect word is used like this, a malapropism is born. Here is a handful of genuine malapropisms gathered from across the Internet:

 • He had to use a fire distinguisher.

 • Dad says the monster is just a pigment of my imagination. • Isn't that an expensive pendulum round that man's neck? • Good punctuation means not to be late. • He's a wolf in cheap clothing. • Michelangelo painted the Sixteenth Chapel. • My sister has extra-century perception. • "Don't" is a contraption. • More Funny Malapropisms

.......CONTINUE

ادامه نوشته

What is Etymology?

یک مطلب در مورد زبانشناسی

What is Etymology?

 

The word etymology is derived from the Greek etumos which means real or true. The ending ology suggests the study/science of something, as in biology or geology. And that is the etymology of etymology. It is the study of the origins of words; how they evolved. Confused?

Here is another example. The Ancient Greek word hippos means horse. And potamus means river. Hence hippopotamus literally means river horse.

A few other parts of words derived from Ancient Greek are tele (long distance), micro (small), phone (speak), and scope (look). From these come such words as telephone, telescope, microphone, and microscope.

Of course not all words are derived from Ancient Greek. The English language is a rich mixture of many languages, and that is what makes its etymology so interesting. In the Interesting Etymology section you can learn how many words came about, particularly those with amusing origins. We also have a page about the origins of sayings and expressions.

If you are keen to discover more, browse the reviews in the etymology section of our online language bookstore. There are very many excllent books on etymology and dictionaries of etymology available.

How we teach grammar

اما ادامه ی بحث گرامر......چطور گرامر رو درس بدیم......بچه های Teaching

توجه کنند(خصوصا اونایی که مثل من هفته ی آینده باید اجرا داشته باشند..!!).

A third way

 

Hester Lott abandons the top and the bottom and steps firmly down a middle path.

 

Teaching grammar can be tricky. For many otherwise competent EFL practitioners, it is scary. Few teachers actually like grammar, or enjoy teaching it as they enjoy teaching the other 'skills'. I would suggest there are two reasons for this, one of which relates to the particular history of teachers educated in the UK. The other (and the one which concerns me here as I think it is likely to be more relevant to readers of ETp) lies, I come to believe, in the way grammar is traditionally regarded by grammarians.

ادامه نوشته

What is Linguistics

در پاسخ به دوست عزیزی که درباره ی زبانشناسی گفتند من تو آرشیو

مطالبی در مورد زبانشناسی دارم.و یکی از کورس های موردعلاقه ی

خودم هست....ازاین به بعد پست های بیشتری رو به این رشته اختصاص

خواهم داد....اول یه مقدمه در مورد زبانشناسی.

 

Linguistics

 

What is Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It endeavours to answer the question--what is language and how is represented in the mind? Linguists focus on describing and explaining language and are not concerned with the prescriptive rules of the language (ie., do not split infinitives). Linguists are not required to know many languages and linguists are not interpreters.

ادامه نوشته

The Sentence

I want to familiar you with the  sentence.

 

The Sentence

Sentences are used in all languages. Sentences are used in both speech and writing.

 are learning about writing in English. When we talk about the . sentence in this class, we are talking about the written English sentence. We are not talking about sentences in other languages. We are not talking about spoken sentences.

---

A. What is a sentence?

A written English sentence is a group of words with four characteristics:

1. All sentences begin with a capital letter: A, B, C,�.

(The other kinds of letters are called lower case: a, b, c, �.)

2. All sentences end with a period or an exclamation point or a question mark: . ! ?

3. A sentence contains at least one clause.

That is, a sentence contains at least one subject and at least one predicate.

4. All sentences follow a standard word order. These are correct sentences:

The dog bit the man.

The man bit the dog.

But this is not a sentence because the words (the same used in the two sentences above) are not arranged in a Standard English word order:

*The bit man dog the.

---

B. What is a clause?

A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a predicate.

1. A clause tells us that someone or something (subject) is or was or does or did something (predicate).

A subject is usually a noun or pronoun.

A predicate always contains a verb. A predicate may also contain other things (adverb, object, complement), but a predicate always contains a verb.

2. A clause may be a sentence: Mary sings.

3. A clause may be a part of a sentence: Mary sings and Bill plays the guitar.

4. Some examples of clauses:

SUBJECT PREDICATE

 

Someone/Something is/was/does/did something.

 

George is a boy.

 

He loves to eat.

 

What he loves to eat is pizza.

 

George and his friends might have pizza for lunch.

 

Pizza is not served at George's house.

 

---

C. What is a predicate verb?

A predicate verb has the following three characteristics:

1. A predicate verb has a subject. A subject is usually a noun or a pronoun, but a clause can be a subject.

2. A predicate verb has voice (active or passive; see Passive Sentences).

3. A predicate verb has tense (past or present; see Tenses) or a modal (see Modal Auxiliaries).

These are the predicate verbs in the clauses above:

is (present tense, active voice)

loves (present tense, active voice)

is (present tense, active voice)

might have (modal, active voice)

is not served (present tense, passive voice)

---

D. What is a dependent clause?

A dependent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and predicate. A dependent clause usually begins with a subordinator. Subordinators include relative pronouns (see Adjective Clauses), subordinating conjunctions (see Adverb Clauses), and noun clause markers (see Noun Clauses). Dependent clauses are also called subordinate clauses.

1. A dependent clause cannot be a sentence by itself. A dependent clause that is not part of a sentence is a fragment. That is, a dependent clause which begins with a capital letter and ends with a period is a fragment. Don't write fragments.

2. A dependent clause can only be part of a sentence. Every sentence must have at least one independent clause.

3. There are three basic types of dependent clauses: adjective clauses, adverb clauses, and noun clauses. Some dependent clauses look like this:

SUBORDINATOR + SUBJECT + PREDICATE

that his bike is beautiful

which he got for Christmas

because his bike had a flat tire

Other dependent clauses look like this:

SUBORDINATOR + PREDICATE

who loves his bike?

whatever is on his plate?

which is painted red and blue?

The subordinator is also the subject in these clauses.

4. Subordinators can sometimes be omitted, so dependent clauses sometimes look like independent clauses (Subject + Predicate).

Object relative pronouns (see Adjective Clauses) can usually be omitted.

The bike which he got for Christmas is beautiful.

The bike he got for Christmas is beautiful.

The noun clause marker (see Noun Clauses) that can be omitted if it is not the first word in a sentence.

He knows that his bike is beautiful.

He knows his bike is beautiful.

5. Below are some examples of sentences with one independent clause and one dependent clause. The dependent clauses are underlined.

George is a boy who loves his bike.

George's bike, which is painted red and blue, is new.

Because his bike had a flat tire, George walked to school.

George eats whatever is on his plate.

 

 

The parts of the sentence are a set of terms for describing how people construct sentences from smaller pieces. There is not a direct correspondence between the parts of the sentence and the parts of speech -- the subject of a sentence, for example, could be a noun, a pronoun, or even an entire phrase or clause. Like the parts of speech, however, the parts of the sentence form part of the basic vocabulary of grammar, and it is important that you take some time to learn and understand them.

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

 

O.k. what is your opinion about sentence?