Search results for 'tag:Phonetics tag:Grammar' matching tags 'Phonetics' and 'Grammar'

lINGUISTICS as a conversation

noel gomez — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:39:42 GMT

Good day! Hi there! i just would like to know if Lingustics can be used as a tool for everyday's conversations, public speaking and many more; how does it benefit us and what are its effects to us. Thankyou. I just would like to sahre something i've read about linguistics - its history and unique characteristics. Correct me if i'm wrong. The article goes like this:

Wikipedia

Main article: Arabic grammar

Due to the rapid expansion of Islam in the 8th century, many people learned Arabic as a lingua franca. For this reason, the earliest grammatical treatises on Arabic are often written by non-native speakers.

The earliest grammarian who is known to us is Ê¿Abd AllÄh ibn AbÄ« Isá¸¥Äq al-á¸¤aá¸ramÄ« (d. 735-736 AD, 117 AH). The efforts of three generations of grammarians culminated in the book of the Persian linguist SibÄwayhi (c. 760-793).

Sibawayh made a detailed and professional description of Arabic in 760 in his monumental work, Al-kitab fi al-nahw (Ø§ÙÙØªØ§Ø¨ ÙÙ Ø§ÙÙØÙ, The Book on Grammar), bringing many linguistic aspects of language to light. In his book he distinguished phonetics from phonology.

Traditionally, the Arabic grammatical sciences are divided into five branches:

al-luÄ¡ah (lexicon) concerned with collecting and explaining vocabulary

at-taá¹£rÄ«f (morphology) determining the form of the individual words

an-naá¸¥w (syntax) primarily concerned with inflection (irÄb) which had already been lost in dialects.

al-iÅ¡tiqÄq (derivation) examining the origin of the words

al-balÄÄ¡ah (rhetoric) which elucidates construct quality

Thanks!

Re: spoken english center in chennai,India

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:57:04 GMT

I am looking for good spoken english, grammar , fluency with phonetics fro my daughter, she is 6 years old.

we stay in mylapore.

A dictionary

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:34:17 GMT

ãThis dictionary tells you about English words and how to use them in reading, writing and speaking English. It not only gives the meaning of words, it can also help you with spelling, word building, grammar and pronunciation.

ããTo use your dictionary correctly, you need to understand how the dictionary works. At the front of the book, you will find some exercises to help you make the most use of your dictionary.

ããIf you look up the word âcolourâ, you will find two spellings for this word. âColourâ is used in British English, while âcolorâ is used in American English. When such a thing happens, the dictionary shows it with the word âBrEâ for British English and âAmEâ for American English.

ããThe dictionay also helps you pronounce words correctly. It uses a special alphabet to show pronunciation. If you turn to the inside back face, you will see all the phonetic letters with some words to show you how they are pronounced. Just have a look this page when youâre not sure how to say a word.

ããThe most important reason for using a dictionary is to find out the meaning of a wordâits DEFINITION.

ããIn this dictionary, the definitions have been written using only 2000 words. This means that the definitions of even the most difficult words are simply explained and easy to understand.
ããWhen a word has more than one meaning, read all the meanings until you find the one that correctly tells the use of the word you are looking for

Re: sweet water.

Yoong Liat — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:54:27 GMT

Hi New2grammar and Khoff

When Singaporeans ask for water in a restaurant, they use the term pain water. Plain water may, nevertheless, have ice in it.

Standard English speakers would simply ask for water.

(Singapore English in a Nutshell by Adam Brown)

The author is an Associate Professor in the School of Arts of the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. He has taught at universities in Britain,Thailand and Malaysia. He holds a doctorate in phonetics frrom the University of Edinburgh, and has written widely on lingustics and English language teaching.

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:30:34 GMT

As a native English speaker (well perhaps not entirely native, I was born in Russia and immigrated to the U.S. at the tender age of 7) I would have to say that apart from the obviously difficult aspects of the English language such as tenses, an unorthodox phonetic system employed in the language and infuriating exceptions for just about every single rule, the two most puzzling features are the Verb+Participle+Preposition combinations and the sheer vastness of the vocabulary. Observe the former...

come+up+with

come+down+with

come+foward+with

come+out+for

come+down+to

Five different constructions which would be clear as day to any native speaker, are nevertheless mind-boggling to someone who is learning the language. Notice how they all start with "come", and then imagine that sort of illogical word-scrambling applied to every verb. Daunting, isn't it? Don't know how to break it to you folks, but I haven't even scratched the surface.

Now as to the latter, I am more than happy to have dictionary.com present proof of this phenomenon in my stead. Let's take a look at the word "jump". I mean, how many possible synonyms could there be for this word? Well, one simple search can help us find out. Here's the link:

http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/jump

40 entries for the first definition alone. FORTY. Forty different ways to say jump. But when you break it down, do all 40 words have the same meaning? Of course not! Nosedive means to jump into something headfirst, as in a pool of water or (if you're very unfortunate) onto a hardwood floor. To spring is to jump up energetically, with an almost almighty "lurch" (another word for jump right there :P) whereas to "bob" means to make jumping motions without every actually taking your feet off the ground. The list goes on and on. No other language I'm familiar with has such variety when it comes to synonyms, be it for seemingly uncomplicated actions or deep philosophical concepts.

Although English is my native language, I am also a nearly native speaker of Russian (I give credit to my parents for preserving the language of the "motherland" and passing it on to me) and fluent in German. I find Russian to be an incredibly expressive language with just as many (if not more) nuances as English, and its ability to convey feelings of dislike, anger or downright hateful fervor (i.e. swearing) is, in my experience, unmatched. German is an incredibly logical language, and once grammar constructs are mastered, relatively straightforward in its application. Mastering German grammar is a challenge however, and word order is an utter nuisance in some situations.

Just my two cents.

phonics

Believer — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:29:34 GMT

Hi,

Eventhough this topic might not be grammar-related but I have seen questions like this being asked here, so I have decided to ask the question here.

Why is it that learning or knowing phonics is important for a person's reading effort?

I saw phonetic symbols used in dictionaries but they are different than the symbols list in a phonics program? How (and possibly 'why') are they different?

Re: Thus it explained spelling, grammar, phonetics, and usage...

CalifJim — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:44:27 GMT

Jackson6612
Do you think the above sentence is correct? Should it be written as:
Thus it explained...than a dictionary for native English speakers would?

Either way is fine.

Re: Thus it explained spelling, grammar, phonetics, and usage...

Jackson6612 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:21:50 GMT

But couldn't it be written as:
Thus it explained...than a dictionary for native English speakers would?

Re: Thus it explained spelling, grammar, phonetics, and usage...

Clive — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:08:38 GMT

Hi,

Thus it explained spelling, grammar, phonetics, and usage much more extensively than would a dictionary for native English speakers.

Do you think the above sentence is correct? Should it be written as:
Thus it explained...than a dictionary for native English speakers would?

It's fine. It's just a somewhat literary word order.
You might perhaps put a comma after 'thus'.

Clive

Thus it explained spelling, grammar, phonetics, and usage...

Jackson6612 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:04:56 GMT