introduction to english linguistics...
TRANSCRIPT
Ch. 9. Sociolinguistics (2) (457-477)
1. Creoles and Creolization
2. Bilingualism
3. Language Education
4. Language in Use
5. Taboo or Not Taboo
6. Language and Sexism
7. Secret Language
1. Creoles and Creolization
•'creole':
a language that has evolved in a contact
situation to become the native language
of a generation of speakers
• A creole is a perfect, regular language that
develops out of an impoverished pidgin.
• inflectional morphology for tense, plurality, etc.
e.g. transitive verb ending -im (< him) in South Pacific Creoles.
Man i pairipim masket "The man fired the musket"
Masket i pirip "The gun was fired"
• e.g. causativizer –im
• bik (big) > bikim (make something big)
• daun (down) > daunim (lower something down)
• nogut (no good) > nogutim (spoil, damage)
• creoles have more complex pronoun system
• reduction in compounding
• e.g.
wara bilong skin (water belong skin)
> skinwara (sweat)
baimbai (by and by)
> future tense: baimbai yu go (you will go)
> yu bago
• Creole construction
• innate linguistic capacities (SVO, Tense-Aspect, etc.)
• Native/Non-native distinction for creole vs. pidgin?
• Tok Pisin is problematic.
• Originally pidgin, gradually creolized in the 20th c.;
• lingua franca;
• own newspapers and radio programs;
• parliamentary language;
• one of 3 official languages of PNG
• Creoles and slave plantation
• Haitian Creole: based on French (Haiti)
• Gullah Creole: based on English (islands off Georgia &
South Carolina)
• Louisiana Creole: related to Haitian Creole; Louisiana
• Krio: based on English; Sierra Leon
• AAE and Creoles?:
AAE is closer to Southern dialects of American English
than to other dialects.
• Sign languages and Creoles: The Nicaragua case
1980s: first contact among home sign languages by adults
children's joining: Idioma de Signos Nicaragüense (ISN)
• The study of pidgins and creoles has
contributed to a great deal to our
understanding of the nature of human
language and the processes involved in
language creation and language change,
and of the sociohistorical conditions under
which these instances of language contact
occurred.
2. Bilingualism
• individual bilingualism vs. societal bilingualism
• various degrees of individual bilingualism
• various situations where individuals become bilingual
• societal bilingualism/multilingualism:
Canada, Switzerland, etc.
• There are fewer bilingual individuals in bilingual
countries than in "unilingual" countries.
• The U.S. situation (based on the 2000 census):
•a monolingual English-speaking society
•no national language specified in the Constitution
•18% (47 million): non-English at home
•8% (25 million): English-Spanish bilinguals
•20% monolingual English speakers
2.1 Codeswitching
• 'codeswitching':
a speech style unique to bilinguals
in which fluent speakers switch languages
between or within sentences
• Sometimes I'll start a sentence in English and termino en español.
("... finish in Spanish.")
• I mean, c'est un idiot, ce mec-là
("... he's an idiot, that guy.")
• Johan hat mir gesagt that you were going to leave.
("Johan told me that...")
• Chigum ton-i ops-nunde, I can't buy it.
("As I don't have money now, ...")
• Women zuotian qu kan de movie was really amazing.
("The movie we went to see yesterday...")
• Codeswitching is not an indication of a language disability.
•marker of bilingual identity
•It has its own internal grammatical structure.
e.g. Mis amigos finished first. ("My friends finished first.")
*Ellos finished first. ("They finished first.")
(< a switch between subject-verb)
e.g. My mom fixes green tamales.
Mi mamá hace tamales verdes.
*My mom fixes verdes tamales.
*Mi mamá hace tamales green.
• Codeswitching is different from borrowing.
e.g. I love biscottis [biskaɾiz] with my coffee. (B)
I love biscotti [bɪsco:ti] with my coffee. (C)
3. Language Education
3.1 Second-Language Teaching Methods
3.2 Teaching Reading
3.3 Bilingual Education
3.4 Ebonics
3.1 Second-Language Teaching Methods
• Many methods, but no single best method
• Synthetic approaches vs. Analytic approaches
[Grammar Translation Method]
•An extreme synthetic approach
•favored up until 1960s
•translation, reading, grammar, vocabulary
Analytic methods
• top-down
• topic/text/task-based
• Content-Based Instruction
3.2 Teaching Reading
• Learning to read is different from acquiring
spoken/signed language.
•age
•optionality
•dyslexia
•requires instruction
• Three main approaches
• The Whole-Word Approach
• Phonics
• The Whole-Language Approach
• The Whole-Word Approach:
• rote learning of first 50-100 words with repeated seeing;
• other words gradually learned;
• no 'sounding out';
• logographic method;
• not taking advantage of alphabetical system
• Phonics:
• letter-sound correspondence;
• alphabet learning then sounding out;
• problems with non-alphabetical languages;
• problems with exceptions
• The Whole-Language Approach
(literature-based, guided reading):
• no direct phonics teaching;
• learner is supposed to make the letter-sound
connections based on exposure to text
• Reading instruction must be grounded in
a firm understanding of the connections
between letters and sounds;
whole-language activities that make
reading fun and meaningful for children
should be used to supplement phonics
instruction.
3.3 Bilingual Education
• Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE):
• students receive instruction in two languages,
then L1 instruction gradually phased out
• Bilingual Maintenance (BM):
• students remain in bilingual classes all throughout
• Dual Language Immersion (DLI):
• 50-50 mixture
• Immigrant children benefit from instruction in
their native language.
• increasing attack on bilingual programs from
1970s (California, Arizona, Massachusetts)
(cf. one year at Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) and
then transfer to mainstream)
3.4 Ebonics
• Ebonics = AAE
• source of problem: AAE-SAE differences
• Approach 1:
discouraging AAE use; identity problems
• Approach 2:
bidialectalism; language identity respected
1. Language in Use - Style - Slang - Jargon & Argot 2. Taboo or Not Taboo - Euphemism - Racial and National Epithets 3. Language and Sexism - Marked/Unmarked Forms 4. Secret Language
4. Language in Use
• Linguistic competence =
Linguistic knowledge
(phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, etc.)
+ Knowledge of language use (‘how to use your language appropriately’)
• Besides regional and social dialects,
speakers may use different styles or
registers depending on the context.
4.1 Style
• “situation dialects”
• informal vs. formal
• means of identification with a particular
group (e.g., family, gang, church, team)
• means of excluding groups believed to
be hostile or undesirable (cops, teachers,
parents).
4.2 Slang • something that nearly everyone uses and reco
gnizes, but nobody can define precisely.
• recombining old words into new meanings
e.g.) spaced out, right on, hang-up, and rip-off
• entirely new words
e.g.) barf, flub, dis
• ascribing entirely new meanings to old words e.g.) rave, ecstasy, crib, posse
• other sources of slang: underworld, college
campuses, the White House…
• borderland between slang and formal
language is ill-defined
• meets a variety of social needs and rather
than a corruption of the language
4.3 Jargon and Argot
• specific slang terms used among members of a group • science, profession, trade, etc.. e.g.) linguistic jargon : morpheme, case, lexicon, phrase structure rule… • Library in the Los Angeles Criminal Courts Building
• computerese e.g.) modem, bit, byte, RAM, CPU, DVD
5. Taboo or Not Taboo?
• Tongan word meaning “forbidden.”
• Forbidden acts or words reflect the particular customs and views of the society
e.g.) Zuni Indians–takka Harry Potter–Voldemort heck and darn • Words relating to sex, sex organs, and natural bodily functions
5.1. Euphemisms
• word or phrase that replaces a taboo word
e.g.) harlots - companions
taxes - contributions
prison – chamber
• denotative meaning vs. connotative meaning
5.2. Racial and National Epithets
• The use of epithets tells speaker's
religion, nationality, race, etc.
e.g.) kike (for Jew), wop (for Italian),
nigger (for African-American),
slant (for Asian)
6. Language and Sexism
• Obscenities, blasphemies, taboo words,
and euphemisms reflect individual or
societal values and attitude on sex.
• Words and the meaning of the words
related to sex change as society change.
6.1. Marked and Unmarked Forms
• Male/female pairs of words
• The male form is generally unmarked and the female term is created by adding a bound morpheme. e.g.) Male-Female pairs heir heiress major majorette hero heroine Robert Roberta equestrian equestrienne aviator aviatrix
• The unmarked third person pronoun in
English is male (he, him, his). Cf. P.C.
• To neutralize the pronoun by using they:
Every teenager loves their first car.
• With the advent of the feminist movement,
many of the marked female forms have been
replaced by the male forms, which are used to
refer to either sex.
7. Secret Languages and Languages Games
• People have invented special languages as a means
of identifying with their group and/or to prevent
outsiders from knowing what is being said.
e.g.) Nushu, secret codes used by African-American slaves
• Language games (Pig Latin, Ubbi Dubbi, etc.) are used for
amusement for children and adults.
• Language games provide evidence for the phonemes,
words, morphemes, semantic features, etc. and illustrate
the boundless creativity of human language and human
speakers.
Thank you!
You did a wonderful job
this semester!