LNG 307 Exam 2

universalism

Language enables thinking: our language reflects our ideas about the world.

• Language is a necessary condition for thinking

• Ideas are generative, and language follows: if I think it, I can give a name to it.

• Thought is a necessary precondition for language

Cognitive Constructivism (Piaget)

Thought influences language, but is not the sole driving force or necessary precondition for it. 

• Piaget: Our language development mirrors our cognitive development and process of learning. (e.g. object permanence)

Experiential: language provides a way for people to name or describe their experience & learning

Socal Constructivism (Vygotsky)

Language influences thought (Piaget)

• We learn to use thinking and language together as tools for learning: they’re interactive components used in tandem

• We come to understand culture through language: we learn culture and behavior through the language others speak to/around us (social roles and interactions)

Determinism

Weak Theory: 

Language shapes our thinking. 

We think in the ways we do because of how our language is structured (e.g. passive vs. active constructions)

Strong Theory (Whorf):

Language determines our thinking (and what we can think)

Words

morphology, word formation

Sounds

phonology, sound formation

Lexis

• vocabulary

  • Unpredictable but meaningful

Grammar

• morpho-syntax

  • Predictable and meaningful (word order)

Phonology

• sound

  • Unpredictable and meaningless

  • The sounds associated with letters don’t have meaning in themselves, but….. 

Morphemes

smallest unit of a word that is meaningful

• Different from a syllable

• Example: Renewable: 3 morphemes, 4 syllables

Free Morphemes:

can stand alone and still make sense

• Example: be

Bound Morphemes

only make sense when combined with others 

• Example:  -ness

Real Rules

• defined by the grammar of the language (e.g. what makes English, English)

Conventions

defined by practice and instruction

• “Don’t end a sentence with a preposition”

• “Don’t use “you” in academic writing”

Standards

defined by those in power over language selection

• Double negatives

  • I don’t got no money.

• Regionalisms and abbreviations

  • Are yous takin’ the 33?

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

language shapes reality and how we see it, think about it.

• Example: Universal masculine pronoun

  • Perception of “man” both precise (cultural, historical) and unstable (changes as we reconsider public action, range of gender identities, power of naming).

Recursion

ability of language to create infinite elements within a limited grammatical system

Middle English history

• William the Conqueror & Battle of Hastings (1066)

  • Established Norman aristocracy

  • Beginning of French language influence

Macro effects on language

• Influx of French vocabulary: @25% of lexicon 

  • @10,000 words between 1100-1500 (p. 437)

• Influence of written language:

  • French=tool of linguistic and political power

    • English=regions, nationalism, and resistance

• Standards emerge in speech and written language

French, english and latin were used respectively for…

Law, home, and church

Power standardization

• @1295: King Edward I accused French of attempting to suppress, eradicate English

• 1362: English becomes the official language of England

  • Statute of Pleading: defendants would hear native tongue in court

Old english vs middle english

Old english

• New language from old stock (kennings, compounds e.g. ‘whale-road’)

• Monosyllabic & Concrete

  • Cow

  • Sheep

  • Pig

• Inflection (suffixes) as syntax (synthetic)

Middle english

• Borrowing, esp. from French & Latin (7500 surviving words)

• Polysyllabic & Abstract

  • Beef

  • Mutton

  • Bacon & Pork

    • Word order as syntax (analytic)

  • More vowels, less consonants

Changes from old to middle english in verbs & nouns

Nouns

• Gender and inflectional endings die out

• word order determines meaning

• 1st person emerges

Verbs

• Strong verbs largely convert to weak verbs through analogy

• All verbs borrowed after ME period are weak verbs

Late middle english

 English replaces French as the language of government. 

• 1549: Book of Common Prayer & Reformation: language of the church English, not Latin

• 1600-1800: Era of Exploration & Imperialism – Vocabulary expands with expansion of empire.

Standardization

1550-1800

Influences: changes and growth cause standardizations, language becomes practical and consistent, needed within bureaucracy spread across wide region

Standardization (social influences)

• increasing literacy

• rise of merchant class: social mobility = needs for language to be learned

• First manuals and guides to formal english published

Directive

est. during standardization — distinguished “good” from “bad” forms, based on usage of the upper-class

linguistic moralism

Language viewed as decaying or endangered. Perception that it must be “preserved” or “saved” from corruption

Great vowel shift 1400-1700

GVS: revolution in pronunciation of vowel sounds

• Defining moment: made modern English modern. 

  • Language of Chaucer vs. language of Shakespeare

• Systemic: set of relationships defining vowel pronunciation shifted completely (“domino effect”)

What changed with the great vowel shift?

• Long, stressed, monophthongs 

  • Long = vowels such as –e in –be. Held longer in OE & Mid E

  • Stressed = vowels included in stressed syllable (e.g. en-DAN-ger)

  • Monophthongs = tongue and lips remain in same position: single, continuous sound

  • High front (/i/ as in heed) and back vowels (/u/ as in food) had or became diphthongs (double sound)

• Grammar largely similar to modern english

• New word formation, dominantly borrowing

Phonemes

the basic unit or segment of sound that our brains distinguish when processing language sounds

Allophones

what we call these subtle variations in phonemes

Phonology

• study of speech sounds in a language, particularly:

  • Which sounds make up consonants and vowels in a language

  • Which sounds/sound combinations can and cannot exist in a language

Phonetics

• study of how speech sounds are generated and perceived

Articulatory phonetics

studies production of speech sounds

Acoustic phonetics

studies how speech sounds are transitted

Auditory phonetics

• how we translate sound waves generated through speech in the ear/brain, as well as how the brain processes that speech into meaning (e.g. perception of speech)

Phonics

• an educational practice that teaches people to read and pronounce written words by helping them learn the phonetic components of letters, letter combinations, and syllables

Consonants

• Involve articulators (tongue, teeth, palate, etc.) which stop or restrict the airflow from the lungs

• Usually mark the margins of syllables

  • E.g. re-ceipt, dig-ni-ty, al-pha-bet

Vowels

• Involve unimpeded or less impeded airflow

• Involve manipulation or change in the oral cavity and tongue positioning

• Usually mark the center or nucleus of syllables

  • E.g. re-ceipt, dig-ni-ty, al-pha-bet

Consonant descriptor - place of articulation

• described according to the active and passive articulators involved in the speech formation

Consonant descriptors - active articulators

are the parts of the mouth that’s largely responsible for the movement involved in producing the sound.

Consonant descriptors - passive articulators

• are the parts of the mouth that the active articulator interacts with to produce particular sounds:

  • Example: The –th sound in thick is produced when your tongue (active articulator) is placed between your top and bottom teeth (passive articulators) and air is forced out through them (interdental fricative).

Consonant descriptors - manner of articulation

• described according to the airflow produced by the interaction of active and passive articulators – in particular how close they get

  • Examples include stops, fricatives, etc.

Consonant descriptors - voicing

• described according to whether or not the vocal cords vibrate when producing the sound

  • E.g. –t as in tip vs. –d as in dip

Vowel descriptors - height

• described according to how high the tongue is in the mouth when the sound is produced (high, mid, and low

Vowel descriptors - frontness/backness

• described according to where the tongue is placed in the mouth (toward teeth or toward soft palate or velum) when the sound is produced

Vowel descriptors - tenseness/laxness

• described according to the degree of tenseness/looseness of the tongue when the sound is produced

Assimilation

• the ways in which one sounds becomes closer to surrounding sounds (mostly in order to ease articulation)

  • Example: how we use in- and im- as prefixes (see page 81)

    • We use –im at the beginning of words in which the second syllable (root word) begins with a bilabial sound (uses both lips)

Deletion

• a process through which sounds become omitted from words

  • Happens frequently with unstressed syllables: e.g. laboratory or February

Insertion

• when we add sounds to words

  • Examples: “Intrusive R” in some varieties of American English: “warsh” for “wash” 

Metathesis

• when sounds reverse their order

  • Examples: “Aks” for “ask” or “spaghetti” for “spaghetti

Dialects

varieties of language spoken by groups of people that are systematically distinct from other varieties of the same language

Distinctions of dialects

• phonological, morphological, syntactic, or lexical

• regional 

• social

Accent

• refers to systematic phonological variation 

  • many dialects have accent differences, but not all accents are dialectical

Overt prestige

• widely recognized value across communities (e.g. standard English, RP English)

Covert prestige

• value recognized within specific communities (e.g. southern drawl or Southie variety)

Sociolinguistics

Subfield that examines language use in social contexts & speech communities (incl. conversation & discourse analysis)

Variationist sociolinguistics

• Maps distribution of linguistic distinctions across communities to understand the effect of class, age, ethnicity, etc.

William Labov

variation allows for different assertions of identity, often below the level of consciousness.

Language change from above

onscious change used to represent oneself in a deliberate way

• Involves capacity for both choice and mobility

Language change from below

phonological shifts that are largely unconscious

Speech communities

• peakers share language norms, affinities, or ideologies

Communities of practice

• speakers share language norms, affinities, or ideologies because of what they DO.

  • not defined by region or ethnic racial variationLanguage Variation in Social Networks

Network Density

how many people one interacts with who also know/interact with one another

Multiplexity

• the number of capacities in which members of a network know one another

High multiplexity

• knowing a group who all know one another AND who interact in different ways

Pidgins

• languages of necessity born out of contact. 

• implified but stable language: restricted lexicon, but still rule-governed

• Simple grammatical structure (e.g. limited articles, prepositions, etc.)

• Simple phonolgy

Creoles

• pidgins that take hold, develop, and become  inter-generational.

• Rule-governed, more elaborate syntax and lexicon than original pidgin

  • Structure often take cues from original contact languages

  • @120-200 pidgins and creoles spoken worldwide.

    • Most (e.g. Hawaiian Pidgin and Nigerian Pidgin English) are creoles

Code switching

llows speakers to alternate between two “codes” (languages or dialects) – sometimes unconsciously– within a single communicative act.

Insertion

Including words/phrases from one language into another – but without adapting to phonological or grammatical structure of the L2

• More common when greater proficiency exists in one language or another

Alternation

switching between grammatical structures in both languages

• More common in stable bilingual communities that maintain use of both languages

Congruent Lexicalization

Switching between grammatical structures in both languages

• When both languages share a similar grammatical structure, speakers can switch between the two languages/dialects seamlessly

Five stages of development of american english

1. Foundation: English comes to region where it has not previously been spoken

   • Influence of colonialism

   • Presence of speakers who don’t share common language/dialect

2. Exonormative Stabilization: Language stabilizes in newly established region

   • Aligned with colonial power

3. Unique language patterns emerge

   • Increasing linguistic independence

4. Endonormative Stabilization: Linguistic autonomy established 

5. Differentiation: Variation develops

   • Linguistic change emerges along political, cultural, regional, ethnic lines

Influence of original english dialects

• established in settlement (e.g. Scots-Irish, English regional variation, heritage dialects and lexicon)

Influence of linguistic mixing at points of contact

• e.g.  establishment of Creoles, influences of Spanish, French, immigrant, and native languages

Patterns of settlement, isolation, and cultural exposure

e.g. Western PA vs. Philadelphia vs. Texas South

Anglicist theory

Enslaved peoples learned the language spoken on plantations (derived from English immigration patterns)

Creolist theory

AAE developed out of Creoles (contact among Caribbean, West African, and other languages spoken by enslaved peoples)

Syntax

Rules that describe the formation and relationship between different parts of utterances: 

• How words combine into phrases

• How phrases combine into clauses

• How clauses combine to form sentences

Early 20th century: descriptive grammar

• Sought to determine which grammatical patterns are possible

  • Based on observation: language data/corpus linguistics

Later 20th Century: generative grammar

• Sought to determine underlying grammatical knowledge: what the speaker knows about what is/not possible regarding grammatical patterns

Constituents

minimal syntactic units that work together to “fit into” and therefore form the structure of sentences

• Question to ask: which word clusters are more closely related to one another in a sentence, and how?

Constituent hierarchies

define the potential relationships among parts of a sentence in order:

Constituent hierarchies

1. Sentences

2. Clauses

3. Phrases

4. Words

Independent clauses

• can stand alone as a meaningful sentence

  • She ran

Dependent or coordinate clause

• cannot stand alone, Need(s) to be combined with an independent clause to form a complete sentence.

  • While she ran

Adverbial clauses

• modify the verb of the main (independent) clause

Relative clauses

• usually function as adjectivals, set off by relative pronoun (e.g. that, which, who, etc.)

Complementizer Clauses:

• fill the slot of a noun phrase in order to complete a verb phrase. Often begin with that or which.

  • I thought that I was right, but I wasn’t. 

Phrase

a set of words that work together meaningfully below the level of a clause.

noun phrase

usually includes a determiner (article) and a headword. May also contain an adjective.

verb phrase

• usually includes an action. Hint: does/can it have tense?

adjective phrase

• descriptive in nature, modifying nouns or noun prhases

adverb phrase

• descriptive in nature, modifying verbs or action prhases

prepositional phrase

• descriptive, but set off by preposition (see chap. 5)

Simple sentences

represent a single independent clause (subject & predicate) that represents a complete thought

compound sentences

include at least two independent clauses jointed by a coordinating conjunction

Complex sentences

include an independent clause and a dependent or subordinate/dependent clause joined by a subordinating conjunction

Compound complex sentences

include at least two independent clauses and at least one subordinate/dependent clause