English Language and Linguistics

According to Goffman, what is the heart of social life?

Talk

According to Goffman, what is talk used to create?

reciprocally sustained involvement

What approches does Goffman reject?

approaches where language is analysed through a single, isolated individual

Discuss the participation framework

created by Goffman - talk consists of 3 elements - the animator (the voice), the author (who composed the words) and the principle (who's princiiples are expressed)

Discuss Goffmans beliefs about identity

identity as a product of a scene that comes off and does not cause it - the self as a performed character, not an organic concept with a set location, whose fate is to be born, mature and die - it is a dramatic effect which arises from a presented scene, and will be credited or discredited - the 'front-stage' as where performances are enacted and organised, and impressions are managed due to an audience - the 'back-stage' as where an audience is not present, and therefore individuals can step out of character without consequence

Discuss Saussure's beliefs about language

that language consists of parole and langue - parole as an individual utterence and langue as the overarching language system - which divides language into individual (parole) and social (langue) - these two elements cannot be removed from one another - believed that language can be decontextualised and that it must be decontexualised for study

Outline Chomsky's beliefs about language

that language can be decontextualised and must be decontextualised to be studied, that there is universal grammar, described competence and performance in language - competence as the abstract and unconscious knowledge one has of a language, performance as putting the language into practice - divided language into E-language - external language - and I-language - internal language - language as innate

Describe Boa's beliefs

alive between 1858-1942, grammatical structures as critical ethnographically- ‘the way in which speaker of a language habitually expressed her experiences, so that her experienced world was in part projected from the structure of grammatical categories" - challenged sound blindness - where confronted with a new language, we cannot hear and understand all the sounds - challenged exclusively studying the structure of language - believed that language spoken by a given group reflects their cultural practises - language as facilitating certain types of thinking and therefore as providing a way of understanding unconscious patterns of culture and thought

Describe Geiger's beliefs

a philologst who gave a presentation on ‘On the Colour Sense in Primitive Times and its Evolution’, stating that Indian Vedic poems, the Bible, Icelandic sagas and other ancient texts did not havea word for blue - neither did earliest English texts - only black or dark, where blue stemmed from - conducted research in 1867 into the psychological states of those who describe the sky as black to discover if there is a difference in perception or a difference in meaning - found there was an order to the creation of colour words - black/white/light/dark, then red, then green, then blue - concluded there must be a biological basis for colour terminology

Describe William Gladstone's beliefs

a British MP between 1832 and 1845, then 1847 and 1895, who studied the works of Homer, especailly The Odyssey, and how the way Homer describes implies a lack of many colours - concluded the works of Homer, especailly The Odyssey, and how the way Homer describes implies a lack of many colours

Describe W.H.R Rivers beliefs

an anthropologist and psychatrist interested in colour perception and language, in 1898 he studied the inhabitants of Torres Straits islands colour perception and found that despite the sky being descrobed as black or like dirty water, colour perception was the same - therefore the difference in colour words is simply linguistic and not perceptual

Describe Sapir's beliefs

alive between 1884 - 1939, he claimed that language influences throught whilst also having a major impact on how we see the world

Describe Whorf's beliefs

alive between 1897 - 1941, he founded the term lingustic relativity, and states that thought, behaviour and language are all connected - he conducted research into Apache and other Native American languages, however this was conducted poorly, and based theory on this research - when studying Hopi, he claimed there was no words, grammatical forms, constructions or expressions refering to time - this led him to state that only the present can be refered to - this is incorrect - worldview as produced through the sum total of a languages categorises - Whorfian effects as the influences of a language on thought - language as a system of interrelated categorises - language as determining thought processes -

Describe phonetics

defined as the study of sounds, divided into two subtypes - articulatory - the study of the description and production of speech and speech sounds - and acoustic - the study of how sound travels, how it's perceived and how it is measured - phonetic notation is written like this - [placeholder]

Official language of Abkhazia

Abkhaz and Russian

Official language of Afghanistan

Dari and Pashto

Official language of Albania

Albanian

Official language of Algeria

Arabic and Berber

Official language of Andorra

Catalan

Official language of Angola

Portuguese

Official language of Antiuga and Barbuda

None - English as de facto

Official language of Argentina

Argentine Sign Language - Spanish is de facto

Official language of Armenia

Armenian

Official language of Australia

None - English as de facto

Official language of Austria

German

Official language of Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani

Define bilingual

where one knows two languages

Define multilingual

where one knows three of more languages

Define mutual intelligibility

where different dialects or languages can be understood to some extent by a user of another language or dialect

Define vernacular

the common, spoken variety of a language used in a particualr region

Discuss the types of lingustic minority

indiginous lingustic minorities and non-indiginous lingustic minorities - often refered to as immigrant language, heritage language or community language

Define hyperobjects

objects which heavily influence ones lived experiences and worldview, and are both massive and uncontrollable - money, climate change and nuclear weapons are all examples - used to be refered to as the sublime - where a natural pheonemoe overwhelms an individual, both positively and negatively

Official languages of Boliva

Castilian (Spanish), Aymara, Araona, Baure, Bésiro (Chiquitano), Canichana, Cavineña, Cayubaba, Chácobo, Chimán, Ese Ejja, Guaraní, Guarasu'we, Guarayu, Itonama, Leco, Machajuyai-Kallawaya, Machineri, Maropa, Mojeño-Ignaciano, Mojeño-Trinitario, Moré, Mosetén, Movima, Pacawara, Puquina, Quechua, Sirionó, Tacana, Tapieté, Toromona, Uru-Chipaya, Weenhayek, Yaminawa, Yuki, Yuracaré, Zamuco

Official language of Bosnia and Herzegovina

none - de facto is Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian

Official language of Botswana

English

Official language of Brazil

Portuguese - 61 official co-languages

Official language of Brunei

Malay

Official language of Bulgaria

Bulgarian

Official language of Burkina Faso

Moore, Bissa, Dyula, Fula

Official language of Burundi

French, Kirundi, English

Official language of Cambodia

Khmer

Official language of Cameroon

English, French

Official language of Canada

English, French

Official language of Cape Verde

Portuguese

Official language of Central African Republic

French, Sango

Official language of Chad

Arabic, French

Official language of Chile

Spanish

Official language of China

Mandarin

Official language of Christmas Island

English, Mandarin, Malay

Who was the last speaker of Catawba Sioux?

Red Thundercloud

Who was the last speaker of Wappo?

Laura Somersal

Who was the last speaker of Manx?

Ned Mandrell

Who was the last speaker of Ubykh?

Tevfik Esenç

Discuss Marie Smith Jones

last speaker of Alaskian language, Eyak - helped complie an Eyak dictionary for future generations to use

Define communicative language usage

language used for everyday tasks

Define symbolic language usage

language used to identitify one as a member of a community, or to demonstrate personal identity

Discuss rhetoric

part of the trivium - grammar, logic and rhetoric - it is defined as the art of effective or persusive speaking and writing, using figures of speech and other compositional techniques - consists of 3 elements - ethos - the process of getting others on your side -, logos - make your arguement make sense - and pathos - make the arugement emotional

Discuss trope

defined as using a word in a way so it conveys a non-literal meaning, used at the word level of analysis

Discuss figures

defined as relating to formal expression - such as grammatical organisation to produce a stylistic effect, used at the phrase level of analysis

Define phonology

defined as the study of the patterns of speech, how sound patterns change, function and are organised

Define phonological variation

phonological variation defined as where language varies in how it is pronounced

Name the phonological processes which cause sequential language change

assimilation, weakening, deletion and strenghtening

Describe assimilation as a phonological process

where sounds morph to sound the same as neighbouring sounds, leading to a change in the place and manner of articulation

Describe weakening and deletion as a phonological process

where sounds lessen (weakening) or are omitted (deletion), leading to a change in how a word is voiced

Describe strengthening as a phonological process

where sounds get stronger, leading to a change in how a word is voiced, leading to gliding

Describe consantant assimilation

where the pronouncation of a word is influenced by the presense of a particular sound, such as pronouncing dog as "gog" or cupboard as "pubbed"

Describe final constantant deletion

where the final constanant of a word is deleted, such as pronouncing home as "hoe" or calf as "cah"

Describe gliding of liquids

where liquid constanants /r/ and /l/ are replaced by /w/ and /y/

State the elements in multifunctionality

speaker, addressee, context, message, contact, code

In multifunctionality, describe the speakers role

expressive function - to get anothers attention

In multifunctionality, describe the addresse's role

conative function - to be engaged with the speaker

In multifunctionality, describe the referential function

the context

In multifunctionality, describe the poetic function

the message

In multifunctionality, describe the phatic function

the contact - language with no content, language for the sake of interaction

In multifunctionality, describe the metalingustic function

the code - using language to describe language

Describe lingustic anthropologist's beliefs

language can only be understood within the context it is used, language as socially embedded and culturally influenced, that to know a language, one must know phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, with a focus on semantics and pragmatics

Define classical diglossia

two varities of the same language being used for different functions in a given society - with there being a high variety and a low variety - old fashioned term, often not applicable

Define High variety in diglossia

the language which is used in formal domains, such as insitutions and education - it is the taught language variety - holds high prestige

Define Low variety in diglossia

the language which is used in informal domains, such as at home - it is the learned language variety - holds low prestige

Define diglossia

two different languages used for different purposes or in different domains in a society - bilingual/multilingual societies

Discuss language in Paraguay

Spanish and Gurandi are official languages, Spanish being used for formal communication and Guarndi being used for informal communication - 90% of the population are bilingual

Discuss the factors influencing language choice in Paraguay

formality, location, degree of intimacy, seriousness, status, type of activity and gender

Define code

neutral way to refer to a language or variety

Define code switching

mixing of lingustic units across sentence borders

Define code mixing

mixing of lingustic units within a sentence

Name the perspectives used to study code switching and mixing

syntactic, sociocultural, psycholingustics

Name the 4 key researchers in code switching and mixing

Poplack (1980), Gumperz (1982), Myers-Scotton (1993, 1995), Muysken (2000)

Discuss Poplack (1980) research on code switching and mixing

found 2 constraints: free morpheme constraints - switch can only occur between free morphemes, not bound morphemes - equivilant structure constraint - switch may only occur when the surface structure of the languages are parallel

Discuss Muysken (2000) research on code switching and mixing

found 3 main strategies: insertion, alternation and congruent lexicalisation

Define Muysken's (2000) concept of insertion

in code mixing, where lexical material from one language is inserted into the structural frame of the other - conditions making this pattern more common include recent migrant speakers, asymmetry in the speakers knowledge of the languages, and typological distance between the languages

Define Muysken's (2000) concept of alternation

in code mixing, where languages are switched between, with its own grammar and lexicon being used

Define Muysken's (2000) concept of congurent lexicalisation

in code mixing, where languages share grammatical properties, so words from both languages can easily fill the slots

Name the two persspectives on the nature of code switching

functional and developmental

Discuss the functional perspective to code switching

states that code switching demonstrates membership to particular language community, can be topic related, due to empathy and due to context

Discuss the developmental perspective to code switching

states that code switching demonstrates emerging ability in multilingual aquistion, navigates language use in terms of phonologic, morphological and pragmatic terms

Name the two types of code switching, according to Gumperz

situational code switching and conversational code switching

Define situational code switching

triggered by the situation in which the interaction is occuring, there is a code switch between interactions

Define metaphorical code switching

each code represents social meanings, so the switch occurs to convey these - switch occurs within interactions

Define language attrition

the forgetting of a language by a healthy speaker - changes in L1 use in people who emigrated over the age of 12

Discuss factors considered when studying language attrition

age of aquisition, motivation, cross lingustic similarities, immersion