Applied linguistics Handout lesson

7/25/2019 Applied linguistics Handout lesson

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Linguistic Performance

Definition:

The ability to produce and comprehend sentencesin a language.

Linguistic Competence

Definition:

The unconscious knowledge ofgrammarthat allows a speaker to use and understand a language. Contrastwith linguistic performance.

What is the difference between competence and performance?

Chomsky separates competence and performance; he describes competence as an idealized capacity thatis located as a psychological or mental property or function and performance as the production of actualutterances. n short! competence in"ol"es#knowing$ the language and performancein"ol"es #doing$ something with thelanguage. The difficulty with this construct isthat it is "ery difficult to assess competence

without assessing performance.

Why is it important to make a distinctionbetween competence and performance?

%oting the distinction between competenceand performance is useful primarily becauseit allows those studying a language todifferentiate between a speech error and notknowing something about the language. Tounderstand this distinction! it is helpful tothink about a time when you&"e made some

sort of error in your speech. 'or e(ample!let&s say you are a nati"e speaker of )nglishand utter the following:

We swimmed in the ocean this weekend.

s this error due to competence orperformance* t is most likely that as anati"e speaker you are aware how tocon+ugate irregular "erbs in the past butyour performance has let you down thistime. ,inguists use the distinction betweencompetence and performance to illustrate the intuiti"e difference between accidentally saying swimmed andthe fact that a child or non-proficient speaker of )nglish may not know that the past tense of swim is swamand say swimmed consistently.

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http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/senterm.htmhttp://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/languageterm.htmhttp://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/grammarterm.htmhttp://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/languageterm.htmhttp://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/Linguistic-Performance.htmhttp://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/languageterm.htmhttp://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/grammarterm.htmhttp://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/languageterm.htmhttp://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/Linguistic-Performance.htmhttp://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/senterm.htm


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Linguistics 101: An Introduction to the tudy of Language

)"ery human knows at least one language! spoken or signed. ,inguistics is the science of language!including the sounds! words! and grammar rules. ords in languages are finite! but sentences are not. t isthis creati"e aspect of human language that sets it apart from animal languages! which are essentiallyresponses to stimuli.

The rules of a language! also called grammar! are learned as one ac/uires a language. These rules includephonology! the sound system! morphology! the structure of words! synta(! the combination of words into

sentences! semantics! the ways in which sounds and meanings are related! and the le(icon! or mentaldictionary of words. hen you know a language! you know words in that language! i.e. sound units that arerelated to specific meanings. 0owe"er! the sounds and meanings of words are arbitrary. 'or the most part!there is no relationship between the way a word is pronounced 1or signed2 and its meaning.

3nowing a language encompasses this entire system! but this knowledge 1called competence2 is differentfrom beha"ior 1called performance.2 4ou may know a language! but you may also choose to not speak it.

5lthough you are not speaking the language! you still ha"e the knowledge of it. 0owe"er! if you don&t know alanguage! you cannot speak it at all.

There are two types of grammars: descripti"e and prescripti"e. Descripti"e grammars represent theunconscious knowledge of a language. )nglish speakers! for e(ample! know that 6me likes apples6 isincorrect and 6 like apples6 is correct! although the speaker may not be able to e(plain why. Descripti"e

grammars do not teach the rules of a language! but rather describe rules that are already known. n contrast!prescripti"e grammars dictate what a speaker&s grammar should be and they include teaching grammars!which are written to help teach a foreign language.

There are about 7!888 languages in the world right now 1gi"e or take a few thousand2! and linguists ha"edisco"ered that these languages are more alike than different from each other. There are uni"ersal conceptsand properties that are shared by all languages! and these principles are contained in the 9ni"ersalrammar! which forms the basis of all possible human languages.

Part !wo: "orpho#ogy and ynta$

orphemes are the minimal units of words that ha"e a meaning and cannot be subdi"ided further. There aretwo main types: free and bound. 'ree morphemes can occur alone and bound morphemes must occur withanother morpheme. 5n e(ample of a free morpheme is 6bad6! and an e(ample of a bound morpheme is 6ly.6t is bound because although it has meaning! it cannot stand alone. t must be attached to another morphemeto produce a word.

'ree morpheme: bad


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>uffi(: -or added to edit produces editor

nfi(: -um- added to fikas 1strong2 produces fumikas 1to be strong2 in


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)ponym: sandwich from )arl of >andwich

ynta(! of course! depends on le(ical categories 1parts of speech.2 4ou probably learned that there are main parts of speech in grammar school. ,inguistics takes a different approach to these categories andseparates words into morphological and syntactic groups. ,inguistics analyzes words according to theiraffi(es and the words that follow or precede them. 0opefully! the following definitions of the parts of speechwill make more sense and be of more use than the old definitions of grammar school books.

Apen Class ords

ubcategori&ation defines the restrictions on which syntactic categories 1parts of speech2 can or cannotoccur within a le(ical item. These additional specifications of words are included in our mental le(icon. Eerbsare the most common categories that are subcategorized. Eerbs can either be transiti"e or intransiti"e.Transiti"e "erbs take a direct ob+ect! while intransiti"e "erbs take an indirect ob+ect 1usually they need apreposition before the noun2.

Transiti"e "erb: to eat ate an apple. 1direct ob+ect2

ntransiti"e: to sleep was sleeping in the bed. 1indirect ob+ect2

ndi"idual nouns can also be subcategorized. 'or e(ample! the noun idea can be followed by a =repositional=hrase or that and a sentence.


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%oun =hrase 1%=2 1Det.2 15d+.2 %oun 1==2

Eerb =hrase 1E=2 Eerb 1%=2 1==2

=repositional =hrase 1==2 =rep. %=

>entence 1>2 %= E=

The parentheses indicate the categories are optional. Eerbs don&t always ha"e to be followed byprepositional phrases and nouns don&t always ha"e to be preceded by ad+ecti"es.

=assi"e >entences

The difference between the two sentences 6ary hired


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5nd yet to write it! the more tried! hadn&t learned it at fifty-fi"e.

- 5uthor 9nknown

The discrepancy between spelling and sounds led to the formation of the nternational =honetics 5lphabet1=5.2 The symbols used in this alphabet can be used to represent all sounds of all human languages. Thefollowing is the )nglish =honetic alphabet. 4ou might want to memorize all of these symbols! as most foreignlanguage dictionaries use the =5.

>ome speakers of )nglish pronounce thewords which and witch differently! but if you pronounce both words identically! +ust use w for both words. 5ndthe sounds I I and IJI are pronounced the same! but the former is used in stressed syllables! while the latter

is used in unstressed syllables. This list does not e"en begin to include all of the phonetic symbols though.Ane other symbol is the glottal stop! which is somewhat rare in )nglish. >ome linguists in the 9nited >tatestraditionally use different symbols than the =5 symbols. These are listed below.

The production of any speech sound in"ol"es the mo"ement of air. 5ir is pushed through the lungs! laryn(1"ocal folds2 and "ocal tract 1the oral and nasal ca"ities.2 >ounds produced by using air from the lungs arecalled pulmonic sounds. f the air is pushed out! it is called egressi"e. f the air is sucked in! it is calledingressi"e. >ounds produced by ingressi"e airstreams are e+ecti"es! implosi"es! and clicks. These soundsare common among 5frican and 5merican ndian languages. The ma+ority of languages in the world usepulmonic egressi"e airstream mechanisms! and will present only these types of sounds in this lesson.

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Consonants

Consonants are produced as air from the lungs is pushed through the glottis 1the opening between the "ocalcords2 and out the mouth. They are classified according to "oicing! aspiration! nasalIoral sounds! places ofarticulation and manners of articulation. Eoicing is whether the "ocal folds "ibrate or not. The sound IsI iscalled "oiceless because there is no "ibration! and the sound IzI is called "oiced because the "ocal folds do"ibrate 1you can feel on your neck if there is "ibration.2 Anly three sounds in )nglish ha"e aspiration! thesounds IbI! IpI and ItI. 5n e(tra puff of air is pushed out when these sounds begin a word or stressed syllable.0old a piece of paper close to your mouth when saying the words pin and spin. 4ou should notice e(tra airwhen you say pin. 5spiration is indicated in writing with a superscript h! as in Ip I. %asal sounds areproduced when the "elum 1the soft palate located in the back of the roof of the mouth2 is lowered and air ispassed through the nose and mouth. Aral sounds are produced when the "elum is raised and air passesonly through the mouth.

=laces of 5rticulation


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'or rows that ha"e two consonants! the top consonant is "oiceless and the bottom consonant is "oiced.%asal stops are all "oiced! as are li/uids. The sound I+I is also "oiced. f sounds are in two places on thechart! that means they can be pronounced either way.

Eowels

Eowels are produced by a continuous airstream and all are "oiced. They are classified according to height ofthe tongue! part of tongue in"ol"ed! and position of the lips. The tongue can be high! mid! or low; and the partof the tongue used can be front! central or back. Anly four "owels are produced with rounded lips and onlyfour "owels are considered tense instead of la(. The sound IaI would be written as a low back la( unrounded"owel. any languages also ha"e "owels called diphthongs! a se/uence of two sounds! "owel G glide.)(amples in )nglish include oy in boy and ow in cow. n addition! "owels can be nasalized when they occurbefore nasal consonants. 5 diacritic mark KLM is placed o"er the "owel to show this. The "owel sounds in beeand bean are considered different because the sound in bean is nasalized.

The bold "owels are tense! and the italic "owels are rounded. )nglish also includes the diphthongs: Ka+M as inbite! KawM as in cow! and Ko+M as in boy.

'or the complete =5 chart with symbols for the sounds of e"ery human language! please "isit thenternational =honetic 5ssociation&s website. 5nd you&re looking for a way to type )nglish =5 symbols online!please "isit ipa.typeit.org

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"a'or C#asses of ounds ()istincti*e +eatures,

5ll of the classes of sounds described abo"e can be put into more general classes that include the patterningof sounds in the world&s languages. Continuant sounds indicate a continuous airflow! while non-continuantsounds indicate total obstruction of the airstream. Abstruent sounds do not allow air to escape through thenose! while sonorant sounds ha"e a relati"ely free airflow through the mouth or nose. The following tablesummarizes this information:

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hereas phonetics is the study of sounds and is concerned with the production! audition and perception of ofspeech sounds 1called phones2! phonology describes the way sounds function within a gi"en language andoperates at the le"el of sound systems and abstract sound units. 3nowing the sounds of a language is only asmall part of phonology. This importance is shown by the fact that you can change one word into another bysimply changing one sound. Consider the differences between the words time and dime. The words areidentical e(cept for the first sound. KtM and KdM can therefore distinguish words! and are called contrastingsounds. They are distincti"e sounds in )nglish! and all distincti"e sounds are classified as phonemes.

inimal =airs

inimal pairs are words with different meanings that ha"e the same sounds e(cept for one. Thesecontrasting sounds can either be consonants or "owels. The words pin and bin are minimal pairs becausethey are e(actly the same e(cept for the first sound. The words read and rude are also e(actly the samee(cept for the "owel sound. The e(amples from abo"e! time and dime! are also minimal pairs. n effect!words with one contrasti"e sound are minimal pairs. 5nother feature of minimal pairs is o"erlappingdistribution. >ounds that occur in phonetic en"ironments that are identical are said to be in o"erlappingdistribution. The sounds of K nM from pin and bin are in o"erlapping distribution because they occur in bothwords. The same is true for three and through. The sounds of KNrM is in o"erlapping distribution because theyoccur in both words as well.

'ree Eariation

>ome words in )nglish are pronounced differently by different speakers. This is most noticeable among5merican )nglish speakers and


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5ssimilation: sounds become more like neighboring sounds! allowing for ease of articulation orpronunciation; such as "owels are nasalized before nasal consonants

- 0armony: non-ad+acent "owels become more similar by sharing a feature or set of features 1common in'innish2

- emination: sound becomes identical to an ad+acent sound

- egressi"e 5ssimilation: sound on left is the target! and sound on right is the trigger

Dissimilation: sounds become less like neighboring sounds; these rules are /uite rare! but one e(ample in)nglish is Kf fNM becoming Kf ftM 1IfI and INI are both fricati"es! but ItI is a stop2

)penthesis: insertion of a sound! e.g. ,atin 6homre6 became >panish 6hombre6

- =rothesis: insertion of "owel sound at beginning of word

- 5napty(is: "owel sound with predictable /uality is inserted word-internally

- =aragoge: insertion of "owel sound at end of word

- )(crescence: consonant sound inserted between other consonants 1also called stop-intrusion2

Deletion: deletion of a sound; e.g. 'rench word-final consonants are deleted when the ne(t word begins witha consonant 1but are retained when the following word begins with a "owel2

- 5phaeresis: "owel sound deleted at beginning of word

- >yncope: "owel sound is deleted word-internally

- 5pocope: "owel sound deleted at end of word

etathesis: reordering of phonemes; in some dialects of )nglish! the word asked is pronounced KQksM;children&s speech shows many cases of metathesis such as aminal for animal

,enition: consonant changes to a weaker manner of articulation; "oiced stop becomes a fricati"e! fricati"e

becomes a glide! etc.=alatalization: sound becomes palatal when ad+acent to a front "owel Compensatory ,engthening: soundbecomes long as a result of sound loss! e.g. ,atin 6octo6 became talian 6otto6

5ssimilation in )nglish

5n interesting obser"ation of assimilation rules is e"idenced in the formation of plurals and the past tense in)nglish. hen pluralizing nouns! the last letter is pronounced as either KsM! KzM! or KJzM. hen forming pasttenses of "erbs! the -ed ending is pronounced as either KtM! KdM! KJdM. f you were to sort words into threecolumns! you would be able to tell why certain words are followed by certain sounds:

=lural nouns 0opefully! you can determine which consonants produce which sounds. n

the nouns! IsI is added after "oiceless consonants! and IzI is added after "oiced consonants. IJzI is addedafter sibilants. 'or the "erbs! ItI is added after "oiceless consonants! and IdI is added after "oicedconsonants. IJdI is added after al"eolar stops. The great thing about this is that no one e"er taught you thisin school.


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tips bibs kisses

laughs dogs +udges

=ast Tense

ItI IdI IJdI

kissed lo"ed patted

washed +ogged waded

coughed teased seeded

riting ules

5 general phonological rule is 5 < I D UU ) 1said: 5 becomes < when it occurs between D and )2 Athersymbols in rule writing include: C V any obstruent! E V any "owel! W V nothing! X V word boundary! 1 2 Voptional! and Y Z V eitherIor. 5 deletion rule is 5 W I ) UU 15 is deleted when it occurs after )2 and aninsertion rule is W 5 I ) UU 15 is inserted when it occurs after )2.

5lpha notation is used to collapse similar assimilation rules into one. C K[ "oiceM I UU K[ "oiceM 15nobstruent becomes "oiced when it occurs before a "oiced obstruent 5%D an obstruent becomes "oiceless

when it occurs before a "oiceless obstruent.2 >imilarly! it can be used for dissimilation rules too. C K-["oiceM I UU K[ "oiceM 15n obstruent becomes "oiced when it occurs before a "oiceless obstruent 5%D anobstruent becomes "oiceless when it occurs before a "oiced obstruent.2 emination rules are written asC@CB CBCB 1for e(ample! pd dd2

>yllable >tructure

There are three peaks to a syllable: nucleus 1"owel2! onset 1consonant before nucleus2 and coda 1consonantafter nucleus.2 The onset and coda are both optional! meaning that a syllable could contain a "owel andnothing else. The nucleus is re/uired in e"ery syllable by definition. The order of the peaks is always onset -nucleus - coda. 5ll languages permit open syllables 1Consonant G Eowel2! but not all languages allow closedsyllables 1Consonant G Eowel G Consonant2. ,anguages that only allow open syllables are called CElanguages. n addition to not allowing codas! some CE languages also ha"e constraints on the number ofconsonants allowed in the onset.

The sonority profile dictates that sonority must rise to the nucleus and fall to the coda in e"ery language. Thesonority scale 1from most to least sonorous2 is "owels - glides - li/uids - nasals - obstruents. >onority mustrise in the onset! but the sounds cannot be ad+acent to or share a place of articulation 1e(cept KsM in )nglish2nor can there be more than two consonants in the onset. This e(plains why )nglish allows some consonantcombinations! but not others. 'or e(ample! price Kpra+sM is a well-formed syllable and word because thesonority rises in the onset 1p! an obstruent! is less sonorous than r! a li/uid2; howe"er! rpice Krpa+sM is not asyllable in )nglish because the sonority does not rise in the onset.

The a(imality Condition states that onsets are as large as possible up to the well-formedness rules of alanguage. Ansets are always preferred o"er codas when syllabifying words. There are also constraints that

state the ma(imum number of consonants between two "owels is four; onsets and codas ha"e twoconsonants ma(imally; and onsets and codas can be bigger only at the edges of words.

Part +our: emantics and Pragmatics

>emantics

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,e(ical semantics is concerned with the meanings of words and the meaning of relationships among words!while phrasal semantics is concerned with the meaning of syntactic units larger than the word. =ragmatics isthe study of how conte(t affects meaning! such as how sentences are interpreted in certain situations.

>emantic properties are the components of meanings of words. 'or e(ample! the semantic property 6human6can be found in many words such as parent! doctor! baby! professor! widow! and aunt. Ather semanticproperties include animate ob+ects! male! female! countable items and non-countable items.

The -nyms

0omonyms: different words that are pronounced the same! but may or may not be spelled the same 1to! two!and too2

=olysemous: word that has multiple meanings that are related conceptually or historically 1bear can mean totolerate or to carry or to support2

0omograph: different words that are spelled identically and possibly pronounced the same; if they arepronounced the same! they are also homonyms 1pen can mean writing utensil or cage2

0eteronym: homographs that are pronounced differently 1do"e the bird and do"e the past tense of di"e2

>ynonym: words that mean the same but sound different 1couch and sofa2

5ntonym: words that are opposite in meaning

Complementary pairs: ali"e and dead

radable pairs: big and small 1no absolute scale2

0yponym: set of related words 1red! white! yellow! blue are all hyponyms of 6color62

etonym: word used in place of another to con"ey the same meaning 1+ock used for athlete! ashingtonused for 5merican go"ernment! crown used for monarcy2

etronym: e(pressions that are no longer redundant 1silent mo"ie used to be redundant because a long timeago! all mo"ies were silent! but this is no longer true or redundant2

Thematic oles

Thematic roles are the semantic relationships between the "erbs and noun phrases of sentences. Thefollowing chart shows the thematic roles in relationship to "erbs of sentences:

Thematic ole Description )(ample

5gent the one who performs an action aria ran

Theme the person or thing that undergoes an actionary called \ohn

,ocation the place where an action takes place t rains in >pain

oal the place to which an action is directed =ut the cat on the porch

>ource the place from which an action originates 0e flew from Chicago to ,5

nstrument the means by which an action is performed 0e cuts his hair with scissors

)(periencer one who percei"es something >he heard


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=ossessor one who has something The tail of the cat got caught

ecipient one who recei"es something ga"e it to the girl

>entential eaning

The meaning of sentences is built from the meaning of noun phrases and "erbs. >entences contain truthconditions if the circumstances in the sentence are true. =araphrases are two sentences with the same truthconditions! despite subtle differences in structure and emphasis. The ball was kicked by the boy is aparaphrase of the sentence the boy kicked the ball! but they ha"e the same truth conditions - that a boykicked a ball. >ometimes the truth of one sentence entails or implies the truth of another sentence. This iscalled entailment and the opposite of this is called contradiction! where one sentence implies the falseness ofanother. 0e was assassinated entails that he is dead. 0e was assassinated contradicts with the statement heis ali"e.

=ragmatics

=ragmatics is the interpretation of linguistic meaning in conte(t. ,inguistic conte(t is discourse that precedesa sentence to be interpreted and situational conte(t is knowledge about the world. n the following sentences!the kids ha"e eaten already and surprisingly! they are hungry! the linguistic conte(t helps to interpret thesecond sentence depending on what the first sentence says. The situational conte(t helps to interpret thesecond sentence because it is common knowledge that humans are not usually hungry after eating.

a(ims of Con"ersation

rice&s ma(ims for con"ersation are con"entions of speech such as the ma(im of /uantity that states aspeaker should be as informati"e as is re/uired and neither more nor less. The ma(im of rele"anceessentially states a speaker should stay on the topic! and the ma(im of manner states the speaker should bebrief and orderly! and a"oid ambiguity. The fourth ma(im! the ma(im of /uality! states that a speaker shouldnot lie or make any unsupported claims.

=erformati"e >entences

n these types of sentences! the speaker is the sub+ect who! by uttering the sentence! is accomplishing someadditional action! such as daring! resigning! or nominating. These sentences are all affirmati"e! declarati"e

and in the present tense. 5n informal test to see whether a sentence is performati"e or not is to insert thewords hereby before the "erb. hereby challenge you to a match or hereby fine you ]788 are bothperformati"e! but hereby know that girl is not. Ather performati"e "erbs are bet! promise! pronounce!be/ueath! swear! testify! and dismiss.

=resuppositions

These are implicit assumptions re/uired to make a sentence meaningful. >entences that containpresuppositions are not allowed in court because accepting the "alidity of the statement mean accepting thepresuppositions as well. 0a"e you stopped stealing cars* is not admissible in court because no matter howthe defendant answers! the presupposition that he steals cars already will be acknowledged. 0a"e youstopped smoking* implies that you smoke already! and ould you like another piece* implies that you&"ealready had one piece.

Dei(is

Dei(is is reference to a person! ob+ect! or e"ent which relies on the situational conte(t. 'irst and secondperson pronouns such as my! mine! you! your! yours! we! ours and us are always deictic because theirreference is entirely dependent on conte(t. Demonstrati"e articles like this! that! these and those ande(pressions of time and place are always deictic as well. n order to understand what specific times or placessuch e(pressions refer to! we also need to know when or where the utterance was said. f someone says 6&m

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o"er hereH6 you would need to know who 66 referred to! as well as where 6here6 is. Dei(is marks one of theboundaries of semantics and pragmatics.

=art 'i"e: %eurolinguistics

The human brain consists of @8 billion ner"e cells 1neurons2 and billions of fibers that connect them. Theseneurons or gray matter form the corte(! the surface of the brain! and the connecting fibers or white matterform the interior of the brain. The brain is di"ided into two hemispheres! the left and right cerebralhemispheres. These hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum. n general! the left hemisphere ofthe brain controls the right side of the body and "ice "ersa.

The auditory corte( recei"es and interprets auditory stimuli! while the "isual corte( recei"es and interprets"isual stimuli. The angular gyrus con"erts the auditory stimuli to "isual stimuli and "ice "ersa. The motorcorte( signals the muscles to mo"e when we want to talk and is directed by


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0our Time Aur noH

ood ood ould noH

The patient&s errors suggest our mental dictionary is further organized into parts consisting of ma+or contentwords 1first stimuli2 and grammatical words 1second stimuli.2

n addition! split-brain patients 1those who ha"e had their corpus callosum se"ered2 pro"ide e"idence forlanguage lateralization. f an ob+ect is placed in the left hand of split-brain patient whose "ision is cut off! theperson cannot name the ob+ect! but will know how to use it. The information is sent to the right side of thebrain! but cannot be relayed to the left side for linguistic naming. 0owe"er! if the ob+ect is placed in theperson&s right hand! the person can immediately name it because the information is sent directly to the lefthemisphere.

Dichotic listening is another e(perimental techni/ue! using auditory signals. >ub+ects hear a different soundin each ear! such as boy in the left ear and girl in the right ear or water rushing in the left ear and a hornhonking in the right ear. hen asked to state what they heard in each ear! sub+ects are more fre/uentlycorrect in reporting linguistic stimuli in the right ear 1girl2 and non"erbal stimuli in the left ear 1water rushing.2This is because the left side of the brain is specialized for language and a word heard in the right ear willtransfer directly to the left side of the body because of the contralateralization of the brain. 'urthermore! theright side of the brain is specialized for non"erbal stimuli! such as music and en"ironmental sounds! and anoise heard in the left ear will transfer directly to the right side of the brain.

Part i$: Chi#d Language Ac-uisition and econd Language Ac-uisition

,inguistic competence de"elops in stages! from babbling to one word to two word! then telegraphic speech.


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orphology: 5n o"ergeneralization of constructed rules is shown when children treat irregular "erbs andnouns as regular. nstead of went as the past tense of go! children use goed because the regular "erbs addan -ed ending to form the past tense. >imilarly! children use gooses as the plural of goose instead of geese!because regular nouns add an -s in the plural.

The 6nnateness 0ypothesis6 of child language ac/uisition! proposed by %oam Chomsky! states that thehuman species is prewired to ac/uire language! and that the kind of language is also determined. anyfactors ha"e led to this hypothesis such as the ease and rapidity of language ac/uisition despiteimpo"erished input as well as the uniformity of languages. 5ll children will learn a language! and children will

also learn more than one language if they are e(posed to it. Children follow the same general stages whenlearning a language! although the linguistic input is widely "aried.

The po"erty of the stimulus states that children seem to learn or know the aspects of grammar for which theyrecei"e no information. n addition! children do not produce sentences that could not be sentences in somehuman language. The principles of 9ni"ersal rammar underlie the specific grammars of all languages anddetermine the class of languages that can be ac/uired unconsciously without instruction. t is the geneticallydetermined faculty of the left hemisphere! and there is little doubt that the brain is specially e/uipped forac/uisition of human language.

The 6Critical 5ge 0ypothesis6 suggests that there is a critical age for language ac/uisition without the needfor special teaching or learning. During this critical period! language learning proceeds /uickly and easily.

5fter this period! the ac/uisition of grammar is difficult! and for some people! ne"er fully achie"ed. Cases of

children reared in social isolation ha"e been used for testing the critical age hypothesis. %one of the childrenwho had little human contact were able to speak any language once reintroduced into society. )"en thechildren who recei"ed linguistic input after being reintroduced to society were unable to fully de"eloplanguage skills. These cases of isolated children! and of deaf children! show that humans cannot fullyac/uire any language to which they are e(posed unless they are within the critical age.


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Community ,anguage ,earning: materials are de"eloped as course progresses and teacher understandswhat students need and want to learn; learning in"ol"es the whole person and language is seen as morethan +ust communication

Community ,anguage Teaching: incorporates all components of language and helps students with "ariouslearning styles; use of communication-based acti"ities with authentic materials! needs of learner are takeninto consideration when planning topics and ob+ecti"es

'our skill areas

The four skill areas of learning a foreign language need to be addressed consistently and continually. oodlesson plans incorporate all four: ,istening! >peaking! eading 1and Eocabulary2! and riting 1andrammar2. %ati"e speakers do not learn the skill areas separately! nor do they use them separately! so theyshouldnt be taught separately. 0owe"er! it is easy to fall into the trap of teaching about the language! insteadof actually teaching the language. ost te(tbooks resort to teaching grammar and "ocabulary lists andnothing more.

Part e*en: ocio#inguistics

5 dialect is a "ariety of language that is systematically different from other "arieties of the same language.The dialects of a single language are mutually intelligible! but when the speakers can no longer understandeach other! the dialects become languages. eographical regions are also considered when dialects become

languages. >wedish! %orwegian! and Danish are all considered separate languages because of regulardifferences in grammar and the countries in which they are spoken! yet >wedes! %orwegians! and Danescan all understand one another. 0indi and 9rdu are considered mutually intelligible languages when spoken!yet the writing systems are different. An the other hand! andarin and Cantonese are mutually unintelligiblelanguages when spoken! yet the writing systems are the same.

5 dialect is considered standard if it is used by the upper class! political leaders! in literature and is taught inschools as the correct form of the language. A"ert prestige refers to this dominant dialect. 5 non-standarddialect is associated with co"ert prestige and is an ethnic or regional dialect of a language. These non-standard dialects are +ust as linguistically sophisticated as the standard dialect! and +udgments to theinferiority of them are based on social or racist +udgments.

5frican-5merican )nglish contains many regular differences of the standard dialect. These differences arethe same as the differences among many of the world&s dialects. =honological differences include r and ldeletion of words like poor 1pa2 and all 1awe.2 Consonant cluster simplification also occurs 1passedpronounced like pass2! as well as a loss of interdental fricati"es. >yntactic differences include the doublenegati"e and the loss of and habitual use of the "erb 6be.6 0e late means he is late now! but he be latemeans he is always late.

5 lingua franca is a ma+or language used in an area where speakers of more than one language li"e thatpermits communication and commerce among them. )nglish is called the lingua franca of the whole world!while 'rench used to be the lingua franca of diplomacy.

5 pidgin is a rudimentary language of few le(ical items and less comple( grammatical rules based on anotherlanguage. %o one learns a pidgin as a nati"e language! but children do learn creoles as a first language.

Creoles are defined as pidgins that are adopted by a community as its nati"e tongue.lang may also be used in speech! but is not often used in formal situations or writing. \argon refersto the uni/ue "ocabulary pertaining to a certain area! such as computers or medicine. ords or e(pressionsreferring to certain acts that are forbidden or frowned upon are considered taboo. These taboo wordsproduce euphemisms! words or phrases that replace the e(pressions that are being a"oided.

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The use of words may indicate a society&s attitude toward se(! bodily functions or religious beliefs! and theymay also reflect racism or se(ism in a society. ,anguage itself is not racist or se(ist! but the society may be.>uch insulting words may reinforce biased "iews! and changes in society may be reflected in the changes inlanguage.

Part %ight: .istorica# Linguistics

,anguages that e"ol"e from a common source are genetically related. These languages were once dialectsof the same language. )arlier forms of ermanic languages! such as erman! )nglish! and >wedish weredialects of =roto-ermanic! while earlier forms of omance languages! such as >panish! 'rench! and talianwere dialects of ,atin. 'urthermore! earlier forms of =roto-ermanic and ,atin were once dialects of ndo-)uropean.

,inguistic changes like sound shift is found in the history of all languages! as e"idenced by the regular soundcorrespondences that e(ist between different stages of the same language! different dialects! and differentlanguages. ords! morphemes! and phonemes may be altered! added or lost. The meaning of words maybroaden! narrow or shift. %ew words may be introduced into a language by borrowing! or by coinage! blendsand acronyms. The le(icon may also shrink as older words become obsolete.

Change comes about as a result of the restructuring of grammar by children learning the language.rammars seem to become simple and regular! but these simplifications may be compensated for by morecomple(ities. >ound changes can occur because of assimilation! a process of ease of articulation. >ome

grammatical changes are analogic changes! generalizations that lead to more regularity! such as sweepedinstead of swept.

The study of linguistic change is called historical and comparati"e linguistics. ,inguists identify regular soundcorrespondences using the comparati"e method among the cognates 1words that de"eloped from the sameancestral language2 of related languages. They can restructure an earlier protolanguage and this allowslinguists to determine the history of a language family.

Ald )nglish! iddle )nglish! odern )nglish

Ald )nglish ^__-@8`` C) hakespeare

=honological change: hift took place. The se"en long "owelsof iddle )nglish underwent changes. The high "owels KiM and KuM became the diphthongs Ka+M and KawM. Thelong "owels increased tongue height and shifted upward! and KaM was fronted. any of the spellinginconsistencies of )nglish are because of the reat Eowel >hift. Aur spelling system still reflects the waywords were pronounced before the shift took place.

orphological change: any ndo-)uropean languages had e(tensi"e case endings that go"erned wordorder! but these are no longer found in omance languages or )nglish. 5lthough pronouns still show a traceof the case system 1he "s. him2! )nglish uses prepositions to show the case. nstead of the dati"e case1indirect ob+ects2! )nglish usually the words to or for. nstead of the geniti"e case! )nglish uses the word of or&s after a noun to show possession. Ather cases include the nominati"e 1sub+ect pronouns2! accusati"e1direct ob+ects2! and "ocati"e.

>yntactic change: ub+ect - Eerb - Ab+ect order.

Arthographic change: Consonant clusters ha"e become simplified! such as hlaf becoming loaf and hneccabecoming neck. 0owe"er! some of these clusters are still written! but are no longer pronounced! such asgnaw! write! and dumb.

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,e(ical change: Ald )nglish borrowed place names from Celtic! army! religious and educational words from,atin! and e"eryday words from >candina"ian. 5ngle and >a(on 1erman dialects2 form the basis of Ald)nglish phonology! morphology! synta( and le(icon. iddle )nglish borrowed many words from 'rench in theareas of go"ernment! law! religion! literature and education because of the %orman Con/uest in @8`` C).odern )nglish borrowed words from ,atin and reek because of the influence of the classics! with muchscientific terminology.

'or more information! read the 0istory of )nglish page.

Part /ine: C#assification of Languages

Indo%uropeanfamily of languagestalic 1,atin2

omance

Catalan

'rench

talian

Accitan

1=ro"enal2

=ortuguese

haeto-

omansch

omanian

>panish

>la"ic

estern

Czech

=olish

>lo"ak

>orbian

)astern

outhern

la"onic

>erbian

>lo"ene


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%orth ermanic

Danish

'aroese

celandic

%orwegian

>wedish

)ast ermanic

othic

1e(tinct2

est ermanic

5frikaans

Dutch

)nglish

'lemish

'risian

erman

4iddish

5lbanian

5rmenian

5natolian 1e(tinct2

Tocharian 1e(tinct2

ndo-ranian

ndo-5ryan 1ndic2

5ssamese

indhi

>inghalese

ranian

5"estan


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5ustro-tai languages include ndonesian! \a"anese and Thai; while the 5siatic group includes Eietnamese.

The Dra"idian languages of Tamil and Telugu are spoken in southeastern ndia and >ri ,anka.

The Caucasian language family consists of ^8 different languages! and is di"ided into Cart"elian 1southCaucasian2! %orth-est Caucasian and %orth-)ast Caucasian language groups. >ome languages areeorgian! egrelian! Chechen! ngush 5"arian! ,ezgian and Dargin. These languages are mostly spoken ineorgia! Turkey! >yria! ran! \ordan and parts of the ussian federation.

The %iger-Congo family includes most of the 5frican languages. 5bout @!788 languages belong to this group!including the wahili! Tswana! hosa! ulu! 3ikuyu! and >hona. Ather languages are)we! ina! 4oruba! gbo! olof! 3ordofanian and 'ulfulde.

Ather 5frican language groups are %ilo->aharan! which includes B88 languages spoken in Central and)astern 5frica; and 3hoisan! the click languages of southern 5frica. The 3hoisan group only contains about?8 languages! most of which are spoken in %amibia and outh 5merica by the nati"e peoples before the)uropean con/uests. 3nowledge of these languages is limited! and because many of the languages are

approaching e(tinction! linguists ha"e little hope of achie"ing a complete understanding of the 5merindianlanguage families.

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