Linguistics Ib Chapter 12 Language and the Brain PDF

Linguistics Ib Chapter 12 Language and the brain Neurolinguistics - Study of relationship between language and the brain - Recent term but field of study dates back to 19th century - September of 1848 accident occurred o Phineas P. Gage, rod went through the front of his face bu...

Linguistics Ib Chapter 12 Language and the brain Neurolinguistics - Study of relationship between language and the brain - Recent term but field of study dates back to 19th century - September of 1848 accident occurred o Phineas P. Gage, rod went through the front of his face but he recovered and could still speak à speaking abilities/languages are not in the front of the brain Many resources claim to be able to determine whether you are a left-brained or right-brained person based on preferences for certain things - claims based mostly on pseudo-science but certain areas of the brain store different types of knowledge and are responsible for completing certain tasks - Language functions, generally, are carried out by the left-hemisphere Localization view - Most important parts for language function are located in areas around the left ear à left hemisphere - Localization à specific functions are located in certain areas of the brain - Suggests that brain activity involved in hearing a word, understanding it, then saying it, follows a definite pattern oversimplified version o word is heard and comprehended via Wernicke’s area, this signal is then transferred via arcuate fasciculus to Broca’s area where preparations are made to generate spoken version of word, the signal is sent to part of motor cortex to physically articulate word Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  - Understanding of how the brain stores knowledge of language and actually produces language is often described in metaphors à forced to use metaphors mainly because direct physical evidence of linguistic processes in the brain cannot be obtained o The “pathway” metaphor in the electronic age à familiar with process of sending signals through electrical circuits o Sigmund Freud’s “steam engine” metaphor in earlier age dominated more by mechanical technologies à building up pressure and sudden release o Aristotle’s metaphor à brain is “cold sponge” that keeps blood cool - We have to rely on indirect methods à most of them involve attempts to work out how system works from clues picked up when systems has problems or malfunctions Tongue Tips and Slips à minor production difficulties that may provide possible clues to how our linguistic knowledge is organized within the brain Slip of the Tongue - speech error which produces expressions such as a long shory stort or use the door to open the key - sometimes called spoonerisms after William Spooner Slips of the Brain - Perseveration o Sound carried over to the next word à black bloxes - Anticipation o Sound used before the next word à a tup of tea - Exchange o Sounds change places à loop before you leak Slips of the Ear - this type of slip may provide some clues to how the brain tries to make sense of the auditory signal it receives à hearing “great ape” instead of “grey tape” Linguistic Inquiry I Brown and McNeill’s The TOT Phenomenon The Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon - State in which one cannot quite recall a familiar word but can recall words of similar form and meaning - Lexical system organized by semantic and phonological information (Brown & McNeil 1966) à Speakers in a TOT state recall words of similar meaning (SM) and of similar sounds (SS) and can provide accurate phonological information about the target word o Initial and final sound(s) à bathtub effect § chunking of common prefixes à ex- in extort, con- in convene o Primary Stress o Number of syllables - Studies have found that speakers generally have an accurate phonological outline of the word, can get the initial sound correct and mostly know the number of syllables in the word à recall of parts of words and attributes of words is termed “generic recall” Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  - data collection on ToT is difficult à forcing someone into ToT is very tricky - How is lexical data (vocabulary) stored in our brain? o Interpretation authored for generic recall involves assumption that uses of language possess the mental equivalent of a dictionary à features that figure in generic recall may be entered in the dictionary sooner than other features, thus wired into a more elaborate associated network o Not only semantics but also phonological information is relevant for sorting mental lexicon - Experience mainly occurs with uncommon words and names (study tries to force TIPP, but can actually happen with any type of word) à suggests that “word storage” system may be partially organised on the basis of some phonological information and that some words in the store are more easily retrieved than others - When mistakes are made in this retrieval process they are often strong phonological similarities between the target word and a mistake we produce o Mistakes of this sort sometimes called malapropisms after Mrs. Malaprop à “near-misses” for words with great comic effect o Mistaken use of word in place of a similar sounding one - Bathtub effect à When reading, “exterior letters of words are easier to detect than middle ones” (Matt Davis) o Scrambled texts o Active gap, phonological outline Aphasia - an impairment of language function due to localized brain damage that leads to difficulty in understanding and/or producing linguistic forms - Someone who is aphasic often has interrelated language disorders à difficulties in understanding can lead to difficulties in production - most common cause of aphasia is a stroke, traumatic head injuries from violence or an accident may have similar effects à these can range from mild to severe reduction in the ability to use language - Difficulties in speaking can also be accompanied by difficulties in writing - Impairment of auditory comprehension tends to be accompanied by reading difficulties - Classification of different types of aphasia is usually based on the primary symptoms of someone having difficulties with language - Language disorders are almost always the result of injury to the left hemisphere - Broca’s aphasia à motor aphasia/non-fluent aphasia o Speaking is impaired but comprehension is mostly there o Agrammatic speech à grammatical markers are missing - Wernicke’s aphasia à sensory aphasia/fluent aphasia o Fluent speaking but meaning is impaired/speech comprehension deficit o Difficulty in finding the correct word sometimes referred to as anomia à to overcome these word finding difficulties speakers use different strategies such as trying to describe objects or talking about their purpose - Conduction Aphasia o Associated with damage to the arcuate fasciculus Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o Individuals suffering from this disorder sometimes mispronounce words but typically do not have articulation problems à they are fluent but may have disrupted rhythm because of pauses and hesitation o comprehension of spoken words is normally good however the task of repeating a word or phrase spoken by someone else creates major difficulty à what the speaker hears and understands can't be transferred very successfully to the speech production area Dichotic Listening - Dichotic listening test is a method to prove left-side dominance for language ability (among others) à apparent specialization of left hemisphere for language is usually described in terms of lateral dominance or lateralization (one-sidedness) o Language signal received through left ears first sent to right hemisphere, then sent to the left hemisphere (language centre) for processing à non direct route takes longer than linguistic signal received through right ear, which goes directly to the left hemisphere, 1st signal to get processed wins because of what is generally known as the right ear advantage for speech sounds o Non-verbal sounds recognised more often via the left ear à processed faster by the right hemisphere o Distinction between analytic processing done with “left brain” and holistic processing done with “right brain” The Critical Period or “sensitive period” - Generally between birth (although probably before) and puberty, when lateralization takes place à during childhood there is a period when the human brain is most ready to receive input and learn a particular language - Coincides with period during which language acquisition takes place - If child does not acquire language during this period, they will find it almost impossible to learn language later on à experiments testing this are unethical, because it would require stripping children of social contact and language input but there are cases of feral children whose language skills were impaired (Genie, Victor of Aveyron) o Genie was using right hemisphere of the brain for language functions Chapter 13 First Language Acquisition (FLA) Acquisition - Generally occurs without overt instruction for all children at remarkable speed, regardless of differences in their circumstances à innate predisposition in the human infant to acquire language even though by itself this inborn language capacity is not enough Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  - Basic requirements o During first two or three years of development à child requires interaction with other language users in order to bring the general language capacity into contact with a particular language such as English o Importance of cultural transmission à particular language child learns is not genetically inherited but acquired in a particular language-using environment o Child must also be physically capable of sending and receiving sound signals in a language o Interaction with others via language - Language samples/Input is provided by older children and adults in the home environment o characteristically simplified speech style, characterised also by frequent use of questions, often using exaggerated intonation, extra loudness and a slower tempo with longer pauses à sometimes described as “motherese” or “child- directed speech” more generally known as “caregiver speech” - Caregiver speech o A lot of caregiver speech is a type of conversational structure that seems to assign an interactive role to the young child even before they become a speaking participant o characterized by simple sentence structures, repetition, paraphrasing, with reference largely restricted to the here and now The Acquisition Schedule - Children develop language at roughly the same time along much the same schedule à it seems that the language acquisition schedule has the same basis as the biologically determined development of motor skills and the maturation of the infant’s brain - Child has the biological capacity to identify aspects of linguistic input at different stages during the early years of life à long before children begin to talk they have been actively processing what they hear - We can identify what very young children are paying attention to by the way they increase or decrease “sucking behavior” in response to speech sounds or turn their heads in the direction of those sounds - At one month an infant is capable of distinguishing between [ba] and [pa] - During the first three months, the child produces big smiles in response to a speaking face, and starts to create distinct vocalizations. - Cooing à earliest use of speech-like sounds o During first few months of life, child gradually becomes capable of producing sequences of vowel-like sounds, particularly high vowels similar to [i] and [u]. o By four months of age, developing ability to bring the back of the tongue into regular contact with the back of palate allows the infant to create sounds similar to the velar consonants [k] and [ɡ] à the common description as “cooing” or “gooing” for this type of production o By the time they are five months old, babies can already hear difference between the vowels [i] and [a] and discriminate between syllables like [ba] and [ɡa] - Babbling Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o Between six and eight months, the child is sitting up and producing a number of different vowels and consonants, as well as combinations such as ba-ba-ba and ga-ga-ga o Around nine to ten months, there are recognizable intonation patterns to the consonant and vowel combinations being produced, as well as variation in the combinations such as ba-ba-da-da, nasal sounds also become more common and certain syllable sequences such as ma-ma-ma and da-da-da are inevitably interpreted by parents as versions of “mama” and “dada” and repeated back to the child o During the tenth and eleventh months, they become capable of using their vocalizations to express emotions and emphasis à late babbling stage is characterized by more complex syllable combinations (ma-da-ga-ba), a lot of sound-play and attempted imitations, this “pre-language” use of sound provides the child with some experience of the social role of speech because adults tend to react to the babbling, however incoherent, as if it is actually the child’s contribution to social interaction o There is substantial variation among children in terms of the age at which particular features of linguistic development occur à statements concerning development stages such as “by six months” or “by the age of two” are general approximations and subject to variation in individual children - The One-Word Stage o Between twelve and eighteen months, children begin to produce a variety of recognizable single-unit utterances o This stage is characterized by speech in which single terms are used for objects such as “milk,” “cookie,” “cat,” “cup” and “spoon” (usually pronounced [pun]) o Other forms such as [ʌsæ] may occur in circumstances that suggest the child is producing a version of What’s that, so a term such as “single-unit” is more accurate à holophrastic speech (meaning a single form functioning as a phrase or sentence) to describe an utterance that could be a word, a phrase, or a sentence § While many of these holophrastic utterances seem to be used to name objects, they may also be produced in circumstances that suggest the child is already extending their use à an empty bed may elicit the name of a sister who normally sleeps in the bed, even in the absence of the person named - The Two-Word Stage o Depending on what we count as an occurrence of two distinct words used together, two-word stage can begin around eighteen to twenty months, as the child’s vocabulary moves beyond fifty words o By time the child is two years old, a variety of combinations, similar to baby chair, mommy eat, cat bad, will usually have appeared à the adult interpretation of such combinations is, of course, very much tied to the context of their utterance. The phrase baby chair may be taken as an expression of possession (= this is baby’s chair), or as a request (= put baby in chair), or as a statement (= baby is in the chair), depending on different circumstances § big boat doggie bark hit ball mama dress more milk shoe off Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o Whatever it is that the child actually intends to communicate through such expressions, the significant functional consequences are that the adults or, more often, older children behave as if communication is taking place à child not only produces speech, but also receives feedback confirming that the utterance worked as a contribution to the interaction o Moreover, by the age of two, whether the child is producing 200 or 300 distinct “words,” he or she will be capable of understanding five times as many - Telegraphic Speech o Between two and two and a half years old, child begins producing large number of utterances that could be classified as “multiple-word” speech o stage described as telegraphic speech à characterized by strings of words (lexical morphemes) in phrases or sentences such as this shoe all wet, cat drink milk and daddy go bye-bye o Child has developed some sentence-building capacity by this stage and can get the word order correct o While this type of telegram-format speech is being produced, inflections (-ing) begin to appear in some word forms and simple prepositions (in, on) are also used o By the age of two and a half, the child’s vocabulary is expanding rapidly and child is initiating more talk while increased physical activity includes running and jumping o By three, the vocabulary has grown to hundreds of words and pronunciation has become clearer. At this point, it is worth considering what kind of influence the adults have in the development of the child’s speech The Acquisition Process - As linguistic repertoire of the child increases, often assumed that the child is being “taught” the language à this idea is not really supported by what the child actually does o For majority of children, no one provides any instruction on how to speak the language o A more accurate view would have the children actively constructing, from what is said to them and around them, possible ways of using the language o child’s linguistic production appears to be mostly a matter of trying out constructions and testing whether they work or not - Children imitate what adults say and are clearly in the process of adopting a lot of vocabulary from the speech they hear (the input) à however, adults simply do not produce many of the expressions that turn up in children’s speech o Similar evidence against “imitation” as the major source of the child’s speech production comes from studies of the structures used by young children à they may repeat single words or phrases, but not the sentence structures Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o Likely that children understand what adults are saying in these examples but have their own way of expressing what they understand - Also unlikely that adult “corrections” are a very effective determiner of how the child speaks à even when correction is attempted in a subtle manner, the child will continue to use a personally constructed form, despite the adult’s repetition of what the correct form should be o Child is neither imitating the adult’s speech nor accepting the adult’s correction o Children prefer their own terms - One factor that seems to be important in the child’s acquisition process is the use of sound and word combinations, either in interaction with others or in word play, alone à word play seems to be an important element in the development of the child’s linguistic repertoire Developing Morphology - By the time a child is two and a half years old, they are going beyond telegraphic speech forms and incorporating inflectional and functional morphemes o First to appear is the -ing form in expressions such as cat sitting and mommy reading book o Usually followed by the prepositions in and on, in either order o The next morphological development is typically the marking of regular plurals with the -s form, as in boys and cats à acquisition of the plural marker is often accompanied by a process of overgeneralization o When the alternative pronunciation of the plural morpheme used in houses (i.e. ending in [-əz]) comes into use, it too may be overgeneralized, resulting in boyses or footses o Irregular plurals such as men and feet appear next (sometimes overgeneralized, as in some mens or two feets), along with irregular past tense forms such as came and went o Not long after we see different forms of the verb “to be,” such as is and are o At about the same time as these new verb forms appear, and sometimes before them, the possessive inflection -’s becomes part of noun phrases such as Karen’s bed and mommy’s book. o In noun phrases, the articles a and the start to be used o Finally, the regular past tense forms with -ed, as in it opened or he walked, become common, with some overgeneralization in examples such as he goed and you comed here, and also forms like walkeded and wented o The final inflectional morpheme to be used, present tense -s, occurs first on verbs (comes, knows), then with auxiliary verbs (does, has) Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  - There may be some variability in individual cases, but the general acquisition sequence is presented Developing Syntax - Numerous studies of the development of syntax in children’s speech - Development of two structures that seem to be acquired in a regular way by most English-speaking children à in the formation of questions and the use of negatives, there appear to be three identifiable stages o Ages at which children go through these stages can vary, general pattern seems to be that Stage 1 occurs between 18 and 26 months, Stage 2 between 22 and 30 months, and Stage 3 between 24 and 40 months (The overlap in the periods is a reflection of the different rates at which different children normally develop) - Forming Questions o First stage has two procedures § Simply add a wh-form (Where) to the beginning of the expression à Where kitty? § Utter the expression with a rise in intonation toward the end à Sit chair? o In the second stage, more complex expressions can be formed, but the rising intonation strategy continues to be used (You want eat?) § It is noticeable that more wh-forms, such as What and Why come into use à Why you smiling? o In the third stage, the change in position of the auxiliary verb in English questions, called inversion, becomes evident in the child’s speech à I can have … Can I have … ? but doesn’t automatically spread to all wh-question types. § Some children beginning school may still prefer to form wh-questions (especially with negatives) without type of structure found in adult speech à tend to say Why kitty can’t do it? instead of Why can’t kitty do it? Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  § Some continuing trouble with the morphology of verbs à Did I caught it? instead of Did I catch it? - Forming Negatives o Stage 1 seems to involve a simple strategy of putting No or Not at the beginning § In some cases (e.g. No doing it), the negative may be used for a denial (= I am not doing it), while in other circumstances, it may be used to express a desire (= I don’t want to do it), but the utterance doesn’t change § At this stage, both no and not can be attached to nouns (no mitten) and verbs (not sit there) o In the second stage, the additional negative forms don’t and can’t appear, § Are increasingly used in front of the verb rather than at the beginning of the utterance § At this stage, children seem to be using the form don’t as a single unit, with no connection to the alternative do not, probably because the contracted form of not (n’t) is simply not heard as a distinct element in speech o The third stage sees the incorporation of other auxiliary forms such as didn’t and won’t while the typical Stage 1 forms disappear § A very late acquisition is the negative form isn’t, with the result that some Stage 2 forms (with not instead of isn’t) continue to be used for quite a long time à This not ice cream Louisa Braastad-Tiffon Developing Semantics - It is not always possible to determine precisely the meanings that children attach to the words they use - It seems that during the holophrastic stage many children use their limited vocabulary to refer to a large number of unrelated objects à process called overextension o Most common pattern is for child to overextend meaning of a word on the basis of similarities of shape, sound and size, and, to a lesser extent, movement and texture à all 4-legged animals are dogs o The semantic development in a child’s use of words is usually a process of overextension initially, followed by a gradual process of narrowing down the application of each term as more words are learned o Although overextension has been well documented in children’s speech production, it isn’t necessarily used in speech comprehension - One interesting feature of the young child’s semantics is the way certain lexical relations are treated à in terms of hyponymy, the child will almost always use the “middle” level term (middle term) in a hyponymous set such as animal – dog – terrier, vehicle – car - Toyota o It would seem more logical to learn the most general term (animal), but all evidence indicates that children first use dog with an overextended meaning close to the meaning of “animal” à may be connected to a similar tendency in adults, when talking to young children, to refer to flowers (not the more general plants, or the more specific tulips) o Child uses verbs that don’t require an object à intransitive vs. transitive - Later Developments o Some types of antonymous relations are acquired fairly late (after the age of five) § The distinctions between a number of pairs such as more/less, before/after and buy/sell seem to be later acquisitions Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o The ability to produce certain types of complex structures and extended discourse are also much later developments o It is normally assumed that, by the age of five, they have completed the greater part of the basic language acquisition process and have become accomplished users of a first language à according to some, the child is then in a good position to start learning a second (or foreign) language § Most people don’t start trying to learn another language until much later à if first language acquisition was so straightforward and largely automatic, why is learning a second language so difficult for so many people? Noam Chomsky à Linguist intellectual and social activist - Innatist Theory - The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) o Enate capacity of human beings to acquire language à inborn structures in our brain o Children have innate knowledge of basic grammatical structure that is the basis to all languages o Gives us natural propensity to organise heard the spoken language in various grammatical ways - Language structure is hardwired as kind of “Universal Grammar” (UG) - The critical period à essential for first language acquisition - Poverty of Stimulus argument o Ability to abstract rules of language from a finite number of sentences o Ability to produce an infinite number of sentences without formal teaching - The role of input in FLA - The role of rules/schooling in language learning o what is being taught in school is literary standard which is different from “our own language that is in our heads” o what were are taught at school is superficial/artificial set of rules someone decided on o System that grows in our brain is different from system that is being taught Take-Aways - Importance of phonology o A child must hear a language in order to acquire it - Interaction is the key to FLA o Interaction with others seems to be the most crucial component of first language acquisition o Seen in role of parents/older children in the Babbling, One-Word and Two- Word Stages o Questions to consider: § Role of imitation and correction in FLA? § Does this apply to SLA? If so, how? § Is there a predictable developmental path to FLA? Yes! Louisa Braastad-Tiffon Chapter 14 Second Language Acquisition/Learning (SLA) Second Language Learning - Distinction is sometimes made between learning in a “foreign language” setting (learning a language that is not generally spoken in the surrounding community) and a “second language” setting (learning a language that is spoken in the surrounding community) o Japanese students in an English class in Japan are learning English as a foreign language (EFL) and, if those same students were in an English class in the USA, they would be learning English as a second language (ESL) à the expression second language learning is used more generally to describe both situations - More significant distinction is made between acquisition and learning o Acquisition describes the gradual development over time of ability in a language by using it naturally in communicative situations with others who know the language § Normally takes place without a teacher and without much attention to the details of what is being acquired o Learning applies to a more conscious process of accumulating knowledge through analysis of features of a language, such as vocabulary and grammar Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  § Typically taking place in an institutional setting, with teachers à Mathematics, for example, is learned, not acquired o Activities associated with learning à traditionally used in second language teaching in schools have a tendency, when successful, to result in more knowledge “about” the language (as demonstrated in tests) than fluency in actually using the language (as demonstrated in social interaction) o Activities associated with acquisition à experienced by the young child and, by analogy, those who “pick up” a second language from long periods spent in interaction, constantly using the language, with native speakers of the language (Native speakers are those who speak the language as their L1) o Distinction also sometimes equated with preferred learning styles à some individuals prefer an analytic approach while others prefer a holistic approach § However, individuals whose L2 exposure is primarily a learning type of experience tend not to develop the same kind of general proficiency as those who have had more of an extended acquisition type of experience - Acquisition Barriers o Lack of time, focus and incentive undermine many L2 learning attempts but there are individuals who seem to be able to overcome the difficulties and develop an ability to use the L2 quite effectively, though not usually sounding like a native speaker à even in ideal acquisition situations, very few adults seem to reach native-like proficiency in using an L2 § There are individuals who can achieve great expertise in the written language, but not the spoken language à this might suggest that some features of an L2, such as vocabulary and grammar, are easier to learn than others, such as pronunciation (Joseph Conrad phenomenon) § Without early experience using the sounds and intonation of the L2, even highly proficient adult learners are likely to be perceived as having an “accent” of some kind - The Age Factor o This type of observation is sometimes taken as evidence that, after the critical period for language acquisition has passed, it becomes very difficult to acquire another language fully o Inherent capacity for language being taken over by features of the L1, with a resulting loss of openness to receive the features of another language à dominance of L1 is particularly strong in terms of pronunciation o Against this view, it has been demonstrated that students in their early teens are quicker and more effective L2 learners in the classroom than, for example, seven-year-olds § The effective learning of an L2 (even with a trace of an accent) may require a combination of factors § The optimum age for learning may be during the years from about ten to sixteen when the flexibility of our inherent capacity for language has not been completely lost, and the maturation of cognitive skills allows a more effective analysis of the regular features of the L2 being learned - Affective Factors Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o Teenagers are typically much more self-conscious than younger children à if there is a strong element of unwillingness or embarrassment in attempting to produce the different sounds of another language, then it may override whatever physical and cognitive abilities there are o If self-consciousness is accompanied by lack of empathy with other culture (for example, feeling no identification with its speakers or their customs), then the subtle effects of not really wanting to sound like a Russian or a German or an American may strongly inhibit the learning process o Type of emotional reaction, or “affect,” may also be the result of dull textbooks, unpleasant classroom surroundings or an exhausting schedule of study and/or work o All these negative feelings or experiences are affective factors that can create a barrier to acquisition § If we are stressed, uncomfortable, self-conscious or unmotivated, we are unlikely to learn much § Learners who have other personality traits, such as self-confidence, low anxiety and a positive self-image, seem better able to overcome difficulties in the learning space o Children are generally less constrained by affective factors Focus on Teaching Method - As long ago as 1483, William Caxton used his newly established printing press to produce a book of “Right good lernyng for to lerne shortly frenssh and englyssh” - More recent approaches to L2 learning have tended to reflect different theoretical views on how an L2 might best be learned - Grammar–Translation Method o Has its roots in the traditional teaching of Latin and is described as the grammar–translation method o Most traditional approach is to treat L2 learning the same way as any other academic subject § Vocabulary lists and sets of grammar rules are used to define the target of learning, memorization is encouraged, and written language rather than spoken language is emphasized o Emphasis on learning about the L2 often leaves students quite ignorant of how the language might be used in everyday conversation o No emphasis on conversational aspect - The Audiolingual Method o Became popular in the middle of the twentieth century à method emphasizing the spoken language o Involved systematic presentation of the structures of the L2, moving from the simple to the more complex, in the form of drills that the student had to repeat o Strongly influenced by a belief that fluent use of a language was set of “habits” that could be developed with a lot of practice § Practice involved hours spent in language lab repeating oral drills o Versions of this approach are still used in language teaching à critics have noted isolated practice in drilling language patterns bears no resemblance to Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  the interactional nature of actual spoken language use and can be incredibly boring - Communicative Approaches o More recent revisions of the L2 learning experience o Partially a reaction against the artificiality of “pattern-practice” and against the belief that consciously learning the grammar rules of a language will result in an ability to use the language o Different versions of this approach are all based on a belief that the functions of language (what it is used for) should be emphasized rather than the forms of the language (correct forms and structures) o Classroom lessons are likely to be organized around concepts such as “asking for things” in different social settings, rather than “the forms of the past tense” in different sentences à changes have coincided with attempts to provide more appropriate materials for L2 learning that has a specific purpose - Task-Based Learning o Different types of tasks and activities in which learners have to interact with each other, usually in small groups or pairs, to exchange information or solve problems à assumption in using tasks is that students will improve their ability, especially their fluency, by using the L2 in an activity that focuses on getting meaning across and has a clear goal o Despite fears that learners will learn each other’s “mistakes,” results of such task-based learning provide overwhelming evidence of more and better L2 use by more learners à goal of such activities is not that the learners will know more about the L2, but that they will develop communicative competence in the L2 Contrastive Analysis - Study and comparison of two languages à with a view to identifying their structural differences and similarities - The goal of contrastive analysis is to predict linguistic difficulties experienced during the acquisition of a second language Focus on the Learner - Most fundamental change in area of L2 studies in recent years à shift from concern with the teacher, the textbook and the method to an interest in the learner and the acquisition process - One radical feature of most communicative approaches is the toleration of “errors” produced by students o Based on a fundamental shift in perspective from the more traditional view of how L2 learning takes place à traditionally “errors” were regarded negatively, to be avoided or eradicated o We can see errors as an indication of the natural L2 acquisition process taking place à an “error,” is probably a clue to the active learning progress being made by the student o The example of womens might be seen as a type of overgeneralization (of -s as the plural marker), used by the learner based on the most common way of making plural forms in English - Transfer Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o Some errors may be due to “transfer” (also called “crosslinguistic influence”) à using sounds, expressions or structures from the L1 when performing in the L2 § If L1 and L2 have similar features à learner may be able to benefit from the positive transfer of L1 knowledge to the L2 § Transferring an L1 feature that is really different from the L2 results in negative transfer and may make the L2 expression difficult to understand § negative transfer (also called “interference”) is more common in the early stages of L2 learning and decreases as the learner develops greater familiarity with the L2 § Impact of negative transfer on communicative success tends to be greater when the L1 and L2 are really different types of languages - Interlanguage o Language produced by L2 learners contains large number of “errors” that seem to have no connection to the forms of either the L1 or L2 à evidence of this sort suggests that there is an in-between system used in the L2 acquisition process that certainly contains aspects of the L1 and L2, but which is an inherently variable system with rules of its own o This system is called an interlanguage and it is now considered to be the basis of all L2 production o What happens when a learner does not progress beyond their interlanguage? à If some learners develop a fairly fixed repertoire of L2 expressions, containing many forms that do not match the target language, and seem not to be progressing any further, their interlanguage is said to have “fossilized” § The process of fossilization in L2 pronunciation seems to be the most likely basis of what is perceived as a foreign accent à Pronunciation is the first L2 feature to fossilize § Interlanguage is not designed to fossilize à will naturally develop and become a more effective means of L2 communication given appropriate conditions - Motivation o Instrumental motivation à want to learn the L2 in order to achieve some other goal, such as completing a graduation requirement or being able to read scientific publications, but have no plans to engage in much social interaction using the L2 Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o Integrative motivation à want to learn the L2 for social purposes, to take part in the social life of a community using that language and to become an accepted member of that community o Those who experience some success in L2 communication are among the most motivated to learn à motivation may be as much a result of success as a cause § Language-learning situation that provides support and encourages students to try to use whatever L2 skills they have in order to communicate successfully à more helpful than one that dwells on errors, corrections and a failure to be perfectly accurate § Learner who is willing to guess, risks making mistakes and tries to communicate in the L2 will tend to be more successful - Input and Output o Input à used, as in L1 acquisition, to describe the language that the learner is exposed to § To be beneficial for L2 learning input has to be comprehensible § Input can be made comprehensible by being simpler in structure and vocabulary, as in the variety of speech called foreigner talk § As learner’s interlanguage develops there is a need for more interaction and some kind of “negotiated input” à negotiated input is L2 material that the learner can acquire in interaction through requests for clarification while active attention is being focused on what is said o Output à opportunity to produce comprehensible output in meaningful interaction seems to be important element in the learner’s development of L2 ability, yet it is one of the most difficult things to provide in large L2 classes o Best case if learner experiences the benefits of both receiving input (hearing the L2) and producing output (speaking the L2) Communicative Competence - General ability to use language accurately, appropriately and flexibly o First component is grammatical competence à involves the accurate use of words and structures § Concentration on grammatical competence only will not provide the learner with the ability to interpret or produce L2 expressions appropriately o Ability to use appropriate language is second component called sociolinguistic competence à enables the learner to know when to say Can I have some water? versus Give me some water! in the social context § Much of what was discussed in terms of pragmatics has to become familiar in the cultural context of the L2 if the learner is to develop sociolinguistic competence o Third component is called strategic competence à ability to organize a message effectively and to compensate, via strategies, for any difficulties § In L2 use, learners inevitably experience moments when there is a gap between communicative intent and their ability to express that intent Some learners may just stop talking (bad idea), whereas others will try to express themselves using a communication strategy (good idea) Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  § Flexibility is a key element in communicative success à learners who develop strategic competence in order to overcome potential communication problems in interaction will have more success as L2 speakers Krashen’s Monitor Theory - If the LAD allows children to acquire language almost automatically over time, how come it is so difficult for older learners to acquire another language? o Krashen’s answer for this question à Monitor Theory - The acquisition-learning distinction o Whatever you learn can never be acquired à implies that there is a limit to how proficient a speaker can become in an L2 o The acquisition in SLA is essentially the same as the acquisition in FLA with one additional feature à learning o Acquisition is the sole initiator of all L2 utterances and is responsible for fluency o Learning can only function as an editor or monitor for the output and is responsible for accuracy especially in forms that have not been mastered o This distinction can be bridged with practice and Cognitive Theory - Natural order hypothesis o Says that aspects of language are acquired in a certain order o Processability theory § independent theory that confirms this hypothesis § one type of learnability theory that charts the predictable development of English forms in an L2 environment § Cognitive approach to second language acquisition that seeks to explain developmental schedules as well as learner variation § Pienemann’s acquisition schedule - Monitor hypothesis Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o See Acquisition-Learning distinction § This learned knowledge of language functions as monitor of output o If language mistake is made in L2, this material is learned not acquired à getting it right is not automatic and monitor has to be “on” to “correct” output as it’s produced § You have enough time § Stress levels are low § You feel comfortable § Affective filter has to be low § Focus is on form § Language user knows the rules to apply - Input hypothesis o Says that input must be comprehensible - Affective filter hypothesis o Learners have to feel comfortable because negative feelings like anxiety, embarrassment can inhibit the learning process o In order for the monitor to be on the affective filter has to be low Cognitive Theory - provides explanation for bridging the gap for Krashen’s learning vs. acquiring hypothesis/controlled vs. automatic processing/setting - Basically understands SLA as two processes that work in a never ending cycle o Automatization à making a skill routine through practice § Automatic processing à once a response is automatized, it occurs quickly and is difficult to change § Controlled processing à responses activated in a given sequence on a temporary basis o Restructuring à adapting systems of knowledge based on new information § The learner must organize new information added to the system (of knowledge), thus constantly adapting the system of language knowledge Assumption à developing a complex skill is more than simply mastering the corresponding subskills o Declarative (knowing that/conscious) becomes Procedural (knowing how/unconscious) Knowledge Take-Aways - SLA Theories can help us to better learn/teach languages à No one theory can fully explain the process of learning a language, but each one contributes (at least) one piece to the larger puzzle Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o Chomsky‘s LAD o Krashen‘s Monitor Theory o Processability Theory o Cognitive Theory - Individual Learner Differences o Age (critical age hypothesis) o Motivation à instrumental (achieve a goal) vs. integrative (social integration) o Learning strategies o Aptitude o Affective factors (emotions, negative feelings) o Teachers' efficacy Linguistic Inquiry II Wandel – I really wonder how they know it’s wrong? Language Attitudes - Prescriptivism à Doctrine of Correctness (Rules of Grammar) o Term used for approaches to language that set out rules for what is regarded as “good” or “correct” usage, how language should be used o Reinforces a structure of standard language § Associated with administrative, commercial and educational centers (regardless of region) § What we think is in most printed works (newspapers, books) and mass media in general § What we try to teach in ESL/EFL contexts - Descriptivism à Doctrine of Usage (Actual Usage/Custom) o An evidence-based approach to language that describes, in an objective manner, how language is being used o Explores language varieties as they are used without judgement § Language philosophy of sociolinguistics (studies on language attitudes, regional and social dialectology) - Food for thought à how do these concepts influence notions of correctness amongst language communities? Between different cultures? Between different generations? o ʺKorrektheit ist keine immer währende, ewig gültige Norm, sondern konstituiert sich aus dem what the majority of educated native speakers accept as correct in a given situation at a given point in time.ʺ o Language attitudes are intimately connected to our identities à The language we use (and what we think of the language other people use) is very much tied to the values we consider important Chapter 17 Language History and Change Philology à study of language history and change - In 19th century focus on study of language history à creation of “family trees” to show how languages are related o Before that à discovery that variety of languages spoken in different parts of world are members of same family Family Trees Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  - 1786 Sir William Jones finds out about Sanskrit having similar qualities to Greek and Latin à common ancestor could not be described from any existing records, had to be hypothesized on basis of similar features existing in records of languages that were believed to be descendants - 19th century term to describe common ancestor à Proto-Indo-European o the hypothesized original form of a language that was the source of many languages in India and Europe - about thirty language families - 7,102 known language o Chinese over 1 billion (native) speakers o Spanish 400 million speakers o English over 330 million speakers Indo-European - language family with largest population and distribution - one way to get clearer picture of how languages related through looking at records of older generation, like Latin and Sanskrit, from which modern languages evolved o Sanskrit Latin Ancient Greek pitar pater pate-r (“father”) bhrātar frāter phrāter (“brother”) - Cognates o Cognate of a word in one language is a word in another language that has similar form and is/was used with similar meaning § House – Haus, mouse – Maus, mother – Mutter, father – Vater, friend – Freund - Comparative Reconstruction à reconstruct what must have been “proto” form in common ancestral language o Majority principle § If in set of cognates majority of words begin with one sound it’s probably original sound o The most natural development principle § Based on fact that certain types of sound changes are very common across language families, whereas changes in other direction extremely unlikely § Direction of change Examples 1 Final vowels often disappear vino → vin 2 Voiceless sounds become voiced, muta → muda Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  often between vowels 3 Stops become fricatives ripa → riva 4 Consonants become voiceless at the end of words rizu → ris o When comparing cognates à since written from can be misleading, focus on initial sounds o Sound Reconstruction A Italian B Spanish C French cantare cantar chanter (“sing”) catena cadena chaîne (“chain”) caro caro cher (“dear”) cavallo caballo cheval (“horse”) § initial sounds of words in languages A and B [k], in language C initial sound in words is [ʃ] majority principle most natural development principle à [k] sound is a stop consonant and the [ʃ] sound is fricative § checking reconstruction because common origin for these languages is known to be Latin à Latin cognates of words listed: cantare, catena, carus and caballus, confirming that [k] was initial sound o Word Reconstruction 1 2 3 Protoforms mube mupe mup __________ (“stream”) abadi apati apat __________ (“rock”) agana akana akan __________ (“knife”) enugu enuku enuk __________ (“diamond”) § Looking at majority principle and most natural development principle à list 2 must contain older forms The History of English - Old English (450-1100) o Primary source of old English à Germanic languages spoken by tribes of Angles, Saxons, Jutes § Similarities between Old English and Modern German! Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o 410: The Romans leave and take Latin with them o 449: North German (Anglo-Saxon) tribes invaded Britain o 787: Viking raids begin; contact with Old Norse (external change) § Beowulf late 8th century - Middle English (1100-1500) o 1066: The Norman Conquest and contact with French à William the Conqueror, Battle of Hastings (external change) § Chaucer‘s Canterbury Tales (1387-1400) § Loss of inflections takes place à grammatical gender § French is upper class, old English is language of workers/farmers Poor people: swine (English) vs. ruling class: pork (French) o Late 15th Century § The Printing Press à spelling set in stone § The Great Vowel Shift (GVS) (1400-1600) à most significant change in English sound system (internal change) Disrupts grapheme-phoneme relationship à reason why written form and pronunciation are so different Vowel sounds generally moved up Vowel sounds on top became diphthongs - Early Modern English (1500-1700) English is being spread all over the place à Conflict of language attitudes (see prescriptivism vs. descriptivism) o Need for dictionaries o grammaticalization is a process that changes the lexical meaning of a morpheme into a morpheme with grammatical function Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  § The grammaticalization process for "go" "go" as a lexical morpheme or content verb that indicates a motion or movement, has been grammaticalized to the grammatical morpheme or function verb "gonna" as auxiliary verb for the "going to-future" and moreover became (in informal texts) the contracted form "gonna" § The grammaticalization process for "will" "will" with a lexical meaning like "want", has been grammaticalized to the auxiliary verb for the "will-future" and moreover became (in informal texts) the enclitic contracted form "’ll" Syntactic Changes (loss of inflections/case markings disappear à rigid word order) - Inflectional suffixes (words related to you) - Possible word order Sound Changes - Sound loss o initial [h] of many OE words lost § e.g. hlud – loud, hlaford- lord Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o word-initial velar stops [k] and [g] no longer pronounced § e.g. knee, gnaw o loss of velar fricative [x] § e.g. nicht vs night - Metathesis o reversal in position of two sounds in a word § e.g. bridd-bird, acsian-ask - Epenthesis o addition of a sound (especially) to the middle of a word § e.g. OE thunor- thunder, timr- timber - Prothesis (not found in English) o addition of a sound to the beginning of a word § e.g. schola – escuela (“school”), scala – escala (“ladder”) Semantic Changes - Broadening of meaning o e.g. holy day (a religious feast) à holiday (time off of work), cool (not warm à not easily excited à fashionable, attractive), docga (a particular breed of dog) à dog (general term for all dogs) - Narrowing of meaning o e.g. hound (any kind of dog à some specific breeds), wife (any woman à only married women), notorious (widely known à widely known for something bad), mete (any kind of food à meat) Diachronic and Synchronic Variation - variation in language viewed diachronically à historical perspective of change through time - variation in language viewed synchronically à differences within one language in different places among different groups at the same time Take-Aways - What processes influence language change? o Historical and social events: invasions, conquests that inevitably lead to language contact o Technological developments: printing press, the Internet o External vs Internal change - What events influenced the development of English? o Invasions of Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans, and see below… - What major linguistic changes took place in English? o Loss of inflections à rigid word order (internal change) - Why are the orthographic (written) and phonetic (sound) systems in English so different? o The Great Vowel Shift and the Printing Press - How do linguistics know about such old versions of English? Of old languages in general? o Old texts o Comparative reconstruction Louisa Braastad-Tiffon Chapter 18 Regional Variation in Language (or linguistic geography) The Standard Language - Idealized variety associated with administrative, commercial and educational centers, regardless of region o Version we believe is found in printed English in newspapers, books, mass media, used in most works of fiction, scientific and other technical articles, taught in most schools o More easily described in terms of features associated with written language (vocabulary, spelling, grammar) o Standard American/British/Australian/Canadian/Indian English - Accent and dialect o Everyone speaks with an accent o Accent à restricted to description of aspects of pronunciation that identify where individual speaker is from, regionally or socially o Dialect à used to describe features of grammar and vocabulary as well as aspects of pronunciation o Sociolinguists use the term language variety - Variation in Grammar o Differences in vocabulary often easily recognized, whereas dialect variations in meaning of grammatical constructions less frequently documented Dialectology or Study of Dialects - Criteria o Mutual intelligibility among speakers of different dialects of English distinguishes between two different dialects of the same language and two different languages - Linguistic POV à none of varieties of language is “better” than the other, they are simply different - Social POV à some varieties seen as more prestigious o Variety that develops as standard language, usually been one socially prestigious dialect, originally associated with center of economic/political power (London for BE, Paris for French) - Sociolinguistics o Study of relationship between language and society o Broad area of investigation developed through interaction of linguistics with number of other academic disciplines - Regional Dialects o Existence is widely recognized and often source of humor for people living in different regions à some regional dialects clearly have stereotyped pronunciations associated with them o Dialect surveys § Involve a lot of attention to detail, operate with very specific criteria in identifying acceptable informants à important to know if person really is typical representative of region’s dialect § NORMS à non-mobile, older, rural, male speakers Less likely to have influences from outside the region of their speech Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  Using such criteria also results in dialect description tending to be more accurate of period well before time of investigation à old language is not reflective on dialect now - Isoglosses o An isogloss represents the limit of an area in which a particular linguistic feature is found among the majority of speakers/a boundary between areas with regard to one particular linguistic item § Here people say/sound like this, there they say/sound like that o Several stable isoglosses in (about) the same place mark a dialect boundary § Usually not hard boundaries - Dialect Map of the United States o Northern and Midland Accents - Varieties in England o The varieties in England are much more varied and complex than in North America § The standard variety of British English is associated with the South, particularly London prestige variety Using this type of variety in England is also referred to as “speaking posh” § Many Northern English accents are stigmatized Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  § Major differences between Northern and Southern English Englishes Northern English o STRUT - FOOT merger § Words like strut, foot, sun, won, hunt, but, cook all use /ʊ/ o Other features of Northern English § Strong resistance to /ɑ/ in words like bath, ask, dance, prefer /æ/ § Diphthongs /eɪ/ (face)and /əʊ/ (goat) shortened to monophthongs Southern English o STRUT - FOOT split § Words like strut, sun, won, hunt, but use /Ʌ/ foot and cook use /ʊ/ - The dialect continuum o In the boundary areas, one dialect or language variety merges into another o Regional variation exists along a dialect continuum rather than having sharp breaks from one region to the next o Similar type of continuum can occur with related languages existing on either side of political border § Speakers who move back and forth across this border area, using different varieties sometimes described as bidialectal o hard boundaries à mountains, rivers, seas Bilingualism - In many countries regional variation not a matter of two (or more) dialects of a single language, but involves two (or more) distinct and different languages à bilingualism at the level of individual tends to be feature of minority group o member of minority group grows up in one linguistic community, mainly speaking one language in order to take part in the larger dominant linguistic community o Recognition of linguistic rights is not standard à many members of linguistic minorities can live their entire lives without ever seeing their native language in the public domain - Diglossia o Hierarchical relationship between standard (high) variety and local (low) variety Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  §High variety learned in school, used in government affairs, broadcasting,.. à standard variety and often expectation when working in certain professions, making certain accent a necessary requirement for social mobility § Low variety acquired locally and used in everyday affairs à what the layperson calls a dialect o What happens when varieties make contact § Pidgins are created (usually for trade purposes) in certain specific situations § Some pidgins evolve into creoles à creoles have native speakers, pidgins do not Pidgins - “contact” language that developed for some practical purpose (such as trading) among groups of people who had a lot of contact, but did not know each other’s languages à has no native speakers - Origin of term thought to be from Chinese version of English word “business” - Lexifier language à main source of words adopted in the pidgin o Doesn’t mean these words have same meaning or pronunciation as in source language - Syntax of pidgins can be quite unlike languages from which terms were borrowed and modified o Tok Pisin (now a creole) à language now used by over a million people in Papua New Guinea (with more than eight hundred different languages) conducting business, began many years earlier as a kind of impromptu language called a pidgin § Baimbai hed bilongyu i-arrait gain by and by head belong you he alright again “Your head will soon get well again” - Between 6 and 12 million people still using pidgin languages, between ten and seventeen million using descendants from pidgins called “creoles” Creoles - When pidgin develops beyond role as trade or contact language and becomes first language of social community à creolization - Initially develops as first language of children growing up in pidgin-using community, becoming more complex as it serves more communicative purposes - Have large numbers of native speakers and are not restricted at all in their uses (unlike pidgins) - Separate vocabulary elements of pidgin can become grammatical elements in creole o Baimbai yu go (“by and by you go”) à bai yu go à yu bigo (“you will go”) - The Post-Creole Continuum o Where education and greater social prestige are associated with “higher” variety, number of speakers will tend to use fewer creole forms and structures à decreolization § Leads at one extreme to variety that is closer to the external standard model Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  § Leaves at the other extreme basic variety with more local creole features § Between these two extremes may be range of slightly different varieties some with many some with fewer creole features o The range of varieties that evolves after creole has come into existence is called post-creole continuum o Common for speakers to be able to use a range of varieties in different situations à differences naturally connected to social values and social identity Language Planning - Government, legal and educational organizations in many countries have to plan which variety or varieties of the languages spoken in the country are to be used for official business 1. “selection” à choosing official language 2. “codification” à basic grammars, dictionaries, written models are used to establish standard variety 3. “elaboration” à standard variety being developed for use in all aspects of social life and appearance of body of literary work written in the standard 4. “implementation” à matter of government attempts to encourage use of the standard 5. “acceptance” à final stage when substantial majority of population use the standard and think of it as national language, playing a part in social and national identity - Language Policy o Is inherently prescriptivist à establishing a standard variety, which has many positive effects, inevitably imposes a hierarchy on society based on language § Attitudes are hard to change and many prejudices are based (at least partly) on language à we feel very differently about people based on how they speak o One of the most concrete examples of this is the académie française § founded by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635 (devoted chiefly to preserving the purity of the French language) in a time where, globalization, intercultural acceptance, diversity and cultural awareness did not play a huge role yet § the principal French council for matters regarding the French language à role is to prescribe correct usage of French § forty members for life, known as "the immortals", official authority on the language, publishes an official dictionary of the French language à "La dictionnaire de l'académie française" (up to now thirteen editions) § Has tried to prevent the Anglicization of the French language and has recommended the avoidance of loanwords from modern English (except useful anglicisms, because no French equivalent then) § By referring to French grammar rules, the French Academy has also rejected the idea of feminine equivalents in several professions § Even rejected the constitutional offer for recognition and protection to regional languages in France Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  §Therefore, the French Academy has been criticized for being too conservative, incompetent and controversial à best example of linguistic prescriptivism and language policy o Language Policy is inherently prescriptivist § Establishing a standard variety, which has many positive effects, inevitably imposes a hierarchy on society based on language Attitudes are hard to change and many prejudices are based (at least partly) on language à we feel very differently about people based on how they speak Take-Aways - How do linguists measure variation in language? o Dialect surveys (often asking NORMs) in order to find out where people say what and how - What are the “borders” between languages? o An isogloss is the boundary between where one variable (sound, word) is realized differently o Many stable isoglosses in the same place build a dialect boundary o These boundaries are rarely hard borders but rather part of the dialect continuum - What happens when these borders are crossed? o In certain language contact situations, pidgins are created, some evolving into creoles - What considerations go into language planning? What are the consequences? o What are the languages in a community used for? Who speaks them? Is diglossia present? - What other factors contribute to linguistic variation? o Age, gender, social class, a desire to fit in (or not!) Chapter 19 Social Variation in Language - Not everyone in single geographical area speaks in same way in every situation, some individuals can have very specific views on socially appropriate language o People who live in the same region, but differ in terms of education or economic status often speak in different ways à differences may be used, implicitly or explicitly, as indications of membership in different social groups or speech communities - Speech community à group of people who share a set of norms and expectation regarding use of language Sociolinguistics - Study of linguistic features that have social relevance for participants in speech communities à Study of relationship between language and society - Broad area of investigation à involves interaction of linguistics with number of other academic disciplines that look at language in its social context such as anthropology, sociology, social psychology Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o All these connections are used when analyzing language from social perspective - Social Dialects o Study of regional dialects tends to concentrate on speech of people in rural areas, study of social dialects mainly concerned with speakers in towns and cities o Social class is used to define groups of speakers as having something in common § “Middle class” More years of education Perform non-manual work “working-class speech” à social dialect § “Working class” Fewer years of education Perform manual work of some kind § “Upper” and “lower” used to subdivide groups mainly on economic basis “upper-middle-class speech” à another type of social dialect/sociolect o Only certain features of language use treated as relevant in analysis of social dialects § pronunciation, words or structures that are regularly used in one form by working-class speakers and in another form by middle-class speakers § Small difference in pronunciation, words or structures can be subtle indicator of social identity, used subconsciously by some speakers to mark who they are/aren’t o Social variable à the social class o Linguistic variable à pronunciation or word o Systematic variation in usage can be investigated by counting how often speakers in each class use each version of linguistic variable § Rarely all-or-nothing situation à usually one group uses certain form more or less than another and not only one group or other uses form exclusively - Education and Occupation o Idiolect à individual way of speaking/a personal dialect resulting from unique circumstances o People generally tend to sound like others whom they share educational backgrounds and/or occupations with o More time in educational system usually results in more features of written speech in spoken language o Outcome of our time in educational system usually reflected in occupation and socio-economic status o William Labov (1960s) combined elements from place of occupation and socio-economic status by looking at pronunciation differences among salespeople in different NYC department stores Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  § Findings à the higher the socio-economic status of department store the higher the frequency of realization of postvocalic /r/ (r sound after vowel) § Frequency of linguistic variable (r) marked speech as upper-middle, middle or working class o Trudgill (1974) British Study conducted in Reading § Findings à different social value associated with same variable (r) meaning middle-class speakers pronounced fewer /r/ sounds than working-class speakers, upper-middle-class didn’t pronounce postvocalic /r/ at all - Social Markers o Signals (habits, styles, material things, hobbies, etc.) that mark you as a member of a particular social class o Significance of linguistic variables/use of particular speech sounds function as social marker à having feature occur frequently (or not) in speech marks one as member of particular social group § Other pronunciation features functioning as social markers à final pronunciation of -ing as either [n] or [ŋ], “[h]-dropping” § Grammatical features à he’s went to bed already (“gone”), we never done that (“did”), I seen her at the shops (“saw”), we was too late (“were”), he don’t know how (“doesn’t”) Speech Style and Style-Shifting - Speech style as a social feature of language use o formal use à “careful style” more attention to how we are speaking o informal use à “casual style” less attention to how we are speaking - an individual shifting from one to the other à style-shifting o Studies have found that middle-class speakers are more likely to shift their style of speaking significantly in direction of upper-middle-class when using careful style o Studies have found that speakers in middle-status group when trying to use prestige form associated with higher-status group in formal situation tend to overuse said form à pattern also observed in studies of “hypercorrection” (speakers produce different forms or odd pronunciation when shifting speech style to try to speak better) - Prestige à concept of “prestige” form, as perceived by members of particular speech community, sometimes invoked for explaining type of style-shifting observed in sociolinguistic studies o Overt prestige à individuals changing their speech in direction of form more frequent in speech of those perceived to have higher social status/status that Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  is generally recognized as “better”/more positively valued in the larger community o Covert prestige à “hidden” status of speech style having positive value to certain groups, features that mark someone as member of certain social group are valued and group solidarity means more than upward mobility o Swabian in Berlin not prestige form à negative associations Speech/communication Accommodation - Variation in speech style also influenced by their perception of their listeners à sometimes also called “audience design” - Ability to modify speech style toward or away from perceived style of person/s one is talking to - Convergence à speech style that attempts to reduce social distance, through making similar stylistic choices, using similar forms/variables to those used by person one is talking to - Divergence à speech style used to emphasize social distance between speakers, through making different stylistic choices, using forms/variables that are distinctly different Register - Conventional way of using language that is appropriate in specific context o Situational register (church, school, hospital) o Occupational register (among lawyers, teachers, doctors) o Topical register (about law, language, sports) - Defining feature à jargon o Special technical vocabulary associated with specific area of work or interest § Legal register: The plaintiff is ready to take the stand. § Linguistics register: This variety exhibits fewer inflectional suffixes. o Social effect § Helps to create and maintain connections among those who see themselves as “insiders” in some way and to exclude “outsiders” § Learning of the appropriate jargon of profession qualifies individual as valid professional within that area of expertise Slang or “colloquial speech” - More typically used among those who are outside established higher-status groups - describes words or phrases, used instead of more everyday terms among younger speakers and other groups with special interests - aspect of social life that is subject to fashion, especially among adolescents - can be used by those inside a group who share ideas and attitudes as a way of distinguishing themselves from others - As a marker of group identity during a limited stage of life such as early adolescence, slang expressions can “grow old” rather quickly o Difference in slang use between groups divided into older and younger speakers provides some of clearest support for idea that age is another important factor involved in study of social variation in language use o Younger speakers more likely to use taboo terms Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  § Words and phrases, often involving body parts, bodily functions and sexual acts, that people avoid for reasons related to religion, politeness and prohibited behavior § Often swear words, typically “bleeped” in public broadcasting § Study shows social class divisions, at least in use of slang, are already well established during adolescence African American English (Black English or Ebonics) - variety used by many (not all) African Americans in many different regions of the USA - social barriers such as discrimination and segregation serve to create marked differences between social dialects - stigmatized as “bad” language à social practices of dominated groups treated as “abnormal” by dominant groups who have decided that they are in charge of defining “normal” - social dialect often has covert prestige among younger members of other social groups, particularly with regard to popular music à certain features of AAE may be used in expressions of social identity by many who are not African American - Vernacular Language o African American Vernacular English (AAVE) à form of AAE most studied § shares number of features with other non-standard varieties, such as “Chicano English,” spoken in some Hispanic American communities § varieties of what has been called “Asian American English” also characterized by some of the pronunciation features described in studies of this vernacular § Vernacular by definition not standard usually low variety in general standard is always high variety o term “vernacular” used since Middle Ages à first to describe early local versions of the European languages that eventually became French, Italian and Spanish (low prestige) in contrast to Latin (high prestige), then to characterize any non-standard spoken version of a language used by lower-status groups o general expression for a kind of social dialect, typically spoken by a lower- status group, which is treated as “non-standard” because of marked differences from the “standard” language o Sounds of a Vernacular § tendency to reduce final consonant clusters (left hand à lef han, I passed the test à I pass the test) characteristic shared with many pidgins and creoles which led to conclusion that AAVE may have initially come into being in a way similar to other English creoles § Initial dental consonants (think, that, the) frequently pronounced as alveolar stops (tink, dat, [də]) Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  § morphological features, such as possessive -’s (John’s girlfriend) and third person singular -s (she loves him), not typically used (John girlfriend, she love him) § when phrase contains obvious indication of plural number, plural -s marker (guys, friends) usually not included (two guy, one of my friend) o Grammar of a Vernacular § typically in aspects of grammar à AAVE and other vernaculars most stigmatized as being “illogical” or “sloppy” § double negative construction (he don’t know nothin, I ain’t afraid of no ghosts) feature can be found in many other English dialects and in other languages, nothing inherently illogical, allows greater emphasis on negative aspect § frequent absence of forms of the verb “to be” (are, is) à wherever are and is can be contracted in casual style of other varieties not articulated in AAVE (You crazy, She workin now) many regional varieties of English or other languages such as Arabic and Russian don’t require forms of “to be” in similar contexts § use of be instead of is (she be workin downtown now) communicates habitual action à presence or absence of be distinguishes between what is a recurring activity or state and what is currently happening § use of bin instead of was for habitual action that started or happened in the past (she bin workin there) § negative versions of these verbs formed with don’t (not doesn’t) and verb not used with a contracted negativeà She don’t be workin is grammatical, whereas *She doesn’t be workin and *She ben’t workin considered ungrammatical Take-Aways - Apart from regional variation, what other factors cause variation in speakers? o Social class, age, gender, language attitudes, etc. - How is social class related to linguistic variation? o Linguistic variables are markers of social classes. Know a few concrete examples! § Some classic examples of social markers in English: Rhoticity à realization of postvocalic [r] – car, floor, hard, farmer Final pronunciation of –ing o [n] such as sittin and drinkin o [ŋ] such as sitting and drinking [h]-dropping at the beginning of words: I am so ’ungry Louisa Braastad-Tiffon  o Variation is related to (a) how much we pay attention to our speech, (b) what we think of our social standing, and (c) what we think other social classes sound like, among others. - How can we measure social class? o Difficult to measure, but tied to (perceptions of) occupation, socioeconomic background, upbringing, and aspirations (or lack thereof) to change one’s social standing - How do linguists gather this data? What challenges do these methods present? o Sociolinguistic interviews and rapid anonymous speech surveys (e.g. Labov, 1966) o The Observer’s Paradox Linguistic Inquiry III Labov’s Social Stratification of (r) in NYC Observer’s Paradox - formulated by Labov (1972) à “The aim of linguistic research in the community must be to find out how people talk when they are not being systematically observed; yet we can only obtain this data by systematic observation.“ - The means to gather data interfere with the data being gathered à Interview speech is public speech, resulting in more formalness than in everyday speech - How can linguists counter this phenomenon/how can these data be gathered without a subject switching to more formal speech styles o Leave the interview situation o Interviewee talks to a person other than the interviewer o “Danger-of-death-experience“ à emotional topic encourages idiolect o study subject in own natural context o observing public use of language in everyday life without interview situation NYC Department Store Survey – Rapid Anonymous Speech Service - Labov begins by describing a methodological problem. What is it and how can researchers avoid it? o observer’s paradox (see above) - Describe Labov’s methodology as it relates to the locations chosen for the interviews? o Rapid and anonymous observations, preliminary interviews led to definition of major phonological variables which were to be studied if any two subgroups of NYC speakers are ranked in a scale of social stratification, then they will be ranked in the same order by their differential use of (r) o decided to examine his general hypothesis within single occupational group à sales people of three large department stores in Manhattan o stores depict different social classes à status ranking correlates with same job and job with beh