Week 12 and 13 Revision (Spe1101) PDF

**[WEEK 12: ]** What is meant by the term's dialect and idiolect? **Dialect** refers to a variation of a language that is specific to a particular group of people, usually defined by geographical region, social class, or ethnicity. It includes differences in vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation/ -F...

**[WEEK 12: ]** What is meant by the term's dialect and idiolect? **Dialect** refers to a variation of a language that is specific to a particular group of people, usually defined by geographical region, social class, or ethnicity. It includes differences in vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation/ -For example, British English and American English are two dialects of the English language. **Idiolect** refers to the unique speech pattern of an individual. It encompasses a person\'s specific choice of words, pronunciation, and manner of speaking, influenced by personal experiences, social background, and interactions. -No two people have exactly the same idiolect, even if they speak the same dialect. What is meant by the terms regional and social dialects? **Regional dialects**: -Arose because of physical distance -Are language variations spoken in specific geographic areas. People from different parts of a country may use different vocabulary, pronunciations, or grammatical structures even though they speak the same language. For example, in the U.S., people from the Southern states speak a regional dialect different from those in New England. **Social dialects** are language variations associated with particular social groups or classes, often reflecting differences in socioeconomic status, occupation, ethnicity, or education. For example, working-class speakers might use a different dialect from middle-class speakers within the same region. How are pidgins, creoles and new languages formed? **Pidgins** are simplified languages that develop as a means of communication between groups who do not share a common language, often arising in situations like trade or colonization. Pidgins typically have limited vocabulary, simplified grammar, and are not spoken as a native language by any group. **Creoles** are fully developed languages that evolve from pidgins when a pidgin becomes the first language of a community, usually when children grow up speaking the pidgin as their primary language. Over time, creoles gain complexity in grammar and vocabulary, becoming stable and more expressive. **New languages** can form through the process of language contact, blending, or divergence. This may happen due to migration, cultural blending, or political changes, with languages evolving and borrowing from one another. What are the linguistic features of pidgins versus creoles? **Pidgins**: - Limited vocabulary and simplified grammar. - Lacks complex sentence structures. - Primarily used for specific functions (e.g., trade or basic communication). - No native speakers, typically used as a second language by groups needing to communicate. **Creoles**: - Expanded vocabulary and more complex grammatical structures. - Fully developed tenses, word order, and rules of syntax. - Acquired as a native language by a speech community. - Used in all areas of life, including family, education, and society. +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | **Pidgins:** | **Creoles:** | | | | | -Small phoneme inventory | -More complex grammar compared to | | | pidgins | | -Lack of grammatical words like | | | auxiliary verbs and prepositions | -May include inflectional | | | morphology (changes in word form | | -Simpler pronoun systems | to indicate tense, etc.) | | | | | -Limited use of prepositions | -More elaborate pronoun systems | | | | | -Words often have multiple | -Larger vocabulary compared to | | syntactic functions | pidgins. | +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ What is meant by the terms style, register and jargon -- how and when do language users adopt these changes? **Style** refers to the way language is used depending on context, audience, and purpose. It includes choices in vocabulary, tone, and structure, which vary based on whether the situation is formal, informal, written, or spoken. **Register** refers to language variations based on the situation or profession. Different registers are used in different contexts (e.g., casual register in conversation vs. formal register in an academic paper). **Jargon** is specialised vocabulary used by specific professional or interest groups. It is often unintelligible to outsiders (e.g., medical jargon, legal jargon). What is meant by the term's taboo, euphemisms, connotations - how do they reflect societal attitudes and values and not language itself? **Taboo** refers to words or topics that are socially or culturally forbidden or discouraged. These may include offensive, sensitive, or culturally inappropriate language, often related to subjects like sex, death, or bodily functions. - Unacceptable/forbidden/dangerous words -- dictated by the social context. - Taboo -- Tongan for 'forbidden' - Taboo words -- reflect the particular customs and views of the society. **Euphemisms**: A word or phrase that replaces a taboo word or is used to avoid reference to certain acts or subjects. Die = pass on Morticians = funeral directors. polite or mild expressions used to avoid directly addressing something unpleasant or taboo. For example, \"passed away\" is a euphemism for \"died.\" **Connotations** refer to the implied or emotional associations a word carries beyond its literal meaning. For example, the word \"slim\" has a positive connotation, while \"skinny\" might have a negative one, even though both refer to being thin. **DIALECTS:** Dialects are mutually intelligible forms of a language that differ in systematic ways -When dialects become mutually unintelligible, they become different languages. **ACCENTS:** \- Accent refers to the phonological or phonetic characteristics that distinguish groups of speakers e.g. Cockney accent, French accent, New Zealand accent -The term *accent* is also used to refer to the speech of someone who speaks a language non-natively. **Lingua Franca:** A language used by common agreement in areas where people speak diverse languages Any language can be a lingua franca. English = lingua franca of the whole world Yiddish = lingua franca among Jewish people Hindi and Urdu = lingua francas of India and Pakistan Putonghua = lingua franca in China Pidgins: Pidgin languages -- are created when people speaking two diverse languages need to communicate. The language is 'invented' by both parties to communicate somehow. The superstrate language contributes the majority of the lexicon and grammar.  The other language or languages contribute in a less obvious way. These are referred to as substrate languages.  e.g.  Hawaiian Pidgin:  Superstrate - English, Substrate -  Japanese, Chinese, Tagalog and Portuguese. **Features of pidgin languages include:** - Small inventory of phonemes - Lack grammatical words (e.g. auxiliary verbs, prepositions) - Simpler set of pronouns - Fewer prepositions - Most words in pidgin languages also function as if they belong to several syntactic categories. Creoles are: - a language that has evolved in a contact situation to become the native language of a generation of speakers - far richer and more complex than pidgin - creoles may have inflectional morphology for tense, etc. - more complex pronoun systems **WEEK 13: Written language:** **Pictograms** = precursors to writing. Represent objects directly and literally. Not symbolic. Pictograms are images representing objects directly and literally. International road signs, for example, function as pictograms. **Ideograms** are less literal than pictograms, with meanings extending to broader concepts. A \"no parking\" sign with a slanted red line through a car is an ideogram, while a symbol depicting a car being towed is closer to a pictogram. **The Rebus Principle and the Development of Modern Writing Systems** - The rebus principle uses phonographic symbols to depict homophones. For instance, a symbol representing \"sun\" might also represent \"son\" in a phrase like \"My son is a doctor.\" Examples include jokes, riddles, advertising, and license plates such as \"4 sale\" and \"14ME.\" - Egyptian hieroglyphs, which started as pictograms, evolved into logographs and later a syllabic writing system through the rebus principle. The Phoenicians developed a system using primarily consonants, with vowels understood from context. The Greeks later adapted this to include vowels, creating an alphabetic system, which influenced most modern alphabets. **Four Forms of Modern Writing** - **Logographic writing** uses symbols to represent words or morphemes, as seen in Chinese. - **Syllabic writing** uses symbols to represent syllables, suitable for Japanese but cumbersome for languages with many syllables, like English. - **Consonantal alphabetic writing** represents consonants with diacritical marks for vowels, used in Hebrew and Arabic, though it may be less effective for Indo-European languages where vowels carry significant meaning. - **Alphabetic writing** employs symbols for both consonants and vowels, making it relatively easy to learn and suitable for most languages. **Speech and Writing** - Written language is more conservative, adhering to rules and structures, and changes less frequently than spoken language. - Spoken language is more informal, prone to changes, and evolves over time. **The Effects of Texting and Tweeting on Spelling** - Short Message Services (SMS) like texting and tweeting impact spelling by promoting word shortening and abbreviations to reduce keystrokes. **Key Skills in Reading and Writing** **Shared skill:** Phonological awareness. **Written language-specific skills:** - Decoding: Matching letters to sounds. - Sight recognition: Quickly identifying familiar words. - Written conventions: Understanding context clues such as headings, text segments, and quotation marks. **Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Processing** - **Bottom-up processing** involves decoding each word by sounding out or segmenting it into phonemic elements before blending sounds. This approach is typical for beginners learning to read or adults encountering new words. - **Top-down processing** allows for rapid decoding. Readers start at the beginning of a sentence, using word and grammar knowledge to predict what comes next, enabling faster reading and comprehension.