Entry #8 Oral Assignment : The Study of Language.

CHAPTER 1 : THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE.

There is not register that can indicate how language originated, but it is suspected that some spoken languages must have developed between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago. In most religions, there appears to be a divine source who provides humans with language. The hypothesis is that if infants grow up without hearing any language, they would spontaneously begin using the original God - given language. The Natural Sound Source set that primitive words may have been imitations of the natural sounds early humans heard around them. What supports this theory is that modern languages have many words that sound like their names. The Social Interaction Source states that humans must have lived in groups, so they needed some type of communication to be organized.The Tool Making Source expresses that the functions for object manipulation and vocalization are very close to each other in the left hemisphere of the brain, so there may be an evolutionary connection between tool using and language using. The physical adaptation source explains that in the study of evolutionary development there are certain physical features which appear to be relevant for speech. Finally, the genetic source states that humans are born with a special capacity for language, it is innate and it isn't tied to a specific variety of language.

CHAPTER 2 : ANIMALS AND HUMAN LANGUAGE.

There are some special properties of human language. We should distinguish between communicative signals and informative signals. On the one hand, informative signals are those which we do not intentionally send. For example one may notice that someone has a cold because that person sneezed. On the other hand, communicative signals are those which are intentionally sent, that is to say, we use language to tell something to a person.

Language serves as a type of communication system that can be observed in different situations. If a child interacts with an adult and a chimpanzee interacts with humans, we can say that both of them are using language. However, the child can develop a system of sounds, structures and procedures that will allow the child to produce extended discourse, no other creature can use language in this way.

CHAPTER 17 : LANGUAGE HISTORY AND CHANGE.

Sir William Jones (British government in India) suggested that a number of languages from very different geographical areas must have a common ancestor.A term came into use to describe that common ancestor. This term incorporated the notion that this was the original form (proto) of a language that was the source of modern languages in the Indian subcontinent (indo) and in Europe (european). “Proto-Indo-European language” was called.With this new term, Scholars set out to identify the branches of the Indo-European family tree, tracing the lineage of many modern languages.

To establish a family connection it is necessary to look at what is known as Cognates. A cognate of a word in one language is a word in another language that has a similar form and IS or WAS used with a similar meaning. (transparent words). Looking at different cognates of different languages, we may know which is their common ancestor and the name of their branch in the family tree.

Language has undergone substantial changes through time. The history of English is traditionally divided into four periods: Old English , Middle English , Early Modern English and Modern English. Some of the major changes are described in this chapter.

CHAPTER 18 : LANGUAGE AND REGIONAL VARIATION. 

Whether we think we speak a standard variety of English or not, we all speak with an

accent. Technically, the term "accent" is restricted to the description of  aspects of pronunciation that identify where an individual speaker is from (socially or regionally). It is different from the term "dialect" which is used to describe aspects of grammar  and vocabulary as well as aspects of pronunciation. It is a particular form of a language from a specific region or social group. Moreover, dialectology is the study of dialects to distinguish between two different dialects of the same language (speakers understand each other) and two different languages (speakers can't understand each other).

Some regional dialects clearly have stereotyped pronunciations associated with them.

Beyond that, those involved in the serious investigation of regional dialects do a lot of survey research to the identification of consistent features of speech found in one geographical area compared to another. They operate with very specific criteria.

One of the aims of a survey of that type is to find a number of significant differences in the speech of those living in different areas and to be able to chart where the boundaries are, in dialect terms, between those areas.

Bilingualism happens at the level of a minority group, a member of it grows up in one linguistic community, mainly speaking one language, but learns another language in order to participate of a larger dominant linguistic community. Diglossia involves two distinct varieties of language. There is a “low” variety, acquired locally and used for everyday affairs, and a "high” or special variety, learned in school and used for important matters.

Taking into account all of these situations (bidialectals, bilingualism, and diglossia), led to

the necessity of “planning” around which language/variety should be “the main one”.

In other words, 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.

In some areas, the standard chosen may be a variety that originally had no native speakers in the country. This language might be used by over a million people now, but it began many years earlier as a kind of “contact” language called a pidgin. When a pidgin develops beyond its role as a trade or contact language and becomes the first language of a social community it becomes a 'Creole'.

When people acquire higher education (which is associated with a «higher variety» language), they tend to use less creole structures and forms. This leads to a variety that is closer to the external standard model, and leaves a basic variety with more local creole features. Between these two extremes may be a range of slightly different varieties, some with many and some with fewer creole features. This range of varieties, evolving after (“post”) the creole has come into existence, is called the post-creole continuum.

CHAPTER 19 : LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL VARIATION. 

Certain uses of language are more likely to be found in the speech of some individuals in society and not others. People who live in the same region, but who differ in terms of education and economic status, often speak in quite different ways. The study of the linguistic features that have social relevance for participants in those speech communities is called sociolinguistics. This term is used for the study of the relationship between language and society. Also,  it has strong connections with anthropology, psychology and sociology.It is divided into three important parts: social dialects, education and occupations, and social markers.

So when we refer to “working-class speech” we are talking about a social dialect. The terms “upper” and “lower” are used to subdivide the groups, making “upper-middle-class speech” another type of social dialect or sociolect. A personal dialect or idiolect is an individual way of speaking where we generally tend to sound like others with whom we share similar educational backgrounds or occupations.Those who spend more time in the educational system tend to have more features in their spoken language that derive from the written language.

Social markers mark a person as a member of a particular social group of having some features in their speech. The most basic distinction in speech style, which is a social feature of language use, is between formal uses and informal uses.

CHAPTER 11 : DISCOURSE ANALYSIS.

Discourse is defined as language beyond the sentence, so the analysis of discourse is concerned with the study of language in texts and conversation. It includes key elements about linguistic forms and structures.

We can cope with fragments of conversation and make sense of them. Thus, we have the ability to create complex discourse interpretations of fragmentary linguistic messages. There are some key elements that might be found in discourse in order to be understandable.  Cohesive ties are generic words or phrases used to link different parts of a piece of writing. Furthermore, coherence is a factor that leads us to distinguish connected texts that make sense from those that do not. It is people who "make sense" of what they read and hear, making use of knowledge shared between the participants of the conversation. Our ability to make sense of what we read, depends on how we perceive or experience in the world.

A conversation can be described as an activity in which, for the most part, two or more people take turns at speaking. Typically, only one person speaks at a time and there tends to be an avoidance of silence between speaking turns. There are some principles and strategies that lead to a successful conversation. Some of them are mentioned in this chapter.

SOURCE:

• George Yule (2010) The Study of Language. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Metacognitive Analysis:

While visiting some of the cities in the UK ,I could not understand why people had so many different accents in each of the places we went. I used to think that people from the UK sounded just as the recordings I heard at my English lessons.This material about the study of language has clarified many doubts. I found the chapter about language and regional variation specially interesting and enriching. The fact that every language-user speaks with an accent is fascinating. Furthermore, realizing that every language has a variation and that the standard English I was taught when I was a child is only one variety; has changed my mind, for sure.