YULE THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE

S U M M A R Y ( C HA P TE R S F O R I S L 1 )

CHAPTER 1 THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE

The divine source: Bible: Adam gave names to the things Hindu: wife of the creator of the universe created the language

Several experiments to find the original language: Psammetichus: two babies grew up only for the company of goats children have uttered bekos (Phrygian word for bread) could be the sound of the goats be (Greek suffix -kos) King James the Fourth: Children should have started speaking Hebrew Other experiments: children whit no access to human language grow up with no language at all

The natural sound source: Language as a result of onomatopoeia and/or natural cries of emotion (e.g. splash, bang, boom, ouch, ooh, wow,) What about soundless and abstract things?

The social interaction source: Language as a result of communication between earliest groups of humans, who used hums, grunts and groans -> language as a progress of this Apes and other primates also have grunts and groans for communication, but no language

The physical adaption source: Evolution factors which have made humans able to develop language: o Teeth are upright and even in height o Lips have more intricate muscle interlacing than other primates o Mouth is smaller an can be opened and closed rapidly o Tongue is smaller, thicker and more muscular o Larynx (containing the vocal cords) is much lower than the position of other primates o Pharynx (above vocal cords) acts as a resonator

The tool-making source: Maybe there was an evolutional connection between the language-using and the toolusing abilities All languages require structural organization and combining of sounds or signs (similar to tool making; step by step)

Summary ISL1 Yule

The genetic source: Humans are born with a special capacity for language (even deaf children become very early fluent sign language users) Innateness hypothesis: possibly a crucial mutation in the history of human beings

CHAPTER 2 ANIMALS AND HUMAN LANGUAGE

Communication: Specifically communicative signals I want you to do the dishes! Unintentionally informative signals having a cold (sneezing), being uninterested (turning away), Properties of human language: All creatures communicate in some way, but humans are the only ones reflecting about their language/communication. Five distinct properties of human language: 1. Displacement: Humans can refer to future, past and talk about things whose existence isnt even sure (Santa Clause,) Bees are a small exception because they are able to tell each other where they have found a good food source (but only the most recent, not the one the bee found 2 weeks ago) 2. Arbitrariness: No natural connection between a linguistic form and its meaning The word dog has nothing to do with the picture of a dog, but is only related to it by humans 3. Productivity: Humans can invent new expressions by manipulating their linguistic resources to describe new objects and situations. Experiment: bees were shown a delicious food source on a hill, but when they told the others, they couldnt find it because there is no word for up in bee-language and bees arent able to invent one -> fixed reference 4. Cultural transmission: Children whose parents are from China, but who grow up with people in England wont understand Chinese, but will be able to speak fluent English. Kittens will always say meow, no matter where they grow up. Birds which grow up isolated produce some kind of songs or calls, but human infants dont. 5. Duality: Humans are able to combine individual sounds (letters) to different words (on no,) We have distinctive sounds and distinct meanings -> duality!

Summary ISL1 Yule

Talking to animals: Animals seem to understand signs and words, but not as humans do. An ape may use the sign for please, but without being aware of its meaning. Chimpanzees and language: Several experiments: Chimpanzees were able to understand 100 of words, but not able to produce them. Washoe: A chimpanzee was taught American Sign Language Washoe learned to use signs for more than a hundred words. Washoe was also referred to be able to have conversations. Sarah and Lana: Sarah (chimpanzee) was able to combine plastic shapes to get chocolate. Could also understand complex structures (If Sarah put red on green, Mary give Sarah chocolate) Lana: similar to Sarah, but with a keyboard Kanzi: Son of a chimpanzee, who watched as its mother was being taught sign language, spontaneously started using the symbol system and did very well. Using language: Washoe and Kanzi were able to take part in interaction with humans by using a symbol system chosen by humans. They did not go on to perform linguistically on a level comparable to a human child.

CHAPTER 3 THE SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE

Phonetics Phonetic alphabet: set of symbols that represent sounds Articulatory phonetics: how speech sounds are made Acoustic phonetics: physical properties of speech as sound waves in the air Auditory phonetics: deals with the perception via the ear

Voiced and voiceless sounds Vocal folds: Spread vocal folds: air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded voiceless e.g.: z; v Drawn together vocal folds: Air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through, vibrating voiced e.g.: s; f

Place of articulation: Most consonant sounds are produced by using the tongue and other parts of the mouth

Summary ISL1 Yule

Bilabials Sounds formed by using upper and lower lips e.g.: [p]; [m],[b], [w] as in way, walk, world Labiodentals Sounds formed by using the upper teeth and the lower lip. e.g.: [f]; [v] Dentals Sounds formed with the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth e.g.: [] as in thin, bath, three Alveolars Sounds formed with the front part of the tongue on the alveolar ridge e.g.: [t]; [d]; [s]; [z]; [n] Palatals Sounds produced with the tongue and the hard palate e.g.: []; []; [j] as in you, yet Velars Sounds produced with the back of the tongue against the velum e.g.: [k]; [g]; [] Glottals Sound without the active use of the tongue and other parts of the mouth e.g.: [h] as in have, house, who, whose

Manner of articulation Stops (plosives) Sounds produced by stopping of the air stream then letting it go abruptly e.g.: [p]; [b]; [t]; [d]; [k]; [g] 4

Summary ISL1 Yule

Fricatives Sounds produced by blocking the air stream and having the air push through the very narrow opening e.g.: [f]; [v]; []; []; [s]; [z]; []; []; [h] as in hi or hello Affricates Sounds produced by a combination of a brie stopping of the air stream with an obstructed release e.g.: []; [] Nasals Sounds produced when airflow flows out through the nose e.g.: [n]; [m]; [] Liquids Sound produced by letting the air stream flow around the sides of the tongue as the tip of the tongue makes contact with the middle of the alveolar ridge e.g.: [r]; [l] as in red and led Glides Sound produced with the tongue in motion to/from the position of a vowel e.g.: [w]; [j] as in we, wet, you, yes

Glottal stops and flaps Glottal stop [] Occurs when the space between the vocal folds is closed completely, the released e.g.: Uh-uh!; Oh oh! Flap [] or [D] Produced by the tongue tip tapping the alveolar ridge briefly e.g.: if you pronounce the word butter in a way close to budder Vowels Position of the tongue in vowels:

Diphtongs Created by a combination of two sounds

Summary ISL1 Yule

Vocal organs move from one vocalic position to another (e.g.: Hi; bye) Subtle individual variation Vowels are varying between one variety of English and the next In casual speech, schwa is used very often []

CHAPTER 4 THE SOUND PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE

Phonology The description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language Concerned with the abstract or mental aspect of the sounds in language (not with physical articulations) Phonemes Each meaning-distinguishing sounds in a language is a phoneme E.g.: /t/; /v/; etc. Phonemes function contrastively, if we substitute one sound for another, there is a change of meaning. E.g.: fat and vat; fine and wine, etc. Phones and allophones Different versions of phonemes Set of phones belonging to one phoneme = allophone E.g.: []; [t]; []; []; [th] -> aspirated one like in tar but not star Substituting phonemes causes different meaning, substituting allophones with another allophone causes only a different spelling Minimal pairs and sets Minimal pair When two words are identical except for a contrast in ONE phoneme occurring in the same position E.g.: fan van; bet bat; site side; etc. Minimal sets Group of words which differ in meaning only by changing one phoneme E.g.: feat fit fat fate- fought fought foot and big pig rig fig dig wig Phonotactics There are constraints on the sequence or position of English phonemes -> phonotactics E.g.: there are no words like [fsig] or [rnig] Syllables Must contain a vowel or vowel-like sound (including diphthongs) Onset: Basic element of a syllable Nucleus: consists of a vowel Coda: following consonants after the nucleus Rhyme: Nucleus (+coda, if there)

Open syllables

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Syllables with onset and nucleus but without coda Closed syllables Syllables with coda

Syllable

Onset

Rhyme

Nucleus

Coda

Consonant

Vowel

Consonant(s)

Consonant clusters When onset or coda consist of more than one consonant E.g.: /st/ as in stop; /str/ as in stream Coarticulatory effects Process of making one sound almost at the same time as the next Assimilation When two sound segment occur in sequence and some aspect of one segment is taken or copied by the other; used because its quicker, easier and more efficient E.g.: have /hv/ but I have to go /hft/ Any vowel becomes nasal whenever it immediately precedes a nasal E.g.: and [nd] but you and me [junmi] Elision Not pronouncing a sound segment that might be present in the careful pronunciation of a word e.g.: [himsbi] for he must be -> t is left out Normal speech Assimilation and elision occur in everyones normal speech this is not laziness or sloppiness

CHAPTER 10 PRAGMATICS
Pragmatics is the study o invisible meaning, how we recognize what is meant even if its not said or written. Study of how more is communicated than is said.

Summary ISL1 Yule

Context Linguistic context (co-text) Set of other words in a phrase, which has strong effect on what we think the word probably means (e.g. bank to sit and bank to trade with money) Deixis Person deixis: e.g. it, this, these apples, him, them, those blue flowers Spatial deixis: e.g. here, there, near that Temporal deixis: tomorrow, now, after a week

Reference Act by which a speaker uses language to enable a listener to identify something We can also refer to thing when were not sure what to call them. E.g. that blue thing, Mr Sweetie; Inference Acts of reference depend more on the listeners ability to recognize what we mean than on the words we use E.g.: People know what is meant by Yesterday I saw Picasso in the museum. Anaphora Distinction between introducing new referents (a ball) and referring back to them (it) First mention of something is called the antecedent Anaphora = referring back to something Presupposition What a speaker assumes is true or known by a listener e.g.: Your brother is waiting. Presupposition: you have a brother When did you stop smoking? Presupposition: You used to smoke. You stopped. Speech acts Actions such as requesting, commanding, questioning, informing

John Searles classification of speech acts:

Representatives Directives Commissives Expressives

Express some form of statement you believe is true Get the hearer to do something Commit the speaker to a future action Express the speakers feelings about something

To assert, claim, complain, etc. The weather is nice. Its sunny. To ask, order, beg, permit, etc. Do you think I can carry this tray? To promise, vow, swear, etc. Ill come to the party. To thank, congratulate, compliment, etc.

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Declaratives

Bring about a change of status of an object/person by saying something

Thanks for your help! To fire, baptize, marry, sentence, etc. With this ring, I thee wed.

Direct and indirect speech acts Structures Did you eat the pizza? Eat the pizza (please)! You ate the pizza. Interrogative Imperative Declarative Functions Question Command (Request) Statement

Direct speech act: When structure and function fit together as in the list below e.g.: Did you go there? -> Interrogative and question Indirect speech act: When the structure and the function doesnt fit together as in the list below e.g.: Its cold in here. -> Statement + request (somebody may close the window) Politeness Face Public self-image Politeness Showing awareness and consideration of another persons face Face-threatening act Saying something that represents a threat to another persons face e.g.: Give me that paper! -> You behave as if you have more social power than the other person but you dont have Face-saving act Say something that lessens the possible threat to anothers face e.g.: Could you pass me that paper? -> No assumption of social power at all Negative and positive face Negative face Need to be independent and free from imposition Positive face Need to be connected, part of a group, belonging together Face saving to another persons negative face: Im sorry to bother you; I know your busy, but Face saving to another persons positive face: Lets do together; you and I have the same problem, so

CHAPTER 11 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Summary ISL1 Yule

Discourse: language beyond the sentence Interpreting discourse We can build an interpretation of texts which appear to break a lot of rules of English Cohesion Ties and connections that exist within a text e.g.: father he he he; money (bought saving penny worth a fortune sold pay); time (once nowadays sometimes) Coherence everything fitting together well Key to this concept doesnt exist in words but in people People make sense of what they read and hear Speech events Factors which influence on what is said and how it is said: Roles of speaker and hearer(s); relationship(s) friends, strangers, men, women, young, old, equal / unequal status, Conversation analysis English conversation: two or more people take turns at speaking normally, only one person speaks and the others listen Speaker indicates that he or she has finished by signalling a completion point E.g.: asking a question, pausing at the end of a structure Others indicate that they want the turn by making short sounds, use body shifts or facial expressions Turn taking Keep the turn: Filled pauses during a message which is clearly incomplete E.g.: thats their favourite restaurant because they enjoy French food and when they were The co-operative principle Participants of a conversation are co-operating with each other Four maxims (Gricean maxims) Quantity maxim: Make your contribution as informative as required, not more and not less Quality maxim: Dont say something false or which you lack evidence Relation maxis: Be relevant Manner maxim: Be clear, brief and orderly

Hedges Expressions which show that we are concerned about following the maxims Words or phrases which indicate that were not really sure that what were saying is correct E.g.: sort of; as far as I know; Im not sure, but Implicatures Summary ISL1 Yule 10

Additional conveyed meaning E.g.: Are you coming to the party tonight? Ive got an exam tomorrow. Implicature: study tonight, no time for going to a party Background knowledge We create what a text is about based on our expectations of what normally happens Schemas and scripts Schema Conventional knowledge structure in our memory E.g.: classroom schema: desks, blackboard, pupils, teacher, books Script Dynamic schema; series of conventional actions that take place E.g.: Going to the restaurant: Entering the restaurant, sit down, order something, wait, eat, pay, stand up, leave the restaurant

CHAPTER 13 FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Acquisition =Erfassen, Erlernen; Spracherwerb Basic requirements for language acquisition: Interaction with other language-users Cultural transmission Physical capacity of sending and receiving sound signals Opportunity to interact with others via language

Input Language samples provided by older children and adults in the home Caregiver speech Characteristically simplified speech style when spending a lot of time with a young child Typically frequent use of question, exaggerated intonation, extra loudness and a slower tempo with longer pauses; also: babytalk (e.g.: nana, choo-choo, poo-poo, ) Simple sentence structures, a lot of repetition The acquisition schedule Language acquisition seems to have the same basis as motor skills like sitting up, Tied to the maturation of the brain Cooing Earliest use of speech-like sounds Child can produce vowel-like sounds, similar to [i] and [u] By our months, also [k] and [g] Babbling (6-8 months) Producing a number of different vowels and consonants Combinations like ba-ba-ba and ga-ga-ga 11

Summary ISL1 Yule

Later babbling stage: (9-10 months) Combinations like ba-ba-da-da Later, more complex syllable combinations (ma-da-ga-ba), sound-play, attempted imitations One-word stage (holophrastic stage) (12-18 months) Single terms for everyday objects (e.g. milk, cookie, cat,) Also [s] for whats that Holophrastic could either be a word, a phrase or a sentence Two-word stage (18-20 months) Vocabulary of the child ~50 words Baby chair, mommy eat, o o Child not only produces speech but also receives feedback By the age of two, child can produce 200-300 words but understand five times as many

Telegraphic speech (2-2 years) multiple-word speech variation in word forms begins to appear Before this: telegraphic speech: this shoe all wet, cat drink mild child has already sentence building capacity The acquisition process Do children learn through imitation? Fails to account for: -differing meanings -production of forms not used by adults -ability of children who cant speak to learn a language Do children learn through correction and reinforcement? C: Nobody dont likes me. M: No, say Nobody likes me. C: Nobody dont like me. (Dialogue repeated eight times) M: Now, listen carefully; say Nobody likes me. C: Oh, nobody dont likes me. Do children learn through analogy? The boy was sleeping Was the boy sleeping? The boy who is sleeping is dreaming about a new car. *Is the boy who sleeping is dreaming about a new car? Do children learn through structured input? -> caregiver speech: more simplified, but not syntactically simpler Three problems in language acquisition and development: Summary ISL1 Yule 12

1. How do children crack the code? 2. Is it nature or nurture? (nurture = Pflege) 3. Is there a critical period?

Possible explanation: innate mechanism which drives language development >> nativist theories of language acquisition Developing morphology (2-2 years) o o first appearance of ing form (e.g.: mommy reading book) then: regular plurals with s (e.g.: boys and cats) process of overgeneralization (e.g.: foots; mans; later footses and manses) Then: possessive s (e.g.: mummys book) Forms of to be (are and was) Then: was, went and came Then: regular ed inflection of past tense (walked, but also goed and comed, walkeded,) Then: 3rd person s (e.g.: comes, looks)

o o o o o

Developing syntax Forming questions Stage 1 (18-26 months) Add a wh-form (where; who) or rise in intonation towards the end Where kitty? Sit chair? Stage 2 (22-30 months) More complex expression, more wh-forms What book name? You want eat? Stage 3 (24-40 months) Movement of the auxiliary; trouble with morphology of verbs (did I caught it) Can I have a piece? Will you help me? Did I caught it? Why kitty cant stand up? Forming negatives Stage 1 Just put no or not at the beginning Not a teddy bear no sit here

Stage 2 Additional: dont and cant. No and not rather used in front of the verb than at the beginning of the sentence He no bite you Summary ISL1 Yule I dont want it 13

Stage 3 Stage 1 forms disappear; isnt, didnt and wont come up regularly I didnt caught it Developing semantics During the holophrastic stage many children refer with one word to a large number of objects Overextension Child overextends meaning on the basis of similarities of shape, sound and size, not movement and texture (E.g. ball = lampshade, doorknob, moon,) He not toking it

CHAPTER 14 SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION/LEARNING

Acquisition and learning Acquisition gradual development of ability in a language by using it naturally in communicative situations with others who know the language Learning more conscious process of accumulating knowledge, typically in an institutional setting Acquisition barriers Optimum age for learning may be during the years from about ten to sixteen Affective factors o o o Strong unwillingness or embarrassment feeling no identification with the other culture -> this may be caused by dull textbooks, unpleasant classroom surroundings or stress lacking motivation

Focus on method The grammar-translation method Vocabulary lists and sets of grammar rules to define to target of learning Written language rather than spoken language The audiolingual method Oral drills that the students had to repeat -> bears no resemblance on the interactional nature of spoken language use -> boring Communicative approaches Functions of language should be emphasized rather than forms of the language Concepts such as asking for things; English for medical personnel, Focus on the learner

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Shift from teacher, textbook and method to learner and the acquisition process errors are tolerated because they are probably part of the active learning progress by trying out new things Transfer Using sounds, expressions or structures from the L1 Positive transfer -> when L1 and L2 have similar features Negative transfer -> when L1 is really different from L2 Interlanguage There is some in-between system used in L2 acquisition process that contains aspects of L1 and L2 but has rules of its own This interlanguage is considered to be the basis of all L2 production Motivation Instrumental motivation: learner wants to achieve some other goal (completing school,) Integrative motivation: learner wants to learn the L2 for social purposes (take part in social life,) Input and output Input: language that the learner is exposed to Foreigner talk: comprehensible by being simpler in structure and vocabulary Output: another important element in the learners development of L2 ability Task-based learning: learners have to interact with each other, makes more and better L2-use Communicative competence = general ability to use language accurately, appropriately and flexibly Grammatical competence Sociolinguistic competence Strategic competence -> find some way to refer to a word without knowing the exact vocabulary

CHAPTER 18 LANGUAGE AND REGIONAL VARIATION

Standard language Idealized variety of a language without a specific region Associated with administrative, commercial and educational centers Accent Everybody speaks with an accent Accent description of aspects of pronunciation (identifies where an individual speaker is from; region and social background) Dialect Describes aspects of pronunciation but also features of grammar and vocabulary Dialectology =study of dialects Different dialects of English seem to be mutual intelligible (speakers of other dialects understand it) Regional dialects Summary ISL1 Yule 15

often related to stereotypes Dialect surveys; informants are non-mobile, older, rural, male speakers o Were selected because they were less likely to have influences from outside the region in their speech

Isogloss Line where people use different terms for the same thing (e.g. paper bag vs. paper sack) Dialect Boundary Many isoglosses together indicate a dialect boundary Dialect continuum At dialect boundary areas, one dialect merges into another (no sharp breaks from one region to the next) Speakers who move back and forth across a border area are bidialectal Speakers who know two distinct languages are bilingual Bilingualism and diglossia Often, bilingualism is a feature of minority groups in a country. Recently: bilingual signs like in Krnten Diglossia: Two varieties of languages in one country: low variety (locally, everyday affairs) high variety (learned in school, for important matters) Language planning Many countries are assumed to be monolingual (e.g. United States), but they are bilingual (Spanish, ) Government, legal and educational organizations have to plan which variety of the languages spoken are to be used for official business.

Pidgins and creoles Pidgins: Variety of a language that developed for some practical purpose (e.g. trading) among groups of people who had contact but didnt know each others languages E.g.: English pidgin: English is the lexifier language, main source of words in the pidgin Creoles: When a pidgin develops beyond its role and becomes the first language of a social community, its called a creole. The post-creole continuum: Decreolization: variety that is closer to the external standard model, progress after creolization

CHAPTER 19 LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL VARIATION

Sociolinguistics Study of the relationship between language and society Strong connections with anthropology, sociology, psychology,

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Social dialects Concerned with speakers in towns and cities middle class: more years of education, non-manual work working class: less years of education, manual work of some kind Features which are relevant in the analysis of social dialects: Pronunciations, words or structures that are regularly used in one form by working-class speakers and in another form by middle class speakers Class is the social variable Pronunciation/word is the linguistic variable

Education and occupation Although everybody has an individual idiolect, we tend to sound like other with whom we share similar educational backgrounds and/or occupations. William Labov: American sociolinguist Labov measured percentages of groups pronouncing postvocalic /r/ and gave numbers related to the social class of the speakers Social markers Particular speech sounds function as social marker = feature in your speech which marks you as a member of a social group E.g. leaving out the g in -ing-forms. sitting = sittin Speech style and style-shifting Speech style as a social feature of language use Distinction between formal and informal uses Formal: when we pay attention to how were speaking Informal: when we pay less attention to how were speaking Style shifting Change from one style to the other by an individual When speakers in a middle-status group try to use a prestige form associated with a higherstatus group in a formal situation, they have a tendency to overuse the form. Prestige: Overt prestige: status that is generally recognized as better or more positively valued in the community Covert prestige: certain groups do not as much style-shifting, maybe because they value group solidarity more than upward mobility Speech accommodation Not only a function of speakers social class and attention to speech, but also by their perception of their listeners -> speech accommodation = ability to modify our speech style toward or away from the perceived style of the person(s) were talking to. Divergence When a speech style is used to emphasize social distance between speakers Register Conventional way of using language that is appropriate in a specific context. Situational (e.g. in a church) Summary ISL1 Yule 17

Occupational (e.g. among doctors) Topical (e.g. talking about sports)

Jargon Features of a register, special technical vocabulary (e.g. dental, suffix, participle,) Slang Typically among those outside established higher-status groups. Also called colloquial speech Slang is an aspect of social life Slang within younger social groups, also lower: often contains obscenities or taboo terms

African American English Spoken by many African Americans in the USA Language have often been stigmatized as bad language, abnormal Vernacular language Form of AAE which has been most studied is AAVE (African American Vernacular English) The word vernacular has also been used in the middle Ages to describe the contrast between Latin (high language) and European languages (low languages) The sounds of a vernacular Phonological feature is the tendency to reduce final consonant clusters e.g.: left hand = lef han Initial dental consonants are often pronounced as alveolar stops e.g. think = tink The grammar of a vernacular Double negative construction as in He dont know nothing -> often criticized! frequent absence of forms of to be e.g. You crazy

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