语言学复习 下

Linguistics
Topic 8 Sociolinguistics
8.1 The scope of sociolinguistics
8.1.1 Speech community
8.1.2 Two approaches to sociolinguistic studies: Micro & macro sociolinguistics
8.2 Varieties of language
8.2.1 Dialectal varieties
8.2.1.1 Geographical variation
8.2.1.1.1 BrE & AmE
8.2.1.1.2 Dialect vs. Accent
8.2.1.2 Social varieties / sociolect
8.2.1.3 Gender varieties / genderlect
8.2.1.4 Language and age / agelect
8.2.1.5 Idiolect
8.2.1.6 Ethnic dialect
8.2.2 Register
8.2.2.1 Degree of formality
8.2.2.2 Slang
8.2.2.3 Jargon & argot
8.2.2.4 Taboo and Euphemism
8.3 Pidgin and creole
8.4 Bilingualism and multilingualism
8.1 The scope of sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the field that studies the relation between language and society, between the uses of language and the social structures in which the users of language live.
Linguistic phenomena are placed in the general context of society.
People’s use of language is in part determined by his social background.
Purpose of language use
1 to communicate meaning
2 to express feelings
2 to establish and to maintain social relationships.
Examples:
Greetings
Watch a mother with a young child. Most of their talk is devoted to nurturing the social bond between them.
8.1.1 Speech community (言语社团)
There are various definitions.
For some, a speech community is defined as a group of people who form a community and share the same language or a particular variety of a language.
Some others define speech community as a group of people who do in fact have the opportunity to interact with each other and who share not just a single language with its related varieties but also attitudes toward linguistic norms.
8.1.2 Two approaches to sociolinguistic studies:
Micro & macro sociolinguistics
In micro sociolinguistics, the sociolingui st’s goal might be to show how specific differences in pronunciation or grammar lead individual member of a speech community to make judgments about the education or economic status of a speaker.
In macro sociolinguistics, the scholars pay attention to the whole of a language or variety. They consider how language functions in the whole society and how it reflects the social differentiations.
8.2 Varieties of language
In the daily life, almost every person has the experience of contacting a language which is different from his or her own. Even one single person speaks differently according to different occasions.
For example, a girl’s way of speaking to her boyfriend is definitely of different styles from the way she speaks to her linguistic professor.
Example 1
(Ray, a student, comes home after school.)
Ray: Hi, mum.
Mum: Hi. You’re late.
Ray: Yeah, that bastard Sootbucker Kept us in again.
Mum: Lina’s here.
Ray: Oh sorry. Where is she?
Example 2
(Leaving school, Ray runs into the school principal.)
Ray: Good afternoon, sir.
Principal: What are you doing here at this time?
Ray: Mr. Sutton kept us in, sir.
8.2 Varieties of language
The varieties of a language are the actual manifestations of the general notion of the language and they are assumed to be related both to the language user and to the use to which the language is put.
Varieties related to the user are normally known as dialects.
Varieties related to use are known as registers.
8.2.1 Dialectal varieties
The study of variations in language has long been given serious attention before sociolinguistics became a separated discipline.
The study of regional dialects played a major role in the historical linguistics that flourished in the late 18th and the 19th centuries.
8.2.1.1 Geographical variation
Geographical variation, which refers to the variation of language across geographical regions, can be generally divided into international variation and regional dialects.
International variation refers to the variation of a language among different nations and is best exemplified by the American English and British English.
Regional dialect denotes the variations within one country.
Reasons for the variations:
1. Geographical barriers
2. Loyalty to one’s native speech
3. Physical and psychological resistance to change
中国七大方言分区
1.北方话（简称：北语）
2.广东话（简称：粤语）
3.江浙话（简称：吴语）
4.福建话（简称：闽语）
5.湖南话（简称：湘语）
6.江西话（简称：赣语）
7.客家话（简称：客语）
An example of misunderstanding caused by international variations
A British visitor to New Zealand decided while he was in Auckland he would look up an old
friend from his war days. He found the address, walked up the path and knocked on the door.
“Gidday,” said the young man who opened the door. “What can I do for you?”
“I’ve called to see my old mate Don Stone,” said the visitor.
“Oh he’s dead now mate,” said the young man.
The visitor was just about to express his condolences when he was slapped in the back by Don Stone himself. He turned around, and found Don Stone was still alive and was as fit as a fiddle.
Actually, the young man had said “Here’s dad now mate,” as his father came in the gate.
8.2.1.1.1 BrE & AmE
BrE is the basis for the varieties spoken in England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and South Africa.
AmE includes chiefly the English of Canada and the United States.
Phonological differences
dance /α:/ /æ/ can, glass, half, can
The treatment of ‘r’.
In the standard BrE, such sound has disappeared except when it is followed by a vowel.
In AmE, it is pronounced in all positions. Most Americans have a retroflex /r/ when ‘r’ appears after a vowel i n words like car, far, towards, etc…
Lexical Differences
Meaning lost in BrE, but surviving in AmE.
e.g. fall: autumn
Orthographical Differences
Some words are spelt differently in AmE and BrE. On the whole, the words in AmE are spelt more simply than those in BrE.
Words ending with –our in BrE usually end with –or in AmE. (color, favor, labor, behavior, neighbor)
Words ending with –re in BrE usually end with –er in AmE. (liter, meter, center, theater)
Words ending with –ogue in BrE usually end with –og in AmE. (dialog, monolog, catalog) Words ending with –ce and –ze in BrE usually end with –se in AmE. (license, defense, realise)
Grammatical Differences
1) The treatment of collective nouns in AmE and BrE is different.
Americans tends to treat the collectives as single nouns whereas the British people were more likely to use them as plurals.
e.g. The family was/were invited to the party.
2) The speakers of these two varieties use the verb do with auxiliaries can and have differently. Q: Have you repaired the bicycle for the girl?
AmE: No, I haven’t.
BrE: No, I haven’t done yet.
3) Some of the prepositions are used differently in AmE and BrE.
e.g. He saw his ex-wife on/in the street.
The book caters to/for the readers below the age of 12.
He worked Monday through/to Sunday.
8.2.1.1.2 Dialect vs. Accent
Dialect is a regionally or socially distinctive variety of a language, identified by a particular set of words and grammatical structures.
BrE – AmE Cantonese
Accent refers to the characteristics of speech that convey information about the speaker’s dialect, which may reveal in what country or which part of the country the speaker grows up.
Shanxi accent – Henan accent
The difference between accent and dialect lies in the fact that the former refers to pronunciation only while the latter refers to grammar and vocabulary as well.
8.2.1.2 Social varieties / sociolect
Social varieties are language varieties in accordance with people’s social status, including economic and educational prestige.
Generally speaking, speech of people in higher socio-economic group is less likely to be influenced by the varieties of regions where they are born and grew up. Their speech is more approximate to a standard variety.
An example: p.113
Standard variety/dialect
Standard variety is the language employed by the government and the judiciary system, used by the mass media, and taught in educational institutions, including school settings where the language is taught as a foreign or second language.
Standard variety is just a language variation of common origin. However, it has been elevated to a higher status and put on a higher social recognition. Standard languages are the result of a direct and deliberate intervention by society.
Unlike the non-standard variety, st andard dialects are dialects having been “standardized” through the process of “standardization” by the government.
It is a superimposed variety.
It is the result of language planning by the government.
e.g. Standard English Mandarin
普通话以北京语音为标准音，以北方话为基础方言，以典范的现代白话文著作为语法规范。

Features:
1. It is based on a selected variety of the language.
2. It is not a dialect a child acquires naturally like his regional dialect.
3. It has some special functions: for official purposes; in education, n ews reporting…
8.2.1.3 Gender varieties / genderlect
Gender varieties are caused by society rather than by evolution.
e.g. more approximate to the standard language
a greater frequency of the use of polite speech
Why are there so many differences between male and female speech?
Women tend to use intensifiers more often.
The following is an example from the novel Pride and Prejudice.
Oh! My dear Mr. Bennet, we have had a most excellent ball.... Jane was so admired. Every body said how well she looked. Mr. Bingley thought her quite beautiful, … I was so vexed to see him stand up with her. … I am quite delighted with him. He is so excessivel y handsome!
Sex is what you’re born with;
Gender is what you’re given.
8.2.1.4 Language and age / agelect
Language used by the old generations differs from that used by the younger generation.
Difference in pronunciation
Difference in lexical level
The causes of the differentiation:
root: Society is changing.
Social attitudes, value judgments …
8.2.1.5 Idiolect (个人语言)
Idiolect is a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines elements regarding regional, social, gender, and age variations.
No two people can be found to speak in exactly the same way.
Everyone has his or her own characteristic language use.
8.2.1.6 Ethnic dialect (种族方言)
An ethnic dialect is a social dialect of a language that cuts across regional differences: it is mainly spoken by a less privileged population that has experienced some form of social isolation such as racial discrimination or segregation.
e.g. Black English
In New Zealand many Maori people routinely use Maori greetings, emphatic phrases, etc.
Lee: Kia ora [a greeting] June. Where you been? Not seen you round for a while.
June: Kia ora. I’ve just come back from my Nanny’s tangi [funeral]. Been up in Rotorua for a week.
Lee: Eki [Is that so!], a sad time for you, e hoa [My friend] and for all your family, ne [isn’t it]?
June: Ae[Yes]. We’ll all miss Nanny. She was a wonderful woman.
(Note: The symbol of [] indicates English equivalents.)
8.2.2 Register (语域)
People in the same place do not speak the same variation since they belong to different social groups according to their wealth, education and occupation.
Even people of the same social status speak differently in different social context.
A person may play different roles in the society .
He: talk to his son: amiably
speak to his boss: respectively and cautiously
speak to other members of the golf club: in a relaxed way.
Register: the type of language which is selected as appropriate to the type of situation.
It is marked by choice of vocabulary and style.
Three social variables
Field of discourse (语场): what is going on: to the area of operation of the language activity. It is concerned with the purpose (why) and subject matter (about what) of communication. It can be either technical or non-technical.
Tenor of discourse(语旨): the role of relationship in the situation in question: who are the participants in the communication and in what relationship they stand to each other. (customer-shop-assistant, teacher-student, etc.)
Mode of discourse(语式): the means of communication. It is concerned with how communication is carried out. (oral, written, on the line…)
8.2.2.1 Degree of formality
Five stages of formality (Martin Joos)
Frozen: used especially in ritual ceremonies and religious liturgies.
Formal: among people who either do not know one another or are in circumstances in which anonymity is preferred.
Consultative: among people who know one another well.
Casual: among people who know each other well and who are in an informal setting, e.g.
good friends at a picnic.
Intimate: the language within a family.
Example: p.119
Different styles can be characterized through differences at three levels: syntactic, lexical and phonological.
In syntax (p. 119)
In lexicon
More formal Less formal
Offspring children
decease die
peruse read
reply answer
participate in take part in
encounter come across
tolerate put up with
In address forms(Sir, Mr. Smith, Professor Smith, Smith, Frederick, Fred, Mate, Uncle Fred, Dad)
8.2.2.2 Slang (俚语)
Slang refers to British or American variant of carelessly used colloquial language with explicitly social and regional variants.
Slang is characterized by the innovative use of common vocabulary as well as newly coined words. It is often invented to keep the community identity and catch up with new ideas and customs. Therefore, it is constantly changing.
8.2.2.3 Jargon & argot
Jargon (行话) refers to speech or writing containing specialized words or constructions by which members of particular arts, sciences, trades and professions communicate among themselves.
It is the in-group variety shared by people of the same occupation or interests, and exclude people who are outside the community.
e.g. Jargons of law, medicine, marine, astronomy, sports, culinary skills, linguistic study…Computer jargon: RAM, byte, desktop, bus, cache…
Jargon of law: deputy, plaintiff, defendant, counterclaim…
Argot(暗语) is also referred to as the jargon of criminals. It is a secret language, roughly corresponding to cant (黑话), used by beggars and thieves in medieval France.
More broadly, argot may refer to any specialized vocabulary or set of expressions used by a particular group or class and not widely understood by mainstream society.
e.g. can-opener: all-purpose key
persuader: dagger
8.2.2.4 Taboo and Euphemism
Taboo(禁忌) refers to a word or expression that is socially sensitive and unacceptable by the “polite” society from general use.
Taboo words may cover some special areas like death, religion, sexual intercourse, crime, mental health, wa ste material of the human body…
Since taboo words or expressions should be avoided, it becomes necessary to find some alternatives to replace them in order to make the communication continue smoothly. Such alternatives are called euphemisms.
8.3 Pidgin and creole
Pidgin (洋泾浜) is a language which has no native speakers. It is a simplified language derived from two or more languages. It is a contact language developed and used by people who do not share a common language in a given geographical area.
Reasons for the development of pidgin:
a: the fast-developing commercial and political exchange
b: the colonization
It is through mistakes and compromises that pidgins develop themselves.
Most pidgins originate from a fusion of several totally unrelated languages and they typically have a limited vocabulary and very simple grammar.
Many pidgins have been identified and altogether there are as many as sixty varieties of English-based pidgins: e.g. Nigerian Pidgin English, Papuan Pidgin English, Vietnamese Pidgin English, Chinese Pidgin English…
Tok Pisin: widely used in Papua New Guinea, has about 1500 lexical items, and about 80% derived form English.
e.g. Mi driman long kilim wanpela snek.
(I dreamed that I killed a snake.)
Cameroonian Pidgin English:
e.g. Gif di buk fo mi.
(Give the book to me.)
Di moni dei fo tebul.
( The money is on the table.)
Pidgins usually originate from the business contact. However, when a couple who have different native languages and speak the same pidgin marry each other, the pidgin will take on social complexities and become more fully developed as people not only speak it to do business, but do so to fulfill other social obligations.
“It is no longer just a contact language, with limited social functions, but is called on to deal with and increasing wide range of social needs” (Spolsky).
A pidgin become creolized when they become the mother tongue of a community, and the process is called creolization.
A creole (混合语) is often defined as a pidgin that has become the first language of a new generation of speakers.
After a pidgin is creolized, there is another stage of development in which the speakers of the creole may be introduced to the standard language.
A post-creole continuum: standard language may play the role at one end to fulfill certain social obligation and the creole may function at another end in its specific field.
8.4 Bilingualism and multilingualism
It is estimated that there are more than 6000 languages spoken throughout the world.
People in only about 25% of all the countries are found to speak two official languages, and only in a handful of countries speak more than two languages.
Multilingualism is mainly created by three reasons: migration, conquest and intermarriage.
e.g. The Tukano live on the border between Brazil and Colombia. In their society, men must marry someone who speaks another language.
Diglossia (高低双语现象) refers to two varieties of a language exist side by side throughout the community, with each having a definite role to play.
It is used to describe any stable linguistic situation, in which there exists a strict functional differentiation between a “high” variety and a “low” variety.
Topic 10 First Language Acquisition
& Second Language Acquisition
10.1 Language acquisition
10.2 First language acquisition theories
10.2.1 The tabula rasa hypothesis
10.2.2 The innateness hypothesis
10.2.3 Interactionist view
10.3 Cognitive factors in child language development
10.4 The critical period hypothesis
10.5 Second language acquisition
10.6 Language transfer and interference
10.7 Contrastive analysis (CA)
10.8 Error analysis (EA)
10.9 SLA hypothesis
10.9.1 Acquisition vs. Learning
10.9.2 Monitor hypothesis
10.9.3 Natural order hypothesis
10.9.4 Input hypothesis (输入假说)
10.9.5 Affective filter hypothesis
10.10 The individual learner factors affecting SLA
10.10.1 The optimum age for SLA
10.10.2 Language aptitude
10.10.3 Motivation
10.10.4 Learning strategies
10.10.5 Learning styles
10.10.6 Personality
10.1 Language Acquisition
one of the central topics in psycholinguistics
Language acquisition refers to children’s development of their mother tongue, that is, the native language of the community in which a child has been brought up.
The development of a first language (L1) is called first language acquisition (FLA).
The development of a second language (L2) is called second language acquisition (SLA).
10.2 First language acquisition theories
L1 learners and L2 learners follow a similar route of language development;
L1 development and L2 development do not involve identical processes.
The nature of language acquisition is still an open question.
10.2.1 The tabula rasa hypothesis 白板假说
Human beings cannot know anything that is not observable and that the infan t’s mind at birth is a blank slate to be written on by experience.
Behaviorists claim that children acquire their first language through a chain of “stimulus–response – imitation –reinforcement”.
Represented by B. F. Skinner.
Language learning is a habit-forming process.
Preliminary steps: imitation, practice
Key: discrimination, generalization
Suppose a baby is hungry, she babbles; she does not pronounce the right sound for the thing she wants: she gets corrected, she imitates the correct sound and gets understood; she gets the thing she wants.
Behaviorists believe that all the internal linguistic knowledge of the individual is the direct result of integration of the linguistic events that the individual has observed.
Limitations:
How to explain that children imitate words selectively and according to their own understandings of the sounds or patterns?
How to explain that children do produce many utterances that they are not exposed to?
How to explain that children’s acquisition of complex language syste m?
The following is the recording of an adult’s repeated but pointless corrections of a child’s wrong form of the past tense of “hold”. It refutes the imitation and reinforce theories.
Child: My teacher *holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
Adult: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabits?
Child: Yes.
Adult: What did you say she did?
Child: She *holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
Adult: Did you say she held them tightly?
Child: No. She *holded them loosely.
10.2.2 The innateness hypothesis 先天主义假说
Chomsky claims that human beings are biologically programmed for language and that the language develops in the child just as other biological functions.
There are aspects of linguistic organization that are basic to the human brain and that makes it possible for human children to learn a language with all its complexity with little or no instruction from family or friends.
1. Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
an imaginary “black box” --- containing principles universal to all human languages --- natural language activates LAD --- matching innate basic grammatical system to that particular language --- discovering his language’s grammatical system
2. Universal Grammar (UG)
Children’s acquisition of these grammatical rules is guided by principle s of and innate UG, then seem to be able to know the rules by being exposed to a limited number of examples.
Problems in innatist view
1. It pays too much attention to syntax and relatively neglects the semantic elements.
2. It has overstressed the inherent characteristics of language to such an extent as to be virtually useless.
3. It makes light of the factor of social-linguistic environment in language acquisition.
10.2.3 Interactionist view 互动主义者观点
Language develops as a result of the complex interplay between the human characteristics of the child and the environment in which the child develops.
The modified language which is suitable for the child’s capability is crucial in his language acquisition.
Example p.147-148
motherese, caretaker talk 保姆式语言
Characteristics:
slow rate of speech
high pitch
rich intonation
shorter and simpler sentence structures
frequent repetition
paraphrasing
limited vocabulary
“here and now” topics
Summary
At the present stage of research, the question of why children can acquire language so efficiently still eludes our understanding and no unanimous conclusion has been reached.
If there are some aspects we are certain about, they are:
1. Children are active learners in language;
2. The language acquisition follows a relative fixed sequence;
3. Many factors contribute to their acquisition, both linguistic and extralinguistic.
10.3 Cognitive factors in child language development
1. Language development is dependent of both the concepts children form about the world and what they feel stimulated to communicate at the early and later stages of their language development.
conceptual development language development
2. The cognitive factors determine how the child makes sense of the linguistic system himself instead of what meanings the child perceives and expresses.
10.4 The critical period hypothesis
Children can acquire their mother tongue effortlessly yet proficiently without conscious or formal leaning in a short time of two or three years.
The critical period hypothesis 关键期假设
From infancy to puberty, during which the human brain is most ready to acquire a particular language and language learning can proceed easily, and without explicit instruction.
children’s language maturates step by step.
Stages
The Prelinguistic Stage / Babbling Stage
Immediately after born: cry, coo, other instinctive sounds (not language)
At approximate six month: babble (language-like) boo, a…
The stage does not belong to language, for even born-deaf children are able to babble these still meaningless sounds.
It plays an important role of enabling children to exercise their pronunciation organs and learn to maintain the “right” sounds.
Children are learning to distinguish between the sounds of their language and the sounds that are not part of the language.
Stage 1: The One-word Stage / holophrastic stage
around the tenth month
first words: mama, papa
Strategies:
Generalization: They establish a set of categories and allocate the various items into them.
Under-generalization (under-extension) 概括不足:
Over-generalization (over-extension)概括过度: same word for things that have a similar appearance.
The first 50 words that many children can speak are divided into the following groups: Naming things Actions/events Personal/social Modifying things ball give yes dirty
dog put hi nice
juice sit no more
Mummy stop bye-bye this
Daddy go
milk up
cat down
baby
shoe
biscuit
About 60% are those that name people, animals and things.
The second largest group are words that express or demand actions.
Stage 2: The Two-word Stage
Around second birthday
e.g. daddy car eat dinner no shoe
They are content words.
One single expression may be interpreted as indicating several conceptual relations.
That’s daddy’s car.
Daddy is in the car.
Daddy is washing the car.
The two-word stage is a significant step forward:
1] The two-word utterances are used to serve a larger variety of purposes, e.g. to request, warn, name, refuse, brag, question, answer and inform.
2] Some grammar relations and “grammatical rules” can be generalized from the utterances.
e.g. Agent action: mummy push
Entity and location: cookie plate
3] The word order usually falls in with that in the speech of the adult speaker.
e.g. read book
Children actively acquire language.
Stage 3: The Multi-word Stage
the second to the third year
Longer utterances with more complex grammatical structures
e.g. That a flower.
Cat stand there.
Telegraphic speech: they are composed of content words while lacking inflections and most minor lexical categories.
Strategy: regularization / simplification
Over-regulation: Children apply a regulation or a rule to form which is an exception to the regulation or rule in the language.
e.g. goed –went unopen –not open
The errors are the cognitive strategies children have adopted and the linguistic rules children are forming during their course of language acquisition.
Stage 4: Near-Adult stage
Between three and a half and five.
Use more complicated structures
e.g. I see you sit down.
How do children learn negative and questions? p.149, p.155
Pragmatic development
The nature of first language acquisition
1 Language acquisition is primarily the acquisition of the grammatical system of language.
2 Language acquisition is to internalize individual expressions of language.
3 Parents’ instruction plays a major role in FLA.
Caretaking speech 保姆语
babytalk / motherese / parentese
10.5 Second language acquisition
SLA: the systematic study of how one person acquires a second language subsequent to his native language.
A general term for not only second language learning, but also foreign language learning, or even the third or the fourth language.
L2 learning, the early the better?
Researches have demonstrated that adolescents are quicker and more effective than young children in L2 learning.。