a) Females are politer in conversation;
b) the difference of speech acts (the frequent use of polite formulas in female speeches)
The choice of words in terms of grammatical gender is sexist: use of “he” to refer to either sexes or unknown or irrelevant
The sexist bias is also rooted by the way neutral terms are interpreted.
Governor/governess |Master/mistress |Career woman/man
English is one such language whose gender terms are heavily asymmetric in morphological representation. Male terms get unmarked and the female term is often marked by adding a bound morpheme, or by compounding.
Feminist movement, use more gender-neutral expressions
④ Register varieties (situational dialects)
Register: one language variety appropriate for use in particular speech situations, in contrast to language varieties that are associated with the social or regional grouping of their customary users.
Speech variation in register may be carried over into the written language.
⑤ Address terms
Address term: or address form, refers to the word or words used to address somebody in speech or writing.
Common English address terms:
First name
Last name
Title+ last name
Title alone
Kin term: Dad, mummy etc.
⑥ Slang
Slang: a casual use of language that consists of expressive but nonstandard vocabulary, typically of arbitrary, flashy and often ephemeral coinages and figures of speech characterized by spontaneity and sometimes by raciness.
Purpose: a desire for novelty, for vivid emphasis, for membership in a particular group or class, for being up with the terms of a little ahead
Negative connotation: a low or vulgar form of language
In-group language or community jargon
⑦ Linguistic taboo
Linguistic taboo: refers to a word or expression that is prohibited by the polite society from general use.
Obscene, profane, and swear words
Many languages contain two words or expressions with the identical linguistic meaning, with one acceptable and the other a cause of embarrassment or horror.
The avoidance of using taboo: language mirrors social attitudes, emotions and value judgment, and has no linguistic basis.
⑧ Euphemism
Euphemism: a mild, indirect or less offensive word or expression substituted when the speaker or writer fears more direct wording might be harsh, unpleasantly direct, or offensive
Death or dying, ask for location of the “bathroom” etc.
Often when the negative connotation of a word is recognized in its euphemistic form, a new euphemism will have to be sought for.
Toilet, WC, powder room, Men’s Room, Ladies’ Room, Gentlemen, bathroom, restroom
As long as there is a need to avoid the use of taboo language, there is a need for the use of euphemistic substitutes.
Chapter 12 Psycholinguistics
The study of language in relation to the mind
P.S. some of the following discussed sometimes fall into the scope of neurolinguistics and sociolinguistics, esp. concerning the structure of the brain.
[A] The biological foundations of language
Human linguistic ability largely depends on the structure and dynamics of the human brain, rather than, the structure of the vocal cords.
Neuronsàcerebral cortexàhemisphere
Brain lateralization (specific to human beings): the left hemisphere has primary responsibility for language, while the right hemisphere controls visual and spatial skills as well as the perception of nonlinguistic sounds and musical melodies.
The localization of cognitive and perceptual functions in a particular hemisphere of the brain is called lateralization.
[B] Linguistic lateralization
Left hemispheric dominance for language, this hypothesis has been proved by Dichotic listening research（两耳分听试验）
The sound presented in the right ear goes directly to the left brain. The sound heard in the left ear, on the other hand, must first go to the right hemisphere, from where it is transferred to the left side of the brain for processing.
Right ear advantage:（右耳优势）it appears to exist primarily for linguistic stimuli, both meaningful and nonsensical.
[C] The language centers
① Broca’s area (French surgeon and anatomist): The frontal lobe in the left cerebral hemisphere damaged extreme difficulty in producing speech;
[Speech production deficit] word-finding difficulties and problems with syntax
② Wernicke’s area (German physician, 1874): Strengthened Broca’s claim, and generated intense interest in the hypothesis that different areas within the left hemisphere fulfill different linguistic functions
[Speech comprehension deficit] difficult in understanding speech (posterior speech cortex)
③ The angular gyrus（角形脑回）: It is responsible for converting a visual stimulus into an auditory form and vice versa
The word is heard and comprehended via Wernicke’s area. This signal is then transferred via the arcuate fasciculus to Broca’s area (the angular gyrus), where preparations are made to produce it. A signal is then sent to the motor cortex to physically articulate the word.
④ language perception, comprehension and production
[D] The critical period for language acquisition ß neurobiologist Eric Lenneberg
It refers to a period in one’s life extending from about two to puberty, during which the human brain is most ready to acquire a particular language and language learning can proceed easily, swiftly, and without explicit instruction.
Language faculty of an average human degenerates after the critical period.
{Language can be acquired after the critical period.}
[E] Early views on language and thought
Mentalistà thought and language were identical, proposed by Plato
Empiricistà languages were signs of psychological experiences (Aristotle)
Bloomfield, American psychologist, founder of Behaviorism, supported the mentalist: thinking was a system of movements that had been reduced from actual speech to the point where they were no longer visible.
Violates the following two phenomena:
Non-speaking humansà display complex thought process
I didn’t mean to say that
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: (the American anthropologist-linguist Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee Whorf)
“We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significance as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way—an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language.”
Linguistic determination—the strong notion: Language determines thought
Linguistic relativism—speakers of different language perceive and experience the world differently, i.e. relative to their linguistic background
This hypothesis appears plausible, but its strong version has very few adherents today.
Whorf did not only depend too heavily on the literal use of words but also on grammatical structure.
The weaker version is accepted. Language may be used to provide ideas, bring about a change in beliefs and values, solve problems, and keep track of things in memory. Language does influence the perceptions, memory tasks, and other verbal and nonverbal behavior of human beings by its convenience, availability, and habitual use.
[F] Argues for and against the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
① Words and meaning: Relation is arbitrary; without the particular words of snow doesn’t mean he can not perceive differences in varieties of snow…
② Grammatical structure
Many grammatical features of a language are purely superficial aspects of linguistic structure. They don’t have the kind of interdependent relationship with the perceptual system of the speakers of that language. (Grammatical gender)
③ Translation
Successful translation between languages can be made.
That he (Sapir) can explain/describe Hopi concepts in English for an average English speaker to understand easily fully proves that translation can be obtained.
④ Second language acquisition
Bilingualism: have a consistent conceptual-perceptual system of the physical world. Don’t have to have double minds.
⑤ language and world views
People who use the same language may have different world views.
People who use different languages may have the similar world views.
One language can describe many different world views.
[G] Understanding the relationship between language and thought
① functions of language:
Interpersonal communication: convey information, thoughts, feelings from one to another
Intrapersonal communication: language facilitates thinking, speech behavior, and action for the individual
Halliday: ideational, interpersonal and textual functions
a) Informative
b) Interpersonal function
(1) Performative function
(2) Emotive function
(3) Expressive function
(4) Phatic function
c) Recreational function
d) Metalingual function
② Language and thought may be viewed as two independent circles overlapping in some parts.
When language and thought are identical or closely paralleled to each other, we may regard thought as “subvocal speech”, and speech as “overt thought”
Nonverbal signals: facial expressions, grimaces, gestures, postures, or proxemic space can be used to express thoughts.
The relationship between the coding system of language on the one hand and the conceptualizing system of thought on the other is conventional rather than genetic. Bilingual speakers switch between the two languages concerned, not converting one mode of thinking into the other, but rather, making transition between the two linguistic coding systems.
Chapter 13 First Language Acquisition (FLA)
Language acquisition refers to children’s development of their first language, that is, the native language of the community in which a child has been brought up (naturally and successfully).
[A] The biological basis of language acquisition
What is meant by the biological, or nativist, view of language acquisition is that human are equipped with the neural perquisites for language and language use, just as birds are biologically “prewired” to learn the songs of their species.
No language is inferior, or superior, to any other language.
No single human is a better or worse language acquire than any other human.
Different languages have a similar level of complexity and detail, and reflect general abstract properties of the common linguistic system called the Universal Grammar (UG).
[B] Language acquisition as the acquisition of grammatical rules
Before 5, knowing most of the intricate grammatical system of their native language
What is acquired is not a bunch of utterances but a set of rules, conditions, and elements (fundamental grammatical rules) that allow one to speak and understand speech.
[C] The role of input and interaction, instruction, correction and reinforcement, imitation
① the role of input and interaction
Genetic predisposition + an appropriate linguistic environment
Access to language data and opportunities to interact with the input
Modified speechßrelationshipà language acquisition
Caretaker speech (babytalk, motheress, or parentese): without it doesn’t mean acquiring language slowly
Advantages: 1) help heighten its comprehensibility
2) make it easier for children to match linguistic forms with their meanings
② the role of instruction
“Children learn to speak because adults teach them to speak.”
1) this view overestimates what adults can do, and at the same time
2) this view underestimates what children can do, and what they actually do
Children require little conscious instruction. Parents often fail their attempt to teach children grammatical rules, and only playing a minor role at best
③ the role of correction and reinforcement
Assumption 1: children received constant correction for using a “bad” grammar and rewards when using a “good” grammar
Assumption 2: children learnt to produce sentence because they were positively reinforced when they said something right and negatively reinforced when they said something wrong.
Behaviorist learning theoryàa child’s verbal behavior was conditioned through association between a stimulus and a relevant response.
Correction plays a minor role; even when syntactic correction does occur, children often do not know what the problem is and are unable to make corrections.
④ the role of imitation
The hypothesis that children learnt language by simply imitating the speech of those around them is not true.
A more reasonable explanation is that: children are attempting to construct and generalize their own grammatical rules.
Besides, children who cannot speak can learn the language spoken to them and understand what is said.
Children don’t blindly mimic adult speech in a parrot fashion, but rather exploit it in very restricted ways to improve their linguistic skills
[D] Stages of first language acquisition
In general, children begin uttering their first words sometimes during the second year of life. During the following 4 to 5 years, linguistic development occurs quite rapidly.
① the prelinguistic stage (babbling age)
3 months: /k/, /u/
3-4 months: babbling speech like sounds
6 months: able to sit up; produce a number of different vowels and consonants (meaningless), deaf baby, baby born of non-speaking deaf parents also babble
② the one-word stage à holophrastic sentences
2 year-old: use one word to serve a naming function, to refer to familiar people, toys, pets, drinks and objects in the child’s environment, indicate certain actions and demands, or convey emotions.
Simple nouns and verbs
Very few functional words such as prep., art., and aux. verbs
Choose the most informative word that applies to the situation being commented upon
Overextension (underextension of reference): use the same word for things that have a similar appearance
③ the multiword stage
2-3 year-old: the salient feature of the utterances at this stage ceases to be the number of words, but the variation in strings of lexical morphemes (telegraphic speech)
Lacking grammatical morphemes, but following the principles of sentence formation [make no word order errors at this stage]
5 year-old: has an operating vocabulary of more than 2000 words
[E] The development of grammatical system
① the development of phonology
The emergence of articulatory skills begins around the age when children start to produce babbling sounds.
Children first acquire the sounds found in all languages of the world, and in later stages acquire the “more difficult” sounds.
Certain sounds that occur in babbling are lost when children began to speak the language, and then reappear at a later stage: /l/ and /r/
② the development of syntax
Children’s early language is not only semantically based, but also makes reference to syntactic categories, and grammatical relations.
Two-word stage: noun-like element + predicate-like element
Then, add functional words as well as inflectional and derivational morphemes of the language
-ing, in, on, the regular plural ending “-s”
Negative sentences: no/all gone /// negative words occur at the beginning of expressions /// insert the negative “no”, “can’t” or “don’t” inside the sentence, usually between subject and the predicate
English questions have developed in the similar way, in an interrelated way with the development of the auxiliary verb system
③ the development of morphology
Beyond the telegraphic stage: incorporate some of the inflectional morphemes
1st one: -ing; 2nd one: marking of regular plurals with the “-s” form (overgeneralization); 3rd one: -ed rule to all verbs; begin to learn both regular and irregular forms as individual words
④ the development of vocabulary of semantics
The first two years: 50-100 words
Semantic referent to a word expands: overgeneralization
The age of two and a half years: vocabulary is expanding rapidly
The age of three: hundreds of words
Connection between a word and its denotative meaning is more like that of adult language
By five: 4.6 words per sentence
Increase of about 25 words per day
The age of six: 7800 wordsà English-speaking school children
By the age of eight: 17600 words or 28300 including derived forms
In general, children have virtually acquired the basic fabric of their native language at the age of five or six.
Per-school years are crucial period for first language acquisition.
Chapter 14
Second language Acquisition/Learning
[A] Acquisition v. learning
Acquisition: refers to the gradual development of ability in a language by using it naturally in communicative situations; or the gradual and subconscious development of ability in the first language by using it naturally in daily communicative situations (by American SLA scholar Stephen Krashen)
Learning: refers to a conscious process of accumulating knowledge of the vocabulary and grammar of a language, usually obtained in school setting.
[B] Transfer and interference
Transfer: while learning the target language consciously or unconsciously, learners will subconsciously use their L1 knowledge in learning a second language.
