Reflection on languages

2019/09/30 Lecture 1

Full system

Reflection on languages

Journalistic article task 1 10%

Complex academic stuff in normal language

Think about languages not judge

Take a step back why

asking questions (…) what lies behind them is always to be found in the social; that is the cultural, the ideological, the political, the historical, the geographical factors that affect our linguistic choices and our communicative activity

• linguistics = the academic study of language
• linguists = academics studying language

Often also used to refer to:

         polyglots

         language enthusiasts

         language professionals (e.g. writers, journalists, translators)

        anyone with a language degree

• linguists DESCRIBE not PRESCRIBE language

WHAT IS INVOLVED IN STUDY LINGUISTICS

linguistic describe the language not judging it(right or wrong)

ARE YOU USING THE LANGUAGE CORRECTLY

historical evidence

inventor’s rules(correct oneself)

primary date: what people actually use not what is taught

(spelling) convention-norm(could have been different)

Does it make sense-grammatically and 现实意义上

DEFINING LANGAUGES        

Human communication vs animal communication

A language-country(do always language correspond to one country)/(community)

Systematic: Conventional and structured

Assuming communication is perfect

System of signs: is sign language a language

Vocal: reproduce sounds IN ORDER TO communicate

Written/spoken(primary data)

Standard/good language

Can’t put language in a box

• spelling and written language are post-hoc, a convention
• communication ≠ language
• irregularities in structure and language change
• relation with nation and community

• what about dialects?
• where does one language end and another start?

• language reflects and constitutes social identity

mutual intelligence: what do we define as a nation

Every language could be different from what it actually is.

2019/10/02 Seminar 1

Mutual intelligibility

Dominant language/nationality/historically

Language(abstract/past) vs communication (animal vs humanbeing)

Common language for all

Community and cultural identity

Boundaries between different languages

Dialect

How to draw a line

Language is a dialect with a navy and army(?)

Language unifies “a navy and army”s, bring different cultures together(dialects)

U pick 1 dialect to become a language

Political/financial/cultural power

Once a language ELEVATED to become a language, it become more developed(volcabuary, cultural…)

e.g. Hebrew-lower down------not a fixed state

1. if you know the grammar and volcabulary can u communicate in the language(communication needs to be effective)

culture/connotation-social context

rules of communication(social interactions) from all around the world

1. aim: practical (not necessarily)

native vs non-native :who is the better teacher

standard language

how do define native speaker(use it or born with it)/what KIND OF LANGUAGE do you want to learn(prestige lanaguge/perfectly)

1. good English: grammar rules/make sense

non-standard is also rule-governed(what is wrong)

standard/elite language

1. cultural identity

“you”

How to define minority language: not necessarily numerical

Majority: dominant language

Lecture 2 10/07/2019 WHAT IS THERE TO LEARN

Animals can communicate: different physiology, but also a social process(language is a social process)

Intonation is the first thing children learns

Copying-creating

Children are trying( and pick up somehow) a system of languages(grammar)

Innate: born with LAD(language acquisition device: the ability to learn language)(listen-distill)

Universal grammar: connection between different parts of speech that exist across all languages

Babies: citizens of the world

Distinguish all sounds of all languages

When turn into language -bound learners?: (6-10 months: critical period for sound development)

Babies: Taking stastistics(sensitive to/absorb/change their brain)(new language/whatever)

Learning language slow down as we grow

Bilingual: two system

(social input)Human interaction/video sessions/audio: only human being interaction let the infants take in statistics

(what is a language)An infant has to work out what kind of things words, phonology and syntax are, what range of meanings they can express (semantics), and the ways they are used in different social acts (pragmatics). A child or adult learning a second language, on the other hand, has already acquired the phonology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics and at least several thousand words from a previous language

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