This entry is connected to "The Study of Language" written by George Yule. The Selected chapters and presentations involve the analysis of language form, meaning,and context. Enjoy it!
Chapter #11: Discourse Analysis
Discourse Analysis is usually defined as “language beyond the sentence” which is typically concerned with the study of language in texts and conversation. These texts have certain structures that depend on factors. On the one hand, there is cohesion or the connection that exists within texts (cohesive ties). On the other hand, coherence which leads us to distinguish connected texts that make sense from those that do not.
As regards, speech events are whatever people say and do in different circumstances, for instance, debates, interviews, conversations. In order to describe this variation, we should take into account the roles of speakers and hearers, and their relationship. What is more, an English conversation can be described as an activity in which two or more people take turns to speak. Furthermore, there are different expectations of conversational styles, and different strategies of participation in the conversation. Firstly, we should take into account “The Co-operative Principle” to make our conversational contribution as informative as is required. Secondly, do not share something that lacks adequate evidence. Thirdly, be relevant, clear, brief, and orderly.
In relation to the features of a conversation,we can use words or phrases to indicate that we are not sure that what we are saying is sufficiently correct or complete, known as hedges. Moreover, implicatures which involve something that is not said, for example:
-Are you going to the party tonight?
-I´ve got an exam. (This implies a fusal to the invitation)
In order to build interpretations of what we hear or read, we can use background knowledge. For instance, schema and script. The first one is a conventional knowledge that exists in memory used in the interpretation of what we experience. The second one is the series of conventional actions that take place. E.g: If you go to a restaurant, you know that you have to order the food and pay for the service.
Chapter #17: Language history and change
In this chapter, the writer tries to explain the different changes that languages have undergone throughout centuries, and particularly how English evolved from Old English to Modern English. Investigating the features of older languages, and the ways in which they have developed into modern languages, involves us into the study of language history and transformation, also known as Philology.
In the nineteenth century, Philology dominated the study of language and one of the results was the creation of the “family trees” to show how languages were related. Before all of that could happen, there had to be discovered that a variety of languages spoken in different parts of the world were actually members of the same family. During the nineteenth century, a term came into use to describe common ancestors. It incorporated the notion that Proto was the original form of a language that was the source of modern languages in the Indian sub-continent and in Europe. What is more, Proto-Indo-European established as a long-ago “great-great-grandmother” which scholars set out to identify the branches of the Indo- European family tree, tracing the lineage of many modern languages. Indo-European is the language family with the largest population and distribution in the world, but it isn’t the only one. There are about thirty such language families containing a large number of different individual languages.
There are family connections among these languages. To get a clearer picture of how they are related, we should look at records of an older generation, as Latin and Sanskrit, where the modern languages came from. For example, if we use familiar letters to write out the words for father in Sanskrit (pitar), Latin (pater), and Ancient Greek (patër), some common features become apparent.
Also, it is important to mention the meaning of cognate, which is a word in one language, but it could be a word in another language that has a similar spelling or meaning. For instance, the English words mother, father, and a friend are cognates of the German words Mutter, Vater and Freund. Another point to mark is the comparative reconstruction. It is a method that usually refers to a reconstruction by establishing features of the ancestor of two or more related languages, belonging to the same language family, by means of the comparative method. Eg, If in a cognate set, three words begin with a /p/ sound and one word begins with a /b/ sound, then our best guess is that the majority have retained the original sound.
The most natural development principle is based on the fact that certain types of sound change are very common whereas others are extremely unlikely. As a matter of fact, sound reconstruction is the practice of setting up the features of an unattested ancestor language of one or more given languages. If we were faced with some examples from three languages, we could make a start on a comparative reconstruction by deciding what was the most likely form of the initial sound in the original source of all three. Eg, language A: cantare, Language B: cantar and Language C: chanter (“sing”).
To understand better the changes that it has undergone throughout time, it is essential to take a look into the history of English. It can be divided into four periods: Old English (before 1100), Middle English (1100 to 1500), Early modern English (1500 to 1700)*, and Modern English (after 1700)*. These changes can be divided into sound changes and syntactic changes. First, there are four processes involved in sound change, that are not reflected after 1700:
· Sound loss: From the Middle to Modern English some sounds disappeared. The initial /h/ of many old English words was lost. Eg. hlud→loud
· When sound changes: The METATHESIS involves a reversal in position of two sounds in a word. Eg. frist→first
· EPENTHESIS involves the addition of a sound in the middle of a word. Eg, spinel→spindel
· PROTHESIS: This is not found in English, but it’s pretty common in forms from Latin to Spanish such as schola→escuela. That is why, Spanish speakers tend to add an /e/ sound before a /s/
Second, there are some syntactic changes:
· Word order: In old English, we can find forms where the VERB is followed by the SUBJECT, for example, FERDE HE = TRAVELED HE
· Double negative forms were also possible. Now, we would say “YOU NEVER GAVE” rather than “YOU NOT GAVE NEVER”
· The most sweeping change was the loss of a large number of inflexional suffixes, for example, the suffixes -er and -est: SEALED (he gave) or SEALDEST (you gave)
To analyze the changes throughout time, there are two different perspectives. On the one hand, Diachronically is associated with the historical perspective of change through time (for example, the history of English). On the other hand, synchronically refers to the differences within one language, in different places, and among different groups of people at the same time, for example, FRENCH when the Normans conquered England. The French spoken in England was not the same spoken in France, it developed differently.
Chapter #18:Language and Regional variation
Standard Language is an idealized variety because it has no specific region. It is the variety related to administrative, commercial, and educational centers, regardless of region. Furthermore, it is clearly associated with education and broadcasting in public contexts and it is more easily described in terms of written language.
Accent and Dialect are two important aspects that we have to differentiate. On the one hand, ACCENT is a distinctive way of pronouncing a language, especially one associated with a particular country, area, or social class. Some speakers have very distinct or easily recognized types of accent while others may have more subtle or less noticeable accents. The term accent is restricted to the description of aspects of the pronunciation that identify where an individual speaker is from, regionally, or socially. On the other hand, DIALECT describes the features of grammar and vocabulary as well as aspects of pronunciation. While differences in vocabulary are often easily recognized, dialect variations in the meaning of grammatical constructions are less frequently documented.
Another point to mark is Dialectology. It is used to distinguish between two different dialects of the same language, some of them exist in the same region. That is why they are influenced from outside the region in their speech.
There are some other terms that should be noticed. According to Isogloss, which is an imaginary line that divides areas/regions, differ in words, intonation, vocabulary, and pronunciation. When a number of isoglosses come together a dialect boundary can be drawn. Furthermore, Dialect Continuum refers to speakers who move back and forth across this border area, using different varieties with some ease, may be described as BIDIALECTAL, for example, speaking two dialects. Most of us grow up with some form of bidialectal, speaking one dialect in the street among family and friends, and having to learn another dialect in school.
According to regional variation, in many countries, it is not simply a matter of two or more dialects of the language, but it can involve two or more different languages. This situation has to do with bilingualism, which is the ability to speak and understand two or more different languages and it tends to be a feature of a minority group. However, it does not have to be the result of political dominance by a group using a different language. It can simply be the result of having two parents who speak different languages. Also, a special situation exists in some countries and it is called diglossia. This involves two distinct varieties of language,"low variety” and “high variety”. The first one is acquired locally and used for everyday affairs, and the other one is learned at school, and used for important matters.
Regarding this, the governmental and educational organizations have to plan which variety or varieties of the language spoken in the country are to be used for official businesses. This is known as language planning and this process involves the following stages:
Selection of an official language.
Codification: Written modes establishing the standard variety.
Elaboration: This standard variety is developed for use.
Implementation: The way the government attempts to encourage the use of the standard.
Acceptance, which means that a majority of the population have come to use the standard and to think of it as the national language.
In some areas, the standard chosen may be a variety that originally had no native speakers. It is the case of a language called Pidgin, which is developed among groups of people that do not have a language in common. However, when Pidgin becomes the first language of a community, it is described as a Creole. Tok Pisin is an example of it and it is spoken in Papua, New Guinea. In many situations where different kinds of Creole evolve, there is a range of linguistic varieties between Creole and a standard form of the lexifier (the main source of words in the Pidgin). This range, known as the Post-Creole continuum, usually exists in Creole-speaking communities in which the lexifier is still present and continues to have linguistic influence.
Not everyone in a single geographical area speaks in the same way in every situation. People who live in the same region, but who differ in terms of education and economic status, often speak in quite different ways. This fact tells us that there are many speech communities inside a society. A speech community is a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language.
The term sociolinguistics refers to the study of the relationship between language and society. It has a close connection with Anthropology through the study of language and culture. Also, it is connected to Sociology through the investigation of the role that language plays in the organization of social groups and institutions. It is also tied to Social Psychology, particularly with regard to how attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors are expressed in and out of the groups.
The study of social dialects has been mainly concerned with speakers in towns and cities. In the social study of dialect, the social classes define groups of speakers as having something in common. The two main groups are generally defined as middle class, and working-class.
As in all dialect studies, pronunciation is a relevant feature to consider since words or structures that are regularly used in one manner by working-class speakers, are not used in the same form by middle-class speakers. That is why, we consider class as the social variable and the pronunciation or word as the linguistic variable.
Even though each of us has an individual way of speaking, a personal dialect or idiolect, we generally tend to sound like others with whom we share similar educational backgrounds and/or occupations.
Those who spend more time in the educational system tend to have more features in their spoken language that derive from a lot of time spent with the written language. For instance: they say Mahvellous instead of Marvellous. This /r/ is one of the features that mark us as members of a particular social group, whether we realize it or not. Consequently, we consider it a social marker.
Speech style is also a social feature of language use. The most basic distinction in speech style is between formal uses and informal uses. Formal style is when we pay more careful attention to how we are speaking, and informal style is when we pay less attention. They are sometimes described as “careful style” and “casual style.” A change from one to the other by an individual is called style-shifting.
Style-shifting in any speech introduces the idea of “prestige”. There are 2 ways of changing the speech.
· Overt prestige: When that change is in the direction of a form that is more frequent in the speech of those perceived to have higher social status, and it is considered as “better”.
· Covert prestige: When speakers avoid changing the speech in the direction of features associated with another social group because they value the principles that mark them as members of their social group.
Variation in speech style is not only a function of speakers’ social class and attention to the speech, but it is also influenced by their perception of their listeners. This variation is known as speech accommodation which refers to our ability to modify our speech style toward or away from the perceived style of the person we are talking to.
We can adopt a speech style that attempts to reduce social distancing, described as convergence, and use forms that are similar to those used by the person we are talking to. In contrast, when a speech style is used to emphasize the social distance between speakers the process is called divergence. We can make our speech style diverge from others by using forms that are distinctly different.
The register also shapes the speech style. It is a conventional way of using language that is appropriate in a specific context. It may be identified as: situational (e.g. in church), occupational (e.g. among lawyers), or topical (e.g. talking about language).
The term jargon, which is special technical vocabulary belonging to a specific social group, often defined by professional status, helps to create and maintain connections among those who see themselves as “insiders” in some way, and to exclude “outsiders.”
Slang or “colloquial speech” describes words or phrases that are used instead of more everyday terms among younger speakers and other groups with special interests. It is subject to fashion, especially among adolescents since they think that their expressions can “grow old” rather quickly. For example, Older forms for “really good” such as groovy, hip, and super were replaced by awesome, rad.
Social variations not only occur in British English and what we might call “European” American English, but also in other speakers of English, such as those who belong to a variety called African American English (AAE). AAE is a variety used by many, not all, African Americans in many different regions of the USA. It has a number of characteristic features that, taken together, make up a distinct set of social markers. In the case of AAE, those different properties have often been stigmatized as “bad” language.
The term vernacular is used to characterize any non-standard spoken version of a language used typically by lower-status groups. Therefore, it is a kind of social dialect. For example, the African American Vernacular English (AAVE) or other nonstandard varieties, such as “Asian American English”. In AAVE and other English vernaculars, there is the tendency to reduce final consonant clusters, so that words ending in two consonants (left hand) are often pronounced as if there is only one (lef han). Besides, speakers tend to use the double negative construction, as in “He don’t know nothin” or ``I ain’t afraid of no ghosts”.
Yule, G. (2014). The study of Language. U.K.: Cambridge University Press
Metacognitive Analysis:
Regarding the texts we have read, I could notice many aspects of language that I consider essential for me as a future teacher of English. Firstly, the theories of the origin of language and its development. Secondly, the importance of recognizing language as a unique system to differentiate it from other ways of communication. Last but not least, the analysis of language by paying attention to dialect, accent, and the social background of the speakers among other characteristics.
I think this information helps me to recognize the importance of the aspects of language. That is to say how people who differ in places, social statuses, and educational backgrounds influence in the same way the development of the English language. This information about aspects of language explains many of the doubts that I have in relation to the pronunciation of the language, that is why I believe it is something that we have to bear in mind while studying and teaching. Besides, as future teachers, it is useful to know these theories to understand the students' background better and adapt our planning to their needs and culture.
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