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21502 results in English language and linguistics: general interest

Page 401 of 1076

  • 2 - Words and their parts

  • Edited by Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Jeff Connor-Linton, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014, pp 63-104

  • Summary

    Chapter preview

    This chapter introduces the subject of morphology, the study of the internal structure of words and their meaningful parts. Morphological processes accomplish two basic purposes: (1) to create new words in a language and (2) to modify existing words. We may associate a word with a certain basic idea, image or event, but modifying the exact form of a word can also contribute important information, such as who is participating in an event, when or how it occurred, or something about the speaker’s attitude toward it. The more complex the word, the more information of this sort it is likely to convey. By manipulating various parts of a word, we can shade, intensify, or even negate its basic meaning, or change its grammatical role within a sentence. Different languages, of course, have different ways of doing this.

    GOALS

    The goals of this chapter are to:

  • introduce key concepts in the study of complex word analysis

  • provide a concise description of some of the varied morphological phenomena found among the world’s languages

  • illustrate methods used to derive and support linguistic generalizations about word structure in particular languages

  • touch briefly on how knowledge of complex word forms comes to be acquired

  • 13 - Second language acquisition

  • Edited by Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Jeff Connor-Linton, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014, pp 445-476

  • Summary

    Chapter preview

    As we saw in Chapter 6, first language acquisition is a complicated but relatively rapid process through which children become competent and proficient users of their communities’ language(s). However, for those of us who start learning a language after childhood – for example, by enrolling in a foreign language course or moving to a new country – the process of learning a non-native language is far more difficult and much less likely to end in complete mastery/fluency. Adult language learners usually take years to reach a level of proficiency that most children attain easily in their first languages before they are three, and few adults achieve complete native-like mastery of languages they have tried to learn after the end of childhood. What can explain these differences? Why do so many people claim the title of “worst language learner in the world” for themselves? Do adults learn second languages in the same way as children learning their first? If not, what kinds of instruction or learning contexts are most effective for them? These questions are central to the field of second language acquisition (SLA) – broadly defined as the formal study of the learning processes and teaching practices related to the acquisition of non-native languages.

  • 12 - Writing

  • Edited by Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Jeff Connor-Linton, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014, pp 413-444

  • Summary

    Chapter preview

    As preceding chapters have shown, a fundamental characteristic of language is that it varies; different speech communities develop different languages, and different groups within those speech communities develop their own dialects. Speech communities also vary their use of their language to serve different purposes and different situations. People speak to friends differently than they speak to their bosses. People use different language in a church versus in a bar. Someone giving a report at work speaks differently than that same person telling a joke at a party. And when they write, people use language in different ways than when they speak. Different ways of using language to meet the communicative and social needs of different situations are called registers.

    Writing is perhaps the clearest example of the adaptation of language to serve different purposes and situations, so we will examine the different writing systems of the world and how they developed. Describing the different kinds of writing systems with examples from three East Asian languages and Arabic, we’ll show how each system is suited to its spoken language and its culture. Then we’ll trace the history of writing from Egyptian hieroglyphics to the Latin alphabet, a story which demonstrates the two-way relationship between writing and the development of human culture. Finally, we’ll take a look at the role that writing has played in more recent European history.

  • 8 - Language change

  • Edited by Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Jeff Connor-Linton, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014, pp 287-320

  • Summary

    Chapter preview

    Most subfields of linguistics – like most of the chapters in this book – take a synchronic perspective toward language, trying to describe and explain language as a system at a given point in time (usually, the present). This is a useful simplification that has enabled much of the progress made by modern linguistics, but in reality languages are constantly, incrementally changing. As the chapters on both child and second language acquisition also show, looking at language as a changing, developing system offers valuable insights into its structure and use. Studying language diachronically (over time) also helps us to better understand prehistorical cultures.

    This chapter discusses the causes, processes, and mechanisms of language change, which are the concerns of historical linguistics. First, we’ll discuss the causes of language change and describe the four main kinds of language change. Then we’ll discuss in more detail some of the mechanisms of language change. Finally, we will see how linguists use knowledge of these processes to reconstruct languages that are no longer spoken, from evidence in the languages descended from them.

An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
  • 2nd edition
  • Edited by Ralph W. Fasold, Jeff Connor-Linton
  • Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014
  • A clear and up-to-date introduction to linguistics. This best-selling textbook addresses the full scope of language, from the traditional subjects of structural linguistics (relating to sound, form, meaning and language change) to the more specialised subjects of contextual linguistics (including discourse, dialect variation, language and culture, and the politics of language). There are also separate chapters on language and the brain, computational linguistics, writing, and first and second language learning. Extensively classroom-tested, this second edition has been revised to further support student learning, with numerous new examples, exercises and textboxes to model and contextualise key concepts. Updated throughout to incorporate contemporary issues and events, it includes worked examples of phonological analyses and multiple examples of a variety of World Englishes. A rich collection of online resources completes the learning package.

  • 10 - Language and culture

  • Edited by Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Jeff Connor-Linton, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014, pp 353-382

  • Summary

    Chapter preview

    Language and culture are closely intertwined in complex ways; indeed, many anthropological linguists argue that they are inseparable. The meaning of utterances comes not only from the words spoken but also from culturally agreed-upon conventions for how those words are used and interpreted, as well as from how they have been used in the past within a given culture. This chapter illustrates the relationship between language and culture by examining representative scenarios of conversational interactions between speakers who grew up in different countries speaking different languages, and between Americans of different ethnic and regional backgrounds. An opening scenario of an interaction between an American student and his German counterparts illustrates culturally influenced aspects of language that can cause miscommunication or mutual misjudgment of intentions and abilities. Next, we introduce the concept of framing and explore how differences in framing can exacerbate discrimination and social inequality. This is illustrated with reference to John Gumperz’s studies of interethnic communication. We move then to discussion of politeness strategies and the conversational styles that result from their systematic use of features like overlap, rate of speech, and indirectness. We then consider the ritual nature of conversation. Differences in conversational rituals are illustrated with examples from language and gender. The concept “complementary schismogenesis” accounts for why things often get worse rather than better when people with different styles talk to each other. Finally, we consider the extent to which language shapes thinking and provides a way to order and see coherence in the world, and we suggest that language and culture are better thought of as a single entity: languaculture.

  • 11 - The politics of language

  • Edited by Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Jeff Connor-Linton, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014, pp 383-412

  • Summary

    Chapter preview

    In incident after incident around the world, controversies arise as governments try to control what languages or forms of languages are allowed to be taught or used for certain purposes. Often the issues involved might seem hardly worth the attention they get, yet what is behind them is actually quite serious. We start by describing a number of such cases. In order to understand them, we take a look at the relationship between language and identity, reviewing some of the concepts introduced by the sociologist of language Joshua Fishman. We then reconsider our introductory cases and see why they are controversial. This leads us to a discussion of how linguists and nonlinguists view language standardization and analyses of nonstandard language varieties, such as Ebonics. One kind of social organization of varieties of a language into more and less formal categories has some unique properties. This phenomenon is called diglossia. Once we’ve looked at disapproved varieties, we discuss the difference between a language and a dialect, and find that the difference is extraordinarily difficult to pin down. In fact, we’ll see that whether what you speak is a language or a dialect is as much a political phenomenon as a linguistic one; some languages have gone from being languages to being dialects and back again, all depending on the political environment. Next, we examine one more case of the politics of language – the effort to make English the official language of the United States. This case is puzzling because English is so thoroughly dominant in American political and social life, so we will examine the political currents behind the movement. Finally, we take up two issues about the content of speech and the political response to them: (1) blasphemy and cursing, and (2) hate speech.

  • 3 - The structure of sentences

  • Edited by Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Jeff Connor-Linton, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014, pp 105-148

  • Summary

    Chapter preview

    In order to understand the subtleties of sentence structure, it is necessary to understand how phrases are built from the words they contain and how phrases are combined into larger phrases and sentences. It is also necessary to understand what can happen to phrases and sentences after they are built – namely, parts of them can be moved and deleted. Movement and deletion take place under particular restrictions, and speakers “know” these restrictions, apparently without being taught. All languages share these fundamental structural properties, but the principles that underlie them are broad enough to allow considerable differences among languages. The chapter includes a sampling of these differences.

    GOALS

    The goals of this chapter are to:

  • explain how to conduct an analysis of the sentence structure of English

  • explain how the structure of sentences is represented in modern syntactic theory

  • explain the concept “poverty of the stimulus”

  • explain the notions “language organ” and “Universal Grammar”

  • present examples of subtle restrictions that limit the ways in which sentences can be constructed and interpreted

  • present a few examples of differences in sentence structure in languages from around the world

  • 9 - Dialect variation

  • Edited by Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Jeff Connor-Linton, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014, pp 321-352

  • Summary

    Chapter preview

    One of the central facts about human language that strikes us right away is its immense variability. There are anywhere from 5,000 to 8,000 languages in the world today, and all of those with more than a handful of speakers contain at least some subvarieties. In addition, languages exhibit variation over time, as any modern speaker of English who has ever tried to read Shakespeare, or even watch an old Hollywood movie, can tell you. In this chapter, our focus is on variation within languages, or dialect variation. We will explore the different types of dialect variation: regional, social class, ethnic, gender, and stylistic. We will look at patterns of variation on a number of different levels of language, including words and their meanings (lexical variation), pronunciations (phonological variation), sentence structures (syntactic variation or morphosyntactic variation), and even conventions for language use (pragmatic variation or discourse variation). We will also take a look at the intricate bond between dialect variation at any given moment in time and language variation over time, or language change. Finally, we consider the fate of dialect variation in an era of increasing globalization and find some surprising conclusions. Most of our examples of dialect variation are from English; however, nearly all languages are rich with variation. Before we begin, we must take a close look at some common beliefs about the nature of dialect variation which, upon closer inspection of actual data on dialect variation, turn out to be mistaken.

  • Introduction

  • Edited by Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Jeff Connor-Linton, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014, pp 1-14

  • Summary

    “History is universal and basic,” a history professor said during a faculty meeting, “It’s about every event that involves all people at all times and in all places.” “Yes,” observed his colleague from linguistics, “but how would you record and interpret that history without language?” Indeed, it is hard to imagine how there could even be history without language, without a means to pass a record of what has happened from one generation to the next through retold stories and sagas, even before written records. Much of the history (and prehistory) of the human species consists of the development and adaptation of various tools to meet a broad range of needs: think of the wheel, the domestication of animals, the steam engine, computers, and the internet. The development and refinement of these and all other tools could not have been accomplished without language.

    The human capacity for self-awareness and abstract thought is facilitated by language, if not dependent upon it. The ability to transfer complex information, to discuss the meaning of events and possible outcomes of alternative actions, to share feelings and ideas – all these are impossible without language. The origins of language are shrouded in obscurity, but archaeological records suggest that communication with language emerged about 200,000 years ago. The ability of an individual to model the world for him/herself and to communicate using language was probably the single most advantageous evolutionary adaptation of the human species.

  • 6 - Child language acquisition

  • Edited by Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Jeff Connor-Linton, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014, pp 217-248

  • Summary

    Chapter preview

    How children acquire language has long intrigued scholars and nonscholars alike. Parents of young children are often amazed at how quickly their babies move from cooing and babbling to forceful one- and two-word demands. Linguists and psychologists, in turn, have been interested in understanding the stages and mechanisms by which all children become competent users of language (or, in most of the world, languages) by age three or four. Indeed, children from all backgrounds, and under diverse learning conditions, tend to pass through similar phases in learning their mother tongues. Researchers are interested in exploring these processes to gain a better understanding of how children accomplish this remarkable feat, but also because the nature of these processes holds important implications for larger debates in the field of linguistics. Understanding the mechanisms of how children acquire their language(s) can shed important light on the nature of language, as well as on the nature of human learning.

    This chapter will first explore how researchers gather data on child language acquisition. We will review three approaches to child language acquisition research: parental diaries, observational studies, and experimental studies. After briefly discussing the advantages and disadvantages of these research approaches, we’ll turn to some of the actual data. Specifically, we will look at the major milestones of language development in phonology, semantics, morphology, and syntax. We’ll also examine the extent to which these processes differ depending on the cultural context and the language being acquired. Lastly, after reviewing some of the major research findings, we will consider how researchers explain these data, outlining the major theoretical positions in the hotly debated field of child language acquisition.

  • 14 - Computational linguistics

  • Edited by Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Jeff Connor-Linton, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014, pp 477-506

  • Summary

    Chapter preview

    The goal of having a computer understand and communicate in a human language has long been a dream of science fiction. In recent years part of this dream has become reality as scientists have developed computer programs that can understand and learn aspects of human languages, in both written and spoken form. These systems are also capable, to varying degrees, of translating between languages. The methods these programs use derive from both linguistics and computer science, and they reveal a relationship between the patterns found in human languages and in mathematical languages. These programs can sift through large online samples of everyday language (called corpora), counting how often particular forms actually occur in everyday use. This allows linguistic rules to be weighted based on such statistics, and these weights are used by the programs to identify more likely linguistic analyses of ambiguous utterances. The success of such programs also suggests that humans might learn by induction based on statistical regularities in their experience. The practical tools developed by computational linguists can be used to carry out linguistic analyses on a larger scale than ever before. Even more significantly, these tools can radically change the way we acquire and communicate information. All these factors make computational linguistics an intellectually lively, exciting, and influential area of study.

  • 7 - Language and the brain

  • Edited by Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Jeff Connor-Linton, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    An Introduction to Language and Linguistics
    Published online:
    28 May 2018
    Print publication:
    04 September 2014, pp 249-286

  • Summary

    Chapter preview

    Language is rooted in the biology of the brain. Therefore understanding the biology of language is critical to understanding language itself. The vast majority of research on the biological bases of language has focused on brain anatomy, mainly attempting to identify which parts of the brain underlie which language functions, such as lexical or grammatical abilities. However, the biology of language can also be investigated at many other levels, from cells to molecules to genes. Moreover, the study of all these aspects of biology must be complemented by and integrated with psycholinguistic studies of how language is actually used as we speak and understand; with investigations of language acquisition; and with the theoretical linguistic examination of the architecture of language. Taken together, these provide an insight into the ultimate goal of understanding the biocognitive or neurocognitive bases of language. This in turn should eventually shed light on higher-level aspects of language use, such as discourse, historical change, dialect variation, and reading and writing, as well as important applications like language teaching and computer models of language.

Page 401 of 1076