pragmatics
the study of language in context
physical context
where are the conversation participants located with respect to one another?
temporal context
where in time does the event occur with respect to the time of utterance? With respect to other salient times?
social context
what is the social standing of the participants involved? (or... who is listening or speaking at the present moment? Who else is around?)
� Ex. Come here! (this is ambiguous because "here" is relative to the speaker; you must interpret this given some physical context)
� Ex. What's over there?
Examples of physical context...
� Yesterday was the best day of my life. (when 'yesterday' was changes with every day)
� Next year I will quit smoking.
� I had already finished painting.
Examples of temporal context...
� Khmer pronouns:
-(older siblings) vs. (younger siblings) vs. (children) vs. (younger sisters of parents) vs. (nephews, nieces) vs. (grandmothers) vs. (grandfathers)- you use all of these for people who are this exact relationship to you, or close to the
Examples of social context...
discourse
a sequence of spoken or written utterances that "go together" in a particular situation
Ex. I know a man. he can help. (Here, we can assume that the vague pronoun "he" refers back to this particular man that this person knows; why do we know that "he" refers to the man? Because it comes right after and it is a part of the same discourse)
Example of discourse...
� Context can help us resolve ambiguity
� Context can help us determine what is implicated but not expressed (Ex. Gosh, it's cold in here... This can obviously mean like "LOLLL! Please close the window!" without being so straightforward and possibly rude)
In what ways can context help us?
package
The way we _________ our messages has bearing on how they are interpreted
Using active vs. passive voice... Ex. The clown ate the cake. vs. The cake was eaten by the clown.
An example of different ways of packaging is...
information structure
-How we package the content of our sentences...
-can involve the highlighting and deemphasizing of certain elements in communication
-involves giving clues about what you believe is new information to your interlocutor (the person who you are speaking to
new information
Ex. When I entered the office, I saw a tall man wearing an old-fashioned hat.
______ is commonly expressed in a relatively elaborate fashion, for example, with a full noun phrase instead of a pronoun, and sometimes with a relative clause or other modifiers
given information
_________ is commonly expressed in more reduced or abbreviated ways. Typical reducing devices for encoding given information include pronouns and unstressed noun phrases
TRUE!
-Adam: Who's at the door?
-Bella: The mail carrier. the implied given information is "... is at the door.
True or false? sometimes given information is left out of a sentence altogether.
topic
what a sentence is about
comment
the element of the sentence that says something about the topic
My grandfather was a good man." --> topic is "My grandfather" and comment is "was a good man
Example of the distinction between a topic and the comment...
Contrastive!
Ex...
-Alan: Did Matt see the ghost?
-Beth: No, Sara did.
� Many elements of an utterance can be contrasted:
-Alan: Did Matt see the ghost?
-Beth: No, he saw the goblin.
-Beth- No, he kicked the ghost.
-Beth: No, he kicked the goblin.
A noun phrase that occurs in opposition to another noun phrase in discourse...
definite expressions (otherwise, the noun phrase is indefinite)
-a noun phrase where you can assume that the addressee can identify its referent
-when to use "a" vs. "the" is an example of the differentiation of...
� I saw a dog. VS
� I saw the dog.
An example of when to use "a" vs. "the" is...
� Imagine that there is a Marx brothers film festival on at the Roxy, with one film showing each night for a week. Against this background consider the following scenarios:
� Version 1: On Wednesday morning Ann reads the early edition of the newspaper whi
Just read these contrasts of how "the" can be used...
referential expression
A noun phrase that refers to a particular entity...
-Jen wants to marry a Greek with blue eyes, but hasn't met one yet. (nonreferential)
- Jen wants to marry a Greek with blue eyes; his name is Ioannis. (referential)
What is an example of referential vs. nonreferential phrases?
generic expression
A noun phrase that refers to an entire category...
Ex. The bombardier beetle squirts a lethal mixture into the face of its enemy. (referring to any bombardier beetle)
What is an example of a generic expression?
specific expression
A noun phrase that refers to a particular member of a category...
Ex. -The giraffe bent slowly forward and took a carrot from my palm. (referring to that one giraffe that she saw at the zoo, or whateva)
What is an example of a specific expression?
True!
True or false? Languages differ in how much pragmatic information they encode in how they encode it?
-information: English
-function words: Japanese
-syntactic structures such as passives: English
What are some examples of different languages having strategies for encoding information structure?
Stresses to mark contrast and what is new information (like intonation, basically)
In English and some other languages, marking new information can be done by way of...
fronting
when a noun phrase's referent is part of a set that that has been mentioned previously in the discourse, and this is put at the beginning of a sentence
-creating sentence 1 from sentence 2...
1. A boy he may be, but just a boy he's certainly not.
2. He may be a boy, but he's certainly not just a boy.
-Meredith: Where are Francesca and Sally? They should be working.
-Graham: Francesca I saw at the caf� ea
An example of fronting...
left-dislocation
the thing that is similar to fronting, but that has the pronoun at the end...
-creating sentence 1 from sentence 2...
1. Holly, I can't stand her. (see how a pronoun "her" is used later?)
2. I can't stand Holly.
An example of left-dislocation...
-A fronted noun phrase does not leave a pronoun in the sentence, whereas a left-dislocated noun phrase does ("Holly, I can't stand." = fronting; "Holly, I can't stand her." = left-dislocation)
-left-dislocation is typically used primarily to reintroduce g
What is the difference between fronting and left-dislocation?
Yes! Just not English...
Do some languages also have other dislocations? Like right dislocation?
- as strategies for introducing new topics or shifting from one topic to another:
-Ex. Mon fr�re, il s'en va en Mongolie. � 'My brother, he is leaving for Mongolia.' (if previously they were talking about where somebody else was leaving to)
What is one way that different dislocations (either right or left) can be used?
-it- and WH-clefts
-used in English and many other languages to mark information structure (used to mark givenness and contrast)
What are the two main types of clefting transformations and what are they used for?
1. It was a very strange sight that Stan saw at the party. (it-cleft)
2. What Stan saw at the party was a very strange sight. (WH-cleft)
3. Stan saw a very strange sight at the party. (basic)
Exemplify three sentences: one using it-clefting, one using WH-clefting, and one being basic
A noun phrase, prepositional phrase, or adverb
What comes between the first part and the second part of an it-clefted sentence?
Any of these tree listed things are placed after the verb BE, and the rest of the clause is placed between the two parts of the contruction
Where is a clefted noun phrase, prepositional phrase, or adverb placed in a sentence?
passive sentences
Sentences where the patients are promoted to subject position, and agents are demoted to a prepositional phrase (or omitted entirely= agentless passive)
-Bureaucrats could easily store and retrieve data about the citizenry. (active)
-Data about the citizenry could easily be stored and retrieved by bureaucrats. (passive)
-Data about the citizenry could easily be stored and retrieved. (agentless passive)
Give an example of an active vs. a passive vs. an agentless passive sentence...
when the agent is known or not particularly significant (i.e. My bike was stolen. (Idk by who); i.e. The cake was baked. (it doesn't matter which baker cooked it)
Why would you use an agentless passives
when the noun phrase other than the agent of the sentence is more prominent as given information than the agent itself
Why would you use an agent passive?
-English usually has the subject come first, so they cannot use the full resources of word order for this purpose...
-BUT! In Russian, they use word order to mark givenness
What is an example of a country that uses word order to mark differences in information structure?
syntax!
semantic info and pragmatic info go together to create...
People use language as a tool to do things!
What is the most important use that language has?
context!
The same sentence can be interpreted in several ways depending on the...
utterance
a sentence that is said, written, or signed in a particular context by someone with a particular intention, by means of which the speaker intends to create an effect on the addressee
speech acts
Actions that are carried out through language
representatives
______ restate a state of affairs: assertion, statements, claims, hypotheses, descriptions, suggestions. Representatives can generally be characterized as true or false
commissives
_________ commit a speaker to a course of action: promises, pledges, threats, vows
directives
________ intended to get the addressee to carry out an action: commands, requests, challenges, invitations, entreaties, dares
declarations
_________ being about the state of affairs they name: blessings, hirings, firings, baptisms, arrests, performing weddings, declaring mistrials
expressives
________ indicate the speaker's psychological state or attitude: greetings, apologies, congratulations, condolences, thanksgivings
verdictives
_______ make assessments or judgments: ranking, assessing, appraising, condoning
locution
-Ex. "I didn't see the stop sign.
the part of the sentence with a grammatical structure and a linguistic meaning
illocution
-Ex. "I didn't see the stop sign." meant as an apology, an excuse, etc.
what the speaker intends to accomplish, based on some intention in making an utterance
Appropriateness conditions
the conventions that regulate the conditions under which a declarative utterance serves as a particular speech act
propositional context condition
_______ requires that the words of the sentence be conventionally associated with the intended speech act and convey the context of the act
preparatory condition
_______ requires a conventionally recognized context in which the speech act is embedded
sincerity condition
________ requires the speaker to be sincere in uttering the declaration
essential condition
_______ requires that the involved parties all intend the result
cooperative principle
� The _________________, as enunciated by philosopher H. Paul Grice, is as follows:
-"Make your conversational contribution such as it required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are en
Maxim of Quantity
-be appropriately informative
-make your contribution as informative as information is required (for the current purposes of the exchange)
-do not make your contribution more informative than is required
Maxim of Relevance
-be relevant at the time of the utterance
-be relevant
Maxim on Manner
-be brief, clear, and orderly
-Avoid ambiguity and obscurity
-be perspicuous
-avoid obscurity of expression
-avoid ambiguity
-be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)
-be orderly
Maxim of Quality
-be truthful about what you say
-do not say what you believe to be false
-do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence
It's like bad, I guess! He doesn't state whether violation is intentional, so this could include both deliberate and non-deliberate transgressions of the cooperative principle
What if these maxims are violated?
any lie or deliberate attempt to mislead would be considered a violation of the maxim of quality; since the maxim is about the speaker's belief in one truth of what they say, any violation must be a deliberate one
Violations of the Maxim of Quality
A "lie by omission"; Ex. Sally tells her professor that her aunt died, and she technically did, but she died 15 years ago; violations of the maxim of quantity does not have to be deliberate (TMI!)
Violations of the Maxim of Quantity
occurs when somebody says something off-topic, deliberately or not
Violations of the Maxim of Relation
if a speaker speaks in an opaque, convoluted way, she is violating the maxim of manner (whether she intends to or not!)
Violations of the Maxim of Manner
Opting Out; this involves acknowledging the maxim and stating that it cant or won't be followed; (i.e. making out of the maxim of quality = "You can't handle the truth.")
Another way that conversation participants can fail to comply with Grice's maxims is by...
Clashes
-i.e. "Do you know where the movie theater is?" "It's around here somewhere!
sometimes it is impossible to obey all maxims because they may clash with one another; this is called...
inferences
� Because we generally assume that everyone is following the cooperative principle, apparent violations of Grice's Maxims can lead to _______ about the speaker's intent
flouted
when a maxim is _______ the speaker purposely does not follow one of the maxims
Flouting the maxim of Quality
deliberately says something untrue or for which they have insufficient evidence; Ex. Martha betrays Luke and he says, "Some friend you are!" Martha can then say back to Luke, "Everybody already knew!" This is an exaggeration...
Flouting the maxim of quantity
A speaker deliberately says too much or too little... Ex. "War is war." Or "Dear Sir, Mr. X's command of English is excellent, and hi attendance at tutorials has been regular. Yours, etc."� this is a sucky letter of recommendation because these are all of
Flouting the maxim of relation
the speaker says something deliberately irrelevant (Ex. Specifically changes the subject cause it gets awkward in the room)
Flouting the maxim of manner
specifically saying things in the most convoluted way possible
� Context A: Bob and Bill-strangers to each other- are waiting for the bus stop and one says that it is raining.
� Context B: A girl is asked to take out the trash and she says that it is raining.
� Context C: A girl is leaving the house and her mom hands
Example meaning changing based upon context... Where all of the sentences have the same pragmatic meaning, but there are implications to our words...
indirect speech act
An ____________ involves an apparent violation of the cooperation principle but is in fact indirectly cooperative
-1.) indirect speech acts violate at least one maxim of the cooperative principle
-2.) the literal meaning of the locution of an indirect speech act differs from its intended meaning
-3.) hearers and readers identify indirect speech acts by noticing that
Characteristics of indirect speech acts:
-negative politeness
Ex. excusing oneself before asking a stranger for the time
respecting an interlocutor's independence
-positive politeness
Ex. expressing hope to meet an interlocutor again in the future
showing involvement with an interlocutor
speech events
where members of a community interact on one or more topics, for a particular purpose, and with awareness of social relations among the interlocutors
News broadcasting, public speeches, classroom lectures, religious sermons, and conversations
Conventional examples of speech events...
texting, personal letters, shopping lists, office memos, birthday cards, and newspaper editorials
Unconventional examples of speech events (ones that do not involve speaking)...
-Casual conversation is organized according to rules
-we normally don't notice these rules because we are focused on the context of the conversation
How is conversation organized?
turn-taking and pausing
� Participants must tacitly agree on who should speak when and we normally take turns holding the floor without overt negotiations
-speakers use verbal and nonverbal cues to signal the end of their turn
-in multiparty conversations
What are two examples of these conversation-organizational rules?
Adjacency pair
-Ex. requesting information and providing information, invitation and acceptance, assessment and disagreement, explanation and concurrence
a sequence of turns that go together
-1.) they are contiguous
-2.) they are ordered
-3.) they are matched
Three characters of adjacency pairs:
-dispreferred responses tend to include a pause or a hesitation particle, an apology, and/or an explanation
-preferred ones are like... Well, you'll be able to recognize them
What are some preferred and dispreferred responses to adjacency pairs?
socially recognized ways (Ex. greetings, apologies, etc.)
Conversations are opened in ________
These are both TRUE!
True or false? opening sequences vary across cultures and can be formulaic and even ceremonial; and he function of an opening sequence can also vary across cultures
-everyone should be done saying what they wanted to say
-nobody should feel uncomfortable because there is nothing left to say
-people want to close a conversation without giving the impression that they are in a rush or that they want to linger on
What are some rules for appropriately closing sequences?
repair
A ________ takes place in conversation when a participant feels the needs to correct herself or another speaker, to edit a previous utterance, or simply to restate something
self-initiated and self-repaired repairs are the most preferred; other-initiated and other-repaired repairs are the least preferred
What types of repairs are preferred and which types are less preferred?
o I was going to Sara's�uh, to Sue's house. (self-initiated repair)
o Alex: Aren't those roses pretty?
Kate: They are pretty, but they're tulips. (other-initiated repair)
What are examples of self-initiated repairs and other-initiated repairs?
politeness
________ is an organizational force in conversation
-we expect to take turns, participate in opening and closing sequences, and resolve repairs ourselves
-we communicate respect for independence and involvement in conversational organization
What are two ways that we implement politeness in conversations?
-greetings and inquiries about an interlocutor's health (involvement)
What is an example of involvement, in terms of politeness in conversations?
-initiating preclosing exchanges to allow an interlocutor to say anything else they may want to say before ending the conversation (independence)
What is an example of independence, in terms of politeness in conversations?
-Americans generally see the act of calling as a sign of involvement politeness, while the French tend to view it as a potential intrusion
-Euro-Americans only have a 1-second pause between turns whereas Athabaskans have a 1.5-second pause
What are two examples of different cultures having different norms about what is considered conversational politeness?
registers
Language varieties characteristic of particular social situations
linguistic repertoire
the set of language varieties exhibited in the speaking and writing patterns of a speech community
speech situation
the coming together of significant situational factors such as purpose, topic, and social relations
code switching
Switching between language varieties is very common throughout the world and is known as _________
-purpose (activity, goal)
-setting (topic, location, mode)
-participants (speaker, addressee, social roles of speaker and addressee, character of audiance)
certain aspects of a speech situation that may prompt or require a change in language variety... examples of these aspects of the situations are...
� Ethnicity of Oprah's guests as a factor in her use of monophthongal /aI/: 37.5% when African American (AA) vs. 10.3% when not AA
What is an example of speech situations changing the language variety on television?
� An individual must marry someone whose father speaks a different language than that individual's own father
� An individual must always use their father's language as a marker of identity, even with their spouse and children
What are the two main factors of linguistic exogamy in Northwest Amazonia?
NO, silly!
Are people limited to a single variety in a single language?
the allocation of TURNS in conversation differing from the courtroom to the classroom
An example of interactional patterns differing in different speech situations include...
drunk= sloshed, drunk, and intoxicated
What is an example of three words that mean the same thing, but you can rank them according to their formality?
Yes, ma'am!
Can registers vary along SOCIAL dimensions as well?
� Dyirbal, an aboriginal Australian language, used to have a complex taboo system which prevented people form speaking to their in-laws and opposite-sex cross-cousins (Dixon 1972)
� In the presence of one's in-law, one must speak a different form of Dyirb
What's the deal with Taboo language in Dyirbal?
� It has been proven that the lower class (in New York) pronounces "ing" as "ing"�rather than "in"�least often, while the upper-middle class pronounces it this way most often
-Additionally, all classes of people pronounce "ing" as "ing" most often when fo
What is the main example of how the phonological variation depending on social class was exemplified in New York City speech?
-using "ing" as "ing" rather than "in" is comparable between men and women when arguing, but when joking, women use "ing" more often than men do
What is the main example of how the phonological variation depending on social class was exemplified in LA speech?
-the more formal the paper is, the fewer contractions are used (see them less in an academic journal, than in texts)
-more contractions are used when people are speaking, rather than writing- more or less
In terms of when people do and don't use contractions, when do people use or not use them?
� Sentence-final prepositions are seen by prescriptive grammarians as "incorrect."
� They are thus often treated as grammatical markers of low register.
What is the common consensus about sentences ending with prepositions?
split-infinitives
Ex. "To" boldly "go" where no one has gone before.
__________ are constructions in which "to" is separated from a verb form by an intervening adverb
1.) sentence final prepositions
2.) split-infinitives
What are the two grammatical things where grammarians are usually like "Eh... Maybe don't use those...
legalese
register used in legal settings
1. frequent use of passive structures
Shall be secured, are secured
2. preference for repetition of nouns in lieu of pronouns
Lender/at Lender's option, promissory notes/said notes, Future Advances/Such Future Advances
3.Omissions of some indefinite and d
Syntactic features characteristic of legalese:
to the drug-world, "pot" means weed; to a mom, "pot" means something you put on a stove
What is an example of a word carrying different meanings in different settings?
slang
the register used in situations of extreme informality
-the use of slang may signal rebellious undertones or an international distancing of its users from certain mainstream values
-slang words can become mainstream (mob, pants)
-slang words can also remain slang for centuries (bones for 'dice')
What are three main features/facts about slang terms?
jargon
the specialized vocabulary associated with professions such as medicine, finance, and engineering and with activities such as sports, music, and computing
unlike slang, jargon isn't limited to situations of extreme informality and doesn't carry rebellious undertones
What is the difference between slang and jargon?
Argot
_________ is another term associated with "professional" language or activities, but _______ tends to suggest the language of underground or criminal activities
� Oral communication can exploit intonation and voice pitch to convey information
� Speech and writing differ in the amount of planning that is possible
� Speakers and addressees often stand face-to-face, whereas writers and readers do not
� Written regis
What are some differences between spoken and written registers?
Of course NOT! Various features combined, identifies what register somebody is speaking in!
Ex...
Vocabulary
lexical bundles and repetition
Nouns and pronouns
prepositions
Verbs
coordination and subordination
Adverbs
syntactic shortening
questions
Does one single feature identify which register somebody is speaking in?
language
� A collection of dialects that are historically related and similar in vocabulary and structure
social dialects
language varieties across ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender boundaries
dialect
the language variety characteristic of a particular regional or social group
regional, ethnic, social, and gender affiliation
partly through his or her dialect we can recognize a person's...
TRUE!
True or false? All dialects vary according to the situation in which they are used, so all dialects have registers
Accent
______ refers to pronunciation only
-geographical separation and social distance promote differences in speech forms
-close contact and frequent communication foster similarity
� Over time, certain language varieties may become more different or more alike through...
Ex. the particular dialects of Urdu, Marathi, and Kannada spoken in the Indian village of Kupwar have become very similar grammatically because of frequent communication; however the vocabulary has maintained differences in order preserve social distance
What is one example of how certain language varieties may become more different or more alike?
-Swedes in the far south can communicate better with nearby Danish speakers than with Swedes from the far north
-on the border between Germany and the Netherlands, German speakers can communicate better with Dutch speakers than with German speakers from t
What are two examples of how dialect variation across Europe is a continuum, despite clearly demarcated national lines?
� Tukanoan and Arawak languages that participate in linguistic exogamy passively speak many languages, but typically only use their fathers' languages
� Lexical borrowing is strongly prohibited
� There is constant tension over the converging and diverging
Explain how Tukanoan and Arawak languages have ~tension~ in regards to the diverging and converging of their languages?
spelling differences between British and American English (color vs. colour)
What is an example of spelling differences between British and American English?
differences in vowel and consonant pronunciation, as well as in word stress and intonation (lots of the British words are r-less at the ends of words)
What is an example of differences in vowel and consonant pronunciation between British and American English?
some noun phrases that denote locations in time or space take an article in American English but not in British English ("I'm going to hospital." OR "Have you eaten?" "I have done.
What is an example of how noun phrases that denote locations in time or space take different articles between British and American English?
vocabulary differences between American and British English (elevators are called lifts; bathrooms are called loos)
What is an example of vocabulary differences between British and American English?
dialectologists
______ investigate vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar of certain areas
isoglosses
� Once a map has been marked with symbols for various features, ______ , or the boundaries between different usage patterns can be drawn
dialect boundaries
When there are bundles of isoglosses on the dialectologist's map,
geographical and physical boundaries
What are dialect boundaries often influenced by?
Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE)
� The _____________ makes available more information about regional words and expressions throughout the US than ever before
� DARE's maps represent population density rather than geographical space
What makes the DARE maps unique?
-the US basically has North and South dialects; each can be divided into different subgroups
-the further west one goes, the fewer the specialized vocabulary characteristics that appear
What do the American English dialects look like (like how are things divided)?
� Ex. of regional differences in word usage = darning needle vs. mosquito hawk vs. spindle vs. snake feeder vs. snake doctor vs. snake waiter
What is an example of regional word usage?
-cot~ caught merger--> unconditioned merger
-pin~ pen merger--> conditioned merger
-the merger of /a/ and /'backwards c'/ is unconditioned (in all cases, the vowels have become the same thing)
-the merger of /I/ and /'epsilon'/ is conditioned; it only hap
What are two examples of a vowel merger and what kind of mergers are each?
-man and bad can sound like the "ea" in idea
-cod sounds like cad
-cawed sounds like cod
-Ked sounds like cud
-cud sounds like cawed
What are some examples of vowel shifts in Northern cities?
-Southern Shift...
-hide sounds like had
-slade sounds like slide
-keyed sounds like kid
-kid sounds like keyed
-cool sounds like "cyool
What are some examples of vowel shifts in Southern cities?
� NORTH- less fronting of /o/ than in other areas
� Inland North- northern cities shift
� Western New England- less advanced Northern Cities Shift
� SOUTH- monophthongization if /aI/
� Inland South- Southern shift
� Texas South- Southern shift
� MIDLAND-
What are some ANAE findings in terms of regional pronunciations?
� Social boundaries also promote distinct speechways (e.g., ethnic varieties)
-Acquisition of any particular language or dialect is based on the language(s) and dialect(s) spoken around children when they grow up, not genetics
-rules govern the structures
Besides physical/geographical boundaries, what other types of boundaries promote different speechways?
-consonant cluster simplification (desk [des], passed [paes], wild [wajl])
-deletion of final stop consonants (final stops are preserved more often when they are separate morphemes, occur in strongly stressed syllables, or are followed by a word that star
What are some phonological features of African-American English?
-copula deletion (That my bike. (SAE: That's my bike.))
-habitual be (The boys be happy. (SAE: The boys are always happy.))
-existential it (It's nothing left. (SAE: There's nothing left.))
-negative concord (He don't never go nowhere. (SAE: He never goes
What are some grammatical features of African-American English?
-consonant cluster simplification, as in [Is] for it's, "kine" for kind
-devoicing of /z/, especially in word-final position "dogs is pronounced with an "s" at the end instead of a "z")
-substitution of "ch" for "sh" and "sh: for "ch
What are some phonological features of Chicano English?
-omits the past-tense marker on verbs that end with the alveolar /t/, /d/, or /n/, yielding "wan" for wanted and "wait" for waited
-use of "out from" instead of SAE "away from" (They party to get out from their problems.)
-multiple negation (You don't owe
What are some grammatical features of Chicano English?
� Ethnic dialects are an important ingredient in social identity
� Features that are recognized as characteristic of special social groups can be used to promote or reinforce affiliation with that identity
Why do people not want to let go of their ethnic varieties in terms of speech?
� Labov investigated use of postvocalic /r/ in New York City
What was Labov interested to investigate in his New York City experiment?
-He went to three different stores catering to three different socioeconomic classes: Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's, and S. Klein
-He asked salespeople for something that was on the fourth floor
What did Labov do to conduct this experiment?
-Hypothesis: "If any two subgroups of New York City speakers are ranked in a scale of social stratification, then they will be ranked in the same order by their differential use of (r) (Labov 1972:44).
What was Labov's hypotheses?
-He found that salespeople at Saks used /r/ the most, salespeople at S. Klein used /r/ the least, and salespeople at Macy's were in the middle
-his findings showed that socioeconomic class also affects language varieties
What did Labov find from this NYC experiment?
-postvocalic /r/ (this was with the NYC experiment)
-th in words such as thirty, through and with (pronounced just with a "t" rather than a "th")
-th in words such as this, them, and breathe (pronounced just with a "d" rather than a "th")
-alternate pronu
What were the 6 variables that Lavob set to examine?
� Labov found that all 6 variables are socially stratified based on socioeconomic status
� Socioeconomic status group based on a combination of these three factors:
-the education of the respondent
-the income of the respondent's household
-the occupation
What did Labov generally conclude after his 6 examined variables?
� Trudgill found that the pronunciation of the /in/ "ing" suffix in Norwich, England varies according to socioeconomic status
� French in Montreal, Canada and Spanish in Argentina also have variation based on socioeconomic class
What did Trudghill find in terms if the pronunciation of "in" vs. "ing
-E.g., Thai (they have different words for male and female speakers)
What is an example of a language that has different forms for females and males?
True, babyyy... perhaps for men, the "toughness" associated with working class speech varieties triggers this
P.S. Gender differences are based on socially constructed gender roles rather than biological sex
True or false? In English, women tend to speak more like the higher socioeconomic groups than men
� Language is a central part of a person's identity
� Therefore, many people may not want to shed a part of their identity to begin speaking like a different social group
Ex. Martha's Yineyards
Why do people generally stick with their own social group's dialect (even if it makes people think you are lower class, etc.)?
-Martha's Vineyard!
-somebody asked people the question "if a man is successful at a job he doesn't like, would you still say he is successful?" (not anything about language so the participants wouldn't be sus) and they looked at cetralization of dipthong
What is an example of how people wanted to stick with their identity in terms of dialect?
Inherent INTERSPEAKER variation
everyone sounds different
Inherent INTRASPEAKER variation
a single person will sound different on different occasions
-to be better understood
-to show approval or disapproval
-to assert identity
Why do people change their speech to be more or less like the speech of those around them?
-ease of PERCEPTION
-ease of PRODUCTION
� There is a constant tug-of-war between ease of ________ and ease of _______
� Geographical barriers (mountain ranges, rivers, sheer distance)
� Social barriers
What are two main situations that reinforce linguistic change?
� They may then be called ________ rather than __________ of the same ___________.
� Over long periods of time, varieties of a single language diverge to the point where they are no longer mutually intelligible. For this reason, they may then be called _____ rather than _______ of the same ______.
Siona and Sekoya
What are two languages that are from a dialect continuum?
speech is not mutually intelligible
At the endpoints of the continuum...
speech IS mutually intelligible
BUT! At every step along the way of a dialect continuum...
SYNCHRONIC phenomena
A linguistic theory about things that can be said of a language in its present state
the synchronic phenomena
-A description of definite articles in Albanian
-An analysis of White Hmong tone
-A current phonological rule in English
Are all examples of...
DIACHRONIC linguistics
A linguistic theory that explores phenomena that take place over a span of time...
diachronic linguistics
-how has English word order changed since Shakespeare's time?
-how did the tone system of White Hmong develop?
-to understand the processes by which language changes
-to determine whether certain languages are genetically related
-to understand the pre-hi
1.) Languages are constantly changing
2.) Related languages come from a common proto-language
3.) Language change is usually regular (systemic)
4.) Language change is gradual, reflected in dialect variation
What are the four main principles of historical linguistics?
phonetic change
________ involves a change in the pronunciation of individual phonemes
-pronunciation of [ai] as monophthongal [aI] in Southern English
What is an example of a phonetic change?
phonological change
__________ involves restructuring the phonological system
-some dialects of English pronounce caught and cot in the same way. In these dialects, the phonemes /a/ and /'backwards c'/ have collapsed into a single phoneme�usually /a/
What is an example of a phonological change?
-phonetic change = NO change to the phoneme industry (the amount of phonemes there are in a language)
-phonological change = A change in the phoneme industry (the amount of phonemes there are in a language)
What is the difference between a phonetic and a phonological change?
conditioned sound change
__________ is a sound change that occurs in a particular environment
unconditioned (or absolute) sound change
__________ a sound change that affects all instances of a sound
Canadian Raising
__________ is a process whereby dipthongs /au/ and /aI/ are raised to ['upside down v'u] and ['upside down v'I], respectively, before voiceless consonants
conditioned
Is Canadian Raising a conditioned or unconditioned change?
-Andoa
-Arabela
-Iquito
-Zaparo
What are the four members of the (small) language family, the Zaparoan family?
� The ancestral language of these languages was Proto-Zaparoan (PZ), which is estimated to have been spoken about 2,000 and 3,000 years ago
What is the ancestral language of these Zaparoan languages?
-speakers of PZ were blowgun users
-they inhabited interior forest regions far from large rivers
-PZ shamans used Brugmansia suaveolens in rituals
Due to the UC Berkeley study of Proto-Zaparoan, what aspects of PZ culture and society did they infer?
modern languages
� Typically linguistics don't have access to written records, and must instead rely solely on data from _____________
Comparative Method
� The method that linguistics developed during the 19th century to reconstruct properties (such as speech sounds) of extinct proto-languages is called the _____________________
1.) Voiceless stops in Proto-Indo-European became voiceless fricatives
2.) Voiced stops in proto-Indo-European became voiceless stops
3.) Voiced aspirated stops in Proto-Indo-European became voiced stops
In 1822, Jacob Grimm made 3 of "Grimm's Laws." What were they?
That sound change is totally regular, allowing us to reconstruct proto-languages using the comparative method
Based upon these three laws, what was Grimm's idea?
the Comparative Method Principle
compare cognate forms from genetically related languages in order to extrapolate what those forms in the common ancestor of those languages must have been
cognate forms
_________ are forms that share a common ancestor, like English "hound" and German Hund
compare your nose with your siblings', cousins', parents', aunts' and uncles' in order to determine what your grandmother's nose must have looked like
What is the analogy given in class for what the Comparative Method is like?
Regulrity of Sound Change
� if a proto-sound
'fish', appearing in a given phonological environment, changes to a sound 'beta' in a daughter language, all instances of the proto-sound
'fish' in that environment become 'beta' in that daughter language. In other words, if
f>[v] betwe
natural sound changes
� certain types of sound changes are 'natural', i.e. they occur frequently in the history of human languages
� There seems to have been a sound change, *ts>s in the ancestor(s) of Iquito and Arabela
� This correspondence is 100%--i.e. exceptionless. The synchronic inventories of Iquito and Arabela show no /ts/, and wherever the other languages have /ts/, Iquito
What is an example of regularity of sound change in Arabela and Iquito?
diectionality
� Sound change has strong ______________�certain sounds tend to change into others, and not vice versa
-
ts>s is a very common type of sound change (lenition), but
s>ts is rare
-
C>C^j/i__, i.e. palatalization, is a very common type sound change, but the opposite
C^j>C/i__, 'anti-palatalization' is rare
What are two examples of how sound change has strong directionality?
-lenition
-Assimilation
-fortition
-dissimilation
� In general, what historical linguists have found is that processes of ________ and _________ are extremely common in sound change, but that the opposite processes, _______ and _________, are comparatively rare
1.) identify reflexed of a particular proto-sound
2.) And by comparing the reflexes, reconstruct the proto-sound, on the basis of...
-the regularity of sound change and
-an understanding of natural sound changes
What is the key idea behind the comparative method?
1.) Assemble a set of words from a group of daughter languages that are all descended from the same word in their common ancestor
-such words are called cognates, and the set of words is called a cognate set
-E.g. Iquito isuuna and Arabela 'long S'ona are
What are the basic steps of the comparative method?
TRUE!
True or false? Loan words into multiple daughter languages can create the false impression of cognacy.
regularity of sound change! since a false cognate will not have the right correspondences
What is a very helpful component in identifying false cognates and why?
correspondence sets
sets of sounds that are all reflexes of a certain proto-sound
Just know this...
� In any case, extracting correspondence sets from cognate sets results in many thousands of correspondence sets in a typical historical study
Ex. (i:i:i:i)
What is an example of an "identity set"? (subsection of a correspondence set)
because we simply reconstruct the speech sound attested in all daughter languages
Why are identity sets typically easy to reconstruct?
1.) n^j:n^j:n:n^j/i__
2.) n:n:n:n elsewhere
What is an example of two correspondence sets (Not identity sets) that come from different environments?
-
n, since palatalization is a much more natural soundchange...
n>*n^j/i__ is a much more natural sound change than n^j>n/i__
-the palatalization segments in the first correspondence set are probably due to palatalization, leading us to reconstruct *n for
What do we notice about these two correspondence sets that come from different environments?
We can straightforwardly reconstruct *n for the second cognate set�an identity set!
What do we then have the ability to do with these two correspondence sets?
stable multilingualism
� refers to a situation in which all or most people are multilingual for an extended period of time
Example: Canada (French and English)
What is one example of a place with stable multilingualism?
-both languages "have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and Government of Canada" according to the Canadian Constitution�however, many places are English dominant
What is true, however, about the French and English that is spoken in Canada?
-Example: Papua New Guinea (Kaki Ae speakers)
What is a second example of a place with stable multilingualism?
-"...Although speakers of the surrounding languages do not even understand Kaki Ae, almost all Kaki Ae speakers are multilingual in a number of the surrounding Eleman languages..."
-speakers regard the fact that outsiders cannot speak Kaki Ae to be a good
What are two facts about the speakers of Kaki Ae in Papua New Guinea?
-Example: Vaupes river basin (Tukanoan and Arawakan)
What is a third example of a place with stable multilingualism?
-linguistic exogamy contributes to stable multilingualism (people must marry someone who speaks a different language... A speaker of one language must marry someone whose father speaks a different language than his or her own father; "My brothers are thos
What is the deal with the speakers of Tukanoan and Arawakan in the Vaupes river basin?
� speak your father's language to your father
� speak you mother's language to your mother
� speak you interlocutor's father's language to them if possible [otherwise, your father's]
� language-switching is considered inappropriate, unless it is meant to
What are the common rules in Vaupes code-switching?
� individuals are passively fluent in many languages, though they typically only use their fathers' language
� lexical borrowing is strongly prohibited; languages are kept "separate"
� grammatical "borrowing," however, is rampant
� constant tension betwee
What are the consequences of linguistic exogamy?
-pressure from the government
-discrete domains for speaking each language
-pride
What three main circumstances can lead to a stably multilingual society?
intense contact
� two or more languages become structurally and lexically similar over time due to __________
English AND Italian
There is some lexical influence onto Maltese from _____ and ______
Adstratum languages
languages of equal prestige or influence
superstratum language
a language with greater prestige or influence
substratum language
a language with less prestige or influence
Pidgins
_______:
� emerge in situations of language contact
� Are nobody's native language
Prepidgin Jargon
What is the first stage of Pidgins creation called?
Prototypical Pidgin
What is the second stage of Pidgins creation called?
Expanded Pidgin
What is the third stage of Pidgins creation called?
� emerges rapidly
� no consistent grammar
� rampant interspeaker variation
What are the qualities of the first stage (Prepidgin Jargon)?
� has been crystalized
� it limited to a particular setting [i.e. trade]
What are the qualities of the second stage (Prototypical Pidgin)?
� has as much linguistic complexity as any other language
� is not limited to a particular setting [i.e. trade])
What are the qualities of the third stage (Expanded pidgin)?
� reduced consonant clusters
� preference for CV syllables
� reference for cardinal vowels
� lack of tone
What are the phonological features of Pidgins?
� no Affixation (one to one ratio between words and morphemes)
� reduplication as a marker of plurality or augmentation
� minimal case and gender marking)
What are the morphological features of Pidgins?
� preference for SVO work order
� preference for prepositions over postpositions
� lack of definite articles
� fewer subordinate structures
� Auxiliaries precede verbs
What are the syntactic features of Pidgins?
� smaller vocabularies and more polysemy [i.e. "tok" means talk or speak or word or language]
� more metaphorical extension
What are the semantic features of Pidgins?
-lexicon
-lexifier
-superstratum
� the ________ of pidgin comes from the ________, which is generally the _______, language
-superstratum
the word order of Pidgins typially comes from the ________
Creoles
______:
� term originated in the context of North American/Caribbean slavery
� has been expanded to include any full-fledged, nativized language that has emerged from any contact situation
Pidgins
creoles often emerges from ______
pre-creole jargon, particularly in the context of slavery
creoles may also emerge directly from, ______
English has been the superstratum language in the development in various pidgins created around the world
Why should creoles and pidgins around the world be so similar in structure and features?
Tok Pisin
What is the official and most widely used language of Papua New Guinea
language shift and death
� one group adopts the language of another, shifting away from their previously spoken language until it no longer has any speakers defines...
Muniche
What is an example of a language that has shifted away from its origins (it's like almost extinct-type-of-thing)>
environment
children's language acquisition: � There is evidence to suggest that at least some of what children know about language structure cannot have been learned from their ________
-nature versus nurture; biology and socialization
-perhaps children are born with language structures hardwired in their brains
-perhaps children are born with strategies for analyzing language
some theories for language acquisition included...
operating principles
-pay attention to the word order of utterances
-pay attention to the order of morphemes in words
-pay particular attention to word endings (inflections)
-focus on consistent relationships between expression and content
-look for generalizations
These are
maturation and symbolization
One principle of language acquisition is that since language is a system of symbols, children must be able to understand a symbolic realization of something else. This is referred to as...
using tools
Another principle of language acquisition is that language is a tool that gets work done, so children must be able to use language as such a tool. This is referred to as...
Truuueee
True or false? All languages are equally challenging and there is no biological basis that disposes some children to learn a particular language
kids frequently modify their speech anyway! Yay babies!
Even when adults are not explicitly teaching children rules of language use...
baby talk
how adults talk to children
Nar
Is baby talk present in all cultures?
Higher than usual pitch, frequent questions, frequent repetitions, frequent imperatives, few modifiers, few function words, few subordinate clauses, concrete and immediate referents, exaggerated intonation contours, slow and clear enunciation, baby-talk w
What are some characteristics of baby talk?
-Adult: Throw t to Daddy.
-Child: Throw Daddy.
What is an example of what an adult would say, expanded to an early utterance of a child?
� Babbling (6 months)
� One-Word Stage (1 year)
� Two-Word Stage (20 months)
� Beyond Two Words where utterances get more complex (2-2.5 years)
What are the stages of language acquisition?
� Babbling (6 months)
-At first child utters a series of identical syllables
-A few months later, more syllables are possible
-The early babblings are similar the world over
What are the characteristics of babbling?
� One-Word Stage (1 year)
-Early words are of simple structure and typically refer to familiar people, toys, pets
-single words are generalized and often overgeneralized
-A single word may mean different whole propositions depending on context
What are the characteristics of the one-word stage?
� Two-Word Stage (20 months)
-utterances show a preference for combining a noun-like element with a predicate-like element
-Ex. Daddy come. Vs. daddy, he is coming... Shoe mine. Vs. The show, it's mine... Apple me. Vs. The apple, give it to me... More jui
What are the characteristics of the two-word stage?
� Beyond Two Words (2-2.5 years)
-utterances become more complex, containing several words representing a single clause
-language is used in a systematic fashion
What are the characteristics of the beyond two words stage?
in a set order with slight variation
� Interestingly, the morphemes and grammatical structures of language are generally acquired by children __________________.
that acquisition of grammar is internally regulated; order of acquisition seems to be based upon relative complexity rather than frequency
Since grammar and morphemes are acquired in a set order (more or less), what does this suggest?
1.) Present progressive verb (with or without auxiliary): (is) playing, (are) singing
2.) Prepositions "in" and "on"
3.) Regular noun plural: toys, cats, dishes
4.) Irregular past-tense verbs: came, fell, saw, hurt
5.) Possessive noun: Daddy's, doggie's
6
What is the acquisition order for English morphemes?
eated for ate, doed for did, makes for made, speaked for spoke
What are some examples of how children overgeneralize past-tense verbs?
foots for feet, mans for men, tooths for teeth, mouses for mice
What are some examples of how children overgeneralize noun plurals?
By 5 years old...
-children have negative sentences
-sentences with more than one clause
-imperatives
-interrogatives
By five years old, what four new things have children acquired?
-First, children express negation with a simple "no," either alone or preceding other expressions
-by age 3 more complex negations are possible
In terms of negation, what do children do at first? What are they able to do by age 3?
Age 3
In terms of questions, when are more aspects of question formation acquired?
-20 months = 50 words
-5 years = a child's vocabulary is increasing by about 15 or 20 words a day
-6 years = 7,800 words
-8 years = 17,600 basic words
What is the rate of children acquisition in terms of vocabulary (age and words known)?
2 months old
When can children begin to react differently to speech sounds and recognize their mother's voice?
� During babbling, infants produce phonemes from any of the world's languages, but prefer the more common phonemes over rare phonemes
What is unique about the phonemes that babies make during babbling?
Trew!
True or false? Sounds that are more common in the world's languages tend to be acquired faster than rarer sounds
some nasals, some stops, some fricatives, one approximant
Inventory of English Consonants at Age Two:
more nasals, same stops, more fricatives, two affricates, more approximants
Inventory of English Consonants at Age Four:
-deletion of syllable
-deletion of final consonant
-deduction of consonant clusters
What are the three ways in which children omit sounds?
-Stopping: van-->ban
-devoicing: knob-->knop
-voicing: pot-->bot
-fronting: thumb-->fumb
-gliding: rock-->wot
-vocalization: table-->dubu
-denasalization: lamb-->bap
What are the seven ways in which children substitute sounds?
receptive competence vs. productive competence
� A child could have the grammatical competence to understand and generate adult pronunciations, but remain unable to utter them because of physiological immaturity in the vocal apparatus. This two terms are referred to as...
-"FIS" phenomenon
-Big bigs
What are two examples of receptive vs. productive competence?
Wug" test
What was used to test productive competence?
A second language
__________ is any language that is acquired after one's first language; it may well be a third or fourth "______
YES! Like a huge difference
Is there much of a difference between first-and second-language learning?
-first-language acquisition involves an initial linguistic experience, while a second language is mastered only by someone who already speaks another language
-A first language is usually acquired in a context-rich, home environment
-the adaptability and
What are the four main differences between first-and second-language learning?
A person's motivation and attitude
What is something that affects mastery of a second language?
instrumental motivation (A narrow range of registers)
knowledge of a target language will help achieve a certain goal
integrative motivation (wide range of registers and native-like pronunciation)
learning a new language to integrate oneself into a community
-for decades, learning a second language was viewed as a matter of knowing and practicing the well-formed utterances of the target language
-learning a second language was approached as a matter of drilling grammatical patterns, and drill focused on patte
How did people used to think that second languages should be taught?
An interlanguage
____________ is the set of forms of the target language that a learner has internalized
interlanguages
� Some researchers view second-language learners as developing a series of _____________ in their progression towards mastery of the target language
fossilizing
learning process typically slows down or ceases at some point for adults, and the existing interlanguages stabilizes, with negligible further acquisition except for vocabulary; also the root of foreign accents... This phenomenon is called...
1.) Instruction needs to ensure that learners develop both a rich repertoire of formulaic expressions and a rule-based competence
2.) Instruction needs to ensure that learners focus predominantly on meaning
3.) Instruction needs to ensure that learners al
What are the central 8 language teaching practices?
� By what age have children mastered English morphological rules?
� Which morphological rules are acquired first, and why?
What were the two main questions that Jeanne Berko Gleason's experiment were based upon?
� Option 1: Children learn all of the forms of a lexeme separately and store these forms separately in memory
-Hypothesis: Children, when presented with novel lexemes, will not inflect them properly
� Option 2: Children do mot store the forms of a lexeme
What were the two ideas and hypotheses behind Berko's experiment?
1.) pluraliztion
2.) 3rd person present tense formation
3.) regular past tense formation
4.) possessive formation
5.) present progressive formation with "-ing
What are the five inflectional morphological processes that were tested in berko's experiments?
-comparative and superlative adjective inflection
-compound formation
-diminutive formation
� In addition, Berko tested to see whether children could identify the components of compound nouns
What were the other processes tested in some of Berko's experiments?
-After voiceless, non-sibilant obstruents, use [-s]
-After voices segments (except sibilants), use [-z]
-After sibilants (i.e., [z], [s], [tS], [d3], [S], [3]), use [-ez]
� Regular pluralization and present tense formation in English follows three rules:
-After voiceless consonants (except [t]), use [-t]
-After voices consonants (except [d]), use [-d]
-After alveolar stops, use [-ed]
� Regular past tense formation in English follows three rule:
-After a singular noun ending in a voiced segment (except [z]), use [-z]
-dog's
-After a singular noun ending in a voiceless segment (except [s]), use [-s]
-cat's
-After a singular noun ending in a sibilant, use [-ez]
-lass's, fuzz's
-After a noun plurali
� Regular possessive formation in English follows four rules:
The English present progressive suffix -ing and the comparative and superlative suffixes -er and -est
What are the suffixes that do not change in form based upon their environment?
Two questions:
-Can children form novel compounds?
-Do children have psychological access to the components of familiar compounds?
Aside from inflection, Berko was also interested in compound forms. What questions did she form because of this?
-y (as in 'spotty' from 'spot' and 'puppy' from 'pup')
Berko also looked at adjective and diminutive formation with stuff like...
Berko created a set of nonsense words, both nouns and verbs, and pictures to go along with them
Ex...
-one "Wug"; two "Wugs"
-one "Gutch"; two "Gutches"
-he knows how to "spow"; Yesterday, he "spowed"
-this is a "Kazh"; there are two "Kazhes"
-this man kn
To answer aaallllll of these questions, what did Berko do for her main experiment?
� Control/comparison group: 12 college-educated adults
-7 women and 5 men
� Test group: 61 children aged 5.5-7
What was the procedure for the "Wug" test (and the other nonsense words)-- in terms of what groups there were and who was in each group?
� Adults produced both [hifs] and [hivz] for the plural of [hif]... Why do you think thy did this?
� By contrast, very few children said [hivz]
� Four children said [hifez]. Why do you think they did this?
What did Berko find out in terms of the English plurals?
� Only one child successfully produced the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
� By contrast, all of the adults produced the correct forms
What did Berko find out in terms of comparative and superlative forms?
1.) Adjective derivation (e.g. 'quirky' from 'quirk')
2.) Agentive nominal derivation (e.g. 'zibber' from 'zib')
3.) diminutive derivation (e.g. 'wuglet' from 'wug')
4.) compound derivation (e.g. 'wughouse' from 'wug' and 'house')
What were the four derivational tasks that the participants were asked to perform?
� Only 11% of children said a man who zibbed was a zibber, in contrast to 100% of adults
� Children supplied alternatives that adults did not, such as "zibbingman' and 'zibman'
� 50% of adults called a tiny wug a 'wuglet'. By contrast, 0 children supplied
What were the four main outcomes for the derivational tasks that the participants were asked to complete?
� Children very rarely offer sound etymological explanations for compounds
In terms of compounds, what was found out about what children rarely do?
1.) "Every child is in contact with a sufficiently varied sample of spoken English in order for him to be exposed at an early age to morphological processes."
2.) There are some differences between 5-year-olds and 7-year-olds
3.) Children did best on item
What were the four MAIN conclusions from aaallllll of Berko's tests?