Language Death, Endangered Language, Hedging | The Study of Language | LING 2100, Exams of Linguistics

Download Language Death, Endangered Language, Hedging | The Study of Language | LING 2100 and more Exams Linguistics in PDF only on Docsity! Language Death: Why do languages die? Languages shift occurs when a group of speakers abandon their native language in favor of another language, so when the shifting group is the only group of speakers who used their original language that language will no longer be spoken once the shift is completed. Other reasons why languages would die would be people stop learning them because of problems in accessing mainstream economic opportunities, risk of ridicule, discrimination, and prejudice, lack of instruction in their native language, and the limited scope of using the language. Why should we care? Languages are a key way of preserving culture, so without language there will be a loss of culture, which makes society diverse. Furthermore, languages should not be discarded since they are all equal, instead they must be preserved for future generations. Why would we say that Latin is not dead? Though Latin, the language, may be considered a dead language, there are many languages that are derived from Latin. Furthermore, instead of dying, Latin has evolved in to other languages that use distinct features of Latin like French and Spanish.. What is an endangered language? An endangered language is a language with a few number of speakers left, which makes it a risk of disappearing. Language attitudes (in society, many people believe that some dialects are better/worse than others--this is not objectively true--you need to know WHY people have these attitudes--relates to “prestige” below) Dialect –is when a group of speakers of a particular language differs noticeably in its speech from another group. A variety of a language defined by geographical factors and socioeconomical factors like class, region and ethnicity. What is the difference between a dialect and a language? Language is a compilation of dialects. Idiolect: be prepared to give an example of something from someone’s idiolect--could be from yourself or someone you know--something specific about someone’s speech! the language variety of an individual speaker. People with a southern accent tend to have a southern draw where it moves from to when they speak. For example, the word pen and pin sound quite similar because pen [ ] to [ ], which makes it sound similar to pin. Mutual Intelligeability is a situation in which speakers of different language varieties are able to understand and communicate with one another. Speech Community – a group of people speaking the same dialect, usually defined by factors like Region, Age, Gender, Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic status. Prestige, “standard dialects” and “non-standard dialects” Prestige - is having a high standing or respect in a community. Overt Prestige is a prestige attached to a particular variety of language by the community at large that defines how people should speak in order to gain status in the wider community. Covert Prestige is a prestige that exists among members of non-standard speech communities that defines how people should speak in order to be considered members of those particular communities. Standard Dialects – is the variety of a language used by political leaders, the media, and speakers of higher socioeconomic classes. Non-Standard Dialects – any variety of a language not considered to be representative of the prestige or standard variety. Extralinguistic Features that affect Variation (KNOW THESE): Region, Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Status (I will probably ask you the following question word for word: “What are the five most studied extralinguistic factors that have been shown to affect dialect variation?” To which you would answer the five above.) Some of my former students have memorized these using: RAGES. Region, Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Socioeconomic status What is hedging? Why do we do it? Hedging is a mitigating device used to lessen the impact of an utterance as seen from a relative position of power. Ex: I'm not an expert but you might want to try restarting your computer Habitual Be (Don’t worry about a definition here--but be prepared to give an example and to compare it with the English progressive) Habitual Be - this is an uninflected form of be to communicate that a state or activity is habitual or repeatable, and the use of be is all that is needed to indicate this property. Ex: The coffee be cold. Rhotic dialects versus non-rhotic dialects Non-rhotic dialects drop their R-sounds, while rhotic dialects annunciate their Rs. Midwestern American English is rhotic, while Southern British English is not. Chapter 11: Creoles probably come from Pidgins (be prepared to tell me HOW--you can be very brief), Pidgins are a makeshift language where one or more languages come together to make a common lingua franca. For example, Chinook Jargon was a trading language between Russians and Alaskan natives. What is a lexifier language? Lexifier language is the language that provides the vocabulary and word order. and is the language that belongs to the people in power Why is one language usually a lexifier? The language that belongs to the people in power. What is a substratum language? Substratum language is the native language that encounters the lexifier language, but provides the phonological system, which it follows. What are the common linguistic features of Pidgins? (think about simple structures--either syntactic or phonological or lexical--just prepared to give some sort of real example) They usually have a cv or cvc pattern in their words. What kinds of situations make pidgins come about? IV. Definitions AND examples: Borrowing: and when does it occur? Process by which one language adopts words, phrases, or grammatical structures from another language. For example, the word sushi comes from Japanese’s introduction of the popular dish into the United States.