Bookshelf 📖

Week 1

• Andrew already goes over the syllabus = maybe we should not go over it during the sections?
• PowerPoints = be prepared to take notes during the class. The pop-quiz will be graded based on the information during the lecture, and pop-quizzes will be in person
  • 6 correct answers for the pop quiz, then you will pass
• The lecture will be recorded
• no attendance
• participation in linguistics experiments

The Invariant System Hypothesis • A language consists in: • (a) a set of words ( a vocabulary) • (b) a set of rules of grammar and pronunciation

Problem with the Invariant System Hypothesis

• we all have different and idiosyncratic ways of speaking to a certain extent
• We all have different, idiosyncratic ways of speaking to a certain extent. • We all have our own, special ‘idiolect’ = unique way for individuals use language If a single, invariant set of rules is taken to define ‘English’ as a language, we would have to conclude that most people in the US and UK are NOT speakers of ‘English’, as they use their own individualized systems – their idiolects.

The Mutual Intelligibility Hypothesis/MIH = understanding rather than linguistic differences

• An approach based on mutual understanding (or lack of it).

Problem with the Mutual Intelligibility Hypothesis/MIH

• Counter-examples
• Type 1: 2+ varieties of speech are mutually intelligible, but are classified as different languages = two or more tend to be mutually intelligible but are classified as two different languages
  • Scandinavia: Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian = multilingual intelligible
• Type 2: 2+ varieties are mutually unintelligible, but are classified as varieties (dialects) of the same language.
• Chinese: Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Shanghainese… = should be different languages, but classified as dialects of the same language
• A similar case: Arabic: regional form of Arabic = mutually intelligible
• Conclusion: the MIH cannot account for real-world language-dialect divisions = and can not distinguish language from dialects
• linguistics use this hypothesis
  • mismatch between linguistics and government

If varieties of speech are often not classified as ‘languages’ due to their linguistic properties, what factors do cause some varieties to be called ‘languages’ and others ‘dialects’? • Answer: Quite often, socio-political factors are responsible for the language/dialect division. Political events and situations in society lead to the formal recognition of certain varieties as languages and others as dialects.

• politics drives the differences, not the linguistic differences

language and dialects

• The term language is important
• socio-political power
• speakers of dialects do not have the same rights.
• 2 linguistics appraoches, they both have counter exmaple with social-political factors infleunce what we define languages and dialects

polistics drive the language distinctions

• japan, ryuukyuan in the island
• mutually untelligenable with japanese
• during 20th century, there’s pressure through political view of japan that designed for nationlism
• single culture and singule language which is japanese
• declare this is a dialect of japanese
• unnatural of politic power driven

“A language is a dialect with an army and a navy”

• language is similar as a dialect but they have more powers
• empower both categorize their own variety as a language
• wehther they speak a language or dialect
• spain = only castilian spanish
  • catalian = classified by the leader as dialects
  • for political reasons, if they have been realized as independent languages
• india = indepndent want to set up their own national language, local indigious language as their national language, there is no single language in india spoken by majority of population
  • hindi as national language roles, they did national censer of languages
  • fixed the data in a certain ways, they would say it’s a dialect, they influted the number of hindi speakers and move hindi as a national language role
  • language-dialect manipulation is carried out

Different classifications of languages and dialects

• government resources = independent linguistics surveys, number of languages in a countury, we get different figures
• the government want to downplay diverisity, they want few languages
• national unitity = belongingness
• more language = more money for schoolings

• Ethnologue work for the mutual intelligence hypothesis

• how AI would approach this = there’s different figues you will find, and Ethnologue you could have different apporach

  dialects 4 properties of dialects dialect is a variety which is not recognized as a distinct language, but it can be officially recognized as a language

  • A dialect is a variety which is NOT recognized as a distinct language, but is related to some officially-recognized language – dialects are both similar to and different from some language
  • language isolates = linguistics opherson
    • not related to other varieties, they should be considered as languages, but not dialects
    • Europe = Basque in Spain, in southern France
      1. systematic variations in 3 areas:
    • vocab
    • accent + pronounciaiton
    • grammar Example of variation in a dialect:
• The Devon dialect of British English
  • differences in pronunciation
  • differences in grammar
  • differences in vocabulary 3. dialects are commonly associated with a single geographical area/region
  • language may become spoken in multiple localtions 4. linguists assume that the dialects of a language are all mutually intelligible to a large degree (point of view)
  • depends on prespecive of linguistics
  • dialects should be mutually intelligible

How do linguists identify and describe dialects?

• dialect geographers
• handout of a map of different dialtes in a country
• make notes of how people speak and their distinct grammar

isoglosses

• different dialects
• map is another isoglosse
• lining up like this
• divergences
• they only use south-west
• concentration of special forms

Dialect boundaries

• give you clear results, when dialect groups are sepearted by geogrphic feature it inhidibben travel, mountains and rivers, distinct forms of language, they also don’t spread easier trhough other areas
• dialect boundaries are not clear to establish
  • more fuzzy dialect boundary = dialect continuum
  • blend into each other, no hard boundaries
  • example = trip to eaurp, and you speak some amount of german and arrived in vienna = but it’s different type of viennaness german, then you travel to amsterdam in netherland, they also speak a little differrent compared to vienna. then carry on and go to south world they also speak a little different again, all german is a little different = you will not awaar of major dialect boundiries, in similar way with minimal differences
  • amsterdam is completely different comapred to vienna
  • no huge phsycial boundries in the area

Similar dialect continuums

• Linking the Slavic languages of eastern Europe:
• Czech – Slovak – Polish – Ukrainian – Belorussian – Russian

Extreme dialect forms

• if we isolate certain sentences in a dialect, then it’s hard to understand
• dialects should be mutually intelligenable

Three kinds of non-regional dialect

• Religious dialects
  • People with different religions speak the same language in different ways.
  • 20thC Baghdad: Muslim, Christian and Jewish dialects of Iraqi Arabic
    • Muslim dialect for Iraqi Arabic
    • speak in distinct ways
  • determine by religious background but not where you live
• Social dialects
  • People from different social groups speak the same language in different ways
  • India: Hindu caste groups speaking Gujarati differently
  • speakers of different languages in India = cast groups, different social groups
  • The language of the areas may be spoken differently in the cast group
• Ethnic dialects
  • early Italian American immigrants, African American Vernacular English
  • different ethnic groups may share a speacial way of speaking
  • Italians arrived in US, the first language Italian infleunce how they learn english, even maintained by their children and grandchildren

Styles and Registers

• shfit regularly in different styles and registers
• formal style depends on who we are talking to
• one pariticpalt style is Registers
• Some individuals change their speech to a special ‘register’.

Registers = the style of speech people adopt when they are doing a specific job

• acution of livestocks = different comapred with art auction
• biddings = special register
• you do expect the person should speak like that
• sport commentators = horse-racing = adopting a special way of speaking, just when they are involved in that particular activity
• service voice = Elevator operators in department stores in Japan, they do not speak in this way outside of their job
• TV/radio commercials highlighting the positive and negative properties of a product (esp. medical products) = focus on telling you the good and bad side of the product

Factors influencing shifts in style

• pariticpants = who’s speaking
  • solidarity = cloness, how close are you and the person you are talking to, informal language speak when you are talking to people you know well (pronouns in spanish or hidi, italian, german)
  • power = degree of power between the two people during the communicaiton, company boss or USC president or families
  • shifts in styles
  • you need to shift the word fornms and nouns
  • extensive vocabulary = member in the royal family
• setting = location
• topic = what you are talking about = gossip or arcadmic / politics
• function of speech = why you communicaite?
• multilingual = shifting between different languages
• These factors may all cause a speaker to shift between different styles within a single language, or sometimes cause switches between different languages in multi-lingual communities
• Referential and affective communication
  • Referential communication = communication has information
  • degree to which they focus on
  • high level of Referential content = news program
  • convey information
• affective communication
  • social purpouse
  • use language to stegnth social relaitons
  • greetings and small talk
  • what we are doing is not exchange informaiton, but bound with people, stegrth social relations