Language &

Linguistics By: Faith Willis, Karly Anderson, Linda Bashinskaya, Kaylan

McWilliams, and Niagara Tucker

What’s the difference? Language is the expression or action of using sounds to communicate.

Linguistics is the scientific study of language.

Derived from the latin word lingua which means “tongue”

Origins of Language ❖  Originated around the time that

humans emerged in Africa. It then spread into Europe and Asia and on.

❖  ⅓ of the 5,000 different languages on Earth are found in Africa.

❖  Indo-European language is the most widespread language group.

Merlin Donald Neuro-Anthropologist & Cognitive Neuroscientist

Proposed that:

-  Development of the prefrontal cortex has led to more complex social interaction and language development.

-  Brains needs culture to properly mold language.

Three stages of cognitive development through evolution:

1.  Memetics skills 2.  Language 3.  External symbols

The Anatomy of Language ●  Shape of the larynx and other vocal organs has

evolved over the last 100,000 to create a wider range of vocal capabilities.

●  The ability of the brain’s cortical region to logically organize sounds and meanings to create language. This sets humans apart from other species.

●  Language to typically localized in the left hemisphere. Pierre Paul Broca studied this and discover that damage in the left hemisphere resulted in speech loss.

Gender and Language Girls typically acquire language/read earlier and faster than boys

●  Deborah Tannen says that men and women are different cultures, and that their interaction can be described as cross-cultural communication.

➔  Women- use language as “rapport-talk” or to establish intimacy or relationships. More emotional and relational use.

➔  Men- use “report-talk”, a much more competitive and informative speech style. More likely to use language to describe objects and events.

➔  Women are typically more expressive with language, while men are suppressive.

Could a language be sexist? Could English be sexist? Sexism & Language

Language Acquisition Language typically starts with cooing, then babbling, then word formation. Nativist Noam chomsky- LAD language acquisition device (innate)

cooing>babbling>first words>holophrases>telegraphic speech.

Acquired vs learned: Infant directed speech (IDS)- also known as parentese/motherese Steinberg>Chomsky

Phonology The study of sound representation and patterns in language and across languages.

●  Abstract vs physical

Phonological awareness

-  Phonological awareness leads to the use of invented spelling

Invented spelling

Phonemic Awareness The blend of phonemes creates a spoken word. Psychology of Accents 4:08

LANGUAGES ●  Monolingual: 40% of world population

●  Bilingual: equal fluency - 43% of world population

●  Trilingual: 13% of world population

●  Multilingual: 3% of world population speak more than 4 languages

●  Polyglot: less than 1‰ of world population speak 5 languages fluently

Moana Song 2:49

Principles of Language ●  Requires social networks ( It takes someone else to teach the language) ●  Negotiation ●  Came after culture ●  Mimesis preceded Language ●  Requires vocal motor skills

●  Humans had communicated with skills before language was created

●  Language development is a result of practicing ○  For example: animals can not

change what they have learned already

Six General Properties of Language 1.  Communicative- have the ability to communicate — to exchange

thoughts and ideas

2.  Arbitrary-the relationship between the form (the sounds / words / letters / characters) that we use have no natural/meaningful relationship with their meaning. Ex: the word livre is meaningless for someone who doesn’t speak French

3.  Meaningfully Structured- there is a set of rules for each language.

Six General Properties of Language 4. Multiply Structured- language builds on itself. Ex: listening first then talking

5. Productive- improving language through other medium. Ex: reading

6. Dynamic- slang, non-traditional words

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) ●  An approach to language teaching that emphasizes interaction as both the

means and the ultimate goal of study ●  The purpose of CLT is to help students produce authentic language and

communicate with others ●  A way to build good communication skills

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20zBOWrP2yc 2:40

Syntax and Semantics Syntax: Rules for ordering and relating the elements of a language.

Ex: In English we put the noun in front of the verb in a sentence.

Semantics: the study of meaning in language. It can be applied to entire texts or to single words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdoIfEKw3eU&t=29s 3:24

Reading/Writing ●  Most children learn to read by 6 or 7 years old some learn by the age of 4 ●  The best ways to learn to read are making time every day, Leave books in the

child’s room to enjoy, read to them before they go to sleep ●  Help them read by running your fingers under the words as you read, Use funny

voices and sounds for animals, stop to look at pictures & keep reading with your child even when they’ve learned how to read.

●  Around 15 months of age, children begin to randomly scribble on things ●  Around age 2 or 3 they have better control their scribbles ●  Around age 3 they transition by holding the crayon between their thumb and

middle finger ●  Ages 3-5 they learn to write letters most by learning how to write their names and

draw pictures ●  Ages 5-7 they tend to leave out words they don’t know ●  Ages 5-7 they use letters and sight to tell or explain drawings

Fun Facts ●  There are 7,000 languages & dialects in the world ●  Chinese is the most spoken language (1.2 billion speakers) ●  Greek & Traditional Chinese are the oldest written languages still used today ●  German is the Almost spoken mother tongue in Europe ●  There are 13 ways to spell the “o” Sound in French ●  There are 50,000 characters in the Chinese language but only need 2,000 of them

to read a newspaper ●  Only 23 languages account for more than half of the worlds population ●  2,400 languages are currently in danger of becoming extinct ●  Spanish is the second most spoken language ●  The English language contains the most words with over 250,000 ●  The first printed book was written in German ●  German words can have 3 genders (feminine, masculine & neuter) ●  21 countries have Spanish as their official language

Citations ●  Language vs. Linguistics- http://www.academypublication.com/issues/past/tpls/vol03/12/12.pdf ●  Deborah Tannen- Gender & Language http://faculty.georgetown.edu/bassr/githens/tannen.htm ●  Merlin Donald-

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0f26/24745758b4e7ab16f021c674fe0de44561e0.pdf ●  “Hello” Photo-

https://www.123rf.com/photo_66149290_stock-vector-hello-word-cloud-collage-in-different-languages-of-the-world-background-concept.html

●  Origins of Language- http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab13 ●  Six General Properties of Language- notes from class ●  Communicative language teaching

https://www.professorjackrichards.com/wp-content/uploads/Richards-Communicative-Language.pdf ●  Fun Facts www.andiamo.co.uk http://takelessons.com ●  Reading/Writing https://living.thebump.com www.healthychildren.org

Citation ●  Syntax- textbook “The Essentials of Child Development: A Chronological Approach” by Kraynok,

Seifert, and Hoffnung ●  http://all-about-linguistics.group.shef.ac.uk/branches-of-linguistics/phonology/ phonology ●  http://www.readingrockets.org/article/invented-spelling-and-spelling-development spelling ●  https://youtu.be/_JmA2ClUvUY baby convo

●  https://www.k12reader.com/phonemic-awareness-vs-phonological-awareness/ awareness

●  https://www.thoughtco.com/holophrase-language-acquisition-1690929 lang acquisition

●  http://ilanguages.org/bilingual.php languages