CES 2133

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICLanguage, Speech, and Thought

LanguageTerm- “natural languages” :

type of human thought process which creates and uses language

Derives from Latin lingua, "language, tongue,"

Humans’ primary means of communication.

Transmitted through learning.

So the obvious hypothesis is that our language is the result of the unfolding of a genetically determined program.

-Noam Chomsky, Interview to KBS TV, Kyoto, Japan

Spoken Language

Sign Language

Written Language

Essential to both meanings is the systematic creation, maintenance and use of systems of symbols

A key property of language is that its symbols are strongly arbitrary.

For example, the sound combination ‘nada’ carries the meaning of "nothing" in the Spanish language and also the meaning "thread" in the Hindi language.

Language statistics6912 – number of languages spoken today

516 – number of almost extinct languages

Mandarin Chinese – most speakersPapua New Guinea – country with the most languages spoken (820)

English – language with the most words (250, 000)

SpeechEvery speech is a mixture of thought and language, idea and expression.

The process of recognizing speech begins at the level of the sound signal and the process of audition.

Speech is discovered in terms of the speech production and speech perception of the sounds used in spoken language.

Research in speech perception seeks to understand how human listeners recognize speech sounds and use this information to understand spoken language.

Speech in some cultures has become the basis of a written language which can be differed in its vocabulary, syntax and phonetics from its associated spoken one, a situation called diglossia.

Speech in communication is internally used by mental processes to enhance and organize cognition in the form of an interior monologue.

ThoughtEvery person has talked fluently since

infancy makes every man his own authority on the process by which he formulates and communicates.

Constructs a common substratum of logic or reason.

Talking is merely an incidental process concerned strictly with communication.

Every person has talked fluently since infancy makes every man his own authority on the process by which he formulates and communicates.

Constructs a common substratum of logic or reason.

Talking is merely an incidental process concerned strictly with communication.

Thought is bound to language structurally: "linguistic order embraces all symbolic processes, all processes of reference and of logic" (Whorf, 252)

Language influences not only thought but also perception itself.

The mind is reorganized, the brain is actually altered, and our perceptions change in order to support the beliefs or idea for which we seek phenomenal evidence (Pearce).

Language, Speech and ThoughtBenjamin Whorf, like Sapir studied Native American languages.

Whorf sites several examples form the Native American language, Hopi, to support his hypothesis that thought is strongly based on language.

In this example where Whorf feels language strongly influences thought, he is often criticized with circularity because he “infers cognitive differences between two speakers from an examination of their respective languages,” (Hopi and English).

According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, language determines the categories and much of the content of thought.

The most important fact uncovered through the genetic study of thought and speech is that their relationship undergoes many changes.