Week 12 Tutorial 10 SociolinguisticsKwok Zhi HaoGeraldine Tu Xue EnLee Xiong Wei JoshuaReanna Suela

COCKNEY DIALECT AND REFLEXIVE FORMATION

Question 1:

Cockney Dialect and Reflexive Formation

Object Pronouns Possessive Pronouns

Singular Plural Singular Plural

First person me us my our

Second person you you your your

Third person him/her/it them his/her/its their

Reflexives

Singular Plural

First person myself ourselves

Second person yourself yourselves

To create a reflexive pronoun, put possessive pronouns together with the noun ‘self’.

Part A)

Part B)Reflexives

Singular Plural

First person myself ourselves

Second person yourself yourselves

Third Person hisself/herself/itsself theirselves

Reflexive pronoun = possessive pronouns + ‘self’

Cockney Dialect and Reflexive Formation

Actual third person pronouns in Standard English:Part C)

Singular Plural

Third Person himself/herself/itself themselves

Cockney Dialect and Reflexive Formation

Descriptive approach:The forms are important in helping us understand the use of reflexive pronouns in the different dialectsShould not condemn the forms used in Cockney

A prescriptive approach: The forms in B are correct using the above rule However, they are incorrect as they are not used in the modern standard English.

Part D) Reflexive pronoun = possessive pronouns + ‘self’

The Cockney Dialect is more “systematic” because all the first, second and third person reflexives follow the same rule.

Cockney Dialect and Reflexive Formation

Cockney Dialect Reflexives Rule

First person Myself Possessive pronouns + ‘self’

Second person Yourself

Third person Hisself/ herself/ itsself/ theirselves

Standard English

Reflexives Rule

First person Myself Possessive pronouns + ‘self’

Second person Yourself

Third person Himself/ herself/ itself/ themselves

Object pronouns + ‘self’

CONTACT LINGUISTICS AND TOK PISINQuestion 2:

Tok Pisin ‘Talk Pidgin’ Literal translated to English Translation (meaning)

Taim bilong kol time belong cold ‘winter’

Taim bilong san time belong sun ‘summer’

man bilong wokim gaden

man belong working garden

‘farmer’

tasol that’s all ‘only’

kamup come up ‘arrive’

haus sik house sick ‘hospital’

Contact linguistics and Tok Pisin

Contact linguistics and Tok Pisin

Tok Pisin ‘Talk Pidgin’ Literally translated to English Translation (meaning)

haus money house money ‘bank’

olgeta altogether ‘all’

sapos suppose ‘if’

Handet yia hundred year ‘century’

Hamas krismas yu gat? How much Christmas you got?

‘How old are you?’

LANGUAGE POLICIES AND PLANNING DILEMMA

Question 3:

Options Pros Cons

French – the colonial language

- Spoken by the educational/ political elites - The language of administration/ education for 80 years

- Colonial past - Only the elite groups are educated in this language

English – the language of modernization and globalization

- Most popular language - Economic/ educational/ scientific/ technological advantages

- Not a colonial language - Unknown to 80% of the population

Dondon – a local vernacular shared among 50% of the population

- Numerical majority - Can be shared among different ethnic groups

- Resistance from other popular vernacular languages - Lack a lexical/ terminological repertoire for modernisation & education

Ababa – a common language of trade spoken by traders and used for trading purposes

- Politically neutral - Language of trade throughout the country

- Limited to trading domains - Unknown to others who are not involved in trading

Language Policies and Planning Dilemma

Language Policies and Planning DilemmaLanguages User Education Politically Neutral Modernisation

French ✗

English ✗

Dondon ✗ ✗ ✗

Ababa ✗ ✗

Decision: English• Based on number of ticks• Most popular language in the world• Modernisation• Government’s interest to modernise and be integrated into the

world market• Long term education policy• Courses for the working population

WHAT IS LINGUISTICS?Question 4:

What is Linguistics?• Study of how people communicate• Explains how language evolves• Explains how we understand each other despite differences in

speech / tone / grammar• Explains how language develops in the brain and in society• Descriptive and scientific approach to study language

Why Linguistics?• Language is one of the greatest tools and defining aspects of

humanity • Linguistics is at the center of the universe (Week 1), study

language to learn about the world and humans/humanity • affects every dimension of our lives (political, business, cultural,

psychological) • from individuals to whole societies • tell us about our histories and development (physical and social),

our current state, and our possible future

Thank you