KINGDOM OF CAMBODIA

NATION RELIGION KING

ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY

TOPIC:

Brief the Previous Lessons

LECTURER: PHANN HENG

STUDENT’S NAME: SAY DARA

GENERATION 9 TH SEMESTER 2

2018 – 2019
 CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ..................................................................... 3

Psychological Aspects of Language Acquisition ........................................................................ 4
Hypothesis Testing ...................................................................................................................... 4
The Universality of Language Acquisition ................................................................................. 4
Language: A Uniquely Human Ability ....................................................................................... 4
The Components of Language .................................................................................................... 4
Theoretical Approach to Language Acquisition ......................................................................... 5
Stages of Language Acquisition .................................................................................................. 5
Language and Thought ................................................................................................................ 6
CHAPTER TWO: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ........................................................................... 7
UNIT ONE: TEXT ANALYSIS .................................................................................................. 8
Text and discourse ................................................................................................................... 8
Cohesion and Coherence ......................................................................................................... 8
Difference between Speech and Writing ................................................................................. 8
More feature of written texts ................................................................................................... 9
Lexical Density and Nominalization ....................................................................................... 9
Factors Determining Texts ...................................................................................................... 9
Clause as Representation ....................................................................................................... 10
Process, participants and Circumstances ............................................................................... 11
Summary of Text Features .................................................................................................... 11
UNIT TWO: SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC ...................................................................... 13
Definitions and Background .................................................................................................. 13
Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics ....................................................................................... 13
Regularity .............................................................................................................................. 13
References and Inferences ..................................................................................................... 13
Referential and attributive uses ............................................................................................. 14
Name and referents ................................................................................................................ 14
The role of co-text ................................................................................................................. 14
Cooperative and Implicature ................................................................................................. 14
The Cooperative Principle ..................................................................................................... 15
Hedges ................................................................................................................................... 16
ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY LECTURER: PHANN HENG

CHAPTER ONE:
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
By the time the children enter the kindergarten, most of them have already mastered one
of the most demanding tasks they will encounter their entire lifetime. They have learn to speak the
language of their culture well enough to communicate their needs to other easily and effectively.
And they have learned to do so without any formal instruction. Moreover, by the time they have
reached at the age of 5. Kindergarten already have a sense of the basic structure of their language
and have acquired a vocabulary of thousand words or more. In short, language acquisition refers
the way in which the children acquire their first language automatically without any formal
instruction. They begin to develop an awareness of language and also develop the written language
continues throughout later childhood and adolescence.

Psychological Aspects of Language Acquisition

Theories about how children initially acquire language rely heavily on prevailing
psychological theories, and therefore, reflect more general points of view about how children learn.
To assume how children learn, we can underlie it through two main points. First, children do not
merely speak a simplified vision of adult language, they speak a language they construct
themselves. It means that some words which children have said it not totally got from adult
language but they try to produce language for themselves. Second, when children face the situation
around themselves, they try to make sense of the language so they can use it.

Hypothesis Testing
According to Piaget, language development occurs in much the same way that children’s
thinking develops. Most student learning occurs gradually as students make approximations to
what they are learning and increase their understanding by receiving confirming feedback. Other
language processes, such as reading and writing, require the same kind of interaction between the
learner and print or text (Rice, 1993, Santrock, 1995).

The Universality of Language Acquisition

Universality is one of the most fascinating characteristic of language (Howe, 1992). In
acquiring language, all people go through almost the same stage of nature of their language they
are learning. So children in all cultures appear predisposed to acquire language and in fact may be
born with an innate mechanism that is called “Programmed” to learn language.

Language: A Uniquely Human Ability

As people may be born with innate mechanism called “ Programmed” for leaning language
so there is only human who has capable of learning. Moreover there is no scientific proof that any
animal other than humans has the capacity for speech, including talking apes.

The Components of Language

Before discussing how language develops, let us define some basic terms to describe
various aspects of language. All languages, despite their differences, have common aspects: sound,
structure and meaning.

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ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY LECTURER: PHANN HENG

 Phonemes: are the small units of sound in language. For instance, English alphabet
consist of 26 letters, but each letter must be able to produce approximately 44
different phonemes or sound in other to speak English.
 Morphemes: (word formation) are the most basic units of meaning in language.
 Syntax: is the major components of grammar of a language (Sentence structure).
 Semantic: refers to the system of meaning of words within a context.
 Pragmatic: is the study of relationship between linguistic forms and the users of
those forms.

Theoretical Approach to Language Acquisition

According to Menyuk (1977) stated that there are various theories about language
acquisition can be categorized to help clarify their difference. There are four categories
representing difference explanations for language learning: biological, cognitive, sociological, and
behavioral.
 Biological basis for language acquisition: people are born with innate mechanism
and language learning also appears in which learning take place, and how
acquisition also depends on ages. For example, a young child learn vocabulary and
grammatical rules quickly learn faster than adolescence or childhood.
 Cognitive basis for language acquisition: attempt to describe and explain how
individual comprehend the meaning the inherent in language and how children
develop knowledge of morphemes and semantic. From cognitive perspective,
language acquisition occurs as children actively seek ways to express themselves
but sometime they overgeneralized the things they heard from adult. Finally, the
child will understand the concepts they are using and be able to use it correctly.
 Sociological basis for language acquisition: according to Vygotsky (1986) believed
that children acquire language mainly as result of communicating with adults.
Children may develop the rule of using grammar in particular situation and they
will be able to analyze and use it within various situational contexts.
 Behavioral and social learning bases for language acquisition: From a behavioral
perspective, children acquire language through the processes of discrimination and
generalization. In other word, children learn to speak because they are reinforced
for doing so.

Stages of Language Acquisition

In the following section, we describe the stages that all individuals go through as they
acquire language.
 Early communication and babbling: almost from birth, infants and the adult in their lives
communicate with one another. One of the earliest communication occurs when infant in
response to the mother’s smile. In addition, from about the age of 3 months, babies begin
babbling and near the age of 6 months, speech-like words increase and general babbling
decrease.

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ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY LECTURER: PHANN HENG

 First word and holophrases: children typically say their first words between the ages of 1
year and 15 months. A child first word usually consist of one or two syllable consonant-
vowel sounds such mama or dada. Children use one word-speech, called holophrases, as a
substitute for whole phrases or sentences to convey their thought.
 Telegraphic speech: according to Brown, 1973 stated that from about 11/2 to 2 year of age,
children use two words phrases, later three word phrases are called telegraphic speech.
 Language development in middle and later childhood: between the age of 5 and 7, children
discover that language is independent of experience and can be used to tell others what
they themselves think or feel. Moreover, language development continues into adulthood.
By the time children reach their middle grades, they begin to think about language beyond
their most immediate experiences.
 Adolescence and adulthood: between the age 13 and 17, students’ competence in written
language exceeds their competence in spoken language. In addition, adolescence is critical
period for students to increase their ability to formulate more complex concepts and to
construct new meaning and deal in more abstract ideas.

Language and Thought

The relationship between language and thinking remains unclear. Although there is
general agreement that language ability can positively affect one’s thinking ability, the specific
role that language plays in cognitive processes remains a mystery.

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ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY LECTURER: PHANN HENG

CHAPTER TWO:
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Discourse analysis is concerned with the study of relationship between language
and the contexts in which it is used. It grew out of work in different disciplines in the 1960s
and early 1970s, including linguistic, semiotic, psychology, anthropology, and sociology.
In addition, British discourse analysis was greatly influenced by M.A.K Halliday’s
approach to language, which in turn has connection with Prague School of linguistic.
Moreover, American discourse analysis has been dominated by work within the ethno
methodological tradition, which emphasizes the research method of close observation of
group of people communicating in natural settings.
Discourse can be defined as “language beyond the sentence” (Yule, 2006) which is
also regarded as a term for both spoken and written communication. It has grown into a
wide-ranging and heterogeneous discipline which finds it unity in the description of
language above the sentence and an interest in the contexts and cultural influence which
affect language in use.

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ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY LECTURER: PHANN HENG

UNIT ONE:
TEXT ANALYSIS

Text and discourse

The text is a written language which is always show the purpose or the intention the author
and its relation contexts of culture as fixed and stable.
 Text meaning: is seen as identical with the semantic signs it is composed of.
 Text explication: is used to retrieve the author’s intended meaning.
 Text deconstruction: explore the association reminded by the text.
Discourse: "Discourse" can mean spoken conversation or a written discussion of a single
topic.
The text and discourse are really relevant to each other. The text is written language and
discourse is spoken language. In this case, the reader and listener will be understand the author or
speaker via the conversation both in written or spoken speech. In addition, a text cannot give fuller
meaning if it is not view also as discourse.

Cohesion and Coherence

Cohesion: is made by the discourse it elicits between printed words and their readers.
Coherence: it engage the reader’s emotions and sensibility, but it can also be found in other
written texts.

Difference between Speech and Writing

Speech
1. Speech is transient, rather that
permanent.
2. Speech is additive or ‘rhapsodic’.
3. Speech is aggregative also called phatic
communion.
4. Speech is redundant or ‘copious’
5. Speech loosely structured grammatically
and lexically sparse.
6. Speech tends to be people centered
7. Speech is context dependent.
Writing
1. Writing is Permanent (can be stored,
retrieved, recollected, and respond can be
delayed)
2. Writing is hierarchically ordered within the
clause structure (By a high level of
cohesion).
3. Writing is viewed as the medium that
foster analysis, logical reasoning, and
abstract categorization.
4. Writing tends to avoid redundancy
5. Writing is grammatically compact and
dense.
6. Writing tends to be topic centered.
7. Writing is context reduced.

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ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY LECTURER: PHANN HENG

More feature of written texts

 External Reference/exophoric: when we read the written text, focus and find the meaning
outside the text or related to the real world.
 Internal Reference/endophoric: when all the meaning can be found within the text itself.

Lexical Density and Nominalization

 Lexical item: it consists of nouns, verbs, adjective,…etc.
 Lexical density: is defined as the number of lexical words (or content words) divided by
the total number of words. Lexical words give a text its meaning and provide information
regarding what the text is about. More precisely, lexical words are simply nouns,
adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. Nouns tell us the subject, adjectives tell us more about the
subject, verbs tell us what they do, and adverbs tell us how they do it.
 Nominalization: when we paraphrase text to be short and stay the same meaning by using
the lexical items and make a process as a “thing” or participant.
 The nominal group: is a group which the author turns the lexical items into noun and
building up the meaning around nouns, and even more meaning into the clause.

Factors Determining Texts

One factor which accounts for differences in texts is the purpose for which the text is being
used and the structure of such a text determine by the following stages:
 Stating the goal (what’s to be made or done)
 Outlining any materials or equipment needed
 Detailing the steps to be taken.
On the other hand, the purpose of recount is to tell what happened. To achieve the purpose
the text will move through a difference set of stages:
 An orientation letting the reader know who is involved, where, when, etc.
 The retelling of a series of a events in chronological sequence.

o Schematic structure is a representation of the elements of a system using abstract, graphic

symbols rather than realistic pictures.
o Genre is referred the particular text-types, not the traditional varieties of literature.
Moreover, there are also three types of language will be used to determine texts too:
 The relationship between the participants: speaker/listener, writer/reader (Tenor).
 The subject-matter of the text (Field).
 The channel of communication being used: written or spoken mode (Mode).
In short, these three factors together the register of the text. When we determine the meaning
of the text, we have to focus on tenor, field, and mode and we also focus who is register of the text

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ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY LECTURER: PHANN HENG

and what is the purpose of the texts are also related to the culture or something happening in the
our society nowadays.

Clause as Representation
1. Modeling Experience (functional grammar)
Our most impression of experience is that it consists of “going on – happening, doing,
sensing, meaning and being and becoming. Moreover, According to Halliday (2004, 177),
participants of the sentence depend on which type the process belongs to. There are 6 major
process type: material (doing), behavioral (physiological and psychological), mental (sensing),
verbal (saying), relational (being), and existential (existing/happening).

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ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY LECTURER: PHANN HENG

Process, participants and Circumstances

In principle, a process consists of three components:
i. the process itself
ii. participants in the process
iii. Circumstances associated in process.

Summary of Text Features

Text Type Social Purpose/s Typical Structure Typical grammatical
features
Narrative Entertain & instruct, -orientation -use of particular
dealing with usual & - complication with nouns
unexpected events evaluation -action verbs
-resolution -use of adverbials e.g.
time, place, extent,
manner etc.
Instructions Provide clear & -heading / title -no pronouns
(Procedures) unambiguous -list of materials / -use of imperatives
directions to reader to ingredients

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ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY LECTURER: PHANN HENG

perform specific -series of steps -extensive use of

actions towards -additional action verbs
specific outcome suggestions -use of adverbials
-visual aids (words or phrases
that provide details
about how, when,
where & why action
is performed.)
Recounts -reconstruct -orientation -verbs in past tense
experiences -events -adverbials of time
-retell past -reorientation -action verbs
experiences, events &
achievements, usually
to inform others,
sometimes to
entertain
Reports -to inform about a -title -technical language
particular object, -description -relating verbs
creature or (appearance, habitat, -general nouns
phenomenon behavior, threats) -present tense
-nominalization
Arguments -express an opinion -thesis/position -use of connectives
or point of view, -supporting -conjunctions
backed up by arguments -modals
evidence to support -position or
the case being mad reiteration
Explanation -provide an account -phenomenon -relational verbs
of how something identification -action verbs
works or reasons -series of events -technical
for some stages(events stages terminology and
phenomenon provide more detailed underlying
information about taxonomies
temporal or causal -no personal
sequences pronouns
-noun groups
-nominalization

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ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY LECTURER: PHANN HENG

UNIT TWO:
SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC
Definitions and Background
There are many excellent linguists define a variety of definition of pragmatic, but
pragmatic is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer)
and interpret by a listener (or reader). So we compact it into four meaning as below:
1. Pragmatic is the study of speaker meaning.
2. Pragmatic is the study of contextual meaning.
3. Pragmatic is the study of how more gets communicated than is said and also interpret
the speaker’s intended meaning.
4. Pragmatic is the study of expression of relative distance.

Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics

 Syntax is the study of relationships between linguistic forms, words and phrases, and
how they are arranged in sequence, and which sequence are well-formed. It is also the
relation between signs.
 Semantics is the study of relationship between linguistic forms and entities in the
world. In addition, others said that semantic is the relations between signs and the
world.
 Pragmatic is the study of relationship between linguistic forms and user of those forms.
In short, pragmatic is relation between signs and their users.

Regularity
Some of that regularity derives from the fact that people are members of social
groups and follow general patterns of behavior expected within the group. Another
source of regularity in language use derives from the fact that most people within a
linguistic community have similar basic experience of the world and share a lot of non-
linguistic knowledge. Last but not least, the type of regularities just described are
extremely simple examples of language in use which are largely ignored by most
linguistic analyses.

References and Inferences

Reference is an act in which a
speaker, or writer, uses linguistic
forms to enable a listener, or
reader, to identify something.
Those linguistic forms are
referring expressions, which can
be proper nouns, noun phrases
which definite and indefinite, and
pronouns.

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ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY LECTURER: PHANN HENG

Reference is clearly tied to the speaker’s goals and beliefs in the use of language.
Inference is the connecting prior knowledge to text based information to create
meaning beyond what is directly stated. The role of inference in communication is to
allow the listener to identify correctly which particular entity the speaker is referring
to.

Referential and attributive uses

 Attributive uses: when you don’t have any background information related to the
speakers, and you use whoever/whatever fits the description. For example, there’s
a man waiting for you (=any man).
 Referential uses: when a specific person is referred to, although his/her name or
some other description is not used and they already have the person in their mind
too. For instance, there was no sign of the killer. (In the news, a person’s identified
to murder, chased into a building, so it means that they already have the suspect
in their mind, but not mentioned about them).

Name and referents

The basic “intention-to-identify” and a “recognition-of-intention” collaboration at
work is the relation between one speaker and one listener in term of convention
between all member in community who share common language and culture.
 Name: when you use any names to mention things or process.
e.g, a. Can I borrow your Shakespeare?
b. yeah, it’s over there on the table.
In short, Shakespeare is a name of Mr. Shakespeare but in this case, the author
refers Shakespeare to book or things not people.
 Referents: when you use something or things to modified people.
e.g. a. Where is the cheese sandwich sitting?
b. He’s over there by the window.
This sentence meaning that there is someone whom they don’t know came to
restaurant and order cheese sandwich, so the waiter use the word cheese sandwich to refer
to people.

The role of co-text

Co-text is the linguistic environment in which a word is used. The co-text clearly
limits our range of possible interpretations we might have for a word.
e.g, Brazil win the world cup. Brazil would be the referring expression, and the rest of
the sentence is co-text.

Cooperative and Implicature

We usually assumed that the speakers and listener involved in conversation are
generally operating with each other. The sense of cooperation is simply one in which

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ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY LECTURER: PHANN HENG

people having a conversation are normally saying the truth. So we have the general
idea that when people involved in conversation, they will cooperate each other.
 Tautologies: is an apparently meaningless expression in which one word is
defined as itself. It seem it doesn’t have communicative value since it express
something completely obvious. In addition, if the speakers use this kind of sentence in
conversation, clearly the speaker intends to communicate more than is said.
Example: A hamburger is a hamburger.
 Implicature: is an additional conveyed meaning that a meaning has to be
assumed in other to maintain the cooperative principle.

The Cooperative Principle

Consider the following scenario:
Man : Does your bite?
Woman : No.
(The man reaches down to pet the dog. The dog bites the man’s hand.)
Man : Ouch! Hey! You said your dog doesn’t bite.
Woman : He doesn’t. But that’s not by dog.
Specifically, it seems to be a problem caused by the man’s assumption that more was
communicated that was said.
 It isn’t the problem with presupposition because the assumption in ‘your dog’ is true for
both speakers.
 The problem is the man’s assumption that his question.
 From the man’s perspective, the woman’s answer provides less information that expected.
 Cooperative Principle: is a basic assumption in conversation that each participant
will attempt to contribute appropriately, at the required time, to the current exchange of talk.
 Maxims: Quality, Quantity, relation and manner.
 Quantity: is to make your contribution as informative as is required. One of the
maxims in which the speaker has to be neither more or less informative than is
necessary.
 Quality: try to make your contribution one that is true. One of the maxims, in which
the speaker has to be truthful.
 Relation: Be relevant. One of the maxims, in which the speaker has to be relevant
and relating to the thing that is being discussed.
 Manner: Be perspicuous. One of the maxims, in which the speaker has to be clear,
brief, and clearly.

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ANGKOR KHEMARA UNIVERSITY LECTURER: PHANN HENG

Hedges
Hedges: are the cautious note which can be used to show that the speaker is conscious
of the quantity of maxim and also can be the expression that we use to indicate that what
we are saying not be totally accurate. Here is some example of maxims as below:
Example: Maxims of quantity:
a. As you probably know, I am terrified of bugs.
b. So, to cut a long story short, we grabbed our stuff and ran.
c. I won’t be bored you with all the detail, but it was the exciting trip.

The awareness of the expectations of manner may also lead the speakers to produce hedges of the
type shown in the example below.
Example: Maxims of manner:
a. This may be a bit confused, but I remember being in a car.
b. I’m not sure if this makes sense, but the car had no lights.
c. I don’t know if this is clear at all, but I think the other car was reversing.

(*All the italic and red color phrases are maxims.)

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