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Course Module EL. 100 Week 1
Course Module EL. 100 Week 1
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Gingoog City Colleges, Inc.
Macopa St., Paz Village, Brgy. 24-A, Gingoog City
(088) 861 1432 Ext 7385
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College of Education
EL 100: Introduction to Linguistics
1st Semester of A.Y. 2020-2021
Introduction
Rationale
There are a lot of questions that can be asked about language, some
scientific, some not. One such question is: Which is the oldest language in the world?
Several centuries ago, researchers were much concerned with this question,
however, it does not have a reliable answer, simply because we cannot go so far
into the history of humanity. Another often asked question is about the features that
all natural human languages share. The American linguist Charles Hockett has
pointed out a number of such properties. Here are some of them:
a) all languages have vowels and consonants;
b) all languages have words;
c) all languages can create new words when required and modify their meanings;
d) all languages are open-ended in the sense that they can produce totally new
utterances which are understood by the users of the language;
e) all languages can form questions;
f) in all languages it is possible to talk about things and situations that are removed
from the immediate situation of the speaker (this is called displacement);
g) in all languages we can use hypothetical, unreal, and fictional utterances.
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MODULE WEEK NO.1
Activity
Gives the function of the remark made by the indicated persons in the
situations. Support your claim.
COURSE MODULE
1. A woman goes to the grocery: returns a bottle of milk and makes the
remark to the grocer
2. The same woman talking with her husband before she has the chance to
return the milk. Her husband who usually takes cream with his coffee is
making a cup of coffee for himself when the woman makes the remark.
3. The same woman returns from the grocery with the replacement of the
bottle of milk she returned. She pour the milk in the pack lunch for her son,
the poor boy makes the remark even if the milk is not really sour.
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MODULE WEEK NO.1
Discussion
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Functions of Language
Do you recall what Searle and Austin said about the nature of language? They said-
“When we say something, we are also doing it.”
- Let us look at these situations and determine what you are actually doing as
you say the remark.
Situation One
Questions
1. What are you doing when you make the remark?
2. What other remark could you say to express the same idea?
3. What is the several response that goes with that remark?
COURSE MODULE
Situation Two
You meet a person on a street and you want to ask directions. You try to catch
his eye and you say:
Ex cuse me
Questions
1. Are you apologizing this time?
2. What then are you doing?
3. What response will that remark call for this time?
Situation three
Someone accuses you of something you didn’t do. You look at her sternly and say:
Excuse me
Questions
4. What are you doing this time?
5. What other expressions could you use to give the same idea?
6. What response would you expect?
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2. Regulatory Control events once approving
they happen
Theory A
First, some bright mind comes up with an idea and expounds on it. This is his Thesis.
Others see the wisdom of his assertion or thesis and so they follow him and a school
of thought is born.
But then, another brilliant person reacts to what the first person said and takes the
opposite stand and so that becomes the antithesis. He too will have followers of his
own.
A third one comes and sees the wisdom of both schools of thought.
He tries to put up the two together and now comes up with or synthesis.
But the swing to the other end continues followed by another reaction resulting in a
continuous swinging from one end to the other but with each swing and counter
movement, something new is added.
Theory B
First, some perceptive mind observes what happens and comes up with an idea or
paradigm enters the nature of science period and many schools subscribing to that
paradigm development.
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Then, someone finds a flaw or anomaly in the paradigm.
At first there are attempts to reconcile the anomaly but soon nothing can be done
to correct it and so a new paradigm is born.
The new paradigm goes through the same process of maturing until an anomaly is
again discovered and the cycle and new paradigm something is added.
Theory A
Thesis Anti-thesis
Synthesis
COURSE MODULE
Theory B
Now let us turn our attention to the shifts in the theories of language. As you move
from one theory to another, determine if the shifts follow the pendulum like or the
cyclical model of change. You will also be asked after each theory to show in a
paradigm how the theory may be presented automatically
The Beginning
At first, the grammar of many languages was studied in relation to Latin
grammar that is they were Latin- based grammars. This was because at the time
emphasis was on the classic. For a man to be considered learned, he had to know
the classics. Since Latin was a classical language, other languages were studied in
relation to it. That was the age of classical Humanism.
But with the onset of the scientific period, in the early 1900’s, languages
were studied independently as systems with significant sounds as the smallest unit.
The sounds when combined come up with meaningful units like words which form
the next higher level in the system.
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When words are combined, following a certain orderly utterances are
formed. These sentences or utterances can be put together to form paragraphs or
discourse. Thus language was considered a structure, a system where the lower
units combined to form the next higher units. This structural approach to language
up to the 60’s.
Discourse
Paragraphs
Grammar of
Sentences
COURSE MODULE
Meaningful units
Words and affixes
Significant sound
In the 60’s an anomaly was found in the theory that language is a system of form
made up of sounds that combine to form meaningful units which in turn form
sentences or utterances when they are arranged in a certain order.
The anomaly was that sometimes you use the same form but come up with different
meanings. A teacher who asks some students, “why are you giggling?” as she gives
her lectures is actually reprimanding them and telling them to stop laughing. But if
the same question is asked by a friend as she joins the giggling girls, she is not
reprimanding them and telling them to stop laughing. Rather, she is asking the
reason for the laughter so she can join in their amusement. Although the same forms
are used, the meaning changes because the person interacting change. So
language is not just forms, that is, the message or what is said having a locutionary
force. It is also what one does as he says it or the function of the utterance which
has an illocutionary force. The response to the utterance is that the girls should
giggling when the teacher says “why are you giggling?” but they can continue to
do so and share the reason for their amusement when it is their friend who asks the
question. The expected response would be the perlocutionary force.
In such an instance all three forces- locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary are
considered. Language is viewed not just as a system made up of forms but as a
means of communication. For one to know the language and be communicatively
competent, it is not enough to master the correct usage of the forms, that is, to have
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linguistic competence. One should also know the appropriate rules of use accepted
by society. So, he should have sociolinguistic competence. Then, too, since
communication calls for an utterance followed by a response, then it is concerned
not just with single unrelated sentences but with relation across sentences. This would
mean a text made up of several related sentences and this would call for discoursal
competence. Finally, at times, one may not be understood when he says something,
so he should rephrase and keep simplifying what he says until he is understood. That
means he should have several strategies of communication. He should have
strategic competence. This paradigm was popular until the mid 80’s.
COURSE MODULE
From the mid-80’s another change in the theory of language took place. It
was in England that another anomaly was discovered an observation was made
and a question raised, “why was it that the students there whose native language
was English had a difficult time understanding their academic textbooks which were
written in English? So the conclusion was reached that the textbook required
Cognitive Academic Language proficiency or CALP whereas the dimension of
English that the students knew was made up of basic interpersonal communication
skills or BICS. Whereas CALP was cognitively demanding. BICS was cognitively
undemanding. And whereas CALP was context-reduced, or had few clues in the
context to make it understandable, BICs had enough clues embedded in its context
to make what was said easy to comprehend.
Cognitively
Undemanding
Context Context
embedded embedded
Cognitively
Undemanding
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Exercise
Directions: Gives the function of the remark made by the indicated persons in
the situations. Support your claim.
A.
B.
Assessment
Directions: To sum it up, see if you can complete this paragraph
Language theories have several shifts. At first, the study of languages was
based on (1) ___. Then, languages were studied independently as a system
made up of ____(2)_____composed of significant sounds that combine to form
____(3)_____ which in turn combine to form _______(4)________The sentences can be
put together to form texts of paragraphs.
Later, the theory of language changed. It was viewed as a mean
of_______(5)_______. So the goal was to develop _______(6)________. This is seen as
having four competencies: ______(7)______ sociolinguistic competence, discoursal
competence an ______(8)______.
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Today, language is viewed as having _____(9)______dimensions. These are
CALP or ______(10)_______and BICS or the Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills.
Reflection
Observations Interpretations
Definitions
Additional References:
Crowley, Terry. 1997. Introduction to Historical Linguistics, 3rd ed.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Salzmann, Zdenek. 2004. Language, Culture, and Society, 3rd ed. Oxford:
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Westview Press.
COURSE MODULE
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