Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
2
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
Table of Contents
Page
ULOb ........................................................................................................... 16
Metalanguage ............................................................................................... 16
Essential Knowledge ................................................................................... 17
Self-Help ............................................................................................... 24
Let’s Check ............................................................................................... 25
Let’s Analyze …………………………………………………………………… 25
Nutshell ............................................................................................... 27
ULOb ........................................................................................................... 41
Metalanguage ............................................................................................... 41
Essential Knowledge ................................................................................... 41
Self-Help ............................................................................................... 45
Let’s Check .................................................................................... 45
3
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
ULOb ........................................................................................................... 65
Metalanguage ............................................................................................... 65
Essential Knowledge ................................................................................... 66
Self-Help ............................................................................................... 72
Let’s Check .................................................................................... 72
Let’s Analyze .................................................................................... 73
Nutshell ............................................................................................... 77
ULOb ........................................................................................................... 92
Metalanguage ............................................................................................... 92
Essential Knowledge ................................................................................... 92
Self-Help ............................................................................................... 95
Let’s Check .................................................................................... 96
Let’s Analyze …………………………………………………………………… 96
Nutshell ............................................................................................... 97
4
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
6
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
7
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
CC’s Voice: Hello future educators! Welcome to this course ELT 121: Language,
Culture and Society. By now, I am confident that you really wanted to become a
language teacher as well as a skilled teacher and that you have visualized yourself
already being in front of the classroom teaching the English language skills needed by
your future students.
CO Before the actual teaching performance, you must deal with the concept of
how language, culture and society are connected. There are discussion of
concepts that will enhance our understanding of language and how it
shaped our worldviews. We can also observe in our environment the
realities of culture affecting our conversation with the use of language.
Let us begin!
8
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
Big Picture
Week 1-3: Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO): At the end of the unit, you are expected
to:
a. Demonstrate a sound understanding of language acquisition and its theories.
b. Explain the cultural influences upon language acquisition.
Metalanguage
For you to demonstrate ULOa, you will need to have a wide range of
understanding of the terms, concept and theories of language acquisition. You need to
understand the following terms as they will be important in the lesson.
Key Terms:
Essential Knowledge
To perform the aforesaid big picture (unit learning outcomes) for the first three (3)
weeks of the course, you need to fully understand the following essential knowledge
that will be laid down in the succeeding pages. Please note that you are not limited to
exclusively refer to these resources. Thus, you are expected to utilize other books,
research articles and other resources that are available in the university’s library e.g.
ebrary, search.proquest.com etc.
Language Acquisition 1
9
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
Input
Under normal circumstances, human infants are certainly helped in their
language acquisition by the typical behavior of older children and adults in the home
environment who provide language sample, or input, for the child. The speech style of
someone who always spend time interacting with the infant incorporates a lot of forms
associated with “baby talk”. This style can either be simplified words or alternative
forms, with repeated simple sounds and syllables, for things that surround the child. It is
also characterized with consistent use of questions, often using exaggerated intonation,
extra loudness and a slower tempo with longer pauses.
Stages of Language Development
1. Cooing- the earliest use of speech sounds has been described as cooing. During the
first few months of an infant’s life, the infant is gradually capable of producing vowel-like
sounds like high vowels [i] and [u]. By four months, infants will develop velar sounds
where they are able to use the back of their tongue hence, our common description of
“cooing” or “gooing”.
2. Babbling- on this stage, a child is producing a number of vowel and consonant sounds,
as well as a combination of these such as ba-ba-ba and ga-ga-ga. We call this type as
“babbling”.
3. One-word stage- between twelve to eighteen months, children begin to produce a
variety of recognizable single unit utterances. Single terms are uttered for everyday
objects such as “milk”, “cookie”, “cat”, “cup” and “spoon” the other term for this is
holophrastic (meaning a single form functioning as a phrase or sentence).
4. Two -word stage- on this stage, an occurrence of two distinct words is used together
around 18 to 20 months of a child’s life. Words like big boat, mama dress, doggie bark,
hit ball, etc. In this stage as well, adult interaction became fuller as feedbacks are
consistently forming from the child to another dyads.
5. Telegraphic speech- this stage is around two and two-and-a-half years old and is
characterized by strings of words (lexical morphemes) in phrases or sentences such as
this shoe all wet, cat drink milk, and daddy go bye-bye. Developing sentences here is
evident.
By age 3 or 4, most children have acquired sufficient proficiency in language that they
are able to carry on productive conversations with the people around them.
10
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
Theorists have offered numerous explanations for how children learn their native
language. Let us investigate these theorist explaining language acquisition.
Many theorist claimed that language development is a result of a modelling process that
children simple imitate the speech of other people. In some degree, observation and imitation of
others are greatly involved in their language acquisition. Sounds patterns that parents or a
caretaker are occasionally imitated by these young acquirers. Even specific words and
expressions are being picked up by these young acquirers.
Behaviorist like B. F. Skinner (1957) claimed that reinforcement plays a vital role, to that
of the parents and other adults in the home environment of a child where praise or in other ways
a reward/s is available. He also believed that infants make a variety of speech sounds in a
seemingly random fashion where adults respond favorably to and so making these young
acquirers encouraged to repeat but only to those speech sounds in their local language.
2. Nativism
There are also biological theories to explain language acquisition. Noam Chomsky, a
pioneer of this approach known as nativism, he proposed that children have a biologically
built-in mechanism know as language acquisition device where this device enables them to
learn many complex aspects of language. This devoice provides a a prewired knowledge and
skills that make the work of learning a language possible and much simpler.
Another evidence also proving Chomsky’s claim comes from a brain research. The left
hemisphere of the cortex dominates in speech and language comprehension. Two specific
regions of the left cortex of the brain seem to specialize in language functions. The right
hemisphere is actively involved in sifting through multiple possible meanings to ambiguous
statement, perceiving humor and sarcasm and using sign languages.
However, this theory is considered only as part of a neurological mechanism of the brain,
in spite of these biological and psychological evidences, there are still theories that can give a
better explanation on language acquisition.
This theory focuses on the specific cognitive processes that children use as they acquire
language. From an information processing perspective, one essential ingredient in language
learning is attention. Infants pay attention to human speech. They show some preferences on
human voices and in some cases expects and give efforts to receive one. Reasoning also
played a role in language development. Fairly enough, this theory sets a ground breaking
explanation for language learning but theorist also take note of another factor that can
contribute to language learning which is the environment.
4. Sociocultural Theory
11
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
Socialization can foster language development and children are being socialized to use
language. Language socialization involves both explicit instruction about language (e.g., parents
may insist that children say “please” and “thank you”) and more indirect means of
communicating
_________________________________________________
1 Yule, G. (2014). The study of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 170-174
2 https://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/samplechapter/0/1/3/6/0136101291.pdf
appropriate linguistic behaviors (e.g., parents may model turn taking and other cultural
conventions of social interaction). Furthermore, social interactions provide a means through
which children internalize language. Consistent with Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive
development, children use words first in their interactions with others, and then, through the
process of internalization, gradually incorporate these words into their everyday thought
processes.
1. Jourdan, C. and Tuite K. (eds). (2006). Language, Culture, and Society: An introduction to
Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 40-65; 192-215.
2. Kramsch, C. (ed.). (2002). Language Acquisition and Language Socialization: Ecological
Perspective. New York: Continuum. pp. 31-172
3. Schieffelin, B. B. and Ochs, E. (eds.). (1995). Language Socialization across Cultures.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.80-96.
Let’s Check
Activity 1. Provide what is asked in the items below.
1. How can language be developed in the perspective of a behaviorist?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________.
2. What theory in language acquisition that explains the biological mechanism of
our body? Can this theory be considered as having a plausible explanation
towards language development? Why?
12
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Let’s Analyze
Activity 1. Directions: Interview a parent of a young child (between the ages of three to five)
and answer as many of the following questions about the child’s language development. Then,
on the next page paste pictures of the said interview as a form of evidence (please follow safety
protocol for the interview).
1. What is the child’s gender, and current age? What the language/s spoken at home?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
___________________.
2. When did the child start cooing and babbling? What did it sound like? (write the parent’s
answer phonetically).
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
13
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________.
3. What was the child’s first word or words? At what was the child’s age when they speak
them?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________.
4. What was the meaning of the child’s first holophrastic utterances?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
__________________________________.
5. What were some of the child’s two-word utterances? What did they mean?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
__________________________________.
6. How do the parent’s recollections of their child’s development differ from the information
in this chapter? What do you think is the reason for the differences? Analyze and discuss
your conclusions.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
14
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
__________________________________.
In a Nutshell
Based from the terms we learn and essential knowledge about language acquisition
theories, please feel free to write your arguments or lessons learned below.
Q & A List
This section is a place for you to raise your questions and queries that you feel the instructor
should give attention to. Feel free to ask relevant questions related from the course here. This Q
& A portion helps in the review of concepts and essential knowledge.
Questions/Issues
Answers
15
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Keywords Index
This section lists down the keywords for easy recall of concepts.
16
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
Metalanguage
For you to demonstrate ULOb, you will need to have a wide range of
understanding of the different types of language assessment and testing. You need to
understand the following terms as they will be important in the lesson.
Key Terms:
● Language Relativity - the structure of a language influences the way its speakers conceptualize
the world
● Speech acts- an utterance considered as an action, particularly with regard to its intention,
purpose, or effect.
● Conversation analysis- is an approach to the study of social interaction, embracing both verbal
and non-verbal conduct, in situations of everyday life.
● Cultural frames- the unspoken systems of meaning at play in affecting our behavior, our attitudes,
and our decisions.
17
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
● Metasemiotic- the focus on the speaker would have to be on the individual person as speaker,
that is, as engaged in a speech act, rather than, say, as a person in general.
Essential Knowledge
To perform the aforesaid big picture (unit learning outcomes) for the first to third
week of the course, you need to fully understand the following essential knowledge that
will be laid down in the succeeding pages. Please note that you are not limited to
exclusively refer to these resources. Thus, you are expected to utilize other books,
research articles and other resources that are available in the university’s library e.g.
ebrary, search.proquest.com etc.
To be able to understand the influences of culture to language use, we will draw out
psycho- and sociolinguistics, educational linguistics and linguistic anthropology to
explain the connections of culture to language. To have a glance of this lesson, let us
organized around three major questions to provide a discussion in this lesson:
________________________________________
1 Schieffelin, & Ochs, E.(1995). Language Socialization across Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.80-96.
Language relativity perceives the way the language that people use and shapes
the way they think. Sapir claimed that “Language is a guide to social reality it powerfully
conditions all our thinking about social problems and processes. The ‘real world’ is to a
large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group. No two
languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social
reality. The world in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the
same world with different labels attached.” In language relativity, there are particularly
three levels: the semiotic level, linguistic level and discursive level.
● Semiotic relativity concerns about how speaking any natural language at all may
influence thinking. The question is whether having a code with a symbolic component
(versus one confined to iconic and indexical elements) transforms thinking in certain
ways. If so, we can speak of a semiotic relativity of those aspects of thought with respect
to other species or individuals lacking such a code. For example, here we would include
18
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
not only animal comparisons, but also studies showing cognitive deficits arising from lack
of access to verbal input during early periods of life (e.g. among the deaf) as well as the
cognitive advantages for classification and memory abilities arising from the mere
presence of a verbal or other symbolic label. The influence of language on thought at
this level has long been recognized, although much remains to be learned about the
specific mechanisms.
● Linguistic relativity concerns about how speaking one or more particular natural
languages (e.g., Hopi versus English) may influence thinking. The question is whether
quite different morphosyntactic configurations of meaning affect some aspects of
thinking about reality. If so, we can speak of a structural relativity of thought with respect
to speakers using different language codes. This has been the level traditionally
associated with the term structural relativity and will be the focus here. Long
controversial, the existence of cognitive effects is now widely recognized although
controversies still exist over how profound they are in terms of process type or
behavioral impact.
● Discursive relativity concerns about whether using language in a particular way (e.g.
schooled, scientific) may influence thinking. The question is whether verbal discursive
practices affect some aspects of thinking either by modulating structural influences or by
directly influencing the interpretation of interactional context. If so, we can speak of a
functional relativity of thought with respect to speakers using language differently. This
level can be conveniently referred to as discursive relativity. Although there is an
abundance of evidence that training in these functional regimes has effects, there is
much disagreement as to whether the effects are due to social or cognitive factors,
especially in the context of schooling. Claims about discursive relativity assert that in
addition to any social factors, some functional practices actually enhance the cognitive
power of language with regard to certain goals.
In sum, various fields of research related to Applied Linguistics have made it easier
in recent decades to conceptualize how culture is encoded in the linguistic sign and its
use. Culture is linked to language in three major ways: semiotically, linguistically,
discursively.
How is cultural meaning expressed pragmatically through verbal action?
19
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
in the eighties (Blum-Kulka et al. 1989) was a pathbreaking project that compared how
requests and apologies were realized across different national languages and their
national cultures. Discourse completion tests (DCT) and situational role-plays were used
to elicit plausible rejoinders uttered by native speakers in distinct pragmatic situations,
such as requesting that a roommate clean up the kitchen, or apologizing for not returning
a book to your professor on time. This methodology was the object of frequent
adjustments, first requesting an open-ended utterance, then providing a contextual
constraint in the form of a third rejoinder. But still the DCT left too much to the
imagination of the respondents and their idiosyncratic understandings of the situation to
be able to provide a reliable measure of pragmatic competence pegged to “the native
speaker”.
● Culturally Inflected Conversation Analysis. As Conversation Analysis (CA) gained in
importance in Applied Linguistics as a method to measure gains in grammatical and
discourse competence, the need was felt to incorporate a cultural dimension in a method
that remained strictly focused on what the participants were orienting to in the
conversation itself. Culture was brought into the picture by Moerman (1988), based on
his work in Thailand and his memorable transcriptions of conversations between rice
farmers and the local authorities. He was the first applied linguist to include cultural and
historical knowledge in the field of conversation analysis. His work enabled applied
conversation analysts to include perceptions, memories, and cultural beliefs into their
data as long as it could be shown that the participants were orienting to them at the time
of utterance.
● Cultural Frames. Tannen (1993) showed the importance of cultural frames to
understand events. These “frames of expectation” were studied as social roles (e.g.,
what men and women expect of each other in conversation) or characteristics of a
conversational style (e.g., California vs. New York Jewish style). Researchers gained
access to these invisible frames by eliciting narratives from pictures or videos without
words, such as Wallace Chafe’s The Pear Story, that make visible a storyteller’s
assumptions about stories and their culturally-specific expectations about human
motives and actions. Tannen found that, when they retold the pear story, her American
informants paid much more attention to the cinematic aspects of the video than her
Greek informants, who focused more on evaluating the motives and intentions of the
characters and on passing moral judgments.
20
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
21
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
In sum, the performative turn in the study of language and culture within a
post-structuralist perspective does not, as many have feared, transform culture into a
merely discursive process, open to all the relativity and subjectivity of individuals’ verbal
utterances and with no clear agreed upon social boundaries. It does underscore the
man-made nature of culture, its historicity, its disciplining power and its power to impose
on a social group definition of what is taken-for-normal, the shared understanding of
people and events.
22
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
1. Jourdan, C. and Tuite K. (eds). (2006). Language, Culture, and Society: An introduction to
Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 40-65; 192-215.
2. Kramsch, C. (ed.). (2002). Language Acquisition and Language Socialization: Ecological
Perspective. New York: Continuum. pp. 31-172
3. Schieffelin, B. B. and Ochs, E. (eds.). (1995). Language Socialization across Cultures.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.80-96.
Let’s Check
Let’s Analyze
23
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
Activity 1. In this activity, you are required to watch a video, follow the link below and
answer the following questions.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k
24
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
In a Nutshell
Our discussion to cover ULOb, can be summarized by the following key points below:
● cultural meaning is encoded in the linguistic sign
● cultural meaning is expressed pragmatically through verbal action
● culture is co-constructed by participants in spoken interaction
Your turn. What did you learn about the influence of culture to language?
1. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Q & A List
This section is a place for you to raise your questions and queries that you feel the
instructor should give attention to. Feel free to ask relevant questions related from the
course here. This Q & A portion helps in the review of concepts and essential
knowledge.
Do you have any question for clarification?
Questions/Issues Answer
1.
25
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
2.
3.
4.
5.
Keywords Index
This section lists down the keywords for easy recall of concepts.
Metalanguage
For you to demonstrate ULOa, you will need to have a wide range of
understanding of the concept of verbal art. How verbal art leads to culture and
language. You need to understand the following terms as they will be important in the
lesson.
Key Terms:
Essential Knowledge
To perform the aforesaid big picture (unit learning outcomes) for the fourth to fifth
week of the course, you need to fully understand the following essential knowledge that
will be laid down in the succeeding pages. Please note that you are not limited to
exclusively refer to these resources. Thus, you are expected to utilize other books,
research articles and other resources that are available in the university’s library e.g.
ebrary, search.proquest.com etc.
Verbal Art 1
Verbal Art is experienced by children for those who love stories like folktales, myths,
legends, proverbs, and other "literary forms" from the other materials which are
commonly considered as folklore. Art it is only necessary to compare myths, folktales,
proverbs and riddles with the direct statements of ordinary speech to see a similar
concern with the form of expression, over and above the needs of communication.
As Social Rituals
27
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
Rituals are typically formal social ceremonies that take place in a prescribed way,
often in a sacred context. It follows established customs, such as when those getting
married say their vows to one another. These rituals convey information about the
culture and about the participants of that culture. Participating in a ritual provides an
opportunity for an individual to fulfill a social commitment to their community of people.
A wedding is as example of social ritual.
Verbal art includes not only spoken word texts but all forms of art created with
language, including literature.
● Folktales- these are stories that grew out of the lives and imaginations of the people, or
folk. They have always been children's favorite type of folk literature. Their popularity
springs from their imaginative characters, their supernatural elements, their focus on
action, their simple sense of justice, their happy endings, and the fundamental wisdom
they contain.
● Myths- are set in olden times, even in pre-historic times. However, legends are stories
about people and their actions, or deeds they perform to save their people or nations.
● Proverb- a short sentence that people often quote, which gives advise or tells you
something about life. Example: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend"
● Riddle- a statement or question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth
as a puzzle to be solved. Example: The more you take, the more you leave behind. What
am I? Answer: footsteps
Engaging your audience means giving them a way to connect with you and your
performance. It isn’t as much about you connecting with them, though engagement
definitely goes both ways. Three methods to engage audience: (sense of wonder,
emotion and engagement)
1. A sense of wonder might be expressed by the audience as “How does she do that? “or
I’ve never seen anything like this.” This is both the simplest and the most challenging
form of engagement. As a performer, you invoke wonder by a combination of your
flawless technical skill, your bravery, and your creative act development.
28
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
2. Emotion engagement comes via a “that could be me” feeling or connection to the
audience’s personal experience.
3. Relationships between the characters provoke emotional responses in the audience. To
create this sort of engagement, make sure your act has a story, a personality, or an
abstract but obvious emotional component. Getting the audience to clap to a rhythm,
inviting them to make suggestions, or having them call out a word on cue are all good
ways to interact with a crowd who can’t be on stage with you.
Literary value does not include the values expressed or implied in a text but refers
specifically to how one can attribute worth to a text in terms of its value to 'civilization', a
culture, a society, or a particular group of people.
Cultural values are the core principles and ideals upon which an entire community
exists. This is made up of several parts: customs, which are traditions and rituals;
values, which are beliefs; and culture, which is all of a group's guiding values
1. Jourdan, C. and Tuite K. (eds). (2006). Language, Culture, and Society: An introduction to
Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 40-65; 192-215.
2. Kramsch, C. (ed.). (2002). Language Acquisition and Language Socialization: Ecological
Perspective. New York: Continuum. pp. 31-172
3. Schieffelin, B. B. and Ochs, E. (eds.). (1995). Language Socialization across Cultures.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.80-96.
Let’s Check
______________________________________________________________________
_________________.
2. Explain how culture is seen in verbal arts?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________.
3. How can verbal art be studied linguistically?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________.
Let’s Analyze
Activity 1. In this activity, you are required to create a six stanza rhyming poem. Using
the vernacular language. In your poem, you must showcase your culture (anything that
will relate to your culture).
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
30
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
31
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
In a Nutshell
Your turn. What did you learn about the influence of culture to language?
1. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Q & A List
This section is a place for you to raise your questions and queries that you feel the
instructor should give attention to. Feel free to ask relevant questions related from the
course here. This Q & A portion helps in the review of concepts and essential
knowledge.
Do you have any question for clarification?
Questions/Issues Answer
1.
2.
32
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
3.
4.
5.
Keywords Index
This section lists down the keywords for easy recall of concepts.
Metalanguage
33
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
For you to demonstrate ULOb, you will need to have a wide range of
understanding of the terms and the concept of cultural identity and their connection to
language. You need to understand the following terms as they will be important in the
lesson.
Key Terms:
Essential Knowledge
To perform the aforesaid big picture (unit learning outcomes) for the fourth to fifth
week of the course, you need to fully understand the following essential knowledge that
will be laid down in the succeeding pages. Please note that you are not limited to
exclusively refer to these resources. Thus, you are expected to utilize other books,
research articles and other resources that are available in the university’s library e.g.
ebrary, search.proquest.com etc.
Cultural identity is the sense of belonging towards a culture. This belonging can
be justified with the shared set of companionship, principles or beliefs of living.
Basically, it can be considered as owning the culture and its various boundaries
of ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, and gender. And owning the culture means
that the person embraces all the traditions that have been passed down throughout
history. The cultural identity reveals the person’s heritage, as well as help identify with
others who have the same traditions or similar belief structures.
cultural acts which would have otherwise been abandoned if not for the ownership
demonstrated by the culture’s youth.
● Nationality. It is the country that the person is born in, and/or the country that the person
currently lives in. It determines cultural identity because the person adopts the culture of
that country.
● Ethnicity. It is the culture of the person and is a very crucial aspect of cultural identity as
the person usually has the culture of his/her respective ethnicity. It also often helps
identify the physical looks of the person.
● Religion. It is the set of moral beliefs and principles related to the existence of God and
the world. It contributes to cultural identity by helping in determining the personal and
moral characteristics of the person. Religions have throughout time, shaped many
cultures.
Levels of Identification
There are numerous levels of identification that are conveyed by means of language:
1. The national level- the national level and the ethnic and/or regional one, that for
historical reasons play a significant role and on which we will dwell shortly.
2. Rank or social class- the expressions we use when speaking to others always reflect
the status relationship between ‘them’ and ‘us’; close, friendly relations or formal reserve,
respect and deference require different forms of exchange.
35
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
__________________________________
1 https://www.cleverism.com/lexicon/cultural-identity/
3. Level of sexual identity or gender- in all societies the ‘proper’ way for women to speak
is different from that for men, a difference that sometimes goes as far as to the
methodical use of a special vocabulary and of different syntactical structures. In
European societies it is usually inappropriate for a woman to use expressions that are
too ‘strong’ and direct, or to use pronunciation that is the characteristic of dialect or
slang.
4. The level of generation- the words that teenagers use are very distinct from what the
older generations might use. Teen speak is very good marker of identity for teenagers.
Similarly, adults and elderly people use words that teenagers wouldn't usually use, so
they would be markers of identity for adults.
5. The level of professional identity- the identifying cohesive element here is the sharing
of technical and special languages, of jargon that is not familiar to the community at
large.
Your grammar may be a little different and people will think that you are speaking
"bad English" but that is not the encouraged perspective people should be taking, it is
just a result of grammar from another language being adopted into the person's speech
when they speak English and as a result they speak an ethnolect.
Language and identity are inseparably associated with each other. While language is
the medium used by individuals to negotiate a sense of self in different contexts identity
construction is a social and cultural process which is accomplished through discursive
practices. Therefore, the ability to use a specific language in a specific context
influences the development of cultural by creating a tension between the discourse of
the dominant culture and the discourse of the subculture of second language speakers.
36
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
Culture and language shape one’s identity and personality. There is much importance of
culture and language to one’s individual identity.
Let’s Check
37
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________.
Let’s Analyze
Activity 1. In this activity, you are required to interview at least two senior citizens and
ask them the following questions. Please do social distancing as you do the interview.
Senior Citizen 1:
1. What have you notice about the language of the youth in this time?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
2. What are the words that were spoken before but are not spoken in this
generation anymore?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
____________________________.
Senior Citizen 2:
1. What have you noticed about the language of the youth in this time?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
38
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
2. What are the words that were spoken before but are not spoken in this
generation anymore?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________
39
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
In a Nutshell
Your turn. What did you learn about the influence of cultural identity to language?
1. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Q & A List
This section is a place for you to raise your questions and queries that you feel the
instructor should give attention to. Feel free to ask relevant questions related from the
course here. This Q & A portion helps in the review of concepts and essential
knowledge.
Do you have any question for clarification?
Questions/Issues Answer
1.
2.
40
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
3.
4.
5.
Keywords Index
This section lists down the keywords for easy recall of concepts.
Big Picture
Week 6-7: Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO): At the end of the unit, you are expected
to:
a. Demonstrate an understanding about language and social relations; and
41
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
Metalanguage
For you to demonstrate ULOa, you will need to have a wide range of
understanding of the concept of language and social relations. How these social
relationships are manifesting in language.
Essential Knowledge
To perform the aforesaid big picture (unit learning outcomes) for the sixth to
seventh week of the course, you need to fully understand the following essential
knowledge that will be laid down in the succeeding pages. Please note that you are not
limited to exclusively refer to these resources. Thus, you are expected to utilize other
books, research articles and other resources that are available in the university’s library
e.g. ebrary, search.proquest.com etc.
Speech Communities
A speech community is a group of people who share rules for conducting and
interpreting at least one variety of a language or dialect. The term can be applied to a
neighborhood, a city, a region or a nation. We all belong to at least one speech
community. The earliest speech community we belong to is the one we share with our
primary caregivers (usually our parents) and is the basis for some of the most intimate
and long term relationships we form across our life. The rules and norms of this speech
community show up in a dialect referred to as the vernacular, the most basic variety or
dialect of language we command. Our vernacular speech is least susceptible to
monitoring and least likely to change across our lifetime.
● Interlopers- people who are more to a new dialect area. How well do they fit in?
Depends on their age ability, motivation/desire.
● Insiders- people at the very core of the social group. They're highly integrated involved
in the group, but not necessarily group leaders. They are the leading force of spreading
linguistic change.
42
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
● Outsiders- they are not part of the mainstream, isolated, considered uncool. Also called
'lames'. Tend to be linguistically conservative, don't use slang, don't use vernacular--less
'local' -sounding.
● Aspirers- social ambitions beyond the "immediate domain" (the local group). Tend to be
more standard.
SOCIAL CIRCLES
43
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
c. Vocabulary level- a good example of this found in Javanese, which offers a range
of alternative forms, listed in lexicon, for each of a large number of meanings.
1. Jourdan, C. and Tuite K. (eds). (2006). Language, Culture, and Society: An introduction
to Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 40-65;
192-215.
2. Kramsch, C. (ed.). (2002). Language Acquisition and Language Socialization: Ecological
Perspective. New York: Continuum. pp. 31-172
44
UM Digos College
Department of Teacher Education
Roxas Extension, Digos City
Telefax: (082)553-2914
Let’s Check
Let’s Analyze
Activity 1. In this activity, you are required to answer the following questions
Workmates___________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
Neighbors____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
______________.
46
In a Nutshell
Your turn. What did you learn about language and social relations?
1. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Q & A List
This section is a place for you to raise your questions and queries that you feel the
instructor should give attention to. Feel free to ask relevant questions related from the
course here. This Q & A portion helps in the review of concepts and essential
knowledge.
Do you have any question for clarification?
Questions/Issues Answer
a.
b.
100
c.
d.
4.
100
Metalanguage
For you to demonstrate ULOb, you will need to have a wide range of
understanding of the concept of language, culture and thought. How culture and thought
are being locked in the language use.
Essential Knowledge
To perform the aforesaid big picture (unit learning outcomes) for the sixth to
seventh week of the course, you need to fully understand the following essential
knowledge that will be laid down in the succeeding pages. Please note that you are not
limited to exclusively refer to these resources. Thus, you are expected to utilize other
books, research articles and other resources that are available in the university’s library
e.g. ebrary, search.proquest.com etc.
100
● Telling a lie or saying one thing while thinking something quite different. This means that
when we tell lies, two distinct processes (speaking aloud and speaking subvocally/to
yourselves) with different content occur at the same time.
● Meaning and thought occur without behavior because people do not lose meaning of
words when any parts of their body are lost/removed. For example, paralyzed person
can still think clearly. This shows that thought was not dependent on body movements or
movements of the speech organs.
● Interpreting between languages can be done and consider the work of simultaneous
interpreters. They have to understand (a process done in their minds) the messages told
to them in one language and then transforms the language to another language by
speaking it aloud. This shows that a system of abstract thought to mediate between
languages has made simultaneous interpretation possible.
● Deaf persons without language can think. For example, deaf children, when at play
and when participating in activities around the home, behave as intelligently and
rationally with respect to the environment as do hearing children. If one holds that
language is the basis for thought, then these deaf children do not think and that they
were merely robots.
● Multilinguals are whole persons. According to this theory, if multilinguals have more
than one thought process (one for each language), such persons would not be able to
think coherently or would have separate thought intelligencies/ personalities. Persons
knowing 3 languages would have formed 3 systems of thought, for example. This is not
true because it is proved through a case that a multilingual and a monolingual child living
in the same environment have no difference in terms of beliefs, values, personality and
their perceptions of the world and nature.
● Intelligent animal behavior occurs without language. Thought must have some basis
other than language. The following examples can prove this statement. For example,
monkeys (without language) can develop some simple counting and arithmetic abilities.
Insects (also without language) can think of strategies for gathering food, defending
themselves and finding mates. Since animals can think without language, there is no
reason to believe that humans cannot do the same.
100
The learning of language will determine or influence the way we perceive the
physical world, visually, auditorily, etc. One’s knowledge of vocabulary or syntax
influences one’s perception and understanding of nature.
● Perception, interest and need determine vocabulary. It is our interest and need that
determine our coinage of vocabulary and its use. For example, children, from all over the
world, are enchanted by dinosaurs. They perceive the types of dinosaurs through
perception, they develop their interest in dinosaurs and later they feel the need to seek
the names of these objects.
● Color and snow vocabulary. Rather than language determining perception, it is
perception that determines language.
Color words, for example, speakers of a language with limited repertoire of color terms
appeared no different from speakers with broader repertoire of color terms in terms of
distinguishing colors of rainbow.
Snow words, for example, Hawaiians have only one, the English word ‘snow’ but the
Inuits have single words for snow-on-the-ground, hard-snow-on-the-ground,
block-of-snow and others. As for English-speaking skiers in cold countries, they name
snow through its physical condition by creating phrases namely ‘powder snow’, ‘wet
snow’, etc. It is because of the importance of snow in their lives that they have created
more words for snow than have Hawaiians. It is this language device of creating phrases
which every language has that makes up for any vocabulary deficiency.
Hopi people and time. People are not different because of their language, but because of
their experiences. Deep down, we are all the same, it couldn’t be otherwise. For example,
Hopi people use periods relating to the harvest, the moon, the sun and other significant
events. We do much the same in English (“......when it gets dark”, “.... when the weather
gets warm”).
The Chinese language and ‘counterfactuals’. Chinese were not as able as English
speakers to think hypothetically about what is not true because of certain grammatical
features of the Chinese language. This happened due to faulty translations but once
proper translations were made, there was no basis for claiming a difference in thinking.
● Lack of vocabulary does not indicate lack of concept. We describe a thing, which
does not have a single word for it, with a phrase carrying a similar concept. For example,
we have a name for the underside of our hand that is called ‘palm’ but we have no word
for the topside. Instead, we use the phrase ‘back of the hand’. This shows that lack of
vocabulary item is not indicative of a lack of a concept.
● Knowledge overrides literal word meanings. We can believe something quite different
from what the language literally specifies and that the continual use of a language form
100
may not change an underlying thought. In other words, one thing is said but another is
understood (similar to lying, but in this case, people know it is not true). For example, the
word ‘sunset’. We always hear and use this word that it leads us to believe that the sun
sets on its own. The truth is; it is the earth that moves, not the sun.
● Multilingual’s view of nature. If it is said that different languages have distinctive and
important effects on the way we view nature, then the multilingual must similarly have
distinctive and important ways of viewing nature. But such is not the case. Multilingual is
a whole person who perceives nature as other humans do.
The learning of language will determine or influence the way we understand our
culture and the world. Even if language is somewhat distinct from thought, nevertheless,
knowing a language will itself condition and influence one’s cultural, social beliefs or
views of the world. Language does provide a view of culture and society and an outlook
on the world. Predicts that human of the same language should have the same world
views as their views are conditioned by their language.
● Same language yet different world views. According to the theory, speakers of the
same language must have same world views. This is not true. For example, a
monolingual English-speaking family of members with various religions (Mother is a
Buddhist, father is a Christian, son is a Moslem), view the world differently according to
the beliefs of their religions.
● Different languages yet similar world views. For example, a communist doctrine is
shared by speakers of many languages namely; Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, and
Cubans.
● Same language but world view changes over time. Changes in world view occur
without changes in language. Changes in world view can occur due to causes other than
the language system namely the spread of new ideas, economic domination, wars, etc.
● One language can describe many different world views. For example, the Bible of
the ancient Hebrew people. If this Bible were to be translated into many languages with
perfect translations, the meaning of the Bible in every language may differ because
every word in any languages carry different primary or secondary meanings,
implications, presuppositions, feelings, attitudes and politeness. This will cause many
different world views out of a Bible of Hebrew language.
● Multilingual’s world view. The theory predicts that a multilingual will have as many
distinct world views as language systems. This is, again, not true because as been
mentioned before, multilingual is a whole person who perceives nature as other humans
do.
100
1. Jourdan, C. and Tuite K. (eds). (2006). Language, Culture, and Society: An
introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.
40-65; 192-215.
2. Kramsch, C. (ed.). (2002). Language Acquisition and Language Socialization:
Ecological Perspective. New York: Continuum. pp. 31-172
Let’s Analyze
Activity 1. In this activity, you are required to research of the following terms and state
your understanding to them relative to your research.
Linguistic Determinism
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
100
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Language and Thought
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________
Linguistic Relativity
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________
Whorfian Analysis
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________.
In a Nutshell
Your turn. What did you learn about language and social relations?
1. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3.___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Q & A List
This section is a place for you to raise your questions and queries that you feel the
instructor should give attention to. Feel free to ask relevant questions related from the
course here. This Q & A portion helps in the review of concepts and essential
knowledge.
Do you have any question for clarification?
Questions/Issues Answer
a.
100
b.
c.
d.
5.
Big Picture
Week 8-9: Unit Learning Outcomes (ULO): At the end of the unit, you are expected
to:
a. Demonstrate an understanding about how language has changed overtime; and
b. Explain the variation of language.
100
Metalanguage
For you to demonstrate ULOa, you will need to have a wide range of
understanding of the concept of language has evolved overtime. In this lesson also we
will discuss the factors of how language changes
Language Change 1
The way languages change offers insights into the nature of language itself. The
possible answers to why languages change tell us about the way language is used in
society, about how it is acquired by individuals and may reveal to us information about
its internal organization. There is no simple explanation for why languages change. This
is an area in which there is much speculation and little proof. The area is an interesting
and fruitful one but there are few if any direct answers. For this reason historical
linguistics has traditionally been concerned with how languages evolve and not why
they do so in one particular direction and not in another.
1) All languages change and there is no such thing as a language which is not changing.
The rate of change may vary considerably due to both internal and external factors.
English, for example, has changed greatly since Old English. Other languages, like
Finnish and Icelandic, have changed little over the centuries.
2) Language change is largely regular- one can recognise regularities in the types of
change which languages undergo, even if these cannot be predicted.
_________________________________________________
1 https://www.uni-due.de/ELE/LanguageChange.pdf
● External change- change in history is regarded as externally motivated if there is no
obvious internal reason for it. An instance of this is the major shift is long vowels which
began in the late Middle English period. This is basically a raising of long vowels by one
level and the diphthongisation of the two high vowels /i:/ and /u:/. There was no
100
discernible internal reason why this change should have started as it did in the late
Middle English period, so the assumption in that there was external motivation: for some
reason a raised realisation of long vowels, or a slight diphthongisation of high vowels –
whichever came first – became fashionable, caught on in the speech community and so
the ball starting rolling and has, for Cockney at least, not come to rest since.
Language Death 1
100
language too will die. Sometimes it is not necessary to wait for the last speaker to die
before considering the language as dead because the last speaker has no one to speak
to fluently or frequently. So, the language is extinct, as good as dead.
1 http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Content_store/WWW_Content/9780631218036/32Chap29.pdf
100
1. Jourdan, C. and Tuite K. (eds). (2006). Language, Culture, and Society: An
introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.
40-65; 192-215.
2. Kramsch, C. (ed.). (2002). Language Acquisition and Language Socialization:
Ecological Perspective. New York: Continuum. pp. 31-172
Let’s Analyze
Activity 1. In this activity, you are required to research internal and external changes of
the following languages:
TAGALOG DIALECT
Internal Changes External Changes
CEBUANO LANGUAGE
Internal Changes External Changes
100
In a Nutshell
Your turn. What did you learn about language and social relations?
1. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Q & A List
This section is a place for you to raise your questions and queries that you feel the
instructor should give attention to. Feel free to ask relevant questions related from the
course here. This Q & A portion helps in the review of concepts and essential
knowledge.
Do you have any question for clarification?
Questions/Issues Answer
a.
b.
100
c.
d.
e.
100
Metalanguage
For you to demonstrate ULOb, you will need to have a wide range of
understanding of variation of language. We will understand that language variation has
differed according geographical, social and contextual variation.
Essential Knowledge
To perform the aforesaid big picture (unit learning outcomes) for the eight to ninth
week of the course, you need to fully understand the following essential knowledge that
will be laid down in the succeeding pages. Please note that you are not limited to
exclusively refer to these resources. Thus, you are expected to utilize other books,
research articles and other resources that are available in the university’s library e.g.
ebrary, search.proquest.com etc.
Variation of Language 1
GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION
We often talk about the Chinese language, the Hindi language, the Arabic
language, and the Fula language, without thinking about how problematic these terms
_____________________________
1 https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/ikos/EXFAC03-AAS/h05/larestoff/linguistics/Chapter%207.(H05).pdf
are. Of course, they are not at all meaningless, but their meanings are often rather
different from what is generally assumed.
● Dialect. It is generally assumed that Fula is a language, that is, a single
language, with a number of dialects. In this sense, a dialect is regarded as a
geographical variety of a language, spoken in a certain area, and being different
in some linguistic items from other geographical varieties of the same language.
This definition of dialect is in common use among linguists, and differs from a
usage found in several European language communities among non-linguists,
where dialect is often used about «provincial» varieties that differ from the
standard dialect, which is then regarded as the «proper language»; we shall
come back to the standard dialect. The standard dialect is then regarded as the
«non-dialectal» variety of the language.
● Dialect Continuum. A dialect continuum is a chain of dialects, let us say dialects
1–10, with the following property: Speakers of dialect 1 understand dialect 2
extremely well. Speakers of dialect 1 and dialect 3 understand each other rather
less well, and speakers of dialect 1 and dialect 4 less well again. There comes to
a point, however, say at dialect 5, where dialect 1 is no longer intelligible to the
local people and vice versa.
● Isoglosses. What makes dialects—as well as languages—different is their
differing sets of linguistic items.
● Standard Languages. The adjective standard means ‘recognized as correct or
acceptable’, and a standard language is a variety that in different ways is
recognized as more correct and acceptable than other varieties. In many ways,
standard variety is an equally appropriate designation. It has the following
prototypical properties:
1. It is the variety of used by educated users, e.g. those in the professions,
the media, and so on.
2. It is the variety defined in dictionaries, grammars, and usage guides.
3. It is regarded as more correct and socially acceptable than other varieties.
100
4. It enjoys greater prestige than dialects and non-standard varieties:
nonstandard varieties are felt to be the province of the less educated.
5. It is used as a written language.
6. It is used in important functions in the society – in the government, the
parliament, courts, bureaucracy, education, literature, trade, and industry.
SOCIAL VARIATION
It should have come as no surprise that language varies geographically. We are not
surprised to hear that people who live far from each other speak more differently than
people who live close to each other, because those who live close to each other have
more contact with each other than those who live far away from each other. The terms
closeness and distance originally come from the spatial domain, but metaphorically
they have been transferred to the social domain. For example, we talk about the varying
social distance between individuals in a society, and differences in social distance
correlate strongly with language variation.
● Social organization- the organization of society can be approached from to
opposing angles, the angles of social network and social stratification. Social
stratification concerns the hierarchical structure of a society, arising from
inequalities of wealth and power. On the other hand, social network concerns the
dimensions of solidarity between individuals in their everyday contacts.
1. Social Networks. An individual is a part of a social network and has
stronger and looser ties with other individuals. Networks vary in strength,
which primarily is based upon density and multiplexity.
2. Social Stratification. There are hierarchical social structures in most or all
societies, but not everywhere of the same type. In large parts of Europe,
for example, society started to change about 200 years ago from a
hierarchy of rank or station to a hierarchy of class. In the rank society,
people are born with a certain rank, and there is low social mobility. In the
class society, people are also born into a certain class, but there is a high
social mobility.
● Sociolects- Language varieties that are used by particular societal strata are
referred to as sociolects. It should be emphasized, however, that most language
varieties have a particular geographical as well as social distribution, although
the geographical variation is generally larger among the lower classes than
among the middle and upper classes.
● Slang may be characterized as a very informal language variety that includes
new and sometimes not polite words and meanings. It is often used among
100
particular groups of people, for example groups of teen-agers or professional
groups, and is usually not used in serious speech or writing.
● Jargon is a set of vocabulary items used by members of particular professions,
that is, their technical terms. For example, linguists have a large vocabulary that
is not well understood by non-linguists. This book is full of examples, and it
should not be necessary to repeat any of them here.
CONTEXTUAL VARIATION
While social variation to a large extent—although not exclusively—is variation
between individuals belonging to different societal groups, contextual variation is
variation within the individual: we all vary our language between contexts. There are
very many phenomena that could be treated here, but due to space limitations we shall
just take a look at a few typical cases. First, we shall look at a language, Korean, where
degrees of formality are integrated into the grammatical system.
Korean has not less than six politeness levels, that are realized inter alia in the
pronoun system and in verbal inflections. Sohn (1999) defines the politeness levels as
follows (some details are left out):
● The plain level, which is the lowest level, is used, in general, by any speaker to any
child, to one’s own younger sibling, child, or grandchild regardless of age, and to one’s
daughter-in-law, and also between intimate adult friends whose friendship began in
childhood.
● The intimate level is between close friends whose friendship began in childhood or
adolescence.
● The familiar level is slightly more formal than the intimate level, typically used by a male
adult to an adolescent such as a high school or college student or to one’s son-in-law, or
between two close adult friends whose friendship began in adolescence.
● The blunt level, which is gradually disappearing from daily usage probably due to its
authoritative connotations, is sometimes used by a boss to his subordinates or by an old
generation husband to wife.
● The polite level is the most popular level towards an adult, and is used by both males
and females in daily conversations. It is less formal than the derential level.
● The deferential level is used in formal situations such as news reports and public
lectures.
100
1. Jourdan, C. and Tuite K. (eds). (2006). Language, Culture, and Society: An
introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.
40-65; 192-215.
2. Kramsch, C. (ed.). (2002). Language Acquisition and Language Socialization:
Ecological Perspective. New York: Continuum. pp. 31-172
Let’s Check
Let’s Analyze
Activity 1. In this activity, you are required to do a research at least 20 dialects in the
Philippines and their location where most people speak them.
Dialect Region/Places
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
In a Nutshell
Your turn. What did you learn about language and social relations?
1. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
100
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Q & A List
This section is a place for you to raise your questions and queries that you feel the
instructor should give attention to. Feel free to ask relevant questions related from the
course here. This Q & A portion helps in the review of concepts and essential
knowledge.
Do you have any question for clarification?
Questions/Issues Answer
f.
g.
h.
i.
100
Course Schedule
Week 1-3
Big Picture A: Let’s Check Activities CF’s email/Quipper
Big Picture A: Let’s Analyze Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture A: In a Nutshell Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture B: Let’s Check Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture B: Let’s Analyze Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture B: In A Nutshell Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Week 4-5
Big Picture A: Let’s Check Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture A: Let’s Analyze Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture A: In a Nutshell Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture B: Let’s Analyze Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture B: In a Nutshell Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Week 6-7
Big Picture A: Let’s Check Activities CF’s email/Quipper
Big Picture A: Let’s Analyze Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture A: In a Nutshell Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture B: Let’s Check Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture B: Let’s Analyze Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture B: In A Nutshell Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Week 8-9
Big Picture A: Let’s Check Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture A: Let’s Analyze Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
100
Big Picture A: In a Nutshell Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture B: Let’s Check Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture B: Let’s Analyze Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Big Picture B: In A Nutshell Activities CF’s email/ Quipper
Recommending Approval:
Approved by:
___________________________
VP, APS
100