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MODULE 4 LESSON 1 : ACCOUNTS ON THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE

Theories and Hypotheses about the origin of language
• The BOW-BOW theory – this is based in the ideas that humans imitate the sounds of the
animals call.
• The POOH-POOH theory – this arose with the idea that people make instinctive sounds.
• The DING-DONG theory – this is based on the notion that people react to the world and
make sound symbolism.
• The YO-HE-HO theory – this is based on the proof that humans create rythmical grunts and
develops into chants to address physical environmental needs.
• The LA-LA theory – the romantic side of human life is the sole factor that is responsible for
the creation of language.

GENETIC MUTATION OF CHOMSKY

NOAM CHOMSKY – in his theory he postulates that language was created from a
genetic mutation from one of our human ancestors.

VOCAL GROOMING OF DUNBAR

ROBIN DUNBAR – his theory is based on the notion that people needed to find a
more efficient form of grooming as communities began to grow larger.

PUTTING THE BABY DOWN HYPOTHESES

DEAN FALK – an anthropologist suggests that language developed from early
humans- the mothers in particular.
- Body language and tactile communication is also used here like tickling.
WHITNEY’S ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE
WILLIAM DWEITH WHITNEY (1827-1894)
° her theory on the source of human speech anchored on the natural sound of human cries.
° as humans express their feelings and are being understood
° human beings come to use initiative of onomatopoetic utterances as the reproduction of
the sound crying.
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MODULE 4 LESSON 2 : SEMIOTICS AND SIGN LANGUAGE

SEMIOTICS – which include those presented in the previous activities is a form of language
since there is a meaning in every sign and symbol.
- can help us communicate things through visuals , unspoken and spoken.
Ferdinand de Sausssure
– a Swiss linguist whose founder of semiotics
- refers to this as “the life of signs within society”.
SEMIOTICIAN – a person who studies or practices semiotics , deals with symbols. It can be in a
form of image, pattern,and motion and convey meaning.
John Locke (1632-1704)
- an English philosopher
- regarded semiotics as the key to the evolution of human consciousness.
- He espoused that language began w/ signs , that signs are dyadic (means the
signature is tied to a specific maeaning)
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914)
- for one to understand signs , there must be intelligence capable enough to
learn from experience.
- His concept was triadic : sign, meaning & interpreter
SIGN LANGUAGE
- makes us use of the hands , facial expression and other gestures usually used
by deaf or the hearing-impaired individuals
- very helpful for individuals w/ intellectual and physical disabilities.
FINGERSPELLING
- used to emphasize specific words.
- used as a strategy for spelling words in signs.

MODULE 4 LESSON 3 : THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS BETWEEN CULTURE ANG LANGUAGE

3 Opossing Aspects
1. Language and Culture and inseparable since language is closely related to culture.
2. Language and Culture is independent because speech is a means of exchanging
information.
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3. Culture and Languge are partly interconnected.

KRAMSCH (1998)
- pointed 3 ways by which language and culture are related.
- ways of doing things and perceptions can be manifested through the use and
arrangement of words.
KRAMSCH (1962) : 3 Main functions of language in 3 aspects
- language is the primary vehicle of communication.
- language reflects both the personality of the individual and the culture of
history
- language reflects both personality of the individual and the culture of history.

• People postulate meaning in their daily activities and experiences through language.
Culture as Part of Language
- purely human and non- instinctive method of communicating ideas ,
emotions and desire by means of voluntarily produced symbols (SAPIR,1921)
RISGAR (2006)
- claims that language is part of culture and a part of epidermal behavior.
- Predominantly held that the task of language is to put thoughts into words to
communicate pieces of information and to express feelings.
LANGUAGE, THOUGHT AND CULTURE
BENJAMIN LEE WHORF – he espoused that our ways of looking at the world depend on the
type of language that we use.
CULTURE AND IT’S ELEMENTS
- Includes the overall pattern of behavior, literature and language, arts
stereotype.
LEV VGYGOTSKY
- psychologist
- he belived that social interactions between and among people are a key of
element on acquiring knowledge
- he believed that every culture has a specific dynamics for social transactions.
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JEAN PIAGET
o contends that when children are born they have embedded basic
structure for cognition as well as for language.
o he stressed that children create meaning from the verbal and non-
verbal cues received from their environment and these meaning
change as children learn more because of maturity.
o he did not adhere to Vygotsk’s idea of emphasizing culture in
learning.
NOAM CHOMSKY
• known for Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
- a built-in-box in the brain responsive for creating and learning
the language.
- language structures can change , develop and evolve given
cultural interactions.

MODULE 5 LESSON 1 : NOTEWORTHY LINGUISTS

Linguistics – started to make a mark after Panini composed his Sanskrit grammar in India in
400 B.C followed by the remarkable linguists of Greece in the 5century onwards namely ,
Socrates , Plato , and Aristotle.
- Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
- He was born in Macedonia particularly in Stagira.
- His father served as the physician of the Macedonian king,
Amyntas.
- He died of a digestive disease at the age of 32.
His Contribution to Linguistics
- when he demythologized language
- he was establishing the relation between language expressions
- he provided that either thoughts and sentences are truth and
falsity.
- he identified the primary parts of a sentence- the noun and verb
which functioned as subject and verb in the sentence.
In Ogden and Richards (1923:11) he explained that the “semiotic triangle” refers to ;
(a) language is human’s means of expression of
(b) thoughts that are purposefully connected to
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(c) elements present in this world

2. Robert Lowth (1710-1787)
- he was born in Winchester on November 27,1710
- he worked as a professor of poetry at the University of Oxford
- his noble acts ended after he died on November 3,1787 .
Contribution to Linguistics
- in 1762 , he published his book-titled “Short Introduction to English Grammar” which
became a standard textbook.
3.Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)
- he was born in Geneva , Switzerland
- he was interested in languages even at his very early age
Contribution to Linguistics
- he was among the pillars of linguistics in the 20th Century
- known as a Co-founder of Semiotics and Structuralism

4. Noam Chomsky
 Full name : Avran Noam Chomsky
 Born in Pennsylvania in 1928
 He pursued his interest in Linguistics under Zeiling Harris (the professor who
helped him earn his doctorate)
 Regarded as the Father of Modern Linguistics
Contribution to Linguistics
- He introduced the concept of universal grammar and suggested that human has an
ability to learn grammar
- Often focused on the language learning of children, popularized this theory since the
1980s.
- He believed that basic language structures are already wired into the human brain at
birth.

MODULE 5 LESSON 2 : DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The Darwinian Perspective Human Language evolves through a modification process where
major languages give birth to new languages.
Darwinian or evolutionary linguistics – is a socio-biological method in scrutunizing a language.
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• Proponents of this theory look at the linguistic field as a sub-umbrella of evolutionary

biology and psychology.
• It was in the late 1830’s that Darwin started searching at the beginning of language
• His focus of inquiry lies in the communicative abilities of animals and their capacity to
acquire new sounds and associate them w/ human words.
• Darwin admitted that language sets man apart from lower animals
• he focused on the observable interrelatedness between words and souns.

MODULE 5 LESSON 3: INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY TREE

Grey (2019) – the earliest known Indo-European language is the common ancestor of modern
English and Western languages.
• Based on many texts , language experts and researchers delved on they have deduced that
the east of Turkey was once occupied.
• The group split , with one group voyaging to Asia and the other sub-group towards the west
of Europe.
• Europe and India are geographically distant from each other , these regions use languages
that share a common origin.
• Researchers revealed that Latin , Sanskrit , Old Irish, Hittite, Old Bulgarian, and Greek all
arose from one common language.
•(At present) Languages belonging to the Indo-European family are Balto Slavic (Russian
Lithunian ,Latvian & Polish)
• (Roman languages) The Indo-Iranian languages { Hindi, Persian & Sanskrit}
• Celtic languages {Gaelic , Welsh , Breton}
• Hellenic language which the Greek occupied all on its own.
• 48% of the population all over the world spoke the Indo-European languages and its family
consists of over 200 languages.
ADAPTED FROM TRADOC RHONE ALPES (2020)
- The Family Tree shows a surprising rise of modern languages from a common ancestor.
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- Among the Indo-European languages , Modern English is a combination of Old English

and French with the influence of Scandinavian and Latin , turning it into both
Germanic and Italic.

MODULE 5 LESSON 4 : OLD , MIDDLE AND MODERN ENGLISH

English language – has gone through a series of modifications , for it had been in the mouths
of a few generations of speakers
- Has historically transitioned from Old English to its Modern English structure and
conventions.
Old English
- started around 450 A.D.
- popularly called Anglo-Saxon , was not fully influenced by the language of the Celts
which was widely spoken by the occupants of the British Isles.
- when Latin was brought to Britain by the Romans and strengthened by the conversion
of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, it created a remarkable event for it served as the
basis of the writing system and provided a wide range of new words.
- mostly written in Latin complemented by few Germanic letters to stand for sounds
that cannot be produced in Latin.
- prevalent during the start of the Anglo-Saxon’s epic.
Middle English (1100-1500)

 development in terms of the pronunciation of unstressed syllables found at the

ends of words caused the merging of most inflections.
 the loan or borrowed words referred to the meat of animals consumed by wealthy
French speakers.
Modern English

 marked the introduction of printing

 Caxton’s preference of the East Midlands / London’s English variety for the earliest
printed books towards the end of the 15th century influenced the formation of the
standardized English language variety with acceptable grammatical forms and
vocabulary.
The perception of the correctedness of this standardized variety was supported by the
codification attempts of Johnson’s dictionary during the 18th century.

 English vocabulary was meticulously elaborated as it was widely used for several
purposes .
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 characterized by the Great Vowel Shift

 can be read at the onset of Shakespeare’s Hamlet
 English is used worldwide as a native toungue , second or foreign tongue due to
imperial and colonial activity.
 continually changing and upgrading both its non-standard and standard varieties.